E Unum Pluribus - The Triumph of Tribalism

Following the lead of the US Armed Services, NASCAR announces total ban on Confederate flags from all races, events and properties.  

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/nascar-announces-ban-on-confederate-flags-from-all-races-events-and-properties/ar-BB15j5s3 

[begin sarcasm]

As scribes in attendance feverishly recorded, Pharaoh Phelps I, the leader of NASCAR, was overheard to decree, "Let the Confederate Flag be stricken from every book and tablet.  Stricken from every pylon and obelisk of Egypt.  Let the name of Robert E. Lee be unheard and unspoken, erased from the memory of man, for all time.  So it shall be written, so it shall be done; let the woke times roll.”

[end]

I am an amateur vexillologist (or at least a vexillophile; I am also an amateur thespian but I’ll save that for another blogpost).  

Also, as an inept but recovering student of history, I note several things related to this sudden clamor to eradicate any vestige, etching, carving, monument, or symbol from the Civil War in the public (and now private) commons.  

Everyone is now seemingly gleefully fixated on the expurgation of the “Confederate Battle Flag” as a token gesture against white racism.  

The flag was adopted after the battle of First Manassas, as a visual aide to identify Confederate regiments at war on the field of battle.  The ‘peace’ or ‘parade’ flag of the Confederate States was the Stars and Bars, the first of three styles representing the Confederacy.  

Given that the Patron Saint of anti-American wokeness, Colin Kaepernick, has represented that the Betsy Ross Flag (and by logical extension each subsequent iteration of the US National Flag) is racist iconography of our defective founding (in 1619?), I therefore predict that in all of this Latter Day Wokeness, the marauding Jacobins will metastasize and expand the Gleichschaltung to include the following flags: 

The Mississippi State Flag 

The first US Navy Jack 

The Gadsden “Don’t Tread on Me” Flag (including the Georgia 1st Battalion Flag) 

The Join Or Die Snake "Benjamin Franklin” Flag 

The Battle of Gonzalez Flag 

The Thin Blue Line Flag 

The Three Percenters Flag 

The Ensign of the US Coast Guard 

The Seguin “Alamo” Flag 

The State Flag of Alabama, Florida, Flag of Scotland, Jersey and any flag in the Commonwealth containing the UK Union Jack, including Hawaii (for the similarity to the Confederate Battle Flag) 

And possibly The 1824 Alamo Flag (which, was likely never flown over the Alamo) because, cultural appropriation.

This will not end here.  The radicals will expand the range and depth of those icons that must be eradicated from our history, and collective memory.  

As Robert Heinlein has been quoted as saying, “A generation that doesn’t know history has no past; and no future.”  Orwell said in 1984 “Who controls the past controls the future.”  “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”  - Edmund Burke

The upbeat of tearing down monuments and icons of our past is control of the future.  

..

An Old Friend

This weekend evolved (devolved?) into one wherein I've been well ahead of my minimal apartment and bill-paying duties, with a sudden surplus of time, and living as I am now downrange in the People's Socialist Democratic Republic of California, well behind enemy lines and having been TDY here for a full year now.  

For anyone wondering, secretly or openly, what would prepare someone to contend with moving from the Midwest to California for a job in these Latter Days, I would recommend you read the following.   

I find myself serendipitously with a surplus of time to 'assassinate'.  

For me, California is a sort of love / hate thing.  "But the weather is so bitchin', Dude."  

Yes, it is.  And today is proof in certainty of that.  Off-shore flow has boosted the temperatures and removed the Summer chill you find in more windy parts of the Bay Area.  

Aviation types know this as CAVU.  

Locals call this 'Delta Weather', wherein you sail up the San Juan or Sacramento Rivers into the Delta, anchor, and party until you can not party any further, or are arrested; this is not competitive 'sailing weather' on the Bay.  

So, driving to one of my routine watering holes, I noted that under the 'law of infinite probability', several songs suddenly sequenced into rotation on my legacy iPod (plugged into my car's USB feed) that I had not heard for decades.  Seemingly, by divine providence.  

The one song that tripped my trigger was Def Leopard's 'Gods of War' from their Hysteria Album.   Driving West on CA-4 in my Honda Fit (32 mpg hammer down, 40 mpg if you drive like you are in Wisconsin - which I'm not), I suddenly flashed-back to when I first arrived in the Bay Area, way back in March 1989, when I left a rockin' job at Rockwell Autonetics in Anaheim working as a Manufacturing Engineer on the PeaceKeeper Strategic Ballistic Missile, to take a job with a boutique Aerospace & Defense company in Concord California (right before peace broke out, the Berlin Wall came down, and Congreff and Bill Clinton extracted a well-deserved 'peace dividend'),.  

