Can 2008 happen again? It is a matter of when, not if. This is Trump's Wall Street. HIstorically wagering more.

December 29, 2017
By Kevin Crowley

At least 60% of 2018 Output hedged against falling price fears (click here)

Anadarko, EOG, Continental are potential winners: Cowen Says

As the price of oil rises, heavily-hedged shale drillers may find it harder to meet investor demands for payback, boosting the value of producers that haven’t locked in returns for future production.

When West Texas Intermediate breached $60 a barrel, it was good news generally for U.S. shale producers. But the higher the price, the less gain will come to companies that hedged their production as crude held below $55 for 10 months of the year.

At least 60 percent of next year’s crude output has been hedged, more than in previous years, according to RBC Capital Markets LLC. The result: Rising crude prices will boost the profile of companies with fewer hedges, according to a report by Cowen & Co. Among the winners: EOG Resources Inc., Anadarko Petroleum Corp.,  and Continental Resources Inc., the note said....

US Market export has nothing to do with the hurricanes. The hurricanes curbed production as they swept through offshore oil fields. The market surge is due to the underhanded amendment the Republican Congress passed allowing for the first time the open market export of American produced oil.

The USA has always exported oil, to allies and those that needed it. American oil is not in abundance. It is not as in the day of Spindletop. The oil the USA exported were to country that were part of our strategic national security as they requested it.

Now, the USA is exporting oil with complete abandon and OPEC is contemplating it's next policy change. The USA is creating a glut again.

Think Tillerson.

December 29, 2017
New York - U.S. crude oil production in October (click here) rose to the highest in more than 46 years, while natural gas production leaped to a new record, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed on Friday.

The production increases in October compared to a year ago come on the heels of higher energy prices, with U.S. crude futures recently touching $60 a barrel for the first time since mid 2015.

Natural gas futures hit near four-week highs on Friday and were poised for their best weekly gain since July last year on higher demand expectations.

Production was expected to continue rising through 2017 and into 2018, analysts and traders said, driven by rising exports and growing oil demand....

October crude production rose 167,000 barrels per day to 9.64 million bpd,...

OPEC production fell by 60,000 barrels. Saudi Arabia has been cutting exports while Libya increased theirs. OPEC and Russia have planned a big meeting. 

January 4, 2017
By Irina Slay

OPEC’s crude oil production (click here) remained largely unchanged from November in December, but that was mostly thanks to a 50,000-bpd decline in Venezuela’s production, as well as further cuts in Saudi Arabia, a Bloomberg survey of ship-tracking data, analyst opinions, and  data, analyst opinions, and company information has suggested....

The day traders are reeling in cash by the fist fulls. Oil is a liquid commodity. It is as good as cash. One can dump it any day of the week for the pure reason of needing ready cash.

Oil is not an investment, it is liquidity. Falling oil prices are meaningless to many. Loss isn't really a thing. One can always replace oil futures with cheap oil that will rise as the productions fluctuate. It is a mess.

The nation's farmers are in trouble. No one listens and now the emergency funds are sucked up by the $1.5 trillion new addition to the national debt.

January 3, 2018
By Dan Mika

The ongoing cold snap (click here) is causing problems for the county’s farmers as they try to bring animals to market and could leave farm soil compacted before planting season.

The frost depth, or the depth of the soil below freezing, reached a full foot at the National Weather Service’s frost depth measuring station in Marshalltown Wednesday morning. Frost depth was measured at 10 inches just north of Des Moines.

Dennis Todey, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Midwest Climate Hub, said the lack of snow cover and drought conditions in the second half of 2017 allowed the soil to freeze over faster.

Todey said the frost isn’t a major concern for crop producers since the ground will thaw out by the time planting season begins, but it could freeze shallow water pipes (Irrigation systems could be lost). If the cold temperatures persist, he said it could get deeper into the ground and reach deeper pipes and cause damage,

“I don’t think there was too much of a problem in Iowa, but the further north you went into Minnesota and the Dakotas, we had some cities that were starting to have some water lines freezing because the cold was getting deep enough to freeze water lines,” he said....

