Posts from — June 2020

Crooks & Liars reports Jim Cramer (CNBC) and Stuart Varney (Fox Business) are claiming that the stock market is dropping because Biden’s poll numbers are climbing. The reality is that the drop in the market and the rise in Biden’s numbers are the result of skyrocketing increases in COVID-19 cases caused by opening states too early combined with a lack of mask wearing and social distancing. The early opening and resistance to masks were endorsed by Trump who still isn’t taking the pandemic seriously. Trump is worrying about the statues of Confederate traitors being removed, not the looming deaths of a quarter million Americans.

Position: 42.5N 57.8W [10:00AM CDT 1500 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [045°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1007 mb ↑.

Currently about 370 miles [ 595 km] Southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

This is the last public advisory issued by the National Hurricane Center on this system.

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.]

Position: 40.5N 60.3W [10:00PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [060°] near 10 mph [17 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 70 miles [110 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1004 mb ↑.

Currently about 560 miles [ 900 km] Southwest of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

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.]

Position: 38.7N 64.6W [10:00PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [060°] near 10 mph [17 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 35 mph [ 55 kph].
Wind Gusts: 45 mph [ 70 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1009 mb.

Currently about 410 miles [ 660 km] South of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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.]

Today at 4:44PM [CDT] is the Summer Solstice, technically considered the “first day of Summer”, but the mid Summer by much of Europe.

Many Wiccans celebrate the day as Litha, while computer programmers honor their predecessors, the druids, who built the first solid-state computing devices, the megaliths, like Stonehenge.

The Slavs celebrate St. John’s Night, Иван Купала [Ivan Kupala], the battle between the White god [Белобог – Belobog] and the Black god [Чёрнобог – Chyornobog] for control of the Sun. The Black god always wins and the night begins to expand.

The sound track to the battle is Иванова Ночь на Лысой Горе [Night on Bald Mountain ] by Модест Петрович Мусоргский [Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky], which everyone should play very loudly.

Top Trump intel officials are claiming that John Bolton’s book will cause “grave damage to US national security.” Trump’s incompetence hasn’t left enough of US national security to be damaged. This is an attack on Bolton and has nothing to do with national security or the book. If they didn’t want the book published they would have sued the publisher months ago not waited until a week before the release to go after Bolton. They want to punish Bolton by locking his royalties in escrow and having a long drawn out legal fight.

If you had any doubt what the inverted red triangle means, you could ask Trump’s buddies Gorka or Miller or Wikipedia. While Antifa is an enemy of fascists, they don’t use fascist symbols. FDR, Churchill, my Dad and uncles were definitely Antifa.

The cops who claimed they got poisoned milk shakes should have known that the “Trump Koronavirus Killer” shake probably had bleach in it. Given the sugar, fat, and cholesterol in a milk shake, people who ride around in cars all day should realize the regular shakes are their own form of poison, especially when ordered with a double bacon cheeseburger and the large fries. 😈

Speaking of COVID-19, the graphic under the weather widget on my left sidebar will lead you to the real statistics of the outbreak in Florida including the number of ICU beds available. Rebekah Jones, the individual who was fired by the state government for not being willing to alter data on the official Florida site she created, created the new site. She knows where to find the data. The data is public, but you have to know where it’s located on the web.

According to the James Joyce Center

Bloomsday is a celebration that takes place both in Dublin and around the world. It celebrates Thursday 16 June 1904, which is the day depicted in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The day is named after Leopold Bloom, the central character in Ulysses. The novel follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom and a host of other characters – real and fictional – from 8am on 16 June 1904 through to the early hours of the following morning.

Why not?

Police work comes in around 15^th for dangerous jobs. Lumberjacks, fisherman, farmers, and driving garbage trucks are much more dangerous. But if you are still concerned there are some things you can do to reduce the number of active duty deaths.

1. Teach police officers how to drive and maintain the tires and brakes on police vehicles. If you really know how to drive you can avoid running into things or losing control.

2. Make cardiovascular exercises and good nutritional choices mandatory. If you are fit you can actually catch people who run away from you without having a heart attack.

