October 2019 Archives

And out again

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Tomorrows CAA event is formal dress so getting my hair cut - pretty shaggy.

Party later tonight so minimal posting - tomorrow probably.

Halloween at the White House

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Heh...

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From Mental Floss:

An Anthony Bourdain Documentary Is on the Way
Anthony Bourdain, who passed away last year, dedicated much of his life to sharing the stories of often-unsung culinary geniuses around the world. Now, CNN Films, HBO Max, and Focus Features are teaming up to share his.

According to a CNN press release, Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville will produce and direct the documentary. Though you might not know Neville by name, you’ve likely heard of his work. He won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for 2013’s 20 Feet From Stardom, and he most recently made headlines for the overwhelming success of his 2018 documentary about Fred RogersWon’t You Be My Neighbor?, which is the highest-grossing biodoc of all time.

“It requires a filmmaker as expert and prolific as Morgan Neville to capture the essence of a raconteur and world explorer like Anthony Bourdain,” Sarah Aubrey, HBO Max’s head of original content, said in a press release.

One of a kind - this will be a must-see.

Trick or Treat

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Cute:

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Heh - this is going down in history

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The Democrats are stepping on their pee-pee big-time. They are going to own this when the history books are written.
From The Daily Caller:

House Democrats Vote To Open Impeachment Inquiry
The House of Representatives officially voted to open an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump on Thursday, following months of speculation.

The vote passed 232-196, mostly along party lines, with nearly all Democrats voting to begin an impeachment inquiry, and all Republicans sticking behind the president. Democratic Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Colin Peterson of Minnesota broke ranks to vote against the resolution, while Independent Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan voted to begin the impeachment inquiry.

It is not over by any means. The foxes are running the hen house - from Breitbart:

Democrat Alcee Hastings, Who Was Impeached and Removed, Makes Impeachment Rules
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) is the second-ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee, which is setting the rules for the “impeachment inquiry” into President Donald Trump. Hastings himself was impeached and removed from office in 1989 — one of only eight federal officials, all of whom have been judges, so be so relieved of their duties.

Hastings was removed for bribery, one of the causes enumerated in the Constitution’s Impeachment Clause (Article II, Section 4): “The President, Vice President and all Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

As the New York Times reported in 1989:

In a solemn two-hour proceeding, the Senate today removed Federal District Judge Alcee L. Hastings from the bench by convicting him of eight impeachment articles, including one charging that he had conspired to obtain a $150,000 bribe.

Judge Hastings sat silently facing the senators as Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia called out on the first article, ”Senators, how say you, Is the respondent guilty or not guilty?”

The vote was 69 to 26, providing five votes more than the two-thirds of those present that were needed to convict. The first article accused the judge of conspiracy. Conviction on any single article was enough to remove the judge from office, and he left shortly after the vote.

Running low on popcorn. This is wonderful fun. One last one from someone at our National Security Council
From Sara Carter:

NSC Official To Schiff: Nothing Illegal Took Place In Trump Call
Tim Morrison, a top official with the National Security Council, told lawmakers Thursday that he did not believe “anything illegal was discussed during the conversation” between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the opening statement reviewed by SaraACarter.com.

Morrison, who is the outgoing senior director of European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council and a deputy assistant to the president, told lawmakers that the transcript of the call was accurate but he contended that some of the details provided by other witnesses did not coincide with his regarding certain aspects of the the Ukrainian issue. House intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, D-CA, who has been criticized for his continued anti-Trump partisan rhetoric by Rebublicans, has been pushing for Trump’s impeachment

The Democrats are beclowning themselves and they do not see it. They are so wrapped up in their fever dreams and their derangement that they do not see what the rest of us are seeing - their corruption.

As the impeachment starts falling apart

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From The Gateway Pundit:

Lying Schiff’s Star Witness Alexander Vindman Tied to Ukrainian Arms Dealers, Ukrainian Oil and Gas and the Atlantic Council
We reported yesterday that Yesterday Colonel Alexander Vindman was a witness in Adam Schiff’s basement chamber of secrets.  During questioning on Tuesday Colonel Vindman admitted he shared the read-outs of President Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Zelenzky with several other secret operatives.

When Rep. Jim Jordan asked him who he shared the readouts with — Rep. Adam Schiff SHUT DOWN the questioning!

FOX News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge reported that Colonel Vindman may have violated the federal leaking statute 18 USC 798 when he leaked the president’s classified call to several other operatives.

Vindman also admitted during testimony that he tampered with and tried but failed to alter the transcript of President Trump’s call to the Ukrainian President.

Yesterday we tied Vindman to Obama’s former Russian Ambassador Michael McFaul who spoke out in support of Vindman.  The fact that Vindman is connected to McFaul is alarming. McFaul was one of the first to attack President Trump’s attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani for investigating Ukrainian corruption involved in the Russia collusion scam. During his work, Rudy identified the crimes committed by the Bidens in their pay-for-play scam in the Ukraine.

Vindman was Obama's ambasador to Russia. They are all connected and trying to spin this as President Trump's problem. It is their problem - the Democrats own it lock, stock, and barrel.

Out for coffee

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Halloween party later tonight and then a big CAA event Friday and Saturday.

Memo to self

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Do not slurp down two packets of ramen just before going to bed.

Yes, I was hungry and yes, it hit the spot but it gave me reflux and I could not lay down flat until 3:00AM or so.

Another minor functionary of the deep state. Another nothingburger for the Dems. - Eric Ciaramella

More as it develops. Why are they wasting our time with this puerile shenanigans?

Why do they not go back to work and represent the interests of their constituents?

Getting even colder

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Drove home from my local and the car was registering 37°F and the skies are clear. There was a bit of overcast late this afternoon but it did not stick around. Clear and dry and cold.

Actually happy that this has happened so early in the season. I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be done when the plants are dormant and that is happening really soon. Time to get busy before the snow flies...

No farm this week

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Plans change.

Got invited to a party in Mt. Vernon (15 miles to the North) tomorrow night. This should be a lot of fun.

The CAA is having a private soirée on Friday (a Patron's party) and a public arts sale on Saturday so hanging out down here for those two events.

Leque Island

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I had visited there last Thursday and posted about its reversion from 250 acres of agricultural land back into the original salt-marsh. Here are two photos from that day. It was overcast so the images are not that photogenic. I keep track of extreme tides (which these were) and will take some more photos when I get better light.

Low tide:

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And High Tide:

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Quite the difference. Every time I drive over the bridge, there are more and more birds. It will be interesting to see what it is like in about a year when the ecology stabilizes. I was very much into salt marshes when living in Boston and majoring in marine biology. Fascinating systems - so much going on. So many interlinked cycles.

Quite the journey - Miss Vicky

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I posted about the beginning of her journey back on April 3rd of this year. Miss Vicky is a 1931 Model A Ford Victoria and was embarking on a 10,000 mile journey from Peking, China to Paris, France.

She did it and is now back on Camano Island - from the Stanwood Camano News:

Driving Miss Vicky
Miss Vicky, a 1931 Model A Ford Victoria, recently returned home to Camano Island, victorious and perhaps a bit disheveled from the 10,000-mile Peking to Paris Rally. The drivers flew home in July, but Miss Vicky took her time, cruising by ship through the Panama Canal.

Her owner, Lee Harman of Camano Island and his buddy Bill Ward of Olympia and Arizona, checked this punishing cross-continent trip off their bucket list. They call themselves the “Co-conspirators.” They’ve been great friends for 40 years as owners of British cars. They are both competent drivers and fixers.

They had two goals: to finish under their own power and arrive in Paris still friends.

All they had to do was drive 10,000 miles cross country, find their way with obscure directions, outwit disaster and persevere harrowing ordeals.

After 36 trying days — every day a challenge — the Co-conspirators are still friends.

And Miss Vicky? She could use a new axle, but she did it.

Of 120 entrants that started the Peking to Paris Endurance Rally in Beijing, China, 103 made it to Paris. Of those, Miss Vicky was one of only 21 vintage vehicles that made the entire trip under their own power. That means she was never disabled, towed or given a lift on a flatbed truck.

Two photos:

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Miss Vicky splashes through water and dirt, her engine laboring on two cylinders
after mud shorted out two spark plugs.

20191030-vick02.jpgMiss Vicky crosses the finish line in Paris.

More story and photos at the site. Sounds like a grand time and looking forward to seeing her on the island.

From the internet

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If this was my front door, I would be staying home today - uggghhhhh...

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Of course - Elizabeth Warren

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Hypocrites. All of them. The Daily Caller:

Elizabeth Warren Pledges To Crack Down On School Choice, Despite Sending Her Own Son To Elite Private School
Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pledging to crack down on school choice if elected, despite the fact that she sent her own son to an elite private school, publicly available records show.

The 2020 presidential candidate’s public education plan would ban for-profit charter schools — a proposal first backed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders — and eliminate government incentives for opening new non-profit charter schools, even though Warren has praised charter schools in the past.

“To keep our traditional public school systems strong, we must resist efforts to divert public funds out of traditional public schools,” Warren stated in her plan.

And her son (the data is from 1987)

Warren has pledged to reduce education options for families, but she chose to send her son Alexander to Kirby Hall, an elite private school near Austin. Tuition for Kirby Hall’s lower and middle schools — kindergarten through eighth grade — is $14,995 for the 2019-2020 school year. A year of high school costs $17,875.

Kirby Hall’s 1987 yearbook lists Alexander Warren among the school’s fifth-graders. Yearbook photos show Kirby Hall’s Alexander Warren is the same Alexander Warren seen in old family photos with his now-famous mother.

Rules for thee but not for me.

A good essay from Don Surber

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Just go and read. Well worth your five minutes - very thoughtful.

In denial - Senator Kamala Harris

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Presidential material? In her own mind. From the New York Post:

Kamala Harris cuts staff, restructures campaign as funds begin to dwindle
Sen. Kamala Harris is restructuring her presidential campaign by redeploying staffers to Iowa and laying off dozens of aides at her Baltimore headquarters as she fights to revive her struggling 2020 bid, according to a new report.

The moves come as Harris is running low on cash and in danger of lacking the resources to mount a competitive bid against rivals with bigger war chests in the Hawkeye State.

It will be interesting to see if she retains her seat in 2022 - she was elected in 2016 for a six year term.

According to the 2010 census, 3.7% of US citizens identified as some measure of homosexual. From the people I know and from what I see in today's culture, more than 90% of these people just want a quiet life with their sweetie. Think Mayor Pete, Gomer Pyle USMC, Ensign Sulu. The activists. The people in our faces are a very vocal but a very small percentage of the entire gay spectrum. Why do these people seem to have a much higher than usual percentage of sexual deviency.

Case in point - from the Daily Newswire:

Pro-LGBT High School Teacher Arrested for Soliciting Sex With Underage Student
A pro-LGBT high school studies teacher has been arrested and charged in New Jersey after being caught sending “sexually-explicit” images of himself.

The social studies teacher just so happened to help run the school’s Gay Straight Alliance. He is an advocate of introducing students to cartoon pornography during class time.

50-year-old Sean DiGiovanna was arrested on October 10 and charged endangering the welfare of a child as well as a count promoting obscene material to a child under 18. This was announced by Somerset County Prosecutor Michael H. Robertson on Facebook.

That is just plain wrong. I mean a 50-year-old hitting on an under 18? That would be disgusting in a heterosexual relationship let alone a non-consensual homosexual one.

This is not an outlier: Here, here, here and here for starters...

Heh - a guideline for News Outlets

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From America's Newspaper of Record:

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He is 100% correct you know

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From The Daily Wire:

Kanye West Claims Democrats Have ‘Brainwashed’ Blacks

Read the whole thing and then come back here and try to change my mind.

It is way past time to leave the Democratic plantation.

From PJ Media:

Adam Schiff Accused of Witness Tampering in 'Soviet-Style' Impeachment Inquiry
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is reportedly telling witnesses testifying in the impeachment inquiry not to answer questions by certain Republicans.

While speaking with reporters on Capitol Hill, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise slammed the secretive process, pointing out that Schiff gets to choose all the witnesses, but that he's also "directing witnesses not to answer questions that he doesn’t want the witness to answer if they’re asked by Republicans.”

If true, this is, by definition, witness tampering. According to U.S. Code § 1512, anyone who "knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to cause or induce any person to withhold testimony," has tampered with a witness. If Schiff is directing witnesses not to answer questions, he's effectively trying to get them to withhold testimony.

You know... If they actually had something impeachable, I could see the reason for this circus. The thing is, they do not. This closed "star chamber" proceeding is just wishful thinking on their part. Orange Man Bad. Time for these children to get back to the job of representing their constituents.

What a bunch of po-faced wankers.

A rant - California

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From Nick Nolte:

Nolte: California’s Leftist Utopia Can’t Even Keep the Electricity On
California is a failed state.

A failed state is one that cannot deliver the basics: personal safety, adequate shelter, adequate transportation, and basic sanitation.

Those are the only things we need local government for, and that is all government should be for, and sane people understand that. But there are not enough sane people in California to fix a state that is almost certainly beyond repair, too far gone to ever come up with the 51 percent of voters needed to put sane, grounded leaders into the state capitol. I am talking about leaders who will focus on the basics before they chase the unicorn of a green energy utopia, who are not willing to watch responsible home and business owners chased away by outrageous taxes, regulations, and fuel costs, but are willing to defy the enviro-nuts to remove the brush and trees close to power lines.

Even New York City, at its worst in the seventies, was not as failed as the state of California is now.

As I write this, millions and millions of Californians, who pay outrageously high taxes, are having their electricity cut off for up to a full week because 1) Californian can afford to give illegal aliens free health care and welfare, but not bury power lines, and 2) California can waste untold billions on green energy boondoggles but refuses to upset Mother Earth by implementing proven forest management techniques.

Apparently Mother Earth would rather burn than receive a brush-cut.

This is only the first third of this epic rant - go and read the rest. Speaking truth to power. 900+ comments.

The Bidens in the news again

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This time - an interview by Barak Ravid of Israel's Channel 13 news at Axios:

Exclusive: Jared Kushner swings back at Joe Biden
President Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner told me during an exclusive interview with Israel's Channel 13 News that many of his efforts since he started working at the White House were focused on "cleaning up the messes that Vice President Biden left behind."

Why it matters: Kushner’s swing against Biden came in response to Biden’s remarks during an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" over the weekend, when the former vice president said it was "improper" for Trump to appoint his son-in-law Kushner and daughter Ivanka for senior positions in the White House.

    • The Democratic presidential hopeful said that he will not appoint any of his kids to government jobs if he is elected president in 2020.
    • Kushner said that Biden is entitled to his opinion, but stated that Trump is entitled to pick his team. He added that he and Ivanka "worked with [Trump] for a long time, and I think we have done a good job of trying to help him being successful."

The big picture: Kushner gave several examples of his White House work that he claimed was aimed at fixing problems created by Biden — specifically, criminal justice reform.

    • Kushner said that reforms enacted by the Trump administration "rolled back a lot of the very harsh laws that were created and partially written by Vice President Biden over 20 years ago, which put a lot of African Americans in prison and really destroyed a generation and did a lot of harm to our country."

Much much more at the site. Members of the Deep State say one thing but they do something entirely different. If you believe what they are telling you at this moment and do not take the time to go back and check their actual voting record, then you are being as stupid as they expect you to be. A useful idiot.

Air temp 28°F

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Cold cold cold. Got down to 28°F at 4:00AM

Heading out for coffee, finishing up some stuff here and then to the farm for two days.

The humminbird feeders are fine - they are under a large awning so were not frozen but I will set out some old-school incandescent Christmas lights around them to keep them warm. Extended forecast is for warmer weather so this is just an isolated example of radiation cooling.

YouTube

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That is it for me for tonight - some video and then to bed.

Cheery news from Cliff Mass:

A Surge of Cold, Dry Air Envelopes the Northwest and Now Threatens California
Last night, very cold, dry air surged southward out of Canada, pushing into Washington and Oregon.

The pressures, temperature, and wind map for 8 AM this morning tells the story (below). The blue is cold air, with the primo stuff east of Cascades. Note the large pressure difference across the Cascades, which resulted in strong easterly winds in the Columbia Gorge and in Cascade mountain passes.

A bit more:

With very dry air above, the greenhouse warming effect of water vapor in the atmosphere will be lessened, and our temperatures should plummet tonight.  Be prepared for lots of frost when you go out tomorrow morning--and some cooler areas away from water will drop into the teens.

Already down (just checked) to 38°F and dropping. Last morning was a hard freeze with temps down to 30°F. Tomorrow morning will be solid. And California? Some folks just can not get a break:

But the real worry is for the folks in California.  The cold air moving south has an Amazon Prime account and the delivery will be overnight.   By tomorrow morning, the cold, dense air and associated high pressure will have moved southward through Nevada, setting up a large pressure difference across the Sierra Nevada (see map below for 5 AM Wednesday).  This pattern will set up Diablo winds for northern CA and Santa Ana winds for southern CA, threatening both areas.

Time to hunker down. I love the fall - crisp air and gorgeous foliage. Time to prepare for the winter dormancy and rebirth in spring. The cycles of the seasons. Once you learn to live with it, you do not need to fight it.

Some grinding disks

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These had to have been made for a trade show somewhere and the phone numbers look European but DAMN - I want some of these. Really cute:

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Free Speech

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SHOTMSNBC Analyst Suggests U.S. Should Ban Hate Speech

CHASER: Iowahawk's Twitter account:

A tale of two Coyotes

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Swiped form Grouchy Old Cripple:

CALIFORNIA
The Governor of California is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the Governor’s dog, then bites the Governor.

The Governor starts to intervene, but reflects upon the movie “Bambi” and then realizes he should stop because the coyote is only doing what is natural.

He calls animal control. Animal Control captures the coyote and bills the state $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it.

He calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the State $200 testing it for diseases.

The Governor goes to hospital and spends $3,500 getting checked for diseases from the coyote and on getting his bite wound bandaged.

The running trail gets shut down for 6 months while Fish & Game conducts a $100,000 survey to make sure the area is now free of dangerous animals.

The Governor spends $50,000 in state funds implementing a “coyote awareness program” for residents of the area.

The State Legislature spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies and how to permanently eradicate the disease throughout the world.

The Governor’s security agent is fired for not stopping the attack. The state spends $150,000 to hire and train a new agent with additional special training for the nature of coyotes.

PETA protests the coyote’s relocation and files a $5 million suit against the state.

TEXAS
The Governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog.

The Governor shoots the coyote with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The Governor has spent $.50 on a .45 ACP hollow point cartridge.

The buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, my friends, is why California is broke and Texas is not.

Much more than a grain of truth there.

Dinner in eight minutes or thereabouts

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Making American Goulash - straight up comfort food but a good day for it. Using a decent pasta instead of elbow macaroni and spiced it up a bit but yummy and enough for another three or four meals.

Been trying an induction cooktop and loving it - as good control as with gas. Remodeling the kitchen and looking at getting a combi cooktop - two induction hobs and two (maybe three) gas. Still looking at what is available - need to sell the Maple Falls properties first as what remains of my available cash is going to the new shop.

And the other shoe drops

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From The Seattle Times:

Trump says U.S. has killed al-Baghdadi’s ‘number one’ replacement
President Donald Trump said U.S. troops have killed the “number one” replacement for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State who died in an American raid over the weekend.

Trump confirmed the death in a tweet Tuesday but didn’t identify the person.

Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, a spokesman for the terrorist group, was reported to have been targeted and killed by U.S. and Syrian Democratic Forces shortly after Baghdadi’s death.

Nothing like a nice loud Ka-Boom...

Electrical connectors

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When Gender Studies invades Electrical Engineering:

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From Popular Mechanics:

The 50 Most Important Websites of All Time
Charles Kline’s first attempt to send a message over ARPANET, the early computer network that would birth the internet as we know it, was a bit of a bust.

Sitting at his massive mainframe computer at the University of California, Los Angeles, the grad student sent an “L” to another apartment-sized machine at Stanford University. Then an “O.” But before Kline could get to the “G” in his attempt to send the word “LOGIN,” the system crashed. He would revive the connection later that night and successfully transmit all five letters, but it wouldn’t matter if he hadn’t. He had already made history.

On October 29, 1969, “LO” was the first message successfully sent over a computer-to-computer network.

It would be another decade before ARPANET gave way to the internet, and another decade after that before the World Wide Web was born. Before those revolutions could be realized, two major questions had to be answered: How could ARPANET expand, and what the hell were people supposed to do with it, anyway?

The first problem was addressed by internet icons like Vinton Cerf, who developed the protocols that would allow different networks to connect to one another and form a larger network of networks. (In other words, an “internet.”)

Much more at the site - a fascinating story well told. Here is the recreation of the original web page at CERN. We have come a long long way.

Dinnertime

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Heading down to fix dinner and then out for a couple pints of nice cold beer.

True 'dat.

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From Woodsterman:

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Quid Pro Joe - his Super PAC

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Now this is interesting. Political Action Committees are required to be independent of the person they support but this is a very fuzzy line. From The Federalist:

The Head Of Joe Biden’s New Super PAC Is A Foreign Government Agent
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has a brand new Super PAC in his corner, and it’s being run by a registered foreign agent for the government of Azerbaijan. Larry Rasky, a lobbyist who previously worked as a top campaign operative for Biden, is listed as the treasurer of the PAC, according to records filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

“A former Joe Biden aide has filed paperwork to form a super PAC, called Unite the Country, that is set to boost the former vice president with millions of dollars in spending in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary,” Politico reported on Tuesday.

Records filed with the Department of Justice show that Rasky is also a registered foreign agent lobbying on behalf of the government of Azerbaijan. The records, which were filed pursuant to the Foreign Agent Registration Act, show that Rasky was hired by the Azerbaijani government on April 23, 2019. Federal documents signed by Rasky show that he reports directly to Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the United States.

Running low on popcorn... This is fun.

Four minor points - Ukraine

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From NOQ Report: (News, Opinions, Quotes)

Jim Jordan makes four brief arguments that undermine the whole impeachment inquiry
If we were to dismiss the fact that Democrats are not investigating alleged offenses that qualify as “high crimes and misdemeanors” and we also pretend like their motivation for undertaking the impeachment inquiry is the political expediency Americans have grown to hate, there are still four major points that demolish their suppositions outright. Representative Jim Jordan laid out those points. It wasn’t hard. He was able to fit it into one post on Twitter.

A bit more:

Let’s look at these four facts and see if the Congressman is right about the Democrats’ failed impeachment foundation. The first point is already a killer to their argument, as any pressure being applied to the Ukrainian President would compel him to both recognize and acknowledge it. He didn’t. In fact, he made it crystal clear he was NOT pressured in any way by President Trump. If the Democrats want to make the case the President of the United States is incapable of applying pressure on someone, they can try that route. But it will be hard to argue the most powerful person in the world would have his pressure unnoticed by the alleged victim.

Jordan also notes the transcript of the call itself showed no conditionality. This is so shockingly the case that Democrats were forced to manufacture conditionality in the form of Adam Schiff’s blatant lies in front of Congress and the American people, in which he had to invoke “satire” in an effort to confuse the people with distortion and subterfuge.

The third point is pretty darn damning. Even the witnesses so far who have testified against the President, such as Bill Taylor, had to acknowledge the Ukrainians learned from a Politico article that their aid shipment was being held up. That was a month after the phone call between the two Presidents. Common sense tells us that if you’re trying to apply pressure, it would behoove you to make sure the intended victim is aware of the pressure being applied. If there really was pressure being applied, the Ukrainians would have known all about the aid shipment’s delay.

The fourth point made by Jordan is the impeachment inquiry killer. Quid pro quo is, by its nature, an exchange. Either President Trump changed the meaning of quid pro quo or Ukraine simply failed to supply the quo, because there was no exchange. They received their aid and they never delivered their alleged end of the bargain by reopening the investigation into Burisma. Again, Democrats are hoping the people will ignore this glaring fact.

Heh - I almost - ALMOST - feel sorry for the Democrats. The Mueller Report was a big fat nothingburger. The Ukrainian telephone call is, as well, a big fat nothingburger. It will be interesting to see what kind of exit strategy Adam Schiff has for himself because he has perjured himself before congress multiple times on this. Heads need to roll...

So very very true - quote of the month

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"People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything."
--Thomas Sowell

Out for coffee and Costco

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My heating blanked died yesterday and from the online reviews, when it deliveres an F2 error code (like it was), that puppy is toast. Heading up to the food co-op for some groceries so stop at Costco to pick up a new one. Had this one for quite a few years so not dissatisfied with its lifespan.

Back in a few, farm tomorrow.

Of course - Katie Hill is the victim

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From the UK Guardian:

Emotional Katie Hill condemns 'horrible smear campaign' by rightwing foes
The Democratic congresswoman Katie Hill, who has quit amid allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a member of her staff, released an emotional video on Monday, attacking what she called a “coordinated campaign” by Republicans and rightwing media.

Hill, 32, was elected in California last year and was seen as a rising millennial star. But last week the House of Representatives ethics committee launched an investigation into whether she had an inappropriate relationship with an aide in her congressional office, which is banned under House rules.

She denied the claim in a letter to constituents but did admit to an “inappropriate” relationship with a different, unnamed staffer on her congressional campaign. Compromising photos of Hill and alleged text messages from her to the female staffer surfaced online in a rightwing outlet and on DailyMail.com.

So. Let me get this straight. She cheated on her husband. She seduced her 24 year old aide and that woman's husband into a three-way affair (against Congressional rules) and she is the victim here?

In addition, she was one of the Democratic rising stars. Her first term in office and she could not keep her panties on for one minute? This is leadership?

Good riddance to bad trash...

Fifty Years ago Today

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From Fast Company:

50 years ago today, the internet was born in Room 3420
When I visited UCLA’s Boelter Hall last Wednesday, I took the stairs to the third floor, looking for Room 3420. And then I walked right by it. From the hallway, it’s a pretty unassuming place.

But something monumental happened there 50 years ago today. A graduate student named Charley Kline sat at an ITT Teletype terminal and sent the first digital data transmission to Bill Duvall, a scientist who was sitting at another computer at the Stanford Research Institute (now known as SRI International) on the other side of California. It was the beginning of ARPANET, the small network of academic computers that was the precursor to the internet.

At the time, this brief act of data transfer wasn’t anything like a shot heard round the world. Even Kline and Duvall didn’t appreciate the full significance of what they’d accomplished: “I don’t remember anything specifically memorable about that night, and I certainly didn’t realize that what we had done was anything special at the time,” says Kline. But their communications link was proof of the feasibility of the concepts that eventually enabled the distribution of virtually all the world’s information to anybody with a computer.

Today, everything from our smartphones to our garage door openers are nodes on the network that descended from the one Kline and Duvall tested that day. How they and others established the original rules for shuttling bytes around the world is a tale worth sharing—especially when they tell it themselves.

And they restored the room as a museum:

20191029-internet.jpg

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow

I might actually buy this book

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Instead of borrowing it from the library. From Amazon:

UNIX: A History and a Memoir
by Brian W Kernighan

The fascinating story of how Unix began and how it took over the world. Brian Kernighan was a member of the original group of Unix developers, the creator of several fundamental Unix programs, and the co-author of classic books like "The C Programming Language" and "The Unix Programming Environment."

Learned C from his book many many years ago. He is one very interesting person and an excellent communicator. SHould be a great read.

About the hero dog the other day

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Yesterday, I posted about the dog who aided in finding Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. CNN today has found that it has some unsavory history. From America's Newspaper of Record - the Babylon Bee:

20191029-dog.jpg

U.S.—Everyone praised the classified "Hero Dog" for taking down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Everyone, that is, except CNN, who quickly searched through the dog's internet history and college yearbooks. Sure enough, CNN found a picture of the Hero Dog partying at obedience school. In the picture, the dog is seen sniffing a butt without consent.

"Oh yeah, good old [redacted]? He was nuts!" said one German Shepherd who attended Old Yaler Obedience School with the hero dog, according to a CNN report. "He was always sniffing any butt he could find. Cats, dogs, humans, you name it. He didn't have a preference. He identified as pansniffual."

Troubling reports from classmates indicate that the dog sniffed all these butts without consent. The dog wrote cryptic things in his college yearbook, apparently referring to different butt-sniffing maneuvers such as the Surprise Sniffarooski and the Canine's Triangle.

The dog has issued a statement: "I like butts. I've always liked butts. I still like butts, but I never sniff butts to the point of excess. Who's a good boy? I am."

Democrats immediately called for the dog to be court-martialed and for the death of Baghdadi to be overturned.

They seem to have the pulse of the American Media. Funny too!

Yikes - some numbers

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They simply can not be serious about this - it would be political suicide. Are they living in a bubble? The answer should be obvious. From Yahoo Finance:

The Democratic plan for a 42% national sales tax
If you’re a Democrat who supports “Medicare for All,” pick your poison. You can ruin your political career and immolate your party by imposing a ruinous new sales tax, a gargantuan income tax hike or a surtax on corporate income that would wreck thousands of businesses.

This is the cost of bold plans.

Supporters of Medicare for All, the huge, single-payer government health plan backed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and several other Democratic presidential candidates, say it’s time to think big and move to a health plan that covers everyone. Getting there is a bit tricky, however. A variety of analyses estimate that Medicare for All would require at least $3 trillion in new spending. That’s about as much tax revenue as the government brings in now. So if paid for through new taxes, federal taxation would have to roughly double.

A long but well researched article - basically, to pay for what the Democrats are promising, we would need to raise taxes that much. Taxing the ultra-welathy simply would not generate enough money to fully fund their plans. Bill Whittle and Iowahawk ran the numbers back in 2011 and their research is still accurate - nine minutes of your time:

The money to impliment these plans simply is not there - the Democrats need to be honest and show their math.

Hard frost this morning

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Woke up to a hard frost on the ground. Got down to 30°F last night. Guess that winter is on its merry way.

Daylight savings is due to end this coming Sunday so it will be very dark for another couple of months.

From The Washington Times:

Joe Biden denied Communion over abortion views
A Catholic priest says he denied Holy Communion to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden at his parish in South Carolina on Sunday because of the Democratic presidential contender’s support for abortion.

The Rev. Robert E. Morey told the Florence Morning News on Monday that he had refused one of the Catholic Church’s sacraments to Mr. Biden.

“Sadly, this past Sunday, I had to refuse Holy Communion to former Vice President Joe Biden,” Father Morey, pastor at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, told the Morning News via email. “Holy Communion signifies we are one with God, each other and the Church. Our actions should reflect that. Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching.”

I love it. A Priest with a moral backbone. This loss of fortitude is what caused me to go away from the Episcopal Church over the last 30 years or so (rather, I did not change, they did.) I would love to get back to the traditional Anglican service but do not see any parish around here.

Dinner was a bit of a dissapointment

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Went to The Farmhouse in Mt. Vernon - not known for culinary adventure but they do a decent pot roast and their turkey dinner is pretty good.

Tonight's pot roast had way too much garlic powder on it and it was cheap stuff - lots of sulfurous off-notes. The garlic mashed potatoes came to me at about 70°F and not the 140°+ to be safe to serve. I alerted one of the cooks in the kitchen and they just smiled and thanked me. No panic. No offer for a replacement.

I think I will give that place a few months before I go back there. They have been in business for 40 years so they must be doing something right but not tonight.

Stopped off at my local for two pints of beer and now home. My old air mattress finally gave up the ghost - leaking too much and two of the internal gussets popped when I pressurized it before going to sleep last night. They were in the middle of the mattress so it rocked back and forth. Funny looking. Picked up a new one from Costco today. I will pressurize the old one to destruction and video it next couple of days.

Library and dinner

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Back in a couple of hours.

A bit disappointing but understandable

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I had been looking forward to checking out the United States Web Design System. It is very good. Very very good.

- - - BUT - - -

It is beyond my scope. It would be perfect for a city webpage. Or that of a large company or group. For a single-purpose website, a small business page, etc... Sheer overkill.

Requires a SQL Server - not a big deal as I have set up many databases. This blog is powered by a SQL Server. For a dozen static pages? Much more than what I need. Looking at alternatives for simple HTML editing. Always looking for something new.

Open Source Web Design is a great place to start for basic templates. I had been using CoffeeCup and will probably continue using it.

The ersatz impeachment

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Shot: From Kevin McCarthy - Republican Leader and Representative of California's 23rd District in the House of Representatives:

Chaser: From Breitbart:

Report: House Democrats to Vote on Impeachment Procedures Thursday
House Democrats will vote on Thursday to establish the procedures for their ongoing impeachment investigation against President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced Monday afternoon.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), chairman of House Rules Committee, said he will introduce the resolution’s text for approval on Tuesday and the panel will move to mark it up by Wednesday.

“As committees continue to gather evidence and prepare to present their findings, I will be introducing a resolution to ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward,” McGovern said in a statement. “This is the right thing to do for the institution and the American people.”

It will be interesting to see what they have. There is a lot more to impeachment than just a House vote. The Dems are going off half-cocked.

Back to work

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At home today - heading up to the farm Wednesday and Thursday

Changing the definition

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You don't actually have to get sober, you can just change the definition to fit your own lifestyle. From The Cut:

What Does It Mean to Be ‘Cali Sober’?
Recently, I saw a conversation between a few women I follow on Twitter about Fiona Apple, who was profiled by Vulture last month. In the course of her interview, Apple mentions that she’s stopped drinking, but has started smoking more weed instead: “Alcohol helped me for a while, but I don’t drink anymore,” she says. “Now it’s just pot, pot, pot.” This was the part of the interview the women were discussing. “Fiona Apple: Cali sober??” one wrote.

The term “Cali sober” here refers to people who don’t drink but do smoke weed, though internet definitions vary slightly: Urban Dictionary says it means people who drink and smoke weed but don’t do other drugs; an essay by journalist Michelle Lhooq uses it to refer to her decision to smoke weed and do psychedelics, but not drink. While the term is new to me, the behavior it describes is not: this is more or less how I operate. I’m not sober, but I rarely drink, and when I do, I usually have a single glass of wine. In my early 30s I’ve discovered that when I’m looking to unwind after a stressful week, or having a movie night with friends, I’d much rather smoke weed than drink a few beers. As a result, I haven’t been hungover in years. I also sleep better, and my anxiety (for which I also take daily Prozac, and go to therapy) is more manageable. But I also feel guilty about smoking, likely because I grew up believing that all drugs are bad, and that taking them makes you a worse person. Alcohol is, of course, also a drug, but everyone does that — at least, until they don’t.

Cali Sober? Smashed out of your gourd but it's OK - just part of my hedonistic lifestyle.

So true - quote of the day

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"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing."
--Albert Einstein

Heh - figured as much...

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Now the details start to trickle out - from Zero Hedge:

Two Baghdadi Associates Taken Alive In The Raid Along With "Trove" Of Intel
Two men believed close to the Islamic State's top leadership were taken alive during the Saturday night US special forces raid which killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"There were two adult males taken off the objective, alive," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley announced Monday during a Pentagon briefing. "They're in our custody and they're in a secure facility," Milley added, without revealing the identity of the captives. 

As the residue of ISIS gets rolled up.

What a sweetie

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Such love! Just want to cuddle him and give him some wubbies. From President Trump's twitter feed:

Conditions in Chicago

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President Trump visited and had some choice words to say. From the Daily Caller:

‘Worst Sanctuary City In America’: Trump Rips Chicago For Refusing To Cooperate With ICE
President Donald Trump ripped Chicago city leaders for refusing to work with federal immigration authorities during a speech Monday.

In his first official visit to Chicago since entering the White House, Trump delivered a speech at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference. At numerous moments during his speech, the president related the fight against crime to the need for local police to work with their federal partners. The biggest offenders, the president said, are Chicago’s leaders.

“Chicago is, unfortunately, the worst sanctuary city in America,” Trump said at the national police chiefs conference.

“Chicago protects criminals at a level few could even imagine. Last year, in Cook County alone, ICE asked local law enforcement people to ‘please, pretty please, we beg you, we’ll do anything necessary to stop crime. We want to stop crime. Please detain 1,162 people, please,'” the president said. “But in each case, the detainer was denied.”

Best and brightest. These Democrat cities are reaping what they are sowing. Look at Seattle for example. Los Angeles? Portland, Or?

But of course - Peliosi

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She is so full of hate for the Orange Man that she would do this. From the Washington Examiner:

‘So much hatred’: Pelosi would have leaked Baghdadi raid to sabotage Trump, Senate Republican suggests
President Trump protected American troops by keeping House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the dark about the raid that killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, a Senate Republican said.

“If you’re worried about our troops, you can tell that, I mean — Pelosi hates Trump, and she’s going to do everything she can to hurt him,” Florida Sen. Rick Scott told the Washington Examiner. “And you can’t trust them. I think Trump made a good decision.”

