power company to copy GOP pricing plan

Well, there are going to be some more LED lights in my future, sooner than planned.
 Here in Klansas the GOP under Pope Brownback has gutted schools, aid for poor, infirm, handicap, fishing lakes and parks, arts, the list is long.  The taxes shifted to the poor.  Make minimum wage and you will pay a few dollars more, make over 200k and you got a 4,500 cut. Farm income and most business income is now tax free.  That was such a good idea, the utility will adopt it.

Today it is announced my electric company will ask for a new rate schedule using the GOP dump on the 98% model.  Residential and the smallest of business users get a 6 to 10% increase, large users a 16% decrease.  The reasoning, this will cause more businesses to move to Klansas, and we all get rich.  Well, I was going to wait for some incandescent bulbs to burn out before I replaced them, not now, screw these guys.

Cree, 9.5 watt, 2700 color, 800 lumens, about $13 at Home depot, if it's on 4 hours a day payback is about a year, after that your ahead and the power company can pound sand up their ass for all I care.

Chick-fil-a competes with Hobby Lobby

This chalk note on a sidewalk got a man arrested

The arrest record states it was a "derogatory remark about the Governor".  Seems like a fact followed by a suggestion.  Apparently in Pennsylvania saying someone has healthcare is a hate crime.

Bombshell Study Finds Drinking Water Near Fracking Wells Contaminated With Methane

Bombshell Study Finds Drinking Water Near Fracking Wells Contaminated With Methane

Click on and read that little article above, and try to understand this;
Natural Gas gives off 50% of the CO2 of coal. (sounds good until you know more)
Methane is 105 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
35% of the oil and gas wells in the world leak methane.
Fracking is raising the number of leakable wells potentially to over 1 million in the US.
It only takes a 1% methane leak to wipe away the natural gas advantage over coal.
Cement plugs (to contain leaks around the well head) breaks down over time.
Methane leaks will grow worse as wells age.
20 years from now no oil company is going to wake up and say, oh lets fix those old wells, it's the right thing to do.
President Obama has this one completely wrong, he has been misled or suckerd by the fracking fossil fuel industry.  Worse, he is helping the industry export this techonology and knowhow to countries all over the world.  Rather than a solution, this is an accelerant to global warming.  Call or email the white house and tell him he has it wrong.

One Angry Zebra moved

www.onedrunkenoldsergeant.blogspot.com

Click here: SIX STRIPES AND ONE LOUD VOICE

Blogger said the spy ware decided he (Ron aka Sarge) was a spammer.  Bullshift.  Sarge doesn't have the computer or the computer skill or the time to be a spammer.  Might leave an unwanted comment, don't we all, but not spam.  Blogger blocked his use of one angry zebra while they investigate, so he's at least for now at the link above.

an environment of hope

Good day yesterday with Obama making a speech on global warming actions and Markey winning the Senate seat.  The Mass. senate seat fight included lots of back and forth on global warming and science, so this win underlined the publics growing interest in the climate, Markey is a climate hawk, one of the strongest voices the House had.

I am bummed out that it took so long, but finally Obama got there, at least part way.  The problem with executive orders they can be reversed, and the shorter time in force the easier to do so.  He needs to get them in place pronto.  The coal power plant rules are totally unclear, they have a goal, but he is going to invite industry to help write it, it's going to be years before the smoke will actually be cleaned.  However, just the plan to move on this issue will change the industry, unbuilt plants now will look too expensive,  risky or too ill defined, current plants will more likely be scheduled for cleanups or early shut down and wind and solar will be seen as more attractive.
He spent a lot of time bragging up natural gas.  NG does have 1/2 the carbon of coal and no soot, but it still relies on boiling billions of gallons of water, cooling issues in warmer rivers, as well as methane leaks.  New numbers on fracking damage to water and release of methane into the atmosphere indicates  the total greenhouse gas release is equal to coal, so what appears to be the clean fuel may be just as harmful.  The only solution coming forward is renewables and new energy stingy products.

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A German firm is in mass production of a new small home power management and battery system (to attach to a solar panel) at low price to store 2 hours of energy for evening use in a 4 person house.  When used by a significant number of homes this will cut night time power plant requirements, a lot. Power engineers in Germany now believe with a variety of new technologies on the way, they can run 100% on renewables in 20 years or less and screw the gas oil and coal guys, screw Russia and the Middle East and screw the new Saudi America drill baby drill dream.

DOMA out - but 4 wanted full discrimination

DOMA struck down.  A defeat for the US congress.  The Obama administration would not defend it at the Supreme Court, the Congress hired attorneys to defend it.  This was a defeat for the GOP Congress.
But a narrow one, 4 on SCOTUS voted to continue hostile treatment and deny protection of a significant portion of our population.

Now I am going to state something that may offend some, I hope not, I have no intent to do so.  Atrazine, a herbicide many of us throw around the yard like syrup on a pancake is known to cause gender confusion and even transformation in animals.  For Christ sake, even polar bears have been found to suffer gender confusion and contain trace atrazine.  There are other crop chemicals showing signs of the same effect.  It appears there are a growing population of gay people.  I like gay people.  I shared a long friendship with a Germany lesbian, I doubt many of you can relate but we double dated, ran around together, had contests in bars who could pick up a chick first.  Later, in Baltimore I shared an apartment with a gay x priest, nice guy, he made money taking nude pictures of models, I helped, held the lights, boy did I like those gigs.  He did his thing, I mine, we had a lot of fun.  We have to cut back on chemical use.  It is not a good thing, it may even be contributing to these issues, I don't say it is not thier choice, I don't know, just lay off the round-up and fertilizer, it's not free, someone somewhere pays.  If chemicals are "making" more in the population gay I don't fear that, but I do think the cocktail of toxins we live in harms us and needs turned off.

Shame on the 4 rednecks on the bench.

