1/ The water crisis in California is real, and getting very serious. This is from the front page of the Times.......
On a personal level I was in Publix yesterday and some of the organic items they usually carry were out, so I asked the manager about it and he said "we're having a problem with our California suppliers". Was this BS? Maybe.....maybe not......
Severe Drought Has U.S. West
Fearing the Worst
State officials said they were moving to put emergency plans in place. In the worst case, they said drinking water would have to be brought by truck into parched communities and additional wells would have to be drilled to draw on groundwater. The deteriorating situation would likely mean imposing mandatory water conservation measures on homeowners and businesses, who have already been asked to voluntarily reduce their water use by 20 percent.
“Every day this drought goes on we are going to have to tighten the screws on what people are doing” said Gov. Jerry Brown, who was governor during the last major drought here, in 1976-77.
This latest development has underscored the urgency of a drought that has already produced parched fields, starving livestock, and pockets of smog.
“We are on track for having the worst drought in 500 years,” said B. Lynn Ingram, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
2/ A pretty good Stephen Colbert on the hoopla leading up to SuperBowl and the Fox News reaction to brain injuries ......five amusing minutes......
He says he legally can't name his segments SuperBowl anything because of the lawyers at the NFL, so he has named this series of skits "Superb Owl XLV111".....so funny.....
“I’ve got nothing against brains, some of my best friends have them” Colbert said, “but you cannot scrap football over brain damage. Just ask the brain-damaged.” From there, he cut to clips of Fox News’ Kimberly Guilfoyle, Bernie Goldberg and Bob Beckel defending the sport despite the risks.
“In this day and age, people are not very happy in their lives,” Beckel said on a recent episode of The Five. “The one thing they’ve got to look forward to is football.”
3/ Frank Rich on the events of the week including the media failure on the CBO report, and the President's interview on Fox.....
You may not know he was the Theater critic for the Times before he became a columnist, so his comments on Hoffman's brilliance are very interesting.....
Every week, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich talks with contributor Eric Benson about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: the death and legacy of Philip Seymour Hoffman, the new Congressional Budget Office report about Obamacare and employment, and Obama's combative Super Bowl interview on Fox.
Philip Seymour Hoffman died on Sunday of an apparent heroin overdose, at the age of 46. Hoffman was one of the great actors of our era on both the stage and the screen. How can we make sense of his legacy and his death?
It will always be easier to make sense of Hoffman’s legacy than of his death. This tragic loss doesn’t fit the Kurt Cobain/Jim Morrison — or James Dean/Heath Ledger — template of a brilliant (and glamorous) young performer self-destructing or being struck down, leaving behind a relatively brief and stunted career and reveries of what might have been. Hoffman was not a romantic heartthrob. He was the same age as David Foster Wallace, and like Wallace, left behind a mature, epic-sized canon of such variety and complexity that it’s hard to fathom how he could produce it while wrestling with such vicious and debilitating demons. The Internet Movie Database lists 63 film appearances. And what’s remarkable is that even the small and early roles — especially those in Scent of a Woman, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and the incomparable Boogie Nights — are as indelible as his Oscar and post-Oscar star turns.
4/ Remember Congressman Grimm from New Jersey who threatened the reporter? SNL found an even more unhinged female lawmaker, and got her on video and she is a dead ringer for Melissa McCarthy......
Three funny minutes.......gets more and more unhinged......
On this week’s Saturday Night Live, current events and the sketch show’s host formed a perfect marriage, as Melissa McCarthy showed off her hysterical improv chops as a Delaware congresswoman who makes Staten Island’s Rep.Michael Grimm (R-NY), who physically threatened a reporter after this week’s State of the Union address, look like Miss Manners. The result is one of the funniest things the show has put on in many weeks.
5/ I can give some of you story after story on how the middle class is being decimated, and you will still be sceptical - so read this article from the Times on how corporations catering to the middle class are in trouble, and maybe this will convince you.
It cites concrete examples - how Dollar General and Family Dollar are doing well catering to the poor, high-end Nordstroms is booming but Sears and JC Penny aren't......Olive Garden and Red Lobster catering to the family market are stagnant, and tony Capital Grille is better than ever....
When major corporations are pulling their money out of middle class markets, you know it's true......
The Middle Class Is Steadily Eroding.
Just Ask the Business World.
