News Flash

Today, it is still the case that Joe Biden didn’t Win.

I realize that to some readers, this might be a shock; surely at some point things must change and Biden will have actually won.

But the past cannot actually be changed.

It will always and forever be the case that Joe Biden didn’t win.

And if you, Leftist Lurker, want to dismiss it as dead white cis-male logic…well, you can call it what you want, but then please just go fuck off. No one here buys that bullshit–logic is logic and facts are facts regardless of skin color–and if you gave it a moment’s rational thought, you wouldn’t either. Of course your worthless education never included being able to actually reason–or detect problems with false reasoning–so I don’t imagine you’ll actually wake up as opposed to being woke.

As Ayn Rand would sometimes point out: Yes, you are free to evade reality. What you cannot do is evade the consequences of evading reality. Or to put it concretely: You can ignore the Mack truck bearing down on you as you play in the middle of the street, you won’t be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring the Mack truck.

Anyhow, for the rest of you, the regular readers and those lurkers who understand such things: I continue to carry the banner once also carried by Wheatie. His Fraudulency didn’t win.

Hey China!

Or rather, “Hey Chinese Communist Party and your entire array of servitors, ass-wipers, and fellators!”

You’re not even worth my time this week. When you decide to act like civilized people, maybe I’ll give you a lesson or two in how non-barbarians behave.

Meanwhile, enjoy being a laughing stock after that rancid syphilitic c*nt Pelosi called your bluff. I think she finally did something right, by mistake.

Hey BiteMe!
(Or, Whoever Has Their Hand Rammed Up That Putrefying Meat Puppet’s Ass)

[Language warning]

You and yours have caused a lot of injury. Literal injury with your war on people who don’t want to take an untested vaccine. When people die in an emergency room because a hospital won’t admit them because they haven’t had their clot shot, that’s a crime.

I’m going to address here the insult on top of the injury, because I am among the insulted. I still have my health but apparently you want me to live under the 8th Street Bridge (which actually isn’t on 8th Street, but whatever, that’s what the I-25 overpass over Cimarron is called), so maybe if you have your way that won’t be true for long. Dreadful time of year to become homeless.

No, you’re just trying to make me unemployed, because I won’t take your fucking shots.

Well, that threat is NOT going to work. I. Won’t. Take. Your. Fucking. Shots.

And it looks like enough people agree, that you’re having to back down, you worthless asswipe.

You’re LOSING.

You LOSER.

You Chinese-bought ratfucking traitor.

I would love to see you die an agonizing, humiliating death. (This isn’t a threat, because I am not threatening to cause that death. I am just announcing my intention to party if it happens.) It would be just recompense for the way you’re killing America…and millions of Americans.

His Fraudulency

Joe Biteme, properly styled His Fraudulency, continues to infest the White House, we haven’t heard much from the person who should have been declared the victor, and hopium is still being dispensed even as our military appears to have joined the political establishment in knuckling under to the fraud.

One can hope that all is not as it seems.

I’d love to feast on that crow.

(I’d like to add, I find it entirely plausible, even likely, that His Fraudulency is also His Figureheadedness. (Apparently that wasn’t a word; it got a red underline. Well it is now.) Where I differ with the hopium addicts is on the subject of who is really in charge. It ain’t anyone we like.)

Justice Must Be Done.

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.

Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines,  here, with an addendum on 20191110.

We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns.
5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded.
5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)

Spot Prices.

Kitco Ask. Last week:

Gold $1,767.50
Silver $20.44
Platinum $906.00
Palladium $2,204.00
Rhodium $15,300.00

This week, markets closed as of 3PM MT.

Gold $1,775.60
Silver $19.99
Platinum $944.00
Palladium $2,214.00
Rhodium $15,600.00

James Webb Space Telescope

It has settled down into normal observations.