Some farmers manage to grow enough corn for their herds. Corn is not the only food beef cows eat, but, it contains energy and would be added to the feed in the bitter cold. 

Corn Price Commodity today is $3.53 per bushel. (click here) Farmers have a difficult time with their products and the costs to maintain them when the temperatures are this low.

...ISU Extension beef specialist Joe Sellers said many of the state’s cattlemen are giving their cattle more feed with higher energy densities to help them generate the heat they lose to the cold. He said most producers are set up to protect their cattle from the elements, but they might need to restock on feed if the cold weather stays....

West Virginia Mountains

I recently traveled Route 77, a somewhat dangerous road for the mountains and tractor trailers that require it. I passed through two tunnels there and saw the same phenomena in each.

At the ends of the tunnels, the entrance and exit, there was water drainage pipes frozen solid. Those drainage pipes carry water runoff from the mountain itself to drainage below the road, so the road doesn't flood. 

In the center of the mountain tunnel there were no frozen pipes. I assumed they were working well because the cold didn't reach into the ground that deep. It is prudent for every state to be aw...

Sorry, had to take a call.

prudent for every state to be assessing the condition of their roads, bridges and tunnels in relation to water and freezing. 

Water is necessary for life, but, right now the condition of water in relation to Earth has changed. There are droughts in one place while at the same time there are floods in another. The place where water is and isn't is very important. But, it is the PROPERTIES of water that is most important when it comes to infrastructure and freezing.

Water runs according to gravity. So, it will SEEP into places, especially in mountains, that defies the imagination. When water seeps into areas either in tiny amounts or large amounts and is then exposed to cold and extremely cold temperatures it will freeze. Water expands when it freezes.

So when water is running off a mountain and an engineer at some point in the past (before the polar vortex displaced) arranged for safe drainage of that mountain water, all was well. Even in the winter there were not issues that we face today. Today, prolonged frigid temperatures and deep temperatures in the the range of NEGATIVE Fahrenheit (realizing freezing for Fahrenheit is 32 degrees) there will be structural problems NO MATTER WHERE there is water seepage.

Water will break rock. Just that simple. In the natural world where cars and trucks travel engineers do an excellent job of building good sturdy infrastructure, but, with the level of climate change we are experiencing now, where temperatures from the north pole visit the lower 48, there is just no way of knowing exactly how this shakes out.

The farmers have a handle on their property and how best to protect their livelihood, but, engineers were not prepared for such drastic and rapid changes in climate. So, it is my suggestion, cities and states take a good look at their infrastructure and put their engineers to work to ESTIMATE where trouble could start. At this point tunnels have to be inspected at the very least where water that should be running is not and appears as frozen. There could be insidious damage done that will perpetuate more and larger infrastructure failure. 

If possible (and with taxes and funding going to hell, who knows?) hire more geologists and/or engineers AND have Senators and House Reps. write into the budget for project funding by the US Army Corp. to assist the states with this (I consider it an emergency) priority.

It is unfortunate the Blue States were targeted by the Republican Tax Strategy. They have a lot of people to provide infrastructure for and they need every break they can get. So, with complete empathy for every citizen in the country, EVERYONE WAS TOLD and now we have to face the music of calling the climate crisis a hoax.

One other thing. Many US Army Corp are assisting Puerto Rico. I think the Governors and Mayors need to look to hiring their own geologists and engineers OR several cities in the same region can form a group to share the skills of new hires WITH EXPERIENCE in knowledge about water and the damage it can do. Don't leave out the possibility of spring floods that become ICE DAMS and increase the flood level all that much more. THEY HAVE TO HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF HYDROLOGY.

WATER IS FLUID.

FLUID MECHANICS and volume and the power of water.

The hiatus is a myth. The ice never stopped melting and the climate continued to heat.

Haitus? These years some of the hottest years on record. They gave birth to enormous icebergs from collapsing ice shelves and the Great Barrier Reef whitened along with other reefs globally in the same exact time period.

