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.
In part 2 of this series exploring controversy in DCI, we take a close look at the Boston Crusaders, and specifically the time they decided to call out DCI to their faces... some would say at the cost of competitive success!
I am quite familiar with "Napoleon's" proposals. I wrote for Drum Corps Worldfrom 1996 to 2008 and wrote twoarticles about them. One led directly to the other and the outcome disgusted me. Both also led to the G7 proposal, so I wasn't surprised it elicited such a public backlash. CNN even reported on it! "Napoleon" wanted more mainstream media attention for the activity and he got it, twice. He should have been more careful what he wished for.
We're about to change the rules.
Animal Farm — A Cautionary Tail. Takes over theaters May 1, 2026.
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Starring Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Laverne Cox, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, Jim Parsons, Andy Serkis, Kathleen Turner & Iman Vellani
Perfect timing!
Follow over the jump for last year's top posts featuring drum corps, nearly all of which were also top posts on Facebook.
Happy Easter and First Contact Day! No one responded at all, let alone no, to my parting question, "Star Trek Easter eggs, anyone?" I'm taking that as a tacit yes for the topic of today's Sunday entertainment feature.
Dr. Kovich's office in Star Trek: Discovery is full of Easter eggs referencing the entire franchise of Star Trek. From a vintage bottle of Chateau Picard wine and Geordi's VISOR, Dr. Kovich's office reveals a lot about his mysterious role in Star Trek: Discovery.
Those are the serious Easter eggs in a dramatic series. Now for some funny ones in a comedy, Star Trek: Lower Decks. Watch as Rodenberry BEAM asks Can You Spot These Hidden Star Trek Jokes?
Every episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is FULL of easter eggs, references, and inside jokes about the franchise... but did you catch them all? It's time to rank some of our favorite inside jokes from STLD, especially from season 4... from the most obvious to the most obscure.
Those are some deep cuts! The writers of Star Trek: Lower Decks were willing to go a long way for a laugh.
In this video, I dive deep into the 32nd-century Academy to find every callback to the Delta Quadrant. From the return of Robert Picardo as the EMH Doctor to the long-awaited promotion of Admiral Harry Kim, Starfleet Academy is full of Star Trek: Voyager lore. We also look at hidden references to Janeway, Neelix’s lung maggots, and the legal legacy of the 'Author, Author' court case.
That was worth watching, even though I'm not optimistic about The Sci-Fi Feminist uploading a part two. My wife and I enjoyed Starfleet Academy, but it was canceled after season two. Darn.
Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the most read entries about holidays from the back catalog during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
I got one response on the blog's Facebook page for World Croc Day, so take it away National Day Calendar!
Every year on June 17th, World Croc Day highlights the plight of endangered crocodiles. The day also encourages learning more about these amazing reptiles.
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Crocodiles are easily confused with alligators. There are some differences between the two, however. The primary difference is the shape of their snout. The crocodile’s snout forms a long, pointed V-lie shape. Alligators’ snouts, on the other hand, are more rounded and u-shaped. In addition, crocodiles are usually much larger than alligators. The average alligator weighs about 500 pounds. Crocodiles can reach up to 2,200 pounds! This reptile is also much more aggressive than alligators, which makes them more dangerous.
Crocodiles can be found in nearly every corner of the world. These reptiles are native to both the North and South American continents. They are also found in Africa, Australia, and Asia, but the Florida Everglades is the only place in the world where crocodiles and alligators live together.
I double-checked this distribution fact and found it to be true. The only other place it could happen is along the northernmost stretch of the Mexican Gulf Coast, but there appears to be no overlap between American Alligators and Morelet's Crocodiles there.
Back to National Day Calendar.
There are lots more to learn about crocs, too!
Of all the animals in the world, the crocodile’s bite is the strongest.
There are 15 different species of crocodiles.
Crocodiles can live in both freshwater and saltwater.
They eat fish, birds, and other animals.
Crocodiles can live to be 100, with the oldest crocodile in the world reaching 140.
There is a concern that some species of reptiles are on their way to extinction. Human activity is the primary reason for this. Hunting, pollution, and destroyed habitats are a few reasons crocodiles are endangered.
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Every year zoos around the world participate in World Croc Day. The largest event is held at The Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center. Events at the zoo include “croc talks,” crocodile exhibits, face painting, arts & crafts, cool croc encounters, educational seminars, and photo ops.
I found two videos from United States zoos and animal parks celebrating World Croc(odile) Day and both feature feeding time. The first shows the Memphis Zoo celebrating World Crocodile Day.
