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The February 24 Russian invasion of Ukraine is revealing to the rest of the world problems the Russian military has suffered from for over a century. It’s all about conscription and, since 1917, the Russian government not trusting their troops and Russians now going to extremes to avoid being conscripted. This widespread opposition to peacetime conscription was unique to Russia. Other European nations adopted conscription as early as the 1800s, but none had as much popular dislike of conscription and some very real reasons to avoid conscript service.

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Replacing them with titanium would be pretty cool, but probably too expensive.

Putinism is breeding in the heart of the Republican party (The Guardian) Robert Reich has finally met an -ism he doesn’t like, even though it’s imaginary.

Trigger warning: this column contains reporting of rightwing stupidity (The Guardian) Never any mention of left-wing stupidity in The Guardian, of course.,

‘Multiple’ Jan. 6 calls between Trump and lawyer on Texas election lawsuit, panel reveals (Politico)  Calling a lawyer! Highly nefarious!

Congress’ Jan. 6 Panel Wants to Hear From Six More Trump Allies (The Hill) The witch-hunt continues.

Lansing Brewing Company cancels ‘MAGA Mixer’ after public backlash

Cracking under immense public pressure, Cristiano Ronaldo forcibly sold his 9 bedroom luxury apartment at the Trump Tower NYC for a staggering loss of $10 million.

Trump can’t stop praising Putin (CNN) And CNN can’t stop smearing Trump.

House’s Last Pro-Life Democrat Is on the Ropes

CNN Hopes To Return To Round The Clock Coverage Of Jan 6 Committee Soon  Babylon Bee.

CBS Questions, Debates Absence of January 6 from Biden’s SOTU

‘Delay means death’: We’re running out of ways to adapt to the climate crisis, new report shows. Here are the key takeaways (CNN)

Investigate Russia’s covert funding of US anti-fossil fuel groups (The Hill)

US supreme court signals it may restrict EPA’s ability to fight climate crisis (The Guardian)

Deforestation emissions far higher than previously thought, study finds (The Guardian)

New IPCC report: we are not prepared for what is coming (Greenpeace)

How one of Florida’s most beloved animals may be close to climate extinction (The Guardian)

Germany Weighs Extending Nuclear Plants Lifespans In Major Russia-Inspired Reversal

Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals

The New Climate Strike – What a Good Idea

Senate takes up ‘Anti-Racism Act’ right after House’s ‘Anti-Stereotyping Act’ expired (West Virginia Metro News)

Asian-Americans fight back against school discrimination

A Racist Virginia School Board and Principal Get Called Out

GOP ‘Gerrymandering’ Is ‘Racist’ — Obama-mandering Is Just Politics

This Week in Racism

Infamous Race Hustler Uses Ukraine War to — You Guessed It — Hustle Race

PRIORITIES: CBS, NBC Worry Putin Will Upstage Biden during SOTU Speech

Zuckerberg Election Funds Violated Wisconsin Bribery Laws, Special Counsel Finds

Yale professor teaches the secret of happiness to the masses Becoming a Yale Professor is a good first step.

China Buys 700K Barrels of Iranian Oil Every Day, Violating US Sanctions

Defending Freedom And Democracy Sure Requires An Awful Lot Of Censorship

MSNBC WH Correspondents Battle GOP Rep. With Dem Talking Points on Economy, COVID

‘Womynx?’ University Torched for Woke Version of Women’s History Month

‘I’m Really Jogging My Brain Here’: Dem Senate Candidate Can’t Name His Climate Policy Accomplishments

The ‘science’ behind lifting of Capitol mask mandate ahead of State of the Union called into question  A convenient excuse to back away from a restriction that was growing increasingly stupid-looking.

Pfizer Covid vaccine was just 12% effective against omicron in kids 5 to 11, study finds (CNBC) But we still need to recommend it for kids officially in order to trigger Pfizer’s immunity from liability for the ‘vaccine’.

Is it safe to lift indoor mask rules at California schools? Here’s what health experts say (L.A. Times) They say we need to PANIC!

Despite lifting NYC restaurant requirements, Mayor Adams keeps vaccination mandate for workers (N.Y. Daily News)

Death of a 13-Year-Old in Linz

Trump Voters Hold a More Favorable View of Putin Than They Do Biden: Poll (Newsweek) A low bar.

