If Gandalf Were a Cat

I don’t get it: Progressives bitched for four years (5, counting 2021) about President Trump “lying” about everything but they don’t seem to have a problem with their own flag bearer blatantly lying about a fundamentally and universally accepted rule of economics 101 - which is apparently no longer taught.

 Biden Complains That The American People Believe Increased Government Spending Causes Inflation

Not to overestimate the intelligence of the American people, but his accusation only applies to people over 50 or who otherwise managed to escape the current government education indoctrination system of public education and don’t believe Fake News.

Still, there are far too many citizens out there who would still choose a Fake President and his embarrassing Veep:.

"I am here. Standing... here..." ::checks notes:: pic.twitter.com/lylvfZj4qO

— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) March 10, 2022

"I am here, standing here on the northern flank, on the eastern flank, talking about what we have in terms of the eastern flank and our NATO allies, and what is at stake at this very moment, what is at stake this very moment are some of the guiding principles..."

over a real leader because they can’t countenance his mean tweets.

Or his embarrassingly arrogant, racist tweets implying the West’s supremacy.

Poland, 2017

It’s a tough choice: Gollum and his embarrassing Veep, or Gandalf and his mean Tweets?

Caturday salute to cats and LOTR: If Gandalf were a cat:

“It is a comfort not to be mistaken at all points. Do I not know it only too well!” – Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

There’s An App For That

For  example, I found something yesterday buried deep in my picture files that I don’t even remember saving. And now it turns out it might actually be useful, given the state of the world today: a nuclear bomb calculator.

This circular slide rule describes the effects of a nuclear explosion on people…

From 1962 onward, copies of The Effects of Nuclear Weapons had a pocket containing a Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer. Setting the indices on the front of the instrument for the yield of a nuclear bomb in megatons and the distance of its explosion in miles, scales on the front of the instrument describe changes in atmospheric pressure and winds associated with the blast, as well as cratering and the velocity of window glass.

Charts on the back indicate the initial nuclear radiation and the thermal radiation. Tables indicate the probable medical effects of various doses of radiation, from no illness to severe burns to death.  -  Smithsonian

Of course there’s probably an app for that today.

So don’t worry, everything’s under control. I’m sure Big Government and Big Pharma are working on a vaccine that will protect us all against this scourge.

Throwback Thursday Welcome Back Carter Edition

Let’s play Carter-era Throwback Thursday again, that’s always fun. The clothes of course were smashing,

but the politics even more so. Forty years from now I suspect they’ll be saying the same thing about the Biden era.

Coordinated facemasks all the rage

If, that is, anyone talks about it at all.

Just like it’s hard today to find people who openly admit to having voted for Carter (twice!), I’m betting there won’t be many Millennials who will admit to having voting for Biden.

And for many of the same reasons. Biden is looking to break Jimmy’s records in taxes, inflation, interest rates and cost of gasoline. (37%, 14%, 19% and nearly $5 in today’s dollar respectively). So get out your sweaters, prepare to drive 55 and prepare for the next great housing market crash. All this, in the third term of the Obama administration,

Welcome Back Carter

This held up pretty well, but for the 4 year Trump era:

Adjust Your Expectations Downward

Not surprisingly, winter has returned to many areas this week.

Yes, still winter

Other things not surprising this week:

Under Secretary Victoria Nuland Admits U.S. Funded Biological Research Labs Exist in Ukraine

Did the Director of the CDC Admit She Gets Her Science From CNN?

Ivermectin study demonstrates its efficacy against Covid, but that’s not what the published results said

How the Manhattan DA's Investigation Into Donald Trump fell apart

Biden Announces Russian Oil Ban, Blames Putin For Surging Prices

It appears that it’s going to be a very long year. 

Certainly not the worst strategy. Alternatively, we could follow Lucy’s advice.

Expectations, being downgraded.

From thrive to survive, in the blink of an eye. Surprising what a hollow man can accomplish.

(Dropping this thread early as I have to be out and about early today)

The Wonder Was It Took So Long…

Oh dear, this cannot be good.

BEIJING, March 5 (Reuters) - The condition of China's winter wheat crop could be the "worst in history", the agriculture minister said on Saturday, raising concerns about grain supplies in the world's biggest wheat consumer.

