Tag: politics

Update on audit of Dominion tabulators in Michigan county

2:18 pm

Link here. Because of a lawsuit by a local citizen of Antrim County in Michigan, challenging the results of the vote count there, the court had granted that citizen access to the Dominion tabulator machines to obtain their data and do a full audit of the manner in which those machines counted the vote.

The article describes the effort to get that data, including the failed attempt by one local official to delay or block it. To protect the machines, citizens volunteered to stand guard for an entire weekend to make sure they were not tampered with before the lawyers and their software experts could access them.

The result?

After 8 hours, the collection was complete. With 16 CF cards (similar to SIM cards), 16 thumb drives, and forensic images of the Dominion voting machines in hand, the IT team was escorted to the local Antrim County Airport by two Antrim County Sheriff vehicles, where they boarded their jet plane with evidence in hand.

Two of the patriots followed attorney Matthew DePerno for at least half of his long drive home. Like many Americans, these patriots simply wanted to ensure the safety of a man who has risked so much to protect our right to free and fair elections.

Mr. DePerno expects to have the results of the study sometime tomorrow. He explained the forensic images of the thumb drives and the master computer would tell if machines were connected to the internet—and if they were, who were they communicating with? DePerno said the examination would be able to determine the algorithms used by the computer and will provide the number of ballots read through the machine compared to the actual number of paper ballots.

Every American should be demanding this be done with every computer tabulator nationwide, if only to reassure Americans that the vote was not faked by computer trickery.

That an unelected county official resisted such an audit however is very suspicious and indicates his incompetency. Regardless of how the audit comes out, this man, Peter Garwood, should be removed from office immediately. He does not appear to be properly representing the citizens. If he was, he would have gladly cooperated.

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About 300K excess deaths in 2020 based on untrustworthy CDC data

9:34 am

Two different analyses today took a closer look at the Johns Hopkins report last week that claimed there were no excess deaths in 2020, despite the COVID-19 epidemic.

Though I remain unconvinced that the Wuhan virus is the plague that the fear-mongers keep claiming, the first story makes a good argument, using CDC statistics, that there have been excess deaths in 2020, though this same analysis makes no claim as to the cause of those excess deaths. The conclusion:
» Read more

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SpaceX’s Starlink constellation wins $885 million in federal subsidies

8:44 am

Capitalism in space: In awarding $9.2 billion in subsidies to providers of rural high-speed internet to rural customers, the FCC gave $885 million of this allocation to SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.

SpaceX was not the biggest beneficiary, however.

Most of the RDOF Phase I subsidies are going to terrestrial broadband service providers, led by LTD Broadband with an award of $1.32 billion. CCO Holdings, a subsidiary of Charter Communications, is due to serve 1.05 million sites around the country, leading the list for that metric.

The FCC said 85% of the 5.2 million sites to be served would get gigabit-speed broadband. SpaceX is due to serve nearly 643,000 sites with download speeds of 100 megabits per second or more.

Regardless of its good intentions, this distribution of federal cash sickens me. These companies don’t need it to do what they are doing, and are all sure to make plenty of profit without it. The federal government meanwhile is trillions in debt. It has to print money to give this away, something that is not going to go well in the long run.

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Chang’e-5 ascender sent to crash on Moon

8:37 am

The new colonial movement: Even as the Chang’e-5 orbiter/return capsule awaits its window for leaving lunar orbit, Chinese engineers have separated the ascender capsule that brought the samples from the surface and sent it to crash on the Moon.

This decision makes sense, as lunar orbits tend to be unstable, and to leave the ascender there after the orbiter and return capsule leave could make it a piece of uncontrollable space junk threatening future missions.

The engine burn that will send the orbiter/return capsule back to Earth is expected early December 12th, with the return capsule landing in China on December 16th.

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Pearl Harbor: The Last Word

6:01 pm

A evening pause: On the anniversary of Japan’s unprovoked sneak attack on the United States, let’s hear what it was like to be a sailor on the U.S. battleships sunk during that attack, from interviews recorded four years ago for the 75th anniversary of the attack.

And did I mention it was an unprovoked sneak attack? The Japanese of that time brought the war upon themselves. Hiroshima and Nagasaki was their fault, not ours.

