Website is a success!

For those of you wondering, the Wordpress website went offline due to an overabundance of traffic.

My web designer, who builds websites for a living, told me that he has NEVER seen that happen before, and certainly never on the first day!

We have already hit numbers that make the performance here on Blogspot pale by comparison.

Not in the old days perhaps, but at least for the last year or so.

Having said that I want to thank all of you for your many years of support, and for the incredible success of today. Even with all of those setbacks.

We are still tweaking the new site, and hopefully you will soon come to see it as your new home, much like this has felt like home for so many wonderful years.

Pack your things kids! IM has moved!

So finally, after much planning, and a ton of stops and starts, The Immoral Minority is making the big move.

(Yeah, I know it took awhile but, hey I've been busy.)

From this point on to find all of your Immoral Minority snark, political commentary, and Sarah Palin updates you need to go here to our new home.

It is sleeker, it is more user friendly, and of course it has that all important new website smell.

So update your bookmarks my friends, and spread the news far and wide that there is a new and improved Immoral Minority just a hop, skip, and click away.

Bump stock maker ain't making bump stocks no more.

Courtesy of CNN: 

Slide Fire Solutions, the inventor and manufacturer of bump stocks, will no longer be selling the firearm accessories. 

On its website Tuesday, Slide Fire Solutions said it "will cease taking orders for its products and shut down its website." 

The company said it will process and ship all orders taken prior to May 20. The company did not say on its website what will happen to its factory in Texas.

It is not everything, but it is something.

And all journeys toward progress are made up of tiny steps forward.

Looking forward to the day when the last company says that they will no longer manufacture AR-15's.

I know, I know, don't hold your breath. 

Dick's Sporting Goods is not just refusing to sell any more rifles, but they are destroying the ones that remain unsold.

Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:  

When Dick’s Sporting Goods said it would no longer sell modern sporting rifles at its Field & Stream stores following the Valentine’s Day shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school, one question was what would happen to the unsold firearms in its inventory. 

Typically a retailer may return unsold merchandise to the manufacturer. But in this case, Dick’s Sporting Goods has decided to destroy them. 

“We are in the process of destroying all firearms and accessories that are no longer for sale as a result of our February 28th policy change,” a spokeswoman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “We are destroying the firearms in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations.” 

The so-called assault-style rifles will be destroyed at the company’s distribution centers and the parts sent to a salvage company to be recycled, the Findlay-based retailer added. The company did not say how much merchandise would be included. 

Personally I think they should invite Ted Nugent to observe the destruction of these metal penis extenders, and film him as he cries uncontrollably.

I'd watch that in cable.

They may not be dominating the news cycle anymore, but clearly those Parkland students continue to have an impact.

Conversion therapy is dying across the country, and oddly enough this is happening on Trump's watch.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:

It’s hard to imagine the Trump presidency going down in history as a fantastic time for LGBT rights. And yet LGBT people have been scoring several successive victories on the state and local level on a particularly critical issue: making conversion therapy a crime. 

Since Donald Trump and Mike Pence took office, five states—New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington—have banned the medically condemned practice of trying to change a minor’s sexual orientation and gender identity, bringing the total number of U.S. states with such bans up to 10. 

Several Florida municipalities, major cities like Philadelphia and New York, and other smaller cities have also now banned conversion therapy during the Trump-Pence administration. 

These bans on conversion or “reparative,” therapy are still coming with seemingly accelerated momentum: As Amber Phillips noted in her recent Washington Post appraisal of state-level LGBT victories, it seems “likely” that over a dozen states and D.C. will have made it illegal to subject a minor to this ostensibly therapeutic but demonstrably cruel practice by the end of the legislative session.

To be clear this is happening DESPITE the fact that Trump and Mike Pence are in office, not BECAUSE they are in office.

I think it is far more appropriate to give President Obama the credit for moving things forward for the LGBTQ community, than to assign credit to Trump/Pence.

Still good news is good news, and this is indeed good news.

Alaska's marijuana industry finally pays more than a million dollars in monthly tax revenue.