Scott, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, echoed Trump’s suggestion that Pelosi might have endangered U.S. forces by leaking information about the raid. Trump's stance drew condemnation from Democratic lawmakers, as the death of the world’s most wanted terrorist provided another opportunity for a partisan dispute in Washington.

“I told my people we will not notify them until the — our great people are out,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “Not just in, but out. I don’t want to have them greeted with firepower like you wouldn’t believe.”

People like Nancy Pelosi do not have the best interests of our nation at heart. She is a partisan hack and her fifteen minutes are very much over. She can either retire gracefully or go down in flames. Her choice.

From #METOO to victimhood

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Of course - from The Verge:

Rep. Katie Hill to fight revenge porn upon leaving Congress
Over the weekend, Rep. Katie Hill, a first-term Democrat from California, announced that she will leave Congress by the end of the week after nude images of herself were published online without her consent. Hill has admitted to having a consensual relationship with a campaign staffer. In a letter announcing her resignation on Sunday, she said she will focus on fighting “revenge porn” after she leaves Congress.

“Those of you who know me personally know that I’m a fighter,” Hill wrote. “Now, my fight is going to be to defeat this type of exploitation that so many women are victims to and which will keep countless women and girls from running for office or entering public light.”

The images of her were published so she had to resign. But now? She gets to be a victim. And besides, it is her husband's fault:

After the accusations first arose, Hill released a statement blaming her “abusive husband” who she is in the middle of divorcing for the controversy. The allegations included a consensual three-person sexual relationship with a female campaign staffer and her estranged-husband and one with her male legislative director, Graham Kelly.

What is it with liberals and cheating on your spouse / kinky sex?

I would pay money to watch this

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Found on the web:

20191028-beto.jpg

The distinction

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    • President Trump wanted the job.
    • Hillary Clinton wanted the title.

Found at Don Surber.

Good news from Michigan

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Votor corruption - from The Detroit News:

Southfield city clerk charged with 6 felonies tied to November election
Southfield City Clerk Sherikia L. Hawkins was charged Monday with six felony counts over "unauthorized and inaccurate" changes to absentee ballots in the November 2018 election.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson made a joint announcement of the charges in Detroit, calling it a "rare" case.

No it is not rare - happens all the time in entrenched Democrat cities. Ms. Hawkins was so egregious in her fraud that she had to be the one thrown under the bus.

Allegations that Hawkins altered 193 absentee voter records came to light during the 14-day canvass following the election. Benson said the Oakland County Clerk’s Office reported with the Bureau of Elections "the potential for these irregularities and from there we began our investigation."

Hawkins' alleged actions, did not alter the outcome of any election, Benson stressed, and "there were no voters that were disenfranchised."

"All valid votes in the election were ultimately counted and the final official vote total was accurate," Benson said.

Bullshit - then why the six felony charges? Like I said, this is common but Ms. Hawkins stood out and had to be the sacrificial lamb for the rest of them.

Much more at the site - the Democrats have nothing real to offer so they cheat. Been that way forever.

And I have to ask - "binding spell"

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From here - two days ago: Tonight at 11:59 Thousands Will Gather for a 'Binding Spell' Against Trump 

How did that work out? I am interested because I do know people who practice Wicca and who are quite effective at it. I am somewhat sensitive to this sort of stuff so if something that large were to go down, I would at least pick up something from the fringes. Me? Nada.

I guess that the thousands of dungeon masters living in their parent's basements are seriously confusing actual work with Orange Man Bad NPC wannabe acting out.

They could not even muster a simple tanglefoot. Wankers.

Management gives little thought to mentoring but in a large organization, mentoring is one of the most valuable things.

#1) - There are things specific to any large organization that take years to learn and
#2) - someone coming in at the entry level will take years to get into a major position (Silverback) so
#3) - it behooves that today's Silverbacks mentor promising FNGies so that when the Silverback is ready to retire,
#4) - they will have a replacement Silverback waiting to take over.

Mentoring smooths the transition of power and guarantees that the organization will function at some measure of efficiency through the decades. This mentoring is something that the top brass understands as they went through the same process themselves until they were tapped for the higher management positions whereupon, they went through a second mentoring period.

Mentoring costs money but the return on the investment is invaluable. It guarantees a consistency to the function of the corporation. Its heartbeat never falters.

Cost-cutting management looks at the H-1B visa program as a win/win - they get highly qualified employees for much cheaper than the home-grown ones. Unfortunately, these new people do not have the benefit of years of learning the corporate culture and it shows. Look at Boeing. Look at PG&E. Look at General Electric. Some of the tech giants are feeling this pain as well...

Whoops - business as usual for Boeing

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But not turning out good at all. From The Seattle Times:

Before deadly crashes, Boeing pushed for law that undercut oversight
With a few short paragraphs tucked into 463 pages of legislation last year, Boeing scored one of its biggest lobbying wins: a law that undercuts the government’s role in approving the design of new airplanes.

For years, the government had been handing over more responsibility to manufacturers as a way to reduce bureaucracy. But those paragraphs cemented the industry’s power, allowing manufacturers to challenge regulators over safety disputes and making it difficult for the government to usurp companies’ authority.

Although the law applies broadly to the industry, Boeing, the nation’s dominant aerospace manufacturer, is the biggest beneficiary. An examination by The New York Times, based on interviews with more than 50 regulators, industry executives, congressional staff members and lobbyists, as well as drafts of the bill and federal documents, found that Boeing and its allies helped craft the legislation to their liking, shaping the language of the law and overcoming criticism from regulators.

In a stark warning as the bill was being written, the Federal Aviation Administration said that it would “not be in the best interest of safety.”

Government oversight can be a very good thing at times and this is one perfect example. The people employed by the Federal Aviation Industry applied for work there because they love airplanes and flying. These are the people you want taking a second look at any new design.

Boeing needs to reorganize itself sooner rather than later - the corporate culture has become toxic. This is what they get for hiring "qualified" engineers from other nations under the H-1B visa program. Much cheaper labor costs but the ineffectual middle management suck-ups do not see the degradation in quality and skill until it is too late.

ineffectual middle management suck-ups? A Seattle punch-line.

Oh yeah - some numbers

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Happy 16th Blogiversary to me.

Here are the numbers:

20191027-blog.JPG

So that is 31,734 entires with an average of 5.44 posts per day (not fiddling with leap years - close enough for me) and 1,805 comments for an average of one comment every 17 posts.

Readership has been much higher but it is now a nice and stable 300 to 600 per day. Unique hits not counting search engines, web crawlers and other automatae. Some of the hits are more than once/day so the web analysis software I use records the originating IP address and just treats them as one unique hit. For security and for statistics, these IP addresses are wiped at 00:00PDT and the day starts anew.

Been a fun ride and as I said, looking forward to the next 32 years.

And back from the dump

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300 pounds lighter - feels great. Much much more to go...

Anything useable is being given away or sold or given to the local thrift store. The junk going into the tip is just that - junk.

Heh - that was then, this is now

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Nothing to see here folks - just keep moving. Two views of the same page at The Washington Post:

First - captured by Buck Sexton's twitter account:

And now, from a few moments ago - The Washington Post:

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48
When Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi took the reins of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010, few had heard of the organization or its new leader, then an austere religious scholar with wire-frame glasses and no known aptitude for fighting and killing.

But just four years later, Mr. Baghdadi had helped transform his failing movement into one of the most notorious, vicious and — for a time — successful terrorist groups of modern times. Under his guidance it would burst into the public consciousness as the Islamic State, an organization that would seize control of entire cities in Iraq and Syria and become a byword for shocking brutality.

Still fawning over the corpse, just fawning light. Hey Jeff Bezos - Walter Duranty called, he wants his bias back.

And back home again

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Fixed a ham sandwich for lunch and will be heading out when I am done. Doing a lot of recycling too - lots of cardboard boxes I no longer need. Feels great. Liberating.

Trip to the farm this week for sure - need to figure out the problem with the well (pump ($700) or pressure switch ($45)) and get the water back on. Winter is coming and it is going to be colder than usual.

Been surfing a little bit and it is interesting to see the various Fake News media praise al-Baghdadi as being a moderate voice. No - he was a terrorist. He was the power behind ISIS and he is directly responsible for the videos of ISIS victims being beheaded on camera and that one poor pilot being burned to death in a cage. He was a brutal tyrant who hid behind others. He is going to spend the rest of eternity roasting in Jahannam. The Onion did a great bit about Mohammed Atta and the rest of his 9/11 crew - well worth reading to see what is befalling al-Baghdadi. Can not think of a more deserving a*hole.

Christians used to be a bad lot but we had a reformation. It was a very difficult process and caused major rifts between different sects but we came out improved - it was for the better. Muslims need their own reformation. Right now, they are living a 9th century cult of fear and hate. They need to join the here and now.

Out for a few hours

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Glorious day today - working at home. Another dump run.

Take care of a few errands first.

Of course not - al-Baghdadi

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What happens when a schoolyard bully meets a superior force? FOX News has a bit more on the al-Baghdadi mission:

Trump describes US mission: al-Baghdadi died like a coward, ‘crying, screaming, whimpering like a dog’
President Donald Trump formally announced the successful killing of ISIS’s top leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a speech delivered Sunday morning to the American people.

“[T]he thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him,” he said while speaking from the White House.

“Last night was a great night for the United States and for the world. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated. He will never again harm another innocent man, woman or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place. God bless America. Thank you.”

Gotta love the dog reference. Muslims consider dogs to be unclean. (Knew there was a reason not to like them)

For them, dogs are on the same level as pigs and certain ethnic groups - to be reviled. Love that Trump compared the ISIS leader to one of them. Great optic.

From President Trump's Twitter account:

President Trump's statement:

And major kudos to the people who went in against unknown forces and took this heinous shitstain out of the gene pool. Details to follow in the next week or so. Looks like we had help from several nations.

Happy 16th anniversary

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On this day, sixteen years ago, I published this - my first post:

20191027-helloworld.JPG

Been a long strange trip - some good things and some not so good things. Several deaths including both parents, hip replacement surgery, cateract surgery, two marriages, two divorces, two moves.

All in all, the outcome is great - very happy on the island, looking forward to divesting myself of the Maple Falls properties this spring. Meeting some very great people. The Amateur Radio and Emergency Services work is a lot of fun and a fulfilling measure of community service.

Very much looking forward to another sixteen years if not thirty two of exploring and sharing.

Watch those roaming charges

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From the Beeb:

Migrating Russian eagles run up huge data roaming charges
Russian scientists tracking migrating eagles ran out of money after some of the birds flew to Iran and Pakistan and their SMS transmitters drew huge data roaming charges.

After learning of the team's dilemma, Russian mobile phone operator Megafon offered to cancel the debt and put the project on a special, cheaper tariff.

The team had started crowdfunding on social media to pay off the bills.

The birds left from southern Russia and Kazakhstan.

The journey of one steppe eagle, called Min, was particularly expensive, as it flew to Iran from Kazakhstan.

Min accumulated SMS messages to send during the summer in Kazakhstan, but it was out of range of the mobile network. Unexpectedly the eagle flew straight to Iran, where it sent the huge backlog of messages.

The price per SMS in Kazakhstan was about 15 roubles (18p; 30 US cents), but each SMS from Iran cost 49 roubles. Min used up the entire tracking budget meant for all the eagles.

The group crowdfunded and raised over 100,000 roubles and the carrier to agree to the lower tariff. Quite the broad distribution:

20191026-eagle.jpg

The California winds

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Following up on Cliff Mass' forecast earlier today, PG&E is in a spot of trouble - from Zero Hedge:

California Faces "Biggest Blackout Ever" As 2.5 Million PG&E Customers May Have No Power For Days
Earlier this week we joked that with PG&E now scrambling to enforce intentional blackouts every time there are powerful winds for fears the bankrupt company's aged infrastructure could cause a new fire, "every time the wind blows California will become Venezuela."

Turns out it wasn't a joke.

On Friday, with its stock crashing to a new all time low amid speculation it may have been responsible for the latest California inferno, the Kincade Fire...

20191026-PG&E.jpg

... PG&E warned it will shut off power again on Saturday to as many as 2.5 million people as violent winds batter the state, in what according to Bloomberg will be "California’s largest intentional blackout ever."

According to a Friday statement, approximately 850,000 homes and businesses in Northern California, including much of the San Francisco Bay Area, may be impacted beginning Saturday evening. And with data models indicating the weather event could be the most powerful in California in decades, with widespread dry Northeast winds between 45-60 miles per hour (mph) and peak gusts of 60-70 mph in the higher elevations through Monday, large swaths of the region could be without power for days.

Bay Area? This is going to be brutal. If only they had taken some of their money and spent it on maintaining their infrastructure instead of building pie-in-the-sky alt.energy pipe dreams. Rooftop solar that feeds the grid instead of local storage? Insane.

BTW - out of morbid curiosity, I checked and it is now trading for $5/share. Looking at the decade view, you can see a nice steady climb until mid to late 2017 when it peaked at $70 and then it is down the tubes after that.

A  modicum of Googling will show you why. The beginnings of the idea that their infrastructure was failing and they ceased paying dividends on their shares of stock. If I had some FYM, I might be tempted to buy a few thousand shares but they will probably reorganize into a different corporate entity to screw out all shareholders (and employee pension obligations). Nice people.

Gorgeous day today

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With a couple more in the offing. Had coffee, read for a little bit, went up to the food co-op and took the back roads home. Working here for the rest of the day. More minestrone for dinner tonight.

From Powerline's Week in Pictures - always fun.

20191026-hillary.jpg

More on Arkancide here.

A couple stories from People Magazine

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Tip of the hat to Don Surber. The good:

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's Most Over-the-Top Gifts and Gestures
In addition to gifting Kim some “amazing bags“, Kanye donated $1 million to four different prison reform organizations close to Kim’s heart (including #cut50, where she is reading the law in an apprenticeship) for her birthday. “This makes my heart so happy!” Kim tweeted. 

Don reminds us:

Kanye made a million-dollar donation to four prison reform organizations. Her late father was a criminal defense lawyer and she wants to follow his path. She worked with President Donald John Trump to get clemency for a grandmother serving life over a drug deal. She had served 21 years.

Kim and Kanye lobbied for a bipartisan bill to allow parole for federal inmates.

This week, Kanye said he will move his shoe factories to America. We shall see.

The bad:

Judge Refuses to Remove Brad Pitt From Lawsuit Over Hurricane Katrina Victims' Deteriorating Homes
Brad Pitt will remain a defendant in the lawsuit that claims his charitable foundation Make It Right built inadequate housing for Hurricane Katrina victims.

The Times-Picayune reports that Civil District Court Judge Rachael Johnson ruled that Pitt would remain a defendant in a September 2018 lawsuit — in which Pitt and his foundation were sued by homeowners who claimed the homes Make It Right built for them were seriously faulty and deteriorating at a rapid pace — in a decision made last week.

In doing so, Johnson denied Pitt’s November 2018 request to dismiss him from the lawsuit, in which he claimed he had no personal involvement, instead suing the executive architect of the houses, John Williams, on behalf of Make It Right.

Pitt has enough star-power and pull to shame the contractors into doing right. Instead, he is trying to weasel out of his part of the deal and do this behind the scenes hoping that people will forget. He paid to have these built. He should have had "his people" check to see that they were being built. Corruption in New Orleans? Knock me down with a feather.

Congratulations Microsoft

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From the U. S. Department of Defense:

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICE
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, has been awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a ceiling value of $10,000,000,000 over a period of 10 years, if all options are exercised. The JEDI Cloud contract will provide enterprise level, commercial Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) to support Department of Defense business and mission operations. Work performance will take place at the awardee's place of performance. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $1,000,000 are being obligated on a task order against this award to cover the minimum guarantee. The expected completion date is Oct. 24, 2029, if all options are exercised. Washington Headquarters Services, Alexandria, Virginia, is the contracting activity (HQ0034-20-D-0001). Task Order HQ0034-20-F-0009 was awarded for the minimum guarantee of $1,000,000. Task Order HQ0034-20-F-0010 was awarded for $0.00 for Cloud Computing Program Office (CCPO) Program Management (PM) Support.

You read that correctly - ten billion dollars. Amazon Web Services was also bidding but they lost out.

California - more wind

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And we are seeing the edge of it over the next couple of days - clear and sunny skies. From Cliff Mass:

Very Serious Wind Situation in Northern California This Weekend
Looking at the latest forecast model output reveals a scary situation developing over northern California for late Saturday and Sunday, where strong, dry offshore winds will provide a major wildfire hazard.

PG&E will have little choice but to de-energize a large portion of its system, blacking out hundred of thousands of customers.

Turns out that PG&E has done some good things:

One good thing is that PG&E has added hundreds of surface observation sites that provide an extraordinary view of the winds in the region.  To illustrate,  here is the maximum gust map for Thursday, north of San Francisco.  Lots of observations--and you can see the strong winds (75 and 80 mph) associated with the Kincade fire.  Not how winds change very rapidly in short distances.  Very valuable. 

Cliff has a lot more at the site.

Nothing much out there

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Quiet friday news-wise.

Made some minestrone soup for dinner tonight and baking a half-loaf of "fresh" bread. WalMart sells some nice parbaked demi-baguettes. Cut in half, slather with Kerrygold butter and a bit of kosher salt, bake for eight minutes (convection oven at 375F) and yum!

Out for a couple of beers at my local - back in a few...

A big yawn - supposed magic

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A bunch of false magicians and they do not realize what they are getting themselves in for. Karma is a bitch when you practice Wicca for evil. From the Christian Broadcasting Network:

Tonight at 11:59 Thousands Will Gather for a 'Binding Spell' Against Trump, Here's How You Can Pray
As if battling the House Democrats' impeachment inquiry against him wasn't enough, President Donald Trump will next have to face a "binding spell" cast by "thousands" of witches late Friday night.

As Halloween approaches in a few days, several media outlets are reporting witches who oppose President Trump are planning to cast a "binding spell" on his administration. Such reports of witchcraft being used against the President are nothing new. Witches have been trying to cast spells against Trump since his inauguration in 2017.

Scheduled for Oct. 25 at 11:59 pm, these self-proclaimed "witches" are planning to conduct a ritual which is meant to "bind," but not harm the President unlike a "curse" or a "hex." These witches believe they are doing something positive for the entire country by not allowing President Trump to cause harm to the US by his actions.

Heh - I have known people who were practicioners of Wicca and who were quite effective. Binding is not direct harm but it is still a "bad" kind of spell and the energy will come back at the people trying to manifest it. They have in their hearts that Orange Man Bad and that will taint their energies opening themselves up to karma.

Ringleader - of course:

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Interesting - Michael Flynn

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From One America News Network:

Michael Flynn’s Legal Team Drops Evidence Of Alleged FBI Entrapment
Michael Flynn’s legal team is piecing together a damning timeline of events, which could prove the FBI entrapped him into a guilty plea. The case against the former National Security adviser lost credibility this week as as the retired army general’s attorney Sidney Powell filed a 37-page motion in court Thursday.

A mostly un-redacted version of the filing was made public Friday and may prove the defense’s allegation of an ambush against Flynn by the FBI. Drawing from the text messages sent between FBI love birds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page in January of 2017, Powell noted that Strzok said “now that this is out, we can use it as a pretext to go interview some people.” That was in reference to news first breaking about the existence of the Steele Dossier.

Powell went on to describe the “many meetings” between Strzok and former DBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. The two reportedly discussed what interview strategies they wanted to use on Flynn. The day before the interview, the pair spoke to other high-ranking members of the agency — including James Baker and Lisa Page — about how they could keep Flynn relaxed and unaware that he was being talked to in connection with a criminal investigation.

Flynn was railroaded - great to see this being remedied.

Quote of the day

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"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking."
--General George S. Patton

Out for a bit

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Nothing much happening on the web so time for coffee and some errands.

Raining lightly but forecast calls for sunshine for the next couple of days.

Doing some paperwork here today - maybe a dump run if I feel motivated...

Now this will be fun - three reports

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Plus some other great stuff. Banner morning for The Gateway Pundit:

First:

GET YOUR POPCORN READY – Four Different Reports Released Last Night Indicate the Days Ahead Will be Devastating for the DEEP STATE!
Last night was historic.  The news coming out on four fronts indicates that the Deep State should be very worried.  Those of us uncovering the many corrupt actions taken by President Obama’s Deep State have been looking forward to this day for some time!

Second:

President Trump Accuses Barack Obama of Treason in New Book For ‘Spying’ on His 2016 Campaign
Via Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner:

President Trump has ratched up his claim that the Obama White House spied on his 2016 campaign, charging in a new book that it was a “treasonous” act by the former Democratic president.

“What they did was treasonous, OK? It was treasonous,” he told author Doug Wead for his upcoming book, “Inside Trump’s White House: The Real Story of His Presidency.”

And finally:

“You Will See Things No One Will Believe!” – President Trump Warns Deep State on Ongoing Durham and Barr Criminal Probe (VIDEO)
President Trump responded: "It looks like it’s becoming very serious from what I see. Investigate the investigators. Whether it’s Strzok and Page. Whether it’s Clapper and Comey and all of these people. Because terrible things went on for our country. And we have a great Attorney General, highly prestigious man, a very honorable man. And they’ve been looking at it for a long time. I can’t tell you what’s happening. I will tell you this. I think you’re going to see a lot of really bad things. And a lot of people think that, and they know they have problems, because they were very dishonest. And again I leave it all up to the Attorney General. And I leave it all up to the people who are working with the Attorney General who I don’t know. But I will say this, I think you will see things that no one will believe. This was the worst hoax in the history of our country."

Needless to say, lots more at the sites. Good reading for a Friday morning.

Speaking of tornadoes

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My favorite storm chaser (Pecos Hank) just released another excellent video on tornadoes:

Some gorgeous work.

Good training session

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I am now a card-carrying Junior Weather spotter with my secret decoder ring and special phone number.

Actually, this is a very serious deal. Perfect example was last Friday, October 18 when an EF-1 tornado touched down in Shelton, WA. Because weather conditions are different here than in "tornado alley", weather radar does not show the classic hook echo formation that indicates active tornadoes and it was not until a Shelton resident took a video on her cellphone and sent it to Seattle station KIRO that the National Weather Service knew about it.

Camano Island is located in an active convergence zone. That produces some intense but very localized weather and the more eyes to the skies, the better climate models the NWS is able to make and the more timely watches and warnings they can issue.

A fun get together too as about half of the people there were from various Island and County emergency management groups or radio amateurs. Getting to know a lot of people here and the level of professionalism is wonderful.

From NBC News:

Hunter Biden's legal work in Romania raises new questions about his overseas dealings
In the final year of the Obama administration, an American lawyer traveled to Romania to meet with a businessman accused of orchestrating a corrupt land deal.

The businessman was Gabriel “Puiu” Popoviciu, a wealthy Romanian real estate tycoon. The lawyer brought in to advise him was Hunter Biden, the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Hunter Biden’s work for Popoviciu in 2016 went unreported at the time, but Joe Biden’s involvement in Romania was very much public. The vice president was among the leading voices pushing the government to crack down on corruption.

Turtles all the way down - the Democrats and corruption.

Out shortly - high tide

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High tide in about 30 minutes. Take some photos.

Great news item from Diogenes' Middle Finger:

Troll Level 11 : Trump Campaign Scoops Up Biden's Latino Voter Outreach Web Address & Tweeter

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ABC - It didn't take long for the Trump campaign to figure out how to troll Joe Biden moments after the former vice president's campaign announced a Latino voter outreach program on Wednesday. Biden, who spent the day campaigning across Pennsylvania and Iowa, announced "Todos Con Biden," a "national network of Latino supporters" working to help elect the former vice president. But there's one problem.

The Biden campaign failed to purchase www.todosconbiden.com, or even lock down the @TodosConBiden Twitter handle before announcing the new effort -- prompting the president's reelection team to do what it does best: troll.  Now, the Trump campaign is using www.todosconbiden.com to mock the former vice president, with a landing page that says in both English and Spanish, "Oops, Joe forgot about Latinos."

Comedy gold - whenever you think about doing a domain, you lock it down first before anything else. For them not to do this shows that their campaign staff is simply not that smart.

Some baskets - Hillary

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Found over at Mostly Cajun:

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Great list from Matt Margolis at PJ Media:

17 Democrats Who Weren’t Held Accountable for Scandals by Their Constituents
I recently noted that Democrats have a tendency to not be held accountable despite incontrovertible evidence of their guilt. That got me thinking about how often it’s happened in my lifetime when a Democrat was caught or accused of something horrific, yet survived politically. It turns out, it’s pretty common. It’s a sad reflection of the lack of standards and ethics of the Democrat Party and the people who vote for them that so many of their elected leaders survive scandals in ways that Republicans typically don’t. That’s not to say all Democrats get by unscathed. Senator Al Franken, for example, did ultimately resign from the U.S. Senate following multiple allegations of sexual harassment, including one incident with photographic evidence. But, when you fast forward to today, Franken regrets his resignation, and many Democrats who joined in on calls for him to leave office have expressed regret as well. Bill Clinton is another example of someone who clearly broke multiple laws, and, while he was impeached, was not convicted by the U.S. Senate, and is generally still viewed upon favorably.

I have compiled a list of 17 Democrats who have defied commonsense, decency, and justice to survive scandals to prove that there is something horribly wrong in their party. This list, which is by no means comprehensive, demonstrates a longstanding pattern of Democrats willing to ignore depravity in their elected leaders when they reach the ballot box.

Needless to say, multiple links to source materials.

More please - Vice President Pence

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Nice to see him so on-point. From Reuters:

Pence backs Hong Kong protests in China speech, slams NBA and Nike
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday accused China of curtailing “rights and liberties” in Hong Kong and blasted U.S. company Nike and the National Basketball Association for falling in line with Beijing in a disagreement over free speech.

In a major policy speech on China that touched on an array of disputes ahead of talks with Beijing to ease a trade war, Pence said the United States does not seek confrontation or to “de-couple” from its main economic rival.

But he pulled no punches when addressing some of the political rifts between the two countries.

Criticizing China’s construction of a “surveillance state,” and “increasingly provocative” military action, Pence held up Taiwan’s Democracy as a better path for the Chinese and took Beijing to task for its handling of pro-democracy protests that have rocked Hong Kong for more than four months.

“Hong Kong is a living example of what can happen when China embraces liberty,” he said. “And yet, for the last few years, Beijing has increased its interventions in Hong Kong and engaged in actions that curtail the rights and liberties that Hong Kong’s people were guaranteed through a binding international agreement.”

We live in very interesting times. Looking forward to a free China. Tyranny is never good.

Follow the money - Deep State

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Great article from Vox Day:

Cutting off the cash
The Deep State is raging at Trump's persistent attempts to cut off the flow of funding to them:

High-placed federal law enforcement sources dropped a bombshell, claiming the renewed push to impeach the president is rooted, in part, in President Trump’s move to pull the United States out of the conflict in Syria — and stop untold millions in dirty cash from flowing into the deep state’s pockets.

“This isn’t about the Kurds, it’s about the cash,” one FBI source said.

Vox closes with this thought:

Well, that and trying to keep themselves off the scaffold for their treason, of course.

Bit by bit the deep state is being rolled back. The level of corruption in our government is unreal. 98% is Democrat.

Do not forget that the cash crop of that area is opium poppies. There is your opioid epidemic right there.

And saves the taxpayers money in the process - from the Wall Street Journal:

Trump to Tell Federal Agencies to Cut New York Times, Washington Post Subscriptions
The White House is planning to instruct federal agencies to not renew their subscriptions to the New York Times and the Washington Post, administration officials said, escalating President Trump’s attacks on the media outlets.

“Not renewing subscriptions across all federal agencies will be a significant cost saving—hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars will be saved,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in an email Thursday.

Ms. Grisham declined to provide further details, and it wasn’t immediately clear how the White House intended to compel agencies to cancel the subscriptions or how soon the order would take effect. The White House was still working on implementing the directive as of Thursday morning, an administration official said.

Spokeswomen for the Times and the Post declined to comment.

That will have the liberals running around with their hair on fire. Epic troll from our President.

I am not surprised - California

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Meet Katie Hill - freshman Representative from California's 25th District. I hope that she enjoys her one term in office because I do not see her getting re-elected. From the London Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE: Shocking photos of Congresswoman Katie Hill are revealed as she's seen NAKED showing off Nazi-era tattoo while smoking a bong, kissing her female staffer and posing nude on 'wife sharing' sites
Shocking photographs of Democrat Katie Hill posing naked with a tattoo of what appears to be a Nazi-era Iron Cross on her bikini line while smoking a bong and making out with her young female aide have been obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com

The congresswoman, 32, was also pictured naked brushing the young woman's hair, who DailyMail.com can identity as Morgan Desjardins, 24, from Santa Clarita, California.

Desjardins began a relationship with Hill and Heslep shortly after she started working for Hill in 2017, before the three-way affair broke down this summer when Hill told both her husband and her lover that she wanted to focus on her work.

Hill's wild lifestyle has been laid bare in a cache of texts and intimate photographs obtained by DailyMail.com, as sources revealed Hill and Heslep also posted her naked photos online under a thread called 'WouldYouF**kMyWife'.

The Daily Mail has a bunch of photographs and texts and yes, it is an Iron Cross - not just "appears to be" it is.

Can't use the term: "Fake News" anymore

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From retired journalist Don Surber:

Journalists to ban Fake News phrase
Journalists want the government to force President Donald John Trump to stop calling them Fake News.

Waah! They cannot handle any criticism, and so they demand Silence!

The story as reported by BizPac Review, "A Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is hoping to trademark the term Fake News.

Heh - this is so Democrat it is funny. They got the moniker "Fake News" because that is what they have been doing. Pushing the progressive narrative as though it is an actual news story. If they want to have people stop using the term, all they have to do is to start doing their job, research their stories and publish the facts and not the narrative.

What makes this so delicious is that since they cannot do this, they resort to the common tactic of making it illegal. Can't use the phrase "Fake News" - that violates my copyright.

Out shortly - low tide

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Low tide is at 10:13AM this morning so heading out to take some photos. It is especially low and there is a fairly high tide at 3:22PM. Want to look at Leque Island - the new salt marsh.

Heh - I love this: Fake News

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From FOX News:

White House won't renew subscriptions to 'fake' New York Times, Washington Post following Trump’s ‘Hannity’ hint
The White House said it wouldn’t renew subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post on Tuesday after President Trump hinted at the move earlier in the week on Fox News’ “Hannity.”

Trump suggested that he would "probably terminate" both papers during a Monday interview with Sean Hannity, in which he called them "fake."

Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham told Politico on Tuesday that Trump was referring to subscriptions “which we won’t be renewing,” as opposed to terminating reporters from the papers’ access to the White House.

President Trump is just trolling the media - say something outrageous and watch them clutch their pearls. Fun.

He is one of them. From FOX News:

Media showing 'strange new respect' for Mitt Romney after his anti-Trump Twitter account surfaces, Howard Kurtz says
The mainstream media is showing new respect for Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, in the wake of his apparent admission he managed a cryptic, oft-anti-Trump Twitter account, according to Howard Kurtz.

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, is normally a "straight-laced" politician who in this case felt he could be a little more easygoing through his "Pierre Delecto" handle, Kurtz claimed Monday on "The Story."

Kurtz told host Martha MacCallum that Romney's pseudo-profile was much more critical of President Trump than his personal or official U.S. Senator handle.

"He's more caustically anti-Trump in this fake account and the press loves that," Kurtz said.

Shades of Carlos Danger until he got caught with his wiener out and had to be removed. Mittens was just doing the usual "Orange Man Bad" sort of stuff and the media love that.

Democrat rule all of them. From the pest control people Orkin:

Chicago Ranked #1 City on Orkin’s Top 50 Rattiest Cities List for Fifth Consecutive Time
Winter is coming, and so are the rodents. Orkin released its Top 50 Rattiest Cities list today, and for the fifth consecutive time, Chicago takes the top spot. New to the Top 10 cities this year are Minneapolis and Atlanta, holding the eighth and tenth spots, respectively.

Orkin ranked metro regions by the number of new rodent treatments performed from September 15, 2018 – September 15, 2019. This ranking includes both residential and commercial treatments.

    1. Chicago
    2. Los Angeles
    3. New York
    4. Washington, DC (Hagerstown)
    5. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose

They list 50 cities. For fun, I checked the top ten and they all had a long history of democratic mayors. The most recent Republican mayor was Cleveland with George Voinovich whose term ended in 1989.

Looks like multiculturalism is proving itself to be the abject failure that it always was. From Gateway Pundit:

After Admitting Over One Million Migrants into Germany Merkel Admits the “Multicultural Society Has Failed”
Germany, a country of 80 million, received over one million migrants and unvetted “refugees” in 2015.

Chancellor Angela Merkel expected another million migrants in 2016.

This week Angela Merkel finally admitted the “multicultural Germany” has failed.

Stunning.

From the BBC:

Merkel says German multicultural society has failed
Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany have "utterly failed", Chancellor Angela Merkel says.

She said the so-called "multikulti" concept - where people would "live side-by-side" happily - did not work, and immigrants needed to do more to integrate - including learning German.

The comments come amid rising anti-immigration feeling in Germany.

A recent survey suggested more than 30% of people believed the country was "overrun by foreigners".

So Angela. What are you going to do now? You have 16,000,000 immigrants in your nation of 80,457,737. Immigrants represent 19.8% of your total population. This was a social experiment and it failed horribly. What are you going to do? You could have listened to early reports of immigrants not assimilating into German society and reviewed your policies but no, when you got early reports that were not to your liking, you doubled down and increased the flood of people coming in. This is what you get when you elect a communist as your leader.

Hoist by one's petard

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This is from 2016 but an interesting retrospective - from Salon:

How the Hillary Clinton campaign deliberately "elevated" Donald Trump with its "pied piper" strategy
Republican Donald Trump, a far-right demagogue who campaigned on a slew of bigoted, xenophobic policies, has won the 2016 presidential election in a shocking victory few people predicted.

What was not often acknowledged in Trump's heated race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, however, was how her campaign fueled his rise to power.

An email recently released by the whistleblowing organization WikiLeaks shows how the Clinton campaign and Democratic Party bear direct responsibility for propelling the bigoted billionaire to the White House.

In its self-described "pied piper" strategy, the Clinton campaign proposed intentionally cultivating extreme right-wing presidential candidates, hoping to turn them into the new "mainstream of the Republican Party" in order to try to increase Clinton's chances of winning.

The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee called for using far-right candidates "as a cudgel to move the more established candidates further to the right." Clinton's camp insisted that Trump and other extremists should be "elevated" to "leaders of the pack" and media outlets should be told to "take them seriously."

The strategy backfired — royally.

I bet the people who thought that up felt pretty bad. As typical for a progressive puff-piece, there are no names, no accountable information but still, if they really thought this would help, this is comedy gold.

Goes to show that they really are not that bright. They have nothing to offer for policy, they can only cheat.

Organic farming - worse for the climate

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From the MIT Technology Review:

Sorry—organic farming is actually worse for climate change
Organic practices can reduce climate pollution produced directly from farming – which would be fantastic if they didn’t also require more land to produce the same amount of food.

Clearing additional grasslands or forests to grow enough food to make up for that difference would release far more greenhouse gas than the practices initially reduce, a new study in Nature Communications finds.

Other recent research has also concluded that organic farming produces more climate pollution than conventional practices when the additional land required is taken into account. In the new paper, researchers at the UK’s Cranfield University took a broad look at the question by analyzing what would happen if all of England and Wales shifted entirely to these practices.

The upshot is that you get a 5% reduction in "greenhouse gasses" with livestock and a 20% reduction with crops but organic farming is less efficient in terms of land use so you need to use 40% more land for the same food. Your gains are wiped out.

Wonderful day

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Ran into someone I see from time to time at coffee, started talking and we spent the day together.

Got a class tomorrow evening - the National Weather Service Skywarn program. I already have a small weather station here. I also have a much older bigger station still at the farm and will be bringing that down here sometime this winter.

Surf for a bit.

Heh - Hillary

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Got nothing

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Nothing on the internets so watching a couple YouTube videos and then to bed. Early morning tomorrow.

Heading out for a while

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Some stuff came in at the library so picking it up. Had a big lunch here so getting a burrito for a light dinner.

Turned out to be a nice day and more in the forecast.

Good - push back

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Want to identify as a different gender? Go ahead and knock yourself out. Just do not expect everyone else to play along with your little psychosis. From the Daily Wire:

Transgender Activist Loses Cases Against Female Estheticians Who Refused To Wax Male Genitals
Transgender activist Jessica Yaniv, a biological male who identifies as a female, filed at least 15 human rights complaints against female estheticians in Canada for refusing to wax his male genitals, as covered this summer by The Daily Wire.

