Rough weekend...

Went to work Sunday Morning like normal and around Lunchtime I discovered that I have a kidneystone....*Ouch*    So needless to say Monday Music didn't happen....I will post Monday
 Music tomorrow...

   I did take this cool pic Saturday evening...

Hillary 2020? Yes it is possible...

The rumblings that the Clinton machine is gearing up for another run, I guess to the Clintons...the 3rd time is the charm....

I got this from "Legal Insurrection"

Why stick to someone who couldn’t beat Donald Trump?

Failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may run for a third time, according to aide Philippe Reines.
The question is, do the Democrats want her? Hillary has done her best to stay in the limelight, inserting herself into the narrative, giving speeches and interviews, and going on a 13 city tour with her husband President Bill Clinton.
Yet her approval rating remains low and some of her comments have had the left moaning and groaning.

Her longtime aide Reines cannot believe that his boss does not have a spot on lists for possible 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. From Politico:

“It’s curious why Hillary Clinton’s name isn’t in the mix—either conversationally or in formal polling—as a 2020 candidate,” said Philippe Reines, her longtime gatekeeper in the Senate and at the State Department. “She’s younger than Donald Trump by a year. She’s younger than Joe Biden by four years. Is it that she’s run before? This would be Bernie Sanders’ second time, and Biden’s third time. Is it lack of support? She had 65 million people vote for her.”
Even if half of those people would no longer support Clinton in another election, Reines argued, “there’s no one in the Democratic Party who has anywhere near a base of 32 million people. That’s multiples of what a Sanders or a Warren have.”
Reines said his biggest fear for the Democratic Party is that they realize, only in hindsight, that dismissing Clinton for the errors she made in 2016 was a mistake.
“Chalking the loss up to her being a failed candidate is an oversimplification,” Reines said. “She is smarter than most, tougher than most, she could raise money easier than most, and it was an absolute fight to the death.”

Does that mean she will run in 2020? Reines told Politico that the possibility is “somewhere between highly unlikely and zero, but it’s not zero.”
Some Democrats agree the party shouldn’t brush aside Hillary since she won the popular vote. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum believes the choice has “an element of sexism” and people have “frustration that she lost what people perceive as the unloseable election and an element of Clinton fatigue.”
Others wonder why she should be punished and silenced for losing an election compared to others like John Kerry and Bernie Sanders.
Gee, maybe it’s because SHE LOST TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP?! I repeat myself: She lost to DONALD TRUMP. She didn’t lose to a polished veteran politician. She lost to DONALD TRUMP. Not only did she lose to Donald Trump, but she lost to him by a large margin in the electoral college.
It also doesn’t help that Hillary has not been a graceful loser. She has shown bitterness and disdain for Americans who had the nerve not to vote for her. She has not taken responsibility for her loss or admitted the mistakes she made (Wisconsin? MICHIGAN?). The fact that her campaign was all about her. “I’m With Her” isn’t exactly inspiring while Trump campaigned on ways to Make America Great Again.
A Gallup poll from September showed that Hillary’s favorable rating remains at an all-time low at 36%.

Hillary shot herself in the foot last weekend when she said no abuse of power happened when her husband, at the time the most powerful man on the planet, had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky. She still thinks Bill was right not to resign.

Don’t forget that four other women has accused Bill of sexual assault while Juanita Broaddrick has accused him of raping her. Throughout the last few decades, Hillary has trashed and tried to damage these women. Interesting coming from a woman who said sexual assault victims deserve to be heard and believed.
These remarks caused outrage from the left with publications like ThinkProgress, The Guardian, and Vanity Fair putting out articles that criticized her “tone-deaf” comments.

