London Trip 5 - IWM Duxford

On the way to the next room you pass through a corridor with a Polaris Missile.

Helpfully marked inert, this missile and others liked it formed the underwater component of the UK's nuclear deterrent from 1968 to 1996.  Kinda neat to see one in person.

The next room had airplanes.  Lots of airplanes.

 We'll look at the jets first:

The Harrier:

The English Electric Lightning:

 With it's rather neat vertically stacked engine arrangement:

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The amazingly fast English Electric Canberra:

The Avro CF-100 Canuck:

The Sepecat Jaguar:

The Panavia Tornado:

An Avro Vulcan Bomber:

and a DeHavilland Comet, the first commercial jet airliner that began service with some significant flaws.  This one is a later model, the Comet 4:

 

There's also some interesting prototypes on display:

The British prototype TSR-2:

The prototype Concorde:

You could get into the Concorde and look around:

 

Narrower than your typical passenger jet, and this one has lots of test and monitoring equipment in that aircraft. There was even an escape tube to evacuate the aircraft in flight should the tests go wrong.

Those were just the jets in this airplane heaven of the first main display.

London Trip # 4 - Duxford!

On August 9th we got up in a timely fashion, had caffeinated beverages, and headed to the tube station.

First we went to a Station but were told the train line to the north there was down and to go instead to King's Cross Station.  

Arriving at King's Cross, saw some workers with vests emblazoned with Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter Fame:

 We then purchase train tickets to go north to Cambridge.

After some hilarity figuring out how to open the train doors to actually get on the train, we were on our way.

We got off at Cambridge station and then took another train to Whittlesford and walked from there to Duxford.

First it was time for some vittles to get energy so we stopped at The Plough, a pub that has been in operation since at least 1851.

I had a steak and ale pie, and a good Tiger Copper Ale.

 The service was delightful and personal, the food awesome, and the beer excellent. If you're in Duxford be sure to go to the Plough.

Thus fortified, we walked on to IWM Duxford.

IWM stands for Imperial War Museum.  Duxifrd is the site of an airfield first established during World War One.  In World War Two in addition to serving the British, it served as an American bomber base.

So yes, there are aircraft. Several buildings full of aircraft.

Upon entry the first exhibit you see is a fragment of the BF-110E that Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland in his attempt to make a peace treaty between Nazi Germany and Great Britain in 1941. The overture was not well-received.

Quite a piece of history, that.

Then on to the next room, which had some planes that were being temporarily kept as they were being worked on.

This included the most sci-fi looking bomber of the nuclear age, the Handley Page Victor.

The plane has the insignia of RAF Marham, where it was based, on it's side.

It's an amazing aircraft to see up close.

 There's a variety of other aircraft in the room including a Scottish Aviation Bulldog T.1 Trainer.

Never seen either of these planes in person before.

On to the next room we went.

Surprise! (Not!) BLS Does Yet Another Huge Downward Jobs Revision

Throughout President Biden's term in office, the Bureau of Labor Statistics are released with great fanfare showing job growth, and then the job numbers are quietly revised. Downward, Every single time.

Now, the latest downward revision is a doozy.

Legal Insurrection:Biden/Harris Jobs Success Was Fake – 818,000 Downward Revision Announcement 

On Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced a preliminary benchmark revision to the number of nonfarm payrolls from April 2023 through March 2024. According to the report, the number of new jobs added to the economy during this period was revised downward by 818,000.

That's the biggest downward revision during the Biden Administration yet. Indeed it is the biggest revision in 15 years.

That the BLS has clearly been politicized to loudly announce job growth happy-talk so it can be trumpeted by Biden et al, and then quietly walked back to make the Biden Administration look good is pretty much beyond question at this point. 

One major problem is the false statistics of such job growth made the Fed think it needed to keep interest rates up to fight inflation and the rate increases were not hurting the economy as jobs were still being created in record numbers defying normal expectaitons.  But they were not.

How to Lie With Statistics (a book everyone should read or at least listen to on Audible to become a better critical thinker IMHO) is not supposed to be a how-to manual. 

