Haven't heard back from Don. Have you? Sorry I can't take it, but I can't.

MB was a pleasant surprise.

Always good to hear a little surf guitar in the morning. I think I remember reading that Dick Dale still occasionally plays concerts. Misirlou was always a favorite of mine.

It was awesome to see Meteor Blades join and post! I hope that EB will bring more folks here to post and comment on a regular basis.

Some of the roofers are here again today. It rained last night and a little this morning. They have a very small amount to finish up and we are hoping the rain will hold off. I am ready for them to be off this job! And they probably are too.

Gotta start formatting my Open Thread for tomorrow. I am trying not to wait until the last minute.

Google, besides diddling with the political people, has let loose a "humanoid robot" that "stomps around the woods like a drunk Iron Man."

I do not want these things in the woods. The drunken hunting retroverts and paranoid moneygrubbing marijuana planters are there Danger enough.

link

In a country teeming with lethal actors like ISIS and al Qaeda, the regime’s barrel bombs kill more civilians than the two groups combined.

“There is great danger for civilians from the Syrian army, the militias who are fighting with them, and ISIS,” said Khaled Khatib, a photographer with the Aleppo branch of the Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue organization. “But the weapon that kills the most Syrians -- by 90 percent -- is the barrel.”

Barrel bombs are homemade explosive devices that are dropped from helicopters flying around four miles from the ground -- there are two types of barrels frequently used in Syria, and each one can weigh between 440 and 1,100 pounds.

The first is a cylindrical container, usually an oil barrel or gas tank made of either cement or metal that can reach 5 feet long. The second is a large, square container that has been described among activists as an “explosive dumpster.” This usually consists of a garbage container or water tank that can be almost 10 feet long and 6.5 feet high.

The barrel’s fuse detonates when it comes into contact with another object, propelling any number of scorching-hot items, including fuel, TNT, metal fragments, nails, ball bearings and shards of old machinery, into its surroundings.

“Sometimes a 10-story building will be destroyed and shrapnel will reach almost 300 meters,” al-Homsi said. “The barrel makes a sound like an earthquake when it hits the ground and the people become terrified.”

Houthis are being driven back by Saudi forces, but look who is taking advantage.

Even as scores of people were killed in heavy fighting between government loyalists and rebels for control of Yemen's third city, Taiz, Yemeni residents said al-Qaeda was moving into a vacuum in newly "liberated" areas.

Saudi-backed government forces have made sweeping gains in Taiz, seen as crucial gateway to the rebel-held capital Sanaa. But factions within the coalition organised by the Saudis have also been turning against one another, sometimes with gunfire, as they pursue starkly different visions of Yemen's future.

The Saudis and their immediate allies are fighting to return Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's exiled government to power. Other militias, also arrayed against the Houthis, seek the secession of southern Yemen instead, and reject Mr Hadi. And militants with Yemen's powerful al-Qaeda affiliate - al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - are trying to re-establish a foothold they lost in 2012.

The Saudi coalition does not appear to have attacked AQAP.

Do I need to remind you that we are on the side of chaos here? In fact, we are increasing our support.

Saudi-led military offensive against Houthi rebels in Yemen has scored major gains this month . . . after the Pentagon more than doubled the number of American advisors to provide enhanced intelligence for airstrikes.

The role of about 45 U.S. advisors, up from 20, at joint military operations centers in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain has been vastly overshadowed by the far larger U.S.-led air war against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. So has Yemen's toll of civilian casualties and refugees.

The Obama administration is providing intelligence, munitions and midair refueling to coalition aircraft, and U.S. warships have helped enforce a blockade in the Gulf of Aden and southern Arabian Sea intended to prevent weapons shipments from Iran to the Houthis. . . .

Human rights groups say the sea cordon also cuts Yemen off from imports of basic commodities, including food and fuel, adding to the nation's miseries.

