Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 203

Friday Cat Blogging

There's a long history of this going back to near the beginning of blogging, though not so common today.  So here's my version of ultimate cat blogging--a famous lion on steps on NY Public Library yesterday evening. 

Now a Video Documents Near-Nuclear Disaster in 1961

I've covered the new book on nuclear weapons accidents in the U.S. by Eric Schlosser, and then the release of a document, via The Guardian, proving how close we really came--very--to a detonation in North Carolina in 1961 that could have killed millions on the East Coast.   Now The Guardian, also via Schlosser, posts an "official" video that documents the accident, along with this story.  Of course, the near-miss was kept hidden from Americans for years--and how close we came until this day.  Sclosser tells The Guardian that the significance of the video was that it "conclusively establishes that the Sandia weapons lab itself was concerned about the risk of accidental detonation. Their own experts said that disaster was prevented by a single switch that they knew to be defective." See my book and ebook  Atomic Cover-up .

Flat Iron Building at Sunset

Tonight in NYC.

Do the Rubber Duck

Jimmy Fallons and The Roots did a cool tribute to "Sesame Street" last night but still could not top one of my favorite songs from the 1990s (remember, my son was still an infant)....

Israel's Nukes

My new piece at The Nation: Will Iran's Call for No Nukes Inspire U.S. Media to Finally Probe Israel's Nuclear Program?

New from Leonard

Mr. Cohen debuts new song live.

Good Conduct Awards

What happens if you set an orchestra up on streets on NY and put up a sign that reads, "Conduct Us."

A Ted Seller!

With 21 hours to kill in his non-filibuster anti-Obamacare filibuster,  Sen. Ted Cruz resorted to quoting from Dr. Seuss's immortal "Green Eggs and Ham" (which sounds like a Texas recipe to beat a hangover).  This inspired a 1000 Twitter parodies--and, I now note, a surge of sales for the good doctor's book, riding it to #557 on the chart of Amazon bestsellers.  But Cruz seems more like all Cat in Hat, no cattle. And note this:  “The moral message of ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ – to the extent that it has one – is completely at odds with what Cruz was trying to achieve,” says Seuss biographer Phil Nel, a professor at Kansas State University.   You know: try something first before you reject it.

Next:   DVD sales of Sean Penn in Sam I Am?

AIPAC, and Congress, May Kill Iran's Nuclear Compromise

Andrew Sullivan probably nails it.  Truly, the hawks in Israel, and AIPAC, probably prefer the current tensions--any easing and they'd have to give up their dreams of bombing Iran.  And U.S. (and certain NYT reporters) yoked to it, seemingly.

The Greater Israel lobby will do all it can to prevent any conceivable deal that could ensure Iran’s right to peaceful nuclear energy – the sine qua non of any breakthrough. Which means they aim to kill diplomacy to get the war they have been wanting for more than a decade. In this sense, AIPAC is the American equivalent of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in terms of scuppering any possibility of genuine peace, by refusing to treat Iran as anything but a pariah state. Israel, meanwhile, sits on a couple hundred nuclear missiles aimed in part at Iran. But that inconvenient truth cannot be uttered on Capitol Hill.

D.C. Shooter As Rampage Began

FBI has released startling footage of Aaron Alexis arriving at the Navy Yard, assembling shotgun, and starting to roam the halls looking for victims.  Plus photos here, including etchings on shotgun.