The irony in our sociopolitical discourse diet intoxicates and stimulates our society. There is of course little more dangerous than a drunken meth-head. Morning Joe had a long segment this AM on Trump’s growing relationship with QAnon. So, I Google’d “conspiracy of like-minded individuals,” which is not technically a conspiracy at all by the legal definition, and got nothing but left-minded explanations about why people succumb to believing in conspiracy theories. The irony of the belief that a billionaire might become mankind’s salvation from the domination of global elites was overwhelming. Elites always compete for greater power, but it is antithetical to believe an elite will provide ordinary people an escape from the excesses of concentrated economic and political power.
Yesterday I watched news reporting higher annual inflation alongside increased US manufacturing reported as if FOREX dollar devaluation had nothing to do with the growth of on-shored manufacturing.
Understanding is the only possible sound basis for communication. In our society self-selection has evolved as a proxy for understanding. Everyone agrees with others inside their own respective echo chambers, but no one agrees with others outside their own respective echo chambers. Agreement of this sort is not actually communication, but it does provide that belief replaces knowledge and wisdom.
The title of this article is based on Bill Bishop’s book The Big Sort: Why The Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart.
These days, the word “divided” is just as commonplace in the American vernacular as “lit”, “woke”, and “word.” It no longer warrants a surprising look, rather it is simply accepted as one of the key descriptors of our present society.
Last night, I started to read a fascinating book that my friend, and old colleague from FirstMark,
, recommended a while back called The Big Sort by Bill Bishop.
It’s a deep and thoughtful analysis into the division of our country and its increased political polarization. It proffers a unique answer, of which I was previously unaware, as to why our country’s division is growing and what may be its root cause.
The book begins in Texas, with the author, Bill Bishop, describing how he and his wife chose the location of their residence in Austin…
Personally, I put this phenomenon down to the fact that average IQs are persistently stuck at 100. Somehow, we have to improve that.
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” HL Mencken
Unfortunately accurate in assessment of general human condition, albeit that IQ tests are technically designed to insure that the average score will always be 100 such that if people get smarter, then the tests will be redesigned to indicate a score of 100 representing quantitatively more intelligent people than the present IQ test score of 100. However this is a very illustrative demonstration of the condition.
Isn’t that the point: the median IQ is arbitrarily defined as 100. The median is just the median for the population tested at the time it was tested. If you want change over time, you have to compare medians over time.
OTOH, it would seem that they must be coming up with IQ tests that ‘average’ people will score 100 on. How do they determine who those average people are, one wonders.
Maybe, seek out people who do not know what the ‘Oxford Comma Rule’ is?
From how MENSA acceptance criteria has been bifurcated based on SAT scores (higher score requirements for tests taken after 1969), then I would expect the general population to be bifurcated along what we call general intelligence lines as well. This is to say that the top 2% based on general intelligence testing has stayed about the same while the remaining 98% is overall less intelligent than in past years. That would follow socioeconomic trends ranging from the general rejection of Keynesian economics to the gravitation surrounding reactionary socioeconomic beliefs.
However, it is also unlikely that general intelligence testing is nearly as meaningful as most people might think. Specialized intelligence testing (such as the Wolfe or Wolfe-Spence programmer aptitude tests) are far more revealing of applicable abilities, but are field specific rather than general intelligence tests. One might posit that there really is no meaningful way to measure general intelligence and also a bit dubious that such a concept is applicable in any specifically meaningful way. Rather than teach to the test, we have always in this regard tested to the taught. Perhaps the purpose is to insure that students have become well indoctrinated to the status quo. I have never been a great fan of the status quo, but I also realize that a general rejection of the status quo opens society to a wide range of even less accommodating social tendencies.
My dad was illiterate and I suspect dyslexic according to his account of letters and words getting jumbled when he was first being unsuccessfully taught to read (back in the 1920’s). Yet he had great skills from hunting and farming to highway and bridge construction and general mechanics. He could read blueprints, but not a book.
A lot of people that are highly skilled in trades perform poorly on general intelligence tests while performing quite well in life both in practical reasoning and inter-personnel skills. If the proof is in the pudding, then what have we been proving? I believe that the growing anti-social behavior we see in the US and the developed world in general is the product of fear born of feelings of inadequacy. If people are less capable now to deal with the challenges presented them by life than they were in past times, then it is natural that those people feel more insecure and fearful.
In dogs it is called fear biting. Taking the four dog personality classifications with which I am most familiar (aggressor or dominant, alert, appeaser, and submissive), then it is the alert individuals that are always most readily adaptable, best behaving, and easily trained.
