Thank you, Thom for the cogent piece on nationalizing the fossil fuel industry. We need more ideas like it. And thank you for the paragraph on the headlines, citing the Climate CRISIS. It's not just America, it's the entire world. I give us 5-7 years, tops. And by the way, that's what a lot of Climate scientists are saying, rather quietly, too. Greenland Ice Sheet? Gone by 2030; that's the latest estimate. And some ice geologists think that the massive ice sheets could implode and create a catastrophic rise in sea level, in one event. As for the others? Clarence Thomas is .... Oh, who cares? Nothing is changing on that front.
Hello Thom, Your life plan based on the talented author John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee character made me laugh out loud. We have used Travis’ taking retirement a piece at a time as an underlying structure for our lives too. When we watched the MAGA Thumpkins weekenders begin to overrun our north FL coastal village with their golf carts and confederate flags, we decided it was time to leave old FL behind after thirty plus years of spending winters there. We sold and now stay in Massachusetts where MAGAs are rare but not extinct yet. We feel sorry for our Floridian friends who have become victims of retirees moving south and ruining the old Florida charm an Southern hospitality - if you were white and not poor that we enjoyed but pretended was not entrenched in racism.
I wish somebody could explain why neither party has introduced a law much less a constitutional amendment (better) that ends "Citizens United." Citizens United is a malignant cancer that is killing democracy. The fascists love it because it is disrupting government services like schools and regulation enforcement - not to mention the courts - just like Hitler did to enable him to seize power so quickly. The GOP is sabotaging America in order to impose oligarchic rule (aka fascist dictatorship).
Two of the most important things that Mr. Biden ran on was so-called "police reform" and student debt forgiveness. I am a single parent and my child just completed her undergraduate work at a prestigious private university. Luckily, we are not straddled with enormous debt, but it is still considerable. How a country penalizes education and learning is unfathomable as well as being despicable. No wonder that same country lets its citizens die due to privatized health care; an equally unfathomable and despicable act. The "Supremes" need their asses kicked. Sans Dianna Ross
As for "police reform" though it amounts to social origami because I can fold a piece of paper into a dog or a crane it remains a piece of paper. Policing in the United States must be re-invented, not reformed. Having said that reform would have, perhaps, been a stepping stone to reinvention. The fact that nothing, absolutely nothing substantive has been done on this front is pathetic; whoever is at fault.
Thom, I was watching Johnathan Capehart and a quote from Eli Crane of Arizona said. “ he now says Black people are Colored people Thom. Saying the quite part out loud, Thom. They want to take us back. Talking about Amendment about military spending. Thom.
I put in "Write an article about air activity in the Korean War in the voice of TCinLA" and ChatGPT knew less about the Korean War than the average American (which is close to Absolutely Nothing). I on the other hand have written three best-selling books on the topic.
RE: “ ... I’m just hoping the number of people who get left behind ... (like those #Teamsters of old) ... can land on their feet if things go the way they look they’re going.” Sorry, #Thom. Well-wishes aside, an #AI run #GPT-5 will even cook you breakfast! So, expecting to survive a business that #AI will undoubtedly learn to `disintermediate` will be a “tough sled”. My suggestion is you learn how to code in #Python fast!
Even Landscape printing isn't enough to print this post. Disappointed. The gist of the article is good and I agree with it. America could do a whole lot if the autocratic repubs could be set aside. They block anything that would help our country. It will take a lot of hard work to keep our democracy and get anything done. I haven't lost hope. Ruthie B
RE: “Full student loan forgiveness for around 800,000 Americans.” ... How does that work out? Do you just skim off the TOP the 800,000 count Americans that hold the most student loan debt? Or, do you include only those students that have paid into the system religiously for a period of Twenty (20) years yet still have an outstanding principle balance (due to the doubling and tripling of the interest rate charged on student loans up from the standard 3% FIXED interest rate with NO “interest on the interest” allowed of yesteryear).
The hard right-wingers only learn when it lands on their doorstep, and it has. The writing on the wall is the high-water mark from the flood that just ruined their homes and businesses. The hair on fire moment is when the forest burns in Canada and the smoke from it chokes the people trying to breathe in New York and not just in the "Blue" city.
I watch C-Span and apparently the members of this Congress watch the news and the weather reports. Yesterday the right side of the aisle was saying "We all want clean air and water!". Swell, you got WOKE---the hard way!
Just a few years back the weather guy or gal would hedge and now you can usually depend on them telling the truth. Amen.
Limited time, limited choices, sketchy outcomes, but for future generations, we must keep trying. We help "fix" the failing car industry by a similar plan. When you know better, you should do better.
TCinLA, i could not agree more with your comments on Mr. Farrar.
He puts fingers to letters a dribble comes out. However if we based intelligence on word volume regardless of import then the man would certainly be a master of sorts!
I get your point, but by your own admission, a collector is a hoarder, up scale maybe, but the motivation is the same.
I'm a discarder, anything I haven't used in 6 months is only taking up space. My spouse is a constrained hoarder, but I'm changing her, she won't throw anything away that she thinks she might use Our garage is full of tools, like table saws, which she only used once (she is the handyman and proficient at almost everything from sewing and cooking, baking to carpentry, electricity, plumbing and drywall.
I have a different concept of hoarding than you, much broader obviously, and admittedly it is,by our different views a matter of semantics.
Saturday Report 7/15/23 - Climate change is melting down America; is it time to nationalize the poison that's killing the planet?
Thank you, Thom for the cogent piece on nationalizing the fossil fuel industry. We need more ideas like it. And thank you for the paragraph on the headlines, citing the Climate CRISIS. It's not just America, it's the entire world. I give us 5-7 years, tops. And by the way, that's what a lot of Climate scientists are saying, rather quietly, too. Greenland Ice Sheet? Gone by 2030; that's the latest estimate. And some ice geologists think that the massive ice sheets could implode and create a catastrophic rise in sea level, in one event. As for the others? Clarence Thomas is .... Oh, who cares? Nothing is changing on that front.
