boilingfrog
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The view from Foreign Affairs magazine, FYI:
The Russia That Might Have Been
How Moscow Squandered Its Power and Influence. By Alexander Gabuev
March 13, 2023“In the 12 months since Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, the war has turned into an accelerating disaster for Russia. Although Ukrainians are the primary victims of the Kremlin’s unprovoked aggression, the war has already left hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers dead or wounded. Unprecedented Western sanctions have squeezed the Russian economy, and Moscow’s large-scale mobilization and wartime crackdown on civil society have caused hundreds of thousands of the country’s high-skilled workers to flee abroad. Yet the greatest long-term cost of the war to Russia may be in permanently foreclosing the promise of Russia occupying a peaceful and prosperous place in the twenty-first-century world order.”
In the “old days” the mantra for pollution was “dilution is the solution”.
Then we discovered that the bad stuff simply concentrated…like the belly fat we used to cut out of the salmon outside of Waukegan (IL) harbor – that was where we were told it concentrated (in the days of science).
All these folks chanting “we must save the system!” are stuck in the old dilution/solution model.
The risks, the downsides, the pain at every level is simply concentrated and hidden away.
The ‘leaders’, the unproductive parasites, get to take mulligans while the proles once again get the shaft (to mix up some metaphors).
@ Dr D Rich,
Thank you for taking the time to respond and clarify.
Between swinging a hammer all day to pay the mortgage, and taking care of the chickens and goats, I find myself unable to do deep dives on every issue. The Turley piece caught my attention, so appreciate the further thoughts I can mix in with my own.
It’s amazing and humbling the breadth of knowledge, experiences and subjects covered in the comment section at TAE. Wonderful. And from all over the world.
Another debilitating stroke in a healthy 41 year old just outside “my circle”. The neighbor with three blood clots hanging in…another guy with the gas company still on disability w blood clots in his leg. A friend in town moved her 93 year old mother here, but left her accounts at SVB. These “events” affect us all the way down here in the “hollers” of Appalachia…
Dr. D Rich, if you have the patience and time, I’d be very curious to hear you ‘flesh out’ your remarks on Turley, Chansley… a bit more. I’m not quite understanding what you’re trying to communicate – but would like to…thank you.
I keep coming back to, with just about everything mentioned on TAE and pretty much our world, the disconnection between ‘actions’ and ‘consequences’. Power, in one flavor, is the ability to make this disconnection occur. Silicon Valley Bank will be just the latest example to watch.
Living in a small town with a large ‘research’ university, I have long seen professors float higher and higher, disconnected from the ‘real’…and occasionally their tether to the ‘earth’ snaps like a kite string.
No wonder the young folks I know are struggling…cognitive dissonance seems to pervade everything.
I feel blessed to be poor and work for a living…
Apropos of nothing, I suppose, but it seems FedEx pilots are looking for a bump in pay and pension, using inflation as a partial explanation.
It’ll be interesting to see how the white house handles THIS transportation issue if a strike actually does threaten. (From a very recent union message):
“The central issue is the Company’s belief that FedEx pilot pay rates do not need to be competitive within the airline industry. In fact, the Company negotiators insist that we should look no further than the pay rate at UPS, ignoring the obvious flaw of comparing the UPS single pay rate to our narrow body pay. The other flaws in the Company narrative are too many to list, but we can share a few of our unambiguous responses:
The pension improvement was long overdue and should not be at the expense of our pay.
Through extensive surveys, pilots have been consistent with three priorities. Pay is only second to retirement on that list.
We have experienced record-setting inflation during the past two years that impacts pay rate expectations.
Our pay rates have trailed the airline industry and the UPS rate dating back to 2016.
The current Company proposal exceeds the UPS rate only intermittently (3 months out of every 12) until July 2026, at which point our widebody pay rate would pass the UPS rate.
The week concluded with each party providing a term sheet proposal. In general, the week was frustrating due to the Company’s refusal to make a defining move despite our repeated cautions that the latest Company proposal would not be ratified by our pilots under any condition, let alone approved by the MEC.”
