The Shouts from the Sea, 59th Day of Midwinter, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran): The heat dome is in full force here in Georgia. Today's high reached 95°, but the heat index reached 100. Tomorrow's forecast is about the same and the NWS heat advisory will remain in effect. 

Aldebaran is a sitting day so I wasn't outside in the heat most of the day. I did make a grocery shopping run to the supermarket though, but I made sure to open my car windows and vent the heat an hour or so before I left. 

It's Midsommar and the Dog Days are fast approaching.

In Europe, the heat dome has moved east. Czechia's already been eliminated from World Cup competition (they went 0-1-2), so they presumably won't be hanging around here much longer for the next round of games unless they've still got tickets to upcoming events and their lodging secured through the week (I don't know how these things work). However, temperatures in the Czech Republic are expected to exceed 99° F and north of Prague temps peaked at 107.2° on Sunday, setting a record for the country - one that was just set on Saturday. So fans won't be escaping the heat by leaving Atlanta but will actually be returning home to even more hellish conditions. 

England plays the Congo DR here on Wednesday. Great, on top of a heat advisory we now also have to worry about English soccer fans here. You have to believe the African team will be better acclimated to the heat in Atlanta than the Brits; however, England's still the heavy betting favorite and "Atlanta Stadium" (or Mercedes-Benz Stadium, as it's actually called) is air-conditioned. Still, those English soccer fans out on the streets and partying in the parks and pubs may well feel woozy from the heat.    

Also, I can't wait to see how all those visiting World Cup fans who can't get over ranch dressing react once they discover Atlanta lemon-pepper chicken wings.

 

Eighth Ocean, 58th Day of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Helios): Today's the 180th day of the year. Fifteen dozen days down, and fifteen dozen and a few more to go. "Ocean" days in the New Revised Universal Solar Calendar falls on some but not all of the dozenth days, and to commemorate this auspicious dozen, the New Revised USC calls today "Eighth Ocean." 

Eighth Ocean falls on the 28th day of Summer in old Angus MacLise's original USC, which would be the 52nd day of Midsommar (Day of Fur Gale) in the New Revision. I moved it to today to observed the 15 dozen days that have passed so far this year. 

The heat dome's arrived. The National Weather Service officially released a Severe Weather Alert of possible threats to life and property for central, east central, north central, northeast, northwest, and west central Georgia - in other words, "Georgia." Heat index values were forecast up to 106-112° F from noon today to 8:00 pm tomorrow. The NWS advises to drink plenty of fluids, and stay in air-conditioned rooms and out of the sun. 

So of course, this 72-year-old man walked a 9.1-mile Harrison today (it's a walking day), out in the sun and away from a.c. I brought along a bottle of water to stay hydrated and I was fine. The heat index hit a high of 96° just as I was finishing my walk, which is warm, but not anything Georgians aren't familiar with. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of Atlanta.

The heat may be intense for World Cup fans visiting Atlanta from Czechia and Uzbekistan, but shouldn't be too much of a shock for the other teams playing here (Spain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Cabo Verde, South Africa, the Congo DR, and Haiti). 

The Economist points out that air-conditioning is highly effective, and, at least in Europe, climate-conscious government policy keeps its environmental impacts relatively small. Specifically, the build-out of renewable energy in Europe’s warmest places means that judicious use of air conditioning won't melt the glaciers. 

However, I think it would be fair to say the Stable Genius' energy policy and views on renewables aren't as progressive as western Europe's. The Georgia Power Company uses a mix of natural gas, nuclear, and coal to provide my electricity, alongside "growing investments" (whatever that means) in renewables like solar and hydropower. To save the polar ice caps, I keep the thermostat at 78°, which feels refreshingly cool when I step in from outside, although once I acclimate, while still comfortable, I can tell that it's summertime.     

      

 

Dream Oven, 57th Day of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Electra): Since this has apparently become a weather blog, I note that an area of low pressure is expected to form off the southeastern coast of the U.S. early next week. Slow development of this area, the western end of a frontal system, will be possible while it moves slowly landward. How this low-pressure system interacts with the high-pressure heat dome forecast for next week, I have no idea.

The weather is the real-time manifestation of climate change, and in my own experience, storms are becoming more frequent and more intense. I'm also still traumatized by the tree that fell on my house in October 2020 (PTSD, anyone?) and every storm warning now has me looking at the tons of timber still towering over my house in the form of tall pine trees. 

