3/18/2022

441 Responses to “Weekend Open Thread – What Other Folks Are Saying”

1. Lia Thomas, the transgendered University of Pennsylvania swimmer who has been in the sporting and political news since the fall, won the 500-yard freestyle last night at the NCAA Women’s Swimming Championships. Thomas will be competing in the finals of the 200-yard freestyle later tonight with a preliminary swim placing second behind Canadian Olympic medalist Taylor Ruck of Stanford. Thomas also will swim in the 100-yard freestyle tomorrow, currently seeded tenth.

   I will blog about this whole fracas next week; I have been mulling over it for some time now and following the developments pretty closely. Suffice to say, it’s a really difficult and aggravating story all around.

   JVW (ee64e4) — 3/18/2022 @ 2:33 pm

   
   

2. More voter fraud:

   N.C. investigates Mark Meadows after reports that he never lived where he registered to vote
   ……..
   Anjanette Grube, public information director for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, confirmed to The Washington Post Thursday that the matter is under investigation. News of the investigation was first reported by Raleigh-based TV station WRAL. The station reported that the North Carolina State Board of Elections is also investigating Meadows. A spokeswoman for the board referred questions to the state attorney general’s office.

   “Local district attorney Ashley Welch has referred this matter to the Department of Justice’s Special Prosecutions Section, and we have agreed to her request,” Nazneen Ahmed, press secretary for the North Carolina Department of Justice, said in a statement. “We have asked the SBI to investigate and at the conclusion of the investigation, we’ll review their findings.”
   ……….
   According to a report by the New Yorker earlier this month, Meadows filed his voter registration in September 2020, three weeks before North Carolina’s deadline for the general election, listing his residential address as a mobile home in Scaly Mountain, N.C.

   Neither the home nor the property with that address have belonged to him, and he has never lived there, the magazine said.

   It is unclear whether Meadows has spent even one night at that address. The small mobile home belongs to a Lowe’s retail manager, who bought it last summer from a widow living in Florida. The woman, whom the New Yorker did not identify by name, told the magazine that she had no idea Meadows had listed the home as his address in his voter registration form.
   ……..
   It is illegal to provide false information on a voter registration, and while Americans can have multiple residences, they can have only one official domicile, which is tied to their voter registration. To register to vote in North Carolina, a citizen must have lived in the county where they are registering and have resided there for at least 30 days before the date of the election, according to the state’s board of elections.
   ……..
   Related:
   ………
   Meadows, who served as a congressman for North Carolina’s 11th District from 2013 to 2020, sold his official residence in Sapphire, N.C., shortly before becoming President Donald Trump’s chief of staff in March 2020.
   ……….
   Meadows did not purchase a new home in North Carolina after that, nor did he register as a voter for the general election until Sept. 19, 2020, when he filed his registration using the address of the mobile home, the New Yorker said. In his form, he wrote that he would move into the mobile home the next day.
   ………
   “Proof of residency for voter registration typically requires some form of proof of residency along the lines of a utility bill or any government information listing that as your address, e.g., car registration, driver’s license, those same sorts of proof would be expected,” (Steven Greene, a professor of political science at North Carolina State University) told The Washington Post.

   The North Carolina voter registration form lists the following as acceptable for proof of residence: “A current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address.”

   There is, however, no real system to check a resident’s credentials when they sign up to vote. ……

   At the time Meadows was filling out his voter form, he was also pressuring FBI Director Christopher A. Wray to pursue voter fraud. On Sept. 25, 2020 — just six days after sending in his North Carolina registration form — Meadows criticized Wray after Wray told a congressional panel that he had seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud as early voting was underway in some states.
   ………

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2022 @ 2:57 pm

   
   

3. Ken Fisher, of Fisher investments, provides some numbers on the costs of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine:

   In Afghanistan, the Soviets averaged about five soldiers killed per day. That sowed material discontent, undermining the Russian regime. In Ukraine, the US government estimates Russia lost 400 per day in the first two weeks of the Russian invasion. That isn’t exactly a great success.

   Estimates ballpark the costs of Russia sustaining its occupation of Chechnya in the 1990s at $3.8 billion per year—give or take some. But Ukraine’s population is 40 times larger. It’s 20 times larger than Crimea’s. Occupying Ukraine will be hugely expensive, maybe prohibitively so to anyone with half a rational brain. Chechnya is about 6,700 square miles versus Ukraine at 233,000. With 40 times the population and 35 times the landmass, the occupation costs may be, on the conservative side, 25 times higher—or more. That’s $95 billion per year or 5% – 6% of Russia’s pre-invasion GDP. If 35 times higher, it would be 8%.

   Generally, there are several times as many wounded as killed in modern war, so total Russian casualties might be as high as 20,000, or even more, by now. And, given the Russian blunders so far, I would not be surprised to see diseases began to take a toll on the Russian forces.

   Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/18/2022 @ 3:44 pm

   
   

4. Turkey’s Russian Missiles Could Defend Ukraine
   ……..
   When Turkey first signed a deal with Russia for the purchase of S-400 batteries, the U.S. and other allies saw the integration of the Russian system into NATO air defenses as a grave intelligence threat. In response, the U.S. suspended Turkey’s participation in the F-35 program, and Congress eventually subjected Turkey to the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act of 2017, which made it ineligible to purchase F-35 fighters to modernize the Turkish air force. One can imagine Vladimir Putin laughing at the discord and damage the sale of S-400s wrought within NATO.

   There is no doubt S-400s would bolster Ukraine’s air defense capability, and eliminating them from the Turkish inventory should clear the way for Turkey’s reinstatement in the F-35 consortium and sanctions repeal. The gap in Turkish air defenses can be filled in the short term with U.S. Patriot batteries and eventually with Turkey’s own Siper antiaircraft missiles, which are under development.

   It would be symbolic if Russian-made missiles shot down Mr. Putin’s warplanes in Ukraine that are bombing refugees, maternity wards and kindergartens. Having delivered the weapons to Turkey in the first place, Mr. Putin can hardly complain when Turkey sends them to a friend and neighbor to defend against wanton aggression. Indeed, late last year Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov encouraged Turkey to purchase more S-400s: “This kind of cooperation between Russia and Turkey should not be a threat for any country . . . because the system is not offensive, it is defensive.”
   ……….

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2022 @ 3:52 pm

   
   

5. I have been working through Josh Mitchell’s The Debt Trap: How Student Loans Became a National Catastrophe and can recommend it to most. As the sub-title suggests, it is not a feel-good book, and it is definitely not a book that will leave you with a high opinion of our college and university leaders.

   Oh, and I can add that the famous punch line, “Women and Minorities Hardest Hit”, is true of this catastrophe.

   (Haven’t heard the joke? It is how the New York Times would headline a story on an asteroid about to destroy the earth: “Earth To Be Destroyed Tomorrow: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit”.)

   Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:05 pm

   
   

6. Ivermectin Didn’t Reduce Covid-19 Hospitalizations in Largest Trial to Date
   ………
   The latest trial, of nearly 1,400 Covid-19 patients at risk of severe disease, is the largest to show that those who received ivermectin as a treatment didn’t fare better than those who received a placebo.

   “There was no indication that ivermectin is clinically useful,” said Edward Mills, one of the study’s lead researchers and a professor of health sciences at Canada’s McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Mills on Friday plans to present the findings, which have been accepted for publication in a major peer-reviewed medical journal, at a public forum sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

   Dr. Mills and his colleagues looked at 1,358 adults who visited one of 12 clinics in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil with Covid-19 symptoms. The patients all had a positive rapid test for SARS-CoV-2, and were at risk of having a severe case for reasons including a history of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease or lung disease.

   The researchers prescribed half of the patients a course of ivermectin pills for three days. The other half received a placebo. They tracked whether the patients were hospitalized within 28 days. The researchers also looked at whether patients on ivermectin cleared the virus from their bodies faster than those who received a placebo, whether their symptoms resolved sooner, whether they were in the hospital or on ventilators for less time and whether there was any difference in the death rates for the two groups.

   To make sure they were being thorough, the researchers analyzed the data in three different ways. They looked at data from all patients; then analyzed data from patients who received ivermectin or a placebo 24 hours before they were hospitalized; and in a third review, looked at data from patients who said they had adhered strictly to their dosing schedule. In each scenario, they found ivermectin didn’t improve patient outcomes.
   ……..
   Some studies on ivermectin published in journals or on preprint servers ahead of peer review have demonstrated no benefits, or worsening of Covid-19 symptoms, after ivermectin use. Some have shown some benefit, such as shorter time to symptom resolution, reduction in inflammation, faster viral clearance and lower death rates.

   But most studies showing positive effects had significant limitations such as small sample sizes or poorly defined outcomes, according to the NIH. Several studies on ivermectin have been withdrawn from publication, including a randomized controlled trial looking at 100 patients in Lebanon that was retracted by the journal Viruses due to issues with the statistical analysis, according to the journal. Researchers at the NIH and Oxford University also are conducting large trials on the effectiveness of ivermectin, though results haven’t been published.
   ………

   “This is the first large, prospective study that should really help put to rest ivermectin and not give any credibility to the use of it for Covid-19,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, who reviewed the findings.

   Fat chance. The true believers will never accept any study that contradicts their cult-like devotion, but at least they will be clear of parasites.

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:26 pm

   
   

7. An American who owns a MiG-29 isn’t sure the fighter jets will help Ukraine much

   Jared Isaacman, a billionaire and astronaut, may be the only American individual to own a MiG-29 — the Russian-built fighter jet line that has become the center of an international diplomatic conundrum in the global effort to aid Ukraine.

   And as one of only a tiny handful of Americans to have ever flown the high-performance Soviet-era jet, he doesn’t think they’d be very useful to Ukraine.
   ……….
   “On a purely technical level, I don’t know how the good could outweigh the bad of bringing in those MiG-29s,” Isaacman said. “Are people thinking through the implications?”

   He said the Russians could eliminate the jets from the battlefield “in a single shot.”

   “What a momentum swing that would be for Russia,” he added. “What a morale boost it would be for them. And it’s been so publicized by now that the Russians could just be waiting for the moment those jets come across the border.”
   ……….
   Isaacman said 30-and-40-year-old Polish MiG-29s would be little match for modern Russia fighters with more advanced sensors and longer-range weapons systems, echoing a similar conclusion reached by the Pentagon last week.

   “There are Russian fighters that could see those MiG-29s from three times farther away,” said Isaacman.
   ……….
   A company he founded helps train U.S. Air Force and other pilots by role playing the bad guys. Issacman became an “aggressor” pilot himself. He’s also performed aerobatics at air shows and holds the world record for fastest round-the-world flight in a small jet, which he set at 26.
   ……….
   Issacman bought the MiG for himself not long after he sold his private air force company, Draken International, in 2019, picking up the unusually well-maintained fighter jet from the estate of Paul Allen, the late Microsoft co-founder, who spent millions acquiring and painstakingly refurbishing old warplanes.
   ………..

   Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:35 pm

   
   

8. Jim,

   And the real problem with “cancelling” debt is that the money was loaned in good faith, presumably with government guarantees, and the loans were not dischargeable in BK. At the very least, the government would be liable for losses.

   But that’s also not satisfactory. At the very least, going forward, the COLLEGES should have to guarantee a sizable portion of the loan, giving them an incentive to steer low-income students towards income-producing careers.

   Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:37 pm

   
   

9. Fat chance. The true believers will never accept any study that contradicts their cult-like devotion, but at least they will be clear of parasites.

   Well, except for one.

   Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:42 pm

   
   

10. Good point about old MIGs.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:42 pm

    
    

11. Wild Kremlin TV Hosts Threaten the U.S. With Nuclear Strikes Unless Sanctions End and Reparations Are Paid
    ………
    …….. Appearing on a state TV show Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, political scientist and Professor of Communications Dmitry Evstafiev argued: “Right now, President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s third proposal to the Ukrainian leadership is on the table. This, of course, is a demonstration of his greatest respect and—I would even say—of love by our President towards the Ukrainian people.”

    ……… Olga Skabeeva, the host of a state TV show 60 Minutes, intentionally distorted the statements of White House press secretary Jen Psaki. On Friday, Skabeeva claimed: “Jennifer Psaki’s statement said that no matter what Putin does in Ukraine—whether he uses biological weapons or drops a nuclear bomb—the United States won’t get involved.”
    ……….
    (60 Minutes) proceeded to broadcast a clip of former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, blaming Biden for his alleged inability to communicate with Putin. Hinting at the upcoming presidential elections, Skabeeva sniped: “Fun times for them are only starting. We’re waiting.” ……..

    Appearing on Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, Russian parliament member Oleg Matveychev, known as the Kremlin’s spin doctor, watched a clip of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson—an everyday occurrence in Moscow’s tightly-controlled media environment. Matveychev noted: “There isn’t a single country in the world that is as easily manipulated as America.” He argued: “Here’s what will be on the table after our victory… After Ukraine’s demilitarization is completed… we’re going to raise the stakes… For example, the lifting of all sanctions… The dissolution of NATO, because the presence of NATO in some countries is getting in our way. Extradition of all war criminals… like [Anton] Herashchenko [former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs], Zelensky, [former President of Ukraine Petro] Poroshenko. Extradition of various oligarchs, like [Mikhail] Khodorkovsky.”

    ……… Last Thursday on The Evening With Vladimir Soloviev, after listening to other pundits and experts endorse the idea of executing Ukrainian citizens by hanging, doctor of political sciences Elena G. Ponomareva argued: “Never let morality prevent you from undertaking correct actions. I understand the importance of a humanitarian component… but morality shouldn’t get in the way.”

    Sunday’s Vesti Nedeli hosted by Dmitry Kiselyov continued the theme of public hangings, broadcasting the scenes from the public execution of German Nazi soldiers on Kyiv’s Independence Square in 1946. The segment was entitled “Denazification of Ukraine—the new opportunities for growth” …….

    Reciting the list of Russia’s future demands during Soloviev’s show, Matveychev became even more brazen: “We should be thinking about reparations from the damage that was caused by the sanctions and the war itself, because that too costs money and we should get it back. The return of all Russian properties, those of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and current Russia, which has been seized in the United States, and so on.”

    The host chimed in to ask: “Are you including Alaska and Fort Ross?”

    Matveychev nodded: “That was my next point. As well as the Antarctic… We discovered it, so it belongs to us… Also, the return of all medals that have been unlawfully taken from our sportsmen during all Olympic games……

    On Monday, Soloviev revisited the topic of nuclear blackmail, perhaps blinded by rage after the recent seizure of his two Italian villas. He said: “I still think that those who took our money should be told, you have 24 hours to unfreeze our funds, or else we’ll send you what you know we’ve got. Your choice. Tactical or strategic, take a pick. You took our money, you’re the thieves, our talk is short with you: a bullet to the head.”
    ##############

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:46 pm

    
    

12. @3: Consider that Ukraine has roughly the area and population of California + Oregon.

    Hell of a thing to try to occupy if the residents are uncooperative.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:48 pm

    
    

13. This, of course, is a demonstration of his greatest respect and—I would even say—of love by our President towards the Ukrainian people.”

    And again I think of King George III in “Hamilton”

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:49 pm

    
    

14. Daniil Medvedev could be banned from Wimbledon unless he denounces Russian president Vladimir Putin.

    Yes, that rubs me the wrong way, too. Too Ingsoc, as in “How many fingers an I holding up, Winston?” But then Airstrip One, for at least the last thirty years, has been more socialist that Russia. Not to mention that it has always been at war with Eurasia. I know what I would tell them, but only from America where we have a First Amendment.

    nk (1d9030) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:50 pm

    
    

15. Kevin M:

    I responded to your comments about the Republicans voting against aid to Ukraine. The bill was not ” “loaded up with goodies,” the Ukraine aid was part of the omnibus spending bill to fund the Federal government through the rest of the FY. The Republicans also voted against a pay raise for the US military.

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:50 pm

    
    

16. Time for Some Loyalty Oaths

    Compelled speech is not free speech. I really don’t think anyone should be cheering these dictates. The people pushing them should be made to denounce something they don’t want to denounce, too, if at all possible.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 4:59 pm

    
    

17. Vladimir Putin has almost no chance of successfully occupying Ukraine
    ………
    In the coming months, Russia could potentially gain control over approximately half of the country running from Kyiv in the north to Odesa in the south and the Donbas in the east. If they are successful, Russian occupying forces will assume responsibility for approximately 20 million people across an area the size of Norway.

    This would be a daunting task even in the best of circumstances. Unfortunately for the Russians, they face the worst of circumstances for an occupying power. Historical cases of occupation and counterinsurgency suggest an impending disaster. There is almost no chance that Russia will successfully occupy Ukraine.

    Successful occupations by foreign powers have some notable commonalities. Generally, chances for a smooth occupation increase when the occupier is welcomed by the population; is supporting an acceptable local government; can count on competent local defense forces; applies patient, humane population control tactics; has denied sanctuary to insurgents; and has kept antagonistic foreign powers from disrupting the occupation. All occupations face challenges, but some succeed. Coalition occupations of Germany, Bosnia, and Kosovo were generally successful.

    Ukraine will be unlike any of these cases……..

    Putin’s troops will benefit from cultural and geographic proximity…….

    Operating from home bases just across the shared border, Russian occupiers will also have relatively short lines of communication and the ability to quickly reinforce or reposition forces across Ukraine as needed. These two factors effectively sum up Russia’s advantages.

    Ukrainians are highly unlikely to support a Russian occupation. …….

    Russia almost certainly will not be able to establish a puppet government that Ukrainians will view as legitimate. There is little chance Ukrainians will flock to recruiting stations to serve in a pro-Russian paramilitary police force or army. Absence of support means that ill-prepared Russian soldiers will have to provide governance and security for the entire occupied area. Active opposition to Russian occupation also portends the emergence of a debilitating insurgency.

    Meanwhile, insurgents will benefit from sanctuary and strong foreign support. In this study of 89 historical insurgency cases, the presence of an insurgent sanctuary strongly correlated with insurgent victory. If insurgents have a safe place to mobilize, rest, recruit, and train their forces, it is effectively impossible to wipe them out. In all likelihood, Ukrainians will be able to operate out of western Ukraine for years or, if necessary, decades. If international support can be sustained in the face of economic and political challenges, western Ukraine will also serve as a conduit for weapons, supplies, and ammunition the insurgents will use to kill Russian occupiers.

    Russians appear to be betting on their ability to crush Ukrainians into submission by destroying their infrastructure and breaking their will to fight. There are cases in which near absolute destruction correlates with subjugation. However, if they have any hope of securing or annexing eastern Ukraine, Russians will have to build up the infrastructure they destroy. This will be an extraordinarily expensive undertaking, and it is one the Russians probably will not be able to afford or successfully accomplish. As they destroy Ukraine’s infrastructure and kill civilians, the Russians are also generating the enduring root cause animosities that tend to fuel insurgencies for years to come.

    Russians have a poor track record when it comes to occupation. They flailed about in Chechnya in 1994 and had to resort to ham-handed brutality in 1999-2000 in order to suppress a population that may be one-twentieth the size of the population they seek to control in Ukraine.
    …………
    …………As the United States discovered in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, unplanned occupations happen. Therefore, as Ukrainians like to say to the Russian invaders, welcome to hell.
    #############

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/18/2022 @ 5:00 pm

    
    

18. (Haven’t heard the joke? It is how the New York Times would headline a story on an asteroid about to destroy the earth: “Earth To Be Destroyed Tomorrow: Women and Minorities Hardest Hit”.)

    The full version of the joke as I heard it is this: Astronomers one day discover a huge asteroid barreling down on the earth, and determine that it is moving much to fast and is already much too close to do anything about it, and thus we will be destroyed on impact in just three short days. The next day, the following headlines appear in major newspapers:

    New York Times: Earth to Be Destroyed by Asteroid: Women and Minorities Said to be Hardest Hit
    Wall Street Journal: Markets Close Early on News of Earth’s Impending Destruction
    Washington Post: Democrats Blast GOP for Underfunding Meteor Research Program
    USA Today: Giant Asteroid Headed to Earth, more coverage inside on page A-17
    Boston Globe: MIT and Harvard Astronomers Reveal Major Discovery
    Chicago Tribune: Criminal Trial of Former Governor Delayed by Asteroid News
    Los Angeles Times: Hollywood Braces for Worst Summer Opening in History

    JVW (ee64e4) — 3/18/2022 @ 5:05 pm

    
    

19. #8 Kevin – I haven’t finished the book (though I did glance at his conclusions), so I don’t yet have an opinion on student debt cancellation.

    I have thought, for many years, that our college and universities were performing poorly, a conclusion that was fortified by reading Derek Bok’s Our Underachieving Colleges. If I recall correctly, he cited a study that showed that about 30 percent of college graduates had learned nothing, net, during their college years.

    Drawing on a large body of empirical evidence, former Harvard President Derek Bok examines how much progress college students actually make toward widely accepted goals of undergraduate education. His conclusions are sobering. Although most students make gains in many important respects, they improve much less than they should in such important areas as writing, critical thinking, quantitative skills, and moral reasoning. Large majorities of college seniors do not feel that they have made substantial progress in speaking a foreign language, acquiring cultural and aesthetic interests, or learning what they need to know to become active and informed citizens. Overall, despite their vastly increased resources, more powerful technology, and hundreds of new courses, colleges cannot be confident that students are learning more than they did fifty years ago.

    Note the “most” in the second sentence.

    Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/18/2022 @ 5:16 pm

    
    

20. Update to my comment in the number one slot above: Lia Thomas finished fifth in the finals of the 200-yard freestyle at NCAAs earlier this evening, a full 1.3 seconds off of her time from the prelims earlier today. Her prelim time would have finished third.

    JVW (ee64e4) — 3/18/2022 @ 5:19 pm

    
    

21. #18 JVW – Thanks. If I had heard that longer version of the joke, I had forgotten it. Other readers may want to add their own versions to match their local newspapers. I’ll bet Patterico could come up with a good one for the Los Angeles Times, Paul Montagu one for the Seattle Times, and so on.

    Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/18/2022 @ 5:20 pm

    
    

22. https://nypost.com/2022/03/18/intelligence-experts-refuse-to-apologize-for-smearing-hunter-biden-story/

    They are the supposed nonpartisan group of top spies looking out for the best interest of the nation.

    But the 51 former “intelligence” officials who cast doubt on The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop stories in a public letter really were just desperate to get Joe Biden elected president. And more than a year later, even after their Deep State sabotage has been shown again and again to be a lie, they refuse to own up to how they undermined an election.

    The officials, including CNN pundit and professional fabricator James Clapper — a man who was nearly charged for perjury for lying to Congress — signed a letter saying that the laptop “has the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

    What proof did they have? By their own admission, none. “We do not know if the emails . . . are genuine or not,” the letter said. They’re just “suspicious.” Why? Because they hurt Biden’s campaign, that’s evidence enough.

    Keep in mind this was written Oct. 19, 2020, five days after The Post published its first story. Neither Joe Biden nor Hunter Biden had denied the story, they simply deflected questions. Didn’t these security experts think that if this was disinformation, the Biden campaign would have yelled to the heavens that the story was false?

    Liars and frauds. As was every single leftist propagandist that hid the truth to select their President.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/18/2022 @ 6:15 pm

    
    

23. NJRob, I noticed when looking into this story that the “51 former intelligence officials” were generally pretty careful to qualify their assessment that this had “the classic earmarks” of a Russian disinformation campaign by avoiding directly claiming that they knew definitively or even had any proof that this was the case. It was just something that they felt, and like the Post editorial says, they were desperate to protect the Biden campaign. But of course, the Biden campaign and the pro-Biden media weren’t as careful as the intelligence officials, and the message quickly morphed from “this may be a Russian disinformation campaign” to “this is likely a Russian disinformation campaign” to “this is certainly a Russian disinformation campaign.” The degree to which they get away with pulling this crap is incredible.

    JVW (ee64e4) — 3/18/2022 @ 6:21 pm

    
    

24. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/congratulations-to-emma-weyant-the-real-woman-who-won-the-ncaa-500-yard-freestyle-event

    Until sanity is restored in our country, records will show that Lia Thomas was the winner of the 2022 women’s NCAA 500-yard freestyle event. However, we all know the story behind Thomas by now. Lia is not a woman, but a man identifying as a woman. Anyone interested in the sanctity of competition, biological integrity, and saving women’s sports, should celebrate Emma Weyant, the actual woman who won the 2022 women’s NCAA 500-yard freestyle event on Thursday night.

    The records will show that Weyant finished in second place behind Thomas. But Weyant is the actual she who should be recognized as champion. Thomas’s victory represents everything that detractors feared would happen in the national championships: that females would not be able to compete against a man claiming to be a woman.

    The truth. But in our insane world only lies are acceptable.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/18/2022 @ 6:27 pm

    
    

25. JVW,

    I agree wholeheartedly. It’s also why we need to look at everything they tell us with that slant in mind. To them the agenda is all that matters. Truth is the first casualty.

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/18/2022 @ 6:28 pm

    
    

26. commenters who were full 360 slam dunking on the hunter biden laptop story

    Rip Murdock
    Paul Montagu
    nk

    take a bow fellas

    JF (e1156d) — 3/18/2022 @ 6:28 pm

    
    

27. “If you would like to see the former President fade into the dining room at Mar-a-Lago”. That would be good, but I think I have a better idea:

    1. Trump should release Melania. (Whatever sins she may have committed, surely she has paid for them by now.)
    2. Trump should turn over his assets, if he has any, net, to a trustee, who will distribute them to the hundreds of people he has cheated over the years.
    3. Trump should join a monastic order, one of the specialized ones that require monks to take a fourth pledge, as well as the usual three: poverty, chastity, and obedience. He should join an order that also requires monks to pledge silence.

    Now I realize that is even less likely to happen than the fade into the dining room, but I do think it is a superior solution.

    Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/18/2022 @ 6:49 pm

    
    

28. CDC Says It Accidentally Inflated Children’s COVID Death Numbers In ‘Coding Logic Error’

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its data this week to reduce pediatric deaths from COVID-19 by nearly 24%.

    On Tuesday, the agency was reporting on its COVID Data Tracker that 1,755 Americans under age 18 had died from the virus since the pandemic began in spring 2020. Now, it is reporting 1,341 deaths in that category.

    so, instead of “extremely low” it’s been corrected to “ridiculously low”

    JF (e1156d) — 3/18/2022 @ 7:18 pm

    
    

29. Josh Mandel is forging new ground in the GOP, forming the Jerry Springer wing of the party tonite. Even after this behavior, I wouldn’t write him off as nominee.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/18/2022 @ 8:44 pm

    
    

30. Getting birds off the pad turns to giving birds on their IPads; Musk-o-fight vs. Muscovite:

    Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed nationalist ally Dmitri Rogozin — an enthusiastic supporter of the current invasion — as head of Roscosomos [the Russian Space Agency] in 2018; Musk has offered to fight Putin in “single combat” over Ukraine. Rogozin responded in defense of the Russian leader, citing one of Musk’s earlier musings in which the entrepreneur said he often tweets on the toilet. “Elon, get off the toilet, then we will talk,” he wrote…. The Roscosmos director has also courted controversy in Kazakhstan, which leases the world’s oldest space launch facility to Moscow. -source, AFP.com

    … and Bezos smiled.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/18/2022 @ 9:03 pm

    
    

31. I responded to your comments about the Republicans voting against aid to Ukraine. The bill was not ” “loaded up with goodies,” the Ukraine aid was part of the omnibus spending bill to fund the Federal government through the rest of the FY. The Republicans also voted against a pay raise for the US military.

    One man’s pork is another man’s necessary Kumquat Museum.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 9:23 pm

    
    

32. Jim,

    I have to admit that I could have done better myself at college. Being finally away from the helicopter*, there were too many temptations…

    —————
    *my mother invented helicopter parenting

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 9:25 pm

    
    

33. More directly, Rip, they said why they were voting how they voted and they said they wanted to support a larger support bill for Ukraine.

    But you and the Democrat talking points (birm) want to torture it around to “All the Republicans support Putin.” So first deny they said it was a pork bill, then say they didn’t really mean it anaway (implied: because they support Putin). Besides all those other $1.5 billion in stuff was for mothers and apple pie and the military that is the apple of the Democrats’ eye — all things that the GOP also hates. And you call it truth.

    Bah!

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 9:32 pm

    
    

34. commenters who were full 360 slam dunking on the hunter biden laptop story

    Since you called me out, JF, here’s what I said when the story came out.

    It could all be on the up-and-up but, considering the characters involved, better to be skeptical and nail down the facts.

    Some “full 360 slam dunking”. Here’s a comment in another thread.

    It looks like the emails the NY Post released are authentic because FoxNews did some reporting and got 3rd party corroboration on one of the email chains. However, all they’ve presented are screenshots. Without the metadata (which the FBI should have), we don’t have full confirmation. The photographs and texts that we’ve seen look authentic. But again, without examining the drive, we don’t know what was originally on the laptop and what juicy bits could have been added in.

    And this.

    It appears that the information on his hard drive is accurate, although it remains to be seen whether it’s been “salted” with fake entries or photos.

