OT subject but worth a main-stream read- OT News Feeds...

dbCooper

I picked up Angie's 21 year old grandchild at the Omaha airport on Monday, in town for awhile from San Diego.  Had nice one-on-one time for a couple hours during the ride back and some lunch.  For me, most interaction with the younger generations is enlightening, particularly Gen-Zers.  The kids are still alright and yes, they aren't buying it.

@lousubcap - Thanks for the article.

lousubcap

@dbCooper  always good to read although I am a firm believer in that every generation thinks the next one is gonna hose it up but so far good. 

However, the "system" has not been challenged like this since the Civil War in my mind.  Good for them to see thru the BS.

Botch

dbCooper said:

I picked up Angie's 21 year old grandchild at the Omaha airport on Monday, in town for awhile from San Diego.  Had nice one-on-one time for a couple hours during the ride back and some lunch.  For me, most interaction with the younger generations is enlightening, particularly Gen-Zers.  The kids are still alright and yes, they aren't buying it.

This was the happiest thing I've read today; thank you.  

HeavyG

lousubcap said:

@dbCooper  always good to read although I am a firm believer in that every generation thinks the next one is gonna hose it up but so far good. 

However, the "system" has not been challenged like this since the Civil War in my mind.  Good for them to see thru the BS.

Of course the 1860's were on a different level as there was actual open warfare, however, I'm inclined to believe that the 1960's were a  more troubling time across the spectrum than our current situation poses.

lousubcap

HeavyG said:

lousubcap said:

@dbCooper  always good to read although I am a firm believer in that every generation thinks the next one is gonna hose it up but so far good. 

However, the "system" has not been challenged like this since the Civil War in my mind.  Good for them to see thru the BS.

Of course the 1860's were on a different level as there was actual open warfare, however, I'm inclined to believe that the 1960's were a  more troubling time across the spectrum than our current situation poses.

The '60's were definitely a challenging period with much more physical outrage against the "establishment" than today.  However, the divisiveness was not as easily defined as today so the various factions while railing against the establishment were not as centrally focused.  But I was not old then...

lousubcap

Thursday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Ukrainian soldiers are training to use Cold War-era German tanks, 10 of which arrived in Ukraine last month. Some experts and German officials say the old tank is a helpful stopgap and that it is superior to Soviet-era tanks already used by the Ukrainian army. Christopher F. Schuetze reports for the New York Times. 

Russia is “actively advancing” negotiations with North Korea in a bid to secure weapons for the war in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at a news conference yesterday. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to North Korea last month was an opportunity to “try to convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition to Russia,” she added. Kelly Kasulis Cho reports for the Washington Post.

Ukraine launched its most significant drone attack on military targets across Russia since the full-scale invasion began, while Russia launched its most sustained missile barrage on Kyiv in months. Playing down last night’s strikes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the attacks showed “the terrorist nature of the Kyiv regime,” adding they would not have been possible without Western intelligence. Yaroslav Trofimov and Ann M. Simmons report for the Wall Street Journal. 

The Russian government is investigating whether the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin was a “deliberate atrocity.” While the Kremlin has denied any responsibility, it is the first time the Russian government has acknowledged the crash could have been an assassination. Laurin-Whitney Gottbrath reports for Axios. "

lousubcap

Friday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba yesterday sharply criticized leaks from Western officials who say the counter-offensive is progressing too slowly, saying they should “shut up.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said, “Ukrainians have exceeded expectations again and again … We need to trust them.” Tom Balmforth reports for Reuters. 

Ukrainian forces penetrated the “first line” of Russian defenses in the Zaporizhzhia region, the military claimed yesterday. Tim Lister, Olga Voitovych and Sana Noor Haq report for CNN. 

About 200 Ukrainian soldiers have completed training to use the U.S. M1 Abrams tanks, the first ten of which are expected to arrive in Ukraine in mid-September. Lara Seligman reports for POLITICO. 

A Ukrainian drone struck a Russian town where one of the country’s largest nuclear plants is located, Governor Roman Starovoit said. “There are no casualties,” Starovoit added. There was no damage reported to the power station. Reuters reports. 

