July 11, 2017 Night

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Good evening! Partly clear and 74 degrees in Delmar, NY. Calm wind. Nice evening with quite a few fireflies but quite muggy. The dew point is 68 degrees. The muggy weather ends Friday around 10 am. It didn’t seem so muggy earlier but now it’s muggy as I sit out back with the fan blowing on me, helping to keep me cool. 

It was a nice evening down at the park for sure and with the fan out back it’s reasonable but I’m sure when I go in later I will have to make sure to turn the big box fan on and leave it blowing across my bed all night. 

I have my new cell phone up and running. I didn’t want to activate it until I had my new phone safely in its case. That 4G LTE can really chew through data if you’re not careful. Going to make sure whenever I have Wi-Fi that I use it otherwise that 8 gigs of data will be gone before I know it. At least turning off data service at night is easy with this phone. 

Tonight will have patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, partly cloudy, with a low of 66 degrees at 4am. Three degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 68 at 10pm. Light and variable wind. In 2016, we had cloudy skies. It got down to 54 degrees. The record low of 44 occurred back in 1978.

Tonight will have a Waning Gibbous Moon. The Last Quarter Moon is on Sunday night with a chance of showers. The Strugeon Moon is on Monday, August 7th. The sun will rise at 5:28 am with the first light at 4:54 am, which is 47 seconds later than yesterday. Tonight will have 8 hours and 56 minutes of darkness, an increase of one minute and 19 seconds over last night. Nights are definitely getting longer. It seemed like it got dark relatively early tonight at park but that may be partially due to clouds coming in. 

Tomorrow will have patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high of 87 degrees at 4pm. Five degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 70 at 10am. Light and variable wind. Hazy, hot and humid weather. A year ago, we had cloudy skies. The high last year was 86 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 1935.

Right now, a split verdict on the weekend. Saturday, a chance of showers before 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 80. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 65 at 7pm. Sunday, a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Maximum dew point of 66 at 7pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 83 degrees.

In other words, the weekend forecast is calling for lots of hazy, hot and humid weather. Summer. I’m really torn about going to White House versus Piseco Powley Road. The later is such a piece of heaven but then again it’s not going away tomorrow. White House would be nice but its not quite as remote as I would be heading into Wells and maybe Speculator to fish, swim, and paddle. I do really want to try out paddling that quiet section of Sacandaga River above Auger Falls. And also maybe do the Kunjamunk and hopefully not flip my kayak crossing the beaver dam on that creek. I would like a nice campsite either down at Powley Bridge or better yet in the sand plains of Powley Place at least one more time before summer is done so I can enjoy the stars. That said, summer is not done yet by any stretch of imagination – but by the time I return from my summer vacation it will already be August or at least the following weekend it will be. Thursday night I have to get packed.  

I really should head in and retire to bed shortly. Tomorrow I’m determined to get an early enough of a start so I can walk down to the express bus and get some exercise to boot before work – and show up to the office early as a sweaty pig from the humidity. 

In four weeks on August 8 the sun will be setting at 8:06 pm, which is 27 minutes and 19 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2016 on that day, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 84 and 59 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 82 and 61 degrees. The record high of 95 degrees was set back in 1983.

Looking ahead, August 1st is in 3 weeks, Altamont Fair Opens is in 5 weeks, September 11th is in 2 months, Friday the 13th (October) is in 12 weeks, Election Day 2017 is in 17 weeks, Average High is 40 is in 18 weeks, Election Day 2018 is in 69 weeks and Election Day 2020 is in 173 weeks.

Good night. Sleep well and hopefully the humidity won’t keep you up all night. 

Our Golden Age

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Despite all the complaints of the mainstream media, we are really living in an golden age in America. The misery index – the combination of low unemployment and low inflation is one of the lowest levels on record. The average family takes home almost a third more even when you adjust for inflation. Nearly every home today has running hot water – which was rare for working people have 50 years ago. Indeed more homes have high speed internet in 2016, the homes had hot showers in 1960. Air pollution is at its lowest levels in at least 50 years, and in our cities the lowest since the industrial revolution. Crime is at lowest level in nearly 60 years. Income tax in New York State is the lowest levels in 60 years. 

Modern life is good for most Americans. 

Of course the media and politicians will never say that. Politicians have to lie to the public and emphasize the worse so they can denounce their opponents and propose policy solutions. The media glories the limited crime and controversy, because they know its a effective tool to gain viewers so they can sell Kia Automobiles and Colgate Dish Detergent. Police, District Attorneys, Military officers always hype the threat to public order on grounds that they can demand fatter budgets and more patronage staff. Most of the modern crisis facing our country is overhyped to make the establishment rich. 

Prominent Democratic Fundraisers Realign to Lobby for Trump’s Agenda

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Prominent Democratic Fundraisers Realign to Lobby for Trump’s Agenda

"Lobbying records show that some Democratic fundraisers, who raised record amounts of campaign cash for Clinton, are now retained by top telecom interests to help repeal the strong net neutrality protections established during the Obama administration."

"Others are working on behalf of for-profit prisons on detention issues, while others still are paid to help corporate interests pushing alongside Trump to weaken financial regulations. At least one prominent Clinton backer is working for a health insurance company on a provision that was included in the House Republican bill to gut the Affordable Care Act."

"While Republican lobbyists are more in demand, liberal lobbyists are doing brisk business that has them reaching out to fellow Democrats to endorse — or at least tamp down vocal opposition to — Trump agenda items."

How many die each year?

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US police shootings: How many die each year?

"At the same time the number of police officers has increased in the US. There are a quarter of a million more police officers working today than there were three decades ago."

"So when you consider the number of officers killed per 100,000, there has been a dramatic decrease. The annual per capita number of officers killed has dropped from 24 per 100,000 in the 10 years to 1980 to 7.3 per 100,000 in the 10 years to 2013 (the last year for which there is good data)."

"This chimes with a bigger trend, which is a steady reduction in crime, including homicides."