China's race to space

"Trump had the right idea about exploring space. Obama hated it, and Biden does not understand it. Meanwhile, China has its path clearly marked out. And that path ends with a colony on Mars and a mining operation on the Moon."  

Saw something interesting on YouTube recently. It was a short documentary, produced by a couple of Canadians. It was not pro-America, nor anti-America. I was however - all about China. As the United States has been worried sick about beating the Russians into space in the past, the Chinese have been going to town. 

This all started (believe it or not), during the time of Mao. In fact, the rocket boosters are to this day called Long March, in honor of Mao's 4,000 mile flight and fight with the Chinese nationalists in the 1930's. It made Mao Zedong the leader who he was. From the time he assumed power in 1949 until his death in 1976, Mao was consumed with the idea of China becoming a major player in world events and technologies. After Russia put Sputnik into orbit, Mao also became interested in space. Unfortunately for Mao however, not much has happened until after Mao's death.

In fact, the United States made sure the path forward would be hard for China. The International Space Station (ISS), turns out not to be so international after all. The welcome mat was pulled away from China, as they were told they were persona non grata on board the ISS.

Here is the irony - China is now building their own space station (Tiangong Space Station). It has modern technology built into much of it. The ISS on the other hand, only has 10 years of life left. Once the ISS is gone, I wonder if the Chinese are going to invite us onboard their space station. We will have the very small Lunar Gateway Station sometime this decade, but that will be about it.

China and Russia have also signed an agreement to mine the Moon together. The somewhat scarce Helium-3, may be hard to find on Earth, but is abundant on the Moon. The Russians and Chinese want to go after it, big time. Helium-3 is good for their nuclear fusion research programs. And us? Are we going to mine that also? I guess we will have to ask Elon Musk. As of late, NASA seems to trip over their own shoelaces when it comes to mining the Moon.

China has already sent rovers to the dark side of the Moon, and also to Mars. Why Mars? That is the big prize. This will come as a shock to nobody - China is building a clone of Musk's Super Heavy rocket. Why? Rumor has it, China wants to send a gaggle of folks up to Mars and start the colonization process. So does Musk. Is this now the real space race? China vs. Musk? Seems it might be.

This is what happens when we are not watching the other hand. While Biden has us all tied up in knots, worrying about the Green New Deal, and enforcing mandatory Covid shots, China is eating our lunch. How? By soon to be mining Rare Earths in Afghanistan, and then mining Helium-3 on the Moon. China will be getting richer, as we get poorer.

Trump had the right idea about exploring space. Obama hated it, and Biden does not understand it. Meanwhile, China has its path clearly marked out. And that path ends with a colony on Mars and a mining operation on the Moon. Oh, to have a second term of Donald J. Trump...  

The Seawolf Mystery

"Anyhow, whatever the Connecticut hit will be investigated. Sailors were injured, but none killed (thank God). It is heading back to port on its own power, and will be repaired. Does China have some kind of underwater stealthy drone that we don't yet know about? Don't know."

Interesting things going on over by China right now. The Dogs of War might be howling a bit. First off, China has been violating Taiwan's airspace, with abandon as of late. So much so, the President of Taiwan has told China that should Taiwan be invaded by China, Taiwan would fight "to the end". Then it was disclosed that the United States has had some of our elite forces over in Taiwan, training their military. The amount of troops we have had there has been less than a hundred, but still...

But the strangest thing was yet to come. One of our most sophisticated submarines, a Seawolf class sub named the USS Connecticut (SSN-22), had an "incident" in the South China Sea. It hit "something" while on duty, submerged. Hit a what? Another sub? An undersea mountain (that has happened before)? An alien USO? What then?

The Seawolf is still considered a highly classified weapon in the Navy's inventory. A bit of disclosure - while employed at one of my former companies, that company was awarded a contract to make the propeller for the Seawolf. Special accommodations were made at the plant to ensure there was an adequate security firewall to protect the unique nature of the highly classified nature of the propeller. 

