Posts from — November 2013

Froggie Approaches

Got a cheezburger?

[Editor: Froggie came over to see what I was doing when I was trying to get a picture of a yellow crab spider, so I took her picture instead.]

Friday Ark

Fifty years ago it was afternoon and I was on my way to a chemistry class. I had stopped for a drink of water when the news came over the speakers in the classrooms.

For those who weren’t alive at the time: remember what you felt on September 11, 2001 for a taste of November 22, 1963. It was a massive change for the worldview of my generation and it marked the beginning of a period of disruption and decline in the civility of American society. Arthur had died and Camelot fell.

At his inauguration John Kennedy made the point: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

The colors of my world will never be as bright as they were on November 21, 1963. It wasn’t what he accomplished as much as what he inspired others to accomplish that was his real legacy.

Harry Reid finally accepted the reality that the Senate Republicans had no intention of acting in good faith on any agreement regarding the filibuster, and changed the rules for nominations for every job except the Supreme Court Justices.

Mitch McConnell wailed about all of the damage that was done by stopping the Republicans from blocking votes on nominees, even nominees who were later approved almost unanimously. The Republicans will continue to stall nominations in committee and use every procedural trick available to keep anything from being done, but one of the roadblocks has been removed.

Maybe it was a bad idea for the Republicans under majority leader Bill Frist to have brought up the ‘nuclear option’, but in life and politics you reap what you sow. Basically the Republicans got the rule change they suggested when they were in charge, so they really shouldn’t complain.

Position: 41.5N 29.0W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [070°] near 28 mph [44 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [100 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Minimum central pressure: 983 mb ↑.

Currently about 265 miles [ 425 km] North-Northwest of the Azores.

The storm has transitioned to post-tropical, so this is the last advisory from NHC.

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.]

I can’t believe I have been blogging for 9 years, but that’s what it says in the upper left sidebar. More than a thousand posts a year, and an average of more than 4 comments for every post – some of us need to go for a better quality of life.

I started to vent my anger at the voters who decided to re-elect the Shrubbery. Within 9 months of taking office the Twin Towers collapsed, and within 9 months of the start of his second term New Orleans drowned. The US voters will never win prizes for their choices.

If Zero and company don’t conspire with the whacko GOP to destroy my retirement I’ll probably be around for a while.

Position: 38.1N 42.1W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [060°] near 30 mph [48 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 85 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [100 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Minimum central pressure: 984 mb ↓.

Currently about 820 miles [1320 km] West of the Azores.

The storm has finally become fully tropical.

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.]

Rob Ford is the conservative mayor of Toronto, Ontario, Canada who has been in the news lately concerning his problems with chemical dependency. Few people know that his problem with dependency was first noted in South Florida.

Looking at the train wreck that Rob Ford has become, it isn’t surprising that chemical dependency is a problem with South Florida politicians.

Trey Radel, Congresscritter for district that includes Fort Meyers got busted buying cocaine, and like Ford, he claimed it was because he was an alcoholic, not a junky.

Get real, Radel was a Tea Party conservative talk-radio host when he ran for Congress. Does anyone really believe that any of those people could do that sober?

Of course, they will all head for rehab and come out ‘all better’, because that’s what conservatives do since it’s ‘not their fault’.

Oh, the apology to the family is gratuitous theater. If they are really a family they already know about the problem.

Position: 33.6N 52.4W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 17 mph [28 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [100 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Minimum central pressure: 988 mb ↑.

Currently about 725 miles [1165 km] East of Bermuda.

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.]

I made ‘Whatever soup’ over the weekend, which is basically using up whatever is in the fridge for vegetables added to a pound of protein and an appropriate stock.

The only new item was some small pasta to add some carbs to it. It is good cold weather food that gets better in the freezer.

Then today I baked a pumpkin cake, which essentially a pumpkin pie with some extra eggs and flour. It’s not bad, but cream cheese frosting covers a multitude of sins.

Position: 30.3N 54.7W [ 9PM CST 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [325°] near 8 mph [13 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 60 mph [ 95 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 310 miles [500 km].
Minimum central pressure: 985 mb ↓.

Currently about 610 miles [ 985 km] East of Bermuda.

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.]

… in John Maynard Keynes, but the economy does.

Steve Bates notes that Krugman is still shrill about the Austerians, and keeps posting facts to make his point.

David Cameron has just admitted that the austerity will continue no matter what, because it is good for the country. This despite the fact that when he was campaigning he said it was necessary only for the fiscal crisis.

The Western economies are not growing because there is no demand. There is no demand because everyone, including governments, are cutting budgets and reducing costs. One of the major ways of reducing costs is by cutting jobs. Fewer people with jobs means fewer people to buy things, so demand continues to drop.

The only known way out of this death spiral is the way that worked to end the Great Depression – government spending to generate jobs, which provide people money to buy what they need, which increases demand, causing more businesses to hire more people to deal with the demand.

The rich get richer and everyone else gets nothing.

Robert Reich just reports because this stuff writes itself.

It would appear that MalWart just announced it third straight quarter of declining sales and William S. Simon, the CEO, has figured out that his customers income is going down while costs aren’t.

Mr. Reich thinks he might consider giving his employees a raise that might enable some of them to get off all of the public assistance programs they now qualify for, but that would never occur to Mr. Simon who can’t figure out that MalWart is the largest single employer of its customer base.

Between the cut in food stamps and the possibility of another government shutdown in December, I don’t think it is unreasonable to assume that MalWart will have a rather bleak Christmas season, and will post negative numbers for all of 2013.

I like my laptop for what it does, but the big box has a processor with twice the cores and three times the speed with access to four times as much RAM. The extra 6 inches on the screen makes reading a lot easier, and the keyboard really feels good.

Of course during the time the big box was down everyone issued software updates, so it spent the day downloading and upgrading both the Linux and the Win software.

Now I have to hope that the power supply didn’t break something when it died. Only time will tell…

Even Colder

The temperature is seriously deficient.

[Editor: Property is not pleased with the current temperature in the house.]

Friday Ark