Friday Meme Fest

Images courtesy of Politico's

The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics'

Cartoons of the Week.

Less Than Cordial

Recently, Russia's Vladimir Putin met with Kazakhstan President Tokayev who was anything but diplomatic about Putin's war in Ukraine. Here is how that went.

“I will not hide that I am receiving many signals—which I have already informed you about by phone—from Europe and the United States regarding the current state of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia,” Tokayev told Putin as a slew of Kremlin-controlled TV outlets filmed the confrontation.

He went on to call BS on the Kremlin’s narrative of the war, saying, “The nature of this conflict is not entirely clear” and seems utterly pointless.

“This all needs to stop,” Tokayev said, urging Putin to “freeze” the war and return to negotiations. He twisted the knife by adding that despite “proposals and appeals,” Kazakhstan “categorically refuses” to act as a mediator in helping to end the war, since “Russia is a great country” and can “manage on its own.”

'Tsar' Vlad isn't accustomed to being addressed in this condescending fashion. Be sure his rage was towering, Tokayev is a brave man.

Kazakhstan resembles Ukraine - a former Russian colony now independent. Tokayev empathizes with Zelensky and fears similar military 'attention' from the former colonial master. Putin has made clear his obsession - currently stymied - to put the empire back together.

CA Fuel Shortage

Here is another story to file under the heading "decline and fall of the once-great State of California." By pursuing "green" policies, CA is running out of petroleum-based fuel.

Driven by adversarial state policies and aggressive litigation from activist groups, the state’s domestic refining capacity has already been crippled, and has led to the most expensive transportation fuels in the nation for its California residents.

California is the 4th largest economy in the world and an ENERGY ISLAND that is separated from the other 49 States by the Sierra Mountains. There are no pipelines over those mountains.

California demands 58 million gallons of transportation fuel DAILY:

• 11 million gallons/day for Jet fuel for the States’ military and international airports.
• 10 million gallons/day for Diesel for the States’ trucking and construction industries.
• 37 million gallons/day for Gasoline for the States’ more than 36 million vehicles.

The Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland are NOT designed to import those humongous volumes of transportation fuels. (emphases in original)

With over 11% of the US population, CA may not be "the 4th largest economy in the world" much longer, if it runs out of fuel. Seemingly, no one in Sacramento cares.

Russia: Victory or Extinction

RealClearDefense links to an essay looking at the strategic thinking of the upper echelons of Russian policy makers. The news isn't good. 

The viewpoint is that of Andrei Bezrukov, a former deep cover mole who spied in the US, was arrested by the FBI, and was sent home to Russia in a prisoner exchange. He now teaches at MGIMO (Russia's Foreign Affairs university) and writes opinion from inside the latter-day nomenklatura. Some key insights.

The world has entered “a period of another total redivision of the world” — передел мира — which will be defined not by prosperity, but by survival.

The world is undergoing a power transition into a multipolar world, where the Western countries do not hold a central position.

The wars in Ukraine and Iran are presented as the opening stage of a wider struggle over the redivision of the world. Bezrukov expects more conflicts to emerge.

Bezrukov frames the war as “a struggle to eliminate an existential threat from the West”. It requires, he argues, the exertion of all Russia’s human and material resources, because “only a clear victory will satisfy Russia.”

He is ruling out any outcome that resembles a draw or can be interpreted as a Russian defeat. That distinction leaves little room for compromise.

The value of Bezrukov’s essay is that it makes explicit a worldview in which there is little opportunity for a negotiated ceasefire.

Translation: Do not expect fruitful negotiations leading to an end of the Ukraine conflict anytime soon.  

Soft Bigotry at Cambridge U.

Several sources including Yahoo have run stories on Cambridge University's diversity icon Jason Arday - the youngest black professor ever appointed there. He is widely accused of plagiarism, very nearly academia's most mortal sin. 

Many are defending him, alleging racism. Many others are sure he violated academic ethics in 'borrowing' without citation many whole exact sentences and more of others' work. He has also made claims about his endurance running which have subsequently been withdrawn or scrubbed.

