January 7, 1953 President Harry S. Truman announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had developed a hydrogen (fusion) bomb.
January 7, 1971 The U.S. District Court of Appeals ordered William Ruckelshaus, the Environmental Protection Agency’s first administrator, to begin the de-registration procedure for DDT so that it could no longer be used. DDT being sprayed next to livestock It was a widely used pesticide in agriculture (principally cotton). This happened nine years after the publication of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”, a book which cautioned about the dangers of excessive use of pesticides and other industrial chemicals to plants and animals, and humans. Rachel Carson Read more about Rachel Carson
January 7, 1979 Vietnamese troops seized the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, toppling the regime of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Communist party. Pol Pot and his allies had been directly responsible for the death of 25% of Cambodia’s population. When he seized power in 1975, capitalism, Western culture, city life, religion, and all foreign influences were to be extinguished in favor of an extreme form of peasant Communism. All foreigners were thus expelled, embassies closed, and any foreign economic or medical assistance was refused. The use of foreign languages was banned. Newspapers and television stations were shut down, radios and bicycles confiscated, and mail and telephone usage curtailed. Money was forbidden. All businesses were shuttered, religion banned, education halted, health care eliminated, and parental authority revoked. Thus Cambodia was sealed off from the outside world.All of Cambodia’s cities were then forcibly evacuated. At Phnom Penh, two million inhabitants were evacuated on foot into the countryside at gunpoint. As many as 20,000 died along the way. Pol Pot’s legacy: Skulls of the killing fields
Please remember when you read what I write, I never went through Army basic. I was a former US Navy, so showed up at my first army post with no uniform. It freaked the low level E4 – E5s out, they were demanding I change into a uniform I did not have.
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Hi Ten Bears. I reblog this not only because it is impressive and the fact is a lot of it I couldn’t do at 20 and in the US Army. Just being honest. My job valued our technical skills not the physical aspect of military life. In the one live action three day drill with laser tag gear in the early 1980s where our people in our satellite compound were included we happily dressed up in face paint (mixed with face cream for easy removal) listened carefully, and that morning took up our assigned places. We quickly grew bored but diligently shot at any enemy we saw. We were proud defenders of our installation from the evil USSR.
Early in the afternoon our upper ranks pulled us in. Told us to clean up and there would be a meeting in the morning. Excited about the meeting we all gather in the morning looking for our gear, our faces and hands again well coated with face cream colored camo. We did not find our laser tag stuff, no vests, nothing to place on our M16s. Then the meeting started and we all felt shitty. We no longer would be part of the drill. The infantry base that was assigned to protect us would do so without our help. A lot of barely out of our teens boys clamored to know why, we had fun even if it was very boring.
Turns out that the reason they pulled us in the afternoon before was in our eagerness to protect our site and play soldier … which we all knew we were not. To be continued …
(side note during one of the yearly common task training we all had to pass one thing was to recognize which tank was from which enemy. I couldn’t do a single one. My answer was always the same. “I don’t know which country it is from but I am sure as hell not going to shoot at it with an M16 and piss the fucker off” I passed the test with 100%. Also during that testing was a requirement to open and correctly orient, sight the target, and then press the correct buttons to then fire a LAWS rocket.
When it was my turn I proudly took my 117 pounds up to the table, took the law dummy, stepped up to the mark and tried to pull it open which would slide the two halves into the fully opened locked position. I struggled for a few times until the training officer stopped me, took the training tool, turned it around to the proper direction showing me the markings. Ok I felt a bit foolish but determined now to ace the test. I yanked on both sides and nothing happened. I did it again. Then I tried doing it by jumping up in the air to use the momentum to help. It did not. After about three minutes and in frustration I put the thing between my legs to try to pull it open. At that point Sergeant Emory rushed to me and took the training tool, opened it up and positioned it on my shoulder. I sighted it like a pro and pressed the correct buttons plus trigger and registered a direct hit with the system. I passed. I was an Army soldier on the books.
