Tis the season, Mr Romney

It’s true, I celebrate Christmas. In fact I had to get stern with a cynical Workout Girl and explain to her that “We celebrate Christmas in this house!” I also like Halloween even though I don’t believe in witchcraft and I used to get hammered on Saint Patty’s Day despite being skeptical about holy flutes that round up snakes. So, yes, I do. And I’m checking my snail mail, I’m checkin it twice … but so far no gifts from Obama even though I have been quite nice. Maybe I’m not on the Obama Christmas gift list, which makes me sad knowing that goodies are being handed out to other Obama supporters. At least according to Mitt Romney. What the hell did I do wrong? [Read more…]

I have a message for CEO’s and small business owners

If you survived the Great Recession then you’ve obviously done some things right. Well done, and grats! I bet one of the things you did right was keeping a lid on labor costs and focusing on business and customers that paid off. In a brutal recession, you are in driver’s seat in terms of labor. You can pick and choose among the cream of the crop for rock-bottom, bargain wages. The question is how will you survive and thrive as the recession comes to an end?

Because my guess is around half of you are at risk of fucking that up royally. One of the ways you might fuck it up is by not adjusting to the reality of fuller employment. It makes sense ethically to reward those employees who stuck with you through the darkest days. It makes business sense to pony up to retain and/or attract the higher performing employees who can carry your business to ever greater profitability in the expanding earnings environment ahead. And the companies that do the latter first will be able to pick and choose among the best and brightest in their respective fields at reasonable wages. The companies that drag their feet might end up fighting over the scraps left behind for premium pay. How you act now may well determine which group you fall into next quarter and next year.

 

Victory by sex!


OK … the header could be interpreted as misleading, but it’s literally true!  CNN posted this detailed exit poll that breaks down last night’s victory by age, sex, etc. Looking at the graphic above it’s real clear the changing demographic favors democrats, in large part because raging hatred of el brown or teh gay is now a certified GOP gang sign. I don’t know how they get around that in the future, but watching them try is going to be real fucking entertaining. Speaking of which, mmmhmm, Donald Trump, oh yes, yummy tasty tears of unfathomable sadness!

OBAMA WINS SECOND TERM!

President Obama is projected to win a second term! The only question now is how big the win will be. Florida and Virginia are both in play for the WH. There will be healthcare for all in a year and two months. The Teaparty has cost GOP Senate seats in Missouri, Indiana, Colorado, Delaware, and Nevada. Republicans would have won those and therefore the Senate if not for Teaparty nutcases.

Results: CNN, NY Times, & Politico all have a great interactive state by state bitmap with results updating for each state when you mouse over.

Lots of states coming in now

OBAMA Called WINNER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Results: CNN, NY Times, & Politico all have a great interactive state by state bitmap with results updating for each state when you mouse over.   • Poll Closing Times

10 PM CDT Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) picks up incumbant Senator Scott Brown’s (R) seat; Senator Claire McKaskill fights off Todd Legitimate-Rape Akin in MO

Teaparty has cost GOP Senate seats in Missouri, Indiana, Colorado, Delaware, and Nevada. GOP woulda won those if not for RWNJs.

Battleground states that are hugely important: NH, WI, PA, MN, and MI Obama!! Iowa too early to call; Nevada too early to call; Florida too close to call; OH still too close to call, NC (Rom), VA too close to call, CO too early to call

East coast & exit polls

6:20 PM CT CBS News says exit polling razor thin in VA; Ohio polls closing at the bottom of the hour, in ten mins

Via DailyKos: “Exit polling: Obama winning 59-39 among young voters, which is not a particularly good sign for the GOP’s future prospects.”

Vermont called for Obama, two others called for Romney, nothing surprising though.

Polls have closed in Virginia and a few other eastern states. If Obama wins VA, he’s probably in the clear right there. Nothing out yet, except some of the sites I plan to use are already loading super slow. Oh, and Windows decided tonight would be a great time to launch a big update, so my laptop is “updating”. Some tantalizing hints from exit polls soon.

It’s all the rage

This all happened once before. A storm season or two roared onshore, average global temps ticked up, the ocean stopped effortlessly absorbing heat, and … nothing much came of it outside of the rise of the Internet know nothings on climate change. Back then of course Bush was in the WH, and Cheney’s energy cronies were running the show. It caused a big stir. But it’s like author Mark Bowen once told me, “You can argue about framing and soundbites all you want, but to get ledge passed that advances your cause means you have to win elections.” [Read more…]

Did climate change cause Sandy?

Satellite image of Superstorm Sandy taken at 10 AM EDT Tuesday. Image NASA GSFC. Click for info at Climate Progress.

Did Sandy happen because of global climate change? Answer: It’s quite possible according to one of the world’s leading climate science experts, Dr. Michael Mann from Penn Sate University and author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches From The Front Lines: [Read more…]

Hurricane Sandy lines up for act two: The Snowjob

 

I;m down with a moderately lousy AS flare up watching some news and it’s all Sandy. Hurricane Sandy is now making landfall in southern New Jersey. She’s not a bad hurricane as far as bad hurricanes go, but she’s fixing to mutate into something novel. What makes this storm so unusual isn’t the wind or the rain, they are causing relatively minor and mostly moderate damage respectively as best we can tell or predict right now. It’s huge. For act two Sandy will feed a nor’easter just to the west of Sandy’s eye. All the moisture held by this vast heat engine is going to pour into a frigid layer of air and turn into snow and ice, it’s already starting. This is a hurricane powered blizzard in the making. Call it a Blizzacane or an ice-cane. It’s something we don’t see often, so no one knows exactly what sheets of ice and/or several feet of snow will do to communities and infrastructure when dumped into 50mph plus winds and widespread flooding.