MrG's Blog & Notes

* This is an archive of my own online blog and notes, with weekly entries collected by month.

[MON 05 JUL 24] THE WEEK THAT WAS 31

DAYLOG MON 29 JUL 24: The sniping at Kamala Harris is of course ramping up -- one of the most obvious shots being: sHE's nOt QuAliFiED fOr tHe JOB! Ignoring the fact that her opponent is totally unqualified for the job, & the difficulty of finding a better candidate on short notice, then we are left with a fair record: DA of San Francisco from 2003, AG of California from 2010, US Senator from 2016, VP from 2020. On the basis of the qualifications of past presidents, she's at least middle of the pack.

For example, Barack Obama: Illinois state senator from 1996, US senator from 2004, POTUS from 2008 to 2016. Of course, any troll would immediately reply that Obama was "ThE w0r$T pRE$IdeNT EVR!!!" -- a ridiculous claim considering his successor in the White House.

The attacks on Kamala come as no surprise, however, it being a certainty that MAGA would attack a ... well, rhymes with SLACK EMAIL. The only surprise is how lethargic the sniping is. The Trump campaign is out of steam. Not even an assassination attempt livened it up.

* It's been hot lately, and I was wondering if fires were popping up in Colorado. Possibly just for saying that, I go out to get my mail and see a big smoke plume coming up due west of me, in the Rocky Mountain foothills.

Checking online says the fire is on Alexander Mountain, with locals being evacuated to centers here in Loveland -- pets going to the humane society, livestock to the fairgrounds. A number of helicopters and a single BAE 146 air tanker are on the job. I was close enough to see the air tanker shuttling through the smoke plume.

It's not too threatening just yet, but it's not contained. If the wind comes up, there will be really big trouble.

DAYLOG TUE 30 JUL 24: It's being reported that Donald Trump's presidential campaign is getting some bigtime funding from cryptocoin scammers. Figures. I wrote online: "As if we didn't have enough reasons to suspect them already."

* The Alexander Mountain fire to the west of Loveland CO continues to grow. At mid-day, I saw two Air Tractor cropdusters, working as fire spotters and air tankers against small outlier fires, headed towards the fire area.

The smoke plume shifts across town on occasion. I went for a spin on my Razor kick scooter this morning, with misgivings about the funky air, but the wind shifted to give me some relief. However, this will go on for weeks.

DAYLOG WED 31 JUL 24: KamalaMANIA continues, with a stream of support efforts popping up -- the latest being an endorsement by a hundred tech CEOs. In the meantime, Trump appeared at the National Association of Black Journalists, and insulted everyone. Wotta loser.

I would not place a bet at any odds that Trump will win the election, but the dismal prospect that he could win is still draining. To add to the drain, it's still too hot in NE Colorado, and the Alexander Mountain fire continues to spread.

I got up this morning and the air seemed clear, and I wondered for a moment if the fire was under control. I immediately thought back: No way. Loveland just wasn't in the direction of the prevailing winds. I went for a walk after sunup and the plume was to the southeast.

At least, as a plane-spotter, I see some interesting flying machines; there was a big Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter shuttling over my house today. I think there may be some Boeing Chinook helicopters involved as well. This is a big fire and it's getting priority.

Anyway, things are crummy right now; between the heat and the smell of smoke, I've got no appetite, my weight's gone rock bottom, and I'm thin as a rail to begin with. Lingering anxiety over the election doesn't help.

Oh well, compared to the people fighting the fire or running away from it, I've got no complaints. The heat wave is supposed to break on Tuesday, and things may be looking up then. As for the election, it's a bother but I'm not really sweating it. I'm surprised that anyone is.

DAYLOG THU 01 AUG 24: President Joe Biden just scored a coup by arranging the release of a number of American prisoners languishing in Russian lockups. Apparently, the deal was finalized while JB was considering dropping out of the presidential race.

When told that Trump said he could have got the prisoners back without having to give anything up, JB asked: "Why didn't he do it when he was president?" So much for JB in cognitive decline.

JB is also working on a bill for Supreme Court reform, including term limits and an ethics code -- while also calling for a constitutional amendment to define presidential immunity. Obviously, the court-reform bill won't be passed before he leaves office, so clearly it is being pushed now so it can be introduced as soon as possible in the new year. As long as the Supreme Court is dominated by extremists, not much else will get done.

