Mon. Aug. 16, 2021 – first day of school, FTW!

By on August 16th, 2021 in personal, prepping, WuFlu

Sunny and warm, possibly rainy, certain to end up at “hot”. It was hot and humid yesterday until the storm rolled through. Then it dropped to 75F and stayed there for a few hours.

I didn’t get a whole lot done on my free day. Turned out to not be so free when wife and kids got home early. Daughter 1 got her sailing stuff done very quickly and was released to come home. Now she is a ‘certified’ mariner and can do more sailing stuff with GS. Hooray.

The other issue was my back was bothering me. It finally moved and got a lot better some time after my wife got home. Until then picking up anything at all kinda pinched… it finally moved for me and she could here it from 6 feet away. She was a little skeptical until that happened. 🙂 Nothing like hearing the snap crackle pop so loud and clear to confirm that there was an issue.

I got some listing stuff done, and that was about it.

This morning I’ll be walking D1 to the bus pickup spot, and later in the day I’ll be picking up D2 and we’ll have our first afternoon of scheduled together time. I can’t wait. I expect that she’ll be vibrating from school and we might not get anything done, but it will still be a good thing.

Time flies, and if you blink you miss it. Take some time. Stack, but without relationships, what’s the point?

The tighter you build the relationships now, the stronger they’ll be later. And I think we’ll need that strength.

nick

91 Comments and discussion on "Mon. Aug. 16, 2021 – first day of school, FTW!"

  1. brad says:

    Speaking of school, I’m just killing a bit of time before my first in-person lecture in 1-1/2 years. A bit of a strange feeling. Heck, I’ll probably be nervous.

     

  2. Ray Thompson says:

    Rude awaking at 3:00 AM this morning. Wife complained of severe chest pains. Called 911 for transport to the ER. Currently waiting on lab tests, maybe hold her overnight. No idea what’s going on.

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    Aw shit Ray, I hope it’s just indigestion.

    Hang in there.

    n

  4. SteveF says:

    Yep, 6am is EARLY.

    My alarm is set for 0430. Very early morning is the only time the house is quiet and I can concentrate on writing or programming without expecting an interruption every two minutes.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Anyone want to bet that any analyst who gave an unvarnished assessment of the strength and willingness of the boy raping afgan army to continue as an organized western style military force was censured and punished for his assessment?

    No. As I’ve posted before, something is wrong in Tampa at the south end of the Interbay Peninsula, but the Pentagon has been in denial for 20 years.

    The mugshot is no longer online for my former Bat Guano neighbor who is ostensibly one of the Pentagon’s leading lights on Korea. His arrest and court records were sealed years ago. They take care of their own.

  6. MrAtoz says:

    My best wishes, Mr. Ray. I hope all is alright.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    How freaking insane is this woman?

    New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres beg the Taliban to protect women’s human rights as China and Russia prepare to formally accept militants’ rule of Afghanistan

    Ardern sad she wants ‘women and girls being able to access work and education
    Her plea comes as China, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey are mediating with Taliban
    Boris Johnson has warned that no country should recognise a Taliban state
    China and Pakistan could be first to break ranks with international community

    –the taliban is going to rape them to death, and the ones that aren’t will be made slaves. Just like always and forever.

    Protect women’s RIGHTS? They don’t HAVE any. They are chattel. Goods to be traded. A BURDEN on their families. FFS, use your eyes and your brain you stupid cow. THAT is the reality of life under islamic rule.

    n

    ‘They are raping women and girls, murdering adults, selling 12 year olds as sex slaves – and they are only just getting re-started. All these international calls for ‘restraint, human rights and peaceful transition’ are beyond delusional and actually insulting,’ Guy tweeted.

  8. Greg Norton says:

    Boris Johnson has warned that no country should recognise a Taliban state

    Within a year, the US and UK will recognize the government in Kabul. Any repeat of 9/11 and we will, as Dr. Pournelle put it, “Make the rubble bounce.”

    Sadly, unless you count the old Russian airbase, we did not leave behind the monument of cleared ground visible from space.

  9. Greg Norton says:

    How freaking insane is this woman?

    “New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutteres beg the Taliban to protect women’s human rights as China and Russia prepare to formally accept militants’ rule of Afghanistan”

    I don’t think the audience is the Taliban or even New Zealand as much as suburban Dem female voters in the DC suburbs who will decide the VA Governor’s race in less than three months and dream about living with “more enlightened” people in New Zealand.

    After kids and hubby leave in the mornings, lots of conversations in the breakfast nooks in Fairfax probably sound like this:

    “The country sure looks nice in those Hobbit movies.”

    “Yeah, Biden. Trump, though.”

    “Republicans. I’m jus’ sayin'”

    “*We* worked hard for this. Joe and Kamala understand.”

