How Abrams and Bradleys CRUSHED Russia’s tanks in Iraq

The slaughter happened despite the Iraqs using good tactics from a fortified position. Ukraine won’t get enough to make a difference but the Abrams, and the German, English, and French tanks, have the potential to inflict huge losses. Retrofitting the old Russian tanks will help but when Russian T 72s had direct hits on the Abrams the shells bounced off. Not much they can do about that.

At the Conversation, as close as any can get to boasting that it really is all about planting gender options in little kids’ brains, plus, of course, the victim hood of flamboyant inverts:

The argument in support of drag emphasises the impact on the performers at the centre of these events and queer community, arguing that the cancellation of these events is a form of discrimination and a contravention of human rights.

But wait, kids who don’t get to see drag queens are even bigger victims:

But the debate so far overlooks the agency and rights of the events’ intended audiences: children and young people.

And here’s the nub:

But the way drag asks us to question the socially constructed nature of gender offers children a vision of self-determination. You can do what you want to do, you can be who you want to be.

The potentiality within the play of drag engages the power of children’s imaginations today to conceive better tomorrows.

A manifesto spelled out clear as day. Don’t bother trying to comment. The Conversation is even worse than The Australian.

Dot:

People really want to execute this kid? What he has is not a made up condition. He’s literally brain damaged.

Yes.
His lot in life was to be an object lesson. Someone for others to point to and laugh at.
Now say something in defence of the child and its mother.

calli – absolutely agree. No-one really knows what goes on in a couple relationship except the couple – and sometimes even they don’t know.

In the case I cited, I could see that things were not going well for quite a while before. But, when it all came crashing down, he behaved like a victim, which he was not.

On depression. Theodore Dalrymple has written about the immense harm done by people who are feeling a bit low (under the mistaken impression that our lot in life is to be perpetually happy) being diagnosed by compliant or money hungry practioners as ‘suffering from depression.’

There is paralysing depression in my family history, and I’ve done numerous rounds with it. People with nostrums like ‘just hop out of bed and get some exercise’ have no idea, none, what it is like.

Let me repeat that – you have NFI.

My solution is to treat it like gout – it will pass. Meanwhile, hang in and try not to let it do too much damage to your life.

Oh, and drugs have never been the slightest bit of use. It’s genetic.

Clonidine – commonly used for BP reduction and ADHD but also a host of other things.

Have a look at its wide off-label but OK’d usages. Anxiety features, many references re that.

Ingrowing toenails are probably in there somewhere. Everything else is. lol.

Jupes the report is that the Russians are sending 2-3 hundred T-55s forward. Which is a lot. More that all the tanks Ukraine has been gifted.

Russia Sent 70-Year-old T-55 Tanks To Ukraine Without Even Upgrading Them (Forbes, 14 Apr)

The first of potentially two or three hundred 70-year-old T-55 tanks that the Kremlin has been pulling out of long-term storage finally have arrived in Ukraine.

And there’s no evidence the Russians have added blocks of explosive reactive armor in order to reinforce the T-55’s original—and thin—steel armor.

I wouldn’t say the armour is exactly thin, but against modern munitions it may as well be. On the other hand used as infantry support vehicles, which I strongly suspect is the idea, they would be pretty reasonable. Depending on how many top-attack portable missiles the Ukies have left. They’ve been going through them like water so they may be short – and they’re not so easy to replace given the US shut down their production lines years ago.

The fun thing is the Russians never throw anything out. Hundreds of 70 year old tanks in good condition! Amazing. I would not be surprised to see I-15’s flying air support: they’d have a low radar cross section.

When you are fishing you think of nothing else except your line. It gives your brain time out. Best meditation ever with the prospect of a reward at the end. For anyone hounded by the black dog it is a remarkable therapy.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Bearesays:
April 28, 2023 at 6:08 pm
Clonidine – commonly used for BP reduction and ADHD but also a host of other things.

Have a look at its wide off-label but OK’d usages. Anxiety features, many references re that.

Ingrowing toenails are probably in there somewhere. Everything else is. lol.

