Gun Free Zone

Where a Hispanic Catholic, and a Computer Geek write about Gun Rights, Self Defense and whatever else we can think about.

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Am I the only one who as ever worked in a factory?

Mar 19, 2020 J. Kb 17 comments

Welcome to Twitter, where everyone is an idiot but has an opinion.

Some shmuck went after Elon Musk to make ventilators for the Coronavirus crisis.

https://twitter.com/suhaylabbas/status/1240485610466480128

Elon Musk responded.

Idiot after idiot then dumped on him for this.

That’s enough, you get the idea.

I have worked as a production engineer in a factory for a number of years.  Do any of these assholes have any fucking clue how long it takes to tool up a factory?  I’m not just talking about switching from one item to a similar item, like Ford making changes to cars for the new model year.  I mean going from producing cars and rocket parts to ventilators?

Programing CNC machines.  Ordering new tools for those machines.  Getting new molds for plastic injection molding equipment.

When we ordered tooling from major suppliers, there was a solid six month lead time.  Then there is always development time making sure your tooling works and produces parts to spec.  There is an engineering process for this, it’s called PPAP (production part approval process), and that can take months.

That assumes they have a design already.  Where are they going to get one of those, or are they going to design their own?  Maybe they buy the rights to produce a ventilator made by Stryker or another major biotech firm, they still have to get every drawing and spec.

I haven’t even touched on the circuit boards or electronic packages that drive them.

Then add in the fact that this is a medical device, so there are certain regulatory standards that have to be met.  Even if the FDA rushes those, safety and efficacy must be established.  It does no good to put ventilators into service that kill the patients.

All medical equipment must be sterilized, ventilators are no different.  How is this going to be done?  Either equipment must be purchased or companies that do sterilization and packaging of medical devices must ramp up throughput, but that can only be done to a certain extent because equipment must be held at temperature or in the cleaning chemicals or radiation for a certain period of time to work.

Just to update a car to a new model, is a two to five year process.

Even if Elon Musk went to his gigafactory and started beating his workers with a riding crop and pulled a Bezos and told them they couldn’t even take pee breaks.  This is not something that they could just turn on and have Tesla brand ventilators rolling off the assembly line in a couple of weeks.

Then there is this Tweet:

I want to make this crystal clear.  My doctorate in 3-D printing of medical devices.  Really, it is.  I’ve been published in peer-reviewed journals on the topic.

3-D printing is not magic.  It drives me up the wall when people with no one with a technical understanding of what 3-D printing is, talks about it like this.

What sort of masks are they printing?  How?  What do they use to seal them?  What is the filtration system?

If Musk really wanted to help, the fastest way he could would probably be to devote some of his equipment to be a domestic supplier of parts to a medical device manufacturer.  I can’t think of any of them that produce everything they need in house.  Ask the current ventilator manufacturers what the bottlenecks are and what parts they need, especially any parts that come from overseas.  That sort of subcontract work is easier and would allow current medical device manufacturers to increase their output.

But the idea that a guy who owns a factory can turnkey to a major piece of medical equipment by the end of the week and he’s an asshole if he doesn’t makes my head spin.

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It is Time We Go Old School for Some Medical Needs

Mar 19, 2020 Miguel.GFZ 3 comments

I just had a double whammy of news input. First was a local news brat whining about the lack of surgical masks and how the State of Florida asked for them to the Feds and have not arrived. I cut it right before the Orange Man Bad section of his mini rant. Then I went to see how things were doing in Spain (I got kin there) and I get to read about this town with an assisted living facility where 34 of its 120 elderly had tested positive for the Chinese flu and 15 have died in a very short time.  The director of the place has many complains but one among them is the lack surgical masks, He requested 600 over a week ago and  he has been ignored by the local government who has been threatening of removing him for going to the press. Not for nothing, but the local Gov is from the PSOE party and as good socialists, they hate bad press and know it is cheaper to get rid of the troublesome director than actually provide help.

Here is my thing: What was being used prior to disposable surgical masks? Cloth surgical masks!

The advantage of disposal mask is that you do not need the laundry infrastructure and procedures that can be a money drain to a hospital in a yearly basis. But I reckon we are kinda in an emergency situation  and a little outside-the-box thinking is needed.