They’re putting out weekly schedules here https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/observing-schedules and there’s an overall list for the first year “cycle 1” here: https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-execution/approved-programs/cycle-1-go

From the weekly schedule, it looks like today for part of the day:

1373:15:1      MOVING      PRIME TARGETED MOVING          2022-08-06T21:33:24Z  00/00:25:56  MIRI Medium Resolution Spectroscopy                 IO                               Solar System                    Satellite


1373:22:1      MOVING      PRIME TARGETED MOVING          2022-08-06T22:03:45Z  00/00:46:26  MIRI Medium Resolution Spectroscopy                 BG-GANYMEDE+20N                  Solar System                    Offset


1373:19:1      MOVING      PRIME TARGETED MOVING          2022-08-06T22:56:45Z  00/00:53:45  NIRSpec IFU Spectroscopy                            GANYMEDE                         Solar System                    Satellite


1373:18:1      MOVING      PRIME TARGETED MOVING          2022-08-06T23:57:16Z  00/03:06:27  MIRI Medium Resolution Spectroscopy                 GANYMEDE                         Solar System                    Satellite

Note that start times and durations of observations are specified down to the second; the first item in the list starts at 21:33:24 Zulu, runs for 25 minutes, 56 seconds, then at 22:03:45 it starts on the next item.

This thing is a priceless scientific resource; it won’t be allowed any down time not absolutely necessary for maintenance (mirror alignment must periodically be checked, for instance). And of course it takes time to rotate the thing from one target to the next, so no doubt they spend a lot of time figuring out which sequence spends the least time on just moving JWST; a sort of “traveling salesman” problem. (And note that Jupiter’s moons are considered “moving.” They’re in orbit about Jupiter, Jupiter is in orbit about the sun, we are too–Jupiter and the moons move across the sky and the telescope must track that motion perfectly. Which it could not do if we were as clueless about physics as some pseudoscientists like to bray.)

To return to the current instance, the JWST will be examining Jupiter’s moons Io and Ganymede from about 5:30 PM to 8PM ET, using spectroscopy in both near and mid infrared…someone wants to know what they’re made of, methinks. The second entry is actually to look away from Ganymede a bit (I don’t know how to interpret how much, but it says “OFFSET” and “+20N” so I figure it’s an offset, and if I really want to know I need to figure out how much an N is and multiply by 20. Or maybe N means north and the unit is implicit…)

Note that it’s all spectroscopy. Most of the instrument modes are spectroscopy of some type or another.

That’s because spectroscopy is the astrophysicist’s power tool. It is impossible to overstate how important spectroscopy is to astronomy and astrophysics.

After you spread the light out into a spectrum of its component frequencies:

Where is the peak intensity? BOOM. Now you know the temperature.

Are there any dark bands, or is it bright stripes? Either way, BOOM. Now you know what it’s made of, because every substance absorbs or emits certain characteristic wave lengths.

Are those dark bands or bright stripes a bit off from where we would normally expect them? BOOM! Now you now know how fast the object is approaching or receding, because of Doppler shift.

Are the bands or bright stripes a bit fatter than you would expect? BOOM! Now you know the object is rotating. One side is moving away, shifting its part of the band to a lower frequency; the other side is moving towards you, shifting its part of the band to a higher frequency, making the band or stripe fatter than it would otherwise be.

(If you can look for a while, or come back later) Do the dark bands move, from one time to a future time? BOOM! Now you know the object is being orbited by something else (or it is orbiting something–technically they are the same thing!); that puts a wobble in its motion; speeding it up and slowing it down as seen from here.

If you’ve ever wondered how we can possibly know what some other star is made of, when we can’t possibly collect a sample, that’s how. If you wonder how we can tell things are moving towards or away from us and how fast, even when it’s billions of trillions of miles away, that’s how. And how we know a star–which looks like a point of light in even this telescope–is rotating when there’s no detail to see moving left to right (or whichever way), that’s how.

Or for that matter how fast a galaxy spins even though it’s so big it takes a quarter of a billion years to do so. (We can’t see the motion, and trying would be a quadrillion times duller than watching paint dry or Joe Biden try to think.) That’s how we know.

And it seems like people keep coming up with clever ways to use spectroscopy for other things, surprising things.

We wouldn’t know jack schiff about the universe, compared to what we do know, without spectroscopy.

Obligatory PSAs and Reminders

China is Lower than Whale Shit

Remember Hong Kong!!!

