Archive for 2020

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Save Us from Another Terrible Debate, Joe Rogan.

Insanity Wrap needs to know: What’s better than Chris Wallace moderating a presidential debate?

Answer: Literally anything up to and including stubbed toes, speed traps, and hemorrhagic fevers.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

  • Andrew Cuomo wants to stick you with his tab.
  • Presidential debate inspires dreams of moving to Canada
  • The Brave Sir Biden Supercut

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

BUFF GETTING A DRINK: A B-52 flies below a KC-135 tanker after refueling above the Mediterranean Sea. You can see the tanker’s fuel probe has not disengaged. The B-52 is flying a Bomber Task Force Europe mission. Photo taken Sept. 16, 2020. Here’s a photo from 2017 of a B-52 being serviced at Minot AFB, North Dakota, just as a storm strikes. Superb lightning display in the background. A fine photo taken by a Senior Airman. This B-52 photo from 2019 is a classic — a B-52 taken out of service in 2008 and stored at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona is being returned to service to replace a B-52 lost in 2016. This StrategyPage Procurement update from May 2019 mentions the plane and discusses the Aerospace Maintenance and Recovery Center, also known as the “boneyard,” at Davis-Monthan. Good background on the AMARC.

WE’RE PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER: AC/DC Confirm Reunion, ‘Pwr Up’ Album on the Way. “After several days of online hints and teasers, Australian high-volume rockers AC/DC have confirmed their return to active duty by announcing that veteran singer Brian Johnson, drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Cliff Williams have rejoined the band after several years’ absence. A new photo of the band finds them looking older but energized, with lead guitarist Angus Young, now 65, still rocking the schoolboy outfit.”

BROOKINGS FELLOW WANTS TRUMP’S DEBATE MIKE TURNED OFF: Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Elaine Kamarck suggests the moderator of the next Trump-Biden debate be allowed to turn off the mike whenever one of the two combatants speaks out of turn.

It’s hard not to think what Kamarck really wants is to turn off Trump’s mike. Note the difference in how she ascribes responsibility, first Trump, then Biden:

“For 90 minutes President Trump repeatedly interrupted former Vice President Joe Biden when it was his turn to speak.”

“Biden was also into the game, frequently talking over Trump. He had no other choice.”

And why did Biden have no other choice? It was Trumps’ fault, of course:

“To stand back would be to appear old, weak and confused — the ‘sleepy Joe’ that Trump wants him to be. And so, for a painfully long 90 minutes we were subjected to a debate that was incoherent.”

So, in the typical contemporary liberal/progressive/socialist/Marxist fashion, the solution is to empower somebody to silence somebody else.

WE SHALL TURN THE CORNER, IF WE CAN ONLY FIND IT: Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is ‘Very Likely to Work,’ Studies Suggest. “We’re really focused on how you can get to fusion power as quickly as possible.”

Well, that’s a nice departure: “This ambitious timetable is far faster than that of the world’s largest fusion-power project, a multinational effort in Southern France called ITER, for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. That reactor has been under construction since 2013 and, although it is not designed to generate electricity, is expected to produce a fusion reaction by 2035.”