The eccentric English writer and lecturer Alan Watts claimed that consciousness evolved as a sort of radar system to detect danger to an organism, and if we identify our ego-self with consciousness, our warning system, then of course we're going to feel in constant peril and live in a state of anxiety. The American writer Michael Pollan reminds us that brains evolved to support bodies; bodies aren't life-support systems for brains.

The Facebook algorithm has picked up that, in my PTSD state of weather anxiety, I interact with posts about storm warnings and extreme weather events, and so has started feeding me a seemingly endless steam of storm alerts, take-cover warnings, and pessimistic prognostications about the weather. That's not healthy and it isn't helping any.

And yet . . . the sun outside is shining and birds are singing. Chipmunks and squirrels scurry around my yard, unperturbed about next week's weather, and deal with storms when they arrive. Ignorance, it's been said, is bliss.         

 

Day of the Sickness, 56th of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Deneb): It's starting to warm up here in Georgia - the high temp today reached 90° but the humidity was still a reasonable 47%, so the heat index ("feels like temperature") was only 93°. Summertime temps for the this neck of the woods, nothing out of the ordinary.

I walked my eight-mile Van Buren today, and the nerdlings at Apple allowed me credit for a full 8.2 miles on my phone. 

A black rat snake was crossing the sidewalk as I walked today - not a particularly large one, about two feet long (they grow to six or seven feet). We both paused and eyeballed each other for a moment, and I allowed him to continue crossing the sidewalk without otherwise bothering him. We was heading toward Peachtree Creek, where I imagine there are all sorts of tasty prey for a snake, although what do I know? He was going on about his snake business and I was going on about my simian business. 

Earlier this week, as I was looking out my kitchen window contemplating Eliot's gravesite, I saw that a piece of tape or something was dangling off my roof. Great, I thought, a piece of the gutter or the roofing needs repair - more expenses.  I went outside to look closer and pulled the "tape" down off the roof to discover it wasn't tape at all but a snake skin. It was about four feet long and fully intact from tail to nose. Probably another rat snake - they're common down here and are excellent climbers. I've seen them go straight up the trunks of trees without seeming to grasp onto anything. But why was a four-foot (and probably longer now) rat snake on my roof and more importantly, where is he now? Could he get inside my house from somewhere on the roof? Say, down the chimney like jolly old Saint Nick? 

I may have a snake infestation problem in my house, but rat snakes are actually pretty chill (I had a six-footer as a "pet" when I was in my teens and it never bit me once) and at least I won't have mice or rats or other vermin. Still, if I feel something crawling across my feet while I'm sleeping at night . . .  

My sister called from Massachusetts today while I was out walking. She's now cancer free, but recovery from the long ordeal of surgery and chemo- and radiation therapy is still taking a long time. But she's now in that exclusive club of cancer survivors.   

 

Strand of Names, 55th Day of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Castor): Tragically, the heat dome in Europe may have resulted in as many as 212 deaths in Spain alone. Ominously, a heat dome is forecast to develop over Atlanta and the Southeastern U.S. this week. Temperatures are forecast to climb into the 90s this weekend and reach the mid-90s by early next week. The heat index is expected to approach 100° by next Saturday and on Sunday, the temperatures could feel like 103° degrees. By Monday, it could feel like 105° in Atlanta. 

Heat domes are large ridges of high pressure that can extend up to about 1,000 miles during spring and summer. They create a region of sinking air, and as the descending air compresses and warms, it can push temperatures up to 30 °F above average and reach 100° F in the eastern U.S. The warm, sinking air also dries the ground, suppressing thunderstorm development, and often results in very little wind at the surface. When a heat dome persists for more than a week, it can initiate or worsen drought and produce long heat waves.

But that's all nothing compared to what's happened in Venezuela. Monday, a 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck the nation 39 seconds after a 7.2-magnitude foreshock, killing at least 188 people and injuring 1,500 more. Thousands are reported missing and buildings were evacuated as far away as the Amazon Basin in Brazil. The earthquakes are among the strongest in Venezuela in more than a century.

Geologically, the earthquake occurred as a result of shallow strike-slip faulting near the complex plate boundary between the Caribbean and South American plates. At the location of the earthquake, the Caribbean plate moves eastward relative to South America at a rate of about 20 mm/year. This movement is primarily accommodated by the complex San Sebastian fault system, which extends along the northern coast of Venezuela.

The two earthquakes constitute a doublet sequence, defined as two earthquakes of similar magnitude that occur close in time and proximity, likely due to  complex, rupture-interaction processes.