Authorities in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine held elections yesterday in a bid to consolidate their authority. Russia does not fully control any of the four areas where elections are being held. Yohannes Lowe and Helen Sullivan report for the Guardian. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday announced that Ukraine has developed new long-range weapons. “The range of our new Ukrainian weapons is now 700 kilometers [435 miles],” Zelensky said. "

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/propublica/status/1698289769690636526?s=20

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/petestrzok/status/1698269578831302699?s=20

lousubcap

Gravity and living above the first floor is dangerous to your health.  No one should doubt the ruthlessness of Vlad the Impaler. 

(I gave thought to the basement as a safe space but the flooding casualty then came to mind ).

lousubcap

Monday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Russian drones targeted Ukrainian grain export infrastructure in the Odesa region over the weekend. Port facilities on the Danube River were hit, and two workers were injured, Serhii Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said. Vivek Shankar and Constant Méheut report for the New York Times. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in the Russian resort city of Sochi today for discussions that could revive the Black Sea Grain deal. Moscow left the deal in July, jeopardizing global food security. Andrew Wilks and Elise Morton report for the AP News.

The Biden administration will, for the first time, send Ukraine armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium. The munitions will be part of a forthcoming aid package worth between $240 million and $375 million. According to the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, depleted uranium munitions are controversial because ingesting or inhaling depleted uranium dust could cause cancers and birth defects. Mike Stone reports for Reuters. 

A South African investigation concluded that weapons were not loaded onto a Russian vessel under U.S. sanctions docked in South Africa last year. This conclusion refutes U.S. accusations that South Africa provided Russia with weapons to be used in Ukraine, President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday. While the report’s summary will be released today, the document as a whole will remain classified. John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel report for the New York Times. 

Russia has warned U.K. defense contractor BAE Systems that its planned weapons production facility in Ukraine could become a target. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “Of course, any facilities for the production of weapons, especially if these weapons fire at us, they become objects of special attention for our military.” Reuters reports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has tapped Rustem Umerov, chief of Ukraine’s state property fund and a special presidential envoy, as the new minister of defense. The move comes after Zelenskyy fired the former defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, citing the need for “new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and the society at large.” If confirmed by Parliament, Umerov would be the most senior of several Crimean Tatar officials in the Ukrainian government, indicating Tatar support for Ukrainian efforts as they try to retake occupied Crimea. Yaroslav Trofimov reports for the Wall Street Journal. 

Ukrainian generals claim they have breached Russia’s formidable first defenses and “are now between the first and second defensive lines,” one of Ukraine’s top generals in the south, Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, said. “Little by little, I think we’re gaining momentum,” said Yuriy Sak, an advisor to Ukraine’s defense minister. Paul Adams reports for BBC News. "

lousubcap

And this regarding water level in the Mississippi River and freight rates:

https://gcaptain.com/freight-rates-surge-as-mississippi-river-water-levels-drop/?subscriber=true&goal=0_f50174ef03-8187ef28d8-170052525&mc_cid=8187ef28d8&mc_eid=10465e83ed

lousubcap

More for your enjoyment-the CF about to get real in Congress:

"THE LOOMING APPROPS WARS: The more pressing issue for the country, of course, is government funding. Last week, McCarthy urged his conservative members to simply back a stopgap and hold their policy demands for long-term government spending bills, a fight that will come later in the year.

So far, they’re ignoring him. Conservatives are threatening to oppose the CR until they can beef up border measures, secure an end to a controversial Pentagon abortion policy and block the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute DONALD TRUMP.

Of course, as recent history has shown over and over again, the side that makes demands in a shutdown war rarely gets what they want and ends up suffering politically. But those lessons have been lost on the House’s right flank — with some members, such as Rep. BOB GOOD (R-Va.), arguing that shutdowns aren’t so damaging.

Making McCarthy’s job even more complicated: Senate Republicans appear to be receptive to a White House request for a $24 billion supplemental funding the war in Ukraine as well as $16 billion for disaster recovery efforts that will benefit communities wrecked by Hurricane Idalia and the Maui wildfires — sending the CR’s total price tag even higher.

It’s worth reflecting for a moment on how all of this could have been — and almost was — avoided. Biden and McCarthy agreed on spending caps in May as part of the big debt ceiling deal, and congressional negotiators built circuit-breakers into that bill to ensure a smooth approps process. But McCarthy has now walked away from that deal, thanks to conservatives’ demands.

