President Trump: Genius or Idiot?

So President Trump recently announced that he would be pulling our troops out of Syria, leaving those brave Kurds (insurgents who have no actual country) on their own.  Oh how people in the U.S. lost their minds!  Everybody had an opinion on What Would Happen Next!  The crux of many people’s complaint was that this would lead to a regeneration of ISIS.

Two weeks later…

Trump: We found and killed the head of ISIS.

Everybody: Oh no!  This will SURELY lead to a regeneration of ISIS!  His number two man will take over!

Two days later…

Trump: Oh, and we killed the number two ISIS guy as well.

After the first guy, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (the guy who they say actually started ISIS) was killed, President Trump made a speech and very graphically described how Baghdadi died – which was not as a hero or martyr, but as a cowardly dog, using three of his children as a shield and then blowing himself (and them) up with a bomb that he just coincidentally and conveniently happened to be, you know, wearing.  (It’s what all the well-dressed Muslim extremist/terrorists are wearing this Fall!)

Trump’s very clear message was: "America Is Back: Do not screw with us."  The Obama era of conciliation and kowtowing to Muslims is OVER.  Mess with us and we’ll sic the dogs of war on you.  Literally, as in this case.

Trump lulled everyone into a false sense of security, making everyone think he was a big dummy for pulling out of Syria.  Then he pulled out the Big Stick and killed Baghdadi as a parting shot.  And you know that whole scheme was planned out well in advance.  I mean, come one…putting together an “Op” like the one to get Baghdadi (and his Number Two man) must’ve taken a LOT of planning and coordination.

And so President Trump is either a tactical genius or a blithering idiot.  You decide.

Throwing Good Money After Bad?

One last thing on politics before I stop...

Apparently, it is common for those in government to use foreign countries to enrich themselves.  As the Trump-Ukraine debacle unfolds, we discover how money flows out of the country only to flow back in as "commissions" or "consulting fees" to those who set up the deals.  I am not even surprised by this.

I read an article on the Daily Caller website that listed all of the companies Hunter Biden formed with his buddy, Devon Archer.  It was quite complicated.  Together, they were working for foreign companies in both China and Ukraine.  The amount of money these two jokers amassed in various fees may never be tallied and known.

What is interesting to me is that there are absolute, undeniable financial ties between China and Ukraine.  I ask myself, "Why would China be interested in business in Ukraine?"  I suspect it's so people can keep money moving around so much that others lose track of it.

And no, I don't think these activities are limited to the Biden boy and Devon Archer.  What were the nationalities of the biggest foreign donors to the Clinton Foundation?  By their own admission: Ukraine.  Not Great Britain or any other source you might imagine.  Ukraine.

What's so goddam special about Ukraine?  And what does the "humanitarian" Clinton Foundation do for the people of Ukraine?

It's clear, at least to me, that the phony-baloney "consulting" jobs (like those give to Hunter Biden - and others), and "donations" by foreign nationals to organizations like the Clinton Foundation...it's all just a means of obtaining access.  

And maybe that's just how global politics works.  "We'll make sure your country gets $1 billion in aid, but you hire my people as 'consultants' and 'advisors' at $50,000 per month.  Got it?"  Money flows out; money flows in; the economic world keeps turning.  Unless there's some big scandal, nobody (surely not the American public) is any the wiser.

Vice President Bigmouth Joe Biden bragged...bragged! that he and President Obama were all set to withhold $1.8 billion in aid to Ukraine unless a particular General Prosecutor was fired and replaced.  Sure enough, the deed was done.  As was the loan.

My question: What happened to all that money?  I mean, we know that "some" of it came back into the U.S. in the form of consulting fees, bogus agency fees and kickbacks, but where did the rest go?  Does nobody care that the U.S. can simply give away a billion dollars or so to help the economy of some shithole ex-Russian country just so they don't side with Vladdy Putin?  Is this why our national debt is so high?  How much more money do we give away every year to other nations?  

And why do we keep doing it?

