A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
John Oliver discusses how Donald Trump has impacted our federal courts, what he could do if reelected, and how Judge Steve Harvey fits into our judiciary branch.
LOL, because it's not a tradition for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, although it is one for 60 Minutes.
As for Stephen's invitation to convictedcriminalDonald Trump to "go fvck himself," I second his emotion.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is honored to be the only late night television show on Vice President Kamala Harris's media blitz, while her Republican opponent is busy undercutting FEMA's efforts to dig out from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, and his friend Elon Musk is once again the internet’s favorite laughing stock.
I'm glad Stephen returned from break for this episode. Doing so was good for his show, Vice President Harris, and the country.
The Democratic nominee for president of the United States returns for her seventh visit to The Late Show and sits down for a four-part interview with Stephen Colbert. Watch as she and Stephen discuss the devastation of Hurricane Helene and the crude cynicism of Donald Trump who is spreading misinformation about FEMA's response as the potentially catastrophic Hurricane Milton approaches landfall in Florida. Stick around for three more segments with Vice President Kamala Harris!
I made Funkadelic's "One Nation under a Groove" my personal theme song for Harris's campaign back in 2019 and revived it once she began running again this summer, as shown by this tweet of mine.
Well known across southern States in America, 99 Cents Only Stores was a growing company, focused on customer service and offering products at a gimmicky, yet very enticing price point... 99 cents. But after corporate takeovers and rising costs, this chain of around 300 locations would begin to struggle and ultimately declare bankruptcy. Join me to find out why.
I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling my reaction from May.
Jake joins Company Man Mike and Erik in that assessment and so do his viewers; the comments on this video nearly unanimously blame the leveraged buyout by private equity for the chain's demise. I'm joining them.
So concludes this tale of the RetailApocalypse. I might just return to this season's big story, the election, tomorrow. That is, if I don't cover hurricane season instead. Stay tuned.
I think I should start paying attention to Peter Thiel and Curtis "Mencius Moldbug" Yarvin, both of whom have cyberpunk villain ideas straight out of SnowCrash that are influencing Vance. They would be right on target for this blog.
Rachel Maddow shows JD Vance explaining his lack of faith that democracy can deliver on his conservative ideals, and shows the influences behind Vance's preference that the United States government be gutted and instead run by a dictator.
Rachel Maddow looks at the conservative history of attacking universities for exposing students to ideas that conservatives don't like, and highlights JD Vance in his own words discussing ideas for punishing universities and well as businesses that he sees as being on the wrong side of the culture war he is waging. This is part one of two clips cut from the Monday, September 30, 2024 Rachel Maddow Show. Find part two and other Maddow clips on YouTube at MSNBC.com/Rachel.
As Maddow points out, Vance is continuing a cause championed by cranky people pursuing a sometimes explicitly fascist agenda. I call that being on the wrong side of history. May Vance and Yarvin also be on the wrong side of the future.
Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph) and Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg) watch the vice presidential debate between JD Vance (Bowen Yang) and Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan).
Also Dana Carvey as Joe Biden, who stole the skit, Heidi Gardner as Norah O'Donnell, and Chloe Fineman as Margaret Brennan. They gave the vice presidentialdebate exactly what it deserved, a good razzing. "Honey, we have the soundbite!" Yes, Tim Walz got JD Vance to give "a damning non-answer." Vance has bought the Big Lie.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like it being released that Trump was scrolling Twitter during January 6, Elon Musk attending a Trump rally and Trump not wanting to release his medical records.
I can tell SNL's writers regret missing out on RFK Jr. this summer when his shenanagans were fresh and took this opportunity to make fun of him before it was way too late. His candidacy has already turned into a pumpkin just in time for Spooky Season, but will rot in November, just like all the other jack-o'-lanterns.
The news about Diddy and Daniel Day Lewis was enough to qualify this post as the Sunday entertainment feature, but I couldn't resist including Weekend Update: Jane Wickline to introduce a new cast member playing and singing about parties, just not the political ones.
Jane Wickline stops by Weekend Update to perform a song about Gen Z partying.
Now I'm wondering if this song is eligible for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics at next year's Emmy Awards. I'll have to wait until July to find out!
Follow over the jump for a classic skit and its sequel.