Well Red,
It’s time to pick up my tool belt and head to the job. However, I did bookmark and will finish later, ty.
I spent a few years in the print side of publishing, educational primarily (Silver Burdette Ginn, Macmillan, HBJ, Scott Foresman…). We were caught of guard when our ‘buyers’, folks who understood printing, screens, 4c process, and basis weights and all that, were let go for ‘inventory specialists’, who had zero knowledge of the process. That was in the 80’s.This change you speak of is so much worse…so glad I switched “games”, but nice to have this info.
Additionally from NYT:
“Norfolk Southern, which earned more than $3 billion last year, invested close to $2 billion in its railways and operations, up a third from 2021. But over the past five years, it paid shareholders nearly $18 billion through stock buybacks and dividends — twice as much as the amount it invested in its railways and operations. Other large railways have paid out billions to their shareholders, too, and their shares have done better than the wider stock market over the last decade”
From the NYT:
“The rate of accidents on Norfolk Southern’s railway increased in each of the last four years, according to a recent company presentation. The record has worsened as executives at Norfolk Southern and other railroads have been telling investors on Wall Street that they can bolster their profit margins by keeping a lid on costs. At the same time, railway companies have lobbied against new rules aimed at making trains safer.”
The private sector is the answer!
The government is the answer!No, accountability is the answer…
Keep hearing the sucking sound as “private equity” takes over entities, sucks them dry of cash and a future, and leaves the drying shell to swing in the breeze.
Untold bankruptcies, often blamed on unions; Boeing cutting corners to kill hundreds (board of directors and major shareholders); CNN just ran a story on p.e. buying up ER doc practices and replacing costly docs with physician’s assistants; ad nauseum.
And now “the” train derailment. Slap on the wrist and continue the push to (1) cut crews and (2) lengthen trains. “Hot box” specialists cost too much money, dammit!
Take the money without the risk, without the liability.
Won’t go on forever and history shows us that with certainly.
And then it REALLY gets ugly
Germ, thank you for bringing that Newsweek opinion piece to my (our) attention. That young man writes clarity and scalpel-sharpness. A bunch of what he speaks to could quite easily be extended to other areas of our world today.
I just had this mask conversation, again, with my brother. Masks, again, at their pre-school…masks, once again, in the facility my father lives in. Except, not in individual rooms, not in game rooms, not while seated in dining hall, and don’t bother to try and mask the dementia-addled (dad) nor folks stumbling about with walkers and candles.
The staff, masked, had an attitude like the old Soviets: ‘We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us’. Instead, ‘we pretend to wear makes, management pretend to believe these rules make a difference’. See how safe we are!?
The thought creeping up from deep within is: What are we missing?
I remember ‘seeing’ the crash of 2008 coming (thanks Illargi, Nicole, others…) but NEVER saw “QE” happening, especially to this extent. I didn’t go far enough back in economic history to read about the adventures of John Law, I guess.
So, they must have a plan…they have too many consultants, think tanks, white papers, “blue sky” meetings, NOT to have something…
Remember, “We’re going to supply liquidity JUST so, and until, the economy can reach ‘escape velocity’ and starts to grow again.
Escape Velocity…sigh…how quaint it all seems now…
I guess we should all be boycotting Delta, tearing down their terminals and such, because they were once sexist and misogynist, eh? /sarc
(I’m not throwing THAT first stone, too busy trying to get the lig out of my eyeball!!)
Yeah, Rockingham County (Virginia) is up there in the Shenandoah Valley…beautiful country. N-NW of Charlottesville. And I think Salatin’s Polyface Farm is just south of there, too.
I’ve read some of Salatin, but not that piece. Friends who own a meat processing shop have told me about laws put into place to keep them from selling (e.g. a bathroom and changing room dedicated solely to FDA inspectors) to the public. Need to check in and see if this still holds. They can’t afford to jump through the hoops that Smithfield’s lobbyists had installed.
