US Senate votes to have a vote on Kavanaugh

Which is plain stalling, Senate style.  They should not be voting to take a vote.  That is a pure waste of time, and offers senators a way to vote both yes and no to confuse their constituents.  Senate ought to just have a vote on confirming Kavanaugh, and have it right now, not tomorrow. 

Representatives should represent their districts

The ancient Greeks invented democracy, some 2500 years ago.  They did direct democracy, all the citizens gathered in the Agora and voted on such issues as going to war over Corcyra (which kicked off the Peloponnesian War) or the disastrous expedition to conquer Syracuse on Sicily.   Direct democracy is great in principle, but it doesn't scale well (you cannot gather all the citizens of the Roman empire together in one place) and is liable to make poor (disastrous) decisions.
   The British invented representative democracy with the institution of Parliament.  Each member of Parliament represented all the British subjects of his district.  We Americans picked up the idea in colonial times.  All the thirteen colonies had representative legislatures by the time of the revolution.  So long as the representatives are honest, and truly represent their districts it is a fair system.  If the chosen representatives fail to vote in accordance with their district's wishes, it is a corrupt system.
   I am running for a seat in the New Hampshire senate.  Should I be elected, I will vote the way my district wants, and not the way I may want.  As a senator, my duty and my honor call for me to truly represent my district, rather than my personal desires.  

More features that Detroit should offer

My 2005 Buick has a feature.  After dark, it keeps the headlights on long enough for you to reach your front door.  At least that's what it is supposed to do.  In real life it either turns the headlights off before you even get out of the car, or it leaves them on too long, causing me to stand out in the rain, watching, to make sure the car does actually turn the headlights off before it runs down the battery.  They ought to reprogram the computer so that the headlight timeout does not start until the last car door is closed.  This way I could take the groceries out of the back seat and still have some light to climb the front steps and find my door key. 
  Second feature, a fold down back seat.  Folded down, you could fit long stuff like skis and two by fours in from the trunk lid and get them all the way inside the car, and close and latch the trunk lid. 

How the Brits won the Battle of Britain

The time is 1940, early in WWII.  The Germans have just crushed the French, now the Third Reich owns all of Western Europe, except Britain.  The Brits managed to get the bulk of their army back from Belgium at Dunkirk.  They evacuated better than 300,000 men.  But they had to abandon all the army's heavy stuff, tanks, artillery, trucks, ammunition, supplies, yuge  amounts of stuff.  When Operation Dynamo ended, the British army, although back in England, was in no condition to fight. 
   If Hitler had managed to get even a small army across the channel and onto English soil, he would have owned the place.  The Channel is only 20 some miles wide at Dover and Pas de Calais.  Trouble is, the Channel is deep enough to float real warships, and the Brits had plenty of them.  If the Germans had loaded the troops onto Rhine River barges and attempted a crossing, the British would have steamed up along side with destroyers, and a few rounds would put the river barge and all its troops on the bottom.  At this time the Germans had only a hand full warships, less than a tenth of what the Royal Navy had. 
   Air power, the Luftwaffe, could have countered the Royal Navy.  To do this, the Germans had to wipe out the RAF.  They could not  sink or drive off the Royal Navy when they had Spitfires on their tails.  And so, the Luftwaffe attacked all that late summer and early fall of 1940.  Both sides had good pilots and good planes, qualitywise it was a draw between them.  The Germans had somewhat more aircraft but not a decisive margin.
    Fighter units can only generate so many sorties a day.  For instance my fighter wing in the Viet Nam war could do about 110 sorties a day from an assigned strength of 90 F105 Thunderchief fighter bombers.  We would launch 60 aircraft on the morning strike which got off at first light.  They would return around 11 AM.  We had until 2 PM to turn as many birds as possible , finish fixing broken birds from yesterday, and put together the afternoon strike of 60 aircraft.  I dare say RAF fighter squadrons could do a little better, the sorties being shorted and the aircraft had less high tech stuff to break and demand fixing.  (No doppler, no toss bomb computer, no radar, no TACAN, no gyro compass)  But I am sure they had a fixed number of sorties they could generate in a day. 
   The battle winning weapon the Brits had was radar, and a command and control system (the sector centers they were called)  that guaranteed that nearly all RAF fighter sorties would engage the enemy.  No sorties wasted patrolling, looking for the enemy, few or no sorties wasted when the enemy was not found.  Each sortie flow under radar control would find the enemy and score some kills.  This gave the RAF the winning edge in the summer of 1940. 

Communism is Different from Socialism.

So said NHPR today.  A woman, (I think she was the moderator on the talk show) said repeatedly and with emphasis that Communism was not the same as Socialism.  Talking about classical socialism and communism, as was the breed up thru the 1950's, there was little difference.  Both parties read their Karl Marx and believed in government ownership of the means of production, so that government could set everyone's wages to the same low level. Eliminate "wage disparity" at a stroke.  And set up a command economy where the politbureau sets production targets for everything.  And collectivise farming.  The only different between Communists and Socialists was how the party would obtain the power to push thru their program.  Communists believed in seizing power thru revolution and force of arms.  Socialists advocated political action and the ballot box.  Once in power there wasn't much difference from the viewpoint of citizens, kulaks, business people, and nearly everybody else. 
   Today's "democratic socialism"  is probably a little different.  I doubt that many of them have read their Marx, know much about socialism's history, and their party platform is "more free stuff".  None of them talk about how all that free stuff will be paid for.  At least very few of them claim to be Communists, the decades long Cold War blackened the name of Communism too much for anyone to claim it today.
   Anyhow I am glad that tax payer funded NHPR feels there is a critical and important different between Communism and Socialism.

Can we trust the FBI anymore?

An organization run by James Coomey, with Peter Strvok, Lisa Page, Andy whats-his-face and who knows what other men of questionable judgement in charge.  An outfit that stonewalls the US Congress.  Can this outfit conduct a reasonable investigation of the hottest potato in DC, the Dr Basely Ford story? 

