Wither Ukraine?

 From what little I know of Russian history, the country we now call Russia, get started in Ukraine way back in the middle ages.  Kiev (surprise new fangled spelling Kiyv) started as a Viking (Rus) trading post way back when and the Viking culture spread to the rest of what is now a days Russia.  Took a while and the Russians look on Ukraine as the place their nation got started.  Ukraine was a sizable part of the old Soviet Union.  A lot of the Ukrainian populations were Russians, speaking Russian.  I have heard that the Ukrainian language is pretty close to Russian; close enough that Russians and Ukrainians can speak to each other without using translators.  I have not traveled to Ukraine to check that out myself, but I have read it. 

  Today, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin wants something from the Ukraine.  Satellite photos show a huge Russian army, (100,000 men?) build up on the Russia-Ukraine border.  I’m thinking a Russian army that big can invade and conquer all of Ukraine.   And surely Putin, as a good Russian, would like to incorporate all of Ukraine into Russia.  So far Putin has asked for beyond the pale political concessions from NATO and the US.  Like promising to never offer NATO membership to Ukraine.  And probably some other stuff that I missed on the TV.  So far we (NATO and the US) have promised economic sanctions against the Russians if (when?) they invade Ukraine.  I have not heard what those sanctions might be.  Nor have I heard how much they would really hurt the Russians.  The Russian economy is mostly about selling crude oil.  That can be sold for cash; no bank need meddle with the deal.

  Good Luck.   Lets Go Brandon.  

Would you buy a battery car?

 For me, probably not.  Battery cars are about the same on the environment as real (gasoline) cars.  Refining the materials to make the huge battery takes a lot of energy which is a lot of carbon dioxide. Generating the electricity to charge the battery; unless your electric company is hydro or nuclear powered, releases about as much carbon dioxide as running a single tank of gas thru a real car. 

  It can take better than two hours to charge up a battery car.  We did this, I stopped in to visit an old high school friend.  He had just bought a battery powered Toyota SUV.  We drove over to the local shopping mall which had a free 440 volt car charger.  We plugged the car in and then strolled around the mall spending money.  Two hours later the car was not fully charged.  And the 440 volt charger only gives you two hours, and then it insisted on allowing someone else to charge their car. 

   In short, a long trip, longer than the battery can do, will take a couple of more hours while you wait for the battery to recharge.  My Buick will get from here (upstate NH) to Maryland, 500 miles away, on one tank of gas. 

   Battery cars are expensive; say $10K more than a real car, even with the federal government giving out generous tax breaks for buying electric.  Good use of my tax money that.

Crime Fighting is a state and local duty.

 Crime fighting is not a federal job, mostly.  The TV has been trashing Biden's news conference for a lot of reasons, including no questions about crime control.  The cops and the courts are run by states and cities and towns.  The federal judiciary is mostly reserved for cases of constitutional interpretation.  Plus, it seems to me, that the voters of New York City in electing a soft-on-crime DA asked for more crime.  After electing Alvin Bragg as city DA they are going to get more crime.  How much more crime in the streets and passengers pushed to their deaths in front of subway trains will it take to wise up New York voters??

The Winter Car

 It’s zero F this morning so I started thinking about what I would like in a new car for winter driving.

 

1. An outside thermometer so I can tell if that black patch up ahead is glare ice or just a puddle.  The sensor has to be properly located so it reads right if it is raining, and doesn’t read engine heat when it is supposed to read outside temperature.
2. Front wheel drive or even better all wheel drive.  For all wheel drive to be worth it the car needs the same amount of weight on each wheel.  It also needs limited slip between the wheels on each axle and between the axles, so that a few wheels that have traction can pull the car even if a couple of wheels are just slipping.
3. Manual transmission so I can rock the car back and forth by shifting from 1^st to reverse and back again rapidly.
4. Ski rack.
5. Windshield washer reservoir positioned so it gets some engine heat to keep it from freezing.
6. Battery under the hood to make a jump start easier than a battery under the read seat cushion does. 
7. Dash light brightness controlled by a knob, rather than those fancy intelligent deals where the car automatically dims the dash lights when it senses sunlight.  And dash light bright enough to read the instruments in full sun.

Where is the Justice Dept Anti Trust Division? On vacation? sound asleep?

 Micro$oft, a massive company, who owns the desktop and laptop operating system buisiness, and Word and Excel, and a bunch of other stuff, wants to buy Activision, a video game maker (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, and some other stuff).  The deal is said to be $75 billion.  That's quite a chunk of change, even for Micro$oft.  

   This should not be allowed.  Micro$oft is entirely too big right now.  We don't need a Micro$oft that is $75 billion bigger.  Anti trust ought to send Micro$oft a nasty gram and threaten to take them to court if they push this deal thru.  That is what the anti trust division of DOJ is for.  Lets have them earn their pay.

Why do we care about Corona virus testing?

    We can tell if someone is ill by talking to them, taking their temperature and doing those med school things that doctors are taught in med school.  If the person doesn’t think he/she is ill, and a face to face examination fails to reveal any illness, why do we care about a lab style test?  If the test reports illness in an obviously well patient, the test has reported a false positive.  Do we need to run a laboratory style test to determine that a person is ill?  I think not. 

   And, test results are subject to change without warming.  You can test negative in the morning and catch Corona virus in the afternoon. 

   Why bother messing around with tests?  If you worry about catching Corona virus, get yourself vaccinated. 

Who Runs the Biden Administration (WRBA)?

I think Joe Biden signs what they put before him and says on TV what appears on his teleprompter.  I don’t think Joe writes his own stuff, someone[s] does it for him and he pretty much signs it or says it. 

I have never heard who these invisible controllers might be.  Only suggestion was from Instapundit a while ago.  He thought Joe’s wife Jill was doing the controlling.  Instapundit just said this, he didn’t offer any evidence.  I haven’t heard anyone else offer suggestions.  It could be coming out of the White House staff.  It might be some Svengali like character of whom we have never heard.  It could be anyone anywhere.  

I haven’t heard much if any discussion as to who it might be.  Who ever it is, he/she wields a lot of power.