Range Report: Upgrades Were Successful

Met up with Tosh and took the Glock 19 Gen 5 out to the range that is close to my work.   

The Glock 19 worked as expected with no failures and is rather nice and smooth with the trigger upgrades.

I did discover that one of my much older Glock 19 magazine demonstrated an inability to properly feed the last round in both my and Tosh's Glocks.  Very weird and 100% repeatable failure to feed the last round.  Said magazine is no longer in service.

The 509T on the Glock 19 was dialed in and zeroed.  It was pretty darn close to being zeroed as as it came back from ATEI, and this session just got it perfectly zeroed for me.

I also purchased some stainless steel guide-rods for the Masada pistols and tried one out at the range today.

I bought them from Manticore Arms and was very happy with the service from them. They inadvertently only shipped one to me, and the packing slip said two which I had paid for. I contacted them, and they immediately sent the missing second one out immediately, no fuss, no muss which is indeed great customer service.

The guide rod with its 18 lb spring makes the firearm feel quite a bit more solid when shooting it, and it may even have tightened up the grouping just a tad. I will need to shoot it more to see for sure, but it ran perfectly. 

After some B8 shooting for zeros and groups, we then turned to A-Zones at 7 yards. I shot the A Zones with the new Glock 19.

After three months of not shooting, the rust and lack of practice really shows.  

My average time from the beep to drawing form concealment to hitting the A-Zone was in the 2.20 second range with some lower than that, but some higher.  None were what I would call an acceptable time. Really lost some ground there.  On the upside, of the 15 rounds shot, 14 were hits with one just, just, outside the A Zone. 

Well, the cure for bad performance due to a lack of practice is to do more practice, and to recommence dry-fire practice too.

A good, if short, range trip.  Then back to the office.

Not Flying - Flight Review Ground

Did the first part of the flight review today.

Met up with Alec at DCT.  We get along well, and we got right into the Flight Review.

Covered the VFR stuff quickly and turned it into a flight planning session with emphasis on weather and go/no-go decision making. Did that well.

Then onto a refresher on doing all the performance calcilations, route planning, and W&B by hand without using Foreflight - the same way I'll be stuck doing them for my IFR checkride.  Good practice for the test anyways.

Then went into some more esoteric stuff and some fun specific questions I've had about some weird situations and we worked through those which were quite helpful.

So I successfully passed the Ground Portion of the Flight Review.

Media: When Republicans Point Out The Truth, it's An "Attack"

When a Republican points out facts about Democrats, the Media reports it as an attack or that "Republicans pounce", not about the failure/foible of the Democrat in question

For example:

The Detroit Free Press: New Michigan GOP ad attacks Whitmer's pledge to 'fix the damn roads'

For all of Gov Half-Whit's laser-like focus on "fixing the damn roads" - in between trying her best to shut the state down and rule like an autocrat, the results of her 4 years of effort have been, well underwhelming. 

According to estimates from the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council, the percentage of all Michigan roads that are in poor shape today — around 40% — is about the same as when Whitmer was elected, though the percentage of roads in good shape has ticked up by 4 percentage points.

So, four years of maximum Whitmer effort has resulted in the same amount of roads rated poor and only added 4% to the roads in good shape metric.

Most impressive.

One can only wonder what would have happened to the roads had she not been so focused, the thought is just too terrible to contemplate.

Flying IFR - Lesson 48 - Approaching Absolutely Nowhere Fast

So today I was in N6288J.

88J has an upgraded, or as it turns out, downgraded GPS. Its  a Garmin 355A.   Nice touchscreen operation but it takes a lot of getting used to compared to using the 430W.  Some of that is just re-finding things but its an extra learning curve I don't particularly want to waste time on right now.  Even better, Rocky wasn't fully up on it either.

Even worse, as it does link to the G5 HSI and can do RNAV, it does not have CDI flip capability and no VOR radio so you can only use the HSI for RNAV approaches.  All VOR, ILS and Localizer approaches have to be used with the old "steam gauge" VOR receiver not the HSI.

This is really flipping stupid and a downgrade in capabilities from the 430W for that aircraft.  

In essence, it's like flying VOR and similar approaches partial panel compared to a properly functioning HSI. Great.

So we headed off to Flint from Pontiac's Runway9L, and had to stay on Pontiac's runway heading for quite awhile due to traffic. Then we were stuck on heading 360 for awhile too.  I then did the VOR 36 Circle to 9 which is a really weird circle route.  The circle is absolutely huge between the two runways in question, as 36 is closer to the 27 side by quite a lot.

Did it using the VOR receiver as we couldn't find a CDI flip for the 355.  The 355 does function as a DME at least so there's that.  Overall good on keeping the needle centered, did a good descent and again need to control my altitude better.

Then off to D95 Lapeer for my first IFR approach there ever.  Did the VOR-A using Flint's VOR and again using the backup instead of the nice G5 HSI as there's no way to switch it out of GPS mode.

Did a circle approach and was way too high as I did not have the airport in sight at the time for the beginning of the circle.  Since it's a -A approach, the VOR is not lined up with the runway, and you have to circle.  Circled over to 36. Also I was working on staying high enough to stay at minimums and yet being able to lose enough altitude on final to be able to land which is rather difficult with that approach.  Altitude control is my current PITA.

Then on to Pontiac for a nice stable RNAV 9R approach. Well it would have been, but Detroit Approach started by telling us to go direct to HASTY.

There is no HASTY waypoint on the approach.  It's HASRI, so I called him back and asked if it was direct to HASRI and he said it was.

Made it to HASRI and Detroit Approach was busy and then asked us if we wanted to just shoot it ourselves and we said yes rather than getting dropped from it entirely.

So I did a nice lined up approach, need to descend a little more to stay on glideslope, but made a very nice landing.

Overall complete Meh of a lesson. I don't think I made any progress that lesson at all, and am currently going nowhere fast and paying a lot to do so. Radio work is fine, use of the VOR 2 is fine, total meh with no real improvement. I suppose it gave me a refresher on semi-partial panel procedures and using NAV2 so there's that.

Oh, and I need to interrupt this program and do a flight review now too as U couldn't get the IFR test in before my flight review runs out.   The couple Instructors at my flying club are too busy to do it, so I get to pay a premium and do it at DCT.  Great.

An Election Is Coming Up - So Let's Change Covid Reporting Methods

In essence, the purpose of statistics is to accurately measure things. 

It becomes rather hard to accurately measure a thing when you change the reporting methods about the thing, making comparisons difficult if not impossible, likely due to an upcoming election.

