That's Why!!

Yesterday, IIRC, I read a short report that the AA flight was directed to change runways 'at the last second' to runway 33 from its original heading of runway 1. (Runway numbers are compass heading divided by 10).

If you've never spent time in DC (I spent a decade some of those ago), then you need to know what National looks like. This is it. The main runway 1 is 7169 feet and the secondary 33 is 5204. I just now found the CNN report with transcripts, and yes, ATC did change runway for the AA plane.

Time to see what this all tells us. First, the AA plane was scheduled to land on 1, which threshold is farthest south on the facility, and, more importantly, on the VA side of the river opposite to the helicopter lanes. 33 has threshold to the southeast, and most importantly, the approach is over the river and DC and crosses the river very, very close to said threshold. Which means landing on 33 puts you very close to the ground as you overfly the east side of the river. Which, as it happens is right where the chopper lane(s) are. Oops. If the AA plane had stayed on its intended landing, it would have been much higher off the ground when it would intesect (in 3D space) the chopper; if it ever would. Nothing would happen, even with the chopper 100 feet (by some reports) above its lane.

The CRJ is about half the size of mid-sized 737 and about the size of the original DC-9. According to the wiki data, the CRJ700 has 5,040 foot landing spec; 33 is a tight squeeze. I'm no pilot, but seen enough "Air Disaster" episodes that ain't much margin. The CNN transcript gives us the reason (I speculate) why ATC changed runway: wind was at 320 with 25 (knots, normally) gust. That's a bit cross for landing on 1, but near a dead headwind for 33. Safer to land into the wind. The CRJ isn't the heaviest plane in the world, so not landing in crosswind is always better.

According to the innterTubes the CRJ700 is spec'ed to 27 cross!! Now, wind at 320 isn't direct cross and 25 gust is below 27, but switching to 33 makes a lot of sense.

QED

My SWAG is that the chopper pilot didn't register the runway change and thought the AA plane was headed for 1 or mistook another plane for the AA. The latter is what the transcript implies.

The Greatest Threat - part the seventh

Now that Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists (so says this Tesla investor) is on the record, so to say, that DEI (aka, Darkies and Cunts) at FAA and his whole benighted Gummint is the reason the chopper hit that passenger plane at National, how clever will his lackies be in disguising their cocksucking support for such a big lie? Only The Shadow knows, but it's surely an early test case. Already, there are not-on-the-record reports that the chopper was above its lane. We'll see.

I mean, if any of them find the truth, likely that the chopper pilot just simply hit the jet, and say so, will they take the non-trivial risk of getting fired? Probably not. And, of course, what if the pilot of the chopper was Army DEI (the kind that passes the white, sub-GED cohort through)? The USofA military has been reducing quals for years. True fact.

According to Pentagon data, 23% of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 meet all eligibility requirements.

Army officials have said the coronavirus pandemic has also made recruiting more difficult, as ASVAB test scores are down almost 10% since the start of the crisis. "They just can't pass it," McConville said. "It's harder for people today to pass it than it was before."

Ok, if you didn't read up the link, ASVAB is the "IQ" test that wannabe military have to pass. So, in order to combat (pardon the pun) the actual failure rate, the Army set up a "Prep Course" structure to get them to pass. Now, whether this is actually a learning exercise or just a rote, "here's the answers, now memorize them", only The Shadow knows.

The Army typically has the lowest minimum

Here's another report citing ASVAB

The service estimates that only about 23% of young Americans are even qualified for service, most of that issue stemming from an obesity crisis and falling academic performance, leading to poor ASVAB scores.

And, to be clear, while officers can fly choppers, the intended source of chopper pilots is the enlisted army, who come in the usual recruitment door.

I Told You So - 30 January 2025

Another example of the Office of Media Integrity is on the loose. Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists (so says this Tesla investor) will get us all killed.

The Trump administration has intervened in the release of important studies on the bird flu, as an outbreak escalates across the United States.

