Post by mhbruin on Apr 30, 2022 9:49:11 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 575 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday April 27)
We had some rain up north this week.
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Never Iron a Four-Leaf Clover. You Don't Want to Press Your Luck.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
How Do You Confuse Tractors With Porn?
Neil Parish has told the BBC he is resigning as an MP after admitting he watched pornography twice in Parliament.
Mr Parish, who has represented Tiverton and Honiton in Devon since 2010, said it had been a "moment of madness".
He said the first time was accidental after looking at a tractor website, but the second time - in the House of Commons - was deliberate.
He was suspended by the Conservative Party on Friday over the allegations.
Two female colleagues claimed they had seen him looking at adult content on his phone while sitting near them.
Our Russian Patriots.
This is Who They Are Supporting
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Could Previous Guy Be a Nominee?
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Invasions Have Consequences
Were They Depleted and Disparate or Just Dazed and Confused?
Friday was most notable in eastern Ukraine for the sheer lack of Russian attacks. Whether this was a result of the cascade of incoming overall commanders (Here comes Dvornikov! Here comes Gerasimov! Wait, here comes Putin!), a matter of being out of some sort of supplies (noticed all those burning ammo dumps lately?), or just giving the guys a break after weeks of throwing themselves on swords each day (which sounds very un-Russian), very little forward progress was even attempted.
Though artillery shelling of Ukrainian towns and villages continued Friday, it was hard to find any evidence of a genuine attempt at an advance. Anywhere. The result was daily summaries that contained the phrase “no change on the ground” in area after area. Only north of Kharkiv, where Ukrainian forces are slowly pushing Russian troops back from a series of villages just a few miles from the Russian border, was there any measurable change.
In their own daily update of the situation, the U.K. Ministry of Defense had something to say about the status of Russian troops. In their evaluation, Russia had been forced to redeploy troops who were “depleted and disparate” after their experience in the failed Battle of Kyiv. Those troops have now been pushed into the Donbas, often as part of patchwork units formed from the fragments of BTGs that remained after losses in the north. They’ve brought with them fear, exhaustion, and a big feeling of just being done-with-this.
The U.K. also noted that, despite the much shorter supply lines in the east—after all this whole area is not just adjacent to Russia, but to areas Russia has controlled for eight years—that doesn’t seem to have translated into more reliable supplies at the front line. Ukrainian attacks on supply locations and fuel depots may have played some role in that failure, but whatever the cause, Russia still isn’t getting ammo, fuel, and even food to the places where they are needed.
Russia is also still having issues with coordinating troops. That’s in spite of placing the focus of the war in a smaller area and piling on all that top brass. All those attacks that have been happening are still attacks by just one or two tactical groups.
Something unusual was reported on Friday night—an attempted night attack by Russian forces. Throughout the war, Russian forces have been completely lacking in night vision equipment. With NATO donations of exactly that kind of gear to Ukraine, attempting to move forces at night is something that Russia has rarely dared. However, updated tanks and othered armored vehicles often have their own built-in thermal or low-light vision system. So it seems that Russia did make a push Friday night along the line north of Popasna. It went this well:
Things That Make You Go "Hmmm"
At least five prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide since late January, with three of them allegedly killing members of their families before taking their own lives.
Four of the dead men were associated with the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries.
In a Poker Tournament, It's Not Who Wins the First Hand. It's Who Wins the Last One
Today’s April 29 report really amounts to “zip.” A small village northeast of Kharkiv liberated by Ukraine was the only territory to change hands. On the main Donbas front, Ukraine General Staff reported repelling 14 attacks, none gained purchase. And yet again, we see Russia incapable of organizing a single, massive, coordinated push to crack Ukrainian defensive lines. It’s just more of the same we’ve seen all war—a slow grinding effort to erode Ukraine defenses by sending wave after wave of small, under-resourced attacks, except with more artillery prep. The tactic has had some successes! But at severe cost to the invaders.
Ukraine, aside from some tactical pickups here and there, seems content to chip away at Russian forces with artillery, guerrilla ambushes, and drones, trading ground for blood when absolutely necessary, but mostly holding firm in their extensive prepared defenses along the entire Donbas front. They just need to hold out a couple more months, to allow all that sweet new Western gear to arrive—drones, armored, and artillery, of course, but also body armor and helmets that will allow reservists to join the fight, and medical supplies that will save many lives. Also, lots and lots of armor.
