Miscellaneous

In a sane world, this Mississippi councilman would be arrested and charged with inciting a riot. What is achieved by not arresting? We want to signal that threats like this are OK? That the behavior is endorsed by the society? What exactly?

This the exact behavior we see in the French suburbs: The heat rises in France’s banlieues

Mady Traoré is 24. Born in France, to Malian parents, he lives in Clichy-sous-Bois. About 15 miles north of Paris, Clichy is probably the most notorious of the French banlieues – the often rundown estates on the outskirts of the country’s big cities, inhabited largely by second- and third-generation immigrants from North and West African former colonies.
Clichy gained its unenviable reputation in 2005, when the neighborhood saw weeks of rioting and firebombing Рles flamb̩es in street patois. Two youngsters had died from electrocution while hiding in a power sub-station. They had fled there after being chased by the police, in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity,.
The deaths triggered a wave of violence. Across France, les banlieues have long been a powder keg of marginalization, poverty and resentment, not least among young men of African origin. Street battles with the police in Clichy unleashed turmoil in quartiers difficile from Paris to Lille, from Toulouse to Marseille. The 2005 riots were the worst in modern French history, resulting in 3,000 arrests, the burning of 10,000 vehicles and serious damage to hundreds of public buildings. A state of emergency was called, which lasted three months.
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“Since 2005, surveillance cameras have been installed right across Clichy and are now almost as ubiquitous as “F–k the Police” graffiti. Ominously, the district’s new police station, built after the riots, is surrounded by a 12-foot high solid steel wall, topped with metal grids to repel Molotov cocktails and other types of firebombs.

The problem is the same in both places. Blacks and muslims (and black muslims) who can’t or won’t integrate in the wider society engage in destructive and violent behavior, have extremely high unemployment, and blame the society and government around them. Police and firemen are famously lured into the banlieues when cars or buildings or roadblocks are set alight, then attacked with rocks and bottles and even molotov cocktails. That accomplishes two things: it strikes out at the authorities, and it defines a mini nation state where outsiders are attacked if they dare enter. Where but in a Western country would this be tolerated? Do you think the Chinese would tolerate this? The Koreans? The Pakis? Egyptians? Peruvians? The problem here isn’t too much enforcement of the law, it’s too little.

From a post on the death toll from WWII at Bookworm…

Danny Lemieux:
But let’s call that “Long Peace” following WWII by its real name: “Pax Americana”, which is presently in the state of being systematically unraveled by our current White House occupant and his minions.

Michael Hiteshew:
They had plenty of help.
The Europeans have been keen to dismantle American hegemony since they recovered from WWII, while getting ‘stupid Americans!’ to defend them. The EU, the single currency and single labor market was supposed to make them the dominant power on the planet. By the late 90’s they made no secret of the fact they fully intended to replace us and demonstrate how a world dominant civilization should be run. I’m still waiting for the demonstration to begin.

When the Russians aren’t taking aid from us, they are fully devoted to destroying us, using every means possible.

Meanwhile, between taxes, unions and regulation, virtually all American manufacturing has been driven offshore, mostly to China. The Chinese are using their newfound wealth to build a modern society and also fully intend to replace us as the dominant world power.

Islam is a backward, barbaric, totalitarian ideology that spends half its energy fighting each other and the other half attacking its neighbors. It should be destroyed and its practice outlawed. It’s worse than nazi-ism or communism and is wholly incompatible with any form of modern civilization. We are in its sights because we are still seen as the dominant power that must be defeated for islam to expand.

The last remnants of the communists, both in Venezuela and the university lounge, also want the American Idea destroyed because freedom and capitalism are the polar opposites of what they wish to impose.

So it’s been tough going. Only time will tell if we survive it.

Yesterday, Elon Musk wrote the following on the SpaceX website regarding their upcoming the ORBCOMM-2 mission and their first attempt to return a Falcon-9 booster from space and land it vertically near the launch pad.

The Falcon 9 rocket we are about to launch has higher performance than the prior version due mostly to increased boost thrust, deep cryo oxidizer and a much larger upper stage engine bell. It also has a number of reliability enhancements, such as a redundant stage separation system and greater structural safety margins.
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This should, if all goes well, give us enough performance to deliver eleven satellites to orbit and bring the booster all the way back to Cape Canaveral to Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1).
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T-zero in 15 minutes, so have to sign off. Apologies for any typos in the above. — Elon

SpaceX has done it. They returned the booster stage and landed at Cape Canaveral. They launched 11 satellites as well. I’ve set the video to begin at 30m23s, just as the booster stage begins its return burn and descent.

Update: Just released helicopter footage:

We are entering a new era of space access.