Month: June 2022

Answers, Ramblings, And A Bit More On Vladimir And The Ukraine

War, Ag, Demographics, And The Worst Is Yet To Come

A Quick Russia/Ukraine Update

Russia/Ukraine/Lithuania

Hmmmm

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Hmmmm

Not sure what is going on, but something just sent Vladimir into the Kremlin at a good clip. The message with the video is hilarious. May be something, may be nothing. Interesting for sure.

Some Previous Posts:

Answers, Ramblings, And A Bit More On Vladimir And The Ukraine

War, Ag, Demographics, And The Worst Is Yet To Come

A Quick Russia/Ukraine Update

Russia/Ukraine/Lithuania

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Dobbs

Actually, this is a dissection of the response to a post I made on Twitter, which was in response to an overly dramatic post by a celebrity. I’ve enjoyed that person’s work, even the occasional scenery chewing, but wasn’t surprised at the dramatics.

The majority of response were likes to a post that basically said “No uterus, no say” which is one of the most intellectually vacuous statements out there. It is a logical fallacy right off the top ten list, an effort to end discourse rather than engage in it. Twitter makes it hard to get an exact count, but it looks like 40 or so went that route rather than for discourse.

Then there was the bizarre take of “When the state wants to start castrating men, you’ll sing a different tune then. No state should be allowed to say what you can and can’t do with your body. End. Of. Story.” Looks like 20-30 went with this. This level of projection is worthy of a full-up psych study. Let’s dissect it a bit further.

The State is the Federal government, and if all power resides in it, then it can indeed do bad things. That’s a fundamental reason for The States to have power as a check and balance. Fundamental civics, well understood from the statements of the Founding Fathers. It’s also the reason for the First and Second Amendments since word would need to be spread of the abuse and the Second provides a means to address. Before you start screeching, you might want to check the Federalist Papers as well as the letters and writings of Thomas Jefferson and others such as Adams and Washington. As for the nukes and such, you might want to ask the Taliban and the Ukraine about how it is impossible to go up against a government with nukes, artillery, and aircraft. That take is a bit of idiocy others have already taken apart, will just refer all to the International Lord of Hate and his posts.

The next logical perversion/fallacy here is that not allowing abortion at will through or even after birth will somehow bring about The State decreeing all males must be castrated. Or, at least all those who don’t fully support abortion on demand, which is what I think is the actual psychological projection here. No basis in fact, no logical or illogical reason for it since if all are castrated there will be no future population, hence no future State. To call this fantasy bizarre is an understatement and it is in direct opposition to the fantasy of forced breeding and birth that seems to be popular.

Finally, the implied assumption is that either I and all other males will simply comply or be forced to submit. By whom? Are there some in the military or LE who would obey such and order and engage in such force? Sure. Are there a lot more that won’t? You bet. Scooter, which part of the population has both the weapons, the training, and even the service to handle those weapons (and more) and resist? Might want to think on that a bit, especially if you are proposing that you and your fellow citizens will make it happen. I may well be singing in the future. Heck, I might even be singing in a growing pile of hot brass. The one thing I will guarantee is that it won’t be in soprano.

Looks like about six went with “States rights is the most un-American argument ever. That’s how you make 50 little warring countries. UNITED States. It’s like, right there in the name.” Do they even teach civics anymore? History? This bit of risible idiocy has partially been dealt with above, but allow me to add that the Constitution was written to prevent that level of strife and that other than the War Between The States it has held. It has also allowed, to some degree, individual States to pass laws and try things so that other States could adopt if they proved to be good ideas. The incubator concept of the Founding Fathers clearly isn’t being taught anymore. For the record, I suspect my landlord’s cat has a better knowledge of civics than these people and I know my Algerian-born housemate does as he just finished earning his Citizenship when he passed his civics exam. Really thinking it would not be a bad idea to deny high school graduation or a GED to anyone who can’t pass that exam…

There are a couple of outliers, the obligatory mother forced at risk of her life to carry by the cold, cruel, uncaring state; unfuckables identifying themselves (based on some of the photos, not interested, even with someone else’s member); and it was a Constitutional right. No, it wasn’t. It was NOT an enumerated right, which was the entire problem. It’s one even RGB pointed out along with a solution. Solution not taken, so here we are.

