US Civil Servants don't deserve a pay raise.

They don't do much, they cannot be trusted, they cannot be fired, no matter what, and they are overpaid.  Trump wants to cancel their pay raise.  Good for him. 

Yahoo admits to snooping all emails going thru its site

Email is forever.  If it embarrassing, revealing, and anything you would mind posting on the bulletin board at the local supermarket, DON'T put it in email.  Yahoo has just admitted to snooping email on their site, and it would not surprise me that others are doing it too.
   If it is a company email, and your company gets sued, they will demand to see all the emails from every one.  So don't bad mouth customers (or anyone else) never discuss pricing, never discuss technical shortcomings, never discuss anything that might make your company liable.  Sensitive topics should be handled face-to-face, away from phones.  
   Next job interview, figure they can see all your email, going way way back, all your facebook postings, everything you every put on the net.  Sexting can be really really embarrassing.  If its a good hot pic, a lotta guys will pass it on to their buddies.  It never goes away. 
   For that matter they can see all your medical records now that Obama forced the doctors to keep patient medical records on computer. 

Federal Money given to secure NH electoral system.

Well, I'll take the money, money is nice, I can always find something to spend it on.  But we can secure our election system with two simple steps, no money required. 
1.  Use paper ballots, everywhere, every time.  They cannot hack a paper ballot over the Internet. 
2.  Secure the voter registration lists.  That list upon which the poll workers check off your name as you vote.  If the list is destroyed, or altered, bad things happen.  Legitimate voters will be denied ballots,  illegitimate voters will be given ballots.

In this PC age, every thing is kept on computer.  There was a time when the voter registration list was kept by town clerks, using pen and paper.  We could go back to that, but all the poll workers would scream and cry and threaten to hold their breath.  Since we seem to be stuck with computers, we can at least take some obvious security measures.  The computer[s] upon which the voter registration list is kept shall NOT be connected to the public internet (or the telephone network).  The computer[s] shall be kept in a locked room, with the keys restricted to a very few people.  All floppy disc drives shall be removed and all USB connectors snipped off.
   A paper listing shall be made periodically and stored off site.  An electronic backup (CD-ROM) shall be made periodically and stored off site.  Each time a new backup is made, it shall be compared with the previous backup to see if any changes are reasonable. 

Spectre, a Daniel Craig Bond Movie 2015

It's been out a few years, I have seen it before, but I Netflixed it just for old times sake.  It's a perfectly watchable Bond movie.  Daniel Craig plays as good a Bond as any of them, tough, humorless, relentless, and a lady killer.  The special effects are good, for openers Bond shoots a couple of bad guys thru an upper floor window.  By the time every one's gun runs out of ammunition, the entire multi story Mexico City building collapses.  Not bad for some small arms fire.  And Bond manages to shoot Blofeld's helicopter out of the air using just a hand gun.  Bond's handgun is bigger than the puny Walther PPK that shows up in most of the earlier Bond movies.  Looks to be a Smith and Wesson or Sig Saur 9mm automatic. 
   The script writers have some continuity problems.  We have Bond in London, getting chewed out for exceeding his authority in Mexico City by blowing up a couple of bad guys without proper paperwork.  Next thing we know, Bond, with a brand new Aston Martin DB10,  much sleeker and lower than the DB-6 he drove in back in Goldfinger, is in Rome.  How he and the car get from London to Rome is not even hinted at.  Did he drive the Chunnel? Or put the car on a Channel ferry? Just a short clip showing Bond and the Aston Martin  doing either would have been helpful to us viewers.  Apparently Bond does intercontinental travel instantaneously, like magic.  He and the Bond Girl get from Rome to North Africa, and then back to London from North Africa all instantaneously,  Never a clip of him boarding an airliner. The Bond Girl is cute, as all Bond Girls are.  I never picked up on her name watching the movie.  I had to look it up on IMDB.
   Filming in 2015, three years ago, the annoying "Shake the Camera" style of camera work was gone, but the "Film it in the Dark" style is fully there.  Lots of night action, with the lights out, where I could not tell Bond from Blofeld. Not as bad as Game of Thrones, but annoying.  The sound man was only fair, I missed some of the more breathy dialog. 

