New Year’s Eve Reads
Posted: December 31, 2013 Filed under: Cats, Media, misogyny, Mitt Romney, morning reads, nature, Newt Gingrich, racism, tar sand oil, The Media SUCKS, U.S. Politics | Tags: catnip, dolphins getting high, Edward Snowden, explosions, financial regulation, New Year's Eve 2014, North Dakota train derailment, puffer fish, suicide bombings in Russia, Sunday talk shows love Republicans, Winter Olympics 54 Comments
First Night fireworks, Boston
Good Morning!!
Today is the last day of 2013. Tonight at midnight, we’ll bid adieu to another year. I can’t say I’m sorry to see this one go.
There will be lots of celebratory fireworks in cities around to world tonight; the revelry has already begun in New Zealand. USA Today:
New Zealand rang in the New Year with multicolored fireworks erupting from Auckland’s Sky Tower at midnight Tuesday as thousands of cheering revelers danced in the streets of the South Pacific island nation’s largest city.
Early pyrotechnic shows erupted over Sydney Harbor, dazzling hundreds of thousands viewers ahead of the main event in Australia and Dubai will later try to create the world’s largest fireworks show to ring in 2014.
Unfortunately we’ve also seen some scarier explosions in the past couple of days. Yesterday afternoon there was another accident in North Dakota involving the transport of crude oil. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports: Cassleton, N.D. residents flee town after oil train explosion. So far the evacuations are still voluntary and only about 65% of the 2,400 residents of Cassleton have left their homes.
The explosion happened shortly after 2 p.m. Monday after a BNSF grain train derailed and crashed into a crude oil train near Casselton, which is 20 miles west of Fargo, causing tank cars to explode in towering mushroom-cloud flames. No one was injured in the crash….
In the initial hours after the explosion, authorities told residents to stay indoors to avoid the smoke. Later, when residents were urged to evacuate, some drove to Fargo, where a shelter had been set up for them.
BNSF spokeswoman Amy McBeth said the train carrying grain derailed first, then knocked several cars of the oil train off adjoining tracks. BNSF said both trains had more than 100 cars each….
“It was black smoke and then there were probably four explosions in the next hour to hour and a half,” said Eva Fercho, a Casselton resident who saw the fiery aftermath.
The cars were still burning as darkness fell, and authorities said they would be allowed to burn out.
From the Brampton (Canada) Guardian:
The derailment happened amid heightened concerns about the United States’ increased reliance on rail to carry crude oil. Fears of catastrophic derailments were particularly stoked after last summer’s crash in Quebec of a train carrying crude from North Dakota’s Bakken oil patch. Forty-seven people died in the ensuing fire.
The explosions Monday afternoon sent flames and black smoke skyward outside of Casselton, about 40 kilometres west of Fargo. Investigators couldn’t get close to the blaze and official estimates of how many train cars caught fire varied….
Ryan Toop, who lives less than a kilometre away, said he heard explosions and drove as close as about two city blocks to the fire, which erupted on a day when temperatures were below zero.
“I rolled down the window, and you could literally keep your hands warm,” Toop said.
The tracks that the train was on pass through the middle of Casselton, and Cass County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tara Morris said it was “a blessing it didn’t happen within the city.”
No kidding. I’d say that’s a pretty big understatement. Here’s some raw video of the explosion.
In Russia, there are fears that two suicide bombings on Sunday and Monday signal “that a terrorist campaign may have begun that could stretch into the Winter Olympics.” AP via ABC News:
In the wake of Sunday’s bombing at the city’s main railway station and Monday’s blast on a trolleybus, police reinforcements and Interior Ministry troops have been sent into the city, regional police official Andrei Pilipchuk was quoted as telling the Interfax news agency. He said more than 5,200 security forces are deployed in the city of 1 million.
The Health Ministry said three more victims died on Tuesday, raising the toll to 34 — 18 from the station bombing and 16 from the bus. Officials said 65 other people were hospitalized with injuries.
Volgograd authorities have canceled mass events for New Year’s Eve, one of Russia’s most popular holidays, and asked residents not to set off fireworks. In Moscow, festivities were to go ahead but authorities said security would be increased.
There has been no claim of responsibility for either bombing, but they came only months after the leader of an Islamic insurgency in southern Russia threatened new attacks on civilian targets in the country, including on the Winter Games that are to begin Feb. 7 in Sochi.
