Nov 052020
 

Britain is showing the way. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee.

The EU has over 200,000 new cases per day, over 2,000 deaths per day. So I get the urge to “do something.” But it’s at best unclear whether destroying the economy is the right way to go. Doing so leads not only directly to pain, but also to death: people kill themselves. People lose hope and just die. People go kinda buggo and engage in silly and dangerous behavior, including mass gatherings. People go buggo and riot/protest, which cause yet more economic disaster and yet more pain and yet more death.

Regardless of what’s good public policy, expect the US to enter new phases of lockdowns in the near future… *especially* starting in late January and beyond. Do you have enough soup, hand sanitizer and toilet paper hoarded?

 Posted by at 8:59 pm
Nov 052020
 

In the long long ago this blog focused far more on “unbuilt aerospace projects.” Last few years it has become far more about the culture war/war on western civilization/The Crazy Years.  This is not how I would have it… but then if it were up to me society wouldn’t be going crazy either, cities would not be getting trashed, Antifa and their violence and criminality promotion would be the stuff of alternate realities, the likely next President and the likely next *next* President would not be promising to toss me, my friends and family into federal prison. This sort of thing can kinda come to dominate a discussion.

All that said, aerospace is never far from my mind or my efforts. The thing is, though, my efforts have been devoted to a few books that I’ve got contracts to produce. This is a new sort of thing, and it is unsurprisingly a substantial time-sink. And since the publisher has not gone public with the books (they won’t until after the manuscripts are turned in next year), there’s not a lot I can say about them publicly.

*THAT* said, below is a render of a little CAD model I’ve recently made. The model is not the subject of the book; but it has been made for the purposes of making *one* diagram of a vehicle that incorporates this. One might argue that this is going a bit far for a small part of a diagram; this part of the diagram might be only an inch or so long. But while it is possible that these books might see a Second Edition, at this point I’m working under the assumption that I’m only doing this once, so I want to do it right.

So I still spend a whole lot of time with aerospace. It just doesn’t translate to blog postings right now.

 Posted by at 3:10 pm
Nov 052020
 

I’m assuming that Biden/Harris will be successful. So will the rioting come to an end? One might think so, since we will switch from an administration that is marginally against such things to an administration that has bent over backwards *and* forwards in order to service the rioters and their goals. But the rioters have goals beyond simply swapping Presidents: they want to destroy the country. I suspect they’ll keep it up.

The question will then become what the government does about it. The Trump administration did shockingly little to stamp out the fires of Marxist and racist insurrections. But a Harris administration might well be far more draconian. Consider that they are ok with the notion of imprisoning tens of millions of American citizens for the crime of owning small inert bits of stamped sheet metal or plastic. Rioters who make the administration look bad and interfere with policy plans? Don’t be too surprised if President Harris sends Komrade Swalwell in to drop napalm on them.

The Democrats nurtured this nonsense as a way to stick it to Trump. But I think they’ve probably lost control of it.

 Posted by at 11:06 am
Nov 042020
 

First:

USPS says huge amount of mail-in ballots were not delivered

In Philadelphia, 33.7 percent of mail-in ballots were not delivered to election offices on Election Day, the data shows.

In Atlanta, the same goes for 17.9 percent of mail-in ballots, and in Detroit for 21.1 percent, the filing states.

For Greensboro, NC, 27.1 percent were not delivered, and in Lakeland, Wis., the figure is 23.2 percent, according to the filing.

Well, that’s not so good. Of course, some places don’t require that ballets be delivered by election day, only that they be postmarked by election day. But even then there are shortfalls. But there is an easy solution:

Michigan USPS Whistleblower Details Directive From Superiors to Back-Date Late Mail-in Ballots as Received Nov 3rd So They Are Accepted

 Posted by at 11:20 pm
Nov 042020
 

Analysis: Seven Milwaukee wards report more 2020 presidential votes than registered voters; Biden nets 146K votes in city

Pennsylvania Update: 23,277 Votes Found in Philly — ALL OF THEM GO TO BIDEN

Things are heating up in Detroit, where Republican poll watchers are being barred from entering the facility.

SEVEN VOTERS Older than the Oldest Human Being Alive Today Voted in Michigan Including One Man Born in 1850

It is of course possible that there are valid, reasonable reasons for these and other stories of apparent voter fraud. Sometimes things just go strangely. But one would *think* that those responsible for making sure that the democratic process is seen as legal and valid would do their damnedest to make sure “heeeey, waaaiiit a minute…” moments don;t happen. And when these moments seem to be overwhelmingly favorable to one side… well, conclusions will be drawn, rightly or wrongly.

