Three Florida stories this week.....but if you live in the South you need to read the Miami story.....
This first article is really good......
1/ An unusual and revealing article written by a multi-billionaire - a fascinating read as I was beginning to wonder if the price of making a lot of money was the complete loss of common sense and empathy.....
The title of the piece is "The Pitchforks Are Coming...For Us Plutocrats", and this guy, Nick Hanauer, nails it - unless the oligarchs stop raiding the 99%'s assets they are laying the foundations of a revolution......
Memo: From Nick HanauerTo: My Fellow Zillionaires
You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor. Then I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I’m no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can’t even imagine. Multiple homes, my own plane, etc., etc. You know what I’m talking about. In 1992, I was selling pillows made by my family’s business, Pacific Coast Feather Co., to retail stores across the country, and the Internet was a clunky novelty to which one hooked up with a loud squawk at 300 baud. But I saw pretty quickly, even back then, that many of my customers, the big department store chains, were already doomed. I knew that as soon as the Internet became fast and trustworthy enough—and that time wasn’t far off—people were going to shop online like crazy. Goodbye, Caldor. And Filene’s. And Borders. And on and on.
1/ A great Bill Maher, and he really builds up a head of steam in this five minute segment about how Republicans lie, and keep repeating lies over and over.........excellent.
Bill Maher ended his show Friday night with an editorial about how Republicans are massive liars who’ve lied about Obamacare for years, keep lying about it, and refuse to apologize for the lies even after they’ve been widely disproven as, well, lies. Maher said, “The next liberal to tell a Republican ‘You’re entitled to an opinion but not your own facts’ should really just admit they’ve never seen Fox News.”
Maher said that Republicans never stop telling lies even after they’re called out on it, compared toPresident Obama, who was caught in that lie about “if you like your plan you can keep your plan,” but then once he was called out, “he stopped saying it!”
Maher went down a whole list of “zombie lies” on the right about Obamacare and a whole array of issues and how they’re passed on from Fox News hosts, who pass them on to tea partiers in Congress, who pass them on to “the absolutely stupidest people on earth,” leading to that inevitable moment when Donald Trump tweets about it.
3/ The always excellent Frank Rich, on the Hobby Lobby decision, and yes, the consequences of this disgusting right wing Supreme court decision by five old Catholic men will be serious......
Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP/Corbis
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: more fallout from the Hobby Lobby ruling; the intractable immigration mess; and Warren G. Harding's "Jerry."
There’s already another shoe dropping from the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby ruling, which lets family owned corporations opt out of paying for insurance coverage for contraceptives if they have religious objections. Now religious groups have sent a letter to the president asking him to consider exempting some companies from complying with a proposed executive order to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians. How great an effect is Hobby Lobby going to have?I think we are already seeing that its impact will be long-lasting. As a matter of policy, it is rank discrimination against women, period. The “religious freedom” argument of those who want to restrict access to contraception is a fig leaf — an all too literal fig leaf, in this case — coming from an American constituency that has had a long history of fighting women’s rights whether they involve the womb or the workplace (or in this case, both). Now Hobby Lobby has opened the door for “religious freedom” to be the pretext for turning back gay civil rights. President Obama has promised an executive order that would forbid companies with federal contracts to discriminate against gays. Religious leaders like Rick Warren, who gave a benediction at Obama’s first Inauguration, are arguing that it’s okay for gays to be denied jobs (or to be forced into the closet) if “religious” companies say the Bible warrants such bigotry. And that the taxpayers should underwrite bigotry by allowing the government to award these companies federal contracts anyway. When religion — or one group’s narrow view of religion — can trump the most fundamental Constitutional principles, we see clearly what theocracy would look like.
4/ John Oliver with a PSA about travelling to Antarctica......a most amusing three minutes....his message is "don't go!"
If you are among the terrible people considering going to Antarctica, John Oliver has a message for you: Don’t! And stop being so terrible!
Actually, Antarctica sounds pretty cool, what with those cute penguins and that fresh water and that untouched la–wait, no. No, going to Antarctica is a bad, bad idea. Consider the environment. Or consider this PSA. Look, just go to Alaska, okay?
5/ Because it's a 4th of July commercial, this kind of button pushing is totally appropriate......so be ready to deal with some moisture......one minute......
6/ An excellent essay on the implications of the Hobby Lobby decision - the author argues that since the Congress is paralysed, power has shifted to the pro-corporate and pro-theocratic Supreme Court,and the underlying goal is for the Christian right to gain power over us all, but specifically women. The reason they vehemently call Obama a "socialist" is because he believes in the freedom of women, and these clowns want to make this country a theocracy......
A chilling article about one of our possible futures.....
Sarah Palin, Antonin Scalia, Rick Santorum (Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster/Reuters/Brendan Mcdermid/Jeff Malet, maletphoto.com)
The United States is still a democratic republic, formally, but what that actually means in practice is increasingly in doubt — and the Hobby Lobby ruling, deeply disingenuous and sharply at odds with centuries of Anglo-American law, exemplifies how that formal reality is increasingly mocked in practice. It is a practice best described as neo-feudalism, taking power away from ordinary citizens, in all their pluralistic, idiosyncratic diversity, and handing it over to corporations and religious dictators in both the public and the private realm. The Supreme Court’s actions are not taking place in a vacuum — though they arefilling one: As Tea Party Republicans in the House increasingly bring democratic self-government to a halt, contracting the power of we the people to act as a cohesive self-governing whole, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority shifts ever more everyday power into the hands of private dictatorships.