At the time, I had a collection of motorcycles, and not much more.  My Alpha bike was a 1987 Suzuki GSXR-1000R, trimmed in blue and white.   

I would explore the roads by swinging a leg over the Beast, and taking various back-roads to find interesting places.  

The One place I latched onto early on was to take the McEwen Road exit to Port Costa.  The destination is the Warehouse Cafe.  

So, I detoured to vector to the Warehouse.  

As I sit here, it is an anachronism which has not appreciably changed in the 30 years since first landing.  A unique place.  One of my all time favorites.  It is a place where bikers, yuppie scum, professionals, sports fans, and all manner of humanity; they all get along.  

You can sit and watch the ships travel on the river, and the passenger trains pass by, from an establishment that was a warehouse in the 1870's, and now is a Class I dive bar today.

This is one day I'm enjoying immensely.  Old Friends are good thing.  

California Progressive Progress

Washington Post: These California agents are coming for your guns

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/these-california-agents-are-coming-for-your-guns/2018/02/24/b72fb252-183a-11e8-92c9-376b4fe57ff7_story.html 

Snappy headline.  And timely, too.  

And as an added bonus, foreign nationals (with no background check, entry inspection, or visa) are officially welcome to enter the State of California and are and harbored from ICE and the USBP by State authorities (the State Attorney General has threatened to prosecute anybody who cooperates with ICE), all the while the CA DoJ six-person gendarme squad is going door to door looking for guns.  

Granted, I support removing firearms from felons.  Makes sense.  Good move.  But the level of effort here seems unserious.  Six officers - for the entire State of California?  They will realistically need hundreds of agents to be effective.  And MRAP’s, too.  

And I would also observe that recent mass shootings caused by the bloodthirsty NRA (in Parkland Florida, Sutherland Springs Texas, Charleston SC) all were preventable, had our government institutions done their job, and followed current law.  

Clearly, what the Progressive Left and media (I know, I repeat myself here) are clamoring for, and what we desperately need, are more legal restrictions on firearms, because the current law is not enforced by those entrusted to enforce it.  

But after reading the piece in WaPo, I would take a step back and wonder why the Governor Jerry Brown and the benevolent legislature in Sacramento,  

• pardoned convicted Illegal aliens to prevent their deportation, 

• removed mandatory sentencing guidelines for using a gun in a crime, 

• now allow convicted felons to vote, 

• pushed early release of violent felons from prison, 

• now registers anyone with a driver’s license (including illegal aliens) to vote.

Remember, the US Federal Constitution requires the census only to count people residing in the States (not US Citizens), and therefore each illegal alien is not only a potential voter, but added representation in Washington DC.  Those poor rubes in North and South Dakota are each stuck with only one measly Representative.  Iowa only has four Representatives in the US House.  They would otherwise have more (representatives in DC) if it were not for the non-citizens residing in California.  

It would seem that (in California) the law is a tool, to be used to achieve your Progressive Left agenda of building liberty snuffing, wealth transfer (Progressive Left Socialist) paradise, with an out-sized political influence in DC.  

Public safety does not enter into it.  

It's politics, all the way down.  

Zusammenstöße, Georgia Tech Edition

So, a self-declared “non-binary” gender dissident, Scout Schultz, who is somehow affiliated with the LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM “movement” (and seemingly down with “The Struggle" on campus), walks around with a Leatherman knife menacing street pedestrians last evening, and the police are called.  

The police show up, and the subject (seemingly deranged) menaces the police and screams “shoot me”, and the police shoot and kill the subject as he approaches the cop.  Classic “Suicide by Cop”.  

Intrepid News Media report (CBS This Morning) the subject was holding a “tiny” pocket knife, and the cop is now being openly asked why he did not use non-lethal force on the subject wielding a ‘tiny' knife.  You know, Tazer the guy, or throw a net over him like they did before 1980.  Or pepper spray.  Or transactional analysis (TA) “I’m ok, you’re ok, fuzzy warm dynamic therapy.”    

The subject’s Facebook is festooned with Southern Poverty Law Center, Black Lives Matter, Atlanta Antifacists, It’s Going Down, and Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America ‘likes' (the subject’s Facebook account has been subsequently suspended).  I’m all in for free speech; to afford fools the means to self identify.   

500 students get in touch with their inner feelz, and have a peaceful memorial, and a peaceful march to the police station.  Fine.  This is what the school system has produced.  ibid. - Free Speech   

Then, the Antifa “FIGHT BACK” banner waiving crowd appear to do some Ultraviolence, and torch a police cruiser, smash windows, and beat the Oppressor Cops of Georgia Tech.  

