I was dragged by the missus tonight to an event in the heart of the ruling class beast. While there, threatened by her to be on my best behavior, I engaged in a conversation with a like-minded person regarding Hurricane Helene (I have an excellent MAGAdar and just as useful a sixth sense for Deep State provocateurs).
My new-found friend asked me whether they could have built the TVA today. Of course the answer to that is no.
There are several reasons for that.
The first is technical. I doubt we have the engineering ability to pull off a project like that anymore. As a western boy whose roots were watered by dams (hello Salt River Project), I find that conclusion difficult, but inevitable. Skills not used or otherwise maintained over time atrophy and wither away. Look at military shipbuilding over the past 30 years.
The second is political. The environmental movement severed the connection between the needs of a modern economy and the will to build the technical and social infrastructure needed to support it. Policy, especially with the “Green New Deal,” is now rooted in some cartoonish “Happy-Land, in a gumdrop house on Lollipop Lane” where there are no perceived tradeoffs.
Hydroelectricity is the ultimate in clean renewable and reliable power, but while existing dams are tolerated (for now), no new dams will ever be built.
The third reason is something more vicious which is that for our ruling class, it’s not just that some Americans don’t matter as much as others but that they actually enjoy relegating certain groups of Americans to a permanent under-class status. The ruling class may decry the western history of imperialism and white supremacy, but in turn they adopt a colonial attitude toward red-state America that would have made Kipling blush. At least Rudyard wanted to take on the white man’s burden and civilize the savages, our ruling class betters in reality just want the people of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina to disappear.
The stuff that was in the history books up until yesterday, celebrating that TVA brought electricity to an impoverished part of America? Gun-toting, snake-handling Trump voters.
Actually when it comes to modern-day colonialism, if you remember the roots of the pro-abortion movement, the reality is that they want to more or less want to put the unborn of that region to the sword.
You can hear it on the wind, that sentiment to all of those west of Asheville, just go away and die.
Miscellaneous
Book Review: Rockets and People (rerun)
Since Friday marks the 67th anniversary of the Sputnik earth satellite, I’m reposting my review of Boris Chertok’s wonderful memoir Rockets and People.
Chertok’s career in the Russian aerospace industry spanned many decades, encompassing both space exploration and military missile programs. His four-volume memoir is an unusual document–partly, it reads like a high school annual or inside company history edited by someone who wants to be sure no one feels left out and that all the events and tragedies and inside jokes are appropriately recorded. Partly, it is a technological history of rocket development, and partly, it is a study in the practicalities of managing large programs in environments of technical uncertainty and extreme time pressure. Readers should include those interested in: management theory and practice, Russian/Soviet history, life under totalitarianism, the Cold War period, and missile/space technology. Because of the great length of these memoirs, those who read the whole thing will probably be those who are interested in all (or at least most) of the above subject areas. I found the series quite readable; overly-detailed in many places, but always interesting. In his review American astronaut Thomas Stafford said “The Russians are great storytellers, and many of the tales about their space program are riveting. But Boris Chertok is one of the greatest storytellers of them all.” In this series, Chertok really does suck you into his world.
Chertok was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1912: his mother had been forced to flee Russia because of her revolutionary (Menshevik) sympathies. The family returned to Russia on the outbreak of the First World War, and some of Chertok’s earliest memories were of the streets filled with red-flag-waving demonstrators in 1917. He grew up on the Moscow River, in what was then a quasi-rural area, and had a pretty good childhood: “we, of course, played ‘Reds and Whites,’ rather than ‘Cowboys and Indians’ … swimming and rowing in the river and developing an early interest in radio and aviation–both an airfield and a wireless station were located nearby. He also enjoyed reading. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn met with the greatest success, while Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave rise to aggressive moods: ‘Hey–after the revolution in Europe, we’ll deal with the American slaveholders!’ His cousin introduced him to science fiction, and he was especially fond of Aelita (book and silent film), featuring the eponymous Martian beauty.
