Some good news from Russia

Russian Soviet  foreign minister Lavrov has claimed that Vladimir Putin is not sick, which, of course,  means in "Russian-speak" that the man couldn't even be helped if he were being cared for by the Mayo Clinic.  I've personally seen footage of him with a wool blanket on his lap on May Day (it was in the sixties that day, hardly cold), and I've also seen footage of him hobbling a la Biden across the stage to greet Lukashenko of Belarus.  I perhaps exaggerate a bit, but a good guide to anything coming out of Russia's government these days is to assume that about the opposite is true.  

Really, as I look at what's going on in Ukraine, it seems to me that Ukraine's defence forces have largely solved the puzzle of how to deal with Russian infantry and tanks, but Russia is gaining slowly as they bring artillery to bear, predominantly on civilian targets, as they did in Syria and Chechnya.  More or less, this series of war crimes ( ICC investigations are at 15,000 and rising) is the rhetoric of an abusive ex-husband; "if I cannot have you, no one else will, either."  Praying that someone figures out how to seriously disrupt Russia's supply chain, to put it mildly.  

And in that light, especially reprehensible is the behavior of President Biden, who has repeatedly (MIG-29s from Poland, long range rocket systems, etc..) yanked hope away from Ukraine's defenders.  It is as if the State Department has no ability to work with NATO partners and announce weapons systems deliveries when they are actually available and approved.  Biden and his handlers seem to have no awareness of basic military strategy in this regard.

As always, Putin delenda est.

Mixed reviews

Apparently the Russian Army, having lost more T-72s, T-80s, and T-90s than it can afford to spare, is now deploying T-62 tanks, last built by Russia in 1975.    It's worth noting that what's going on here is that Russia is putting untrained crews into obsolete tanks, as you could bury what remains of most crews of destroyed T-72s in a thimble due to an incredibly stupid ammunition loader--a ring of high explosive and propellant around the edge of the turret.  The only nice thing to say about this design is that presumably death comes very, very quickly.

That noted, it appears that the Russians are, slowly but surely, advancing.  I'm guessing that if the free world figures out a way of dealing with Russian artillery in the way that they've learned how to deal with Russian tanks, there will be a huge humiliation going for the Russians.  And quite frankly, I think that it may be time for the western world to say, very slowly and coldly, We are losing patience with a Russian war effort whose targets are primarily civilian.

And of course, Putin delenda est.

On those protections

 One of the first F-M transsexuals argues that the protections against "wrongful transition" that he (?) enjoyed while transitioning are no longer in place.  Suffice it to say that I don't want to be the person who hears this:

Before you did this to me (my child), you should have made d*** sure that it was the right decision.  You knew d*** well that this kind of thing can not be reversed.

At some point, this is going to be in court--I don't know whether a civil or criminal case--and suffice it to say I'd be a most unsympathetic juror for people who screw things up like this.

A bit of truth salted with a lot of lie by Russia

The Russian Parliament is contemplating raising the maximum age for military enlistment past 40, ostensibly to "take advantage" of critical skills for maintaining high tech systems (that's the lie IMO), but probably more in reality because as of yesterday, estimated Russian personnel losses were closing in on 30,000 dead, and sane young men are no longer signing up to be cannon fodder in Ukraine.

(again, yes, I'm using Ukrainian estimates.  They're updated daily and seem to correspond well with what NATO is estimating)

Regarding the lie that they need to recruit older people to get people capable of maintaining high tech systems, my memory is that when I was attempting to gain admission to my nation's military academies, they were telling me that their 22 and 23 year old graduates were fully capable of strapping on an F-16, tracking Soviet satellites in Cheyenne Mountain, and the like.  You don't need to be 53 like myself to figure out high tech equipment.

Yet another point of reference; things are not going well for the Russians these days.  Hopefully someone in Moscow figures it out in time to save their country by removing Putin and his minions from power.  Putin Delenda Est!

And in "that's more like it", a Russian diplomat has reportedly publicly resigned.  Hopefully he's well protected.  Putin delenda est, and we're also cheering for Putin's cancer here.  Yes, Putin's mass murder of thousands in Ukraine and his own country has me understanding the imprecatory Psalms a lot better these days.

Interesting idea....

A Kentucky swimmer who tied Lia Thomas, the Penn transgender swimmer, has lent her voice to the notion that there ought to be a transgender division in swimming.   At one level, it makes sense--transgender women lack testosterone and thus are at a disadvantage competing with biological men, and yet retain the height/bone structure/muscular structure of men, and hence it's unfair to let them compete with women.  A "trans" division solves that issue.