中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!

China is in the White House

Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.

Joe Biden is Asshoe

China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.

But of course the much more important thing to realize:

Joe Biden Didn’t Win

乔*拜登没赢 !!!
Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!!
Joe Biden didn’t win !!!

The Chinese Should Think Before Wiping Us Out As Sometimes They Need Us To Solve Their Problems For Them

Okay you knuckledragging ChiComs trying to take us down…here’s a history lesson for you.

For millennia, you had to suffer from this:

Yep. Steppe Nomads. They laid waste to your country, burned, raped and pillaged (but not in that order–they’re smarter than you are) for century after century.

You know who figured out how to take them on and win? The Russians.

Not you, the Russians. And it took them less than two centuries. And Oh By The Way they were among the most backward cultures in Europe at the time.

You couldn’t invent an alphabet, you couldn’t take care of barbarians on horseback, and you think you can take this board down?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! We’re laughing at you, you knuckledragging dehumanized communists…worshipers of a mass-murderer who killed sixty million people!

I mean, you still think Communism is a good idea even after having lived through it!

By my reckoning that makes you orders of magnitude more stupid than AOC, and that takes serious effort.

His Fraudulency

Joe Biteme, properly styled His Fraudulency, continues to infest the White House, and hopium is still being dispensed even as our military appears to have joined the political establishment in knuckling under to the fraud.

One can hope that all is not as it seems.

I’d love to feast on that crow.

“No Chemicals”

A detailed analysis of the contents of His Fraudulency’s skull was performed.

Absolutely no chemicals found!

Justice Must Be Done.

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.

Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.

Small Government?

Many times conservatives (real and fake) speak of “small government” being the goal.

This sounds good, and mostly is good, but it misses the essential point. The important thing here isn’t the size, but rather the purpose, of government. We could have a cheap, small tyranny. After all our government spends most of its revenue on payments to individuals and foreign aid, neither of which is part of the tyrannical apparatus trying to keep us locked down and censored. What parts of the government would be necessary for a tyranny? It’d be a lot smaller than what we have now. We could shrink the government and nevertheless find it more tyrannical than it is today.

No, what we want is a limited government, limited not in size, but rather in scope. Limited, that is, in what it’s allowed to do. Under current circumstances, such a government would also be much smaller, but that’s a side effect. If we were in a World War II sort of war, an existential fight against nasty dictatorships on the brink of world conquest, that would be very expensive and would require a gargantuan government, but that would be what the government should be doing. That would be a large, but still limited government, since it’d be working to protect our rights.

World War II would have been the wrong time to squawk about “small government,” but it wasn’t (and never is) a bad time to demand limited government. Today would be a better time to ask for a small government–at least the job it should be doing is small today–but it misses the essential point; we want government to not do certain things. Many of those things we don’t want it doing are expensive but many of them are quite eminently doable by a smaller government than the one we have today. Small, but still exceeding proper limits.

So be careful what you ask for. You might get it and find you asked for the wrong thing.

Political Science In Summation

It’s really just a matter of people who can’t be happy unless they control others…versus those who want to be left alone. The oldest conflict within mankind. Government is necessary, but government attracts the assholes (a highly technical term for the control freaks).

A few Things We Cannot Blame on His Fraudulency

I am pretty sure Joe Biden had nothing whatsoever to do with the 30 Years War that ran from 1618-1648 and probably killed about a third of the people then living in what is now Germany.

Nor did he cause the collapse of either Roman empire (Western, 476 CE, Eastern 1453 CE). Nor the ignominious failure of most of the Crusades. Nor the collapse of Bronze Age civilization around 1200 BCE (including the collapse of the Minoans and the blowup of Santorini).

However, my utter lack of ability to imagine how he could possibly be responsible for these things is not a valid argument against them, so I await correction if appropriate.

James Webb Space Telescope Looks at Jupiter

Jupiter is, by far, the largest of the planets in the Solar System. An alien visitor, in fact, would be justified in stating that this system consists of one G2-class star, a gas giant planet with a big red spot on it, and assorted debris.