On one level, the New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate wasmerely saying out loud what many political strategists have been urging GOP candidates to do: Stop talking about abortion and focus on the economy.
But in a weekend interview, Don Bolduc, the tough-talking retired brigadier general, directed that advice to his opponent, Democratic US Senator Maggie Hassan, criticizing her focus on the overturned constitutional right to abortion. “Get over it,” Bolduc said on WMUR CloseUp.
Needless to say, that didn’t end the conversation.
Planned Parenthood Votes pounced on the comments, issuing an immediate, all-caps press release: “WE’RE NOT GETTING OVER THE ELIMINATION OF OUR RIGHTS, DON.” US Senator Jeanne Shaheen blasted Bolduc on Twitter, saying New Hampshire women would not “‘get over’ being made second-class citizens.” …
(Jeanne Shaheen is NH’s other Dem senator, not up for re-election.)
Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc now says President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential race legitimately. Bolduc has repeatedly – as recently as last month – told voters he believed Donald Trump was the rightful winner of that election.
“People live and learn,” Bolduc said during an appearance on Fox News Thursday, explaining his changed view of the election.
“I’ve done a lot of research on this and I have spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state, from every party, and I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive about this, that the election was not stolen,” Bolduc said. …
(AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia, in a measure that appeared to be an admission that Moscow’s war against Ukraine isn’t going according to plan after nearly seven months of fighting.
It’s the first mobilization in Russia since World War II and comes amid recent battlefield losses for the Kremlin’s forces.
The Russian leader, in a seven-minute televised address to the nation aired on Wednesday morning, also warned the West that he isn’t bluffing over using all the means at his disposal to protect Russia’s territory, in what appeared to be a veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear capability. Putin has previously warned the West not to back Russia against the wall and has rebuked NATO countries for supplying weapons to help Ukraine. …
… In his address, which was far shorter than previous speeches about the Ukraine war, Putin accused the West of engaging in “nuclear blackmail” and noted “statements of some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO states about the possibility of using nuclear weapons of mass destruction against Russia.”
He didn’t identify who had made such comments.
“To those who allow themselves such statements regarding Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and for separate components and more modern than those of NATO countries and when the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal,” Putin said.
Even though Trump’s team later denied that it was QAnon’s song, when it was played many in the audience recognized it as their own and raised a finger in the air, symbolizing “1.”
It was the consummation of a long flirtation destined to end in a mutual embrace, a public announcement of a marriage made in Hell.
For those paying attention, Trump accepted QAnon’s proposal back in August 2020 when a reporter asked him about the group and its nonsensical conspiracies about Satanism and pedophile rings led by celebrities and prominent Democratic politicians. “I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much,” he said. “Which I appreciate.”
He did not condemn them. Instead he praised them as “people that love our country.” The fastest path to Trump’s capricious good graces is always through his ego. That Trump would openly align himself with QAnon was never in doubt. The only question is why did it take this long. Useful idiots attract other useful idiots.
That the FBI has warned of violence from QAnon members isn’t a deterrent to Trump; it’s a valued asset. That was clear long before he spent weeks inciting his followers to storm the US Capitol in an attempted coup to upend the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost. …
… Like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, Trump doesn’t care if his QAnon followers wreak havoc. He doesn’t care if they spread dangerous lies. He doesn’t care if they want to overthrow American democracy. That’s exactly what he wants. Last week Trump told Hugh Hewitt, a conservative talk radio host, that if he’s indicted, “I think you’d have problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before. I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it.”
That’s a pointed threat against every American. As usual, Trump is showing exactly who he is — a pathetic and increasingly desperate loser willing to leave this nation in ashes to save himself. He fears nothing more than accountability. But connecting himself to QAnon is yet another warning that there’s no line Trump won’t cross. He is inciting violence again as his violent throngs are once more standing back and standing by.
Indict him only if you dare. If you do, there will be trouble, ‘civil disturbances’ shall we say. If you don’t convict him of something that will prevent him from running again, he will in all likelihood do so, and then there will be even more ‘civil disturbances’ when he doesn’t win.
” Trump’s threat did not sit well with his niece, Mary Trump. On her YouTube program, Ms. Trump put her uncle’s threat in an entirely different perspective, saying that…
‘ “Donald said recently that there will be ‘big problems’ if he’s indicted, and he’s right. There will be big problems. for him. I know that he was in his not-too-subtle way, threatening the rest of us with the violence of his insane followers. But, you know that’s not going to happen. There is not going to be some mass uprising to protest the fact that Donald finally for once in his life is being held accountable. The real problem is that we’re probably going to run out of beer.”