    [Repeat]

    Coming soon to the communities all the way down to Fredericksburg.

  10. MrAtoz says:

    Where are the 5,000 troops plugs sent to Afghanistan as C17s are mobbed by people trying to get away. The three guys falling from the plane wheel wells will make great fodder for ads. plugs will get back to us in a few days. WH Press Sec. goes on vacay. The Admin continues to blame tRump even after a summary of Obola’s coddling of the Taliban for 8 years. Even Chris Wallace on Faux News blames tRump. plugs wants to airlift thousands of Afghan refugees to the US after his fcuk-up. Send them all to Kalifornia or NYFC.

    I bet plugs is on one of his bi-polar rages yelling at everyone. Hiding at Camp David shows his brain is truly mush. Grow a pair and get in front of the camera.

  11. brad says:

    Wife complained of severe chest pains.

    @Ray: Best wishes for the wife – hope it’s nothing…

    Taliban to protect women’s human rights

    That’s laughable, and she knows it. Just pandering to her voters.

    Boris Johnson has warned that no country should recognise a Taliban state

    That, on the other hand, is just dumb. The Taliban *is* the government, and denying reality won’t change anything. Live with it.

    The best thing the US (and the rest of the world) could do is to stay completely out of the Middle East for a couple of generations. If other countries would stop overthrowing governments, taking sides in local struggles, and supplying arms to random factions, things could actually settle down. Over then next 100 years or so.

    The Kabul evacuation looks like a total fustercluck. Of course, the civvies who wanted out of the country should have left weeks ago. It’s not like the fall of the puppet-government is a surprise; it just happened a bit faster than expected.

    10
  12. JimB says:

    Wish you and your wife the best, Ray.

  13. ech says:

    I think the consensus here is, if you don’t wear a proper mask, properly, it provides little protection.

    Yes. That is a common refrain in the studies linked. One of the large studies (one that showed reduced secondary infection spread in mask wearers) observed poor compliance and poor fitting of the masks. Same effect found in the big Danish study – compliance is problematic. If worn properly, they seem to help. As the article linked to said, the evidence is sketchy on all sides.

    One of the early studies cited against masks was of health care professionals who wore them at work. No real difference in colds and flu was seen in those that wore them full time vs. those that didn’t. BUT, the catch is that they didn’t wear them at home or away from work. So, community exposure could well have been the source of the infections.

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    1
  14. Greg Norton says:

    The best thing the US (and the rest of the world) could do is to stay completely out of the Middle East for a couple of generations. If other countries would stop overthrowing governments, taking sides in local struggles, and supplying arms to random factions, things could actually settle down. Over then next 100 years or so.

    Maybe 1000 years. They have long memories in that part of the world.

    Heck, long memories everywhere. I saw a story online at some point over the weekend about Mexicans marking the 500th anniversary of the fall of the Aztec capital.

  15. SteveF says:

    The best thing the US (and the rest of the world) could do is to stay completely out of the Middle East for a couple of generations. If other countries would stop overthrowing governments, taking sides in local struggles, and supplying arms to random factions, things could actually settle down.

    The kindest response to that assertion is to ask if you started drinking early today.

    Look at the history of the entire region, going back five millennia or so. And you think that US meddling for the past 75 years is the problem?

  16. Ray Thompson says:

    OK, back from the hospital, just me. Wife will remain until at least Wednesday. Wife suffered a heart attack.

    Wife complained last night of chest pain and cold sweat. Then she started complaining of pain in her left arm. That was the trigger that got me to call EMS. I could have gotten her to the ER quicker but with EMS she does not have to walk and gets priority to the ER.

    When she got to the ER an EKG showed nothing. She was still in severe pain so they gave her some stuff for the pain. But it was not long lasting or effective. So the hospital did a CTScan looking for blood clots on the lungs. Nothing. ER doctor asked for another EKG. That is when the heart attack happened. Quickly a cardiologist was summoned who did heart catherization. He found the blockage, 100%. Partly debris but the final block was the blood clot.

    Cardiologist cleaned the blockage and put in a stent. He said it was caught soon enough that he does not think there was any significant damage. Said the best decision we made was getter her to the ER quickly. I told him when she said left arm pain in addition to the chest pain I knew it was time to go, now.

    She will be in the hospital until Wednesday, but I repeat myself. She needs to have a echocardiogram to make certain there was no damage.

    So we dodged a bullet.

    I say again, at our age pain is not something to be taken lightly and should be immediately investigated. We got lucky, this time.

    14
  17. MrAtoz says:

    And you think that US meddling for the past 75 years is the problem?

    LOL! It’s tRump’s fault.

    Wherefore Art Thou plugsy?

  18. MrAtoz says:

    Oh no, Mr. Ray. I’m glad it was caught so early. I’m praying for a speedy recovery.

