... you can talk about whatever you want... except the Super Tuesday results and the Democratic candidates. Go one post down if you'd like to talk about that.
March 3, 2020
At the Sunrise Café...
... you can talk about whatever you want... except the Super Tuesday results and the Democratic candidates. Go one post down if you'd like to talk about that.
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I sometimes feel alone on this point, but it seems to me that there are no imperative threats to the U S right now. So our priority should be strengthening our economy (internal rate of return), including infrastructure. If the Chinese are an economic threat, then my response would be the same.
That's one weird looking sunrise.
Mitt Romney is on the Chinese threat, so don't worry. According to Mittens "we" face three challenges: The Debt, Climate Change, and the Chinese. His solutions will be forthcoming - stay tuned.
Illegal who had an ICE detainer notice was release because of Sanctuary City policy in Chicago.
Then he raped a 3 year old girl in a stall while the father was cleaning up her brother.
The father heard her crying out over Puente's hand that was covering her mouth and dragged her out of the stall.
Puente ran and was later caught.
I have been in a situation like this with an accident for a younger kid and another kid.
The police and the government have one fucking job.
All of the elected officials in Chicago that put this policy in place need to be drug out in the middle of the street and shot.
Saw last year's Midway. It was okay, I don’t regret seeing it, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The CGI mostly looks l8ke a video game, and they didn’t bring out the back and forth or the strategy of the actual battle. But its heart is in the right place.
The corona funding bill hasn't passed the house yet due to Pelosi not bringing it to the floor. She is truly despicable.
Girl Scout cookie scam: the Thin Mints box is about 1.5 inches longer than the actual sleeves of Thin Mints. That's 3 inches missing from every box!
Aye, the haggis is in the fire for sure.
Name that episode.
Is anyone else getting deluged with ads from Yandy.com after clicking that Raw Story link about Brit Hume this morning?
One of the best episodes, with the computer simulated wars. I forget the name.
I think they are spiking the California raisins.
I usually buy a big box and keep it in the fridge. I like to sprinkle them on various foods, and sometimes just gulp down a handful.
Alas, I'm finding the current crop to be a real colon cleanser, after just a few.
Just be careful out there.
Things to be careful about --
I was getting cold fingers, which happens when I go low sodium. So to get some sodium in me quickly and warm up the circulation in my fingers, I put a lot of salt in my warm tea and drank a few sips.
A few minutes later . . . uh oh. Run to the bathroom. TMI, I know. You want your colon cleansed, apparently drinking a lot of warm salt water will result in an imbalance in your intestines that will cause it to go right through you.
The Midway CGI sucks. The dynamics and perspectives are all wrong. If they'd used an actual flight simulator it would have been easy to get right.
If the government was smart, they would give tours of Chicago jails to Wuhan Chinese for a couple of weeks. Let them taste the food, etc. Shake hands with all the prisoners.
We should honor these guests.
About 6 or 8 weeks ago, a beggar took up residence on my corner at the stop sign across the street. She was presenting as a refugee in my book, with a baby in arms and a girl who looked old enough to be in school. After a couple of weeks, she looked like she was going to be a regular, though not staying the whole day, just a couple hours. Occasionally a couple of men dropped by.
Well, I was none too happy about regular begging on my corner, even if it was an American homeless person or asking for donations to save the planet. I called the non-emergency Milw. PD number and I was told that as long as she stayed on the sidewalk it was legal. I'm like bummer city.
I talked to my neighbors about it and they were like what can you do? I said, I'm thinking about it.
About two-and-a-half weeks ago she started standing in the bike line with the baby in her arms. I had my hook. I called the PD again to tell her to get on the sidewalk. I did it again. I didn't watch for any followup. I saw the PD pass by on another day, tell her to get on the sidewalk, only to see her back out in the bike lane two minutes later. When I called for the third time, I asked the PD to report back to me. They called later to say they had interactions with her "100 times," that she spoke good English, had a car parked around the corner and that she was a professional beggar.
Well, that could not stand but I can't be calling the PD in on a non-emergency basis. I was going to have to be more creative.
Then, thinking about Chicago, my 2400 N. Sawyer block and gangs, I realized that it was the Three P's that might work: Police, Presence and Propaganda. Police for harassment. Presence is calling police and letting your target know who is calling and that you're available to call on a regular basis. Propaganda is keeping the neighbors informed.
So, I posted a two big handwritten posters on the new bus shelter I built on my property laying out the facts. I posted it while she was there. It was torn down overnight so I turned it into an InDesign handbill file and reposted the next day. It was torn down that night, too, but I didn't replace the handbills immediately since she hadn't been around for a couple of days. But I have a printer and toner cartridge....
