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It might be too late for Liz Cheney to change her ways. She is trailing her Republican opponent, Harriet Hagerman, by 22 points in the Wyoming Republican primary.

Liz is encouraging Democrats in Wyoming to vote for her in the primary. That may not be enough to help her hold onto her seat in the House. Registered Republicans make up 71% of registered voters in Wyoming compared to 15% registered as Democrats.

Read it.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that there was an ‘arrow industry’.

I’ll bet you didn’t know what ‘disrupting the arrow industry’ even means. (Does it turn into a bolt of plasma as it comes off the bow?)

Read it

DC-based and international consulting firms are seeing a sharp increase in clients seeking briefings on war risks between China and Taiwan, following US defense and intelligence leaders spotlighting the potential for conflict amid the backdrop of the Ukraine war.

A fresh report in Financial Times describes that these firms and think tanks have observed a huge uptick in company executives seeking information that would help them gauge risk and exposure in the scenario of a Chinese invasion of the democratic-run island. The general atmosphere of unpreparedness during the late February Russian invasion of Ukraine is fueling this in large part.

Sarah Hoyt. Highly recommended.

For some reason, the left really wants to force both sexes to act like the worst examples of the other sex. To a great extent, they’re succeeding.

Read it.

Basic economics says that companies can only set prices at a level where the current supply will meet demand. Moreover, looking at prices in a vacuum is also very misleading because it doesn’t account for changes in the firm’s input or operating costs.

As Milton Friedman once stated, corporations don’t cause inflation; governments create inflation by printing money. There was no better example of this than the massive Government interventions in 2020 and 2021 that sent subsequent rounds of checks to households (creating demand) when an economic shutdown constrained supply due to the pandemic.

ZMan’s weekly podcast. Highly recommended.

Arguably, one of the most important political concepts to come out of the 20th century was James Burnham’s theory of managerialism. It is important mostly because it is a set of accurate observations that allow for a further understanding of what is happening in Western societies since the Second World War. Once you understand that our society is organized like a corporation, with senior management and a large layer of middle-management, things make much more sense.

The trouble is most people do not want to see this. Instead, they indulge in reductionist theories about secret cabals manipulating the system. Others pretend that the system is what is advertised and you just have to vote harder. Still others insist we have drifted into something randomly called socialist, Marxist or communist, not because the system possesses these qualities, but because those words are epithets. Despite being incredibly useful, the concept is hardly used.

How Yellen plans to deplete Putin’s war funds (Politico)

Russia, Ukraine Reach Breakthrough Over Blocked Grain Exports: UN Chief

Germany To Halt Russian Coal Imports Next Month

Lithuania To Allow Rail Transit Of Russian Goods After EU Reaches Compromise On Kaliningrad

Officials Reveal Haphazard, Chaotic Way Western Arms Are Being Distributed In Ukraine

Stockpile concerns rising in Europe amid efforts to help Ukraine: Dutch DefMin

Russia Hails “Victory Of Our Diplomacy” In Wake Of EU’s Kaliningrad Decision

Steve Sailer looks at Matt Continetti’s new book.

William F. Buckley, founder of National Review, is the central figure in The Right, showing up on 107 pages according to the index. I didn’t see too much in the book that’s new about that legendary personality, so here’s a story about WFB that I heard only recently (and only from one source, but a reasonably reliable one): WFB, who had won 13 percent of the vote in an entertaining Conservative Party run for mayor of New York City in 1965, intensely wanted to run for president in 1968. If Jack Kennedy could be president at age 43, why not him? He was surprised and frustrated to find that his own inner circle didn’t take him seriously as presidential timber.

Buckley’s popularity shared at least one common characteristic with Trump’s: He was entertaining.

… when a friend asked press baron Rupert Murdoch why he funded The Weekly Standard, which was edited by Continetti’s father-in-law William Kristol (15 references in the index), even though Murdoch doesn’t seem to care that much about Israel one way or another, the wily Australian magnate replied that when you are a foreigner trying to make it in the America media business, you don’t need all the Jews in New York on your side, but you do need some of them.