I am reminded of what the second President Bush called "the soft bigotry of low expectations;" these seem to have been operational in Arday's career progress. I fear those vetting Arday for Cambridge were overly generous in order to make the university look diverse, and of course as a result it now looks lame.

I am also reminded of Claudine Gay, former president of Harvard, who had similar difficulties for similar reasons. An Inside Higher Education article lists several college presidents who've lost their jobs for plagiarism of one sort or another.

I hope as a COTTonLINE reader you've noticed I try hard to provide citations for my sources, and mostly succeed.

Starship Soft Landing Pix

Posting at Instapundit, Stephen Green has great pix of Starship's soft landing in the Indian Ocean. The video is spectacular. It landed tail first and floats like a cork.

Did you have any idea that seawater can burn with nice orange flames if subjected to an object that is sufficiently hot? I sure as heck didn't. 

It flames like anything around Starship's nose which would be hottest. Do you suppose sufficient heat splits the O from the H2 and then the two ignite to recombine?

This is worth seeing, I promise.

Subsidized Groceries

Law Prof Jonathan Turley, describing NYC Mayor Mamdani’s promised city-run discount grocery stores.

Rather than deliver discount groceries, Mamdani is selling New Yorkers a bill of goods that will cost them millions.

It is not a description of a competitive grocery but a public charity. It is a quasi-food bank where taxpayers subsidize the cost.

In reality, Mamdani will be selling apples at a far greater cost than any competitor, but those true costs will be buried in the city budget and paid for by the taxpayers

Basically Mamdani is providing New Yorkers the equivalent of food stamps for which they need not apply nor qualify. NYC’s taxpayers will foot the bill for same. 

Third world governments have gone down this “subsidized food basics” path. The results are never good, but once offered nearly impossible to retract as riots ensue.

When the Soviets subsidized bread, farmers would buy loaves to feed their chickens. Bread was cheaper than unsubsidized chickenfeed.

Breaking … Fauci Takes the Fifth

Called to testify this morning before Sen. Rand Paul’s Senate committee, former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci “delivered a rant against Paul and then responded to all questions by pleading the Fifth Amendment," according to Power Line.

PL’s John Hinderaker concludes.

Most likely, what Fauci fears is not prosecution but embarrassment. The documents that have recently come out show pretty decisively that Fauci was a fraud who repeatedly misled the American people. I infer from his legal defense that he does not have good answers to the questions the senators would have posed.

Once again, an unelected FedGov bureau head has proven himself to be self-serving pond scum.

The “Morbidity Gap”

RealClearScience links to an interesting research report on lifespan and healthspan, the latter being how long we live without dealing with major health issues. The difference between the two “spans” being how long we live with major health issues before dying, this is called the “morbidity gap” and it is rising.

Global life expectancy rose from 64.6 years in 1990 to 73.8 in 2023, the study found. But healthy life expectancy failed to keep pace, with adults now spending around one in seven years in poor health.

This had me worried, until I read the following. 

Most populations now spend a decade or more living in poor health. For individuals and families, that means more years are spent managing chronic conditions like back pain, hearing loss, neurological disorders and diabetes.

Lower back pain is no joke, the other DrC has it and suffers plenty. On the other hand, I have worn hearing aids for a decade or more. And I have neuropathy in lower limbs, but cope with both issues just fine and do not consider myself in particularly “poor health.” 

I no longer take long walks and tire somewhat easily, but I am essentially happy and enjoy life. Expend no sympathy on me.

A Historic Realignment

What is happening to the Democratic Party now with an attempted takeover by the Democratic Socialists of America, you might ask? Isn't it analogous to the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party that began in 2016? Let me try to convince you that is so, beginning with a quick history review.

When Donald Trump won the nomination in 2016, he was still somewhat in the thrall of the Bush-era Republicans. Choosing Mike Pence as VP was an indication of that. Then along came Covid which helped the Bushies keep Trump from pursuing his agenda. 