After their enthusiastic defense of the racism, sexism, pedophilia, and homophobia of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Roberts, you’d think right-wingers would hesitate to attack a mild commentary involving race on MSNBC, but you’d be wrong.
MSNBC Panel Criticized For Segment About Romney’s Black Grandchild (VIDEO). From TPM:
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry and the panelists on her Sunday morning show drew criticism Monday for poking fun at a Romney family photo that included their adopted African-American grandson, Kieran Romney.
Harris-Perry had the panelists attempt to caption a Romney family photo, which included all of Mitt Romney’s grandchildren.
Harris-Perry joked that Kieran Romney would marry Kanye West’s daughter, North West.
“Could you imagine Mitt Romney and Kanye West as in-laws?” she asked.
Panelist and comedian Dean Obeidallah said the photo “really sums up the diversity of the Republican party.” And actress Pia Glenn started singing “one of these things is not like the other.”
Steve Benen took a look back at the Sunday political talk shows to see what proportion of the guests were from the Democratic and Republican parties. We knew this already, but it’s stunning to see it in a graphic.
The Great 2013 Sunday Show Race
The general impression is rooted in fact: the Sunday shows love Republicans. “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation,” “This Week,” “State of the Union,” and “Fox News Sunday,” hoping to reflect and help shape the conventional wisdom for the political world, collectively favor GOP guests over Democratic guests every year, but who were the big winners in 2013?
The…chart shows every political figure who made 10 or more Sunday show appearances this year, with red columns representing Republicans and blue columns representing Democrats. For 2013, the race wasn’t especially close – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) easily came out on top, making 27 appearances this year. That works out to an average of one appearance every 1.9 weeks (or 2.25 Sunday show appearances a month, every month for a year).
Incredible, isn’t it? Newt Gingrich doesn’t even hold any office and, as Benen points out, “hasn’t served in public office since resigning in disgrace 15 years ago” was in third place in front of Dick Durbin, the supposedly powerful Senate Majority Whip.
According to Mike Konczal of The New Republic, 2013 Was a Bad Year for Wall St. Lobbyists.
Last year, nobody thought that banks would face tougher holding requirements for capital, that regulations of the financial derivatives markets would advance, or that the final Volcker would be a pretty good start instead of an incoherent mess. Yet that is what appears to have happened in 2013. So what caused it? And how it might apply to future political goals?
The successes of 2013 were partially driven by the failures of Wall Street in 2012. The multi-billion dollar trading losses from JPMorgan Chase known as the “London Whale” changed the dynamics for financial reform in a way that took a year to realize. JPMorgan had been leading the charge against reform, arguing that the effort was over-harsh and destructive, and that Wall Street had already cleaned up its act on its own. Indeed, the big concern in 2012 was that Wall Street would convince enough moderate Democrats that Dodd-Frank had gone too far in certain respects, and that Congress would stop regulatory action before it was even completed. This fell apart right alongside the multi-billion dollar losses in JPMorgan’s position. Though various bills to remove parts of Dodd-Frank would pass the House by Republican votes, these efforts failed to generate moderate Democratic votes in the Senate after the Whale trade became public.
Read the rest at the link.
Hey did you know that dolphins like to get high? Read about it at The Independent: Dolphins ‘deliberately get high’ on puffer fish nerve toxins by carefully chewing and passing them around.
In extraordinary scenes filmed for a new documentary, young dolphins were seen carefully manipulating a certain kind of puffer fish which, if provoked, releases a nerve toxin.
Though large doses of the toxin can be deadly, in small amounts it is known to produce a narcotic effect, and the dolphins appeared to have worked out how to make the fish release just the right amount.
Carefully chewing on the puffer and passing it between one another, the marine mammals then enter what seems to be a trance-like state.
The behaviour was captured on camera by the makers of Dolphins: Spy in the Pod, a series produced for BBC One by the award-winning wildlife documentary producer John Downer.
Hey, why is that surprising? Lots of animals probably enjoy altered states of consciousness. Have you ever seen a cat on catnip? What about a big cat?
Finally, I highly recommend these two posts on the NSF/Snowden story by NSFWCORP writers now publishing at Pando Daily, Mark Ames and Yasha Levine respectively.
Snowden’s biggest revelation: We don’t know what power is anymore, nor do we care
Rentacops on desktops: Edward Snowden’s dismissal of Surveillance Valley is wrong, and dangerous
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I like the buzz I get from hot peppers.
