“When do we get to use the guns?”

Dear Jody:

Yesterday I saw a clip on the news where an attendee at a right-wing meeting in Idaho asked: “When do we get to use the guns?” https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/10/27/charlie-kirk-denounces-violence-mh-orig.cnn He further clarified, wanting to know how many elections had to be stolen before we kill them.

He has been told the election was stolen. No one has given him any evidence the elections was stolen. Rather he as been told about irregularities (not specified), dead people voting (yes a couple voted for Trump). Rigged voting machines (again, no evidence and even the Arizona “Fruadit” (Cyber Ninjas, and now the Arizona folks who hired them say they are in breach of contract https://www.newsweek.com/gop-arizona-senate-president-says-cyber-ninjas-breach-contract-following-audit-1643311 ) showed Biden won there with even a few more votes) and a whole host of other vague assertions. But, no one has ever been able to show any evidence to support all these wild claims. No, the only thing people like the guy who wants to know “When do we get to use the guns” knows is that his candidate lost (did not get put back in office or stay in office. He is not alone in this false view of the election. Indeed, still 27 to 29 percent of the electorate (60% of the Republicans) believe these lies (that the election was stolen).

As you know, I do think it is because the people who hold these views are racist, white supremacists, or white nationalists, However, I do not think all racists think the election was stolen. So, given that, how does the country get the believers in the Big Lie back to a more subjective reality?

I do want to ask the fellow “Who are you going to kill” “How much evidence do you need before you shoot them?” “Would you shoot election cheats if they turned out to be Republicans or Donald Trump himself?” then too I think I would want to tell the fellow that if others tell you the election was stolen and you need to shoot some one, remember that Donald Trump told January 6^th protesters that he was going to march to the Capitol with them to stop the steal. He didn’t march with them. At this point 684 people have been charged in the “insurrection” on January 6th. None of the speakers who encouraged the people to go to the capital, including Donald Trump, have been charged. I would also tell him, it is likely that if you do believe their lies and do shoot someone, you are most likely to be arrested, but those who egged you on are not likely to have to face the music—you, however, will face a jury of your peers. So, whatever your reasons for wanting to believe the lies about stolen elections, are they worth a long time in jail for murder or attempted murder? If he needs evidence of what I am saying, he can check at https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases for the individuals charged and ask those who went the to Capitol after being egged on by Donald Trump if it was worth it. Then he should member none of those arrest actually shot someone, as he is asking to do. But then I forget, he doesn’t seem to need evidence, only lies to encourage him to kill someone.

Now for rain. It continues today and tonight. Then late tomorrow the weather app is promising some sunshine. We are long overdue. This morning it was blustery and wet—rain when I fed Chuck the Duck and his minions. The mallard portion of the minions are getting braver and start toward the Palisade when I pull to a stop in the parking lot. However they do not get much closer than 10 years until Chuck and the two female Indian Runners literally come running to where I am. At that point the mallards follow, gingerly, but they follow. Still as they feed, any sudden movement or loud noise causes a duck stampede—by air and land, mostly by air. But then they return to the cracked corn on the beach.

Nancy sends her love. Stay safe, healthy, and having fun. Love, Ed

And here is one from May 1, 2018

This post appears on deartedandjody today

Grocery Bags

Dear Jody:

Thank you for reading my 44 episode story, Texas Vigilantes. If you have any comments, suggestions or the like I would be pleased to receive them.

By State Law, on the first of October the local grocery stores started charging eight cents for each grocery bag one used. Winco upgraded their plastic bags to very sturdy reusable ones. Fred Meyers (Kroger) makes a sturdy paper bag with handles available. Walmart, however, stuck with their flimsy plastic bags. (The law allows them a ‘reasonable’ time to use up any bags they had in stock prior to the law going into effect.) In the past, rather than throwing the flimsily plastic bags out, if they did not have holes I them, I used them for Kitty Litter and for picking up trash on the side of the road and at the boat ramp. Fortunately, I saved a lot of the flimsy shopping bags so I will not have to make adjustments in dealing with kitty litter or policing trash.

