vxbush 1/8/2024 5:38:25 AM

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vxbush 1/8/2024 5:45:01 AM

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I can't decide how I feel about the news that Lloyd Austin was in intensive care for 3 days and the White House didn't know. On the one hand, part of me thinks that people should be able to do their jobs without needing to have the boss there every single moment. That includes any president of any organization. On the other hand, there is absolutely no way that Austin should have kept the White House or his coworkers out of the loop about where he was. He didn't need to give specific details, but criminy. Not inform your workers? Not inform your boss? People generally don't stay employed for long in the real world if you check out like this. 

Of course, we seem to have stepped over into Bizarro World at the start of the Biden administration. Given the focus of the US at this time, Stephen Kruiser suggested perhaps Austin was having his pronouns changed. 

vxbush 1/8/2024 5:50:55 AM

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Reminder: 23 states support the government's contention that it has the right to impose censorship on Americans via social media. The list of states supporting this are: 

• Arizona
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Nevada
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Vermont
• Washington
• Wisconsin

vxbush 1/8/2024 6:14:20 AM

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vxbush 1/8/2024 6:18:27 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 2:

So an update I just ran across makes this story slightly worse: Per Karen Townsend at Hot Air, Austin's deputy that assumed power was on vacation in Puerto Rico and didn’t return. Members of Congress had not been notified until the announcement on Friday.

Blimey. 

JCM 1/8/2024 7:27:38 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 2:

The public doesn't need to know. The rest of government, subordinates need to know he's out had have the alternate chain of command in place.

That's pretty basic stuff. There are protocols in place for all of it. If Austin didn't invoke the protocols. That is a problem. How can he trusted with everything else especially in a crisis.

JCM 1/8/2024 7:39:48 AM

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NTSB says the door plug from Alaska 1282 has been found

Very important pictures of the airplane there is ver little visible damage to the airplane. Exterior pictures show no tearing ro bending of the fuselage. It other door loss incidents often pieces of the fuselage are torn away. No sign of impact with a bird or other object. Inside you can see latching lugs which appear largely intact. A passenger could not have tampered with the door since a door was not in service and blank interior panel with a window was i place. not the interior fixtures for an exit.

JCM 1/8/2024 8:03:05 AM

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ULA's Vulcan rocket launches private US moon lander, 1st since Apollo, and human remains in debut flight

Vulcan performed well, which is good new we have 38 launches scheduled on Vulcan. The BE4 engines performed as expected, these are the same engines as Blue Origin will use on the New Glenn reusable booster. We have 27 of those scheduled. So good news for us and keeping a launch schedule.

Looks like the primary payload has run into issues.

Peregrine lander: Private US Moon mission runs into trouble.

Hope they can sort it out!

JCM 1/8/2024 8:07:52 AM

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My alma mater's football team is in the National Championship today.

College Football Playoff championship: Michigan-Washington preview

vxbush 1/8/2024 10:20:20 AM

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In #9 JCM said: My alma mater's football team is in the National Championship today. College Football Playoff championship: Michigan-Washington preview

I'll be honest--I'm still stunned Alabama didn't get in. They've been such a dominant team for so long. I might have a friend who is an Alabama disciple fan and he's always sharing how well the team is doing. Not this year.