Against my better judgement, I accepted the idea that Project 2025 isn't Trump's "real" plan, and instead looked into Agenda 47, which I was assured by certain viewers was much more reasonable (and an accurate description of what Trump proposes to do if he wins back the presidency). What I found was disturbing on more levels than I can count.
As CityNerd observed, at least the writers of Project 2025 could put together coherent policy proposals, even though their ideas are bad. They're supposed to persuade Trump and the people around him to adopt them should he be elected. Since a lot of the chapter authors were members of the previous administration and would be likely to be part of the next one, heaven forfend, that isn't a hard lift. On the other hand, the individual items that compose Agenda 47 are emotional appeals that Trump himself can understand and get behind and that he thinks will appeal to his supporters, although it's not always clear who those are. They're definitely not the same supporters for every proposal, which makes them as incoherent as a whole. In that case, they reflect the candidate.
One of those proposals, "freedom cities" to solve the housing crisis, is one of the "cyberpunk villain ideas straight out of SnowCrash that are influencing Vance" I referred to in Kosta, Colbert, and Hayes react to the VP Debate. They're also influencing Trump, too, or this concept wouldn't be in Agenda 47. I wrote "They would be right on target for this blog" so expect me to blog about them.
Five years ago, I juxtaposed two quotes from James Howard Kunstler to reconstruct a prediction about American politics from the movie "The End of Suburbia."
There will be a great battle to preserve the supposed entitlements to suburbia and it will be an epochal act of futility, a huge waste of effort and resources that might have been much better spent in finding new ways to carry on an American civilization.
...
Americans will elect maniacs who promise to allow them to keep their McMansions and their commutes and that’s going to produce a lot of political friction, probably a lot of violence, probably a threat to our democratic institutions.
Kunstler was both right and wrong about that prediction, as I pointed out when I revisited that quote in my comment on Slowly, Then All at Once (ETA: this is now a dead link, as Kunstler has moved to Substack).
As for Trump, you once predicted that Americans would elect maniacs who would promise that they could keep the entitlements of suburbia. Trump has shown you to be right and wrong about that. Yes, they'll elect maniacs to protect the entitlements of suburbia, but those entitlements turned out to be psychological and social, not physical. Trump's support is more a response to threats to the social environment as it is to losing SUVs and McMansions, which with the price of oil being low right now, are not issues like they were in 2008 and 2012. Instead, it's immigration, terrorism, and "law and order."
What I also wrote, but didn't post because I didn't want to inflame Vlad, who now goes by Janos, and his fellow deplorables was a second observation.
The one thing missing from "The End of Suburbia" was any discussion of White Flight; the movement to the suburbs was all phrased in class terms, not racial ones. That's something my students from Detroit and its suburbs notice.
It's not what, it's who Trump promises to save the suburbs from. I know who and so does Governor Whitmer, which is why she called it a dog whistle, one people in Michigan have been hearing for decades. I suspect King does, too, which is why she asked.
Trump is still blowing that dog whistle and it sounds throughout all these proposals.
The 165 page filing by Special Counsel Jack Smith details the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and cites evidence, including conversations with Trump’s family members, that shows his actions were not covered by the Supreme Court’s ridiculous presidential immunity ruling.
I've been waiting for Jack Smith's response to the Supreme Court's immunity ruling as well as the opportunity to laugh at it for more than three months. I'm glad it came before the election. As for the prosecution itself, it's another example of what I repeated most recently in Meyers and Kimmel take closer looks at Sidney Powell pleading guilty and Jim Jordan's 'Groundhog Day' of losing votesETA — I repeated it more recently in Updates on three Trump trials: "'The wheels of justice are grinding slowly in this case, but I expect they will indeed grind exceedingly fine.' May they also grind exceedingly fine for Trump and his seditious supporters, if not as slowly." No thanks to the Supreme Court, the wheels are grinding slowly here, too.
We are now 33 days away from the election, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s damning new report was unsealed and it details a mountain of evidence against Donald Trump in relation to the January 6th case in DC, many of the names are redacted but it’s not difficult to figure out who is who, Trump pressured Pence relentlessly to break the law, more than 43 million Americans tuned in for the debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, JD had many untruths but it was an otherwise civilized discussion, Orange Julius Caesar was said to be very pleased with JD’s performance, he appears to be running out of steam on the trail, we pull out the chalkboard to break down a crazy lemonade rant Donny went on, Forbes Magazine unveiled their list of the 400 richest people in America, and fellow luminaries wish Jimmy Carter a happy 100th birthday.
