Democrat Presidential Debate

Strange affair.  I missed Wednesday night's warmup show, the TV cable was broken.  Thursday night I managed to get a roof antenna connected to the TV, AND I fixed the cable.  Then I feel asleep before the show started at 9PM.  So I didn't see the shows.  All I have to go on is the after action reports on TV, internet and Wall St Journal.  Since the MSM are all democrats, I figure the chilly reception given the event means it had some real problems.
   None of the two dozen candidates said anything memorable.  All of them came out in favor of medicare for all, free college, student loan forgiveness,  tax-the-rich, let everyone into the country.  Somehow, I don't think any of those ideas is a real vote getter.  In fact, I think they are a voter turnoff. 

NH Senate Session 27 June, Budget Day.

They presented the budget, parts 1 and 2, aka HB1 and HB2, from the last committee of conference.  We didn’t get a chance to amend anything.  Vote it up or down, that’s it.  We had 3 hours of oratory, praise from Democrats, objections to size and new taxes from Republicans.  Seldom did anyone mention a number, such as the number of dollars to be spent.   Democrats tacked a raise the smoking age bill onto the budget.  That is an old parliamentary trick; take something that would never be voted thru by the legislature.  Attach it to something that has to pass like the budget.  It will go thru because the pain of killing the budget far exceeds the pain of letting the rider go thru.  We did so, and the smoking age is now 21 in New Hampshire. 

   Everyone expects the governor will veto this budget on account of too much taxing and too much spending.  To guard against this we passed a continuing resolution that allows state operations to continue for three months or until we do pass a budget for real. 

   Then we went thru a bunch of last minute bills.  We knocked off a bunch with the fast track (consent) calendar.  And we did roll call votes, all 14-10, to pass the rest of  them.  Hopefully the governor will veto the worst of ‘em. 

Congress doesn't do health care anymore.

NHPR ran a long piece on health care yesterday.  They decried the cost and number of un insured.  It sounded terrible.  In this half hour (one hour?) piece they never discussed some things we could do to make things better. 

    First off, we could allow importation of drugs from any reasonable first world country, Canada say, and Britain and France and Germany and some others.  Somalia and Bangladesh need not apply.  Drugs overseas, often of American manufacture, are a lot cheaper than the same drugs in the US.  Why you ask?  Overseas health authorities bargain over price with Big Pharma, or in some cases have the authority to set prices.  Whereas here in freedom loving USA, Medicare and Medicaid are forbidden by law to bargain for a good price on drug purchases.   For that matter, we could rewrite those no-bargaining laws; all they do is increase Big Pharma’s profits. 

   Secondly we could allow health insurance companies to sell policies in all 50 states, no extra paperwork required.  Right now each state requires all insurance companies, in state or out of state, to submit endless paperwork to the state health authority.  The process is so bad that a lot of insurance companies just don’t bother with smaller states like New Hampshire.  This is why New Hampshire only has TWO health insurers.  Talk about opportunity for price gouging. 

   Both of these ideas require federal laws.  And Congress doesn’t pass federal laws any more, nowadays all Congress does is investigate (harass) Trump.   Which is amusing, but it does nothing to reduce health care costs.  Right now, the US spends TWICE as much on health care as any other country in the world and US health is no better than any other first world country.

Harley Davidson to produce motor cycles in China

This from the Wall St Journal.  Harley says the Chinese manufacturer will build the bikes for sale in China.  The piece had an artist's rendering, meaning they didn't have a prototype to photograph.  The Journal described the proposed Harley as " small" to suit the Chinese market.  They said it would have a 382 cc engine which isn't very small.  I rode a 250 cc Yamaha for several years.  The Yamaha had plenty of power, enough to scare me, even when I was younger and crazier than I am now.  Harley has been bemoaning a sales drop off in the US for years.  This is because the big Harleys are too expensive for all but the most well heeled bikers.  They are magnificent machines but they cost as much as a new car.  Which is a awful lot of money for a recreational vehicle.  Up here in snow country you cannot ride in winter, a motorcycle is strictly a summer toy. 

That US drone the Iranians shot down

The TV news shows a picture of a sizable airplane shaped drone,single engined,  jet powered.  I didn't catch the name.  Too big to be a Predator.  They say it has the wing span of a 737 jet liner, and a price, $180 million, that would buy us a new 737.  Seems a bit much for a single engine sub sonic aircraft, with no cockpit, no pressurization, no manual flight controls, no cockpit windows.  Granted such a beast needs an autopilot fancier than most, some high powered camera's and a telemetry transmitter to send the photos back to base.  But I would expect a photo recon drone to cost less than an airliner.  A lot less.

More Free Stuff party offers reparations for slavery

Reparations, cash given to blacks 'cause their ancestors were slaves, surely ought to get more black votes for the Democrat party of more free stuff.  Buying votes, much?  Ultimate identity politics? 

Single failure must not put every store down

Target has managed to hook every cash register in every store to somewhere central.  Somewhere center broke yesterday and the day before, locking up every single cash register all over the country, forcing customers to stand in line for hours, or, just leave their purchases and go home. 
  This should not happen.  A Target store is large enough to afford the computers to be stand alone.  Target didn't  bother to do this, and it will cost them.  Certainly I will think twice before doing business with Target, lest I get stuck in line for hours, or have my account information broadcast to every hacker in the world. 
   Target's disastrous cash register setup has to be the work of ignorant Target suits.  No competent engineer would design a system like that.  Engineers understand that things break every so often, and that to tie every cash register in the company into a central point is a company wide failure just waiting to happen. 
   For that matter, cash registers used to work just fine before computers were even invented.  And we managed to use credit cards for decades before the automatic approval systems we use today were installed.  Target would do well to revive these antique ways of doing business.

Han Solo. 2018.

   This is Han Solo’s origin story.  It came out in theaters last year and some how I missed it.  I am a long time Star Wars fan, I can remember catching the first Star Wars on opening night in Boston back in the 1970’s.  I have caught all the following Star Wars flicks in theaters, except this one some how. 

