Speaking Of Alarmists? California, What Drought? -- June 24, 2017

Updates

Later, 5:24 p.m. Central Time: over at the LA Times, breaking now:

Surging Sierra Nevada snowmelt caused the Kings River to overflow near the Central Valley town of Kingsburg on Friday night, forcing mandatory evacuations.

Tulare County sheriff’s deputies and firefighters went door to door starting just before midnight to order residents out of about 90 homes near the Kings River Golf and Country Club, said Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Teresa Douglass. Release of water from Pine Flat Dam caused the river to breach Friday afternoon. The flooding caused damage to seven homes and 18 recreational vehicles, Douglass said.

Subject to flooding - too much snow this past winter:

Original Post

 

Holy mackerel, Batman! After posting the screenshots below, Don sent me the discharge rate of Lake Tahoe, via the Truckee River. Look at this: the current discharge rate is 3X - 4X the mean which has been tracked for 94 years, about 5X longer than Algore first presented his Nobel-winning PowerPoint Presentation.The Truckee is the sole outlet of Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe: near natural rim of the lake. Wow. If one is above the natural rim of "something," would that be a "flood," or "spilling over"?

Lake Tahoe, source:

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The Political Page -- June 24, 2017 -- T+154

From Maureen Dowd at The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — YOU know who is really sick and tired of Donald Trump winning, to the point where they beg, “Please, Mr. President, sir, it’s too much”?

Democrats.

The Democrats just got skunked four to nothing in races they excitedly thought they could win because everyone they hang with hates Trump.

If Trump is the Antichrist, as they believe, then Georgia was going to be a cakewalk, and Nancy Pelosi was going to be installed as speaker before the midterms by acclamation. But it turned into another soul-sucking disappointment.

“It’s Trump four and us zero,” says the Democratic congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio. “I don’t want to admit that. When it comes out of my mouth, it bothers me. But Trump does robo calls. He tweets. He talks about the races. He motivates his base, and he moves the needle, and that’s a problem for us. Guys, we’re still doing something wrong here because a) he’s president and b) we’re still losing to his candidates.”

Wow, talk about a "fluff" piece. But having said that, it appears Maureen is starting "to get it."

Cupcakes, snowflakes, corn flakes, fruitcakes.

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Amazon-Whole Foods (Again)

Now that I've had some time to digest this, my updated thoughts.

Yesterday I put together an imaginary grocery cart, and then pitted Amazon against Walmart.

If one is not biased toward one of the other, it's a draw, whether you order your groceries from Walmart or from Amazon. Amazon has the $99 Prime cost for "free delivery," whereas Walmart has free delivery -- truly "free" delivery -- as long as the order is greater than $35. Advantage: Walmart.

Line items: Walmart does not have 3rd party vendors (they might, but I did not see them) whereas Amazon has a robust 3rd party stable. Advantage: Amazon.

But for grocery staples, it's a wash whether you order from Amazon or Walmart.

If not Amazon or Walmart, what else? Basically, nothing. For all practical purposes, on-line retail belongs to Amazon and Walmart.

This will be interesting. "Everyone" questions whether regulators should approve the Amazon-Whole Foods merger based on monopoly concerns. LOL.

Nix the Amazon-Whole Foods merger and there's one loser, one winner.

The loser: the American consumer.

The winner: Walmart.

If regulators say "no" to Amazon-Whole Foods, there will be only one retailer that will offer it all: Walmart.