Cry Havoc!

In the Military Bowl, Virginia played Navy…for about 12 seconds.

Virginia, a slight favorite went ahead 7-0, returning the opening kickoff 98 yards, after which Navy must have thought, “Cry ‘Havoc’ and let slip the dogs of war,” leaving Virginia with only 12 seconds of domination.

Virginia was not to score again, in fact barely could move the ball again, while the second string QB of Navy scored five times, himself.

49-7.

The dogs of war answered!

10% Sounds Just Fine

I have no idea if Trump and Nikki Haley are serious about holding our allies feet to the fire over their votes in the United Nations, but if they are it makes me happy.

Now, it’s not a direct threat regarding a vote over the US moving its Embassy to Jerusalem, but rather a more veiled threat that we are looking at UN votes for support from our allies — allies to whom we send financial support.

Lots of it. We have ignored votes in the UN for too long. Nations have been able to take our money and ignore our interests with impunity. Apparently no longer!

Good! Actions have consequences — or they should have consequences.

Nothing the UN votes upon has any impact upon our actions, of course, but many nations have taken our coin with one hand and slapped us with the other. Many years ago I read that Mexico had voted against us more often than Russia. I have no idea who is on our Sierra list currently, but I hope Trump follows through with at least a 10% reduction in funding for those Sierra List nations, just as a shot across the bow. Each insult in the future would be another 10%.

A reduction of 10% of dues to the United Nations would be a good start, as well.

We Live In Interesting Times

There is more going on than that in Washington. Elon’s Musk has unveiled his Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket in the US interstellar rocket. The rocket is ready to be launched next month, and even Musk says there is a good chance that the initial launch will provide a great pyrotechnic for the evening news. Since Musk can’t sell space aboard his initial flight, the risk being too great, he will launch one of his Tesla automobiles to circle Mars…assuming…

Hey! It’s his company, actually both SpaceX that develops Falcon Heavy, and Tesla Automobiles are Musk companies, so it’s the perfect means of advertising Tesla automobiles. On the cheap!

Might just as well. I just want this huge rocket to succeed, so SpaceX can get on to an even stronger BFR, their Big F#@&ing Rocket. Space is soon to be 5he playground of Billionaires, Musk and Bezos. Hope I live long enough to see great things!

A Tax Return On a Post Card?

The worry about what someone else is getting in the Tax Reform Bill is pure envy.

In this case it is also Class Warfare against the “rich” who also pay the most taxes by far, and deserve the most relief from this onerous and expensive tax system. We continually get promised a tax return on the back of a post card, but instead we get hoards of tax preparers, CPAs, and Attorneys who exist only to help us fill out our taxes!

If, as the Trump Administration claims, the regulations have been reduced 22 times for every new regulation, they could try to attack the tax code with greater vigor. Nearly every state has a method of collecting sales taxes so a federal sales tax could easily be added to that system. A federal sales tax is even progressive, since the rich buy much more expensive items tha the poor.

That would permit the firing of all IRS agents, and the destruction of not just an entire federal tax bureaucracy but that parasite tax preparation industry!

That would be a great Trump legacy

“Keep up!”

Clue: Most states have hills! Some states even have mountains! Cars with small engines don’t develop enough torque for hills!

Auto manufacturers, no doubt as an answer to some federal fuel demands, produce some of the most anemic engines in history. We have not yet been reduced to the Model A method of having to back up hills to use the lowest gear, but we are going there, fast. Or more accurately, slowly.

I have abandoned my search for a Crossover vehicle because they are normally powered (sic) with 2.0 turbocharged engines. If we start with Engineering 101, we. Learn that horsepower maintains speed, but torque gets you there. Small engines don’t produce much torque, even turbocharged engines.

Here in Southern California we have hills, lots of them. In my freeway travels, the speed going up minor hills drops from 82 MPH to 75 MPH. That reduction is caused by the drivers of newer cars believing their turbocharged cars are powerful. Perhaps they even want to move over to a slightly slower lane but find that too crowded. The results to following drivers with more powerful cars is the same — slowing. Substantial slowing! Frustrating, slowing!

And it’s all caused by lack of torque. That, and of course ignorance on the part of car buyers who don’t look for torque ratings. The cry from me is constantly, “Keep Up” because so many simply don’t. Southern California isn’t the Autobahn, but it is faster than a 2.0 liter can move a regular sized car up a hill. I see it every day I am out and about.

Drives me crazy! I don’t honk or flip people off, I only mutter about it. Constantly!

Collusion Within The FBI!

Is it possible to believe both that there were anti-Trump moles within the Muelller investigation, and that if evidence of a collusion between Russia and the Trump administration, that the evidence is valid.