Salatin’s title brings home the point that “legal” is FAR from “ethical” and “moral”, but that’s so obvious it’s not worth spilling ink over.
Well, compared to nuclear war I guess this issue pales, but… avian flu. Allegedly avian flu has been discovered here in Virginia in Rockingham County.
This is a very, very big ‘industry’ in Western Virginia with semi trucks of caged white turkeys and chicken billowing feathers as they move up and down I-81.Perversely, it makes me think of the WEF. The major poultry corporations (I hesitate to call them producers) force farmers who want to participate to strictly follow their protocol, and take on debt and subsequent risk. The truly Al Gore /John Kerry galling hypocrisy comes from the cut-throat competition they foster between these farmers while simultaneously lobbying to create monopolies and eliminate their OWN competition.
These corporations, and the folks running them (corporations ARE people, right Mitt?), are truly psychopathic.
Am wondering if it has over through my free-ranging flock and now the remainder have natural immunity? Either way, I’m sure we’ll have an mRNA “cure” soon/sarc off.
Time for more voting with our feet.
As usual, a ton of good “data points” on TAE (“data points” is a phrase one of my customers, a retired investment banker, likes to say… the same person who when asked about the box canyon the Federal Reserve has flown itself into responds, “They’ll think of something!”).
Being in a university town, the phrase “Stakeholder Capitalism” really caught my eye this morning. I hear the same thing around here. The wealthy ‘stakeholders’, living up on the mountain overlooking the town, or down in the valley by the country club, all think they are in control of events. They all feed at the university trough. As “stakeholders” somehow they can gather the “right” information, create the “right” technology, to bring this experiment in for a successful landing/conclusion.
‘Successful landing’ ALWAYS includes them holding their positions of power and wealth. Always. Others are simply not even considered as they crawl back to their trailers in the “hollers”.
Joggers abound, but I’ve never seen one carrying a Matco toolbox. Nor have I seen a $3000 titanium bicycle with a MIG-welder strapped on back. But “Im’a lookin!!!”
Construction seems to be proliferating: banks, university buildings, and literally hundreds of glue-and-sawdust + plastic homes surrounding the university starting in the mid-$400’s.
Doing what I do (fix houses) I know dozens of Ph.d’s… I can think of exactly one who is open to any alternatives to the CNN and NYT story. One…
Okay, chickens and goats taken care of, back to ‘crashing now’ so as to avoid the rush!
I understand this is simplistic (some here might say reductive) but this mental image helps me navigate the current environment.
Similar to the “It’s turtles all the way down!” story, I see the current era of (a) cheap/free money, and (b) monopolies as creating the incentives for people to lucratively engage in non-productive activities.
The image is a productive worker being more-and-more bowed down as (Black)rocks and (Black)stones are piled on his/her back. These further weights claim to be adding the value of “efficiency”, but that is simply reducing productive employees and forcing those who remain to do more.
Last night I stopped at a big box hardware store for $400 in materials and had to ‘self-checkout’. (Actually, the kid manning that area checked me out because I threatened, nicely, to abandon my cart).
As an independent carpenter, I occasionally buy Festool equipment for the quality. Reduced natural gas to Germany has me re-thinking purchases of German tools. But, more importantly, I had a broken tool and contacted the company and actually got to two real humans. However both told me I had to go online and “create an account” to get service. Sorry, one of the things I expect with higher price is a higher level of service. No more Fein, no more Festool.
I’m not trying to complain here, I’m making an observation, and then “voting with my feet”. I haven’t “quiet quit” yet, but I’m working hard to decrease my dependency and footprint.
Over-administration in academics…over-administration in healthcare, Vax mandates, green energy mandates, war mandates etc
All these ‘rocks’ and ‘stones’ continuing to be piled upon us. (Thanks for the upload info Phoenix!)
I know this is an old question, but I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how to include a small image in my comments. Can anybody offer help?
For the “statistically-impaired” (certainly not mRNA-induced in this case) like myself, Jessica Rose presents what appears to me to be pretty good data analysis.
