Your coffee is good when you can enjoy it black. If you have to do the cream and sugar thing, it means your coffee is coming out bitter.
Step 1 in making good coffee is a clean coffee maker. Brewing coffee releases all sorts of oils and fragrances which stick the the coffee maker innards. After time ( a few hours) the oils turn rancid and make the next pot taste bitter. You need a coffee maker that is easy to clean, inside and out. The French press is good, it comes completely apart and you can get inside it with a wash rag or a sponge. The Silex vacuum coffee makers are good, all glass, easily cleaned. Percolators are bad, the inside of that perk tube is just plain uncleanable.
Step 2 is good coffee. Shop around, try a can of the expensive stuff. Try some cans of the supermarket brand cheap stuff. Keep some notes so you can remember what you like. Up here, Surefine 100% Columbian $4.50 a can makes very good coffee, as good or better than some $10 a can coffee from Dunkin, Green Mountain and others .
I don't do the grind it from beans thing. I buy ground coffee and keep it in the fridge after opening it. Works for me.
Put in one heaping tablespoon of coffee for each cup of water. Give the coffee at least four minutes to brew. Try a little salt with the coffee. Sometimes salt improves the coffee, the US Navy swears by it, sometimes not so much.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Who will buy Greek bonds?
Nobody in their right mind. The Greeks have racked up debts equivalent to several years of Greek GNP. They are still spending more than they take in with taxes. No way are they going to be able to pay off what they owe right now, let along pay off any future borrowings. All sensible people know that lending more money to Greece is like pouring the money down a drain. The Greeks just don't have, and never will have, the ability to pay it back.
For some reason, unclear to me, the EU (Germany mostly) has been giving the Greeks bailout money to keep them from outright default on their debts. Why the EU feels this generous is a mystery, but they do. And, for some years, the EU has run a Greek supervision operation that tries to tell the Greek government what to do to balance their budget. The Greeks hate this. They have been rioting in the streets of Athens to show their displeasure. But the EU has been saying, "Do it our way, or no more bailout money."
And just last week, the EU began talking about getting out of the Greek supervision business in August and letting the Greeks do their own thing. Not discussed was whether the bailout money would continue after August.
Greeks don't have their own currency, they are on the Euro. Greeks cannot print their own Euros like they used to do when they were using their own drachmas years ago. Now the Greek government has to borrow money when expenses exceed tax revenue, which they do, every year. And what sensible person would loan the Greek government a dime? Fortunately for the Greeks there are plenty of sucker banks who will buy anything, no matter that the borrower will never be able to repay.
It will be a good sideshow to see what happens to the Greeks after August. Bring popcorn.
For some reason, unclear to me, the EU (Germany mostly) has been giving the Greeks bailout money to keep them from outright default on their debts. Why the EU feels this generous is a mystery, but they do. And, for some years, the EU has run a Greek supervision operation that tries to tell the Greek government what to do to balance their budget. The Greeks hate this. They have been rioting in the streets of Athens to show their displeasure. But the EU has been saying, "Do it our way, or no more bailout money."
And just last week, the EU began talking about getting out of the Greek supervision business in August and letting the Greeks do their own thing. Not discussed was whether the bailout money would continue after August.
Greeks don't have their own currency, they are on the Euro. Greeks cannot print their own Euros like they used to do when they were using their own drachmas years ago. Now the Greek government has to borrow money when expenses exceed tax revenue, which they do, every year. And what sensible person would loan the Greek government a dime? Fortunately for the Greeks there are plenty of sucker banks who will buy anything, no matter that the borrower will never be able to repay.
It will be a good sideshow to see what happens to the Greeks after August. Bring popcorn.
Looks like the Congresscritters blew it.
They were unable to pass a budget or a continuing resolution to fund the Federal government. Republicans and Democrats are on the tube, blaming each other for the shutdown. Neither side is explaining what great issue is being served by this impasse. They probably don't know themselves. After all they are Congresscritters, none too bright. The MSM is busy blaming the Republicans, as usual. We shall see if any voters believe the MSM any more.
I suppose the shutdown will continue until the pain becomes too acute and Congresscritters agree to fund the government again. The pain is largely felt by servicemen who won't get paid. And snivel servants declared "non-essential" who don't get paid either. I feel for the servicemen, they don't get paid much and just paying the bills each month is tough. I don't care that much for the snivel servants, they can go out and find honest jobs in the private sector.
As far as I am concerned, the Post Office will continue to deliver my mail and my Wall St Journal, and my Social Security electronic funds transfer (checks are obsolete) will continue to happen. At least that's what they are saying on TV. I am not entitled to an income tax refund, so the IRS can stay laid off forever far as I am concerned.
I hear that the Congresscritters will continue to get paid, which is a scandal, they ought to be the first to have their pay stopped.
I suppose the shutdown will continue until the pain becomes too acute and Congresscritters agree to fund the government again. The pain is largely felt by servicemen who won't get paid. And snivel servants declared "non-essential" who don't get paid either. I feel for the servicemen, they don't get paid much and just paying the bills each month is tough. I don't care that much for the snivel servants, they can go out and find honest jobs in the private sector.
As far as I am concerned, the Post Office will continue to deliver my mail and my Wall St Journal, and my Social Security electronic funds transfer (checks are obsolete) will continue to happen. At least that's what they are saying on TV. I am not entitled to an income tax refund, so the IRS can stay laid off forever far as I am concerned.
I hear that the Congresscritters will continue to get paid, which is a scandal, they ought to be the first to have their pay stopped.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Conquer the World with Soft Power
We used to be good at that. American soft power crumbled the fearsome Soviet Union. We never had to use our substantial hard power against the Soviets, in general a good thing. Instead Hollywood movies, blue jeans, hot rods and drag racing, rock and roll, major league baseball, a booming economy where the streets were paved with gold, Voice of America and the BBC, and democracy, convinced the average Russian-in-the-street that America was way cooler than Russia. This finally lead to the overthrow of the Soviet government in the late 1980's. The Russian people, who had stood shoulder to shoulder against the Nazis under Stalin, just lost faith in Communism and wanted a government and economy like the Americans enjoyed.
Now we have Islamic terrorism to confront. If soft power worked against the Soviets, a very tough opponent, it ought to work against the Islamics. Some of the soft power that stood us in such good stead in the 50's and 60's is looking dated now. Hollywood has almost forgotten how to make a good flick. Detroit is bankrupt and the Detroit auto industry is building boring little econoboxes rather than 409 Impalas and GTO's. Pop music lacks any one of the stature of Elvis or the Beatles, short wave radio is mostly gone, replaced by the Internet.
We do have some soft power stuff going for us. Apple and Iphones, Facebook and Google. The world still sees our streets as paved with gold, that's why so many of them want to move to the US. But the Islamic terrorists put up a show so strong as to recruit lone wolf terrorists with just Internet contact. We need to do something about that. Some movies making fun of them, or some horror flicks starring Islamic crazies in place of the usual monsters. We could get pop music back on track by returning control of the industry to real music people, like it was in the 1950's, rather the the current crop of clueless suits who persist in featuring wimpy boy bands. To replace VOA and BBC we could build up a respected international web site centered on real news (if there is a journalist left alive who could run such a site). Jim Lehrer hasn't been on air for quite a few years.
Now we have Islamic terrorism to confront. If soft power worked against the Soviets, a very tough opponent, it ought to work against the Islamics. Some of the soft power that stood us in such good stead in the 50's and 60's is looking dated now. Hollywood has almost forgotten how to make a good flick. Detroit is bankrupt and the Detroit auto industry is building boring little econoboxes rather than 409 Impalas and GTO's. Pop music lacks any one of the stature of Elvis or the Beatles, short wave radio is mostly gone, replaced by the Internet.
We do have some soft power stuff going for us. Apple and Iphones, Facebook and Google. The world still sees our streets as paved with gold, that's why so many of them want to move to the US. But the Islamic terrorists put up a show so strong as to recruit lone wolf terrorists with just Internet contact. We need to do something about that. Some movies making fun of them, or some horror flicks starring Islamic crazies in place of the usual monsters. We could get pop music back on track by returning control of the industry to real music people, like it was in the 1950's, rather the the current crop of clueless suits who persist in featuring wimpy boy bands. To replace VOA and BBC we could build up a respected international web site centered on real news (if there is a journalist left alive who could run such a site). Jim Lehrer hasn't been on air for quite a few years.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
DACA, Lotta talk, few specifics.
I have a lot of sympathy for people brought into America as children and who have grown up in America. Far as I am concerned, we ought to treat them as if they were born in the US. Make 'em citizens.
For all the talk from the newsies about DACA, we have few details. Such as cutoff age for membership. Clearly children brought into the country at age 6 and under ought to count. Maybe age 12 and under. Age 21 and over, clearly should not count, we reckon 21 to be the age of majority. What about teenagers between 12 and 21? For all the newsie babbling on the tube, you would think someone would have mentioned an age limit by now.
Detail. Is anything else required to gain the privileges of DACA status? Graduation from an American high school? Graduation from college? Good behavior, such as a clean criminal record? Or perhaps just no felony convictions? Reasonable English language skills? Holding a real job in the private sector? Marriage? children?
Detail. Just what benefits come from DACA status? Immediate US citizenship? a green card? some kind of path to citizenship? Eligible to vote? US driver's licenses? Permission to stay in the US for say five years? Or ten years? Or for life? I have not heard a word about this detail from the newsies either.
Detail. Do we offer DACA status to children arriving in the future?
I think we citizens deserve these details. Clearly the newsies and the Democrats don't think so.
Bottom line, our country needs more good decent citizens. We ought to work to keep the DACA cases of good decent people as citizens and throw the book at gang members, drug runners, bus hijackers, San Francisco shooters, and Islamist terrorists.
For all the talk from the newsies about DACA, we have few details. Such as cutoff age for membership. Clearly children brought into the country at age 6 and under ought to count. Maybe age 12 and under. Age 21 and over, clearly should not count, we reckon 21 to be the age of majority. What about teenagers between 12 and 21? For all the newsie babbling on the tube, you would think someone would have mentioned an age limit by now.