JB is clearly focusing on getting as much done as he can before he leaves office. It's not just a question of personal legacy, he's also giving Kamala the maximum boost for her election campaign, and paving the way for her own agenda.

DAYLOG FRI 02 AUG 24: Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy was saying that if Ukraine had been given weapons and Russia subjected to severe sanctions before the 2022 invasion, the war would be over by now. Nonsense:

• Ukraine was and is not a NATO member, and NATO was under no obligation to drop everything and help.
  
  
• Many thought Putin was bluffing; after all, he'd threatened the Baltics before, and done nothing more.
  
  
• If NATO jumped the gun on Putin, he could use that as a pretext for invasion, which would have greatly complicated support for Ukraine.
  
  
• Since there was little advance warning of the invasion, nothing much could have been done before the assault started.
  
  
• Once Putin did invade, NATO was solidly committed to support Ukraine, all real doubts about doing so having evaporated. Weapons had been stockpiled and were airlifted in quickly.
  
  
• Russia actually was hit with severe sanctions -- but sanctions are tricky to figure out and enforce, and they do not work quickly.

What is Zelenskyy trying to do, making unproveable claims about "might have beens"? History is not a controlled experiment, we have no way of knowing what the result might have been under different circumstances. It seems what he's trying to do is shift the blame for the persistence of the war onto Ukraine's allies. That's understandable, but it's still annoying. NATO was not prepared for a war of this magnitude, and it could not be won quickly.

* The Alexander Mountain fire rages on, having consumed dozens of homes -- but it's moving west into the mountains, and not such a smoky nuisance here in Loveland for the moment. It's still hot and dry here, likely to stay so for at least another week.

I endure. The political battle is also hard to deal with. Trump is going down, no real doubt about it, but we're not out of the woods just yet, and he's still a threat. Nonetheless, contrast 2016 against 2024. In 2016, Trump was frighteningly going from strength to strength. In 2024, we've got Decrepit Donald's Dumpster Fire Clown Parade, and there's no reason to bet he's going anywhere at any odds.

PALMER REPORT notes that he's doing little campaigning, and when he does show his face, he flounders -- like his nasty and foolish performance at the Association of Black Journalists meeting. Incidentally, he was queried by Rachel Scott of ABC News, who has received death threats in consequence. It also seems plausible that the assassination attempt has made him scared to show his face in public, all the more so because event security before the shooting appears to have been slipshod.

Kamala is on a roll and her campaign is a clockwork steamroller. The Trump clown parade, in contrast, is going from fail to fail. The lethargy is evident -- like Trump gasps for breath walking up stairs. The GOP has been hollowing itself out for decades, & there's barely a shell left. The GOP gradually lost the mission until they couldn't drive the machine any more, with Trump taking the wheel. He couldn't drive either, but they didn't have anyone who could take the wheel back from him. They've had it.

Oh, late-breaking news: appeals having been exhausted, at least for the moment, Judge Tanya Chutkin -- in charge of Trump's Federal "election fraud" trial -- is moving forward. Right now, it's just more procedural things, but it's moving again. More bad news for Trump.

AND SO ON: Somebody posted on Spoutible a clip from a newspaper from over a century ago, saying that burning coal could lead to warming the climate. Actually, I replied, global warming from carbon emissions was projected by the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius in 1896 -- who didn't see it as a problem, saying that it would prevent another ice age. Indeed, there was a cooling trend in the postwar period due to air pollution.

My comment didn't seem to fly very well, so I added that the persistent warming trend began when air pollution declined. Up to that time, there had been a quarrel between factions, some predicting warming, some predicting cooling. It seems the faction predicting cooling was a minority, but whatever -- they lost the argument bigtime.

Climate change didn't really emerge as an issue until the 1970s and 1980s. Digital climate models require a lot of computing horsepower, and that was lacking in the 1980s. I found some blog comments saying that a Cray supercomputer of the 1980s was like three orders of magnitude less powerful than the cheap smartphone I just bought.

I then got to wondering if all smartphone processor chips have floating-point units -- way back when, processors normally didn't have an FPU. A quick check showed that all ARM chips, standard for smartphones, have an FPU. It would be absurd not to have one, since by modern standards an FPU doesn't take up much silicon real estate.

