Archives for August 2026

Thursday, August 27, 2026

That know nothing Paul Krugman. I mean, what does he know? Yeah, he’s got a Nobel prize. Trump has a Nobel prize. Donald got it the way he got most things, by bullying. Or lying. Or both.

Krugman got it because he knows something. Donald knows nothing.

Krugman got his Nobel in economics. Donald knows economics the hard way. Every business  he has had has failed. What does he say about that? He has a secret way of dealing with it. It’s called lying. Shhh. And done continuously to try and convince others the technique is called “Gas Lighting”.

A well known fortune in a fortune cookie says, “A fool will find a greater fool to admire him.” Let’s not quibble over the fact that it’s not a fortune. It’s in fortune cookies ergo it’s a fortune. Shut up. Enter Scotty B. !!!

Paul, I’m on a first name basis with Dr. Krugman, has pointed out that before Donald took office he said the economy was going to take off. And it would have. Well, it already did. Fortunately, Mr. Trump inserted his foot on them darn pedals, grabbed the reins and puled up hard while turn the steering wheel to the right and managed to put the feller in the ditch. It took effort, but he did it. Otherwise, he would have had to blame Biden who set him up. Yes. The economy which was taking off would have really done well. Whew. Dodged a close one.

And can you imagine the gall of Dr. Krugman to use charts to prove it? Fake News!! Except these are the same sources he’s always used. How did he summarize it?

Economic growth has slowed despite the AI boom,

Inflation is up,

Interest rates are up.

Sorry, I miswrote. That’s not what he stated. Let me try again:

Inflation has accelerated.

Interest rates have surged.

Accelerated? Surged? Arent’ those good words for an economy?

And in other news, Canada has now cut long term deals with other countries for things it needs because the U.S. can no longer be depended upon as a reliable partner. This will live long after Trump leaves office, which he won’t so I guess we don’t have to worry about that. Trump III? No? Pesky Constitution.

Farmers in Iowa are pissed at him I don’t know why. I just saw the headline. More on that later.

Hey, funny thing, no one talked about election fraud or problems with mail in ballots until this guy came along. Wonder why? You know what? Maybe it’s because there were no problems until this guy came along? Sources say there still is no problem with election fraud or mail in ballots, but don’t worry, he’s on it. And if he gets his way – There will be election fraud and problems with Mail-in ballots.

In Georgia one of the aides to the Republican guy challenging for the Senate seat … has a photograph with him in a KKK get up. So what?

In Florida, ten million dollars for hungry poor kids, was redirected via shell companies into two Republican political campaign operations. No one knows how that happened. Hence, no criminal charges. Do the kids get fed? Probably not.

Wednesday, August 26, 2026

At some point, Donald Trump will be alone huddled in a broom closet, curled in a little ball, all alone.

He will still be lashing out. He will blame. He will tell you it is someone else’s fault, that he has done and been doing a “terrific” job, and that you should believe the naysayers. Of course, the only thing left will be the broom closet as the rest of the building and everything around it will be ashes. So those who open the door and look at this sniveling person will have to wonder what he is taking about. They will take him to a home for the infirmed where a big Jamaican woman will turn on the TV to a TV auction channel selling giant porcelain figurines. She will leave him while he stares at the TV and says that they made a porcelain figurine of him and “no one had ever seen anything like it.”

Ah me. When will that day come?

How long can this schtick continue?

Why does anyone believe him?

How does he attract young women to hang around him to buzz him awake, to wipe up his filth, to type his inanities on-line?

Is he alone at two in the morning when he puts out some of this drivel or is there some little honey typing it for him? And where is Melania during all this?

I saw her at the race car event when little Donnie pooh was waving the start flag like he was a three year old at the beach who had just been given a new toy. I mean, how hard is this? Hasn’t he ever seen a race star before? Or its end? You wave the flag in a figure eight. I mean he’s eighty years old, where has he been?

Speaking of eighty year olds – Dolly Parton. Some say the wrong eighty year old died.

Dolly was born January 19, 1946.

Donald? June 14, 1946.

You’ve got six months.

Along with Lunar Eclipses

Why?

Because the Moon is rotating around the Earth and its position changes a little bit with each time it goes around the Earth. Therefore, if there was an eclipse one month it is likely there will be one next month. 

We all know that for an eclipse to occur the Earth, Sun and Moon must be in alignment. The Sun and the Earth are always in alignment so what we are really talking about is the alignment of the Moon. If the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun it is a solar eclipse. If the Moon is behind the Earth it is a lunar eclipse.

If you think of a giant sheet going out from the alignment of the Earth and the Sun then the only time an eclipse can take place is when the Moon is piercing that sheet, which is called The Solar Plane. Think about this if the Moon is in alginment with the Earth and the Sun then an eclipse will happen (lunar or solar). If you were to describe the position of the Moon each of those times as pinpricks in the Solar Plane there would be a bunch of them grouped at a certain time. That grouping and the next time this happens is known as The Saros Cycle and it happens every 18 years 14 days and 8 hours. The eight hours is the thing to pay attention to.

Eight hours is one third of  day. This means that the next time the cycle of eclipses happens it will be one third of the way farther around the Earth. That translates to 120 degrees west of the last cycle. Because there are 360 degrees of longitude in the Earth and one third of that is 120 degrees.

Pretty cool.

Astronomers much up this rather simple explanatin with a lot of terms, and i understand why. It’s not an accurate enough explanation to actually accurtely predict the next ecplise.

Here’s one example of that muckery. We say a year is 365 and a quarter long (about). This is a measurement of the Earth moving around the Sun. But remember each day the Earth moves a bit in rotation every day. How much? About a degree – there are 360 dgrees and 365 days in a year. So how many roations does the Earth do in a year? I think 364 around itself and one more for circling the Sun. I think that’s the way it works.