No, it's not difficult to figure who is behind the black spaces. I don't even have to go to Emptywheel to find out who is who. Also, Jimmy wasn't buying Vance saying that Trump saved Obamacare, either.
A new bill was signed into law this week by Governor Newsom that will allow marijuana dispensaries to serve food and non-alcoholic drinks, Trump hit Truth Social hard last night to complain about the 165 pages of incriminating evidence the judge released detailing every step of his attempt to overthrow the election, he visited Michigan to rave and rant about windmills before his teleprompter went out, Republicans who were very worked up about Joe Biden’s age don’t seem to have the same problem with Trump, the MAGA faithful are still showing up and buying merch, Melania came out to promote her book and to reveal that unlike her husband she is pro-choice, RFK Jr. has reportedly had affairs with at least three women over the past year, Americans are panic buying rolls of toilet paper in response to the port strike, Trump loves America a lot, and This Week in Unnecessary Censorship.
"Rignoramus" — snort! That reminds me of what I recall writing in a tweet four years ago in response to someone posting that the Republicans were going to steal the election. I wrote that they would try, but that they would fail. That came true, but the outcome was closer than I expected. I wasn't pessimistic enough!
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for something other than talk show hosts tomorrow.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump backing out of a 60 Minutes interview while JD Vance brazenly lied about everything from health care to abortion to January 6.
As I wrote yesterday, "Vance saying Trump saved Obamacare didn't pass the smell test. Really? Even if it were true, most people wouldn't believe it." Seth certainly didn't.
Tonight was the Vice Presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, Fox News is desperate to exploit any kind of oddness that they can conjure up about Tim Walz, the two candidates were pretty polite to each other, CBS opted to not fact check live but to have a QR code on the screen instead so we created our own – just go to MattDamonSucks.com, Trump did a play by play of the debate on Truth Social, he was in Wisconsin today where we was in full babble mode, and JD Vance (Haley Joel Osment) has released a new ad making his donut shopping a top priority.
Jimmy remarked about how polite the debaters were, but I'm reminding my readers that "the civility of the debate, the 'Midwestern nice,' masked two political movements at total odds with each other." Still are, as evidenced by convictedcriminalDonald Trump's (un)truths. Histrionic him couldn't help but make it all about himself.
The Vance-Walz debate was universally hailed as “normal,” the former president looked tired and confused at recent speeches, and Stephen’s favorite Alaskan forest animal has returned in time to defend his Fat Bear Week title.
Stephen didn't buy Vance saying Trump saved Obamacare, either.
Michael Kosta tackles last night's VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz and the cable news pundits who have been hard at work spinning who won. Plus, Troy Iwata is in the post-debate spin room with a definitive, scientific debate-scoring system.
I agree that Vance was slick. If he won, and the polling was a statistical dead heat, it was on style, not substance. He lied more smoothly than Walz told the truth. That's not a good thing.
Governor Whitmer talks about all the artists on the “True Gretch” playlist from her book, her friendship with Tim Walz, her response to tonight’s VP debate between Walz and JD Vance, being 30 minutes late to her first debate, being described as a “Happy Warrior,” her grandmother teaching her to look for the best in everyone, something nice she could say about Donald Trump, her parents being in a mixed marriage politically, and whether or not Americans will ever be able to find unity.
That was an insightful take on both Walz and debating. I'm glad I included it in today's post.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned to see what I blog about tomorrow.
Michael Kosta goes live after the first and only vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. The stakes are as low as possible: one of these men will lose and we’ll never hear from them again, and one will win, become vice president, and we'll never hear from them again.
The opening joke, which is in the video description, reminds me of the vice presidency being described by John Adams as “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived” as I quoted in A History of the US Vice Presidency for Veep Day. Kosta returned to the next joke at the end, when he pointed out that the civility of the debate, the "Midwestern nice," masked two political movements at total odds with each other. The Trump supporters could have just said "yes, we are" to "we're not going back," but instead they were vulgar and misogynistic. Yuck.