The Biden Administration just seems to outright and repeatedly lie about job growth statistics. What other statistics (cough, inflation!, cough) are they also cooking the books on?

London Trip #3 Meetings and Meanderings

After visiting the Tower we headed back to the hotel as the travails of travel were beginning to sink in.

My room wasn't ready yet but Mr. B's was, so I grabbed a spot on the floor in his room and promptly passed out for an hour.  That rest was badly needed.

 The rooms were small but functional, they would have been a squeeze for two people to stay in but they worked and the location right by Trafalgar Square could not be beat.  My room soon became available and all was well.

Then we headed out and walked by St. Paul's Cathedral:

 

We also saw a Mini-Tardis:

 

It was, however, not in functional condition: 

We continued to walk until we got to The Cockpit pub and met up with Lagniappe's Keeper, who had been gallivanting around Europe and met up with us in London.  We had some beers and dinner and caught each other up on things.

That was the end of Day 1. I had walked 22,000 steps on Day 1, quite a bit more than my usual.  Day 2, being my birthday, required us going to a rather special place to celebrate.

London Trip #2 The Tower of London

So having arrived and made it to London and our hotel in good order and with the hotel holding the luggage and time on our hands we decided to head to the Tower of London as it was only 9:30 am and we could beat the crowds to see the crown jewels.

The Tower of London is not a tower per se, but a fortress, and an infamous prison as well.

In fact it's not one tower but a collection of Towers - the White Tower; the Salt Tower; the Bloody Tower; the Constable Tower; the Wardrobe Tower; and the Martin Tower, which is the home of the Crown Jewels.

We were able to see the Crown Jewels without having to wait in line at all, and as we left the exhibit, a long line was forming so we had timed things well. The Crown Jewels were amazing.  Sadly you're not allowed to take any photos of video inside the Crown Jewels area. The crowns and many large diamonds were awesome as were the ceremonial swords.

The crown jewels are well guarded.

 

 The guards do get annoyed if you lean on the fence that is between them and the walkway.  A few people got shouted at in command voice to "Get off the Fence!"  they got the point rather quickly.

We then visited the Royal Mint at the Tower and got to see the history of coinage made there.

 

Including a feature role by Isaac Newton:

We also saw the Tower Ravens.

There are also several cannons on display of various weights from little 6 pounders to monster 36 pounders, many of the cannon were captured guns from battles or recovered from wrecks.

Quite Cool.

The Royal Fusiliers Regiment museum is also located within the Tower complex.

Lots of neat artifacts up to the present day on display.

Interestingly enough, David Ben Gurion, the future first Prime Minister of Israel, served in the Royal Fusiliers in World War One.

The Tower complex could take an entire day to just by itself to explore.

Afterwards we went to Hobson's for Fish n Chips and beer for lunch:

Absolutely fantastic and it sure hit the spot,

It was a most excellent and auspicious beginning to the trip.

London Trip #1 - Across The Pond

Trip 1 began on August 7 as I met Mr. B and we headed to Detorit's Airport.

We got through security without issue and boarded the plane to London, England leaving Michigan after 6:00 pm.

 

You can put the flight information into Foreflight and see the route they have filed. Kinda neat to see we ere moving along at 450 knots and climbing.

It was a smooth flight, and 8 hours later we arrived on August 8.

We then had fun navigating the tube to our hotel in Trafalgar Square, complete with a transit worker at Heathrow sending us in the completely wrong direction to catch the proper train. 

We sorted that out, and found the right subway train and route, even though the London underground steadfastly refuses to put a "You Are Here" marking on their rather extensive maps of the underground, and headed into town.

We changed subway trains at Paddington Station on our way.

Sadly, No bears were spotted.

We soon arrived at Trafalgar Square 

 

and after walking around went to our hotel and dropped of our luggage as we had arrived way before check-in time.

The adventure had begun.

Back Home

Back Home after two back-to-back trips.

Details to follow after I fight off jet lag from the first trip and recover from the ugly return  time of the second trip.

Oakland County Democrat Petty Politics

 Local Democrats tend to be rather touchy.

