Year: 2014

The Pentagon is Procuring Weapons at the Expense of Real Capability

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Two years after the USAF selected the 50 year old U-2 over the block 3 RQ-4 Global Hawk, drone because the 50 year Dragon Lady was cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, more reliable, and more capable, the USAF is trying to throw another bone to the military-industrial complex:

Less than two years after proposing termination and premature mothballing of the new Block 30 version—once eyed as a replacement for the venerable, high-flying U-2 reconnaissance aircraft—the Pentagon leadership is toying with a complete reversal on its position as it works through options for the fiscal 2015 budget proposal.

In a resourcing management decision—the mechanism by which the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) responds to the services’ annual spending plans—Pentagon budgeters gutted U-2 funding, shifting more than $3 billion into the Global Hawk Block 30 account. The decision is not yet final, and it remains to be seen whether the service will maintain its position from the fiscal 2013 budget. It favored halting Block 30 work and operations and focusing solely on the Lockheed Martin U-2 as the high-altitude, standoff intelligence collector for the next decade or more.

………

At issue for the Global Hawk is a dive in the cost per flying hour (CPFH) for the aircraft. In earlier fiscal years, CPFH was near that of the U-2 at roughly $33,000 per hr. Fiscal 2013 numbers, recently in from the field, point to a CPFH closer to $25,000, according to a program source.

The notable decrease is due to a substantial spike in the number of hours flown, a shift partly related to the fielding of the first Block 40s outfitted with active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars for ground surveillance, an Air Force official says. The official did not provide a total number for the year, but a larger number of hours allows fixed costs to be more diluted in the calculation. Though the Air Force has not publicly proposed terminating the Block 40 in budget plans, last year senior leaders were eyeing it for a kill. It was likely saved owing to the then open debate on the fate of Block 30.

Even if this new CPFH holds true in coming years, one program official notes that for some regions—such as the Pacific—Global Hawk must fly more hours to have an equitable time on station as the U-2. While CPFH may be lower for the Global Hawk, the figure is not reflective of the total cost to gather the needed intelligence.

To give an example, the unmanned air system (UAS) would have to fly 54% more flight hours to collect intelligence on areas in North Korea, the Middle East and Iran.

Even if this new CPFH (cost per flying hour) holds true in coming years, one program official notes that for some regions—such as the Pacific—Global Hawk must fly more hours to have an equitable time on station as the U-2. While CPFH may be lower for the Global Hawk, the figure is not reflective of the total cost to gather the needed intelligence.

To give an example, the unmanned air system (UAS) would have to fly 54% more flight hours to collect intelligence on areas in North Korea, the Middle East and Iran.

Nor is CPFH reflective of mission success rates between the two platforms. Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection is in high demand, and aircraft downtime is extremely worrisome for combatant commanders. In the Pacific, 55% of Global Hawk’s missions were canceled in fiscal 2013; 96% of the U-2’s missions were achieved. The U-2 was also scheduled for nearly three times as many missions. Global Hawk lacks anti-icing equipment and is not able to operate in severe weather. An upgrade to remedy the shortcoming is being developed by the Navy for its Triton Global Hawk variant, but it would cost money and time to field.

The program source argues that CPFH is not an accurate metric on which to make a decision. He notes that Global Hawks based in Guam have to transit for hours just to reach North Korea, whereas the U-2, based at Osan air base, South Korea, has a shorter commute.

Additionally, the service originally opted to terminate the aircraft because of the lackluster performance by its Raytheon Enhanced Integrated Sensor Suite—the camera used to collect visual, infrared, and radar images. Global Hawk also flies at a lower altitude—typically close to 50,000 ft.—making it more susceptible to some weather and offering less-than-optimal ranges for peering into an enemy’s territory. The U-2, by contrast, operates above 60,000 ft., and has nearly twice as much onboard power at the ready for collecting radar images. Forthcoming fielding of the secret, stealthy RQ-180 UAS (also developed by Northrop Grumman) probably contributed to the Air Force’s view that the Global Hawk is excessive (AW&ST Dec, 9, 2013, p. 20).

The only reason to do this is to throw some bones to Northrop-Grumman, the manufacturer of the RQ-4, so that some general can score a lucrative executive or consultant gig after they retire.

Our military-industrial complex is  corrupting and destroying our ability to defend ourselves.