    I can see that you’re really eager to have your “gotcha” moment, JF, but you’re gonna hafta do better.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/18/2022 @ 9:40 pm

    
    

35. Εδώ ο κόσμος καίγεται και η γριά χτενίζεται.

    nk (1d9030) — 3/18/2022 @ 9:56 pm

    
    

36. The conspiracy theorist in me posits this: Someone took a sticker from Biden’s foundation and slapped it on the laptop, then filled it with as much publicly available information on Hunter as possible, maybe hacked into his Facebook account, and inserted a stream of phony baloney emails. Bannon is involved in this, and I wouldn’t put it past him.

    Paul Montagu (77c694) — 10/14/2020 @ 9:02 am

    JF (e1156d) — 3/18/2022 @ 10:01 pm

    
    

37. Chait also mentions that Russian operatives hacked Burisma emails. If those hacks were on that computer, then Giuliani/Bannon could be credibly accused of consorting with Russians to influence an American election. The final paragraph:

    If that story is not true, then Trump’s lawyer is cooperating with Russian intelligence operatives on a hack-and-leak operation to influence the presidential campaign. But that would never happen, would it?

    I think we need to know the identity of computer repair guy.

    Paul Montagu (77c694) — 10/14/2020 @ 11:35 am

    JF (e1156d) — 3/18/2022 @ 10:02 pm

    
    

38. If the Trump team ever told the truth, even only once, about anything, this patently false frame-up might have gotten some legs. For a day or two, anyway.

    nk (1d9030) — 10/14/2020 @ 9:38 am

    JF (e1156d) — 3/18/2022 @ 10:04 pm

    
    

39. Desperate times call for desperate lies. And poor, broke Donald with bankruptcies and indictments looming in his future to the farthest unobstructed horizon is desperate.

    nk (1d9030) — 10/14/2020 @ 9:54 am

    JF (e1156d) — 3/18/2022 @ 10:05 pm

    
    

40. If the Trump team ever told the truth, even only once, about anything, this patently false frame-up might have gotten some legs. For a day or two, anyway.

    This isn’t exactly wrong, though.

    JVW (ee64e4) — 3/18/2022 @ 10:45 pm

    
    

41. Looks like the deep state is ready to dump biden for incoming corporate republicans. It was deep state government operatives who fed the ny times the info that hunter biden’s lap top was genuine.

    asset (3af8c7) — 3/18/2022 @ 10:52 pm

    
    

42. Well, it’s not going to dump Biden of Harris, now is it?

    Not that “Trump” is “corporate Republicans.” Most boardroom Republicans wouldn’t let him in their golf club, let alone in their boardroom. If the netroots were trying to design an Ugly Republican, they would give up after seeing Trump.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 11:44 pm

    
    

43. JF-🍻 – these rubes have no idea how wrong they are

    mg (8cbc69) — 3/19/2022 @ 3:40 am

    
    

44. https://nypost.com/2022/03/19/us-soldiers-killed-in-plane-crash-during-nato-exercise-not-related-to-ukraine-war/
    Just what you war mongers ordered.
    Nice vote, losers.

    mg (8cbc69) — 3/19/2022 @ 3:49 am

    
    

45. https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/03/18/wh-gets-grilling-on-hunter-related-conflicts-and-joes-meeting-with-russian-billionaire-n537738
    orange women bad

    mg (8cbc69) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:05 am

    
    

46. 44–Sure, not related to Ukraine. cheese is awaiting you on the moon, Rip Murdock.
    Bring our boys home alive. Enough of this Nato b.s. We don’t need any other country to make America better.

    mg (8cbc69) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:17 am

    
    

47. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/the-week-in-pictures-putin-us-on-edition.php
    81 million voted for a senile pos.

    mg (8cbc69) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:31 am

    
    

48. If you voted Biden you voted for PUTIN.

    mg (8cbc69) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:32 am

    
    

49. The conspiracy theorist in me posits this: Someone took a sticker from Biden’s foundation and slapped it on the laptop, then filled it with as much publicly available information on Hunter as possible, maybe hacked into his Facebook account, and inserted a stream of phony baloney emails. Bannon is involved in this, and I wouldn’t put it past him.

    That’s called spitballing, JF. That’s why I qualified my statement with “the conspiracy theorist in me”.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:38 am

    
    

50. Because I’m not a conspiracy theorist.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:39 am

    
    

51. If that story is not true, then Trump’s lawyer is cooperating with Russian intelligence operatives on a hack-and-leak operation to influence the presidential campaign. But that would never happen, would it?

    Again, spitballing. Notice the qualification “if that story is true”. Yep, you’re really eager for that “gotcha.”

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:41 am

    
    

52. Yet you didn’t quote yourself saying those things Paul.

    Why is that ?

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:49 am

    
    

53. Heh! If this second time around the NYT got it right, and that there was indeed one time when Team Trump told the truth (and I can’t believe that the preceding five words ever got together), then I see hope for the Cubs winning the World Series again.

    That’s right, comrades! I am not embarrassed to have been wrong on the internet or to not have believed the little boy who cried wolf, and we haven’t heard the full-bodied diva sing either. Let’s see what they tell us next week.

    nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:58 am

    
    

54. If you voted Biden you voted for PUTIN.

    Sure, but that was in 1999 and I thought he was Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida. I was told that he was a strong leader who would have control of the Planning Commission.

    nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:07 am

    
    

55. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/washington-secrets/worst-yet-60-disapprove-50-strongly-of-biden

    In the latest Rasmussen Reports “Presidential Tracking Poll,” 60% said they disapproved of the president, while 38% said they approved.

    And half of the country (exactly 50%) said that they “strongly disapprove” of Biden.

    His numbers touched this this bad for a day in January. An earlier version of this story said they hadn’t slipped below 39% disapproval.

    At this stage of his presidency, former President Donald Trump had a 47% approval rating.

    The poll followed Biden’s lackluster State of the Union address, continued economic concerns about inflation, and worries about getting too deep in the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

    Thanks Biden voters!

    NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:13 am

    
    

56. Proverbs 26:4-5 – Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

    This seeming self-contradictory Proverb is anything but. The first sentence means do not accept your opponent’s terms of debate, assumptions, presuppositions, and fallacies. The second sentence means point out to him what it really is and where it’s really at.

    nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:36 am

    
    

57. Is that kind of like that Mandate of Heaven thing, NJRob? If the Ruler has high approval ratings in the polls then the land prospers; if his poll numbers are low then the land suffers?

    nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:39 am

    
    

58. Nk,

    I know countless comments were written on here mocking Trump for poor approval ratings and using them to claim he and his supporters were wrong. (Much ruder terms were used.)

    Turnabout is fair play.

    NJRob (527165) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:50 am

    
    

59. Yet you didn’t quote yourself saying those things Paul.
    Why is that?

    Why what? What part of the concept of qualified comments eludes you?

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 7:18 am

    
    

60. Personally, I would give Biden a zero in most areas. I’ll give him credit for having enough sane people in his Politburo to overrule the crazies, keeping those (the crazies) around mostly to humor the mass of crazies in the Party. For example, I think Anthony Blinken is doing a pretty good job, and Jen Psaki is head and shoulders above any spokesperson Trump had. But pretty much, otherwise, Biden is pretty much just “Being There”.

    nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 7:24 am

    
    

61. Josh Mandel is forging new ground in the GOP, forming the Jerry Springer wing of the party tonite. Even after this behavior, I wouldn’t write him off as nominee.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/18/2022 @ 8:44 pm

    As nominee sure, better he than that shedheel Vance.

    But in a general election,
    Mandel faces a similar “invisible ceiling” to that which keeps John James out of the same chamber from that dam state up north.

    urbanleftbehind (c6f17b) — 3/19/2022 @ 7:38 am

    
    

62. Politico’s weekly collection of cartoons. “Czar” Putin probably wouldn’t like any of them; my favorites are the first Ramirez cartoon for its subtlety, and the Rob Rogers cartoon for its bluntness.

    Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 7:44 am

    
    

63. The thing is, the Hunter laptop kerfuffle involved Giuliani, and his involvement is sandwiched between his consorting with a Russian spy in his quest to dig up dirt on Biden, and lying so blatantly about a “stolen” election that his law license was suspended in two jurisdictions. Anyone with a lick of common sense would take a story from Giuliani with a vat of salt, and I don’t apologize for that skepticism.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 7:54 am

    
    

64. Kevin M-
    More directly, Rip, they said why they were voting how they voted and they said they wanted to support a larger support bill for Ukraine.

    When do you expect the Senators to introduce a bill that allocates more than the $13.6B in the omnibus spending bill?

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:10 am

    
    

65. The answer to post 64 is “Don’t hold your breath.”

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:13 am

    
    

66. RIP Rep. Don Young (88). Longest serving member of Congress (49 years) and poster child for term limits and earmark reform.

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:18 am

    
    

67. That’s right, comrades! I am not embarrassed to have been wrong on the internet or to not have believed the little boy who cried wolf, and we haven’t heard the full-bodied diva sing either. Let’s see what they tell us next week.
    nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:58 am

    This is the nk I know, and love – uh, but not in the biblical sense. I denounce my hetero-normative-homophobic-self!

    Side note: kudos to JF who got Paul to pull a “full (I an not a crook) Millhouse.” Never go full Millhouse.

    Note to Paul: Been there, done that! Not unlike being “turned into a newt,” it gets better…

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:20 am

    
    

68. “The poll followed Biden’s lackluster State of the Union address, continued economic concerns about inflation, and worries about getting too deep in the Russia-Ukraine crisis.”

    Still, it makes me wonder how a second Trump term would have gone differently. How exactly Trump would have avoided world-wide inflation driven in part by a supply chain snarl caused by the resurgence of demand after a pandemic. Yes, the Keystone pipeline would still be in play….and it would nudge us in the right direction on energy supply. But only a nudge. We would have some more drilling to give another nudge…but few respected analysts are barking for that now. We would not have as many budget-busting proposals with whatever psychological effect that they might have on the markets….though we would still have had the pandemic relief bills and speding proposals on walls and such that the nationalists like. Color me skeptical that proposed spending drove this inflation or that Trump would have provided meaningful leadership.

    But the big question is foreign policy. Would a second Trump term initiated our pull out of NATO? What would have been Trump’s response to the Ukraine invasion? Would he have sided with Russia as Tucker Carlson’s own personal analysis had him conclude? Would Trump have stuck with his position that Putin was a genius and that NATO was dumb? Some here might say that it’s precisely this uncertainty that makes Trump a better opponent for Putin. Of course they’re wrong. Trump’s instincts on Russia/Putin seem dead wrong to me….whether it’s his authoritarian schtick or some personal connection, Trump could not and likely would not have led on this issue. It would be an even greater world stability disaster and it does make me want to thank those Biden voters for not unleashing it. Though Biden has been mediocre to bad to lousy on everything else, it’s moments like Ukraine and building world consensus where he was required over Trump. As a country we can’t afford Trump governing by the seat of his pants and bringing his personal baggage into every matter. Ukraine is still a dynamic volatile situation, with Russia getting more desperate, but this was not the time for a reality TV host who is generally a know-nothing to make it about himself. As General Mattis suggested in a recent Florida speech, now is not the time to play politics. It’s time to support our President against evil (there it is JF) and come together. History and our grandkids watching….

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:23 am

    
    

69. Here are 50 people we should never listen to again

    https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2022/03/19/nick-short-richard-grenell-have-reminders-about-dozens-of-ex-intel-officials-who-signed-2020-disinformation-letter/

    Hatred of Trump and political partisanship runs deeper than honesty I guess.

    Of course love of Trump and political partisanship runs deeper than honesty as well, but I’m over all these letters signed by “experts” from climate change to Hunter Biden’s emails

    steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:35 am

    
    

70. Inside Vladimir Putin’s criminal plan to purge and partition Ukraine
    ……..
    A detailed and presumably regime-sanctioned article published simultaneously by a number of Kremlin-linked news sites on February 26 offers a window onto what Putin’s end goal in Ukraine might look like. The article lavished praise on Putin for taking the decision to resolve the “Ukrainian question” for future generations. Due to the setbacks faced by Russian forces in Ukraine during the first days of the invasion, the article appears to have been deemed premature and was subsequently deleted…….

    The picture that emerges from this chilling text is of the complete military conquest of Ukraine followed by a partition and a massive purge of the civilian population. Putin’s apparent objective is to eradicate all vestiges of Ukrainian identity while condemning the country to a grim future as a military dictatorship locked firmly inside a new Russian Empire. This nightmarish vision tallies closely with Putin’s own stated objectives for the current military campaign along with his long record of public contempt and animosity towards Ukrainian statehood.

    Ever since he first came to power at the turn of the millennium, Putin has worked towards entering Russian history as a “Gatherer of Russian Lands.” …….. Now it is Ukraine’s turn. As the recent article explained, “Russia is restoring its historical fullness, gathering the Russian World, the Russian people together in its entirety of Great Russians, Belarusians, and Little Russians.”

    Putin aims to establish a new loyalist regime in Ukraine led by a Russian puppet resembling Belarus dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka. After British intelligence leaked details of a plot to appoint pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Yevgenny Murayev, these plans appear to have been revised. There is now talk of Moscow seeking to install former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who was stripped of his powers by Ukrainian MPs during the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution and fled Kyiv for Russia. This would be entirely in keeping with Kremlin propaganda, which has insisted for the past eight years that Yanukovych was illegally removed by a Western-backed coup.
    ………
    ……… Why has he taken such a dramatic gamble? The recently published article indicates that he may have felt the clock was ticking and time was against Russia. “Returning Ukraine back to Russia would be more and more difficult with every passing decade. Derussification would gain momentum as would incitement of Ukrainians against Russians.”

    ……… The straw that broke the camel’s back appears to have been President Zelenskyy’s decision to shut down four Kremlin-linked Ukrainian TV channels and charge Putin’s closest Ukrainian ally Viktor Medvedchuk with treason.
    ………
    ……… Kremlin negotiators are reportedly now demanding that Ukraine recognize the loss of Crimea and the separatist republics as part of any peace deal.

    Other parts of Ukraine may also be subject to annexation. Putin has repeatedly made territorial claims to large parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, which he argues were erroneously allocated to Ukraine by Vladimir Lenin during the formative years of the USSR. Since the initial outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, Putin has often referred to these lands by their Czarist name of “New Russia.” It is likely that some or all of this territory will be annexed by Moscow if Russia is able to implement its plans for the subjugation of Ukraine.
    ……….
    The Kremlin has reportedly already drawn up “kill lists” to be implemented after Ukrainian cities are “liberated” by the Russian military. These lists indicate that the FSB and GRU plan to incarcerate and possibly execute large numbers of pro-Ukrainian and pro-Western politicians, think tankers, academics, civil society activists, and journalists. Given the scale of the resistance Putin’s invasion is currently encountering, the number of detainees could rapidly skyrocket.

    A puppet Ukraine would in many ways resemble today’s Belarus. It would necessarily be a police state ruled by a dictator.…….

    …….(A)ll Christian religious denominations other than the Russian Orthodox Church would be suppressed and possibly banned entirely. Putin would target the Orthodox Church of Ukraine for particularly harsh treatment. He was enraged by the Patriarch of Constantinople’s 2018 decision to grant Ukraine Orthodox independence from Russia and would see avenging this step as an important symbol of Russia’s renewed authority over Ukraine.
    ………
    ……… As Putin pursues his insane imperial agenda, the horrors that may unfold inside Ukraine itself could soon rival the worst excesses of the totalitarian era. Just one week since his invasion began, Russia is already facing an international war crimes probe. Unless Putin is stopped, we may be about to experience one of the darkest chapters in modern European history.
    ###########

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:41 am

    
    

71. As per Hunter, I remain of the opinion of letting the federal legal process play out. Was there illegal foreign lobbying, tax evasion, money laundering, or other laws broken? And if there were, old Hunter should pay the price (just like Manafort did…well for awhile). Is the appearance of nepotism troubling? Certainly and I’ll avoid the whataboutism from the last administration. The arguments about the firing of Viktor Shokin seem tenuous and ill supported (antagonists rarely point to facts on this and just leave it to all powerful inuendo), and the otherwise personal involvement of Joe Biden appear mostly hypothetical or imagined, with little concrete. Most critics want Biden to prove that he is innocent or at minimum don’t give a damn about the process. Political warfare gets tedious and predictable. Hunter Biden does not live in my head. He has no effect on how we are governed. I don’t fear him waking up on a bad day and selling out U.S. national security interests or winging it on international diplomacy. He’s a speck and a convenient pawn for hyperpartisans to hyperventilate about. Go to it I guess…but remember to breathe….

    AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:42 am

    
    

72. Note to Paul: Been there, done that! Not unlike being “turned into a newt,” it gets better…

    So you’re defending the smearer. That’s not a good look on you, felipe.

    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:43 am

    
    

73. nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:36 am

    Yeah, the translation, as you know, is the problem, here. Poor scholarship is why the Tetragrammaton was given as Jehovah. The Holy name was never uttered, so the annotation in the original text to, instead, pronounce an alternate name, confused the translators into rendering it incorrectly. Of course, a google search, today, will provide one with any explanation desired.

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:44 am

    
    

74. So you’re defending the smearer. That’s not a good look on you, felipe.
    Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:43 am

    I understand that my confession of having committed the same tactical error as you, sounds like a defense of JF, in your mind, Paul, but I am just giving deserved credit where it is due. Do not begrudge me for my generosity.

    Doing so only compounds your mistake.

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:49 am

    
    

75. I’ve taken positions here that were, and still are embarrassing. JVW and Dana could do a weekly series for a year on “Dumbass things steveg said” and barely scratch the surface.

    Last time I checked, Paul, nk etc. weren’t claiming to be intel professionals with close ties to the matter. They were people belching out opinions like the rest of us. It’s fair game to needle people for getting it wrong, fun even, but to be fair, a laptop dropping like that should be greeted with a degree of skepticism.
    I wasn’t very skeptical because it was on brand for Hunter and the Biden family and actually seemed tame.

    steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:54 am

    
    

76. #71 A_J_Liberty – Thank you for restating the obvious. As Orwell said: ” We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”

    (This laptop scandal reminds me of the Billy Carter/Libya scandal, which, as far as I know, had no effect on American policies.)

    Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:58 am

    
    

77. Turnabout is fair play.
    NJRob (527165) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:50 am

    You are right, NJRob.

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:59 am

    
    

78. But pretty much, otherwise, Biden is pretty much just “Being There”.
    nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 7:24 am

    This is what I had predicted for Trump! I likened Trump to Chauncey Gardener, and also predicted (correctly) that the entrenched (read “deep-state”) bureaucracy would oppose, if not, sabotage his admin. I am sure someone can find the relevant comments I made way back then.

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:05 am

    
    

79. Nice vote, losers.

    IIRC, they won and you lost. Biden’s actions regarding Ukraine will be seen as his administration’s finest hour. The domestic stuff not so much.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:05 am

    
    

80. mg, you really need to take a timeout if all you can bring here is bile. Stale bile at that.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:07 am

    
    

81. steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:54 am

    Well said, steveg. You’ve just earned yourself some street cred.

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:08 am

    
    

82. Biden is pretty much just “Being There”.

    He was actually VP to President Gardiner.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:11 am

    
    

83. From millionaires to Muslims, small subgroups of the population seem much larger to many Americans
    ………
    When people’s average perceptions of group sizes are compared to actual population estimates, an intriguing pattern emerges: Amercians tend to vastly overestimate the size of minority groups. This holds for sexual minorities, including the proportion of gays and lesbians (estimate: 30%, true: 3%), bisexuals (estimate: 29%, true: 4%), and people who are transgender (estimate: 21%, true: 0.6%).

    It also applies to religious minorities, such as Muslim Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%) and Jewish Americans (estimate: 30%, true: 2%). And we find the same sorts of overestimates for racial and ethnic minorities, such as Native Americans (estimate: 27%, true: 1%), Asian Americans (estimate: 29%, true: 6%), and Black Americans (estimate: 41%, true: 12%).

    A parallel pattern emerges when we look at estimates of majority groups: People tend to underestimate rather than overestimate their size relative to their actual share of the adult population. For instance, we find that people underestimate the proportion of American adults who are Christian (estimate: 58%, true: 70%) and the proportion who have at least a high school degree (estimate: 65%, true: 89%).
    ……….
    Although there is some question-by-question variability, the results from our survey show that inaccurate perceptions of group size are not limited to the types of socially charged group divisions typically explored in similar studies: race, religion, sexuality, education, and income. Americans are equally likely to misestimate the size of less widely discussed groups, such as adults who are left-handed. While respondents estimated that 34% of U.S. adults are left-handed, the real estimate lies closer to 10-12%. Similar misperceptions are found regarding the proportion of American adults who own a pet, have read a book in the past year, or reside in various cities or states. This suggests that errors in judgment are not due to the specific context surrounding a certain group.
    ………
    This reasoning process — referred to as uncertainty-based rescaling — leads people to systematically overestimate the size of small values and underestimate the size of large values. It also explains why estimates of populations closer to 0% (e.g., LGBT people, Muslims, and Native Americans) and populations closer to 100% (e.g., adults with a high school degree or who own a car) are less accurate than estimates of populations that are closer to 50%, such as the percentage of American adults who are married or have a child.
    ……….

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:15 am

    
    

84. Longest serving member of Congress (49 years) and poster child for term limits and earmark reform.

    Also the only member of the House from Alaska, who served his constituents so well that they re-elected him 24 times. No gerrymander possible there. Why? As I’ve said before, one man’s pork is another man’s necessary Inuit Cultural Center.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:17 am

    
    

85. He was actually VP to President Gardiner.
    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:11 am

    Hah! Wait, was that a racist dog-whistle? I denounce you! [uh, and myself]

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:20 am

    
    

86. I’ve taken positions here that were, and still are embarrassing. JVW and Dana could do a weekly series for a year on “Dumbass things steveg said” and barely scratch the surface.

    Last time I checked, Paul, nk etc. weren’t claiming to be intel professionals with close ties to the matter. They were people belching out opinions like the rest of us. It’s fair game to needle people for getting it wrong, fun even, but to be fair, a laptop dropping like that should be greeted with a degree of skepticism.
    I wasn’t very skeptical because it was on brand for Hunter and the Biden family and actually seemed tame.

    steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:54 am

    Agreed. I also have, in good faith, said a metric f-ton of dumb stuff here, and had a good time saying it. Anytime someone started taking that too seriously I think we’ve lost the purpose of discussion. But let’s all just enjoy the fact that Biden, the New York Times, and a lot of democrat activists look ridiculous, same as the other side did recently. We’re all past the point of loyalty to a political party or ‘leaders’. The state of the world proves it.

    Dustin (47bccc) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:23 am

    
    

87. (This laptop “scandal” reminds me of the Billy Carter/Libya scandal, which, as far as I know, had no effect on American policies.)
    Agreed-I added the quote marks because it’s not really a scandal; it’s a nothingburger, except among MAGAWorld cultists. Last time I checked Hunter Biden was not part of the Administration, like Billy Carter or Donald Nixon.

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:24 am

    
    

88. It’s interesting to note that Young’s first run for Congress resulted in a loss to the recently-dead incumbant. He then won the special election that followed.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:24 am

    
    

89. Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:17 am

    That gives me an idea…

    [trigger warning, channeling DCSCA follows]

    “Wait’ll they get a load of me” – Joker (Jack Nicholson)

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:25 am

    
    

90. The actual story with the laptop is how the press reacted, given that they have been FAR more willing to investigate stores when a lost laptop had a Republican pedigree. The actual content on the laptop is far less important (and always was).

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:27 am

    
    

91. We’re all past the point of loyalty to a political party or ‘leaders’. The state of the world proves it.
    Dustin (47bccc) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:23 am

    We certainly should be, Dustin. Especially on this site.

    felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:29 am

    
    

92. I sometimes disagreed with Congressman Young, but I love his colorful background.

    Young moved to Alaska in 1959, not long after it became a state. He eventually settled in Fort Yukon, then a 700-person city on the Yukon River, seven miles above the Arctic Circle in Alaska’s central interior region. He made a living in construction, fishing, trapping, and gold mining. He captained a tugboat and ran a barge operation to deliver products and supplies to villages along the Yukon River. At the time of his death, Young still held his mariner’s license. During winters, he taught fifth grade at the local Bureau of Indian Affairs elementary school.
    . . .
    Young was married to the former Lula Fredson, an indigenous Gwich’in. She volunteered her time serving as the manager of his Washington, D.C. congressional office. They had two daughters and were members of the Episcopal Church. Lula died on August 1, 2009, at age 67.[199]

    On August 17, 2014, Young announced his engagement to Anne Garland Walton, a flight nurse from Fairbanks.[200] They married on June 9, 2015. She was 76 years old at the time.

    Maybe he would still be alive if he had stayed out of California. (He died at the LA International Airport.)

    Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:31 am

    
    

93. When do you expect the Senators to introduce a bill that allocates more than the $13.6B in the omnibus spending bill?

    Introduce? Pretty low bar. Any Senator can “introduce” a bill on a whim. Probably this month. Get it through a committee or passed? Hard to say.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:32 am

    
    

94. Inside Vladimir Putin’s criminal plan to purge and partition Ukraine

    Excellent article, Rip.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:39 am

    
    

95. Introduce? Pretty low bar.

    I doubt the dissenting Senators will even clear that bar. They have no interest in spending more money.

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:39 am

    
    

96. Agreed-I added the quote marks because it’s not really a scandal; it’s a nothingburger, except among MAGAWorld cultists. Last time I checked Hunter Biden was not part of the Administration, like Billy Carter or Donald Nixon.

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:24 am

    It’s not nothing, and your need to insult everybody who disagrees with you is dumb. Go back to copying and pasting and flooding the thread, I guess.

    Dustin (47bccc) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:40 am

    
    

97. Maybe he would still be alive if he had stayed out of California. (He died at the LA International Airport.)

    Highly speculative, given that he was 88 (ten years beyond the average US male life expectancy) and no cause of death was announced. Interesting factoid-he was born in Meridian, CA.

    Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:47 am

    
    

98. Young, a Republican and the longest-serving member of Congress, lost consciousness on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle and couldn’t be resuscitated, said Jack Ferguson, a lobbyist who once served as Young’s chief of staff.

    https://www.adn.com/politics/2022/03/18/alaska-us-rep-don-young-has-died-according-to-former-aides/

    I guess, in theory, this could have been at LAX, but there are quite a few medical facilities near there and he was taken to none of them.

    Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:52 am

    
    

99. Rip and Kevin – I was mostly joking about Young and LAX.

    Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:10 am

    
    

100. Do not begrudge me for my generosity.

     Spare me, felipe. You’re like the ref who ignored the elbow to the head and called the foul on the pushback. There’s no doubt where your bias lies.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:13 am

     
     

101. Paul, felipe’s the nicest guy here and his having an opinion is not a sin. His politics aren’t the reason Trump was viable. Unfortunately it’s GOP faithful (from before trump) and democrat extremists who did that damage. There’s too much common ground for people who just want a peaceful, fair country for their families to be safe and thrive in for grudges to be held against good people (and plenty of bad people to focus on).

     Dustin (47bccc) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:18 am

     
     

102. . . . and Jen Psaki is head and shoulders above any spokesperson Trump had.

     Well, when the so-called “referees” are actually playing on your team’s side, it’s a lot easier to score lots of points.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:22 am

     
     

103. felipe, what a pleasure to hear from you! I hope all is well.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:22 am

     
     

104. Nicely said (written) as usual, Dustin.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:24 am

     
     

105. Hey Rip Murdock, while you are here can I ask a stylistic favor from you? When you put in long quotes from various news and opinion sites, could you please use the blockquote formatting? It’s the “quote” button in the style menu, or else you can just type in the word “blockquote” surrounded by “” brackets at the beginning and then “/blockquote” surrounded by “” at the end. And of course, when you are adding your own impressions, place those outside of the blockquotes. Sometimes it is kind of hard to determine where your quoted material begins and ends and how and where it is separated from your own additions.

     [Edited: Apologies to Paul Montagu; this comment was meant for Rip Murdock. The edit has been made above.]

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:30 am

     
     

106. RIP Rep. Don Young (88). Longest serving member of Congress (49 years) and poster child for term limits and earmark reform.

     Amen. I wish the man a very pleasant hereafter in Paradise, but it’s hard to celebrate someone’s half-century of mucking about the halls of Congress enriching his family and friends. And staying in Congress that late in one’s dotage is frankly rather selfish (Do you hear me, Dianne Feinstein?).

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:34 am

     
     

107. Interesting factoid-he was born in Meridian, CA.

     Of course he was. I think his dad came here with John Sutter for the gold rush back in 1848.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:37 am

     
     

108. Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Russians who don’t get sanctioned by his dad seem pertinent.
     If it is a total nothingburger, why would his dad lie about it and call it a Russian disinformation plant?

     steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:44 am

     
     

109. “Well, when the so-called “referees” are actually playing on your team’s side, it’s a lot easier to score lots of points.”