The upshot is that House Republicans have backed themselvesinto a corner. They’re now on track to swallow a CR that continues spending plans passed under a Democratic-controlled Congress and undercuts their own leverage as Washington once again looks to the Senate — whose appropriators have already sent all 12 approps bills to the floor on a bipartisan basis — to be the adults in the room."

lousubcap

Tuesday Russia-Ukraine update:

"North Korean leader Kim Jong-un plans to meet President Vladimir Putin in Russia this month to discuss the possibility of increased military cooperation and weapons supplies for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin seeks to secure artillery shells and antitank missiles, while Kim wants Russia to share advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines. “We urge [North Korea] to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia,” Adrienne Watson, a National Security Council spokesperson, said in a statement. Edward Wong and Julian E. Barnes reports for the New York Times. 

U.S., U.K., and E.U. officials will jointly press the U.A.E. this week to stop shipping dual-use products to Russia that could enhance Russia’s war effort. While the U.A.E. has not joined the sanctions regime imposed on Russia by the West, it has said it does not want to be a hub for Western companies to evade sanctions. Laurence Norman, Rory Jones, and Andrew Duehren report for the Wall Street Journal. 

The Cuban authorities are “working on the neutralization and dismantling” of a Russian human trafficking network that is coercing Cuban citizens to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine, the Cuban foreign ministry said. The trafficking network is active both within Cuba and Russia. Reuters reports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would not rejoin the Black Sea grain deal until the West agreed to his demand to facilitate Russian agricultural exports. Georgi Kantchev reports for the Wall Street Journal.

Russia’s demands for entering the Black Sea grain deal amount to “blackmail,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. Kuleba added that because Russia will not abide by any future agreement, developing alternative maritime export routes is necessary. Mariya Knight reports for CNN. 

Western hopes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was rebalancing toward the West were diminished yesterday as Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about expanding partnerships. Despite angering Russia when Turkey freed a group of Ukrainian commanders and lifted its opposition to Sweden’s NATO membership, Turkey appears committed to cooperating with Russia. Turkey is a vital channel for Russia’s economy, as Turkey declined to join Western sanctions and continues to ship goods to Russia. Ben Hubbard and Paul Sonne reports for the New York Times.

Russian military drones landed on Romanian territory following strikes on a Ukrainian city, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba alleged. Romania has rejected Kyiv’s account of events. “Of course, there is a risk of accidents or incidents, but for the time being, it was not the case,” said Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu. In response, Kuleba suggested that Ukraine’s allies were turning a blind eye to avoid entering the conflict. Paul Adams and Robert Plummer report for BBC News. "

lousubcap

More on the meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Vlad the Impaler:

"The North Korean leader is expected to meet with Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN in Vladivostok to make a deal: Moscow gets artillery shells and anti-tank missiles while Pyongyang receives much-needed food as well as technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines. The potential gathering, first reported by The New York Times’ EDWARD WONG and JULIAN BARNES, could take place as soon as this month.

The White House won’t confirm it has intelligence that the meeting will happen. But National Security Council spokesperson ADRIENNE WATSON told us that after Russian Defense Minister SERGEI SHOIGU’s visit to Pyongyang in July, Kim “expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia.” Her statement came after the administration recently warned that both countries are involved in arms negotiations.

The two questions we had after hearing the news are: What does it mean and why now?

The first answer is straightforward: Russia is in dire straits. U.S. and Western sanctions on the Kremlin’s military complex have starved its forces of requisite weapons for its war on Ukraine. Pyongyang has 6,000 artillery systems within range of major South Korean population centers alone, so safe to say it has spares available. Still, that Moscow would trade sensitive, advanced tech for conventional weapons shows how bad things really are for Putin.

“The fact that Russia needs a partner like North Korea is evidence of how desperate they are without any further explanation needed,” said SYDNEY SEILER, who retired in July as the U.S. national intelligence officer for North Korea.

As for why do all this now, two reasons popped up in our discussions with officials and experts. The simplest is that Pyongyang is taking advantage of Moscow, as it’s getting the far better end of the deal. Better for Kim to get the info he needs from Putin directly than relying on his hackers to steal it.