[MON 12 JUL 24] THE WEEK THAT WAS 32

DAYLOG MON 05 AUG 24: There was a GIF going around reading: "The biggest Super Bowl in history is coming up, November 5th: It's the PATRIOTS VS the STEALERS!"

There's a symmetry here that I didn't notice before it was pointed out. The UK's Tory-crushing general election was on the 4th of July. Our election is on ... Guy Fawkes Day. Suggestive?

This week, Kamala Harris does whirlwind campaigning through six states. Trump does ... Montana. It appears he's not up to campaigning any more, and would prefer to show in a state where he won't look too bad. Not incidentally, John Cleese recently tweeted: "I confidently forecast that Trump & his followers will get weirder & weirder the more that they panic. And panic they should, because what's happening is not the end of the world -- it's the end of THEIR world."

* Ukraine has finally got its hands on F-16s -- a fact that raises more questions than it answers. Were they upgraded to latest standard? Or just given a quick fix? Preparatory to much more significant upgrades? Are they only being transiently based in Ukraine? Shuttling to Romania or Poland for servicing? What sort of weapons are they getting? AMRAAMs to be sure, but maybe the new AIM-260, now going into production? Or the AIM-174, an air-launched SM-6 extreme-range missile? If we see a sharp uptick in Orc air losses, particularly at extreme range, that will be a big hint. I think things will be clearer by the end of the month.

* The Colorado Alexander Mountain fire continues to burn, but it's not much bother in Loveland, the winds pushing it west into the mountains. At last report, it's 3/4ths contained. As long as big winds don't come up, things are looking good.

I was thinking fire containment starts out slow, picks up pace, and then ends slow. MS Copilot confirms this: it starts out slow because it takes time to set up the system to control the fire, with fast progress once it's in place. Final mopping up then takes time.

DAYLOG TUE 06 AUG 24: Today the other shoe dropped and Kamala Harris announced her vice-presidential pick -- which turned out to be Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, 60 years old. I only vaguely knew the name, so I checked him out.

Originally from Nebraska, he became a high-school teacher of geography, and also a football coach. In parallel, he was with the Army National Guard, ultimately mustering out as a master sergeant. He became a Member of the House of Representatives in 2006, graduating from the House to Minnesota governor in 2018, being re-elected in 2022. He's entirely MidWestern in appearance, definitely appealing to rural white folks, but still has a good liberal record.

One could not have selected a better balancing act. There was talk about tagging Pete Buttigieg for the slot, but though he's clearly a megawatt-level intellect, he couldn't have balanced the ticket nearly as well. The selection further boosted KamalaMania, to which we can now add "TimInsanity". Of course, MAGA keeps up the smear campaign, playing up a drunk-driving rap from (checks notes) 1995. Boring.

* KYIV POST had an article titled: "Pro-Ukraine lobbying efforts bet on Trump pivot to look tough on Putin!" I had to think that people in Kyiv do not understand how absurd the headline was, on several levels.

The first misunderstanding was thinking that policy statements from Trump mean anything. He's no more capable of coherent policy than a 6-year-old. If returned to power, he would knife Ukraine without hesitation. The second misunderstanding was thinking that Trump has any prospect of winning this election. People in Kyiv see the polls and don't realize they are meaningless. Trump is in steady decay, while Kamala goes energetically from strength to strength.

In 2016, everything Trump threw at Hillary stuck; in 2024, nothing sticks to Kamala. People in Kyiv also do not realize that there is very little enthusiasm for Trump on the streets, with Trump hats and signs having largely disappeared.

DAYLOG WED 07 AUG 24: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, having become Kamala Harris' vice-presidential pick, has helped accelerate the campaign, Democrats greeting Walz with a wild excess of enthusiasm. Walz superficially looks like a traditional Republican, but he's fed up with the GOP's descent into crime and has embraced liberalism. I'm seeing more of these guys all the time. Good.

Trump, in the meantime, is losing it more every day. Latest story is that Trump thinks Joe Biden will try to steal the nomination back from Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention. Some people are offended at the suggestion; myself, I find it deranged.

