Little David (Zelensky) is now battling the Goliath Twins (Putin ‘n Trump).
Little David looks like he is showing Trump Goliath how to actually make a Deal—whilst under a Physical attack from Putin Goliath, and a demoralizing Mental mind game threat attack from Trump Goliath!?!
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is reportedly not ready to sign a controversial minerals deal with Donald Trump that may see him give away billions in critical elements and revenues.
***
It comes after Zelensky angered Trump so much during negotiations that the president threatened to completely pull US funding from Ukraine…
American negotiators said they may cut Kyiv’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink, which has been heavily relied on for civilian and military use, if it did not agree to the mineral rights deal.
During the meeting, Ukraine was told it faced imminent shutoff of the service if it did not reach a deal on critical minerals…
***
Zelensky had apparently worn out his welcome with the entire American negotiating team – which included the president, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz – in the span of a week. (ME: looks like the Goliath Twins need lots of backups against Little David)…
***
‘Yes, he has been brave and stood up to Russia.
‘But he would be six feet under if it wasn’t for the millions we spent, and he needs to exit stage right with all the drama.’
Quick, someone give Little David this bucket of stones—he’s gonna need more than just that one!
Article also has a poll – Did Zelensky make the right move?: Yes @ 58%, No @ 28%, and Not sure @ 13%.
Neo, I have seen a number of very well done videos where just the face is brought to life with a smile and/or a nod of the head. These full body ones are a step beyond that. Here is a link to full body motion done to some paintings from the past.
At the time of our founding the U.S. was an overwhelmingly agricultural society, and our history and our national character emerged from that society, and it’s down to earth values—hard work, planning ahead, conservatism, thrift, independence, self-sufficiency, the Christian religion and it’s moral code, face-to face relationships, honesty—etc.
Over the last several decades large scale industrial farming and the shift of population from small towns and family farms to our cities, and from production to service industries, has essentially destroyed that traditional, agricultural way of life, and with it, the values it taught and emphasized are now seen as “old fashioned,” “naive,” and “out of date,” and have been drowned out by the cacophony and glitz of our current “modern” and supposedly much more “sophisticated” society.
The very unsatisfactory result of this transformation can be seen everywhere and all around us.
Here is Victor Davis Hanson talking about this theme.*
“Recent revelations go beyond the imaginations of what many knew but could seldom prove. USAID has become an out-of-control agency spending billions a year in bloated crony contracts, rotten from top to bottom with systemic fraud, corruption, and politicization. USAID has a budget roughly triple the official budget of the CIA, and has become an unaccountable slush fund for a left-wing political machine. For decades, that slush fund paid the salaries and projects of activist consultants, policymakers, lawyers, journalists, entertainers, organizers, think tanks, universities, and NGOs.”
Many here are likely familiar with Douglas Murray. If not, here’s a chance to get to know him a bit. You’re going to like him. Interview in today’s WSJ.
Educated at Eton and Oxford, Mr. Murray is the sort of silver-tongued Englishman who bowls Americans over with his lightly worn smarts. He divides his life between London and New York, where he is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and he spends a great deal of time in Israel, of which he is a forthright, sometimes blistering, advocate. His next book, due in April, is “On Democracy and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization.” It asserts that “evil does exist as a force in the world. Indeed, it is the only explanation for why certain people do certain things.”
Speaking of the WSJ, not linking to Peggy Noonan’s column this week, but in it she quotes at length neo’s favorite scene from “A Man for All Seasons.” Hmm…I wonder if she’s been lurking here.
Oh, and spring training games are fully underway now. So, there’s that.
Thinking about neo’s recent, excellent post about Germany and the upcoming election and J.D. Vance’s recent speech in Europe I thought how Eloi-esque Europeans have become since WWII.
And now the siren wails and the Morlocks who have labored underground are in their midst.
The Eloi are humanlike creatures who are small, unintelligent, uncurious, weak, and also, importantly, benevolent and happy. They are the evolutionary descendants of the British elite, who exploited the British poor for so long that the poor evolved into a race of humanoids called the Morlocks.
Speaking about baseball, this is for Mike, Sdferr and other fans. Now that Mt McKinnley, Fort Bragg and others have been renamed what are the chances for the Indians to regain their rightful moniker? I am a Tigers fan myself, but the Gardians? That’s akin to renaming the bengals the pussy cats. I do not understand how any self respecting Cleveland fan could abide such a travesty.
Another interesting conversation on All-In podcast with the founders of Stripe.
(0:00) The Besties welcome John and Patrick Collison!