The US has already committed to sending 170,000 155mm shells. That’s a lot of shipments from California and elsewhere. And now, with lend-lease authority granted by Congress, the US will keep supplying as many of these as Ukraine needs. The spigot is wide open to anything the Pentagon thinks will help push Russia entirely out of Ukraine. Russia’s defeat is official U.S. policy.
While Ukraine’s forces grow, Russia’s are a finite resource and attriting rapidly. They’ve run out of Donbas separatist cannon fodder, Syria never sent its promised 15,000 soldiers, none of Russia’s allies like Belarus are lending a hand, and Wagner mercenaries can’t fill the void. So Vladimir Putin has a difficult choice: whether to announce a general mobilization.
Popasna Stands!
The news out of Popasna is mostly that Popasna has still not been taken. The town remains under Ukrainian control even as additional attempts to advance Russian tanks into the town’s streets have been reported. On Friday Russia also risked a Ka-52 helicopter in an effort to get at the Ukrainian positions in the town that had blocked Russian advances for over a week. None of this seems to have dislodged the Ukrainian forces.
Lady of Spain, They Adore You
So Sad!
Who Knew That Russia Was Part of Florida? Or Is Florida Part of Russia?
Putin's Finest
Russia has been loading up its front lines with troops from the poorest and most remote regions of Russia. The Tuvans in the image above are equipped with cheap rubber boots to face winter conditions in Ukraine. Ethnic minorities like the Tuvans and the Buryats are more expendable to Putin than ethnic Russians from places like Moscow and St Petersburg.
Buryatia ranks second among Russian regions in terms of the number of those killed in the war in Ukraine. More - only in Dagestan.
Ukrainian intelligence reports that Russian troops from Buryatia deployed near Kherson, had been becoming increasingly resentful of the Kadyrite Chechens.
One of the reasons for this ethnic conflict is the reluctance of the Buryat soldiers to conduct offensive operations and their perception of the "inequality" of their circumstances compared to those of the Chechen soldiers. The latter are never on the frontline – they always remain in the rear as "barricading detachments." Their task is to ensure the units of [Russian] occupying forces maintain active military action. That is, to open fire on those [Russian troops] who are trying to retreat.
Things came to a head when the Chechens decided to keep all the loot to themselves. The Buryats decided to do a forcible redistribution and a 50 a side firefight ensued. No news on casualties yet. An army that leaves behind its wounded but never leaves behind it’s loot is not a unified fighting force.
In addition to cannon fodder from remote corners of Russia, The Russian military is rounding up and forcibly conscripting males from the separatist regions of Ukraine to toss into the meat grinder. These troops are under-trained, under-equipped and are terrified and the opposite of motivated to fight.
Reports of mutinies are multiplying. Russian Colonel Yuri Medvedev was run over by a tank and killed at the hands of his own brigade. 60 Russian paratroopers sent to Belarus to deploy to Ukraine staged a mutiny and refused to be deployed.
Maybe We Can All Drive A Little Less
Municipal officials in Kyiv on Friday urged residents to stop driving private vehicles to conserve Ukraine’s limited fuel supplies for troops fighting off the Russian invasion, in an announcement that reflected uncertainty about energy stability across Ukraine and the rest of Europe.
The city administration encouraged commuters to use public transit, which is slowly being restored after Russian forces aborted their attempt to seize the Ukrainian capital about a month ago. “Remember the needs of the army,” officials said in a Telegram post.
The wartime measures are a reminder that the global spike in energy prices that followed Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion has had very different consequences for Moscow and Kyiv. Two months after Russia attacked, Ukrainians outside the immediate battlefield are struggling to reclaim a sense of normalcy. (Kyiv now runs 140 buses, 70 trams, and 77 trolley buses, city data show, up from roughly 150 buses and 30 trams on April 5, just days after Russian forces pulled out of the capital’s suburbs.)
By contrast, Russia has earned tens of billions of dollars from exporting oil and natural gas, mostly to European Union countries.
