03/13 - L. Ron Hubbard's Birthday

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 5:00am

~~ Douglas DC-8

It's L. Ron Hubbard's Birthday. Sure, I could just as easily have used Bobby Rydell or Neal Sedaka, except that it really isn't Bobby Rydell's Birthday and Neal Sedaka never invented a religion. We need people to keep inventing new religions just in case all of the existing ones are somehow imperfect in some detail or another. Mr. Hubbard didn't just invent a religion, he did a lot of stuff. For example, he wrote Sci-Fi.

75 million years ago, Xenu, the ruler of a galactic confederacy, gathered billions of the citizens of said confederacy, paralyzed them and then froze them in a glycol-alcohol mix. These victims were then flown to earth on spaceships looking exactly identical to the Douglas DC-8, like the one pictured above, but without the engines. They were then unloaded, stacked around volcanoes, and blown up with H-bombs. Their souls were then captured with electronic ribbons and, essentially, brainwashed. But I won't spoil the ending, in the first place, it's worth tons of dinero.

'Mediocre Sci-Fi', you opine? Not so, for starts, because it is gospel truth, or at least a religious truth of Hubbard's new religion, which, like all religious dogma, is absolute guaranteed truth. And, even if you were to doubt that, I would remind you that there are innumerable corners of the internet where questioning, criticizing, challenging or, Ishtar forbid, mocking even the least atom of any religious dogma is treated as hate speech and you wouldn't want to be some evil hater, now, wouldja?

N.B. I'll deal with Mr. Sedaka later.

This is the anniversary of the start of the eighty years' war, a rebellion of various peoples including the fabulous Watergeuzen against the Hapsburgs, including Philip the Sap, which eventually led to the existence of the Netherlands.

Speaking of Sci-Fi, Uranus was discovered on March 13, and Pluto's discovery was announced on March 13.

Annnd in 1954, General Giap began the humiliation of the Franco-CIA joint neo-retro-colonial force that was trying to recreate French Indochina.

**********

On this day in history:

0624 -- The Battle of Badr, known as the turning point of Islam.

1567 - The start of the Eighty Years' War

1697 -- The capital of the last independent Maya kingdom fell to the conquistadors.

1781 -- William Herschel discovered Uranus

1845 -- Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto premiered

1848 – The German revolutions of 1848–1849 began

1884 -- The Siege of Khartoum began

1897 -- San Diego State University was founded (originally San Diego State Collge)

1930 – The news of the discovery of Pluto is announced by Lowell Observatory

1943 -- German forces liquidated the Jewish ghetto in Krakow.

1954 -- Viet Minh forces under Vo Nguyen Giap began the Battle of Dien Bien Phu eventually resulting in a US invasion

1969 – Apollo 9 returned safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.

1979 -- The New Jewel Movement staged a nearly bloodless coup in Grenada indirectly leading to the later US invasion

1988 – The Seikan Tunnel opened between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.

2003 – An article in Nature identified the Ciampate del Diavolo as 350,000-year-old hominid footprints

2020 – Breonna Taylor was killed by cops who were forcibly invading her home pursuant to a "no-knock" killing permit

**********

Some people who were born on this day:

You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion.

~~ L. Ron Hubbard

1593 -- Georges de La Tour, painter
1700 -- Michel Blavet, composer & flautist
1720 – Charles Bonnet, naturalist
1781 -- Karl Friedrich Schinkel, architect & painter
1855 -- Percival Lowell, astronomer & mathematician, founder of Lowell Observatory
1864 -- Alexej von Jawlensky, painter
1870 – William Glackens, painter and illustrator, Ashcan School founder
1884 – Hugh Walpole, author and educator
1892 -- Janet Flanner, author & journalist
1902 -- Mohammed Abdel Wahab, singer and composer
1908 -- Walter Annenberg, publisher
1908 -- Myrtle Bachelder, chemist who worked on Mnhattan Project
1910 -- Sammy Kaye, saxophonist, bandleader & songwriter
1911 -- L. Ron Hubbard,
1913 -- William J. Casey, politician & spook
1921 -- Al Jaffee, cartoonist, most notably for MAD.
1925 -- Roy Haynes, drummer & composer
1929 -- Bunny Yeager, photographer & model
1930 -- Blue Mitchell, trumpet player
1932 -- Jan Howard, Opry singer
1933 -- Mike Stoller, songwriter & producer, especially with Jerry Lieber
1938 -- Erma Franklin, did original Piece of my Heart, Aretha's big sis.
1939 -- Neil Sedaka, pianist, singer, songwriter
1942 -- Scatman John, pianist, singer, songwriter
1950 -- Charles Krauthammer, physician & author
1951 -- Charo, singer and guitarist, Cuchi-Cuchi
1956 -- Jamie Dimon, uber capitalist, chief of shadow government of the USA
1960 -- Adam Clayton, U2 bassist
1962 -- Terence Blanchard, trumpet player, bandleader & composer
1966 -- Chico Science, singer, songwriter, founder of manquebeat
1975 -- Glenn Lewis, singer & songwriter

**********

Some people who died on this day:

The worst enemy women have is in the pulpit.