She shows up a week ago Saturday. I'm doing something on the computer on the deck when I notice her again. I can see her from the deck but I have to stand on the rail to see if she was in the bike lane with her baby and sure enough. She spots me. I'm like, fuck, I need to replace my handbills and I want to write new copy to address the issue of my signs getting torn down. Also, to have presence, I need to grab the loppers and trim some trees or something. I wait few minutes doing what I was doing, probably a Saturday afternoon Althouse thread.
Almost done reading and I pop up once again, she sees me, still there. Crap, I'm going to have to do some work. I finish whatever thread I'm on, pop up and she's gone. It's been eight days and she hasn't been back. I think I won.
AA on the picture: Well done-- you got it just when the sun was behind that cloud.
rhhardin: Sorry to hear that, I was looking forward to seeing that film at some point. I imagine for the non-pilots out there (like me) it might seem that something was wrong, but it might be hard to say exactly what.
Lucien: I agree, very much so. Does Trump get it? In his gut, maybe, in his head, who knows. It's an opportunity that should not be missed. We have a chance to lock in this century, or most of it.
Bad Lip Reading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM78_KqcrSY
The Battle of Britain: Combat and Balance of Force
subtitles by somebody who couldn't figure out German accents
Milwaukie guy: This was always supposed to be a nation of citizens, not clients, subjects, or victims.
Well done sir, my hat's off to you.
I have a similar no-tolerance policy on my street. Fortunately the local police and HOA have been very supportive so far.
I recently saw the John Ford western, Stagecoach. It was filmed in Monument Valley. I think God overdid the scenery. Too many fluffy clouds and all those improbable rock pillars. CGI is so much more credible and impressive. I like the backgrounds in Guardians of the Galaxy. The scenic designer created a much more vivid and engaging backdrop than Monument Valley......The characters in Stagecoach are painted with broad, quick strokes that border on stereotypical. It was interesting to note how the stereotypes have changed over the years. Indians are no longer savages. Mexicans are no longer lazy cowards. Southern gentlemen are no longer gallant or, in fact, gentlemen. Dance hall girls no longer seek the approval of proper ladies....Things that remain the same: bankers are still crooked and hypocritical. Western heroes still do what a man has got to do. The sidekick is still overweight.
You see beggars all the time in NYC, but you rarely see them with children in tow. That's straight up child abuse. I think the police come down quick and give the kids over to BCW. I think the relative rarity has more to do with this than with the refined feelings of professional beggars..... I've seen several with dogs. Sure fire money maker for them, and no need for the BCW to become involved. The woman should get a little puppy. I'd encourage all those interested in taking up a career in professional begging to use puppies rather than children while panhandling.
John Ford had more than a few heroic type of Indians.
Our slogan or motto or insight on our block was that it takes an adult gang to beat a juvenile gang. And our militia was armed at least to gang standards. Plus, the cops were on our side.
The half moon in SE Minnesota is beautiful tonight. It is directly overhead, so viewing it challenges your flexibility (or lack thereof). The view is worth the crick in the neck.
Dogs (and their need to be walked) are a blessing for many reasons, including enjoyment of sunrises, sunsets, moon viewings and first hand weather participation.
So it looks like Betelgeuse isn't going to explode after all.
The bad CGI extended to bad ship fires and bad waves.
We saw little obvious homelessness/beggary in Germany last year, unlike in France in 2017. Driving in Paris, I saw a refugee family of four huddled in the triangle of asphalt where a main road merged into the circumferique, on a cold drizzly day. And lots of sole proprietors in doorways and on benches.
In Prague, the law against begging has resulted in a peculiar (at least to me) form--men on their knees or knees and elbows, feet to a church building or under a saint's statue on the Charles Bridge, silent, no eye contact, with upturned cap held out for donations. They're praying, you understand, and many had dogs for company.
Here, most busy intersections have regular beggars; some have been at their posts for years now. There are a couple of commuter-scammers I've had the pleasure to deride- clean, well-dressed, middle-class looking people who have been stuck unexpectedly yadda yadda-- but I recognized them from other encounters or sightings miles away, and let them know it.
Narr
They probably made as much money as I did!
Damned thing about Betelgeuse. I was really, really looking forward to that. Would it ever give us some light on the dark side of the moon?
https://mobile.twitter.com/paulsperry_/status/1234971964759924738
You see beggars all the time in NYC, but you rarely see them with children in tow. That's straight up child abuse.
About thirty or so years ago I was detailed to a project in El Paso. We were brought into a conference room and briefed about the realities of life adjacent to the border. In particular they warned us not to give money to female beggars with sleeping children -- a standard scam was to rent those children and drug them so they wouldn't cause any problems for the professional panhandler.
[The professional beggars] probably made as much money as I did!
