Iuz the Evil

One more for the day.  .  .

Yet another reason to celebrate today

Is this a fireworks injury thread? I was looking for the Independence Day thread…
 

 

If I’m in the wrong place, I’ll just see myself out…
 
To light off some fireworks!

Spotted on our afternoon walk today...*sighs in frustration*

On this day in 2012, CERN reported the first reliable evidence of the Higgs Boson from the Large Hadron Collider.
 
Blowing things up seems like an appropriate way to celebrate this great, historic day.
 
Dean Shomshak

He's smart enough to realize who signs the donation checks.
 
https://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/2023/06/14/florida-lawmaker-sponsored-radioactive-roads-bill-mosaic-threw-him-fundraiser/

The greatest tragedy of the DCEU will always be the squandering of Henry Cavill as Superman.

Huh, I might look Friday, I'll be at Safeway, probably.  Just cuz yours has it, doesn't mean mine will;  supermarket liquor sections tend to be stocked by the area distributors, and thus stock the brands they have.  And size matters...how much space they want to allocate.  That Safeway has either NO cognac whatsoever, or maybe 1 or 2 VSOPs in the locked case.  Almost nothing in the way of single malt scotch, again, outside the locked case.
 
I have gone through some of the "50 best bourbons you can buy" lists...rather amusing.  Almost all of em are a) FAR more than I wanna spend too, and b) many count as Unobtainium.  Demand VASTLY outstrips supply.  If you want to know what truly, ridiculously INSANE booze can run....
 
https://vinepair.com/booze-news/25-most-expensive-bourbons/
 
Scotches?  They're worse.  There's a longer tradition of aging for a VERY long time.  
https://mybartender.com/brands/most-expensive-scotch/
 
Cognac also has an upper, upper tier.  I've had Louis XIII once...not a bottle, mind.  Most expensive bottle would be Remy XO...the liquor store had reversed the prices on the Napoleon (the step up from VSOP) and the XO (a step above that).  So I got it at a really nice price.  
 
But yeah, for the most part?  They're not enough better to justify the seriously high costs, as you say.  I've largely avoided scotch and cognac for several years, because the prices on both blew through the ceiling.  When I do get it, I bite the bullet and go for the middle levels of the good lines...Remy Nadurra, Laphroaig Quarter Cask.  I mean, if it's gonna be an indulgence *anyway*...get the stuff you really like.

In regards to Russia/Wagner: things are going to be unfolding quickly, so I'd urge people to use caution in posts. This is not a site for "you read it here first" news....and in situations like this anything else may be dated and incorrect by the time it's posted.
 
Pause, breathe, and read actual news sites if you want to keep up on this. 

Hey, he's had a shave!

The coup hasn't really changed the front line situation,  at least not yet. Russia is using their version of the national guard to stop him, as well as asking very nicely for Wagner to detain their boss. Russia has not pulled back troops to stop Prigozhin, so the Ukrainian forces aren't enjoying lesser resistance.
 
There is one thing they are doing on the front line:
 

Remember when Zelensky said "I need ammunition, no a ride" and then stayed in Kyiv during the entire siege? Yeah? What a man.
 
Putin urgently leaves Moscow for bunker in Valdai – Ukrainian intelligence
Putin's special Il96-300PU (Control Point) aircraft departed Moscow for St Petersburg at 14:16 (Moscow time), according to FlightRadar data. The destination of the aircraft is not indicated, and it disappeared from the tracking system over the Tver area. One of Putin's residences is located in Tver Oblast. Equipment for the control of the Russian Armed Forces is installed on this aircraft.

I don’t disagree with the risks and problems associated with civil war in Russia. I do not see any likelihood that there’s another probable outcome however, since Russia has managed a semi-Democratic transfer of power like once in their entire history. And Ukraine is never going to bend the knee at this point, they’re tired but they are all in and have every expectation of wearing Russia down. 
 