That said, I think the idea is going to go over like a lead balloon for a number of reasons, all of them centering around the reality that transgender women want to be seen as women, but they generally do not "pass" well as such.  Hence a "transgender" division would be the athletic equivalent of a drag show, which would irritate those with gender disphoria, and probably more importantly, would not sell tickets among those who aren't.

There are no easy answers here.

This one could be bad...

It's not yet breaking into the "responsible" media yet, so take this with a grain of salt, but Tucker Carlson reports that the World Health Organization is pushing a treaty that will give them a huge amount of power over medical care, especially in the area of epidemics.

Now of course, we've got the basic question of whether top down medicine tends to work very well--it's very emphatically not the model that they use at Mayo, Cleveland, Johns Hopkins, and the like--but more importantly, we need to take a look at the record of the WHO and national regulators regarding COVID.

• They missed the fact that coronavirii are transmitted with aerosols, something that any apprentice immunologist could have pointed out. 
• They completely covered for the likely involvement of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese government.
• They tended to try to shut down the alternative therapies that seem to have shown the most promise in helping people deal with this.
• They failed to raise H*** about states sending COVID patients into nursing homes.
• They promoted plans that simply would not work, like "directional shopping", excluding areas from use (ironically concentrating the "plume" of viruses and the people susceptible to them), and the like.
• They ignored increasing evidence that lockdowns and masks were of little use in preventing transmission.  (this probably has a lot to do with aerosol transmission)
• Dissenters, even with wonderful qualifications, were forcefully suppressed

More or less, there was something very interesting going on with the COVID epidemic where public health authorities seem to have had an "inerring" pattern of making the wrong decision and suppressing dissent.  They have, sadly, made the case that there are many great things we can do to deal with infectious diseases, but granting more power to public health authorities is not one of them.

Don't Californicate our.....country?

(time to annoy Hearthie?  Hope she's forgiving!)

OK, as a former resident of Colorado, I'm of course an expert at disliking the problems Californians bring when they emigrate--gangs, drugs, crime, high prices, liberal politics, tofu, and the like.  And yet even I was surprised when I learned that the Portugese are saying, in effect, "Don't Californicate our nation", as hordes of California refugees have arrived in Portugal and are bringing their particular maladies there as well.  It reminds me of a billboard I'm told got put up in Texas saying "Welcome Californians!  But remember you are refugees, not missionaries."

Now of course, there are a lot of Texans in Colorado as well, and natives also disliked the side effects that Texans brought.  I'm reminded of a joke.

A Californian, a Texan, and a Coloradan (Portugese) are sitting in a bar, talking.  Trying to show off, the Californian takes a sip out of a $100 bottle of cabernet sauvignon, throws the rest of the bottle in the air, and shoots it with his MAC-10.  He then says "where I come from, we've got plenty of that."  The Texan then orders a $110 bottle of tequila and does the same.  "Wheyah ahh come from, we've got plenty of that."

So the Coloradan (Portugese) takes a bottle of microbrew IPA (Port), drinks the whole thing, and shoots the Californian and the Texan.

This'll cause them to surrender

The Russians, that is.  Apparently with the withdrawal of western car companies from the Russian market, they're looking to resurrect the old "Moskvich" brand from the Soviet era.  Now as an avid cyclist, I guess I should be ecstatic that they're giving their citizens such a great reason to ride a bicycle, but at -30F in the winter, I think their subjects will be a little peeved.

But with a bit of (bad) luck, somebody in Russia has the design files to the infamous "Trabant" of East Germany, which will make a great partner vehicle to those T-72s that "pop the cork" on the turret when they're hit.  These two vehicles have something in common; visible emissions.  The T-72 has visible emissions because they haven't been maintained much for the past 30 or so years, and the Trabant has visible emissions because of its two cycle engine.  

Maybe they'll fall in love and get married....or am I getting ahead of myself here?  I'd throw flowers to celebrate, but the T-72 would probably explode from the impact.

If you can't blind them with brilliance....

New White House Spokesman Gay Black Immigrant fails miserably at trying to explain to Peter Doocy how, precisely, raising taxes on corporations might reduce inflation.   Now to be fair, I don't envy Ms. Jean-Pierre's task, as the actual answer to what causes inflation is "various things which suppress supply while increasing demand", so there is no simple answer to how this might be.  Really, most sound economists (e.g. not aligned with Galbraith and the like) would argue that the opposite is true, because taxing corporations will tend to reduce the amount of product they produce (supressing supply) while enhancing demand through increased spending.