     The problem is that too much of politics is framed precisely in this context of sports and winning the tweet, rather than good governance. There is also right-leaning journalism. Are they scoring high marks for objectivity, professionalism, and truth? I get that more high-profile journalism swings left….and drives some political and cultural consensus, but it’s hard to say that Biden is getting a free pass on Afghanistan, the border, inflation, Covid, or messaging in general. The poll numbers are what they are because of reporting, so if the referees are cheating, they aren’t doing it especially well. Partisans are sensitive to the day-to-day noise, but is the average voter?

     I do wish that Biden could find a way to broach the hyper-partisan divide…or at least try. It looks like we will be 0-3 with the last three Presidents. The reasonable expectation is “President for all”, with an eye to leading on compromise and pulling an agenda towards the center. Playing to the wings as Trump as now Biden’s domestic agenda has done is a recipe for disaster. It leads to hardening of positions. Biden is wrong, but so are many of the doomsayers as well. This shouldn’t be a game….

     AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:06 pm

     
     

110. Can a president pardon his son?

     .
     .
     .

     And get away with it?

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:10 pm

     
     

111. Paul, felipe’s the nicest guy here and his having an opinion is not a sin.

     Felipe didn’t have to engage, Dustin, but he made a choice.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:11 pm

     
     

112. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:13 am

     Paul, I appreciate your simile of my being like a ref. I am, as you know, an Independent, so I play for neither team D nor team R. But the simile is inapt because my call did not concern an “elbow” or “push-back.” I am like the ref who calls “GOAL” after a player has kicked the ball into their own net. To whit:

     The conspiracy theorist in me posits this: Someone took a sticker from Biden’s foundation and slapped it on the laptop, then filled it with as much publicly available information on Hunter as possible, maybe hacked into his Facebook account, and inserted a stream of phony baloney emails. Bannon is involved in this, and I wouldn’t put it past him.

     That’s called spitballing, JF. That’s why I qualified my statement with “the conspiracy theorist in me”.
     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:38 am

     Because I’m not a conspiracy theorist.
     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:39 am

     You wrote, and qualified your own words. Then you pulled a Nixon – on your own. No elbow and no push-back to call. To put this in soccer terms, you made an “own-goal.” I complimented JF on having advanced the ball to where you could commit this error. An error I confessed to have also commitedt, in a failed attempt to condole with you. Fine, you do not wish to be consoled – by me.

     —-

     A better simile: I am like the person on your side-line who observes, “that was a terrible play! I know, because I’ve done it , too. Don’t worry about the embarrassment, it gets better.” To which you respond “Spare me, it’s obvious where you bias lays!”

     I’m like, “WTF?”

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:22 pm

     
     

113. Felipe didn’t have to engage, Dustin, but he made a choice.
     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:11 pm

     And now you punish Dustin for engaging. First rule in getting out of a hole: Stop digging.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:24 pm

     
     

114. JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 11:22 am

     Thank you, JVW. I am as well. But I think Paul is having a moment of trial, and is inconsolable. If I were to say “we must be patient with him” He would only wail louder. He even rejects Dustin’s efforts.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:30 pm

     
     

115. Dustin made a choice, too, felipe. When did defending one’s self translate to a “punish” of you or Dustin?
     Changing the subject, Anders Aslund has a good thread on the Russian economy, because if the subject is Putin’s war, then it’s fair to discuss the financial havoc he’s causing on his people by his choice.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:36 pm

     
     

116. Put down the shovel, Paul.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:37 pm

     
     

117. I don’t buy for a second that you’re “independent”, felipe.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:38 pm

     
     

118. Funny thread on Russian propaganda.
     According to the thread author, Russia posted this video and called it a tactical landing, overlooking the audio where the pilot says he’s been hit and needs to land

     https://twitter.com/i/status/1504925492318769154

     Ukrainian propaganda is much better and almost has me believing they could win

     steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:42 pm

     
     

119. Hey Rip Murdock, while you are here can I ask a stylistic favor from you? When you put in long quotes from various news and opinion sites, could you please use the blockquote formatting? ……

     Sure. I’ve always italicized my comments.

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:46 pm

     
     

120. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:38 pm

     Ok. It really isn’t important to me, so I will not trouble you about it.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:49 pm

     
     

121. steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:42 pm

     First. Twitter delenda est!

     Second, War is so horrible, that I shame myself and my ancestors for having laughed at John Scott-railton’s comment.

     3/ A #Ukrainian tractor showing up in the distance is the only thing missing in this failed propaganda.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:56 pm

     
     

122. Funny, how such a thing “isn’t important”, but yet you belabored. But thanks for not troubling me. I will go on with my day, as untroubled as when it started.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:56 pm

     
     

123. For example, I think Anthony Blinken is doing a pretty good job, and Jen Psaki is head and shoulders above any spokesperson Trump had.

     Pfft. One has the gravitas of Pig Pen; the other: Peppermint Patty.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:08 pm

     
     

124. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:56 pm

     You are very welcome, Paul. If only you had thanked Dustin, for engaging you in friendship, everyone would know you to be a thankful person. But I guess I will have to do.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:09 pm

     
     

125. There’s too much common ground for people who just want a peaceful, fair country for their families to be safe and thrive in for grudges to be held against good people (and plenty of bad people to focus on).

     Meh. And tail fins on their Chryslers, too. 😉

     “I like Ike.” – Indiana Jones [Harrison Ford] ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ 2008

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:16 pm

     
     

126. Sure. I’ve always italicized my comments.

     Thanks. I just think it’s a tad bit easier to read if it’s blockquoted.

     JVW (151cce) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:22 pm

     
     

127. The cosmonauts’ color choices could be just a coincidence. But I would say the odds are against that interpretation.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:23 pm

     
     

128. @AJ@109 I do wish that Biden could find a way to broach the hyper-partisan divide…or at least try.

     I wonder if it’s even possible for someone who was doing that to have it be perceived as that by the public at this point. It seems like even the most uncontroversial stuff is styled as extremist by one side or the other. Lets say that Kevin (who I think we can all agree fits well within the definition of conservative) got what he wanted and the federal transportation money had gone toward public transportation in LA instead of the high-speed rail project. Is there any hope in he11 that that wouldn’t have been framed by most republicans in CA as theft from the highway system and a sop to the eco-terrorist union-loving pork constituency?

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:25 pm

     
     

129. @127. (Reuters) – Russia’s space agency on Saturday dismissed Western media reports suggesting Russian cosmonauts joining the International Space Station (ISS) had chosen to wear yellow suits with a blue trim in support of Ukraine.

     “Sometimes yellow is just yellow,” Roscosmos’s press service said on its Telegram channel.

     “The flight suits of the new crew are made in the colours of the emblem of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which all three cosmonauts graduated from … To see the Ukrainian flag everywhere and in everything is crazy.”

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:28 pm

     
     

130. I wonder if it’s even possible for someone who was doing that to have it be perceived as that by the public at this point. It seems like even the most uncontroversial stuff is styled as extremist by one side or the other. Nic (896fdf) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:25 pm

     I completely agree with this.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:31 pm

     
     

131. Felipe, I’ve so missed your wit and wisdom. God bless.

     NJRob (d23f65) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:31 pm

     
     

132. I don’t know if it is possible to send money to LA without theft being in the picture somewhere.
     That should be a taxpayer observation.

     steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:34 pm

     
     

133. OTOH, have yellow American cheese and blue cheese dressing in the fridge. Pro-Ukraine eats?? Oops- there’s Russian dressing in there, too. French dressing as well; and Macron is chummy w/Vlad! Where does Pierre Delecto stand on this? Damn the Froggies, let hear it for the ‘Freedom Fries!’ in the freezer! 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:35 pm

     
     

134. One of my favorite LA moments was when an LA homeless czar retired and congratulated himself and his staff, not for ending homelessness, or for even reducing homelessness, because homelessness grew annually throughout in his tenure, he instead congratulated himself and everyone for disengorging 100’s of millions of dollars.

     “I spent all the money we were given – and more!” and everyone applauded

     steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:47 pm

     
     

135. Thank you Rob [may I call you Rob?], I am confined at the moment and have only this site (by choice, although I have the whole net at a fingertip) with which to keep company. I am not ill or incarcerated (heh), or anything, I just gave up a bunch of stuff for Lent. Is this a kind of penance? Well, my convo with Paul might suggest that, but no, not at all. I like Paul’s comments, so I guess one could fairly say that I could also like Paul.

     I noticed that you have had quite the time here as well. It is good to see that you give as good as you get. The Lord will never say of you “because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out.” I am always strengthened by your, and others, Faithful witness; especially our host’s.

     It may sound like I “lay it on thick” at times, but I think it good to try to counter the the all-too-common attitude of hostility that anonymous commenting enables, emboldens, and unfortunately, honors.

     G*d bless you, too.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:48 pm

     
     

136. Here’s a hot potato for the legal eagles to nibble on: so early on, the Ukraine TeeVee and global media was piping out images of Ukraine government officials arming civilians w/rifles to fight and “the Ukrainian government has mandated that men aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country,” (The New York Times reports.) [Not so-free-freedom fighters, eh?] Even today, Fox News is airing a package on a Ukrainians teaching a weapons course to ‘civilians.’

     Now the chatter is of Russians purposely targeting these very same ‘civilians’ – but in a war crimes court, does a deliberately armed citizenry “conscripted” by government mandate to remain and fight – essentially a militia- constitute a ‘war crime’ or make them legitimate adversaries in battle from a Russian POV?

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:50 pm

     
     

137. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:35 pm

     I’ve got sour kraut in my fridge next to the lox!

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:51 pm

     
     

138. I’m going with the Roscosmos’ version of attire.
     Who wants to be the among first 3 cosmonauts who do an untethered spacewalk

     steveg (e81d76) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:55 pm

     
     

139. #129 Who are you going to believe, Russian propagandists or American astronauts?

     “Three Russian cosmonauts who just docked with the ISS arrive in Ukrainian yellow!” former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who flew a yearlong mission on the space station with cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko from March 2015 to March 2016, tweeted today, in both Russian and English.

     “Wow. Just wow. Well done. За экипаж!” tweeted Terry Virts, another former NASA astronaut. He spent six months aboard the station from November 2014 to June 2015 and traveled to and from the orbiting lab in a Soyuz. (“экипаж” is Russian for “crew,” according to Google Translate.)

     Yellow and blue. No Putin Zs to be seen.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:56 pm

     
     

140. Now the chatter is of Russians purposely targeting these very same ‘civilians’ – but in a war crimes court, does a deliberately armed citizenry “conscripted” by government mandate to remain and fight – essentially a militia- constitute a ‘war crime’ or make them legitimate adversaries in battle from a Russian POV?
     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:50 pm

     Until they get uniforms, it is an interesting question for observers. For the men of Ukraine so conscripted – they got other things to think about.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:59 pm

     
     

141. @137. A fresh Cold War, eh? With expiration dates! 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:06 pm

     
     

142. You are very welcome, Paul. If only you had thanked Dustin, for engaging you in friendship, everyone would know you to be a thankful person. But I guess I will have to do.

     Well, and that’s where I disagree with Dustin, that you’re a nice person, when what you’re really doing is making a personal attack with civil overtones. I commend you on your skill at that, but that’s as far as my appreciation goes.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:11 pm

     
     

143. @139. Though they look alike, Scott is not Mark- and Scott [who has already revealed his heritage links to Ukraine] has been gently ‘reminded’ by NASA to chill his thrusters and knock off the tweet war w/Roscosmos. Scott won’t be flying again, either, so he can spin and ‘see’ what he wants; same w/t retired Virts. But NASA and Roscosmos have to work together– and the ‘overview effect’ is very real w/the guys and gals- especially those still in line to fly– which included the three cosmonauts who graduated w/t pride of accomplishment from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. Unless you believe NASA management wrongly reprimanded the Apollo 15 crew for playing the U.S. Air Force anthem as they lifted off from the moon in 1971– the crew all being USAF alum.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:22 pm

     
     

144. …….. But you and the Democrat talking points (birm) want to torture it around to “All the Republicans support Putin.” So first deny they said it was a pork bill, then say they didn’t really mean it anaway (implied: because they support Putin). Besides all those other $1.5 billion in stuff was for mothers and apple pie and the military that is the apple of the Democrats’ eye — all things that the GOP also hates. And you call it truth.

     Bah!

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/18/2022 @ 9:32 pm

     You may describe the omnibus spending bill as “pork”, but the alternative was to pass another continuing resolution, which would not have contained the Ukraine aid. Maybe all the Senate Republicans should have voted against the spending bill and forced the issue, but they didn’t do that.

     I didn’t see any quotes saying “all the Republicans support Putin”. That’s your own conclusion. I was merely pointing that the dissenting Republicans said one thing and voted the opposite. Some of them (like Hawley) were clearly grandstanding. Hawley is on the record as stating Russia is not the US’s biggest enemy; he is only pro-Ukraine because that’s the direction the political winds are blowing.

     This is not unique to Republicans, politicians this all the time, voting in committee one way then the opposite when the larger bill gets to the floor.

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:25 pm

     
     

145. @138. Yep. These guys wanna fly, not fry. Besides, their gear is reviewed, checked and inventoried before flight.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:28 pm

     
     

146. @AJ@109 I do wish that Biden could find a way to broach the hyper-partisan divide…or at least try.

     I no longer believe it is possible for any president from any party to even broach the hyper-partisan divide, let alone narrow the gap. Because, if a pandemic tore us further apart and we couldn’t unite as a country to fight the common enemy of all and the tribes dug in on their takes and viewed the other side as evil, then I just don’t believe there is an issue that could be broached without it becoming toxic. Perhaps a physical invasion of our borders by enemy combatants en masse. But even then, who knows.

     Dana (5395f9) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:28 pm

     
     

147. I no longer believe it is possible for any president from any party to even broach the hyper-partisan divide, let alone narrow the gap. Because, if a pandemic tore us further apart and we couldn’t unite as a country to fight the common enemy of all and the tribes dug in on their takes and viewed the other side as evil, then I just don’t believe there is an issue that could be broached without it becoming toxic. Perhaps a physical invasion of our borders by enemy combatants en masse. But even then, who knows.

     An asteroid threat would be a better scenario. But Hollywood’s done that.

     Several times. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:32 pm

     
     

148. So I was reading, yet another article about the latest trial conducted in Brazil that involved 1,358 adults with COVID-19 symptoms, concerning Ivermectin, the other day. One could be forgiven for thinking that Ivermectin’s usefulness beyond parasites was finally proven, if this report was all that there was to consider. Such is not the case.

     This study provides a different conclusion.

     Just some highlights:
     223,128 citizens of Itajaí considered

     159,561 included in the analysis

     113,845 (71.3%) regular ivermectin users, with 45,716 (23.3%) non-users

     Of these 4,311 ivermectin users were infected, (3.7% infection rate), 3,034 non-users (6.6% infection rate)

     A 44% reduction in COVID-19 infection rate Risk ratio (RR), 0.56

     The regular use of ivermectin led to a 68% reduction in COVID-19 mortality

     Deaths:

     25 (0.8%) deaths in the ivermectin group

     79 (2.6%) among ivermectin non-users

     RR, 0.32

     p less than 0.0001

     When adjusted for residual variables, reduction in mortality rate was 70%. There was a 56% reduction in hospitalization rate

     44 in the ivermectin group

     99 in non ivermectin users

     After adjustment for residual variables, reduction in hospitalization rate was 67%

     p less than 0.0001

     Conclusion

     In this large study, regular use of ivermectin as a prophylactic agent was associated with significantly reduced COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and mortality rates.

     But why even read this study if it is just an “Observational Study of 223,128 Subjects Using Propensity Score Matching?” It isn’t even peer reviewed! Oh, wait. It is. Ignore it anyway.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:33 pm

     
     

149. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:06 pm

     Ha! Clever.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:36 pm

     
     

150. Dana (5395f9) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:28 pm

     Yep, it looks that way. Welcome back Dana! I missed you, and your posts. I hope you brought JVW a souvenir!

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:41 pm

     
     

151. I noticed that you have had quite the time here as well. It is good to see that you give as good as you get. The Lord will never say of you “because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out.” I am always strengthened by your, and others, Faithful witness; especially our host’s.

     What a boring blog this would be if we all just sat around agreeing with each other 100% of the time. It’s good to have some dissension here, but of course it takes a pretty thick skin at times too.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 3:00 pm

     
     

152. I hope you brought JVW a souvenir!

     She brought me the eye teeth and left-hand pinky finger of one of our enemies. Whoops, I wasn’t supposed to mention that.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 3:01 pm

     
     

153. Perhaps a physical invasion of our borders by enemy combatants en masse. But even then, who knows.

     Except for the fact that a majority of the under-35 population of our country allegedly say they would seek to flee the country in the event of an enemy invasion, rather than stay and fight. I hope that is grossly misleading, but the pessimist in me doubts that it really is.

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/19/2022 @ 3:07 pm

     
     

154. (I’m just noodling here based on AJ’s comment on the keystone pipeline and non-partisan actions and an article I was reading on Saudi Arabia and the debate over russian oil, feel free to ignore.)

     We spend a lot of time debating energy policy on a very much partisan basis. There’s a lot of misinformation, and dismissal and “I can’t take you seriously unless you consider my particular hobby-horse but I won’t take your concerns about it serious either, even if you consider it.” I guess I have trouble with the idea that we are looking at things for a miracle solution that aren’t going to provide it and ALL have both positives and negatives. Why aren’t we looking at a kitchen sink approach?

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/19/2022 @ 3:59 pm

     
     

155. JVW – I suspect you may not have read Rick Atkinson’s World War II trilogy. At the beginning of the first book, “An Army at Dawn”, he describes how unprepared and divided we were, both materially and psychologically, before the Pearl Harbor attack.

     A Gallup poll of October 1940 found a prevailing view of American youth as “a flabby, pacifistic, yellow, cynical, discouraged, and leftist lot.”
     . . .
     Time magazine reported on the eve of Pearl Harbor that soldiers were booing newsreel shots of Roosevelt and General George C. Marshall, the army chief of staff, while cheering outspoken isolationists. (p. 9)

     It is true that we have not unified against COVID, as we should have, but pandemics are harder to face than military attacks, and our understanding of science is far weaker than it should be. For example, I doubt whether 1 in 10 Americans could explain the logic behind double-blind tests of new drugs.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:03 pm

     
     

156. Maybe all the Senate Republicans should have voted against the spending bill and forced the issue, but they didn’t do that.
     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 2:25 pm

     you mean the senate republicans who voted for both? those guys?

     it passed

     the omnibus spending bill passed

     the ukraine aid passed

     both passed on a 68-31 vote

     there was never any chance it wouldn’t pass

     you make zero sense in literally every comment you post

     JF (e1156d) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:17 pm

     
     

157. Russian Collusion… ivermectin is useful in COVID fight… Hunter Biden laptop is real… etc.

     So many willfully ignorant commenters over the last several years… take a little time away from your preening, posturing, and infantile fantasizing for some soul-searching… how were you so wrong about so many issues?

     And then think of the damage you had a hand in inflicting on others.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:29 pm

     
     

158. “Last time I checked Hunter Biden was not part of the Administration, like Billy Carter or Donald Nixon.”

     Follow the money, Rip Taylor.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:35 pm

     
     

159. Young was the sort of man who put his hand in a bear trap and tripped it to show it didn’t hurt the bears too much.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:40 pm

     
     

160. Hey, Colonel. JVW had just said how boring this site would be if everyone agreed on everything 100% of the time. I confess that I surely bring the boring, bland, and banal to this site, but you, sir, bring the excitement!

     I’d best sit down before I hurt myself!

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 4:55 pm

     
     

161. You have the patience of Job, felipe. All the best to you and yours!

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:02 pm

     
     

162. felipe at 148. I don’t know about ivermectin for Covid-19 in a Third World country 1) when that’s all they have (no vaccine or Regeneron yet as the study says), and 2) the co-morbidities include gastrointestinal roundworms, lungworms, mites, lice, ticks, and hornflies, but Brazilian science will always have a place in my regard for introducing shemales, which is to say incomplete transsexuals, to the world, without making them go for the full monte. A policy that the State of Texas is only now attempting to explore.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:18 pm

     
     

163. File under how old are you?:

     My great grand niece just read my previous comment, and said “oh grandpa.”

     I said “Mijita, I am your Grand Father’s Uncle!”

     “what are you, my genealogist?”

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:22 pm

     
     

164. Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:02 pm

     Job? Hey, I played golf with that guy! And my best to you and yours!

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:25 pm

     
     

165. Homer Hickam believes “Our space partnership with Russia can’t go on”.

     As relations between Washington and Moscow have fallen to their lowest ebb since the Cuban missile crisis, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has worked hard to keep everything normal aboard the International Space Station, crewed by four Americans, two Russians and one German. Given the complexity of the space outpost, the need to keep it safe for habitation and the agreements that govern its operation, Nelson’s calm approach is understandably dictated by both technical necessity and high-level diplomacy.

     The Russians, however, have not reacted in the same spirit. Dmitry Rogozin, the belligerent chief of the Russian federal space agency known as Roscosmos, has made clear that he fully supports the invasion and has even made threats toward his ISS partners, including invoking nuclear war. He has also indicated he is willing to abandon the ISS, in a recent tweet expressing the hope it would crash into the United States or Europe.

     (Links omitted.)

     He’s right. And I would add one more point to his March 9th column: We should quietly offer a sanctuary to those cosmonauts who showed up in Ukrainian yellow and blue. As others have noted, “Czar” Putin has alienated many of Russia’s best and brightest. Along with our European allies we should quietly be opening our doors to them.

     (According to a poll result I saw over at Political Betting, more than 40 percent of Russians, between 18 and 24, want to leave Russia. That was before Putin’s war. I haven’t bothered to run that down, since polls in authoritarian nations must always be treated with care, but it certainly seems plausible.)

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:29 pm

     
     

166. felipe- with age comes patience and wisdom. Unless you’re “The Big Guy” from Scranton– or is it Wilmington this week. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:31 pm

     
     

167. JF – Some time ago, you asked what conservatism is. Did we answer your question sufficiently? If not, I am sure some others here will be willing to try, further.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:33 pm

     
     

168. Russia vows to de-nazify; America sends ‘Switchblade’ “buzz bombs”…

     Germany is so confused. 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:35 pm

     
     

169. nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:18 pm

     Heh! I am not saying one study is wrong and another right. Truly both could be right under specific conditions. The real question, for those with scientific spirits, is Why one study found no benefit, while another did.

     This always leads to a need to review the design, methodologies, and treatment of data. Was one study designed “to fail?” Was the other “designed to succeed?” The point is to have an open mind until these questions are answered, otherwise one is just picking a desired outcome and entrenching into an unpersuaded position.

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:35 pm

     
     

170. “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Isaac Newton

     Often quoted. But “giants” is the operative word. Not QAnon.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 5:48 pm

     
     

171. I thought “If” was the operative word. Anyway, I looked again at the listed authors and did not see QAnon among them. What study were you reading?

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:01 pm

     
     

172. ok, I’m done tuckered out. Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!

     felipe (484255) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:09 pm

     
     

173. @165. And I would add one more point to his [Homer Hickham] March 9th column: We should quietly offer a sanctuary to those cosmonauts who showed up in Ukrainian yellow and blue.

     Except they didn’t.

     The flight suits of the Russian cosmonaut crew are made in the colors of the emblem of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which all three cosmonauts graduated from. Unless, of course, you suspect they’re really graduates of Michigan, LSU, or possibly rooting for Notre Dame. You should know that all the gear Roscosmos – as well as NASA, ESA, etc.,- places aboard a Russian Soyuz, Progress, as well as the SpaceX Dragons, and assorted cargo vehicles- as well as the shuttles back in the day- is reviewed, checked and inventoried by barcoding before flight. [Personally own several items barcoded and earmarked for a Progress re-supply mission that didn’t make the flight.] Ground knows what’s aboard and the history of each item, Jim. And you’d be hard pressed to convince anybody the pro-Putin, Roscosmos head, Rogozin, would greenlight lofting one of his a crews of cosmonauts intentionally clad in Ukraine national colors.

     BTW, Homer Hickham retired from NASA nearly 25 years ago, Jimbo, and has nothing to do w/management, policy and ISS operations decisions in 2022 forward. And a month before his OP-Ed, Russia has said it will leave the ISS project in 2025 [3 years from now] and plans to build its own space station that could launch in 2030. And the ISS is now slated for de-orbit; NASA intends to keep operating the ISS till the end of 2030 before deorbiting it and splashing it at Point Nemo. The deorbiting is said to take place in January 2031.

     https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/02/world/nasa-international-space-station-retire-iss-scn/index.html?msclkid=3a576c50a7e911ecbdb85d0bf2535ab1

     ________

     Head of NASA brushes off Russian space chief’s hostile comments by saying he ‘spouts off every now and then’

     NASA administrator Bill Nelson has brushed off recent comments made by Russia’s space chief about ending cooperation between Russia and the US. In an interview with the Associated Press, Nelson discussed the suggestion by Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Roscosmos space agency, that the US fly to space on “broomsticks,” after Russia announced it would stop selling rocket engines to the US.

     Nelson responded to the remarks, saying: “That’s just Dmitry Rogozin.” He added: “He spouts off every now and then. But at the end of the day, he’s worked with us.” Nelson told AP: “Despite all of that, up in space, we can have a cooperation with our Russian friends, our colleagues. The professional relationship between astronauts and cosmonauts, it hasn’t missed a beat.”

     https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-bill-nelson-russia-space-dmitry-rogozin-chief-roscosmos-2022-3

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 6:21 pm

     
     

174. Putin and the Nuclear End Game
     ……..
     On CNN, former Secretary of Defense William Cohen warned that Putin might employ tactical nuclear weapons. This warning did not come out of the blue. The review of the extensive Russian doctrinal literature on nuclear weapons use done by Professor Dima Adamsky tells us that Russian nuclear doctrine is to use the presence of nuclear weapons on the battlefield to induce caution in the adversary. No American military officer wants to conduct an inadvertent attack on a unit with nuclear weapons. This caution gives the Russian units greater freedom of action.

     This doctrine leads us to expect tacit or explicit threats of tactical nuclear weapons use on Ukrainian soil if NATO interferes with the Russian military in Ukraine. But what does “interference” mean? Defending humanitarian enclaves? Providing battlefield intelligence or material support to the Ukrainians?

     If those threats are unsuccessful, the Russian doctrine is less clear, but the use of tactical nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory has been suggested. Which is a complication, since Putin has made it plain that for him, Ukraine is Russian territory.
     ………
     In the case of an escalation, we would expect to see intelligence reports from the French or German government that Russia is arming its battlefield ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads and has activated the command circuits used for issuing authorization to employ nuclear weapons. Putin would most likely privately approach either German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz or French President Emmanuel Macron, who has thus far been his chosen interlocutor, and tell them that they have a last chance to avoid a nuclear strike by ending NATO military supplies to Ukraine through German air bases.

     At which point, what would NATO do? And what could America do? …….

     First and most urgently, President Biden should publicly call upon the Russian military not to obey orders to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine or NATO. ……..

     Second, American missile defenses in Europe should be placed on higher levels of readiness. ……..
     ………
     The United States also has four ships with AEGIS systems that are dedicated to NATO missile defense based in Spain. They should be sent to the Baltic or the Black Sea—or wherever they will be most useful.
     ………
     ……..(T)hird, the United States should prepare all means available to disrupt commands from Putin to his rocket forces.

     And fourth, NATO should be ready to deal with radioactive fallout from a Russian strike and to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to the victims of such a strike.……..

     We have ignored Putin’s nuclear threats for too long. Now is the time to impede his ability to carry them out.
     ########

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/19/2022 @ 7:42 pm

     
     

175. 50 Intel officials signed a letter saying the Hunter Biden laptop story was ‘Russian Misinformation’ even though none of them had raw intel to back up the claim (IOW they lied), the story was blocked on social media, all in the cause of influencing a presidential election…….and all it gets is a bottom mention in a weekend thread.

     lol

     Obudman (929f6c) — 3/19/2022 @ 8:00 pm

     
     

176. On the Itajai ivermectin study.

     The study contained multiple methodological flaws that call the reliability of its conclusions into question. For example, there are indications that many people assigned to the ivermectin treatment group didn’t take the drug consistently, or stopped taking it after a while. It is therefore unclear whether any observed effect in this group can be reliably attributed to ivermectin treatment.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/19/2022 @ 8:33 pm

     
     

177. @148, Some serious concerns about the Brazil study’s methodology:

     1. They did not track how many people did or did not reliably take the drug (so someone counted as taking the drug may not have and someone in the control group could have previously taken ivermection)
     2. Poor control of factors that might predispose one person to greater likelihood of catching covid (no anlysis of risk factors, occupation, income, etc.)
     3. Errors in calculating efficacy
     4. Errors in applying propensity score matching
     5. Two of the studies authors received money from a pharmaceutical company that manufactures ivermection…the study did not disclose this
     6. One of the authors also claimed that the study does not prove that ivermectin works to prevent or treat covid (which is a serious admission of the weakness of the methodology)

     Bottom line, a lot of potential for uncontrolled confounding. In places where the vaccine might not be widely available, people want a cheap plentiful alternative. It’s human nature. If we want to believe science, it needs to be deliberate, detail oriented, and well designed. This one seems lacking from my cursory review of the criticisms. But hopefully we are sliding down the other side of the curve….

     AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 3/19/2022 @ 8:36 pm

     
     

178. 50 Intel officials signed a letter saying the Hunter Biden laptop story was ‘Russian Misinformation’ even though none of them had raw intel to back up the claim (IOW they lied),

     Is cruel world. Very sad. I tune my violin through tears.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/19/2022 @ 8:50 pm

     
     

179. On CNN, former Secretary of Defense William Cohen warned that Putin might employ tactical nuclear weapons.

     Pfft. The ‘doctrine’ is designed to jerk the chain of the West. Revisit the specifics for Chernobyl. The costs are staggering. The details surrounding the ongoing, multi-level damage from Chernobyl are a warning from the past to quash loose chatter by armchair generals and out-of-office-politicos in the TeeVee Talking Heads Club on any use of ‘low yield’ nuke[s] being unleased by Vlad.

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster?msclkid=3f7a38b6a6e411ec9f5fd27af96bf13e

     https://anthronow.com/online-articles/nuclear-payouts-knowledge-and-compensation-in-the-chernobyl-aftermath?msclkid=3f7a1fc9a6e411ecbc7ae483433ba50b

     https://praguesociety.org/2021/article-35th-anniversary-of-the-accident-at-the-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant/?msclkid=3f79f886a6e411ec94115667133382f0

     “Most authorities agree that the [Chernobyl] exclusion zone’s radiation levels will dwindle down to liveable degrees in 24,000 years time (Phys.org 2019)”

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 9:42 pm

     
     

180. Even if the yellow with blue is coincidental, the cosmonauts appear to be amused rather than embarrassed or horrified by it. One cosmonaut said:

     “But, in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material, so we needed to use it. So that’s why we had to wear yellow.”

     The other cosmonauts laughed.

     Radegunda (56bf80) — 3/19/2022 @ 10:02 pm

     
     

181. . . . and all it gets is a bottom mention in a weekend thread.

     Oh golly. Were you unable to find a discussion of the topic on any other right-leaning site?

     JVW (ee64e4) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:07 am

     
     

182. We have ignored Putin’s nuclear threats for too long. Now is the time to impede his ability to carry them out.

     We should also decide what we would do in that case, assuming that we have not done so. Then again, this may have already been communicated to the Russians, either directly or through Xi.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:19 am

     
     

183. @180. Even if…

     It is.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/20/2022 @ 1:04 am

     
     

184. Russians blocked at US border, Ukrainians are admitted

     About three dozen would-be asylum seekers from Russia found themselves blocked from entering the U.S. on Friday while a group of Ukrainians flashed passports and were escorted across the border. The scene reflected a quiet but unmistakable shift in the differing treatment of Russians and Ukrainians who enter Mexico as tourists and fly to Tijuana, hoping to enter the U.S. for a chance at asylum. – AP.com

     Wade the Rio Grande, comrades, and be Joe-welcomed with ease; free food, free medical and a free bus or plane ride to a choice U.S. city.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/20/2022 @ 1:38 am

     
     

185. https://dailycaller.com/2022/03/19/ginni-clarence-thomas-supreme-court/
     The two of them are special.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:55 am

     
     

186. Going after Felipe is a new low for team rube.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:21 am

     
     

187. https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/chris-queen/2022/03/19/rnc-launches-voter-registration-drives-at-gas-stations-for-americans-who-are-fed-up-with-high-prices-n1567916
     I had lost all hope republicans had any strategy. Nice.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:25 am

     
     

188. https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/03/the_new_york_times_signals_the_end_of_bidens_road.html
     hello kamalalala

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:33 am

     
     

189. It’s the Republicans who gave away our oil on our federal lands to private drillers and frackers who are now sitting on it until oil prices go up high enough for them to make as much money as Rockefeller.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:33 am

     
     

190. We need to nationalize all the domestic oil producers and refiners and impose tariffs or outright embargoes on foreign oil which tries to compete with them. It’s ridiculous! We learned nothing in the 50 years since the OPEC embargo.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:41 am

     
     

191. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/03/fake-news-today-fake-news-tomorrow-fake-news-forever.php

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:47 am

     
     

192. You vote democrat, so you are in the clear, nk.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:48 am

     
     

193. I also get nuclear power from eleven nuclear power plants in Illinois, so other places have more fossil fuels for theirs. They also serve ….

     nk (1d9030) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:05 am

     
     

194. Yes, you read that right. Eleven. 11.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:06 am

     
     

195. If Ted Cruz lived in Illinois, he could go to Cancun any time he liked.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:25 am

     
     

196. As it is the case with his testicles, it ‘‘twas the smallest violin in the land…”

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:59 am

     
     

197. 188 Felipe has a tendency to hide behind la biblia when launching invective, dont be surprised when others have a shield plus swords. He’s also not as “Yosemite Sam” as others on his side of the ledger, so he sneaks a few in that others have dismissed as bluster.

     urbanleftbehind (c6f17b) — 3/20/2022 @ 7:08 am

     
     

198. @189 does being smitten with psaki mean you have to swallow every stupid lie she says, nk?

     JF (e1156d) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:01 am

     
     

199. @ 183 It is.

     Which I was basically acknowledging. And noting that they seemed to find it an amusing coincidence, not an embarrassingly unpatriotic one.

     Radegunda (adfe4c) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:03 am

     
     

200. Now that I’ve slept on it, a comment.
     I’m pretty sure that Dustin and JVW and felipe and I agree on most issues and, like Reagan said, “the person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally – not a 20 percent traitor.” If Trump is taken out of the equation, I suspect the same thing with the likes of JF and Rob, not that they’re traitors for being Trumpists, even though Trump has consistently put himself above country and party, but that’s for a future argument conversation.
     The only regular or semi-regular commenter here who is actually left-of-center is Victor, and he’s a good egg, so we’re really all on the same side, we’re fellow Americans, and our conversations are really about what kinds of conservatives we are and we where want the conservative movement to go and where we want the GOP to go and where we want the country to go.
     Sometimes small differences or small issues can generate big arguments, sort of like the disputes between the Judean People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea, and it’s hard to think of a smaller issue than Hunter Biden’s laptop.
     Bottom line, the only thing I really want to say is that if, er, when there’s disagreement, I can do it less disagreeably. That is all.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:04 am

     
     

201. when you have an oil and gas lease, it’s just a matter of turning on the spigot

     is that about the sum total of your expertise?

     JF (e1156d) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:07 am

     
     

202. When asked about the color, in that video, the cosmonaut didn’t say “It’s just the colors of Bauman Moscow State Technical University,” but instead offered an obviously ridiculous explanation that invites people to read in something else. And the response of the other cosmonauts suggests that they’re happy to be in on the joke.

     Radegunda (adfe4c) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:08 am

     
     

203. mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:21 am

     It is nature’s way for those creatures that hunt in packs to go after the weakest, and frailest of prey. So if any are going after me, then they are simply self-identifying. Such attacks do them, and by extension, me, no honor if it is true that you can be judged by the greatness of your enemies.

     If there is any honor to be had in attacking anyone who hides behind the Lord, then surely what little can be gleaned becomes all the more paltry when shared.

     There is a ledger, it is true. One should know that we are all on the same side of it because all have fallen short of the glory of G*D.

     felipe (484255) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:09 am

     
     

204. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:04 am

     That was very well said, Paul. It is true that you have many friends here, and I flatter myself to say that I am among them. Let us prove it to you over bad times as well as good times. I, for my part, will endeavor to reduce the twenty percent traitor that divides us.

     felipe (484255) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:42 am

     
     

205. Thank you, felipe. I’m pretty sure we could knock a few back in a pub and solve the world’s problems while watching a little football on the big screen.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:45 am

     
     

206. A slice of life in Odesa.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:53 am

     
     

207. This one seems lacking from my cursory review of the criticisms. But hopefully we are sliding down the other side of the curve….
     AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 3/19/2022 @ 8:36 pm

     I thank you for your comment, as well as Paul’s. I would like others to read both studies and to give me their own, personal, take-away from the information contained therein. I have always frowned on those few scholars who refuse to converse with anyone who did not, also, posses a PhD – for being elitist. I apologize if I come off that way for wishing you to read both studies for yourselves and then give me your criticisms rather than repeat the criticisms of others.

     I know that I, in my unique situation have time enough for such things, but it may be something you can find the time for. I just want to acknowledge that your time is valuable, and the time you have already spent on this matter is prolly more than I deserve to expect. Thank you, again.

     felipe (484255) — 3/20/2022 @ 9:05 am

     
     

208. The funniest thing my sainted mother said to me was, “Were you raised in a barn?” I should have said “yes.” The following is proof:

     I know that I, in my unique situation have time enough for such things, but it may be something you can find the time for.

     I must rewrite it.

     I know that I, in my unique situation, have time enough for such things, but it may be something for which you can find the time.

     That’s better. OCD? What’s that?

     felipe (484255) — 3/20/2022 @ 9:18 am

     
     

209. It means a lot to me to see some folks here try to learn from each other and engage with respect instead of sniping and trying to score points. Thank you all.

     Simon Jester (1e4841) — 3/20/2022 @ 9:23 am

     
     

210. Biden voters know bluster, it’s what sustains what is unsustainable in the end: the Biden-Harris administration.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 9:25 am

     
     

211. Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:53 am

     Good for them – even if she is lip-syncing to Ella Fitzgerald, I applaud the choice of artist!

     felipe (484255) — 3/20/2022 @ 9:25 am

     
     

212. Thank you felipe.

     NJRob (58859c) — 3/20/2022 @ 9:40 am

     
     

213. Like I said a week or two, Twitter has been useful for seeing what’s going on in real time in Ukraine, and it’s also been helpful in learning about new reliable sources. One of them is Phillips P. O’Brien, and it’s not his fault his parents gave him a last name for a first name, but it is his fault for using it. His first is about some of the war-reporting bias at the NYT, and second is about winning with superior communications (and controlling the seas and skies), which is fascinating.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 10:07 am

     
     

214. Kulminatsionny (Culminating) Moment?
     …….. The Russian war of conquest in Ukraine is now entering a critical phase; a race to reach the culminating point of Russia’s offensive capacity and Ukraine’s defensive capacity. That is why it is vital the West reinforces Ukraine’s capacity to resist and why Russia has started attacking supply bases through which Western lethal aid is passing. The next week or so could prove critical.

     The culminating point is reached when a force can no longer conduct operations. For a force engaged on offensive expeditionary operations that point is reached when a force simply can no longer advance. In the wake of the second Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, several constraints on the capacity to conduct a Blitzkrieg became immediately apparent. The moment Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border a large gap appeared between the scale and quality of the Russian forces needed to maintain offensive Russian military momentum and the force available given the capacity of Ukraine’s capacity to resist and the space in which to conduct defensive operations on their own terrain.

     It also became rapidly clear that the basic operational and tactical planning of the Russian General Staff was inadequate……

     The result is becoming increasingly self-evident for a poorly-planned and executed Russian military campaign in which incompetence marches side-by-side with costly but stalled momentum with Russian forces forced to adopt a campaign of attrition against Ukrainian civilians for which they are not designed. Attrition warfare requires time, manpower, ammunition and resources. The Russians are rapidly running out of all three which is why they are recruiting Syrians. ……..

     The Ukrainians have excelled as a defensive force and as the morale of Russia’s forces has plummeted the defenders have seized the moral high ground. ……..

     ……… Russia began this war firm in the belief that the physical superiority of its forces over their Ukrainian enemy would prevail. As the war shifts from one of movement to one of attrition it is vital the West reinforces the capacity of the Ukrainians to resist. In practice, that means supplying them with sufficient lethal aid to fight the Russians to a standstill and pose the Kremlin with an acute dilemma: order general mobilisation to fight a long war and risk the wrath of the Mothers of St Petersburg and beyond or come to terms with the Ukrainians. Either way the political price for Putin will be high given the human cost of his strategic folly.

     ………. Russian forces lack both the quality and the quantity over their Ukrainian counterparts to establish physical or moral superiority. The war in Ukraine is thus testament to the abject failure of the Russian General Staff to modernise the Russian Army in particular. Consequently, Putin’s entire political strategy of using coercion and implied threat of force to extract concessions from his neighbours already lies in tatters. Does that mean the end of Putin and bully Russia is over? No, far from it.

     ……… What must the West now do? First, accelerate and expand the delivery of capabilities and weapons specifically intended to help Ukraine destroy the land and sea-based artillery, rockets and cruise-missile launchers that are land-based and sea-based platforms. This means more intelligence, more counter-fire radar, more long-range systems, more ammunition, and more anti-ship, and naval mines. ……..
     ……….

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/20/2022 @ 11:09 am

     
     

215. Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 19

     Ukrainian forces have defeated the initial Russian campaign of this war. That campaign aimed to conduct airborne and mechanized operations to seize Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and other major Ukrainian cities to force a change of government in Ukraine. That campaign has culminated. Russian forces continue to make limited advances in some parts of the theater but are very unlikely to be able to seize their objectives in this way. The doctrinally sound Russian response to this situation would be to end this campaign, accept a possibly lengthy operational pause, develop the plan for a new campaign, build up resources for that new campaign, and launch it when the resources and other conditions are ready. The Russian military has not yet adopted this approach. It is instead continuing to feed small collections of reinforcements into an ongoing effort to keep the current campaign alive. We assess that that effort will fail.

     The ultimate fall of Mariupol is increasingly unlikely to free up enough Russian combat power to change the outcome of the initial campaign dramatically.…….. The confirmed death of the commander of the Russian 150th Motorized Rifle Division likely indicates the scale of the damage Ukrainian defenders are inflicting on those formations. The block-by-block fighting in Mariupol itself is costing the Russian military time, initiative, and combat power……..

     The culmination of the initial Russian campaign is creating conditions of stalemate throughout most of Ukraine. …….
     ……….
     ………. If the war in Ukraine settles into a stalemate condition Russian forces will continue to bomb and bombard Ukrainian cities, devastating them and killing civilians, even as Ukrainian forces impose losses on Russian attackers and conduct counter-attacks of their own. The Russians could hope to break Ukrainians’ will to continue fighting under such circumstances by demonstrating Kyiv’s inability to expel Russian forces or stop their attacks even if the Russians are demonstrably unable to take Ukraine’s cities. Ukraine’s defeat of the initial Russian campaign may therefore set conditions for a devastating protraction of the conflict and a dangerous new period testing the resolve of Ukraine and the West. Continued and expanded Western support to Ukraine will be vital to seeing Ukraine through that new period.
     ………

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/20/2022 @ 11:27 am

     
     

216. From a comment at Political Betting:

     Belarusians joke:
     @navalny has fought with corruption in #Russia. But when you look at the Russian army, it is good that he didn’t win.

     Good point.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:03 pm

     
     

217. Great for prospective AZ voters, but what’s left of the ILGOP forgot to set up at the recent and planned Willie Wilson giveaways- https://abc7chicago.com/free-gas-chicago-willie-wilson-cook-county/11661502/

     urbanleftbehind (c6f17b) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:05 pm

     
     

218. Re: Trump-endorsed candidates:

     Senate candidate Herschel Walker questions evolution, asking, ‘Why are there still apes?’
     
     ……..
     Walker made the remark Sunday (March 13) during an appearance at Sugar Hill Church in Sugar Hill, Ga.

     Polls show that Walker, who has been endorsed by former president Donald Trump, is the overwhelming favorite in the race for the GOP nomination to face freshman Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) in the fall.

     “At one time, science said man came from apes. Did it not?” Walker asked Chuck Allen, lead pastor of Sugar Hill Church, during Sunday’s event.
     ……..
     Walker continued: “Well, this is what’s interesting, though. If that is true, why are there still apes? Think about it.”
     ……..
     ……..(H)umans did not evolve from chimpanzees or any other great apes that are living today. Rather, humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived about 10 million years ago. They are now on different evolutionary tracks.

     During the Sunday event, Walker also appeared to question in vitro fertilization and other forms of assisted reproductive technology.

     “And then, the conception of a baby,” Walker said. “Let me tell you, science can’t do that. They’re still trying to do it, but they can’t, because there has to be a God.”
     ……..
     A Walker campaign spokeswoman did not address the substance of Walker’s remarks in a statement.
     ……..
     The statements are the latest eyebrow-raising comments by Walker. In January, the Daily Beast reported on an August 2020 podcast appearance in which Walker promoted a “mist” that he claimed would “kill any covid on your body.”
     ……..

     Actually these statements, however inaccurate they are, may actually gain votes for Walker in among church-attending conservatives in rural Georgia. Perhaps “evolution” should be added to the list of divisive topics not to be taught in schools.
     

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:27 pm

     
     

219. I also get nuclear power from eleven nuclear power plants in Illinois

     I was looking at houses in IL, until I saw what the property taxes were like. Yikes!

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:30 pm

     
     

220. Where? The hood areas tend to have Houston TX like prices and property taxes (taxes > P+I, per month) and the good areas are insane.

     urbanleftbehind (c6f17b) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:43 pm

     
     

221. Life is short. Stressing out about proving that everyone should have voted for Trump because Biden is terrible is actually not that clever. Most Biden voters thought Biden would be terrible. And few are saying that was mistaken.

     We can look forward and find common ground, or we can just get upset that good people didn’t like your favorite politician. One point of common ground we need is to have skepticism of the heroes of any political movement. The ultimate argument this supports is to decentralize government, reduce the stakes of each election, but also perhaps a little paradoxically, leave politics at the water’s edge.

     Our enemies are powerful, getting more powerful every day, and they love too see Trump vs Biden be the defining factor behind grape juice, gasoline, Russia, china, schools. They love it. If hating the other side’s voters (be they Trump or Biden) is more important than loving your country, don’t be surprised if folks like me do not even bother trying to convince you, and haven’t for years.

     Dustin (47bccc) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:48 pm

     
     

222. Way to kick Illini ass, Houston!

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:51 pm

     
     

223. horse> water <drink

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:53 pm

     
     

224. Has anyone ever seen Asst. Sec of HHS Admiral Rachel Levine and pollster Doug Schoen in the same room at the same time?

     Just sayin’…

     https://images.app.goo.gl/j2BqDMXG1rDA4atX6

     https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT9QP89nSEF5YUVhp2uhE0-XbxqkC2YsHnuXA&s

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 1:17 pm

     
     

225. Dustin: “If hating the other side’s voters (be they Trump or Biden) is more important than loving your country, don’t be surprised if folks like me do not even bother trying to convince you, and haven’t for years.”

     Amen. Life is too short to keep banging your head on the wall and hoping for a different response. Some people just want to be old and crabby…and/or troll for responses. Why engage?

     AJ_Liberty (ec7f74) — 3/20/2022 @ 1:26 pm

     
     

226. 2. Meadows did the sort of thing members of Congress did, but he was no longer in Congress, although he was contemplating running for office – I think the Senate. He is now registered in Virginia. His wife and children stayed there overnight or slightly longer, but he never did.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:02 pm

     
     

227. not surprising that nearly everyone has missed the point of the hunter biden laptop story

     that it was dismissed out of hand to the point of banning speech on the most influential platforms, regardless of the story’s significance

     same as was done with the covid lab leak theory, and the whistleblower’s identity

     this is not conservatism, yet self-anointed conservatives here and elsewhere enabled such nonsense and even cheered it on by lending credence to false accusations of criminally influencing an election, when in fact it was they and their fellow travelers who were pulling it off

     it will happen again, of course, and for all the talk that “we agree on most issues,” we really don’t where it counts

     just wait for the next false media narrative and see who swallows it whole

     JF (e1156d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:12 pm

     
     

228. DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/19/2022 @ 1:50 pm

     Now the chatter is of Russians purposely targeting these very same ‘civilians’ – but in a war crimes court, does a deliberately armed citizenry “conscripted” by government mandate to remain and fight – essentially a militia- constitute a ‘war crime’ or make them legitimate adversaries in battle from a Russian POV?

     If they are attacking people who are unarmed, or not organized into a group, especially at random, it’s not a legitimate military target. After destroying a lot of shelters, Russia went into a city, I think Mariupol, and gave the people there ten minutes to leave if they want to live ad transported them to a refugee camp in Russia. Does that mean they can now fire indiscriminately into that zone? Even if so, there’s enough very very clear war crimes for any prosecution so that nobody needs to use this.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:13 pm

     
     

229. I see rigor tortoise is all in for a war.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:14 pm

     
     

230. There are now reported to be 3.5 million Ukrainians who have left the country, and 6.5 million internally displaced, out of some 40 million plus.

     The western part of Ukraine has been attacked from the air very sparingly, and neither has the central part of Kyiv been attacked – it looks like the Russians are or were afraid of hitting something they don’t want to (historic buildings, president Zelensky, foreign visitors, their own infiltrators, the Belarus embassy where employee were still there till just the other day?) or want to keep their maps accurate for possible future use.

     In the southeast a few cities are totally destroyed, and there seems to be an attempt to oblitarate Kharkiv.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:21 pm

     
     

231. In case anyone is interested, I was talking to my dad this morning (retired officer, war-college grad, etc) and he says that the strategy Ukraine is using with infantry to fight Russian Armored divisions is straight out of western military strategy books. It’s textbook and they are running it in exactly the way most likely to be successful. He says it would be better if they had their own Armored divisions to follow up, but they are doing an excellent job given their resources.

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:23 pm

     
     

232. Do bettah!

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:25 pm

     
     

233. Lukashenko getting no respect.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:26 pm

     
     

234. The New York Times ran a story on Russian military strategy. The article says gas was used in Afghanistan once.

     https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/18/world/europe/russia-military-strategy-bombing-cities.html

     As Russian artillery and rockets land on Ukrainian hospitals and apartment blocks, devastating residential districts with no military value, the world is watching with horror what is, for Russia, an increasingly standard practice.

     Its forces conducted similar attacks in Syria, bombing hospitals and other civilian structures as part of Russia’s intervention to prop up that country’s government.

     Moscow went even further in Chechnya, a border region that had sought independence in the Soviet Union’s 1991 breakup. During two formative wars there, Russia’s artillery and air forces turned city blocks to rubble and its ground troops massacred civilians in what was widely seen as a deliberate campaign to terrorize the population into submission.

     Now, Vladimir V. Putin, whose rise to Russia’s presidency paralleled and was in some ways cemented by the Chechen wars, appears to be deploying a similar playbook in Ukraine, albeit so far only by increments.

     hese tactics reflect something more specific than simple ruthlessness alone. They emerged from Russia’s experiences in a string of wars that led its leaders to conclude, for reasons both strategic and ideological, that bombarding whole populations was not only acceptable but militarily sound…

     …“In the valleys around Kabul, the Russians undertook a series of large operations engaging hundreds of tanks, mobilizing significant means, using bombs, rockets, napalm, and even, once gas, destroying all in their path,” a 1984 chronicle of the war recounted.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:28 pm

     
     

235. In the second Chechen war (run by Putin) Russia declared some places safe zones, then killed people who went there:

     Human rights groups chronicled spates of massacres throughout the war. In some cases, Russian officers declared certain villages to be “safe zones,” then blanketed them in so-called fuel-air bombs banned under the Geneva Conventions, killing scores at a time.

     “All those remaining in Grozny will be considered terrorists and will be wiped out by artillery and aviation,” an official military edict warned. Though the statement was rescinded, Russian forces shelled the city indiscriminately, blockading its exits to prevent residents from fleeing.

     The New York Timss links to this:

     https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/massacres-civilians-chechnya.html

     (The New York Times also gives a link to the gas in Afghanistan report, but it’s apparently the wrong link.)

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:36 pm

     
     

236. The best quick outcome might be something similar to the outcome of the first Chechen war:

     Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and with it much of what had been the Soviet military. That year, leaders in Chechnya began asserting the region’s independence. In 1994, Moscow ordered a major assault to retake control.

     Russian troops again faced heavy losses against insurgents. A monthslong siege of Grozny, Chechnya’s capital, obliterated much of the city and killed thousands of civilians. Still, Russian troops withdrew in a 1996 defeat that further loosened the Kremlin’s weakening hold on power.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:38 pm

     
     

237. Sanator Mitch McConnell (R-Kent.) says we should not discount the possibility of a Ukrainian victory:

     https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mitch-mcconnell-transcript-face-the-nation-03-20-2022

     Look, I think we need to change our attitude here. The Ukrainians could actually win this thing–

     MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hmm.

     SEN. MCCONNELL: –and that’s what- the attitude we ought to have that we’re in it to help them win.

     MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hmm.

     SEN. MCCONNELL: –and that’s what- the attitude we ought to have that we’re in it to help them win.

     Note: President Biden had said on Wednesday:

     https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/16/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-assistance-the-united-states-is-providing-to-ukraine

     …And together with our Allies and partners, we will keep up the pressure on Putin’s crumbling economy, isolating him on the global stage. That’s our goal: make Putin pay the price, weaken his position while strengthening the hand of the Ukrainians on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:50 pm

     
     

238. Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:23 pm

     the strategy Ukraine is using with infantry to fight Russian Armored divisions is straight out of western military strategy books. It’s textbook and they are running it in exactly the way most likely to be successful.

     They got good training – the same as American units.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:51 pm

     
     

239. Let’s do what we can to stop the killing.

     When did all this hate for Russia begin with the Democrats? I’m old enough to remember Ted Kennedy reaching out to them back in the Cold War days to help them deal with their mutual adversary Ronald Reagan and SDI… I remember Big Zer0 asking Medvedev on camera to tell his friend Vlad that he’d be more flexible after his reelection in 2012. WTF happened?

     Was Ukraine where more profitable graft could be found? Did the shutdown of the Clinton Foundation send the grifter ‘rats scurrying for sustenance?

     What happened?

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:53 pm

     
     

240. Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:27 pm

     Walker promoted a “mist” that he claimed would “kill any covid on your body.”

     That could be accurate, so far as it goes, but people become infected by breathing it in.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:53 pm

     
     

241. Ukraine is a money laundering paradise for the elite. Just like Northern Ireland.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:07 pm

     
     

242. According to Narciso, Putin didn’t fall into cross hairs until he expressed disapproval of Big Alphabet and simpatico with the European nationalists. Russian Federation is not the third world Sugar Daddy to the degree it was during the Cold War.

     urbanleftbehind (c6f17b) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:17 pm

     
     

243. @Haiku@239 I would suspect that in the past certain people saw personal advantages in reporting exaggerated controversy and that contrary to those examples, most Americans, regardless of their political leanings, have had a suspicious eye on Russia, just like today with the reports of masses of conservatives supporting Russia in their invasion, which is probably also not true except in specific instances (and you can see that in polls where they as if we should send weapons to Ukraine and almost everyone says yes)

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:18 pm

     
     

244. Lukashenko getting no respect.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:26 pm

     hahahahaha

     What a time to be alive.

     Dustin (47bccc) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:19 pm

     
     

245. Major General Mick Ryan is noting that Putin’s army is at or near culmination, which perhaps explains his war crimes, to punish Ukrainians for daring to resist.
     IMO, the Ukrainians should allow no pause by the Russians, and no ceasefire either. Negotiate, yes.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:29 pm

     
     

246. “just like today with the reports of masses of conservatives supporting Russia in their invasion, which is probably also not true except in specific instances (and you can see that in polls where they as if we should send weapons to Ukraine and almost everyone says yes)”

     I don’t visit the disinformation sites, so I’ve not seen the false reports. Who knows what people support when you read of widespread support for NFZ until these “supporters” are made to understand that NFZ means the US (and NATO) shooting Russian military aircraft out of the sky, and then the answer is “hell no, that’s nuts”.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:36 pm

     
     

247. and who can forget
     Pantsuited Pantload’s famous
     Red Re-set Button

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:43 pm

     
     

248. eleven nuke plants
     explains so much about state and
     that mutant mayor

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:48 pm

     
     

249. Yes, Ukraine has an oligarch problem, but that’s not a casus belli.
     BTW, speaking of oligarchs, I’m on Episode 11, Season 1 of Servant of the People, starring the Ukrainian president, who played the Ukrainian president. It’s pretty funny. In one scene, to get the attention of a squabbling parliament, he yelled out “Putin is deposed!” and the room went dead quiet.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:50 pm

     
     

250. …given their resources.

     Given their resources;— that’s the real issue for Americans who wanna help; who pays for the freebees? Where is the Biden Administration’s U.S. Ukranian Freedom Fighters War Bond Drive?! Where’s the creative thinking? Joe thinks of himself as another FDR– well, before and as WW2 erupted, FDR raised billions to fund the war effort- and a bond drive helps fight inflation. Instead, the government is charging the expenses to Uncle Sam’s credit card again– financed by borrowed bucks from China.

     ‘The last time the United States issued war bonds was during World War II, when full employment collided with rationing, and war bonds were seen as a way to remove money from circulation as well as reduce inflation. Issued by the U.S. Government, they were first called Defense Bonds… the war bonds sold in the U.S. helped the government raise about $185 billion. Bonds were bought by over 84 million Americans.’

