Optimism in Ukraine

And they are beginning to feel optimistic, for a change, in Ukraine!

@leftofscenter Link 🔗 to Caolan Robertson’s YouTube channel can be found in comments. This last week signals a strong turning point in Russia. Starting with the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, grave news has been coming out in headlines across Russia about its economy and inflation, warning Russians about rising food and energy costs. The Kremlin doesn’t put out statements like that unless things are truly last-minute and critical, which signals a serious shift in Russia’s economic system. In this video, I assess what that looks like for Ukraine and what it means for Russia’s defense spending. #caolan #ukraine #fyp #viral ♬ original sound - leftofscenter

More Protesting (June 28th)

Probably Unsuccessful

This article makes a few points regarding the DIA assessment that the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities was probably unsuccessful:

"Are you surprised at what seems to be the limited degree of damage to these facilities?

No, the United States military has been toiling for several decades to develop weapons capable of destroying underground facilities. ... It proved far more difficult than anyone would have imagined. The government established a test facility, a mock underground chemical and nuclear production facility, out in the western US and bombed it literally for years. Every imaginable type of bomb or combination of bombs were used, rarely did it cause any more than superficial damage to the facility. So, this latest weapon, long in development but never deployed, has demonstrated once again that if an adversary simply digs deeply enough, the laws of physics are on their side. ....

If this initial report proves true, what are the consequences? 

Terrible. As long as we didn’t use them, Iran didn’t know for sure how damaging they could be. That gave us leverage with them. Now the situation is reversed. ... Going into any negotiations with them, they know our limits. ... In any negotiations with Trump, it’s the sanctions they want lifted. But now they’re in a much better position to get what they want than they were before this bombing run, especially considering other intel suggesting that the regime removed some or all its highly enriched uranium and centrifuges out these facilities before the attack. And not just Iran. Every other adversarial regime now knows these weapons are essentially duds. That weakens our leverage considerably with all of them. I am sure Kim Jung Un is happy in North Korea today."

It looks like we'll have to be kissing some Ayatollah ass pretty quick now! Because we will have little choice. 

But that doesn't worry me very much. What concerns me is that with all this bombing we might make the Iranians MAD. They will now be MAD at US; not just the Israelis. And when people get MAD, they get EVEN. Revenge is a dish best served cold, as they say. They are the wrong people to anger. If the Iranians don't have nukes now, they soon will. Nukes make great weapons of vengeance! 

This is what comes from putting idiots in charge of the country.

He's Back Again

I gaze over my bird-feeding patch. There are no birds anywhere, save one. 

Oh....

Wow, You Can Really Dance!

1957 Chevrolet Belair

The low riders are out here tonight (June 22nd) in Sacramento. 

One of the vehicles that’s parked over at Pancake Circus is a black-and-white 1957 Chevrolet Belair, which was my family’s household car when I was a kid, from about 1961-1968. 

1957 Chevrolet Belair. This vehicle looks much nicer than our household car. We drove our car up and down the dirt road washboard of La Entrada Road in Corrales every single ding-dong day. Enough to render any vehicle into a bag of bolts. I don’t think this car’s owners do that. Still, this vehicle sure brings back memories!

David Frum Quote

David Frum at The Atlantic is quotable: “Trump has not put U.S. boots on the ground to fight Iran, but he has put U.S. troops on the ground for an uninvited military occupation of California.”