An Important Correction!
On May 23 of 2022 this blog stated that this years flu vaccine was lacking in efficacy.
Upon receiving further information, it now appears that this is NOT, at least to the best of our knowledge actually the case.
Do not be dissuaded from your flu shot gentle readers!
It was the Moderna COVID19 vaccine and boosters that didn't work on my mutant weeb ass.
THE SUSPENSE IS OVER! I finally have the 'Rona!
I've been visited by Cronachan and contracted the Pinko-Pox, Chi-Com Cough, Whuhan-Bat-Soup-Death-Plague, Xi Syndrome, The Fauci Fever, The Bolshevik Bug, The Maoist Malady, Winnie the Flu, The 2020 Gain of Function Award!
"I feel like poop."
BUT, I'm, well...I'm off work for another week. Hopefully, I'll be able to do something besides cough and hurt for some of that time.
1
Get well soon Brickmuppet!
My sister-in-law just had it but made a quick recovery, hope you do too.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thu May 26 23:18:28 2022 (PiXy!)
2
Get well soon. I would say "Wrap up warm," but you might be better off toasting in your normal indoors weather, since it is almost summer. Stay hydrated.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Fri May 27 12:34:52 2022 (cHUaN)
It's a much better take than several of my history professors, who would angrily declare that "countries don't fall do to decadence" and seem to feel that expressing concern about decadence is a warning sign of being a NAZI .
1
There's normal flu going around, and a nasty stomach bug that makes people think they're getting knifed (but pretty harmless other than extreme pain - coworker had it), and bronchitis/laryngitis (probably viral - I had it).
Maybe a norovirus too, but nobody I know has gotten it; so it might be an old strain.
Get well soon.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue May 24 08:28:33 2022 (sF8WE)
I knew this was coming, and had heard about rationing being set up in places like Spain and Egypt but I honestly thought we'd have 'till September or October.
1
Among other factors not include...Just how much grain supply that are either sitting on the fields waiting to be harvested, or sitting in the holds of bulk freighters enroute to their destination ports, were not counted so a group of lazy UN analysts could wake-up that morning in their 4 star hotel and realized that they had a report due later that afternoon?
Posted by: cxt217 at Mon May 23 16:23:53 2022 (MuaLM)
2
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow are the minor Rogation Days, when every parish was supposed to go around the boundaries driving out demons, praying for the crops, and praying against various possible disasters. (And having nice drinks afterward.)
You also got to carry a cool dragon banner or Snapdragon float/puppet, symbolizing the Devil trying to stop you. On the third Rogation Day, the dragon banner or float got moved to the end of the procession in disgrace, symbolizing Christ's defeat of the Devil. And then the next day was Ascension Thursday, with feasting.
Rogation Days are celebrated in some rural parishes in the US, often with help from pickup trucks for the procession.
I think the last few years have made people more interested in praying against disasters.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue May 24 08:36:30 2022 (sF8WE)
3
Theoretically, I should be skeptical of world grain supply estimates, even if I didn't already suspect that the bureaucracy in question was full of knaves and morons.
The larger the aggregation, the more we should suspect estimates not usually made. Routine estimates are sometimes eventually adjusted so that the methodology actually produces useful results, but just as easily Goodheart's law makes them worse.
In practice, estimating use rate of food is partly a population estimate, and there are reasons to think population estimates may be wildly high.
I dunno what will happen. I would be a bit surprised if the globalist number diddlers have a correct idea.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Tue May 24 16:08:45 2022 (r9O5h)
Strange New Worlds
The new Star Trek series has premiered.
After the middle fingers to the fans that were Star Treks Picard and Discovery, faith is weak.
Nevertheless, the pilot episode was run on YouTube last week and, being a trekkie of some 40 years, I watched it.
I do NOT immediately despise this show.
It looks good. The pilot was decently written and it felt in many ways like a decent Next Generation episode. There was a lot of extraneous drama and plot contrivances shoehorned into the pilot but the episode did not actually suffer for it.
For those familiar with Trek lore the Pilot is a first contact story that deals with the origins of "General Order One". The episode takes place immediately after the finale of Star Trek: Discovery and is still cleaning up the mess that show left. Enterprise is getting repaired and Captain Pike is on sabbatical. He's contemplating a vision of his future he received towards the end of STD, which he was given so that the misandric, feminist writers of that atrocity could have the sadistic satisfaction of having a strong male lead scream like a 9 year old girl dropped into a pit of tarantulas. Suffice it to say that plot point left a mark. However, notwithstanding the legit trauma itself, Pike's concern's about the matter are quite professional and rational.