     – source, https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1682.html msclkid=cbd58abda89e11ecb4f157a21aff18b4

     War Bonds:

     ‘War bonds are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war. They are also a means to control inflation by removing money from circulation from a stimulated wartime economy. War bonds are either retail bonds marketed directly to the public or wholesale bonds traded on a stock market. Exhortations to buy war bonds are often accompanied by appeals to patriotism and conscience. Retail war bonds, like other retail bonds, tend to have a yield which is below that offered by the market and are often made available in a wide range of denominations to make them affordable for all citizens.’

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_bond?msclkid=c0ee35fba89f11ec8c3543bc8774bebc

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:51 pm

     
     

251. Phenomenal commercial by Zelenskyy. Putin has no answer to that.
     Is it propaganda? Yes, but it has a ring of truth.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 3:57 pm

     
     

252. @Haiku@246 You visit here. We’ve discussed that controversy here.

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:04 pm

     
     

253. @228. If they are attacking people who are unarmed, or not organized into a group, especially at random, it’s not a legitimate military target.

     Thing is, Sammy, they’ve been very public about arming civilians and quick-training them– even televising it; and “the Ukrainian government has mandated that men aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country,” presumably to be ‘conscripted’ as available to be ‘not-so-free-freedom-fighters.’ So it’s a fog-of-war issue to be sure. 50 people in a church and one or two guys or gals pop off some rounds at a Rooskie tank– they’re gonna shoot back.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:07 pm

     
     

254. I could see the Russian elites assassinating Putin. Alexander Bortnikov, who is Russia’s Federal Security Service director. no doubt he knows about the Ukraine and its people and the military capabilities. Has to be a replacement possibility.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:11 pm

     
     

255. @251. This ‘WAS’ Zelensky, too:

     ‘We don’t have a Titanic here’: Ukraine plays down threat of Russian invasion

     Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has talked down the threat of an imminent Russian invasion and said the UK and US are wrong to pull out non-essential diplomatic staff from Kyiv, adding: “We don’t have a Titanic here.”

     https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/28/ukraine-plays-down-threat-of-russian-invasion-volodymyr-zelenskiy?msclkid=34af1f78a8a411ec8248012a3b9675ae

     “Iceberg, right ahead!” – Lookout Frederick Fleet [Scott Anderson] ‘Titanic’ 1997

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:28 pm

     
     

256. Russia gives Ukraine just HOURS to surrender besieged city of Mariupol in chilling ultimatum
     

     RUSSIA has issued a chilling ultimatum giving Ukraine them just hours to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol. Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said those who comply with his deadline of 5am Moscow time “are guaranteed a safe passage out.”

     https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18012590/russia-gives-ukraine-hours-surrender-mariupol-ultimatum/

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:36 pm

     
     

257. It’s the Republicans who gave away our oil on our federal lands to private drillers and frackers who are now sitting on it until oil prices go up high enough for them to make as much money as Rockefeller.

     Oh, bollocks. The Biden administration says stuff like that, but it’s all lies.

     Lie 1: A “lease” does not mean that you’ve drilled any thing, just that you have the right to drill. When prices were low, nobody drilled — they couldn’t break even on what they had.

     Lie 2: Knowing that you will not get any more leases in the foreseeable future means that you need to be sure that you can sustain your operations with the leases you have. So, you go slower on pumping than you might with these high prices (incidentally driving prices higher). That’s not greed, that’s prudence with a government that has announced an intention to squeeze your future supply.

     Lie 3: They are sitting on their wells and not producing. NM is now forecasting a large increase in their separation tax, in part due to prices but also in part due to increased production. They are already casting around for wasteful ways to spend it.

     Lie 4: The administration is approving new leases. Only when they absolutely cannot legally refuse.

     Lie 5: They are trying to get new sources of energy. A) Keystone XL, B) wake me when they start approving nuclear plants. The single quickest thing they could do would be to make solar tax credits refundable, but they don’t because they other trillions in Big Bad Better goodies need to be approved, too.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:40 pm

     
     

258. 252… I don’t visit this site much, Nic. Don’t recall that.

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:45 pm

     
     

259. From the article DCSCA linked

     Colonel-General Mizintsev urged his opponents: “Lay down your arms.

     “A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed…”

     Yes, a terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed. It was developed by the Russian military bombing schools, hospitals, and theaters. You, the Russian army, have created a humanitarian crisis. Perhaps you should lay down your arms and go home so that the city can see the end of what is creating it’s humanitarian crisis of being bombed.

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:46 pm

     
     

260. @kevin@257 The keystone pipeline thing is a meme. The point of the pipeline shortcut (the actual pipeline still exists and is transporting oil) wasn’t to sell oil to us, it was to move oil faster so it could be refined faster so that Canada could sell it to other people. Also, it was bogged down in a Nebraska court and when you can’t get a popular conservative infrastructure program through a court in Nebraska, there’s something else wrong with it that that some environmentalists in Portland don’t like it. There are also a limited number of places you should put nuclear plants in the US. They need to be in seismically stable areas that aren’t vulnerable to hurricanes or tidal waves, that aren’t on major rivers, but have good access to water.

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:55 pm

     
     

261. Nic, oil is fungible. The lack of the pipeline means that those oil sands won’t be developed, or not as fast. Which means less oil. If the end customers of that pipeline aren’t getting their oil there, they are getting it elsewhere. Less supply means less supply; how you move the peas around the plate doesn’t matter.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:01 pm

     
     

262. But that was hardly the thrust of #257, and I note that you got down to the last point before you found an issue.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:02 pm

     
     

263. I didn’t have an issue with the rest of it, business is business, and the Keystone pipeline XL stuff drives me crazy. The oil is still flowing, just through the actual pipeline and even when the feds said building it was fine, it was still frozen in NE courts. Keystone wouldn’t have been a miracle in oil availability and I think getting hung up on it is a block on the real conversation that should be had, so I get impatient with it.

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:07 pm

     
     

264. As for nuclear plants, sure, if you still want to build a 1956 Westinghouse Electric style plant. We have not built a new design here since the 1970s. Things have changed in 40-50 years.

     Modern designs are much different than the Fukashima crap that was built 60 years ago.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:07 pm

     
     

265. I didn’t have an issue with the rest of it, business is business, and the Keystone pipeline XL stuff drives me crazy

     It’s all of a piece. Hostility is hostility, even if some of the hostile acts have a basis.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:09 pm

     
     

266. https://notthebee.com/article/twitter-just-suspended-the-babylon-bee-for-calling-rachel-levine-a-man

     Once again we live in such a twisted society that telling the truth is a treasonous act.

     Break the tech oligopoly up.

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:22 pm

     
     

267. The point of the pipeline shortcut (the actual pipeline still exists and is transporting oil) wasn’t to sell oil to us, it was to move oil faster so it could be refined faster so that Canada could sell it to other people.

     I’ve seen this repeated a million times. It’s not a good argument that if the fuel doesn’t go in my specific pickup, it is irrelevant to me. Also, Biden campaigned on screwing up oil production. He campaigned on it repeatedly. Now he changes nothing but we’re supposed to accept his hands are tied on the issue?

     As for nuclear plants, sure, if you still want to build a 1956 Westinghouse Electric style plant. We have not built a new design here since the 1970s. Things have changed in 40-50 years.

     Modern designs are much different than the Fukashima crap that was built 60 years ago.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:07 pm

     Indeed if nuclear safety is the concern, building modern stuff is even more vital. But compare the cancer caused by coal or gas fuel to nuclear, and the nuclear safety concern is irrational. I understand it, but it’s Hollywood, not science.

     I’m not opposed to trade, but we need to be a viable independent nation again. Energy, production, especially things we need. Instead of universal income and student loan forgiveness, we need factory jobs, modernized education (no university required for 99% of folks) and maybe yanking the safety net way down to the actual safety zone.

     Dustin (47bccc) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:26 pm

     
     

268. Keystone wouldn’t have been a miracle in oil availability and I think getting hung up on it is a block on the real conversation that should be had, so I get impatient with it.

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:07 pm

     It would take time. But they said that a long time ago. If it’s no big deal why did anyone care about opposing it?

     Dustin (47bccc) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:27 pm

     
     

269. not surprising that nearly everyone has missed the point of the hunter biden laptop story

     that it was dismissed out of hand to the point of banning speech on the most influential platforms, regardless of the story’s significance

     same as was done with the covid lab leak theory, and the whistleblower’s identity

     this is not conservatism, yet self-anointed conservatives here and elsewhere enabled such nonsense and even cheered it on by lending credence to false accusations of criminally influencing an election, when in fact it was they and their fellow travelers who were pulling it off

     it will happen again, of course, and for all the talk that “we agree on most issues,” we really don’t where it counts

     just wait for the next false media narrative and see who swallows it whole

     JF (e1156d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:12 pm

     Well said. There’s a name for this type of cognitive error and I cannot remember it at the moment. It’s where someone reads an article full of lies in a topic they’re well educated on, then they read the next article and believe it’s true because they aren’t knowledgeable in that area.

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:33 pm

     
     

270. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10612285/California-mom-claims-LA-school-encouraged-daughter-transition-blame-suicide.html

     ‘I knew the hormones wouldn’t work. Why did they play with her life?’ Bereaved mom blames LA County for her teenage daughter’s suicide, claiming school pushed her to transition to a male instead of properly treating her depression

     The school gave her a gun and told her to pull the trigger instead of helping treat her mental illness.

     NJRob (eb56c3) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:42 pm

     
     

271. Justice Thomas hospitalized with infection

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:46 pm

     
     

272. Well, Hercules stopped by — he had some golden apples with him — and he agreed to carry the world on his shoulders for me for a little bit. So if he wants to, he can engage further on energy independence or Hunter’s laptop, but otherwise I’ll just let the other comrades who opined have the last word as far as I’m concerned.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:49 pm

     
     

273. I wonder what our specials ops are finding out on the ground in the Ukraine?

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:55 pm

     
     

274. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/us/russia-ukraine-weapons-decoy.html

     nk (1d9030) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:19 pm

     
     

275. There’s something going around, but it’s not Covid. It’s high time there was a general study of respiratory diseases, and also that a significant portion of respiratory (and other) infections be sequenced, so we can understand what’s going on.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:29 pm

     
     

276. 260. Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 4:55 pm

     There are also a limited number of places you should put nuclear plants in the US. They need to be in seismically stable areas that aren’t vulnerable to hurricanes or tidal waves, that aren’t on major rivers, but have good access to water.

     Some new designs are stab;e against losing electricity, and don’t need water to cool.

     And also, out of the USA, they shouldn’t be put in places that might become a war zone in the next 50 to 100 years. Difficult to predict. But hardening against terrorism or plane crashes probably works for wartime shelling and bombing too, if it is not attacked by rare bombs.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:34 pm

     
     

277. Russia has issued an ultimatum to Ukraine to surrender Mariupol. Ukraine refuses.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:36 pm

     
     

278. So, I was talking to another engineer about these hypersonic missiles that Russia claims to have, and it’s kind of odd, but we came to the conclusion that they were of limited use, at least with conventional warheads.

     The first problem is that they are blind. At those speeds, any sensor is overwhelmed by the force of the transit though air. No GPS, no radar and no infrared sensors will work inside that fiery transit, so they are useless agianst a moving target. As for evading anything, well, they can’t see anything to evade.

     The second problem is that they are highly visible to everyone else. Their fireball streak through the air is about as stealthy as a meteor. A properly designed anti-missile weapon, fired from near their target, that can anticipated the speed of the target should have no problem tracking them and intercepting.

     The third problem is that changing their trajectory is hard, at least without losing stability, and any rocket designed to power the thing for any distance — against the incredible air resistance — needs a lot of fuel, which isn’t possible on such a small device. So, they glide and slow down and don’t have a lot of choice as far as path to take to the target. This makes evasion through random course changes hard too, and chasing something (like a ship) unlikely in the extreme.

     The US, China and Russia have built these things, but it’s really just a toy looking for a workable mission.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:37 pm

     
     

279. Roger Stone is defending — well, you already know who he would be defending, if you have followed his career — but not everyone has, so here it is:

     In a Saturday interview on Real America’s Voice, Stone took(sic) argued that Putin’s actions were defensive.

     “Ukraine is not even remotely about what they are telling us about,” he said. “Ukraine is about the fact that the Ukrainians have used their soil to place dual-launch missile pads—missiles that would be aimed at the Soviet Union.”

     The Soviet Union has been defunct since 1991, but Stone was apparently referring to Russia.

     “There are, in fact, bio labs there [in Ukraine] that are funded by our tax dollars, cooking up who knows what pestilence to dump on the Russian people,” Stone continued. “Putin is acting defensively, he is not acting offensively. But you won’t read that in the mainstream media.”

     It is unfortunate for America that Trump first commuted Stone’s sentence, and then pardoned Stone.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:38 pm

     
     

280. Russia has issued an ultimatum to Ukraine to surrender Mariupol. Ukraine refuses.

     https://i.imgur.com/xfin0kb.png

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:44 pm

     
     

281. And also, out of the USA, they shouldn’t be put in places that might become a war zone in the next 50 to 100 years.

     We store used fuel rods in storage pools in major cities. That’s how stupid we are.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:47 pm

     
     

282. Russia has issued an ultimatum to Ukraine to surrender Mariupol. Ukraine refuses.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:36 pm

     Yeah, not very rational to surrender to a guy who blows up fleeing civilians, so this was just crude psyops by Russia.

     I hope it’s not a harbinger for a major escalation.

     Dustin (47bccc) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:48 pm

     
     

283. 268. Dustin (47bccc) — 3/20/2022 @ 5:27 pm

     If it’s no big deal why did anyone care about opposing it?

     Symbolism and precedent – and because the environmentalists have no sense of scale. They are innumerate.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:50 pm

     
     

284. Here’s an example of one of the new designs for nuclear power plants.

     Then in November, a company started by Bill Gates, TerraPower, announced it had chosen Kemmerer for a nontraditional, sodium-cooled nuclear reactor that will bring on workers from a local coal-fired power plant scheduled to close soon.

     Interestingly, it is designed to work well with wind energy, since it will have the ability to store heat.

     The Department of Energy is subsidizing this first one.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:51 pm

     
     

285. 283. Maybe the short answer for both sides of he Keystone pipeline issue is fundraising.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:58 pm

     
     

286. I don’t have so much an issue with Zelenskyy shuttering political parties with clear links to Putin, but nationalizing media is a step too far, IMO, even in a full-scale war. He should’ve kept the ones open that did not have affiliations with Russia or Putin.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 7:01 pm

     
     

287. Meantime, in Mariupol, the Putin Kangaroo Court awaits.

     Horrific insanity
     “After a complete cleansing of Mariupol, the team of the DPR ombudsman, together with the law enforcement agencies of the republic, will enter the city and collect evidence of all the crimes of the Ukrainian national battalions for the tribunal” via RIA Novosti

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/20/2022 @ 7:05 pm

     
     

288. @Dustin@268 My understanding from my farming, western NE family is that because the oilsands are heavy and abrasive there were concerns about leakage into the huge aquifer they use for drinking water and irrigation and any effects on the sandhills environment.

     @Rob@270 I think it’s very hard for parents when a child commits suicide. The article you linked says that the kid first tried to commit suicide at 13 and didn’t get involved in LGBTQ groups until they were 15/16. I don’t understand why mom didn’t get them treatment after those earlier attempts.

     @Jim@284 I wish them good luck

     Nic (896fdf) — 3/20/2022 @ 7:09 pm

     
     

289. #288 Nic – Thanks much for the professional thoughts on the performance of the Ukrainian troops, #231.

     The DofE release mentions two more designs, one in Washington state, and one in Idaho, and there are others. As I understand it, there is one small modular reactor working right now, in China. I think with all these different designs from different companies, we should have affordable successes within a decade — at the most.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/20/2022 @ 7:21 pm

     
     

290. @274. Life imitates art:

     “It looks like the Soviets have a very slow missile… with a much longer range than we thought they had. The slowness of speed made our missile calculate… they must be drones or decoys… so it ignored them and went after the fighters. We can compensate for that. The adjustment is minor.” – Dr. Groeteschele [Walter Matthau] ‘Fail-Safe’ 1964

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/20/2022 @ 8:02 pm

     
     

291. @Dustin@268 My understanding from my farming, western NE family is that because the oilsands are heavy and abrasive there were concerns about leakage into the huge aquifer they use for drinking water and irrigation and any effects on the sandhills environment.

     And there’s something to that.

     But that’s the straight up answer.

     Dustin (47bccc) — 3/20/2022 @ 9:01 pm

     
     

292. The good news is that the seven day average of deaths fell again to 1084. (That’s still far too high, but the trend is our friend.)

     The bad news is that cases are rising world wide, and that a still more infectious sub-variant will hit us soon.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:44 am

     
     

293. “Instead of universal income and student loan forgiveness, we need factory jobs, modernized education (no university required for 99% of folks) and maybe yanking the safety net way down to the actual safety zone.”

     The call for factory jobs jumped out at me. Not because it’s inappropriate, but because it’s a extremely complex request that gets over-simplified by bloated political promises. The following Harvard Business Review article gives a great explanation, underscoring the increasing specialization and supply chain challenges to bring a product to market.

     https://hbr.org/2020/04/bringing-manufacturing-back-to-the-u-s-is-easier-said-than-done

     I also wonder what “more factory jobs” means in terms of government subsidies (read tax redistribution). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a zealot who immediately says “no” to “targeted investment”….especially in technology, but I am generally skeptical when politicians start handing out “free” money. Political ideology conflicts with good business sense (see Solyndra). Politicians can play the “I was trying to do the right thing for you” card to gullible voters that CEO’s can’t spin as well to detail-minded Board of Directors who aren’t grading on a curve.

     Cost appears to be king right now. As a shopper, do you religiously buy the higher-priced American-made product? Do you go out of your way to look for it? Should we? I think the answer is complicated, especially with inflation sapping our current purchasing power. I get that the middle-class needs more lower-skilled manufacturing jobs. We just have to be realistic about quick fixes promised by political opportunists and charlatans.

     AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:55 am

     
     

294. There is still more good news in that there are now two effective antiviral drugs available, and that the government is sponsoring test–to-treat operations at pharmacies:

     The rollout of the US government’s Covid-19 test-to-treat program is underway, with in-pharmacy clinics ordering shipments of Covid-19 antiviral medications and some locations expecting to offer the service within days.

     “We’ve had more than 1,000 pharmacy-based clinic sites register today, so that even exceeded our expectations for Day One of this program,” Dr. Tom Inglesby, senior adviser to the White House’s Covid-19 Response Team, told CNN on Monday.
     The Covid-19 antiviral pills Paxlovid and molnupiravir are already available for free in the United States, but quick access can be challenging for some people.

     This strikes me as a sensible program that may help us finally escape this pandemic. I only hope that Trumpistas will not persuade many to take “magic” pills instead, or ignore the risks to themselves — and others — by doing nothing.

     One would like to think that 1.1 million dead Americans would have changed their minds, and hearts, but that does not seem to be so.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:03 am

     
     

295. Twenty-eight days after my Pfizer booster, I spent three hours in a car, maskless, all the windows closed because it was 20 outside and we were doing 70 on the highway, with a person tested positive for Covid in the second day of symptoms (fever, chills, body aches, fatigue, scratchy throat) which turned out to be the peak too. I did not get it. Get vaccinated!

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:11 am

     
     

296. Two sober looks at the GOP electorate being more reluctant to support Ukraine

     https://www.thebulwark.com/republican-voters-are-now-americas-foreign-policy-doves/
     https://www.thebulwark.com/why-russian-propagandists-love-fox-news/

     I do get concern over escalation and getting into yet one more protracted engagement, but bullies thrive on timidness and good people looking away. We should never shy away from creating the political and economic environment to topple a tyrant. There should not be a Putin-wing of the GOP. The fact that we now have one falls mainly on the rhetoric of one dangerous political demagogue.

     AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:15 am

     
     

297. #295 nk – And, not only that, but you did not then infect anyone else. For which we all can be grateful. Super spreaders, for example Donald Trump, have made the pandemic far worse than it need have been.

     COVID vaccinations aren’t just good for the people who receive them; they are good for everyone those people come in contact with.

     Lawyers may want to address this question: Should someone who gets COVID because of another person’s reckless behavior be able to sue that person for damages?

     (There’s some information on super spreaders in this article, including an example of a bartender who may have infected 1,000 people.)

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:27 am

     
     

298. There should not be a Putin-wing of the GOP. The fact that we now have one falls mainly on the rhetoric of one dangerous political demagogue.

     But boys in dresses are using the girls’ bathrooms in high schools, AJ_Liberty! Oh, won’t somebody pleas think of the children?

     It would be risible, if it weren’t so sad: These same people call themselves conservatives and equate Trump with Reagan.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:28 am

     
     

299. @110

     Can a president pardon his son?

     .
     .
     .

     And get away with it?

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/19/2022 @ 12:10 pm

     Yes.

     There’s never going to be enough Democrats in the Senate to remove Biden.

     whembly (fbaaf7) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:32 am

     
     

300. @239

     Let’s do what we can to stop the killing.

     When did all this hate for Russia begin with the Democrats? I’m old enough to remember Ted Kennedy reaching out to them back in the Cold War days to help them deal with their mutual adversary Ronald Reagan and SDI… I remember Big Zer0 asking Medvedev on camera to tell his friend Vlad that he’d be more flexible after his reelection in 2012. WTF happened?

     Was Ukraine where more profitable graft could be found? Did the shutdown of the Clinton Foundation send the grifter ‘rats scurrying for sustenance?

     What happened?

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:53 pm

     Trump happened. It’s simply that.

     whembly (fbaaf7) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:44 am

     
     

301. @thread – I’m heartened by some of us realizing that we all really do get along, even if we have nits to pick with each other.

     Its a useful reminder that we’re all more than just our politics. 😉

     whembly (fbaaf7) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:59 am

     
     

302. You have very selective memory, comrades. You forget Truman and Marshall Plan and Berlin Airlift, and Kennedy and Cuba and Vietnam, and LBJ and Vietnam, and Carter and Afghanistan and Moscow Olympics boycott, and Clinton and break-up of Serbia with American troops face to face with Russian troops in Kosovo, and maybe many other things, too, but I am stingy with pixels all of a sudden.

     And it’s not that “Trump happened”. It’s that Trump “stopped happening” and the Oval Office is no longer Putin’s doghouse for his pet Pomeranian.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 7:08 am

     
     

303. right, getting americans dragged into every dumb war has been a democrat thing

     until bush broke the streak

     JF (e1156d) — 3/21/2022 @ 7:24 am

     
     

304. We should never shy away from creating the political and economic environment to topple a tyrant.
     AJ_Liberty (3cb02f) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:15 am

     biden isn’t doing that

     nor would he even consider toppling the only excuse he has for the domestic mess he’s created

     he and his fans are the most pro-putin faction around

     JF (e1156d) — 3/21/2022 @ 7:30 am

     
     

305. @302

     You have very selective memory, comrades. You forget Truman and Marshall Plan and Berlin Airlift, and Kennedy and Cuba and Vietnam, and LBJ and Vietnam, and Carter and Afghanistan and Moscow Olympics boycott, and Clinton and break-up of Serbia with American troops face to face with Russian troops in Kosovo, and maybe many other things, too, but I am stingy with pixels all of a sudden.

     And it’s not that “Trump happened”. It’s that Trump “stopped happening” and the Oval Office is no longer Putin’s doghouse for his pet Pomeranian.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 7:08 am

     I don’t think so.

     Democrats/Media held some-what favorable views of Russia post-Soviet collapse. Which, in my mind, was an extension to the left’s fascination over an academia-ivory tower view of communism.

     Case in point: Remember how the media/Democrats disparaged Romney for saying Russia was our greatest foe?

     All things Russian government really became persona-nongrata to the media/Democrats since Trump’s 1st electoral win.

     Which is my attempt to answer Colonel Haiku’s “what happened” question in post 239.

     whembly (fbaaf7) — 3/21/2022 @ 8:01 am

     
     

306. 278. Kevin M (38e250) — 3/20/2022 @ 6:37 pm

     The second problem is that they are highly visible to everyone else. Their fireball streak through the air is about as stealthy as a meteor. A properly designed anti-missile weapon, fired from near their target, that can anticipated the speed of the target should have no problem tracking them and intercepting….

     The US, China and Russia have built these things, but it’s really just a toy looking for a workable mission.

     So you are saying that they can’t be intercepted in the air, but a properly defended target can better defend itself than against many other missiles, which can manuever and can be aimed more precisely?

     A movable target, should this be known to be coming can move away, and a local anti-missile can intercept it. It;s travelling faster than the speed of sound, not faster than the speed of light.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/21/2022 @ 8:40 am

     
     

307. 292. Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:44 am

     a still more infectious sub-variant will hit us soon.

     It hit us already. An estimated 10% of all U.S. cases the week before last (pr whatever was the penultimate reporting period) 25% of all U.S. last week – 35% or more in the northeast. It’s called BA.2 while the first Omicron is called BA.1

     Written March 1:

     https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/omicron-subvariants-ba-1-vs-ba-2-what-the-latest-data-says

     Moreover, since it emerged, scientists have categorized Omicron’s subvariants or lineages into three groups: BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3.

     Although the BA.1 subvariant started as the dominant Omicron lineage across the globe, since December 2021, the proportion of COVID-19 cases linked to the BA.2 variant has been rapidly increasing.

     BA.2 must have started later.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/21/2022 @ 8:51 am

     
     

308. Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/20/2022 @ 12:27 pm
     Walker promoted a “mist” that he claimed would “kill any covid on your body.”
     That could be accurate, so far as it goes, but people become infected by breathing it in.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/20/2022 @ 2:53 pm

     Of course, the point of the whole post is Herschel Walker’s scientific illiteracy.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 8:58 am

     
     

309. Some news articles:

     There may be a shortage of food by the fall and winter or next year (hitting some areas already in trouble, and, more certainly, higher prices because of the war.

     Russia and Ukraine (and Belarus) provide a substantial portion of the world’s wheat and corn and fertilizer, exports have been stopped from Russia because of the sanctions and some because of Putin’s orders, and from Ukraine because of the war and blockade of the Black Sea – 30% of Ukraine’s farmland could be at risk of being be in a war zone, planting may not take place because fuel was turned over to ‘the military, Ukraine asked for rail cars carrying fuel; and besides this China may buy more because of poorer harvests, which it blames on flooding; Brazil may not be able to get much fertilize for soybeans which it sells as animal feed to China; Australia has hit a limit on shipping capacity.

     https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/20/world/americas/ukraine-war-global-food-crisis.html

     Russia has largely been unable to export food because of sanctions that have effectively cut it off financially. Ukraine, meanwhile, has been cut off physically. Russia has blocked the Black Sea for exports, and Ukraine lacks enough rail cars to transport food overland.

     What is now becoming more worrisome is the next harvest, particularly in Ukraine. On March 11, Ukraine’s agriculture minister begged allies for 1,900 rail cars of fuel, saying that the country’s farms had run out after supplies were diverted to the military. Without that fuel, he said, Ukrainian farmers would be unable to plant or harvest.

     IN the Wall Street Journal, a letter and an Op-ed propose sending Ukraine disasebled Mig-23’s for parts, or just the fyselage and spmeone wrotes that the war aims of NATO should be the deposition of Putin – that is a statement should be made saying that the sanctions won’t be lifted until Putin is gone. Secretay of State Blinken has said something a little less than that.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/21/2022 @ 9:17 am

     
     

310. Two things that have usually been ignored discussing Covid:

     1) Exposure is treated as a binary event – either yes or not – while what matters is the degree if exposure. One bad thing throughout the epidemic, was not separating people who have been exposed from each other, and not giving people who are sick a lot of fresh air, bit instead making them breathe it back in.

     2) Not treating people with different degrees of risk, differently. People aged 5-12, even 2-4 beat it back easily even if never exposed.

     Also: Too little publicity for anti-virals and antibodies; companies not allowed to update their vaccine for Omicron and earlier Delta; people who got exposed are not treated differently than those who were not.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/21/2022 @ 9:26 am

     
     

311. How could any American patriot back Putin?
     ………
     I have been struck by how many self-proclaimed conservatives in the United States trot out the line that Ukraine is not a real country. Given what Ukrainians are putting themselves through for the sake of their sovereignty, that might seem an absurd proposition. Yet plenty of right-wing commentators are unashamedly pushing it.

     “Spare me the performative affection for the Ukraine, a corrupt nation run by oligarchs,” said J.D. Vance, the former hillbilly-turned-Marine-turned-venture-capitalist-turned-commentator. The country, said Tucker Carlson, is a “pure client state of the United States State Department.”

     This is an adaptation of Putin’s claim that Ukrainians are not a real people. ……..

     America’s so-called national conservatives agree that Ukraine is synthetic but believe that it was cobbled together even more recently. “Ukraine wasn’t a thing until 1989. Ukraine was created by the Russians,” said Candace Owens. “They speak Russian.”

     Steve Bannon, once Hand of the King to former President Donald Trump, agrees, but he blames the Democrats. “Ukraine’s not even a country,” he has said. “It’s kind of a concept. It’s not even a country. It’s just a corrupt area that the Clintons turned into a colony where they can steal money out of.”

