Patterico's Pontifications

8/16/2024

Weekend Open Thread

Filed under: General — Dana @ 7:58 am



[ guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

They remain strong and tenacious:

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in his address on Aug. 15 that Ukrainian forces had captured the entire Russian town of Sudzha in Kursk Oblast.

Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi reported that Ukrainian troops had taken control of more than 80 settlements in Kursk Oblast during the ongoing operation, Zelensky added.

Ukraine is establishing a military administration in the town of Sudzha, according to Zelensky.

From the White House on the incursion:

US officials are assessing how the incursion might reshape the political and military dynamics of the war, as well as the implications for Washington’s long-shifting stance on how Ukraine can use American-supplied arms.

The stunning raid, catching both Russian and apparently Western leaders by surprise, highlights one of the riskiest dilemmas for the Western-backed defence of Ukraine: President Biden has consistently tried to empower Kyiv to push back Russia’s invasion without risking an American escalation with Moscow. As President Putin has always tried to portray the conflict as a war between Russia and the West, Mr Biden has sought to put clear limits on US policy to deflate that narrative and prevent a conflagration.

. . .

As for the use of US weapons, spokespeople from the White House, Pentagon and State Department won’t officially confirm whether they are being used, but it seems overwhelmingly clear that they are, given Ukraine’s reliance on US and Nato weapons systems. Vladislav Seleznyov, a former spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff, told Voice of America that US-provided HIMAR rocket launchers had been critical to the advance.
US approval for the use of its weapons by Ukraine in the Kursk incursion is certainly being implicitly given.

Reminder:

Russia depends on the will of others more than many people realize. A lot of Russia’s capability to sustain the war in Ukraine is not inherent and is, therefore, vulnerable. The Kremlin acquired some of its capabilities by force, manipulation, or by exploiting Western resources and sanctuaries.

Second news item

Kamala’s plans:

“Price gouging” is the focus of Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic agenda, her presidential campaign says. She’ll crack down on “excessive prices” and “excessive corporate profits,” particularly for groceries.

. . .

In a news release Wednesday, her campaign said the first 100 days of her presidency would include the “first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries — setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.”

What are these “clear rules of the road” or the thresholds that determine when a price or profit level becomes “excessive”? The memo doesn’t say, and the campaign did not answer questions. . .

The report suggests the model Harris is referring to is a recent bill from Sen. Elizabeth Warren. And that is not a good thing:

It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would. The FTC would be able to tell, say, a Kroger in Ohio the acceptable price it can charge for milk.

At best, this would lead to shortages, black markets and hoarding, among other distortions seen previous times countries tried to limit price growth by fiat. (There’s a reason narrower “price gouging” laws that exist in some U.S. states are rarely invoked.) At worst, it might accidentally raise prices.

Third news item

Protesters to be limited at Democratic National Convention:

A coalition of activist groups planning a massive protest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week are crying foul after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration issued last-minute denials of requests to set up stages and sound systems for rallies in parks near the United Center.

In an emergency petition filed in U.S. District Court late Wednesday, the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention, which has a pending civil rights lawsuit against the city over protest preparations, called the move a bait-and-switch violation of their constitutional rights.

. . .

In their nine-page motion for an injection, however, the activist groups say the real motive for the last-minute, “made-up process” was to try and silence their protests against the Israeli military action in Gaza and other concerns. Activists have estimated that as many as 20,000 participants from across the country could be in Chicago for the event.

“The DNC has an interest in minimizing the exposure of Democratic officials to protests, particularly around the issues plaintiffs seeking to protest,” the motion stated. “The reason the city is denying … the opportunity to use stages and a sound system is because, at the behest of the DNC, they do not want the speeches heard.”

History at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago being what it is, this would seem to likely provoke protesters to show up at the convention in angry droves.

Fourth news item

But of course:

Former President Trump’s legal team requested on Wednesday that the judge in his hush money case delay sentencing until after the November presidential election.

Why it matters: Trump’s sentencing for the 34 felony counts he was convicted of is scheduled on Sept. 18. The Republican presidential nominee’s lawyers said in a letter that proceeding with the date would constitute election interference.
“Setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar,” attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in the request to Judge Juan Merchan, who has overseen the case.

Fifth news item

I’m glad he’s sober now, but too bad he fibbed about the arrest, whether by allowing his campaign to do so or by his own omission:

When Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz first ran for Congress in 2006, his campaign repeatedly made false statements about the details of his 1995 arrest for drunk and reckless driving.

According to court and police records connected to the incident, Walz admitted in court that he had been drinking when he was pulled over for driving 96 mph in a 55 mph zone in Nebraska. Walz was then transported by a state trooper to a local hospital for a blood test, showing he had a blood alcohol level of .128, well above the state’s legal limit of 0.1 at the time.

But in 2006, his campaign repeatedly told the press that he had not been drinking that night, claiming that his failed field sobriety test was due to a misunderstanding related to hearing loss from his time in the National Guard. The campaign also claimed that Walz was allowed to drive himself to jail that night.

If the media considered that it was important to report on George W. Bush’s DUI, then it’s equally as important to report on Tim Walz’s as well.

Sixth news item

Why doesn’t Trump hold our military members in the highest regard?

Shameful.

Seventh news item

Eighth news item

Have a great weekend.

—Dana


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