A piece of art that was on ebay a while back depicting a C-130 Hercules converted into an AWACS-like aircraft by the inclusion of a radar rotodome to the top of the vertical fin. This may look a little odd, but it was a good position for such a radar system as it puts it above all aircraft components.
Will you be on it? How many of your friends and family will be on it? Will it be used to deplatform people? To get them fired? To strip from them their ability to use payment processors and banking systems?
The Left is compiling lists of people to harass, suppress and oppress. Why? Because they set cities on fire, trashed businesses, assaulted cops and random passersby? Nope, because they supported the “wrong” guy.
Individuals who worked for the Trump for President campaign, Republican National Committee, and affiliated PACs in 2016 or 2020.
Individuals who worked in any role as a political appointee in the Trump Administration.
Individuals who used their massive personal wealth and influence to bundle money for Trump.
Former Obama bros putting political enemies on lists? Really leaning into the brand.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 6, 2020
You are an elected representative in a democratic republic and you are setting the stage for retribution against fellow citizens for the crime of holding a different opinion. It's un-American, you should stop it and council others to do the same. https://t.co/UN1tceoHVA
— Bret Weinstein (@BretWeinstein) November 6, 2020
AOC: Trump is a fascist because he says mean things!
Also AOC: Make a list of every Trump supporter so we can make sure they never work again!
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) November 6, 2020
Regardless of how the current elections turn out, Georgia is going to remain a political hotbed into January 2021. It turns out that two Republican Senate incumbents are up for re-election, but in neither election does it look like any candidate will win a clear 50+% majority. Consequently, in January both seats will be up for a run-off election. As the current election maps hold, if the Dems can flip both of those Senate seats (based on the *current* math that seems unlikely), then the Dems will be in control of the Presidency, the House and the Senate, which means that they can do whatever they like. If the Supreme Court becomes bothersome about all that “Constitution” stuff? They will be able to pack the court.
As things currently stand, one of the seats looks readily flippable. The other, the seat seams to be more or less evenly split between a Dem and *two* Reps. So at first glance it would seem that a runoff would go 2 to 1 in favor of the Rep. But the thing is… the Democrats know that this will be their chance to fundamentally remake the United States in their image. This will be their chance to ban guns and make tens of millions of people who aren’t likely to vote for them into non-voting felons. Expect the Georgia runoffs to be *swamped* with outside money, with balloting shenanigans to put Detroit to shame. The Chinese will be *all* *over* this.
A Lego gear system with a reduction ratio of more than a googol to one. One rotation will require 5.2E91 years.
Anybody else remember Florida 2000? Deja vu, baby.
https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/GA/105369/web.264614/#/summary
Dammitsomuch, 2020…
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?
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.
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.
First:
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:
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.