Read it.

Populism: When the wrong person or cause wins a free election, like Brexit or Trump.

Racism: Any kind of resistance, conscious or unconscious, to the political program of the left.

Democracy: Any institutional design or voting system that enables the left to get what it wants.

Updated version: “Our” democracy—the version of “democracy as the left defines it.”

“Threat to democracy”: When Republicans win an election.

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Business press articles on the widely experienced shortage of workers in the United States often identify as part of the problem that the current “labor participation rate” (1) is unusually low. The articles generally offer up several theories on why so many people are not participating in the labor market. Those theories include 1) people still living off government pandemic checks, 2) people unwilling to commit to a job while the school schedules for their children continue to be unreliable, 3) laziness of the youngest generation, and 4) older people who were prematurely retired during the pandemic and choose to stay retired. Businesses lament the difficulties in finding and attracting employees, and complain how the worker shortage negatively affects their business activities.

But, have businesses considered the possibility that they could be contributing to the problem themselves? Are businesses scaring off potential employees with “woke” policies and controversial political messaging? I’m not sure I can muster much sympathy for the “woe is me” businesses lamenting their inability to find workers while the businesses push “woke” policies and controversial political positions.

I am a premature retiree, though my premature retirement slightly preceded the pandemic. I sometimes miss aspects of working, and so occasionally look at reentering the paid labor market. But when I do look, I see all the focus prospective employers put on non-core issues such as promoting sexual deviancy and related bullying (illustrated with widespread use of rainbow flags), promoting “anti-racist” racism, opposing formation of stable families, promoting the killing of employees’ babies, hating on many aspects of Western Civilization and on the foundational values of America, and other topics from the current “woke” agenda. From that I conclude that the company probably doesn’t want me, and that if I were to go to work there I would be uncomfortable and the company would be working actively to make me uncomfortable.

Germany braces for ‘nightmare’ of Russia turning off gas for good (The Guardian)

Canada joins UK in sanctioning Russian primate

Exit, Pursued by a Bear: Europes Coming Gas Shortages Analyzed

Ukrainian Forces Bear Some Blame For Civilian Deaths In Nursing Home Attack: UN Report

Majority Of Europeans Unwilling To ‘Pay The Price’ To Defend ‘Democracy’ In Ukraine

Russia Controls Area The Size Of Mississippi In Ukraine Despite US Pledge Of $54BN

Putin Signs Decree Offering Citizenship To All Ukrainians

Russia suffers ‘wild shell hunger’ as Ukraine hits arms depots with long-range Western rockets

EU Readying 7th Round Of Anti-Russia Sanctions, Even As Oil Price-Cap Likely Shelved  ‘Russia is still fighting!’ ‘We’ll show them! Shave another layer off of our nose!’

I hate it when that happens.

Works for me.

Read it.

The man whose posting on social media warned authorities that agent provocateurs from Antifa and Black Lives Matter would be at the U.S. Capitol dressed as Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, is a self-described government informant tied to former deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.

Tell the truth: We’ve all wanted to do that.

Read it.

This ought to come as no surprise. Intelligence, if not entirely hereditary, has a large hereditary component. In these degenerate modern times, when even people who don’t have the smarts to make it in college nevertheless get admitted and funded (with YOUR tax dollars), the children of people with advanced degrees have no trouble getting advanced degrees themselves, unless they are total screw-ups (which many are). In the Good Old Days, being a professor didn’t pay all that much, so their kids sometimes had to get a Real Job. But not any more.

Read it.

An article featured in British newspaper The Guardian forecasts a world in which it is commonplace for young adults and would-be parents to opt toward raising “digital babies” over having real children of their own. Powered by virtual reality and artificial intelligence, these “programmable and highly realistic children” would simulate play, emotional feedback, and the tactile feel of caring for offspring.

Cute, right?

I propose that they all bear the surname ‘Tamagochi’.