Not really incidentally, Trump continues to sink with cryptocoin. Cryptocoin scammers are backing him heavily, since he promises to be nice to them. In the meantime, the SEC and the FTC are hammering away at cryptocoin companies. THEY DESERVE IT ALL.

* On 29 July, in Southport UK, a deranged teenager went on a stabbing spree at a Taylor-Swift-themed dance class, with three girls killed. The attacker was of Rwandan parentage; in response, the British Troglodyte Right rioted at immigrant centers and the like.

The demonstrations have persisted, the police having made hundreds of arrests. British PM Keir Starmer, once a prosecutor, denounced "Far-Right" thuggery and said there would be zero tolerance for attacks on British Muslims, who have been singled out by the rioters. The riots are not at all spontaneous, they are clearly part of an organized program, and I suspect the ring-leaders are going to be treated harshly by the authorities.

Prominent British Troglodyte Nigel Farage put in overtime encouraging action -- using dog whistles to deny responsibility, of course. One wonders if Starmer will find some way of stepping on him.

   I saw Farage upon the stair,
   talking trash that fouls the air.
   He's talking trash again today --
   Oh how I wish he'd go away.

In the wake of the collapse of the Tories, Britain's Troglodytes are asserting their fading relevance. We may see something of the same here in the USA next year.

DAYLOG THU 08 AUG 24: Donald Trump's dying presidential campaign took a big self-inflicted hit today, in the form of a 90-minute press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He was totally incoherent and disconnected from reality. The failure continues -- how will it end?

One Nicole Russell, writing in USA TODAY, admitted that Trump had lost it, but insisted he was still better for America than Kamala Harris. I stopped reading right there. Any GOP who are not saying VOTE FOR KAMALA are still obediently working for Trump.

Tony "The Mooch" Scaramucci, commenting on Trump's epic failure today, pointed out that from 2016, like 20 million baby-boomers have died, while 40 million Gen-X have come of voting age. MAGA is doomed whether they care to admit it or not. There is still a finite chance that Trump could win in November -- but it's not worth betting on. The only interesting question is how brutally the GOP will suffer on the down-ballot.

* An article from CNBC pointed to recent price fluctuations of cybercoin, saying it was a risky investment: "It's pure, unadulterated speculation." I had to echo the article, adding: "Well yeah duh." There's a fine line between "wild speculation" and a "con".

* Weather in Colorado has turned, somewhat surprisingly for August, cool and damp, with the effect that the Alexander Mountain Fire is nearing full containment. About 50 homes and buildings were lost. I was expecting it to go on for longer, but it's winding down.

The quick turn towards cool was educating: my digestion improved, I slept better, I didn't feel tired and grumpy all the time. Once I get through July, August isn't as tough. We'll still have hot days, but the longer nights will help.

DAYLOG FRI 09 AUG 24: Kamala & Tim continue to be on a roll, Trump (forget about Vance) continues to sink. Sometimes I look at KamalaMania and see it as hyped and theatrical, then think: So what? A presidential campaign is theater in the first place.

The MAGA trolls are out to get Tim Walz, but not having much luck. They threw the fact that he's not very rich at him, but that only helped prove he was an ordinary Joe. There's some MAGA calling him "Tampon Tim", for reasons not worth investigating.

They said he resigned from the Army National Guard to keep from going to Iraq, but he'd been in the ANG for 24 years, he could resign when he liked, and he wanted to run for Congress. Besides, his unit didn't get orders for Iraq until 2 months after he resigned.

Joe Biden has suggested Trump will contest the election if, as seems very likely, he loses. Again: So what? It didn't work before, and we're not going to be taken by surprise this time. I wrote on Spout in reply to Trump: Bring it on, loser.

* Armed Forces Ukraine has been conducting a raid in force into Russia's Kursk Oblast, on Ukraine's borders, on a tear and inflicting severe damage on the Russians. Russian forces have reacted, but the AFU doesn't seem to be slowing down at all. I was thinking they would hit and run, but this looks like a more serious operation.

AND SO ON: Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch has been on something of a tear himself lately, publishing a book saying Americans are drowning in regulations, saying that Democrats need to "be careful" about SCOTUS reform.

Justice Gorsuch seems to misunderstand his position. The decisions being made by the Right justices in SCOTUS these days seem to constitute a program in which the judiciary assumes the authority to override at will laws made by Congress. That appears to be the thinking behind the philosophy of "originalism", in which the Constitution is narrowly interpreted to only permit exactly what the original Framers decided to permit.

