Nom de plume: Rivrdog

Pray for the bridges

...I haven't written a River post in a long time.

The PacNorWest is under a heavy rain assault (wind, too, at the coast, where hurricane-force gusts are hammering the beaches).

Here's the Doppler radar synopsis at 0900:

View this photo

Here are the storm totals just for THIS front, the second one in two days (the first one was only 3.4" here). Embiggenate the photo and use the right-side key to interpret the rainfall totals. We are half-way though the rain from the FIRST front, and the second one will be worse. The chart, normally accurate to within 10%, says I have 2.0-3.5" already. My rain gage says 3.6" as best as I can read it from 15 feet away inside my house:

View this photo

Here are the warnings: Note the Portland area under Flood advisories. I think NOAA is behind the power curve on these:

View this photo

The Coast Range and western slopes of the Cascade Mts will get 10-15" of rain from today's front and the more severe one coming tomorrow and Wednesday. Historically, highway bridges over mountain streams do NOT withstand this sort of hydro assault in these parts. Pray for our bridges. All we can do is wait. The Atmospheric River goes all the way to the Philipines...

Up Periscope!

Remember Pearl Harbor!

"Farfromtruthen"

So, Volkswagen, who builds decent cars overall, and outstanding cars in some lines, got caught cheating on EPA emissions tests for their line of "clean diesels".

Pardon me, but why am I not insulted? The EPA's rules ARE the Law of the Land, are they not? A failure to obey them should bring sanctions, should it not? Wake up, George, your country has been INSULTED here by a foreign manufacturer, hasn't it?

Pardon me again while I yawn.

Will someone please tell me which people been hurt here (EPA Gauleiters are NOT "people")? Where are the millions of victims, where is the genocide? Hasn't Volkswagen done the "planet's health" a big solid by putting out millions of high-efficiency DIESEL engines replacing millions of GASOLINE-fueled engines? You do realize that diesel is a more efficient fuel to burn, don't you? You do realize that diesel fuel takes less emissions-damaging processing to refine from crude oil, don't you? You do realize that the entire idea of diesel-fueled cars should have been promoted far more vigorously starting about 40 years ago, don't you?

As I understand it, what VW did was create an engine-control chip that mis-reported what the emissions levels of the engines were, so the EPA gave their "blessing" when they otherwise might not have.

My experiences are more direct. A close friend has a VW compact wagon with the TDI engine, and cruising to Phoenix, AZ and back from Fairview, OR, he averaged over 45 MPG. I was a diesel "early adopter". I bought a new 1976 diesel Peugeot 504D sedan 38 years ago. It was the most fuel-efficient vehicle I have ever owned. This 40+ year-old design of diesel engine could crank out 35 MPG on long highway trips, and it got 28 MPG in the city.

I ask again, just who has Volkswagen victimized here with the #farfromtruthen scandal?

Further time-bomb to watch for: VW-designed diesels are in use in several AMERICAN car lines: the Chevy Cruz, the Dodge Ram half-ton pickups and the Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV, IIRC. What will the Emissions Nazis do about THOSE vehicles? Could it be time to re-examine the actual RESULTS of EPA emissions standards?

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C'mon, Rush...

According to this Newsmax article, Rush Limbaugh has hammered the MSM for sensationalizing the cold wave to further the aims of the Anthropogenic Global Warming Agenda fraudsters.

I have to call out Rush on this one. I have listened to maybe ten MSM TV reports on the cold wave, as they have been Story #1 for 4 days now, and not ONE of them mentioned ANY connection to any AGW bulltwaddle.

Yes, the previously-unheard term "Polar Vortex" was used, but the term was explained with the graphic Rush mentioned. That graphic is a standard scientific depiction of an upper-air low pressure area, which have been called (correctly) by the term "vortex" in the past. All the explanations of the displacement of the Arctic Low, or Polar Vortex, have been accurate.

If Rush had been premptive, he would have been correct, but he presented something as fact which didn't happen, the AGW connection to the new use of weather terminology, and I have seen none of that connection.

Technology changes, and so the language changes to present that new technology. That is normal and proper. The fight against the AGW fraud is trending in the favor of real science, and this trend is good news. Phony political hype against the trend of scientific correctness is not useful, no matter who slings that feces into the news-fan.

India needs a prayer...

They are about to get hit with a Cat-5 cyclone. There are 42 million people in the low-lying provinces in the storm's path. This is the poorest area of India, and it's about to be blasted by the worst weather it could ever see.

Pray for their souls. A lot of them will be set free...