To celebrate World Crocodile Day, we are taking you behind-the-scenes on the thrilling feedings of our Nile Crocodiles, including Skebanga, the largest Nile Crocodile in North America. You can see them get fed every Saturday at 12:30 PM in Zambezi!
Seeing the crocodiles lunge out of the water is pretty sensational and demonstrates the animal's power.
Today we are celebrating World Croc Day with the biggest Nile Crocodile at Gatorland! Lyle the Nile Crocodile with a little help from our good friends at OmargoshTV! Get ready for some gigantic Nile Crocodile Crunchiness!
One can see the contrast in snout shape between Lyle the Nile Crocodile and the American Aliigators that share his habitat. One can also hear and see the difference in tone between the Memphis Zoo, a public institution dedicated to education and conservation, and Gatorland, a privately owned theme park, which has entertainment at least as high a priority as education and conservation. Still, watching this video made me interested in visiting, which means it's a success.
Always love your prose. Pass the popcorn indeed. Always a bad policy to penalize a company since they "cannot" move. My guess is Disney will setup shop in a location that is more amenable to their business I threats and move the facility over time. Opportunity for GA or LA to get some jobs.
I gave a more practical action in my response.
Thank you. I hope I have enough popcorn. As for Disney moving the theme parks, they won't, although they might reconsider relocating Imagineering and Consumer Products from California to Florida. That's more than 1,000 jobs that the Orlando Metro Area won't get.
Disney upped the ante in its battle with Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, and it cost his state 2,000 white-collar jobs. Disney is scrapping plans to build a $1 billion office complex in Florida, citing “changing business conditions,” according to a memo provided by a Disney spokesperson.
Occasionally, I write that I wish I wasn't right. This isn't one of those times. I'm glad I saw this coming, I'm glad for the Disney employees who no longer have to move from California to Florida, and I'm glad Disney stuck it to Ron DeSantis the Friday before he declares he's running for Republican presidential nomination! As I last wrote in Disney sues DeSantis, "he's making himself look even worse while getting liberals to side with a big corporation. Nice trick, but not the one he's trying to pull."
At the time, I thought DeSantis and the Florida Republican Party hadn't fallen into the rift between them and big business. Now, I think they haven't just fallen, but jumped into the widening and deepening chasm. That calls for more popcorn.
Follow over the jump for more reactions from myself and others as I continue today's Sunday entertainment feature.
Traffic and congestion has been worsening in American cities for decades. What to do about it divides opinion. Some say cities need more of everything: widened roads, public transit, and better urban design and planning. Some say however that widening roads won't solve traffic. Some economists, for example, argue that congestion pricing is the only way to reduce traffic. The solution is politically controversial though. Though it is implemented in cities like London and Singapore, attempts to implement it in America cities such as New York have incurred a lot of pushback.
I've examined all these issues in previous driving updates, including congestionpricing and the return of driving as the pandemic came and is now subsiding. Still, it's good to have it all in one video.
That's the big picture. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update plus a retrospective of the top driving update during last year, which was also the most commented entry of the year.
You’ve seen it in the comment section before: “Climate change is natural. It’s happened before and it will keep happening”. In reality, comments like these are the newest kind of climate change denial. In this video we’re going to learn about all the reasons that Earth’s climate changes, natural and otherwise, and then how we know that modern climate change can’t be blamed on natural forces. Maybe we can finally put this biggest myth about climate change in the trash.
I have mentioned several times that I'm a paleontologist who studies Pleistocene fossils, particularly snails. What I don't mention is that I used data from the snails, clams, and plants of Rancho La Brea to reconstruct the late Pleistocene climate of southern California, so I'm quite familiar with natural climate change. That's why I was able to respond intelligently to Ed, the troll who was better than a spammer, when he snarked "Maybe you can tell us what the climate is supposed to be so we will know if it's changing too much."
Ed, actually, I can. The average temperature of the Northern Hemisphere should be almost two degrees Fahrenheit cooler than it is today based on the pre-1900 temperature trend, three degrees based on the progress of previous interglacials. If you want the reasoning and evidence, you will have to wait until I put together an entire entry with links; it will take more effort than a simple comment is worth. In the meantime, count your blessings that you stumbled onto someone who actually knows the answer to what you may have thought was a rhetorical question too hard to answer.
That was back in 2015. He persisted his climate change denial trolling for three more years, when he asked "What was the Climate Science Special Report in the years 1818 and 1918?"
