Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The willow is too close to the house.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

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

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Friday Evening Open Thread: Some Sidebars on the War in Ukraine

Friday Evening Open Thread: Some Sidebars on the War in Ukraine

by | 187 Comments

This post is in: ,

Adam does incomparable work every damn’ day, but there’s just so much stuff out there…

Hat tip to commentor TBone — a long sobering speech for the weekend:

Reader Interactions

187Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    There’s a theory that the best course of action in a particular situation is to suck up to people who have things you need. But the other half the equation which modern elites often forget is that obsequiousness needs to be adequately rewarded. Few people today have confidence that the elites really want to engage in a mutually beneficial quid pro quo. The elites have lost so much credibility as a class that many people believe they are unreliable, so there’s no point in sucking up to them.

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    Vladimir Solovyov asserts that Russia’s borders extend all the way to Mexico

    Sure, and I am the Emperor of the Mid-Atlantic States.

  4. 4.

    Another Scott

    Defense.gov today:

    Biden Administration Announces Historic New Security Assistance Package for Ukraine
    April 26, 2024 |

    Today, as we commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group led by Secretary Austin, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced a historic new security assistance package to address Ukraine’s ongoing battlefield needs and demonstrate unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine. This package, provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) using funding appropriated by the national security supplemental which the President just signed into law, includes equipment to augment Ukraine’s air defenses, fires, and artillery, and to sustain capabilities previously committed by the United States.

    Unlike Presidential Drawdown Authority, which DoD has continued to leverage to deliver equipment to Ukraine from DoD stocks at a historic pace, including through the $1 billion package announced on April 24, USAI is an authority under which the United States procures capabilities from U.S. industry or partners. This announcement represents the beginning of a contracting process to acquire additional priority capabilities for Ukraine.

    The capabilities in this announcement, which totals up to $6 billion, include:

    * Additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems;
    * Additional munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS);
    * Equipment to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles, and radars with Ukraine’s air defense systems;
    * Counter-UAS equipment and systems;
    * Munitions for laser-guided rocket systems;
    * Multi-mission radars;
    * Counter-artillery radars;
    *Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
    * 155mm and 152mm artillery rounds;
    * Precision aerial munitions;
    * Switchblade and Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS);
    * Tactical vehicles to tow weapons and equipment;
    * Demolition munitions;
    * Components to support Ukrainian production of UAS and other capabilities;
    * Small arms and additional small arms ammunition; and
    * Ancillary items and support for training, maintenance, and sustainment activities.

    This USAI package highlights the strong and unwavering U.S. commitment to meet Ukraine’s most pressing immediate and longer-term capability needs to fight Russian aggression as part of the global coalition we have built with some 50 Allies and partners.

    $1B in stuff announced Wednesday and moving immediately. $6B in new purchases announced today. Thing are (finally) moving, and moving quickly.

    Slava Ukraini!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Sounds good.

    The Pentagon has said it will “rush” Patriot air defence missiles and artillery ammunition to Ukraine as part of a $6bn (£4.8bn) military aid.

    Its the second package from Washington this week, following $1bn in more immediate aid announced on Wednesday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier on Friday that Kyiv “urgently” needs Patriot missiles in the face of growing Russia air threats. Mr Zelensky said Patriots “can and should save lives right now”.

    The US will “move immediately” to get the supplies to Ukraine, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday. However a list of the equipment in the package, published by the Defence Department, did not include additional Patriot launchers – something Mr Zelensky says his country desperately needs.

    It is the largest security assistance package the US has committed to date, Mr Austin said, and includes air defence munitions, counter-drone systems, artillery ammunition an critical intercepts for Patriot air defence systems.

    “It’s not just Patriots that they need, they need other types of systems and interceptors as well,” Mr Austin said. “I would caution us all in terms of making Patriot the silver bullet.”

    “Understand what’s at stake for Ukraine, for Europe, and for the United States,” he said. “If Putin prevails in Ukraine – Europe would face a security threat it hasn’t seen in a lifetime. Russia will not stop in Ukraine.” Asked whether the US aid would protect Ukrainian forces, Mr Austin said that the commitment was “material, real, and substantial” although “not instantaneous”.

    Ukraine only has a handful of Patriots to complement other Western missile defence systems and existing stocks of Soviet-era surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), such as the S-300.

    They are the most capable and expensive air defence systems that Ukraine has. Each Patriot battery costs around $1bn (£800m), and each missile costs nearly $4m.

    Germany has already promised an extra Patriot system – and its defence and foreign ministers appealed to their European counterparts earlier this month to respond urgently. Greece has stocks of Patriots and S-300s but said none could be spared. We explained why we cannot do it,” he told Skai TV. His said his country’s air defences were “critical systems for the protection of Greek air space”.

    According to reports, Spain will supply some Patriot missiles but not a full system.
    BBC

  8. 8.

    Spanky

    Sure, Comrade Solovyov! Come on over! You’ll be greeted with open arms!

