Howdy All, a few Interesting Items for your information. Enjoy –
In this issue –
1. Filibuster
2. Election Analysis
3. Comey
4. Haven-1
5. Burevestnik
1. Filibuster. We are well into our fifth week of government shutdown as senate democrats believe they can generate some sort of political advantage continuing the sideshow. Remember these are theater kids, with no conception nor concern about the actual damage this is causing. There was some speculation that they would vote to open the government after the Tuesday elections. Problem is that democrats did pretty well in those elections, apparently learning that the intransigence of an extended shutdown, refusal to pass a budget was somehow a Good Thing for them in future elections. At least one democrat was reported wanting to keep the shutdown going until Nov 2026 so as to milk maximum advantage for democrats in the midterms. I have found no other confirmation of that suggestion, though I did hear the report. How is this happening? The shutdown is due to a silent filibuster by Senate democrats who have so far refused to pass a budget. Perhaps it is time to have a filibuster discussion. Under today’s Senate rules, the filibuster no longer applies to judicial appointments, reconciliation bills (budget) or most presidential nominations. In the budget world under regular order, the House is supposed to pass 12 spending bills. When these bills are passed by the Senate, they are reconciled and go back to both houses for approval. It is that point where the filibuster is no longer applicable. For the last six weeks, legislation passed by the House goes nowhere until its backers pass a 60-vote threshold, requiring 7-8 rational democrats to vote with them. Last week, President Trump started calling to change the filibuster. There was immediate pushback by a number of unsupportive Republican senators. Among those are both from Alaska, Sullivan and Murkowski. While I understand and appreciate the necessity to shut down the filibuster, especially if democrats are currently acting in bad faith and are expected to remove it the next time they hold a majority in the senate, why wait? Why not remove the filibuster for budget bills and leave everything else alone? An alternate path would be to eliminate the silent filibuster. The silent filibuster fell out of a 1975 Senate rules change that changed the filibuster threshold from 66 to 60 votes. It allowed any senator to invoke a filibuster without saying a word on the floor of the senate. The rule change did not touch the old talking continuously filibuster. What is going on today is a silent filibuster. I would revoke that rule immediately and force democrat senators to run their mouths on the floor from now until doomsday, all in the light of day. I would also televise the proceedings 24/7 until this foolishness ends. Want to act in bad faith? Go for it, Hoss, while everyone watches. Note that an agreement ending the shutdown was approved Sunday. Both sides are currently celebrating victory and trashing their senators for caving in to the Other Side. More on that next week as we find out what was agreed to.
2. Elections. Elections were held in a number of locales last Tuesday. It was a pretty good night for democrats in blue states, not so good for Republicans as the old conservative complacency kicked in yet again. Turnout in VA, NJ and NYC approached levels seen during presidential years. The young, particularly young college educated women voted for democrats at the 80-20% range. This means that continuous democrat efforts to stir up their base has been successful and highly effective., though it has made them psychotic. As with all elections, there are things to think about afterwards.
- First and foremost is the success of the Zohran (Mamdani) in NYC. He ran as a self-described Muslim socialist, spouting all the stuff promises rejected in the century and a half following Eugene P Debs. Sadly, Free Stuff is back with a vengeance. Still, we have retail politics to consider. Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa has done this many times with little success, yet he keeps on running. Worse, disgraced former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo never even campaigned for the office, thinking he would install himself entirely based on Mamdani hatred and Jewish votes. That didn’t work at all, a lot of people remember Cuomo as the guy who sent COVID positive elderly into the nursing homes to murder their parents and grandparents. Few of them are forgiving. And I don’t blame them. So, they stayed home.
- Several thoughts about why socialism is so popular among the youngsters today. First, and foremost lies at the feet of the NEA, teacher’s unions who have been pumping this particular load of sunshine into various bodily orifices of young skulls full of mush for decades. Sooner or later, this garbage is believed by a growing number of youngsters, making the indoctrination unfortunately successful. Second, and perhaps more important, is when the kiddos graduate from college with their garbage degrees, a quarter million in debt impossible to defease via bankruptcy, and no hope of purchasing a home due to high interest rates, in short no hope of improving their lot in life, what do you expect them to do? Yeah, I know the kids who entered the crafts are much more well off with little debt and a path to actual wealth, but they aren’t the bozos voting for democrats or democratic socialists at an 80-20% split. Whatever happens, we need to do something about that and give the kiddos a path to wealth. Reforming the government schools should be high on that list.
