Linkee-poo said, yep, what a concept, I could use a little fuel myself and we could all use a little change

"Two flamboyant pop culture icons take center stage at the staid, tradition-bound Supreme Court on Wednesday as the justices weigh whether artist Andy Warhol infringed on the copyright of a photographer’s image of the rock star Prince when making a series of his signature silkscreen prints." Here we go again.

"Climate protesters threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s 'Sunflowers' in London’s National Gallery on Friday to protest fossil fuel extraction." I understanding wanting to get your points talked about, but instead of talking about the licensing auction, they're talking about you being vandals with no respect.

"Fat Bear Week was rocked by scandal over the weekend after organizers in Alaska uncovered voting irregularities that were meant to skew the results of a pivotal semifinal. A new champion was crowned on Tuesday, ending the 2022 competition."

"Some 477 pilot whales have died after stranding themselves on two remote New Zealand beaches over recent days, officials say… None of the stranded whales could be refloated and all either died naturally or were euthanized in a 'heartbreaking' loss, said Daren Grover, the general manager of Project Jonah, a nonprofit group which helps rescue whales."

"Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has laid off more employees after eliminating 14% of its HBO Max workforce earlier this summer… The media giant also shuttered its digital production arm Stage 13 and the 40-year-old Warner Bros. Television Workshop, a longstanding pioneer in fostering new and diverse talent." We don't need to develop talent to have a viable business model in 20 years.

"Thousands of Egyptians are demanding the repatriation of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum back to its home country… The iconic artifact, which helped scientists finally decode Egyptian hieroglyphs almost exactly 200 years ago, has been in English hands since Napoleon gave it up – as well as 16 other artifacts – as part of the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801."

"Access to maternity care is decreasing in the parts of the U.S. that need it the most, affecting nearly 7 million women of childbearing age and some 500,000 babies… That's according to a report released Tuesday by March of Dimes, a nonprofit focused on maternal and infant health. It finds that 36% of counties nationwide — largely in the Midwest and South — constitute "maternity care deserts," meaning they have no obstetric hospitals or birth centers and no obstetric providers."

"As it stands, consumers bear much of the responsibility for avoiding illness from raw poultry by handling it carefully in the kitchen — following the usual advice to not wash raw chicken or turkey (it spreads the bacteria), using separate utensils when preparing meat and cooking to 165 degrees. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service wants to do something about it by starting with the farmers that raise the birds and following through the processing plant where the meat is made." Wrong. Consumer prep is the backup plan because we've already lost the battle on protecting the source, and we're losing the battle on protecting the processing.

"Supply chain snarls and parts shortages inflated the cost of factory goods when the economy rocketed out of the pandemic recession two years ago. Then it was a surge in consumer spending fueled by federal stimulus checks. Then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted gas and food supplies and sent those prices skyward."

"Millions of Social Security recipients will get an 8.7% boost in their benefits in 2023, a historic increase but a gain that will be eaten up in part by the rising cost of everyday living."

"The higher mortgage rates are putting home ownership out of reach for millions of people. And as a result, it's no longer a frenzied housing market with bidding wars and multiple offers on every home. These days a realtor can have an open house and nobody shows up."

How's that whole, "we need to be friendly with murderers and thugs on the world stage" thing going? "President Joe Biden is angry at Saudi Arabia for its decision to slash oil production along with its OPEC allies against U.S. wishes, and he’s made no secret of it… With the global economy on a knife-edge and energy prices high, Washington sees the kingdom’s move – which it made in coordination with Russia and other oil-producing states – as a snub and a blatant display of siding with Moscow."

"Russia claims that these children don’t have parents or guardians to look after them, or that they can’t be reached. But the AP found that officials have deported Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories without consent, lied to them that they weren’t wanted by their parents, used them for propaganda, and given them Russian families and citizenship."

"Which made what happened next all the more remarkable. In the midst of the interview with the pro-Russian official in Kherson, one of the hosts asked, in a halfway hopeful tone, a question he all but answered: 'So the situation is fine?' Only he did not quite get the expected — and required — response… 'The situation is difficult,' the Kherson administrator glumly admitted… The telephone line went dead. The interview was over. Perhaps a faulty line had been at work, but given how little dissent is tolerated in Russian media outlets, the moment was revealing all the same."

"Eight people have been detained over Saturday’s blast that damaged the only bridge connecting annexed Crimea with the Russian mainland, marking a critical juncture in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine."

"Ukraine’s allies vowed Thursday to supply the besieged nation with advanced air defense systems as Russian forces attacked the Kyiv region with kamikaze drones and fired missiles elsewhere at civilian targets, payback for the bombing of a strategic bridge linking Russia with annexed Crimea."

"Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey and Russia have instructed their respective energy authorities to immediately begin technical work on a Russian proposal that would turn Turkey into a gas hub for Europe." No matter how he bluffs, Putin is still exposed and vulnerable that most of the Russian economy depends on energy exports.

"A 50-year-old Russian man has been detained in Arctic Norway with two drones and is suspected of flying the unmanned aerial vehicles somewhere in the country, police said Friday… Numerous drone sightings have been reported near Norwegian offshore oil and gas platforms in recent weeks."

"President Joe Biden said he does not believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon on Ukraine… 'I think it’s irresponsible for him to talk about it, the idea that a world leader of one of the largest nuclear powers in the world says he may use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine,' Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an exclusive interview with the network." Once again, there is no such thing as a "limited exchange." It will always escalate. The only "winning move" is to never use them, the second best is to launch everything all at once.

"For years, the conspiracy theorist and provocateur Alex Jones spread lies about the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, falsely claiming on his InfoWars broadcasts that none of the 20 children and six adults killed had actually died and that their relatives were crisis actors… Now, he has been ordered to pay $965 million to families of those killed."

"Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes got personal in their final debate Thursday before the Nov. 8 election, with each candidate attacking the other as being a liar, radical and out of touch with the average Wisconsin voter." The microcosm that reveals the macrocosm.

"Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for Arizona governor, blasted a Phoenix PBS affiliate Wednesday for scheduling an interview with her Democratic rival, Katie Hobbs, saying the move makes it easier for Hobbs to avoid a debate… A state commission that organizes political debates abruptly canceled a one-on-one interview with Lake that the PBS station was scheduled to broadcast Wednesday after learning of the station’s plans to interview Hobbs next week."

"Former President Donald Trump angrily lashed out Wednesday, calling the nation’s legal system a “broken disgrace” after a judge ruled he must answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s."

"A member of the Oath Keepers who traveled to Washington before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol testified Wednesday about a massive cache of weapons the far-right extremist group stashed in a Virginia hotel room."

"The seven Democrats and two Republicans on the panel have said that their probe of the 2021 insurrection is for history, not only for current concern, and to ensure that nothing like it ever happens again. But Republicans allied with former President Donald Trump who are hostile to the investigation could take the congressional majority in the November elections, potentially making it harder for the committee to protect its documents and transcripts if they are not already made public."

"Members of the far-right Oath Keepers were ecstatic when then-President Donald Trump invited supporters to a “wild” protest in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress would be certifying the results of the 2020 election, according to messages shown Thursday during the seditious conspiracy trial for the militia group’s founder and four associates."

"The House Jan. 6 committee voted unanimously to subpoena former President Donald Trump, demanding his personal testimony as it unveiled startling new video and described his multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election loss, which led to his supporters’ fierce assault on the U.S. Capitol." Also with a recap of the Committee's latest public hearing.