Election laugh

Things are so serious in America with the presidential election coming in just five days. One of the issues is whether identification should be required to cast a vote, as is required to travel on an airplane, to drive a car, etc.

Wait . . only citizens are supposed to vote in the U.S.A. How can it be questioned whether you must show your identity? But it is an issue. California just made it illegal to require ID to vote. 

Some say that requiring voter ID is racist, that it is beyond the ability of black Americans to comply. Wait . . who's the racist?

Babylon Bee always finds a way to laugh in the face of heavy issues.

Girls' sports

Do most Americans think it's a good idea for girls' sports to include transgendered male bodies? A study reveals what every one of us should know:

"Experts and critics believe trans girls and transwomen who have experienced male puberty hold an advantage over their biological female competitors." 

Duh.

from NYPost

Not permanent 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

What hope is there for our skyrocketing debt (image) and spending?

Maybe there's some chance that it can be slowed down and a pending catastrophe delayed.

The presidential candidate that Elon supports has asked him to trim the size of the federal government. He estimates that he might be able to cut expenses by two trillion dollars. He has a track record (cutting the size of Twitter after he bought it).

Not permanent 1

It's likely that you have seen this famous quote. But if not, then your time has come. It's from a Scotsman over two hundred years ago saying that democracy can't survive long term.

He had a very plausible reason for saying so: 

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury . ."

Check: we passed that point in America a long time ago. Power to get votes from giving away public money is entrenched in our political parties.

". . [W]ith the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy . . " 

Check: yes, America currently has loose fiscal policy in the form of runaway spending accompanied by intolerable debt.

from Goodreads

(cont'd tomorrow)

Marimba

Just for fun, here is Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" performed by a student marimba band in South Africa. To remember what the original sounded like about 300 years ago when it was composed, go here.

Chopsticks

How big are those SpaceX "chopsticks" that caught a descending 250-ton rocket in mid-air? 

This big (photo):

All in

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Elon has been on a learning curve. After losing his son to the "woke mind virus," he's been waking up to left wing politics. What he found out about the woke political party drives him in his new MAGA role, as he explains in this interview with Tucker Carlson:

 

Freedom to speak is important to him, as is clear from what he's done at X (formerly Twitter). Free speech is, as he says, the "bedrock of democracy." If no disagreement with the government is permitted (censorship), then Americans are sheep who simply do as they're told and never discover a new idea. What if the government is wrong? 

Millions (10+) of illegal immigrants have been allowed to pour over our national borders since this administration took over in 2021. Loyal to the government which enabled this invasion, they may ensure that every swing state votes left wing in the future. It scares Elon and it scares me. California has even criminalized showing your ID to vote 😟

Elon says he is all in. What if his candidate doesn't win? "I'm f--d! How many years in prison do you think I'll get?!"

Attacking Elon 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

How gullible are people? Some completely trust those in power to tell them what is true and what is "dis/mis/information" -- so they approve of government censorship.

The White House today, like tyrants everywhere, is afraid of free speech so they must suppress and control public opinion. What a contrast to President Kennedy (assassinated in 1963) who trusted the public (us Americans) with our constitutional right to free speech.

Elon is not one to humbly submit to coercion. He bought Twitter and let go of over half the staff since "content moderation" or censorship would no longer be their goal. He published documentation that Twitter had been bowing to government pressure. 

Elon's businesses make him vulnerable. This White House and its left wing political party really don't like him, and it shows (yesterday's post). So he's gone from having little interest in politics to . . joining the other political party and its presidential candidate (photo). 

As he has said in the past, Game On.

Attacking Elon 1

Our current government administration is "all-in" for policies that promote the trend away from internal combustion cars and toward electric vehicles. They sponsored a "summit" meeting in 2021 to celebrate EV's in America, inviting legacy car makers . . but snubbing Tesla.

Why would they leave out "the company that sells more electric cars [image] in the US than all competitors combined?" (Clue: unlike Tesla, those legacy car makers are all unionized and the union has advocated for the current president's political party for many years.)

 

In 2020 about $900 million in federal funding for rural broadband internet was designated to Elon Musk's Starlink after they competed for it. But the FCC withdrew the funding when the current administration took over, saying they didn't meet the requirements. SpaceX was “deeply disappointed and perplexed," and claimed "Starlink is demonstrably one of the best options—likely the best option—to accomplish the goals" of the program. 