Hillary and Bill’s 13 city tour has tickets on sale between $120 and $370, but instead of doing something thoughtful with the profits, the Clintons are keeping it. Hillary could use them as a way to clean up her name, but it looks like she won’t.
Let’s not forget Hillary’s comments about how civility cannot exist until the Democrats have power again. I may not be former First Lady Michelle Obama’s fan, but I loved the tongue lashing she gave Hillary on the Today show:

“Fear is not — it’s not a proper motivator. Hope wins out,” Obama said. “And if you think about how you want your kids to be raised, how you want them to think about life and their opportunities, do you want them afraid of their neighbors? Do you want them angry? Do you want them vengeful?”
“We want them to grow up with promise and hope,” Obama added. “And we can’t model something different if we want them to be better than that.”

Hillary’s political aspirations are over. It has nothing to do with sexism. It has everything to do with the fact that she’s a horrible person who couldn’t beat Donald Trump.

   The Cartoons are compliments of my stash on my computer, I have quite a selection of Hillary cartoons.

Unusual Airplane...The Rutan Boomerang

I saw this weird airplane on a facebook post and I decided to "Google" it and it was legit, it is an actual airplane and it flies and has some impressive specs especially for a "General Aviation" airplane.   I pulled the specs from the Company website.

Design

“The Boomerang is a new high performance pressurized 5 place light twin intended for personal transportation. Its basic goals were to provide optimum performance from two turbocharged 200 hp Lycoming reciprocating powerplants. Probably one of the most difficult tasks faced in the development of this aircraft was explaining why I would design a configuration that is asymmetric.  In fact, an early comment as the aircraft arrived at the Experimental Aircraft Association International Air Show at Oshkosh, Wisconsin this year, was from a fellow who ran up and remarked, “What in the hell were you smokin’ when you laid that one out?”  

– Burt Rutan (1996)

In trying to explain how Burt Rutan developed the idea of the Boomerang, he used a step-by-step comparison of a “traditional” twin-engine aircraft (Beech Baron BE58) and his design.

Step-by-Step Comparison : Baron vs. Boomerang

Baseline Baron 58P

Span = 37.8 ft. Wing area = 188 sq.ft. Stab area = 56 sq.ft Vert Area = 24.4 sq.ft. Total BHP = 650 Empty Weight = 4018 lb Useful Load = 2222 lb Max Fuel = 1140 lb Gross Weight = 6240 lb Stall = 78 kt Cruise (75% 20kft) = 224 kt Range (75% 20kft) = 975 nm

Left engine moved outboard to improve symmetry at low speeds and to reduce cabin noise.

 

Both engines moved inboard to reduce MCS. Right engine moved forward to clear fuselage. Left engine moved aft to balance.

Wing skewed to support engines and to reduce left engine interference.

Composite construction allows smaller, higher aspect ratio wing. but configuration is now nose-heavy, thus left wing is swept forward. This helps, but configuration is still nose-heavy.

The weight savings allows smaller engines and tail area can be reduced.

Higher aspect ratio tail flutter problem is fixed with nacelle boom. This allows additional baggage room in boom.

Right engine is moved to the fuselage to reduce weight, cost and drag. Lateral balance is restored by moving entire wing to the left. MCS is now well below stall.

Left engine is moved outboard to reduce cabin noise and to eliminate prop interference. Entire wing is moved left to restore lateral balance.

Twin small vertical tails improve low speed handling, reduce weight and allow low-drag pressure-recovery aft fuselage.

Continue evolution

• Round fuselage, increased room.
• Laminar flow flying surfaces.
• Higher wing loading.
• Aspect Ratio to 13.2.
• Full-span camber control for aileron/flap/wing optimization