They should be hoping for maximum disarray in the invading nation, and hopefully take advantage of that. 
 
It’s a difficult situation, but under no circumstances should Russia be allowed to benefit from their aggression. The risks of an emboldened Russia seeking to subjugate former Soviet bloc states is at least as great. On a positive note, the opposite has happened. NATO was strengthened, Sweden/Finland applied for membership, their military was absolutely exposed by a much smaller regional nation, and they’re facing geopolitical isolation. Whatever the narrative, one would hope this will discourage future adventurism. 
 
 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/23/europe/russia-mod-wagner-yevgeny-prigozhin-intl/index.html
 
So there’s a lot of buzz about Wagner and Russian forces getting in firefights, charges being brought against Prigozhin (incitement to an armed rebellion), and general ugliness between the two.
 
Maybe this is why you don’t use large scale mercenary forces?
 
Anyway, always hard to know what the truth is but this is pretty good news for Ukraine (just a matter of how good).
 
 Edit: here’s the link to the criminal charges. unbelievable. https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-06-23-23/h_a103a31ff6e0de344102f9f17c980eb3

I agree but Russian civil war was almost inevitable.  There's almost no way a strongman like Putin stays in power after committing a land-war-in-Asia scale blunder like invading Ukraine and promptly losing.  And there's no mechanism for an orderly transfer of power, on purpose.

I don’t disagree with the risks and problems associated with civil war in Russia. I do not see any likelihood that there’s another probable outcome however, since Russia has managed a semi-Democratic transfer of power like once in their entire history. And Ukraine is never going to bend the knee at this point, they’re tired but they are all in and have every expectation of wearing Russia down. 
 
They should be hoping for maximum disarray in the invading nation, and hopefully take advantage of that. 
 
It’s a difficult situation, but under no circumstances should Russia be allowed to benefit from their aggression. The risks of an emboldened Russia seeking to subjugate former Soviet bloc states is at least as great. On a positive note, the opposite has happened. NATO was strengthened, Sweden/Finland applied for membership, their military was absolutely exposed by a much smaller regional nation, and they’re facing geopolitical isolation. Whatever the narrative, one would hope this will discourage future adventurism. 
 
 

I don’t disagree with the risks and problems associated with civil war in Russia. I do not see any likelihood that there’s another probable outcome however, since Russia has managed a semi-Democratic transfer of power like once in their entire history. And Ukraine is never going to bend the knee at this point, they’re tired but they are all in and have every expectation of wearing Russia down. 
 
They should be hoping for maximum disarray in the invading nation, and hopefully take advantage of that. 
 
It’s a difficult situation, but under no circumstances should Russia be allowed to benefit from their aggression. The risks of an emboldened Russia seeking to subjugate former Soviet bloc states is at least as great. On a positive note, the opposite has happened. NATO was strengthened, Sweden/Finland applied for membership, their military was absolutely exposed by a much smaller regional nation, and they’re facing geopolitical isolation. Whatever the narrative, one would hope this will discourage future adventurism. 
 
 

Russian "private military companies" have been multiplying since the Ukraine War started, as Putin tries to broaden his manpower base and various wealthy oligarchs see a path to influence and power in having their own militaries. None are as large as Wagner yet, but multiple armed forces with diverse loyalties are a recipe for conflict. Ramzan Kadyrov's Chechen army could also be considered similar, in that while they're officially part of the Russian military, their first loyalty is to Kadyrov.
 
All this divisiveness makes Putin look weak, which in a government that runs top-down bodes poorly for stability. Several Russian commentators I follow suggest conditions are ripening for outright civil war.

Here's a far more disturbing prospect than Biden's weird turns of phrase (from Politico):
 
Can Trump run for president from prison? Yes, and it's been done before.
 
While part of me would be darkly amused by the ensuing chaos, the more rational part is fairly terrified at the prospect of a win by an imprisoned Trump.

US Supreme Court upholds Native American Adoption law by 7-2
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65897827