On Tuesday, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is representing five of the women being targeted by Yaniv, announced that the activist’s cases against their clients have been tossed by the BC Human Rights Tribunal. Moreover, Yaniv will be forced to pay $2,000 each to at least three of the women.

Ahhhh - poor widdle Jessica Jonathan got his feeewings hurt. From this story, it seems that he was targeting salons specifically. That fine should have been $5,000 each - really drive the point home.

Cutting off your nose

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To spite your face. From One America News Network:

San Francisco Blacklists States With Pro-Life Laws
San Francisco is bringing its pro-choice agenda to the national level. The city’s mayor announced a measure last week, which will blacklist 22 states that are considered to have restrictive abortion laws. All those listed have similar time restraints for terminating a pregnancy, ranging from a 13 week to a 24 week cut off.

Mayor London Breed defended the measure by saying, “every day in this country women’s reproductive rights are threatened and we have to fight back.”

Under the law, all San Francisco city workers will be prohibited from taking work-related trips or doing business with companies in those states. However, critics argue the city does not provide those states with enough tax revenue to encourage any real policy changes.

And of course, residents of those states will most likely find reasons to not visit California. Conferences, tourism, shopping. The unintended consequences should be interesting.

Pro-gress / Con-gress

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Explains a lot when you look at the prefixes. From Forbes:

Re-Elected. These Five Powerful Members of Congress Have Figured It All Out
How is 97 percent of Congress able to get re-elected each year even though only 17 percent of the American people believe our representatives are doing a good job?

It’s called an incumbent protection system. Taxpayers have a right to know how it works.

Recently, our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com, mashed up the federal checkbook with the congressional campaign donor database (source: OpenSecrets.org). We found powerful members of Congress soliciting campaign donations from federal contractors based in their districts.

Much more at the site. All technically legal but huge conflict of interest.
Tip of the hat to Peter at Bayou Renaissance Man for the link. Fascinating read.

Senator Ted Cruz - illegal immigrants

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Great observations from Matt Taibbi at the Rolling Stone:

Everyone Is a Russian Asset
Hillary Clinton, not long ago the nominee of the Democratic Party, had some choice words about the state of American politics Friday.

“I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate,” Clinton said on a podcast with former Barack Obama aide David Plouffe. “She’s the favorite of the Russians.”

Matt outlines a couple more of Hillary's gaffes and goes on to say:

Hillary Clinton is nuts. She’s also not far from the Democratic Party mainstream, which has been pushing the same line for years.

No big surprise there - they forgot about the Overton Window and are experiencing it in all it's melt-down glory.

Out the door

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11:00AM meeting - coffee first. Will not be driving to Arlington to look at the river - things have quieted down a lot so nothing much to see. Working at home today.

More fake news - Jussie Smollett

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Good - make it hurt to lie - from The Gateway Pundit:

BREAKING: Judge Allows Chicago Suit Against Jussie Smollett To Proceed
U.S. District Virginia Kendall’s ruling will allow the city’s lawsuit to try to recoup $130,000 the police department spent trying to get to the bottom of Smollett’s claims.

Smollett’s lawyers argued that their client should not be forced to reimburse the city because he could not have known how much time and money police would spend investigating.

Chicago police say their probe into the allegations that Smollett suffered a racist and homophobic attack that forced officers to file for nearly 1,900 hours of overtime. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said Smollett “took advantage of the pain and anger of racism to promote his career.”

Self-centered little child. Staged an attack to get in the public spotlight. Hey Jussie? Your fifteen minutes were over a long long time ago. You are just not that interesting a person. Bye bye...

CNN Fake News - tranche #4

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Released this morning - from Project Veritas:

Part 4: #MeTooCNN Video Exposes Alleged Sexual Misconduct by CNN Exec and Possible Cover-Up by Senior CNN Management

    • Rick Saleeby, Senior Producer of The Lead with Jake Tapper, States Steve Brusk, CNN Politics Supervising Producer, Made ‘Advances’ on Female Employees During ‘Social Gatherings’ and Would “Put His Arm Around Them, Try and Touch Their Leg.”
    • Saleeby Believes That Steve Brusk is “Protected by Certain People…Like Other Higher Ups” Within CNN.
    • Rick Saleeby Recalls Incident with a Young Female Colleague: “She Had a Skirt on. I Could See the Hand. I Like Grab Her. It Looked Like I Was Being the Assaulter Because I Grabbed Her So Aggressively…to Keep Her from Him.”
    • Saleeby: “He Had Already Been Accused of the Things Prior… Which I Found Out…”
    • Saleeby Acknowledges the Gravity of the Situation: “I’ll Tell You This, In the Climate That’s Going Now, He Definitely Would Have Been Fired.”
    • Nick Neville, Media Coordinator at CNN, Says It is “Open Knowledge” That a Female Colleague Got a Job Working with Steve Brusk That “Appeared Out of Nowhere,” “…It Was Never Posted Online…”
    • Neville Refers to Allegedly Untoward Behavior from Brusk With the Young Female Employee: “…I Mean, He Emails All of Us, But He Would Email and Was Very Friendly to Her. And Then She Just Like Got a Job Like Working on His Team and She Was Like, Oh, It’s Hush-Hush. The Job Was Never Posted Anywhere.”
    • Neville: “…I Just Thought It Was a Little Strange.”
    • Christian Sierra, Media Coordinator at CNN, Continues: “That’s Unethical…That’s Unethical.”
    • Steve Brusk Tells Project Veritas Journalists to Speak with CNN’s PR Team About Sexual Misconduct Allegations; When Approached in DC, Refuses to Watch Footage.
    • Rick Saleeby and Jake Tapper Refuse to Speak with Project Veritas Journalists in DC When Approached for Comment.
    • Project Veritas Calls CNN President Jeff Zucker’s Office for Comment on Last Week’s Multiple Releases Regarding Anti-Trump Bias in the Network; Zucker’s Administrative Assistant Replies: “We Don’t Have Any Comment, Thanks for Calling.”

Last week, Project Veritas began releasing #ExposeCNN videos showing bias against the President, certain Democratic Presidential candidates, as well as the dissatisfaction of several longtime employees with the network’s current state.

Today, we are releasing Part IV exposing CNN’s attitude towards sexual harassment and assault allegedly happening within the network.

Steve Brusk Has Allegedly Gotten Away With Sexual Misconduct
When speaking about CNN Politics Supervising Producer and White House Unit Supervising Producer/Coverage Manager, Steve Brusk, ‘The Lead with Jake Tapper’ Senior Producer Rick Saleeby said: “…he would like make advances if there was a social gathering and they were drunk… Put his arms around them, try and touch their leg. Try and build up emails to the level where he would get flirty and inappropriate.”

Looks like CNN has taken over from Mos Eisley spaceport as the wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Seriously? I mean WTF? - math

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If I had a kid in the Seattle public school system, I would pull them out. From Education Week:

Seattle Schools Lead Controversial Push to 'Rehumanize' Math
The Seattle school district is planning to infuse all K-12 math classes with ethnic-studies questions that encourage students to explore how math has been “appropriated” by Western culture and used in systems of power and oppression, a controversial move that puts the district at the forefront of a movement to “rehumanize” math.

The district’s proposed framework outlines strands of discussion that teachers should incorporate into their classes. One leads students into exploring math’s roots “in the ancient histories of people and empires of color.” Another asks how math and science have been used to oppress and marginalize people of color, and who holds power in a math classroom.

This is pure pseudo-intellectual twaddle and will seriously hurt the children. It is all about virtue signalling and nothing about giving our next generation the valuable tools they need for life. I would quote more from the article but my eyes are starting to bleed and I need to stop. Hurts. Seriously, it is that profoundly stupid.

Tip of the hat to Firehand for the link.

The Holy Grail - photography

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Now this is interesting - from DIY Photography:

SCIENTISTS DEVELOP AN ALGORITHM THAT RECOVERS DETAIL IN YOUR BLURRY PHOTOS
A group of MIT researchers has come up with a way to recover lost details from your blurry images and even videos. They have developed an algorithm that recognizes and automatically recovers blurred parts in your videos and stills.

The algorithm is called a “visual deprojection model” and it’s based on a convolutional neural network. The scientists trained the algorithm by feeding it blurry images and their high-quality counterparts. This way, the algorithm “learns” a pattern that allows it to recreate the blurry bits and make them sharp.

In one of their experiments, the researchers tested the algorithm on 35 videos of 30 people walking in a specified area.

“They collapsed all frames into projections that they used to train and test the model. From a hold-out set of six unseen projections, the model accurately recreated 24 frames of the person’s gait, down to the position of their legs and the person’s size as they walked toward or away from the camera. The model seems to learn, for instance, that pixels that get darker and wider with time likely correspond to a person walking closer to the camera.”

Not a panacea - it needs to be trained with photos that are blurry and then the same photos that are sharp but still, once the database gets large enough, it might have some use.

Lots of rain but no brass ring

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Crested just below flood stage - still a lot of water:

20191022-stilly01.png

Just under 30,000 cubic feet per second - that is a lot of water.

20191022-stilly02.png

And just under flood stage (14 feet gage height).

Cloudy but no rain this morning - forecast is for a couple of days like this and some sunny days later this week.

Brass ring? Old carny technology.

Leque Island

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What was once a salt marsh was diked and turned into 250 acres of agricultural land for 140 years. A group of people purchased the land and have removed the dikes turning it into what will become a salt marsh again. This is on the main road coming west out of Stanwood and heading on to Camano Island. From the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife:

Estuary restoration at Leque Island
It’s not something you see every day — tidal water rushing onto dry land for the first time in 140 years, the pressure of it finally pushing over the flimsy bridge of earth separating salt water from the fresh water inside.

Leque Island, in the city of Stanwood, was returned to the estuary on Monday evening, Oct. 14, 2019. This was the third dike breach I’ve experienced. The first was in 2016 at Fir Island Farm in Skagit County, three months after I started working at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). The second was in 2018, Snohomish County’s Smith Island project. Massive in scale, many years in the making, such a great accomplishment, and an honor to be there to watch it.

And here is a 1:28 annotated drone video (no sound) of the area in question (flying south to north):

It is fascinating to drive over the bridge and see the changes happening on a daily basis. This will be a major gain for the juvenile Chinook salmon as they transition from fresh to salt water, as well as shorebirds, waterfowl, and a host of other species in the area. Because Puget Sound's southern resident killer whales rely upon Chinook salmon for food, the project is also closely aligned with orca recovery efforts.

Still raining

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Not the gusty downpours of the cyclones. Much less Sturm und Drang but more of a constant and unrelenting fall.

The mighty Stilly at Arlington:

20191021-stilly01.png

You can see the initial cyclones and then the continuous rainfall driving the Stillaguamish river to ten times the average flow rate. Gage height is still a bit below flood stage:

20191021-stilly02.png

A bit above eight feet and flood stage is at fourteen. My meeting is at 11:00AM tomorrow so planning to drive down after that and take a look if it is still raining or if the weather looks interesting.

Good meeting tonight

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The President is not used to procedure but one of the other board members gave her a copy of Robert's Rules a couple weeks ago so the meetings should start running better. I step in when needed.

The beers were nice and cold and wet.

Heading out soon - board meeting

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On the board of this organization - they elected me to Vice President for some strange reason.

Meeting and then two beers.

Still raining - did not stop today. Up to 0.6" accumulation from midnight. Been working on some fun stuff at home.

Flooding expected on the Stilly - from the Stanwood-Camano News:

Flood watch issued for Stillaguamish River
A flood watch has been issued for local rivers through Tuesday night as heavy rains move in to the region.

There is a potential for flooding, based on current forecasts, for many rivers and streams in northwest Washington, including Snohomish County, according to the watch issued by the National Weather Service.

Heavy rain is expected to continue for the next several hours, including 2 to 4 inches of rain over the Olympics and central Cascades, according to the Weather Service.

The Stilliguamish River in Arlington is predicted to crest at 13.78 feet, just under the 14-foot flood stage, at about midnight.

I might drive down to Arlington tomorrow after my meeting. Photos will be taken.

Changing the narrative - polar bears

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Disturbing news from Polar Bear Science:

UVic bows to outside pressure and rescinds my adjunct professor status
As you may have heard, this summer I lost my status as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada (UVic), a position I had held for 15 years. This action followed my expulsion from the roster of the university’s volunteer Speakers Bureau in May 2017. However, until April 2017 the university and the Anthropology department proudly promoted my work, including my critical polar bear commentary, which suggests someone with influence (and perhaps political clout) intervened to silence my scientific criticism.

Journalist Donna LaFramboise has exposed this travesty in the National Post (16 October 2019), which you can read here. I have provided more background below and Donna’s blog post is here.

UPDATE 21 October 2019: See my follow-up post for more background and a critical post from Donna Laframboise on the questions UVic refused to answer. The Washington Times published an article yesterday and GWPF has issued a press release condemning the suppression of academic freedom at UVic and the release of a briefing paper called The Defenestration of Dr. Crockford: Silencing Dissent at the University of Victoria.

Mostly an ill-considered campaign by Greenpeace. Bunch of morons putting ideology before science. The polar bears are doing just fine.

Good - more faster please!

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From Red State:

Flop Sweat Builds As It Sure Looks Like The Barr-Durham Probe Is Now A Criminal Investigation
Yesterday, RedState via Elizabeth Vaughn shared the news that Durham had further expanded his investigation to include James Clapper and John Brennan. This, of course, left Brennan flailing about wildly, wondering why the DOJ would even be interested in him.

John Brennan told NBC that Durham’s investigation is “bizarre” and said, “I don’t know what the legal basis for this is.” He doesn’t? Let me refresh his memory.

Brennan’s obsessive fear that Donald Trump might win the presidency may have instigated the whole collusion narrative. He didn’t have to twist many arms to bring others on board, but his exhaustive search for “dirt” on Trump and his insistence that the FBI open a counterintelligence investigation was key.

That news came on the heels of another report I wrote on a week earlier in which it was confirmed that Barr had expanded his reach past just FISA abuse.

However, based on what he has been finding, Durham has expanded his investigation adding agents and resources, the senior administration officials said. The timeline has grown from the beginning of the probe through the election and now has included a post-election timeline through the spring of 2017, up to when Robert Mueller was named special counsel.

With the latest report, there are a few things happening that make me think this isn’t just window dressing. In fact, I think it has morphed into a full blown criminal investigation.

Good - time to put these people behind bars.

Are machines getting smarter?

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Or are we just getting dumber and dumber - I could go either way. From IT Web:

Singularity is a decade closer than predicted
The technological singularity, an age when machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence, is now expected to take place in 2035, 10 years earlier than initially predicted.

A bit of a puff-piece but an interesting thought.

Looking at the Boeing 737 problems

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An interesting analysis of the Boeing corporate culture and it's downfall. From David Perell:

WHY DID THE BOEING 737 MAX CRASH?
Airplane crashes capture an outsized share of attention. Even though they represent a small fraction of transportation-related crashes, their rarity and drama hold a steel grip on our hearts and minds. But what if we could understand the systemic issues that cause certain airplane crashes?

And David gets into the problem:

Why did the 737 Max crash? Because of a software failure.

Why did the software fail? Because Boeing’s executive team has lowered its engineering standards.

Why did Boeing lower its engineering standards? To lower costs and increase efficiency — the goal was to save money.

Why does Boeing save money at the expense of human lives? Because Boeing purchased McDonnell-Douglas in 1997 and absorbed its ultra-corporate culture with relatively low engineering standards. Since the acquisition, the company hasn’t innovated as fast as it once did. In lieu of actual innovation, the company cut corners to maintain growth rates.

Why did Boeing buy McDonnell-Douglas? Because the airplane manufacturing industry is consolidating, and Boeing is pursuing profit at the expense of human lives.

The actual story of the 737 Max crash begins with that McDonnell-Douglas purchase in 1997, 21 years before the first accident in late 2018. Unfortunately, media coverage of the crash mostly ignores Boeing’s corporate history.

This is more than a story about two airplane crashes. It’s a story about an iconic American giant that lost its way because of mergers, risk-aversion, and excessive outsourcing.

Fasten your seat belts, put your seat in the upright position, and prepare for takeoff.

A long but fascinating analysis - really interesting and Boeing is going to have to re-invent itself if it expects to survive.

Heh - so true...

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Found on the intarwebs:

20191021-titanic.jpg

Surprise surprise...

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Crooked Hillary at Judicial Watch:

JUDICIAL WATCH: NEW BENGHAZI DOCUMENTS CONFIRM CLINTON EMAIL COVER-UP
Judicial Watch today released new Clinton emails on the Benghazi controversy that had been covered up for years and would have exposed Hillary Clinton’s email account if they had been released when the State Department first uncovered them in 2014. The long withheld email, clearly responsive to Judicial Watch’s lawsuit seeking records concerning “talking points or updates on the Benghazi attack,” contains Clinton’s private email address and a conversation about the YouTube video that sparked the Benghazi talking points scandal (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01242)). This Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit led directly to the disclosure of the Clinton email system in 2015.

The Clinton email cover-up led to court-ordered discovery into three specific areas: whether Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server was intended to stymie FOIA; whether the State Department’s intent to settle this case in late 2014 and early 2015 amounted to bad faith; and whether the State Department has adequately searched for records responsive to Judicial Watch’s request. The court also authorized discovery into whether the Benghazi controversy motivated the cover-up of Clinton’s email.  (The court ruled that the Clinton email system was “one of the gravest modern offenses to government transparency.”)

The September 2012 email chain begins with an email to Clinton at her private email address, “hdr22@clintonemail.com,” from Jacob Sullivan, Clinton’s then-senior advisor and deputy chief of staff. The email was copied to Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s then-chief of staff, and then was forwarded to then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Strategic Communications and Clinton advisor Phillipe Reines:

The words "smoking gun" come to mind - they have the emails there for you to read. That Hillary is not in jail shows you just how pervasive the deep state is.

Blatant bias - New York Times

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A good observation from John Sexton writing at Hot Air:

NY Times Reports On The ‘Backlash’ To Homelessness In California
The NY Times published a story about homelessness in California today but the framing of the story is a bit odd. It’s headlined, “As Homelessness Surges in California, So Does a Backlash.” The rule for progressive outlets is always the same: If the story helps Democrats then it’s a story. If the story might help Republicans then the reaction to the story is the story. So here, instead of writing a straight piece about how the homeless are causing a rise in crime in San Francisco, you get a story about “backlash” in which the homeless are the victims.

That old definition: Journalist = Democratic operative with a byline

The joys of living in China

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I wonder how many people are emigrating. Typical of a totalitarian state. From the Christian Broadcasting Network:

'War Against the Faithful': Chinese Gov't Tears Down Church Building as Christians Worship
In the latest blatant attack against the church-at-large in communist China, Chinese government authorities tore down a megachurch's building in the Funan, Anhui region, starting the demolition while the congregation was worshipping. The church's pastors were also arrested and detained.

The incident happened over the weekend, according to the international non-profit Christian human rights organization China Aid.

Government officials did not provide any documents ordering the 3,000-seat church building's demolition. But they did produce arrest warrants for leaders Geng Yimin and Sun Yongyao. Both pastors were detained on the charge of suspicion of "gathering a crowd to disturb social order."

Cant have anything deviate from the narrative. We are seeing it grow here, it is mandated over there. There is only one Leader. There is only one State. There is only One Thought. Anything else is illegal and you will be re-educated.

No Shit Sherlock

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From Rasmussen Reports:

Voters Still Suspect High-Level Crimes Against Trump But Doubt Anyone Will Pay
Just over half of voters still believe in the likelihood of an illegal high-level effort to stop the Trump presidency, but not nearly as many expect anyone to be punished for it. Voters are evenly divided over which of the major 2016 presidential campaigns is more likely to have had illegal foreign help.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey shows that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters think it’s likely senior law enforcement officials broke the law in an effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning the presidency. That includes 34% who say it’s Very Likely. Thirty-six percent (36%) consider high-level illegality as unlikely, with 22% who say it’s Not At All Likely. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

I hope that people are charged - this was criminal activity.

How to kill business in one easy lesson

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From Bloomberg - just the headline is enough:

Buttigieg Eyes 35% Corporate Tax Rate to Fund Health Plan

Mayor Pete just killed his candidacy.

Yikes - People's Republic of China

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Talk about tyranny - from Gizmodo:

Chinese Citizens Will Have to Scan Their Faces to Get Internet Access and New Phone Numbers
Starting December 1, Chinese citizens will have to allow telecommunications carriers to scan their faces when signing up for internet access or to get a new phone number.

The new rule was announced by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on September 27 (link in Chinese). Roughly translated via Google, the statement says the reason for the new changes is to “earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of citizens in the cyberspace.” On top of requiring carriers to use facial recognition to see whether an applicant matches their ID, people will no longer be able to transfer SIM cards to others. Lastly, MIIT wants carriers to verify whether mobile or landline phones are correctly registered under real names, and terminate those that aren’t. At the end of its statement, MIIT somewhat ominously notes that it will “increase supervision and inspection, strengthen assessment accountability, supervise the implementation of work, [and] continue to strictly promote the real-name registration management of telephone users.”

And of course, this is going to be hacked in 3... 2... 1... Information wants to be free.

Back to rain again

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Not the cyclones, just normal fall rain. Sounds wonderful on the roof.

Quiet day news-wise - nothing much on the internet. Heading up north (Mt. Vernon and Burlington) for some stuff. Board meeting tonight and a meeting with a builder tomorrow.

Farm and Bellingham later this week.

Cliff does his usual fantastic job of describing the landscape of climate change and highlighting the two main actors:

The Real Climate Debate
The real climate debate is not between "believers" and "deniers".
And not between Republicans and Democrats.

The real debate is certainly not over whether global warming, spurred by increasing greenhouse gases, is a serious problem that must be addressed. Both sides of the real climate debate agree on that.

1. A confident, non-political group that believes technology, informed investments, rational decision making, and the use of the best scientific information will lead to a solution of the global warming issue. An optimistic group that sees global warming as a technical problem with technical solutions. I will refer to these folks as the ACT group (Apolitical/Confident/Technical)

2. A group, mainly on the political left, that is highly partisan, anxious and often despairing, self-righteous, big on blame and social justice, and willing to attack those that disagree with them. They often distort the truth when it serves their interests. They also see social change as necessary for dealing with global warming, requiring the very reorganization of society. I call these folks the ASP group (Anxious, Social-Justice, Partisan).

There is no better way to see the profound difference between these two groups than to watch a video of the testimony of young activists at the recent House Hearing on Climate Change, which included Greta Thunberg, Jamie Margolin, Vic Barrett, and Benji Backer.

Jamie Margolin of Seattle talked about an apocalyptic future, with "corporations making billions" while they destroy the future of her generation.  Of feeling fear and despair.  Of a planet where the natural environment is undergoing collapse, where only a few years are left before we pass the point of no return, and where only a massive political shift can fix things, including the Green New Deal.  Watch her testimony to see what I mean.

Compare Ms. Margolin's testimony to that of University of Washington senior Benji Backer. 
Mr. Backer, leader of the American Conservation Coalition, a conservative/moderate group of young people supporting action to protect the environment, approaches the problem in a radically different way.  Instead of despair, there is optimism, recommending more scientific and technical research, a bipartisan attack on the problem, a rejection of an apocalyptic future, the building of new energy industries with potential benefits for the American economy, and a dedication to follow the science and not political expediency.  His testimony is here.

Both Ms. Margolin and Mr. Backer care deeply about the environment and want effective measures to deal with global warming.  Both their approaches and attitudes could not be more different.

Cliff proceeds to highlight the various groups looking to resolve the climate issue in the Seattle area. A really interesting insight and one we need to be aware of this coming election. There is a bunch of dirty politics coming from the Green Nude Eel people. The ASP group. Go and read the whole thing. Great comments too.

Really clever - found at Vanderleun's:

Our coming cold weather - agriculture

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You can point to graphs and forecasts all you want but when the computer models consistently (because you made them that way) churn out predictions of catastrophic warming, do not be surprised when the plants fail to believe you.

From Musings from the Chiefio who has been following this summers crop cycle:

Grain Growth Halted – Cold Is Here
I’ve put up postings on this for a while. Often citing Iceagenow.info lists of cold places or linking videos from farmers (most recently Yanasa Ama Ranch). Well, the USDA has just stated that this last round of freezing temperatures has effectively ended the grain season.

Why does this matter? Because due to a cold wet late spring, crop was planted late. To get full harvest would require growing into November. That’s impossible. Furthermore, a lot of crop was not harvested at the usual times so is still in the field. It is now more likely to rot there than to be harvested.

Yet the USDA, while calling the season done, is still keeping up rosy predictions on harvest amounts and yields. That’s not gonna work.

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Crop_Progress_&_Condition/2019/US_2019.pdf

Has corn at 55% “good to excellent” so quality and yield are down, then only 20% harvested. That’s about 1/2 of what was harvested at this time last year. Soybean numbers are almost the same at about 54% good and 25% harvested.

They close with the following:

Just make sure to keep an eye on how things finish out this year, and then do we get a repeat next year… Once we start stacking up 2 or 3 bad weather years in a row, that’s when I think it will start getting “dicey” on the world stage. The first year it is likely to just be a price bump on cheap meats. Chicken and pork.

Sage advice - a period of extended cooling would make major changes in the world's food supply. Better to be safe as it is not IF - it isWHEN

Some nice weather today

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Overcast but only minimal rainfall. Drove South to WinCo to do some grocery shopping (they sell some decent poke for $8/pound). Took the back roads through farming country - nice looking at the seasonal changes in the farmland. The dairies all have their silage piles stacked high. Leaves are turning golden.

Board meeting tomorrow then another one Tuesday and then up to the farm for a couple of days. Pack and water.

What law? The Logan Act - specifically here:

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized persons with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government's position. The Act was passed following George Logan's unauthorized negotiations with France in 1798, and was signed into law by President John Adams on January 30, 1799. The Act was amended in 1994, changing the penalty for violation from "fined $5,000" to "fined under this title"; this appears to be the only amendment to the Act. Violation of the Logan Act is a felony.

From FOX News:

Pelosi, other US lawmakers arrive in Jordan for meetings on Syria
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other U.S. lawmakers announced late Saturday U.S. time that they had arrived in Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and other officials regarding the situation in Syria.

Although touted as a "bipartisan" delegation, the group includes just one Republican -- Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, ranking member of the House Armed Services Commitee. Thornberry is among a group of Texas Republicans who've announced they won't seek reelection in 2020.

“Our bipartisan delegation is visiting Jordan at a critical time for the security and stability of the region,” Pelosi said in a statement.  “With the deepening crisis in Syria after Turkey’s incursion, our delegation has engaged in vital discussions about the impact to regional stability, increased flow of refugees, and the dangerous opening that has been provided to ISIS, Iran and Russia.”

Sure, they will lie and call it "just" a fact-finding mission but they could have done that through email and not spent our money on a chartered flight plus all the security for this partisan junket. The people who went:

Along with Pelosi, the other Democrats in the delegation are Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Foreign Services Committee; Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee; Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., member of the House Ways and Means Committee; Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., member of the House Armed Services Committee; Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., chairman of the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on national security; and Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Well, now we all know who NOT to vote for in 2020. Not surprised that Adam Shiff is there.

President Trump tweeted this:

It will be so nice when we no longer have to deal with these people any more.

A strong message - Tulsi Gabbard

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Just wow! From her twitter account:

And I will say it again, if it was a choice between her and some RINO like Mittens, she would get my vote.

Academia on parade

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Not a pretty sight - from The Gateway Pundit:

Here We Go… Angry Gender Studies Professor Blames Trump for Black Women Being Obese
A 2012 study published in Common Health magazine reported, “No population in the United States has a higher obesity rate than African American women, four out of five of whom are overweight or obese, according to a 2012 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Obviously, there is no correlation between obesity, black women and Trump.

20191020-obese.jpg

But it doesn’t matter.

Rutgers gender studies professor, Brittany Cooper, when speaking to a group of black women on Oprah Winfrey Network’s “Black Women OWN the Conversation,” made the claim that it was President Trump who was making black women fat.

What is needed here is a sense of self-reliance and self-education. What is not needed is the culture of dependency that the Obama administration promoted. You are responsible for your own food decisions, your own education, your own life. Nothing more and nothing less.

Vox Day said it best:

In academia there is no difference between academia and the real world; in the real world there is.

Not just Biden - Ukraine

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Stuff is starting to come out and it does not look good for the Democrats - from FOX News:

The real Ukraine scandal is US cash for gas -- It involves the Bidens and a growing list of Dems
Joe Biden hit back at allegations over his son, Hunter, saying there was nothing corrupt about the firing of that Ukrainian prosecutor. But that is a total dodge.

The real scandal is not about the firing of the damn prosecutor!! -- it's about U.S. cash for Ukraine gas. It involves not just the Bidens, but former Secretary of State John Kerry and a growing number of Democratic senators as our special investigation will reveal.

These credible allegations of corruption must be investigated. Of course, President Trump is right to pursue them with Attorney General Barr, and yes, with the leader of the country where the alleged corruption took place. How can you investigate U.S. cash for Ukraine gas without involving Ukraine?

And some names:

Remember Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's business partner? He had previously been a top fundraiser for John Kerry, who was Secretary of State at the time. And soon after Devon and Hunter joined the Burisma Board, the company channeled $90,000 to a lobbying firm called ML Strategies, which was headed by none other than David Leiter, John Kerry's former chief of staff.

That's handy because then-Secretary of State John Kerry himself has visited Ukraine with promises of U.S. aid and assistance. Well, Leiter registered as a Burisma lobbyist in mid-2014. But in the year leading up to that, he gave close to $60,000 to Democrats, including a select group of U.S. senators who would later be instrumental in pushing cash towards Ukraine's energy sector, directly in line with Burisma's interests.

He donated to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., four times and to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., three times. A month after the last of those donations, both Markey and Shaheen were among four senators who wrote a letter to President Obama that said, "We should leverage the full resources and expertise of the U.S. government to assist Ukraine in improving its energy efficiency, increasing its domestic production and reforming its energy markets."

A lot more at the site - all Democrats. All corrupt as hell.

Fun video

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The. Most. Terrifying. Pumpkin. Ever.

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Found over at BoingBoing:

20191020-pumpkin.jpg

That is it for this evening

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Did not attend today's auction - nothing really caught my eye at the preview. Was pouring down rain all afternoon so ran some errands and had dinner out. Two beers and I am done.

More spew tomorrow.

Local news - such wonderful people

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Streaming into our "sanctuary" counties. From The Seattle Times:

Two men charged in killing and dismemberment of 16-year-old found in Green River
King County prosecutors have filed murder charges against two men suspected of killing and dismembering a 16-year-old boy in Auburn last month, then leaving his body in the Green River.

Rudy Osvaldo Garcia-Hernandez, 28, and Carlos Orlando Iraheta-Vega, 20, were charged Friday with premeditated first-degree murder, according to charging documents. Both men are being held in King County Jail in lieu of $3 million bail.

Prosecutors allege the men lured Juan Carlos Con Guzman, a student at Mount Rainier High School in Des Moines, from his home to fight on Sept. 10, then drove to a remote location near the river “with a plan to torture and kill him,” according to charges.

Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mary Barbosa wrote in the charges that the suspects beat Con Guzman with a baseball bat before hitting him repeatedly with a machete and dismembering him. “The extraordinary brutality of this crime demonstrates the threat the defendants pose to the community,” she wrote.

And of course, it is not until paragraph six that this is said (do not blink or you will miss it):

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has used the case, as well as recent violent crimes in Bellevue and Seattle, to criticize King County officials for their policy to not abide by ICE detainers without a judicial warrant, as ICE said Iraheta-Vega is an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador.

One of the murderous bastards was an: "undocumented immigrant from El Salvador"

Spending your days with your head in the sand is no way to live. That is just being willfully stupid. These are not the best and brightest - they come here to live off our tax dollars and they operate as criminals.

Hillary - a meme

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Ran into this:

20191019-hillary.jpg

I was going to look at a local auction preview yesterday but something had come up and the auctioneer was busy with other stuff. Looking at it this morning. Get a bite to eat too. Coffee, post office and library and then back home to work on a couple of projects.

Cyclone #4

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Looks like this system is slowing down - here is the rainfall from the fourth cyclone:

20191019-cyclone4.png

Getting back to normal. A fun couple of days watching Mother Nature at work.

We did not lose power as our local Public Utilities Department has stayed on top of maintaining the infrastructure.

Political correctness gone crazy

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A n***er person of color using the word n***er gets fired for using that word - from Madison.com:

Black Madison school staffer appeals firing for repeating student's racial slur
A black security guard who was fired from West High School after telling a student who called him the N-word not to use the slur — and repeated the word itself — is appealing his termination, saying the district’s zero-tolerance policy toward such language by staff ignores crucial context.

Messages of support flooded Marlon Anderson’s Facebook page after he posted a brief description of the incident Wednesday. Anderson had worked for the Madison School District for 11 years.

“I had no idea I was going to be terminated, because I didn’t understand that zero tolerance meant there is no context attached to the word,” Anderson told the Wisconsin State Journal. “I need the district to answer the question of how can a black man lose his job for telling a student to not call him the N-word.”

Words fail. I can only offer this:

The latest narrative - the Kurds

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Terry Schappert says it all with this tweet:

Tip of the chapeau to Don Surber who offers this: No morals, no memory, no regrets.

Off to bed

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Tired. Working at home next couple of days. Have a board meeting Monday and meeting with the shop builder Tuesday. Getting this project started and it is going to be sweet!

Heading to the farm later next week - deal with the water issue and pack some more stuff up. Got a nice offer on my food trailer.

From Breitbart:

Report: Obama Administration ‘Rebuffed’ Warnings About Corruption Linked to Hunter Biden’s Ukraine Work
The Obama administration dismissed warnings raised by top State Department official George Kent in 2015 that the Ukrainian company that was employing then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter at the time was corrupt, the Washington Post confirmed Thursday.

The Post’s report suggested the Obama administration allowed Hunter Biden to continue serving on Burisma Holdings’ board of directors although it knew the company was corrupt.

Echoing a report from NBC News issued earlier this week, the Post noted:

A career State Department official overseeing Ukraine policy told congressional investigators this week that he had raised concerns in early 2015 about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company but was turned away by a Biden staffer, according to three people familiar with the testimony.

Six more links at the story to other corroborating data sources. Biden = Corrupt. Obama administration = Corrupt.

And don't get me started about Hillary...

Hillary is a mess

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First, psychological projection. Now, an Idée fixe - specifically, Russia.  Idée fixe from Infogalactic:

An idée fixe is a preoccupation of mind believed to be firmly resistant to any attempt to modify it, a fixation. The name originates from the French idée, "idea" and fixe, "fixed." Although not used technically to denote a particular disorder in psychology, idée fixe is used often in the description of disorders, and is employed widely in literature and everyday English.

From Newsmax:

Hillary Believes Putin Has Compromising Material on Trump
Hillary Clinton is suggesting Russia has compromising material on President Donald Trump.

She also suggested Russia is grooming Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, as a third-party candidate in 2020. And she maintained that 2016 Green Party nominee Jill Stein is a "Russian asset."

Clinton's comments came during an interview on the Campaign HQ podcast with Barack Obama's former campaign manager David Plouffe's and were detailed in a story by The Washington Post.

"I don't know what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has on him, whether it's both personal and financial," Clinton said of Trump. "I assume it is."

Hillary was the person that as Secretary of State sold 20% of our Uranium mining assets to the Russians in exchange for a nice donation to the Clinton Foundation and a $500,000 stipend for Bill to speak in Moscow.

But - justice will prevail. From NBC News:

38 people cited for violations in Clinton email probe
The State Department has completed its internal investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of private email and found violations by 38 people, some of whom may face disciplinary action.

The department determined that those 38 people were "culpable" in 91 cases of sending classified information in messages that ended up in Clinton's personal email. The 38 are current and former State Department officials but were not identified in the report that was sent to Congress this week.

The investigation covered 33,000 emails that Clinton turned over for review after her use of the private email account became public. The department said it found a total of 588 violations involving information then or now deemed to be classified, but could not assign fault in 497 cases.

A small start but one that shows we are heading in the right direction.

Tulsi responds

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Hillary called Tulsi Gabbard a "Russian Asset". Tulsi puched back twice as hard - her twitter account:

A Hillary supporter could not let this stand and tweeted the following:

20191018-twit.JPG

Looks like he didn't like the feedback and yanked it. Never fear - the internet is forever. A screen cap with a wonderful response from this twitter account:

20191018-tweet02.JPG

Comedy gold...