More Global Warming bulltwaddle

...this time it's about the "acidification of the ocean" by carbon dioxide. If you've heard of this, you are to be congratulated: you keep up with Global Warming News.

If you believe it, you've been drinking the Kool-Aid, it HAS killed off your brain, and you are a Zombie.

Here's the refutation.

Professor Cliff Mass is an Adjunct Professor of Climate at the University of Washington. He usually leans more towards the weather side, but he is an absolute bear on the misuse of science.

Good on'ya, Professor.

Weather vs. Climate

...and this is why you worry about Weather, first, last and always.

For a more defined impact, here's the Coyote Kid's village of Custer, just 45 minutes West of Speedy City, two days into the melt-off.

The only saving grace for the blizzard area was the fact that it was an early-season storm, so there was no Arctic air mass to settle in afterward. Couple of months down the road, that paralyzing blizz would have been followed by a major freeze.

BTW, this was the storm that hit here in Stumptown about 5 days before...in weather terms, this is known as "progressive", i.e., storms that proceed from west to east. NOW do you see the evil in "progressive"?

Two to blow

Yep, had to get out the Fall/Winter Storm Checklist and run it. Now I'm convinced of the early/hard winter scenario that every weather source but NOAA seems to acknowledge.

NOAA, of course, is still stuck in AlGore Glowbull Warmening mode, and all their medium-long range weather models are tainted by their messing with the 30-year data so as to try to make AGW believable. I predicted these storms last weekend, when NOAA's models were calling for warm and sunny weather for this weekend. My prediction tool? I look at the whole Pacific Ocean on a Water Vapor satellite ensemble. It clearly shows the weather circulation patterns, and the dynamics of the atmosphere. When NOAA tickles their super-computers to produce model runs based on their 30-year cycle (the Pacific Decadal Oscillation), the first 15 years of that data in the computers is worthless, because the sea-surface temperatures were "massaged" to show the infamous, and bullshit "hockey stick" warming that supposedly was coming. It didn't come, but NOAA won't flush these data sets, so ALL their prediction products which depend on them suck. For example, have the hurricane forecasts been worth a shit in the past 10-15 years? No...

The forecast details are that the PacNorWest coastal zones get a pair of strong Pacific coastal storms this weekend. The Coast Range hills will get 6-10" of rain, the Cascade Mountains about the same, and the interior valleys 2-4", maybe more. There will also be wind, and the second storm, 980 hPa central pressure, is enhanced by the core remnants of former WestPac Typhoon Pabuk, and will generate Cat1 hurricane-force gusts on the coastal headlands, maybe 50 mph gusts here in the Willamette Valley.

The deciduous (leafy) trees still have all their leaves, and a pre-storm light rain has dampened the soil, so 40-50 mph gusts will take down some trees and their close-by neighborhood power lines. It could be quite the mess around here, come dawn Monday.

I've run the Stihl chain saw recently, just laid in 72 hours of generator gas and topped off the tank in the pickup. All the outside furniture is in Winter configuration, so now it's time to see if the Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers are up to playing rain games against California and Colorado Universities. Both of the local teams have home games today, and both Autzen and Reser Stadiums are open to the elements.

You may report the Schloss Rivrdog as ready for action, aye.

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Running report: 1525 PDT. Power down for about 30 seconds, but now have to spend 15 minutes resetting every thin digital in the house.....GRRRRRR

Running Report: 1840 PDT. Squall line passage. Hard to tell whether this is the cold front as well, the "back edge" is still 100 miles W on radar.

Running Report: 2140 PDT. "Back Edge" passed. Rain stopped for a few momments. I can hear the little brook 150 yards away, normally almost dry this time ofyear, roaring along, hopefully in it's banks, but probably just barely so.

 This is pretty much the end of Storm Two, # 3 is due tomorrow morning, supposed to be worse. BTW, the Oregon State QB set a school record for TD passes (6) in the rain, and right as the seond half of the Oregon Duck game getsgoing in the typhoon deluge, Oregon is up 48-3. Beavers and Ducks can do it in the water...

The Zeitgeist of ignorance

Warning: Philosophy ahead! Critical thought/analysis required!

That's a mouthful, but if you understand the Teutonic concept of zeitgeist, it is nothing less than the spirit which underlies thought.

Zeitgeist is neutral, it's a philosophical concept coming from the interpretation of how the human thought process works, and I won't go into who said what about it, read the Wiki for that. As an individual educated in the use of critical analysis, I have found that zeitgeist is useful to explain some of the underpinnings of more complex patterns of thought, for example, the political process.

