AdamSmith

CONGRESS Trump impeachment push gets important new ally https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/19/ben-ray-lujan-no-4-house-democrat-backs-opening-trump-impeachment-inquiry-1467888

Another thing our U.S. chauvinism has blinded us to is the almost infinite development value of the as-yet undeveloped or underdeveloped natural (and a fair deal of human) resources in Africa, as well as Central and South America. Over the past decade-plus, China has either bought up or optioned a staggering quantity of these. Yet again, the U.S.’s shortsightedness to opportunities staring us in the eye is just beyond belief.

All this tra-la-la. There are available both pesticide sprays and UV-light wands that do a good job of murdering the bugs before you climb into a possibly suspect bed.

The Man Who Taught His Asshole to Talk https://realitystudio.org/texts/naked-lunch/talking-asshole/

Yes. She is he.

Online pic I can’t find right now of Milton Berle in Elizabethan drag.

Can’t recall where I first read this phrase: ‘A small man, with a small amount of power.’

Really excellent. AP Photo THE FRIDAY COVER What FDR Understood About Socialism That Today’s Democrats Don’t He ruled at the height of government activism, but saw ideology as something to fear, not embrace. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/16/democrats-socialism-fdr-roosevelt-227622

https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/past-statements/

China has also vastly evolved from essentially a thief of Western technology to a world-leading inventor & innovator. Their ‘Silicon Valley’: While Wuhan has for decades been a traditional base for manufacturing, it has also become one of the areas promoting modern industrial change. Wuhan consists of three national development zones, four scientific and technologic development parks, over 350 research institutes, 1,656 hi-tech enterprises, numerous enterprise incubators, and investments from 230 Fortune Global 500 firms.[24] It produced GDP of US$ 224 billion in 2018. The Dongfeng Motor Corporation, an automobile manufacturer, is headquartered in Wuhan. Wuhan is home to multiple notable institutes of higher education, including Wuhan University, which was ranked third nationwide in 2017,[25] and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan Our Western chauvinism & pridefulness — ‘American exceptionalism’ etc etc — have of course blinded us to the significance of these developments.

Drip, drip, drip... Donor with deep Ukraine ties lent $500,000 to Biden’s brother The mortgage came as the vice president was leading the response to Russia’s takeover of Crimea. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/15/james-biden-bungalow-ukraine-donor-1463645

The greatest living authority on the Senate, Harry Reid, says the filibuster must end https://m.dailykos.com/stories/1878860

Get real. We can know public figures pretty well indeed by their self-presentation plus whatever else is in the public record. Yet again: if a thing looks like something, it most likely is that thing. Took me a stupidly long time to understand that.

https://my-random-gay-thoughts.tumblr.com/

Repost.

Agree with just about all of this. Only exception: don’t quite agree the West are on our ‘last legs.’ But we have indeed gone pretty deep into a very rough patch from which the exit is far from obvious. It took China some 3 centuries to right the ship when similar happened to them. I am a blue-dog Democrat, but it has to be noted that the development & deployment of Democratic neoliberalism is very much one of the many things that led us into this mess.

VERY MUCH LIKEWISE. Look how Xi with no effort whatever is steering our Drumpf.

Hmm! Sapiosexuals: are some people really only sexually attracted to intelligence? Marlène Schiappa, the French equality minister, says she is one of those attracted to others solely according to how brainy they are https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2019/aug/12/sapiosexuals-are-some-people-really-only-sexually-attracted-to-intelligence

Sometimes an organ is just an organ.