CBS This Morning covers Scout Schultz’s father, William Schultz, who was trotted out by yes-justice.com (which seems to be an ambulance-chasing race hustler organization, looking for a new gig) and sporting a greasy pony tail looking disheveled and unshaven but in a spiffy loaner sport coat, and and the father openly questions why the police shot his “obviously mentally deranged” son.  It is clear the fruit did not have far to fall from the tree.  

I had a sort of Robert Bergdhal (Bowe Bergdhal’s father) flashback moment.  You know.  Kinda' like when you throw up a little in your mouth.  

Unlike in Baltimore, Berkeley and Charlottesville, where the leadership ordered police to “stand down” to allow the “justice involved youth” some 'room to burn' (which I call Verbrennungraum Zusammenstöße), the rednecks in Georgia clamp down on the violent protest and make arrests.   

So, it’s all the fault of the cis-heteronormative bigoted Police that Scout Schultz is dead.  Lawsuits ensue.  

Welcome to Weimar America.  

Quality Assurance

SIG is a good company (quite unlike Remington’s leadership, in my opinion).  But this latest recall is disturbing:  

https://www.ammoland.com/2017/09/sig-sauer-safety-warning-recall-notice-limited-number-rifles/ 

This follows the SIG MCX™ recall, the so-called “voluntary upgrade" of the SIG P320, and is accompanied by the Ruger Mark IV™ safety recall.  Sturm-Ruger is also a good company.  

I do Quality & Reliability as a profession, though few notice these days.  

I witnessed how you take the North American Rockwell B-1B from LRIP (Low Rate Initial Production) of 4 shipsets in 6 months to 4 per month in under a year.  And improve quality.  

I witnessed how the Northrop production of the Internal Guidance Module (IMU) for the “Peacekeeper” (MX) ICBM was assumed by Rockwell international for systemic quality issues, because the USAF trusted the Anaheim Operations to get it right.  The MX IMU was so precise it was reportedly able to detect magma movement in the earth.  In the 1980’s.  Boeing purchased the defense business in 1996 following breakout of peace following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and subsequent painful consolidation (remember the "peace dividend?").   

I witnessed how automation of a manual processes, absent consideration of design, always fails.  To be successful, automation drives improvement into the design, results in improved quality, and better controls in the supply chain through "quality deployment."   

I witnessed how you take the Systron Donner Gyrochip™ (Automotive Quartz Rate Sensor or AQRS) from 300 per month (for Cadillac Luxury Car Division) to 12,500 to 25,000 per month (for VW, BMW, Ford of Europe, Daimler Benz, et al) in 12 months - while maintaining a better than 50 ppm failure rate (we were at 24 ppm in year one after launch - 50 ppm triggered a $1,000,000 penalty clause in our contract).  

As an (so-called) industry professional, I used to get Aviation Week, free of charge, and would always first read the very last section that published the findings of NTSB airline crash investigations.  I have an appreciation of scientific forensic failure analysis (or F/A).  The NTSB is exacting.  This should be required reading for serious manufacturing people.  

I have taught failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) to design and manufacturing engineers.  

To the point, I witnessed the ramp Toyota Motors underwent when the Great Recession hit, and General Motors and Chrysler went bankrupt, shed market share, and Toyota (the world leader in automotive quality and lean manufacturing) gobbled up market share, and expanded production to address it.  I saw the multiple recalls, which horrified senior Toyota leadership who previously did not have experience with such.  The "stuck accelerator” issue was blamed on floor mats that allowed the accelerator pedal to latch into full-throttle, resulting in the deaths in 2009 of an off duty state trooper and his wife in California (who incidentally the wife was the HR Manager of Systron Donner).  

Toyota Leadership failed to understand the emerging reports and make corrective action, and instead decided (upon the advice of their US legal counsel) to fight claims in court.  Leadership failure.  

A business ramps production, the methods and procedures currently in place to assure quality are taxed.  Because more often than not, they [control methods] are put in place over time with no foresight as to the ongoing maintenance penalty, and prospective scalability of the control methods.  This includes employee learning curves, training and role classification, and demonstration of skill competencies and proficiencies.  

Simply put, Quality Control for steady-state is not scalable, and Leadership often assumes the manner by which quality is assured currently can be used at higher rates of production; this is not so.  Management's emphasis is on compliance (especially in the FDA related space), however outside of the Semiconductor industry (SEMI) there are seldom active reviews and implementation plans to modify, simplify, and invest in changes to control methods to allow quick ramping, and a smaller Quality Assurance footprint.  