    (Just be sure the correct translation of “arms” is used,  eh?)

  9. 9.

    trollhattan

    @prostratedragon: Cumulatively, having watched clips from the remaining Russian news shows the folks who meet Vlad’s criteria for being public opinionators are batshit nuts and all have a suicide pact that in its essence “Yes, the inevitable nuclear oblivion may be unfortunate but we will prevail and at last defeat the West, as is our destiny.”

    I’m perhaps understating it.

  10. 10.

    Spanky

    @trollhattan: I would imagine that “move immediately” as used here means it’s already in country. No point in letting Russia trust open source reporting.

  11. 11.

    Geminid

    Top of the hour CBS radio news: 12 tornados touched down in Texas and Oklahoma today. Heavy weather predicted through the weekend from the Gulf of Mexico to Michigan.

  13. 13.

    trollhattan

    @Spanky: You might be right, and there’s a chance they alter their missile attacks preemptively as a result.

    They could have been as near as the Poland border when Brandon signed the bill.

  18. 18.

    Jackie

    Did someone finally manage to gag MTG? I don’t think I’ve seen or heard anything about her shortly after the Ukraine bill passed.

    NOT THAT I’M COMPLAINING! I wonder if her Orange god told her to 🤐.

  19. 19.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I listened to the last 40 minutes of Biden’s interview with Howard Stern on the way home from school today.  It ended right before 5.  Now I’m listening to the beginning because they started a replay right at 5.  Huzzah.  Go Joe!

  21. 21.

    Urza

    @Baud: The real problem is no one ever actually learns from history.  Todays problems were yesterdays problems with elites.  Maybe it was a little less obvious to the peons before the internet, but NOTHING has changed about the equation since least the end of the French Revolution.

  22. 22.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @rikyrah:

    Full throttle is OK. Afterburner is better! As in F-16 jets and the weapons systems for them.

    Now is the time to step up and give Ukraine what they need to kick the invaders out of their country.

  24. 24.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Baud: I dunno.  Trump seems to have found people for a long time who deluded themselves into believing their loyalty would be reciprocated.

  25. 25.

    jimmiraybob

    “…Vladimir Solovyov asserts that Russia’s borders extend all the way to Mexico, and if Russia needs the Atlantic ocean, it should take it as well.”

    Comrade Solovyov,

    Your having failed to mention Alaska is of grave concern to the people’s government.  Your name will be mentioned to the highest of the people’s leadership.

  26. 26.

    Bill Arnold

    @trollhattan:

    the inevitable nuclear oblivion may be unfortunate but we will prevail

    Russian propagandists regularly talk about attacking France and the United Kingdom with nuclear weapons.
    France, for example, is a significant thermonuclear power, with a missile sub(s?) at sea at all times, and has a reputation (carefully cultivated) for being a bit bugfuck.

  27. 27.

    sdhays

    I hope the Biden Administration takes a lesson from the ineffectiveness of warning the Russians not to try to take out the Ukrainian civilian infrastructure – there’s no point in making threats or offering something to them in order to get them to not do something. They’re monsters who are going to monster. Let’s just give Ukraine what it needs, back them to the hilt, and help them finish this awful war with Russia’s total, abject defeat.

    We should tell Ukraine we don’t care where they aim those ATACMS, as long it’s a military target. Stop worrying about attacks on Russian territory.

  29. 29.

    Ken

    @Jackie:  I wonder if her Orange god told her to 🤐.

    I have a theory that one reason the Ukraine and other bills got through is that the Orange one was distracted, for obvious reasons, and without the constant whining there wasn’t enough pressure to sustain the blocks.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    I have a theory, and it’s this: let’s tax the holy crap out of the extremely well-off, which both a) enriches the country that facilitated their wealth in the first place, and b) takes away the ‘weapon’ – and it is a weapon, that obscene wealth – that they use to keep the country’s economy structured so that money flows up to them first, last, and always.

  33. 33.

    sab

    Fuck! BJ said stuff I wanted to shriek at my husband, but he, being old, is napping. How dare he!

  35. 35.

    TBone

    @trollhattan: Oops edit my own duh error

    Pooty solicits his most evil genius insane cranks to submit policy proposals (sound familiar?)

    (this should not get memory holed):

    stripes.com/theaters/europe/2024-04-17/russia-action-to-weaken-us-13576646.html

    Other points in the policy proposal, which was also provided to The Post, suggested that Moscow stoke conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan to bring Russia and China closer together, as well as “to escalate the situation in the Middle East around Israel, Iran and Syria to distract the U.S. with the problems of this region.”

  37. 37.

    Bupalos

    Vladimir Solovyov asserts that Russia’s borders extend all the way to Mexico, and if Russia needs the Atlantic ocean, it should take it as well.

    It tickles me to see that 1.2 years on that this is being offered as a NEGATIVE revelation. This is progress. For folks who don’t know, since before the Ukraine invasion there have been billboards up all over Russia that are most accurately translate as “The Russian World Has No Borders.”