Now, let’s deal with some reality rather than the feverswamp of dramatic fantasy. Dobbs puts abortion back to the States, who can for now decide what limits and other measures to put in place. It does not prevent the Federal government from passing legislation on abortion, and there will doubtless be pressure to do so.

Some States have already effectively banned abortion. Don’t like living in one of them? Then don’t move there or if you live there and can’t get it changed, move yourself to a state with laws you like. Live in a State that hasn’t yet made up its mind and passed laws regarding abortion? Get active and let your legislature and others know where you stand, from banning to abortion after birth. For those advocating the latter, may God have mercy on you.

Will any of the State laws keep you from traveling to another State to get an abortion? No. They never did. Will any of the State laws prevent treatment of ectopic pregnancy (which is NOT abortion FYI)? No. Will any of the State laws force a mother to carry to term even at risk to her health? No, not that I’ve seen. If you have a real citation otherwise, let’s see it. Will any State law force women to be prosecuted for a miscarriage? Again, no, not that I’ve seen. And again, if you have a real citation otherwise, let’s see it.

The truth is, absent a Federal law, we are going to see a range of options on abortion, from a near total ban to abortion-on-demand up until birth. Abortion tourism is going to be a thing, at least for a while. If New York and California don’t get into fight over who is the best destination for an abortion, I will be surprised.

Couple of quick side notes. First, as a small-l libertarian, ownership of our body is the core of most rights. It also, however, includes taking responsibility for what we do to and with that body. Second, our body sometimes does belong to the state, such as through military service. In the case of abortion, it’s about the life and body inside the woman’s body, as that life and body deserves to be protected as well.

UPDATE: Amazing the silence from the my body my choice types when asked where they stood on vaccine mandates…

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Please Help The Fundraiser

I hate to ask, but things are stalled and I really want to get moved as soon as possible. Now that we have all the medical stuff cleared as much as we can, I can concentrate on moving. The problem is, the costs on moving have about doubled in the last few months. Looking at ways to do it cheaper, but there are no guarantees.

If you can help, please donate at the official fundraiser site or, if you don’t trust GiveSendGo, then hit the tip jar in the upper right. Anything helps!

If you support but are in circumstances where you can’t help right now, please share the appeal and help me get the word out.

Most of all, your prayers and moral support are needed. It all helps, and I can’t say how much those have meant to me over the last few months.

Getting hit by lightning has not been fun, but with your help I am on track to survive, thrive, and start a new life. Thank you for your help!

Russia/Ukraine/Lithuania

Since the last update, the only thing that has changed in terms of Russia/Ukraine is that Russia is pushing hard in more areas in an effort to seize territory and cut off reinforcements from counter-attacking. Of course, that works both ways and the recent deep drone strike(s) by the Ukraine are designed to put the Russians on the defensive. Expect it to get even more brutal and nasty here soon, and for the latest information on the combat check out the OSINT people I link to on Twitter (@laughingwolfone) as a good start.

Not exactly a daring prediction, but expect the Russian push to intensify so that Vladimir can “annex” the most possible territory even if he doesn’t really control it. The announcement of annexation is also likely to declare that any attempt to defend (in areas he doesn’t really control) or to take back what they have seized will be an act of war by Ukraine and NATO.

Yes, I expect Vladimir to expand things as they’ve spent the last 20 or so years preparing the populace for war, even nuclear war, with NATO and the U.S. If you aren’t familiar with some of this, check out Kamil Galeev’s extensive work on this and related subjects.

Right now, Lithuania is pushing as hard as it can to make this a NATO/EU war by cutting off access to the Kaliningrad enclave. For those who know not history, Commander Salamander points out a rather unpleasant historical parallel.