Kamala Harris mocked for ‘terrifying’ explanation of Ukraine crisis: ‘A real inability to talk normally’

Kamala Harris mocked for child-like explanation of Russia-Ukraine war

Why Democracy’s in Such Trouble: A Crisis in Public Trust of Government (Politico)

Pelosi suggests Biden’s approval rating low because Americans uninformed

Pelosi sparks new SOTU meme during Biden ‘burn pits’ moment

Growing list of Republicans will not attend SOTU over testing mandate Why attend this stupid speech if yo can watch it in comfort on TV?

Half Of Biden’s 500 Million Free COVID-19 Tests Unclaimed: Officials  Who can waste the most of your money? Democrats can!

A Tense America Watches To See If Biden Makes It Through State Of The Union Before Adderall Wears Off  Babylon Bee.

MSNBC Bemoans Biden Not Attacking GOP on Support of Putin, Jan 6  Maybe he forgot.

Biden’s Biggest State of the Union Blunders

Biden’s Supreme Court Pick Shielded Top Clinton Aide Amid Email Scandal  One hand washes the other.

Media Fret Over Joe Manchin’s Seat Location at State of the Union: Oh No! He Sat With GOP

Colbert Praises Biden’s Speech as ‘Roller Coaster Ride of Reasonableness’ The moving tongue licks, and having licked, moves on.

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Gee, I wonder why?

Perhaps they are tired of being hectored about their ‘privilege’ in the government re-education camps.

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The Frankfurt School of social theory began about a century ago, in the Weimar Republic. It consisted in the main of a group of rather anti-capitalist, Marxist-light gentlemen who embraced oikophobia (the hatred or dislike of one’s own cultural home), and who were understandably disillusioned by the carnage of World War I. Our interest today is mainly historical; of its earlier members, such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, and Theodor Adorno, really only Adorno is still read with a measure of seriousness outside of academia.

The Frankfurt School popularized historicism—the belief that reflection itself is a part of history, which is to say that earlier thoughts are historically conditioned by the circumstances in which the thinkers lived, and should be seen in that light; and that what passes for “knowledge” is marred by the historical time and place in which that knowledge appeared. (This idea was present already in the second part of The Communist Manifesto.) The insights that a more positivist outlook claims to be certain, based on sensory data, historicism will consider uncertain and necessarily bound by subjective value judgments. A part of this view is the concern—and the French postmodernists will pick up this point—to identify, isolate, and thereby exorcise every sort of domination that any group might have held over any other group.

One wonders how these folks would react to REAL oppression.

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Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday it plans to close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop ups and shops carrying toys and home goods in the United States and United Kingdom, ending some of its longest-running retail experiments.

Guess the Pandemic Panic underlined how vulnerable to political meddling brick-and-mortar operations increasingly are.

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Israeli sources say both Western coalition and Russian forces have recently bolstered their presence as proxy tensions come into renewed focus.

The Russians are now involved in two ‘conflicts’ at once. There is some doubt that they can handle it.

ZMan is not optimistic.

When the axioms of a system begin to crumble, people quickly begin to doubt the system that rests on those axioms. Confidence in the socio-political order was already falling as a result of demographics and mismanagement. The banging of war drums by the geriatrics ruling Washington is not going to change this. In fact, it is clear that the public blames those geriatrics for the Ukrainian mess. We are entering uncharted territory with regards to public confidence in the system.

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A fun read, if you have any interest at all in Latin.

And of you don’t … well, the angels will weep for you.

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Can a pair of unique spectacles banish nearsightedness without surgical intervention? Japan’s Kubota Pharmaceutical Holdings says its wearable device can do just that, and it plans to start releasing the product in Asia, where many people grapple with myopia.

The device, which the company calls Kubota Glasses or smart glasses, is still being tested. It projects an image from the lens of the unit onto the wearer’s retina to correct the refractive error that causes nearsightedness. Wearing the device 60 to 90 minutes a day corrects myopia according to the Japanese company.

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Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. intelligence had predicted a blistering assault by Moscow that would quickly mobilize the vast Russian air power that its military assembled in order to dominate Ukraine’s skies.