Mary Trump, niece of Donald Trump, sued him in Sep 2020 for allegedly cheating her out of funds she feels are due her from the estate of Trump patriarch Fred Trump, Donald’s father. That suit is still in the courts.
Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, is currently suing him (and his sister Maryanne, and the estate of their late brother Robert) for allegedly defrauding her out of millions of dollars. Lawyers for Trump and company have claimed that, basically, she should have sued them earlier, and in September 2021, the ex-president sued his niece and TheNew York Times—which had previously exposed him for committing “outright fraud”—alleging they were “engaged in an insidious plot” as part of a “personal vendetta” against him. Mary responded by calling the suit an act of “desperation,” …
Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, is currently suing him (and his sister Maryanne, and the estate of their late brother Robert) for allegedly defrauding her out of millions of dollars. Lawyers for Trump and company have claimed that, basically, she should have sued them earlier, and in September 2021, the ex-president sued his niece and TheNew York Times—which had previously exposed him for committing “outright fraud”—alleging they were “engaged in an insidious plot” as part of a “personal vendetta” against him. Mary responded by calling the suit an act of “desperation,” adding, of her uncle: “I think he is a f***ing loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can.”
So, ‘civil disturbances’ either way. I guess this is a double-edged threat! What a guy!! Can we appoint him President Emeritus? Probably preferable to President-for-life. Long ago I suggested he be made Chairman of the board, but that didn’t happen, alas.
President Emeritus duties would include attendance at state funerals & weddings, military parades, casino & hotel openings, rodeos, state fairs and, all importantly, beauty pageants. Only signings would be autographs.
There might also be an annual address to Congress to review these activities.
A day after President Vladimir V. Putin announced a call-up that could see 300,000 civilians swept into military service, thousands of Russians across the country had reportedly received draft papers and were being bundled into buses on Thursday for training — and soon, possibly, to the front lines in Ukraine.
In mountainous eastern Siberia, the Russian news media reported that school buses were being commandeered to move troops to training grounds, and teachers were writing “povestki,” or draft papers. Videos circulated on social media purporting to show new conscripts saying tearful goodbyes before boarding buses.
The call-ups reportedly began within hours of a recorded video announcement by Mr. Putin in which he raised the stakes in the war and escalated his confrontation with the West despite Russia’s humiliating setbacks on the battlefield. By declaring for the first time that Russian civilians could be pressed into service in Ukraine, Mr. Putin risked a public backlash but said the move was “necessary and urgent” because the West had “crossed all lines” by providing sophisticated weapons to Ukraine. …
… Since President Vladimir V. Putin’s announcement on Wednesday of a new troop call-up, waves of Russian men who had previously thought they were safe from being forced to the front lines have realized they could not count on staying out of their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some have left the country in a rush, paying rising prices to catch flights to countries such as Armenia, Georgia, Montenegro and Turkey that allow them to enter without visas. …
NYT: … As with much about Mr. Putin’s war, the draft caught many Russians unawares. Many had been tuning it out, with polls showing that nearly half of the public was paying little attention to events in Ukraine.
For months, military analysts and Western officials had been predicting that Mr. Putin would be forced to impose a draft at some point, given his army’s severe losses in Ukraine. But as recently as this week — even as the Russian Parliament passed a law that codified a punishment of as much as 10 years in prison for draft dodging — senior officials and the state media insisted that any talk of a draft was part of a Western propaganda campaign.
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Then, on Wednesday, Mr. Putin announced one, describing it in a morning address to the nation as a necessary measure. The West, he said, was using Ukrainians as a proxy force in a campaign to “weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country.”
By nightfall, Russia’s conscription machine had swung into action.
The call-up is being managed by local military commissariats that, according to Russia’s defense minister, have some 25 million draft-eligible adults on their rolls. But some 10,000 Russians arrived at military enlistment offices even before being summoned, prompted by Mr. Putin’s announcement, the military’s general staff claimed, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.
Reports of large numbers of men receiving draft notices arrived from across the country, but regions in Siberia and in the largely Muslim Caucasus Mountains appeared to be among the hardest hit. …
NYT: … As with much about Mr. Putin’s war, the draft caught many Russians unawares. Many had been tuning it out, with polls showing that nearly half of the public was paying little attention to events in Ukraine.
