Twitter is reporting something is going down on London Bridge:
BREAKING: 'Van hits pedestrians' on London Bridge. More to follow. pic.twitter.com/OY4jJMED47
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 3, 2017
by John Cole| 40 Comments
This post is in: War on Terror aka GSAVE®
Twitter is reporting something is going down on London Bridge:
BREAKING: 'Van hits pedestrians' on London Bridge. More to follow. pic.twitter.com/OY4jJMED47
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) June 3, 2017
by Betty Cracker| 115 Comments
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment
Here’s a photo of a Trump effigy constructed of Cheetos (with Cocoa Puff eyes) submitted by valued commenter La Passionara from the St. Louis March for Truth:
Well done, snack food sculptor!
Speaking of Cheato, Michelle Goldberg at Slate has an excellent counterpoint to the avalanche of stories on the most interesting voters who ever drew breath, judging by media coverage volume: white people in flyover country who voted for a white Republican who gave voice to white identity politics. A longish excerpt — with a hearty encouragement to click through and read the whole thing:
Lately I’ve seen several articles by both centrist and center-right pundits, none of them friends of Donald Trump, warning that we should be wary of removing the president from office because it will anger his already very angry supporters.
“To overturn the results of an election is bound to alienate most, if not all, of the voters whose winner was repudiated—and perhaps many on the other side who recognize that, under different circumstances, the same might happen to them,” writes Robert Samuelson in the Washington Post…
Somehow there seems to be a lot less concern about the psychic shock inflicted upon the people who voted against Trump, who now know that his victory was assisted by a Russian intelligence operation and who watch, aghast, as Trump does everything he can to reward Russia for its help. Few pundits seem worried about Clinton voters’ trust in the rule of law when Trump blatantly ignores the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause… Indeed, polls show that between 43 percent and 48 percent of voters want Trump impeached. That’s a lot of alienated people! Shouldn’t we be anxious about their faith in our government’s legitimacy?
[snip]The reason we don’t worry much about furious Clinton supporters is that no one’s afraid of them. They’re disproportionately female and don’t parade around with firearms or gather in torch-bearing mobs. They’re not going to blow up a federal building. The right-wing pundit Erick Erickson even argues that liberals must not really believe what they say about the Trump regime because they haven’t started an armed rebellion: “If the left really does believe the Republican Party is a criminal enterprise in league with the Russians, they’re either moral cowards without conviction in their beliefs or about to take up arms to defend their country.” Implicit in this—as well as in all the hand-wringing about what the pro-Trump minority might do if they’re thwarted—is the idea that only people capable of violence need be taken seriously. That, in and of itself, is a sign of a political culture in crisis…
Already, Republicans are trying to normalize the idea that even if collusion between Trump and Russia is found, it doesn’t discredit the administration. If they succeed—if any sort of collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence is found but doesn’t end his presidency—it will be a betrayal of the American voting public. You think impeachment threatens America’s civic fabric? Try telling the majority of American citizens that even if their hated rulers are revealed as traitors, there’s nothing they can do about it.
Emphasis mine. We’ve discussed the fraying of our national institutions for months with wonder and horror. Speaking for myself only, I’m still hopeful we can turn this thing around without violence — either by getting to the bottom of the Trump-Russia story and ejecting that band of corrupt scumbags from the White House and/or a wave election in 2018 that paralyzes them until they’re run out of town by more conventional means.
That said, the damage to the country will be serious, long-term and perhaps even permanent. And that would be true even if Trump and his scheming, corrupt entourage were turned out in disgrace tomorrow and the GOP damaged for generations. Goldberg is right to identify the present time as a political culture in crisis. We’re going to have to stay strong and stay focused. That’s what patriots do.
by TaMara| 103 Comments
This post is in: Climate Change, Climate Change Solutions
There are a lot of people who are fighting to solve the climate crisis. I thought it would be good to take a moment and focus on a few. Add any additional resources to the comments. Don’t get discouraged, fight back. We are in good company.
The National Geographic Society was also defiant about the Paris Agreement decision, prominently featuring information about climate change on its home page, and releasing a statement along with National Geographic Partners that read, in part: “We are disappointed that the U.S. administration has withdrawn from the 2015 Paris Agreement, the landmark climate change accord that committed the United States and nearly all nations of the world to take actions to protect and care for our planet.”