    10
  19. Greg Norton says:

    I say again, at our age pain is not something to be taken lightly and should be immediately investigated. We got lucky, this time. 

    Yeah, left arm pain is a big symptom according to everyone I’ve spoken to who survived a heart attack.

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery. You saved your wife’s life even in your own suboptimal condition.

    I hope things continue to progress with the knee as well.

  20. Greg Norton says:

    LOL! It’s tRump’s fault.

    Wherefore Art Thou plugsy?

    Way past the time that Biden should have appeared and made a statement. I’m sure my wife will hear about it this week from the Vets who did tours in Afganistan.

    Maybe the Adderall IV drip all weekend at Camp David didn’t take.

  21. SteveF says:

    Sympathies to you and your wife, Ray.

    Probably more to you. She gets to just lie back in a hospital bed while you have to drive back and forth, get your own meals, and continue your physical therapy. Try to find the strength to go on.

  22. nick flandrey says:

    @ray, that is the best possible bad news.  I’m glad you got her there and that she’s getting good care.  Dodged a bullet is right.

    n

  23. Chad says:

    Ultimately, Afghanistan gets the government it deserves. The Taliban don’t take over without the submissive compliance of the populace. Does not one person in that country have an ounce of “Give me liberty or give me death!” in them?

    Perhaps we should have evacuated as many women and children as we could have and left the adult male Taliban alone with their AK-47s and goats. To rub salt in it we could have those evacuated women send photos back home of them laying on western beaches in two piece swimsuits wiping their sweat off with pages from a Koran.

  24. MrAtoz says:

    Ha, ha. plugsy is forced by to the WH to make a statement. I can’t wait to see who he blames.

  25. ~jim says:

    United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Americans “don’t have the right” to “irresponsibly spread misinformation” on Sunday evening while discussing COVID-19 on CNN.

    Umm, yes they do. It’s called the 1st amendment.

    Edit: Hmm, I can never remember the difference between slander and libel. One of them shows a callous disregard for the truth. I wonder if that would apply here, and who determines what the truth is? In any event you can’t really show that there’s a victim, can you?

  26. Alan says:

    @Ray, best wishes for your wife’s speedy recovery.

  27. CowboySlim says:

    @Ray:  Hoping for the best!

    WRT Kabul airport scenario:  I worked in System Engineering 2002 – 2007.  I can’t recall installing handholds in the wheel wells.

  28. lynn says:

    “Trump Hammers Biden: ‘Someone Should Ask Him’ What He’ll Surrender Next ‘If They Can Find Him’”
    https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-hammers-biden-someone-should-ask-him-what-hell-surrender-next-if-they-can-find-him

    ““First Joe Biden surrendered to COVID and it has come roaring back,” Trump said in reference to skyrocketing cases due to the Delta variant of COVID-19. “Then he surrendered to the Taliban, who has quickly overtaken Afghanistan and destroyed confidence in American power and influence.”
    “The outcome in Afghanistan, including the withdrawal, would have been totally different if the Trump Administration had been in charge,” Trump continued. “Who or what will Joe Biden surrender to next? Someone should ask him, if they can find him.””

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  29. dcp says:

    the difference between slander and libel

    My mnemonic is the alliteration: Slander is spoken.

  30. lynn says:

    @Ray: Hoping for the best!

    WRT Kabul airport scenario: I worked in System Engineering 2002 – 2007. I can’t recall installing handholds in the wheel wells.

    Nor oxygen masks.

  31. Brad says:

    The kindest response to that assertion is to ask if you started drinking early today.

    No comment 😉

    Look at the history of the entire region, going back five millennia or so. And you think that US meddling for the past 75 years is the problem?

    Not just the US, and the problems go back a lot more than 75 years. IIRC, the British Empire created modern Afghanistan by drawing random lines on a map, nearly 200 years ago. It wasn’t peaceful before then, but that surely made things worse…

  32. drwilliams says:

    @Ray Thompson

    Best wishes, Ray.

  33. nick flandrey says:

    Hah, an estate sale that I checked out a couple of weeks ago is now at one of the auctioneers I buy from.    The original sale had CRAZY high prices, like more than new retail on stuff.   I mentioned to them that the prices seemed high and they got p!ssed.  Nothing was selling.   And very little of it sold, as I recognize a bunch of the pieces, and it’s essentially the whole house full of stuff in the new auction.  Now the auctioneer will sell it all online, (still in the house) and get 40% of whatever the people were hoping to get.    The lesson is, the market sets the selling price, no matter what the seller thinks.  Hire pros for an estate sale, and believe them (once you are confident they aren’t scammers.)