Then there’s the broader story. After Kim no longer saw diplomacy with the U.S. and South Korea as a worthwhile pathway, he delivered a Jan. 1, 2020, address in which he emphasized Pyongyang was prepared to live indefinitely with U.S.-led sanctions. North Korea would still develop its nuclear and missiles program while growing economically as a nation, he declared. But then the pandemic hit, and it forced Kim to contend with the outbreak and the economic devastation it caused his country.

Now, it appears Kim is returning to his plan. Building a closer partnership with Russia is part of it, as they clearly need each other while under Western-imposed strain. “These are two rogue countries that are looking for lifelines so it’s natural that these historical partners would turn to each other for ways to collaborate,” said the U.S. Institute of Peace’s FRANK AUM."

lousubcap

Wednesday Russia-Ukraine update:

"The Kremlin would consider a return of U.S. nuclear weapons to the U.K. as an escalation and will respond with “countermeasures,” the Russian foreign ministry warned. The announcement responded to the 2024 U.S. Air Force budget, which included building a dormitory at a Royal Air Force base in Suffolk for nuclear safety and security personnel, hinting at a planned transfer of nuclear weapons. Julian Borger and Andrew Roth reports for the Guardian.

Russia “tactically” withdrew from the Ukrainian village of Robotyne after Ukrainian forces breached Russia’s first line of defenses, a Moscow-backed official said yesterday. Ukraine now seeks to widen the breach. Olga Voitovych, Vasco Cotovio, and Katharina Krebs report for CNN. 

Ukraine has regained more territory on the eastern front and is advancing south in its counteroffensive against Russia, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited the front line. Reuters reports.

Using geolocated footage, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington, DC-based think tank, said that Ukrainian light infantry had advanced beyond some of Russia’s anti-tank ditches and dense minefields that make up its multi-layered defences in Zaporizhia. However, ISW said it was unable to clarify whether the defence had been completely breached because no Ukrainian heavy armour had been witnessed in the area."

lousubcap

More on Russia-Ukraine:

"The U.S. will add another $275 million in military aid, U.S. officials told the Associated Press, traveling with Blinken. That reportedly includes those depleted uranium tank rounds for the Abrams tanks Ukraine is expected to use soon; and about $100 million of that military aid money "will be in the form of grants to allow the Ukrainians to purchase additional arms and equipment," AP reports. 

In terms of available U.S. military aid, "As of August 29, there is approximately $5.75 billion in restored Presidential Drawdown Authority that remains available for Ukraine," U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Garron Garn said in a statement Tuesday. 

Forget the fevered debate in the states over ATACMS and F-16s; Ukraine's military can likely make much better use of "medevac vehicles, basic [infantry fighting vehicles], armored vehicles like the M113, infantry mortars, ammunition for them, artillery, medical kits, stabilization equipment, MANPADs, and drones," argues a Ukrainian soldier on social media. "

lousubcap

From Tom Nichols of The Atlantic: 

Again the perspective is worth the read, whether or not you agree. 