Thanks Lizzie. I wasn’t aware that it is used for anxiety. Not that surprising given that another class of antidepressants, SNRI’s, target norepinephrine, as does Clonidine. BTW, an interesting perspective on SSRIs, and probably SNRis, is not the increase in those neurotransmitter levels but an increase the expression of a key growth factor. I read an animal study where an infusion of that growth factor, BDNF, immediately improved depression relevant behaviors. Lithium also boosts BDNF, as does ECT. ECT also has an immediate effect. I won’t take you down that rabbit hole, takes too long to explain.

That’s a good reason for executing him.

No. F*** off to some bizarre alt right web site.

That’s not exactly a coherent argument. Buddhists believe all life is sacred. Christians believe all human life is sacred. You seem to be in with the Christians on this.

I’m a realist. I believe my life is sacred, a murderer’s isn’t, and yours I’m not sure about.

I discovered a couple of boxes of books in the garage a couple of days ago. Emptied them yesterday and found David Glantz “Beyond Stalingrad” covering the December to May Soviet operations in the Ukraine area. So many familiar names of cities and rivers.
That area must be knee deep in skeletons and rusting ordnance…

John H, Dr. BG’s advice re exercise is good (although I can’t agree that killing off foetal alcohol syndrome 17 year olds is a good thing; these sad kids, mostly aboriginal, need a group home with care and guidance not wandering around bored looking for excitement; mostly prison serves as that these days because their craziness ends them up there; all part of the intractable problem).

Robert
It not you its me. I really should lower my expectations and expect the “kill them all” fantasises is all you and Drbg have.

The problem is often that men and women express love differently.

The Beloved expresses his lurve by putting up with me. This is sufficient. 😀

I believe my life is sacred, a murderer’s isn’t…

It depends.
Nobody is beyond redemption.

Executing a killer is morally permissible only when he or she cannot be incarcerated in a manner that ensures the public is protected from any further danger.

St Maria Goretti’s would-be rapist and killer was present at her canonisation 48 years later.

I enjoy those old British movies where Father ‘expressed his love’ by going to work and supporting his family. Mother did it by maintaining the home, raising the children and putting a hot meal on the table every night.

I’m a star.

People really want to execute this kid? What he has is not a made up condition. He’s literally brain damaged.

FASD is the path of least resistance for overdiagnosing. It is fashionable, and makes a diagnosis of ADHD look like you have to climb Everest to get it in comparison, and that’s saying something. It’s also almost impossible to refute.

I blame his mother.

So do I. I also blame the 17 year old.

What will happen is that the 17 year old (I’m deliberately not calling him a ‘kid’) has an excuse, the mother will have an excuse, someone else will have an excuse, and it will be nobody’s fault that a mother and her unborn child are in the ground instead of experiencing life to its fullest, and all that brings (or would have brought) with it.

Note well that the same people who apparently have this mystical FASD have no problems whatsoever ghosting Centrelink payments, driving cars, sourcing grog, complaining when their free house gets damaged (by themselves) and identifying what and where their ‘traditional lands’ are.

johannasays:
April 28, 2023 at 6:06 pm
calli – absolutely agree. No-one really knows what goes on in a couple relationship except the couple – and sometimes even they don’t know.

In the case I cited, I could see that things were not going well for quite a while before. But, when it all came crashing down, he behaved like a victim, which he was not.

On depression. Theodore Dalrymple has written about the immense harm done by people who are feeling a bit low (under the mistaken impression that our lot in life is to be perpetually happy) being diagnosed by compliant or money hungry practioners as ‘suffering from depression.’

8 months ago my oldest friend committed passive suicide. His wife left him 3 years ago. He gave up, stopped taking diuretics even though his lymphoedema was so severe his legs were constantly leaking fluid.

80%+ of depression diagnoses are made by GPs. It isn’t about money, it is about desperation. So desperate they are not using street drugs. Funny incident when I wasted my time seeing a psychologist. She asked if I had suicidal ideation. I replied that anyone serious about suicide isn’t going to tell anyone. A cruel response on my part but it was spontaneous. A similiar thing happened when I saw a psychiatrist 15 years ago. Within a few minutes I heard a buzzing sound behind me and ignored it. It happened again a few minutes later, I turned around to see a teddy bear on the shelf behind me. I knew he was triggering the buzzing, testing for the startle response, an indicator of heightened arousal. It would have been a valid strategy except I knew about the startle response.

