Electric Garbage Trucks In The Big Apple

 

 

fleetowner.com

Somebody in authority at the City of New York decided that the 2100 diesel garbage trucks of the Department of Sanitation should be replaced with an electric version. The garbage trucks are also pressed into the secondary duty of plowing the snow from 19,000 miles of city streets. This hasn't worked out very well. When used for snow removal the electric trucks peter out after 4 hours.

The failure of the electric versions currently in use will hopefully be remedied by a newer, custom-built electric Mack truck. Seven of these have been ordered at a price tag of $523,000 each.

The collection of garbage and plowing of snow in NYC is of little concern to the rest of the nation. On the other hand, arrival of mail at 163 million addresses is of importance to every Yankee. That function, too, is being transferred to electric vehicles, according to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. The USPS, operating a fleet of 220,000 vehicles, plans to replace 106,000 of them between now and 2028. The $9.5 billion investment will include 66,000 electric trucks and the infrastructure to charge them. Fifty thousand units have been ordered from  OshKosh, a manufacturer of heavy-duty military vehicles, for trucks that can be powered by either electricity or diesel fuel.

 

 

 

grassrootsmotorsports.com

The Verge, the new mail delivery truck.

 

Hopefully, the USPS gamble won't be as risky as the NYC one.    

 

 

 

 

Climate Pornography

 

 

give2asia.org

 Bangladesh is a country with a long history of floods, situated as it is on the Brahmaputra Delta and crossed by a number of rivers flowing into the Bay of Bengal. The Bengalis seem to accept the recurrent high water because they haven't moved to the Himalayas. There must be some reason they continue to live there. Even so, the media is quick to couple their current flooding with supposed global warming.

According to MSN: 

G M Tarekul Islam, a professor at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology's Institute of Water and Flood Management, says climate change is a factor behind the erratic and early rains that triggered the floods.

"The erratic rainfall in India's Cherapunji and other areas is the main reason for this flood. Because of global warming, the climate has changed and so has the pattern of rainfall. Now we are observing more and more heavy rainfall," he told DW.

 

 

cbs42.com

The wildfires in northern California are also a by-product of global warming, despite bad forest management practices, suspect electrical distribution and evidence of arson. Before Europeans arrived wild fires were a normal event at one time or another all over the continent, caused by either lightning strikes or human agency, just as they are today. Maybe incidents of lightning are also a by-product of internal combustion engines and coal-fired power plants.

 The Los Angeles Times: California is being pushed to extremes. And the record heat, fires and pollution all have one thing in common: They were made worse by climate change. Their convergence is perhaps the strongest signal yet that the calamity climate scientists have warned of for years isn’t far off in the future; it is here today and can no longer be ignored.

 

 

wsvn.com

Even a blizzard, such as the one in Buffalo, NY, is said to be caused by AGW. 

USA Today:

 

Average air temperatures have been warming across the planet for decades, and as they do, the atmosphere holds more water vapor in some locations, increasing the potential for extreme rain and snow events, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Warmer temperatures mean it takes longer for the Great Lakes to freeze over in the fall and winter, said David Easterling, chief of the climate assessments section for NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. That open water means more fuel for nature's snow machine known as lake-effectsnow to wallop the region.

 

The photos and commentary indicate that snow storms, floods and wild fires are isolated unusual events that were extremely rare just a short time ago, at least in geological terms, and that their occurrence now is more frequent and intense because of a change in global climate. This is climate pornography. These photos and commentary are meant to generate profits, just as sexual pornography is.

It's possible that climate change and the terrible consequences that go along with it are bothering you. Anxiety and fear may well be pervading your life. Thinking about floods, fires and blizzards might be causing insomnia, depression, hypertension or a host of other serious problems. Not to worry, help is available. Contact the Climate Psychiatry Alliance. They can help. 

  

Partners With The World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum, a Klaus Schwab production that means to make dramatic changes in the life of every resident of planet earth, is grooming what it calls "young global leaders" for places of influence in its apparatus. It also has connections with various elected and appointed government figures that may be of use in implementing its plans. Just as significantly, it has established partnerships with international corporations, hoping that they will embrace the ideas of the organization. You might wish to know the names of the corporations that WEF lists as its partners. Below are some of them:

Lockheed Martin

Medtronic

Kikkoman

New York Times

J. P. Morgan Chase & Company

Intel

Procter & Gamble

Honeywell

Rabobank

Google

Sony Group

Fluor

Tyson Foods

Ecolab

UPS

Dell Technologies

Volkswagen Group

Coca-Cola HBC

Toyota

LinkedIn

Siemens

IBM

Ralph Lauren

Cargill

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Boeing

Walmart

AARP

Verizon Communications

If you're a stockholder or customer of one of these corporations and familiar with the ideas and plans of the World Economic Forum you may wish to send along email to them congratulating their relationship with the Forum or, on the other hand, expressing your disapproval this partnership.

 

 

 

 

Pre-Flood Miami Real Estate

 

 Photo: Marta Lavandier/Associated Press

A 5100 sq. ft. penthouse condo in the Arte building on the Miami beachfront has been sold for $18 million in cash, according to the Wall Street Journal. The property was originally listed for $28 million in 2021. 

This would appear to be proof positive that concerns over the warming climate and consequent devastating sea level rise are giving prospective real estate buyers second thoughts on lower elevation oceanside property. Occupants of the building include Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner.  