Anyone care to offer thoughts? Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with anecdotal evidence, but it sure is affirming when such evidence is backed up with data (not PR campaigns)
Thanks RIM (and all the commenters here), my safety rope to bare-feet-on-the-earth sanity these days.
Yesterday was thinking about how people seem to rationalize their (self-serving) beliefs and actions by somehow appealing to a ‘higher good’.
At the university it’s an appeal to “knowledge” that makes every action and behavior appropriate
and acceptable. We must ‘save and expand’ this amorphous thing called ‘knowledge’.In healthcare (term used loosely) it’s the faith in institutions working for the health of all.
At the Federal Reserve it’s ‘saving the system’.
As Z presents to our national leaders, it’s ‘saving freedom and democracy’.
And in every church, as through all history, all actions are tolerated in the name of saving your soul.
Thoreau, for one, wrote of being wary (actually, running from!) the person coming to “help” you…
Stay safe. Thanks to all for your thoughtful contributions (and Dr D, you DON’T ‘write too much’)
Watching President Zelensky present last night, and the PBS discussion afterward, reminded me of a high school football game pep rally.
Except, the people present (a) had no kids in the game, (b) had none of their own money ‘invested’.
Surreal and twisted somehow
Germ’s input much appreciated. To add to the anecdota evidence: one fully vaccinated friend felt ‘really awful’, left work early to take a nap on the couch and never woke. Recently, another active neighbor has been diagnosed with GI cancer, but his treatment has been suspended because of embolisms in both lungs and one leg.
Does anyone here follow Jessica Rose? With doctoral, and post-doctoral work in computational biology and immunology, she seems a natural to be able to sift something out of the “noise” (IF data is provided in relatively good faith)
Well, I’m just muddling along as best I can, doing my ‘low-level’ work here on this planet, leaving the higher level work for another time, I guess. But I do think striving for these things called ‘truth’, and ‘justice’ during our muddling is important.
Michael Hudson has led quite the life, truly amazing. Normally I can digest his pieces in one sitting, but this latest interview is really above and beyond.
Neighbors, and their visitors – all vaxxed and boosted – just came down with Covid. No surprise, I know, for folks here, but surprising to them as Ph.D “scientists” and “believers”. I’m walking a careful path to maintain “neighborhood equanimity”, taking the long view.
So while I read and support TAE, and Greer and attempt to keep up with the Ukrainian ‘issue’, and the ongoing battle for global dominance, etc, the Covid issue is still bubbling in these parts. Passe, I know, but data still percolates out.
I try to cast a wide net when reading, and came across an opinion piece on CNN entitled: “Opinion: We finally have a Covid-19 vaccine for the youngest kids. Here’s why it matters” by “Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP is an infectious disease epidemiologist”.
But her writing doesn’t make sense to me. She talks of the high rates of kids testing positive, but says have good outcomes, as expected. Malone and Geert vd B say this is a good thing. Then she writes this:
“8,525 children have been reported to have multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a condition associated with Covid-19 in which body parts, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs, can become inflamed.”
But this MIS-C sounds an awful lot like some of the side effects of the vaccine, (like the myocarditis that killed my friend) though her tone suggests to me that she doesn’t believe that’s a possibility.
She talks of wanting her children vaxxed so as not to catch Covid and therefore avoid the possibility of getting ‘long Covid’. Her vaxxed and boosted friend tested positive a month ago, and is suffering from ‘long covid’ (really? a month?! and he was vaxxed? Not the best example for multiple reasons…)
Anyway. I’m kinda bringing up the rear, (in many ways!), greatly enjoying the gathering of news by RIM, and the worldwide feedback (though some might better fit Greer’s second blog). Trying to hold it in mind as I try to make sense – see a pattern – in the events around me. And more importantly, helping guide me as I strive to plot a sensible path forward for myself, and my small community. Thank you all.
Does anybody know of a graph or chart or something that shows, say, a historical ‘mean’ death rate versus the excess deaths that (are alleged to have) occurred from Covid?