Four years later the electorate in their wisdom gave the presidency to a historically not-radical Joe Biden and Trump got some years to meditate on what he could have done better. Biden was far past his prime so his handlers pursued a radical agenda which the voting public didn't love.

In 2024 Trump got the presidency back and, having learned from his mistakes, dove headlong into his MAGA agenda. That included electing his own people, sealing the border, and booting the Bush-Cheney-Romney coterie out the door. 

Today the Republican Party is almost entirely MAGA, most former "country club" Republicans are history, and blue collar America has switched parties. MAGA loves Don who is their idea of how a rich guy should act.

Finding their formerly "big" tent somewhat underpopulated, Democrats began looking around for groups that felt underrepresented. What they discovered was overcredentialed, underemployed college grads who are in debt up to their eyebrows, can't find suitable career employment, or afford to buy homes. 

This group wants change and capitalism represents the status quo they dislike. That socialism has never worked isn't an argument they'll buy, as what we have now isn't working for them.

The disaffected had been drawn to Bernie Sanders in past elections and they now coalesce around the Democratic Socialists. DSA bids fair to take over the Ds the way MAGA took over the Rs. Today's old line Ds sound as put-out as old line Rs did when MAGA shunted them aside. 

What is happening over the past decade or so is a major realignment of various interest groups in the US of A. We still have two big tent political parties but the demographics of each tent are substantially different than they were 20 years ago.

A personal note: I was mostly okay with the former Republican Party but disagreed with some of its policies - it liked illegal immigration and globalism. I experienced the MAGA movement as getting rid of GOP policies with which I'd disagreed. The transition, for me, has been smooth. 

Tuesday Smirk

Image courtesy of today's Politico.

Logan's Run Reviewed

Last night the DrsC watched Logan's Run, a 1976 film we hadn't seen before, having recorded it from TCM. I like science fiction and the premise isn't terrible, but the plotting and execution ... darn sad. 

Michael York played the title role and did himself no favors. Richard Jordan, Peter Ustinov and Farrah Fawcett-Major had minor roles and Jenny Agutter was the love interest. 

Ustinov did his usual good job, and got to quote a handful of lines from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, which was fun. The musical Cats didn't debut in London until 1981 so T. S. Eliot's poetry wasn't yet widely known.

Jordan looked familiar, an IMDb check showed I'd seen him as Duncan Idaho in the original Dune film.

What passed for special effects 50 years ago are beyond lame today. The robot named Box looked like a dalek with a human head added. 

Mostly, we concluded we hadn't missed anything by not seeing the film in 1976.

Dear Diary ....

Somehow Dr. Anthony Fauci's diary of the Covid time has become public. It turns out he knew almost immediately the lab leak was a much more likely source than the wet market, he confided as much to his diary. Yet for months thereafter he publicly maintained the opposite, so he is a fluent and shameless liar, perhaps under oath.

Through a cutout Fauci was directing federal funding to that lab in Wuhan to do gain-of-function research unlawful in the US. It leaked and millions died around the world.

The most creative response I've seen to this was the suggestion that while Biden pardoned Fauci, his pardon is only a reprieve in the US. Nothing is stopping some nation with which we have an extradition treaty from issuing a warrant for his arrest for negligent homicide, a warrant we'd have to honor.

Cruise Ship as Petri Dish?

There has been an outbreak of articles recently arguing whether or not cruise ships are "floating Petri dishes." Some examples of these include this, this and this. Let me share some cruising pro tips.

The other DrC and I have done several dozen cruises as passengers (pax) and dozens more as passenger/lecturers. We've been on several ships that had norovirus outbreaks, and a couple of times the other DrC caught it. For reasons unknown, I dodged the norovirus bullet every time; I have gotten a shipboard cold more than once.

What to know about norovirus: it is basically the "stomach flu" that would go around when we were kids. Dysentery, vomiting, and general misery that lasts 24-36 hours, after which you are fine. 

Transmission is by touching contaminated surfaces, or people. Try to keep your unwashed hands off your eyes, nose, and mouth.

It is probably life-threatening only to those whose health is already severely compromised. Such individuals should not cruise. Shipboard medical facilities are roughly those of a walk-in clinic, far short of even a small hospital.