These Nutsy-Cuckoo Times

This is not a political blog, and I'm sure you do not come here for political discussion.  The reason I don’t like talking politics is twofold.  For one thing, I know very little about the subject.  Secondly, I don’t really care all that much.  But please indulge me for a moment while I comment on the shitstorm that our society is currently weathering, won't you? I promise I'll be brief, and then we'll be back to talking about flying and motorcycles.

My parents were staunch democrats.  They preached that the Democratic Party was for the working man, while the Republicans were for Big Business.  I didn’t think it through back then (what teenager ever thinks anything through?), but without big (and small) businesses there wouldn’t be any need for working men.  So it’s a symbiotic relationship, to be sure.

As a nascent union organizer in the 1990’s, I came to see that if we squeezed every last dime out of the company, we very well might find ourselves out of work.  Somehow, the contract we were negotiating had to be good for us and good for the company. 

So this whole current Ukraine Affair just leaves me disgusted.  OF COURSE, Joe Biden got his son Hunter appointed to the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings (the largest natural gas company in Ukraine).  Of course, he did!  And Biden wasn’t being totally honest when he said that he and Hunter never discussed Burisma.  Bullshit!  (Pardon my French.)  Hunter, who knew nothing about the natural gas industry, slid into a cushy, do-nothing job that netted him a pretty nice salary.  Nepotism?  Sure.  Unethical?  Oh yeah.  Illegal?  Maaayyyybee…but maybe not.

And then President Trump, in a now-famous phone call, asked the current president of Ukraine to look into this Biden/Burisma deal.  And then everything blew up.

I love the “everybody knows” theory.  Everybody knows that what Trump did was an impeachable offense.  Everybody, from the man on the street to some top people in government say that what President Trump did was wrong.  And maybe it was!  But was it illegal?  Was it an impeachable offense?  Hmm.  Maaayyyybeee.  “Everybody” may know the answer to that.  Me?  I don’t know.  Nor do I care.

I have three brilliant sisters. One is an archeologist and two are attorneys. Over the years, I have learned a lot from all three. Just oneof the things I’ve learned is that when it comes to the law, NOTHING is ever cut-and-dried. NOTHING is ever totally black-or-white. The 1995 O.J. Simpson trial surely taught us that. If you were alive and watching TV back then, you know as well as I do that O.J. got away with murder.
The people who hate the president and want him removed from office make their case very passionately. Trump is a bad man who’s gotta go! But Trump supporters are just as passionate in their defense of the manThis is not a political blog, and you probably do not come here for political discussion. The reason I don’t like talking politics is twofold. For one thing, I know very little about the subject. Secondly, I don’t really care all that much.

My parents were staunch democrats. They preached that the Democratic Party was for the working man, while the Republicans were for Big Business. I didn’t think it through back then (what teenager ever thinks anything through?), but without big businesses there wouldn’t be any need for working men. So it’s a symbiotic relationship, to be sure.

As a nascent union organizer in the 1990’s, I came to see that if we squeezed every last dime out of the company, we very well might find ourselves out of work. Somehow, the contract we were negotiating had to be good for us and good for the company.

So this whole current Ukraine Affair just leaves me disgusted. OF COURSE, Joe Biden got his son Hunter appointed to the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings (the largest natural gas company in Ukraine). Of course, he did! And Biden wasn’t being totally honest when he said that he and Hunter never discussed Burisma. Bullshit! (Pardon my French.) Hunter, who knew nothing about the natural gas industry, slid into a cushy, do-nothing job that netted him a pretty nice salary. Nepotism? Sure. Unethical? Oh yeah. Illegal? Maaayyyybee…

And then President Trump, in a now-famous phone call, asked the now-president of Ukraine to look into this Biden/Burisma deal. And then everything blew up.

I love the “everybody knows” theory. Everybody knows that what Trump did was an impeachable offense. Everybody, from the man on the street to the top people in government say that what President Trump did was wrong. And maybe it was! But was it illegal? Was it an impeachable offense? Hmm. Maaayyyybeee. “Everybody” may know the answer to that. Me? I don’t know. Nor do I care.