Certainly.

While there is ample evidence that the FBI is deeply corrupted at the top, and there is zero evidence so far of collusion between Trump and Russia, that doesn’t mean that such evidence does not exist. I fully accept that Russia interfered with our presidential election, there is ZERO visible evidence of collusion.

The only collusion currently in evidence is that senior members of the FBI colluded to interfere with a free election!

San Diego Fires are Contained

The Lilac Fire in San Diego is 92% contained but San Diego has dodged a bullet — this one could have easily gone all the way to the ocean, wiping out Oceanside!

As it happens, this one went right through horse country, and San Diego County has the most horses of any County in America. We lost 49 horses, mostly thoroughbreds being trained at San Luis Ray Downs.

A friend of 40 plus years had to evacuate her family and horses from her nearby ranch, the Four Fillies Ranch. The San Diego Humane Society rolled up with their horse trailers and saved their horses, but I saw trucks and horse trailers lined up as far as the eye could see, waiting for instructions as to where to go to evacuate horses.

Fortunately, our San Diego weather has held at 80 degrees each day but we need rain. Rain is a two aged sword, it dampens fires but makes a future generation of weeds and underbrush grow — the fuel for future fires.

Sinecures in D.C.

Great article in the LA Times today about getting the bureaucrats out of Washington and into other parts of the country.

I think it would be great to move the entire national apparatus to Denver or Salt Lake City, and I have written newspaper articles to that effect for years. In this day of instant communications, where the physical headquarters lay, is virtually immaterial.

The Washington, D.C. area has generated more than 10 generations of bureaucrats, and some individuals have their DNA at the same desk for about 200 years. It is time for a change.

This idea has been studied by many administrations, at least back to the Reagan administration. No one has been able to pull the trigger, but Trump is certainly able to effect ideas that have generated for decades, as the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem has demonstrated.

Bureaucrats of course have shot down the idea. Their positions have become generational sinecures, but the time is long past for new blood. One proposal is to move the Department of Transportation to LA, another to move the FBI to Detroit.

As one of the Cabinet members notes, the Bureau of Land Management controls federal lands, and 99% of those lands are West of the Mississippi.

There is no better way to drain the swamp!

Lilac Fire Was Too Close

The local fire started 10 miles north of us, and went straight West, sparing our small community. Firefighters just switched from defense to offense.

So far, this local fire has burned 60 homes. In the last huge fire, San Diego lost 2,100 homes but we are much better prepared, and we have Navy and Marine assets in use. In the big fire, in 2003, Navy firefighting helicopters sat running on the runways. Today, they fly.

This fire is concentrated in Bonsall, a big horse community. Some 800 horses have been rescued and taken to the Del Mar racetrack, but at least 15 horses died. Many private horse trailers from as far away as Arizona are lined up to effect rescues.

Del Mar put out call for hay, and they now have a mountain of hay. San Diego is responding.

Our community is particularly vulnerable. We are 1,800 homes at the top of a 1,500 foot hill on a huge natural mesa. The cheapest home in our community is valued over half a million dollars, and we have only one way up the hill and down the hill.

Our personal situation (if we have time) is to grab valuables, including paintings, push them into plastic bags and take everything just 100 feet onto the golf course. We have a pond for our personal protection if the firestorm gets too strong. The golf course won’t burn, and they will have their huge sprinklers going full blast IF THEY HAVE ELECTRICITY. Our personal concern is smoke.

Our home is a shake shingle home that will be an absolute torch! We have a new roof going on today, but it is no help in a firestorm.

It Is strong Santa Ana winds that cause our fire problems. We had mild temperatures yesterday, 77 degrees, and winds of 60 mph, and humidity of four percent. It happens often at this time of year.

Not In MY America!

While I hope the baker wins the SCOTUS case, I deplore that it is posed as a religious right vs discrimination.

I believe even an Atheist like me should be able to refuse service to anyone he damn well please! No customer should be able to shut down a business the owner has spent years, and many dollars, developing.

Having started a small business, and taught writing of a business plan in a university, only those who have opened a small business can know the angst, the time and the hundred of thousands of dollars put into opening the door of a small business. In my case, even in the 70s, it took a year of dedication and a half million dollars.

The knowledge of what it takes to start and successfully operate a small business was ably demonstrated to me by my hundreds of students. Their ignorance mirrored the lack of knowledge of the average non owner public.

The very thought that someone who has no skin in my game could enter my business for the first time, and, based on my business decision over a $100 sale, destroy my business, force the sale of my home and cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars is beyond belief!

Not in MY America