Fixing Twitter

 When I tried to log into the twitter web site (www.twitter.com) I was drawing an obscure error message that suggested that the twitter site was down or the internet was broken.  I am using Firefox and the problem is at least partly a Firefox problem.  To fix twitter, get into the Firefox “options” window.  Click on “Tools” on the main Firefox taskbar.  Options is under Tools.  Click on options.  Use the search feature and search for “cache”.  This will find a place/feature/what-do-you-callit named Cookies and Site Data.  And it offers Choices to clear data, manage data, and manage exceptions.  Select manage data.  This will show a list of all the websites that have stored data on your hard drive.  Firefox permits websites to stash megabytes of who knows what.  You need to find twitter and delete all of the twitter data.  I could not find twitter on my first shot so I just started deleting data from every website that seemed worthless to me.  For instance the New York Times had stashed better than a megabyte of stuff.  After some weeding, twitter turned up.  I deleted all the twitter data and bingo, twitter.com worked, I could log in and everything. 

Beaker folk get promoted to Britons

 The Beaker folk have been known to archeology for a long time, 60 years that I know of, and probably longer.  They are known in Britain by the drinking mugs, beakers, in their graves.  These are handsome handleless, pottery mugs, good for 12-14 ounces of beer (modern measure), quite distinctive.  They used to think that the beaker folk were traders, who came to Britain, trading bronze to neolithic natives who were still using flint.  

   The DNA people got to work recently analyzing beaker folk DNA and have declared that all modern Britons are descended from the beaker folk.  The earlier neolithic people who had raised Stonehenge were wiped out by the beaker invaders.  This raises the beaker folk from mere bronze traders to ancestors of all of Britain.  The U-Tube videos putting forth this quite new interpretation are non technical and do not give any of the observations supporting this heady conclusion, but I have not seen any postings of contrary conclusions so they probably have it right. 

What might Amy Coney Barrett do to Obamacare?

 I hear a lot of whining from Democrats about Judge Barrett and Obamacare.  To hear the Democrats tell the story, she will do something (unspecified but awful) to destroy Obamacare.  This should NOT be a judicial issue.  Obamacare, like medicare and medicaid and social security and a lot of other stuff should be acts of Congress, passed by both houses and signed by the President.  If the court rules Obamacare unconstitutional, Congress can fix the law, or do a constitutional amendment to make it constitutional.  But it is up to Congress to pass something, it is not up the the courts.  

   America is a democracy, which means laws are supposed to be made by an elected legislature, whose members have to stand for reelection every few years.  Not by appointed judges with lifetime tenure.  

   Unfortunately pressure groups have been able to talk US courts into approving new laws that would never pass a legislature, and now they expect to be able to repeat that process to pass their next piece of new law.  It is easier to convince 5 Supremes to rule their way on something than to convince 200 odd US representatives to all vote their way.  Judge Barrett says she is against legislating from the bench.  Her judicial rulings bear this out.  And she looks like an honest person whose word is good. 

Everyone ought to go and vote

 It would be good for America if this election was won, decisively by someone.  If we have another one of those cliff hangers, with recounts, never ending court fights over who won, impeachments, and obstructionism. Nothing will get done about getting the economy working again, fixing Corona virus, dealing with the Mid East, China, Russia and all our other foreign policy hot spots.  So everyone ought to get down to the polls on November 3 and vote.  You can save the country a lot of grief if you do.

Debate Watch at my place

 The Trump Biden TV Debate is coming right up, like next Tuesday the 29th of September.  I expect some extra ordinary statements, some whoppers, perhaps a few gaffes.  It's sort of like watching a bull fight.  The attraction is greatest when the bull gores the matador.  Judging from Biden's appearances on TV, he could make and election loosing gaffe.  On the other hand, he might not.  Anyhow these things are more fun when we can talk them over with friends.  

My place is up near the top of Franconia Notch, in Mittersill at 22 Ridge Cut Road.  The entrance to Mittersill is on NH Route 18, one driveway down the hill from Peabody Slopes.  Everyone is welcome.  There will be some food and munchies.  Bring your own bottle. I think the show starts at 9 PM .  Feel free to come a bit early and we can chat.  If you get lost call me 823 5319, and I ought to be able to get you back on track.