Gun Control is More than Hitting the Target

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One of the facts about guns in the United States, and it is not acknowledged by either gun control advocates or opponents, is that something like ¼ of all gun owners are simply so stupid, or too negligent that their having access to a firearm is a hazard to themselves, their loved ones, and to society.

Case in point, actress, model, and wife of Miami Dolphins QB, Lauren Tannehill who left here AR-15 in a rental car:

A New York mom vacationing in South Florida was expecting a healthy dose of sun, surf and fun. Imagine her surprise when her daughter unzipped a bag in their rental Nissan Rogue and found a rifle — a big rifle. Looking just like the ones real soldiers use.

Horrified, she immediately called E-Z Rent-A-Car and then drove to the nearest police station.

And there would be one more surprise: The AR-15 semiautomatic had been left behind by model Lauren Tannehill, the wife of Miami Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

“We got out of the car, we were kind of freaked out,” Judith Fleissig recalls of the moment this month when she and her daughter found the weapon. “I didn’t want to touch it.”

Fleissig on Jan. 6 turned over the gun to the closest police station, following the rental company’s recommendation, officials said.

………

“Though dangerous if it would have landed in the wrong hands, it’s not criminal,” Broward sheriff’s spokeswoman Keyla Concepción said. “They simply forgot it.”

Lauren Tannehill, 26, is a model who was featured on HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” a reality sports documentary television series. The couple married in January 2012.

A model in possession of an AR-15, the civilian’s version of the military’s M-16, may be incongruous to some. But it shouldn’t surprise Lauren Tannehill’s fans who view postings of her on Twitter.

I am not suggesting a solution here, I am simply suggewsting that there are way too many people who are simply too f%$#ed up to own firearms.

We want to keep firearms away from felons and the mentally ill, and I think that finding a way to keep them from the criminally stupid is a good idea as well.

Occupy Wall Street Might Have Actually Won

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And the evidence comes from that Mecca of Capitalism, Davos, Switzerland:

Agree or disagree with the aims and means of Occupy Wall Street, but the movement changed the way we think about our world forever.

 For proof, look no further than the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos. Each year, the organization puts out a report indicating what it believes are the world’s biggest risks.

 For the past three years, income inequality has been the #1 global risk.

 But prior to 2012, inequality wasn’t even on the list. Those protests in 2011 clearly had a profound on global thinking, right up tot he elite level.

The corrupt capitalists at Davos appear to have learned fear.

Good.

Obama Presents Cosmetic Reforms to the US State Security Apparatus

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First, it must be noted that Obama’s definition of spying is the same as the one used by DNI James Clapper as an alibi for perjury, that you can collect everything, and it is not spying unless you actually call it up for a specific purpose, even if we have found that NSA employees tracking ex-giflfriends with that “not spying” data that they collected:

President Obama said Friday, in his first major speech on electronic surveillance, that “the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security.”

 Obama placed restrictions on access to domestic phone records collected by the National Security Agency, but the changes he announced will allow it to continue — or expand — the collection of personal data from billions of people around the world, Americans and foreign citizens alike.

 Obama squares that circle with an unusually narrow definition of “spying.” It does not include the ingestion of tens of trillions of records about the telephone calls, e-mails, locations and relationships of people for whom there is no suspicion of relevance to any threat.

 In his speech, and an accompanying policy directive, Obama described principles for “restricting the use of this information” — but not for gathering less of it.

 Alongside the invocation of privacy and restraint, Obama gave his plainest endorsement yet of “bulk collection,” a term he used more than once and authorized explicitly in Presidential Policy Directive 28. In a footnote, the directive defined the term to mean high-volume collection “without the use of discriminants.”

 That is perhaps the central feature of “the golden age of signals intelligence,” which the NSA celebrates in top-secret documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden. Obama for the first time put his own imprimatur on a collection philosophy that one of those documents summarized this way: “Order one of everything from the menu.”

 ………

 “It’s noteworthy that the president addressed only the bulk collection of call records, but not any of the other bulk collection programs revealed by the media,” said Alexander Abdo, an attorney with the ACLU’s national security project. “That is a glaring omission. The president needs to embrace structural reforms that will protect us from all forms of bulk collection and that will make future overreach less likely.”

Other bulk collection programs, like the NSA hoovering over 200 million text messages a day.