An MD family member watched the Malone-van den Bossche interview from Spain, but replied, “What about all the people who died from Covid BEFORE the the vaccine was available?” I didn’t stray into the whole “with covid or from covid” debate again, was just wondering if deaths really were simply steady…
No solid data, no solid money, then no good decisions, and no good outcomes.
(V Arnold – thanks for reminder. Problem addressed this morning)
“…and they can all go to jail.” Hahahaha…
I think “Hybrid Immunity” was developed by the same professors (aka “experts”) who gave us Modern Monetary Theory, teaching in the College of Backward Rationalization at Harvard University.
Thanks for the morning chuckles
The total embargo of Russian oil and gas reminds me of a “government shutdown” here in the states… the FAA, air traffic controllers, etc still operate so the private jets and sports teams (among others) still play… but the national parks are shut down so the poor have to cancel their camping vacations.
Same as it always was, no surprises there
@V Arnold,
I watched that entire interview, too (will next water the garden late!); fascinating. My friends in research at the university are desperately seeking finance to support their labs, as state monies dwindle. Some wrestle with the ethics of corporate money (like money in politics, strings are always attached!), and for some it’s simply not seen as an ethical issue.Two metaphorical and/or analogous thoughts occurred to me, though, with regard to the vaccine, virus and financialization (Mike Hudson):
(1) In my experience it is the “older population”, especially, who are crying and rending their garments that ALL must be vaccinated, boosted… in order to keep them alive, longer. In an analogous situation, this same generation has sold future generations down the proverbial river in order to keep their ill-gotten wealth.
In discussions with a weathy and elderly client about a potential market crash, their comment was, “But what about ‘us’? What would happen to ‘us’, we would lose everything and we’re too old to work!?”” (The “It’s not fair!!” rant was left unthought, and unstated…but certainly implied)
(2) This wonderfully edited, long-form interview allowed the two docs to convert highly complex ideas and concepts into understandable sentences without interuption. The docs spoke about this “battle” between viruses and our bodies, seeking ‘stasis’, a balance between transmissability/ survival and lethality (ebola an example).
My mind jumped to this being analagous to “predatory and parasitic financialization”. Debt, properly secured, properly priced, might be beneficial at times. (Debt jubilees would be part, too)… but now we’ve far surpassed the point where debt has killed (or at least is killing) the host. Ebola Economics.
Extraordinary, risky, experimental financial life support efforts are being implemented (analogous to vaxing the kids to see what happens and save the elderly), and will most likely damage everyone.
I probably wasn’t clear enough with these analogies, hopefully the point is communicated.
After a first quick read of DrD (always appreciated), I guess this is what is Hemingway meant by, “How did I go bankrupt? Slowly at first, then all of the sudden”. You can only ay whack-a-mole so long. More moles moving more quickly. Reread later…
Re the shipping “logjam”, Kunstler has long talked about the role of ‘letters of credit’ in global trade. We’re seeing that now (?).
NPR just said, “Inflation has continued to rise, fastest in 40 years… confounding economists and Wall Street… wrong… food, energy and housing rising the most… the Fed signaling an aggressive rise in interest rates…”
Phew! Sure glad it’s Putin’s fault, not money printing, in all it’s forms…/sarc
Glad I’ve been reading all the ‘negative’ take on things at TAE, while also listening to Judy Woodruff’s positive take, so that I’m better prepared for what I’d term, “reality”. My wife still thinks Ukraine is beating Russia…hmmm… maybe they are… doesn’t seem like it, though.
I’m listening to the Jan 6th coverage and wondering, “What do they hope to accomplish?” The search for scapegoats is over, I guess now it’s public confirmation time. Pathetic waste of time and energy, but, it’s Congress, what else would we expect?
Most of my clients closely attached to the university are spending big to modify, remodel, enlarge, etc their homes to the latest fashion. They are feeling “wealthy” on their salaries, stock holdings and pensions. They are aghast at the delays in some formerly easy-to-atrain materials and the prices, but move forward.
