June 2017 Archives

That is it for the night. Meeting some people for dinner in town tomorrow (friends of Lulu) - nothing much besides that.

Amazing resource from the US Department of Energy - well organised: The Industrial Technologies Program (ITP), Metal Casting portfolio

I want to get into metal casting sometime in the next year or so - been acquiring the materials to do this over the last couple of years so pretty well ready to roll.

Our attention is drawn to major oil spills like Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez but more oil goes into the Oceans every year from naturally occurring seeps and spills.

And the critters do just fine - from Max-Planck-Gesellschaft:

Oil as energy source for deep-sea creatures
At asphalt volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico that spew oil, gas and tar, mussels and sponges live in symbiosis with bacteria providing them with food. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology and colleagues from the USA have now discovered deep-sea animals living in symbiosis with bacteria that use oil as an energy source and appear to thrive on short-chained alkanes in the oil. According to the researchers, bacteria closely related to the symbionts, which bloomed during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, used this ability to degrade the oil in the sea.

Stench and heat when a road is paved, black tar clumps at the beach that stick to your feet – asphalt does not make for a homey habitat. And yet it forms the basis for a flourishing ecosystem of mussels, crabs, worms, sponges and many other animals.

In the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, oil and tar seep from the ocean floor and form bizarre structures reminiscent of cooled lava – so-called asphalt volcanoes. Researchers from Bremen, Germany, and the USA discovered these volcanoes nearly 15 years ago. These exotic environments still have many surprises in store, such as the one shown now in a study published in Nature Microbiology by an international research group led by Maxim Rubin-Blum and Nicole Dubilier from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany.

You need to remember that these critters hit the genetic lottery - there are a lot of other species that are killed by oil in the environment so this is not saying that we should not be careful. What this is saying is that the path is very much open to ways to remediate from a spill the next time one happens.

Culture these organisms and disperse them at an oil spill. They will break down the oil and die off as their food becomes scarcer and scarcer so you are not changing the native population that much. Very cool!

Back in October 2015, I posted one of his law firms television advertisements. Here he is on fireworks:

With this, I will be master of all that I survey.

This will allow me to do any sort of construction project on the farm as well as help me with my antenna design for the amateur radio. Instruments like these used to be common on construction sites but then computers happened and the complex transit got packaged into a gray box full of miracles that costs $10,000 on up. Much more accurate and able to do all the calculations internally so user error is minimized but still - out of reach for me.

The segment of the market that was left over was for people who needed just a simple optical level - these are all over the place but only have about ±10° range in elevation and the azimuth (left and right) is not calibrated at all.

For amateur radio antenna design, I live between two mountains. By varying the height of my antenna, I can adjust the beam angle of my signal to scoot over the mountain tops and not just expend its energy warming the trees. I need to know the precise vertical angle of where the top of the mountain is relative to my location at the bottom of the valley. With this? Piece of cake!

I can also measure distances. I own a 300 foot tape measure so I focus on a tree at one location, read the compass angle, move 300 feet perpendicular to my first location, focus on the same tree and read the new angle. I can then use the Law of Sines to calculate the distance of the tree to my 300 foot centerline. If I make sure that the first measurement is set to 90°, the calculations get a lot simpler and I can find the distance from that first location.

Finally, this works great for simple levelling so if I want to build a pond or greenhouse, I am all set.

Like I said earlier, it had been stored in a damp location so there is some mildew and the optics are cloudy but it is useable now and will be a lot of fun to restore - maybe a winter project.

It is dinner time - eating on the back deck again tonight. Got a couple cold beers with my name on them.

And we do not want you to start finding any either - from Dennis Michael Lynch:

Dems refuse to cooperate in Trump’s voter fraud probe
President Trump signed an executive order in May, creating the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, in an effort to investigate suspected voter fraud.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who serves as vice chair on the committee, sent a letter this week to all 50 states, requesting their voter registration data, specifying he only wanted “publicly-available voter roll data” under the laws of each state.

Kobach also requested recommendations from each state on how to improve integrity in the election process.

Already, Democratic officials are digging in their heels and declaring they are not about to turn over the requested voter roll data, which includes names, dates of birth, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, voter history, political party, felony convictions, and military status.

Terry McAuliffe, Democratic governor of Virginia, released a written statement Thursday, saying, “I have no intention of honoring this request. Virginia conducts fair, honest, and democratic elections, and there is no evidence of significant voter fraud in Virginia.”

Kobach is not asking for private information, he is only interested in what are already public records - he just wants to get them in a single database file instead of having to spend hours on each County website.

What are they trying to hide?

From iOTW Report:

• • Two dozen Democrats get behind bill to lay foundation for removing Trump for being mentally 'incapacitated' (but they'd need Mike Pence to agree)

Makes me wonder what they are smoking so I can stay the hell away from it - this is terminally stupid.

Shot:

• • Stocks end mostly higher to book best half-year gains in years

And chaser:

• • Media Stocks Suffer in Trump Era

Food trailer parked by the shop door and got a pot of rice cooking. Set up the transit's tripod on the porch and will take a photo of the new (to me) transit once the sun goes down a bit - lighting is too harsh right now.

It had been stored damp - there is mildew and the optics are clouded but this will be a matter of about ten hours of cleaning and then it will be as good as new. The whole thing is made of cast and machined brass and chromed steel so rust is simply not an issue.

At some point, I am planning to replace the optics with modern glass but in a way that the original glass can be swapped back if desired. The coatings these days make the images a lot brighter and sharper and I am looking at maybe $30 for the new glass.

Finally, a Craigslist advertisement that was not methamphetamine-fueled hyperbole. I had been looking for a transit for ten years or so and finally got a decent one for $250 including a tripod.

I'll post photos later tonight as I am headed out again, this time on Buttercup the Tractor to pick up the food trailer that I bought last fall. It needs some work (new flooring, beefing up the anchor points for the equipment and a new vent) and I want to get it ready for the summer season and keep running it full-time. Taking it home so I can work on it at the shop.

Picked up a Costco roti chicken so putting on a pot of rice and that is dinner. More spew in an hour or two...

Nothing much happening in the world. Heading out for coffee and then in to town to pick up some cabinets for the store and look at a craigslist deal. Back around 4:00PM when I will move the food trailer from the store to home. I need to do some renovation to it before I can open so will be working on it at home.

James O'Keefe is on a roll - here is his third undercover video on CNN. This one features Assistant Producer Jimmy Carr:

Fake News indeed. I like their opinion of We The People.

It is being held at the James G. Murphy headquarters in Kenmore: STRATOS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LLC

Preview on Wednesday, July 12th - there is a big BERT potluck (2nd Anniversary) that evening so I will be heading down Tuesday evening and camping in the truck. Some electronics test and measuring equipment - see what the prices go for and take it from there

From A. F. Branco:

Here is what England's National Health Services is doing - from Louder with Crowder:

PURE EVIL: Baby Sentenced to Death by Government Healthcare
There are some things in life that should remain private. Like your IBS, your foot fetish, or the lack of underwear under those jeans. When it comes to more important decisions and information, like healthcare, privacy is essential (see California Senate Flips Bird to Taxpayers. Passes Single-Payer Healthcare Bill… and Women’s ‘Healthcare’? Planned Parenthood ONLY Performs Ultrasounds to Kill the Baby). So too is privately funding your own healthcare. When one’s government funds it, that government also makes some horrendous calls.

Trigger warning for snowflakes: this story doesn’t have a fairytale ending. Move to the UK.

The parents of terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard are ‘utterly distraught’ and facing fresh heartbreak after losing their final appeal in the European Court of Human Rights.

Chris Gard, 32, and Connie Yates, 31, wanted to take their 10-month-old son – who suffers from a rare genetic condition and has brain damage – to the US to undergo a therapy trial.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, where Charlie is being cared for, said they wanted him to be able to ‘die with dignity’.

But the couple, from Bedfont, west London, raised almost £1.4million so they could take their son to America but a series of courts ruled in favour of the British doctors.

Let me pause here. The couple has raised their own money to take their own son to the United States for possibly life-saving medical care. The UK government told them no. The UK government has sentenced a child to death.

Much more at the site - as said, the couple raised the so they could take their son to America but the National Health Service said no - the doctors want the baby to be able to ‘die with dignity’. Heaven help that someone should be able to actually cure the baby - that would show the NHS doctors to be the incompetent fools that they are.

Notice also that under a Single Payer Healthcare system, there is no research. There are no experimental treatments. There is no money for these because all of the money is sucked into the daily operation of the bureaucracy. If more money should become available, the bureaucracy will incrementally grow in size until it absorbs that extra money for its daily operation.

The idea that such a system could take root in America makes me sick to my stomach.

From FOX News:

House passes Kate’s Law, as part of illegal immigrant crackdown
House Republicans took action Thursday to crack down on illegal immigrants and the cities that shelter them.

One bill passed by the House would deny federal grants to sanctuary cities and another, Kate’s Law, would increase the penalties for deported aliens who try to return to the United States.

Kate's Law, which would increase the penalties for deported aliens who try to return to the United States and caught, passed with a vote of 257 to 157, with one Republican voting no and 24 Democrats voting yes.

Kate's Law is named for Kate Steinle, a San Francisco woman killed by an illegal immigrant who was in the U.S. despite multiple deportations. The two-year anniversary of her death is on Saturday.

A lot of the people coming in just want a better life for themselves and their families. There is an open path to immigration that they can follow. For those just wanting to earn some money, there are agricultural visas available.

The illegal immigrants are a different story - these people want to move here, get on the dole and continue a life of crime knowing that if caught, they will get a slap on the wrist, maybe deported but they can come back and get on the dole again - lather rinse repeat. These are the people we need to take issue with.

Still a butt-load of snow up there but the highway and parking lot is open - just in time for Canada Day (happy 150th Birthday, eh?) and then the Glorious Fourth.

Here is a photo from a couple days ago:

Picked up some Chinese food in town and setting out to enjoy it on the back deck - it is a glorious 73.6°F right now, got up to 80.2 this afternoon so cooling off nicely.

Picking up some cabinets for the store as well as a potential Craigslist deal tomorrow so will need to clean out the truck - still has the tables and chairs from last weekend's field day.

Take care of the pups and then dinner.

Coffee, doing some stuff at the store and then in to town for some banking and to pick up a couple of things. Heading in tomorrow too for a craigslist deal. Back later this evening.

From the USGS: - M 3.0 - 4km S of Marietta, Washington

From the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network.

Not a big one but I would have felt it had I been awake.

And a bit about climate too - first from the UK Guardian:

World has three years left to stop dangerous climate change, warn experts
Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres among signatories of letter warning that the next three years will be crucial to stopping the worst effects of global warming.

Avoiding dangerous levels of climate change is still just about possible, but will require unprecedented effort and coordination from governments, businesses, citizens and scientists in the next three years, a group of prominent experts has warned.

Warnings over global warming have picked up pace in recent months, even as the political environment has grown chilly with Donald Trump’s formal announcement of the US’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement. This year’s weather has beaten high temperature records in some regions, and 2014, 2015 and 2016 were the hottest years on record.

A major point here - the claim of hottest year is from NASA (PDF). Not the 18,000 people who work for NASA, we are talking about one very small agency - the Goddard Institute for Space Studies which has about 140 staff of which, only about 30 are full-time employees of NASA; the rest are from nearby Columbia University or are visiting scientists or interns. This is a very partisan institution. Its founder was James Hansen who was fired because he got involved in more political issues than scientific ones. He had a narrative of global warming to pursue and he did it. Their data is cherry-picked and does not use atmospheric data from the many satellites. These are a lot more accurate and all of them show a 19+ year decline in atmospheric temperatures - concurring with the overall decline in output from our Sun. The data that GISS uses is gathered at the surface and subject to the Urban Heat Island effect.

The Guardian article leads with a photo of Ms. Figueres:

What a harpy - such condescension in her face. Bow down before me - I am your better.

Now, two on alt.energy.

First - from the Tulsa, OK Tulsa World:

Frank Keating: I signed wind industry tax breaks, and I was wrong
In 2001, when I served as governor of Oklahoma, I signed legislation creating the Zero Emissions Tax Credit for industrial wind energy. The tax credit was designed to give a jump-start to a wind industry in its infancy in Oklahoma at the time. It was sold to us as a low-cost way to broaden our already robust energy and economic development program. It was supposed to create jobs and develop a more prosperous future for Oklahoma.

Signing this legislation was simply a mistake. What was promised to cost the state less than $2 million annually when I was in office has soared to $113 million for the 2014 tax year and is expected to cost billions in the future. Wind farms average 10 percent to 13 permanent jobs, which hardly lives up to the promised employment growth.

Because the tax credits weren’t limited or capped, the Zero Emissions Tax Credit has warped into a scam costing taxpayers millions to the detriment of other publicly funded services. In 2014, the credits became directly refundable, meaning the state writes wind companies checks for 85 percent of the value of each credit. That’s essentially a blank check funded by taxpayers that goes to multibillion-dollar corporations based outside of Oklahoma and mostly located in foreign countries. It’s the worst kind of corporate handout.

Emh]phasis mine - this is not about manufacturing jobs - the two big turbine companies are  Vestas (Denmark) and Siemans (Germany) - here is a list of all of the manufacturers and only a handful are based in the USA.

Second - some good news from The Daily Caller:

The Western US’s Largest Coal Plant Has A ‘Fighting Chance’ Of Survival
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke hailed the Navajo Nation’s ratification of a new lease with operators of the largest coal-fired power plant in the western U.S., staving off its immediate decommissioning.

Zinke said the action gave Navajo and Hopi workers a “fighting chance” to keep their jobs at the coal plant and the mine that supplies it.

Navajo Nation ratified a lease agreement with operators of the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) Tuesday to extend power plant and mining operations through 2019. This gives the Department of the Interior, which co-owns the plant, and other stakeholders time to find ways to keep the NGS viable.

“Since the first weeks of the Trump Administration, one of Interior’s top priorities has been to roll up our sleeves with diverse stakeholders in search of an economic path forward to extend NGS and Kayenta Mine operations after 2019,” Zinke said in a statement.

Lulu and I saw this plant during our Southwest trip two years ago. They were not giving tours of the plant but we drove around it and visited the mine 80 miles away - the whole operation is clean, no ash, no odor, no visible color to the stack gasses - very complete combustion and it provides solid baseload power to most of Arizona and Nevada.

CNN has been shown to be a purveyor of Fake News and has been publicly called on it. Their reaction? From Real Clear Politics:

CNN Anchor: Trump Putting Journalists In Danger; "Declaration Of War On Media" Has "Emboldened" War Zones
CNN's Clarissa Ward, a foreign correspondent, served as guest co-host on Wednesday's broadcast of CNN's News Day. Ward fretted "people" in war zones have been "emboldened" by President Trump's "declaration of war on the media." Ward, expressing concern for members of the media in dangerous areas of the world, said to guest Chris Cillizza, 'I can only imagine what a person like you is dealing with. At what point does this become reckless or irresponsible?'

It should be noted Chris Cillizza is a Washington-based political correspondent and commentator.

And in other news, CNNs ratings are tanking - FOX News Channel is beating them to the ground and taking their lunch money - from TV Newser (AdWeek):

Oh, and James O'Keefe released his second CNN video - from Zero Hedge:

Project Veritas Exposes CNN's Van Jones: "The Russia Thing Is Just A Big Nothing Burger"
Yesterday, after dropping his first undercover CNN bombshell, which starred producer John Bonifield admitting that CNN's endless 'Russian meddling' crusade was "mostly bullshit" directed by the network's CEO Jeff Zucker with the sole intent of spiking ratings, Project Veritas' James O'Keefe promised there was more to come.  And, all we knew was that the subject of the second video would be "someone we all knew..."

As it turns out, that 'someone' is none other than CNN's Van Jones who inadvertently got caught revealing his true thoughts on CNN's 'Russian meddling' narrative, namely that the whole story is a "big nothing burger."

Heh - if they had been honest, this never would have happened.

We had a power surge at the store and it caused problems with the back-end server that drives our point of sale system. Picked up two UPSs from Costco and will wire them in tomorrow. I was in Hardware Sales for some stuff and saw that they had Praying Mantis egg cases for sale so picked up three of them - should be fun as each case holds about 200 mantis eggs. Great predator for unwanted insects. Hanging one case by the fruit trees, another one in the garden and the third at the edge of the field near the stream - see what hatches out...

Had fish and chips at Graham's for dinner - nothing much for leftovers here. Killed the last of the pot roast a few days ago.

Garbage day tomorrow so got to get the trash wheeled out to the street.

Crazy people will be less inclined to shoot up a classroom of kids if there is the chance that the teacher will be armed. Makes perfect sense. From FOX News (the Non-Fake News channel):

Teachers packing heat: More educators taking gun training classes
Teachers across the country are moving to the head of the class when it comes to learning how to use a gun.

With mass shootings seemingly becoming common place in classrooms across the country, teachers are learning how fire grade-A shots and starting to carry weapons in class. It’s an attempt to better protect their students and prevent the next Sandy Hook Elementary School or Columbine High School shooting.

Nearly a third of the country, a total of 18 states, allows adults to carry a loaded gun on school grounds, with certain permissions. But ever since the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012, in which 20 children and six adults were shot dead, some states have pushed for safety training initiatives for teachers to learn how to properly fire a weapon and prevent any threats to the classroom.

Good news.

I was planning to head South today to look at a camera lens but got an email that the previous person bought it. Oh well...

Heading out for coffee and then working at home today.

From The Seattle Times:

Elizabeth Warren: ‘The next step is single-payer’ health care
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday that opposing the Republican health-care bill wasn’t enough and the Democratic Party should start running on a new national single-payer plan.

“President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” she told The Wall Street Journal. ”Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.”

Massachusetts tried single-payer and it failed spectacularly with overall costs skyrocketing. There is no incentive for a hospital to keep costs low - there is no competition. England has its National Health Service and it too is failing with staffing shortages, exorbitant waiting times (hip and knee replacements have average wait times of over 100 days), a large number of unnecessary deaths - 1 in 28 - four times that of US Hospitals.

Single payer is the worst form of health care - if we think that the Veterans Hospitals are bad, wait until every hospital is just as bad. Open up the health care markets - bring in competition and we will see better care and lower costs.

From The Bellingham Herald:

The Willows Inn, luxury restaurant on Lummi Island, caught underpaying staff in labor investigation
The Willows Inn, a world-class restaurant on Lummi Island, violated federal labor laws by underpaying kitchen staff and requiring trainees to work for free in a month-long tryout for a job, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The upscale inn has earned glowing reviews from food critics for its luxurious, fresh, homegrown menu since 2011, when The New York Times named it one of “10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride.” To reach the Willows it takes a five-minute ferry ride across from the Lummi Peninsula, too, a journey that has become a pilgrimage for those willing to spend more than $200 per person for a 15-course meal.

Over the past two years, however, the restaurant has broken federal labor laws by underpaying staff, or having interns work menial jobs such as painting the buildings, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

“The restaurant required entry-level kitchen staff known in the industry as ‘stages’ to work one month as a free try-out period before they were considered for paid employment,” according to a news release from the federal agency. “Once on the payroll, the kitchen workers were paid daily rates from $50 per day for up to 14 hours per day with no consideration of weekly overtime premium.”

At The Willows Inn, stages – pronounced staahj, from the French word stagiaire – would clean dishes, polish silverware, collect herbs, prepare vegetables, assemble dishes, clean the facilities, and paint the exterior of the buildings, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. It’s common practice at high-end restaurants, though it’s illegal under U.S. labor laws, said Jeannette Aranda, director of the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division office in Seattle.

The key problem is that normally, stages are working closely with the chef and are there to learn from them - this way, the chef can see if the applicant will fit in with the culture of the restaurant. Stages at The Willows Inn were expected to do drudge-work - washing dishes, painting the buildings, etc...

Dilbert creator Scott Adams writes:

The Only Way to Fix Healthcare Insurance in the U.S.
Our system of government has been amazingly robust for hundreds of years, but it fails when you have these two conditions:

1. 1. An issue is too complicated for the public to understand.
   2. Big companies are willing to distort the system for profits.

That situation describes the healthcare debate going on in the United States right now. Our undersized brains can’t grasp all the nuances and implications of any particular healthcare plan. And when our brains are confused, we default to our biases (usually party loyalty) or to whatever metric is simple enough to understand. With healthcare, the one metric that matters is how many people will be covered compared to Obamacare. If the Republican plan covers more people, it will pass. If not, it will fail.

A lot more at the site - this is a very well thought out post.

There is a Mexican restaurant in town that does Taco Tuesdays - $2 for a decent taco and another $2 for rice and beans. They have a buffet of toppings and salsas. Filled up my belly!

Time to surf for a bit and then an early bedtime - need to head to points South tomorrow to look at a possible Craigslist deal.

Nice day today - got up to 82.0°F at the house - high clouds and a little wind - perfect. Heading outside to water the garden.

Finished a couple of projects at home so heading in to town to pick up a few things - probably get a bite to eat in town.

Coffee first. Blogging will resume much later tonight.

James O'Keefe has done it again - here is the transcript of an undercover video with CNN Producer John Bonifield - Project Veritas:

NEW VERITAS VIDEO: American Pravda: CNN
Project Veritas has released a video of CNN Producer John Bonifield who was caught on hidden-camera admitting that there is no proof to CNN's Russia narrative.

"I mean, it's mostly bullshit right now," Bonifield says. "Like, we don't have any giant proof."

He confirms that the driving factor at CNN is ratings:

"It's a business, people are like the media has an ethical phssssss... All the nice cutesy little ethics that used to get talked about in journalism school you're just like, that's adorable. That's adorable. This is a business."

According to the CNN Producer, business is booming. "Trump is good for business right now," he concluded.

Bonifield further goes on to explain that the instructions come straight from the top, citing the CEO, Jeff Zucker:

"Just to give you some context, President Trump pulled out of the climate accords and for a day and a half we covered the climate accords. And the CEO of CNN (Jeff Zucker) said in our internal meeting, he said good job everybody covering the climate accords, but we're done with that, let's get back to Russia."

Bonifield also acknowledged: "I haven't seen any good enough evidence to show that the President committed a crime." He continues:

"I just feel like they don't really have it but they want to keep digging. And so I think the President is probably right to say, like, look you are witch hunting me. You have no smoking gun, you have no real proof."

"To report not on facts, but instead on narratives that yield high ratings, is exactly the definition of fake news," said James O'Keefe. "We said we are going after the media, and there is a lot more to come."

The video is at the link - I love that last bit: "and there is a lot more to come".  O'Keefe did this masterfully with his 2009 series on ACORN - he released a video, they denied it saying that it was just a few people in one office. He then proceeded to release seven more videos from seven different cities with the same activities.

From Richmond, VA station WTVR:

Student headed to prison for registering dead voters for Democrats
A man paid to register Virginia voters prior to the 2016 Presidential Election will spend at least 100 days in prison for submitting the names of deceased individuals to the Registrar’s Office.

James Madison University student Andrew J. Spieles, 21, of Harrisonburg, pled guilty Monday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. As part of the plea agreement, Spieles agreed to a prison sentence of 100 to 120 days.

Spieles worked for Harrisonburg Votes when he committed the crime, according to acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle.

Harrisonburg Votes is a political organization affiliated with the Democratic Party.

The democrat platform has nothing that people want so they have to resort to cheating, coercion and bribery (bread and circuses).

