January 31, 2022
If You Are Wondering About of the State of Our Universities, Here Are Some Resouces
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January 18, 2022
2022: 'Year of the Tiger' A Year From the Far Future of our Youth Is Here Now
...and it looks a lot like 1962.
Note that 1962 was a 'Year of the Tiger' as well, which, by the convoluted special pleading of astrology means that there are two tigers involved...which should give one pause...
...or paws.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER:
Actually, astrology is complete bollocks, and we apologize for indulging it, but it gives us an excellent opportunity to make light of a potentially serious situation by posting cheesecake, for which we are are completely unrepentant.
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January 04, 2022
What's Happening?
Well, The Taliban is ordering all shop owners to behead all of their mannequins. What? As practice?
The President has finally decided to go after them thar Robber Barons we do hear tell about....well some of the Robber Barons...well...he's taking on 'BIG MEAT'. (Buy and freeze your steaks now kids....there are bugs and tofu in our future)
The Arlington Education Association, the local teachers union, which, shockingly, represents teachers, but not just any teachers, teachers that teach kids how to read and write. This latter, somewhat redundant point, becomes relevant only because this organization that represents teachers, sent out this letter to parents...one of whom was the kind of saucy bitch who had actually taken a grammar class at some point...
...presumably a grammar class taught by different teachers.
This a few days old but I'd held out some hope that it was a misunderstanding. NYC is assigning COVID treatments based on race. (The problem with holding out hope is that it is more likely to get blown out of your hand.)
Yesterday, Virginia was hit by a blizzard...or as Pete and Wonderduck might describe it, " a Monday". This deposit of 1-300cm of powdery ice 1h would not merit any comment but for the thousands of people who have been trapped in their cars in subfreezing temperatures for 24 hours or more. Most probably aren't dressed for the weather as it was warm shirt-sleeve weather for the last few days, right up until the storm hit.
Typhoon Rai, which clobbered the Phillippines last week, is now thought to have left over half a million homeless.
Art by Bee Sang
Guess what? Our old friend Coronachan, the gift that keeps on giving, has gifted us some more. A NEW variant has been found in Camaroon. Cue panic.
I'm thinking that most of us feel the same way about the year of the Tiger that Mayoi Hitsugi does...
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January 03, 2022
Meanwhile: North of the Black Sea
I don't think people are fully appreciating how serious this Ukraine mess is getting.
Russia has been massing troops on the Russian and Belarusian borders of Ukraine for a few weeks and is currently running fallout drills, establishing national protocols for burying mass numbers of people and informing the public of new excavation standards for mass graves that will be containing radioactive corpses. In an effort to establish a dialog and clarify matters, the Russian government is likening current events to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
On the other side of the equation, The U.S.A., France, Germany, and the U.K. have re-affirmed their support for the Ukraines independence and territorial integrity. This is a long-standing agreement going back to the Budapest Accords of the early 90s that convinced Ukraine to give up it's nuclear weapons, which it had inherited from the breakup of the U.S.S.R.
Russia is on balance, obviously in the wrong here, but Ukraine, while it has done nothing to warrant the egregious violations of its sovereignty that it has endured, IS a corrupt country that literally has NAZIs sitting in it's parliament.
This is a mess and I don't think anybody is fully appreciating the resolve of the other.
Ukraine is the heartland of Russian civilization and culture, which began with the Russ of Kiev. Russians, especially nationalists like Putin have an intense attachment to Ukraine. On the Ukrainian side, that bridge was burnt, with prejudice, by the Holodomor. So terrible were the Russian depredations of the Ukrainians that the Ukrainians in WW2 welcomed the fricking NAZIs in as liberators...it was so bad in the Ukraine that the NAZIs were a step up. This is why there are still NAZIs in Ukrainian politics.
The Russians have a huge amount to gain by an adventure in the Ukraine. Oil, a strategic buffer zone, the richest soil in the world and prestige foreign and domestic as well as the strong psychological need to reintegrate what they see as their prodigal brethren. They have taken the measure of the U.S. in the aftermath of the Afghanistan debacle and seem to have decided that there is no better time to do this, as they will NEVER have such diffident leadership in the US again.
Furthermore, Putin's position may not be as secure as is generally supposed. He is an autocrat who is ultimately answerable to the Russian Oligarchs and his position is dependent on appearing strong, both to them and the Russian people.
For its part, the U.S. in particular, after the Afganistan fiasco, feels it cannot back down again. Democrat talk a good game of being anti-war when not in office, but the only Democratic presidents that are not considered mediocre or outright failures are those that waged wars. They have a history of using the immense powers conferred on the government by war to consolidate their power by rounding up their political opposition and the only time this backfired on them meaningfully was in the aftermath of World War One. Plagued by multiple calamities, most of which are the products of their own ineptitude, the current administration needs a foreign policy victory, or, perhaps a short, victorious war. They see Russia as a broke corrupt nation that is a husk of its former self with a military that NATO even in its current military state could take in a conventional war. That assessment is not, strictly speaking, wrong, but the Russians most likely have some nasty surprises in store nevertheless. In any event the Russians, who have a vast tactical nuclear arsenal have made it clear that any intervention by western powers past the eastern border of Poland will be met with nuclear fires.
The U.S. and other Western powers seem to have dismissed tactical nukes as a real thing since about 1992. While Strategic forces of the U.S. and Russia, are basically at parity, The Russians have a vast advantage in low yield, short range weapons intended for battlefield use. All those points about Russia being a declining power mean that the equalizing effect of tactical nukes is very tempting, and indeed the Russians have made no secret of their willingness to use weapons in a battlefield situation to "calm things down".
The current administration, so heavy with theoreticians and academics likely can't really get their heads around this as a real thing. If the Russians pop a nuke and evaporate a number of NATO troops the reaction is not likely to be measured. Even if President Biden is removed by the 25th amendment, the Vice President is a quite incompetent courtesan who exhibits all the most toxic girl-boss behaviors of a particularly entitled upper middle-class debutante.
In any event, there are few things more dangerous than scared, insecure leaders who are backed into a corner, and whose political future depends on appearing tough.
Also: The Budapest Accords are a linchpin of nuclear nonproliferation. Ukraine gave up its nukes with the guarantee that it did not need them anymore. It has come to rue that decision. Other countries with nuclear capability, but no nuclear weapons are watching this situation closely. The EU and other NATO members, particularly France, (which, despite their reputation post WW2 are a world power that takes international norms VERY seriously) may well see the Budapest Accords as THE line in the sand, for if that commitment is abandoned, then Western (not just US) promises and guarantees will carry NO weight and for many countries in 'dangerous neighborhoods', not having high energy weapons will seem foolish.
The point is that the Russians can quite possibly push too far, underestimating what the west sees as being the true states, and the west is likely to not recognize the seriousness of the Russian resolve and willingness to 'go to the next level'.
I have a degree in History, but foreign policy is outside my bailiwick.
Thus, I have some questions going forward:
How binding ARE the Budapest Accords?
What is the press coverage and public attitude towards this mess REALLY like in Russia. I don't speak Russian, Ukrainian, or Belarusian nor do I read Cyrillic so I'm taking the word of western news outlets, which is rarely a path to wisdom.
How many "advisors" does the U.S. and other NATO countries have in the Ukraine?
It seems consequential that the FINNISH politicians of all people are talking about joining NATO. How serious IS this talk, is it just smack talk or are the Finns seriously contemplating abandoning their position of neutrality that has existed since 1945?
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