The Baltic states have been pushing for this to be a NATO/EU war from the start, and on some levels it is hard to blame them. They know they are on the list to be brought into Russkiy Mir by force. Vladimir has just reinforced that with a series of comments and provocations against them and Denmark. That said, I am less than thrilled with their efforts and this latest by Lithuania has the potential to go sideways in a hurry. Then again, that’s why they are doing it.

There are those who are already calling this the Cold War 2, and saying it could last generations. On some levels, I hope they are right. There is far too great a potential for this to become a hot war on levels no one will like. It will take competent, knowledgeable, and strong leadership to navigate either a cold war or a hot, and frankly I don’t see that leadership anywhere in sight right now.

Some Previous Posts:

Answers, Ramblings, And A Bit More On Vladimir And The Ukraine

War, Ag, Demographics, And The Worst Is Yet To Come

A Quick Russia/Ukraine Update

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Learning from what they don’t say

What leftists aren’t saying about the controversial lesbian kiss in Lightyear shows that they know the truth about conservative racial beliefs — and always lie about it.

I know conservatives are supposed to be racist scum, but look at what doesn’t get said about the controversy surrounding Disney’s new movie, Lightyear.

The Daily Mail’s headline: “Disney’s Lightyear FLOPS in opening weekend that saw it fail to topple Jurassic Park at box office after controversy over lesbian kiss and decision to ax conservative star Tim Allen as voice of Buzz”

Variety, in March: “Same-Sex Kiss Restored in Pixar’s ‘Lightyear’ Following Staff Uproar Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill (EXCLUSIVE)”

The LA Times reports: “…it was reported that a previously cut kiss shared by queer “Lightyear” character Alisha Hawthorne and her wife was reinstated in the film….[I]ncreasingly loud conservative voices [] try to foment irrational outrage over any acknowledgement of the actual reality of LGBTQ people existing.”

And on, and on, and on.

Of all of those articles posted above, only the Daily Mail shows a picture of the couple in question. Notice anything?

Why aren’t the bigots overreacting to this? I was told there would be bigots!

Yes, they’re an interracial couple.

But the horrifyingly evil conservatives who hate the entire LGBTQIA2SNPZ spectrum, people of color, women, and the poor equally, aren’t saying “boo” about this interracial couple — even though overturning Roe v. Wade would apparently lead us to overturn interracial marriage.

And no leftist (a.k.a. “mainstream”) outlets have even tried to claim that horrifyingly evil conservatives might say such a thing. You’d think that one of us vicious racists would have said something racist about queer miscegenation, and that some leftist paper would have picked it up — and if we didn’t say it, they’d make something up and claim that we were thinking it. But we didn’t say anything, and they didn’t report on anything, and they didn’t even think about accusing us of racism because, well, it’s such nonsense that even they couldn’t dream it up.

What leftists aren’t saying shows us that they know the truth about conservative racial beliefs, even though they normally say the exact opposite.

Re-Imagining Space Stations, Pt. 3

A few more background thoughts for our thought experiment. To build the future, we must know the past and understand why some of it was done the way it was done.

NASA has hated the idea of building anything in orbit. One of the things I heard mentioned about any of the ideas on using the Shuttle external fuel tanks was that it was too dangerous. To say that NASA was risk averse is an understatement of several orders of magnitude. If something didn’t work/didn’t work right, you most likely never saw it again. I think the only reason the Tethered Satellite System got a second flight was because the first flight didn’t work because of an idiotic (and unnecessary) change by NASA safety to the mechanism, and the blow back to not giving it a flight would have been huge. As it is, losing the satellite on the second mission guaranteed that NASA won’t touch tethers/tethered satellite again for a century or three. That will be up to industry (and I suspect NASA may try to block such).

