Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin is 93 today.
Here, he reflects on his moonwalk and encourages a continued exploration of space: https://t.co/SiAhx932k9 pic.twitter.com/MnWLxOxXRp
— ABC News (@ABC) January 20, 2023
“If anybody doubts climate is changing then they must’ve been asleep last couple years,” Biden tells us in California pic.twitter.com/TfeiD2HuA7
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 19, 2023
White House invited @SpeakerMcCarthy on this trip to California, I’m told; the California Republican wasn’t on Air Force One with us. Biden is here to view storm damage; the US officially hit its $31 trillion debt limit today and it’s unclear when Biden and McCarthy will speak. pic.twitter.com/EHAgSFylDt
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 19, 2023
“I think you're going to find there's nothing there,” President Biden said of the Justice Department inquiry into classified documents and official records found at his home and former office. He said looked forward "to getting this resolved quickly." https://t.co/ArPcQL8FXc
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 19, 2023
Today, we’re breaking ground on an energy transmission project that will help accelerate our nation’s transition to a clean energy economy by unlocking renewable resources, creating good-paying jobs, lowering costs, and boosting local economies. pic.twitter.com/BwYnw9aMjA
— Secretary Jennifer Granholm (@SecGranholm) January 20, 2023
Elsewhere…
New: @SecYellen warns congressional leaders that how long the department is able to sustain ‘extraordinary’ measures to avoid a default “is subject to considerable uncertainty.”
As of now, she estimates Treasury will be able to hold off until June. pic.twitter.com/MKPj5QmiVS
— Akayla Gardner (@gardnerakayla) January 19, 2023
Now that the U.S. government has run up against its legal borrowing capacity of $31.381 trillion, the Treasury Department will start implementing "extraordinary measures” to avoid a default.
Here's what you need to know about the debt limit. https://t.co/4ypDfpxWEl pic.twitter.com/1RFsaT8VYW
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 19, 2023
Ken
Happy birthday, Mr. Aldrin, though this reminds me of the somewhat sad XKCD “65 years“.
OzarkHillbilly
The company says,
Yes… “heartfelt sorrow” and they are sooo concerned about their employees. FTR, these employees are represented by UFCW local 2. I can only imagine the restrictions they are subject to in Oklahoma.
Baud
One of these days, Alice!
Jeffg166
In “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson he had the atmospheric river storm hit Los Angeles flooding it severely. He only got the location wrong.
gene108
@OzarkHillbilly:
I wonder how much food they decided to scrap, because of the risk of contamination from a guy being shot on the processing floor and maybe having bits of blood and gore get in the food?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@gene108: Nonsense. Blood just adds iron
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Exactamundo, Iowa Old Vampire.
Soprano2
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about background checks a couple of days ago, I appreciate the information. Now to do it…..I’m kind of afraid of what I’ll find out, but I’m also afraid to apply for that estate management thing without knowing if there are things we should know first. All decisions are fraught.
raven
@Baud: Artemis approves!
OzarkHillbilly
@gene108: That’s called “seasoning”.
WereBear
@Soprano2: Knowledge is power. Sad or bad as it may be, always better than a fermenting secret.
Another Scott
France24 live reporting on the meeting on Ukraine. No announced decision on Leopards yet.
Cheers,
Scott.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: When is the last time it’s been cleaned? And how much human DNA is around, in ways they should not be?
Why I avoid certain meat producers even if I have to pay more.
mrmoshpotato
May he punch a moon landing denier in celebration today.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: My wife and I rarely, very rarely, buy beef at the store. I raise my own chickens and take them to a (Fed inspector every day) Mennonite operation for processing. When I pick up the birds at the end of the day, the place is spotless. Hard to believe 2 or 3 thousand birds went thru the place that day. I get my pork (and sometimes lamb) from a buddy who has a Bosnian butcher for that work. I’ve been there and his place is similar at the end of the day.
I would think the big operations have to be cleaned at least once a day too, but of course I can’t say for sure.