For months, military analysts and Western officials had been predicting that Mr. Putin would be forced to impose a draft at some point, given his army’s severe losses in Ukraine. But as recently as this week — even as the Russian Parliament passed a law that codified a punishment of as much as 10 years in prison for draft dodging — senior officials and the state media insisted that any talk of a draft was part of a Western propaganda campaign.
Then, on Wednesday, Mr. Putin announced one, describing it in a morning address to the nation as a necessary measure. The West, he said, was using Ukrainians as a proxy force in a campaign to “weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country.”
By nightfall, Russia’s conscription machine had swung into action.
The call-up is being managed by local military commissariats that, according to Russia’s defense minister, have some 25 million draft-eligible adults on their rolls. But some 10,000 Russians arrived at military enlistment offices even before being summoned, prompted by Mr. Putin’s announcement, the military’s general staff claimed, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.
Reports of large numbers of men receiving draft notices arrived from across the country, but regions in Siberia and in the largely Muslim Caucasus Mountains appeared to be among the hardest hit. …
A federal watchdog investigating the distribution of pandemic relief funds has tripled its estimate of the amount of money paid out in unemployment insurance that can be attributed to certain forms of fraud.
The watchdog, the office of the inspector general of the Labor Department, previously attributed about $16 billion to duplicate payments or payments made to dead people, individuals with suspicious email accounts or federal prisoners. The office now says the federal government probably made $45.6 billion in such payments.
Investigations by the inspector general’s office have led to criminal charges against more than 1,000 people accused of fraudulently receiving unemployment insurance benefits during the pandemic, the office said in a statement on Thursday. …
Though some efforts continue, the once-promising technology has run up against significant challenges — most notably creating an entirely new transit infrastructure. …
The irony in our sociopolitical discourse diet intoxicates and stimulates our society. There is of course little more dangerous than a drunken meth-head. Morning Joe had a long segment this AM on Trump’s growing relationship with QAnon. So, I Google’d “conspiracy of like-minded individuals,” which is not technically a conspiracy at all by the legal definition, and got nothing but left-minded explanations about why people succumb to believing in conspiracy theories. The irony of the belief that a billionaire might become mankind’s salvation from the domination of global elites was overwhelming. Elites always compete for greater power, but it is antithetical to believe an elite will provide ordinary people an escape from the excesses of concentrated economic and political power.
Yesterday I watched news reporting higher annual inflation alongside increased US manufacturing reported as if FOREX dollar devaluation had nothing to do with the growth of on-shored manufacturing.
Understanding is the only possible sound basis for communication. In our society self-selection has evolved as a proxy for understanding. Everyone agrees with others inside their own respective echo chambers, but no one agrees with others outside their own respective echo chambers. Agreement of this sort is not actually communication, but it does provide that belief replaces knowledge and wisdom.
https://medium.com/@JackCohen/the-clustering-of-like-minded-america-cf00dc6f6daf
The Clustering Of Like-Minded America
How “The Big Sort” Is Driving A Wedge In Society
The title of this article is based on Bill Bishop’s book The Big Sort: Why The Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart.
These days, the word “divided” is just as commonplace in the American vernacular as “lit”, “woke”, and “word.” It no longer warrants a surprising look, rather it is simply accepted as one of the key descriptors of our present society.
Last night, I started to read a fascinating book that my friend, and old colleague from FirstMark,
Jim Hao
, recommended a while back called The Big Sort by Bill Bishop.
It’s a deep and thoughtful analysis into the division of our country and its increased political polarization. It proffers a unique answer, of which I was previously unaware, as to why our country’s division is growing and what may be its root cause.
The book begins in Texas, with the author, Bill Bishop, describing how he and his wife chose the location of their residence in Austin…
Personally, I put this phenomenon down to the fact that average IQs are persistently stuck at 100. Somehow, we have to improve that.
“No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” HL Mencken
Unfortunately accurate in assessment of general human condition, albeit that IQ tests are technically designed to insure that the average score will always be 100 such that if people get smarter, then the tests will be redesigned to indicate a score of 100 representing quantitatively more intelligent people than the present IQ test score of 100. However this is a very illustrative demonstration of the condition.
Isn’t that the point: the median IQ is arbitrarily defined as 100. The median is just the median for the population tested at the time it was tested. If you want change over time, you have to compare medians over time.
That’s only what they tell you. What if it’s not true? We are really stuck at 100 forever.
OTOH, it would seem that they must be coming up with IQ tests that ‘average’ people will score 100 on. How do they determine who those average people are, one wonders.
