Sunday, August 26, 2018

Thanks, John McCain!!

The death of John McCain leaves US politics without much in the way of either statesmen or heroes; while I disagreed with him much, I have nothing but respect for him. He was born into a family of heroes and when all is said and done, he will have surpassed the legacies left by both his admiral father and grandfather. Both his runs for president were stymied by racial slime politics (SC) and his choice of a clueless running mate (Sara Pallin). He refused to jump into the slime then and now, and the slime is even deeper now. Not many people in national, state and certainly local politics these days that, even though taking an oath, put the good of the country above their own agendas.
This blog hasn't had much poetry, and I was the poet laureate at LCHS...so, how about a little limerick:

There once was a board filled with slime
And, they'd screw you any ole time!
They'd take your land
Telling you all was grand
 While taxing your very last dime!

On this portion of Earth today: a huge high pressure dome is parked over the eastern seaboard and the coolish, dry days are about over. Not a return to rain but a return to southern air flow as the high moves offshore over the next day or so and becomes the classic, summertime, Bermuda high. Big heat and humidity will be the weather for the week on the east coast. A note: Hurricane Harvey was parked over Texas one year ago! Been a fairly quiet hurricane year for the Atlantic but Hurricane Lane is (last I checked) hammering Hawaii right now. (Wonder if our supreme "leader" knows Hawaii is a state with US citizens? - he didn't know Puerto Ricans were American citizens...)
A shaking week of earthquakes: magnitude 7.1 and 7.3 in Peru and Venezuela, 6.0 off Oregon, couple of 6's in the Aleutians and Indonesia, PNG and Fiji and today, 6.0 in Iran. A reminder there are no rules on Earth (well, adapt, migrate or die for organisms) just trends that we are gradually figuring out and should do a better job preparing for, but are not, really.
The moon is Full today, lined up directly behind the Earth from the Sun at 7:56am EDT but above the Earth so as not to fall in our shadow (that was last month). You could see the difference that the moon is above the ecliptic and Mars below last night as the two rose in the east. Got to see all the evening planets last night, just gorgeous and all so different in color and brightness. They are out there tonight, but so are some clouds and Venus is really low in the west. Still worth a check and it's not really that hot, get out and wander your planet, Today on Earth.  


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