Biden calls Putin a war criminal.

We didn’t used to do that sort of thing.  I don’t remember anyone calling Hitler a war criminal during WWII.  After victory over Germany and Japan, we occupied the countries, and then we set up Nuremburg and what ever we called the one in Japan, had some war crimes trials, got some guilty verdicts, did some death penalties. 

  But we didn’t go about calling enemy heads of state war criminals while the war was going on, be it a hot or a cold war.  Putin probably deserves it, invading a smaller, peaceful, neighbor and slaughtering its civilians is a horrible thing to do.  

   Plus, we won’t be able to put Putin on trial until we defeat and occupy Russia, which is a tall order.  So unless something strange happens, Biden’s accusation of war crimes remains at the level of political propaganda, rather than the operation of an impartial justice system. 

What schools should NOT teach.

 Race.   Don’t teach that one race is or was superior to another race[s].  Stick with Jefferson, “All men are created equal”.  Do teach that the US Civil War was waged to abolish slavery, and it was successful in this. 

 

Sex.  Teaching about any kind of sex before the children reach puberty is destructive and we should not allow it.  Before puberty, the kids simply do not know what sex is about, and teaching about it, against it, in favor of LGBTQ issues, gay marriage,  transgender issues (changing sex), or what ever is destructive.  After kids reach puberty, a school sex education course that tells how to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and for girls how to avoid getting pregnant before graduation is OK, but no more.

 

Politics.   Don’t teach current political conflicts.  If you just have to teach some politics, teach about political controversies in the past.  “No Taxation without Representation” is a good place to start.

 

Urban Mining to save the planet

Urban Mining.   This is a British article which is actually about recycling.  We toss a lot of stuff, some of it is valuable, electronics for example, most of it is worthless.  The author talked about the need for a "well sorted waste stream" but never got around to saying how the sorting might be done.  Do we want to force homeless people to stand at the dump sorting glass bottles by color and grabbing the odd piece of electronics out of the waste stream?  I don't think so.  

Up here in New Hampshire we have the sorting mostly under control.  We have separate bins for glass bottles, tin cans, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, newspapers. magazines, miscellaneous paper, old clothes, cardboard, and electronics.  Only the electronics, mostly dead TV sets and dead desktop computers, seems to have much potential of yielding rare earth metals, or lithium, or copper or gold or silver.  The town dump  (transfer station for the trendy minded) sends the electronics off somewhere, I don't know where, every so often.   Where ever the stuff goes, it is a pretty well sorted waste stream for "urban mining".

Been off the air for three days,

Sorry about that.  Hughesnet stopped connecting to the internet Friday night.  I thought they might be back or my computer might recover.  Saturday it snowed hard all day and I though the snow might be blocking the satellite signal.  Sunday, nobody is at work on Sunday.  I called the Hughesnet number Monday.  It took an hour to get them to schedule a service man.  Best the telephone people could do was get a service man out on Thursday.  But, mid afternoon a serviceman called to see if he could come today.  I said yes, come as soon as possible, and I will have coffee.  The serviceman showed up, reseated a few connectors and bingo, internet was back.  Anyhow that is why no posts on Saturday or Sunday.  

  Since Friday all the TV talks about is Ukraine and the terrible Russian bombardments.  Wall St journal didn't come today.  So I really don't have anything new to post about. 

Ukraine war according to Aviation Week.

 Aviation Week has been a very reliable source over the years.  I think things really happened the way they say it did.

Putin planned on a lightening swift war.  He planned to missile the Ukraine’s air defenses, missile launchers, radars, airfields. He wanted to take Ukraine’s cities, like Kharkiv in the first two days. He planned on eliminating Ukrainian president Zelenskyy by forces sweeping into Kyiv, also in the first two days.  

   Instead Ukraine put up a stout defense under the inspirational leadership of President Zelenskyy. After a week of fighting no major city had fallen to the Russians.

   The Russian armed forces were not as formidable as they had been cracked up to be. For instance the Russians launched 450 cruise and ballistic missiles during the first week.  In 2003 the US launched 504 such missiles on the first night of hostilities with Iraq.  The Russians tried to capture Antonov Airport, only 19 miles from Kyiv.  Ukraine’s Stinger missiles destroyed two Russian jet fighters, two Kamov helicopter gun ships.  Two dozen Russian MI-8 helicopters landed an attack force, with much larger forces poised to fly in on IL74 transports as soon as the airport was secure.  Ukrainian forces counter attacked the heli born force.  The original Russian force was over whelmed and driven off the airport into the woods.  The Russians counter attacked with 300 helicopters and fighting continued for days.  When the fighting ended the runway was too damaged to allow the IL74’s to land. 

   That 40 mile long Russian road convoy had many vehicles run out of gas.  The old trick of removing all the street signs worked and got the Russians lost, circling around until they ran out of gas.  At which point the Russian troops abandoned their vehicles. 

We cannot give Ukraine to Putin.

Putin’s attack on Ukraine is the first such aggression since Hitler started WWII.  That was 70 years ago.  Since the end of WWII, the US has forbidden aggressive countries from attacking other countries.  We have even fought wars, Korea and Viet Nam, to prevent attackers from taking over their victims.  If we let Putin take over Ukraine, it tells the world that it is now possible to take over other countries, the Americans won’t stop you.  This is not good. 

   At this point, stopping Putin runs a real risk of war with Russia.  Putin has threatened to use nukes.  We could tell Putin that if he uses nukes we will retaliate.  Show him our list of targets, in order of value.  Tell Putin if he nukes something in Ukraine, or anywhere else, we will nuke something of his, of somewhat greater value than what ever he nuked.  Biden probably cannot do this; every one knows that Biden lacks the courage to go to the brink.  Trump could pull it off. 

    When 2024 gets here, every voter should ask him/her self “Does this presidential candidate have the courage needed to risk war to protect victim democracies from aggressors?”

Vacuum Bombs and Cluster bombs.

 These are not new.  We had them in Viet Nam.  Nor are they outlawed far as I know.  Some talk on TV indicated that the TV person had no idea what these two weapons are. 

   The cluster bomb, or cluster bomb unit (CBU), is an air dropped anti personnel munition.  It is a big sheet metal container, perhaps five feet long and weighing maybe 750 pounds.  The container is filled with grenades, small explosive charges, each with its own detonator.  When dropped, an explosive charge blows open the sheet metal container and all the grenades are freed.  Each grenade arms itself after it turns over a hundred times or so.  One cluster bomb will cover a much larger area than a plain old iron bomb.  Against infantry, a cluster bomb can be very deadly. 

  The “vacuum bomb” is what we used to call a fuel air bomb.  It is just a big tank of flammable gas, natural gas, propane, whatever.  When it hits the ground, a big valve opens and all the flammable gas is released.  After a few seconds, to give the gas time to mix with air, a detonator ignites the cloud of fuel air mixture.  Pound for pound, flammable gas provides far more energy than TNT, so the explosion of a fuel air bomb is intense.