One last note on that training. The old timers in the unit told us many tips like the face cream for the face paint, but the never addressed the placement of stuff on our waist belts. The shoulder belts did have special places for things, but the waist belt was not defined. I was so small that by the time I got everything I was to have on the belt, I had no place for the canteen … So I placed my full of water very regulation hard canteen right in front of my body. Yes follow the body line.
The drill required us to run and zigzag then when ordered drop and cover ourselves. I proudly started my run, hell one thing I had going for me was I was fast, I zigged, I zagged, and then the command was bellowed to drop and cover. Very much into the moment of playing army … Remember I never went through Army Basic Training … I dropped full on my belly … and nearly lost my mind and consciousness. Only the fact of my abusive past allowed me to roll desperately sideways, clawing desperately at a place some lower than my waist. For those that still can not picture what happened let me explain.
My canteen was hanging directly down in my front. Think of what is in the front of a boy / guy that landing on a hard object at a full run dive might be the resulting impact point. Yes my very sensitive testicles took the impact of my full 117 body weight fully on my regulation hard canteen. I couldn’t breathe, I rolled, I staggered to my knees, then fell again, then I struggled to me feet, staggered a few steps and collapsed into a fetal tight posture. I lost the world.
When I woke up I was in the hospital, I was told that Sergeant Emory had rushed to me and tried to open my posture and then realized what happened. I did not suffer any lasting effects except for some reason I never had to do common task testing again while in the unit. Every time they came up someone was needed to be at the site and somehow the schedule always had me pulling shift leader. But I always passed.)
Now to the reason we were pulled from and stopped from being part of the three day drill. As I said we took defensive positions inside our fenced in satellite site and even when bored we shot any enemy we could see. The problem was the first day the program did not introduce the enemy yet. The people we proudly lined up on with our tag system M16s were our very own defenders from the nearby infantry base.
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So that is why I admire Ten Bears and his program of personal health, exercise, and being ready for those that might attack him. My body long ago gave out with decaying bones, nerves fraying and shorting / dying, my spine doing 5 different ways of causing me pain and the lack of ability to keep standing when my legs go out under me suddenly, the broken bones of childhood refused to heal properly. I admit I admire him, I wish I could do the same. And on that point, one more last thing for a long post.
In the last year I went from not being able to walk 8 car lengths and back to and from our mailbox to now my daily walk I do most days is 2.08 miles. I bought a small hand weight system, the max is 11 pounds on one hand bar and there are two bars. The weights come in 1 pound units and can be placed together with the handle being 3 pounds. I started out using two 1 pound weights hooked together for arm and what my different shoulders can do with the torn / ripped apart muscles in my shoulders. I am now up to using the 3 pound handle for arm stuff, including triceps. I still can not use that weight on my shoulders and can not use any weight on my left shoulder that I need / have an MRI order for.
The entire point is I agree with Ten Bears. Things are going to get bad. We who are not on the maga side need to do all we can to protect ourselves. Those of us LGBTQ+ need to do all we can to protect ourselves and each other. Look the person that did that bombing was a native born Army vet, yet the right wing media including fox entertainment is still claiming it was an immigrant. They have long blamed the LGBT+ for all social ills, and the last three years attacked every drag queen story hours claiming they were saving kids. What will they do or manufacture now? Hugs
We are the wealthiest nation on Earth. There is no rational reason as to why we are not the healthiest nation on Earth
Over the past year, I’ve had the privilege of serving as chair of the US Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions (Help). As I leave that position, let me reflect upon where I think our country should be going in healthcare, and the obstacles we face.
We are the wealthiest nation on Earth. There is no rational reason as to why we are not the healthiest nation on Earth. We should be leading the world in terms of life expectancy, disease prevention, low infant and maternal mortality, quality of life and human happiness. Sadly, study after study shows just the opposite. Despite spending almost twice as much per capita on healthcare, we trail most wealthy nations in all these areas.