The Detroit News: Buss: Coulter  disparages small biz over politics: 'I won't be coming anymore'

After being hammered by Democrat Gov. Whitmer’s restaurant closures that destroyed thousands of restaurants, you can’t blame a business owner for renting out their premises for an event. Unfortunately the event turned out to be a fundraiser for the Republican challenger to Democrat County Exec Coulter.

Nice restaurant you got there, too bad if something were to happen to it, huh?

Meanwhile under progressive Democrat Coulter, property taxes have gone up 48% since 2019. We now have a county DEI office, and the County can’t properly clear snow and ice on county roads, as they are too busy doing diversity and pushing regional transit funding.

52 Times Around The Sun

 So today is my birthday. Been a lot of changes this past year, but things are working out.

Turning 52 is going well so far, and adventures and appropriate celebration are underway of which more will be blogged on later.

Walz Wants To Decide What Is Hate Speech Or Disinformation

Tim Walz in 2022 stated: "There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy," Walz

Actual Hate speech of course is unpleasant and often uncouth and untrue, but it often serves a useful signaling purpose as it reveals the character of the speaker to all.

However, statements are often labeled hate speech when they are not “hate speech” to instead chill it when the speech is adversarial to whoever is trying to silence the speaker. Indee, as Democrats like Walz tend to label anyone who doesn’t agree with them as Hitler or a fascist, it’s not hard to see them calling their opponents’ speech hate speech to block and ban it when it suits them.

So the problem is who decides what is considered hate speech?

As to "misinformation", the problem is Democrats have labeled as misinformation what was actually true, such as Hunter Biden’s laptop

Democrats have also labeled as true things that were misinformation such as the Steele Dossier.

In short, Walz’s statement would let the government (meaning fellow Demo) simply ban speech they don’t like if they can claim it is hate speech or misinformation to protect “our democracy”.

That kind of speech control and politically opportunistic discrimination is downright un-American and in fact is harmful to democracy.

The Day The Land Of The Rising Sun

Became The Land of The Rising Suns.

Today is variously known as:

"Don't Start a War if You Can't Take A Joke Day!"

"Do Not Touch The Boats Day!"

"Now Look What You Made Me Do Day!"

"Happy Enola Gay Pride Day!".

It was 79 years ago today that the Enola Gay did the best and biggest gender reveal ever when it showed Japan and the world that America had a Little Boy.

Tim Who?

Well Kamala Harris (or TPTB behind her) has chosen Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, to be her VP candidate.

Not exactly a household name.

Minnesota is already a lock for the Democrats.

But, she needed a white guy for the ticket, and yes, race is very much a factor in Democrats choosing candidates.  Funny, that.

It would have made sense to nominate Josh Shapiro as she and the Dems could have used the appointment to win votes in Pennsylvania which is in play, and a critical state for either side to win.

But, she couldn't do that as both the Progressive Left and the Arab Democrats would have had a fit (and indeed they were throwing fits that he was even being considered) as he happens to be Jewish.  

So much for racial harmony in the Democrat camp, eh?

Mass Shooting In Detroit Was Unsurprisingly By The Usual Suspects

A mass shooting in Detroit that didn't make much of a wave in the national news and hasn't caught too much attention here aside from some initial calls by the Dems for more gun control.  Why? Well, the reason is unsurprising.

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit police: Illegal block party mass shooting was gang-related, $10K reward offered

Illegal block parties attended by youths with a gang dispute leading to a mass shooting as gang members swap rounds. 

The July 7 mass shooting that claimed the lives of two young people and injured 19 others in a hail of bullets during an illegal east-side block party was gang-related, the Detroit Police Department announced Thursday.

At least one of the victims was the intended target at the block party on Rossini Drive near Reno Street, Detroit Police Chief James White said in a video update, but did not elaborate further. Details about the party had been posted on social media prior to the event, drawing over 300 people to the area, some from more than 50 miles away.

The public has demanded answers since the mass shooting, the state's worst since at least 2013.

The answer is pretty simple, really: Tolerating and holding illegal block parties with gang members and "youths" attending and partying into the early hours of the morning results in a likely location with people consuming items that reduce their inhibitions, with many not knowing how to behave to begin with, and rather predictable resultant acts of violence. 