Meanwhile, Number One receives information that a warp signature has been detected from a quarantined system a few hours flight time from Earth. Starfleet is still trying to put itself back together after the events of the previous series, and doesn't have any first contact teams in the core of the Federation at the moment (They stay on the frontier). Eager to give her crew a First Contact Award, Number one asks for and gets permission to take a few off duty Enterprise Crew on a mothballed, but barely functional Hermes class scout to pop into the newly star-fairing system and say "Hi!".
Things do not go as planned, and what should have been an easy day away from the shipyard on fun collateral duty becomes an interstellar incident with far reaching influences upon subsequent events.
It was not a GREAT episode, but it was a quite solid one. It actually has something useful to say about bureaucratic overreaction, which is not a lesson I expected from a Star Trek show in current year.
The pilot has been pulled from YouTube, but there are several trailers, this one giving a good overview of the cast, which I rather like a lot.
Well, except for La'an, who's surname looks to be a crime against canon and who appears to be a parody of a Mary Sue in a Star Trek fanfic. OTOH, if you're gonna do a Mary Sue, this is the place to do it and the actress (who looks to be quite good) seems to lean into it with considerable gusto.
Aside that the cast looks GREAT and, unlike Discovery, the (possible) Mary Sue is not the lead, and to be fair, actually looks to have real potential, this being quite explicitly an ensemble cast.
So I am cautiously optimistic.
On the other hand, I have memories of another pilot, not so long ago that looked to have quite a lot of potential.
That optimism was misplaced.
So a decent pilot is not going to get me to subscribe to CBS-All Access.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Mon May 23 06:06:11 2022 (53Aon)
2
Messing around with Vulcan reproduction is high on the no-no scale. Theodore Sturgeon was a better writer, storyteller, and mythmaker on his worst day than most people on their best.
And more to the point, everybody knows that Spock was catnip to fan ladies, and the lore was a big part of that.
But the Bad Robot movies had already contradicted Vulcan reproductive lore, although most people ignored that; so this was just more of the same.
Shrug. I gave up on new ST a long time ago. If I hear enough good things, I'll watch it. But I don't think they want me to watch it.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon May 23 14:53:12 2022 (sF8WE)
3
It is a shame that the IP holders have not produced any more Star Trek after Enterprise.
Like Star Gate and Star Gate Atlantis, and the three Star Wars movies, there are a lot of sci fi IPs that just suddenly stop, inexplicably, when it should have still been possible for them to make a lot of money by putting new material on the screen.
Doctor Who, in particular, is surprising by the way that it just stops. They had done all that effort to make a series that they could continue through at least a dozen main actors, and stopped with around half that, never touching the property again for thirty or forty years.
It is a disgrace to sit on that IP, and to not use it to produce more excellent material, comparable to the original stuff.
At least we have Galaxy Quest.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Tue May 24 16:17:57 2022 (r9O5h)
1
Don't talk yourself down. You did a freaking huge job there, even for the totally ablebodied. Your house shrubbery must have some kind of druid blessing on it.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon May 23 14:45:07 2022 (sF8WE)
The channel has broadcast several short test streams. However, there are multiple issues. One is that APPLE seems to be blocking most of the best png-tuber programs. Currently, the channel is using Fugi-Tech's REACTIVE, which is an excellent tool for collaborations but less versatile for general streaming. There are other issues too that mostly seem to revolve around Mac compatibility...
The net result is that progress is much slower than anticipated. And the short test streams are truly demoralizing studies of the intersection of scuff and cringe.
My speech has still not fully recovered from the stroke so this horror show can be cynically passed off as a sort of therapy. (IRL I used to be a both an actor and a DJ believe it or not.)
I currently aim to be streaming 4 days a week. The new date for the full debut stream (with obligatory power-point) is June 11.
A big thanks to those V-Tubers who have offered advice and support.
The Telegram post that is the basis for this is here. It's a Ukranian site and the motivation to spin people up over this is obvious.
It's quite possible that with sewage and water systems smashed by Putin's little war that there have been a few cases and the Russian health experts are trying to head off the inevitable tragedy. It's also possible Putin has lost the plot and called in some assistance from Biopreparat.