If we’re going to reform our broken and dysfunctional healthcare system and “Make America healthy again”, this is some of what we must do.
Medicare for All
Healthcare is a human right. The function of a rational healthcare system is to guarantee quality healthcare to all, not huge profits for the insurance industry. The United States cannot continue to be the only wealthy nation that does not provide universal healthcare. It is not acceptable that, while spending almost 18% of our GDP on healthcare, millions of Americans delay going to the doctor and 60,000 Americans die each year because they can’t afford the care they need.
Lower the cost of prescription drugs
As Americans, we should not be paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for life-saving medications. It is absurd that while the pharmaceutical industry enjoys huge profits and benefits from US taxpayer research, one out of four Americans cannot afford to purchase the prescription drugs their doctors prescribe. We must cut prescription drug prices in half by making sure that we pay no more for medicine than the Europeans or Canadians.
Paid family and medical leave
Workers should not have to go to work when they are sick. Mothers and fathers should have ample time to stay home with their newborn babies. A parent should not get fired when they stay home with a sick child. We must guarantee at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to every worker in America.
Reform the food industry
Large food corporations should not make record-breaking profits making children addicted to processed foods, which make them overweight and prone to diabetes and other diseases. As a start, we must ban junk-food ads targeted to kids and put strong warning labels on products high in sugar, salt and saturated fat. Longer term, we can rebuild rural America with family farms that are producing healthy, nutritious food.
Raise the minimum wage to a living wage
Millions of workers should not have to worry about how they’ll pay the rent or buy food for their kids. Working-class Americans live far shorter lives than the rich because of the stress of trying to survive on a paycheck-to-paycheck existence. Stress kills. Stress makes us sick. We must raise the minimum wage to at least $17 an hour.
Lower the work week to 32 hours with no loss of pay
People will live longer and healthier lives if they can spend more time with family and friends and have the opportunity to enjoy their leisure time. Advancements in technology, automation and artificial intelligence must benefit workers, not just billionaires on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley.
Combat the epidemic of loneliness, isolation and mental illness
Too many Americans are struggling with intense anxiety and “diseases of despair” – alcoholism, drug addiction and even suicide. Not only do we need to greatly increase access to mental healthcare, we must rebuild our sense of community and create a culture in which we better enjoy and appreciate each other as human beings. We must also take a very hard look at the impact smartphones and social media are having on our mental and physical health.
Address the climate and environmental crisis
Every American is affected when the Earth’s temperature rises and the air we breathe is polluted. Climate crisis and extreme weather disturbances will cause more widespread suffering and disease, economic disruptions and population dislocation. Air pollution is a major risk factor for respiratory and heart disease, cancer and other health problems. The fossil-fuel industry cannot be allowed to continue making us sick, shortening our lives and destroying the planet.
Create a high-quality public education system
Life-long education is a human right and should be obtainable for all in a wealthy nation like ours. Health, life expectancy and economic wellbeing are often tied to educational attainment. Instead of spending $1tn a year on the military we should make certain that all Americans, from childcare to graduate school, are able to enjoy free, high-quality education and job training.
Let’s be clear. The way forward to creating a healthy society is not radical or complicated. Many of the components that I’ve outlined already exist, in one form or another, in numerous countries throughout the world.
Our real problem is not so much a healthcare crisis as it is a political and economic one. We need to end the unprecedented level of corporate greed we are experiencing. We need to create a government and economy that works for all and not just the wealthy and powerful few.
Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and chair of the health education labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress
The eight tech titans alone gained more than $600 billion this year, 43% of the $1.5 trillion increase among the 500 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Greenland’s natural resources are worth many trillions; future drillers and diggers won’t care that it’s cold and distant. As Alaska proves, where there’s value, there’ll be value-extractors
plus, perhaps, a casino or two. Yes, the right kind of development could MGGA—Make Greenland Great Again.