All proceeds from this song will be donated to Clark County SPCA in Springfield, Ohio.
My wife and I were already fans of The Kiffness for his musical remixes of pet sounds (no relation to The Beach Boys album), but we really loved this video. So did nearly ten million other people, as the video now has 9,916,667 views. Wow!
I'm looking ahead to tomorrow night's Vice Presidential debate for the final entry of September as well as following through on telling my readers to "Stay tuned for two or three posts about Emmy Award winners, another topic that will be good to share next month" with The Daily Show's Emmy Awards. Nothing like two birds with one stone!
People think vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is nice. But is he... too nice? From his dangerously folksy upbringing, to the National Guard, to teaching America's future enemies in China, Tim Walz's "nice" act isn't fooling anyone. This is the Dailyshowography of Tim Walz.
*Snort* No matter how hard The Daily Show's writers try to make Tim Walz look sinister by imitating a right-wing attack ad, his niceness shines through.
JD Vance grew up in a community of forgotten men and women. He left it behind for an Ivy League education and a career as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, before leaving that behind for a career as a never-Trump literary success, and then leaving that behind to become Trump's running mate. How did it all happen? This is The DailyShowography of JD Vance: The Forgettin' Man #DailyShow #JDVance #DailyShowography
On the other hand, Vance's opportunism and misogyny shine right through this satirical biography. As for Hillbilly Elegy, it's one of the rare films that earned both Oscar and Razzie nominations. While I'm not sure about Glenn Close's Razzie nomination (fortunately, she didn't win), I am sure about Worst Screenplay, which earned Vanessa Taylor, but not Vance, a nomination. I think leaving Vance off the nomination was an oversight.
Who is Tim Walz, and why is he putting tampons in the boys' bathroom? Desi Lydic has taken a break from watching Fox News in her Cybertruck and is ready to Foxsplain Kamala Harris's running mate.
I'm rolling my eyes at all the Faux Noise scaremongering over China. I think having a Vice President who speaks the language and understands the culture would be a good thing.
May the better man win tomorrow night's debate and I'm pretty sure Walz is the better man.
News anchor David Muir (Andrew Dismukes) checks in with Kamala Harris (Maya Rudolph), Tim Walz (Jim Gaffigan), Doug Emhoff (Andy Samberg), Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson), JD Vance (Bowen Yang) and Joe Biden (Dana Carvey) at Harris' and Trump's campaign rallies.
That was a hilarious contrast between the two campaigns portrayed by an all-star cast for the speaking roles! Welcome back! The audience, including me, missed you this summer!
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like SNL kicking off its 50th season and New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams indictments.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like a scientists (sic) saying an asteroid will become earth’s mini moon.
John Oliver discusses why disability benefits can be hard to get and easy to lose, how getting them can turn people’s lives upside down, and why John fucking hates mimes. Ya, you heard us. John Oliver fucking hates mimes. Spread the word.
Project 2025 and Trump on Social Security and Medicare concentrated on retirement benefits and found no explicit cuts to them, but did find proposals that would likely weaken the services and implicitly cut them, like raising the retirement age. On the other hand, the fact-checkers did find explicit cuts to Medicaid, which ties into disability benefits, as people on Social Security Disability use Medicaid. However, the sources I found said nothing about Social Security Disability Insurance. After watching this video, I'm having a hard time imagining how it could be made worse, but I know it can be. It's bad enough that 2011's Satan Sandwich is still being served, which earned this entry the anti-austerity label. I think it's time to take that off the menu and increase the asset cap and revise the job list. 1977 was nearly 50 years ago.
On a more personal note, watching the PSA with the mime reminds me that I'm planning on retiring within two years. I'd better find my card or get a replacement by then — another item to add to the to-do list!
In this episode we're joined by a leading political scientist to help us figure out the complex psychological and social factors that motivate us to vote… or not to. We discuss how and why our decision whether or not to vote might not be a rational one. And why it is important to understand that. And why it’s important to vote!
Visit Vote.gov to learn how and when to register and vote.