Climate Scientists

 

 

  Climate scientists present opinions at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh on November 11, 2022. Photo: AP

 

This photo is from an opinion piece in the South China Morning Post by Andrew Sheng. While his opinion is that arresting the climatic crisis that will eventually end life on earth requires the ideas and input of those most affected, he doesn't indicate how these innovative thoughts are converted to effective action. Since it's a global problem, his premise that solutions must come from local societies is a logical error. 

He mentions the work in this area of the World Economic Forum, a consortium of the business and government elite that have ostensibly created the situation and must now be authorized to fix it. No one really thinks that a village in central Africa with no electricity has any capability of halting fictional AGW. It's only possible, as its advocates say, by abolishing the nation-state and incorporating a world-wide authority with the physical power to enforce the decisions of an un-elected technocratic elite. We'll see if this comes to pass during the normal life span of its proponents.

What's Up With Turkiye?

It appears, at least in the general media, that the country that was once known to much of the world as "Turkey" is now orthographically rendered as "Turkiye". If necessary, the proper pronunciation can be found via an internet search.

What has caused this change? It seems that an earlier example was moving the reference to the Ukrainian capital from "Kiev" to "Kyiv". Perhaps this was due to some form of empathy for Ukrainian society or culture. Maybe it's so that letters addressed to parties in the city actually arrive at the proper location.

This issue is really only pertinent to nouns like the names of cities in countries with an alphabet unlike the Roman alphabet used in the West. In 1928 Turkish leader Ataturk mandated a new alphabet based on the Roman that was composed of 29 letters rather than 26, replacing an Arabic-based version that had been in use for over 1000 years. 

English orthography has a similar issue with transcriptions of any word from a language with a different alphabet from the Roman. It's curious how the Roman version is superseded by one similar but evidently easier for  English speakers to pronounce. For instance the most evil place in the world, written in its own orthography, is Россуя. But that's Cyrillic orthography and its pronunciation would be a mystery to most English, French or Spanish speakers. So its written form in the West is "Russia". This seems to be accepted by the latter-day Boyars.

Orthography is also an even bigger issue with Asian languages that are much different in structure than European-based examples. Orthographies that straddle the ideograms of Asian languages and their vocalizations now predominate among foreigners.

It's interesting that Roman orthography and foreign words have major effects on languages that didn't or don't have a written language. Native American languages are an example of this.  Words used as nouns for native tribes, Sioux, denoting a group on the eastern Great Plains, is a French word. In some contexts the members of that group, even those that regularly speak their native language, object to the use of the word in what they consider a negative or exploitative manner. This may show how far these people have come in adapting to their changed circumstances.  

New Nuclear Plants In The Works For Europe

The Dutch government has decided to construct two new nuclear power plants in Zeeland near the village of Borssele, already the site of a nuclear plant. Plans to close that plant have been shelved until the new plants are operational, scheduled to be in 2033. The new facilities will be able to produce 9% to 13% of Dutch electrical needs.

 

prosperoevents.com

Reproduction and Food

Two things are basic to the world of multi-celled animals; food and reproduction. This includes all animals, from earth worms to humans. Everything else is a complication. In the case of humans, religion, government, industry, sports, movies and music are all luxuries that exist only because humans are able to eat and have sex.

Without those two necessities the existence of an organism ceases. The current crop of homo sapiens, or at least some of them, doesn't seem to recognize this fact. Or maybe they do. The Malthusian element feels that there are, at present, too many humans for the available resources and the addition of more through reproduction is bad and wrong. An expansion of the world's population will not only use up resources but also produce externalities like pollution that will poison the environment for the ideal population of the earth. This is being exacerbated by climate change, AGW, that is heating up the planet, melting the ice caps, causing the rise of the seas and burning up a big portion of rural California.

Reproductive sex is now frowned upon both for its threat to the earth itself and the inconvenience it presents to a little over one half of the human race. The fact that the membership of that species is divided between two very different populations is a continuous insult to post- modern thought.

The food situation is in a similar dilemma. Humans can't live without food but post-moderns point out that there are different kinds of food, some requiring more precious resources than others. Beef, for instance, means water, feed, shelter, veterinarian service and, worst of all, disposal of manure. In fact, all domestic animals produce waste matter which must be removed from the immediate surroundings. This is leading to some strange situations.  The pragmatic and practical Dutch have claimed much of their agricultural kingdom from the sea, earning the admiration of the less challenged. Apparently they have been too successful, their small nation being one of the biggest exporters of food for humans. Ergo the government of the Netherlands intends to make compulsory purchases of farmland and take it out of production. The Dutch grangers are not in favor of this.

It's probably cheaper for the government (made up of omnivorous humans) to buy up farms rather than create a methodology for the safe disposal or transformation of manure. Should, in the near future, it might be necessary to plant a few more pumpkin patches and feed some more pigs, vacant farms could be returned to production. Building giant sewage treatment plants now for millions of hogs and cows would be an expensive project.

There's also the idea promoted by groups like the World Economic Forum that humans change their diets and eliminate meat and some vegetable products from their menus entirely. No doubt that would apply only to the plebs, the elite could still access filet mignon and artichokes. Sea food would also be scrutinized, both for its effect on fish and crustacean populations and the damage it causes to the entire marine environment. If the Dutch plan is deemed effective by the powers that be we may well see similar policies enacted in the near future. 