 Posted by at 5:08 pm
Nov 042020
 

Pennsylvania is still Trumps. But overnight Michigan and Wisconsin kinda magically flipped to Biden; as things currently stand, Biden looks like he’ll win. For some forty or fifty million otherwise law-abiding Americans who have been staring down the barrel of either tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in NFA taxes for the mere privilege of exercising their basic rights – or of spending a decade in Federal prison, a power-grab unheard of in American history –  the prospect of a Biden/Harris Presidency is of course a very bad thing. However: as things currently stand, it looks like the Republicans will maintain control of the Senate, and conservatives currently have a substantial majority in the Supreme Court.

Bidens gun grabbery is of course wildly unconstitutional. The Supreme Court would have been certain to – eventually – hear the case and smack it down (quite possibly after a great deal of damage had been done), so the Biden/Harris plan has been to pack the court. But with the Senate in the hands of the Republicans, this is – at least for the next two years – probably off the table.

What’s left to be seen is what Biden/Harris will do to NASA and the USSF. The USSF seems to be moving along nicely, so one can at least hope that it will be allowed to continue, but it’s impossible to say. As for NASA… it is pretty much traditional for new administrations to tear up the old administrations plans. So don’t be surprised if Artemis gets redesigned, setting back yet more years, if SLS gets shoved back even further. SpaceX – if the incoming administrations plans to punish the successful is stymied by a Republican Senate – should arrive on the Moon long before NASA, and on Mars likely *decades* earlier. So… perhaps that might be for the best. If the USSF isn’t strangled in the crib, and if it is run sensibly, the USSF will likely become a major SpaceX customer.

Now a very likely real positive: the economy tends to do better when there is gridlock in Washington, such that the government can’t “fix” the economy via “intelligent design.” Instead, economic evolution through natural selection is allowed to play out, and things tend to run pretty well because the government is too busy fighting itself to “help” the economy.

But a potential serious negative: Biden/Harris will take over during a pandemic. Expect lockdowns and all kinds of efforts to change society on a permanent basis, including attempts at the Green New Deal and the imposition of actual factual Socialism, all based on the “in this time of crisis…” brand of fear-mongering policy-making.  The US will likely be dragged back into suicidal international efforts to crush the US economy by blaming us for all the carbon in the air, while the Chinese and the Indians get a pass. The Republican Senate will be watched *very* carefully to see if they have the fortitude to stand up to that nonsense.

I’m frankly curious to see if Biden/Harris pulls the US embassy out of Jerusalem.

What about the riots? One would expect them to die down, now that their guy is likely in. Those who burned and looted and drove up the homicide rates will get a pass. But the likes of the McCloskeys and Rittenhouse… expect them to be served up for the dastardly crime of defending themselves against the mob.

 

My main suggestion: watch those videos of SJW meltdowns… and learn from them. Don;t be like them. We survived Obama, we’ll likely survive Harris. But it will require vigilance and stoicism.

 Posted by at 9:17 am
Nov 032020
 

As I type this, Trump looks like he will win the electoral college. One of the remaining question marks that could determine the actual outcome is Pennsylvania, where at this writing 65% of the total votes have been counted, with the bulk of the remainder  likely to be “mail in” ballots. As I type this, the tallies are 2623695 for Trump, 1948417 for Biden. If I’ve done my math right, that means the total votes counted so far are 4572022 and the theoretical total vote count at 100% will be about 7033880. So for Biden to win 50% of the state, he will need to win an additional 1568513 votes, or about 63.7% of the remainder. Given that the mail in votes seem to come largely from urban areas like Philadelphia, winning two out of three of the votes outright does not seem impossible, but it’ll sure seem suspicious.

UPDATE, 2:30 AM (because of course it is): Some updated numbers… PA has 74% reporting, with 2964853 for Trump, 2286865 for Biden. Something like 1845198 votes left to count, of which Biden would need to win 68.3% of. The *trend* has been a steady improvement for Trump. A sudden reversal of fortune at this point would raise eyebrows.

 Posted by at 11:35 pm
Nov 032020
 

Warning: Below is a disturbing video of an injured critter. But it is a wholly remarkable WTF moment, if you can handle such a thing. A human with an equivalent injury would do nothing but scream, but this deer looks like “Sup. Yeah, it’s been a day…”

On one hand: blah, blah, blah, important uplifting message about resilience. On the other hand… GREAT GOOGALY MOOGALY

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 Posted by at 8:10 am