For the life of me I can’t understand why do local governments don’t go to clothing factories or even go to Walmart or JoAnn Fabric and get fabric, supplies and hire every grandma, mom and seamstress or tailors in the county to produce  what amounts to a rectangular piece of cloth with two long strips per side. Give them the specs, pay them the gorramed $150 for producing “x” amount of masks a day and let capitalism take over.

Now, you can dispose of the cloth mask or you can get the National Guard to collect the used mask properly placed on bio-hazard bags, take them to  industrial laundromats or hotels with their own industrial laundry facilities. They can then use the washers with the proper amount of bleach to kill the virus (I just found out water temperature hot enough to disinfect is not used in the machines) or have vats with boiling water to make sure everything gets killed. Once washed, up they go into the dryers and then pack them and redistribute. I know this is somewhat cumbersome but basically because I bet that no hospital has a laundry facility anymore.

And my brain just popped the notion that industrial autoclaves could also be used if there is a non-food manufacturing facility that uses them.  The thing is, we either improvise and learn from this virus shit or we are condemned to repeat the mistakes in the future. We ignored the warnings of the many Cassandras that said we should not depend on China for our basic needs and we are now paying for it.

 

 

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Felony Zero has arrived. It is no longer a doomsday scenario.

Mar 19, 2020 Miguel.GFZ 0 comments

A woman suffered serious injuries after she was attacked and robbed of her groceries and wallet by a man wearing a mask outside a Raley’s store in South Lake Tahoe, police said.
The victim on Tuesday remained hospitalized in an intensive care unit, the South Lake Police Department said in a news release.
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The unidentified man threw the woman to the ground and hit her, causing serious injuries. The robber stole her groceries and her wallet, according to police.

Northern California woman attacked and robbed of her groceries outside Raley’s store

We have heard people being robbed of cash, of jewelry, phones & other electronics and even the occasional alcoholic beverage. And I have heard of criminals calling for pizza so they can rob the delivery guy of his cash and life and then enjoy a slice

But groceries?

The attacker is being described as a possible transient as it to present some sort of excuse to send a woman to ICU is explainable. It is not.  Somebody went after food and had no problem using deadly force.

You have been informed. Act accordingly.

Hat Tip Christine Z,

 

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When CNN tells you not to stockpile guns or ammo, you should stockpile guns and ammo

Mar 19, 2020 J. Kb 9 comments

From CNN:

Buying a gun isn’t the answer to coronavirus

This was written by Igor Volsky, who is just a piece of shit.  He was the LGBT editor at ThinkProgress, director of the anti-gun organization Guns Down America, and vice president at the Center for American Progress, so you know just how much of a  Lefty he is.

He wrote an article I fled Soviet anti-Semitism: We need to fix lax gun laws as well as hate and bigotry, because the lesson he took away from the big-government persecution of the Jews was to disarm the Jews.

So now he wants to make sure that Americans are not going out and buying guns during the Coronavirus crisis.

Buying a gun isn’t the answer to coronavirus

It’s not an answer to the Coronavirus, it’s an answer to all of the other shit going down because of the Coronavirus.

Americans are responding to the growing coronavirus pandemic by stocking up on essentials like toilet paper, eggs, milk — and deadly guns and ammunition.  But all of that firepower is likely to do more harm than good, as Americans continue to grapple with the anxiety and uncertainty ahead.

I hope those guns and ammo are deadly because if I need them I’m going to be really disappointed if they are not.

Across the country, firearm shops are reporting a boom in sales, as customers line up to buy ammunition, handguns, shotguns, rifles — and even the deadliest of assault weapons.

Again, if the shit hits the fan so hard that I feel like I need an AR-15, I hope it’s deadly, that’s why I bought it.

Do these people understand how tools work?  When I need to drive a 16d framing nail through a 2×4, I want a 24 oz, hatchet handle framing hammer.  Having some putz tell me that I can only use a 5 oz upholstery hammer because the framing hammer is too big, scary, and dangerous is bullshit.

But doomsday preppers and gun enthusiasts aren’t the only ones buying the nation’s gun and ammo inventory. Anecdotal reports from gun shop owners suggest that first-time purchasers are also getting in on the action.