Courtesy of ADN: 

In January, for the first time since legal sales began, Alaska's commercial cannabis growers paid more than $1 million in state taxes, according to officials. 

Eighty-one marijuana cultivators paid $1,040,512 in taxes during the first month of 2018, said Kelly Mazzei, excise tax supervisor at the Alaska Department of Revenue. 

Alaska marijuana growers pay the state tax of $50 per ounce of cannabis bud, and $15 an ounce for other parts of the plant, like the trimmings of leaves and stems. 

A total of 1,061 pounds of marijuana, and 797 of trim, were sold wholesale in January.

This may only be of interest to those of us living up here in the Last Frontier, but I have been predicting for awhile that the pot industry would start to be a real source of revenue for the state and I am glad to see that is finally happening.

It of course will never replace the oil tax revenue, but it is at least one tax source that will not be undermined by the switch to renewable resources.

Which by the way could be yet another profitable source of tax revenue if lawmakers would pull their lips of the asses of oil barons long enough to notice.

We are way behind in finding revenue sources outside of the oil industry, and it is going to get ugly up here if we do not become more proactive.

Democrats are now almost universally embracing the idea of single payer health care. Thanks Trump!

Courtesy of WaPo:

Today, the Center for American Progress released a single-payer health plan (or thereabouts), planting a significant marker in the evolution of the Democratic Party, and eventually perhaps the American health-care system. 

And we have President Trump and the Republicans to thank for it. 

CAP calls its plan “Medicare Extra For All.” That’s a little unwieldy but seems meant to distinguish it from “Medicare For All,” which is what Bernie Sanders called the plan he proposed in 2016 and what others have called for. It isn’t a true single-payer plan because it envisions a continued role for private insurance. But it greatly expands government coverage, both for anyone who doesn’t have insurance and, critically, anyone who simply would prefer the government’s plan.

It’s significant that this plan is coming from the heart of the Democratic establishment, a think tank that is the closest thing to a Democratic government-in-exile. When it has officially put its imprimatur on a sort-of single-payer health plan, that means the general principle is now all but consensus among Democrats, something that wasn’t true even a year ago. 

While this evolution has been in-process for a while, the fact is that as of now, the Democratic Party is converging on consensus around the goal of universal coverage with a much stronger role for government. You may recall that in the last presidential election, the party’s candidate wasn’t willing to go that far. Today, nearly every Democrat considering a run for the White House in 2020 has endorsed the idea of universal coverage.

Wouldn't it be a kick in the ass if we ended up with an assault gun ban, universal health care, and a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, not BECAUSE of Donald Trump, but in spite of him?

Could happen. 

That could make him both the worst president in history, but with one of the most consequential presidencies.

Isn't politics weird sometimes?

Not only has Donald Trump failed to save the coal industry, but more plants have closed during his first year in office than in the entire first term of the Obama presidency.

Courtesy of Green Tech Media: 

In his first State of the Union address, Trump declared that “we have ended the war on American energy, and we have ended the war on beautiful, clean coal.” 

According to the Sierra Club, though, more coal capacity closed in the first 45 days of 2018 than in Obama’s entire first term. 

The organization, which has made it part of its mission to shutter coal plants, said it's on track to close the country’s 262 remaining plants over the next decade. So far, the Sierra Club says efforts to close coal plants have prevented over 7,000 premature deaths and stopped over 120,000 asthma attacks, largely in marginalized communities overburdened by pollution. 

Blair Zimmerman, a former coal miner and current county commissioner in Greene County, Pennsylvania, where the 4 West Mine closed in January, said the Trump administration hasn’t made any measurable impacts in that rural area. 

"There's not been any significant change in the industry since he's taken over,” he told CNN.

Obviously I think that anybody who voted for Donald Trump is a fucking moron.

But there is perhaps no group of idiots as ignorant as the coal mining folk who really believed that Trump had any interest in saving a dying industry.

Trump lies, that's what he does.

How is it that people had such difficulty understanding that?

New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister says that the media and the politicians do not yet understand the historical significance of the women's marches.