Baron 58P	Boomerang
3.8psi cabin	4.6psi cabin
6 seats	5 seats or 4 seats+1 bed
3% more span	15% wider cabin
84% more wing area	20% longer cabin
65% more tail area	92% more aspect ratio
59% more engine power	10% higher stall speed
62% more empty weight	45% more climb rate
13% more fuel	41 kt higher cruise speed
45% more gross weight	56% more range at 75%
	92% more max range
	Immune from MCS accidents Technical Specifications This table summarizes the performance and technical specifications of the Boomerang: Engines Lycoming TIO-360A1B (200 hp) RHS Lycoming TIO-360C1A6D (210 hp) LHS Seating 5 (includes pilot) Empty Weight 2370 Lbs Max Fuel 1026 Lbs Max Cabin Payload 1000 lb Payload at Max Fuel 865 lb Max Gross Weight 4242 lb Wing Span 36.7 ft Wing Area 101.7 ft² Length 30.6 ft Aspect Ratio 13.2 Vmax 283 knots true (326 mph) at 18,000 ft Max Cruise At 22,000 ft and 75% power:  264 kts/304 mph at 1500 nm range Economy Cruise At 24,000 ft and 50% power:  210 knots/242 mph at 2100 nm range (Range includes Takeoff, Climb and 45 min reserve) Max Climb 1900 fpm (2900 fpm at 2800 lb) Stall Speed 88 knots (at 4200 lb) or 73 knots (at 2800 lb) Pressurization To 7000 ft at 22,000 ft altitude Gear Electric retract Miscellaneous Full-span aileron reflex Download PDF  The Cockpit is totally computerized with LCD screens allowing for multiple selection of functions from pneumatic, hydraulic, fuel management,engine management  passenger comfort and many other selections plus required analog gauges. To see more, check HERE

How to break through a vehicular roadblock and other musings...and the democrat call for more violence...

First off, we had the The senator from the peoples republic of Massachusetts release her DNA results..after being taunted by President Trump after she has touted her "Native American" ancestry and used that for political gains...well the results were surprising....for her and her fans...

The resulting Twitter meltdown after the results were very entertaining...Only Donald Trump could have engineered such a debacle ...for the Democrats...and their penchant for rich white liberals claiming "Victimhood" status with some marginalized group.....

The Resulting Meme's have been all over the internet..

And the Cherry on the whole circus for us conservatives has been the spokesman for the Cherokee Nation commented that "It is disingenuous for someone to claim tribe status when they have no basis, and it is an insult to those that have fought for that distinction.  "     And I have heard that she is having problems in her senate race, apparently even the people in the peoples republic has issues with their politicians shamelessly lying....like a cheap rug. 

Or an Indian rug.....

I saw this on "The Art of Manliness" and they had an article about getting past a roadblock....and it is a very good article, I have used stuff from them in the past because they bring up what I call "Old school knowledge" stuff that isn't so common now.  and especially for those that live in the cities, especially those cities that are chock full of "activist" like BLM and Antifa and their penchant for blocking traffic, usually with their bodies, but I can see them using old cars and the political structure supporting their goals especially like Portland where the Police are told to stand down and you will be on your own with no support and you really don't want to get stuck, and get pulled out of the car and get "Reginald Denny's  "

Because of what is going on now with the various democrat politicians calling for violence against their political opponents and their supporters.

.I recall something like 594 attacks against Trump supporters by assorted leftist groups..

    You have had Maxine Waters call for attacks against people that support Trump, we have had people that support the President run out of restaurants by the harpies of the left.  And this is continuing....when the democrats lose in 2018 and I believe this likely the resulting temper tantrum will continue through the 2020 election and when President Trump wins and I believe this also likely especially when the economy is doing well people will vote with their wallets except for the perennial students, professors and other leftist that don't work for a living.

