The Frankish Reich

So what was the alternative? Surrender Ukraine to Putin? He made it clear he was going to annex the eastern part of the country and install a Belarus-style puppet regime in Kiev. Where would that leave the Baltic states? Poland? That would have put us on the precipice of a NATO-obligated full-on war vs. expansionist Russia. The death and destruction (not to mention money spent) is a tragedy. But from a purely geopolitical/U.S.-centric standpoint, we are in a much stronger position today than we were before the Putin invasion. The whole world understands that Russia is unable to actually occupy territory outside of its borders in Europe. The laggards in Europe like Finland and Sweden are coming completely into the NATO fold. The Baltics are more secure today than they were at the start of 2022. Russia has been revealed as a paper tiger. It's still dangerous - an unstable dictator with nukes will always be - but it's imperialist ambitions have been effectively killed, and the rest of eastern Europe outside of puppet state Belarus is now more firmly western oriented than ever before. A colossal error on the part of Putin, but only an error because the West - yes, under Biden's leadership - proved the more united, effective, and committed force.

Yes. You are a Democrat. Nothing wrong with being a JFK Democrat! It's really not that different from being an old-fashioned, post-1988/pre-2016 Republican. (I guess Vietnam doesn't count now??)

Oh, come one. This is not your father's Kennedy. Read the NYT article. It's short. And honestly, the five things they point to are pretty unhinged. And they kind of underplay the level of crazy when it comes to the assassination of his father, stating that RFK Jr. has suggested there was a CIA conspiracy to kill him. In reality, RFK Jr. has expressed doubts that Sirhan Sirhan was actually the assassin, or the sole assassin. Everyone saw it on TV, but he tells us not to believe our lyin' eyes. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/robert-f-kennedy-jr-says-hes-not-convinced-sirhan-sirhan-killed-his-dad This guy is a nutcase.

I know some of us prefer to rely on heroin addict English has-been comics, or stay-at-home-mom legal pundits without a law degree, of the guy who thought child torture was going on in the basementless basement of a DC pizza shop. I prefer the Council on Foreign Relations. Again, what I mean when I say today's TrumpRight is often indistinguishable from the anti Military-Industrial Complex left of the 1960s-80s. You know, the people Nixon and Reagan called commies back then.

OK, explain this: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/business/energy-environment/opec-russia-saudi-arabia-oil-coronavirus.html HOUSTON — Oil-producing nations on Sunday agreed to the largest production cut ever negotiated, in an unprecedented coordinated effort by Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States to stabilize oil prices and, indirectly, global financial markets. Saudi Arabia and Russia typically take the lead in setting global production goals. But President Trump, facing a re-election campaign, a plunging economy and American oil companies struggling with collapsing prices, took the unusual step of getting involved after the two countries entered a price war a month ago. Mr. Trump had made an agreement a key priority. Get that? The TRUMP ADMINISTRATION urged OPEC to cut production. In April 2020. In other words, the Trump Administration policy after COVID broke was to stabilize or RAISE CRUDE OIL PRICES. It's hard to argue with someone with a fixed/wrong idea about how the way the world works.

And the example is ... the suppression of Ivermectin! A drug that the vast majority of infectious disease specialists thought wouldn't work against COVID, yet a drug that was the subject of multiple COVID studies, all of which showed, conclusively, that it does not work against COVID. Nothing was "suppressed." It. Didn't. Work. You need to be a more critical reader. Look at the structure of the "argument" here: 1. Some doctors though Ivermectin may be a cheap/readily available/effective COVID therapy. 2. Big pharma would not profit from that. It would profit from having its own newly-developed/patent-protected vaccines and therapeutics adopted as the standard. 3. Other big industries (tobacco, energy, chemicals) have lied about various things over the years. 4. Ergo, Big Pharma suppressed an effective cure in order to foist their ineffective/profitable "solutions" on the public. Think about that logic. What's missing? A. Anything suggesting that Ivermectin is actually effective! He saves that for the last sentence, speculating on "how many lives could have been saved" if the Ivermectin cure hadn't been suppressed. Except that it WAS studied, and WAS (unfortunately for all of us) found to be ineffective. Also missing: any indication that there was any conspiracy to suppress evidence that Ivermectin is an effective COVID therapeutic. What happened is that the vast majority of experts said, "there's no evidence that this Ivermectin thing works." And that was true then. And now? There is strong evidence that it doesn't work. Only someone predisposed to find a conspiracy would find anything persuasive about this profoundly stupid article.