Farewell John McCain

TV just reported his death this evening.  We will miss him.  I was in South East Asia with the Air Force the year McCain got shot down over North Viet Nam.  That year my unit, 343 Tactical Fighter Wing, lost a plane a day, for the first 90 days I was in the wing.  It took enormous courage to climb into the cockpit and fly into North Viet Nam, and our pilots did it every day.  So did John McCain.
   Years later, John McCain, campaigning for president, came to an event at the Littleton VFW.  I and my brother were there.  It was winter, the place was full of shaggy people, all wearing parkas and snow boots.  When John McCain entered the room, every one stood up for him as a mark of respect.
   Over the years I have been to a lot of campaign events, for a lot of presidential candidates, and I have never seen another man get that mark of respect that we gave John McCain just automatically. 

Why Communism/Socialism/Democratic Socialism is a disaster

Historically, all this started with Karl Marx, a writer back in the mid 19th century, say 1850 or so.  In those days, and on continental Europe especially, there was a serious discrepancy in wealth.  The workers got little, the owners, capitalists, got a whole bunch more than the workers.  Marx felt this was unfair.  His solution was to share the wealth equally.  The state would own all the means of production, from steel mills, railroads and farmland, down to corner bodegas and restaurants.  The state would set equal wages for all.  Marx wrote all these ideas in his book "Das Kapital" which was widely read. 
   The messy part of Marx's plan is how the state obtains owner ship of nearly everything.  The owners resisted this idea strongly.  In Russia it took a massive social revolution in 1917 to bring this about.  Owners, kulaks the Russians called them, were liquidated.   Massive propaganda efforts and a powerful secret police were used to overcome resistance of kulaks.  Kulaks, entrepeneurs, who escaped liquidation fled the country.  Taking their ideas and initiative with them.
   Production sinks under socialism because the highly motivated entrepreneurs are gone.  Since every one gets paid the same, nobody is motivated to work hard, since there is no reward for hard work.  Starting a new business is forbidden by law.  You can see this in Soviet Russia, even today, 30 years after the fall of communism.  You can see it today in Venezuela.  "They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work" was a cliche from Soviet times. 
   The only real difference between Communism and Socialism back in the day, was how the party would obtain power.  Communists believe they should obtain power by revolution and force of arms.  Socialist believe they should obtain power thru political action and the ballot box.  Once in power there is little difference between them.
  Modern "Democratic Socialism" is mostly undefined, especially by its advocates, say Bernie Saunders, Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren and their followers.  The followers are looking to a regime of more free stuff, and the leaders are looking for political power.  Elizabeth Warren was talking about the federal government taking over all of big business, which sounds pretty Marxian to me. 

Things I don't understand about Manafort and Cohen Cases

I understand Manafort made substantial money (like $millions) overseas, advising or fixing or something for the Ukrainians.  He put the money in an overseas bank.  The government claims this is tax evasion.  Just what law requires US citizens to report income from overseas sources, left overseas, to the IRS? And how soon must the report be made?   None of the TV newsies addressed this issue.
   And, just what were those 10 counts the Manafort jury deadlocked on?  Was the prosecution railroading Manafort with a bunch of trumped up charges?  Ham sandwich nation?   As Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) said, "Under current US law I could indict a ham sandwich."
    On the Cohen case, I don't understand how paying hush money to bimbos is a campaign finance violation. Campaign finance laws concern money given to politicians as campaign contributions.  Giving money to bimbos to keep them quiet is not the same thing.  It's distasteful, and reflects badly upon the payer, but I cannot see how it is a campaign finance violation.
   What is clear, is that if the Democrats take control of the House in November, they will proceed to impeach the President, starting in January 2019.  Which will make all the newsies turn pink and glow in the dark from pure happiness.  And figure impeachment will go on and on and on, at least a year, probably two.  The newsies will report on nothing else.  And the Congress will be unable to pass anything for a year or two.  In short, it impeachment will stall the federal government for the next couple of years, like Watergate did. 
   Voters who want to keep the feds moving need to vote Republican, in large numbers.  Trump has got the country moving and moving in a good direction.  Like lower unemployment, more GNP growth, lower taxes, rising stock market, less red tape.  Taking a two year timeout for impeachment will bring all that movement to a screeching halt. 