Northern Venezuela has a history of large, damaging earthquakes. However, there have only been seven magnitude 6 or larger earthquakes in the area over the past century. The region recently experienced a doublet in September 2025 consisting of a 6.2 and 6.3 earthquake west of this week's event. The most devastating modern earthquake in the area was the July 1967 magnitude 6.6 Caracas earthquake, which caused around 240 fatalities, hundreds of injuries, the collapse of multiple high-rise apartment buildings, and widespread destruction.

And as if all that weren't enough, in the last couple days, earthquakes also shook Japan (6.9), California (5.6), and Papua New Guinea (5.4). 

Heat domes and earthquakes. Impermanence is swift. Sometimes it feels like Mother Gaia is trying to shake off that pesky species that's causing so much havoc with the climate and ecosystems.

 

Day of the Millrace, 54th of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse): As luck would have it, yesterday's pleasant weather continued into today, a walking day, as I took in my eight mile course. Even better, my stingy phone finally gave me credit for a full 8.1-mile Van Buren, instead of the seven-point-something distances it's tried to claim in the past.  

Europe hasn't been as lucky vis a vis the weather.  The continent is suffering under an intense heat dome, bringing dangerous conditions to much of Europe. Spain set a new daily record for the month of June and in southwest France it reached 112 °F yesterday at Pissos in France’s hottest day on record. The UK has issued a “Red Extreme Heat Warning” for today and tomorrow, with temperatures forecast to soar to at least 102.2 °F, which would obliterate the UK’s previous June heat record of 96.1 degrees. In France, at least 40 people have drowned while seeking relief from the heat. Heat-related deaths are difficult to track in real time, though French authorities compared this heat wave to one in 2003 that killed nearly 15,000 people.

Moving right along, I was delighted to find this quote by author Joyce Carol Oates on Elon Musk: “So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates – scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend’s or relative’s accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died; pleasure in sports, acclaim for a favorite team; references to history. In fact he seems totally uneducated, uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the ‘most wealthy person in the world.’”

I couldn't agree more. I've felt the same way for many years, from well before he even entered politics, about the Stable Genius. So full of grievances, so paranoid that someone, somewhere might be taking advantage of him or, worse, laughing behind his back. Like Musk, the more that he has, the more he seems to want.

In Japanese folklore, there is a spirit called the "hungry ghost," an unfortunate apparition with a mouth so small it can never eat enough to satisfy its hunger, its longing. Musk and the Stable Genius are the opposite - "big-mouth ghosts" - spirits whose enormous mouths can never be filled. Their mouths grow ever larger as they eat more and more. 

I don't wanna be no ghost. I'm so glad I'm not Musk or the S.G.

Last night, two New York House Democrat incumbents, including the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, lost their primaries to left-wing Democratic Socialist challengers backed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The pangram in yesterday's Spelling Bee was "marijuana."

The times, they really are a-changing. 

 

Through the Thin Words, 53rd Day of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Aldebaran):  I'm well aware that I talk about weather way to much on this blog, but how else to document the death throes of our planet in this age of climate change and global warming? 

Plus I'm outside walking for several hours every other day, so there's that to consider, too. These are the times, and this is my record of the times, etc.

But having said all that, right now western Europe is suffering through a significant heat wave, with forecasts of triple‑digit highs (in degrees Fahrenheit) and unprecedented nighttime lows breaking records in France, the UK, and beyond. The heat wave’s severity could approach that of August 2003, which caused nearly 15,000 deaths in France. More than 100 all‑time temperature records have already been broken in France, including a 111.7° F reading at Le Blanc. Paris is forecast to see daily highs at or above 100 °F and an unprecedented number of heat‑wave alerts have already been issued across the rest of the country. 

The UK expects June’s all‑time high temperature, set 50 years ago, to be broken, marking the first time since 1911 that two consecutive months recorded record‑breaking highs. London is forecast to reach the mid‑90s on Tuesday and Wednesday before cooling later in the week.

But back here in normally sweaty, sweltering Atlanta, Georgia, things are quite different. A cold front passed through last night, and yesterday's humidity is gone. Today reached a high of only 79° F, with a moderate humidity of 55% and a comfortable dew point of 59°.  Aldebaran is a sitting day, and I'm hoping that the pleasant conditions continue through tomorrow's walking day.