Sadly, the Big Sort will accelerate some already drastic trends.
Overall, red states rank lowest for the hood things and highest for the bad things.
Red state voters will get angrier and angrier and continue to blame blue states and their voters for red state problems.
One thing you don't hear....blue state citizens blaming red states or their citizens for their problems.
Hello Thom, Your life plan based on the talented author John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee character made me laugh out loud. We have used Travis’ taking retirement a piece at a time as an underlying structure for our lives too. When we watched the MAGA Thumpkins weekenders begin to overrun our north FL coastal village with their golf carts and confederate flags, we decided it was time to leave old FL behind after thirty plus years of spending winters there. We sold and now stay in Massachusetts where MAGAs are rare but not extinct yet. We feel sorry for our Floridian friends who have become victims of retirees moving south and ruining the old Florida charm an Southern hospitality - if you were white and not poor that we enjoyed but pretended was not entrenched in racism.
I wish somebody could explain why neither party has introduced a law much less a constitutional amendment (better) that ends "Citizens United." Citizens United is a malignant cancer that is killing democracy. The fascists love it because it is disrupting government services like schools and regulation enforcement - not to mention the courts - just like Hitler did to enable him to seize power so quickly. The GOP is sabotaging America in order to impose oligarchic rule (aka fascist dictatorship).
Two of the most important things that Mr. Biden ran on was so-called "police reform" and student debt forgiveness. I am a single parent and my child just completed her undergraduate work at a prestigious private university. Luckily, we are not straddled with enormous debt, but it is still considerable. How a country penalizes education and learning is unfathomable as well as being despicable. No wonder that same country lets its citizens die due to privatized health care; an equally unfathomable and despicable act. The "Supremes" need their asses kicked. Sans Dianna Ross
As for "police reform" though it amounts to social origami because I can fold a piece of paper into a dog or a crane it remains a piece of paper. Policing in the United States must be re-invented, not reformed. Having said that reform would have, perhaps, been a stepping stone to reinvention. The fact that nothing, absolutely nothing substantive has been done on this front is pathetic; whoever is at fault.
Thom, I was watching Johnathan Capehart and a quote from Eli Crane of Arizona said. “ he now says Black people are Colored people Thom. Saying the quite part out loud, Thom. They want to take us back. Talking about Amendment about military spending. Thom.
I put in "Write an article about air activity in the Korean War in the voice of TCinLA" and ChatGPT knew less about the Korean War than the average American (which is close to Absolutely Nothing). I on the other hand have written three best-selling books on the topic.
RE: “ ... I’m just hoping the number of people who get left behind ... (like those #Teamsters of old) ... can land on their feet if things go the way they look they’re going.” Sorry, #Thom. Well-wishes aside, an #AI run #GPT-5 will even cook you breakfast! So, expecting to survive a business that #AI will undoubtedly learn to `disintermediate` will be a “tough sled”. My suggestion is you learn how to code in #Python fast!
Even Landscape printing isn't enough to print this post. Disappointed. The gist of the article is good and I agree with it. America could do a whole lot if the autocratic repubs could be set aside. They block anything that would help our country. It will take a lot of hard work to keep our democracy and get anything done. I haven't lost hope. Ruthie B
RE: “Full student loan forgiveness for around 800,000 Americans.” ... How does that work out? Do you just skim off the TOP the 800,000 count Americans that hold the most student loan debt? Or, do you include only those students that have paid into the system religiously for a period of Twenty (20) years yet still have an outstanding principle balance (due to the doubling and tripling of the interest rate charged on student loans up from the standard 3% FIXED interest rate with NO “interest on the interest” allowed of yesteryear).
The hard right-wingers only learn when it lands on their doorstep, and it has. The writing on the wall is the high-water mark from the flood that just ruined their homes and businesses. The hair on fire moment is when the forest burns in Canada and the smoke from it chokes the people trying to breathe in New York and not just in the "Blue" city.
I watch C-Span and apparently the members of this Congress watch the news and the weather reports. Yesterday the right side of the aisle was saying "We all want clean air and water!". Swell, you got WOKE---the hard way!
Just a few years back the weather guy or gal would hedge and now you can usually depend on them telling the truth. Amen.
Limited time, limited choices, sketchy outcomes, but for future generations, we must keep trying. We help "fix" the failing car industry by a similar plan. When you know better, you should do better.
Follow the money that fossil fuel billionaires give to Red State Senators who insist on denying global warming - AND - the real-time extreme weather conditions in their states. Who do these Republicans really represent - their voters or billionaire fossil fuel donors? https://thedemlabs.org/2023/07/15/climate-collusion-how-fossil-fuel-donations-manipulate-republican-stance-on-global-warming/
TCinLA, i could not agree more with your comments on Mr. Farrar.
He puts fingers to letters a dribble comes out. However if we based intelligence on word volume regardless of import then the man would certainly be a master of sorts!
Always find your work educational and entertaining Thom. I love the idea of nationalizing the fossil fuel industry!
I get your point, but by your own admission, a collector is a hoarder, up scale maybe, but the motivation is the same.
I'm a discarder, anything I haven't used in 6 months is only taking up space. My spouse is a constrained hoarder, but I'm changing her, she won't throw anything away that she thinks she might use Our garage is full of tools, like table saws, which she only used once (she is the handyman and proficient at almost everything from sewing and cooking, baking to carpentry, electricity, plumbing and drywall.
I have a different concept of hoarding than you, much broader obviously, and admittedly it is,by our different views a matter of semantics.
Very, interesting week Thom.