The latter theory is likely to get all the press as it fits their previous speculation and current narrative perfectly.
Either way, this is the sort of thing that can inflame rage bring this mess to the next level of horror.
Even if this story and the allegedly impending outbreak do NOT result in military escalation, the unspeakable horror of a cholera outbreak amongst refugees cannot be overstated.
1
Well, they got the name right. I mean yeah, they tore a freighter in two with a slow-acting bomb, that'll definitely ruin a nautical day.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu May 5 19:33:38 2022 (DB9Lx)
2
The real trick to that bomb is they took a GPS guided bomb and added a tracking module to it that lets it figure out where its target is moving to and corrects its course.
Posted by: Mauser at Thu May 5 23:38:28 2022 (gVjvf)
Despite the hysteria, this decision (that is theoretical and hasn't even been handed down yet) does not outlaw abortion, but puts the question where it belongs, in the state legislatures. I fear a good dead of blood and treasure will be lost in a hysterical overreaction and in an attempt to intimidate the court.
UPDATE: I don't usually spell 'decision' d-e-c-i-o-s-i-o-n. But when I do, I'm generally blogging. Fixed.
1
Spring cleaning is so nice. I'm so procrastinating on it. Didn't top-dress my lawn this year at all. Barely made one pass with W+F.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon May 2 13:57:05 2022 (LZ7Bg)
2
Is your house amenable to a cleaning robot? I got a midrange Roomba last year and found that it's conducive to vacuuming more frequently than I otherwise do, which is nice.
Congrats on your ongoing improvements, too.
Posted by: Rick C at Tue May 3 08:18:04 2022 (6oqhX)
3
The Feldenkrais guy has a video on bending over. It turns out that adults do it wrong and make it harder on themselves.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oh1Y4Q62Q6g
So this video is about remembering how to bend over.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed May 4 15:46:13 2022 (sF8WE)
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@ Suburbanbanshee: Thanks! Glad you are still around. How are you doing?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed May 4 15:55:59 2022 (5iiQK)
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@Rick C: Thanks very much for the offer! Alas, I live in a '70s split level ranch with 4 different sets of stairs. (This is one reason I did a lot of my stroke recovery at my folks house 300 miles away.)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed May 4 15:59:00 2022 (5iiQK)
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Brickmuppet, glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor!
Posted by: Rick C at Fri May 6 09:39:08 2022 (6oqhX)
Brickmuppet Blog no longer has any comment on any matters of importance as we enjoy having our toes attached to our feet and further enjoy wiggling them.
So we will henceforth be responsible model citizens of good character and maintain the most hygienic of thoughts.
We cannot , however be held responsible for any unfortunate opinions that might or might not be held by certain anime lolis that may or may not find their way into our posts.
I assure you, our most benevolent and credentialed overlords, that we are working on the matter.
2
Definitely. We're not sure what moves Elon will make to try and fix the mess that is Twitter, and then of course we know the employees will drag their feet, misinterpret, and otherwise resist any effective change, and there will be an enormous amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth at how awful this is, how dare some rich person buy a media company and try and change it (cough, Bezos, cough, Carlos Slim), and how horrible it is that *those people* can actually say *those things* on the internet and not get blocked and banned.
I will be very interested to see if Elon just tries to fix policies so that they are actually neutral and implemented as such, or if he goes direct "unban that person, ban that person, don't ban any of those..."
Posted by: David at Mon Apr 25 21:32:39 2022 (qSKtI)
3
Originally thought infographic might make a very strong case.
Then noticed 'midterm candidates'. So, representatives and senators, and hence something that doesn't only track ideological preference. Also tracks buying influence with likely winners, so that they don't use screw over your business.
So, you would somewhat get a party bias at times that tracks with where your employees are located.
Twitter is in San Francisco, and it is unlikely that Pelosi's organization is lazy about shaking people down for protection.
Anyhow, Tesla is lower donating, but also a pretty high fraction Dem. Raises the question about when the data is from, and what locations the employees were at.