The Detroit Free Press: Michigan health department to change how it reports COVID data

Starting next week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is changing the way it reports coronavirus data.

It will update Michigan cases and COVID-19 deaths weekly, rather than three times a week, starting April 4 on its website

       . . .

The change in the way the state will report cases and deaths going forward adheres to a national surveillance strategy created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Lynn Sutfin, spokesperson for the state health department.

"At this stage in the pandemic, daily updates do not inform policy or contribute to the national surveillance program," Sutfin said. "Many states have also begun to move to less frequent public reporting of data.

Thus causing it to reflect a lagging rather than leading trend and likely end up reporting more cases but less deaths as a result. 

Most  interestingly, they're now going to reduce the number of deaths publicly attributed to Covid as well:

Another change is that the health department will no longer report how many COVID-19 deaths were discovered during a review of vital records.

That's quite a change, as that retrospective review was previously used to pump the death-from-Covid numbers up.

So the numbers will now be adjusted to reduce the numbers of deaths from/with Covid in the run up to the mid-terms, and also deliberately lag in case of an increase in cases.  Our Gov can now announce there are fewer deaths based on these new statistical methods as the midterms approach. 

Now isn't that wonderfully convenient?

Getting An Early Start On The Ramadan Hostility Scoreboard

Ramadan is coming up, which generally means increased acts of terrorism worldwide, typically resulting in a 25% increase in terrorist attacks compared to the rest of the year.

Some Islamists are off to an early start, jumping the gun, so to speak:

Legal Insurrection: Israel: ISIS-Linked Terrorists Kill Two Policemen, Injure Several Others

Legal Insurrection: Israel: Four Killed, Several Injured in Islamist Terror Attack

Expect further attacks worldwide, as has been the trend, as we enter the mostly peaceful season of Ramadan.

Higher Education Application Crisis

It looks like Covid is seriously affecting college applications this year. 

Students admitted last year deferred their acceptance until now and will be starting this year.  Can't really blame them, as who would want to pay thousands for online learning?

Unfortunately, this among other factors including, I suspect, Universities' progressive focus on Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity, is absolutely killing acceptance rates for graduating seniors this year. 

For example Northeastern University, with a normal acceptance rate of 23% has dropped to 7%.  Northwestern University went from a normal acceptance rate 9% to 4%. Other Universities are having a similar drop. It's gone from a shot at winning the lottery to a chance at being struck by lightning to get in.

Let's take, for example, a senior graduating this year with an above 4.0 GPA, high ACT score, and a pending IB diploma in addition to the standard high school diploma from one of the highest ranked and most rigorous high schools in the entire state.  The student has years of volunteer work for a variety of issues; including being the volunteer chief of staff for a County Commissioner (a Democrat, sigh, as is she, on the very progressive wing, but still not a small thing.   The student has state-level wins at forensics, and is named valedictorian. Rather impressive, I daresay.  Oh, and she is getting rejected all over the damn place from top-level schools. She does have acceptances from lower-tier schools (including some very good ones) so fall-backs are in place, so that's something.  But that's not what she's seeking as she wants to be among the best and learn from the best in a STEM field.

Others at the school, with similar stellar resumes or better, are also getting rejected and I suspect in their cases there's some anti-Asian selection bias going on, as some of these kids are seriously super-stars, and no, they don't have "personality" issues. 

Are you a caring progressive at a university concerned about Asians being "over-represented" (which is complete BS) at University because they get good grades and do the work?  Then tell the non-Asian kids to get their shit together and work half as hard as these kids do. Racial discrimination, even for lovely progressive reasons like DIE is still racial discrimination and it's still wrong - races don't go to university, individual students do.

Colleges also seem to be cutting down on their scholarship offerings as there's no need for them to induce students to apply, as there's a major surplus of applicants this year.

It's certainly an atypical year for college applications.

Flying IFR - Lesson 47 - The F In IFR Conditions

Today would be a real IMC day. Overcast layer at 1,100 above the field.   Unsurprisingly, no one else was out flying this morning from DCT. I had Tom as my instructor today.

Unfortunately, I also had N1689H.  

Yes the seat shifted all on its own, again.  The shoulder belt likes to detach, and did from the lap belt while I was flying; the seat is low and can't be adjusted up; and level flight has the yoke slightly skewed to the left.  In short, I hates that plane, I hates it.

 

Yes, we hates it.

 

Fine, fine, suck it up and just fly it.

Got an IFR clearance, real simple readback with cleared as filed and we were off to Troy for the 9 circle to 27, then Flint for the ILS 27, and back to Pontiac for everybody's favorite, the Localizer Back course 27L.

Pretty much in IMC all the time. Bases were at 2,500 and we were 3,000-4,000 in complete cloud-filled IMC. Good practice. Yes, it is very different from simulated IMC.

Unfortunately, today was one step forward two steps back day.

My procedures overall were excellent, radio excellent, when doing the approaches held on the needles quite well and I know what I'm doing and how to do them. But once again its the simple stuff that's hosing me.

Did the full procedure into Troy, but need to remember that when circling not to drop below minimums until 30 degrees of final.  other instructors told me different so who know who is right. 

Did the ILS 27 at Flint went missed and got instructions to fly the actual missed procedure for the first time rather than runway heading.  Flew to the hold, did about 5 circles through the hold until we got released to head for Pontiac.

For Pontiac, we did the Localizer Backcourse 27L.  Not partial panel  but I essentially pretended I was partial panel and just looked at VOR 2.  Flew the needle nicely lined up and stepped right down, broke out of the clouds around 2,500 with the runway perfectly lined up and headed on in.

Unfortunately there of course was the two steps back. Maintaining altitude and heading was absolute suckage. I was all over the damned place. Fix one, the other runs off, and I was way, way, over-controlling and couldn't get the damn thing to stay straight and level for beans. In short, I was really, really, crappy up there today. Much frustration. Really should not be this f'ing difficult. I'm not nearly as good as I was in January and wouldn't pass an right exam now.

But, I finally made a really great landing.  About time. So, that was some compensation for the suckitude of the flight overall.

I'm now back to being current for passengers.

Downside, I now have 7 days left until I need a flight review. So, I'm getting a flight review instead of being able to credit the IFR checkride as one because I'm sure as hell not ready for it now, and even if I was, I doubt an examiner is available in time either.

That's 2.0, with 1.3 Actual Instrument; 3 approaches; 2 holds; and 1 really great landing, and a load of frustration.