There is, however, one way in which President Biden's plan could work, and that is if Biden's "tax and spend" plans lead to a recession.  That noted, it seems as if "stagflation" a la Carter is the more likely effect at this point, because demand for petroleum products is fairly inelastic at a time when every move Biden has made will tend to decrease supply.  

Yes, Biden has, in one short year, achieved what it took Carter three years and a revolution in Iran to "achieve".  

Whoa.....

How badly are things going for the Russian army?  Well, it appears that their surrogates in Donbas are starting to bring tanks from the 1940s out of mothballs to try and keep their offensive going.  I'm no great expert on Soviet tanks, but it looks a lot like a T-54 or a modified IS-2, both developed during World War Two.

I'm not against getting use out of old things--some of my cast iron skillets are probably a century old, and I've got a gun and hammers that are likely that old as well, but there is a certain point where sending men to battle in equipment this old is simply signing their death warrants.  

But the people who would do the things documented here  just might not be terribly worried about that.  With friends like Vladimir Putin--may his name be a shame forever--who needs enemies?

Some people doing things right

 Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, confronted with testimony by Janet Yellen claiming that serious restrictions on abortion would victimize African-Americans most, pointed out that he was the African-American son of a single mother who was fairly glad he wasn't aborted and ended up in the Senate.  He then went on to point out that the "single solution" mentioned by Yellen was a fairly depressing message.  What a beautiful "touch" to put Yellen in her place.

(well, not quite in her place, since she still has her job screwing up the country, but rhetorically speaking..)

On the entertainment front, actress Eva Mendes has noted that if she goes back into acting, she'd wait for roles without gratuitous violence of sexuality.  Amazing how having children often seems to do that.

On the flip side, Russia has demanded a formal apology from Poland after their ambassador was splashed with red paint while visiting a Soviet cemetery in Poland this Monday.  My only thought in response is that if Russia wants their diplomats to be warmly received and protected, maybe.....stop committing war crimes in Ukraine and elsewhere?

Just a thought.  And if you're a diplomat working for a country that's committing war crimes, maybe....consider working for someone else?  If you're afraid of polonium in your borscht, maybe....walk through the door at the U.S. Embassy and ask for asylum?

There are times when we ought to act on conscience, and this is one of them.  And of course, Putin delenda est!

Interesting....

 This article about a woman who voluntarily (and irreversibly) sterilized herself to avoid the possibility of pregnancy speaks first of all to the Dobbs issue and Roe, but also to the question of "transition" procedures.  How so?  Well, the woman apparently had her fallopian tubes removed completely at age 24, making it impossible for her to ever change her mind.  It is, really, the sterilization equivalent of "bottom surgery", and she notes that the doctors did not ask her if she really, really wanted to make that decision so young.

In other words, the notion that a doctor needs to consult with the patient before doing something irreversible seems to be disappearing, and that has especially bad implications when we consider that many states are protecting (sometimes it seems like encouraging) teens to "transition".   Really, massive lawsuits (or far worse) seem likely as we remove the barriers that historically ensured that "transitioning" people really wanted that done.

Brilliant from the Bee

In this article from the nation's preeminent news source, the Babylon Bee indicates that a man who would murder his own child to avoid marriage just might not be husband material, but could likely be a pimp, brothel owner, or politician, especially of the liberal variety.

And really, that indicates what is at stake with the Dobbs case and the possible repeal of Roe.  If the hellish 1973 decision is repealed, women could end up better off because cads would no longer be able to eliminate the evidence of their sin and avoid commitment.  

On the light side, a joke from a college friend of mine; most men are so afraid of commitment, they can't even spell it right, generally adding an extra "t" to it.

This could be problematic

Congressman Scott Wiener of San Francisco has announced that up to 19 states are planning on offering "refuge" to transsexual youth whose home states prohibit doctors from administering procedures and prescribing medicines to help minors transition.  Now apart from the question of the propriety of transition procedures, and apart from the question of whether those 19 states really will enact things into law (it's a few legislators in each case so far), there's an ugly reality.

Specifically, if you offer a minor "refuge" in another state to do something that's illegal in his home state, federal law--transporting minors across state borders--comes into play.  Plus, the bill he proposes recommends "slow-walking" out of state warrants for the arrest of those involved in doing these things--and that sets state authorities up for more conflicts with federal authorities.

Sounds like a great way of getting a few zealous law enforcement officials in California put in jail, whereupon far more of them will decide to change careers because they can't risk their own freedom for the sake of guys like Wiener.