California Environmentalists Will Phase Out Diesel Trucks

The plan now in the Golden State is to have all diesel trucks off the highways by 2042, just twenty short years from now. The California Air Board has already forbidden the sale of all new gasoline-powered autos and light trucks in the state by 2035. This further step will be decided at an Air Board hearing next spring. 

wallpapersafari.com

The reasons for this are said to be two. First, the exhausts of internal combustion engines cause significant health problems in the general population. Second, they contribute to global warming. There may well be a connection between exhaust gases and health issues. It's not wise to sit in a car with the engine running in a closed garage. At the same time, it's unlikely that eliminating the exhaust gases of cars and trucks in California will have any effect on the global climate or even that of Arizona. 

But like King Canute ordering the waves to stop, California governor Gavin Newsom and his associates need only stipulate the answer to a perceived problem to solve it.

Presently no heavy trucks are available to satisfy the requirements of the proposed rules and no significant infrastructure exists to supply whatever form of energy they will need. 

The German Inflation Of 1923

     "The fundamental quality of the disaster was a complete loss of faith in the functioning of society. Money is important not just as a medium of economic exchange, after all, but as a standard by which society judges our work, and thus ourselves. If all money becomes worthless, then so does all government, and all society, and all standards. In the madness of 1923, a workman's work was worthless, a widow's savings were worthless, everything was worthless. 'The collapse of the currency not only meant the end of trade, bankrupt businesses, food shortages in the big cities and unemployment', according to one historian, Alan Bullock. 'It had the effect, which is the unique quality of economic catastrophe, of reaching to and touching every single member of the community in a way which no political event can. The savings of the middle classes and the working classes were wiped out at a single blow with a ruthlessness which no revolution could ever equal. . . The result of the inflation was to undermine the foundations of German society in a way in which neither war, nor the revolution of November, 1918, nor the Treaty of Versailles had ever done. The real revolution in Germany was the inflation."

 

Otto Friedrich, Before the Deluge, A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, HarperPerennial, NY 1995 pg.126-127. 

Secret Service Brings Shame To The Country Once Again

An incident that allegedly occurred in Israel early in July has resulted in legal action against a US Secret Service agent. 

abdpost.com

The complainant, Tamar Ben Haim, maintains that she was assaulted by one of two men that had exited a bar and confronted her on the street. After contacting police the individual was arrested, identified and later sent back to the US. The name of the agent has yet to be released and the US Department of Justice refuses to comment on the case.

This isn't the first time that members of the agency that protects the most important figures in US government and investigates counterfeit money have been accused of serious misbehavior in foreign countries. Perhaps it's too much to expect that these low lifes would represent their country with any kind of class. Worse yet is that their employer refuses to identify them publicly. Perhaps they can get away with this kind of behavior in a country that depends on US support for its very existence. It probably wouldn't be accepted in a place like Brazil or China.

It's also notable that US political figures have always made it a point to remark on the fact that totalitarian countries rely on secret police to stay in power.   

 

 

A New Special Prosecutor

The US Dept. of Justice, unbothered by a sky-rocketing domestic crime rate, suspicious national and local elections, a flood of illegal immigration and endemic financial malfeasance, has decided to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the actions of former president Donald Trump in the incidents that occurred in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 and at his home in August 2022.

The special prosecutor will be Jack Smith, an experienced federal prosecutor who has been a special prosecutor with the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, specializing in the investigation of war crimes in Kosovo, most of which occurred in the late 1990s, over twenty years ago.

There's an interesting element to the latest entry on the C.V. of Mr. Smith. The US is not signatory to the treaties that enable the International Criminal Court, yet maintains relationships with it. The US refusal to ratify the treaties, like a number of other countries, involves problems with the US constitutionality of such treaties and protection of US military personnel from war crime investigation and punishment.

 

Brittney Griner Update

Excerpt from regular White House press briefing on Nov. 18, 2022:

 
"Q    Thanks.  Karine, Russia says it’s working with the U.S. on a potential prisoner swap.  Can you comment on where this stands?  Could this lead to the release of Brittney Griner?

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Yeah, I heard — I’ve heard these reportings.  Let me just say something at the top because there’s also been reporting about the location of Brittney Griner, so I just want to get this on the record. 

So, we’re — we’re in frequent contact with Brittney Griner — Brittney Griner’s team and are aware that they were able to visit her earlier this week at IK-2 in Mordovia. 

The administration continues to work tirelessly to secure her release.  As I said when we first learned she was moved, the President has directed the administration to prevail on her — on her Russian captors to improve her treatment and the conditions she may be forced to endure.

The U.S. government is ready to resolve the wrongful detentions of American citizens in Russia.  We have made an offer, have continued to follow up on that offer, and propose alternative potential ways forward with Russia — Russians through a — through all available channels.  We hope Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith.

And you’ve heard us say this before: The Russian government’s actions have contradicted what they have said publicly.  Over the last several months, they have failed to seriously negotiate through the established channel or any other channel.  And that’s what we’re going to see.

On the prisoner — prisoner swap, your specific question, look, we’re not going to comment on specifics of any proposals, other than to say that we have made a substantial offer and that the Russian Federation has consisensly [sic] — consistently, again, failed to negotiate in good faith.  And you’ve heard us say that before.  They need to negotiate in good faith.  But I’m not going to get into specifics of the negotiations."