- One of the new magic promised by Mamdani echoed by his cheerleaders in the media is affordability, something acutely felt by the youngsters. As mentioned earlier, concern about the cost of home ownership and student loan debt are huge, so is health care cost, which hits kids the instant they start getting a paycheck. Sounds like Trump is about to work that part of the equation by sending government health care money directly to the citizens rather than laundering it through the health insurance companies, effectively winning the argument while putting democrats on the side of the insurance companies when they vote against the legislation.
- The Virginia vote is mostly explained by the result of the last presidential election. VA generally votes opposite whatever party won that election and with one exception, O’Bama’s 2013 win, have done so for decades. They elected a democrat governor that year. Although it wouldn’t have brought victory, it might have made it closer and saved a number of down ballot races, Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears managed to separate herself from MAGA with her support for Ron DeSantis in 2024. She never reconciled with either Trump or his supporters and as a result they never turned out for her. She ended up losing to a deep state CIA-friendly cutout. Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot when comes time to run a race. As a result, Trump never campaigned for her. Her loss to the CIA-adjacent woman was large enough that it managed to drag the entire Republican statewide ticket down with her.
- NJ is a bit more interesting, as perhaps half a million additional votes for the democrat magickly showed up this election than were cast in previous years, not unlike the massive increase in democrat votes for Biden in 2020. Usually, these stories end up being garbage, but it is another data point worth watching.
- Likewise, Gavin Newsom’s win on Prop 50, the ballot initiative that allows redistricting by something other than the constitutionally mandated non-partisan commission passed easily, though there are the expected number of funky mail in ballots floating around. This initiative may very well end up being tossed when (or if) SCOTUS throws out racially generated congressional / legislative districts. Other lawsuits are being prepared with the intention of tying this piece of trash up in the courts until 2030 or so.
3. Comey. Prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey unfolded nicely last week starting with the presiding magistrate scolding prosecutors for not releasing supportive materials for the case. He laid it on thickly, opining that DoJ appeared to be in indict first and investigate later mode. As requested, the prosecutors released a pile of documents including memos and emails by Comey starting with his expectation to be working under President Clinton after she was elected. This informs nicely his infamous press conference refusing to indict her for mishandling classified on her home server. It also informs his action in support of the Russia Collusion hoax and multiple FISA warrants that grew out of it, demonstrating that he was little more than a political hack with a badge. Additionally, Comey also ordered FBI employees to leak information to the media, something he has vehemently denied following his indictment. He also lied about it to congress, something he is also denying. The prosecutors have Comey in his own words and in his own handwriting doing what he denies he was doing. The memos even put his legal team at some risk, as at least one of them was a conduit for the leaks. Going to be really hard to push for jury nullification on this one, not that they won’t give it the old college try.
4. Haven-1. The future of manned spaceflight requires some sort of presence in orbit currently provided by ISS and the Chinese station. ISS will age out, be disassembled and reentered sometime after 2030, only 4 years away. Who or what provides that presence after it is gone? Looks like the commercial world is about to start flying privately funded, financed and operated manned platforms. The first of these will be Vast, working on their first platform, Haven-1 scheduled to fly in 2026. They launched Haven Demo on a SpaceX Falcon 9 Bandwagon 4 mission Nov 1. The demo will test multiple systems expected to fly on Haven-1 next year. These include propulsion, flight avionics and navigation.
Haven-1 will be the largest payload flown on Falcon 9 at 14 metric tons. It is hoped to support four short duration astronaut crews over a three-year lifetime in orbit, about 160 astronaut days total. Vast is a relatively new company, founded in 2021. Like SpaceX, they may very well be the first of many.
5. Burevestnik . Russian President Putin announced development of a new, long range cruise missile called the Burevestnik (9M730 Burevestnik / NATO name SSC-X-9 Skyfall). The missile is unique because of the claim that it is powered by a quick starting mini fission reactor that gives it a near unlimited range. The reactor heats up the air flowing past it, expelling it out the back end for thrust. Fuel is whatever is powering the reactor. Most commentary on it concentrated on Putin’s claims of a successful 14-hour long test flight and what a scary new strategic weapon it is going to be. As usual, most of the commentary missed the most important part of the discussion, the introduction of what is the functional equivalent of a dirty nuclear bomb into the Russian arsenal. Fission reactors produce power by splitting atoms into smaller atoms. The remaining chunks end up being radioactive isotopes, some longer lived than others, none of which you would want sitting on your bedroom dresser. Launch one of these puppies, and not only do you get whatever the warhead is delivering but you also get a radioactive impact site for some number of years afterwards. It is one of the reasons that nuclear powered aircraft publicly discussed in the 1950s were never built or flown. While a quick starting, flying reactor is a neat technical achievement, what happens after it hits a target is something else entirely and for some reason almost completely ignored by the international media.
More later –
- AG