For several years (ever since we moved her in 2007), Winco paid shoppers five cents a bag for every reusable bag the shopper brought in for use in taking their groceries home. That makes eight cents seem a bit excessive. But that is probably a sign of my age rather than the eight cents being excessive. Everything seems expensive, given my memory of what they used to cost. I remember 40 years ago when my father stopped buying things because they were too expensive. Rather he let mom do ALL the buying.

I woke up at 3 this morning. The room was bright. So I got dressed and went out on the porch to shoot the moon. When I got up again for dawn and feeding the ducks, we were fogged in with temperatures in the mid-30s.

I shoot the moon every chance I get. Chances have been few and far between of late. This is the cloudy season (and will remain so for five months).

Early yesterday evening there was a break in the clouds. They began to clear just before sundown

and apparently stayed that way until I got up at 3 to shoot the moon.

The native fall colors in this part of the world are predominately yellow. However, the folks who put trees in parking lots added some maple.

Nancy sends her love. Stay safe, healthy, and having fun. Love, Ed

On Tyranny & Episode 38 of Texas vigilantes

Dear Jody:

When I awoke this morning the thermometer read 33 degrees F. Brrrrr. I guess I should have expected it, for yesterday afternoon, a front came through that dropped hail on us for about 20 minutes and dropped the temperature more than 15 degrees. Nonetheless, there were photo opportunities at sundown.

As I watch the current political “situation” I am struck by how little we seem to have learned from history, especially recent history. There is a book, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, 2017, by Timothy Snyder, that lays out how to spot and deal with the early signs of authoritarianism. Unfortunately a tyrant-wannabe could use it as a template for going about establishing his or her tyrannical rule. In one sense we are lucky that Donald Trump does not read. Nevertheless Trump did establish that a national political figure can get away with a lot of illegal (his personal finance alone will establish the illegalities) and norm busting behaviors and actions. It would seem that a number of state governors, Representatives, Senators, and candidates have picked up on that and are pushing norms and legalities too. Since the arrangement of where Republicans and Democrats live in this county is a bit skewed giving the Republicans control over more states, this tendency to white supremacy and tyrannical rule becomes especially problematic. For it is becoming clearer as the days go by that we do live in an inherently white privileged country. I do suspect that the blindness to the lessons of the Twentieth Century is because too many of our fellow citizens gave a stake, or think they do, in maintaining white privilege. Often they do not even realize what their inclination is. But, some believe it so strongly that it is fairly certain that we have not seen the last of episodes such as we saw on January 6.

Episode 38 of Texas Vigilantes is appended below.

Nancy sends her love. Stay safe, healthy, and having fun. Love, Ed

Two Weeks After the Election

Texas Vigilantes 038

The Governor’s Kitchen Cabinet

((1029 words in body of text)

“Now as I understand your filing counselor,” said Judge Theodore Oliver MacDonald, “you want me to issue a writ of mandamus to make ADA Chavez swear to uphold the Constitution the voters approved what, ten days ago?”

“Two weeks ago today, your Honor,” Frank Wilson replied.

“I’ll take that for a yes,” replied Judge MacDonald. “Ms. Chavez, what is your position on this matter?”

“Your Honor, as you know, since you took the oath of office prescribed under Article 16, Section 1 of the Constitution of Texas adopted February 15, 1876, office holders do not swear to uphold that Constitution per se. But they do swear to uphold the US Constitution and the laws of Texas. Also your honor, the oath under this so called new Constitution is so similar to the Constitution of 1876, I would only be repeating myself and my retaking the oath would prove nothing. And finally, your Honor, the constitution Mr, Wilson is calling the new constitution has no official recognition of any sort by any body in the state or by any branch or entity of the U.S. Government.”

“She has made three excellent points Mr. Wilson.” The Judge said. “Moreover, I would point out that no one has asked me to retake the oath under what you call the new constitution.”

“Well you honor, if we could step into your chambers we could rectify that last point.” Replied Frank Wilson.

Judge MacDonald waged his finger.