Fink's memo covers "any document intended for publication," she wrote, "until it has been reviewed and approved by a presidential appointee." It was sent on President Donald Trump's first full day in office.
[my disdain]

I suppose the sub-GED cabal is happy to see the Educated Elite taken down a peg or ten. You may recall a famous play from ancient times: Lysistrata. The punch line (there always is one in ancient Greek theater) was simple: no nooky til no war. Well, we of the Educated Elite must stop offering our smarts to these morons until they rid us of Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists (so says this Tesla investor). Now, we may luck out. He could well fall over dead on his backswing at one of his money losing golf courses. He's not in the pink of health, after all.

No Fucking Way - part the third

Well... that didn't take long. Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists (so says this Tesla investor) are rolling right along. The retribution to Blue states is afoot.

The Office of Management and Budget memo, obtained by CNN, says the freeze is not across the board and is instead targeted to executive orders that address immigration, foreign aid, climate and energy, DEI initiatives, gender identity and abortion.

If that all doesn't scream Blue, tell me what does?

No Fucking Way - part the second

Now we get the acid test. Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists (so says this Tesla investor) get to prove to the sub-GED cabal that he'll destroy the Blue states and save the Red states. As Dictator, he can order funds be withheld where he wants. The Constitution and the law says he can't, but who's going to stop him?

The Funniest Thing

Here's a quote from This Week's Thought (soon enougn), but I'll preview with this bit

Oklahomans are being compelled to fund Catholicism

Needless to say, Oklahomans are only a bit peeved at the possibilty of funding Catholics. According to the wiki (2014 latest data)

Evangelical Reactionary Radical Right Wingnuts - 69% Catholics - 8%

If the Papists get the moolah, won't the Juice and the Muslins come next? Then what? Mormons? Hindus? Devil worshippers? We gots to nip this plague in the bud!

The Evangelical Reactionary Radical Right Wingnuts bitch and moan about "indoctrination" when any other religion is mentioned. What they do to kiddies is just Teaching, of course. Some even forbid the teaching of yoga since it's a sinister religion. I'm not kidding. And, of course, yoga as we know it today, traces to India. Ya know, Hindu and Buddha and all that to boot. But, keep on sending us your cheap Freshers to man out IT departments. Cheaper than American Catholics.

Make America White Again!!

You were warned: "One giant step for Whitey, a trap door for the rest."

I guess The Musk Ox's Nazi salute really wasn't an innocent slip.

By The Numbers - part the eighty third

Well... Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists are going full speed to turn the USofA into Hungary, or worse yet, Russia. The Gang of Six are to blame. The latest (hard to tell, of course) is the R.T.O. demand. Turns out, RTO saves money

[A] typical U.S. employer can save an average of $11,000 per half-time telecommuter per year.

Of course it does. Now, the usual paranoid-schiz manager assumes that his worker bees are just as lazy bastards as he is; after all, managers don't actually produce anything.

And the whole RTO fixation ignores the elephant in the room: office work has been off-shored at least as long as parts-assembly. The paranoid-schiz CxO class doesn't worry about all those Indians coding and radiology reviews.

Here's some numbers on how much office off-shoring goes on.

[S]ome economists that actually think this is a new era and that a lot of, maybe even 10% or 20%, of all service jobs could ultimately be moved overseas.

"Hey Hoss, get me some bargain basement darkie accountants. Real soon, now, here!"

RTO, my red sphincter.

I Told You So - 22 January 2025 [more detail]

Well... that didn't take long. Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists didn't establish a new Office of Media Integrity (yet), but

Amid a deluge of executive actions, the Trump administration has asked federal health agencies to pause external communications, such as regular scientific reports, updates to websites and health advisories, according to sources within the agencies.

The Fascists smell blood. We can't have true facts that Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists wish to deny come floating out of agencies, now can we?

[more detail]

"As the new Administration considers its plan for managing the federal policy and public communications processes, it is important that the President's appointees and designees have the opportunity to review and approve any regulations, guidance documents, and other public documents and communications (including social media)," [Acting HHS Secretary] Fink said in the memo.

And, for those who've forgotten

During Trump's first administration, a federal health official said political appointees pushed to change language of weekly science reports released by the CDC during the Covid-19 pandemic so they wouldn't undermine the president's political messaging.

Remember when Birx kept her mouth shut when Kim Don-Felon advised inhaling bleach? One might wonder what's next.