With FAS, the Defence amounts to – he/she can’t control themself, so please release them into the community asap.

There has to be a better way.

Also, how is the Aboriginal nomenklatura responding?

Crickets.

The important thing is well paid, preferably permanent, jobs, which have no requirements for attendance or output.

What will happen is that the 17 year old (I’m deliberately not calling him a ‘kid’) has an excuse, the mother will have an excuse, someone else will have an excuse, and it will be nobody’s fault that a mother and her unborn child are in the ground instead of experiencing life to its fullest, and all that brings (or would have brought) with it.

Fare enough,KD.

He should have been in an institution.
His sentence is to short.
He should be put into a institution for life after parole.

Lazy friday job- went in to town, to dig up a Hills Hoist from the yard of a house that was due demolition to expand a daycare. House lot is being used as overflow parking for Dept of Community Services style child counselling centre. Could hear banging and shouting from the building, and more distressingly, chooks going mental in the ill-advised petting coop when some brat came out to give them a kicking.
As I slogged away- the clothesline is a twelve foot beauty, but was anchored in the sand with a huge lump of boondie-filled cement- one bird came to and fro the car park, getting coffees four-in-hand and running out for printer ink etc. Her bold and roving eye betrayed for what she indeed was, an American. Chatted as I stopped gasping for air long enough to have a drink offered- things busy now school’s back? Oh no, she says, the busy times are school holidays, mothers book their kids in as a form of daycare.
So they can keep working? Nope, they’re going to Bunbury shopping or off to the salon for a four hour roots job.
Oh… so, new kids? What can you do for them with such a short contact time? Oh no, they’re the regulars, they just get double contact time.
Regulars? Yep, there’s kids on the books who have been coming in for three sessions a week, four or five years in a row.
…It must be a bit trying on your own mental health? Oh I don’t even speak to any kids, they’re just names on the screen to me. I’m in admin, I just do a few months at a time as I travel, then have a few months off.
…I got a bit uncomfortable with how uncensored her commentary was, so I switched the subject to me. I pulled up short of asking her if the whole boondoggle was a make-work scheme, to keep on harvesting subsidies while kids actually kept on coming because they get genuine engagement.

There is much commentary about the contradiction of so much migration and the housing crisis. I suspect DisAlbo has a solution: preferential housing for the migrants. If they do that, they will try to hide it.

You can get Mr. Motivator online for short workouts Day 1 to 14 for free, no need to join anything, just do it when you like, at the level you want. Here’s Day 9, where you can also use hand weights (cheap in K-Mart), for a slightly longer and harder workout. Who could feel down with that best West Indian pushing you to get up and out of yourself?

I’m an optimistic sort, perhaps because I’ve danced all of my life and I’m not stopping now.
You can do Mr. Motivator seated on a chair if you wish.
In our dance group of 25 regulars for coffee afterwards, there are five over eighty now.
We dance for longer and much harder than Mr. M. requires, using jazz, some hip hop, and ballet.
The instructor will be a member of Team Eighty later this year. She’s superb.

Most of those institutions were closed in the 1990s.

The system is broken Roger.

bespokesays:
April 28, 2023 at 6:49 pm
I enjoy those old British movies where Father ‘expressed his love’ by going to work and supporting his family. Mother did it by maintaining the home, raising the children and putting a hot meal on the table every night.

I’m a star.

I don’t want to push this barrow too far. Emotional neglect is a negative type of childhood trauma. When the 2 working parents became a thing I used to argue that it could lead to an increase in teen and adult anxiety. My thought arose from Bowlby’s “principle caregiver” hypothesis. There is abundant evidence that mood disorders are strongly associated with childhood issues.

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis suggests that continual attachment disruption between the infant and primary caregiver could result in long-term cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties for that infant.

He may well find himself murdered, in the name of “payback.”

Prisoners are rotated between prisons to avoid such things nowadays.

I am the child of divorce, I think whilst my father must bear primary responsibility for the marriage breakdown, it’s taken me years to realise that my mother also bears some responsibility. Having said that, I love them both dearly, they are my mother and my father, and without them I wouldn’t be here.
However divorce damages children, and I carry emotional scars that still haunt me, although I try to hide them from the world.