    The original seller was either family or an antique dealer.  Estate sale prices are never what the family thinks (either too low or MUCH higher if the family thinks it’s all just junk.  I’ve been to both kinds in the last month.)  Antique dealer always wants inventory for the store, not to sell all the items in three days.  Dealer’s prices are always too high.

    n

  34. nick flandrey says:

    Did a pickup at a house that the family thought was full of hoarder junk.  They had been cleaning the house out by just throwing stuff away.  Stuff like signed music memorabilia, waterford crystal, original signed artwork….

    The neighbor across the street saw stuff in the trash and asked them about it.  Then she offered to sell it all with her estate sale business.   Even after agreeing to sell everything in the house, the family was STILL throwing “junk” out.

    n

    added- which is how patek philippe watches and old masters oil paintings end up in thrift shops…

  35. nick flandrey says:

    WRT Kabul airport scenario: I worked in System Engineering 2002 – 2007. I can’t recall installing handholds in the wheel wells.

    Nor oxygen masks.

    –nor heaters
    n

  36. Greg Norton says:

    WRT Kabul airport scenario: I worked in System Engineering 2002 – 2007. I can’t recall installing handholds in the wheel wells.

    Nor oxygen masks.

    –nor heaters

    Urban legends float around the Interwebs about stoaways surviving trips in the wheel well of airliner. IIRC, one story covers a Tampa to Atlanta flight, which would be a whole different set of altitudes and times than Kabul to, say, Germany.

  37. Alan says:

    WRT Kabul airport scenario: I worked in System Engineering 2002 – 2007. I can’t recall installing handholds in the wheel wells.

    Nor oxygen masks.

    –nor heaters

    How about the beverage cart? “Bag of pretzels sir?”

  38. Greg Norton says:

    Advantage Tony . . .

    Keep in mind that NASA gave Boeing twice as much money to develop the CST-100.

    The old NASA thought process regarding contractors dies hard, but, to be fair, a viable alternative needs to exist. Boeing contracted for 10 manned launches so the capsule will fly eventually even if NASA has to find some more money or wait a couple of years.

    Unlike SLS…

  39. CowboySlim says:

    Aplologies, I left C-17 out.

    WRT Kabul airport scenario:  I worked in C-17 System Engineering 2002 – 2007.  I can’t recall installing handholds in the wheel wells.

  40. Greg Norton says:

    How about the beverage cart? “Bag of pretzels sir?” 

    Cue George Carlin

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdPy5Ikn7dw

    “I say ‘F*ck You’, I’m getting *in* the plane … in the plane … Let Evel Knievel get *on* the plane. I’ll be in here with you folks in uniform. There seems to be less wind in here.”

    Later, Carlin dropped the Knievel reference, but it is one of his classic bits and the first thing that sprung to mind when I saw the video.

  41. CowboySlim says:

    Nor oxygen masks.

    –nor heaters”

    No heaters anywhere in jet aircraft  Cabin air is bled from engine compressor for cabin.  Conpression results in higher themperature; therefore, cabin air is then cooled in heat exchanger with uncompressed ambient air.

  42. Greg Norton says:

    No heaters anywhere in jet aircraft Cabin air is bled from engine compressor for cabin. Conpression results in higher themperature; therefore, cabin air is then cooled in heat exchanger with uncompressed ambient air. 

    The urban legend about wheel well flyers usually involves pricey high fill down outerwear when addressing the exposure problem.

    Kabul doesn’t strike me as the kind of place that would have a Canada Goose outlet. Maybe North Face — the tag in my wife’s coat reads Made in Bangladesh. 🙂

  43. lynn says:

    OK, back from the hospital, just me. Wife will remain until at least Wednesday. Wife suffered a heart attack.

    Wife complained last night of chest pain and cold sweat. Then she started complaining of pain in her left arm. That was the trigger that got me to call EMS. I could have gotten her to the ER quicker but with EMS she does not have to walk and gets priority to the ER.

    When she got to the ER an EKG showed nothing. She was still in severe pain so they gave her some stuff for the pain. But it was not long lasting or effective. So the hospital did a CTScan looking for blood clots on the lungs. Nothing. ER doctor asked for another EKG. That is when the heart attack happened. Quickly a cardiologist was summoned who did heart catherization. He found the blockage, 100%. Partly debris but the final block was the blood clot.

    Cardiologist cleaned the blockage and put in a stent. He said it was caught soon enough that he does not think there was any significant damage. Said the best decision we made was getter her to the ER quickly. I told him when she said left arm pain in addition to the chest pain I knew it was time to go, now.

    She will be in the hospital until Wednesday, but I repeat myself. She needs to have a echocardiogram to make certain there was no damage.

    So we dodged a bullet.

    I say again, at our age pain is not something to be taken lightly and should be immediately investigated. We got lucky, this time.

    Sounds like a fun night, not ! Glad she is doing better now. Most women do not get the left arm pain, they get silent heart attacks. But they usually get them way later in life in their 80s.