Hearing Hanson and Donald Green discuss how rational choice theory fails to explain why so many people do vote reminds me of an exercise I do with my students that makes the point that a significant number of scientific disciplines use the comparative method and/or modeling to test hypotheses instead of the experimental method. I ask them to name scientific disciplines and then raise fingers on my right hand if those disciplines primarily use the experimental method and fingers on my left hand. Almost every time I lead that exercise, someone mentions a field of knowledge that I don't consider science, usually astrology, which the students confuse with astronomy. Hey, they're only off by a few centuries; the two were connected to each other, if not the same discipline, until the Renaissance through Enlightenment.*
Occasionally, a student will mention economics. My response is that economics has the potential to be science, but I think its subject matter, money, motivates rich and powerful people to try to influence the ideas being examined, the methods, and the results in ways that hinder the field actually being or even becoming a science. This relates to the second and third objections to economics being a science Investopedia lists in Is Economics a Science?
Economics is generally regarded as a social science, although some critics of the field argue that it falls short of the definition of a science for a number of reasons, including a lack of testable hypotheses, lack of consensus, and inherent political overtones.
I think economics has testable hypotheses that economists examine through the comparative method and especially modeling, although I think the models and assumptions behind them have issues. One of those assumptions is the rational choice theory, which fails to explain voter turnout. I should probably add that to the reasons I tell my students why I don't consider economics to not yet be a science. As it is, I already tell them that anyone performing experiments in economics is really doing psychology, which I do consider to be a science.* Notice that psychology provided a satisfactory answer to why people vote when economics couldn't.
That's a wrap for today's subject, the science of elections. Stay tuned for two or three posts about Emmy Award winners, another topic that will be good to share next month.
*Those would be good subjects for their own posts, but not today.
Usually portrayed as a lanky man wearing a long-handled pot on his head and spreading apple seeds, the real Johnny Appleseed was a shrewd businessman and religious zealot who played an important role in U.S. westward expansion effort. The History Guy explores the reality underlying the character of American folklore. This is the forgotten history of the man, John Chapman, behind the legend of Johnny Appleseed.
Did you ever learn the story of Johnny Appleseed as a child? What did he actually do for the growth of apples in America, and what has this taught us about apple genetics? Join Olivia Gordon for a new apple-tastic episode of SciShow!
First history, then science. That's very much my spin on things.
I conclude by repeating what I'm fond of writing, that I learned a lot from these videos and it's always a good day when I learn something new, so today is already a good day. I hope my readers agree.
This video was inspired by the episodes from Wild Hope, like The Frog Ark about Panamanian frogs, and One Golden Chance about the story behind the golden lion tamarin recovery. Watch those episodes now, and many more from Wild Hope, right here on YouTube-or follow @wildhopetv on Instagram to discover countless more stories of changemakers working to restore biodiversity around the globe. Change is closer than you think.
Even when a species has officially gone extinct, there's sometimes still hope of saving it. Scientists keep insurance populations of endangered animals all over the world with the goal of one day reintroducing them to the wild.
Many of the world's most beloved frogs and amphibians are headed for extinction, but inside "The Ark" in Panama, some of those threatened species are given a fighting chance. Using innovative technology and breakthrough genetics, researchers have ignited a cadre of solutions to save these rare and cherished species.
The Ark at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama houses hundreds of large, captive communities of frogs, some of which no longer exist in the wild. Here, scientists hope to bring these species back from the brink of extinction and solve the world's worst wildlife pandemic: an amphibian-killing fungus known as chytrid.
In a quarantined lab, these biologists bathe frogs in fungicide and hope to spark a viable immune response from the captive animals. Meanwhile, in the field, other researchers use artificial intelligence to listen to frog songs and identify so-called "lost frogs" that survive chytrid in the wild - any of which may hold the key to fighting the disease. Safeguarding a future for frogs isn't easy, but these tactics in Panama have been so successful that they're being replicated in facilities across the globe. The effort may seem monumental, but the safety and preservation of amphibians worldwide hangs in the balance.
This video is a bit on the long side, but I find it both informative and inspiring enough to show my biology students later this semester, when I lecture on chytrid fungi and the effects it has on amphibians. It also reinforces a point I've already made to them, that amphibians are already at the most risk of mass extinction for any group of vertebrates. Only cycads exceed them among major groups of organisms in danger of extinction, another fact I've shared with my biology students. Should I show this video to my biology students, it will become another example of blogging as professional development.
The golden lion tamarin stands as a beacon of hope and survival in the face of extinction after an outbreak of yellow fever led to a loss of nearly a third of their wild population.