Illegal block parties attended by youths with a gang dispute leading to a mass shooting as gang members (most likely with prior felonies) swap rounds isn't a great hill for gun controllers to campaign on.  

This is especially so as at least some of the victims were gang members and potentially participants in the firefight, and the whole gathering was illegal to begin with.

Of course, they'll try to use it anyways, but it doesn't have the elements that would really let them dance in the blood.

Anyone who went there certainly violated the Do Not go to Stupid Places, with Stupid People, to do Stupid Things rule.

The Bother Of The Bulge

On Monday, I took Abby back to her place at the University at night.

On the highway, in traffic I hit a pothole right on with my driver's-side front tire.  The hit was a mighty bang.

However we were able to continue on and get her home and it seemed all was fine.

On Thursday I met up with a buddy for lunch. On leaving the restaurant, we both noticed the front tire was looking kinda odd.

There was the biggest bulge I had ever seen in the tire. So much so that my friend was rather impressed it had yet to blow out.

Luckily we were close to Costco so I called ahead and they had tires in stock in my size so we drove there and my friend followed in case there was a blow-out.

Made it there all-right, trying to keep excessive maneuvers to a minimum.

The Costco tire tech was also of the opinion that the tire had to be replaced ASAP, and it was most likely caused by hitting a pothole, and I know the one I hit. Sigh. That bulge was most huge.

Had to replace all of the tires, which was unfortunate. The old tires had less than 50% of life remaining. The passenger rear tire already had an annoying slow leak from a nail where the puncture fix seems to have worked, but only kinda, with the need to refill it monthly.

Tires were replaced in an hour, and took it back today for the torque check.

So a very unanticipated bother and an unanticipated large expense, but it had to be done.

On the plus side, the new tires are Michellin all season tires and the car shows a seriously marked enhancement in handling and road-ride comfort as well.  Rather impressive what a difference really good tires can make.

Sportys' Amazing Customer Service

Sportys is one of the best names in aviation supply. All sorts of great products for pilots and everything a pilot needs including educational and training materials, headsets, charts, and wearables.

I had ordered a flight bag from them as my current one is an old laptop bag I had repurposed for the task - heavy and not quite suited to schlepping my flying stuff. More than past time I replaced it.

So I ordered a Flight Gear Bag and decided to have it embroidered to make it customized for me.

It arrived withing 2 days after ordering it and looked great.  Except, they had managed to misspell my name.

Letting them know about the problem, they immediately moved to rectify it and shipped me a new bag and it got here 2 days after I had reported the issue. They got the name right this time and the bag to me darn fast.

That's some impressive customer service indeed.

Not Sure If Auto Insurance Covers That

An F-16 was in Michigan on a training flight.The F-16 from the 180th Fighter Squadron from the Toledo, Ohio Air National Guard declared an emergency and as part of the emergency dumped two external fuel tanks. 

One of those tanks landed in Lake Huron. 

 

The second fuel tank, however, landed in the Baldwin plaza parking lot which houses Tractor Supply, Sav-a-lot and the MI Secretary of State. No injuries on the ground and only minor damage to a few vehicles. It was reported that both F-16’s landed safely in Toledo, Ohio.

Just imagine having to call your insurance to let them know your truck was damaged because a fighter jet had, by necessity, dropped a fuel tank on the vehicle.

Even Farmers Insurance may not have seen that thing before.

The F-16 did land safely, which is a good thing and there were no  injuries in the incident.

Funny Isn't It? "Global Warming/Climate Change" Can Do Everything

Including even messing up a Paris Olympics event: 

The Detroit News:  Olympics bet against climate change with swimming in Seine and may lose. Scientists say told you so

In short, the planners for the triathalon thought it wouldn't rain much during the Olympics so it wouldn't be a major issue to have the swim in the Seine.

It in fact did rain, a lot, which caused sewer runoff into the Seine. The fact that it rained is being blamed, of course, on Climate Change.

Now, where would the planners have gotten the idea that it wouldn't rain much?

