Congress is attempting to screw working people exactly the same way corporations have screwed their workers, by setting up a two-tiered system for Social Security and Medicare. They think they can con people 55 and older into remaining quiet while the taxes paid by younger people get looted for the benefit of the top 1%. It isn’t just the Republicans, the Democrats, led by Zero have bought into every lie the Republicans have told, and have refused to fix the economy.

I’m sick of hearing restatements of the failed policies of Hoover to deal with the Depression, and disgusted by Zero and the Democrats failing to use the tools that FDR proved worked.

The only “problem” with the deficit and Social Security is the reality that one in five American workers is either unemployed or underemployed. If you put people back to work, tax revenues increase, and all of the problems become easy to resolve. Tax breaks don’t create jobs. Demand for products is the only way jobs have ever been created, and that has been proven repeatedly over history. The Shrubbery passed tax cuts early on, and didn’t have enough private sector jobs created to during his entire eight years to cover the introduction of new workers.

Life expectancy falls in many parts of U.S. – how’s that for a headline, after hearing repeatedly that we have to raise the age for benefits, because people are living longer? The US isn’t even in the top three dozen in countries for life expectancy. I’m not interested in conventional wisdom from DC, where are the facts?

If these people are interested in reducing government, they can start by cutting the Senate in half. There is no reason for a state to have two Senators, when one can be just as worthless.

No one who pays FICA taxes should ever vote for anyone who messes around with the benefits. If they can’t leave well enough alone, they need to be unemployed to learn some humility. If they try it, everyone with a stake in Social Security should make them pay.

The gusty winds yesterday pushed the fire over the containment lines in New Mexico and the town of Luna had to be evacuated. With gusts up to 50 mph [80 kph] air resources were grounded for safety reasons.

No new structures have been lost and containment has reached 44%, but the weather will be problem for the rest of today. Hopefully the cold front moving in will improve the weather conditions.

Information from the current Wallow Fire InciWeb Page

• Date Started: 5/29/2011
• Location: Apache, Navajo, Graham, and Greenlee Counties, San Carlos and White Mountain Apache Reservations, Arizona; Catron County, New Mexico
• Cause: Human – under investigation
• Size: 511,118 acres [799 miles² 2068 km²] based on infrared data
• Percent Contained: 44%
• Injuries to Date: 12
• Residences: 2,714 threatened; 32 destroyed; 5 damaged
• Commercial Property: 473 threatened; 4 destroyed
• Outbuildings: 1,216 threatened; 36 destroyed; 1 damaged
• Other: 1 truck destroyed
• Number of Personnel: Approximately 3,594 including 15 hotshot crews and 56 hand crews
• Equipment: 21 dozers, 196 engines, 72 watertenders
• Aircraft: 15 helicopters, 5 air tankers
• Incident Commander: Jim Loach, Area Command Team 3

[Read more →]

Position: 14.9N 102.1W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [305°] near 12 mph [19 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [ 75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [ 90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 35 miles [ 55 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1001 mb ↓.

Currently about 320 miles [510 km] South-Southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Zihuatanejo westward to Manzanillo.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast of Mexico from Tecpan de Galeana westward to Punta San Telmo.

A Hurricane Watch is in effect for the coast of Mexico from west of Manzanillo westward to La Fortuna.

It became the second named storm at 1PM CDT. If nothing changes, this storm seems to have its heart setting on hitting Manzanillo as a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]