There is a lot in the news about opioid addiction rising in the general population. Turns out this is Fake News - it is not the general population at all. From Kaiser Health News:

Patients With Mental Disorders Get Half Of All Opioid Prescriptions
Adults with a mental illness receive more than 50 percent of the 115 million opioid prescriptions in the United States annually, according to a study released Monday. The results prompted researchers to suggest that improving pain management for people with mental health problems “is critical to reduce national dependency on opioids.”

People with mental health disorders represent 16 percent of the U.S. population.

The findings are worrisome, the researchers reported. They had expected that physicians were more conservative in prescribing these painkillers to people with mental illness.

“We are prescribing way too much opioids,” said Dr. Brian Sites, an anesthesiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire and one of the study’s researchers. “And that prescription behavior is resulting in significant morbidity in the country.”

Morbidity is the medical term for kicking the bucket - in this case via overdose. Why prescribe?

“The opioids are prescribed primarily for pain,” but patients with mental illness find that the drugs alleviate their mental issues too, said Dr. Edwin Salsitz, an attending physician in the Division of Chemical Dependency of Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York who was not involved in the study. And this, he said, is what can lead to long-term use.

And there you go - America's heroin problem wrapped up in a neat package with a little bow on the top. Prescribing opioids is the easy way to alleviate the symptoms of mental illness. I am surprised that these people only constitute 16 percent of the total population - there are a lot more registered Democrats out there... (rimshot)

Pure schadenfreude - from The Washington Post:

A ‘very credible’ new study on Seattle’s $15 minimum wage has bad news for liberals
When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city's minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they'd hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.

The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They've cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.

The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. The study, published as a working paper Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has not yet been peer reviewed.

A perfect example of doing what sounds good instead of doing what works. I had written about this before: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The website for the study is here: The Minimum Wage Study

Doing a Google search is always an interesting metric. A search for " minimum wage fail " turns up 1,490,000 results.

Interesting - from the New York Post:

New York Times bloodbath could include reporter jobs
Reporters at the New York Times could soon be “vulnerable” to the ax. If the ongoing round of voluntary buyouts being offered to editing staff does not get enough takers, the Gray Lady could begin another round, NYT Executive Editor Dean Baquet recently warned his top department editors.

“Up until now, the company had not indicated that layoffs would happen if targeted numbers weren’t achieved,” Grant Glickson, president of the NewsGuild, told Media Ink.

As part of the NYT’s ongoing restructuring of its editing ranks, 109 copy editors have had their jobs eliminated. There are estimated to be about 50 new jobs available in the restructured editing operation that the Times envisions for its digital- and video-oriented future.

This is not the first cost-cutting measure by the NYT - back in December of 2016, they announced that they were leasing eight floors of their flagship building. They are on the wrong side of the public narrative. A couple more links:

• • CAN ANYONE SAVE THE NEW YORK TIMES FROM ITSELF?
  • Managing the Decline of Print: The New York Times Looks to Cut Costs
  • Donald Trump Blasts ‘Failing New York Times’ over ‘Hit Piece’
  • Exclusive — President Trump: New York Times ‘Intent Is So Evil and So Bad,’ ‘They Write Lies’

From My Everett News:

Stuck Horn On Tug Keeps Everett Residents Awake
MyEverettNews.com started received messages early this morning about super loud horn or siren that was keeping folks awake on the hottest night of the year.
The sound was thought to be coming somewhere from the waterfront.

We checked with the Port of Everett this morning and they issued the following apology…

Neighbors:
We apologize for the prolonged horn noise at the Port last night. One of our customers has been doing some finishing work on a new ocean-going tug boat, and the horn malfunctioned. Our customer has assured us they have remedied the issue.

Please accept our sincere apologies on the noise, the time it took to figure out how to turn off the horn and the fact that it happened on the hottest day of the year so far.

Sincerely,
Les Reardanz
CEO Port of Everett

So there is your answer. Glad we could help. Were gonna go take a nap now.

Took delivery ten days ago of 10,000 wasps to replace the ones that Grace chewed up three weeks ago. Noticed today that they were hatching so spread them around the farm near poop piles. These predate on maggot larvae and are an amazing fly control. I start out with 50,000 in early spring and do a booster of 10K every couple of months. I get them from here: Spalding Labs - cost is about $100 for the whole year and well worth it.

Unpacking the trailer today. Not as hot as yesterday which is a relief.

Heading out for coffee, check the mail and pay some bills.

Back in a few hours.

CNN has become the poster boy for fake news - the latest from BuzzFeed:

CNN Deleted A Story Linking Trump And Russia, Then Issued A Retraction After Questions Were Raised
CNN late Friday deleted a story from its website that claimed Senate investigators were looking into a Russian investment fund whose chief executive met with a member of President Trump’s transition team, later issuing a retraction in the story's place.

The now-deleted story, by investigative reporter Thomas Frank, was published Thursday and cited a single, unnamed source who claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee was looking into a "$10-billion Russian investment fund whose chief executive met with a member of President Donald Trump's transition team four days before Trump's inauguration."

But by Friday evening, the story had vanished from CNN's website. It was not immediately clear when the story was removed, but a tweet linking to the story, from CNN's Politics account, was also deleted sometime Friday evening.

The Russians were never involved - it was a fabrication by the Democrats to justify surveillance of the Trump campaign. Of course, the Russians were great friends to the Obama administration and Hillary was very much on board too.

Detroit is in serious financial trouble and they do crap like this - from Michigan Public Radio:

Detroit City Council approves $34.5 million in bonds for Detroit Pistons to move into new arena
The Detroit Pistons are one step closer to playing downtown again.

Despite backlash from some residents, Detroit city council has approved $34.5 million in bonds so the Pistons can move into the Little Caesars Arena downtown.

Some Detroiters are unhappy with the deal because the bonds are taxpayer funded with money originally intended for schools and parks.

Emphasis mine - a perfect example of Bread and Circuses - from the Infogalactic link:

 In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace.

No word on what the school system or the parks department is saying.

The Supreme Court agrees with the President - from FOX News:

Trump travel ban: Supreme Court reinstates key parts of executive order
In a victory for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court on Monday lifted key components of an injunction against President Trump's proposed ban on travel from six majority-Muslim nations, reinstating much of the policy and promising to hear full arguments as early as this fall.

The court's decision means the justices will now wade into the biggest legal controversy of the Trump administration -- the president's order temporarily restricting travel, which even Trump has termed a "travel ban."

Good news - we need to stop the stream of people coming into the USA. They move here, get on welfare and food stamps and contribute nothing to the economy. What is worse is that we have no idea who these people are - they come in with false documents. Time to put a hold on this for a while untill we can get better vetting methods.

Some people do not have a clue - either that or there are too many lawyers in Wisconsin. From the Milwaukie WI Journal Sentinel:

Whacked with a 4x4: Menards, Home Depot face lawsuits over descriptions of lumber size
Menards and Home Depot stand accused of deceiving the lumber-buying public, specifically, buyers of 4x4 boards, the big brother to the ubiquitous 2x4.

The alleged deception: The retailers market and sell the hefty lumber as 4x4s without specifying that the boards actually measure 3½ inches by 3½ inches.

The lawsuits against the retailers, would-be class actions, were filed within five days of each other in federal court for the Northern District of Illinois. Attorneys from the same Chicago law firm represent the plaintiffs in both cases. Each suit seeks more than $5 million.

The sheer cluelessness and/or stupidity astonish me. A bit more (Turin is the lawyer)

The cases name three plaintiffs — two against Menards and one against Home Depot.

The Menards plaintiffs bought their lumber at stores in Gurnee and Fox Lake, Ill., in November. The Home Depot plaintiff bought his lumber at a store in Palatine, Ill., in December.

As Turin described it, all three men wanted the lumber for home-improvement projects, got home and measured the pieces, felt they had been deceived and then turned to the law firm.

Asked whether it was coincidence that three different men found the same sort of issue with lumber first at Menards and then at Home Depot, and then all decided to go to McGuire Law, Turin said he couldn’t comment.

Someone is fishing and decided to invent some plaintiffs.

I like running a quick meeting. As part of the requirements for our state licensing, we have to hold monthly meetings. We have to have a quorum of board members in attendance, have to approve the written transcription of last months meeting, and have a Secretary report, a Treasurer report (for us, same person as Secretary) and an Engineers report. Tonight's meeting was nine minutes.

It helped that the building was not air conditioned and was about 90°F inside. I'll have to remember that - I know where the thermostat is and, like I said, I like quick meetings.

They call themselves Antifa (anti-fascism) but their propaganda and tactics are straight out of the brownshirt playbook of the 1940's. From Oregon's Willamette Week:

Portland Police Chief Says Antifa Protesters Used Slingshot to Launch Urine and Feces-Filled Balloons at Riot Cops
Portland Police Chief Mike Marshman said today that riot cops pushed antifascist and anarchist protesters out of downtown parks June 4 after the protesters used slingshots to launch balloons filled with urine, feces and unknown chemicals into police ranks.

Marshman also told Mayor Ted Wheeler in an open letter that much of the smoke seen as officers cleared Chapman Square wasn't released by police but by the left-wing protesters themselves. He says protesters "may have been using 'gopher gassers,' small rodent poison gas devices."

Marshman's allegations come in a response to Wheeler's June 13 list of five questions that demanded an accounting for police tactics at the dueling June 4 protests in downtown Portland.

Wheeler's questions followed criticism from protesters and the American Civil Liberties Union that the Portland police use of crowd-control weapons was out of proportion to the behavior of a handful of antifa protesters. (The "alt-right" protesters whose rally agitated both antifa and City Hall were hugely outnumbered, and they mostly contented themselves with taunting political enemies from behind police lines.)

Arrest them all - jail time will just make martyrs out of them but levying a nice stiff fine would help shut them up. If Mommy and Daddy don't pay, 1,000 hours of community service. The idea that this behaviour is a form of mental illness seems more and more correct each day. They are not getting educated in college, they are getting indoctrinated - big difference. Puppets and cannon fodder of the deep state elites.

Fscking hypocrite - from the UK Telegraph:

Greenpeace executive flies 250 miles to work
One of Greenpeace’s most senior executives commutes 250 miles to work by plane, despite the environmental group’s campaign to curb air travel, it has emerged.

Pascal Husting, Greenpeace International’s international programme director, said he began "commuting between Luxembourg and Amsterdam" when he took the job in 2012 and currently made the round trip about twice a month.

The flights, at 250 euros for a round trip, are funded by Greenpeace, despite its campaign to curb "the growth in aviation", which it says "is ruining our chances of stopping dangerous climate change”.

I know that Amsterdam is a gorgeous city but haven't these people ever heard of Skype? Greenpeace started out doing good work but they are now just another large Nongovernmental Organization sucking off the taxpayer teat.

Was talking this morning and the conversation turned to generating power - people had not heard about Thorium.

Here is an excellent five minute YouTube compilation:

UBid Estate & Auction Services LLC is auctioning off 500+ items of Radio Shack memoribilia - some interesting stuff, quite the historical collection:

Here is the auction site: ICONIC RADIOSHACK MEMORABILIA AUCTION

A lot of their older computers - TRS-80, Model 100 and 102 (I still have my Model 100 - it was great for writing and notetaking. Ran forever on a four AA batteries). They also have a lot of Allied Electronics catalogs - tempted to bid on one - they are currently at around $15 for a hardbound one of 400 pages.

End of an era - shows you what bad management can do to a wonderful corporation.

Did breakfast for the group - about 30 meals (some people went through the line more than once). Time to crank the air conditioning, pop open a beer and kick back for a little bit - got a water board meeting tonight. Left over Chinese food for dinner. Deal with the trailer tomorrow...

From the wonderful Quote Investigator website:

From his May 1918 article titled “Lincoln and Free Speech” in Metropolitan Magazine:

PATRIOTISM means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him in so far as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth—whether about the President or about anyone else—save in the rare cases where this would make known to the enemy information of military value which would otherwise be unknown to him.

Roosevelt also wrote this in a 1918 article in The Kansas City Star:

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else.

Those in the deep state would do well to heed his words. We The People certainly are...

From The Seattle Times:

‘Flying saucers’ became a thing 70 years ago Saturday with sighting near Mount Rainier
Before June 24, 1947, terms such as UFOs and flying saucers had not entered popular vocabulary. Then, on that afternoon 70 years ago, it all changed because of Kenneth Arnold:

“Supersonic Flying Saucers Sighted by Idaho Pilot.”

Arnold reported seeing near Mount Rainier nine “circular-type” objects flying in formation at more than twice the speed of sound.

His was the first widely reported UFO sighting in this country, and it set off a wave of other reported sightings.

I want to believe but I find it telling that the number of sightings has declined with the advent of cameras in phones and the rise in digital camera useage. As they say - Photo or it didn't happen...

Heading out to serve breakfast to a bunch of hungry ham radio operators. Dinner was a lot of fun and people really liked the food.

Got a water board meeting tonight - retirement sure is busy. Haven't worked this hard since I can remember... At least my schedule is clear until July 11th - that whole week is nutz.

and nothing really catches my eye. Heading over to YouTube for a bit and then an early bedtime - physically tired.

I packed the trailer and hooked it up to the truck and we proceeded to head out to the field day. Ran over a bump in the road and the receiver popped off the ball and the trailer was dragged for a few yards by the safety chains. The lift on the hitch was folded over and the truck tire jack was not able to lift the trailer fork high enough to get it reattached.

Fortunately, a passing neighbor gave Lulu and run down to the store where she got the store truck, drove it back to me and I drove it to the house to pick up a mechanics jack. Came back and got everything fixed. Ran about 90 minutes late with everything though - people were getting hungry and it take a good 45 minutes to get set up and up to temp. Everyone really liked the food so that was a lot of fun.

Back home - doing the same thing tomorrow morning - breakfast at 9:00AM - hash browns, bacon and scrambled eggs. Using the potato starch trick to get nice and fluffy eggs.

Glad I left when I did - the loonies have taken over. From Zero Hedge:

Since Seattle Placed A Tax On Guns And Ammunition, The City's Violent Crime Rate Has Increased
In recent years, Seattle has developed a reputation for passing asinine laws. Recently the city tried to increase taxes on diet soda, because the drink is more popular among white people. In the past they’ve allowed 6th graders to receive IUDs without parental consent, and have enlisted garbage men to snoop through residential trash in search of compost that is illegal to throw out. Seattle was also the first American city to pass a $15 minimum wage law, which promptly hurt low wage workers.

So it’s no surprise that sometimes the city passes laws that backfire in very predictable ways. In 2015 Seattle tried to place a tax on gun and ammunition purchases, in an effort to curb some of the costs the city pays for gun violence. However, these taxes didn’t have the desired effect.

Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess introduced the tax in 2015. It puts a $25 tax on every firearm sold in the city and up to 5 cents per round of ammunition. The measure easily passed and took effect January 1, 2016.

Comparing the first five months of 2017 with the same period before the gun tax went into effect, reports of shots fired are up 13 percent, the number of people injured in shootings climbed 37 percent and gun deaths doubled, according to crime statistics from the Seattle Police Department.

Pass another law - that will fix it for sure... Idiots.

Before Facebook, there were Bulletin Board Systems, before BBS's, there was Usenet. Here is an amazing rant from Steve Harris from 1998:

Yeah, but that's only because as a society we've become effete and
lost the will to try new things just for the hell of it. In the 60's
they were trying things like nuclear propulsion, and they were walking
on the moon. Then, something horrible happened in the early 70's. I
grew up then, and I could FEEL it. I'm still trying to figure out
exactly what it was, but I think what it was, was a generation of kids
who grew up with television instead of playing with gizmos, and who got
into power and then just turned our society into a big mess of
paperwork and lawyering, because paperwork was all they'd ever learned
to do. When I look at the physiology research done in the 60's, it
takes my breath away. The creativity of it! The things they did! I
find my "new" ideas all the time in papers done in the 1960's, but they
never went anywhere (perfusion of organs with fluorocarbones to cool
them, for example). One guy (the same guy in fact), before heart lung
machines, repaired the hearts of babies by surgically cross-connecting
them to the circulation of adult humans, who volunteered in order to
save a life. Where has that kind of courage gone? Where are the
Yeagers and the Goddards and the Microbe Hunters? How come the heros
of our movies are no longer Micky Rooney or Spencer Tracy playing
Thomas Edison, or Paul Muni playing Erlich or Pasteur, instead Val
Kilmer playing Jim Morrison and Woody Harrelson playing Larry Flint?
And movies whose heros are lawyers. Arggh. I don't care if it is Tom
Cruise or John Travolta. And the rest of the movies seem to be
re-creations of 60's TV shows.

Paperwork and lawyering. Fixing and improving and advancing society
by talk-talk, not building. A lawyer president and his lawyer wife.
Crises of power that don't involve spy planes and sputniks, but
incredibly complicated and desceptive word defintions and complicated
tax frauds. You think we're not preparing to go to Mars because SF is
too optimistic? Sure. But it was optimistic about whether or not the
can-do engineering of the 40's and 50's, done by the kids who'd grown
up playing with radios and mechanics in the 20's, was going to
continue. Needless to say, it didn't. I've seen a late 1950's book of
science fair projects for teenagers that include things like building
your own X-ray machine and cyclotron (no, I'm not kidding-- it can be
done). There are rockets in there, and cloud chambers, and all kinds
of wonderful electronics stuff. But we didn't go that way. Instead,
we turned our children into little Clintons, and our society into a
bunch of people sitting at PCs, entering data about social engineering,
not mechanical engineering. So instead of going to Mars, we went
instead to beaurocratic Hell. Enjoy, everybody. It really could have
been different. Nature didn't stop us-- WE stopped us.

Steve Harris

Nails it. This is why I am so glad to see the maker culture in ascendancy - we can salvage something of that pioneering spirit.

Not too shabby with a guitar. Pretty darned good with a fly rod too - from Men's Journal:

Eric Clapton Just Caught the Year's Biggest Salmon in Iceland
Rock & roll legend. World-class guitarist. Record-setting angler? Turns out that Eric Clapton, one of the greatest musicians of all time, is just as good with a fly rod as he is a guitar.

Clapton, while on a fly-fishing trip to Iceland last week, landed a 28-pound salmon on the Vatnsdalsá River, setting the record for reeling in the biggest salmon of the summer. The massive fish measured 42.5 inches. Working with Vatnsdalsá guide Sturla Birginsson, Clapton had to run over half a mile downriver after hooking the monster, and spent two and a half hours reeling it in. The local fishing association enforces a strict catch-and-release policy on the Vatnsdalsá River, but Clapton was able to snap a picture of his record-setting catch before setting it back into the river.

Great article - goes into Eric's history with fly fishing and life in general - here is the fish:

Found this over at Gerard's new site - what happens when you take the sound track from an old program on mental illness in children and overlay it with current video of today's 'protesters':

Heading out for coffee and to pick up some more dry ice in town. The refrigeration cooler was out of dry ice (I only put a little bit in just to cool it down) but was still a very safe 20 degrees. Still a lot in the freezer cooler but will need to top it off later. Do not want a bunch of sick hams out there...

Gorgeous day - got down to 43.9°F last night and already 78.3°F this morning.

Surf for a bit over breakfast.

Forgot to go to the bank today - need to get change for people's $5.00 dinners but I can swipe some from the store tomorrow. Got the last of the hotel pans and cutlery in the dishwasher. Short trip in to town to get some more dry ice and I will be ready to get cooking.

Great group of people and last years Field Day was a lot of fun - looking forward to this one.

Had dinner, watched two episodes of Agents of Shield and now finishing loading up the trailer for tomorrows event.

Planning to get up a bit earlier to pick up some more dry ice - cooling down the coolers has evaporated (actually sublimed) much of what I was able to buy today. Need to keep things frosty...

You find the damnedest things for sale at Amazon - one thousand of these stickers for only $8.78

Oh the fun you could have...

From the Albuquerque Journal:

TV news crew’s truck stolen while reporting on Downtown Albuquerque crime
Someone stole a news station’s SUV in Downtown Albuquerque while the crew was gathering footage for a story about crime in the area.

Michelle Donaldson, KOB News Director, said the crew watched as the vehicle was stolen near 1st and Central.

The crew was in the area reporting on recent concerns about crime and safety by the local business Lavu when they became part of the story.

“I have a rule, that you can never be the lead of your own newscast,” Donaldson said. “So this violates that rule.”

That crew is not going to live this down for a long long time. A bit more:

Just heard a wonderful mashup of Country Roads (John Denver's big hit) performed by 30 top country artists:

Got up to 83.7°F this afternoon. Got some clouds moving in next Wednesday but it is sunny for the next two weeks.

Time to make a bowl of popcorn, sit back and watch the fun - from The Washington Times:

Senate announces probe of Loretta Lynch behavior in 2016 election
The Senate Judiciary Committee has opened a probe into former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s efforts to shape the FBI’s investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the committee’s chairman announced Friday.

In a letter to Ms. Lynch, the committee asks her to detail the depths of her involvement in the FBI’s investigation, including whether she ever assured Clinton confidantes that the probe wouldn’t “push too deeply into the matter.”

Fired FBI Director James B. Comey has said publicly that Ms. Lynch tried to shape the way he talked about the investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s emails, and he also hinted at other behavior “which I cannot talk about yet” that made him worried about Ms. Lynch’s ability to make impartial decisions.

Mr. Comey said that was one reason why he took it upon himself to buck Justice Department tradition and reveal his findings about Mrs. Clinton last year.

These people were acting contrary to the Constitution of the United States and its citizens. Their deeds need to be made very very public. Corruption does not even begin to describe it. It will be sweet schadenfreude to see them squirm in the hot seat.

Packing up the trailer tonight. I may need to run into town tomorrow morning as I was only able to get 20 pounds of dry ice - a couple of supermarkets carry blocks so I will get some of these. I get mine from a welding supply place - much cheaper but they had a lot of people wanting it - first nice weekend out here.

Time for a cold beer and some dinner - minimal posting tonight as I will be packing up the trailer for tomorrow.

Only one day until Field Day (PDF). I am doing the food so heading out to get 20 pounds of dry ice, the burgers and hot dogs, etc...

Long day tomorrow - switching the shopping run from Saturday to Friday (tomorrow) as my dry-ice vendor just started closing on Saturdays - glad I checked!

Picked up all the dry goods today (condiments, place settings, soft drinks, bottled water, etc...) and will pick up the frozen and wet goods tomorrow (burgers, hot dogs, chopped onions, corn, baked beans, etc...)

YouTube and then bedtime.

From the Babylon Bee:

Trump Picks Alex Jones As New Press Secretary
Confirming the widespread rumors that Sean Spicer would be departing the office in short order, President Donald Trump has chosen InfoWars chief and renowned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as the new Press Secretary, the White House announced Tuesday.

The fiery Jones wasted no time getting in front of the cameras, holding his inaugural press conference shortly after the announcement.

“I am the new Press Secretary!” he bellowed in his distinct Texas growl at all the reporters present, occasionally taking a handkerchief out of his pocket to dab perspiration from his red face. “AAAAAaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHH!” he continued, beating his chest like a gorilla.

“We’re comin’ for ya globalists! 1776 will commence, you wicked, wicked devils!” he added, before mumbling something about gay frogs.

Needless to say, the Babylon Bee is a satire site. Sure would be fun to see heads pop if this were true but glad it is not - Jones is a conspiracy theorist of the first order.

It is under three miles but the final stretch of highway to Artist Point makes a huge difference in the sheer numbers of people that come out to our bucolic bit of paradise. There was one year where it never opened and summer business (summer is the best of the four seasons - where we make our money) was off by about 14%. From the Washington Department of Transportation:

Thanks to extra effort by crews, Artist Point opening on June 29 – earlier than expected
State Route 542/Mount Baker Highway to Artist Point will reopen by 5 p.m. Thursday, June 29 – thanks to hard-working crews putting in seven-day weeks on the seasonal stretch of highway.