(4:28) Stripe’s business evolution: $1T in volume/year, stablecoins, challenging the Visa/Mastercard duopoly, publishing economic indicators
(20:31) Jamie Dimon’s leaked rant on remote work and bureaucracy (34:22) DOGE for Defense: Trump ordered the Pentagon to look at cutting the defense budget by 8%/year over the next five years
(43:51) Crypto Corner: Milei’s Memecoin embarrassment
(1:00:18) John and Patrick break down the Arc Institute and its new Evo 2 AI model
(1:18:04) Grok 3 takes the LLM lead, lessons learned from Elon’s Colossus scale
(1:30:22) Science Corner: Asteroid update
(1:35:42) Why Stripe hasn’t gone public yet, despite great metrics
All interesting– millionaire/billionaires chewing the fat about stuff. Evo 2 AI model, the speed at which Grok 3 has become the major player in AI with its 100,000 GPU Colossus (soon to be 200,000 GPU), and what may become a huge problem for Argentina’s Milei. Trump’s call for 8% cuts to the defense budget will no doubt have conservative’s pulling their hair, but there is no doubt enough fat to make those kinds of cuts. We may need to rethink our reliance on incredibly expensive weapons as our edge when their advantage might be diminished by sheer overwhelming numbers of cheap counter weapons.
Guardians? An abomination. Pure and simple.
Brian E,
For just one example in the defense budget, it’s hard to imagine the usefulness of an aircraft carrier in 2025.
The Internet says an ICBM can travel from New York to Moscow in 20 minutes. We have smart missiles that can target with near pinpoint accuracy. Drones are proving every bit as effective as manned fighters, maybe more so. Top speed on a carrier is 30knots. So, to reposition one 1/4 of the way across the globe takes over a week.
An aircraft carrier seems like a sitting duck in today’s military. A very expensive sitting duck. They cost $5Bn – $10Bn to build and over $1Bn per year to maintain. And what is the cost to build the fighter jets that sit on its deck?
Couldn’t we easily take out a Russian or Chinese carrier with a few of our smart missiles?
The Ukrainians have shown how clever use of technology can be very effective against conventional weapons. I think manned fighters and the men and women who pilot them are an exceptional example of human ingenuity and ability, but are manned fighters needed any more?
Take out a carrier with a few smart missiles. A few? Probably nope. A torpedo from a nuke attack sub? Maybe.
Does a carrier sail alone? Nope.
Have there ever been weapons systems and counter weapon systems?
The “American Mind” piece on USAID that Cornflour linked is a good read.
Created to fight Marxist subversion, it became a slush fund for Marxist cadre-building.
om,
I know carriers travel with other ships to protect them, but if they had never existed, with today’s technology and looking at the globe and various scenarios, would we create them now?
What’s the best use of $10Bn to achieve the missions a modern aircraft carrier would do?
Snow on Pine, thanks for the VDH link. I bookmarked American Essence; it has many other interesting articles about our history.
——————————————————————-
“Now that Mt McKinnley, Fort Bragg and others have been renamed what are the chances for the Indians to regain their rightful moniker?”
Good idea, which led me to read about the Atlanta Braves’ Chief Noc-A-Homa, who set his ceremonial tipi on fire, blaming the fire on sabotaged smoke bombs. Levi Walker, Jr., who played the Chief, said “I think Indians can be proud that their names are used with professional sports teams,” after Russell Means filed a $9 million lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians for their use of “Chief Wahoo.” Walker was a Native American. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Noc-A-Homa#
Should’ve called ‘em the Cleveland Engines of Progress!!
(Short firm: N-jinns…)
How bad are DEMs doing—besides David Hogg being vice chair of DNC & American sports television personality, sports radio host, and sports journalist Stephen A. Smith eyeing a run for DEM Presidential candidate in 2028?
Former Clinton pollster Mark Penn said Friday evening on Fox News that the Democratic Party’s support from voters appears to be “falling off a cliff.”
Democrats have struggled to find a unifying message since the party’s historic loss to President Donald Trump in November 2024…
“Well, I’ve got some new polling coming out Monday that I’ve just looked at. Frankly, the Democratic Party is falling off a cliff,” Penn said. “The ratings, which were in the high 40s, are gonna be like 35%.”
Democrats are doubling down on left-wing gender ideology despite their viewpoints being increasingly unpopular with the average American.
Why Guardians?
The team’s name references the Guardians of Traffic, eight monolithic 1932 Art Deco sculptures by Henry Hering on the city’s Hope Memorial Bridge, which is adjacent to Progressive Field. The team’s mascot is named “Slider”.
