I don't understand all the Manaport and Cohen talk

The TV newsies are all excited about it.  Even Fox News who ought to know better. Me, I don't understand what either of them are accused of doing, I don't know if what they are accused of is a real crime, and I don't understand how this relates to Trump, other than both of them used to work for Trump.   Back in 2016, before Trump got elected, it isn't illegal to do a real estate deal in Moscow.  Might be stupid, because you cannot take Russian real estate out of the country, and inside Russia there are no courts that can protect your investment from seizure by the government.   But it ain't illegal for Americans to do business in Russia. 

What costs $1 million a pound?

Answer,  the Insight Mars Lander.  The lander weighs 850 pounds.  The Insight program cost $829 million.  How much of all that money went into engineering and manufacturing Insight and how much went into NASA paper pushing?

Orientation Day for new NH legislators.

First day on the job as NH senator. Tuesday was on-the-job training day at the Statehouse. Due to winter storm warnings, snowmageddon stories and general excitement on the TV I left for Concord half and hour earlier than I usually do. I swept about 2 inches of snow off the car. I93 was nice and clear, well plowed. Just a few slippery spots. All the flashing light signs were flashing "Slow Down" and "Speed limit 45". Traffic was moving at 70 all the way to Concord. Heaviest snow, maybe 6 inches, was south around Franklin and Tilton.  Heavy wet snow, it was bending the trees in U shapes with the treetops touching the ground.  I got to the Statehouse a half an hour early, Joe Burke, chief of security, was standing outside in the rain to wave me into a parking spot in the statehouse garage, real luxury.

The program for the day was lectures on legislative process, ethics over view, a walking tour of the statehouse, pitches by the council of state governments, and then the national conference of state legislatures, a nice lunch, how a committee works, media relationships.

I finished off the day by meeting with a guy from the NH homebuilders association in the restaurant across the street.

Drove home, got their after dark. Driveway unplowed, although one of Ken King's people came by this morning and shoveled out the car.

Do the Brits understand Brexit?

Surely the Economist (a Brit publication if there ever was one) seems pretty clueless.  They ran a 4 page piece in the current issue about "no-deal" Brexit.   The deal that Theras May has gotten thru her cabinet and was approved by the EU according to this morning's Wall St Journal, was a pretty mild Brexit.  Britain would retain her current membership in the EU customs union, which I think means she retains duty free access to the rest of Continent.   She would have to abide by a lot of EU regulations about labeling and  lead free solder and safety and radio frequency emissions and the like, she would have to pay up some $50 billion of previous committments, and a lot of other stuff.  She get to keep duty free entrance to the EU.  The Economist is all in favor.  A lot, nobody knows just how many, members of parliament don't like it, they think it is Remain disguised as Brexit. 
   Numbers I have seen show 30% of Britain's economy is exports to the EU.  If all those British exports have to pay the going EU tariff of 10%, a lot of that business would go to continental suppliers.  The Economist dosn't talk about this at all. 
   They do kvetch about Parliament rejecting the Theresa May deal in favor of a "no deal" Brexit.  They wrote about all sorts of unlikely problems, like banning of air service to the continent,  problems with electric power exports or imports, a Northern Ireland customs border, lotta other stuff, all of which seemed sorta second rate to me.  The Economist piece never talked about the effect of 10% EU tariffs on British exports to the continent, which to my way of thinking is the major problem with the "no-deal" option of Brexit.

Turkey day travel

Drove from Franconia to Bowie Maryland on Friday.  Took 11 hours.  I left Franconia at 6 AM after brushing an inch of snow off the car.  Did the backwoods shortcut to North Haverill and then took I93, to I84, to Tappan Zee bridge.  Rpads were clear.  Hit the New York border and then encountered my first potholes, on an interstate no less, and then my first traffic jam.  Good work New York State.  Found the old Blue Colony diner at I84 exit 10.  In the old days the Blue Colony had signs up and down I84 for fifty miles in either direction.  Those are gone now, but exit 10 looked familiar, and when I pulled off, there she was.  So I had brunch, coffee and a Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. 
   Looks like the American sedan is going extinct.  I saw a lot of econoboes, pickup trucks, cross over SUV's and 18 wheelers.  very few sedans.  Ford said they were going to stop making them. 
   New York signage is as bad as ever.  I only saw three signs for the Tappen Zee bridge.  I also saw three signs for the Mario Cuomo Memorial Bridge.  I guess the guv'nor wants to rename a landmark bridge after himself.  That will confuse the tourists but good.
   I started off with the car heater set to full hot.  Every 100 miles or so I would set it a couple of notches toward cool.  But the time I got to Delaware I turned of the heater and set "Vent" forfresh air.  A couple of printed Google maps got me to Bowie and onto my daughters street, but I had to use the celery phone to call and find her house. 