The Shannara Chronicles Season 2

I Netflixed Season 1 a year or two ago.  It was OK, a fantasy story that borrowed from both Game of Thrones and Tolkien.  Season 2 just turned up on Netflix and I watched the whole season.  Things have changed a bit.  Handsome boyish hero, Wil, has got a new and more becoming hair cut.  We also see some broad shoulders, narrow hips and six pack abs, making him more of a hunk than he was in season 1.  Good chick Amberle mostly appears in dream sequences.  Makes me think I missed catching her death somewhere.  In season 1 she had a magic talisman that she was trying to take somewhere.  She doesn't talk about that in season 2.  Bad Chick, Eretria has come over to the good side and she is helping Wil as much as possible.  Her highway bandit father does not appear this season.  Both Good Chick and Bad Chick still dress alike, in riding leathers which show their figures to advantage, and they still  look alike.   A couple of new good looking girls show up, one is Alenon's daughter, not quite sure what the other one is.  Nobody ever addresses anyone by name on stage, making it difficult to follow the story.  At least the cameraman knows enough to turn the lights on before filming, and the soundman does a fairly good job. 
   Season 2 lacks plot,  I was unable to understand what the heroes were trying to do.  It is entertaining to watch, the characters are all good looking and interesting, but I had no idea what was going on.

Why capitalism is superior to Communism/Socialism

To put it crudely, capitalism works and makes us all rich.  Communism/Socialism  is about equal sharing of misery [and control of everything by the government].  Years ago I did Friends Service Committee work weekends in darkest Philadelphia.  That neighborhood was poor by American standards, no doubt about it.  But everyone had decent clothes (important in a Philadelphia winter) color TV,  plenty of heat in their homes, and nobody looked undernourished.  Some years later, on duty over seas, I saw plenty of people who were a lot worse off than that Philly slum.  In short, capitalism produces better living conditions in city slums than either Thailand or the Philippines did thru out the country.
   What makes capitalism so productive?  Answer: Bunches of entrepreneurs who build factories, housing, electric grids, aircraft, telephone networks, trade commodities, buy and sell everything and anything,  open mines, drill oil wells, irrigate desert lands, build railroads, and in general  create wealth.
   What does a society have to do to get capitalism working for them?  First off, the society needs to create a rule of law that protects private property from seizure by warlords, political bosses, competitors, gangs, the EPA, and other  assorted nogoodnicks.  Entrepreneurs are motivated by the money they can make, and the social standing that successful entrepreneurs enjoy.  If everything they create can be swiped in a few hours by some thugs, it is intensely discouraging to the ripped off entrepreneur.  He/she is likely to be discouraged and give up trying, or to pick up stakes and immigrate to America.   So, the society that wants the benefits of capitalism has to protect the capitalists from all the various sorts of bandits who will otherwise rob them blind.
   Next comes defense.  Nothing wipes out more capital and capitalists than an invading army.  It took the American South a hundred years to recover from the devastation of the Civil War.  One thing that allowed capitalism to flourish in England was the English Channel and the Royal Navy. They have prevented invasion of England ever since 1066.   And effective defense requires enough patriotism in military age citizens to enlist in the armed services, or at least, not resist draft notices with violence.
   And now we come down to freedom.  Freedom to set prices and wages in response to market forces.  Freedom of workers to change jobs for better wages, and move about the country to take the best paying  jobs available.  Freedom to form unions.
   And probably a few other things.  I am not an economist and so a few things probably escape me. 
   It would help if we taught our children that capitalism makes everyone rich.  I note that a couple of recent surveys found that millennials prefer communism/socialism.  What kind of schools did they go to?

Self Driving Cars: Would you ride in one?

