How to not run/and run a business:

In 1976, my family was Big Thompson River flood. 2 hotels survived -locally owned one we were in, which let people stay free & doubled up rooms, & Holiday Inn, which tripled rates. I’ve never again stayed in HI for 45 years because of that..1

Dems are correct in not calling witnesses, which is obvious when you think this through. First, the case has been made. Any GOPr or delusional Trump fan who doesnt accept that - or care - never will. The country knows/sees what happened. 2nd, if dems called witnesses.../1

...it will add next to nothing. Statements are being admitted into the record from some witnesses. Third, & most important, the GQP is a monstrosity that only cares about power. Once the witness door opens, they'll turn the trial into a farce, calling anyone and everyone.../2

...to muddy up the case. Since their entire case is whataboutism, they will try to call Obama, Hillary Clinton, Holder, Waters, and on and on. If the presiding officer holds the testimony irrelevant before allowing it, there will be weeks of rage about cover-ups, etc. The.../3

...actual case - already strongly proven by the House Managers, even using the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt - will get buried as the days and weeks pass with hundreds of irrelevant witnesses are fought over. Finally, bringing those witnesses.../4

...could interfere with a possibly more important proceeding if it happens: The criminal prosecution of Trump by District of Columbia for inciting a riot, which is a crime in DC. As in the Oliver North case, the public Congressional testimony of North led a court to throw.../5

For those of us suffering & dying in Texas, the sociopathy of @GOP that leads to an astonishing lack of concern about our lives by evil folk like @GregAbbott_TX @GovernorPerry @TuckerCarlson @DanCrenshawTX et al who blatantly lie about what’s happening...1

...just to score political points - and protect the profits of energy companies - is almost incomprehensible. These are people who would claim Social Security caused 9/11 if it was convenient. What caused this catastrophe is vast vast majority from gas, then coal/nuclear...2

...then wind. The ONLY source of power that is delivering more than expected in budgeting is wind. But that’s not convenient to say for the oil/gas/coal industry, so the @GregAbbott_TX @GovernorPerry @DanCrenshawTX stand atop our dead bodies lying to protect the companies...2

...shockingly, the ONLY people in a position of state/national strength are the executives with the company that manages electricity in the state, @ERCOT_ISO. But they can’t tell the whole truth, because that would entail revealing how much stupidity was done here for profit...3

...of industry by Texas @GOP. If gas/nuke/nuclear/wind had been winterized - as they are everywhere else in the country - this would have largely been prevented. But it would have cost companies money, and that would cut into profits. If the gas lines has been buried deeper...3

When liars like @HawleyMO scream "Cancel Culture!" and "WOKE!" because they are discovering liars and those who attack democracy are in a Consequences Culture, remind them of all the people they tried to cancel for opinions or mistakes, not lying or attacking democracy:.../1

...
1. Dixie Chicks
2. @kathygriffin
3. @Toure
4. Chis Matthews
5. Graydon Carter
6. Bill Maher
7. New York Magazine
8. New York Times
9. Washington Post
10. CNN
11. MSNBC
12. CNBC
13. Dallas Morning News
14. Arizona Republic
15. Univision
16. Apple
17. WSJ editorial board.../2

...
18. Jonah Goldberg
19. NFL players who kneel
20. Harley Davidson
21. Paul Krugman
22. Chuck Todd
23. Facebook
24. Twitter
25. Nordstrom
26. Bed Bath and Beyond
27. TJ Maxx
28. Estee Lauder
29. AT&T
30. Bloomingdale's
31. Rep Tim Rice
32. Cindy McCain
33. Jeff Flake.../3

...
34. Doug Ducey
35. Simon & Schuster
36. French Fries (yes. French fries.)

...the majority of these "cancels" arent because the targets engaged in lying or attacks on Democracy. Many are because they had a political opinion that didn't express fealty to GOP's God King.../4

...or because they expressed an opinion that proved right (France didn't want to be part of the Iraq War, Dixie Chicks criticized Bush for engaging in Iraq War) - a war that the GOP NOW agrees with France and the Dixie Chicks about (And do their best to blame dems for it).../5

Now, before the stupid conservatives begin sneering and laughing AGAIN about climate change and a massive snowstorm, one more time trying to educate:

A warming climate causes extreme weather events, *including* huge snow and plunging temps. 1 example why: (Note: I realize.../1

...that no matter what is said, anti-science and arrogant conservatives who failed high school science will still sneer and laugh because this is more complicated than "temp goes up, it gets cold. HAHAHA!" Plus, they don't wont read anything longer than 20 words. But this.../2

...will at least help reply to their foolishness.)

Here is what is happening right now: there is a large area of low pressure and cold air at both poles. That cycles around the poles and is contained there by higher pressure surrounding it. However, a warming planet changes.../3

...that. The higher pressure/low pressure contains the cold air, but as that warms, what essentially serves as a fence weakens. Plus, simultaneously, the warmer climate is changing the jet stream. Even before this, sometimes the contained area expanded and hit the jet stream.../4

...which brought the polar cold down, thus plunging temperatures. However, with a warming climate - because of the change in pressures and the moving jet steam - the polar air is coming down more frequently. A few years back, *Texas* was hit by polar air. That's how far down.../5

Why I was constantly urging caution about being too confident:
* People underestimate how much Fox-induced hate of democrats drives decisions now. (Look at @RichLowry who argued - even with NATO near collapse and Covid exploding - to vote Trump to give dems "the finger")...