I think Twitter is possibly somewhat subsumed by Pelosi's operation. If so, you might only be able to address things quickly by building fresh organization from scratch elsewhere, and transfer elements of responsibility over, without moving people. Barring that, these kids at twitter were really excited about what Biden and Pelosi could do for them, both of whom are old and infirm, and may die of natural causes before Musk could make significant changes at Twitter.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Tue Apr 26 12:23:06 2022 (r9O5h)
Moskva's Last Patrol
A Journalist on Twitter, Sotiri Dimpinoudis posted these pics last night and they are making the rounds today.
We still don't know a lot, but there are reports that the Cruiser was hit by two Neptune missiles. Damage control/Damage assessment are not my forte' but the pics look consistent with those reports. I've seen people protest that there are no obvious blast holes like was apparent on U.S.S. Stark when hit by an Iraqi exocet. Moskva was a very substantial vessel, MUCH larger than a frigates and the missiles are small things. Also note this footage of HMS Sheffield before she sank due to another exocet hit.
HMS Sheffield was a smaller ship than Stark yet there is not the same spectacular obvious blast damage. There is certainly damage but its much closer to what we see on Moskva. Note too that in the case of both Stark and Sheffield the most serious damage was caused by the fire started by the rocket motor.
I don't have any idea what happened and am not technically qualified to speculate on damage control matters, but I don't think it is wise to dismiss the Ukrainian claims of a hit with their new missiles out of hand.
I suggest you go read this rather sober piece by Cdr Salamander who notes that the life-rafts on Moskva did deploy. He also notes the difficulties that a ship faces in range of enemy missiles. The Russians have not covered themselves in glory during this abominable campaign, but it is foolish to assume that every setback they face is a result of incompetence. The Moskva was old but VERY well equipped and as flagship she would have had a crackerjack crew. We would do well to draw lessons from her loss rather than engage in mockery.
We should save the mockery for those in our educated class who despite layers of fact-checker posted this picture claiming it represented the incident being discussed.
1
The examples of USS STARK and HMS Sheffield is pertinent because each has an element in their incident that could have gone into Moskva's loss.
STARK had, by all accounts, a competent crew but a lack of attention at a critical point and the lack of promptness in servicing equipment resulted in the frigate getting nailed by Exocet missiles. While the crew loss was horrible, the STARK lucked-out because she avoided a a true 'kill shot' hit.
HMS Sheffield, on the other hand, had a competent crew and was materially prepared for war, but a lack of attention (Made worse by past alerts of attacks that failed to materialize.) resulting in a blase attitude toward the danger, and equipment interference allowed a successful Exocet attack. Despite that, it still required an enormous amount (Or lack of.) luck for the damage to be as severe as it was - IIRC, one Brit poster on the old sci.military.naval USENET group quipped that the hit was a classic Golden BB shot, because you could not have placed the warhead any better even if you did it by hand.
Right now, we still do not know enough from the Moskva to draw anything other than a few basic conclusions. Her loss might have matched the case of the STARK, the case of the Sheffield, a mix of the two, or something entirely different. We do not know enough at this time and even what is probably true is still in dispute. One of the few things that can be confidently predicted is that Moskva will not be the last ship lost in the war, and that Moskva might not be the worse loss at sea in the war.
Posted by: cxt217 at Mon Apr 18 19:39:45 2022 (MuaLM)
My new microphone, one which, hopefully works, has not yet arrived and is currently in limbo. I'm blaming train robbers for now, mainly because it sounds cool.
This, sadly, is not happening at the moment.
I'm still having some issues with getting the .pngs to synch with my voice, which I can't adequately test without a mic.
So, I don't think we are going to be streaming tonight.
I'm going to set a hard debut date of May 6th at 9PM EST/2AM GMT .
I may do a few public test streams before then if equipment becomes available. If the Mic/Headphone set is not here in few days, I'll order a new one.
"BUT I NEED SOULS! "
"Ignore 'Skippy' she's uh...neurodivergent...and a little 'Chunni'."
Sorry for the delays but without a mike that' not full of tinny reverb and static, it's just not happening.
See you at the curry mine in 21 days!
Brickmuppet and SCP491713 by Anime-Gum. Support him on Patreon!
A Note of Caution
So there are reports that Russian forces in Ukraine have used poison gas.
This is believable on the face of it given the reporting we have been getting because the Russians are somewhat stymied and they did this before in Syria, on the orders on the new commander of the Ukraine offensive.
However...
Reports are sketchy and the unit that the Daily Mail article says is reporting the incident is the Azov Battalion. The Azov Battalion is a militia group that are staffed with Nazis.