LTT's SCD And Glock 19 Upgrades

The SCD arrived from Langdon Tactical and it is as expected - excellent fit and finish as good or perhaps even a touch better finish than the original.

Great service, quick shipping, and it works.  If you carry a Glock, it's a useful addition to you firearm for an added level of awareness while re-holstering your firearm.

I then installed it in my new Gen5 Glock 19, along with an Overwatch Precision TAC Trigger along with an Overwatch Precision NP3 coated Glock Factory Safety Plunger.

Those changes impressively improved the feel from the factory trigger. Still about the same weight it is now a lot smoother, and the flat trigger subjectively feels a lot better.

Note that the Gen 5 Glock is internally rather different from previous Glock generations.

The safety plunger and trigger/trigger housing are the most notable changes from prior generations when you start looking at the internals. The ambidextrous slide release is also a notable change, as is the use of a standard rather than a leaf spring for the slide lock, but I wasn't messing with either of those.

The trigger no longer has an attachment point for the spring at the rear of the trigger bar. Instead, the spring is in the housing and you have to fit one of the legs of the trigger into a lever inside the housing properly to connect it and then swing it into the notch in the housing.  It is actually much easier and quicker than installing a prior generation trigger once you get the hang of it.

But the safety plunger is decidedly more difficult.

No longer a happy round shape that goes in with a simple push, the Gen 5 plunger is now rectangular-ish at the top, and has notches on its post. Most importantly, it now only fits back in one way.  You may think you have it in that one way, but you often find out that you're wrong.

The best way to get it back in is to first sacrifice a chicken, throw some salt over your shoulder, and then while you install it mutter various curses in multiple languages.  At least that worked for me, you may need to step it up and sacrifice a turkey.

Once all that was done, it was all reassembled and then it function tested correctly.

The Glock is now all ready to be taken out to the range.

Flying IFR - Lesson Flying IFR - Lesson 46 - Windy AF Approaches

For Lesson 46, I did the preflight for 8570F and then met my new primary instructor, Rocky Wu.

Rocky's a nice guy and knows his stuff, which is what I need to shake the rust off.

We did a three airport approach plan.  Flint for an ILS 9, Troy for the RNAV 9, and back to Pontiac for a partial panel RNAV 9. Windy all the way.

As you might imagine, the wind was from the 9 side. It was gusting 15-25 from 090-150 or so.

On the upside, with a 25-knot wind that was mostly headwind, the plane basically took off all by itself.

I did a very good job on the radios and settign up, briefing and then doing the approaches themselves. 

Had the needles pretty much locked in on each approach, even while getting gusted off course at times. So, I'm pretty happy with that.

The RNAV 9 at Troy was fun.  First, I absolutely nailed the hold entry. Adding to the fun there was a plane in the pattern.  Add to the fact the RNAV 9 is actually for Runway 10 now and I had fun doing radio calls describing to a VFR pilot where I was while doing an IFR approach.  Basically the later calls amount to "On the RNAV 9 approach. straight in to Runway 10, 5 miles out", and they understood what that meant. Then at the MAP I went missed and let them know we were climbing on runway heading to 3,000 feet (as we had been previously instructed by Detroit Approach), and they appreciated that.

Doing a partial panel RNAV was interesting.  Never did that before.  Had both G5s off so I used the steam gauges and the Garmin 430 screen and then did a step-down RNAV approach without any vertical guidance to land at Pontiac. Kinda neat.

Altitude was still getting away from me a bit, need to watch that more as I have a definite climbing tendency that causes me to bust the altitude by 200 feet if I'm not paying attention.  By the middle of the lesson I had it under control pretty much, lost it a bit by the end of the lesson so I need to really pay attention  to it. 

Another aircraft carrier landing.

Sure as heck lost some ground not flying for the past three months, but working to get it all back and get back to spec again.

Upside, it hurt less getting into and out of the plane today than it did Friday.

That's 1.9, 1 hold, 3 approaches, and 1 aircraft carrier type meh landing.

Gov Half-Whit Rewrites History

Elections tend to focus politicians' minds most carefully, and they try to cover up their track record of failure.

Oh really?  Remind us who closed the schools in the first place? Who kept them closed long past the time they should have opened based on you know, the science that schools were not in fact a major disease vector for Covid and that Covid was not an imminent danger to school-age kids and youth?

Oh, right, it was none other than Governor Whitmer.

From michgian.gov:  Governor Whitmer Announces Statewide Closure of All K-12 School Buildings; School building closures will last Monday, March 16 through Sunday, April 5

Gov Half-Whit Vetoes Gas Tax And Income Tax Relief

Reason:  Not enough opportunities for graft and government spending if you provide relief to all the people of Michigan rather than the Democrat's favored few and using the money to buy votes.

The Detroit Free Press: Whitmer vetoes GOP Legislature's plans to cut taxes on personal income, fuel

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday issued a double-barreled veto, nixing a massive tax cut passed by the Michigan Legislature and promising to reject a pause in the state gas tax.

Both moves were expected.

Whitmer is instead calling for more targeted tax relief, such as a repeal of the state pension tax and a tripling of the state Earned Income Tax Credit for low income earners. 

Michigan be sure to remember this come November.

CNN Covers For Kamala

CNN continues the effort to burnish Kamala's image,trying to paint her as a great success on the world stage, ignoring or straight-out lying about all evidence to the contrary.

 CNN: Harris avoids public discord in one of the most intense moments of her vice presidency

 Like most of her events, Harris' trip was tightly scripted. Only an arch aside to the Polish President when he kept asking her to answer first during a joint news conference -- "A friend in need is a friend indeed," she said, laughing slyly -- generated some criticism, since the question was about refugees.

Come on now CNN, that was no "arch aside" nor a "sly laugh".  

That was a full-on Kamala Kackle of nervous laughter where she had no idea how to answer the question:

Who ya gonna believe, CNN or your own lyin' eyes (and ears)?

At least they admit it's tightly scripted, they wouldn't want her having a deer-in-the-headlights look she has so often displayed, combined with her prior word salad non-answers she's used before, now would they?

Let's note they didn't even cover her mis-tweet about Ukraine being a NATO member.  That's rather important.   What a major public official has to say and even suggest that Ukraine is considered a NATO member can have major consequences.  Consider that one of Russia's top reasons for the invasion was that Ukraine would join NATO, saying it is a member by the VP of the United States on a public forum could escalate matters.

They also overlooked her speaking flub about Poland being on NATO's northern flank.