Strictly speaking, there wouldn't have been any, as the document is a product of the Global Change Research Act of 1990, which I mentioned in R.I.P. George H.W. Bush, the last Republican President I voted for. However, a 1818 report would have been written at the tail end of the Little Ice Age right after The Year Without a Summer, so it would have reported continued cold climate. As for 1918, would have been written after a brief warm spell that happened after another prolonged cooling trend. In both cases, a warmer climate might have been welcome. That's not the case now. It's warming up too quickly.
As I wrote, better than a spammer. Those, I just insult and delete. Ed at least sparked intelligent answers. Too bad I haven't seen him here since November 2, 2020, when I told him so.
By the way, not only are you better than a spammer, you provide a service; your comments tell me when my posts are linked over at Crooks&Liars. Thank you. Based on the comments, you apparently spend a lot of time hate-reading liberals. I know some liberals who do that with conservatives, but I don't understand the attraction beyond "know your enemy" and "keep your friends close and your enemies closer." If I don't like a person and don't like their ideas, I won't read them. I think it's a wasted of time.
Ed hasn't been back since.
Enough reality. Stay tuned as I return to television tomorrow.
At least 55 of the largest corporations in America paid no federal corporate income taxes on their 2020 profits, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Some of these companies include big names FedEx, Nike, HP and Salesforce, and it's costing the U.S. government billions of dollars. Those 55 corporations would have paid a collective total of $8.5 billion. Instead, they received $3.5 billion in tax rebates, collectively draining $12 billion from the U.S. government. These estimates don't include corporations that paid only some but not all of these taxes, like Netflix and Amazon.
Watch the video above to learn about how the most profitable companies in the country maneuver the complicated tax system to avoid federal corporate income taxes, different forms of tax expenditures and what policy solutions may bridge the gap.
I told my readers "I have lots more holiday posts to recognize, but I've run out of spoons for today. Stay tuned for the rest tomorrow." It's tomorrow, so I will continue the retrospective about last year's top holiday posts after recognizing Ramadan for the first time on this blog. I begin with CBS New York reporting Muslim communities in New Jersey observe Ramadan.
Muslim communities are observing the holy month of Ramadan, and because of the pandemic, this year, there is a heightened appreciation for the togetherness and unity that Ramadan brings; CBS2's Dave Carlin reports.
Ramadan Mubarak to you, too, Mayor Sayegh! I'm happy to take you up on your offer to learn more about Ramadan.
Every year, Ramadan begins a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community for Muslims around the world. It is the holiest month of the year for those in the Islamic faith.
The date of the observance is during the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar. This is why it changes every year. The holy month begins the morning after the crescent moon is visible to the naked eye. Because visibility of the moon differs throughout the world, Ramadan does not officially begin until religious leaders declare they have seen the crescent moon.
Fasting during Ramadan is considered one of the five pillars of Islam. The other four pillars include:
Giving a profession of faith.
Praying five times a day while facing Mecca.
Donating a fixed portion of their income to community members in need.
Taking at least one visit to the holy city of Mecca.
Ramadan Traditions
During Ramadan, Muslims fast from food and drink (including water) from sunrise to sunset. Muslims are also supposed to abstain from sexual relations, immoral behavior, smoking, and anger. After sunset, Muslims are allowed to eat and drink. It is customary to eat dates, along with fruits, vegetables, nuts, camel milk, and water.
Muslims believe fasting produces self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice, and empathy for the less fortunate. While all Muslims are strongly encouraged to fast during Ramadan, there are a few exceptions. These include women who are menstruating, pregnant, or breastfeeding. Muslims who are traveling during Ramadan or who have a severe illness are also exempt from fasting. Children under the age of 13 don’t have to fast, either.
Ramadan ends with a three-day celebration. This is called Eid al-Fitr, or the Festival of Breaking the Fast. During this time Muslims exchange gifts with one another. This festival is often referred to as the “Muslim version of Christmas.”
I knew most of this, but I didn't learn that Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It's always a good day when I learn something new.
Follow over the jump as I resume my retrospective of the top posts about holidays from the eleventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
In the comments to 'SNL' opens with holiday greetings from Fauci and others, Liberty Felix linked to a video of Dr. Fauci discussing a universal flu vaccine. My response in the comments was "It's a good thing he was thinking like that. It made us better prepared for SARS-COV2, which isn't a flu." Vox uploaded Why we need a better flu shot yesterday, which allows me to give a better response that explains what a universal flu vaccine really is.
A universal flu vaccine is closer than you think.
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The flu vaccine is something many of us take for granted. Every year, starting in the early fall, “free flu shot available” signs start to line pharmacies and clinics – and yet in the US, only around half the population actually gets the vaccine. When talking about the flu, many equate it to a terrible cold, inconvenient at worst. But annual strains of influenza are estimated to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. The reality is, we’ve been living with influenza for so long that we often forget just how dangerous it can be.
