Lebanon on brink of civil war
Bob Morris @ 15:45 Category: Unfiled;
May 9, 2008
Race-baiting is not a winning strategy
Bob Morris @ 11:21 Category: Election 2008 Tags: Clinton;
Call DNC Chair Howard Dean and Tell Him to Stop the Clinton Campaign’s race-baiting
In the last few days, a desperate Clinton campaign has turned to race-baiting as its primary strategy. Tell DNC Chair Howard Dean to insist that if she plans to continue her campaign, Sen. Clinton must end her strategy of racial division.
Color of Change has more information and a suggested calling script.
Why credit card debt is a bad idea
Bob Morris @ 06:44 Category: Credit crisis;
Say a consumer has $10,000 of credit-card debt with a 20% interest rate and the minimum payment is calculated by taking 2.5% of the average daily balance. It will take more than 50 years to pay off the balance with just the minimum payments — if no further debt is added — and cost nearly $20,000 in interest charges, according to City National Bank’s online calculator. That doesn’t include additional spending, fees for late payments, potential interest-rate hikes or other charges the consumer may incur.
Credit card debt has been soaring, no doubt at least partly due to the HELOC money machine getting turned off for many. Loaning money to those who may not be able to repay has been hugely profitable, so far, for credit card companies. But haven’t we heard and seen this all before with subprime? The credit card bubble will burst too.
Our escrow lurches forward
Bob Morris @ 00:25 Category: Unfiled;
While the sale of our house was scheduled to happen several days ago, it now appears it’ll happen next week. Sue and I and all the agents and lawyers involved (in CT, lawyers close a real estate deal), all see the close of escrow happening quite soon.
It’s been a bumpy process, but even after hitting seeming speed bumps, it has always lurched forward towards the desired conclusion.
And I shall speak no more about it here until it has closed and the money is in our bank account!
We officially live in South San Francisco now, in a brand new, modern apartment complex with all the amenities. It’s across the street from a BART station and there’s a Trader Joe’s at the end of our building. For non-Californians, Trader Joe’s enjoys and iconic status here and soon enough I’ll be back at my favorite geek store chain, the wondrous Fry’s Electronics.
May 8, 2008
The US electrical grid. Aging and inadequate
Bob Morris @ 18:44 Category: Unfiled;
The Oil Drum explains why, in one of their long, well-researched and thought-out posts, hos the US electrical grid came to be in such precarious shape.
Their sombre conclusion.
I am having a very difficult time seeing how this can be done. There are just too many entities and too many funding issues to make a transition from a neglected old system to a much-improved new system in a reasonable length of time. Our current economic model seeks growth and the maximization of profits. This economic model does not facilitate large groups of entities working together for the common good.
What we need is power to the people, by the people, for the people.
Is the housing crisis bottoming out?
Bob Morris @ 15:37 Category: Credit crisis;
The WSJ thinks so. Calculated Risk isn’t so sure.
It does appear that prices in hard-hit areas have dropped enough that long-term investors and vultures are starting to buy. So, that might imply a bottom is forming. We shall see.
Spy cameras have no effect on crime in Britain
Bob Morris @ 11:08 Category: Unfiled;
Britain has spent billions installing spy cameras in an Orwellian attempt to monitor the population and presumable reduce crime. However, the spy cams have had virtually no effect on stopping crime.
The food crisis. Misery is profitable
Bob Morris @ 06:33 Category: Unfiled;
Celcias details how “free trade” and onerous terms forced by banks upon Third World countries directly cause food prices to rise.
Recipients of IMF and World Bank loans must open their borders to the influx of highly subsidised agricultural produce from countries like the U.S. of A., who sell their food at below the cost of production (a practice called ‘dumping‘), undercutting local producers and putting them out of business — causing mass urbanisation as millions leave their fields to work or beg in cities, as well as swelling numbers of illegal immigrants into the North.
Yet those very same banks insist that Third World countries do not subsidize their crops, even as the US continues to.
More Fugs
Bob Morris @ 01:19 Category: Unfiled Tags: Fugs;
Ed Sanders explains how the Fugs ran into censorship problems from mass media and police problems when they started doing music (but were never hassled when just doing poetry prior to that.) This from about ‘65 or so. Somethings never change, eh?