Courtesy of Crooks and Liars:  

New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister, in a discussion with Chris Hayes and organizer Linda Sarsour, asked why the women's marches got so little media coverage. 

"What do you want me to tell the crazy women talking about justice? They ignored us again but they will not ignore us at the ballot box," Sarsour said. 

"This is right. This is symptomatic, the marches and the activism is not taken seriously. Why?" Traister asked. 

"They are women's marches. We know last year single biggest one-day demonstration in this country's history, we heard how afterwards, it was okay but just a march, it's performance, fun, people get together and wear their cute hats, whatever. No one seems to have connected, still, a year later when there is a spontaneous demonstration almost the same size in some places like Chicago, bigger, without a centralized organization drawing everybody. 

"I didn't know about the marches," she said. "I write about women and politics. I didn't know there would be women's marches until January and they were massive. They don't just have cute marches with the hats with the fact it's women clogging congressional phone lines and doing town halls, who have been organizing on the grassroots activist level around state and local office races around the country who have been winning in New Jersey, in Virginia and who are running in unprecedented numbers for the House, for the Senate and primarying Democrats from the left. 

"And apparently, the media's failure to take this seriously as a political movement and not as some social weekend thing that women do once a year, has led Senate Democrats to think it's not a serious political movement," she said.

I have been saying for awhile that women are changing things, and that the #MeToo movement and these female driven rallies are going to be significant.

But I have to admit that even I may not have recognized just how important of this will be to the future of this nation.

Women have clearly found their voice, and they are no longer asking men for permission to join the conversation. They are already having a conversation to which men better pay attention.

PepsiCo reserves one hundred of Tesla's new electric semi trucks. The future is here.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

PepsiCo Inc has reserved 100 of Tesla Inc’s new electric Semi trucks, the largest-known order of the big rig, as the maker of Mountain Dew soda and Doritos chips seeks to reduce fuel costs and fleet emissions, a company executive said on Tuesday. 

Tesla has been trying to convince the trucking community that it can build an affordable electric big rig with the range and cargo capacity to compete with relatively low-cost, time-tested diesel trucks. 

Early orders reflect uncertainty over how the market for electric commercial vehicles will develop. About 260,000 heavy-duty Class-8 trucks are produced in North America annually, according to FTR, an industry economics research firm. 

PepsiCo’s 100 trucks add to orders by more than a dozen companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, fleet operator J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc, and foodservice distribution company Sysco Corp. Reservations to date are at 267 Tesla trucks, according to a Reuters tally. 

PepsiCo intends to deploy Tesla Semis for shipments of snack foods and beverages between manufacturing and distribution facilities and direct to retailers within the 500-mile (800-km) range promised by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.

I know I must drive some of you crazy with my fixation on new technologies and the move to renewable energies, but what can I say, the future is indeed exciting.

Alternative energy sources, autonomous vehicles, Artificial Intelligence, the next decade or so is going to be amazing.

Now if only our humanity can catch up with our technologies.

Wave of women 20,000 strong are preparing to run for office.

Women's march

Courtesy of Refinery 29: 

There are now 20,000 more cracks (and counting) in the glass ceiling. Emily’s List announced at the Women’s Convention in Detroit on Saturday that more than 20,000 women across the country have thrown their hat into the ring to run for public office. “It was this convention that pushed us over,” Emily’s List president Stephanie Schriock tells Refinery29. “We were at 19,000 last week and basically the past few days we shot up.” 

There is a continuing wave of interest in running among progressive women that started almost immediately after Secretary Hillary Clinton’s loss in November. “Over 1,000 women hit the link on our website [to learning how to run] within four weeks of the election,” Schriock says. For the entire 2016 election cycle, which had been the group’s biggest to date before last November, Emily’s List heard from a grand total of 920 women. 

Roughly half of the women who’ve reached out to Emily’s List, which was founded in 1985 to elect pro-choice women to office, are under age 45. All 50 states are represented. Schriock estimates that around 40% are looking to run in local races, such as city council and school board in their communities. Others are eyeing congressional races, some as soon as 2018.