Thanks for the great music this morning JtC. Dick Dale and the Del Tones was the first band I saw live. I took the ferry from Balboa Island to the amusement park on the peninsula where they were playing an afternoon show in a big tent. I went all by myself and used my allowance money for the ferry ride and admission. We lived at the beach in the summer and Dick Dale was the best local band to stomp to. My younger brother was a surfer so I heard a lot of surfer music that summer both hanging out on the beach at night and recorded. Surfer music was a strange mishmash of influences and tastes. Dick Dale and the Deltones was the band that expressed the Southern CA beach culture the best. Dick Dale is still the king of the surf guitar.

More Dick Dale

A song he wrote to thank a Redondo beach taco wagon owner who made him fish tacos as he did not eat meat... maybe? Shahryar's band the Cool Whips played this a a local club's surfer music night.

One of my favorites...

hoped to write a little screed this afternoon, but 'company' (neighbors) sorta changed that plan, for now.

Anyhoo, I figure that I'll write a blurb comparing FSC's and Bernie's proposals for Social Security reform, sometime before the Primary Debates begin.

For now, I'll just reference the discussion from yesterday with info/excerpts from the two candidates (or their Camps).

From the diary at DKos, a quote:

"I also want to enhance benefits for our most vulnerable seniors," she [Clinton] wrote, adding that she will have proposals on retirement security for Americans "in the weeks and months ahead." […]

and, from Joan's diary quoting one of FSC's economic advisors, Teresa Ghilarducci:

An encouraging sign in Clinton's thinking about the issue are her advisors including Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor of economics at The New School, who advocates for raising the minimum benefit to the poverty level for all seniors, . . .

[BTW, this has nothing to do with changing the bend points (in order to cut) for the formula that pertains to a Social Security beneficiaries' PIA, or Primary Insurance Amount.]

Senator Sanders also included this reform proposal in his March 2015 Social Security Amendment.

Here's an excerpt below from a CBO letter to him when they rated his Social Security Amendment.

Section 4. Increase the special minimum PIA for workers who die or become newly eligible for retirement or disability benefits in 2016 or later.

For beneficiaries newly eligible in 2016, the minimum initial PIA for workers with 30 or more years of coverage (YOCs) is 125 percent of the annual poverty guideline for a single individual, as published by the Department of Health and Human Services for 2015, divided by 12.

For beneficiaries newly eligible after 2016, the minimum initial PIA increases by the growth in the SSA average wage index (AWI).

Even Bowles and Simpson recommended this reform. Below is an excerpt from their proposal from "The Moment Of Truth."

RECOMMENDATION 5.2: REDUCE POVERTY BY PROVIDING AN ENHANCED MINIMUM BENEFIT FOR LOW-WAGE WORKERS.

Create a new special minimum benefit that provides full career workers with a benefit no less than 125 percent of the poverty line in 2017 and indexed to wages thereafter.

Social Security reform must ensure that the program can continue to meet its basic mission: to prevent people who can no longer work from falling into poverty. The Commission recommends creating a new special minimum benefit which provides full-career (30-year) minimum wage workers with a benefit equivalent to 125 percent of the poverty line in 2017 and wage-indexed thereafter. The minimum benefit would phase down proportionally for workers with less than 30 but more than 10 years of earnings.

Hope that clarifies this proposal.

Regardless of the wording above, the special minimum benefit is not "new." It was created in 1973. But the formula which was offered by Bowles-Simpson, would be "new." As well as some of the applicable rules.

Like Nancy, my Social Security was "downsized" because of the WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision), and I obviously would love to see this law changed. I'll address the mechanics of it during the Dem Party Primaries. I've seen 'online petitions' to put an end to the WEP, but they don't seem to go anywhere.

[Probably, because the retirees with the CSRS retirements, like I'm grandfathered into, will likely have finished filing for their retirements within the next several years. With enough years of service, some folks qualify in their 50's, and everyone qualifies by age 62.]

Honestly, I dread to see lawmakers come back after Labor Day. I fear that "seniors"--meaning Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries, current and future--will take further 'haircuts' on entitlements this year.

*Sigh*