Mark Morford: When the president is a madman (SF Gate)
It's all just madness, really, barely controlled, intensely shoddy and deeply weird, to a degree that the media can barely keep up (though they're getting better), Europe is preparing for the worst, and the despicable Republican party lets him inflict whatever horror he wants, lest it restrict their ability to gut health care, cut taxes for the rich and cram through their shockingly poisonous, unpopular agenda.
Garrison Keillor: The vast left-wing conspiracy against me (Washington Post)
Joe Biden is following me. I go to lunch at Mickey's Diner and he's sitting two stools away, wearing a stocking cap and a fake mustache with a fake nose and glasses but he says, "Hey, how's it going, fella?" It's Joe Biden. So pathetic. Sad.
Paul Krugman: A Plan Set Up To Fail (NY Times Blog)
Taken together, these moves would almost surely lead to a death spiral. Healthy individuals, especially low-income households no longer receiving adequate aid, would opt out, worsening the risk pool. Premiums would soar - without the cushion created by the current, price-linked subsidy formula - leading more healthy people to exit. In much of the country, the individual markets would probably collapse.
Paul Waldman: The new Republican health-care plan is awe-inspiringly awful (Washington Post)
So in sum, the Republican bill makes coverage more expensive and less comprehensive, will inevitably lead to fewer people with insurance, is particularly cruel to those with low incomes, and destabilizes the insurance market, all to give a tax break to the wealthy. That's why Avik Roy, perhaps the leading conservative health-care wonk and a fierce critic of the ACA, wrote that the Republican bill reflects a "stubborn desire to make health insurance unaffordable for millions of Americans, and trap millions more in poverty."
Peaking at 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the only record to chart for Loudon Wainwright III, this song memorializes a deceased animal in the center of a street. What kind of animal was it?
Idaho is a state in the northwestern region of the United States. It borders the state of Montana to the east and northeast, Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington and Oregon to the west. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canadian border with the province of British Columbia. With a population of around 1.7 million people and an area of 83,569 square miles (216,440 km2), Idaho is the 14th largest and 39th most populous of the 50 states. The state's capital and largest city is Boise.
Industries significant for the state economy include manufacturing, agriculture, mining, forestry, and tourism. A number of science and technology firms are either headquartered in Idaho or have factories there, and the state also contains the Idaho National Laboratory, which is the largest Department of Energy facility in the country. Idaho's agricultural sector supplies a number of different products, but the state is best known for its potato crop, which comprises around one-third of the nationwide yield. The official state nickname is the "Gem State", which references Idaho's reputation for gemstones and, more broadly, its many wilderness areas.
Source
Randall was first and correct with:
IDAHO
zorch said:
Idaho
Mark. wrote:
Idaho is the Gem State.
Alan J replied:
Idaho.
mj responded:
The only reason I can figure
Is that the glacial lakes look like turquoise. The Gem State is Idaho.
Well, some of its militia members are real gems.
Adam answered:
Idaho- and with all the white supremacists and all it certainly has turned into a real gem.
Jim from CA, retired to ID, said:
Idaho
Deborah wrote:
Idaho's nickname is The Gem State. I've driven through parts of Idaho and it is very pretty.
There's no rain in the 7-day forecast. That hasn't happened since November. I'm in a kind of shock.
David in Moon Valley took the day off.
Dale of Temporarily Dry Diamond Springs, Norcali took the day off.
Patriot Act NSA Spying Unconstitutional Section 215 National Security Letters Must End
My name is Marc Perkel and I have decided to announce that I will not comply with the so called "Patriot Act" laws requiring me to disclose information about my customers. If I receive a national security letter I will immediately photograph it, post it online everywhere I can, and then make a video of me burning it. I will then await my arrest. If you want to put me in jail then come get me mother fucker.
CBS opens the night with a FRESH'Big Bang Theory', followed by a FRESH'The Great Indoors', then a FRESH'Mom', followed by a FRESH'Life In Pieces', then a FRESH'Training Day'.
Scheduled on a FRESHStephen Colbert are Kristen Stewart, Maz Jobrani, and Dawes.