Last week, NOAA confirmed the formation of an El Niño in the tropical Pacific and has issued an official advisory. Forecasters expect it to strengthen through the winter of 2026–27, with a 63% chance it will reach the “very strong,” or "Super El Niño," threshold, placing it among the strongest events dating back to 1950. In a world already experiencing record heat, such an event could bring more dangerous extremes: drought, wildfires, and flooding, and in the Pacific, a more active hurricane season. 

It's worth remembering that in 1877, North America experienced an unusually mild winter. It was known as the “year without a winter.” The mild temperatures coincided with one of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded. That El Niño was a major factor in one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Much of the world was enveloped in drought, and harvests failed in India, China, parts of Africa, and Brazil. The drought led to the “Great Famine” which killed between 30 and 60 million people, about 3% of the world’s population at the time.

As Terry Garcia, a former deputy administrator of NOAA, writes in The Guardian, what distinguishes us from the victims of 1877 is not luck, but data. Today we have the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a network that delivers real-time ocean data from more than 900 sensors. The lead time that modern monitoring and forecasting system provides can save thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year. Today, we can anticipate climate shocks before they arrive.

Alert readers will recall that the Stable Genius had tried to dismantle the network. Pulling the sensors was not a budgetary exercise. The  actions are more properly viewed as an extension of the Stable Genius' broader assault on federal climate science. The objective is apparently to weaken the programs that measure climate change and then claim the problem is “uncertain”. But as Garcia points out, turning off the alarm does not put out the fire.

In a rare display of bipartisan unity, the Senate unanimously passed a bill to prohibit the use of federal funds to dismantle the network until a thorough review is conducted. Last week, it was announced that the removal would be stopped, the system allowed to keep running, and that the sensors that had already been pulled out of the water would be redeployed.

The reckless actions have been paused, but the network’s future is still to be decided by some as-of-yet-unconvened panel. Some sensors have already been removed, and data streams have been interrupted. Their redeployment after removal is not equivalent to uninterrupted operation. 

But the system has been spared, for now. Garcia recommends Congress write protections for the system  into law, so the instruments we rely on to understand the ocean are not at the mercy of an election outcome. 

The ocean stores most of the excess heat that shapes storms, marine heatwaves, and climate shocks, such as El Niño events. We came far too close to throwing it away.

 

Day of Fur Gale, 52nd of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Helios): After missing my alternating day walks twice in a row, I finally got in a 7.6-mile Jackson according to my phone, or an 8-mile Van Buren according to the mileposts. It was 84° and quite humid, but sometimes it's good to sweat it out a little.

While I walked, I listened to a podcast about the CIA's MK Ultra experiments of the 1950s. Sick fucking bastards.

According to a survey published today by the global advisory firm Milltown Partners, only 8% of Americans who say they oppose data centers actually live near one. Tech companies will probably spin that survey to suggest that the other 92% don't really have "legitimate" concerns, that only those who live adjacent to a planned data center should be able to express their concerns about construction proposals. 

But data centers can drive up the cost of energy for everyone served by the host utility, and consume ungodly amounts of cooling water. However, Nvidia claims their latest chips recirculate a mixture of water and propylene glycol, similar to antifreeze, and therefore use less water. They reportedly can run at temperatures up to 113°.

Nvidia claims that with their new chip, the data-center water consumption problem is now largely solved. That remains to be seen, with questions of cost and reliability yet to be addressed. Also, I've done environmental restoration projects at enough former Air Force bases to know the potential for ethylene and propylene glycol contamination of groundwater. We may be merely substituting problems of water scarcity for problems of water pollution. 

Millions of chips all across America containing propylene glycol - what could possibly go wrong?

Finally, speaking of AI, since I have no idea what a "fur gale" is, my prompt for the picture above was "Queen of the North."

 

Fifth Day of Light, 51st of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Electra): Happy Solstice! The Fifth Day of Light, the longest day of the year, the day when the forces of darkness and light are most out of balance in favor of the Sun. At exactly 4:24 a.m. this morning, days stopped getting longer, reached their maximum, and started getting shorter. 

Consideration of the Summer Solstice played a big part in devising the New Revised Universal Solar Calendar. It's why this season is named "Midsommar" and I wanted one of the five Days of Light to fall on the Solstice. Each of the six seasons in the New Revised USC has a special five-day week, and even though the five Days of Light fall in late July in old Angus MacLise's original USC, that would be next season (Dog Days) in my New Revised USC, so I moved them to Midsommar to fall on the Solstice. 

