Good morning to you all on this stormy Friday morning. We have waves of thunderstorms coming straight south off Lake Michigan with a severe weather warning until a little later this morning. Some northern Chicago suburbs had golf ball sized hail as did some areas here in Northwest Indiana. If we got any it didn't hut the garden. I know I pruned the tomatoes severely yesterday but today--today it looks like I didn't cut anything. The gardens do look a bit neater--except for the one I didn't get to yesterday. It is too wet to do anything outside today and the temps are supposed to rise into the 90s with heat indices in the low 100s. Kuma is, of course, totally bummed because I am keeping him in till it dries out.

Well, the Minnesota government has shut down because the negotiations between the Democratic Governor and the Republicans in the legislature broke down. The morning news on tv passed it off with a one liner that focused on the closure of the state parks and the zoo and the fact that no new fishing licenses can be issued which will put a crimp in a lot of holiday plans. Can you get any more trivial?! Nothing about all of the construction that has stopped de?ad in its tracks and the construction workers laid off, nor about all of the state workers who would have issued those fishing licenses also laid off and not getting paid, nor about any of the vendors who supply the state with goods and services who won't get paid. Voters should seriously consider this comment from a Huffington Post story on the matter: "The Democratic governor and state GOP lawmakers had been engaged in contentious talks to close the state's $5 billion budget gap -- much of it left behind by GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, who declined to seek a third term in the 2010 election." You bet he declined to seek a third term. Having done as much damage as possible in Minnesota he now wants to do the same on the national level as President.

Phil Angelides has this op ed piece in the Washington Post which needs no commentary from me.

Georgia wasn't the only colony peopled by large numbers of debtors, Kay. Many of the indentured servants in other colonies were also debtors. Reports of the ghastly treatment of many of those indentured servants caused a scandal in England during the 1670s and 1680s which basically ended the practice and paved the way for African slavery

I have been reading about attempts to change the way Social Security COLAs are calculated--using a the so-called 'chained CPI.' For an explanation of the probable effect check out this link.

It is bad enough when the food manufacturers reduce the package weight/size while charging the same price. It is totally reprehensible for our legislators to do the same and hide the fact in incomprehensible numbers and calculations.

To continue with the theme of incomprehensible numbers and calculations but with a bit of a segue read Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds. He also provides a whiff of the global fraud and chicanery that has come to dominate our economy. Also he makes a telling parallel between Greece and the mortgage collapse over here.