Ditto for me, Cassie, re my parents, and for my own first marriage breakdown and its effects on the two children, both sons, of that marriage. Except that growing into old age, my own childhood and adolescent scars are diminished. I’m more inclined to feel sorry for my parents now than for myself, for their times were harder. My attention now turns to all of my children, and helping them to parent their own children well, by assisting financially where it matters and by listening and being there. I never judge them. I cannot. Life throws so many curved balls. My daughter has just received a big one. All is not well with her third child, a little boy now nearly three, with developing heart problems.

More schlock.

Don’t forget to remind us (because we all care, deeply) when you are going to bed, except that you will be monitoring comments in case your name is mentioned. Then, you will be wide awake.

Frauds and schlockters gotta …

John H.says:
April 28, 2023 at 7:07 pm
There is much commentary about the contradiction of so much migration and the housing crisis. I suspect DisAlbo has a solution: preferential housing for the migrants. If they do that, they will try to hide it.

That solution has been used for some time for “asylum seekers/refugees”. Extending it to legal immigrants is quite logical from the bureaucratic point of view.

Silly move, Rita.

‘Kate’ Jenner is not the friend of the women’s cause; he is not the ‘good’ side of trans.

Why do conservatives fall for this trap time and time again?

Lizzie:

John H, Dr. BG’s advice re exercise is good (although I can’t agree that killing off foetal alcohol syndrome 17 year olds is a good thing; these sad kids, mostly aboriginal, need a group home with care and guidance not wandering around bored looking for excitement; mostly prison serves as that these days because their craziness ends them up there; all part of the intractable problem).

Lizzie. The FAS kids aren’t getting what they need because the system denies it. Yes they need a group home with supervision. We’ve tried that approach. “Another stolen generation”.
The people getting rich off this failed system don’t want it fixed because if it does get fixed, they lose an income for life.
Do you want to fix the problem? Remove ALL the money. It’s the money that is feeding this nightmare, but no one will turn the tap off because ‘rights’.
Either turn off the money or be stuck with the FAS kids for the next 20 generations.
The problem isn’t intractable, people want to feel good about handing out the munni, but that only salves their consciences – it doesn’t solve the problem.

Bespoke:
Robert

It not you its me. I really should lower my expectations and expect the “kill them all” fantasises is all you and Drbg have.

That’s a disgusting jibe.
We want the problem solved. Your way doesn’t solve it but it does give you a warm inner glow that you are doing “something”.
Again, Life isn’t fair, the universe sometimes hands out shitty deals to people who don’t deserve it.
So this kid has killed two people because the “He Has Rights” argument has failed.
What next? Let him out in 3 years time and let him do the same thing? Because as sure as God made little green apples, he will be a repeat offender. Or don’t his victims have rights?

I believe my life is sacred, a murderer’s isn’t…

It depends.
Nobody is beyond redemption.

That’s a theological position and not borne out by the facts. Truth is, some are irredeemable, and finding out which is expensive in innocent lives.

And I apologise, Roger.

.. Robert not Roger.

Doc, I didn’t say murderers should be released from prison.
I said they were not beyond redemption.

Ok, provided they get an offer of euthanasia if they think being dead beats life in gaol.

Having a look at the RBA Money and Credit statistics, Item D4, Debt Securities Outstanding.

I charted total foreign held privately issued bonds (eurobonds) to our total of residential mortgage backed securities (rmbs), and the proportion of foreign held privately issued bonds to residential mortgage backed securities.

In recent months, eurobonds have risen steeply (up 6.2% in six months) as a proportion of rmbs (up 12.2% in six months to 85.1%) but the total of rmbs has fallen steeply (down 5.4% in six months).

On top of this, having the RBA cash rate fall relative to the US Federal funds rate will mean the capital flow into Australia won’t occur from interest rate parity arbitrage. The wholesale rate that AFG and Macquarie etc then package to other banks and NBFIs must go up.

So there is pressure on mortgages, perhaps many unsustainable, unsound mortgages.

