1/. David Wallace-Wells with a smidgen of good news on the environment....amazingly enough, from Texas....
Over the past few weeks, a once unthinkable parable about the green transition has played out in Texas, the very picture of a recalcitrant red state soaked with fossil fuel. Legislators friendly to the oil and gas business staged a desperate fight with the market — and lost.
2/. But don't get too excited that things are changing in Texas.....
The Republicans just passed a bill to override a law mandating 10 minute breaks for workers who are
outside in the heat - ironically in the middle of a record heatwave.....
Just days after Abbott signed the bill, a 35-year-old utility lineman died from symptoms of heat illness. Photograph: Adam Davis/EPA Amid a dangerous heatwave that has brought blistering temperatures across Texas, the state’s governor signed a law this week eliminating local rules requiring water breaks for workers.
The measure, which will take effect later this year, will nullify ordinances enacted by Austin and Dallas that mandate 10-minute breaks for construction workers every four hours. It also prevents any other local governments from passing similar worker protections.
3/. The spineless media.....and Democrats....
4/. And in contrast to David Wallace-Wells above, Umair throws ice water on anything changing......and he might be right....
According to Umair we have two decades of 'normal" life left.....
Welcome, friends, to another…Extinction Summer. It’s going to be the hottest year…on record. And already, the signs are…ominous. Global temperatures have suddenly spiked. Ocean temperatures are…leaping off the charts. Meanwhile, the polar ice is melting so fast scientists are shocked. And carbon emissions just hit record highs. https://eand.co/why-our-civilization-is-in-a-climate-crisis-94b60ffcbc80
5/. Coming soon to a town near you.....
6/. This is heartbreaking, moving and enraging....the diary of a pregnant
Texas woman having twins....
Below is the journal of Lauren Miller, 36, a Texan who unexpectedly found herself needing abortion care shortly after Roe v Wade was overturned one year ago. When she first started writing the diary, Miller had no idea of the obstacles she was about to face. Now, she is suing the state of Texas with the Center for Reproductive Rights alongside 14 other plaintiffs for being denied access to life-saving abortion care.
Miller came to the Guardian wanting to publish the journal – a real-time diary of the twists and
turns of going from discovering a very wanted pregnancy, to navigating the need for a termination in a state where abortion is now banned. It has been edited and condensed.
7/. Some of you will hate this article by Andrew Sullivan, but I'll bet most of you will agree with him....it's about how he
thinks the "trans rights" movement is harming all gays.....
Many, many moons ago, when I was a marriage equality pioneer and not a total pariah among the gays, I was asked to speak at the Human Rights Campaign Fund, as it was then called. Determined as ever not to read the room, I said (paraphrasing from memory): “The goal of any civil rights movement should be to shut itself down one day. And once we get marriage equality and military service, those of us in the gay rights movement should throw a party, end the movement, and get on with our lives.”
You can imagine how well that went down. And, sure enough, 30 years later, with marriage, military service and trans equality enshrined in the law, the HRC building now has a massive, six-story high poster hanging on it: “BLACK LIVES MATTER. TRANS BLACK LIVES MATTER.”
That tells us a bit about where we are today, and how we got here.
https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/gay-rights-and-the-limits-of-liberalism?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=61371&post_id=129880419&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email
8/. The full interview - Gavin Newsom on Hannity.
Last week we had Part 1, and if you didn't see it it was great.
If you did, start this at the 24 minute mark.....
9/. Umair on the economic disaster that is Britain......
To look at Britain’s economy today is to shudder. Things are going badly, badly wrong — on an astonishing scale. Brits will tell you that “nothing works,” and that’s true — but the truer problem is deeper than that still. Britain is now in an economic doom loop. And what’s worse is that — while it’s elementary economics — nobody much in power seems to a) recognize it b) understand it c) have a plan to stop it.
And without any of those? Britain now faces, almost surely, perhaps the bleakest decade in its modern history. One of its bleakest decades for a very, very long time.
10/. New Anti-Trump Republican group ad.....
11/. Bob Lefsetz with a pithy piece on the latest Supreme Court corruption scandal, starring Alito...
A good read....
You don’t always pay in cash.
I remember the first time I flew on a private jet. On the return trip I was told not to sit in a certain seat. That’s when I learned, he or she who pays, or owns the jet, determines the seating policy. And believe me, you’re thrilled to be on board, so you just shut up.
I’m not going to tell you the circumstances of that trip, but I will tell you I’m not going to say anything negative about the people involved. Oh, I could, but then I would have broken the code, I’d never have access again, they might not even speak to me again.
You see I know these billionaires. To be in their orbit…let’s just say there’s a lot of largesse. But it’s clear that they go first. And if you want to have access to all the perks, you’ve always got to be upbeat and nice, get on their wavelength, and I O.D.’ed on it.
12/. The latest Randy Rainbow song......this is a good one,
"Donald in the John, with Boxes" to the music of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"....
Very amusing, and RR can sing too.....
13/. One of our alert readers sent me this.....don't know where it's from but it sounds like Umair with a sense of humour....