The reason we need an annual vaccine for the flu is that it’s particularly prone to changing. That ability to mutate is also what makes it particularly good at causing pandemic-level threats. The last four global pandemics before Covid-19 were caused by an influenza virus. Experts warn that another one is inevitable and that our seasonal flu vaccine isn’t going to stop it.
For 80 years, the way we research and make our annual flu vaccine has remained the same. It’s a costly and timely process that involves predictions and chicken eggs. The result is a seasonal flu vaccine that’s certainly good enough, but we can do better. And now researchers are closer than ever to something new - something like a flu vaccine that remains effective year after year, regardless of the strain. Something that could stop an outbreak before it starts; something like a universal flu vaccine.
The earliest and most viewed comparison video I'm sharing today is Everything Contagion got right on the Coronavirus outbreak. Its creator Caya examines the subject from an intelligent layman's perspective early on in the pandemic. He also chose the best preview image. I'm not above arranging my videos using that shallow criterion.
I’ve been stuck at home for a week after the coronavirus outbreak has halted the world… so I decided to watch Contagion.
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The 2011 film, written by Scott Z. Burns and directed by Steven Soderbergh, depicts a worldwide outbreak of a deadly virus… sound familiar?
Roy Wood, Jr., is right about "Contagion." It hits way too close to home, as it accurately predicted what has happened so far. That's a point Grace Randolph made in Beyond The Trailer's Apple to Buy Disney? What to Watch on Netflix, Disney Plus, calling it "scarily accurate."
That extends to the penultimate sentence of Caya's video description, which was a transcript of his narration.
As for what comes next, the film predicts a suspension in basic services, food shortages, and mass graves. Let’s hope we don’t see any of that.
The specialist I see for my diabetes and I talked about how accurate "Contagion" was during my last appointment, down to the civil disturbances and looting, although those were not directly connected to the pandemic. I told him "we are living in a horror movie." He replied "that's right!"
Dr. Seema Yasmin, pandemic expert and former epidemic intelligence service officer, examines the 2011 film "Contagion" and compares the Hollywood feature to the current Covid-19 pandemic. The prescient film got a lot of things right, but plenty of the movie's main points were pure fiction. Dr. Yasmin combs through the picture, offering her professional insights.
Dr. Yasmin concentrated on the science in the film as well as the interactions between scientists and the government, not the average citizen's perspective, but she provided a valuable science lesson for her viewers.
Contagion (2011) was a chilling medical thriller upon release — now that COVID-19 has changed our lives forever, Steven Soderbergh’s film now functions more like a documentary. Contagion used to be a “what if…” kind of movie, leaving us to speculate whether it portrayed what life would be like in such a scenario. In hindsight, we can see that Contagion accurately predicted much of our current coronavirus circumstances.
Beyond comparisons to Contagion and our current lives in quarantine, there is something really fascinating about how Steven Soderbergh used the camera to capture a pandemic. Even before COVID-19, watching Contagion had a unique ability to get under our skin, so to speak — but how? In this video essay, we’ll explore the cinematography in Contagion and how Soderbergh used very simple yet effective techniques to make the fictional pandemic feel grounded, and much more terrifying.
Contagion stars Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Laurence Fishburne in a deadly global pandemic. Soderbergh’s filmmaking prioritizes these characters above the macro chaos swirling around them. Most films in this genre focus on an ensemble of survivors but few pay so much attention to the characters in the cinematography. Soderbergh uses three key elements to lock us into these characters: voyeuristic framing, shallow focus, and follow shots that never lose sight of the subject.
By prioritizing the characters and leaving the chaos more to the imagination, Steven Soderbergh keeps this outbreak grounded and real. Now that COVID-19 has shown us what life in quarantine is really like, we can see just how much truth there is in Contagion. Soderbergh’s cinematography and filmmaking skills were never more focused or prescient.
This was much more about the art of directing than about the science, but I found it interesting and useful just the same.
By the way, the movie ended with people receiving the vaccine. That's a good sign, as my wife and I got our first shots today. The horror movie is almost over for us.
I hope that's really true, not just for my wife and me, but also for my readers.
Follow over the jump for the most commented on entries during the tenth year of this blog.
Synopsis
15 years after Hurricane Katrina sits a lasting monument of the devastation. Six Flags New Orleans is currently sitting abandoned, rotting away in the Louisiana swamp. Closed for Storm explores the past, present, and future, to find out how this incredible theme park became frozen in time and left in an endless void of uncertainty. This is the first feature length documentary from Bright Sun Films and the directorial debut for Jake Williams.