Politics boils down to an application of power, one individual or set of individuals over another individual or another set. Politics is supposedly what you get when you replace the sword with the pen and paper, but that concept ignores the applications of power itself.

Power is ALWAYS projected as force, and in the end, it matters little whether power is projected by naked physical force (the sword), or by the more complex process of using words (the pen) to convince the recipient of the power-projection to accept the power of the person projecting it.

Stop me if you've heard this before, such as from the scribblings of Kant, or Marx, or Locke, to name just three who have trod this path....

(coffee break)

I arose this morning and grabbed my tablet, as I am a Modern Man. On the tablet is controlled my Facebook account, and on my News Feed is the timeline of a gracious lady of my acquaintance. On the lady's timeline, of late adorned with screed from energy-limiting and food-limiting Marxists, is an article about Vaccines and Autism, and a link to a book about same, with a "motivational poster" to boot:

The basic premise in that poster is laughable on it's face, but it DOES do an excellent job of pointing out the Zeitgeist of the whacko concept behind it.

This is part "big lie technique", part Earth religion, but mostly, a simple rejection of science.

Using Dr. Haley's premise, we can take any significant point on the common calendar, look up the day in a time-based history of mankind, find some invention and process which started on that day, and insert ourselves into History by making an unsupported association between something evil (or good) that has occurred since.

What I just defined is the Zeitgeist of Ignorance. Zeitgeist can, doesn't have to, include emotion. Emotion is used here ("it's about the children") to try to convince us that a common scientific practice, vaccinating our children against horrible childhood diseases, is somehow linked to an Evil, "autism".

I know about autism. I have an autistic child (now 40 years of age). You can't bamboozle me about Autism, I grew old handling it in my family. Our Government, in one of it's GOOD works, did an exhaustive study on the subject of childhood vaccination vs. autism. The study is science-based, and the science is very good and definitive, as well as repeatable for those who have the time and dollars to duplicate it. Vaccines don't cause Autism.

In Oregon, we have a case study in the danger of this belief system that blames Autism on vaccines. In the city of Ashland, OR, hard by the border of California on I-5, a significant number of parents of school-age children have been persuaded by this belief to not vaccinate their children. The inevitable outbreaks have not happened or have not been reported yet*, but a similar situation happened in SW Utah in 1996, and that WAS documented by the CDC.

Okay, what about Autism, you ask?

Autism is nothing less or more than a grab-bag term used to describe a set of behavioral abnormalities. The term itself is akin to using the word "retarded", which is not politically correct to use any more. Autism is not specific, and "increases" in the "autism rate" have come as science finds out more about these behavioral anomalies and have casually tossed their findings into the Autism basket. My daughter was originally described as " mildly retarded", but that term is not in favor any more, and was totally replaced by the use of the term "autism". What behavioral science has done is nothing more than change the name of their game. That name-change does NOT count scientifically as more disease, but those who would make their livelihoods from "researching" this "disease" will lie to you and say that it DOES count.

That, my friends, is the Zeitgeist of ignorance. As we crowd more and more people on the face of this planet Earth, we are more and more affected by the lack of scientific thinking. The effects of that affectation are serious, and Malthus wrote all about it.

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* the lack of accurate childhood disease reporting in Ashland is complicated by the fact that these earth-religion parents clustered there have networks, and they hold "pox parties" wherein they deliberately expose healthy children to measles, chicken pox or whatever else, they don't know what it is their kid may have, as their "workaround" so they don't have to get the eevill vaccinations for their kids.

 

Thursday Thuds, Burst-option selected on my unregistered Assault Thud Gun

Thud Subject One: Syria: Three-round burst selected:

• The US wants "teeth" in Putin's UN proposal to divest Assad's military of it's Chem weapons. Channeling Jack in "A few good men", "Teeth, you want teeth? You can't handle teeth".
• Note that Russia was the vendor for all these gas weapons, can fake up "1,000 tons" of them very easily. There is NO way to effectively inspect after the "hand-over". WE will have to trust Putin...and he has bridges for sale.
• Note that the US CIA has been giving "traceable" weapons, mostly AKs and LMGs, to the Free Syrian Army (but only the "good" militias"). Yeah, we really know how to do that "traceable" weapon thing. Just ask Eric Holder how that's done...

