Way-bright sunshine chilled with a northerly wind this afternoon here on California’s north coast, as we hunker down for a hard-cold snap the next couple of days, temperatures forecast to dip to freezing and below, most-likely a side-effect off that big storm churning up north.
Winter Storm Cleon — a “helter-skelter storm” already dumping 30 inches of snow on Idaho, and  vigorously-creating frigid temperatures from Seattle to southern California.

Colorado might see some historical low temperatures.

And in the scope of relativity, that does translate to something — apparently the storm is in two parts, at least so far, and there’s more heavy snow and freezing temperatures coming tonight, Wednesday and Thursday for a good chunk of the upper Western Region of the US.
Nick Wiltgen, a meteorologist for weather.com: “We’re looking ahead to the next phase of this system as another piece of energy comes out of the West and the cold air continues to ooze southward across the Plains states. They’ve already started posting winter storm watches across parts of Arkansas, most of Oklahoma and a small part of northern Texas in anticipation of what’s going to be more of an ice event with some snow involved,”

Air will “ooze,” huh? And ice-cold, frigid air at that, which not only seeps upon you, but also makes a great impression on the nape of your neck. And ooze indicates slow moving, too.
In a round-up of Cleon’s storm antics this afternoon, The Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Post seemed to agree: The heart of the arctic cold won’t make it to the East Coast during the work week, but enough of it may ooze into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by Sunday and Monday for some snow and ice.
The season looks long and a little bitter — but, maybe not.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden is going to try and put a weather-lock on a storm churning in the South China Sea. He’s in Japan today on a Far East junket, which comes in the midst of a major dust-up between the Japanese and Chinese over some inhabited islands south of Japan, and will apparently try to keep cool.
Beijing slapped an air defense zone on the islands a week or so ago, the US cried, ‘Ha!’ and flew some B-52 bombers through it in defiance, and the whole episode could get raucously dangerous.
Biden did talk directly: This action has raised regional tensions and increased the risk of accidents and miscalculation. I will be raising these concerns with great specificity directly when I meet with the Chinese leadership.
Joe might be over his head — from MarketPlace this afternoon:

Little did he know when he planned this trip that he’d be walking into the middle of a spat between the world’s third and second largest economies (China and Japan) over China’s newly declared air defense identification zone.
Beijing is warning that it’ll take defensive action in the zone, which covers a big part of the East China Sea that both Japan and South Korea also lay claim to.
But why would China pick now to do this, knowing that Vice President Biden was coming and that the Japanese wouldn’t like it.
Schmitz says it all circles back to President Xi Jinping’s agenda to push the “Chinese Dream”.
“Part of that dream is to be seen and treated by the international community as a global power” said Marketplace’s China Bureau Chief Rob Schmitz.
Schmitz explained that ever since the 1960s Japan has had a similar air defense zone in the East China Sea.
One point the Chinese made when they announced their zone is that it’s zone would be as close to Japan’s shores as Japan’s zone is to China’s.
“So they’re saying ‘look if the world’s third largest economy can have air defense zone that comes right up to our territories then we can too’ said Schmitz.

Another spat that could be another “big fucking deal.”

And a shit-storm of arrogant assholes in the US Congress — GOP assholes (via HuffPost):

With only seven workdays left between now and the end of the first session of the 113th Congress, a full House committee has found time to hold a hearing on extraterrestrial life.
The Committee on Science, Space and Technology, chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), will meet for a hearing called “Astrobiology: Search for Biosignatures in our Solar System and Beyond” for two hours Wednesday to “investigate what methods are being used to determine if any of these planets may harbor life,” according to the hearing charter.

Assholes!

And Americans are aware of the change in the world winds, and we need to stay at home — a new Pew poll out today reflects a less exceptional tone of the nowadays:

For the first time in surveys dating back nearly 40 years, a majority (53 percent) says the United States plays a less important and powerful role as a world leader than it did a decade ago.
The share saying the U.S. is less powerful has increased 12 points since 2009 and has more than doubled — from just 20 percent — since 2004.
…
Currently, 52 percent say the United States “should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.”
Just 38 percent disagree with the statement.
This is the most lopsided balance in favor of the U.S. “minding its own business” in the nearly 50-year history of the measure.

As the darkness floats from the east into my own business, Stewart and Colbert are off vacation and on Hulu.

(Illustration above found here).