The crankshaft is the heaviest part of a piston engine

Which is why V8s and V6s are so popular for car engines.  A V engine crank shaft is only one half as long and half as heavy as a straight 8 or straight 6 engine of the same displacement  (size).  Back before the jets took over, there were two kinds of aircraft piston engines.  There was the radial engine with the cylinders arranged in a circle.  This design offered the shortest possible crankshaft, hence light weight.  And all the cylinders were right up front allowing air cooling.  All the cylinders in a radial engine got equal amounts cooling air.  The competing aircraft engine design was an inline V pattern which required water cooling, because the rear cylinders were far removed from free air flow.  For WWII warplanes both types of engines were popular.  The water cooled inline design offered lower air resistance (drag) and claimed higher power output.  It was vulnerable to any bullet holes in the radiator, coolant hoses, or engine block, which allowed the coolant the run out and the engine overheat and seize up.  The air cooled radial engine was more rugged, there are stories of radial engines continuing to work after an entire cylinder was shot off.  The later radial engines were as powerful as the best in line engines by the end of WWII. 
   But the shortest crankshaft in the radial engine made it lighter than the equivalent in line engine. 

The Kavanaugh hearing yesterday

Judge Kavanaugh got to testify in his own behalf about 3 PM yesterday.  He came on strong, calling it a witch hunt, denying all accusations, displaying sorry and anger.  He was as convincing, perhaps more convincing than Dr Basley-Ford's testimony in the morning.

   At the end of the day, I would call it a draw.  Both of them were convincing.  Neither was tripped up by what little cross examination took place.  Little to no evidence, save a calendar from Judge Kavanaugh was introduced.  The calendar suggested (but did not prove) that back in 1982 Kavanaugh was too busy to have attended that infamous party.
  Me, I tend to believe Kavanaugh based on his long federal service, many female friends testifying in his favor, and convincing manner.   Dr. Basley-Ford has no friends backing up her story. 

Words of the Weasel. Part 48

"Prioritize".  New word from Democrats.  I think they are trying to say "increase funding"   If that is what they mean, they ought to just say "increase funding" out loud. 
"Close tax loopholes"  is a Democrat phrase that means "Hike taxes". 

The Dr Blasey-Ford hearing

It got off on time, 10 AM, and ran until 2 PM.  I watched it all.  Dr Blasey-Ford was clearly uneasy about the whole thing.  Her voice was husky, on the verge of tears thru out.  Her hairdo was unbecoming, and served to hide her face behind  long locks of blonde hair.  I had to wonder if she, a senior college professor, looked and sounded that bad in front of a class.  She repeated the story about Brett Kavanaugh groping her and attempting (but failing) to rape her at a teen age house party in Maryland 35 years ago.  She didn't offer any new details.  I do think she believed what she was saying.  Cross examination did not expose any contradictions.  She made no goofs in testimony.
   On the other hand, the incident is 35 years old.  Everyone's memory is unreliable going that far back.
   A lot of Democratic senators were still calling for an FBI investigation.  I don't think that would prove anything.  No  physical evidence  has survived that long.  I would have my doubts about any witness testimony after all these years.
   Senator Diane Feinstein  did not offer any explanation as to why she sat on Dr. Blasey-Ford's letter until just two weeks ago.
   All of the witnesses Dr Blasey-Ford mentioned refused to back up her story.
   Judge Kavanaugh is next up.  We will see how he does.  

Investigation of a 35 year old party cannot prove anything.

Christine Blasely Ford's accusations against Brett Kavanaugh are 35 years old.  No investigation at this late date will prove anything.  Witness memory after 35 years is suspect.  Many of us have firm memories of things that never happened.  For instance for years I remembered graduating high school out of doors, in the Greenwood theater.  At my 25th reunion, my classmates all told me that it had rained that day and graduation had been held indoors.  How many other firm, but false, memories do witnesses have after 35 years?  And how much does anyone remember about 35 years ago?  I am not sure even where I was living 35 years ago.  It doesn't matter what an investigation turns up in the way of witness stories, I will have suspicions of all  of them.  
  Which makes the calls for an FBI investigation stalls.

The US Constitution does not require separation of church and state.

First Amendment says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;  
Establishment is an old fashioned word that we don't use hardly at all anymore in America.  Back in 1789 establishment was enjoyed by the Church of England in England.  You had to be a member of the Church of England to receive a commission in the Royal Army or the Royal Navy.  Catholics, Quakers and others were banned.  You had to be a Church of England member to be crowned as king, or ruling queen.  And a number of other goodies were reserved for Church of England members only.  In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the Congregational Church (Puritan's they had been called for many years) was established.  I'm not exactly sure just what bennies were reserved for Congregationalists in colonial Massachusetts, but Massachusetts did not "disestablish" the Congregational church until maybe 1808 if memory serves. 
   At Constitution time there were a number of large and influential churches doing business in North America.  Congregational, Quaker, Episcopal, Methodist, Catholic, and others.  It was an easy decision on the Founder's part to prevent endless lobbying, back stabbing, and wheeling and dealing by saying that no church will get the bennies of being established.  Massashusetts was required to disestablish the Congregational Church. 
   In short, the establishment clause merely puts all churches on equal ground, no church gets special bennies for their members.  It does not call for separation of church and state, it calls for treating all churches alike. 

Cars and features that Detroit ought to offer.

Firstly, Detroit should not be abandoning the market for sedans.  That's just turning a huge slice of the market over to Japanese and Korean companies.  Granted, there is more mark up in big SUV's and pickup trucks, which makes it easier to turn a profit.  But there are a helova lotta people who just want something to drive to work.  Most families have both husband and wife working outside the home, which means they need two cars.  One car only needs to get a single individual to and from work.  A small four door econobox is plenty.   The other car can be a SUV big enough to hold the entire family, kids, luggage, skis, lunch.  One key to a competitive sedan is distinctive styling.  The old VW Beetle was distinctive , not especially handsome, but nobody would ever confuse it with a Toyota.  
   Another small sedan that would sell is one that could bring sheet goods home from the lumber yard and furniture home from the auction.  Perhaps a lift off top?  A really stout factory roof rack?  A hatchback with a lift off top?  As a hauler, it only needs to work in good weather and short range, on secondary roads.  Interstate performance with a load is not required.
   Features I would like to see:  Power windows with a master "Close them all" switch.  Switch to just work, and not require putting the key in the ignition.  Even better would be a button on the key remote that would close all the windows while you are sitting on the deck.  In summer I like to leave the car windows open to prevent the car from becoming an oven when the sun shines on it.  It would be nice not to have to put one shoes, find the keys and go out to the driveway to roll the windows up in the evening. 
  An outside thermometer.  Up here we want to know if that black patch up ahead on the road is just a puddle or black ice. 
  A plug to let your Ipod play back on the car's speakers. 

