Via New York Times comes this information on flood insurance, which I believe is the predominate cause of storm damage in the Houston area and beyond: Private homeowners’ policies generally cover wind damage and, in certain cases, water damage from storm surges. But for almost half a century, all other homeowners’ flood coverage has been underwritten by the National Flood Insurance Program, a federal program that itself faces financial uncertainty....
Read More »Notes on Harvey: if Karma could bring her litter to visit the Texas GOP
Notes on Harvey: if Karma could bring her litter to visit the Texas GOP First of all, as many of you already know, the M.I.A. proprietor of Bonddad blog, Hale Stewart, resides in the Houston area. I traded messages with him on Saturday, and as of then, he was doing OK. Secondly, when Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey and New York, Texas Republicans were prominent among those who opposed aid. Ultimately aid was provided — but not until 75 days after the...
Read More »GAO Report finds Rural Postal Service Remains Essential
From time to time, Mark Jamison or myself would feature articles from the Save the Post Office blog as authored by Steve Hutkins, a literature professor who teaches “place studies” at the Gallatin School of New York University. Mark Jamison a retired Postmaster for a small town in North Carolina would often write there also. This particular post was featured in October of 2016. Where FedeEx, UPS, DHL or other services do not go, the US Postman still does...
Read More »Military Times reports top Pentagon posts vacant
The Military Times reports: A handful of Pentagon nominees will be waiting for Senate confirmation when the upper chamber returns in September from its summer recess, but the administration still has dozens of Defense Department positions to fill. Leaving State Department vacancies aside, I thought the Trump readiness rhetoric applied to DOD…not so much I guess.
Read More »“It’s amazing …what I get away with”
[embedded content] Published on Mar 18, 2016 “I am probably the greatest politician that ever lived.” “It’s amazing what I say and what I do and what I get away with.” Clip and quote from the feature documentary The Joe Show
Read More »Data Scientist Cathy O’Neil: “Algorithms Are Opinions Embedded in Code”
I met Cathy in Cambridge when she spoke at MIT a few years ago. This is re-posted from Naked Capitalism. Cathy’s whole TED Talk can be watched after the fold. Data Scientist Cathy O’Neil: “Algorithms Are Opinions Embedded in Code” Cathy O’Neil has a PhD in mathematics from Harvard and is the author of the best seller Weapons of Math Destruction. She is also involved in Occupy Wall Street. In this TED talk, she describes how algorithms routinely...
Read More »Pardon for Sheriff Joe
Pres. Trump decides on pardoning Sheriff Joe for all of his community service work in Maricopa County Arizona. What an achievement for a man who can be a racist, defy a Federal Court, and gain the support of a US Pres.
Read More »Reports of Obamacare’s death are greatly exaggerated: All counties to be covered for 2018
Reports of Obamacare’s death are greatly exaggerated: All counties to be covered for 2018 Obamacare has now obtained an insurer for every county in the country, defying Republican claims that the program is collapsing. As reported by The Hill, “At one point or another over the past year, more than 80 counties have been at risk of having no ObamaCare insurer on the exchanges in 2018.” On Thursday (Aug. 24), the last “bare” county, in Ohio, was covered by...
Read More »Sure Abigail Hauslohner, Paul Duggan, Jack Gillum and Aaron C. Davis Sure
Lifted from Robert’s Stochastic Thoughts Sure Abigail Hauslohner, Paul Duggan, Jack Gillum and Aaron C. Davis Sure I have trusted The Washington Post, since I learned how to read. However, By Abigail Hauslohner, Paul Duggan, Jack Gillum and Aaron C. Davis are testing me. In this article they assert that an American Nazi went over to that very dark side in spite of the well meaning efforts of Weimar. “Fields looked forward to soldiering in democracy’s most...
Read More »WWE?
“Mr. Trump’s advisers have privately said they are wrestling” [embedded content] “I don’t believe the allegations against the president are accurate,” Mr. Mnuchin said of the denunciations of the president, “and I believe that having highly talented men and women in our country surrounding the president in his administration should be reassuring to you and all the American people.” Mr. Mnuchin and Gary D. Cohn, the president’s top economic adviser, who...
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