I wonder, would today’s Americans have the will to win, for freedom and the rule of law, as 1940s Americans did? Based on our response to 9/11, I think not. Based on our terror of a flu-like illness today, I know not. The tragedy of this is beyond words.

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Newsom’s new lockdown in California triggered by totally normal numbers

10:01 am

The new lockdown edicts by California’s governor and petty dictator, Gavin Newsom, were triggered by numbers that are routine and have been for decades.

When California Governor Gavin Newsom set his 85% ICU capacity “trigger” to automatically start a new round of totalitarian lockdowns, he had zero doubt the number would be reached in December. How? Because that number is reached EVERY December. Knowing this, why wouldn’t he prepare by assisting hospitals across his state to increase ICU capacity?

…In any given year, most parts of California reach 90% ICU capacity in December. This is usually due to the surge in flu cases, but the flu is allegedly non-existent this year, replaced on paper by the more lucrative COVID-19 diagnoses preferred by hospitals. They knew it was coming, which is why they made moves separate from the state to increase ICU capacity.

In other words, the total number of cases in California’s hospitals is actually at this moment below, or at least completely normal. The only difference is that there are no flu cases. Instead, hospitals are claiming they are all COVID-19.

The lockdowns are there for only one purpose: To strike fear into the hearts of ordinary people, and to expand the power of the government, in complete violation of the entire Bill of Rights.

Welcome to fascist America.

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Audit of Dominion machine found it routinely shifted votes to Biden

10:30 am

UPDATE: More information here. This does appear legitimate, and now demands that every Dominion tabulator nationwide be tested with a microscope.

Original article:
—————————
According to this Twitter thread today, officials in Ware County, Georgia, fed an equal number of votes for Trump and Biden into a Dominion tabulator, which then produced a 26% lead for Biden.

37 Trump votes used in the equal sample run had been “Switched” from Trump to Biden. In actual algorithmic terms this means that a vote for Trump was counted as 87% of a vote and a vote for Biden was counted as 113% of a vote.

Those conducting the test were so shocked that they ran the same ballots again. The same results appeared.

Caveats: This is a Twitter feed, whose claimed source is a Republican official from a different county in Georgia. Normally based on this I would not post, but the story is so shocking I thought it necessary. If true, then the elections in every state that used Dominion Machines is suspect. We will have to await confirmation however.

For those who wish to look the other way, please stop being so naive. If there is any truth to this, who cares how courts rule or states certify? The election was stolen, and a Biden presidency would begin as a lie. This story should get your blood boiling with a passionate desire to find out if it is true.

UPDATE: This Twitter feed includes some corroborating information, including a link to an independent story describing these results in the Georgia Star.

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China launches military surveillance satellite

8:55 am

China yesterday launched a military surveillance satellite using its Long March 3B rocket.

No word on whether the first stage or its strap-on boosters landed on any homes, or whether they had grid fins for better controlling their descent, as China has tested previously.

The leaders in the 2020 launch race:

32 China
22 SpaceX
13 Russia
5 ULA
5 Rocket Lab
5 Europe (Arianespace)

The U.S. still leads China in the national rankings, 35 to 32. That lead will hopefully widen in less than an hour with the first SpaceX launch of its second generation Dragon cargo freighter to ISS.

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“It’s a slap in my face!”

9:29 pm

The fascist Democratic Party mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, issued an edict last month shutting down all restaurants, including all outdoor dining. Yet, he allowed a movie company to set up its outdoor catering services that offer the same service, in the parking lot in front of the shuttered restaurant, about-to-become bankrupt because of his edict.

But according to Angela Marsden, owner of Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill in Sherman Oaks, local officials permitted a TV production to skirt the rules. Shockingly, the Hollywood crew had set up outdoor eating areas just feet from Marsden’s restaurant.

In her blistering rant, Marsden blasted Garcetti and Newsom for prioritizing Hollywood over small businesses like hers. “So this is my place, the Pineapple Hill Grill & Saloon. If you go to my page you can see all the work I did for outdoor dining, for tables being seven feet apart,” Marsden said. “And I come in today because I’m organizing a protest and I came in to get stuff for that.”