It’s bipartisan and it’s good and nobody fought over it. So the answer is ‘no.’ Read on Substack
Here to warm your heart a little bit is a fable about a magical land called the US Congress, where in the midst of last week’s huge stupid fight about whether to actually have a government anymore, and about whether unelected weirdo billionaires should be able to destroy said government, the Senate passed a little-noticed bill that will update American child welfare laws for the first time in 15 years and help out kids in foster care.
As Gabe Fleisher at Wake Up To Politics points out, there weren’t any big culture war provisions in the bill, and somehow the flaky billionaire with an online propaganda factory didn’t catch wind of it, so the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act passed and was signed into law without getting much attention at all. In fact, when Fleischer wrote about it over the weekend, he noted that “as far as I can tell, not a single other article has been written about this legislation by any news outlet, anywhere.”
Fleischer included a google link so people could check, and I did. Even after his post, nope, nothing much, apart from several social media posts linking to Fleisher, plus the expected press releases from members of Congress who helped pass the bill. The only exception we found was a Yahoo reprint of a brief story from Native News Online, based on a press release from the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), which advocated for the law because it
increases funding for tribal child welfare programs and courts, reduces administrative burdens, closes a gap in data collection for Native children and families who are in state child welfare systems, and requires the Department of Health and Human Services with the assistance of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to provide needed technical assistance to states and tribal nations to improve implementation of the Indian Child Welfare Act.
So there’s a second article, and now Yr Wonkette makes three. Maybe some bigger outlets should cover this, although that might run the risk of bringing it to the attention of some jerk who thinks kids in the system have it too easy and need to be working overnight shifts.
As Fleisher — who staunchly refuses to have a c in his name no matter how often I misspell it — points out, there are some excellent things in the bill beyond the increase of $75 million a year into the budget for “the federal program tasked with combatting child abuse/neglect and protecting children in the foster care system.”
Among other things, the bill allows states to pass on federal child welfare funds directly to families that have hit an economic rough patch, to “prevent children from being separated from parents solely on the basis of poverty-related circumstances” — instead of declaring the parents “neglectful” and taking their kids away.
Other measures in the law will
expand mental health services for children in foster care; ease the transition out of foster care by offering assistance to former foster children until they reach the age of 26; increase funding for the 2.5 million grandparents and relatives raising children who would otherwise go into foster care; create a new requirement that states consult with affected children and parents when crafting their child welfare policies; seek to improve the relationships between incarcerated parents and their children in foster care; and reduce the administrative burden of child welfare caseworkers by 15%, so they can focus more on children and less on paperwork.
That’s a hell of a lot of good that literally got zero mention in the mainstream press, mostly because the bill was written and passed without any drama or denunciations that it would promote witchcraft, turn children into communists, or force Americans to live under the tyranny of the Metric System. And that, Fleisher says, is a damn shame, because “coverage of the country’s legislative output should not be dictated by how much squabbling went into the passage of the bill.” A media focus on dysfunction might be entertaining, but leads to cynicism and to people never hearing about genuinely worthwhile, honest-to-Crom “bipartisan achievements like the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act.”
We think Fleisher is right, though we’d also add that it would sure help a hell of a lot if our politicians, especially those on one side of the aisle, would actually try to legislate instead of trying to get their scowling faces on Fox News. Oh dear, that wasn’t bipartisan of me at all.
I’ve been looking, between chores and getting other stuff done, for some sort of “card” to post to Scottie’s Playtime. I just got this Substack from Nancy Beiman, who is far more concise than I am, and says all I want to say. I appreciate everyone who reads and posts here!
I wish you all a merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025. I don’t usually send ‘year end letters’ but this year’s Canada Post strike meant that I could only send digital cards, and I mailed no original cards for the first time in 43 years.
Thees letters customarily describe what happened to the sender during the past year. 2024 was a year of sorrow for me and many of my friends.
Rather than put a damper on your own celebrations, I will instead list what I wish for all of us in 2025.