~~ Susan B. Anthony

1842 -- Henry Shrapnel, general, inventor of shrapnel
1906 -- Susan B. Anthony, activist
1938 -- Clarence Darrow, lawyer
1943 -- Stephen Vincent Benet, poet & author
1990 -- Bruno Bettelheim, quack & mis-educator, shrink
1998 -- Judge Dread, singer who holds record for most songs banned by the BBC
1998 – Hans von Ohain, physicist and engineer
1999 -- Lee Falk, cartoonist, playwright, director & producer
2006 -- Robert C. Baker, anti-gastronome, inventor of the chicken (mc)nugget
2013 -- Cartha DeLoach, feeb, sleaze, Jedgar's gofer

**********

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

L Ron Hubbard's Birthday
Donald Duck Day
Ken Day

**********

Today's Tunes

Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto

Michel Blavet

Mohammed Abdel Wahab

Sammy Kaye

Roy Haynes

Blue Mitchell

Jan Howard

Mike Stoller (got a couple of days, we can do a full retrospective)

Erma Franklin

Neil Sedaka

Scatman John

Charo

Adam Clayton

Terence Blanchard

Chico Science

Glenn Lewis

Judge Dread (not his forte, but safe for work)

Bonus: Some Lieber & Stoller

**********

Ok, it's an open thread, so it's up to you folks now. So what's on your mind?

Cross posted from http://caucus99percent.com

Tags:

Open Thread

L Ron Hubbard

Battle of Badr

Uranus

Vote

Comments

Submitted by QMS on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 8:59am

Not being a big cult religion fan

I think I will celebrate The Donald
-Duck that is.
Thanks for the OT

—

question everything

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:08pm

Perhaps you might also, by chance, recall

@QMS

Hey Darnald, duck!

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by Shahryar on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 1:44pm

the Walt Dizzy classic

@enhydra lutris

"somehow...the idea of a mouse with lipstick and eyelashes and a dress with high-heeled shoes; a mouse ten times bigger than the biggest rat...this idea has always made me sick"

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 11:09am

People will believe

Anything. Anything at all. Any-freakin'-thing.

I don't understand, but I never have and I never will. All I can say is that I'm glad that I was brought up in the absence of religion. It sure does save me from spending any mental energy (or dinero!) on things that just flat aren't going to happen.

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:16pm

One hypothesis

@usefewersyllables

I don't understand, but I never have and I never will

Faith burns less calories than thought.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by smiley7 on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:47pm

" Faith burns less calories than thought,"

@enhydra lutris

gentle smile, missed you, EL.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 3:29pm

Heh, thanks smiley

@smiley7

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:08pm

Why you can not trust anything that the Whitehouse spokesman

sez!

There is a video of her saying this but I can't find it now.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/willow-project

Mar 11, 2023

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied reports that U.S. President Joe Biden would imminently approve the Willow Project, saying "no final decisions" have been made on the highly controversial $8 billion ConocoPhillips oil drilling endeavor in northern Alaska slammed by critics as a "climate catastrophe."

"Anyone who says there has been a final decision is wrong," Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday evening after outlets including Bloomberg, CNN, and The New York Timesreported that the Biden administration would green-light what would be the single-largest oil operation in the United States.

"President Biden is delivering on the most aggressive climate agenda of any U.S. president in history and spurring an unprecedented expansion of clean energy," the White House spokesperson added.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/13/alaska-willow-project-ap...

The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security.

The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US.

Biden approves controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska
Environmentalists and some Alaskan Native communities had opposed the plan over climate, wildlife and food-shortage fears

Oliver Milman, Nina Lakhani and Maanvi Singh
Mon 13 Mar 2023 14.51 GMT
The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security.

The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US.