This is a byproduct of the election of Donald Trump that is perhaps the most positive.

Personally I can hardly wait for the women to take over.

Because let's face it, the men have certainly not been doing such a great job so far.

With no help coming from the Trump administration Governor Bill Walker signs bill creating Alaska's own climate change strategy.

Courtesy of the Fairbanks News Miner:  

Gov. Bill Walker signed an administrative order Tuesday creating the Alaska Climate Change Strategy as well as forming a leadership team to address climate change in Alaska. 

The order also calls for state departments to review previous work on climate change and identify immediate responses they can take. 

Walker said the time was now to take a stand against climate change. 

"Alaskans should be at the forefront of innovation and response," Walker said. "In addition to developing solutions that ensure community and economic resilience while mitigating environmental harm, we must also engage with national and international partners to strengthen Alaska's voice in global decision-making."

Walker identified the challenge of moving toward renewable energy sources for a state that is so heavily dependent on fossil fuel production, both practically and fiscally.

Walker noted that, while the Legislature continues to struggle to balance the budget, issues related to climate change cannot wait for fiscal stability. 

"It’s certainly a challenge in the fiscal situation we’re in right now to go out and look for new money," he said. "There may be ways we use the existing funds more efficiently, and I think we just need to be thinking a little more long term in some of the decisions we make."

As an Alaskan I am very heartened by this proactive attitude coming from the state government, but as a progressive I worry that this is still much too tentative of an approach and decades too late to make enough of a difference.

It should also be noted that President Obama laid out very comprehensive plan for helping Alaska tackle this issue, but when Trump came in he trashed the entire thing.

The same certainly could happen with this if Alaskans are ignorant enough to replace Walker with a GOP governor.

Remember, elections have consequences.

The Boy Scouts will now allow girls to join.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

The Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest honor. 

"We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children," said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts. 

The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys since its founding more than 100 years ago.

Starting next year, young girls can join Cub Scout units, known as dens. Local scouting organizations can choose to have dens for girls and dens for boys. "Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls," the organization said in a statement. 

A separate program for older girls will be available in 2019, the Boy Scouts said, enabling them to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

Lots of progressives are really excited about this, and of course the conservatives are in a snit, but is it really a good thing?

When I was a kid and joined the Boy Scouts my complaint against them was that they were too militaristic, and at a time of protests against the Vietnam War I was simply uncomfortable in that environment.

However these days the Boy Scouts have devolved into an indoctrination program seemingly focused on bringing children into the religious fold.

I much prefer the philosophy of the Girl Scouts which is more clearly focused on helping their communities, learning useful skills, and of course cookies. (God I love their cookies!)

Besides the Girl Scouts have been allowing boys to join since 2011.

And by the way the Girl Scouts are not in any way thrilled with this new policy.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

The Girl Scouts of the USA has issued a blistering rebuke of the Boy Scouts of America's decision to begin letting girls into the ranks of its troops. 

"The Boy Scouts' house is on fire," Girl Scouts told ABC News in a statement today. "Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA's senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls."

Yeah, exactly. 

No if the Boy Scouts want to signal a real change, they should give up their charters, let the Girl Scouts absorb them, and start learning some real skills in how to be positive contributing members of society.

Oh, and learn to make cookies too. (Damn I love those cookies!)

John Oliver takes on Confederate statues and it is epic.

It has been a while since I watched an episode of Last Week Tonight, but this one is definitely blog worthy.

Not only does Oliver do a great job of undermining the argument for preserving these statues, but the segment also features references to Ben Affleck, Anderson Cooper, Larry David, and Stephen Colbert. (Though to be honest I am not sure that Affleck will appreciate how he is portrayed in the program.)

That is just some damn good cable television right there. 

Driverless cars are almost here.

Courtesy of Ars Technica:

Real driverless cars could come to the Phoenix area this year, according to a Monday report from The Information's Amir Efrati. Two anonymous sources have told Efrati that Google's self-driving car unit, Waymo, is preparing to launch "a commercial ride-sharing service powered by self-driving vehicles with no human 'safety' drivers as soon as this fall." 