Bathing Suit. At a teen age house party?

Kinda strange, but that's what Dr. Christine Ford said she was wearing at that infamous party 35 years ago.  I can remember a goodly number of parties back in my teen age years.  I don't ever remember a girl showing up in a bathing suit, other than summertime beach parties.  They wore jeans, tight fitting jeans, even low cut tight fitting stretch jeans.  Short shorts.  Short skirts.  Tight sweaters.  Halter tops.  No bathing suits. 
   Makes me wonder. 

AVG Antivirus. Thumbs Down

The Microsoft Scammer called again.  This time he claimed my computer was issuing improper messages over the internet.  I recognized his voice, he calls regularly, and I had some fun calling him names.  After the scammer went away, it did occur to me that it had been a while since I ran a virus scan on Trusty Desktop.  Next I found that good old Malwarebytes, my anti virus of choice, no longer supports Windows XP.  Arghh.  Some net cruising brought me to AVG antivirus.  It downloaded, it scanned, it didn't find anything.  After the scan run, things seemed a little slower.  Task Manager showed three or four new tasks, sucking up RAM and CPU time. 
   Worse was to come.  I booted up next morning and clicking on desktop icons no longer  worked.  Task manager showed some AVG component hogging all the CPU time. Task Manager could no kill the offending AVG process.
Install and Remove Programs from Control Panel didn't work.  Deleting the AVG file directory in Program Files didn't work.  Deleting from MS-DOS didn't work either. 
    A little web searching with Duck Duck Go showed me that I was not alone.  It did point me to a special AVG remover program, written by AVG themselves.  That worked.  Good riddance to AVG.  It is a RAM hog and a CPU hog that is active and slowing my machine all the time.  At times slowing to the point I thought it was broken. 

He said She said

The last minute smear on Judge Kavanaugh is showing legs, at least for the TV newsies.  There ought to be a statute of limitations, 35 years ago is a long time.  Me, I cannot even remember where I was living in 1983, or was it 1984.  The accusation of attempted rape comes from a lefty California college professor, of whom I never heard of before.  Kavanaugh has been in public life for 30 years, he has been back ground checked and found clean, he has a lot of testimonials from women who worked for him or went to high school with him.  So when Kavanaugh denies the attempted rape ever happened, I find him believable. 

Snow White and the Huntsman 2012

Some how I missed this one back in 2012 when it came out. Netflix brought it to me last night.  I should not have bothered.  What little plot the movies might have had was never shown to us in the audience.  In fact there was almost no dialogue for any of the characters.  No one addressed another character by name, making it hard to keep every one straight.  If the Huntsman had any romantic feelings for Snow White he never showed them.  Likewise Snow White doesn't display any romantic interest in anyone.  She falls in with a band of forest bandits, like Robin Hood's men, all of whom are over age, overweight, and balding.  It is never clear just what they expect from Snow White, or what Snow White expects from them.  A long scene has Snow White fleeing the Evil Queen's troops, on foot, thru the forest, while wearing a full length ball gown.  Would have been core convincing if the long skirt had got torn off on thorns,
   This flick is two hours, too long for the material to carry it.  Cameraman does alright, manages to turn the lights on before filming.  Puts the camera on a tripod. 
   Too bad.  With a decent scriptwriter this could have been a fun medieval fantasy romance. 

Rape is a serious crime

And should be dealt with by the police and the courts.  Not college kangaroo courts.  The college kangaroo courts have a nearly perfect failure rate.  Most students condemned by such bodies sue the college.  And a lot of 'em are winning.  Colleges would be ahead if the real criminal justice system handled cases of rape and "sexual assault" on campus, at least they won't get sued over the decisions of a real judge.  For students, the regular criminal justice system is fairer than anything a bunch of "college administrators" can do. 

Your Congress at work

Congress is voting to outlaw the selling of meat from cats or dogs.  We really really need this.  Every grocery store in the land has a meat case just stuffed full of dog and cat steaks.  People grill them every weekend.  Serious problem here, deserving of Congressional attention.
   Some how the nation has endured since 1789 without this absolutely vital law.  In actual fact nobody feels good about eating beloved house pets, and so it just doesn't happen.  No law required. 
   Just another reason to throw the bums out in the coming November elections.

California law to require 100% renewable energy

The deadline in the law is 2045,  27 years into the future.  If CA sticks with this, doesn't water it down when they discover how expensive it is, they are talking about putting in enough solar and wind generation to carry the entire load of the state.  Trouble is, solar panels don't give juice after the sun goes down, and windmills don't give juice when the wind doesn't blow. 
   Which means, CA will have to maintain in operating condition, all the real power plants they have today, AND pay for building and installing renewable energy plants sufficient to carry the state wide electrical load, during daylight and when the wind is blowing.  At night, and on calm days, the real power plants will have to keep the lights on  state wide. 
  In short, CA is planning to spend enough money to install statewide renewable energy plants with capacity to power the entire state.   Figure this will cost as much as the real power plants CA already has.  This amounts to paying for two sets of electrical plants, one real, one renewable, instead of one.  Which will double the costs, and then double electrical bills. 
   Of course, CA may back off after it becomes clear how expensive this is gonna be.  They have 27 years in which to waffle. 