____________________________________

The fact of the matter is that the US is basically on both sides of the negotiations over Griner's incarceration. The Americans whom US negotiators are attempting to gain release are, with the exception of Griner, relatively unknown to the general public. The lady basketball star would be similarly anonymous if this event had never occurred. It's not to the advantage of the US to secure her freedom in exchange for the end of negative publicity for the Russians. Only a tiny minority of Americans are aware of potential Russians available for exchange in this circumstance. The media has conveniently forgotten that Siberian gun enthusiast Marina Butina went through a similar experience in the US but her detention was based first on accusations of prostitution and espionage. Later she plead guilty to being an "unregistered foreign agent". 

Sadly, Griner's immediate problems are based at least in part on the Russian reaction to Butina's experience as well as her own mistake, certainly an unnecessary and foolish one, as so many legal difficulties are.   

  

How To Solve Two Big Problems At Once

The world, and consequently the US of A, has a raft of problems right now. Two of them are the unequipped Latin army invading the American southwest and the Russian Special Operation in Ukraine. There are some things that can be done to solve both of those issues.

First of all, it's time to admit that the US, by supplying Ukraine with weapons and training, is for all practical purposes, at war with Russia. At some time in the near future troops will need to be sent into battle there.

But what troops will fulfill the role of cannon fodder for the Russian tanks, missiles and Iranian drones? 

The fact is that there is still a Selective Service Commission that exists to revive the draft if men are needed. The draft can include not only US citizens, but also residents. Which means males of a certain age group living in the US, citizens or no. All resident males in the US from age 18 to 26 are legally required to register with the Selective Service or face felony charges.

No doubt practically all the young males that have slipped across the southern border into the US have immediately registered. They are thus available for conscription, basic training and deployment. 

This would serve the purpose of creating fighting units without disturbing potential US voters and acclimate and assimilate immigrants into the greater society. Many, after serving a tour in Ukraine, might wish to return there. It's also likely that some unregistered immigrants would prefer to return to their homes rather than serve in the military and those who have yet to make the trip north might wish to reconsider that option.

It's a win-win solution, a steady supply of combat troops and a probable decrease in illegal immigration. What's not to like?

Not only that, but similar units in other countries have been formed in the past and perhaps even now. The legendary French Foreign Legion included no Frenchmen. The Roman army had units made up entirely of barbarian men. Part of the process of empire is not only establishing alliances with foreign countries but also integrating their people into the empire's forces. The Nepalese Ghurkas, stationed now at Folkestone, Kent, UK, have been a significant part of the UK military for almost 200 years but do not become citizens.

Perhaps a US unit of Guatemalans or Salvadorans could establish a similar tradition.        

Lewis Mumford Said

 “This metropolitan world, then, is a world where flesh and blood is less real than paper and ink and celluloid. It is a world where the great masses of people, unable to have direct contact with more satisfying means of living, take life vicariously, as readers, spectators, passive observers: a world where people watch shadow-heroes and heroines in order to forget their own clumsiness or coldness in love, where they behold brutal men crushing out life in a strike riot, a wrestling ring or a military assault, while they lack the nerve even to resist the petty tyranny of their immediate boss: where they hysterically cheer the flag of their political state, and in their neighborhood, their trades union, their church, fail to perform the most elementary duties of citizenship.
Living thus, year in and year out, at second hand, remote from the nature that is outside them and no less remote from the nature within, handicapped as lovers and as parents by the routine of the metropolis and by the constant specter of insecurity and death that hovers over its bold towers and shadowed streets - living thus the mass of inhabitants remain in a state bordering on the pathological. They become victims of phantasms, fears, obsessions, which bind them to ancestral patterns of behavior.”
― Lewis Mumford, The Culture of Cities

Will The Sea Overcome Miami?

We've heard much about climate change and how the melting of the various northern and southern ice caps will raise sea levels which will then inundate coastal cities and displace thousands of people. Then some activity must take place to arrest the progress of this disaster. Something is being done.

 

                   miamicoastalliving.com

The tallest residential structure south of New York City is under construction at 300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL, a city about 6 feet above sea level and a leading candidate for disappearance beneath the waves in the near future.

The building is the Waldorf Astoria residential tower, a combined hotel and condominium complex that will eventually rise over 1000 ft. and 100 stories above the city and Biscayne Bay. Experimental techniques have been used in the design and construction of the tower's foundation, a problem with the water-saturated limestone in that location. Since hurricanes can be expected on the Florida coast, the design incorporates details that will enable the Waldorf to withstand winds of up to 200 knots.  One of these details is a tuned mass damper in the upper part of the structure, something like a pendulum, which is meant to eliminate the swaying that would otherwise occur in exposure to hurricane-force winds.

The total cost of the project, which won't be finished until at least 2027, hasn't been revealed but the condominiums are already sold out as high as the 90th floor, those above going for a price starting at $4.3 million. There will be 205 hotel rooms and 360 condo units.

 

 blog.panorbe.com

Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, designer of the building.

 

The question is: if AGW is indeed a reality and, if we've passed the tipping point that will be pointed out at COP-27 in Sharm El Sheik, aren't the financiers of this project clinically insane? How about the buyers of the condos, aren't they making the mistake of their lives by purchasing a portion of a building whose lobby will require hip boots for passage in just a few years?

