Read it.

Think of Taiwan as China’s Ireland. Even the timelines are similar. In the late seventeenth century, just a couple of decades after Oliver Cromwell brutally suppressed the Irish Catholic Confederation, the Qing Empire invaded Taiwan, bringing part of it under colonial rule for the first time. Even after its partial annexation in 1684, the Qing treated the island as a dangerous frontier, notable mainly for its wild “aborigines” and deadly diseases.

Some parts of the island were never conquered; upland areas with difficult terrain were left alone, so long as they did not interrupt the peace of the lowlands. The Qing regarded these areas in much the same way as British India regarded its Northwest Frontier: places of savagery in need of management and occasional punitive expeditions.

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Three of the 10 Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump were up for reelection in Tuesday’s primaries, with one losing his bid to a Trump-backed candidate and the other two appearing to hold leads in their races, which have not yet been called.

Typically such tricks are pulled by people who are almost Democrats and live in almost Democrat districts, and so are warded from retaliation. Few are as stupid as Lynne Chaney.

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The entire global financial system is now essentially a technocommunist black ops money laundering crime scene.

Some people are addicted to cozy mysteries; I’m addicted to conspiracy theories.

Read it.

In a recent interview in New York Times Magazine, energy expert and polymath Vaclav Smil found himself being pressured by his interviewer to acknowledge that climate change was either a catastrophe or not a problem. The famously cantankerous Smil bristled at the framing: “I cannot tell you that we don’t have a problem because we do have a problem. But I cannot tell you it’s the end of the world by next Monday because it is not the end of the world by next Monday. What’s the point of you pressing me to belong to one of these groups?”

Because proglodytes are binary people. You are either with the program or a Denier; you are either good or bad.

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As the virus pandemic upended office life in big Northeast cities, people reconsidered working arrangements and where they lived. Many folks migrated from New York City to South Florida for relaxed health restrictions, a friendly business environment, low crime, and fantastic weather. The influx of new people presents challenges for South Florida, including new property development.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported skyscrapers as high as 500 feet could start popping up across Fort Lauderdale (not just in the downtown district) if a new proposal gets approved that raises the height cap on buildings that get special zoning.

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The normally innocuous workplace comic strip is arguably trying to get itself cancelled after three decades in syndication. But why?

…

Considering the prolonged the death spiral of the newspaper industry as a whole, you might suspect that now would be as good a time as any for Adams to fade into obscurity to enjoy a quiet retirement funded by his Dilbert-generated fortune. Instead, he’s been landing himself as the internet’s villain du jour at a shocking rate.

The Woke have awakened to the fact that Scott Adams is quite possibly not their friend.

Those of us who follow his daily podcast Coffee With Scott Adams already knew that, of course.

Read it.

What goes around, comes around….

First Ukraine grain ship since start of war leaves Odesa (Reuters)

Ukrainian grain tycoon killed in Mykolaiv shelling as Putin threatens ‘lightning speed’ response to interference (CNN) Well, at least he’s only a ‘tycoon’, not an ‘oligarch’.

Vladimir Putin targets US in new Russian navy doctrine, warns of using hypersonic weapons

Europe has lost the energy war

Iran says it will ‘build nuclear warheads’ and turn NY into ‘hellish ruins’ (Jerusalem Post) Too late….

Iran Threatens New York City?

China To Pelosi: You Will ‘Perish’ Over Taiwan  If only that were true….

Europe Hypnotized Into War Economy

UN Chief & Putin In Rare Moment Of Agreement: World Is “One Miscalculation Away” From Nuclear Annihilation

North Korea Preparing 1st Nuclear Test In 5 Years, Blinken Informs UN  Gee, this never happened under Trunp.

EU, UK Fold? Delay Cutting Off Russia From Oil Insurance Market

Remember when Democrat meant somebody in favor of democracy?

Read it.

For many conservatives who for years looked forward to the arrival of William Kristol’s Weekly Standard, expecting to devour cover-to-cover the excellent articles, analysis, and commentary, Kristol’s descent into near-fatal Trump Derangement Syndrome has been distressing, to say the least.

The rabid anti-Trump posture adopted by the Weekly Standard proved to be its undoing (I cancelled my subscription in December, 2016), but the cadre of NeverTrumpers doubled-down on their failure. Some still pretended to be conservatives, wanting to “save” the Republican Party and conservatism from Trump; others, like Kristol, aligned themselves clearly with the left in opposition not only to Trump but to any conservative so misguided and corrupt as to continue to support Trump populism or the Republican Party Trump dominates.