Detail. Is anything else required to gain the privileges of DACA status? Graduation from an American high school? Graduation from college? Good behavior, such as a clean criminal record? Or perhaps just no felony convictions? Reasonable English language skills? Holding a real job in the private sector? Marriage? children?
Detail. Just what benefits come from DACA status? Immediate US citizenship? a green card? some kind of path to citizenship? Eligible to vote? US driver's licenses? Permission to stay in the US for say five years? Or ten years? Or for life? I have not heard a word about this detail from the newsies either.
Detail. Do we offer DACA status to children arriving in the future?
I think we citizens deserve these details. Clearly the newsies and the Democrats don't think so.
Bottom line, our country needs more good decent citizens. We ought to work to keep the DACA cases of good decent people as citizens and throw the book at gang members, drug runners, bus hijackers, San Francisco shooters, and Islamist terrorists.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Windows 10 explorer
Window Explorer, not to be confused with Internet Exploder, used to offer us users a view of the files we had on the hard drive, actually on all the drives, hard, floppy, CD, or thumb. Now that we are upgraded to Windows 10, we find that Explorer doesn't work right. The Win 10 version of Explorer shows four copies of all my files. I keep my files in "My Documents" the traditional Windows location. Only in Win 10, Explorer show four versions of "My Documents" one of which just gives error messages when clicked on. Which one is the real one? Why display the same thing four different times? Is this to add confusion to us users?
And, Windows Explorer has forgotten alphabetical ordering. Click on your desktop and ask it to sort your icons into alphabetical order. The icons swirl around, but they do not wind up in alphabetical order.
Micro$oft strikes again.
And, Windows Explorer has forgotten alphabetical ordering. Click on your desktop and ask it to sort your icons into alphabetical order. The icons swirl around, but they do not wind up in alphabetical order.
Micro$oft strikes again.
Monday, January 15, 2018
I wonder how that happens? The midnight pageview spike.
I get a few statistics from Blogger every day. One them is "page views" In fact I get a line graph of page views over time. The funny part is the timing. Every day, around midnight, I get a burst of 100 page views all packed into a very short time, like less than an hour. Makes the graph look like a sea of low level grass with a whacking big spike of 100 page views sticking up once a day at midnight. Why are they all packed in at midnight? Surely normal people are in bed by midnight? Is it robo webcrawlers all doing their crawling when the web isn't so busy? Is it a bug in the Blogger software? Something else?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Also, how come I get so many page views from Italy? Like more pageviews from Italy than from the entire US of A. I don't post in Italian.
Inquiring minds want to know.
Also, how come I get so many page views from Italy? Like more pageviews from Italy than from the entire US of A. I don't post in Italian.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
Duck and Cover !!!
Damn. That false alarm must have scared Hawaiians out of their socks. As well it should. If they sprang that up here in NH, I dunno what I would do. I suppose just get down in my basement, which is masonry (cinder block not poured concrete which is far stronger) If I survived the initial blast, I have no idea what I would do for food or fuel or electricity after the bomb.
And, we need to get serious about Little Rocket Man and his ICBMs.
And, we need to get serious about Little Rocket Man and his ICBMs.
Friday, January 12, 2018
Dunkirk 2017
It came by Netflix, and I watched it on my Sony flatscreen last night. Lots of dramatic shots of British soldiers in deep doo-doo, bombs falling, tide going out, few to no boats in sight, struggling in the water. Many pitiful scenes of British soldiers standing in line on the sand, (queuing up the British say) waiting for a vessel to take them home. One group takes a stranded fishing trawler out into the Channel. They spend most of their time below decks shouting at each other. I kept wondering why they stayed below, rather than out on deck where they could see where they were going and who was coming after them. Lots of shots of RAF fighters going out at low level. RAF pilots looking and sounding cool as cucumbers under fire.
Although the camera man did things right, turning on the lights before filming, the sound man bungled badly. He never muted the score and the sound effects when characters were speaking. That, combined with modern actor's tendency to mumble their lines, caused a good deal of the dialog get lost. Fortunately there wasn't much dialog. I never caught the stage names of any of the characters, mostly because nobody ever addressed any one else by name. And with the exception of the two teen aged boys aboard the old codger's yacht, nobody had any connections with friends, family, sweethearts, warbuddies, any other human being. There was no protagonist for us audience to rally behind and root for.
The movie never told us that we were watching a turning point in WWII. Hitler could have won the war that day. If der fuhrer had stayed off the telephone and let his best tank general, Heinz Guderian, commander on the scene, do what he wanted to do, the British army (every soldier Britain had) would have been surrounded and taken prisoner of war. Instead, Hitler feared that Guderian's panzers were too far out in front, they might be counter attacked. He ordered Guderian to stop and wait for the bulk of the German infantry, marching on foot, to catch up with him. This delay gave the British time to evacuate. This fact comes right out of Guderian's after-the-war memoir.
Britain nearly gave up the fight that summer. They had been driven out of Norway, driven out of the Low Countries, driven out of France. They had sacked their prime minister and installed Winston Churchill that very week. The entire British establishment, members of parliament, the press, academia, the churches, business men, the entertainment business (we call ours Hollywood, dunno what the Brits called theirs) were against fighting the war. Many of them had fought in the First World War, and they were not going to do that sort of thing, ever again. And Germany had more people, more industry, more advanced science, and looked invincible.
Hitler was offering the Brits a deal, You Brits let me keep all of continental Europe, and I Hitler will let you keep your overseas empire and your Navy. A lot of Brits were ready to take this deal. Not Churchill. Newly installed as prime minister, Churchill had to rally his country. The British rank and file were more tough minded than their establishment. The rank and file didn't want to kowtow to the Nazis, and were willing to fight. They figured they had whipped the Germans twenty years ago and they could do it again. But in June of 1940 everything was in flux. If the Germans had taken the BEF prisoners of war that would have been a tremendous downer to all of England. As it turned out, the Brits got nearly every man, 350,000 or so, off the Dunkirk beaches and safely home. That did a lot to steady things down and build support for Churchill.
If the evacuation had failed, Churchill might have been turned out of office (he had a lot of old enemies going back forty years) and Britain might have signed a deal with Hitler. Which would have made launching the D-Day invasion from Britain impossible, and deprived USAF of bases from which to bomb Germany.
Although the camera man did things right, turning on the lights before filming, the sound man bungled badly. He never muted the score and the sound effects when characters were speaking. That, combined with modern actor's tendency to mumble their lines, caused a good deal of the dialog get lost. Fortunately there wasn't much dialog. I never caught the stage names of any of the characters, mostly because nobody ever addressed any one else by name. And with the exception of the two teen aged boys aboard the old codger's yacht, nobody had any connections with friends, family, sweethearts, warbuddies, any other human being. There was no protagonist for us audience to rally behind and root for.
The movie never told us that we were watching a turning point in WWII. Hitler could have won the war that day. If der fuhrer had stayed off the telephone and let his best tank general, Heinz Guderian, commander on the scene, do what he wanted to do, the British army (every soldier Britain had) would have been surrounded and taken prisoner of war. Instead, Hitler feared that Guderian's panzers were too far out in front, they might be counter attacked. He ordered Guderian to stop and wait for the bulk of the German infantry, marching on foot, to catch up with him. This delay gave the British time to evacuate. This fact comes right out of Guderian's after-the-war memoir.
Britain nearly gave up the fight that summer. They had been driven out of Norway, driven out of the Low Countries, driven out of France. They had sacked their prime minister and installed Winston Churchill that very week. The entire British establishment, members of parliament, the press, academia, the churches, business men, the entertainment business (we call ours Hollywood, dunno what the Brits called theirs) were against fighting the war. Many of them had fought in the First World War, and they were not going to do that sort of thing, ever again. And Germany had more people, more industry, more advanced science, and looked invincible.
Hitler was offering the Brits a deal, You Brits let me keep all of continental Europe, and I Hitler will let you keep your overseas empire and your Navy. A lot of Brits were ready to take this deal. Not Churchill. Newly installed as prime minister, Churchill had to rally his country. The British rank and file were more tough minded than their establishment. The rank and file didn't want to kowtow to the Nazis, and were willing to fight. They figured they had whipped the Germans twenty years ago and they could do it again. But in June of 1940 everything was in flux. If the Germans had taken the BEF prisoners of war that would have been a tremendous downer to all of England. As it turned out, the Brits got nearly every man, 350,000 or so, off the Dunkirk beaches and safely home. That did a lot to steady things down and build support for Churchill.
If the evacuation had failed, Churchill might have been turned out of office (he had a lot of old enemies going back forty years) and Britain might have signed a deal with Hitler. Which would have made launching the D-Day invasion from Britain impossible, and deprived USAF of bases from which to bomb Germany.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Don't talk to cops, they are out to getcha
Advice to President Trump. Special Council Mueller is out to get you. He will take anything you say to him and twist it to make you look bad. Your best bet is not to say anything to him. I'm sure all your lawyers are telling you this already. If Mueller wants a private interview with you, tell him to get a subpoena from a real court. Not that rubber stamp FISA "court". If you have things you want to "get on the public record" tweet them. Tweets go right out, the way you want them to. Anything you say to Mueller will get twisted before it becomes public.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Congressional Earmarks and Donald Trump.
Can you taste the pork yet? Earmarks were a scheme whereby CongressCritters could order federal taxmoney spent in their district on pet projects. Like that bridge to nowhere in Alaska. CongressCritters loved earmarks, after getting one, they could brag about it back in their district. We rvrn got one some years ago, Former Senator Judd Gregg managed to pull down $492,000 to renovate the Littleton Opera House, a well loved antique building, standing on a prominent site in downtown Littleton.
The incoming Republican congressional majority from 2012 voted to outlaw earmarks as pure pork and a total waste of taxpayers money.
Yesterday I heard our boy, Donald Trump, praise the earmark system and suggest bringing it back because it was the one thing that could achieve bipartisan support. "You vote for my earmark and I'll vote for your earmark". Earmarks might have been something that drew bipartisan support, but bipartisan or not, voting for earmarks was voting to waste a lot of taxpayer money. I'd druther spend less rather than get bipartisan support for pouring good money down the drain.
