Re: Pearls Before Swine: TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome)

On 7/8/25 13:41, William Hyde wrote:

Scott Lurndal wrote:

Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> writes:

On Mon, 7 Jul 2025 19:48:32 -0500, Lynn McGuire
<lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>

Locally, we were assured that the shelves would be empty (as a result
of Trump's tariffs) by the last two weeks of May. Didn't happen. This
/may/ still happen, and some businesses have been affected, but so so
good.

>
Actually, look more closely.  I've seen both empty shelves and
shortages in various stores on the west coast.   Often the store
will attempt to dress those empty shelves in various ways
(I've seen cardboard filler boxes; I've also seen them spread
out existing merch to fill in gaps caused by sold-out or otherwise
unavailable items).

Yes.

>
Check the overheads at Costco, and you may notice less stock waiting
to be sold.  You may also notice more floor space in the warehouse.
(There has been a noticable reduction in customer traffic at my
local warehouse in the last few months).

Us consumers are not buying because we will need money when
the prices go even higher.  Why will they go higher?  Very simple when
you give tax breaks to people who do not need breaks the money will
depreciated in value.  The billionaires and millionaires made money with
disaster, racking up profits during the Covid Crisis and their financial
institution being provided with government payments during the
2008 real estate crisis.

Ontario, it turns out, has a multi-billion dollar greenhouse industry, with most of the fresh produce until recently going to restaurants in the northern US.
 But as of a couple of months ago, there's suddenly a lot more in the way of fresh produce in the stores here.  Even at Costco, the frozen bags of American vegetables are now supplemented by Canadian, and the latter are both cheaper and better.  Even healthier.

Well it has not shown up yet but cherries are more expensive because of
worker shortages, i.e. people are hiding from ICE's workplace raids.

 One of my vices is pea soup with (warning, disturbing content ahead!) ham.  This is  getting hard to get as a high end product as companies cater to vegetarian and vegan customers (pea soup with lentils, yuck!).

I like Pea Soup with ham/spam/bacon and buy whatever i can get to pull
that all together.  I like to add more garlic and onions as well. Lately using Trader
Joe's garlic and onion powders to save time and energy.
But I start with canned soup.  In the Winter I might try it from scratch but
it gets too hot in my apartment on Summer days.

 I've been relying on a Quebecois brand, which is so-so.  Imagine my surprise to see that it had suddenly doubled in price!  Turns out Campbell bought it out years ago.  I won't be buying it even after the tariffs are gone.
 I may be reduced to making my own soup.

No! Mr Hyde, you will be elevating yourself by cooking your own soup
but it ain't cheap and in addition to soup ingredients you will need glass
storage for the Soup you cannot consume immediately.

 

>
>

The recent left wing-nut attempt to blame a flash flood on DOGE
appears to have collapsed: the warnings were sent, but nobody was
watching.

>
One might consider the NOAA staffing reductions to have had
an impact, if minimal so close to the actual layoffs)
on the forecasting and warning abilities.  Something likely to
get worse over time due to Musk's toadies.

The team leaders were cut. One can imagine that the leaders might
have been more capable of impressing the locals with the danger.

 Although local authorities are looking very bad, the weather service situation is not clear to me.  Doge's cuts technically do not come for a few weeks, but staffing levels are already down.  With more people the warnings might have been followed up with more personal contacts, as has happened in the past.
 Nobody in the news seems to be focusing on the flood watch that was put out Friday.  The watch says, well, watch.  Trouble may be coming, keep an eye out for further bulletins.  Virtually all the commentary seems to assume that a watch is something to be ignored.  Even in an area known to be prone to flash floods.
 

I think it was 1987 when another flash flood rose higher.  Trump on site
dismissed this as a 100 year flood but it is much more frequent than that.
Due to climate changes which he believes to be a Chinese invention.

The two parties are confused on this issue. Democrats like NOAA and argue that it is valuable, but in this case they want to claim that it malfunctioned due to cuts. Republicans dislike NOAA and would like to abolish it as valueless, but in this case they need to say that it performed well so as not to take blame for the deaths.

Both are foolish as the real need was for funding for a local
warning system which the local government dismissed as an un-needed
expense.

 While it doesn't apply in this case (I think) the reduction in radiosonde observations will degrade forecasts.  So future watches and warnings will be a bit less reliable.
 But then you don't really need expensive forecasts when the president can make them with a sharpie costing under $2.

Oh but his sharpie is not as accurate as the real Weather Models
to which we will be losing access.

 William Hyde

Even San Francisco will suffer from the lack of accuracy in fprecastomg
eventually.  I was here when the smoke from wild fires to the North spread
over San Francisco. On one day it gave us an other worldly ambience but
the next day it settled and use of particulate mask (and it was during Covid
restrictions) was essential to avoid excessive inhalation of fine particles...
bliss - cooks for herself... But nothing too fancy.