About The Film
I'm Jake Williams, the owner of Bright Sun Films and I began this project all the way back in mid 2018. A friend of mine approached me with the idea of seeking permission to film inside the abandoned Jazzland / Six Flags New Orleans site and make something super high quality. So that's exactly what me and my talented team of Youtubers and friends did. The film was professionally edited, sound mixed in 5.1 and filmed on cinema cameras over the course of 2019 and early 2020. Dan Bell and Darren Mercer are Executive Producers. The film explores the past, present and future of the now abandoned theme park while also exploring the remains and talking to people who knew the park best. In this feature documentary, we present all sides of the story as well as showcase never before seen footage from the glory days and the current state. I titled it - Closed For Storm, The Story of Six Flags New Orleans.
Closed For Storm shows Six Flags, New Orleans, in its glory days and current state of abject dereliction.
Filmmakers Jake Williams and John Shaw joins Factual America in Ep23 to talk about their film 'Closed For Storm'; which is about a theme park left for ruin in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago.
Congratulations! You now have the title of most on-topic and welcome spam in the ten-year history of the blog! I just happen to have a tab open to the YouTube upload of that episode right now. I enjoyed it so much that I will add the link to it: Closed For Storm: The Abandoned Six Flags Theme Park (New Orleans). I recommend it to my readers. I may actually get around to embedding it here.
I normally don't welcome spam, but this was perfect — so perfect that I'm following through on my promise to embed the video. Watch the YouTube upload of the podcast.
Closed for Storm examines the story behind Six Flags New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
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What is it about old abandoned buildings that can be so compelling and alluring? We find out today as we welcome filmmakers Jake Williams and John Shaw to the podcast. Their film Closed For Storm is about a theme park left for ruin in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago. Closed For Storm shows Six Flags New Orleans in its glory days and current state of abject dereliction. Along the way, the film also captures the broken dreams and fleeting aspirations of a community still looking for hope.
“When Katrina was happening nobody's minds were on how the theme park was doing. But once the helicopter images came out of the park underwater, it was staggering. They took whatever was valuable, left and abandoned the property.” - Jake Williams
In light of the recent landfalls of Marco and Laura, it's worth looking back at the devastation from Hurricane Katrina, some of which is still visible 15 years later, and contemplate how business and government made things worse. I hope Laura and Marco aren't about to leave such a long-lasting legacy of loss.
Although we are currently living through a pandemic that has disrupted our lives and will shape the course of humanity, pandemics have been around since the dawn of civilization, as have stories about fictional pandemics. So now seems like as good a time as any to explore how fictional pandemics have evolved over time, and what they say about their own time.
Long-time readers of my blog will recognize some of the more recent works, as I have written about them. While I've mentioned Edgar Allan Poe only once here, I've referenced his creation, The Red Death, severaltimes, usuallyinconjuctionwithEbola. That's because the Opera Ghost appears in costume as The Red Death in "Phantom of the Opera" and I thought it made for a good personification of the disease.
No Ebola-chan on this blog!
In addition, there are all the references to zombies as pandemic metaphors, something I mentioned first in Discovery News on World War Z: "Who needs a imaginary zombie plague when a very real flu pandemic combined with mass riots against a background of crumbling infrastructure could produce the same response, if not much the same result?" As for other zombie works mentioned, I have an entire entry dedicated to Warm Bodies and a series of posts about "The Walking Dead. As for "I Am Legend," I've mentioned it several times in passing, but only did the book justice in a response to a comment by Infidel753 on Entertainment for the sixth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
"It's rare that movies do justice to really good science fiction or fantasy books. There have been three movie adaptations of I Am Legend (that I know of) and they made a mess of it each time." ... As for your gripe about Hollywood screwing up film adaptations of science fiction, I blame that on star power and the executives idea of the kinds of endings that movies need to get box office. The original ending of "I Am Legend" is not one that is a happy one for the original form of humanity, so more palatable ones had to be devised. Also, the past two leads have both been action heroes, Charlton Heston and Will Smith, which may bring in viewers for box office but leads to emphasizing action over thought. In addition, the movie adaptations have made things progressively worse for themselves, as the original work was intended as a scientific explanation for vampires, but ended up becoming the basis for the modern science fiction zombie. Therefore, all the zombie apocalypse tropes became incorporated in the most recent movie version. I suspect that a more faithful adaptation would have to be on television, where the economic and artistic pressures are different. See the SyFy Channel version of "Dune" and Fox's "Wayward Pines" for examples of how that might turn out.