Without willingness of the Washington State Department of Transportation crews to work the long weeks, this opening would still be weeks away. Dozens of feet of snow fell on this stretch of highway over the winter months. While there were a few sunny days, weather conditions in the last month have been challenging. The maintenance team spent most days working in thick fog, rain and even snow to clear the final 2.7 miles of Mount Baker Highway.

“The last time I saw this much snow was in 1999, when we couldn’t even open the road,” said WSDOT Maintenance Supervisor, Bill Joyce. “We had a lot of snow this year too, but the real challenge was the wind which created drifts more than 70 feet deep in some areas.”

In time for the 4th of July holiday - sweet!!!

The guy running it was a very good manager and it was a well-run meeting. He is forming a county-wide preppers group and is working closely with the county CERT program. CERT comes into play after the disaster happens, prepping before so the two are the Yin and Yang of survival. Best definition of disaster I ever heard was: "A disaster is an event that outstrips your ability to cope." Very well said.

We already have a prepping group out here but the additional resources will be welcome.

I had posted eight days ago about how Bernie Sanders' wife and daughter were having some questions raised about their financial dealings. Now, it seems that Bernie's wife has lawyered up. From Vermont Digger:

SANDERS LAWYERED UP IN FEDERAL PROBE OF BURLINGTON COLLEGE
Jane Sanders has hired attorneys to represent her in a Justice Department probe of a land deal she orchestrated while president of the now-defunct Burlington College.

A former college employee who coordinated the school’s response to an FBI subpoena in February 2016 said she was contacted by two attorneys representing Jane Sanders shortly after VTDigger broke the news confirming the federal probe in late April.

And of course:

Jane Sanders did not immediately return a call requesting comment for this report and has refused VTDigger’s repeated requests for an interview about Burlington College since late 2015.

I know it will take a year or more but it is nice to see these corrupt politicians being rolled up. Jail time would be gravy but a very public demonstration of their guilt and how they shafted their constituents for personal gain will be really nice.

Murphy just posted the preview this afternoon - been drooling over the possibilities and definitely bidding on some items if the price is right.

Check out STRATOS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT LLC

Fresh on the heels of the major defeat in Georgia, Nancy Pelosi toots her own horn:

Master Legislator? I bet she is gone within four months.

Of course, President Trump tweeted this:

Doing a quick run for the store - one of our deliveries was missing part of our milk order so stopping at the dairy. Also doing the dry shopping for this weekend's dinner and breakfast (buns, condiments, etc...)

Back home to work on a project and then out for a 6:30 meeting in Ferndale - an emergeny preparedness group is forming out there.

Friday, I will be working at home most of the day and will bring the trailer to the Field Day site and park it there.

Back in a couple hours...

When publications like Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences call bullshit on your narrative, you might want to rethink things... From Larry Hamlin writing at Watts Up With That:

Renewable energy cost and reliability claims exposed and debunked
A new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) from NOAA’s Earth System Laboratory, Boulder Colorado exposes and debunks the contrived claims of a recent renewable energy study which falsely alleged that low cost and reliable 100% renewable energy electric grids are possible.

The new paper concludes that the prior study is based upon significant modeling inadequacies, is “poorly executed” and contains “numerous shortcomings” and “errors” making it “unreliable as a guide about the likely cost, technical reliability, or feasibility of a 100% wind, solar and hydroelectric power system.”

Additionally the new paper harshly chastises the previous study by noting “It is one thing to explore the potential use of technologies in a clearly caveated hypothetical analysis; it is quite another to claim that a model using these technologies at an unprecedented scale conclusively shows the feasibility and reliability of the modeled energy system implemented by midcentury.”

It costs significantly more, it is unreliable and it does not work. This is political narrative trying to replace a working technology.

Came out really well - cooked them with my small propane grill which runs around 700°F so developed a nice sear while staying juicy on the inside. Had some meat left over so formed a long skinny patty which I cut into pieces for the pups - a dog burger. Very much appreciated. A good meal with which to start the summer.

Had a small glitch in the system this afternoon. I subscribe to the US Geological Service email list for earthquakes. This notice came in a short while ago:

First screwy thing to notice is the date - June 29th, 2025 - today is June 21st, 2017... Turns out that the data from The Great Santa Barbara Earthquake of 1925 was entered into the system by mistake.

From the Los Angeles Times:

False alarm: Caltech staffer accidentally sends alert for large 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake
A staffer at Caltech mistakenly sent out an alert for a large magnitude 6.8 earthquake off the Santa Barbara coast — from 1925.

The error happened when someone tried to correct the exact location of the Prohibition-era Santa Barbara earthquake, which happened 92 years ago.

From the Archives — June 1925: Earthquake devastates Santa Barbara »

The erroneous report went out at around 4:51 p.m. A closer look at the alert, however, would have shown that something was amiss. The time of the alert was dated June 29, 2025 at 7:42 a.m. But it corresponds with a real earthquake that occurred a century earlier.

“That’s a mistake. It’s not real,” said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson. He said that scientists at UC Santa Barbara had recently complained that earthquakes from the region were actually located about 6 miles from where records indicated.

Someone on Hauksson’s team made a change, which inadvertently sent an email out on the U.S. Geological Survey’s email server that typically sends alerts of new earthquakes.

In a statement posted on Twitter, the USGS said the revision of the 1925 earthquake was “misinterpreted by software as a current event. We are working to resolve the issue.”

Well... Shit happens. Very glad it was a false alarm - the 1925 one was serious but this area has been built up a lot in the 92 years and a repeat event would be catastrophic.

Yet another reason I don't really think about living in the South - from Alabama.com:

Beware floating fire ant colonies during floods
As Tropical Storm Cindy moves into Alabama, bringing potential flooding to the state, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System is reminding residents to be wary of displaced, sometimes floating, fire ant colonies during and after flooding.

Floods don't kill fire ants, they just move the colonies around a bit, according to Extension entomologists.

The ants join together by the thousands, trapping enough air to float on the water's surface in a makeshift life raft and survive for days, weeks or even months until they find dry land again.

Some recomendations:

• • Avoid contact with floating masses of fire ants.
  • If you are in a rowboat, do not touch the ants with oars.
  • When working in floodwaters, dress appropriately if possible. Rubber boots, rain gear and cuffed gloves can help prevent ants from reaching the skin.
  • If ants contact the skin, they will sting. Remove ants immediately by rubbing them off. Ants will only cling to the skin if submerged. Even a high-pressure water spray may not dislodge them. However, a spray of diluted, biodegradable dishwashing liquid may help immobilize and drown them.
  • When returning to flooded structures, floating ant masses are occasionally encountered--even indoors.

Nuke them from low-Earth orbit...

Jon Fournier over at Da Tech Guy Blog has a good post on Field Day:

When all else fails there’s Amateur Radio
The title of this article is not just a slogan; those are words amateur radio operators live by. Whenever there is a major disaster, such as an earthquake or a hurricane, amateur radio proves to be the only form of communication into and out of the disaster area. This was especially true during Hurricane Katrina. The winds and storm surge devastated the regular telephone service, cellular communications networks, police communications, fire communications, and the internet, along with the electric power grid. Over a thousand amateur radio operators converged on the disaster area and very quickly re-established communications with the affected agencies and over 200 evacuation centers.

Amateur radio operators work very closely with the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, local police and fire, along with many other agencies to provide emergency communications. Emergency communication is what amateur radio operators do best. Immediately after a disaster we can get on the air because our equipment is portable and can be powered by a car battery or a small generator. A slingshot and some rope are all it takes to get a wire antenna up into a tree. A mast of PVC or metal pipe will also work as an antenna support. With that simple setup an amateur radio operator can talk to just about any part of the globe.

The knowledge and expertise that is essential for successfully handling communications during an emergency is far more important than the specialized equipment. Throughout the year amateur radio operators practice for emergencies by providing communications for events such as parades, road races, and other similar events. In October amateur radio operators take part in a simulated emergency test. There are two organizations within the amateur radio community that specialize in training and organizing emergency communications. They are the Amateur Radio Emergency Service and the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service.

The fourth weekend in June is set aside for the single largest emergency communications exercise in the United States. This exercise is called field day. That weekend 30,000 amateur radio operators converge at thousands of locations, such as parks, across this country. They set up complete stations, housed in tents or trailers, where no facilities exist. All of the equipment is powered emergency power and all antennas are set up using temporary supports or trees. The setup takes only a few hours and the stations are kept on the air for 24 straight hours. This year field day begins at 2 pm on Saturday June 24th and ends at 2 pm on Sunday June 25th. Many groups will begin the setup process on Friday the 23rd at 2 pm.

Jon lives on the East Coast - for us, it is from 11:00AM to 11:00AM. The ARRL has an interactive map showing the 1,524 sites listed so far.

Wonderful schadenfreude - a photo of the aftermath of Handel's victory with this comment from Charles Glasser:

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN: Again, another picture is worth a thousand words. You know, the real irony is that these brave, fearless, empowered women always seem to burst into tears when things don’t go well. I don’t mean to sound misogynistic, but the added irony is that a woman won this race.

CNN has a very strong track record of Fake News - they either misrepresent a story or outright lie about it if it serves their agenda.

Take this tweet for example:

The "something in Arabic" was heard by a lot of people and they all agree it was “Allahu Akbar!” (trans: god is great) - something that is exclaimed before a jihadi attack.

The Deplorable Don Surber has a list of eleven examples of CNN playing fast and loose with the truth:

1. 1. The 27-cent foreclosure story on December 15. That was a lie.
   2. Linking the Golden Showers story. That was a lie.
   3. CNN interviews a "man on the street." That was a lie. It was a cameraman.
   4. Trump turning Supreme Court announcement into a reality show. That was a lie.
   5. Spicer has Super Soakers. That was a lie.
   6. Muslim ban. That was a lie. His two executive orders covering more than 8,000 words do not include the word "Muslim" or "ban."

Five more at the site - a Google Search for CNN Fake News list turns up 7,020,000 results. They seem to have a bit of a public image problem.

It cooled off a bit today but we are still doing hamburgers tonight - a good dinner to kick off the summer finally getting here. Mixing up the meat now so it can rest in the fridge for an hour or two.

Wishing everyone a great Solstice

I love piling on the EPA - such a target rich organization. From John Rafuse writing at Watts Up With That:

EPA’s suspect science
President Trump’s budget guidance sought to cut $1.6 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency’s $8.1 billion expectation. Shrieks of looming Armageddon prompted Congress to fund EPA in full until September 2017, when the battle will be joined again.

Then EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said he would prioritize Superfund cleanups based on toxicity, health-impact and other factors. The ensuing caterwauling suggested that EPA had no priorities since Bill Ruckelshaus (EPA’s first administrator, 1970-1975). But consider some standard EPA practices:

1. EPA advocates claim the US is unhealthy and dirty. They won’t admit that US water quality has improved dramatically since 1970. They deny that factories, cars and power plants are far more efficient and clean. They ignore that, while most nations continue to cut down forest habitats for fuel, the Lower 48 states have more forest coverage than when the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

They never mention that the US did not sign the 1992 Kyoto Accord, nor that it is the only nation to meet its Kyoto targets. Is it ignorance? malignance? eco-professional propaganda? Yes, yes, and yes.

The United States is one of the cleanest, healthiest nations on earth. Our progress will continue because we rejected the Paris Accord and thus will not cripple our economy, jobs or environmental progress. Other nations must work hard to catch us. They may work hard, but they won’t catch up, and they’ll blame us.

Five more at the site. Well worth reading - there is a lot of caterwauling going on over the cuts but the agencies being defunded are either redundant with similar groups remaining to carry on the same functions or they have no bearing on the EPAs task.

I like her thinking - don't always agree but really respect the thought behind her writing. On this one, I am 110% in agreement - from Breitbart:

Camille Paglia Blames Dems for Destroying Journalism — ‘It Is Going to Take Decades to Recover’
Tuesday on Sean Hannity’s nationally syndicated radio show, author and University of the Arts professor of humanities and media studies Camille Paglia railed against the current state of journalism in America.

Paglia called what she said the Democratic Party had done to journalism “absolutely grotesque” and warned it would take decades to recover.

“It’s obscene,” she said. “It’s outrageous, OK? It shows that the Democrats are nothing now but words and fantasy and hallucination and Hollywood. There’s no journalism left. What’s happened to The New York Times? What’s happened to the major networks? It’s an outrage.”

Emphasis mine - could not have said it better myself...

Just got back from the store as I had to fax a permit application to the county. Their website has a PDF with user fillable AcroForm fields. I filled them out, saved the file and attached it to an email. The county employee received the email, opened it and was looking at a blank form. I tried this a second time with the same effect. It is odd as I pasted a GIF of my signature and that came through just fine but no form entries.

I did the same exact thing successfully last year for the event and it worked just fine - this year? Not so much. I am using the very wonderful free PDF software from Foxit Software - looks like something changed on their end.

As I was leaving the store, I mentioned that the ones and zeros did not work so I had to nail it to the church door.

Taking care of a couple of things. Heading out for coffee, pay some bills and get some ethanol-free gasoline and back home again.

Weather started off cloudy this morning but is clearing and supposed to be sunny and hot for this weekend.

Jon Ossoff lost big-time despite millions of contributions from out of state. Here are some headlines:

• • Hollywood YUUUGE Loser in Georgia Sixth
  • A Reality Check about What Handel’s Win Means
  • GOP’s Karen Handel Beats Democrat Jon Ossoff in Georgia
  • Georgia Election Results: Handel Defeats Ossoff in U.S. House Race
  • GOP's Karen Handel wins most expensive House race ever, dashing Democrat upset hopes

That last link talks about it being the most expensive - here is an excerpt from that article:

The two campaigns and outside groups supporting and opposing the candidates shelled out at least $36 million as of May 31, including more than $22 million from Ossoff's campaign. The election easily set a record for spending in a House race, according to NBC News.

That is going to leave a mark - most of the people in the USA are fed up with politics as it had been done. Time to drain the swamp.

Those Russians are having a field day with our elections.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

EPA Ends $1 Million Taxpayer-Funded Gym Membership Program
The Environmental Protection Agency has ended a nearly $1 million program that provided gym memberships for employees.

The new administration under EPA administrator Scott Pruitt identified the gym memberships as an abuse of taxpayer dollars. Examples of the program's misuse included $15,000 for gym memberships for 37 EPA scientists in Las Vegas last year.

"We have ended taxpayer-funded fitness centers at EPA; a program that was costing American taxpayers $900,000 per year," said EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox. "Disinvestment in using federal funds for EPA fitness centers will allow the agency to invest this money in core activities to protect the environment."

If these EPA employees want to work out, it should be on their own time and their own dime. Spending time in a gym does not constitute protecting the environment.

President Trump has said earlier that he is looking at cutting the EPA budget by 31% - this is a wonderful start.

Drove just under 100 miles today - got everything taken care of though. Spending tomorrow at home paying bills and doing a couple of projects including loading the trailer with the portable kitchen.

Thursday is mostly at home - meeting at 6:00PM in Ferndale (same location as tonight's meeting) and then Friday, I park the trailer at the Field Day site and then do the shopping for Saturday's dinner and Sunday's breakfast.

Meeting tonight was fun - some of the participants at last Saturday's Digital Mobile Radio session showed up - always good to get new blood in the group. Had a Club Sandwich for dinner.

Had some showers in town but nothing that registered out here - got a special weather statement for this weekend:

...VERY WARM WEATHER EXPECTED THIS WEEKEND FOR WESTERN WASHINGTON...
Temperatures are forecast to climb well above normal this weekend. At this time, it appears that the warmest day will be Saturday on the coast and on Sunday over the interior. Highs on Saturday are forecast to climb into the 80s on the coast, away from the ocean. Expect temperatures to soar into the mid 80s to mid 90s across much of the interior on Sunday.

Perfect weather for field day.

Surf for a bit, check YouTube and then to bed.

The Mount Baker Amateur Radio club's Digital Group meets tonight so heading in for that. Need to get new tabs for one of my trailers, pick up a few things at Hardware Sales and Costco and retrieve three folding tables from the condo. Get a quick bite to eat in town before the meeting. Busy day today.

Back late tonight.

From Popular Mechanics:

The U.S. Navy Is Considering Un-Retiring a Bunch of Old Frigates
The U.S. Navy is "taking a hard look" at reactivating decommissioned frigates to help it reach its goal of 355 ships. The Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigates were retired in the 2000s in a cost-cutting move, but they could be returned to duty for another decade or more of service.

The Perry-class frigate was designed in the 1970s as an escort for U.S. Navy aircraft carriers. Although they weighed only 4,100 tons, the Perry frigates were excellent mixed-mission vessels. Their main weapon system was a Mark 13 guided missile launcher, capable of firing SM-1MR surface to air missiles and Harpoon anti-ship missiles and fed from a 40-round internal magazine. (Ironically this gave the frigates more potential anti-ship firepower than a modern U.S. Navy cruiser.) The frigates also wielded a single Italian-made 3-inch rapid-fire gun, six anti-submarine torpedo tubes, a Phalanx close-in weapon system for last-ditch defense, and carried a single SH-2 Seasprite or SH-60 helicopter.

All good, solid and upgradable weapons systems. What with North Korea acting stupid, we need to be able to operate on several fronts at once.

From The Daily Caller:

EXCLUSIVE: Soros, Clinton-Linked Teneo Among Donors to McCain Institute
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain in 2012 turned over nearly $9 million in unspent funds from his failed 2008 presidential campaign to a new foundation bearing his name, the McCain Institute for International Leadership.

The institute is intended to serve as a “legacy” for McCain and “is dedicated to advancing human rights, dignity, democracy and freedom.” It is a tax-exempt non-profit foundation with assets valued at $8.1 million and associated with Arizona State University.

Conservative and liberal critics, however, believe the institute constitutes a major conflict of interest for McCain, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.

And the numbers:

Critics worry that the institute’s donors and McCain’s personal leadership in the organization’s exclusive “Sedona Forum” bear an uncanny resemblance to the glitzy Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) that annually co-mingled special interests and powerful political players in alleged pay-to-play schemes.

The institute has accepted contributions of as much as $100,000 from billionaire liberal activist-funder George Soros and from Teneo, a for-profit company co-founded by Doug Band, former President Bill Clinton’s “bag man.” Teneo has long helped enrich Clinton through lucrative speaking and business deals.

And Bloomberg reported in 2016 on a $1 million Saudi Arabian donation to the institute, a contribution the McCain group has refused to explain publicly.

Much more at the site - we think that the Clinton Global Initiative was just the work of Crooked Hillary but it seems that other people are doing the same corrupt thing. Peddling influence for donations. No wonder Senator McCain is such an anti-Trumper - his personal interests do not coincide with those of the United States or of its citizens.

A sad read from The New Yorker:

Mosul’s Library Without Books
I could smell the acrid soot a block away. The library at the University of Mosul, among the finest in the Middle East, once had a million books, historic maps, and old manuscripts. Some dated back centuries, even a millennium, Mohammed Jasim, the library’s director, told me. Among its prize acquisitions was a Quran from the ninth century, although the library also housed thousands of twenty-first-century volumes on science, philosophy, law, world history, literature, and the arts. Six hundred thousand books were in Arabic; many of the rest were in English. During the thirty-two months that the Islamic State ruled the city, the university campus, on tree-lined grounds near the Tigris River, was gradually closed down and then torched. Quite intentionally, the library was hardest hit. isis sought to kill the ideas within its walls—or at least the access to them.

On a rainy day this spring, I walked the muddy and eerily deserted university grounds, in eastern Mosul. I turned a corner and saw the library, a block-long building, charred black and its shell strewn, inside and out, with splintered glass, burnt beams, heat-warped furniture, toppled shelves, and mounds of ashes. In December, as the Iraqi Army pushed into Mosul, isis fighters had set the library alight. The books had served as kindling.

“My life’s work,” Jasim said, when we spoke by telephone two weeks ago. “I’d rather my house be destroyed, not the library. All my memories, all the people we helped there—we helped develop the city and the country. Whenever I speak about the library, it’s as if I’m putting my hand on an open wound.”

This is what the end game of multiculturalism looks like - the lowest common denominator rises to the top. This 9th century culture is barbaric in the most absolute definition of the word. Here is an eight minute video of the library:

Been liking closing out my day with an hour or so of videos on all sorts of subjects. Good dream fodder and learning a lot of stuff. Blacksmithing, welding (TIG), music, tools, electronics, etc...

Back in April, 2017, the wonderful people from Judicial Watch filed a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to the identities of any U.S. citizens associated with the Trump presidential campaign or transition team” by Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice.

From Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge:

FOIA Request On Susan Rice's Unmaskings Rejected Because "Records Were Moved To Obama Library"
Back in April, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request for documents related to the unmasking of “the identities of any U.S. citizens associated with the Trump presidential campaign or transition team” by Obama's National Security Advisor Susan Rice.  Unfortunately, and quite conveniently for members of the Obama administration, Judicial Watch has been informed by the National Security Council that records related to their request can not be shared because they " have been transferred to the Barack Obama Presidential Library" and will "remain closed to the public for five years." 

Here is the full letter received from the National Secruity Council:

"Documents from the Obama administration have been transferred to the Barack Obama Presidential Library.  You may send your request to the Obama Library.  However, you should be aware that under the Presidential Records Act, Presidential records remain closed to the public for five years after an administration has left office."

Emphasis Tyler's - this is disgusting. They knew there would be an investigation and they figured out how to stonewall for one Presidential term, thinking that they could double-down and get their people back in office. The deep-state is operating in panic mode covering up as much as its little black heart can do. The most transparent administration ever indeed:

I was happy that President Trump pulled us out of this non-binding non-treaty. An interview with Drieu Godefridi at Friends of Science - Calgary:

Outcome of the Paris Accord: a re-founding act of American democracy?
Interview with Drieu Godefridi, Belgian philosopher, jurist, author of “Le GIEC etMort; Vive le Science” (The IPCC is Dead: Long Live Science) published in English under the title “The IPCC: A Scientific Body?” Godefridi discusses his view that the exit of the Trump Administration from the Paris Agreement is a sensible return to American democracy. Godefridi traces the incremental takeover of public policy by globalists and minority view activists using unelected, unaccountable politically-rife bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) under the guise of ‘science’ to foist ever-more economically detrimental demands on the West. These groups use contrived morality and guilt to affect a bank hold-up, the trigger-about-to-be-pulled being the ‘climate catastrophe.’

Some thoughts:

The Paris Accord marks the apotheosis, not of “globalism,” but of a particular version of globalism, which one should rather qualify as socialist. Indeed, let us recall the actual content of the Paris Agreement! What does it foresee? Essentially, two things: the drastic reduction of CO2 emissions in the West, right away, with the possibility for states such as China – the world’s largest CO2 emitter – to continue to increase emissions to 2030, with no requirement whatsoever to reduce emissions. The second essential component of “Paris” is the Green Fund, which provides for the transfer of $ 100 billion a year from the West to the rest of the world. “Paris” is therefore, first and foremost, the triumph of what was called “support for the Third World” in the 70s and 80s, that is to say, a massive and permanent transfer of wealth from the West to the rest of the world.