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZFEB. 2, 2014
As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the middle class is shrinking as the top tier pulls even further away.In Manhattan, the upscale clothing retailer Barneys will replace the bankrupt discounter Loehmann’s, whose Chelsea store closes in a few weeks. Across the country, Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants are struggling, while fine-dining chains like Capital Grille are thriving. And at General Electric, the increase in demand for high-end dishwashers and refrigerators dwarfs sales growth of mass-market models.
If there is any doubt, the speed at which companies are adapting to the new consumer landscape serves as very convincing evidence. Within top consulting firms and among Wall Street analysts, the shift is being described with a frankness more often associated with left-wing academics than business experts.
6/ The President was interviewed on Fox News's Bill O'Reilly just before the Superbowl, and made mincemeat of big Bill.....so Jon Stewart has some wonderful commentary on this attempt, yet again, to smear Obama with all of the Fox phony scandals......
One of his better ones - three parts, a total of about 8 excellent minutes.......
Jon Stewart thinks Fox News is maybe a little too sensitive about President Obama taking a few swipes at them during his Super Bowl interview withBill O’Reilly, and mocked the idea that the leader of the free world went out of his way to deflect from the major scandals plaguing his administration by doing an interview in which naught but those scandals were addressed on the same day and on the same network as the most watched television event of all time.
Stewart said, “You know the president doesn’t work for Fox, right? He can deviate from your script!” He showed clip after clip of Fox personalities citing a number of different events, speeches, and policy announcements that could easily be distractions from either the economy or a scandal.
7/ I sent a DDD Special out yesterday, but I realise not many of have the time to watch a long interview no matter how good it is, so here is a two minute excerpt......if you like the taste, enjoy the three course meal below....
8/ Remember the "People Are Awesome" series? This is on the same lines but the French version, much faster edited and all in HD, with an excellent sound track....it shows athletes, sportsmen, bikers, drivers, even dancers doing amazing things.
I found it a bit overwhelming the first viewing, but it's the absolute best one of these I have ever seen.....10 exciting WOW minutes.....
9/ I know there are some of you out there that say the human race will solve our environmental problems, not to worry it will all be fine. I wish I could share your optimism......
Look at the double whammy for the planet in this story from Al Jazeeera.....the Queensland Government will be dredging three million tons of muck to build a coal port, and dumping the debris near the Great Barrier Reef.....
1/ the Reef is threatened by ocean temperature and increased acidity, so putting a layer of silt on the delicate coral will surely doom one of the world's treasures.
2/ this new port will make Australia's coal exports cheaper, so China and the other Asian countries will burn more dirty coal, generating CO2 and making it harder to wean them off their inefficient coal power plants.
This abominable move is from a country that just had a 54C [129F] day last month, and inhabits the most vulnerable continent for the effects of climate change. This is happening because a Conservative government owned by the energy corporations was elected last year with robust support from the Rupert Murdoch media.....
Australia approves Barrier Reef dumping plan
January 31, 2014 5:30AM ET
Government will allow millions of tons of mud from coal port to be disposed of near World Heritage site
- Topics:
- Australia
- Environment
The approval comes amid moves to expand Queensland coal port.Kike Calvo/AP Images
Australia has approved a plan to dump millions of tons of sediment near the Great Barrier Reef as part of a major coal port expansion — a decision that environmentalists say will endanger one of the world's most fragile ecosystems.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority rubber-stamped the federal government's approval of the expansion of the Abbot Point coal port in northern Queensland, which requires a massive dredging operation to expanded access.
Almost 3 million cubic meters of dredged mud will be dumped within the marine park under the plan.
Greg Hunt, the environment minister, has vowed that "some of the strictest conditions in Australian history" would be in place to protect the reef, including water quality measures and safeguards forthe reef's plants and animals.
The government added that no mud would be dumped directly on coral. However, conservationists say the already fragile reef will still be gravely threatened by the dredging.
The sediment endangers coral and sea grass, they say, and increased shipping traffic heightens the risk of accidents, such as oil spills and collisions with delicate coral beds.
10/ Coca-Cola showed an ad during SuperBowl that had rightwing media spinning with outrage, and Stephen Colbert explains why in a funny six minute segment.....a really good one.....
And you might join it 40 seconds in, as Mr. Colbert is letting his audience applaud way too long.....
