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

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).
 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).

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.
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'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.

 

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.
 

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.
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.
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.
William Hyde