Originalism is a ridiculous idea, to the extent that the Right on SCOTUS tend to be evasive about their support of it. Not only is such thinking applied to issues the Framers couldn't have imagined, much less had an opinion on, but it also ignores the Elastic Clause -- which says Congress can pass any laws it likes as long as they don't violate the Constitution -- and the 9th Amendment -- which says that the American people could be granted rights even if not enumerated in the Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton once commented that the judiciary is the weakest of the three legs of the American government: the executive controls the government, including the military, while Congress controls spending -- and also creates the laws. The judiciary is dependent on the executive for carrying out its judgements, and is dependent on Congress for funding. If SCOTUS tries to override, on vaporous pretexts, laws passed by Congress, Congress will pass a new Judiciary Act to bring SCOTUS back in line. Assuming things go well in November, Justice Gorsuch and the other Right justices may find themselves in the doghouse.

[MON 19 JUL 24] THE WEEK THAT WAS 33

MON 12 AUG 24: I was thinking the Armed Forces Ukraine incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast was a raid and would be over with quickly, but the fighting seems to be intensifying this week. At least 2 AFU brigades are in the battle. [UPDATE: It seems more like 4 at last notice.]

Their columns appear to have SAM support, possibly with the German MEADS mobile Patriot system. Presumably other advanced weapons that we don't know about are in the fight as well. There is clearly an ambitious plan, but it's not easy to see what it is.

Vladimir Putin says he will hit back. What? "No more Mister Nice Guy?" The AFU is a step ahead of him. Reports of fighting on the Donbas front indicate a sharp recent uptick in Orc casualties -- another hint of new AFU weapons, in quantity.

TUE 13 AUG 24: Relative to Ukraine's operation in Kursk Oblast ... is it a coincidence that it followed the arrival of F-16s in Ukraine? The F-16s are clearly being used for air defense; might Ukraine be calling out Orc air power to destroy it? At least, that might be part of the game.

* Elon Musk had an interview with Donald Trump on Twitter yesterday that was, by all reports, exactly as big a dumpster fire as it could be expected to be. Musk is pathetic. Today, a GIF went around on Spout: "Elon Musk went from Tony Stark to Lex Luthor in 2 years."

* I like to pick up trash on my morning walks. The trash can reflect current technological trends -- some years back, CD-ROMs were nothing unusual. The other day I found a gadget that looked like a bright translucent orange toy version of an old-time phone pager.

It was labeled RAZ. I was mystified, but found out it a disposable vape unit. Not being into vaping, I can forgiveably admit ignorance. What looked like an antenna was a nipple. I wanted to see if I could fill it with water so I could use it as a steam inhalator, but no joy.

WED 14 AUG 24: Kamala Harris's presidential campaign has been on a big roll since it kicked off. As pointed out by a number of people just recently -- most prominently one John A. Stoehr -- she's been driving forward while limiting access by the press.

Of course, the media's disgraceful treatment of Joe Biden is clearly a factor in this, but likely more importantly, she just doesn't really need the media very much. In the modern age, the press is only one pathway to the public, and has become very weak.

Media figures aren't happy with that, CNN's Chris Cillizza saying that "the media is a critical part of our political system and any candidate ... should be regularly subjected to scrutiny from the press."

This from people who ignored all of Joe Biden's major accomplishments and carped endlessly about petty verbal gaffes -- while simultaneously giving Donald Trump generous benefit of the doubt. The media's credibility is shot. Kamala gives them the respect they deserve. As Stoehr put it: "This is a democracy. Harris is obliged to talk to Americans. That's the end of her obligation. She is not obliged to talk to the press corps as if it were a constituency." The press, in saying otherwise, shows an inflated sense of its own importance.

The press corps can get the campaign's press releases and speeches just like the rest of us. The irony is that the press is likely to be nicer to Kamala if she's not so nice to them. The press is now going through a transformation that will take some years to sort out. America after Trump will be clearly different than it was before, but we can't know in what way.

* Ukraine's offensive into Russia's Kursk Oblast continues, as does the effective news blackout of what's going on. Kyiv reports that four Orc airbases have been hit, presumably by drones and maybe some missiles -- but we don't know what damage has been done yet.