My point is this: "industrial policy" is usually the opposite of free market policy. And in a lot of these cases - Tesla in Buffalo, Foxconn in Wisconsin - we see nothing more than the socialization of losses. The government that "invests" (providing state money and incentives) is often left holding the bag. I thought socialism was a bad thing.

I'm sorry, this makes zero sense. Our relations with Saudi Arabia are fine. We sell them lots of military hardware, they sell oil to the world, they largely control OPEC and reduce production when crude prices are low and raise production when crude prices are high. And they are not functioning any differently in the market now than they were under Trump or under Obama or under Bush 43 or under Clinton. Where are you getting this notion of our "lack of relations" with the Saudis? You don't remember the famous Biden fist bump with the Saudi dictator? And the Saudis know which side their bread is buttered on. With rival Iran taking provocative acts again, guess who they'll be cozying up to again. I think you just made this up. It's a weird agglomeration of righty echo chamber memes: Biden energy policy bad. Trump managed Saudi relations better. Inflation is up. Somehow - you don't explain how, since there is no explanation - that means that Biden's perceived lack of Saudi ass kissing is hurting America. O.K.

tl;dr Ivermectin pimp can't give up on Ivermectin. From the cited article: "We may never know how many lives were lost because of the tactics used to suppress ivermectin ..." Actually, we do know: approximately zero. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2801828 Cochrane meta-analysis of 11 eligible trials examining the efficacy of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 published through April 2022 concluded that ivermectin has no beneficial effect for people with COVID-19.1 Since May 2022, an additional 3 large randomized clinical trials including several thousand participants have been published, each reaching a similar conclusion.2-4 Today JAMA publishes a new trial of ivermectin treatment for mild to moderate COVID-19 that addresses the possibility that the existing literature may have missed the efficacy of ivermectin because the previously tested dose (approximately 400 μg/kg daily for 3 days) was insufficient.5 At a higher treatment dose (600 μg/kg daily) and longer treatment duration (6 days), Naggie and colleagues again conclude that ivermectin is not beneficial for the treatment of COVID-19.

This is true - we do need to focus on the power grid. But ... what exactly does this have to do with rising gas and food prices on account of Biden's energy policies? That was what I thought we were talking about, not the national power grid in 2030 ...

https://www.jsonline.com/story/money/business/2023/03/23/what-we-know-about-foxconn-in-wisconsin-and-how-we-got-there/70037738007/ It's a mixed bag. Yes, Foxconn still spends money in Wisconsin. But the bottom line: it is a fraction of what Scott Walker promised. Quite a bit has changed in five years. Employment is a fraction of the initial promise and its unclear what is being manufactured at the site. The facility has changed from a Generation 10.5 to a Generation 6 which normally makes screens for phones, tablets and TVs. But so far, no screens have been made. The incentive package has also changed. It’s been estimated that more than a billion dollars of taxpayer money has gone toward supporting the deal but in 2021, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. approved a much smaller package. The tax credits went down from $2.85 billion to $80 million. The job goal number is also down from 13,000 statewide to 1,454. The capital investment has also gone down from $10 billion to $672.8 million.

I'm not sure what that has to do with Biden's energy policies. You said his energy policies are responsible for the rise in gas and food prices. I provided evidence showing that this is simply not the case, or that it is at most a minimal impact. Your respond by saying that Biden has somehow pissed off the Saudis. Saudi oil production is higher in the first half of 2023 than it was in the first half of 2019. Could I interest you in actually looking at some data?