First Amendment, why we have it

Been a lotta talk about the first amendment on the media, TV and internet lately.  Lotta things said, most of 'em valid.  "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press."  But none of them gets right down to the meat of the matter.
   The meat is simple.  Without the first amendment, the government can call any speech it doesn't like treasonous, blasphemous, disloyal, seditious, unAmerican, or other bad name and zap, speaker gets jailed, which shuts him up.  The founders believed in democracy, by which they meant every man could speak in support of his political ideas without fear of government reprisals.  And without free speech, we don't have a democracy.  

Saving money on healthcare

America spends 19% of GNP on healthcare.  That is twice as much as any other country in the world.  After spending this ridiculous amount of money, our health, as measured by infant mortality and life expectancy, is no better than other first world countries.  That also means that American products are 19% more expensive than they might be, just to pay the workers health care.   Here is my list of things we ought to do about the health care cost crisis.
1.  Allow duty free import of drugs from any reasonable first world country, like Canada, the EU, and Japan.  Many US rip off priced drugs can be bought overseas for half their US prices. 

2.  Allow competition in the health insurance business.  NH could pass a law saying that any American health insurance company, licensed in any state of the union, can sell health insurance in New Hampshire, no more paper work required. 

3.  Clamp down on the malpractice racket.   We could pass a law stating that prescription, manufacture, and administration of any FDA approved drug or device is never malpractice, even if the FDA later withdraws their approval. 

4.  Stop prescribing so many opioids.  The Wall St Journal says that 80% of Medicaid patients in West Virginia and Kentucky are getting prescriptions for pricey opioids.  Which gets the patients hooked on heroin when the opioid prescription runs out. This is a mixed issue, part federal, part state, part medical profession.

5. Bring back “hospitalization only” policies.  Back before Obamacare forbade them, you could buy a regular, covers everything family plan for $12,000 a year.  Or you could buy a $3000 a year hospitalization only policy that only covered things bad enough and expensive enough to put you in the hospital.   With the $9000 a year saving, you can pay for a lot of yearly physicals and childhood earaches.  For ordinary people, with a little money in the checking account, hospitalization only is a good deal.   

Kavanaugh hearings off on snarling and backbiting

The hearing has senators interrupting senators,  members of the audience screaming at the top of their lungs.  Democrats moving to close the hearing because the truck loads of documents about Kavanaugh already delivered are not enough, they want to see 100,000 more documents.  You would think the Kavanaugh's published rulings as a judge ought to be enough to figure out where he is coming from.  Now they are off letting all the Senators on the committee have their say. That is expected to take the rest of the day.  I'd be more interested in hearing what Kavanaugh has to say, but that doesn't happen until later this week. 

Difference between Democrats and Republicans

Democrats are the party of more free stuff.  Republicans are the party of the taxpayers. 

US Civil Servants don't deserve a pay raise.

They don't do much, they cannot be trusted, they cannot be fired, no matter what, and they are overpaid.  Trump wants to cancel their pay raise.  Good for him. 

Yahoo admits to snooping all emails going thru its site

Email is forever.  If it embarrassing, revealing, and anything you would mind posting on the bulletin board at the local supermarket, DON'T put it in email.  Yahoo has just admitted to snooping email on their site, and it would not surprise me that others are doing it too.
   If it is a company email, and your company gets sued, they will demand to see all the emails from every one.  So don't bad mouth customers (or anyone else) never discuss pricing, never discuss technical shortcomings, never discuss anything that might make your company liable.  Sensitive topics should be handled face-to-face, away from phones.  
   Next job interview, figure they can see all your email, going way way back, all your facebook postings, everything you every put on the net.  Sexting can be really really embarrassing.  If its a good hot pic, a lotta guys will pass it on to their buddies.  It never goes away. 
   For that matter they can see all your medical records now that Obama forced the doctors to keep patient medical records on computer. 

Federal Money given to secure NH electoral system.

Well, I'll take the money, money is nice, I can always find something to spend it on.  But we can secure our election system with two simple steps, no money required. 
1.  Use paper ballots, everywhere, every time.  They cannot hack a paper ballot over the Internet. 
2.  Secure the voter registration lists.  That list upon which the poll workers check off your name as you vote.  If the list is destroyed, or altered, bad things happen.  Legitimate voters will be denied ballots,  illegitimate voters will be given ballots.

In this PC age, every thing is kept on computer.  There was a time when the voter registration list was kept by town clerks, using pen and paper.  We could go back to that, but all the poll workers would scream and cry and threaten to hold their breath.  Since we seem to be stuck with computers, we can at least take some obvious security measures.  The computer[s] upon which the voter registration list is kept shall NOT be connected to the public internet (or the telephone network).  The computer[s] shall be kept in a locked room, with the keys restricted to a very few people.  All floppy disc drives shall be removed and all USB connectors snipped off.
   A paper listing shall be made periodically and stored off site.  An electronic backup (CD-ROM) shall be made periodically and stored off site.  Each time a new backup is made, it shall be compared with the previous backup to see if any changes are reasonable. 

Spectre, a Daniel Craig Bond Movie 2015

It's been out a few years, I have seen it before, but I Netflixed it just for old times sake.  It's a perfectly watchable Bond movie.  Daniel Craig plays as good a Bond as any of them, tough, humorless, relentless, and a lady killer.  The special effects are good, for openers Bond shoots a couple of bad guys thru an upper floor window.  By the time every one's gun runs out of ammunition, the entire multi story Mexico City building collapses.  Not bad for some small arms fire.  And Bond manages to shoot Blofeld's helicopter out of the air using just a hand gun.  Bond's handgun is bigger than the puny Walther PPK that shows up in most of the earlier Bond movies.  Looks to be a Smith and Wesson or Sig Saur 9mm automatic. 
   The script writers have some continuity problems.  We have Bond in London, getting chewed out for exceeding his authority in Mexico City by blowing up a couple of bad guys without proper paperwork.  Next thing we know, Bond, with a brand new Aston Martin DB10,  much sleeker and lower than the DB-6 he drove in back in Goldfinger, is in Rome.  How he and the car get from London to Rome is not even hinted at.  Did he drive the Chunnel? Or put the car on a Channel ferry? Just a short clip showing Bond and the Aston Martin  doing either would have been helpful to us viewers.  Apparently Bond does intercontinental travel instantaneously, like magic.  He and the Bond Girl get from Rome to North Africa, and then back to London from North Africa all instantaneously,  Never a clip of him boarding an airliner. The Bond Girl is cute, as all Bond Girls are.  I never picked up on her name watching the movie.  I had to look it up on IMDB.
   Filming in 2015, three years ago, the annoying "Shake the Camera" style of camera work was gone, but the "Film it in the Dark" style is fully there.  Lots of night action, with the lights out, where I could not tell Bond from Blofeld. Not as bad as Game of Thrones, but annoying.  The sound man was only fair, I missed some of the more breathy dialog. 