It was about time I recycled those comments into a post.
Finally, while I've mentioned Stephen King on this blog before, usually in the context of either ebola or the Saturn Awards, I don't think I've ever mentioned his pandemic novel "The Stand" here. Other than quipping that if the biological weapon in that book is Captain Trips, then the novel coronavirus is Private Trips, I won't write more about it. Instead, I'm going to conclude my commentary on the above video by sharing the following musical moment that I've had open in a tab for several weeks, just waiting for an opportunity to embed it. Now is that opportunity.
The opening to the mini series The Stand
"I've got a fever, and the only cure is — more cowbell!" Looks like the cowbell got there too late.
As I was writing this, I wondered if I should also select the best comments from my readers for this post. That's not going to happen today. First, I really have to get to work (working from home is still work) and that would take too much time. Sorry. Second, I turn interesting comments into posts anyway, so I don't need to do that here. Instead, I'll just thank the commenters I listed in Statistics for the ninth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, Infidel753, Bukko Boomeranger, Nebris, K-Dog, Paul W., Ranch Chimp, Lady M., jkl, and even my right-wing troll, Ed. You are better than a spammer.
I get soooooo many comments every day and you guys are quite creative so I decided to make a song out of them :) Madilyn Bailey
That was fun and I am now a fan.
I plan on posting two more of these retrospectives, one about Twitter on April 30th for Throwback Thursday and another in May about Pinterest to conclude the series. I doubt I will post the latter next Friday, as that is May Day and I already have something planned for that, so watch for it on May 7. In the meantime, stay tuned for something about the COVID-19 pandemic tomorrow. Back to reality, even if I'm in an "I can't be all DOOM all the time" mood.
AZGeoScience: As an Arizonan, I recommend for our primary in a couple of weeks, the 2012 University of Arizona Radiohead 2.0 show. Great show. BTW, loving these posts. My son and I are huge DCI fans.
Me: Glad you're enjoying this series. Also, that's a great suggestion, probably the best show the Wildcats have done. I'll add it to roster of The Academy, [The] Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment, Bluecoats, Columbus Saints, Cincinnati Tradition, and Heat Wave that I already have planned for that date.
At the last minute, Ohio postponed its primary because of the coronavirus pandemic, so I'm postponing posting its corps until the vote is held, possibly on June 2. To compensate, I'm adding the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Marching Band to the list. I hope that's enough marching music for my readers to watch and listen to while they are waiting for the results from the three states voting today.
Rosemont, IL - 5th Place 94.025 ... "Music For The Funeral Of Queen Mary" Written by Henry Purcell; As Arranged By Michael Martin Published by MICHAEL MARTIN MUSIC; "Symphony For Band" Written by Morton Gould Published by G. SCHIRMER, INC.; "Elegy For Dunkirk" Written by Marianelli Dario Published by UNIVERSAL MUSIC CORP OBO UNIVERSAL PICTURES MUSIC; "Lollapalooza" Written by John Adams Published by HENDON MUSIC, INC.
Given the political theme, I thought this was the best choice of show.
Next, the corps I featured four years ago, Phantom Regiment performing their 2018 program, This New World.
Rockford, IL | 11th | 86.950 ... “Finale (from ‘Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium’)” Written by Aaron Zigman, Alexandre Desplat ... “Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26” Written by Sergei Prokofiev ... “A Child’s Garden of Dreams” Written by David Maslanka ... “Picture Studies” Written by Adam Schoenberg ... “Symphony No. 9” Written by Antonin Dvorak, Arr. by William Pitts
I'm saving the 2019 show for a Bastille Day post, as it has a French theme — sort of. I'm an environmentalist, I conserve my resources.
Follow over the jump for videos of drum corps and marching bands from Arizona and Florida plus a bonus drink for the holiday.
I don't think Kamala Harris is leaving until after she faceplants in Iowa. Also, as much as you might dislike Mayor Pete, who tacked left and then back to the center, he's essentially tied with Harris nationwide and well ahead of her in Iowa. He also has a lot of money behind him. I think he'll be in the contest until Super Tuesday, at least. Booker should last until South Carolina and Klobuchar until New Hampshire.
This was in response to Nebris making his wishes known.
I suspect Harris is next. She shut all her offices in New Hampshire and is going all in on Iowa. I expect her to eat shit there and that will be that.
While I was right that Steve Bullock was one of the next two to leave, both Nebris and I were wrong that Harris would last until Iowa, although Nebris was closer to reality when he thought she would be "next." As CBS News reported yesterday, Senator Kamala Harris drops out of 2020 presidential race.