This is the article I saw on the "Art of Manliness"

How to Ram Through a Vehicular Roadblock

You’re cruising down a narrow road when you see two cars parked across it, blocking your path. It seems to be some kind of checkpoint or barricade. What should you do?
If it’s an official police or military checkpoint, you better stop. Despite what you see in movies, blowing through a police blockade is not a sound strategy: you can kill an officer, get shot yourself, and even if you get through, the authorities will be after you like white on rice, inevitably nabbing you in the high-speed chase that follows (if you don’t end it yourself by crashing).
But what if the blockade isn’t an official one? You’re in a war-torn foreign land and are about to be stopped by insurgents, or it’s a trap set up by carjackers, or you’re living in a Mad Max-esque dystopian future where some baby-eating cannibals see your car as a can full of tasty sardines? Well, then it might be worth ramming through the obstructing vehicles and continuing on your way.
Ramming a vehicular barricade is very dangerous, and should only be employed as a last resort — when there’s no other means of escape or alternative routes of navigation, and when breaching and stopping carry about equal chances of death. In such a situation, here’s how to most effectively carry out this defensive driving maneuver.

Picking an Ideal Ramming Vehicle

When it comes to the best kind of car for ramming through a blockade, not all vehicles are created equal. You want to think both about its frame type and its air bags.
Vehicle frame. Vehicles are basically built with two types of frames: body-on-frame and unibody.
With the body-on-frame build, the vehicle starts as a separate frame to which the body is attached. With a unibody car, the frame and body are integrated together. A body-on-frame chassis is made with heavier metals, while a unibody is made with lighter weight alloys.

In a unibody car (top), the frame and body are all one structure; in a body-on-frame vehicle (bottom), the body goes on top of a separate frame.

A unibody vehicle is statistically safer than the body-on-frame type because in the event of an accident, the stresses are evenly distributed throughout the vehicle, which is actually designed to crumple, even in a minor crash, in way that redirects the forces away from the passenger cabin.
But the reason they’re safer in a normal accident scenario also makes them less effective in a ramming situation. The key to an effective ramming is to hit a hard part of your car against a hard part of the obstructing car; this works better than a hard part of one hitting a soft part — like a crumple zone — of the other. You want the energy from the contact to move/bounce the obstructing car out of the way, rather than being absorbed.
A body-on-frame vehicle provides this desirable rigidity because the chassis is made with high-strength steel frame rails that run the entire length of the vehicle. Rather than being distributed throughout the body, contact forces will be concentrated in the frame, making for better bumping.
Almost all vehicles these days are made with unibody frames except trucks and a few heavy-duty SUVs. While a unibody car is capable of ramming, a body-on-frame truck will have tactical advantages in this (and in off-road capabilities as well).
Air bags. You should also keep air bags in mind in a ramming situation. Below we’ll talk about how to minimize the chance of the air bag being deployed, but it can certainly still happen when you’re hitting another vehicle. Getting smacked in the face with an air bag when you’re trying to make an already dangerous maneuver is obviously highly undesirable; it would not only be a painful, view-obscuring distraction, but the release of an air bag can also trigger the automatic shutoff of your fuel pump.
For tactical purposes, you might choose a vehicle that’s too old to have an airbag, or deactivate the air bag (something you’d have to do yourself, as you’re required to request authorization from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association to have a mechanic install an on/off switch for you).  