My main reason for avoiding meat at the store is the prevalence of CAFOs. There is very little good about them.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Ahoy ahoy, and happy Friday.
Math Guy
The Apollo 11 moon landing was the day after my birthday (I was still a kid). I was so excited I could barely sleep until the end of the moonwalk and I believed that by the time I was an adult it would be possible to buy a ticket for a trip to the moon. I’m disappointed that I’ll never get to space, but watching the Mars missions, comet rendezvous, Webb telescope, et al, are the rare occasions when I actually feel pride and a touch of optimism about what humans can do.
narya
@Soprano2: Remember to breathe . . . and as WereBear noted, better to know. Also, breathe.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
narya
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m fortunate in that there’s a local producer (Mint Creek Farm, for IL juicers) that seems to do a great job. I’ve never been to the farm, but I’ve had many products. I have so much venison and wild turkey from my friend, and fish from my fish share, that I don’t need a lot of other meat, but anything I get is from Mint Creek. Their heritage breed turkeys are a million dollars but SOOOO good. I also use their bulk ground beef to mix with the ground venison for meatloaf and meatballs and bolognese sauce.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree, and we do have local organic farmers. Once spring comes I can visit farm stands downtown.
WereBear
@narya: We had dormant farms in the area revived with families or even communes, who then concentrate on goat cheese, or heirloom leafy greens, or potatoes; we have 70 varieties grown a half hour away.
Local restaurants list local producers on the menus. It’s a great foodie thing.
Betty Cracker
On this date 14 years ago, something extraordinary happened: Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th POTUS. I remember feeling proud and hopeful about America back then, sentiments that have been in short supply in the intervening years. Also, it feels like at least 20 years ago, if not 30.
Le sigh.
Scout211
AL, thank you for highlighting the damage in California caused by the 9? 10? 11? atmospheric river storms we have had over the past three weeks. The major disaster declaration will help many homeowners and businesses. Thank you, President Biden.
It’s been a tough 3 weeks, even for those of us who don’t have major damage. We lost power many times and three of our oak trees fell (no damage to structures) and two pine trees are ready to fall. But in a nearby town, 20 homes are now red-tagged as uninhabitable and in the rest of the county, 60 more homes and businesses are damaged. And my county isn’t on the major disaster list.
Today the sun is shining. 😊
Geminid
@narya: I had not heard of a “fish share” before. What kind of fish do you get? Any walleye?
narya
@WereBear: Oh, that sounds wonderful! I have a CSA share, too, and they’ve changed their operations–rather than trying to grow everything themselves, they’ve partner with other organic or organic-adjacent family farms in WI and MI and IL, which has been great. And they deliver, which I LOVE–no more schlepping bags and bags of produce on the bus from the farmers’ market.
oatler
In the spirit of “more ass than a toilet seat”, I used to say “more Tang than Buzz Aldrin”, but kids don’t know “Tang”.
PaulB
So, if I give up my retirement account, I can have something like a dozen meals, counting leftovers? Sounds like a bargain!
narya
@Geminid: I subscribe to Sitka Salmon Shares. What I get is seasonal–this month’s box (I get a premium share) is sockeye salmon and halibut. The other types I’ve received include spot prawns, crab, black cod, cod, rockfish, albacore, and multiple types of salmon (coho, sockeye, king), including some smoked salmon. They’re online (and I can get you a little discount if you decided to sign up). Again, not cheap, but extremely good. It’s flash frozen, in roughly serving-size pieces, so it’s easy to always have some on hand. Check out their website!
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: The toll the TFG years have taken on us and the country is incalculable.
Anyway
@Betty Cracker:
OMG, I was there! along with hundreds of thousands of my best friends… It was a bitterly cold January morning and we were so happy and had big smiles all day long …
Le sigh is right.
Geminid
@oatler: My family lived in Southern California a few year in the early 1060s. We’d travel back to Wisconsin every year, and I remember drinking Tang in the mornings at motel rooms along the way.
narya
@PaulB: Okay, I maybe exaggerated . . . . More seriously, I try to warn people when I’m recommending the purveyors I use: small operations are expensive, and good quality is expensive, especially when people are used to the cheap meat they buy in bulk.