Enough!

November 22, 2018
By Laura Geggel

A seasonal ice beacon collects temperature data in the Arctic.

Credit: Ignatius Rigor/Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington

Evidence is mounting (click here) against the so-called climate change hiatus — a period lasting from 1998 to 2012 — when global temperatures allegedly stopped rising as sharply as they had before. This misconception can be explained, in part, by missing temperature data from the Arctic, a new study finds.

That seeming pause in rising global temperatures had been used as evidence by climate skeptics to suggest that the Earth wasn't really warming at an unnatural pace.

To get around the data gap, researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and China created the first global data set of surface temperatures. They filled in the missing puzzle piece with data taken from buoys drifting in the Arctic Ocean during the so-called global warming hiatus, the researchers said. [6 Unexpected Effects of Climate Change....

I think Trump is trying to disrupt the talks between North and South Korea.

"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the 'Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,'" the president tweeted. "Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!"

Trump has no place on the Korean Peninsula anymore.

I like Senator Doug Jones already. He chose an experienced staffer as his chief of staff.

January 2, 2018

By Zola Ray

Doug Jones, (click here) the Democratic Alabama senator-elect, said Tuesday that he’s chosen Dana Gresham (click here) to be his chief of staff. Jones will be the only Democratic senator with a black person in the chief of staff position, The Hill reported Tuesday.

Gresham has held positions on Capitol Hill for 14 years and was a leader of the Department of Transportation’s Legislative Affairs Office during former president Barack Obama’s eight years in office, The Hill reported. Democratic Representative Terri A. Sewell of Alabama said in a tweet that Gresham, who is originally from Birmingham, Alabama, is “Birmingham’s own stand out."...

Charlie Dent is not a center-right Congressman, he is a right wing extremist.

Today, he is complaining about a New York Times article that cites approximately seven FBI agents. He states the FBI agents have no right to speak to the press as an anonymous source. That is exactly why long lived newspapers like The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, LA Times and Boston Globe as examples, exist. They exist to buffer abuses by government and that frequently comes from FBI agents involved in operations that run into corruption and/or crime. 

September 7, 2017
By Laura Olson

Republican U. S. Rep. Charlie Dent (click here) stunned his colleagues and constituents Thursday evening when the seven-term Lehigh Valley lawmaker announced that he will not seek re-election next year.

An outspoken figure within the dwindling center-right of the Republican Party, Dent has gained national prominence for this role within what he describes as the “governing” wing of the party. He is a co-chairman of the Tuesday Group, a caucus of moderates within the GOP, and from that post, he has called out colleagues who he views as blocking action in Congress...

When politicians complain about agents of any kind it is a red flag to ask the question, what is that politician doing wrong OR unable to do wrong for a crony? The politicians promise the sky and then find out they can't deliver the goods to their political cronies. 

So, ah, what is Charlie Dent doing wrong or wants to do wrong? He has no problem providing funding to US intelligence agencies on the Appropriation Committee.

Dent's voting record does not match his rhetoric;

Voted Yes on: (click here) Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 (HR 3180, second vote)

 Bill Passed (380-35) on July 28, 2017

This bill proposed authorizing appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for intelligence and intelligence-related activities of the United States Government, the Community Management Account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and Disability System, and for other purposes.

This is a bit chilling.

We have seen the injustice of our legal system. More often than not the woman victim is made the perpetrator and seductress of her rape. There need to be stronger ethics standards involved within the Justice Department. I don't care the issue, there should be no judge in our legal system that even comes close to the lines that define ethics.

January 1, 2018
By Doreen McCallister

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (click here) released his annual report on the federal judiciary on Sunday.

In one section of the 16-page report, he promised a careful evaluation of the judiciary's sexual misconduct policies.

He said recent events have "illuminated the depth of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace."

Roberts added, "Events in the past few weeks have made clear that the judicial branch is not immune."...

Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Emma Graham-Harrison

I congratulate North and South Korea in finding a bridge across the void of diplomacy by the USA.