And there's more: "The White House is attacking Musk’s business empire . . throwing everything it can find at Musk, hoping that the endless barrage of regulatory, reputational and legal attacks will cause the world’s wealthiest man to kneel." 

"The viciousness of the investigations being conducted by the DOJ, the FAA, the FTC, the SEC, the NLRB . . against a successful American business leader is unprecedented."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Dear Nike

A new athletic apparel company started up last March. They have a goal in addition to selling clothes: "We are here to protect women's sports and spaces," to protect women and girls from a travesty like what happened here, here, here.

Their name is "XX-XY Athletics," and their new ad is terrific. I want everyone to see it, so here is "Dear Nike" . .

ISS view

The International Space Station has been up there a long time, continuously occupied since 2000. Astronauts are commonly there six to twelve months. It can be uncomfortable.

But the view is amazing.

The catch

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

To remind yourself why they would try to do something as monumentally difficult as catching a rocket in mid-air, go here. 

What a moment that turned out to be. After boosting "Starship" through the thickest part of the atmosphere, seven minutes after launch "Super Heavy" disengaged from it and came hurtling back to earth. 

Precision firing of its raptor engines slowed the 250-ton rocket down til it hovered right over its target. It slowly descended into the "chopstick" arms of the "mechazilla" launch tower, back into the position where in the future it will be readied for the next flight in as little as one hour. 

This process will help attain the goal of the rapid reuse of Starship, essential to Elon's vision. He posted on X: "Big step towards making life multiplanetary was made today."

Test flight 5

After telling SpaceX that approval of their next Starship test flight would probably not be granted until late November, the government (FAA) suddenly approved it last Saturday afternoon, three days ago.

SpaceX was ready, and the flight took place just 19 hours later on Sunday morning. To my complete surprise, I saw the tweet on X as we drove home from church (which explains why this post didn't appear yesterday 😐).

As planned, the spectacular accomplishment of the day was the amazing catch of the returning first stage booster in mid-air for the first time ever. In the words of one of the engineer/narrators, history was made. 

Here is the flight video. To see SpaceX's full video at sunrise with more information and more excitement, go here.

Hurricane news 4

(cont'd from last week's posts)

Just days after Hurricane Helene carved a path of wreckage into the eastern U.S. interior, Hurricane Milton swept across central Florida (photo).

The Gulf Coast took much of the property damage, but millions more in the region lost power.

It was expected and prepared for. Over 50,000 linemen from multiple states volunteered to come fix the massive problem of fallen power lines. The Florida governor says they were "pre-staged" so they could get to work as soon as Milton was gone.

Volunteer linemen also came to Georgia to restore power after Helene. Residents of one community gathered to say a grand "thank you" complete with their local high school band. You'll enjoy it, so go here to see them express their appreciation (posted on X last week).

Hurricane news 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

How important is internet access to us all for communication, news, banking, etc.--and it was lost for a while in hard-hit regions. Starlink is internet access operated by SpaceX, a "crucial lifeline in parts of southern Appalachia that were devastated by Hurricane Helene." It was donated and delivered freely to hundreds of survivors as you may have seen in yesterday's videos. 

Satellite-powered, it works even in remote and devastated communities if there's a good view of the sky. Instructions for making it work are pretty basic: "Plug it in and point to sky." 

Another difference maker is Samaritan's Purse, a Christian international relief organization of 1600 employees run by the family of evangelist Billy Graham. "At our sites across North Carolina, we are doing tree work, mudding out homes, removing debris, and tarping roofs. Heavy equipment is being used to clear private driveways and private roads. In some areas, we are also offering water and potable water to the community."

 

Hurricane news 2

 (cont'd from yesterday's post)

If you aren't seeing local videos of hurricane relief on your own X account, I'd like to show you some of what I've seen on mine:

* volunteers from New York NYPD and FDNY bring supplies

* working through the night to create bridges from fallen trees and telephone poles

* citizens organizing recovery without FEMA or any government help, helicopter pilots rescuing victims while paying for their own gasoline

* team finds a woman living alone has no food, no water, no power, no transport

* completed 67 helicopter missions (as of Oct 6) bringing fuel, generators, Starlink, more

Ordinary, regular, everyday Americans mobilize their bike clubs, churches, friends, etc., to come to the mountains of western North Carolina and bring help.

 

(cont'd tomorrow, groups making a difference)

Hurricane news

We have relatives in western North Carolina, where it's been twelve days since Hurricane Helene brought destructive flooding. Unable to reach them by phone, we finally got an email reply eight days later. They had no electricity for five days and "internet is sketchy." A friend brought them a camp stove and some water.