Kristol nowadays calls himself a well-wisher of the Democratic Party despite the “sub-optimal performances of it leaders,” writes a wistful column in the laughable, “no tribal prejudices” Bulwark. The Democratic Party faces challenges: the party needs to defend (urgently!) democracy, moderation, and the rule of law; and the party needs to advance (urgently!) major reforms in our broken or damaged institutions.

Putin Wants to ‘Destroy’ Ukraine, War to Last ‘Long Time’: Exiled Oligarch (Newsweek) It’s all about the ‘oligarchs’.

How the Kremlin Is Forcing Ukrainians to Adopt Russian Life (New York Times)

The rouble is soaring and Putin is stronger than ever – our sanctions have backfired (The Guardian)

Europe Is Faking Solidarity, and Putin Knows It (Washington Post)

‘Shoot Them Down’: CCP-Tied Twitter Account Threatens US Planes, Nancy Pelosi

Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine (CNN)

Kherson

Part III: The Military Situation as it Stands Now

What’s Missing from Mearsheimer’s Analysis of the Ukraine War

Ukraine Situation Report: Russians Cede Bridgehead Into Occupied Kherson

Is Russia Using Its New Advanced Anti-Armor Missile In Ukraine?

How Russia spread a secret web of agents across Ukraine (Reuters)

Xi and Biden exchange warnings on Taiwan (BBC)

Russia attacks Kyiv area for the first time in weeks (Associated Press)

INTELLIGENCE: A Ukrainian Victory In The Shadows

Russia Is Making Heaps of Money From Oil, but There Is a Way to Stop That (N. Y. Times) Yeah, increase U.S. production.

Air Support in a Backpack: The Switchblade

The Ukrainian Verdun

China Warns: Pelosi Trip Marks ‘Invasion’ and Military Has Right to Fire on Her Plane We should be so lucky.

Read it.

There’s a weightlifting joke made famous by eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman: “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-*ss weights.”

I thought of that while reading Yoram Hazony’s “Escaping Liberal Democracy,” which is full of amateur gym-bro wisdom about how America should get back in shape. But he seems to have skipped the hard work of lifting (and reading) the most important heavy books. Now, I don’t mean to suggest that one has to be an intellectual to see how our country has grown increasingly decrepit; nor am I defending credentialism. One should, however, at least be familiar with the key historical developments and major arguments about the founding and its critics before presuming to tell Americans how we should regain our political vigor.

If I didn’t already live in the Great Red State of Texas, I’d think about moving.

Read it.

Rather an unusual story for a publication called WIRED.

Although the European bison belongs to the same family as the domestic cow, you’d never mistake one for the other. Weighing in at up to a tonne, the bison is one beefy bovine. It has its own mannerisms, too: It scratches against tree trunks, rolls on the ground to take dust baths, and wraps its tongue around almost any vegetation—grass, leaves, branches—to feed.

These traits make the bison a dominating force on its surroundings. It can reshape ecosystems, refurbishing existing habitats and laying foundations for new ones. One rewilding project in Kent hopes to harness the bison’s natural engineering abilities in order to better manage the local woodland and increase its biodiversity, by bringing the herbivorous megafauna to the UK for the first time in thousands of years (and possibly ever).

I love the concept of “Iron Age pigs”.

His name isn’t Bob, it’s Dick.

Read it.

A grand research project created our origin myth that early human societies were all egalitarian, mobile and small-scale

Read it.

Marx’s idea that societies were naturally egalitarian and communal before farming is widely influential and quite wrong

The No Apologies Tour.

Freeberg nails it.

Something weird is going on with Democrats and ice cream.

I’m guessing someone has made a discovery somewhere, that if you want to convince the hoi polloi that you’re one of them, you should make it known you like ice cream because of course all the riff raff like ice cream. Someone forgot to include in their little research project or whatever, that the humble classes like ice cream because everybody likes ice cream — it doesn’t distinguish you in any way. It doesn’t make you look like a normal when you go around bragging about how much you like ice cream.

