The Marksman, Liam Neeson 2021

 Not bad.  I Netflixed it and watched it today.  We meet Liam Neeson as a kinda washed up rancher on the Mexican border, so washed up that the bank is going to reclaim his ranch.  He is also very tough.  A mother and her 12 year old son make it on to his property, pursued by the cartel.  Liam opens the flick by shooting a coyote, he moves on to shooting a cartel member.  What thru one plot twist after another, he winds up headed for Chicago with the boy, Miguel.  They make it,  They kill the pursuing cartel members.  Sound man does the right thing and I can hear and understand all the dialog.  Camera man keeps the camera on a tripod and keeps the lights on.  

Not a bad flick, but not so good as to duplicate and keep.

A lotta talk about "over-the-horizon" operations

 This talk is mostly BS.  It is just photo recon flights, with camera's, talking pictures from 10,000 feet.  This works for large targets like cities and towns that cannot move.  The WWII 8th Air Force was able to find and bomb German cities from just overhead photos.  But you cannot find and strike smaller and mobile targets like enemy infantry, or enemy leadership.  Despite a lot of technological progress since WWII,  our " over-the=horizon" capabilities are no better than they were back in 1944.

  So when you hear Democrats talking about "over-the-horizon" operations on TV, know that you are hearing mostly happy talk, trying to make our pullout from Afghanistan sound less dreadful and less shameful than it really is. 

Congress is grilling the generals responsible for the Afghan disaster

 They been yakking for nearly an hour.  NOBODY has asked the key question, namely why did we not evacuate the civilians, Americans and our Afghan friends, BEFORE we pulled our troops out? 

Federal Government Shutdown? How bad? How likely?

 Last time, some years ago, don't remember just how many years, it wasn't all that bad for us just plain citizens.  Post office kept on delivering the mail.  The armed forces got paid. Air traffic control stayed on duty.  A fair number of bureaucrats got laid off for a couple of weeks.  I think that eventually got paid for the time they were out.  IRS workers got laid off, but that was no loss from my point of view, I wasn't expecting a tax refund, and I paid my income tax, by mail, on time.  The whole thing made you wonder just how many useless bureaucrats we are paying.  

  This time, I cannot tell if the CongressCritters will be able to pass a raise to debt ceiling.  In the Senate, just one Democrat deciding to vote against the debt ceiling raise would do the trick.  There might be some Democrats appalled by the deficit spending, on the other hand there might not be.  I cannot tell.  Things are a little looser in the house, the Democrats have a 5 vote majority.  I think Pelosi will be able to deliver the house for the Democrats.  

TV sounds

 My TV makes the sound of telephones ringing, electronic gadgets beeping, cats crying, sirens screaming, cars crashing and many more.  Each time I hear one of these sounds I stop, listen, and ask my self "Is that sound mine? Is it real? Should I answer my phone?"  PITA.  

   The TV people could help, by relocating their studios to a quieter part of of town so they don't have emergency vehicle sirens drowning out the newsie who is pontificating in front of the camera. 

Men make only 40% of college students.

 This is being deplored,  but I am not sure it is all that bad.  There are a lot of good paying jobs for men that don't require a college degree.  Truck driver, heavy equipment operator, logger, construction worker, auto mechanic, miner, carpenter, cop, fireman, lineman, soldier, machinist, and many more.  Few women want to take those kind of jobs.  Women are looking for office jobs with no heavy lifting, where they might snag a good husband.  Plus more girls are deeply into academic work.  There are a lot of guys who find academic work boring. 

Iron Dome replacement missiles

 Last Arab Israeli go around, the Arabs fired a helova lot of rockets out of Gaza into Israel.  Israel's Iron Dome missile system was amazingly effective at shooting down the Arab rockets.  Most of the Iron Dome missiles launched, hit their targets in mid air.  The Israeli's launched a LOT of Iron Dome missiles.  They must be running low.  

   We were going to give the Israeli's $1 billion to buy or build more Iron Dome missiles.  Israel needs those missiles for the next time the Arabs start launching rockets at them.  Yesterday the Democrats in Congress killed the Iron Dome replacement missile funding.  Good work Pelosi, refusing to fund defensive weapons for our best (only?) ally in the Middle East.  A liberal democracy, the only one in the entire area. 