   First thing I noticed is the cameraman has a new shtick.  Instead of the blackout look, this guy has a new look.  The color is faded out to nearly black and white, contrast is way down, brightness is way down, and the studio air seems filled with smoke, blurring everything out.  Makes it hard to recognize the actors, they all look like fuzzy shadows floating thru the gloom.  Only in the last reel do we get some decent video.  To see what was happening I had to pull my chair up to within 4 feet of the TV screen. 

    Plot is indescribable.  IMDB took a whole page to summarize it.  WE meet a young Han Solo, played by an actor I never heard of before.  He did not look at all like Harrison Ford.  He carries a blaster in a low slung holster but somehow his blaster is not as neat as the one Harrison Ford used to carry. Han has a girl friend, and the relationship is intense enough that first thing they do upon meeting is an impressive kiss.  She is there for the whole movie but only in the last reel do we learn she is a traitor working for Darth Maul.  We have a repeat of the Moss Eisley bar scene, a train hijacking like the one in Firefly, the scene where Han wins the Millennium Falcon from Lando Calrissian at cards and some others too.

    They do the really fat stereo bit so good that I could hear things coming from way off the screen.  Like when Beckett busts in on Han and girlfriend smooching in the clothes closet you can hear him coming from way off the screen. 

    All in all a meh movie. 

Senate Session June 13

Senate Session, 13 June.  We are getting to the bottom of the bill pile, finally.  For openers we sustained the Governor’s veto of SB 5.  All ten of us Republicans voted to sustain, which was just enough to do the job.  This bill would have increased Medicaid provider rates.  The governor’s stated reasons were that this bill was only good thru 1 July of this year, a date that is nearly upon us, and that this kind of funding ought to be part of the budget.  

   Then we did a lot of house keeping.   75 bills, previously passed by the Senate, had gone over to the house, and the house had made small changes in them.   Working off of 50 pages of spreadsheet we plowed thru all 75 of ‘em, approving the house changes by voice vote in nearly every case.  Six bills were controversial enough to get a roll call vote.  In each case the Democrats voted it thru, 14-10.  These were:  SB 99 and expansion of worker’s compensation to cover partial disability, SB 148 that allows union recruiters access to all new employees, SB 196 that allows non academic surveys on our school children, SB 168 that raises electric rates by requiring more renewable energy, SB2 which raided the business & economic affairs fund to more “workforce development”. And SB 263 which would allow disgruntled parents wide latitude to sue schools and school districts. 

   We were able to whisk thru all 75 bills by 12:30.  The house was still chewing over more bills, so we adjourned til 1:30 for lunch.  This was a picnic, hot dogs and potato salad out on the lawn.  Would have been more fun if it had not been raining hard.  My umbrella was in the trunk of my car, way off in the LOB garage.  I got fairly wet. 

   By 2 PM the house finished up, no more changes and so we adjourned for the week.  I drove home in the rain.  Sun did not show itself until I was going up into the Notch.        

WSJ says medical marijuana laws reduce opioid deaths

That's in today's Journal.  Funny, NH has medical marijuana and we have an opioid crisis of too many opioid overdose deaths.  What's different about NH?  Or is the Wall St Journal piece based on flawed research?  The Journal piece didn't give any numbers.  Is this a reverse New Hampshire advantage?

Pratt & Whitney to merge with Raytheon. WSJ

Front page of today's Wall St Journal.  They called it United Technologies and Raytheon to merge.  United Technologies is the holding company that holds Pratt and Whitney.  Pratt is one of the only three jet engine makers in the world.  The other two are GE and Rolls Royce.  That means they are making about a third of all the jet engines made in the whole world.  That's big. 
   Raytheon started up in the 1930's making vacuum tubes and cashed in on the invention of radar in WWII.  Raytheon had good connections with the MIT Radiation Laboratory where the American radar effort was centered.  A lot of Raytheon people were old MIT grads, they kept in touch, and when the Rad Lab needed something built, they had Raytheon do it.  By the time I went to work at Raytheon in the 1970's they were big.  They had the fantastic anti ballistic missile radar project which I got to work on.  They were doing SAM-D which became the Patriot anti aircraft and anti ballistic missile system in time for the Gulf War.  Raytheon was the go-to contractor for Navy ship borne radars and later the Aegis missile systems for Navy cruisers.
   Any how, the merger, if it goes thru, to be called Raytheon Technologies Corporation will be the second largest defense contractor, right behind Boeing, and be worth $100 billion. 
   This will reduce the number of defense contractors, reducing competition, which will raise the price of defense contracts to us taxpayers.  Was I Donald Trump (I'm not) I would have the anti trust department over at Justice object to this merger on the basis that it is anti competitive.  Anti trust hasn't done anything since they chickened out of supporting Netscape from predatory pricing by Microsoft back in the 1990s.  There has been some talk in recent days about breaking up the big tech companies, but I haven't since any real action on that front.  Fat as I can see, the DOJ antitrust people simply draw their pay and don't do anything.

Budget Day in Concord.

Senate Session, 6 June.  Budget day.  Plus 200 year anniversary of the Concord state house.  We had a small army of former Senators in the visitor’s gallery and the senate president introduced each one by name.  And a short joint session where nice things were said about New Hampshire history and the progress women have made in politics over the years.  No Fast Track calendar this week.  We ran thru the 8 bills on the regular calendar, mostly on roll calls, 14-10, all the Democrats voting for and all the Republicans voting against.  That got us up to lunch, sandwiches and cookies on the lawn outside.  After lunch we started on the budget and didn’t finish it until midnight.  The budget comes in two parts, part 1 (200 pages) and part 2 (180 pages).  Over than style changes it was/is not clear to me what the difference between them is.  Transparent they are not. Would you believe opaque?   No index or table of contents.  I never found any totals of spending or tax revenues for the whole state, or even of the various departments of state government.  I have been told that restoration of 100% stabilization grants is in there, somewhere, but I never found it.  The budget is started by the governor, who asks all his department heads how much money they need.  This list of goodies then goes to the house, which modifies it to suit them selves.  Then it comes to the senate and we make a lot of changes, or we try to. 