Klansas suspend 11,000 voters, thanks SCOTUS

Today it was released, in a small town paper, the city papers didn't report it, since January, 1 out of every 3 new voter registration applications in Klansas has been placed in "suspense".   11,000 of them are set aside for review as possible voter fraud.  11 fucking thousand people in Klansas are under suspicion by the Brownback machine and may not vote until, shit no one knows until when or what,  the story did not say if they even know they are suspended, if they know what to do to correct it.  There hasn't been but 4 or 5 voter frauds in Klansas in the past 20 years, but now we have thousands.
There is not much known on this issue.  I would guess these people all have addresses in minority neighborhoods, or non klansman sounding names.

Around the state response to Roberts courts help in keeping n------- s------- g------ m-------- from voting, most klansans are positively giddy.

150 years, but finally Lincoln has lost the civil war.

The supremes today ended the civil rights battles of the 60's by gutting the enforcement of President Johnsons laws, thus reversing in some small part the outcome of the civil war.  Those voter registration kids killed and burried in the pond damn, burried now again. While today minorities are not being trampled by horses and brought down by batons and police dogs, we know that elections in the confederate states is being crafted to keep them from voting, even in one city an election was recently canceled when polls show blacks would win a county seat, districts were redrawn overnight and the election rescheduled, no blacks elected.....sha-zam. And Latino's face it as well in Texas and Arizona. The language used by Roberts in the majority opinion was full of dog whistles to the right. "Sovereignty" shows up more than once in the opinion. Hang around the tea bags and the aryan nation yokels and this magic word is like sugar to a diabetic, they will run on blistered feet to get it. Sad day!

 Perhaps this will be the to the left what abortion was to the right, so repulsive as to start a backlash and full participation needed to shake the nation off it's slide into a kind of jim crow lite.

The Supremes sing the blues

Day 2 of the Supreme show. Yesterday the Court said that the White girl denied entrance to UT needed more lower court attention on this, she claimed affirmative action kept her out, a dirth of good grades kept her lazy ass out, one of 5 whites and 45 blacks denied that year in a school of 40ish thousand. Kennedy said colleges should be using other means as well on this. Mixed message but it does screw down affirmative action a bit. She was not a good student, UT entrance is low as compared across the nation. The other two people of note that were turned down at UT........George Bush 41, Carl Rove. That is a fact, 100%. Then I think the other two decisions were bad news. Descrimination in the work place, It is now harder to sue, few cases will make it to court. The conservatives voted in lock step saying you cannot sue for harassment if the person doing it is not a supervisor with the power to hire and fire. Shit the work place is full of bosses who can't fire you but can make you life a hell as well as recommend you to be fired even if he can't. The other case is religious concerning a Muslim doctor turned down, there again the worker was sent packing, the corporation has all the cards. Today, come some more decisions as the conservatives drag us back to the company town model of business.

Tick danger

My brother is in the hospital with tularemia from a tick, 3rd day on a cocktail of meds, really sick. He went out and trimmed the rose of sharon bush, in an open mowed sunny yard, next day found a tick on his back. High fever that will not go down, fierce headache that morphine will not ease, achs, so weak he cannot set up or stand or walk on his own, won't eat, depth perception is so bad he can't find a cup on the tray in front of himself, white blood count and platelet down, liver function OK but not perfect. If you find a tick and it's attached, save it in a baggy, get to a doctor. Tick diseases are skyrocketing, tick populations are exploding. Without treatement they kill sometimes,recovery for some tick bits can be weeks. Doctor said there are a number of people in hospital for this, warm winters he said is one of the problems.

Redistrict, dump gerrymandering, simple and fair

Congressional districts look like snakes, dragons, many link little groups of houses by the right of way of a highway like a thread with knots in it.  The purpose is to peel out races and classes or ethnics so they can never effect an election.
Here's the fix.
1. District boundaries must follow or parallel county, township or school or fire district borders.
For reason of simplicity here lets say the county is square.  If the populace required to balance districts forced adjustments (as they almost always will) to add or subtract from the district it must be done in this way:
2. The district is simply enlarged uniformly in all directions (puff up the square one street further perhaps in a city) to achieve the population needed.  It may not be notched and hacked in odd shapes or encompass specific groups.
3. Should a county be home to multiple districts then it is divided in half perhaps or in a grid then one expanded the other shrunk to reach parity following rule #1.

It is thought that in Congress, 3/4 of them are in safe seats, and most of those are due to gerrymandering.  This is not democracy of the voters but prevention of democracy by state party bosses and state houses.  This is why, in 2014, the GOP with it's extremist positions and approval in the low teens, will return nearly every congressmen, as will many of the Dems.  Unless gerrymandering is changed, we will not see much change until near the next census, by that time some areas see population shifts that shake up a few seats.

Discuss among yourselves.

Crazy lunch with a crazy man

 Had lunch today with a tea bagger in his early 70's, owned a business for years. Racist as the day is long. We went round and round at lunch, and the old boy bout poped a blood vessel in his neck, man he got pissed off when I confronted his Fox Limbaugh bullshit.  He went off on mexicans on welfare, when I told him emigrants start businesses at a higher rate than the natives, which is true throughout history the new guys are the ones that start most the businesses, he went nuts, can't be true he says they are welfare tit suckers, but I stuck with it because I am right and I can prove it.  They are driving down wages, ruining this country he said.  A few minutes later he was talking about manufacturing was being ruined cause we can't compete, our wages are too high.  I had his ass in a sling.  Make up your mind, either our wages are too low or too high, either the cause is greedy workers or mexicans working cheap you can't have it both ways.  Man he was pissed that I caught him.   But, off to another issue, Obama is a Muslim, no he's fucking not.  The EPA won't let people in Southern Missouri build fences or houses or even tear down a barn, you can't get permits, the EPA took over.  Bullshit I said I'll get on line at a county in south Missouri and see if there are any building permits being approved, he got mad again bout went red head on me, not he says it's true, nope I don't believe the EPA has the red necks of Missouri by the balls no sir-e.  And on we went.  At one point he predicted within a couple months the "patriots" will kill 30 senators and then god damn it will change.   Then he gets on gun control and says were just around the corner from a Hitler takeover, as soon as they take our guns then they start killing us, gun control was the method used by Hitler Stalin Pol Pot Mao, nope I said Hitler didn't get power by taking guns he won a motherfucking election and lots of people liked what he was doing cause they were plenty of fucking racist.  No no he said read your history your not reading history, I said fine I will read it this afternoon and not on a fucking NRA site but multiple history sites to get the real story, then he starts quoting Hitler, fuckers got it memorized, the quote I found below and another that Hitler was to have said in a speech that if public doesn't turn in their guns in 3 days they will hang them and their family all.  I told him John, how the hell can you get out of bed in the morning if you live in a world like this, there is no hope you can win if you live believing all this fantasy,  this is paranoia, your depressing god damn depressing.  Well that startled him and he did get a bit less worked up as we talked further, but wow what a fucking lunch.  So I come home, and research in some books and internet and sent it to him, a few hours pass and he emails me, never mentions what I sent, but it's a fucking recording of a rant by some Christian dude claiming Muslims will take over by out breeding us and lets hate hate hate them.  I shoot back an email that our only chance was to bring in Mexican Catholics to compete, do I have some fucking friends here or what?
........letter to lunch buddy.....