Yep, sure do feel sympathetic toward those Indians fans, caught between a rock (their woke ownership) and a hard place (their own woke-broken brains).
Ahahahahahahahahahaha.
No, no I don’t, the jerks.
A good many appearances of Douglas Murray on youtube. Worth every minute.
Aircraft carriers are part of taking care of business short of full-scale nuclear exchange. Different critters.
From what I’ve read, the Ashkenazi bottleneck was a savage culling. They are said to have a higher rate of cerebral issues at birth, many leading to death. Very good in verbal skills and numeracy, probably last on Earth in spatial orientation.
Little David (Zelensky) is now battling the Goliath Twins (Putin ‘n Trump).
Little David looks like he is showing Trump Goliath how to actually make a Deal—whilst under a Physical attack from Putin Goliath, and a demoralizing Mental mind game threat attack from Trump Goliath!?!
Zelensky ‘refuses to sign’ Donald Trump’s ‘problematic’ minerals deal amid tensions between world leaders
Quick, someone give Little David this bucket of stones—he’s gonna need more than just that one!
Article also has a poll – Did Zelensky make the right move?: Yes @ 58%, No @ 28%, and Not sure @ 13%.
Neo, I have seen a number of very well done videos where just the face is brought to life with a smile and/or a nod of the head. These full body ones are a step beyond that. Here is a link to full body motion done to some paintings from the past.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ1vqir8X4E
At the time of our founding the U.S. was an overwhelmingly agricultural society, and our history and our national character emerged from that society, and it’s down to earth values—hard work, planning ahead, conservatism, thrift, independence, self-sufficiency, the Christian religion and it’s moral code, face-to face relationships, honesty—etc.
Over the last several decades large scale industrial farming and the shift of population from small towns and family farms to our cities, and from production to service industries, has essentially destroyed that traditional, agricultural way of life, and with it, the values it taught and emphasized are now seen as “old fashioned,” “naive,” and “out of date,” and have been drowned out by the cacophony and glitz of our current “modern” and supposedly much more “sophisticated” society.
The very unsatisfactory result of this transformation can be seen everywhere and all around us.
Here is Victor Davis Hanson talking about this theme.*
* See https://www.americanessence.com/historian-victor-davis-hanson-on-the-farmers-virtues_9550.html
Yesterday, “The American Mind” published a good summary of the shocking corruption that prevailed at USAID. It’s a quick read and worth the time.
Here’s a link: https://americanmind.org/salvo/gutting-the-usaid-industrial-complex/
Here’s a sample paragraph:
“Recent revelations go beyond the imaginations of what many knew but could seldom prove. USAID has become an out-of-control agency spending billions a year in bloated crony contracts, rotten from top to bottom with systemic fraud, corruption, and politicization. USAID has a budget roughly triple the official budget of the CIA, and has become an unaccountable slush fund for a left-wing political machine. For decades, that slush fund paid the salaries and projects of activist consultants, policymakers, lawyers, journalists, entertainers, organizers, think tanks, universities, and NGOs.”
Many here are likely familiar with Douglas Murray. If not, here’s a chance to get to know him a bit. You’re going to like him. Interview in today’s WSJ.
https://archive.md/Ovwt0
Speaking of the WSJ, not linking to Peggy Noonan’s column this week, but in it she quotes at length neo’s favorite scene from “A Man for All Seasons.” Hmm…I wonder if she’s been lurking here.
Oh, and spring training games are fully underway now. So, there’s that.
Thinking about neo’s recent, excellent post about Germany and the upcoming election and J.D. Vance’s recent speech in Europe I thought how Eloi-esque Europeans have become since WWII.
And now the siren wails and the Morlocks who have labored underground are in their midst.
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-time-machine/characters/the-eloi
Speaking about baseball, this is for Mike, Sdferr and other fans. Now that Mt McKinnley, Fort Bragg and others have been renamed what are the chances for the Indians to regain their rightful moniker? I am a Tigers fan myself, but the Gardians? That’s akin to renaming the bengals the pussy cats. I do not understand how any self respecting Cleveland fan could abide such a travesty.
Another interesting conversation on All-In podcast with the founders of Stripe.
(0:00) The Besties welcome John and Patrick Collison!
