IT’S A PATTERN ALL RIGHT:
Jen Psaki: Biden "was the vice president the last time Russia invaded Ukraine, this is a pattern" pic.twitter.com/fFwbYLKyRi
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 2, 2022
Archive for 2022
March 2, 2022
THOUGHTS FROM A SMART FRIEND:
Putin has not only turned himself into an international pariah, laughingstock and domestic failure. He is costing the oligarchs a lot of money.
That creates a lot of tension. It puts him in danger, and makes him dangerous, to any possible rivals as well as to Ukraine and the rest of us.
Putin has overnight achieved what took Saddam Hussein decades in unacceptable despotism. Russia’s only path back to international acceptance is Putin on a platter. Putin as the fall guy. Gotta assume a lot of powerful people in Russia have figured that out. So how does that play out?
Badly for someone.
SALENA ZITO: The Hypocrisy of Coca-Cola.
In March of last year, days after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed new voting reform legislation, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said, “This legislation is unacceptable. It is a step backwards … and needs to be remedied, and we will continue to advocate for it both in private and now even more in public.”
The massive soft drink company wasn’t alone — it brought a wave of corporate backlash aimed at Kemp, Georgia Republicans, and Republicans in general. Within days, Major League Baseball had pulled the All Star Game out of the state. Delta Airlines, Home Depot, Porsche Cars, and the Atlanta Falcons — all Georgia-based companies — also slammed the law based on false Democratic Party talking points about what it said and did.
And, of course, Coca-Cola also tweeted its displeasure with the law.
One year later, Coca-Cola is eerily silent on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia is one of the company’s most profitable markets, as the soda giant operates out of the country as Swiss-based bottler Coca-Cola HBC. It announced last Tuesday they had contingency plans to cope with the crisis, which included stockpiling ingredients to limit any disruption in their massive Russian market.
Coca-Cola HBC gets approximately 21% of its volume from Russia and Ukraine, where it also has operations. The workers in Ukraine were sent home last week. . . .
They have also not issued any statement condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine at the time of this publication, nor have they tweeted anything that even remarkably resembles criticism of Russia’s actions going all the way back to before Russia crossed into Ukraine several days ago.
Their website has nothing, either. The statement at the top of the page is on climate change.
However, there are plenty of syrupy tweets about their new limited-release soda Starlight on both of their Twitter accounts.
In short, Coca-Cola has no problem taking a whack at the Republican governor for enacting a law they clearly had not read. Still, they cannot take a stand against Russia, whose leader is massacring people in Ukraine.
Screw them.
AS ALWAYS, LIFE IMITATES MONTY PYTHON:
Shot: An army of snowflakes. The British Army wants to recruit snowflakes to its ranks. What is it thinking?
Its new PR campaign features posters and TV ads calling on ‘snowflakes’, ‘selfie addicts’, ‘class clowns’, ‘phone zombies’ and ‘me me me millennials’ to sign up. One poster says: ‘Snowflakes – your army needs YOU and your compassion.’
—Spiked, January 3rd, 2019.
Chaser: British soldiers demand that the armed forces introduce vegan uniforms. A newly-formed group in the British Army called The Ministry of Defence Vegan and Vegetarian Network has launched a campaign to empower vegans and vegetarians who enlisted in the armed forces.
—Rebel News, yesterday.
Wait until the Vegan Brigade discovers that “If you’re in the army, and there’s a war you have to go and fight!”
PRINT THE LEGEND: The Ghost of Kyiv: A Legend Born of Social Media, But Is He Real?
YOU CAN BET ON IT: A new blog from Bryan Caplan, with thoughts on enticing Russian soldiers to desert, Covid arithmetic, and more.
NEVER BEFORE HAVE SO MANY SPENT SO MUCH ON SO LITTLE: Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they’re wild.
Appearing before a House Science Committee hearing on NASA’s Artemis program, Martin revealed the operational costs of the big rocket and spacecraft for the first time. Moreover, he took aim at NASA and particularly its large aerospace contractors for their “very poor” performance in developing these vehicles.