CBSN political reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns joins CBSN's "Red & Blue" to discuss Senator Kamala Harris ending her presidential bid and its impact on the 2020 Democratic race.
Despite all the reporting from Politico and the New York Times about disarray in Harris's campaign, she had qualified for the December debate. I fully expected her to be on the stage. That's not going to happen, much to my surprise. So far, candidates who qualified for debates have continued their campaigns.
I wasn't the only one surprised by Harris's decision. FiveThirtyEight had the same reaction in their emergency Politics Podcast Harris Drops Out.
The crew reacts to Sen. Kamala Harris's decision to drop out of the Democratic primary.
Despite the short time between the announcement and the recording, the four panelists managed a fairly comprehensive analysis of the situation, especially since they were able to build on what Harris should be thankful for — not much other than the support of her husband. Now that she's dropped out, she can be thankful for all the supportive statements from her fellow candidates included in the CBS News clip I embedded above. That's small consolation for her being the most major candidate to have dropped out so far.
As I have done with all the other candidates to have left the campaign, I will retire all of her recipes and memes. Follow over the jump.
Vox returned to the Trump administration's laxer enforcement of the ESA in today's The problem with the endangered species list, which focused on the controversy around delisting the gray wolf.
When are we done protecting the gray wolf? ... When European settlers first came to America they were set on “civilizing” the land. This meant a lot of rash, sweeping changes — one of which was to eradicate a familiar target: the gray wolf. Bounties were placed on the animal across the US. By the1930s, the once plentiful wolf population was decimated.
Decades later, restorations efforts have led to an extensive recovery of the animal. The Fish and Wildlife Service thinks we’ve done enough, but conservationists say our work is far from done.
“In our view, this proposal is premature because wolf recovery in the lower 48 states is not yet complete,” says Zack Strong, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. “Wolves have not yet returned to significant areas where they once existed historically and where there is still suitable habitat.”
[Me:] The last year I lived out in the country, the deer ate my shrubs up to the seven foot level. Good thing they were eight feet tall at the time. I vowed that if I were still in my house the next firearms deer season, I'd finally break down and buy a rifle and a deer hunting license. Fortunately for the deer, my house sold that April, so I didn't have to follow through.
Hey, I was a Republican for 22 years. Some habits die hard.
[Andrea G:] No, you're exactly right. In most parts of the U.S. we have wiped out the top predator (wolves), so now there are too many deer. The hunting lobby likes it that way, as a response to the narrow window of time in which it's legal to hunt. So, in the long run we have two options: Reintroduce wolves and persuade people not to shoot them, or eat the deer ourselves until their population reaches a more natural level. In the mean time, our forests are being overgrazed. ... [Me:] Getting more hunters and eating more deer is the response I expect. Actually re-introducing wolves would be too much for most people. On the other hand, allowing wolves to spread on their own, which is happening, and then convincing people to leave them alone might be doable.
I finished Drinks for the Democratic debates, Part 1 by telling my readers to "Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow, when I do this all over again for the next ten candidates debating!" Time to start serving the drinks, but first, tonight's participants from DebateDrinking.com.
NIGHT 2 Thursday, June 27
Joe Biden
Michael Bennet
Pete Buttigieg
Kirsten Gillibrand
Kamala Harris
John Hickenlooper
Bernie Sanders
Eric Swalwell
Marianne Williamson
Andrew Yang
I'll get to their drinks over the jump, but first the games. In addition to DebateDrinking.com, Spectator USA, and A.M. New York, Paul W. of You Might Notice A Trend showed up in the comments to yesterday's entry with the following rules for three of the four top candidates in tonight's debate.
I... can TRY to make a drinking game rule.
Every time Joe Biden tries to talk like a Millennial but ends up sounding like a Baby Boomer, take two shots
Every time Bernie Sanders talks dismissively towards a woman candidate, take a shot
Every time Liz Warren or Kamala Harris sounds like sage wise life forms that WILL SAVE US ALL, cheer and get 10,000 more people signed up to vote, THEN take a shot. ... Yes, I have a bias.
I like those rules, but I had the following responses to them.
Hey, Paul! Good to see you!
Thanks for the rules. I'll put them in tomorrow's entry.
If Joe Biden sounds like a Boomer, then he's still acting younger than he really is. He was born in 1942, so he's actually a member of the generation before the Boomers, the Silent Generation.
I share your bias. Harris the first choice of my wife and I, while Warren is our second choice. Consider yourself in good company.
Consider adding Paul's rules to whichever game you are playing.