Booster shot or no booster shot?

   Biden recommended everyone get a booster shot.  On the other hand, Biden is getting senile, and knows very little about anything of importance.  In fact, much of what Biden thinks he knows is wrong.  I don’t plan to take Joe Biden’s advice on any medical issue

   Anthony Fauci is recommending booster shots.  On the other hand Fauci has changed his tune repeatedly over the last year. Why should I think he has got it right this time?

   FDA recommended against booster shots, and then changed their tune the next day and recommends booster shots for people over 65.  On the other hand FDA is mostly bureaucrats concerned with keeping their jobs.  They believe in doing more and more paper work.  The few medical doctors in the FDA haven’t treated a live patient since leaving medical school, they just do paperwork. 

   So who’s advice will I follow?  Dr Kevin Silva, my doctor who I have been seeing for many years.  He has gotten it right a couple of times over the years.  I will wait a bit, to give the information (if any) some time to circulate and then ask him if I should get a booster shot.  I plan to follow his recommendations. 

USAF starting bids on yet more tankers.

 Ten years ago Boeing won the contract for 180 new air refueling tankers.  They have not yet finished delivery on all the planes.  Boeing says they have lost $5 billion on this job.  There was a hassle over how to wire the aircraft, the Air Force thought they knew more about aircraft wiring than Boeing did. Then there is the rear view TV system.  They wanted to seat the boom operator up in the cockpit rather than back in the tail.  So they put in a TV system to let the boom operator see to steer the boom into the fuel receptical  of the refueling aircraft.  The Air Force has complained that the TV system image is not as good as the image you get looking out thru a plain old window.  Air Force has been "witholding" $12 million per plane.  Boeing has promised an improved TV system, some time in the future.

   180 new tankers aparently isn't enough.  So, USAF is going thru the  whole bidding process, pitting Boeing against Airbus all over again. New specs, new contract, and if Airbus wins,  they will furnish their own tanker, based on an Airbus airliner.  Speaking as an old USAF maintenance officer, I would much rather have a larger fleet of the same aircraft, than a mixed fleet of half Boeing, half Airbus.  The mixed fleet means I have to train my guys on both aircraft and I have to  stock different spare parts for both aircraft.  

So what's with booster shots for Corona virus?

 Yesterday the TV said that FDA does not approve of booster shots.  Today the TV says that somebody thinks boosters are needed for old folks over 65 like me.  I think I will ask my doctor what he recommends rather that taking the TV's word for anything.

What's with a Marine wearing a Class A uniform in medium blue?

 General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff, in the news a lot, over Bob Woodward's story about Milley telephoning the Chinese chief of staff and promising to give him a heads up in case Trump was planning an attack on China.  Some times he wears the traditional Marine Class A uniform in olive drab.  Sometimes he wears a blue Class A uniform, the blue is lighter than Navy blue, and darker than Air Force blue.  I am out of touch with uniform regulations now, but I am surprised about two colors for the Class A uniform.  

The Democrat’s “Freedom to Vote Act”

 After talking up a spending bill of $3.5 trillion, or perhaps $5.8 trillion, the Democrats are proposing loosening up voter laws to make it easier for Democrats to vote.  They are planning a voter law that would put the federal government in charge of a lot of stuff that is currently handled by state governments.  The want to force Republican states to make a lot of changes that will favor Democrats at the ballot box.

The Democrats want five changes that will open the doors to massive voter fraud.

1.  15 Consecutive days of early voting.  I think we ought to vote in Election Day; it simplifies counting votes, and makes it harder for out of state voters to show up, show false ID and a mail in ballot, and steal the vote of a real resident voter. 

2. Same day registration at all polling sites.  Same day registration makes voter fraud easier.  A real resident of the state has no trouble getting to town hall BEFORE the election and registering to vote.  An out of state shill, bussed up to vote, loves same day registration. 

3. Mail in voting.  Mail in voting causes millions of good ballots to be mailed out to every voter in the state.  A lot of these ballots fall into the hands of unscrupulous vote buyers, who fill them out for their party, file them down at town hall, and when the real voter shows up to vote, they get told, “Sorry, you already voted”. 

