Russia is trying to Prove a Point – I guess.
(H/T Claudio – Strategypage) The heavy losses Russia has suffered in Ukraine have had repercussions back home. Russia has lost over half a million men dead or disabled. These losses among military-age men affect recruiting for other emergency services like the State Fire Service and the paramilitary Internal Troops Force, which augments local police and guards for key installations countrywide. These two organizations have a peacetime strength of over 400,000 personnel. Russia also constantly needs new workers to replace retiring workers to keep its economy going. In peacetime, the Russian military is supposed to have a million active-duty troops and two million reservists. The reality is different, with fewer than 800,000 active duty troops and about a million reservists, almost all of whom are conscripts whose enlistments recently expired. Poor record keeping and bureaucratic bumbling account for the lower numbers.
Russia needed workers to keep its economy going, and before the war, the workforce comprised about 70 million men and women. Invading Ukraine caused a sharp drop in available workers, and after two years of war, there was a labor shortage of nearly three million personnel.
Pepsi
Pepsi was first invented in 1893 as “Brad’s Drink” by Caleb Bradham, who sold the drink at his drugstore in New Bern, North Carolina. It was renamed Pepsi-Cola in 1898, “Pepsi” because it was advertised to relieve dyspepsia (indigestion), and “Cola” refers to the cola flavor. Some have also suggested that “Pepsi” may have referred to the drink aiding digestion like the digestive enzyme pepsin. Still, pepsin itself was never used as an ingredient in Pepsi-Cola.
The original recipe also included sugar and vanilla. Bradham sought to create an appealing fountain drink that would aid digestion and boost energy.
In 1903, Bradham moved the bottling of Pepsi from his drugstore to a rented warehouse, and the Pepsi-Cola company was formed on June 16th. That year, Bradham sold 7,968 gallons of syrup. Pepsi was sold in six-ounce bottles the following year, and sales increased to 19,848 gallons.
A Whale of a Graveyard
Anna Von Boetticher swims beneath Greenland’s nearly one-meter-thick ice. She lies silently beneath a thousands-year-old ancient whale graveyard. This is an award-winning photo by Alex Dawson.
Bullet Points:
** Housekeeping – MRSLL makes another appearance on VM (right). I’m out and about, and while I would like to keep up with blogging, I don’t know precisely what my schedule will be for the next two weeks. I assembled a costume for Halloween and plan to go trick-or-treating with grandkids, but I don’t know which squadron of grandchildren it will be. One thing is sure. They are effective candy harvesters.
** Elmer Fudd – what an embarrassment.
** Getting a charge out of Tesla.
** Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution: “Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the Citizens of the United States.”
** Undercover with Police Squad.
** “Karl Marx was the foremost hater and most incessant whiner in the history of Western Civilization. He was a spoiled, overeducated brat who never grew up; he grew shrill as he grew older. His lifelong hatred and whining have led to the deaths (so far) of perhaps a hundred million people, depending on how many people perished under Mao’s tyranny. We will probably never know.”
** Motorcycle riding with EdB.
** CDRSAL laments the size of the US Navy. What is your opinion? Too big, too small, or just right?
WW2 End
Jets were in the sky, as were rocket-powered aircraft. Piston-engine aircraft were just about as good as they would ever get. Nazi vengeance weapons were flying autonomously. Five years previously… in 1940 …
*** *** ***
The Justice Climate Fund
Justice is good…right? “Although there isn’t much public information about the Justice Climate Fund, it appears to have been an overnight success. After gaining nonprofit status in August 2023, the organization was awarded $940 million by the Biden administration just eight months later in connection with the White House’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which aims to provide financial assistance to reduce carbon emissions and reduce pollution.
The Justice Climate Fund is not the only nonprofit newcomer suddenly made rich by the GGRF. Within a month of gaining nonprofit status from the IRS, Power Forward Communities, which reported 2023 revenues of $100, was awarded $2 billion.
The Environmental Protection Agency made the awards new to major grantmaking. The agency acknowledges it has never handed out such gigantic sums of money, and its inspector general told Congress last month it marked a “fantastically complex” and “unusual” setup that his small staff would be hard-pressed to follow.
Critics note that many of the awardees are run by politically connected figures.
The biggest award winner, announced in April, was the Climate United Fund, slated to receive $6.97 billion.
The fund’s directors include prominent Democrats, such as the former California State Treasurer Phil Angelides.