Hobby Lobby handed for-profit corporations religious rights for the first time in history — a radical break with all previous precedent, and yet a part of a recent pattern, as Norm Ornstein rightly pointed out:
[F]or the majority on the Roberts Court, through a series of rulings that favor corporations over labor or other interests, it is clear that corporations are king, superior to individual Americans—with all the special treatment in taxes and protection from legal liability that are unavailable to us individuals, and now all the extra benefits that come with individual citizenship. Call it the new Crony Capitalism.
The expansion of corporate power in Hobby Lobby has gotten too little attention, and I’ll return to discuss this further below. But the advancement of theocracy — religious dictatorship — is even less clearly seen through the fog of right-wing propaganda about “religious liberty.”
7/ And for tips on how to stop your child from being an atheist, read this advice column and who knows - if he follows all of the advice he may end up on the Supreme Court.....
Amusing, but also true.....
8/ Bill Maher is at least consistent - in this serious two minute discussion he blasts liberals for being "useless Obama Hacks" for not speaking up about the NSA.....and let's all thank Edward Snowden for bring this to light.....
Bill Maher went after the left over NSA spying on Friday night; specifically, liberals who have refused to criticize surveillance under President Obama as opposed to, you know, when George Bush did it. Maher said, “If this was happening under Bush, liberals would be apoplectic. I’m sorry, but liberals are just sometimes useless Obama hacks without a shred of intellectual honesty.”
Congresswoman Donna Edwards jumped in to make clear she’s very apoplectic, saying Congress needs to set more limits on the NSA’s dragnet and arguing for more privacy advocates who can take on the government in the name of individual liberties.
Ron Suskind added that for years, the government kept sneering at critics and asking where their proof is, and so the one great thing Snowden did was provide the proof.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/
9/ This is a horrifying product - a $25 dollar tracker that lets you follow someone without their knowledge.....just put it in someone's car and it transmits exactly where they go.....a two minute video.....
10/ Everyone read "Gone Girl"? The amazingly good book by Gillian Flynn is coming out as a movie this autumn, and this is a trailer for it.....and it looks really good. Apparently the last third of the movie is slightly different from the book, but as the new twists were written by the author we should suspend judgement.
But if you want a summer read that you can't put down, get "Gone Girl"........
The Newest Trailer for the Controversial Murder Mystery 'Gone Girl' Is HereImage Credit: KPopStarz
Gillian Flynn's controversial novel Gone Girl is coming to the big screen later this year, but for now we are subsisting on trailers. A new one arrived on Monday.
Starring Rosamund Pike as the maybe-murdered wife of maybe-murderer Ben Affleck, the novel version of Gone Girl (a best-seller) received a whole lot of flack for its femme fatale leading lady. The crux of the argument against the Gone Girl story rests on the notion that Flynn's work seems to hold what the Guardiancalls a "deep animosity towards women." That conversation will surely be resurrected as we inch closer and closer to the movie version's release date, though the movie's approach of that subject is still up for debate.
11/ A climate change story from The Guardian, that is actually a little frightening as it details the concrete effects of the denial prevalent in the city, county and state governments about what is going to happen in South Florida.
Here it is folks - Miami is gone. It's doomed.....with the sea level rise already in the climate system all of SF will be uninhabitable in a few decades. But the building goes on - new skyscrapers, condos, houses and even a $1.3 billion tunnel to the Port of Miami are under construction all over the tri-county area, because even if you believe in the rising seas swallowing the area you are figuring it's 100 years away, so build baby build. The problem is this ignores the reality - the breakdown of society will be much quicker than that -
Nor will south Florida have to wait that long for the devastation to come. Long before the seas have risen a further three or four feet, there will be irreversible breakdowns in society, he says. "Another foot of sea-level rise will be enough to bring salt water into our fresh water supplies and our sewage system. Those services will be lost when that happens," says Stoddard.
"You won't be able to flush away your sewage and taps will no longer provide homes with fresh water. Then you will find you will no longer be able to get flood insurance for your home. Land and property values will plummet and people will start to leave.
I have put this on Facebook and LinkedIn to try to spread the word, but I know people won't listen....there is too much money involved, and also people hate change. Not for nothing was Al Gore's movie called "An Inconvenient Truth" but the reality is the people in power in South Florida are in their 50's and 60's, and think climate change will be the next generations problem - let's make money now. This cynicism is horrifying, and the lack of leadership from the Republicans that run the state is downright scary. But whatever, you do what you can.....
Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away
Low-lying south Florida, at the front line of climate change in the US, will be swallowed as sea levels rise. Astonishingly, the population is growing, house prices are rising and building goes on. The problem is the city is run by climate change deniers
The Miami coastline: there are fears that even a 30cm rise in the sea level could be catastrophic. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty
A drive through the sticky Florida heat into Alton Road in Miami Beach can be an unexpectedly awkward business. Most of the boulevard, which runs north through the heart of the resort's most opulent palm-fringed real estate, has been reduced to a single lane that is hemmed in by bollards, road-closed signs, diggers, trucks, workmen, stacks of giant concrete cylinders and mounds of grey, foul-smelling earth.
It is an unedifying experience but an illuminating one – for this once glamorous thoroughfare, a few blocks from Miami Beach's art deco waterfront and its white beaches, has taken on an unexpected role. It now lies on the front line of America's battle against climate change and the rise in sea levels that it has triggered.
"Climate change is no longer viewed as a future threat round here," says atmosphere expert Professor Ben Kirtman, of the University of Miami. "It is something that we are having to deal with today."
Every year, with the coming of high spring and autumn tides, the sea surges up the Florida coast and hits the west side of Miami Beach, which lies on a long, thin island that runs north and south across the water from the city of Miami. The problem is particularly severe in autumn when winds often reach hurricane levels. Tidal surges are turned into walls of seawater that batter Miami Beach's west coast and sweep into the resort's storm drains, reversing the flow of water that normally comes down from the streets above. Instead seawater floods up into the gutters of Alton Road, the first main thoroughfare on the western side of Miami Beach, and pours into the street. Then the water surges across the rest of the island.
http://www.theguardian.com/
12/ Remember Archie Bunker from "All In The Family?" This very very funny clip is from the show where Archie has to give a eulogy for his Jewish friend.....compare this to the TV we have now.....they really pushed the envelope of political correctness in the 80's.....
Ten excellent minutes.....
13/ The disaster that is Pam Bondi is running for re-election this year, and here are eight good reasons to get rid of this corrupt and stupid ditz....
Eight Reasons Pam Bondi Is the Worst Attorney General in Florida History
By Chris Joseph Wed., Jul. 9 2014 at 8:00 AM
Categories: Listy Lists
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Will that vitriol be enough to oust Scott in the election come November? Time (and the ballots) will tell.
But another key figure is also running for re-election come November. Someone who has done just as much damage to Florida as Scott has, albeit with a more pretty face.
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is flat-out the worst this state has ever seen, and she could very well win re-election due to people not knowing enough about her dirty deeds.
Here now are eight reasons why Pam Bondi is the worst AG Florida has ever had:
14/ A news story from Lauren Ritchie in the Orlando Sentinel, on how the Deputy Police Chief of Fruitland Park [a town close to The Villages] was forced to resign because he was linked to the KKK.....
For anyone who has read "Devil In The Grove" about Sheriff McCall of Lake County, it seems so familiar. Racism isn't dead in the South....
The deputy chief of the Fruitland Park Police Department resigned and another officer was fired after the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement turned over a report to the city describing their link to the Ku Klux Klan, a prosecutor said Friday.
Deputy Chief David Borst, 49, of Wildwood, resigned and the second officer, whose name couldn't be immediately confirmed, was dismissed, city officials said.
On Friday, police Chief Terry Isaacs said Borst resigned because of "personal family issues." Asked about the report, Isaacs said he knew of a report but he refused to say what was in it.
Fruitland Park City Manager Gary La Venia said FDLE presented the police chief with information this week that showed two officers were involved in possible improper action and misconduct. La Venia would not comment on specifics.
However, Chief Deputy State Attorney Ric Ridgway said Isaacs contacted his agency Wednesday after the FDLE gave him a report on the pair, looking for advice. The report, which wasn't available late Friday, contained "a lot of fairly substantial evidence that tends to support" the pair were members of the Klan, Ridgway said.
Todays video - the funniest Stephen Colbert segment ever - this is from 2008, and Esteban Colberto interviews Lou Dobbs about Immigration.....a classic.....
Todays political joke
Many thought that Governor Chris Christie (R-NJ) and President Obama seemed overly friendly during the president’s tour of damage done by Super Storm Sandy.
Well, lo & behold … it turns out that they were childhood friends.
Todays little old lady joke
This may be us someday …. or earlier !
When asked by a young patrol officer, "Do you know you were speeding?"
This elderly woman gave the young officer an ear to ear smile and stated:-
"Yes, but .... I had to get there before I forgot where I was going."
The officer put his ticket book away and bid her good day.
Makes perfectly good sense to me!!
Todays Jewish joke
A clearly inebriated woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi in New York City and laid down on the back seat.
The cab driver, an old Jewish gentleman, opened his eyes wide and stared at the woman. He made no attempt to start the cab.
The woman glared back at him and said, "What's wrong with you, honey? - Haven't you ever seen a naked woman before?"
The old Jewish driver answered, "Let me tell you sumsing, lady I vasn't staring at you like you tink; det vould not be proper vair I come from."
The drunk woman giggled and responded, "Well, if you're not staring at my boobs or ass sweetie, what are you doing then?"
He paused a moment, then told her..."Vell,M'am,
I am looking and I am looking, and I am tinking to myself,'Vair in da hell is dis lady keeping de money to pay for dis ride?
Now, that's a REAL Businessman
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