    Any potential limit they identify is (relatively speaking) a positive.

    Apologies for the flippant nature of this post for folks who didn’t realize they were in a MUCH more dangerous version of 1937.. to speak colloquially. History doesn’t repeat. You’re in 2024. This is worse.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @TBone: Thanks for that link. Can’t read this without the Boris Badinov accent in my head.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it did not comment “on the existence or nonexistence of internal ministry documents” and on the progress of work on them. “As we have stated several times on different levels, we can confirm the mood is to decisively combat the aggressive steps taken by the collective West as part of the hybrid war launched against Russia,” the ministry added.

    Ladies and germs, I think we’ve located Rummy’s unknown unknowns.

  39. 39.

    Bupalos

    @sab: Serious?

    You have a rightwingcurious hubby?

    You want help? You want to know what phrases might be better? This sounds like a think BJ can do!!!

  40. 40.

    Bupalos

    @trollhattan: We never should have taken those aggressive steps!!! damn it, I knew they were lobbing missiles into cribs only because of those damn aggressive steps. We never should have been so performatively neutral towards Ukrainian aspirations to self rule,  and they wouldn’t have been forced to murder toddlers!

  41. 41.

    sab

    @Bupalos: He is not rightwing curious. He is asleep this afternoon and wants to remain so. Now you are just trolling me. Trust is like the soul. Once it is trolled off it never comes back.

    ETA He is if anything a LWNJ.

  42. 42.

    Bupalos

    @sab: NONONO I literally thought you might be asking for help.

    It happens to people you know. They get enmeshed with people (especially the male of the species) who go crazy. No trolling whatsoever. Just always looking to make a difference in this whole craptastic situation. Love my LWNJ Bro’s!!

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    Americans could be in for nasty tax surprise if this Joe Biden plan goes through
    Joe Biden’s budget proposal for 2025 includes what is being called the largest capital gains tax seen in 100 years

  44. 44.

    JPL

    @Baud:  oh no    Both earned and unearned income should be taxed the same.    If you earn over 500,000 no deductions.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    We haven’t yet been able to defeat the super rich when they’re scared. And they’re terrified right now. We’ll see.

  47. 47.

    Bupalos

    Here’s what i think needs to happen:

    I think the folks on this blog need to (as I am going to do this summer) step outside their front door, start walking, walk up to the front doors of the surrounding houses, and engage these folks and tell them they think Joe Biden is the better candidate to vote for and why.

    I’m going to do this. And I think you should. And I think whatever bullshit comes back in the “it’s too dangerous” category is evidence that Donald Trump should be the next president of These United States.

  51. 51.

    UncleEbeneezer

    It just dawned on me: Labelling anyone who disagrees with or criticizes Gaza protestors as being “Pro Genocide” is the same energy as labelling anyone who disagrees with or criticizes Israel as being “Nazi/AntiSemitic.”  Like, the EXACT SAME ENERGY!  And it’s rather ironic who are currently doing the former have been, for years, bemoaning those who do the latter.

  52. 52.

    Bupalos

    @JPL: There is no way that “unearned income” should be taxed the same as income requiring effort.

    I mean… listen to yourself.

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Russia’s borders extend all the way to Mexico, and if Russia needs the Atlantic ocean, it should take it as well.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….

    They can’t even “take” the Black Sea.

  57. 57.

    patrick II

    MR Solovyov’s umbrage about the U. S. seeing itself as “Supreme” over Russia gets at the heart of Russia’s inferiority complex. In its dominant ~ submissive worldview Russia must not be the submissive. Of course, one could consider cooperation instead, but that seems too out of character for Russia. As a result it must dominate the border countries to feel itself safe from them. And in the modern “small world” the U.S. has become a Russian border country to be dominated or submitted to.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Bupalos: Please explain it to this broken down hillbilly carpenter who put it all out there and only  got his taxed SS and taxed pension for all his pain.

  59. 59.

    sab

    @Baud: Having been in tax prep for the last forty years I would love for the IRS to get more and sharper teeth. Year after year after year we tell them you cannot do that, and year after year they come back and say my neighbor did that and the IRS said Nada. We are Greece or Italy now. Lax laws are voluntary. This infuriates me.

  60. 60.

    patrick II

    Let’s pretend for a moment that the NYTimes pique at Joe Biden isn’t just an excuse to go after Biden like they wanted to anyway. How fucking petty do you have to be to let a fascist sociopathic traitor become president again and destroy NATO, the economy, and our entire political system because your sense of prestige has been hurt?  Be grown-ups and get over it.

  61. 61.

    hueyplong

    @Jackie: “Did someone finally manage to gag MTG?”

    Not sure. She seems to have cultivated a reputation as a top. Any chance she’s just deceased?

  63. 63.

    Josie

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
     And to this public school librarian who can barely pay her bills on her teacher retirement income. It is hard to feel kindly toward super rich people who always want more.

