An American tourist in Russia
A new survey by the Cato Institute included a question about the government installing surveillance cameras in citizens’ homes. The results are unsurprising, and match what many of us have been saying for a long time. Safety and security are at the top of most normal peoples’ hierarchy of needs. When they feel unsafe, they’re more willing to embrace totalitarianism.
There is a new War on the Rocks article making the rounds on pro-Russian channels as proof that the Ukrainian armed forces are in disarray. Maybe, but I read the article and I find it ridiculous and unhelpful. Keyboard warriors and armchair generals really will believe anything if it confirms their pre-existing biases.
In 1916, entrepreneur Clarence Saunders invented America’s first self-service grocery store, a truly revolutionary idea that swept across the country and then the world. Now, a little over a century later, the American self-service grocery store is dying, but not for a reason anyone could have predicted.
According to Kiev, their great spring/summer/fall/winter offensive is “imminent.” Meanwhile, the “pro-Russia” commentators are chortling and dismissing the idea of a Ukrainian offensive… just like they did last time. I think not only are we in for another Ukrainian offensive, we’re in for another hysterical cycle of western bloggers doing their usual cycle of getting hysterical, demanding Putin “take the gloves off,” and panicking in general principle. Today I’ll go over what I’ve seen so far, the steps we can roughly expect from both sides. I consider the liberation of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) as the distinctive end of one phase of the conflict and the beginning of a new one.
The vote to raise the US debt ceiling has passed the house. From Zero Hedge:
As we noted earlier, the bill – which as discussed here does not cut real Federal spending even in year one despite widespread propaganda that In exchange for Republican votes for the suspension, Democrats agreed to cap federal spending for the next two years – would set the course for federal spending for the next two years and suspend the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025 — postponing another clash over borrowing until after the presidential election. By then total US debt will be $35 trillion and well on its way to unsustainability.