The totalitarian regime of Hitler in 1938 passed the German Weapons Act which eased (except for Jews) the gun laws in place since the late 1920's.

The main provisions:

*Guns could only be owned by citizens of Germany.  Jews by about that time had already had their citizenship revoked, the law applied to ammunition as well. Jews were also forbidden to manufacturing or deal in firearms and ammunition.

*As in the post WWI law this law requiring gun manufacturers and dealers to maintain records with information about who purchased guns and the S/N, these records were due to the police at the end of each calendar year.  

Changes easing the earlier laws were:

*The legal age to purchase (not to hunt or practice but purchase) a gun was lowered from 20 to 18.

*Gun permit was now valid for three years, increased from one.

*Permit acquisition was expanded and speeded for: holders of annual hunting permits, government employees, NAZI's, employees of Germans Railways.

Later in 1938 an additional law was passed with the single provision which deprived "all Jews of the right to possess firearms or other weapons", thus almost anything could be deemed a weapon if held by a Jew.

Today German gun laws prohibit ownership by those: convicted of crime, with record of mental issues, deemed unreliable due to drugs alcohol addiction or history of aggression.  Training class is required to get a weapon, you must show you can handle it, permits are specific to different types of guns. 

The idea that the Jews, if they could have kept their pistols and shotguns could have prevented or fought off the Nazis pretends that they could have done what it took 30+ millions dead on that continent to do with tanks and airplanes.   

  

The quote attributed to Hitler and sometimes claimed to be from 1935.: "This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" No recording and no transcript of a Hitler speech is known to exist proving this.  It seems out of place in the language of the 1930's Germany for the term "full gun registration" to be used, rather it is clearly a term of much political weight and freight in todays discussion of guns in the US.   The guns taken by Hitler were from Jews, the laws for the rest were actually relaxed which and helped Hitlers standing since the laws and restrictions placed on Germany following defeat in WWI was hated by the public.

As for gun control in Russia, I looked into that, Russia was a place of extreme concentrated wealth and massive poverty, the few monarchy types and millions and millions of peasants with no middle class.  Few peasants owned guns, they couldn't have afforded it, guns were not made for mass consumption at low prices as now.  Stalin unleashed pure terror following the killing of his #2 man, (can't remember the name now), it is pretty sure #2 was killed on Stalin's orders, using it as an excuse he set in motion a complete extermination plan for his enemies and the farmers in much of Russia were on his enemies list for variety of reasons ethnic and economic.  Rather than gather weapons it was the opposite, Stalin flooded weapons to tough guys and thugs and so called patriots police types in a reign of terror that was massive widespread and little more than a civil war on a population that had already seen destruction during the revolution.   But this was nothing like that, it was far more violent, millions were killed or driven to exposure and starvation.  When Hitler attacked he emptied the prisons, gave the former enemies weapons and sent them against the Nazi, those that survived were put back in prison or shot on their first mis-step following the war.  There appears not to be a gun control policy like what the American people are talking about at the moment that caused the Russian revolution or  Stalin's hellish killing spree.

For Pol Pot he put in place one gun law.  It said Vietnamese cannot sell guns, or move them around.  Guns were in short supply, even Pol Pot's soldiers had very few at the start of their take over, they struggled the entire regime's time to get weapons.  The nation was a poor casual and polite society of gardening, small farms and crafts, they ate little meat so even guns for hunting was of little interest to the populace.  Gun control existed there naturally, Pol Pot did not implement it.

Mussolini spoke often and threatened all kinds of gun controls.  None, not one was ever put in place.

I can't find anything about China, but I suspect there were so few guns in China that if Mao collected them it didn't matter much, and at the moment I don't care, this is enough research.

Enjoyed lunch!

oil royalty rates screwing US taxpayers

Since the 1920's the US government has not raised the royalty for oil lease on federal land.  States charge more than we do.  This rate can be changed at any time by Presidential Directive.  This is a hugh loss to the public and the nations debts.  At $331 million a day in profits, the oil companies could probably spare it.  The market looks to be average of around 18%.  They will gladly pay 25%, look at the Texas rate.

Write or call the White House, ask the President to raise this rate.

Coal is another issue, I don't know the rates or how they could be changed, but recent news stories indicate the coal industry is cheating in their tons mined royalty reports.  They do it by selling the coal to a middle man who is just another room in the mine office before selling it to your utility or China, turns out more coal is sold by the middlemen than by the mines.  Again, the taxpayer is getting screwed.

Next week Obama is suppose to announce some energy and environmental decisions and plans.  I look on the coming week with dread.  I think he is going to try to please everyone, give the right and the oligarchs some of their big items, and act tough on some things for the green movement.  The GOP will not work with him on one damn thing even if he caves to all these issues, I don't think he understands that after 4.5 years.

This is what drill baby drill got you

The nations oil refineries are smoking at capacity.  We have more oil wells pumping and more new wells being drilled than ever before, pipelines are under construction everywhere to move it to market.

Why have'nt gas prices fallen substantially?  Improvement in the American fleet's MPG is preventing demand from growing.  So?