And the sheer breadth of the corruption:

What we have been seeing for the past two decades, in the areas of climate, gender theory, immigration and terrorism, and so on, is that activist minority ideologues have confiscated democratic debate. By acting at the international level, they have an enormous advantage. As soon as such an unaccountable international body has seized a cause, its standards prevail over national parliaments! When gender theory was enshrined in its most radical version in 2011 by a Council of Europe Convention, it became virtually impossible to dislodge it. When, in cases such as HIRSI (2012), the European Courts devoted the “no border” ideology, it became almost impossible for the national ministers who wished to defend their own borders to do so. Examples that come to mind are Francken in Belgium, his British and Austrian counterpart, or the countries of the Visegrád group – a handful able to oppose it effectively. But it is in the domain of climate that this confiscation of democratic debate is the most masterful, reaching a kind of virtuosity.

A lot more at the site - I am just touching the surface. A very articulate analysis of what we are up against.

Just one person's opinion but still - from Western Living Magazine:

Garlic: “One of the most dangerous ingredients in your kitchen”
Forget sharp knives and open flames—garlic is one of the most dangerous things in your kitchen.

In a private demonstration at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, Chef and instructor Julian Bond took Western Living staff on a harrowing journey through food safety and the many unassuming dangers in the kitchen—the first stop? Garlic.

Watch Out for Sprouts
When a garlic clove sprouts even the smallest green shoot in its centre, it’s now unsafe for eating. “It’s a perfect garlic if you want to grow garlic,” says Bond. “But this sprout, if moisture gets in here in any shape or form, it’s actually a mild form of salmonella will grow in there and give you an upset belly.” The chef explained that often when diners get an upset stomach after a meal, it’s the garlic—not suspect meat—that’s to blame.

Interesting - I use a lot of garlic in my cooking and I do avoid the sprouts but for more of a taste issue than a disease one. They taste bitter.

Couple episodes of Agents of Shield - the writing just keeps getting better and better.

Long day tomorrow - the first big push to preparing for this weekend's catering event. Looking forward to it though - great group of people and last year was a lot of fun.

Jimmy is due out sometime late this evening. Feed him and get him doing some yard work tomorrow...

Making pot roast and a salad for dinner tonight. I get the pre-cooked ones from Costco that are just meat in a bag. Put this in a pot with some baby potatoes, carrots, onions and celery and simmer for an hour. Lulu's nephew Jimmy may be is coming out to work at the farm for a few days and the kid has an appetite on him so doing a double batch.

Starting to gather stuff for the food service for this weekend's Field Day (PDF)

California Representative Maxine Waters has been a thorn in President Trumps side. Ms. Waters has quite the history - here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Well, today the ball started rolling - from The Hill:

Rep. Waters charged on three counts
The House ethics committee on Monday outlined its charges against Rep. Maxine Waters, who is accused of helping a bank in which her husband owned stock secure federal bailout funds.

The committee charged the 10-term California Democrat with three counts of violating House rules and the federal ethics code in connection with her effort to arrange a 2008 meeting between Treasury officials and representatives with OneUnited bank.

The panel said Waters, who sits on the Financial Services Committee, broke a House rule requiring members to behave in a way that reflects “creditably” on the chamber. The committee said that by trying to assist OneUnited, she stood to benefit directly, because her husband owned a sizable amount of stock that would have been “worthless” if the bank failed.

The committee also accused Waters of violating the “spirit” of a House rule prohibiting lawmakers from using their positions for financial gain, as well as a government ethics statute banning the dispensing of “special favors.”

I doubt that she will see any jail time but it will be good  to get her out of Congress and off the political stage for good. She has done enough damage to the United States and to her constituants.

Heading out for the usual coffee, store and town. Swinging by a dairy on the way home - sold out of milk last weekend. And this is supposed to be our slow season. Summer is our best season but it doesn't really start until school lets out, the weather warms up and Artist Point gets plowed clear.

Back around 3:00 or so - doing pot roast tonight.

And we just had our first western terrorist attack against muslims.

A bit of groundwork first: the Finsbury Mosque is a known hotbed of radicalism - after all, Abu Hamza al-Masri was their Imam until he was extradited to the USA and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is missing his hands - a small bomb accident.

Now that that is out of the way, this is still a horrible act - this moke lowered us down to their level. From the UK Mirror:

Finsbury Park terror attack suspect filmed 'blowing a kiss' and 'laughing' moments after 'ploughing van into Muslim worshippers'
The Finsbury Park terror attack suspect was filmed 'blowing a kiss' and 'laughing' moments after ploughing into Muslim worshippers outside a mosque.

One man is dead and eight are in hospital after they were mowed down in north London this morning.

A video of police arresting a 48-year-old man at the scene shows the suspect blowing a kiss to people outside.

One witness said he was "laughing" as he was led away by officers.

The horrific incident comes just weeks after a series of terrorist attacks in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge.

I hope an example is set.

Ice Cream maker Ben and Jerry's is one of the more 'progressive' companies out there. They just got mau-maued by some other progressives - from Newsday:

Farmers, activists march to Ben & Jerry's Vermont factory to protest slow negotiations
Scores of dairy farm workers and activists are marching to the Ben & Jerry's factory in the Vermont town of Waterbury to protest what they say are slow negotiations to reach a deal on the so-called "Milk with Dignity" program.

The march began Saturday morning at the Montpelier Statehouse, headed to the company's main factory.

Schadenfreude at its finest. The older generation of social justice warriors are being attacked by this generation of social justice warriors. The left is eating their own.

A two-fer - first, from the Palm Beach Post:

With police in house, Boynton toddler pulls loaded gun from toy box
A Boynton Beach toddler found a loaded pistol in his “my little learning” toy box while officials were investigating his home for possible child neglect.

A 3-year-old boy wanted to bring out his toys while officers were in his home, according to a police report. His toy box had several small books in it, but while officers were talking to an adult in the house, the toddler pulled out a black 9mm semi-automatic pistol. One officer immediately took the gun and found a bullet was in the chamber with the safety off.

Rosalyn Faniel, 34 of Boynton Beach, who the officers came to investigate for possible child neglect, said the gun wasn’t hers and she didn’t know it was in the apartment, the report said.

While searching the home, the officers also found a yellow box of 9mm ammunition on top of the refrigerator, next to a black scale and a pink makeup bag filled with six plastic bags of white and pink powder, the report said. The powder tested positive for Oxycodone and weighed .6 grams in total.

Child neglect indeed. Back in 2009, our local Chamber of Commerce purchased some property for a visitors center. It had a derelict house and had been inhabited by meth addicts. Several local fire departments used it for a practice burn. Walking through before, I was amazed that anyone could have been living there. The fact that they had kids there too was just appalling.

Second, from the Miami Herald:

What was in his guitar case? It sure wasn’t a guitar, cops say
A 35-year-old Key West man violated a court order that barred him from possessing firearms by riding around on his scooter with an assault rifle, pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition stashed in a guitar case and backpack, according to police.

Tristan Bland was pulled over on his yellow scooter June 11 on Duval Street after police received a tip about the guns.

Bland admitted he had weapons, police said, saying he had a concealed-carry permit, which officers soon discovered wasn’t true. Bland also had a temporary protection order barring him from carrying firearms or any weapons.

Inside the guitar case and the backpack, police discovered a .223 AR rifle and a .9 mm Glock pistol. They also found approximately 200 rounds of ammunition, numerous magazines for both weapons, knee and elbow pads and a tactical vest.

“We like to think we're a small town,” said Police Chief Donie Lee. “But we're not immune to the rash of gun violence sweeping the nation. We need to be vigilant.”

The problems with any sort of "gun control" is that morons like this will not follow these laws. As Robert Heinlein once said, "An Armed society is a Polite society."

Had Costco chicken for dinner with a pot of rice and some stir-fried bok choi - watched two episodes of Agents of Shield. Still a bit tired so calling it an early night.

Total accumulation is just a smudge over a tenth inch of the wet stuff.

Need to run into town tomorrow - get the food permits in for this coming weekend's field day and pay some bills.

Sergei the Russian Colluder explains exactly how the Russians did it... From The People's Cube:

Our new Attorney General just killed one of Obama's biggest slush funds to his political cronies. From Puma by Design:

AG Sessions Ends Obama DOJ Slush Fund that Funneled Billions to Marxist Groups
Last week while everyone focused on the James Comey hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions put an end to Barack Obama’s Department of Justice slush fund scheme that kicked into high gear under Obama doling out millions to Marxist ideologues, community organizations and groups such as National Council of La Raza and National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Black Lives Matter, Obama for America, etc. (What are the odds that Communist organizations Resist, Indivisible are also funded by taxpayers.)

AG Sessions in a memo to 94 U.S. attorneys’ announced his ending of “the practice that allowed companies to meet settlement burdens by giving money to groups that were neither victims nor parties to the case.”

It is no wonder that the liberals want Jeff Sessions out of there. He is taking away their rice bowls. Here is the link to the Department of Justice memo.

This started as the Community Reinvestment Act — signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 and has morphed into a collossal money pile for whomever was in political favor at the time. Clinton greatly expanded the program and Obama put it into hyperdrive.

A sad update from the UK Independent:

Grenfell Tower fire: Cladding used on block 'was banned in US'
Cladding believed to have been used on Grenfell Tower is banned in the US, it has emerged, amid revelations that it would have cost just £5,000 extra for the contractors to apply a fire-resistant version of panelling to the building.

Speculation is growing about the construction of the tower after a blaze ripped through it "like a matchstick" in the early hours of Wednesday morning, killing at least 17 people died and injuring scores more.

It has now emerged that the aluminium panels thought to have been added to the outside of the block as part of a £10 million refurbishment completed in May 2016 are banned in the US on buildings taller than 40 feet for fire safety reasons.

Emphasis mine. Words fail - just because a couple of bureaucrats wanted to burnish their green image.

Downloading this as I type. Programming involves using a set of high-level languages which take your commands and convert them directly into the ones and zeros that the host machine directly understands. These languages can be simple ones like BASIC, complex ones like C, C++, and C#, they can be scripting languages like Python or Lua or web-based languages like Java.

Microsoft created an awesome editor for writing in these languages. It is an editor, it will also check for mistakes like missing punctuation, syntax errors, etc... It can also manage snippets of your code library for specific things - turning on a light, rotating a motor, sending a character to a display screen so you can re-use existing functions.

From Infoworld:

Visual Studio Code comes to Chromebooks, Raspberry Pi
A community build project led by developer Jay Rodgers is making Visual Studio Code, Microsoft’s lightweight source code editor, available for Chromebooks, Raspberry Pi boards, and other devices based on 32-bit or 64-bit ARM processors.

Supporting Linux and Chrome OS as well as the DEB (Debian) and RPM package formats, the automated builds of Visual Studio Code are intended for less-common platforms that might not otherwise receive them. Obvious beneficiaries will be IoT developers focused on ARM devices—and the Raspberry Pi in particular—who will find it helpful to have the editor directly on the device they’re programming against.

Very cool - been playing with the Raspberry Pi a lot - have five of them. ALso have a Chromebook and love it - it would be fun to get into developing on that too.

From The UK Telegraph:

Grenfell Tower inferno a 'disaster waiting to happen' as concerns are raised for safety of other buildings
An inferno which engulfed a tower block, killing at least 12 in what could become one of the biggest fire tragedies in British history, was a "disaster waiting to happen", experts have said.

Fears were raised that green energy concerns were prioritised ahead of safety as it emerged that cladding used to make the building more sustainable could have accelerated the fire.

And the warnings?

Government ministers were warned about the fire risk of cladding as far back as 1999, the Daily Telegraph can reveal. 

It was installed on the council-owned Grenfell block in 2015 as part of a £10 million refurbishment by a company which was later liquidated after a firm they were working with refused to pay out in a dispute over their work.

Tens of thousands of buildings in the UK have been fitted with cladding, it is estimated, leading to calls for an immediate review of safety.

Experts said that the cladding - which is used to insulate the building - had acted like a "chimney" for the flames by allowing the fire to spread upwards through the gaps between the cladding and the building walls.

A lot more at the site - there needs to be personal accountability for this. Rope and Tree. The death toll is 58 and rising.

From the Canadian Broadcasting Company:

Snow cancels Yukon-Alaska bike race for 1,300 riders
The 25th-annual Kluane Chilkat International Bike Relay has been cancelled due to snow at the starting line, affecting about 1,300 riders who were set to begin the race Saturday morning.

This is the first time the race has been cancelled.

"The race was cancelled because not only snow and slush in the upper elevations in the summit legs, but right here in Haines Junction at the start," said Mike Kramer, race coordinator.

The comments are a fun read from both sides of the catastrophic fence.

The abstract from Nature:

A challenge to lepton universality in B-meson decays
One of the key assumptions of the standard model of particle physics is that the interactions of the charged leptons, namely electrons, muons and taus, differ only because of their different masses. Whereas precision tests comparing processes involving electrons and muons have not revealed any definite violation of this assumption, recent studies of B-meson decays involving the higher-mass tau lepton have resulted in observations that challenge lepton universality at the level of four standard deviations. A confirmation of these results would point to new particles or interactions, and could have profound implications for our understanding of particle physics.

And in relatively plainer English - from Futurism:

Physicists Discover a Possible Break in the Standard Model of Physics
In order to make sense of the physical world, scientists have worked hard to discover theories and principles that govern the physics of matter. This is what’s called the Standard Model of Physics, which includes all the laws and principles concerning matter in all its forms and sizes. Bascially, the Standard Model applies to even particle physics. Or so it should.

Scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara (USCB) and colleagues from various other institutions have recently discovered that there might be a break in the application of the Standard Model, particularly with a fundamental principle called the lepton universality. Their discovery comes from reviewing the data from three separate experiments conducted in the United States, Switzerland, and Japan.

Their conclusion:

Initial reading into these results would seem to indicate that there is indeed a deviation from the Standard Model of particle physics. This could mean that an entirely different model of physics is needed to explain the peculiar behavior of the tau particle. In other words, new physics is required. That’s not a simple thing, as these principles often correlate with one another. A change in one could affect the others.

We live in interesting times indeed!

Been raining lightly off and on - got much less than a tenth of the wet stuff.

Woke up around 6:00AM but went back to bed after a while - still tired from yesterday so slept for another couple of hours. Heading out to coffee and then a quick run in to town for food.

Nothing happening out on the web today. Very quiet.

Low clouds and overcast but no rain.

Really tired so switching over to YouTube for a bit and then up to bed.

It wasn't just what he said in Miami, it was who was with him. From Breitbart:

7 Castro Victims and Cuban Heroes Invited to Trump’s Cuba Announcement
President Trump’s announcement of policy revisions toward Cuba — in which many strings on the Castro regime loosened by President Barack Obama were tightened again — was attended by a number of notable Cuban dissidents and victims of Castro violence.

Mario and Miriam de la Pena: Their son Mario Manuel de la Pena was murdered by the Castro regime in 1996 at the age of 25, while serving as a volunteer pilot for the humanitarian operation Brothers to the Rescue. He flew almost a hundred search-and-rescue missions before his plane and another Brothers to the Rescue aircraft were shot down by a Cuban MiG-29 over international waters, killing three U.S. citizens and one legal resident of the United States.

The unprovoked attack on two unarmed, propeller-driven planes was a blatant crime against humanity and violation of American law. The shootdown was condemned by both the United Nations Security Council and the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

A Cuban spy named Gerardo Hernandez was convicted in U.S. court of tipping off the Castro regime to the flight plans of Brothers to the Rescue planes. Hernandez served 16 years in prison before being released by Barack Obama and returned to Cuba, where he was hailed as a hero and decorated with a medal.

Six more amazing stories at the site. Castro was a butcher. All Communist leaders have been butchers. Major kudos to President Trump for rubbing this inconvenient fact in the liberal's faces.

Great database of historical markers worldwide - lots of search options: The Historical Marker Database

Knew about the sites in Bellingham but did not know about a couple in Whatcom County.

From Hawaii News Now:

'Powerful': Huge crowds welcome Hokulea home from worldwide voyage
In a milestone moment in Hawaii's history, tens of thousands crowded into Magic Island on Saturday to welcome Hokulea home from her unprecedented, three-year voyage around the globe. 

The double-hulled sailing canoe, officially a "state treasure," was greeted with chants and cheers — and its crew members with lei, hugs and tears.

Hokulea sailed into the Ala Wai Boat Harbor about 9:45 p.m., the culmination of a worldwide voyage meant to spread a message of environmental sustainability and caring for Mother Earth.

For many looking on, the moment was nothing less than magical.

"Just being here and feeling the mana that's here, it's something to enjoy which brings tears to my eyes," said Bert Wong, who came to Ala Moana Beach Park to celebrate Hokulea's homecoming -- and to celebrate his son, Kaleo, a Hokulea navigator. "This is so powerful."

Amazing voyage - this will be a part of Hawaiian culture for hundreds of years. Here is the ship's website: HŌKŪLEʻA HOMECOMING

Base 3 or Balanced Ternary - actually makes a lot of sense for some things - from Dev:

The Balanced Ternary Machines of Soviet Russia
It's pretty common knowledge that computers store and operate on data using the binary number system. One of the main reasons for this can be found in the circuitry of modern computers, which are made up of billions of easily mass-producible transistors and capacitors that can together represent two states: high voltage (1) and low voltage (0).

Such a design is so ubiquitous nowadays that it's hard to imagine that computers could operate in any other way. But, in Soviet Russia during the 1950s, they did. Enter Setun, a balanced ternary computer developed in 1958 by a small team led by Nikolay Brusentsov at the Moscow State University.

A lot more at the article - go there and read if you are interested in computer hardware or programming. Their language is near and dear to my heart:

In the late 70's, Brusentsov and some of his students developed a programming language for the Setun-70 computer called the Dialog System for Structured Programming (DSSP). In my research 4, I have been able to discover that it is a stack-based language (no surprise there) similar to Forth that uses reverse Polish notation. This allows one to write programs in a relatively high-level language yet still feel "close to the metal". So close, in fact, that the authors had the following to say:

DSSP was not invented. It was found. That is why DSSP has not versions, but only extensions.

I was a big fan of Forth about 30 years ago on CP/M and DOS machines - elegant, fast and extensible. Do you want Forth to have a function that it does not already have? Write it and recompile Forth and there it is.

So much for espousing tolerance and non-discrimination - from FOX News:

Scalise shooter James Hodgkinson had list of Republican lawmakers' names
The gunman who opened fire on congressmen at a Virginia baseball field on Wednesday had a list of Republican names in his pocket at the time of the incident, Fox News has confirmed.

The handwritten list was found in a van belonging to James Hodgkinson by the FBI, and the lawmakers named on the list are known to be conservative members associated with the Freedom Caucus.

Two more tidbits:

Hodgkinson appeared to be a volunteer with Bernie Sanders’ failed presidential campaign, the Vermont senator said shortly after the incident in a statement.

And:

News that the gunman had a list of names on him at the time of the shooting suggests that it wasn’t a random incident but instead was a premeditated attempt to kill the politicians.

It was a good thing that his MARX-manship was so bad. Hillary's "resistance" writ large.

Went out for Prime Rib at a local roadhouse. Good and the pups will be very happy when I dish out their dog food in a few minuts. Right now, they are rumbling around the pasture.

Very tired with the early alarm clock so surf for a bit and then upstairs.

Good training session - Blaine is on the border with Canada and is about 30 miles from Bellingham. They have their own emergency communications group and today's exercise was a chance for our two groups to meet and greet as well as do some training on digital communications. A lot of fun and learned a lot.

Getting ready for class tomorrow - making a sandwich for lunch and packing a couple cans of Mountain Dew Throwback - original formula and made with real cane sugar. Still cutting back on my carbs but some things are exempt.

From The Daily Caller:

DOE Eliminates ‘Unnecessary’ Office Promoting International Clean Energy Policies
The Department of Energy (DOE) nixed one of its many duplicative foreign climate change offices Thursday to streamline the agency responsible for managing the country’s nuclear arsenal.

Nearly a dozen members of the Office of International Climate and Technology were released so the Trump administration could cut bloat from within the DOE. The office was opened in 2010 to help allies across the world kick-start technology reducing greenhouse gasses.

Employees in the office are part of the so-called Clean Energy Ministerial, a small collective of polluting nations such as China and India. Their sole focus was to develop technology fighting man-made climate change.

The department is “looking for ways to consolidate the many duplicative programs that currently exist within DOE,” a spokesman for the agency told reporters, adding that the Office of International Climate and Technology would close as well.

A lot more at the site - the DOE already has two other offices that deal with international climate change. This action is just getting rid of duplicate bureaucracies.

The Wall Street Journal operates behind a draconian paywall but even just the first paragraph or two make for interesting reading:

U.S.’s Latest Target in 1MDB Probe: Leo DiCaprio’s Art, Miranda Kerr’s Jewelry
The Justice Department files lawsuits to seize assets allegedly bought with money stolen from a Malaysian investment fund, including a $250 million yacht
U.S. prosecutors have broadened their effort to seize assets they allege were bought with money stolen in a Malaysian financial scandal, filing lawsuits to claim diamonds given to model Miranda Kerr, movie posters and artwork given to Leonardo DiCaprio, and a megayacht known as the Equanimity.

The suits, filed Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department, are the latest seeking to claim property and other assets linked to alleged fraud at a Malaysian state fund called 1Malaysia Development Bhd., known as 1MDB. Thursday’s suits...

Could not be happening to a nicer guy. Good actor but serious case of Dunning-Kruger for everything else (climate, energy policy, politics, etc...) Shut your mouth and dance, monkey, DANCE!!

Nobody had any 7" grinders - this is an item more suited to a welding shop so I will check some of the online welding supply venues to see what they carry.

Picked up a new design of gas can - SureCan - very clever design which eliminates getting gasoline everywhere when filling a string trimmer or lawnmower. Beats having to tilt 20 pounds of gasoline to pour it. Here is a video:

A clever design that is actually very easy to use. Something you do not always get with a groundbreaking technology. Also picked up a new tool from Klein - they make very good electrical tools - this one is a 6-in-1 nut driver. Also ran a couple of errands - came home, checked in at the store for a bit and then headed out to Graham's for a burger.

Long day tomorrow so setting the alarm clock to 0-dark-thirty...

Getting my coffee and then driving in to Hardware Sales for their Father's Day big sale. They have representatives from a bunch of the various manufacturers in attendance so it is fun to see what new tools are coming out. Hand power tools are starting to transition over to brushless motors - much better power regulation and longer battery life. Been looking for a larger angle-grinder - been using a bunch of 4.5" units and want to bump up to a 7" for heavy stock removal.

Hardware Sales is a Bellingham treasure - I love the place. Great people and the place is crammed with everything you can imagine.

Back in a couple of hours. Lulu is not coming out today - she has the flu.

Heh - from CBS News:

Could Illinois be the first state to file for bankruptcy?
Illinois residents may feel some solidarity with the likes of Puerto Rico and Detroit.

A financial crunch is spiraling into a serious problem for Illinois lawmakers, prompting some observers to wonder if the state might make history by becoming the first to go bankrupt. At the moment, it's impossible for a state to file for bankruptcy protection, which is only afforded to counties and municipalities like Detroit.

Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection could be extended to states if Congress took up the issue, although Stanford Law School professor Michael McConnell noted in an article last year that he believed the precedents are iffy for extending the option to states. Nevertheless, Illinois is in a serious financial pickle, which is why radical options such as bankruptcy are being floated as potential solutions.

Ratings agency Moody's Investor Service earlier this month downgraded Illinois' general obligation bonds to its lowest investment grade rating, citing the state's growing pile of unpaid bills and its mounting pension deficit. Illinois, by the way, has the lowest credit rating of any state. Lower ratings mean higher borrowing costs, since lenders view such borrowers as riskier bets.