Geminid
@narya: Thanks. But I intend to catch so many yellow perch and crappie this year I’ll be operating a fish share of my own!
WereBear
@narya: I think one of the detriments of the fast food explosion is how actual food became ridiculously expensive by comparison.
We actually have overweight and undernourished people. Because they don’t understand they aren’t even getting $1 of nutrition from that dollar menu.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Anyway: I happened to be in New York City and gave a lift home to someone living in Harlem. You can imagine the feeling. It still gives me chills.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
narya
@WereBear: And their wages are so low they have to go for the cheap calories. It’s such a vicious cycle.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Geminid:
Time travel?
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Tang was around longer than I thought.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@narya: I thought you were talking about the new proposed SNAP guidelines from the GOP. They were apparently elected on a platform of stopping the undeserving poor from buying the wrong kinds of beans and cheese.
cmorenc
There’s lots of people who stubbornly refuse to be at all a-“woke”. So no surprise that lots of people are willfully asleep or oblivious with respect to climate change, rationalizing excuses why it ain’t so in the face of nature shouting: SO !
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ah, Tang…
Thanks for the opportunity to post this one.
oatler
@Geminid:The understood spelling is ‘tang.
Ken
@WereBear:
Dr. Raven Sable is Famine, one of the four horsemen, and has been getting involved in the food industry, nouvelle cuisine, diet books, and so forth.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wow, beef from chickens? I never knew that.
kalakal
@mrmoshpotato:
Brilliant!
I couldn’t stop laughing at that video.
As well as how obnoxious that creep was I admired Buzz’s restraint. I’d have cracked sooner.
It was when he called Aldrin a coward, a man who’d ridden a Saturn V, and worked out how to spacewalk
SFAW
@narya:
Fortunately, grocery store chains are making a concerted effort to bring neighborhood grocery stores to poverty-stricken areas, in order to try to fix the problem.
I was actually able to type that with a straight face.
Ken
@SFAW: It’s wonderful what they can do with the new 3D printers that use cultured animal cells and/or mechanically reclaimed animal tissue as feedstock.
Feel free to substitute other adjectives for “wonderful”.
OzarkHillbilly
A small act of kindness:
Grows.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I remember feeling that way when the Berlin Wall fell. The Scorpions’ Wind of Change still makes me nostalgic for those hopeful times, and sad that the hope was not fulfilled.
CaseyL
Regarding meat, I subscribe to Butcher Box. It is indeed on the expensive side, but all of their food is certified as organic, raised humanely with sustainable agricultural methods, and clean butchering practices. They have seafood, chicken, beef, pork; varying cuts; some processed foods like smoked salmon, bacon and sausage. And they offer specials all the time for subscribers.
You get a real avalanche of meat with each shipment, and the boxes they ship in are all recyclable (except for the dry ice).
I’ve been very happy with them, and have not bought any kinds of meat from a supermarket since I signed up with them over a year ago. (Might be even longer; not sure.)
Betty Cracker
@Mr. Bemused Senior: North America would have been interesting then, but I’d probably opt for Norman Conquest time travel tourism in that era.
soapdish
Just mint the damn coin.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
John Tester finds his hook for ’24 (I think he’s up?): Anti-tax, anti-Feds, anti-GOP
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: These new chicken breeds are amazing.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: My husband was in the US Air Force Band and stationed in Germany for part of the 1980s. He got out before the wall came down but not-so-fondly recalls playing a lot of the anti-war tunes of the era, including 99 Luftballoons!
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I firmly believe Sinema is toast, but I hope we can hang onto that seat! Maybe the AZ GOP will give us an assist by recycling a loon like Kari Lake or Blake Masters.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
How many law enforcement officers die each year as the result of a violent assault? Between 50 and 60, usually. (I added up the lines for Shot, Stabbed, Strangled, Beaten, Bomb-Related Incident, and Terrorist Attack. Before Covid, job-related police deaths had been divided roughly evenly between motor vehicle-related deaths, job-related illnesses, and violent deaths. For the past three years, Covid’s been far and away the biggest cop-killer.)