“But failing that I would hasten to point out that under Article IV, Section 4, of the US constitution each state is guaranteed a republican form of government.” Explained Frank Wilson. “Two weeks ago is a vote larger than the total vote for President in the last presidential election and more votes than any statewide office ever received, the citizens of Texas voted by sixty-five percent to adopt the Constitution with with they were presented—what I call the New Texas Constitution. The New Texas Constitution is self starting for provision of its Article IV, Section 7 provides it will automatically go into effect within 10 days of is adoption by a majority of the citizens of Texas 18 years old or older. Finally, your Honor, Ms. Chavez claims no arm of Texas’ government under the Constitution of 1876 has recognized the New Texas Constitution. The day after the vote, the Texas House of Representatives convened, explicitly under the New Texas Constitution and voted 82 to 0 to not only recognize the New Texas Constitution but again 82 to 0 voted to change its rules to conform to the New Texas Constitution.”

Judge MacDonald suppressed a smile and said, “That’s Al, err, I mean, Ms. Chavez you knew about the House’s action?”

“But, your honor, it is meaning less without the Senate’s concurrence and the Senate has not concurred.”

Judge MacDonald shook his head. “I’ll have to agree with Ms. Chavez that her retaking the oath explicitly under the New Texas Constitution would be redundant. Hence I will not so order. However, when we adjourn to my chambers, perhaps she will join me in repeating our oaths of office. Chambers.”

. . .

Lucy Pennington’s ex-husband had simply adapted a common, toy, remote-controlled car by fitting it with a binary explosive deice. Lucy figured out very quickly it would take some practice it have the toy car move in and out of traffic without getting hit by real automobiles, so she bought an identical model. When she destroyed that one in traffic the first day, she purchased another and learned to control it in empty parking lots before putting it on the road with real cars. She had one more skill to master, controlling the toy, remote-controlled car while driving. So back to the parking lot.

. . .

“It boils down to our finding a person who is willing to drive a pregnant woman about to have an abortion to an abortion clinic and is willing to have him or her be sued under Senate Bill 8,” explained Matthew Barnet to the Board of the Women’s Rights Council,

“No we don’t” said Elizabeth Zimmerman. “I’ll drive her to the abortion clinic.”

Matthew shook his head no, “Liz, since we are going to represent the driver, pro bono, and pay his or her fine if we loose it would look a hell of a lot better if it were not someone in house.”

“How about Melissa, what’s her name, with SDS. “ Said Elizabeth.

“Yes, Melissa,” agreed Matthew. “She has a level head and now we need a pregnant woman who wants an abortion and some schmuck who wants the $5000 bounty.”

A quiet voice from the end of the table asked “Haven’t all the schmuck and their attorneys been frightened off by all the cancer patients needing chemotherapy?”

Matthew shook his head yes. “That is a problem, Sylvia.”

Sylvia Ross stood up and said, “Well then, I resign my new appointment to the board. I know where to find attorneys. Let me know who I am driving.” With that she left the board room.

. . .

The Governor of Texas said to his kitchen cabinet, “Fellas, this is not looking good. The Attorney General can’t give m a definitive answer to what the rules changes mean in the House. The House concurred with the Senate by passing that tax break for the silicone chip maker that wants to move to Waco. Now if I sign the bill, does that mean I accept the New Constitution from that sham election two weeks ago. Then again, if I don’t sign it we stand to forego 700 jobs opening up in Waco. I wonder what it would take to make this new constitution thing to go away. What do we know about this Frank Wilson who heads up that, what is it called, corresponding committees?”

“Committees of Correspondence,” replied Fed Meyers, a friend of the governor since High School. “Frank Wilson’s wife is doing five in the slammer for murder. Perhaps he would back off if say a pardon were in the works for his wife.”

TC

Chit chat and Episode 37 Texas Vigilantes

Dear Jody:

I got a massage this morning. Juli’s son just got his driver’s license. That brought back memories of Kirk, Mark, Jane, Ann, Chris, Ryan, and Elizabeth all getting their driving licenses. If I dig a lot deeper, I can get glimpses of getting my driving licenses. What I remember most about my experience is Dad complaining about the cost of his insurance going up. Why that is so memorable, is he never complained abut money, that was, as he often put it, “Your mother’s job.” But then I do not recall the premium on our auto insurance increasing when any of the children and the one grandchild getting their licenses. Indeed, cost of insurance was the one thing that Juli did not mention about her newly licensed son this morning.

After my jaunt up into the Cascades Friday, we got a half-inch of rain yesterday and this morning. But both days we actually got sun breaks:

And then more rain.

The 37^th episode of Texas Vigilantes is appended below.

