All Hands, Listen Up!
Blue Martian sunset. (NASA)
Here’s a brilliant idea from someone who writes editorials for CNN. I wanted to share this with you all.
Let’s put tanks and all those other military vehicles of all kinds on electric power!!! Yeah, that’s it! We need to stop using all those polluting fuels that run the Navy’s ships and put subs on solar power and aircraft carriers on electricity. Tanks, too: those big ol’ tread-stampers should be redesigned to that they’re lighter and more agile and can turn on a dime, and do it all – including shooting shells – on more eco-friendly green energy charges. That would be on a par with those 4-legged armored walkers from “The Empire Strikes Back”. Really, something that’s driven by ropes and pulleys and a couple of old electric motors could really do the trick, don’t you think? And they don’t really need heavy armor plating, do they?
Just think how much better it would be if the Navy went back to sailing ships and stopped using all that nasty petroleum-based chemistry to move around. And nuclear reactors in a submarine can endanger fish and crabs and dolphins and seals, so they really should be replaced with solar power.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/26/opinions/climate-change-pentagon-flournoy/index.html
And while we’re at it, let’s make sure that military housing is as eco-friendly and “green” as possible, because the Pentagon obviously has more money than good sense. Let’s just spend those billions and gazillions on trivial things like eco-friendly spaces and good will. You know: hands across the aisle – that sort of thing. And sod the cost on all of this: it’s just money.
After all, that quarrel before your grandchildren were born is over with, isn’t it? There hasn’t been anything really that bad going on since then, has there?
And really, should we be trying to pollute the Martian planet with the visits we’ve been making?
The proposal for these brilliant ideas comes from one Michelle Flournoy: Michèle A. Flournoy is managing partner of WestExec Advisors, a strategic advisory firm, and former Undersecretary of Defense in the Obama administration. The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author. The article is published by CNN.
It’s really just the most brilliant idea anyone ever came up with. No, really: think of the money we’d save on fuel costs alone…. or something.
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", "Your Tax Dollars At Work"
This fits their plans. Cripple the military so that it can only operate for a few hours before stopping at a Tesla Supercharger.
A sailing submarine?
Wind powered aircraft carrier?
Someone that idea before. I think it was Taylor Anderson in the Destroyermen series.
I love that series.
Strictly speaking, Salissa, Arracca, et al were only sail-powered as “sea homes” before they were rebuilt as carriers. They got steam engines and oil-fired boilers installed with their flight decks.
GREEN Asbestos
GREEN lead paint
GREEN mold (we got that)
“It’s people. Soylent Green is people.”
And instead of those nathty diesel generators, we can force HQ Elements to use windmills and solar for electricity in the field and while we’re at it, let’s make the Field Elements use wind and solar as well! If tiny houses that the left embraces are so good, why not inflict them on Military Housing?
/sarc
how about replacing some of the combat forces with social workers?
(I dont have to add the /S do I?)
Michelle Flournoy was earmarked to be Hillary’s SecDef when das Hildebeest was sworn in as prezzy per the script. Didn’t turn out that way, or we’d be still in the middle of prepositioning about forty million Tesla charging stations and the power plants to go with them in all the world’s hotspots. Better luck next time, toots….
To quote my favorite Naval Academy graduate.
The most expensive thing in the world is a second-best military establishment, good but not good enough to win.
“‘Better’ is the enemy of ‘Good Enough'”
-Sergey Gorshkov, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy
I thought it was “Perfect is the enemy of Good Enough”
“Good Enough” has several enemies apparently.
Why are almost all your ships and boats on the beach, Comrade Admiral?
“…while creating millions of high paying green tech energy jobs in manufacturing and construction.” Same drivel that creepy, groping, old joe and ho are talking about on their vote for me ads. Yeah, right! How much of our tax money got pissed away on that whole Solyndra(?) fiasco that the JEF and joe had a hand in? How’d that work out?
Maybe some of these people spouting off about all of this need to sit in on some of Hondo’s lessons? Yeah, we can throw more “study” money at it, and give more “grants”, but at the end of the day, until different sources of energy are as efficient, widely available, and affordable it ain’t gonna happen.
Unicorn farts are not gonna generate enough wind to fill the canvass of a Floating Aerial Artillery Platform Bird Farm, Troops can’t live off of unicorn cotton candy, and other Artillery Platforms cannot shoot the skittles.
Huachuca had an experimental wind generator for a couple of years. Worked well, plans were made to createt a wind farm to decrease the fort’s “environmental footprint”. However, reality raised its ugly head and bit the greenies in the ass. The transmission locked up and the experiment was now a failure. As was the company that built it. Bankrupt and out of business. This monument to green energy stood unused and worthless for a few years, until the footings were dynamited and it was hauled off to rot in a landfill for the next several centuries.
SFC D, this was a project that was cooked up during the JEF years for the local AF Base. Notice what city the company was from. The land was cleared, but the project was never built. Articles that were in the local gossip rag have gone “poof”, same as the TV coverage. Another project was announced several years later that GA Power was heading up. The land it was to be built on was taken because of “Encroachment Concerns.” Odd that thru all the years of nuclear loaded Buffs and Bones flying over that same dirt, there was NEVER a concern raised over an aircraft crashing there. Check out this linky, then Google Foo Solar Panel Projects at Robins Air Force Base Georgia.
https://www.macon.com/news/local/military/article30284895.html
Many people know that Kennedy Space Center is located in a national wildlife preserve. The preserve was crucial in bringing back several species that were on the endangered list including the American Bald Eagle.