Her explanation of the invasion also clearly shows she's ready for prime-time:

I suspect it's going to take a whole lot more effort to buff her image and depict her as ready for the top spot.  But, you gotta admit the media and Democrats (but I repeat myself) are doing their damnedest to do it in the face of all Kamala-based evidence to the contrary.

PT: So, How About Ouch For An Answer?

In addition to flying, I Did a PT session today.

Apparently it's not just my IT Band that is a bit cross with me.

There's a piece of my leg south of the incision where the surface nerves are completely out of whack.  Pressure is felt, but not much other sensation in that spot which is about a palms-width in size.  Feels really strange but it should resolve itself eventually.

 Had a good workout set of the exercises, gave it my all, then got to lie and enjoy some heat on the leg and then the Therapist comes by as it's my turn to get manipulated.

So I'm getting worked on and I mention this dead spot to the physio therapist.

So he starts putting some pressure in the area.

"Does that hurt?"  "No"

"Does that hurt?"  "No"

"Does that hurt?"  "No"

"Does that hurt?"  "N-Yeargh!"

Don't think I caught air on that, but only because he was pushing down into my leg at the time. 

The surface nerves may be fried, but the nerves deeper in the quad muscle are present, still pissed off at being man-handled during the surgery, and absolutely not afraid to let me know that. 

This is part of why I'm having trouble sleeping through the night, as they occasionally fire off to let me know I was a jerk for letting them get moved around, and the muscle tends to be stiff and sore in the morning.

This will apparently all settle down in time, but they're not done messing with me for now.

Flying IFR - Lesson 45 - Back In The Air and On The Approaches Again

Arrived at the airport today. First flight with the new hip.

Kevin has gone on to the charter side of the business, so I had Emily as my instructor today.

Did the preflight, and yes there were some aches involved in the steps up and down into and out of the cockpit for the preflight and kneeling to test the gas kinda sucked, and bending for the chocks sucked a real lot, but I got it done.

Lovely day today in the 50s, sky almost entirely clear below 4,000. Jacket came off immediately.

Good start up, and I called for flight following and did the long taxi to Runway 9R, and did the run up.

Take off was nice and easy and it was great to be back in the air again. 

Got handed off to Detroit Approach, and headed north to Flint.

There I did the RNAV 9 and the VOR 36 approaches, and did them very well.

Then back to Pontiac for the RNAV 9 and finishing with the  ILS 9 after a really far out of the way routing by Detroit Approach for traffic management.  I had almost thought they had forgot about us but they finally turned us back in.

Overall it went pretty well.  I did some very nice approaches if I say so myself and had the needles nice and lined up and had the glideslops captured for the RNAV and ILS approaches. Emily was impressed I was doing that well with the approaches and procedures after not flying for 3 months.

As usual, I still need to work on heading and altitude control.  Getting better, and I now trim like a fiend, but it slips a bit as I get task loaded so I need to watch it even more carefully.  

The landing was great for an aircraft carrier, nice and flat.  Not up to my usual standard. We'll blame that on not flying for the past 3 months, and enough said about that.

No issues with flying with the new hip, control was just fine and it actually feels better than before.  But I'm definitely not 100% yet.

Getting out of the plane was not bad,I felt  a little sore but it was ok.  Dropped the jacket and bag off first out of the plane to the ground rather than trying to carry them, and then lowered my self down stepping from the wing, to the step, to the ground and it worked just fine.

That's 1.9, 4 good approaches, and 1 meh landing.

I'm back at it.

Happy Birthday Tash!

Another cycle around the sun.

Of course, a cherry cheesecake was required for breakfast this morning.

I made the cheesecake yesterday and it came out very tasty indeed. The cheesecake is actually pretty easy to make and a definite family birthday pleaser.

 

So Tash was born on St. Patrick's Day. 

Not too sure what it all means that she was born on a day celebrating an anti-snake event, wearing green, and drinking and enjoyed corned beef, but it's a fine day to celebrate a birthday today.

Today is nice, sunny, and 70 degrees out, a decent anomaly for March in Michigan and absolutely perfect for a birthday.

Canada To Not Require Covid Tests For Vaccinated Visitors

I suspect the trucker protest, as well as the border cities that appreciate the income from American visits, are pushing the Canadian government toward Covid-realism and are the cause of this latest announcement.

The Detroit News: Canada to drop COVID tests for vaccinated visitors, official says

That will save us the hassle of getting the stupid tests before visiting Canada so its a step in the right direction.

Hello Dere Deer

It's beginning to feel like spring, but winter isn't done with us yet.

But the younger deer are now out and about, and spending time hanging out in our backyard.

 Very cute and not concerned about a human looking at them, nor about the dogs barking incessantly at them for the temerity of the deer being on their turf.

Hindsight Is 2022

Ah,  the good old days when Europeans laughed at Trump and America's simplisme. Watch them smirk at the clearly horridly gauche demand that Europe increase military speeding to be able to meaningfully contribute to their own defense, and quit their reliance on Russian gas as they let their Greenies eliminate other sources of energy.

Ript: 2018: GERMANY AT UN LAUGHED AT WARNINGS OF RUSSIAN GAS RELIANCE

That attitude really didn't age well,  now did it?  Yet again Trump was right and the bien pensants were rather badly wrong.  

But hey, no mean tweets, amirite?

Float: A Nice New Way To Relax

Decided to try something new last night.

After PT I went home had dinner, and then went off to Motor City Float to try float therapy. 

In essence, you shower and then head into a enclosed tank of water where you then close the door behind you.  You're then lying in a fully enclosed tank about 7 feet high and about three-four body-widths wide with about 12 inches of water in the bottom supersaturated with Epsom salts so you can't sink, and you just float in the water.

You just lie there and feel pretty much weightless and at a perfect comfy temperature. Takes all the weight off your body and your mind as well.

Great for relaxing the hip and muscles in general.  Doctor actually said it was a great idea to try.

It's quiet, the lights start on and then go out (unless you specifically request they stay on) and you're alone with your thoughts and with no distractions in some nice body temperature water for about an hour. You're in total quiet, and total darkness.

Consider: You're not afraid of being alone in the dark, you're afraid of being NOT alone in the dark. 

Since I was alone in the dark, it was no issue. 

I also had earplugs in to keep the epsom salt water out and it was nice and relaxing. Very peaceful indeed and a nice way to end a hectic day. Feels like your just calmly floating in space, very meditative.

