Links For Today

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 18, 2024

Ukraine Situation Report: Putin Now Talking About Creating A “Buffer Zone”

A Ukrainian soldier said that Ukraine’s losses are so heavy where he’s fighting that they struggle to recover the bodies

Chartbook 270: How Russia makes missiles

Russia May Attack a NATO Country in Two Years: German Intel

After Pakistan Conducts Airstrikes in Afghanistan, Taliban Retaliates by Firing Across Border

Germany struggles to fix its pension system

Why auto insurance costs are rising at the fastest rate in 47 years

Our Strange TikTok Odyssey

U.S. economy faces 1970s-style stagflation as inflation sticks around

Nationally, the number of outages from 2019 to 2023 was 93 percent higher than in the previous five years.

Second Kuiper Belt? Planets Beyond Neptune?

Links For Today

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 17, 2024

Israel said to complain of slowdown in US arms deliveries amid growing rift

Residents of Africa’s richest city, Johannesburg, are experiencing a severe water shortage in the middle of a summer heat wave.

US Intelligence Report Warns of Potential Armed Conflict Between India and China

UNICEF Says Essential Aid Container Looted At Haiti Port

U.S. Drivers Warned to Brace For Jump in Gasoline Prices

Sophisticated ‘burglary tourists’ fly from South America to rob wealthy homes, LAPD says

Links For Today

Edit: I hit publish early by mistake. Which is a change from the normal mistake where I forget to hit it at all. But I will not stop adding to this until tonight sometime.

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 16, 2024

Qatar emir proposed expelling Hamas officials in meet with Blinken days after Oct. 7

Indian Navy Rescues Hijacked ‘Ruen’ from Somali Pirates

Democrats are hemorrhaging support with voters of color

New York Budget Fight: They do agree on some things: providing billions to manage the influx of asylum seekers, for example, and overhauling the way kids learn to read. But in many areas, they differ sharply, like on what defines a hate crime and how much to spend on clean water projects.

US Spent More Than Double What It Collected In February, As 2024 Deficit Is Second Highest Ever… And Debt Explodes

Tick-killing pill shows promising results in human trial

CDC Responds to FOIA Request on Myocarditis Data for Covid Vaccinations With Over 100 Blank Pages

According to the Washington Post, Northern Virginia needs the equivalent of several large nuclear power plants to serve all the new data centers planned and under construction. Texas also faces the same issue despite having the most wind capacity in the country. An analysis by the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie found that the energy needed by crypto operations aiming to link to the grid in Texas would equal a quarter of the electricity used in Texas at peak demand. In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade at 17 times what it was only recently.

Links For Today

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 15, 2024

Johnson Will Send Ukraine Aid Package to the Senate After all

Drone Strikes Deal Blow to Russian Diesel Exports

How the Gaza fatality numbers are faked

Nasrallah assures Iranians Hezbollah will fight alone if war with Israel breaks out

NBC Tries Chewing Elon Musk Out for Haitian Cannibal Story, Ends Up Biting Self on the Arse Instead

The 6% commission on buying or selling a home is gone after Realtors association agrees to seismic settlement

More Americans Are Treating Their 401(k)s Like Cash Machines

Mysterious Drones Swarmed Langley AFB For Weeks

The new statement reads like it was written by an MBA. Not sure if that is better or worse then “woke”. West Point accused of ‘going woke’ after suddenly dropping ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ from mission statement

Long COVID ‘indistinguishable’ from other post-viral syndromes a year after infection, researchers find

Inside Russia’s Looming Demographics Crisis

Like most academic types, Mr. Spaneiel has a poor understanding of the roots of the demographic crisis (poorer populations in Russia have more children for example) and he does not go into the differences between populations groups in Russia which make the issue even worse. Those caveats aside, it is a good visual presentation for those who might have had trouble understanding my retirement related arguments in “Russia’s twenty years until collapse.”

Theorizing On Why Russian Assets Have Not Been Used To Fund Ukraine

Stereotypically speaking, your average elite are in favor of more taxpayer support for Ukraine than your average hillbilly. But your average hillbilly is more willing to take seized Russian assets and give them to Ukraine then most members of the elite. As usual, the elite position makes no sense to the average hillbilly. You want to spend extra taxpayer money on Ukraine but you don’t want to spend Russian money that has already been seized? What kind of logic is that?

To be honest, I am a little bit in the hillbilly camp here. I am not sure I do understand the logic. But I have more faith in the average elite then most blue collar folks do in that I believe the elites usually have reasons for what they do. Often they are cowardly reasons. Often they are the result of trying to avoid making hard choices so that they can have their cake and eat it as well. But the hillbilly solutions are almost never as simple and consequence free as your average redneck believes. So I am presupposed to believe that there is a reason that your average elite is more willing to spend taxpayer dollars then seized Russian dollars to fund Ukraine. But that still leaves the question of why? Continue reading

Links For Today

RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, MARCH 14, 2024

New Jetty Being Built Off Gaza Beach As Maritime Aid Missions Spin Up

Toronto Police: Just Let the Thieves Steal Your Car

Despite his dramatic win in the 2023 elections, Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has abandoned his bid to become prime minister.

Wholesale inflation rose 0.6% in February, much more than expected

“New York City is spending about $387 per day per migrant to provide food and shelter to the 64,800 migrants in the city, according to data from NYC City Hall.”

Experts Warn Leprosy Isn’t Ancient History as Cases Surge in The US

In general, the more fiber in the diet of a culture, the more diverse their cellulose-digesting bacteria were. So, their diversity in humans has been going down as more of our population has shifted into urban living.

More Ukrainian Strikes

More on the attacks on oil and gas structures. Ukrainians are doing better then I expected at striking in Russia. However Russia seems to have improved its ability to hit critical military targets in Ukraine.

If you want a longer form look at the recent attacks, you can look at the one below. But honestly, I think the one above tells you all that is worth noting at this stage. A bigger picture look will not mean much until at least a month has gone by and there is time for the dust to settle.