The Way We Live Now

1. Business reporters trying to kill electronic vehicles, from the perspective of someone who has ordered one (Southern Beale).

   You know what pisses me off about this whole thing? McFail started with the idea that American consumers are not embracing EV vehicles, and then went looking for some numbers to back up that presupposition. So that’s how you kids do journalism these days! And her colleague Indiviglio, while trying to correct her, still stuck by that basic premise for some absurd reason I cannot fathom.

2. Via Mills River Progressive, the list of Koch products to boycott:

   Brands from the Evil Empire:
   
   Angel Soft toilet paper
   Brawny paper towels
   Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
   Mardi Gras napkins and towels
   Quilted Northern toilet paper
   Soft 'n Gentle toilet paper
   Sparkle napkins
   Vanity fair napkins
   Zee napkins
   Georgia-Pacific paper products and envelopes
   
   All Georgia-Pacific lumber and building products, including:
   Dense Armor Drywall and Decking
   ToughArmor Gypsum board
   Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood
   Flexrock
   Densglass sheathing
   G/P Industrial plasters (some products used by a lot of crafters)
   FibreStrong Rim board
   G/P Lam board
   Blue Ribbon OSB Rated Sheathing
   Blue Ribbon Sub-floor
   DryGuard Enhanced OSB
   Nautilus Wall Sheathing
   Thermostat OSB Radiant Barrier Sheathing
   Broadspan Engineered Wood Products
   XJ 85 I-Joists
   FireDefender Banded Cores
   FireDefender FS
   FireDefender Mineral Core
   Hardboard and Thin MDF including Auto Hardboard
   Commercial Roof Fiberboard
   Perforated Hardboard and Thin MDF
   Wood Fiberboard
   Hushboard Sound Deadening Board
   Regular Fiberboard Sheathing
   Structural Fiberboard Sheathing
   
   (INVISTA Products):
   COMFOREL® fiberfill
   COOLMAX® fabric
   CORDURA® fabric
   DACRON® fiber
   POLYSHIELD® resin
   SOLARMAX® fabric
   SOMERELLE® bedding products
   STAINMASTER® carpet
   SUPPLEX® fabric
   TACTEL® fiber
   TACTESSE® carpet fiber
   TERATE® polyols
   TERATHANE® polyether glycol
   THERMOLITE® fabric
   PHENREZ® resin
   POLARGUARD® fiber and
   LYCRA® fiber

   (Boldfacing and single-spacing mine.)
3. Republic of T sent me over to Booman Tribune, whose Steven D explains the Republican agenda with historical examples and statistics.

   The Republicans in Congress, and in states across the country are making no bones about their agenda: they desire to kill unions and worker's rights. They desire to kill the EPA, and kill any regulation regarding worker safety, drug safety, food safety, environmental safety -- you name it. They want to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and healthcare reform with a thousand cuts until nothing is left but private accounts managed by by their buddies at Wall Street to which you are forced to contribute. They want to privatize prisons and schools.
   
   They want an end to financial assistance to college students and their families (except football and basketball players, of course). They want to kill any investment in alternative fuels and public transportation. They desire the awarding of no-bid contracts to their "friends," i.e., the people who contributed the most to their political campaigns. Oh, and they want to make it ever more difficult, if not impossible, for innovative small businesses to compete with the corporate behemoths that dominate our political landscape. Indeed, without a middle class how can small businesses not dedicated to serving the desires of the rich survive?

   In The Stand, there's a scene in which Randall Flagg (I'm not spoiling the book for anyone if I state that Mr. Flagg is the Devil, right?) and his high henchman visit Prof. Glen Bateman in prison.

      "Shoot one of us, anyhow, Lloyd," he said. ... It's guys like this that you wanted to get back at. Little guys who talk big."
      Lloyd said: Mister, you don't fool me. It's like Randy Flagg says."
      "But he lies. You know he lies."
      "He told me more of the truth than anyone else bothered to in my whole lousy life," Lloyd said, and shot Glen three times.

   Not, of course, the whole truth.  But people won't hear things they don't want to hear.