It will produce an estimated 576m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude a day. This extraction, which ConocoPhillips has said may, ironically, involve refreezing the rapidly thawing Arctic permafrost to stabilize drilling equipment, would create one of the largest “carbon bombs” on US soil, potentially producing more than twice as many emissions than all renewable energy projects on public lands by 2030 would cut combined.

In its decision, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management said that the approval “strikes a balance” by allowing ConocoPhillips to use its longstanding leases in the Arctic while also limiting drilling to three sites rather than five, which the company wanted.

But the approval has been met with outrage among environmental campaigners and Native representatives who say it fatally undermines Joe Biden’s climate agenda. In all, the project is expected to create about 260m tons of greenhouse gases over its lifespan, the equivalent of creating about 70 new coal-fired power plants.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:13pm

Short Version:

@humphrey

you can not trust anything that the Whitehouse spokesman says because they are the Whitehouse spokesman (actually, spokesperson. Dems might not be honest, but they are definitely woke.)

be well and have a good one

sez! There is a video of her saying this but I can't find it now. https://www.commondreams.org/news/willow-project Mar 11, 2023 White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied reports that U.S. President Joe Biden would imminently approve the Willow Project, saying "no final decisions" have been made on the highly controversial $8 billion ConocoPhillips oil drilling endeavor in northern Alaska slammed by critics as a "climate catastrophe." "Anyone who says there has been a final decision is wrong," Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday evening after outlets including Bloomberg, CNN, and The New York Timesreported that the Biden administration would green-light what would be the single-largest oil operation in the United States. "President Biden is delivering on the most aggressive climate agenda of any U.S. president in history and spurring an unprecedented expansion of clean energy," the White House spokesperson added. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/13/alaska-willow-project-ap... The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security. The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. Biden approves controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska Environmentalists and some Alaskan Native communities had opposed the plan over climate, wildlife and food-shortage fears Oliver Milman, Nina Lakhani and Maanvi Singh Mon 13 Mar 2023 14.51 GMT The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security. The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. It will produce an estimated 576m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude a day. This extraction, which ConocoPhillips has said may, ironically, involve refreezing the rapidly thawing Arctic permafrost to stabilize drilling equipment, would create one of the largest “carbon bombs” on US soil, potentially producing more than twice as many emissions than all renewable energy projects on public lands by 2030 would cut combined. In its decision, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management said that the approval “strikes a balance” by allowing ConocoPhillips to use its longstanding leases in the Arctic while also limiting drilling to three sites rather than five, which the company wanted. But the approval has been met with outrage among environmental campaigners and Native representatives who say it fatally undermines Joe Biden’s climate agenda. In all, the project is expected to create about 260m tons of greenhouse gases over its lifespan, the equivalent of creating about 70 new coal-fired power plants.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by Shahryar on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 1:45pm

sad and pathetic

@humphrey

now they'll probably brush off criticism with an infuriating dismissal.

sez! There is a video of her saying this but I can't find it now. https://www.commondreams.org/news/willow-project Mar 11, 2023 White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied reports that U.S. President Joe Biden would imminently approve the Willow Project, saying "no final decisions" have been made on the highly controversial $8 billion ConocoPhillips oil drilling endeavor in northern Alaska slammed by critics as a "climate catastrophe." "Anyone who says there has been a final decision is wrong," Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday evening after outlets including Bloomberg, CNN, and The New York Timesreported that the Biden administration would green-light what would be the single-largest oil operation in the United States. "President Biden is delivering on the most aggressive climate agenda of any U.S. president in history and spurring an unprecedented expansion of clean energy," the White House spokesperson added. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/13/alaska-willow-project-ap... The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security. The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. Biden approves controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska Environmentalists and some Alaskan Native communities had opposed the plan over climate, wildlife and food-shortage fears Oliver Milman, Nina Lakhani and Maanvi Singh Mon 13 Mar 2023 14.51 GMT The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security. The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. It will produce an estimated 576m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude a day. This extraction, which ConocoPhillips has said may, ironically, involve refreezing the rapidly thawing Arctic permafrost to stabilize drilling equipment, would create one of the largest “carbon bombs” on US soil, potentially producing more than twice as many emissions than all renewable energy projects on public lands by 2030 would cut combined. In its decision, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management said that the approval “strikes a balance” by allowing ConocoPhillips to use its longstanding leases in the Arctic while also limiting drilling to three sites rather than five, which the company wanted. But the approval has been met with outrage among environmental campaigners and Native representatives who say it fatally undermines Joe Biden’s climate agenda. In all, the project is expected to create about 260m tons of greenhouse gases over its lifespan, the equivalent of creating about 70 new coal-fired power plants.