4.  Weaken voter ID.  Allow more documents including bank cards and student ID cards.  Far as I am concerned the only decent ID is a state driver’s license.  Everyone gets one; you have to have a driver’s license to drive to work. 

5. Require provisional ballots.  If the voter lacks a proper photo ID, he can fill out a ballot, the election officials are supposed to check out the voter and his lack of ID.  If the officials run out of time, and the ballot is for their party, they mark it OK, and throw it into the pile of ballots to be counted.  Far as I am concerned, if the voter doesn’t have a valid picture ID (driver’s license) then he doesn’t get to vote.

 

All Republicans ought to oppose this bill.  According to the Wall St Journal it will come up for a vote next week.  Too bad the entire New Hampshire congressional delegation is Democrat.  We need to fix that. 

 

 

 

Secretary Blinken avoids answering questions

 Congress grilled Blinken on TV all day.  He managed to dodge answering anything all day.  A fast mouth on that guy.  And I don't believe a word he said. 

Why did Fauci give US taxpayer funding to a Chinese lab?

 Did, or did not, the Wuhan lab in China create the corona virus?  Who knows?  Why did Fauci approve giving US funding to a Chinese lab?  If there was something that we really needed to know, we should have funded and American lab, on American soil, staffed by Americans, to do the work.  That way we get the results, we can check them, retry anything that seems doubtful, and we have full access to the experimental results.  

   The Chinese have clammed up about just what went on at that Wuhan lab.  We funded them but we don't get any results.  Money down the drain.  

I suspect that the funding went to China, because the work was "gain of function" research, a very dangerous procedure that had been banned by the Obama administration.  Fauci wanted for some reason to do some gain of function work, so he sent the work and the money to China which had not banned gain of function research.

Gain of function research amounts to fiddling with the infectious agent, most likely a virus, to make it more infectious.  There is no good reason to do that sort of thing.    

baked French onion soup

 Tasty.  Start with a can of Campbell's French onion soup.  Follow directions on the can, add a can of water, heat on the stove on medium until it begins to bubble.  Take an earthenware bowl or pottle.  Put in half the soup.  Top with a small piece of toast and some grated cheese.  Pop it until the broiler long enough to melt the cheese.  In my oven, with my timer, that is two minutes.  It's tasty and low calorie.

Why do I care?

 Me, I got vaccinated against corona virus back in February and March.  Far as I know, far as the TV tells me, I won’t get covid, no matter who I hang out with.  We have some people who don’t want to get the corona virus vaccine.  I think they are wrong headed, but I don’t really care.  I won’t get it no matter what they do.  If they think they are immune, or think the vaccine is worse for them than covid, that’s their problem, not mine.

  So now we have Biden calling for mandatory vaccination for federal workers and health care workers and mask mandates.  I think Biden is just talking up a story that is not Afghanistan, just to get the newies talking about something, anything, that is not as damaging to Biden as Afghanistan stories are.  And the vast federal bureaucracy, democrats all, are trying to help poor old Biden out. 

 

Biden wants zero emissions from electric generation by 2040.  Good luck Joe baby.   He is pushing “alternate energy” by which he means wind and solar.  Trouble with wind and solar is they don’t produce electricity when needed; they only produce electricity when they feel like it.  Solar stops generating when the sun goes down, which happens every evening.  Wind stops generating when the wind stops blowing, which is not unusual.  In fact the air is dead still up here as I write this. 

   I need electric power all the time.  My oil burner won’t run without electricity, my stove, my hot water, my lights, my TV, my computer, my power tools all need electricity.  Biden’s zero emissions plan would only furnish power on sunny afternoons.  Juice goes off at sundown.  On a cold winter night, no juice means no oil burner and my pipes freeze. 

  

Biden wants Alternate Energy by 2040

 

Biden wants zero emissions from electric generation by 2040.  Good luck Joe baby.   He is pushing “alternate energy” by which he means wind and solar.  Trouble with wind and solar is they don’t produce electricity when needed; they only produce electricity when they feel like it.  Solar stops generating when the sun goes down, which happens every evening.  Wind stops generating when the wind stops blowing, which is not unusual.  In fact the air is dead still up here as I write this. 