Or would you buy one?  Long article in the Wall St Journal this Saturday about self driving cars, relations between Silicon Valley high tech and Detroit car makers.  Gist of article, Detroit ignored self driving cars until very recently, and now wants in. 
  Possibly, or perhaps not, the technology will mature to the point where the car's sensors (radar? TV cameras? lidar?) are good enough to detect the road, the shoulder, the center strip, and ignore the humongous radar returns from large signs, detect pedestrians, bicyclists, deer, objects fallen off trucks, and other cars all well enough to avoid collisions.  And can handle driving after dark, in the rain, and handle snow safely. Assume that the self driving car will not attempt passing on two lane roads.  Assume that the self driver keeps acceleration, steering and braking gentle enough to avoid panicking passengers.  And it has mastered things like parallel parking, and pulling up to the gas pumps without bending a fender.  All of these are stiff technical challenges that today's self driving car cannot meet, yet.
   But  assume they do perfect the self driving car.  Would you ride in one, in city traffic?  Would you feel comfortable riding in one?  Would you buy one with your own money, even if the self driving equipment were  fairly cheap?  I wouldn't.  I enjoy driving, been doing it for years, and feel best when I am at the wheel.  Even with one of my own grown children at the wheel, I get tense.  Eldest son is fairly good, but middle daughter and youngest son are down right scary.  Will I feel better about turning the wheel over to a microprocessor?
   I can see where the Ubers and Lyfts of the world would buy self driving cars.  If they work, don't scare the passengers, and don't get into many expensive traffic accidents,  they would eliminate paying drivers, which will do good things for the bottom line.  But  how many vehicles would Uber and Lyft buy, compared to the 10 million new cars sold each year to the general public in North America?  Enough to interest Ford or GM?
  Could it be cost effective for third party companies to sell and install self driving equipment in an otherwise standard car?  Or is it cheaper and easier to build the self driving equipment into the car on the production line?  I can remember when automobile air conditioning was just coming in.  You could get air conditioning installed by third parties, but every one agreed that "factory air" was better.  Will self driving equipment work out that way? Or not?   

Gender & Ethic Studies profs earn more than peers???

According to Campus Reform colleges are paying professors of various "Studies" some $12,000 a year more than the average.  Which is odd, seeing us how "Studies" majors are mostly unemployable when they graduate.   My standard advice to college students is to decide what they want to do after graduation, and then pick a major that makes them employable in their chosen field.   Why should colleges pay professors of a boutique course of study extra, when that course of study is an invitation to bankruptcy for any student foolish enough to major in it?? 

Aircraft don't have ignition keys

After Friday's joy riding/ joy flying story, where an airport maintenance guy took off with a medium sized turbo prop airliner, did some really decent stunt flying and then crashed it, killing himself,  the TV newsies have been talking about why aircraft ought to have doors that lock and ignition keys. 
  Back in USAF, none of our aircraft had either.  And the two alert birds were armed with nuclear weapons back in those days.  We had a good chain link fence around the flight line, with a couple of gates.  We had armed guards, air police, on the gates and more of them on the alert hanger.   Everyone had to have a security badge to get onto the flight line.  And, with just a few exceptions, like company tech reps, everyone had to be wearing Air Force uniform.  
   So, hearing that a guy with apparently employment, a security clearance, and experience moving aircraft was able to take off with an aircraft is not surprising.  We might take a look at how he obtained his security clearance, but once he did, he could easily do what he did.   

The NFL hasn't figured it out yet

The players are claiming a first amendment right to take a knee during the national anthem.  They think they are advancing their political cause[s].  What they fail to understand is their fans, customers, see kneeling during the national anthem as pure disrespect for the flag, and the republic for which it stands.  Gestures mean what people think they mean, not what you want them to mean. 
   We will see if the fans are sufficiently turned off to stop watching football on TV.  I think the players are stupid not to understand that they cannot afford to anger their fans. 