Obviously, there's no guarantee that Waymo will hit this ambitious target. But it's a sign that Waymo believes its technology is very close to being ready for commercial use. And it suggests that Waymo is likely to introduce a fully driverless car network in 2018 if it doesn't do so in the remaining months of 2017.

......

According to Efrati, Waymo's service is likely to launch first in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb where Waymo has done extensive testing. Waymo chose the Phoenix area for its favorable weather, its wide, well-maintained streets, and the relative lack of pedestrians. Another important factor was the legal climate. Arizona has some of the nation's most permissive laws regarding self-driving vehicles. 

"Arizona’s oversight group has met just twice in the last year, and found no reason to suggest any new rules or restrictions on autonomous vehicles, so long as they follow traffic laws," the Arizona Republic reported in June. "The group found no need to suggest legislation to help the deployment."

This of course is still in its infancy, and I imagine that even when these cars start showing up all around the lower 48 that here in my home state of Alaska we will be among the last to have access, due to our inclimate weather and treacherous driving conditions.

I just hope that it finally arrives while I am still around to participate in this amazing breakthrough.

This is without a doubt when of my all time favorite technological advances.

Gryphen posts a somewhat negative article about autonomous cars.

Courtesy of The Guardian:

Driverless vehicles could build a “gold mine” of personal data for private companies and would make it easier for them to target people as consumers, an Australian law professor has warned. 

Des Butler, of the Queensland University of Technology, said the privacy risks involved in driverless vehicles were a “sleeper issue” that regulators were yet to fully consider, even though car manufacturers say the technology could be on roads in Australia by 2020. 

“These vehicles will know where you like to frequent, which businesses, and may very well build a profile of you,” Butler said. “People will go into these things not realising just how much data the vehicle will be generating about them and not knowing the extent to which the data can be used.”

As even the most casual IM visitor has probably surmised I am essentially all in for driverless cars.

However in the interest of being fair I wanted to share a least a few articles which point out potential hazards or concerns.

Trust me it's not going to keep me from purchasing one at some point, but yes there could be issues with privacy, hackers, and occasional technological malfunctions.

In the meantime around 3,287 people are dying each day due to car accidents with an additional 20 to 50 million injured or disabled each year. (Source.)

Just to keep things in perspective.

A pep talk from Barack Obama.

Courtesy of CNBC: 

When the going gets rough, a pep talk from former president Barack Obama may come in handy.

A day after president Donald Trump's downcast speech on terrorism and political adversaries during the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA), Obama discussed the power of optimism at the inaugural Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Goalkeepers" event.

.......

"Your response has to be to reject cynicism and reject pessimism and push forward, with a certain infectious and relentless optimism," he says. "Not blind optimism, not one that ignores the scale and scope of our challenges, but that hard-earned optimism, that's rooted in the stories of very real progress that have occurred throughout human history." 

"We have to reject the notion that we're suddenly gripped by forces that we cannot control," Obama says. "We've got to embrace the longer and more optimistic view of history and the part that we play in it." But how can anyone be optimistic under those conditions, you may ask? Obama wants you to consider this: "By just about every measure, America is better — and the world is better — than it was 50 years ago, 30 years ago or even 10 years ago." 

"I know that statement doesn't jibe with the steady stream of bad news and cynicism that we're fed through television and Twitter," Obama says. 

"Each new generation stands on the successes of the previous generation," he says, bending "that arc of history in the direction of more freedom and more opportunity and more justice." 

"I have great faith in you," he says, "and I'm certain that if you keep pushing forward, then America and the world are going to be just fine."

Look I know this is supposed to make us feel better, and it is SO nice to hear such optimism again, but really all it is doing is making me miss our former President more than ever. 

However of course he is right, we desperately need to maintain a positive outlook and work for the kind of progress that his administration worked so hard to achieve.

So I am going to do my part, and keep pushing those progressive values in the hope that all of this will eventually blow over and we will once again get back on the right track to a better tomorrow.

