The Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs
near Garden of the Gods...
Pic by RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post
Sunday, June 24, 2012
...Tropical storm conditions continue over portions of the northeast Gulf Coast...summary of 100 PM CDT...1800 UTC...information ---------------------------------------------- location...28.3n 85.9w about 200 mi...325 km ESE of the mouth of the Mississippi River about 105 mi...170 km SSW of Apalachicola Florida maximum sustained winds...60 mph...95 km/h present movement...NE or 40 degrees at 5 mph...7 km/h minimum central pressure...993 mb...29.32 incheswatches and warnings -------------------- changes with this advisory...None.Summary of watches and warnings in effect...a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for... * the coast of Louisiana from the mouth of the Pearl River westward to Morgan City...not including the city of New Orleans or Lake Pontchartrain * the Mississippi-Alabama border eastward to the Suwannee River river Floridaa tropical storm watch is in effect for... * south of the Suwannee River to Anclote Key Floridaa Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area...in this case within 12 to 24 hours.For storm information specific to your area...including possible inland watches and warnings...please monitor products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office.Discussion and 48-hour outlook ------------------------------ at 100 PM CDT...1800 UTC...the center of Tropical Storm Debby was located near latitude 28.3 north...longitude 85.9 west. Debby is moving toward the northeast near 6 mph...9 km/h. No significant motion is expected during the next 12 to 24 hours...and the track beyond that time is highly uncertain.Maximum sustained winds remain near 60 mph...95 km/h...with higher gusts. Some slight strengthening is possible during the next 48 hours.Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 200 miles...325 km.The latest minimum central pressure measured by a reconnaissance aircraft was 993 mb...29.32 inches.Hazards affecting land ---------------------- wind...tropical storm conditions are already near or over portions of the northeast Gulf Coast and are expected to reach the remainder of the warning area by tonight...making outside preparations difficult or dangerous.Storm surge...the combination of a storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters. The water could reach the following depths above ground if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide...southeastern Louisiana eastward through Apalachee Bay...3 to 5 ft Florida West Coast south of Apalachee Bay...1 to 3 ft southwestern Louisiana...1 to 3 ftthe deepest water will occur along the immediate coast in areas of onshore flow. Surge-related flooding depends on the relative timing of the surge and the tidal cycle...and can vary greatly over short distances. For information specific to your area...please see products issued by your local National Weather Service office.Rainfall...Debby is expected to produce rain accumulations of 5 to 10 inches along the immediate Gulf Coast from southeast Louisiana to the central West Coast of Florida...with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches possible. Given the recent heavy rainfall and wet soil conditions...these additional amounts will exacerbate the threat of flooding across portions of northern Florida and southern Alabama.Tornadoes...isolated tornadoes are possible over portions of the west-central and southwestern Florida Peninsula today.Next advisory ------------- next complete advisory...400 PM CDT.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Cloacal Finance
With the kind of aplomb characteristic of a waiter lifting the
silver serving dome to expose a roasted goose, Europe has looked deep
into its organs of finance and produced 100 billion E-bucks for the
ailing banks of sad-sack nephew Spain. Where did all that money come
from? Out of Europe's ass. That is where all new money comes from these
days: an international diarrhea of money. Maybe that is why the great
nations of the West feel like shit.
They are not likely
to feel better if they keep shitting money all over themselves. Rather,
they will end up sitting in the gutter in Chinatown being laughed at by
Chinese businessmen passing by on the sidewalk. The Chinese businessmen
will glance down and say, "Look, here are the clowns we used to see at
Davos, Switzerland, every year eating foie gras. Now they are pathetic
crack-heads beshitting themselves. And, hark, the lice crawling all
over them are shouting and banging on pots!"
We are those lice.
This is what comes of pulling money out of your ass. Sorry to be so graphic but it is not a pretty story.
The Spanish government now turns around and lends money to Spanish
banks choking on bad debt. The Spanish banks will instantly vomit up
bonds in return. The bonds will be of an unsecured subordinated kind as
to be perceived as functionally worthless, and (according to financial
flaneur Bruce Krasting)
will inspire a subordinating of bond-holders all over Europe and hence
either a massive dumping of bank bonds or an orgy of credit default
swap bets between counterparties absolutely unable to cover their side
of the wager.
We're at the point where money has been
asked to perform like a trained monkey in the street, doing all kinds
of tricks to distract the public from the sad spectacle of the monkey's
owner dying in the gutter. When the owner expires, the talented monkey
will not know what to do with the coins that passersby tossed to it.
These street scenes of late spring, 2012, represent what they call
"unhealthy life choices" in the rehab business. All the once-great
western economic powers have decided to become crack-heads, winos, and
beggars with amusing monkeys. They are all dying of their addictions.
