Open Your Eyes and See!

This article was submitted to the Waco “Tribune-Herald” newspaper on 18 September 2025,  by me as a member of their board of contributors.  As of today (23 September 2025),  they have not used it. 

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As-submitted article:

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Dear readers,  the Waco “Trib” published an opinion piece of mine this last 19 August 2025,  which warned of the ongoing imposition of a Trump dictatorship upon us.  I have since noted other pieces published on the “Trib’s” opinion page warning,  or at least hinting,  of the same thing!  One piece of that is muzzling the news media,  a hallmark of all dictatorships.  This is happening right in front of you,  if you but open your eyes and see it! 

This is the text of the latest message (of many) that I have sent to Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz,  and Representative Pete Sessions: 

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“First it was Stephen Colbert who was cancelled for speaking against Trump.  That was Paramount,  owner of CBS,  needing administration approval for acquiring Bytedance.  So they cancelled him and got the approval.  Trump even said Jimmy Kimmel was next,  and now the minion-led FCC has threatened Disney and ABC with punishment for “spreading misinformation”,  to get Kimmel cancelled,  and they did.  Trump has said that Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers at NBC are next.  This is abuse of government to muzzle the media,  a hallmark of all dictatorships.  And I have messaged you multiple times about stopping the imposition of a Trump dictatorship. 

The Kimmel case is also extremely and egregiously hypocritical:  if “spreading misinformation” can be punished by the FCC,  then why has the most notorious example,  TV’s Fox News,  never been punished?  Answer:  the misinformation they have spread for decades is pro-Trump.  Simple as that! 

I am messaging you about this,  but I will also be writing to the newspaper’s op ed page.”

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The current claims from administration figures about the Charlie Kirk killing are like most of the other claims made during this term,  the previous term,  and as the opposition all during Biden’s term in between:  they do not stand up to fact-checking!  If you want to find what Charlie Kirk really stood for,  go on the internet;  Wikipedia has an article about him.  There are others.  His assassination was a criminal act not to be tolerated,  but he was definitely not the national hero that Trump claimed.

There is no large left-wing extremist population to go after,  contrary to administration claims.  There were,  more than half a century ago,  but not in recent decades!  However,  there is a large and growing right-wing extremist population today,  and it dominates the statistics of who the recent mass shooters have been.  Mentally disturbed people are the second-largest portion of those shooters,  with left-wing extremists a very tiny portion.

That leads me to try to correct a common misperception.  The conventional notion of “left wing” vs “right wing” in political thought is based upon the false concept that political outlook corresponds to a straight line,  from endpoints at far-left extremism and at far-right extremism.  It does not!  It never did!

The better model is a circle,  which ranges from societies that live in freedom on the near side,  to oppressive military-supported dictatorships,  on the far side.  There are indeed 2 paths from here to the far side of that circle,  one “left wing”,  the other “right wing”.  But once these groups go all the way to that far side,  there's not a dime's worth of difference between them!  It does not matter what they say,  or which way they got there.  The evil is the same! 

I see no operational difference between Stalin's Communist Russia and Hitler's Nazi Germany.  Both were military-supported dictatorships,  with a secret police (or polices) to "disappear" opponents,  concentration camps in which to hold opponents before finally "disappearing" them,  total control of all published information (a point being made here in this article),  government agencies weaponized to persecute opponents (also a point here),  certain minorities demonized as "the enemy",  all the corporate or business heads "bending the knee" to the dictator's every whim (another point here),  stolen or no elections amounting to a sham democracy at best,  and absolutely no accountability for the "fearless leader" in charge.

There are countless other examples besides Stalinist Russia and Hitler's Germany.  Putin's Russia today is only one of the latest.  Xi's China is another.  Kim's North Korea is another.  The ruling "mullahs" in Iran are yet another.  There are many more.

However,  in view of what has been going on recently,  all of those hallmarks of dictatorships ought to sound dangerously familiar to anybody in the US today!

Extremism is the real evil;  left,  right,  political,  religious,  makes no difference!  And totally unregulated social media are completely rife with both extremism and extreme misinformation!  Believe nothing from social media,  even if they tell you what you want to hear!  They lie to you for profit!  That is all they do. 

The real truth tellers,  like CBS News,  NBC News,  ABC News,  and PBS/NPR,  are now more than halfway muzzled already.  Why?  Their corporate owners make more money if Trump approves of what they say.

And we already have several concentration camps around the country!  They currently hold the demonized immigrants that the real statistics say do not threaten,  but actually benefit,  us.  They get deported (“disappeared”) mostly without due process,  if you but look!  Those who oppose Trump will be next!