Farewell John McCain

TV just reported his death this evening.  We will miss him.  I was in South East Asia with the Air Force the year McCain got shot down over North Viet Nam.  That year my unit, 343 Tactical Fighter Wing, lost a plane a day, for the first 90 days I was in the wing.  It took enormous courage to climb into the cockpit and fly into North Viet Nam, and our pilots did it every day.  So did John McCain.
   Years later, John McCain, campaigning for president, came to an event at the Littleton VFW.  I and my brother were there.  It was winter, the place was full of shaggy people, all wearing parkas and snow boots.  When John McCain entered the room, every one stood up for him as a mark of respect.
   Over the years I have been to a lot of campaign events, for a lot of presidential candidates, and I have never seen another man get that mark of respect that we gave John McCain just automatically. 

Why Communism/Socialism/Democratic Socialism is a disaster

Historically, all this started with Karl Marx, a writer back in the mid 19th century, say 1850 or so.  In those days, and on continental Europe especially, there was a serious discrepancy in wealth.  The workers got little, the owners, capitalists, got a whole bunch more than the workers.  Marx felt this was unfair.  His solution was to share the wealth equally.  The state would own all the means of production, from steel mills, railroads and farmland, down to corner bodegas and restaurants.  The state would set equal wages for all.  Marx wrote all these ideas in his book "Das Kapital" which was widely read. 
   The messy part of Marx's plan is how the state obtains owner ship of nearly everything.  The owners resisted this idea strongly.  In Russia it took a massive social revolution in 1917 to bring this about.  Owners, kulaks the Russians called them, were liquidated.   Massive propaganda efforts and a powerful secret police were used to overcome resistance of kulaks.  Kulaks, entrepeneurs, who escaped liquidation fled the country.  Taking their ideas and initiative with them.
   Production sinks under socialism because the highly motivated entrepreneurs are gone.  Since every one gets paid the same, nobody is motivated to work hard, since there is no reward for hard work.  Starting a new business is forbidden by law.  You can see this in Soviet Russia, even today, 30 years after the fall of communism.  You can see it today in Venezuela.  "They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work" was a cliche from Soviet times. 
   The only real difference between Communism and Socialism back in the day, was how the party would obtain power.  Communists believe they should obtain power by revolution and force of arms.  Socialist believe they should obtain power thru political action and the ballot box.  Once in power there is little difference between them.
  Modern "Democratic Socialism" is mostly undefined, especially by its advocates, say Bernie Saunders, Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, and Elizabeth Warren and their followers.  The followers are looking to a regime of more free stuff, and the leaders are looking for political power.  Elizabeth Warren was talking about the federal government taking over all of big business, which sounds pretty Marxian to me. 

Things I don't understand about Manafort and Cohen Cases

I understand Manafort made substantial money (like $millions) overseas, advising or fixing or something for the Ukrainians.  He put the money in an overseas bank.  The government claims this is tax evasion.  Just what law requires US citizens to report income from overseas sources, left overseas, to the IRS? And how soon must the report be made?   None of the TV newsies addressed this issue.
   And, just what were those 10 counts the Manafort jury deadlocked on?  Was the prosecution railroading Manafort with a bunch of trumped up charges?  Ham sandwich nation?   As Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) said, "Under current US law I could indict a ham sandwich."
    On the Cohen case, I don't understand how paying hush money to bimbos is a campaign finance violation. Campaign finance laws concern money given to politicians as campaign contributions.  Giving money to bimbos to keep them quiet is not the same thing.  It's distasteful, and reflects badly upon the payer, but I cannot see how it is a campaign finance violation.
   What is clear, is that if the Democrats take control of the House in November, they will proceed to impeach the President, starting in January 2019.  Which will make all the newsies turn pink and glow in the dark from pure happiness.  And figure impeachment will go on and on and on, at least a year, probably two.  The newsies will report on nothing else.  And the Congress will be unable to pass anything for a year or two.  In short, it impeachment will stall the federal government for the next couple of years, like Watergate did. 
   Voters who want to keep the feds moving need to vote Republican, in large numbers.  Trump has got the country moving and moving in a good direction.  Like lower unemployment, more GNP growth, lower taxes, rising stock market, less red tape.  Taking a two year timeout for impeachment will bring all that movement to a screeching halt. 

The Shannara Chronicles Season 2

I Netflixed Season 1 a year or two ago.  It was OK, a fantasy story that borrowed from both Game of Thrones and Tolkien.  Season 2 just turned up on Netflix and I watched the whole season.  Things have changed a bit.  Handsome boyish hero, Wil, has got a new and more becoming hair cut.  We also see some broad shoulders, narrow hips and six pack abs, making him more of a hunk than he was in season 1.  Good chick Amberle mostly appears in dream sequences.  Makes me think I missed catching her death somewhere.  In season 1 she had a magic talisman that she was trying to take somewhere.  She doesn't talk about that in season 2.  Bad Chick, Eretria has come over to the good side and she is helping Wil as much as possible.  Her highway bandit father does not appear this season.  Both Good Chick and Bad Chick still dress alike, in riding leathers which show their figures to advantage, and they still  look alike.   A couple of new good looking girls show up, one is Alenon's daughter, not quite sure what the other one is.  Nobody ever addresses anyone by name on stage, making it difficult to follow the story.  At least the cameraman knows enough to turn the lights on before filming, and the soundman does a fairly good job. 
   Season 2 lacks plot,  I was unable to understand what the heroes were trying to do.  It is entertaining to watch, the characters are all good looking and interesting, but I had no idea what was going on.