Enough of the drinking games. Follow over the jump for the drinks.
After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Shopko said it will close all of its store locations by June 16. The closures affect 360 stores in 26 states.
Unless something more dramatic intervenes, I know which tale of the Retail Apocalypse I'm telling next.
Something more dramatic did intervene, which is why I wrote Dressbarn closing all 650 stores, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse. I also promised that "Pinterest and comments on the blog [are] coming up next." As it turns out, the most commented posts are about the Retail Apocalypse, so I can fulfill both promises by writing about Shopko's demise followed by a retrospective over the jump.
I begin the story of Shopko's demise with Shopko closing all of its stores from NBC 26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Shopko began.
Liquidation of all of Shopko's stores is expected to finish by June.
At least Kim Flom, who is in charge of economic development for the city of DePere, displays some optimism about redeveloping the property, which includes a Payless ShoeSource. One the one hand, that makes her another Crazy Eddie, which she should take as a compliment from me. On the other, she'll need it.
Shopko recently announced the closure of all remaining stores across all "brands" and plans to have this completed by June, 2019. Shopko failed to find a buyer during the lead up to filing chapter 11 bankruptcy so, here we are.
From the late 90's onward, the chain slowly began struggling to find their footing against "the big 3". Updating their identity with ever changing slogans, branding, store closures/remodels/acquistitions and also leadership. This trend continued until their ultimate decline in the present day.
Oh, man, did the changing retail environment clobber Shopko!
Follow over the jump for the two most commented on posts of the eighth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, both of which are about the Retail Apocalypse.
Bukko Boomeranger and I had quite the conversation about the Australian election in the comments to John Oliver explains trade. I found it so engrossing that I first responded "Just for you, I might cover it [the Australian election] next week," and finished with "I'll respond to the rest of your comment when I feature it in a post about the Australian elections." Here are his comments with my responses about ranked-choice voting, mandatory voting, and the outcome of the election.
Here's Bukko's first comment, which he posted before the voting began.
Ah well -- soon off to accost voters (national Parliamentary election today.) It's good fun. Citizens expect to pass through a line of people waving flyers telling them what various parties recommend in Australia's ranked multiple-choice voting system. I try to make it funny, with quips like "If you're sick of the big parties!" or "Who's leaning Green today?" And when the polls close, I'll be "scrutineering." That means watching the Australian Election Commission's paid workers when they unseal the ballot boxes, dump the paper ballots onto a table, sort them by which candidate got the voter's #1 choice, then eliminating the piles with the fewest votes. THOSE ballots are shuffled onto the candidates that each voter marked as their #2 choice, so the person's vote is not entirely ignored. From then, it goes to the top 2 vote-getters, and the winner at that polling station is determined. Combine the results from polling places across the electorate, and bingo! we have a winner. It's pretty quick -- less than 2 hours -- and honest, with observers from Labor, us Greenies, sometimes the Liberals (the conservative party), Socialists or other minor parties looking on. Much better than black box electronic voting. It's one of the reasons I have a bit of faith in this country, because everyone has to vote (or face a small fine) and the counting is done transparently, so who's in Parliament can be said to represent the will of the people.
I knew that Australia had mandatory voting, but I didn't know that the country also had ranked-choice voting. While I'm not a fan of mandatory voting with fines for not voting, I am in favor of other ways of increasing turnout, particularly by reducing barriers to access. That's why I was thrilled when Proposal 3 passed here in Michigan allowing same-day registration and no-reason absentee voting. On the other hand, I am definitely a fan of ranked-choice voting, which I mentioned as an election reform before. I am so glad to see that it works so smoothly in a major country like Australia.
On the gripping hand (yes, a Motie reference), I'm not sure I'd like to walk through a throng of volunteers trying to get me to vote for their party or candidate on the way to the polling station. It's bad enough seeing all the lawn signs on the way in, and I'm a fan of lawn signs and have placed them myself the night before an election.
That was about the process. Follow over the jump for the outcome, which came as a bit of surprise.
Blogger recorded that this blog had a lifetime total of 2,168,149 page views and 3853 posts at 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2019. In addition, I counted 361 comments since March 21, 2018. The equivalent numbers from the seventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News were 3465 entries, 1,630,513 page views, and 2,391 comments during the first six years of the blog. The result was that the blog earned 537,636 page views while I posted 388 entries during 365 days. Those are fewer page views and comments for more posts than during the seventh year of blogging here, 682,128 page views and 488 comments from my readers and me on 364 entries. That's a first, and not a good one, either. Follow over the jump for my analysis of what went "wrong."