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End of as-submitted article

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A brief update for the posting here:

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Disney/ABC has since decided to restore Jimmy Kimmel’s show,  perhaps responding to public pressure to do so.  Regardless,  owners of many ABC-affiliate stations Texstar and Sinclair do not intend to broadcast him,  no matter what Disney/ABC decided.  They both have merger deals awaiting approval from the Trump administration.  Surprise,  Surprise!  This is exactly what muzzling the media looks like!

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Update 9-28-2025:

For those who like "real data",  I made up this chart to show a comparison between the hallmarks of Trump's second presidency,  and the hallmarks known for several dictatorships.  There are many others,  of course,  but these are the best-known.  Bear in mind,  this is all based upon what they actually did or actually do,  not what they said.  Words are cheap.  Actions speak louder and very far more truthfully. 

On Pressure Vessels

One can build an unpressurized liquid tank to any desired shape,  unless it is so large that the depth of liquid inside exerts a significant pressure all by itself.  The same is not true of pressurized vessels,  even small ones,  beyond a “single handful of psi” gage pressure inside it.  There are very good reasons these tanks are only made in spherical shapes,  or as right circular cylinders with hemispherical or spherical-segment ends. 

This document presumes the reader knows what “gage pressure” means,  and what mechanical stresses and strains are.

Figure 1 shows a cylindrical pressure vessel holding gage pressure P inside.  This could be a tank,  or even a pipe or a tube.  The “hoop stress” is given by the formula shown top right,  which is sometimes referred to as Barlow’s pipe stress formula,  which is a measure of the stress trying to  split the cylinder open longitudinally.  Technically,  you use the cylinder inside diameter for this formula (a requirement working with pipe and tubing),  but as long as the material thickness is small compared to the diameter,  something true of rocket cases and propellant tanks,  there is little-or-no perceptible difference between inside,  outside,  and average diameters. 

Bottom left,  the cross-section of the cylinder,  or any section through a sphere,  is shown.  For a cylinder,  the “axial stress” is that which resists the pressure trying to part one end of the vessel from the other.  For a sphere,  it’s just the “membrane stress” that resists splitting the sphere apart,  no matter the section orientation.  That stress works out to be just half the hoop stress,  as shown.

Figure 1 – Pressure Vessel Stresses In the Vessel Material

For a cylindrical pressure vessel fitted with hemispherical ends,  Figure 2 takes this notion a bit further,  showing as it does the stress distributions on a tiny patch of material,  located on either side of the joint.  The axial stresses match,  while the hoop direction stresses differ by a factor of 2.  There are (at least theoretically) no stresses perpendicular to the material itself (the radial direction from the cylinder axis,  or from the hemisphere’s center). 

This hoop stress mismatch at the joint corresponds to a strain mismatch in the circumferential direction,  in turn corresponding to a radial displacement mismatch between the cylinder material,  and the end (or “head”) material.  The cylinder swells radially under pressure twice as much as the end or “head” swells radially,  as measured at the joint.  This distorts both the cylinder and the head locally at the joint,  as the materials bend locally,  in order to try to stay joined.  This induces large bending stresses locally,  which add in certain ways to the hoop and axial (or membrane) stresses already described.  That makes the joint quite vulnerable to local overstress failure. 

The ”fix” for this is to locally thicken the cylinder and head materials at the joint.  In effect,  the extra material “sops up” the extra imposed stresses.  For boilers,  there are very specific guidelines for how much local thickening is needed,  and how far “local” extends away from the joint.  Those rules are the ASME boiler code,  which is legally mandatory everywhere in the country,  for designing and building boilers.  Every provision represents a life lost learning that lesson.  This is serious business!

Figure 2 – There Are Distortions With Extra Stresses At the Joints

There are choices allowed for how to implement those localized thickenings at the joints.  Those are depicted in Figure 3,  and also apply to solid rocket motor case designs.  You can increase the thickness toward the inside,  or toward the outside,  or even some of both,  just as long as enough  extra material is supplied.  Finite-element stress-strain analysis can refine this further.

The same figure also shows a variation on the spheroidal end,  where only a sphere segment is used as the end membrane.  This requires a connection ring that resists radial swelling at about the same rate as the end resists radial swelling at its attachment joint.  That way,  no thickening of the membrane is required,  the ring supplies that for the membrane.  You still need a local thickening of the cylinder material at its attachment to the ring,  because of the radial swelling mismatch.

This spherical segment and ring approach lets one enclose more volume within a given length,  without making the assembly any heavier than a full hemispherical end.  This is how most solid rocket motor case closures are designed.  It is a well-proven solution.  The flatter the membrane,  the heavier the ring gets,  though.  It’s a trade-off.

