Ukrainian pro-Putin political parties suspended

 blather, Crazy, Forward!, history, Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire  No Responses »
Mar 202022
 

Ukraine suspends 11 political parties with links to Russia

I’ve seen the usual suspects claiming that the fact that Zelenskiy suspended parties that support the destruction of Ukraine means he’s a fascist. Let’s look at a little bit of history. Prior to World War II, there was a political party in Britain called the “British Union of Fascists.” What happened when war broke out between fascist Germany and democratic Britain? Britain banned the BUF in 1940 and interred some 700 or more of it’s officials for the duration of the war. Was Churchill a fascist? Nope. Kind of a ruthless bastard to be sure, but hardly a fascist. When your nation is being attacked by a more powerful enemy, you fight them. And that means fighting their supporters within your own borders. During the Cold War, the United States – which is pretty unique in its determination to not ban much of *any* political party – still sicced the FBI on our own commies… and rightly so.

I’ve seen some commentator claim that Zelenskiy has banned all opposition parties. Untrue: unlike the US, where you’ve got the DemRep uniparty and virtually nothing else of any real consequence, Ukraine has a *lot* of parties. See the list on Wikipedia. The only ones that got banned are the pro-Russian parties. For a nation under martial law currently being ground underfoot by a massively larger military constantly carrying out war crime after war crime, this is a perfectly reasonable response to the situation. Is it the *American* response? No. The US did not ban the Commies during the Cold War; did not ban the fascists during WWII (they, unlike the commies, had the good graces to evaporate on their own when war broke out); the US didn’t even ban the Democrats when they started a Civil War. But everyone who is not the US  is not a fascist, despite what the lefties and the Putinfluffers will try to lead you to believe.

If the Cold War had gone differently, and “Red Dawn” or something like it had come to pass, it’s interesting to contemplate whether the US would have banned the communists.

 Posted by at 1:59 pm

Inflatoplane

 aircraft, blather, history, Hmm..., youtube  No Responses »
Mar 192022
 

An ok-quality youtube documentary on the Inflatoplane (it caused me to twitch a few times, such as when the “airmat” material was several times called “airman” for some reason). The Inflatoplane was pitched as a way to rescue downed pilots, a role it could still serve. Also potentially useful as  a way to infil/exfil special ops forces; if it could be made practical with a quiet propulsion system (electric motors? distributed propulsion?), then it could probably be *really* good for that role. At the end of the mission it could be fairly easily destroyed to keep it out of enemy hands. Another proposed role was as a light aircraft for the commercial market; this one I’m less thrilled about. A rubber aircraft would be necessarily not a long-lived aircraft; basic wear and tear, everything from scraping on the ground to repeated inflations, temperature cycling and ultraviolet light would cause the rubber to degrade over time. if the rubber parts could be made *really* cheap – a few grand, perhaps – such that the owner could swap out the rubber bits and retain easily-swappable propulsion, controls,  avionics, seats and such, then maybe it would be ok. Might make a dandy battlefield recon/ missile platform if made to be unmanned… a sizable aircraft with a decent payload that is small on radar and IR, difficult to shoot down shot of a direct hit, and dirt cheap. Replace the original nylon and rubber in the original airmat material with kevlar, carbon fiber and, say, teflon, and you could have a *really* tough little airplane you could fold up and stuff into the back of a car. Might be interesting to study the design pressurized not with carbon dioxide and water vapor engine exhaust, by *hydrogen* for added lift. Sure, it’d be a risk of catching fire, but if enemy action is already poking it full of holes it’s lost anyway. Might as well have it burn up before the enemy can get to it.

 Posted by at 3:33 pm

Blyat suka: Indian edition

 art, awesomeness, blather, Crazy, humor, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 182022
 

Anyone who has watched videos from Ukraine – or, let’s face it, Russian dash cams – could be forgiven for thinking that the Ukrainian and Russian languages are composed of nothing but the sounds “blyat” and “suka” arranged in various artful ways to convey the full range of human ideas and emotions, stretching the gamut from “angry” to “enraged.”

English has that same capacity, as these two Indian fellers demonstrated. This is far and away the funniest thing I’ve seen in *days.*

And the captioned version:

 

And because why not:

 

 Posted by at 11:22 pm

It’s faaaaaaaaaake!!

