July 9

 We had rain overnight and will probably get more today. Then the remnants of Hurricane Beryl will start moving up this way. The Weather Channel has been following the storm in minute detail. That storm was a big surprise to everyone. I remember when the storm started to form when the experts on the site didn't expect it to become a serious threat: in the "wrong" place, too early in the season. Well it did form becoming the earliest Category 5 in history. And it weakened after devastating several islands only to reform all the way back to a Cat 5. Beryl did that TWICE and became a strengthening Cat 1 when it hit Texas. It retained that level of wind well inland.

Stray thought: The "Reform" candidate won the election in Iran. Already pundits over here are dismissing him as not REALLY a reformer. Well, reform is a word that needs a reference to something that should be changed, i.e. reformed. None of our critics have supplied that reference. I suspect all too many think what needs reforming is the Iranian government theocracy (as in abolished). But since the candidates in the election had to be approved by Iran's theocrats such "reforms" were never likely. Maybe it is time our leaders and pundits break the habit of trying to force other countries to adopt what we think best for them. 

Another stray thought: I have seen several stories over the last few weeks covering the closing of several chain restaurant stores. Pizza Huts and Hooters are the latest. In the case of the Pizza Huts and a couple of others  the problem was supposed to be a dispute between franchisees and the company that set up and supplies the individual franchises. But I makes me wonder if there is a problem in the restaurant trade. Are people simply not eating out as much as some economists thought post COVID or is it people not really having the income to patronize restaurants. If it is the latter perhaps the economy isn't really all that good for the people that would patronize Pizza Hut.

For those who are pissed because they feel prices are too high take a look at this and think about how it affects consumer prices everywhere. More cargo carriers are avoiding the Red Sea/Suez route because of the Houthi attacks on shipping. The only route to Europe or the eastern U.S. now is around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope which adds about two weeks to sailing time and increases all of the costs (extra fuel, crew etc.).

I found this WIRED article from the end of April when the NY TIMES article from the blog I was reading turned out to be behind a pay wall. Think about how many of our systems depend on GPS input: Smart bombs, drones, aircraft (both military and commercial), your car navigation system, emergency and disaster relief services.

When I read the wonderful statistics about a "booming" job market I consider the information with a high dose of skepticism because I also read stories like the one above about closing restaurant chain locations which often happened without much notice to the employees suddenly out of work. Or stories like this one from SFGATE. I also read an article recently that said as many as 25% of companies advertising open jobs aren't really looking to hire anyone. They are simply either trying to intimidate their current workforce by emphasize how vulnerable their jobs are or padding their resume file. And the pundits wonder why a significant part of the voters aren't buying the rosy economic news.