So LEOs kill 20 times as many people as succeed in killing them.
Incidents like the one you link to especially piss me off. Suppose he’d actually had a knife? All you have to do to keep everyone safe is get everyone the hell away from him. Once that’s done, there’s no urgency. But so often, cops resort to violence when there’s no need to, when just pulling back and being patient suffices.
Cameron
I’ve been looking at joining a CSA, but I can’t find anybody to go into it with me and even half a share is way too much food for one person.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Amir Khalid: did you follow the Winds of Change podcast? it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it contains some great story telling
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly: Do they moo, cluck, or some combo of the two?
ETA: You might also consider using them for a new fast-food concept: Chick-Fil-A-Mignon
trollhattan
@Mr. Bemused Senior: The journey to the nearest other village often took days, and one was greatly concerned with the threat from saber-tooth tigers and the like, along the way.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have a couple of relatives in Montana, right-wing on most things, but they are still angry that after Citizens United the Supreme Court struck down Montana’s law prohibiting corporate expenditures in elections.
(Admittedly this may be because, on the very few occasions I talk to them, I find a way to work it into the conversation.)
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This sounds like a “scandal” similar to the CIA helping to circulate Doctor Zhivago. If that’s what they’re using my tax dollars to do, I’m fine with it.
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly: Suddenly very dusty in here. What a wonderful human being
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: “COK-A-DOODLE-MOOOOOOOOO.
jeffreyw
Fifty Shades of Hay
StringOnAStick
@OzarkHillbilly: CAFO’s are hideous in every way and a prime reason for e. Coli. contamination of meat, especially beef. We are lucky to have a grass fed and finished beef and lamb ranch 7 miles east of us. The difference is noticeable and regenerative agriculture ranches are one solution to global warming. We’re more than willing to pay more for all these reasons.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I wish I had thought of that. NotMax probably does, too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: I think they get into that, but it’s been a while since I listened.
StringOnAStick
@WereBear: I realised after we moved a bit over two years ago that I had eaten no fast food since we left Colorado. Once I noticed it had been a year, the second year was easy and now I have a record to maintain so that keeps me away from it. It took about a year to completely lose my taste for it, that stuff is engineered to be addictive.
OzarkHillbilly
Via commentor daryl and his brother darryl over at OTB, comes this little tidbit:
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: OHB: “Aw, shucks…” looks down and kicks the dirt at his feet…
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron:
Sounds like a lost cause.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW: Speaking of cow and chicken…
Gin & Tonic
BBC says this cloud looks like a UFO. I think it looks like something else…
kalakal
@zhena gogolia: And I have a balalaika ear worm! Thanks CIA!
Old School
@Gin & Tonic: I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.
Thor Heyerdahl
@narya: I subscribed to the Canadian Community Supported Fishery “Skipper Otto” out of Vancouver. You prepay a certain amount and then order per month. They offer what is in season, let you know which fisher caught the item, and use sustainable methods to do so. They flash freeze and deliver all the way to Ottawa.
skipperotto.com
Thor Heyerdahl
@Anyway: I was there too. All the way back by the Washington Monument.
My favourite comment from the crowd was after Biden took the VP oath and Cheney was no longer VP – “Now watch for some fucking space ship to come down and pick him [Dick] up!”
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I was partying that day! Pretty sure I took off from work. God bless Barak & Michelle!
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic: Seven imams condemned it to death, but it broke up before they could carry out the sentence.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
I know what you mean. Things like 9/11 and the Iraq war feel like they happened in some distant generation. This business of democracy having been on the ropes for years now is emotionally exhausting.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: Heard Henry II was famous for spicing his with hippocras!