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, humor, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 152022
 

Earlier today I started seeing people freaking out about this headline:

Here’s 5 Tik-Tok dances you can do to help Ukraine fight Russia

Such as:

On one hand, that sounds insanely and unrealistically stupid. On the other hand, that’s exactly the sort of thing you might expect to see from clueless “influences” and other such ambulatory bipedal cancerous tumors. But before going nuts over how stupid it is, maybe it would make sense to actually try to find where it originates? Turns out it’s not that hard. After about four seconds on Google, the original source is found to be:

Here’s 5 Tik-Tok dances you can do to help Ukraine fight Russia

And what is “Cinch News Network?” From the bottom of their page:

About us

We are a super biased and undependable publication focused on furthering liberal policies in pursuit of a theoretical world where humans don’t act human.

I begin to suspect they just might be a satire site. But to be sure, let’s see what other stories they’re running:

Here’s why Ukraine citizens are good guys with guns, but you’re not

Hidden Federal gun control successfully passes, defeating sexism

Why white people owning dogs is racist

(Note: that last one I actually linked to a couple years ago, not grasping just what was going on…)

Here’s how God might be responsible for racism

White House considers hiring Stephen King to name the next 20 COVID-19 variants

So… yeah.

 Posted by at 6:42 pm

Voltaire

 blather, Forward!, history, Hmm..., politics, russian empire, wisdom, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 152022
 

A quote has been floating around for a while, attributed to Voltaire: “Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities Can Make You Commit Atrocities.” Like a lot of pithy quotes attributed to historical figures, it’s close, but not quite right. The original line in French is:

“Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde, est en droit de vous rendre injuste.”

This was in “Collection des lettres sur les miracles” published in 1767, available to view on Google Books.  Google Translate renders the line as:

“Certainly who has the right to make you absurd has the right to make you unjust.”

Close, but not exactly the same. But the meaning is probably pretty much spot-on. A history of the quote and it’s slow mutation is HERE. Why do I bring it up now? Well, seems relevant on a number of fronts:

1) If you as a Russian soldier believe Putins nonsense about Ukraine developing bioweapons to wipe out the Russian people, he can get you to wipe out the nation of Ukraine.

2) If you can be made to believe that a .223 is a “high power rifle” round, or that a standard capacity magazine is  “high capacity magazine,” or that rifles in any way pose some terrible threat to society, then you can be made to support laws that empower tyrants, imprison regular folks and embolden violent criminals.

3) If you as a Star trek fan can be made to believe that Michael Burnham is a good character, that Star Trek Discovery is a well-written show, then you can be made to believe that Star Trek is garbage (see also Ghostbusters 2016, Disney Star Wars, and the forthcoming Amazon “Lord of the Rings” fan fiction), and accept garbage shows with garbage messages as quality worth emulating.

4) If you as an English person can be made to believe the England has always been highly multi-ethnic, or if you as a Scandianvian person can be made to believe that the Vikings/Norse were populated with Africans and that Jarl Haakon was a black woman, or if you as an American can be made to believe that Westerns have nothing to teach us but that Americans are awful people, then you can be made to tear your own cultures down and replace them with… what?

The less said about “Drag Queen Story Hour,” the better… and yet, wholly relevant to this quote.

 Posted by at 1:03 pm

Expanding on an idea

 art, blather, Hmm..., humor, models, news, politics, russian empire, youtube  No Responses »
Mar 142022
 

NOTE: I suspect the idea I had that I lay out below is not exclusive to me. I would hope that those who could make this sort of thing happen are already working on it. But just in case I somehow dreamed up something new, I present the following…

– – – –

Because why not, here’s an open suggestion regarding an idea from yesterday about Ukrainian model kits. As I said, I’d plunk down money I don’t need to to buy kits depicting scenes of Ukrainian farmers trundling off with Russian armor… assuming those kits were *Ukrainian* kits.

Right now, and likely for the foreseeable future, though, Ukrainian model kit companies are unlikely to be in any sort of position to do any such thing. In contrast, European, American and Japanese companies *are.* So… how about this: a company like, say, Revell, Monogram, Tamiya, *somebody,* that is in a good situation gets in touch with whatever they can of a Ukrainian company such as ICM, and they collaborate in whatever capacity they can. Revell gets going on setting up the molds and the initial production; the kits are sold as a joint venture until such time as the kit makes back whatever Revell spent, and then the following proceeds go to ICM. And when the nonsense is over and ICM can return to functionality, the molds are transferred to ICM in Ukraine. This would not be done to enrich Revell, but also not to drain their wallets; even if they don’t make a dime from the venture, even if they lose some, it should be good PR.