Except that any spacefaring alien would likely be very interested in planets like Home, and those would likely be small, rocky planets, so he’d take a closer look at that “debris.”

Jupiter probably prevented the formation of a planet in the asteroid belt, and has intercepted a lot of space junk that might otherwise have smacked into Earth. We know, in fact, that it collides with comets now and again…recall Shoemaker Levy 9 in 1994, which would have been a catastrophic series of hits on Earth. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9)

(Unfortunately, we didn’t see the actual impacts. They happened just barely on the far side of Jupiter. Though Hubble did catch one fireball poking up over the limb. And of course we could see the smoking holes bored through Jupiter’s atmosphere by the impact.

Note that this image records red, blue, violet and ultraviolet.

And here is a Hubble ultraviolet picture of Jupiter with holes burned through the atmosphere by the pieces of Shoemaker Levy 9.

Well, with the possible exception of the red frequency above, JWST cannot see any of these frequencies. It can see infrared.

And it took some pictures of Jupiter the other day. No trace remains of the Shoemaker Levy impacts, of course, but you can be assured that if something like this happens again before JWST kicks the bucket due to running out of propellant, JWST will be on it like His Fraudulency on 10 year old girls. (Only in this case, the results will be useful.) We would love to see such a thing happen in infrared! A certain amount of time on JWST is reserved for unexpected events. We had only a few months’ warning on Shoemaker Levy 9. Rest assured if Betelgeuse (or any other star within 200,000 light years) goes supernova, same story.

JWST has already taken pictures of Jupiter. These were done at two wavelengths, as two separate images, so there’s no “false color” going on. Where the picture is white, infrared of that wavelength hit the sensor, if dark, then not. Pretty basic.

Europa is to the left..and it’s brighter than Jupiter at this wavelength; the sensor pixels “blew out” and this is denoted by black. Jupiter itself is quite recognizable; you can even see the Red Spot, but it turns out to be pretty bright at this wavelength (2,120 nanometers [billionths of a meter]…for reference we can see 400-700nm with 700 being the red end.)

This is a pretty detailed image…for having taken from over half a billion miles away!

Here’s this picture in raw unprocessed form…plus another one taken at 3,230 nm.

Well, well well, what do we have here…right under Thebe?

That’s Jupiter’s ring! Not nearly as famous as the rings around Saturn, they’re hard to see; we only discovered them during a flyby during the last century, backlit by the Sun.

That image, processed and enhanced a bit:

Jupiter is blindingly bright at this wavelength; in fact it even appears bulged at the poles. The ring is plainly visible, even a bit to the right of the big bright thing. It may not look particularly spectacular to you, but planetary scientists are learning a LOT from these pictures.

The verdict is in: JWST kicks ass.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines,  here, with an addendum on 20191110.

We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns.
5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded.
5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)

(Paper) Spot Prices

Last week:

Gold $1,727.10
Silver $18.67
Platinum $883.00
Palladium $2,106.00
Rhodium $16,700.00

This week, 3PM Mountain Time, markets have closed for the weekend. [Note: If you are reading this…I had no chance between 3-10 PM Friday to put the prices in. My apologies for this, but it’s hectic here.]

[Edit: Prices added 3:10 AM MT.]

Gold $1,767.50
Silver $20.44
Platinum $906.00
Palladium $2,204.00
Rhodium $15,300.00

———-

Obligatory PSAs and Reminders

China is Lower than Whale Shit

Remember Hong Kong!!!

中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!

China is in the White House

Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.

Joe Biden is Asshoe

China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.

But of course the much more important thing to realize:

Joe Biden Didn’t Win

乔*拜登没赢 !!!
Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!!
Joe Biden didn’t win !!!

Wow, I don’t even need to muck with this first part. Guess who’s in the news again, even if only slightly.

Message for Bill Barr

You’re dirt.

Your job was to pursue justice impartially. Instead, you decided it was worth being partial just to get rid of the Orange Man with the Mean Tweets.

I imagine you sleep easy at night, though, because in your alleged mind, you saved America. The America you saved was the America that’s ruled by an elite and has to tolerate a dumptruck load of “deplorables”–you know the sort of people who just want to be left alone and not be forced to participate in some grand plan.