Nancy sends her love. Stay safe, healthy, and having fun. Love, Ed

Texas Vigilantes 037

Acting like members of a freshman basketball team after scoring the wining basket

(1229 words in body of text)

“Barbara Wilson’s body shook as if she were trying to suppress a laugh. “You drove all the way here to ask me about a dozen Tracfones® I bought the day before I was arrested. How the hell do I know it they even arrived? I’ve been in jail since the day after I ordered them.”

“Well then Mrs. Wilson,” asked Detective Susan Chang, “perhaps you could tell us what you were planning to use 12 cell phones for?

“There are seven people in my cancer support group who do not have, nor can they afford cell phones. I had planned to give one to each of them” replied Barbara Wilson.  “It turned out that they were cheaper by the dozen, and I figured that other cancer patients might have the same need as some of the people in my group. Cancer is not a cheap disease to have, especially for the uninsured.” Barbara explained.

“Would we have your permission to search your house for them?” Asked Detective Richard Wood.

“That is a decision best left to my husband. He’s an attorney, you know.”

. . .

Lucy Pennington heard a car enter her drive. She looked out the window. ‘It’s Jim, I hope he has brought the IED,’ she thought. She waited until he rang the door bell before going to the door and opening it.

“Well bless my stars, if it isn’t my former husband.” She said, “Do what do I own the honor?”

“What I have brought isn’t something I would want to mail; and, I wouldn’t rust it with any express agency.” Said Jim Pennington.

Lucy looked around him and asked, “Where is it?”

“I’ll get it, I wanted to be sure you were home before I took iy out of the truck. This is not something to leave on the door step. Some kid might find it and well . . .” He shrugged his shoulders and turned to return to his truck. He opened the passenger door and took out a box about the size of a box for toaster oven. Carrying it to her font door he said, “You might want me to show you how to operate, arm, disarm, and detonate this baby.”

“By all means bring it in.” Said Lucy coyly.

. . .

Frank Wilson said to no one in particular. “”It is after 9 and some of our polls are still open.”

Bill Baxter nodded yes. “If you remember, our directions to the poll workers was not to close the pools until everyone in line had a chance to vote.” He looked down at his laptop computer and added, “There are only two polling places open. The mobile unit in Loving County and one in Austin. Let me check.” He keyed in sequence and then added, “The mobile unit received 197 votes and the last one was recorded five hours ago. I think someone forgot to sign out.” After a few more keystrokes, “The one in Austin recorded a vote just a minute ago, and they have been receiving votes steadily since seven o’clock.”

Frank Wilson picked up his cell phone. “Sarah Hammond and Amy Winthrop are in Loving County. I’ll call and see what is up with them.” Frank keyed in the numbers and got an almost instant response. “Sarah, Frank here. The computer says you are still manning an open polling place.” He moved the phone away from is ear as the sound was as loud as it was profane. Putting the phone back to his ear he listened again. “Yes, I understand you forgot to close the session and you are on the road, I think Bill can close it from here.

He looked at Bill who game him a thumbs up. “No problem Sarah, we still have another polling place still open.”

Bill smiled and keyed in code to his computer and announced, “Austin just closed.” He keyed in some more code and smiled broadly, “There were 13,001,047 votes. More than 8,450,00 voted YES!”

Both men took a deep breath an then started acting like members of a freshman basketball team after scoring the wining basket.

Patty Iverson looked at both men with an open mouth. Finally she asked, “Does that mean what I think it means?”

Bill Baxter pointed to his computer screen, “The people of Texas love our Constitution.”

After Patty danced around for a few minuets she caught her breath and said, “I better get the news on the wire.”

“Wire? What wire?” asked Frank.

“It is a hold over from the days when stories went out by telegraph and then later by teletype,” said Patty smiling broadly.

Bill Baxter said, “Patty, we had about two million more votes in this election then Texas cast in the last presidential election.”

“That fact is definitively going on the wire,” said a broadly smiling Patty Iverson.

. . .

When the Speaker of the Texas House heard the news he thought ‘I can live with that.” and almost immediately his telephone rang. Looking at his phone, he saw it was the Minority Leader. He dismissed the call, and thought ‘but he won’t be able to. No siree Bob, he sure won’t.’