Tom Nichols STAFF WRITER

Democracy is under attack around the world; in the United States, the summer brought good news and bad news. The institutions of democracy are still functioning, but not for long if enough Americans continue to support authoritarianism. Layered Repression Almost two years ago, I engaged in a thought experiment about what the failure of democracy in the United States might look like. I wrote it for an Atlantic subscriber newsletter I had back then, and I hope you’ll forgive me for revisiting it, but after a summer in which American democracy has been walking a tightrope over the authoritarian chasm, it’s worth looking back to see how we’ve done since early 2022. The most important point, and the one that I think bears repeating, is that the failure of democracy in America will not look like a scene from a movie, where some fascist in a black tunic ascends the steps of the Capitol on Inauguration Day and proclaims the end of freedom: The collapse of democracy in the United States will look more like an unspooling or an unwinding rather than some dramatic installation of Gilead or Oceania. My guess—and again, this is just my stab at speculative dystopianism—is that it will be a federal breakdown that returns us to the late 1950s in all of the worst ways. We’re already seeing this unwinding in slow motion. Donald Trump and many on the American right (including the national Republican Party) have made clear their plans to subvert America’s democratic institutions. They made continuous efforts to undermine the will of the voters at the state level, most notably in Georgia, after the 2020 presidential election, and then they tried to overrule the results at the national level by setting a mob on Congress on January 6, 2021. If Trump returns to the Oval Office, he and his underlings will set up a system designed to set up a series of cascading democratic failures from Washington to every locality they can reach. They intend to pack courts with judges who are loyal to Trump instead of to the Constitution. They want to destroy an independent federal civil service by making all major civil servants political appointees, which would allow the right to stuff every national agency with cronies at will. They want to neuter independent law-enforcement institutions such as the FBI, even if that means disbanding them. They will likely try to pare down the senior military ranks until the only remaining admirals and generals are men and women sworn not to the defense of the United States but to the defense of Donald Trump, even if that means employing military force against the American public. Trump and his supporters are not even coy about some of these ideas. The Heritage Foundation—once a powerhouse think tank on the right that has since collapsed into unhinged extremism and admiration for foreign strongmen—has a “Project 2025” posted on its website, with sections that read like extended Facebook comments. I took a look so that you don’t have to, including at a policy-guide chapter on the military authored by former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller. Heritage and Miller (a seat warmer brought in by Trump at the tail end of his administration) think it’s very important for the next president—I wonder who they could possibly have in mind—to “eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs” and to reinstate personnel dismissed for disobeying orders to get vaccinated. Also: Codify language to instruct senior military officers (three and four stars) to make certain that they understand their primary duty to be ensuring the readiness of the armed forces, not pursuing a social engineering agenda. Why not just write up a loyalty oath to Trump? Little wonder that Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is holding up the promotion of some 300 senior officers; perhaps it’s occurred to him (or others) that sitting on those promotions until 2025 might open the door for Heritage’s unnamed next U.S. president to sweep out the Marxist gender theorists and replace them with “real Americans” who know that their duty is to a man rather than a moldering document in the National Archives. The rest of Project 2025 is a lot of putative big-think from wannabe conservative intellectuals such as Ken Cuccinelli, Ben Carson, Stephen Moore, and Peter Navarro (who is currently on trial for contempt of Congress). Much of this stuff is nonsense, of course, but it’ll be nonsense right up until the point it isn’t: These are all names that would reappear in a second Trump administration, and this time, they’d move a lot faster in breaking down the federal guardrails around democracy. This layered state, federal, and local repression is what I worried about back in early 2022: This is where we really will have “free” and “unfree” Americas, side by side. To drive from Massachusetts to Alabama—especially for women and people of color—will not be crossing the Mason-Dixon line so much as it will be like falling through the Time Tunnel and emerging in a pre-1964 America where civil rights and equal treatment before the government are a matter of the state’s forbearance. If an American citizen’s constitutional rights are violated, there will be no Justice Department that will intervene, no Supreme Court that will overrule. (And arresting seditionists? Good luck with that. I expect that if Trump is reelected, he will pardon everyone involved with January 6.) Trump, of course, has since made the promise to drop pardons like gentle rain from the sky. America’s democratic immune system, however, is for now still functioning. The courts have done their duty even when elected officials have refused to do theirs. (Imagine how much healthier American democracy would be right now if the Senate had convicted Trump in his second impeachment. Alas.) Trump is now under indictment for 91 alleged crimes, and Jack Smith seems undaunted in his pursuit of justice. Likewise, the major ringleaders of January 6—all but one, I should say—have been convicted of seditious conspiracy, among other crimes, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Some of these supposed tough guys ended up blubbering and pleading for mercy in a federal courtroom, but to no avail. The would-be Oath Keepers centurion Stewart Rhodes and a leader of the Proud Boys, Ethan Nordean, each got 18 years, a record broken yesterday when a Trump-appointed federal judge sent the ex–Proud Boys chair Enrique Tarrio inside for 22 years, meaning he will be sitting out the next five presidential elections. This is the good news, but none of it will matter if Trump returns to the White House. I shouldn’t end on such a dire note. Trump is the likely nominee, and although I still feel a chill about the threat of authoritarianism, I also can’t shake the feeling that most Americans in most states want no part of this ongoing madness. I still have faith that most people, when faced with the choice, will continue to support the constitutional freedoms of the United States—but only if they understand how endangered those freedoms are."

