Good morning all!
We’ll know we’ve finally hit rock bottom when grave robbers break into Rush Limbaugh’s tomb to steal his Presidential Medal of Freedom to sell on E-bay. (I suppose he’ll have to die first, then be buried actually wearing the medal. And put into a tomb rather than just buried like anyone else).
Until then, the President’s “acquittal” in the Senate, the Great Iowa Caucus Cock-up, the State of the Onion address (it stank) will have to suffice for a week’s worth of low points in the news. And, of course Kirk Douglas passing away. All in all, it’s been a pretty sucky week, so far.
That being said, let’s shift gears a little today. I’m want to talk about pie.
Judge us. Eat us. Enjoy us. But please don’t throw us!
When you live by yourself, you find ways to keep yourself amused. (That’s actually a line from a Peter Straub novel, The Throat, but one I’ve taken to heart). One of the culinary arts that I’ve mastered, more or less, is making decent pie pastry. The right amount of salt in the flour, the right temperature of the cold water, mixing by machine or by hand (I use a large mixing bowl and a fork, myself) and the everlasting debate of whether to use shortening, butter, or lard. (Pro tip: lard!). It doesn’t matter what your pie filling is: the pastry is all-important. But it is made better with a strawberry-rhubarb filling. Just sayin’.
If you care in the least about pie-making, you take exception to pie-throwing, in any of its manifestations. And pie-throwing season seems to be getting into full swing elsewhere in the pages in the Daily Kos. Not here in the Good News Roundup, not yet, mercifully.
Sure, I’m a political junkie, and have been since I was in high school; but I’ve never been such a rabid fan-boy to the point where my candidate is heaven-sent and yours is evil incarnate. I try to take people as I find them. If you have a problem with that, sorry, I don’t have anything in your size today. But thanks for stopping by!
I therefore pledge myself to decline to engage in such conduct. It’s neither worth my time or trouble, and misses the entire point of the Democratic primaries and convention: finding a candidate who will clean the President’s clock come November. Anything else is self-serving, self-righteous dicking-off.
Remember: Pie is for sharing and eating, not throwing.
News?
Yeah, about that acquittal thing...
Politico reported yesterday that the President was acquitted of the two articles of impeachment along party lines.
The first article, abuse of power, failed 48-52 — well short of the 67-vote super-majority required to remove Trump from office. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney was the lone Republican to vote in favor of the abuse of power charge. The second article, obstruction of Congress, failed 47-53 — a party-line vote. All Democratic senators voted to convict Trump on both counts.
Disappointment? Anger? Ready to go full Capone? (NSFW: Language!)
(That’s Al talking, not me. I’m just sayin’ GOTV...)
More trouble for the NRA
From Reuters:
NRA Logo. Becoming less fashionable daily
“NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York’s financial regulator on Wednesday filed civil charges accusing the National Rifle Association of offering insurance to its members without a license and concealing how it routinely kept some of their premiums for itself.
Wednesday’s charges focus mainly on the group’s alleged ties since 2000 to insurance broker Lockton Cos, including the sale of 28,005 policies to New Yorkers and the NRA’s receipt of more than $1.8 million in associated royalties and fees.
Lockton’s policies included the NRA-branded “Carry Guard,” which the regulator said offered policyholders unlawful liability coverage, including for criminal defense costs and “intentional” conduct in shooting incidents.
The NRA was also accused of misleadingly promising coverage for gun collectors, dealers, instructors, clubs and shows at the “lowest possible cost,” when in fact the group typically kept between 13.7% and 21.9% of premiums paid.
Well, you can’t fault them for trying!
From the Guardian:
Police in Rio de Janeiro
When marketing Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s national tourism agency typically focuses on the city’s world-class beaches, samba-filled music scene and caipirinha-fueled parties.
But in an embarrassing social media cock-up this week, Embratur, the Brazilian tourist board, accidentally shared a critical Instagram post from a tourist who did not enjoy her stay in the so-called “Cidade Maravilhosa,” or Marvellous City.
“I just spent three days in Rio with my family, and in those three days my family and I were robbed and my nine-year-old sister witnessed a violent robbery”.
Embratur deleted the shared post on Wednesday. It said in a subsequent statement that “sharing [the post] was a mistake,” adding that it had worked hard to promote a nationwide fall in crime in 2019.”
Iowa!