Their pension plans are severely underfunded and they are shedding peole. As the government raises taxes, individuals and businesses are leaving for more tax-friendly states. Illinois is running out of other people's money.

From the London Daily Mail:

Trump slams Obama's deal with Cuba and says he is 'cancelling it' as he puts Castro on notice to the delight of Little Havana's exiles
President Donald Trump said Friday that he was 'cancelling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba' and putting new travel and trade restrictions in place.

Barack Obama's agreement with Raul Castro's government led to an increase in violence and instability in the country, Trump said, and enriched the brutal communist regime that imprisons its own people.

'They fought for everything and we just didn't fight hard enough, but now those days are over. Now we hold the cards. We now hold the cards,' Trump said to the delight of Cuban exiles in Miami's Little Havana community. 'Therefore effective immediately, I am cancelling the last administration's completely one-sided deal with Cuba.'

Trump said the US will not negotiate a new deal with Cuba until it releases the political prisoners it claims it does not have, turns over fugitives from American justice, hands over military criminals, respects freedom of assembly and expression and holds free and fair elections.

The ban on tourism will be upheld until that time and American companies will be barred from engaging in financial transitions with Cuba's military-operated businesses, he said.

Excellent news - the Cuban government is unbelievably corrupt - the Castro family is worth about $150 million while the poor citizens are eking out a very meager existence - $20/month.

From The Seattle Times:

Amazon to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in bid to become major grocer
Amazon.com said it would buy Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition ever and a huge move into the grocery space it’s been trying to crack for a decade.

The deal, expected to close in the second half of this year, gives the e-commerce giant — which has been experimenting with various physical store concepts to make itself a name as a food purveyor — an instant expanse of 460 high-end brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S., in Canada and in the U.K.

Whole Foods, which made its name retailing organic and fresh products, had been struggling recently amid stepped-up competition from Costco Wholesale, Trader Joe’s and other grocers.

But in the hands of Amazon it would be a potent weapon against archrival Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, which dominates the grocery world and has been stepping up its e-commerce game. It’s also probably the largest untapped opportunity in e-commerce, says Cooper Smith, who closely tracks Amazon at L2, a research firm.

Talk about a win/win scenario - great for Amazon and it takes the pressure off Whole Foods. I do shop occasionally at the Bellingham Whole Foods - they have a few items I really like but it is not my go-to for regular grocery shopping.

The laughs just keep on coming - from Reuters:

Putin quips he's ready to grant asylum to ex-FBI chief Comey
Russian President Vladimir Putin joked on Thursday that if former FBI director James Comey suffers persecution because of his falling-out with U.S. President Donald Trump, Russia is ready to grant him asylum.

The offer, made with Putin's trademark sardonic humor, came as the Russian president poured scorn on Comey for his role in a row in Washington over alleged Russian meddling in last year's U.S. presidential election.

At a congressional hearing this month, Comey said Trump asked him to drop an investigation into contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials, while the U.S. president has accused Comey of not telling the truth.

Nothing like a little ridicule to put that moke in his place. Comey was exposed for what he is - a patsy of the deep-state and a liar.

President Trump has picked some great people to work under him - Governor Rick Perry for Secretary of Energy is one. From Digital Trends:

NEXT-GEN SUPERCOMPUTERS TO GET $258M IN FUNDING FROM DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry has detailed plans for $258 million in funding that is set to be distributed via the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project. The PathForward program will issue the money to six leading technology firms to help further their research into exascale supercomputers.

AMD, Cray Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intel, and Nvidia are the six companies chosen to receive financial support from the Department of Energy. The funding will be allocated to them over the course of a three-year period, with each company providing 40 percent of the overall project cost, contributing to an overall investment of $430 million in the project.

“Continued U.S. leadership in high performance computing is essential to our security, prosperity, and economic competitiveness as a nation,” Perry said. “These awards will enable leading U.S. technology firms to marshal their formidable skills, expertise, and resources in the global race for the next stage in supercomputing — exascale-capable systems.”

Department of Energy might seem like a strange place for this project but it makes sense in that they would be designing Nuclear Reactors and the computers would be used for modeling their operation. This would also be invaluable for climate and weather forecasting.

Here is the website for the project:

The Exascale Computing Project
The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) was established with the goals of maximizing the benefits of high-performance computing (HPC) for the United States and accelerating the development of a capable exascale computing ecosystem.

Exascale refers to computing systems at least 50 times faster than the nation’s most powerful supercomputers in use today.

The ECP is a collaborative effort of two U.S. Department of Energy organizations – the Office of Science (DOE-SC) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

ECP is chartered with accelerating delivery of a capable exascale computing ecosystem to provide breakthrough modeling and simulation solutions to address the most critical challenges in scientific discovery, energy assurance, economic competitiveness, and national security.

This role goes far beyond the limited scope of a physical computing system. ECP’s work encompasses the development of an entire exascale ecosystem: applications, system software, hardware technologies and architectures, along with critical workforce development.

If I was 30 years old again, I would already be camped out on their doorstep - this is going to be some amazing cutting-edge technology and the pure joy of it is that in ten years or so, this tech will trickle down to us poor schlubs running our own desktop systems.

From World Nuclear News:

Rolls-Royce elaborates on its SMR plans
Rolls-Royce's director of technology and engineering, John Molyneux gave more details on Rolls-Royce's new reactor design and the next steps in its development when speaking to the European Young Nuclear Generation Forum event in Manchester, organised by the European Nuclear Society and the UK Nuclear Institute.

Still without a publicised name, Rolls-Royce's design is a pressurized water reactor in a close-coupled four-loop configuration. A team of about 150 people have been working on it for around two years. The first months were taken with major design decisions including the use of a light-water as coolant and moderator and to select the close-coupled arrangement of steam generators as opposed to integrating them into the reactor vessel, or adopting a more spread out design similar to today's large reactors. At 450 MWe the output is higher than other innovative designs, and actually outside the usual range considered to define the SMR market of up to 300 MWe.

Molyneux said, "I do not believe light water reactors have got to the end of their evolution" and it is not necessary to move beyond them to find improvements. "It's easy to get swept away with technology, and as an engineer I'd love to. But as an industry we have to look at economics. The challenge for the industry is how you get a 40% cut in the levelised cost of electricity, to get down to what gas is at."

Because they are small and modular, the reactors can be carried to the site on a flatbed truck. Refueling is a matter of swapping out the old core and swapping in a new one. Like I said, this is not Thorium but it is a good move away from the huge reactors that are so expensive to build and operate.

Batteries are always a limiting factor in things - power tools, personal electronics, etc... Looks like there may have been a major advance in energy density and lifespan - from Australia's Swinburne University:

Breakthrough technology at Swinburne makes batteries safe and sustainable
As exploding batteries in mobile phones, computers and headphones continue to make headlines, researchers at Swinburne’s Centre for Micro-Photonics are one step closer to producing commercially viable, chemical-free, long-lasting, safe batteries.

Professor Baohua Jia and Dr Han Lin lead a team developing the Bolt Electricity Storage Technology (BEST) battery – a graphene oxide-based supercapacitor offering high performance and low-cost energy storage.

The technology could, according to one investor, make chemical batteries a thing of the past.

“The battery is very thin, it’s carbon based and it’s environmentally friendly,” Professor Jia says. “We filed a patent on the technology last year.”

The technology is on the brink of becoming a commercial prototype.

Faster please!

Lulu is feeling under the weather so she is staying back another day or so. Hardware Sales is having their annual sale tomorrow and Saturday so heading in tomorrow morning for that and then have training all day Saturday.

Picked up a Costco chicken for dinner tonight - got some rice cooking. Had about 0.3" of precip today with more forecast for the next day or two. Wet.

Shot: Headline today at CBS News:

Chaser: Buried down in paragraph ten - the truth - it was all Barry's negotiation and sale

Oh no - no media bias to be seen anywhere...

The liberals really seem to be advocating organised violence - from The Washington Free Beacon:

HuffPost Writer: ‘Violent Resistance’ Needs to Be Organized for It to Work
HuffPost writer Jesse Benn tweeted Wednesday that violent resistance must be organized to work.

The tweet came after a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers early Wednesday morning. The gunman shot five people: House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R., La.), two Capitol Police officers, a congressional aide, and a lobbyist. The hospital treating some of the victims released a statement that said Scalise was still in critical condition. The gunman was shot and taken to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Benn wrote that violent resistance needed to be organized and that individual acts of resistance were "counterproductive/ineffective," but still understandable.

This is not the first time Benn has advocated for violence. Benn wrote a June 2016 article titled, "Sorry Liberals, a Violent Response to Trump Is as Logical as Any." In the article, Benn said there was value in violently resisting the "normalizing" of then-candidate Donald Trump.

What a disgusting excuse for a man. He should be fired - the article shows some of his other tweets and he is seriously troubled.

Got a meeting with someone at the store in an hour - coffee first. Heading in to town for a short run after that.

Lulu is coming out later today.

I used to read this newspaper on a regular basis but this morning, they flipped the switch and implemented a draconian paywall.

Looks like I am not reading them any more (nor viewing the advertising they serve with each article).

Serious rain heading our way - from Cliff Mass:

Midwinter Moisture in June
Tomorrow is going to be an unusual June day over the Northwest. An extraordinary plume of moisture that stretches across the the Pacific is now approaching our shores, and mid-winter amounts of rain will spread over the region. A satellite image of the amount of water vapor in the upper atmosphere shows a "river "of moisture stretching from the southwest north Pacific to our coast.

Here is the forecast for conditions at 8:00AM tomorrow:

Looking at several inches of precipitation.

Must be nice being well connected - from the New York Post:

Joe Biden’s niece dodges jail after $100K credit card scam
The wild-child niece of former Veep Joe Biden stole more than $100,000 in a credit card scam — and quietly cut a plea deal in Manhattan court that spares her any jail time, The Post has learned.

Using a borrowed credit card, the blonde Caroline Biden set up an unauthorized customer account at Bigelow Pharmacy on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village, and racked up the six-figure bill over the course of a year, according to a criminal complaint that does not name the victim card owner.

If this was a relative of President Trump, the media would be having a field day with this.

Our sun is a variable star and it has cooled off a lot from time to time - the Maunder Minimum, the little ice age, the Dalton Minimum. We may well be headed for a new cold period.

This link goes to a PDF document that covers some essentials if this happens: Solar “Grand Minima” Preparedness Plan

Meeting was fairly short - still a bit hungry so headed up to Glacier for a burger and a couple of pints.

Surf for a bit and see what the YouTube Fairies have brought.

Wish I didn't have to go but I am needed there - in the middle of some projects here. Oh well...

Back around 8:30 or so

Bernie may be a socialist but his wife and daughter certainly love their money. From Vermont Digger:

ONE FAMILY, TWO SCHOOLS: QUESTIONS RAISED ABOUT ANOTHER SANDERS DEAL
While one deal struck by Jane O’Meara Sanders during her time as Burlington College’s president has triggered a federal investigation, another arrangement she engineered is breeding claims of nepotism and allegations of veiled threats against her husband’s presidential campaign.

The bad blood centers on the relationship the college forged with the Vermont Woodworking School, co-founded and run by Sanders’ daughter, Carina Driscoll.

Carol Moore, the final president at Burlington College, broadly blames the school’s 2016 closing on Sanders. In a scathing op-ed last year, Moore wrote: “BC’s fate was set when its former board members hired an inexperienced president.”

Much more at the site - a combination of nepotism, bad business sense and a fondness for other people's money.

From the Everett Herald:

Everett submarine firm will take you to Titanic for $105K
When a big ship sinks in the open ocean, it does not gently drift to rest on the seabed. It slams into it, coming to a crushing stop.

“Each wreck lands on the bottom and cracks,” submarine driver David Lochridge explained, slapping his right hand into his left to punctuate his point.

The impact’s violence only adds to any damage that may have led to the sinking. Once on the bottom, natural conditions wear down even the biggest shipwrecks given enough time.

A bit more:

Lochridge and OceanGate plan to return to the site this summer to conduct further research. It is part of the startup company’s effort to push ocean exploration. It is also training for its deepest dive yet: the wreck of the RMS Titanic, which lies about 12,000 feet — more than two miles — below the waves in the Atlantic.

OceanGate, which is based on Everett’s waterfront, plans to dive on the famous wreck in 2018 — and it is taking along paying passengers. They will not be tourists, though. Each one has to pass a physical and will work alongside other expedition members, said Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s chief executive officer and co-founder.

Here is the website: OceanGate

The mainstream media, Hollywood, academia, (and the rest of the usual suspects) have been pushing a message.

It is telling to do a Google search for this message: republicans want people to die

6,090,000 hits. Stunning, so full of willful ignorance and hate.

Mylan Pharmaceuticals is having some problems - could not happen to a nicer company. From Derek Lowe:

Mylan Begins Harvesting the Crop It’s Sown
There’s an interesting fight going on inside Mylan Pharmaceuticals. They, of course, are the longtime generic drug maker whose EpiPen prices have (understandably) made them a lightning rod for complaints about drug pricing in general. This New York Times article will give you the flavor of the company, and most unappetizing it is:

To understand Mylan’s culture, consider a series of conversations that began inside the company in 2014. A group of midlevel executives was concerned about the soaring price of EpiPens, which had more than doubled in the previous four years; there were rumors that even more aggressive hikes were planned. (Former executives who related this and other anecdotes requested anonymity because they had nondisclosure agreements or feared retaliation. Aspects of their accounts were disputed by Mylan.)

In (2014) meetings, the executives began warning Mylan’s top leaders that the price increases seemed like unethical profiteering at the expense of sick children and adults, according to people who participated in the conversations. Over the next 16 months, those internal warnings were repeatedly aired. At one gathering, executives shared their concerns with Mylan’s chairman, Robert Coury.

Mr. Coury replied that he was untroubled. He raised both his middle fingers and explained, using colorful language, that anyone criticizing Mylan, including its employees, ought to go copulate with themselves. Critics in Congress and on Wall Street, he said, should do the same. And regulators at the Food and Drug Administration? They, too, deserved a round of anatomically challenging self-fulfillment.

The CEO of Mylan is the daughter of U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV). Her mother is head of the National Association of State Boards of Education and she spearheaded a 2012 push to require schools to maintain a stock of EpiPens. A Google search for Mylan Scandal returns with 319,000 hits.

A very good metric on a new technology is if people replace it with the same technology when the original installation wears out. From the Canada's Calgary Herald:

Oldest commercial wind farm in Canada headed for scrapyard after 23 years
The oldest commercial wind power facility in Canada has been shut down and faces demolition after 23 years of transforming brisk southern Alberta breezes into electricity — and its owner says building a replacement depends on the next moves of the provincial NDP government.

TransAlta Corp. said Tuesday the blades on 57 turbines at its Cowley Ridge facility near Pincher Creek have already been halted and the towers are to be toppled and recycled for scrap metal this spring. The company inherited the now-obsolete facility, built between 1993 and 1994, as part of its $1.6-billion hostile takeover of Calgary-based Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. in 2009.

“TransAlta is very interested in repowering this site. Unfortunately, right now, it’s not economically feasible,” Wayne Oliver, operations supervisor for TransAlta’s wind operations in Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod, said in an interview.

In other words, wind power is not economically feasible unless it is subsidized by the government. Since the government makes essentially no money of its own, these subsidies come from the taxpayers. TransAlta is asking the Canadian government for a substantial handout.

The powers that be pulled the Facebook page for the Trump hating Bernie supporter who shot the Republicans this morning. Fortunately, author Mike Cernovich archived a bunch of the content and made it available at The Medium:

• • http://archive.is/UayaF
  • http://archive.is/XJJ4J
  • http://archive.is/qu3wa
  • http://archive.is/3ZH8T
  • http://archive.is/GrHKV
  • http://archive.is/8ambF
  • http://archive.is/yQlBI
  • http://archive.is/reZsv
  • http://archive.is/YIR9e
  • http://archive.is/TcP1p
  • http://archive.is/ab9gR
  • http://archive.is/tgMxH
  • http://archive.is/ixrmp
  • http://archive.is/V15Y8
  • http://archive.is/lFqou

Nothing earth shattering, just the usual mindless hate that so fills the progressive mind. Willful ignorance and mental illness on display.

Doug Ross talks about how the Democrats have been inciting violence for the last eight years:

A mass shooting isn't surprising given the mainstreaming of political violence by Democrat extremists
It's shocking, but not altogether surprising, that a mass-shooting occurred during a Republican Congressional sports outing. Senator Rand Paul, who observed the volley of 50 or 60 shots, said that a "massacre" had been narrowly averted.

If House Majority Whip Steve Scalise's security detail hadn't been present, Paul said, it would have been a slaughter.

"I do believe that without the Capitol Hill police, it would have been a massacre," he said. "We had no defense at all."

This attempted mass shooting isn't surprising given the mainstreaming of political violence by Democrat extremists:

Much more at the site - Doug posts links to academia, the theater, Hollywood, Antifa, the mainstream media, social media, and Obama himself all advocating violence against conservatives. With leadership like this, it is no wonder that we have incidents like today's.

Fixed the issue with the tenant and now back home again. Raining lightly so working indoors for now - meeting later today. Training session all day Saturday.

From the Bellingham Herald:

Blaine border officers find more than 53 pounds of meth in SUV’s hidden compartment
Border agents found seven packages of methamphetamine weighing more than 53 pounds in a vehicle trying to cross into the U.S. on Saturday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a news release.

A 40-year-old man driving a Hyundai SUV was trying to enter from Canada and told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers that he and a 33-year-old male passenger were visiting the country for pleasure.

An officer referred the vehicle for further inspection and found the meth in a hidden compartment through non-intrusive inspection technology, officials said.

Nasty stuff - I hope they spend at least ten years behind bars for this.

The usual - coffee and then back home with a stop at the store. One of the tenants in my building is reporting a slow drain so taking some Draino with me - NaOH to the rescue.

First, a large fire in London - London Daily Mail

And second, a shooting near Washington, D.C. - from CNN:

Republican House Whip Steve Scalise, congressional staffer shot in Virginia shooting
Rep. Steve Scalise, a congressional staffer and members of the Capitol police force were shot Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia, during Republicans' early-morning practice ahead of a charity baseball game.

President Donald Trump said the alleged gunman had been killed. Federal law enforcement officials identified the alleged shooter as James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois.

At least five people including Scalise were hospitalized. Scalise, the third ranking member of House Republican leadership as the majority whip, appeared to have been shot in the hip, Rep. Mo Brooks told CNN. A congressional staffer, Zach Barth, was also injured. Matt Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods who sometimes practices with the team, was also identified as one of the victims, and Sen. Jeff Flake said Mika was the most seriously injured. House Speaker Paul Ryan also identified two members of the Capitol Police who were injured, Krystal Griner and David Bailey.

And of course - from Cristina Laila writing at The Gateway Pundit:

Founder of Far Left Daily Kos and Vox After Scalise Shot: ‘Republicans Are Getting What They Want’
Republican Representative Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip, and his aides were shot during baseball practice on Wednesday morning.

Scalise was shot in the hip and tried to drag himself off the field after he was shot.

The shooter was a Bernie supporter who was obsessed with Trump-Russia conspiracy theories perpetuated by the liars in the left-wing media. The founder of left-wing blogs Daily Kos and Vox, Markos Moulitsas says, “Republicans are getting what they want.”

Liberalism - the party of the mentally ill. Prayers going out.

Tonight's presentation was on slinky antennas - yes, the toy slinky that we all grew up with and can be purchased at Walmart for five bucks. Coils of conductive materials have very useful properties in electronics and making an antenna out of a coil of wire allows for the antenna to be a lot physically shorter than if it was made from straight wire.

Antennas are tuned to a specific length for the frequencies you want to work and some of these can be quite long - two-hundred and sixty feet for one commonly used 'band'. Using a slinky allows this to be shortened to 30 feet for the same frequencies (80 meters).

Here are some links to slinky antennas: Here, here, here, and here. Lots more on Google

Trash day tomorrow so loading up the bin and wheeling it out to the curb.

I love to cook - liking this guy's idea of a breakfast smoothie:

When will it ever stop - the Earth is doomed. From the Canadian Broadcasting Company:

Climate change researchers cancel expedition because of climate change
A team of scientists had to abandon an expedition through Hudson Bay because of hazardous ice conditions off the coast of Newfoundland caused by climate change.

About 40 scientists from five Canadian universities were scheduled to use the icebreaker CCGS Amundsen for the first leg of a 133-day expedition across the Arctic. It's part of a $17-million, four-year project led by the University of Manitoba that looks at both the effects of climate change as well as public health in remote communities.

Their trip began May 25 in Quebec City, but due to bad ice conditions off the coast of Newfoundland, the icebreaker was diverted from its course to help ferries and fishing boats navigate the Strait of Belle Isle, said David Barber, a climate change scientist at the University of Manitoba and leader of the Hudson Bay expedition called BaySys.

A bit more:

'Very severe ice conditions'
According to the Canadian Coast Guard, the conditions were unlike anything ever seen before in the area.

"It was just extreme ice conditions that required everything that we've got in order to make sure we were able to provide the services," said Julie Gascon, the coast guard's assistant commissioner for the central and Arctic region.

Now, where were we? The Science is Settled? How about the 19+ year decline in atmospheric air temperature? How about the extremely low solar flux?

My advice? Prepare for an extended period of cooling - another Maunder Minimum. We are overdue.

Got the critters taken care of so heading out for coffee and then a run in to town - picking up some stuff and a ham radio meeting tonight. Quick tour around the intarwebs first.

That's it for surfing the web tonight - see what is new in YouTube

Long day tomorrow - minimal showers are forecast - we will see... Meeting tomorrow night.

Great sense of humor:

This was at a meeting with President Trump and his cabinet - the media were present.

Remember Barry's red line in the sand? Here is how a real leader does it - from Reuters:

From 'caliph' to fugitive: IS leader Baghdadi's new life on the run
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is on the brink of losing the two main centers of his 'caliphate' but even though he is on the run, it may take years to capture or kill him, officials and experts said.

Islamic State fighters are close to defeat in the twin capitals of the group's territory, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, and officials say Baghdadi is steering clear of both, hiding in thousands of square miles of desert between the two.

A bit more:

"With no land to rule openly, he can no longer claim the title caliph," Hashimi said. "He is a man on the run and the number of his supporters is shrinking as they lose territory."

Barry had eight years, President Trump has been in office for five months. And you can bet your last dollar that we will get al-Baghdadi - not in a few years but a few months; a year max.

Still hopeing something will stick - from Politico:

D.C., Maryland sue Trump over foreign business dealings
The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Monday, accusing him of violating provisions of the Constitution intended to protect against corruption and seeking to uncover the tax returns that the president has thus far been unwilling to release.

The suit focuses on the president’s continued ownership of his family’s business empire, control of which Trump said he handed over to his two adult sons. But far from the blind-trust standard adopted by past presidents, Trump continues to receive some information about the Trump organization, including profit reports, from his sons.

The lawsuit, brought by D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, both Democrats, was filed Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland.

They have nothing and they know it but they are just going through the motions. A perverse sort of virtue signalling.

From Only In Your State comes this entry for a restaurant:

There’s A Bacon-Themed Restaurant In Oklahoma And It’s Everything You’ve Ever Dreamed Of
If there’s one meat item we all can’t live without, I think we could agree it’s our beloved bacon. And while you can find it in most Oklahoma restaurants, we found a restaurant that’s overflowing with bacon. From the moment you walk into Bacon in Oklahoma City, the smell alone makes your mouth start watering. Bacon lovers you will want to visit this bacon-themed restaurant…it’s everything you’ve ever dreamed of (and more).