. . .

Judge Theodore Oliver MacDonald shook his head and said to his wife. “All hell is going to break loose and it will all spill over into the courts. I sure, hope to hell I don’t get one of the early cases.”

. . .

“The voters are fools,” said Bertha Jane Thornton. “they don’t seem to realize this new constitution means the State of Texas will rerun to murmuring babies.”

“I read it ma’am,” said Pinkerton Agent Dianne Oleson. “I did not see any reference to abortion.”

“What they said, to confuse the voters was ‘No person shall be denied any medical procedure under the law.’ that, my dear means they can and will murder babies.  Abortion is considered a procedure.” Responded Bertha Jane with a snarl.”

. . .

Barbara Wilson heard the news at breakfast the next morning. She immediately went to the guard station to requested that she be able to make a phone call to her husband. ‘I don’t know how, but Frank has pulled off a miracle.’ she thought as she waited in line to make her telephone call request.

. . .

Frank Wilson awoke to the insistent ringing of his door bell. Pulling on a robe he navigated his way to the for t door. Opening the door he was confronted by two uniformed police officers and a man and woman dressed in civilian attire.

One of the officers handed him a price of paper. And said, “It’s a search warrant.

Frank swept his hand indicating they should enter. He then read the warrant. ” Excuse me officers. The cell phones you are looking for are not here. Know in my wife intended them for cancer patients in her group, I passed them on to Sarah Hammond to give to the right people.”

“All twelve of them?” Asked the female in civilian clothes.

“Yes, the whole kit and kaboodle.” Replied Frank. “But, I know you are going to search so do you mind if I put on a pot of coffee. I had a late night last night.”

TBC

Morning and Episode 20 Texas Vigilantes

Dear Jody:

This morning was a struggle to get myself up and out to shoot dawn. For, I cold not see from the house, either the east nor the west horizons and straight up was cloudy. However when I got there, both directions were more than productive:

I hung around for about an hour at the boat ramp and was rewarded with this in the south west when the sun was supposed to be coming up.

However, the sun demurred and stayed behind the clouds. The result was rain later (not much, but enough to justify not watering the pots). I was however rewarded for hanging around for that hour:

I shot the moon again this morning.

I heard yesterday that the first two suits using Senate Bill 8 have been filed by non-Texans. The real world is a lot slower than the fictional world I am creating in Texas Vigilantes. I actually think the law is so shaky that it is bound to be stuck down for any or all of several reasons. The state does not have the authority to farm out its prosecution of violators to bounty hunters. It is an end run around Row v. Wade. And, as far as I can tell there is no state interest in regulating abortion to the point of making abortions illegal. I will confess, however, that when I read Row v. Wade back in 1973, I thought it was based on bad premises, for abortions were partially made legal after Justice Blackman spent hours in the Mayo Clinic Library and concluded that life was not sustainable outside of the womb for the first trimester. I figures then that would be the basis for overturning Roe v. Wade for fetuses can be sustained outside the womb a earlier now. I still see no compelling state interest.

The nest episode of Texas Vigilantes is below.

Nancy sends her love. Stay safe, healthy, and having fun, Love, Ed

Texas vigilantes 020

And the Vigilantes are Named

(1047 words in body of text)

Texas Ranger Captain Bernard Allen turned the page on the report Lieutenant Silvia Ross has left on his desk. He read with disbelief. ‘Women committed more murders last week than they did in all of last year and this report projects they will commit even more in the weeks to come.’ He looked up from the report and saw that Lieutenant Ross was not at her desk. ‘Where is she?’  He punched a button on the desk set in front of him and her desk set blinked red as it forwarded the call to her cell phone. He punched the speaker phone button.

“Lieutenant Ross, Texas Rangers. How may I help you?”

“Sylvia, Bernie here. I have just read your report. How do you figure the rate of homicides by females will increase in the coming weeks.”

“Well, boss, I used a simple regression and projected the number of suits filed under Senate Bill 8 into the next three weeks then I plotted that against the past five days as a historic rate to forecast the number of murders women will commit. Before you ask, yes, I am assuming that female cancer patients will continue for God know what ever reason to kill the lawyers and plaintiffs who file these suits. And I am assuming the cases will be filed in similar numbers to the past ten days.”