Outrage as Russian missiles strike Odesa port one day after grain export deal agreed (CNN)

‘He simply cannot be trusted:’ World leaders slam Putin’s attack on Odesa following sea corridor deal (CNBC)

The Desperate Lives Inside Ukraine’s “Dead Cities” (New Yorker)

Biden Approves 16th Weapons Transfer To Ukraine – Total Security Aid Now Over $8BN

LEADERSHIP: Updating Army Officer Training

Russia Boasts It’s Already Taken Out 4 US-Supplied Long Range Rocket Systems

Amusing Tales Of A Coal Bottleneck In Germany & The Failure To Plan

Russia Belatedly Admits Strike On Odessa Port – Says Warship With US Missiles “Destroyed”

Ex-CIA Ray McGovern: Media Miss Major Moves On Russia-Ukraine

US Fighter Jets Now Under Consideration For Ukraine: Air Force Chief

Biden administration preps Taiwan for Chinese attack after Ukraine invasion

Escalation is Inevitable

Russian missiles strike Odessa port day after grain deal, Ukraine says

Read it.

You can tell a bit about someone based on their preconceptions about Peter Thiel. Whether the reflexive response to the name is “malign far-Right plutocrat”, “philanthropic saviour of all that is good” or “who?” is a reasonably reliable guide to where that person otherwise sits in the great online psychodrama we now call “the culture wars”.

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

“Lucretia” joins in the fun of my absence with a dunk on the latest instance of soi-disant conservatives pining for the “strange new respect” award from liberals for abandoning a conservative position. My biography of M. Stanton Evans recounts that Stan disliked George Will starting back in the 1970s because “George is always coming up with ‘conservative’ reasons to do some liberal thing.” As usual, Stan was ahead of his time. In recent years this defect has become a pandemic on the right. And it doesn’t even bother to mask itself any more! My train ride from London to Edinburgh today prompts me to propose an American conservative variation of the “no true Scotsman” fallacy, which in this case comes out as the “no true French-man” (as in David French-man) fallacy, which manifests itself in the seemingly endless series of “The Conservative Case for” some kind of conservative defeat.

Former Chinese state media editor suggests Nancy Pelosi be ‘restrained,’ ‘punished’ by CCP for visiting Taiwan

Russia’s Ukraine war effort running ‘out of steam’ as Putin’s ability to spy in Europe cut in half, MI6 chief says (CNN)

British intelligence retools to meet the growing challenge of China

AP Highlights ‘Ukraine’s History Of Rampant Corruption’ After US Lawmaker Slams Zelensky

Vladimir Putin’s fascist fetish

IEA Chief: Europe Must Cut Gas Usage 20% To Survive Winter  Take that, nose!

Still Cute? Dystopian Robot Dogs Now Sporting Guns And Russian Insignia

German Government Bails Out Uniper From Energy Crisis

French Nuclear Outages Risk Making Europe’s Gas Crisis Worse

4 questions the US and NATO need to ask, and answer, about their Ukraine strategy

Russia and Ukraine agree to release blockaded grain exports

Russia tests U.S. air defenses in midst of Ukraine war

Read it.

Last night Congressman and Republican candidate for Governor of New York Lee Zeldin was on stage, giving a speech at a campaign stop in upstate New York, when a man climbed onto the stage and attacked Zeldin with some kind of bladed weapon. Zeldin defended himself and bystanders wrestled the attacker to the ground. Zeldin was unhurt and later resumed his speech.

The assailant was identified as 43-year-old David Jakubonis. Not much is known about Jakubonis at this point. He has been described as an Iraq war veteran, but that may be only because of the hat he was wearing. It seems reasonable to assume that he is a Democrat, although he might just be a nut, and some observers said he looked as though he could be intoxicated.

UPDATE: Why New York Police Released the Man Who Tried To Stab Jewish Republican

Giving A-10 Warthogs To Ukraine Isn’t Off The Table

Nord Stream 1 resumes gas flows from Russia to Europe after fears of complete cutoff (CNBC)

US officials recovered possible Fabergé egg from Russian oligarch’s seized yacht (CNN) Ooooo, what else can we steal?

US Destroyer Enters China-Claimed Waters For 3rd Time In A Week Ahead Of Pelosi Taiwan Trip

William Burns, CIA chief, says China plans Taiwan takeover in next few years

‘A New World Order Is Coming’ – Putin Blasts “Globalist” Ideology As “Totalitarian”

Pelosi to Blinken: Label Russia as terrorist state, or else Congress will (Politico)

Russia Plans ‘Annexation Votes’ For Captured Ukraine Territories By Mid-September: Report

US warns losing access to Taiwanese chips could break the economy

US “Started” The Ukraine Crisis, China Says, In Fiercest Official Criticism Yet  Once Russia ceased being Communist, NATO ought to have been dissolved.