No, not libertarians that lefties are just CALLING NAZIs, or parents who don't want their daughters raped, or individualists or capitalists or classical liberals. The AZOV battalion consists of actual, unironic, motherfucking NAZIS. National Socialists are not reliable primary sources.
So let the fog-of-war clear a bit before loosing ones head.
1
They did not do it in Syria. It was a complete fabrication. Just like this time.
BTW, what do you think about Russians losing the flagship of their Black Sea Fleet to a missile strike? I think that was some lulz.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Apr 13 23:56:06 2022 (LZ7Bg)
2
I thought it was funny to joke about "Ukrainian missiles have struck Moscow, and destroyed it." Plus playing on the city/ship ambiguity to say that the Americans were pussies for not nuking Moscow the city back during the Cold War.
There's actually a serious possible consequence, because Biden is senile enough that he may have forgotten the end of the Cold War. If he hasn't pushed through the launch of a 'preemptive' strike to 'prevent' the hypothetical Russian 'retaliatory' nuclear launch, it is probably not going to happen, so lulz should be safely purely humorous.
Leslie Fish has written lyrics for a Filk about it.
Re: gas
I think Russian logistics were already quite strained without needing to get gas into the Ukraine, supplying gas would have needed commitment by the leadership to atrocity well ahead of time, and that with that commitment, a great deal of atrocity could be carried out with simple small airs. If there had been gas use, we would also expect other things to be done worth condemnation, that would be much easier to prove.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Thu Apr 14 12:51:16 2022 (r9O5h)
3
And I forgot to post with javascript on so that my carriage returns would be preserved.
*sigh*
Posted by: PatBuckman at Thu Apr 14 12:52:22 2022 (r9O5h)
4
Based in Naval News' reporting, we are not sure what happened to Moskva except there was an explosion (Possibly caused by the Ukrainians.), damage was severe enough for the entire crew to be evacuated, and the cruiser stayed afloat for a while before sinking. We are not even sure what caused it, since Ukraine did not officially have any surface-launched anti-ship missiles yet.
The Russians did make it easier for something to happen to Moskva, since it had been operating on a fairly predictable pattern since the war began. I think that it will probably not have much practical effect on Russian operations at sea beyond what have been going on right now (Moskva did not have the surface to surface missiles the Russians have been bombarding Ukrainian targets with, and while her area air defense systems had a provided a large radius of coverage, the cruiser was not the only ship in the Black Sea Fleet capable of doing that.), it will anger the Russians enough to react harshly in some form.
Posted by: cxt217 at Thu Apr 14 19:43:24 2022 (MuaLM)
5
I've been on the RFS Moskva, (Back when it was named Slava) it was a pretty impressive ship, and I was surprised how much armor was evident. However, without elaborating too much, I noticed a few things that indicate the Russians don't understand a lot about damage control.
@cxt217 The fog of war disclaimers certainly apply here. But I don't think a Slava class cruiser just spontaneously combusted. Note that the Ukrainians do have a fairly effective home-grown anti-ship missile, the Neptune.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Apr 14 20:23:21 2022 (5iiQK)
6
It is the state of Russian damage control, maintenance, and/or manufacturing standards that makes it quite possible that something non-Ukrainian related happened aboard the Moskva to total her. I do not think we have enough information to say what it is - as much as I want the Ukrainians to win, I sure do not trust anything the Ukrainians say unless someone else backs it up.
Naval News report the Neptune has not actually gone into service yet with the Ukrainians. It was apparently scheduled for this month before things went to crap. Note that there were no confirmed use or even sightings of the Neptune being fielded at all prior to claims it was used against the Moskva, which led a lot of people to wonder what the Ukrainians were doing.
Posted by: cxt217 at Thu Apr 14 22:48:20 2022 (MuaLM)
7
First photos from the rescue vessels were published today and it looks like cxt won a prize: no damage consistent with a hit by a missile or missiles is visible, but a fire in the main engine is fairly evident. As far as what "magazine" blew up later, it could be the stores for the AK-630.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Apr 17 22:02:45 2022 (LZ7Bg)
1
The food doesn't surprise me. People are starting to become more aware of the Charlie Foxtrot the global food supply is going to be through this year and into next. With the breadbasket for Europe, SW Asia, and Northern Africa currently being fertilized for Liberty Trees and with copious amount of cordite, a massive shortage of normal fertilizer, avian flu in the US, swine Flu in China, and various droughts world wide, there will be global food shortages. Here in the US, we should be OK, not much worse than the shortages of the last two years food-wise, but in other parts of the world there will be widespread famine.