Doing things like space walks are inherently dangerous. You are in a vacuum, with radiation, changing lighting (plus a freeze/thaw cycle) as you get a sunrise/sunset about every 90 minutes as you orbit, and require stability to get anything done. The first time I did work for NASA, I worked for a company that helped develop the “SX” wrench, which was actually a ratchet that could be used in microgravity. Add to it the fact that the spacesuits NASA uses for “extra-vehicular activities” aka EVAs, aka space walks, have issues. If you’ve been following recent news from the ISS, the last two or three EVAs had problems with water building up in the helmets to the point it was a real issue for the astronauts in question. They are actually not doing any EVAs right now while they try to figure things out.

There’s also the little matter of not wanting anyone to go Dutchman. Without tethers or some form of thruster pack, it would not be hard for someone to take a one way impromptu tour of low-Earth orbit. Dutchman is bad, okay? We don’t want anyone to go Dutchman.

So, no surprise that for the most part NASA has gone for the big module system, with as much automation as possible. Never mind the big contracts for the defense companies that build them, or the companies that spend thousands if not millions designing suits, etc. Leaving that aside, NASA has avoided doing anything that would require large amounts of EVA. EVAs are risk, and NASA wants no risk, zero defects, etc. They’ve worked hard to keep the need for EVAs on ISS to a minimum.

But, developing new structures, systems, and related infrastructure in orbit is going to require EVAs. Lots of them, and probably long ones. That means as the thought experiment progresses, we need to be thinking about new and improved spacesuits, new or novel means of safety to augment or potentially replace current tether systems, and even means of rescuing that person who goes Dutchman because you know someone will. Sooner rather than later most likely. Space is even more unforgiving that the ocean, so keep that in mind as the thought experiment unfolds.

Now, a few thoughts on what types of structures or facilities are going to be needed. We are going to need human habitation, and as we start to build orbital facilities or put together missions to the Moon and Mars, we might find ourselves actually needing something like bunkhouses. Specialized research facilities? You bet, all types including platforms for astronomy, space exposure, and remote sensing. Slips for assembling those missions elsewhere, from LEO to the Moon or Mars? Yep.

The only limits to this thought experiment are your imagination and that at first everything will have to come up from Earth. So, keep in mind current launch capabilities and near-term capabilities. All the more reason for creating industry in orbit ASAP.

So, let’s look at getting this underway. If you want, reply in the comments. If you come up with something larger than a comment, we can look at guest posts. If you want to take just one part of something, go for it. The idea is to get lots of ideas and innovations so that we can refine, expand, tweak, and otherwise help plot the next generation of orbital facilities.

Previous Articles In This Series:

Space Memories And The Future

Re-Imagining Space Stations, Pt. 1

Re-Imagining Space Stations, Pt. 2

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A Quick Russia/Ukraine Update

As I said a while back, I am happy to have been wrong about May. That said, while I have dropped the use of special weapons to 40 percent, I am not inclined to drop lower yet. Why? Internal rhetoric and the fact that things stood up have not been stood down. Until I see the internal discussions change, and things stood down and locked back up, I have to consider such things as still on the table. Not likely currently, but things change and they can change in a heartbeat.

The demented meat puppet is NOT helping things. Someone yesterday said he was trying to finesse things, which scares the everliving out of most sane people as he and his handlers don’t have a clue of how to do that. He and his administration continue to both needlessly antagonize Vladimir (and miss a lot of what is needed to deal with him and the situation) and present challenges to our allies.

In other words, pretty much same old, same old. No real change over the last few weeks. As for the actual combat, it is the grind previously discussed. The OSINT crew out there is doing an amazing job of not only covering the combat, but also the history, cultural, and other factors that go into this conflict. If there is an interest, I will put up a list of the OSINT people I follow. I will also say (again) that back in the early 80s I would have just about killed for some of the resources OSINT has today. And, not surprising, OSINT is largely beating the various agencies and organizations on a consistent basis. Only other thing is that so far the Ukraine has fought very smart. Conventional wisdom and a lot of current military planning is getting stood on its head and smart people are paying attention.

Some Previous Posts:

Answers, Ramblings, And A Bit More On Vladimir And The Ukraine

War, Ag, Demographics, And The Worst Is Yet To Come