   I need electric power all the time.  My oil burner won’t run without electricity, my stove, my hot water, my lights, my TV, my computer, my power tools all need electricity.  Biden’s zero emissions plan would only furnish power on sunny afternoons.  Juice goes off at sundown.  On a cold winter night, no juice means no oil burner and my pipes freeze. 

  

Vetting Afghan refugees.

 

Do we care about “vetting” the Afghan refugees?  We fear that Islamic terrorists will get into our country in the guise of refugees.  “Vetting” is comparison of the refugee with Afghan police records, Taliban membership lists, school attendance records, driver’s license records and the like.  Trouble is, all these records are all still in Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban.  Should the Taliban want to slip a few operatives into the United States, they will surely show a clean as a whistle record to any attempt by Americans to check them out. 

  If the State Dept had been really effective, they would have acquired the needed Afghan records during the 20 years we maintained friendly relations with the Afghan government[s].  You could fit all the records for the entire country onto a handful of smart drives that would fit in your pocket.  But I’ll bet the State Dept never bothered to collect the needed records.  I have little respect for our State Dept.

  As for me, I figure any Afghan willing to board a plane out of his/her country, with nothing but the clothes on his/her back, is probably alright, a good nick on our side.  And, I think ordinary police work on our part, developing informants, cracking down on drug running, keeping good records about crime in our new Afghan refugee communities, will be enough to pick up any Islamic terrorists before they can do much badness. 

In a New York minute

 Hurricane Ida made landfall in New Orleans, and did a lot of damage down there.  Then it meandered cross country, over land, all the way to New York City.  You would think after that much overland travel Ida would have weakened, a lot.  

  Well, the winds had died down but it still generated a lot of rain.  Giving New York and New Jersey some spectacular floods.  Killed something like 40 people.  

The TV is blaming it all on "global warming".  Right.  We get hurricanes, and sometimes the hurricanes do a lot of damage where they come ashore.  We have been getting hurricanes since forever.  I don't think Ida was all the bad by the time it got to New York.  Could it be that New York has been skimping on storm drains?  And blaming the damage on "global warming"?  

Booster Shots, need for

 Lotta talk about giving a third corona virus vaccine shot.  No evidence for or against the idea at least not on TV or the Wall St Journal.  The needed numbers should not be hard to find.  We need to know how many people developed covid AFTER having two shots of the Pfister or Moderna vaccines.  And "developed covid" means the patient actually got sick, and ran a fever.  Just testing positive for covid antibodies doesn't count.  Many of the tests have have false positive rates or 50% or worse, so I don't believe someone has covid just because a test came out positive.  I want to see the patient actually get sick. 

Any how, we the voters need that real data before we can make intelligent choices.

how come I never seem to find a book I might like to read?

 The Wall St Journal publishes a "review" section (book reviews) on Saturday.  Some how I never read a review that inspires any desire to read the whole book.  I like non-fiction, history, science fiction, fantasy, and a number of youn adult (YA) books.  WSJ never seems to review any of these catagories.

Texas Abortion Law

 Daughter is unhappy about the state of Texas abortion law, even though she does not live in Texas. It's a pretty drastic law, it effectively bans all abortions in Texas. The Supremes decided to let it stand.

Question for Texans. Half the electorate in Texas, or any other state for that matter, is women. Cannot this large homogenous group vote out all the legislators that voted in the Texas abortion law?

Biden speaking on Fox News this morning

 Biden claimed that 55 companies paid no taxes last year.  He didn't name even one of them, but he believes that big companies are skimping on their tax payments.  If you cannot name them, they don't exist.  He went on to claim that top bracket tax payers are not paying all that they should.   If true, Biden needs to sic the IRS on them with audits.  

There must be a lot of Afghans who like the Taliban

 The Taliban took over all of Afghanistan without a fight.  That must mean a lot of Afghans are OK with the Taliban.  Back when the Russians (tough customers) tried to take the place over, the Afghans fought and eventually, with some help from us and a lot of Stinger anti aircraft missiles they drove the Russians clean out of Afghanistan.  The fact that they didn't oppose the Taliban says to me that they, or at least a lot of Afghans, are just fine with the Taliban.  

The TV news isn't talking about that at all.