3. Make officers qualify with the firearm they carry at a minimum of every 6 months. If you are in an active shooter situation you chances of survival really go up if you can hit what you should be aiming at instead of spraying a dozen rounds in a general direction.

If you look at the statistics for officers killed while on duty you will see auto accidents, heart attacks/strokes, and firearms are the major causes.

John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and count of Anjou in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June, 1215, signed the Great Charter in the presence of assorted heavily armed peers of the realm, who assured him it was the right thing to do.

The British Library has pictures of the Magna Carta available, but they are now requiring registration. Wikipedia has a nice discussion of the document.

The Magna Carta of 1297 is permanently residing in the US National Archives.

The Avalon Project has a translation of the 1215 version with an index and definitions.

John abided by the charter for several months, before he returned to business as normal, but the principle was established – no one is above the law.

Adopted as the flag of the United States of America by the Flag Resolution of 1777 enacted on 14 June, 1777.

The flag was first flown from Fort Stanwix, on the site of the present city of Rome, New York, on August 3, 1777. It was first under fire three days later in the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777.

An official flag has a rise to run ratio of 1 to 1.9 [the flag should be 1.9 times as long as it is high] with the canton [the dark blue part] that rises over the top seven stripes with a run of 40% of the flag’s run.

The only time you will see a “correct” US Flag is if you see the official colors of a military unit. Most flags are 3’X5′ or 4’X6′ instead of 3’X5.7′ or 4’X7.6′.

Frances Bellamy, the Baptist minister and socialist who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance was from Rome, New York.

Over at Crook & Liars they noticed that Racist-in-Chief Trump goes to Jacksonville on the anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday to receive the official nomination for President from the Republican Party.

Ax Handle Saturday was another attack on black people, this time with ax handles for the crime of wanting to eat at segregated lunch counters in Woolworths and Morrisons. This year is the 60^th anniversary of the assault.

They had to use ax handles because they didn’t have a “toy store” like the police do today.

Given Trump’s limited grasp of history it is impossible to believe that during a time of racial turmoil he would have been able to select two locations and dates that would be so disturbing to people of color. This smells of Stephen “I’m NOT related to Count Orlok” Miller.

In the middle of a pandemic and the racial unrest following the murder of George Floyd, the Trump White House decided it would be a fabulous idea the hold a campaign rally on June 19^th in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

June 19^th is celebrated as Juneteenth, the day slaves in Texas learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. From May 31^st through June 1^st, 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma was the site of a massacre of blacks by white that included firebombs dropped from aircraft. This is even more insensitive that Ronald Reagan giving his first speech after winning the Republican nomination for President in 1980 in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

To put a cherry on top, after the Department of Defense suggested it might be time to rename the 10 US Army facilities currently named for Confederate generals, Trump said no. The Press Secretary said that would be rewriting history. Are we going to name the next FBI building for John Dillinger or Bernard Madoff?

Update: Someone convinced Trump to hold his Ok City suicide gathering on Litha instead of Juneteenth. Probably told him it would get better media coverage. If the media were smart they would stop covering him live. Give him a few seconds on the morning shows after the weather break. 😈

Who polices the police?

Trump’s attitude about the media has caught on with the police at demonstrations. Given that it is the media who reports on police misconduct, the police take every opportunity to strike back. It is bad enough that there is now a Press Freedom Tracker reporting on attacks on the media at demonstrations.

The BBC reported on ‘Unacceptable’ attacks on reporters at protests, that shows that local reporters, national reporters, and foreign teams were all targeted by the police while openly wearing press credentials.

ABC reported on an Australian crew: Seven news crew attacked by charging police in Washington D.C.. They were backed against a wall and slammed with shields.

Then there’s there’s a Louisville, Kentucky attack “I’m Getting Shot!”: Louisville Police open fire On local TV reporter and crew. An officer with a pepper shot gun was obviously aiming at the crew who continued to tape while being assaulted.

I suspect current police officers spent too much time watching Cartman in South Park.