Actually, this isn’t a bad idea; there are a lot of people that I wouldn’t want to see actually reproduce, so this ‘digital baby’ might serve as a substitute for people whose offspring we’d really not want in our gene pool.

Read it.

In the past 20 years—and particularly the last 10 to 15—the average age of actors appearing toward the top of the bill in film and TV projects has risen significantly. Whereas the star, or the top two or three stars, of the typical movie or TV series released in the closing decades of the 20th century was typically in their late 30s—several years older than the median age of the United States population at the time—today’s average actor age has reached the mid-40s and is steadily climbing toward 50. Actors who became fixtures on big screens and small in previous decades haven’t given way to new blood as quickly as was once customary. As a result, Hollywood’s leading men and women of today bear a strong resemblance to the leading men and women from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s after a trip to the beach from Old—except, of course, for the fact that actors like Cruise (who’ll turn 60 next week) don’t always look their age. The graying of actors—the ones with their natural hair colors, at least—appears to be the product of a confluence of factors that reflect the fracturing of culture in the post-monoculture age, the industry’s gravitation toward franchises and sequels, shifts in audience demographics, efforts to promote more inclusive casting, and a growing range of options for maintaining a more youthful appearance.

Ukraine war to shift to Donetsk after fall of Luhansk; Russia claims major victory (Reuters)

Ukrainian forces withdraw from Lysychansk, their last holdout in key region (CNN)

The last city in Luhansk has fallen to Russia. What does that mean for Ukraine? (NPR)

The G-7 is considering a price cap on Russian oil. But energy analysts think it’s impossible (CNBC)

Can the G7 proposal for a cap on Russian oil prices work?  (Al Jezeera) No.

SURFACE  FORCES : Ukraine Rebuilds

Putin Says Western Sanctions Speeding Up Russia-Belarus Unification

Are US Weapons Supplied To Ukraine Ending Up On DarkNet Marketplaces?

Bulgaria Expels 70 Russian Diplomats As Kremlin Says Kiev Must Accept ‘All Conditions’ To End War

Blocked Persons and Letters of Marque

Read it.

Blasts kill 3 in Russian border city, Ukraine hits base in the south (Reuters)

Deep in the eastern Ukrainian forest, this group of volunteers waits as Russia’s military creeps closer (CNN)

Russia Asserts Full Control Over Luhansk Region With Fall Of Lysychansk

Kremlin Says 4 Dead After “Deliberate” Ukrainian Missile Attack On Russian Border City

US Funding Software For Russians To Access Banned Websites

Read it.

Los Angeles and Mumbai, India, share many superlatives as pinnacles of cinema, fashion, and traffic congestion. But another similarity lurks in the shadows, most often seen at night walking silently on four paws.

These metropolises are the world’s only megacities of 10 million-plus where large felines—mountain lions in one, leopards in the other—thrive by breeding, hunting and maintaining territory within urban boundaries.

Long-term studies in both cities have examined how the big cats prowl through their urban jungles, and how people can best live alongside them—lessons that may be applicable to more places in coming decades.

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58 year old Chew Wei Lian, who recently tried the beer, told Bloomberg: “I seriously couldn’t tell this was made of toilet water. I don’t mind having it if it was in the fridge. I mean, it tastes just like beer, and I like beer.”

Coincidence? I think not.

Read it.

Here’s what struck me: “The Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb….” Nothing says ‘Dutch’ like the name ‘Ahmed Aboutaleb’.

Read it.

In the face of rampant violence by huge gangs of heavily armed bandits, one state governor has ordered the mass issuance of gun permits to citizens desperate for a chance to protect themselves.

For over a decade, Nigerians living in the country’s northwestern states have endured an endless plague of looting, kidnapping and murder at the hands of gangs and ethnic militias, which Nigerians call bandits. The violence has taken its steepest toll on the states of Zamfara and Kaduna.

