Archive for 2022
March 3, 2022
EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Psaki contradicts Pelosi: Sorry, but we don’t support a ban on Russian oil imports.
But that doesn’t mean we’re going easy on the Russkis: Disney Removes “Anastasia” from US Disney+ Platform.
COMMS SECURITY: A report:
The Russian forces are using Baofeng (China) UV-5R dual-band 2m/70cm (440 Mhz) ham radios that sell on Amazon for $25 to $60. It’s a great radio for the money, and lots of hams I know have them, along with the separate clip-on mic/speaker so the radio can stay on the hip.
Except for jamming and lack of encryption, and the fact that amateur radio operators in all countries already frequent those bands, it’s an extremely good choice for an army under budget.
And of course these hand-helds also scan the bands, and this of course makes intercepting Russian radio communications a snap.
That is apparently providing a trove of information, and showing just how bad the state of the invasion force is. Screaming, crying, bitching, confusion, rebellion, shock at what the mission is, and anger at the abysmal supply and food situation.
Well, that’s a shame.
IT MAY BE TOO LATE FOR THAT: Don’t Go Full ‘Liberty Cabbage’ on Russia.
All this might seem cosmetic—even a little silly—but it is a valuable pincer in a multipronged global pressure campaign aimed at the Russian regime. These institutions are targeting Russian entities with direct ties to the government. These are fair targets if the objective is to wholly wall off the government in Moscow from the rest of the world. But this pressure campaign is broadening to the degree that it is now pushing and stigmatizing Russian entities without those ties.
For example, the video-game producer Electronic Arts announced Wednesday that it would be removing Russian teams from its hockey and soccer games moving forward. The software designer is “actively evaluating changes to other areas of our games,” too. The same day, the Canadian Junior Hockey League revealed that Russian and Belarusian children would be barred from an upcoming draft. In New Jersey, the Newark city council unanimously adopted a resolution suspending the business licenses of two local Lukoil gas stations, though the Russia-based gas giant’s stations are franchises owned and operated by locals.
Bars and restaurants around the world are either voluntarily or facing “pressure” to rename fare that merely evokes Russia. Vodka brands that sound like they are Russian but are, in fact, produced in the West are facing boycotts. The “Moscow Mule” has been replaced with the “American” or “Snake Island Mule.” Canadian restaurants are rebranding to avoid advertising “Poutine” because it sounds too much like “Putin.” The classic dish “Chicken Kiev,” which is still “Chicken Kiev” even in Kyiv, is under assault for utilizing the Soviet-era anglicized spelling of the Ukrainian capital.
Even classic Russian literature is under assault. In a spasm of enthusiasm for the campaign against Russia, Italy’s University of Milano-Bicocca briefly scuttled a course dedicated to the study of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works. This is nothing short of madness, and it isn’t harmless.
For those unfamiliar with the reference in the title: Woodrow Wilson’s Domestic Terror and Red Scare.
During [World War I], the American Protective League — a quasi-official squadristi boasting membership of a quarter million at its height — beat up dissidents, spied on citizens, and fomented mobs in close cooperation with the state.
The first modern propaganda ministry in the Western world, the Committee for Public Information, dispatched an army of nearly 100,000 agents to foment passion for the war and distrust of German Americans and others. The CPI’s “Four Minute Men” were equipped and trained to deliver a four-minute speech at town meetings, in restaurants, in theaters — anyplace they could get an audience — to spread the word that the “very future of democracy” was at stake. In 1917–18 alone, some 7,555,190 speeches were delivered in 5,200 communities.
Wilson considered German-American citizens and other “hyphenated Americans” to be enemies of the people: “Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready.”
The German language was barred from public in many parts of the country. German authors were purged from libraries, families of German extraction were harassed and taunted, sauerkraut became “liberty cabbage,” and — as Sinclair Lewis half-jokingly recalled — there was talk of renaming German measles “liberty measles.”
Which dovetails well another of today’s headlines: International Feline Federation Bans Russian Cats From All Competitions.
That ought to finish Putin off. Or as Ace of Spades writes, we’ll ban Russian cats — “But… we will continue buying Russian oil, and we will consider buying Iranian oil too. We will not even consider increasing domestic US energy production. Because we’re That Serious…the centrist, moderate Joe Biden continues following the sage advice of Noted Petrostrategic Genius Sandy Cortez.”
PROPAGANDA MILL CEASES PRODUCTION: Russia’s RT America To Cease Production, Lays Off Staff.
Facing mounting financial pressures, Russia’s English-language TV network RT America will cease production and permanently lay off most of its staff, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday afternoon.
RT — which is owned by the Moscow-based TV Novosti and operated by T&R Productions — informed its employees via memo today: “As a result of unforeseen business interruption events, T&R Productions LLC will be ceasing production and, therefore, must lay off most of its staff who work at all its locations.”
“Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent, meaning that this will result in the permanent separation from employment of most T&R employees at all locations,” wrote T&R Productions’ general manager Mikhail “Misha” Solodovnikov.
The network offered affected employees two months’ severance pay, according to an employee who attended Thursday afternoon’s all-staff meeting.
The move came after one of the network’s two largest distributors, DirecTV, announced it was canceling the network’s coverage on Tuesday, government officials in the European Union formally banned the network, and Big Tech firms like Apple and Google blocked access to the network’s downloadable app. The state-funded network, which has long been accused of broadcasting Russian propaganda, had also been abandoned by many of its personalities and journalists since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.
Meanwhile inside Russia itself, a Der Spiegel journalist tweets, “Russia blocks Twitter, Facebook, BBC, Deutsche Welle, App Stores.” Hot Air’s John Sexton writes: Russia’s credit rating at junk status, annual inflation at 61%. (Will Putin institute martial law?)
Or to put it another way:
A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles. pic.twitter.com/XiPVTSUuks
— Peter Liakhov (@peterliakhov) March 3, 2022
AT LEAST THERE ARE NO MEAN TWEETS.
CHANGE: Where’s Fauci? Infamous bureaucrat now relegated to obscure shows and local TV.
COVID Mania has become deeply unpopular with the American people, and a Democratic polling firm recently convinced the Biden Administration and its allies in Congress to drop the hysteria. With midterms around the corner, and trouble raging in Eastern Europe, it was time to put the kibosh on all of it.
And with the memo came the simultaneous sidelining of Dr Fauci.
But given his love for television appearances, the NIAID chief has taken desperate measures to try to remain relevant. And by desperate, I mean DESPERATE. You’ll see what I mean in just a moment.
I had to dig pretty deep to find some of his recent media appearances, but I didn’t want to let you all down, so I persevered through the interwebs to find evidence of Fauci’s existence.
He recently appeared on an online streaming show called “Woke AF” (As F**K), in which he expressed his disdain for the unvaccinated. In a clip featured by the show host on Twitter, Fauci rants that the unvaccinated have no respect for greater society. Fauci, who comes off as a broken man, channeled plenty of his regular pseudoscience, claiming that the unvaccinated “give the virus the opportunity to circulate among us.”
Exit quote: “It appears that Fauci’s time in the spotlight is over, and judging by his dejected state in recent media appearances, he knows it too.”
UPDATE (FROM GLENN):
@skippypiio
UM, DON’T THE PREVAILING WINDS BLOW BACK TOWARD RUSSIA?
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Russian troops shelling Europe’s largest nuclear power station in Enerhodar, Ukraine.
Related: What Russia Is Stirring Up at Chernobyl.
SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Stunning Loops of Plasma Observed on The Sun May Not Be What We Thought. “I have spent my entire career studying coronal loops. I never expected this. When I saw the results, my mind exploded.”
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: The world’s weak leadership isn’t up to the Ukraine crisis.
UPDATE: Via a friend:
@megan1419 Wow Kamala, you’re smart #fyp #ukraine #russia #kamalaharris ♬ original sound – Mark Kaye
UPDATE: Hey, give Kamala some credit, she’s smarter than Joe:
LMFAO Kamala appears to mouth “Ukrainian” when Joe Biden said Iranian.
pic.twitter.com/E28NEmiPOv— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 2, 2022
MORE: Speaking of leadership:
YES, MY ARMS ARE BIG ENOUGH I CAN’T GET A READING WITH A STANDARD CUFF: Size of blood pressure cuffs can affect accuracy of reading. And my arms aren’t outrageously big.
BIDEN AND DEMOCRATS’ ‘LET THEM EAT CAKE’ MOMENT IN FACE OF EXPLODING GAS PRICES: “As the old saying goes, ‘you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.’ If you’re wondering, we’re the eggs. They’ll still be able to take private jets to Davos and Aspen and parts in between to do the ‘people’s business.’ Just to clarify, we’re not ‘the people,’ either. They’re the people.”
Flashback: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.
I AGREE: Congress Has No Power to Pass National Laws Regulating Abortion.
The federal government enjoys only the limited powers that are delegated to it by the federal Constitution, and setting abortion policy is obviously not among them. Abortion is not “Commerce,” as that term was originally understood by the public — and nor is it a tax, duty, impose, excise, debt, or credit; a rule of naturalization or bankruptcy; a standard or weight of measure; a punishment against counterfeiting; a post office or postal road — or the use of them; a type of patent; a lower court; an example of piracy or felony committed on the high seas; a matter of war, or a letter of marque and reprisal, or an army or navy; or a calling forth of, or disciplining of, the militia. Abortion is not spending; it’s not naturalization policy; it’s not the addition of a new state or territory; it’s not the time, place, or manner of a federal election. Nor, in either direction, does abortion come within the purview of any of the 27 amendments that have been added to the Constitution since 1787. It is, in short, precisely the sort of question that is reserved to the people and to the states, and any Supreme Court decision that has concluded to the contrary is wrong — yes, including the 2003 law that prohibited the abomination that is partial-birth abortion, and which should have been struck down by the Court for lack of an enumerated power to justify it.
