Tag Archives: Hot Topics

Bill McBride at Calculated Risk (8/23/2022 02:21:00 PM) had this report on mileage driven for June 2022. I am sure as Bill suggests gasoline prices may have played a role in the decrease. I wonder too if Covid kept people from travelling too? One of the links to the DOT page also shows travel by segments of the country. The West showing a far greater (5X) decrease than the Northeast. Calculated Risk: DOT: “Vehicle Miles Driven Decreased...

First warnings — as usual I am writing on a topic discussed by many experts and I am not an expert. It is very often debated whether social welfare programs should be means tested (available only to people with low income or to people with low income and low wealth). An alternative is universal programs which are provided also to high income people (Medicare, Social Security old age and survivor pensions, K-12 public school, police protection, fire...

Coronavirus dashboard for August 24: the post BA.5 wave respite In general, things are headed in the right direction for now in the pandemic. BIobot’s latest wastewater update from one week ago shows a 1/3rd decline in COVID particles nationwide. Here’s the regional breakdown: The West, spearheaded by CA, is down 50%, and the South 33%. The Midwest is down the least, perhaps due to the larger % of BA.4.6 in that area. Speaking of which,...

There are many places where the water has been polluted by something. Ten Bears talks about Bend, Oregon. 1979 and one of the largest environmental complaints was lodged by the Federal government against a major corporation. Acting on behalf of EPA, the Department of Justice filed four suits against Hooker Chemical Co. Hooker Chemical and its parent corporation Occidental Petroleum Corporation were to clean up four chemical waste dumpsites in...

The Good Note this one on your calendar, the court gets it correct. Just when you think SCOTUS will raise its ugly right-wing head again, it decides differently. I can’t tell you what the votes were for and against. This is an unsigned decision. Mabe the one who ratted on the SCOTUS-Alito’s anti-abortion decision will give us a hint? Haven’t heard much from Ginni Thomas as of late. “Supreme Court issues rare emergency order favoring voters...

Reactors in France had to reduce power because of low flow in the rivers being used for cooling. The pictures show Lake Garda in Italy at record lows. The Rhine is becoming too low for barge traffic, for cruise ships. In Rome, the River Po is low. The Mediterranean is too warm. We hear a lot about mitigating the effects. OK, as long as it isn’t being used to enable; instead of addressing the causes. No doubt stop gaps are needed until we get...

In the second part of this “Letters from an American,” Prof. Heather talks about the violence being exhibited by trump-supporters. One man was killed after attacking the Cincinatti FBI office. That is a death wish in itself. Those people do not miss. As many conservatives speak out against the raid, not to mention past opponents such as Andrew Yang, the daughter of former VP Richard Cheney only dug her heels in deeper on her anti-Trump stance....

Are we about to get an answer as to why Trump was so desperate on Jan 6, 2021?

In Vietnam, it was Agent Orange, PTSD, TBI, Malaria, etc. we were exposed to and many of us still suffer from the results. It took me about a year before I could sleep soundly next to my wife. You were just on edge. We did not get the recognition for issues beyond mine until much later. Too many of us ended up street-living. Minorities especially. Even this move by Congress for Iraq veterans comes too late. My nephew served a couple of tours in...

I read this over at Hullabaloo, “Blue dystopia” by Digby “The fantasy liberal hellholes red America loves to hate” “The Dystopian Myths of Red America,” New York Times, Paul Krugman Desensitization is an amazing thing. At this point most political observers simply accept it as a fact of life that an overwhelming majority of Republicans accept the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen — a claim with nothing to support it, not even plausible...