That just proves you’re a bloated bag of rancid, maggot-infested lard.

Since that has been true for quite some time, a large percentage of you must be maggot turds.

Your day will come, Traitor.

And For Pat Benatar

Unfortunately I get exposed to the Yellow Stream Media in small doses nearly daily, so I ran across a story about how Pat Benatar will no longer be performing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” on account of guns bad or something like that.

I was aware she’s no friend of the Right. Not just figuring “probably not because she’s entertainment industry” but I knew; she released some song bemoaning Trump back in 2017.

Well, Pat, your many, many thousands of fans are surely disappointed, I’m sure. Hit Me With Your Best Shot is one of your most famous works, it’s even, dare I say it, iconic. [Note: you do have more fans than I do, even 40 years after your halcyon days, so that puts you ahead of Brian Stelter, who apparently has fewer.]

Fortunately, I am here to fill the gap, so your fans won’t pine away.

Justice Must Be Done

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system.

Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is hopeless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud is not part of the plan, you have no plan.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines,  here, with an addendum on 20191110.

We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns.
5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded.
5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)

Spot (i.e., paper) Prices

Last week:

Gold $1,709.60
Silver $18.83
Platinum $861.00
Palladium $1,901.00
Rhodium $15,300.00

This week, 3PM Mountain Time, markets have closed for the weekend.

Gold $1,727.10
Silver $18.67
Platinum $883.00
Palladium $2,106.00
Rhodium $16,700.00

Mixed week, with silver down and everything else up. I recall hearing that gold had actually dipped below $1,700 at least once this week.

Bitcoin, meanwhile…aw, who gives a fetid pile of dingos’ kidneys?

If the stories about new reserve currencies are true, expect a lot of dollars that have been sitting overseas, not chasing goods in the marketplace, to come home. At which point we’ll see more dollars chasing (if we’re lucky) the same amount of, or (if we’re less lucky) fewer, goods. Which is exactly what sends prices through the roof.

Meanwhile now might be a buying opportunity. Or it could be that I am a practitioner of craniorectalinsertiononomics (an accurate name for most fashionable schools of economics) and I’m totally wrong.

Oligula’s Biggest Blunder

With JWST starting its science mission, I have to find something else to talk about now.

Well, a quick one.

I wrote this last week: So I don’t expect to see news reports about what “JWST has found” for at least a little while.

It aged poorly.

Apparently JWST has already spotted a galaxy older (and hence far more redshifted) than anything previously seen. The article I read talked about how it had formed within a couple of hundred million years of the Big Bang, and compared that to “when light began” a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Which is wrong on two counts. The event they’re referring to is when the universe cooled below plasma temperatures, and hence became transparent. Light existed before then but couldn’t get anywhere without being reabsorbed by electrons flying around in that plasma. Once that stopped, the light could travel freely: outer space became transparent. That initial glow is still seen today as the Cosmic Microwave Background (explained, possibly more coherently, here: https://www.theqtree.com/2021/11/27/2021%c2%b711%c2%b727-joe-biden-didnt-win-daily-thread/). So that’s one of two problems, and it’s conceivable one could claim I’m drawing a meaningless distinction here. But the bigger problem is, this happened 380 thousand years after the Big Bang. Not million.

But JWST finding such a thing is exactly what we were hoping for.

And, I’ll note that this week marked the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

OK, now on to Oligula, whom I usually refer to as Obola, and his biggest blunder ever.

That would, of course be failing to either replace or extend the Space Transportation System, which is the name that only NASA uses for that which everyone else calls the Space Shuttle.

The Space Shuttle was intended to make travel to orbit cheaper. The price to put a kilogram in orbit had plummeted to $10,000 during the 60s (but note, that’s still a lot of money, especially in 1970 dollars), and had remained there since.