They even do a Bacon/Caramel ice cream for desert - sounds delicious.

Tip of the hat to Firehand at Irons in the Fire for the link.

Very interesting reversal - from the New York Daily News:

Delta, Bank of America drop sponsorship of Shakespeare in the Park over ‘Julius Caesar’ stunt that shows Trump assassination
Delta Airlines and Bank of America pulled out of their sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater on Sunday over a production of “Julius Caesar” that reimagines the main character as President Trump.

Shortly after Delta, who was a four-year sponsor, made its announcement, Bank of America yanked its support as well.

The Shakespeare in the Park play tells the story of the leader assassinated by Roman senators over the fear that he’s becoming too tyrannical, but rather than the original setting, the production stages Caesar (Gregg Henry) and his wife, Calpurnia, (Tina Benko) with Donald and Melania Trump lookalikes.

Henry, who already played a Trump stand-in on “Scandal” last year, models his Caesar almost perfectly after the man in the Oval Office. He meets his end after being stabbed to death by women and minorities on stage.

Now that conservatives are in the ascendancy, corporate sponsors are reading the new landscape - don't want to get caught promoting something that offends the new public narrative.

Talk about a big nothingburger - from Rollcall:

Democratic Rep. Sherman Drafts Article of Impeachment Against Trump
Rep. Brad Sherman has drafted an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump that he plans to soon file and eventually raise for consideration on the House floor.

The California Democrat’s article argues that Trump obstructed justice by using his authority as president to hinder or terminate a criminal investigation into his former national security advisor Michael Flynn. It cites Trump requesting then FBI director James Comey to curtail the bureau’s investigation into Flynn and then later terminating Comey and admitting that his main reason for doing so was related to the Russia investigation.

“In all of this, Donald John Trump has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States,” the article reads.

At this point, the democrat party is reduced to flinging their poo at the walls hoping something will stick. They got nothing and they know it.

Nigel Farage is one of my favorite English politicians. Very articulate and not afraid to call a spade a spade. He was the leader of the UKIP (UK Independence Party) but resigned after failing to get elected in one key seat. Now he is back - from CNBC:

Nigel Farage to be given role in Brexit talks under DUP-Conservative deal – reports
British Prime Minister Theresa May could be under pressure to give extreme Eurosceptic Nigel Farage a key role in Brexit negotiations if she strikes an alliance deal with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), according to new reports.

Senior figures in the DUP have told May that she should keep Farage close and allow him to contribute to EU talks in an effort to prevent him from returning to the helm of UKIP, the party he once led, and launching a counter-campaign against her Conservative party, sources told the Sunday Times.

Here is classic Nigel speaking to the head of the European Union (this was before the successful BREXIT vote for England to leave the EU. The President of the EU is an unelected position - the citizens of the EU have zero say in their government:

Picked up my auction swag, had lunch at The Stilly Diner (great food and just a wonderful small-town restaurant) and then drove down to the Costco business center in Lynnwood. Picked up some stuff for the store and then drove home.

Had the pups with me so they are rumbling around outside - will feed them in a few minutes and check on the other critters. Light dinner tonight since lunch was huge.

Coal mining used to be an environmental nightmare with the coal companies having no incentive to restore the land after they were done - now this is part of their contract. Here are some people who are taking care of what was left behind from the "old school" mining practices:

Lulu shot this a few days ago - Grace (a Shiloh Shepherd) and Koshka

Grace (and Bear) are in the middle of blowing their coats so black and white furballs everywhere. The Dyson vacuums actually live up to their hype - they seriously rock.

Ran into this video a couple days ago and got curious about the product - went to Whole Foods two days ago during a town run and picked up a package of their microwave popcorn. On Sunday, both of my managers work together at the store and we did a taste-test this morning. Great stuff and we are looking at carrying it.

Here is the website for Tiny but Mighty

Wonderful analysis that puts Anthropogenic Global Warming where it should be - in the dustbin of history.

Check out the Global Warming Petition Project

ABSTRACT
A review of the research literature concerning the environmental consequences of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide leads to the conclusion that increases during the 20th and early 21st centuries have produced no deleterious effects upon Earth's weather and climate. Increased carbon dioxide has, however, markedly increased plant growth. Predictions of harmful climatic effects due to future increases in hydrocarbon use and minor greenhouse gases like CO2 do not conform to current experimental knowledge. The environmental effects of rapid expansion of the nuclear and hydrocarbon energy industries are discussed.

Read the whole thing - they cover all bases and thoroughly dismantle all of the AGW talking points.

Comey is now a laughingstock and potential felon but he is still spewing misinformation. From the New York Times (no surprises there - of course they will enable him, he is anti-Trump):

Trump-Comey Feud Eclipses a Warning on Russia: ‘They Will Be Back’
Lost in the showdown between President Trump and James B. Comey that played out this past week was a chilling threat to the United States. Mr. Comey, the former director of the F.B.I., testified that the Russians had not only intervened in last year’s election, but would try to do it again.

“It’s not a Republican thing or Democratic thing — it really is an American thing,” Mr. Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “They’re going to come for whatever party they choose to try and work on behalf of. And they’re not devoted to either, in my experience. They’re just about their own advantage. And they will be back.”

cough - bullshit - cough

It is one thing to have concrete evidence of this but nothing is being presented. Anonymous sources, leaked documents, supposed memos - we want facts.

From Failure Magazine:

Museum of Failure opens in Sweden
The Museum of Failure isn’t on any list of the Top Things to do in Sweden—at least not yet. The new museum, which opened last week in Helsingborg, a city of 130,000 people on Sweden’s southern coast, has already attracted worldwide media attention and is drawing visitors from around the globe. In fact, Chinese tourists have been arriving by the busload “to look at the Donald Trump board game,” notes curator Samuel West, a former clinical psychologist who has more than 70 different failed products and objects on display in the 450-square-meter space. 

And how they got their content:

How did you acquire the products in the Museum of Failure?
Twenty to thirty percent were donated by individuals. Some have been borrowed because they are too expensive. The rest were bought on Craigslist or eBay or Amazon.

Interestingly, none of the companies that I contacted early on wanted to cooperate. I approached quite a few innovation directors—my clients, or former clients—and asked them for examples of failure that they’ve learned from. I explained that this is serious and we are not having a laugh at them; it’s done with full respect. I thought it would be easy to get them to collaborate but nobody wants to be associated with the Museum of Failure. None of them—zero—choose to cooperate.

I do not doubt this - although failures are very educational, nobody wants to be reminded of their own mis-steps.

The museum's website is here: Museum of Failure Scroll down for some videos of some of the displays. Looks like a lot of fun.

Got the stuff for the store and had some Thai for dinner tonight - a couple of appetizers and a beer. Back home for the evening. For crappy weather, the day certainly turned out great.

Heading South tomorrow to pick up my auction goodies - looking forward to using that ergonomic chair.

Feed the critters (need to also set out some bird food and make some hummingbird nectar) and opening a bottle of red wine and settle in for a couple hours of surfing and YouTube...

Slept in today - delicious! Finished two projects at home and started a load of laundry.

Need to run in to town for some items for the store - getting coffee first.

Sam Panopoulos? From the BBC:

Hawaiian pizza inventor Sam Panopoulos dies aged 83
Sam Panopoulos, who has died aged 83, leaves a legacy that has delighted, confused and appalled diners worldwide. Often at the same time.

Panopoulos is the Canadian man who invented Hawaiian pizza, a dish so divisive it led to a presidential outburst this year.

He passed away in hospital suddenly on Thursday.

Panopoulos emigrated to Canada from Greece in 1954 when he was 20, eventually going on to own and operate several successful restaurants with his two brothers.

It was in one of those restaurants in 1962 that Panopoulos was inspired to add canned pineapple to pizza.

It was invented by Sam Panopoulos, who moved to Canada from Greece aged 20

In February, Panopoulos recounted to the BBC how he and his brothers came up with the idea for the pizza, topped with pineapple and ham.

See if I can wake up any earlier than this morning. Got to bed fairly early, just slept ten hours and was out like a light...

He is planning to reopen in a new location but one of Seattle's iconic restaurants is closing down. From The Seattle Times:

Landmark F.X. McRory’s closing but owner Mick McHugh hopes to relocate
There isn’t nearly enough space here for the memories. The stories and good times overfloweth.

Asking a local about F.X. McRory’s is the easiest interview out there. You just smile and let the tape recorder run.

But on Sunday, June 11, 2017, Seattle’s most revered sports bar will close after nearly 40 years. The building owners want to retrofit the basement, forcing McRory’s owner Mick McHugh to relocate his beloved establishment.

Don’t worry, though. This isn’t a time for sorrow — it’s a time for celebration.

“This is just momentary,” McHugh said by phone — and you don’t need FaceTime to know he’s smiling. “I still got a little juice left.”

It might be fun to drive down on June 27th - James G. Murphy is auctioning off all the fixtures. Time to buy a piece of history.

From Vanity Fair:

CAN HILLARY CLINTON PLEASE GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT?
Clinton, who has grown increasingly public and vocal in recent weeks, appears ready to drive the bus again. But do we have to be the passengers?

That is going to leave a mark - from Presidential candidate to "Why is she still hanging around?" in just eight months. Ouch!

A perfect time to clear out all the liberals, global warmists, cultural marxists, watermelon environmentalists and Gang Green (but I repeat myself) - from France24:

'Your new homeland': France's Macron launches website to woo US scientists
French President Emmanuel Macron this week launched a website which aims to encourage US scientists and researchers frustrated with President Donald Trump’s position on climate change to move to France.

The website "Make Our Planet Great Again" was a clear dig at Trump and his June 1 announcement that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, but also made good on an appeal Macron made back in February.

The website said senior university faculty members, but also junior researchers and PhD candidates, were eligible to move to France to work on climate change, earth system science or energy transition projects, promising generous financing and help with moving to the country.

It said senior researchers could apply for grants up €1.5 million, which would cover researchers' salaries, as well as compensation for additional staff and work expenses. Junior researchers could apply for grants of up to €1 million.

“There is no restriction on your husband / wife working in France,” the site reassured scientists, adding: “If you have children, note that French public schools are free, and the tuition fees of universities and “grandes écoles” [highly competitive French universities] are very low compared to the American system.”

Great - a wonderful time to clean house, get rid of all of the warmists and start over - with actual science this time - not computer models. Thank you France for taking these dregs of academe...

Only two other people showed up for the work party so it has been rescheduled and I was able to connect with the friend who needed me to Notarize a document.

Store shopping run was busy but uneventful - worked at the store for a little bit and then had a chicken patty at Graham's.

Heading back in tomorrow (there were some store items not on my list) and I need to hit Home Depot for some stuff (forgot to do today).

We are now up to 0.65" of precip in the last 48 hours - nice and sunny and warm and then DUMP!

From the Associated Press:

IS PROPAGANDA HARD HIT BY KILLINGS, BATTLEFIELD SETBACKS
Supported by crutches and a fellow Islamic State jihadi, Abu Shuaib al-Maslawi hopped on his left leg toward the explosives-laden black SUV that he would minutes later plow into a group of Iraqi troops in the northern city of Mosul.

Then, turning toward the camera, the one-legged suicide bomber spoke his final words, urging Muslims in the West who cannot come to the extremists' self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, to carry out attacks inside their home countries.

A bit more:

Posted by IS on social media in late May, the video contains a change in message and tone that reflects the pressure the extremist group is under as it continues to lose ground in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group's propaganda machine used to be confident, promising that its self-declared caliphate would be "lasting and expanding." But in recent months, as the group's territory has shrunk, its messages have as well.

Far from the boastful, self-aggrandizing videos of the past, the group is now urging fighters to resist and not run away from the battlefield. The quality of the videos has dropped as well after some of the extremists' most prominent propagandists and producers were killed.

Great news - as I said, this is what winning looks like. Grind these bastards down into the dirt they came from.

A YouTube channel dedicated to the question: "what if animals were round" - here is the most recent:

Finished the shopping trip for the store and got some parts for a couple of projects at home. It was a gorgeous day for a while but some serious clouds moved in an hour ago and it is raining pretty steadily.

Working at the store for a little bit (paying bills, etc...) and then out to Graham's for a burger.

Was supposed to be on site at 9:00AM

Long day tomorrow - the community garden work party in the morning and then doing the Friday shopping run for the store in the afternoon. Someone hacked the bank card for the guy who usually does the Friday run so our bank de-activated it. He was unable to buy anything so I need to go into town tomorrow to cover his shift. It is forecast to rain. Joy.

Serious cost overruns, tactical insufficiency, poor handling, the F-35 is how not to build an airplane. We could have purchased the Saab JAS 39 Gripen and come out way ahead for half the money. Now this - from Defense One:

US Air Force Grounds F-35s at Arizona Base
The U.S. Air Force has grounded 55 of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at Arizona’s Luke Air Force base following five incidents in which pilots experienced symptoms of oxygen deprivation.

The pilots “reported physiological incidents while flying” but a backup oxygen system turned on, allowing them to land safely, Capt. Mark Graff, an Air Force spokesman at the Pentagon, said in an email Friday afternoon.

Will this stinker ever fly correctly?

Kurt  Schlichter on James Comey at Townhall:

From Russia With Stupidity
That towering doofus James Comey crushed the spirits of millions of democracy-hating geebos when, trapped by his own prior testimony, he was forced to admit the truth on national television. And that truth, as those of us not caught up in the whirlpool of Menschian insanity and liberal wishcasting all know, is that the whole Russia thing is a wheelbarrow of fresh Schumer squeezed out by Hillary and her minions in order to create a narrative – any narrative – that would hide the bitter truth. We rejected her, and now we’re rejecting the Russia idiocy too.

Much more at the site - caution, multiple drink alert. Schlichter is on his form with this one.

Trailer for an upcoming film:

Nothing on IMDB as yet.

Doing a low-carb tuna salad (sort of a bastardized Niçoise (no beans, potatoes or eggs)) for dinner tonight. Been trying to keep the carbohydrates down and am down four pounds out of the 20 that I want to lose.

Jay Leno's Garage did a commercial promotion with Jiffy Lube - they 'gave' him a card good for one free oil change. Jay shows up in his tank car - M-47 Patton tank engine left over from the Korean War. Oil capacity? 17 gallons.

Dr. Coleman founded The Weather Channel. He is a professional meteorologist (since retired). Here he is with CNN's Brian Stelter:

CNN = Fake News

Too big to fail just failed big time - let's hope the Senate passes this. From Investor's Business Daily:

While No One Was Looking, Congress Took A Huge Step Toward Fixing The Economy
Former FBI director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee was the fixation of Washington on Thursday. But the big story was on the House side of Congress, which passed a bill to repeal the ruinous Dodd-Frank banking law.

The Financial Choice Act, approved in the House by a 233-to-186 vote (no Democrats voted for the bill), has generated almost zero attention. But it has the potential to be the most economically beneficial legislation Congress will consider this year.

Put simply, Dodd-Frank has been a complete failure. Signed into law by President Obama almost seven years ago in the wake of the financial crisis, this massive law was supposed to, in his words, "be good for the economy … foster innovation … stop taxpayer bailouts once and for all."

It has lived up to zero of those promises.

Dodd-Frank's 22,000 pages of regulations, which cost $36 billion to comply with in the first six years, has choked competition in the banking industry, made banking more expensive, harmed economic growth and, to top it off, failed to make the banking system safer or end "too-big-to-fail."

Good riddance to a bad idea - they need to reinstate the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act. This was repealed in 1999 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act which allowed the banks to meddle with investments and set the stage for the financial crash of 2007. Obama wasted trillions of dollars shoring up weak financial institutions and Congress passed Dodd-Frank to put a bandage over the gaping and septic wound. Covered it up without cleaning or disinfecting it.

It is very telling that Dodd-Frank is 22,000 pages and Glass-Steagall is only 53 pages (PDF).

From The Washington Post:

Key GOP panel picks Trey Gowdy as next House Oversight chairman
The House Republican Steering Committee voted Thursday to hand the gavel to Gowdy, according to statements issued by Gowdy and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). Gowdy led the controversial two-year investigation into the 2012 terrorist attacks on a U.S. diplomatic outpost and nearby CIA site in Benghazi, Libya.

Gowdy, who served as a state and federal prosecutor before being elected to Congress in 2010, will succeed Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who is resigning his seat at month’s end to pursue a private-sector career.

The Oversight Committee could play a key role in investigating any alleged Trump administration wrongdoing. While the Senate and House intelligence committees are taking the most prominent role in investigating potential Russian interference in the presidential election on Trump’s behalf, the House Oversight Committee has a wide berth to probe other potential misdeeds. Chaffetz in recent months has sent letters requesting memos by former FBI director James B. Comey and documents pertaining to Trump’s downtown D.C. hotel.

Gowdy said in his statement that he is “grateful to the Steering Committee and the Conference as a whole for this opportunity to serve” and said that oversight is “important to ensure branch integrity and equilibrium.” Gowdy did not grant interviews about his interest in the post before Thursday’s election.

One of President Trump's greatest strengths is that he knows how to pick good people and he lets them run with the ball. If they do not work out, they get replaced - no muss, no fuss.

I love the line: "The Oversight Committee could play a key role in investigating any alleged Trump administration wrongdoing". Indeed it could. It could also investigate Crooked Hillary, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, the BATFE's gun running program as well as any number of other corrupt policies from the last couple of years.

The electronics components were worth what the guy was asking but they were from a companies production run of various devices - I was looking for a broad range of values and these were very specific and not useable to me. The stuff was just too random to be of any real value. There was a gorgeous storage rack but I have no space for something this large and I already have a rack and drawer system for my electronics stuff so did not need to duplicate it.

Picked up my string trimmer from being overhauled - the weather turned nice this afternoon, sunny and in the 60's

There is a work party scheduled for the community garden tomorrow morning - showers are forecast.

Clearing out the back of the truck in case I get the Craigslist deal. If the components are more than ten years old, I will probably pass but this would be a nice jump-start to some electrical and radio experimentation. Head in to town in about a half-hour.

Starting to see some clear skies and sun but this is just a transient phenomenon - not getting my hopes up. Our radio club is doing a field day in two weeks - when I drive down on Monday, I will stop off at the location and see if I can reserve the pavilion there for food service - I have tents for my portable kitchen but it would suck for everyone to have to eat in the rain.

Decided to pick up the auction booty on Monday instead of trying to do it today - this will give me some time to work at home and have dinner at home too - been eating out waaay to much these days.

Heading out for coffee in a few minutes and meeting up there with a friend who needs some documents notarized (been a Notary Public for quite a few years - comes in handy). Then, I have a 1:00PM meeting in town about a Craigslist deal - surplus electronic components from a closed manufacturing company.

Weather is rain showers for the foreseeable future - had another tenth inch of precip last night for a total of 0.4"

Long day tomorrow...

From Bloomberg:

Accused Leaker of Top-Secret U.S. Report Loses Bail Request
A former U.S. Air Force linguist charged with passing a top-secret report about Russian hacking to a news organization was denied bail by a magistrate judge who said the woman had taken other classified information that could still be passed to enemies of the U.S.

Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a government contract worker with top-secret security clearance, pleaded not guilty Thursday to an espionage charge in federal court in Augusta, Georgia, and was ordered to remain in custody out of concern she poses a risk to national security.

A federal prosecutor said in court that authorities had uncovered a series of “new and downright frightening" other acts by Winner, including inserting a thumb drive into her Air Force computer and taking classified information while she was still in the military.

“When you take a thumb drive in a top-secret computer as she did, we don’t know what happened to it," U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Epps said at the hearing. “That falls into the landscape of danger to the community but it is also a danger to the nation."

I hope they throw the book at her - this was an unconscionable act of treason. 25 is old enough to know better.

From The Wall Street Journal:

North Korea Dreams of Turning Out the Lights
Pyongyang doesn’t need a perfect missile. Detonating a nuke above Seoul—or L.A.—would sow chaos.
Conventional wisdom holds that it will be years before North Korea can credibly threaten the United States with a nuclear attack. Kim Jong Un’s scientists are still testing only low-yield nuclear weapons, the thinking goes, and have yet to place them on ballistic missiles capable of reaching America’s West Coast.

A bit more - the real problem:

For South Korea the danger is more immediate. According to physicist David Albright, the founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, the North Koreans have between 13 and 30 nuclear weapons and can build as many as five more every year. If Mr. Kim were to detonate one of these bombs in the atmosphere 40 miles above Seoul, it could inflict catastrophic damage on South Korea’s electric power grid, leading to a prolonged blackout that could have deadly consequences.

The United States has 28,500 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in South Korea stationed below the 38th parallel—and more at sea nearby. An electromagnetic pulse attack on South Korea could play havoc with America’s ability to mount an effective response to North Korean aggression. One hopes the troops manning the two already-deployed batteries of the Thaad ballistic-missile defense system are prepared for such a scenario (in a concession to China, the newly elected South Korean government suspended this week the deployment of four additional launchers).

What can Fat-boy Kim ever be thinking?

Talk about a nasty screed - from Project-Syndicate:

Trump’s Climate-Change Sociopathy
President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement is not just dangerous for the world; it is also sociopathic. Without remorse, Trump is willfully inflicting harm on others. The declaration by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, that Trump believes in climate change makes matters worse, not better. Trump is knowingly and brazenly jeopardizing the planet.

I'll spare you the drivel and the fake numbers - Sachs closes with this paragraph:

Instead, Trump’s sociopathic behavior, and the corruption and viciousness of those surrounding him, has produced utter disdain for a world nearing the brink of human-made catastrophe. The next human-caused climate disasters should be named Typhoon Donald, Superstorm Ivanka, and Megaflood Jared. The world will not forget.

A typical ad hominem attack with no data to back it up. Plus, Sachs is attacking President Trump's family members - one simply does not do that. This is not civil discourse, this is behaviour I would expect from a six year old child.

Other people are doing an excellent job of covering this - here are a couple of links:

• • Comey Wasn’t Investigating Trump — But Look Who Said He Was
  • Comey Took Notes of Every Trump Meeting But Did Not Record Hillary’s 3 Hour Interrogation
  • Chris Matthews: Trump-Russia collusion theory 'came apart' with Comey testimony
  • Comey Associate Who Leaked Memos to Press Identified as Columbia Professor Daniel Richman

Much more online. There is nothing to see here folks, just keep moving along. It will be interesting if they re-open Hillary's email investigation.

Picked up a few things for some projects I am working on, got a bite to eat and then attended my amateur radio group meeting. Tonight, we went over some of the fine points of sending digital information over standard radio equipment using a specialty modem that connects to a computer. Very versatile and a lot of fun.

Long day tomorrow too - into town for a potential Craigslist deal and then South to pick up my auction goodies.

Unpack the truck and surf for a bit. We had another tenth of an inch of rain after I left for a total of 0.3" - wet. Long range forecast is for more of the same.

BAD DOG Grace!!! - Grace, my older Shiloh Shepard, stayed home today. She is about six years old and has been suffering from diarrhea for the last two days so I did not want her in the truck all day. There is a dog door that exits into a 40X40 foot pen outside. I came home to find my cat giving me the stink-eye. Grace had lifted her dish down off the hallway counter-top and taken it into the living room and finished all of the cat food.

