I’m at TED this week. You can save all that travel and expense and watch thousands of past TED talks for free . . . organized by topic, to help you choose (autism? asteroids? agriculture?) or by playlist (25 most popular of all time? talks by brilliants kids and teens?)
So in case I miss a day or two, I leave you in brilliant hands. And will be looking for new talks worthy of your attention in the weeks to come.
That said, I may not miss any days because — as we teeter between fascism-chaos-and-possible-extinction on the one hand and all-but-unimaginable-well-being on the other — there’s so much going on that I burst to share.
So today I offer this segment on Scott Pruitt from last Friday’s Rachel Maddow . . . knowing full well that by the time you watch, he may have resigned or been fired.
But there are two reasons I offer it, both big.
BIG REASON NUMBER ONE. There’s so much here I didn’t know. I knew Pruitt was working hard to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency — a horrible Republican agenda for the air we breathe, the water we drink, and, yes, the habitable climate our species relies on.
And I knew he was renting a DC condo for $50 a night (but only on the nights he and his daughter used it) from a lobbyist with matters before the EPA.
But wait til you watch the rest. And the Carl Icahn connection.
Astonishing.
BIG REASON NUMBER TWO. How come I didn’t know this stuff before Friday? Why didn’t I know it just as a regular viewer of CBS, NBC, and ABC news?
Our nation and many of our allies are under attack by the Russians. Faith in our fundamental institutions is under attack by our President: our free press, independent judiciary and intelligence community. Our norms of honesty and decency and dignity are being flouted and corroded.
Aren’t these all things that require bold face exclamation marks of alarm?
You hear them on MSNBC but not so much elsewhere. (From FOX the alarm you hear is that we are under attack by caravans of Mexican rapists.)
Did you know how deep the ties run between the NRA and the Kremlin?
I didn’t either. Watch it here. From the same Rachel Maddow show Friday. Or read the Rolling Stone report.
