Mar 082022
 

Well, well.

Granted, there are lots of reasons to avoid Gropey Joe. But honestly, there are more reasons to avoid contact with Putin.

Boy, I sure am glad that the USA managed to achieve a fair bit of energy independence a few years ago. It’d be a damn shame if that had been squandered away, huh.

The way to deal with Russian oil is not to promise not to buy it… but to not to *need* it in the first place. Electric vehicles would be a handy way to go about that… and the way to make electric vehicles on a large scale make any sort of sense would be to have a boatload of shiny new gigawatt nuclear powerplants coming online every year. Any day now, right?

Right?

Some years ago, Obama’s chief of staff pointed out that you never want to let a crisis go to waste, because it presents an opportunity to make changes that you otherwise could not get accomplished. The Russian war presents the United States with several *spectacular* opportunities:

1) Energy independence. Nuclear, fracking, oil exploration on out own turf should be ramped up and made national security priorities.

2) The DoD has fallen *way* behind on weapons development. The M-1 Abrams and the AH-64 Apache date from the 70’s, the Javelin and Stinger from the 80’s, the F-35 from the 90’s.  We haven’t developed a new nuke in generations. Time for some new stuff… and fast.

3) Russia has threatened the ISS. Time to either abandon that orbital money pit, or boot the Russians from it and Americanize all aspects of operations and maintenance until such time as sanity prevails in Russia.

4) SpaceX should (and hopefully already is) be recognized as vital to America’s national interests, and thus should have the very best security. Physical protection against sabotage and outright strikes along with protection against theft of secrets should be priority #1 at the CIA and FBI. If recent Russian hijinks lead to this concept being more generally accepted not just at SpaceX but elsewhere, then the Chinese efforts to steal every damn thing will also be hindered. Additionally, SpaceX should spread out: manufacturing and launch sites in Texas, Florida, Vandenberg, Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Guantanamo as a start, with point-to-point rocket transport sites built near *all* major cities over time. Does using Starship for ballistic cargo/passenger transport make sense? Probably not. Screw it, let’s do it anyway. As government boondoggles go, it would be a very minor one… and one that would *necessarily* lead to major improvements in many technologies.

5) All of the major launch systems that are now in a precarious state due to Russia cutting of the supply of rocket engines? yeah, THAT turned out stupid, huh. Globalization is fine when it comes to cheap toilet paper or Pokemon cards. Rockets? Computer chips? Drugs? No. Shoulda figured this out when the Commie Cough crapped on the planetary logistics system. Long past time to realize that some things need to be done in-house.

6) Democrats are discovering the sanctity of national sovereignty and of arming the Ukrainian populace with fully automatic weapons. These discoveries should be applied here as well: strengthen border security, deport illegals (both those sneaking across the border and those who overstay their visas), and at the very least institute universal reciprocity for concealed carry… and get rid of the NFA and all the gun-grabbery that followed. Defund the ATF; transfer the funds and staff to the INS.

 

Anyone who disagrees with these policy proposals is clearly a paid Putin shill.

 Posted by at 7:13 pm
Mar 062022
 

The hope among many is that the sanctions on Russia will cause the Russian people, or business class, or military, or *somebody* to pull their thumbs out and give Putin the boot. And it’s starting to look like those sanctions are really making a mess of sizable chunks of the Russian economy and daily life. but… as has been noted here and elsewhere, many, MANY times… Russians are kinda used to trouble. No boom today. boom tomorrow. Always boom tomorrow. Consequently, if the Russian government can adequately spin this mess as being the fault of EEEEVIL westerners, rather than their our bad behavior, chances are pretty good that the Russian people will simply muddle through as they’ve always done. The effects of sanctions are hardly likely to make things worse in Russia than they were during the Soviet years, at leas after the initial confusion settles down, and Russians lived under communism for 70 years without overthrowing their dictators.

Some relevant videos on the subject. The first one is the source of the title of the post:

The next one, if the translation is to be believed (I don’t speak Russian beyond “blyat” and “suka,” so for all I know they’re actually debating the merits of Cardi B vs. Justin Bieber), is some rather brave soul doing vox pop in Russia, showing locals photos of the attacks in Ukraine. A distressing number think – or at least express – that Putin is doing the right thing. Disturbing that the dangerhaired girl is on the side of right and reason here…

 Posted by at 5:29 pm
Mar 042022
 

And this was *Texas.*

How much did Mom, Dad and the taxpayers have to pay to send these lunatics to university?

An explanation of this extrusion of Clown World into reality:

 

 Posted by at 8:58 pm
Mar 042022
 

 

I feel like that now. An eBay auction for a B-70 document I’d hoped to win with an initial bid of something like $36 just went for nearly $700. *My* $700 as it turns out. Even though it was crowdfunded, those last few seconds of the auction were stress inducing.

 Posted by at 10:41 am
Mar 032022
 

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on fire after Russian attack

A spokesman for Europe’s largest nuclear plant says the facility is on fire after Russia attacked the power station in the southern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar.

“We demand that they stop the heavy weapons fire,” Andriy Tuz, spokesperson for the plant in Enerhodar, said in a video posted on Telegram. “There is a real threat of nuclear danger in the biggest atomic energy station in Europe.” Tuz told Ukrainian television that it is urgent to stop the fighting to put out the flames.

From the AP:

Europe’s largest nuclear power plant on fire after shelling

Firefighters cannot get near the fire because they are being shot at, Tuz said.

A government official told The Associated Press that elevated levels of radiation were detected near the site of the plant, which provides about 25% of Ukraine’s power generation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not yet been publicly released.

This map might prove useful:

https://www.windfinder.com/#5/47.0252/47.3730

Shows current wind directions. At the moment, the winds in the region of the reactor under attack are circling around a region in north-eastern Ukraine, then seemingly drifting south-east over Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran. If the reactor pops, the Caspian Sea is likely to get trashed. Tomorrow the wins is to be more generally easterly, but Saturday the wind will come down from the north and then hang a right straight over Greece. From then on it looks like the region of Greece and Turkey will get a constant flow from the area of the reactor.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 7:06 pm
Mar 032022
 

UPDATE: A better look, courtesy Russian state TV:

—————

Here it is, on fire. You can see the blue, yellow and white nose laying cocked at an angle.

Good job on deNazyfying the Antonov 225. Bah.

 Posted by at 4:19 pm
Mar 032022
 

“Ukraine is a country…”

One can argue whether VP Harris is a moron or not. But it’s pretty clear that she thinks that the people listening to her are at the very least monstrously ignorant. Of course, the possibility exists that she may be right: the interviewers seem thrilled to have her, and thus the listeners stand a fair chance of being like-minded; to be thrilled to be graced with the presence or “wisdom” of anyone from this Administration would be indicative of ignorance at the very least.

 

The full interview, if you want to subject yourself to it:

 Posted by at 12:06 pm