UncleEbeneezer
@lowtechcyclist: Yup. And all you have to do is look at how police in other countries operate and the (much more sane) results they get. All it takes is 1.) less guns and 2.) police having more of a public servant mindset and emphasis on safety and deescalation. But of course, we can’t do either of those because we’re such an incredibly racist, shit-hole country where white voters are paranoid about
Slave Revoltscrime and insist that police be their proxy force for punishing Black People.Ken
Oh, the cloud. For a minute I thought you were talking about the cow-chicken hybrid abomination.
The Thin Black Duke
@Old School: Nope.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Betty Cracker: Indeed.
Thanks for that memory. I treasure it greatly.
Soprano2
@Paul in KY: I know I took off work so I could watch it on TV. I cried a little bit, then enjoyed watching them be able to walk during the parade. One little bit of history that’s been disappeared is how George W. couldn’t walk any of the parade route because there were so many angry people lining the streets, they were throwing things at the limo and yelling things. The Secret Service was afraid to let George W. get out of the limo until they were past all of the people.
geg6
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I looooooooooved that podcast. Just enjoyed the hell out of it. Wish he’d do some more.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
It was amazing to feel being part of history, and momentous change.
We had pushback and craziness, but the Biden Administration brings echoes of those earlier warm feelings.
ETA: For no particular reason, I was recently watching a couple of YouTube videos featuring the Obamas talking about settling into the White House. I was also looking at stories about the layout of the White House and the family accommodations. I didn’t realize that there were bedrooms and family areas on the third floor.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh, things suddenly got a little dusty in this room here…
catclub
Pete Seeger singing “This Land is Your Land”… all the verses.
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic: Georgia O’Keeffe is doing photography now?
opiejeanne
@Soprano2: I missed that at the time, and now I wonder why I never heard that.
lowtechcyclist
@Paul in KY:
My wife and I were frantically preparing for our first of three trips to Russia to adopt the kiddo, but I’m pretty sure I remember taking a break to watch it on TV.
Cameron
@mrmoshpotato: In DeSantis’ Florida many things are possible.
arrieve
@Thor Heyerdahl: I was by the Washington Monument too! Maybe you were one of the people I hugged after Obama took the oath of office. It was bitterly cold that day–I ended up standing on a newspaper to keep the cold from leaching into my feet–but so so worth it.
The Lodger
@trollhattan: Most of the other imams couldn’t identify it.
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: A kind soul. RIP to him. A good USAF vet! There are many more, of course. You just seem to hear about the crackpots, like the MAGAwhack that got herself shot on 01/06.
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: Sorry Ani-Vaxxer!!! That brings a smile to my face.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Good on those giving shit to shrub! He’s way better than TFG…but he’s still a POS AWOLer to me.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Good on those giving shit to shrub! He’s way better than TFG…but he’s still a POS AWOLer to me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Paul in KY: the memory-holing of Bush, especially by some of the more emo of the ex-Republicans and never-trumpers, is one of the under-discussed causes and effects of the trump era
Soprano2
@opiejeanne: The press hardly talked about it, but it was talked about a lot on liberal blogs, how he couldn’t walk the route because everyone who was angry about how the Supreme Court appointed him lined the parade route so they could yell at him. You will never hear me say that George W. was elected in 2000 – he was appointed by the Supreme Court. I would never say that he “stole” it, but the court gave him the office.
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: We used to call him “The President Select,” in my lefty circles.
planetjanet
Repeat after me: Republicans do not pay their debts.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: In political terms, I can see at least two ways the Iraq war hurt the Republican party. I think it accelerated a shift away by middle and upper middle class, college educated Republicans and Independents. In 2004, Albemarle County, Virginia, surrounding Charlottesville was carried by the Democratic Presidential candidate for the first time in decades, and has voted Democratic ever since. This could have been a coincidence but I don’t think so.
I think the war also discredited the Republican establishment as a class, and that made it easier for the tea-party radicals to shove them aside during the following decade.
2liberal
I will be the loon primary voters, not the GOP establishment.