I am unpacking the truck and notice that the shipping box for the fly-control wasps is on the kitchen floor (it had been on the kitchen counter-top) and then I notice that the bag containing 10,000 wasps is missing. Found it in the living room chewed up and about 90% gone down her belly. The wasps had not hatched out yet but Grace made a nice meal out of their egg casings. Vacuumed up what I could find - the wasps are harmless to people and are about 1/8" long and about as big around as some sewing thread - I had gotten them to control the fly population on the farm. Have to place an order for another 10,000 bugs. The joys of farm life...

Have an emergency radio meeting tonight so heading in to town to do some shopping and then grab a bite to eat.

Spending tomorrow driving back South to pick up my auction winnings and to look at a Craigslist deal - some electronics parts.

Fscking hypocrites - from FOX News:

Gay Trump supporters denied entry into Charlotte Pride Parade
A group says ‘Charlotte Pride’ is pushing them out of the Gay Pride Parade because they support President Trump.

"I’m very proud of my country, proud of my president, and was once proud of my community," said Brian Talbert, who said he’s proud to be gay and proud to be a Trump supporter.

A bit more:

Talbert, a member of "Gays for Trump, which is not affiliated with the "Gays for Trump" based in Greensboro, NC, said he and a fellow gay Trump supporter sent in an application to Charlotte Pride so they could have a float in this year's Charlotte Pride Parade.

"It was going to be fun. We wanted to be energetic. We wanted to show that we weren't the racist, bigot, misogynistic…We wanted to show that we are Americans, love our country and our president. We wanted to be there to celebrate gay pride. Everything fell into place except being able to celebrate who I am," he said.

Talbert said Charlotte Pride sent him an email denying his application for a float.

"For a group of people to claim to want tolerance, acceptance, and give it to every single person you can imagine to give it to, for them to sit back and judge me for exercising my right as an American to choose my leader without judgment is hypocritical," Talbert said.

Really shows what the narrative is - they virtue signal about tolerance but their actions? Not so much. Talbert started up a wonderful website: DeplorablePride

Was planning to get the dogs in for a haircut this morning but one of them has had a major case of the runs for two days in a row. Time to keep them back for a few days to see if it was just something they ate or something physiological. At least they used the bathroom carpet - that has been rolled up and is sitting outside in the rain to wash off.

Japan is well within the range of North Korea's missiles and a ripe target. From Reuters:

Japan ruling party heavyweight to visit South Korea June 10-13
The secretary-general of Japan's ruling party will visit South Korea at the weekend and is likely to meet new president Moon Jae-in, a party official said on Thursday, just days after North Korea conducted its fourth missile launch in a month.

North Korea fired what appeared to be several land-to-ship missiles off its east coast earlier on Thursday, less than a week after the United Nations Security Council passed fresh sanctions on the reclusive state.

Thursday's launch was the fourth missile test by North Korea since Moon took office in Seoul on May 10, pledging to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang.

Getting all of their ducks in a row in case they have to take out Fat-boy Kim. The sooner North Korea falls, the better for their own people - a united Korea would be a wonderful economic powerhouse for the world.

From Reuters:

Islamist militants strike heart of Tehran, Iran blames Saudis
Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people in an unprecedented assault that Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia.

Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran's majority Shi'ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni militants as heretics.

They murder each other more than they murder Westerners - truly barbaric in every sense of the word.

Was outbid on the autoclave, the receipt printer, and the software in the server room but they went for a lot more than I was willing to pay. Got everything else though so very happy - cheap thrills...

Raining for the last eight hours with 0.2" inches accumulation - back to the wet for the next week or so.

Nothing much on the internet - I am liking the new FBI director. Long day tomorrow.

From The Bellingham Herald:

Kendall Elementary placed in lockdown after police pursuit
Students at Kendall Elementary School were sheltered in place for hours Wednesday, when a car chase ended with a driver ditching the vehicle next door to the school.

A state trooper tried to pull over a driver for a seat belt violation at 10:07 a.m. on Kendall Highway, near Peaceful Valley, said Washington State Patrol Sgt. Keith Leary. The southbound driver led police on a brief pursuit, and bailed from the car by a field south of the school in the 7500 block of Eason Road.

State troopers and Whatcom County sheriff’s deputies could not find the man. He remained at-large Wednesday afternoon. The reason he fled remains unclear, though troopers suspect the car wasn’t registered to him. The car has been impounded as evidence.

A description of the man hasn’t been made public.

Law enforcement informed the school the wanted man could be within “very close proximity” to the elementary school of 430 students, said Ben Thomas, director of Finance and Operations for the Mount Baker School District.

School officials kept doors locked, in shelter-in-place mode, for the rest of Wednesday. Calls went out to parents alerting them to the situation.

I can not imagine what it would be like to be one of the parents, knowing that the moke had not been captured. The school is less than five miles from my home.

CNN had a story about a spontaneous demonstration after the London terrorist attack - here is a frame-grab:

Here is a short video taken as they carefully move everyone into position:

Nothing spontaneous about this - talk about Fake News - CNN is Busted!

There is definitly something going on between those ears. From Terrierman's Daily Dose - a daily read for me.

Went down to look at the auction preview. Some really good stuff and some stuff that is already very much overbid. So far, i am winning on a small autoclave (for sterilization of home brew stuff and general lab stuff), a very nice ergonomic chair (a steal at $20) a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner for $20 (retail for $400 new) and an extra receipt printer (handy as a spare for the store).

I am also bidding on the contents of a cupboard in the server room - a lot of copies of MSFT Office 2003 (my all-time favorite edition), some licenses for Win7 and several copies of Windows XP - this is a real treasure as although you will never ever want to run it on any machine that is connected to the internet (it will get infected in under ten minutes guaranteed), XP was the last version of Windows to write directly to peripheral devices. There are some older music and CAD programs that cannot deal with the newer "virtualized" ports as they need to be able to directly write to the hardware from within the application. Copies of XP are scarce and cherished.

It was a really nice afternoon so drove home via Highway 9 along Lake McMurray, Big Lake and Clear Lake up to Sedro-Woolley - a gorgeous stretch of highway. Clear Lake is a sweet old town - used to be a prime timber town with a large shingle mill but it has shrunk to a fraction of its population but a lot of the old buildings still remain.

Surf for a bit and then to bed - taking the pups in for grooming tomorrow morning - both Grace and Bear are blowing their coats big-time so getting them shaved. Got a meeting tomorrow night.

From the National Weather Service:

AN UNSEASONABLY STRONG COOL UPPER LEVEL LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IN THE
GULF OF ALASKA IS EXPECTED TO WORK ITS WAY ONSHORE LATE THIS WEEK
AND MOVE INLAND OVER THE WEEKEND. THE ASSOCIATED AIR MASS IS QUITE
COOL AND UNSTABLE...WHICH WILL RESULT IN A SHOWERY WEATHER
PATTERN.

SNOW LEVELS ARE EXPECTED TO PlUMMET CLOSE TO 5000 FEET THURSDAY
NIGHT AND CONTINUE INTO AT LEAST SATURDAY. ON TUESDAY...PARADISE
ON MOUNT RAINIER HIT 70 DEGREES. ON THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY...
SNOW IS EXPECTED WITH AT LEAST SEVERAL INCHES OF ACCUMULATION.

THOSE PLANNING ANY TRAVEL INTO THE CASCADES AND OLYMPICS SHOULD
ANTICIPATE THIS DRAMATIC CHANGE TO MUCH COOLER WEATHER...
PARTICULARLY HIKERS AND CLIMBERS. EVEN MOTORISTS CROSSING THE
HIGHER PASSES SUCH AS WASHINGTON...CHINOOK...CAYUSE AND WHITE
PASSES SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR MORE WINTER LIKE DRIVING CONDITIONS.

Snow? We sure could use some of that global warming right now...

Heading out to the auction preview today. The real bidding has started - some pieces of medical equipment that were in the $100 range are now in the multiple $1,000 range but the other stuff - the copiers, the computer stuff, the furniture - are still at the $10 range. These are the things I am interested in.

Probably get a bite to eat on the road so no posting until much later.

Long day tomorrow with a drive about 50 miles due South.

This came up in an email - quite brilliant actually:

"The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer."

Here is more on Ward Cunningham

Lulu is still under the weather so she is having a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and a couple pieces of toast. Sometimes the classics are the best. I have some left-over Chinese food and will be eating that.

Productive day today - checking out the auction tomorrow and rain is moving in Thursday.

From Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge:

Saudi Arabia Gives Qatar 24 Hour Ultimatum As Analysts Warn Of "Military Confrontation"
Shortly after imposing a naval blockade in the immediate  aftermath of the Qatar diplomatic crisis, one which left the small Gulf nation not only politically isolated and with severed ties to its neighbors but potentially locked out of maritime trade and crippling its oil and LNG exports, on Tuesday SkyNews Arabia reported that Saudi Arabia has given Qatar a 24 hours ultimatum, starting tonight, to fulfill 10 conditions that have been conveyed to Kuwait, which is currently involved in the role of a mediator between Saudi and Qatar.

According to media report, among the key demands by Saudi Arabia is that Qatar end all ties Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.

Very interesting to see the Saudi's stepping up to the plate to cut support for terrorist groups. Take the head off and the tentacles with slowly wither and die.

Lest we forget, the Muslim Brotherhood's motto is this:

"Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way.
Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope. Allahu akbar!”

Religion of Peace - and I have some oceanfront property in Colorado to sell you. Hamas is just as nice.

Just picked up the wood stove. The crack is eminently fixable, fifteen minutes with an angle grinder and flap wheel plus a minute or so of welding and it will be good to go. Older unit so very heavy which is great for heat retention and stability of burn. Perfect for what I need for the shop annex. Planning the layout in my head and thinking of moving the woodworking stuff out there too - I sold my big wood band saw and will be selling my big table saw. I am more a metalworker these days so a simple chop saw for dimension lumber and a track saw for cutting sheet plywood is all that I need - move the lathe and router table out there too.

Now to unload - using Buttercup the tractor, the front bucket and some ratchet straps - should be a piece of cake.

UPDATE - moved it to the Quonset hut where it will sit until I have time to work on it - before next winter definitely. I scored big-time - it is an Earth Stove. These puppies were the ne plus ultra, the bees knees, the acme of wood heating. Their firebox is very heavy so combustion is very stable and the emissions are lower than what the EPA  demands from a modern catalytic burner. Parts are still available. I am not planning to do any sort of restoration - this is a shop heater after all - but nice to know that I can keep it running well for another 20-30 years. This photo is from the internet - not my stove but it is the same make and model:

Wonderful interview of Scott Pruitt - President Trump's pick for head of EPA.

Audio here: EPA’s Pruitt: Establish ‘Red Team, Blue Team’ of scientists to examine climate risk of CO2

Partial transript:

EPA ADMINISTRATOR PRUITT: “What the American people deserve, I think, is a true legitimate, peer reviewed, objective, transparent discussion about CO2. And, you know there was a great article that was in the Wall Street Journal, about a month or so ago, Joel, called ‘Red Team/Blue Team’ by Steve Koonin, a scientist I believe at NYU. And, he talked about the importance of having a red team of scientist and a blue team of scientists and those scientists get in a room and ask what do we know, what don’t we know, and what risk does it pose to health, the United States, and the world with respect to this issue of CO2. The American people need to have that type of honest open discussion, and it’s something we hope to provide as part of our leadership.”

The Koonin article is here: A ‘Red Team’ Exercise Would Strengthen Climate Science but it is behind a paywall...

From The Federalist Papers:

Map Of Terror Attacks in Europe – Notice Anything Strange?

Kind of hard to argue moral equivalence and multi-culturalism when the actual numbers are so stark.

Picking up the wood burning stove at 3:30 today. Getting the trailer ready for that. Also, moving some stuff from the DaveCave into the music and radio room.

Supposed to turn partly cloudy tomorrow with showers for Thursday - still, it is 81.0°F outside and I am heading out for coffee and then back home to work on a couple of projects.

Had a 2.7Mag earthquake near the town of Darrington four hours ago - it was only 1km deep so it would have been felt.

Lulu is under the weather. She is taking it very easy today and we will see what happens.

Working at home tomorrow - clear skies tonight but some very high clouds did move through around 6PM.

Heading out tomorrow around 3:30PM to pick up a free wood stove (has a crack in it). I have an inter-modal shipping box that I am using for metal and wood storage. Looking at moving my metal grinding stuff over to that and the wood stove would be perfect for winter heat. The crack should be a simple patch or repair.

Heading down South on Wednesday for an auction preview. The bidding is online only but they always schedule a preview the day before the bids close. Prices are pretty decent now - I'll kick the tires Wednesday and establish my top bids then - great if I win but so many times, stuff goes for way more than it is worth so I take care to research each lot.

From the internet:

Splurged a bit and had seared ahi tuna with Sriracha aioli, fresh fruit and a pot of rice with some furikake (kimchi flavored) shaken on top. Totally spaced on the seaweed salad but we cut up some fruit and had that instead.

You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
They don't alters their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit the views,
which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.
-- Doctor Who

This time it is the very deep blue state of Connecticut - from City Journal:

Aetna-maggedon
Aetna, one of Connecticut’s largest employers, confirmed this week that it is leaving the state. Though rumors of an exit have swirled since last year, the news still comes as a shock. It extends a long run of bad news coming out of the Nutmeg State, including General Electric’s January 2016 announcement that it will relocate its headquarters from Fairfield to Boston, mounting population losses, and enormous fiscal challenges at the state and city level, which, in Hartford’s case, have prompted open discussion of bankruptcy.

Aetna has been in Hartford for over 150 years. It’s the city’s fourth-largest taxpayer and a major source of corporate philanthropy. Many details remain unclear regarding the insurer’s exodus, including how many of its Connecticut-based 5,800 employees will remain in-state. But the departure will do nothing to ameliorate the dire fiscal problems facing Connecticut and its capital city.

With one month left in the current budget season, Hartford has yet to close the massive deficit it faces for the next fiscal year. In fact, Mayor Luke Bronin and the city council never truly balanced this year’s budget: their plan for fiscal 2017 relied on an assumed $15.5 million in union concessions that have failed to materialize. Hartford’s budget woes are structural, rooted in excessive debt and an extraordinarily weak tax base. With limited options, the city recently solicited proposals for the services of municipal-bankruptcy lawyers.

Hartford’s budget is so strained in part because half of its tax base is tax-exempt. Over decades, the city failed to attract for-profit corporations, instead increasings its reliance on state government and nonprofits, such as hospitals and universities. For Hartford, a major company like Aetna is irreplaceable.

Another example of doing what sounds good instead of doing what does good. Liberals and their narratives; when will they ever learn...

Got one of them. From the Washington Examiner:

Federal contractor Reality Leigh Winner arrested for sending classified NSA intelligence to news outlet
A 25-year-old federal contractor is facing charges she leaked a classified National Security Agency document to a news outlet in May.

The charges against Reality Leigh Winner came about an hour after the publication of a story based on an NSA document detailing Russian attempts to hack American voting systems in 2016.

President Trump has been pushing Justice to go after leakers inside the federal government, which he has identified as "the big story" when it comes to Russia's involvement in the 2016 presidential election. Winner's arrest could signal the federal government is going to aggressively investigate and prosecute individuals who send classified intelligence to news organizations.

Tip of the iceberg - it will be great to see these morons being rolled up and put away for a good ten years. They should have known better.

From The Wall Street Journal:

Exclusive Test Data: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills
Freshmen and seniors at about 200 colleges across the U.S. take a little-known test every year to measure how much better they get at learning to think. The results are discouraging.

At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table, The Wall Street Journal found after reviewing the latest results from dozens of public colleges and universities that gave the exam between 2013 and 2016. (See full results.)

At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years.

Some of the biggest gains occur at smaller colleges where students are less accomplished at arrival but soak up a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum.

It is easier for the teachers to virtue signal and let their little snowflakes run the curriculum. Heaven forbid they would actually have to develop a course outline and teach. That would be too much work. This impacts these snowflakes after they graduate too:

A survey by PayScale Inc., an online pay and benefits researcher, showed 50% of employers complain that college graduates they hire aren’t ready for the workplace. Their No. 1 complaint? Poor critical-reasoning skills.

A lot more at the article - this does not surprise me at all. Look at the current shenanigans at Evergreen State College for a perfect example of an out of control school. Here, here, here and here.

Great psychological analysis at CNBC:

Hillary is right! Her bad decisions aren't why she lost to Trump
Hillary Clinton says it's not her fault.

In fact, at Wednesday's Code Conference the twice-failed presidential candidate made the following stunning statement: "I take responsibility for every decision I made, but that's not why I lost."

Now, hold your laughter here because she's right. Hillary's political and career decisions aren't the reason she lost. And that's true even though so many of her decisions were downright terrible from taking massive speaking fees from Goldman Sachs to setting up an non-secure private server, to lying so many times about everything and anything.

But the real reason Clinton lost is the same reason every politician loses: within the first 2-3 minutes of seeing and hearing her, a key number of voters decided they didn't like her. Remember, this is a woman who has arguably been one of the top 2-3 most famous people in American politics for the last 25 years. So this emotionally-laden reaction to her may not have been unique, but it played out over and over with more than one generation of voters. Hillary lost because she's Hillary, which is no more or less outrageous than had she won because she's Hillary.

That's how we humans work. Whether we're genuine Einstein-level geniuses or totally uneducated, we make our voting decisions based on feelings and not raw data or rationality.

How do we know this? Science!

The article follows with about five different studies to back this up - everything from Academia to Dilbert. Very perceptive.

Quick surf of the web and then dinner time - seared ahi tuna and some rice. Picked up some seaweed salad at Costco.

Sunny, cloud free skies and nice and cool. Heading out for coffee and a quick run into town (paying bills etc.) working at the house today and tomorrow.

Weather is forecast to be nice for the next couple of days with rain coming Thursday and more rain for the next ten days or so after that. The spring that will not stop.

Lulu is out here for a few days - we both have a busy week ahead. Had a Costco chicken and some rice with bok-choy for dinner and watched Agents of SHIELD.

Heading in to town tomorrow morning (earlier than usual) and then back home to catch what should be a really nice day. Got another 10,000 wasps waiting for me at the post office so they should be ready to munch on some fly maggots in ten days or so (they are shipped as eggs and cannot be put out until they start to hatch). Already noticing a significant downturn in fly population from the last seeding a month ago.

From the UK Telegraph:

London terrorist had twice been referred to police over his extremist views
One of the three jihadists who murdered revelers in central London on Saturday had been reported to the anti-terror police on at least two occasions, it has been claimed.

A former friend of the terrorist, who was shot dead by police along with two accomplices, claimed he had been radicalized while watching YouTube videos and said he contacted the authorities ­after becoming concerned over his friend’s extremist views.

A neighbour also claimed she had contacted police in Barking, east London, after the suspect tried to convert her children to Islam and radicalize them. The man is not being named at the request of the police.

But we are supposed to be tolerant of others.

And the word of the day is: Absement

From InfoGalactic:

Absement
In kinematics, absement (or absition) is a measure of sustained displacement of an object from its initial position, i.e. a measure of how far away and for how long. Absement changes as an object remains displaced and stays constant as the object resides at the initial position. It is the first time-integral of the displacement (the area under a displacement vs. time graph), so the displacement is the rate of change (first time-derivative) of the absement. The dimension of absement is length multiplied by time. Its SI unit is meter second (m·s), which corresponds to an object having been displaced by 1 meter for 1 second. This is not to be confused with a meter per second (m/s), a unit of velocity, the time-derivative of position.

It came up in a discussion about motion of an object over time.

They went looking for one thing and found something entirely different - from Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal at the American Geophysical Union:

The Remarkable Things You See in Ice Cores-Like the Black Death
A new paper is out in the AGU journal GeoHealth and it shows something that is truly remarkable.

Researchers looked at lead concentrations in an ice core from a glacier on the Swiss-Italy border. They wanted to know if there was a natural background of lead pollution and they pretty much got there answer.

There is not.

What’s remarkable though is how they found out: The Black Death.
When the mass dying began in 1348, iron smelting stopped. No one needed new iron, because there was plenty of iron around since many of those who owned it were now dead. The atmospheric lead levels dropped to almost undetectable levels during the great dying, and the graph below shows it:

Good observation by Glenn Reynolds at USA Today:

To fight climate change, start with Leonardo DiCaprio's private jet lifestyle
So last week President Trump pulled out of the Paris climate agreement — to the extent that one can pull out of an agreement that’s not actually legally binding, anyway. This left some people upset.

But if climate change is really such a crisis, and if sacrifice on our part is needed to stop it, then why aren’t we seeing more sacrifice from people who think it’s a problem?

That’s what one person asked on Twitter: "What if climate scientists decided, as a group, to make their conferences all virtual? No more air travel. What a statement!” And what if academics in general — most of whom think climate change is a big deal — started doing the same thing to make an even bigger statement?

It would be big. And what if politicians and celebrities stopped jetting around the world — often on wasteful private jets instead of flying commercial with the hoi polloi — as a statement of the importance of fighting climate change?

And what if politicians and celebrities lived in average-sized houses, to reduce their carbon footprints?  What if John Kerry, who was much put out by Trump’s action, gave up his yacht-and-mansions lifestyle?

What if, indeed? One reason why so many people don’t take climate change seriously is that the people who are constantly telling us it’s a crisis never actually act like it’s a crisis. They’re all-in for sacrifices by other people, but never seem to make much in the way of sacrifices themselves.

He has a point there - Glen closes with four proposals on how to implement a real climate change program. Liberal tears will be copious.

One of the people behind the COBOL language - from the New York Times:

Jean Sammet, Co-Designer of a Pioneering Computer Language, Dies at 89
Jean E. Sammet, an early software engineer and a designer of COBOL, a programming language that brought computing into the business mainstream, died on May 20 in Maryland. She was 89.

She lived in a retirement community in Silver Spring and died at a nearby hospital after a brief illness, said Elizabeth Conlisk, a spokeswoman for Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where Ms. Sammet had earned her undergraduate degree and later endowed a professorship in computer science.

The programming language Ms. Sammet helped bring to life is now more than a half-century old, but billions of lines of COBOL code still run on the mainframe computers that underpin the work of corporations and government agencies around the world.

A bit more - she was an academic mathematician and had quite the opinion on computers:

Ms. Sammet was a graduate student in mathematics when she first encountered a computer in 1949 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She wasn’t impressed.

“I thought of a computer as some obscene piece of hardware that I wanted nothing to do with,” Ms. Sammet recalled in an interview in 2000.

Her initial aversion was not unusual among the math purists of the time, long before computer science emerged as an academic discipline. Later, Ms. Sammet tried programming calculations onto cardboard punched cards, which were then fed into a computer.

“To my utter astonishment,” she said, “I loved it.”

In the early 1950s, the computer industry was in its infancy, with no settled culture or rigid career paths. Lois Haibt, a contemporary of Ms. Sammet’s at IBM, where Ms. Sammet worked for nearly three decades, observed, “They took anyone who seemed to have an aptitude for problem-solving skills — bridge players, chess players, even women.”

Ms. Sammet became one of the most prominent women of her generation in computing. Her deepest interest was in programming languages and using them to open computing to a wider audience. Her ambition, Ben Shneiderman, a computer scientist at the University of Maryland, recalled her saying, was “to put every person in communication with the computer.”

One of the great ones. COBOL is still very much in use - it handles arrays of numbers very well and was designed from the ground up for business applications: calculation, formatting, printing reports...