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thought it was possible. Read The Man with the Twisted Lip.
"Dogs (and their need to be walked) are a blessing for many reasons, including enjoyment of sunrises, sunsets, moon viewings and first hand weather participation."
I adopted a German Shepherd seven years ago, and I don't think that I've been in bed at 7 am since. On the other end, I used to have sleepless nights probably a couple of times a month, but it's been years since one of those.
Elizabeth Warren is in turd place in Massachusetts.
What a fucking media creation!!
I am bored with Super Tuesday, Bernie, Biden, Coronavirus and Impeachment.
I do want to congratulate our blog administrator for saving me from even worse tedium with the usual suspect.
So we had some wind the other day.
Found some big branches had come down from one of the oaks I mentioned before. Sure enough, the branches were completely dried out. That confirms it. Dead dead.
Not resting. Not stunned. Not pining for the fjords. Not a pun. Not a palindrome. It's an ex-tree.
Bloomberg is so gross/creepy/weird.
I haven't seen Stagecoach since college, but it's a classic, and John Wayne's graduation to the A-list.
I remember I wrote an essay on it in film class where I posited it was a metaphor for the inevitable upcoming US involvement in WWII, though I don't really recall how I tried to sell that.
Milwaukee Guy, You think you have problems getting the police to do their job. Check this out.
It is about to come to Los Angeles.
Right! I read the blog the secondcitycop so I can monitor the increasing fetal position of the cops as the progressive Dems run the bus over them.
In my day, our local Tac Squad favorite was Arceo, who also owned our local tavern for a while. He was famous for "The Helicopter," where he would grab a fatherless young man in the alley by the scruff and the pants and twirl him around a few times and throw him at a dumpster. Many years later, I attended his retirement party where three different alderman spoke. Everyone appreciated The Helicopter.
We always thought that POs with Sgt. stripes should be able to stick whip juvenile delinquents at least twice because their Daddy didn't. It's like a counter-insurgency strategy.
That's Milwaukie with the,"ie," bub.
Some interesting coronavirus news. Maybe.
Several of us are on the IP committee for an engineering society. A weird mixture of IP lawyers and engineers. And some who swing both ways. Some are a bit hard to handle, esp when I chaired the committee most of a decade ago. Several of them are used to being the brightest guy in the room. (Not me, of course). One of these guys has been talking about COVID-19, with another friend on the committee, and kept saying that it wasn’t bioengineered. Why not? If the Chinese were doing genetic engineering anywhere, it is probably at least being done at the Wuhan viral lab, one of only two BSL-4 labs in China. He finally fessed up that the reason that he knew it wasn’t bioengineered, because he had done bioengineering in the past (and with everything he does, becomes an expert in what he does - he is scary like that). His view is that it is the wrong type of virus to try to weaponize. Coronaviruses are essentially spherical (not really - they are 3-D polygons with flatish faces - they just have enough faces to look spherical) with a number of spikes that they use to attack to the cells that they are going to invade (these spikes are where they got the name “coronavirus”). Best viruses for militarized bioengineering are apparently rod shaped instead. Something like that.
The theory that he did like was that some of the people working in the lab sold experimental animals that were supposed to be destroyed, in the Wuhan wet market 20 or so miles from the lab. Apparently that is not uncommon. His comment was that that was something that the Chinese would do. Which means that it is somewhat likely that the researchers infected some test animals with the virus for testing, then, when done with them, someone sold the test animals, which were then eaten, and we had Patient Zero. It could have been a bat (from which this family of Coronaviruses was originally detected) or possibly a primate, maybe even a hominid (great ape) like a chimp or orangutan (due to their closeness to humans), which are considered delicacies by the Chinese. We may never know. Probably not Pangolins (scaly anteaters) - the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 appears genetically closer to the bat coronavirus that first appeared in a Saudi Arabian, isolated by an Egyptian researcher, and sequenced in Rotterdam, almost a decade ago, than to any Pangolin coronavirus. That was apparently a false trail that hasn’t been fully cleaned up yet. Still, the bat coronavirus could have been inserted into a Pangolin - the Chinese like eating them too.
I think that few outside China actually know the answers here. And as the disease progresses through their country, their government seems to be clamping down harder and harder on Internet information, with less and less transparency. Someone screwed up big time, and the Chinese government don’t like the international black eyes that gives their country. Somewhat akin to the Iranians shooting down that airliner. The death toll is bad enough - but they are still communists, so of much less worry than for us. But is destroying them financially - which is probably the real reason for the lying.
I'm still checking in and Yes Bruce!
I sometimes feel alone on this point, but it seems to me that there are no imperative threats to the U S right now.