The hip and related muscles, while very relaxed and floating. did still send me the occasional ouch twinge (apparently per my Physio therapist, the Ilotibial Band, among some other muscle groups, on my right leg is still really, really angry at me - and it doesn't hesitate to show it).

After an hour float (and it felt shorter in there), lights and music came on and I got out, showered the Epsom solution off and went on my way. Hip and associated muscles were actually  more relaxed with less aches when I was done, which was happy-making.

I then was actually able to sleep through the night for just about the first time in a long time post-surgery after doing that.

Motor City Float was very nice and clean, and has a very friendly and well-organized setup.  I think I will do this some more as I'm recovering, as it definitely seemed to help relax both muscles and mind.

Germans Now Doing What Trump Was Condemned For Asking Them To Do

In the face of Russian aggression, Germany is finally going to start spening on revitalizing it's military so it can begin honoring its NATO defense commitments.

The Detroit News: Germany to buy US-made F-35s to replace aging bombers

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced last month that the country would create a special fund of 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to bolster its armed forces and raise defense spending above 2% of gross domestic product, a measure on which it had long lagged behind other NATO countries on.

Better late than never, I suppose.

They're also going to buy some F-35s to replace their aging Tornados.

Of course the Left in Germany really hates the fact that Germany might have a credible air force again and most especially that an F-35 could potentially carry a nuclear weapon:

“We reject arming the Bundeswehr with new, nuclear-capable combat jets,” said Ali Al-Dailami, the [Left] party’s deputy defense spokesman. He warned that equipping German pilots to drop U.S. atomic bombs could “fuel the risk of nuclear war in Europe.”  

I hate to break it to the Left, but the Tornado, the plane the F-35 will be replacing, was also fully capable of carrying out a nuclear mission so this changes nothing potential nuclear capabilities-wise.  

Interestingly, Germany had previously said no to the F35 as too expensive and they didn't want to increase their defense spending, but Putin's invasion is making them pick a capable aircraft to replace their obsolescent fleet.

I don't believe in any case that anyone will be giving the Luftwaffe nukes anytime soon, but they do need to have a functioning air force again if they want to have any role in NATO at all.

Nice to see Trump being vindicated about Germany needing to spend more on its own defense.  I'm sure his critics will apologize for criticizing his requests that Germany do so any day now.  Really, any day at all.

Real Good Eats: Are You Skyr'd Yet?

Skyr is an Icelandic version of yogurt.  It's got lots of protein and is creamier and more solid than Balkan-type yogurts and has a smoother texture than the Greek-style stuff too.

Skyr is often flavored and I just came across yogurt nirvana.

It's Icelandic Provisions  Extra Creamy Coffee Cold Brew Skyr

Life-changing. It's coffee and yogurt coming together in perfect tasty harmony. Best flavor of yogurt I've ever tasted.

Seriously, this Cold Brew Skyr is so tasty, they need to rename it to "Winning At Life".  

A great way to start your day or to have a healthy pick-me-up snack that makes you happily charge through the rest of your day.

Mister, We Could Use Some Mean Tweets Again

Anyone else getting the sense that the Biden Administration just cannot get a handle on events?

Under Biden we have:

High Inflation and getting higher, brought on by the Biden Administration's policies;

Oil and energy prices climbing due to the Biden Administration's policies and Greeenie ideology hampering US production  at every turn;

The complete inability to deter Putin from invading Ukraine, and green-lighting  the way for that invasion with a public statement that a "Minor Incursion" might be considered acceptable and lead to only minor sanctions ;

Appeasing Iran and getting a US Consulate hit with ballistic missiles in return; 

and perhaps most importantly -

The complete inability of Biden and Kamala Harris to conduct themselves on the world stage.   It is a complete embarrassment at this point.  It's obvious and rather telling that Biden can -- at most -- maybe handle an hour's worth of a public appearance and then get whisked away without taking questions. Meanwhile Kamala messes up every high profile assignment she is sent on and looks like a deer caught in the headlights every time she's asked a question, and then she resorts to a nervous cackle and avoids answering. World leaders notice this deficiency of US leadership now as much as the American public does.

Biden and Harris may just have been able to coast along as President and Vice President in a peaceful world with the economy humming along as it was pre-Covid under Trump.  

Sadly, we don't have such a peaceful world and a stable growing economy right now. 

A major reason for that is directly due to the Biden Administration's policies and their failure to get a handle on events and to lead on the world stage.

The Biden Administrations isn't just  unable to answer the 4am phone call, they're either sleeping through it; busy having some applesauce; or in the case of Harris, not even understanding what that ringing sound is and where it is coming from.

Iran Fires Ballistic Missiles At US Consulate

Displays of weakness and a policy and acts of appeasement tends to breed contempt from the party being appeased and viewing the weakness.

New York Post: Ballistic missiles fired at US consulate in Iraq

Up to a dozen ballistic missiles launched from Iran were fired early Sunday morning towards the US consulate in Iraq’s Kurdistan region capital of Erbil, officials said. 

. . . 

Negotiation talks in Vienna, Austria surrounding America’s potential return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal broke up without an agreement on Friday after new Russian demands scrambled the talks.'

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, claimed responsibility, so we have a military wing of the government of Iran admitting to attacking a United States Consulate:

Ballistic missiles hit Iraq's Kurdish capital, Iran's Revolutionary Guard claim responsibility

So after Biden bends over backwards to end sanctions against Iran, and begs them to pump more oil, and appeases Iran by rushing the USA to rejoin a  terrible agreement that will essentially pave the way for Iran to get nuclear weapons, Iran appreciates these acts by firing ballistic missiles -- that could potentially carry such nuclear weapons -- at a US consulate. 

Apparently, Biden couldn't appease them quickly enough.

Be interesting to see if the Biden Administration will levy any penalty beyond calling it an "outrageous attack" for such actions against Iran or have the US continue on its path to appeasement, or perhaps appease faster.

Gov Half-Whit: I Will Veto State Gas Tax Abatement

As I suspected and expected, Governor Whitmer has never seen a tax she didn't like, nor any legislation that would prevent her from tinkering with taxing and spending to buy votes.

The Detroit News: Michigan gas-tax suspension bill could be headed for veto

Instead of broad-based relief, Whitmer wants targeted tax breaks to those most likely to vote for her and not for all the citizens of this state who she is supposed to represent.

The lovely double standard of requesting federal broad based abatement of the federal gas tax while refusing to do the same that is in her power  at the state level is truly excellent,

If it wasn't for double standards, Gov. Whitmer would have none at all.