Scheduled on a FRESHJames Corden, OBE, are John Goodman, Adam Pally, and Spoon.
NBC begins the night with a RERUN'Superstore', followed by a FRESH'Powerless', then a FRESH'Chicago Med', followed by a FRESH'The Blacklist: Redemption'.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 2/16/17) are Jessica Biel, Ricky Martin, Robert Irwin, Rag'n'Bone Man, and Chad Smith.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 2/23/17) are Allison Williams, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel, Paul Beatty, and Andres Forero.
On a RERUNCarson 'The Scab' Daly (from 2/14/17) are JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Temples, and Steven Strait.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Grey's Anatomy', followed by a FRESH'Scandal', then a FRESH'The Catch'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel are Tom Hiddleston, Gillian Jacobs, and Future.
The CW offers an FRESH'Supernatural', followed by a FRESH'Riverdale'.
Faux has a FRESH'MasterChef Junior', followed by a FRESH'Kicking & Screaming'.
MY here fills the night with LIVE'NHL Hockey'.
A&E has 'The First 48', followed by a FRESH'The First 48', then a FRESH'60 Days In', followed by a FRESH'Nightwatch'.
AMC offers the movie 'Forrest Gump', followed by the movie 'Forrest Gump', again.
BBC -
[6:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 12-Nightmare in Silver
[7:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 7 - EPISODE 13-The Name of the Doctor
[8:00AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR
[9:40AM] DOCTOR WHO: THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR
[11:00AM] DOCTOR WHO - SEASON 8 - EPISODE 2-Into the Dalek
[12:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-From Pole To Pole
[1:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-Mountains
[2:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Fresh Water
[3:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Caves
[4:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Deserts
[5:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 6-Ice Worlds
[6:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 7-Great Plains
[7:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 8-Jungles
[8:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 9-Shallow Seas
[9:00PM] PLANET EARTH II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 3-Jungles
[10:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 10-Seasonal Forests
[11:00PM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 11-Ocean Deep
[12:00AM] PLANET EARTH II - SEASON 2 - EPISODE 3-Jungles
[1:00AM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 1-From Pole To Pole
[2:00AM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 2-Mountains
[3:00AM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 3-Fresh Water
[4:00AM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 4-Caves
[5:00AM] PLANET EARTH - SEASON 1 - EPISODE 5-Deserts (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has 3 hours of old 'Real Housewives Of Atlanta', followed by a FRESH'Atlanta Social', then a FRESH'Watch What Happens Live'.
Comedy Central has 'Futurama', another 'Futurama', 2 hours of old 'Tosh.0', 'South Park', and another 'South Park'.
Scheduled on a FRESHThe Daily Show is Alynda Segarra.
Scheduled on a FRESH@Midnight are Matt Braunger, Nick Simmons, and Colton Dunn.
FX has the movie 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier', followed by the movie 'Iron Man 2', then a FRESH'Baskets', and another 'Baskets'.
History has 'Swamp People', followed by a FRESH'Swamp People: Blood & Guts', then a FRESH'Swamp People', followed by a FRESH'Gangland Undercover'.
IFC -
[7:30AM] A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4: THE DREAM MASTER
[9:30AM] SPEED
[12:00PM] SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL
[2:45PM] THE PUNISHER
[5:30PM] KICK-ASS
[8:00PM] CONEHEADS
[10:00PM] PORTLANDIA
[10:30PM] THE WORLD'S END
[1:00AM] PORTLANDIA
[1:30AM] KICK-ASS
[4:00AM] PORTLANDIA
[4:30AM] CONEHEADS (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] The Andy Griffith Show
[6:30AM] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:00AM] The Andy Griffith Show
[7:30AM] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:00AM] The Andy Griffith Show
[8:30AM] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:00AM] The Andy Griffith Show
[9:30AM] The Karate Kid Part II
[12:00PM] The Karate Kid
[3:00PM] Law & Order-Second Opinion
[4:00PM] Law & Order-Charm City
[5:00PM] Law & Order-Stalker
[6:00PM] Law & Order-Cherished
[7:00PM] Law & Order-True North
[8:00PM] Law & Order-Disciple
[9:00PM] Law & Order-Phobia
[10:00PM] Law & Order-White Lie
[11:00PM] Law & Order-School Daze
[12:00AM] Law & Order-Deep Vote
[1:00AM] Law & Order-3 Dawg Night
[2:00AM] Frances Ha
[4:00AM] The Art of Getting By (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'Volcano', followed by the movie 'Ghost Rider'.
