Warming Weirdness

Long discussion on my Facebook page about global warming and what causes it.  Two theories were advanced.  First theory is the Sun causes it. Second theory was "Chemtrails" .  Neither theory is worth a hoot.
  First let's talk about the Sun.  It's a huge fusion reactor, and it's perfectly conceivable that the reaction sometimes runs fast and sometimes runs slow.  From the ground it's hard to measure solar output, because your instruments are looking up thru clouds and air and stuff which comes and goes.  About forty years ago the first satellite equipped to measure solar output ("the solar constant") was launched. That first satellite wore out years ago, but others were launched.  Out on the Internet you can find plots of solar output from all the satellites going right back to the very first one.  The Sun is putting 1350 watts per square meter onto the top of the atmosphere.  And, that number hasn't changed over forty years.  The instruments are quite sensitive, you can actually eyeball the plots and see the 11 year sunspot cycle.  Solar output varies by maybe 10 watts (out of 1350)  from sunspot minumum to sunspot maximum.  But, try as you might, you cannot see any long term slope to the curves, they run flat across the graph, with only a little 11 year ripple from the sunspots. 
    Granted, if we keep watching for a much longer time, 400 or 4000 years, instead of the mere 40 years, we might be able to see a rise or fall in solar output.  But using the best measurements we have this year, we can say the solar output is very steady.  Unless we can measure a change in solar output (which we cannot) I cannot believe the sun as anything to do with global warming. 
   And then we come to "chemtrails"  Those long white streaks that trail behind jet airliners.  Flyers call them condensation trails or contrails for short.  You have all seen them.  Apparently some people think the streaks are mysterious chemicals deliberately sprayed into the air for nefarious purposes.  Actually, they are just water vapor formed when kerosine is burned in the engines.  Burn kerosine in air, and you get water vapor and carbon dioxide.  When the air temperature is right, the water vapor condenses and you can see it.
   Some years ago, Bob Guida, an airline pilot of my  acquaintance was campaigning for public office up here.  Someone asked him about "chemtrails" at a meeting.  The questioner said the chemtrails were deliberately produced.  "Not on my airline." was Bob's answer.
   I spent six years in the Air Force, working on the flight line, and I can assure you that no Air Force aircraft ever had any equipment for production of "chemtrails" anywhere on board.  The "chemtrail" idea is a joke, on a par with flying saucers. 
    So, the solar theory and the "chemtrail" theory are wrong.  If global warming is still happening (global temperature has been steady for the last 19 years)  something else is causing it. 

Carly Fiorina impresses

She gave a town hall event in Littleton last night.  The place was full, standing room only, 150-200 people.  Carly is a really good speaker, and the audience was behind all her words.  A lotta of NH professional politicians showed up.  I would call it a successful event for Carly.

Electronic is insecure

We had the Target Stores hack a couple of years ago.  We had the Bradley Manning hack of the Army and State Dept also a couple of years ago. We had the Edmund Snowdow hack of CIA.   We had the Office of Personnel Management hack last month.  We have the IRS hack this week.   We have the Ashley Madison hack this week.  The lesson to me is that electronic data bases are insecure.  Either a hacker coming in over the net, or a disloyal employee, and everything fits into a thumbdrive and and gets posted on the net. 
   Thanks Obama for ordering my medical records made electronic.  I'm sure they will be hacked in a year or two.  If they haven't already been. 
   As for email, that's so insecure that classified matter should never be emailed.  For that matter, high government officials (like Hillary) should never use email.  Every intelligence agency in the world wants to know what the Americans are thinking about, planning, doing.  Take a clue from Osama bin Laden who gave up on phones and high tech and ran his operations by couriered messages, which is what kept him alive for so many years. 