And (in my humble opinion) this is what happened to Toyota, and is happening to the firearms manufacturers who spooled up to offer new products and greater volume during the Great Gun Control fears during the Barak Obama years.  

California AB 785

“California Hate Crime.”  

https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/ca-legislature-approves-bill-disarm-misdemeanor-hate-crime-offenders/ 

It appears the intrepid legislature in the Democratic People's Republic of California are moving to to disarm misdemeanor "California Hate Crime Offenders".  You know, take their guns away.  Because, Hate.  As defined by the Progressive State of California.

Comrades.  

Crimes perpetrated by haters.  You know.  Republicans, Feral Libertarians and the ilk.  And privileged white cis-heteronormative gun owners who criminally fail to express the proper pronouns when speaking to non-binaries, gender-fluids or gender dissidents.  They are haters too.  And Nazis, and people who collude with Russians to throw elections.  Conspirators.  Hateful unindicted co-conspirators, too.  And people who have filed for divorce (there must be some hatred just below the surface there)!  And people with restraining orders.  And parking tickets with hate crime modifiers.  And those hateful souls delinquent in their tax submittals, and those environmental hate criminals polluting Gaia Earth who do not correctly segregate their recycling and composting materials into the proper trash bin.  And anyone who uses the improper Nomenklatura.  

I say that the enlightened California Legislature should not stop here with the Second Amendment.  

While the Second Amendment is a fundamental, specific, enumerated right, there are a host of other dangerous rights that need to be suspended for those convicted of DoublePlus UnGood CrimeThink, such as these:

Freedom of speech, and worship 

Right of peaceable assembly and petition

Exclusion of establishment of a state religion

Due-process and the right to an attorney

Protection from self-incrimination or double jeopardy

Prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment

Protection from unwarranted search and seizure 

And against having to board government troops in your home (3rd Amendment)

I say, for all the haters out in California, expand AB 785 to include forfeiture of the other protections in the Constitution.  

Why would you stop at the Second Amendment?  

The Increase in Entropy in the USA

I have been reading, with some interest, opinion and conjecture that the country is headed towards a schism, a new “Civil War”.

Victor Davis Hanson <here> points to the continued open nullification of federal immigration law by “sanctuary cities” similar to what the South did with respect to civil rights for blacks in the Jim Crow era.  Dennis Prager <here>, Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith <here>, David Horowitz <here>, all openly speculate.

And now, I read this:

REPORT: Flyers distributed in San Diego calling for the genocide of the “white” race:

     http://www.10news.com/news/mysterious-filers-threaten-genocide-of-the-white-race

The Virginian, Robert E. Lee, detested the vitriol and bombast of the South Carolinas leading up to the Civil War, people he called “fire breathers”.  He did not want a Civil War.  Had Virginia not seceded from the Union, he would have fought for the Union, and today arguably would have been a widely revered general instead of now having communities, goaded by Black Lives Matter, remove all vestiges of the Confederate role in the Civil War from the public, with statues of Robert E. Lee being defaced and removed altogether.

For a people so comparatively well off (compared to the balance of the world’s population) it seems incongruous that we would have such a low threshold to violence.  People with nothing more to loose find it very easy to revolt.  People of means usually consider the loss of their family, wealth, power, and status before moving to take power away from the government or rage against "the other".

Yet, there is a long history of civil disobedience and riots in the time line of the nation.

Looking at the Wiki of US Riots over time, you get the accurate sense that the 1960’s (53) and 1970’s (30) were a sad time.  I remember.

You also get the sense that this decade (2010’s, 32 major riots recorded so far) is on track to at least match both prior decades.  The list for 2010’s conveniently omits the 2011 flash mob riot in West Alles at the 2011 Wisconsin State Fair, the 2011 flash mob riot in Des Moines at the Iowa State Fair, and the several flash mob riots in Chicago (3,000 “youths” at the Ford City Mall, 400 “youths” at Navy Pier, 400 “youths” along the Magnificent Mile, and in 2010 the North Avenue Beach closure which outwardly appears to have been suppressed in the press - by the City leadership?).  When you reclassify “wilding youths”, not only in Chicago, but Philadelphia, Louisville, and across the large cities as “riots” then you get a feeling that record is in fact larger.

This review does not include the violence against police in Dallas in 2016, but you get a similar flashback to the Texas Tower shooting in Austin Texas in 1966.

I doubt we're headed for a Civil War, but depending on how we deal with what is to come in the waning years of this decade, we could be in for a bumpy ride.