After publishing this article, Climate United told RCI that Anthony Foxx, who served as Transportation Secretary in the Obama administration, was “listed as a board member for our [grant] application but did not commit to serving post-award.”
A press release on the group’s website named Foxx a member of its “Inaugural Board of Directors.”
Identify the Vehicle
1
2
3
Identify the Feature Film/Series
A
B
C
Two photos to aid your identification
Parting Shot
LL, the younger years
There’s a lot of truth in this cartoon.
My brother, Jim, was 18 months younger than me. He died in an auto accident just before Christmas 1984, leaving behind a young wife, a 2 1/2-year-old boy, and an infant baby girl.
End
State election here this weekend and the incumbent Labour Party (left wing) is expected to loose big time.
Premier is promising mega dollars for all sorts of “free” things for schools etc but too many people are asking how will he pay for it.
The one good thing here is no one will doubt the results. Paper ballots in pen with photo i.d. to vote. Counted that night. My wife has worked at previous elections and all ballots are double checked. The papers are kept for a year in case there are any challenges, longer if there is a challenge.
Real elections are counted right away with all the sides watching the count, those that have the count spread out and/or will not allow observers are done like that to cheat.
Arizona (state executive leadership are leftists) anticipates that it will take 7-10 days to count the ballots. If that answers your question RCC.
Google says Arizona just over 7 million vs 5 million here. With my state being almost 6 times the size. So very remote in some places. Votes still counted by second day.
It seems to be very obvious that there is cheating.
The New York Times (13SEP2024, byline Nick Corasaniti) says:
“For the second straight presidential election, it is becoming increasingly likely that there will be no clear and immediate winner on election night and that early returns could give a false impression of who will ultimately prevail. […] If a winner is not declared on election night, it will not necessarily point to failures in the process. More likely, it will be a result of the intense security measures required for counting mail-in ballots. […] In 2020, the prolonged tabulation of ballots after election night was falsely seized on by Mr. Trump as evidence that the election was rigged….”
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“Control the narrative” might as well be Alinsky’s 14th rule. And to use Big Mike’s husband’s phrase, Make no mistake, The Gray Lady, America’s newspaper of record, is owned and controlled by exactly the same kind of people as Saul Alinsky. Corasaniti’s piece was battlespace prep.
ITT
#2
🤔
cybertruck’s German grand pa?
Juan
Identify the Vehicle:
1. T-20 Komsomolets armored tractor
2. M3 Scout Car
3. Type 89 I-Go medium tank
Identify the Feature Film/Series:
A. Star Trek Into Darkness
B. The Twilight Zone (original), episode ‘Nick of Time’
C. Ghost in the Shell
Well done as usual, Surly.
1. T-20 Komsomolets armored tractor
Fair enough, but we need a BT-42.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd091kJitoU
Why are Japanese nerds excited about this? And why is a girl wearing a sauna cap while playing a kantele?
Girls und Panzer fans. Continuation High School are the “Finns” in the world of GuP.
No Navy and no Wall but 10 bazillion bucks for the Justice Climate Fund & Power Fwd Communities & Climate United Fund……..what the HELL are they smoking in the White House and why aren’t they sharing it??????????????
I’m sure that Hunter Biden could push some of their smoke your way (10% to the Big Guy).
“Justice Climate Fund” sounds much better than “Democratic Party Member’s Slush Fund”.
Graft in the billions! Wow is America a great place or what???
That’s where the $36 trillion in debt went.
[Warning, rhetorical rant-level spout-age ahead…and I only had one mug of coffee. This is me “cutting back”.]
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“Justice Climate Fund” – What the hay?!?! Ratafratafraliosis (aka “Grrrrr”) [insert angry red-faced emoji here]
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Since when does the Federal government have any right to use OUR confiscated “revenues” to push this asinine Unicorn garbage by “giving it” to private “non-profits”? (‘non-profit” my a$$) The DC Inhabitants are so transparently corrupt it’s mind-boggling. $940 million…for what exactly? To do what? This!: Kickbacks, payoffs, and to make their donor friends wealthy. And let’s not forget the “$27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which aims to provide financial assistance to reduce carbon emissions and reduce pollution.” Uh huh…sure….”fund”…from OUR money!…which is nothing more than galactic-sized mafia style thievery to park forever Adult Pinwheels on publicly owned land while paying their pals out the backdoor, forever ruining the viewscape while wrecking the environment that they simultaneously state they care about. The same “fund” also ruins 100’s of thousands of acres with moronic solar panels that require daily fiddling to keep working. Unreal!