Now, looking into D5 (Bank Lending Classified by Sector), conversely since 2004, there is a downward trend in the month to month growth of owner occupier and investor mortgages. Down from around a six month moving average of monthly growth at 0.94% and down to around 0.64%.

Bespoke:
What is there to apologise about?
You think one way out of this problem will work, I think another will.
It’s just a difference of opinion.
You think I’m wrong, I think you’re wrong.
It won’t make a jot of difference because we both have no effective say in the matter.
The ones who can change things aren’t interested – they only want the munni and the power.
All the people in the camps are less than the dust beneath their chariot wheels.

DrBeauGansays:
April 28, 2023 at 8:16 pm
I believe my life is sacred, a murderer’s isn’t…

It depends.
Nobody is beyond redemption.

That’s a theological position and not borne out by the facts. Truth is, some are irredeemable, and finding out which is expensive in innocent lives.

There was experiment with psychopaths. They decided to try and rehabilitate them. One was released and committed a murder within days. Other psychopaths stated all the psychology did was give them better psych manipulation strategies against their victims. It isn’t always true, perhaps now they have better interventions, but if the changes in brain function are pronounced no.

The issue is also complicated because there are “silent” psychopaths. Those are people who recognise their condition but manage to conceal it. They are probably the ones with less pronounced brain damage, sufficient frontal lobe inhibition(see below), and above average intelligence. The use of the label used in relation to the frequencies encountered in various professions is a misleading generalization.

Fallon’s 3 legged stool idea. 1. A family history of psychiatric disorders(genes). 2. Childhood maltreatment. 3. Brain dysfunction, either in the “emotional centre”(heightened) or the frontal lobes(which, broadly, inhibit impulsive behavior) or both. Fallon, a neuroscientist, demonstrates psychopathic tendencies but doesn’t meet the 3 requirements to be full on evil but he has a history of doing some very callous things.

In fact, in one very disturbing study in 1991, those psychopath inmates who were a part of group therapy actually had a higher violent recidivism rate than those psychopaths who received no therapy. As one psychopath put it, “These programs are like a finishing school. They teach you how to put the squeeze on people.”

It won’t make a jot of difference

If all one does is rant on the internet then I agree, Robert. We had a small win last week every bit helps.

All the people in the camps are less than the dust beneath their chariot wheels.

You cannot charge entry to the museum if you have no exhibits.

We might see a collapse in dinky mortgages without much of a collapse in housing prices and further contraction of the long term growth rate of mortgage and dwelling construction.

It may not just be the millennials complaining about housing. Even their children (Generation Alpha) might complain too as well as the Gen Zs.

There is a huge difference between what is diagnosed as depression today which is usually reactive depression that typically lifts of its own accord. Mine is biologically mediated depression, twice over. Worlds apart.

What I would describe (unqualified that I am) as Situational vs. Chemical Depression. Although I think people mean well, it’s very difficult to explain.

Isn’t this alarming in light of mRNA vaccines?

https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/92931/human-cells-can-write-rna-sequences-into-dna-study-shows/

Human cells can write RNA sequences into DNA, study shows

For the first time, scientists have found evidence that polymerase theta can write RNA segments back into DNA.

By Victoria Rees (Drug Target Review)

14 June 2021

Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University, US, have provided the first evidence that RNA segments can be written back into DNA. According to the researchers, these findings potentially challenge a central dogma in biology and could have wide implications.

Cells contain polymerases that duplicate DNA into another set that goes into a newly formed cell. These also build RNA messages so they can be read more efficiently into proteins. Polymerases were thought to only work in one direction – DNA into DNA or RNA. This prevents RNA messages from being rewritten back into the master recipe book of genomic DNA. However, the study sheds new light on this process.

“This work opens the door to many other studies that will help us understand the significance of having a mechanism for converting RNA messages into DNA in our own cells,” said Dr Richard Pomerantz, one of the lead researchers. “The reality that a human polymerase can do this with high efficiency, raises many questions.”

… debt levels beyond the comprehension of the populace.

Indeed, 1360 mn AUD of public debt for Australia when I last looked a few years ago.

We will pay directly for this current largesse from around 2030 to 2050 and it will be severe.