The incoming Republican congressional majority from 2012 voted to outlaw earmarks as pure pork and a total waste of taxpayers money.
Yesterday I heard our boy, Donald Trump, praise the earmark system and suggest bringing it back because it was the one thing that could achieve bipartisan support. "You vote for my earmark and I'll vote for your earmark". Earmarks might have been something that drew bipartisan support, but bipartisan or not, voting for earmarks was voting to waste a lot of taxpayer money. I'd druther spend less rather than get bipartisan support for pouring good money down the drain.
Tuesday, January 9, 2018
"bloody nose" versus "regime change" strike on NORKs
We are hearing talk today, in the Wall St Journal, and PBS, and the other TV newsies about taking the military option with the NORKs. A "bloody nose" strike, which would do some damage, perhaps take out a missile site, or shoot down a missile after launch, or something, but the NORKs would recognize that it was just a minor slap in the face rather than the opening moves in a total war to wipe them out. Dicey. Lets think about Little Rocket Man, in his secret headquarters, watching on radar the warplanes crossing his borders, violating his airspace, headed for important installations. What's Rocket Man gonna think? If he thinks the Yankees are coming to hang his ass, he will probably order an all out strike on the South right then and there.
Let's think about something else in the military line. How about a regime change strike? We just put a smart bomb thru Little Rocket Man's bedroom window. Boom. Instant regime change. Do it right, a single stealth aircraft, after dark, flying low, and the NORKs won't know what we are doing to them until it's too late. For good measure we could hit secret police headquarters and army headquarters at the same time.
With Little Rocket Man turned into dog food, it will take 'em a few days to settle things out and give orders to attack the south. And the new regime might be ready to listen to reason and negotiate rather than start up the Korean war again.
Let's think about something else in the military line. How about a regime change strike? We just put a smart bomb thru Little Rocket Man's bedroom window. Boom. Instant regime change. Do it right, a single stealth aircraft, after dark, flying low, and the NORKs won't know what we are doing to them until it's too late. For good measure we could hit secret police headquarters and army headquarters at the same time.
With Little Rocket Man turned into dog food, it will take 'em a few days to settle things out and give orders to attack the south. And the new regime might be ready to listen to reason and negotiate rather than start up the Korean war again.
Head Shrinkers and the Goldwater rule
The Goldwater rule, goes back to 1964 when Goldwater ran for president against LBJ. A bunch of shrinks opined in the public press that Goldwater was mentally unstable and unfit for the presidency. In short the shrinks called Goldwater crazy. Goldwater sued them for libel.
The American Psychiatric Association, after the election was over and the smoke had cleared, issued a rule that shrinks must not opine about the mental conditions of people they had not met and examined in person. Which makes sense. If you haven't examined the person yourself, what do you really know?
And, in the few cases where you have examined the person, that makes you the doctor and the person your patient. For a doctor to talk/write about a patient's mental or emotional state is a clear violation of ethics, common courtesy, and ordinary politeness. Should my doctor discuss my health, physical or mental, with anyone, I would be deeply offended, offended enough to find a more honest doctor ASAP.
The American Psychiatric Association, after the election was over and the smoke had cleared, issued a rule that shrinks must not opine about the mental conditions of people they had not met and examined in person. Which makes sense. If you haven't examined the person yourself, what do you really know?
And, in the few cases where you have examined the person, that makes you the doctor and the person your patient. For a doctor to talk/write about a patient's mental or emotional state is a clear violation of ethics, common courtesy, and ordinary politeness. Should my doctor discuss my health, physical or mental, with anyone, I would be deeply offended, offended enough to find a more honest doctor ASAP.
Monday, January 8, 2018
Are burglars tele casing my place?
I get a lot of strange phone calls. When I answer, all I get is silence. So I hang up. Are they calling to see if anyone is home? So they can burglarize the place in safety? Even though I have little in the place of worth to a burglar or a fence. About the only worthwhile items are a seven year old Sony flat screen TV and a HP laptop.
How can two ships collide 200 miles offshore?
Surely all ocean going steamers have radar in these days? The Ramore Head, upon which I sailed to Europe in 1956 had a very good radar on her bridge. Southwester, a 42 foot wooden sailing yacht, had a decent radar that could pick up ordinary buoys at a couple of miles when I sailed on her twenty years ago.
Now we have video of a supertanker, engulfed in flames, 2-3 hundred miles off of Shanghai China. The newsies say she collided with a freighter carrying grain. Were the bridge crews sound asleep? Surely the radar on both bridges showed the other vessel approaching? Chapman (Piloting Seamanship and Small Boat Handling) has an entire chapter on right of way and rules of the road. The Officer of the Deck is required to know all the rules by heart and follow them. Both ships were far out to sea, free to maneuver in any direction without fear of running aground.
So what really happened?
For that matter we have never heard what really happened aboard those two Navy destroyers that collided with merchies last year.
Now we have video of a supertanker, engulfed in flames, 2-3 hundred miles off of Shanghai China. The newsies say she collided with a freighter carrying grain. Were the bridge crews sound asleep? Surely the radar on both bridges showed the other vessel approaching? Chapman (Piloting Seamanship and Small Boat Handling) has an entire chapter on right of way and rules of the road. The Officer of the Deck is required to know all the rules by heart and follow them. Both ships were far out to sea, free to maneuver in any direction without fear of running aground.
So what really happened?
For that matter we have never heard what really happened aboard those two Navy destroyers that collided with merchies last year.
Sunday, January 7, 2018
Wolff, Bannon, Fire and Fury
That's all the TV newsies are talking about. I'm sure the book has lots of dirt on the Trump administration. At this point nobody knows how much is real and true, and how much is made up. All the newsies want to spread the dirt around to stick it to Trump. Trump and his people say it's all fake news. I don't see how we voters will ever know what's what. And this voter doesn't care anymore.
I rate the Trump administration on things like GNP growth, unemployment decline, cutting my taxes, cutting regulations, getting Keystone XL going to lower my furnace oil cost. Things that count in the real world. It would be nice if the newsies spent more time telling us what's going on in the world rather than spreading rumors designed to hurt the Trump administration.
I rate the Trump administration on things like GNP growth, unemployment decline, cutting my taxes, cutting regulations, getting Keystone XL going to lower my furnace oil cost. Things that count in the real world. It would be nice if the newsies spent more time telling us what's going on in the world rather than spreading rumors designed to hurt the Trump administration.
Saturday, January 6, 2018
The Bering Land Bridge
A lot of talk about it. The Bering Straits are shallow, and not all that wide, and it is thought that in long past times the seas went down and/or the land went up, and people and animals could cross from Siberia to Alaska dry footed. A lot of speculation about how and when the Indians came to North America centers on when the land bridge might be open.
What the land bridge enthusiasts forget, or perhaps never knew, is that man can cross the Bering straits by boat, given decent weather. Say summer weather. The Eskimos used to cross regularly, up until the Soviets tightened up their customs enforcement after WWII and started hassling any American Eskimos they caught on their side of the straits.
The Eskimos used skin boats, umiaks, to make the crossing. Granted a skin boat sounds kinda flimsy, except the skins were walrus hides, a quarter of an inch thick and tough as fiberglass. A umiak could carry a dozen people, and were strong enough to take the thrust of a forty horsepower outboard motor.
If today's Eskimos could make the passage, I dare say the ancestors of the Indians could make the same passage, about anytime they felt like it. No land bridge required.
The recent publications about DNA analysis of an 11,500 year old Indian child from an Alaskan site all talked about crossing on the land bridge. I maintain they could have come by boat, any summer.
What the land bridge enthusiasts forget, or perhaps never knew, is that man can cross the Bering straits by boat, given decent weather. Say summer weather. The Eskimos used to cross regularly, up until the Soviets tightened up their customs enforcement after WWII and started hassling any American Eskimos they caught on their side of the straits.
The Eskimos used skin boats, umiaks, to make the crossing. Granted a skin boat sounds kinda flimsy, except the skins were walrus hides, a quarter of an inch thick and tough as fiberglass. A umiak could carry a dozen people, and were strong enough to take the thrust of a forty horsepower outboard motor.
If today's Eskimos could make the passage, I dare say the ancestors of the Indians could make the same passage, about anytime they felt like it. No land bridge required.
The recent publications about DNA analysis of an 11,500 year old Indian child from an Alaskan site all talked about crossing on the land bridge. I maintain they could have come by boat, any summer.
Friday, January 5, 2018
Cannon Mt Ski Weather
I have 9 inches of nice light powder on the railing of my deck. And my deck is within walking distance of Peabody Slopes chairlifts. It snowed all day Thursday. No wind (despite weatherpeople predicting hurricane force winds) . So the nice new powder snow is still on the trails rather than blown off into the woods where it doesn't help the skiing at all. Conditions are as good as it gets at Cannon. Forecast is for cold over the weekend, so bring an extra sweater, a scarf, maybe even a face mask.
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Floating Fortress to bolster US Naval Power
Headline of a Wall St Journal op-ed on Saturday. The writer, William Lloyd Stearman, long time National Security Council staffer, laments the fact the the US has not done an amphibious assault since Inchon, way back in the Korean War. He blames this on the existence of anti ship missiles that make it too dangerous to bring warships closer than 100 miles to land.
His solution a humongous 1000 foot long ship, displacing 125,000 tons, loaded with anti aircraft missiles and artillery, more artillery for shore bombardment, helicopter and VTOL fighter pads, and carrying Marines would be able to close up on the enemy coast, land the marines, and give them fire support. "This ship could be designed to make it virtually unsinkable." Yeah right. This concept has been kicking around in various issues of Naval Institute Proceedings for years under the name of "arsenal ship".
Sounds cool, but Mr Stearman seems to have forgotten WWII experience showing that if you put enough bombs and torpedoes into the biggest ships, they sink. Witness Bismark, Yamato, Roma, Prince of Wales, Lexington, Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, Zuikaku, and many more famous capital ships.