“And I walk into my parking lot — and obviously Mayor Garcetti has approved … this,” she continued, pointing to the production setup, including tables for outdoor dining to be used by the production crew, “has approved this being set up for…this being set up for…for a movie company.”

You must watch her video here. As she says in tears, pointing at her patio, “This is dangerous!” She then points to the movie catering area, which looks exactly the same, if not larger, less than thirty feet away. “And that is safe?” As she notes, “It’s a slap in my face!”

Remember too that this is all part of a lockdown in March that was only supposed to last 15 days, in order “to flatten the curve.” A lie, of course, as have been almost everything coming out of the mouths of government health officials since day one of this epidemic. But then, lying has become standard practice from almost every establishment official in Washington, elected or not, for the last four years, on almost every subject. Trump was colluding with Russia! He colluded with Ukraine! No one in the Obama administration ever spied on him! Trump put kids in cages (built by Obama based on Obama’s policy)! And of course, endlessly: Trump is a racist!

I could go on. They lie, and they lie again, and then they top it off with more lies.

And we are supposed to believe them when they say the vote wasn’t rigged? By this time only fools and children should accept the words out of anyone in government.

If the petty dictators in state governments don’t reconsider and stop destroying so many people’s lives, they shall soon see a lot of blood, and it will be their blood, because those same people will have no choice but to shed it in desperation. Politicians be warned.

I don’t wish it. I only know, as a historian, that this is what will happen if things don’t change soon. And if you don’t believe me you need only read a little bit of history.

Let me add that Julie Kelly says much the same in this essay: Shut up and take it. And I think she says it more thoroughly.

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Chang’e-5 sample capsule docks with return vehicle in lunar orbit

8:37 pm

According to the official Chinese state-run press Chang’e-5’s capsule containing samples from the Moon has successfully rendezvoused and docked with its return vehicle in lunar orbit, the first time an unmanned craft has done such a thing autonomously.

The news report at this point provides no other details, other than to state that the return capsule and orbiter will next separate from the ascent capsule and “wait for the right time to return to Earth.” Earlier reports had suggested an arrival on Earth around December 16, which would suggest an exit from lunar orbit in about a week.

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LRO snaps picture of Chang’e-5 on Moon

8:52 am

Chang'e-5 on the Moon, taken by LRO
Click for full image.

The science team for Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) late yesterday released an image taken of Chang’e-5 on the surface of the Moon. The image to the right, reduced to post here, is that photo.

China’s Chang’e 5 sample return spacecraft made a safe touchdown on the lunar surface at 10:11 EST (15:11 UTC) 01 December 2020. LRO passed over the site the following day and acquired an off-nadir (13° slew) image showing the lander centered within a triangle of craters.

The LROC team computed the coordinates of the lander to be 43.0576° N, 308.0839°E, –2570 m elevation, with an estimated accuracy of plus-or-minus 20 meters.

If all goes well, the return capsule, which lifted off from the Moon yesterday, will dock with the return vehicle in orbiter later today.

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Arizona legislative Republican leaders call for election audit of Maricopa County

3:17 pm

The Republican leaders of the Arizona state senate and house today called for an audit of the Maricopa County Dominion software and equipment used during election day.

This is a major change of position, as these leaders have until now resisted such action. Maybe their change of heart is because of the evidence revealed at an improvised hearing earlier this week, as well as the problems found with a random selection of only 100 ballots. Or maybe it was this:

Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem on Friday called on his fellow lawmakers to come together and recall Arizona’s certification.

Finchem said county clerks are now coming forward and admitting something is off with the canvassing and the numbers are just not adding up. “We got people coming out of the woodwork,” Finchem said adding that the legislature will just go around Governor Ducey.

“We only need to have 31 members of the House and 16 members of the Senate pass a resolution recalling our electors. It’s that simple,” he said. “Our constituents are blowing up over this.” [emphasis mine]

The Constitution in the matter of choosing the President is very clear: It is the job of the state legislatures, not the voters, not the governors, not the courts, and most especially not unelected officials in election boards. For decades these state legislatures have allowed the popular vote determine the choice, because everyone trusted the counting process. It appears no one does anymore, and when that happens, the state legislatures need to do their job.

