Flynn
There is a lot of conflicting information out there about what went on, what’s going on and so forth with the Trump Administration. Since everyone (except Dir. Comey) with access has said that there was no collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russia, one could conclude that there wasn’t. However, the corrupt, elite, smug, nasty, lying mainstream media continues to beat that drum.
A more troubling aspect of this is the matter of LTGEN Michael Flynn. Before I go further, the US Defense Intelligence Agency is a joke in intel circles. It’s not Flynn’s fault, but it’s a joke.
I heard a lot of unflattering chatter about Flynn before he aligned himself with President Trump and maybe some of it is true. That the Trump Administration dumped him suggests that he has some issues that made him unsuitable for public office. I don’t know what segment of the allegations against him are true or untrue, but he was cast adrift. Let those chips fall where they may.
Norks in Space? …soon
No, this isn’t an SNL skit – but it would be poetic justice if the Norks nuked themselves.
North Korea plans to launch a satellite (because if they can do that, they can boost a nuke into orbit) soon. That’s breaking news on Virtual Mirage, but since nobody listens, I don’t expect that anyone will really care. Still, there is some measure of satisfaction with being right and predicting correctly.
The space launch will obscure that it’s an ICBM test. The Mouse that Roared wants desperately to build an ICBM that can land a nuclear weapon somewhere on American soil.
On 19 March, the North Korean Workers’ Party daily, Rodong Sinmun, published an account of Kim Jong Un’s guidance of the rocket motor test on 18 March. Excerpts follow.
“Respected and Beloved Comrade Kim Jong Un, chairman of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK), chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), and supreme leader of our party, state, and army, watched the ground jet test of our-style high-thrust engine newly developed by the Academy of National Defense Sciences…”
“…The ground jet test of the new-type high-thrust engine was carried out with a goal to validate the overall technical indexes of the high-thrust engine, including features of thrust power in the combustion chamber, accurate movement of the turbine pump, control system, and various valves, and their structural safety and reliability….”
“…The respected and beloved Comrade Kim Jong Un went up to the observation post and gave an instruction to proceed with the test….”
“…The test result proved that the technological indexes of the new-type high-thrust engine designed and manufactured by our national defense scientists and technicians through their own strength and technology completely in our own style — including those of the starting and stopping features, features of the thrust power in the combustion chamber in the whole course of engine operation, and all systems including the turbine pump and control systems — accurately met the estimated values and were stably maintained, and also sufficiently guaranteed the structural reliability.”
“The respected and beloved comrade supreme leader said that the success of the test completely rooted out dogmatism, conservatism, and formalism that had remained in the rocket industry sector, as well as the dependence on and imitation of other countries’ technology, and that it is a great event with the historic significance of declaring a new birth of the chuch’e-oriented rocket industry, which has been firmly changed into a development-oriented and creative industry both in name and reality.”
“Then he emphatically said that the whole world will soon see what the momentous significance is of today’s great victory.”
“The respected and beloved comrade supreme leader said that the logistics industry front continuously achieved unprecedented achievements last year and this year again, adding vitality to the revolutionary grand march of millions of soldiers and people…”
This article has two technical sections. The first explains the goals of the test. The second identifies some of the systems on which the North Korean engineers and scientists were focused. The paragraph in which Kim said the successful test completely rooted out dogmatism, conservatism and formalism hints at programmatic or ideological schisms in the program. The brief mention of other countries’ technology suggests some experts in the program favored following Soviet or Chinese models for engine development. They were rejected.
Kim takes credit for backing the team that produced a successful test and for enabling a revolutionary breakthrough. However, it is possible that the rocket engine team just got lucky, if they were bypassing safeguards and standards used by countries that have established space engine programs. The next test could produce a catastrophic explosion. We’ve seen that before.
Kim’s comment about the whole world will soon see the momentous significance, etc., amounts to an admission that North Korea does not yet have an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). But they are working hard on one.
The oddest comment attributed to Kim is the remark that “the logistics industry front continuously achieved unprecedented achievements last year and this year again.” In plain language, this means that North Korea had success in bypassing UN sanctions last year and is continuing to have success. This is a deliberate slap at the UN Security Council. In that connection, Kim Jong Un deliberately had his scientists and engineers arrange the timing of this test to coincide with the US Secretary of State’s visit to China and on the day before his meeting with President Xi Jinping.
Progressive Icon vs Trump
ObamaCare
ObamaCare is dead. Everyone knows that including the Democrat Party, but they still bitterly cling to the past and the socialist wet dream of national (rationed) healthcare and two system. One for 98% of Americans and another for the uber-rich.
I think that the American Healthcare Act will work…not for everyone. People are bound to be dissatisfied here and there, but it should reduce the cost of healthcare and that’s the point. Get government out of the way to the extent possible and allow the free market to work. Naturally the leftists are outraged at the very notion of a free market. They feel that collectivism and income redistribution are the way forward. Thankfully, America does not agree.
Are we STILL part of the United Nations?
Why?
Mainstream Media Fools
I realize that if you’re a prog, you like CNN and NBC. Good for you.