Diesel!  Diesel makes oil men more money, and dirty diesel makes lots.  Our coastal refiners are producing less gas, thereby assuring a slight shortage and a high price.  The rest is made into diesel and shipped overseas.  The poorer nations of the world don't have standards on diesel, so they can make the dirtiest cheapest shit possible and the trucks in 3rd world nations throw that carbon and soot into the sky to blot out the light.

And that damn pipeline from Canada..........that thing will not lower our prices one penny either, almost all of it is already under contract to be exported, the rest is to be used as fuel to burn/refine what will be shipped.

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My war buddy Sarge at oneangryzebra is caught up in some kind of Spam accusations.  It has to be a mistake, I don't think he has the computer power, skill or motive to be a spammer.  He may leave an unwelcome post somewhere I suppose, but not spam.  AOL is not exactly a spammers link to the world either.  He moved over to tumblr for the moment, same address otherwise swap blogger to tumblr.

Somebody killed another of your freedoms today.

Supreme Court continued it's 100% support for corporations over citizens.  Todays decision says the legal tiny print on your contract that says you can't sue instead the company your contesting will appoint the arbitrator of their choice should you find out they're fucking you, that will stand, your day in court will never happen.
Not only is this true for consumers, but for small businesses.  They test case was small business owners verse American Express to do with disputes in payments.  Sorry guys, the court says American Express is big and important and your little and don't matter, shut up, go away.

The last two cars I bought had that paragraph in it, that if they lied and cheated with a shit product I couldn't go to court but take the arbitrator's solution.  I strike right through that paragraph and sign my name over the top of it and "NO".  Both times they looked totally surprised but accept it and we move on.

While some worry about NSA FBI and CIA stealing your freedoms and rights, it's corporations that are doing it, their gathering the data on us at a hundred fold the rate of the government.  The oligarchs got stronger today, the transfer of wealth to them can continue to accelerate.

UPDATE: further reading indicates the decision may be directed at preventing people/small businesses from banding together for a suit.  If true, this benefits corporations even more, they can drag you out, you cannot afford the time or money to go against them alone.

Me, I'm an investment genius.

If I told you an investment of $13,000 could make so much money you would break even in 1 year and 3 months, and for the next 20 years you can pocket around $8k, are you interested?  Thats over a thousand percent profit.   Your going to be interested, but for some of us we can't get or won't risk $13K.

How about $13 dollars then at the same rate of profit?

Off the side of the bathroom is a walk-in closet, the wife wants it like noon on the sun.  75 watt blazing,  and if she is in the bathroom it's usually on, and gets left on a good 3 hours a day at a bulb plus electric cost of roughly $9 a year plus heat.  I read the best LED light is CREE 9.5 watt 800 lumen 2700k color bulb.  Home Depot has it at $12.95, (do not get the 400 lumen 9.5 watt for 3 dollars less unless your a bat, its too soft) make sure it's 800 lumen.

Unlike CF's and the one other LED I tried, this CREE lights that room exactly as the incandescent did, bright, warm, instant on and silent, the box says it's a 60w replacement, but it is identical to the 75.  In 15 months I break even, after that I save at least $8 (bulb and power cost) a year for the next 22 years and changing bulb every couple years is finished.  84% savings in energy and carbon.  Screw the fossil fuel industry.  I'm a genius at investing.

If these lights go into a higher use fixture, the savings is faster and greater.  I will be adding more as the old ones fizzle out.  1/3 to 1/2 of our electric use is lights, lowering that lighting portion by 84% ain't to shabby.

Babyboomers, radioactive teeth are kill'n ya.

From the end of WWII and for 20 years the richest nations of the world set off hundreds of above ground nuclear and hydrogen bombs.  Atmospheric tests they were called.  These created and set free on the whole world a number of radioactive compounds.  Even  some underground tests failed to prevent further releases.

Scientist at the time were thought to know something, and were taken seriously.  They sounded the alarm and test band treaties were agreed on. 

Radioactive Strontium-90 is one of those by products.  There were others, and all are cancer causing as they decay in the body damaging DNA in various organs.  Strontium-90 is deposited in bones and teeth.  It arrives through breathing it in, as well as drinking milk, and if the mother has it’s passed to the babies bones.  The only time it can get into teeth, where it lasts longer due to the enamel shell it’s in, is during teeth formation.  Babyboomers were in their teeth growing years during this period. 

Scientist found as the 60’s arrived milk around the world had dangerous levels, and cancer rates climbed suddenly among the population, and something unusual up to then, kids were getting cancer. 

The estimate is, so far, over 100 million around the world have been killed by fallout of weapon testing during the cold war, as well as nuclear power plants which also release small traces.  Most of it in the atmosphere is now at lower levels of decay, but it is still killing those who carry it in their teeth.

There is a book about this, Radioactive Baby Teeth: The Cancer Link, by Joseph J. Mangano.  In it he discovered there are samples of teeth kept around the world by different groups, and by these teeth they can tell when you were born according to where on the bell curve your Strontium-90 content is.  Teeth containing higher levels of it tend to belong to people who have higher death rate from cancer.

So, we baby boomers formed our teeth from poison air and milk while sleeping next to our wind up radium glow in the dark alarm clocks, and cancer is our life, any wonder.  But we didn’t know it.  Science did, and they told, but even Kennedy when told of it, ask “so it rains it, it rains this stuff on us?”, he looked troubled they said, but he approved further testing.  Treaties take time, the machine moved at the speed that benefited it not us, and duck and cover is as good a defense against Strontium-90 then as now.   

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Today we know that C14, one of the types of CO2, comes from burning fossil fuel.  It is a radioactive compound in decay.  It is why we know atmospheric CO2 increase is caused by man and our activities not something random.  The other types of CO2 and this one, can be separated and counted in any sample.  C14 is the one that increases, and has been  since the industrial revolution.  And it is mildly radioactive, and it can stay aloft for 200 years.  We breath it, it’s in our food.  It’s part of the cocktail of chemicals and toxins and radioactive compounds that evolution did not foresee in time to adapt to, enjoy.