THU 15 AUG 24: One Gary Franks, previously a black congressman, wrote an essay titled: "America's Honeymoon With Kamala Harris Is Ending Soon". It was straight MAGA trash: Kamala is only doing one debate and not courting the press; crooked Dems are unfairly cornering the black vote; Kamala spoke at her AKA sorority gathering instead of listening to Bibi in Congress; Trump is playing it cagey; yada yada yada. Mr. Franks does not notice Trump's ongoing disintegration, and doesn't realize that Kamala will beat Trump like a drum.

Trump is playing small venues and not so many of them. Since he rarely pays his debts, he has to pay in advance. When he talks, it's incoherent, mindless, and malign drivel.

I was chatting on Spout that even before Joe Biden dropped out, Trump was going down. Joe's debate pratfall derailed him, but Kamala came roaring on. Yeah, the miserable conduct of the MSM was what primarily did Joe in, but what's done is done. So ... pretty soon we won't be "Ridin' With Biden" any more. It was great while it lasted. I'm hoping he gets some work in the new era: ambassador to Ukraine? Joe wants to take down Putin, and I hope Joe sees it happen.

* Speaking of the Biden Administration, the FTC has now declared rules banning businesses from generating fake reviews. The FTC will fine violations. Businesses will not have to monitor their review pages for user-generated fake reviews.

FRI 16 AUG 24: The Armed Forces Ukraine incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast has now passed its tenth day. The AFU is there in force and is not in any hurry to leave; the Russians have been caught flat-footed and are getting the worst of it.

Not much else is clear, AFU "OPSEC" being very tight. No specifics of the operation or its goals have been released. Some news media has said the operation caught the USA off-guard, but that's nonsense: it's a major operation, the USA had to be involved in planning.

The 2nd Battle of Kursk hints at the answer to the puzzle of why growing stocks of munitions don't seem to be getting to AFU defenders quickly: the munitions were being stockpiled for this operation. Clearly, new types of munitions have arrived in quantity as well. This relates to the myth that the USA has been "withholding" weapons from Kyiv. The reality is that almost everything useful that is available is being given to Kyiv -- with cover stories generated to conceal weakness.

AND SO ON: One Hans Petter Midttun -- a defense analyst and a former Norwegian military officer -- wrote in KYIV POST that the Ukraine War is often described as a "stalemate", but that's misleading, as demonstrated by the AFU invasion of Kursk Oblast. That's hardly all of it:

QUOTE:

END_QUOTE

Ukraine has enjoyed particular success against the Russian Black Sea Fleet, using "sea baby" drones to sink a third of its vessels, and hitting the BSF's infrastructure as well. Ukraine is also making good use of commercial space intelligence, along with intelligence provided by NATO allies. In the meantime, Ukraine has been conducting an intensive cyberwar campaign, both to collect intelligence and degrade Russian information systems.

Warfare suffers from a dilemma: all preparations to take the fight to an enemy give that enemy the exact same amount of time to prepare themselves. As a result, from the fall of 2023 Russia has been able to take the initiative and make creeping gains on the battlefield. Getting out of this vicious circle requires obtaining an edge on the enemy, and in many dimensions Ukraine has already done so. With growing support from allies and new weapons, the edge is likely to get bigger.

[MON 26 AUG 24] THE WEEK THAT WAS 34

DAYLOG MON 19 AUG 24: A BBC Online article reviewed the rise of Kamala Harris from 2020 presidential candidate, to vice-president, and now a presidential candidate again. It was a flattering article, but peculiar in some ways.

The premise was that, as vice-president, Kamala got off to a shaky start, confronted with a series of stumbles. She took on immigration as an early issue, even though it was a thankless task where success was elusive. The fall of ROE V WADE then gave her a strong platform.

All that was more or less true, though talk of internal White House difficulties is not credible; the Biden White House ran a tight ship, with commenters trying to read big things into little rumors. In reality, she didn't have much of a public profile.

That worked to her advantage. Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley suggested that Kamala's low profile makes her a blank slate to voters -- in a good sort of way, everyone seeing in her candidacy what they want to see in it. The low profile also left the trolls at a loss when Joe Biden bowed out and the campaign flipped.