    We submitted 20 amendments.  The Democrats voted each one down, 14-10.  My amendments, one to fund renovation of the Hitchner building in Littleton to support White Mountain community college expansion there, and the other for expansion of the Coos County Family Health Services clinic in Berlin, both perished on party line roll call votes 14-10.  Anyhow, that makes this budget a Democrat budget.  Lots of new taxes.  Lots of expensive goodies like a 1.5% COLA for state retirees.   

   It was after 10 PM by the time our last amendment was voted down.  Then we got into a complex, and amazing bit of parliamentary quibbling than ran on till midnight.  We had originally voted to “divide” the budget into stuff we liked and stuff we didn’t like.  Senate president Donna Soucy had ruled the budget part 2 “divisible”.   In a voice vote the Democrats overruled the senate president (one of their own party!) and declared part 2 indivisible.  Very unusual to slap down your own senate president like that.   Which meant we could only vote the whole thing up or down, whereas we wanted to vote for the stuff we liked and against the stuff we didn’t like.  So we called a recess and waited for the Democrats desire to go home to override their desire to score an obscure political point.  It didn’t work, and at midnight we finally held a roll call vote to approve budget part 2.  All the Democrats voted for and all the Republicans voted against.  So the Democrat budget is off to the governor’s desk.  

Why Huawei should be no way

The US is campaigning to keep China's Huawei Technologies telecom equipment out of US and allied telephone systems.  We think Huawei is a security risk, that Huawei equipment contains secret back doors that allow Chinese intelligence services to intercept our voice and data traffic.  This risk sounds real to me. 
   One of Tom Clancy's techo thrillers has a CIA agent in Beijing securely emailing his intel reports back to Langley using a secret backdoor in US built telecom equipment installed in the Beijing phone system.  Clancy explains how the backdoor was slipped into the embedded computer code of the telecom switch by a few patriotic low level employees of AT&T and Microsoft at the request of CIA years before. Senior management knew nothing about it.  Although Clancy is writing fiction, that tale sounds completely plausible to me, an old embedded systems programmer.
   Huawei is a Chinese company and it is reasonable to believe that it is tied more closely to the Chinese government than US companies are, and that Huawei employees are as patriotic as US employees, perhaps even more so.
   We should work as hard as possible to keep suspect Huawei equipment out of our phone systems.  And out of our allies phone systems too.  

NH Senate activity 30 May

Senate Session 30 May.  A circus.  We voted on overriding Governor Sununu’s veto of death penalty abolition.  Vast excitement among the newsies.  In actual fact, the lawyers and the courts abolished the NH death penalty 80 years ago.  But the newsies found an appealing issue and have devoted yuge amounts of airtime and editorial words to it. The public would have been better served by air time and editorial words covering real issues like minimum wage, new taxes, transgender supremacy bills, and gun control.   Two big TV camera’s on tripods, five journals on laptops, two guys with big still cameras.  It was a roll call vote.  16-8 to override.  Just one vote over the two thirds majority needed to override.  I voted to sustain the governor’s veto and the death penalty.  There are some atrocious crimes, like school shooters who kill dozens of innocent students, or cop killers or traitors who pass secrets of the ultimate weapon to mortal enemies, who deserve death.   After the death penalty vote, the newsies all packed up and left.  We stayed in session until 7:30 PM.  I got home in the last of the daylight at 8:30 PM.  To the great joy of Stupid Beast. 

    We knocked off 21 bills with a quick voice vote on the Fast Track (Consent) calendar.  Then we bickered over 42 bills on the regular calendar for the rest of the day. 

   We kicked HB 186 the minimum wage bill into next year by re referring it back to committee.  That was a heavy duty jobs killer.   The Democrats rammed thru HB 105, which would allow people with out of state plates and/or out of state driver’s licenses to vote in New Hampshire.   Roll call vote 14-10, all Democrats for, all Republicans against.   Then they rammed thru HB 611 to allow everyone to get an absentee ballot, no questions asked.  And HB 651 that would allow campaign funds to be spent on child care.  Real politicians don’t put the kids in child care, they take them to their campaign events.  That’s what my mother did when she ran for the Massachusetts house many years ago.  We kids would have rather stayed home and watched TV, but Mother knew that voters love children and so she brought hers with her to all her events.  HB 481, the pot legalization bill got re referred to committee, which puts it off until next year.  And finally HB 608, a bill on Transexual rights was roll called thru 16-8.  This bill would allow boys to use the girl’s rooms, boys to compete on girls sports teams.

Black Panther 2018

   I missed seeing this in the theater last year.  After reading much hype I net flixed it and watched it.  Meh.   Opening credits scene showed a cool metal armored riding rhinoceros.  Never did see it in action in the movie but it looked cool in the credits.   The hidden black African kingdom of Wakanda needs a new king.  Wakanda possesses lots of high technology, anti gravity stretchers, Millennium Falcon style aircraft, futuristic cities and more.  The plot is obscure.  Many of the characters speak an African language which I don’t understand.  I never did catch the stage names for any character.  If the hero had a love interest it was never clear which chick it was. 

   The hero must win the kingship thru single combat with someone else.  This happens out doors in a small river leading to a mighty waterfall.  Of course, I expected the loser to get thrown down the waterfall.  Well that didn’t happen, this time.  Hero gets the crown, rules for a while, then suffers a rematch at the waterfall some time later.  This time he gets thrown over the falls.  He survives, and makes a comeback in the last reel. Not clear how. 

   The cast is all black, Wakanda is black, and Marvel ran Black Panther comic books for years.  That was after I had given up comic books so I missed out on much of the background of the movie.  Needless to say black fans just loved this movie. 

   Me, not so much.  They had Darkman working the camera giving us a lot of pure black scenes with only mumbled dialogue to clue us in.   Since the cast was all black, nothing showed up in the dark scenes. No even an eyeball.  At least in Game of Thrones you could see a white face or two barely visible in the black. 