  64. 64.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: Turkiye now holds the balance of military power in the Black Sea. If and when Ukraine becomes a Nato member, that sea will become a “Nato lake,” like the Baltic.

    Ed. Rumania and Bulgaria are already Nato members. Turkiye joined the alliance back in 1952.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Brandon Friedman@BFriedmanDC
    While Indiana University having a confirmed police “sniper” on the roof overlooking peaceful protests is unhinged, just from a military standpoint, I find it hilarious that this cop “sniper” got snuck up on and filmed at close range by someone coming from the rear

    Quote
    Margaret Menge
    @togdali
    ·
    22hSniper on the roof of the Indiana Memorial Union at #IU. Gun pointed down at peaceful Gaza protesters in Dunn Meadow. This is 4 hours after the arrest of 22 students and 2 professors in the meadow. Have never seen anything like this on this campus.

  71. 71.

    Gvg

    @sab: yes and that is part of why I think earned and unearned income should be taxed the same. Giving one an advantage over the other meant it was valuable to appear to be the lower taxed kind and leads to a lot of effort that I consider wasted energy. It is more efficient to make the consideration which thing or combination of both gets me the highest return.

    we need to change the incentives so that paying higher wages to the bottom workers instead of executives is the better return. Also that the long term prosperity of the company outweighs the next quarter dividends.

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:

    @JPL:

    This kind of stuff kills me.  If someone has a HUGE PILE OF WEALTH-GENERATING DOUGH and they can live off of the dividends, they can afford to pay taxes on those dividends, just like they would if it was earned from their labor.

    At the end of the day, after paying taxes…they still have the HUGE PILE OF WEALTH-GENERATING DOUGH.  Which is sitting there for millennia to come, still kicking out returns and helping them avoid actual *work *

    The truly wingnutty (or perhaps, true Galt-ians) should be reminded that we could always tax dividends at a HIGHER rate, or just confiscate everything they earn above $200k.

    These are all human constructs…there’s no divine law that says that Sky God will strike us all down if the capital gains tax rate goes above X%.

    Shorter: here’s my newly-sharpened pitchfork, you  RWNJ whiners.  Now shut the entire fuck up.

  74. 74.

    sab

    Did anyone watch Morning Joe (MSM after bleach applied.)

    TFNYT had Peter Baker to defend them (with Mark Leibovitz, who wrote a whole book bestselling book about how corrupt and courtesan/courtier the DC press corps is) to defend him. They are not even trying. They are just trying to implicate their seirous reporters ( raise your hands people)  into their gaslighting.

  75. 75.

    blindyone

    @OzarkHillbilly:  We had multiple LAPD snipers on the rooftops around Pauley Pavilion at UCLA after the walkout in May ‘70. We were walking to a university wide (peaceful) meeting with the chancellor at the time.

  76. 76.

    Gvg

    @OzarkHillbilly: you haven’t looked. It has been standard practice at all large university gatherings for decades, to look for mass shooters. All big division football games for instance. My cousin was the sniper officer for years, until recently, when he decided his eyesight wasn’t good enough anymore. It’s a hot, unpleasant duty while everyone else has fun, but college shootings have happened.

    I don’t know if it will ever help, but they have to take the precaution. They are there if you look. Most I ever saw was secret service when candidate Bill Clinton came. Students loved him. I was waiting for tickets in the early morning before he arrived and saw them set up. All over the nearby roofs.

    So it might not be a special thing for protests and the U President might not have been especially informed because it probably is routine.

  77. 77.

    frog

    @sab: Having been in tax prep for the last forty years

    Since you are an expert, there is earned income, unearned income, and imaginary income.  If my Prudential account stocks go up, is that taxed right away?  To me, that is imaginary income until I cash some of it out, when it becomes real income.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Josie: My hat is off to yet another librarian. It has been my pleasure to know a few of your anointed profession and I have yet to find their intelligence lacking.

  82. 82.

    Manyakitty

    @sab: I saw a report a earlier this year about how much revenue the newly-hired IRS employees are generating. I think it was over $1 billion?

  84. 84.

    Harrison Wesley

    @OzarkHillbilly: Do give it a try – they’re a hell of a lot of fun, and you can find a lot of cheap (or free) resources if you need a hand getting started.

    And I don’t stay awake dreaming of hitting Broadway next year or any nonsense like that.  I’ll be happy if I get one professional production of one play before I continue my artistic career in the next world.

  86. 86.

    TBone

    I stood under a gaggle of rooftop snipers to protest Raygun when he came to Media, PA.  I was the sole protester, and my Dad came along (I – late teens, him – proud as a peacock and protective).  He was my Secret Service.

    I know that’s not what you’re talking about but that memory just came on like a hug from Dad.

  87. 87.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Bill Arnold: ​
     

    France, for example, is a significant thermonuclear power, with a missile sub(s?) at sea at all times, and has a reputation (carefully cultivated) for being a bit bugfuck.

    France got the Bomb, but don’t you grieve,
    ’cause they’re on our side – I believe
    -Tom Lehrer, “Who’s Next?”