Why capitalism is superior to Communism/Socialism

To put it crudely, capitalism works and makes us all rich.  Communism/Socialism  is about equal sharing of misery [and control of everything by the government].  Years ago I did Friends Service Committee work weekends in darkest Philadelphia.  That neighborhood was poor by American standards, no doubt about it.  But everyone had decent clothes (important in a Philadelphia winter) color TV,  plenty of heat in their homes, and nobody looked undernourished.  Some years later, on duty over seas, I saw plenty of people who were a lot worse off than that Philly slum.  In short, capitalism produces better living conditions in city slums than either Thailand or the Philippines did thru out the country.
   What makes capitalism so productive?  Answer: Bunches of entrepreneurs who build factories, housing, electric grids, aircraft, telephone networks, trade commodities, buy and sell everything and anything,  open mines, drill oil wells, irrigate desert lands, build railroads, and in general  create wealth.
   What does a society have to do to get capitalism working for them?  First off, the society needs to create a rule of law that protects private property from seizure by warlords, political bosses, competitors, gangs, the EPA, and other  assorted nogoodnicks.  Entrepreneurs are motivated by the money they can make, and the social standing that successful entrepreneurs enjoy.  If everything they create can be swiped in a few hours by some thugs, it is intensely discouraging to the ripped off entrepreneur.  He/she is likely to be discouraged and give up trying, or to pick up stakes and immigrate to America.   So, the society that wants the benefits of capitalism has to protect the capitalists from all the various sorts of bandits who will otherwise rob them blind.
   Next comes defense.  Nothing wipes out more capital and capitalists than an invading army.  It took the American South a hundred years to recover from the devastation of the Civil War.  One thing that allowed capitalism to flourish in England was the English Channel and the Royal Navy. They have prevented invasion of England ever since 1066.   And effective defense requires enough patriotism in military age citizens to enlist in the armed services, or at least, not resist draft notices with violence.
   And now we come down to freedom.  Freedom to set prices and wages in response to market forces.  Freedom of workers to change jobs for better wages, and move about the country to take the best paying  jobs available.  Freedom to form unions.
   And probably a few other things.  I am not an economist and so a few things probably escape me. 
   It would help if we taught our children that capitalism makes everyone rich.  I note that a couple of recent surveys found that millennials prefer communism/socialism.  What kind of schools did they go to?

Self Driving Cars: Would you ride in one?

Or would you buy one?  Long article in the Wall St Journal this Saturday about self driving cars, relations between Silicon Valley high tech and Detroit car makers.  Gist of article, Detroit ignored self driving cars until very recently, and now wants in. 
  Possibly, or perhaps not, the technology will mature to the point where the car's sensors (radar? TV cameras? lidar?) are good enough to detect the road, the shoulder, the center strip, and ignore the humongous radar returns from large signs, detect pedestrians, bicyclists, deer, objects fallen off trucks, and other cars all well enough to avoid collisions.  And can handle driving after dark, in the rain, and handle snow safely. Assume that the self driving car will not attempt passing on two lane roads.  Assume that the self driver keeps acceleration, steering and braking gentle enough to avoid panicking passengers.  And it has mastered things like parallel parking, and pulling up to the gas pumps without bending a fender.  All of these are stiff technical challenges that today's self driving car cannot meet, yet.
   But  assume they do perfect the self driving car.  Would you ride in one, in city traffic?  Would you feel comfortable riding in one?  Would you buy one with your own money, even if the self driving equipment were  fairly cheap?  I wouldn't.  I enjoy driving, been doing it for years, and feel best when I am at the wheel.  Even with one of my own grown children at the wheel, I get tense.  Eldest son is fairly good, but middle daughter and youngest son are down right scary.  Will I feel better about turning the wheel over to a microprocessor?
   I can see where the Ubers and Lyfts of the world would buy self driving cars.  If they work, don't scare the passengers, and don't get into many expensive traffic accidents,  they would eliminate paying drivers, which will do good things for the bottom line.  But  how many vehicles would Uber and Lyft buy, compared to the 10 million new cars sold each year to the general public in North America?  Enough to interest Ford or GM?
  Could it be cost effective for third party companies to sell and install self driving equipment in an otherwise standard car?  Or is it cheaper and easier to build the self driving equipment into the car on the production line?  I can remember when automobile air conditioning was just coming in.  You could get air conditioning installed by third parties, but every one agreed that "factory air" was better.  Will self driving equipment work out that way? Or not?   

Gender & Ethic Studies profs earn more than peers???

According to Campus Reform colleges are paying professors of various "Studies" some $12,000 a year more than the average.  Which is odd, seeing us how "Studies" majors are mostly unemployable when they graduate.   My standard advice to college students is to decide what they want to do after graduation, and then pick a major that makes them employable in their chosen field.   Why should colleges pay professors of a boutique course of study extra, when that course of study is an invitation to bankruptcy for any student foolish enough to major in it?? 

Aircraft don't have ignition keys

After Friday's joy riding/ joy flying story, where an airport maintenance guy took off with a medium sized turbo prop airliner, did some really decent stunt flying and then crashed it, killing himself,  the TV newsies have been talking about why aircraft ought to have doors that lock and ignition keys. 
  Back in USAF, none of our aircraft had either.  And the two alert birds were armed with nuclear weapons back in those days.  We had a good chain link fence around the flight line, with a couple of gates.  We had armed guards, air police, on the gates and more of them on the alert hanger.   Everyone had to have a security badge to get onto the flight line.  And, with just a few exceptions, like company tech reps, everyone had to be wearing Air Force uniform.  
   So, hearing that a guy with apparently employment, a security clearance, and experience moving aircraft was able to take off with an aircraft is not surprising.  We might take a look at how he obtained his security clearance, but once he did, he could easily do what he did.   

The NFL hasn't figured it out yet

The players are claiming a first amendment right to take a knee during the national anthem.  They think they are advancing their political cause[s].  What they fail to understand is their fans, customers, see kneeling during the national anthem as pure disrespect for the flag, and the republic for which it stands.  Gestures mean what people think they mean, not what you want them to mean. 
   We will see if the fans are sufficiently turned off to stop watching football on TV.  I think the players are stupid not to understand that they cannot afford to anger their fans. 