And it's official - solar minimum

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We still have 74 days until the end of the year but it's looking like we are setting a record. From SpaceWeather:

DEEP SOLAR MINIMUM:
As of today, the sun has been blank (no sunspots) 74% of the time in 2019. This is significant because the previous record for spotlessness during the Space Age was 73% set in 2008. If low sunspot counts continue apace, 2019 could end up as the deepest Solar Minimum of the modern era.

Sunspots are an excellent proxy for solar output. Less sunlight, colder temperatures. SImple as that.

Boeing knew - 737Max

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Two years before the two crashes - from The New York Times:

Boeing Pilot Complained of ‘Egregious’ Issue With 737 Max in 2016
A Boeing pilot working on the 737 Max said in messages from 2016 that a new automated system was making the plane difficult to control in flight simulators, more than two years before it was grounded following two deadly crashes.

The existence of the messages strike at a central part of Boeing’s defense over how the plane was certified to fly. For months, the company has maintained that the Max was certified in accordance with all appropriate regulations, suggesting that there was no indication that MCAS was unsafe.

Ouch!

Most of our foreign aid is just going into the Swiss bank accounts of the tyrrants who run the countries. President Trump is looking at ending this policy of sending money and looking the other way. And it gets even better. The liberals will be screaming - I love it!  From Politico:

Trump administration mulls $4.3B in foreign aid cuts
The Trump administration is looking to cut more than $4 billion in foreign aid spending, including severe cuts to the United Nations budget that advocates say will threaten national security and increase human suffering around the globe.

The White House budget office is eyeing $2.3 billion in cuts to USAID and a $2 billion cut to the State Department through a process called rescission, an administration official speaking on background confirmed to POLITICO. The official cautioned that the numbers are subject to change.

Of course this is going to "threaten national security and increase human suffering around the globe" - it is their rice bowl that is being emptied. In reality, no such thing. A tinpot dictator in some third-world shithole will not get another Mercedes Maybach this year. Nothing more. It will not affect the overall lives of the citizens.

That he is also cutting the United Nations' budget is pure gravy.

Interesting - from Judicial Watch:

JW INVESTIGATES IF OUSTED UKRAINE AMBASSADOR ORDERED STATE DEPT. TO MONITOR JOURNALISTS, TRUMP ALLIES
Judicial Watch is investigating if prominent conservative figures, journalists and persons with ties to President Donald Trump were unlawfully monitored by the State Department in Ukraine at the request of ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, an Obama appointee. Yovanovitch testified “in secret” to the House impeachment inquiry against Trump on Friday, October 11, 2019. Her “secret” testimony was leaked to the New York Times during the hearing.

Judicial Watch has obtained information indicating Yovanovitch may have violated laws and government regulations by ordering subordinates to target certain U.S. persons using State Department resources. Yovanovitch reportedly ordered monitoring keyed to the following search terms: Biden, Giuliani, Soros and Yovanovitch.  Judicial Watch has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the State Department and will continue gathering facts from government sources.

And the people being monitored:

The prominent conservative figures — journalists and persons with ties to President Donald Trump — allegedly unlawfully monitored by the State Department in Ukraine at the request of ousted U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch include:

    • Jack Posobiec
    • Donald Trump Jr.
    • Laura Ingraham
    • Sean Hannity
    • Michael McFaul (Obama’s ambassador to Russia)
    • Dan Bongino
    • Ryan Saavedra
    • Rudy Giuliani
    • Sebastian Gorka
    • John Solomon
    • Lou Dobbs
    • Pamella Geller
    • Sara Carter

The Deep State is finding it uncomfortable to work in the US so they are extending tendrills to other nations friendly to their narrative.

Tip of the hat to Vox Day for the link.

Tulsi Gabbard is a classical Democrat

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If it was between Mitt Romney and her for president, I would vote for her. She is showing the general public what a sane and intelligent candidate looks like and they hate her for it. Their hair is on fire. From the Washington Examiner:

Hillary Clinton says Tulsi Gabbard is a 'Russian asset' groomed to ensure Trump reelection
Hillary Clinton said that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is being groomed by Moscow to run as a third-party spoiler candidate in 2020 to help President Trump win reelection.

The former secretary of state pushed the theory on Campaign HQ podcast hosted by David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager in 2008.

Plouffe and Clinton discussed hurdles the Democratic nominee would face and compared the 2020 race to Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016. Plouffe asked Clinton about the part third-party candidates, such as Jill Stein of the Green Party, played in 2016, allowing Trump to secure key states.

"They are also going to do third party again," Clinton, 71, said. "I'm not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate," Clinton said, referring to Gabbard, without mentioning the Hawaii representative by name.

Classic case of psychological projection on Crooked Hillary's part.

Follow the money - from Legal Insurrection:

September Another Record-Setting Fundraising Month for the RNC
Thursday, the Republican National Convention announced what they’re calling the “largest-ever off-cycle fundraising haul in history for either Party.”

The RNC raked in a whopping $27.3 million in September alone.

From the RNC:

“While Democrats focus on fighting President Trump, Republicans have prioritized voters and we have another record-breaking fundraising month–the highest ever off-cycle–to show for it,” said Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Voters are tired of Democrats’ petty politics and baseless witch hunts, and their shameful attacks have only energized our grassroots army and allowed us to lay the groundwork for Republicans to take back the House, expand our majority in the Senate and re-elect President Trump in 2020.”

RNC Fundraising Fast Facts:
Receipts for September 2019: $27.3 million
Receipts for 2019-2020 Cycle: $168.7 million
Total cash on hand: $59.2 million
Debt: $0
*Note: To date, the RNC has more than doubled the DNC’s fundraising. As of the last filing period, the DNC carried $7.3 million in debt.

This announcement follows the RNC and Trump Campaign’s massive $125 million Q3 haul announced earlier this month. The RNC is already investing this money into targeting vulnerable House Democrats over their support for the impeachment charade — $2.35 million to date — and continues to invest in growing its permanent ground game operation to expand the map in 2020 and benefit President Trump and Republican candidates nationwide.

Heh - the numbers speak for themselves. The Dems are eating their own seed corn trying to stay relevant.

Coffee time

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Get some coffee, check in at the post office, do a bit of yard sailing and attend an auction preview. Take the pups to the park and run them ragged for a bit.

Back in a while...

Cyclone four - winds starting to pick up

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Not raining but the winds just started gusting pretty hard. Should quiet down for a couple hours and then dump rain.

CNN is all over this news story

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From the U.S. Department of Defense:

DOD Spokesman Provides Border Wall Update
At present, about a mile of border wall is being built each day, Jonathan Rath Hoffman, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters at a Pentagon news conference today.

The Army Corps of Engineers is the executive agent for DOD's border wall construction. In April and May, the Corps awarded about $2.5 billion in projects to build a portion of the wall that will span 129 miles in New Mexico, Arizona and California, Hoffman said.

As of this week, virtually all of that $2.5 billion has been obligated and is on contract, and officials expect to have the remaining $3 million obligated before the end of this month, he said.

Hoffman pointed out that some of the property used for the wall construction already belongs to DOD — most notably, the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range in Arizona — and other land is in the process of being transferred from the Interior Department to DOD. Another allocation of $3.6 billion authorized under Title 10, U.S. Code, Section 2808, will go for 175 miles of border wall, he said.

And the mainstream media's reporting on this?

* * * crickets * * *

The border that we share with Mexico is 1,954 miles long. I do not know how much wall is there already but if they started from scratch today, it would only take a little more than five years to put up the entire thing. This is do-able.

The last couple of cyclones

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Here is the flow for the Stillaguamish river in Arlington - since the ground was saturated from the first bout of rainfall, the succeeding cyclones rainfall arrived in the river a lot faster. You can see the spike in the discharge with "bumps" as one front ended and the next front came in.

20191018-stilly.png

Got another four or five days for this storm system to play out.

Beta O'Rourke's rally in Dallas

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Bet you did not know that Beta O'Rourke also had a rally in Dallas the other day. From the Daily Caller:

Dallas Reporter Compares Trump Crowd To Beto’s Counter-Rally — It’s Not Even Close
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke held his own rally Thursday to counter President Donald Trump’s Dallas event — and photos suggested he would face a much smaller crowd.

Dallas-Fort Worth CBS reporter Caroline Vandergriff posted a photo of O’Rourke’s fans beginning to gather outside the 6,350-seat Theatre at Grand Prairie, just a few hours before it was scheduled to start.

Some more photos at the Caller - almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost.

From Western Journal:

Mike Rowe Brilliantly Sums Up Lunacy of Democratic Primary Fight
In the countless words and column inches that have been spilled on the Democratic primary process so far, author and former television host Mike Rowe has offered one of the most succinct descriptions yet.

And it more or less perfectly sums up the inanity — and inherent hypocrisy — of the gaggle of demagogues vying to become the next Democratic nominee for president:

“You’ve got millionaires arguing with millionaires over who hates the millionaires the most,” Rowe said Wednesday in a “Fox & Friends” interview.

Meanwhile, the middle class is getting more and more prosperous and the poor are pulling themselves up.

The stadium seats 20,000 and it was full with thousands standing around outside.

From The Last Refuge:

For a miscreant on the threshold of impeachment, he can sure pack them in...

The people in charge run a good meeting so the business part was over in 15 minutes as usual. We then had an open forum for members to talk about fun stuff they are doing or to ask for help with projects. It is then turned over to a presenter who gives a 20-30 minute presentation. Not tonight.

I have talked to the guy before and he was a PhD university professor in upper atmosphere and solar physics which is something I am very interested in. He did not know how to deliver a succinct presentation though. He brought 50 slides (there was a counter running on the video screen) and at the end of one hour, he was only up to #27. I bailed.

The guy was a charter member of a 12-step program for public speakers: On Anon, Anon, Anon

Tired - surf for a little bit, have a glass or two of red wine and to bed.

Out the door - meeting tonight

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Ham Radio group is meeting tonight.

Stop at the library first and get a burrito for dinner.

Flow rate of the Stillaguamish river at Arlington. This is the first cyclone which dumped the rain on Tuesday evening. It takes about 48 hours for the rainfall to percolate through the land and into the Stilly.

20191017-cyclone1.png

There is nothing wrong with your speakers - there is no audio:

And it gets more interesting - from BoingBoing:

Design fiction, politicized: the wearable face projector
In 2017, a group of Dutch design students created some fictional anonymity "products" that they displayed under the name "Group Anonymous" at Milan Design Week.

One of these design fiction pieces was Group Anonymous member Jing-cai Liu's "wearable face projector" -- a hat with a built-in LCD projector that skinned your face with an ever-shifting series of projection-mapped faces.

At the time, the group expressed its hope that their "designs should provoke debates about the emerging future."

But the wearable face projector has gone viral in the wake of Hong Kong's unconstitutional "mask ban" that prohibits protesters from using masks or makeup to confound the facial recognition cameras being used by Hong Kong to exact terrible physical retribution upon people who take part in public calls for respect for their human rights.

In response, Jing-cai Liu has published a statement disavowing any "political intentions...not then, not now" (all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding) and demanding that their work not be associated with the Hong Kong protests: "The copyright of the product/concepts stays in the hands of those designers. They kindly ask to put their works in the right context and always refer back to their websites or named above sources when their concepts are shared. Don’t use their works in any political statement."

It's a genuinely weird statement from the "Group Anonymous" who set out to "provoke debate" with an exhibition called "Dystopian Future." I mean, be careful what you wish for, my dudes. I can empathize with not wanting to be dragged into someone else's fight, but this is literally what design fiction is for.

Indeed - the group pulled the website that the link in the first paragraph used to point to. It is even missing from The Internet Archive and they have most of the internet. Great idea though.

Nancy Pelosi - constitutional actions?

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From Breitbart:

Pelosi: ‘The Voters Are Not Going to Decide’ Impeachment Issue
On Thursday at her weekly press briefing, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said the American people were “not going to decide” if President Donald Trump should be impeached.

When asked about the impeachment timeline, Pelosi said, “I keep saying to people, impeachment is about the truth and the Constitution of the United States. Any other issues that you have, disapproving of the way the president has dealt with Syria, whatever the subject is, reluctance, the cowardice to do something about gun violence, the cruelty of not wanting to help our Dreamers and transgender people, the denial about the climate crisis that we face, the list goes on, that’s about the election. That has nothing to do with what is happening in terms of our oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution and the facts that might support. And we don’t know where this path will take us, it could take us down further path but the two are completely separate.”

A reporter asked, “At what point might you say let’s just let the voters decide.”

Pelosi said, “The voters are not going to decide whether we honor our oath of office.

President Trump said it best with this tweet:

They are so obsessed with President Trump that they have become unhinged.

President Trump was right - Turkey

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From this mornings Beeb:

Turkey's Erdogan 'threw Trump's Syria letter in bin'
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put US President Donald Trump's letter "in the bin", the BBC has been told.

In the letter dated 9 October, and sent after US troops were pulled out of Syria, Mr Trump told Mr Erdogan: "Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool!"

President Trump was urging Turkey not to launch a military offensive against Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, but Mr Erdogan ignored this request.

From CNBC three hours ago:

Turkey agrees to pause attacks in northern Syria for five days as Kurds retreat
Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that the United States and Turkey had agreed on a five-day Turkish cease-fire, days after the country’s forces launched an offensive in northern Syria.

“It will be a pause in military operations for 120 hours while the United States facilitates the withdrawal of the YPG from the affected areas in the safe zone. And once that is completed, Turkey has agreed to a permanent cease-fire,” Pence said alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Ankara, Turkey, referring to the mostly Kurdish fighting force.

The withdrawal of the Kurds from the border area has “literally already begun,” Pence said. Turkey views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists, though the United States worked closely with them in the battle against the Islamic State group.

Emphasis mine - the Beeb reported that the situation was devolving into chaos but in truth, the situation was on a temporary halt while people were being moved and after they are out of the area, a permanent cease-fire will be put in place. You mean that the BBC was pedaling Fake News? Tell me it aint so...

Time for some coffee

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Been doing paperwork and paying bills this morning. Time to head out into the real world for a bit.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Mark Sanford kicked off his presidential campaign against Donald Trump in Philly. One person showed up.
The bell in the Independence Hall tower rang at 9 a.m., and Mark Sanford took a deep breath. He grabbed a giant check for “one trillion dollars,” stood next to a tiny wooden lectern, and asked me if I was ready for him to kick off a news conference announcing his bid to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 Republican primary.

It didn’t really feel like a news conference. I was the only reporter there.

And when it began, the only others around besides his two aides were a family 30 yards away with a selfie stick and a group of students from Paris who wanted to know why he had such a big check. (Answer: It represented the burden of the national debt.)

The former South Carolina congressman and governor — perhaps best known for disappearing from office for six days in 2009 to visit a paramour in Argentina — launched his long-long-long-shot presidential campaign Wednesday in a gloomy Philadelphia. The launch also served to kick off his "Kids, We’re Bankrupt and We Didn’t Even Know It” tour — a 3,500-mile, weeklong road trip he hopes will “spark a needed conversation” within the Republican Party about spending and debt. He was set to make stops later Wednesday in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

Clueless. All he has is his hatred of President Trump and a massive sense of entitlement.

Karma - open borders

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From The Gateway Pundit:

Trump-Hating Open Borders Advocate Killed by Criminal Illegal Alien
Open borders advocate and Trump-hater Sean Buchanan was killed last week by criminal illegal alien Ramirez Valiente.

Buchanan, a father of five, was killed when Valiente, who was driving without a license, swerved into his lane and killed him.

Sean Buchanan was a critic of President Trump and his immigration policies.

And the snowflake in question:

When he killed Buchanan, Ramirez Valiente was driving with a suspended license thanks to a 2018 DUI. He was also arrested for reckless endangerment in 2011 and domestic violence in 2016. A district attorney dismissed both charges.

After the crash, a close female acquaintance anonymously told ABC 7 Denver that Ramirez Valiente is “an alcoholic and an abuser.”

Best and brightest...

He must have had the goods on Hillary

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Elijah Cummings is now a good communist. From Associated Press:

Powerful Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings has died
Maryland Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a sharecropper’s son who rose to become a civil rights champion and the chairman of one of the U.S. House committees leading an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, died Thursday of complications from longstanding health problems. He was 68.

Cummings was a formidable orator who advocated for the poor in his black-majority district , which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore and more well-to-do suburbs.

It should be noted that the living conditions in his district were really deplorable - here, here and here for starters.

At least he is now somewhere really nice and warm. Really warm. Hot almost.

20191017-twain.jpg

This warm fuzzy tongue-bath from The Hollywood Reporter:

Inside the Modern Design of WarnerMedia's New NYC Headquarters With Jeff Zucker
Spread across 25 floors and 1.4  million square feet at Hudson Yards, CNN, HBO and the whole conglomerate are together at last. Says Zucker: "Our new home gives a nod to our history and future."

Well before AT&T cemented its acquisition of Time Warner in June 2018 to form WarnerMedia, the decision to combine all divisions under a single roof already had been made. The strategy to execute a decidedly egalitarian approach soon followed. "This was a very different process than most companies use, where a small cadre of people make decisions behind closed doors," says Thomas Santiago, senior vp global real estate at WarnerMedia. "What we did was consensus-driven and we cast a wide net," he says of the midtown design lab set up to allow staffers to provide feedback on every element of furniture and design in the new offices that landed at New York's mini-city Hudson Yards. "We paraded hundreds of employees through to see and touch and cycled through different finishes, screening-room seating, desks, even ceiling fixtures. We went for the chair that hundreds of employees preferred, not one a guy picked out of a catalog. It proved to be an effective process."

They are clamping their hands over their ears and yelling out: "We Can't Hear You"

I wonder just how long they will enjoy their shiny new offices before they have to sublet like the New York Times.

The third CNN tranche - Project Veritas

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Released this morning from Project Veritas:

PART 3: FIELD OPS MANAGER AT CNN: ZUCKER’S 9AM CALLS ARE ‘BULLSHIT;’ “WE’RE TOTALLY LEFT-LEANING…(BUT) WE DON’T WANT TO ADMIT IT”

    • Manager of Field Operations at CNN Patrick Davis Complains “We Could Be So Much Better Than What We Are.”
    • “I Haven’t Listened to a 9AM (Rundown) Call in About 15 Years…Just, I Can’t Listen to It,” Explains Davis, “It’s All Just a Bunch of Bullshit.”
    • Field Production Supervisor at CNN Gerald Sisnette: “The Only Way This Will Go Away is When He (Trump) Dies. Hopefully Soon.”
    • “They Sold Themselves to the Devil. It’s, It’s Sad.” Laments Floor Manager at CNN Mike Brevna.
    • “We Used to Cover News,” Complains Senior Field Engineer at CNN Scott Garber, “We Used to Go Out and Do Stories.”
    • Zucker Admits to Being Personally Responsible for Impeachment Coverage: “I Am the One Saying We Should Just Stay on Impeachment.”
    • Conflict is What Sells,” Explains CNN Media Coordinator Christian Sierra, “Create Clicks, Get More Money.”

On Monday, October 14, 2019 Project Veritas released the first of its Expose CNN series about the inner workings and candid observations of CNN employees and executives as captured with a hidden camera by CNN Insider Cary Poarch.  The first report was followed by Part II in the series on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 where Cary had casual conversations inside CNN regarding the candidates for the Democratic nomination for President.

Today, we are releasing Part III exposing the network’s movement away from objective newsgathering and towards partisan advocacy.

According to James O’Keefe, President of Project Veritas, “CNN has made a conscious decision to focus almost exclusively on the impeachment of President Trump at the expense of covering legitimate news around the world.”

Needless to say, much much MUCH more at the site.

Us deplorables have gotten tired of the constant hectoring from the chicken-little crowd. Summit News:

Angry Londoners Drag Climate Change Protesters From Roof of Train
Angry Londoners furious at having their lives disrupted dragged ‘Extinction Rebellion’ climate change protesters from the roof of a train this morning.

The incident happened at Canning Town Tube station, located in London’s poor east end – a particularly stupid venue for Extinction Rebellion activists to try to pull such a stunt.

One decidedly middle class looking protester climbed on top of the train but was pelted with objects before being dragged back down to the platform.

And this:

London Underground staff had to intervene to prevent the protesters getting a substantial beating.

Good - engaging in this sort of self-centered behavior should be painful. They are just a bunch of virtue signalling pantywaists who live in their mother's basements and jump from one "cause" to the next.

The official Extinction Rebellion Twitter account later tried to compare their activists to Rosa Parks, despite the fact the footage shows white middle class activists being confronted by a mixed crowd which includes numerous black people.

As we document in the video below, the ‘Extinction Rebellion’ protest movement is one huge virtue signal centered around middle and upper middle class people lecturing working class people on how to live their lives.

The video is here: The Truth About Extinction Rebellion

Third cyclone moving through

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Wind is picking up again - small craft advisories through 11:00PM today. The rain last night was epic - a downpour.

Got a meeting tonight and then a board meeting on Monday. Spending some time at the farm next week.

Cute

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Country boy at heart so this caught my eye:

20191016-saddle.jpg

News you can use - knife sharpening

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Great video on knife sharpening using whetstones:

There are some links to the whetstones and to the cheap knife used in the demonstration. There is also a link to a great illustration of how to use a sharpie marker to determine the correct angle and rotation. A bit long (30 minutes) but really thorough and well done.

She already has quite the track record of being shady and corrupt (not to mention marrying her brother and cheating on her husband) From The Washington Free Beacon:

Omar Funnels 30 Percent of Campaign Cash to Alleged Boyfriend’s Firm
Approximately 30 percent of the money doled out by the campaign of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) in the third quarter went to digital fundraising, communications, and advertising services provided by the E Street Group, a firm run by her alleged boyfriend.

Omar's campaign committee, which raised a total of $1,084,098.84 in the third quarter, spent $493,389.80 during this time. The E Street Group, a firm run by political consultant Tim Mynett, Omar's alleged lover, received more money from the campaign than any other vendor.

The Omar campaign paid the E Street Group $149,812.64 between July 1 and Sept. 30, its filings show. That accounts for around 30 percent of Omar's total campaign disbursements over the same period. Her campaign has over $1.5 million cash on hand.

The Minneapolis, Minnesota Star Tribune has a good article chronicling Ms. Omar's various peccadilloes. The article was posted on June 11th, 2019 so it doesn't cover the last four months. Red State has an excellent article on her marital issues.

'Tis the season - haunted house

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A haunted house for liberals - from the Babylon Bee:

Haunted House For Progressives Just Normal Conservative Man's Home Containing Bibles, Guns, And A Copy Of The Constitution
PORTLAND, OR—It's that time of year where houses, churches, and businesses around the neighborhood begin opening up their haunted houses for those seeking a good fright.

One haunted house in Portland is promising progressives the scariest experience of all: a tour of a regular conservative guy's home. The home contains a sizable collection of guns, several Bibles, a few American flags, some pictures of Ronald Reagan, and of course, a copy of the Constitution.

"I can't look!" screamed one progressive as he opened one door and saw a hunting rifle. "Ahhhhh!!!" He ran from the house screaming, taking shelter in a nearby yoga studio.

The haunted house's owner, Bob Larson, told reporters he saw an opportunity to make a little bit of cash and ran with it. "I didn't really even change anything," he said, shrugging, as he turned Fox News up to full blast to add a spooky atmosphere and started cleaning one of his handguns. "I just sit here and watch my favorite Fox News hosts and they all walk through the house, screaming in fright."

No progressive has currently made it through more than a few rooms in the house, as they usually run screaming or dive out a window in their hurry to get away.

In the haunted house's scariest room, the attic, there's a copy of the Constitution hanging on the wall. As guests slowly approach the frightening document, a hidden speaker begins reading it out loud in the voice of George W. Bush. One progressive died on the spot of a heart attack.

Larson's haunted house did give one of his entrepreneurial progressive neighbors an idea, however, and the liberal has opened a haunted house for conservatives that's just a gay person standing there doing nothing.

The Bee is a satire website but they are quickly morphing into the Nation's news source of record.

Hunter Biden - Amtrak board member

He was elected to the Amtrak board because he rode trains a lot. From The Washington Free Beacon:

FLASHBACK: Hunter Biden’s One Qualification for Amtrak Board Was Taking Trains
Hunter Biden's only qualification for obtaining a seat on the Amtrak board of directors in 2006 was that he often rode trains.

That's according to his father Joe Biden's Delaware colleague in the Senate, Tom Carper, who offered the sole nomination speech for the younger Biden when his name was presented in the Senate Commerce Committee. In his prepared remarks, Carper said Biden would be an "excellent addition" to the board, but was unable to list any reason beyond his frequent use of trains.

"More significantly, Hunter has spent a lot of time on Amtrak trains," Carper said after listing schools Biden attended. "Like his father, Rep. Mike Castle and myself, Hunter Biden has lived in Delaware while using Amtrak to commute to his job in Washington, D.C."

Must be nice...

She doesn't have the votes and she knows it. From The Hill:

Pelosi: No House vote on impeachment inquiry
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday she will not stage a vote on the House floor to officially launch an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The decision came after Democratic leaders, returning to Washington following a two-week recess, had reached out to members of their diverse caucus to gauge the party's support for such a vote.

After back-to-back meetings with party leaders and then the full caucus, Pelosi announced that no such vote would take place. Democratic aides emphasized, however, that the process remains fluid and that Pelosi may reverse course and stage such a vote at any point in the future.

"There's no requirement that we have a vote, and so at this time we will not be having a vote," Pelosi told reporters during a last-minute press briefing in the Capitol.

If she had the votes for impeachment she would jump at a House vote - up or down. Impeach or do not. All this is is just another Democrat nothingburger. Pushing the narrative and not actually working for their constituents. Her constituents are tired of this constant rhetoric.

Joe Biden lied (again)

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And someone is calling him to task for it. From Steven Green at PJ Media:

FLASHBACK: Biden Lied for Years About the Driver Involved in His Wife & Daughter's Death
While it's impossible to measure the grief of a man who loses his young wife and infant daughter in a car collision, it's both possible and necessary to take the measure of a man who spent years falsely claiming the other driver may have been drunk.

During Joe Biden's 2008 run as Barack Obama's running mate, Pamela Hamill -- the daughter of that other driver -- asked that the then-senator make a public apology for the years he'd spent impugning her father.

Curtis Dunn was driving the tractor-trailer that collided with the car driven by Biden's first wife, Neilia. Neilia was carrying their 13-month-old infant daughter with her, and young sons Beau and Hunter were in the car, too. They were on their way to buy a Christmas tree when the accident occurred. Police at the time made the determination that Mrs. Biden drove into the path of the oncoming truck, possibly because she was looking the wrong way at a stop sign. Neilia and the girl died of their injuries, despite Dunn's attempts to provide first aid, and the Bidens' sons were also hurt very badly. POLITICO wrote in January of this year that a friend of Biden’s looked into the accident at the time and concluded, "She had a stop sign. The truck driver did not."

When Hamill made her apology request, the Newark Post reported that the chief prosecutor at the time, Jerome O. Herlihy, said that "there is no evidence" supporting Biden’s longstanding assertion that Dunn might have, in Biden's words, "drank his lunch" that terrible day. And yet, as Post reporter Carl Hamilton noted.

More at the site - lies like this are so easy to fact-check. That Biden put an indelible stain on this man's life says a lot about Biden's moral character.

Homeless - some reasons and a cure

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I wish that we had the political backbone to implement this - from Raconteur Report. There is a lot at the site, I am excerpting the thesis and the solution:

What are those reasons?

1) They're batshit crazy, in ways that, until the mid- to late-1960s, would have seen them happily locked up for life in appropriate facilities in perpetuity. No small number for violent behavior and poor impulse control.

2) The don't take their psych meds for that, because those drugs make them feel "weird". (Normal people call that feeling "sanity", by no coincidence.)

3) They self-medicate with alcohol and drugs, because
a) it feels great! and
b) it gets the voices in their head too drunk or stoned to be intelligible for the people with too many personalities in their head already. Genius, right there.

4) Homeless shelters have rules, chiefest among them being no booze or dope, and if the batshit crazy alcohol/drug addicts who are most homeless forever could follow rules, quit alcohol and dope, and act civilized, they could hold down jobs and pay rent or mortgages like everyone not on the streets does since pretty much forever. But they can't, don't, and won't.

5) We've built them a hammock (not a safety net) as wide as the entire state of California to sleep in. Which last world-class stupidity is why they're overwhelmingly here: they drift westward until they hit the Pacific Ocean, and they can't go any farther, coupled with being mollycoddled here for fifty years by jackass do-gooder idiots, and an amenable climate, and voila. A gazillion homeless bums, and stacks of feces and needles as far as the eye can see.

6) Laws preventing this stopped being enforced, due to soft-hearted do-gooders in power, and soft-headed judges ruling that it must be so.

So you'll never solve the homelessness problem by subsidizing them, feeding them, and building them shelter, any more than you'll put out a fire by throwing on more gasoline.

And the solution:

Solving the problem is easy:

I) First offense for vagrancy: six months in a chain gang. In the summer, they'll spread asphalt and fill potholes in the desert. In the winter, they shovel snow on mountain passes. And when it rains, they're out in it picking up trash, filling sandbags, and shoveling mud, 24/7 until the sun comes out. Throw in green bologna sandwiches, MREs, and pink underwear, deny any time off for good behavior, so they do the full 180 days, and you're done.
Second offence: 364 days.
Third offense: Felony, and five years.

It's not funny once, and after twice, they'll leave for good, or stop getting picked up.
And we'll have the smoothest roads and the cleanest streets in the country.

II) Stop feeding them. Unless they work for it. From sunup to sundown. 30-minute breaks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but not until they've earned each meal. And no money for anything.

III) Anyone too disabled or decrepit to work does drug tests the entire time they're on public assistance. One drunk or drug positive, and they lose benefits for a month. Two times, and they lose a year. Three times, banned from assistance for life. Vagrant as a result? See #I.
If they can't shovel asphalt, they can mix concrete, or serve the meals. Medical exams to document ability or disability. No disability? Pick up a shovel, or starve. Dealer's choice.

IV) Any do-gooder agency or non-profit, religious or not, is free to do whatever they like in terms of food or shelter: on their own premises. Your circus, your monkeys. You feed homeless people, who become a blight on society, and the citizens and municipalities can sue for damages. Everything from public health to crime comes out of your wallet. Just like feeding stray cats that crap in your neighbors' open car.

Much much more at the site including links to other opinions. A great post.

Gale warning and more rain

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Got about 0.4" of rain last night - hard enough that it woke me up. Love the sound.

Gale warning through 5:00PM - those cyclones are moving through and it is going to be wet for the next six or seven days.

The rain is not showing in the river as yet - there is a large drainage basin and all the little creeks and rills have yet to reach the mighty Stillaguamish:

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From their report on a sudden drop in temperature. The CBS Denver affiliate CBS4:

From 83° To 13°: That Was The Second Largest Temperature Change On Record!
Thursday evening before midnight, the temperature in Denver dropped to a record low of 13 degrees. The previous day the city came close to a record high with 83 degrees. This difference of 70 degrees in just 2 days is tied for second largest temperature change in Denver since 1872 when records began.

Shouldn't that read: Second Largest Temperature Drop On Record

The first is grammatically correct but not as accurate as Drop. I guess that they do not want to emphasize the overall cooling that is happening.

And some other chilling headlines:

And this tweet from amateur meteorologist, pastor and farmer Jordan Gackle

All of this cold and snow is about a month early compared to "normal". Our sun is very quiet - unusually so - and the Earth is starting to cool off. The warming period we had been experiencing over the last 100 years is coming to an end and it looks lilke we are entering a period of cooling.

Jeff Greenfield? From Infogalactic:

He served as media commentator for CBS News from 1979 to 1983 and as political and media analyst for ABC News from 1983 to 1997, often appearing on the Nightline program. He served as a senior analyst at CNN from 1998 to 2007. On May 1, 2007, Greenfield returned to CBS News, where he served as a senior political correspondent until April 2011. He currently hosts PBS's "Need To Know" and also does political commentary on NBC Nightly News.

So he is deeply embedded in the Mainstream Media. From his twitter feed:

General James Mad-Dog Mattis had similar thoughts - from the Washington Examiner:

'Ignoring reality': Biden got it wrong on Iraq, Mattis says
Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis doesn’t recite any of his conversations with President Trump in his upcoming book (much to the consternation of Washington journalists). But he does detail an evening with someone else who might be on the presidential ballot in 2020: Joe Biden, who was “ignoring reality” in Iraq, he says.

In Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, co-written with Bing West and set to be published Tuesday, Mattis expounds on the lessons learned in his more than 40 years in the Marine Corps. His career culminated in three years as the head of U.S. Central Command, overseeing military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia from 2010 to 2013. That meant Mattis was in charge of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as war raged in both countries.

His meeting with Biden:

The general’s assessment fell on deaf ears.

“Vice President Biden and his assistants listened politely. But as we spoke, I sensed I was making no headway in convincing the administration officials not to support Maliki. It was like talking to people who lived in wooden houses but saw no need for a fire department,” Mattis writes.

“I liked the Vice President,” Mattis writes, even after Biden teased him: “Know why you’re at CENTCOM?” Biden asked him. “Because no one else was dumb enough to take the job.”

“I found him an admirable and amiable man. But he was past the point where he was willing to entertain a ‘good idea.’ He didn’t want to hear more; he wanted our forces out of Iraq. Whatever path led there fastest, he favored,” Mattis writes. “He exuded the confidence of a man whose mind was made up, perhaps even indifferent to considering the consequences were he judging the situation incorrectly.”

And the consequences of Biden's error:

Mattis’ warnings proved prescient, as Maliki, free of American influence, went after Sunni politicians and districts, alienating a third of the country. “Iraq slipped back into escalating violence. It was like watching a car wreck in slow motion,” Mattis writes. A Sunni revolt and a weak Iraqi Army allowed al Qaeda-aligned terrorists to return in 2014, calling themselves the Islamic State.

“It would take many years and tens of thousands of casualties, plus untold misery for millions of innocents, to break ISIS’s geographic hold,” Mattis writes. “All of this was predicted — and preventable.”

That administration was clueless and under their reign, the deep state increased its hold over our Government. So glad that President Trump is in office and will be for another five years.

The Schiff hits the fan

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From FOX News:

135 House Republicans co-sponsor resolution to censure Schiff over 'parody' reading of Trump-Zelensky call
A motion to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his “parody” reading of President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky during a hearing last month is gaining steam with House Republicans, as Fox News has learned 135 lawmakers have now signed on as co-sponsors.

The Dems do have the majority in the House of Representatives and with 435 total members, 135 is not a majority but still, it represents 31% which is enough to get people to notice. Sends a message.

I love it - Redneck Margarita machine

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How to git scientistcally ignant:

That was then, this is now

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Two Presidents and their dealings with Libya. First CNN from June 20th, 2018

Seven years after Obama's 'worst mistake,' Libya killing is rampant
Years after then President Barack Obama made what he has described as his worst mistake by not adequately planning for the fall of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, Libya remains in chaos. In the past seven years, four nations have conducted air strikes in Libya and hundreds of civilians have died in those strikes.

As the protests of the Arab Spring swept through Libya, Gadhafi mounted a war of attrition against his own people describing those who were protesting his rule as "rats."

The Obama administration helped steer a UN resolution to take military action to protect Libyan civilians, which resulted in a US-led NATO intervention in Libya. Gadhafi was eventually killed by rebels.

So President Obama basically took out Gadhafi and did not think far enough ahead to understand the consequences of his actions. Typical feckless moron. Gadhafi may not have been a real friend of America and he was a dictator but he was good to his people and ran a capitalist economy. He was not an idiot. Arabs respect power and when a strong leader is deposed without someone to take over, Katie bar the door.

President Trump? From CBS News:

Trump sends $50 million in emergency financial assistance to Syria
Donald Trump announced Saturday night that the U.S. will send $50 million in stabilization assistance to Syria. The money, according to the Office of the Press Secretary, is to "protect persecuted ethnic and religious minorities and advance human rights."

"This funding will provide emergency financial assistance to Syrian human rights defenders, civil society organizations and reconciliation efforts directly supporting ethnic and religious minority victims of the conflict," the statement reads.

"We hope regional and international partners will continue their contributions as well," the statement continues. "Ensuring the freedom and safety of ethnic and religious minorities remains a top priority for this Administration."