Or as AI explains:

The Saros cycle is a period of 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours (about 6,585.3 days) used to predict solar and lunar eclipses. After this exact time, the Sun, Earth, and Moon line up again in nearly the same geometry, causing a very similar eclipse to repeat. [1, 2]

or Wikipedia

How the Cycle Works

• The cycle matches up 223 synodic months (lunar phases) with 242 draconic months (node passes) and 239 anomalistic months (perigee distances). [1]
• Because of the extra 8 hours in the cycle, the Earth rotates another one-third of a turn. This means the next matching eclipse happens 120 degrees further west on the globe. [1, 2]

Sunday, August 7, 2026

There has been so much bad, so much incompetence and stupidity that it’s hard to frame it in a coherent and cogent way. There are three men in the world responsible for the wars that plague our planet. Our country is no longer being run but rather driven into the ground, and for what? We went from having the most remarkable economic recovery after COVID of any country to now reporting some of the worst numbers. It’s not just the economic numbers, you can see and feel it. Two years ago houses were selling. Signs went up; there was an open house and the place was gone. Now? Few signs go up, and when they do they stay up. Nothing is moving.

Every week there’s a new report about how people are being denied: healthcare, voting rights, justice, SNAP benefits. The administration is actively working to deny. It is with cruelty that they do it. And the reasons? The reasons are so obviously wrong headed. The Vice President of the United States made a speech saying they were going to crack down on Medicare fraud by denying people benefits. Every article I have read about health care fraud deals with administrators, not the recipients. Look no further than Senator Rick Scott. Or look at the list of fraudsters Donald Trump has pardoned that carried out massive fraud against the healthcare system. But instead they went after the people who actually needed help.

And it’s like that in every corner of the government. Rand Paul attacking Anthony Fauci. The Millers, that despicable couple, asking for Fauci’s help privately while attacking him publicly, WTF?

Robert Kennedy Jr. and his trail of disease outbreaks. Turns out if you don’t get people vaccinated and you don’t inspect our food and water supplies things get bad in a hurry. Who knew? Every rational American.

But there’s the attack on science and learning, it is likened to Stalin era science.

There’s the dismantling of our government institutions. Be it the people and agencies that deal with voting, crime, public welfare, foreign aid – they are all attacked, dismembered and left in tatters. Why? The only reason seems to be that anyone one who knows anything must be sidelined. I mean you can’t have someone doubt you? So what if you lie, make up nonsense and blame others? 

I think people are starting to realize that there is a reason to have the government involved in various aspects of our lives. The fellow who just won the Michigan Democratic Primary, who has been attacked for being Muslim and a socialist pointed out that in a true capitalist society the producers get taxed. They don’t get a free ride like they are getting now. How does he know this about capitalism? He told us – he reads.

When was the last time Donald Trump read – not a book – anything?

But there is a large segment of our population that keeps spouting stuff they are being feed by the purveyors of disinformation. I’ve seen postings by people who I know are “conservative” who are saying things like we better wake up because of these various horrible things going on. Then they list them (well they copy a ten point screed given them).

The list includes things like: Trans people ruining women’s sports, illegal voting, protecting something usually schools with more guns, vaccines causing autism…

None of these are serious issues, if you look at the numbers.

The trans people one is especially annoying. Remember when Kristi Noem was governor of South Dakota and she made a big deal about making sure trans people didn’t play in women’s sports> The head of the athletic department for the State was asked how many people were we talking about. The number was zero. He thought maybe there had been a wrestler back a few years ago. The NCAA says the number is like ten or twelve. Mike Johnson said there are only two sexes like it says in the Bible. Bible scholars, and people who read the Bible, say that the Bible doesn’t say that. It is silent on the issue. There is reference to sodomy, but two sexes? No.

And after this you then get into the question of what is a man and a woman. It’s not an easy question to answer. Some say like porn they know it when they see it. When I was going to Johns Hopkins there was a famous annual lecture by  a one Dr. Money. He would show slide after slide of children born with mixed genitalia  A penis instead of a clitoris, Externally looking female internally looking male, or vice versa. Or as the trans girl who faced Kentucky senators who were trying to pass a bill that would throw her mother in jail for helping her with gender affirming care, “God made me and God doesn’t’ make mistakes. I am perfect the way I am.” ( I am paraphrasing here.) But the point is the lines between men and women aren’t as clear cut as some would like so the issues that people have that have to live with the bodies they were given is not so easy to regulate with laws and I gotta ask why is anyone trying to do that?

Then there’s the vaccine causes autism stuff. Despite, mountains of evidence to the contrary this idea, like Atlantis, persists. Where did it come from? Turns out there are some kids that develop autism due to a genetic disposition and it happens at about the time kids get vaccinated for certain diseases. So the vaccines cause autism crowd failed one of the basic tenets of science – causality. And its corollary – just because tow things happen at about the same time does not mean there is any connection.

Then there’s the voter fraud nonsense. Despite over sixty cases brought by Trump none have proven any voter fraud. The numbers kept by the Heritage Foundation bear this out. Over billions of votes cast the number of actual voter fraud case is less than fifty. And shockingly they are usually Republicans doing the frauding (a new word?) These cries of voter fraud all seem to be attempts to limit voting and kick people off voter roles. An easy way to solve this problem would be to pass a law saying everyone has to vote. 

Meanwhile there was a recent posting on Facebook where someone apologized to their MAGA friends because Trump was okay other than a list that went on and on and on, listing his various crimes and atrocities.

And now Iran has declared they are done negotiating until Trump is out of office. Art of the Deal indeed!