“Why ten days for the cases and only five for the murders?” Asked Captain Allen.

“I think it took five days for the women to realize what was going on?” Replied Sylvia.

“What is going on?” Asked her boss.

“Women’s rights are under attack by our State Legislature and have been for years. But Senate Bill 8, does an end run around Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court has declined to block its implementation.” Explained Sylvia.

“What do you mean an end run?”

“Since the state farms out the enforcement of Senate Bill 8 to individuals to sue people who preform or assist in a woman getting an abortion, there is no one to sue.” Replied Sylvia.

“What do you mean no one to sue.” Asked Captain Allen.

“Normally a law to make something criminal or for a law to give the power to the state to do anything puts some official in charge. So to contest the law one sues that official to stop him or her from enforcing the law. No one was put in charge here, it is up to state citizens, and even folks from out of state. Then too most laws focus on a person or behavior that class of people engage in. Not this law, it opens anyone, except a pregnant woman seeking an abortion, to suit for helping a pregnant woman obtain an abortion after she has been pregnant six weeks. So the law does not have a class of people from which a plaintiff can step forward and say they have standing to sue. Noe one has standing to sue to stop Senate Bill 8 from going into effect. Very diabolical. It puts the law above the normal checks and balances on the laws themselves.”

Once Sylvia sopped speaking there was a long pause before Captain Allen spoke again. “So women are killing the lawyers and plaintiffs who are filing suit under the law to stop the law? That’s crazy.”

“Is it?” Asked Sylvia. “Did you know that the chances of a woman dying while giving a live birth is 17 times greater than dying undergoing a legal abortion. And that prior to legal abortions. Illegal abortions were, and still are in the rest of the world, one of the five leading causes of women’s deaths.”

“But I thought that abortion was a moral and religious issue?” Commented Capetian Allen.

“Hump,” grunted Sylvia. “Right to Life Texas, says it is, most churches say it is, but have you ever seen the word abortion in the Bible?”

“No, I haven’t, Sylvia,” replied Captain Allen. “You sound like you might be sympathetic with these women murders.”

“Not the murder part, but the fact that they are reacting to male domination of their wombs is something with which I can support.” Responded Sylvia. “In fact, I am right now investigating a case in the East Texas Women’s Reproductive Health Clinic. It seems someone placed video cameras in all their rooms. I mean exam rooms, surgery rooms and even the rest rooms. I have a hunch it is related to some bounty hunter seeking evidence for suits under Senate Bill 8.”

“Why are you all the way over there? Asked her boss.

When the call came in, it seems all-available hands are working on the murder/assassination of the governor and I was the only Texas Ranger of sufficient rank to supervise this investigation, I was drafted boss, ask the Chief.” She paused then asked, “But what did you want?”

“I got it, I wanted to know why you forecast more women would committee murders.” Replied Captain Allen.

“This may be far out, but the first murders were committed by Barbara Wilson. I think she figured the connection with Senate Bill 8 and the assault on women’s rights. I think because the governor put a hold on all hospital treatment except COVID-19 that she had nothing to loose. I also think she got that idea across to her support group as two of them were conspirators in her murders. It is my thinking that the four shooters on the Capital Hill in Austin were also cancer victims too. I say we need to look at all cancer support groups and try to figure out how to stop them. It is one thing to fight against Senate Bill 8, it is another to commit murder to do so.”

“Are you saying there is a conspiracy among cancer victims to kill people? Asked Captain Allen with a note of skepticism in his voice.

“Let’s call them vigilantes, boss, not conspirators—Texas Vigilantes.” Silvia paused. “After all, they are shooting polecats.”

“Are you calling the late Governor of Texas a pole cat?” Demanded Captain Allen.

“If the shoe fits. Gota go, Captain,” and Sylvia hung up.

TBC

Shooting Poll with Joe Biden

Dear Jody:

I was dreaming this morning that Joe Biden and several senators along with a half dozen students were in my office. I was fitting Biden and the senators with hearing aids so they might hear what each other was saying and they all seemed surprised that the others were not as unreasonable as they had been thinking. Once they were all fitted we decided to go to the student union and shoot some pool. We ended up at the Purdue University Student union (I had been there once as a high school student on a debate trip). The table was reluctant to discharge all of its pool balls, and we spent a lot of time working with Russian and Chinese spies to get all the balls out of the table when I awoke.