Classic Art of the Deal negotiation. Here is a nice juicy carrot. We still have our stick and will use it if we do not like what we see but in the meantime, here is another nice juicy carrot. And $50 million is chump change compared to the cost of our military involvement. From Forbes, March 28th, 2011:

The Real Cost Of U.S. In Libya? Two Billion Dollars Per Day.
The one thing most experts seem to agree on about the current coalition air campaign in Libya is that it won't cost much. A leading think tank estimated the price-tag for patrolling Libyan air space at $30-100 million per week, while the Navy's top budget official described Libyan air operations as falling within the "normal operating cycle" of his department. Rear Admiral Joseph Mulloy told trade publication Inside the Navy on March 21, "The incremental cost of use of the Navy and Marine Corps is low, because we're already funded and we are trained and worked up." He went on, "We don't have to pay extra to be there." As a result of such fiscal reassurances, Congress has focused mainly on the goals of the operation and what precedents military action might create, rather than the cost.

The Two Billion Dollars Per Day in the title refers to the sunk cost of the infrastructure used over there.

So true

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"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have been committed in the name of rebellion."
--Charles Percy Snow

First of the cyclones moving through

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Gusting up to 30MPH. No rain yet but it is coming.

On the road to censorship - Twitter

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From Tech Crunch:

Twitter says it will restrict users from retweeting world leaders who break its rules
Twitter said it will restrict how users can interact with tweets from world leaders who break its rules.

The social media giant said it will not allow users to like, reply, share or retweet the offending tweets, but instead will let users quote-tweet to allow ordinary users to express their opinions.

The company said the move will help its users stay informed about global affairs, but while balancing the need to keep the site’s rules in check.

Geee wizz - which world leader could they be thinking of? Screen caps of the announcements at Tech Crunch.

Ray LaMontagne

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Someone turned me on to his work - there is a streaming channel of his music at YouTube. Good stuff - singer/songwriter.

He is on tour now but the Seattle show is sold out dammit. Here is his website: Ray LaMontagne

This is great fun:

Part 2: CNN Leadership and Staffers Reveal True Sentiments; Network Picks Favorites Among Democratic Candidates on Eve of Debate

    • CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez Says, ‘Joe Biden Has a Problem’ Because of his Son’s Foreign Business Dealings; “It Looks Bad. It Smells Bad.”
    • CNN President Jeff Zucker Pushes Kamala Harris’ Demand to Take Down Trump’s Twitter Account; “I Think it’s a Good Segment…Not Going to Happen, But it’s a Good Talking – it’s a Good Segment.”
    • Zucker on Harris: “She is Also Retooling Her Struggling Campaign.”
    • CNN Media Coordinator Christian Sierra Says Network is Less Fair to Andrew Yang and Amy Klobuchar, “They’re Pro-Top Contenders.”
    • Sierra: “I Think They Like Warren a Lot” “…They Don’t Like Tulsi Gabbard”
    • CNN Media Coordinator Nick Neville Says “People Would Change the Channel” if Network Broadcasted a Biden Rally.
    • CNN VP and Political Director David Chalian Believes That Andrew Yang Will Not Become the Democratic Nominee for President.
    • CNN Insider Cary Poarch: “I Actually Came to CNN a Registered Democrat. I Campaigned and Voted for Bernie in the Primaries of the 16’ election;” “…All That I Thought I Knew and Hoped to be at CNN Was False.”
    • Poarch: “It’s an Unwritten Rule That if You Are Center, Center Right, or Heaven Forbid, Full Right Republican Trump Supporter, Then You Are Not Welcome at CNN.”
    • Insider Cary Poarch Wants ‘Free and Fair Election’ and Not ‘Some Ideology Shoved Down My Throat;’ Wants CNN to ‘Get Back to the Facts and Get Back to Reporting the News.’

On Monday, October 14, 2019 Project Veritas released Part 1 of a series of recordings provided by a brave CNN Insider who blew the whistle on rampant bias at the network. The story, with substantial social media attention and cable news coverage, to include a tweet from President Trump, provides video footage highlighting the personal vendetta of CNN President Jeff Zucker against POTUS, as well as evidence of bias across the network. CNN Insider Cary Poarch further detailed his concerns against the network on national television last night.

In Part 2 of our #ExposeCNN series, Poarch exposes candid opinions and unguarded comments from various employees and executives including CNN President Jeff Zucker, CNN Vice President and Political Director David Chalian, and CNN Media Coordinator Christian Sierra.

This is wonderful - nothing like some sunlight to disinfect the tools of the deep state. Expose them for what they are - statist democrat apparatchiks with cameras and microphones.

California power line problems

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With all of their preemptive blackouts, this still happened - from One America News:

Power Lines Suspected Of Igniting The Saddleridge Fire In Calif.
Authorities believe a power line is to blame for last week’s deadly wildfire in California. According to an official statement Monday, power lines are suspected of igniting the the Saddleridge Fire in Los Angeles County. The blaze, which was 44 percent contained as of Monday, has been blamed for two deaths as well as the destruction of 17 homes and structures.

According to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the fire started in a 50-by-70 foot perimeter beneath a high voltage transmission tower on October 10th. The utility company which owns that tower, Southern California Edison, confirmed its systems were impacted at the time it reportedly started.

The article talks a bit about this fire and others and then closes with these two paragraphs:

Power lines belonging to the state’s largest utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric, has been blamed for several deadly wildfires in the past. One of these fires includes last year’s Paradise Fire, which is now considered the states most destructive in history. This particular wildfire resulted in 85 deaths. The company has been forced to file for bankruptcy because of this after it was forced to pay victims damages.

Meanwhile, it remains unclear what will happen to Southern California Edison if they are found guilty of starting the blaze in Los Angeles.

All of the money that they sunk into various alt.energy scams - they should have been maintaining their infrastructure.

California's infrastructure - highways

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The voters agreed to increase gasoline taxes (already the highest in the nation) so that the monies can be used to fix their crumbling highways. Not so fast. From American Thinker:

California's Gavin Newsom decides state's big, voter-approved gas tax won't be for repairing highways after all
Last November, Democrats hailed California voters' rejection of Proposition 6, a law to scrap the state's 2017 massive gas taxes.  They crowed that Californians were glad to pay five bucks at the pump when the rest of the U.S. average was half that.  Big reason?  Because $3 billion of those takings would save the state's tumbledown highways and go to repair roads and bridges.  The rejection came after a voters showed strong signs of wanting to get rid of the tax until a barrage of television ads ran, warning that any vote to repeal the gas tax would mean the state's decrepit highways and bridges would go wanting for repair funds:

A vote to repeal the gas tax would leave our highways wastelands! Highway apocalypse if this gas-tax repeal went through! Saving the whales became saving the highways, and as shriller and shriller ads ran, voter sentiment shifted, and the tax was voted to remain.

Not so fast buster...

Welp. Turns out the tax wasn't about repairing roads and highways after all.  On Sept. 20, in a little noted maneuver, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to divert the tax cash away from crumbling highway repair to greenie political pet projects instead.  To heck with the highways; it was time to save the Earth.

All the money is being put into rail projects. The voters got suckered. The 2020 elections should be interesting...

From Cliff Mass:

The Meteorological Switch is About to Be Turned On
It is not unusual for the first few weeks of October to be relatively dry and sunny in the Northwest.

But quite typically, something happens during the third week of the month.. The jet stream sags south, storms--lined up in the Pacific-- make their way into the region.

20191015-cm.jpgA series of Pacific cyclones and fronts are lining up to visit us

And this year will be no different, with the first of a line of systems reaching our shores Wednesday morning. It is going to be wet, so get your rain gear ready.

Glad I got the outside buttoned up - doing a little more work today but mostly done.

This sums it up - the news media

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Spot on:

20191015-trump.jpg

Aliens?

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From National Public Radio:

'Not One Drop Of Blood': Cattle Mysteriously Mutilated In Oregon
In the early morning light, dust from hooves creates a fog at Silvies Valley Ranch in remote eastern Oregon. Cowboys whistle and talk low to their eager herding dogs. They're moving the cattle from one vast, sage-studded range to another.

Five young purebred bulls mysteriously showed up dead on the ranch this past summer, drained of blood and with body parts precisely removed.

The ranch's vice president, Colby Marshall, drives his truck down a U.S. Forest Service road.

"Then we'll get out and take a little walk to where one of the bulls was found. And the carcass is still there," Marshall says.

Coming upon one of the dead bulls is an eerie scene. The forest is hot and still, apart from a raven's repeating caw. The bull looks like a giant, deflated plush toy. It smells. Weirdly, there are no signs of buzzards, coyotes or other scavengers. His red coat is as shiny as if he were going to the fair, but he's bloodless and his tongue and genitals have been surgically cut out.

And not just this one instance:

Two years ago and 200 miles south, near New Princeton, Ore., one of Andie Davies' cows was also found cut up and bloodless.

She and her husband drove concentric circles around the corpse, but they never found any tracks.

And in this dusty country, "everything you do leaves tracks," Davies says.

Back in the 1980s, one of Terry Anderson's mother cows was mysteriously killed overnight. Standing at his ranch near Pendleton, Ore., Anderson points to the exact spot where he found her on top of a mountain.

He remembers his cow lying dead, her udder removed with something razor sharp.

Curious...

Something actually funny from SNL

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Stopped watching them decades ago but this caught my eye:

The coming ice age

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A couple of headlines:

And then, there is this:

There is no climate emergency
A global network of 500 scientists and professionals has prepared this urgent message. Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific. Scientists should openly address the uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real benefits as well as the imagined costs of adaptation to global warming, and the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of mitigation.

Natural as well as anthropogenic factors cause warming
The geological archive reveals that Earth’s climate has varied as long as the planet has existed, with natural cold and warm phases. The Little Ice Age ended as recently as 1850. Therefore, it is no surprise that we now are experiencing a period of warming. Only very few peer-reviewed papers even go so far as to say that recent warming is chiefly anthropogenic..

Warming is far slower than predicted
The world has warmed at less than half the originally-predicted rate, and at less than half the rate to be expected on the basis of net anthropogenic forcing and radiative imbalance. It tells us that we are far from understanding climate change.

Climate policy relies on inadequate models
Climate models have many shortcomings and are not remotely plausible as policy tools. Moreover, they most likely exaggerate the effect of greenhouse gases such as CO2. In addition, they ignore the fact that enriching the atmosphere with CO2 is beneficial.

CO2 is plant food, the basis of all life on Earth
CO2 is not a pollutant. It is essential to all life on Earth. Photosynthesis is a blessing. More CO2 is beneficial for nature, greening the Earth: additional CO2 in the air has promoted growth in global plant biomass. It is also good for agriculture, increasing the yields of crops worldwide.

Global warming has not increased natural disasters
There is no statistical evidence that global warming is intensifying hurricanes, floods, droughts and suchlike natural disasters, or making them more frequent. However, CO2 mitigation measures are as damaging as they are costly. For instance, wind turbines kill birds and insects, and palm-oil plantations destroy the biodiversity of the rainforests.

Speaking truth to power.

The things that are taboo

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Wonderful essay by Francis W. Porretto:

Expressing The Obvious Amid Cries Of Rage And Dismay
I wrote, some years ago:

In our modern lexicon, a taboo is a legally or socially enforced prohibition against speaking openly of certain things: usually, particular topics considered offensive by a politically privileged group....One must ask why some subjects are tabooed. The answer is simple, but enormously daunting: to speak of it is to invite inquiry, which threatens the perquisites of the group behind the taboo.

The most important examples relevant to contemporary American life pertain to groups that have been accorded “victim status.” Such groups sometimes wangle privileges from the law. Others are granted a degree of forbearance for antisocial or illegal behavior that persons outside the group would not receive. In either case, the rest of us are enjoined by social mechanisms – usually denunciation as an “–ist” – from speaking of the privilege and its consequences.

Much much more at the site - go and read the whole thing. Only a few comments but they are really worth reading as well. Our currrent society is adrift - we accept bad behaviour as normal because we are afraid to call people to task.

Solar power - California

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Hey Honey I said. Let's get solar power I said. It will be a good thing I said. Oh. Wait.  From Bloomberg:

Californians Learning That Solar Panels Don’t Work in Blackouts
Californians have embraced rooftop solar panels more than anyone in the U.S., but many are learning the hard way the systems won’t keep the lights on during blackouts.

That’s because most panels are designed to supply power to the grid -- not directly to houses. During the heat of the day, solar systems can crank out more juice than a home can handle. Conversely, they don’t produce power at all at night.

So systems are tied into the grid, and the vast majority aren’t working this week as PG&E Corp. cuts power to much of Northern California to prevent wildfires.

So you spend $20,000 or more on a solar installation, get $40 off each months' power bill and a couple K-bucks deductible on your taxes for that year when the system is installed. Alternative Energy - Right Baby?

Problem is that the installers also get some sweet kickbacks from the government so they will sell you the largest system that you can afford. What they are not selling you is the local storage required to hold the energy when the power grid is down. That is another $20K at least - at the very minimum. $40K for something that will last more than a week of normal use (refrigeration, computers and lighting and HVAC).

Grids go down - not if, when. Plan accordingly. Also, preparedness is your own personal responsibility. The people involved in emergency services are going to have their hands full taking care of legitimate cases (handicapped, elderly, ill and injured) to deal with the dumb fuckheads who do not assume the responsibility for the well being of themselves and their families.

Yikes - Eagles tickets

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Tickets for the Eagles tour went on sale today and talk about nosebleed territory.

The cheapest seats were $300 each. Decent floor seats went for $1,230.50 on up and don't ask about VIP seats.

Was toying with the idea of going down for the show. They were one of my favorite bands and it would be fun to see the (almost) original lineup. Not at those prices.

More inclined to go to this event anyway - seriously considering attending next year:

If you thought last year was awesome, hold on to your hats! This year will be bigger and better in every way. The event will take place at the Texas Early Days Tractor and Engine Association Show Grounds in Temple, TX (at 1717 Eberhardt Rd). Covering 58 acres of history, it’s the perfect location to celebrate old skills brought back to life… blacksmithing, woodworking, campfire cooking, metal casting, welding, printing press operation, pottery, leathercrafting, antique tool restoration and operation, hundreds of operational antique tractors, engines, and equipment, beekeeping, and so much more! 

Ronan Farrow's new book is out

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And making waves - from the Washington Examiner:

NBC’s culture of corruption and sexual abuse may be even worse than anyone thought
Shockingly, NBC's investigation of NBC showing there is no evidence of a “culture of sexual harassment” at NBC may not have been so thorough as the network would have you believe.

MSNBC president Phil Griffin, for example, grew so comfortable in whatever culture produced disgraced former host Matt Lauer that he once touted photos of NBC star Maria Menounos’ vagina during a meeting with colleagues, according to journalist Ronan Farrow.

Farrow reports in his forthcoming book, Catch & Kill:

Four colleagues said Griffin was known for making lewd or crass remarks in work emails. In one meeting I'd be in after the television personality Maria Menounos's vagina had been photographed in a bathing suit wardrobe malfunction, Griffin waved around a printed page bearing a zoomed-in image, smirking.

"Would you look at that? Not bad, not bad," Griffin reportedly remarked.

Remember: This is the president of a major cable news network. He reportedly said this of an NBC employee's vagina in a meeting with other NBC employees. That Griffin apparently felt comfortable enough to do something like this in front of colleagues should tell you a little something about how Lauer was able to get away with his alleged sexual depredations for as long as he did.

Got the book on hold at the library - I have read his other stuff and really like it. He is liberal but is not afraid to tell the whole story and is an excellent researcher.

Tracking space debris - Leo Labs

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From Tech Crunch:

Leo Labs and its high-fidelity space radar track orbital debris better than ever — from New Zealand
Ask anyone in the space business and they’ll tell you that orbital debris is a serious problem that will only get worse, but dealing with it is as much an opportunity as it is a problem. Leo Labs is building a global network of radar arrays that can track smaller debris than we can today, and with better precision — and the first of its new installations is about to start operations in New Zealand.

There are some 12,000 known debris objects in low Earth orbit, many of which are tracked by the U.S. Air Force and partners. But they only track debris down to 10 centimeters across — meaning in reality there may be hundreds of thousands of objects up there, just as potentially destructive to a satellite but totally unknown.

And the Leo in their name stands for Low Earth Orbit - their mission statement:

Mission
LeoLabs’ mission is to secure commercial operations in low Earth orbit (LEO). As the LEO ecosystem around our planet gets more congested, the risk of collisions rises, and the need to map the orbits of spacecraft, satellites and space debris grows with every launch. Meanwhile, new generations of commercial spacecraft, such as small and cube satellites, are causing a dramatic increase in imaging, communications and human spaceflight prospects.

LeoLabs was founded to address these risks today. With a worldwide network of ground-based, phased-array radars that enable high resolution data on objects in LEO, LeoLabs is uniquely equipped to offer foundational mapping data and services to mitigate the risks of collisions. These services include rapid orbit determination, early operational support, and ongoing orbit awareness. LeoLabs is a venture-funded company based in Menlo Park, CA, and provides its services to commercial satellite operators, government regulatory and space agencies, and satellite management services firms.

This is much better than waiting for NASA to do it - Leo Labs will do a high-tech lean and cheap implementation. NASA is pure bureaucratic bloat. They are not nimble any more. It was good to have the government funding the moon launches but privatizing space is the way to go. Weyland-Yutani anyone?

Seventy-two years later

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Chuck Yeager:

And now? We have to cage a ride from the Russians when we want to visit the International Space Station.

From John Nolte writing at Breitbart:

Nolte: Woketard Film Critics Hit Hardest as ‘Joker’ Breaks Box Office Records
This might seem difficult to believe, but the American people appear to have no respect whatsoever for the elites who attempted to shame and scare them from seeing director Todd Phillips’ Joker.

After its second weekend in release, there is just no question Joker is a legitimate pop culture phenomenon. Although it cost just $55 million to produce (add another $35 million or so for promotion), the same movie that was sentenced to a lonely, twitching death at the hands of a thousand left-wing hot takes, is well into profit.

More:

All of this success is even more amazing when you remember Joker is a very, very, very dark, R-rated movie with no super-heroics, no catharsis, just an unrelenting (and glorious) sense of dread and grimness. In tone and payoff, Joker is much closer to a Last House on the Left (1972) or Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) than it is to any comic book movie, including Zack Snyder’s Watchmen (2009).

Nevertheless, thus far, according to Box Office MojoJoker has enjoyed the best October opening weekend in history, the second best-ever Fall opening (It: Chapter One is number one), the fourth best opening weekend for an R-rated movie ever, and the numero uno largest second weekend October haul ever, crushing second place Gravity’s $43 million.

And the Media:

Of the 50 so-called  “top” critics at Rotten Tomatoes, more than 50 percent panned Joker. Of all critics, only 68 percent gave it a positive review, compared to 90 percent of the audience. But those numbers don’t even take into account the mind-numbing number of hot takes and “straight” news articles that condemned the movie as racist, as “dangerous” and “problematic,” as something that would encourage the whiteness in problematic Trump supporters to violently lash out against a world that uses words like “whiteness” and “problematic.”

When it came to Joker, the elite media were in full sabotage mode. Everything possible was done to cancel and blacklist the movie in the crib, and those the media could not shame into staying home, the media instead tried to terrorize with the assurance Joker would result in shooting massacres in movie theaters across the nation. (Fake news alert: despite the media’s best efforts, this did not happen).

Doesn't fit the narrative so we must destroy it.

Project Veritas - CNN

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The first tranche of media has been released and it shows their prejudice against the Orange Man.

PART 1: CNN Insider Blows Whistle on Network President Jeff Zucker’s Personal Vendetta Against POTUS

Cary Poarch, Who Works at CNN’s Washington DC Bureau, Says: “I Decided to Wear a Hidden Camera…to Expose the Bias”

    • Records Zucker’s 9AM Daily Rundown Calls
    • Zucker Emphatically States Fox News is “Beyond Destructive for America”
    • Zucker to Staffers: “Impeachment is the Story,” Ignore Other Stories
    • Employees Ordered by Zuckerto ‘Knock Off’ Their Friendliness Towards Lindsey Graham
    • Nick Neville, CNN Media Coordinator: “Jeff Zucker…has a Personal Vendetta Against Trump,” “…Then You Get on the 9AM Call and the Big Boss, Jeff Zucker, F**king Tells What to Do”
    • Neville: It’s About ‘Ratings,’ “…It’s, Like, They Pulled Names Out of a Hat and It’s Like We’re Watching the Gameshow Network”
    • CNN Floor Manager Mike Brevna: “It’s the Trump Network, Dog…They Sold Themselves to The Devil”
    • Brevna Recalls Colleagues ‘Sobbing,’ And Says The “Office Was Like a Funeral” After Trump Election Victory
    • CNN Media Coordinator, Christian Sierra, Confesses CNN Prepares ‘Softball Interviews’for Democrats Compared to Republicans, and Suggests “Anti-Trump Crusade” After 2016 Election
    • Top Network Executive David Chalian Says Republicans are ‘Delusional, Defiant, or Silent’ With Regards to Trump’s Impeachment Story
    • CNN Floor Director Hiram Gonzalez: “…We Created This Monster…Media Created the Trump Monster”

Quite a set of bullet points for Day 1 - more:

A brave CNN insider came to Project Veritas to expose anti-Trump bias at the cable giant. Cary Poarch, who works at CNN’s Washington D.C. Bureau, tells Project Veritas “I decided to wear a hidden camera…to expose the bias running rampant” at the network. Poarch documented CNN’s bias for months; recording undercover footage of numerous long-term employees, some of which talk about Jeff Zucker’s anti-Trump agenda. In the video are Nick Neville, Christian Sierra, Hiram Gonzalez, David Chalian, and Mike Brevna. These employee’s positions range from media coordinator to high-ranking executives. I decided to secretly record the 9:00am rundown call meetings with senior management and executives, says Poarch. In the recordings, Zucker details his expectations for CNN’s coverage and very matter-of-factly states “impeachment is the story.”

Have they no concern with their public trust? They are just democrat operatives, not journalists.

President Trump was right - FOX News

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And it was the New York Post that called them on it - from Trump's twitter feed:

From the New York Post:

Fox News pollster Braun Research misrepresented impeachment poll: analysis
The poll released last week by Fox News that claimed most Americans favor the impeachment of President Trump underrepresented Republican and independent voters, The Post has found.

The poll said 51% of voters were in favor of Trump’s impeachment and removal from office, while 40% did not want him impeached.

Bad methodology = bad numbers but hey - they have the proper narrative:

Princeton, New Jersey, pollster Braun Research, which conducted the survey, noted 48% of its respondents were Democrats. But the actual breakdown of party affiliation is 31% Democrat, 29% Republican and 38% independent, according to Gallup.

A poll weighted for party affiliation would have concluded that 44.9% favored impeachment and 44.4% opposed it, a Post analysis has concluded.

FAKE NEWS - pants on fire.

Politico is reasonably accurate but they have a pronounced progressive bias. Occasionally, they actually report on the issue at hand. From Politico:

Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire
Donald Trump wasn’t the only presidential candidate whose campaign was boosted by officials of a former Soviet bloc country.

Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.

Sunlight is a wonderful disinfectant.

The taxpayers speak - higher education

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Good news from USA Today:

States are cutting university budgets. Taxpayers aren't interested in funding campus kooks
Times are bad for higher education, and higher educators are beginning to notice it. But the industry’s problems are mostly of its own making.

The latest "cri de coeur" comes from University of North Dakota’s Sheila Liming, who writes, “My University is Dying; And soon yours will be, too.”

She notes: “Starting in 2016, our state university system endured three successive rounds of annual budget cuts, with average 10-percent reductions resulting in a loss of more than a third of the system’s overall funding. Additional cuts, even, were on the table this past year. And while our state legislators ultimately avoided taking yet one more stab at the dismembered body of higher education, there has been no discussion of restoring any of those funds.”

And a bit more:

The ultimate reason for the cuts is that taxpayers in many states no longer think higher education is worth the money.

Faculty members, and the administrators who are the real power in universities nowadays, dismiss this as ignorant anti-intellectualism. But is it?

Exactly - we read the stories about the craziness on campus; the little entitled snowflakes and we realize that it is our tax dollars that is subsidizing this. No more classes for lesbian underwater basket weaving. I would cut any program with the word "studies" in the description. Put the money into the trade schools - much better spent and a better return.

Fake News - ABC

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Looks like the American Broadcasting Company got caught - from Gizmodo:

ABC News Broadcasts Fake Syria Bombing Video That's Actually From a Kentucky Military Show in 2017
ABC News aired a video on Sunday that host Tom Llamas said depicted a Turkish attack in northern Syria against Kurdish civilians. Turkey is indeed pushing into Syria and slaughtering Kurds along the way, but the video ABC News played last night is from a military gun demonstration in Kentucky that was published to YouTube in 2017.

“This video, right here, appearing to show Turkey’s military bombing Kurd civilians in a Syrian border town,” Llamas said on the October 13 broadcast as the video played.

But the explosions in the video are identical to explosions seen in a video titled, “Knob Creek night shoot 2017.” Knob Creek Gun Range, in the town of West Point, Kentucky, hosts a biannual event called the “Military Gun Shoot & Military Gun Show” where weapons are fired at night. Members of the public can come and see the show for a fee in April and October.

Gizmodo saved a copy of the ABC news report (ABC has taken it down) and spliced it with a copy of the Knob Creek night shoot. Identical footage:

Anything to preserve and promote the narrative. Orange Man Bad.

Happy Columbus Day

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I refuse to celebrate anything else and here is why - from the New York Post:

Columbus Day haters are missing the entire point of the holiday
So long, Christopher Columbus. You’ve been canceled.

Some 60 cities and states have stopped celebrating Columbus Day, in many cases replacing it with Indigenous Peoples Day. There’s no doubt Columbus — and the conquistadors who followed — enslaved and slaughtered on a mass scale. But Columbus didn’t bring cruelty to peaceful, benign peoples. The indigenous people were also cruel to one another.

Iroquois Indians were famous for their practice of torturing enemies to death over a period of days. The Kwakiutl Indians in the Pacific Northwest practiced cannibalism. A mass grave dating to the 14th century, in what is now South Dakota, turned up 500 murdered, dismembered and scalped bodies of men, women and children. Many tribes scalped their victims alive.

Ritual child sacrifice was common among the Mayans, the Aztecs and many other peoples. The Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan contains the remains of 42 children around age 6 who were murdered to appease the god who made the rains fall. Because the tears of children were required to prime the pump, some of the kids’ fingernails were torn off to make them cry.

The Incas would drug little girls with alcohol and coca leaves, then freeze them, then mummify them. In a spot that today is right across the Mississippi River from St. Louis was a burial site where scores of teen girls were ritually sacrificed. There is a theory that poor people and slaves captured in war were literally fed to rich Aztecs because protein was so scarce. In the 15th century, life was cruel. Columbus didn’t invent cruelty in the Americas.

Hey, but we’re only thinking of the good things done by indigenous peoples, right? But that’s exactly the point of Columbus Day, to celebrate the good stuff.

The arrival of Columbus in America kicked off an era of rapid technological advancement and cultural ferment. While the clash of civilizations was bloody, celebrating Columbus Day is not a salute to conquest. Columbus is simply a handy symbol for all of the energy Italians and other Europeans brought to the Americas. That’s why the fifth-oldest university in the US, the capital of Ohio, a province in Canada, a traffic circle at the southwest corner of Central Park, a country in South America, one of the big five Hollywood studios, one of the four TV networks (the C in CBS), the vice-presidential anthem and, oh yeah, the seat of the federal government are all named in honor of Chris.

All the people trying to re-write history are pitifully ignorant of it. They are only concerned with reinforcing the current narrative and not any actual scholarship.

Nothing but the best - from VOX Day

Nothing works anymore: construction edition
Forget bridges, highways, and high-speed trains. Major US cities can't even build simple buildings without drama anymore:

A large portion of a Hard Rock Hotel under construction in New Orleans collapsed Saturday morning, killing at least two people and injuring 20 others, authorities said. The building bordering the city's historic French Quarter is considered unstable and officials said further collapse is possible.

Three people were initially reported missing, though one has since been found, according to the New Orleans Fire Department. Authorities said no one on the ground was injured in the collapse.

According to Mayor LaToya Cantrell, 112 people were in the building at the time of collapse. Though the search for those missing was suspended for the evening, Cantrell confirmed that rescuers found two bodies but were unable to retrieve them.

VFM Bear said it best: it's the indoor plumbing that I'm going to miss the most.

Import the Third World, become the Third World. This really isn't that hard. Ain't immigration and diversity grand?

So it turns out the guy behind the collapsed Hard Rock hotel, Praveen Kailas was previously convicted of ripping off the state, and was allegedly cutting corners by employing unqualified labor.

A sad state of affairs - people not doing their jobs. Giving work to the lowest bidder. Be sure to read the comments - some other harrowing stories.

Very good news - nuclear

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From Bloomberg:

INSIGHT: NELA—A Big, Bipartisan Opportunity for Nuclear Power
Nuclear science is hard, and most Americans don’t realize how close our country is to losing the skills and experience needed to engineer, construct, and operate nuclear reactors—something that will have deleterious effects on national security, electricity reliability, and the climate.

On Sept. 20, Three Mile Island shuttered for good after decades of service providing power to customers across Pennsylvania. The generator’s closure underscores a grim fact: Our nuclear fleet is aging rapidly and struggling to remain competitive even as the demand for clean renewable energy continues to climb. Without investment in education, research and development, and reactor design, America risks falling behind in this critical area.

Very true - what is to be done:

Stop America’s Nuclear Bran Drain
Without better technology and legislative action, utilities are unlikely to invest in nuclear power. It is past time for Congress to take action to stop America’s nuclear brain drain.

The Nuclear Energy Leadership Act (NELA), sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in the Senate with a House companion by Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.), is a bipartisan proposal to support the continued development of American advanced nuclear technologies by boosting investment in research and development, fuel security, and workforce development.

This legislation addresses the short, middle, and long-term needs of the nuclear generation industry over the next decade. It would establish goals that align federal lab and private-sector efforts to help accelerate nuclear power generation, while also supporting research and development to ensure the safety and reliability necessary to license new, state-of-the-art concepts.

This still does not address the building of new technology reactors (LFTR anyone?). These designs are walk-away safe and much cheaper to build. Still, a wonderful start and they are recognizing that this problem exists.

Nothin' out there

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Been a quiet weekend web-wise.

YouTube and bed. The beers were nice and cold and wet.

From Mark Simone:

The List Of 120 Years Of Climate Scares By Scientists
Scientists seeking funding and journalists seeking an audience agree: panic sells.

“Global cooling is going to kills us all!” “No, wait: global warming is going to kill us all!”

Here's the list - an amazing chronology of the last 120 years of scare-mongering on climate.

      • 1895 - Geologists Think the World May Be Frozen Up Again – New York Times, February 1895
      • 1902 - “Disappearing Glaciers…deteriorating slowly, with a persistency that means their final annihilation…scientific fact…surely disappearing.” – Los Angeles Times
      • 1912 - Prof. Schmidt Warns Us of an Encroaching Ice Age – New York Times, October 1912
      • 1923 - “Scientist says Arctic ice will wipe out Canada” – Professor Gregory of Yale University, American representative to the Pan-Pacific Science Congress, – Chicago Tribune
      • 1923 - “The discoveries of changes in the sun’s heat and the southward advance of glaciers in recent years have given rise to conjectures of the possible advent of a new ice age” – Washington Post
      • 1924 - MacMillan Reports Signs of New Ice Age – New York Times, Sept 18, 1924
      • 1929 - “Most geologists think the world is growing warmer, and that it will continue to get warmer” – Los Angeles Times, in Is another ice age coming?
      • 1932 - “If these things be true, it is evident, therefore that we must be just teetering on an ice age” – The Atlantic magazine, This Cold, Cold World
      • 1933 - America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-Year Rise – New York Times, March 27th, 1933
      • 1933 – “…wide-spread and persistent tendency toward warmer weather…Is our climate changing?” – Federal Weather Bureau “Monthly Weather Review.”
      • 1938 - Global warming, caused by man heating the planet with carbon dioxide, “is likely to prove beneficial to mankind in several ways, besides the provision of heat and power.”– Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
      • 1938 - “Experts puzzle over 20 year mercury rise…Chicago is in the front rank of thousands of cities throughout the world which have been affected by a mysterious trend toward warmer climate in the last two decades” – Chicago Tribune
      • 1939 - “Gaffers who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right… weather men have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer” – Washington Post

Lot's more at the site. Panic sells newspapers and politicians love a good crisis - lets them grab power before the useful idiots realize that they are being sold out by their masters.

A couple of beers sounds really good

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Dinner at home, time for a pint or two. Early bedtime - lots to do tomorrow.

Trump better for gays than Democrats

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Great article by gay activist Joshua Herr. From The Federalist:

Donald Trump Has Done Far More For Gay People Than The Stonewall Democrats
There is no easier way to make the left mad than being a gay Republican. This time, it’s the Stonewall Democratic Club that’s up in arms.

Stonewall is a group of LGBT Democrats who purport to champion “equality for all.” You wouldn’t know this from their record.

Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) during his first term. These acts outlawed gay marriage and military service for openly LGBT soldiers, respectively. It took 20 years to undo that codified discrimination. But Stonewall endorsed Clinton for reelection in 1996 anyway.

Barack Obama ran for president in 2008 opposing gay marriage. Stonewall endorsed him nonetheless. From 2008 to 2010, although Democrats controlled both the White House and Congress, Obama did nothing to advance LGBT equality. Stonewall endorsed him again in 2012.

Pesky facts - Joshua continues and cites several examples of the disparity of thought between the Stonewalls and the Log Cabin Gays.

Truth hurts - Joe Biden

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From The Daily Wire:

Biden Sends Letter Excoriating New York Times For Unfavorable Coverage. NYT Responds.
On Wednesday, the Biden campaign sent a letter excoriating The New York Times for daring to provide coverage that is unfavorable to former vice president and 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden. The campaign also sent letters to enormous news disseminators Facebook and Twitter for allowing ads that highlight Biden’s shady dealings with Ukraine.

In the letter to the Times essentially trying to bully the newspaper into only publishing favorable coverage on the powerful Democrat, the Biden campaign complains that President Donald Trump is the real threat to a free press.

And The Times:

The Times responded on Thursday to Biden, defending its reporting.

“Our coverage of the Biden campaign and Hunter Biden has been fair and accurate,” a spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “[The Times] will continue to cover Joe Biden with the same tough and fair standards we apply to every candidate in the race and we’re happy to sit down with Biden advisers anytime to discuss news coverage.”

Tsk tsk - they were not toeing the Democrat party line and must be called to task for it. Promote the narrative.

Truth hurts - Ilhan Omar

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From her twitter account:

Looking at her record, I would consider that to be a very fair assessment. And your point is?

Yikes: bad code = bad science

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From Motherboard:

A Code Glitch May Have Caused Errors In More Than 100 Published Studies
Scientists in Hawaiʻi have uncovered a glitch in a piece of code that could have yielded incorrect results in over 100 published studies that cited the original paper.

The glitch caused results of a common chemistry computation to vary depending on the operating system used, causing discrepancies among Mac, Windows, and Linux systems. The researchers published the revelation and a debugged version of the script, which amounts to roughly 1,000 lines of code, on Tuesday in the journal Organic Letters.

“This simple glitch in the original script calls into question the conclusions of a significant number of papers on a wide range of topics in a way that cannot be easily resolved from published information because the operating system is rarely mentioned,” the new paper reads. “Authors who used these scripts should certainly double-check their results and any relevant conclusions using the modified scripts in the [supplementary information].”

Makes you wonder just how many other papers out there are citing buggy code. If it says what you want it to say, the tendency is not to give it another glance. Stunningly bad coding practice.

James O'Keefe got his start in 2009 by using undercover video to show the corruption at ACORN - a massive, unaccountable taxpayer-subsidized group that the Obama Administration was using to conduct the Census, register voters and sign people up for government programs. At its height ACORN had over 500,000 members and more than 1,200 chapters in over 100 U.S. cities.

He released the videos that him and a partner made in the Baltimore, Md office and the immediate response was that it was just that office that was corrupt - the rest of the organization was just fine. Nothing to see. Keep moving.

And then, James released the videos from Washington D.C., New York City, San Bernardino, San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. The upshot was that ACORN was defunded and went out of business.

James' organization - Project Veritas - released this little news item:

On the Eve of the CNN Insider blowing the whistle on his own network…
This week, a CNN insider will blow the whistle and through Project Veritas will release dozens of recordings made of officials at the highest levels of CNN, revealing a political agenda, bias and misconduct hidden from public view.

This series of tapes — which we think will be the biggest story of the year for Project Veritas — blends two extraordinary series of events; a brave insider secretly recording at work and a hard-hitting piece of hidden camera muckraking into one of the supposed “most trusted names in news.”