To do an amphibious assault, first you need air superiority, air craft carriers and their air wings. Once you have air superiority, you don't need an arsenal ship. The aircraft take out the anti ship missile sites. Then ships of ordinary size will do just fine.
I'm surprised that this guy was a National Security Council staffer for more than 15 years and has no better grasp of naval warfare than this op-ed shows.
His solution a humongous 1000 foot long ship, displacing 125,000 tons, loaded with anti aircraft missiles and artillery, more artillery for shore bombardment, helicopter and VTOL fighter pads, and carrying Marines would be able to close up on the enemy coast, land the marines, and give them fire support. "This ship could be designed to make it virtually unsinkable." Yeah right. This concept has been kicking around in various issues of Naval Institute Proceedings for years under the name of "arsenal ship".
Sounds cool, but Mr Stearman seems to have forgotten WWII experience showing that if you put enough bombs and torpedoes into the biggest ships, they sink. Witness Bismark, Yamato, Roma, Prince of Wales, Lexington, Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu, Soryu, Zuikaku, and many more famous capital ships.
To do an amphibious assault, first you need air superiority, air craft carriers and their air wings. Once you have air superiority, you don't need an arsenal ship. The aircraft take out the anti ship missile sites. Then ships of ordinary size will do just fine.
I'm surprised that this guy was a National Security Council staffer for more than 15 years and has no better grasp of naval warfare than this op-ed shows.
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Lying to the FBI,
Should not be a crime at all, let alone a felony. All the FBI has to do is interview/interrogate the victim long enough and they can catch him/her in a contradiction. Who can remember all the things they said during a long interrogation? Just keep the interrogation up until the victim makes a mistake, and bang, you got him. Lying to the FBI, a felony. You can take the victim to court on that, even if you don't have any evidence of a real crime.
Far as I am concerned, we oughta get rid of lying to the FBI (or anyone else) as a crime. Unless the victim is under oath, in which case false statements are perjury, the cops should be required to discover real evidence of real crimes (not thought crimes) in order to prosecute citizens.
Far as I am concerned, we oughta get rid of lying to the FBI (or anyone else) as a crime. Unless the victim is under oath, in which case false statements are perjury, the cops should be required to discover real evidence of real crimes (not thought crimes) in order to prosecute citizens.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Strange things in the modern Navy
According to Instapundit, the Navy ran a "climate assessment" survey aboard the two destroyers that collided with merchant vessels. The surveys asked crew men about how short of sleep they were, how they felt about the ship, the mission, and the Navy. And how they felt about their officers. Basically the men reported being tired, overworked, and not too sure their officers knew what they were doing.
Wow.
I was an Air Force officer for six years back during the Viet Nam war. USAF did not run surveys of any kind back in that day. How the troops, both NCO's and enlisted men felt about me, my leadership, the Air Force mission, and fixing aircraft right was important to me. I put in a lot of hours in my shops looking around and talking to the troops, likewise out on the flight line. I joined a stock car racing club the troops had organized. I said nothing when the troops posted Lt. Fuzz cartoons on the shop bulletin boards. I would not have benefited from or believed in a USAF survey. I had seen how my troops had massaged the maintenance date reporting system to indicate that they were all working hard, and doing things right. I would have figured the troops would respond to a survey with answers that they figured would do them good.
Gotta wonder about that Navy. Competent officers keep in touch with their men and have a pretty good idea of what they are thinking. They don't need "climate assessment" surveys.
The Navy has never given clear answers about how those two destroyers managed to collide with merchies. Could it be that the entire bridge crew just fell asleep, letting the ship plow straight on under autopilot control?
Wow.
I was an Air Force officer for six years back during the Viet Nam war. USAF did not run surveys of any kind back in that day. How the troops, both NCO's and enlisted men felt about me, my leadership, the Air Force mission, and fixing aircraft right was important to me. I put in a lot of hours in my shops looking around and talking to the troops, likewise out on the flight line. I joined a stock car racing club the troops had organized. I said nothing when the troops posted Lt. Fuzz cartoons on the shop bulletin boards. I would not have benefited from or believed in a USAF survey. I had seen how my troops had massaged the maintenance date reporting system to indicate that they were all working hard, and doing things right. I would have figured the troops would respond to a survey with answers that they figured would do them good.
Gotta wonder about that Navy. Competent officers keep in touch with their men and have a pretty good idea of what they are thinking. They don't need "climate assessment" surveys.
The Navy has never given clear answers about how those two destroyers managed to collide with merchies. Could it be that the entire bridge crew just fell asleep, letting the ship plow straight on under autopilot control?
Fantasy that the MSM keeps repeating
Fantasy #1. Trump should/will fire special prosecutor Mueller. Not likely. Last guy to fire a special prosecutor was Nixon. See where that got him. Trump is smart enough to understand that.
Fantasy #2 Impeach Trump. The Republicans have a majority in both houses of Congress and simply won't allow impeachment to go forward.
The MSM would do the country more good if they stopped pushing fantasies.
Fantasy #2 Impeach Trump. The Republicans have a majority in both houses of Congress and simply won't allow impeachment to go forward.
The MSM would do the country more good if they stopped pushing fantasies.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
We oughta do something to help the Iranian protesters
The Iranian mullah government is hostile to us, supports terrorism world wide, and thanks to Obama, will have nuclear weapons shortly. Anything we can do to make life hard for them we ought to do. They are having some anto regime demonstrations. We ought to assist the demonstrators
Favorable publicity on the net, the MSM, radio and TV is good. We need to make contact with Iranian dissidents inside Iran. That could be difficult since I don't believe we have diplomatic relations with Iran. We need to tell CIA to get some agents inside Iran, even without embassy cover and diplomatic immunity.
Political dissidents can use money, weapons, internet access, passports and visas, airline tickets, satellite antennas, cell phones, xerox machines, lots of stuff, that we have and aren't all that expensive, compared to say a single new F35.
Favorable publicity on the net, the MSM, radio and TV is good. We need to make contact with Iranian dissidents inside Iran. That could be difficult since I don't believe we have diplomatic relations with Iran. We need to tell CIA to get some agents inside Iran, even without embassy cover and diplomatic immunity.
Political dissidents can use money, weapons, internet access, passports and visas, airline tickets, satellite antennas, cell phones, xerox machines, lots of stuff, that we have and aren't all that expensive, compared to say a single new F35.
Friday, December 29, 2017
How much infrastructure do we need??
New Hampshire has kept it's roads and bridges in pretty good shape over the years. Much better shape than New York. Right around my place in Franconia, which is pretty rural, the state has replaced two smallish highway bridges on secondary roads for being really old. Aside from the stalled widening project on southern I93, the rest of the state is in quite passable shape. We haven't fallen into the railroad track black hole yet, despite the best efforts of some commuter rail enthusiasts.
And we have enriched a lot of road contractors over the years. I have been driving I93 from Boston to NH ski country since the road first got started. The first asphalt was put down in the 1950's, and they had it finished all the way to Cannon Mt by the late 1960's. It was built to the Interstate highway standards of the 50's and 60's, four lane divided highway, good for 70-80 mph. I drove up and down it for skiing for decades.
Then sometime in the 90's Interstate standards were tightened up. More clearance and longer sight distances required. And so, a lot of contractors got nice jobs blasting back all the rock cuts from the Mass border to Franconia notch, making the cuts wider. Did not make the road wider, just the rock cuts. And there are a LOT of rock cuts going thru the White Mountains The same rock cuts I had been driving thru, with no problems, for 30 years, were now wider, and a lot of contractors got richer, but it didn't make I93 any better for drivers. It did soak up quite a bit of infrastructure money.
And then the infrastructure spending folks decided that we needed huge electric signs, to show helpful messages like "Drive Safely", and "Snowfall expected, Plan ahead". Really essential those messages are. The signs probably cost $100,000 apiece and they put in half a dozen of 'em.
And then more infrastructure signage. We now have big, cute mileposts, every 0.2 miles. I drove I93 for 40 years without cute mile posts so close together that you can see one from where ever you are. I figure each sign cost a couple a hundred dollars, installed. I93 is about 100 miles long, that's 500 mileposts, and $100,000 for the lot. Really essential infrastructure that was.
I think we ought to dump federal infrastructure spending, the Highway Trust Fund. And drop the federal gasoline tax that finances it. Let the states decide what infrastucture is worth paying for, and let them raise the money for it. They can hike the state gas tax to raise the necessary money.
Anyhow Trump is talking up an infrastructure spending bill. All the road contractors and the state highway departments love the idea. Trump is thinking there is a chance that he can get the Democrats to vote for it. Faint that chance is. But "bipartisanship" is a many splendored thing.
Far as this taxpayer is concerned, we have plenty of infrastructure. All it needs is routine maintenance, plowing, mowing, culvert cleaning, and the like, and the states can handle that.
And we have enriched a lot of road contractors over the years. I have been driving I93 from Boston to NH ski country since the road first got started. The first asphalt was put down in the 1950's, and they had it finished all the way to Cannon Mt by the late 1960's. It was built to the Interstate highway standards of the 50's and 60's, four lane divided highway, good for 70-80 mph. I drove up and down it for skiing for decades.
Then sometime in the 90's Interstate standards were tightened up. More clearance and longer sight distances required. And so, a lot of contractors got nice jobs blasting back all the rock cuts from the Mass border to Franconia notch, making the cuts wider. Did not make the road wider, just the rock cuts. And there are a LOT of rock cuts going thru the White Mountains The same rock cuts I had been driving thru, with no problems, for 30 years, were now wider, and a lot of contractors got richer, but it didn't make I93 any better for drivers. It did soak up quite a bit of infrastructure money.
And then the infrastructure spending folks decided that we needed huge electric signs, to show helpful messages like "Drive Safely", and "Snowfall expected, Plan ahead". Really essential those messages are. The signs probably cost $100,000 apiece and they put in half a dozen of 'em.
And then more infrastructure signage. We now have big, cute mileposts, every 0.2 miles. I drove I93 for 40 years without cute mile posts so close together that you can see one from where ever you are. I figure each sign cost a couple a hundred dollars, installed. I93 is about 100 miles long, that's 500 mileposts, and $100,000 for the lot. Really essential infrastructure that was.