On The Chopping Block

Well... let's see if this effort survives Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists. I mean, it's very existence "proves" climate change is no hoax. And, of course, the Damn Gummint is subsidizing progress in another traitorous Blue state.

I wonder... will the sub-GED crowd understand the thermodynamics involved? I don't think so, either.

Eversource, which has a recent grant from Department of Energy and HEET, is already in talks to add more homes to the loop.

tldr; It's a geothermal network, aka ground sourced heat pump. The yoga studio I used to attend had one, the building was into the side of a hill, so the piping ran horizontally into the hill. The name of the unit is WaterFurnace, and it was running when I first went there three decades ago. The innterTubes say the company's been in business since 1983, so I guess it's not some fly-by-night scam.

Nixon, Jr.

If you're old enough, you know about Nixon's enemies list. Ain't no sore loser like a Evangelical Reactionary Radical Right Wingnut. So, here's a bet (no moolah involved).

Now that Sleepy Joe has handed out preemptive pardons like Halloween candy, what's a Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists to do? Well... the answer is easy. Have The Musk Ox sue each and every one of them to the hilt. The pardon only exempts the person from federal criminal prosecution. The Musk Ox can sue the bejesus out of all of them, and only find his networth diminish by a rounding error. The Musk Ox can afford it, and the suits can bankrupt some number of the Enemies. You read it here first.

This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.

Ya think Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists might have kept a note? Did LBJ, or any other strongman Democrat, do this? Not that history currently remembers.

I Brook No Dissent

Today's NYT (dead trees division) has a pundit fest, topic being Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists version 2. David Brooks is among them, and, once again, reveals himself to be a Waffler.

He rides his recent hobby horse: the sub-GED knuckledraggers are put-upon Good Guys persecuted by the educated folks.

It's a turn away from rule by the educated class to rule by people who think the educated class is self-serving and incompetent.

Like hydroxychloroquine being the cure of Covid-19 came from the mouths of educated elite? And so on. All Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists offers the sub-GED class is Class Warfare.

I'll revert to my core theory of the last decade. Trump is the wrong answer to the right question. He became president because over the last many decades we in the educated class built a system that is rigged. The children of affluent parents have advantages at every step of the way &mash; from preschool through college and the job market. And we passed a series of immigration, trade and education policies that benefit us, and hurt those without our degrees. High-school-educated people die eight years sooner. They have many fewer friends. They marry less and divorce more.

Of course, this applies only to the Ivy League and the near-to. I've not the total count off the top of my bean, but the Pundit Class has pointed out that Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists has been filling his administration from the Ivy League ruling class. Not the sub-GED knuckledraggers. Of course, the sub-GED class are so stupid, they buy his grift that he's on their side. He only uses them as cannon fodder in their War on intelligence. While it is true that private college is expensive, the so-called Land Grant Colleges, aka State U, were created just so that poor families' kids could get better education than their parents. That's been true in Blue states; Red states are more interested in spending hundreds of millions of Bongo Bucks on football and hoop. Show's where their priorities are.

Of course, Brooks never does assert that a country runs better when the ruling class is from the sub-GED knuckledraggers. Of course, not.

The Biden administration was built on the theory that if you redistribute huge amounts of money to people and places left behind, they will return to the Democratic fold. It didn't happen because you can't use money to solve a problem primarily about recognition and respect.

Many things wrong with that excuse. First, if Uncle Sugar sends Bongo Bucks to Red states, with no strings attached, what's the odds that they'll use the money to facilitate better access to material education for the poor? Zero. Second, it's been the Right Wing Economist's mantra going back to Adam Smith, that a worker's wages are only what the employer decides they're worth. So, employers (the true ruling class) always decide that sub-GED knuckledraggers ain't be worth a shit. They always have, and always will. There's a reason they ship jobs to slave wage dictatorships, and hire sub-GED knuckledraggers for shit jobs. That's all such jobs are worth.