Democrats trashing Trump as he pays respects to Ruth Bader Ginsburg

 I'm watching video on TV showing Democrats chanting and yelling as Trump comes to RGB's flag draped coffin on the steps of the Supreme Court.  Trump says a few appropriate words for a deceased Supreme Court justice whose politics he did not share.  I think it is out of line for Democrats to be yelling and chanting while the President of the US is paying his respects to a deceased Supreme  Court justice.

Unanswered questions about the Breonna Taylor case.

 Releasing the Grand Jury findings has caused another riot in Louisville.  They indicted one of the three cops for being trigger happy and shooting wildly.  The other two were let off.  They claimed that this shootout was not a no knock raid.  The TV did not tell us what time of day this raid occurred.  The TV claims that the officers knocked.  TV did not tell us how long the officers waited for someone to answer the door.  Nor did it tell us how the door was opened, was it opened by one of occupants of the apartment or was it busted down by the cops?  

My point is that the police should not be doing no knock raids.  Busting down someone's door at o'dark:thirty just provokes a gun fight and people get killed.  If someone busts down my door in the middle of the night, I will shoot to kill and keep on shooting until either I get them or they get me.

Trigger Happy Tree in my backyard

 I got one tree

that thinks it is fall.  Most tree don't go along with the idea and are staying green.  That will last another week or two.  This tree is checking out the red scene.

We need a 9 judge Supreme Court

 Right now, after Justice Ruth Bader  Ginsburg's death, we only have eight justices on the Supreme court.  Should a difficult case, say a case about the 2020 presidential election, come before them, they might well deadlock in a tie 4 to 4 vote.  In which case the lower court decision that was appealed to the Supremes will stand.  Probably not good, the federal appeals courts only have jurisdiction over sections of the United States.  If the Supremes cannot come to a decision then we will have sections of the country with one law and other sections with a different law.  Not good.  We ought to have the same federal law for the whole country.  

   Of course Trump will appoint the same sort of judge that he did for his previous two Supreme Court vacancies.  That is a strict constructionist judge who will hew to the original intent of the Founders and not try to make new law from the bench.  And to be fair, Trump appointees will either be Republicans, or at least be sympathetic to Republican viewpoints, and thus anathema to Democrats.  No matter, I think the country will be better off having nine justices on the Supreme Court to rule on any 2020 election cases, which I judge likely to happen. 

 Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  May you rest in peace. 

Battery lore for motorists.

 

A fully charged car battery will read 13.2 volts.  Draw just a very small amount of juice from the battery, say turn on the headlights for a few minutes, and you will find the battery voltage has dropped down to 12.8 volts.  So most of us call a 12.8 volt or better battery fully charged.  Starting the engine, especially in winter, takes a lot of juice and as the battery charge is used up the battery voltage will drop off.  Once the battery voltage drops below 12.0 volts the battery may not have enough charge in it to start the engine. 

   When the engine is running, it turns an alternator under the hood to charge the battery.  The alternator has to supply current at a slightly higher voltage than the battery in order the charge it.  A properly working alternator will keep the car’s electrical system at 14 to 15 volts.  Cars have a built in voltmeter which you can see.  You may have to read the car’s manual to find it and turn it on.  On new cars (anything less than twenty years old) the voltmeter is digital and you can easily see your system voltage accurate to a tenth of a volt.  With the engine running the voltmeter ought to show 14-15 volts from the alternator.  With the engine off, the voltmeter will read battery voltage.  If battery voltage is above 12 .0 volts it’s good. 

   If the battery is below 12 volts either the alternator isn’t putting out enough voltage, or the battery is old and shot.  Winter is hard on car batteries and 4 or 5 winters is all they are good for.  A new battery is only fifty bucks at the auto parts store and you put it in yourself.  Assuming the alternator belt is nice and tight and not too worn, you have to replace the alternator.  Rebuilt alternators are every bit as good as brand new alternators and a lot cheaper. 