(4:28) Stripe’s business evolution: $1T in volume/year, stablecoins, challenging the Visa/Mastercard duopoly, publishing economic indicators
(20:31) Jamie Dimon’s leaked rant on remote work and bureaucracy
(34:22) DOGE for Defense: Trump ordered the Pentagon to look at cutting the defense budget by 8%/year over the next five years
(43:51) Crypto Corner: Milei’s Memecoin embarrassment
(1:00:18) John and Patrick break down the Arc Institute and its new Evo 2 AI model
(1:18:04) Grok 3 takes the LLM lead, lessons learned from Elon’s Colossus scale
(1:30:22) Science Corner: Asteroid update
(1:35:42) Why Stripe hasn’t gone public yet, despite great metrics
All interesting– millionaire/billionaires chewing the fat about stuff. Evo 2 AI model, the speed at which Grok 3 has become the major player in AI with its 100,000 GPU Colossus (soon to be 200,000 GPU), and what may become a huge problem for Argentina’s Milei. Trump’s call for 8% cuts to the defense budget will no doubt have conservative’s pulling their hair, but there is no doubt enough fat to make those kinds of cuts. We may need to rethink our reliance on incredibly expensive weapons as our edge when their advantage might be diminished by sheer overwhelming numbers of cheap counter weapons.
Guardians? An abomination. Pure and simple.
Brian E,
For just one example in the defense budget, it’s hard to imagine the usefulness of an aircraft carrier in 2025.
The Internet says an ICBM can travel from New York to Moscow in 20 minutes. We have smart missiles that can target with near pinpoint accuracy. Drones are proving every bit as effective as manned fighters, maybe more so. Top speed on a carrier is 30knots. So, to reposition one 1/4 of the way across the globe takes over a week.
An aircraft carrier seems like a sitting duck in today’s military. A very expensive sitting duck. They cost $5Bn – $10Bn to build and over $1Bn per year to maintain. And what is the cost to build the fighter jets that sit on its deck?
Couldn’t we easily take out a Russian or Chinese carrier with a few of our smart missiles?
The Ukrainians have shown how clever use of technology can be very effective against conventional weapons. I think manned fighters and the men and women who pilot them are an exceptional example of human ingenuity and ability, but are manned fighters needed any more?
Take out a carrier with a few smart missiles. A few? Probably nope. A torpedo from a nuke attack sub? Maybe.
Does a carrier sail alone? Nope.
Have there ever been weapons systems and counter weapon systems?
The “American Mind” piece on USAID that Cornflour linked is a good read.
om,
I know carriers travel with other ships to protect them, but if they had never existed, with today’s technology and looking at the globe and various scenarios, would we create them now?
What’s the best use of $10Bn to achieve the missions a modern aircraft carrier would do?
Snow on Pine, thanks for the VDH link. I bookmarked American Essence; it has many other interesting articles about our history.
——————————————————————-
“Now that Mt McKinnley, Fort Bragg and others have been renamed what are the chances for the Indians to regain their rightful moniker?”
Good idea, which led me to read about the Atlanta Braves’ Chief Noc-A-Homa, who set his ceremonial tipi on fire, blaming the fire on sabotaged smoke bombs. Levi Walker, Jr., who played the Chief, said “I think Indians can be proud that their names are used with professional sports teams,” after Russell Means filed a $9 million lawsuit against the Cleveland Indians for their use of “Chief Wahoo.” Walker was a Native American.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Noc-A-Homa#
Should’ve called ‘em the Cleveland Engines of Progress!!
(Short firm: N-jinns…)
How bad are DEMs doing—besides David Hogg being vice chair of DNC & American sports television personality, sports radio host, and sports journalist Stephen A. Smith eyeing a run for DEM Presidential candidate in 2028?
DOUBLE WHAMMY bad!!!
1) ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’: Fmr Clinton Pollster Says Dems’ Support ‘Is Falling Off A Cliff’
2) It Appears Democrats Have Finally Picked A Hill To Die On
Why Guardians?
My first thoughts were of Guardians of Our Democracy, and White Castle burgers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Guardians
Yep, sure do feel sympathetic toward those Indians fans, caught between a rock (their woke ownership) and a hard place (their own woke-broken brains).
Ahahahahahahahahahaha.
No, no I don’t, the jerks.
A good many appearances of Douglas Murray on youtube. Worth every minute.
Aircraft carriers are part of taking care of business short of full-scale nuclear exchange. Different critters.
From what I’ve read, the Ashkenazi bottleneck was a savage culling. They are said to have a higher rate of cerebral issues at birth, many leading to death. Very good in verbal skills and numeracy, probably last on Earth in spatial orientation.
Modern forensic pathology vs primitive barbarism:
Remains of Shiri Bibas Returned to Israel as the Cause of Death of Her Two Children Shocks the Nation
And the Redskins used to be the Boston Braves as i say first world problems specially how poorly they have been performing