In the 1970s, their population dwindled to fewer than 200 individuals. However, a decades-long captive breeding program, spanning 150 zoos globally, successfully reversed their decline. This journey continued as over 800,000 native trees were planted, establishing vital forest corridors to reconnect fragmented landscapes within the unique Atlantic Forest, their sole habitat on Earth.
Regrettably, a recent yellow fever outbreak led to a significant loss of over 1,000 tamarins, imperiling a meticulously managed genetic recovery program. Fortunately, virologist Marcos da Silva Freire pioneered a groundbreaking approach. He rapidly adapted a human vaccine to inoculate almost 400 tamarins, a pioneering endeavor among wild animals. Today, the tamarin population has soared to 4,800 individuals, nearly doubling their numbers before the yellow fever outbreak. This journey from the brink of extinction to recovery exemplifies the potential of conservation and scientific intervention, providing renewed hope for this iconic species' future.
People tend to focus on the Amazonrainforest, but Brazil's coastal rainforest is even more endangered. I first heard about it 35 years ago when I moved to Michigan and the professor of the first class I was a teaching assistant for described how one tree species was saved because it served as a good shade tree for coffee plantations. Otherwise, it would have been logged and possibly exterminated. That's a story someone told me when I was a student.
Despite the profound changes we’ve made here in recent history, the epic saga of Los Angeles' natural history is still visible - and even striking - if you know where and how to look for it.
This video has even more geology than paleontology, which is probably why Sage shared it and reacted to it for her audience. I'm glad I passed this on to her. It also gave me an opportunity to revisit Rancho La Brea, which I haven't done in detail here since Kunstler, K-Dog, and I discuss prehistoric mammals for Darwin Day... That post featured the second video I shared. Watch it there. As for the third, stay tuned. I'm being a good environmentalist and conserving my resources for a future entry.
This video was inspired by the episode from Wild Hope: The Great Ocean Cleanup. Watch that episode now, and many more from Wild Hope, right here on YouTube – or follow @wildhopetv on Instagram to discover countless more stories of changemakers working to restore biodiversity around the globe. Change is closer than you think.
We've all heard about microplastics, but where do they come from? And what can we do about ocean plastics? We'll follow a single water bottle on its journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and beyond.
Inventor Boyan Slat is on a mission to rid oceans of plastic. His team at The Ocean Cleanup designs and deploys systems that pull trash from the open ocean. Now, he’s stopping the pollution at its source: rivers where plastic is easier to catch, like those in Kingston Harbor, Jamaica.
Each year an estimated four million tons of plastic end up in the world’s oceans, killing thousands of marine creatures and accumulating up the food chain. The plastic gathers in five massive ocean gyres, the largest of which, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, holds 87,000 tons of trash. After years of research, The Ocean Cleanup has created a system that removes 7000 kilograms of trash from the sea every day and a half; the team aims to remove 90% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 2040.
But plastics keep flowing into the ocean, largely from the world’s polluted rivers. In Jamaica, Boyan’s team has teamed up with Alecia Beaufort and a local group cleaning up their waterways. Together, they’ve deployed a new system to trap plastic at the source as it flows downriver during a storm. Their success has inspired others to join the effort, creating a virtuous cycle of citizen action.
While I thought SciShow's video to be informative, I felt Wild Hope's video to be inspiring. Both thought and emotion are necessary for people to act, so I'm glad I found both videos to inspire myself and readers to act.
Since plastic pollution is as much a problem for rivers as it is for oceans, consider today's post to be a late celebration of World Rivers Day.
Every year on the fourth Sunday in September, World Rivers Day highlights the many values of rivers and streams. It’s also a day to encourage the improved stewardship of rivers around the world.
Here's to remembering to celebrate World Rivers Day on time next year. That shouldn't be difficult, as it will fall on a dayspecial to me.
That's a wrap for today's topic. Stay tuned for another entry worth sharing in October tomorrow.
I enjoyed Robert's recounting of hobbit history, even though I didn't learn much new from it; I've been watching his videos since I found his recaps of Westworld nearly eight years ago, so I've heard much of it before, scattered among various videos. Just the same, I hope my readers learned something new from it. Also, as long as I've been watching Robert's content, I'm surprised I haven't shared it here before. That's nearly as astounding as not sharing NativLang's videos until La Llorona and Malinche, two connected tales for Day of the Dead. It was about time.
