Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Come on, man.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Late Night Open Thread: What of the Minions?

Late Night Open Thread: What of the Minions?

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A Boss like Putin, one does not simply oust. However, when in the course of mob-related events, a Boss should happen to become more of a liability than an asset… said Boss tends to have a shorter shelf life than the latest TikTok dance craze.

Slowly, and then all at once:

yeah the events themselves ABSOLUTELY have an awful lot to do with it but the entire operation just vanished almost instantaneously

anyway I want to be perfectly clear about this next part, I’m not an expert on this, and the experts have their facts correct. what I’m describing here is just guesses based off macro systems analysis and not number crunching. that said

I’ve read all the analyses that russia has enough independent side systems & cash reserves & alt-revenue to survive years with harsh sanctions. they all make sense. those analyses are *correct*. but I kinda think they miss a big piece of how systems actually work in meatspace

what would happen in meatspace with those cash reserves & side systems is: they will get heavily, heavily skimmed at each level by the entities moving the cash, because that’s how they operate now. they won’t just *stop* because they enter austerity

and level by level, when you start skimming heavily off a very fixed resource, the cash tumbling down to the next floor is reduced, probably at an even higher percentage due to panic skimming. the burn rate goes way up. so there’s less cash to begin with & it vanishes faster

when I read “they can last years” I keep thinking “yeah but can they?” because how long does it really take before cash stops moving to the most important low level: people who *actually do shit*? is it really years?

maybe it is! but rationally squinting at a kleptocracy entering austerity with a panic mentality…I don’t agree. i think it might only be weeks. no I can’t show my math, there is none. it’s just a hmmm are we sure they’re gonna be sure to pay the levels that keep society running?

Reader Interactions

58Comments

  1. 1.

    Soonergrunt

    Sooner or later the people who carry the guns and keep the others in line won’t get their paycheck. Then it gets ugly, fast. Especially if the regime leaders have nowhere to escape to.

  2. 2.

    Jinchi

    Serious question. How long does it take a soldier in the field in hostile territory to realize he’s no longer getting paid?

  3. 3.

    RaflW

    I guess I don’t know what Kilgore Trout is saying in the first tweet? What propaganda collapse did I miss?

  6. 6.

    Betsy

    @RaflW: 

    From taking a look at the twitter feed and its responses, it seems there is less activity from the troll farms in Macedonia and elsewhere, perhaps.

    Also, Tulsi Gabbard is now tweeting saying that “Russia has made its point” and should back down. I guess her paycheck bounced, the little traitorous shill.

  10. 10.

    Sebastian

    @Jinchi:

    They don’t get paid really. Also, in Russia or anywhere in Eastern Europe, people often went for years without pay. Crazy, right? You were accruing retirement years and you had healthcare etc. and people just got by.

    That getting paid thing is more a Western thing. There is A LOT of bartering going on, mostly stuff that’s not nailed down. Like the diesel you are supposed to put in the tanks. You trade it for cash or booze and you and your buddies get wasted while sitting and waiting doing nothing for 60 days.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    @Betsy: I recall furrow queen Susan Collins opining Trump had “learned his lesson” after impeachment #1. Vlad “made his point” is something like that.

  15. 15.

    Calouste

    @Jinchi: He most likely won’t realize he doesn’t get paid until he gets back home. But he realizes he doesn’t get fed well three times a day.

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    What of the Minions?

    Stuff them all in the crust!

    Oh, wrong Minions.  And, well, nevermind.

  18. 18.

    Sebastian

    Russians are ready to talk. Glorious invasion for glory of kleptocracy not going so well, Vlad?

    ⚡️ Zelensky says Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but only in a country "from which missiles aren't flying," rejecting the idea of meeting in Belarus.Earlier today, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation arrived in Minsk for talks with Ukraine.— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 27, 2022

  19. 19.

    opiejeanne

    @Calouste: They’re already not getting fed very well, if at all. There are tales of Russian soldiers going door to door in search of food and fuel for their vehicles. There is advice to give them a jerry can to which you’ve added a bit of sugar.

  21. 21.

    opiejeanne

    @Sebastian: Are the Russians going to offer a Ransom of Red Chief  deal? Please stop hurting our soldiers and breaking our war toys? We’ll pay you if you let us go home now.

  22. 22.

    opiejeanne

    @eclare: I’ve seen amazing threads of advice on Twitter today, including a fairly detailed one from a man who teaches at the War College, on how to slow them down in an urban setting, how to harass them while stressing not getting yourself killed. He emphasizes that you have to stay alive

    Today I learned that a smaller bottle with a longish neck is best for throwing, if you’re making Molotov cocktails. Easier to throw with accuracy, but drop them from the third floor of a building if you can. .

  23. 23.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Sebastian:

    Tulsi Gabbard changed her tune 30 minutes after the SWIFT announcement. 