Models are used to project sea level rise based on warming that melts ice caps and glaciers but where are the models on wind speed? How is anyone able to predict what the change in wind speeds will be over time? Is it unreasonable to expect that climate change might produce wind speeds exceeding 200 knots, maybe as much as 300 knots, winds that no known structure can withstand?

There's also increasing concern that large buildings under construction in that area present a danger to near-by structures. According to the Wall Street Journal:    

The Waldorf Astoria residential tower, which is under construction and is poised to be South Florida’s tallest building at more than 1,000 feet, had to contract close to 25 insurers to provide liability insurance for the project, said Ryan Shear, managing partner of PMG. Mr. Zutel, who brokered the deal, said he had never seen anywhere near that number of insurers for one project.

Are these people making a sensible financial decision?

 

 

 

 

Slavoj Zizek On International Feminism

Slovenian culture critic and philosopher Slavoj Zizek has written an essay that mostly describes the attempt to change gender relations in an international context.  He somehow manages to frame this phenomenon as a political right-left struggle, exemplified by the current unrest in Iran. 

But he wanders away from Iran and extensively relates the details of a semi-historical movie based on events in West Africa which seems to have little to do with the present state of affairs.

Written before the expulsion of Liz Truss, Zizek uses her and Giorgia Meloni's democratic assumption of transitory power and the lurking of Marine Le Pen in the background of French politics as related in some way to the Iranian situation.

Unlike present-day western societies, Iran is a Shiite theocracy, governed by Muslim clerics that believe that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor. As in other branches of Islam, many aspects of life are heavily regulated by religion, for instance the wearing of the hijab in public appearances by women. Since men aren't required to dress in any particular manner, some women rightfully feel they have a lesser status than men in Iranian society that is enforced by an oppressive government.

Unfortunately for them, oppressive government and the religious authorities are the same institution. This has been the case throughout history. Rulers almost always justify their actions as being the will of God or the gods.

One could make the case that many forms of religion, past and present, are not so much concerned with life after death or the existence of a supreme being but are most interested in what's going on at the present. Studies of other primates that don't seem to have the qualities of abstract thought or language show that one thing that interests them greatly is sex. In fact, this is true over much of the animal kingdom. Horses, cows, beavers, squirrels and other animals are unlikely to have any kind of religious beliefs but within their own small societies sex is heavily regulated, generally by the dominant males. It could be said that religion is meant in its most basic terms to structure the relationships of the sexes. That's why modern religions require marriage rites and have provisions in the legal systems of the societies they dominate punishing adultery, prostitution and other licentious behavior. 

As religions evolve and change over time, their definitions of proper behavior do as well. That explains the acceptance in the western Christian world of once prohibited homosexuality. Same sex marriage is no longer a sin to most.

The Shia empire in Iran will soon dissolve, just as Cromwell's Puritans no longer call the shots in the UK or North America, at least in their original form. Hiding females behind burkas will join the now extinct bustles of nineteenth century, while other aspects of Islam will remain.

Zizek should recognize that everything changes all the time and the ferment in Iran is as temporary as anything else. Right or left wing politics really don't have much to do with it. 

 

How The Germans Financed The War To End All Wars

 

 reddit.com

Paul Von Hindenburg

 

"Now that we have become accustomed to paying a large share of our incomes to support a permanent war economy, it seems hard to believe that wars were ever financed in other ways, but the incredible fact is that Imperial Germany's conservative finance officials never levied a single mark in extra taxes to pay the gigantic costs of World War I. The total cost had been 164 billion marks (the mark was then worth 4.20 to the dollar). Of this, 93 billion had been raised by war loans, and 29 billion by Treasury bills. The government had produced the rest simply by printing more money on the government printing presses. (The other great powers were scarcely more prudent. "Lenin is said to have declared the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch its currency," John Maynard Keynes observed, "In the latter stages of the war all the belligerent governments practiced, from necessity or incompetence, what a Bolshevist might have done from design".

 

Before the Deluge, A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s, Otto Friedrich, HarperPerennial, New York, NY, 1995, pg. 60.

 

 

US House Votes Against Military Aid To Ukraine

A $13.6 billion package meant to finance Eastern European defense against Russian aggression was put up for a vote by the US House of Representatives  on March 9, 2022. The bill passed 361 to 69. The 69 who voted against the bill are listed below.

 