British intelligence retools for spying on China

The war for warmth

Read it.

In order to better understand how people will interact with mobile robots in the wild, we need to take them out of the lab and deploy them in the real world. But this isn’t easy to do.

Roboticists tend to develop robots under the assumption that they’ll know exactly where their robots are at any given time—clearly that’s an important capability if the robot’s job is to usefully move between specific locations. But that ability to localize generally requires the robot to have powerful sensors and a map of its environment. There are ways to wriggle out of some of these requirements: If you don’t have a map, there are methods that build a map and localize at the same time, and if you don’t have a good range sensor, visual navigation methods use just a regular RGB camera, which most robots would have anyway. Unfortunately, these alternatives to traditional localization-based navigation are either computationally expensive, not very robust, or both.

The problem with engineers is that they think that the world is full of people like them, i.e. intelligent and honest.

The first thing that will happen when they ‘deploy their robot in the real world’ is that some crook from the ‘hood will throw it in the back of a van and you’ll never see it–or its contents–again (except as small parts sold out of the back of a bodega).

Read it.

The goals of the company are quite ambitious—clean, continuous energy for 1 cent per kilowatt-hour, and the ability to manufacture enough power plants to satisfy the current electrical demand of earth in a ten year period.

If both things happen, it will transform the world. Abundant, clean, and radically inexpensive energy will elevate the quality of life for all of us—think about how much the cost of energy factors into what we do and use. Also, electricity at this price will allow us to do things like efficiently capture carbon (so although we’ll still rely on gasoline for awhile, it’ll be ok).

Read it.

In 1941, Henry Ford built a car out of plastic from hemp and other plant material that ran on hemp fuel. Why aren’t we driving it today? asks Return to Now.

Ford’s 1941 bioplastic Model T was made of hemp, flax, wheat, and spruce pulp, which made the car lighter than fiberglass and ten times tougher than steel, wrote the New York Times on February 2, 1941. The car ran on ethanol made from hemp or other agricultural waste. Ford’s experimental model was deemed a step toward the realization of his dream to “grow automobiles from soil,” wrote Popular Mechanics in their December 1941 issue and reduce greenhouse gases—already known to occur by then.

China threatens ‘strong measures’ if Pelosi visits Taiwan (Associated Press)

New UK Hub To Develop Anti-Drone Laser Weapons As Ukraine War Fuels Demand

Intelligence Agencies Say Russia Election Threat Persists Amid Ukraine War (N.Y. Times) I can’t say that Putin’s choice for U.S. President wouldn’t be preferable to that of the New York Times.

E.U. urges gas rationing ahead of ‘likely’ cutoff by Russia  (Washington Post)

Putin Says Russia Will Honor Gas Commitment But Flows Will Drop As Much As 20% Of Capacity

Russia’s goals in Ukraine now include territory outside the Donbas, Lavrov says

China Spent 72% More On Russian Oil In June As Moscow Remains Top Chinese Supplier; Saudi Volumes Tumble

Ukraine shows need for NATO ‘magazine depth’: Raytheon exec

Tanker Companies Race To Ship Russian Oil Ahead Of New Sanctions

Read it.

Denmark is to start demolishing parts of migrant ghettos and moving people elsewhere in a bid to put an end to ‘parallel societies’ that have led to high crime and social dislocation.

How About: Returning them to where they came from?

(Naw….)

Read it.

I mentioned in a previous posting that most companies have very conservative values because the liberal companies go bankrupt fairly quickly. You can’t run a company on the basis of your social justice values – your employees will walk all over you. In theory, it is a great idea to be “nice” to your employees and grant them all sorts of benefits and perks, but the biggest pushback you will get is not from the shareholders or management, but from the employees themselves. People want strong leadership and being “nice” is seen as being weak.

This from a bona-fide Leftist.

Ukraine Situation Report: Russia Shops For Armed Drones At Iranian Base

Russian forces ‘preparing new offensive’ – as it happened (The Guardian) Now that the Russians are winning, coverage is strangely light.

This Proxy War Has No Exit Strategy

Germany’s Running Out Of Energy: Wind Turbine Construction Stalls, Firewood Becoming Scarce!

Top Energy Regulator Warns Germany Won’t Survive Winter Without Russian NatGas  Entirely self-inflicted.