Prevent Hacking the US Electric Grid

Been a lotta talk about this, in the Journal, on the internet, on TV.   It works like this.  Lots of stuff, generators, transformer banks, substations, and more are remote controlled.  It saves money by eliminating expensive workers at each site.  The remote controllers will accept remote commands such as "Start Up", "Shut Down", "Increase Voltage", "Change Transformer Taps", "Speed Up", and many more.
   The cheapest communication link is the public internet, it's practically free. And the public switched telephone network is nearly as cheap although slower.  Trouble is, when you set all your generators and other equipment to accept commands from the public internet, that means every hacker in the world can send commands to your equipment.  There are some codes and addresses and computerish languages to learn but it isn't all that hard.
   The solution is to prohibit use of the public internet by the utilities.  These are power companies, they own power poles, they have line men, and  they can jolly well string fiber optic control lines on their own poles out to all their remote equipment.   Hackers don't climb poles, to tap fiber optic lines.  In addition to the hackers reluctance to leave their warm and cozy computer rooms, fiber is tough to tap.  You have to cut the glass fiber, insert an adder, bring your own fiber line all the way from your own computer, and then splice the two cut ends and your new line into the adder.  Splicing fiber can be done but it's hard, few techs know how.  A bad splice will block the light signal.
  The various public utility commissions, all 50 states and the feds,  need to post regulations prohibiting any kind of remote control over the public internet or the telephone network and demand private fiber optic control lines owned by the utility company.  This will hackers from ordering all the generators in the country to shut down some dark and snowy night.  

Crony Capitalism comes to the US Commerce Dept

Tuesday's Wall St Journal main editorial has this story.  After Trump's heavy steel and aluminum tariffs, lots of injured companies are filing complicated paperwork to claim "exemptions" from the tariff.  The Journal laments all the time wasted on complex government red tape. 
   The real outrage is that some companies get exempted from the tariff, giving them a huge advantage over their competitors.  The is crony capitalism at its most blatant.  If we are gonna do tariffs, everyone ought to pay them.  Letting some companies off with "exemptions" is pure injustice, bribery, and conduct unbecoming a trash collector, let alone an elected  democratic government. 
  No exemptions for anyone, ever.
 

Facebook wants banks to share depositors data???

This was front page in Tuesday's Wall St Journal.  Facebook's story is that they want to be able to show their users their checking account balance, and by looking at who we are writing checks to, tailor the ads they show to appeal to us.
Arrgh.
   I don't want anyone to know how much money I have in my checking account, whether or not I bounce checks, and who I am writing checks to.  I certainly don't want anyone to get my passwords, SSN, account numbers, transfer codes or anything else that would let them steal my money.  If I found out my bank was giving access to Facebook, I would close my account and find another bank, ASAP.
   I am still unhappy about Obama's decision to force all the doctors to put patients medical records on computer.  Any half way competent hacker can crack hospital network security and put every medical record up for sale.  God help those with serious medical problems, they will never get a job again. No company will hire people whose medical problems will jack up the company health insurance costs.

Shadow Banning sitting Congressmen??

Monday's Wall St Journal has an op-ed denouncing Facebook's practice in the matter.  From reading the article it is not clear just what "shadow banning" really is, or how much it hurts.  But to lay any sort of sanctions or restrictions on sitting Congressmen is absurd. 
   Congressmen get to be Congressmen by winning a majority of the votes.  Which means their view points are acceptable to a lot of people.  When Facebook decides that they are smarter or more political correct than someone who won an election, they are being profoundly undemocratic.  They are claiming the right as lefty techno weenies to silence people who have broad support, broader than any bunch of techno-weenies. 
   I can understand Facebook's desire to keep pornography, neonazis, Islamic terrorists, bots and bot nets, Russian trolls, and clearly deranged individuals off Facebook.  But to attack sitting Congressmen is beyond the pale. 

US Congress should be totally replaced

Congress was created back in the 18th century to give the newly United States a representative government, namely a government that does what the people want. 
Today's Congress is failing.  Instead of addressing issues, they are locked into partisan squabbling, back stabbing, buck passing, and obstructionism.  They haven't passed a thing this year, and from the looks of it, nothing is going get passed for a long long time.
  This isn't what we voters want.  I'll grant that we voters are deeply split on many issues.  But we do all agree that we ought to do something nice for the DACA young people.  Congress has done zip for the DACA folks.  And a whole bunch of other immigration reforms have gone nowhere.  Surely with a little log rolling, something could be worked out that would get enough votes to pass. The voters do agree that we need Obamacare reform, what we got costs too much and is a business killer.  Congress has done zip.   The voters want Congress to confirm more of Trump's appointees, rather than stalling them for months and months.
  In short, we voters ought to vote all the current Congresscritters out this fall and vote in a bunch of new ones that will vote for things that we voters want passed and drop all the partisan bickering.  I know there are plenty if issues where we voters are totally split.  But there are a number that we agree on, and those ought to pass.  

ICE Roadblocks on I93

ICE  is doing it, right around Ashland.  I read that ICE is allowed to put up roadblocks anywhere within 100 miles of a US border.  Ashland is very near to 100 miles from the Canadian border.  ICE claims they are making arrests.  Most of the ones I hear about are for things like drug running or DUI rather than straight up immigration violations.
   I have been thru the Ashland roadblock a couple of times this summer.  Both times the officers just  waved me thru.  I guess they see white hair, a white guy, a four door Detroit sedan, and instate plates.  And they figure I must be clean, at least clean enough to wave thru.  Profiling they used to call it.  I guess profiling is OK when it works to my advantage. 
   I imagine the people who get stopped and searched feel differently about it. 

Jeff Woodburn gets arrested for assault and domestic violence.

