Rain

It's been rainy. ...Okay, it's more than just rainy, it's like a deluge the past week. Like, "Google reports an increase in searches for 'who is noah' and 'whats a cubit'" levels of rain.

I last mentioned weather several days ago, noting that on New Year's Eve we had to avoid flooded roads on our drive back from visiting friends in the afternoon. It turns out San Francisco got near-record rain that day, 5.46 inches. Flooding has been a problem in many places around the Bay Area. We're safe from flooding here because we're not in a) a low-lying area, b) near a creek, or c) near a steep hillside that could give way when totally water logged. Oh, and d) we get way less rain than SF proper or various other cities in the Bay Area.

But today we've already had over an inch in the past 24 hours, with more expected. And not just more expected today but nearly every day in the 10 day forecast:



Yikes!

On the one hand, sitting inside— and wondering how bad the roads will be when we go out— through days of rain is no fun. On the other hand, as I say almost every time I give the good/bad news on rain, we need the precipitation. California's in a multi-year drought. A few weeks of heavy rain will not fix how low our reservoirs and groundwater supplies have gotten. They absolutely help, but it'll take this plus a lot more to end the drought.

Numbers-wise, the rain so far puts us well ahead of our season-to-date average. We're at close to double what we usually get by this point. (Rainfall seasons are measured Jul 1 - Jun 30.)

We are not yet at normal rainfall for the full season. I mention that because there's a chance the rain dries up after the next 10 days or so. Something like that happened a year ago, when it rained a fair bit in December then dried up in January (2022), extending our drought for another year. By February we had 80-degree-plus weather. Patterns like that have happened in other years, too. So let's hope we get more rain in the next 10 days and for the following month or two. We need it!

And I'm content to trade off several weeks of dreariness right now for not having drought, water rationing, crop failures, and hydroelectric dam failures this summer.

McCarthy losing streak goes to 9— No, 10— No 11!

Crackpot politics is like the gift that keeps giving. Would-be Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy lost another 3 rounds of voting today. He's now failed to prevail in 9 rounds of voting so far this week. (Yesterday it was only 5 6 rounds.)

A group of 19-20 GOP representatives continue to vote against McCarthy. That's notably more than the core bloc of 5 who publicly announced their opposition a few weeks ago. McCarthy has been working hard to make backroom deals, but even with everything he's offered— committee assignments, committee leadership, and the ability for any single member of his party to launch a recall vote against him as Speaker— it's not enough.



One might think that McCarthy is a moderate because he's opposed by far-right members of Congress. McCarthy is actually an extremist. He was one of 179 representatives who voted to overturn election results (link: New York Times article) on the January 6, 2020 insurrection attempt. Since then he's continued to repeat and reinforce the Big Lie that widespread voting fraud changed million ballots to favor Joe Biden over Donald Trump. Unfortunately extremism has become mainstream in the GOP. The representatives opposing McCarthy are the most extreme, lunatic fringe.

UPDATE: As I go to press "Post" on this article, news is breaking that a 10th vote has been taken and McCarthy appears to have lost that, too. Crackpot politics really is the gift that keeps on giving.

UPDATE 2: At around 7:30pm Eastern time the House is finishing another vote which McCarthy appears to have lost. That makes his losing streak 11 rounds of voting. Just wow.

UPDATE: 3: Shortly after midnight Friday night, McCarthy won on the 15th round of voting.

McCarthy 0-11, What's He Thinking?

Representative-elect Kevin McCarthy has been trying to get elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. He's now pushed through 11 rounds of voting... and lost all of them. There were three rounds on Tuesday, three more on Wednesday, and a whopping five on Thursday. I posted on Wednesday afternoon after round 5 when I thought they'd take a break for the day. Nope, they went for round 6. And earlier today I posted after round 9, figuring they were keeping a pace of only 3 failed attempts per day.... Nope! They went for round 10... then round 11!

BTW, this is part of why I rarely blog about political current events on this platform. Politics today moves at the speed of Twitter. Sadly it also moves at the depth of Twitter. Do something to go viral, and for fucks' sake fit it in 280 characters or nobody'll pay attention.

Among the core of McCarthy's opposition are several Twitter-optimized Congresspeople. They've structured their whole political personas around generating maximum headlines. Matt Gaetz, for example, is said to have made more appearances as a TV guest on Fox than in committee hearings last season. The few bits of legislation he's bothered with in the past few years have been headline-grabbing stunts. Then there's gun-toting Lauren Boebert. She uses her office mostly for trolling.

This really makes me wonder why McCarthy and other leaders are engaging in a standoff with these opponents. They've put McCarthy forward 11 times now (and counting!) expecting the other side to blink first. Who's supposed to blink first? The people who blink first would be those who care most about finishing the selection of Speaker so the whole Congress can get to its main job, legislating. (Congress literally can't do anything else until its Speaker is selected. Those are the rules.) But the lunatic fringe extremists opposing McCarthy don't care about legislating; they never have! McCarthy and his supporters have badly misread their fellow party members. ...Which is doubly pathetic because those nuts haven't been secretive about it; they've been doing what they've been doing very loudly & out in the open.