     How can people who call themselves nationalists be so blasé about the asphyxiation of a nation whose sole offense has been to assert its independence?
     ………
     ………[W]hy do people who see themselves as defenders of Western civilization line up with a despot who so obviously loathes it? ……
     ………
     ………For a Reagan conservative, Putin’s flaws are obvious. He does not respect elections. He believes he can make up the rules as he goes along. He defines some of his people as “traitors” and encourages others to go after them. The sole principle of his foreign policy is Machtpolitik — let the stronger take from the weaker. He has replaced multiparty pluralism with a cult of personality. He can’t tolerate criticism.

     Are Trumpsters as repelled by these things as Reaganites? Considering that list in an American context, I wonder. …….

     ………The likeliest explanation for the behavior of Putin’s American apologists is also the most disquieting one. They really do approve of what he is doing.
     ###########

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 9:31 am

     
     

312. Republicans hate Putin because of Cold War type reasons; Democrats hate Putin because he liked Trump.

     Meanwhile everybody ignores that the election on Colombia is in danger of being won by a Hugo Chavez frend – made sort of possible by a bad peace deal.

     https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-chavez-admirer-could-take-colombia-latin-america-presidential-election-farc-11647795131

     …A third of the country despises Mr. Petro for his record on the side of domestic terrorists. In 1985 a group of his M-19 comrades snuck into the basement of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, machine-gunned security guards, and took control of the building.

     Even as they were making demands on President Belisario Betancur, they began executing hostages. Eleven of the Supreme Court’s magistrates were murdered. The Colombian military stormed the building, saving hundreds of lives. The incident remains one of the bloodiest assaults on Colombian democratic institutions in modern history….

     …Mr. Petro was a close friend of the late Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez. He told Ms. Dávila that he had last been in Venezuela in 2006. That was quickly corrected by Colombian columnist Daniel Raisbeck, in the daily El Nuevo Siglo. Mr. Raisbeck noted that Mr. Petro attended the 2013 funeral of Chávez, “whom he then praised as ‘a great Latin American leader.’ ” Semana magazine posted a March 2016 Petro tweet, in which the Colombian politician said he was in a Caracas supermarket where he claimed shelves were well-stocked….

     But a candidate does need 50% to win.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/21/2022 @ 9:32 am

     
     

313. #307 Sammy – Thanks for the correction — I should have been more precise in my comment — and thanks for the details, which I had seen, but was too lazy to look up that early in the morning.

     (This is one of those annoying “slide shows”, designed to collect clicks, but it does identify four places where the BA.2 sub-variant is already a serious problem: the UK, Germany, Hong Kong, and the Northeast United States.)

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 9:39 am

     
     

314. U.S. Sending Soviet Air Defense Systems It Secretly Acquired to Ukraine

     The U.S. is sending some of the Soviet-made air defense equipment it secretly acquired decades ago to bolster the Ukrainian military as it seeks to fend off Russian air and missile attacks, U.S. officials said.

     The systems, which one U.S. official said include the SA-8, are decades old and were obtained by the U.S. so it could examine the technology used by the Russian military and which Moscow has exported around the world.

     The weapons are familiar to Ukraine’s military, which inherited this type of equipment following the breakup of the Soviet Union.
     ……..
     The secretive efforts received public attention in 1994 when a massive Soviet-made transport plane was observed at the Huntsville airport within sight of a major highway. It was later disclosed that the plane was carrying an S-300 air defense system that the U.S. had acquired in Belarus as part of a clandestine project involving a Pentagon contractor that cost $100 million, according to a former official involved in the mission.

     The S-300 from Belarus wasn’t among the systems that are being sent to Ukraine, one U.S. official said.
     …….

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 9:43 am

     
     

315. JF: “biden isn’t doing that….nor would he even consider toppling the only excuse he has for the domestic mess he’s created….he and his fans are the most pro-putin faction around”

     The ratcheting of economic sanctions on Russia…albeit with agreement from much of the world….have been critical and will raise the pressure on the Oligarchs and the common Russian trying to eat to split with Putin. And even with the Polish fighter plane kerfuffle….where it’s unclear who fumbled and made that open knowledge….the U.S. seems to be instrumental in keeping Ukraine in the fight, which is also raising the temperature on Putin at home. Conscripts not coming home, protesters in the street, and modern communication countering Putin’s propaganda…with our intelligence services undoubtedly helping to expose the lies…..is making it about as hot as possible on an authoritarian like Putin.

     On the other hand, FNC has done all it can to spin Ukraine as more incompetent Biden…and with Carlson leading the charge on whether we should even be helping Ukraine. The polling I linked to shows that the GOP faithful have followed that messaging…or at least in larger numbers than the DEMs. The question is whether people are putting politics ahead of objectivity and creating a unified national front.

     Biden is certainly benefiting from the distraction, but not much based on his own poll numbers and the fact that he’s being cursed every time someone pulls up to the pump….rightly or wrongly. He can be generally graded low on his performance and still be handing Ukraine OK. Maybe not perfect, but at least not confused about who is our geopolitical rival….and who are our allies. Where’s the leadership from the GOP? Where are the serious statesmen?

     AJ_Liberty (5f05c3) — 3/21/2022 @ 10:13 am

     
     

316. There should not be a Putin-wing of the GOP.

     There is a strong anti-Putin wing, too. Strong enough to make Trump STFU about it. Fox is making a very huge mistake.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 10:52 am

     
     

317. until bush broke the streak

     I’m sure that JF was all for letting bygones be bygones on 9/12.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 10:54 am

     
     

318. So you are saying that they can’t be intercepted in the air, but a properly defended target can better defend itself than against many other missiles, which can manuever and can be aimed more precisely?

     No, I am not saying that. I’m saying that tracking them is far easier than, say, a cruise missile since they cannot be stealthed, nor can they follow terrain. If you can attack them from in front (chasing them down from behind isn’t an option), and if your defense is programmed to anticipate their speed, they should be easier to shoot down than a cruise missile moving much more slowly.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:00 am

     
     

319. Did you know that there’s a prophylactic treatment for Covid that is not a vaccine>

     https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-new-long-acting-monoclonal-antibodies-pre-exposure

     Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for AstraZeneca’s Evusheld (tixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab and administered together) for the pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) of COVID-19 in certain adults and pediatric individuals (12 years of age and older weighing at least 40 kilograms [about 88 pounds]).

     The product is only authorized for those individuals who are not currently infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and who have not recently been exposed to an individual infected with SARS-CoV-2. The authorization also requires that individuals either have:

     moderate to severely compromised immune systems due to a medical condition or due to taking immunosuppressive medications or treatments and may not mount an adequate immune response to COVID-19 vaccination (examples of such medical conditions or treatments can be found in the fact sheet for health care providers) or;
     a history of severe adverse reactions to a COVID-19 vaccine and/or component(s) of those vaccines, therefore vaccination with an available COVID-19 vaccine, according to the approved or authorized schedule, is not recommended.

     “Vaccines have proven to be the best defense available against COVID-19. However, there are certain immune compromised individuals who may not mount an adequate immune response to COVID-19 vaccination, or those who have a history of severe adverse reactions to a COVID-19 vaccine and therefore cannot receive one and need an alternative prevention option,” said Patrizia Cavazzoni, M.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Today’s action authorizes the use of the combination of two monoclonal antibodies to reduce the risk of developing COVID-19 in these individuals.”

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:10 am

     
     

320. until bush broke the streak

     I’m sure that JF was all for letting bygones be bygones on 9/12.

     JF forgot the Civil War started under a Republican.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:27 am

     
     

321. Did a Lincoln Project member just threaten a US Senator with assassination (Kevin M at least knows the reference):

     Rick Wilson, a former Republican operative and co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said: “Ted Cruz getting aggro with airline counter folks is so very on-brand. ‘Well, sir, if you don’t like your flight options, we can drive you to the train station.’”

     Source:
     https://www.yahoo.com/news/ted-cruz-laments-angry-supreme-175210115.html

     Source:.

     urbanleftbehind (c6f17b) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:39 am

     
     

322. Ukraine Is Wrecking Russian Tanks With a Gift From Britain
     ……..
     Compared to the American-made Javelin antitank weapon, which has been hailed by officials at the Pentagon and the White House and sent to Ukraine by the thousands, the NLAW (Next Generation Anti-Tank Weapon) weighs about half as much, costs far less, can be easily discarded, and is optimized for use in the relatively short-range fights Ukrainian soldiers are getting into with the invading Russian forces.

     The NLAW is a product of the Swedish company Saab and has been sold to a number of NATO countries — including Britain, which assembles the missiles at a factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the British Army. And although the British Army also has the Javelin, it began purchasing NLAWs about 10 years ago and has been sending them to Ukraine in ever greater numbers.

     A British diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss defensive aid, said Britain had sent more than 4,200 NLAWs to Ukraine.
     ………
     Both weapons can be fired directly at targets like enemy soldiers or a building, but when attacking vehicles they can also be programmed to hit from above — where a tank or armored personnel carrier has the least armor. The American weapon can pop up and then dive down to impact and explode, while the British missile flies a shorter path — crossing over its target and firing its charge downward.

     The result, however, as shown in Ukraine is the same: an uncounted number of destroyed Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and trucks.

     The missiles have succeeded despite efforts to defeat them. The Russian military had said, and Pentagon leadership believed, that a defensive system on the newest T-90 tanks was capable of sensing and destroying anti-tank missiles like Javelins and NLAWs in flight. In an apparently new countermeasure, Russian troops are welding improvised cages of parallel steel bars atop tank turrets. Video evidence shows that both defenses, however, have failed.

     The Javelin, which was designed toward the end of the Cold War, consists of two parts: a 15-pound reusable launcher that soldiers often use for reconnaissance and surveillance, given its suite of thermal cameras that can zoom in and out for finding targets, and a 33-pound disposable tube that contains the missile itself. The newer NLAW, by comparison, weighs just under 28 pounds and has no camera — just a simple sight to aim.
     ……..
     The capabilities of the two weapons make the Javelin more like a sniper rifle for taking out armored vehicles at extreme distances, the British diplomat said, while the NLAW is better for close-quarter battles and ambush scenarios.

     Given that the Ukrainians are unable to fight Russian armor with tanks of their own, they must use different tactics, the diplomat said, adding that the Ukrainians have shown the will and the extraordinary nerve to get close to tanks and destroy them in these missile attacks.
     ………

     Documented Russian tank losses so far: 263; of which destroyed: 109; damaged: 4; abandoned: 39; captured: 111. Ukraine tank losses: 71; of which destroyed: 24; abandoned: 9; captured: 36. So the Ukrainians have captured more Russian tanks than their total tank losses.
     Excellent!em>

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:50 am

     
     

323. JF forgot the Civil War started under a Republican.
     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:27 am

     yeah, fort sumter was fired upon by that famous republican bastion of south carolina

     grade school history is hard, eh Rip?

     JF (e1156d) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:58 am

     
     

324. ……a cruise missile since they cannot be stealthed….

     Both US and Russians have stealth cruise missiles, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:00 pm

     
     

325. yeah, fort sumter was fired upon by that famous republican bastion of south carolina

     grade school history is hard, eh Rip?

     JF (e1156d) — 3/21/2022 @ 11:58 am

     The Acts of Succession by the Confederate States were the result of Lincoln’s election. Grade school history appears to be hard for you.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:04 pm

     
     

326. @325 brilliant, Rip

     and the jan6 capitol riots were the result of biden’s election

     it’s an insane take of yours, and a dumb discussion point, but do let me know if you like where this is going

     JF (e1156d) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:12 pm

     
     

327. I’ll see your vaccine and all the boosters and call you with may antibodies, nk.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:15 pm

     
     

328. The Spanish-American War began under (Republican) President William McKinley.

     There were, in addition, many small wars with Indian tribes during the Civil War, and for decades afterward. In most of these, there were Indians on both sides. Most of the presidents then were Republican, as JF may not know.

     (Fun fact: Joseph Wheeler served in Confederate army in the Civil War, and then in the American army in both the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War, which followed. There was a good reason he was nicknamed “Fighting Joe”.)

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:23 pm

     
     

329. JF forgot the Civil War started under a Republican.

     I beleive that the first shot (Ft Sumter) was under Buchanan.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:34 pm

     
     

330. Both US and Russians have stealth cruise missiles, which can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.

     You parsed what I wrote differently than I did.

     tracking them is far easier than, say, a cruise missile since they cannot be stealthed, nor can they follow terrain.

     “them” and “they” (both places) refer to the same antecedent — hypersonic missiles, not the contrasted cruise missiles.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:36 pm

     
     

331. (Kevin M at least knows the reference)

     He does. Good catch.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:38 pm

     
     

332. We should never shy away from creating the political and economic environment to topple a tyrant.

     Pfft. Ask any hard righty residing in the 48 states and U.S. territories between 1933 and 1945 and you’ll hear one person’s tyrant is another person’s hero. Start with Wiliam Randolph Hearst.

     …and Xi Jinping smiled.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:39 pm

     
     

333. #329 Kevin – Here you are:

     Fighting broke out in April 1861 when the Confederate army began the Battle of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, just over a month after the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.

     There were certainly preparations under Buchanan. (If I recall correctly, one of his Cabinet tried to transfer heavy artillery from Pennsylvania to the South, after Lincoln’s election, but before his inauguration.)

     (For the record: I wouldn’t say “Fighting broke out” to describe when the South Carolina forces began bombarding the fort.)

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:50 pm

     
     

334. @302. Yet Putin rolled tanks on the Obama/Biden and Biden/Harris’ watch– not Trump’s.

     … and Maher smiled.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 12:51 pm

     
     

335. @325 brilliant, Rip
     ……..
     it’s an insane take of yours, and a dumb discussion point, but do let me know if you like where this is going

     Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, and Fort Sumter was fired upon April 12, 1861, more than month later. You need to stop getting your history from the back of cereal boxes.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:03 pm

     
     

336. On December 26, 1860, only six days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson abandoned the indefensible Fort Moultrie, spiking its large guns, burning its gun carriages, and taking its smaller cannon with him. He secretly relocated companies E and H (127 men, 13 of them musicians) of the 1st U.S. Artillery to Fort Sumter on his own initiative, without orders from his superiors…

     In a letter delivered January 31, 1861, South Carolina Governor Pickens demanded of President Buchanan that he surrender Fort Sumter because “I regard that possession is not consistent with the dignity or safety of the State of South Carolina.” Over the next few months repeated calls for evacuation of Fort Sumter from the government of South Carolina and then from Confederate Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard were ignored. Union attempts to resupply and reinforce the garrison were repulsed on January 9, 1861 when the first shots of the war, fired by cadets from the Citadel, prevented the steamer Star of the West, hired to transport troops and supplies to Fort Sumter, from completing the task.

     So, the actual attack on Ft Sumter was in April, but the secession, the abandonment of one fort and the demands for the removal of federal troops from Sumter began much earlier. And President Buchanan did nothing, and was seen as favoring the secession.

     But “starting the war” was something that had many hands. Lincoln’s election was the final act but there was a solid decade of ill-feeling prior to that. Both Pierce and Buchanan contributed mightily. Buchanan went so far as to lobby the Supreme Court to rule against Dredd Scott, thinking that would settle the issue of slavery.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:24 pm

     
     

337. @335 you’ll have to explain the relevance

     but, anyway Rip i have you down as believing the war to abolish slavery was a “dumb war”

     JF (e1156d) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:25 pm

     
     

338. But JF is right. Stupid argument.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:26 pm

     
     

339. The first shots at union forces trying to resupply Ft Sumter were on Jan 9th.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:28 pm

     
     

340. Israel “choosing” Russia.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:30 pm

     
     

341. i have you down as believing the war to abolish slavery was a “dumb war”

     It was a war to preserve the Union. Abolishing slavery came later. The Emancipation Proclamation didn’t occur until 1863, and only applied to areas remaining in the Confederacy.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:35 pm

     
     

342. @341 looks like you didn’t read your own link @325

     but ok, preserving the union was the dumb part i guess

     JF (e1156d) — 3/21/2022 @ 1:44 pm

     
     

343. It was a war to preserve the Union.

     But secession was all about slavery, in particular the rules for admission of new states. The Mexican War had brought vast new territories into the Union and there were serious attempts (e.g. the Wilmot Proviso, the Free Soil Party) to ensure than none of them would be slave states.

     This was temporarily stopped by the Compromise of 1850, but the Whigs and Democrats were rent by a free-state/slave-state split within. When the Republicans came out of the wreckage of the Whigs and Free-Soil, secession came back on the table. With Lincoln winning against a disunited Democrat Party (3 separate candidates), push came to shove. But both push and shove were about slavery.

     It is true that Lincoln’s war goal was preserving the Union but it is nonsense to believe that a resolution of the slavery question could be put off any longer, or that the reason for secession was something other than slavery.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:21 pm

     
     

344. #341 Yes and no. The Republican Party under Lincoln did want to abolish slavery, beginning with stopping its spread. Lincoln believed that slavery could then be peacefully abolished, as it had been in the northern states. And some pro-slavery southerners agreed with him.

     The 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated Lincoln, a moderate former one-term Whig Representative from Illinois. Its platform promised not to interfere with slavery in the South but opposed extension of slavery into the territories.
     . . .
     All of the secessionist activity was motivated by fear for the institution of slavery in the South. If the President (and, by extension, the appointed federal officials in the South, such as district attorneys, marshals, postmasters, and judges) opposed slavery, it might collapse.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:25 pm

     
     

345. Russia The clip shows the deadly weapons being launched towards the targets sparking a fire around them.

     Russia’s destructive thermobaric weapons which are capable of exploding a victim’s lungs have been reportedly used in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

     Earlier this month the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that the TOS-1A weapon system has been deployed.

     The catastrophic weapons are among the most powerful non-nuclear weapons ever developed.

     Also, residents are being threatened with reprisals if they do not surrender immediately:

     Mizintsev had pressured locals to quickly choose where their loyalty lies, warning those who resisted would face a military tribunal.

     Apparently, they intend to put any captured soldiers “on trial.” This is consistent with their assertion that Ukraine isn’t a country, just a rebellious part of Russia.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:28 pm

     
     

346. That link should say: Russia is Using Thermobaric Weapons in Mariupol

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:30 pm

     
     

347. @344: Also, as more free states entered the Union, the South’s hold on the Senate (and amendments) would be threatened.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:32 pm

     
     

348. Also, the Dredd Scott decision — that effectively made slavery legal in all states, under the guise of “free movement of one’s property” — made the crisis imminent.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:35 pm

     
     

349. Belarus Rail Lines Carrying Trains With Supplies for the Russian Army Are Being Hit by Sabotage Attacks

     According to the Jerusalem Post, Belarus faces an organized sabotage campaign aimed at railroad lines carrying Russian troops and supplies into Ukraine.

     The General Prosecutor of Belarus opened a criminal case into what it called an act of terrorism carried out by an organized group against infrastructure of the Belarusian Railway, according to TASS.

     The general prosecutor added that signaling facilities and other transport equipment were rendered “unusable.”

     The BYPOL group, which consists of former security officers who support the opposition in Belarus, said on Tuesday that a series of sabotage actions had targeted the railway system in Belarus, disrupting the movement of military trains in the country.

     “Belarusians, today our country is drawn into a criminal and bloody war with the fraternal Ukrainian people on the side of the aggressor – the Russian Federation,” wrote BYPOL in a Telegram message. “It is our duty and in our power to do real things to stop it, free ourselves from the occupation of Russian troops and restore the good name of our ancestors. ‘Rail war’ is the knowledge that we inherited, this is what we can do and what each of us can do.”

     To give you an idea of what is being discussed, this is a map of the Belarus rail net. As the border between Belarus and Ukraine is still in the hands of the Ukrainian Army, the main rail lines of concern are probably those entering Belarus from Russia terminating Gomel. Those lines resupply the troops attacking Kiev.
     ………
     The problem is real enough that the Belarus railroad system has started paramilitary patrols of the rail lines to prevent damage……

     A pro-Ukraine Belarus site reports that several people have been arrested and charged with damaging rail lines…….
     ………
     One also can’t rule out activities by Ukrainian special forces which, unlike those employed by Russia and Belarus, have had actual training in doing something other than breaking heads of civilian protesters.

     Russian forces are already under pressure by the rear area campaign being waged by Ukrainian Territorial Defense forces inside Ukraine. If an active insurgency takes root in Belarus aimed at the rail trunk resupplying the Russian troops in the northern theater of the Ukraine front, they will find it hard to sustain themselves. ……..
     ………

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:36 pm

     
     

350. It’s increasingly clear that even if Russia gains nominal control over Ukraine, it will be unable to hold it without resorting to the harshest of tactics (hostages/reprisals/concentration camps/etc). If then. Putin has gone full tar baby.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:41 pm

     
     

351. @350. Capone vs. Moran.

     Who won? Depends on how you calibrate winning– or keep score. Al tommy-gunned Bugs’ gang out of business– but Bugs outlived him by 10 years.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:59 pm

     
     

352. Did the true number of Russian troop deaths in Ukraine just leak?

     I can’t understand how, or why, a pro-Kremlin paper would publish a number like this. As juicy as it is, surely they would have realized how embarrassing it is for their masters and what sort of consequences there might be for revealing it.
     ……….
     But the figure is shocking if true. In less than a month of war, this would easily exceed the number of U.S. KIA in Iraq and Afghanistan, two conflicts that spanned nearly 30 years combined.

     Yaroslav Trofimov
     @yarotrof
     Komsomolskaya Pravda, the pro-Kremlin tabloid, says that according to Russian ministry of defense numbers, 9,861 Russian soldiers died in Ukraine and 16,153 were injured. The last official Russian KIA figure, on March 2, was 498. Fascinating that someone posted the leaked number.

     The Red Army lost 15,000 men during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Over 10 years.
     ……..
     Other estimates circulating are higher:

     Victor Kovalenko
     @MrKovalenko
     A former internal affairs minister of #Ukraine
     @AvakovArsen
     shared the intercepted Russian military summary for March 18: Rus. Army troops killed 12,814. Private company Liga (former Vagner) troops killed 4,451. Total number ofservicemembers killed at war in Ukraine: 17,265.

     ……..
     If it’s true that 10,000 Russians have been killed and another 16,000 wounded, that’s more than 10 percent of the total force out of action in less than a month, with no obvious prospects for mass reinforcements to fill the manpower vacuum.

     ………..
     Related, FWIW Edition:
     

     Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, March 20 (Institute for the Study of War)
     ………
     The (Ukrainian) General Staff reported the Russian military commissariats of the Kuban, Primorsky Krai, Yaroslavl Oblast, and Ural Federal Districts are conducting covert mobilization measures but are facing widespread resistance. The General Staff reported the Russian PMC Wagner Group will facilitate the transport of Libyan fighters from LNA leader Khalifa Haftar’s forces to Ukraine. The General Staff reported universities in the DNR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and LNR (Luhansk People’s Republic) are conscripting students above the age of 18 and that most units in the DNR’s 1st Army Corps are comprised of the “mobilized population,” rather than trained soldiers, and face low morale and equipment shortages. The Ukrainian Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) additionally reported on March 20 that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu signed an order to prepare to admit Unarmiya (Russian Youth Army, a Kremlin-run military youth organization) personnel aged 17-18 to fight in Ukraine on March 15. The GUR further reported Colonel General Gennady Zhidko, head of the Russian Military-Political Directorate, is in charge of executing the order. The Ukrainian General Staff reported on March 19 that Russian officials “severely reprimanded” the head of the 652nd unit of Information and Psychological Operations for his “weak efforts” and inability to create a “Kherson People’s Republic.”

     Russian forces face mounting casualties among officers and increasingly frequent desertion and insubordination. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported on March 19 that “some [Russian] naval infantry units” (unspecified which, but likely referring to Eastern Military District units deployed to the fighting around Kyiv) have lost up to 90% of their personnel and cannot generate replacements. The Ukrainian General Staff reported at noon local time on March 20 that Ukrainian forces wounded the commander of the 346th Independent Spetsnaz Brigade and claimed that Ukrainian forces killed the commanders of the 331st VDV Regiment, 247th VDV Regiment, and the 6th Tank Regiment (90th Tank Division, CMD) at unspecified times and locations. The General Staff reported the Russian Black Sea Fleet is replacing 130 insubordinate soldiers in the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade with paratroopers from the 7th Airborne Assault Division – a measure highly likely to cause greater unit cohesion problems. The General Staff additionally reported that Russian forces are increasingly using ”outdated and partially defective equipment” to replace combat losses.

     The Ukrainian MoD reported that forced mobilization in the DNR has demoralized Russian proxy forces, with many refusing to fight and accusing Russian leadership of forcing them into combat to find Ukrainian troop positions. ……

     Footnotes omitted.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 2:59 pm

     
     

353. Trump Casts Himself As Champion Of Ukraine, Despite Once Saying Aid Made U.S. A ‘Sucker’
     ……..
     ……..[W]hen Fox Business host Stuart Varney asked Trump if he would have sent Ukraine MiG-29 fighter jets, he replied, “Well maybe even more, to be honest with you.”

     But Trump’s boasts of generosity toward Ukraine have no basis in fact. As president, he dragged his feet in releasing aid to Ukraine ― even though Congress had already authorized it ― because he wanted the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to dig up dirt on the Biden family ahead of the 2020 election.

     Trump has also publicly admitted that he didn’t like the idea of giving financial assistance to Ukraine and did so only when Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) pressured him to do it.

     On Oct. 2, 2019, Trump said that while he wanted to help Ukraine, he resented all the money the United States gave the country.

     “We give money to Ukraine, and it’s bothered me from day one,” he said.
     ………

     [Portman] called up: “Please, let the money go.” I said, “Rob, I hate being the country that’s always giving money when Ukraine helps Europe and the European countries far more than they help us.”

     They’re like a wall between Russia and Europe. They’re like a wall. They’re a big, wide, beautiful wall.

     And he said, “You know what? But it’s important.”

     And he — in fact, he came out and he said that. That was my only reason.

     Because I don’t like being the sucker country. We were the sucker country for years and years. We’re not the sucker country anymore. But I gave the money because Rob Portman and others called me and asked. But I don’t like to be the sucker. And European countries are helped far more than we are, and those countries should pay more to help Ukraine.

     ……….
     John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, has rejected the notion that Putin didn’t invade Ukraine earlier because Trump was so tough. Instead, he has said that Trump “barely knew where Ukraine was” and was so aligned with Putin’s goals that there was no need to make such a move.

     “I think one of the reasons that Putin did not move during Trump’s term in office was he saw the president’s hostility of NATO,” Bolton said on March 9, adding: “Putin saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him, and thought, maybe in a second term, Trump would make good on his desire to get out of NATO, and then it would just ease Putin’s path just that much more.”
     ……….

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 3:09 pm

     
     

354. @352. Fool’s errand to obsess -or believe- any numbers coming out of the fog of war at this time. Case in point: The Battle of Britain, 1940:

     https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/8-facts-hardest-day-battle-britain-m-2.html?msclkid=dd02471ca96311ec8a11c532e82218e5&edg-c=1

     ‘Both sides lied about the actual figures of aircraft that were shot down or destroyed.’

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 3:16 pm

     
     

355. So, I was talking to another engineer about these hypersonic missiles that Russia claims to have, and it’s kind of odd, but we came to the conclusion that they were of limited use, at least with conventional warheads.

     The US is far behind Russia and China in developing hypersonic missiles, but your points are well taken. Apparently the Russian announcement regarding its hypersonic missile was more disinformation:

     We Have Questions About Russia’s Claimed Kinzhal Hypersonic Missile Use In Ukraine

     The Russian Ministry of Defense released a video early Saturday that it claimed showed a Kinzhal hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile hitting a Ukrainian missile warehouse about 300 miles southwest of Kyiv. The strike, if it did occur, would represent both the first known use of the Kinzhal in combat and yet another Russian attack on facilities in western Ukraine near the country’s borders with multiple NATO members. But there are elements of Russia’s claims that don’t quite add up and the implications of the use of Kinzhal in the conflict are limited, regardless.

     …….. [I]t as a modified Iskander-M tactical ballistic missile adapted for air-launch. The MiG-31’s ability to reach high-speed and high-altitude prior to release gives Kinzhal a major boost in range and speed over its ground-launched cousin. It also can modify its trajectory outside of a traditional ballistic arc. This and its speed make it challenging to intercept. It’s also worth noting that we still don’t know if it also packs a similar decoy-launching capability as the Iskander-M was recently revealed to possess, which could also help it penetrate air defenses.
     ………
     ……… Speed and range estimates for the missile vary greatly, but somewhere in between Mach 5 and 12 and 900-1,6000 miles is generally what is assumed.
     ………
     The use of Kinzhal to hit this target is also further evidence of how Ukraine’s air defenses remain a potent deterrent to Russian forces. They have been remarkably effective against Russian aircraft, and have had some success against cruise missiles, as well, but that has not stopped cruise missiles from delivering successful attacks to targets in Ukraine’s far west. Regardless, it is becoming crystal clear that Russia remains unwilling or unable to fly manned strike aircraft against targets that far west given the Ukrainian counter-air threat.