You could tell that this was entirely damage control, and an attempt to avoid any meaningful reform because of is bizarre and ahistorical invocation of silversmith and revolutionary Paul Revere:

In a speech that tried hard to defend the actions of the U.S. intelligence community while simultaneously admitting that some of those actions were unnecessary and egregious, President Obama on 17 January 2014 announced modest reforms of NSA spying practices that have been revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden.

 President Obama began by comparing the National Security Agency to the Sons of Liberty, an American revolutionary group famous for the 1773 Boston Tea Party, and one of whose members, Paul Revere, famously warned of incoming British troops. Ironically, Revere’s legendary midnight ride would have most likely been stopped by the British if they had the NSA’s metadata collection capabilities. Even more ironically, the American Revolution was kicked off in part by overly broad general warrants that gave British troops nearly unlimited power to search for contraband. It’s all about intelligence.

I would also suggest that you read Marcy Wheeler’s list of secret police style techniques that Obama thinks is OK, because he has claimed that there have been no abuses:

  • The spying on the personal lives of political opponents who have nothing to do with terrorism.
  • Spying on Antiwar activists. 
  • Continued activities forbidden by the FISA Court 
  • Never developed minimization procedures as required by law
  • Etc. (Read the whole thing at the link)

It’s no wonder that Glen Greenwald has dismissed this as a PR gesture.

Obama stressed the importance of restoring trust in our state security apparatus, and this does very little to inspire trust.

The definitive word comes from public interest Telco Maven Harold Feld, “First step of oversight that regains my trust. Actually enforce the law.”

This does not do that, and it is clear that the “Worst Constitutional Law Professor ever™” has no interest in ever doing so.

Added to My List of They Who Must Not Be Named ……… for a While, at Least ………

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Victoria Jackson, the ditsy SNL alum who has devolved into right wing parody, has been added to my, “They Who Must Not Be Named,” list.

Normally, she would be beneath the level of notice sufficient to get on the list, but seeing as how she is making noises about running for public office, I have put her on the list, at least until she actually runs:

I’m a proud, unabashed, and unapologetic Liberal. No surprise there, eh? That said, I’m not one to believe that only people who think like me are worthy of being involved in our political process. Yes, I believe most of today’s Conservative ideology is not just wrong, but dangerously so, but I think our democracy is best served by having both sides of the political/ideological fence represented. If nothing else, maintaining that sort of balance/tug of war helps to prevent the sorts of excess that can happen when one party enjoys an unbreakable grip on power.

Our democracy works best (and arguably only works at all) when those involved in setting policy have both feet firmly grounded in reality. With the advent of the Tea Party, that reality has been repeatedly proven to be elusive. The examples are too numerous to mention. Government doesn’t work when the people involved in it are, for lack of a more polite description, bat-$#!% crazy. I say this because it’s comes to light that Victoria Jackson, the Tea Party’s Queen of Bat-$#!% Crazy, is contemplating getting into politics. For reasons known only to herself, Jackson thinks she actually has something of value to offer. Unfortunately, the ability and willingness to repeatedly make a fool of oneself publicly isn’t much of a resume for an aspiring public servant. ………

In the name of all that is holy, I hope never to write of her ever again, but if she actually runs for office………

New York Times Walks Back Its Breathless Endorsement of Obama’s Dodgy Sarin Claims

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I missed it, but the Times has published a remarkably circuitous retraction of its early reporting on the so called “slam dunk” fingering the Assad regime for the Sarin attack:

A new analysis of rockets linked to the nerve-agent attack on Damascus, Syria, in August has concluded that the rockets were most likely fired by multiple launchers and had a range of about three kilometers, according to the two authors of the analysis.

 The authors said that their findings could help pinpoint accountability for the most lethal chemical warfare attack in decades, but that they also raised questions about the American government’s claims about the locations of launching points, and the technical intelligence behind them.

………

 The authors of the new analysis —Theodore A. Postol, a professor of science, technology and national security policy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Richard M. Lloyd, an analyst at the military contractor Tesla Laboratories — evaluated the exteriors of the implicated rockets, visible in videos and photographs. The analysis suggested that they were propelled by motors taken from a common family of 122-millimeter conventional artillery rockets known as the BM-21, the authors said.

 The BM-21 line is a globally abundant system of ground-to-ground rockets, colloquially called Grads, that originated in the Soviet Union but have been reproduced and updated by many countries, including post-Soviet Russia, China, Egypt and Iran. Both the Syrian army and the rebels possess them.

