Once again another Monday morning and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it.
The shit starts anew — a work-week opus. Overcast and a bit warm here on California’s north coast, but still so far not a bad winter — not much rainfall either, which could mean a drought situation south of us this spring and summer.
Survival of the unfitted dry.

And this dumb-ass DST is not only bad for dreaming but bad for business: Changing the clocks an hour ahead for daylight saving time doesn’t just cost us sleep — it might also be costing the American economy as much as $434 million, according to a new index.
No wonder this country is in such a f*cked-up state.

(Illustration found here).

Today also marks the second anniversary of the infamous Japanese earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that killed almost 19,000 people and left 315,000 homeless, and two years later the scene is cleaner, but dirty still. A 9.0 earthquake triggered tsunami waves which not only destroyed everything, but also knocked the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear into melt-down mode.
And although the head-asshat of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission claims the performance of atom-power plants is “…quite good,” some beg to differ: But the watchdog group, the Union of Concerned Scientists, has issued a scathing report saying nearly one in six U.S. nuclear reactors experienced safety breaches last year, due in part to weak oversight. The group accused the NRC of “tolerating the intolerable.”
Catchy phrase that.

In a visual marvel, The Atlantic has a photo essay of before/after shots of the Fukushima disaster two years later and in many places it looks as though nothing outstanding had ever happened. Life goes on.
Or it don’t. A horror story to be sure from Al Jazeera English:

Just 40 kilometres away from the Fukushima plant, Mikio Watanabe stands in silence by the tree where his wife killed herself.
A farmer all his life, he is not much for words or for showing emotion.
Yet when he returns to the home he and his wife built, he is filled with anger.
The house and the forests surrounding it remain heavily contaminated with cesium, and while the government allows visits during the day, residents are not allowed to stay overnight.
It was during one of those visits that Watanabe says his wife chose to end her life.
“I was so stressed myself, and I regret I didn’t see how severely she was suffering, it fills me with remorse.”
Before the nuclear disaster, Watanabe says her wife was always cheerful, enjoying their life tending to chickens, in this remote and beautiful area of Fukushima.
But when forced to evacuate, they had to move to a temporary shelter, and forced to stay indoors.
Having lost the life they so enjoyed, he says his wife slid into depression.
“The night before she killed herself, she held onto my hands so hard, and refused to let go.”
The next morning, Watanabe was outdoors alone, tending to the garden, when he noticed a flame go up by a tree in the front yard.
It was only a few hours later that he discovered his wife had set herself on fire.

Nuclear power is another one of mankind’s more-dumb-ass innovations — there’s literally millions of tons of even worse shit — nuclear waste — piled up all over the world, just waiting for some man-made or natural calamity to breach the unbreachable. This stuff can kill millions for thousands of years.
Toxic futures abound!

And speaking of poisonous vapors — a Bush dynasty, too. You gotta be shittin’ me!
George Jr.’s little brother, Jeb, former Florida governor and rotund nit-twit, claimed on Fox News yesterday there’s absolutley no problem with the ‘Bush’ brand.
Via Raw Story:

Fox News host Chris Wallace pointed out to Bush on Sunday that his brother, George W. Bush, had been “somewhat unpopular” when he left office in 2009.
“Do you think there is any Bush baggage?” Wallace wondered.
“Do you think that would be a problem?”
“No,” the former Florida governor replied.
“I don’t think there’s any Bush baggage at all.
I love my brother, I’m proud of his accomplishments, I love my dad, I am proud to be a Bush.”

C&L tapped it right on: According to a 2009 CBS News/New York Times poll, former president George W. Bush left office with an approval rating of 22 percent, the lowest approval since the Gallup began asking the question 70 years earlier.

Peter Beinart at the Daily Beast says it won’t never, ever happen:

Unfortunately for Jeb, history is written by historians.
Three times since 2009, pollsters have asked them to rank American presidents, and in those rankings, W. has come in 36th, 39th, and 31st.
Only Millard Fillmore, Warren Harding, William Henry Harrison, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan rank lower.
Ordinary Americans agree.
Three times since George W. Bush left office, pollsters have asked the public to rank recent presidents.
And three times, W. has ended up second to last, ahead of only Richard Nixon.
It’s no exaggeration to say George W. Bush is more responsible than any other single individual for the Republican Party’s current dismal standing.
When Bush took office, about as many Americans identified as Republicans as identified as Democrats.
By the time he left, Democrats enjoyed a roughly 10-point lead.
When Bush took office, Americans ages 18 to 29 were split evenly between the two major parties.
By the time he left, Democrats enjoyed an advantage of 19 points.
To grasp how excited Democrats would be to run a Clinton against a Bush in 2016, you need only remember that Bill Clinton gave the strongest speech at the 2012 Democratic convention, while at the 2012 Republican convention, George W. Bush didn’t speak at all.

Along with the political bullshit this weekend, there were some tragic accidents across this nation –  six young people were killed in Ohio when their SUV overturned, and seven people died in a house in rural Kentucky, including a pregnant young woman.
Even up here in Humboldt County there was another horrible, tragic accident where a teen-age kid was struck and killed by a car — via Lost Coast Outpost:

It was reported by witnesses that the juvenile was standing stationary in the intersection, in the southbound lane of J St (outside a crosswalk) and was looking down at his cellular phone when he was hit.
There was no immediate indication of intoxication or impairment on the part of either the driver or the pedestrian.

Sad way to start the week — intolerable near-about.