Tommy Smothers passed away. I remember watching their show while high, and I think they knew damn well I wasn’t the only one.
I didn’t realize till years later that Tommy was prominently one of the Counter Culture Who’s Who that made up the Plastic Ono band for “Give Peace a Chance”, which was ubiquitous background music in summer of 69.
An idea so strange to the crusty senior male on the panel, listen to him go “Ommmmmmm…” at the beginning, as if this was some kind of New Age woo woo concept.
Watch well informed reporter Contessa Brewer attempt to inject a fact bomb at 3:53 – “Climate risk is real – and there’s always a chance for a cyber attack that takes down the grid.” Not good enough for crusty white guy – “Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong!” He worries about increases in grid outages, without anyone pointing out that blackouts by far occur because of an aging, obsolete transmission system, rather than a shortage of power, or the changing generation mix.
Readers here, of course, would have seen the video description below 5 years ago.
Another example, climate denial strongly linked with homophobia, and, as I’ve posted before, misogyny and racism.
Rep. Tim Walberg, co-chair of the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast, went to Uganda to support its Anti-Homosexuality Act, which has a death penalty. His trip was paid for by the sponsors of the Prayer Breakfast.
In a little-noticed October speech in Uganda, Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., urged that nation to stand behind its new Anti-Homosexuality Act, which includes the death penalty.
Walberg’s remarks came at Uganda’s National Prayer Breakfast. His trip to attend the event was paid for by the secretive U.S. group behind the National Prayer Breakfast, congressional filings show.
As the keynote speaker of the Entebbe event, Walberg advised Uganda to “stand firm” on the new law. Walberg can be seen in video of the event listening to, endorsing and associating himself with the remarks of other speakers. Speakers called LGBTQ+ advocates “a force from the bottom of hell” and urged government officials to adopt “Christocracy” over democracy.
Walberg explicitly encouraged Uganda’s leaders to resist opposition to the law from the U.S., the U.N. and other global institutions. His audience included President Yoweri Museveni, who signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law in May. —
Video below should begin at 3 hours and 10 minutes or so. Walberg makes a remarkable statement about how he views his congressional seat as a “Ministry”, and makes it clear that the laws and government of the United States are a secondary, incidental concern to him.
Meanwhile, another Republican, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, kept it real at the US Prayer breakfast, a few months ago, in case you missed it.
Billy Eilish’s brother and musical collaborator Finneas breaks down the structure of “What Was I Made for?”.
Below, Billie herself explains the process of working with the film maker Greta Gerwig.
Below, the song, with lyrics. And if you haven’t seen the movie, I just did for the second time, and it holds up. Not perfect, but holds up. I think it’s going to have some legs, and speaks to something about both men and women, and the roles society lays out for us all, and what it’s like to awaken from them, if only partially.
Dandelion pokes up on Christmas in Central Michigan, 2023
Teachable moment. Some of your friends who might not have considered climate change might have been having some reflective time lately, looked around, and asked, “OK, so it’s getting warmer, but hasn’t that happened before?” PBS Terra has a timely video that answers that question with some depth, and comments from Michael Mann.
If you’ve followed this blog you are familiar with Tony Seba’s work. The talk above from October is kind of a rushed summary of his work, and not his most descriptive outing, for that go here. and here. What’s interesting is that he gave this talk for an audience in Saudi Arabia, essentially describing for them the end of their society’s profit model. Actually, that’s not even his most shocking predictions – the most insane stuff is about land use.
I interviewed Seba and wove his basic arguments into the videos below.