It is amazing to realize the North Koreans are ready to participate in the Winter Olympics. That is a surprise. I congratulate Supreme leader Un on the fitness of his people to participate. This is a pleasant surprise.

I hope this bridge will hold up and the Korean Peninsula will find more and more reasons to cooperate with each other. To be honest, I am worried about the North Korean people, a severe winter and potential food shortages. The North Korean people are incredible when it comes to living under harsh conditions, but, humanitarian efforts should be considered if Kim Jong Un would consent to safe passage for those that can help.


2 January 2017

By Harriet

Kim Jong-un's suggestion that North KoreaKim Jong-un's suggestion that North Korea (click here) could send athletes to next month's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, has prompted host nation South Korea to propose high-level talks before the games begin.

It comes as tension in the region has ratcheted up after Pyongyang conducted a series of ballistic missile tests and a pair of nuclear tests over the last year.

“We hope the two sides sit down for frank talks,"  the South's unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, told a news conference....

The USA Congress broke their promise on certification of Iran's nuclear agreement.

In realizing the Congressional deadline was December 15, 2017, there is another recertification coming up in January. Perhaps if the US Congress FINALLY admits Iran is upholding the agreement they could recertify the agreement.

December 28, 2017
By Michael Crowley

President Donald Trump (click here) allowed the Iran nuclear deal to survive through 2017, but the new year will offer him another chance to blow up the agreement — and critics and supporters alike believe he may take it.

By mid-January, the president will face new legal deadlines to choose whether to slap U.S. sanctions back on Tehran. Senior lawmakers and some of Trump's top national security officials are trying to preserve the agreement. But the deal's backers fear Trump has grown more willing to reject the counsel of his foreign policy team, as he did with his recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.... 

P5 + 1 may turn into P4 + 1. The USA is completely foolish to attempt to derail the Iran nuclear agreement. If the agreement was completely dissolved Iran could immediately return to nuclear proliferation and guaranteed there will never be an agreement in the future. To dissolve the agreement will be to put Israel in immediate danger should the Iranian nuclear program restart.

The US Congress promised to uphold the certification when the US State Department announces Iran is in compliance. If the Republican Congress again refuses their responsibility in the face of a populous President, they need to go. 2018 should clean out the Republican swamp once and for all.

This majority Republican Congress has a real disdain for the poor, the middle class, children and the elderly. No one needs the added stress this Congress is bringing to the most vulnerable Americans. If Congress can't do it's job in certifying AGREEMENTS when conditions are met, then perhaps the Ameican people should take back their country in 2018 and hopefully, the international community will be patient until then.

December 30, 2017
By Daniel Chaitin

This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (click here) sought to correct the record with Kentucky news outlets after an editorial and political cartoon cast the blame on him for a new tax on a local college that prides itself on its Christian values and helping low-income students.

McConnell wrote opinion pieces for both the Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader to explain that the new tax impacting Berea College as a result of the tax overhaul spearheaded by GOP leadership should be pinned on the "hypocrisy coming from Senate Democrats" and not himself....

A Supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with the moon's closest approach to the Earth.

January 1, 2017

The fireworks (click here) may be long gone but the first supermoon of 2018 is illuminating the skies across the world.

NASA is calling this the “biggest and brightest” one for the entire year and so far it isn’t disappointing.

The phenomenon “supermoon” occurs when the moon becomes full on the same day it reaches its perigee, the point in the moon’s elliptical orbit when it is closest to Earth....

...“The moon looked magnificent,” said David Blanchflower, who snapped a photo of it in the United Kingdom. “Dominating the night sky with its incredible brightness. Awe-inspiring.”

If you miss January’s first full moon — nicknamed a wolf moon — don’t worry, there’s another one this month, on the 31st.

The supermoon lit up the sky in our area Monday. Take a look! (click here)

January 1, 2017
By Eric Bailey

Los Angeles — For all of the storylines (click here) surrounding Monday’s game between Oklahoma and Georgia, the Rose Bowl likely will be decided by one key matchup.