This wish list doesn’t need a magical being or genie to make them happen. People will have to change their behaviour. That is a wish that can only be granted by humans.
It’s a very tall order but wishes sometimes are granted.
Here goes:
I wish for:
1. Tolerance of people with different views and ways of living.
2. The restoration of civil discourse in private and public life. An end to toxicity.
3. The ending of all current wars and a joining of nations together in common cause to save our planet. Monies currently wasted on war will be used to build housing, repair infrastructure, feed the hungry, restore damaged areas of the natural world and preserve it.
4. Recognition that non human beings share the planet with us and that we are totally dependent on them. They provide air, food, and clean water.
5. The end of money worship. Money may talk, but it doesn’t think. No person or nation may be ‘first’ in everything.
It seems as if we are revisiting many of the negative events from the last century. So my last wish will be that humanity actually learns something from past mistakes.
I can dream, can’t I?
Happy 2025,
Nancy Beiman
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The innocent question that changed Ryan Metzger’s life came the summer his son turned six. That’s when Owen asked about the ever-expanding bag of old batteries in the junk drawer.
“What’s going to happen to them, Dad?” he asked. “What are we supposed to do with them? We’re learning about recycling in school. Where do these get recycled?”
“Um,” Metzger said. “I don’t know.”
He knew where to get batteries, of course. And there were always instructions on correctly using them. But instructions on what to do when they died? Not so much. That’s why he fell into the habit of stuffing dead batteries into a drawer filled with all the other small, disused stuff that the family wasn’t sure what to do with.
“It’s heavy, Dad.” Owen waved the bag of batteries around.
It was pretty full, Metzger had to admit. Detritus from flashlights and old toys, smoke alarms and remote controls, with a crusty one that came out of an old toothbrush, these batteries were one of many types of problematic garbage. They had no obvious final resting place, much like garden chemicals, old phones, light bulbs, car parts, cooking grease … a ton of stuff, really, now that Metzger thought about it. You weren’t supposed to put any of that in the recycling bin. But you couldn’t put it with the landfill-bound trash, either, although that’s what many people ended up doing out of desperation or not caring or habit — or assuming (incorrectly) it would all somehow get properly sorted out by this impenetrable, mysterious entity called the waste management system.
“There’s got to be a place for old batteries,” Metzger assured his son. “Let’s find out.”
It took three phone calls to find a business near their Seattle home that would take their old batteries and ensure that they were actually recycled instead of just dumped somewhere.
Father and son decided to drive to this battery recycler so that Owen could make the delivery. On impulse, they asked a few neighbors if they had stashes of old batteries, too. Several did, so Ryan and Owen took those as well.
Owen was so delighted by this accomplishment that he and his father decided to make a regular project out of hauling one different type of problem trash every weekend to the right recycler, offering to do the same for neighbors in their Queen Anne section of Seattle. So they started gathering bent clothes hangers one weekend, burned-out light bulbs the next, and then plastic bags, wraps, pouches, bubble wrap, and Styrofoam, none of which plays well with community recycling programs. Demand kept expanding block by block as word got around about his little father-and-son project. Soon he had to create a subscriber email group to track it all, with a message going out each week on what sort of trash would be picked up next and when to leave it outside for pickup. They dubbed this “Owen’s List.”
Around this time, grateful subscribers to Owen’s List who had long felt guilty about their secret trashiness started offering the duo money. A few suggested they charge for the service. “I’d gladly give up a couple lattes a month in exchange for you taking care of this,” one neighbor said. “I bet a lot of people would.”
Could that be true? Could their father-and-son hobby become a business that would let him leave his tech job behind and do something to help save the world? Seattle residents took pride in living in one of America’s greenest cities, but would they really pay extra every month to change their trashy habits and help Owen’s List patch a gaping hole in the waste and recycling system?
Metzger renamed the service Ridwell, to better explain its mission at a glance, and then set out to find out. (snip-MORE)