At one time, the Navy was going to build 29 Seawolf subs. We needed them to match the Soviet's best attack subs. But then the Soviet Union went away, so we cut down our need to 12 Seawolf subs. Then we found out how expensive they were to build. So we now only have three. We are building the must less expensive Virginia class attack subs instead.

Anyhow, whatever the Connecticut hit will be investigated. Sailors were injured, but none killed (thank God). It is heading back to port on its own power, and will be repaired. Does China have some kind of underwater stealthy drone that we don't yet know about? Don't know. But whatever this sub hit, without any detection, is a concern. It happened once, it may be able to happen again.    

The death of our schools

"They have crossed the Rubicon. The education statists will not even realize it was them who killed the Golden Goose. Will I shed a tear as the government schools sink slowly into the sunset? Nary a one."

This has been brewing for some time now. Our public education system, in which my wife and I were educated, is not the same as it once was. At one time, parents and teachers would work together for the betterment of the children. Education was key. Today - not so much. Indoctrination has replaced education.

According to researcher Dr. Steven Duvall, from the period of May 2020 to May 2021, the amount of households who home school has tripled. Sure, much of that was pandemic related. But some was not. Some parents are just fed up with the crap which is being peddled in the public school arena. They are fed up with their kids being forced to wear masks, when there is no scientific need to do so. They are fed up with their kids being forced to read Heather has Two Mommies, or their kids being told because they are white, they are evil.

Some parents have decided that instead of taking their kids out of the government schools, they will stay and fight. Get more involved in the school board meetings. You know, like PTA once was? PTA as in Parent, Teacher Association? But when the parents are asking too many questions, or getting too loud or rowdy, the Association of School Boards and the National Education Association have contacted the feds for help. And Merrick Garland, as well as Dr. Biden's husband, have been only too happy to help out. 

For many parents, that was the last straw. If they ask too many questions, or use the wrong tone in asking them - Garland will sig the FBI on them. Simple parents, concerned about their kids, will now be enemies of the state. Domestic terrorists. Kind of like Antifa was, before Biden got elected. Now Antifa are considered model citizens by the Biden Administration.

For those who can afford it, opting out of the government education system will become more common than uncommon. The poor will be stuck in this broken failure factory, having to absorb the obscene gruel the authoritarian nincompoops dish out. Soon, our history books will resemble the 1619 Project. America bad. White people bad. White people are White Nationalists. And the beat goes on.

Just like the Biden Administration, the government school system has gone too far. They have crossed the Rubicon. The education statists will not even realize it was them who killed the Golden Goose. Will I shed a tear as the government schools sink slowly into the sunset? Nary a one. Good-bye to bad rubbish.     

The price we pay...

This group of authoritarianists we have in Washington are doing NOTHING to pull us back from the edge. On the contrary, they are behind us - pushing. 

As Obama's former pastor would say, "America's chickens, have come home to roost." Say what? Like what? The year - 1968. The place - Chicago, Illinois. The event - the national DNC Convention. In many people's opinion (including mine), this was the start of the great unraveling. Or as some call it today, our impending National Divorce.

Good vs. evil. Freedom vs. authoritarianism. Lawfulness vs. lawlessness. This is what a National Divorce looks like. Is there any hope for reconciliation? For some kind of national marriage counseling? I wonder. As a long time resident of this country, I have seen this change materialize. From the turbulent 1960's, to the start of the great divide in the 2000 election. We had a temporary respite from the 2001 terror attacks, but shortly thereafter, we were at each other's throats again.

And now - in the final quarter of 2021, we are at the precipice. The edge of the cliff. This is the price we are all paying, for what started in the 1960's. The toxic brew made up of many things. The season of love. Woodstock. Anti-war protests. Disrespect. And of course, the grand-daddy of them all. The Great Society. The LBJ program which backfired, that laid waste to many families - many of which, were of color.