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Josie: ​ No, I state the obvious. One guy I know was a librarian at STL University Med school. Do you know who all the Med Students came to for help? Yah. Him.

    Another guy I knew was working at a law firm. Who did all the lawyers come to for help with citations from centuries old cases? Yah, that guy. (Who gave me my nym 30 years before the internet was a thing)

    I know from what I speak. Librarians have knowledge beyond my ken, and I honor them.

  92. 92.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Very cool.  Some of my railroad buddies went to WCU.  No Russian majors AFAIK – not a great demand at Conrail for those skills.

  93. 93.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Harrison Wesley: TBH, I write for myself. To expunge my guilt, to celebrate my small triumphs, to just explain what it was like  to live in South STL in the 70s and 80s or how it felt to be the first to gaze upon worlds hitherto unknown to man. My sons know a few of those stories, others I can’t speak of to them until I am dead.

  95. 95.

    Jay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    tactically, it’s not “a sniper”, it’s overwatch.

    A guy on a roof has a much different range of view and visuals on the crowd than a guy on the ground, along with a different ability to inform people on the ground and react if needed.

    Here, they are usually in pairs, one guy with a scope on a rifle, the other guy with binocs, and they usually patrol the roof, keeping eyes on as much as they can see, along with other roofs in the area.

  97. 97.

    lowtechcyclist

    @patrick II: ​
     

    Do you know who else is controlled by Jews?. Zionists.

    And Hillel too, man – totally controlled by Jews!

    Not to mention, just go check out your local synagogue. Bet the Jews are in complete control of it!

  98. 98.

    wjca

    @Geminid: Top of the hour CBS radio news: 12 tornados touched down in Texas and Oklahoma today.

    Rather less subtle a Sign from God than an eclipse, IMHO.  Will their state governments take note?

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jay: You say pohtaytoh I say pohtahtoh…

    Face it, if we feel the need to have them up there, we as a country are fcked up.

  103. 103.

    Eyeroller

    @Jeffro: Dividends are taxed as ordinary income, like interest.  Short-term and long-term capital gains are treated differently, both from ordinary income and from each other.  Capital gains are not taxed until realized.

  104. 104.

    wjca

    @Geminid: The jet stream has become Woke. They say its because the Pacific El Niño and La Niña weather dynamics are now gender-fluid.

    Are we sure it’s not because they’re Hispanic?

  105. 105.

    Harrison Wesley

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s exactly who you should write for.  I think you might find playwriting an interesting way of communicating with yourself, even though it’s structured to communicate with others.  You’ll find yourself defining the same character in very different ways between a story and a play.  (Yes, I write short stories, too – they’re as shitty as my plays.  Poor things, but mine own.)

  110. 110.

    Warblewarble

    Countdown to the first cop killing of an anti genocide protester  has begun. Of course nobody saw it coming.

  111. 111.

    Manyakitty

    OMG. I’m watching MSNBC right now and they just showed a clip of Elise Stefanik. She is GLAMMED UP. Totally auditioning. 🤢

  115. 115.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    there’s no point in sucking up to them

    None whatsoever. They will never GIVE away anything, other than possibly garbage.

    I cannot remember, in my very nearly 3/4 of a century, anyone who was worthy of sucking up to. Admiring – possibly. (I worked in professional sports and participated as an amateur in the same sport, so there were people I admired, who had skills I had no idea how to reach) But sucking up? Why?

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @Manyakitty: No reason given. It may be caution over the Gaza war, where the US and Turkiye have taken different sides. Also, Turkiye is preparing a major offensive against the PKK in Northern Iraq. Events in either area could make for an awkward visit.

    The timing of the visit wasn’t critical. It will probably still happen once the region cools down some. Both leaders seem to want to continue the better relations they’ve enjoyed since last summer.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @sab:

    I saw them once while driving home when I lived/worked in eastern OH. It was not a settling sight…..

  119. 119.

    Baud

    Via reddit, I’m shocked

    Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving linked to hundreds of crashes, dozens of deaths
     / 
    NHTSA found that Tesla’s driver-assist features are insufficient at keeping drivers engaged in the task of driving, which can often have fatal results.

  120. 120.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Manyakitty:

    I’m morbidly curious about the talent competition. 

    Is that the sucking Dump’s disgusting, fat, orange, fascist ass competition?

    (So not sorry!)

  121. 121.

    Brit in Chicago

    @Jeffro: Joe and his people have a plan which, if implemented, would go some way towards doing that:

    General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 Revenue Proposals (treasury.gov)

    If Manchin and Sinema has been closer to the median Democrat something like it might have passed in the first two years. If NY had not screwed up the districting of House seats we might have had it last year. Next year, even if Joe is still there and the House is back, it depends on the possible but not terribly likely retention of power in the Senate.

  124. 124.

    TBone

    Did anyone watch the Timothy Snyder video above?  It’s not that long!  It’s hopeful and informative…

  125. 125.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Most assuredly, particularly since LOML is from Chester.  Wasn’t there a detective series on cable that was set in Delco?  I seem to remember seeing something like that a little while back.

