Rail Strike Coming. What does Biden do?

    Trains carry a majority of the freight in America.  Manufactured goods, spare parts, fuel oil and gasoline, coal, metal ores, smelted metals, steel, wood, darn near everything.  A rail strike would cut off all these things, and all the others I haven’t thought of.  All the factories and businesses that depend on stuff will shut down, deepening the recession.  Perhaps so deep we cannot pull out of it. 

   Trains use far less fuel to move cargo than trucks.  A truck has a 400 horsepower diesel engine to move one big 57 foot trailer.  A 100 car freight train, made up of  100 trailer train cars, flat cars built to move two truck trailers, uses 6000 horsepower to more 200 big trailers.  That’s 30 horsepower per trailer, a huge saving of fuel compared to over the road trucking. 

   Way back when the newspapers would talk about the Taft Hartley act which empowered the government to declare a “cooling off period” in the event of a economy threatening strike.  I think the Taft Hartley act is still on the books, and could be used to delay the threatened rail strike.  I have not heard a whisper about Taft Hartley and cooling off periods in any of the media.  Either the newsies are so poorly educated that they never heard of Taft Hartley, or someone, probably Biden, has demanded the msm not mention it.

   So far Biden has let the rail strike get going while he enjoys Thanksgiving on Nantucket.  If the rail strike happens it is going to be bad for all of us.  If Biden does get into the rail strike at this late date would the unions and management believe anything he might say? 

The Last Bettlecruiser. HMS Hood.

 Hood was laid down during World War 1.  The original design was to be another battle cruiser like the three that sank at the battle of Jutland.  After Jutland the British decided that Hood needed more armor, perhaps 6 inches more of armor plate.  When launched a couple of years after the end of World War 1 ( 1920 ) Hood was very big, and very good looking.  She became the Royal Navy’s “show off ship”.  She visited everywhere during the 1920s and 1930s.  Everyone agreed that Hood was very impressive and by extension the Royal Navy was made to seem good and strong.

    In 1940 Hood and Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept Bismark in the Denmark Strait in between Greenland and Iceland, far from England.  They encountered Bismark in the strait and after a few salvos Bismark landed a hit on Hoods after deck and it went right thru the deck armor and exploded below.  The tremendous explosion sank Hood in a few minutes.  After Hood sank the Prince of Wales was simply not ready for combat, she still had yard workmen on board working on her guns, and the crew was brand new and green and not prepared to fight Prince of Wales. She got a few shots off, no hits, and Bismark just steamed past her.

    After Hood was lost no other Navy built battlecruisers.

Calculus or statistics?

 Just read a post claiming that students need a course in statistics to major in STEM fields. Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a good (abet broad) field in college, it is great for finding a job upon graduation. However, the key field, engineering, demands integral calculus. All the engineering fields, electrical, chemical, mechanical, and civil, demand integral calculus. The class lectures, the homework, the exams, and more are all phrased in calculus and if you don't have calculus you simply don't understand what the professor is talking about. Engineering is the best of the STEM courses, you get to do new design work which is the most fun. You need to take integral calculus freshman year. And that means you took trigonometry in high school, cause you need trig for calculus. I never took a course in statistics and never missed it in 40 years of engineering work.

Admiral Jackie Fisher’s battle cruisers.

Way back when, well before the First World War, Royal Navy admiral Fisher wanted vessels to find the enemy battle fleet at sea.  Battle fleets (maybe a dozen battle ships) had a screen of cruisers to shield them from enemy observation in this age before aircraft.  Since the fleet screen was cruisers, Fisher could not use destroyers for searching; the cruiser screen could easily sink any destroyers that caught up with them.  If he used cruisers, all that would happen is a bunch to ship-to-ship duels between his cruisers and the enemy cruisers and he would not find the enemy battle fleet. 