 

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the country's annual parliament meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Tang Renjian said that rare heavy rainfall last year delayed the planting of about one-third of the normal wheat acreage.

The minister's comments underscore concerns about China's grain supply at the same time as the war between Russia and Ukraine, which together account for about 29% of global wheat exports, has disrupted supplies causing wheat prices to surge to 14-year highs.

Here’s my favorite part - where the Minister of Agriculture reads the tea leaves and proclaims victory soon via policy, technology and a government edict requiring better weather.

However, Tang is confident China can ensure a bumper harvest of summer grain thanks to strong policy and technical support and the improving crop condition for the grain.

And if he’s wrong he’ll never have to worry about anything again. But there’s no need to panic; there will always be corn. Oh wait: they’ll need that for ethanol.

So let them eat rice. After all, they’ve survived for millennia on it.

No wait, I’ve got it – cake! Let them eat cake! Rice cakes…let them eat rice cakes.

Delicious  rice cakes – said no one ever.

So let’s see where we are: pestilence, check. War, check.  Famine, check.

The Four Horseman and their new sidekick, to hurry things along

I leave you with Vereteno’s perennially sardonic observation.

Thirteen years later and we are still on the road to perdition. Or perhaps we’ve reached the end.

Who’s Zoomin’ Who Now?

Who’s Zoomin’ Who?

Take another look and tell me, baby
(Who's zooming who?)
Who's zooming who?
(Who's zooming who?)

When the truth has been deconstructed to the point of being meaningless it’s hard to say precisely who’s zoomin’ who. Russia, Ukraine, Covid, Vaccines – who are you going to believe? Where do you find truth? The only correct answer is nobody and nowhere. Stay cynical my friend.

Regarding Russia Russia Russia and Ukraine: Russia bad, Ukraine good?  That’s a bit of an oversimplification.

The (Obama) White House seems to have taken a perverse pride in the death and destruction it helped incite in Eastern Europe. In April 2014, CIA Director John Brennan visited Kyiv, appearing to confirm the agency’s role in the coup. Shortly after came Vice President Biden, who took his own victory lap and counseled the Ukrainians to root out corruption. Naturally, a prominent Ukrainian energy company called Burisma, which was then under investigation for corruption, hired Biden’s son Hunter for protection.

By tying itself to an American administration that had shown itself to be reckless and dangerous, the Ukrainians made a geopolitical blunder that statesmen will study for years to come…

Ukraine then made a bad situation even worse. When the same people who had left them prey to Putin asked them to take sides in an American domestic political conflict, the Ukrainians enthusiastically signed on…

In 2016, the Hillary Clinton campaign came calling on Ukrainian officials and activists to lend some Slavic authenticity to its Russia collusion narrative targeting Donald Trump…Here was another chance for Ukraine to stick it to Putin, and gain favor with what it imagined would be the winning party in the American election.

…The idea that this game might have consequences for Ukraine’s relations with its more powerful neighbor doesn’t seem to have entered the heads of either the feckless Ukrainians or the American political operatives who cynically used them. - Ukraine’s Deadly Gamble

As they say, inquiring minds need to know. And eventually we may but not in real time because we’re being zoomed all the time about everything.

And regarding Covid and the worldwide mandated Covid vaccines that the American convoy is on it’s way to protest: Good or bad? Yes, or No? Who knows? Who is zoomin’ who?

Here we present a series of strong evidence that the Covid-19 vaccines are causing recipients to develop acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) or a novel condition with similar attributes that can only be described as Covid-19 Vaccine Induced Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS).

A couple of cogent points from the very lengthy article:

UK data shows the Fully Vaccinated are now more likely to die of Covid-19

Scientific Study finds the Covid-19 Vaccines suppress the innate Immune System

Whose zoomin’ who now? Who knows, but minimally one would think that governments and businesses might back off their demands at this juncture.

So allow me to turn my attention to Mutt Day where deconstruction is more fun and at least leaves enough of the essentials in place as to recognize the animal you are dealing with.

How’s That Working Out For You?

It’s now been 410 days since the Last Mean Tweet™

How’s that working out for you?

Hint: Not so well.

But like the lady said: No Mean Tweets!