Here’s a tiny secret. One that Coronavirus should have clued us into. Normal is over. The age of normal is finished, done, a relic of history. Things will not go back to normal. From here, the societies only grow more unstable, economies more depressed, nations more fractured, and lives — yours and mine — more surreal, difficult and troubled. Masks will be required when you go to bed.
July was the world’s hottest month on record. Globally. By 2030, shit’s going to go from intense, to catastrophic. Paris Hilton will be selling THAT’S HOT t-shirts like crazy.
Blow-jobs will cost a Grand. Prothesis will cost an arm and a leg.
Fast forward a decade (or next year). The world is now running out of water. Clean air. Livable temperatures. Toilet paper shortages will cause Wars.
By the 2050s, the Final Goodbye will begin. The earth’s great ecosystems will begin to die off, irreversibly. The Amazon. Even Amazon PRIME! The ocean currents. The glaciers and ice at the poles. All the great systems which keep life on planet earth as we know it breathing, eating, drinking, thriving. The Oceans will be a toxic fishless cesspool of science fiction proportion. Jazz gigs will still be paying $50 if you’re lucky. Styrofoam will be sold by the Gram.
Insurance of any kind seems to be a luxury now. Who’s going to insure your home, in an age where flood and fire are everyday realities? Who’s going to insure your life, when life expectancy is plummeting? Who’s going to bother insuring you for anything at all?
The Catholic Church will finally go out of business. There will be MASS extinction.
Meanwhile Amazon and Google hadn’t paid a penny in taxes for decades now. Jeff Bezos will be a dead Trillionaire.
Packages will be delivered by Monkeys ~ Amazon Primate.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.The skyrocketing suicide of the 20s never stopped rising. There is now a Bunghole in the Ozone!
Massive waves of people seem to have lost their minds. They cling to bizarre superstitions, spend all day in escapism, flee to conspiracy theories — or worst of all, join one of the many new doomsday cults flourishing everywhere. There will be blood in everyone’s feces.
Archie Bunkers will be sold with 25 years of “food” and “water” and of course Bibles. Humor will be FORBIDDEN.
As techNOlogy, ecological disasters and people lining up at the intersections with Mastercardboard signs unleash waves of depression, upheaval, and dislocation to rival history’s greatest catastrophes, the only “good” news will be The Rolling Stones farewell tour. If only Keith is left, it will be The Rolling Stone. Don’t consider this a prophecy — consider it a warning.
14/. I read this story and thought - what if Democratic Senators did what the
Republican MAGA are doing now?
Mitch would be on it like flypaper, but Chuck Schumer? What a wanker....
Instead of showing up for work last Tuesday, Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, went to Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., to hear the former president rail against his latest criminal indictment. Mr. Tuberville’s absence from the Capitol gave the Senate an opportunity to end his one-man blockade of all military promotions, a campaign he has been waging for four months to protest the Pentagon’s policy paying for service members to travel for an abortion if they live in a state where it is illegal.
But did the Democrats in the Senate seize the moment and try to get a vote on the promotions? Not a chance.
15/. "Avatar - The Way Of Water" is now on HBO - "Honest Trailers" has you covered.....
16/. A story for the ladies....."The Last Health Taboo"....endometriosis....
‘As things stand, the average diagnosis doesn’t come until a woman has spent ten years searching for an answer and seen eight doctors’ … a still from Below the Belt Photograph: PBS What health condition affects some 200 million people around the world, yet remains woefully misunderstood, underfunded, and barely addressed in medical-school curricula?
17/. Bob Lefsetz with a book review.....
This book is mind-blowingly good.
But you won’t feel that way at first, you’ll think it’s a trifle, a direct lift of “Saturday Night Live,” akin to Curtis Sittenfeld’s book about Hillary Clinton, “Rodham,” wherein she breaks up with Bill before marriage and a different story ensues. I mean “Rodham” is a good read, but it’s light.
Whereas “You Think It, I’ll Say It,” Sittenfeld’s collection of short stories, is oftentimes dark, and gripping. “You Think It, I’ll Say It” is the best short story book I’ve ever read. I keep recommending it to people but they don’t read it, primarily because they’re turned off by short stories, and I understand that, but this is different.
18/. A new Netflix documentary that will rivet you, according to the reviews I've read....."Take Care Of Maya".....
Mary and I watched it, and it's everything the reviewers have said.....it's excellent....
An in depth story on Maya from New York Magazine.....
One Saturday afternoon in the fall of 2016, Dr. Sally Smith received a call from the pediatric emergency room at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Smith was the medical director of the child-protection team for Pinellas County, and she grabbed a piece of paper to take notes. Maya Kowalski, she wrote. The name belonged to a 10-year-old girl who had just been admitted for abdominal pain.
Smith listened as a doctor detailed the case. The girl’s parents, Beata and Jack Kowalski, had told the hospital that Maya suffered from a neurological disorder called complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS. They said that she was acutely sensitive to stimuli of all kinds and that disabling pain radiated through her legs and feet, requiring the use of a wheelchair. Maya spent 24 hours in the intensive-care unit at All Children’s, screaming and writhing. When a nurse attempted to conduct an ultrasound, her mother insisted that the only way Maya could tolerate the contact was if she received an infusion of ketamine.