About The Rings of Power Season 2: Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season 1’s epic scope and ambition, Season 2 of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfoots… as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of all… each other.
Season 1 earned Emmy nominations for Main Title Design and Main Title Theme music. It lost the first to The Last of Us and the second to Wednesday. This is a different enough title sequence that it could be nominated again next year. It worked forWestworld, twice!
Depending on the eligibility period, I expect The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power to be nominated for Best Fantasy Television Series at the next Saturn Awards. Its first season lost to Wednesday and I think it will lose to House of the Dragon at the upcoming ceremony, whenever that will be.
Contrary to online claims, Project 2025 doesn’t call for ending Social Security benefits. But the Heritage Foundation has advocated for changes to the program.
By fact-checking for "eliminating Social Security benefits," Verify minimizes the risk to the program and its beneficiaries. To their credit, they do point out that people behind Project 2025 have advocated raising the retirement age and privatizing Social Security. Both of those will weaken Social Security and harm its beneficiaries.
CNN's Abby Phillip breaks down what former President Donald Trump has said about federal entitlement programs in the past after Trump suggests he is open to making cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Then, she is joined by former Obama adviser Dan Pfieffer.
Pay attention to what Trump has done, not just what he said. As Phieffer noted, his administration proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare in every budget he proposed. Fortunately, Congress didn't go along then, although the current Speaker of the House favors them. Here's to hoping we don't have to find out if the next Congress would go along with that plan.
Follow over the jump for the latest on Trump's ideas on Social Security and Medicare.
I promised "an entry that will be good to share in October, like Emmy Award winners" and I'm following through, but it won't be Emmy Award winners. I'm not feeling like writing about entertainment today. Instead, I'm sharing Vox explaining Exactly how Trump could ban abortion.
Whether the US bans it completely is basically up to the next president.
...
For decades, the anti-abortion movement in the United States worked toward one major goal: the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a federal right to abortion. In 2022, they finally succeeded, and states across the country began banning abortion immediately. Today about half the states either ban or severely restrict abortion. But now the anti-abortion movement is regrouping around a new goal: using the federal government to ban abortion in the rest of the country.
If Republicans take control of Congress in the 2024 election, it’s very possible they could pass a national abortion ban law. But experts don’t consider that the most likely way a national abortion ban could come about, for two reasons: Polling shows it would be extremely unpopular, and it would require the elimination of the Senate filibuster. Instead, they point to a different branch of the federal government — the president’s office and all the federal agencies it oversees.
In the federal agencies, opponents of abortion could fashion a de facto abortion ban by chipping away at abortion access in numerous ways, for example limiting access to medication abortion, which now constitutes two-thirds of all abortions in the US. The biggest way that the president’s office could limit abortion is by deciding to enforce something called the Comstock Act: a 150-year-old abortion ban killed by Roe v. Wade and brought back to life by its repeal.
The final way the next president could determine the future of abortion rights is through federal court appointments. The anti-abortion movement’s “next Roe v. Wade” is the national legal recognition of fetal personhood, an idea that would by definition outlaw all abortion. The current Supreme Court isn’t yet right-wing enough to endorse this idea. But after another Trump term, that could change.
Watch the video above for the details of how this all could happen.
No surprise, the plan involves the revival of the zombie Comstock Act through Project2025. Follow over the jump for more.
OooOOooOooOOOoo Pirates is very hands off in it's storytelling method OooOOOooOOOooo spooky. And to be honest, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. What are the best ways this ride TELLS you a story without TELLING you a story?
Since he appeared in the video, I'm closing with a meme for the holiday featuring Jack Sparrow.
That's a wrap for today's post celebrating pirates in entertainment. Stay tuned for an entry that will be good to share in October, like Emmy Award winners. More entertainment!
I got a record number of comments on my recent video on what Project 2025 means for cities and transportation, and a shocking number of them were abjectly stupid. Let's review.
Seeing Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty's advice to check voter registrations and register if one hasn't already also reminded me that yesterday was National Voter Registration Day, an event I've been supporting since I was a director for the Coffee Party. Consequently, I second CityNerd's suggestion!