The goal should be to determine if the vote is valid, or not. If valid, than Joe Biden won. Period. Congratulations to the Democrats, though I doubt anyone will end up celebrating their rule in the end. Their policy choices and their eager willingness to blackball and persecute their opposition will not bode well for the future.

If not valid, however, the legislature has several choices. They can call for a revote. They can choose the president themselves, picking electors that will reflect that choice. Or they can refuse to certify at all, sending the decision to the federal House of Representatives.

The state legislature has an additional responsibility, irrelevant of the presidential election. They must institute major changes that will prevent such problems ever again.

Finally, kudos must go to my own representative, Mark Finchem, for pushing this hard, and finally getting some results. The battle is not won, but at least the enemy is finally retreating slightly.

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India’s space agency signs deal with private Indian smallsat company

9:28 am

The new commercial division of India’s space agency ISRO, dubbed the Department of Space (DoS), has signed a development deal with a new private Indian smallsat startup, Agnikul Cosmos, that has plans to build a rocket that will launch from Kodiak, Alaska in ’22.

More information here.

The agreement is designed to provide technical support to the company. Initially the company had only planned to launch from an ISRO launch facility in India. It now appears they are widening their goals to include an U.S. site as well, probably to encourage sales to American satellite companies.

Their rocket, 3D printed, also appears very small, and targets the smallest size smallsat market.

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Trump administration asks Senate to remove SLS requirement for Europa Clipper

8:55 am

The Trump administration has requested the Senate to change the language in its NASA spending bill to remove its requirement that Europa Clipper be launched on SLS.

NASA wants the option to launch the Europa probe using commercial rockets, such as SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. It also says that there are technical reasons that make using SLS problematic, and worse, the agency simply does not have enough SLS rockets to fly its planned (but unfunded) manned Artemis missions and also launch Europa Clipper.

The House has already removed that requirement in its version of the bill. The Senate has not, probably because the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), is a big fan of SLS (much of it built in his state), and has acted for years to pump money into that project.

If the requirement is not removed, Europa Clipper’s launch will likely be delayed by several years, and cost $1.5 billion more.

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World’s largest drone unveiled for launching smallsats

8:41 am

Capitalism in space: Aevum, a new entrant in the race to provide low cost reusable launch services for the emerging smallsat market, has unveiled the world’s largest drone, dubbed RAVN-X, designed to take off and land at airports and then release an upper stage rocket that takes the satellite into orbit.

RAVN-X is not the first air-launched rocket catering to the “smallsat” market. Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus system has flown dozens of times since the 1990s. Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne failed in its first launch attempt earlier this year, will try again later this month with an attempt to launch 10 NASA-funded “CubeSats”—small satellites that typically weigh less than 10 kilograms each. But both Pegasus and LauncherOne use traditional, piloted jets, whereas Aevum’s driverless drone is unique, says Phil Smith, a senior analyst at Bryce Space and Technology, a consulting firm. Still, Smith says, RAVN-X is flying into a crowded market, with more than 100 small launch vehicles in development. “There’s a plethora of systems out there,” he says. “There isn’t room for more than perhaps three to five or so.”

According to the article, Aevum already has a billion dollars in launch contracts with the Space Force. They are targeting ’21 for their first orbital flight.

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Strong evidence in Michigan that many ballots were scanned multiple times

5:09 pm

An IT contractor who worked in Detroit at the location where votes were being tabulated has testified by sworn affidavit and in public testimony before Michigan legislatures that she saw an estimated 30,000 ballots scanned multiple times, illegally.

On November 10, Carone said in an affidavit that she witnessed “nothing but fraudulent actions take place.” “I observed numerous employees, city workers, running batches of ballots through the tabulators countless times, without discarding them first,” Carone said during the Wednesday evening hearing. She testified next to Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney to President Trump, who has been leading most of the litigations efforts pertaining to the election.

Carone testified that on Election Day, the vote tabulating machines would jam up to three times an hour. When the machines would jam, election officials were supposed to reset the count on the machines to ensure that no ballots were scanned more than once, explained the witness. “Instead of discarding, they were just rescanning, rescanning, rescanning. Counting ballots nine to 10 times,” Carone said. She also said there were more than 20 tabulating machines at her ballot counting center.