The Federal Government gave Florida Power and Light (or as locals call it “Florida Flicker and Flutter because of less than reliable service) the go ahead to build a large solar farm. In some ways, the idea makes sense. The land is flat, it is sunny and the panels are away from people and prospective damage.
People in the area said that the covering up of the land with panels would affect wildlife. That was pooh-pooh by officials who wanted photo ops.
The people were right. Species within the preserve are fading because of the lack of habitat and lack of food (if you are a predator such as an eagle or a hawk.) For the first time in years, the number of bald eagles in the area dropped in the annual survey.
In a similar vein, a local city decided to partner with a company and install solar panels on City Hall. The City touted that the panels would pay for themselves in 20 years in electrical savings. Less than 5 years in, the panels’ efficiency has dropped over 50%. The rate of decline is a curve and the projection is that the things won’t last 10 years.
Yet the City officials tout the program as a “success” while raising tax rates the maximum this year.
“Successful programs” like this we can all do without.
City I worked for had a rabid lefty as city engineer. He had a Prius with vanity plates “LOWR CO2”. Put solar on the roof of all the city buildings. Most of them had to be replaced within a few years from damage (though that was under warranty, just barely).
Next city engineer came in and these panels, with cost the city something like a million dollars were providing about $2.50 of power a day. He immediately nixed the installation of any more solar.
University of Maine at Presque Isle had a windmill installed by
First Wind as a gift for supporting the nearby Mars Hill windfarm.
It burned out within a year but they kept the blades turning with
a motor for years until it was found out and torn down.
Wind is a scam and everything it touches becomes a scam.
Flournoy? Hmmm, name sounds familiar. Oh, Yeah, Spec9 Carrot Top.
Wonder if this one has her bun screwed on too tight like the other one?/s
Eco friendly base housing?
Sure I guess we could spray paint the black mold green….
Electric/solar power for military vehicles and vessels? What could go wrong? Or better, what could ever go right with that idea? These asshats think every military anything is nothing more than a big Prius. Just add more solar-powered batteries and it’s good to go.
Clowns. The damnable thing about this is our enemies are sitting around their strategy tables, laughing till milk comes out their noses. Laughing at how much of our defense money is being wasted on this bullshit, instead of making better products to kill people and break things.
I have heard ideas of bringing back sail powered ships as they are considered more eco friendly. I have even seen computer models of some designs (these designs use the Chinese junk rig style setup for their sails with the sails flared forward rather than the classic cross shaped sails with the yards that flare outwards).
Of course, two big reasons as to why sail power was abandoned when steam power was introduced is what do you do when you have no wind and the advent of a self-propelled ship allowed them to grow larger and require less sailors to adequately crew them as time went on while allowing for more cargo and passengers to be carried..
Another thing with sailing ships is that they tend to be rather top heavy because of their masts and many tall ships have auxiliary Diesel engines as a back up in the case of a lack of wind and generators for the ship’s electricity thus it kind of kills the eco friendliness of it.
https://www.google.com/search?q=modern+sailing+ship&tbm=isch&hl=en-US&chips=q:modern+sailing+ship,g_1:cargo:ttHNMGuRok0%3D&prmd=ivsn&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS706US707&hl=en-US&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjunIi3ntjsAhXEAt4KHWRBACsQ4lYoAHoECAEQCQ&biw=1080&bih=695
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_rig
About the only place it could be useful is in high altitude balloons (for short term comms, like in Google’s Project Loon) or extremely long duration drones. Get a drone that can generate enough power to fly all night, it could loiter for days or even weeks.
I still remember the damned hybrid cargo truck that Al Gore Junior tried to inflict on the US Military!
Do they have Vegan MRE’s yet?
They have vegetarian ones. Not sure if it’s vegan. It made shitty food shittier.
That’s the vegetarian way. Friend of mine is a gluten-free vegan. She has some of the worst tasting crap I’ve ever eaten.
They’ve had those damn things for a few years now. They’re THE last damn things left after a case of them gets ratfucked!
The ‘Bronx Brain’ A.O.C. should just about now be able to hear her footfalls, as she narrows the gap and closes in for victory and wins the Simpleton Sippy Cup.
Solar powered submarines. Now that there is funny.
Well, see they surface, deploy their solar panels to recharge their batteries, during daylight. Oh, wait…..
Meanwhile, YouTube (Google) yanks Tucker’s Fox News interview with Bobulinksi to cover Biden’s ass because… wait for it:
Blue sun at night, astronauts’ delight
The above photo is from a weekend open thread that I pre-scheduled earlier this month. 😀
Oh, come on, thebesig, we all know you were up there on vacay taking in all the tourist spots that Heinlein mentioned!
Quit worrying about grandchildren because their mothers were aborted, therefore were not born to bear grandchildren. Does this make sense?