Jeff Woodburn is the incumbent Democratic NH Senator of district 1 and my opponent in the November general election.  Neither of us face primary challenges, the general election in November is everything.  He was arrested by the Concord police department late Thursday afternoon and charged with assault and domestic violence.  He will be arraigned in Lancaster county court later this month. 
   Speaking personally I have to feel sorry for Mr Woodburn.  This affair is likely to become a professional and perhaps a  personal disaster for him.  Under American justice, a person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty.  On the other hand, the New Hampshire attorney general must feel he has a strong case to charge a sitting Senator with a crime.  
   I filed for election weeks ago, long before this unfortunate news broke.  I intend to continue to campaign for office.
   I need all the help I can get to win this election.  I need people to put up my yard signs, and people to invite me to any kind of gathering, cook out, barbecue, rally, parade, meeting, what have you.
 
  

Rasmussen says Democrats hate Trump deal with the NORKs

Rasmussen Reports says there is a big split between Republicans and Democrats regarding President Trump's dealing with the NORKs.  Rasmussen doesn't give numbers on this split, but it is right up there in the article's headline.
  I wonder how that happens.  I have some doubts that things will work out with the NORKs, but they might, and that makes it certainly worth trying.  Why should Democrats dislike our effort to denuclearize the NORKs? It is surely better than starting up the Korean War again.  Are the Democrats so anti-Trump that they wish ill toward what might be an important breakthrough?  Just to spite Trump? 
   In the end, the Trump diplomatic offensive may not work.  On the other hand it might.  I cannot tell, and I doubt that anyone else can either.  The chance that it might work makes it worth trying. 

Harley Davidson Goes Hog Mild to Attract Younger Bikers

Headline in Tuesday's Wall St Journal.  Gist of the article, Harley is thinking about introducing smaller bikes. cause sales of the big Hogs are tapering off. 
  This is nothing new.  We bikers have been saying this for 40 years.  The big 1000 cc Harley's are magnificent machines, any biker would like to own one.  But they are pricey, about the cost of a small car.  And they are too big and heavy to take off road.  Most of us got started on much smaller and cheaper bikes.  My first bike was a mere 120 cc Suzuki, which was a little slow for my tastes.  My 2nd bike was a 250 cc Yamaha which had enough power to scare me, even back when I was young and reckless.  At the time, the Yamaha only set me back $500, where as the big Harley's were going for $5000. 
   Harley should have figured out, maybe 30 years ago, that a small, low cost bike would sell, in fact sell more than the big Hogs were selling.  To make a small bike Harley might have had to give up on their beloved four stroke engines and make some other changes to compete with all the well built rice burners on the market, but they could have managed. 
  I hope Harley isn't too late.

Alternate History. What if Japan had NOT attacked Pearl Harbor in WWII?

Japan had a number of aggressive plans for their neck of the woods.  The US did not approve, and eventually embargoed shipment of oil and scrap metal to Japan.  But with Hitler showing us how dangerous Germany was, and isolationism running wild in America, we were not about to do anything to Japan short of diplomatic nasty grams and  embargoes. Had Japan understood this, they could have proceeded to take over places they wanted, like Dutch East Indies oil fields, and more of China.  We would not have gone to war with Japan over this kind of aggression.
   If Pearl Harbor did not happen, we would not have joined the British in the war against Hitler, even if Hitler had the British on the ropes.  Isolationism would have prevented it.  Churchill's entire plan for beating Germany consisted of getting the Americans to help him out.  Without Pearl Harbor, Churchill would have been severely disappointed.
  What's more, if the Nazi's had done some serious diplomatic work on Japan, they might have been able to talk the Japanese into attacking the Russians in the far east.  If this had gone down in the winter of 1941, when Hitler's army was at the outskirts of Moscow, the Russians might have cracked.  As it was, the Russians brought ten divisions back from Siberia and threw them into the battle to save Moscow.  They would not have been able to do that if the Japanese had attacked in the far east.  And the Japanese had memories of the successful (from Japan's viewpoint) Russo Japanese war of 1905.  And the Japanese were still smarting from a sharp defeat the Russians gave them in 1939.  Japan had tried to seize parts of Siberia.  The Russians sent a large army, with plenty of tanks, aircraft and artillery, under Georgi Zhukov, best Russian general of WWII,  and whipped the Japanese thoroughly at a place called Kalkin Gol.
  Any way you see it, Pearl Harbor in our real history, was a key decisive event.

Plastic straws?

Used to be, straws were paper.  They worked.  They issued straws at the soda fountain with milkshakes, frappes, and root beer floats.  Special treats, not every day drinking.  And they issued straws at lunch in school to sip the milk out of those tiny little paper milk cartons, if you had paid in your milk money that week.   Each classroom had a big box of straws sitting on a shelf.  Don't remember exactly just when plastic replaced paper for straws, must have been sometime in the 1960's
   I don't remember drinking soda (tonic in New England) with straws.  You popped the top off the bottle (canned soda was much later) stuck the bottle in your mouth and drank.  You had to learn the trick of putting your upper lip half way down the mouth of the bottle to let the air in as the soda was sucked out.  Most kids mastered the art by the age of three.  My parents didn't approve of soda, they thought it was bad for kids teeth, so I didn't get to enjoy it all that often. 
   The TV newsies have been doing a lotta talking about plastic straws filling the Pacific ocean with floating plastic.  Despite all the talk, I have trouble believing that plastic straws are a serious issue or yet another environmental hazard.  I'm kinda hazarded out these days. 

Facebook stock tanks today

Has the last few months of bad news, leaks of personal data, censoring of conservative posters, Russian trolls, fake news, and 'bots posting trash, finally caught up with good old Facebook?  Or was it a downer report issued by Facebook itself predicting loss of  customers?  Could it be that Facebook has reached a limit to growth, like every one with Internet access is already on Facebook?
  Anyhow their stock took a header today.  Down 23% by some reckoning.

Seattle is paying $5.2 million a piece for trolley cars.

Damn.  That's a ridiculous amount of money for a trolley car.  You used to be able to buy a brand new diesel bus for $50K. You would think you could buy a trolley car for about that.   What's worse, they are saying that these ultra pricey new trolleys won't fit into the car barns, or even on the tracks.