    Since she now has a stent, she will be on blood thinners as long she has the stent which is forever. I dropped from Coumadin to a baby aspirin when I had my heart ablation surgery three years ago. I hated the Coumadin but I sure did not want to have a stroke. I even get bruises from the baby aspirin.

    Be sure to love on her a lot. She just got told that she is mortal, it is a kick in the teeth. I thought I was going to live forever, that first heart attack at 49 was difficult to accept.

  44. lynn says:

    The best thing the US (and the rest of the world) could do is to stay completely out of the Middle East for a couple of generations. If other countries would stop overthrowing governments, taking sides in local struggles, and supplying arms to random factions, things could actually settle down. Over then next 100 years or so.

    God said that there will be enmity between Isaac’s and Ishmael’s descendants unto the end of the world. The strife has been going on for 3,500 years, it ain’t gonna stop now.

  45. Alan says:

    Advantage Tony . . .

    Keep in mind that NASA gave Boeing twice as much money to develop the CST-100.

    The old NASA thought process regarding contractors dies hard, but, to be fair, a viable alternative needs to exist. Boeing contracted for 10 manned launches so the capsule will fly eventually even if NASA has to find some more money or wait a couple of years.

    Unlike SLS…

    So does Tony have:
    a) A better design
    b) Better engineers
    c) Better luck
    d) All of the above

  46. Alan says:

    The Next Flight Out

    You really expect Uncle Joe could make it up that ladder?

  47. lynn says:

    Dilbert: Gain Of Function
    https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-08-16

    Hey, neat accessory !

    The real problem would be modifying all of your clothing and chairs.

  48. SteveF says:

    Many of you like music in various genres. Check out Karenmetal. (Link is to Gab, which some of you can’t see at work.)

  49. Greg Norton says:

    Dilbert: Gain Of Function

    The phrase has been used around the new job as of late, since shifting our product to being based on an open source application bundle.

    No tail yet, but I don’t work on site.

  50. ~jim says:

    Many of you like music in various genres. Check out Karenmetal. (Link is to Gab, which some of you can’t see at work.)

    Too funny.

    Speaking of music, the local Starbucks plays a lot of 80s hits. It’s hard to believe that was 35 years ago, and that none of the kids working there were even born yet. Imagine not having MTV growing up. Oh my.

    (Not that I would know if it’s even still around)

  51. Chad says:

    It’s hard to believe that was 35 years ago, and that none of the kids working there were even born yet.

    This will make you feel old…

    Back to the Future came out in 1985. Marty traveled back in time to 1955. If the movie was released today Marty would travel back in time to 1991. So, 1991 is to 2021 what 1955 was to 1985…

  52. lynn says:

    Many of you like music in various genres. Check out Karenmetal. (Link is to Gab, which some of you can’t see at work.)

    Too funny.

    Speaking of music, the local Starbucks plays a lot of 80s hits. It’s hard to believe that was 35 years ago, and that none of the kids working there were even born yet. Imagine not having MTV growing up. Oh my.

    (Not that I would know if it’s even still around)

    There is a free streaming service for the Roku box, Xite. My wife hates it, I like it. If I ever had MTV playing music videos or Beavis-n-Butthead back in the day, she would walk over and change the channel. “I don’t want my kids watching that”.
    https://xite.com/

  53. Chad says:

    If I ever had MTV playing music videos or Beavis-n-Butthead back in the day, she would walk over and change the channel. “I don’t want my kids watching that”.

    I used to watch Family Guy with my daughter when she was in like 4th grade (I’m a horrible parent). We’d both sit there cracking up, then my wife would walk in the room and I’d scramble to change the channel to something else.

  54. lynn says:

    “TEXAS CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY, EXPLAINED!”
    https://www.uslawshield.com/texas-constitutional-carry/

    “You’ve heard enough bad information to know that you need a real resource who understands the true legal impact Constitutional Carry could have on Texas before the law goes into effect on September 1st.”

  55. nick flandrey says:

    Hammering down rain in giant drops here on the west side of town.  Lots of thunder and lightning too.

    n

  56. ITGuy1998 says:

    @Ray, best wishes for your wife’s speedy recovery.

    +1000

  57. ITGuy1998 says:

    This will make you feel old…

    Back to the Future came out in 1985. Marty traveled back in time to 1955. If the movie was released today Marty would travel back in time to 1991. So, 1991 is to 2021 what 1955 was to 1985…

    Just add the above to the growing list of things that make me feel old. Of course, doing college visits with my son this summer didn’t help the situation…

  58. MrAtoz says:

    As predicted:

    plugs: “The buck stops here…BUT TrUMP!!!”