Apparently there are a lot of people who slammed face-first into the reality that a gun might be useful in a crisis situation.

For example, Gabriel Vaughn, the owner of Sportsman’s Arms in Petaluma, California, posted a video on Instagram, on March 14, noting a “huge influx in new, first-time buyers” and pleading with his regular clientele to be mindful of busy store staff during this period.

Petaluma is just north of San Francisco, another city that has jumped on the “no arrests during the Coronavirus” bandwaggon.

Similarly, Cole Gaughran of Wade’s Eastside Guns in Bellevue, Washington, reported an increase in first-time gun owners — particularly among the Asian-American community.

“The main thing I’m hearing is that they don’t want to get jumped because of their race,” he told The Trace.

Minorities who want to defend themselves are race traitors.  That’s the real problem.

The gun and ammunition rush could lead to a spike in firearm suicides and domestic violence incidents, however.

As Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva explained during a press conference on Monday, “buying guns is a bad idea.”

“You have a lot of people now who are at home, normally they’re not, cabin fever sets in and you have a crowded environment,” he said. “Weapons are not a good mix.”

LA is not arresting people and is letting criminals out early because they believe that criminals are a “vulnerable population.”  Now it seems that the LA Sheriff wants to protect these criminals from their future victims by telling people not to buy guns.

And, so, if the best way to stop the coronavirus pandemic is to listen to the guidance of health professionals and scientists, then Americans must also tune out the grifters who are using this crisis to sell more firearms and embrace the overwhelming and conclusive science around the dangers of gun ownership.

Self-sufficiency is now grifting.

The conclusive dangers about gun ownership he mentions are gun suicides and domestic violence.  However, he even states “suicides were almost twice as high in the high-gun states, even though non-firearm suicides were about equal.”  He has come to the conclusion that gun ownership causes suicide.  The data shows that suicidality is the same (that is total attempted suicides, not just successful suicides) meaning that guns only make suicide attempts more successful.  The issue here isn’t guns, it’s the underlying mental health of individuals.  A healthy person does not become suddenly suicidal because he buys a gun.  A mentally unhealthy person is more effective at ending his life with a gun than with pills.  British discovered this when they switch away from coal gas to natural gas for stoves.  The number of suicides went down while the number of attempts stayed the same.

The point is, people who are worried that they are going to be the victims of crime because the police are letting criminals walk during the Coronavirus outbreak are not likely to become suicidal just because they bought a gun.

I’m not trying to downplay suicide by any means.  But Volsky’s assertion seems to be that people concerned for their safety, with no other history of suicidal ideation or domestic violence are going to be more prone to it simply because they bought a gun.

If you’re looking to protect your family, continue to buy food and basic essentials as needed, not guns and ammunition — and then stay home.

Miguel and I have covered cities that are reducing arrests and releasing criminals because of the Coronavirus.

I covered Squad member Ayanna Pressley’s call for the release of Federal prisoners during the crisis.  The ALCU has jumped onto that bandwaggon.

So even if you don’t live near one of these Purge cities, you might be affected if the Federal government decides to start releasing criminals.

Furthermore, once the police start to get infected, how many active law enforcement officers will there be patrolling the streets?  We know that fewer cops means more crime, and we could see a lot fewer cops just due to infections.

God knows how or when this will all blow over but given the rate of social upheaval that is going on being prepared to defend yourself isn’t a bad idea.

Unless you are a Lefty that prioritizes the lives of criminals over citizens.

 

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Polling data must be in

Mar 19, 2020 J. Kb 4 comments

For the first three years of the Trump administration, this has been the single guiding principle of the Democrat party vis a vis the GOP:

So it is with an earthshattering shock that I see Ilhan Omar Tweet this:

The ONLY thing that I can think is that the polling data has come back that a YUGE percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus, despite the media’s obsequious watering carrying for the ChiComs, and now the Democrats are afraid that turning against Trump at this very moment will cause them to be so tanked in the general election that Trump might be able to get the 22nd Amendment overturned and win again in 2024.

 

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Go full Trump on China

Mar 19, 2020 J. Kb 1 comment

Had China used the New York and Los Angeles Times to smuggle a couple of nukes into the US and set them off in New York City and LA, I don’t think Chin and the media could have caused more damage to our national economy.

