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[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Pipi!!!!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[RTH10260]

Unpublished letter by Abraham Lincoln discovered in Pennsylvania
Short handwritten note was for Charles Ellet Jr, who had written to US president for civil engineer corps during civil war

Richard Luscombe
Wed 5 Jul 2023 11.00 BST

A previously unpublished letter written by Abraham Lincoln during the civil war has been discovered and put up for sale in Pennsylvania, offering rare insight into the US president’s strategic thinking in the first year of the conflict.

The recipient of the short handwritten note was Charles Ellet Jr, later a colonel in the Union army who wrote to Lincoln seeking the formation of a well-funded civil engineer corps to help fortify Washington against the Confederate threat.

Dated 19 August 1861, four months after the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter marked the outbreak of hostilities, the letter had been concealed in a private collection for more than 100 years and only came to light this year, according to Nathan Raab, principal of the Raab Collection of civil war and other historical artifacts.

“Discovering unpublished, unknown letters of Abraham Lincoln is increasingly rare,” Raab said in a statement accompanying a notice of the document’s upcoming sale on the collection’s website for its estimated $85,000 value.

“[His] autographs and historical documents are among the most collected and are always in demand. His letters are known for their great clarity and economy of words – never two where one would suffice.”

Raab said the letter “fills in a part of the historical record that had been missing”, namely its position in a chain of communication detailing Ellet’s efforts to seek the foundation and funding for a civil engineering corps to “survey terrain, disrupt Confederate supply chains and defend the city of Washington”.

The responsibilities, Ellet believed, were beyond the capabilities of the US army’s tiny corps of engineers, which was founded six decades earlier.

But in the letter from the White House, which he referred to as the “Executive Mansion”, Lincoln sidestepped the request. He told Ellet to consult three of the president’s top generals, Winfield Scott, Joseph Totten and George McClellan, whom Lincoln dismissed as commander of the army of the Potomac, then beat in the 1864 presidential election five months before he was assassinated.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... vania-sale

[RTH10260]

And this is bad for Biden why?

[RTH10260]

‘Double agents’: fossil-fuel lobbyists work for US groups trying to fight climate crisis
Exclusive: new database shows 1,500 US lobbyists working for fossil-fuel firms while representing universities and green groups

Oliver Milman
Wed 5 Jul 2023 14.22 BST

More than 1,500 lobbyists in the US are working on behalf of fossil-fuel companies while at the same time representing hundreds of liberal-run cities, universities, technology companies and environmental groups that say they are tackling the climate crisis, the Guardian can reveal.

Lobbyists for oil, gas and coal interests are also employed by a vast sweep of institutions, ranging from the city governments of Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia; tech giants such as Apple and Google; more than 150 universities; some of the country’s leading environmental groups – and even ski resorts seeing their snow melted by global heating.

The breadth of fossil-fuel lobbyists’ work for other clients is captured in a new database of their lobbying interests which was published online on Wednesday.

It shows the reach of state-level fossil-fuel lobbyists into almost every aspect of American life, spanning local governments, large corporations, cultural institutions such as museums and film festivals, and advocacy groups, grouping together clients with starkly contradictory aims.

For instance, State Farm, the insurance company that announced in May it would halt new homeowner policies in California due to the “catastrophic” risk of wildfires worsened by the climate crisis, employs lobbyists that also advocate for fossil fuel interests to lawmakers in 18 states.

Meanwhile, Baltimore, which is suing big oil firms for their role in causing climate-related damages, has shared a lobbyist with ExxonMobil, one of the named defendants in the case. Syracuse University, a pioneer in the fossil fuel divestment movement, has a lobbyist with 14 separate oil and gas clients.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -lobbyists

[MN-Skeptic]

I was just checking my niece’s instagram account. She’s currently at a music camp. Her instagram is a photo of her hand holding a potato. On the potato, written in ink, her sister tells her she thought she might need a snack, and to practice! There’s also a long bar code affixed to the potato. It turns out you can send a single, unpackaged potato through the mail!