It takes a lot of fuel to get to orbit, and that ain’t cheap, but the bigger issue is we were throwing 90 percent or more of the spacecraft away, every time. Imagine what air fare would be if they had to scrap the airliner as soon as the passengers deplaned. The Shuttle was an attempt to come up with a reusable system, and it was indeed partially reusable. The orbiter could be reused, but only after weeks of refurbishing. The big hydrogen tank (which was white for the first few missions, then they decided to save the weight of the white paint, so it was tan-orange from that point forward) was thrown away, the solid rocket boosters were salvaged and reused as much as possible (but that involved rebuilding them).

So the price to orbit for a kilogram remained at $10,000, though to be fair that’s still a decrease because of inflation. But it almost seemed like it was a physical constant, $10,000/kg.

Oligula left US manned spaceflight for dead by doing nothing as the Shuttle was retired. We now had to hitch a ride with the Russians just to go to the International Space Station, even though ISS had largely been built by us.

But that is not the blunder I am thinking about. The blunder I am thinking about is that Obola allowed private companies to step in.

Space X, for instance, has begun providing rides to orbit, and since they aren’t smothered in government bureaucracy, they’re able to incrementally improve their boosters and orbiters in less than a decade. They’ve gotten better and better at recovering their boosters by landing them on ships at sea. Very little if anything is thrown away now. The things are almost totally reusable, with less refurbishing than the Shuttle ever dreamed of.

The price to get a kilogram to orbit has dropped to $2,000 now.

And it may get as low as $400 with their planned Starship system. (I am not accounting for possible future hyperinflation as the petrodollars come home to roost; see above.)

This is very important. After all, when the Left gets done dorking up the Earth, we need somewhere else to go. Yes, the Left will mess that up too, but that won’t be until the Deplorables who pioneer it have gotten it to the point where puffy toilet seats are available. Meanwhile we’ll have breathing space.

Being able to get to space cheaply is very important in the long term. No, it won’t help us drain the swamp, but a couple of hundred years from now they’ll look back and not care about what Bloated Pusbag Barr did to President Trump, but they will care about the founding of space industry and colonies.

OK, but this is good, right? So why did I call this Oligula’s Biggest Blunder?

Because intent matters. Obola rarely made a mistake. He caused a lot of damage, but that was his intent, so the damage he caused was not by mistake.

So the one thing he did that was good (even if it is taking a while to become evident), actually was a mistake on his part. He didn’t mean to do that good deed; he was trying to shove yet another rusty steel twelve gauge bore brush up America’s ass, then chock it in a power drill for added effect.

But he got this one wrong.

So, Oligula, I take my hat off to you, and say “Fuck you very much.”

Fuck Joe B*d*n

Due to complaints about foul language, I’ve censored the most objectionable word in the title of this section.

B*d*n, you don’t even get ONE scoop of ice cream today.

(Please post this somewhere permanent, as it will continue to be true; the SOB will never deserve a scoop.)

…And the Cancer He Rode In On

Does the Meat Puppet have cancer?

I don’t think we can say, based on his slip the other day. After all “cancer” and “Covid” both start with a “C” and he may have just said “cancer” when he meant “Covid.” Even someone who is not compost-mentis (Latin for “peat head”) could make that mistake; but it’s more likely to happen when the brain turns to sludge.

(All kidding about no chemicals in FJB’s skull aside, clearly something is in there, because he continues to breathe and poop out both ends, figuratively in one case, literally in the other. The brain does manage that stuff, though our consciousness doesn’t notice it doing so.)

Obligatory PSAs and Reminders

China is Lower than Whale Shit

Remember Hong Kong!!!

中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!

China is in the White House

Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for His Fraudulency Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.

Joe Biden is Asshoe

China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.

But of course the much more important thing to realize:

Joe Biden Didn’t Win

乔*拜登没赢 !!!
Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!!
Joe Biden didn’t win !!!

Yo, Jim Acosta!

I see from video of your “conversation” with MTG that someone posted recently, that you are still a pugnacious, lying, puddle of bearded dragon shit.

How you can look at yourself in a mirror is beyond me, unless your conscience has been replaced by a dedication to Leftist goals. It certainly isn’t dedicated to real adversarial journalism. Much less any kind of journalism.

I will give you this. You have better hair than Brian Stelter. But then, so did Telly Savalas. And Yul Brynner.

