Illustration from Popular Mechanics, March 1912 (source). Who knew we'd be in trouble? Everyone who bothered to look.by Gaius PubliusThis is more climate news roundup than anything more deeply analytical. The changes we're seeing, which by now almost everyone on the planet is noticing, are here to stay.
You can't imagine what a humongous fan I am of the French Revolution. I also love New Order songs... especially "Age of Consent," so this video above-- Oh God! No guillotines but, by the end, you get the point where all that excess it shows was leading. The French came to refer to Marie Antoinette as Madame Déficit and saw her as profligate self-serving, promiscuous (with Count Axel von Fersen, who looks very hot in the clip above) and reactionary.
You might not know it from Señor Trumpanzee's demented early morning tweet storms since Monday, but this is what the Regime dubbed "Infrastructure Week." Not counting all the deranged distractions, he kicked off Infrastructure Week with an announcement that he's going to try to privatize U.S. air traffic control.
A brief 2015 video report from the WSJ about the Airbus all-electric airplane, the E-Fan. Airbus is not the only company doing this. Go here for an interesting video about Pipistrel's electric plane.by Gaius PubliusA brief follow-up to our recent piece on the coming death of Big Oil as a business (see "The Dying Fossil Fuel Industry").
Tuesday, one of Congress' most overtly corrupt members, Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (for whom the airline industry famously procured a mistress), convened his committee to make believe they were holding
Good for U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker putting the kibosh on Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson's plan for a week of mass executions. I'd rather see United Airlines executed instead. So would everyone else. The company's stocked plummeted 2.5% last week and the damage to the brand is probably far greater than that.
The member of Congress who figures out a way to actually prevent telemarketers from bothering people-- if the Do Not Call list ever functioned, that's now a distant memory-- should get a bonus... or a Senate seat or a job as Vice President or something. I guess it's not as important as figuring out how to un-rig the system to lessen income inequality and institute Medicare For All but, let's face it, conservatives will never allow any of that so let's find something everyone can agree on-- like the death penalty for telemarketers. Or more accountable frequent flyer programs.
by Ken The Q-and-A in the post title above, which comes from a recent piece in the Washington Post by Christopher Elliott ("consumer advocate, journalist and co-founder of the advocacy group Travelers United"), probably won't be of interest to readers unless: (a) they have flown before, or (b) they may ever be forced to fly again.
"Father Ted," president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, in his office at the school's Hesburgh Library in 2012 (see the full photo here)