lousubcap

Since it's a slow night and I am in the frictionless conduit mode, here's a read on China's economy:

September 6, 2023

China’s Economy Lags—but How Badly? China’s economic slowdown has defied expectations of post-lockdown growth, and at Project Syndicate, Columbia University professor and former Asian Development Bank Chief Economist Shang-Jin Wei warns against a “spiral” of debt and deflation: once the two become “entrenched,” Wei writes, they “can generate a vicious cycle whereby lower demand leads to lower investment, lower output, lower income, and thus even lower demand.”     Which sounds quite grim—a tone also taken by New York Times chief China correspondent Chris Buckley, who writes that Chinese “(c)onsumers are gloomy. Private investment is sluggish. A big property firm is near collapse. Local governments face crippling debt. Youth unemployment has continued to rise. The economic setbacks are eroding (Chinese leaders Xi Jinping’s) image of imperious command, and emerging as perhaps the most sustained and thorny challenge to his agenda in over a decade in power.”    Not everyone sees such a dreary outlook. In the short term, at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Nicholas R. Lardy digs into data and finds indications of “a turning point during the first half of 2023, leading to a reduction of the household saving rate and increased consumption spending.” In the medium-to-long term, London School of Economics professor of economics Keyu Jin told host Cindy Yu in a recent episode of The Spectator’s Chinese Whispers podcast that despite immediate challenges, she doesn’t buy the doom-and-gloom predictions of a “lost decade” similar to 1990s Japan. China could stimulate its economy and encourage borrowing, Jin says, but instead it’s choosing goals other than GDP growth, like reorganizing the economy around renewable energy and technology.

Has China Peaked? If So, Watch Out. Have we reached “peak China”? That question continues to be asked in the current economic context. As The New York Times’ Buckley writes, China’s 2023 slowdown has introduced questions for Xi, including whether he can continue to exercise so much control over the country’s economy; in light of current difficulties, Buckley writes, Xi “may have to give more freedom to private businesses and financial support to debt-saddled local governments.”    In a Foreign Affairs essay, Council on Foreign Relations senior China fellow Ian Johnson runs with this theme. China has entered a period of “neijuan” or “involution,” Johnson writes, featuring a tight government grip on society that far exceeds the practices of much of the post-Mao era, including outsized expectations of an economy that can function on its own, walled off from the world. Analogizing China’s sealed-off and tightly controlled society to East Berlin behind the wall, Johnson suggests China could be entering a phase of “long-term stagnation” similar to the “Eastern bloc of the 1960s and 1970s.”    That’s troubling, if we’re to believe the analysis of Foreign Policy Research Institute Asia expert Michael Beckley, who writes in the current issue of the MIT journal International Security that if China undergoes protracted economic stagnation, it could lash out. Examining the last 150 years of world history, Beckley finds that major world powers become particularly dangerous when their phases of rapid economic growth give way to protracted stagnation. It’s this kind of country, rather than declining powers, that seeks to secure new markets through international aggression, Beckley writes—particularly true in the case of authoritarian countries." Nothing further in the frictionless conduit mode this evening.

lousubcap

Thursday Russia-Ukraine update:

"The U.S. supply of depleted uranium armor-piercing munitions to Ukraine is “a criminal act,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned today. At the same time, Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus was proceeding on schedule, Ryabkov added. Reuters reports. 

Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tîlvăr confirmed that parts of a drone were discovered in the country following a Russian attack on Ukraine along the Danube River. Debris from Russian drones landing in Romania would be “a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Romania,” President Klaus Iohannis said yesterday. If an investigation shows the debris is, in fact, Russian, it would be “completely unacceptable,” he added. On Monday, Romania denied Ukrainian assertions that a Russian drone had fallen on Romanian territory. Claudia Chiappa and Laura Hülsemann report for POLITICO.

Seventeen people were killed and more than 30 injured in one of the deadliest Russian strikes on Ukraine recently. The attack hit a marketplace in the eastern city of Kostyantynivka. Anastasiia Malenko reports for the Wall Street Journal. 