Skipping breakfast is associated with fatties? Is it because they’re trying to lose weight? I used to skip breakfast a few years ago and I was in great shape. Needed to buy a new (smaller) belt actually.

Or it could be, as it is known that drugs can work differently on different people due to genetics

Better living through chemistry:

Half the men I know are using Ozempic to lose weight – the signs are hard to miss (18 Apr, via Instapundit)

Move over Ozempic — even more powerful weight-loss drug is in the works (27 Apr)

Blue pill or red pill. Or maybe diet-n-exercise!

there isn’t a single overall weight management strategy that works the best for everyone

There most certainly is. If you don’t want to be a great big fat bastard, you don’t have to be.

If you are reliant on pills for weight loss, you are lazy and inclined to be a fat person. ‘But muh genes, muh genes’ won’t cut it. If you are fat and your siblings are fat and your parents are fat – it’s not your genes, it’s a culture of laziness you’ve bought into, and it’s a handy excuse.

Dot> Might be hard to contain the financial damage only to dinky mortgages. 2008 saw instant linkages between all related housing markets at retail/wholesales/bank levels.

I’m guessing the next shoes to drop on Elbow & Jims cunning economic plan is to remove negative gearing and reduce capital gains exemption on family housing. They’re envious idiots trashing everything they touch … but there is no real opposition now though.

Noosa man Bodhi Mani Risby-Jones, 23, arrested over alleged naked rampage in Indonesia

Meh, maybe do some good… Maybe…

Bodhi?

Young, dumb, full of c

Gilas says: April 28, 2023 at 8:57 pm

James Lindsay, in a recent, unscripted, 25-minutes-long speech to the European Parliament gives a brilliant explanation of what “woke” is, its ontogeny and its metamorphotic evolution from Marxist doctrine.

A thumb-up was not enough. I have to also say this is a brilliant speech.
In the highly competitive attention economy, this 28 minutes is definitely worthwhile for understanding the theoretical basis of the professional apple-cart upsetters described loosely as the Woke.

When the downtrodden workers gained 40inch televisions and 38hour work weeks, the weird and disaffected became the new recruiting ground for global socialism. Exactly how the company bosses fit into this scheme was not very well explained, but that is a minor nitpick in an otherwise sweeping summary of how Woke got here.

I think the problem rabz is when people become type II diabetics or prediabetic. They’ve impaired the function of their pancreas, liver, hormones etc. There is also the illusion of weight gain when they’re building up muscle with even prolonged endurance exercise. Some of it could be mild malnutrition too. You can’t metabolise macronutrients without certain B vitamins and fat without vitamin E and its analogues. Then you’ve got drinking alcohol as well impairing a perhaps fatty liver.

After the James Lindsay main meal I can also support a Prof Frank Furedi chaser.

Furedi disputes that Woke is Marxist but doesn’t explain how. As long as today’s Wokism is understood it hardly matters where it came from (Marxist or otherwise), but nonetheless I still think Lindsay was persuasive on that point. The similarity of these ideas, of using the minority as a lever against the underpinnings of normal success, is too neat to discount.

Plus what I meant to say about Lindsay’s speech is that it is terse. Jam-packed. Unlike this comment it has little redundancy and hardly a wasted word.

Bespoke:

He should have been in an institution.
His sentence is to short.
He should be put into a institution for life after parole.

Yes – I’d be all for that… Except the usual suspects will demand his release because ‘inhumane’ and “He Has Rights.” Then he will be let out.
If he was put in a secure home with appropriate safeguards, we wouldn’t need to hang him, but that has failed time after time after time. And the people who demand they be let into the community walk away with the Warm Inner Glow of Superior Moral Standing while the rest of us have to deal with the mess.

Muddy:

You cannot charge entry to the museum if you have no exhibits.

Well put, Muddy. I will steal that one and use it on a T shirt. No attribution – so people think I thought of it and they will believe I am clever.

https://harryrichardson.substack.com/p/what-happened-in-hospitals-during?utm_source=substack&publication_id=1142143&post_id=117886571&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true
What the Hell happened to our Health System during the COVID overreaction?
Very good post from Richardson. Details how the US government (and by extension, ours.) forced the system into the mass murder of the sick with the coercion of the doctors and nurses.