[neonzx]

I was just checking my niece’s instagram account. She’s currently at a music camp. Her instagram is a photo of her hand holding a potato. On the potato, written in ink, her sister tells her she thought she might need a snack, and to practice! There’s also a long bar code affixed to the potato. It turns out you can send a single, unpackaged potato through the mail!

I call shenanigans!

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Kids! I love 'em!

[Kriselda Gray]

I mentioned a couple months ago I was starting to work on a novel. I'm still working on it, put passed 25,000 words today, which is either 1/3 or 1/4 of the way through, depending on if it ends up 75k or 100k. Still, considering every other time (outside of a high school creative writing class) I've tried to write fiction, I've never gotten past the first page, I think I may be getting somewhere

[Flatpoint High]

I mentioned a couple months ago I was starting to work on a novel. I'm still working on it, put passed 25,000 words today, which is either 1/3 or 1/4 of the way through, depending on if it ends up 75k or 100k. Still, considering every other time (outside of a high school creative writing class) I've tried to write fiction, I've never gotten past the first page, I think I may be getting somewhere

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Brava!!!!

[Kriselda Gray]

Thanks!

[sugar magnolia]

I was just checking my niece’s instagram account. She’s currently at a music camp. Her instagram is a photo of her hand holding a potato. On the potato, written in ink, her sister tells her she thought she might need a snack, and to practice! There’s also a long bar code affixed to the potato. It turns out you can send a single, unpackaged potato through the mail!

You can send anything through the mail if you are willing to pay postage. It's called "naked mail" and I've been a member of different groups that have been doing it for years. My friend and I spent 2 weeks out west about 10 years ago, and she sent something 'naked' to herself every time we stopped just to see if it would be delivered. It all was.

Post Secret guy gets all sorts of interesting naked mail.

[Flatpoint High]

THIS IS GREAT!!!!!
https://www.wonkette.com/wingnuts-plan- ... cking-them

AND FOR MJORE: https://www.americanlibertyawards.com

[Azastan]

You can send anything through the mail if you are willing to pay postage.

You used to be able to mail humans, but that's no longer possible.

[raison de arizona]

Some of these are quite breathtaking.

[RTH10260]

Some of these are quite breathtaking.
https://fb.watch/lF94F24QyF/

quite a special interpretation of body painting

[p0rtia]

Very cool! Thanks!

[Shizzle Popped]

Ex-Trump adviser mocked for claiming Biden pushing ‘plant-based beer’

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has joined a flood of social media users gleefully trolling Larry Kudlow after the former economic adviser to Donald Trump complained that Joe Biden wanted Americans to drink “plant-based beer”.

Kudlow made the indignant claim on his Fox Business show on Friday, saying Biden’s climate policies and attempt to slash emissions would force Americans to “stop eating meat, stop eating poultry and fish, seafood, eggs, dairy and animal-based fats”.

“OK, got that? No burgers on 4 July. No steaks on the barbecue … So get ready. You can throw back a plant-based beer with your grilled Brussels sprouts and wave your American flag.”

Beer is typically made from grains, hops and yeast – not steak, sausages or chops.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... based-beer


This article is a couple of years old but I don't remember seeing it before. You couldn't make this shit up.

[neonzx]

This is a fun quiz for the geriatrics in our audience.

MeTV posted it on their website:

Can you recognize these classic TV stars on old album covers?
Think you still know these television actors as models on a record sleeve?

https://www.metv.com/quiz/can-you-recog ... bum-covers

I only managed 8 / 12

[keith]

10 of 12. Some were just too small to make out.

[Volkonski]

Got 11. Spent too much time watching TV when younger.

[p0rtia]

9. The last one was the only one where I had no clue.

[MN-Skeptic]

12 out of 12.

Edited to add - I didn’t recognize the actress in the last question, but I recognized the person’s name as someone I knew had been on that show.

[Shizzle Popped]

10 out of 12. I missed Hoss simply because I couldn't remember his name and Mary Tyler Moore because that picture didn't look like anybody I remember.