Following in lock-step behind Rush Limbaugh,Glenn Beck and Fox News last night, Stephen Colbert was positively apoplectic over Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl ad that featured a multilingual version of “America the Beautiful,” or he put it, full of “foreign talk.”
After making a quick detour to mention his own bizarre Super Bowl ads for Wonderful Pistachios, Colbert moved to the only ad that really mattered. After showing a clip of the ad, he writhed in pain from the assault on his ears. “They were singing ‘America the Beautiful’ in foreign talk!” he exclaimed. “I mean, c’mon, only English can give that song its certain ‘Je ne sais quoi.’”
Here's the full one minute Coke ad, which is actually quite lovely.....and don't forget to look for the gay couple with the child, about 45 seconds in......
11/ A local news anchor from a station in Atlanta adds commentary on the right wing reaction to the Coke ad.......and evicerates the bigots. An excellent two minutes....
Reacting to conservative complaints about Coca-Cola's Super Bowl ad, Brenda Wood from WXIA in Atlanta destroys conservative myths about multiculturalism in America.
12/ You never saw the most interesting SuperBowl spot unless you lived in South Carolina....it was a 2 minute commercial for a personal injury lawyer named Jamie Casino.....fascinating, powerful and waaaaaay OTT....but I bet you remember it!
An epic 2 Minute Halftime Commercial written and directed by Jamie Casino. The spot features Jamie's brother Michael who was gunned down with his friend on Labor Day 2012. The story reveals how Savannah's Chief of Police, Willie Lovett, deceived the citizens of Savannah after four homicides took place Labor Day weekend. Jamie Casino, a personal injury attorney with a large practice based in Savannah, GA created the ad to set the record straight in the Biggest Game of the Year, Super Bowl XLVIII.
13/ This can't be true, can it? Sent in by one of our alert readers, a man does target practice in a residential neighborhood in the Florida Keys, calling the police before he does it.....he says it's legal.....
Floriduh indeed....from the Miami Herald, and includes a three minute video....
BIG PINE KEY -- Near the National Key Deer Refuge in the Lower Keys, on a sleepy street called Mango Lane, retired sheriff’s deputy Huey Gordon checked the waterway behind neighbor Doug Varrieur’s home for boat traffic.
“All clear?” asked Varrieur, an author of diet cookbooks and owner of rental properties.
“Yes, sir, you are,” Gordon said.
To which Varrieur replied: “The range is hot.”
He put on earmuffs and, within a few seconds, the peace of the residential neighborhood was replaced with the burst of small-caliber gunfire. Varrieur fired seven shots that traveled 21 feet to a target that had three cans inside a box and a picture of a zombie holding a screaming woman.
“All right, one dead can,” said Varrieur, 57.
It has been a month since the friends first fired their guns in this makeshift shooting area — surrounded by a chain-link fence, a shiny RV and the canal. The shots sent shockwaves through the neighborhood.
It became even scarier once the neighbors learned that on Varrieur’s side was a state law on the books since 1987. Varrieur said most gun owners like himself had just assumed they couldn’t shoot in residential neighborhoods.
“I honestly had hoped no one would catch wind of it and it would become public knowledge,” Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay said of the state law that pre-empts local ordinances. “I’m concerned now that people know. This isn’t about the right to own and bear arms. My concern is public safety and quality of life.”
Ramsay is not the only one who is worried. Since word got out about the legality of Varrieur’s “Gun Day” — he shoots from 3 to 4 p.m. every Wednesday — citizens and lawmakers up and down the island chain have become concerned that gun owners less responsible than Varrieur will begin shooting in their own yards.
“Without any oversight, somebody’s neighbor could set up a gun range and invite his friends over and have a good old time shooting,” said longtime Monroe County Commissioner George Neugent. “That’s a little scary situation, and I say that as a gun owner and somebody who believes in the Second Amendment.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/
14/ I'm putting this in again because I recently heard the original on the radio, and MUCH prefer this version......from DDD December 16th......
Wow. WOW. You have never heard "Stairway To Heaven" like this before. There was a tribute to Led Zeppelin and others in Vancouver attended by President Obama, so there were a lot of distinguished guests, but the feature act was a version of the classic song with full orchestra, choirs and vocalised by Nancy Wilson of "Heart".