  126. 126.

    Martin

    @Jeffro: As someone who has earned more off of unearned income than earned, unearned should absolutely be taxed higher – in all cases. I would also favor a wealth tax on top of that.

    I don’t care if you have to sell an asset to pay the wealth tax, or that you have to pay 40% on the capital gain on that asset. You have a system of forever compounding wealth accumulation. The thing that matters for the overall growth of the economy is economic work. If you aren’t doing any economic work, it’s entirely reasonable the government recover those assets so they can put it to work.

  127. 127.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jay:

    tactically, it’s not “a sniper”, it’s overwatch.

    Tactfully, I don’t give a shit. A person looking through a scope on a rifle that is pointed at me or anyone else is a mortal threat.
    Binoculars are fine. Spotting scopes are acceptable (though not with video/image capture). Scoped rifle, nope.

  130. 130.

    ColoradoGuy

    Second the Tim Snyder video. He’s absolutely right about empires. They only learn from defeat.

  132. 132.

    TBone

    @Harrison Wesley: Mare of Easttown.

    Chester proper?  I worked for an attorney famous in that City.  He’s deceased and his son is now a Judge in DelCo Court of Common Pleas after being a state Senator.  The father actually took me into the court room to assist him.

    I also have many stories about Chester, most better left untold.

    But that family was very kind to me.  Used to be given the keys to the Caddy and sent into Center City Philly to pick up mom at the hairdresser.

  134. 134.

    TheflipPsyd

    @Harrison Wesley: well, now you have reminded me of my dad, who worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and then retired from Conrail in 1988.  So many good memories of visiting his office near 30th Street station. Haven’t thought of Conrail in years. Thanks!

  135. 135.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Yeah, Chester its own self, although she moved away a long time ago.  Only times I can recall being in Chester was when the nonprofit I worked for in the ’90s was trying to set up a charter school there.

  137. 137.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TheflipPsyd: 15 N. 32nd Street it is!  Don’t know what they’re doing with the building now – we all got dumped in the mid-90s, and I didn’t have too many further occasions to go to that neck of the woods.  Pennsylvania/Penn Central (that’s when I started)/Conrail; helluva ride.

  141. 141.

    Baud

    Via reddit

    Texas Attracted California Techies. Now It’s Losing Thousands of Them.
    The “Texas Miracle” loses some of its magic as Oracle announces it’s moving its new HQ out of Austin and Tesla lays off nearly 2,700 workers.

  143. 143.

    Jay

    @Bill Arnold:

    back in 1981, i got a broken shoulder at a Student Protest,

    (The Reagan Recession and Reganomics had caused Uni’s here to cut classes by 50% and double tuition)

    The protests were rotating, one day here, one day there.

    At the protest at UBC, some frat boys thought it would be “fun” to throw bricks and rocks into the crowd from the roof of an 8 story building.

    There was no “overwatch” just 3 lines of riot cops on the ground ensuring that “we” couldn’t distress the Admin.

    The Frat Boys walked away.

  145. 145.

    Geminid

    @Manyakitty: Maybe more speculation than insight. But the US and Turkiye have mended much of their relationship that’s been problematic ever since we invaded Iraq 20 years ago. Biden and Erdogan seemed to have cleared the air some when they met on the sidelines of July’s Nato summit in Vilnius lsst July.

    I never paid much attention to Turkiye until Russia invaded Ukraine back in 2022. It’s an interesting country that literally straddles Europe and Asia. For a long time it was Nato’s only Muslim member state.

  146. 146.

    wjca

    @Ruckus: But sucking up? Why?

    Judging from the outside, it requires being desperate to succeed (however you define that), but convinced deep down that you will never make it on merit.  So you need, really really need, someone to give you a hand up.  BUT, the only way you can see to get that kind of help is to suck up to someone — because you have a low opinion of yourself on that front as well.

  147. 147.

    TheflipPsyd

    @Harrison Wesley: oh wow I wonder if you knew my dad or uncle. My dad worked in programming and also started with Penn Central. My uncle was a clerk of some kind an did something with the union. My brother has a ton of memorabilia from when we cleared out my parents house. Great retirement plan. My dad took a buyout in 88 and ended up regretting it. His job was his life. And about a year to 18 months later half of his co-workers retired with an even better package. My dad and brothers went to the barber in the building for year after he retired. I remember my dad being so upset when that happened in the 90s.

  148. 148.

    Harrison Wesley

    @wjca: I have a copy of that which I loaned out – thanks for reminding me that I need to get it back!

  149. 149.