………

 “It is clear that if the U.S. government’s claims that the allegedly observed launches came from ‘the heart’ of Syrian government controlled areas, there is a serious discrepancy between the meaning of this claim, the technical intelligence it relies on, and the technical properties of this munition,” he wrote.

Using published data about characteristics of motors in various Grad rockets and derivatives, Dr. Postol and Mr. Lloyd calculated potential maximum ranges for the sarin-filled rockets, with an emphasis on a common Grad variant’s motor.

 “The dimensions of the inserted rocket motor very closely match the dimensions in the 9M22-U artillery rocket,” Dr. Postol wrote in an email on Thursday. “If the inserted motor is the same as the standard 9M22-U motor, then the maximum range of the munition would be no more than three kilometers, and likely less.”

That would be less than the ranges of more than nine kilometers calculated separately by The New York Times and Human Rights Watch in mid-September, after the United States had dropped its push for a military strike. Those estimates had been based in part on connecting reported compass headings for two rockets cited in the United Nations’ initial report on the attacks.

 The published range for a 9M22-U rocket is about 20 kilometers, or 12.4 miles. But the Syrian rockets carried a bulky and apparently flat-nosed warhead — Dr. Postol called it “a soup can” — whose range would have been undermined by its large mass and by drag, the authors said.

 Depending on the motors propelling different Grad models, the projected maximum ranges can vary from 2.5 to 3.5 kilometers, or 1.5 to 2.2 miles, Dr. Postol and Mr. Lloyd said.

 The longer estimates seem unlikely, Dr. Postol said, because as a sarin-filled rocket was pushed to greater air speeds by a more powerful motor, the stresses created by its non-aerodynamic shape could cause it to tumble or break apart.

As Robert Parry noted on Consortiumnews, the Times buried the story:

The New York Times has, kind of, admitted that it messed up its big front-page story that used a “vector analysis” to pin the blame for the Aug. 21 Sarin attack on the Syrian government, an assertion that was treated by Official Washington as the slam-dunk proof that President Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people.

 But you’d be forgiven if you missed the Times’ embarrassing confession, since it was buried on page 8, below the fold, 18 paragraphs into a story under the not-so-eye-catching title, “New Study Refines View Of Sarin Attack in Syria.”

Also, Seymour Hersh thoroughly documented the manipulation of the intelligence data, noting that, “A former senior intelligence official told me that the Obama administration had altered the available information – in terms of its timing and sequence – to enable the president and his advisers to make intelligence retrieved days after the attack look as if it had been picked up and analysed in real time, as the attack was happening.”

This official noted the similarities to the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Let’s see, we now have:

  • Obama attempting to lie us into a war.
  • Protecting Wall Street fat cats from meaningful consequences for their acts.
  • Get out of jail free cards for tortures in the US state security apparatus.
  • What looks increasingly like a full throated endorsement of the all encompassing security state.

This is going somewhere, but I cannot quite put my finger on it.

Not a Photoshop, Not The Onion

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This is where the spill occurred


Look at the detail on the billboard

If you do a Google maps of 2237 Pennsylvania Ave, Charleston, WV 25302, and then you do a Street View, you will see that it is right across from Freedumb Industries, the company that tainted water for 300,000 people in West Virginia.

If you do a street view, you will notice that there is a billboard which says, “The President talks about creating jobs, but his EPA is destroying jobs.”

Irony, you are soaking in it!

H/t DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS

So, When She Was a Teacher, Michelle Rhee Abused Her Students

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Not only did she do this, she bragged about this when she was DC Schools Chancellor:

Rhee had poor class management skills, she said, recalling that her class “was very well known in the school because you could hear them traveling anywhere because they were so out of control.” On one particularly rowdy day, she said she decided to place little pieces of masking tape on their lips for the trip to the school cafeteria for lunch.

“OK kids, we’re going to do something special today!” she said she told them.

Rhee said it worked well until they actually arrived at the cafeteria. “I was like, ‘OK, take the tape off. I realized I had not told the kids to lick their lips beforehand…The skin is coming off their lips and they’re bleeding. Thirty-five kids were crying.”

Now Ms. Rhee claimed later that she said this to “encourage” the first year teachers that she was talking to.

Yeah sure. You were “encouraging” them by admitting to child abuse.

She also fired a principal on camera.