That Brexit deal

Lotta talk about it.  None of the talk I hear talks about the really important issue.  Right now, British exports (like one third of GNP) go to the Continent duty free.  Come March, that might go away.  If British exports have to face full EU tariffs, that will hurt the Brits a lot.  The Continent has ridiculous unemployment, which means plenty of Continental suppliers will be happy to step in to replace British suppliers.   So, what kind of tariff deal will the Brits get after Brexit?  More of the current duty free deal?  Full EU tariffs?  something inbetween? 
   The newsies are not talking, either  they don't understand, or they don't know, or perhaps both.

So who is reporting the narrative?

California governor Jerry Brown is blaming the wild fires on global warming.  President Trump blames the fires on poor forest management, failure to log off dead trees.  Several people on Face book  support that view.  The MSM haven't said boo about forest management.  Certainly, back here in NH,  we know that wood lands need some logging to take out the dead and fully grown trees to remove fuel and open up the leaf canopy to let in some sunlight and encourage new growth.  I haven't been in California for thirty years, and I never got out in the California woods to see how things were, and I am not enough of a forester to tell a well tended forest from a poorly tended one.  We get a lot more rain in NH than they do out in  California, which surely reduces our fire hazard.  Nevertheless I find President Trump's position, poor forest management,  fairly convincing. 

Hillary to run again in 2020

That's what the TV newsies and the internet are saying this morning.  The never ending presidential campaign rolls on.  Speaking as a Republican, I hope she does run again.  She is as weak a candidate as you can find.  In 2016 she had no platform, she brought a whole railway car full of ugly baggage, she made no campaign promises, and she never spoke about anything except in that neutral campaign speak tone that pols use when they wish to conceal their true thoughts.  If the Democrats are misguided enough to nominate her, again, Trump will have no trouble beating her handily, again. 

World War I ended 100 years ago today

World War I ended just 100 years ago today.  It was a terrible war.  It lasted four awful years.  The war wrecked Europe.  It created Soviet Communism, a menace to civilization that would not be defeated for 70 years.  Before the war, Europe had ruled the world.  After the war Europe could barely feed itself. 

    The tragedy is that no one in Europe knew why they were fighting.  Woodrow Wilson had to create the 14 points to explain to Americans what their war aims were and why we should join the fighting.  The Europeans didn't have a clue as to why they were pouring out their blood and treasure. 

    The spark that set off WWI was a Serbian terrorist assassinating the heir to the throne of the Austro Hungarian empire.  Naturally the Austrians wanted to retaliate and kick some Serbian tail.  Serbia was a small backwards 3rd or 4th class power, and what should have happened was a short "police action" where the Austrian army occupied Serbia, hanged a few more terrorists, and incorporated  Serbia into the Austro Hungarian empire as a province.  Unfortunately the Russians, for reasons that have never been explained, decided they would protect Serbia from Austrian aggression.  The Austrians looked to their German ally for support, and they got it.  "I'm 1000% behind Austria" was the tone of the German reply.   Germany was run by a nincompoop emperor in those days.  A more developed state would have a foreign office, an effective parliament, and various other institutions of government, that would prevent a single klutz from leading the entire nation into war, especially a war over a worthless piece of real estate like Serbia.  

   None of the leaders of the time had any understanding of how the industrial revolution had increased the populations, the economies,  and the will to fight all over Europe.  The European great powers were able to field million man armies, where as the last serious war, the US Civil War,  General Grant only had 100,000 men under his command at Appomattox.  Ten times the manpower, and armed with small arms so good we still use them today.  After the war, all the surviving leaders of 1914 said that if they had known how bad the war would be, they never would have allowed it to break out.

We need more nutcase control, not more gun control

Many, more than half, of the dreadful mass shooting are done by deranged people, people who every one, friends, family, police, school teachers, pastors, neighbors, knew had heavy duty mental illness.   These deranged people should have been committed to a mental hospital long before they cut loose and kill a dozen or more innocent people.   It's not the guns, it's the nut cases pulling the triggers.  Put the nut cases away and we will have less mass shootings.
   This needs very careful safeguards to prevent abuse.  We are talking about committing some one against their will, someone who has not committed a crime, yet.  The Soviets used to put their political opponents away in mental hospitals on flimsy evidence.  There ought to be some kind of board, with an experienced cop, a psychiatrist or two,  an experienced teacher, a priest and a minister, and perhaps more.  In each case they should take testimony from the accused nut case, his parents, siblings, friends, teachers,  and others.  The accused should be able to call witnesses in his behalf.  There ought to be some review. 
   Short of this, authorities, police, schools, should be more pro active when they encounter one of these nut cases.  Right now the authorities tend to just dismiss the matter to save  themselves a lot of paperwork.  They ought to take an interest, do some checking around, do a little surveillance, with an eye to prosecution.

It's snowing up in Franconia Notch

It's full dark so I cannot see much, but I have a lotta snow in the deck light.