Maybe, seek out people who do not know what the ‘Oxford Comma Rule’ is?
the Oxford comma – Chronicle of Higher Ed – Sep 19
Fred,
From how MENSA acceptance criteria has been bifurcated based on SAT scores (higher score requirements for tests taken after 1969), then I would expect the general population to be bifurcated along what we call general intelligence lines as well. This is to say that the top 2% based on general intelligence testing has stayed about the same while the remaining 98% is overall less intelligent than in past years. That would follow socioeconomic trends ranging from the general rejection of Keynesian economics to the gravitation surrounding reactionary socioeconomic beliefs.
However, it is also unlikely that general intelligence testing is nearly as meaningful as most people might think. Specialized intelligence testing (such as the Wolfe or Wolfe-Spence programmer aptitude tests) are far more revealing of applicable abilities, but are field specific rather than general intelligence tests. One might posit that there really is no meaningful way to measure general intelligence and also a bit dubious that such a concept is applicable in any specifically meaningful way. Rather than teach to the test, we have always in this regard tested to the taught. Perhaps the purpose is to insure that students have become well indoctrinated to the status quo. I have never been a great fan of the status quo, but I also realize that a general rejection of the status quo opens society to a wide range of even less accommodating social tendencies.
My dad was illiterate and I suspect dyslexic according to his account of letters and words getting jumbled when he was first being unsuccessfully taught to read (back in the 1920’s). Yet he had great skills from hunting and farming to highway and bridge construction and general mechanics. He could read blueprints, but not a book.
A lot of people that are highly skilled in trades perform poorly on general intelligence tests while performing quite well in life both in practical reasoning and inter-personnel skills. If the proof is in the pudding, then what have we been proving? I believe that the growing anti-social behavior we see in the US and the developed world in general is the product of fear born of feelings of inadequacy. If people are less capable now to deal with the challenges presented them by life than they were in past times, then it is natural that those people feel more insecure and fearful.
In dogs it is called fear biting. Taking the four dog personality classifications with which I am most familiar (aggressor or dominant, alert, appeaser, and submissive), then it is the alert individuals that are always most readily adaptable, best behaving, and easily trained.
Views about abortion among adults in New Hampshire – Pew Research
66% say it should be legal; 29% say ‘illegal in most cases’; 5% don’t know.
Last week…
Bolduc abandons false claims of stolen election
NH Public Radio – Sep 15
Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc now says President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential race legitimately. Bolduc has repeatedly – as recently as last month – told voters he believed Donald Trump was the rightful winner of that election.
“People live and learn,” Bolduc said during an appearance on Fox News Thursday, explaining his changed view of the election.
“I’ve done a lot of research on this and I have spent the past couple of weeks talking to Granite Staters all over the state, from every party, and I have come to the conclusion, and I want to be definitive about this, that the election was not stolen,” Bolduc said. …
The only thing he learned is that he was unelectable if he clung to the “big steal” lie.
Not the only position that makes him ‘unelectable’ in NH, it appears.
Putin sets partial military call-up, won’t ‘bluff’ on nukes
Boston Globe – Sep 21
This is an op-ed.
Trump and QAnon: A marriage made in Hell
Boston Globe – Renée Graham – Sep 20
Sort of a last-ditch defense?
Indict him only if you dare. If you do, there will be trouble, ‘civil disturbances’ shall we say. If you don’t convict him of something that will prevent him from running again, he will in all likelihood do so, and then there will be even more ‘civil disturbances’ when he doesn’t win.
” Trump’s threat did not sit well with his niece, Mary Trump. On her YouTube program, Ms. Trump put her uncle’s threat in an entirely different perspective, saying that…
‘ “Donald said recently that there will be ‘big problems’ if he’s indicted, and he’s right. There will be big problems. for him. I know that he was in his not-too-subtle way, threatening the rest of us with the violence of his insane followers. But, you know that’s not going to happen. There is not going to be some mass uprising to protest the fact that Donald finally for once in his life is being held accountable. The real problem is that we’re probably going to run out of beer.”
https://www.dailykos.com/st…
EMike,
Love it. Thanks.
Mary Trump, niece of Donald Trump, sued him in Sep 2020 for allegedly cheating her out of funds she feels are due her from the estate of Trump patriarch Fred Trump, Donald’s father. That suit is still in the courts.
