Friday, February 2, 2024

February 2

 Well, a certain rodent, rudely roused from hibernation, has predicted an early spring. It looks like we will have sun for at least part of the day. Mild temps also. The Weather Channel doesn't see much precipitation and a lot more sun with temps in the high 30s and 40s. The west has a mix of snow and rain but where that system will be going after it gets done with the Colorado, Wyoming and other states in that area.

William Hoagland has a good post on a particular amicus brief filed on the case that asks the Supreme Court to roll back the Exon decision which supported the role of Federal agencies in promulgating regulations. As a person who spent way too many years studying and teaching history, I love the humility of the historians behind the brief which advises the justices use history cautiously. As the quote Hoagland used says, the history can be informative but shouldn't be "dispositive." As the old saying attributed to Mark Twain holds " history doesn't repeat, but it does rhyme." The conditions of the present may bear some resemblance to the period just around the end of the Civil War, but they are not the same.

I wondered the other day what happened with that humongous convoy of trucks that were supposed to be heading to the Texas-Mexico border. Well, Crooks & Liars has answered my question. The organizers have fallen waaaay short of their promises. Evidently Yahoo News got a lot of their information from Telegram which Crooks&Liars notes is rife with Russian trolls. Something else I have wondered about is how much of the pseudo-news floating around is generated by such sources.

I just took a look at the latest Drought Monitor (for Jan 1) and noticed that the areas of serious and extreme drought have shrunk. The wet weather has had some beneficial effect. But we aren't the only ones with such problems. I found this on EuroNews concerning the situation in Spain. Authorities in Catalonia are mandating strict water restrictions including in the city of Barcelona.

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