Russian-backed authorities in Crimea are cracking down on pro-Ukrainians and are making a public show of the apprehended “traitors.” The crackdown has targeted individuals for playing Ukrainian songs in public, tying yellow bands around trees. Shopkeepers who refused service to Russian soldiers have also been targeted. These actions suggest that while Russia claims full support from the Crimean people, resistance remains. Yaroslav Trofimov reports for the Wall Street Journal. 

Russian forces in Ukraine nearing Kupyansk may be preparing to retake the strategic northeastern town, or they may be hoping to create a distraction to divert Ukrainian resources away from the south. Kupyansk would be difficult, and officials and analysts have speculated about Russia’s goals and whether it is sensible. Ukraine has been making slow but meaningful gains in the south. Alex Horton and Serhii Korolchuk report for the Washington Post. "

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/IsaacDovere/status/1699782156464361780?s=20

lousubcap

I had read that the above ^^^^ was published today.  Thanks for the link.

And as anyone with an adult mind can infer...this has a target.  Problem is the base will unilaterally reject it as everything else that challenges their beliefs (otherwise to admit so would be acknowledging that the grifter has taken them for an extended ride).  Just reinforces that winning the independent thinkers will be the key to making sure CHEETO is stamped as THE HUGEST LOSER once again.

nolaegghead

It’s hard to compete with the authoritarian propaganda channels (Fox News, Newsmax, AONN, The Nazi channel, Fascism Today, etc).

Even some people I consider fairly intelligent, analytical thinkers are being tainted with doubts about reality because they are exposed to this BS.

I hear things like “America looks like a joke to the rest of the world with Biden and Obama” but when I read international news and legitimate polls, I see the very opposite.  

If you keep repeating lies and doubling down on them, the weak minded start believing up is down.

lousubcap

Friday Russia-Ukraine debut:

"A drone strike on the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, where one of the country’s largest military bases is located, caused at least one blast and injured one person yesterday. The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defense systems thwarted the drone attack. Ukraine does not comment on whether it carries out drone attacks in Russia. Marc Santora reports for the New York Times. 

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday said Ukrainians are “gradually gaining ground” in their counter-offensive in the country’s east and south. Lyric Li, Ellen Francis, Serhiy Morgunov, David L. Stern, and Adam Taylor report for the Washington Post. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu held a phone call yesterday to discuss Romania’s investigation into whether drone debris in Romania was Russian. Under NATO’s collective defense commitment, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. As such, the findings of the investigation matter for NATO as a whole. Jasper Ward and Kanishka Singh report for Reuters. 

There is no indication that drone debris found in Romania was caused by a deliberate Russian attack on Romania, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday. Reuters reports. 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX cut Starlink satellite internet services to Ukrainian submarine drones last year as they were launching an attack on Russian vessels. While Ukrainian and U.S. officials restored connectivity after appealing to Musk directly, the incident underscores the vast power of one individual upon which governments increasingly rely. Christian Davenport and Joseph Menn reports for the Washington Post. "

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1700181600729002381?s=20

lousubcap

A bit more on the Elon Musk and Starlink move regarding Ukraine:

"UKRAINE-MUSK ROW GROWS: The long-simmering feud between Kyiv and tech billionaire ELON MUSK reached a new flashpoint today, after a biography of the billionaire by author WALTER ISAACSONrevealed that the mogul ordered his engineers to disable Starlink satellite communications near the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea, our own CLAUDIA CHIAPPA reports.

It is believed that the move foiled a Ukrainian effort to attack the Russian navy in Sevastopol. Posting on X, Musk defended his actions, saying that “there was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol” and that “if I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

“By not allowing Ukrainian drones to destroy part of the Russian military (!) fleet via #Starlink interference, @elonmusk allowed this fleet to fire Kalibr missiles at Ukrainian cities. As a result, civilians, children are being killed,” Ukrainian presidential adviser MYKHAILO PODOLYAK posted in response to the revelations."

JohnInCarolina

lousubcap

Biden-Trump and some observations from Politco:

MORE DOUBTS ABOUT BIDEN — Pretty much everything has been said about President JOE BIDEN’s weaknesses as a 2024 candidate, though not everyone has said it. That has mostly been fixed this weekend as a torrent of pundits weigh in on the Biden question. Is it his age that’s the problem? Or the economy? Is it too late for a blue-state governor to replace him? Or is that wishful thinking by the bedwetting faction of the Democratic Party?

