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Look!  Out in the East!  It's a Truck!  It's an Armored Fighting Vehicle!  It's Supertank!

With Western tanks soon to make an appearance in Ukraine, Russia is claiming that their own “super tank” is on the way. That’s an interesting claim, because the number of production models of the T-14 is essentially zero.

Development of the T-14 goes back to a project called Object 187 that was initially designed in the late 1980s. It was meant to directly address some of the traditional shortcomings of Russia’s fast-and-cheap tanks, without driving the cost per vehicle through the roof.

The size and weight of the tank was raised from the 43 tonne size of a T-80, up to around 55 tonnes, putting it closer to the size of the original Abrams M1. That allows it to carry a good deal more armor, as well as a bigger engine and better gun. Also, the autoloader was redesigned in a way that is meant to avoid repeats of the astoundingly common ammo cookoff and turret toss that has been seen again and again in Russian tanks deployed in Ukraine.

Also there’s even been thought into something radically new in Russian tanks: Protecting the tank crew. That includes moving all of that crew down and forward, leaving the smaller turret in which no one rides. There are even some analysts who think the tank is equipped with a “hard kill” system that shoots down incoming anti-tank missiles. A system that would not just be effective against the older TOW generation missiles, but even Javelins and their equivalent.

It’s a very different tank than anything Russia now fields. There’s not a lot of evidence that it would be “super” in the sense of better than the Western tanks about to take the field, but on paper it certainly seems more competitive than anything Russia now has rolling around.

The problem for Russia has been building them.

Brave New World

If you’ve spent any time on social media in the last few years, browsed a web page, or turned on a television, you may have seen some of the dreamy, ecstatic advertising for a massive planned community known as NEOM, or “The Line.” What is NEOM? Why, it’s “the future of urban living,” a city built across four climatic zones from mountain to seashore with that will be a “hub for innovation,” an “entirely new model of sustainable living,” and “home to a community of free-thinkers” who are building the “future of humanity.”

Where is NEOM? Well, it’s in Saudi Arabia. Where free-thinkers were welcomed to mass executions by beheading last year for failing to properly support the dictatorship of brutal killer Mohammed bin Salman. And where hundreds more are executed annually for daring to question the teachings of a very specific form of Islam that just happens to endorse bin Salman’s authority.

So what is NEOM really? Why, it’s a glossy toy for a guy who thinks cutting up journalists with a bone saw is great fun. Welcome to the future, free-thinkers.

Now Donald Trump, who helped bin Salman cover up murder, has decided he’d like a toy of his own. In fact, he’d like ten of them. And he wants you to build them for him, on public land.

As Politico reports, Donald Trump will release a video sometime on Friday in which he calls for a contest to build ten “Freedom Cities.” These are to be all new cities built “from the ground up,” with that ground being federal land donated to the project.

Trump wants these new cities to be serviced by vertical take off and landing aircraft (i.e. flying cars), and wants them to become “hives of industry” that will foster new industries (i.e. Spacely Sprockets and Cogswell Cogs). While Trump doesn’t seem to mention trains or anything else that would make a new city practical. Since most of the federal land Trump is talking about is in remote areas of western states with little existing access or infrastructure, it’s a good thing he’s talking about cities that wouldn’t need roads. Or water. Or any of that other old stuff.

What these cities do need is babies. Lots and lots of babies. Because Trump’ needs someone to date in 20 years, his idea for these Freedom Cities includes:

A population surge sparked by “baby bonuses” to encourage would-be-parents to get on with procreation.

From the Party That Opposes Cancel Culture

Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas was facing a rare potential censure Saturday by his state party over votes that included supporting new gun safety laws after the Uvalde school shooting that was in his district.

A censure by the Republican Party of Texas would underline how the two-term congressman’s willingness to break with conservatives on key issues during his short time in office has caused GOP activists and some colleagues alike to bristle.

That independent streak includes opposing a sweeping House GOP immigration proposal over the U.S.-Mexico border, which includes a large portion of his South Texas district. He has also voted to defend same-sex marriage and was an outright “no” against a House rules package after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy became speaker.

Gonzales has been defiant ahead of the vote, which was set to take place at a meeting of Texas GOP leaders and activists in Austin. He was not expected to attend.

It's the Small Tent Party

Disabled People Are Not Subhuman. Then Why Subminimum Wages?

A group of lawmakers in Congress is vying to end subminimum wages for disabled people, a policy that affects about 122,000 individuals nationwide.

The minimum wage for employees in the U.S. ranges from $7.25 to $15 per hour, and many activists are continuously fighting to increase that amount. But currently, some employers can pay disabled people far below state minimums, with many earning less than $3.50 an hour, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

On Feb. 27, a group of bipartisan senators and representatives reintroduced the Transformation to Competitive Integrated Employment Act, which would end that practice.

“Paying workers less than the minimum wage is unacceptable. Everyone deserves to be paid a fair wage, and Americans with disabilities are no exception,” Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), who led the legislative effort, said in a statement. “This commonsense, bipartisan bill would lift up people with disabilities by raising their wages and creating competitive jobs in workplaces that employ both workers with and without disabilities.”

Under Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers can apply for a certificate from the Department of Labor that would permit them to pay disabled employees below the minimum wage. The GAO reported that 1,567 employers did just that in 2019.

Disabled employees’ subminimum wages are determined by time trials that their employers administer every six months to compare their work output and productivity to that of non-disabled employees.

“For employees, there’s an extreme amount of stress. They’re being tested every six months, and if they don’t perform at a certain level, their pay is cut,” explained Jewelyn Cosgrove, vice president at the Washington, D.C., area disability nonprofit Melwood.

Horton Heards a Hoo

The University of Virginia board member who disparaged administrators and certain student groups in text messages to colleagues that recently came to light apologized Friday at a board meeting in Charlottesville.

Bert Ellis, who joined U-Va.’s governing Board of Visitors last year, sent a series of combative texts during the summer to allies and three other board members who, like him, were appointed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R). Redacted versions of the texts were obtained last month by a Richmond-based author, Jeff Thomas, under the state Freedom of Information Act. The Washington Post disclosed the text conversations in a Feb. 23 article.

In texts, Youngkin appointee plots ‘battle royale for the soul of UVA’
In one text, Ellis pointed out the webpage of a vice provost and wrote: “Check out this numnut who works for [U-Va. Provost Ian] Baucom and has nothing to do but highlight slavery at UVA.” In others, he referred to unnamed people who work for U-Va. President James E. Ryan as “schmucks” and referred to members of the Student Council and the Cavalier Daily student newspaper as “these numnuts.”

Those and other texts drawn from Ellis’s cellphone shook the 26,000-student university and its community of faculty, staff and alumni.

Breaking News!  Lies at CPAC.

The Conservative Political Action Conference is underway in Maryland. And the members of Congress, former government officials and conservative personalities who spoke at the conference on Thursday and Friday made false claims about a variety of topics.

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio uttered two false claims about President Joe Biden. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated a debunked claim about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama used two inaccurate statistics as he lamented the state of the country. Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon repeated his regular lie about the 2020 election having been stolen from Trump, this time baselesly blaming Fox for Trump’s defeat.

Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida incorrectly said a former Obama administration official had encouraged people to harass Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina inaccurately claimed Biden had laughed at a grieving mother and inaccurately insinuated that the FBI tipped off the media to its search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence. Two other speakers, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka, inflated the number of deaths from fentanyl.

And that’s not all. Here is a fact check of 13 false claims from the conference, which continues on Saturday.

linkFact check: Republicans at CPAC make false claims about Biden, Zelensky, the FBI and children