Once again, this testimony does not prove, on its own, that the election was stolen. It does however demonstrate strong evidence that a full audit, of at least the Detroit voting center, is necessary before any result can be certified.

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Strong evidence of election tampering in Arizona in sample audit of 100 ballots

4:40 pm

After the Republican Party was allowed to do an audit of 100 random ballots and found one voted changed from Trump to Biden, and another Trump vote discarded, election officials have agreed to do an expanded audit of 2,500 ballots.

Ward’s lawyers say the inspection of 100 ballots found that one person’s vote for Trump was ultimately recorded as a Biden vote and that another person’s vote for Trump was cancelled when the reproduced ballot contained votes for both the Republican incumbent and a write-in candidate.

The result? An increase in Biden’s margin by 3%, a change easily enough to overturn an election decided by about a 1/2 percent.. For this reason the election board did not wait for a court order but decided to go ahead with a larger audit.

Though this AP story goes out of its way to minimize the findings here, it is quite alarming to find this much error in only 100 ballots. Anyone (whether Republican or Democrat) should be alarmed and demanding a review, if only to protect the sanctity of all future elections. Anyone that objects, at all, is revealing themselves to be someone who does not want fair elections, and is probably eager to have elections stolen.

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Strong video evidence of election law violations in Georgia during count

3:46 pm

In testimony today before the Georgia state senate, the Trump legal team showed evidence from CCTV cameras of almost two hours of vote counting occurring during a period when all Republican counters and pollwatchers as well as the media had been told to leave because counting was going to cease.

According to Georgia election laws, no votes can be counted without the presence of representatives from both parties along with the pollwatchers and the press. Moreover, the law requires that the chain of possession of all tabulated votes be properly maintained. During the two hours of illegal tabulation, it appears that all of the counted ballots came from four suitcases with no provenience that were pulled from beneath a table where they had been hidden earlier in the day.

Based on the pace of tabulating, the number of ballots counted during those two hours was more than enough to swing the results one way or the other. That all Republicans had been ushered away suggests the ballots were not for Trump.

Does this prove the election was stolen? No, not on its own. However, it does make the entire election result questionable. And if nothing untoward was going on, it behooves the individuals shown on this video to come forward to explain and justify what was done. Until they do so, the Georgia vote count is not trustworthy.

I have embedded below the fold the testimony, with th video presented during this testimony.

» Read more

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Study: Canada’s nationalized health killed nearly 1,500 Canadians waiting fruitlessly for treatment

11:07 am

Coming to your U.S. health plan soon! A new study has found that almost 1,500 Canadians died in 2018-19 waiting for a life-saving operation, sometimes years, because that nation’s national health system could not serve them.

The survey was also incomplete, covering only about half of Canada’s health system, which means the numbers are almost certainly higher. More significant, the Wuhan panic has made the situation worse.

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, there has been a drastic decline in potentially life-saving treatments being conducted by hospitals. According to figures from the Ontario Ministry of Health, between March 15 to September 29, treatments for breast cancer and prostate cancer have gone down 29% and 25% respectively. On average, the province has reported a total of 21% fewer cancer treatments in total.

Surgeries on children were also heavily impacted by the pandemic after reporting a decline of nearly 60%. In comparison, in 2019, 28,844 surgeries were performed on children, while in 2020 there were only 11,230.

But we need to save one life from COVID! One life! It doesn’t matter if thousands of others die from other illnesses, saving people from COVID comes first!

Hat tip Phill Oltmann.

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ESA signs contract for 1st space junk removal

9:39 am

Capitalism in space: The European Space Agency (ESA) has now signed a contract with a private company, ClearSpace SA, for the first dedicated commercial mission to remove a piece of orbiting space junk.

ESA officials signed a contract with ClearSpace on Nov 13. to complete the safe deorbiting of a payload adapter launched aboard the second flight of the Arianespace Vega rocket in 2013.