Chertok remembers his school years fondly–there were field trips to study art history and architectural styles, plus a military program with firing of both rifles and machine guns but notes “We studied neither Russian nor world history….Instead we had two years of social science, during which we studied the history of Communist ideas…Our clever social sciences teacher conducted lessons so that, along with the history of the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, we became familiar with the history of the European peoples from Ancient Rome to World War I, and while studying the Decembrist movement and 1905 Revolution in detail we were forced to investigate the history of Russia.” Chertok pursued his growing interest in electronics, developing a new radio-receiver circuit which earned him a journal publication and an inventor’s certificate. There was also time for skating and dating. “In those strict, puritanical times it was considered inappropriate for a young man of fourteen or fifteen to walk arm in arm with a young woman. But while skating, you could put your arm around a girl’s waist, whirl around with her on the ice to the point of utter exhaustion, and then accompany her home without the least fear of reproach.”
Chertok wanted to attend university, but “entrance exams were not the only barrier to admission.” There was a quota system, based on social class, and “according to the ‘social lineage’ chart, I was the son of a white collar worker and had virtually no hope of being accepted the first time around.” He applied anyhow, hoping that his journal publication and inventor’s certificate in electronics would get him in.” It didn’t–he was told, “Work about three years and come back. We’ll accept you as a worker, but not as the son of a white-collar worker.”
So Chertok took a job as electrician in a brick factory…not much fun, but he was soon able to transfer to an aircraft factory across the river. He made such a good impression that he was asked to take a Komsomol leadership position, which gave him an opportunity to learn a great deal about manufacturing. The plant environment was a combination of genuinely enlightened management–worker involvement in process improvement, financial decentralization–colliding with rigid policies and political interference. There were problems with absenteeism caused by new workers straight off the farm; these led to a government edict: anyone late to work by 20 minutes or more was to be fired, and very likely prosecuted. There was a young worker named Igor who had real inventive talent; he proposed an improved linkage for engine and propeller control systems, which worked out well. But when Igor overslept (the morning after he got married), no exception could be made. He was fired, and “we lost a man who really had a divine spark.” Zero tolerance!
Chertok himself wound up in trouble when he was denounced to the Party for having concealed the truth about his parents that his father was a bookkeeper in a private enterprise and his mother was a Menshevik. He was expelled from the Komsomol and demoted to a lower-level position. Later in his career, he would also wind up in difficulties because of his Jewish heritage.
The memoir includes dozens of memorable characters, including:
*Lidiya Petrovna Kozlovskaya, a bandit queen turned factory supervisor who became Chertok’s superior after his first demotion.
*Yakov Alksnis, commander of the Red Air Force, strong leader who foresaw the danger of a surprise attack wiping out the planes on the ground. He was not to survive the Stalin era.
*Olga Mitkevich, sent by the regime to become “Central Committee Party organizer” at the factory where Chertok was working…did not make a good first impression (“had the aura of a strict school matron, the terror of girls’ preparatory schools”)..but actually proved to be very helpful to getting work done and later became director of what was then the largest aircraft factory in Europe, which job she performed well. She apparently had too much integrity for the times, and her letters to Stalin on behalf of people unjustly accused resulted in her own arrest and execution.
*Frau Groettrup, wife of a German rocket scientist, one of the many the Russians took in custody after occupying their sector of Germany. Her demands on the victors were rather unbelievable, what’s more unbelievable is that the Russians actually yielded to most of them.
*Dmitry Ustinov, a rising star in the Soviet hierarchy–according to Chertok an excellent and visionary executive who had much to do with Soviet successes in missiles and space. (Much later, he would become Defense Minister, in which role he was a strong proponent of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.)
*Valeriya Golubtsova, wife of the powerful Politburo member Georgiy Malenkov, who was Stalin’s immediate successor. Chertok knew her from school–she was an engineer who became an important government executive and the connection turned out to be very useful. Chertok respected her professional skills, liked her very much, and devotes several pages to her.
*Yuri Gagarin, first man to fly in space, and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman.
*Overshadowing all the other characters is Sergei Korolev, now considered to be the father of the Soviet space program although anonymous during his lifetime. Korolev spent 6 years in labor camps, having been arrested when his early rocket experiments didn’t pan out; he was released in 1944. A good leader, in Chertok’s view, though with a bad temper and given to making threats that he never actually carried out. His imprisonment must have left deep scars–writing about a field trip to a submarine to observe the firing of a ballistic missile, Chertok says that the celebration dinner with the sub’s officers was the only time he ever saw Korolev really happy.