I am so not surprised that she is married to Kevin Johnson, whose record on education, and his behavior towards students, is the subject of significant dispute:

Sexual assault and harassment allegations

During the summer of 1995, a sixteen-year-old girl living in his home alleged that Johnson had molested her. Johnson apologized to the girl when he was confronted by her with the accusation during a phone conversation recorded by Phoenix police. However, he also stated that “what you’re saying happened, I’m not entirely agreeing happened.”[62] The Sacramento Bee stated that they had received a copy of a proposed settlement agreement, under which Johnson would have paid the girl’s family $230,000.[63] After conducting an investigation, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute, on the grounds that there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction.[64]

High School investigation

On April 16, 2008, rival mayoral candidate Leonard Padilla distributed a 2007 report of similar allegations made against Johnson at St. HOPE Sacramento High School. The allegations were investigated by local police, but no charges were filed. On April 29, 2008, a group of female civic leaders including former Sacramento Mayor Ann Rudin, Sacramento Municipal Utility District board member Genevieve Shiroma, and former State Senator Deborah Ortiz demanded the release of the police report on the matter.[65] The teacher to whom the student initially brought the complaint subsequently resigned over the incident, claiming, “St. HOPE sought to intimidate the student through an illegal interrogation and even had the audacity to ask me to change my story.”[66] Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel responded, saying, “I think the allegations at the school were handled in the way that you would want them handled. Immediately they followed all the normal protocols that they were supposed to follow. I think it was pretty clear there was nothing there… We did ask the young lady whether anyone had influenced her – her answer was no.”[67] The Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said on May 30, 2008, that Johnson’s actions, though ill-advised, were not illegal.[68]

St. HOPE Academy’s alleged misuse of AmeriCorps funds

On April 9, 2009, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown announced that St. HOPE Academy had agreed to pay $423,836.50 over ten years in settlement of allegations that it did not appropriately spend AmeriCorps grants and education awards and did not adequately document spending of grants.[69] The settlement amount represented one-half of the $847,673 in AmeriCorps funds received by St. HOPE Academy over three years from 2004 to 2007.[69] Johnson, St. HOPE Academy’s founder and former CEO, agreed to pay $72,836.50 of St. HOPE Academy’s $73,836.50 initial payment.[69] In settlement, St. HOPE Academy acknowledged not adequately documenting a portion of its AmeriCorps grant expenditures, and the Corporation for National and Community Service terminated its September 24, 2008 suspension of St. HOPE Academy and Johnson from receiving federal funds, ending questions about Sacramento’s eligibility to receive federal stimulus funds.[69]

BTW, at the time of these allegations, Rhee was on the board of the St. HOPE school, and was informed of the allegations. 

Her response?  **crickets**

Why we would allow either of these people to get anywhere near children is beyond me.

Then again, anyone whose livelihood involves figuring out a way to allow for the Banksters to make money off of our children has pretty much offered a formal resignation from the society of “Mindful Human Beings.”

If You are a Disgusting Corrupt Evil Person, a Twitter Q&A is Not Recommended

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In this case, it is the woman whose business model is profiting on the misery of our children, former DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee who was surprised to encounter a well deserved buzz saw instead cute fuzzy kittens:

Apparently having learned nothing from last year’s #AskJPM and #AskRKelly debacles, controversial education reformer Michelle Rhee announced on Wednesday that she’d be answering questions from folks on Twitter using a hashtag of her own: #AskMichelle.

Anyone who isn’t a complete moron, as well as Michelle Rhee fan Matt Yglesias, realized this, but Rhee, because her evil is only exceeded by her feeling of her self worth disagreed:

@mattyglesias Make a New Years resolution to be positive, Matt! #AskMichelle
— Michelle Rhee (@MichelleRhee) January 15, 2014

Wrong:

.Dear @MichelleRhee, why have you never come clean about the cheating scandal in DC? You preach accountability but take none. #AskMichelle.
— Prison Culture (@prisonculture) January 15, 2014

#AskMichelle Why didn’t the StudentsFirstNY canvassers outside my school identify themselves, instead of just asking for signatures?
— Molly Knefel (@mollyknefel) January 15, 2014

#AskMichelle @MichelleRhee Do you think kindergarteners should have to take standardized tests? http://t.co/x3e30VDtR7
— Sarah Jaffe (@sarahljaffe) January 15, 2014

#AskMichelle is it a coincidence that state policies you rank as best have terrible outcomes and are radically right wing? @MichelleRhee
— Sam Knight (@samknight1) January 15, 2014