The lead ingots are likely people predicting a massive radioactive rainfall from Russia and looking to build shelters.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Wed Apr 13 19:59:28 2022 (QJSdE)
2
Actually I THINK the lead ingots are for casting bullets for handloading . It's one or 2 damned 74 pound ingots per address. Just a lot of people getting them today.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Apr 13 21:32:16 2022 (5iiQK)
3
Holy cow, how do you even lift a 74 pound parcel? I can only squat 60 after Covid and deadlift maybe 70. That's without waking with the weight!
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Apr 14 14:37:04 2022 (LZ7Bg)
4
That animation was on point!
Carb cleaner and starting spray, and new gas for the mower.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Apr 15 00:10:25 2022 (gVjvf)
5Holy cow, how do you even lift a 74 pound parcel?
Get close to the package. Position feet shoulder width apart. Establish firm footing, bending with the knees, not the back. Pivot rather that twist. As a matter of company policy we aren't responsible for lifting anything over 70 pounds without assistance but as a practical matter, 4 pounds is not worth whining over when there's no one else around. We carry parcels up to 150lb so if I DID get help on one of those I'd be lifting 75 anyway.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Apr 15 03:33:16 2022 (5iiQK)
6
When I was young (and fresh off the farm) I could pick up 90 pounds one-handed and lift it up over my head.
Today...just looking at my cat can throw my back out.
Posted by: Frank at Thu Apr 21 01:54:09 2022 (rglbH)
7
Inspired by Brickmuppet, I deadlifted and squatted 90 yesterday.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Apr 21 21:57:33 2022 (LZ7Bg)
There were questions asked in the comments regarding Ubu Roi's well being. He did respond to my inquiry and is alive and well. There have been connectivity issues adding to computer problems, and, like many of us of late, life has ...happened...to him...most energetically on multiple fronts at once, but he is not dead or hospitalized or anything.
Actual photograph of Ubu Roi is by Youkan. Support his work on Fantia!
Last Gasp?
An interesting disquisition by Peter Zeihan on what's happening in Russia, what Russia's motivations are, and what their endgame is.
I don't speak Russian and Russian translations are hard to come by, so I have no idea how accurate his analysis or long term prediction of "No Russia in the future" is. I'm skeptical to say the least. Russia has bounced back from a LOT. However Russia faces bigger problems than people suppose....as does the world...Go to 11:09 for the answer to the question "How does this affect us?"
1
There is a very big reason why Russia is invading and it is one nobody is really talking about, least of all the US/EU elites who don't want any of us looking too closely at it.
As is well known by now, Russia is a petro-state whose economy is basically their oil and natural gas exports, primarily to Europe. The Russians were hurt hard by the drop in Natural Gas prices caused by the fracking revolution, adn they never want to see that again, and will go to extreme lengths to prevent it.
Now wind the clock back about 10-12 years. 3 new, massive, and completely untapped natural gas deposits came to light (though likely known about from the Soviet era). We're talking 3 Bakken-level deposits that are completely untapped. Where might these magical deposits be? One is at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains near the Poland border of Ukraine, a second is off the shore of the Crimea, and the third stretches from the Donbas past Kharkiv into Belarus. If any of these fields comes online, all the pipeline infrastructure that currently passes Russian gas through Ukraine will carry Ukrainan gas instead and Russia's economy does a replay of the post-Soviet era. That is why Putin is doing this.
As for our own elites? I'll point out that they were heavily involved in the 2004 overthrow of Putin's puppet in Ukraine and placing their own puppet in power. Putin's invasion of Crimea and Donbas put the kibosh on Billions of petro-grift dollars falling into their pockets, which explains a lot about why he became so hated by them. And finally, ask yourself just what kind of financing deals Hunter Biden was involved in where so many millions would flow to him in a relatively poor country like the Ukraine.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Mon Apr 4 17:19:32 2022 (j/uDM)
2
Sane people invest in their neighboring country, possibly through shell companies.
Insane people invade their neighboring country.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Apr 5 07:52:25 2022 (sF8WE)
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