Chertok’s memoir encompasses the pre-WWII development of the Soviet aircraft industry…early experiments with a rocket-powered interceptor…the evacuation of factories from the Moscow area in the face of the German invasion…a post-war mission to Germany to acquire as much German rocket technology as possible…the development of a Soviet ballistic missile capability…Sputnik…reconnaissance and communications satellites…the Cuban missile crisis…and the race to the moon.
This Is What It’s Like When Mullahs Cry
Iran has had a miserable few weeks.
First the middle- and senior-level management of its top-tier proxy was taken out because, basically, Iran bought its communications network from its most hated enemy.
Then the next week what was left of the C-level suite of said proxy was taken out in its underground bunker by the same hated enemy.
Then the other day former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad declared that the agency dedicated to targeting agents of your most hated enemy operating in Iran was actually riddled with that same enemy’s agents, including the unit head.
I mean this is the type of buffoonery that you only find from the Three Stooges or the Biden administration.
So having been utterly humiliated on the world stage, what does Iran do to try to restore credibility? It decides to launch a massive attack, estimated at 180+ missiles, on that same hated enemy. The result? The same as the last time it tried, back in April, little to nothing.
After last April’s attack washed out, the Iranians could not have had any expectation that any future missile attack would be any different. In other words, Iran just squandered a big chunk of what is left of its credibility. The strong horse they are not.
Today’s missile attack is what it is like when a government has a nervous breakdown. If the last two weeks were a chess match, Iran has been so thoroughly outclassed that today’s missile strike is the equivalent of it hysterically throwing the pieces off the board at Israel and then curling up in a ball on the floor.
However, now things really get dangerous because as I have said, desperate people do desperate things, and desperate people with power do catastrophic things. Added bonus, back home the mullahs are hated and their praetorian guard, the IRGC, has been shown to be incompetent. These guys are fighting for their lives.
So, on our timeline, we are now at the point where the Iranians will probably try a really futile and stupid gesture. And unlike Israel, we in the US do not have our security act together.
Random Thoughts (2): Weasel Edition
One: We Will Report No Story Until It’s Time
I had a post all ready to go regarding the media ignoring the devastation in the southern Appalachians caused by Hurricane Helene; about how the story had been dropping from the front page faster than the latest Trump assassination attempt, despite the mounting death toll, towns wiped out, etc…
Then the other night I see all the media outlets, as if a switch had been thrown, starting to give the story (some of) the attention it deserves.
I was curious as to why the change. Why did the bat signal go out for corporate media to acknowledge what’s happening out there (for them) in Gap-Toothed Cletus Land?
Then I realized what it was. With the carnage coming out of Appalachia too big to ignore, there was the danger that with the bad optics of Kamala, and Biden out-of-view, that this could be the Democrats’ version of Katrina. So if you read the stories since Sunday night, nearly every one contains an element of what Biden and Kamala are personally doing to help people who will never vote for them. Case in point, the five-minute photo-op of Kamala visiting FEMA.
You can’t buy the quality of public relations the corporate media provides the Democrats.
Two: Army Recruitment Weasels
A friend of mine contacted me about an op-ed in the Washington Post regarding military recruitment. It’s full of the usual gaslighting regarding how the Biden Administration was solving the military recruitment problem (that it had created) by meeting goals through better marketing and reorganizing the recruitment process.
In reality the military only achieved its goals because it lowered both the goals and the recruiting standards. Note, any time you hear about an organization that doesn’t meet KPI but crows about “momentum,” do a quick look at the numbers and you’ll find a bunch of one-time tricks used to juice the numbers. That’s what is happening here, with lowered standards dealing with physical and mental fitness, proficiency, and red flags such as tattoos and prior drug use. Good luck keeping that “momentum” going next year.
Then again next year isn’t an election year, right?