It's all deliberate, even the AI images. The seasonal five-day events allow me the opportunity to develop themes in the images, and the Days of Light allowed me to lead up to the Midsommar avatar, the Sun Girl, with her head tilted today at roughly the same angle as the Earth's axis, with half her face in shadow and half in light. And here you thought I was just losing my mind with nonsense and AI slop. I may be, but at least there's method to my madness. 

There are only ten more days left to the Midsommar season. During those days, and the Dog Days that follow, the Earth will move from imbalance towards equanimity, towards the Autumn equinox, when the forces of light and dark are equal and balanced, in equanimity. Days will get shorter and nights longer, even though we probably won't notice it for quite a while yet.

It's not surprising that in this moment of stasis between the momentum of days getting longer and days growing shorter, today's I Ching gave me Li, Hexagram 30, in stasis with no moving lines. "Li" is Brilliance, light, the Sun above and the Sun below, on today, the day with the most Sun of the year. The two identical trigrams that make up the hexagram each represent the Sun's movement in the course of a day. 

The oracle for the hexagram suggests that the best leaders don't wield an ax but raise a lantern. Those who try to rule by fire are defeated by fire. Those who rule by bringing light to others join an ever-increasing radiance. To be a source of light to others, the trigrams representing the clockwork-like movement of the Sun indicate that one's spiritual practice should likewise follow a fixed routine, that one should be regular and persistent in their spiritual practice. I take this as an affirmation of my practice of alternating-day sitting, sitting even when I don't necessarily feel like it - especially when I don't necessarily feel like it. Such is the way of Li on this fifth and ultimate Day of Light.

 

Fourth Day of Light, 50th Day of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Deneb): As the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the massive system of ocean currents that acts as a global conveyor belt, is on the verge of collapse, it's worth thinking about the Younger Dryas Event. About 12,800 years ago, something caused one of the most abrupt climate collapses in recent geological history. Global temperatures dropped several degrees within decades and megafauna across multiple continents went extinct. Then about 1,200 years later, conditions rebounded almost as fast.

The Younger Dryas was a long time ago, but doesn't predate human history. The oldest of the Giza pyramids were built around this time (more time had passed between construction of the Great Pyramid in Giza and the birth of Cleopatra than the birth of Cleopatra and now). The nomadic Clovis tribes in North America that hunted mammoths, mastodons, and caribou and lived in scattered, temporary settlements, traveling over long distances in search of game, had to switch to a more sedentary, agricultural lifestyle after the megafauna went extinct.  

The generally accepted explanation for the event is that meltwater from retreating glaciers disrupted Atlantic ocean circulation. If disruption of the Atlantic circulation system then could cause the catastrophic Younger Dryas, what would the collapse of the AMOC cause today?

The Stable Genius didn't think the issue was worth researching and his administration was set to remove the system of oceanic monitors and recording buoys in the Atlantic and Pacific that's being used to track changes in the AMOC and elsewhere. Fortunately, an outcry from the scientific community caused him to reconsider the decision, and the system will be left in place for now. But that's how governance under the Stable Genius goes these days - someone wonders "What does this switch do?" and turns it off, and then if the outcry seems alarmed enough, they'll turn it back on.

The specific mechanism that caused  disruption to the ocean currents during the Younger Dryas was thought to be freshwater outflow from the St. Lawrence River as the North American continental glaciers melted. However, salinity data doesn't support that hypothesis. The current thinking now has Canada's Mackenzie River providing the disruptive fresh-water flow. 

An alternative hypothesis to explain the Younger Dryas Event proposes that North America and other continents were subjected to some sort of extraterrestrial event, either a supernova shockwave, the impact or airburst from a meteor, comet, or some other object, or some combination thereof. That event supposedly caused the climate changes that define the onset of the Younger Dryas. More specifically, proponents claim that the proposed impact triggered an "impact winter" and the subsequent climate episode, biomass burning, megafaunal extinctions, and human cultural shifts and population declines.

It's ironic that as human-induced climate change warms the planet, that warming may eventually cause the same kind of disruption to the Atlantic circulatory system that caused the global cooling of the Younger Dryas. Collapse of the AMOC could provide a cooling effect to offset some of the warming, with the added benefit of killing off enough of the human population to stop with all the anthropomorphic GHG releases already.

Third Day of Light, 49th Day of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Castor): The remnants of tropical storm Arthur passed over Atlanta last night and overall it turned out to be kind of a nothing-burger. The rain started right about 5:00 pm yesterday and the power went out almost immediately. But then, almost instantly, the lights came right back on again and by 5:30, the first wave of rain had passed. The National Weather Service recorded a total of 1.12 inches of rain by 8:00 pm.