Figure 3 – Full Hemispherical Ends Vs. Spherical Segment Ends With Rings

There are many possible reasons for wanting to use other shapes for one or both cylindrical pressure vessel end heads.  As long as membrane stress is insignificant (meaning very low pressure indeed!),  you can do that!  But as soon as the pressure (and the stresses it induces) become significant,  those other shapes rapidly become infeasible.  This is shown in Figure 4,  where the two spheroidal options are depicted,  along with elliptical and conical ends.  A flat end fails even worse than the elliptical,  from similar stresses that are just higher,  plus a sharp corner effect that locally greatly magnifies the local stresses even further,  right at the corner.

There is one positive benefit to a conical end,  if an axially-directed load must be carried from the cone tip into the cylinder.  This is an efficient load path for such a load.  But it is still a lousy pressure vessel choice!  It will require a lot of internal stiffeners to keep it from trying to “go round”.  Those are going to add significant weight,  there is no way around that problem!  You must trade off the axial load path advantage against the big weight gain incurred to make a conical shape a pressure vessel.

Figure 4 – Which End Shapes Work and Which Do Not,  and Why

It is a common belief that an elliptical shape is as good as the ring and spherical segment.  This is not true from a pressure vessel design standpoint,  as the figure shows.  The elliptical head will try to “go round”,  inducing severe bending stresses.  It is volumetrically efficient,  which is why many unpressurized railroad tank cars use elliptical heads on cylindrical bodies.  But these tank cars are not pressurized!  Their evident abundance is deceptive regarding the pressure vessel issues.

That same effect is why you want to use circular cylinders as your basic tank body for a pressure vessel,  not some elliptical (or other) cross section shape.  Those other shapes will try to “go round” upon pressurization,  leading to enormous bending stresses and very rapid failure.  If you must put pressurized storage within some oddly-shaped volume,  you must fill it with multiple small circular cylinders!  The non-circular cross section is not,  and will never be,  a successful pressure vessel design!  This is why air mattress floats are made the way that they are,  for example:  multiple cylinders,  connected at the ends so as to fill together all at once.

Addendum:  Exact Analysis

The exact analysis for right circular cylinders and spheres is given in Figure 5,  along with the geometries that allow these formulations to be made from very simple measurements.  

Figure 5 – Exact Formulations

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Search code                    01092025

Search keywords            launch, ramjet, space program

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Tariff Smarts?

I found this posted on LinkedIn,  where it was drawing quite a bit of readership.  It’s funny enough that I want to re-post it here.  Seems to be rather accurate,  really,  although the apes might be insulted by the comparison. 

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Search code 24082025

Search keywords:  fun stuff,  bad government,  idiocy in politics

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Starbuck’s Logo?

My wife found this on her Facebook.  It’s too good not to share.  Needs no comment.

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Search code                  20082025

Search keyword           fun stuff

History Rhymes Pretty Close, Does It Not?

I found this on LinkedIn,  and thought I would post it here,  too.  It’s rather self-explanatory.  The parallel is quite eerie. 

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Search code 16082025

Search keywords:  bad government,  idiocy in politics

 

Dictatorship Is Upon You!

The main body of this article is almost exactly as I submitted it 7 August 2025 to the Waco Tribune-Herald newspaper (the “Trib”),  as a board-of-contributors item.  It is a final wake-up warning for anyone who bothers to look at it.  Update 8-19-2025:  It ran essentially unchanged in the Tuesday (8-19-2025) "Trib" on the opinion page.

The appended image below was not part of the submittal to the “Trib”,  it is something I found on-line at Getty images.  That photo was taken in Spain,  which is why the leftmost figure is their former dictator,  General Franco.  Left-to-right,  they are the dictators Franco,  Stalin,  Hitler,  and Trump.  (Missing:  Mussolini,  Putin,  Xi,  and many more.)  It would appear that most in Europe are very well aware of the evil that is happening to America!  They’ve seen this many times before!

I would only add that Trump subverting the Constitution he swore to uphold,  may not be treason per the two (and only two) definitions in that Constitution,  but it is something edging very close to treason!  Especially when throwing that Constitution away to impose a dictatorship upon America.  That imposition is now almost complete.

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Original article (highlighting added for posting here):

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Noah Feldman wrote an excellent column that appeared in the “Trib” on Thursday 7 August 2025.  While he did not use the same words as me to name what is going on,  he quite accurately described the ongoing imposition of a Trump dictatorship.  That is exactly what consolidating all federal power into the executive branch really means! 

