Tuesday March 9, 2021
I was in Hawaii when the Challenger Commission was meeting. Due to the five hour time difference I would be getting up and shaving at the time the Commission was beginning their afternoon sessions.
We were staying in a crappy quadraplex that billed itself as a “beach cabana.” You could see the beach across a stream and viewed through the beach shelter that could be rented by groups wanting to have parties late into the night. There was a TV in the place. It got one station and that was CNN.
When I got up I’d turn on the hearings and I’d begin my morning ablutions. I still remember it. There was a Morton-Thiokol engineer who was beginning his testimony. Morton-Thiokol was the company that made the engines for the Space Shuttle that had the O-rings that failed.
Sam Ervin was presiding. I remember because he had big bushy eyebrows.
The engineer said, “I told them not to launch.”
Sam’s eyebrows went nuts. In his slow souther drawl he said, “Excuse me (son). What did you say?”
“I told them not to launch.”
His eyebrows went nuts again.
The engineer then went on to explain that he knew that the O-rings did not perform well in cold weather. He had been asked for specific numbers and he said he didn’t have them because his funding to do the testing had been taken away. (Actually, he said, “because you took away my funding.”) He did say that he knew the colder it got “the farther away from goodness” the O-rings got.
He was pressed on the point as to why he didn’t do more to stop the launch. He responded, “I did everything I could except (or was it “short of”?) standing on the table and telling them not to launch.”
He said the NASA folks weren’t listening.
Yesterday, the last of the three Morton-Thiokol engineers died. His story was different and he didn’t look like the fellow I remembered testifying. Then I discovered a bigger problem. Sam Ervin died the year before the Challenger blew up. So who had I seen on TV?
This led me to investigate the dates of the hearing, when the Challenger blew up, and who was on the commission with bushy eye brows. I also knew that when I was in Hawaii I saw Haley’s Comet. I could then at least get a fix as to when I must have been in Hawaii (Feb-March ’86). Finally, I found the CNN video of the testimony (5 hours worth). The engineer I remembered was testifying. I haven’t found the specific piece I remembered but I did hear him say “away from goodness.” I’ll have to rewind to the beginning. Maybe they didn’t get his start in this video?
The fellow who most recently died was this fellow’s boss, and he as the head of the engine team would not sign off on the oaky to launch and was over-ruled by management. In the testimony I listened to from back then the engineer said no one in the room at the time was in favor of launching. In the obituary of the boss, he said he was in the gallery when someone was testifying and in his opinion was lying and he spoke out – from the gallery – and was asked to come down and testify.
The mind is a funny thing. What it remembers and how it remembers. As many a cop show has taught me – eye witnesses can be lousy.
Now, moving on to Andrew Cuomo. He’s not resigning and I agree with that. What I have heard so far is that he made women feel uncomfortable and his actions were inappropriate, but do the rise to the level of inappropriateness such that he such not serve as governor? I haven’t heard anything that makes me think so. Has he learned his lesson? Could he seek counseling? As in “Look, you can’t go up to a woman who works for you and say …”? I think so.
This is not the level of stuff Harvey Weinstein or Bill O’Reilly or Brett Kavanaugh did.
Let’s wait and see.
Now what? Hum. Okay, the filibuster. Some are suggesting that the minority of the Senate, that wants the filibuster be made to actually filibuster. Wow. What an idea! Actually do the thing they claim to want to keep. There’s also the idea of making the minority have to keep 40 or 41 Senators in the chamber if they want to filibuster. I like it. Let’s do it.
Speaking of the Senate chamber. Ted Cruz and another one got up and lied about the Covid Relief bill. He was immediately called out about it by Dick Durbin. It was an obvious lie dealing with whether undocumented workers would get relief money. It is right in the bill that they can’t. Plus, you need a Social Security number to get paid and if you are undocumented you don’t have a Social Security number. Some say Cruz knows this but was playing for a sound bite on Fox News. I disagree. I haven’t seen any evidence that Cruz is that smart*. BTW His debating society at Princeton has stripped him of his honors.
*He is not smart enough to either to know what’s in the bill or to make a play to get on Fox News. I mean, come on, this is a guy who tried to make a joke about Cancun and Orlando. It fell flat. Duh. Idiot.
Lastly, we are now up to 2.9 million vaccinations a day. Ten percent of the population is completely vaccinated and 20% have had one shot. At three million vaccinations a day we can do 100 million in 33-34 days which means in two and a half or three months everyone in this country could be vaccinated.
Good news.
But the Republicans are doing what they can to screw it up, taking the side of the virus in Texas, Mississipi, and Wyoming. The governors in those states have dropped all the Covid protcols.
When the CDC Director was asked about that last night she was very politic. She said the governors have to do what they think is right for their states. She said the next two months are critical to get this pandemic under control before it can mutate some more. She said that is why they are keeping the mask mandate in place, and she said she doesn’t listen to her governor in terms of wearing a mask but rather she does it to keep herself and her family and others safe.
Your choice America. Side with the virus and the Republicans, or side with science and your loved ones.
PS Maine
Leave a Reply