A secondary issue would be the rights involved. One of my favorite videos that I posted yesterday shows two John Deere tractors hauling off a Tor anti-aircraft armored vehicle. I suspect that John Deere would be amenable to having such a kit manufactured, if one isn’t already available of the tractors shown. As for the Russian tank, if someone complains about intellectual property, now would be the time to tell them to go ᛖᚪᛏ ᚪ ᛒᚪᚷ ᚩᚠ ᛞᛁᛣᚳᛋ, Ivan; Russia has declared that it’s ok to steal the IP from other countries, so *yours* is now fair game.

Russia Legalizes Video Game Piracy, and More

It so happens that I live within just a few miles – heck, within the blast radius of a Russian nuke – from John Deere headquarters.

More videos of interest (who could have ever guessed that TikTok would be useful?):

@fuzzysnakebee

#ukraine #donbas #Crimea #russia #kyiv #farmer #slavaukraine #istandwithukraine🇺🇦

♬ chrisklemens youre coming home with me – Chris Klemens

@primeministersimon

Another farmer takes yet another tank hostage #ukraine #russia #putin #tank #farmer #war

♬ original sound – Simoncali

And this one. Two bits of video, the first I’ve seen before, the second I haven’t; I don’t know what the witnesses are saying, but I love *how* they’re saying it:

@oldrowofficial

SOME FARMER JUST STOLE A TANK IN UKRAINE LMAOOOOOOOOO 😂😂😂 #ukraine #fyp #russia

♬ original sound – Old Row

 

 

 Posted by at 2:16 pm

About Ukrainian model kits

 art, awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., models, news, politics, russian empire, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 132022
 

As a followup to this idea I had a few weeks ago… a YouTuber with suggestions regarding those interested in Ukrainian model kits and kit companies. Assuming Putin doesn’t nuke or otherwise salt the earth of Ukraine when he’s driven out like the little ᛒᛁᛏᛣᚻ he is, those model kit companies will probably be back… in some form, some day. I don’t doubt that some, many, most, maybe all of them might need to start from scratch; injection molding equipment tends to react poorly to bombardment and exposure to the elements. Relevant part starts around 3:24.

I’m not big on armor models, and I’ve never given a moments thought to building kits of farm equipment. But you know what? When this bullcrap is over, if Ukrainian companies start putting out kits of Ukrainian farmers towing Russian armor… I’ll buy them all.

 

 

 

Nothing runs like a Deere, baby!

 

 Posted by at 5:36 pm

Some interesting polling

 blather, Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 102022
 

A Quinnipaic poll covered a lot of turf, but one question in particular had interesting results.

Vast Majority Of Americans Say Ban Russian Oil, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Nearly 8 In 10 Support U.S. Military Response If Putin Attacks A NATO Country

ADULTS
WHITE
4 YR COLL DEG
Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom Yes No
Stay and fight 55% 68% 40% 57% 70% 40% 55% 58%
Leave the country 38 25 52 36 24 52 35 35
DK/NA 7 6 8 7 6 8 10 7
AGE IN YRS WHITE
18-34 35-49 50-64 65+ Men Wom Wht Blk Hsp
Stay and fight 45% 57% 66% 52% 75% 43% 57% 38% 61%
Leave the country 48 37 28 37 19 47 35 59 33
DK/NA 6 6 6 12 6 10 8 2 5

Polling is, of course, not the same as demonstrated reality. Many who claim they’d stay and fight would doubtless runs screaming for the hills if the day actually came. But how many who *already* profess to cowardice would find courage in the moment of crisis?

Whites and hispanics say at roughly equal levels they’d stay and fight (though hispanics, interestingly, are a few percentage points more patriotic than whites), while blacks are far more likely to flee. Similarly, Republicans say to a statistically far higher degree that they’d stay and fight compared to Democrats; men would stay and fight far more often than women (so much for equality, huh).

 Posted by at 12:38 am

It’s good to know who your friends are

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Gah., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 082022
 

Well, well.

Granted, there are lots of reasons to avoid Gropey Joe. But honestly, there are more reasons to avoid contact with Putin.