Martin said that the operational costs alone for a single Artemis launch—for just the rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems—will total $4.1 billion. This is, he said, “a price tag that strikes us as unsustainable.” With this comment, Martin essentially threw down his gauntlet and said NASA cannot have a meaningful exploration program based around SLS and Orion at this cost.
You don’t say.
Plus:
Later in the hearing, Martin broke down the costs per flight, which will apply to at least the first four launches of the Artemis program: $2.2 billion to build a single SLS rocket, $568 million for ground systems, $1 billion for an Orion spacecraft, and $300 million to the European Space Agency for Orion’s Service Module. NASA, Martin said, had checked and confirmed these figures.
What is striking about these costs is that they do not include the tens of billions of dollars that NASA has already spent developing the Orion spacecraft since 2005 and the Space Launch System rocket since 2011. If one were to amortize development costs over 10 flights of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft, the $4.1 billion figure cited by Martin would easily double.
I figured NASA would get one, maybe two flights out of SLS/Orion — just to avoid admitting a total cesspit of waste and failure — but this report brings even that minuscule effort into doubt.
WELL, JAKE TAPPER: Jake Tapper’s pearl-clutching over Lauren Boebert ‘heckling’ Joe Biden is not only irrational, but it’s built on a bald-faced lie.
After the way Democrats and the media — but I repeat myself — treated Trump, I don’t want to hear any bullshit about dignity of office.
MARK JUDGE: The Allure of Totalitarianism: The Stasi were masterful at exploiting the vulnerabilities of artists. Today’s social activists may be learning the same tricks. “One thing that many informants had in common was fatherlessness.”
SPOILER: THE VILLAGE PEOPLE WERE NOT HISTORICALLY ACCURATE DEPICTIONS. America’s Wild West Was Super Gay? Wut.
LAUGHING WOLF: Vladimir and the Ukraine.
The fact is, Vladimir has already lost simply because he didn’t win. He is committed, and is committing Russia and all its people, to a long, grinding, bloody slog that is going to have severe economic impacts. Just replacing ammunition, gear, people, is going to have a severe impact. Add to it the growing official and unofficial sanctions? The Russian people are going to feel this one, in ways they never have before. Current Vladimir does not care. He’s lost to that. He has no way to go in and control the country, or even the parts he’s tried so desperately to annex. Even those are likely to slip from him given the current state of “uppitiness” on the part of the Ukrainians.
The Ukrainians have not won. At best they have pushed things into a long grind with some chance of a stalemate. Yet, by doing this they have won. They have prevented the cheap and easy victory on which Vladimir counted. They have forced him into committing military and economic resources he does not have over the long term. Heck, even the short term. Russia’s economy was already teetering, current operations and responses are going to crater it unless something major happens. I’ve lived through a couple of power struggles in the Kremlin; under these circumstances, I hope we all do live through what is to come. A quick clean change of leadership seems unlikely given the Keystone gang we’ve seen so far, but it may be our best hope.
All we can do is wait and see what happens. While current circumstances are not new or unique on many levels, I will note that in my lifetime I’ve never seen a situation like this where key leadership was this insecure. Xi is in some ways hanging by a thread, and knows his enemies in the CCP are looking for any excuse to bring him down. Vladimir we’ve discussed. The Europeans, particularly the Germans? They are not secure either, especially since the Green policies have caused them to firmly place their mouth around Putin’s, er, finger, in regards energy. To see them decide to fund their own military, back off on the idiocy of green (maybe), and truly support the Ukraine strikes more as a desperation move than a rational push. Johnson is a non-entity right now, and not to be taken seriously. Our own dementia patient? Hell, he’s just waiting for his ice cream and to be allowed to go back upstairs to watch Matlock. Those behind him, however, are desperate beyond belief. Not one major stable leader anywhere in the world. That’s a new one and I thought I had about seen it all after watching the Soviets/Russians for more than 40 years now.