Why, from the proclamations of scientists that climate change was causing drought and a lack of rainfall - as recently as 2022 and 2023: 

France 24:  France’s unprecedented drought shows climate change is ‘spiralling out of control’

euronews: ‘We can’t escape the reality’: France is preparing for 4°C of warming by 2100

So, the Olympics may have went with the prior proclamation from climate change scientists that Climate Change was going to cause droughts and lack of rain rather than today's proclamation -- conveniently after heavy rainfall too place --that climate change causes heavy rain. Or, maybe they just relied on a long-range weather forecast that proved to be wrong?

"Climate Change" bears far more similarity to an unfalsifiable religion than to science as everything, including contradictory things, can be conveniently to be blamed upon it in an ever-changing narrative.

Apparently He Was Not Deported Far Enough

The deliberately porous border, made so rather deliberately by the Democrats, lets lots of people in who we'd really rather not have here.

The Detroit News: Man accused in Shelby Twp. sex assaults had been deported, officials say

While he had been deported before, he then again  illegally entered the United States and this time committed numerous sexual assaults on a minor. He was then caught trying to flee the country.

He's now been caught, and likely will be convicted and will serve a life sentence for his crimes...which US Taxpayers will pay for of course. 

A pity there wasn't a secure border to prevent him from entering and committing the horrendous crimes in the first place. But as Democrats would say, omelettes and broken eggs, right?

Flight Review Done, Complete With Some Extra Excitement

Had my Flight Review yesterday.

Required every two years, you need to go out with an instructor and show you can fly.  It's basically an abbreviated reenactment of your Private Pilot Test.  It has opportunities to both correct issues that may have cropped up in your flying, and to learn more stuff, so it is worth doing.

I had Brian, our flying club maintenance officer who is also a CFI do the review with me yesterday.

We were taking out the Archer and the prior pilots, who had flown to Oshkosh on Friday reported the Ammeter gauge was showing zero and not being responsive both on the way there an back. Prior to our flight review Brian had tested it out and couldn't duplicate it. More on this later.

So we started with the ground portion and he quizzed me on basic airspace, the items required for a pilot and aircraft to be legal and other useful stuff such as personal limits, issues in flight etc, and the current bugbear around Pontiac - making sure you don;t have a runway incursion as too many students have recently been doing their best to land on the wrong runway here.  He was quite satisfied that I knew my stuff and noted a lot of pilots forget a lot of it right after the test.  So the ground portion was no problem and I apparently know my stuff.  I also learned some new things, so it was worth it.

For the flight part, he stated we'd be doing dead-reckoning without using the GPS, just like on the private pilot exam.  We'd be heading to Linden. This was shades of my private pilot exam as that was the same route for it. He was happy that I knew Linden was under Flint's Class Charlie airspace so we'd need to be under 2,000 feet when we got near there.

So I did the run up and again, the ammeter gauge worked just fine, no issues at all. You might guess where this is going to go.....

I did a decent job using dead reckoning and the sectional chart and we made it to Linden, and I did an ok and decent pattern entry and a nice if somewhat long-ish landing due to some fun crosswinds that had whipped up. All good, but it did show I've been focusing on doing IFR stuff and approaches and neglecting VFR pattern flying so that's something I should be working on.  We then did a bit more pattern work at Linden and headed back to Pontiac, on the way doing steep turns and stalls.

Since the Archer now has the GFC500 installed, the plane automatically activated the autopilot during the stall and forced a recovery, which was kinda neat. It also was not a fan of very step turns again sounding an alarm. Neat to see the protective mode of the autopilot system works. We turned the protective mode off and did the stalls to spec, and then put it back on so the next pilot wouldn't be surprised by a lack of the protective mode being on. It works and it doesn't like you putting the plane into a bad spot.

Just for fun, we played with the autopilot a bit and Brian showed me a few neat techniques that answered some questions I had about the autopilot and its quirks with altitude settings.  I now know how to handle those quirks better and that makes it even easier to use.

Then, as we were heading back, not only did the ammeter got to zero but the alternator warning light lit up.

So we shed all unnecessary power consumption, shutting down radio 2, the landing light, fuel pump, autopilot. Basically we were trying to avoid losing the radio and power before we made it in.