The New York Times has a really neat interactive map showing the Caucus results. Curiousity got the better of me, because I have relatives living in Marshall County. Bernie led the polling there at 34%. (To find Marshall Co., find Des Moines on the map, then go one square right and one square up).
Interesting Polling Data!
According to 538, the President’s Approval Rating was at 43.4% as of yesterday.
On December 17, 2019, he was at 43.8%.
The last time he was higher than 43% was in March 2017.
He has never had an approval rating above 47% since taking office.
This day in History!
James II. Intrepid Admiral, lousy King. Didn’t last long.
1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland is proclaimed King upon the death of his brother Charles II.
1756 – Aaron Burr, American colonel and politician, 3rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1836)
1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic; Britain declares war on France.
1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1819 – Sir Thomas Raffles founds Singapore.
Battle of Fort Henry. Union Ironclads vs. Confederate Dirt
1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.
1895 – Babe Ruth, American baseball player and coach (d. 1948)
1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.
1918 – British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.
1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
Bob Marley
1945 – Bob Marley, Jamaican singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1981)
1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.
1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe
2018 – SpaceX's Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.
Musical Interlude:
Interesting bits
From the Department of EXTREMELY LARGE THINGS, Antarctic Iceberg Division
From Yahoo News:
A-68: one big iceberg
“A vast iceberg which calved off an ice shelf three years ago is about to reach the open ocean.
When A-68 calved from the Larsen C ice shelf, it was up to a trillion tonnes, and measured 2,300 square miles, a quarter of the size of Wales.
Experts say that it has lost very little of its record-breaking bulk since then, as it has drifted towards the edge of the continent’s sea ice.”
Happy Valentine’s Day?
From UPI:
$5.00 for this?
“Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A Texas zoo is allowing jilted Valentine's Day revelers to name a cockroach or a rat after their ex -- and then see it fed to a larger animal.
The San Antonio Zoo's "Cry Me A Cockroach" event allows visitors to the zoo website to pay $5 to name a cockroach after their ex, or $25 for a rat.
The roaches will be fed to various animals, while the rats will be fed to snakes.
The feeding will be live streamed online so purchasers can witness the demise of their named animals.
Grosz painting from 1944 appears in public for first time!
From Deutsche Welle:
“George Grosz was a pioneer of irreverent Dada art in Berlin, an ardent critic of war and nationalism who went into exile before Hitler seized power in 1933.
In 1944, while living in the US, he completed a painting that portrays Hitler as a monster dictator reigning over an underworld of mass death and destruction. Titled Cain or Hitler in Hell, the masterwork has been privately owned (by the Grosz family) since its creation, but in 2019 was acquired by the German Historical Museum in Berlin (DHM).
The painting was officially unveiled today in Berlin, with Minister of Culture, Monika Grütters, Raphael Gross, President of the German Historical Museum Foundation, and Markus Hilgert, General Secretary of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, in attendance.
Purchased by the DHM with the support of the federal government and the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, the acquisition marks a major coup for the institution as the painting is considered one of the outstanding works created by a German artist in exile after the rise of the Nazi regime.”
Hitler in Hell (1944)
Hot Links!
Plenty more where these came from!
From Charles Pierce at Esquire: The Senate Has Failed to Convict Donald Trump on Impeachment Charges
From the BBC: Finland to give dads same parental leave as mums
From Vanity Fair: REPUBLICANS SUDDENLY CONCERNED WITH DECORUM AFTER NANCY PELOSI RIPPED SPEECH
From the Atlantic: Thy Neighbor’s Solar Panels
From the Nation: Trump’s Vulnerability Is That He’s Divorced From Reality
From Agence France-Presse: Last century's epidemics more deadly than today's
Your Quote of the Day:
“The vials of wrath were full: but so were the reservoirs of power…. And when the dread signal of Armageddon was made, mankind was found to be many times stronger in valour, in endurance, in brains, in science, in apparatus, in organisation, not only than it had ever been before, but than even its most audacious optimists had dared to dream.”
— Winston Churchill, the World Crisis
Your Thursday Video! Yes, there are goats.
And that’s a wrap!
Winter is still here, the flu-bug is still out there, the New Hampshire primary is next week, and the news will keep coming!
Stay warm, stay healthy, and remember, there’s always more good news out there than bad! The bad news just gets more attention.
Have a great day!