     But beyond Kinzhal’s standoff range and it being designed to defeat air defenses, it isn’t clear why this target necessitated its use. ……
     ……..
     There’s also an element of further messaging to NATO here, allegedly using one of Russia’s most advanced offensive capabilities against another Ukrainian base close to the border. You can read about our coverage of the Russians’ strike on a former NATO training base near the Polish border last week here.
     ………
     Above all else, maybe the most pressing question is why was this capability used now? Why weren’t Kinzhals used during the opening hours and days of the conflict to blind command and control, knock out air defenses, and neuter the enemy’s ability to effectively fight in a coordinated manner? That question is still very much up for debate as is Russia’s overall capacity to execute a modern integrated military operation. But in the meantime, the peculiar use of standoff weapons, and in small numbers, tells a lot about Russia’s stocks of precision-guided weaponry — although these revelations are not really all that new — and especially when it comes to the more expensive and advanced standoff kind. Maybe it is a sign that Iskander-M stocks are already running low.
     ……….
     UPDATE:
     We can now say for certain that the strike depicted happened nowhere near the western part of the country and not at some major military weapons storage area. It happened at a heavily bombarded rural area in the far eastern area of Ukraine:
     ………
     This also answers our question as to the UAV’s presence above the target area. The anti-air threat is nothing in Ukraine’s east as it is in the west. This also calls into question, even more, why a missile of Kinzhal’s nature would be used on a target close to Russian territory and on what appears to be a farm’s barn or large chicken coop.

     With all this in mind, it is very unlikely we are seeing a Kinzhal missile being used in the video……..

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 3:26 pm

     
     

356. Russia’s Only Prototype T-80UM2 Tank Was Destroyed In Ukraine

     The Russian military’s one-off T-80UM2 experimental main battle tank has been knocked out during recent fighting in Ukraine, marking one of the more unusual kills attributed to the country’s defenders, who continue to disrupt the Kremlin’s invasion plans. The fact that this unique fighting vehicle was even participating in combat in Ukraine is somewhat surprising, but it would not be the first example of new or experimental Russian weapons systems being deployed in the campaign.
     ………
     The T-80UM2 is said to have been part of a larger column of Russian vehicles that came under attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and photos show destroyed trucks alongside the T-80UM2. Its turret was knocked off and its hull burnt out, although it’s not immediately clear how it was hit and by what.
     ……….
     It could also be the case that despite — or even because of — the ferocity of the fighting on the ground, Russia is keen to test out different capabilities against modern battlefield threats. In such a scenario, it’s conceivable that the T-80UM2 was deployed to Ukraine specifically to assess how its protection features, and perhaps other systems, fared against some of the advanced weaponry, including anti-tank missiles, fielded now by Ukraine. As far as is known, the T-80UM2 was the only tank deployed by Russia in the fighting so far to feature an active protection system.
     ………
     If the T-80UM2 was taking part in some kind of pre-planned combat evaluation, of the kind that we’ve also seen in Syria, then it would appear to have ended with the conclusion that the Drozd-2, and whatever other protection features the tank was fitted with, ultimately failed to do their job.
     …….

     Sucks to be live crash test dummies inside the tank. Sad!

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 3:33 pm

     
     

357. This is why it is pointless to give Ukraine more MiGs:

     Russian Missile Strike Obliterated Hangar At Ukrainian MiG-29 Depot Satellite Image Shows

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 3:37 pm

     
     

358. @355. The US is far behind Russia and China in developing hypersonic missiles

     Pfft.

     Hypersonic Flight’s Challenges, Successes and Opportunities Discussed at Colloquium

     https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/hypersonic-flight-s-challenges-successes-and-opportunities-discussed-at-colloquium

     It’s Official. X-43A Raises the Bar to Mach 9.6

     Guinness World Records recognized NASA’s X-43A scramjet with a new world speed record for a jet-powered aircraft – Mach 9.6, or nearly 7,000 mph. The X-43A set the new mark and broke its own world record on its third and final flight on Nov. 16, 2004.

     https://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html?msclkid=c686fff7a96911ecaab4e5a0dc5df518

     Hypersonics

     NASA, and its predecessor the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), have been involved in the study of hypersonic flight since the 1950s, with significant understanding of hypersonic flight phenomena being obtained from the highly successful X-15 program, and continuing with manned orbital flights of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, as well as the Space Shuttle.

     https://sacd.larc.nasa.gov/vab/vab-projects/hypersonics/

     Hypersonic Technology (HT) Project

     The development of new hypersonic (generally faster than Mach 5) capabilities is important for the United States. In the near-term, application of hypersonics research and technologies is likely to be on enhanced defense systems, but this could eventually expand to include improved access to space capabilities that would directly benefit NASA.

     The HT project focuses on sustaining hypersonic competency for national needs while advancing fundamental hypersonics research.

     NASA maintains unique specialized facilities and experts who can explore key fundamental research areas for solving the challenges of high-speed flight. The HT project coordinates closely with partners in the Department of Defense (DoD) in order to leverage their investment in flight activities that develop and validate advanced physics-based models, while at the same time the DoD leverages NASA expertise, analyses, testing capabilities and computational models.

     The HT project focuses on fundamental research in the areas of: high-speed propulsion systems;
     re-usable vehicle technologies; high-temperature materials; and systems analysis.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 4:04 pm

     
     

359. US sending secretly acquired Soviet air defense equipment to Ukraine: report

     ‘The U.S. is sending Ukraine some Soviet-made air defense equipment that Washington took charge of decades ago through a secret program, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

     The systems, to include the SA-8 short-range surface-to-air missile system, were obtained by the U.S. for the purposes of examining Russian military technology and helping train American troops, U.S. officials told the outlet. he weapons are useful to Ukrainian forces, as their military already knows how to use Soviet systems.

     Both the National Security Council and Pentagon declined to comment on what specific weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine to help the country beat back a violent Russian invasion that began Feb. 24. “Operational security matters to the Ukrainians, right now,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday. “They’re fighting for their country, and the Pentagon is not going to be detailing publicly the tools with which they are doing that,” he added.

     The Biden administration has approved more than $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine in the past month, including an $800 million package announced last week. [WHERE ARE THE U.S. UKRAINEN FREDOM FIGHTER WAR BONDS RTO PAY FOR THIS, FDR-JOE?!] But the U.S. government has been hesitant to detail exactly what is being sent in so as not to tip off or draw the ire of Moscow. The Kremlin has publicly stated that any Western country that provides certain weapons to Ukraine, including aircraft and missile defense systems, could be seen as entering the fight.

     The U.S. has a small number of Soviet missile defense systems it acquired in the past 30 years as part of a secret, $100 million project that first gained notice in 1994, a former official involved in the mission told the Journal. Among the weapons the U.S. received – some of which have been kept at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. – is the SA-8, which can be easily moved with ground forces and provide cover from aircraft and helicopters.

     Also in the U.S. stockpile is the S-300 long-range air defense system. The system is meant to protect larger areas and is already owned and operated by the Ukrainians. That weapon, however, will not be sent to Ukraine, according to one official.

     The administration is authorized to transfer such equipment under the new annual government spending bill President Biden signed into law last week. The legislation approves a $13.6 billion aid package for Ukraine, of which about $3.5 billion will go to the Pentagon to backfill equipment being sent from the U.S. to Ukraine.

     Also under the law, the U.S. can transfer lethal aid to NATO allies that is already overseas or in existing stockpiles. The U.S. has already sought to have Slovakia provide its S-300 to Ukraine, but the NATO ally wants a guarantee it will get a “proper replacement” and soon. There has yet to be an agreement between the two countries. Biden will now travel to Brussels this week for a NATO summit to discuss ways to help Ukraine, according to the White House. “We are continuing to work with our allies and key partners to surge new assistance, including Soviet- or Russian-origin antiaircraft systems and the necessary ammunition to employ them, every day to Ukraine,” a U.S. official told the Journal.’ -source, WSJ/TheHill.com

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 4:11 pm

     
     

360. Third Test Of The Air Force’s Hypersonic Weapon Has Failed Like The Ones Before It

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 4:19 pm

     
     

361. US sending secretly acquired Soviet air defense equipment to Ukraine: report

     I guess you missed post 314. Sad!

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 4:22 pm

     
     

362. Mach 10 Meteor: X-43A Scramjet Flight is Risky Business – November 12, 2004

     It looked so easy last March when NASA’s X-43A team succeeded in sending the second X-43A scramjet to a world record speed of Mach 6.83, but looks are deceiving. Blazing through the sky at Mach 10 is next on the project’s agenda as the third X-43A flight date fast approaches. This attempt is high risk, so no detail is too small to leave to chance.

     I[Infrared images of the world-record Mach 6.8 flight of the second X-43A scramjet on March 27, 2004- courtesy, U.S. Army.]

     When the second X-43A research vehicle flew Mach 6.83, or nearly seven times the speed of sound (the speed of sound is about 760 mph at sea level), the friction-generated 2600-degree Fahrenheit temperature on the leading edges of the vehicle’s horizontal tails was more than enough to melt unprotected metal. Carbon-carbon thermal protection material kept them cool enough to withstand the searing heat. This is a challenge for even the most advanced thermal protection materials.

     When the third and final X-43A flies in November, blistering temperatures created by the Mach 10 (7000 mph) speed will be in the neighborhood of 3600 degrees, the hotspot this time being the nose of the vehicle. The heat distribution is different this time around due to material differences. For further protection, Vehicle 3 will have additional thermal coatings on the horizontal tails’ carbon-carbon leading edges. Another change in preparation for Mach 10 is that Vehicle 3’s vertical tails are solid, as opposed to the ribbed structure construction used on Vehicles 1 and 2. Carbon-carbon leading edges have been added to the vertical tails as well.

     The separation of the research vehicle from the booster is going to be performed at a higher speed than the Mach 7 flight, but dynamic pressure will be lower due to the planned higher separation altitude this time. An important product of flight research is data collection, and one of the prime data objectives for the Hyper-X program is validation of scramjet ground predictions. Prior to the Mach 7 flight, engineers were able to use hypersonic wind tunnel data for risk reduction tests. However, they couldn’t do this in preparation for the upcoming Mach 10 flight, as fewer ground test facilities were available.

     “One of the more significant challenges we faced in preparing for the Mach 10 flight is the reduced amount of ground test data,” said Laurie Marshall, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center’s X-43A Vehicle 3 chief engineer. “For Flight 2 we were able to do more wind tunnel work than we could for Flight 3. In some cases the same tests couldn’t be repeated; the facilities and capabilities just aren’t there. So having to design a vehicle and engine that can survive the environment and complete the mission successfully without some of that data was a challenge,” Marshall said.

     Another of the exciting things about the Mach 10 flight of the X-43A is that NASA will be able to gather data that has never before been obtained.

     “That’s why we’re doing this, that’s why we have to fly,” Marshall said. “The research data that we will obtain with this flight at Mach 10 can’t be obtained on the ground.”

     -source, https://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/mach10_meteor.html

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 4:25 pm

     
     

363. So what? A NASA research project is far different from developing a successful military weapon. Apples and oranges. Neither of your posts (358 & 362) address the failures of the Air Force program.

     My comment (that the US is far behind the Russians and Chinese in developing hypersonic missiles) is still true.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:23 pm

     
     

364. I believe Putin’s claim of hypersonic missiles about as much as I believe his claim that Russia’s prostitutes are the best in the world. And the same goes for his battlefield nukes. They might have three paper mache mockups of those, on 30-wheelers, that they parade on May Day and propaganda videos.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:23 pm

     
     

365. Ukrainian doctor tells TV interviewer he has ordered his staff to CASTRATE Russian soldiers because they are ‘cockroaches’

     Ouch!

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:27 pm

     
     

366. I believe Putin’s claim of hypersonic missiles about as much as I believe his claim that Russia’s prostitutes are the best in the world. And the same goes for his battlefield nukes.

     I would agree with you on hypersonic missiles, but the information on his battlefield nukes is more verifiable. And it’s Ukraine girls that really knock you out.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:29 pm

     
     

367. Ukrainian doctor tells TV interviewer he has ordered his staff to CASTRATE Russian soldiers because they are ‘cockroaches’

     Zelensky need to have that clown arrested, tried, and publicly executed as of yesterday if not sooner. Seriously.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:34 pm

     
     

368. Ex-wife of Missouri GOP Senate candidate Eric Greitens accuses him of domestic violence in court documents
     
     The ex-wife of Missouri GOP Senate candidate Eric Greitens accused him in court documents Monday of knocking her down, taking away her cellphone and keys, physically abusing their children and repeatedly threatening suicide if she did not publicly support him during the 2018 scandal that led to his resignation as governor.

     The filing by Sheena Greitens prompted some Republicans in Missouri, including Sen. Josh Hawley, to call on the former governor to leave the race. Hawley has been critical of Greitens in the past and has endorsed a competing candidate.

     “If you hit a woman or a child, you belong in handcuffs, not the United States Senate,” he wrote.

     Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who like Hawley had endorsed another candidate in the Missouri Senate race, and John Thune (R-S.D.) also said Monday that Greitens should withdraw from the race.
     ………
     Eric Greitens responded to the filing Monday afternoon with a statement on Twitter saying he would fight against “completely fabricated baseless allegations.”

     “I am seeking full custody of my sons, and for their sake, I will continue to pray for their mother and hope that she gets the help that she needs,” he wrote.

     Earlier, his campaign manager Dylan Johnson accused Sheena Greitens of being emotionally abusive and of launching “what is clearly a politically-motivated attack against him.”

     “This attack is nothing more than a sad attempt to force a father to yield custody of his children to a deranged individual,” Johnson said.
     ……..
     Hawley has endorsed Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) for the Senate nomination. Other Republican candidates for the job include state Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Rep. Billy Long, state Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz and Mark McCloskey, a St. Louis attorney who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault after confronting Black Lives Matter protesters outside his home with a gun.

     Several of those rivals, including Schmitt and Schatz, called for him to leave the race Monday after the court filing became public.

     “Real men never abuse women and children. Period. End of story,” Hartzler said in a video statement. “It’s time for Eric to get out of the Senate race and get professional help.

     ”
     ……….
     The Republican knives are out. Is Herschel Walker next?

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:39 pm

     
     

369. Zelensky need to have that clown arrested, tried, and publicly executed as of yesterday if not sooner. Seriously.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:34 pm

     Let the Russians do it. From the article:

     The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the comments, which means that if Druzenko is captured he will face trial under Russian law.

     ‘The head of the Ukrainian Mobile Hospital project, Gennady Druzenko, called for violence against captured soldiers of the Russian Armed Forces live on a Ukrainian TV channel.

     ‘He gave this instruction to the doctors of mobile hospitals.’

     The head of the committee Alexander Bastrykin, a former university classmate of Vladimir Putin, initiated a criminal case over his castration demand which is ‘contrary to the law and the norms of medical ethics.’

     Druzenko is set to be put on Russia’s international wanted list.

     Of course, in Western countries, saying it is not a crime but doing it would be. In Russian “courts” not so much. In fact, it will probably end with a bullet in the head.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:49 pm

     
     

370. No, Rip! This is the best propaganda these assholes (and I include his interviewer) could have given the Soviets.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:06 pm

     
     

371. BTW, even under American law, solicitation to commit crime is a crime. The exception is that the corpus delicti, i.e. that the crime happened, requires more than an uncorroborated confession.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:11 pm

     
     

372. No, Rip! This is the best propaganda these assholes (and I include his interviewer) could have given the Soviets.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:06 pm

     I agree.

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:39 pm

     
     

373. @363. So what?

     So ‘The US is NOT far behind Russia and China in developing hypersonic missiles.’ That’s what. And it shoots down your initial assertion. The Air Force ‘can’t get it up?’ – THat you know of— NASA has and can.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:41 pm

     
     

374. BTW, even under American law, solicitation to commit crime is a crime. The exception is that the corpus delicti, i.e. that the crime happened, requires more than an uncorroborated confession.

     You would still need to prove intent. He could claim he was blowing off steam.

     Rip Murdock (b274da) — 3/21/2022 @ 6:42 pm

     
     

375. The Rip Taylor Show will be back, right after these words from his sponsor, DP Music Cow Bells…

     Colonel Haiku (a2c268) — 3/21/2022 @ 7:02 pm

     
     

376. You know what fuels Russian hypersonic missiles?

     Joementum!

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/21/2022 @ 7:10 pm

     
     

377. A mummy was found in Egypt. The archaeologists could not determine its origin. Then a Soviet advisor offered his help. The mummy was delivered to the Soviet embassy. In two hours the Soviet advisor appeared and said, “His name was Amenkhotep XXIII.”

     “How did you find out?”

     “He confessed,” the advisor said.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 7:18 pm

     
     

378. How bout the McConnell dog and pony show starring Ted Cruz.
     Confirmed.
     Pathetic.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:24 am

     
     

379. Yesterday, President Biden warned of (severe – all out?) cyberattacks on U.S. systems,

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/22/2022 @ 5:05 am

     
     

380. 368, they best suck it up on Herschel Walker…a scorned Walker might lead his flock into the arms of the she-beast Trekkie out of spite.

     urbanleftbehind (c6f17b) — 3/22/2022 @ 6:14 am

     
     

381. Hypersonic Weapons: Background and Issues for Congress
     ………
     According to open-source reporting, the United States is conducting research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) on a number of offensive hypersonic weapons and hypersonic technology programs, including the following:
      U.S. Navy—Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS);
      U.S. Army—Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW);
      U.S. Air Force—AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW, pronounced “arrow”);
      U.S. Air Force—Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM);
      DARPA—Tactical Boost Glide (TBG);
      DARPA—Operational Fires (OpFires); and
      DARPA—Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC, pronounced “hawk”).
     These programs are intended to produce operational prototypes, as there are currently no programs of record for hypersonic weapons.
     ……..
     Russia is pursuing two hypersonic weapons programs—the Avangard and the 3M22 Tsirkon (or Zircon)—and has reportedly fielded the Kinzhal (“Dagger”), a maneuvering air-launched ballistic missile.

     Avangard is a hypersonic glide vehicle launched from an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), giving it “effectively ‘unlimited’ range.” Reports indicate that Avangard is currently deployed on the SS-19 Stiletto ICBM, though Russia plans to eventually launch the vehicle from the Sarmat ICBM. Sarmat is still in development, although it is scheduled to be deployed by the end of 2022. Avangard features onboard countermeasures and will reportedly carry a nuclear warhead. It was successfully tested twice in 2016 and once in December 2018, reportedly reaching speeds of Mach 20; however, an October 2017 test resulted in failure. Russian news sources claim that Avangard entered into combat duty in December 2019.

     In addition to Avangard, Russia is developing Tsirkon, a ship-launched hypersonic cruise missile capable of traveling at speeds of between Mach 6 and Mach 8. Tsirkon is reportedly capable of striking both ground and naval targets. ……

     In addition, Russia has reportedly fielded Kinzhal, a maneuvering air-launched ballistic missile modified from the Iskander missile. According to U.S. intelligence reports, Kinzhal was successfully test fired from a modified MiG-31 fighter (NATO code name: Foxhound) in July 2018—striking a target at a distance of approximately 500 miles—and may now be ready for combat. ……
     ……….
     China’s pursuit of hypersonic weapons, like Russia’s, reflects a concern that U.S. hypersonic weapons could enable the United States to conduct a preemptive, decapitating strike on China’s nuclear arsenal and supporting infrastructure. U.S. missile defense deployments could then limit China’s ability to conduct a retaliatory strike against the United States………..
     ……..
     China has conducted a number of successful tests of the DF-17, a medium-range ballistic missile specifically designed to launch HGVs (hypersonic glide vehicles). U.S. intelligence analysts assess that the missile has a range of approximately 1,000 to 1,500 miles and may now be deployed. China has also tested the DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missile, which could be modified to carry a conventional or nuclear HGV, according to a report by a U.S. Congressional commission. The development of the DF-41 thus “significantly increases the [Chinese] rocket force’s nuclear threat to the U.S. mainland,” the report states.

     China has tested the DF-ZF HGV (previously referred to as the WU-14) at least nine times since 2014. U.S. defense officials have reportedly identified the range of the DF-ZF as approximately 1,200 miles and have stated that the vehicle may be capable of performing “extreme maneuvers” during flight. China reportedly fielded the DF-ZF in 2020.

     According to U.S. defense officials, China also successfully tested Starry Sky-2 (or Xing Kong2), a nuclear-capable hypersonic vehicle prototype, in August 2018. China claims the vehicle reached top speeds of Mach 6 and executed a series of in-flight maneuvers before landing. Unlike the DF-ZF, Starry Sky-2 is a “waverider” that uses powered flight after launch and derives lift from its own shockwaves. Some reports indicate that the Starry Sky-2 could be operational by 2025. U.S. officials have declined to comment on the program.
     ……….

     My emphasis. Footnotes omitted. As noted above, the Air Force’s ARRW program has failed to even leave the plane carrying it. In addition, the NASA programs described above have nothing to do with weapons development (perhaps they should), as they are pure research.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 9:59 am

     
     

382. The Smaller Bombs That Could Turn Ukraine Into a Nuclear War Zone
     ……..
     Concern about these smaller (nuclear) arms has soared as Vladimir V. Putin, in the Ukraine war, has warned of his nuclear might, has put his atomic forces on alert and has had his military carry out risky attacks on nuclear power plants. The fear is that if Mr. Putin feels cornered in the conflict, he might choose to detonate one of his lesser nuclear arms — breaking the taboo set 76 years ago after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
     …….
     “The chances are low but rising,” said Ulrich Kühn, a nuclear expert at the University of Hamburg and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The war is not going well for the Russians,” he observed, “and the pressure from the West is increasing.”

     Mr. Putin might fire a weapon at an uninhabited area instead of at troops, Dr. Kühn said. In a 2018 study, he laid out a crisis scenario in which Moscow detonated a bomb over a remote part of the North Sea as a way to signal deadlier strikes to come.
     ……..
     Though such weapons are less destructive by Cold War standards, modern estimates show that the equivalent of half a Hiroshima bomb, if detonated in Midtown Manhattan, would kill or injure half a million people.

     …….. A simulation devised by experts at Princeton University starts with Moscow firing a nuclear warning shot; NATO responds with a small strike, and the ensuing war yields more than 90 million casualties in its first few hours.

     No arms control treaties regulate the lesser warheads, known sometimes as tactical or nonstrategic nuclear weapons, so the nuclear superpowers make and deploy as many as they want. Russia has perhaps 2,000, according to Hans M. Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, a private group in Washington. And the United States has roughly 100 in Europe, a number limited by domestic policy disputes and the political complexities of basing them among NATO allies, whose populations often resist and protest the weapons’ presence.

     Russia’s atomic war doctrine came to be known as “escalate to de-escalate” — meaning routed troops would fire a nuclear weapon to stun an aggressor into retreat or submission. Moscow repeatedly practiced the tactic in field exercises. …….
     ……….
     The steady Russian buildups and the slow American responses prompted the Trump administration to propose a new missile warhead in 2018. Its destructive force was seen as roughly half that of the Hiroshima bomb, according to Mr. Kristensen. It was to be deployed on the nation’s fleet of 14 ballistic missile submarines.

     While some experts warned that the bomb, known as the W76 Model 2, could make it more tempting for a president to order a nuclear strike, the Trump administration argued that the weapon would lower the risk of war by ensuring that Russia would face the threat of proportional counterstrikes. It was deployed in late 2019.
     ………
     It’s unclear how Mr. Biden would respond to the use of a nuclear weapon by Mr. Putin. Nuclear war plans are one of Washington’s most deeply held secrets. Experts say that the war-fighting plans in general go from warning shots to single strikes to multiple retaliations and that the hardest question is whether there are reliable ways to prevent a conflict from escalating.
     ………
     A U.S. response to a small Russian blast, experts say, might be to fire one of the new submarine-launched warheads into the wilds of Siberia or at a military base inside Russia. ……

     Military strategists say a tit-for-tat rejoinder would throw the responsibility for further escalation back at Russia, making Moscow feel its ominous weight and ideally keeping the situation from spinning out of control despite the dangers in war of miscalculation and accident.
     ……….

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 10:24 am

     
     

383. Hypersonic missiles with conventional warheads have limited use. Sensors cannot work in the flaming hell of their velocity, so they can’t react to movement of their target nor can they react to counter-missile threats. Further, they are bloody obvious in flight and easy for counter-measures to target.

     Their advantages are 1) being very fast and 2) if carrying a nuclear warhead, hard to outrun. The ballistic glide reentry vehicle makes sense for a MIRVed ICBM warhead (which is already hypersonic), but the cruise missile version has very limited utility.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 10:31 am

     
     

384. If there is any thought in Russia of maybe replacing Putin, an order to use a nuclear weapon would provide a clear point of decision.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 10:36 am

     
     

385. nk (1d9030) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:34 pm

     Zelensky need to have that clown arrested, tried, and publicly executed as of yesterday if not sooner. Seriously.

     Ab=out a week or two ago, I read Ukrainian policy was to offer a bounty to Russian soldiers who deserted and surrendered. Some have abandoned their tanks and run off into the woods.

     The Ukrainian strategy with a tank column was to destroy the first and maybe the second tank and also the one in the rear. That boxed them in. Later, they started attacking their resupply.

     There are numerous checkpoints around Kyiv. Every day the Ukrainian army gives out another password.

     The password the other day was the Ukrainian word for strawberry. Why “strawberry?” These passwords are picked because they contain a phoneme that monolingual Russian speakers can’t pronounce. I don’t know any more details about this difference in languages.

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/22/2022 @ 10:44 am

     
     

386. 369. Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/21/2022 @ 5:49 pm

     Of course, in Western countries, saying it is not a crime…

     It’s a Twotter or Facebook crime (and they don’t delete hateful tweets, but demand that the owner of the account delete it themselves.

     Except that Facebook made a temporary exception for calls for the deaths of Russian soldiers. Calling for the death of Russian civilians will still be a violation of Facebook rules.

     https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/11/facebook-and-instagram-let-users-call-for-death-to-russian-soldiers-over-ukraine

     Facebook and Instagram let users call for death to Russian soldiers over Ukraine

     Parent cmpany Meta makes temporary change to hate speech policy for users in eastern Europe and Caucasus

     ….The company is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to internal emails to its content moderators.

     “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules, like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders’. We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” Meta said in a statement.

     The calls for the leaders’ deaths will be allowed unless they contain other targets or have two indicators of credibility, such as the location or method, in a recent change to the company’s rules on violence and incitement.

     The temporary policy changes on calls for violence against Russian soldiers apply to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine…

     ,,,,“We are issuing a spirit-of-the-policy allowance to allow T1 violent speech that would otherwise be removed under the hate speech policy when: (a) targeting Russian soldiers, except prisoners of war, or (b) targeting Russians where it’s clear that the context is the Russian invasion of Ukraine (eg content mentions the invasion, self-defense, etc),” it said in the email.

     “We are doing this because we have observed that in this specific context, ‘Russian soldiers’ is being used as a proxy for the Russian military. The hate speech policy continues to prohibit attacks on Russians.”

     In response, Russia’s embassy to the US demanded Washington “stop the extremist activities of Meta and take measures to bring the perpetrators to justice”….

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/22/2022 @ 10:56 am

     
     

387. How Ukraine’s Outgunned Air Force Is Fighting Back Against Russian Jets
     ………
     Nearly a month into the fighting, one of the biggest surprises of the war in Ukraine is Russia’s failure to defeat the Ukrainian Air Force. Military analysts had expected Russian forces to quickly destroy or paralyze Ukraine’s air defenses and military aircraft, yet neither have happened. Instead, Top Gun-style aerial dogfights, rare in modern warfare, are now raging above the country.
     ………
     The success of Ukrainian pilots has helped protect Ukrainian soldiers on the ground and prevented wider bombing in cities, since pilots have intercepted some Russian cruise missiles. Ukrainian officials also say the country’s military has shot down 97 fixed-wing Russian aircraft. That number could not be verified but the crumpled remnants of Russian fighter jets have crashed into rivers, fields and houses.

     The Ukrainian Air Force is operating in near total secrecy. Its fighter jets can fly from air strips in western Ukraine, airports that have been bombed yet retain enough runway for takeoffs or landings — or even from highways, analysts say. They are vastly outnumbered: Russia is believed to fly some 200 sorties per day while Ukraine flies five to 10.
     ………
     Dave Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and the principal attack planner for the Desert Storm air campaign in Iraq, said the impressive performance of the Ukrainian pilots had helped counter their disadvantages in numbers. He said Ukraine now has roughly 55 operational fighter jets, a number that is dwindling from shoot-downs and mechanical failures, as Ukrainian pilots are “stressing them to max performance.”
     ……..
     As in other aspects of Ukraine’s war effort, volunteers play a role in the air battles. A volunteer network watches and listens for Russian jets, calling in coordinates and estimated speed and altitude. …….
     ……..
     Most of the aerial combat in Ukraine has been nocturnal, as Russian aircraft attack in the dark when they are less vulnerable to air defenses. In the dogfights over Ukraine…….the Russians have been flying an array of modern Sukhoi jets, such as the Su-30, Su-34 and Su-35.
     ………

     “A volunteer network watches and listens for Russian jets, calling in coordinates and estimated speed and altitude.” As seen in countless war movies, such as In Harms Way.