    LOL There are nonstop comments everywhere on plugs saying “were leaving Afghanistan” back to Obola’s reign. plugs flies back to squawk from the WH for 45 minutes and then flies straight back to CD. He should have just phoned in “it’s tRump’s fault” and and got back on his IV drip.

  59. pecancorner says:

    Mention “baked beans” and here comes the baked bean news!

    In the UK:  Village terrorised by bandit pouring baked beans through letterboxes

    Best comment from the article: ‘Absolutely Heinzous crime.’

  60. lynn says:

    “AND. THERE. IT. IS.”
    https://gunfreezone.net/and-there-it-is/

    “Editorial: From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and US military won’t come to help. As a result, the DPP will quickly surrender. https://globaltimes.cn/page/202108/12

    There are thousands of missiles aimed at Taiwan. The country will last about an hour once China gets serious. Every building on the island will be pounded flat and all of the citizens killed.
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2020/10/26/to-thwart-invasion-taiwan-points-powerful-new-missiles-at-chinese-bases/

  61. Greg Norton says:

    There are thousands of missiles aimed at Taiwan. The country will last about an hour once China gets serious. Every building on the island will be pounded flat and all of the citizens killed.

    Taiwan is more valuable captured intact. China can then demand a king’s ransom for the output of the TSMC fabs.

    The dilemma the mainland faces is that Taiwan had a nuke program until the late 80s, and the island is on that list of countries which may or may not have a weapon.

    The lesson of this weekend is not lost on Taipei. Or Tokyo. Japan would have nukes in a heartbeat if the Mainland Chinese moved on Taiwan.

    If you believe that they don’t already ….

  62. lynn says:

    “The working poor need workhorse vehicles”
    https://www.cfact.org/2021/08/12/the-working-poor-need-workhorse-vehicles/

    “With more than forty percent of the EV’s in the entire country being in California at the end of 2020, the EV popularity in California has gotten President Biden so excited to want the rest of the country to follow California’s lead that Biden issued a new executive order that pushes for half of all new cars sold in America by 2030 to be electric vehicles.
    California EV user’s experiences do not bode well for projected EV sales in America as the states’ EV users may be sending a caution to the wind (no pun intended) message to America that the EV usage in the state is slightly more than 5,000 miles a year.
    A few reasons why Californians may be sending the wrong message to America are that:
    The limited usage of the EV’s is a reflection that the EV is a second vehicle, for those that can afford them, and not the family workhorse vehicle.
    The primary owners of EV’s are the highly educated and financially well off.
    Their incomes rank among the highest in the country which may be a reflection of home owners that have easier access to charging their EV from their multi-car garages, or for those folks living in new apartments that may have access to more convenient EV charging capabilities.
    From that limited elite ownership group, there is a growing percentage of those California EV users that are switching back to gasoline cars, which is sending a message that may further deflate EV growth projections.
    The trend for working families is not for the smaller lightweight transportation vehicle, but for the larger and heavier SUVs that are currently half of the new car sales. And for vehicles that are used well in excess of just 5,000 miles per year.”

    EVs are status vehicles, not the working vehicles that many USA citizens need. The poor and middle class cannot afford status vehicles.

  63. lynn says:

    There are thousands of missiles aimed at Taiwan. The country will last about an hour once China gets serious. Every building on the island will be pounded flat and all of the citizens killed.

    Taiwan is more valuable captured intact. China can then demand a king’s ransom for the output of the TSMC fabs.

    The dilemma the mainland faces is that Taiwan had a nuke program until the late 80s, and the island is on that list of countries which may or may not have a weapon.

    The lesson of this weekend is not lost on Taipei. Or Tokyo. Japan would have nukes in a heartbeat if the Mainland Chinese moved on Taiwan.

    If you believe that they don’t already ….

    China does not care about Taiwan’s money and facilities. China cares that Taiwan sits 100 miles off their coast and thumbs their nose at China. That offends the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and it must be corrected. If China ends up owning a bare rock in the sea, oh well. This is that you ain’t got no ice cream thing that you talk about.

    ADD: BTW, do you know who the biggest investor in Chinese mainland factories is ? Yup, the Taiwanese.

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  64. lynn says:

    “I’ve never seen a presidency implode like this”
    https://gunfreezone.net/ive-never-seen-a-presidency-implode-like-this/

    “Right now the catastrophe du jour is the Saigon-like collapse of Afghanistan.”
    “The vast majority of Americans say surging grocery and household goods prices are causing them financial hardship and nearly 80 percent blame the Biden administration’s economic policies, a new poll says.”
    “BREAKING: Biden admin. to permanently increase food stamp benefits by 25%, the largest single increase in the program’s history – AP”

    “And people you and I know will still vote Demokraut.
    Merca needs a serious political bleaching.”

    I don’t understand but a lot of my relatives here in Texas will pull the big D lever each time they can. And they are proud of it.