And, of course, the sub-GED class continues to elect politicians (at all levels of Damn Gummint) who play to the Culture War, but not to offering them better education and healthcare and such. And, why, exactly, should the the sub-GED class deserve "recognition and respect" from the Rest of Us when what they say and do is God Damned Stupid 99.44% of the time? How should this "recognition and respect" be manifest? "Congratulations on passing the biggest stool of the week in this here county"? A gold Participation in Life trophy for all? Anathema to the Right Wingnuts, and they've said so enough times. Yes global climate change is a hoax because The Bible says that God won't send another Flood? Riddle me that Batman. Again, I say, the Right Wingnuts have always been driven by the mantra that you get what you can earn. If you don't know your ass from your elbow, you won't earn much.

Party likes it's 1829!! That notion wins votes from the simple minded (but more voted for someone not named Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists than voted for him; aka no majority), but does little to cure what ails the simple minded.

Mellencamp put it perfectly:

The simple minded and the uninformed can be easily led astray.

We live there now.

Thought For The Day - 16 January 2025

Well... even the proposed Treasury Secretary lies. So far as I've looked so far, not one interrogator has the stones to ask the vital question

Sir, when was, and the value of, the last payment from China (or any foreign government) or any Chinese company (ditto) received by Treasury to pay their tariff bill?

The answers, of course, are never and 0.

He just babbled the usual Evangelical Reactionary Radical Right Wingnuts mantra that all will get better for all if the rich get even richer. I wonder if the fact that Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists are building an administration of Phat Cats is penetrating the heads of the MAGAnauts? Populist? Only an idiot would buy that.

No Fucking Way

The headline reads:

They voted for Trump. Now they might be hit by 'catastrophic' education cuts.

(The piece is labeled 'for subscribers', and I'm not so far as I know, but I still got in. YMMV)

Anyone who believes that headline is a Limp Wristed Lunatic Lefty. The whole point of Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists is to degrade the Blue States into Red States, but leave the Red States in their current state of corruption. Remember: The Gang of Six^© has ruled that Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists (and Sleepy Joe for that matter, who chose not to act) can do anything within the Administrative State that he feels like; this Unitary Executive bullshit. That will include not spending money as a means of paranoic punishing his assumed enemies. And they're mostly in Blue States. And it means that he can direct the lowest level GS worker what to do. Of course, Schedule F will put the administrative civil service into the political appointee box. Andy Jackson will be proud.

And the punishment will be meted out across the whole of the Damn Gummint. His mouthpieces have already said that they'll demand their pound, or ten, of flesh for aid to California.

A group of House Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump talked about tying wildfire aid to a debt ceiling increase Sunday night

And, I guarantee, that'll only be the beginning of the extortion. No more woke. No more welfare. No more vaccines. No more DEI. And so on. The Garden of Eden for the robber barons, shitholes for the rest.

MAHA

Regular reader well knows my view of Gina Kolata: the Tess Harding (look it up!) of the real world. In today's dead trees NYT, comes a scorched earth assessment of RFK and MAHA. Not that you or I would be shocked (Shocked!! I say!!!) at the conclusions of the piece.

Suffice it to say: Again?? As if the 19th century, and even the first half of the 20th were some Garden of Healthy Eden here in smoking, drinking, tubercular, STD wreaked USofA. As mentioned here a few times, if, in the 1800s, one were really ill, one took ship to Europe for real healthcare and hope you got there in time to make a difference. They not be much in the Colonies. And there wasn't. Give a guess when the medical license came to be ................... Well... it's complicated. It is claimed that the Constitution left regulation (if at all) of doctors to the States separately. The claim is based on the tenth amendment (which has been used for all sorts of reactionary purposes)

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

According to the wiki page, Illinois was the first to take steps 1877. Other sources mention North Carolina in the 1850s. Either way, it wasn't until 1910 with the Flexner Report that common sense regulation of healthcare (mostly, the physicians) began to take hold. Again???

So, back to Gina's report.

Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, asked: "Which particular era does R.F.K. want to take us back to?"

Yeah, good question.A

And, of course, the MAGAnauts make a lot of it up. There's a line from a L&O:CI episode: "He's got Irish Alzheimer's. He only remembers the bad parts." (More or less, from memory.) The MAGAnauts, of course, re-write history such that the Good Times have always been when they had the power and the Bad Times when Democrats did.