But the first six days have confounded those expectations and instead seen Moscow act far more delicately with its air power, so much so that U.S. officials can’t exactly explain what’s driving Russia’s apparent risk-averse behavior.

“They’re not necessarily willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and their own pilots,” a senior U.S. defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Vastly outmatched by Russia’s military, in terms of raw numbers and firepower, Ukraine’s own air force is still flying and its air defenses are still deemed to be viable – a fact that is baffling military experts.

UPDATE: Inside the Ring: Lack of Russian air power in Ukraine a mystery

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Russians attempting to use Apple Pay and Google Pay found that their access had been blocked, causing chaos in the Moscow Metro system.

Oops.

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The motorist, 26-year-old Jose Angel Hernandez, is alleged to have shouted at a couple cycling to get off the road as he drove his vehicle at a woman, apparently on purpose.

The man she was riding with then opened fire on the driver –carrying a concealed weapon is permitted in Texas under licence, although even that requirement will be scrapped from 1 September.

A police officer at the scene was reported as saying: “He was in fear of his life, and he was trying to defend himself.”d

Don’t mess with Texans.

In a Blue State, she’d be dead and he’d be injured.

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A core component of making great decisions is understanding the rationale behind previous decisions. If we don’t understand how we got “here,” we run the risk of making things much worse.

Experts Warn That End of Omicron Surge Is Not End of Pandemic (Seattle Times)

Will Omicron BA.2 become the next dominant variant? (News Medical Net)

Modeling how antibody responses may determine the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines (Nature) Because that worked so well for ‘climate change’.

Mayor Breed wants office workers to return to S.F., but not everyone is on board (S.F. Chronicle)

“Pandora’s Box Of Harms”: How Public Health Erred On Side Of Catastrophe

The Science™ Is Actually The Politics™

Pfizer Vaccine Far Less Effective In 5-11 Year-Olds, Latest Data Show

Putin Receives Nobel Prize In Medicine For Ending COVID Pandemic  Babylon Bee.

Biden Complains That White House Staff Keep Draping Flags Over Him Every Time He Naps  Babylon Bee.

Our Feeble-Minded Commander-in-Chief

7 Major Failures of the Biden Presidency

ABC Laments Invasion of Ukraine ‘Forced’ Biden to Change Big Address

Nets Ignore Hunter Biden’s Business Partner’s Fraud Conviction

As Russia Wages War, US Army Trains Officers on Gender Identity

Biden Approval Rating Hits Record Low As State Of The Union Looms

Budget roadblock delaying Pentagon satellite program to track hypersonic missiles “Millions for tribute, but not one cent for defense!”

Could Economic Warfare Backfire On The US?

State of the Union Bingo — Wrongfun for the Whole Family

Biden Admin’s Own Report Undermines Its Case for Energy Independence

Bidens To Host Lead Sponsor of China’s Genocide Olympics as State of the Union Guest

Russian President Putin Tweets Updates; Former U.S. President Trump Still Banned from Platform

As Democrats Sag in Polls, New York Times Whines GOP ‘Weaponizing’ the ‘Culture Wars’

Todd Blames ‘Right-Wing Echo Chamber’ for Bad Polls on Biden Economy

Feminism has a biology problem

‘Gift to Republicans’: Schumer Allows Vote on Dead on Arrival Abortion Bill

Stephanopoulos and Andrea Mitchell Are Democrats First

Seattle Talk Show Host Explains How Radical Leftists Ruined Pacific Northwest

Russell Brand SLAMS US Leadership for Equating Misinfo with Terrorism

Dem Rep: ‘Squad’ Speech Is Like ‘Keying Your Own Car and Slashing Your Own Tires’

On CNN, David Frum Advises Biden on SOTU: Blame Putin For Inflation!  David Frum is one of those pseudo-conservatives that the Narrative Media love to feature, which is why I call him David Traif.

Whistleblower Sues Delaware Over Election Laws That Unconstitutionally Extend Voting Time

Joy Behar: Trump’s support for Russia is ‘about white supremacy’ (The Hill) After all, black good, white bad.

What’s really lost when schools only make Black History Month lessons optional (NBC) You must, you WILL be indoctrinated!

