Links for you. Science:
There’s One Wrong Statistic Everyone’s Sharing About The Devastating Amazon Fires
Pinterest’s new vaccine search will offer something rare on social media: facts
In Defense of Sea Gulls: They’re Smart, and They Co-Parent, 50/50 All the Way
Jakarta has sunk by up to 4 meters, forcing Indonesia to build a new capital
The Amazon rainforest’s worst-case scenario is uncomfortably near
Other:
Working Off the Past, from Atlanta to Berlin
Capitalism Is Making Us Sick: A Q&A With Emily Guendelsberger About Her New Book, On the Clock (I’ve read the book; it’s very well written)
Surprise, Restaurant CEO Is Against $15 Minimum Wage
Former Ward 8 ANC Chair and Treasurer Misspent Thousands in Taxpayer Funds
Bernie Sanders’ GND Plan Will Nationalize Power Generation in the U.S.
Twitter sleuths uncover an anti-Sanders conspiracy — and the pundit class is furious (sometimes, someone who sounds like a pharmashill actually is a pharmashill…)
Andrew Yang’s dumb idea for DC (yep)
Donald Trump is picking your pocket
A ‘Liberal Sweatshop’ Is Quashing Its Workers’ Efforts To Unionize (too many leftie organizations treat their workers like shit)
John Hickenlooper Is the New Joe Lieberman: What Lieberman was to antiwar Democrats, Colorado’s Hickenlooper is to environmentalists
Stickers Are Alexandria NIMBYs’ Latest Weapon in Their War Against Scooters
Tysons was built around cars. How can it transform into a place people can walk? (good question)
While A Record-Breaking 23.8 Million People Visited D.C. Last Year, Chinese Tourism Fell 25 Percent
From Russia with strings
They Once Worked at NASA. Now They Make Card Games.
Did This Ex-Obama Official Just Find Amelia Earhart?
A Senator’s Lake House vs. a Town Fighting Flooding
‘NO EXCESSIVE BARKING’: A Chevy Chase dog park divides the rich and powerful (surreal. And they can afford triple pane windows.)
Here’s One Way for the Never Trumpers to Find Redemption
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Brought the Receipts on Donald Trump and the Electoral College
mikethemadbiologist
*** Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Brought the Receipts on Donald Trump and the Electoral College ***
I checked the population of the US in 1790 and found the ratio of the least populated state (Delaware) to the most populated (Virginia) was 1:12. That’s lower than today’s 1:69, but this ‘imbalance’ has been part and parcel of the US since the beginning. In the old days 39% of Virginia’s inhabitants were slaves and couldn’t vote at all, though they still counted under the 3/5 rule. That wasn’t exactly fair either, but it was the way the rules were written.
I don’t have to like a Wyoming voter effectively having two or three times more votes than me, but that’s life. Until we get standardized national voting rules, end voter suppression, and do away with non-verifiable electronic voting, I’m OK with things as they are.
*** ‘NO EXCESSIVE BARKING’: A Chevy Chase dog park divides the rich and powerful ***
What a bunch of crybabies. They were the ones who created the “dog park”. If it troubles them now, “uncreate” it. Turn the dog park into a butterfly park. Or if there is an endangered local insect, a Tick Preserve or Earthworm Haven.
Alternately, with a little bit of their “$460,000” average annual income, they could soundproof a couple of inner rooms. Buy themselves some sound-cancelling headphones. Or for the very poorest of these folks – the ones who live in houses worth a mere million bucks – go to the industrial supply store and invest in a box full of the best foam earplugs. By some cosmic coincidence, mine arrived last week from an eBay seller and the cost came to nearly 15 cents per pair. Even the most poverty stricken of the wealthy whiners ought to be able to stretch their budgets to handle this.
*** A Senator’s Lake House vs. a Town Fighting Flooding ***
A glance at this fellow’s wiki showed a rap sheet as long as your arm. Wonder what Oklahoma sees in this asshole?
*** From Russia with strings ***
^^^ Moreover, let us go on record assuring the Trump Organization that we believe Donald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being we have ever known in our lives.
— digby ^^^
This is clearly an inadequate apology. Unless they also pay tribute to Trump’s modesty, generosity, and intelligence, going after the hip boots isn’t worth the effort.
In that vein, has there ever been a House Speaker as wonderful as Nancy Pelosi?
*** Twitter sleuths uncover an anti-Sanders conspiracy — and the pundit class is furious ***
Nice. But what ticked me off was the mention of the Democratic Superdelegates. Yet the crowd which pushes (and uses) them behave like whiney-ass **tty babies when the subject of the Electoral College comes up. A handful of wealthy elites will decide who will be the Democratic Candidate, and that person will become President in 2020. Yeah, having a Wyoming vote count 3 times as much as mine is FAR worse.
*** Working Off the Past, from Atlanta to Berlin ***
The author is clearly a decent and intelligent person, so the crazy things which crept into the essay were painful to read. I think the first of them was this:
^^^ If we were not considered to be perpetrators, neither did we consider ourselves victims. Jews had been slaves in the land of Egypt and, as such, were obliged to liberal solidarity with other oppressed peoples. ^^^
She believes in the Exodus fairy tale?
*** The Amazon rainforest’s worst-case scenario is uncomfortably near ***
The Amazon rainforest is far away, belongs to somebody else, and most likely will die. We now have to focus on a larger goal – that of saving Planet Earth.