I have three brilliant sisters. One is an archeologist and two are attorneys. Over the years, I have learned a lot from all three. One thing I’ve learned is that when it comes to the law, NOTHING is ever cut-and-dried. NOTHING is ever totally black-or-white.

The people who hate the president and want him removed from office make their case very passionately. Trump is a bad man who’s gotta go! But Trump supporters are just as passionate in their defense of the man. Best president ever!

And again, ol’ Bob is caught in the middle, not knowing what to think, and feeling guilty for not having an opinion.

But here’s what I do think. We do not live in a strict democracy. The U.S. is a democratic republic. We elect people to run the country for us, because most of us: a) don’t want to; and b) are uniquely unqualified to do so. I’m more “b” than “a” but truth be told I go both ways there.

The trouble is that we don’t let our leaders do their jobs. We scrutinize, criticize and second-guess every damn decision they make. The end result is that we have an entire electorate that is afraid of saying or doing ANYTHING because they know they’ll get a ton of negative feedback or at least cause a Twitterstorm with which they’ll have to deal.

The only politician with any guts is Beto O’Rourke. He came out out and actually said it out loud: The left wants to confiscate our guns. Heh. I admire his honesty, but good luck getting ANY conservative to vote for you, Beto! You might as well quit the race now and not waste any more of your time or money.

Look, I say: If President Trump is doing a really bad job, then the American people will not vote for him in 2020. No, I don’t think he’ll destroy the country…or our democracy in the meantime. The republic has withstood some pretty crappy presidents; I doubt Trump is even the worst.

President Trump is…different. He’s different than any other president we’ve ever had. He says and does things that are simply…there is no other word for it…crazy. Other politicians hate him, but Trump connects with the American people on a level that is hard to explain or understand. His supporters overlook so much crap that it’s really hard to fathom.

The most insane and ironic thing I’ve heard from the Democrats was, ”We have to impeach Trump to keep him from getting re-elected.” If that doesn’t tell you something about these nutsy-cuckoo times we’re living in, I don’t know what else would.
Best president ever!

And again, ol’ Bob is caught in the middle, not knowing what to think, and feeling kind of guilty for not having an opinion.

But here’s what I think.  We do not live in a strict democracy.  The U.S. is a democratic republic.  We elect people to run the country for us, because most of us: a) don’t want to; and b) are uniquely unqualified to do so.  I’m more “b” than “a” but truth be told I go both ways there.

The trouble is that we don’t let our leaders do their jobs.  We scrutinize, criticize and second-guess every damn decision they make.  The end result is that we have an entire electorate that is afraid of saying or doing ANYTHING because they know they’ll get a ton of negative feedback or at least cause a Twitterstorm with which they’ll have to deal.  Except our president - he seems to be playing by a completely different set of rules.

The only politician with any guts is Beto O’Rourke.  He came right out and actually said it out loud: The left wants to confiscate our guns.  Heh.  I admire his honesty, but good luck getting ANY conservative to vote for you, Beto!  You might as well quit the race now and not waste any more of your time or money.

Look, I say: If President Trump is doing a really bad job, then the American people will not vote for him in 2020.  No, I don’t think he’ll destroy the country…or our democracy in the meantime.  In my life I've seen eleven presidents.  The republic has withstood some pretty crappy ones; I doubt Trump is even the worst.

President Trump is…different.  He’s different than any other president we’ve ever had.  He says and does things that are simply…there is no other word for it…crazy.  Other politicians hate him, but Trump connects with the American people on a level that is hard to explain or understand.  His supporters overlook so much crap that it’s really hard to believe.

The most insane and ironic thing I’ve heard from the Democrats was, ”We have to impeach Trump to keep him from getting re-elected.”  If that doesn’t tell you something about these nutsy-cuckoo times we’re living in, I don’t know what else would.

Wacky Automotive News, Part II

If I were to say the word, “Porsche,” your natural response would probably be, “911.” It is the iconic German sportscar, and has been since its introduction in 1963. It is sexy and fast, and many a teenage boy has lusted over it, dreaming about the day they might someday own one. Yes, including me.

