Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Da Geezer]

It is a shame that the Russian are making progress while R's in the House dither, holding up ammunition supplies for Ukraine.

C'mon, Jeff, you certainly are better than to believe this Dem talking point.

Biden opened the border with a few strokes of the pen (and no legislative action at all) and he can close the border with the same pen. Republicans, having a one-vote majority in half of the legislative branch, and no rational ally in the Executive Branch are trying to induce the President to "see that the laws be faithfully executed". Biden can fix 80% of what is going on at the border by prohibiting amnesty for a time. He can simply undo his Executive Actions today and go back to the relatively secure border that existed on Jan 19, 2021.

I favor arms and bullets to Ukraine. I don't favor paying Ukranian bureaucrats their pensions. And, I'd like to see an accounting of where the $ 115B already given has gone. Let's keep in mind that the current foreign policy establishment predicted that Russia would take Kyiv in a few days and take all of Ukraine in a couple of months. They were perfectly willing to have Russia conquer the place, so much so that Biden offered Zelinsky a plane to get out of Ukraine. I have ZERO faith in the US State Department correctly analyzing anything that is happening on the ground.

What will allow Ukraine to win against Russia is air superiority and longer-range missiles. If US policy is to win, then give the Ukrainians the F-16s they need. If the policy is just a protracted war with massive military and civilian casualties, then we should verbalize that and 75% of Americans will be against that.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The Economist has been reporting almost daily on the goings on inside Russia post terrorist attack near Moscow. It is not hard to believe that Russian citizens, especially elite white Russians , are buying into Putin's false narrative. (1) They are used to it, won't speak up and (2) are afraid of what upheaval comes after Putin is somehow removed from the secure stage he now occupies. Centuries of Russian history tell of a chaotic country after authoritarian rulers are removed. There is predictably a reshuffling of power centers when this happens and a disruption of life as Russians wish it to be - the nanny state it actually is - collapses. According to what I'm reading there is a real threat to Putin's rule from inside the Kremlin walls and I think he knows it. He's running the willingness of those close to him to not make waves. So far, so good. It won't be Russian citizens that rise up and are at the forefront of his removal, it will be insiders that are no longer loyal to him

When Putin first came on the scene 20 years ago following Boris Yeltsin's pseudo-communist regime, world leaders recognized him as a pragmatist continuing Gorbachev's "Perestroika" shifting the nation from Communism to hybrid capitalism. Putin has choked all of that off in the last 5 years as he became increasingly paranoid, favoring centralization and expansionism as national policy. Along with that comes a significant loss of the personal freedoms of Russian citizens and the potential for an economic collapse if his boondoggle in Ukraine pans out like I think it will. Given that potential reality, I can see Putin's fears of being overthrown by insiders that surround him. Add to that these undercurrents of tricky immigration policy - one of restricted immigration that elite white Russians demand balanced against Putin's need to feed his war machine with expendable "meat" from the "stans." Recruiting thousands of soldiers from the pool of uneducated, low skills level immigrants avoids conscription of the sons of racially pure, elite white Russians. Conscripting from that pool would almost certainly bring about the end of his rule.

Just a lot going on inside Russia, outside of the debate over his special military operation, that brings deep-thinking Kremlinologists to write about the threats to Putin's rule that are clearly present.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Well, Geeze, it is a D talking point and a fair one. The funding of Ukraine's military aid packages is complicated. Shocking, I know. But fundamentally it is Speaker Johnson trying to assuage the principle R hold out, MTG, on any kind of aid package. D-talking point? It is but it is also the facts. You can read about it below.

Moreover, I've been very clear that Biden has the capacity to simply send whatever aid package he wants to Ukraine with the stroke of a pen - much like, as you point out, he can close the boarder. He's done neither of these things. He sits in the Oval Office and blames the R congress for the failure to support military aid to Ukraine and does nothing to end the boarder crisis.

I've been less clear about the details of the aid package legislation but, I'm in agreement with you that the focus of aid should be on delivering military kit to include air and artillery delivered ordnance, air defense weapons and small arms ammunition. Western governments, most notably the Dutch, are on the right path in delivering F-16s and Denmark is training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s - this doesn't happen overnight. And let me be clear, the foot-dragging by the US since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine can be blamed for the recent military setbacks Ukraine has suffered.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/25/congress-approved-300m-for-ukraine-last-week-the-pentagon-spent-it-4-months-ago-00148855

[THE_WIZARD_]

The fact is the D Party is a bunch of war mongers...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Likely mass casualty event happened in Baltimore overnight. A barge hit the Francis Scott Key bridge, causing it to collapse, then the barge sank and is spilling diesel oil into the harbor. They think at least 20 cars were on the bridge at the time. Probably take a miracle for any to survive based on the speed the bridge collapsed and how high it was.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[Mike]

Holy shit! Judging by how badly the opening was missed I immediately think the worst.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Same video but starting a little earlier. Does look like the ship lost power multiple times right before hitting the bridge.

Also if any of the construction crew make it it’s a miracle.

[Mike]

What a catastrophe.

[Hannibal]

At :32 I'm reminded of the old Gulf War I video with the "luckiest man in Iraq" crossing the bridge right before it's destroyed.

At any rate, expect the Crisis of Competence to grow over time as events like this become more common.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Bridge is the big story today (overshowing the abortion pill arguments) but this caught my eye and gave me a chuckle

Trump’s Truth Social is going public today. Experts warn $9 billion valuation defies logic | CNN Business

Trump Media generated just $3.4 million of revenue through the first nine months of last year, according to filings. The company lost $49 million over that span.

And yet the market is valuing Trump Media at approximately $9 billion.

For context, Reddit was only valued at $6.4 billion at its IPO last week – even though it generated 160 times more revenue than Trump Media. (Reddit hauled in $804 million in revenue in 2023, compared with Trump Media’s annualized revenue of about $5 million.)

“At these levels, it appears untethered to its underlying business results,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital. “Eventually, valuations tend to fall back on fundamentals. That means this stock is definitely at risk of plummeting back down to earth.”

[Mike]

As bad as the accident is, there's still the practical implications with shipping in a busy port. I read that there's roughly 40 other ships that are trapped in the harbor now.

[Hannibal]

Bridge is the big story today (overshowing the abortion pill arguments) but this caught my eye and gave me a chuckle

Trump’s Truth Social is going public today. Experts warn $9 billion valuation defies logic | CNN Business

Trump Media generated just $3.4 million of revenue through the first nine months of last year, according to filings. The company lost $49 million over that span.

And yet the market is valuing Trump Media at approximately $9 billion.

For context, Reddit was only valued at $6.4 billion at its IPO last week – even though it generated 160 times more revenue than Trump Media. (Reddit hauled in $804 million in revenue in 2023, compared with Trump Media’s annualized revenue of about $5 million.)

“At these levels, it appears untethered to its underlying business results,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital. “Eventually, valuations tend to fall back on fundamentals. That means this stock is definitely at risk of plummeting back down to earth.”

Sounds like a great money laundering scheme.

[Dr. Strangelove]

As bad as the accident is, there's still the practical implications with shipping in a busy port. I read that there's roughly 40 other ships that are trapped in the harbor now.

Was wondering about that myself. Thanks

[Dr. Strangelove]

Here's a good summary of what's likely to occur in the "abortion pill" case (the group challenging the FDA lacks standing).

Can Emergency Room Doctors Sue the FDA for Failing to Regulate Mifepristone More Aggressively? (reason.com)