BarretWallace

Congressman says he got advice from 'cult deprogrammers' to learn how to deal with his extremist Congress colleagues

World Central Kitchen Restaurant in Ukraine Hit by Russian Airstrike

In the latest round of brilliant strategy, Putin lost the flagship of the Black Sea navy to a nation without a navy.
 

On a lighter note…

So the next phase of the war looks to me to be the Russians pulling back from Kyiv and likely also redeployment of  forces that previously has been committed to strike against Odessa (they’re not in a position to do that at the moment, obviously) to reinforce their forces in the Donbas region. How that plays out will probably shape the Russian perspective on a long term war, if the Ukrainians have continued success in a more offensive operation against higher Russian force density it’ll prove to be militarily unsustainable (as opposed to just economically and politically unsustainable).
 
It’ll be a different conflict than the previously four region poorly coordinated assault, but I would not bet against Ukraine at this point. They’ve been the superior of the two forces at every stage. And their morale is much better, plus they’ve secured supply chains at this point by repelling the eastern invasion. Logistical support and good morale, better knowledge of local terrain and a very serious emotional investment. That is a very tough combination to beat. 

Yeah, that one gets me. Striking back into the territory of the country that invaded you unprovoked? "Legality" left that discussion back in February.

https://crimereads.com/tyrants-and-propaganda-or-the-totalitarian-need-for-total-information-control/

"it's not a real pandemic." 
 
"The election was stolen."
 
Why is the same human behaviour overseas so surprising?

Are Swedish miles as tasty as Swedish fish?

I've never been fond of the twice-yearly time change ritual.  Pick one and friggin' stick with it!

I've never been fond of the twice-yearly time change ritual.  Pick one and friggin' stick with it!

The March, 2022 issue of Scientific American is a special issue devoted to "How Covid Chamged the World." Article titles (and, where applicable, subtitles) are as follows:
* A Microbe Proved That Individualism Is a Myth. Humans evolved to be interdependent, not self-sufficient.
* A High-Speed Scientific Hive Mind Emerged. Researchers found new forms of rapid communication and collaboration.
* Science Journalism Shifted with New Realities. It is no longer possible to separate science and politics.
* COVID Set Off a Boom in Diagnostics. The pandemic accelerated the development of cutting-edge PCR tests -- and made the need for them urgent.
* American Public Health Revealed Its Fragility.
* Global Health Institutions Reached Their Limits. The need to reinvent the World Health Organization has become abundantly clear.
* We Didn't Get Serious About the Climate Crisis. Emergency managers are stuck reacting to a constant march of disasters.
* Lockdowns Showed the Promise of Cities with Fewer Cars.
* Inequality Got Much Worse. The poor, no matter where they live, will suffer the greatest lasting toll.
* Messenger RNA Therapies Finally Arrived. Instructing our cells to make specific proteins could control influenza, autoimmune diseases, even cancer.
* Billionaire Space Tourists Became Insufferable.
* Long Haulers Called Attention to Chronic Illnesses. But society is not prepared for the growing crisi of long COVID.
* Data Captures COVID's Uneven Toll. Visualizing ongoing stories of loss, adaptation and inequality.
* Work Changed Forever. People realized their jobs don't have to be that way.
* Nasal Spray Preventives Went Into Development.
* Fault Lines in American Society Got Deeper. The pandemic energized the Black Lives Matter movement -- and provoked a dangerous backlash.
* Vaccine Inequality Shut Vulnerable People Out of Plans to Save the Planet. Those with the most at stake were heard the least.
* Oxygen Shortages Delayed Rocket Launches.
* Conspiracy Theories Made It Harder for Scientists to Seek the Truth. Virus origin stories have always been prone to disinformation, and the "lab leak hypothesis" threatens research -- and lives.
* Pandemic-Era Research Paid Off -- and Will for Years.
* COVID Is Here to Stay. How do we live with it?
 
Dean Shomshak

War never bothered me anyway....

Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities: No need to declare captured Russian tanks, equipment as income. 
The National Agency for the Protection against Corruption has stated that captured Russian tanks and equipment do not need to be declared to tax authorities. This is because the value of this “crap” does not exceed 100 living wages, the agency joked. On a serious note, it said that war trophies are untaxable.
 
https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-ato/3416691-deklaruvati-zahopleni-rosijski-tanki-ta-insu-tehniku-ne-treba-nazk.html
 
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The BBC has launched a new shortwave radio service in Ukraine to ensure the resilience of its news operations in Ukraine and Russia, the corporation has announced.
The new broadcasts will make four hours of World Service English news available every day and will reach audiences in Ukraine and parts of Russia.
 