TBS:
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Zachary Levi, John Lydon, and Milky Chance.
A gay veterans' group that marched in the past two editions of Boston's St. Patrick's Day Parade said the event's organizers have voted to exclude them from the march, reigniting a fight over cultural inclusion in the annual event.
Organizers of the parade, the largest marking St. Patrick's Day in the country, had long excluded openly gay groups from participating, saying that doing so would conflict with the parade organizers' Roman Catholic heritage. But they backed down in 2015 in the face of intense public pressure.
OUTVETS, which has marched in Boston's parade for the past two years, said it had not been told why its permit had been denied this year.
Officials with the South Boston Allied War Council, which organizes the 116-year-old event, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who boycotted the event during the time that gays were excluded, said he would not march if the group was not included and some sponsors pulled out in protest over the exclusion of gay marchers.
A protester holds a sign aloft as she and hundreds of other activists demonstrate outside the White House as part of "A Day Without a Woman" strike on International Women's Day in Washington, U.S., March 8, 2017.
Photo by Kevin Lamarque
A group of feminist activists was detained in Moscow on Wednesday -- International Women's Day -- after protesting inside the tightly guarded Kremlin with banners calling for an end to male rule.
Seven people were detained including two journalists and taken to a police station for questioning, wrote OVD Info, a website that monitors the detention of activists.
The Novaya Gazeta opposition newspaper, whose journalists witnessed the demonstration, published a photograph of two protesters standing on a balcony of one of the Kremlin towers holding smoke flares and a banner saying "Feminism is our national idea".
The protesters were able to sneak slogans written on skirts and scarves through the tight security, the paper reported.
Police later released the protesters without charge, activist Yelena Tishchenko told the Echo of Moscow radio station.
A former British spy who compiled an explosive and unproven dossier on President Donald Trump's (R-Crooked) purported activities in Russia has returned to work.
Christopher Steele said Tuesday he is "really pleased" to be back in his London office after a prolonged period out of public view. He went into hiding in January after his name was published in connection with the dossier.
"I'm now going to be focusing my efforts on supporting the broader interests of our company here," he said without addressing the Trump dossier.
Trump has described the lurid reports in the dossier as "phony allegations" concocted by his political opponents.
It contains unproven allegations of coordination between Trump's advisers and Russians on hacking the emails of prominent Democrats and claims about sexual activities.
Judy Miller of Evergreen, Colo., holds up a placard during a march around the State Capitol to mark International Women's Day on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, in Denver. More than 1,000 women-and men-took part in the Denver march, one of many staged across the country by organizers of January's Women's March. The action called on women to stay home from work and not spend money in stories or online to show their economic clout on America's fabric.
Photo by David Zalubowski
The lake where Christians believe Jesus walked on water has declined to its lowest level in a hundred years, an Israeli official said Tuesday.
The Sea of Galilee, which is actually a lake, has suffered from four consecutive years of rain shortages, Amir Givati of Israel's Water Authority told military radio.
The level is 20 centimetres below what experts consider acceptable, the so-called "red line," he added.
The "regional drought affects the whole of the Middle East," Givati added.
The shortage of rainfall is affecting agriculture, the environment and animal life in the nearby area, he added.
The House Republicans' health care bill adds up to big tax cuts for the rich.
The bill would cut more than 20 taxes enacted under President Barack Obama's heath law, saving taxpayers nearly $600 billion over the next decade. The bulk of the money would go to the wealthiest Americans.
Low- and moderate-income families would lose their subsidies to buy health insurance in state and federal marketplaces. The subsidies would be replaced by tax credits to help them buy insurance.