Quarterback play.

Oklahoma has Baker Mayfield, a Heisman Trophy winner with 39 games of experience. Georgia has Jake Fromm, a true freshman who has commanded the Bulldogs to Monday’s College Football Playoff semifinal contest.

Granted, it takes a team to win a big football game, but a quarterback is a leader. Everything good or bad begins with that player.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit has provided analysis for some of Mayfield’s games over the past three seasons. He understands — like most in Oklahoma’s fan base — the importance of the senior quarterback to his team.

“I’m a big believer in energy. His team feeds off of his energy, maybe unlike any other quarterback that I’ve seen before,” Herbstreit said on Sunday morning. “If he gets going, if he gets that look in his eye, it’s really challenging to defend him.”...

I happen to agree.

There is no greater sponsor of terrorists than the country that hid Osama bin Laden. There is a risk in defunding Pakistan with American forces in Afghanistan. There is nothing to stop Pakistan from issuing far different orders to border guards.

It is the Pakistani ISI that has caused so many problems. The ISI is probably the entity that trained the Taliban for many years before they returned to Afghanistan. The real folly occurred under "W" when he abandoned Afghanistan to invade oil-laden Iraq.

Sorry for the pause I had a phone call.

Other than the Taliban, I believe the Haqqani Network is still alive and well. There are many entities that feed off financial aid into the region. I don't know that eliminating that aid so much as targeting it is a far better strategy to end violence. One aspect of burgeoning societies in Pakistan and Afghanistan are places of education. Pakistan especially has been successful in the education of their people over the past decade. Of course, the content of the education can be challenged if it inspires hatred or isolationism. But, that can be better realized by offering financial aid to curriculum that inspires democracy and freedom, including religious freedom, diversity and tolerance.

Realizing how small the world has become with increased online access is to realize how ridiculous isolation is as a method to governance. Freedom of speech has never been more important both domestically for the USA and with international allies. It is even more interesting to realize social media has been accepted to some degree in traditionally communist countries, such as China.

But, as to Pakistan. I think President Trump is partially correct. This is a country that has violated the Non-Proliferation Treaty and remains a concern to India in maintaining any reasonable peace in the region. I think funding for Pakistan should be in the areas of education and better governance including ending the vacillation of the ISI. I have long believed paying for Pakistani airspace was a major mistake by the USA that resulted in larger danger to the USA than safety.

January 1, 2018

After recent reports (click here) that the Donald Trump administration was considering cutting off aid to Pakistan, US President Donald Trump slammed the country, saying that the US had "foolishly" given Pakistan $33 billion in aid in the last 15 years. 

Trump said that the US had only gotten lies and deceit in return for the monetary aid it had provided. Trump also said that US operations in Afghanistan were being hindered by the "safe haven" that Pakistan was providing to terrorists.

The US, which has provided Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid since 2002, said in August that it was withholding the $255 million until Pakistan did more to crackdown on terrorist groups. 

Last week, The New York Times reported that the Trump administration was seriously weighing whether to withhold $255 million in already delayed aid to Islamabad over its failure to better crack down on terror groups in Pakistan....

Where is the expert insight of Christiane Amanpour?

An Op-Ed somewhere might be good. My concern is this: the USA turned against the people of Iran with the travel ban.

The last time there were substantial demonstrations, including deaths of dearly wonderful Iranian people, the elections reflected a far more open Iran with leadership that brought an agreement with P5+1. Right now most Iranians are looking at each other and wondering what the heck happened that brought the level of terrorists?

See, there have never been terrorists from Iran (click here) and the people don't deserve this level of hatred. This is where the Trump White House fails democracy and international relationships. There is a gross difference between the people and the government.

The Iranian government is known as a state sponsor of terror. That may be true in considering the USA or Israel has successfully intercepted military shipments to the Houthis and Hezbollah. But, with Hezbollah becoming an autonomous organization with the abrupt appearance of ISIS, Iran's influence has to be questioned.