NH arsenic limit in drinking water.

And I forgot to write about HB 261 concerning arsenic limits in drinking water.  It would establish a limit of 5 micrograms per liter for arsenic.  That’s really low.  I asked the advocates for this bill (Sen Feltes and Sen Sherman) where this limit came from.  Who or which organization recommended this VERY low limit. Neither of them knew where this VERY low limit came from. We are talking 5 parts per TRILLION here.  Back when I took chemistry in college it was felt than anything less than 1 part per MILLION (1000 parts per TRILLION) wasn’t going to hurt anybody.  Anyhow this cute little bill was adopted on a voice vote (all ayes, no nays).  Dunno how much it will increase everyone’s costs, first to make a measurement that delicate and second to reduce the arsenic content that much. 

NH needs to require public speaking senior year of high school

Down in Concord VERY few people can speak properly.  They mumble, they don't speak loud enough to be heard even from the front row of seats.  They slur their words, they talk too fast.  I sat thru a capital budget hearing.  I took a front row seat.  Of all the witnesses testifying, I could not tell what project they were advocating, where it was to be, how big it was gonna be.  All the witnesses were such poor public speakers that I missed most of their words.
   My high school required public speaking, a once a week course, of all seniors.  It was taught by the headmaster, old Daniel D. Test.   Held in the school theater, we spoke from the stage, Dan Test would sit in the last row.  And call out "I can't hear you" if you were not speaking loudly enough.  That course has stuck with me, and done me good over the years.  We ought to require it of all New Hampshire high schools. 

NH Senate Session 23 May

Senate session, 23 May.  Knocked off 17 bills on the Fast Track (consent) calendar with one quick voice vote.  Tackled 33 bills on the regular calendar. Took until 5 PM, even though we finally kicked half a dozen unlucky bills forward to next week’s session.  I didn’t get home until 7 PM.  Long day. 

    The Democrats passed four gun control bills on roll call votes, 13-10.  Democrat Fuller Clarke was absent, accounting or only 13 Democratic votes instead of the usual 14.  HB 109 demands a “universal background check” for all gun sales.  The “universal” check is some how different from the Instant Background Check that is current law.  HB 514 requires a three day waiting period between purchase and delivery of a gun.  That ought to kill off gun shows in New Hampshire.  And HB 564 allows local school committees to set up gun free zones and what ever else strikes their fancy.  Finally HB 696 which allows a judge to order confiscation of a citizen’s guns and ammunition upon a single complaint from just about any body, including live in girl friends.  No hearing, no pleading, and the government is under no obligation to return the seized firearms, ever.   Lesson: Democrats are the party of gun control.  If you want to keep your gun, vote a straight Republican ticket.  Contact governor Sununu and ask him to veto all three of these.   

   Then Democrats pushed thru a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) bill.  Retirees will get a 1.5% boost in their state pensions.  The $140 million cost will go onto local property taxes. 

    HB 628 will require some, a lot, they didn’t say, buildings to provide adult changing stations.  First I ever heard of that. Retro fit or new construction, didn’t say.  This “issue” should be dealt with by the state building code board. 

    HB 359 requires pharmacies to attach an orange sticker to all prescription bottles containing opioid.   The pharmacists are against the idea.  The prescribing doctor is supposed to inform his patients of opioid containing drugs.  Failure to do so is malpractice.  And the bright colored sticker will attract children looking for a high, thieves, and other problems.  Anyhow it passed on a roll call 21-1. 

   Bunch of other bills went thru, none of them very interesting. 

  And last of all we passed HB 706, the redistricting commission on a voice vote.  All ayes, no nays.  Like most voice votes.   This bill sets up a redistricting commission, even numbers of Democrats and Republicans, no elected officials, to draw new district maps after the 2020 census.   The commission is advisory, and the legislature can reject, redraw and otherwise do its own thing as the Constitution requires.  A lot of my constituents feel strongly about the Constitutional requirements.  In actual fact, the commission might do a better job that the Republicans did ten years ago up here.  Back then, they created a snake like district running from Franconia all the way to the Connecticut River, which was then held by a democrat, Rebecca Brown, for the next three elections.       

Congress is stalled out. And our New Hampshire delegation, Democrats all, ain't helping

I don't believe the Congress has passed much, other than the tax cut bill, since Trump got inaugurated.  They keep saying that passing anything, like immigration reform, would help Trump, and Democrats cannot stand that.  So they do nothing.   The only thing I can remember our congressional delegation doing is Anne Kuster voting against the Keystone XL pipeline.  With all here constituents needing furnace oil and gasoline to drive to work, she votes against a project that might lower the cost of both commodities.  Way to go Anne. 
   We need two new US reps and two new US Senators.  Steve Negron has declared against Anne Kuster.  Bill O'Brien was making noises about running for  Sheehan's Senate seat.  They need all the help we can give them.  

Is Socialism the same as the More Free Stuff party?

 Socialism is a polite word for Communism.  Karl Marx decried the capitalism of his time as exploitation of the workers.  Marx's solution was to have the government, Communist government, take ownership of all  the "means of production", basically the entire economy, and  to divvy up the proceeds of enterprises among all the workers.  Trouble was, after government take over, the enterprises stopped making money, and there was little or nothing to divvy up.  The revolutionary government of Russia in 1917 called themselves Communists and blackened the name of Communism so badly that future Communists decided to call themselves and their regimes Socialist rather than Communist.
   Today's  Democrats and/or Democratic Socialists are more interested in more free stuff than they are about government ownership of the means of production.  Or at least that's the way they talk.  We should remember that Communist or Socialist regimes inflict serious national poverty upon the nations stupid enough to embrace Communism or Socialism.  Examples are Venezuela, Cuba, and Russia.  So there will be little free stuff to hand out.
   Capitalism produces vast amounts of wealth and lifts countless people out of poverty.  Under capitalism all the means of production are owned and controlled by private individuals who operate them effectively.  The owners take a slice of the proceeds, in many cases a whacking big slice, but they produce  rivers of stuff, enough to fill our store shelves, and flood us with motor vehicles, aircraft, computers, gasoline, air conditioners, electronics, furnace oil, interstate highways, internet, and God only knows what else.  Better to have plenty of everything even if the owners get away with a great big slice. 
   You gotta wonder about those polls claiming that yuge numbers of people want "socialism".   What have our schools been teaching?

