Got the motor out, but the pump will not come off the pump. No matter what I tried. Best guess is that the pump impeller is seized to the motor shaft. There are no instructions for disassembly, but the parts diagram shows no fasteners or anything, other than two spring steel clips, holding the pump to the motor. It doesn't need a lot because the pump is self-contained.
Found the pump on ebay for $11.21 shipped, so I've done that, but it'll add another week to "no washing machine in the bunker" which means at least two weekends where we'll have to hit the laundromat.
Of course, all of this is predicated on the motor still being good. If the motor's shot--
*sigh*
Anyway, I apparently strained the shit out of my back yesterday (all I tried to do was to wash my damned foot!) so any length of time spent sitting and leaning forward guarantees that I will not be able to straighten up upon standing, not without an egregious amount of pain in my lower back. And this is dead center, right in the spine itself.
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So there's this manga series, Again!, about a guy who's just graduated from high school. He's gone through the whole three years without making any friends or ever doing anything; and as he's wandering around he falls down a flight of stairs...and wakes up three years earlier, on his first day of high school.
A bunch of stuff happens and there's a bunch of things, but there is a sequence where he tries to help out a girl who was trying to keep the drama club going and who ended up doing adult videos after high school. When he encounters here in his first year of high school, the second time around, she's singing in the empty club room a song with the refrain, "I want to die!" It ends up being the signature tune for a production for the cultural festival.
But I mention all this because on days like today, when my back is killing me and I'm trying to fix something and I can't even get the motherfucking son of a bitch apart without power tools and hand grenades, I kind of wish I knew the song, so I could sing it. I don't really want to die but it would be a nice bit of emphasis.
* * *
I was going to use another anime joke there. "All these Max Factors add up to..." but it doesn't make sense without context.
In Project A-ko, the antagonist--B-ko--introduces her latest creation meant to help her deal with the super-powered A-ko, the Max 5000. She starts off saying, "The Max 5000: standard features include," and goes on to list the various weapons and defense features the thing has. Then she concludes, "All these Max Factors add up to an irresistable weapon: the Blue God of Death!"
So I am frequently tempted to finish a list of things by saying that, but it's a joke no one but me would understand, so I refrain.
* * *
Well, now it's raining on our freshly sealcoated driveway. The sealcoating is oil-based something-or-other so it doesn't really matter if it gets wet. The pavement has to be bone dry to apply the stuff, but once it's on I don't think it matters.
Hope not.
* * *
Used the new grill again today--hamburgers this time--and they turned out pretty good. Ordered a cover a few days ago and it arrived yesterday, but it's raining and the grill is wet, so I'm not putting the cover on it yet.
* * *
So, more evidence that China's not as strong as they like to pretend.
China remains fundamentally a poor country with limited ability to improve the well-being of its citizens much beyond what has already been achieved. And that has serious implications for China's leadership…It translates to "the consent of the governed".
China's economy is not just about providing jobs, goods and services. It is about regime survival for a Chinese Communist Party that faces an existential crisis if it fails to deliver.
It's an illegitimate regime that will remain in power only so long as it provides jobs and a rising living standard for the Chinese people. The overriding imperative of the Chinese leadership is to avoid societal unrest.
If China's job machine seizes, as parts of it did during the coronavirus outbreak, Beijing fears that popular unrest could emerge on a potentially scale much greater than the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. This is an existential threat to Communist power.
President Xi Jinping could quickly lose what the Chinese call, "The Mandate of Heaven."
That's a term that describes the intangible goodwill and popular support needed by emperors to rule China for the past 3,000 years.
Why is this? Well:
To escape the middle income trap requires more than cheap labor and infrastructure investment. It requires applied technology to produce high-value added products. This explains why China has been so focused on stealing U.S. intellectual property.China can't innovate, not the way they need to.
China has not shown much capacity for developing high technology on its own, but it has been quite effective at stealing such technology from trading partners and applying it through its own system of state-owned enterprises and "national champions" such as Huawei in the telecommunications sector.
But the U.S. and other countries are cracking down on China's technology theft and China cannot generate the needed technology through its own R&D.
Now, there is a way for China to get the technology they need: seize Taiwan. China's chip fabs are 2-3-4-5 Moore generations behind Taiwan's. And that's why China's making noises about grabbing Taiwan while the US is weak.
I don't know how much China cares about what the rest of the world thinks but if they were to take Taiwan that would not help them wiht the rest of the planet. China's economy is absolutely dependent on exports; what if the rest of the world decided not to buy any longer? What if the seizure of Taiwan pissed everyone off that much?
Notably, Japan leads the list with 88% unfavorable. That's because Japan and China have always hated each other; but I'd wager that this shit did not help any. China telling Japan they're digging their own grave over their Taiwan stance--really wise, guys, considering that Japan has a technological edge over you putzes.
* * *
This is why Chicago has a gang problem. Legal gun owner makes a mistake and tries to do the best he can. Cooperates with police and everything. Chicago justice dept plans to nail this guy's ass to the wall.
Meanwhile, last weekend there were more gang-related shootings than ever. If you're a multiple felon and you get caught with an illegal firearm, you're back on the street in minutes. But if you're an otherwise law-abiding person? THROW THE BOOK AT HIM. Including a $1,000 bond in a city where multiple felons don't have to pay anything to get out of jail after being arrested.
* * *
Anyway, frustrating nonsense today, aggravated by my aching back. Not sure what to do but I guess I need to get a doctor involved with this shit. *sigh*