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This week it was announced that Pacific Tuna carries a type of radiation poison strong enough that a man eating one serving serving can within 4 hours ejaculate sperm containing 300% increase in this isotope.  This isotope can be traced to the Japanese Fukishima release.  (pay attention girls, I would ask for a recent accounting of the fish diet before I bed down)  (the article did not say if eating tuna and ejaculating could be a  tactic for enjoying seafood, good health and to make glow in the dark – eh – stuff)   But seriously, their will be no warning label or removal from market, that could harm commerce.
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So what's the point of all this?  As soon as it becomes evident that industry or military are harming our health and safety it has to be fought against with as much time and effort as you can swing and that is best done by telling your story and gathering others to the cause.  We have to either outlaw some of the toxins around us, or find a way not to consume them and starve the makers of them.

Democrats release the GOP's smoking gun that wasn't

R, Calif. Darrell Issa would not release the transcripts of the IRS interviews by investigators.  Democrats that heard them knew they vindicated the President.  The repubs continued to tell the jack boot on the tea party story instead of wrapping up another make believe watergate.
Today, the democrats got the damn thing and released it themselves.
Repubs have no interest in doing the nations business, they are destructive, a drag on the nation.

Election madness in Iran and Iowa

Iran just tied the hands of Gulf War III aficionados.  By all accounts this was a fair election, 6 way, and he the guy earned 50+%, in a 6 way thats decisive.  Monitors indicate they do not see a problem with the count.
Before, we had the unhappy population with the last stolen election in Iran to bolster our position of opposing Iran.  That's gone.  Now we oppose both the government, the goals, and the people.  This is a different thing, and will work against us, now we truly do stand hostile before a nation, another Muslim nation to boot.  Unlike North Korea, these people know about the west, are educated, have family here, and will soon grow in tolerate of the sanctions making their lives difficult, before they blamed it on the pricks at the top, now it will be on us.
OK, the guy elected was vetted by the conservative and religious right, so was that really a free and open election, and had to get their votes to proceed to the real election.  As John Oliver pointed out last night, how is that different than our Republican primaries?

More trees would be good

The problem of bombing the sky full of carbon is where it finally ends up.  The 26% into land and forest, thats good.  The other two resting places are bad bad places.  In the atmosphere carbon is a descriminating filter, like a one way valve, allowing sunlight through but reflecting the resulting infrared heat waves back on to earth.  In the ocean CO2 increases acidity which retards/erodes the shell growth of crabs, lobster, shrimp, oyster, mussels, 50% of the US seafood market put at jeopardy.

Nope, ocean still not rising

 37 votes to repeal Obama Care has cost $55 million dollars, according to the per minute cost of running the congress.  Each procedure ran almost 2 yours.  Thats your money.




I'm driving on country roads in Kansas and sometimes I see fire hoses in the ditch, and they go on for miles, lots of them.  I've seen them in Oklahoma too.  Never saw this before the last year or two.  The hoses veer off into creeks, ponds, and at wells.  A giant parasitic sucking rivers of water off the surface of the earth for fracking.  Toxic chemicals and water are pumped thousands of feet down to fracture the layers of rock releasing trapped oil and/or gas.  In California it takes 80,000 to 300,000 gallons per well.  In one field in Texas they have used 15,000 acre feet of water for fracking.  In drought areas, which is much of the west, this water is draining water from farm and city.  Falling water table has reversed much of western Kansas from irrigation back to dry land farming with a fall in rural wealth and lower crop production.  Meaning less food, higher prices as this spreads.  But oil and gas companies profit, and isn't that what we all want?  

The Congress also voted to force the president to approve the XL tar sands pipe from Canada to the Gulf so Canada can use us as a delivery system.  The fossil fuel industry paid 36 million for this vote.  All those who got a check voted for the pipe.  And isn't that what we all want?

Kansas, where the poor pay their share, and mine.

Thursday Pope Brownback signed the return to feudal economy law.  Works like this:
*Make $25K, income tax cut is $50 dollars, less than a half percent.
*Make over 250K, income tax cut is almost $4,500, about 3.4%.
*Most farm income and most corporations tax is zero.
*Sales tax cut from 5.7% to 5.6%, food exemption was removed at last minute.
*Education slashed (as every year since he arrived) and college employees and teach staff have a salary cap, no further raises permitted.  (Exception, college coaching)
*School systems may not sue or lobby the state for increases or disputes using state funds, so now they all need to set up multiple bank accounts depending on income source, more expense, more chance for fraud.

Earlier this session they made a law that federal police cannot take a gun from anyone in Kansas, I'm waiting for the city cops to arrest the FBI when they take a gun from a bank robber.  The method of appointing judges was the BAR vetted and put names to a Senate committee who narrowed it to 2 or 3 then the Gov. chose one, now the whole thing is in the Popes hand, he alone picks judges, the only vetting will be litmus testing.  Then there is the privatization of driving license processing, you still go to the state run office, they put the info in the computer, but everything is done in Minnesota, laid off the department thad did it in Topeka, all of them, but the company that runs it has the system so hosed up the licensening and title offices are closed some days, once for 7 or 8 days straight, tags and titles are not getting delivered, but corporations can do it better.

It's a cruel joke on Kansas individual tax payers, the amount you pay the state is deducted off what you pay the feds, so save nothing and this actually helps pay down the fed. debt.  They are helping Obama.  And if your a business owner with residence out of state you now have to pay that state on the income from Kansas, which helps those states.
All that tax cutting, well the state had a surplus when he got here, it is already in debt and this is suppose to cut billions in tax income at the same time bring in billions extra.  HOW?  A few corporations may want to come here for zero tax, but they just gutted education and most companies frown on that, unless they run on the feudal economy model.

Vortex becomes Vortices and we get a wobble job

The picture on the left is the Arctic with the vortex that is always up there.  A cold high altitude low pressure cyclone that lives there spinning and venting the earths heat into space during the long winter darkness.  The south pole has the same thing.
This last winter starting in January warm air rising out of the ever growing ice free Arctic ocean built up a high air mass that then compressed down from weight and the shit was just awful, and it blew the vortex apart and set two vortices loose, wobbling ungainly around the north they dumped record snows in Siberia, some parts of Europe, multiple storms over North America, and set a winter cyclone off near Japan with waves of 60 feet.  From what I read this has never happened before and climate scientist say this is like finding a dead clown in the woods, its really creepy.