The Supreme Court majority has been giving Trump everything he wants,  no matter how unconstitutional,  by over-ruling those lower courts’ rulings that go against him.  The Court’s minority dissent opinions clearly indicate this,  and they do indeed highlight the danger to our democracy,  if you bother to read them!  My voice is not alone!

The majority of Congress has essentially abdicated all its power to Trump,  by giving him anything he wants,  even when he tries to dismantle institutions Congress set up,  and refuses to spend funds Congress already allocated.  Both of those outcomes are entirely unconstitutional,  by the way!  Read it for yourself,  including all the amendments.  Congress’s last power,  the power of the purse,  is now no more! 

Between the Supreme Court and Congress,  the checks and balances have effectively already been destroyed!  That was the real point of Feldman’s column!

Trump has begun muzzling the free press and academic institutions,  as well as large corporations that might otherwise oppose what he does.  You’ve all seen this taking place in the news!  Almost no entity has stood up to him,  excepting Harvard,  and acting alone,  they have no chance!  Shame on those who failed to resist:  you have helped destroy our democracy!  Controlling all information is a hallmark of every dictatorship this world has ever seen!

Trump has weaponized ICE to do his bidding instead of following the law,  and greatly expanded it.  This is going to be his secret police to intimidate and oppress you all,  fulfilling the same role as Stalin’s KGB,  and Hitler’s Gestapo and SS.  Right now,  it is deporting everyone it can find with brown or dark skin,  legal or not,  and making them disappear to overseas prisons,  totally out of sight and beyond help! 

Hear my warning:  citizens of any color who oppose him are next!  The machinery to make people disappear is already in place!  That is another hallmark of dictatorship. 

Trump has weaponized multiple government departments and agencies with minions as their heads who will do his bidding,  not follow the law.  This,  too,  is a hallmark of every dictatorship the world has ever seen.  One of the evils is misusing executive power to punish opponents or people who say or do things Trump does not like,  such as the head of the bureau of labor statistics,  among many,  many others. 

You are about to lose your vote,  your clean air and water,  your medical care,  and your middle-class economy!  Trump and his minions have proven that they care not one whit about your life or anyone else’s,  they only care about staying in power to have control over all others!  Putting an incompetent vaccine denier in charge of your health care,  and gutting all the science budgets and environmental regulations,  is proof enough of this. 

Don’t listen to the lies,  look instead at what they have actually done!  Trump pardoned all the rioters that he incited to attack the halls of Congress,  actually starting before he lost the 2020 election.  You saw what they did,  live on television,  and you saw that Trump did not do anything to stop the rioters,  until it was clear that his congressional opponents would not be killed.  Why did he pardon the rioters?  Because they were well-demonstrated by their criminal actions to be supporters,  simple as that!  Some of whom have already gone on to commit more crimes after he pardoned them.

Why did Trump not want the Epstein files released?  Two simple reasons:  (1) he’s named in there multiple times,  which should surprise no one,  since he is an adjudged (and self-confessed) sex abuser,  in addition to being a convicted criminal (which he is now trying to overturn),  and (2) he and his minions have been lying to you for years about how the majority of their “deep state” opponents would be exposed there,  when the truth really is that they are mostly not listed.   Trump and his minions are actually the real “deep state”,  and they do not want you to know that,  before they can grab full dictatorial power over you!

The current between-census political gerrymandering talking place here in Texas (and a few other places) is part of the larger effort to rig the outcomes of all future elections.  This is exactly how the sham elections work in Putin’s Russia and in Iran,  among many others,  that being a hallmark of many dictatorships.  You’ve already seen this process start with the 2016 election:  the only elections not falsely claimed to be rigged are the ones Trump or his minions win.  The ones they lose,  they try to overturn.  Simple as that!

Your last chance to stop this is the 2026 mid-term election.  That is,  assuming their election-rigging efforts haven’t already rendered it a sham by then,  a very real risk! 

Once your vote is no more,  your only remaining choice to stay free is revolution in the streets!   And Trump knows that:  he has been cashiering all the high-ranking military officers who might choose to help you overthrow him.  Surprise,  surprise!

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Appended image:

L to R:  Spain’s Franco,  Russia’s Stalin,  Germany’s Hitler,  and America’s Trump. Photo is from Getty images,  freely available as a downloadable jpg file.  Taken at some sort of protest in Spain:  small figures being thrown into the fire.

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Search code 13082025;  search keywords bad gov’t, idiocy in politics,  treason

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Rear of a Whale?

My wife found this on Facebook,  and it is too funny not to share.  Offered without further comment.

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Search code 10082025,  search keywords:  fun stuff,  bad gov’t,  idiocy in politics

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