Stalingrad WWII 1943

The decisive battle between Germany and Russia.  The Russians took horrendous losses but won the battle.  And went on to win all the future battles with the Germans.  Turning point in WWII.  Stalingrad was a medium duty Russia city on the Volga River.  Not the size or importance of Moscow or Leningrad, but a serious city with some serious industry.  Paulus, the German commander completely blew it.  To take a city or a castle you have to encircle it, cut it off from supplies and reinforcements and starve it out.  Paulus didn’t bother, he didn’t cross the Volga river to get on the far side of Stalingrad and surround it.  He called on the Luftwaffe and artillery to blow the place up and ordered his infantry to assault it.  The Russians dug in and shot down the attacking Germans in droves.   
   Georgy Zukov, Stalin’s top general, the man who had clobbered the Japanese in 1939, talked Stalin into fixing the Germans at Stalingrad.  The local commander was told to hang on, help was coming.  Two huge Russian armies of 250,000 men each were launched against the German supply lines and cut them.  Suddenly Paulus found himself cut off in Stalingrad with no rations or ammunition.  The German’s “fireman” Walter Model organized a rescue mission.  Paulus should have ordered all his troops to pull out of Stalingrad and head for a roundez vous with Model.  Paulus failed to do so, partly because Hitler was against the idea, and partly thru who knows what personal failings.   
    The Russians captured or killed all of Paulus’s 250,000 men.  The German army never recovered from this terrible loss.  

Who should a political representative answer to??

 There are two legitimate choices and a bunch of illegitimate choices, with the illegitimate choices shading over into crime.  The first legitimate choice is his/her district, the voters who elected him/her.  (Note: I need some unisex pronouns for use in cases where I don’t know the sex of the person I am writing about) The second legitimate choice is the political party, democrat or republican in the American case.  After the representative gets to Congress he/she will feel great pressure from the other representatives to vote to support the party every time.   Senator Joe Manchin (R West Virginia) was subject to this strain last week.  The party wanted him to vote for Biden’s “Build Back Badder” bill, a $2 to $4 trillion collection of freebies and  pork.  Senator Manchin’s district did not want “Build Back Badder” they felt (correctly) that it would increase inflation and raise their cost of living.  Senator Manchin, to his credit, voted for his district, and has been heavily dumped on by the democrat party for not supporting them.   

How to pronounce omicron (latest corona virus strain)??

 I pronounce it like it is spelled, starting off with "O".  I hear people on TV and radio pronounce it like it was spelled Armicron, starting off with "A".  Dunno how that happens.  I don't do radio or TV. 

So who will the Democrats run in 2024?

 They could run Biden again.  I think any Republican could beat Biden in 2024.  Biden's health might fail in the next three years and he will say he won't run again.  Or the democrats decide that running Biden is just handing the presidency to the Republicans, and decide to pick a more electable candidate.  Trouble is, just this year, I cannot think of any democrat that would make much of a president.  Scratch Kamala Harris.  Scratch Elizabeth (Fauxahontis) Warren.  Scratch AOC.  The Bern?? Who else do they have?  Must be somebody but I cannot think of a name.

  For that matter, I wonder what the Republicans are going to do for 2024.  There is The Donald.  Formidable candidate, who brings a lot (37 million?) of voters with him.  He also brings a horde of bitter enemies.  Ted Cruz?   Marco Rubio?  someone else? who knows?  A lot can happen in the next three years.

Don't infect friends and family.

 Why the lines to get tested for Corona virus?  Even if you test negative today, you can catch it before you get to Grandmothers.  If you are serious about it, get vaccinated, that works and it lasts.  This testing business seems like a waste of time to me.

55 MPG CAFÉ is greenies idea to push sale of battery powered cars.

 There is no way Detroit can make even the smallest cars do 55 mpg.  Heck, a 250 CC motorcycle won’t do 55 mpg.  They will have to resort to cheating, like the flex fuel rule that lets automakers collect a serious CAFÉ credit for each flex fuel (runs on alcohol or gasoline) car they make.  Or miss the 55 mpg target and pay Uncle some extra money to sell the non performing cars, (and raise their price). 

  This all comes from the greenies idea that they can prevent climate change (global warming we used to call it) by reducing the use of oil and gas.  This is why Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office.  This is why Biden has canceled all oil and gas leases on federal land.  Doing both of these things hiked the price of gasoline from $2.20 last year to $3.40 this year.  The greenies believe that they can save the earth by killing off real cars and converting us all to battery cars.

   Couples of things the greenies don’t know or ignore.  Mining and refining the substantial amounts of lithium to make a battery car’s battery produces as much green house gas as a gasoline car will over its life time.  The electricity to charge a battery car comes from power plants burning coal, natural gas, or oil.    Thermodynamics says that only 30-40 % of the heat energy in the fuel comes out as electricity, the rest goes into the plant’s cooling system.  The greenies are dead set against nuclear power and over the years have pushed thru safety regulations so bad as to make nuclear prohibitively expensive. 

Bake a mince pie.

  Buy a 27 ounce jar of Non Such mince meat.  Find a 9 inch pie pan.  If the pan looks old and dry, grease it lightly with veggie oil or butter, or what ever. Make enough pie crust for a bottom AND top crust.  2 ½ cups flour, ½ Tsp backing soda, 1/2 Tsp salt, ½ to 1/3 pound of fat.  I use butter. In the old days we used Crisco. Sift the dry ingredients together.  Add the butter.  Use a pair of table knives to cut the butter down into pieces the size of a navy bean.  Add ¼ cup good cold water.  Knead the pie crust until it is uniform and medium sticky.  Add a small bit of cold water if the pie crust needs it.  Divide the pie crust in half. Put the top half into the freezer.  On a floured board press the bottom half of the crust as flat as you can, then roll it out good and flat.  Check the size of your rolled out crust against the 9 inch pie pan, roll some more.   Slide the rolled out crust off the board and onto the pie pan.  Fill the pie fan with the Non Such Mince Meat.  Roll out the top crust and put it on the pie pan.  Trim the crust around the pie edges and use a fork, tines out, to crimp the top and bottom crusts together.  Bake for 30-35 minutes at 400-425 F.  Back the heat off to 300 F and give it another 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool enough to eat. 

  If you want to bake ten inch mince pies, buy two jars of Non Such mince meat.  Roll the crusts out extra thin and things will work.