  So Fisher asked for a ship strong enough to break thru the cruiser screen and fast enough to catch the enemy battle fleet.  The result was a big as a battleship, carried the guns of a battleship, and the turbine engines that were just coming into service. In fact the battle cruisers had everything a battleship had except armor plate.  Their commanders thought they were commanding battleships.

   Come World War 1.  The British had built four of Fisher’s battle cruisers.  They were grouped into a squadron under command of the flamboyant Admiral Beatty.  Beatty wasn’t very bright, he wasn’t an experienced old sea dog; he was a member of parliament.  But, as luck would have it, Beatty encountered the German battle fleet at sea, getting ready for the battle of Jutland.  Beatty failed to get a radio message off giving German position, course, and speed, he failed to order his squadron to turn and run for it.  Instead Beatty ordered his squadron of four battle cruisers to engage the Germans.  With in a few minutes the German battleships sank three out of Beatty’s four battle cruisers, “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.” Beatty remarked at the time. 

   Meantime the British Grand Fleet, under experienced old sea dog Admiral Jellicoe had put to sea.  Jellicoe knew the North Sea, the tides, the winds, the shoal waters, and the amount to daylight.  Using his knowledge of the sea Jellicoe figured where the Germans were going to go.  He got it right, so right that he was able to cross the German’s Tee, a battle winning maneuver in those days.  One firing pass by the British inflicted so much damage on the Germans that they used a fancy new turning maneuver and left the area.  Jellicoe maneuvered himself and about an hour later managed to cross the German’s Tee a second time, inflicting a lot more damage. 

   Next morning, the British fleet was back at Scapa Flow and reported to London that it was ready for action again.  The German fleet was so shot up that it was not ready to sail again for months.  Both sides claimed victory, but by rights the British won this one. 

The FBI today.

 I read that the FBI has been called into that dreadful 4 victim slaying in Moscow Idaho. I wonder if the FBI can still investigate crimes. Does raiding former presidents and other Republicans make good training for finding evidence of crime?

What are we giving Ukraine that costs $40 billion??

 Biden is asking for $37 billion or perhaps $40 billion in military aide to Ukraine.  The TV has mentioned both numbers today.  Take your pick. 

Question: what are we giving Ukraine that costs $37 or $40 billion dollars?  They could buy a new US aircraft carrier for $13 and a skosh billion.  They could buy F35 fighters, the most expensive fighter ever made, for $100 million apiece.  A billion gets you 10 F35s.  $40 billion gets you 400 F35’s.  I don’t know what tanks and armored personnel carriers cost put I’ll bet $40 billion would buy a lot of them.  I suppose Patriot SAM systems, missiles, tracked launcher with a radar on board could be pricey, but I don’t know just how pricey. 

Anyhow, I would like a list of what we are giving Ukraine, and the list price of each item.

American weapons are very expensive what with the services gold plating the specifications, and the Pentagon bureaucrats drowning the contractors in paperwork.  I used to work for a defense contractor, Raytheon.  They had a big two story building out in Wayland Massachusetts.  On the ground floor they had engineering, stockrooms, labs, and shops, all stuff that actually made the product.  Upstairs, just as big as downstairs, were all paper pushers who kept the bureaucrats off Raytheon’s case by filing all the paperwork on time.    

Trump is running.

 As expected, Trump declared he is running for President yesterday. A lot of people like Trump and will vote for him. Trump can fill up a sports stadium with supporters for a campaign speech. While president last time Trump got GNP growth up to 3+ % from Obama's miserable 1%. He built the border fence. He got Kim Jong what's-his-face to stop launching missiles. He got the stock markets up.
On the other hand, there are a lot of people who detest Trump. Democrats, bureaucrats, newsies, are leading anti Trump voices. I have no idea how Trump's candidacy will worth this time. Certainly DeSantos from Florida looks good.

 It snowed up in the notch last night.  First snow of the winter.  Not much, only 1/4 inch.  Enough to turn the grass and the cars white, not enough to make the roads white.

Thor: Love and Thunder.