Prevent Hacking the US Electric Grid

Been a lotta talk about this, in the Journal, on the internet, on TV.   It works like this.  Lots of stuff, generators, transformer banks, substations, and more are remote controlled.  It saves money by eliminating expensive workers at each site.  The remote controllers will accept remote commands such as "Start Up", "Shut Down", "Increase Voltage", "Change Transformer Taps", "Speed Up", and many more.
   The cheapest communication link is the public internet, it's practically free. And the public switched telephone network is nearly as cheap although slower.  Trouble is, when you set all your generators and other equipment to accept commands from the public internet, that means every hacker in the world can send commands to your equipment.  There are some codes and addresses and computerish languages to learn but it isn't all that hard.
   The solution is to prohibit use of the public internet by the utilities.  These are power companies, they own power poles, they have line men, and  they can jolly well string fiber optic control lines on their own poles out to all their remote equipment.   Hackers don't climb poles, to tap fiber optic lines.  In addition to the hackers reluctance to leave their warm and cozy computer rooms, fiber is tough to tap.  You have to cut the glass fiber, insert an adder, bring your own fiber line all the way from your own computer, and then splice the two cut ends and your new line into the adder.  Splicing fiber can be done but it's hard, few techs know how.  A bad splice will block the light signal.
  The various public utility commissions, all 50 states and the feds,  need to post regulations prohibiting any kind of remote control over the public internet or the telephone network and demand private fiber optic control lines owned by the utility company.  This will hackers from ordering all the generators in the country to shut down some dark and snowy night.  

Crony Capitalism comes to the US Commerce Dept

Tuesday's Wall St Journal main editorial has this story.  After Trump's heavy steel and aluminum tariffs, lots of injured companies are filing complicated paperwork to claim "exemptions" from the tariff.  The Journal laments all the time wasted on complex government red tape. 
   The real outrage is that some companies get exempted from the tariff, giving them a huge advantage over their competitors.  The is crony capitalism at its most blatant.  If we are gonna do tariffs, everyone ought to pay them.  Letting some companies off with "exemptions" is pure injustice, bribery, and conduct unbecoming a trash collector, let alone an elected  democratic government. 
  No exemptions for anyone, ever.
 

Facebook wants banks to share depositors data???

This was front page in Tuesday's Wall St Journal.  Facebook's story is that they want to be able to show their users their checking account balance, and by looking at who we are writing checks to, tailor the ads they show to appeal to us.
Arrgh.
   I don't want anyone to know how much money I have in my checking account, whether or not I bounce checks, and who I am writing checks to.  I certainly don't want anyone to get my passwords, SSN, account numbers, transfer codes or anything else that would let them steal my money.  If I found out my bank was giving access to Facebook, I would close my account and find another bank, ASAP.
   I am still unhappy about Obama's decision to force all the doctors to put patients medical records on computer.  Any half way competent hacker can crack hospital network security and put every medical record up for sale.  God help those with serious medical problems, they will never get a job again. No company will hire people whose medical problems will jack up the company health insurance costs.

Shadow Banning sitting Congressmen??

Monday's Wall St Journal has an op-ed denouncing Facebook's practice in the matter.  From reading the article it is not clear just what "shadow banning" really is, or how much it hurts.  But to lay any sort of sanctions or restrictions on sitting Congressmen is absurd. 
   Congressmen get to be Congressmen by winning a majority of the votes.  Which means their view points are acceptable to a lot of people.  When Facebook decides that they are smarter or more political correct than someone who won an election, they are being profoundly undemocratic.  They are claiming the right as lefty techno weenies to silence people who have broad support, broader than any bunch of techno-weenies. 
   I can understand Facebook's desire to keep pornography, neonazis, Islamic terrorists, bots and bot nets, Russian trolls, and clearly deranged individuals off Facebook.  But to attack sitting Congressmen is beyond the pale. 