Getting Ready to Ram

Remember, ramming through a vehicular blockade is a maneuver of last resort. As you approach a checkpoint/roadblock, assess whether or not there’s an alternative way to avoid it. Can you go around it? Throw the car in reverse and back away?
If there’s no other way through, and death awaits if you stop, then it’s time to ram the car(s) blocking your path.
Line up so that the frame rail of your vehicle will hit the wheel axle of the obstructing vehicle. Remember that you’re going to aim to hit a hard part of your vehicle, to a hard part of the other car. The best points of contact are the frame rail of your vehicle, and the wheel axle of the other.
The frame rail runs roughly parallel to your headlights; as that’s hard to see when you’re driving, use your outside leg (or that of your passenger if you’re hitting with the other side of the vehicle) as a reference. Even in a unibody car, this will still be the strongest spot to use; while it doesn’t have frame rails that run the whole length of the vehicle, there is a sub-frame in the front and the rear.
Aim for the rear wheel of the obstructing vehicle if possible. The trunk end of the car is lighter and easier to move than the engine-heavy front end.
If there are two cars, aim for the wheel axle of one of them. A blockade often exists of two cars parked end-to-end. In this case, aim to drive between them, hitting the wheel axle of one of them.
Drive at around 15-20 mph. Approaching slowly will make it appear you intend to stop at the checkpoint, and it’s also the ideal ramming speed. You need less speed and force to move a car than you’d think. By applying this “minimum effective dose,” you 1) minimize the damage to your own car (preserving its integrity will be key in making your getaway), and 2) minimize the chance of the air bag deploying.
If you have air bags in the car, slow down to 15 mph. Air bags are triggered from rapid deceleration, and the kind of impact/body damage which occurs when you hit another car going at least 16-28 mph. Going slow will hopefully prevent the air bag from deploying, as will continuing to accelerate (see below).
If you have to stop completely before the blockade, leave a car’s length between you and the obstructing vehicle. A car’s length to a car and a half’s length will give you sufficient distance to get up to speed before you hit the obstructing vehicle.
Put your car in a low gear, so you’ll have plenty of torque.
Look ahead. Don’t stare at the target of impact, but instead look ahead to see where there’s drivable terrain past the blockade and figure out where you’ll maneuver next. Maintain situational awareness!
Keep accelerating through the obstructing vehicle. Human nature will prompt you to take your foot off the accelerator or to pump the brakes as you hit the obstructing car. Do neither. Keep on accelerating as you hit the car and break on through.
Congratulations, you just rammed through a vehicular blockade. The baby-eaters will go hungry another day.

The Surrender of the Fortress of Singapore

This one still amazed, how a numerically superior force surrendered to a numerically inferior force, the humiliation of the British was complete.  I still had a hard time understanding this because the total ineptness of the British in fighting the Japanese.  I also remembered reading that the Flying Tigers tried to tell the British how to fight the Japanese successfully and they were blown off, the  British believed that the Japanese were an inferior foe and that the Japanese were crappy pilots and that their Zero fighters were unable to handle the British fighters.  The end results were the beginning of the end of the British Empire that didn't survive long after the War.

The Japanese celebrating with one of the captured British Cannons at Singapore

There are certain matters that must be adhered to if a battle is to be successful. These include a well-trained army and a good military strategy which can be the difference between success and failure. However, even when a military council drafts out an excellent plan, there are no guarantees in war. Things do not always play out the way they are expected to.
In the past, many military engagements have been quite organized. They have followed a conventional chain of events: one force meets the other, and one army wins either due to better positioning, military strategy, advanced weaponry, or the simple fact of numbers. Sometimes the battle ends at a stalemate where there is no victor. In contrast, there are battles which have been total disasters where one army is completely taken apart by the other.

One of the most bewildering to all was the Fall of Singapore in 1942 during the Second World War. The battle is now regarded as one of the greatest military defeats of the British Army, but it did not look poised to take such a humiliating turn when it began.

The British stronghold in Singapore was deemed to be an impregnable fortress. Their air and naval bases commissioned in 1939 and 1941 respectively were impressive and intimidating. The King George VI Graving Dock at the naval base was the largest dry dock in the world, scaling a full 300 meters to show the capacity of the British Malayan Navy.

The British Army in Malaya 1942. A launch returning from an island in Keppel Harbour at Singapore after Royal Engineers had set fire to oil storage tanks there, January 1942.

In March 1941, the British intercepted a message from Adolf Hitler to the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yosuke Matsuoka. In this message, the Nazi leader urged Matsuoka to attack the British stronghold in the Far East. Hitler stated that conquering the British in Malaya would be fundamental to the overthrow of England. There was little doubt as to the importance of Singapore to the British Empire, as their naval base was placed there to protect other Commonwealth assets.
However, the British were undaunted by this discovery and feared little for the British troops stationed at the island. He was confident that the fortress was impenetrable. The island had two major attack areas of concern. The first was the sea, but the British naval base there was more than capable of defending attacks from that direction. The second was miles and miles of jungle terrain which were assumed to be too arduous even to be considered by the Japanese.