Beyond that statement, National Geographic has also announced that it will be re-releasing its acclaimed documentary on climate change, Before the Flood, commercial-free and unauthenticated across its digital and TV Everywhere platforms from June 2-9. This includes Natgeotv.com, and Nat Geo TV apps (iOS and Android devices, Apple TV, Roku and Samsung Connected TVs).
The full movie can be seen here until June 9th: Before the Flood
Another must see movie is Carbon Nation, trailer below, movie info here
The Climate Reality Project has some great resources – their page is here.
An of course, Al Gore brings us an Inconvenient Truth and its sequel:
“Despair can be paralyzing, but this to me is the most exciting development. We are seeing a tremendous amount of positive change…” – Al Gore
Stay strong.
Do It Because You’re a Green Bastard and You Want Cheap PowerPost + Comments (103)
This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Your Place Is In The Resistance, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
Who’s going to their local March for Truth? And what else is on the agenda for the day?
Trump's campaign has announced a "Pittsburgh, not Paris" rally at Lafayette Square across from the White House https://t.co/OlB9IjZaKj pic.twitter.com/hDbUuplQJl
— POLITICO (@politico) June 2, 2017
Yes, the park named for Lafayette, that famous yinzer and Steelers fan. https://t.co/bEOKrjgV9f
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) June 2, 2017
Umm. Lafayette lived in Paris for most of his life and is buried in Paris under soil from Bunker Hill. https://t.co/SUNFNUNoew
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) June 2, 2017
A direct counter-protest to our #MarchForTruth, which Trump BLOCKED me for promoting. ??https://t.co/NU6zUUie68
— Holly O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) June 2, 2017
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Operatic RagePost + Comments (224)
This post is in: Music, Open Threads
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Also, I find it soothing that this could’ve been coming tinnily through the paper cone speaker back in the days when a transistor radio was my principle source for new music:
What else is worth hearing through an open window, this summer?
Summer Music Open Thread (A Plea to Trump’s Sad Minions)Post + Comments (131)
by TaMara| 36 Comments
Hi everyone – I’m going to try and keep this up for the summer. I thought it was time to get back to some fun, everyday things. Hit the comments with any questions, share your weekend menu and anything else that makes you happy. The menus and shopping lists are PDFs, so you’ll have to click on them to see – and they should be easy to print out. Let’s keep it a politics/apocalypse free thread.
From the cooking blog:
Wednesday’s recipe: Shrimp and Pasta
So a long time ago, before I started my blog, I ran a little business creating weekly menus for subscribers, called…you guessed it…What’s 4 Dinner Solutions. It included simple 30-minute recipes and complete shopping lists for weekday dinners. I found the past few months, as life got busier, I began relying on my library of menus and recipes.
With that in mind, I decided that I should begin sharing them with you.
Click here for the menu and recipes for the the first week: June Menu Week One
Jeffrey W makes the most delicious looking sandwiches.
Friday’s recipe: Spicy Club Sandwiches
I’ll post on Fridays so if you want to use them, you’ll have them for the weekend shopping excursions. The shopping lists are actually color coordinated with the menus so if you don’t use a menu, just cross out anything that is the same color.
Click here for the shopping lists: June Week One Shopping List
Both the menus and shopping lists are PDFs you should be able to print out easily.
The shopping lists do not include pantry staples, those are here:
I hope you enjoy! – TaMara
Writing Group Note: I will be posting an open writing thread at our usual time on Sunday. We’ll keep it simple for the summer and get back to it in late August/early Sept.
by DougJ| 179 Comments
This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
Some of you will be very annoyed by this post, but some of you will greatly enjoy it, so here goes:
What’s the endgame of the Russia probe? By this I mean:
(1) How many people get indicted?
(2) How many people go to jail?
(3) What’s the overall political effect of the whole thing?
(4) Does Trump end up getting impeached?
(5) Does the pee-pee tape or something like that drop?
Here are my answers:
(1) Two people get indicted. I’m not sure who exactly but Flynn, Page, Manafort, and Kushner are all candidates.
(2) No one goes to jail. Trump pardons everyone.
(3) Trump’s approval rating goes down a bit but not that far, into the low 30s. Fox, Breitbart, Woodward, and Greenwald defend him to the last but not too many others do. Trump remains popular with Republicans who continue to believe it’s all a witch hunt. His lack of popularity with the rest of voters hurts him though and Dems take 30-40 seats in the the House in the midterms.
(4) Not before 2018. If Dems take the House, I still think they not impeach. We might hear a lot of “look forward, not backward” type stuff.
(5) I have no idea but it would be fun if it did!
What are your answers?