    But she can still go fuck herself like that Russian warship.  The traitorous shitstain.

  25. 25.

    Sebastian

    @opiejeanne:

    Yes, the citizen of Kyiv mastered that. Also, add styrofoam to the gasoline so it becomes a sticky mess like napalm.

    They have “cocktail parties” where they fabricate them and then set up so called “refreshment center” at every street corner.

    The main brewery in Lviv has switched to making molotov cocktails. They even have a brandnew label just for the occasion. “We’ll brew beer later”

     

    ⚡️Lviv-based Pravda brewery switches to making Molotov cocktails.The brewery announced the plans after Ukraine’s Defense Ministry instructed civilians to make Molotov cocktails to resist invading Russian forces.— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 26, 2022

  30. 30.

    Mallard Filmore

    Over at Democratic Underground there is a posting with the title “Russian troops dumping fuel…”

    https://democraticunderground.com/100216408541

    The contents of the post is only a link: https://twitter.com/fatimatlis/status/1497806778993631232

    I do not know how to properly follow twitters, so scroll up one tweet to begin, and also follow the “Show this thread”.

    Is it really unravelling this fast? Are we only kidding ourselves (with too much optimism)?

  36. 36.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    the tempo is intensifying, Ukraine is now employing Mazel Tov Cocktails​

  37. 37.

    The Thin Black Duke

    “The most dangerous thing a society can do,” James Baldwin said, “is to create an enemy who has nothing else left to lose.”

  42. 42.

    MomSense

    @opiejeanne:

    I’ve been following Ukrainian artist @tribal.cat on Instagram.  She has posted photos of women gathering outside making Molotov cocktails.  So organized.  Honestly they look to me like the local fiber/knitting groups are activated just from the way those women rip the fabric.  Putin is well and truly fucked if the quilters and the knitters are working together.

  43. 43.

    Matt McIrvin

    @RaflW: The main thing to me is that Putin’s Western allies have almost all abandoned him in the past couple of days. Trump and Tulsi Gabbard and most of the Fox crowd just turned. Most of the nominal lefties going on about how opposition to Russia is the new McCarthyism have had to do a walk back on Ukraine. I think Greenwald is the biggest name still pushing Russia’s line.

  46. 46.

    ThresherK

    I love Kilgore Trout, but he has missed a little detail I think. I would describe this “skimming at every level” as not a now thing but something occurring in Tzarist Russia, the USSR, and post Cold War alike. After the fall many Soviet apparitchiks hung out the “under old management ” sign.

    (Not bragging about the USA  by comparison, however.)

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    @RaflW:

    There is no propaganda collapse, tovarishch  comrade  friend. But do you have any spare rubles dollars you can send me, so that I can heat my dacha condo in Санкт-Петербург  Saint Petersburg  New York? Спасибо  Thank you.

     

    SFAW-who-is-totally-nyet not-a-Russkiy-troll

  48. 48.

    SFAW

    @Sebastian:

    Man, it’s like someone flipped the light switch on and all the cockroaches are scrambling for the exit.

    One can only wonder if they’ll meet the same fate as cockroaches that don’t move fast enough.

  52. 52.

    Gvg

    @Jimmm: enough water. 30 years ago I got some bad gas. Less well maintained gas station underground storage tanks got some water in them and your car could stall out. I was told that was what happened probably. However, it was easily fixed by a bottle of gas treatment and being pickier of sources to buy from. Then Florida got stricter on gas station inspections and I haven’t had a problem in years.

    i don’t think water in the tank is permanent enough for this situation.

    I have no knowledge of the sugar effectiveness.

  53. 53.

    JanieM

    @Gvg: Sand works, but it takes a while. At least it did when my car was vandalized years ago while parked at the trailhead of the coastal strip of Olympic National Park.

  54. 54.

    Brit in Chicago

    @The Thin Black Duke

    “The most dangerous thing a society can do,” James Baldwin said, “is to create an enemy who has nothing else left to lose.”

    Yes, but I worry that this now applies to Putin as well as to the Ukrainian people. If he loses the war there is surely a danger that the regime will collapse, and I think in his own mind he cannot let that happen.

  55. 55.

    Kalakal

    I await with interest to see how many politicians, organizations and wingnut groups across the world suddenly experience funding difficulties.

    Shits like Gabbard remind me of a statement from an old FBI guy years ago regarding communists in the US. it was (roughly)

    “McCartyism was pointless, didn’t need it.

    You wanted to know who the true believers were? Just look at who switched from ‘Stop this capitalist war’ to ‘We must delare war on Germany now’ at the end of June 1941( the launch of Barbarossa)”

    The cockroaches are being exposed to the light

  58. 58.

    opiejeanne

    @JanieM: Years ago a neighbor kid put a handful of dirt into our gas tank, and the engine would stall when the gas filter clogged, and we began carrying a couple of spare filters in that vehicle.

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