  65. Alan says:

    Dilbert: Gain Of Function

    The phrase has been used around the new job as of late, since shifting our product to being based on an open source application bundle.

    No tail yet, but I don’t work on site.

    Once it appears those trap door jammies will come in handy.

  66. MrAtoz says:

    The State Department of the United States of America hopes the new goobermint in Afghanistan will govern with inclusivity. I’m sure they will after killing all the LGBTQWERTY folks and enslaving all the females. The females should all declare themselves non-binary and change their social media pronouns.

    The rest of the World should just nuke Afghanistan from orbit, just to be sure.

  67. ech says:

    So does Tony have:
    a) A better design
    b) Better engineers
    c) Better luck
    d) All of the above

    Some d and lots of c.  His company has a “learn from failures” attitude, where NASA won’t tolerate that. SpaceX also had a head start, they had a commerical cargo contract. That allowed them to develop a basic capsule that could later be upgraded to carry crew. The early cargo capsules had relatively high leak rates – not a problem on the short cargo missions, but not allowable in long-duration crew flights where they spend a lot of time docked to the ISS.

  68. Greg Norton says:

    Some d and lots of c. His company has a “learn from failures” attitude, where NASA won’t tolerate that. SpaceX also had a head start, they had a commerical cargo contract. That allowed them to develop a basic capsule that could later be upgraded to carry crew. The early cargo capsules had relatively high leak rates – not a problem on the short cargo missions, but not allowable in long-duration crew flights where they spend a lot of time docked to the ISS. 

    I don’t discount ‘b’. Boeing had to interview internal applicants first and prioritize filling quotas where SpaceX could start from scratch and not mess around with quotas until the first government contract hit.

    The Wally at my last job came from General Dynamics in Fort Worth. “ROJ”. I imagine the champagne corks were popping when he turned in notice that he was loading up the Caddy and moving to Austin.

  69. drwilliams says:

    “With more than forty percent of the EV’s in the entire country being in California at the end of 2020, the EV popularity in California has gotten President Biden so excited to want the rest of the country to follow California’s lead that Biden issued a new executive order that pushes for half of all new cars sold in America by 2030 to be electric vehicles.”

    “BREAKING: Biden admin. to permanently increase food stamp benefits by 25%, the largest single increase in the program’s history – AP”

    Astonishing what you can find in the U.S. Constitution if you just ignore it.

     

  70. lynn says:

    “San Antonio school district requires teachers, staff to be vaccinated”
    https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/16/bexar-county-mask-mandate-schools-texas/#8ae2ffdd-270a-4722-aa98-c90a9cb94a39

    “San Antonio Independent School District will require all staff to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, its superintendent, Pedro Martinez, said in a letter to staff on Monday. It is believed to be the first large Texas school district to implement a vaccine requirement for its employees.”

    This is a large school district with 50,000 kids and over 3,000 teachers.

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  71. nick flandrey says:

    Gonna be fewer teachers in a short while.

    nn

  72. nick flandrey says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9897313/Afghanistan-Taliban-strengthens-grip-country-gunmen-patrolling-streets-Kabul.html

    –they’re makin a list, checkin it twice…  coming to a city near you when ours kicks off.  Because no matter where in the world you are, when spicy time comes, old scores get settled first.

    n

     

  73. nick flandrey says:

    And speaking of the ISS, remember when there was a leak, and some weirdness was reported about a drilled hole??

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9897471/NASA-hits-Russianclaims-astronaut-Serena-Au-n-Chancellor-drilled-HOLE-ISS.html

    n

  74. nick flandrey says:

    Like nurses in NY and CA, gonna be a whole lot fewer in a couple weeks’ time.

    n

  75. nick flandrey says:

    And the first honest politician in Afghanistan–

    Zarifa Ghafari, Kabul’s first female mayor, told The i Newspaper on Monday that she was waiting for the Taliban to find and kill her and her husband.

    ‘I’m sitting here waiting for them to come,’ the 27-year-old told the newspaper. ‘There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me. I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?’

    –the dishonest ones have buckets of cash and safe houses outside the city.

    –still, no wonder they folded if that’s a common attitude. “I’ll just sit here and die, because ‘poor me’.”

    n

  76. Alan says:

    –still, no wonder they folded if that’s a common attitude. “I’ll just sit here and die, because ‘poor me’.”

    I can’t believe it would be that hard there to acquire a couple of AK-47s and several thousand rounds of ammo so as to make some attempt to protect your family.