It would be gratifying to receive actual international news from the American media, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Outside of somebody with a table cloth on his head denouncing Israel, it’s as if the world outside of the Beltway doesn’t exist. Even Fox News focuses on the banal (possibly required) rebuttal of fake news promoted by the corrupt, elite, smug, lying mainstream outlets.
One wonders if they will fire it across DPRK on the launch or go for a polar orbit??? Because if it goes the 'wrong' direction, there just might be a reaction!!!
Snoop Dog: it always amazes me that this no talent thug can make money doing anything, and yet the guy has a bazillion dollars.
Once anybody in Hollywood or the entertainment industry in general gets theirs, then they no longer concern themselves with trying to appeal to the largest audience possible. Meryl Streep, Cher, Babs Streisand and a few others come to mind: they don't give two craps whether they alienate 1/2 of their (former) fans when they shit all over those fans' philosophical beliefs.
That's an interesting question. If they launch north, it over-flies China and Russia and it would be bad if it dropped onto people living there if the rocket didn't fly straight. Today they have a 50-50 track record of getting it in the right direction, not blowing up on the pad, etc.
Or they could launch to over-fly Japan or ROK and they might shoot it down with their THAAD systems.
Acting is a job. Some people do it well. We go to see their films because we like how they pretend to be somebody other than who they are. Singers sing, guitarists strum. When they (Neeson, Hanks, Cher, etc.) depart from that, it's simply a bad idea. Many of them are chuckle-heads who do one thing well. Doing that thing well is a much better idea than their political crusades.
Here's to hoping for a launch pad meltdown for the next twenty shots. While I'm hoping, maybe someone will be brave enough to wipe some poison on Dear Leader's face. The last attempt got the wrong Un.
The venal, corrupt, hypocritical, rude, self-serving, fake news mainstream media are still trying to pound the increasingly feeble sounding Russian drum, not that it was ever convincing in the first place.
The PR crew that thought that genius up should be pilloried for the superminds they obviously aren't.
Curious about Flynn.
They don't have much else to do but "blame Russia" since George W. Bush isn't around to blame these days. He's been gone for 8 years.
Well put.
What do you think of he chances the Chinese will clandestinely take out the little turd?
At the moment, 50/50. It depends on opportunity. They may have been plotting to return the brother to power in a sponsored coup and that's why he was eliminated.
Kim Jong Un is a maniac and needs to take a few billion and flee to wherever will have him. But he won't. It's a Kim thing.
It's interesting that the most recent rhetoric from the Norks is toned way down. They took SECSTATE Tillerson seriously when he said there would be no more talking and no more ransom payments. That ship has sailed and we'll do what we have to do. The question is whether China would give us a wink and a nod to do what needs doing – a decapitation strike.
I wonder how many people had to disappear before this rocket engine worked? It will definitely be interesting to see which way the engine goes once a rocket is attached. I expect it will be a while. They wouldn't chance losing the one working engine, would they?
I am annoyed with the Republicans and their health care bill. I do not want a piece meal, three part whatever. Do they really think they can stay in office that long? (I mean I hope they do, but this bill may not keep them there.) They need to put everything in this bill. Especially allowing insurance companies to work across state lines.
I quit watching most of the others. Fox dropped in my opinon when they came right out of the chute for Jeb!.
Snoop Dogg? Bleah.
I'm positive that more than one rocket scientist in NorkLand ended up suspended from meat hooks, being lectured by Dear Leader on how he didn't work hard enough. Or maybe they just turn an anti-aircraft gun on a slacker as a lesson to motivate the rest?
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
LL,
With the national mainstay meal of tree bark (and trees getting collectively more naked) what is the cash crop available to the Norks to pay for the infrastructure necessary to run a nuclear and a space program?
They have to get stuff from somewhere.
As has been said, they sell their surplus to Iran (and formerly perhaps Iraq) they had to get that surplus from somewhere.
And who would loan money to a mooselimb wearing a suicide vest?
The best answer I have is China. As China make their version of nicey nice with the rest of the world (meaning the USA) their puppet, North Korea, rattles their borrowed sabre to push the attention elsewhere.
China wants to intimidate Japan, get the ugly puppets in NorK to handle the dirty work.
Take 382
Ms Streep, the line is "huh" try it with a little more feeling of empathy for the Burger King crowd please. Roll camera and action…..
The Norks are on a thin leash from China. They may have been grooming Kim Jong Nam (the brother – Kim) for the fat dictator's job. They had a trade relationship with Malaysia and may have been buying/trading with them. That door seems closed now. They do mine a lot of coal and China bought it until recently. Those sales, bringing in hard cash, have been curbed.
I didn't blog on it yet, but China is pushing a return to six party talks with the Norks, which President Trump ruled out. They don't work. Giving food to the Norks simply allows them to focus more on building the 'people's bomb' and the 'people's rocket'.
I think that China is concerned with the Norks because everyone knows that they are a client state. How much China does or does not do for them becomes a matter of international interest and China comes out on the losing end each time.
Regime change may be the only thing that the Chinese can do to help the DPRK out of the hole that Fat Kim is digging.
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