We then booked it back to Pontiac at full throttle and got in the pattern rather fast we got a landing clearance and zipped in to make it happen but had to stay high as we had to do a long downwind for spacing. Brian then took the controls to show a really full-tilt, high-speed, side-slip to drop altitude real fast to get us down quick and line up on the runway at the same time, which was fun. A rather long landing as we had a fair bit of speed to spare but we got it down very nicely.

So, we got down fine, and never lost electrical power, and after taxiing to the hangar we checked and the battery still had 12 volts and hadn't been fried. So, he's going to see what the issue may be and so far the suspect is a loose connection somewhere on the alternator circuit.

One guess is that when the autopilot got installed something got knocked loose.

So, the Archer is now grounded until we get that sorted out, but my Flight Review is complete and I'm good to go.  

Apparently I'm still the World's Okay-est Pilot.

That's 1.1 and a couple fun landings for me, and one very fun one for Brian.

1984 In 2024

 

It's interesting to watch the Media rewrite history in real-time to support their latest candidate for president. One problem in doing so with recent history is that people still remember the facts and often the old reporting that was rewritten still can be retrieved thanks to the Internet.

In an attempt to support their Party and refurbish appointed candidate Kamala Harris's image, elements in the media are literally rewriting their prior reports on her history.

 

Axios, for example, is now denying she was ever appointed as border czar in 2021, a job she didn't just fail at completely (visiting the border all of once and doing absolutely nothing) but failed so badly her appointment must now be rewritten from history. 

Axios, after previously reporting at the time she that was appointed "Border Czar" now comes out and states she was never appointed as border czar, it didn't happen, and they were "incorrect" in their past reporting: 

 

Eric Bolling: What Do You Mean 'Border Czar?': Axios Hit With Community Note After Contradicting Own Reporting on Kamala Harris

 

Many other Media talking heads are repeating the same revision to history, contradicting and denying what they themselves reported but a couple years ago.

GovTrack, also doing its part for Kamala, has now erased its prior record that showed her as having the most liberal voting record in the Senate in 2019. This removal just occurred in the last two weeks. 

 

It will be interesting to see what else gets rewritten or "re-explained" by the media to try and erase the problematic parts of her record as she moves on to be the Democrat's selected candidate.

"History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.". ― George Orwell, 1984.

More Democrat Political Violence - Pro-Hamas Protesters Eat Their Own

So the Pro-Hamas, Pro-terrorist leftists decided to storm the capitol today to protest Netanyahu visiting.

 

Note: if you're burning the American Flag, you're one of the bad guys.

None dare call it an insurrection mind you.

 The Detroit Free Press: Pro-Palestinian protestors try to force way into Rep. Dan Kildee's office

The Detroit News: Thousands descend on Washington to protest Israel ahead of Netanyahu's speech to Congress

We will note Kildee has been supportive of Hamas, being against sending Israel weapons to defend itself. So the protesters were going for an own-goal.

It is unlikely that Rep Kildee learned much from the experience. 

Then again, neither have the terrorist-supporting protestors learned anything in all this time, still backing terrorists and still falsely claiming there is a genocide that is provably not occurring.

More Democrat Political Violence

The Guardian:  Michigan man kills himself after running over 80-year-old Trump supporter

A Michigan man suspected of using an all-terrain vehicle to run over an elderly man for supporting Donald Trump died by suicide as police closed in on him, according to authorities.

Police in Hancock – a city located in the state’s upper peninsula – said the man in question was under investigation for allegedly running over an 80-year-old man at about 5.45pm local time on Sunday.

The elderly man was described as a supporter of the former president who was posting a political sign in his yard, according to police. Police also said he displayed stickers and flags that were supportive of law enforcement. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition with serious injuries after the man on the ATV struck him, authorities said.

Investigators said they had identified a suspect in the case by Monday evening, and he had been linked to a total of three cases which were apparently “politically motivated”.

A little impulse control and handling disputes without violence would be nice.  On the upside, the scumbag spared taxpayers the cost of a trial by offing himself. 