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Yesterday I Posted, "Note to West Ham Fans: WWII Ended 77 Years Ago." Apparently I Was Wrong
Germany has filed a case against Italy at the UN's highest court over attempts within Italy to claim compensation for Nazi-era war crimes.
In a submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Germany says Italy continues to allow cases in its domestic courts despite a 2012 ruling that such claims were inadmissible.
It says that, since that ruling, over 25 new cases have been filed in Italy.
In some of those, the courts have ruled that Germany should pay compensation.
Berlin says it is bringing the complaint now because of two ongoing cases that could see properties in Rome owned by the German state seized to finance compensation payments.
A court in Italy says it will decide by 25 May whether to force the sale of certain buildings, some of which house German cultural, historical, and educational institutions.
The dispute dates back to 2008, when Italy's highest court ruled that Germany should pay around €1m (£840,000) to relatives of nine people who were among 203 killed by German forces in Tuscany in 1944.
Germany argues it has already paid out billions of euros to countries impacted by World War II since the conflict ended in 1945.
Its filing cites a part of the 2012 ruling that says that, by allowing the claims in its courts, Italy had "violated its obligation to respect the immunity which the Federal Republic of Germany enjoys under international law".
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Dammed If You Do. Dammed If You Don't.
Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West's megadrought: Water or electricity
The situation is critical: if water levels at the lake were to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would be halted at the reservoir's Glen Canyon Dam.
The West's climate change-induced water crisis is now triggering a potential energy crisis for millions of people in the Southwest who rely on the dam as a power source. Over the past several years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16 percent of its capacity to generate power. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped around 100 feet in the last three years.
Experts say the term 'drought' may be insufficient to capture what is happening in the West
The Colorado River irrigates farms, powers electric grids and provides drinking water for 40 million people. As its supply dwindles, a crisis looms.
Forty percent of Page's power comes from the Glen Canyon Dam. Without it, they'll be forced to make up that electricity with fossil fuels like natural gas, which emits planet-warming gases and will exacerbate the West's water crisis.
"If nothing changes, in other words, if we don't start getting some moisture for Page, in particular, we are looking at an additional 25 to 30% in power costs," Hill told CNN.
Arash Moalemi, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority's deputy general manager, told CNN a loss of power at the Glen Canyon Dam would be devastating for the Navajo community.
"We have 40% unemployment, and our per capita income is a little over 10 thousand dollars," Moalemi said. "Higher energy prices could mean some people aren't able to heat or cool their homes."
The federal government -- which technically owns the hydropower flowing through federally managed dams -- sells the electricity to states for what is often far less than the commercial market price. In a worst-case scenario, the Interior Department projects the dam could stop producing power by January.
The agency is now weighing an emergency action that would buy the dam more time.
In a letter to seven Western states this month, the Interior Department recommended releasing less water from Lake Powell to downstream states this year. The proposal calls for holding back the equivalent of 42.6 billion gallons of water in Lake Powell, which will mean deeper cuts to the amount of water people can use in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
More than 110 billion gallons of water have already been held back so far this year.
Inside the Glen Canyon Dam, the current water level is still producing energy.
At the dam's power plant there are eight generators. The force of water traveling through 15-foot diameter pipes hits and spins turbines which then generate power. If water levels at Lake Powell drop just another 32 feet, those generators will stop spinning.
The climate crisis is forcing both federal and state governments to make tough choices and take drastic measures just to keep both power and water flowing to Americans in the Southwest.
The Interior Department is expected to make a final decision on how to handle the dire situation at the dam by early May.
They must bust in early May, orders from the D.A. Look out, kid, don't matter what you did Walk on your tip toes, don't tie no bows
The Lawn Goodbye
As California plunges even deeper into its multiyear megadrought after an alarmingly dry winter, officials are eyeing what experts say is one of the leading culprits in the crisis: water-guzzling grass lawns.
Residents and businesses in the counties around Los Angeles were told this week that they would need to limit outdoor water use to one day a week starting June 1. It's the first time water officials have implemented such a strict rule.
California snowpack was exceptionally low this winter, signaling another year of devastating drought
"This is a crisis. This is unprecedented," said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "We have never done anything like this before and because we haven't seen this situation happen like this before."
The Great American Lawn has historically been a status symbol and portrayed as a place of leisure and comfort. But they require exorbitant amounts of water to maintain -- water that is rapidly running out.
