Good morning! O happy day…it’s November 3, 2017, and here’s the Daily Drip for a deep autumn Friday, heading into time-change weekend…today is showery, cool, snow in the mountains…the kind of day we dreamed of when the Gorge was aflame and the air was like poison…
Sunrise 7:53 AM, sunset 5:54 PM. Tomorrow’s sunrise is at 7:55…and that, my friends, is the latest sunrise of the year. It’s due to that silly rule called Daylight Saving Time. Because we artificially pushed our clocks forward in the springtime, we now have sunrises after 7:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, and kids are walking to school in the dark of night, as though we live in Reykjavik.
We’ve got a full moon tonight, at 10:22 PM. It’s widely known as the Beaver Moon…although the Salesky-Zaffino folks call it the “snow down to 2500 feet, so be ready to chain up” Moon.
OK, This happened….a departing Twitter employee went rogue on his or her last day of work and pulled the plug on President Trump’s Twitter account. For eleven long minutes, the president’s favored means of communicating was deactivated. But the employee is gone, and the leader of the land has been restored to full Twitterability.
The Republican tax plan is out, with what the president calls a “big, beautiful Christmas present” for the American people, and it’s important to follow this story and see what it might mean to you. Somebody should create a calculator tool where you’d input your numbers, and it would spit out a precise dollar amount on how this helps you or not. And wouldn’t it be nice to see those numbers for everyone, from the president on down? If you’re getting a lollipop, somebody else is getting a candy store. And whatever they pass will send an echo rolling down through generations, by adding trillions to the deficit.
Speaking of handing our kids the job of paying our piper….an important and hopefully unmuzzled government report on climate change comes out today, updating the latest research, and it makes unmistakably clear that we’ve got a big problem of our own making. The report says the effects are here now. Sea level is 8 inches higher than it was before we started blasting coal and petroleum smoke into the biosphere. Our best scientists say the bizarre storms and crazy wildfires will continue and get worse. The report gets granular, with details by region, and I can’t wait to dig in and see what it says about the Pacific Northwest. I know that a lot of California wine growers are doing their thing right now–in the Willamette Valley.
It’ll be a good weekend to keep an eye on your Twitter feed or an ear on your radio if you’re out and about…tomorrow is November 4, and there are anti-Trump protests planned in Portland and other cities that right-wing groups like Alex Jones’ Infowars have branded as the Antifascist movement’s start of a civil war. Seems a bit overheated, judging by what I’ve seen of the day’s plans, but I do know that the fountain at Jamison Square at NW 10th and Johnson is the starting point of a march and rally beginning at 11 AM tomorrow. That’s why my haircut in that neighborhood Saturday was canceled. Anarchy and Antifa groups are specifically invited to join in, and organizers are doing medic training at 4 PM today in Montavilla Park. So we’ll see how everyone behaves, and how the police under the new leadership of Chief Danielle Outlaw handle this.
It’s the third day of a hunger strike by about 20 ICE detainees, protesting inhumane conditions at the big detention facility in The Dalles.
Authorities say the terrorist who ran down all those people on a Manhattan bike path planned keep going and do the same on the Brooklyn bridge.
President Trump embarks on an Asian tour today, bringing his diplomatic touch to a part of the world where nuclear war is a clear and present danger.
A cougar has been seen on the prowl in Seaside. Several pets have disappeared from an apartment complex, and student activities at an elementary school were moved indoors.
An elk hunter shot a wolf in northeastern Oregon. Said it was in self-defense, and authorities agree.
The iPhone X hits stores today. It starts at $999 in the US–but a hundred bucks more in Canada, and $400 more in Ireland and Italy.
The Oregon Zoo is doing something new with Zoolights this holiday season–a one-time “Brewlights” night, with beer from 21 vendors, in a special light-up cup. No kids allowed. The zoo expects it to be, well, a zoo…and recommend taking MAX instead of trying to jam into the parking lot. It’s on November 29.
The Ducks play the Dawgs at 7 PM Saturday at Husky Stadium. The Beavs visit the Cal Golden Bears in Berkeley at 2 PM.
Huge match coming up this weekend: the Portland Timbers host the Houston Dynamo at 4:30 PM Sunday at Providence Park. We need our lads to win this one; with a tie or a loss, they’re done.
OK, so, starting to wind up…
Thank God it’s Friday! Hey, even the Creator was kind enough to create a day of rest, which evolved into a weekend of rest plus fun. We’re heading into the dark tunnel of the Northwest winter, with this weekend’s time change, but we know this tunnel well, and a lot of us don’t mind it. Dark and private. But we need all the light we can get. The Christmas tree for Pioneer Courthouse Square is probably getting cut this weekend; they’ll haul ‘er in on Thursday. Time for indoor hobbies. I just found me a book with the chords to every single song ever recorded by the Beatles. Good weekend ahead! Go Timbers, Beavs, and Ducks!
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