Also has live footage of some of that very same music.
May 7, 2008
Another bubble bursts
Bob Morris @ 19:21 Category: Unfiled;
This one is SUVs. Owners are trying to unload their gas-guzzling behemoths.
After paying $75 to fill his black Dodge Ram pickup truck for the third time in a week, Douglas Chrystall couldn’t take it anymore.
“The SUV craze was a bubble and now it is bursting,” said George Hoffer, an economics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University whose research focuses on the automotive industry. “It’s an irrational vehicle. It’ll never come back.”
Detriot, and particularly Ford, delighted in making SUVs because the profit margin was so large. Meanwhile, Japanese automakers concentrated on smaller, more economical cars. Detriot made the same error in the 70’s too. I guess they never learn.
Large trucks can be designed to be considerably more fuel-efficient. And we certainly need large trucks. But not for hauling around soccer moms.
Spinning blimp wind turbine
Bob Morris @ 14:06 Category: Unfiled, Wind turbines;
It’s in beta. Could it work? Strong, dependable tethering to the ground would seem to be crucial here!
So, when will Hillary get it?
Bob Morris @ 10:44 Category: Election 2008 Tags: Clinton, Obama;
Connecticut vs. California
Bob Morris @ 07:41 Category: Unfiled;
A former Connecticut state representative slams the comatose state government in a recent Op-Ed in the Hartford Courant. Job and business growth in Connecticut is nonexistent, and if it wasn’t for the super-wealthy Greenwich area, things would be much worse. Yes, Connecticut still has the highest per capita income of any state, but given the following, how much longer can that last?
From 1989 to 2005, while the nation witnessed job growth of 24 percent, the number of jobs in Connecticut dropped by 0.2 percent, placing us dead last — 50th — in the nation in job growth.
Over the past 15 years, the income gain for Connecticut’s middle-income families (the middle 20 percent) was barely half the national average, which ranked us 49th worst in the country as measured by the change in average real income.
Considering that Greenwich CT is the hedge fund capital of the country and that many hedge funds are currently imploding with more expected to do so, it seems obvious that Greenwich may not be able to prop up the state financially much longer. Is anyone at the Connecticut state level thinking about this? Well, of course not.
Instead, Connecticut’s solution, as the Op-Ed points out, is to constantly raise taxes and get deeper in debt while steadfastly refusing to think, much less do something about their obvious and growing problems.
When Sue and I moved to CT from CA in 2007 (I grew up in CT), we thought the cost of living would be less. It’s not. Connecticut property taxes are at nosebleed levels. The cost of heating oil and electricity is extremely steep. Gasoline is taxed excessively here too. Everything, for that matter, seems heavily taxed.
These are among the reasons we’ve moved back to CA. Yes, the California state government has huge problems. But, unlike Connecticut, they know it and are trying to do something about it. Never thought I’d say this, but I’m be glad to be back in a state where Arnold is governor. At least the California government is awake, has ideas, and is actively trying to solve problems. Contrast this with the CT governor who a few months back announced a plan to revitalize the state. Her plan was to put cameras on one part of an interstate to catch speeders and to give businesses a $250 rebate, and I think she was unclear why people thought these plans were inadequate to the point of being ludicrous.
Before psychedelia, before punk, before all of it
Bob Morris @ 01:17 Category: Unfiled Tags: Fugs;
… were The Fugs, maybe the first DIY / protest band ever. (This was recorded sometime in the mid 60’s.)
They are still recording and their recent The Fugs Final CD Vol. 1 is maybe their best ever. Seriously. Vol. 2 is coming soon. Website.
They had a profound impact on my tender young psyche and I thank them for it.
May 6, 2008
Hi, I’m RoboBug
Bob Morris @ 18:35 Category: Unfiled;
The military is using me for recon. It might be best to smile when you see me else they might send in an air strike. Of course they will never ever use me to spy on civilians and activists.
