Something hit me today concerning Russia with it’s army and reputation it the worst position it’s been in since Japan rolled over them at the turn of the last century.
Poland, Romania and Hungry along with the Baltic States all have a grievance with Russia over a half century of enslavement under communist rule not to mention their invasion from the east while they were trying to fight off the Nazi’s in the west. The wounds are still there and the fear of Russian Invasion after the fact never really left.
Ironically now the Pols have one of the most modern tank forces in the world, they are well trained, highly united as a country and very invested in a Ukrainian victory but there is one fact more.
If Poland decided to use it’s army and take revenge on Russia it is very likely that the Russians would not be in a position to stop them from going deep into their territory and there is no longer a US ready to provide lend lease to supply them in the event of such a war. Particularly if the other states who all own Russia a bloody nose decided to join in under the theory that there will never be a better chance to end the danger from Russia once and for all.
Now it’s my opinion that the Pols have no interest in doing so and are happy enough with the knowledge that Russia has has to fear them, but if they did decide they wanted to go after them only two things would stop them
Russia’s Nukes
NATO
That’s the ultimate Irony, right now NATO is the single strongest guarantor of the territorial integrity of Russia in the west.
Yesterday was Black Friday and day one of our “peak” season at work and the beginning of eight straight days of work for me.
As you might guess we were pretty busy, but based on the numbers I’ve seen overall volume was a whole lot less than normal. That won’t affect today, tomorrow or even Monday but the real question for me is: “Will we be behind to the point where next Saturday is voluntary?” In a normal year that’s how it works and by the time you get to Christmas you have managers who have worked 25-30 straight days since “optional” isn’t “optional” for them and some employees averaging 15 hours of overtime a week.
My gut and the numbers tell me that won’t be the case. I suspect we will only have one optional Saturday, next Saturday but that the volume will be at a point where we aren’t days behind rushing to keep up. Part of that may be to good planning on our part but the best planning can’t overcome incredible volume and based on day one, we just don’t have that.
Speaking of Black Friday shopping, most of mine took place on Thanksgiving evening and yesterday morning before going into the breach. A look at Amazon convinces tell me that while there are more and more pages of black friday “deals” (822 to be exact) there are less and less things on them that I need.
I also notice there are a lot of brands of “tablets” and “robot vacuums” that I’ve never heard of before as if there is an attempt to dump a lo of cheap electronics this year.
Of course with that many pages you’re bound to find something useful that your spouse might like or need (I just spotted something on page 29 that I never thought of which might work for her in the garden, but it’s all a question of how much time you want to spend (Indicently the cyber monday deals look surprisingly like the black friday deals
Good Luck.
By an odd coincidence as Elon Musk as cracked down on child porn on twitter apparently a lot of Antifa accounts have ended up dead while doing so.
They have not taken this well and there have been attacks on Tesla dealerships in the Northwest.
This is rather foolish for three reasons
These will simply lead to insurance claims which puts money in the pocket
Musk being one of the richest men in the world is in a position to put the type of security in place that won’t be as accommodating to the leftist thugs that don’t come enmasse.
Finally he has access to the type of lawyers in a position to crush these folks on a national and international level
But if they want to poke the bear be my guest.
The loss of a cherished narrative is a terrible thing and CNN is doing it’s best to reverse it, But the Irony overload here is incredible:
This Trans Woman on CNN says she can look at a still photo of the Colorado Springs gunman and know that he's not Non-binary, he's a man. If we were to use that same standard on Natalee, what might we discern? pic.twitter.com/wMC9DmUEBi
And just like that you can look at someone, say they’re a dude and not be considered a bigot for it, at least if it serves the narrative.
That society has given in to this collection of mentally ill idiots is not an indictment of them, it’s an indictment of us for being suckers.
Finally there was some shock over a Christian commentator noting that those who were killed in Colorado didn’t accept Christ that they were likely in hell.
We are called upon not to judge the state of any particular soul but this type of thing is Christianity 101 or at worst 104. St. Faustina in her diary notes that Christ extends a hand at the time of death even to the most obstinate of sinners it’s just a question of grasping it.
People forget that the Good News of the Gospel is that there is a way into heaven and eternal life and avoiding eternal death and sufferings. For some people this is a hard message to take because it involves acknowledging sin, for others it’s a hard message to deliver because they want to go along and get along.
Christ was not one afraid to rock the boat nor afraid to risk offending people even inside their own homes. How many times was he invited to dinner which a Pharisee and then criticize them while there.
There is an excellent clip from The Chosen from the final episode of season 2 where Matthew is critiquing the Sermon on the Mount that illustrates this
The key line from Jesus:
“Did you think I was going to come here and say: ‘hey everyone keep on doing what you’ve been doing for the last thousand years since it’s been going so great?'”
If you actually love your neighbor you will tell them a truth they don’t want to hear to save their lives rather than shut up.
The good news is that you have your whole life to figure this out and come to Christ, but not a moment more.