Grass was the single largest irrigated "crop" in America, surpassing corn and wheat, a frequently cited study from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found. It noted that by the early 2000s, turf grass -- mostly in front lawns -- spanned about 63,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Georgia.
Keeping all that front lawn grass alive requires up to 75% of just one household's water consumption, according to that study, which is a luxury that California is unable to afford as the climate change-driven drought pushes reservoirs to historic lows.
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Was it COVIDchella?
Daily Covid cases in Riverside County, California, rose 76 percent in two weeks as tens of thousands of people gathered there for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival over the last two weekends.
Though most Coachella events were outside, the festival did not require visitors to wear masks or present proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test.
"When you’re in close proximity to others singing and dancing and and eating and drinking — all the things that you do with these festivals — it’s not surprising that we’re going to see transmission," said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Riverside County’s average daily Covid cases jumped from 102 on April 14, the day before the festival started, to 180 cases on Thursday, four days after it ended. But that figure is likely an undercount, disease experts said, because of the common use of at-home tests.
"What we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg because we know that only a fraction of people who test positive are taking PCR tests or tests that are going to be reported," Rimoin said.
Meanwhile in DC, Will They Have a White House COVIDspondents' Dinner?
Biden, first lady to attend White House Correspondents' Dinner after years-long break
President Joe Biden will attend the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday as the black-tie gala makes its return for the first time since 2019. Biden's attendance will mark the return of another tradition of sorts: The sitting president and first lady traditionally have attended the dinner. The last appearance by a sitting president was in 2016, when Barack Obama attended during his final year in office. The soirée is a scholarship dinner hosted by the White House Correspondents' Association and is attended by journalists, celebrities, politicians and other Washington movers and shakers. This year's dinner will be a celebration of the First Amendment and will feature entertainment by Trevor Noah, the host of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central.
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DeathSentence Has a Poor Memory
Twitter users want Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to know that his latest argument against Disney stinks as much as Pepé Le Pew.
While campaigning for Nevada GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt in Las Vegas on Wednesday, DeSantis once again criticized Disney. The company, which is one of Florida’s largest employers, has denounced DeSantis’ so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that prohibits certain discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state’s public schools.
“One of the things that really bugged me were these videos with all these people that are high up at Disney talking about how [it] was their intention to inject sexuality into the programming for these very young kids,” DeSantis said at the rally.
The governor was seemingly referring to Karey Burke, a Disney executive who said she has two queer children and supports featuring “many, many” LGBTQ characters in future projects.
“When we were young, you could watch cartoons without having to worry,” DeSantis said. “Now parents have to sit there and worry about, ‘What are they trying to inject in?’ ‘What type of ideology are they trying to pursue?’ And that is wrong.’”
Maybe His Mom Sang About Him Falling From a Tree Where He Was Sleeping When a Branch Broke Off.
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New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | New Hospitalizations 7-Day Average | |
| Apr 29 | 56,166 | 308 | |
| Apr 28 | 54,696 | 311 | 1,955 |
| Apr 27 | 53,133 | 334 | 1,941 |
| Apr 26 | 48,692 | 299 | 1,889 |
| Apr 25 | 47,407 | 330 | 1,840 |
| Apr 24 | 44,416 | 314 | 1,779 |
| Apr 23 | 45,413 | 315 | 1,629 |
| Apr 22 | 44,308 | 311 | 1,642 |
| Apr 21 | 40,744 | 346 | 1,647 |
| Apr 20 | 42,604 | 375 | 1,609 |
| Apr 19 | 40,985 | 385 | 1,582 |
| Apr 18 | 37,132 | 380 | 1,564 |
| Apr 17 | 35,212 | 373 | 1,542 |
| Apr 16 | 34,972 | 379 | 1,532 |
| Apr 15 | 34,778 | 399 | 1,510 |
| Apr 14 | 35,475 | 446 | 1,490 |
| Apr 13 | 31,391 | 409 | 1,477 |
| Apr 12 | 29,401 | 452 | 1,463 |
| Apr 11 | 30,208 | 483 | 1.447 |
| Apr 10 | 28,927 | 500 | 1,443 |
| Apr 9 | 28,339 | 509 | |
| Apr 8 | 28,169 | 516 | |
| Apr 7 | 26,286 | 471 | |
| Apr 6 | 26,595 | 496 | |
| Apr 5 | 26,845 | 533 | |
| Apr 4 | 25,537 | 537 | |
| Apr 3 | 25,074 | 572 | |
| Apr 2 | 25,787 | 576 | |