"Free speech absolutist" not quite so absolute as advertised: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/29/tech/elon-musk-twitter-government-takedown/index.html Musk's Twitter is much more likely to grant a government's takedown request than Jack Dorsey's Twitter was. I understand Musk's objection: is it better that Twitter grant a foreign government's (or dictator's) takedown request, or have Twitter blocked entirely in that country? But still: an awkward position to be in for a self-appointed free speech absolutist.

That's easy: disagree. Gas prices: if Biden's energy policies so restricted supply, we would have expected a continuous rise or at least a steady equilibrium at a much higher price level than what we saw under pre-COVID Trump. (why pre-COVID? Because the early days of COVID caused a huge percentage of the economy to shut down). So: $2.76 per gallon nationwide average in summer 2019; $3.58 per gallon now. Adjusting for overall inflation (almost 20 percent in 4 years overall), that's just about 25 cents more per gallon. Could that 25 cents be explained by diminished U.S. crude output? Well, U.S. crude oil production is basically equal today to what it was at it's pre-COVID peak in Nov. 2019. So I guess you could say it would be even greater if Biden weren't in office, but that ignores the fact that oil exploration/drilling/production goes up when the price goes up. So there's really no evidence for this. Food prices? an even more tenuous connection. Maybe energy costs have a tiny impact here, but the overwhelming impact is labor costs all through the supply chain. You can see this clearly in the areas which are more labor intensive, like restaurants. Not too long ago the $20 burger was a joke (or something you saw only on hotel room service). Now it's common. And that's more of an effect of loose monetary policy combined with fiscal stimulus under Trump and Biden in response to COVID. (Yes, Biden's last stimulus was a bad idea and probably counterproductive.) So ... no real impact of Biden's energy policies on either gas or food prices.

Exactly. Look at what's happened in the last 30 years in the former Soviet bloc countries that redirected their focus away from Moscow and toward the west: the Baltic states, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, the former East Germany. Tremendous growth and prosperity they could only have dreamed of in the Soviet era. Meanwhile: Russia, Belarus: total economic basket cases. There's no comparison. That's what Ukrainians finally took notice of, and that's why losing the Ukraine's Russia orientation became such an insane focus of Putin and his crumbling empire.

That's what I mean! People have expensive tastes. I just got two dozen hot dogs, BOGO, about ten bucks. 2 lbs of ground bison (hey, it's Colorado), 20 bucks. A case of beer. No, not Bud Light, but only because it was piss-water well before it went woke. About 30 bucks. Plenty of food and drink for 6 people. Total 60 bucks. Ten bucks apiece. Oh, I guess some corn on the cob too. Add 6 bucks. And a Trader Joe's $5.99 big ass watermelon. So 11-12 bucks per person. WTF are people buying?

Why Industrial Policy Is Always a Bad Idea, Exhibit 10,000: https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-tesla-buffalo-new-york-solar-plant-1b634b9e?mod=wknd_pos1 New York state paid to build a quarter-mile-long facility with 1.2 million square feet of industrial space, which it now owns and leases to Tesla TSLA -2.54%decrease; red down pointing triangle for $1 a year. It bought $240 million worth of solar-panel manufacturing equipment. Musk had said that by 2020 the Buffalo plant each week would churn out enough solar-panel shingles to cover 1,000 roofs. The Tesla solar-energy unit behind the plan, however, is averaging just 21 installations a week, according to energy analysts at Wood Mackenzie who reviewed utility data. The building houses some factory workers, but also hundreds of lower-paid desk-bound data analysts working on other Tesla business. The suppliers that Cuomo predicted would flock to a modern manufacturing hub never showed up. The only new nearby business is a Tim Horton’s coffee shop. Most of the solar-panel manufacturing equipment bought by the state has been sold at a discount or scrapped. A state comptroller’s audit found just 54 cents of economic benefit for every subsidy dollar spent on the factory, which rose on the site of an old steel mill. External auditors have written down nearly all of New York’s investment. “It was a bad deal,” said state Sen. Sean Ryan, a Democrat who represents Buffalo. “A cautionary tale is you can’t give governors too much power to get on the phone with egotistical billionaires.” Governments are notoriously bad at picking winners and losers. Whether it's Solyndra (a Democrat-driven bad deal), or whether it's Wisconsin's hare-brained Foxconn debacle (a Republican bad deal), these things are usually colossal fails. Remember that the next time a politician comes around promising huge economic benefits through government sponsorship/funding of private enterprise. The market will choose winners and losers, not some politicians looking for votes.