Thud Subject Two: Colorado anti-gun recall: Two round burst selected:

• Read the actual results. The recalls succeeded, but only because they were polling-place elections, had less than 20% turnout. Okay then, two GFW* pols are gone. The gun laws aren't, and the Kingfish, Gov. Hickenlooper, who signed the laws after hinting he'd veto them, wasn't touched. Phyrric Victory. Magpul's departure from CO is a much harder hit than this.
• Now we get to see how the NRA-ILA will use this "victory" to keep the save-the-2A ball rolling. My guess: a money solicitation is in the mail. Not being a member of NRA, I won't get one, but I'd bet on it happening. If the NRA would double-down now, and go after Hickenlooper, I might send some shekels their way, but I bet they don't go after the real prize.

Thud Subject Three: US Public Schools: Three-round burst selected:

• Just saw on Fox News this ayem that the idea of paying dropouts to come back to class is upon us again, like a bad 'Nam foot-rot that won't go away forty years later. Let's see, what do we REALLY accomplish with this idea: Nothing! These louts and loutesses who would come back for a $100 gift card will stay only until it's spent. While they are there, they will either sleep off their dope in class or worse, be disruptive to those who are there voluntarily to learn. Portland Public Schools tried this out up in the North End. It failed.
• Have you noted the drumfire of liberal writers in the liberal blatts trying to shoot down the No Child Left Behind testing? The harassing fire is getting louder. You will recall that this "program" was passed during the Bush Administration, when the (D)s had a lock on both houses of Congress. 
• NCLB is a Liberal-owned program, and even it's watered-down testing shows that schools are doing a worse and worse job on the kids all the time. The entire Liberal approach to education, that is, to just keep dumbing the lesson plans down until the dummies finally can "get" them, has failed.

Thud Subject Four: Obama masked bandit: Full-auto, empty the magazine!

• Check it out. Now stay tuned on this subject to see if this WHITE guy is charged with racial intimidation for wearing an Obama mask during a bank robbery. Get your bets down!

Thud Subject Five: Climate Hooey: Reload, fire another full-auto magazine:

• New study finds that out of 117 recent model-based climate studies, only three were "roughly accurate", and the other 114 "over-estimated the amount of warming" on the average, the over-estimations averaged on the order of double. That is not science, that is propaganda, and not very good propaganda at that.

That's it, readers. Your thud-gun recoil therapy for this week.

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* GFW (Gun Fearing Wuss), a term coined by the former gun-blogger and 2A-defender Kim duToit. 

 

The GMO "war" is genocide

The Left's most ardent "grass roots" movement, now that they have their grass, seems to be the fight against GMOs, Genetically Modified Organisms. In that group must go ALL the food grains and ALL the farm-raised animal protein, both livestock and fish.

Here's a clue for the Left, and their hippoids (combination of a hippie and a hemorrhoid) who are advocating to remove GMOs from the world's food supply:

There won't BE any food supply without GMOs.

That means famine. Planned famine is genocide. You anti-GMO whackos are advocating for genocide, same as if you advocate for tribal warfare in Central Africa, or Jewish Pogroms in the Middle East.

You people need to lower your anti-GMO banner NOW.

I'm not so sure that GMO isn't a Socialist stalking horse. The anti-GMO fanatics seem to want to make an apples-and-oranges argument by slipping into their GMO screed something about evil profit-making in agribusiness. Is this their REAL motive? Removing GMO seed grain or veterinary medicines to help livestock and farmed fish thrive doesn't seem acceptable on ANY level, so will they then just fall back to their pre-planned position and demand socialization of all agriculture?

Here's the Rivrdog position: Do you want all GMO food labeled as such? Easy. Just put a sign on the front doors of all grocery stores, "All food sold here is GMO, unless otherwise labeled" That accomplishes this boneheaded movement's goal, doesn't it? Even if you go into the most expensive vegan hippie food boutique, you will find they sell, at outrageous prices, almost all-GMO food, because there has been NO non-GMO seed produced for at least a century, save for a few small test plots that are hand-cultivated. Even if food is "organically-grown", it is still GMO because of the genetically-modified seed it was grown from. "Organic" does not mean "non-GMO".

The only food grains that are non-GMO are such grains that grow without cultivation in the wildland, such as millet or wild rice. Good luck on gathering enough of that to make into food for more than a handful of people. The Native Americans couldn't do it very successfully, and their population was ALWAYS limited by famine and starvation (until the white people limited it forever by disease and bullets).

Nope, the anti-GMO Movement (google that) is a Socialist farce, like the war on fossil fuel, which is in plentiful supply, but cheap energy promotes capitalism, and the Socialists can't have that, can they?