Simultaneously, I hear them talk about “so many interim positions” at the university, and bringing back retired faculty as “adjuncts” instead of hiring new, young faculty into tenure track positions.
Curiously, for these very bright and educated people, the messages being sent from our marketplace are seemingly not being heard. Or acknowledged.
Solidly Democrat and left-leaning, they see no connection between President Biden and the current state of our world. It’s all about the need to keep Trump down.
My working class clients are a little more in tune to energy prices and a sense of turmoil and fragility. Several are focused on insulating their houses, better windows and doors… And, planting gardens. Many are implementing “workarounds”, or simply ignoring, with regard to nonsensical rules (clotheslines, gardens, poultry).
Interesting to observe the response as I move between these two worlds.
Am now struck by the image of a wooden barrel leaking at many points among the staves, and instead of barrel rings made by a smithy, we have two or three rings of rats holding hands, barely keeping it “together”.
Whack-a-mole writ large.
And as Lira and Bernhard say/write, eventually some of those rats will be forced to let go as their citizens rise up in cold and hunger and anger. Imagine the pressures being exerted on this rain-of-rats, from both directions…
At out local “Tier 1, land-grant research university”, Greystar and others from Wall Street are building literally cities of apartments… renting from $1000 to $1600 per BEDROOM per month. Sources say occupancy was 60% last semester… this will be interesting to watch.
AP: ” (Please spare me: if you are a regular here then you do have a “negative” bias brain.)
And then you might ask, “so what?” To which my reply would be: have you ever considered why the slant, why the drift?”Yes, I would fully acknowledge that ‘fact’ in myself, the more negative bias. And the reasons that I am aware of come from far afield. And immediately upon typing that I can sense the “Buts…” popping up, the rationalizations …
I’ll hold that awareness and continue to read.
@VA
I know that I’ve often been getting ‘dumped’ by the site after clicking the button for uploading comment. RE your comment on comments, maybe folks are tending gardens and husbanding chickens?A cattle rancher friend in WY told me yesterday that cattle trailers (semi pulled) went from $4/mile to $9/ mile this year. He’s very nervous about hay prices. Heard from management at the local concrete “factory”, part of a chain (of course, who isn’t nowadays) that their fuel costs are up a million dollars this year. Don’t see concrete trucks running on electricity any time soon.
Having no formal military training, and especially at the higher level, was interested in Dr D Rich’s comments about the development of an officer corp the other day. That had never occurred to me and I immediately began to think of the ‘rumors’ of Ukrainian forces by officers as it relates to that observation. But, I’m not there to verify, of course.
The recent Mr. House article by the Critical Theory professor in The Philosophical Salon blew my mind. That combined with the trove at Consciousness of Sheep has kept me, personally, busy. That, and the gardens and chickens, and contemplating ways to simplify…
That dog really is amazing. Scratching my head with how a human would communicate such lessons to a dog.
And I’m still scratching my head over the argument “intentional versus incompetence” with regard to world events. Covid, monkeypox, “vaccines”, Ukraine, energy embargoes, elections, food plant fires, fertilizers, WEF…
I mean, each could be an island of incompetence unto itself, or… the Dr. Evil clip comes to mind… the enormity of that is, well, ‘enormous’.
In a potential analogy: “evolution or creation – either is miraculous”
Agreed, not too long… and nice timeline on the never actually resolved financial crisis. I’ve read we’re just now seeing the impact of Covid stuff… the war spending, embargoes, etc hasn’t flowed downstream. Yet.
Bill Blain, ha! He has his moral NIMBY outrage when someone tries to smear cream on his “Norman Rockwell, quaint village”… waiting for him to short wheat futures and lead a demining flotilla in the Black Sea.
Currently visiting in the DC area and blue & yellow flags flying all over, especially at churches. Food prices rising, but all seems peaceful in the suburbs. Washington Times contrasts mightily with The Washington Post.
