GOOD PLANETARY HYGIENE: Steep Plunge In U.S. CO2 Output Due To Natural Gas Fracking.
Archive for 2012
July 18, 2012
MORE ON THE DROUGHT AND FOOD PRICES: Reader Peter Behlen writes:
I farm in western Minnesota where we’re still hanging in there with decent crops though we haven’t had rain for a month. Just because it doesn’t match the drought of the 1930’s doesn’t mean it isn’t dry. The biggest problem is where it’s dry. Right in the corn belt. Corn is above $7.00 and will most likely continue to rise. Price increases for food are inevitable I think. There’s even been talk of eight to ten dollar corn which would be a disaster. Most of us don’t want corn to run that high since it would have many undesirable effects. Anyway, the drought is real and may be coming to a grocery store near you.
Time for more strategic shopping. And Spam!
UPDATE: Farmer/reader Bart Hall writes:
Here in eastern Kansas the corn crop is pretty well a goner, browned off with empty ears. A dry lightning strike could set of one hell of a fire. Trees are dying; these days they’re competing vigorously for the attentions of our four dogs. Any President with half the common sense of a fencepost would issue an Executive Order immediately suspending all fuel ethanol production, but Obama doesn’t have that much sense, and besides he’s long since been bought by ADM, by far the nation’s largest ethanol producer and (ever since his campaign for the Illinois state senate) at or near the top of Obama’s contributor list. Cronyism is sometimes the things that DON’T happen, and I’ll guarantee that ADM has long since contracted its entire corn feedstock supply at vastly lower prices. Farmers will have to purchase 10-dollar corn to fulfill a 4-dollar contract, and it will destroy them.
On our own farm (we grow vegetables and alfalfa) it’s not just the drought, but the unrelenting triple digit heat. Last Thursday, when it was 109 F in the shade here, I took a meat thermometer out into our cucumber field. The internal temperature of those cukes was 162 F — well done for beef. By the next morning many were split, having obviously exploded because they got to boiling and their water turned to steam. It’s going to be a long, desperately difficult year, but I guess because I refuse to take government subsidies I don’t deserve to succeed.
Ugh.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brett Law writes:
I haven’t seen it getting a whole lot of attention, but the August 2012 spot price for fuel ethanol is $2.65 today. It was $2.20 two weeks ago. A number of ethanol plants have been temporarily closed due to rising prices. Gasoline, unsubsidized has been trading at $2.70 – $2.90 per gallon wholesale for most of the summer. These streams look likely to cross in the near future. This is interesting because at some point the “cheap” ethanol that is in our gasoline may become the floor for gas prices.
Well, at 10-15% ethanol, I’m not sure how big an impact this will have, but it won’t help.
TOM BLUMER: Obama’s Swing State Strategy: Take Credit for GOP Accomplishments. “Will Republicans really let him get away with it?”
ROLL CALL: Payroll Tax Cut Gets No Love.
A giant middle-class tax hike looms at the end of the year, and both parties and the White House — for now — seem content to ignore it.
As the two parties close in on the climax of a decade-long clash over Bush-era tax cuts, neither party has proposed preventing a looming $120 billion yearly payroll tax hike.
Last year, President Barack Obama had Republicans over a barrel, accusing them of wanting to raise taxes on the middle class unless they extended his payroll tax cut — worth 2 percent of a worker’s salary.
The GOP caved on this year’s extension, but there has been nary a peep since from the White House, presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney or Congressional leaders in either party about extending it again. And Senators on today expressed doubt that it would be extended.
The payroll tax cut actually costs the Treasury more than the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 a year, which have become the subject of the titanic struggle on Capitol Hill. On its own, its expiration will result in one of the largest tax increases in history.
Wait, I thought you didn’t raise taxes in a down economy. I know I heard someone saying that . . . .
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: The Rise of “Stackable Certificates” in place of college degrees. Note, however, that colleges aren’t out of the loop here. But there are still issues:
That’s not to say that manufacturers and colleges always see eye-to-eye. In fact, many companies feel higher education has failed to create a pipeline of skilled workers. An estimated 600,000 manufacturing jobs are currently unfilled.
“We’re dealing with an industry that has lost a lot of faith in working with education,” said Jacey Wilkins, a spokeswoman for the Manufacturing Institute, which is affiliated with the National Association of Manufacturers. In particular, Wilkins said manufacturers have been frustrated with the dismantling of vocational education.