RINOs an Endangered Species?
If Only!

According to Wikipoo, et. al., the Northern White Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is a critically endangered species. Apparently two females live on a wildlife preserve in Sudan, and no males are known to be alive. So basically, this species is dead as soon as the females die of old age. Presently they are watched over by armed guards 24/7.

Biologists have been trying to cross them with the other subspecies, Southern White Rhinoceroses (Rhinoceri?) without success; and some genetic analyses suggest that perhaps they aren’t two subspecies at all, but two distinct species, which would make the whole project a lot more difficult.

I should hope if the American RINO (Parasitus rectum pseudoconservativum) is ever this endangered, there will be heroic efforts not to save the species, but rather to push the remainder off a cliff. Onto punji sticks. With feces smeared on them. Failing that a good bath in red fuming nitric acid will do.

But I’m not done ranting about RINOs.

The RINOs (if they are capable of any introspection whatsoever) probably wonder why they constantly have to deal with “populist” eruptions like the Trump-led MAGA movement. That would be because the so-called populists stand for absolutely nothing except for going along to get along. That allows the Left to drive the culture and politics.

Given the results of Tuesday’s elections, the Left will now push harder, and the RINOs will now turn even squishier than they were before.

I well remember 1989-1990 in my state when the RINO establishment started preaching the message that a conservative simply couldn’t win in Colorado. Never mind the fact that Reagan had won the state TWICE (in 1984 bringing in a veto-proof state house and senate with him) and GHWB had won after (falsely!) assuring everyone that a vote for him was a vote for Reagan’s third term.

This is how the RINOs function. They push, push, push the line that only a “moderate” can get elected. Stomp them when they pull that shit. Tell everyone in ear shot that that’s exactly what the Left wants you to think, and oh-by-the-way-Mister-RINO if you’re in this party selling the same message as the Left…well, whythefuckexactly are you in this party, you lying piece of rancid weasel shit?

Justice Must Be Done.

The prior election must be acknowledged as fraudulent, and steps must be taken to prosecute the fraudsters and restore integrity to the system. (This doesn’t necessarily include deposing Joe and Hoe and putting Trump where he belongs, but it would certainly be a lot easier to fix our broken electoral system with the right people in charge.)

Nothing else matters at this point. Talking about trying again in 2022 or 2024 is pointless otherwise. Which is not to say one must never talk about this, but rather that one must account for this in ones planning; if fixing the fraud in the system is not part of the plan, you have no plan.

This will necessarily be piecemeal, state by state, which is why I am encouraged by those states working to change their laws to alleviate the fraud both via computer and via bogus voters. If enough states do that we might end up with a working majority in Congress and that would be something Trump never really had.

Lawyer Appeasement Section

OK now for the fine print.

This is the WQTH Daily Thread. You know the drill. There’s no Poltical correctness, but civility is a requirement. There are Important Guidelines,  here, with an addendum on 20191110.

We have a new board – called The U Tree – where people can take each other to the woodshed without fear of censorship or moderation.

And remember Wheatie’s Rules:

1. No food fights
2. No running with scissors.
3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.
4. Zeroth rule of gun safety: Don’t let the government get your guns.
5. Rule one of gun safety: The gun is always loaded.
5a. If you actually want the gun to be loaded, like because you’re checking out a bump in the night, then it’s empty.
6. Rule two of gun safety: Never point the gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
7. Rule three: Keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
8. Rule the fourth: Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

(Hmm a few extras seem to have crept in.)

Mozart

I picked one at random off Youtube. I don’t even have real recordings of his piano concertos, so I don’t “know” them at all. (I grew up on the symphonies, and even though I can’t necessarily identify by number which symphony an excerpt is from I’ll be able to say, “that’s from a Mozart symphony.”) But this is Mozart, who only wrote bad music when he wanted to. I’m going to guess since this one showed up early in the search results, it’s a famous one. (I’m listening to it as I write.)

And yes, he did want to write bad music sometimes, as satire of bad contemporary music.

Why highlight Mozart? Because even Brandon hasn’t managed to find a way to fuck Mozart up. Though that’s probably because he hasn’t got around to it. I wait with dread for that to happen.

