How Popular Is Donald Trump?
March 29, 2017 9 AM Update
I was totally sure that the rain would be done for my morning commute. Unfortunately it wasn’t so I had to run back upstairs and get the umbrella. Still a pretty dreary morning with the mercury at 39 degrees. Maybe it will climb another ten degrees by afternoon with more sun. I made the bus in time, but it was a bit close, with the extra time I needed to run back upstairs and grab my umbrella from the closet — and the bus was running early.
Today is Wednesday, and as I like to say, Deja Moo. You spend enough time in Albany things just become more predictable. I can’t believe it is only Wednesday, maybe because I’m dreading the second half of the week. I’m sure the weekend is coming quickly. At any rate, the bus is making good time downtown on this rainy morning. The big blizzard of a few weeks ago is quickly melting away. I’m hoping we have a fairly wet and warm spring going forward, as I look forward to getting out camping as soon as a few weeks from now.
The sun will set at 7:18 pm with dusk around 7:47 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. Today will have 12 hours and 38 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 54 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 29 degrees at 6am. Two degrees below normal. Northwest wind 6 to 13 mph. In 2016, it got down to 27 degrees under partly clear skies. The record low of 7 occurred back in 1970. Nights aren’t as cold as they once were now that April is nye.
Watched the PBS Newshour and made Marconi and Cheese for dinner last night. Lots of vegetables and meat and anything else I could find to put in the pot. The Donald’s views on climate change are just disgusting, as are most of his policy proposals he has put forward. I don’t even know why I watch the news this day, except in disdain for such an idiot. We are just setting our country back, and we are going to spend millions if not billions undoing the damage our elected president has done, the next time a Democrat wins back the office. He’s done some stuff, but he’s not even been all the great on the Second Amendment or protecting our public lands from those that want to declare them all as wilderness.
Got to bed before 9 PM last night, and while I spent some time playing with my phone, I think i got good nights sleep. I intentionally left the window blinds open, hoping for bright blue skies and sun to wake me in the morning, but that was not to be. I hear the weather is going to be quite a bit nicer come Thursday though.
Today marks the late Eugene McCarthy’s birthday, the 1968 anti-war presidential candidate, and also 44 years since the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War, a bitter point still to this day for many on the political right who still blame those dirty hippies for ruining America. I’m pretty sure when the Donald talks about Making America Great Again, he is still trying to attack the long-hairs who have long cut their hair. Politicians should stop obsessing over something that ended nearly a half century ago.
Looking , there are 3 weeks until Average High is 60 when the sun will be setting at 7:42 pm with dusk at 8:12 pm. On that day in 2016, we had rain and temperatures between 65 and 44 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 60 degrees. We hit a record high of 92 back in 1976.
Upstate’s Population is Small and Declining — But That’s Not New
Upstate New York has for a long time been a small part of the otherwise urban and metropolitian state, consisting of about 1/3rd of the state’s population, a number that declined, especially since the 1980s.
Now, the MTA Region has seen it’s population grow while Upstate’s population has declined.
Indeed, all but a few upstate counties have seen notable population declines.
Manufacturing in our state, a high cost state with many regulations, has been on a long decline.
However, overall jobs statewide have increased in recent years.
And upstate — despite the decline of manufacturing, has relative low levels of unemployment. Hamilton County, due to it’s seasonal economy, has long had very high unemployment in the winter and lower unemployment in the summer.
Upstate cities have fared poorly in recent years, taking the brunt of the state’s population losses — as people leave the state — others are choosing to move out of troubled cities to sprawling suburbs.
As the economy continues to change and New York City becomes an even larger megapolis, it seems like Upstate New York will continue to stagnate and decline, only propped up by the wealth of the metropolitan region, and those second homeowners who head up north to enjoy Upstate’s many recreational resources.
March 29, 2017 Morning
Good morning! Last night I intentionally left the curtains up in hope of waking to a sunny day. No luck. Rain and 41 degrees here in Delmar. There is a north-northwest breeze at 9 mph. The skies should clear mid morning.
Today will be partly sunny, with a high of 49 degrees at 3pm. One degree below normal. Northwest wind 8 to 14 mph. That wind will be a bit chilly but will help to dry up the mud. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies and a high of 46 degrees. The record high of 85 was set in 1946. 5.6 inches of snow fell back in 1984.
Under Cuomo, upstate’s painful decline goes on
"The state's recent population decline was slight — 1,900 people from mid-2015 to mid-2016, according to newly released census numbers.
But we all know that real deterioration is happening across broad swaths of upstate New York, where the decline would be staggering if we hadn't grown so used to it.
Since 2010, the Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton and Glens Falls metro areas have all lost population. The Capital Region is an outlier, thankfully, growing by 1.3 percent over the period.
Some rural areas are in free fall. The population of Delaware County is down 5.1 percent just since 2010. In Hamilton County, it's 6.2 percent."