The Mary Trump Lawsuit
Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, is currently suing him (and his sister Maryanne, and the estate of their late brother Robert) for allegedly defrauding her out of millions of dollars. Lawyers for Trump and company have claimed that, basically, she should have sued them earlier, and in September 2021, the ex-president sued his niece and The New York Times—which had previously exposed him for committing “outright fraud”—alleging they were “engaged in an insidious plot” as part of a “personal vendetta” against him. Mary responded by calling the suit an act of “desperation,” …
Mary Trump’s lawsuit against her Uncle Donald, filed in 2020, still in the courts
Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, is currently suing him (and his sister Maryanne, and the estate of their late brother Robert) for allegedly defrauding her out of millions of dollars. Lawyers for Trump and company have claimed that, basically, she should have sued them earlier, and in September 2021, the ex-president sued his niece and The New York Times—which had previously exposed him for committing “outright fraud”—alleging they were “engaged in an insidious plot” as part of a “personal vendetta” against him. Mary responded by calling the suit an act of “desperation,” adding, of her uncle: “I think he is a f***ing loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can.”
Mary Trump has been suing Donald Trump (& his sister) for a larger share of Fred Trump’s estate since Sep 2020. That suit is still in the courts.
So, ‘civil disturbances’ either way. I guess this is a double-edged threat! What a guy!! Can we appoint him President Emeritus? Probably preferable to President-for-life. Long ago I suggested he be made Chairman of the board, but that didn’t happen, alas.
President Emeritus duties would include attendance at state funerals & weddings, military parades, casino & hotel openings, rodeos, state fairs and, all importantly, beauty pageants. Only signings would be autographs.
There might also be an annual address to Congress to review these activities.
Thousands of Russians have already received draft papers, reports say
NY Times – Sep 22
Some men flee Russia, fearing they could be drafted to fight
NYT: … As with much about Mr. Putin’s war, the draft caught many Russians unawares. Many had been tuning it out, with polls showing that nearly half of the public was paying little attention to events in Ukraine.
For months, military analysts and Western officials had been predicting that Mr. Putin would be forced to impose a draft at some point, given his army’s severe losses in Ukraine. But as recently as this week — even as the Russian Parliament passed a law that codified a punishment of as much as 10 years in prison for draft dodging — senior officials and the state media insisted that any talk of a draft was part of a Western propaganda campaign.
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Continue reading the main story
Then, on Wednesday, Mr. Putin announced one, describing it in a morning address to the nation as a necessary measure. The West, he said, was using Ukrainians as a proxy force in a campaign to “weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country.”
By nightfall, Russia’s conscription machine had swung into action.
The call-up is being managed by local military commissariats that, according to Russia’s defense minister, have some 25 million draft-eligible adults on their rolls. But some 10,000 Russians arrived at military enlistment offices even before being summoned, prompted by Mr. Putin’s announcement, the military’s general staff claimed, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.
Reports of large numbers of men receiving draft notices arrived from across the country, but regions in Siberia and in the largely Muslim Caucasus Mountains appeared to be among the hardest hit. …
NYT: … As with much about Mr. Putin’s war, the draft caught many Russians unawares. Many had been tuning it out, with polls showing that nearly half of the public was paying little attention to events in Ukraine.
For months, military analysts and Western officials had been predicting that Mr. Putin would be forced to impose a draft at some point, given his army’s severe losses in Ukraine. But as recently as this week — even as the Russian Parliament passed a law that codified a punishment of as much as 10 years in prison for draft dodging — senior officials and the state media insisted that any talk of a draft was part of a Western propaganda campaign.
Then, on Wednesday, Mr. Putin announced one, describing it in a morning address to the nation as a necessary measure. The West, he said, was using Ukrainians as a proxy force in a campaign to “weaken, divide and ultimately destroy our country.”
By nightfall, Russia’s conscription machine had swung into action.
The call-up is being managed by local military commissariats that, according to Russia’s defense minister, have some 25 million draft-eligible adults on their rolls. But some 10,000 Russians arrived at military enlistment offices even before being summoned, prompted by Mr. Putin’s announcement, the military’s general staff claimed, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.
Reports of large numbers of men receiving draft notices arrived from across the country, but regions in Siberia and in the largely Muslim Caucasus Mountains appeared to be among the hardest hit. …
Paraphrasing Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen,
“$45.6 billion here, $45.6 billion there. Pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Estimate Rises to $45.6 Billion
NY Times – Sep 22
Elsewhere…
Is the Hyperloop Doomed?
NY Times – Sep 22
Though some efforts continue, the once-promising technology has run up against significant challenges — most notably creating an entirely new transit infrastructure. …
(Doomed? It pretty much looks that way.)