You know what, I guess I DO feel better.

California Governor Jerry Brown compares Trump supporters to "troglodytes" as both "dwell in deep dark caves."

Courtesy of Politico:  

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday called President Donald Trump’s approach to climate change and North Korea “stupid and dangerous and silly,” sharpening his criticism of the president and comparing his supporters to cave dwellers. 

“They’re both kind of very similar,” Brown said at a climate change event in New York. “You should check out the derivation of ‘Trump-ite’ and ‘troglodyte,’ because they both refer to people who dwell in deep, dark caves.”

“President Trump is the null hypothesis, which he’s proven,” Brown said. “Everything he’s doing is … stupid and dangerous and silly. I mean, come on, really, calling the North Korean dictator ‘Rocket Man'? … He is accelerating the reversal through his own absurdity.”

While acknowledging he was making “lemonade out of a lemon,” Brown predicted Trump will “fail very soon” in the face of economic and other international forces. 

“These other powers are going to gang up on Mr. Trump, and he’s going to find out, ‘You’re fired,’” Brown said.

I'm really hoping that Governor Brown is correct with that last assessment. 

In my opinion Jerry Brown is essentially the anti-Trump in that he believes in the power of government, sees public service as an important responsibility, and makes decisions for the benefit of his constituents and not himself. 

I have been a fan of Jerry Brown since back in the days when he was dating Linda Ronstadt. 

Brown took what was essentially a smoking corpse of a state, and turned it around almost completely after Arnold Schwarzenegger spent two terms trying to terminate it.

If Jerry Brown were not already 79 years of age I would seriously consider him as the perfect presidential candidate for the Democratic party in 2020.

However there may be another option as California's Lt. Governor, Gavin Newsom, is only 49 years old and is just as forward thinking and progressive as his boss.

Newsom has run a business, been mayor of San Fransisco, is a promoter of public schools, and was an early advocate for same sex marriage.

I know it's early, but I think it's time to start thinking of strong Democratic candidates, and Newsom clicks all the right boxes.

And now for something completely different. The History of the World: Every Year.

This is why I now say that we are all Africans.

Because that is literally where we ALL came from.

I just watched this and let it wash over me.

My only complaint is that it all moves so fast after we get into the CE, though I appreciate how it all fades to black after 2016.

You know, when the Anti-Christ was elected.

Elizabeth Warren signs on to Bernie Sanders "Medicare for All" bill.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

Senator Elizabeth Warren announced on Thursday she's co-sponsoring Senator Bernie Sanders's "Medicare for All" bill, which is set to be introduced next week in the Senate. 

In a statement, Warren said, "There is something fundamentally wrong when one of the richest and most powerful countries on the planet can’t make sure that a person can afford to see a doctor when they’re sick. This isn’t any way to live." 

"I believe it’s time to take a step back and ask: what is the best way to deliver high quality, low cost health care to all Americans? Everything should be on the table – and that’s why I’m co-sponsoring Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill that will be introduced later this month," the senator added. 

In her statement, Warren applauded the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and former President Barack Obama's efforts on health care, signifying a desire to build off of his accomplishments. 

"We owe a huge debt to President Obama. Because of the Affordable Care Act, health care coverage is better – more people can get the treatment they need and families are less vulnerable to the financial fallout from a serious illness or accident," Warren said. "But there’s so much more we could do right now to bring down the costs of quality health care for every American."

I am gratified to see Warren giving President Obama the props he deserves for getting the Affordable Care Act passed. There are those who are not quite as gracious.

Earlier rising Democratic star Kamala Harris also voiced her support for this bill so it appears that it is likely to become an official plank of the Democratic party.

And that is a good thing.

I told my friend just the other day that I think the Democrats need one unifying policy to rally behind, and I think this could be it.

I also want to give Bernie Sanders credit for pushing this idea and bringing people on to support it. I am so over Sanders at this point I had to check twice to remember how to spell his name, but this is a positive step forward, and he deserves to be recognized for that.

Hopefully this will inspire other Democrats to sign on and together we can get this thing done.