| Apr 1 | 26,106 | 584 | |
| Mar 31 | 25,980 | 605 | |
| Mar 30 | 25,732 | 626 | |
| Mar 29 | 25,218 | 644 | |
| Mar 28 | 26,190 | 700 | |
| Mar 27 | 26,487 | 690 | |
| Mar 26 | 26,593 | 697 | |
| Mar 25 | 26,874 | 705 | |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 77.5% | 66.0% | 45.6% |
| % of Population 5+ | 82.3% | 70.2% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 87.1% | 74.5% | 47.4% |
| % of Population 18+ | 88.9% | 76.0% | 49.1% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 90.0% | 68.3% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday April 27)
We had some rain up north this week.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks Ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 81% (74%) | 79% (70%) | 73% (63% of full season average) |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 67% (61%) | 65% (58%) | 65% (57%) |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 62% (57%) | 60% (54%) | 61% (53%) |
| Snow Water Content - North | 29% | 15% | |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 33% | 27% | |
| Snow Water Content - South | 23% | 24% |
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Never Iron a Four-Leaf Clover. You Don't Want to Press Your Luck.
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
How Do You Confuse Tractors With Porn?
Neil Parish has told the BBC he is resigning as an MP after admitting he watched pornography twice in Parliament.
Mr Parish, who has represented Tiverton and Honiton in Devon since 2010, said it had been a "moment of madness".
He said the first time was accidental after looking at a tractor website, but the second time - in the House of Commons - was deliberate.
He was suspended by the Conservative Party on Friday over the allegations.
Two female colleagues claimed they had seen him looking at adult content on his phone while sitting near them.
Our Russian Patriots.
This is Who They Are Supporting
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Could Previous Guy Be a Nominee?
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Invasions Have Consequences
Were They Depleted and Disparate or Just Dazed and Confused?
Friday was most notable in eastern Ukraine for the sheer lack of Russian attacks. Whether this was a result of the cascade of incoming overall commanders (Here comes Dvornikov! Here comes Gerasimov! Wait, here comes Putin!), a matter of being out of some sort of supplies (noticed all those burning ammo dumps lately?), or just giving the guys a break after weeks of throwing themselves on swords each day (which sounds very un-Russian), very little forward progress was even attempted.
Though artillery shelling of Ukrainian towns and villages continued Friday, it was hard to find any evidence of a genuine attempt at an advance. Anywhere. The result was daily summaries that contained the phrase “no change on the ground” in area after area. Only north of Kharkiv, where Ukrainian forces are slowly pushing Russian troops back from a series of villages just a few miles from the Russian border, was there any measurable change.
In their own daily update of the situation, the U.K. Ministry of Defense had something to say about the status of Russian troops. In their evaluation, Russia had been forced to redeploy troops who were “depleted and disparate” after their experience in the failed Battle of Kyiv. Those troops have now been pushed into the Donbas, often as part of patchwork units formed from the fragments of BTGs that remained after losses in the north. They’ve brought with them fear, exhaustion, and a big feeling of just being done-with-this.
The U.K. also noted that, despite the much shorter supply lines in the east—after all this whole area is not just adjacent to Russia, but to areas Russia has controlled for eight years—that doesn’t seem to have translated into more reliable supplies at the front line. Ukrainian attacks on supply locations and fuel depots may have played some role in that failure, but whatever the cause, Russia still isn’t getting ammo, fuel, and even food to the places where they are needed.
Russia is also still having issues with coordinating troops. That’s in spite of placing the focus of the war in a smaller area and piling on all that top brass. All those attacks that have been happening are still attacks by just one or two tactical groups.
Something unusual was reported on Friday night—an attempted night attack by Russian forces. Throughout the war, Russian forces have been completely lacking in night vision equipment. With NATO donations of exactly that kind of gear to Ukraine, attempting to move forces at night is something that Russia has rarely dared. However, updated tanks and othered armored vehicles often have their own built-in thermal or low-light vision system. So it seems that Russia did make a push Friday night along the line north of Popasna. It went this well:
Things That Make You Go "Hmmm"
At least five prominent Russian businessmen have reportedly died by suicide since late January, with three of them allegedly killing members of their families before taking their own lives.
