Thursday, August 20, 2020

Sunset over Lake Champlain

 

40 comments:

  1. So, there I was, trying to catch up on the last thread. Got most of it done (though I have more I want to read), but thought I'd respond here instead. Clicked for the new thread and nothing happened. Turned out I had posted this thread, but missed posting it for 1:00am; so it was set for just after 10:00pm (the time of day I created the post). LOL!

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  2. Alan, there's a photo at the start of the SFGate article that you posted about how bad the fires are. It shows a man using a hose near a house that is badly on fire. Between him and the house is a car. I don't understand. How can he not move the car when there is gasoline in it that could explode and make everything much worse, or possibly explode and kill him? Why hasn't he gotten into the car and gotten out of there? It's clearly too late for the house.

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    1. I hadn't noticed that photo, but I could posit a couple of explanations. Maybe he doesn't have the key to the car. And (the more likely explanation) he may well have been panicked. I remember an article at the time of the Paradise fire, about a house that had been built to the (voluntary government) standard for the urban-forest interface. It survived without any damage--not so much as a cracked window. If my house were in such an area, I think I would also put Rainbird sprinklers on the roof, with a generator to provide power. I have seen them used as a precaution on coal decks (the stacks of logs waiting to supply a lumber mill). I will go look for that photo now.

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    2. I looked through the gallery of photos and didn't see the one you described, listener.

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    3. It was at the very top of the article.

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    4. Maybe they changed it. Fellow was probably panicked; a garden hose would do about as much good as a bottle of soda.

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    5. Alan, I found the photo and sent it to you. Looking at it large (not on iPhone) I see that the man wasn't using a hose, there was a fence by him. But that house is very much on fire and that car should not be so close.

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  3. The Battle That Changed Kamala Harris [Click] “What the national mortgage settlement taught the freshly elected California attorney general—and how it connected her to Joe Biden.” This had faded in my memory; and of course I hadn’t known about the Biden connection.

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  4. Replies
    1. The frog walking begins...

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    2. I love this far more than I should.

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    3. But not nearly as much as you will when the courts catch up with Il Capo.

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    4. Bonus Flashback of the Day
      August 20, 2020 By Taegan Goddard

      “The Clintons have sold out their own people for cold cash. They are grifters.”
      — Steve Bannon, in a 2016 interview on Breitbart News Radio,while adding they were running “a money laundering operation.”


      Bannon today was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors.

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    5. Lots more candy in the Bannon piñata [Click] “The 150-foot yacht on which Bannon was arrested in coastal Connecticut belongs to a Chinese billionaire named Guo Wengui.” And he is being prosecuted by the federal prosecutor Barr tried to shove aside but was forced to accept.

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  5. Harris Sets Up Democratic [Mega-]Donor Stampede [Click] Biden has never been allergic to corporate bagmen, so far as I have observed.

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  6. OHIO; As of Thursday afternoon, there have been at least 112,003 confirmed or probable cases in the state, 3,929 deaths, and 12,615 hospitalizations, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

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  7. Pelosi endorses Kennedy over Markey in contentious primary [Click] WTF? I thought the institutional Dems decided that was a big no-no.

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    1. Well, this is a HOUSE leader endorsing a SENATE challenger. Based on contributions to the party specifically in the House. Still seems unusual.

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  8. From Rex Hupke's column on Steve Bannon: "What’s most surprising about Bannon’s arrest, the transparently crooked We Build the Wall scheme and the fact that Attorney General William Barr, a couple of months before these new charges were filed in the Southern District of New York, tried and failed to replace the U.S. attorney who runs that district with a Trump lackey, is that it’s all wholly unsurprising."

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  9. August 20, 2020 By Taegan Goddard

    President Trump claimed it’s not possible to do fair polls of registered voters — only likely voters — because many registered voters have died, CNN reports.

    He did not explain how dead voters answer polls.

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  10. VT: 1537 cases (+7)
    58 deaths (15d)
    136 active cases
    Recovered 1356 (+2)
    In Hospital 2 (-1)
    Tests 115,459 (+1562)

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  11. Julia Louis-Dreyfus seemed so wooden and fake hosting the Convention tonight. She had to give a lot of bad jokes.
    I think the idea of being snarky and pretending its funny was a very stupid approach. If this was the only night some people tuned in, they had to be thinking "The Dem Party sucks!"


    SIGH.

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  12. Replies
    1. "All right" is pretty damned good compared with the status quo. What do you think--is it worth looking up on YouTube and listening to?

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  13. How a Plan to Save the Power System Disappeared [Click] “A federal lab found a way to modernize the grid, reduce reliance on coal, and save consumers billions. Then Trump appointees blocked it.” Fixing this should be low-hanging fruit for a Democratic administration.

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  14. The smoke was much more noticeable when outside this evening, compared to yesterday. I put on an N95 mask, and then I couldn't smell it. Also my lungs were not irritated. The best mask for such conditions would be the kind of N95 mask designed for painters, with a relief valve to make exhalation easy; but what I have is a medical N95 mask, which filters both ways and is less comfortable for working in the heat. It was a little warmer this evening than yesterday, but not too bad.

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    1. Wow, Alan. That's a lot to be dealing with day after day.

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    2. Starting about three days ago the smoke became noticeable in the distance. Yesterday it was enough to cool things off by blocking the sun, but could barely be smelled. This evening it was very noticeable, and after sampling the air I decided to wear a mask. Miyoko routinely wears a mask while gardening, nowadays with multiple layers of cotton cloth; she is more sensitive to pollen and suchlike than I am. Oh, and this morning we skipped our constitutional because of the poor air quality.

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    3. Oh, and earthquake weather is supposed to be still and hot. . .

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  15. Hey! It was postal inspectors who arrested Bannon—with assistance from the Coast Guard. [Click] The Postal Inspectors often arrange to have arrests made by other agencies —local police and sheriffs, for instance— to maintain a low profile.

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  16. listener--did Biden do well enough tonight that you would suggest watching it?

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  17. Andrew Yang said the smartest thing about Biden at the DNC. [Click] “The magic of Joe Biden is that everything he does becomes the new reasonable.” I will grant that his campaign promises are far-reaching.

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