A major aspect of this story is the heroic actions of an insider.

By far, the most often asked question (and most important) is “What can I do?” There is a new genre of answer—you can wear a hidden camera and blow the whistle on your employer through Project Veritas. This new movement, which we are calling “Be Brave. Do Something” is enabling citizens to become catalysts for reform. It is the modern incarnation of what Jack Anderson once described as “the sirens of Greek mythology, who, by their seductive singing, enticed unknowing wayfarers to abandon the cramped boredom of safe passage for a hazardous try at strange excitements and gratifications.”

This will be fun to see. One thing I like is that he releases the five to fifteen minute long edited videos but, to refute claims that these have been cherry picked, he also releases the entire roll from that session. It is all there if you want to see things in context.

Fun stuff - he has also done Google, Pinterest and Facebook as well as other political organizations.

Nothing going on

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Quick surf and things are very quiet out there.

Heading out for a bit - working at home today.

Pandering to the masses - Biden

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Hunter this time - he is resigning from the Chinese board position but the media is strangely silent as to if he is selling his shares in the company. From Breitbart:

Hunter Biden Leaves China Board as Trump Attacks Hit Home
Hunter Biden is walking away from the board of a Chinese-backed private equity company as part of a public pledge to disavow all foreign work if his father, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, gains the presidency in 2020.

Joe Biden’s second son made his move after a month of pushing by U.S. President Donald Trump who has publicly highlighted the perceived – and real – conflicts of interest represented by Biden’s work in Asia.

A statement released on his behalf by his legal counsel George Mesires said his relationship with the management company of a private equity fund that’s backed by Chinese state-owned entities will end within weeks.

The 49-year-old doesn’t state whether he will be divesting from BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company. The company was set up in 2013 to invest Chinese capital outside of China.

Instead the young Biden pledged he wouldn’t work for any foreign-owned companies or serve on their boards during a potential Biden administration.

And we all know what the prospects are for a potential Biden admnistration

Well dang - The Eagles

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They reunited with Joe Walsh, Don Henley, Vince Gill and Glenn's son Deacon Fry and are touring. One of their sets will be the Hotel California album with a full choir.

The tour is only visiting these six cities: Atlanta, New York, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Thinking seriously about a trip to Texas... No word on ticket pricing - they go on sale in two days.

House Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted a bunch of questions regarding the whistleblower:

Go to the link above and read them all. These need to be answered.

And another record gets shattered. From The New York Times:

Eliud Kipchoge Breaks Two-Hour Marathon Barrier
On a misty Saturday morning in Vienna, on a course specially chosen for speed, in an athletic spectacle of historic proportions, Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya ran 26.2 miles in a once-inconceivable time of 1 hour 59 minutes 40 seconds.

In becoming the first person to cover the marathon distance in less than two hours, Kipchoge, 34, achieved a sports milestone granted almost mythical status in the running world, breaking through a temporal barrier that many would have deemed untouchable only a few years ago.

Kipchoge, an eight-time major marathon winner and three-time Olympic medalist, pounded his chest twice as he crossed the finish line in Vienna’s leafy Prater Park, where the majority of the run had unfolded on a long straightaway of recently paved road, with roundabouts on either end.

Unfortunately:

For all its magnitude, the accomplishment will be regarded largely as a symbolic one. The eye-popping time, which was 10 seconds quicker than the 1:59:50 time Kipchoge and his team had set out to achieve, will not be officially recognized as a world record because it was not run under open marathon conditions and because it featured a dense rotation of professional pacesetters.

Bet that will be taken care of the next time he tries to run. He was running an average of 4.6 minute miles - amazing performance. 13.1 miles per hour. That is about my speed on my electronic bicycle on level ground - he was doing this while running.

Unreal - this would be tossed out by any intelligent group of people. From the New York Daily News:

Dental hygienist labeled sexual abuser and stripped of license because he slept with a patient — to whom he is married
The College of Dental Hygienists of Ontario stripped a hygienist of his license and labeled him a sex offender because he had a sexual relationship with a client. It didn’t matter that the client was his wife.

Alexandru Tanase, of Guelph, confessed to cleaning the teeth of Sandi Mullins when on several occasions between April 2015 and August 2016, according to the Canada’s CTV news. They were engaged when the treatments started and are now married.

Despite fighting the case over the past three years, Tanase said he was stripped of his license last month. He was reportedly outed by a tipster who was a social media photo of Mullins flashing her pearly whites following a cleaning by Tanase, who is pictured by her side.

Like I said - unreal...

Don Surber nails it

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Impossible to excerpt - here is his post in its entiriety:

USA must save a 3rd World nation
Last month, American missionaries went to clean up a village in a Third World nation. The volunteers picked up 50 tons of garbage in this backward land. Nowhere is the gap between the rich and the poor greater. The poor live in tents, while the rich reside in the most expensive houses in the world.

The poor face typhoid and other debilitating diseases that were eliminated in civilized nations. People poop in the street for lack of indoor plumbing.

Instead of meeting the basic sanitation needs of its cities, the corrupt, one-party government squanders billions on an unneeded high-speed train. It will never be built but contracts are awarded to political insiders for work that will never be done. Because of this corruption, President Donald John Trump wants to curtail U.S. aid to the land.

Elsewhere in this nation state, electricity is a luxury as the power has been cut off to hundreds of thousands of citizens in preparation for a natural disaster.

What is maddening is this land has the world's fifth largest economy. It could easily take care of its needs without outsiders coming in to save them out of pity.

And sadly, the 50 tons of trash are small compared to the 22 million pounds of trash in one pile alone.

Something must be done to save this land from itself. Taking over this backward Third World nation would be easy. We already have troops stationed there. Its army consists of a national guard and police.

But that would mean spending trillions on another foray into nation building.

California sadly has very little hope.

It wasn't always that way.

So true and so sad - the end-game of socialism and liberalism. Always happens and always will.

Roast beef at the legion hall

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Tonight was the roast beef dinner at the American Legion hall. $18 for a big plate of prime rib, vegies and cake.

Sat next to a delightful couple from Australia who were on vacation. They were house (and pet) sitting through the worldwide Trusted Housesitters program. Very clever idea - the house and pet owners as well as the wanna-be sitters each pay $100/year to join the program and then they have a background check. There is an online database that links them up and there is no charge for the visits. Part of the $100 covers insurance for emergency vet care, etc...

President Trump talks to Hunter Biden

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Someone finally had the guts to say it out loud - from Mark Dice:

Classic Trump

Win / Win - China

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President Trump and the Chinese announced the first tranche of a set of trade agreements that are very favorable to both the USA and to China - a true win/win situation. From President Trump's twitter feed:

From John Hinderacker writing at Powerline:

TRADE DEAL WITH CHINA IS A BLOCKBUSTER
What the Democrats fear most is happening: President Trump and his negotiating team are reaching wide-ranging agreements with China that will be a huge boon to the United States.

In an Oval Office press conference yesterday, President Trump and China’s Vice Premier announced a Phase 1 set of agreements that will be documented over the next several weeks. The video of the press conference is embedded below; Trump’s performance was masterful. His many years of experience as a negotiator shine through.

The Phase 1 agreement covers several important topics, including agricultural sales. China has agreed to ramp up its purchases of agricultural products to $40-$50 billion–three times the previous peak–over the next two years. Trump joked that farmers will need to buy more land and work overtime. That means, I think, that Democrats can say goodbye to hopes that tariffs would be the issue that could win votes in rural America.

The agreement also opens up China’s financial services markets to American companies, covers currency manipulation, and addresses some aspects of intellectual property and technology transfer agreements. Phase 2 negotiations will begin immediately.

In view of the Phase 1 agreement, new tariffs scheduled to go into effect on October 15 have been canceled. Further tariff increases are scheduled for December 15, but Trump and Steven Mnuchin, who participated in the press conference, emphasized that there is plenty of time to reach a Phase 2 agreement that would nullify those increases. Phase 2 could be the final agreement, or, if there are still open issues, there could be a Phase 3.

More at the site. Sounds well thought out, beneficial to the interests of the United States and beneficial to the interests of the Chinese as well. A skillful negotiation. President Trump is doing what we elected him to do - unlike some of the other creatures of the deep-state swamp.

Modern designs*** of fission reactors can deliver cheap reliable electricity with zero carbon output. We need to build more of them. Fusion reactors are even more promising but for the last 50 years, they have always been 10-20 years in the future. This might have changed. From Popular Mechanics:

The Navy's Patent for a Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is Wild
Scientists have longed to create the perfect energy source. Ideally, that source would eventually replace greenhouse gas-spewing fossil fuels, power cars, boats, and planes, and send spacecraft to remote parts of the universe. So far, nuclear fusion energy has seemed like the most likely option to help us reach those goals.

The big problem? It’s difficult to harness, and we’re nowhere near producing it at the scales we need in order to cause a seismic shift in energy policy. That's why teams of researchers across the world are racing to improve our understanding of this reaction.

Now, the U.S. Navy has jumped into the game by filing a patent for a compact fusion reactor, according to exclusive reporting by  The War Zone.

Developing a viable source of nuclear fusion energy—the same reaction that powers the sun—has long been seemingly unattainable. The patent for the device was reportedly filed on March 22, 2019, and published late last month. This technology, by all accounts, is a long shot. But it would completely revolutionize how we power our world.

Fusion reactors have been around for a long time but they have never put out more energy than is required to operate them. If the Navy is able to run at over-unity, this is a gamechanger.

Interesting bit of information, the most practical fusion reactor is the Farnsworth Fusor invented by Philo Farnsworth. If that name is familiar, it is because Philo is also the inventor of the first practical design for television transmission and reception. The system we use today is the logical outgrowth of Philo's work.

Although the Fusor is useless for power generation, it is used a lot of hospital radioisotope generation.

*** All of the bad fission reactor designs: Fukushima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Windscale - these were all first sketched out onto cocktail napkins over 60 years ago. Modern designs have none of the failure modes.

Heh - used to be the Gore Effect

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Now it's the Swedish Brat effect - from Tony Heller:

Which is why this scam has morphed from being called Global Warming to being called Climate Change.

More on the Gore Effect:

Gore Effect
The Gore Effect is an informal and satirical term which alleges a causal relationship between unseasonable cold weather phenomena and global warming activism, with particular emphasis on events attended by former Vice President of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Al Gore. Usage started when a speech of Al Gore on a global warming rally held in New York City met extremely cold winter weather in January 2004 and according Andrew Bolt after another Gore speech took place on a strikingly cold day in Boston in the same year.

Liberty and power

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Our forefathers knew best:

"Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power...The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted."
--James Madison

Out for a little bit - coffee etc.

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Back in an hour or three. A couple of errands and farmer's market at 2PM

Great news - President Trump

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He signed a couple of executive orders - from Reason:

Trump's New Executive Orders To Restrain the Administrative State
President Donald Trump just announced two executive orders to rein in unlawful administrative state action.

The first order declares that its goal is "to ensure that Americans are subject to only those binding rules imposed through duly enacted statutes or through regulations lawfully promulgated under them, and that Americans have fair notice of their obligations."

The second complements the first, promising that Americans will not "be subjected to a civil administrative enforcement action or adjudication absent prior public notice of both the enforcing agency's jurisdiction over particular conduct and the legal standards applicable to that conduct."

Excellent, well thought out and very overdue. The administrative state is making rulings that have the same effect as laws passed by Congress. Legislation by bureaucrat is not constitutional and needs to be stopped.

From Investment Watch:

More Democratic graft and corruption: Three years after LA tax payers approve $1.2 billion for homeless housing, not a single unit built yet. “…higher-than-expected costs…such as consultants and financing…comprise up to 40% of the cost…”
Having made a deep financial commitment to create housing for some of its 27,000 unsheltered homeless people, Los Angeles is falling short in building new apartments to take thousands of people off the streets, a new study finds.

Nearly three years after city voters approved a $1.2 billion construction program over 10 years, the city has yet to see the first building completed. Average per-apartment costs have zoomed more than $100,000 past prior predictions, the study by city Controller Ron Galperin finds.

Los Angeles has had Republican mayors as late as 2001 but they have been as corrupt as the Democrats.

And that is it for me for tonight

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Didn't stop for any beers - meeting ran a bit late. Want to get up early again tomorrow - rain is due to come in Saturday (10% chance) and Sunday (20%).

YouTube and then to bed.

The Kurds

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The Kurds in four headlines - clickable

Trump’s Betrayal of the Kurds May Be the Dumbest Move of His Presidency - October 10th, 2019

Obama Betrays the Kurds - Sept. 30th, 2014

Bush betrays the Kurds - October 19th, 2007

US abandoned us, say Kurds - Sept. 4th, 1996 - Bill Clinton's presidency

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. -- George Santayana

You are what you eat

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An interesting look at the link between depression and diet - from scientific journal PLOS | ONE:

A brief diet intervention can reduce symptoms of depression in young adults – A randomised controlled trial
There is strong epidemiological evidence that poor diet is associated with depression. The reverse has also been shown, namely that eating a healthy diet rich in fruit, vegetables, fish and lean meat, is associated with reduced risk of depression. To date, only one randomised controlled trial (RCT) has been conducted with elevated depression symptoms being an inclusion criterion, with results showing that a diet intervention can reduce clinical levels of depression. No such RCTs have been performed in young adults. Young adults with elevated levels of depression symptoms and who habitually consume a poor diet were randomly allocated to a brief 3-week diet intervention (Diet Group) or a habitual diet control group (Control Group). The primary and secondary outcome measures assessed at baseline and after the intervention included symptoms of depression (Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale; CESD-R; and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale– 21 depression subscale; DASS-21-D), current mood (Profile of Mood States), self-efficacy (New General Self-Efficacy Scale) and memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test). Diet compliance was measured via self-report questionnaires and spectrophotometry. One-hundred-and-one individuals were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to the Diet Group or the Control Group. Upon completion of the study, there was complete data for 38 individuals in each group. There was good compliance with the diet intervention recommendations assessed using self-report and spectrophotometry. The Diet group had significantly lower self-reported depression symptoms than the Control Group on the CESD-R (p = 0.007, Cohen’s d = 0.65) and DASS-21 depression subscale (p = 0.002, Cohen’s d = 0.75) controlling for baseline scores on these scales. Reduced DASS-21 depression subscale scores were maintained on follow up phone call 3 months later (p = .009). These results are the first to show that young adults with elevated depression symptoms can engage in and adhere to a diet intervention, and that this can reduce symptoms of depression. The findings provide justification for future research into the duration of these benefits, the impacts of varying diet composition, and their biological basis.

Looks like they were very thorough. No mention in the abstract as to what the two diets were but the Mediterranean diet is well known for being very healthful.

People's passwords

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Seems like the gurus are just as bad as us mere mortals when it comes to password security. From BoingBoing:

Computer historians crack passwords of Unix's early pioneers
Early versions of the free/open Unix variant BSD came with password files that included hashed passwords for such Unix luminaries as Dennis Ritchie, Stephen R. Bourne, Eric Schmidt, Brian W. Kernighan and Stuart Feldman.

Leah Neukirchen recovered an BSD version 3 source tree and posted about it on the Unix Heritage Society mailing list, revealing that she was able to crack many of the weak passwords used by the equally weak hashing algorithm from those bygone days.

Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie's was "dmac", Bourne's was "bourne", Schmidt's was "wendy!!!" (his wife's name), Feldman's was "axlotl", and Kernighan's was "/.,/.,".

Four more passwords were cracked by Arthur Krewat: Özalp Babaoğlu's was "12ucdort", Howard Katseff's was "graduat;", Tom London's was "..pnn521", Bob Fabry's was "561cml.." and Ken Thompson's was "p/q2-q4!" (chess notation for a common opening move).

Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie were the people who codified the C Programming Language which was what Unix was written in and became the default programming language for all other operating systems and computers.

Derp - keys in car

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Dinner was wonderful. Went out to my work van and discovered that the dogs hit the door lock button and I was locked out. I had put the keys in a cup-holder in the dash. Saves digging them out of my pockets and never had a problem before.

I tried calling my insurance company (their roadside service option is one third what AAA costs) but their automation tried to download a service request form to my phone and I was in a pocket of poor cell service with no internet available. As luck would have it, the place I had dinner was right across the street from where I bought the van. Called them and they sent someone over right away. Amazing service - I was very happy with them at the time of purchase and still very happy. Happy with the van too. Mission Motors

CERT meeting was really good - great group of people. Not as big as the Bellingham chapter but some people who have been involved with emergency services and amateur radio for a long long time. We were invited to participate in a drill involving the police and fire a few months ago (I was not able to attend) - this is the first time that we were allowed to participate in the Emergency Operations Center.

High clouds and warmer - forecast for partly cloudy tomorrow. FInish off the outside.

Surf for a bit.

Back in a couple of hours.

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A big plate of Carne Asada is calling me. CERT meeting after. We are doing a big drill in November so this is just a refresh of what we will try to accomplish.

From FOX News:

UN sounds alarm on cash crisis, warns it may default on bills by month’s end
The United Nations is facing its worst cash crisis in nearly a decade and is warning that it may be unable to pay its bills by the end of the month, while urging member states to pay their contributions to the world body immediately.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote to member states this week, saying that as of the end of September, they have only paid 70 percent of budget contributions, compared with 78 percent at this time last year.

“The Organization runs the risk of depleting its liquidity reserves by the end of the month and defaulting on payments to staff and vendors,” a statement by Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Although there are a few programs I like that they run, the other 99% is worthless. President Trump tweeted:

The UN occupies some prime real-estate in Manhattan. They should be moved out to some place like Geneva or France or Zimbabwe. They could use Robert Mugable's palace - he is not around to use it any more.

I would love to see President Trump take over the property after he leaves office in 2024 and turn it into another Trump Tower. That would be wonderful.

Julián Castro - Pander Bear

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He did not do this for humanity, he did it for a photo-op. And to pander to his base. From the Los Angeles Times:

‘There’s no asylum for anyone.’ LGBTQ, disabled asylum seekers cross border with Julián Castro, but not for long
Presidential candidate Julián Castro on Monday escorted a group of asylum seekers across the border bridge to his native Texas from Mexico, where they had been sent under the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy.

Walking across the bridge with Castro were eight gay and lesbian asylum seekers from Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as a deaf Salvadoran woman and her three relatives. All had earlier tried to cross here with a lawyer after being returned to Mexico to await court hearings, and all had been sent back by U.S. Customs officers. Some had already waited four months.

They had already crossed into the states, applied for asylum and then were returned to Mexico to wait as their application was processed. The legal agreement is that Mexico would house and feed the asylum-seekers until the applications were processed and either accepted or rejected. Castro is breaking the law for a photo-op.

To think that there are people out there that think he would make a good president. Disgusting.

No pleasing people - from Townhall:

Critics Aghast As Trump Keeps Word About No More Wars
Donald Trump came into office promising to not start any new wars and to get us out of the old ones our feckless elite had dragged us into, and now that he’s doing it in Syria the usual suspects are outraged. How dare he actually deliver on his promise not to have anymore of our precious warriors shipped home in boxes after getting killed on battlefields we can’t even pronounce, while refereeing conflicts that began long before America was a thing, in campaigns without any kind of coherent objective?

Conservatives like me still think of ourselves as hawks, but after hard experience we have learned to be hawkish only where America’s interests are directly at stake. We’re not doves. We’re just not going to spill our troops’ blood when we do not absolutely have to. The elite may not like our attitude, but then it’s generally not the elite that ends up having to bury its sons, daughters, husbands and wives. We do.

I generally like the Kurds. I generally dislike the Turks. But they’ve been killing each other for a long time and no one has yet offered a sufficient reason why America should stick its troops in the crossfire between them. We hear words like “betrayal” tossed around, often by people whose track record re: honor is (charitably) lacking, but that assumes America had a say in this latest round ramping up. If the Turks are intent on invading, a firm “No” from the Oval office is not going to stop a battalion of Leopard tanks. If you want to stop them, you have to be prepared to stop them. That means war, and the president – along with millions of us – say “No thanks.”

Yeah - I am siding with President Trump on this one. Afghanistan has chewed up every single nation that tried to intervene. Some groups of people have been perpetually at war with one another and no outside show of force will change this fact.

This harkens back to our entry into the Vietnam war which we took over after the French retreated.

Another gorgeous day in paradise

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Taking a break from working outside - pretty much done for the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be cloudy but no rain. Finish off then.

Drove to Costco to get some wire shelves for the pantry area. I buy beans etc. in 25 pound bags which nicely fill a 5 Gallon food-service bucket with a Gamma Lid. Things were getting a bit disorganized with just stacking so now I will have a place for everything. I also am using 2 Gallon buckets for items I use in smaller quantities - salt, TVP, pasta, instant refried beans, etc...

It was nice this afternoon to drive through the farmlands and see the seasonal changes. The corn has been harvested but the stalks were left standing. Now these are being cut for silage for the dairy farms. A lot of fun to see the raptors perched on nearby power lines - cutting the corn deprives the rodents of protective cover. A real feast day for the birds.

Lots of migrating birds are moving into the area. Too early for the snow geese but more birds than usual. This place is incredible for birds - something I want to know more about.

Surf for a bit. Dinner and then the CERT meeting.

It's coffee time

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Did some work outside this morning and now out for coffee and some errands.

Nice weather today - did not get the frost I was expecting. Temps only got down to 34°F.

The Amazon river basin - a catastrophe

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Not really - people do not realize how big this planet really is. Some numbers from Vox Day:

The clearing of the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest is disappearing, or so we're told:

An area of Amazon rainforest roughly the size of a football pitch is now being cleared every single minute, according to satellite data. The rate of losses has accelerated as Brazil's new right-wing president favours development over conservation.

Okay, so let's walk through the math.

    • Amazon rainforest = 5,500,000 square kilometers
    • Football pitch (max) = 120 meters x 90 meters = 10,800 meters
    • Square kilometers of Amazon cleared every single minute = .0108
    • Minutes until Amazon is entirely cleared = 509,259,259 minutes
    • Number of minutes in a year = 525,600
    • Years remaining to Amazon rainforest = 968

So, clearly not a problem for anyone living today, unlike immigration. And, as it happens, this reported clearance rate is actually very good news for those of us who are both ecologically conscious and numerate, as it means the rate of rainforest clearance has declined by 98 percent since 2013.

The first global, high-resolution, satellite analysis of global deforestation revealed that since 2000 an area equal to 50 football pitches has been destroyed every minute. The total loss is 10 times the area of the UK, with only a third being replaced by natural and planted reforestation, and the destruction is accelerating in the tropics.

So, if  .18 square kilometers are being replaced by natural and planted reforestation every minute and .0108 is being cleared, the Amazon will last a lot longer than 968 more years. Indeed, it appears that it is actually growing.

Numbers and not narrative. Chicken Little is a respected scientist in our current society. Sad.

Done for the night

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Tired from working outside all day. Early bedtime - planning to work outside all day tomorrow and want an early start.

CERT drills tomorrow evening.

From Fast Company:

Tesla owners in California get a warning to charge their cars before the power goes out
Pacific General & Electric (PG&E) is cutting power across large swaths of Northern California, including the Bay Area, in a drastic bid to prevent wildfires.

Now Tesla is warning people that before they settle into their outage outrage, they should really charge up their electric cars.

You see, electric cars are great options—except when there is no way to power them up. To be as proactive as PG&E, after hearing the news of the impending power cut, Tesla jumped into action, sending out an in-car alert to the dashboard display warning owners to charge their vehicles fully ahead of the outage.

I love my electric bicycle and use it several times/week but it is not my primary transportation and I would never have a electric vehicle as my primary transportation without an alternative way to keep it charged (solar panels are useless unless you put in a large array).

Besides, your average Tesla owner is charging their vehicle with coal. Supplies about 70% of US power.

The Dems want to impeach President Trump over a telephone call for which we have the transcript and there is nothing impeachable there. Turns out that the Dems are trying to deflect attention from Joe Biden and his family and their own dealings with the Ukrainians. Now the Ukrainians have released their own documents and guess what?

From Gateway Pundit:

BREAKING: Burisma Holdings Paid Joe Biden $900,000 For Lobbying Activities: Ukrainian MP
Former Vice President Joe Biden was personally paid $900,000 for lobbying activities from Burisma Holdings, according to Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach.

Derkach publicized the documents at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency Wednesday as he said the records, “describe the mechanism of getting money by Biden Sr.”

“This was the transfer of Burisma Group’s funds for lobbying activities, as investigators believe, personally to Joe Biden through a lobbying company. Funds in the amount of $900,000 were transferred to the U.S.-based company Rosemont Seneca Partners, which according to open sources, in particular, the New York Times, is affiliated with Biden. The payment reference was payment for consultative services,” Derkach said.

He also publicized sums that were transferred to Burisma Group representatives, in particular Hunter Biden, a son of the former U.S. vice president.

Big bowl of popcorn. Sit back and watch what happens.

Gorgeous day today - clear skies

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Nice colors for the sunset too - Red Skies at Night, Sailor's Delight.

Clear skies tonight too - it is 48°F now and would not be surprised to get a soft frost tomorrow morning. Perfect timing for the work I am doing on the lawn - the cold and short daylight will make the grass go dormant. Give the cover crop a better chance to take over.

Was out of dog food so quick run up to Costco. Home for the evening. Having a couple glasses of red wine while I surf - no beer tonight.

Done with lunch

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Back to work - getting the yard ready for planting. I had let the grass grow wild to develop a good root thatch. Cutting it down and saving the clippings to mulch (bringing a couple bales of old hay down from the farm and saving coffee grounds from my morning coffee place). Laying down burlap (recycled coffee sacks I get for free) and then overseeding it with a cover crop.

The Deep State - 6 minute video

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Retired CIA Station Chief Brad Johnson on the current coup attempt against our President. From RAIR Foundation:

The CIA is in deep. Their actions are treasonous. The next year will be a lot of fun.

Those evil guns

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Gun violence? How about knives, hammers, etc... Some pesky numbers from Law Enforcement Today:

FBI: More people killed with knives, hammers, clubs and even feet than rifles in 2018
It’s the data that the mainstream media tends to bury when it doesn’t fit their agenda.

According to the FBI, more than five times as many people were killed in 2018 by knives, clubs and other cutting instruments than with rifles.

The metrics show that there were a total of 1,515 deaths by knives or other cutting instruments last year. Compare that against 297 people killed by rifles.

It’s a gap that widened significantly over 2017. In that year, the FBI said nearly four times as many people were stabbed to death as killed with rifles. During that year, the number of murders with rifles was around 400.

The article nails it in the first sentence: "fit their agenda"

This is all about taking away people's legitimate Constitutionally protected ability to defend themselves. Tyrants do not want an armed population. Robert A. Heinlein said it best: "An armed society is a polite society."

Prepared in California

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Not surprised. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Batteries, ice and booze: Flustered residents scramble to prepare for PG&E shut-off
Halfway through the workday Tuesday, Sarah Weld panicked.

With a widespread power outage looking more and more likely, she realized the flashlights at her home in the Oakland hills would be useless without batteries. So she bought batteries on her lunch break.

But once at home, she learned that PG&E had confirmed widespread blackouts would hit some time Wednesday morning and knew she was woefully unprepared for days without power. Despite living along an earthquake fault and within a half block of where the 1991 Oakland conflagration destroyed the whole neighborhood, Weld didn’t have a comprehensive emergency kit ready to go.

Maybe this will be a wake-up call to people. A bit more:

The pace of business at Crown Liquors on Moraga Avenue in Montclair village was unusually brisk Tuesday evening.

“We must have sold over 200 bags of ice today,” said Paul Vasconcelos, long-time employee of the store. “People are loading up on ice and water and booze. They’re going a little crazy, know what I mean?”

Depends on what you mean by "being prepared"

From the US Department of Justice:

Drexel University to Pay $189,062 to Resolve Potential False Claims Liability
United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Drexel University has agreed to pay the United States $189,062 to resolve potential liability under the False Claims Act for a former professor’s use of grant funds towards “gentlemen’s clubs” and other improper purchases.

For ten years, the head of Drexel’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Chikaodinaka D. Nwankpa, submitted improper charges against federal grants. The majority of the charges were made to gentlemen’s clubs and sports bars in the Philadelphia area.

The government’s investigation began in 2017 after Drexel voluntarily disclosed the improper charges to eight federal grants for energy and naval technology related research that it received from the Department of the Navy, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation. After an internal audit in 2017, Drexel discovered that between July 2007 through April 2017, Dr. Nwankpa submitted improper charges against the federal grants for items such as personal iTunes purchases and for “goods and services” provided by Cheerleaders, Club Risque, and Tacony Club.

I m always amazed at people like this - they will be found out. Just a matter of time. They act as though they can keep running this scam forever - no exit strategy.

Wheels within wheels - this is fascinating. From Ace of Spades:

Allegation: Harvey Weinstein Blackmailed NBC Into Killing the Story On Him By Threatening to Reveal the Story of... Matt Lauer And He Brought In Hillary Clinton, Too
And they didn't stop there.

They brought in the Lauer blackmail file to pressure NBC.

Weinstein had become increasingly alarmed about a story that Ronan Farrow -- then a correspondent for NBC News and most famous for being the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen --was vigorously pursuing about the powerful producer's long-rumored sexual predations. Weinstein had worked to suppress variations of that story for decades, and he was desperate for it to stay secret. But Farrow (along with a team at The New York Times) was closing in. Weinstein wanted to bully NBC News into killing the story. He needed leverage.

Howard pulled out several thick manila envelopes and laid out their contents on the table. The men huddled for hours, strategizing quietly. Weinstein had found a pressure point: Matt Lauer.

"Weinstein made it known to the network that he was aware of Lauer's behavior and capable of revealing it," Farrow writes in his long-awaited new book,

They also brought in their big gun: Hilary Clinton, who pressured NBC on behalf of her mega-donor.

Weinstein also attempted to leverage his long-term relationship with Hillary Clinton to pressure Farrow, he writes. In summer 2017, while Farrow was trying to lock down an interview with Clinton for his foreign policy book -- while also still working on the Weinstein story -- he received a call from Clinton's publicist, Nick Merrill, who told him that the "big story" Farrow was working on was a "concern for us."

Us?

Instapundit quotes John Nolte pointing out that Merrill was Hillary's longtime publicist, and would not likely have placed such a call except at her direct instruction.

Such a rotten group of people. To think that they want to lead us, to entertain us. To keep us down. I look at them with contempt. They are venal and corrupt.

As liberal heads start exploding

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The outrage I tell you... Yawn... From FOX News:

Feds open California land to oil, gas drilling, aiming to strengthen energy independence
The federal government has opened hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in California for oil and gas drilling as part of a broader effort to strengthen energy independence.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued its final decision Friday, allowing oil and gas leases on plots mostly in the Central Valley and parts of the Central Coast.

The 725,000 acres of public land in Central California had been off-limits to oil and gas drilling since 2013.

Another shred of Barry's "legacy" in the dumpster where it belongs.

Gorgeous crisp fall day

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And there are two more forecast. Last day of the big farmer's market is this Friday so it will go out with a bang.

Happy October 9th

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From History.com:

Che Guevara is executed
On October 9, 1967, socialist revolutionary and guerilla leader Che Guevara, age 39, is killed by the Bolivian army. The U.S.-military-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara on October 8 while battling his band of guerillas in Bolivia and assassinated him the following day. His hands were cut off as proof of death and his body was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1997, Guevara’s remains were found and sent back to Cuba, where they were reburied in a ceremony attended by President Fidel Castro and thousands of Cubans.

A nasty piece of work. He liked killing people. Good riddance to bad trash.

Hillary - clueless

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From Breitbart:

Hillary Clinton: ‘No Evidence’ that Joe, Hunter Biden ‘Did Anything Wrong’
Appearing Tuesday on PBS NewsHour, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton defended former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, against allegations of corruption in China and Ukraine, claiming there is “no evidence” that the pair “did anything wrong.”

Delusional - and some people want this harpy running our nation?

This explains so much - economics

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Just the headline tells the entire story. From the Washington Examiner:

Two French economists from Berkeley advise Warren and Sanders on wealth tax
Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have the same two outside advisers to thank for shaping their wealth tax proposals: University of California, Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman.

Each Democratic presidential candidate wants to tackle wealth inequality by raising trillions of dollars in revenue from taxing the wealth — in addition to the income — of millionaires and billionaires, an idea that is backed up by research from Saez and Zucman.

There are competing explanations for the rise in inequality. Those on one side argue that wealth concentration is natural as a result of globalization, technology gains, and economic growth, which give enormous rewards to the smartest, innovative, and most hardworking people. Drastically increasing tax rates, they say, would discourage innovation and hurt the economy.

The other camp sees rising inequality as unfair, immoral, and a threat to society.

Ahhhh - Karl Marx's big fuckup. Marx thought that the pool of money was fixed and that the worlds problems came from an unequal distribution. Stupid stupid stupid. Money is fungible. It can be created. It can be destroyed. Look at the Bear Stearns collapse of 2008 - many billions of dollars lost into thin air. Where were the trucks? The money vanished. Look at the case of this British woman - created a multi-billion dollar enterprise out of thin air. Money was created.

And of course, the fruit does not fall far from the tree:

Saez, 46, and Zucman, 32, are both originally from France and have each worked in the past with Thomas Piketty, the famous French economist whose research on wealth and income inequality made him a best-selling author. By using new sources of data, such as individual tax records, Piketty reshaped the debate about inequality and wealth taxes. Piketty's central argument in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, published in 2013, is that inequality is a central feature of capitalism and, if not checked, could rise inexorably.

In the United States, Saez and Zucman have assumed the mantle of leading exponents of Piketty-style economic policies. The pair have researched tax havens, the government’s lack of taxation of wealth, and how those factors affect wealth distribution overall.

Classic case of GIGO - Garbage in, garbage out. Failed Marxist theories, failed practical analyses.

From CNS News:

Trump Awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Former AG Edwin Meese
President Donald Trump presented former Attorney General Edwin Meese with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday, calling him “an absolute titan of American law and a heroic defender of the American Constitution.”

“Perhaps Ed’s greatest contribution to American law has been his unwavering advocacy to the legal principle that judges must adhere to the original meaning of the Constitution, setting aside their own personal and political views,” Trump said.

“Through the decades, Ed has been one of the most eloquent champions for following the Constitution as written. To ensure fidelity to our founding documents, Ed supported the growth of the Federalist Society and worked to confirm supremely qualified judges, including the late, great Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, whose son just became the secretary of Labor,” he said.

A great man and a true constitutionalist.

Buying gasoline

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From satire site The Babylon Bee:

New Law Requires You To Listen To Greta Thunberg Lecture Before Purchasing Gasoline

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A series of new bills working their way through state legislatures in New York, California, Oregon, Hawaii, and several other progressive states will require you to listen to a Greta Thunberg lecture before purchasing gasoline.

Motorists will be required to watch a 20-minute lecture by the 16-year-old climate activist before they purchase gallons and gallons of harmful fossil fuels.

"We want to make sure drivers are informed," said California Governor Gavin Newsom, who says he will sign the bill into law. "So we are having them get lectured by a 16-year-old so they will have all the facts before they do something rash like put gasoline in their cars to go to work."

Once the driver has listened to Thunberg's entire lecture, they will be prompted to complete a quick, fifteen-question quiz to show they understand how horrible they are for driving a car. Drivers who get at least 80% will then be allowed to refuel their vehicles. As they refuel, the screen will simply play a clip of Thunberg saying, "How dare you!" over and over again.

The law will not apply to celebrities purchasing jet fuel.

It saddens me to know that there are some people out there who think that this is a wonderful idea and needs to be imposed on us at the soonest possible moment.

Paying for electricity

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You think that with all the deferred maintenance and decaying infrastructure issues that California is having, they probably have really cheap electricity costs. Not the case. They are the fifth most expensive state for power with Hawaii, Alaska and the People's Republics of Connecticut and Massachusetts leading the way. Hi and Ak are understandable given their remoteness but sheesh. Take some of that money and spend it on maintenance for cryin' out loud...

A good website for the numbers: The Choose Energy Rate Report

WA state is the cheapest at 9.72 cents per kWh (July 2019 data for all states), Hawaii is 31.42 and California is 19.96.

We are blessed with a lot of hydroelectricity. All of the expensive states are either remote or shoveling $$$ down the alt.energy rathole with little to show for it. Nuclear anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Fun times - California winds

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I had posted a link to Cliff Mass talking about the forecast windstorms in California. A reader commented with a link to an excellent checklist for preparedness. From the San Francisco CBS affiliate:

Bay Area Power Outage Survival Guide
We all take the modern convenience of electricity for granted until the lights go out.