Like the Supreme Court, Congress simply does not have the power to decide this question for the states. That is not what Congress is for, or has ever been for. There is no generalized police power vested in the federal government, and it is not permitted to exercise one simple because Americans feel strongly about the question from both sides.
Dave Kopel and I wrote on this very topic back in 1997.
A SMALL MEASURE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: “Tacoma Woman Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison for Arson at Downtown Seattle Protest.”
WELL: Russian oil firm Lukoil calls for end to war in Ukraine. “Russia’s largest private oil company Lukoil on Thursday called for an end to the war in Ukraine. The company’s board expressed its concern over the ongoing ‘tragic events’ in Ukraine, according to a statement by Lukoil. The board said it stands for the immediate cessation of the war, adding it supports a solution through diplomatic means.”
WELL, WHAT ELSE IS HE GOING TO SAY: Putin’s breath-taking hypocrisy: Russian dictator declares Ukrainians are ‘extreme gangsters’ and accuses them of using civilians as ‘human shields’ as his forces relentlessly bombard families’ homes.
The address, one of the first Putin has made in public since announcing the start of his ‘special operation’ eight days ago – will do little to reassure anyone that the war is close to being over, or that Russia can be brought to the negotiating table without more blood being shed.
But it also hints that Putin is rattled as the fighting proves harder than Russian commanders anticipated, and western sanctions go harder and deeper than even European or American observers predicted. All hope of a swift victory has now been dashed, leaving Putin facing a long, bloody and expensive war to achieve his aims.
And he’s defined those aims narrowly now: “Referring to the invasion as a ‘special operation’ aimed only at protecting the eastern Donbass region, he acknowledged that some Russian forces including a senior commander had died in the fighting – but claimed the officer had blown himself up in a heroic act of sacrifice while taking out several Ukrainian soldiers.”
But there’s this:
Just hours before the TV address, Putin had phoned Emmanuel Macron to tell the French President that he has no intention of pulling back from Ukraine or watering down his security demands, will achieve his aims ‘whatever happens’ and will continue fighting until ‘the end’.
Macron’s aides said after the call that they believe Putin intends to take the whole country, and that the ‘worst is yet to come’ as the Russian attacks step up, and that ‘there was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us.’
Mr Macron is said to have told Putin he is making a ‘major mistake’ and ‘lying to himself’. Macron said Russia would end up poor, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time.
‘There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation,’ Macron’s aide said, before adding that Putin ‘wanted to seize control of the whole of Ukraine’.
Putin’s two statements today – the first he has made in public since announcing the start of his ‘special operation’ eight days ago – will do little to reassure anyone that the war is close to being over, or that Russia could be brought to the negotiating table without more blood being shed.
Putin’s all in, and can’t afford to back down now.
STILL POPULAR: Legendary Whitetails Men’s Standard Buck Camp Flannel Shirt. #CommissionEarned
A CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY: Judge Rules New York Attorney General Can’t Dissolve the NRA.
ANTISOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook Researchers Find Its Apps Can Make Us Lonelier.
CLEANEST ELECTION EVER: Wisconsin Special Counsel Finds ‘Widespread Election Fraud’ In 2020 Nursing Homes.
THE CLASS RAGE BEHIND TRUDEAU’S TRUCKER EMERGENCY:
Among the many myths about Canada that have been shattered is the old chestnut that, unlike the U.S., with its cutthroat Darwinian ethos, Canada is a largely egalitarian and compassionate society—the kind of place where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “sunny ways” rule. The Freedom Convoy and the government’s heavy-handed response (“Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Tyranny,” Review & Outlook, Feb. 23), invoking the Emergencies Act to subdue peaceful civil disobedience, has cast into sharp relief class divisions bubbling under the superficially egalitarian surface of the Canadian self-image.
The class dimension becomes evident from the demeaning and charged language used by politicians and journalists in referring to the protesters. Despised by members of the Canadian elite who are often blissfully unaware of their own privilege, the protesters were considered blue-collar outcasts from the hinterland, presumptively racist and small-minded.
Earlier: War Of The Worlds. Canadian Truckers’ Protest is first battle in global clash between those who live in Physical World, and the ruling class of Virtual World.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Flashback: How today’s elites war against the working class.