Dr. Victor Davis Hanson is one of America's treasures. He is a classicist and historian. Studying history is important because History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes. Today's essay is from the Hoover Institutution:

Trump… Our Claudius
The Roman Emperor Claudius, who reigned from 41 to 54 AD, was never supposed to be emperor. He came to office at age 50, an old man in Roman times. Claudius succeeded the charismatic, youthful heartthrob Caligula—son of the beloved Germanicus and the “little boot” who turned out to be a narcissist monster before being assassinated in office.

More:

The stereotyped impression of Claudius was that of a simpleton not to be taken seriously—and so no one did. Claudius himself claimed that he feigned acting differently in part so that he would not be targeted by enemies before he assumed power, and to unnerve them afterwards.

Contemporary critics laughed at his apparent lack of eloquence and rhetorical mastery, leading some scholars to conjecture that he may have suffered from Tourette syndrome or a form of autism. The court biographer Suetonius wrote that Claudius “was now careful and shrewd, sometimes hasty and inconsiderate, occasionally silly and like a crazy man.”

Sound familiar?

Heh - more:

Claudius’s rule of some 13 years as emperor was marked by financial reforms and restoration after the disastrous reign of the spendthrift Caligula. Claudius-haters like Seneca, Suetonius, and Tacitus focused mostly on Claudius as the uncouth outsider—and overlooked what he had done for Rome after the disasters of the Caligula regime.

The empire under Claudius grew and was largely at peace. Rome annexed Britain, and added a variety of border provinces in the east. While court insiders and gossipers ridiculed Claudius’s supposed ineptness, he nonetheless assembled one of the most gifted staffs of advisers and operatives—many of them freed slaves—in the history of the Julio-Claudian and Flavian dynasties.

Claudius was foremost a builder and a pragmatist. Some of the Roman Empire’s most impressive archaeological remains (such as the Aqua Claudia and Aqua Anio Novus aqueducts and the reconstituted port at Ostia) date from his reign, as he focused on constructing new infrastructure and improving Roman roads, bridges, ports, and aqueducts.

The early few months of the Trump presidency are, in many ways, Claudian. Trump is likewise an outsider who, in the view of the Washington aristocracy, should never have been president.

The thrice-married Trump was supposedly too old, too crude, too coarse, and too reckless in his past private life. His critics now allege that the blunt-talking Trump suffers from some sort of psychological or physical ailment, given that his accent, diction, grammar, and general manner of speaking, as well as his comportment, just don’t seem presidential.

Much more at the site - the parallels are very eerie. Dr. Hanson closes with these cautionary paragraphs:

From what we can tell, the more Rome prospered under Claudius, the more the imperial court grew to despise him—as if his odd mannerisms and the even odder way he came to power could not be squared with the able administration of a far-flung empire over the 13 years of his reign.

In the end, Claudius was likely murdered by dynastic rivals and relatives who thought that a young, glib, handsome, intellectual, and artistic Nero would be a pleasant relief from the awkwardness, bluntness, and weirdness of Claudius. What followed was the triumph of artists, intellectuals, stylish aristocrats, obsequious dynastic insiders, and flatterers—many of them eventually to be consumed by the reign of terror they so eagerly helped to usher in.

The comments are a good read too.

Two great videos:

Come on Tommy - tell us what you really think... Spot on!

Next is one of my favorite British Politicians - very articulate

This is the time for the world to wake up and see what is happening.

Temp is  59.7°F - it was up to 72.7°F about an hour ago so something is shifting around. Will be working indoors mostly today - either that or unpack the sweaters.

Lulu is coming out for a few days. Working at home today - weather is turning nice. We have not had any rain for a few days but it has been cool and overcast. Supposed to be nice today and tomorrow and back to cool and overcast after that.

President Trump had three tweets about the London terrorist attacks:

Right person at the right time. This is what leadership looks like.

Switching from surfing to YouTube videos.

There is an interesting auction that I am watching - Advanced Orthopaedic Institute. Not looking for any of the serious medical stuff but there are two autoclaves that would be perfect for home-brew projects, some computer stuff, a work table and a nice color printer. The preview is Wednesday 7th - the day before the bidding stops so I'll drive the 30 miles, kick some tires and see if there is anything worth bidding on.

From Breitbart:

Anti-Donald Trump Play, ‘Building the Wall,’ Shuts Down in NYC After Poor Ticket Sales
An Off-Broadway play that paints an ominous picture of a post-President Trump America is shutting down in New York City after struggling to build an audience in the liberal city.

Building the Wall, written by Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan, is closing a month early, the play’s producer Jeffrey Richards told the New York Times. 

There is more at the site including a great photo of the author and actors with a serious case of the sads. Enjoy your bubble folks - it is going to get popped sooner than you expect.

From National Geographic:

Exclusive: Climber Completes the Most Dangerous Rope-Free Ascent Ever
Renowned rock climber Alex Honnold on Saturday became the first person to scale the iconic nearly 3,000-foot granite wall known as El Capitan without using ropes or other safety gear, completing what may be the greatest feat of pure rock climbing in the history of the sport.

He ascended the peak in 3 hours, 56 minutes, taking the final moderate pitch at a near run. At 9:28 a.m. PDT, under a blue sky and few wisps of cloud, he pulled his body over the rocky lip of summit and stood on a sandy ledge the size of a child’s bedroom.

Talk about having a pair of big brass ones... There is a video coming out.

Too cute - English subtitles:

I always liked the term "Trash Panda" - we have a lot of them here.

Interesting news from Science Alert:

Gene Therapy Has Been Used to 'Switch Off' Asthma Symptoms
Scientists have used gene therapy to 'switch off' the immune response that causes asthma, and are hopeful that the same technique could be used to target other severe allergies to peanuts, bee venom, and shellfish, keeping them at bay for life.

The research, which has so far seen success in animal trials, works by erasing the memory of the cells responsible for causing an allergic reaction, and if replicated in humans, could offer a one-off treatment for allergy patients.

"The challenge in asthma and allergies is that these immune cells, known as T-cells, develop a form of immune 'memory', and become very resistant to treatments," says lead researcher Ray Steptoe from the University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia.

"We have now been able 'wipe' the memory of these T-cells in animals with gene therapy, de-sensitising the immune system so that it tolerates the [allergen] protein."

This is wonderful news. My ex has asthma and the inhalers are powerful drugs that impact the entire body. To be able to take care of peanut and shellfish allergies as well would save a lot of lives.

Another terror attack in England, this time it's London:

• • Jihadi terrorists shouting 'this is for Allah' kill seven in knife frenzy at 'FIVE' locations in the capital: Hunt for men with 12in blades who began the rampage by mowing down revellers on London Bridge
  • PANIC AT LONDON BRIDGE London Bridge attack: Terror incident leaves up to seven feared dead after van ploughs into pedestrians ‘before three men with hunting knives jump out and start stabbing people’
  • London attacks: Van crash into London Bridge crowd, stabbings nearby were terror, police say
  • London terror attack: London Bridge and Borough Market latest - at least two dead amid van attack, stabbings and gunfire
  • ISIS Newspaper Days Before London Bridge: New UK Attack 'Definitely Coming'

And it is not just England:

149 Dead So Far In Ramadan Attacks
Significant terrorist attacks have sprung up across the globe since the beginning of Muslim holy month of Ramadan May 26, with current counts confirming three attacks and 149 dead, and a reported Saturday incident on London Bridge still developing.

Islamist terrorist groups usually use the holiday to mount more significant terrorist attacks, and promise their followers extra benefits for dying in such attacks during the holy month.

The major attacks of Ramadan 2017 include twin suicide bombings in Baghdad and a massive suicide borne vehicle bomb in Afghanistan. An unconfirmed terrorist incident also occurred at a casino hotel in Manila earlier this week. These attacks occurred before a reported deadly incident on London Bridge Saturday.

This website keeps track of all of the attacks: The Religion of Peace

The last thirty days accounts for 186 Islamic attacks in 28 countries, in which 1380 people were killed and 1660 injured. This is the ones that they know about. Barbarians is too kind a word.

This is being done in Paris, France:

From DIY Photography:

BILLBOARD SHOOTS PHOTOS OF TERRIFIED JAYWALKERS AFTER SCARING THEM WITH TIRE SCREECHING SOUNDS
Billboards are often ignored. You can walk past a hundred of them in a day and not remember what a single one of them was promoting. We just kind of tune them out. This one in France, however, is a little difficult to ignore. Especially if you’re crossing the street when you’re not paying attention.

The billboard has sensors which monitor for people crossing the road when they’re not supposed to. It plays a loud tire screeching sound making the hapless wanderer believe their life is in danger. It then snaps a photo of the terrified pedestrian and puts it on the billboard. The goal is to raise awareness for the dangers of being a careless pedestrian.

They say that such carelessness results in 4,500 victims each year in the Paris region alone.  Alongside their photo is a caption which reads something to the effect of “Don’t risk staring death in the face. Pay attention to the traffic lights.” Seeing a photo of yourself with a genuine reaction, that look of shock and horror on your face is certainly bound to make an impact. Metaphorically speaking.

4,500 accidents each year. The initial development cost would have been a bit high but once done, these should be fairly cheap to deploy. Brilliant solution to a real problem.

Ed Driscoll posted these at Instapundit:

MILLI VANILLI COULD NOT BE REACHED FOR COMMENT:
Shot: “The virtuoso performances of cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman heard around the world during President Barack Obama’s inauguration were in fact recordings made two days earlier.”
—“Barack Obama inauguration music was mimed,” the London Telegraph, January 23, 2009.

Double shot: “Singer Beyonce has admitted miming during her rendition of the American national anthem at the inauguration of President Obama last month. She told reporters that she was a ‘perfectionist’ and — due to lack of rehearsal time — ‘did not feel comfortable taking a risk’. ‘I wanted to make him [Obama] and my country proud, so I decided to sing along with my pre-recorded track.’ ‘I’m very proud of my performance,’ she said.”
—“Beyonce admits inauguration miming,” the BBC, February 1st, 2013.

Chaser: “Scheduled to open in 2021, the Obama Presidential Center will rise in Jackson Park on the South Side. In a break from tradition, former President Barack Obama’s official papers and artifacts will not be housed there but will be digitized and stored elsewhere by the National Archives and Records Administration and made available through loans. The cost of the center is expected to be at least $500 million.”
—The Chicago Tribune, May 31st, 2017.

No word yet if one of the digital artifacts will be a recreation of Teleprompter XD-235

Brutal...

Lulu is coming out later tomorrow for a few days. Got a couple of projects here to work on.

Covfefe first...

There are some people out here who have very strange eating habbits including raw milk. Some numbers from Food Safety News:

What are the odds? 840 times more likely for raw milk drinkers
Based on statistics from the five-year period 2009-2014, people who drink unpasteurized, raw milk are 840 times more likely to contract a foodborne illness than those who drink pasteurized milk.

The statistics, included in a research report scheduled for publication in the upcoming June issue of “Emerging Infectious Diseases” also show raw milk drinkers are 45 times more likely to be hospitalized if they get sick than people who become ill from drinking pasteurized milk.

“Unpasteurized milk, consumed by only 3.2 percent of the (U.S.) population, and cheese, consumed by only 1.6 percent of the population, caused 96 percent of illnesses caused by contaminated dairy products,” according to the report scheduled for June publication by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hard to argue with those numbers...

Two tweets - the first is from a tenured chair at Harvard University:

And the second, from Senator Ted Cruz: 

I really hope Senator Cruz runs for POTUS in 2024. For the backstory on this, The Weekly Standard has a nice writeup:

Six Ways Harvard's Joyce Chaplin Is Wrong About the Creation of the U.S.
Twitter has a remarkable power to make well-credentialed people look like fools. Case in point: Joyce Chaplin, who is theJames Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University.

In response to President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate accords, Chaplin tweeted, "The USA, created by int'l community in Treaty of Paris in 1783, betrays int'l community by withdrawing from #parisclimateagreement today." Senator Ted Cruz would have none of this, and responded, "Just sad. Tenured chair at Harvard, doesn't seem to know how USA was created. Not a treaty. Declaration+Revolutionary War+Constitution=USA." Chaplin, apparently forgetting that discretion is the better part of valor, responded, "Sad. US Senator, Harvard Law degree. Doesn't know that national statehood requires international recognition."

Chaplin is not just wrong, but embarrassingly wrong. A 17-year-old high school student should know better.

Typical Social Justice Warrior - when you are shown to be wrong, just double down on your fallacy.

Going to be hard not to see David Suchet but Kenneth Branagh is no slouch:

From the military website Duffel Blog:

ISIS Condemns Kathy Griffin For Cultural Appropriation
RAQQA, Syria — The self-proclaimed Islamic State has issued a statement condemning self-proclaimed comedian Kathy Griffin, accusing her of “cultural appropriation” after she posed for a photograph with a mock severed head of President Donald Trump.

The group, which has been protective of its brand ever since taking over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria and establishing itself as the premier beheading agency in the Middle East, said it was deeply disturbed by Griffin’s “ignorant and offensive” use of a “sacred Islamic State tradition.”

“This is just another example of a privileged white woman culturally appropriating the proud custom of a marginalized people. Beheadings are our thing, not your thing,” said the statement, which was released on Telegram.

Duffel Blog is a work of satire - fun to read.

From National Review:

Wind-Energy Sector Gets $176 Billion Worth of Crony Capitalism
It takes enormous amounts of taxpayer cash to make wind energy seem affordable.

Last month, during its annual conference, the American Wind Energy Association issued a press release trumpeting the growth of wind-energy capacity. It quoted the association’s CEO, Tom Kiernan, who declared that the wind business is “an American success story.”

There’s no doubt that wind-energy capacity has grown substantially in recent years. But that growth has been fueled not by consumer demand, but by billions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer money. According to data from Subsidy Tracker — a database maintained by Good Jobs First, a Washington, D.C.–based organization that promotes “corporate and government accountability in economic development and smart growth for working families” — the total value of the subsidies given to the biggest players in the U.S. wind industry is now $176 billion.

That is money coming right out of our wallets - the Federal Government does not make any appreciable money. All of its funding comes from our tax dollars. We are currently $19 trillion dollars in debt and we are spending this kind of money on crony capitalism and alt.energy ratholes.

From Ace of Spades:

Susan Rice, John Brennan, and Samantha Power Subpoenaed to Testify on Unmasking
Samantha Power?

She was the Ambassador to the UN with no role in counter-intelligence -- why would she be requesting unmaskings?

Maybe the Republicans are just crazy!

Or, maybe they know something.

Skip to 2:04 in this clip to see Trey Gowdy ask John Brennan if any ambassadors had requested unmasking. And do take note of John Brennan's carefully worded "I don't know," as he seems to scramble to figure out a way to avoid answering without earning a perjury rap. He allows "maybe it rings a vague bell," then claims he can't recall.

Maybe it rings a vague bell? Are you kidding me?

Trey Gowdy is not someone I would want to have interrogating me - very smart and he was a federal prosecutor for six years among other things. He serves on the House Committees on Intelligence, Ethics, Oversight and Government Reform, and Judiciary. A good man.

From USA Today:

Was Obama administration illegal spying worse than Watergate?
In 1972, some employees of President Nixon’s re-election committee were caught when they broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters to plant a bug. This led to Nixon’s resignation and probably would have led to his felony prosecution had he not been pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.

But if a single bugging of the political opposition is enough to bring down a presidency — and maybe lead to an unprecedented criminal prosecution of a former president — then what are we to make of the recently unveiled Obama administration program of massively spying on political opponents in violation of clearly established law?

Because that’s what was unveiled last week.

Much more at the site - lots of links. I bet that President Trump would pardon Obama if it came down to the crunch but he would take his sweet time doing so as a message to others. The whole democratic party is crooked.

Last week, two women in Portland had to close their taco truck because people were complaining that they were appropriating the Mexican culture and, being white women, they were not allowed to do that. Some people compiled a list of all the restaurants that are culturally appropriating cuisine - from the Tasting Table:

This Is a List of Every "Culturally Appropriative" Restaurant in Portland
Last week, the Internet exploded over a white-owned Portland burrito truck that was forced to close over an issue of cultural appropriation. After being featured in a Portland-based magazine, word that the two women had "stolen" their recipes from Mexico spread like wildfire, causing Kooks Burritos to shutter amid the controversy.

In the aftermath of the closing, many commenters online voiced their agreement with the consequences, while others found the claims of cultural appropriation to be largely unfounded and exaggerated.

Still, people of color (POC) in the Portland community want to take more steps toward preventing cultural appropriation from taking over their food culture. In response, a Google Doc called "(Alternatives To) White-Owned Appropriative Restaurants in Portland" is now in circulation, featuring an extensive list of what the creators deem to be appropriative establishments in Portland. The list, which can be viewed here, offers the names of the business owners, as well as the nearest POC-owned dining alternative for each restaurant.

From the document:

This is NOT about cooking at home or historical influences on cuisines; it's about profit, ownership, and wealth in a white supremacist culture.
White people are nearly 50% more likely than people of color (POC) to own a business in the state of Oregon. Ownership builds wealth in ways that employment does not. The racial wealth and small business lending gaps in the US are pronounced, which allows white folks to open new businesses more easily. These white-owned businesses hamper the ability for POC to run successful businesses of their own (cooking their own cuisines) by either consuming market share with their attempt at authenticity or by modifying foods to market to white palates. Their success further perpetuates the problems stated above. It's a cyclical pattern that will require intentional behavior change to break.

Hmmmm - the Tard is strong in that one. Or as Bugs the Wise once said:

Coffee, stopping in at the store and maybe a run in to town.

Blogging will resume in a couple of hours.

Heh:

These people are just not that bright - from the Gateway Pundit:

WOW: Debbie Wasserman Schultz Fakes Voice on Call to Law Office… But FORGOT TO HIDE HER PHONE NUMBER!
Thursday, a bizarre filing with the court occurred in the lawsuit involving the DNC, which Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a defendant in.

Wasserman Schultz reportedly called the attorneys and disguised her voice — but FORGOT TO HIDE HER PHONE NUMBER!

Right around 5:00 PM, attorney Elizabeth Beck’s office received a strange call from someone using a “robotic and genderless” voice changer and began snooping about the DNC lawsuit that was filed regarding 2016 election cheating. The suit is based on documents released by “Guccifer 2.0”, which alleges that the DNC colluded with then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign in an effort to “perpetrate a fraud on the public”, which you can read about here.

The robotic voice closed with “Okey, dokey” after talking with the law firm’s secretary. When the law firm decided to look at who called, the caller ID showed that the number was not blocked. When the firm then googled the number, Debbie Wasserman Schultz’ office came up.

And Hillary wonders why she lost.

Glad I do not live there - better still, do not own a business there. From the Los Angeles Times:

Single-payer healthcare plan advances in California Senate — without a way to pay its $400-billion tab
A proposal to adopt a single-payer healthcare system for California took an initial step forward Thursday when the state Senate approved a bare-bones bill that lacks a method for paying the $400-billion cost of the plan.

Some pesky numbers:

“We don’t have the money to pay for it,” Sen. Tom Berryhill (R-Modesto) said. “If we cut every single program and expense from the state budget and redirected that money to this bill, SB 562, we wouldn’t even cover half of the $400-billion price tag.”

Berryhill also said the private sector is better suited to provide healthcare.

“I absolutely don’t trust the government to run our health system,” he said. “What has the government ever done right?”

This is why single payer has never worked - the free market does work and the bureaucrats need to stop reinventing the wheel and go with this.

The headline is all that you need - from The London Daily Mail:

'There's a bunch of old white guys trying to silence me!' Kathy Griffin breaks down in tears claiming Trump family ruined her life - as her lawyer scoffs at report Barron was upset over severed head video

Pathetic - this is one of the cases where the word "Bimbo" really applies.

From yesterday: Clinton blasts DNC for giving her 'nothing' during 2016 campaign

And then today: Former DNC data director: Clinton's complaint is 'f--king bulls--t'

The Washington Examiner in both cases.

Great reading - Trump announced that he was consigning the Paris Accord to the dustbin of history (where it rightly belongs) and the usual idiots are braying at the top of their lungs:

• • Leonardo DiCaprio, Bette Midler, Barack Obama and Al Gore all weighed in on the president's announcement.
  • Celebrities Blast Trump’s ‘Shameful’ Plan to Withdraw From Paris Climate Accord
  • Weather Channel Website Goes Apocalyptic After Trump’s Paris Accord Repeal

This last  one is sad because The Weather Channel was 50% founded by Dr. John Coleman - a professional meteorologist who is very outspoken about climate change - it always does and humans have little impact on it. Climate Change is a political scam.

• • Bob Iger Exits Trump Advisory Council Over Paris Accord Withdrawal
  • THE 11 DUMBEST REACTIONS TO TRUMP QUITTING THE PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD
  • Tech world blasts withdrawal from Paris agreement
  • Vatican would see U.S. Paris deal exit as slap in face - official
  • Tom Steyer: Trump's Paris exit a 'traitorous act of war'

Just because one is a celebrity or otherwise well known does not mean they are an expert on other things besides their innate ability to sing, dance or act. I am reminded of this epic rant.

From Radar Online:

‘Time Is Running Out!’ DC Investigator Sues Cops For Files On Seth Rich
The culprits behind Democrat operative Seth Rich’s murder WILL be revealed! That’s the vow of investigator Jack Burkman, who held a press conference today announcing he is suing the DC Metropolitan Police Department in order to obtain “crucial material” regarding the case, Radaronline.com has exclusively learned.

“The release of this crucial material will help bring peace to the victim’s family, and it will help to either confirm or refute the various theories that swirl about this important murder case,” Burkman said in the lawsuit.

During the press conference, Burkman questioned the MPD’s decision to withhold information about the investigation from the public.

“We don’t want to make allegations, but why would the police department not want us to see the medical examiner’s report and the ballistics report? That’s bizarre.” Burkman asked.

Someone out there knows something that will blow the lid off and it is only a matter of time before they come forward - Deep Throat anyone? Where are Woodward and Bernstein when we need them.

Been listening to President Trump as he is removing the United States from the Paris Accord. Great news!

Anthropogenic Global Warming is a political hoax - the numbers are simply not there.

Both Grace and Bear have been known to go shopping if I leave something interesting out in the kitchen. This is cute:

Had 0.15" of the wet stuff last night - this is getting booooooring.

Finished some stuff at the house - coffee, store and in to town for a few things.

A great look at living in a bubble - from Quartz:

Movie studios are blaming Rotten Tomatoes for killing movies no one wants to see
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Baywatch were never going to be critical darlings. The former is the fifth film in a franchise that should have been retired years ago, if Hollywood had any mercy at all. And the other is an action-comedy about lifeguards. Enough said. Both movies led the domestic box office to its worst Memorial Day weekend showing in nearly 20 years.

In the fallout, are Hollywood producers blaming the writers? The actors? Themselves? (Of course not.) No, they are reportedly blaming Rotten Tomatoes.

They say the movie-review site, which forces critics to assign either a rotten or fresh tomato to each title when submitting reviews, regardless of the nuances of their critiques, poisoned viewers against the films before they were released. Deadline reported that:

Insiders close to both films blame Rotten Tomatoes, with Pirates 5 and Baywatch respectively earning 32% and 19% Rotten. The critic aggregation site increasingly is slowing down the potential business of popcorn movies. Pirates 5 and Baywatch aren’t built for critics but rather general audiences, and once upon a time these types of films — a family adventure and a raunchy R-rated comedy — were critic-proof. Many of those in the industry severely question how Rotten Tomatoes computes the its ratings, and the fact that these scores run on [the movie-ticket buying site] Fandango (which owns RT) is an even bigger problem.

The studios are out of touch with the American viewer. This attempt at shifting blame shows just how much.