The Trump White House is causing distress among the people of Iran and creating a paradigm that might work against the best interest of a more friendly Iranian government. The paradigm shift that brought President Hassan Rouhani to leadership may be successfully challenged. That would be a profound loss to the USA's relationship with the Iranian people.

I wish President Rouhani would find his own sanctions to make it clear to the USA that Iran does not breed terrorists within their borders. These current protests are worrisome and to have Trump embrace them without fully understanding their origins and potential outcomes is foolish.

This is the folly of Trump policy regarding Israel. The populous government currently within the USA government are plainly stupid about democracy and economics. President Rouhani needs to point to the naive USA government when making an impression on the international community regarding very belated travel sanctions. It would not be such a stark surprise to have had "W" place travel sanctions on the countries where terrorists called home until the USA had a chance to react to the attacks of September 11, 2001. But, today? Ridiculous.

The USA Supreme Court examines ONLY the right of the USA President to institute travel bans to protect the USA within it's borders, not the necessity of it's timing. Trump is paranoid another 911 will occur because he doesn't have a clue about international relations and USA national security. I would think the political paranoia is obvious in all his actions when it comes to these ideas.

Given a former CEO of Exxonmobile is in the State Department should raise the issue as to how much foreign oil is the USA now receiving. When a Republican majority passed an amendment to a necessary budget allowing the export of USA oil and gas, there was a paradigm shift that requires scrutiny. How much more oil imports exist now that Tillerson is running the State Department and can it be balanced with USA domestic oil being exported?

USA international relations are a matter of decades if not centuries of administrations, including individual state relations for trade. The idea a single populous White House can simply tip the scales willy-nilly is hideous and to consider President Trump is in violation of the Emoluments Clause makes it all that much more corrupt to the core.

January 1, 2018
By Trita Parsi

In a matter of days, (click here) protests in Iran have quickly spread across the country, taking the government by surprise and leaving analysts and pundits alike confused. Part of the reason many have been caught off guard is because these protests appear quite different from their 2009 predecessor -- in terms of size, leadership and objective.

But another reason is that the drivers of these protests are from a segment of the population that has rarely figured into Iran's political developments in the past two decades -- those who never believed or have lost hope in the idea of real change through reform....                 

The most troubling event in 2017 was the escalation of tensions with North Korea and the USA.

Over the years since Kim Jon Il's death in 2011 we have witnessed the isolation of North Korean leadership. First it was Un's wife that left international society. In 2017, the tensions between North Korea and the USA hit an all time high. The odd thing about North Korea is similar to other countries with nuclear capacity, in that poverty rules the country while sophisticated weaponry drain the national treasury.

The Korean Peninsula and Japan has seen at leave five major storms this year. The satellite was earlier today. There is a hurricane like storm between Japan and the Korean Peninsula. There has been many 'ghost ships' washing ashore in Japan. I would expect that to continue given the impoverishment of North Korea.

The insight one can draw from such foolishness by the USA and North Korea is the fact the people may be facing real problems with a food supply.

Himawari Satellite

31 December 2017

1700 UTC 

December 7, 2017

...In 2017 though, (click here) a number of ships have washed ashore with the crew still alive.

In November, eight men were found alive on a boat at Yurihonjo marina. They said they were fishermen from North Korea who had gotten into trouble at sea.

Another ship picked up by the Japanese coast guard was found to have 10 men on board.

The boats are often rickety and very simple vessels with no modern engines or navigation instruments on board.

Where are they from?

With most of the boats washing up empty or only with dead bodies, it was initially not clear where they had come from but some observers speculated they were North Korean fishing boats that had been searching for king crab, squid and sandfish.

Markings on some of the vessels, in Korean, indicated that they belonged to the North's military which is heavily involved in the fishing industry.

In the recent cases where boats were found with the crew still alive, the sailors confirmed they were from North Korea. One of the boats rescued in November also had a plaque indicating it belonged to the military.

Unsurprisingly, there has been no mention of the missing vessels from North Korea....               