As part of this price we are paying, how do we move forward? I mean, short of separating the red states from the blue states? Do we amicably split the people, the assets, and the talent? Or do we do it the old fashioned way, like we did it in 1861? That particular war, is to date, the bloodiest we ever fought. Do we really want to go down that path again?

This group of authoritarianists we have in Washington are doing NOTHING to pull us back from the edge. On the contrary, they are behind us - pushing. If you are the praying type, keep praying for our country. We are on dangerous ground right now, very thin ice. Maybe divine intervention is our only hope. 

  

Hey Joe! Build this back better!

 

"Here is your chance Joe. To do something right, and which makes sense. I would wager if this type of solution was in your infrastructure bills, and you left out all the crip crap and BS tax increases, you might not need Manchin and Sinema. You would have dozens of Republicans voting in the positive."

Poor Joe Biden. Clueless. Eyeless in Gaza. A stranger in a strange land. With the trillions he wants to spend on infrastructure, nary a dime towards fixing the upcoming supply chain time bomb. And that time bomb is ticking. If Joe could skip one of his naps, and cast his gaze towards our sea ports, he would see what the problem is. And this problem Joe, is not going away.

Yesterday, Fox News did a segment on the current trucker shortage. The trucker shortage is not causing 100% of the constipation in our seaports, but it is a big part of it. Stuff is ordered from overseas, stuff overseas is made to fulfill those orders, than the finished goods are put in containers and loaded on container ships. Then those ships get to our ports, and just sit. Sit for sometimes weeks.

When is this problem going away? It isn't. Fox reported that currently our trucker shortage is somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 drivers. By 2028, it is estimated to be 160,000 drivers short. Even if we got rid of all our globalization trade, we would still have a big problem. Short of accelerating the technology to have autonomous (Al) trucks on the road, this will be a problem without a solution.

Of all the crap which has been stuck in these two huge infrastructure bills, there is very little to fix the real problems we have in this country. I mean, like almost nada. These bills remind me of the stimulus package Obama signed into law. Remember that one? With tons of "shovel ready" projects? Turns out there was very little "shovel ready" anything. There was however, quite a bit of "payback" crap, for Democrat law makers. All of that money could have totally fixed our electric grid, and some money left over.

Okay Joe. Wake up and pay attention. This is important. Since it is unlikely that we are going to find 160,000 new truck drivers by 2028 (a bit over 6 years away), we need to accelerate the technology to have a fleet of self driving trucks on the road. If we do not, our supply chain issues, are going to turn into chains (and millstones) around our necks. 

Here is your chance Joe. To do something right. To do something which makes sense. I would wager if this type of solution was in your infrastructure bills, and you left out all the crip crap and BS tax increases, you might not need Manchin and Sinema. You would have dozens of Republicans voting in the positive. But I shouldn't have to tell you this Slo Joe. You did however, promise to be a centrist. This would be a centrist type of thing to do. 

The devil and those details...

"Keep your eye on the ball, and watch both hands. The devil is going to be in the details. With some of these entitlements which the socialists want, once that bell is rung, it will be very hard to un-ring."

The high drama from last week is over. Both of the "infrastructure" bills, are still that - just bills. Left with no agreement, no signature. Slo Joe, the "grand deal maker" came up to the Hill, masked up, saluted the fawning Democrats waiting for him, and then came away empty. Not only empty, but he made a major "inkle", he was going to side with the socialists, over the traditional Democrats. So much for his campaign promise. 

What does that mean? Does that mean both bills are dead? Hardly. Even though Manchin and Sinema wanted nothing of the $3.5T, and became "stoppers" in having the bill in its current shape make it through the Senate, there is a much bigger problem. Problem? What? The details. This "human infrastructure" bill, is a ticking timebomb, regardless of what the value is. The language contained therein is the devil in the details. 