Silly talk about NH paid family leave bill. WMUR

We had Chuck Morse (Republican Senate minority leader) and Dan Feltes (Democratic Senate majority leader) on WMUR this morning.  They talked about the comprehensive family leave bill, which the Democrats passed and Governor Sununu vetoed.  Feltes was saying that we need the family leave bill to attract young workers to New Hampshire. 
   That's malarkey.  People decide to move into New Hampshire if they find, or think they can find, a good job, a better job than the one they have.  Then they consider housing costs (rents or house prices), taxes,  commuting time, and skiing, snowmobiling, ATV riding, hiking, climbing, fishing, and all the other outdoor activities that New Hampshire is famous for.   Few will get down to considering the presence or absence of paid family leave when deciding to come to New Hampshire.  Dan Feltes is flim flamming us on that one. 
   The bill the democrats passed, and the governor vetoed, (SB1) offered generous benefits, and a stiff income tax to pay for them.  The current economic boom, good times, came about from both federal and state tax cuts.  Adding a 1% (or more, a bureaucrat can raise it if he thinks the program needs more money)  undoes the good work that tax cuts have given us. 

NH Senate session 15 May

Senate session, Wednesday 15 May.  This was a long one.  Started at 10 AM and lasted until 5 PM.  We dealt with a lotta bills, most of them nit noi unimportant stuff.  We kicked things off by passing the Fast Track calendar with 17 bills on it with one quick voice vote, no debate.  Then we faced up to 51 bills on the regular calendar. 

   We killed HB 558 the plastic straw ban bill.  We amended HB 560, the plastic bag ban into something totally different.  After amendment HB560 didn’t say any thing about plastic or bags, but now requires cities and towns to report weight of trash dealt with to DES.  Guess my town will have to buy a scale. We stalled off HB 447 about school calendars by re-referring it to committee.  It would have allowed school boards to start school anytime they please which guts an earlier bill we passed that required schools to start after Labor Day.   I think starting school before Labor Day is child abuse, but teachers and administrators would start school in July if they thought they could get away with it. 

   We passed HB 446 on a voice vote.  This bill allows editing your birth certificate to remove “Male” or “Female” and replace it with “Other”.  We passed HB 669 that would do the same for NH driver’s licenses on a voice vote.

   That’s all the interesting bills.  The bulk of them are just not interesting enough to me to comment on them.  Twelve bills created study committees, which I think is a polite way of killing the issue. 

   And, we passed HB 280 making the red tailed hawk the state raptor.  Important issue that.  Apparently a bunch of 4^th graders proposed this bill four years ago.  Those kids are now in 8^th grade, and they were present for the vote on HB 280.  I think we taught them that it takes forever to get the NH legislature to anything. 

NH Senate Activity. 13 May

Ed Comm hearings, Tuesday, 13 May.  This was executive session day, no hearings.  We only had two bills to deal with.  HB 131 was an attempt to recover the Signum University degree granting authority.  We passed a bill in the Senate to grant degree granting authority to Signum back a month ago.  For some unclear reason the House killed it last week.  We tried to revive it by tacking the Signum bill onto HB 131 as a rider.  Ed committee chairman Senator Jay Kahn discouraged this scheme, saying the house would kill it.  He suggested we offer the Signum amendment as a floor amendment during senate session this week.  Well, that never happened, and Signum, an innovative way to gain a college degree is without NH support, even though the NH Dept of Ed thinks they are doing good.  Too bad. 

   Then we rehashed HB 226 which would grant teachers their “experienced educator” certificate after only three years of class room teaching, instead of the current five years.  We added a lot of verbiage to the bill, making it harder to figure out what it was doing.   Which is OK by me.  Three years of class room teaching is plenty.  In the Air Force we put teachers in front of classrooms after only three weeks of training.  And the Air Force teachers, just sergeants, pulled right off the flight line, with classes of rowdy teen aged airmen, did just fine.  I took some courses and the instructors were as good as, of better than, any teachers I ever had. 

Anyhow, Tuesday cleaned up the last Ed Comm bills.  No Ed Comm hearings next Tuesday. 

What to do about Facebook?

They have been selling user's data.  They don't keep anything confidential.  They have been kicking conservative posters off.  They are almost the only game in town.  So what to do?
1.  Do nothing.  If Facebook kicks you off, start a blog. 
2.  Use anti trust laws to break Facebook into two (or more) viable pieces.  This ought to create competition.  Conservatives black balled off of one piece can re apply to the other piece.  The two pieces ought to compete for advertising by lowering their rates. 
3.  Regulate.  Set up a commission of "impartial" members to lay down the law to Zuckerburg.  Will stir things up for a while.  Then Facebook will capture the regulators by taking them out to lunch, and other juicy things, and offering them cushy jobs with Facebook if they treat Facebook right.  Plus, real control of what Facebook actually does will remain in Zuckerborg's hands.  The regulators won't be able to tell if Facebook is doing what they are told to do or not. 
4.  Encourage a competitor to compete.  Probably not viable.  Facebook has occupied the market space and getting started against them probably is not possible. 
5. Something else? 

I started up a Facebook page to support my Senate campaign.  It got a lot of hits.  Like 150 for each time I posted.  I believe it did me a lot of good in the election.  I won after all.  I am still on Facebook.  They have not booted me, or even bitched to me. Yet.

