Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Shooter In New Zealand

7 Comments

An analysis.

The media wasted no time in blaming Trump, but I blame them, for at least two reasons:

First, while the shooter didn’t think that Trump was a great leader, he did admire him “a symbol of renewed white identity.” Why would he do that? Because that is how the media repeatedly portrays him, reality aside.

Second, in their continual calls for gun control, they encouraged him to think that his act would be the straw that finally broke the back, and allow them to finally implement it, resulting in the new American civil war that he claims to seek.

Free tip to Fox News, and conservatives. Start pushing the narrative that it’s the media’s fault, not Trump’s. Put them on the defensive for once.

And of course, this was big news, because one of their favorite victim groups, Muslims, were the target. Let’s see how much play they give the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria, or the shooting in Utrecht. By Muslims.

[Update a few minutes later]

This seems related: America’s race problems are mostly caused by the soft bigotry of guilty white virtue-signaling leftists (who falsely call themselves “liberals”).

[Update a while later]

Thoughts on the “elites” in the last link from Ann Althouse.

Business, Economics, Technology and Society

The Midwest Flooding

18 Comments

Every year that this happens, I think about how nice it would be to have pipelines (or if the Boring Company works out, tunnels) into which the excess water from the Red, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers could be put, and pumped up the hill and over South Pass to the Green River, to “green” up the Colorado watershed and American southwest. You could have feeder lines from Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakotas. With the fracking, there’s plenty of energy up there to run the pumps. You could do the same thing in the southern section from Texas flooding across New Mexico, but most of that water would flow south to Mexico. Though I can’t manage they’d mind; it could compensate for what they no longer get from the Colorado.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

The New Zealand Massacre

6 Comments

I see that the media and the Left (but I repeat myself) wasted no time in blaming Trump for it, because his name appeared in the manifesto. But we also see the left eating its own, with the attack on Chelsea Clinton. But maybe they have a point.

[Update a while later]

Radicalization and degeneration:

It seems clear to me that it in no way requires one to endorse Tarrant’s vile crimes to recognize that like splitting the atom, the unwinding of Western civilization is going to release some extreme energies. It already is.

Yes. And more thoughts, from Richard Fernandez, on the tribal score settling that has infected the West.

[Update a while later]

From the last link:

The old devils are on the loose and the problem is what to do now. One option is to deliver even higher doses of political correctness and demographic replacement. But perhaps the absolute worst thing politicians can do is respond by collecting guns, imposing hate speech restrictions, and announcing open borders.  In the current atmosphere of distrust toward authority, such actions can destroy the only asset a state faced with ethnic conflict has: the public belief that it is above the fray and won’t sell anyone out. That quantity can itself run out and therein lies the danger.

And that was the gunman’s stated goal in his manifesto: To drain the public of trust in its own government, and set off a civil war.

Business, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

The Space-Pork Empire

22 Comments

Strikes back:

SLS is still running behind schedule. It is very likely it will not be ready for that June 2020 launch. In a few weeks Bridenstine’s review will come out, and it is likely going to show that a combination of private rockets can do the job, on time and for less money. Faced with further SLS delays, Bridenstine will likely have the political clout to enable him to make the switch, especially because he clearly intends to also continue his public and strong support for SLS for later launches. Such statements will act to placate these naysayers

Get that first Orion launch up using private rockets however and game will shift. It will then become very obvious that SLS is unneeded, and too expensive. While the corrupt political class in Washington will likely continue pouring taxpayer money into this black hole for years to come, the political winds will steadily begin shifting against it. And this shift will become even more evident should SpaceX succeed in getting its Starship/Super Heavy rocket operational in the next few years. At that point even Washington lawmakers will have to bow to reality and shut SLS down.

What will they then do? Don’t fool yourself. The pork and corruption will not cease, as long as these people remain in power. They will find a new boondoggle they can fund that will use these cheaper private rockets. Gateway immediately comes to mind. It won’t get us back to the Moon, but it will give lawmakers a big space project which will allow them to funnel money to their big old space contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

I wonder if part of this is Bridenstine trying to light a fire under Boeing and Marshall to get SLS flying sooner?

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!