Dems Don't Have To Like It, But They Do Have To Get In Line

It looks like the party bosses have spoken and they're pushing hard for Kamala to be the candidate for the Dems for 2024.

Gov. Whitmer was quiet but soon got on board:  The Detroit Free Press: Whitmer stays quiet as Harris endorsements from other Democrats pour in within less than an hour of that being published, she had gotten the memo to endorse Kamala, and did so.

Lots of other Dems followed suit, likely trying to make her appointment as candidacy seem inevitable prior to the convention to prevent the party members from democratically voting on a replacement for Biden, to protect "Our Democracy", of course.

Meanwhile, Joe has yet to be seen in public.

Slow Joe Had To Go

So the sun sets on Joe Biden's candidacy in the race for 2024.

From "He's Fine, He Just Had a Bad Night" to being shown the door in  less than 30 days. Even as late as Friday they were swearing he was still in the race and the nominee.

So did he fall, or was he pushed? 

The Biden White House was rather like the Kremlin with Kremlinologists being needed to track which faction was in power and setting policy behind the figurehead that was Joe Biden. This will be even more interesting as the jockeying for his replacement becomes more intense.

Interestingly, he did not immediately come out and endorse Kamala Harris in his resignation announcement.  Instead, that endorsement came later on Twitter. So probably a Kamala backer has control over the Twitter account for the moment. Or, alternatively she's being the sacrificial candidate (but with access to the money in the Biden-Harris campaign cookie jar) for what the Dems know will be a losing campaign in 2024.

It's going to be interesting to see who the Democrat party elite decides to run now that Joe has been shown the door.  Be sure to have popcorn at the ready for the Democrat convention.

The fun question that also needs to be asked is: If Joe Biden is acknowledged to no longer be fit and cannot handle running for reelection due to his age and infirmities, why the heck is he still staying on as President?

The Ineffectiveness Of The Red Flag Law

As has been pointed out multiple times, one of the many problems with Red Flag laws, in addition to their lack of due process, is that they don't interdict someone known to be (or at least claimed to be) a dangerous threat to themselves or others from still being a threat.

And now you've made this dangerous person more angry by "red flagging" them, and yet leaving them free to roam and carry out their alleged violent actions.

It creates results like this one:

The Detroit News: Man with gun and axe killed after breaking into ex-girlfriend's Orion Township home

After being red flagged, the scumbag of the story goes off, gets a gun and an axe, and then breaks into his victims house looking to kill the occupants.

Luckily, there is a happy ending.

The happy ending, that of the violent scumbag attaining room temperature and being violent no more, is not due in the slightest to the red flag law he was tagged with.

Instead, it is due to the bravery of the step-son of the intended victim, who was in the house, obtained a firearm, and stopped the threat, unlike the red flag law. 

The red flag law not only did not prevent the deceased attacker from obtaining and axe and a gun -- after he had been red-flagged -- but it did not stop him in the slightest from breaking in to the victim's house and attempting to murder her and her adult son.

Even if the red flag law did take away the firearms he had prior to being red flagged, it sure didn't stop the jerk in the slightest from getting another one, and an axe!, and then going on his murder attempt. Indeed, it probably just made him mad - and left him free to plan and go on his attack.

Red Flag laws are not the panacea they're claimed to be, and by not actually interdicting the alleged threat and leaving them free to roam and commit their violent acts, seems to be as predicted, merely feel-good gun control legislation that forgets that it is the violent person, and not the tools they might use, that are the problem. 

The further problem is this feel-good gun control legislation will also be used to trample the rights of the non-violent when used as a tool by someone with an axe to grind against them.  But when that happens, it still leaves them, and the actual violent people the law was meant to stop, free to go get an axe.

As The (Figurative) Knives Come Out, It's Back To The Basement For Joe

When even Obama is starting to suggest Joe needs to go, you can tell the preference shift is underway and the party elite has gone from "Joe is just fine." to "How quick can he be pressured to step down?".

Democrats more and more are reading the tea leaves and the polls and realizing Joe is going to be a no-go.