Boy, I sure am glad that the USA managed to achieve a fair bit of energy independence a few years ago. It’d be a damn shame if that had been squandered away, huh.

The way to deal with Russian oil is not to promise not to buy it… but to not to *need* it in the first place. Electric vehicles would be a handy way to go about that… and the way to make electric vehicles on a large scale make any sort of sense would be to have a boatload of shiny new gigawatt nuclear powerplants coming online every year. Any day now, right?

Right?

Some years ago, Obama’s chief of staff pointed out that you never want to let a crisis go to waste, because it presents an opportunity to make changes that you otherwise could not get accomplished. The Russian war presents the United States with several *spectacular* opportunities:

1) Energy independence. Nuclear, fracking, oil exploration on out own turf should be ramped up and made national security priorities.

2) The DoD has fallen *way* behind on weapons development. The M-1 Abrams and the AH-64 Apache date from the 70’s, the Javelin and Stinger from the 80’s, the F-35 from the 90’s.  We haven’t developed a new nuke in generations. Time for some new stuff… and fast.

3) Russia has threatened the ISS. Time to either abandon that orbital money pit, or boot the Russians from it and Americanize all aspects of operations and maintenance until such time as sanity prevails in Russia.

4) SpaceX should (and hopefully already is) be recognized as vital to America’s national interests, and thus should have the very best security. Physical protection against sabotage and outright strikes along with protection against theft of secrets should be priority #1 at the CIA and FBI. If recent Russian hijinks lead to this concept being more generally accepted not just at SpaceX but elsewhere, then the Chinese efforts to steal every damn thing will also be hindered. Additionally, SpaceX should spread out: manufacturing and launch sites in Texas, Florida, Vandenberg, Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Oklahoma, Hawaii, Guantanamo as a start, with point-to-point rocket transport sites built near *all* major cities over time. Does using Starship for ballistic cargo/passenger transport make sense? Probably not. Screw it, let’s do it anyway. As government boondoggles go, it would be a very minor one… and one that would *necessarily* lead to major improvements in many technologies.

5) All of the major launch systems that are now in a precarious state due to Russia cutting of the supply of rocket engines? yeah, THAT turned out stupid, huh. Globalization is fine when it comes to cheap toilet paper or Pokemon cards. Rockets? Computer chips? Drugs? No. Shoulda figured this out when the Commie Cough crapped on the planetary logistics system. Long past time to realize that some things need to be done in-house.

6) Democrats are discovering the sanctity of national sovereignty and of arming the Ukrainian populace with fully automatic weapons. These discoveries should be applied here as well: strengthen border security, deport illegals (both those sneaking across the border and those who overstay their visas), and at the very least institute universal reciprocity for concealed carry… and get rid of the NFA and all the gun-grabbery that followed. Defund the ATF; transfer the funds and staff to the INS.

 

Anyone who disagrees with these policy proposals is clearly a paid Putin shill.

 Posted by at 7:13 pm

“Life in Russia is always difficult.”

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire, wisdom, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 062022
 

The hope among many is that the sanctions on Russia will cause the Russian people, or business class, or military, or *somebody* to pull their thumbs out and give Putin the boot. And it’s starting to look like those sanctions are really making a mess of sizable chunks of the Russian economy and daily life. but… as has been noted here and elsewhere, many, MANY times… Russians are kinda used to trouble. No boom today. boom tomorrow. Always boom tomorrow. Consequently, if the Russian government can adequately spin this mess as being the fault of EEEEVIL westerners, rather than their our bad behavior, chances are pretty good that the Russian people will simply muddle through as they’ve always done. The effects of sanctions are hardly likely to make things worse in Russia than they were during the Soviet years, at leas after the initial confusion settles down, and Russians lived under communism for 70 years without overthrowing their dictators.

Some relevant videos on the subject. The first one is the source of the title of the post:

The next one, if the translation is to be believed (I don’t speak Russian beyond “blyat” and “suka,” so for all I know they’re actually debating the merits of Cardi B vs. Justin Bieber), is some rather brave soul doing vox pop in Russia, showing locals photos of the attacks in Ukraine. A distressing number think – or at least express – that Putin is doing the right thing. Disturbing that the dangerhaired girl is on the side of right and reason here…

 Posted by at 5:29 pm
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