The article suggested the election will be a tough contest, and Kamala will find tougher going as election day approaches. That clashes with the reality that Trump, MAGA, and the GOP are steadily disintegrating. It will get worse for them. Some of the same nonsense was circulated by other articles, one saying that Kamala's wild popularity is resented by some Biden associates. Possibly so, but JB himself is likely very pleased with the energy of the campaign. He kicks off the Dem National Convention tonight.

DAYLOG TUE 20 AUG 24: Joe Biden spoke at the DNC last night, saying: "Democracy must be preserved." -- and: "I made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you." He certainly did. He got a standing ovation and cheers of: "Thank you, Joe."

The DNC is turning out to be precisely organized, one interesting detail being the accommodation of online influencers -- with an implied snub to the mainstream media. The MSM has been declining for years, but now it's falling apart. I didn't see the collapse coming.

Few are sorry to see them fall. The MSM started going off the rails in 2016 with "Hillary & the emails". They're not able to touch Kamala, however; although the MSM had been cutting down Hillary for about two decades before 2016, they were caught flat-footed with Kamala. They just had basically ignored her and didn't have much to throw at her.

I sometimes wonder why I'm still stressed out over the election when it's obvious Trump is falling apart; I think it's because the MSM's nonsense frustrates me. The bogus polls are part of the problem. We have polls saying Trump is seen as better on economic policy; ridiculous, Trump never had any real policies, and nobody voted for him on the basis of economic policy. They only voted for him to "own the libs".

DAYLOG WED 21 AUG 24: Barack and Michelle Obama were the stars of the DNC last night. Barack got in a good one, talking about Trump's "weird obsession" with crowd sizes, moving his hands in Trump's "squeezebox" gesture. Barack then glanced at his hands and put them down.

C'est drole. It got roaring laughter. Apparently, the gag wasn't scripted, it just happened. The Obamas also warned that it was going to be a close race -- myself, I don't think so. Trump continues his steep decline, and the Obamas aren't in a position to notice the general disappearance of TRUMP signs, hats, & bumper stickers.

* The Kamala campaign has generated its list of economic objectives, one being to curtail "price gouging" and overblown profits. Of course, the GOP trolls were quick to claim that meant "price fixing" -- which has a long and perfect level of failure.

That's not what it means. Joe Biden has been publicly denouncing companies jacking up prices, shrinking their product packages, and piling up profits, accusing them of driving inflation. Economists say that's simplistic, but it's not completely wrong either.

It does deflect blame from the White House to the companies, but more importantly it pressures the companies. Inflation can be driven by material factors, but it has a strong psychological component; Biden's psychological warfare is likely to be effective.

It seems that many states do have price-gouging laws, targeting excessive price hikes for necessities during a crisis. The FTC can implement comparable policies, but again much of the effect is psychological. The Biden White House is not really anti-business, instead seeking to build communications with the business community, and encourage them to be good actors.

* Ukraine launched a big drone attack on Moscow last night, the Russians claiming they shot down 11 drones, suffering no damage. I'm wondering if the Ukrainians are flying in jammer drones and lots of small decoys, possibly with light warheads.

In the meantime, the Kursk incursion continues. Some reports say it's still a roaring success, others that Ukraine made a ghastly mistake and is suffering badly. The reality is: OPSEC continues to be tight, and we don't know what's going on.

* A Spouter today proposed the nickname "0R@nGe DiP$h1T" for Trump. I replied: "Definitely not the taste you'd go for at Baskin-Robbins." I got a LIKE out of that.

DAYLOG THU 22 AUG 24: News reports say that since Kamala Harris went on campaign, she's pulled in over a half-billion USD in donations, and money's still coming in. The big haul is partly due to donors who didn't want to support Joe Biden but are now paying up. In any case, Trump is falling behind ever faster.

* A few days back, there was irritation online about the bogus fact-checking from the media -- the case in point being one Amy Gardner of WAPO, who dinged Joe Biden for saying Trump won't accept the results of the 2024 election if he loses.

Gardner took the gaslighting way Trump makes such declarations at face value and said JB had got Trump wrong. Gardner was widely mocked, since everyone knows that Trump's SOP is: Heads I win, tails you cheated. He never varies from that principle.