Posted: November 25, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized
I’ve often quoted the spectacular TV comedies “Yes Minister” and “Yes Prime Minister” on this site because of the continued relevance of it’s portrayal of: “The political will vs the bureaucratic won’t” which apparently has not changed in the nearly 40 years since the last episode was broadcast.
In that final episode titled titled “The Tangled Web” A there is a clash between Prime Minister James Hacker (Paul Eddington) and secretary of the Cabinet and head of the Civil Service Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne) over the PM categorically denying the bugging of a MP before parliament that he was not made aware of. Sir Humphrey refuses to back up this false statement in an upcoming appearance before the privileges committee. But before that appearance comes up Humphrey in an obscure interview not realizing a microphone is still live when the interview is done states that the you can half unemployment in a week by cutting off benefits to any person who refuses two job offers saying “they’ll be off the register before you can say parasite”. While the BBC had no intention of using the post interview remarks the PM gets ahold of a the master tape and Humphrey agrees to back up the PM’s previous denial before the committee to get his hands on the tape.
Well it’s 34 years later and we’ve finally found a pol willing to do something about this in Italy:
Ms Meloni had vowed to abolish the expanded welfare programme altogether during the campaign, arguing that it encouraged people to stay on welfare when they could work and was abused by fraudsters.
The changes announced on Tuesday would knock eligible workers out of the system after eight months or after they refuse a job offer, and requires recipients to actually live in Italy.
Where is this money going? Well it’s going to help Italy, a country with one of the lowest birthrates in the world make more babies:
To encourage families to have more children, Ms Meloni announced a 50 percent increase in the “baby bonus” checks parents receive the first year after the birth of a child and a 50% increase for three years for families with more than three children.
Women who choose to extend maternity leave beyond five months for an extra month can do so on 80 percent of their salary rather than 30 percent. Meloni, Italy’s first woman premier, also announced a reduced tax on feminine hygiene products and items for newborns.
The future belongs to those who show up and Ms Meloni is determined that those who own the future in Italy will be Italians who have a job.
Barring an epic collapse the Yankees have a pretty solid lock on the AL East and are a solid seven games ahead of Cleveland for the best record in the AL. Their trades last season when the playoff door closed have paid off and holding the 2nd-4th leading hitters in the AL and Jim Hickman’s MVP caliber season all help . Seattle trading for Frank Howard who is has made a huge difference leading the AL in HR & RBI and puts the defending AL champs in a position to challenge Minnesota for that final wild card spot to end the year. Particularly with the two AL leaders in walks batting ahead of him. Despite a good year by Billy Williams and Orioles pitchers striking out everything in sight the team has surprisingly underperformed but even with only 19 games to go to rule them out is dangerous
Cleveland has surged lately building up a 6 1/2 game lead but even with Tony Perez & Jim Perry outperforming all expectations and Sam McDowell being Sam McDowell they are not far enough ahead to avoid worry. Minnesota is clinging to that last wild card spot by their fingernails with Duke Sims and Killebrew doing their best to hold off the charge but also has the toughest schedule with five of their last seven series against teams with better records than them BUT 5 games vs Cleveland meaning the division is still in play. California despite an excellent expansion draft have underperformed all around.
The tightest division race in the majors remains deadlocked with only 19 to play. Add to that only a 2 game margin over the bottom wild card and this battle becomes do or die. Can Rico Carty’s bat, Gary Nolan’s arm and Pete Richert’s work in the pen overcome a disappointing year from knuckleballer Phil Niekro? Or will Sonny Siebert, Daryl Knowles be the difference to keep Reggie & company moving forward? Meanwhile the Washington Senators sitting with the #1 pick next year plus draft picks from trades are in a great position to rebuild and play spoiler.
Only the Yankees rivaled the Braves in trades for draft picks and like the Yanks Atlanta has cashed in. Tony Oliva and Caesar Cedeno have ruled at the bat while Fergie Jenkins leads the majors in ERA with pitching help from Chuck Dobson, Mike Cuellar and Eddie Fisher saving the day. Philly the other expansion team with Luke Walker, Bob Robinson and Dick Selma saving the day don’t intend to make it easy for the Braves. Montreal was expected to be a contender this year
Big Red Machine no Huge Red Machine dominating the defending champion day traders
The Reds haven’t just deiminated this division they’ve dominated the league, Carbo, Rettenmund, Bench, Morgan Tolan own the leaderboards at bat with Fritz Peterson and Steve Hargan doing it on the pitching side. The defending champ day traders are still alive in the wild card hunt thanks to Tom Seaver with help from Larry Brown & Terry Harmon but only just. St. Louis’ is right behind them and only a bad luck year from Bob Gibson have kept them from doing more.
The Giants under new management have been a Pitching machine with Dave McNally reversing last years bad luck and Tom Hall and John Lamb leading the way. Pittsburgh led by Luis Aparicio and Gaylord Perry having huge years seem a wild card lock but are still in striking distance for the division. The rest of the league has discovered the way to beat the LA Dodgers. Walk Willie McCovey because if you don’t he will beat you badly.
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