US Congress should be totally replaced

Congress was created back in the 18th century to give the newly United States a representative government, namely a government that does what the people want. 
Today's Congress is failing.  Instead of addressing issues, they are locked into partisan squabbling, back stabbing, buck passing, and obstructionism.  They haven't passed a thing this year, and from the looks of it, nothing is going get passed for a long long time.
  This isn't what we voters want.  I'll grant that we voters are deeply split on many issues.  But we do all agree that we ought to do something nice for the DACA young people.  Congress has done zip for the DACA folks.  And a whole bunch of other immigration reforms have gone nowhere.  Surely with a little log rolling, something could be worked out that would get enough votes to pass. The voters do agree that we need Obamacare reform, what we got costs too much and is a business killer.  Congress has done zip.   The voters want Congress to confirm more of Trump's appointees, rather than stalling them for months and months.
  In short, we voters ought to vote all the current Congresscritters out this fall and vote in a bunch of new ones that will vote for things that we voters want passed and drop all the partisan bickering.  I know there are plenty if issues where we voters are totally split.  But there are a number that we agree on, and those ought to pass.  

ICE Roadblocks on I93

ICE  is doing it, right around Ashland.  I read that ICE is allowed to put up roadblocks anywhere within 100 miles of a US border.  Ashland is very near to 100 miles from the Canadian border.  ICE claims they are making arrests.  Most of the ones I hear about are for things like drug running or DUI rather than straight up immigration violations.
   I have been thru the Ashland roadblock a couple of times this summer.  Both times the officers just  waved me thru.  I guess they see white hair, a white guy, a four door Detroit sedan, and instate plates.  And they figure I must be clean, at least clean enough to wave thru.  Profiling they used to call it.  I guess profiling is OK when it works to my advantage. 
   I imagine the people who get stopped and searched feel differently about it. 

Jeff Woodburn gets arrested for assault and domestic violence.

Jeff Woodburn is the incumbent Democratic NH Senator of district 1 and my opponent in the November general election.  Neither of us face primary challenges, the general election in November is everything.  He was arrested by the Concord police department late Thursday afternoon and charged with assault and domestic violence.  He will be arraigned in Lancaster county court later this month. 
   Speaking personally I have to feel sorry for Mr Woodburn.  This affair is likely to become a professional and perhaps a  personal disaster for him.  Under American justice, a person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.  On the other hand, the New Hampshire attorney general must feel he has a strong case to charge a sitting Senator with a crime.  
   I filed for election weeks ago, long before this unfortunate news broke.  I intend to continue to campaign for office.
   I need all the help I can get to win this election.  I need people to put up my yard signs, and people to invite me to any kind of gathering, cook out, barbecue, rally, parade, meeting, what have you.
 
  

Rasmussen says Democrats hate Trump deal with the NORKs

Rasmussen Reports says there is a big split between Republicans and Democrats regarding President Trump's dealing with the NORKs.  Rasmussen doesn't give numbers on this split, but it is right up there in the article's headline.
  I wonder how that happens.  I have some doubts that things will work out with the NORKs, but they might, and that makes it certainly worth trying.  Why should Democrats dislike our effort to denuclearize the NORKs? It is surely better than starting up the Korean War again.  Are the Democrats so anti-Trump that they wish ill toward what might be an important breakthrough?  Just to spite Trump? 
   In the end, the Trump diplomatic offensive may not work.  On the other hand it might.  I cannot tell, and I doubt that anyone else can either.  The chance that it might work makes it worth trying. 

Harley Davidson Goes Hog Mild to Attract Younger Bikers

Headline in Tuesday's Wall St Journal.  Gist of the article, Harley is thinking about introducing smaller bikes. cause sales of the big Hogs are tapering off. 
  This is nothing new.  We bikers have been saying this for 40 years.  The big 1000 cc Harley's are magnificent machines, any biker would like to own one.  But they are pricey, about the cost of a small car.  And they are too big and heavy to take off road.  Most of us got started on much smaller and cheaper bikes.  My first bike was a mere 120 cc Suzuki, which was a little slow for my tastes.  My 2nd bike was a 250 cc Yamaha which had enough power to scare me, even back when I was young and reckless.  At the time, the Yamaha only set me back $500, where as the big Harley's were going for $5000. 
   Harley should have figured out, maybe 30 years ago, that a small, low cost bike would sell, in fact sell more than the big Hogs were selling.  To make a small bike Harley might have had to give up on their beloved four stroke engines and make some other changes to compete with all the well built rice burners on the market, but they could have managed. 
  I hope Harley isn't too late.