Submitted by Shahryar on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 3:19pm

perfectly logical reasoning for approving the thing

@humphrey

"However, administration officials were concerned that ConocoPhillips’ decades-old leases limited the government’s legal ability to block the project and that courts might have ruled in the company’s favor."

might have....

way to fight for what's right!

sez! There is a video of her saying this but I can't find it now. https://www.commondreams.org/news/willow-project Mar 11, 2023 White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday denied reports that U.S. President Joe Biden would imminently approve the Willow Project, saying "no final decisions" have been made on the highly controversial $8 billion ConocoPhillips oil drilling endeavor in northern Alaska slammed by critics as a "climate catastrophe." "Anyone who says there has been a final decision is wrong," Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday evening after outlets including Bloomberg, CNN, and The New York Timesreported that the Biden administration would green-light what would be the single-largest oil operation in the United States. "President Biden is delivering on the most aggressive climate agenda of any U.S. president in history and spurring an unprecedented expansion of clean energy," the White House spokesperson added. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/13/alaska-willow-project-ap... The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security. The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. Biden approves controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska Environmentalists and some Alaskan Native communities had opposed the plan over climate, wildlife and food-shortage fears Oliver Milman, Nina Lakhani and Maanvi Singh Mon 13 Mar 2023 14.51 GMT The Biden administration has approved a controversial $8bn (£6bn) drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, which has drawn fierce opposition from environmentalists and some Alaska Native communities, who say it will speed up the climate breakdown and undermine food security. The ConocoPhillips Willow project will be one of the largest of its kind on US soil, involving drilling for oil and gas at three sites for multiple decades on the 23m-acre National Petroleum Reserve which is owned by the federal government and is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. It will produce an estimated 576m barrels of oil over 30 years, with a peak of 180,000 barrels of crude a day. This extraction, which ConocoPhillips has said may, ironically, involve refreezing the rapidly thawing Arctic permafrost to stabilize drilling equipment, would create one of the largest “carbon bombs” on US soil, potentially producing more than twice as many emissions than all renewable energy projects on public lands by 2030 would cut combined. In its decision, the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management said that the approval “strikes a balance” by allowing ConocoPhillips to use its longstanding leases in the Arctic while also limiting drilling to three sites rather than five, which the company wanted. But the approval has been met with outrage among environmental campaigners and Native representatives who say it fatally undermines Joe Biden’s climate agenda. In all, the project is expected to create about 260m tons of greenhouse gases over its lifespan, the equivalent of creating about 70 new coal-fired power plants.

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:13pm

It looks like Pfizer has come up with a new money making

opportunity.

Pfizer will spend $43 billion to buy Seagen and deepen its reach into treating cancer. The company said it will pay $229 in cash for each Seagen share, combining Seagen’s technology with Pfizer’s scale and strength, Pfizer's CEO said in a statement. https://t.co/m5TtwP32ip

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 13, 2023

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:22pm

Oh good, good. /s n/t

@humphrey

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:39pm

Sure looks like the fed is bailing out SVB

.
Fed Panics: Signature Bank Closed By Regulators; Fed, TSY, FDIC Announce Another Banking System Bailout

Translation: the Fed's hiking cycle is dead and buried, and here comes the next round of massive liquidity injections. It also means that the Fed, Treasury and FDIC have just experienced the most devastating humiliation in recent history - just 4 days ago Powell was telling Congress he could hike 50bps and here we are now using taxpayer funds to bail out banks that have collapsed because they couldn't even handle 4.75% and somehow the Fed has no idea!

$Romney says that there is no money to help people living under crushing student debt, but he’s insisting that the bank gets as much money as it needs to protect the investors.

Just Friday Powell was saying that interest rates would rise much higher and faster, but according to the essay the bank crash has put a sudden end to it.

Of course the definition of capitalism is rig the free market for the rich and when they screw up socialize the losers. Or is that losses?

—

Putin isn’t going to make you homeless or kill you or deny you health care.
Your government will allow it to happen though.

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:47pm

I am not a financial genius but this doesn't sound optimistic

@snoopydawg

Edited to add the impact of Biden's Bailout!

