Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

Over the last month, the Ukrainian AF has shot down two gigantic Russian A-50 Command and Control aircraft, the most recent last week. What the Ukrainians lack in pushing back the Russian Army and the picture that is painted by the global press that Ukraine is losing the war, they make up for that with these spectacular events: Blowing up the Kirsch Straight's bridge, sinking the Moskva, striking Crimea's Black Sea Fleet HQ and sinking a bunch of Russian landing craft. It's newsworthy and blocks out a lot of Putin's hyperventilation over strategically unimportant and costly Russian Army accomplishments on the ground.

The A-50 was taken down by a 1960's era Soviet S-200 (SA-2) SAM. This missile weighs 8 tons and sports a 500lb war head! It was designed to bring down slow moving US B52s. The A-50 was a perfect target for this old system that the Ukrainians have retrofitted and brought back to service.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/02/24/big-fat-missiles-to-take-down-big-fat-russian-planes-how-ukraine-brought-back-its-massive-s-200s/?sh=7769fdcc4743

[Jeff Buchanan]

The photo below appeared in a web-site I've never heard of, TCD or The Cool Down. It's a green activist's operation and the article was a gigantic attack on the polluting nature of the cruise industry. The photo shows the dramatic change in the size of cruise ships. The big one is Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas that can carry 6000 passengers and it's not RCL's newest or biggest. That would be Icon of the Seas. As cruise ships have become larger, complaints from the green's wrt to pollution have increased. Shocking, I know!

The smaller vessel is RCL's Rhapsody of the Seas launched in 1997. It carries 2400 guests. What's driving the increase in the size of cruise ships is simple math. It's more profitable to carry 6000 passengers than 2400 passengers when overhead increases on these larger ships only slightly while the increase in revenue is large. A 3X differential is common. Demand for a cruise has reached new heights with most lines establishing record bookings to start off 2024. Demand often exceeds supply and the price for a cabin, Industry wide, is higher by about 25% from pre-COVID times.TBH, While I'm not into the green hype, cruise travel has become a lot like airline travel. The increase in cruise fares, the decline in service and the crowds aboard ship have made cruising much less enjoyable for me.

I've enjoyed cruising the world since my first cruise in 2001. The first ship I cruised on, Celebrity Mercury, carried 1800 pax. Lately, if I want to cruise, I'm booking smaller and older ships. I'm not at all interested in fighting the crowds on the mega-ships. As well, when 3 of these giants tie up in port, the sudden discharge of 18000 people into what are often sleepy port villages can create a mess. Within the last year, major tourist sites around the world are concerned about over-tourism despite the economic benefits. They're bowing to the clamoring of the green's. Busy commercial ports that berth cruise ships are actively limiting how many cruise ships can berth and how many visitors from them can disembark. These mega-ships can no longer port in Key West FL or Venice Italy. The Greek Isles are also limiting cruise ships as are most popular tourist destinations. Ports in the NE and Canada are limiting cruise ship traffic.

The industry, in general, is sensitive to the pollution issue. TBF, when the green's complain about cruise ship pollution, they fail to take into account the extraordinary effort the industry has undertaken to not pollute. First, there are strict international regulations covering this and ship's staff pay close attention to the rules with routine inspections and frequent surprise inspections by coast guard units are common. The newer ships run on gas turbine engines that are about as clean of a power plant as you can get. All electric powered cruise ships are on the horizon. Some smaller cruise ships already are all electric/wind and tout their environmentally friendly cruises. Garbage or untreated sewage is never dropped over board. I've actually toured the areas where cruise ships process garbage. It's squished and dehydrated in sophisticated systems aboard ship that turn that into tiny pellets that are recyclable in various ways. Sewage is treated exactly like it is ashore before it is off-loaded into trucks or in-port storage tanks where it's handled the same as "gray water," as it is termed, in your community.

So, yeah, green activist can STFU ..... mostly.

Wonder.jpg

[CGVT]

These mega-ships can no longer port in Key West FL or Venice Italy. The Greek Isles are also limiting cruise ships as are most popular tourist destinations. Ports in the NE and Canada are limiting cruise ship traffic.

Good. I've lived in Key West. I can't imagine a ship dropping off 6000 Bermuda shorts, sandals with socks men and mu-mu clad women on Duval Street.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Good. I've lived in Key West. I can't imagine a ship dropping off 6000 Bermuda shorts, sandals with socks men and mu-mu clad women on Duval Street.

I don't disagree with you. The community of Key West was the first to make the news on limiting cruise ship traffic. It's now a trend world wide. It started in Key West at least 5y ago and the primary concern was damage to the surrounding reef's eco-system. The green activists, for a change, actually had the facts and science on their side.