I think we ought to dump federal infrastructure spending, the Highway Trust Fund. And drop the federal gasoline tax that finances it. Let the states decide what infrastucture is worth paying for, and let them raise the money for it. They can hike the state gas tax to raise the necessary money.
Anyhow Trump is talking up an infrastructure spending bill. All the road contractors and the state highway departments love the idea. Trump is thinking there is a chance that he can get the Democrats to vote for it. Faint that chance is. But "bipartisanship" is a many splendored thing.
Far as this taxpayer is concerned, we have plenty of infrastructure. All it needs is routine maintenance, plowing, mowing, culvert cleaning, and the like, and the states can handle that.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
I wonder why they turned back in mid flight?
United Airlines I believe it was. They got off the ground and four hours into a flight from California to Japan. Someone discovered that one of the passengers on board, was supposed to be on another flight. Apparently some screwup at the airport, the guy showed a valid boarding pass at the gate. Only it was a boarding pass for another flight. So the air crew decided to turn back to California.
I wonder why. Doing that created a full plane load of angry passengers, angry because they had been stuck on the airplane for better than eight hours (four hours out, four hours back) and hadn't gotten any closer to their destination. They could have continued on to Japan and had Japanese air port security deal with the problem after they landed. They could have duct taped the guy if they had thought he was about to detonate a bomb in his underwear. What ever they feared he might do, he had four hours in the air back to California to do it. Pressing on to Japan would have taken about 8 hours, but if you can handle the guy for four hours back to California I don't see why they could not have handled him for eight hours on to Japan.
So much for passenger relations.
I wonder why. Doing that created a full plane load of angry passengers, angry because they had been stuck on the airplane for better than eight hours (four hours out, four hours back) and hadn't gotten any closer to their destination. They could have continued on to Japan and had Japanese air port security deal with the problem after they landed. They could have duct taped the guy if they had thought he was about to detonate a bomb in his underwear. What ever they feared he might do, he had four hours in the air back to California to do it. Pressing on to Japan would have taken about 8 hours, but if you can handle the guy for four hours back to California I don't see why they could not have handled him for eight hours on to Japan.
So much for passenger relations.
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
The Last Jedi 2017
Went to see it at the Jax Jr in Littleton. Good crowd, it's been playing at the Jax for a week or more, but there were a lot of people who either had not seen it, or were seeing it a second time. It was reasonably OK, better that the prequels in the '90's, not really as good as the original three. I have been seeing Star Wars movies for a long time. I saw the first one, the night it opened in Boston back in the '70's, so I'm gonna see this one.
It had a LOT of light sabering, spaceship to spaceship duels, strange CGI creatures, explosions, pretty much constant action. If the movie had a plot, I never understood it. Maybe that is how they cover up the plot holes.
They had Carrie Fisher, who looked older than the hills, and Mark Hamill, who didn't look much younger. Daisy Ridley was back as Rey. She did good, she looked slim, and tough. She had a glare that could stop a clock at fifty meters. Her costume included clam digger pants that did nothing for her looks. The fixed that in the last reel. She didn't get any memorable lines, but she done good. They had three First Order bad guys, a really evil looking emperor, a nasty general, and Kylo Ren, a Darth Vader wannabee, who has a thing for Rey and kept turning up when Rey wasn't expecting him. These guys all dressed in black and did a lot of evil.
The Rebel Alliance has lost a lot of strength in this one. There was a time when the Alliance could muster a fleet of a hundred or more ships for a mission against the Death Star. In this flick the Alliance has been reduced to a single star cruiser, completely surrounded by dozens of First Order star destroyers.
Rey has found Luke Skywalker, who is all sorts of old, and snarly too. At first Luke refuses to help at all. Then somehow, I never did understand just how, Rey converts him to the Alliance cause. Luke gives Rey lessons in the Force which make her scary powerful. In the last reel we see Rey doing stuff even more amazing than the time Yoda hoisted Luke's X-wing fighter out of the swamp purely with the Force.
They introduced some new stuff, including scenes from a hoity toity Las Vegas type casino. They had a lot of fun inventing costumes, makeup and hairstyles for the casino patrons. A much higher class place than that dive on Tatinooe that won't serve their kind in here.
The movie had three story lines running side by side, Rey and Luke Skywalker, Rose (a new character) and Finn, Leia and Poe Dameron (another new character). The movie jumped back and forth between the story lines with abandon, which is maybe why I never understood that plot. They had another one of those camera men who turns the lights out on the set and films in the dark. PITA. And it is LONG, better than 2 1/2 hours.
For dyed in the wool Star Wars fans, like me, it's a must see, For ordinary people, not so much.
It had a LOT of light sabering, spaceship to spaceship duels, strange CGI creatures, explosions, pretty much constant action. If the movie had a plot, I never understood it. Maybe that is how they cover up the plot holes.
They had Carrie Fisher, who looked older than the hills, and Mark Hamill, who didn't look much younger. Daisy Ridley was back as Rey. She did good, she looked slim, and tough. She had a glare that could stop a clock at fifty meters. Her costume included clam digger pants that did nothing for her looks. The fixed that in the last reel. She didn't get any memorable lines, but she done good. They had three First Order bad guys, a really evil looking emperor, a nasty general, and Kylo Ren, a Darth Vader wannabee, who has a thing for Rey and kept turning up when Rey wasn't expecting him. These guys all dressed in black and did a lot of evil.
The Rebel Alliance has lost a lot of strength in this one. There was a time when the Alliance could muster a fleet of a hundred or more ships for a mission against the Death Star. In this flick the Alliance has been reduced to a single star cruiser, completely surrounded by dozens of First Order star destroyers.
Rey has found Luke Skywalker, who is all sorts of old, and snarly too. At first Luke refuses to help at all. Then somehow, I never did understand just how, Rey converts him to the Alliance cause. Luke gives Rey lessons in the Force which make her scary powerful. In the last reel we see Rey doing stuff even more amazing than the time Yoda hoisted Luke's X-wing fighter out of the swamp purely with the Force.
They introduced some new stuff, including scenes from a hoity toity Las Vegas type casino. They had a lot of fun inventing costumes, makeup and hairstyles for the casino patrons. A much higher class place than that dive on Tatinooe that won't serve their kind in here.
The movie had three story lines running side by side, Rey and Luke Skywalker, Rose (a new character) and Finn, Leia and Poe Dameron (another new character). The movie jumped back and forth between the story lines with abandon, which is maybe why I never understood that plot. They had another one of those camera men who turns the lights out on the set and films in the dark. PITA. And it is LONG, better than 2 1/2 hours.
For dyed in the wool Star Wars fans, like me, it's a must see, For ordinary people, not so much.
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Do we need a US Space Corps?
We have an op-ed in the Wall St Journal pushing for one. Me, an old USAF veteran, I'd think my old service would be over joyed, highly motivated, and more than capable to take on any space defense or offense programs. I doubt that we need a another government organization to preform the mission, whatever that mission might turn out to be.
Right now we have a flock of recon satellites, the GPS nav satellites, weather satellites, and a bunch of comm satellites up there. If an enemy shot them down we would miss them, a lot. And shooting down a satellite than travels in a highly predictable orbit, in plain sight of ground radar, is fairly easy, compared to shooting down an ICBM, which we claim we can do now.
Trouble is, there isn't much a satellite can do to defend itself. And there isn't much that a "anti-anti-satellite" weapon could do either. Best I can think of is to use ICBM's to vaporize the launching sites of enemy anti-satellite missiles, which is really really an act of war. Some kind of hi tech shoot out above the atmosphere might get passed off as a trivial border incident, but nuclear weapons detonating on your soil cannot be.
So despite the need for defending our satellite fleet, I don't see what anyone, a hypothetical Space Corps, or the good old USAF can do about it, given today's, or even tomorrow's, technology.
Right now we have a flock of recon satellites, the GPS nav satellites, weather satellites, and a bunch of comm satellites up there. If an enemy shot them down we would miss them, a lot. And shooting down a satellite than travels in a highly predictable orbit, in plain sight of ground radar, is fairly easy, compared to shooting down an ICBM, which we claim we can do now.
Trouble is, there isn't much a satellite can do to defend itself. And there isn't much that a "anti-anti-satellite" weapon could do either. Best I can think of is to use ICBM's to vaporize the launching sites of enemy anti-satellite missiles, which is really really an act of war. Some kind of hi tech shoot out above the atmosphere might get passed off as a trivial border incident, but nuclear weapons detonating on your soil cannot be.
So despite the need for defending our satellite fleet, I don't see what anyone, a hypothetical Space Corps, or the good old USAF can do about it, given today's, or even tomorrow's, technology.
The US must be doing something right
Chinese "birth tourists" are going to Saipan to give birth on US soil to give their children US citizen ship. Saipan is popular because we allow visa free entry for Chinese and Russian citizens, since 2009. This can cost a Chinese family as much as $50,000 for hospital and doctors fees, air fare, and bribes.
I'm impressed that Chinese families value US citizenship for their children that much. We must be doing something right here in the USA.
I'm impressed that Chinese families value US citizenship for their children that much. We must be doing something right here in the USA.
Saturday, December 23, 2017
Merry Christmas to all
It's gonna be a white Christmas up here. We have snow on the ground, just got 8 more inches yesterday, and another 8 inches is forecast for Christmas day.
Friday, December 22, 2017
Bitcoin bubble bursting
According to Business Insider, bitcoin has dropped to $11,000 today, down from $19,000 a few days ago. This ought to be fun to watch.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Education for STEM subjects
Wall St Journal ran a op-ed about this yesterday. The authors criticized American schools up one side and down the other. But, their complaints didn't resonate with me. The trashed both science and mathematics education for being "fifty years out of date". They trashed computer science for just teaching software and not teaching anything about the electronics that make the CPUs tick. And they plumped for teaching "discrete mathematics" starting in sixth grade.