I awoke a good hour before I was schedule to get up and shoot the dawn if it materialized, and the forecasters were right about it being cooler this morning, It was 35 degrees F! Absolutely no cloud cover and the stars were magnificent (I must get set up to shoot the starry sky one of these days. I’ll have to check to see if one of those automated tripod heads to track the stars long enough to get a good exposure is in my budget).

Since I have a chiropractor appointment right after my normal dawn and sunrise shoot, I got ready to go into town rather than going back to bed for an hour. I’m sure the long summer of getting up early is almost a habit now and it is going to take until March when I will need to start early raising again for dawn and sunrise (that is, if I ever quit).

Here are a few shots from twilight last evening and the moon was not covered by any clouds again.

Below is the next episode in Texas Vigilantes.

Nancy sends her love. Stay safe, healthy, and having fun. Love Ed

Texas Vigilantes 015 will be on a separate post today

Texas Vigilantes 015

Shooting Pool with Joe Biden & Episode 15 of Texas Vigilantes

Dear Jody:

I was dreaming this morning that Joe Biden and several senators along with a half dozen students were in my office. I was fitting Biden and the senators with hearing aids so they might hear what each other was saying and they all seemed surprised that the others were not as unreasonable as they had been thinking. Once they were all fitted we decided to go to the student union and shoot some pool. We ended up at the Purdue University Student union (I had been there once as a high school student on a debate trip). The table was reluctant to discharge all of its pool balls, and we spent a lot of time working with Russian and Chinese spies to get all the balls out of the table when I awoke.

I awoke a good hour before I was schedule to get up and shoot the dawn if it materialized, and the forecasters were right about it being cooler this morning, It was 35 degrees F! Absolutely no cloud cover and the stars were magnificent (I must get set up to shoot the starry sky one of these days. I’ll have to check to see if one of those automated tripod heads to track the stars long enough to get a good exposure is in my budget).

Since I have a chiropractor appointment right after my normal dawn and sunrise shoot, I got ready to go into town rather than going back to bed for an hour. I’m sure the long summer of getting up early is almost a habit now and it is going to take until March when I will need to start early raising again for dawn and sunrise (that is, if I ever quit).

Here are a few shots from twilight last evening and the moon was not covered by any clouds again.

Below is the next episode in Texas Vigilantes.

Nancy sends her love. Stay safe, healthy, and having fun. Love Ed

Texas Vigilantes 015

The Party of Death (this post also appears in deartedandjody)

On the bottom of the front page in the local newspaper today the headline read: “New vaccine rules ignite GOP anger.” On yesterday’s front page was the headline “Vax rule looms for fire crews” (The officials are afraid the firefighters will stop showing up if they are required to be vaccinated). And on Thursday “Mask fight halts council.” Yes, I live I a red county, However, the politicization of responses to the pandemic (masking, closing indoor venues, vaccinations and the other attempts to fight the virus) has caused the pandemic to last longer and be deadlier in the United States than it should have.

While Trump and quite a few elected Republicans did not cause this pandemic, they have taken every action short of actively carrying the virus from person to person to undermine and sabotage public health efforts to fight the virus. So, if these Republicans want to politicize the virus let us participate in the politicization, I suggest for starters we collective use four new names for the virus: The MAGA Virus, the Trump Virus, The Republican Virus, and The GOP Virus. If fixating on one name would be a better strategy, then the other three can be variants. However, I had in mind the names of the 14 Republican Governors who are so concerned abut the fact that the President is taking what could be effective action could each be named as a variant. For example what we call the delta variant would become the DeSantis variant and what we call the mu variant would become the Abbot variant. Furthermore, the Republican Party itself, should be referred to as “The Party of Death.” and Republican candidates should be referred to as “demons of death.”

The first question in any of the 14 governors’ news conferences should be “Governor, how many deaths have you caused today with your latest executive order, or can you not pull out that number from all the deaths your executive orders have caused.” Or for candidates, “How many people have you mislead and told that not wearing masks is a freedom? Have you told them not to wear clothes, not to use seat belts and not to stop at red lights because going naked, not using seat belts and not obeying the traffic laws are freedoms too?” The second question for all of them “Why do you want your supporters to get sick or perhaps die when you have had the vaccine yourself just like Trump has?”