Over the years, Porsche has built its reputation on high-performance. Their racing cars are legendary. Their street cars have always been powered by a sophisticated six-cylinder engine that traces its roots all the way back to the Volkswagen engine from which it was spawned. Today’s modern Porsche engines are highly advanced, of course, eons beyond their predecessors.

But things change.  As we look for a way to replace the internal combustion engine, everybody is scrambling to design and produce totally electric vehicles. 

In 1996, General Motors tried with their funny-looking EV-1. That didn’t work out for reasons that are both unclear and controversial. All of the EV-1’s were recalled and (supposedly) destroyed. After that, electric car progress was slow, hampered by battery technology that wasn’t improving as fast as people hoped.

In 2012, along came Tesla with the Model S, which is all-electric.  A boutique manufacturer of high-end vehicles, Tesla was seen as the “anti-GM.” Happily, the Model S was a pretty good design right off the bat. Battery life and the resultant range-before-charging were decent. But the scarcity of charging stations limited Tesla’s market to places like Los Angeles…bigger cities.

With Tesla’s success, we knew it would only be a matter of time until the major automakers woke up and joined the fray. In 2016, GM got back in the game with a model called the Bolt. Other automakers have committed to producing electric vehicles – including Volkswagen, which promises us a new version of the Microbus, which will be all-electric. (Tree-hugging hippies all over the world should rejoice.)

So along comes Porsche. They recently introduced an all-electric model called the Taycan (Turkish for “young, lively horse”). It is a low-slung, four-door car, unmistakably Porsche and is as drop-dead beautiful as you’d expect.

Porsche is bringing out two versions: the Taycan Turbo, and the Taycan Turbo S.

Say…what? Turbo?

When applied to a motor vehicle, the word “turbo” generally…usually means turbocharged. A turbocharger is a device fitted to a conventional internal-combustion engine to increase its power. The turbo uses hot exhaust gases to spin a tiny turbine wheel. This in turn spins another tiny turbine wheel, and this one is in the intake stream. This pressurizes the intake fuel/air mixture, which results in more power. You can take a little, weak engine, stick a turbocharger on it and make it have the power of a big engine. It’s like magic!

Confusingly, “turbo” can also be short for “turbine-powered” – usually an aircraft powered by turboshaft (i.e. “jet”) engines connected to a propeller. For instance, take the general aviation twin-engine airplane called the Aero Commander series. Over the years, various models of the plane have been powered by both piston and turboshaft engines. Externally, they look nearly identical to the untrained observer. The Commanders with the turboshaft engines are called “Turbo-Commanders.”  Which they shouldn't be.

The problem is that turbine-powered and turbocharged aircraft are very different and use vastly different fuel. A turbine engine uses jet fuel and cannot run on “avgas.” A turbocharged piston engine uses regular aviation gasoline (“avgas”) and cannot run on jet fuel. When landing to refuel, Aero Commander pilots have to be ever diligent that the refueling company puts in the right kind. It’s easy to make a mistake!  Accidents have happened.  (It is rumored that the historic B-17 that crashed recently in Connecticut may have been fueled with jet fuel.)

Sorry, I didn’t mean to go off on such a technical tangent just to explain the meaning of the word, “turbo” and how it is usually applied.

Okay, so the automotive world is laughing at Porsche for calling their all-electric car a “turbo” when it is clearly not turbocharged.

But Porsche is being clever. Very, very clever. The word turbo by itself has entered our general lexicon. It’s analogous to “hyper.” Like, ”Man, it’s hot in here. Put that air conditioner on turbo!” Or, "Man, my girlfriend was turbo angry with me for forgetting her birthday.” You get the idea. And yes, I’ve heard both of those expressions.

So Porsche appropriated the word “turbo” and applied it to their Taycan, even though the car does not have a conventional gas engine and is definitely not turbocharged. Heh. But it conveys the idea that the car is fast, no? You’ve got to give the marketing guys at Porsche credit. I think it’s both hilarious and smart.

I still want one - maybe even more!