It didn't start raining again until around 9:30 pm. It was a steady rain that lasted for hours and added another 0.80 inches of rain, but it wasn't anything like the earlier downpour of that first wave. I didn't hear any thunder, see any lightning, and the rain ended sometime shortly after midnight. There were certainly no tornados, which is a good thing (just saying).

Standing water on some city streets caused traffic delays, but a single drop of rain can trigger traffic jams in Atlanta (and don't get me started on snow). The stream gauge on Peachtree Creek rose from 2.34 feet at 4:00 pm, before the rain started, to 8.26 feet just after midnight, well below the flood stage of 17 feet, or even the "action stage" of 13 feet.

Some trees fell in parts of Atlanta and some homes and cars were damaged, although, thankfully, no one was killed AFAIK. Many people lost power for several hours, even if I experienced only the briefest of outages. I know I'd be viewing the storm differently in my house were one of those hit by a falling tree.

Due to wide-spread pushback, the Stable Genius has abandoned the foolish plan to physically remove the system of oceanic monitors and measuring buoys in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The administration has also halted the planned construction of an immensely unpopular ICE detention facility in Social Circle, Georgia, due to public protest. And even Stable Genius sycophants are struggling to find an upside to his "peace agreement" on the ill-conceived Iran War, or for the war itself for that matter. 

There are still two-and-a-half years left to the Stable Genius' second term, but as the editors of W magazine wrote in an email today, sometimes it feels like the Age of MAGA, culturally at least, has already ended. If they were pressed to pinpoint exactly when the end began, they wrote "we might say it was this past January. A few weeks after Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office in New York, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was widely considered a crowd-pleasing success. In retrospect, the right-wing media looked silly for making such a big deal of it in the first place. 

"The president then went on chasing a spree of contentious and often confusing foreign policy windmills (what was all of that about Greenland again?), while struggling to reassure Americans about the economy. As a result, his approval ratings remain in the gutter. As the president celebrated his birthday by watching grown men fight each other on the White House lawn, Mamdani’s New York was in the throes of full ecstasy. The New York Knicks had taken home their first NBA championship in decades, Jane Fonda was hosting a first amendment singalong with Bette Midler and Julia Roberts at the Town Hall theater, and the city’s World Cup events were going off without a hitch." 

Imagine a world with less MAGA and more Mamdani. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

 

Second Day of Light, 48th of Midsommar, 526 M.E. (Betelgeuse):  According to Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, Mike Collins, the Stable Genius' handpicked candidate to run against him, is "a notorious bigot, antisemite, and extremist currently under federal investigation for the illegal misuse of tax dollars." Collins, who "is only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman, voted to double health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians, for the Iran War, and for the [Stable Genius] tariffs."

That's all true, but as despicable as Collins is, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson is arguably more so. Recently discovered audio reveals Jackson agreeing with a person saying that a woman should have to prove she was raped before she could qualify for an abortion. 

But politics - what does it matter when we're all about to drown? The remnants of Arthur, the first named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, are coming to Atlanta today. Multiple rounds of rainfall are expected through Friday morning with chances for flash flooding. They're forecasting 2 to 4 inches of rain with locally higher amounts of 5 inches or more. Urban areas, like Atlanta, and areas with poor drainage will be the most susceptible to flash flooding. 

Worse, most of Georgia is also under a wind advisory until 8:00 am tomorrow when Arthur finally blows through. Southwest winds of 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph are expected. Some isolated higher wind gusts may also be possible. Tree limbs could be blown down, possibly resulting in power outages. 

I'm fully expecting to lose power within the next 24 hours. I went to the supermarket for bread and peanut butter, fresh fruit, and some premade salads so I'll have some no-cook, ready-to-eat meals on hand. I've checked my flashlight batteries and candle stocks, and I'm keeping my phone charged up. 

It's already oppressively humid outside beneath ominous overcast skies and, oh fun, they just added a tornado watch until 11:00 pm.

No hurricanes or tropical storms made landfall on the U.S. last year, and then this year the very first named storm of the year beelines straight for Atlanta. But one of these days, a hard rain's gonna fall and a blue wave will come along and wash the garbage and trash off the streets - the Nazis, the racists, MAGAs, neocons, and QAnons - filth. The blue wave will wash all the scum off the streets and the storm will be named Freedom.