Russia To Give Belarus Nuclear-Capable Iskander-M Missiles

Russia in historic foreign debt default, reports suggest (BBC)

US to announce purchase of medium- to long-range surface-to-air missile defense system for Ukraine (CNN)

John Mearsheimer’s Ukraine Crystal Ball

Russia Defaults on Foreign Debt for First Time Since 1918

Russia ‘Defaults On Foreign Debt’ For First Time Since Bolshevik Revolution Amid Western Sanctions

Read it.

The war in Ukraine has upset the global food market, and the surprising reason is not that Ukrainian wheat isn’t being harvested, but rather that it can’t leave the country. With Russia blockading sea ports, the only way out for Ukrainian grain is by train. And this exposes the long-hidden patchwork of railway tracks and train standards: trains can’t simply cross the border from Ukraine to Poland on their way to a sea port because the tracks don’t match.

Even beyond the obvious issues of connecting differently sized physical railway tracks — the track gauge — there are different signaling systems, different voltages for electrical trains, different loading and structural gauges, and so on. In Europe today, the political history of the past few hundred years can still be traced back using its railroads, with some parts of the European Union still on 1,520 mm Soviet-standard gauge, rather than the 1,435 mm Standard Gauge, which is also known as Stephenson Gauge, European Gauge, etc.

Tyler Cowen.

“Once-and-for-allism” occurs when people decide that they wish to stop worrying about an issue at the margin. They might either dismiss the issue, or they might blow up its importance but regard the issue as hopeless and undeserving of further consideration. Either way, they seek to avoid the hovering sense of “I’ve still got to devote time and energy to figuring this out.” They prefer “I am now done with this issue, once and for all!” Thus the name of the syndrome.

I see once-and-for-allism with so many issues, but one recent example would be the forthcoming path of Covid and Long Covid. Most people just don’t want to think about it any more, and so they settle on something (“it’s just a cold!” or “it will bankrupt the nation!”) rather than having to do lots of intellectual revisions based on the stream of new data.

Read it.

EU functionaries, especially diplomats, are a privileged caste that already enjoys substantial perks at the expense of the lumpenproletariat they supposedly represent. Now those pampered apparatchiks are going to be equipped to face the rigors of their time in Manhattan from a cozy little pied-à-terre on the Upper East Side.

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Last year, the Canadian tritium fueled an experiment at JET showing fusion research is approaching an important threshold: producing more energy than goes into the reactions. By getting to one-third of this breakeven point, JET offered reassurance that ITER, a similar reactor twice the size of JET under construction in France, will bust past breakeven when it begins deuterium and tritium (D-T) burns sometime next decade. “What we found matches predictions,” says Fernanda Rimini, JET’s plasma operations expert.

But that achievement could be a Pyrrhic victory, fusion scientists are realizing. ITER is expected to consume most of the world’s tritium, leaving little for reactors that come after.

Read it.

Allopathic psychiatry is worse than a harmless cargo cult, because palliative prescriptions worsen the ‘mental deterioration’ the doctors think they’re preventing.

Freeberg has a contribution to make.

We’re surrounded on all sides by people who are working awfully hard to maintain a fantasy that the two sides, conservative and liberal, maintain similarities with each other. That they both have goals, and some maintain that the goals are similar although the methods are different. That each unseemly thought held by one about the other, is neatly reciprocated, with equal justification. A tat for every tit and an equal and opposite reaction for every action.

They must have scrambled around like mad, that weekend when Sen. Ted Kennedy sunk that poor woman in his car, for a Republican senator who did exactly the same thing.

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Just in case you were wondering.

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Should it be the norm for a 6-year-old to spend eight hours away from his or her mother? Should the norm be for parents to have no idea what their children are being taught? Should the norm be considering a child smart based on how they compare with their peers? The 14 featured families are driven to challenge these norms and more through their homeschooling lifestyles.

The parents addressed common concerns brought up by non-homeschoolers, such as whether homeschooled children would be socialized or whether the parents themselves are qualified to teach their own children.

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A hipster take. I wouldn’t want to live next door to this guy, but hey, it takes all kinds.