(The weekly audience for the BBC's Russian language news website more than tripled following the invasion compared to its weekly average from earlier this year. But access to that can easily be blocked by the Russian government if it wants while shortwave cannot.)
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60582327?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=621fa92bec502b53cd4806be%26BBC launches new shortwave radio service in Ukraine%262022-03-02T21%3A47%3A39.123Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:ed36bf50-ad9f-4830-a6bc-905ebf19cd71&pinned_post_asset_id=621fa92bec502b53cd4806be&pinned_post_type=share
 
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 Four Russian fighter jets violated Swedish airspace over Baltic Sea.
 
A Russian aircraft violated Japanese airspace.
 
====
EU
 
It shall be prohibited to sell, supply, transfer or export euro denominated banknotes to Russia or to any natural or legal person, entity or body in Russia, including the government and the Central Bank of Russia, or for use in Russia.
 
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32022D0346&from=EN
 
====
 
Exxon Mobil has also said it will exit Russia oil and gas operations that it has valued at more than $4b and halt new investment as a result of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The decision will see Exxon pull out of managing large oil and gas production facilities on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East, and puts the fate of a proposed multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility there in doubt, Reuters reports.
 
====
 
Primary school children were reportedly arrested by police in Moscow for laying flowers at the Ukrainian embassy and holding signs saying “no to war”.
Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin posted photos purporting to show three children holding placards and flowers in the back of a police van, with others pictured behind metal bars and in what appeared to be a police station.
 
Later, a video emerged of a mother of one young girl attempting to soothe her daughter who was crying inside a cell, explaining why the group had been arrested, The Moscow Times reported.
 
https://inews.co.uk/news/russian-school-children-arrested-for-laying-flowers-at-ukraine-embassy-and-holding-no-to-war-signs-1494704
 
====
 
Georgia to Apply for EU Membership Immediately - asking for emergency consideration. Their previously-stated goal was to ask to be considered for membership sometime in 2024.
https://civil.ge/archives/477032
 
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Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom, oil-producer Lukoil and leading bank Sberbank are all penny stocks based on their trading on the London Stock Exchange, as the local market was shut for a third day.
 
Sberbank SBER, -78.43%, which had assets of over $500 billion at the end of 2021, was trading for 3 cents a share in afternoon action.
 
Lukoil LKOD, -93.23%, Gazprom OGZD, -23.50%, and Rosneft Oil ROSN, -77.71% continued to collapse as the dollar-denominated secondary listings in London remained the one venue where Russia’s top companies could be valued.
 
The collapse of the energy giants came even as Western sanctions specifically exempted the Russian energy sector. 
 
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/gazprom-lukoil-and-sberbank-are-now-penny-stocks-as-russian-companies-collapse-in-london-11646227312
 
 
=====
 
Apologies for yet another news roundup today.
 
Bad health day and haven't been able to do anything more productive than sit at my computer...and wish I could sleep some more.

Only a Sith deals in absolutes!  

I am sorry for your loss, Pariah (and Lady P).

I am sorry for your loss, Pariah (and Lady P).

Lady P lost her uncle Friday night to COVID-related pneumonia. He'd had a number of health issues for the past several years, so it wasn't completely unexpected. But it's sad nonetheless. 

Just tested positive for covid by means of a nose swab test. The test said to give the lines fifteen to twenty minutes to develop, but the T line didn't even take a minute to show up, well before the C line.

Good news.
Daily new case rate is down 40% from the peak, 3 weeks ago.
 
Bad news.
It's still over 2 million cases a day. 
 
SURPRISING (to me) news.
The daily death rate has started to drop (!!!).  The peak new case rate was only 3 weeks ago;  with prior strains, deaths lagged by, IIRC, 3-5 weeks.  But the peak was Feb. 6th, and it's down 8% since then.
 
Based on the WorldOMeters 7-day moving average.

A Porno-Metal Song About Gay Cowboys Is Disrupting the Anti-Vax Trucker Convoy