All the Democrats need is to have the structure of these two bills agreed to - and then signed into law. The funding can come at any time. But the structure is important. And who knows how many "Catch 22" items are in the "human infrastructure" bill? Like hidden taxes or "wealth taxes"? When there is a blizzard of paper that house these bills, having toxic items hidden therein is always a danger.

One of the Biden talking heads was on the Sunday morning Fox show yesterday. He kept telling the host, "Oh, no - there is no cost to the taxpayers in these bills. Everything is paid for. In fact, 50 million lower income folks are going to get a tax break." This is the whopper of all whoppers. To pay for everything we know about (plus everything which is hidden), the socialists will need to not only tax everyone's income, but also their wealth.

One example I read, is a 3% annual real estate tax. If you house is valued at $400,000, you would need to pay the government $12,000 just for that tax. If this is true or not, I don't know. But it would not surprise me if it were.

In any event, this is the Great Reset. Once the socialists can get these two bills inked by Biden, regardless of the value, kiss our country goodbye. We will become the mother of all entitlement societies. The Golden Goose will have been killed, and all the money trees picked bare. The "building a better mouse trap" mentality which made this country great, will be replaced with doing nothing, creating nothing, and getting paid for it.

Stay tuned on this one. Keep your eye on the ball, and watch both hands. The devil is going to be in the details. With some of these entitlements which the socialists want, once that bell is rung, it will be very hard to un-ring.     

China - the world's bad guy

"Who is the world's bad guy? China, hands down. Too bad our current empty suit President (and his son), have been bought and paid for by the CCP. Trump was not. He had China's number. And he still does." 

We are in the pandemic which will not go away. This past week, we have reached another grim milestone. 700,000 deaths due to Covid - 19. Just when we thought we were coming out of this thing, the delta variant appeared. It was very contagious, and some folks who thought they escaped the first wave, got caught up in this wave of Covid.

We have done a great job in finger pointing as to who is responsible for all these Covid deaths. Some say our former President. Some say it is a reaction to authoritarianism from the current President. Others say Big Pharma. Still others say big labor, like the teacher's union. With as many fingers pointing in many directions, very few are pointing west. Like west over the horizon, all the way to China.

Donald Trump had these guys called out and nailed, long before his term was up. He also knew this virus did not come from some bat or wet market, but rather the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. Now, through forensic sleuthing, the evidence is starting to look very strong that Donald Trump was right. This virus, compliments of the CCP of China, has killed almost 5,000,000 worldwide, with 700,000 being in the United States alone.

Even the esteemed Dr. Fauci and the NIH, seem to have their fingers dirty. They helped by funding some of the "gain-of-function" research at Wuhan. By the way, don't you love how this term "gain-of-function" originated? The former term sounded much too malevolent. "Biological Warfare" was the old term. The end product is the same however, no matter what you call it. Make a new "novel" virus which can kill or disable humans. Charming. Just charming, CCP.

What else is China doing these days, besides trying to kill us with sickness? Oh yes - our southern border, which no longer exists. They are flooding the zone with Fentanyl. Fentanyl, maybe the most dangerous drug ever invented, is killing tens of thousand of Americans. Just add that number to the 700,000 we have lost from Covid - 19, and we have lost more Americans to China's mischief, than we have lost in all wars since the Civil War. And what is Biden doing about it? Nada. Ignoring it. Blaming Trump.

By the way - anyone ever wonder how many people in China, a country of 1.44 billion people, four times bigger than the United States, had only a handful of deaths (reported) from Covid? Gordon Chang, one of the world's foremost experts on the CCP in China, suspects something sinister. The "gain-of-function" research at Wuhan, was to bio engineer a virus which would "pass over" folks which had Chinese DNA. As for the rest of us - lights out. Covid - 19 might have only been the first wave of this nefarious research.

Who is the world's bad guy? China, hands down. Too bad our current empty suit President (and his son), have been bought and paid for by the CCP. Trump was not. He had China's number. And he still does.