USAF starting bids on yet more tankers.

 Ten years ago Boeing won the contract for 180 new air refueling tankers.  They have not yet finished delivery on all the planes.  Boeing says they have lost $5 billion on this job.  There was a hassle over how to wire the aircraft, the Air Force thought they knew more about aircraft wiring than Boeing did. Then there is the rear view TV system.  They wanted to seat the boom operator up in the cockpit rather than back in the tail.  So they put in a TV system to let the boom operator see to steer the boom into the fuel receptical  of the refueling aircraft.  The Air Force has complained that the TV system image is not as good as the image you get looking out thru a plain old window.  Air Force has been "witholding" $12 million per plane.  Boeing has promised an improved TV system, some time in the future.

   180 new tankers aparently isn't enough.  So, USAF is going thru the  whole bidding process, pitting Boeing against Airbus all over again. New specs, new contract, and if Airbus wins,  they will furnish their own tanker, based on an Airbus airliner.  Speaking as an old USAF maintenance officer, I would much rather have a larger fleet of the same aircraft, than a mixed fleet of half Boeing, half Airbus.  The mixed fleet means I have to train my guys on both aircraft and I have to  stock different spare parts for both aircraft.  

So what's with booster shots for Corona virus?

 Yesterday the TV said that FDA does not approve of booster shots.  Today the TV says that somebody thinks boosters are needed for old folks over 65 like me.  I think I will ask my doctor what he recommends rather that taking the TV's word for anything.

What's with a Marine wearing a Class A uniform in medium blue?

 General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff, in the news a lot, over Bob Woodward's story about Milley telephoning the Chinese chief of staff and promising to give him a heads up in case Trump was planning an attack on China.  Some times he wears the traditional Marine Class A uniform in olive drab.  Sometimes he wears a blue Class A uniform, the blue is lighter than Navy blue, and darker than Air Force blue.  I am out of touch with uniform regulations now, but I am surprised about two colors for the Class A uniform.  

The Democrat’s “Freedom to Vote Act”

 After talking up a spending bill of $3.5 trillion, or perhaps $5.8 trillion, the Democrats are proposing loosening up voter laws to make it easier for Democrats to vote.  They are planning a voter law that would put the federal government in charge of a lot of stuff that is currently handled by state governments.  The want to force Republican states to make a lot of changes that will favor Democrats at the ballot box.

The Democrats want five changes that will open the doors to massive voter fraud.

1.  15 Consecutive days of early voting.  I think we ought to vote in Election Day; it simplifies counting votes, and makes it harder for out of state voters to show up, show false ID and a mail in ballot, and steal the vote of a real resident voter. 

2. Same day registration at all polling sites.  Same day registration makes voter fraud easier.  A real resident of the state has no trouble getting to town hall BEFORE the election and registering to vote.  An out of state shill, bussed up to vote, loves same day registration. 

3. Mail in voting.  Mail in voting causes millions of good ballots to be mailed out to every voter in the state.  A lot of these ballots fall into the hands of unscrupulous vote buyers, who fill them out for their party, file them down at town hall, and when the real voter shows up to vote, they get told, “Sorry, you already voted”. 

4.  Weaken voter ID.  Allow more documents including bank cards and student ID cards.  Far as I am concerned the only decent ID is a state driver’s license.  Everyone gets one; you have to have a driver’s license to drive to work. 

5. Require provisional ballots.  If the voter lacks a proper photo ID, he can fill out a ballot, the election officials are supposed to check out the voter and his lack of ID.  If the officials run out of time, and the ballot is for their party, they mark it OK, and throw it into the pile of ballots to be counted.  Far as I am concerned, if the voter doesn’t have a valid picture ID (driver’s license) then he doesn’t get to vote.

 

All Republicans ought to oppose this bill.  According to the Wall St Journal it will come up for a vote next week.  Too bad the entire New Hampshire congressional delegation is Democrat.  We need to fix that. 

 

 

 

Secretary Blinken avoids answering questions

 Congress grilled Blinken on TV all day.  He managed to dodge answering anything all day.  A fast mouth on that guy.  And I don't believe a word he said. 

Why did Fauci give US taxpayer funding to a Chinese lab?

 Did, or did not, the Wuhan lab in China create the corona virus?  Who knows?  Why did Fauci approve giving US funding to a Chinese lab?  If there was something that we really needed to know, we should have funded and American lab, on American soil, staffed by Americans, to do the work.  That way we get the results, we can check them, retry anything that seems doubtful, and we have full access to the experimental results.  

   The Chinese have clammed up about just what went on at that Wuhan lab.  We funded them but we don't get any results.  Money down the drain.  

I suspect that the funding went to China, because the work was "gain of function" research, a very dangerous procedure that had been banned by the Obama administration.  Fauci wanted for some reason to do some gain of function work, so he sent the work and the money to China which had not banned gain of function research.

Gain of function research amounts to fiddling with the infectious agent, most likely a virus, to make it more infectious.  There is no good reason to do that sort of thing.    

baked French onion soup

 Tasty.  Start with a can of Campbell's French onion soup.  Follow directions on the can, add a can of water, heat on the stove on medium until it begins to bubble.  Take an earthenware bowl or pottle.  Put in half the soup.  Top with a small piece of toast and some grated cheese.  Pop it until the broiler long enough to melt the cheese.  In my oven, with my timer, that is two minutes.  It's tasty and low calorie.