Spot Prices

Last week:

Gold $1,813.90
Silver $20.00
Platinum $901.00
Palladium $2,032.00
Rhodium $14,550.00

This week, 3 PM MT on Friday, markets closed for the weekend

Gold $1,743.60
Silver $19.40
Platinum $901.00
Palladium $2,263.00
Rhodium $14,850.00

HOLY SMOKES!

What happened to gold and silver?!? I do not watch this market every single day (it’s not worth it unless actively buying and selling short term), but HOLY SMOKES!!! What happened to gold and silver? Believe it or not they went up today to get to those low prices. Palladium went up $170 today, but it was already up over last week. Platinum no doubt had its downs and ups this last week, but it’s right where it started from (continuing to be on sale, relative to gold).

Qubes Update

I’m on it full time, and I even switched from the default xfce desktop (which is what I was using before so it fit like an old shoe), to KDE…which has a reputation for being bloated and slow. However, the last version of it was greatly improved, actually arguably faster than other desktops famous within the Linux world for being very fit and trim. And once you figure out the weird quirks of the setup interface, you can organize its menus however you like and make it fit Qubes perfectly.

It’s working out, folks!

James Webb Space Telescope Update

It’s probably no big secret that I copy the post from five weeks before as a starting point. (That brings the eagle picture along without my having to find it in the media library.) Five weeks ago I said: “ONE out of the 19 instrument modes is commissioned:” which was stupid, because there are 17, not 19 of them.

Now only one of them is NOT commissioned, and it’s Coronagraphy on the NIRCam. I believe that’s where we were last week.

As far as I know NASA is still planning to release real (and beautifully false-colored) pictures on July 12, 12:30 AM MDT

I posted in comments Thursday a “preview” picture that, without actually intending to, shows huge numbers of “background” deep-field galaxies. This thing is going to blow the Hubble Deep Field away when it gets going.

A blog from yesterday about NIRSpec being ready (all four modes)

NASA’s Webb Telescope NIRSpec Instrument Ready for Science – James Webb Space Telescope

And one from today, it looks like a bit of a teaser for Tuesday. Here’s the list of what they will show:

• Carina Nebula. The Carina Nebula is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky, located approximately 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina. Nebulae are stellar nurseries where stars form. The Carina Nebula is home to many massive stars, several times larger than the Sun.
• WASP-96 b (spectrum). WASP-96 b is a giant planet outside our solar system, composed mainly of gas. The planet, located nearly 1,150 light-years from Earth, orbits its star every 3.4 days. It has about half the mass of Jupiter, and its discovery was announced in 2014.
• Southern Ring Nebula. The Southern Ring, or “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula – an expanding cloud of gas, surrounding a dying star. It is nearly half a light-year in diameter and is located approximately 2,000 light years away from Earth.
• Stephan’s Quintet: About 290 million light-years away, Stephan’s Quintet is located in the constellation Pegasus. It is notable for being the first compact galaxy group ever discovered in 1877. Four of the five galaxies within the quintet are locked in a cosmic dance of repeated close encounters. 
• SMACS 0723: Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a deep field view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations.

These look like a fairly diverse group of targets. Carina is, IIRC, quite an item of eye-candy.

Obligatory PSAs and Reminders

China is Lower than Whale Shit

To conclude: My standard Public Service Announcement. We don’t want to forget this!!!

Remember Hong Kong!!!

中国是个混蛋 !!!
Zhōngguò shì gè hùndàn !!!
China is asshoe !!!

China is in the White House

Since Wednesday, January 20 at Noon EST, the bought-and-paid for Joseph Biden has been in the White House. It’s as good as having China in the Oval Office.

Joe Biden is Asshoe

China is in the White House, because Joe Biden is in the White House, and Joe Biden is identically equal to China. China is Asshoe. Therefore, Joe Biden is Asshoe.

But of course the much more important thing to realize:

Joe Biden Didn’t Win

乔*拜登没赢 !!!
Qiáo Bài dēng méi yíng !!!
Joe Biden didn’t win !!!