It’s clear that the boarding up of the US and hit to the global economy that the Coronavirus has caused happened only because China put more effort into combatting anything that would make it look bad than combatting the spread of the virus.

When all of this finally passes and we take stock of everything that we have lost, I want Trump to put in place trade deals that economically isolate China from the rest of the world as much a possible.  Then look at China and say with full Trumpian inflection:

“You know that national debt that we owe you?  Suck my YUGE silky smooth balls, you’re not getting once cent of that back.  Fuck you and make America great again.”

China should pay for what they did to us in cold cashey money.

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The Coronavirus bailout insanity

Mar 19, 2020 J. Kb 7 comments

The shutdown of the US economy to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus is going to be tanking a lot of people.

Consequently, the government is discussing bailing out a lot of industries to keep the economy from totally collapsing.

Politics being politics means that everyone has to have their input regardless of how much of a good idea it is.

Elizabeth Warren decided to pitch her idea for what the government should do with the companies they bailout.  It starts reasonable and goes downhill very quickly after that.

Elizabeth Warren has a list of demands for companies bailed out by Washington

And Senator Elizabeth Warren already has a list of demands to be included in any bailout packages for major corporations hurting from the coronavirus crisis.

“Let me clear: We’re not doing no strings-attached bailouts that enrich shareholders or pay CEO bonuses. Period,” the influential Democrat from Massachusetts tweeted on Tuesday.

I actually agree with his.  The most infuriating thing about the Obama bailout was the bonuses to the people who made the banking decisions that caused the economy to crash in the first place.

This crash is a little different.  It wasn’t the result of bank malfeasance, it was the result of telling Americans to stay home, not spend money, or go to work.

However, I agree on the principle that if a company is falling on hard times and gets a taxpayer-funded bailout, the executives shouldn’t be pocketing the money for bonuses.

Here’s a sample of what Warren is calling a “progressive litmus test for bailouts to large corporations”

Uh oh, this sounds bad.  Very bad.

Payrolls must be maintained and companies must use funds to keep people working or on payroll

Good start.

$15 minimum wage within one year of the end of the national emergency
Permanent ban on share buybacks

We’ve seen the $15 min wage cause other business to fail.  Bailout now and fail or layoffs later because of the minimum wage is a bad trade-off.  A permanent ban on share buybacks seems like a deal-breaker.

No dividends or executive bonuses while receiving relief and for three years afterwards

Three years is longer than the tenure of many executives.  A year is reasonable but longer than that and it’s going make it harder to retain good management.

Must obtain shareholder and board approval for all political spending
Collective bargaining agreements should remain in place

Meh.

She’s going to take some reasonable requests and then add other bullshit to it and poison the well.  I don’t know if it’s her intention to sink the bailout or not, but that’s what she’s going to do.

President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that he supports a bailout of Boeing, which is seeking $60 billion in federal assistance, primarily in the form of loan guarantees for the aerospace industry. The White House is also in favor of help for the airline industry, which could need $50 billion in federal help because of the collapse in air travel.

I’m of mixed minds about this.

Jim Cramer says Boeing ‘will run out of money’ if it is not ‘saved’

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday called on the federal government to follow through and provide assistance to Boeing and the aerospace industry as the coronavirus continues to upend the American economy.

“It’s not a plea for me. It’s a plea for the 2 million workers who are in the supply chain,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street.”

On the one hand, I agree with this.  Boeing has a big presence in Huntsville and I don’t want to see this city take a hard hit.

On the other hand…

Boeing has already been facing significant financial troubles due to the two fatal crashes of its 737 Max plane, which has been grounded worldwide for a year.

Boeing’s problems predate the Coronavirus crisis.

Airplanes still use aluminum for their structural members.  Aluminum has no fatigue endurance limit.  So even if air travel is down for a few months, all that will do is delay the turnover of airframes by a few months.

That is minor for an airframe manufacturer compared to their fleet being grounded for safety concerns.  Then there is the failure of the Starliner to enter orbit.

Is it right to bail out Boeing using the Coronavirus crisis as an excuse when the real problem was mismanagement that caused major technical failures in the year prior?

Maybe if Boeing gets bailed out, it should come with mass layoffs, of the upper-level management that has created a culture of failure.

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