It's a joke. Happens to be true though ... And come on, Hunter isn't entering through the public tour security desk.

And there we have it. On the "how much did you spend on gas and groceries" thread, we had a poster decrying the ever-rising cost of NY Strip. You know how often we had steak for dinner as a kid? Maybe a few times a year at best. Hamburger Helper was the norm. Now we have "the common man can no longer afford lobster mac and cheese every day." (and you did say "at Tops" so that ain't no Whole Foods crab mac and cheese) I think we're doing pretty well if that's what we're griping about... A buck. A buck per box at Walmart. Probably a little shrink-flation there (smaller box?), but still. A buck.

That's why elite colleges like to look at all 3: grade point average (particularly with AP courses), test scores, and extracurricular activities. The kids that can excel in all 3 are pretty much slam dunk successful students in those schools. I am in favor of standardized test use: it correlates well with success in college, particularly in the STEM fields. It levels the playing field given the great disparities in high schools in America (not to mention overseas). Yes, reliance on standardized test scores may, as a practical matter, benefit Asian American students. So be it. One problem with the great public universities (Texas, the UC system): the populations of those states have grown so much that there's simply too much competition among in-state applicants. Add to that: a lot of state universities like to have a certain percentage of out-of-state/international students because they pay full freight, in effect subsidizing the in-state students. The good news: almost every study shows that when you control for other variables (for example, the fact that the elite colleges accept only extreme high achievers), those that attend "lesser" colleges do just as well as those who attend the elites. Am I allowed to say "what a mess?"

Hunter doesn't do "soft drugs" like powder cocaine. Now if they'd found a crack pipe, crystal meth? Then we're talking ...

And indiscriminately bombing civilians: hospitals, schools, apartment buildings. And the guy in Russia is administering radioactive poisons to political opponents both inside and outside of Russia. I'm not one to immediately say "Russian bot" every time there's a pro-Russia comment, but really: there is nothing to distinguish this post from a Russian bot.

?? https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kraft-Original-Mac-N-Cheese-Macaroni-and-Cheese-Dinner-7-25-oz-Box/10295756 $1.00

Maybe he can pledge his FTX stock to Mark Davis in exchange for a stake in the franchise. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/technology/tom-brady-crypto-ftx.html As part of an endorsement agreement Mr. Brady signed in 2021, FTX had paid him $30 million, a deal that consisted almost entirely of FTX stock, three people with knowledge of the contract said. Mr. Brady’s wife at the time, the supermodel Gisele Bündchen, was paid $18 million in FTX stock, one of the people said. Now FTX is bankrupt, and Mr. Bankman-Fried is facing criminal fraud charges. Mr. Brady, 45, and Ms. Bündchen, 42, have been sued by a group of FTX customers seeking compensation from the celebrities who endorsed the exchange. On top of it all, the terms of the deal would have required the former couple, who divorced last year, to pay taxes on at least some of their now worthless FTX stock, two people familiar with the endorsement deal said.

There's just no rhyme or reason to what happens in the elite colleges. I had a kid get into an Ivy, get rejected by a "lesser" Ivy, and waitlisted at places like Boston University - a fine (albeit way too expensive for what it is) college, but hardly on the level of the others. It's a crapshoot. Kids now may apply to 20 or more colleges. We'd be better off if the elite colleges just had some kind of grades/test scores cutoff and then held a lottery to see who gets in. (But that would mean requiring test scores, which is becoming the latest no-no in this crazy world)