Four of the dead men were associated with the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom or one of its subsidiaries.
In a Poker Tournament, It's Not Who Wins the First Hand. It's Who Wins the Last One
Today’s April 29 report really amounts to “zip.” A small village northeast of Kharkiv liberated by Ukraine was the only territory to change hands. On the main Donbas front, Ukraine General Staff reported repelling 14 attacks, none gained purchase. And yet again, we see Russia incapable of organizing a single, massive, coordinated push to crack Ukrainian defensive lines. It’s just more of the same we’ve seen all war—a slow grinding effort to erode Ukraine defenses by sending wave after wave of small, under-resourced attacks, except with more artillery prep. The tactic has had some successes! But at severe cost to the invaders.
Ukraine, aside from some tactical pickups here and there, seems content to chip away at Russian forces with artillery, guerrilla ambushes, and drones, trading ground for blood when absolutely necessary, but mostly holding firm in their extensive prepared defenses along the entire Donbas front. They just need to hold out a couple more months, to allow all that sweet new Western gear to arrive—drones, armored, and artillery, of course, but also body armor and helmets that will allow reservists to join the fight, and medical supplies that will save many lives. Also, lots and lots of armor.
The US has already committed to sending 170,000 155mm shells. That’s a lot of shipments from California and elsewhere. And now, with lend-lease authority granted by Congress, the US will keep supplying as many of these as Ukraine needs. The spigot is wide open to anything the Pentagon thinks will help push Russia entirely out of Ukraine. Russia’s defeat is official U.S. policy.
While Ukraine’s forces grow, Russia’s are a finite resource and attriting rapidly. They’ve run out of Donbas separatist cannon fodder, Syria never sent its promised 15,000 soldiers, none of Russia’s allies like Belarus are lending a hand, and Wagner mercenaries can’t fill the void. So Vladimir Putin has a difficult choice: whether to announce a general mobilization.
Popasna Stands!
The news out of Popasna is mostly that Popasna has still not been taken. The town remains under Ukrainian control even as additional attempts to advance Russian tanks into the town’s streets have been reported. On Friday Russia also risked a Ka-52 helicopter in an effort to get at the Ukrainian positions in the town that had blocked Russian advances for over a week. None of this seems to have dislodged the Ukrainian forces.
Lady of Spain, They Adore You
So Sad!
Who Knew That Russia Was Part of Florida? Or Is Florida Part of Russia?
Putin's Finest
Russia has been loading up its front lines with troops from the poorest and most remote regions of Russia. The Tuvans in the image above are equipped with cheap rubber boots to face winter conditions in Ukraine. Ethnic minorities like the Tuvans and the Buryats are more expendable to Putin than ethnic Russians from places like Moscow and St Petersburg.
Buryatia ranks second among Russian regions in terms of the number of those killed in the war in Ukraine. More - only in Dagestan.
Ukrainian intelligence reports that Russian troops from Buryatia deployed near Kherson, had been becoming increasingly resentful of the Kadyrite Chechens.
One of the reasons for this ethnic conflict is the reluctance of the Buryat soldiers to conduct offensive operations and their perception of the "inequality" of their circumstances compared to those of the Chechen soldiers. The latter are never on the frontline – they always remain in the rear as "barricading detachments." Their task is to ensure the units of [Russian] occupying forces maintain active military action. That is, to open fire on those [Russian troops] who are trying to retreat.
Things came to a head when the Chechens decided to keep all the loot to themselves. The Buryats decided to do a forcible redistribution and a 50 a side firefight ensued. No news on casualties yet. An army that leaves behind its wounded but never leaves behind it’s loot is not a unified fighting force.
In addition to cannon fodder from remote corners of Russia, The Russian military is rounding up and forcibly conscripting males from the separatist regions of Ukraine to toss into the meat grinder. These troops are under-trained, under-equipped and are terrified and the opposite of motivated to fight.