The Michigan Republicans better capitalize on this veto, her refusal to provide real relief and her ongoing double standard that sticks it to every Michigan resident in the election campaign.

NASA: The Situation Is Desperate But Not Serious

The Russians in the face of sanctions are now threatening to take their ball and go home and leave an American astronaut stranded on the International Space Station.

No worries though, in the face of this announced threat, NASA is focused like a laser on . . .

Gender pronouns.

PJ Media: Russia Might Abandon a U.S. Astronaut on ISS, but NASA Is Worried About Pronouns

Top Men are running this show. Top Men.

Michigan Republicans Put Gov Half-Whit Into A Gas Tax Dilemma

So Gov. Whitmer asked the Feds to abate the Federal Gas Tax of 18.3 cents a gallon in a transparent effort to appear that she's doing something for Michigan drivers, and indeed everyone in mcihgian as everything is transported somewhere.

Michigan House Republicans just did her one better by introducing and passing legislation to suspend the Michigan Gas Tax of 27+ cents a gallon:

The Detroit News: House approves 6-month pause of Michigan's 27-cent per gallon gas tax

No worries though, Michigan will still be getting over 24 cents a gallon in sales tax.  Too bad that wasn't abated as well.

This puts Whitmer in quite a dilemma:  Rather hard for her to veto the legislation considering she just pushed for the Feds to do what Republicans are asking the State to do - and this would bring more relief than a federal abatement.

But, Whitmer does love her taxes, and wants to spend the State fisc on Democrat priorities, not tax relief for all citizens equally.

But, if she vetoes this, it's a re-election year.

The Whitmer flop-sweat on this should be epic.

Hip Update - Cleared For Takeoff!

Went to the Doctor for the second follow-up exam for the hip replacement.

X-Ray shows the hip implant is in a good position and has started mating to the bones nicely, and hasn't shifted.

Pain is now from the muscles being used differently then they were in the past, and some post-surgery soreness and scar tissue.

Overall, I'm apparently recovering nicely and its going great.

Officially allowed to bend now, yay, I'll be able to put my own socks on, but I'm to ease into bending by doing it slowly and not diving for my toes just yet.

I'm still to use the cane outside, and still prevent falls at any cost.

Still no heavy workouts, just to stick to physio for now.  Interestingly enough, lat pull-downs are a big no-no after a hip replacement.

Jiu Jitsu is sadly, but absolutely not unexpectedly, very much off the table, probably until July.

My Next follow up is in another 30 days.

The Big News From The Exam: I'm now cleared to fly again which is great!  

I have all of 2 days though before my passenger currency is kaput.   

My Flight Review is needed by the end of this month, so it's unlikely I'll get the instrument test done in time, but at this point nothing I can do about that, and I'm going to be ok with that. 

Regardless of passenger carrying status,  I will have my first flight will be with an instructor in the right seat for safety.

Yes, Biden Actually Said That

 

One thing about dementia is it tends to remove your filters and let's your core beliefs come to the fore:

 

In Biden's case, those core bleeps and beliefs tend to be rather rife with racist stereotypes:

Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) Tweeted:

This is what happens when Joe Biden goes off the teleprompter. Clean up time @PressSec! If Trump had ever said this CNN and MSNBC would have gone insane. Will be interesting to see if they even cover this. https://t.co/TUrKxECTF2

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1501332592934727688?s=20&t=ePYDbSMEdhr9H_cwCJAg2g

Biden: "The three congressman you have here, two of them look like they really could and did play ball and the other one looks like he can bomb you." 

 

Yes, he actually said that about the three congressmen on stage with him.

MSN quickly tried to cover for him and explain away the "bomb you" remark but somehow let the play ball part slip on by without comment.  

 

This is what happens when Biden slips his handlers and goes off teleprompter.  had Trump said this, the outrage would be trumpeted from every MSM outlet about how awful he is.  Most MSM outlets aren't even mentioning the incident, or in the case of MSN are busy just trying to dem-splain it away.

Gov Half-Whit Looks At the Polls, Attempts Transparent Political Ploy

Democrats are looking at the polls, looking at the price at the pump, looking at the upcoming mid-terms, and getting really nervous.

How do we know?  Because of stories like this:

The Detroit Free Press: Whitmer joins other governors, calls on Congress to suspend federal fuel tax 

Whitmer has never heard of a tax she didn't like, has attempted to increase Michigan's gas tax multiple times, and her now asking the Feds to quite taking taxes out of the cost of gas is a rather shameless ploy on her part.

Why? Because federal gas taxes come to 18.3 cents a gallon.

Michigan's gas tax, which she is not offering to stop collecting to bring relief to Michigan drivers - something she could do right now on her own - is a bit over 27 cents per gallon. 

She could offer more relief immediately than what she's asking from the Feds, but will not do so, and then she'll try to look good by claiming she tried to have the feds reduce the tax.

Biden To Ban Russian Oil Imports With No Real Proposed Replacement

Except perhaps, to enrich our enemies in Iran and Venezuela instead of Russia, because increasing US production to the level Trump had it at is bad per Biden the Democrats, even as he lies and claims he's doing all he can to increase production and conveniently forgets his closing of Keystone and multiple oil and gas leases.

Youtube: President Joe Biden bans all Russian oil imports over Ukraine invasion

Do note he was rather late for the scheduled 10:45 am announcement. claiming he was on a phone call.  Probably they had to pump him up full of Adderall and wait for the Aricept to kick in before having him make the address.

At the end of his short address, he then refused to take a single question, and quickly walked out of the presentation room without looking back.

Biden did an excellent job of demonstrating the "Old Man Yells at Clouds technique" during the address,  threatening American oil producers  and accusing them of price gouging.  

Yet again in Biden-land it's the wreckers and kulaks to blame, when instead the increases began and are are due to his energy policies pre-Ukraine crisis and his inflating the economy by throwing trillions at it.   Note we weren't importing 8% of our oil form Russia pre-Biden. The Ukraine crisis is just making all this worse and showing the bad choices by Biden and the Democrats that got us here.

Biden also trumpeted his release of 30 million barrels from the strategic reserve - the same release where oil prices went up the same day of the release.  Brilliant and effective strategy there.

He also had the occasional weird stumble where he clearly was tripping over his words and changed statements mid-stream.