The DNC's favoriting of online influencers over the traditional media has got the media really mad. Too bad for them. The media is imploding. I had been wondering for some time what would happen to FOX News in the post-Trump era, but now it's obvious: FOX will be flushed down the dumper along with the rest of the media. Parts of the media will survive, but it's not clear what the new landscape will look like.

I had a thought that the White House should abandon the press room and do daily press briefings on Zoom. Not only would that generally shut down pests like FOX's Peter Doocy, it would allow much wider access. It would be tricky to implement, but the current scheme is no longer working.

DAYLOG FRI 23 AUG 24: Last night was the end of the DNC, with Kamala Harris pumping up the crowd with an acceptance speech. I haven't had time to listen to all of it -- though I did find a site named SINGUPOST.com that provides transcripts and had the speech.

I did listen to Republican Adam Kinzinger's short speech, which blasted Trump, praised Kamala, and asked GOP to vote for her. Some of the Redline Left on Spout were contemptuous, saying that Kinzinger is still GOP under the skin, but my attitude is: So what?

It's good for enemies to surrender; it means we're winning. As for their allegiance to GOP memes, that ship is sinking, will sink, and they can't go back to it. What happens to them after the election? They can't form a Center-Right party; as I keep saying, the Center has shifted Left. DEI, LGBT and reproductive rights, sensible gun-safety laws, climate change action, and in general responsible government are now Centrist ideals. They'll end up Moderate Democrats. They try to stay Right instead, they end up joining hands with MAGA, which doesn't have a future. America after the election will be turned upside down, and it's impossible to say what it will be like after it settles out.

* Reports from Ukraine indicate that the Russians are unable to effectively respond to the Armed Forces Ukraine offensive and are reeling -- the Orcs aren't even replying with much of a propaganda offensive, like they don't know how to react.

What is the plan? AFU's not talking. Could they be trying to perform an end run all the way around the Orcs, cutting off Luhansk and Donetsk Cities, terminating in Melitopol? That seems impossibly ambitious, but then what are they doing?

Last year, Orc countermeasures neutralized GPS-guided munitions. Now AFU guided munitions seem to be working lethally well. What's changed? I was reading about the Precision Guidance Kit from Northrop Grumman, which is a finned smart fuze to screw into 155-mm shells. Circular error probability for the PGK is given as 30 meters / 100 feet, which seems poor. NorGrum says they're refining the PGK, but not saying how. Latest PGKs are much chunkier than the originals. I'd sure like to know what's going on, but I'll just have to wait.

AND SO ON: Last Sunday I went to the Pike's Peak Airshow in Colorado Springs. It's like about a three-hour drive south from Loveland Colorado, so I got up early and arrived when it opened. There was a good number of nice aircraft displays, including an MV-22 Osprey, some E/A-18 Growlers, and some F-22s, and I got a pile of good photos. I only stayed about 90 minutes, since I don't have good enough gear to get worthwhile aerial shots, and then took the 3-hour trip back north.

The trip went perfectly -- all on schedule, did all I wanted to do, no wrong turns on the road. I did forget to mark the critical exit number on my map notes, but after some anxiety I identified the exit when I came up to it. There was moderate congestion going through Denver on the way back north, but no gridlock.

I had to conclude, however, that I won't go to an airshow again, unless it's something really special. I was getting photos of aircraft that I already had plenty of good shots of in my collection; I was clearly at the point of diminishing returns. I may go to the Smithsonian Museum of Air & Space on the National Mall in DC when it re-opens in later 2025, but I'll fly in and out.

I took my Osmon Pocket 3 gyro-stabilized camera with me to tinker with it, but I couldn't get it to work right -- it was hard to aim with the stabilization system fighting me. It's substantially different from any other camera I've owned. I thought I had lost it when I got home, but after some anxious moments I found out I'd carelessly hidden it from myself in the car.

On further investigation after I got back home, I figured out how to aim the camera. There's a little joystick button next to the power / shutter button; press the button twice, it sets the camera to stare straight ahead. The consequence is I have to point the camera in the right direction without looking at the display, then center the camera. There's a trick in that by default, the camera will always be on the level, making it impossible to take downward shots -- but I can set a stabilization mode that permits it. I can also touch the display to select a tracking target. I'm still not sure how really useful the camera is to me, but it's fun to play with.