Reports of mutinies are multiplying. Russian Colonel Yuri Medvedev was run over by a tank and killed at the hands of his own brigade. 60 Russian paratroopers sent to Belarus to deploy to Ukraine staged a mutiny and refused to be deployed.
Maybe We Can All Drive A Little Less
Municipal officials in Kyiv on Friday urged residents to stop driving private vehicles to conserve Ukraine’s limited fuel supplies for troops fighting off the Russian invasion, in an announcement that reflected uncertainty about energy stability across Ukraine and the rest of Europe.
The city administration encouraged commuters to use public transit, which is slowly being restored after Russian forces aborted their attempt to seize the Ukrainian capital about a month ago. “Remember the needs of the army,” officials said in a Telegram post.
The wartime measures are a reminder that the global spike in energy prices that followed Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion has had very different consequences for Moscow and Kyiv. Two months after Russia attacked, Ukrainians outside the immediate battlefield are struggling to reclaim a sense of normalcy. (Kyiv now runs 140 buses, 70 trams, and 77 trolley buses, city data show, up from roughly 150 buses and 30 trams on April 5, just days after Russian forces pulled out of the capital’s suburbs.)
By contrast, Russia has earned tens of billions of dollars from exporting oil and natural gas, mostly to European Union countries.
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Yesterday I Posted, "Note to West Ham Fans: WWII Ended 77 Years Ago." Apparently I Was Wrong
Germany has filed a case against Italy at the UN's highest court over attempts within Italy to claim compensation for Nazi-era war crimes.
In a submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Germany says Italy continues to allow cases in its domestic courts despite a 2012 ruling that such claims were inadmissible.
It says that, since that ruling, over 25 new cases have been filed in Italy.
In some of those, the courts have ruled that Germany should pay compensation.
Berlin says it is bringing the complaint now because of two ongoing cases that could see properties in Rome owned by the German state seized to finance compensation payments.
A court in Italy says it will decide by 25 May whether to force the sale of certain buildings, some of which house German cultural, historical, and educational institutions.
The dispute dates back to 2008, when Italy's highest court ruled that Germany should pay around €1m (£840,000) to relatives of nine people who were among 203 killed by German forces in Tuscany in 1944.
Germany argues it has already paid out billions of euros to countries impacted by World War II since the conflict ended in 1945.
Its filing cites a part of the 2012 ruling that says that, by allowing the claims in its courts, Italy had "violated its obligation to respect the immunity which the Federal Republic of Germany enjoys under international law".
--------------
Dammed If You Do. Dammed If You Don't.
Lake Powell officials face an impossible choice in the West's megadrought: Water or electricity
The situation is critical: if water levels at the lake were to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would be halted at the reservoir's Glen Canyon Dam.
The West's climate change-induced water crisis is now triggering a potential energy crisis for millions of people in the Southwest who rely on the dam as a power source. Over the past several years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16 percent of its capacity to generate power. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped around 100 feet in the last three years.
Experts say the term 'drought' may be insufficient to capture what is happening in the West
The Colorado River irrigates farms, powers electric grids and provides drinking water for 40 million people. As its supply dwindles, a crisis looms.
Forty percent of Page's power comes from the Glen Canyon Dam. Without it, they'll be forced to make up that electricity with fossil fuels like natural gas, which emits planet-warming gases and will exacerbate the West's water crisis.
"If nothing changes, in other words, if we don't start getting some moisture for Page, in particular, we are looking at an additional 25 to 30% in power costs," Hill told CNN.
Arash Moalemi, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority's deputy general manager, told CNN a loss of power at the Glen Canyon Dam would be devastating for the Navajo community.
"We have 40% unemployment, and our per capita income is a little over 10 thousand dollars," Moalemi said. "Higher energy prices could mean some people aren't able to heat or cool their homes."
The federal government -- which technically owns the hydropower flowing through federally managed dams -- sells the electricity to states for what is often far less than the commercial market price. In a worst-case scenario, the Interior Department projects the dam could stop producing power by January.
The agency is now weighing an emergency action that would buy the dam more time.
In a letter to seven Western states this month, the Interior Department recommended releasing less water from Lake Powell to downstream states this year. The proposal calls for holding back the equivalent of 42.6 billion gallons of water in Lake Powell, which will mean deeper cuts to the amount of water people can use in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
More than 110 billion gallons of water have already been held back so far this year.