Hang Adolph Hitler from a sour apple tree

 

World War II could have been avoided.   It was an unnecessary war that cost 60-70 million deaths.   It laid important cities, Dresden, Hamburg, Leningrad, Cologne, Stalingrad, Berlin, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and more in ruins. The war broke out; actually Hitler attacked Poland, a mere 21 years after World War I ended.  Men who had been infantrymen in their twenties for World War I were in their forties in 1939.  Every one in Europe remembered the four year agony in the trenches and no one wanted to do that again.  No conceivable political objective was worth doing another four years of trench warfare.  Everyone in Europe agreed on this, except for one man, Adolph Hitler.  Somehow, Hitler had taken control of a great power and used that control to start World War II. 

   Using hindsight, it is clear that we could have eliminated Hitler and spared the world six years of agony and death.  Hitler would have had to be taken out sometime between 1932 and 1938 to do any good.  We (France, Britain and the United States) could have marched our armies into Germany, over thrown Hitler and put him on trial for war crimes, violations of the treaty of Versailles.  Or shot him “trying to escape”. That would have required French and British governments with some backbone, which was lacking in those years, plus solid support from the United States, to the point of dispatching at least one American division of troops to back up the Europeans and serve as a token of American support.  Unfortunately the United States was sunk deep into isolationism, and then the Depression and did not want to exert itself or take any risks.  It took the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor to snap us out of it. 

  Or, we could have sent one or two good men with rifles into Germany and had them shoot Hitler at one of those massive Nazi rallies.  We had some guys who could have done it.  The name Alvin York, (Sergeant York) a good southern boy from Tennessee, comes to mind.  And there were certainly other Americans who were just as good shots. 

   We need to keep this history in mind as we go forward into a dangerous world.   

Is anything happening besides the US elections???

 The TV is playing all election news and nothing but election news.  And most of it is charge and counter charge, both sides being highly unlikely.  As far as I can tell, the entire world has come to a halt, waiting on the outcome of the US elections. 

Peaceably to assemble

 "Congress shall make no law ... abridging ...  the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."   First Amendment.  

The word peaceably is important.  Peaceably means marching a route coordinated with local authorities.  It means carrying signs and flags and banners.  It means singing and chanting and speech making.  These days it means TV coverage.  And dispersing when the demonstration is over and going home.  First amendment requires government to permit these peaceable assembles.

Then we have riots.  Setting fires, beating people up, smashing shop windows, and looting.  Riots ought to be suppressed, rioters arrested, and held in arrest until all the paperwork is completed.  Use non-lethal weapons, tear gas, water cannon, pepper spray, tasers to break them up.  Start breaking up the riot as soon as possible to prevent it from getting bigger.  Many of the stores and businesses we see burning on TV belonged to people who had put everything they owned into starting the business, and keeping it going.  Burning the place down ruins those small business owners.  They expect law enforcement to protect their shops and businesses from being burned to the ground by rioters.  

And I have to wonder about the lack of common sense among the voters, who elected mayors and governors who permit riots to grow large and refuse offers of federal aid to suppress them.   Let's hope the voters have learned something over these last few weeks and make better choices this November.  At least they ought to vote the incumbents who have permitted this rioting out of office.   

Victory at Sea

 This was made shortly after WWII and it was on TV when I was in grade school in the 1950s.  They gathered up all the news reel and movie film of the war, including film captured from the Germans and the Japanese, and spliced it all together to tell a coherent story.  Richard Rodgers of Rogers and Hammerstein fame did the musical score, and it is a spectacular score.  It's a good watch and it does not only the naval side of WWII but a does a fair job on the land and air wars too.  It moves right along and kids will enjoy watching it.  Your kids will have a better understanding of what WWII was about and how it was fought for watching it. 

   I picked up a 5 DVD set that has every episode from the "Cheap Old DVD" bin at Walmart some years ago.  I don't know where you might find it today, but Googling for "Victory at Sea DVD" might turn something up.  

The video is all black and white.  Partly because color TV did not become widespread until the 1960s and largely because the color film of the day (Kodachrome) was so achingly slow, and only really worked out of doors on bright sunny days.  The available black and white film was much faster (more sensitive to light) and less fussy about exposure settings.  Even so, many of the video clips have the tops of everything burned in white and the sides and undercarriages solid black.  