 Brian Babin (R-TX)
Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
Gus Bilirakis (R-FL)
Dan Bishop (R-NC)
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
Ken Buck (R-CO)
Tim Burchett (R-TN)
Brian Babib (R-TX)
Michael Burgess (R-TX)
Cori Bush (D-MO)
Kat Cammack (R-FL)
Michael Cloud (R-TX)
Andrew Clyde (R-GA)
Warren Davidson (R-OH)
Scott Eugene DesJarlais (R-TN)
Jeff Duncan (R-SC)
Pat Fallon (R-TX)
Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
Jesús García (D-IL)
Louis Gohmert(R-TX)
Jimmy Gomez (D-CA)
Bob Good (VA)
Lance Gooden (R-TX)
Paul Gosar (R-AZ)
Garret Graves (R-LA)
Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)
Diana Harshbarger (R-TN)
Kevin Hern (R-OK)
Yvette Herrell (R-NM)
Jody Hice (R-GA)
Clay Higgins (R-LA)
Bill Huizenga (R-MI)
Sara Jacobs (D-CA)
Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
Jim Jordan (R-OH)
Fred Keller (R-PA)
Mike Kelly (R-PA)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Billy Long (R-MO)
Tracey Mann (R-KS)
Thomas Massie (R-KY)
Lisa McClain (R-MI)
Jim McGovern (D- MA)
David McKinley (R-WV)
Alex Mooney (R-WV)
Barry Moore (R-AL)
Troy Nehls (R-TX)
Ralph Norman (R-SC)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
Christy Perry (R-PA)
Mark Pocan (D-WI)
Bill Posey (R-FL)
Ayanna Pressley (D-MA)
John Rose (R-TN)
Matt Rosendale (R-MT)
Chip Roy (R-TX)
David Schweikert (R-AZ)
Van Taylor (R-TX)
Tom Tiffany (R-WI)
Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ)
Tim Walberg (R-MI)
Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ)
Randy Weber (R-TX)
Daniel Webster (R-FL)
Roger Williams (R-TX)
Lee Zeldin (R-NY)

Table 1. Presidential Drawdowns for Ukraine,
FY2021-FY2022
# Date Authorized Amount
1 August 27, 2021 $60,000,000
2 December 28, 2021 $200,000,000
3 February 25, 2022 $350,000,000
4 March 12, 2022 $200,000,000
5 March 16, 2022 $800,000,000
6 April 5, 2022 $100,000,000
7 April 13, 2022 $800,000,000
8 April 21, 2022 $800,000,000
9 May 6, 2022 $150,000,000
10 May 19, 2022 $100,000,000
11 June 1, 2022 $700,000,000
12 June 15, 2022 $350,000,000
13 June 23, 2022 $450,000,000
14 July 1, 2022 $50,000,000
15 July 8, 2022 $400,000,000
16 July 22, 2022 $175,000,000
17 August 1, 2022 $550,000,000
18 August 8, 2022 $1,000,000,000
19 August 19, 2022 $775,000,000
Total $8,010,000,000
Source: Department of State and Department of Defense.

 

According to Breitbart News:

The Biden White House announced Friday (Oct. 28) a new weapons package worth $275 million is destined for Ukraine, bringing the total U.S. military aid to Kyiv to more than $18.5 billion since January 2021.

 

“Pursuant to a delegation of authority from the President, today I am authorizing our twenty-fourth drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment for Ukraine since August 2021,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in the latest contribution to the conflict since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022.

The drawdown will boast weapons from the Pentagon’s own inventories, Blinken said.

He added, “We are also working to provide Ukraine with the air defense capabilities it needs with the two initial U.S.-provided NASAMS ready for delivery to Ukraine next month, and we are working with Allies and partners to enable delivery of their own air defense systems to Ukraine.”

Saving The Emperor Penguins

 

 

naco.org 

US Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams

 

Under the terms of the Endangered Species Act the Emperor penguin, native to Antarctica, will be listed as a "threatened species". It's not because the large, flightless birds are being hunted to extinction or their habitat is being covered with suburban apartment complexes or semi-conductor fabs. 

The move is being made because the Antarctic environment is particularly sensitive to Anthropogenic Global Warming. The current estimated population of the birds is given as being over 600,000 individuals but on the basis of climate projections their numbers may decrease by as much as 47% by 2050. 

While it's about 9000 miles from the USF&W offices in DC to the nearest emperor penguin, the Endangered Species Act authorizes the agency to ban commercial transactions anywhere involving  the bird and supply some funds for its conservation in foreign jurisdictions. The listing may also raise awareness in the public of the dangers it's facing. School children will be able to worry about the fate of animals they are unlikely to ever see except on the Discovery Channel.

According to scientist Susan J. Crockford's blog, Polar Bear Science, "China has thwarted an attempt by members of the Antarctic Treaty organization to enact special protection status for the Emperor penguin, which would have generated a ‘Species Action Plan’. Apparently, such a proposal required a consensus of all parties and China wouldn’t go along."

The relatively cost-free virtue signalling of the US EPA is, of course, another example of predicting the future on the basis of unreliable computer modelling. No one is likely now, or in the foreseeable future, to physically assist in a big penguin's survival.

 

 

A New Bridge In Taiwan

 

CNA photo

Halloween weekend marks the opening of the Kinmen Bridge, creating a vehicular and pedestrian path of almost 3 1/2 miles between Greater Kinmen Island and Lieyu Island in Fujian, Republic of China.

Design of the bridge began in 2010, construction in 2013, but its completion was plagued by construction problems and issues with contractors. Now, almost ten years later, the structure is complete and will open to traffic on Sunday. 

Serious over runs boosted the cost from the planned $245 million to about $280 million. 

Drugs and Perimenopause

In further confirmation that there are physical and psychological differences between men and women the Wall Street Journal briefly explores the efforts by various drug manufacturers to alleviate the emotional  problems with perimenopause, the time before menopause.

The article states that as many as a third of females, usually in their forties, suffer from anxiety, mood swings, depression, hot flashes and night sweats as well as other symptoms during perimenopause. Efforts have been underway at major research institutions like the Center for Women's Mood Disorders at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine to address these issues.

The US National Institute of Health is coordinating research on the subject, some of which involves using drugs ordinarily used for other symptoms.