The biggest tax cut would eliminate a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for high-income individuals and families. Eliminating the tax would save these taxpayers $158 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper for Congress.
About 90 percent of the benefit from repealing the tax would go to the top 1 percent of earners, who make $700,000 or more, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
Yemeni women hold a banner as they take part in a protest marking the International Women's Day in front of the U.N. building in Sanaa, Yemen, Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2017.
Photo by Hani Mohammed
A small-town judge who says her religious beliefs prevent her from presiding over same-sex marriages was publicly censured by the Wyoming Supreme Court on Tuesday.
But while the court said her conduct undermines the integrity of the judicial system, it does not warrant removal from the bench. In a 3-2 decision, Justice Kate Fox wrote that Judge Ruth Neely violated judicial conduct code but removing Neely would "unnecessarily circumscribe protected expression."
"Judge Neely shall either perform no marriage ceremonies or she shall perform marriage ceremonies regardless of the couple's sexual orientation," Fox wrote.
Neely has never been asked to perform a same-sex marriage, and Fox said that the case was not about same-sex marriage or the reasonableness of religious beliefs.
African-Americans are far more likely to be wrongfully convicted of crimes such as murder, sexual assault and illegal drug activity than whites due to factors including racial bias and official misconduct, a study released on Tuesday said.
Of the 1,900 defendants convicted of crimes and later exonerated, 47 percent were African-Americans - three times their representation in the population - according to the study from the National Registry of Exonerations, which examined cases from 1989 to October 2016.
The study also said black Americans were about seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than white Americans.
"In the murder cases we examined, the rate of official misconduct is considerably higher in cases where the defendant is African-American compared to cases where the defendant is white," said Samuel Gross, a University of Michigan Law School professor who is senior editor of the group that tracks U.S. exonerations.
He said unconscious bias, institutional discrimination and explicit racism, were factors in some of the wrongful convictions.
Tourists walk away after viewing the site where the natural structure known as the Azure Window collapsed, after the Maltese islands were hit by rough seas and stormy weather, at Dwejra on the island of Gozo, Malta, March 8, 2017.
Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi
South Dakota's Republican governor isn't saying whether he'll sign a measure aimed at protecting faith-based organizations that refuse to place children with gay couples or other arrangements contrary to their religious beliefs.
Gov. Dennis Daugaard, who hasn't signaled what action he will take on the bill, frustrated the more conservative elements of his party last year by vetoing a bill that would have required students to use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding with their birth gender. Daugaard, who isn't seeking re-election, has also pledged to veto a pair of measures this year expanding gun rights.
"I know it was relatively controversial," Daugaard said last week about the adoptions bill. He said he'd "listen to both sides" and weigh in, but as of Wednesday - the day after the GOP-controlled Legislature passed it - Daugaard's office hadn't signaled whether he had made up his mind.
If Daugaard signs the bill, South Dakota would join Michigan, North Dakota and Virginia to pass so-called religious exemption bills concerning adoption and foster care, and the first since the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage.
Australia endured a summer of record-breaking extremes, scientists said on Wednesday, with climate change tipped to increase the frequency and severity of such phenomena.
Intense heatwaves, bushfires and flooding plagued the December-February summer season with more than 200 records broken over 90 days, the independent Climate Council said in a report.
"Climate change -- driven largely by the burning of coal, oil and gas -- is cranking up the intensity of extreme weather events," the "Angry Summer" report said.
While bushfires are common in Australia's arid summers, climate change has pushed up land and sea temperatures and led to more extremely hot days and severe fire seasons.
The Bureau of Meteorology said last week the country's largest city Sydney had just experienced its hottest summer ever as "records were broken for numbers of hot days and nights across the city".
White rhinoceros Bruno (R) and Gracie are seen in their enclosure at Thoiry zoo and wildlife park, about 50 km (30 miles) west of Paris, France, March 7, 2017. Poachers broke into the zoo last night, shot dead four-year-old male white rhino called Vince, and sawed off its horn in what is believed to be the first time in Europe that a rhino in captivity has been attacked and killed.
Photo by Christian Hartmann
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