Genetic Databases Are Too White. Here’s What It’ll Take to Fix It  (Wired ‘Science’)

FLASHBACK: Journos Trashed ‘Token’ Tim Scott’s Response to Biden SOTU  After all, he’s Not Really Black.

Whoopi Goldberg Says America Should Ignore War In Ukraine As It’s Just Two Groups Of White People Fighting  Babylon Bee.

Read it.

The problem with current ‘vertical farms’ is that they focus on low-growing easily-managed high-value crops, like leafy green vegetables (lettuc, kale) and fruits (strawberries). When they can grow cereal grains (wheat, maize, rye, barley) and orchard crops (apples, citrus, nuts), then they’ll have something.

I’m not holding my breath.

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Vellum is still a healthy industry, says Paul Wright of William Cowley Parchment Makers in a small workshop just outside Milton Keynes. The market has shifted from monks to megayachts (vellum makes a lovely sofa). But his company is the last vellum maker left in Britain. The lack of competition is good for Mr Wright but bad for the craft in general.

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Men today have considerably less testosterone than men of the same age even a single generation ago. I’m not talking figuratively, like your boomer uncle might. I mean it: men today really do have considerably less testosterone than men of the same age even a single generation ago.

Not a surprise, but a useful reminder.

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Democratic leadership in the House is shutting down an investigation into illegal use of taxpayer funds by Rep. Val Demings (D., Fla.), who was caught abusing mailing privileges as she runs in a high-profile statewide race.

The Washington Free Beacon has learned that the bipartisan House Communications Standards Commission last month opened an investigation into Demings following a complaint that she sent a 12-page, campaign-style mailer to Floridians outside her district. The Democratic chairwoman of the commission, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (Pa.), told her Republican colleagues in a letter obtained by the Free Beacon that she does “not believe that further inquiry is warranted” and on Tuesday will vote against investigating the matter further. Her vote against further action will effectively end the investigation.

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The following video from RAIR Foundation features an interview with one of the truckers of the Freedom Convoy who was arrested when the police shut down their protest on Parliament Hill, breaking the windows of vehicles and rousting the people inside. Since then many of the protesters have regrouped in an undisclosed location in another part of Ontario.

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On the fifth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, one of many unanswered questions is why Russia has launched a military campaign at huge cost with maximalist objectives, and then declined to use the vast majority of its fixed wing combat aircraft.

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Could be.

Actually, the best way to avoid living with your parents is to join the military, although I suspect some would count that as ‘the cure worse than the disease’.

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As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, the name Maxar has suddenly taken on more significance with detailed eye-in-the-sky images of military movements on the ground being passed to media – including a 40-mile convoy headed for Kyiv. But what is Maxar, and where did it come from?

ZMan is not impressed by the media.

One of the interesting sidelights to the crisis in Ukraine is the hyper-reaction of the American media. It has been a blend of foaming at the mouth jingoism, unhinged hysteria and absolute nonsense. Since the rest of the English-speaking world follows the lead of the American media, the world has been flooded with what probably sounds like a tidal wave of craziness. The start of actual fighting in Ukraine has made the situation worse in the information space.

As is so often the case, the one place you must avoid if you want to know what is happening in Europe right now is the American media. They have fallen for at least one Sam Hyde gag. They have been caught using old pictures from different events and screenshots from movies. They seem to be willing to believe the most outlandish nonsense about both sides. Of course, the Ukrainians are the Spartans at Thermopylae and the Russians are bloodthirsty Nazis.

Fortunately we’ve got social media to keep us warm.

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One of the oddest commentaries about the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the boilerplate reaction that “borders can’t change in modern Europe” or “this does not happen in the 21st century.”

But why in the world should the 21st century be exempt from the pathologies of the past 20 centuries? Are we smarter than the Romans? More innovative than Florentines? Do we have more savvy leaders than Lincoln or Churchill? Are they more mellifluous than Demosthenes? Does anyone now remember that some 130,000 were slaughtered just 30 years ago in the former Yugoslavia, as NATO planes bombed Belgrade and nuclear America and Russia almost squared off?

The Texas primary has turned into a bad Netflix series (CNN) Whatever happens, It’s All About Trump.