And for as many as 250,000 Bay Area residents those light may be going out as early as Wednesday morning. A wind advisory and red flag warning have Pacific Gas & Electric officials considering cutting the power to about 250,000 Bay Area customers as a safety precaution. The utility estimates total of 800,000 customers in Northern and Central California will have their power shut off.

And those outages may last for several days so now is the time to get prepared.

Here are some tips to help you and your family survive a power outage.

    • Sign up for PG&E alerts so you can be quickly informed if a power outage is about to begin in your neighborhood. It is also a good idea to sign up for alerts with your county.
    • On Tuesday evening before going to bed, make sure to have all your electronic devices fully charged.
    • Fill up your gas tank on your way home from work — most gas pumps are electronic and will not work in an outage.
    • Stop by the ATM and withdraw cash — grocery store cash registers are electrically powered.
    • Stock up on seven days of food, water, and flashlights and batteries. If you are still using old incandescent bulbs, this might be a good time to upgrade. LED bulbs last much longer.
    • If you have an automatic garage door opener make sure you know how to disengage it and open the door manually.
    • If you have solar panels, they will not power your house. Only those with a home battery or special converter can get power from their panels.
    • Prepare yourself for slow driving — traffic lights will not be functioning in the neighborhood impacted by the power outage.
    • Be a good neighbor — if you have elderly or infirm neighbors check on their well being
    • If you use a generator — make sure it is at least 20 feet from your home with the engine exhaust directed away from windows and doors.
    • Talk with your building manager if you live or work in a building that has elevators or electronic key card access to understand how they will deal with a possible multi-day outage.
    • Break out your earthquake survival kit to use.

A well thought-out list and a lot more at the site including a list of things to buy now before the stores get wiped out.

This is one situation where an amateur radio license would be a very good thing. Most cell sites have backup power for only three to five days. You can get a decent basic setup for well under $100 and it is an enjoyable hobby as well as a life-saver in an emergency situation. Whenever I travel to a new city, I will have looked up the local frequencies and can call out for driving directions or restaurant recomendations.

Downright nippy tonight

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Temps down to 43°F now and windy - 15-20MPH. Got the heaters turned on and will get the heat pump running tomorrow. Forecast to be in the 30's later tonight. No doubt. Dug the down comforter out and have that on the bed. Getting into serious winter mode really fast this year.

Class tomorrow and thursday

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Our local CERT chapter is doing some advanced training Thursday - we are doing a Field Training Exercise in November so I will be heading to the farm a few days later. I will have to miss the Preparedness Group but that program is something I can skip.

CERT training is really valuable - it's intensive but worth your time for when the big one hits. Here is the main website.

Library and beers

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Soup for dinner. Pick up some books at the library and check the post office. Skipping the beers tonight - tired from getting up so early.

Working on the website for my new blacksmith domain. Using the United States Web Design System

Corn maze

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A popular thing up here is a corn maze - a field of corn with a maze cut into it. I love this sign:

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Good Lord no - make it stop - Hillary

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Informal poll but still - from Predict It:

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Drive a stake into its heart.

Woof!

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Not surprising at all - from Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes Journal

Dog ownership associated with longer life, especially among heart attack and stroke survivors
Dog ownership may be associated with longer life and better cardiovascular outcomes, especially for heart attack and stroke survivors who live alone, according to a new study and a separate meta-analysis published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association.

“The findings in these two well-done studies and analyses build upon prior studies and the conclusions of the 2013 AHA Scientific Statement ‘Pet Ownership and Cardiovascular Risk’ that dog ownership is associated with reductions in factors that contribute to cardiac risk and to cardiovascular events,” said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., chair of the writing group of the American Heart Association’s scientific statement on pet ownership. “Further, these two studies provide good, quality data indicating dog ownership is associated with reduced cardiac and all-cause mortality. While these non-randomized studies cannot ‘prove’ that adopting or owning a dog directly leads to reduced mortality, these robust findings are certainly at least suggestive of this.”

Makes perfect sense to me. My pups bring me joy. Always been a dog person although cats are a lot of fun (so are llamas, horses, goats, etc...)

Good - taking the ball and going home

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The White House made it official - from Politico:

White House vows to block ‘illegitimate’ impeachment effort
The White House signaled Tuesday that it will block any cooperation with the House’s impeachment inquiry, calling Democrats’ effort “illegitimate” and “dangerous.”

In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the three committee chairs leading the impeachment probe, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone all but declared that the Trump administration will refuse to engage with a process it considers to be “constitutionally invalid.”

“Given that your inquiry lacks any legitimate constitutional foundation, any pretense of fairness, or even the most elementary due process protections, the executive branch cannot be expected to participate in it,” Cipollone wrote.

Taking them to the woodshed. They have nothing. Nothing with Russia, nothing with the Ukraine. They do not have the votes to pass an impeachment. This is all just theater. Look at what I did.

Time for the voters to step up and clean the house (and the senate).

Any way they can

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This is downright unreal - from PJ Media:

Extortion: Minneapolis Mayor Tries to Shut Down Trump Rally With 'Outrageous' Security Fee
Minneapolis's liberal mayor, Jacob Frey, has demanded $530,000 in security costs for a Trump campaign rally this Thursday — 26 times the cost of security for a 2009 Obama rally. In violation of its contract, the Target Center threatened to cancel the rally unless the campaign forks over the cash.

"This is an outrageous abuse of power by a liberal mayor trying to deny the rights of his own city’s residents just because he hates the President," Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. "People want to hear from their President, and no mayor looking to beef up his resume for a run for higher office should stand in the way."

College campuses have imposed outrageous security costs as a pretext to shut down controversial speakers, often conservatives. In 2018, the University of Wisconsin tried to charge its College Republicans club $17,000 in security fees for a rally. The College Republicans sued, claiming a violation of their First Amendment free speech rights, and the college settled, paying the club $122,500 in legal fees.

The Trump campaign alleged that Frey "is abusing the power of his office and attempting to extort President Trump’s re-election campaign by conjuring a phony and outlandish bill for security in an effort to block a scheduled Keep America Great rally. Democrat Mayor Frey is using the bogus security charges to pressure the Target Center, site of the contracted October 10, 2019 rally, into preventing Minnesota residents from exercising their First Amendment rights in support of President Trump."

Vote the bastards out. 2020 is not that far away.

Karl Marx - not so warm and fuzzy

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Liberals love him because of his ideas about socialism. He never worked a day in his life, was the entitled child of rich parents and he never owned up to the idea that his philosophy is toxic to civilization and only useful as a tool for enterprising tyrants to seize power.

In my 20's, I seriously tried reading him and some of the other commies (Gramsci, Lukács, etc...) and found their writing turgid, incomprehensible and fuzzy. I think that the big joke is that liberals only pretend to understand his writings - sort of an in joke to them.

Wonder what the progressive culture will say about his blatant racism? Some clickable headlines:

Useful idiots - all of them.

I posted about this video October 2nd

Nice to find out that it was just a misunderstanding.

This video is 44 minutes long but they get into the meat of the issues early on:

The deep state at work. From The Federalist:

Intel Community IG Stonewalling Congress On Backdated Whistleblower Rule Changes
In tense testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) on Friday, the inspector general for federal spy agencies refused to disclose why his office backdated secret changes to key whistleblower forms and rules in the wake of an anti-Trump whistleblower complaint filed in August, sources told The Federalist.

As The Federalist reported and the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG) confirmed, the spy watchdog secretly changed its whistleblower forms and internal rules in September to eliminate a requirement that whistleblowers provide first-hand evidence to support any allegations of wrongdoing. In a press release last week, the ICIG confessed that it changed its rules in response to an anti-Trump complaint filed on August 12. That complaint, which was declassified and released by President Donald Trump in September, was based entirely on second-hand information, much of which was shown to be false following the declassification and release of a telephone conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general, told HPSCI lawmakers during a committee oversight hearing on Friday that the whistleblower forms and rules changes were made in September, even though the new forms and guidance, which were not uploaded to the ICIG’s website until September 24, state that they were changed in August. Despite having a full week to come up with explanations for his office’s decisions to secretly change its forms to eliminate the requirement for first-hand evidence and to backdate those changes to August, Atkinson refused to provide any explanation to lawmakers baffled by his behavior.

Emphasis mine - they were hoping to get away with this changing of the rules. Their objective is not Security and Intelligence gathering. Their objective is to push the narrative: Orange Man Bad and to succor those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome

Back for the day

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The drill was uneventful (this is a good thing) and then drove up to Bellingham for a couple errands. Picked up a used  extension tube for my camera - it was for sale (gently used) at my favorite photo shop. This will move the focus of any lens forward so I can take close-ups of things. Already have one but two gives me more magnification. At $10 it was a zero-brainer.

Very muscular weather on the way back down - many convective cells and bursts of rain and hail.

The realtime lightning map shows some t-storm activity south of here - Tacoma / Olympia area. It was really windy last evening around 11PM - lost power at 11:30 for a while. Not much rain but a lot of wind - gusts here to 40MPH which is saying something as I am shielded to the south by a substantial hillside. You can see the effects of last night's rain in the foothills from the Stillaguamish River flow - peaked at over 750% of average:

20191008-rain.png

Supposed to be over and done with - latest forecast shows Wed, Thur and Friday to be sunny. We will see how that goes. Got a class tomorrow morning but will probably head to the farm for a few days to do some more testing on the no water problem and to pack some more shit up.

That is worthy of a Nobel Prize if this works for humans - from Stanford University:

In human cells and mice, a cure for the common cold, Stanford-UCSF study reports
Temporarily disabling a single protein inside our cells might be able to protect us from the common cold and other viral diseases, according to a study led by researchers at Stanford University and University of California-San Francisco.

The findings were made in human cell cultures and in mice.

“Our grandmas have always been asking us, ‘If you’re so smart, why haven’t you come up with a cure for the common cold?’”said Jan Carette, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology. “Now we have a new way to do that.”

The approach of targeting proteins in our own cells also worked to stop viruses associated with asthma, encephalitis and polio.

Fun time to be alive...

Busted. From The Washington Free Beacon:

County Records Contradict Warren’s Claim She Was Fired Over Pregnancy
The Riverdale Board of Education approved a second-year teaching contract for a young Elizabeth Warren, documents show, contradicting the Democratic presidential candidate’s repeated claims that she was asked not to return to teaching after a single year because she was "visibly pregnant."

Minutes of an April 21, 1971, Riverdale Board of Education meeting obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show that the board voted unanimously on a motion to extend Warren a "2nd year" contract for a two-days-per-week teaching job. That job is similar to the one she held the previous year, her first year of teaching. Minutes from a board meeting held two months later, on June 16, 1971, indicate that Warren’s resignation was "accepted with regret."

Warren's claim that she was dismissed after her first year of teaching because she was pregnant has become a cornerstone of her stump speeches. She has used it to both explain her jump from teaching into the legal world as well as to showcase the difficulties that women face in the workplace. The principal of the school she worked at in the early 1970s, Warren has said, "showed [her] the door" at the end of the school year because she was "visibly pregnant."

And lest you try to call this fake news, the Beacon has links to the two county documents (and screen-caps) as well as video of Warren. Pants on fire...

From Buffalo, New York's The Buffalo Chronicle:

Trudeau is rumored to be in talks with an accusor to suppress an explosive sex scandal
Less than two weeks ahead of federal elections that have already been looking conclusively grim for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, rumors of an explosive sex scandal are percolating at the highest echelons of Canada’s media establishment.

Ottawa’s longest-tenured political observers had been expecting a career-ending expose in Saturday’s edition of The Globe and Mail — but that story never came. Sources are now telling The Chronicle that Trudeau is in private talks with the principal source of that piece to suppress explosive sex allegations that, if made public, would likely force Trudeau to resign his office.

Trudeau’s accuser is said to be a former student at West Point Grey Academy and the daughter of a wealthy Canadian businessman. Sources tell The Chronicle that she is being represented by counsel and is being offered monetary compensation in exchange for a pending, but not yet signed, non-disclosure agreement.

And a bit more:

Trudeau worked as a substitute teacher at the private school from 1999 until an abrupt and poorly explained departure in June of 2001.  At the time of his departure he hired his father’s lawfirm, Heenan Blaikie, to represent him in the matter.  The firm issued a bizarre statement that denied that Trudeau was leaving his part-time position in order to pursue public speaking opportunities. He was 29 years old.

Even if Trudeau cashes this person out, there will be others. There are always others.

Early evening

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Doing the Western Washington emergency radio network tomorrow morning. Been doing this once/month for about a year. Lots of fun and a great drill for when the feces actually hit the air mover. All of Western Washington is linked with a fairly comprehensive radio network and there are a lot of licensed operaters out there capable of taking over when the cell phone network stops working (most cell towers have about three days of backup power should the grid go down).

Surf for a bit first...

Forecast calls for rain

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Got rain for the next couple of days. Piddling down now - less than 0.2" for the last 24 hours but we can certainly see the effects of it - the Stilly watershed is getting very wet:

20191007-rain.png

Expecting more tomorrow and then two days of sunshine. Winter is here.

Classical blues reference in the post title.

Fun Toy - The Apprehension Engine

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From the YouTube website:

What happens when a horror movie composer and a guitar maker join forces? They create the world’s most disturbing musical instrument. Affectionately known as "The Apprehension Engine," this one-of-a-kind instrument was commissioned by movie composer Mark Korven. Korven wanted to create spooky noises in a more acoustic and original way—but the right instrument didn't exist. So his friend, guitar maker Tony Duggan-Smith, went deep into his workshop and assembled what has to be the spookiest instrument on Earth.

Check it out:

Did a little DuckDuckGo'ing and it turns out that you can buy one of these: The Apprehension Engine

Mark's website is here: Mark Korven - lots more video of The Apprehension Engine there.

The deep state is a good thing

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According to New York Times columnist James B. Stewart - from News Busters:

NYT Columnist Admits Deep State Exists...To Protect Us From Trump
Appearing on NBC’s Today show on Monday, New York Times columnist James B. Stewart hawked his new book, Deep State, by hailing bureaucrats undermining the Trump administration as noble public servants “protecting the Constitution” and the American people from the President. He denounced any criticism of the “deep state” as “very dangerous.”

“The disclosure of a second whistleblower with firsthand knowledge of President Trump’s phone call with the leader of Ukraine has led to new accusations by the President that the so-called ‘deep state’ is seeking to undermine his presidency,” co-host Savannah Guthrie declared as she introduced Stewart. She then asked her guest: “And his central allegation is that there are people inside these government agencies actively working against him. What did you find?”

They hate Trump because President Trump is making their machinations visible to We The People.

And we have whistleblower number three

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From Scott Adams:

Sounds absolutely credible to me.

An apology - sort of

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Heh - comedy gold from the creators of South Park. From media site Decider:

‘South Park’ Creators Mock Chinese Government Following Series Ban: “We Too Love Money More Than Freedom”
South Park‘s Matt Stone and Trey Parker are sorry. Kind of. Following last week’s (October 2) blistering takedown of China’s human right violations and Hollywood’s complicity in them, the Comedy Central show was scrubbed from the Chinese internet. In true South Park fashion Stone and Parker begged for forgiveness in a statement claiming that they too “love money more than freedom and democracy.”

A recurring joke throughout Season 23’s “Band in China” revolved around Winnie-the-Pooh. The fictional Disney bear that was banned by Chinese censors after bloggers repeatedly compared the bear to President Xi Jinping. As expected, that led to South Park literally and graphically murdering the honey-loving bear at the end of its latest episode. And that didn’t go well.

In response to the savage episode that heavily criticized the Chinese government for its censorship practices, said government deleted almost every South Park episode, clip, social media account, and even fan pages from the country’s internet. According to The Hollywood Reporter, all mentions of the show have been erased from China’s Twitter-like social media service Weibo as well as the streaming service Youku.

Here is their tweet:

The $15 minimum wage

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As expected, it is killing jobs - from the New York Post:

As predicted, the $15 wage is killing jobs all across the city
Just as predicted, the $15 minimum wage is killing vulnerable city small businesses, with the low-margin restaurant industry one of the hardest-hit as it also faces a separate mandatory wage hike for tipped staffers.

In Sunday’s Post, Jennifer Gould Keil reported on the death of Gabriela’s Restaurant and Tequila Bar — closing after 25 years. It struggled all year to find a way out, gradually laying off most non-tipped employees, including some chefs, only to find that quality suffered and customers fled. Owners Liz and Nat Milner finally hung it up.

Other eateries share the pain. In an August survey of its members, the NYC Hospitality Alliance found more than three-quarters have had to cut employee hours, more than a third eliminated jobs last year and half plan to cut staff this year.

“It’s death by a thousand cuts,” the Hospitality Alliance’s Andrew Rigie told The Post, since “there’s only so many times you can increase the price of a burger and a bowl of pasta.”

The unions are the ones pushing this - not only does it kill the small businesses, union saleries are indexed to the minimum wage so an increase means a jump in wages for union employees as well.

Wonderful rant by Kurt Schlichter

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From Town Hall - the first two paragraphs:

Liberals Hate Free Speech When We Presume To Use It
I have a confession to make: I hate the pseudo-conservative scribblings of David French with the same kind of smoldering loathing I reserve for foot fungus, movies about spunky young women who triumph over the patriarchy, and the music of Maroon 5. With rare exceptions explicable due only to the vagaries of chance, I hate his prose, his premises, his conclusions and his insufferable fussiness. I contend that his writings are fit only to be served up to traitors and terrorists at Gitmo to wring out confessions, and the only thing I enjoy about his terrible, terrible views is that they validate my longstanding negative impression of Army JAGs. But it has never occurred to me that David French should be barred from writing whatever the hell he pleases.

The whole idea that, simply because his opinions make me long for the joyous peace of death, he should be in any way prevented from sharing them with those people who inexplicably wish to endure them, and those unfortunate enough to stumble upon them unawares, is utterly foreign to me and to all actual conservatives. Censorship, to us, is both alien and appalling, like an Oberlin College feminist hot oil twerk-off.

Heh - go and read the whole thing. He is on a roll.

A missing flag - Apple

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From Emojipedia:

Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
iPhone users in Hong Kong have noticed a change in the latest version of iOS: the 🇹🇼 Flag for Taiwan emoji is missing.

Previously restricted on Chinese iOS devices, all other regions of the world have continued to enjoy access to all flags in the iOS emoji font, until now.

The change, first discovered by iOS Developer Hiraku Wang, means that users with an iOS device region set to Hong Kong will see one less flag on the emoji keyboard than if the region is set to anywhere else in the world (other than China mainland, which also hides this flag).

So Apple kowtows to a totalitarian state.

True dat

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So true:

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Punch back twice as hard

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Heh - from Yahoo News:

Giuliani's answer to impeachment inquiry: Sue Schiff
President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, says he is working with outside lawyers to prepare lawsuits against prominent Democrats such as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff of California and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Giuliani’s remarks about his legal plans were made over the weekend in a series of calls with Yahoo News, amid cable news appearances in which he continued to aggressively defend the president. That defense was blunted by news of an additional whistleblower who would reportedly corroborate how Trump allegedly pressured the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, into investigating Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential candidate.

Pure political theater - it will be interesting to see if Schiff understands that the discovery process can be a bitch.
Schiff et. al. have nothing - they are trying to jumpstart this impeachment effort but do not have anything substantive.

Again, pushing narrative over the truth...

Out for a while

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Coffee &c. Raining lightly so plans of yard work are scotched. Figure something else to do but coffee, post office, library first. Probably sort some more crap. Another dump run in the offing.

Done! Next?

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Are these people really that self-important? From PJ Media:

Cory Booker: 'If You Come After Joe Biden, You're Going to Have to Deal with Me'

He will not know what hit him.

Artist Point road closed

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Snowfall - last year it closed on the 28th, this year on the 7th. Earlier than usual. From the Dept. of Transportation:

Autumn snow and ice close SR 542 to Artist Point
Snow and icy conditions are forecasted on State Route 542/Mount Baker Highway and crews have closed the final 2.7 miles of the highway to vehicle traffic. The gate will remain closed until next year.

Washington State Department of Transportation maintenance crews remove snow and ice from SR 542 during the winter but this final stretch, known as the Road to Artist Point, is narrow with sharp curves and steep slopes. WSDOT closes it to vehicle traffic each winter season for the safety, while at the same time a portion of the road becomes part of Mt. Baker Ski Area’s terrain.

The earliest recorded closure was on September 27, 2007. It usually closes much later in October / November.

See you all tomorrow!

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That's it for me.

That is going to leave a mark

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Great tweet from Steve Guest:

Good article at The Rolling Stone

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Interesting to see some of the usually leftist publications actually doing their jobs and delivering the actual story.
From Matt Taibbi writing at The Rolling Stone:

The ‘Whistleblower’ Probably Isn’t
Start with the initial headline, in the story the Washington Post “broke” on September 18th:

TRUMP’S COMMUNICATIONS WITH FOREIGN LEADER ARE PART OF WHISTLEBLOWER COMPLAINT THAT SPURRED STANDOFF BETWEEN SPY CHIEF AND CONGRESS, FORMER OFFICIALS SAY

The unnamed person at the center of this story sure didn’t sound like a whistleblower. Our intelligence community wouldn’t wipe its ass with a real whistleblower.

Americans who’ve blown the whistle over serious offenses by the federal government either spend the rest of their lives overseas, like Edward Snowden, end up in jail, like Chelsea Manning, get arrested and ruined financially, like former NSA official Thomas Drake, have their homes raided by FBI like disabled NSA vet William Binney, or get charged with espionage like ex-CIA exposer-of-torture John Kiriakou. It’s an insult to all of these people, and the suffering they’ve weathered, to frame the ballcarrier in the Beltway’s latest partisan power contest as a whistleblower.

A lot more at the site - some great investigative reporting and putting two and two together. Kudos to the Stone for publishing this article and not pandering to the prevailing Orange Man Bad narrative

Cute routine - Avner the Eccentric

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Some basic prestidigitation but well presented - the guy is a natural comic. His website: Avner the Eccentric

California is in for some fun times

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From Cliff Mass:

Major Potential for Strong Winds and Wildfires in Northern California
Later this week there is the potential for strong Diablo winds over northern California;  winds of sufficient strength to pose a major wildfire threat.

Currently, a far weaker wind event is occurring over northern California--as a result the power utility (PG&E) has shut off power to roughly ten thousand customers, including those near Paradise and Chico, CA.

The sea level pressure pattern this morning (8AM) shows high pressure pushing into the Northwest and southeastward into the intermountain region.  This high pressure is associated with cold air (green colors) in the interior.  Note the lower pressure and warm air over the CA coastal zone.    The result of this pattern is a large pressure gradient over the Sierra Nevada and northern CA that produce strong wind. (Winds accelerate from high to low pressure near terrain).

Sucks to be them. But it gets worse:

But today's minor blow is nothing compared to what will happen on Wednesday and Thursday.

By 5 AM on Wednesday, very cold, dense air, associated with high sea level pressure, will surge into the Pacific Northwest (see below).   Yes...that will bring more snow to the Cascades and Rockies.

At the leading edge of the cold air, there will be a large pressure difference (gradient) the produces strong winds.      The image below for 5 AM shows an intense pressure gradient over northern California.   But it will get stronger and move south.

Cliff has the weather maps - looks like we will get some of it here in the pacific northwet but California is going to get creamed but good.

Polar opposites - dinner

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Last night was a delightful vegetarian multi-course feast and some good red wine.

Tonight was a huge chunk of pot roast and mashed potatoes at a nearby restaurant and then two pints of beer at my favorite biker bar.

Both were delicious in their own rights - I'm flexible like that...

Up a bit early tomorrow - going to be a nice day and want to get the yard buttoned up for the winter.

Don't feel like minestrone for dinner tonight. Heading out to run a couple of errands, get a bite on the road and swing by my local for my usual two pints.

More in a couple of hours.

From the Experimental Aircraft Association:

An Inside Look at Microsoft’s Newest Flight Simulator
There’s no way I can write about the return of Flight Simulator without sharing just a little bit of my own story for context, as there are deep intersections. Not only did I start using version 1.0 of the product when I was about 12 years old (nearly 40 years ago, if you must know), but I worked on it at Microsoft for more than 10 years before it was canceled in 2009. The shutdown was a blow not just to those of us who relied on the product to pay our mortgages, but to millions of pilots and aviation enthusiasts around the world.

In the Meantime
The last major release was Flight Simulator X (FSX) in 2006, followed by an expansion pack the following year. After the shutdown, variations of the product lived on here and there, including the enterprise edition, which Lockheed Martin now develops and publishes as Prepar3D, and a version that was licensed by Dovetail Games in the United Kingdom and sold on the Steam marketplace. Dovetail pursued further development with a product called Flight Sim World, and Microsoft itself briefly returned to the genre in 2012 with a limited product called Flight. But it was the community of hardcore simmers and add-on developers who truly kept the product alive for the past 10 years. Then, in May of 2019, Microsoft surprised almost everybody with a bombshell announcement: Flight Simulator, the oldest franchise in Microsoft’s history (Windows and Office weren’t even a gleam in Bill’s eye back then), is coming back in a big way, first to the PC, then to the Xbox console.

Very very cool - I generally do not like computer games. Never have. That being said, I have spent a lot of time on flight simulator even buying a good joystick to enhance my flights. Looking forward to this upgrade.

A lot more at the site - positively drool-worthy

Our changing weather - the middle east

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From Gulf News:

Heavy rain hits Dubai and Sharjah
Dubai: Heavy to moderate rain hit most areas of the UAE on Wednesday.

Early showers greeted Dubai and Sharjah commuters, delaying some from reaching offices on time. The extension of a low pressure coming from the eastern UAE also brought heavy rain associated with thunder and lightning over Al Ain at around 8am on Wednesday, according to the UAE Met office.

Fujairah and adjoining areas also had wet weather at around 5am while Abu Dhabi, Khalifa City and adjoining areas reported rain at 4am.

No numbers on the actual amount of precip but any rain is a rarity - this is a desert we are talking about. Cold and rain - a result of our quiet sun.

From Slashdot reader hackingbear:

Alibaba's OceanBase Tops TPC-C Benchmark, Doubling That of Oracle Database
The TPC organization reported on October 5 that OceanBase, an open-source relational database from Ant Financial, a business unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, has topped the TPC-C benchmark, more than doubling the score achieved by Oracle Corp. which had held the world record for the past 9 years. OceanBase v2.2 Enterprise Edition with Partitioning scored at 60,880,800, while Oracle Database 11g R2 Enterprise Edition w/RAC and Partitioning achieved 30,249,688.TPC Benchmark C is industrial standard OLTP benchmark, measuring on-line transactions per minute (tpmC).

Yikes - a free and open source database running on a free and open source operating system trounces an expensive database running on a kind-of expensive operating system. Tony Stark Larry Ellison is going to have a melt-down and yes, there is a link: here, here, here and here.

The thing that I really love is that the database software is at version 0.4 - they have not even released 1.0 and already it is kicking serious ass.

Heh - aliens

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From satire site The Beaverton:

Alien civilization blocks humanity after receiving unsolicited nudes

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 Immediately regretting opening the strange message attached to an oblong metallic object marked “PIONEER” found floating in space, a distant alien civilization blocked all of humanity on Thursday, remarking that unsolicited nude photos – especially ones from inferior bi-pedal species – are super gross. “Ugh, why would they think I would want to see that?” asked Klaxthon using telepathic communication the tri-gendered crew of their spaceship, adding that the dangly thing on the between one of the figure’s lower tentacles makes them want to shed their first three inner digestive mucus layers. “Like, why? So gross!”  “At least not right away. If I wanted to see it, I’d ask first. But just cold like that? Disgusting!” they added. At press time, SETI radio observatories report a “very thirsty” message from a different alien civilization asking if we could “host.”

A cool find - archeology

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From Science Alert:

Nearly 100 Mysterious Amphorae Have Been Recovered From an Ancient Roman Shipwreck
Archaeologists have recovered a rare and tantalizing treasure off the coast of Mallorca in Spain. Not gold or jewels, but 93 jug-like terracotta vessels called amphorae from a Roman ship that sank 1,700 years ago.

Most of these beautiful jugs are still intact and sealed, which means there's a very good chance their contents were preserved, too.

The shipwreck was found just 50 metres (164 feet) from the shore, after local resident Felix Alarcón spotted pottery shards on the seafloor in July.

Because it was so close to the popular Playa de Palma beach resort and the tourist town of Can Pastilla, the Spanish government enlisted the Balearic Institute of Maritime Archaeology Studies (IBEAM) for an emergency excavation.

Their work revealed a relatively small seafaring vessel, just 10 metres (33 feet) long and 5 metres (16 feet) wide, with the amphorae carefully stowed in the hold. It was likely a merchant ship, transporting goods between the Iberian Peninsula and Rome; Mallorca is en route between the two.

Love it - hidden in plain sight.

A fun afternoon

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The Pumpkin fest was small but a lot of fun - four pictures:

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I would guess maybe 150 people in attendance. It was their third year running this and Sunday is an off day for public events on the island. Most things are on Saturday and yesterday was crappy weather for the first part of the day.

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Recognized this - some friends of mine have quite the collection of military vehicles. Five-ton towing a commissary trailer.

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Some good music - a local blues band

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The obligatory pumpkin carving. Really good work.

All in all, a fun couple of hours. Looking forward to this growing over the next year or so. The trebuchet was a bit of a bust - small arm and not that much distance.

From Jalopnik:

How China Built Some Of The World’s Most Versatile Vehicles Around A $150 Engine
Back in 2015, I visited China and found myself enamored by a vehicle so simple that it didn’t even have a hood to cover its single-cylinder diesel engine. That basic motor, which can be cranked by hand, is a part of what I later found to be one of the most incredible modular vehicle architectures I’d ever seen.

More:

At the time, I didn’t know what this thing was, all I knew was that it was the first stock, street-legal vehicle I’d ever seen with a completely exposed engine, and it steered kind of funny. Also, it was everywhere, working on farms, hauling dirt at construction sites, and popping around the city carrying cargo. Everywhere I turned, I saw a tiny diesel engine hanging off the front of various types of vehicles, so I had to learn more.

Completely modular - here are three photos and a video:

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Shades of the old-school Lister engines which are still being manufactured in places like India and East Asia.

Cheap to buy, economical to run. Completely modular and extensible. What's not to love...

Words to live by

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You tell them Lisa:

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Nothing much on the internets

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Heading out in a little while to visit the pumpkin festival. Did not go yesterday as it was raining too hard.

Working at home today - another dump run and some paperwork. Making some more nectar for the hummingbirds.

Got the emergency radio network on Tuesday, a class on Wednesday. 

Journalism - it has come to this

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They have beclowned themselves so much that they have become irrelavent. From ABC News:

Washington’s Newseum to close by year’s end
A museum dedicated to journalism and the First Amendment is set to close its doors near the National Mall by the end of the year.

WTOP-FM reports the Newseum announced its impending closure Tuesday, citing yearslong financial issues. A company statement says that despite more than 11 years of service and nearly 10 million visitors, continued operations have proved to be unsustainable.

From ten years ago - Commentary Magazine of May, 2008:

The News Mausoleum
The Newseum, a dazzling edifice of glass, marble, and steel that recently opened in Washington after seven years of planning and construction at a cost of $475 million, sits directly across Pennsylvania Avenue from the National Gallery of Art and cater-corner from the National Archives. Though the location was not chosen for this reason, it suggests that the subject matter of the Newseum (a blend of “news” and “museum”) is as crucial to America and the West as the masterpieces hanging in the National Gallery and the foundational documents of the United States preserved within the Archives.

Its president, Peter Prichard, told me as he showed me around the almost-finished Newseum a few months ago that the purpose of the institution is the celebration of free speech. A 50-ton, 74-ft.-high slab of yellow Tennessee marble hangs from the front of the building; on it are etched the 45 words of the First Amendment. There could indeed be no nobler cause, but the Newseum addresses it primarily by inference. The slogan adorning its press kit gives the real game away: “Newseum. Where the News Comes to Life.”

This half-billion-dollar enterprise is not really a tribute to an important idea or a celebration of a basic human freedom. It is, rather, the news industry’s tribute to itself. And it is a tribute on a scale that would have gladdened the heart of Ramses II. The original Newseum, which opened in 1997, was a modest facility housed in the USA Today building across the Potomac from Washington in Rosslyn, Virginia. The current iteration, conceived by the Freedom Forum, a non-profit organization with a $700-million endowment courtesy of a huge block of Gannett Company stock, has been graced with eye-opening donations from almost every major-media corporation in America.

They did show the occasional spark of liberty but were chastised by the Social Justice Warriors and they caved.
From PJ Media of August 4th, 2018:

Reporters Shocked at MAGA Hats, 'Fake News' T-Shirts Sold at Newseum: 'Insult to Journalists!'
The Newseum is a fascinating place to visit if you're ever in D.C. It's like a history of history -- a collection of exhibits on the media that celebrates and honors the role of the press in American history.

So, what are they doing selling MAGA hats and T-shirts that say "You Are Very Fake News" in the gift shop of this hallowed place?

One reporter was shocked, shocked, I say, to see the offending chapeau on display.

Much more at that site. David Burge said it best:

That is it for tonight

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YouTube for a bit, another glass of red wine and then to sleep. In a very nice food coma so feeling deliciously drowsy.

San Francisco in the news - from Market Watch:

This 57-year-old said ‘screw this’ to San Francisco — and retired to ‘delightful’ Albuquerque, where she slashed her expenses by 70%
When Roberta Reinstein moved to the Bay Area roughly 30 years ago to go to law school, it felt to her like a different place than it does now.

“It was possible for a student to live there…it was filled with artists,” she says. But Reinstein, 57, watched as real-estate prices skyrocketed (in just the past decade or so, home values have nearly doubled, according to Zillow) and many artists and less wealthy people had to move out. Nowadays, “San Francisco is only for the wealthy — the super wealthy — unless you’re willing to live with five roommates,” she jokes.

A bit more:

Though it’s perhaps best known for its annual hot-air balloon festival and being the setting for AMC’s hit show “Breaking Bad”, ABQ — which has a population of roughly 550,000 — has a lot more going for it than that. “Albuquerque is a delightful, quirky hidden gem,” says Reinstein.

It’s an artsy spot — there are hundreds of galleries and art studios; monthly art crawls, and a robust performing-arts scene — and a city where outdoor enthusiasts flock to. That’s helped along by the miles of hiking and biking trails in the adjacent Sandia and Manzano Mountains, as well as the roughly 300 days of sunshine. (Though January average lows are in the mid-20s, and July highs hit the low 90s.) And Reinstein tells MarketWatch she loves that it’s a diverse city with its own unique cuisine and celebrations.

Yeah - a nice small-ish city. I enjoyed my time there. Went there to visit the Trinity Site and take in some of the nuclear museums.

Very interesting - groupmuse

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We were talking about music this evening and one of tonight's diners mentioned groupmuse

From their website:

We all crave shared experiences with real people, in real life, offline
Groupmuse is a platform enabling communities to come together around great art; an online social network that connects young classical musicians to local audiences through concert house parties. Share the great masterpieces of music with old and new friends — in your living room and throughout your city. Because art is better with your friends. Because music can't hear itself. Because we need to feel together. Groupmuse. Be Alive.

Groupmuse’s origins can be traced back to the Allston apartment of pianist Cristian Budu, in 2010. There, musicians from New England Conservatory would gather for chamber music house parties that would rattle the rafters with the sweet sounds of Brahms late into the night. Groupmuse founder Sam Bodkin was lucky enough to be invited to these concerts, refined the idea while working for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and put on the first groupmuse in January of 2013.

Every week, the Groupmuse platform brings hundreds of new listeners to classical music. With over 1000 events in the last year, we’ve been featured in TIME, the Guardian, the Boston Globe, NPR, and many others. It’s always free to host a groupmuse and we can adapt to any size space. Just set the number of guests you’d like to have over, reserve some spots for your friends, and our platform connects you to area musicians. Our new program, Groupmuse at Work, provides an exciting opportunity to infuse any company’s culture with the great masterpieces of art. Like all groupmuses, these experiences are characterized by warmth, depth, and inspiration. They help employees engage and bond as only profound and shared experiences can.

It doesn't list any events for the island or Bellingham but the Seattle listings look really interesting. Great idea!