Anyhow, if you can find it, your children will enjoy it and they will learn something. 

Pelosi suggests Biden not debate Trump on TV.

 Wow.  I (and lot of other people) expect the two presidential candidates to debate each other.  We have been doing this since Kennedy debated Nixon back in 1960.  Pelosi's suggestion to kill this year's debate strongly suggests that Pelosi fears that Biden is not up to debating Trump.  It is a reasonable fear.  But I think they have to debate, to pull out is a sign of weakness that everybody in the country will notice.  I saw that the Biden people said that Biden would indeed debate no matter what Pelosi thinks.  I think Biden made the right move there. 

So how effective was the Democrats TV only convention?

 So why do we hold political conventions.  Way back when, say John Kennedy's time, we chose the party's candidates at the convention.   Now we hold primary elections in every state to chose the party candidate, certainly more democratic, but it kinda took away the reason for conventions.  However, going to the national convention was so much fun for the delegates, that the parties still hold conventions, partly 'cause everyone has such a good time and partly hoping that TV coverage will win them votes.

   This year was a dry season, due to Corona virus, nobody went to the convention, it was all on TV.  So, did the Democrats convention say or do anything that won them votes?  I was not impressed, but then I am not a Democrat. 

Yellow Can Raid, slays 'em left and right

 The last can of Raid came in black can.  This Raid can is bright yellow.  And it is potent, like you would not believe.  I gave a couple of house flies a few squirts and got 'em.  Next morning, I find my rug covered in dead flies, must have been a hundred of 'em.  So bad I pulled out the vacuum cleaner and sucked 'em all up.  They must have added something to the insecticide to make it more potent.  Good for Raid.  The only good bug is a dead bug.

Campaign Rhetoric

 

I listened to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris doing their what-do-you-callit speeches on the car radio last night while driving up to Lancaster for a VFW election event.  They both talked a lot, using the vague generalities dialect of English.  They spent a lot of words trashing Trump, never a specific accusation, just blaming him for everything under the sun.  And a few outright falsehoods.  Kamala accused Trump of destroying American jobs just a week after the government released the jobs report showing 1.8 million new jobs this quarter.  Biden said that Trump inherited his good economic from Obama.  And a couple of other whoppers that slip my mind right now.

   No campaign promises.  No Statements like “If elected I will do thus and such to make your life better.” No promises to lower taxes, increase spending on pet programs, open the borders, reform criminal justice, increase EPA regulation, subsidize battery powered cars, protect forests and wild lands, insert your favorite Democratic program here.

   In short, the only reason Biden and Harris gave us to vote for them is to get rid of Trump.  Nothing else. Will this work in November??

Remote learning is really homeschooling

 Been a lot of talk about re opening the schools, especially k thru 12.  Parents are all in favor, with out open schools they cannot go to work, someone has to stay home and look after children.  The teachers are NOT in favor, they claim they will all catch COVID-19 and curl up and die. Most of the medics say this is not a problem, that small children are mostly immune to COVID-19.  And now we have some talk about "opening" the schools to offer "remote learning".   That's not really opening the schools in most people's book.  

The younger children need an adult, Mom, Dad, a grandparent, someone, to teach them.  The adult picks the lessons, finds the textbook or DVD or logs them in.  The children need someone to explain what they are supposed to be learning, and to insist that they sit down and work the home work problems.  The really small children have not learned to read yet, so following written directions is beyond them.  And even teen aged high school students can be exceptionally unmotivated and fail to do any of the "remote learning" work.  They need an adult to push them into learning.  