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:59pm

The bank managers and decision makers should all

@snoopydawg

be personally on the hook for negligence. Their failure to keep their exposure to fixed rate risk, among other things, by hedging all such exposures is inexcusable in a world where there are an infinite variety of derivatives available to choose from. If nothing else, they could've been offering 5 to 5.5% short to mid term CDs, locking in greedhead money to ponzi onward with.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by smiley7 on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:38pm

Good morning ,EL,

Watched the movie TAR last evening; had previously passed it up on Peacock, happy to say, i enjoyed it thoroughly and write to recommend it to others.

An elegant film in music, stunning emotional scenes, life at the top and on the way exposed in sexual cruelty; much the way it is.

First new movie i've seen in a long time, don't take the time much anymore as most movies today become sleeping tonic; happy to see the craft come alive.

Also, reminded me of Drama school and moments in my career. The Julliard scene is a masterpiece, kudos.

Couldn't find the Julliard scene without commentary, but did find this preview.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 1:16pm

Good morning smiley. It's been some time since we took

@smiley7

in a movie and even longer since we took in a new one. These days reality has pretty much all of the drama that I can handle, more in many cases. There are physiological constraints against movies as well.

Glad you got to go indulge and that you enjoyed it.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by exindy on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 2:43pm

I have given up on recent movies

@enhydra lutris because they lack so much in the way of substance.

We don't have cable TV and don't subscribe to any of the marvel movies.

One thing I very much do is look for a movie on Hoopla or Kanopy. Both of these are included in my library membership. I am particularly impressed by the foreign offerings on Kanopy, especially a few starring Francois Cluzet, namely Tell No One (based on Harlen Cobin book), School of Life, Irreplaceable. Maybe some Roberto Benigni films. Then there's Come What May, a film set in europe during the WW2 displacements (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2296747/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2). Oh, and lest I forget it, The Things of Life (the premake of Intersection and a much better movie). Since I use closed captions, they fit well for me.

I was quite taken by Wind River, a movie based on the exploitation and deaths of native american women and the difficulty in dealing with the confusing jurisdictions.

I also like to watch films from the 80's and 90's. Like Medicine Man, The Earthling.

I don't miss cable tv at all. Over the air works just fine.

Oh my, here I am rambling again.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 2:56pm

Hola exindy. Hey, it's all good. If I was going to do movies

@exindy

again, I'd seek out all the classics, especially of the noir ilk, that I missed the first time around.

be well and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by usefewersyllables on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 12:52pm

Hmm. So trading

has been suspended in 28 different banks, now. Looks like they hit the circuit breakers or something. This may be interesting over the coming days...

https://twitter.com/GeromanAT/status/1635291767544369153

—

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

Submitted by QMS on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 1:15pm

Charles Schwab leads US financial sector wipeout

The Texas-based financial services corporation’s stock slumped by more than 20% during Monday trading, representing the company’s worst one-day sell-off since April 2000.
The wipeout came as the company touted its resilience after a reported 28% decline in average margin balances in February from a year earlier.

https://www.rt.com/business/572912-us-charles-schwab-shares-slump/

—

question everything

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 2:27pm

LOL

@QMS

Submitted by QMS on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 3:02pm

uncle joe forgot his daily brief

@humphrey

—

question everything

Submitted by humphrey on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 2:08pm

Can you tell the difference between a protest and a NGO rally?

You can tell that this demonstration is evil and undemocratic because the signs are in the local language instead of English https://t.co/ZtRVdZ4h3O

— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) March 13, 2023

#Poland
people gathered in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz to protest.
The protesters chanted "This is not our war."
"We don't want to die for #Bandera pic.twitter.com/3SklYweYpi

— Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) March 13, 2023

Meanwhile in Georgia.

Submitted by QMS on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 2:52pm

putting it on a little thick

@humphrey

especially your last photo
notice the Georgian flag is smaller and in the background
can see why Russia is disappointed with their neighbor

—

question everything

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 3:26pm

Wasn't Georgia the first color revolution, leading

@QMS

to the South Ossetia breakaway?

be wll and have a good one

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by on the cusp on Mon, 03/13/2023 - 4:00pm

Many years ago,

I befriended a young woman who had moved to Houston from California. After she began to feel comfortable around me, she disclosed that she had moved to escape the Scientology recruiters. They had been successful in getting her Mother to join.
She said they attempted to get her to disclose to them all the sins of her life and it frightened her. I did some research on it, out of curiosity, and it seems to be a blackmail ploy. Stay in and support the Church, or those sins might be disclosed to friends, family, employers, etc...
If I knew where Hubbard's grave was, I would enjoy pissing on it.
Hope everyone is having a great start to their week.
Thanks, EL. Fun OT today.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981