Ultimately, it must be admitted that perimenopause and menopause are not diseases but unfortunate parts of the process of a woman's life span that can't be entirely eliminated. Just as many males become bald at some point, lose sexual potency and face reduced sight and hearing ability, women undergo physical and emotional changes that are essentially normal. Using drugs to alleviate them might be advantageous but the reality is that it's an indication of an ever-increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals in every aspect of American culture. The use of ritalin and amphetamines to treat ADHD in school children is ethically dubious.

The fact that perimenopause and menopause are the subjects of intense research and study means that these processes are seen as negatives to the class of people affected by them. These people would be women. The negatives would be a loss of effective communication between the afflicted and the rest of their community, a degradation of their effectiveness in business and government, and perhaps a decline in their judgement.

Historically, the overwhelming majority of the world's societies have been patriarchal in nature.  The reason for this is often assumed to be that men are physically more powerful than females and are able to force such a state of affairs. Differing biological changes during the life span of the two sexes hasn't been discussed as much. More research on the subject needs to be done not just to make women feel better but to determine the effectiveness of their role in business and especially government, where now more women are involved in responsible positions than ever before.

  uclife.ca     

Bob Dylan Becomes Artist At Age 75 Updated

Bob Dylan, nee' Zimmerman, who supposedly took his professional name from generally intoxicated poet Dylan Thomas, has moved on from oddly popular and over-rated music to the world of similarly obscure art. In this case he's constructing a piece called Portal, a gate that's going to serve as an entrance to a new casino in Maryland, per this account in ARTNEWS.



The masterpiece hasn't been put in place yet but from its appearance it very much resembles the sort of thing that bored farmers assemble in the winter months from pieces of obsolete equipment and then use to decorate their yards.

Of course, if Mr. Dylan was one of those farmers, his found-art project would be of little interest to anyone except the neighbors down the road. 

tripsavvy.com 

The clever folk art Dylan piece now graces the entrance to the MGM National Harbor Casino Maryland.

World Health Organization Laments Lack of Physical Activity

The World Health Organization has released a report concluding that lack of physical activity has produced significant health issues world-wide.  The report says that this situation will result in a cost of $27 billion annually between 2022 and 2030 for the 500 million individuals that will be affected by non-communicable diseases like hyper-tension, diabetes, heart disease and many others.

 

A major contributor to the problem has been the response of governments to the Covid-19 pandemic, which includes advice to stay at home and not engage in physical activity in group formats. In the US, home of the generally most obese population on earth, a sedentary life style is more common than in less developed countries where daily life that includes walking and physical labor is normal.

 (Michael Siluk/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

In fact, almost any technological "advance" that can decrease or eliminate physical effort is greeted with enthusiasm by the Yankee. School children ride buses or are delivered to classes by their parents rather than walking or riding bikes. The parking lots of commercial gyms and fitness centers are filled with the cars of members who have driven to those locations rather than having walked. Riding lawn mowers enable the suburbanite to sit down while trimming the grass. Recreational boating requires expensive watercraft with sophisticated and powerful engines rather than oars or paddles. Bicycles are considered children's toys, rather than alternative forms of transportation.

Foremost among the retreats from physical activity is the concept of "handicapped parking". Government requirements that spaces near commercial locations reserve parking spots for those that have talked a physician into providing them documentation of a "handicap" flies in the very face of the WHO conclusion. These spaces indicate an acceptance of the idea that those handicapped in a particular way benefit from a lack of physical effort, that the handicapped don't need exercise. This is ridiculous. The very first treatments for stroke and injury victims is physical therapy, which is usually uncomfortable, at least in the beginning. Walking from the Prius to the front door of the supermarket and back might be the only exercise of the week for some people.

Don't expect the WHO report or this post to have any effect on the majority of developed world residents. They are generally devoted to sloth and reluctant to engage in personal physical effort, being more enthusiastic about the vicarious thrill of watching professional athletes.   

From Thongchai Thailand, a BBC Analysis From 25 Years Ago

 

PAST PERMAFROST MELT ALARMS

1. 1997, THE BBC MAKES THE CASE FOR THE KYOTO PROTOCOL
   Twenty years of hard data from meteorological stations and nature show a clear warming trend. Growth rings in Mongolian and Canadian trees are getting wider. Butterflies in California are moving to higher ground once too cold for butterflies. Stalactites in Britain are growing faster. The growing season for crops in Australia is getting longer. Permafrost in Siberia and Canada is melting. The evidence is there anywhere you look. A warming rate is one 1C per century is enough to wreak havoc. The cause is the greenhouse effect of CO2 emissions from fossil fuels as well as CFCs and HCFCs that trap heat. The effect is being compounded as deforestation simultaneously removes trees that absorb CO2. Some scientists are skeptical but the majority view is that the greenhouse effect is real and it requires urgent action. This conclusion rests on the results from sophisticated computer simulation models that give the best possible information on this topic even though they are not perfect. These models are giving us scary accounts of the future and we should be paying attention. The IPCC tell us that melting ice and thermal expansion of oceans will cause the sea level to rise one meter by 2037 and inundate low lying areas and island nations. Extreme weather events will become common. El Nino and La Nina cycles will become more extreme. There will be millions of climate refugees driven from their home by global warming. Some regions of the world will become hotter, others colder, some wetter, others drier. Entire weather systems will be dramatically altered. The Gulf Stream will switch off making Europe colder. Tropical diseases such as malaria will ravage the world as vectors migrate to higher latitudes and altitudes. Some wheat farmers may be able to grow more wheat but the net effect of global warming is overwhelmingly negative  https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/04/22/nox2013/
   

Where Are The Bomb Shelters?