Tonight's dinner

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Turned out to be a glorious day after all. It was raining in the morning so the people at the farm had set the tables up inside - a change of venue. The house is very "live" acoustically so it got pretty loud but the dinner was incredible and the other people were a lot of fun to talk with. About 35 tonight. The menu:

    • Appetizer: Nijiseike Asian Pears with goat cheese (from their own goats) and a beet and ginger sauerkraut.
    • Salad with Kale, Mustard, Lemon Sorrel, Fennel, Licorice Mint, Orange Mint, Nasturtiums with roasted hazelnuts and three Apples: King, Stardew and Crab
    • Winter Squash curry - rice coconut milk and garden vegetables
    • Homemade Linguini - three colors with Egg, Nettle and Beet pasta served with olive oil, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, sproting broccoli, red pepper and cherry tomatoes.
    • Pumpkin Crunch with freshly made whipped cream.

Talk about yummy - I love sauerkraut and the combination of flavors with the shredded beets and ginger was incredible. I have two gallons of kraut fermenting in the fridge made from the  Filderkraut cabbages I bought from a local farmstand. Going to have to put up a gallon of this stuff too - wonderful taste. The nettle pasta was delicious too. Great flavor.

DId not stop off for a beer on my way home - feeling very mellow from the dinner and company and didn't feel like sitting in a bar. Pop open a nice bottle of wine and have some of that instead.

Out for the day

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Coffee, post office, Costco and then out to the last farm dinner of the season. Some wonderful people.

Back this evening.

Of course - Ukraine

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Did not see this coming but makes perfect sense - from Patrick Howley:

They are all guilty as charged. The deep state at work. Corruption.

News from the climate wars - 2004

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The Guardian from February 22nd, 2004:

Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'

The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.

The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Much more at the site - pure comedy gold. The very idea of anthropogenic global warming is abject bullshit. Yes, we have been going through a warming trend - started in 1914, got going in the 1960's and is slowing down to a stop now. But Earth has been going through periods of warming and cooling for as long as we can tell from geologic record. This is nothing new and the idea that humans are causing a catastrophe is pure fscking hubris. This planet is bigger than we are. A lot bigger.

If the sea levels are going to rise so precipitously and so fast, why did ex-President Obama spend $14 Million dollars on a beachfront mansion in Martha's Vineyard?

Get woke, go broke - New York Times

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Heh - people are not buying the fake news any more. From the Washington Examiner:

New York Times Kavanaugh book bombs, just 3,120 sold, Amazon rank #6,795
The latest book on Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a critical biography from two New York Times reporters that made new sexual assault charges that were immediately undermined, has suffered an epic sales crash, according to publishing insiders.

Expected to sell at least 10,000-12,000 in the first two weeks and propel The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation onto the newspaper’s bestseller hardcover list, it has sold about a third of that in the first two weeks.

A publishing source provided the latest BookScan numbers, which can account for about 80% of sales. That number is 3,120. “If you add in ebooks — they may have sold a total of 4,000. That's one of the most epic bombs in political publishing over the past decade,” said the source.

By comparison, another Kavanaugh book, Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court, which details the Democratic war on the Trump nominee, has sold 60,000 books and a total of 100,000 copies since its July 9 debut. It was written by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino and published by Regnery.

Liberal narrative? Yawn... SO over that...

Wow - been that long?  From The Guardian:

Monty Python at 50: a half-century of silly walks, edible props and dead parrots
In a memo sent in 1969, the BBC head of comedy seems to have lost his sense of humour. “Please will you have a word with the writers?” said Michael Mills. “I haven’t reacted to the funny titles that have appeared on the scripts so far. I hoped that they would cease of their own accord.”

The titles that irritated him included “Bunn Wackett Buzzard Stubble and Boot”, apparently a spoof legal firm, which came to be shortened to Bunwackett. The show, meanwhile, had the working title The Circus. Now, though, Mills had had enough: “The time has come when we must stop having peculiar titles and settle on one overall title … Please would you have words with them and try to produce something palatable?”

Following this intervention, a title was finally agreed upon: Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And on 19 September 1969, BBC North sent an invitation to journalists to go on location for the filming of the show at the Cow and Calf pub on Ilkley Moor. They were promised “crazy antics” and “the first opportunity to see this new-style brand of late-night nutty comedy in action, and all its writer-stars: John Cleese, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Michael Palin.” (As would often be the case, the animator Terry Gilliam was omitted, though he played many on-screen roles, and his brutal cartoons were the show’s signature innovation.)

This memo and press release are among the documentation relating to the premiere, exactly 50 years ago, of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Until exhumed by a researcher, the creative entrails of old BBC shows are buried in pink folders, hole-punched and tied with green bootlaces. Now, a rare peek inside the binders has uncovered all the secrets of the Pythons’ earliest days.

A good look into the history of some of the funniest people in the world.

Great obituary at the New York Times:

James Robinson, 79, Dies; Filled an Ambulance Gap in Brooklyn
When a 7-year-old girl was hit by a car one day in 1988 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, it took more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. When it did, her uncle, James Robinson Jr., climbed in for the ride to the hospital.

The ambulance was equipped with lifesaving equipment, he said, but “the attendant didn’t even know how to turn on the oxygen.” His niece, Cynthia Lomax, died along the way.

The incident prompted Mr. Robinson to start a volunteer ambulance corps in Bedford-Stuyvesant that has answered calls ever since, cutting response times to only a few minutes. The group, one of more than 30 volunteer emergency service agencies in New York City today and one of nearly that many certified to give basic life support, has also trained more than 1,000 emergency medical technicians.

Mr. Robinson, who was known as Rocky, died on Friday at 79. The cause was heart failure, said a son, Antoine Robinson.

See a need and fill it. This is so antithetical to what the liberals think should happen. They want top-down big government running everything. Little do they know that the best way to handle things are bottom up - neighbors, community groups, township, city, county, state and only then -- federal. Local action simply works best, wastes less money and accomplishes better things. Liberals hate that. Witness the amateur radio stupidity in California.

Quite the tweet

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President Trump is embracing the concept of "Punch back twice as hard". Witness:

Shades of Sean Connery in The Untouchables - The Chicago Way

And this is Quid Pro Joe's son

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Just wow - from the New York Post:

Hunter Biden started dating brother’s widow right after crack binge
Hunter Biden began dating his brother’s widow while recovering from a week spent buying crack from a homeless encampment in Los Angeles, according to a new report.

In a candid New Yorker interview with Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden’s troubled son, the 49-year-old lawyer explained the origins of his affair with brother Beau’s widow, Hallie, and the rock-bottom drug binge that came beforehand.

Hunter — who had already moved out of his marital home with estranged wife Kathleen over his failure to stay sober — says he became close with Hallie after a 2016 trip with her to the Hamptons and began spending most nights at her house while “sharing a very specific grief” over Beau’s 2015 death.

Much much more - talk about trainwreck. Talk about moral rectitude and lack thereof.

Fake News in pictures

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From Gerard who says:

ABC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, and NPR all replaced the crossed-out words in the official transcript with a single ellipsis (…) as if President Trump merely paused for a moment.

The transcript:

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Slept in - wonderful

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Woke up around 7AM but went back to sleep for another two hours.

Heading out in a little bit for the usual morning routine - working at home today. Farmer's market later this afternoon and then the last of the farm dinners tomorrow. Got a pumpkin festival tomorrow day so checking that out. Launching pumpkins with a trebuchet - sounds like fun!

Emergency communications net on Tuesday so staying on island through then - up to the farm for another couple of loads after that.

That is it

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Minnestrone was delish and made enough for four or five additional meals. No salad as the farmstand was out of lettuce and didn't feel like going to the supermarket. The two beers were cold and wet and talked with some friends there.

Long day so calling it a short night - see what is on YouTube and then to bed.

Interesting development - Hydrogen

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From Popular Mechanics:

Ditching Platinum for the Ocean Could Make Hydrogen Cheap
Hydrogen packs a powerful punch—that's why it's so often used in rocket fuel. It's also the most abundant element in the universe. One of the things that holds back its widespread adoption as an energy source, however, is that on Earth, hydrogen typically combines with other elements. Getting hydrogen often means either extracting or producing it, both of which can be expensive.

But now, scientists at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have found a pairing of minerals that surpasses other precious metal materials when it comes to producing hydrogen.

This is just in the laboratory for now with no word if it can scale to industrial volumes but an interesting development.

The FORTH programming language

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I used to do a lot of work in FORTH - loved it. Here is one programmers reminiscences. From Proper Fixation:

This is from 2010 - ran into it looking for something else. Have always had a soft spot for interesting programming languages - currently having to learn Python (everyone uses it because everyone uses it) but really love Lua

My history with Forth & stack machines

My VLSI tools take a chip from conception through testing. Perhaps 500 lines of source code. Cadence, Mentor Graphics do the same, more or less. With how much source/object code?
– Chuck Moore, the inventor of Forth

This is a personal account of my experience implementing and using the Forth programming language and the stack machine architecture. "Implementing and using" – in that order, pretty much; a somewhat typical order, as will become apparent.

It will also become clear why, having defined the instruction set of a processor designed to run Forth that went into production, I don't consider myself a competent Forth programmer (now is the time to warn that my understanding of Forth is just that – my own understanding; wouldn't count on it too much.)

Why the epigraph about Chuck Moore's VLSI tools? Because Forth is very radical. Black Square kind of radical. An approach to programming seemingly leaving out most if not all of programming:

…Forth does it differently. There is no syntax, no redundancy, no typing. There are no errors that can be detected. …there are no parentheses. No indentation. No hooks, no compatibility. …No files. No operating system.

Much more at the site - actually a really good definition of the language.

Interested? Check out pFORTH

Just wonderful - Ebola outbreak

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This time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - from the World Health Organization:

Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues this week with 20 new confirmed cases reported in North Kivu and Ituri provinces from 25 September to 1 October 2019, versus 29 in the previous week. This decrease in the number of cases should be interpreted with caution, as operational and security challenges in certain health zones make it difficult to undertake case detection and response functions. With over half (55%) of cases in the past week coming from Mambasa and Mandima Health Zones, there is a clear shift in the hot spots of the outbreak from high density, urban settings, such as Butembo, Katwa, and Beni, to more rural areas with a lower population density. This results in a change in the transmission dynamics, with more community-based transmission and less possible transmission in healthcare facilities. Conversely, this may introduce new issues in terms of accessibility and logistical challenges to reach affected villages, especially as we enter the rainy season.

In Mambasa Health Zone, delays in raising EVD awareness and involving the community and civil society in the response have led to community mistrust. To strengthen the participation of local communities in the response, WHO is working with the community, civil society, and partners in Mambasa Health Zone to engage women’s groups and enhance community-based surveillance. While in Lwemba, within Mandima Health Zone, poor EVD awareness compounded with armed conflict has led to heightened tensions between local communities and Ebola response teams. This has resulted in difficulties in investigating community deaths. Therefore, it is likely that the number of cases and community deaths in this area is under reported.

Emphasis mine - community mistrust? More like tribalism and ignorance. I would take these numbers and multiply them by at least 50. This is spreading out.

Out for a little while

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Dropping some stuff at the library, the post office and getting some greens for a salad from a local farm stand. Farmer's market tomorrow but want some lettuce for tonight.

Soup is making the whole house smell delicious.

From local station WKYT:

Deputies: Intoxicated Mt. Sterling man arrested after trying to smoke gravel
A Mt. Sterling man is behind bars after authorities say he was staggering along a highway while trying to smoke gravel.

The Clay County Sheriff's Office announced 52-year-old Kenelm Davidson was arrested Wednesday after deputies received a complaint of a man being intoxicated on U.S. 421.

Deputies say they saw Davidson staggering in a parking lot when they arrived, and he was trying to smoke gravel.

Davidson was charged with public intoxication of a controlled substance.

He just wanted to get a little stone-d...

What a sleezeball

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From the Beeb:

Gandhi's ashes stolen and photo defaced on 150th birthday
Thieves stole some of Mahatma Gandhi's remains on what would have been his 150th birthday, police say.

The ashes were taken from a memorial in central India, where they had been kept since 1948 - the year of Gandhi's assassination by a Hindu extremist.

The thieves also scrawled "traitor" in green paint across photographs of the independence leader.

Some Hindu hardliners view Gandhi as a traitor for his advocacy of Hindu-Muslim unity.

This is despite Gandhi being a devout Hindu himself.

One of my favorite quotes is this:

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look back upon the Act depriving the whole nation of arms as the blackest.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi

He knew what people who look at the facts know - more guns, less crime.

Hitting too close to the truth

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I have read other things that Ronan Farrow has written and I like his work. He is liberal but in a classical sense and he is no stranger to factual reporting. He does not pander to the narrative like so many of his "colleagues". I have a reservation at the library for his upcoming book:  Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators

From the Amazon listing:

In 2017, a routine network television investigation led Ronan Farrow to a story only whispered about: one of Hollywood's most powerful producers was a predator, protected by fear, wealth, and a conspiracy of silence. As Farrow drew closer to the truth, shadowy operatives, from high-priced lawyers to elite war-hardened spies, mounted a secret campaign of intimidation, threatening his career, following his every move, and weaponizing an account of abuse in his own family.

All the while, Farrow and his producer faced a degree of resistance they could not explain -- until now. And a trail of clues revealed corruption and cover-ups from Hollywood to Washington and beyond.

This is the untold story of the exotic tactics of surveillance and intimidation deployed by wealthy and connected men to threaten journalists, evade accountability, and silence victims of abuse. And it's the story of the women who risked everything to expose the truth and spark a global movement.

Well, they are still at it. From The Daily Beast:

Former National Enquirer Editor Threatens Booksellers Over Ronan Farrow Exposé
Former top National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard is using high-powered law firms that practice in Britain, Ireland, Australia, and the United States in an attempt to quash Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ronan Farrow’s much-anticipated exposé Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators.

According to two knowledgeable sources, Howard—in an extraordinary step for a journalist who otherwise claims to favor the free flow of information—has retained the services of New York’s Kravet & Vogel, Sydney-based McLachlan Thorpe Partners, and the London-based Tweed law firm in an apparent campaign to suppress Farrow’s book, which is scheduled for publication on Oct. 15.

In addition to threatening Farrow and his publisher, Hachette, with a potential libel suit for an unreleased book that they have yet to read, Howard’s legal team has taken the unusual step of also warning booksellers that plan to stock Catch and Kill.

They must be running scared - what other secrets do they have in hiding...

Now this is a grinding disk

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Actually, looks like a diamond saw (slots along the circumference) for cutting concrete (using a much larger machine).
Still... A fun prank.

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Islam in the news

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From the New York Post:

Paris knife attacker who killed 4 in police headquarters had converted to Islam: report
The deranged employee who stabbed four people to death — including three cops — inside a Paris police headquarters had converted to Islam 18 months ago, according to a report.

The unidentified 45-year-old IT worker attacked three members of the police force’s intelligence division Thursday inside two different offices on the first floor, then went into a stairwell and assaulted two women, French TV station BFMTV reported.

The man, who fatally injured four people before he was gunned down, had converted to Islam a year and a half ago.

Still, police are not treating the attack as a terrorist act, saying the employee appears to have been feuding with supervisors.

Of course they will not treat the attack as a terrorist act. The politicians would have to own up to the fact that Islam is at heart a 9th century barbaric culture (literally - this is where we get the term barbaric). Couple this with the unimpeded immigration from those countries and into France (multiculturalism). The fact that France has draconian gun laws just means that the goblin switched to using a knife.

Here is a list of all the Islamist attacks in the last 30 days. During this time period, there were 109 Islamic attacks in 20 countries, in which 542 people were killed and 644 injured.

Heh - climate experts

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Perfect:

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Latest project from Clint Eastwood:

Down the memory hole

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Inconvenient truths must be eliminated. From The Blaze:

Rosie O'Donnell deletes Twitter poll that failed to show support for impeachment
Liberal actress Rosie O'Donnell was forced to delete her poll on Twitter meant to show that there was support for the impeachment of President Donald Trump after it said the opposite.

I doubt very much that she was 'forced'. It just happened to not fit the narrative. Here is a screen-cap:

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The communists did this a lot - someone became inconvenient, they got disappeared.

And back again

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Got the car taken care of - every 5,000 miles.

The dealership is near the Marysville WinCo grocery store and they carry Poke. Got a half-pound of it and having it for lunch. Yum.

Surf for a bit and then work around the house. Finally getting around to making the minnestrone soup for dinner tonight.

Out the door - car maintenence

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35K mile checkup for the Highlander. Happy with it with a couple major exceptions. More later.

Whoops - Nature retracts a paper

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Nature is one of the top scientific journals out there. Their papers are gold standard. Some schadenfreude from Phys.org:

Journal 'Nature' retracts ocean-warming study
The journal Nature retracted a study published last year that found oceans were warming at an alarming rate due to climate change.

The prestigious scientific journal issued the formal notice this week for the paper published Oct. 31, 2018, by researchers at the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

They released a statement published on the journal's website that read in part:

"Shortly after publication, arising from comments from Nicholas Lewis, we realized that our reported uncertainties were underestimated owing to our treatment of certain systematic errors as random errors.

"Despite the revised uncertainties, our method remains valid and provides an estimate of ocean warming that is independent of the ocean data underpinning other approaches."

Activists pushing the narrative and using the output from bogus computer models as backup. These mokes must have never heard of Project Argo - 3,800+ floats deployed throughout the ocean for the last 20 years. They provide a continuous measurement of ocean temperatures. What warming...

Scripps Institution of Oceanography should be ashamed of themselves for falling for this political bullshit.

I had always thought that using Ethanol in our gasoline was a profoundly stupid idea. It seems that President Trump feels the same way. From Eric Peters Autos:

The Corn Lobby vs. Orange Man
The corn lobby – which benignly styles itself The National Corn Growers Association – is upset with the Orange Man for – as CNN puts it – “reducing demand” for its crops.

What he’s actually done is reduce the mandate for them by granting waivers to refineries which would otherwise by forced by a federal law called the Renewable Fuels Standard or RFS to douse the gas they make with ethanol – which is made (in the United States) using mostly  . . . corn.

Almost all of the “gas” sold in the United States actually contains 10 percent ethanol (E10) because of the regs that require, not because American motorists want it. If they did want it, there would be no need for the mandate.

Ethanol is a less efficient fuel - fewer calories per gallon so substituting it for gasoline lowers your mileage. Plus, distilling it takes more energy than it produces on combustion. It also absorbs water vapor from the atmosphere and this can cause corrosion if it sits in a dormant engine for any length of time.

At the farm, I would get about two years out of a lawn mower or other small engine. I take pains to maintain my tools properly so this was eye-opening. Switch to using ethanol-free gasoline and the engines are still running fine.

Putting this in our gasoline is just stupid and poorly thought out politics. Glad to see it ending.

Today's strip was also good:

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He is on a real roll with the parody inversion - this mirrors what is happening in the media so closely.

Looking forward to the next week...

Our quiet sun

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The low activity of our sun has many consequences - not just cooler weather. From Spaceweather:

COSMIC RAYS ARE NEARING A SPACE AGE RECORD:
Solar Minimum is underway, and it's a deep one. Sunspot counts suggest it is one of the deepest minima of the past century. The sun's magnetic field has become weak, allowing extra cosmic rays into the solar system. Neutron monitors at the Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory in Oulu, Finland, show that cosmic rays are percentage points away from a Space Age record:

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And the mainstream media?

* * * crickets * * *

More people die from cold than from heat - people need to know but... It does not fit the narrative.

Unreal - California and Amateur Radio

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MAJOR UPDATE - see this post for the full story.

Ms. Pisi needs to get a clue - she is legislating by executive fiat. She was not elected.

In WA State, the Department of Emergency Services and the various county agencies love amateur radio operators. We are trained and are often the "last mile" in communications.

According to the comments at the video's home page, some other states are suffering from the same stupidity.

Much later

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Good meeting - I did not get the vote I had hoped for but the voting was fair and the reasoning for both sides were well expressed.

Got a 9:00AM car appointment tomorrow so no surf for me. Straight to bed after a glass or two of wine and a a couple of YouTube videos.

Back much later.

Heh - hits bottom. Keeps digging.

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Jussie Smollett needs to STFU - from The Blaze:

Jussie Smollett doesn't like being compared to sixth grader who lied about white boys cutting off her dreadlocks. Not one bit.
Jussie Smollett put himself back in the spotlight by blasting a social media post that compared the former “Empire" actor to a black girl who admitted Monday to lying about white boys attacking her and cutting off her dreadlocks.

Smollett — who denied he orchestrated a racist, anti-gay attack against himself in January despite Chicago police arresting him and charging him with felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report — responded to an Instagram post Monday from celebrity gossip outfit "The Shade Room."

'Jussie really is a trendsetter'
In the post, Derrick Jaxn — a social media guru who also is black — noted below a photo of the girl who lied about her cut dreadlocks that "Jussie really is a trendsetter."

Jussie's fifteen are over. Very very over.

So true

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About that plastic in the oceans

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Chinese cargo ships - from Agence France-Presse:

Ocean plastic waste probably comes from ships, report says
Most of the plastic bottles washing up on the rocky shores of Inaccessible Island, aptly named for its sheer cliffs rising from the middle of the South Atlantic, probably come from Chinese merchant ships, a study published Monday said.

The study offers fresh evidence that the vast garbage patches floating in the middle of oceans, which have sparked much consumer hand-wringing in recent years, are less the product of people dumping single-use plastics in waterways or on land, than they are the result of merchant marine vessels tossing their waste overboard by the ton.

The authors of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS, collected thousands of pieces of waste during visits to the tiny island in 1984, 2009 and again in 2018.

The island is located roughly midway between Argentina and South Africa in the South Atlantic gyre, a vast whirlpool of currents that has created what has come to be known as an oceanic garbage patch.

While initial inspections of the trash washing up on the island showed labels indicating it had come from South America, some 2,000 miles (3,000 kilometers) to the west, by 2018 three-quarters of the garbage appeared to originate from Asia, mostly China.

Many of the plastic bottles had been crushed with their tops screwed on tight, as is customary on board ships to save space, said report author Peter Ryan, director of the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Around 90 percent of the bottles found had been produced in the previous two years, ruling out the possibility that they had been carried by ocean currents over the vast distance from Asia, which would normally take three to five years.

Since the number of Asian fishing vessels has remained stable since the 1990s, while the number of Asian -- and in particular, Chinese -- cargo vessels has vastly increased in the Atlantic, the researchers concluded that the bottles must come from merchant vessels, which toss them overboard rather than dumping them as trash at ports.

"It's inescapable that it's from ships, and it's not coming from land," Ryan told AFP.

Nice that someone is finally doing the basic research on the problem instead of just deploying theory after theory (it's the straws being handed out in restaurants).

From Jason Easley who embeds this clip of President Trump talking about the whistleblower scandal:

President Trump references the New York Times:

Schiff, House Intel Chairman, Got Early Account of Whistle-Blower’s Accusations
The Democratic head of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, learned about the outlines of a C.I.A. officer’s concerns that President Trump had abused his power days before the officer filed a whistle-blower complaint, according to a spokesman and current and former American officials.

The early account by the future whistle-blower shows how determined he was to make known his allegations that Mr. Trump asked Ukraine’s government to interfere on his behalf in the 2020 election. It also explains how Mr. Schiff knew to press for the complaint when the Trump administration initially blocked lawmakers from seeing it.

I can see why but dagnabbit...

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Sounds like a great system and an amazing resource - from the WA State Department of Transportation:

It's no fluke: Washington State Ferries implements Whale Report Alert System
Washington State Ferries has initiated use of a whale alert app and web-based system this week that will provide ferry captains more accurate and updated location information for southern resident orcas and other whales throughout Puget Sound. Access to Ocean Wise’s Whale Report Alert System (WRAS) is only granted to the commercial maritime operators such as ferries, ships and tugs. It is not available for public use or for whale watch operators.

The WRAS relies on real-time sightings, reported by members of the public via Ocean Wise’s WhaleReport smartphone application, to inform commercial mariners of whale presence. The system is expected to provide ferry captains and other commercial mariners with better information about large marine mammal locations in the vicinity of their vessels so ferry captains can make decisions to change course or reduce speed to avoid disturbing or colliding with marine mammals.

Each alert also supplies other pertinent details such as the species observed, the direction of whale travel, the time of the report and the number of whales in the group. This desktop interface allows watch standers at WSF’s operations centers to monitor the location of whale sightings relative to fleet vessel positions and relay whale presence information to captains as required.

Emphasis mine - I can see why the use is restricted. The poor whales would be buzzed 24/7 by people wanting to see the cute critters. Still, it would be nice to get an email if something is spotted off Camano Island. I would love that.

Nice day - cool and slightly overcast but no precip in the forecast. Working in the garage.

Been writing up a script for tonight's meeting - should be fun. I have owned several business as well as been a test lab manager at MSFT for five years so I can run a pretty decent meeting. Robert's Rules of Order and all that stuff...

Today's Dilbert cartoon:

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True dat - impeachment

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From President Trump's Twitter account:

I do not think that the Democrats know what they are getting into.

Bernie has problems

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From Associated Press:

Sanders has heart procedure, cancels campaign events for now
Bernie Sanders’ campaign said Wednesday that the Democratic presidential candidate had a heart procedure for a blocked artery and was canceling events and appearances “until further notice.”

The 78-year-old Sanders was in Las Vegas when, according to a campaign statement, he experienced chest discomfort during a campaign event Tuesday and sought medical evaluation. Two stents were “successfully inserted” and that Sanders “is conversing and in good spirits,” according to the campaign.

Heart attack? No - just a "cardiac event". Nothing to see here folks, just keep moving along...

Where were Hillary's henchmen when this appened...

Out for a while

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Coffee and a couple of errands - surf a bit first.

Should be an interesting meeting tonight.

A history lesson for some snowflakes:

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Awww cute - cake

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From Canadian baker Kake by Darci:

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29 more photos at Bored Panda

Sounds about right

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From President Trump's twitter account:

I can not argue with that.

Oh what a tangled web we weave

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Interesting item from Zero Hedge:

Dead Deutsche Banker's Son Peddled Trump Financial "Dirt" To The Highest Bidder - Which Adam Schiff Promptly Subpoenaed
A trove of insider Deutsche Bank documents was subpoenaed by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) after a bizarre series of events involving Moby.

Val Broeksmit, stepson of top Deutche Bank executive Bill Broeksmit - who committed suicide in January 2014 in the wake of several banking scandals he had overseen, had been trying to sell or distribute information from the German bank which he obtained after his father's death, which may have contained information on Donald Trump, according to the New York Times

Mr. Broeksmit’s late father, Bill, had been a senior executive there, and his son possessed a cache of confidential bank documents that provided a tantalizing glimpse of its internal workings. Some of the documents were password-protected, and there was no telling what secrets they held or how explosive they could be.

Federal and state authorities were swarming around Deutsche Bank. Some of the scrutiny centered on the lender’s two-decade relationship with President Trump and his family. Other areas of focus grew out of Deutsche Bank’s long history of criminal misconduct: manipulating markets, evading taxes, bribing foreign officials, violating international sanctions, defrauding customers, laundering money for Russian billionaires. -NYT

Broeksmit was eventually introduced to Schiff through the musician Moby (Schiff's "friend and neighbor" who said the CIA asked him to help spread dirt on Trump and Russia - h/t @LeicaLexus). When Schiff refused to pay for the materials, the lawmaker instead issued a subpoena for them. 

Mr. Schiff’s investigators badly wanted the secret Deutsche files. Mr. Broeksmit tried to extract money from them — he pushed to be hired as a consultant to the committee — but that was a nonstarter. An investigator, Daniel Goldman, appealed to his sense of patriotism and pride. “Imagine a scenario where some of the material that you have can actually provide the seed that we can then use to blow open everything that [Trump] has been hiding,” Mr. Goldman told Mr. Broeksmit in a recorded phone call. “In some respects, you — and your father vicariously through you — will go down in American history as a hero and as the person who really broke open an incredibly corrupt president and administration.” (Mr. Broeksmit wouldn’t budge; eventually, Mr. Schiff subpoenaed him.) -NYT

All of that said, it's clear that the information is of low value as it relates to Trump for two reasons. First, Schiff has them - yet is pushing for impeachment based on a phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky in regards to investigating former VP Joe Biden. 

Second, Fusion GPS paid Broeksmit $1,000 to give the documents to a reporter for the Financial Times on New Year's Eve, 2016 - so they've been in the Trump resistance's arsenal for more than three years without seeing the light of day.

A lot more at the site. These people are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to find anything, ANYTHING that will rid them of that horrible Orange Man. Fun to see. Been eating a lot of popcorn.

Conflicting messages from North Korea

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From Reuters:

N.Korea conducts another projectile launch after announcing U.S. talks
North Korea carried out another projectile launch on Wednesday, the South Korean military and Japan's Coast Guard said, a day after North Korea announced it will hold working-level talks with the United States at the weekend.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said North Korea fired an unidentified projectile on Wednesday morning from around Wonsan, in southeast Kangwon province, towards the sea to the east.

Japan's Coast Guard said in a statement North Korea had launched what appeared to be a missile and urged vessels to pay attention to further information and not to approach any debris.

Fat-boy Kim really needs to decide what he wants for his nation's people. He talked about a McDonalds Restaurant in other communications. This is not the way to get one.

Never got to the minnestrone

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Went to the Farmer's Market, had a nice conversation with some of the people. Really good music this time - their music varies in style and quality but it is a lot of fun. Last market of the season for this location. The Friday market still has two more sessions to run. Not as many vendors but a lot of customers - the people who have my favorite farm were pretty much sold out after one hour. They are doing the last farm supper next Saturday so staying down here for that.

Meeting tomorrow. This is the group that voted me Vice President (boy are they in for a surprise). There is an issue that the board voted on two weeks ago that is contentious to a few parties and they are raising a stink. Fortunately, the bylaws provide for a general quorum vote to decide and I think it will go in our favor. This association has been in operation for a long time - 20th anniversary in fact and from what I gather, people let things slide from time to time. The President and I are looking at putting an end to this. If it is not covered in the bylaws, either amend the bylaws or don't do it.

Finished with the market and decided I wanted Chinese food so went out for that. The beans will keep until tomorrow.

What it says on the box.

Put some cannelloni beans on to soak yesterday so it's minestrone soup for dinner tonight. Thaw out some baguette pieces in the toaster oven to go along with it.

Renewable resources - wind

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The dirty side to wind power - they don't last forever. Quite a short lifetime actually. From the Cowboy State Daily:

Wind turbine blades being disposed of in Casper landfill
The Casper landfill will soon be the home of more than 1,000 decommissioned wind turbine blades and motor housing units.

According to Cindie Langston, solid waste manager for the Casper Regional Landfill, the materials will be deposited in an area of the landfill designed to hold construction and demolition material.

CRL is one of the few landfills with the proper permits and certifications to accept the decommissioned turbine materials.

The turbine disposal project, which started this summer, is slated to continue until the spring of 2020, bringing the CRL estimated revenue of $675,485. Such “special waste projects” bring in about $800,000 a year, which helps keep CRL rates low, Langston said.

20191001-wind.jpg

The turbines last about 20 years and are then completely taken down - no option to rebuild. Not exactly renewable.

Another Biden in the news

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China this time - from the Washington Examiner:

Hunter Biden tied to China firm with questionable dealings
A high-ranking Chinese businessman was charged by the Justice Department with global corruption and bribery in 2017, and the first call he made after his arrest was to Vice President Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, who thinks the call was meant for Joe’s son, Hunter.

Patrick Ho, the lieutenant to the founder of the multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate CEFC China Energy, was indicted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the Southern District of New York for his role in a global money laundering and bribery scheme aimed at government officials in Africa. The Justice Department also accused Ho of helping with Iranian sanctions evasion and working to use the Chinese company’s connections to sell weaponry to Chad, Libya, and Qatar.

Ho immediately tried reaching out to the younger Biden for help because that summer, as investigators circled, Hunter agreed to represent Ho as part of Hunter’s efforts to work out a liquefied natural gas deal worth tens of millions of dollars with CEFC China Energy’s leader Ye Jianming.

The vice president’s financier brother said he was surprised by the call from Ho but told the Chinese businessman how to get in touch with his nephew.

“There is nothing else I have to say,” James Biden told the New York Times in 2018. “I don’t want to be dragged into this anymore.”

James seems to be the only honest Biden.

Of course they fired him

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From Yahoo News:

Trump tweeted ‘billions of dollars’ would be saved on military contracts. Then the Pentagon fired the official doing that.
In December 2016, just a few weeks before moving into the White House, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted that once he was in office, “billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases.”

Presidential candidates often campaign for or against defense spending, but Trump was perhaps the first to promise that his business acumen — an image bolstered by his bestselling book “The Art of the Deal” — would enable him to shave billions of dollars off costly weapons, like the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, estimated to top $1 trillion.

Meet Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s pricing director:

“When you get somebody who is the president of the United States who understands precisely what you do for a living and understands how it’s actually done, it becomes a pretty rewarding thing to do, especially when someone at the top is world-class himself in terms of negotiating,” Shay Assad, the Pentagon’s pricing director, told attendees at a conference held by McAleese and Credit Suisse in March 2017, just two months after Trump’s inauguration.

Assad had already built a reputation as the Department of Defense’s toughest contract negotiator, having spent more than a decade battling defense companies on behalf of taxpayers, trying to get the prices down on skyrocketing weapons costs. Over the course of his career, he has been decorated with a panoply of awards from the Pentagon for his work, and praised for saving the government billions of dollars. A 2016 Politico profile described Assad, known for his dogged campaigns to force defense industry companies to justify their costs, as “the most hated man in the Pentagon.”

And of course:

Yet within two years of Trump’s entrance into the White House, Assad would find himself removed from his job, and his efforts to save money and recover hundreds of millions of dollars in potentially fraudulent spending tabled.

His treatment, he contends, was the direct result of his attempts to save the Pentagon money and identify potential contract fraud, which brought him into conflict with the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer. It was a conflict that ended dramatically, he says, when shortly after he emailed senior Pentagon officials about potential fraud, details about his travel records and his demotion were published in the press.

People in the Pentagon were not getting their sweet kickbacks so they euchred him out.

Gee - if only we could use DDT

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We had a serious problem with DDT - it was so effective that we were - literally - marinating the planet in it. We need to bring back it's use on a limited and careful basis. Why? Mosquitoes kill more human beings than any other cause of death.

From USA Today:

Deadly EEE: Parts of nation see worst outbreak of brain-swelling, mosquito virus in more than a half-century
Patricia Alice "Pat" Shaw, of East Lyme, Connecticut, loved the outdoors. She walked her dogs three times a day. She often sat by the backyard swimming pool at her home, surrounded by woods.

The walks, the pool, the woods – any of those pleasures may have led to the mosquito bite that killed her weeks later on Sept. 19.

A bit more:

This year, Massachusetts is experiencing its largest EEE outbreak since 1956. The virus is typically spread through bites from infected mosquitoes, which are more likely to be carriers near wetlands or sitting water. While people of any age can die from EEE, the victims this year have primarily been the young or old.

There is no cure for EEE. A vaccine developed by the military exists for the virus, but it is not commercially available because the side effects are considered too severe. Although EEE can be treated, about 80% of survivors are left with some level of permanent neurological damage.

Nasty stuff. A perfect example of why we need to return to using DDT on a controlled basis.

Typical of the left - from Real Clear Politics:

Kamala Harris: Trump's Twitter Account Should Be Suspended
Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), a Democratic presidential candidate, said the privilege of using Twitter should be taken away from President Trump because he is using the platform in an "irresponsible" way. Harris, in an interview with CNN host Anderson Cooper, called for "other mechanisms" to make sure Trump's words don't harm anyone.

They have nothing to offer us.

More on Fauxcahontas

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On September 27th, I noted this from CNBC

Wall Street Democratic donors warn the party: We’ll sit out, or back Trump, if you nominate Elizabeth Warren
Democratic donors on Wall Street and in big business are preparing to sit out the presidential campaign fundraising cycle — or even back President Donald Trump — if Sen. Elizabeth Warren wins the party’s nomination.

Now this from The Verge::

INTERNAL FACEBOOK MEETINGS
On October 1st, The Verge published text and audio from recent internal meetings at Facebook where CEO Mark Zuckerberg answered tough questions from employees who are concerned about the company’s future. In two July meetings, Zuckerberg rallied his employees against critics, competitors, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, among others.

Big business does not like Elizabeth Warren. Let her sink. Who do the Democrats have left? Anyone? Bueller?

Got nothing this morning

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Nothing happening out there - the dems are still clamoring for impeachment to which I say Bring It On. Make them testify in public. The swamp water is receding and things are starting to show.

Coffee, post office and library and then back home to work on some stuff. I was expecting a mild frost this morning - it was absolutley clear last night with great seeing. Stars were out with a vengance. Slightly overcast today with rain to come on Thursday.

Got a meeting tomorrow and the last Farmer's Market of the season this afternoon.

Something happening at the Naval Air Station - lots of jets in the air yesterday and today.

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