I would agree as long as you specified "external". I do believe we face some internal threats. I'm certain we are going to face political violence this summer and fall when the DMC steals the nomination from Bernie again, and when Trump is re-elected.
Given our energy independence, I believe we should consider a period of retrenchment. Cut all foreign aid for anything except food, and disaster relief. (Are you aware that every year, while we are borrowing $500 billion from them, we are sending the Chinese $30 million a year in foreign aid?)
Mothball the strategic triad and deploy a spaceplane (Boeing's X-37 and Sierra Nevada's Dreamchaser paired with some Falcon-9s would both work fine) armed with KEWs and railguns.
Cancel all future capital ships for the Navy. Transform the two supercarriers under construction into disaster relief ships and give them to the Coast Guard. Retire the active duty carriers as they come up for refit or retirement. Replace them with LHAs and LHDs. The Navy gets out of the power projection business, except as support for the Marines, and basically becomes a frigate Navy concerned with commerce protection and keeping the sea lanes open.
The Air Force becomes a tactical force, and would return to the Army in a similar relationship as the Navy and Marines. Pull all U.S. troops out of continental Europe. Either bring them home or move them to the UK and Israel.
Deal with illegal immigration. Provide incentives for illegals to self deport by making life difficult for them instead of comfortable. Build the wall and overhaul the visa system.
Repair the family. Start with changing government policies so that they reward two parent families instead of punishing them. Recruit religious and cultural icons to provide a message of morality and family values. Eliminate the inner city gangs through police presence and prison. Improve failing schools through school choice and competition. Restore vocational education.
Get the government out of the student loan business. Force the colleges and universities to have a stake in their students' success. (They're on the hook for 25% of any loans?) Drive a stake through affirmative action, and open civil rights investigations into any segregated programs and institutions.
Call the heads of the big three automakers to the Whitehouse and demand that they begin the shift to electric vehicles while they still can.
Gahrie,
in the immortal words, of Homer J Simpson:Wishing Won't Make It So
what, respectfully, is the point of your wish list? don't see a single item that could be enacted
Do YOU have any plans, for implementation of these? I thought not
It seems similar to MY wish list
1) everyone in america immediately quit committing any crimes
2) all single people, pair up one male to a female; and Love and Honor each other: 'til death
3) no one goes to colleges for any non useful major; and each student works parttime to pay
4) the people that Aren't in this country stay out
LOOK! I just "solved" EVERY problem in america! i did it by solving NONE of them
i'm sorry to sound rude (in This, Particular instance), but your wish list is just a wish list
Gahrie, I was with you until the electric cars. WTF ?
As for carriers, we need to go back to jeep carriers with UAVs on them. Big CVNs are too vulnerable.
I would go for building 10 nuclear power plants a year until we have no need for the coal and natural gas plants. End subsidies for "green" boondoggles.
Bruce, your theory on corona virus is close to what I think. The bioweapons lab was experimenting with the bat virus to understand how they are not affected negatively.
Early reporting linked it to bats.
This goes back to previous research on bat viruses.
Your theory of someone selling the infected bats is as good as any. China is well known for absence of any ethics or honesty in business. Counterfeit parts are only one aspect of the lack of ethics.
I've read two medical researchers who supposedly worked on this coronavirus and both said it HAD to be bioengineered, for reasons I am not expert enough to appreciate. The way additional virus elements were introduced to the shape or structure, something along those lines. So, Bruce, your friend might be right but why assume that he is so fully up to date that his word is final? His past work is, after all, in the past. The behavior of the Chinese seems intended to cover up something much worse than the animal-sold-illegally scenario. The Chinese experience with this virus, insofar as it has leaked out through social-media comments and videos, is worse than we are hearing from our medical people, much worse. But we are also at least two months behind the Chinese in our exposures. I am afraid of this one.
Gahrie, I was with you until the electric cars. WTF ?
Electric cars are better than ICE in every way, cheaper to maintain and will soon be as cheap to buy. Any legacy car makers who are not making the shift will be left behind. I would prefer that the big three survive.
As for carriers, we need to go back to jeep carriers with UAVs on them. Big CVNs are too vulnerable.
LHAs and LHDs are amphibious versions of the USS Wasp class of aircraft carrier. Both can carry Ospreys and F-35s.
don't see a single item that could be enacted
The United States can't cut foreign aid? The US can't buy existing technology and deploy it in space? The US can't cut military spending or bring troops home? We can't change the way we treat illegal immigrants? We can't have school choice? We can't send gangbangers to prison? We can't get the government out of student loans?
All any of those things needs is determined leadership.
the vulnerability of cvn's is noted in the first chapter of paul singer (the other ones) ghost fleet.
I realized that it was the Three P's that might work:
The Three S's also work.
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