.@MichelleRhee Why aren’t Students First’s donors featured on your website? #AskMichelle
— Prison Culture (@prisonculture) January 15, 2014

.@MichelleRhee Why did you support OH’s Senate Bill 5 that stripped collective bargaining rights from all Ohio public workers? #AskMichelle
— Doug Foote (@FooteSteppes) January 15, 2014

Why won’t you disclose all your funding sources? #AskMichelle @MichelleRhee
— Mikey Franklin (@mikeyfranklin) January 15, 2014

How much $$ do you get from Walmart? RT @MichelleRhee: Im around for a little bit, anyone have any questions for me? Please use #AskMichelle
— Asher Huey (@asherhuey) January 15, 2014

Which brand of tape is best for shutting children’s lips? I smell a corporate partnership! #AskMichelle @MichelleRhee http://t.co/YUVdMZwayT
— Brian Thill (@Brian_Thill) January 15, 2014

More on the last tweet in another post.

This could not happen to a more deserving person.

White House Chooses George W. Bush Level of Stupidity

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According to reliable sources, Obama and senior White House staff believe that the NSA’s personal data driftnet would have saved us from the 911 terror attacks:

Many of President Obama’s closest advisors have embraced a controversial assessment of one of the National Security Agency’s major data collection programs — the belief that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks could have been prevented had government then possessed the sort of vast trove of Americans’ telephone records it holds now.

Critics of the NSA program, and some scholars of America’s deadliest terrorist attack, strenuously dispute the view that the collection of phone data would necessarily have made a difference or that the possibility justifies the program now. The presidential task force that reviewed surveillance operations concluded last month that the program “was not essential” to preventing terrorist attacks.

But as the president finalizes plans for a speech on Friday announcing his proposals to change intelligence operations and oversight, the widespread agreement at the most senior levels of the White House about the program’s value appears to be driving policy. As a result, the administration seems likely to modify, but not stop, the gathering of billions of phone call logs.

In recent White House meetings, Obama has accepted the “9/11” justification, aides say, expressing the belief that domestic phone records might have helped authorities identify some of the skyjackers who later crashed passenger jets in New York, the Washington area and Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

He is a F%$#ing moron, and his assessment of the program has him doubling down on stupidity:

He believes the main problem with the program is one of perception: Many Americans don’t trust the NSA, one of the most secretive of spy agencies, to respect civil liberties.

Americans do not trust the NSA to respect civil liberties because they don’t, and have never respected civil liberties.

I’m not sure why, but Obama seems to be dedicated to making sure that the inmates, intel in this case, the banksters in finance, run the asylum.

The US state security apparatus is a tool of US policy, when you allow them to self regulate, the same thing that happens to our civil liberties and due process that happens to our economy when allow the banksters to self regulative.

Can you say, “Gone Native?”

95 Years Ago Today

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The Great Molasses Flood of Boston:

On January 15, 1919—an unusually warm winter day in Boston—patrolman Frank McManus picked up a call box on Commercial Street, contacted his precinct station and began his daily report. Moments later he heard a sound like machine guns and an awful grating. He turned to see a five-story-high metal tank split open, releasing a massive wall of dark amber fluid. Temporarily stunned, McManus turned back to the call box. “Send all available rescue vehicles and personnel immediately,” he yelled, “there’s a wave of molasses coming down Commercial Street!”

More than 7.5 million liters of molasses surged through Boston’s North End at around 55 kilometers per hour in a wave about 7.5 meters high and 50 meters wide at its peak. All that thick syrup ripped apart the cylindrical tank that once held it, throwing slivers of steel and large rivets in all directions. The deluge crushed freight cars, tore Engine 31 firehouse from its foundation and, when it reached an elevated railway on Atlantic Avenue, nearly lifted a train right off the tracks. A chest-deep river of molasses stretched from the base of the tank about 90 meters into the streets. From there, it thinned out into a coating one half to one meter deep. People, horses and dogs caught in the mess struggled to escape, only sinking further.

Ultimately, the disaster killed 21 people and injured another 150. About half the victims were crushed by the wave or by debris or drowned in the molasses the day of the incident. The other half died from injuries and infections in the following weeks. A long ensuing legal battle revealed several possible reasons for the flood. The storage tank had been filled to near capacity on July 13 and the molasses had likely fermented, producing carbon dioxide that raised the pressure inside the cylinder. The courts also faulted the United States Industrial Alcohol Co., which owned the tank, for ignoring numerous signs of the structure’s instability over the years, such as frequent leaks.