Islamic terrorists have posted a lot of really disgusting and hateful stuff on Facebook.  I'm glad to hear Facebook is doing something about that.  At least that's what I hear, mostly from Facebook. I can believe as much of that as I please.  They claim that Russian trolls have used Facebook posts to influence the 2016 election.  Not sure if I believe that.  Putin, old KGB man, has good intel on America, and must have known that Hillary was his best bet.  Hillary isn't very smart, isn't very brave, and would never give Putin any trouble over Russian aggression anywhere.  Trump was (still is) a wild card.  Nobody knows what he will do next.  Putin knew all this well before the US election.  It is inconceivable to me that Putin wanted Trump to win. 

Avengers:Endgame 2019

I took it in at the Jax Jr in Littleton this afternoon.  The theater was chilly, even for me wearing a fleece vest over my shirt, and a ski parka.  It's looong.  Three hours.  A lot of scenes when far longer than need be.  I recognized some characters from previous Marvel flicks,  Captain America (Steve Rogers) Tony Stark (Ironman but we don't see him wearing the Ironman suit), Rocket Racoon, Groot, Thor, Hulk.   Bunch of new faces that meant nothing to me.  Some of them vaguely familiar looking, must have turned up somewhere sometime in a Marvel movie.  The bow and arrow guy from I forget which flick turned up.   
    There was a hint of plot.  The Avengers must develop time travel to got back and acquire/steal/rescue five magic gemstones needed to save the world.  Some awful catastrophe has overtaken poor old Earth and with the five magic stones the avengers can fix it.  Needless to say the stones are recovered and then a lot of hand to hand combat with a large armored nasty happens. 
   Despite glowing rating in the print press and Rotten Tomatoes, I was not all that impressed. 

New tariffs on Chinese goods will make life interesting for WalMart.

Nearly all the goods on Walmart's shelves are made in China.  The 25% tariff going into effect is going to put a squeeze on Walmart.  Unless there is more juice in the business (like 25% juice, which is unlikely) which I doubt, something has got to give.  Most likely Walmart will have to raise their prices. 
   As for me, I don't shop Walmarts all that much.  At my stage of life I am pretty well fixed for housewares and clothing and appliances.  I do buy my prescriptions there, but I think those are all made in USA. 

May you live in interesting times.

Words of the Weasel Part 57

From Aviation Week.
    The Dragon capsule had successfully completed a series of 2-sec. firings of its small Draco thrusters, used for in-space maneuvering and was about 0.5 sec. from igniting eight Super-Draco  launch abort motors when the anomaly occurred, destroying the vehicle, Koenigsmann said.

In plain English.  The launch abort rocket engines exploded during ground testing, destroying the Dragon crew capsule. 

Mechanical failure doesn't get much worse than this.

Question for the Space-X folks.  Why are not the launch about engines solid fuel?  The ones that blew were liquid fuel engines burning hypergolic (ignites upon contact, no ignition required) hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide.  Solid fuel is stable, does not leak, and is very reliable.  Launch abort means rocket the capsule off the top of, and away from, an exploding booster rocket.  Never been done to my knowledge.  Requires VERY rapid response.

NH Senate activity 7 May 2019

Things are slowing down.  For the usual Ed Committee meeting this Tuesday 7 May, we had no new bills to hear.  We went into executive session to rehash some bills previously heard.  We took up HB 131, a bill to create yet another study commission on prevention of suicide among school children.  We decided it needed more study, and postponed action until the next meeting.  Next was HB 149 concerning co operative school districts, and how to handle matters should the level of cooperation drop off, and one party want out.  We decided that existing law was just fine, and we voted HB 149 Inexpedient To Legislate.  We discussed HB 226 which wanted to decrease new teacher apprentice time from 5 years to 3 years.   Cannot remember what we decide to do with this one, my notes are silent on the matter.  We probably decided to kick the can down the road and deal with it later.  We did vote HB 258, a bill requiring study of teacher training, Ought To Pass, 4-0. Frankly, this is a no account bill.  The best teacher training is training in subject matter, English, US history, science, foreign language, art, etc.  A teacher that knows his or her subject matter can do a fine job teaching our children.  We voted HB 437 a quibble over paperwork, changing “ethics” into “conduct”. Ought To Pass, 4-0.  And we voted HB 447, which would have allowed school to start before Labor Day rerefer to committee, giving us more time to argue about it.  And we closed out the morning by voting HB 489, a bill concerning transfer of students from one school district to another, Inexpedient To Legislate. 

   We took a brief recess and then heard John Tobin’s presentation on state aid to education.  We need to do something.  Poorer towns like Berlin are running out of school money, despite outrageous property tax rates.  We need to do something to help out the towns with little assessed value in their tax base. 

    Then I met with 80 fourth graders from Berlin, down for State House visit.   Bunch of cute young kids, most wearing red school T-shirts.  I welcomed them, I said a few good words, and I shook hands with all of them.  It’s a worth while educational exercise.  For kids to understand anything about democracy in New Hampshire, they need to visit the State House.   

After a quick lunch, I got to the Senate hearings on the state budget.  Every one speaking, spoke up for more money to their pet cause.   The only gave each speaker three minutes.  After an hour of this I left for the hearing on HB 557, a bill to curb robocallers.  I spoke, urging some cruel and unusual punishment for robocallers, boiling in oil for the first offence and burning at the stake for the second offense.  I mentioned the robocallers who call me, pushing drugs, about once a week.  I suggested that we require the phone company[s] to fix caller ID so it cannot be spoofed.  That would give the PUC something useful to do.   

Good vibes yesterday, Tiger Woods Medal of Freedom.

Fox broadcast it live and at length.  President Trump awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods.  Trump spoke of Tiger Woods at length and with warmth.  I think a white president awarding honors to a black golfer is a nice touch. It might not heal all the racial divisions of the country, but it helps. Tiger Woods is a fantastically good golfer, perhaps the best there ever was.  The president plays golf himself, and knew the ins and outs of Tiger's career, along with some ups and downs, and he spoke from a good knowledge of golf, and a good memory of watching some of Tiger Woods best moments.  Well done to both men. 

Disk Hogs in the wild.