19/. Have you ever watched "Black Mirror? Sounds like this new season is excellent.....
A Streamberry original … Annie Murphy as Joan in Black Mirror’s Joan Is Awful. Photograph: Netflix few weeks into the pandemic, Charlie Brooker didn’t know what to do with Black Mirror. “At the moment I don’t know what stomach there would be for stories about societies falling apart, so I’m not working away on one of those,” he told the Radio Times in May 2020. “I’m sort of keen to revisit my comic skill set, so I’ve been writing scripts aimed at making myself laugh.”
20/. HBO has some pretty good movies.....
When HBO Max debuted in May 2020, subscribers rightfully expected (and got) the formidable catalog of prestige television associated with the HBO brand. But its movie library drew from a much deeper well. Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns HBO, is a huge conglomerate, and its premiere streaming service comprises decades of titles from Warner Bros., Turner Classic Movies, Studio Ghibli and more. Viewed in that light, its recent rebranding as Max seems fitting.
That means a lot of large-scale fantasy series like Harry Potter and
“The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and selections from the DC extended universe.
Max is also an education in Golden Age Hollywood classics and in independent and foreign
auteurs like Federico Fellini, Satyajit Ray and John Cassavetes. The list below is an effort to
recommend a diverse range of movies — old and new, foreign and domestic, all-ages and
adults-only — that cross genres and cultures while appealing to casual and serious movie-watchers alike.
21/. Some great TV coming this summer.....
Today's guy joke....
Last week, my girlfriend and I were getting into bed.
As our passion began to heat up she said, "I don't feel like it. I just want you to hold me."
I said, "WHAT?! What was that?!"
She said, "You're just not in touch with my emotional needs as a woman enough for me to satisfy your physical needs as a man."
She responded to my puzzled look by saying, "Can't you just love me for who I am and not what I do for you in the bedroom?"
Realizing that nothing was going to happen that night, I went to sleep. The next day I took off of work to spend time with her.
We went out to a nice lunch and then went shopping at a big department store.
I walked around with her as she tried on several very expensive outfits.
She couldn't decide which one to take, so I told her we'd just buy them all.
She wanted new shoes to go with her new clothes, so I said, "Lets get a pair for each outfit."
We went on to the jewellery counter where she picked out a pair of diamond earrings.
She was so excited.
I started to think she was testing me because she asked for a tennis bracelet.
I threw her for a loop when I said, "That's fine, honey."
She was nearing sexual satisfaction from all of the excitement.
Smiling with excited anticipation, she finally said, "I think this is all dear, let's go to the cashier."
I could hardly contain myself when I blurted out, "No baby, I don't feel like it."
Her face went completely blank as her jaw dropped with a baffled, "WHAT?"
I said, "Honey! I just want you to HOLD this stuff for a while. You're just not in touch with my financial needs as a man enough for me to satisfy your shopping needs as a woman."
Just when she had this look like she was going to kill me, I added, "Why can't you just love me for who I am and not for the things I buy you?"
Apparently I'm not having sex tonight either..
Today's bar joke
A local bar was so sure that its barman was the strongest man in the Village that they offered a standing £1000 bet.
The barman would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran out and challenge any man to squeeze out another drop.
Weightlifters, arm wrestlers, they all tried and lost the bet.
Then one day, a scrawny little man, (if he stood sideways you would not see him) wearing scratched glasses, a ten year old polyester suit, walked in and said, “I'd like to take on the
bet."
After the laughter had died down, the barman said, "Okay", grabbed the lemon and squeezed away.
Then he handed the wrinkled remains of the Lemon Rind to the little man.
But the Crowd's laughter turned to total silence....as the man clenched his little fist around the lemon....six drops fell into the glass.
As the barman paid the 1000 Quid bet, he asked "What do you do for a living?
Are you a lumberjack, a metal worker, a weight-lifter, or what?"
The little man quietly replied:
"I’m a Tax man.”
Today's traffic accident joke....
An elderly man rear-ended a guy driving an expensive sports car.
Enraged, the guy hops out and confronts the old man.
"Look what you did to my car" he yells. "You're going to give me $10,000 right now or I'm going to beat you to a pulp!"
"Oh my," says the old man, "I don't have that kind of money. Let me call my son, he trains dolphins and he will know what to do."
"Dolphins" the other driver huffs, while rolling his eyes.
The old man pulls out his phone, dials his son, and just as his son answers, the irate man snatches the phone away from the old man. "So, YOU'RE a dolphin trainer, huh? Well, Your old man here just rear-ended my car and I need 10 grand right now or I'm going to beat you AND your old man to a pulp."
"I'll be there in 10 minutes," says the voice calmly on the other end.
Exactly 10 minutes later a Jeep pulls up and a guy hops out and proceeds to pulverize the bully, leaving him in a heap on the side of the road.
When he finished, he walked over to his father and said…. "For the last time Dad, I train Seals, Navy Seals..... NOT dolphins!"