Passed along the Naomi Klein piece, with no comment, to a young family member having menstrual and fertility issues. No reply, but even considering mRNA as a contributor would be a huge mental shift…“Learn to be Still”, From The Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Ovr”, 1994. It’s a beautiful, beautiful song, brought to mind by posts today. If I was clever enough I’d post a link. Might be a good mantra in these times
…
We are like sheep without a shepherd
We don’t know how to be alone
So we wander ’round this desert
Wind up following the wrong gods homeBut the flock cries out for another
And they keep answering that bell
One more starry-eyed messiah
Meets a violent farewell
Learn to be stillLearn to be still
I read so widely to attempt to get the “view from 30,000 feet”. Can I change the big picture? Nope! But I often thing about an analogy to tectonic plates… by having a sense of the big tectonic plates underlying the world as it appears to exist today, one can position oneself (attempt to) to be saf-ER, or have a better understanding of opportunities for civil disobedience (hearkening back to Thoreau), or what ever.
Situational awareness. Consciousness.
As I drive around my section of Appalachia I see a slow degradation down into what might be called a more “3rd world status”. More campers in yards with slide-outs extended and 100lb liquid propane tanks attached, showing me friends or relatives habitating with homeowners. Broken down cars on the side of the road is also a marker.
At the research university we see Wall Street money (literally, folks like Greystar) buying existing apartments, tearing em down and building ever higher and denser, with the ubiquitous “resort-like pool and amenities” for $1k a bedroom per month.
Farmlands plowed under by the tens of acres and “new homes “starting from the low 450’s”.I watch for signs of a pivot to Asia from Ukraine. I watch for signs of a slump in the student population. I hear rumors that occupancy in these newer, expensive apartments is 60%.
Demand for my labor continues unabated, and the fact that I “crashed” my lifestyle years ago (reading TODrum, ADReport, OTMinds, Granola Shotgun – where’s Johnny now?!) lessens the stress.
The insights gathered here, from around the world, are invaluable – a hearty thanks to all! Some days I wish I could give up th reading, the thinking, the observing… and “just live” (right VA?). But I realize, at least for me, the reading, thinking and observing IS part of life.
So here I gather, taking a sip from “my drink”, listening, realizing maybe I’m not crazy for seeing things differently, being slightly intimidated by the mental horsepower gathered, and trying to add something of value if I occasionally am able.
Sorry to ramble, but you folks are a safe harbor. It can get overwhelming out there…
VA, I just had surgery and your “limbering” comment caused me to laugh out loud – painful, but well worth it. Thank you sir!
Yes, very happy the non-stop missile and artillery barrages will (hopefully) be starting to wind down. It seems a fate worse than death.
The natural transition of the US “off” center stage, will certainly continue, just down different avenues.
I didn’t realize the new commander was a non-aviator till I read Dr. D Rich: that seems insane to me. Delivering aircraft to a point closer to conflict is the main objective, and it would seem to me that understanding that particular aspect needs to be soaked into every pore of the decision-maker to a level that much of it is unconscious… practice that is fully learned and absorbed.
Maybe in a similar fashion, good docs probably need physiology and anatomy basics fully absorbed and unconscious when figuring out tough cases.My memory recalls reports of doctors creatively (and successfully) treating Covid cases early on based upon symptoms, and their experience. At some level this level of mastery becomes unteachable in classrooms (especially University of Phoenix?).
And mastery is truly the issue at point at this level of responsibility.
D. Rich,
I appreciate your comments but am sometimes confused by your writing; simply cannot infer what might be obvious to you and probably others.With regard to your last sentence, it seems you are taking a jab at some country or person, but it’s just not clear to me. “At least Russia’s WWII sacrifice was in response to an existential threat.” Could you clarify?
Again, your comments often are valuable to me, but I can remember having some of those very thoughts about you. If my addled old brain remembers correctly, you’ve made it clear you graduated from the academy, know a bunch of admirals and generals, and basically dislike/resent all of them, their decisions and how they got where they did. Have I understood all that correctly? (I’m a curious carpenter, not a psychiatrist or anything)