The "fifty year old" slam doesn't mean much to me. Isaac Newton laid out the foundations of physics 400 years ago. They taught it to me in high school and I found it very useful through out a long career in electrical engineering. I know the modern physics, quantum mechanics and Einstein, but most practical problems in the real world can be solved with plain old fashioned Newtonian physics. Every kid ought to learn them.
Knowing how computers work inside at the transistor level is useful, especially if you are going to design computers, but software is a large field, employs a lot more people that hardware design, and I know a lot of very decent programmers who have zero knowledge beyond software.
They also push for teaching "discrete mathematics" ,a new term to me. Boolean algebra is what we use for digital design, but unless the student knows ordinary algebra, Boolean algebra won't mean much to them.
My prescription for better education is simple. Merely require all high school students to take one year of physics, a year of chemistry, and a year of biology. Even if the student has no desire to take a STEM major in college, they need some basic science to understand our increasingly scientific world.
Plus, it should be the duty of all teachers to make sure high school freshmen under stand that they have to take the right mathematics in high school if they want to get into STEM majors in college. All the STEM majors require integral calculus, and many require differential calculus and transform methods. If the student isn't ready to take integral calculus freshman year in college, he is out. All the STEM courses have calculus as a prerequisite. You have to get your calculus in freshman year so you can take the STEM courses sophomore year. Which means the student needs to have algebra, geometry,and trigonometry under his/her belt during high school. The integral calculus course won't mean anything if you don't have the prerequisites.
The "fifty year old" slam doesn't mean much to me. Isaac Newton laid out the foundations of physics 400 years ago. They taught it to me in high school and I found it very useful through out a long career in electrical engineering. I know the modern physics, quantum mechanics and Einstein, but most practical problems in the real world can be solved with plain old fashioned Newtonian physics. Every kid ought to learn them.
Knowing how computers work inside at the transistor level is useful, especially if you are going to design computers, but software is a large field, employs a lot more people that hardware design, and I know a lot of very decent programmers who have zero knowledge beyond software.
They also push for teaching "discrete mathematics" ,a new term to me. Boolean algebra is what we use for digital design, but unless the student knows ordinary algebra, Boolean algebra won't mean much to them.
My prescription for better education is simple. Merely require all high school students to take one year of physics, a year of chemistry, and a year of biology. Even if the student has no desire to take a STEM major in college, they need some basic science to understand our increasingly scientific world.
Plus, it should be the duty of all teachers to make sure high school freshmen under stand that they have to take the right mathematics in high school if they want to get into STEM majors in college. All the STEM majors require integral calculus, and many require differential calculus and transform methods. If the student isn't ready to take integral calculus freshman year in college, he is out. All the STEM courses have calculus as a prerequisite. You have to get your calculus in freshman year so you can take the STEM courses sophomore year. Which means the student needs to have algebra, geometry,and trigonometry under his/her belt during high school. The integral calculus course won't mean anything if you don't have the prerequisites.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Yesterday a 79 mph curve, today it's 30 mph
Yesterday the newsies were saying the Amtrak train was going 81 mph into a 79 mph curve. This morning NHPR is reporting the curve was posted for 30 mph. Either the curve did a lotta shrinking over night (unlikely) or yesterday's newsies got it wrong. If the Amtrak train was doing 80 mph thru a 30 mph curve, that pretty much explains how the train came off the track.
Some questions the newsies are too ignorant to ask.
The "new" line the train was operating on. How new? Most railroad right of ways had track laid on them back in the 1800's. Was this a brand new right of way, bulldozed out last year? Or was it an old line brought back into service? How many years ago was the track laid? What kind of ties were used? Prestressed concrete ( which lasts forever) or traditional cresoted wood (which rots out over the years)? Amtrak will run passenger trains over really crummy track. At White River Junction VT, the wooden ties are so soft and rotten that you can pluck the spikes out with your fingers, but Amtrak runs over it. What shape was the track in, really?
If the curve was really a 30 mph curve, how was the train crew supposed to know? Especially as this was the inaugural (very first) run. Were there trackside signs like on the highway. If so were the signs actually in place? If the crew was supposed to look in their time table, or look at some electronic device in the cab, how were they expected to know when they approached this tricky curve? It was dark, and this crew had never been over the line before.
It's been reported that $181 million was spent bringing this line into service. For $181 million I would expect them to straighten out sharp and dangerous curves. Just what was all that money spent on? Who was the contractor, and what kind of experience did they have in building railroad lines?
Some questions the newsies are too ignorant to ask.
The "new" line the train was operating on. How new? Most railroad right of ways had track laid on them back in the 1800's. Was this a brand new right of way, bulldozed out last year? Or was it an old line brought back into service? How many years ago was the track laid? What kind of ties were used? Prestressed concrete ( which lasts forever) or traditional cresoted wood (which rots out over the years)? Amtrak will run passenger trains over really crummy track. At White River Junction VT, the wooden ties are so soft and rotten that you can pluck the spikes out with your fingers, but Amtrak runs over it. What shape was the track in, really?
If the curve was really a 30 mph curve, how was the train crew supposed to know? Especially as this was the inaugural (very first) run. Were there trackside signs like on the highway. If so were the signs actually in place? If the crew was supposed to look in their time table, or look at some electronic device in the cab, how were they expected to know when they approached this tricky curve? It was dark, and this crew had never been over the line before.
It's been reported that $181 million was spent bringing this line into service. For $181 million I would expect them to straighten out sharp and dangerous curves. Just what was all that money spent on? Who was the contractor, and what kind of experience did they have in building railroad lines?
Monday, December 18, 2017
$22 million for a UFO study??
The newsies have been talking this one up. The Air Force had a UFO project going with a $22 million budget. This ain't news. The Air Force has had UFO studies going since 1948 (Project Blue Book). There was the Condon report in the 1970's. UFO's were first mentioned in the public press in 1947, so a 1948 Project Blue Book is getting right with the times.
And, when people see UFO's they tend to telephone someone, and someone is usually the Air Force. Or other agencies refer callers to the Air Force. And a lot of people see UFO's. I saw one myself years and years ago in Franconia Notch NH. For that matter I was on the flightline in Duluth MI the night we scrambled nuclear armed jet interceptors against a UFO that showed up on SAGE radar. So there are a lot of reports, and the Air Force, as a good bureaucratic organization, feels a duty to do something with all those reports, if only to file them.
So I don't find the latest $22 million UFO study to be unusual. The Air Force has been doing these studies for better than 65 years.
And, when people see UFO's they tend to telephone someone, and someone is usually the Air Force. Or other agencies refer callers to the Air Force. And a lot of people see UFO's. I saw one myself years and years ago in Franconia Notch NH. For that matter I was on the flightline in Duluth MI the night we scrambled nuclear armed jet interceptors against a UFO that showed up on SAGE radar. So there are a lot of reports, and the Air Force, as a good bureaucratic organization, feels a duty to do something with all those reports, if only to file them.
So I don't find the latest $22 million UFO study to be unusual. The Air Force has been doing these studies for better than 65 years.
In the Air Force we always had backup generators
Apparently the civilians at Atlanta airport did not. When their power went out, they shut down, closed the field for landings and takeoffs. That's not right. There could have been an airliner low on fuel needing to land right now, before the tanks went dry. It could have been after dark with airliners on final approach, following the runway lights, which suddenly go dark
The Air Force always had engine driven generators on base, enough to run essential stuff, the runway lights, the tower and its radios, the instrument landing system (ILS), the ground controlled approach (GCA) radar, the beacon, the nav aids, TACAN and VOR, and some flight line lighting. We could fly even with a power outage.
I think the civilian airports ought to be required to do the same. Having a huge airport go dark and shut down with out warning is dangerous.
The Air Force always had engine driven generators on base, enough to run essential stuff, the runway lights, the tower and its radios, the instrument landing system (ILS), the ground controlled approach (GCA) radar, the beacon, the nav aids, TACAN and VOR, and some flight line lighting. We could fly even with a power outage.
I think the civilian airports ought to be required to do the same. Having a huge airport go dark and shut down with out warning is dangerous.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Trump Tax plan hits "the rich"
All though the top rate ($500,000 and up) drops from 39.6% to 37%, the next rate, 35% used to start at $425,000. Under the Trump tax plan, you hit the 35% bracket at $200,000. In short a whole bunch of reasonable well off taxpayers got boosted up into the 35% bracket, whereas under current law, they paid 32%. The really rich save 2.6% but the quite well off get hit for 3% more.
The middle class ($38,701 to $93,701) get a 3% to 4% cut.
This is just looking at rates, I did not figure in the effects of doubling the standard deduction.
The middle class ($38,701 to $93,701) get a 3% to 4% cut.
This is just looking at rates, I did not figure in the effects of doubling the standard deduction.
Saturday, December 16, 2017
How to tell an advanced economy when you see one
Simple. Advanced economies can export automobiles to the United States. All others have to import cars from the few advanced economies that can make them. This year only Germany, Japan, and South Korea make the cut. Over the years the British, the French, and the Italians dropped out of the US car market. The Chinese are clearly thinking about getting into the US market but they are not here, yet.
That's a remarkably small list. Nice thing is that they are all three solid US allies (now).
The British had a nice US export business in sports cars in the '40s and '50s. Road and Track magazine was started for sports car owners, owning mostly Austin Healey, Jaguar, MG, Morgan, and Triumph sports cars. The imported sports car business finally began to fade in the '70s partly due to competition from Ford Mustangs, and partly due to the truly awful reputation for flakiness that British quality control (or lack of it) created. "Lucas, Prince of Darkness" was the slam directed at British electrical systems (all built by Lucas). The Italians had the same problem, Fiat was said to stand for "Fix it Again Tony". The French tried to sell the Citroen DS-19, a distinctively styled car, very low, tail lights mounted on the roof, and an enormously complex hydraulic system that was virtually unrepairable. Later they tried with Peugeot sedans. I can remember car pooling out to Raytheon with a guy who drove a Peugeot. In the winter he had to open the hood, remove some strange engine part and bring it inside to keep it warm so the car would start at 5 PM.
That's a remarkably small list. Nice thing is that they are all three solid US allies (now).