There are three cruise ship berthing facilities now that will accommodate cruise ships. At first, the city council, responding to locals, wanted to ban all cruise ship traffic. Businesses were opposed. After legal maneuvering was settled, compromise limits were established. No mega ships, Mallory Square berth's X2 and I think Key West can berth one more small cruise ship - the 200 to 800 capacity ships, along the Coast Guard station sea wall (right behind Mallory Square berths). I think there are city wide crowd capacity ordnances that play too. I'm actually comfortable with that as it seems sensible. In terms of crowds these mega ships are pushing the limits in most cities that are tourist attractions. It's not a green thing for me. It is definitely a crowd control thing. The Trevi Fountain in Rome is a historically beautiful work of 18th century art. It has reportedly gotten so mobbed with tourists that the district the fountain sits in has considered limiting foot traffic with control points and lines to limit how many folks can walk up to it.

[Jeff Buchanan]

News sources are reporting continuing negotiations today between an Israeli delegation, which includes the heads of its internal and external intelligence services, the director of the CIA, Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s most senior intelligence official. The Paris talks appear to be the most serious push for weeks to halt the fighting. Hopuim is what that is.

Netanyahu has taken a firm stand: Israel will not allow Hamas to govern Gaza or have a military capability there. Still, they are holding back on a planned operation in Rafah until, at the latest, March 10th - the start of Ramadan to give Hamas a chance to make a deal on Israel's terms, yes, with a gun to their heads. Netanyahu has held there will be no end to military operations in Gaza until all Israeli hostages are released; there will be no release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel that are capable of rejoining Hamas battalions as fighters. Hamas leadership, who Israel intelligence thinks are holed up in Rafah, continue to demand things that Netanyahu is not going to give them.

IMO, nothing is going to come of the current negotiations in Paris. That is because Hamas won't bend in it's pursuit of their continued existence as a military and political force that will govern the claimed "Palestinian Territories." Israel has made it pretty clear that isn't going to happen. A biased press is using the news from Paris to continue to present the conflict as one where Israel is the bad guy killing civilians and allowing "babies to die" in Rafah's major but non-functioning hospital. All Hamas has to do to end the civilian deaths is to stand down. They aren't going to do that until the IDF forces them into a military and political surrender. The facts are hard for a global audience convinced by a biased press that characterizes Israel as the aggressor and Hamas as the victims. Somehow, we've lost sight of what Hamas did on October 11th, 2023. Fuck them.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Exactly as I anticipated:

In a televised interview on CBS's Face the Nation ...... Netanyahu: ‘Delusional claims’ from Hamas stopping cease-fire deal, ‘They’re not even in the ball park, as you say, they're on another planet’

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4487950-netanyahu-hamas-cease-fire-deal-theyre-on-another-planet/

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Mike]

The manifestation of far left ideology. May he inspire all like-minded morons to follow suit.

https://time.com/6821425/israel-embassy-air-force-protest-fire-self-immolation-aaron-bushnell-latest-updates/

An active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, in apparent protest of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which he described as a “genocide.”

[Dr. Strangelove]

The Florida and Texas social media laws are going under the microscope at the Supreme Court at 10 this morning. I believe most people don't expect the laws to survive but we shall see...

[Jeff Buchanan]

There's a story coming out of several news outlets that Alexi Navalny was about to be exchanged for Russian "hitman" FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who's serving time for a murder in Berlin, Two American citizens were also to be swapped for Navalny. One of them was thought to be the American journalist Evan Gerskovich.

Krasikov was jailed for life in Germany after being convicted of killing an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin in 2019. Putin signaled in an interview with Tucker Carlson this month that he wanted to get Krasikov, whom he cast as a patriot, being held in Germany. Reportedly, negotiations had been on going for 2 years with the swap supposed to happen in mid-February. But Putin changed his mind at the last minute and had Navalny killed.

The story originated from a Nalvany ally, Maria Pevchikh, in a YouTube video recorded outside Russia where she is believed to be located. She did not provide substantive evidence that the deal was ever in the works but the story is very convincing and highly likely.

As I've said before, Putin should not be seated at the same table of leaders of civilized nations. He is a brutal dictator that has zero concern for the lives of the soldiers he has sent to Ukraine to die in the tens of thousands or to any of his alleged opponents or wrong doers who he orders eliminated.

[iam416]

I wanna get on record that "shrinkflations" might be The Chairman's most economically illiterate argument to date -- and that's really saying something. I would say he must think the American public is astoundingly stupid, BUT, I think the simpler explanation is that he is, well, astoundingly stupid.

[Mike]

No, no , no. It's just good old fashioned corporate greed.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Don't worry, once Team MAGA takes our country back, we are gonna slap incredible tariffs on EVERYTHING and that's how inflation will be defeated once and for all. We'll be making SO much money you won't believe the winning!!!!!

Trump could impose universal tariff on Day 1: ex-U.S. trade official - Nikkei Asia

[Mike]

Some guy: Trump could do something.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm pretty sure Trump himself has been promising a 10% across the board tariff. Not just some dude's idle speculation. And 60% on imports from China.