...literally, to so much of this country, including people who are supposed to be smarter than this like @RichLowry, politics is a game of self-affirmation, having to do with imprinting fantasies of democrats without a care about the real world. This "team" mentality is what...

...is destroying us. It is why, no matter how terrible everything Trump did was, his numbers never budged. The more upset those who opposed Trump became because of his abject incompetence and stupidity, some on the right saw the dem upset at objective reality of chaos as an...

...affirmation that Trump is "great." If you put a chimp into the White House, running under R, and he started wrecking the place, if dems got upset, too many republicans would support it. They hate half the country.

*The multi-billion dollar effort by wealthy conservatives...

...to create a media bubble of an alternative reality to deceive viewers that tax increases for the rich are tax increases for everyone, and that the money raised would go to "undeserving" poor people. Then they harp on all the other lies, solely to secure tax cuts and judges...

Charles Ponzi and the Postal Service

The story of the man who put the 'Ponzi' in 'Ponzi scheme'

/THREAD/

1/ Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, a.k.a. Charles Ponzi, was an italian swindler and con-artist.

Born in 1882 in Italy, he became notorious for his money-making fraudulent schemes in North America in the 1920s.

2/ He arrived in Boston in late 1903 with $2.50 in his pocket.

After many professional failures, he moved to Montreal in 1907 and started working as a bank teller at Banco Zarossi, where he rose to the position of bank manager.

3/ This is where he first witnessed the bank's scheme, where Zarossi was funding interest payments using deposits from newly opened accounts instead of investment profits.

4/ Ponzi served 3 years in jail for check forgery and returned to the US after his release.

However, he got involved in smuggling illegal immigrants into the country landing in prison for another 2 years, moving back to Boston after that.

1. This is a thread about the Bristol Beaufighter & how it was the most important (if not the absolute ‘best’) heavy fighter of the SWW. Beaufighter origins go back to the Bristol Type 142 ‘Britain First’ built as a publicity stunt for Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere in 1935.

2. With a top speed of 278mph, this was considerably faster than the Hawker Fury, which could only manage 207mph. A specification for a fast medium bomber was issued for a revised version of the 142M, named the Blenheim.

3. By the time the war started all-metal monoplane fighters had eclipsed the performance of the Blenheim. Serious shortcomings in operational capabilities of all RAF aircraft were revealed during early wartime aerial activity, leading to heavy losses of aircraft & crews.

4. Lack of defensive armament, armour & self-sealing tanks were added to the problems of looming obsolescence. The huge number of aircraft ordered from shadow factories, along with delays to replacement models, kept the Blenheim in the front line much longer than it should have.

5. Fighter Command had 7 Blenheim IF squadrons at the outbreak of war. These were dual purpose day/night units, but by early 1940 were operating primarily as night fighters. The need to provide cover for east coast convoys led to the formation of 4 ‘trade protection’ squadrons.

Consider that Late Registration came out in 2005.

A 15 year old would only know Kanye as a maga hat embarrassment.

The Selfish Gene came out in 1976. Anyone under 44 only knows dawkins in his bigot form.

The milkshake duck time horizon

Dawkins, for instance, has now been a bigot for much longer than he was a respected scientist.

Kanye has been an embarrassment for much longer than he was a talented rapper.

It's like how a 120-year old has spent half their life as an elderly person.

At some point, the milkshake duck has been one so long that no one remembers the milkshake anymore.

It's just the racist duck, or the terf duck, or the virulently islamophobic duck. Or all three, and for brevity simply called the asshole duck

"I was born in 1921. There have been some incredible moments in the past century, but some years will always be etched in my heart. When I was 22 years old I was sent to Auschwitz. I survived the Holocaust."

Freddie Knoller writes for @TimesRedBox on #HolocaustMemorialDay

"My earliest years in Vienna were largely happy ones. I came from a wonderful, loving family. I was one of three brothers — we all played music and our home was full of happiness. But, I was also subjected to

"After the Germans invaded my home country of Austria this became unbearable. I still remember Kristallnacht — the broken glass and the beatings so many Jewish men received. It became clear that to stay was dangerous"

"My parents, in their fifties, believed they were too old to be the targets of the Nazis so they stayed in Vienna. They were wrong. The Nazis did not care if Jews were young or old, religious or secular. My parents were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau alongside 1.1 million others"

"Eventually I joined a French Resistance group in southwest France, alongside non-Jews who risked their lives to stand up for what was right. But I was betrayed, tortured, and sent to a concentration camp."

Paul Warburg attended as the American representative, at the Treaty of Versailles conference, where his brother Max was on the German side of the bargaining table…. Before World War II, Max Warburg served on the board of directors of I.G. Farben, the giant German chemical firm.