The British had a nice US export business in sports cars in the '40s and '50s. Road and Track magazine was started for sports car owners, owning mostly Austin Healey, Jaguar, MG, Morgan, and Triumph sports cars. The imported sports car business finally began to fade in the '70s partly due to competition from Ford Mustangs, and partly due to the truly awful reputation for flakiness that British quality control (or lack of it) created. "Lucas, Prince of Darkness" was the slam directed at British electrical systems (all built by Lucas). The Italians had the same problem, Fiat was said to stand for "Fix it Again Tony". The French tried to sell the Citroen DS-19, a distinctively styled car, very low, tail lights mounted on the roof, and an enormously complex hydraulic system that was virtually unrepairable. Later they tried with Peugeot sedans. I can remember car pooling out to Raytheon with a guy who drove a Peugeot. In the winter he had to open the hood, remove some strange engine part and bring it inside to keep it warm so the car would start at 5 PM.
Friday, December 15, 2017
Flying a V2 rocket out of wartime Poland
This story comes from Antony Beevor's "The Second World War". The Polish resistance found a V2 rocket that had crashed in the Polish marshes. The resistance got to the V2 before the Germans, took it apart and spirited it away. The resistance contacted their Allied support in Britain, and a specially modified C47 transport was flown into Poland to fly the V2 rocket back to England for examination by Allied scientists.
That must have been one awful hairy flight. From Britain to Poland was just about the limit of a Gooney bird's range, even with extra fuel tanks. The flight path either had to cross Germany, which was crawling with fighters and antiaircraft guns, or fly around Germany, presumable over the Baltic sea. Find a landing strip, big enough for a C47, in the dark, with no electronic navigation aids. Then they had to get the V2 rocket inside the Gooney bird, a tight squeeze. And they had to find gasoline in Nazi occupied Poland to refuel the Gooney bird for the return trip. And get off the ground before the Germans arrived to arrest them all.
All in all, flying a B17 to Schweinfurt, or a B24 to Ploesti would be less dangerous.
That must have been one awful hairy flight. From Britain to Poland was just about the limit of a Gooney bird's range, even with extra fuel tanks. The flight path either had to cross Germany, which was crawling with fighters and antiaircraft guns, or fly around Germany, presumable over the Baltic sea. Find a landing strip, big enough for a C47, in the dark, with no electronic navigation aids. Then they had to get the V2 rocket inside the Gooney bird, a tight squeeze. And they had to find gasoline in Nazi occupied Poland to refuel the Gooney bird for the return trip. And get off the ground before the Germans arrived to arrest them all.
All in all, flying a B17 to Schweinfurt, or a B24 to Ploesti would be less dangerous.
Chromebooks for children
Article in the Wall St. Journal yesterday. What sort of computer to get for a 12 year old. Answer: a Chromebook. Looks like a laptop, does NOT run Windows, and costs $300-$400.
Not cheap. I bought a brand new HP Pavilion laptop running Windows down at Staples a little while ago for $300.
And for a 12 year old? I can remember doing a lot of stuff when I was 12, all of it a lot cooler than websurfing on a laptop. Fishing, skiing, bicycling, electric trains, building tree houses, playing guns with the neighborhood kids, toy soldiers, plastic models, wood working in Dad's shop, hiking, shooting bow and arrow...
Not cheap. I bought a brand new HP Pavilion laptop running Windows down at Staples a little while ago for $300.
And for a 12 year old? I can remember doing a lot of stuff when I was 12, all of it a lot cooler than websurfing on a laptop. Fishing, skiing, bicycling, electric trains, building tree houses, playing guns with the neighborhood kids, toy soldiers, plastic models, wood working in Dad's shop, hiking, shooting bow and arrow...
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Cops should be fair minded and open minded.
This FBI guy, Peter Strzok, clearly is not. And he is a cop. The text messages between him and his girl friend, lawyer Lisa Page show hatred, minds made up, and a desire to influence elections, and possible thoughts of doing a political assassination, which no cop ought to do.
How did this turkey get to be a senior FBI guy? He was senior enough to be in on interviewing Hillary about that email server, senior enough to be loaned out to the Mueller "investigation". He's been at the FBI for years. Surely FBI does yearly performance reports like we do in the armed services? Over all those years nobody mentioned that Peter Strzok was a deep left screwball? And they promoted him?
And there are enough deep lefties at the Bureau for Peter to hook up with a lawyer who shares his warped views? God help anyone that lawyer prosecutes.
The only difference between the police force of a democracy and a Gestapo is the quality of the agents. Clearly Peter Strzok, and his girlfriend lawyer are the dregs. Both of them ought to be fired, ASAP.
How did this turkey get to be a senior FBI guy? He was senior enough to be in on interviewing Hillary about that email server, senior enough to be loaned out to the Mueller "investigation". He's been at the FBI for years. Surely FBI does yearly performance reports like we do in the armed services? Over all those years nobody mentioned that Peter Strzok was a deep left screwball? And they promoted him?
And there are enough deep lefties at the Bureau for Peter to hook up with a lawyer who shares his warped views? God help anyone that lawyer prosecutes.
The only difference between the police force of a democracy and a Gestapo is the quality of the agents. Clearly Peter Strzok, and his girlfriend lawyer are the dregs. Both of them ought to be fired, ASAP.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Most comments on proposed regulations are fake
Front page of today's Wall St Journal. For example, a comment to the FCC opposing net neutrality was filed by a woman who died twelve years ago. The Journal mailed queries to the authors of a million comments. 7800 queries bounced back due to bad email addresses. Of the queries that obtained a reply, 72% of the replies denied ever having sent in the comment. Plus, looking at the comments received, the bulk of them are copies of each other.
The conclusion is that most of the comments are generated by 'bots, computer programs that just add false addresses and send the same message over and over again. To the point that for the agency to read these comments and act upon them is folly.
The conclusion is that most of the comments are generated by 'bots, computer programs that just add false addresses and send the same message over and over again. To the point that for the agency to read these comments and act upon them is folly.
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
The Roy Moore election is on today.
And the newsies are commenting about it. But, they aren't saying anything about turnout at the polls. Is it heavy? or light? Polls don't close for hours, and they don't do exit polling like they used to so we won't know who won until late this evening or even until Wednesday.
Chain immigration and immigration lotteries?
That's what we are hearing about the Bangladeshi immigrant who tried to bomb the New York subway yesterday. Both of these concepts are new to me. I never heard of either of them before yesterday. Apparently we are issuing green cards just cause someone has a relative already in the US. And the lottery who knows how that works.
Both of these programs are unfair and wrong.
Immigration to the US is highly prized all over the world. Everyone would like to move to the US. Nobody wants to move to Venezuela, Cuba, or Russia. We ought to take advantage of this and accept immigrants who will become loyal and valuable citizens.
We can only accept so many immigrants per year, lest they swamp the country. I submit that we can handle immigration equal to say 1% of the present population. Since US population is about 330 million, that allows 3.3 million immigrants per year. I'm thinking we have ten times that many applicants.
So, we set up a point system, each applicant gets so many points for qualities we deem desirable. Like points for holding a doctorate in the hard sciences, points for speaking, reading, and writing English. points for being of working age. Points for assisting the US armed forces. Points for knowing a trade, publishing a book, points for engineering degrees, points for knowing how to program computers, points for being married, points for having children, plus a whole bunch more desirable and useful skills and accomplishments. Subtract points for a criminal record, or membership in ISIS and the like. Some appointed committee can have a wonderful time setting up the point system.
Then we assign a score to every applicant, and admit the top scoring 3.3 million applicants. We tell the rest of them to try again next year.
That's fair. And it will give us a lot of good decent citizens and fewer subway bombers.
Both of these programs are unfair and wrong.
Immigration to the US is highly prized all over the world. Everyone would like to move to the US. Nobody wants to move to Venezuela, Cuba, or Russia. We ought to take advantage of this and accept immigrants who will become loyal and valuable citizens.
We can only accept so many immigrants per year, lest they swamp the country. I submit that we can handle immigration equal to say 1% of the present population. Since US population is about 330 million, that allows 3.3 million immigrants per year. I'm thinking we have ten times that many applicants.
So, we set up a point system, each applicant gets so many points for qualities we deem desirable. Like points for holding a doctorate in the hard sciences, points for speaking, reading, and writing English. points for being of working age. Points for assisting the US armed forces. Points for knowing a trade, publishing a book, points for engineering degrees, points for knowing how to program computers, points for being married, points for having children, plus a whole bunch more desirable and useful skills and accomplishments. Subtract points for a criminal record, or membership in ISIS and the like. Some appointed committee can have a wonderful time setting up the point system.
Then we assign a score to every applicant, and admit the top scoring 3.3 million applicants. We tell the rest of them to try again next year.
That's fair. And it will give us a lot of good decent citizens and fewer subway bombers.
Monday, December 11, 2017
I don't envy Alabama voters
They have a lesser of two evils choice ahead of them. Vote for Republican Roy Moore, despite believable reports of dating underage or really young teen age girls while in his 30's. The accusations are 40 years old, but there are a number of them. Plus Moore has made some very hard right statements on the social wedge issues.
Or vote for Democrat Jones, who is pro abortion, and very left, especially for a conservative state like Alabama. Doing so would knock the Republican majority in the Senate down to just one, permitting any senator to kill anything just 'cause he feels like it. It would seriously weaken the Trump administration. Something that a lot of Alabama voters don't want to do.
There has been talk of a a write in campaign for someone I never heard of before. I doubt that will go anywhere.
We will know how it turns out by Wednesday. The polls are calling it for Moore by a razor thin margin of a couple of percent. It will be interesting to see if the pollsters got it right this time. They have blown predictions several times in the recent past, especially the Trump Hillary contest.
Or vote for Democrat Jones, who is pro abortion, and very left, especially for a conservative state like Alabama. Doing so would knock the Republican majority in the Senate down to just one, permitting any senator to kill anything just 'cause he feels like it. It would seriously weaken the Trump administration. Something that a lot of Alabama voters don't want to do.
There has been talk of a a write in campaign for someone I never heard of before. I doubt that will go anywhere.