In short gas and oil prices in the USA are going to go up even higher, prices of items dependent on transportation (ie just about everything) will also go up higher,  and the Biden Administration has no solution for it and refuses to push for the one solution that might alleviate it - a rapid increase of American oil production with the Administration getting the hell out of the way and cutting the red tape they've laid to stop it, not to mention the need for immediately  reversing his policy of closing oil and gas leases on federal lands.  Chance of him doing so?  Slim to none but watch the polls to influence his actions, just as they did with Covid - assuming he can win over the prog-greenies to the necessity of it.

Top Men are really running this show. Top. Men.

Getting The PT Talk

Had a PT session today.  

Went well  and I always try to push it as hard as I can and always try to get some extra reps in and try to do better each time on every exercise.

Got all the exercises done and the physio therapist is going to up the difficulty yet again.  Good.

Leg Press weight is going up which is good as 30 pounds is now too easy, and other exercises are apparently going to get more difficult and he has thought of new ways to make me work harder.  Bring it on, and let's get this hip back in shape, I say.

The Therapist did have a talk with me though.

He said he's been noticing that I'm not phoning it in like others doing PT and I'm always putting in the effort to get better. (I do after all have a really good role model for always giving maximum effort in PT).

He then said I'm 6-8 weeks after the Hip Surgery which is apparently the most dangerous time for people like me. 

Apparently, since we're really working the process, we're starting to feel better and stronger at this point in time after surgery and its right about now when we do something stupid thinking we're in better shape than we actually are, and we hurt ourselves and get a major setback.

So, I got strongly advised to maintain all the hip caution protocols, not try and over exert myself, take it easy, and be really careful to avoid falling.

All good advice and I'll take it.  

Overall I am getting better, still hurts but its very manageable pretty much all the time.  Some things do hurt, like lying on either side rather than on my back for example, or sitting or standing in one spot too long. Driving is fine, but getting into the car hurts a bit, and there's now a little limp when walking unless I concentrate on not limping.  Biggest daily hassle is no bending as I can't easily pick things up that fall, that the dogs get into, etc. 

I will be careful as I do want to keep progressing and avoid a stupid setback from having a case of the dumbs.

PT is still going to be done at maximum effort though.

The New York Times Buries The Lede Completely

The New York Times in The morning email (and on its website) asks an important question: Good morning. We look at why the West didn’t try harder to prevent the invasion of Ukraine.

The article asks and looks back to see if there was any way to have stopped the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what the West could have done. 

First the article really, really, realy soft-peddles the fact that Russia has strategic nuclear weapons, which is one helluva factor in any active boots-on-the-ground response, unlike the 1991 Gulf War they compare as an example of a grand alliance responding to aggression.  Pace the Times, this is one heckuva difference a a rather important one.

The article addresses the meek response by Western Europe, due to it's lack of military spending and military capabilities. Remember when Trump was cajoling them to spend more on defense as part of NATO and the NYT and others were aghast and agog that he dared do so and accused him of weakening the alliance?  Good times.

The article now expects Western Europe to start taking more of a role in its own defense.  Hmm, someone was pushing for that just a few years ago and was derided for it by the Times. 

The article also completely ignores Western Europe's deliberate decision to make themselves reliant on Russian gas rather than producing their own gas and power.

It then goes on to accuse America of being isolationist and not wanting to commit ground troops.  Rather facile that, and again ignores the whole potential for a nuclear exchange as a result, not to mention the deliberate weakening of the US military and its current laser-focus on diversity, inclusion, and equity over war-fighting.

One rather important event is conspicuously missing and completely unmentioned for why there was a lack of deterrence to a Russian invasion:

Namely, Biden's public statement that a minor incursion might just be accepted:

“I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does,” Biden said. “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion, and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera, but if they actually do what they are capable of doing with the force they’ve massed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia.”

The White House later clarified his remarks, saying any movement of Russian forces into Ukraine would be considered an invasion.

Biden's statement provided the opposite of a strong deterrent effect and instead green-lit a "minor incursion", emboldening Putin to go for a lightning strike decapitation of Ukraine's leadership which thankfully failed. 

Biden's "minor incursion" remark will go down with April Gillespie's "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts" and that "the Kuwait issue is not associated with America" as exactly how you do not prevent an invasion and rather embolden and invader via diplomatic statements.

There Is Nothing Government Operates That Cannot Lose Money

From marijuana, to whorehouses to now legalized gambling.  Government somehow always manages to lose money on a sure thing.

Reason: D.C. Managed To Lose $4 Million on Its Own Sports Betting App

After the D.C. Council approved sports gambling in the district in 2018, it further authorized a single company to develop the GambetDC app, at a cost of $215 million over five years. In return, the District hoped to see annual tax revenues of $20 million from bets placed. Instead, the lottery admitted this week that the D.C. government only took in about $1.5 million from the app in 2021, its first full year of operation. In fact, after adjusting for the cost of advertising the app, the government actually lost more than $4 million last year. 

One has to wonder at the relationship, if any, of the company to any of the City Council members or officials for this kind of deal to get authorized, or is it just standard government inefficiency and lack of any business acumen and oversight at work?

If the rosiest projection is it costs $215 million and you're expecting a revenue of only $20 million per year, then that's over a 10 year period before you even see any positive cash flow from the venture (DC council, I'm sure, hates the word profit).  

That's bad enough, but to then show a loss of $4 million a year due to it not working destroys these projections entirely and makes you wonder if anyone did any due dilligence on this at all.  DC losing money from legalized gambling is simply nuts.

Of course, it's not their money at stake, and it's unlikely that any of the decision makers will suffer any consequences from this which partially explains why these inexplicable losses keep occurring - the ones making the decision have no skin in the game and no downside to their bad bets, and in fact win either way while the taxpayers take the loss.

If There's No Consequences For Non-Payment, Don't Be Surprised When There's A Lack Of Payments

Ah, Detroit.

To no one's surprise, or at least to no one who was paying attention, when  Detroit announced a moratorium on water shut offs at the start of Covid, Detroiters stopped paying for water.

How much didn't they pay?  $38 Million dollars worth.  

Not pocket change, and a pretty large receivable resulting from the moratorium.

Payments dropped 20% after the moratorium was announced.

So they're now going door-to-door asking the scofflaws to pay.

The Detroit News: Detroit's water department will go door-to-door as shutoff moratorium losses for city mount

Asking people to pay nicely, when there's no penalty for doing so, is likely not going to do much.  

The moratorium for any consequences for non-payment continues.

Of course, the Detroit community organizers expect water should be free: 

"Water is a human right," said [former city council member now community organizer JoAnn] Watson. "We don't have to pay for sunlight. We don't have to pay for the air we breathe. I don't believe anybody should have to pay for water."