Unlike traditional ESA contracts that involve the agency procuring and coordinating the mission, ClearSpace-1 is a contract to purchase a service: the safe removal of a piece of space debris. ESA officials said they intend this mission to help establish a new commercial sector led by European industry. The 86 million euros supplied by ESA will be supplemented with an additional 24 million euros ClearSpace is raising from commercial investors. Approximately 14 million euros of the privately-raised funding will be utilized for the mission, while the remaining 10 million will be set aside for contingencies, ESA spokesperson Valeria Andreoni told SpaceNews.

First, that the ESA has decided here to shift from running the mission and to merely being the customer buying the product from a private company is magnificent news. Europe has been, like NASA was in the 2000s, very reluctant to give up its total control in the design, construction, and launch of rockets and spacecraft. That they are now mimicking NASA’s own shift in the 2010s to this private model, as I outlined in detail in Capitalism in Space, means that ESA’s bureaucracy is finally coming around to the idea of freedom, capitalism, and private enterprise. What a thing!

Second, though this mission is commercial, it isn’t really a practical economic solution to the removal of most space junk. The contract will cost $104 million, plus the additional private capital ClearSpace has raised. None of this appears to include the launch cost. Yet, it will only remove one defunct object in orbit.

Such a technology will be useful for removing specific large pieces of space junk that pose a risk should they crash to Earth. It will not be economically useful for removing the small junk in orbit that threatens other working satellites and spacecraft. For that technology to be cost effective it will need to be able to clean up many objects on a single flight.

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Chang’e-5 completes sample collection; lifts off from Moon

8:57 am

UPDATE: The official state-run Chinese press has announced that the ascent capsule with the lunar samples has lifted off from the Moon. The rendezvous and docking is next, which is likely the most difficult technical task for the autonomous unmanned probe. No word yet on when that will occur.

Original post:
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The new colonial movement: China’s Chang’e-5 lunar lander has completed its sample collection on the Moon, and is set to lift-off sometime today for a rendezvous and docking with its return vehicle in lunar orbit.

The milestone signaled the start of the mission’s return voyage, which includes an ambitious series of automated maneuvers to blast off from the lunar surface Thursday and rendezvous with an orbiter circling the moon. Chang’e 5 will attempt the first-ever docking between two robotic spacecraft in lunar orbit, then transfer the moon rock container into the return craft.

If all goes according to plan, Chang’e 5’s sample container should re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and parachute to a landing in China’s Inner Mongolia region around Dec. 16.

If successful, this will the ninth spacecraft to bring samples back from the Moon, and the first since the 1970s. It will also firmly establish China as a major space power that is presently competitive to the U.S. and has also bypassed Russia completely. Even though it is likely they stole much of the technology for doing such planetary missions, China’s engineers have done a good job of refining and improving the engineering, as shown by the number of firsts being achieved by this Chang’e-5 mission.

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First images from Chang’e-5 on the Moon

2:01 pm

Panorama of Chang'e-5 landing site
Click for full image.

The new colonial movement: China’s state-run press has now released several images taken by Chang’e-5 on the lunar surface, including movies showing the landing and the ongoing digging operations.

The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, is part of a fisheye panorama of the entire landing site. I have cropped it to show only the central part. Except for the distant mountain, the terrain is very flat, which is not surprising as this is the Ocean of Storms mare.

Note however how deep the landing pad is pressed into the ground. This gives a sense of the dust layer that covers the surface.

The link above, as well as this link, show additional images as well as the two movies.

Take off is next, followed by the autonomous rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit with the craft that will bring the sample capsule back to Earth sometime around December 16.

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Change’-5 successfully gets sample from drilling

9:02 am

The new colonial movement: According to the state-run Chinese press, Chang’e-5 has successfully obtained its first lunar sample from a 2-meter deep drilled hole.

After making a successful soft landing at 11:00 p.m. BJT on Tuesday, the lander started rolling out its solar panel wings and unlocking some of the payloads onboard to prepare for sample collection.

The lander first drilled a 2-meter-deep hole, digging out soil, and sealed it up at 4:53 a.m. on Wednesday [today]. Next, it will use its robotic arms to scoop up more samples from the lunar surface for backup.