Why I think the Mueller investigation is a crock

Mueller is trying to prove that the Russians tried to get Trump to win in 2016 by doing something, nobody knows what, to help Trump and hinder Hillary. 
   This is a crock because the Russians wanted Hillary as the new US president.  Benghazi showed that Hillary had no stomach for retaliation for destruction of a consulate and killing four of her people.  She isn't very brave, she isn't very smart, and she would not give Putin any trouble as he invaded various small countries around the Russian borders.   Trump on the other hand was an unknown quantity,  who might be belligerent, who would oppose Russian takeovers along their border, and might do almost anything. 
   Putin is an old KGB hand, he has good intel, and I am sure he understood the differences between Hillary and Trump back in 2016.  He probably expected Hillary to win in 2016 because the entire US mainstream media thought that Hillary would win. 
   I think the whole "collusion" (what ever that means) and Russian interference in the US election is a Democrat idea to give Trump some flak and conceal Democrat corruption of US intelligence agencies, especially the FBI.

New Hampshire, a red wave? or a red ripple?

Despite a good economy, low unemployment, rising wages, all the things a good economy brings, New Hampshire voters went Democrat.  They elected enough legislators to give the Democrats control of both houses and the executive council.  Democrats claimed both US representative seats.  Chris Sununu, the Republican governor survived with about a 5% margin over Democrat Molly Kelly.  Kelly is mostly known for her desire to raise taxes, all kinds of taxes.   I won the District 1 seat in the NH Senate, with no support from radio, TV, or print press.  This happened partly due to placing yard signs all over the district, and partly due to my Democrat opponent's indictment on charges of domestic violence back in August. 
   Why did all the voters go Democrat despite excellent economy and a balanced state budget?  All I can think of is a LOT of voters have been turned off by President Trump.  Despite excellent numbers on the economy (GNP growth is up, unemployment is down, stock market is up, taxes are down) Trump's personal style is offensive to many. 

TV newsies say the election is close, everywhere.

So, tomorrow I vote, I poll stand, and then I go home and watch the results on TV.  From what the newsies are saying, anything could happen. 

Everybody ought to go out and vote on Tuesday

It is the duty of all citizens of a democracy to vote.  Voting sets the course the country will follow. We need all our rational citizens to vote to keep our country on a rational course of action.  Even  if you don't like either candidate, one candidate will be better than the other.  Your duty as a citizen  is to vote for the lesser of two evils.   And your vote counts. 
   I remember dragging youngest son to a school board meeting at which the vote was to pass a serious (big bucks) bond issue to construct a new building for the school youngest son had just graduated from.  That bond issue passed by ONE vote.  On the way home I told youngest son that I never wanted to hear him bitch that his vote would not count.  It was his vote that got us a new school building.  

Micro$oft breaks Win 10, Again

Back in Windows XP, you were protected against accidentally copying a old version of a file over the latest version of the file.  Wind 10 no longer protects against this.  There I am backing up Trusty Desktop onto Flatbeast my laptop.  On Trusty Desktop I copy my recent files, such as my checkbook, my list of books, my medications, a bunch of photos, and other stuff onto a flash drive.  I carry the flash drive over to Flatbeast  and start copying the latest versions of the files off the flash drive onto Flatbeast's hard drive.  Of course,  I have done this in the past, and Flatbeast's hard drive already contains old versions of these files.
  Back in the good old days of Win XP, you would get a message box saking "Do you  REALLY want to overwrite file such-and-such date such and such with  same file name, date somthingelse?"   And you would look at the file dates, and most often you would say "Go for it" if you were overwriting an older file with a newer one.
   Now we are stuck with Win 10 and we get a similar message box, EXCEPT,   one of the file dates comes up as "Unknown".  So the question now reads "Do you REALLY want of overwrite file such-and-such date such-and-such with same file name, file date UNKNOWN?  
   Of course you don't want to do that.  Do you?  So maybe you don't back up your files, maybe you say "Press on regardless", maybe you do some double checking.  But on Win 10 you have a lotta ways of messing up in file back up which good old Win XP handled correctly.
   Looks like the  Micro$sofies have been spending programming effort in breaking things that used to work.

Birth right Citizenship

Amendment 14.  Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the Stte wherein they reside."    I am not a lawyer, my degrees are in history and electrical engineering.  Lawyers have odd ways of reading and writing.  "Subject to the jurisdiction thereof" in ordinary English means citizen, legal alien, green card holder, and at a stretch, tourist visa holder.
  So to an ordinary reading of the 14th Amendment, there is no requirement to grant citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants, they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.  Newsies who claim that a constitutional amendment is needed are just plain wrong.
   Trump could stop Birth Right Citizenship by executive order.  Politically it would be better to get an act of Congress on the matter.  Any such change will be opposed in court, and the courts give a lot more deference to acts of Congress than they do to executive orders.
   In all the talk about process and legality and constitutional change, we haven't heard much about the real issue here, namely does our current policy of birthright citizenship cause real harm to us.  And what might that harm be?  As it is, travel agencies in China make arrangements for Chinese mothers to fly to the US to give birth here so that their children will have US citizenship.   Which is kinda flattering to us that people would spend all that money, and be away from friends and family for the birth of a child.  They really care about having US citizenship.  And the Chinese are already citizens of China, an important country, which speaks their language and embodies Chinese culture.  We Americans have created a good thing here if so many people want to come here.