Bernie Sanders

He is making waves with democrats.  If Hillary flames out, Bernie might get the democratic nomination.  With luck, a Republican will be able to beat Bernie in the general election.  But don't count on it.  Last two times the democrats ran a far left screwball and he won.
  Trouble with Bernie, is he is a socialist (we used to call 'em communists).  He dislikes business and corporations, and he sees his duty to raise their taxes, regulate them more, and support unions.   Bernie stands for a war on business. 
   Which is shooting the country in the foot.  Business generates all the wealth that we enjoy.  Business employs most Americans, pays their health insurance, and pours forth a flood of product to fill the shelves of every store in the land.  Making life harder for business (an Obama specialty) just makes us all poorer.   Presidents should be thinking up ways to make things better for business, not worse. 
   Bernie does not understand that government is a drag on the economy.  Government spends a lot of money, money taken from citizens, but does not create any wealth.  Every dollar sucked into government makes us all poorer.  Dollars that should have been spent by individuals to improve their lives, or by business for economic growth.

Robert A Heinlein vs Andre Norton

There is a brouhaha going in the science fiction community, surrounding the Hugo awards.  The Hugo is a top award, given to the truly top drawer authors.  According to the flak coming out of the combat zone, the Hugo's used to be controlled by a New York publishing house,  Baen Books if I remember aright.  A movement in fandom arose to take over control of the Hugos and cut the Baen people out of it.  Sides were taken, flames were posted.  I am far enough from ground zero that I don't really know who is who and what is what, and the merits of either side.  But the fireworks are fun to watch.
   A long internet ramble got diverted into comparing Robert A. Heinlein with Andre Norton as writers.  I'm familiar with both writers, having encountered both of them them in grade school.  Liked both, have read all, or nearly all the books they ever published.  I was a little surprised to see all the comparisons.  I always thought Heinlein was the better writer of the two.  Heinlein's stories were always new and different, he seldom repeated a story, where Norton's stories were pretty much all coming of age stories with very young protagonists.  Heinlein invented strong new characters for each story and seldom reused them in later stories.  Friday, Oscar Gordon, Johnny Rico, Podkayne, Manny Davis, Michael Valentine Smith, and many others were all unique, interesting, but only appeared in one book and were replaced by other characters in later books.  Andre's character was pretty much the same book after book.  She gave him/her a new name in the new book, but as a reader I knew this character pretty well, he/she never did anything to surprise me. 
   And, a lot of people sign their Internet posts with Heinlein quotes.  I don't remember seeing any Norton quotes out there.
   Thus endeth today's bit of trivia.  

Obama's Iran nuclear deal

So what does the United States get out of this deal?  The Iranians get a lot, they get $150billion in assets unfrozen, they get to sell oil on the world market, and use the global banking system to pay for stuff they buy and sell.   They get the US and its allies to lift other economic sanctions. 
  What do we get out of the deal?   I haven't even heard the Iranians promise not to build a bomb.  They still hold American hostages.   The IAEC gets to inspect some sites, after a 24 day warning period. 
   This deal is not a treaty.  If it's not a treaty, then we are not bound by it, the next administration could denounce it.  I assume that same thing applies to the  Iranians.  Since it is not a treaty, they are not bound by it either. 

Reduce income inequality, Get the Economy growing again.

Loosing your job makes your income as unequal as it can get.  Get the economy to grow again, and hiring will pick up.  Just giving jobs to the unemployed will do more to reduce income inequality than anything else anyone can do. 
   Bernie Saunders is whining about income inequality but doesn't say what he plans to do about it.  I bet Bernie wants to pass a soak the rich tax.  It will punish people he dislikes, and give him more money to spend on free stuff.
   I think we would do more good by getting the economy growing again.  Build Keystone XL pipeline.  Reform corporate taxes to complete with the rest of the world.  Right now US tax is far higher than places like Britain, Mexico, Canada, and others.  US companies are just picking up stakes and moving overseas to get themselves a solid tax break.  Permit export of US crude oil, and in fact everything except maybe nuclear weapons.  Lease federal land for oil exploration.  Stop raiding places like Gibson Guitar on trumped up charges.  Drop the war on coal.  Sort out Wall St deals between investment for economic growth and plain old gambling.  Tax the bejesus out of the gambling deals. Repeal all federal regulations passed over the last few years.