That's the standard Detroiter, if not also the standard Democrat, mentality right there.

Sunlight and air don't need expensive pipes, water treatments, maintenance, and skilled personnel to get water to people. 

If you want free water you can always trot down to the Detroit River with a bucket, but to have it piped to your home and having it arrive safe to drink takes skills, equipment and the money to pay for it.  See Flint for what happens when shortcuts are taken.

No worries though, with the glories of regionalism, it is highly likely the rest of us will end up being the ones paying for the Detroit water debt.

Important US Border Patrol Notice

All signs at the U.S.-Mexico Border have now been changed to Ukrainian.

Do not be alarmed, the border has only been disguised as the Ukrainian Border so that Democrats will actually defend it.

Go Home Huff Po, You're Drunk, Or Stoned, Or Both

Progressive media gets all sorts of strange sometimes.

The proggies' obsession with the chimera of Climate Change can take them to some really bad places. 

For example this article from the HuffPost with its hopeful sounding headline and serious article that they decided was worth running with:

Could A Small Nuclear War Reverse Global Warming?

Blink.  

This is rather insane, and almost as helpful as the Biden administration's update to a nuclear war survival guidelines to add Covid avoidance advice after a nuclear bomb blast.

A quick tip:  Both Covid and Global Warming will be, if they are not already, of extremely low actual concern after an actual nuclear war. 

Let's also note that Global Cooling so helpfully recounted in the article as a likely outcome of a nuclear war, was roundly stated to be a bad thing (and a reason for Western unilateral disarmament as pushed by the Progressive Left back then).  Remmeber the projected horros of Nuclear Winter?

This lasted until the Left jumped on the Global Warming band wagon, which has since been reformulated as unfalsifiable Climate Change to sell better.

Not sure what they're smokin' and drinkin' at the Huff Po but it's rather potent and packed with progressive fantasies.

Perhaps The Most Racist Op-Ed You'll Read Today

It's waiting for you at the Detroit Free Press:

Opinion: I hesitated to call police when white woman needed my help

The title really sets the stage doesn't it? As you might guess, the op-ed writer is not-White. You can go read the whole emotive thing, but here's the highlights:

He gets a knock on his door and a Black male is helping a White lady clearly in distress and lacking mental capacity.

 He hesitates because he's Black and then the virtue signalling and victimhood begins, but the two guys do decide to call the police for assistance.

So then the police arrive:

        While we wait, the jogger points out that it's not dark yet. That's a good             thing, he says. Daylight is on our side. . . .

two uniformed officers — a young Black female and a male of Arab descent — emerge from the police car. She’s smiling, and he’s not giving off any threatening vibes.

Whew! (Thanks, Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren, for your diverse department.)

 He's thankful they're not white.  That's not racist at all, is it? 

The police arrived and no one got hurt and the lady in need of help was helped.  Funny how that works right?  That's actually exactly how it works in over 99.999% of the time in such interactions with police.

But it gets better:

I’m happy we were there to help, and relieved that Linda is headed back to her worried husband. But I'm also saddened at what all these police shootings have done to us.

The jogger and I both recognized Linda's vulnerability, but as Black men, our first instinct was to protect ourselves. We were eager to help, but we understood that we might be vulnerable, too. We didn't want anybody to die.

We gotta fix this.

Well he could fix this by working on his self-perspective and understand that he's been lied to. He could work on it by understanding that in fact, if he's not committing a crime and not resisting arrest, nor attacking police, his chance of dying at police hands is pretty damn minuscule and indeed is just about zero.  

In fact, the chance of anyone dying by a Police shooting is again rather impressively low, and almost zero,  unless you're doing something that justifies their using deadly force - and then the odds start to tick up from zero accordingly.

He could also work to fix it by teaching Black men to stop committing crimes and then forcibly resisting arrest, and the number of police shootings of said Black male criminals will also decline dramatically. 

But, that would require far too much self-reflection, and not nearly the victim hood and virtue signalling that he's selling, she he can't do that.

Regionalism = Blue Area Bailouts Yet Again

Water rates in Southeastern Detroit are going up yet again.  The Great Lakes Water Authority, successor to the corrupt Detroit Water and Sewage Department, as regionalised in the Detroit bankruptcy bailout, just announced a 3.7% rate hike - and to continue to increase at that rate each year for the next five years.

The Detroit News: Regional water authority OKs 3.7% water rate hike.

Why are they increasing among the entire region?  Well, half of the increase is because one Democrat-controlled city,  Highland Park, just isn't going to pay its water bill, making an audacious argument that it should only have to pay for water at rates set in 1996 ignoring all increases since then.

Almost half or about 1.15% of the 2.4% sewage rate hike in 2023 owes to Highland Park's debt, officials said. The unpaid debts are passed on through rates to GLWA's remaining member communities. The rates go into effect July 1. 

Regionalism is, and has always been, a slickly advertised scheme for blue cities/areas that have mismanaged their funds via living beyond their means giving unsustainable benefits and pensions in return for votes, or by straight-out corruption, to be able to not just kick the can down the road, but to get other people to bail them out and pay for their largesse.

With Much Fanfare, A Drop In The Bucket

The Detroit News: Nations agree to release 60 million barrels of oil amid war

Fifty percent, 30 Million of the 60 Million barrels from the International Energy Agency 31 member countries will come from one country:  The USA. 

Apparently the other 30 can maybe cough up a million barrels each.  Some show of unity.

 60 Million barrels is however less than nothing and will maybe cause a dip in prices for a day or less. Biden released 50 million from the US Strategic Reserve to much fanfare and the price of oil didn't even dip much at all.  60 million will do even less considering how many more nations are affected.

You'll note in the article that even this measure does not get rid of the special exception to all the harsh sanctions on Russia - Oil and gas sales and money flows from same remain untouched under the sanctions.  After all, it is winter in Europe and they're dependent on Russian gas as they live out their Greenie fantasies.

Instead of this silly 60 million barrel showmanship, Biden and the rest should get serious about oil development to really deal with the problem - restart the Keystone pipeline that Biden shuttered; reopen the oil and gas leases Biden closed;  give support to the Israel-Greece-Europe pipeline that Biden stopped supporting and ended;  and importantly have Europe do some actual reliable power generation.

We'll know people are serious about energy supply, prices and hitting Russia where it hurts when these steps take place.   Until then, its energy theater, and prices will stay high hurting consumers while the elites that caused the problem remain above it all.