Solar geothermal hybrid home
Bob Morris @ 11:45 Category: Renewable energy, Solar power Tags: geothermal;
This award winning house in Wisconsin gets 70-80% of its heat from the sun and earth with passive solar energy and geothermal radiant slab hydronic heating.
Plus, the price wasn’t substantially higher than a regular house. It was all in the design that allowed a house in quite cold Wisconsin to heat itself through solar, geothermal, and a brick fireplace that radiates heat.
Outback town to get free power
Bob Morris @ 06:33 Category: Renewable energy Tags: geothermal;
It will be a demonstration of how hot rocks geothermal is a viable option. So, they will build a 1 MW plant and the 12 residents of the town will get free power.
These are exciting times for power generation, with all manner of new ideas being tried and tested. Some, undoubtedly, will go mainstream. Other may remain niche sources, but hey, you you live near geothermal sources, they why get power from other sources that may be miles away. Localized power generation from micro sources can provide plenty of power too.
Superdelegates must follow the will of voters
Bob Morris @ 01:42 Category: Election 2008 Tags: Clinton, Obama;
Demand that the Democratic Party defend democracy
Leaders of the Democratic Party are playing a dangerous game — risking the credibility of the party to hand Hillary Clinton the nomination against the will of voters. Heading down this path means disenfranchising millions of voters and legitimizing a campaign strategy that has displayed a clear pattern of race baiting and divisive politics.
May 5, 2008
Sometimes the right thing to do is also good business
Bob Morris @ 18:45 Category: Credit crisis;
Buffett buys subprime mortgages, freezes resets
Sure, they probably bought the mortgages cheap. But the best way to get mortgages paid is to insure people can afford to stay in their homes. That’s why they didn’t raise the rates even though they could. This was done by Clayton Homes, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway that makes and finances manufactured homes. So, in a very real way, they are providing huge support to one of the most vulnerable group of homeowners, those owning manufactured home bought with subprime mortgages. This is a good thing, indeed.
We’re in SF now
Bob Morris @ 18:22 Category: Unfiled;
However it now appears that our house in CT may not be selling on schedule. We will now for sure in the next few days. If it doesn’t, then we will have to scramble for the next couple of months until the house sells.
Onward.
Mugabe and Zimbabwe
Bob Morris @ 13:25 Category: Unfiled;
The reason why Mugabe has been able to hang onto power for so long, despite naked repression and economic meltdown, long after the exhaustion of his brand of nationalism, is that the politics of the opposition leadership has genuinely been underwhelming.
Perhaps. Mugabe did attempt to institute badly needed land reforms. But he broke the law in doing so and then parcelled out the land to cronies, so this is hardly exemplary. Once a thug has installed himself in power, he can be difficult to remove. So, rather than blame the opposition, who routinely get jailed and tortured, I say, blame Mugabe.
Them Belly Full But We Hungry
Bob Morris @ 08:31 Category: Unfiled Tags: food shortages;
“Bob Marley in 1976 — an anthem for 2008″ says Climate and Capitalism, who has the full lyrics
Them belly full but we hungry.
A hungry mob is a angry mob.
A rain a-fall but the dirt it tough;
A pot a-cook but the food no ‘nough.
The king is dead
Bob Morris @ 03:24 Category: Unfiled;
… Long live the King.
That would be the euro.
George Bush, the Iraq War, and a spineless, supine “opposition” have all contributed mightily to the steady fall of the US as a world power respected by many and the dollar as the de facto world currency. But thanks to the zealots in the White House and a Democratic Congress that consistently over time has refused to grow a spine, well, eight years ago, no one would have predicted the dollar would have fallen so far and so badly. Yet it has.
Will it come back some? Sure. But it’ll never be the undisputed champ again.
Actually, no
Bob Morris @ 00:11 Category: Unfiled;
Instead, I’d say he was an unrepentant, calculating sociopath trying to manipulate and control yet another situation and group of people.
May 4, 2008
Mexico to reduce oil shipments to the US
Bob Morris @ 22:21 Category: Peak oil, Unfiled;
This due to decreased production in their monster Cantrell field. They say it could be for up to two years, but given that Cantrell is in decline, it’s difficult to see how production will ever return to what it was, something which will have profound impact upon both the US and Mexico.