Yep and they taste good.
You’re funny BB………make that one hot party pepper.
They do create altered states, because they stimulate endorphins.
Dolphins must be smarter than many humans, since they carefully watch the dose to not overdo it!
lol
First Snowstorm of 2014 to Target Midwest, Northeast
http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/first-snowstorm-2014-target-midwest-northeast-20131229
Happy New Year’s Eve, Skydancers! I’m with you, BB – I’m happy to let 2013 move into the past.
I enjoyed that story about the dolphins using puffer fish to “expand their consciousness” and agree that there are other animals that enjoy it, too!
I think altered states are a universal phenomenon–necessary for dealing with stress and for creativity.
Happy New Year to you! The fireworks displays in Sydney are the best I’ve ever seen. The harbor bridge is a perfect location. You can walk over the top of the bridge and the views from up there are simply gorgeous.
Apologizing to wingnuts doesn’t help. It really only empowers them to yell louder.
I agree Ralph…..Nothing MHP does or says means a damn thing to those people.
Yep…
From thinkbabynames.com: Kieran \ki(e)-ran\ as a boy’s name is pronounced KEER-en. It is of Irish and Gaelic origin, and the meaning of Kieran is “black”.
Oh no!
OMG!!! So his name is, Black or Dark Skinned Romney? Does anyone believe that happened accidentally? Nothing happens in Kingdom Romney by accident.
And I’m with the people who think that MHP needs to quit apologizing to the butt-wipes.
And on a lighter note, Happy New Year to the Sky Dancers.
I can just imagine what that whole scene went down in the Romney household. You are right Mouse, that is one family where everything is planned so precisely…
The New York Times editorial board is angry and let’s the Republicans have it. Superb editorial all around in that it’s finally labelled the intelligence failure that it was overall.
NYT: The Facts About Benghazi
I hope they keep hammering this. Republicans don’t even accept scientific evidence in biology. They are allergic to facts. They create their own “reality” on a daily basis, and it is hurting our country.
Maybe NYT is invested in the truth coming out. They may be more aggressive overall after being called liars by Issa and the other crooks.
They certainly aren’t doing it for Hillary. The NYT has a long history of Clinton-hating.
Very interesting post. Thank you and Happy New Year, Sky Dancers.
I now understand why I stopped watching the Sunday talks years ago. 🙂
Jonathan Chait attempts to explain journalism and transparency to Politico crew.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/12/people-are-allowed-to-read-mike-allen.html
Love the story on the Dolphins BB. They are incredible.
Utah asks Supreme Court to block same-sex marriage http://wp.me/p4HKM-1exv
This should be interesting. Give em’ Hell Sonia.
Oh good. I hope Sonia just handles it herself.
They had nowhere else left to go. I hope Sotomayor tells them to FOAD.
Did anyone happen to see Justice Sotomayor on the Kennedy Center awards telecast Sunday night leading the tribute to Met Opera soprano Martina Arroyo? Imagine having a Supreme Court Justice present your award? I can’t remember ever seeing that before. She was so warm and down-to-earth.
I didn’t watch the awards but Justice Sotomayor has always seemed like a very nice person to me.
David Adkins has a good take on Frank Langone and his ilk.
hullabaloo: But our rich people are exceptional!
Yeah, and so was the KKK.
https://twitter.com/Green_Footballs/status/417837038210007040
Someone must have given him a few bucks… (Governor for sale)…
https://twitter.com/Green_Footballs/status/418192944500207616
2014 in Sydney!
Happy New Years Sky Dancers!
Happy New Year Fannie!
Pete Souza’s White House year in pictures 2013 …
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/sets/72157639230153304/
Happy New Years Everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can see a bunch of pictures worldwide:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/31/world/new-years-eve/
Happy New Year!!!!!
Happy New Year! Glad to kick 2013 out the door. Wishing health & peace to all.
This isn’t good.
For more information… http://www.politico.com
“Health” is inclusive of reproductive health by any medical definition.
Why the hell are we still fighting for this in 2014?
Let’s see what happens when the government responds.
More Happy New Years….to you all in the Central time zone.
Fireworks are loud. Be glad when they run out. 🙂 Happy New Year again!
Love the photos, JJ. Both of my nephews stayed up till midnight and we watched the Times Square countdown. The little guy stayed up till his mom and dad came home at 1AM!
That is great BB, happy new year!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqCT_Ew9OCk
Great show.