If all goes right, they will collect a second sample from the surface using a scoop, and then the ascent capsule will take off tomorrow. It will then rendezvous and dock with the orbiter and return capsule.

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El Paso mayor blames spike in COVID-19 cases on Big Box retailers

5:57 pm

Throw the mask away: Citing the contact tracing his government has done, the mayor of the Texas city of El Paso now thinks the source of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in his city is because of shoppers at the big box retailers like Walmart and Costco.

“We did a deep dive in our contact tracing for the week of November the 10th through the 16th and found that 55% of the positives were coming from shopping at large retailers, what we’d term as the big box stores,” Margo said. “And those are considered essential under CISA guidelines under homeland security. And we don’t really have- I don’t have any control over any limitations there.”

He said the city asked retailers like Walmart for “voluntary limitations” regarding occupancy.

No, what he should be doing is telling these retailers to stop requiring masks. These companies were the first to fall in line with the mask mandates, and have been aggressive in requiring them from customers. Smaller retail shops have not imposed such strict mandates, while restaurants don’t require masks at all while you are at the table.

That he has found a link between new cases and shoppers in these mask-filled venues only confirms what common sense tells us: That the improper use of masks by everyone in these stores has acted to speed the spread of the virus, not slow it.

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The muzzle of oppression

1:58 pm

WHO's do's and don't's for mask use
For the full images, go here and here.

Previously I had labeled the masks that our control-freak society is demanding everyone wear, wherever they go and whatever they do, as a mask of ignorance. While the evidence is still uncertain on whether high quality masks, used properly, can stop the spread of COVID-19, the improper use of masks guarantees that they will contribute to the virus’s spread.

Take a look at the WHO graph to the right. Do you use the mask as they advise? I guarantee you do not. Masks are routinely handled all the time, are reused, are not kept antiseptic, and are not made of the right materials. Rather than blocking the virus, people are instead wearing a pathogen gatherer on their face, exactly where they breath.

No wonder the number of cases have been skyrocketing worldwide. I would not be surprised at all if the widespread improper use of unsanitary masks since the early summer has contributed to that rise.

I however no longer see masks as simply a symbol of ignorance. I now see masks as a symbol of oppression, and the willingness of Americans to submit to that oppression, without a whimper. In fact, the mask will prevent anyone from really hearing that whimper. It tells everyone you are willing to be silenced and subjugated, like a dog..
» Read more

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LRO looks at Yutu-2

9:40 am

Yutu-2's travels on the Moon through October 2020
Click for full image.

The new colonial movement: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) science team today released an update of the travels of China’s Yutu-2 lunar rover, presently operating on the far side of the Moon.

The photo to the right, reduced and annotated to post here, shows the rover’s present position, having traveled about 1,650 feet to the northwest in the 22 months since landing. The goal, according to Yutu-2’s science team, is to get the rover beyond the present ejecta field of debris thrown from a large impact to the north, and reach a basalt covered region about a mile away. At the pace they are setting, about 100 feet per lunar day, it is going to take them about another three years to get there. Whether the rover will last that long is the question, but I suspect they are hopeful, based on the almost two years of operations so far.

If you go to the link you can also see a short movie showing month-by-month where the rover ended up when it shut down for each long lunar night.

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Chang’e-5 lands on Moon

9:09 am

The new colonial movement: According to official Chinese reports, Chang’e-5 has successfully soft-landed on the Moon in preparation for its gathering of samples to bring back to Earth.

The Chang’e 5 lander began final descent at 09:58 EST (14:58 UTC) with an expected touchdown 15 minutes later at 10:13 EST (15:13 UTC).

All broadcasts of the event were abruptly stopped just before the landing burn was to begin — throwing the mission into question with CCTV in China at first saying landing coverage would resume at 21:00 EST — an 11 hour delay to the landing. Minutes later, official sources — via social media — proclaimed a successful landing.

Blocking a broadcast like this is very typical of totalitarian governments, and totalitarian societies. Think about that the next time Youtube or Google or Facebook or Twitter or an American university silences speech they don’t like.

As for the lander, all other news reports that I have so far found provide no further details. It appears that all we know comes from a single sentence announcement of success from the Chinese press.

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