"There's a long history in America of nostalgia for a past that was better than the present," [Dr. Greene] said. "History is all about erasure — the things we don't choose to remember."

Again?? As mentioned in these essays a few times, extension of life expectancy at birth since, say 1900, hasn't been that geezers have been living decades longer since 1900 to now, but that most folks these days don't die off from disease or accident or such before reaching 65 or so. And most of that extension happened after WWII, thanks (wait for it...) vaccines. Fuck you, Bobby. If you made it to 65 back then, you (on average) lived about as long as you will today. Esp. if you avoid smoking and drinking and screwing anything that walks. Keep it in your pants, buddy!

[update 14 Jan. 2025] here

"I think there is common cause, as I mentioned, in this idea of making America healthy again, if that's really the goal," Ricks said.

The Ricks in question is the CEO of Lilly. And, clearly, a Trump dick sucker.

It's Mine, All Mine

Well... turns out that Garfield 2.0 lies about who built the Panama Canal. Bet you thought that wasn't possible. Everyone knows the USofA built it, right? Teddy Roosevelt and all that? Well... and the US Army intervention in the creation of "Panama" in the first instance.

So, we made it, kinda sorta back in 1914. And all was well with the world. Then the Peanut Farmer decided to go all Limp Wristed Lefty and give it back the Panamanians (who were really just Colombians). Pissed off soonToBePresident Huey Long 2024^©.

So now, Mad Dictator Don goes bizarro over Greenland and the Canal and the Gulf. A full blown crackup is on the docket.

Turns out, the current Canal (to all intensive porpoises) is not what was built ~1914, but what was built by 2016, without any USofA moolah. Look it up here. So, fuck you Drumpf.

Thought For The Day - 8 January 2025

So, what will Batshit J. Moron demand from CA for FEMA assistance with the wildfires? An end to Woke in all schools? An end to climate change legislation? An end to DEI by both the Damn Gummint and Bidnezz in the state? Elevation of The Musk Ox to Governor? And such.

Corruption, thy name is Drumpf.

D'oh!!

Some folks are beyond stupid. Here's an example (paywalled) but you can read the lede, which is all that matters.

After hitting a post-covid all-time high in real estate sales in 2020, total sales per year are still declining on Block Island, even as individual property values continue to increase.

In the first place, 2020 wasn't close to being "post-covid". Not within a country mile; 2020 launched the pandemic. What the hell; it's just a Chamber of Commerce small town organ. But, more to the point: sales nearly always decline when price goes up. It's the bedrock understanding of Econ 101. While more than is healthy, there is a limited number of billionaires (fighting for their rightful place in paradise) and there is also a limited amount of dirt on teeny Block Island (no match for the Vineyard and Nantucket). The landed gentry of Block Island continues to sell off holdings piecemeal to Big City rich folk.

If anything, two week in the summer 10,000 square foot "cottages" on the Island are so valuable one might expect sales to always be increasing. Well... unless the Island's landed gentry is running out of inventory to sell. Not to mention water.

Bring Out Your Dead!

ah well

Five members so far have skipped their turn to vote, putting the chamber into suspense about whether Mike Johnson can secure the votes for speaker on the first ballot.

Cannibalism is all the rage these days among Evangelical Reactionary Radical Right Wingnuts.

Musk, Meet Chickens

Well... it looks like the chickens have come home to roost.

Tesla posts its first-ever annual sales drop.
-- Chris Isidore/2025

Destroy Twitter, buy a chucklehead President, make cars that hit people, suck up billions of Bongo Bucks from Uncle Sugar (while claiming that he's a bespoke Genius), and so on. May have worn out your welcome. Go back to the shithole country you came from.

Shares of Tesla (TSLA) fell more than 4% in early trading on the weak sales report. But they closed 2024 up 68% for the year. Almost all of that gain came after Election Day, as investors bet that Tesla will benefit from policies under the incoming Trump administration, given the key support for the president-elect from CEO Elon Musk.

Badges?? We don't need no stinkin badges!!! We got the Boss by the nuts. He'll give us anything we want. Well... and the rest of the billionaires.