A Type 97 Chi Ha Tank of the IJA 1st Tank Regiment During the invasion of Singapore, 1942.

Newspapers carried news of Churchill’s statement referring to the fortress as the “Gibraltar of the Far East.” There was an air of overconfidence around the British forces. The British considered the Japanese army to be weak, often referring to them as “Little Japs.” However, although the Japanese believed the myth of the British fortress being impregnable, they were nevertheless resolved to take it in their quest to conquer Southeast Asia and the East Indies.
Japan had few mineral resources and, as such, sought to acquire them by force from other regions. Japan had conquered most of China and Manchuria in the 1930s for the rich iron and coal resources which the Japanese then employed in producing steel. They had one important resource left to acquire and that was oil. As such, the East Indies, including Singapore, was a major target for them.

“Dispositions, 22nd Brigade, 10 p.m. 8th February” – the positions of Australian forces around Sarimbun, Singapore, 8 February 1942. The arrows indicate attacks by Japanese forces.

Despite the fortress’s naval capacity, it was seriously lacking in ships. Most of the British fleet had been committed to Europe and the Middle East where the British felt they were more needed. The Singapore campaign kicked off on December 8, 1941, when two Japanese convoys landed at Patani in Southern Thailand, Singora, and northern Malaya. By the end of that day, some 27,000 Japanese soldiers, well-trained in jungle combat and under the command of General Yamashita Tomoyuki, had secured their position in Malaya and captured the British air base at Kota Baharu.
After that, air bombings of Singapore began. Unaware that their air base had been captured, the Prince of Wales and the Repulse sailed for northern Malaya in an attempt to put off any Japanese ships that were yet to land. The ships were sunk on 10th December by Japanese aircraft.

One of Singapore’s 15-inch coastal defense guns elevated for firing.8 December 1941

 

The Japanese were very swift, employing bicycles as a means of movement across the jungle terrain. Using a combination of bicycles and collapsible boats, they outflanked and encircled the British army in North Malaya, cutting off their supply lines. The British army in the region was led by Lieutenant General Arthur Ernest Percival who was only promoted to this command position in April, so it was his first time in command of an army corps.

Procession in celebration of “Fall of Singapore” by Keijo(Seoul) citizen.

On January 31, 1942, the causeway at Johore Baharu which linked Malaya and Singapore was blown up by the Japanese, resulting in a fifty-meter gap. The battle that ended in the surrender of the British took place from 8th to 15th February, by which time half of Singapore was already occupied by the Japanese.
After a week of fighting, Percival was informed that ammunition and water would run out the following day. He thereafter agreed to surrender to the Japanese who insisted that Percival marched with the white flag of truce to negotiate the terms of surrender.

Lieutenant-General Arthur Ernest Percival, (right), led by a Japanese officer, walks under a flag of truce to negotiate the capitulation of Allied forces in Singapore, on February 15, 1942. It was the largest surrender of British-led forces in history.

The 36,000 Japanese troops had done what was thought by many as impossible: gained a decisive victory over the British Malayan Army, with 90 percent of the 90,000 men taken as prisoners of war. This defeat was a crushing blow to the British Empire, and one that signaled the start of the defection of Australia’s foreign policy away from the United Kingdom.

Yamashita (seated, center) thumps the table with his fist to emphasize his terms – unconditional surrender. Percival sits between his officers, his clenched hand to his mouth.

After the British surrender, the Australians began to turn to the United States for aid, no longer able to trust the British Army to protect them. Australia had sided with the British during the war and their Prime Minister at the time, John Curtin, told Churchill that Australia would regard the act of surrender as an inexcusable betrayal.   Also The British were reinforced by Australian Troops who landed and were almost immediately told to surrender and were marched to POW camps where they spent 3 years under hellish conditions