There’s lots to dig into below about where this conversation is moving, but there’s one thing we picked up in conversations this week that isn’t quite captured in the narrow debate about age and the economy. The theory of the case from Biden world is that Dems need not be concerned because 2024 is the election they know how to win. It’s a combination of 2020 and 2022 all over again — running against Trumpian extremism and the erosion of abortion rights.

But there’s a creeping concern among Democrats that the overall gestalt of a Biden-Trump rematch may not be so much 2020 as it is 2016.

What they mean by that is that Biden’s vulnerabilities risk being blown up as equivalent to Trump’s. In other words, what they would describe as Trump’s megalomaniac incompetence is no different than Biden’s alleged cognitive decline. That Trump’s dozens of criminal charges will get generally equated with HUNTER BIDEN’s legal issues. That the comparison of the Biden economy and the Trump economy becomes a wash at best. In this version of bedwetting, 2024 becomes another but-her-emails campaign rather than another MAGA-and-choice campaign.

This isn’t stated explicitly, but it’s the subtext of a lot of the doubts-about-Biden punditry out there.

— ANDREW SULLIVAN says it’s “time for Biden to leave the stage”: (excerpts below)

“Making his campaign about resisting MAGA extremism — and barely campaigning in person because of Covid — worked last time. It won’t next year. The Establishment has had three years to paint Trump as a threat to democracy and a rogue, lawless maniac — and the failure to persuade the public at large of this is all around us. This is not for lack of material: the January 6 Committee did a great job; at least two of the indictments are damning to any neutral observer; and Trump’s behavior is still clearly deranged and getting crazier all the time.

“And yet the two candidates are basically neck-and-neck in the polls. What Trump has done — again! — is a form of jujitsu: he’s using the actions of law enforcement to empower his paranoid narrative of the establishment set against him. … His ability to survive and actually thrive these past three years is staggering. It’s part of a political genius his enemies continue to under-estimate.”

Yes, Trump is almost as old as Biden. But he has the energy and stamina and obsessiveness of the truly mentally ill. I started to read his interview this week with Hugh Hewitt, and yes, it was a festival of delusion and lies and occasional decent points. But what struck me also was the zeal, untempered by time, the persistent, angry passion, the untiring drive to regain power. He is not what he was, and, appearances to the contrary, is mortal. But up against Biden, he seems like raw energy.

Trump’s political rebirth came with the first indictment — a trivial one about hush payments to Stormy Daniels, setting the stage for the Trump victim narrative. Alvin Bragg, take a bow. Trump now has the aura of the American outlaw, a victim of the Biden DOJ, a man on the run. Look at that mug shot. He’s trolling the Constitution. I once wrote about Trump in the context of Shakespeare’s Richard III: it’s hard not to root for the monster in some mischievous way. Even if you accept that the indictments are valid — the Georgia one, in particular — you have to acknowledge the reality that instead of delegitimizing Donald Trump, the American justice system now risks delegitimizing itself with half the American public."

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/joshgondelman/status/1700532097092301113?s=20

lousubcap

Monday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Ukrainian forces have retaken more territory on the eastern and southern fronts, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said today. Maliar said Ukraine retook about 0.77 square miles of land in the past week around Bakhmut, captured part of the village of Opytne, and had “partial success” near Novomaiorske, another village in the Donetsk region. Reuters reports. 

Ukraine may have as few as six weeks before changing weather halts its counter-offensive, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said yesterday. Milley’s comments come after one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s senior security officials indicated Ukraine’s forces could continue their counter-offensive well into the winter. Andrew Carey, Niamh Kennedy, and Yulia Kesaieva report for CNN.

Russia launched 33 drones at Kyiv with debris falling across several districts of the capital during the two-hour-long raid. Officials in Kyiv said 26 of the weapons were destroyed and there was no serious damage. Four people were injured.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces brought down eight Ukraine-launched drones over the Black Sea near Crimea and destroyed three United States-made military speedboats carrying Ukrainian military personnel northeast of Snake Island. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014."