We will know how it turns out by Wednesday. The polls are calling it for Moore by a razor thin margin of a couple of percent. It will be interesting to see if the pollsters got it right this time. They have blown predictions several times in the recent past, especially the Trump Hillary contest.
Friday, December 8, 2017
It only takes ONE scumbag
To put an organization's reputation into the toilet. In the case of the FBI, Comey was that one scumbag. He tried to influence the 2016 election by first declaring that Clinton's email server scandal was a non issue, and not prosecutable. Then a few weeks later, when Anthony Weiner's laptop, loaded with Hillary emails, turned up, he reversed himself and declared the Hillary investigation was back on. After that, everyone knew the FBI was trying to tip the election. And all the thousands of decent, loyal, hardworking FBI agents get tarred with the same brush. They are all still good decent agents, but Comey has made us taxpayers suspect them all.
For those of you looking for reasons to trash Obama, his appointment of Comey to run the FBI is a big one.
For those of you looking for reasons to trash Obama, his appointment of Comey to run the FBI is a big one.
Thursday, December 7, 2017
Raytheon and Analog Devices make WSJ 250 best managed companies
Interesting and kind cool. I worked at Raytheon, Equipment Division in Wayland in the '70s and at Analog Devices in Norwood in the '90s. Cool to see that places I used to work are considered well managed by the Wall St Journal. I was a little disappointed that Bernie Gordon's Analogic didn't make the list. I worked for Bernie for quite a few years, he was a difficult and demanding boss, but he did know what he was doing.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
To Jerusalem
Looks like Trump is going to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The US Congress voted to do this some years ago.
On the Pro side, the Israelis love the idea. A lot of US citizens are in favor.
On the Con side, all the Arab countries, who have never accepted Israel, are against it. It will surely make diplomacy with Arab regimes more difficult in the future.
We could punt on the idea, yet again. The Israelis will be disappointed, but they are on our side no matter what. On the other hand, the Arabs are difficult to deal with no matter what. Maybe moving the embassy to Jerusalem will send them a message.
This looks like a judgement call to me. I don't have any experience in the Middle East, so I will defer my judgement to those who know the area better.
On the Pro side, the Israelis love the idea. A lot of US citizens are in favor.
On the Con side, all the Arab countries, who have never accepted Israel, are against it. It will surely make diplomacy with Arab regimes more difficult in the future.
We could punt on the idea, yet again. The Israelis will be disappointed, but they are on our side no matter what. On the other hand, the Arabs are difficult to deal with no matter what. Maybe moving the embassy to Jerusalem will send them a message.
This looks like a judgement call to me. I don't have any experience in the Middle East, so I will defer my judgement to those who know the area better.
Gobble-de-gook overload
According to the Wall St Journal writing about the tax bill currently in a House Senate reconciliation hassle, "It appears to prohibit mortgage-interest deductions for all second homes."
Appears??? This is a law. Things in law don't "appear". They are either legal or illegal. Sounds like the lawyers have laid on the legal gobble-de-gook so thick that nobody can understand it.
Appears??? This is a law. Things in law don't "appear". They are either legal or illegal. Sounds like the lawyers have laid on the legal gobble-de-gook so thick that nobody can understand it.
Tuesday, December 5, 2017
DACA
Delayed Action for Child something or other. Bad acronym. We are talking about people who were brought into America as children, who have grown up in America, and are still illegal immigrants pursued by Mr. Migra.
I have a lot of sympathy for these people. I'm willing to cut them a lot of slack. Those that have served in the armed forces ought to get citizenship right then and there. Those who have graduated high school and/or college, are gainfully employed, are paying taxes and are staying out of trouble with the law, we ought to let them stay in the country, and apply for citizenship. I'm sure plenty of other Americans agree with me.
It's a powerful issue. Congress ought to deal with it by passing a law. And, that law ought to stand on its own, for an up or down roll call vote so we voters can see where our Congress critters stand on the issue.
Right now they are talking about hitching a DACA bill onto a "must pass" bill like extending the federal budget. The idea being, that the must pass bill will drag the less popular DACA bill thru and offer cover to Congress critters who can say "I had to vote to pass the budget lest the government shut down"
I have a lot of sympathy for these people. I'm willing to cut them a lot of slack. Those that have served in the armed forces ought to get citizenship right then and there. Those who have graduated high school and/or college, are gainfully employed, are paying taxes and are staying out of trouble with the law, we ought to let them stay in the country, and apply for citizenship. I'm sure plenty of other Americans agree with me.
It's a powerful issue. Congress ought to deal with it by passing a law. And, that law ought to stand on its own, for an up or down roll call vote so we voters can see where our Congress critters stand on the issue.
Right now they are talking about hitching a DACA bill onto a "must pass" bill like extending the federal budget. The idea being, that the must pass bill will drag the less popular DACA bill thru and offer cover to Congress critters who can say "I had to vote to pass the budget lest the government shut down"
Monday, December 4, 2017
The Euro's are still bailing out the Greeks.
Small piece in the Wall St Journal today. The Greeks and the Euro's have reached a "preliminary agreement" on the austerity measures the Greeks must adopt in order to qualify for E5 billion handout next month. The Euro's keep insisting upon reduction of Greek government workers, and pension payments, and better tax collection. At one time 25% of the population of Greece was drawing pay from the Greek government. And humongous numbers of people were drawing pensions. Every time the Greeks make a move, or even a whisper in the papers, about accepting Euro austerity demands, they get riots in the streets.
The E5 billion is down from the old days. In past years the Greek bailouts were much higher, say E50 billion. The Euros think the money will let the Greeks make the payments due on Euro bonds and loans. Let's hope that works out. The Greeks are having trouble making payroll, and so Euro bail out money might be diverted into other things.
We think the Euro's are doing the handouts to prevent the Greeks from defaulting on their loans, which would impose serious losses on the Euro banks stupid enough to still be holding any Greek debt. So the idea is to dole out money to the Greeks to use to pay off their debts.
Smarter would be to tell the Greeks to suck it up. No more bailouts. Go ahead and default. You won't be able to borrow a plugged nickel anywhere in the world, and you will have to balance your budget.
Far as I can see, the bailouts just allow the Greeks to spend other people's money for no good reason.
The E5 billion is down from the old days. In past years the Greek bailouts were much higher, say E50 billion. The Euros think the money will let the Greeks make the payments due on Euro bonds and loans. Let's hope that works out. The Greeks are having trouble making payroll, and so Euro bail out money might be diverted into other things.
We think the Euro's are doing the handouts to prevent the Greeks from defaulting on their loans, which would impose serious losses on the Euro banks stupid enough to still be holding any Greek debt. So the idea is to dole out money to the Greeks to use to pay off their debts.
Smarter would be to tell the Greeks to suck it up. No more bailouts. Go ahead and default. You won't be able to borrow a plugged nickel anywhere in the world, and you will have to balance your budget.
Far as I can see, the bailouts just allow the Greeks to spend other people's money for no good reason.
Sunday, December 3, 2017
How far will we go to stop the NORKs?
From getting nukes that is. They are really really close to having nuclear tipped missiles that can reach the US. The last test flight showed enough range, and then some, to hit Washington and Boston. There are reports that the missile broke up on reentry, but they ought to be able to fix that. Then they need to build a nuke small enough to fit on the rocket, a nose cone that can withstand reentry, and a reliable fuse. I don't think any of these will take very long to do. The NORKs could have it all together within a year. After that, Katy bar the door.
The NORKs want missiles to keep us from doing regime change on them, the way we did on Saddam Hussein. As it is, they have enough conventional artillery within range of Seoul to deter damn near anyone, with nukes in their hands, they figure to deter even us.
And the NORKs are dead set on getting nukes. I cannot imagine Rocket Man backing off his nuclear program for anything less than the Chinese cutting off all trade with him. And the Chinese clearly don't want to do this, they like having the NORKs around as a buffer state, and as a semi tame attack dog to let out to bite the Americans every so often.
We could slap a good stiff trade killing tariff on Chinese exports to the US. That would hurt China, and it might get them to cut off the NORKs. The Chinese would not like it but we could do it. If we have the stones. Nobody knows if Trump would do this, and if the country and the Congress would back him up if he tried it. I have not seen any Gallup polling on this subject.
Or we could try straight forward military action, air strikes followed with ground forces. This amounts to starting up the Korean War all over again. Last time was bad. This time would probably be just as bad. And the South Koreans would take a lot of damage and casualties, something they certainly are not happy about.
Or we could do the paper tiger act, keep on snarling at the NORKs but not actually do anything. This would probably cause the Japanese, the South Koreans, and maybe even Viet Nam and Taiwan to go for their own nukes. Which is bad, but at least these countries are all US allies or friends. It would shake up the Chinese though.
The NORKs want missiles to keep us from doing regime change on them, the way we did on Saddam Hussein. As it is, they have enough conventional artillery within range of Seoul to deter damn near anyone, with nukes in their hands, they figure to deter even us.
And the NORKs are dead set on getting nukes. I cannot imagine Rocket Man backing off his nuclear program for anything less than the Chinese cutting off all trade with him. And the Chinese clearly don't want to do this, they like having the NORKs around as a buffer state, and as a semi tame attack dog to let out to bite the Americans every so often.
We could slap a good stiff trade killing tariff on Chinese exports to the US. That would hurt China, and it might get them to cut off the NORKs. The Chinese would not like it but we could do it. If we have the stones. Nobody knows if Trump would do this, and if the country and the Congress would back him up if he tried it. I have not seen any Gallup polling on this subject.
Or we could try straight forward military action, air strikes followed with ground forces. This amounts to starting up the Korean War all over again. Last time was bad. This time would probably be just as bad. And the South Koreans would take a lot of damage and casualties, something they certainly are not happy about.
Or we could do the paper tiger act, keep on snarling at the NORKs but not actually do anything. This would probably cause the Japanese, the South Koreans, and maybe even Viet Nam and Taiwan to go for their own nukes. Which is bad, but at least these countries are all US allies or friends. It would shake up the Chinese though.
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