I just discovered that Firefox allows web sites to store megbytes of stuff on your hard drive.  This is not those little old cookies, which were in the 100 byte class.  This Cached Web Content is megabytes.  I found I had a whole gigabyte of  "stuff" stored on disk courtesy of Firefox.  You can free up a gigabyte of disk.  From within Firefox click on the nameless button with three horizontal stripes, far right on the task bar.  Click on Options.  Click on Privacy & Security.  Click on Cookies and Site Data.  Click on Clear Data.  Clear the check mark for Cookies and Site Data unless you want to have to log into all your favorite websites (can you find your passwords).  Leave the checkmark in Cached Web Content and click on clear.  It's worth doing this before running anti virus to speed up the scanning.  If anyone knows how to shut down Cached Web Content I would love to hear about it.
   I figured it was time to run antivirus on new desktop, SmallBox by name.  I downloaded the free Malwarebytes V 3.7.1.  The default scan option is quick, a minute or two but doesn't check your disk files.  The  "Custom Scan"  option does do disk files.  That took an hour.  A lotta time spent scanning the gigabyte of Cashed Web Content, courtesy of Firefox. and even more time scanning a gigantic new Windows folder at C:Window\Services\LCU.  The LCU folder is so huge that I googled on the name just to see what it was.  What little info turned up indicates that people know about it.  None of posts explained what it was, and whether I could delete it or not.  It's huge.  Any info would be welcome.
   Malwarebytes tagged a  profile folder to Firefox as malware.  I didn't agree with that call, and told Malwarebytes to leave that file alone.  It did find some seven registry keys and three other files as malware.  I let Malwarebytes quarantine them all. 

More doings in the NH Senate

Ed Committee hearing, 30 April.  Light day.  We heard just one bill, HB 631, establishing a deaf child’s bill of rights.  It had a lot of supporters. The language is vague and wimpy.   Twelve clauses begin with “Deaf or hard of hearing children have a right to” this that and the other, all vague nice sounding ideas.  No sentences with words like “The school committee shall” of “The dept of Education shall”.  I asked about this, and was told that the language was copied from a bill in some other state and the “no state mandates on cities and towns” law prevented stronger language.  Far as I can see all this bill does is give parents the right to sue, at their own expense, should they come to believe that their deaf child is not getting a fair shake.   We had a lot of witnesses testify in sign language.   In executive session we did a lightweight amendment and voted it Ought To Pass.  This bill, with or without amendments is reasonably harmless to my way of thinking. 

   Then I attended the hearing in the Transportation Committee on HB 591, the anti off road vehicle (ATV) bill.  If passed it would close most roads to ATV’s even crossing them, let alone going into town to buy dinner, and make it difficult to establish more ATV trails.  I testified that ATV users are bringing real money to the North Country and should be encouraged. We need their money.  And that I would vote against this bill when it gets to the Senate floor.   

Words of the Weasel Part 56.

How to Weaponize an Existential Threat.  The title of a piece in the Wall St Journal Op-Ed page.  The author, Joseph Epstein is out to trash a lot of vague words, popular with newsies and pols, which have been creeping into English.  He mentions focus, issue (bland word for bug or problem), charisma, prioritize, weaponize, incentivize.  Word for Window spell check chokes up on weaponize and incentivize

   The author finishes off with “existential threat”.    A threat is a threat, when you are on the receiving end of a threat you have to either knuckle under, or get ready to fight.  The existential part is a fancy way of making the threat sound more dangerous.  Me, I will stick with “deadly threat”.   

   Mr. Epstein doesn’t mention “holistic”, a general purpose sounds good but means nothing word.  When I hear or read “holistic” I know I am wasting my time with this person or article.

Star Wars The Force Awakens 2015

The Force Awakens.  Following up on my Stars Wars refresher, getting ready for the coming Christmas new Star Wars movie, I popped my DVD of The Force Awakens into the player last night.  I’m getting them out of order, The Force Awakens came out for Christmas 2015, and Rogue One came out the next Christmas 2016. 

   They had a better sound man in Force.  All the dialog was audible.  And I picked up on a few of the new character’s names.  Rey, Finn, Poe, BB-8.  Never did catch a name for Darth Vader, Jr.  And everybody knows Han Solo, Leia Organa, and Luke Skywalker by sight.  In this movie they kill off Han Solo.  He will be missed. 

   Camera man was into the dark look, he turned out the lights in a lot of scenes.  Not quite as annoying as Rogue One camera work, but annoying.  Even out door scenes in broad daylight were dim.  Indoor scenes were black. 

   We have a plot of sorts.  Poe has a star map showing where the long lost Luke Skywalker is hiding/meditating.  It is programmed into his droid, BB-8, smaller and cuter than R2D2.  They need to get the map to the Resistance, who then launches a one person search party (Rey) to find Skywalker.  Rey is pretty good; we meet her on desert planer Jakku where she is making bare living scavenging wrecks out in the desert.  Rey has a vehicle nearly as cool as the air car from the first Star Wars flick.  It floats a bit higher off the ground and looks like a John Deere farm tractor without the wheels.  Noisy and smoky internal combustion engine (still surviving in the high tech Star Wars universe?).   Rey is lean and tough, fast on her feet, and a natural born pilot.  She and Finn escape Jakku in the good old Millennium Falcon which they find and steal right off the planetary boss’s back yard.  With Rey in the pilot’s seat and Finn manning the guns, we see a lot of low level flying with TIE fighters in pursuit.  Millennium Falcon is built tough in this flick; we see her scraping the ground and crashing thru trees, and still airborne.  I found these scenes a little jarring, in the Air Force, touching the plane to the ground, even lightly, was a crash, excepting touched the landing gear to the runway.  And, they can kick in the hyper drive and go faster than light before even getting clear of the hanger. 