The world is in the very best of hands — and do read the whole thing.
Laughing Wolf also messaged to say — I might have more on this later, here or at VodkaPundit — that he rates the chances of a serious cyberattack on the US at 99% and that Russia will use battlefield nukes at 80%.
YOU’RE GONNA NEED A MUCH BIGGER BLOG: Three Big Falsehoods in President Biden’s State of the Union Address.
IT’S NOT 2017 ANYMORE, KIDS: New Southern Illinois U. student group claims black students ‘exploited,’ issues demands.
“UKRAINE IS CANCELLED:” CBS blasted on Twitter for including transgender rights in Ukrainian war coverage.
CLEANEST ELECTION IN HISTORY: 2020 Wisconsin Vote Should Be Decertified, Investigator Says.
SHIPS PASSING IN THE NIGHT: Issues & Insights watched the SOTU last night and came away with the penetrating quip of the evening in comparing President Biden and President Zelensky: “The contrast couldn’t be more stark: one rising from punch lines to wartime president, the other slumping from career politician into punch line.”
Much more of value where that came from.
BIDEN’S HIGH COURT NOMINEE HAD ROLE IN CLINTON EMAIL SCANDAL: So it turns out, according to the Washington Free Beacon’s Kevin Daley, that Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, Appellate Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, covered then-Hillary Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines’ tail in a potentially damaging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in 2015.
Like his boss, Reines regularly used private email in connection with his official duties, dealing with journalists. Gawker filed suit seeking several dozen of Reines’ private emails. Jackson, then a U.S. District Court Judge, rejected Gawker’s suit.
“Jackson’s opinion parted ways with a colleague on the Washington federal trial court, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan. In a separate lawsuit, Sullivan required Clinton herself and two of her top aides, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, to submit affidavits along the lines Gawker sought. Gawker’s request mentioned Sullivan’s order and may have been based upon it,” Daley reports.
Now, what was that they were saying about Hillary as the anti-Biden in 2024?
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Professors tweet about how they are using the ‘1619 Project’ in class.
STILL POPULAR: Legendary Whitetails Men’s Standard Buck Camp Flannel Shirt. #CommissionEarned
THANKS FOR CLEARING THAT UP: Kamala Harris Slammed Over ‘Terrifying’ Explanation Of War In Ukraine: ‘She Is The Michael Scott Of Politics’ “So Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So, basically, that’s wrong.”
REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: Correction, Mr. President: It’s a Deadly Pandemic of the Vaccinated Too. “Despite promises from President Biden and top health officials that COVID-19 vaccines would prevent severe illness, death, and perhaps even transmission of the virus, data indicate that thousands of Americans are dying from the illness even after having been vaccinated.”
This doesn’t mean the vaccines are worthless, though they’re clearly underperforming. But it does indicate that the sort of moral-absolutist language deployed by our betters is unscientific misinformation.
SAY ANYTHING: Pelosi: You’re Too Dumb to Appreciate Joe Biden. “It doesn’t matter that inflation and high gas prices are killing your monthly budget, or that Joe Biden botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the nation’s response to COVID, or the border crisis. If all you see are things that he’s actually done, you can’t possibly know about the things he claims he’s done… which of course is all wonderful, historic, and perfect.”
WHEN LEFTIST TACTICS ARE USED ON LEFTISTS, LEFTISTS CRY FOUL: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu defends move to get rid of early-morning protesters at her home.
“This is partisan agenda playing out before our very eyes,” Boston First Responders United, a group that came together in December to protest the vaccine mandates, tweeted. “When the issues being protested fit Michelle Wu’s views — it was OK. Now, bc she is the target, not so much.”
What the legislation has done is unite politicians in Gov. Charlie Baker, Wu and Flynn, who don’t necessarily have similar politics on every issue — other than that they’re sick of people showing up at their houses and bothering them.
Know your place, peasants!