Best part of the story, air masses can pile up against the stratosphere and actually have a weight and compression factor.  Jeese science is fun.

again the jawbone of an ass is used to beat down rivals

"Religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion,"  Gov Perry this morning as he signs in a law OK'ing displays on school and state property of Christian holidays.  

Obama to supply GOP with mid-term talking points

Good news for Republicans everywhere.  Obama is going to start tinkering with Syria.  The headlines 60 days or 6 months from now are already written.  Depending on the outcome they pull out one of the following:  Obama arms Muslim extremist, or, US weapons turn up in Gaza strip, or, To little to late, or, Any fool could have handled it better, or US pilot taken prisoner.  Not only do we get a proxy war, and the war industry gets more business, but the GOP gets an assured calamity to carry into the mid-terms, if not, they will make one up.
If Assad is pushed out, then you have a civil war, which is already brewing in Iraq and parts of Lebanon.  This civil war will probably engulf all three countries and flood Jordan and Turkey with more refugees and could even topple them.
While the neighborhood kills part of it's self off and burns up some of it's ammo the Jews can hope for something better, but when it's over the winners will be battle tested and feeling like they can take on the Jews.  If the area falls into widespread civil wars it might be a good time to hit Iran while all the neighbors are burning one another's cities they are less likely to mount a fight on Iran's behalf.

On the same general note.  Lets cut Egypt off.  Stop all foreign aid.  And Pakistan.

Today, Obama administration removed the wolf from protection.

Indian legend from the Northwest:  The people were hungry and they ask the spirit for help. He gave them caribou.  The people and the caribou multiplied.  After some time many caribou became diseased and again the people were hungry, again they ask the spirit for help.  He gave them the wolf.  The caribou and the people and the wolf lived together in health.

A study released this week of Elk in Yellowstone, tested the hunters myth that elk are thin and weak and die from fear and stress when wolf are present.  It was found to be untrue.  When elk encounter wolf they move, and remain more vigilant for about 24 hours, this happens about once a week and they still graze while they are alert.  The weight and fat of elk where wolf are present is the same as where they are not.  Wolf take a few calves, but the bulk of their feed is sick or injured, unfit for hunters freezers, they also scavenge elk they find which are dead.

A study a few years back in Minnesota or Michigan found moose populations changed very little with the addition of wolf, but the overall health of the heard increased, animals were more robust, ie survival of the strongest.

White tail deer populations in the plains states are hugh, there are too many, they are a pest animal eating crops and causing car wrecks.  This growth has been steady since before WWI, when the last wolf were killed in the prairie states.  Wolf held the populations to a constant level.  Now, without the wolf we have too many white tail, and too many coyote and not enough fox.  Wolf kill coyote, coyote kill fox.  If you mess with the balance this is what you get.  Too many white tail, coyotes and rodents (the fox's T-bone).

Write the US Fish and Wildlife and the President, he fucked this up.

More junk science from the fringe

1 BTU = 1 lb. H2O increased by 1°F.
1 Ton of cooling = 12,000 BTU/h to freeze 1 ton of H2O in 24 hours.
1 US Gal of gasoline = 114,000 to 125,000 BTU.

Lets say your house has 10 ft. ceilings, and it's a big ranch style, say 36 ft. wide by 5,280 ft. long.  So, got that, a mile long ranch house, and your just not perfectly comfy so you change the thermostat one degree.  Just so happens if it's average insulation, (I ain't doing the math for you here) the energy needed is 118,560 BTU the same as burning 1 gallon of gas.  You could impact 1 degree in your mile long house with the energy equivalent to 1 gallon of gas.

Now your driving around and you burn a gallon, letting 125,000 BTU loose in your town.  Here's the thing, it only takes 145 other cars burning 1 gallon  adding 125,000 BTU each to produce enough heat to raise 1 square mile area 10 foot deep by 1 degree F.   The city does not have a 10' ceiling so it doesn't increase at the rate of the insulated house, but neither does it suffer only 146 fossil fuel gallons worth of heat increase, instead it's millions.

Heat islands in cities, can be as much as 10°F greater than the open country, the result of dark roofs, forests and grasslands replaced by concrete brick and asphalt, and waste heat from traffic.

Can you grasp that first part?  1 gallon of gas pissed through the tailpipe could have heated or cooled a building of preposterous proportions.  The volume of energy waste is astonishing.  Time to push back.

The Pricks Win

Yesterday the Senate Armed Services Committee  rejected removing sexual assault cases from the military’s chain of command.  Unless this is reversed or defeated on the floor, the rapes will continue until morale improves.

How you going to beat a Zero Tax Rate?

Apple, and dozens of other large companies have parked billions of profits billions in cash in banks and nations in ways that shield it from US taxes.  The GOP from state level to DC are offering a cure for this, if we lower our tax rates those companies will ship the cash home and pay down our debt.

First, the GOP does not want the debt paid down, their criticism, their tactics, their cuts on social programs and environmental issues are all cemented to the debt.  Fix that and they may have to fix the rest.

Second, say we lower taxes to 10%, corporate at 5%, tell me which of those companies would bring that money into the open and give away part of it?  We cannot compete with a Zero income tax rate.  Unless, no no no that would be crazy, not zero.

(OK I know oil and many others who do keep some of their money here already pay zero, even collect more support above the zero, a kind of reverse tax.  This is not that, this issue is beyond that.  One more  thing, as Gump would say.)

Dead Bread and human health

I have been reading about bread.  Wheat either pounded or stone ground, wet and rolled up, set out for natural yeast to inflate it or sourdough (also natural yeast) was more nutritious and easier to digest than most of our fortified breads today.  Most every little village had a flour mill, more on that later.