There are many causes of the military recruitment crisis, but a key one is a lack of leadership especially at the civilian level. I saw this exchange between Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Senator Cotton when the latter questioned her playing with enlistment targets in order to prevent negative headlines. Her response?:
Wormuth said the Army looks at “what’s possible” and sets goals that are achievable.
I found that response horrifying. Management 101 states that failure to meet a KPI is a key information signal in the organization that something is wrong and needs to be changed. Goals are set to the needs of the service and then actions are geared toward the accomplishment of those goals. What Wormuth is saying is that either recruitment goals have no relation to the needs of the service, which is a failure of senior leadership, or that she is just going to ignore those needs in favor of avoiding bad optics. Either way she’s willingly corrupting the signal and this cannot be tolerated.
Three: Kerry, the Cr*p Weasel
I’m trying to think of a bigger scoundrel, a more ridiculous figure in American politics for the past 50 years besides Joe Biden and I keep coming back to John Kerry. Biden and Kerry both have so much in common: criminally ambitious, greedy, insecure, and dumb as a box of rocks.
Kerry has been in the limelight for 50 years: star witness to Congress on war crimes, US Senator, presidential nominee, Secretary of State, Special Envoy for Climate. He really is (unfortunately) an elder statesman.
This is a guy who got his political start in a way that makes Kamala Harris look like a saint, by throwing his fellow Vietnam War veterans under the war crimes bus. He was willing to be a figurehead as Secretary of State (foreign policy under Obama was run by the West Wing and staffers at State) in exchange for the title which he later leveraged into business connections. Then there was his time as special envoy on climate, where he lectured the world on consumption and fossil fuels while flying around the world in his private jet and living the high life on his wife’s (Republican) money.
So he’s been a corrupt, power-hungry hypocrite for half-a-century. So is a lot of DC. What makes him a a cr*p weasel? This:
”And people go and then people self-select where they go for their news and information. Then you get into a vicious cycle. So it’s really, really hard, much harder to build consensus today then at any time in the 45, 50 years I’ve been involved in this and there is a lot of discussion now about how to curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts, etc… Our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to hammer it out of existence. What we need is to win the ground, win the right to govern by hopefully having winning enough votes that you are free to be able to implement change.”
So there you go, a man who has sworn numerous times to support and defend the Constitution just told his globalist buddies at WEF that he (meaning the Democrats) was going to throw that document under the bus. Given that he’s dumb as the aforementioned box of rocks, this thought is not his own, but there is a special place in the pit for an elder statesman willing to trash our Constitution in front of foreigners.
Who is going to hold him to account?
You know, Walz made a crack about the First Amendment not protecting misinformation. I wonder if Vance will force him tonight to defend that and what Kerry said at WEF.
Fabs, Funding, Fashion, and the Future
The new Arizona plant built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is now operational and is making A16 processor chips for Apple. A lot of problems have been overcome in order to reach this stage, and congratulations are due to the American and Taiwanese workers, engineers, and managers who have driven this accomplishment.
This project has benefited from a $6.6B funding allocation under the CHIPS and Science Act, and I am sure that this plant will serve as a poster child for the kind of targeted industrial policy favored by Biden and Harris. BUT:
When the opportunity to pioneer in advanced semiconductor manufacturing was emerging–an opportunity that TSMC took brilliant advantage of...would a US ‘targeted industrial policy’ have identified it as an opportunity worthy of focus and funding? Highly unlikely, I think: software, services, and marketing were what the Cool Kids talked about, manufacturing was viewed as something suitable for people with dull minds and countries with low-skilled populations.
“Targeted incentives” will go to the companies who are doing something currently fashionable and/or are politically well-connected. It seems likely that Schumer’s support of the NEPA permitting exception for chip manufacturers has something to do with Micron’s plan to build a new fab near Syracuse.
I’m certainly not arguing against the importance of US-based semiconductor manufacturing. But there are also a lot of other important product types and technologies and I’d much rather see a reassessment of NEPA criteria in general–as the above-linked article says, the rest of the economy needs a reprieve, too–rather than various exception bills.
Much of the genius of the US Constitution lies in the fact that it is short–it operates at the level of general principles rather than of endless specifics. We need more of this spirit in the design of legislation today.