My X (Twitter) account is full of residents in the region (who have more internet access) reporting on their roads and bridges destroyed, neighbors' homes damaged, local details. They show supplies that private individuals and churches brought in. They show private helicopter pilots looking for survivors. They often claim that they have not seen help from FEMA, and even that FEMA hindered rescuers and seized supplies.

CBS and other legacy media seem like the voice of the government. Their "fact-checker" reports simply that all those claims are false and FEMA is good: categorically the opposite of reports on the ground, those videos submitted by locals and private rescuers. 

How hard is it to learn what's going on in the US now? People on site report what they see, and media call it "damaging disinformation."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Israel hated

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Yesterday's young, black Gen Z writer says this: "I implore my generation to . .  . [b]e a rebel and start a family. Be a rebel and love America."

More evidence that America is not hated but actually loved by the rest of the world comes from this writer who spent three years walking around the world, meeting ordinary people. 

Here's a man who was taught to hate another country-- but eventually trained himself out of it.

 

from The Free Press

 

US not hated 1

Is America hated in the rest of the world? Maybe you've heard that somewhere. It depends on where you get your information, what news sources you read, whether you still listen to legacy media. But is it true? 

Not according to this main-stream media journalist who's been traveling the U.S. and Europe to promote his new book. He found that people tend to like Western/American values better than those of China, Russia, Iran by a significant margin.

Unfortunately, it's worse in the U.S. itself: "The loss of confidence among Americans in their own country’s vitality, strength and virtue is profoundly worrying." Yes, that's a bad trend (photo). Why is it happening?

This Gen Z writer says his generation is being taught to hate America at school. Crazy as that is, it's "been cultivated by the Left-wing indoctrination . . at every educational and cultural institution in America. . . groomed to be disgusted by tradition and ashamed of our identity as Americans."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Soul

Materialists deny life after death and the non-physical spirit of a human being, like they deny God's existence. But some may be becoming more open to believing in the human soul.

That's because evidence shows that consciousness may continue even after death.

A study was done on 567 men and women whose heart stopped in hospital and who were resuscitated by CPR.  Some survived.

"Survivors reported having unique lucid experiences, including a perception of separation from the body, observing events without pain or distress, and a meaningful evaluation of life, including of their actions, intentions, and thoughts toward others." They didn't seem to be hallucinating or dreaming.

As an ER doctor says, the conscious mind "continues even when the brain does not seem to be functioning. Which raises the question that consciousness may be a separate entity from the brain. It’s not magical. It’s just not discovered yet. But it doesn’t die."

Your mind is not the same as your physical brain, and medical science is finding evidence for that. As the Bible (image) teaches, your soul or spirit has a supernatural destiny.

 

from Mind Matters

Can ULA compete?

United Launch Alliance, formed by Boeing and Lockheed Martin back in 2006, is America's "most experienced" launch service. But after enjoying their cash-cow of NASA business for many years, they now struggle to keep up.

Their one reusable rocket, Vulcan, finally flew for the first time this year. For comparison, SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets have safely landed back on Earth since 2015. If you don't have to build a brand new rocket for every launch, it saves a lot of money.

ULA can't compete with young private space companies in cost. A vice president of engineering said that in a lecture and soon resigned--or was fired by his boss. Tory Bruno, the CEO, says they can so compete and will prove it. Some doubt it. A sale of the company is being negotiated.

Too risky

ULA launched two astronauts to the International Space Station on Boeing's low-earth-orbit Starliner spacecraft in June, but problems popped up on the way. After analyzing everything, NASA decided that the craft no longer met their standards for human safety. There was "some tension in the room" when that decision was made.

So Starliner came back to Earth empty, leaving Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams there. Instead of a short stay of nine days, they will remain in place until February of 2025.  

SpaceX already had a mission scheduled to carry four additional astronauts to the ISS on its Dragon spacecraft in September. It launched last Saturday, but with a reduced crew of only two. The empty seats will be taken by the stranded astronauts when this mission (Crew-9) comes home in February.

Looks like everybody at the ISS was glad to see the crew that arrived via Dragon on Sunday.

WFH research

At yesterday's cafe business, it's not possible to do the job unless you come to the site. But a few work-from-home (WFH) days is possible for a lot of people with 2-3 days at the office. That's how it seems to have settled out now, post-COVID (chart).

 Management usually prefers on-site presence, workers like to be home or remote (chart).