Late 1800’s technology created a new way to grind it, a roller mill, this striped the wheat into distinct parts that the miller could separate.  Suddenly we had white flour, it looks cleaner and it rises higher and faster.  About this time, building on Pasteur’s discoveries, yeast cultures were created that worked fast and without surprise, because they were a monoculture.  Millers were throwing away the bran, some of the endosperm, and people loved puffy white bread.  German and English doctors noticed within years of the spread of these new roller mills and the switch to white bread a sharp rise in diabetes, heart disease and a variety of cancers.  When a few years later it was brought to the colonies in Africa replacing “native diets” the same thing happened overnight.  Science alerted the world and in a few years most every nation passed laws requiring bread flour to be enriched, vitamins were added.  In a total waste of energy, the things that were rubbed off at the mill are put back at the baker, well, a few of them, the minimum they can get by with.

Industrial bakers trying to cheaply boost the food value of bread now often add calcium, a rock ground to powder.  It takes double the monoculture yeast to lift all that rock for a light bread.  The extra yeast adds to CO2, and totally unneeded.  The list of ingredients looks like a chemical lesson, none of it is needed.  

Buy stone ground, or whole grain (whole wheat does not mean the same thing).  These should have all, or at least most, of the components that fed mankind for thousands of generations.  Also buy sourdough or naturally leavened or “levain” bread, this indicates a good yeast.  Only a few people are truly unable to tolerate gluten.  However, whole grain sourdough bread does not normally cause them trouble.  The combination was born and was worked out for our guts thousands of years ago.  Likewise, these breads have a low glycimic index, reducing diabetes.  Cancers, intestinal ailments, heat disease, all occur less often when eating these breads.  During both world wars England only produced whole grain flour, breast cancer fell to very low rates.

The Western Disease, that’s what they named it in the 1800’s.  It’s not easy to find the right bread.  Industrial bakeries have filled the shelfs with stuff that sounds good, but may not be what we hoped for, though at least some of it is better than Wonderbread.  Find a small local baker and hound them for details, let them know what you want. 

Be aware true stone ground or whole grain flour has a shorter shelf life, you have to manage it in the pantry.  This is why in the old days there were thousands of small millers, milling in small batches every week, due to the shorter shelf life.  The roller mills with the white flour destroyed that, white flour keeps much longer and anyhow everyone wanted the clean looking fluffy crap.  One more thing, where does the rest of the wheat go when separated from the white flour?  Some of it to feed cattle, some of it to pharmaceutical companies to make vitamins.  Funny, you have to buy the good part of wheat from another source than the baker.  

If you can't find whole grain or stone ground or natural sourdough then go ahead and grab whole wheat, it is a trick, your not getting all the wheat but at least you get a bit more than if it just says wheat flour.  Organic too if possible.

Myths are used when reality just can't carry the load

About half of Germany's soaring growth in solar and wind energy is owned by people.  Self reliance, independence, wise investors, being part of the solution.  Hey, this sounds like the myth thrown around about Americans.

We don't need no stinking burning water

A few things of interest:
*LED lights saved utility customers $675 million in 2012.  With a life of 5 to 15 years it also saves tens of thousands of older folks bulb changing fall injuries.
*GE's new 2.4MW wind turbine has a one minute battery back up.  1 minute, that's it?  It's big this minute.  A minute at full 2.4MW rate is a lot of power.  If they were just pulling a small percent of the capacity load when it goes down it may carry that for a long time.  Within a network of turbines this creates extra buffer for the system to adjust.  No doubt battery backup will grow in these products.
*France has made a decision on fracking, NO! NEVER!  Siting the damage it has done to rural residents health and water quality in the US.  NO! Pass the cheese and wine, we don't need no stinking burning water.

The shame down under

Australia in an about face on the environment, at an astonishing pace by a new conservative government aligned with the massive coal and mining industries.
*Carbon tax on coal in place for a year or so will be repealed in the next few days.
*Recently installed wind turbines are going to be torn down, the first one is being toppled today, a coal plant will be built on it's site.  The conservatives say this will save 50 cents a month on electric bills.
*Credits for energy efficiency improvements canceled.
*Science and education about the environment is being attacked.
*Treaties are being reviewed, if they smell of clean energy or green goals, they might be cancelled.
****Today another international NGO environmental group closed it's office, will stop direct work in Australia.  Other NGO's already left citing an utter impossibility of overcoming the steamroller back to dirty energy and pollution sweeping the political landscape the last few months, all progress was lost overnight.

 We saw it happen quietly in Canada 2 years ago.  The oil industry now runs that nation through the conservatives, last year entire science departments were fired within the government, one alone had 250, the guys that studied tundra and ice and weather in the north, 100% gone.   They have pulled out of a number of treaties and at recent international meetings have become a problem, objecting, foot dragging, eating up time, creating failure.

Two very green nations yanked back by greed, oil, ignorance, complacency, and in a matter of months.  If the Republicans and Oligarchs get control of the White House or both chambers, this also is our future.

Grumpy's excellent Syrain adventure.

After coming home he jumps on Fox snooze and says it's easy, the administration could identify the right rebels to give aid to if they would just get on the war bandwagon, I went in and met with friendlys, no problem.

See the guy in the doorway?  That guy is on a US wanted list for terrorist activities and kidnapping, so is one of the others.  Grumpy, upon learning he had pulled an Obama, palling around with Terrorist, said with a firm voice, well, they didn't identify themselves by those names.
Ya, there's no background checks in Syria either, it's GOP paradise, everyones got guns.   So there, now lets get back to whipping up that Benghazi thing.

the dance of the seven vales

Dentist visit this AM, all good stuff.  But halfway through it the lady cleaning my teeth leans in, well she's already right there, but, leans in and asks in a whisper voice, do I believe in global warming, "sure things are getting warmer", she says, "no one can deny that, but is it global warming?"  Well that was exhausting to think about, it's getting warmer but not warmering,  or I guess that was her point.