  77. nick flandrey says:

    Especially when you face being raped to death.

    n

  78. lynn says:

    “US Embraces a Diversity China Fears” by Pat Buchanan
    https://buchanan.org/blog/us-embraces-a-diversity-china-fears-149913

    “The first returns from the delayed census of 2020 are in, and they have made for celebratory headlines in the mainstream media.
    Big takeaway: Between 2010 and 2021, the white American population declined in real and relative terms, with more deaths than live births, as the white share of the U.S. population fell from 63% to under 58%.
    As The Washington Post reported, between 1990 and 2020:
    Black Americans held at roughly 12% of the population. Hispanics doubled their share from 9% to almost 19%, and Asians went from less than 3% to more than 6%.
    And white Americans? In those three decades, whites fell from three-fourths of the U.S. population to less than three-fifths.”

    59% of the population growth in Texas from 2010 to 2020 was Hispanic. 6% was White, 17% was Black, and 18% was Asian. The number of Hispanics in Texas is almost equal to the number of Whites. Texas is rapidly becoming California.
    https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/12/texas-2020-census/

  79. MrAtoz says:

    I can’t tell if CNN is for or against plugs with this headline:

    ‘As brutal as it can get’: CNN (!) pulls no punches when it comes to Joe Biden’s pathetic defense for his abject failure in Afghanistan

    Some of the mainstays of Dumbocrat azzkissing are wondering if plugs will make it through the year at this point. What’s going on with the 6,000 troops McSpongeBrain sent back to Afghanistan? Where’s The Kamel? Where’s the PinHeadAgon? Where’s Stretch and Schemer?

    What an opportunity for the Redumblicans to make a comeback. If only they had a joint spine.

  80. MrAtoz says:

    I wonder if plugs will give them all Green Cards. They should stay in Qatar, not just get a free pass to Texas and Wisconsin. They’ll probably be released on their own recognizance because they are all good people.

    Overloaded but airborne: Incredible photo shows 640 Afghans on a US C-17 cargo jet – designed to carry 150 – after they ran on before soldiers could close ramp and pilot decided to take off from Kabul and save them all

    They bum rushed the plane. The pilot is called a hero for taking off. Where the Hell are the 6,000 troops numbnuts deployed! Is there any screening going on? Geez.

  81. lynn says:

    Freefall: New Reactor Or New Ship ?
    http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3700/fc03631.htm

    I just figured out that Freefall is very loosely set in Isaac Asimov’s Spacer Universe. You know, where there is 20,000 people on each of the Spacer planets and a billion robots.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Naked_Sun

    Interesting.

  82. lynn says:

    They bum rushed the plane. The pilot is called a hero for taking off. Where the Hell are the 6,000 troops numbnuts deployed! Is there any screening going on? Geez.

    The troops are probably still in Germany getting their vaccinations and papers in order.

    So once you get 640 bums in your plane, how do you get them out with 10 ??? soldiers ?

  83. nick flandrey says:

    Ma Duece and a hose.

    n

  84. lynn says:

    “From Saigon to Kabul, the tragically ironic tale of the “little Sea Knight that could””
    https://warisboring.com/from-saigon-to-kabul-the-tragically-ironic-tale-of-the-little-sea-knight-that-could/

    “As US forces withdraw and panicked allies flee a newly Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in one of the most humiliating moments of recent memory, one grizzled veteran -who has seen such a departure before- will be left behind to fall into enemy hands.
    A plucky CH-46 Sea Knight, serial number 154038, is believed to have previously participated in the evacuation of Americans and South Vietnamese from Saigon as the North Vietnamese military took the city near the end of the Vietnam War.”

    Hat tip to:
    https://gunfreezone.net/right-in-the-feelz/

  85. nick flandrey says:

    If I was in Ukraine or Taiwan I’d be booking flights…

    How will this play out in crypto and the stock market? What about when CCP or Russkies make their move?

    Gold and food…

    n

  86. Alan says:

    What’s going on with the 6,000 troops McSpongeBrain sent back to Afghanistan?

    Has anyone heard any justification for this number? Supposedly there were only 4,000 people in the US embassy. Even if each one gets their own soldier that still leaves 2,000 more. Now who is it again that funds the military budget? Oh right, us dumb taxpayers.

  87. Nick Flandrey says:

    For every guy at the point of the spear, there are a hundred or more as the shaft.

    Someone needs to secure the airfield, someone needs to guard the plane, someone needs to play escort, man radios, provide overwatch, forward air traffic control, etc. Then add medical support. Quick reaction force. etc…

    And how do you move them? You sure don’t want to send their planes away, and potentially leave them in the pot if things go pear shaped.

    Moving 1000 people at the same time is not simple.

    n

    (it’s one of the reasons I get p!ssed when people whine about how long it takes outside aid to arrive at the disaster. All those people and all their gear needs to muster, get transported, get squared away on arrival, and only then can they begin to help. It’s why you are on your own for the first three days, minimum.)

  88. MrK. says:

    @Ray Thompson,

    Best wishes to you and your wife. Speedy recovery for you both..

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