Goodbye James Comey, an Omen.

I read about the firing of the James Comey with a casual indifference. As a private citizen the Director of the FBI is almost invisible to me. This Director certainly was more infamous than most, but, had it not been for a vile, toxic presidential election I probably wouldn't have even known his name.

A quick, incomplete search led me to the surprising conclusion that he was an honorable man. He spent years doing the right thing, at odds with the president at times, he refused to bow. Of course, to my liberal, "leftist" thinking he did at least one odious thing. But, he had a long career, and seemed to be a man of honor, as much as possible in the cesspool of the nations capital.

What really bothers me is the method. Who would do that? Who could do that? How can you justify firing a man in such a cowardly fashion. He learned about his firing on television, while giving a speech to his employees. Is that our vision for making America great again?

There was a belief, and it was widespread, that Trump's managerial acumen would provide a solid foundation for the enormous requirements of presidency. I think, what we witnessed yesterday should lay that myth to rest finally. It is difficult to say how much the man is worth in monetary value, but it is no doubt he is morally bankrupt, it is the only explanation.

We are now stuck with a complete novice driving the boat. He has surrounded himself with people sharing his views almost exactly. He lashes out childishly, impetuously at anybody who questions him, and vengeance seems to be his most compelling motivation. Republican leaders in congress are quiet and complicit. What could go wrong?

"The world is not fair, and often fools, cowards, liars and the selfish hide in high places." Bryant H. McGill

This will make a great movie.

Part 4, of the story, of Life Explained, Here is part 3

Not quite halfway between the secret base and the city containing the Life Explained world headquarters was a small compound. It was almost invisible. It was built that way, to blend in with the surrounding woods, to be unseen. 

It housed a group of men called the Brotherhood of Disaster (BoD). They were certain a worldwide economic collapse was imminent. If not an economic collapse then a pathogen borne apocalypse, or a New World Order occupation, Equally certain the chaos created would be devastating, and ordinary citizens would be livestock. These men had had abandoned, more or less, society in an effort to prepare for the coming apocalypse. Investing heavily in weapons and ammunition they hid away only coming out to work, and shop for guns and groceries. 

They were convinced the secret government facility’s sole purpose was to watch them. While the government knew of their existence, and did watch them, they were not too concerned with BoD. They were, it was widely assumed, more or less, harmless. They were armed, yes, but they were cautious. And as long as nothing truly awful happened they seemed content to stay in their compound planning, expecting, some of them even hoping for the worst.  There were a few agents planted in the organization who kept law enforcement informed of the situation. It did not require an armed forces detachment with air, indirect fire, Special Forces and a direct line to the pentagon to contain them. 

No, that was reserved for a barely controllable, inept organization producing who knows what, for who knows whom. Staffed by incompetents, and malcontents, an organization so inept and powerful it might have to be wiped from the face of the planet. Maybe not, though. Maybe, it might pay off letting them goof around with time travel, matter transference, and weaponry that would make wars winnable again. 

But, when the helicopters flew just to the west of the BoD compound the noise kicked off an astonishing reaction. Men dove under vehicles, rolled behind embankments, popped up, scanned the horizon and fell flat again.  

Suddenly the radio crackled and a lonely, lost voice said “you have choppers inbound.” 

“Damnit, Bobby, you fell asleep again.” Steven Forsnoy, the leader said, with disgust, he rolled his eyes to the heavens looking for strength. “We are sitting here, our butts hanging in the breeze and the choppers are on us before you call.” Then he noticed the silence, the helicopters had passed. They weren’t circling. They were just gone.  

“They flew right past us, boss.” Darren said. “Like they didn’t care. They just kept going.” 

Steven knew they were coming. He knew, felt deep in his soul, the change had begun, the balloon was going up. “Why in the hell did they fly right past us? Did they forget where we are? Are we that hidden?” He asked, looking at the men gathered around him. They were dusty from rolling under jeeps, and trucks, behind barrels, a few of them were a little bruised, and still breathing hard from dropping so vigorously on the ground. But, through all of the heavy breathing, and dusty fatigues the confusion was obvious. They had not prepared all this time to be ignored. 

“Something big is going on in the city.” A voice said, “I heard it on the radio. Big, Bad, Bold 95.7 all the hits, all the time, was doing a broadcast from the arena, and now they are running for their lives, they had to abandon their gear, and are on foot. It sounds pretty big. Lots of explosions, gun fights, fires. It might be the…” He didn’t know what it could be. It was just too strange. 

“Hell, Earl, why didn’t you say something sooner? This is the start, I am sure. This is what we have been waiting for. The… well I don’t know what it is, but it is starting. Mount up.” He said 

The men piled into trucks, and jeeps, and cars, a motorcycle with a side car. And they roared off. Then they roared back, they had forgotten the guns, and ammunition.  

The fight was on.

Good News, not really.

This just in from the Life Explained Department of Things you Should Worry About (motto; Don't sweat the small stuff. There is no small stuff.) NASA has a department to track asteroids that might hit the Earth.

While that might seem like a comforting thought, until you read the article. Until you see the lackadaisical approach the space agency is taking towards these menaces hurtling towards the planet right now you will see the cause for alarm.

There are almost 14,000 near Earth objects being tracked right now.  Of course that is not counting the ones they can't see. Like, for example, the one that smashed into Russia in 2013. 

"Most of our survey telescopes are ground based, and so therefore they can only observe at night. This object came in daylight out of the sun... It was a very small object only a little less than a 20 meters and ours systems are really aren't capable of finding objects that small very far out in space." 

What?!?!? It smashed into our planet, which is in close space. In broad daylight and nobody could see it?

So, what do you plan to do if you are lucky enough to look up at the right time and see an object that is big enough to catch your eye? What then, NASA office of disaster aversion?

Well, in that case they would send the kinetic impactor out to persuade the object to move along, we don't want any trouble. 

Again, a NASA spokesperson,  “What you need to do ... is just change its velocity by a slight amount and if you do that enough years in advance you only have to change that velocity by a few millimeters per second. And so you just slam a kinetic impactor into it at the right velocity vector and that will impart the energy to either speed it up or slow it down, depending on which way you want to move it enough so that a hit becomes a miss.”

Well, that might work, but “years in advance” sounds a little troubling. How is testing so far?”

NASA hopes to launch a mission to test it soon. 

So, if NASA can spot something big enough and far enough away they can possibly avert it enough to keep it from destroying the planet, provided it is at night. I will sleep a lot better from now on.