More dangerous temperatures during a holiday.

The Republicans call this governance?

The last time the polar vortex visited was 2013. The winter was wicked and spring for farmers was late.

People have to be reminded about the dangers of carbon monoxide. They should go to places where they are safe and not use any stoves or indoor burning for heat.

UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of north and west satellite (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)
December 31, 2017
1230:18z

The Arctic air mass is firmly anchored over the USA. All air movement has been involving the oceans and not the land. The oceans are warmer than land and will continue to induce air movement that carries water vapor into the ice structures of the hemisphere.

The word needs to go out that fishing boats and any passenger ships need to put into the nearest port.

New Zealand is at 11 o'clock. Any such storm in the southern ocean is no match for anyone. There are no land masses to curtail the water's motion.

To left:
Antarctica Water Vapor Composite (click here for24 hour loop )
December 30, 2017
2100 utc

Dangerous waves (click here) are set to hit New Zealand's western coastline on New Year's Day and they may be so high fishers and boaties could be in peril.

Beachgoers are being warned to expect incre

asing large and powerful swells that will rapidly double in height at North and South Island beaches throughout the day.

To right, New Zealand is in the high-pressure trough.
East Australia Water Vapor Satellite (click here)
December 31, 2017
0130z

Metservice said the dangerous swells will suddenly arrive in sets with the potential to catch those near the water by surprise.

Fishing off rocks and crossing West Coast bars by boat may prove too hazardous for the next couple of days.

MetService said the waves had been generated from a deep storm in the Southern Ocean and driven by westerly gales roaring across the ocean south of Australia.

The long period waves would begin arriving in New Zealand waters on New Year's Day before rapidly getting larger.

MetService said if you were planning a west coast beach mission it would best to go to a patrolled beach.

Himawari-9 (click here for 24 hour loop)
December 30, 2017

1600 utc

The intensity is due to the heat transfer from Indonesia. It is not the Antarctica vortex that is the problem. This is a heat transfer event into Antarctica. It is summer there. Any heat transfer can have high winds that cause a change in the air surface interface with the oceans.

This is all simple bookkeeping. There should be a city office dedicated to this purpose.

There should be transparency for the work being done. While some of the work can be considered confidential, it isn't as though the work is not noticeable. A watchdog group can follow the companies working in Flint and record their presence in a home. What they can't record is the work being conducted inside the home.

There have been many people and organizations involved in the effort to bring clean drinking water to Flint. There really should be an office where work orders are filed and residents with comments can file complaints, etc. It is unfortunate to realize there is not a central office where all the information is collected and reports generated.

There should be enough monies to open an office for this purpose. The mayor and council need to answer the filing and provide comfort to all involved in realizing the people of Flint and their children are safe. There should be no neglect of the facts before the people.

December 28, 2017
By Merrit Kennedy

The city of Flint, (click here) which has been reeling for years over lead seepage from its pipes into its tap water, is accused of violating the terms of a major settlement agreement aimed at improving its water quality. Advocacy groups say the city is failing to disclose information about its efforts to replace its lead pipes....

...The agreement was seen as a significant victory for people struggling for years with unsafe water. It originated from a lawsuit filed in January 2016 by Flint resident Melissa Mays and three groups — the National Resources Defense Council, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and Concerned Pastors for Social Action....

...The agreement also requires authorities to examine water service lines for 18,000 Flint households within three years and to replace them if they are made of lead or galvanized steel. They have replaced nearly 5,500 service lines so far, according to data released by the mayor....

...These lapses, the plaintiffs say, raise questions about the city's competence. "If the City cannot collect critical, easily identifiable data and provide it within the agreed-upon timeframes, how can Plaintiffs trust that the City is competent to execute the much larger and urgent task of service line replacement in Flint?"

There has been severe weather in Michigan and the Midwest for more than a week now. It is bound to slow things down during the winter months.

December 29, 2017
By Dominic Adams

Flint, MI - Icy conditions have lead to around 30 crashes throughout Genesee County on Friday, Dec. 29.