Sung by someone with a wonderful voice, like Wilson, it's actually a beautiful song......
There have been some mighty horrible renditions of Led Zeppelin‘s Stairway To Heaven, but when Nancy and Ann Wilson of Heart performed the song in front of the three remaining members of the legendary British rock band at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony on Dec. 2, it made Robert Plant cry tears of joy.
(The band was being honoured by President Barack Obama alongside David Letterman and Dustin Hoffman.)
Watch it and understand why. When the choir kicks in and Ann Wilson wails Plant’s famous “And as we wind on down the road…” you might shed a tear or two yourself.
15/ Think the water crisis is over in West Virginia? No it isn't, and the Governor and state officials don't seem to care.....look at the attitude and body language the Governor has in his press conference. They don't drink the contaminated water, only the poor do in the rural counties in the west part of the state.....
Rachel Maddow with a very good five minute clip.....
Think about it - what if your water was toxic? You probably would leave to where the water was fine, but these people can't - they don't have the resources to leave......
Screwing the poor......a Red State game they play.......
16/ More on the contempt, indeed hatred Florida Republicans have for poor people in our state.....they really, truly don't care if the unemployed starve because they can't get their benefits that they have paid for......
The irony is the right wing were all over the ACA website issues which haven't affected anyone, but a Florida gumment website that is giving out "handouts" to the unemployed? Screw 'em.....and you haven't heard a peep from the media. Thankfully we still have some decent journalists left....
We live in a cruel state folks, so you'd better have some money or you're road kill....
Fred Grimm: Florida’s CONNECT website for unemployed is disconnected
BY FRED GRIMM
FGRIMM@MIAMIHERALD.COM
For Hannah Klingsberg, the hassles collecting her unemployment compensation go beyond the money, although goodness knows she could have used those last few elusive checks, the ones that seem to have vanished in a bureaucratic fog.
“A thousand dollars could have paid a lot of bills,” she says.
But it was the attendant indignities that Florida heaps upon the unemployed that so bothers the Boynton Beach woman. The unworkable website. The unanswered help-lines. The pervasive sense that employees of Florida’s misnamed Department of Economic Opportunity consider the likes of Hannah Klingsberg undeserving shirkers. As if Florida’s jobless were so many grifters wrangling for free money. As if those weekly benefits, topping out at $275, were paid out of Gov. Rick Scott’s personal bank account.
“It’s not right, the way they treat us,” says Klingsberg, who lost her marketing job last year. “I’ve been working since I was 16.” She’s 73. The governor was 2 years old when she collected her first paycheck.
Klingsberg had no complaints with DEO’s previous computer system. “It was fine before they changed it.” Nor did she mind meeting the state’s requirement that she apply for at least five new jobs each week. “I was sending out more applications than that, stacks of them. I needed a job. But when they see ‘73’ on the applications, it’s tough.” Then, on Oct. 15, the state introduced a $63 million new website, called CONNECT, to process unemployment applications to replace the clunky 30-year-old system.
Clunky, as it turned out, worked better. Some large percentage of the state’s 235,000 unemployment benefit applicants couldn’t connect with CONNECT. As the Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau’s Michael Van Sickler has been reporting since the new system’s ballyhooed debut, CONNECT has been a dispiriting cascade of glitches and freezes and error messages — failures that clogged up some $22 million worth of unemployment checks for jobless folks, many in desperate circumstances.
Todays video - "The Watch", from Pulp Fiction....some say this is Christopher Walken's best role in a movie......
Todays Political joke
A man told his friend, "You won't believe what happened last night...
My daughter walked into the living room and said, ‘Dad, cancel my allowance immediately, forget my college tuition loan, rent my room out, throw all my clothes out the window; take my TV, and my laptop. Please take any of my jewelry to the Salvation Army or Cash Converters. Then, sell my car, take my front door key away from me and throw me out of the house. Then, disown me and never talk to me again. And don't forget to write me out of your will and leave my share to any charity you choose.’ "
"Holy Smokes," replied the friend, "She actually said that?"
"Well, she didn't put it quite like that. She actually said... 'Dad, meet my new boyfriend - Mohammed. We're going to work together on Hillary's election campaign!' "
Todays workplace joke
Due to the current financial situation caused by the slowdown in the economy, Congress has decided to implement a scheme to put workers of 50 years of age and above on early, mandatory retirement, thus creating jobs and reducing unemployment.