They are all dark stories with unhappy endings. They all ended that way
because the addicts refused to make different decisions that would have
drawn them through a frightful passage out of their addiction into a
new place with a different psychology.
The frightful
passage at issue is the reality-mandated economic contraction that the
planet and its very various inhabitants require for a necessary re-set
to health. The human race can either get with the program or expire in
the gutter of its septic industrial slum. To fully understand the
meaning of contraction, you have to at least first entertain the
possibility of no further expansion. The doctors in charge of the case
can't stretch their minds to imagine that possibility, so their
ministrations are at odds with the requirements of reality. Rehab is
not going so well.
Of course, we lice on this body
politic will not be so happy when the body slumps against the curb and
exhales its final rattle of breath. So, bang those pots and yell as
loud as you can as we move into a summer of criticality. Crawl down to
Charlotte, NC, or Tampa, Fla, to the political conventions, and be
heard. Fellow lice: America was once a great body to live on,
six-foot-three, mounted on a white steed, a sword on the hip, resolute
and brave. Look at us now! See how we are!
Monday, June 04, 2012
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Welcome to the Wormhole
Now we get to the really fun part of the global unwind where even money flowing into supposedly safe havens turns, presto change-o,
into an evaporation of wealth, and all of the lawyer-lobbyists who ever
double-parked on K Street in the sorry history of this frantic era will
not avail to contain the demons of their own design.
The world is waiting to re-learn an old lesson: that untruth and
reality exist in an adversarial relationship. Sad to say, there isn't
enough legal infrastructure in the world, nor enough time, to pass
judgment on all the lies and misrepresentations that burden the current
edition of what passes for civilization. This goes especially for money
matters, where currencies, certificates, and contracts actually have to
represent what they purport to stand for. When those relationships
fail, as they have been doing for some years now, everything falls
apart.
This is what comes of evading the enforcement of
norms and standards and of running exchanges without clearing
operations. The response to this mischief in deeds such as the
Dodd-Frank so-called financial reform act only heaps more hyper-complex
untruth on the smoldering compost of prior intentional falsities. It
all seems so hopelessly abstract that even thoughtful citizens can't
muster the means to object until that magic moment when, say, the
supermarket shelves go empty or nobody will accept the green paper
cluttering up your billfold.
For all the epic volume of
blather on the Internet and elsewhere, few have even remarked on
extraordinary passivity of the vulgar masses in the face of having
their future looted out from under them. The ethos of the penitentiary
must have saturated the zeitgeist wherein you are expected to just bend
over and take it good and hard where the sun don't shine and then you
are rewarded with a baloney sandwich. At least that's been the theme
since 2008.
The way things are lining up, though, it
might be a whole different story when the two political parties convene
this summer for their nominating rigmarole. I remain convinced that
these fatuous rites will meet with disruption. Of course, both parties
deserve an equal dose of citizen-generated shock and awe. Both parties
need to be rebuked, humiliated, and probably dismantled so that this
country can get on with the business of trying to become civilized.
Charlotte, NC, (the Democrats) and Tampa, FLA, (Republicans) are the
venues for these dumbshows. I hope to be there running a pitchfork
concession.
Meanwhile, as what many observers call a
"global slowdown" reveals itself to be a compressive collapse of faith
in a system plagued by deception and pranged by massive cross-defaults,
political uproar will rage through Europe and set the stage for
emulation in the USA. Angela Merkel made a funny over the weekend:
something about constructing a European fiscal union. That has about
the same chance of happening as Mrs. Merkel becoming a pole dancer when
her party gets tossed out of leadership not many months down the
line. All the nations where people wear clothing are in desperate
trouble. Their debt problems are insoluble and they're out of
accounting tricks. Events are running way ahead of institutions and
personalities.
Speaking of which, what dogs me more and
more every day is how come Jon Corzine is still at large six months
after mugging MF Global's customers, and what is the status of JP
Morgan's "London Whale" fiasco now that the news media have
conveniently stopped following the story. Have the losses blown past $5
billion? Or is that just one little tuft of yarn which, when yanked,
will unravel the entire skein of world banking? Well, it's party season
in the Hamptons now and the gentlemen responsible for these misdeeds
are busy nibbling the sea urchin roe and cucumber tidbits, I suppose,
and it would be unkind to ask them to testify before a congressional
subcommittee or, jeepers, a grand jury.
Ever wonder what
it might be like to live in a world without consequences? Well, you've
had a good look at it for more than a couple of years. How did it work
out? What did you get away with? And how do you plan to hang onto it?
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