     The Sukhois that the Russians are flying are far more modern the MiG-29s. The Su-30 (Flanker) was introduced in 2002, and the Su-34 (Fullback) and Su-35 (Super Flanker) in 2014. The Ukrainian (and other Eastern European) MiG-29s are leftovers from the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991). Supposedly, three Su-30s, and four Su-34s have been destroyed by the Ukrainians.

     Related:
     Russian Missile Strike Obliterated Hangar At Ukrainian MiG-29 Depot Satellite Image Shows

     Backfilling NATO MiG Transfers to Ukraine Not Quick or Easy

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 11:49 am

     
     

388. Ukraine’s Air Defense Becomes Its Surprising Trump Card Against Russia
     Russia invaded Ukraine in February with an arsenal of advanced fighter planes, bombers and guided missiles, but significant combat losses in more than three weeks of fighting raise questions whether Moscow will ever fully dominate the skies.

     The Ukrainian military is using a patchwork of Soviet-era air-defense batteries dating to the 1980s and modern, shoulder-launched missiles supplied by the U.S. and others in the West to inflict heavy losses on Russian combat planes and helicopters. The U.S. and others are rushing in extra anti-air systems to help restock Ukraine’s arsenal to punish Russia further.
     ………
     The scale of Russian air losses is difficult to determine. Ukraine’s General Staff said Monday it had shot down or otherwise destroyed 97 Russian planes since the war started, along with 121 helicopters and 24 aerial drones. Oryx Blog, an open-source site that tracks military-equipment losses, says Russia has lost 15 planes, 34 helicopters, and 13 drones. Among the systems shot down are Russia’s advanced Su-34 strike fighters and Ka-52 attack helicopters, Oryx says.
     ……..
     Russia’s inability to establish air dominance over Ukraine, defense analysts say, is linked to costly errors in the opening days of the fighting.

     Russia launched ballistic and cruise missile strikes on military installations, ripping apart airport runways and destroying early-warning radar systems. But it failed to knock out a plurality of Ukraine’s surface-to-air missile batteries.
     ……..
     Ukraine’s long-range anti-air batteries also drove Russian pilots to fly lower to escape those systems, but that put them within range of the shoulder-fired weapons, defense analysts said. That put Russian aircraft in the crosshairs of shorter-range, heat-seeking missiles in what became a shooting gallery for Ukrainian air defenses in some parts of the country.

     Ukraine’s anti-air arsenal largely consists of weapons left behind in the Soviet Union’s collapse 30 years ago. Among the equipment is the S-300 long-range system, once top-of-the-line equipment that entered service in the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Despite its age, it remains effective, striking targets at 25 miles or more, depending on model and configuration.

     The BUK surface-to-air missile system can reach air targets from as far away as 28 miles…..

     Ukraine also employs shorter-range systems such as the Osa, Strela and Tunguska, each of which dates to the Cold War.
     ……….
     ………Oryx data says Ukraine has lost 18 surface-to-air missile systems and that Russian forces have captured around 16 shorter-range, shoulder-fired systems.
     ………
     The effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defenses also may have benefited from new approaches to fighting that the military embraced as it reorientated toward NATO and abandoned its Soviet-era centralized command. That empowered lower echelons to initiate strikes.
     ………..

     The BUK surface to air missile is the same system used to shoot down Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 12:17 pm

     
     

389. Putin spokesman refuses to rule out use of nuclear weapons if Russia faced an ‘existential threat’
     ………
     In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday, Dmitry Peskov repeatedly refused to rule out that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons against what Moscow saw as an “existential threat.” When asked under what conditions Putin would use Russia’s nuclear capability, Peskov replied, “if it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be.”
     ………
     When asked what Putin thought he had achieved in Ukraine so far, Peskov answered: “Well, first of all, not yet. He hasn’t achieved yet.”
     ………
     The spokesman also claimed that the “special military operation” — the Kremlin’s official euphemism for Russia’s invasion in Ukraine — was “going on strictly in accordance with the plans and the purposes that were established before hand.”
     ……..
     He also claimed that Russia has only attacked military targets, despite numerous reports of Russian airstrikes against civilian targets sheltering ordinary Ukrainians.
     …….

     Given that Putin has claimed that there is no such thing as a country called “Ukraine” it means that what the West considers Ukraine is actually part of Russia, and if the West prevents Russia from succeeding in its war it could be defined as an “existential threat” to Greater Russia.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 1:27 pm

     
     

390. There is no country called Ukraine the way there is no Canada, or for that matter, the United States of America.

     I was surprised to read that the Jewish writer called Sholom Aleichem was born in what is now Ukraine, as well as Golda Meir (and you thought she was born in Russia in 1898 – she was born in Kiev)

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/22/2022 @ 1:50 pm

     
     

391. Some commonplace observations from Newser:

     https://www.newser.com/story/318383/putin-already-changed-the-nukes-game.html

     Actually probably not all that much. But the way Biden and NATO have handled it, it sure made a case for nuclear proliferation.

     https://www.newser.com/story/318398/you-cant-negotiate-with-putin.html

     “Putin’s own penchant for risk and the patterns evident in other authoritarian regimes suggest that doubling down to secure his maximalist aims in Ukraine is the more likely outcome,” Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Erica Frantz write in Foreign Policy. Putin couldn’t bear “any perception of loss” that might topple him from power, they explain: “If Putin is ousted, similar leaders’ track records suggest Putin stands a high likelihood of being jailed, exiled, or killed.”

     Can he be exiled anywhere without being jailed? Maybe he could get the kind of jail some narcotraffickers got in Latin America. But who would guarantee him that the situation remzins the same?

     Sammy Finkelman (46ec7d) — 3/22/2022 @ 1:57 pm

     
     

392. NASA programs described above have nothing to do with weapons development (perhaps they should), as they are pure research.

     Pfft. Except they do. See Redstone and Atlas missile development… and the ‘pumpkin suit’ for starters.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 2:39 pm

     
     

393. If there is any thought in Russia of maybe replacing Putin, an order to use a nuclear weapon would provide a clear point of decision.

     Check out the prevailing wind patterns in Eastern Europe. Pretty useless turning the territory you want to reclaim into a glowing pile of radioactive rubble; an inhabitable zone for thousands of years. He’ll never use them- especially there in his own backyard; but the ‘threat’ is the doctrine designed to jerk the chain of the West. He’s got same up-to-the-edge conventional weapons he can use, but again, little point in “destroying the village in order to save it.”

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 2:47 pm

     
     

394. The Redstone was an Army project for a short-range nuke, baded on the German V-2. The Atlas was mixed use but primarily designed as an ICBM. Not really NASA projects although NASA used both in Mercury.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 2:53 pm

     
     

395. Yesterday, President Biden warned of (severe – all out?) cyberattacks on U.S. systems,

     He gave them a list of what not to attack:

     Biden Actually Gave Putin a List of Critical Infrastructure Not to Carry Out Cyberattacks on in US

     https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/06/18/biden-discussed-the-issue-of-cyberattacks-with-putin-but-went-about-it-a-strange-way-n2591186?msclkid=07d0ff45aa2a11ecba2b9a4f9649295c

     And if this was 1941, he’sd give the Japanese a map of Oahu w/t location of the Pacific Fleet, too.

     He’s either poorly adivsed, an idiot… or both.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 2:53 pm

     
     

396. @394. I know- let Rip learn how the technology is transferred on his own. ‘;-)

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 2:54 pm

     
     

397. Pretty useless turning the territory you want to reclaim into a glowing pile of radioactive rubble

     Unless your attitude is “If I can’t have it ….”

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 2:55 pm

     
     

398. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/military/astrospies.html

     OMG- NASA’s Gemini spacecraft as part of a DoD spy platform??? And oh no- the final space shuttle orbiter design dictated by DoD payload requirements? Pshaw! Who knew?!?! 😉

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 2:58 pm

     
     

399. @394. Don’t see nukes happening; but there’s some pretty powerful conventional weapons that pack a wallop he’d be more likely to tap:

     Will Russia use ‘Father of All Bombs’ against Ukraine? The result could be horrifying

     https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/russian-ukraine-war-latest-news-will-russia-use-father-of-all-bombs-foab-us-moab-putin-2022-02-24-761391?msclkid=7fe5aa4caa2b11ecbef01c92f43f3cba

     “BAM!” – Emeril Lagasse

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:04 pm

     
     

400. ^397.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:05 pm

     
     

401. Biden Actually Gave Putin a List of Critical Infrastructure Not to Carry Out Cyberattacks on in US

     The idea was: That if he attacked that, we’d retaliate more, unlike the other things for which we would not escalate.

     It’s the same principle under which he said we’d defend Poland and Estonia but not Ukraine/

     Looks like Putin is afraid of getting even close to Poland.

     Obama thought he had an arrangement under which we wouldn;t bother Russia for spying – after all, we spy too – but only for doing damage.

     In 2016 he discovered there was anew way of doing damage — leaking with an idea to affect the election.

     Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:14 pm

     
     

402. Observation: was erasing some old VHS videotapes the other night – [yes, JVW, still use the VCR] and came across the CSPAN tape of VP Joe Biden’s promo film and his animated speech to the DNC crowd in 2012. The difference between “2012 Joe” and “2022 Joe” is utterly startling– and frightening for the United States. His speech patterns alone– and the cadence– has clearly slowed significantly in 10 years- perhaps half the speed and flow of language now; and unlike 2012, today he slurs his words much more often. It’s not hard to suspect he has suffered some micro-strokes and is on some significant meds when he’s tended during those long Wilmington weekends he takes. Sending him to Poland is a fool’s errand– and an unhealthy decision.

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:16 pm

     
     

403. Biden has called Putin a war criminal.

     Questions and Answers:

     Q. Does this mean any proceedings will start?

     A. No. This is more like President Reagan calling the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire.”

     Q. When will proceedings start?

     A. Basically, when he gets arrested. Probably by Russians.

     Q. What court will prosecute him?

     A> There’s no set court. It might be a special court, or it might be the Hague, like with Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. The United States is not likely to participate since we don’t recognize that court.

     Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:19 pm

     
     

404. I see DCSCA is back. Lots of empty space on my screen.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:22 pm

     
     

405. Is Sarah Palin going to run for Don Young’s vacant House seat?

     Rep. Don Young (R-AK) passed away last week at the age of 88. Alaska’s only representative, serving for 48 years, was first elected to the House in 1973. The seat is now vacant and must be filled. How about Sarah Palin? That’s a question that was posed to her. On Monday, she said she would do it “in a heartbeat.”

     ……Palin appeared on Newsmax TV’s The Balance with host Eric Bolling. The topic came up and she sounded eager to project her willingness to serve in that office.

     “If I were asked to serve in the House and take his place I would be humbled and honored,” Palin told host Eric Bolling. “In a heartbeat, I would.

     “We will see how this process goes in filling that seat – it would be an honor.”

     Of course, Palin won’t simply be asked to fill the vacant seat; House members must be elected in accordance with the Constitution, not appointed by governors even to fill a mid-session vacancy. There will be a special election, including primary and a general election to determine who will succeed Rep. Young. The winner takes the seat for this session, and will have to run again in November for the next two-year term. If Palin wants the job, she’ll have to run for it like anyone else who may be interested.

     ……..Admiration for Young and his service in the House runs along bipartisan lines, with even the hyper-partisan Nancy Pelosi speaking well of him. She announced that Rep. Young will lie in state in the Capitol building next week.
     ………

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:30 pm

     
     

406. @404. Pfft. #363 to the contrary.

     “Stay out of B-29’s, Frank, my boy!” – The Doc [William Powell] ‘Mister Roberts’ 1955

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:48 pm

     
     

407. I’m not sure that Sarah Palin is still a resident of Alaska (although she could change that quickly)

     Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:50 pm

     
     

408. U.S. and NATO officials: Belarus is probably coming in
     

     ……If Russian casualties are as steep as alleged and if the Russian offensive really has stalled, Putin will need more troops to restart his advance. And he doesn’t have those at home. His own country appears to have maxed out its combat-ready forces in Ukraine. That leaves him stuck turning to client states for manpower.

     Conveniently, there’s a client state located right across Ukraine’s northern border. One which could potentially rush troops south to turn the tide around Kiev, where things have reportedly begun to go sideways for Russia.
     ………
     How good is the Belarusian military? Not very, says Mark Hertling:

     Mark Hertling
     @MarkHertling
     My only response to this: When I was
     @USArmyEURAF Commander, we rated forces. Belarus was NOT anywhere near the top, if you get my drift. And fighting in a war the people of Belarus reject, under the orders of a President they don’t support, will be “interesting.”

     How enthusiastic are Belarusians to get involved in this conflict? Uh, not very:

     Hanna Liubakova
     @HannaLiubakova
     The head of the Ukrainian Railways Alexander Kamyshin confirmed that there is no railway connection between #Ukraine and #Belarus “thanks to Belarusian railway workers”. They’ve indeed launched what they called “a railway war” with many acts of sabotage to stop Russian equipment

     Rumors have swirled since the start of the war last month that Belarus was on the verge of entering and that some of its soldiers were deeply unhappy about that prospect. One general reportedly resigned because of it. The military’s rank-and-file have spent the past month absorbing reports that their own country’s hospitals are filled with wounded Russian troops, a taste of what awaits them if Belarus enters the fray…….
     ……….
     Tens of thousands of Belarusians came out to protest in 2020 after he rigged an election to give himself another term as president. He cracked down hard but the demonstrations destabilized Belarus’s economy. Who was it who came to his rescue at the time? Why, Vladimir Putin, of course, knowing that Lukashenko would eventually owe him a favor for doing so. That favor is now being called in………
     ……
     …….A poll taken in Belarus a few weeks before the invasion shows how precarious Lukashenko’s position is:

     ATTITUDES TOWARD A POSSIBLE WAR:

     Agree/Somewhat Agree Not Sure Totally/Somewhat Disagree

     It would be normal for Belarus to send professional contract soldiers to Ukraine 12/30/59%

     Belarus should support its CSTO ally – Russia – by sending soldiers to Ukraine 13/30/58

     Belarus should take a neutral position in the event of a war between Ukraine and Russia 56/26/18

     Participating in a war between Ukraine and Russia would be a disaster for Belarus 57/32/11

     Belarusian conscripts must not die in a war between Russia and Ukraine 79/16/5%

     Presumably he’s trying to talk Putin into having Belarusian troops serve in some sort of non-combat capacity, like logistical support. The problem with that is that logistics have been Ukraine’s top target since the start of the war; by neutralizing Russia’s fuel trucks, they’ve effectively neutralized many of Russia’s combat vehicles too. Having Belarus enter the war also gives NATO an excuse to escalate its weapons shipments to Ukraine, either providing more weapons or more sophisticated ones or both. If Biden is looking for an excuse to finally send those MiGs to Zelensky, he’s about to get one. Now that Lukashenko’s participation is about to unbalance the scales, the west should feel free to re-balance them.
     ########

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 4:16 pm

     
     

409. I’m not sure that Sarah Palin is still a resident of Alaska (although she could change that quickly)

     Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 3/22/2022 @ 3:50 pm

     Just follow Mark Meadows’ lead and rent a trailer.

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/22/2022 @ 4:18 pm

     
     

410. Here’s a chart comparing estimated Russian deaths to other recent wars.

     Chart of the Day: Russia has lost more troops in a month in Ukraine than the US lost in a decade in Iraq.

     As most of you will notice, they are using the “conservative” estimate of Russian deaths from the US military.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/22/2022 @ 4:42 pm

     
     

411. ……..Admiration for Young and his service in the House runs along bipartisan lines, with even the hyper-partisan Nancy Pelosi speaking well of him. She announced that Rep. Young will lie in state in the Capitol building next week.

     He was re-elected 24 times without benefit of gerrymander. That impresses politicians.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 8:23 pm

     
     

412. How come Russia and Belarus get to attack Ukraine but Ukraine isn’t supposed to attack back? I’d think dropping a few bombs on the Presidential Palace in Minsk might be a good idea.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 8:34 pm

     
     

413. Chart of the Day: Russia has lost more troops in a month in Ukraine than the US lost in a decade in Iraq.

     Actually, it shows that they’ve lost more in a month than the US did in both Iraq and Afghanistan put together, over a total period of 20 years.

     And now they double down with Belarus.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 8:37 pm

     
     

414. One thing that Biden might tell Belarus privately: “The codicil to the non-proliferation treaty that protects non-nuclear signers from nuclear attack says that, in a conflict where nuclear weapons are used, allies of a nuclear-weapons state are not covered by the codicil. Make your alliances carefully.”

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 8:43 pm

     
     

415. So, Biden is going to talk with our NATO allies. Hopefully, they will decide what their goals are. What has to happen before sanctions can be removed and normal relations restored.

     I have some suggestions, and given the mass murder being carried out in Ukraine I am not particularly willing to let bygones be bygones.

     So, a few requirements.

     1. All Russian and allied troops must be removed from all of Ukraine, including Crimea and the border areas.
     2. All Russian militias inside Ukraine must surrender their weapons and disband.
     3. All attacks on Ukraine from other countries must cease.
     4. Vladimir Putin must be removed from government.
     5. Fair and free in Russia elections must be held.
     6. Putin and his co-conspirators must be held for an international tribunal TBD.

     Until this happens:

     1. Sanctions will remain, and may be increased.
     2. All NATO countries will recall their ambassadors from Moscow and expel the Russian ambassador in their countries.
     3. Russia’s membership on the UN Security Council is suspended.
     4. All western assets of Russian persons are subject to confiscation to rebuild Ukraine.

     Use of a nuclear weapon by Russia against any target in Ukraine or any NATO country will be treated as if it were an attack by Russia on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response.

     I suspect that they will come up with something milder though.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/22/2022 @ 10:08 pm

     
     

416. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bill-maher-thinks-california-may-202658914.html
     VDH was on target with his nickname “Cantafordya”.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/23/2022 @ 3:13 am

     
     

417. https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/03/the_new_york_times_finds_russia_collusion_in_its_own_back_yard.html
     Blame the Black women who is conservative.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/23/2022 @ 3:26 am

     
     

418. Follow-Up On Item 2, Mark Meadows and Fraudulent Voting: Apparently, his wife broke the law, too.

     This form is the latest in a string of revelations concerning the former chief of staff — who echoed President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020 — and his wife. The New Yorker first reported that Mark and Debra Meadows submitted voter registration forms that listed as their home a mobile home with a rusted metal roof that sold for $105,000 in 2021, even though they had never lived there. North Carolina officials announced last week that Mark Meadows is under investigation for potential voter fraud.

     The Fact Checker’s reporting shows that in 2020 Debra Meadows signed three forms — a voter registration form, an absentee ballot request for her husband and the one-stop application — that warned of legal consequences if falsely completed and signed.

     North Carolina laws require you to physically live for at least 30 days where you register to vote. Mark apparently never spent a night in the trailer; Debra may have spent one night.

     To modify a famous line: Apparently the Meadows believe that laws are for little people.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/23/2022 @ 6:56 am

     
     

419. The law on its face discriminates against people without a fixed place a residence and it’s not only unconstitutional as applied to the Meadowses, under the Fourteenth Amendment it’s also grounds for reducing North Carolina’s representation in Congress.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/23/2022 @ 7:38 am

     
     

420. As for the signing under oath stuff, you do the same thing when applying for or renewing your drivers license. What are we going to do with all the women who swore to their weight and hair color?

     nk (1d9030) — 3/23/2022 @ 7:56 am

     
     

421. It looks like the DOJ isn’t done with Manafort, the guy who betrayed the United States when he handed over internal polling data to a Russian spy.

     MIAMI (AP) — Former Trump adviser Paul Manafort was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he carried a revoked passport, officials said Wednesday.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/23/2022 @ 8:35 am

     
     

422. Mo Brooks Campaign Implodes in Alabama

     Yesterday, a Cygnal poll for Alabama Daily News found Republican congressman Mo Brooks cratering in the GOP Senate primary:

     Gray TV/AL Daily News Poll by Cygnal, +/-4%

     Mike Durant – 34.6%

     Katie Britt – 28.4%

     Mo Brooks – 16.1%

     Lillie Boddie – 6.5%

     Karla Dupriest – 0%

     Jake Schafer – 0%

     Undecided – 14.4%
     …….

     Related:

     Donald Trump rescinds Mo Brooks endorsement in Alabama U.S. Senate race
     ………
     In a statement, Trump cited Brooks’ performance in the race, poor campaign staffing, and what Trump perceived as a softening of Brooks’ stance on the former president’s false 2020 election fraud claims. Trump said he will be making another endorsement announcement in the “near future.”

     “Very sad but, since he decided to go in another direction, so have I, and I am hereby withdrawing my Endorsement of Mo Brooks for the Senate,” Trump said in a statement. “I don’t think the great people of Alabama will disagree with me.”

     Trump has been frustrated for months by Brooks’ performance as he has failed to gain traction in the race. By dropping the endorsement, the former president is trying to stave off the embarrassment of backing a losing candidate in a high-profile race. Trump, who often brags about his endorsement record, takes his tally seriously, seeing it as a reflection of his power as he mulls another presidential run.
     ………
     Brooks has since found himself in a primary battle with two formidable opponents: Katie Britt, the former head of a state business group, and Mike Durant, a businessman best known as the helicopter pilot shot down and held prisoner in the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” incident.

     The Alabama Senate race will decide who replaces retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, a fellow Republican. Britt previously served as Shelby’s chief of staff.

     Trump, in his Wednesday statement, cited remarks Brooks had made during an August rally with Trump in Alabama that briefly resulted in jeers from the crowd. Brooks told the crowd it was time to move on from the 2020 presidential race and focus on upcoming elections. The remark resulted in some rallygoers briefly booing him.

     “When I heard his statement, I said, ‘Mo, you just blew the Election, and there’s nothing you can do about it,’” Trump said Wednesday.
     ……….

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/23/2022 @ 9:20 am

     
     

423. Rip Taylor comes clean
     he charges five cents per word
     he’s plain dyn-oh-mite!

     Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:00 am

     
     

424. #420 nk – Mark Meadows was calling for the investigation and, presumably, prosecution, of those who, like him, voted illegally.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:09 am

     
     

425. I was mostly being satirical, Jim. There is no Constitutional right to vote per se. Only half a dozen reasons why, if granted by a State, it cannot be denied: Race, color, prior condition of servitude, sex, age under eighteen, and failure to pay a poll tax or any other tax. “No fixed place of residence” is not among them.

     nk (1d9030) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:20 am

     
     

426. “No fixed place of residence” is not among them.

     For districted elections, you pretty much have to state some location.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:30 am

     
     

427. What are we going to do with all the women who swore to their weight and hair color?

     Or age. Maybe not any more, but in the past some women would find a way to lose years that way.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:32 am

     
     

428. Many will love this picture, even without the silly tie.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:37 am

     
     

429. VDH was on target with his nickname “Cantafordya”.

     mg,

     As I’m sure you’d agree, turning CA “Red” would require a state GOP that wanted to do that.

     Kevin M (38e250) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:41 am

     
     

430. Russia Central Banker Wanted Out Over Ukraine, But Putin Said No

     Russia’s highly regarded central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina sought to resign after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, only to be told by the president to stay, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.
     …….
     Nabiullina, favored by investors and hailed by publications including Euromoney and The Banker as one of the world’s best monetary policymakers, now faces a wartime economy isolated by international sanctions and starved for investment as foreign companies leave.
     …….
     The central bank said it gave up interventions to defend the ruble after international restrictions froze more than half of its $643 billion in reserves.

     “So long as there’s an escalation, the central bank can only adapt to shocks,” said Oleg Vyugin, a former top Bank of Russia official who’s known Nabiullina for over 20 years.
     …….
     Economists predict a double-digit drop in output this year, while the ruble’s collapse and shortages of goods may touch off inflation of as much as 25%, a level not seen in Russia since the government’s 1998 debt default.
     …….
     Under her stewardship, the central bank amassed one of the world’s biggest stockpiles of foreign currency and gold, cracked down on lenders deemed mismanaged or under-capitalized, and brought inflation to the lowest in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
     ……..
     Foreign investors poured billions into Russian debt. Putin trusted her, listened to her opinion and defended her tight-money policies in front of other government officials. But much of her legacy came undone in a matter of hours after the sanctions laid siege to Russia’s economy.
     …….

     Sad!

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/23/2022 @ 10:59 am

     
     

431. Ukrainian President Zelensky ‘told Biden NOT to sanction billionaire Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich because he hoped he could help negotiate peace talks with Putin’

     ‘Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked President Joe Biden in a recent telephone call not to impose sanctions on Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich because he might prove to be a useful intermediary in peace talks with Moscow, it emerged on Wednesday.

     As a result, the White House persuaded the Treasury Department not to go ahead with plans to hit Abramovich alongside other wealthy Russians with ties to Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the details. Sources familiar with calls between the two presidents told the newspaper that Biden consulted Zelensky on a range of sanctions, including plans for the 55-year-old owner of Chelsea soccer club.’

     The revelations, reported by the Wall Street Journal, explain how one of the world’s richest men has avoided U.S. sanctions even as the United Kingdom and European Union hit him with travel bans and asset freezes.’ – source, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10644711/Zelensky-told-Biden-NOT-sanction-Russian-oligarch-Abramovich-help-peace-talks.html?msclkid=187745e8aad311ec953245d5bb3d1718

     Pfft. “Churchillian” ??? Nyet. Suckers.

     “Some apes, it seems, are more equal than others.”- George Taylor [Charlton Heston] ‘Planet of the Apes’ 1968

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/23/2022 @ 11:08 am

     
     

432. Was Boebert being stupid or trying some sort of sarcasm? I’m trying to giver her the benefit of the doubt because her statement is too stupid on its face for publication.

     As allergy season gets underway, I encourage everyone to take their allergy medicines so that my allergy medicines can work.

     You know, it doesn’t work unless everyone takes it.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/23/2022 @ 11:12 am

     
     

433. R.I.P. Madeleine Albright, 84

     DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 3/23/2022 @ 11:31 am

     
     

434. Was Boebert being stupid or trying some sort of sarcasm?

     Hard to say. What’s the difference between “sarcasm using a false analogy” and “not knowing one’s ass from a hole in the ground”?

     nk (1d9030) — 3/23/2022 @ 11:41 am

     
     

435. Statement by Mo Brooks

     It’s disappointing that, just like in 2017, President Trump lets Mitch McConnell manipulate him again. Every single negative TV ad against our campaign has come from McConnell and his allies. I wish President Trump wouldn’t fall for McConnell’s ploys, but, once again, he has.

     I have not changed. I am the only proven America First candidate in this Senate race. I am the only candidate who fought voter fraud and election theft when it counted, between November 3 and January 6.
     …….
     President Trump asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, immediately put President Trump back in the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency. As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asks. Period.

     ……..I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. I honor my oath. That is the way I am. I break my sworn oath for no man.

     I’m still the most conservative candidate in the race…….
     ……..

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/23/2022 @ 11:48 am

     
     

436. RIP former Democratic Rep. Vic Fazio (79).

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/23/2022 @ 11:50 am

     
     

437. RIP British actor Peter Bowles (85).

     Rip Murdock (d2a2a8) — 3/23/2022 @ 11:52 am

     
     

438. Here’s a wonderful lady:

     As World War II escalated, Romay Johnson Davis’s five brothers enlisted, despite segregation and profuse discrimination both within the armed forces and society as a whole. Davis yearned to join them.

     In 1943 when the Women’s Army Corps was created, she finally saw her chance.

     She joined more than 850 Black women in a specialized Army unit that deployed overseas. The women sailed to England, where they were tasked with duties such as sorting an enormous backlog of mail for overseas troops.

     As anyone who knows a little World War II history can tell you, that mail made an enormous difference to the troops.

     She stayed active:

     Davis earned a black belt in taekwondo in her 70s, and when she was 80 she got a job at a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Montgomery, where she organized the shelves.

     And she held that part-time job until she passed her 101st birthday.

     She admits that she was not their best checker — because she enjoyed chatting with the customers so much.

     Jim Miller (406a93) — 3/23/2022 @ 12:10 pm

     
     

439. https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/03/23/popcorn-time-ex-lincoln-project-co-founder-drops-accusations-n539957
     Any news fit to print.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/23/2022 @ 7:17 pm

     
     

440. https://thefederalist.com/2022/03/23/if-ketanji-brown-jackson-doesnt-know-what-a-woman-is-why-does-she-use-the-word-so-much/
     Miggs Romney will lead the republicans in voting for this judicious abortion.

     mg (8cbc69) — 3/23/2022 @ 7:25 pm

     
     

441. The pandemic is just about kaput, there are still studies out there, the latest about Vitamin D.

     Pretty huge news. Big (6,200) new RCT looking at vitamin D for the prevention of COVID-19 and respiratory illnesses found no benefit whatsoever from supplementation.

     Paul Montagu (5de684) — 3/24/2022 @ 7:26 pm