Why the ship makes disease more widely transmissible? Everything outside your cabin is a public space. You and your fellow pax are constantly touching railings on stairs, arms on chairs, elevator buttons, etc. If the sea is rough, you do more touching - basically holding on as you walk the corridors.

If you go to the buffet, as most do at least for lunch, if not for breakfast which we have delivered to our cabin, the serving utensils are handled by many. You take your food, sit and eat without washing your hands in-between. 

We started pocketing a tiny plastic bottle, maybe 2.5 inches tall of hand sanitizer, which we'd refill off our larger bottle in the stateroom. And we learned to push elevator buttons with a knuckle or elbow.

Once an outbreak occurs, ships stop letting pax serve themselves at the buffet, they start piling what you point to onto a plate which they hand you. And they start having minions wipe down the railing and elevator controls with disinfectant. 

There are hand sanitizer dispensers outside the buffet and dining rooms, and elsewhere people gather. Extra-frequent hand washing very helpful. 

All of that helps, but won't stop an outbreak, which almost always only affects a minority of pax and crew - yes, crew catch it too. Those with an active case are asked to stay in their cabins for its relatively brief duration. 

What is your likelihood of being on a cruise that has a norovirus outbreak? I'm guessing 1in 20-25. You odds of actually getting sick are less than that. 

A cruise ship is a meals-and-entertainment-included luxury hotel that makes stops in interesting ports. Enjoy cruising, we certainly do. 

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

Images courtesy of Sarah Hoyt's

Meme Days of Summer.

Mini-Review of Enola Holmes 3

After watching the first two Enola Holmes films starring Millie Bobby Brown and enjoying them, I was predisposed to like the third film featuring her adventures. Sadly, I was disappointed.

EH3 isn't a bad film, but it lacks the freshness and sassiness of the first two. It felt like "here we go again." I am not especially looking forward to more episodes, as I had looked forward to this one. That is disappointing.

Friday Meme Fest

The smoke is Canadian

Images courtesy of Politico's

The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics'

Cartoons of the Week.

Mourning Lost Social Capital

The American Mind, a publication of The Claremont Institute, publishes a very interesting essay by Colin Redemer concerning the declining value of higher education, and more importantly, the mechanism by which that decline is caused.

The argument focuses on a decline in free social capital available, and the consequent need to purchase replacements at inflated prices.

Young people only appear to be doing fine in official statistics because those measures fail to capture the collapse of “social capital”—the free inheritance of trusted neighbors, functional public schools, safe streets, and marriageable norms that previous generations received at no cost. 

Because that commons has been liquidated and privatized, young people must now repurchase its components individually at market prices. Expensive homes in good districts, private schooling, daycare, credentials, and more—all of it requires substantial financial resources, even as incomes have risen only modestly. Meanwhile, the cost of these essentials has increased many times over.

Higher education is much more expensive today than it was when I was a 20 year old. Meanwhile, the BA/BS is worth less in terms of career access and graduate degrees have also been devalued. Reason: supply exceeds demand.

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If I have any criticism of the Redemer treatment, it would be ignoring the impact of the late 1940s GI Bill which flooded the employment market with degreed people without much concern for how doing so devalued the formerly esteemed high school diploma.

The GI Bill was an inspired way to prevent runaway unemployment as veterans in their hundreds of thousands left the military and resumed civilian life. It's unintended societal consequences, however, were profound and far-reaching.

Red States Keep Winning

Power Line's John Hinderaker posts a couple of charts you will like, from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity. Based on Census Bureau and Bureau of Economic Analysis data, they look at the effect of states' political orientation on household income and net migration (both in and out). 

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called our states "the laboratories of democracy." Very clearly red states - unambiguously embracing Republican policies - have experienced more growth in income and in population over the past quarter-century, and the differences are far from trivial.

Blue state politicians need to tell us how their model, which drives people away and provides less income growth for those who remain, is still somehow superior. I don't believe they can do it.

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Image courtesy of today's Lucianne.com.