Normalizing fascists

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Normalizing fascists

"When Hitler’s party won influence in Parliament, and even after he was made chancellor of Germany in 1933 – about a year and a half before seizing dictatorial power – many American press outlets judged that he would either be outplayed by more traditional politicians or that he would have to become more moderate. Sure, he had a following, but his followers were “impressionable voters” duped by “radical doctrines and quack remedies,” claimed the Washington Post. Now that Hitler actually had to operate within a government the “sober” politicians would “submerge” this movement, according to The New York Times and Christian Science Monitor. A “keen sense of dramatic instinct” was not enough. When it came to time to govern, his lack of “gravity” and “profundity of thought” would be exposed."

Checks are the economic dinosaurs Americans won’t give up

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Checks are the economic dinosaurs Americans won’t give up

"Online payment systems like Venmo and Paypal are benchmarks of the digital era of banking that we're living in. There's also Zelle, a new peer-to-peer payment app launched by big banks like J.P. Morgan and Bank of America. So you might expect paper checks to be disappearing, but Americans just won't let their checkbooks go. In the U.S., people wrote about 38 checks on average in 2015, compared to 18 in Canada, 8 in the U.K., and almost none in Germany. Katie Robertson wrote a piece about Americans’ attachment to checks for Bloomberg. Marketplace's Kai Ryssdal spoke to her about why Americans are refusing to get with the economic times. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation. "

You’re Fired! – 98 Acres in Albany

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You’re Fired! – 98 Acres in Albany

"Of the more than 90 prime contractors and hundreds of subcontractors at the South Mall site, only one was ever fired by the State of New York: The Foster-Lipkins Corporation, builder of the Corning Tower and the Swan Street Motor Vehicle Building. The contractor’s performance on the 44-story tower was, at times, dangerous and embarrassing. And it was ultimately costly to the State. Yet firing Foster-Lipkins was not an easy choice for the South Mall construction coordinators."

August 9, 2017 8 AM Update

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Listening to Glen Campbell’s Galveston, imagining I was John Steinbeck in his Travels with Charlie, driving somewhere across the mid west in a pickup truck, three on the tree with a camper on the bed, listening to some small town country music AM radio. An era I only know by the books I’ve read. It’s an era long gone, with most of the small towns bypassed by the freeway, smokestack industries gone, and music played only by Clear Channel and MP3s. RIP, Glen Campbell.  

While we listen to those old Glen Campbell records with sadness, we have a great day of summer ahead of us. Mostly sunny and 73 degrees in Albany. Calm wind. The dew point is 53 degrees.  Get out and enjoy it.  Going to be a beautiful late summer day. Two weeks from now will be the last day with Average High of 80.

Today will be sunny, with a high of 82 degrees at 4pm. Typical temperature, and otherwise beautiful for today. Maximum dew point of 59 at 12pm. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, it was a bit warmer but with more clouds. In 2016, had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 86 degrees. The record high of 96 was set in 2001.

The sun will set at 8:04 pm with dusk around 8:35 pm, which is one minute and 21 seconds earlier than yesterday. At sunset, look for partly clear conditions and 74 degrees. The dew point will be 60 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 5 mph. Today will have 14 hours and 7 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 25 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 60 degrees at 5am. One degrees below normal. Maximum dew point of 60 at 8pm. West wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. In 2016, we had mostly cloudy skies. It became humid as the night progressed. It got down to 70 degrees. The record low of 48 occurred back in 1955.

The weekend forecast has improved quite a bit over the past few days. I might head up to Piseco-Powley Road, depending on how it all plays out as Friday approaches. That said, I’m not sure if the weather up north will be as nice as down here. I would like to get to the potholers at least one more time, before it gets too cold.  Although who knows, the very long range predictions are calling for a mild autumn. If it’s 90 degrees and it’s September, the potholers are just as fun as summer. They don’t close them down like the state parks pools.

The long range looks quite good for the weekend after next. I am watching that for taking an extended weekend, and possibly going out to the Finger Lakes to watch the eclipse. I don’t have the days off except eclipse day, but if it’s hot and sunny, I’ll make it work. Or so I hope.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Last Day with Average High of 80 when the sun will be setting at 7:43 pm with dusk at 8:13 pm. On that day in 2016, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 80 and 50 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 80 degrees. We hit a record high of 94 back in 1947.