    BretH

    Late, sorry! But I shared the video with my son and here are his thoughts:
    I agree with what hes saying, except that I dont think it applies to russia really. I think comparing the current war to post-ww2 European colonial wars isnt really possible as well.
    And I also disagree with him saying that Russia isnt special, and that by losing they’ll be more like france or the uk. I Ithink Russia is special, that their ideology is inherently based on fear of invasion rather than the colonial superiority of post-war Britain or France.
    And the current war isnt one of the far off colonial wars that the European powers lost following the second world war, it’s close to home and is considered to be of vital importance to the safety of the state by Putin and I’d wager a large chunk of the Russian people.
    When France lost in Algeria it didnt effect them all that much, same with Portugal in Angola etc, but if Russia loses in Ukraine they see it as potentially the end.
    Only real comparison he gave I heard was Nazi Germany and it took the country being split and monitored for 45 years by the two world superpowers to get where we are today. How would we affect something similar to Russia, it’s impossible.
    Granted hes probably much more knowledgable than me but those are my thoughts.
    ** i love my son, the historian!

  150. 150.

    TheflipPsyd

    @Harrison Wesley: oh wow I wonder if you knew my dad or uncle. My dad worked in programming and also started with Penn Central. My uncle was a clerk of some kind an did something with the union. My brother has a ton of memorabilia from when we cleared out my parents house. Great retirement plan. My dad took a buyout in 88 and ended up regretting it. His job was his life. And about a year to 18 months later half of his co-workers retired with an even better package. My dad and brothers went to the barber in the building for year after he retired. I remember my dad being so upset when that happened in the 90s.

    ETA and the golf outing. My dad and brothers went every year, even after he retired. Thanks for strolling down memory lane with me.

  151. 151.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TBone: Yes, if my aging alcohol-addled (and alliteration-addicted) brain remembers correctly.  TPTB tore us up in the public meeting, then asked us in private if we were willing to sell the curriculum we had developed.  So it goes.

  153. 153.

    Harrison Wesley

    @TheflipPsyd: My pleasure.  I might well have known your dad and/or your uncle.  I worked briefly in programming, and for many years in freight billing, plus brief stints in a variety of jobs before I got enough seniority not to get bounced all over the place.  I’m glad your folks enjoyed the ride.  I probably did, but since I was a serious alcoholic for my whole career there and a hallucinogen aficionado for the first ten years or so, my memories have long since decamped.

  154. 154.

    wjca

    @Harrison Wesley:

    If you find you have questions on it, let me know. I might be able to get you an answer.  (Carol is an old friend.  Since the 70s, when I was teaching her how to kill people.)

  155. 155.

    Manyakitty

    @Geminid: it’s a fascinating place.

    My grandmother’s family has lived in Safed for 8 or 9 generations at this point. Before her immediate family emigrated to the US, my great grandfather was kidnapped into the Turkish army. He ran away once, was home long enough to get my grandma started (😛), but they found him and dragged him back. Then he got typhus and they let him out.

    And thus, I made it back around to Turkiye.

    Babbling a bit. Been a long week.

  157. 157.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @TBone: Right now capital gains and “qualified dividends” are taxed at lower rates than ordinary dividends and interest and earned income. Taxing them at the same rate as earned income would be an improvement in fairness even if it isn’t perfect,​

  163. 163.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Geminid: ​Türkiye is precisely why the Greeks are unwilling to pony up air defense systems for Ukraine – they think the Turks are itching to turn on them and seize the Dodecanese and western Thrace by force. Of course. since Greece tried to annex half of Anatolia after the Great War in pursuit of its Megalo Idea, overstretched its supply lines and got shoved out of the entire peninsula for its arrogance** – & the Turks have 10x the population and one of the nastiest armies on the planet – you wonder if every suspicion isn’t a confession…

    ** And had da noive to blame the Allies for not jumping in to save their baklava. Said Allies posted ships offshore and offered transport home for any Greeks who could swim or paddle out, but that wasn’t enough…​

  166. 166.

    Geminid

    @Manyakitty: I want to learn more about the history. For instance, how Islam came to Anatolia, and what exactly was the “Turcification” process whereby a majority of the residents of Anatolia ended up speaking Turkish, plus whether and how the two phenomena were related. But there is so much happening in the region right now- not to mention all the stuff happening here- that I don’t find the time.

  168. 168.

    Martin

    @Baud: California population is growing again.

    Fewer people are now able to work remotely in other states, old people have quit dying at the extraordinary rate they were during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Biden administration has relaxed restrictions on legal immigration.

    But the state needs housing more than it needs people right now.

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    @patrick II:

    Be grown-ups and get over it.

    I think I see your problem. They would have to learn how to be adults rather than spoiled children – and it’s likely they aren’t mature enough to do that. It’s a process and there are people who are incapable of doing that process. They can age and be older, but actually growing up and being adults, some humans seem to fail at that rather badly.

  171. 171.

    wjca

    @Martin: But the state needs housing more than it needs people right now.

    Even while we were losing people, we were desperately short of housing.  Given the strength of NIMBYism here, it will probably take the state taking control of zoning to make it happen.

  172. 172.

    frosty

    Adam does incomparable work every damn’ day, but there’s just so much stuff out there…

    Adam doesn’t get into some of the ridiculous stuff you posted here. Thanks for these other perspectives (no, seriously, thanks!)