 

ebay.com

 

In the fifties and sixties the threat of nuclear war drove the US to install thousands of ballistic missiles all over the US, keep loaded B-52s on perpetual standby, base fighter-interceptor aircraft world-wide and monitor millions of square miles of air space with sophisticated radar to counter the threat of being taken over by the Godless Commies. 

There was also a country-wide effort to survive any possible nuclear war by the construction of private "bomb shelters", hardened sanctuaries stocked with water and food that would allow far-sighted citizens to emerge into the post-atomic landscape and rebuild the great and wonderful US.

But there never was a nuclear armageddon and normal folk failed to keep track of the stored water and soda crackers that were never needed.

Now, some 50 years later, if the bomb shelter fixation of the cold war zenith made any sense then, it certainly does now, with crazy eastern Europeans talking about bombing the world 12,000 years into the past and many more nations possessing the ultimate weapon.  Yet we hear nothing about a rush order bomb shelter program for ordinary Yankees. 

The US is spending billions of dollars to massage the ego of a millionaire Ukrainian entertainer who's making olive drab T-shirts a fashion statement but not a centavo on subsidies for overhead protection of American children and grandmothers. Why is this the case?

Do Victoria Nuland and Robert Kagan know something that the rest of us do not? Are they convinced that a proxy war against Putin can't result in any real harm to the US? Or are they willing to accept a serious amount of death and disaster in exchange for world-wide hegemony? After all, the Japanese quickly got over their August 6, 1945 lumps and started selling motorcycles and then cars all over the place. A quick rebuild and Uncle Sam will be able to put the Chinese in their place, too. 

The wealthy already have their survival spots set up for a possible conflagration. They'll probably be better off without the underlings anyway.

Lewis Mumford Talks About Walls

     Definition and classification were the very essence of medieval thinking: so that philosophic nominalism, which challenged the objective reality of classes, and presented a world of unrelated atoms and disconnected events, was as destructive to the medieval style of life cannonballs proved to be to the walls of the town. 

     The psychological importance of the wall must not be forgotten. When the portcullis was drawn and the town  gates were locked at sundown, the city was sealed off from the outside world. Such enclosure helps create a feeling of unity as well as security. It is significant--and a little disturbing--that in one of the rare modern communities where people have lived under analogous conditions, namely  in the atomic-research community of Oak Ridge, the protected inhabitants of the new town grew to value the "secure" life within, free from any sort of foreign invasion or even unauthorized approach--though it meant that their own comings and goings were under constant military surveillance and control.

 

Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1961) 299-314  

Seaman Found Innocent in Bonhomme Richard Fire

On July 13, 2020 the US Navy LHD-6 Bonhomme Richard amphibious assault ship was destroyed by fire while docked at US Naval Base San Diego.

 

 heysocal.com

Nineteen-year old seaman recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays of Ashland, Kentucky was charged with arson in the destruction of the $1.4 billion vessel commissioned on 15 August 1998. The ship was undergoing repairs at US Naval Base San Diego at the time of the fire, which raged for 5 days and resulted in it being sold for scrap.

 The legal action against Mays was primarily based upon the testimony of another seaman, Kenji Velasco. No physical evidence connecting Mays to the fire was ever presented. However, the fire, its causes and aftermath, resulted in more than 20 senior officers and sailors being disciplined.

Mays was found not guilty by a Navy judge in the case after a two-year investigation and trial. While he is still a US Navy seaman it remains to be seen where his career goes from here.   

Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Speech, Sept. 30, 2022

Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave this speech to the press in a joint appearance with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

 https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-canadian-foreign-minister-melanie-joly-at-a-joint-press-availability/

A Deadly Midwest Corner

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has published an article describing the situation at the corner of N. Lyndale Ave. and West Broadway on the city's north side.

The famously liberal paper has identified the cause of the location's violence problem as two adjoining businesses, a Merwin Liquor store and a Winner gas station. These two establishments are described as the "epicenter" of violence in the city because 10% of the killings in Minneapolis since 2010 have taken place within a half-mile of that intersection.

While the businesses are about the general size for those with similar operations, an area described as having a radius of a half-mile covers a  little over 502 acres. The size of the average farm in Minnesota is about 377 acres. The distance from the center of this circle to its circumference would amount to a little over 1000 paces. So two geographically small businesses are to blame for a crime wave in a much larger, densely inhabited area. At the same time, the employees and ownership of the two businesses aren't accused of murder or robbery or encouraging others in those activities. The issue appears to be the people that frequent that area.

This is actually often the response to criminal and anti-social activity by many cities, like this one. The businesses themselves are very limited in their tactics to address what happens off of their own property. 

If the city is able to close the two businesses, as seems to be its intent, what will be the result? First of all, those individuals that produce the violence are unlikely to enroll in nursing programs or divinity schools. They are far more likely to move their operation to another nearby spot that supplies liquor and potato chips. The crime problems of Minneapolis are a product of the city's residents and its administration, not two businesses in a rough neighborhood.