The rest is even better, because they start to discuss things like Reynolds Numbers.

I got some serious geek on reading this.

Bummer of a Birthmark, Susan G. Komen Foundation

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As a result of their abortive (pun no intended) attempt to defund Planned Parenthood, their revenue has fallen by $77 million, about 22%:

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation committed one of the great PR faux pas of the decade in January 2012, when it summarily cut off funding to Planned Parenthood in what appeared to be a bow to anti-abortion crusaders.

Now, with its release of its latest financial statements, the cost of that decision can be measured: It’s more than $77 million, or fully 22% of the foundation’s income. That’s how much less the Dallas-based foundation collected in contributions, sponsorships and entry fees for its sponsored races in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013, compared with the previous year. The raw figures are these: In the most recent fiscal year Komen booked $270 million; the year before that, Komen booked $348 million.

………

The foundation’s decision to cease funding Planned Parenthood was a huge blunder. Komen officials said at the time that they had merely tightened grant eligibility rules to exclude groups under investigation by government authorities — Planned Parenthood was the target of a ginned-up “investigation” by anti-abortion Republicans in the House.

The decision by the nation’s leading breast cancer charity to defund the nation’s leading provider of health services to women sparked a predictable uproar, and Komen reversed the decision after only three days.

But the damage was immediate and, plainly, lasting. There were indications that the original decision had been driven by Karen Handel, the organization’s vice president for public policy, who had joined Komen after losing a race for governor of Georgia on an anti-abortion platform. She resigned from Komen days after the reversal.

The affair led to more public scrutiny of the foundation’s own record. It transpired, for instance, that while the foundation depicted itself as devoted chiefly to research for a breast cancer cure, it spent only about 20% of its donations on research; the biggest expenditure category was public education, at more than 50%. Critics questioned whether “education” really should be such a heavy priority in a field where research issues remain important.

George Herbert Walker Bush’s, “Thousand points of light,” in a nutshell.

All those people who talk about how how private charities can be a replacement for government action are full of it.

Not only are private charities rife with corruption and inefficiency, but we have wankers giving TED talks suggesting that the solution is to allow people to more aggressively loot. (More on that later)

Light Posting Tonight

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I had to apply the flea treatment to RP, and there was some blood, mine, not hers.

Not a whole lot of blood, enough to freak out my wife and my son, but not enough to freak me out.

I’m not sure why they were freaking out, it was my blood, after all.

No need for stitches, just some band-aids.

I have concluded that we are not going to get the feral out of this cat, and since it knows how to get into and out of our house, trap, neuter, and release in our neighborhood is not an option.

Anyone know of somewhere in a 100 mile radius of Baltimore that takes care of stray cats?

Linkage

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Your advertisement of the day: (Funny)

Things that I Really Did Not Want to Know

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Philadelphia police are looking for a scofflaw they call the Swiss Cheese Masturbator:

The cops are looking for him, and now a Philadelphia Magazine writer may have actually tracked down the man who’s been exposing himself in front of “a number” of Philadelphia women and asking them to jerk him off with a slice of swiss cheese.

According to reports, the overweight cheese aficionado likes to drive up next to women in parking lots, show them his genitals, and then offer them money to masturbate him with a slice of swiss. Other Philadelphia women have reported receiving similar messages from him on dating sites like OKCupid.

I should have taken the blue pill.

God Bless The Onion

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My Fellow Americans, Look At Me: Do I Look Like A Corrupt, Vengeful Bully?

 Commentary • Opinion • ISSUE 50•01 • Jan 9, 2014
By Chris Christie, New Jersey Governor

 I must admit, the past two days have been the most humbling of my entire career. I was shocked and disgusted to learn of the deplorable conduct of a member of my staff, who, without my knowledge, orchestrated lane closures on the George Washington Bridge, deliberately causing major traffic congestion in order to exact political vengeance against a local mayor who didn’t endorse me for reelection. Though I promptly fired the aide in question and repeatedly stressed that I had no prior knowledge of her actions, many have continued to accuse me of being complicit in this incident. And to those who do, I can only ask that you simply look at me, right now, and just ask yourself one question: Do I look like a corrupt, vengeful, openly antagonistic bully to you?

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