Swap the keyboard and Control-C, Control-V and Delete work again

This is Win 10 Pro, running on a reconditioned (used) Dell Optiplex 990.  Changing out the Dell USB keyboard for the old Compaq  keyboard with the old PS2  connector  and everything works!!  I was unable to find anything useful on the net to fix the problem.  Youngest son was up for the weekend and he suggested trying a PS2 keyboard.  That did the trick. I'm still looking for info to get the new USB keyboard to work, it has a nicer keyfeel than the aging Compaq keyboard. 
  I think this is a Win 10 or a driver problem.  The PS2 keyboard uses a different driver.  I don't think the problem is defective hardware, 'cause both Control AND Delete were broke on the USB keyboard.  That's an unlikely hardware failure. 
   Strange that I could not find anyone else on the net complaining about the problem.

Beat the Press.

Chuck Todd had the day off, some newshen I don't know filled in for him this Sunday morning.  All they talked about was the Mueller report.  Apparently nothing interesting has happened anywhere else in the world.  A lot of grieving on air that the Mueller report failed to nuke Trump.  More opining about impeaching Trump.  Not a word about the horrible massacre of Christians in Sre Lanka (Ceylon it used to be called).   Not a word about the engine explosion on the Space-X crew capsule.  Stick with the Drudge Report, you will gt some real news, rather than NBC longing to nuke Trump.

NH Senate doings week of 22-26 April 2019

Ed Committee Hearing.  23 April.  Five bills were heard.  We started off with HB 383 “Relative to the prohibition on unlawful discrimination in public and non-public schools”.  Couple of interesting phrases in that title.  “Unlawful discrimination”, is there any other kind?  Does “lawful discrimination” really exist?  And “non-public schools”.  In plain English those are called private schools.   I asked the representative introducing the bill if “discrimination” included preventing boys from using girl’s restrooms, locker rooms and showers.  She said it did.  She also said preventing boys from competing in girl’s sports would be discrimination.  I plan to speak against and vote against this bill when it reaches the Senate floor.  Can you say stealth transgender?  The bill makes no attempt to define  discrimination, which means it could be anything.

    Now for HB 435, this is a harmless paperwork bill, changes a few names, but otherwise harmless. 

    And HB 447 “Relative to school calendar days”.  This bill merely states that local school boards can set the school calendar as they please just so long as they squeeze in 180 school days.  This is what the law is today. This bill is to kill off a Senate bill passed earlier, that required all schools to start AFTER Labor Day. Most NH schools now start in August.  Administrators and teachers like that.  Personally, I feel that starting school before Labor Day is child abuse.  But that’s just me. 

   And HB 448 another harmless paperwork bill of no consequence.

   And finally, HB 652 which would require two hours of suicide prevention training for everyone, teachers, administrators, bus drivers, secretaries, everybody except coaches.  No funding was provided.   Training could be merely watching some instructional video on the Internet.   No requirement for training students to recognize suicidal thoughts in their friends, or what to do should they feel a friend might be suicidal.   

Short Senate session today.  Started at the usual time, 10 AM and we had all the business on the calendar done by 11 AM.  Opened the show with the Fast Track (consent) calendar.  Ten bills were Fast Tracked.  All of them were harmless and no account.  One was amusing and makes you wonder how anyone does business in New Hampshire.  That was HB 259 that now requires that building inspectors writing up a building or job must quote chapter and verse of the fire code that has been violated when they write up a violation.  Dunno how we have gotten along without that all these years.  Anyhow one quick voice vote and ten more bills, already passed by the House, are passed by the Senate and off for the Governor’s signature. 

   Now for the regular calendar.  We killed (Inexpedient to Legislate, ITL in legitative speak) HB 309 which made complicated changes to the procedures about foreclosing a mortgage.  We passed HB 511 which subjected vaping to the same controls as ordinary cigarette smoking.  No vaping on school property, no vaping in no smoking areas.   Seemed reasonable to me.  Did not get into taxing vaping stuff as hard as we tax cigarettes.  And we voice voted HB 684, concerning rent disputes about “manufactured housing: Ought To Pass (OTP).  I asked the bill’s sponsor if “manufactured housing” was what ordinary people call house trailers.  He conceded that it was.  I then asked him why rent disputes over house trailer rentals deserved special protections at law that ordinary landlord tenant disputes don’t get.  Answer was so vague as to be no answer at all.

   And then HP 663 concerning some obscure language changes about the definition of agriculture and agricultural land use.  We used to call that farming and farms.  Dunno what the lawyers dreamed up to complicate life and raise their billable hours. 

   And HB 118 which would require notifying a child’s doctor of reports of abuse.  This could be a little touchy.  Down in Massachusetts they have a lot of doctors reporting ordinary child accident injury from falls and such as child abuse.  Anyhow HB 118 passed on a voice vote. Zap.

   And HB 396 requiring the bureaucracy to get the lead out and respond to right to know requests within 5 days.    OTP voice vote. 

   And HB 427 made some opaque change to the law about filing protective orders on behalf of minor children.  OTP voice vote.

    And HB 437 concerning “family alienation” was tabled on a voice vote.  This bill would have allowed divorced parents to sue each other for bad mouthing each other in front of the children.  Let’s leave it on the table forever. 

   And a weird one, HB 518 which allows the state to recover the costs of imprisoning someone from that someone.  Apparently we have a wealthy prisoner in slam right now and we want to sock it to him harder.  Senator Lou D’Alessandro spoke in favor of this.  I never heard of this before.  We send a guy to jail, he serves his sentence, or is a good little boy and gets parole, and he is out.  I never heard of a state dunning such a person for room and board in the big house before. 

   And we closed by passing HB 700 concerning taxes on utilities.  I did not understand just what the deal was in HB 700.  I do know New Hampshire utility rates are totally unreasonable, partly due to taxes on utilities, RGGI, another hidden utility tax and more such.   

    

Name Signs for Pundits.

What’s in a name?   I watch a lot of TV talking heads, opining upon nearly everything.  Camera will cut in on one or another of them as they talk.   Leaving me wondering About the name of the speaker.  Some names I know and respect.  Other names I know are turkeys.  A lot of names I never heard of. 

   What the TV people ought to do is place a good sized name sign on the table in front of each participant.  Then the news junkies in the audience, like yours truly, would know who is who and be able to sort out good opinions from the not-so-good opinions presented.  And perhaps learn a few new names in the process.