So of course, in the middle of this preference shift, he conveniently comes down with Covid and instead of going to the White House (and the finest possible medical facilities close by), he goes home to the basement in Delaware. 

Well, his retreating to the basement, instead of being out in public to campaign and to be seen in person, should cut down on public gaffes and public signs of ineptness for him to campaign from the basement as he did in the last election.

Gradually, Then Suddenly

Democrats denied for years claims that Biden had cognitive difficulties.

They were agog and aghast when the special counsel noted he shouldn't be prosecuted as he's an elderly man with a poor memory. Instead they publicly all claimed he was just fine: Democrats flood the Sunday shows to insist Biden's mind is just fine.

Then after the debate, when it was abundantly clear that after the Democrats and media covering for him and making excuses for years, it couldn't be hidden any more from the public.

The Democrats went from being in lock-step and insisting that he's fine, to now a majority of Democrats wanting him to drop out.

Now it veers on a full on preference cascade for the Democrats to replace him with someone else:  The Detroit News:  Nearly two-thirds of Democrats want Biden to withdraw, new AP-NORC poll finds

The list of Democrat politicians calling for him to step aside keeps getting longer as well. 

So how does Joe Biden get removed from being the Democrat nominee?  As is oft then case in these situations, gradually, then suddenly.

In A Win For The Environment, Trump Chooses J.D. Vance As VP

Not a bad choice at all,  perhaps not the best, but certainly a solid choice. But, in this election, the choice of the Republican VP matters rather little.

The fact that J.D. Vance will absolutely mop the floor with Kamala Harris in the VP debate makes it a fine pick and he will be entertaining to watch doing so, but let's face it, that's a rather low bar to get over.

Well, with Trump choosing Vance, it also shows a careful eye towards preserving the environment.

This is because prior campaign signs can be easily re-used to save resources:

Well This Has Been Fun

In my absence from blogging, I took younger child to University if Florida for her orientation.  More on that later. In short, it was incredibly well organized, information flowed by the ton, and she's now really looking forward to attending and has already made new friends with some great kids.

However, at some point, whether it was during Preview, sitting in the airport, or on the plane ride home, or even in the shuttle on the way to get back to the car I got exposed to Covid.

So this is now my fourth bout of Covid. Yay.

Certainly worse than my third bout with it, which solely showed up on a test with no symptoms.

For the fourth exposure, instead of nothing, I got the ugly full on man-flu effect.  

Massive tiredness and lack of energy for the past three days, and a fever and congestion along with it.  Basically, I believed it was a flu until I did a Covid test, and that home test started glowing positive so quickly, it was impressive to watch.

Rations for the next few days will likely consist of pizza, pancakes, flounder, and whatever else is flat and can be slid under a door. 

Not pleasant, but it feels just like a flu with no more ugliness than that, and no respiratory distress.

I think I'm already starting to improve so blogging will catch up as I catch up with work etc.

Thankfully younger daughter, who was with me the entire time, has no symptoms whatsoever and likely didn't get covided. Go figure.

The Most Dangerous Part Of Yesterday

The time Mr. B. and I were in the most danger yesterday did not take place while we were in the air.

Instead, it took place when I drove towards a solid green at the T-intersection from the south side of the airport to turn left onto the M-59 Highway.

I was in the left turn lane and starting the turn on the already solid green when Mr. B. said "look out!" I had seen it as well, and was hitting the brakes as he said it, and we came to a sharp halt.

An idiot in a Jeep had decided decided to whip through the already very, very, solid red without looking to see if anyone was coming out of the airport drive. It's not like he was running a yellow, this had already been a solid red before he got near the intersection.

This led to some incredulous looks by both Mr. B. and myself, as well as some language not appropriate for a general audience -- much of which concerned the dubious parentage and proclivities of the Jeep driver.

Had I been moving faster to make that turn, it would have been rather bad.  I then finished the turn on the green, well behind the speeding Jeep and no one else tried to bash through the light like that. The Jeep then came to a stop at the very next red light as there were already cars stopped in front of it, and the idiot driver really hadn't saved himself any time, so there's that at least. 

It was far more dangerous on the ground than in the air yesterday.