—
Heard after PDJT (who The Straw-filled Dem Puppet has called “Hilter” and “Fascist”…POS) worked the fryer the other day (a massively brilliant move in every possible way) that Fauxahontas and Bob Casey “demanded to know McDonald’s pricing structure”, among other “you work for us” deranged tortured egomaniac self importance. Hopefully Mickey-D’s told them what very high cliff they could jump off knowing people like Warren are more stupid than the average flyover citizen and deserve zero consideration.
—
Incidentally, (not that this isn’t already known, just saying it out loud), Harris is a distraction which is why she is so bad…the Uniparty Scumrunners DON”T CARE…they have a sinister plan working (ie. they will make EVEN MORE attempts to assassinate Trump, pre or post election). Harris isn’t running for President, she’s the bait-n-switch empty suit seat warmer…and it shows.
—
Friggin’ treasonous bums. Time For A Reset ™
–
(now I’ve burned off a few brain cells wasting my time on idiots and morons in office who could operate a Rumba, time for more coffee)
X2 PaulM
That was me pulling a Jesus “table turnover on the grifters in the Temple” move, albeit his was righteous anger therefore without sin. Me? Prefer to say it out loud – even if obvious to the aware folks paying attention…so it wasn’t for them but the stopping in straggler who is more concerned with the purposeful inflationary result (eg. $65 worth of food for $112…or more). Can these dufuses make any more of a mess than they already have? Yup….because they operate with a tone-deafness that exceeds all rational space and time. Talk about a cancer on society (just ask those in NC still struggling, and even worse after the “We’re from the government and we’re here to ‘screw things up even worse’…err…help”. Massively galactic incompetence at work y those who have no clue of their astounding ineptitude.
(See…should have refrained from the double-shot mocha latte’ with soy milk and a lemon twist…really gets the “I’m offended” estrogen blood levels going…proving ‘the they’ are spiking everything with female hormones to keep a lid on us alpha-types. My coarse commentary must be a break-thru anomaly.)
Ps. My “couldn’t operate a Rumba” points to being governed by the dumbest of the dumb (not all but far too many) and amateurs with the galling part being people keep electing these types to office…so “our” fault.
Navy size: Bigger. Much bigger.
*
15CVN, so we can have 5 at sea 24/7/365. 20 carrier air wings (real, modernized 1980s style ones, not the weak
sauce current ones) so that we can rotate them, and there will be replacements available in wartime.
*
At least:
90 frigates
90 destroyers
45 cruisers
100 SSN / SSGN
^^10 full missile loadouts for each ship^^
*
We’d need tons of other stuff too, not least really plentiful log / URG vessels
and amphibs, but that’s a fighting core, anyway.
*
Where would we ever get the money? Raffle off tickets to legally kill Congressmen
and high-level bureaucrats. We could buy anything imaginable and pay off the
debt with those kind of proceeds.
*
– Kle.
You might be onto something – pay per view gladiatorial games between democrat and selected Republican legislators. It could fund the needed fleet expansion.
Russia also constantly needs new workers to replace retiring workers to keep its economy going.
We have a few million Biden-Harris imports we could give him.
> Navy size
.
Last simulation of US Navy I saw, in a youtube capture of a videogame no less, showed carriers shot at by land-based Scud missiles not just combat ineffective (fighting fires and plugging holes) but actually sunk. This was despite American “air superiority” aka carriers had all their manned fighter airplanes in the sky but fighters couldn’t engage the horizontal rain of cheap missiles.
.
Looking back to the Cuban missile crisis, I think there are submarines and there are targets. I think blue water surface ships are a liability for everything except rescue.
The videogame does not seem to be predicting the results in the Red Sea very well.
*
Subs are very useful, but surface ships and carriers also have their uses. Not every war
is WW III, and a CVBG can generate a lot of firepower far from home with little lead time.
There are also useful things that subs are just terrible at – piracy patrol, for example, or
merchant escort.
*
As for the PRC launching hundreds or thousands of ballistic missiles in the direction of US
forces / bases / population: upon a mass ballistic missile launch, we can really only respond
with our full strategic nuclear capability. ASBMs are indistinguishable from nukes until they
go off. If we had a President or functional government, that would have been made clear
to the PRC and reiterated regularly.
*
– Kle.