Author Archive: Stephen Green
February 22, 2023
AT LEAST NOT YET: Quagmire in Ukraine? No.
THEY NEED MORE JETS TO LAUNCH THEM: US Is Giving Ukraine a Long-Range GPS-Guided Bomb That Can Hit Targets Miles Away. “Extended-Range JDAM bomb files 45 miles after aircraft launch.”
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Most young men are single. Most young women are not.
21ST CENTURY PROBLEMS: Sci-fi becomes real as renowned magazine closes submissions due to AI writers. “One side effect of unlimited content-creation machines—generative AI—is unlimited content. On Monday, the editor of the renowned sci-fi publication Clarkesworld Magazine announced that he had temporarily closed story submissions due to a massive increase in machine-generated stories sent to the publication.”
THAT WOULD BE NICE: Russian military expert on Ukraine: ‘War could end this year.’ “I don’t see how this can continue in the present pattern for a long time. It’s like football, you never know what’s going to happen actually on the battlefield. There’s a well-known saying that ‘Russia is never a strong as your fear’, as we see during this year, but ‘Russia is also never as weak as you hope’. So you can’t just write off Russia. The intensity of the fighting is too high for it to be maintained for long.”
THE COUNTRY IS IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: How Does This Happen? U.S. Military Email Server Was Exposed for Two Weeks.
TOYOTA IS LOOKING BETTER ALL THE TIME: Biden’s Climate Bill Was Meant To Combat China. Now a Chinese Firm Is Poised To Cash In.
Ford announced last week it is investing $3.5 billion to build a Michigan factory that will produce EV batteries in partnership with Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited. The Chinese firm is not only providing technology but also sending equipment and workers to help build and run the factory, according to Ford.
Biden promised that his massive climate spending package, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, would give the United States the ability “to compete with China for the future.” The law, which Democrats pushed through Congress along party lines, has provisions that bar companies from qualifying for tax credits if any EV battery components were manufactured by a “foreign entity of concern,” a provision aimed at quelling concerns that China will benefit.
But Ford expressed confidence Monday that its EV battery plant, 100 miles west of Detroit, will qualify for some of the Inflation Reduction Act’s lucrative federal tax breaks. The company emphasized that it owns 100 percent of the factory because the deal with the Chinese firm is structured as a licensing agreement rather than as a joint venture, meaning Ford’s Chinese partner does not have direct ownership.
Did the Big Guy get his 10%?
Related: Toyota to EV-only extremists: Science says you’re wrong.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Unease Over Biden’s Proxy Quagmire in Ukraine Is Growing. “The lack of clarity on exactly what America’s priorities are there has bothered me all along as well. Yeah, we want to help. But how much and for how long? After all, this country has had some rough history when it comes to getting involved in wars when our intentions are vague.”
THE CALIFORNICATION OF COLORADO CONTINUES APACE: Colorado lawmakers to consider allowing safe injection sites for supervised drug use.
“It’s about saving lives,” said Democratic state Sen. Kevin Priola from Adams County, one of the bill’s main sponsors. “If people overdose, and there’s no one there to provide naloxone to save their life, they’ll never be able to go to rehab. They’ll never be able to kick the habit because they’re dead.”
How’s that working out in San Francisco? It isn’t helping at all, because the “safe injection sites” are function as open-air drug bazaars, and aggressive intervention and rehab are promises never fulfilled.
OFFSHORING OPPRESSION: The Dark Side of Green: Indonesia’s ‘Tainted City’ Is Killing Workers.
“A decade ago, Labota was a fishing village; today it’s been subsumed into a sprawling city centered around IMIP, a $15 billion, 3,000-hectare [7,413-acre] industrial complex containing steelworks, coal power plants, and manganese processors, with its own airport and seaport,” reports Wired. “Built as a joint venture between Chinese and Indonesian industrial companies, it is at the heart of Indonesia’s push to supply the electric vehicle market with nickel, a core component of batteries.”
The rush to mine all the nickel that manufacturers can get their hands on — at the hands of car companies eager to please the greens and governments chomping at the bit to get rid of fossil fuel use — takes a heavy toll. The consequences of this drive toward an EV future are genuine environmental damage and an alarming human cost.
Outsourcing our energy needs, whether oil or electric, enriches despots who don’t give a damn about people or the environment.
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Ex-NY Times staffer: ‘It was like a Maoist struggle session.’ The Times and its publisher, Bennet said, ‘want to have it both ways.’ Sulzberger is ‘old school’ in his belief in a neutral, heterodox publication. But ‘they want to have the applause and the welcome of the left, and now there’s the problem on top of that that they’ve signed up so many new subscribers in the last few years and the expectation of those subscribers is that the Times will be Mother Jones on steroids.'”
Now that they cater to the beast, it will devour them if they stop.
ROBERT SPENCER: Is the Antisemitism That Is Rampant in Some Parts of the Muslim World Really Based on a Misinterpretation of Islam?
Moderate Muslim Raheel Raza published a heartwarming story in Canada’s National Post Monday, entitled “I’m a Muslim and I love Israel. Here’s why.” In it, she notes that “every moment of my first trip to the Jewish state was an awakening about the misinformation I had been fed.” Raza tells numerous stories about the kindness shown to her by Jews and Israelis, and in this torn and weary world, that is heartwarming indeed.
In the course of her lengthy article, however, she writes: “Hate is a terrible ideology, and it feeds antisemitism, which is rampant in some parts of the Muslim world. Much of this is based on ignorance of facts and misinterpretation of the faith.” Unfortunately, this is not only false but likely to foster a dangerous complacency in the face of a genuine threat.
This is because, much as Islamic spokesmen in the West deny the fact, hatred of Jews is deeply embedded in Islam’s holy texts.
Read the whole thing.
February 21, 2023
WHERE’S PETE? Look Who’s Finally Going to East Palestine — Maybe.
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Man wanted for racist egg-throwing spree on San Francisco Muni bus.
STATE-SPONSORED PANIC-MONGERING: Study Finds Zero Loss of Antarctica Sea Ice – But BBC Spins as ‘New Record Low.’
HEH: New York City Mayor Eric Adams Takes a Shot at Ron DeSantis. Hits Himself Instead. “DeSantis is on a three-city tour comparing and contrasting Florida’s crime rate with the crime rate of Democratic big cities. He’s also on something of a recruiting drive for police officers.”
YOU CAN’T FIX STUPID: Don Lemon to Undergo ‘Formal Training’ After Nikki Haley Remarks, Will Return to CNN Show Wednesday.
Honestly, I thought CNN would take the opportunity to fire Lemon, who underperforms on his better days. They probably should have, too.
ANGLING FOR THAT POST-PRIMARIES GIG ON MSNBC: 2024 GOP Fantasist Hogan Says Opposing Trans Propaganda in Schools Is ‘Authoritarian.’
IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: Eric Swalwell spent more campaign cash on travel and luxury accommodations than Nancy Pelosi. “Swalwell has consistently used donor funds on limousines, flights, yachts, and posh hotels, including internationally. The spending came as Americans in both his district and around the country faced rising inflation that drove food, fuel, and energy costs through the roof.”