So the institute decided to take matters into its own hands, and came up with standards for the education of manufacturing employees. The group created its manufacturing skills certification system in 2009. The “stackable” credentials include four tiers of competency for applicants and veteran employees to demonstrate, ranging from basic aptitude – like showing that they can get to work on time and work in teams – to proving that they have high-tech skills in specialized manufacturing fields, like machinery or medical technology.
The certifications are stackable because they build on each other, with each level presumably having value but also leading to a next step, which can in turn lead to promotions on the job.
Read the whole thing. And note that the “higher education” involvement is led by “most notably the University of Phoenix and a growing number of community colleges.”
THE HILL: Ethics Committee launches probe of Dem Rep. Robert Andrews. “The articles allege the lawmaker used more than $9,000 in campaign funds to pay for a trip to Scotland with his wife and two children, and more than $10,000 to host a party at Andrews’ home celebrating his Congressional service and his daughter’s graduation. The paper also stated that Andrews’ campaign made a $12,500 donation to a local theater gala, in which his daughter was performing.”
UNDER MY PLAN, ENERGY COSTS WILL NECESSARILY SKYROCKET: Household energy costs up 11.8%.
HMM: New cyber espionage virus found targeting Iran. “Security experts have uncovered an ongoing cyber espionage campaign targeting Iran and other Middle Eastern countries that they say stands out because it is the first such operation using communications tools written in Persian. Israeli security company Seculert and Russia’s Kaspersky Lab, said on Tuesday that they identified more than 800 victims of the operation. The targets include critical infrastructure companies, engineering students, financial services firms and government embassies located in five Middle Eastern countries, with the majority of the infections in Iran.”
#GREENFAIL: Obama Official Was Like “A Hooker Dropped Into A Prison Exercise Yard.”
The Republican National Committee is continuing its counterattack on President Barack Obama, releasing emails and videos to bolster Romney’s recent claims that the White House’s efforts to invest in “green energy” amounted to a form of “crony capitalism.”
In one email, Steve Westly, an Obama fundraiser whose company received close to a half billion dollars in green energy funds in 2009, cites his ties to senior Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett, campaign manager Jim Messina, and secretary of energy Steven Chu.
“Please forgive the delay on this, but the Administration has asked me to co-host events for Valeria[sic] Jarrett (last Thursday) and Jim Messina and Steven Chu (both of which are tomorrow) so things have been a bit busy on this end,” he wrote to an Obama energy official in an email on March 8, 2010.
Westly sent the email during his vetting process to sit on the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, a position he still holds, according to his online bio at the Westly Group.
Crony Capitalism, indeed.
REWARDING FAILURE, PUNISHING SUCCESS.
You’re famous and you haven’t even sold one record. “Megalomaniac power trips. . . a song based on nothing. And this is the end of the song.”
July 17, 2012
#NARRATIVEFAIL: Laid Off Steelworker in Anti-Romney Ad Says He Is Not Voting for Obama. “I think Obama is a jerk, a pantywaist, a lightweight, a blowhard. He hasn’t done a goddamn thing that he said he would do.”
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FREE ON KINDLE UNTIL THE END OF THE DAY: When Libby Met the Fairies and her Whole Life Went Fae.
YESTERDAY, I LINKED TO Anni Ultimi: A Roman Stoic Guide to Retirement, Old Age and Death. Roger Simon got it on kindle and emails: “Thanks for the tip. Sensational.” Yeah, I was reading it last night. Seneca knew his stuff.
BEWARE OF FAKE “OUTRAGEOUS” EMAILS, BLOG COMMENTS, ETC.
OCCUPY WALL STREET VS. THE TEA PARTY: Is This A Reality Show You Would Watch?
SO WHAT THE HELL’S WRONG WITH JOSS WHEDON? Lots of people have been asking me. My response is: Repeal The Eisenhower Tax Cuts! Put those fatcats in their place.
And somebody in Hollywood must be worried because the video has been removed.
UPDATE: Turn populistic, put on more lipstick. But when you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.
A WHITE HOUSE PETITION TO require that the TSA follow the law. Nah, that’ll never happen . . . .
WELL, IN THE NAVY’S DEFENSE, HAVE ANY BIG-GOVERNMENT GREEN INITIATIVES SUCCEEDED? Noah Shachtman: How the Navy’s Incompetence Sunk the ‘Green Fleet.’ Anyway, with all the new oil and gas discoveries, do we really need a “green fleet?”
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