The crashes began around 8 a.m., according to Genesee County 911.

A crash on southbound U.S. 23 after the Thompson Road exit is impacting traffic, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

There also are numerous crashes on Interstate 75, Interstate 475 and Interstate 69, according to Genesee County 911. 

A hazardous weather outlook from the National Weather Service called for light snow of with accumulation of an inch or less was expected. 

I trust Mayor Weaver. The coordination of information may not be simple, but, I think she can be counted on to improve the city's performance on reports and transparency.

December 29, 2017
By Steve Carmody

...Weaver says her administration (click here) is "doing all we can" to protect resident's health. The mayor is optimistic her city's lead pipe replacement program will accelerate in 2018.

The service lines connecting homes to city water mains have been a prime source of lead in Flint’s tap water. 

The city has replaced more than 6,000 lead service lines over the past two years.

Weaver expects crews will replace another six thousand lead pipes next year to stay on pace to replace around twenty thousand service pipes by 2020.

“We may be able to come in under that three year time frame,” says Weaver, “So we’re going to continue to work toward that.”

The city still distributes more than 60,000 cases of bottled water each week to Flint residents who don’t trust their tap water. 

The disconnect from the USA Constitution serves their purpose.

The President sits at Mar-a-Lago in violation of the Emoluments Claus while the Republican leadership plots their next attack on the country.

December 27. 2017
By Seung Min Kim and Rachael Bade

...The Wisconsin Republican (click here) has detailed an ambitious effort to dramatically reshape Medicare, Medicaid and welfare programs that the GOP has long targeted as ripe for reforms. But bring it up with key Senate Republicans and House GOP moderates and they blanch — seeing a legislative battle that may not be winnable and that may not be worth it in an election year where control of Congress is up for grabs...

Where is the impeachment?

I now know where I can have direct contact with Donald Trump. This is not a surprise, it is more of Trump's corrupt administration.

Power brokers can sit down to lunch with Trump and play "Let's Make a Deal." That is corruption. The reason Trump gets away with it, is that the entire estate is secure including the members in attendance. The Secret Service has been pushed aside in order for Trump to "Make a Deal" with any of it's members. Trump has become so hostile to the Secret Service they don't have an office to operate out of at Trump Towers in New York City.

There is no ease of contact by any modern day President. Trump has created a method of securing 'a space' whereby members can approach him to engage a conversation without being over heard by the Secret Service AGENTS.

The media is sugar coating this interview as a great moment when Trump was candidate and leisure. "W"rong!

December 28, 2017
By Charles P. Pierce

...Other people were unkind enough (click here) to point out that the interview was brokered by one Christopher Ruddy, a Trump intimate and the CEO of NewsMax, and that Ruddy made his bones as a political “journalist” by peddling the fiction that Clinton White House counsel Vince Foster had been murdered, one of the more distasteful slanders that got a shameful public airing during the Clinton frenzy of the 1990’s. Neither of those will concern us here. What Schmidt actually got out of this interview is a far more serious problem for the country. In my view, the interview is a clinical study of a man in severe cognitive decline, if not the early stages of outright dementia.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve seen my father and all of his siblings slide into the shadows and fog of Alzheimer’s Disease. (the president's father developed Alzheimer's in his 80s.) In 1984, Ronald Reagan debated Walter Mondale in Louisville and plainly had no idea where he was. (Would that someone on the panel had asked him. He’d have been stumped.) Not long afterwards, I was interviewing a prominent Alzheimer’s researcher for a book I was doing, and he said, “I saw the look on his face that I see every day in my clinic.” In the transcript of this interview, I hear in the president*’s words my late aunt’s story about how we all walked home from church in the snow one Christmas morning, an event I don’t recall, but that she remembered so vividly that she told the story every time I saw her for the last three years of her life....              

I am not impressed with the Trump White House definition of national security.

UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of the north and west hemisphere (click here for 12 hour loop - thank you)
December 29, 2017
1430.38z