We have been all too polite and tolerant with these fools (AKA Republicans). It is time to call them out and return their political fire. America, Get Nasty (Political) with the Fools. Fight Back.

Watering North America: 2nd part of the introduction (this post also appears on deartedandjody tody)

Watering North America: 2^nd part of the introduction

It well may be that rising sea levels will happen slowly enough for governments to respond with dikes, planned and orderly population movements and other infrastructure development. However, human beings have known about the impact of climate warming and have at best taken token steps to retard climate change and have principally denied it was happening or would happen. However, given our inability to grasp (accept) what has been happening to our climate for the past 75 or more years, expecting a fast response now to what has been a slow change would be foolhardy. It is almost as if we, as a species, are trying to join our predecessor species by becoming extinct.

Current projections for when sea levels will have risen sufficiently to cause havoc in heavily populated areas are based upon models that extrapolate in a linear or curvilinear fashion historic data on warming causing ice melt. However, it is more likely that a model based upon the mathematics of catastrophe theory would be more appropriated. For example, physical materials have varying degrees of strength. A wooden SPF 2×4 can support about 350 equally distributed across it before it noticeably distended ( bows or sags). As more weight is added the 2×4 will continue to distended (register stress) until either it is so distended that it slips from its resting points at both ends or the board breaks. Up to the point where the board is severely distended and slips its anchor points or breaks as graph of the stress on the board as more weight is added is fairly linearly increasing. At the point where the board slips its anchor points or breaks the stress falls to zero–a discontinuity or catastrophe. Consider the analogous situation of adding heat to a mass of ice. There would be a similar linear increase in melting. However, consider the ice was dispersed unevenly around the world, Can you not imagine the melting would suddenly drop (perhaps all the ice in either the northern or southern hemispheres, or booth, had melted) to zero after one more unit of heat had been applied to the Earth? Or consider that as melting occurs, the effects of ice sheets mitigating the impact of heat is no longer able to retard further melting. In any event, global ice sheets (glaciers and sea ice), will longer melt at the same rate as they have in the past. Global warming means we are entering an era where forecasting has to be based upon models that do not depend upon past weather.

A good example of the failure of past models to predict hurricane ferocity is Ida. Which brings us to the other side of the problem of watering north America: massive amounts of rainfall or flooding and ocean water surges from storms. We are going to have to find ways to move billions of gallons of water away from low altitude populated and agricultural areas, or move the people infrastructure, and farming from the low altitudes. It is not altogether clear that we can predict using past date which areas are most at risk for torrential flooding.

TBC

Watering North America: Part 3a Continued (this material is posted on deartedandjody today)

Watering North America: Part 3a Continued

In providing water to a location, it makes sense to work with the mean and standard deviation of historical use for each major activity using water in any given location. Sixty-eight percent of the variation from a water use mean will occur within o e standard deviation from the water use mean. Ninety-five percent of variations will occur within two standard deviations from the water use mean. If one simply uses the mean to determine how much water to deliver, half the time too little water will be provided. So, it is a policy question of how much more water than the mean amount should be provided. It is also a policy question of what to do with excess water provided to a locality and water use activity. As the distribution system is used and matures the policy of how much more than the need is experienced can be refined.

Before addressing how much more water than the mean to supply, let’s take a look at alternatives for what to do with any excess water to an area or activity. There are four obvious ways to use any excess water. First, allocate it to other water use activities in the same locality that need more water. Second, the distribution system should be capable of sending the water to other .localities. Third, the water could be stored locally for future use [water towers and/or reservoirs]. And fourth, and preferable in the author’s judgment, feed it into the acquirers, natural waterways, and lakes and ponds. Note water allocations for all the alternatives will exist in the overall water economy.

A note on the water distribution system. It should be configured so that water use destinations are as interconnected in much the same fashion as cities are by Interstate highways, rail, and airports.
Most of the consequences of too little water to a locality are easy to spot: forest and wildfires, crops stunted or dying due to drought, residential water bans, and low to dry rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. However, those signs in these times should not be allowed to develop under a continent-wide water policy and a system for distributing water continent-wide.

TBC