  173. 173.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I can’t say I agree in any way with the snipers – but. I worked in professional sports and traveled 8-9 months a year, almost continuously and you get large crowds, you never know who they are, what they might be doing, what they are capable of. I had to get in the middle once to stop a fight. I’m average height for my age and while I was in reasonably good shape at the time, the adrenaline a human in a fight can develop can be substantial and the damage that can be done can be a lot. I/we were fortunate that there were a lot of police at least close enough by so that the effect of 2 males wanting to beat someone nearby them senseless was slowed and then stopped rapidly.

  178. 178.

    Martin

    @wjca: They are doing that. R1 is basically illegal. But getting city councils to approve construction is a different matter, which is why the state is trying to force cities to do that. More work is underway.

    I’m quite unsympathetic to cities complaining about the impact of builders remedy projects on neighborhoods, which would only happen if the city told the state to go fuck themselves. My city has added 150,000 people since 2005 – doubling in size – and has plans for 13,000 more units by the end of the decade. Some of our neighboring cities have shrunk in that time due to combining multiple units for a single large home. These are problems cities have invited on themselves, along with the homelessness problems that result. Maybe a 40 story residential tower can serve as a great landmark and reminder to build more responsibly.

  179. 179.

    Gvg

    @OzarkHillbilly: 2nd amendment gun fetishers. Causing problems way back.

    I think this started after some movie….Black Friday? Something about a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl.

    yes, something is broken, too many peoples brains. They cannot tell real from fiction. They don’t realize stories go the way writers chose, for dramatic impact, not probability.

  180. 180.

    Martin

    @OzarkHillbilly: These things have lasting effects on campuses. Our students would regularly refer to events that happened decades before they arrived on campus that affect their trust of leadership.

    It’s pretty easy to point to Kent State, but is there even a single situation in the US where a sniper protected students? But there’s Charles Whitman as a counter-example. Even during the LA riots which were active round USC, there were no notable problems on campus.

    But I’ll note the narrative here is not that students are under threat – rather that they are the threat. And a sniper says something very different under that narrative than under one where there is concern for students. We had a commencement with secret service snipers – nobody felt threatened because everyone knew why they were there. And there are a lot of choices in terms of how to protect students. Removing snipers from that scenario is pretty easy.

  181. 181.

    Geminid

    @Uncle Cosmo: Turkish/Greek relationships have finally been on the mend since a year ago. In fact, Erdogan visited Athens this winter and declared that the Aegean would be a “Sea of Peace and Cooperation.” This was after his F-16s had been rattling windows all over Aegean for a couple years at least.

    He and the Greek PM signed various agreements designed to “institutionalize” various aspects of their relations, and set up regular consultations on them. Earlier this week I saw a picture of a Turkish and a Greek delegation who met in Athens. It was 4 women and 12 men standing on some steps outside a government building. Half were in military uniforms, half civilian, and they were all smiling like someone had told them, “Say cheese.” Maybe somebody did.

    Erdogan and the Greek PM could do this because they both won their reelections and no longer needed to play upon their voters’ animus towards the other nation.

    They also made the smart decision to set aside for now their nations’ two most difficult problems. One is economic rights in the Aegean Sea; who can drill for hydrocarbons and where. That will take a while to work out and is not critical enough to impair other relationships.

    The other problem is of course Cyprus. I think this is the 50th anniverary year of Turkiye’s invasion. Greeks have stayed mad about it, and would like the international community to somehow force Turkiye to leave northern Cyprus. But Cyprus has turned into one of the more stable and peaceful places in that region, so this is not that critical a problem either..

  182. 182.

    wjca

    @Martin: getting city councils to approve construction is a different matter, which is why the state is trying to force cities to do that.

    My sense here is that the town council is just fine with adding apartment buildings.  And they are cheerfully leveraging the state requirement (“if we don’t do this, the fines will bankrupt us!”) to move projects forward.

    Mostly, that preempts the local NIMBYs.  When it doesn’t, the instant rejoinder is “Why do you want the massive tax increases that refusing would require???”  End of discussion.

    Local input has led to a more-but-lower approach — lots more apartment buildings, but virtually all two story.  In short, in this (otherwise very expensive, upper middle class) suburb is doing the right thing, without the sort of hysteria we see elsewhere.  Just took a little creativity.

  183. 183.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @BretH: ​
      On the contrary, France losing Algeria was devastating. Nearly half of the overseas army mutinied. Multiple attempts were made on DeGaulle’s life. It hurt them far more than the loss of the Southeast Asian colonies because they saw it as a part of France in a way that the other colonies were not.

  184. 184.

    Geminid

    @Omnes Omnibus: The war in Algeria was so politically stressful it caused the collapse of France’s Fourth Republic in 1958. The ensuing constitutional convention created a Fifth Republic with a strong Presidency. Charles DeGaulle won the post and negotiated the Algerian independence agreement of 1962.

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