For events like this I am prepared, the convert beckons.  She already droped the first vale and  the dance of the seven vales begins.   I open with "if 99% of the doctors agree that rattlesnake bites should be treated, do you instead listen to a neighbor who advises against it?  OH, second vale slips off.  "What's causing it" she asks.  CO2 from fossil fuel mostly.  She spins away with "CO2, how would that do it, is it melting the ice?"  Complete confusion on her part as #3 falls.  I explain CO2 is a constant and made our atmosphere possible through the greenhouse effect, problem is burning coal and oil is moving it from underground into the sky where it blocks infrared heat from escaping into space increasing the greenhouse, a net bad thing.  4th vail floats off.  "But I heard they don't know where the CO2 comes from" she offers and skips back.  Oh not true, CO2 molecules have a fingerprint through an isotope, when they catch one they can tell if it is an old one thats been cycling around from tree to horse to grass to fish to lung to leaf, or if it came out of the coal mines.  Stunned the 5th and 6th vale fall together, and I can see almost everything now and.......and the damn Dentist barges in rambling and poking and schuffling exrays like a deck of cards, says good teeth, whacks away at the computer, next appointment set, and I'm on the way out.

Damn, I almost had it all.  7th vale, damn those are hard to get off sometimes.

The GOP, the IRS, where's the scandal?

The Republicans parade a bunch of tea bags in to tell how the jack boot was on their throat, scared for their lives one said, the IRS was really after them.  Republicans on the committee cooed softly for the suffering then bellowed some accusations about something, no one knows what.

Lets review so far what they have found.  The IRS sent these guys who pretend to be a social charity bur are really not, questions to answer.  There it is, one guy said he got a list of 90 questions, and and he was scared for his life.  No shit.  That happened to me all through high school, every damn day in math.  Then they had to wait for months, sometimes for years.  Like a bunch of fucking war vets waiting for treatment, or an inventor waiting on a patent, it took months, long long constitutionally eroding months.

One thing you have not heard yet, and for good reason, this 20th or 30th (I lost count) worse than Watergate event has not been declared an actual crime by the GOP.  They are not saying the law was broken.  So far nothing indicates a law was broken and they know it.  But, now I read (somewhere shit I forgot where) that more non tea bag groups were sent life threatening questions than tea bag groups, GOP didn't call them in.  Cause..... it's a show.

your iphone can tell you if the product sucks

I don't have an iphone.  But if you do google buycott.  Buycott is an app that turns your iphone into a corporate and product tattletale.  You photo the little coded ticktaktoe square thingy on the package and bang, your phone tells you if Koch owns this brand of paper plates, or if it's Monsanto frankenfood, or  or if the maker shits on people, or if there is a call for a boycott and why.  Maybe your a republican, this will indicate to you if this is the union hating polluters you want to enrich.  It's a win win.

They will have it for us non iphone people in a few months.  Check it out, and start shopping like its a fight for the nation, vote with your dollars.

Wall Street Journal gives climate deniers the bad news

It's not often I hear about the WSJ getting a story on global warming right, but today is a good day, a tip of the hat to the WSJ.
Clearly and directly, with charts and date, today the WSJ wrote their own story and got it right.  Ice melt is  causing sea level rise, and the latest observations indicate the rate is accelerating beyond what the models predicted.  At least 1 foot of rise is due before 2050.

This ain't good news for anyone.  The science refuseniks must be squirming like a jug full of ants upon reading this in a Murdock rag, how to spin it?
Fossil fuel boys must be crestfallen, after all this is their paper.  Maybe someone can be fired?  It has long been a well kept secret concern among them that one day they will be subject to humiliation if not law suits for contributing (through lies and misdeeds) to global warming.

South Carolina outlawed the terms sea level rise and global warming in any long range planning of the coastal infrastructure or communities.  1984?  Maybe they can have the WSJ arrested.

A foot of rise in the ocean increases the surface by millions of square miles, more evaporation, more water vapor aloft meaning more flash flooding and blizzards and suffering from high temps and high humidity, more rot, disease.  Coastal cities around the globe will spend trillions either in protections or losses, either way it's trillions.

WSJ readers are not accustomed to reading this in their paper.  Unless the editor later flat out renounces it, this is going to shake and inform their readers.  It's the camels nose inching under the tent, the high dollar tent.

Luiz Antonio: Why He Doesn't Want to Eat Meat

This is the logic of the pure.  Discovering animals are killed so we can eat them, he will instead eat potato and rice.

Bitumen bitumen bitumen, not oil, bitumen.

XL Keystone Pipeline hits another snag and tries a trick.  The pipe will carry bitumen from Alberta Canada to the  Gulf coast where it will be refined and exported.  We get the risk of destruction of farmland and water reserves, we get the refinery pollution, someone else gets the fuel and the profits.
*Snag: The State Department Inspector General is looking into the firm that did the analysis (yea, it was privatized, farmed out).  Turns out they have ties to some of the oil industry including some of the players in this drama in Canada and the US.
*Trick: XL Pipeline boys have hired an old friend of John Kerry to lobby the State Department for the pipe.

Note:  The product being shipped is bitumen, not oil, do not call it oil.  Bitumen is technically not oil, it is a heavy chemical and mineral laden tar like gunk requiring higher energy consumption (than oil) to refine into oil products and producing copious residue and slag infused with toxins and posing a disposal issue, like nuclear fuel and coal ash, the public usually gets misled about the volume danger and location of this crap and eventually picks up the tab for it.

The fossil fuel tar sands guys along with the conservative PM of Canada are trying to push an additional pipe to the Pacific coast somewhere near Vancouver.  But.......
 *Last month the Indian Nations who's land it would traverse said no, and they will fight and use civil commotions to prevent it crossing sacred ground.
*Last week the British Columbia government also said no to the pipe, citing their is no evidence the pipeline company has the equipment, manpower, plans or ability to prevent, contain or clean up oil spills of any size.
*The Canada government can still proceed, but to do so would cause so much political friction it is believed these two events may doom that pipe.

Now, all hope is on Keystone and it's 35, (not several thousand as claimed) permanent jobs.  Yes 35, think about it, it runs it's self, remote controlled valves and pumps, a couple guys monitor the whole thing on a computer screen, and one or two guys at 12 pump booster stations along the way.