Odds and Ends — 17 March 2022
Death vs. Death with the Poison rule set makes for a short battle in Silver III.
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
China goes full QE🚀🚀🚀https://t.co/lwlUClybpS
— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) March 16, 2022
Congress members concerned SEC stifling innovation with crypto scrutiny
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Diabetes & COVID-19: Scientists explore potential connection
Once again, America is in denial about signs of a fresh Covid wave
Politics:
NEW: Biden today called Putin a "war criminal" — the first time he's used the term to describe the Russian president https://t.co/NTYAV1BEHw
— Axios (@axios) March 16, 2022
That’s not something that can be walked back.
Russia's state TV hit by stream of resignations
As Russian Troop Deaths Climb, Morale Becomes an Issue
In 36 days of fighting on Iwo Jima during World War II, nearly 7,000 Marines were killed. Now, 20 days after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine, his military has already lost more soldiers, according to American intelligence estimates.
The conservative side of the estimate, at more than 7,000 Russian troop deaths, is greater than the number of American troops killed over 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
It is a staggering number amassed in just three weeks of fighting, American officials say, with implications for the combat effectiveness of Russian units, including soldiers in tank formations. Pentagon officials say a 10 percent casualty rate, including dead and wounded, for a single unit renders it unable to carry out combat-related tasks.
Played by Putin — Trump’s Still With Him
Diplomats have been working overtime this past week to craft a formula for a neutral Ukraine on the model of Austria, whose security would be guaranteed by Germany, France, Russia, the United States and perhaps other nations. This formula would reflect a major concession by Putin, but it could also diminish the heroic status of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Many Ukrainians would argue that their people didn’t fight and die to achieve neutrality.
4 Major Takeaways from Zelensky’s Speech to Congress
How Did Putin Miscalculate So Badly?
Autocrats such as Putin eventually succumb to what may be called the ‘dictator trap.’ The strategies they use to stay in power tend to trigger their eventual downfall. Rather than being long-term planners, many make catastrophic short-term errors—the kinds of errors that would likely have been avoided in democratic systems.
They hear only from sycophants, and get bad advice. They misunderstand their population. They don’t see threats coming until it’s too late. And unlike elected leaders who leave office to riches, book tours, and the glitzy lifestyle of a statesman, many dictators who miscalculate leave office in a casket, a possibility that makes them even more likely to double down.
Putin Doubles Down on Cratering Russia’s Economy
…here is a thing Putin would absolutely not do if he wanted to rescue the Russian economy: Start nationalizing foreign property.
Sanctions are like a valve. You turn them on; you turn them off.
But once you blow up the rule of law to such a degree that foreign capital realizes that they’d be insane to invest anything in your economy because you might just steal it? You can’t come back from that by saying the right words. This is the kind of action that takes years to unwind.
Ukraine Claims Russia Lost 40% of Invasion Units
Russia has lost up to 40 percent of the units it sent into Ukraine when Moscow invaded its neighbour in February, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said on Wednesday.
The troops were either completely destroyed or have lost their combat capabilities, according to the daily bulletin, which did not give concrete numbers. The information could not be verified independently.
Deepfake video of Zelenskyy could be 'tip of the iceberg' in info war
The video, which shows a rendering of the Ukrainian president appearing to tell his soldiers to lay down their arms and surrender the fight against Russia, is a so-called deepfake that ran about a minute long.
It’s Time to Prosecute Donald Trump
Some observers have expressed fear that a single Trump-supporting juror could ‘hang’ the jury, suggesting that the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, might just deem that risk to be too great to be worth running. But as the BBC’s observer of Guy Reffitt’s trial noted, every juror there saw through the smoke the defendant was blowing. Jurors are instructed to use their common sense, and the jury in Reffitt did just that.
A DC jury would do the same in a trial of the conspiracy’s central actor. Once all the evidence is expeditiously gathered, with or without the special counsel that we recommend, the justice department must indict him.
