The Party of Death and Stupid Keeps on Rolling

The Attorney General of Missouri has demanded that health departments and schools stop all measures to fight the spread of COVID-19. In essence, the AG has ordered that all eforts to combat the spread of any infectious desease be stopped in his state.

At this point, I am becoming numb to the idiocy of the Party of *rump. They have become a party of ideological idiots. Demanding that scienctific knowledge bow down to political ideology has worked oh, so well in the past (/sarc). Trumpist beliefs that epidemiology is a liberal science is as stupid as "Marxist biology" or "Aryan physics".

But hey, if you believe that COVID-19 is a Chinese plot, that the vaccine has microchips in it, the vaccine will make you sterile or any of the other moronic conspoiracy theories peddled by public imbeciles, such as this clown, or you won't get vaccinated because the acolytes of the Orange Turdfest say so, well, you do you. I hope that you don't spead it to those you know who are immunocompromised or who are too young to be vaccinated, but that shit's on you. I feel bad for the doctors and nurses coping with ICUs full of clueless clowns who had refused to be vaccinated, but again, that's completely on you. Every time there is another surge of COVID infections, this is on you. Sure, there are rare side effects, but nobody's growing third arms, third eyes, huge ball-sacs or any of that shit. Hundred of millions of people have been vaccinated; if there were massive side effects, they'd be known. But if you feel like risking dying for your idiocy, you be you.

When it comes to the willfully unvaccinated:

Gee. Some Cops Are Murderous, Racist Bastards

A number of cops in Torrance, CA are racist bastards, as proven by extensive text messages. Quite a few people accused of crimes are getting off because those cops have become worthless as witnesses.

I doubt very much if this attitude is limited to just one city.

(H/T)

So, Michelin Stars Mean Nothing

Probably the most brutal restaurant review, ever, was posted a few days ago. This is how the "meal" began:

We headed to the restaurant with high hopes – eight of us in total, led into a cement cell of a room, Drake pumping through invisible speakers. It was sweltering hot, and no other customers were present. The décor had the of chicness of an underground bunker where one would expect to be interrogated for the disappearance of an ambassador’s child.

It went downhill from there. Foodies should read it, and if there was a 24-hour Denny's in that town, they'd have run to it.

Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico...

WARNING! — GRAPHIC! At least 5 killed in targeted hit outside restaurant in Cidra, Puerto Rico.

H/t: @UrgentNews911 pic.twitter.com/Wrg7dCIKEK

— T. Grant Benson  (@GrantB911) December 10, 2021

I'm guessing that if five people got whacked in a drive-by that turned into a massacre by gunmen wielding machine guns anywhere in the English-speaking parts of the United States, that this would have been a leading news story everywhere. But either because they speak Spanish there, or Puerto Rico is a territory, there was virtually no coverage of the story. (The shooting happened on December 7th.)

Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise

Da Blues!

Triple Vengeance

The director corrupted the last one, as you can see if you watch it to the conclusion

Mayfield, KY

Post-tornado drone footage:

All that's missing is smoke from the fires caused by exploding bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe.

Why is Peter Navarro Carrying Water for Vladimir Putin?

“With respect to the issue of Ukraine, I think a little history at least is useful. The Soviet Union back before Russia when it broke up contained all of Ukraine including Crimea. The country itself is not really a country because if you look at it, the western part of it, like it’s literally split in half, those are all Russian speakers,” Navarro said.

Navarro corrected himself, at least on the language issue. “Excuse me, the eastern part is all Russian speakers. The western part are all Ukrainian speakers. And it’s a country kind of–that’s been kind of at war with itself with their election system.”

Navarro isn't the only one. Tucker Carlson has been spewing Putin's propaganda on the Ukraine issue.

One can only assume that Carlson would have been in the cheerings section when Germany invaded the Sudentenand in 1938 to "protect" the German-speakers there. Ukraine poses no security threat to Russia, but Putin says it does and fellow-travelers like Carlson, Navarro and, presumably, the Fat Führer of Mar-a-Lago.  Clearly, they would have been on the side of the slavery-preservationists in 1861. Maybe they'd approve of reinstating the Kingdom of Prussia.

Funny. I can remember a time when no self-respecting right-wing commentator would have willingly aligned themselves with Russia. It would have been anathema for anyone on the Right to suggest that the nations that the Russians/Soviets previously conquered and who gained their independece after the collapse of the Soviet Union should be now conquered and incorporated into a "greater" Russia. I can remember when no true conservative would have chosen Russia's side on anything.

But here we are.

Where does it stop? Do Carlson, Navarro and the other Putinites think that Russia should invade Kazakstan, Estonia and the other former Soviet republics? Maybe they would approve of Russia annexing Finland and half of Sweden, or taking back Alaska and the coast of the Pacific northwest. If they think that Putin is correct to try to reconquer Ukraine, one might assume that they approve of the Mexican reconquista movement.

One of the greatest advancements in the last century has been a renunciation of the Law of Conquest. The general rule has been that national boundaries, however imperfect, are to be respected by all nations that regard themselves as being civilized. It has helped to bring a little bit of peace to the world.

That the Russians are now contemplating invading and annexing its neighbor(s) speaks volumes about the trustworthiness of the Russian state. That there are American conservatives who approve of what Russia is contemplating doing speaks loudly about the moral degradation and corruption of the Right.

Caturday

Holiday cat:

Because It's Friday

Ex-C&O 1309

1309 is a Mallet, a compound locomotive; the steam from the rear cylinders exhausts to the front cylinders in normal operation. Mallets were heavy freight locomotivesand, as such, were usually rather slow in speed.

Observe where the connecting rods are coupled to the wheels. They are near the rim, in order to exert the most torque on the wheels and axles. Locomotives that were built for speed have their connecting rods fitted very close to the axle.

You can also see that the front set of cylinders are much larger, because they are working with lower-pressure steam. Simple articulated locomotives, like the Big Boy, had steam from the boiler going to all cylinders.

There was a lot of experimentation with compound-cylinder lcomotives from around 1880 through 1930. There were locomotives that had both a high-pressure and a low-pressure cylinder driving a sngle crosshead (the driving rod connected the crosshead to the main driving wheel and the connecting rods). They suppposedly achieved quite a fuel savings, but at the cost of higher maintenance and parts wear (the forces could never seem to be balanced on the crossheads).

Superheated steam proved to be a better solution. Compund locomotives disappeared from all but the mountain coal-hauling railroads, like the Norfolk & Western and the Chesapeake & Ohio, where the ability to pull heavy loads uphill at lower speeds was prized. On those two roads, the Mallets served to the end of the steam era.