Inside the Glen Canyon Dam, the current water level is still producing energy.
At the dam's power plant there are eight generators. The force of water traveling through 15-foot diameter pipes hits and spins turbines which then generate power. If water levels at Lake Powell drop just another 32 feet, those generators will stop spinning.
The climate crisis is forcing both federal and state governments to make tough choices and take drastic measures just to keep both power and water flowing to Americans in the Southwest.
The Interior Department is expected to make a final decision on how to handle the dire situation at the dam by early May.
They must bust in early May, orders from the D.A. Look out, kid, don't matter what you did Walk on your tip toes, don't tie no bows
The Lawn Goodbye
As California plunges even deeper into its multiyear megadrought after an alarmingly dry winter, officials are eyeing what experts say is one of the leading culprits in the crisis: water-guzzling grass lawns.
Residents and businesses in the counties around Los Angeles were told this week that they would need to limit outdoor water use to one day a week starting June 1. It's the first time water officials have implemented such a strict rule.
California snowpack was exceptionally low this winter, signaling another year of devastating drought
"This is a crisis. This is unprecedented," said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "We have never done anything like this before and because we haven't seen this situation happen like this before."
The Great American Lawn has historically been a status symbol and portrayed as a place of leisure and comfort. But they require exorbitant amounts of water to maintain -- water that is rapidly running out.
Grass was the single largest irrigated "crop" in America, surpassing corn and wheat, a frequently cited study from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found. It noted that by the early 2000s, turf grass -- mostly in front lawns -- spanned about 63,000 square miles, an area larger than the state of Georgia.
Keeping all that front lawn grass alive requires up to 75% of just one household's water consumption, according to that study, which is a luxury that California is unable to afford as the climate change-driven drought pushes reservoirs to historic lows.
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Was it COVIDchella?
Daily Covid cases in Riverside County, California, rose 76 percent in two weeks as tens of thousands of people gathered there for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival over the last two weekends.
Though most Coachella events were outside, the festival did not require visitors to wear masks or present proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test.
"When you’re in close proximity to others singing and dancing and and eating and drinking — all the things that you do with these festivals — it’s not surprising that we’re going to see transmission," said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiology professor at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Riverside County’s average daily Covid cases jumped from 102 on April 14, the day before the festival started, to 180 cases on Thursday, four days after it ended. But that figure is likely an undercount, disease experts said, because of the common use of at-home tests.
"What we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg because we know that only a fraction of people who test positive are taking PCR tests or tests that are going to be reported," Rimoin said.
Meanwhile in DC, Will They Have a White House COVIDspondents' Dinner?
Biden, first lady to attend White House Correspondents' Dinner after years-long break
President Joe Biden will attend the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday as the black-tie gala makes its return for the first time since 2019. Biden's attendance will mark the return of another tradition of sorts: The sitting president and first lady traditionally have attended the dinner. The last appearance by a sitting president was in 2016, when Barack Obama attended during his final year in office. The soirée is a scholarship dinner hosted by the White House Correspondents' Association and is attended by journalists, celebrities, politicians and other Washington movers and shakers. This year's dinner will be a celebration of the First Amendment and will feature entertainment by Trevor Noah, the host of "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central.
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DeathSentence Has a Poor Memory
Twitter users want Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to know that his latest argument against Disney stinks as much as Pepé Le Pew.
While campaigning for Nevada GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt in Las Vegas on Wednesday, DeSantis once again criticized Disney. The company, which is one of Florida’s largest employers, has denounced DeSantis’ so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that prohibits certain discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state’s public schools.
“One of the things that really bugged me were these videos with all these people that are high up at Disney talking about how [it] was their intention to inject sexuality into the programming for these very young kids,” DeSantis said at the rally.
The governor was seemingly referring to Karey Burke, a Disney executive who said she has two queer children and supports featuring “many, many” LGBTQ characters in future projects.
“When we were young, you could watch cartoons without having to worry,” DeSantis said. “Now parents have to sit there and worry about, ‘What are they trying to inject in?’ ‘What type of ideology are they trying to pursue?’ And that is wrong.’”
Maybe His Mom Sang About Him Falling From a Tree Where He Was Sleeping When a Branch Broke Off.
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