At this point, I don't see much difference to the parents between "remote learning" and home schooling.  I'm thinking unless your school is really open and the children can go to it 5 days a week, you better set up for homeschooling.  One parent has to stay home and school the kids. To my way of thinking, a good textbook[s] is/are essential.  You explain the lesson best you can.  The kids won't remember everything first time thru it.  They have the textbook to reread the lesson, pick up the points they missed, and lots of homework.  There are some very good lectures out on VHS or DVD.  My little local library has a set of VHS tapes of a course in the American Revolution.  A Gettysburg University professor stood behind a lectern and just lectured.  He was good.  He had some maps, and some prints of period paintings, but none of the fancy re enactment stuff you see on the history channel.  He told it straight, none of that Charles&Mary Beard "Economic Interpretation of the Constitution" stuff.  It was a college course, but it would work just fine for high school.  It was so good I watched all the tapes, on my own time, just for enjoyment.  There has got to be more good stuff like this out there.

Watching the Shakespeare plays is educational, especially if you discuss each one after watching it. Writing an essay every day is excellent.  Word-for-Windows takes a lot of the curse out of writing.  Field trips to historic sites, Bunker Hill, the Constitution, Lexington, Saratoga, what ever is in your part of the country, are great learning opportunities.

    

Robocaller strikes again

 The phone rings, a heavily accented voice says something about a $250 purchase charged to my amazon plus card.  Connection is terrible and the caller cannot tell me what company he works for, or where he is located.  Heavy accent.  So I log into my amazon+ account, and it only shows a few items that I did in fact order last month, no mystery $250 purchase.  So I hung up.  I think this is a scam of some kind.

I need to work on my bill to outlaw robo callers.

Getting thru New York

 Going from here (Upstate New Hampshire) to Pennsylvania or Maryland, you gotta go thru New York.  And get over the Hudson river.  The GW bridge can have one hour traffic backups.  Tappan Zee is a little better but not much.  And the bridge up at Newburg is out of the way.   

Mayor De Blasio has announced police checkpoints going into New York, hassling out of staters to quarantine themselves for two weeks.  That's gonna make a bad traffic situation worse, pulling over all the out of state cars.  Forget using GW bridge at all.  Learn to love the out of the way Newburg bridge. 

Mail in voting

 

Me, I think it is one giant opportunity for voter fraud.  When a ballot arrives in the mail, it lacks a photo ID.  For that matter it lacks a live face for the poll worker to compare with the face on the photo ID.  We have had cases in NH of dozens of absentee ballots showing the same address, namely a Dartmouth dorm room.  I don’t believe going to the polls is any more dangerous than going to the grocery store, something that we all do once a week (or oftener).  At least for voters that is, for poll workers (all volunteers up here) it is a little more hazardous since poll workers have to meet and speak to every one in town, all day.  And then count ballots into the wee hours.  Thankfully that gives us a good result by morning.  If we allow mail in ballots post marked by Election Day, they won’t all trickle in for a week.  So we won’t have a winner or a loser for a week.  For those of us public spirited enough to run for unpaid public offices in New Hampshire not knowing is a real hardship.  

Easy free up of a couple of Gigs of disk space

In win 10, do "disk cleanup".  You can get there from Explorer.  Right click on your C: drive and then click on "properties".  The properties window offers "disk cleanup".  Click on that to run cleanmgr.  Select "Clean up System files"  and hit "OK" to kick things off.  It's quick, and it will usually squeeze a Gig or two out of C:Windows\System32\drivestore.  At least it did for me on new laptop (Redkey)  and old desktop (Smallbox).  Every Gig of storage counts for something, even if laptop has 256 Gigs of solid state drive, and desktop has 2000 gigs of good old rotating hard drive. 

Biden Trump presidential debate[s]

All kinds of TV talk about how/why Biden should avoid debating Trump.  Some in favor, some against.  I don't understand the talk.  We have had head to head debates ever since Kennedy and Nixon in 1960.  We will have them this year.  If we don't, everybody will assume that Biden figured Trump would beat him, badly, and so he pulled out to avoid getting clobbered on live nationwide TV.  Most of us will take that as a sign of Biden's weakness.  Personally I think Biden will debate because he is old enough to understand that he has to debate if he wants to win. 

Hurricane with strange name peters out

We are pretty far inland for hurricanes to reach us.  But this one, with an unpronounceable name beginning with I, that I have never heard of before, was forecast to run right up the Connecticut river valley and hit us dead center. Well, we did get some rain and wind last night, but nothing extraordinary.  And its all gone this morning, sun is out, nice day.