This scheme will be known as RAPE (Retire Aged People Early).
Persons selected to be RAPEDcan apply to Congress to be considered for theSHAFTprogram (Special Help After Forced Termination).
Persons who have beenRAPED and SHAFTED will be reviewed under theSCREW program (System Covering Retired-Early Workers).
A person may be RAPEDonce,SHAFTED twice andSCREWED as many times as Congress deems appropriate.
A person may be RAPEDonce,SHAFTED twice andSCREWED as many times as Congress deems appropriate.
Persons who have beenRAPED could get AIDS (Additional Income for Dependents & Spouse) or HERPES (Half Earnings for Retired Personnel Early Severance).
Obviously persons who haveAIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Congress.
Obviously persons who haveAIDS or HERPES will not be SHAFTED or SCREWED any further by Congress.
Persons who are not RAPEDand are staying on will receive as much SHIT (Special High Intensity Training) as possible. Congress has always prided themselves on the amount of SHIT they give our citizens.
Should you feel that you do not receive enough SHIT, please bring this to the attention of your Congressman, who has been trained to give you all theSHIT you can handle.
Sincerely,
The Committee for Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)
PS - Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.
The Committee for Economic Value of Individual Lives (E.V.I.L.)
PS - Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.
Todays "Letter to the Editor" joke....keep reading, it's not political.......
TO THE EDITOR:
Republicans and “so-called” conservatives are at it again. They are claiming that the Constitution gives people the right to have guns without the permission of the government. If that were true, then how could New York and Chicago have laws against it?
We Democrats are sick and tired of Republicans constantly using the Constitution to cover up their true plans, which are to make us all afraid of everyone else. Our great president came from a civilized part of the country where there is strict gun control, and he is only trying to bring the benefits of that more modern way of living to the rest of us. I don’t know the exact statistics, but I’m quite certain that Chicago is a lot safer that Morehead City, when it comes to gun violence.
But do Republicans and conservatives listen to the voice of reason? No, of course not. All they want to do is whine and complain about how gun control and wealth redistribution violate the Constitution, as if the Constitution were all that great, anyway. There are a lot of things that need to be changed about the Constitution, I’d say, and President Obama needs to change it.
The Republicans are just trying to stand in the way, because the president is black. They even dared to question whether he was born in this country. I think all this demonstrates that the Constitution needs to be amended when it comes to the qualifications for being president. Right now, it says that a person has to be 35 years old and be a natural born citizen. Well, that is obviously unfair because there are a great many otherwise qualified people who cannot run for president because their mothers had to have a C-section. But because the Constitution was written a hundred years ago, nobody even thought of the discrimination that would result from a doctor having to deliver a baby in this unnatural way. Now that we Democrats are in control of the government, that’s just one more thing we should change in our drive to make life fair.
Please withhold my name because I don’t want to get crank calls.
Todays "The Villages" jokes
These are actual ads seen in
''The Villages'' Florida newspaper.
Sexy, fashion-conscious blue-haired beauty, 80's, slim, 5'4' (used to be 5'6'), Searching for sharp-looking, sharp-dressing companion. Matching white shoes and belt a plus. ------------------------------ LONG-TERM COMMITMENT : Recent widow who has just buried fourth husband, Looking for someone to round out a six-unit plot. Dizziness, fainting, shortness of breath not a problem. ------------------------------ SERENITY NOW : I am into solitude, long walks, sunrises, the ocean, yoga and meditation. If you are the silent type, let's get together, take our hearing aids out and enjoy quiet times. ------------------------------ WINNING SMILE : Active grandmother with original teeth seeking a dedicated flosser to share rare steaks, corn on the cob and caramel candy. ------------------------------ BEATLES OR STONES ? I still like to rock, still like to cruise in my Camaro on Saturday nights and still like to play the guitar. If you were a groovy chick, or are now a groovy hen, let's get together and listen to my eight-track tapes. ------------------------------ MEMORIES : I can usually remember Monday through Thursday. If you can remember Friday, Saturday and Sunday, let's put our two heads together. ------------------------------ My favorite… MINT CONDITION : Male, 1932 model, high mileage, good condition, some hair, many new parts including hip, knee, cornea, valves. Isn't in running condition, but walks well. Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many. |
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