It's a new 2022 Marvel super hero movie. It does have Chris Hemsworth as Thor, and Natalie Portman but that is about all that's familiar to me. Thor enters the flick wearing a bathrobe. There is a weirdo old man trying to kill every one. It ain't what I think of as a Marvel Thor movie. It is only mildly interesting. I got it from Netflix.

Polls Not Very Helpful

 Political polls, beloved of TV news commentators, were not very useful this time.  Most of them showed a 1 or 2 percent difference between candidates.  That is a dead heat in my book; either candidate is equally likely to win.  Not much prediction to be had here.  And, despite a lot of talk about a red wave, the election was pretty even Steven.  Which is a pity, Biden gets another two years to drive the country deeper into the ground.  

  Two things that make telephone polls hard to do and all the polls are telephone polls.  Nowadays people won’t talk to pollsters.  Ten or fifteen years ago we count do telephone polling before elections.  People were sort of flattered that the party cared enough to call them.  They were cordial, they would chat.  Not anymore.  Last time I did telephone calling, they just hung up.  Tired of robocallers I guess.

   And then we have smart phones.  My three children don’t have landline phones, they all use smart phones.  They don’t have a phone book for smart phones, so you have trouble dialing voters and not winding up talking to a business receptionist. 

Silence gives assent.

When they smear you, have to say something.  Otherwise people begin to think the smear is true.  You must say something, say the smear is false, say there is some other reason, turn the smear around and lay it on them.  Say something.

Republicans need to work on this.  During last election Democrats accused Republicans of wanting to end, (or reduce) social security benefits.  Totally untrue.  Nobody wants to end or reduce social security because of the furor it would create.  A huge number of people live on social security and any reduction would cause them severe hardship.  Every Republican knows this, and would never touch social security.  Yet Democrats were able to accuse Republicans of this, and the Republicans let them get away with it.  Republicans never came out and said we have no intention of reducing social security because we know how much people depend on it.

Something ought to be done.  Maybe the Republican National Committee needs to work up a “Smear of the Week that needs answering” list and pass it out to candidates and state committees. 

Mid terms disappoint.

 Yesterday's mid term elections were disappointing. New Hampshire voters decided to keep their worthless congressional delegation. I had hoped New Hampshire voters would have been smartest than that. They were not. With democrat Biden administration running us out of gasoline and fuel oil, I had hoped for a Republican Congress to fix it. They are still counting but it does not look good. Looks like the democrats will be left to finish wrecking the country.

Social Security. The third rail of American politics. Touch it and die.

   No one with two brain cells is going to reduce social security, no matter what Democrats are claiming on TV. No Republican is that dumb.  There might be a few Democrats who are that dumb but I doubt it.  The current talk on TV about reducing social security is just talk, nobody, Republican or Democrat, is going to do it because the political backlash would be too severe.

Likewise talk on TV about the feds taking money away from social security is just talk from ignorant people.  TV is full of very ignorant people. 

Social security works like this.  Every worker has money taken from his paycheck and given to social security.  In many years, this year for example, social security takes in more money in taxes than it has to pay out in benefits.  The difference is large, billions of dollars.  So what does social security do with the extra money that they will need in a few years?  Answer, they buy US treasury bonds.  They pay modest interest, they are the safest investment on the planet.  America has never ever failed to pay off on its bonds.   And everyone, politicians, economists, business men, who ever,  is against social security investing the money in banks or stocks or anything private, doing such amounts to Uncle Sam investing a lost of money in where ever, which amounts to gaining government control of some private enterprise, at which point it is no longer a private enterprise. And there is no question that US bonds will pay off for social security when social security needs the money. 

 Good Shooting.

This morning's radio claimed that Ukraine shot down 45 out of 50 Russian crew missiles yesterday. Crew missiles are not easy to hit.  They are fast, 600 mph, and fly low which means the radar cannot see them until they a very close.  My radio was tuned to NHPR which is fairly trustworthy and presumably was passing along a Ukraine press release, which might have exaggerated things a little bit.