No! This Is Nothing About That Dam Going Ka-Boom
Although, since I have raised the subject, I need to explicate more details about it. Using Okham's Razor ("Entities should not be multiplied un-necessarily" or, less formally, "The simplest solution is the most likely one"), it is pretty cut-and-dried that it was the Ruffians who blew it up. They had admitted to mining it last year, they were in control of it when it blew up, they initially gloated about blowing it up and then tried to blame it on the Ukrainians with HIMARS. As if! For your information, a HIMARS warhead is about ninety kilograms and would do no more than scar the surface of what was an enormous reinforced concrete structure. Art!
As you know, we here at BOOJUM! have a marked interest in dams, both in their construction and also in their failure. Good taste prevents us from doing any analysis in depth on this disaster, but I do append a cross-section. Art!
That black arch is in fact a gallery that ran the whole length of the dam, into which the Ruffians undoubtedly placed many tons of high explosives, as this is the only way to destroy such a robust structure. This isn't just me, qualified engineers have also come up with this answer. The killing joke is that cholera is now rampant amongst the Ruffian orcs in the Kherson oblast, to the extent that they are dying from it; flooding, you see, contaminated their water sources.
ANYWAY that's what this Intro's not about. No, but it's still bad news for the Ruffians, for I have annotated another of Joe Blog's regular analyses of the Ruffian economy, and it's not looking good. In fact it looks very, very bad.
To spike the guns of the Ruffian trolls and fanbois, Joe uses official Ruffian figures and statistics, not guesstimates or Western extrapolations. Art!
The cheerier the Joe, the worse the news
Joe noted at the beginning of his Youtube presentation that the Ruffians are now starting to censor the data that they are releasing for public consumption, presumably because the figures are so awful.
The annual Ruffian deficit for 2022 was $47 billion, which is pretty bad. The year before it was only (!) $14 billion, so it's more than tripled. It gets worse: the deficit in 2023 up to May was $42 billion, on target for an annual total of $100 billion, which is about 10% of Ruffia's GDP. Art!
About their oil finances: April 2023, as compared to April 2022, showed a 64% drop in revenue for oil. Overall for 2023 so far, oil revenues have dropped by 49% as compared to 2022. The Ruffian state is now having to subsidise it's oil refineries since they have such reduced demand, which is a nice gig if you can get it, being paid not to work.
At the same time, Ruffian expenditure has increased by 32%. Joe noted that they don't break down what this money is being expended on, yet again thanks to Ockham's Razor, we can assume it's military kit. Conrad guesses that 90% of this will be embezzled or stolen before it reaches a factory floor. Art!
No, that's not the Ruffian's remaining National Wealth Fund. But they are burning through it to pay off their deficit; $1.7 billion in gold and yuan in order to pay off March's deficit. Given that Joe reckons there is only $75 billion left in the NWF, the risks of them running out completely by the end of this year are significant. The NWF was created in the first place by siphoning off profits from the oil and gas trade back in the days of wine and roses, or perhaps vodka and potatoes, given the venue. So, it's not going to get replenished any time this decade.
Sales of vodka, mind you, are absolutely booming. Art!
Armed drunks. What could possibly go wrong?
Enough Of Misery!
Hmmmm well, perhaps, it depends how you define 'misery'. Let us have more from "The War Illustrated", that I may impress you with my ineluctable <looks it up hastily> elucidation. Art!
French troops on the march. Yes, the French had an army fighting in Italy, and jolly dangerous they were too, especially the Moroccan goumiers, who lived to plunder and were horribly adept with knives.
"City In The Sky"
We jump forward suddenly to the year 2045, when the Human Salvation Project is in full swing and orbital arcologies are no longer unique.
CHAPTER THREE: Both Ends Burning
Communications Suite
Arcology One
2045
With the breadth of experience, religion, language, culture and ages aboard Arc One, it was a given that any expressed opinion would inevitably offend someone. As far as Davy was concerned, you notched up any offence on your Tab, carefully avoided getting annoyed or causing expressed annoyance, and took your Tab to the next township meeting. Any offender collated beyond the norm would be taken aside by one of the Wardens and asked to attend a counselling session. To date the Arc had no homicides or suicides, in a fantastically disorienting environment, so the system worked.
That was Arc One. When he came
aboard at age twelve, he’d seen enough of what an unplanned society could
create in terms of offence, back in
There you go, an orbital perspective on life.
A Dish Served Icy
Another piquant little tale from Quora. Original Poster worked at a company that held technical contracts with South Canadian government, and he was the sole person there whom had 'signing authority'. This means he, and only he, could sign off on contractual documents between the government and the company. Remember that 'Only he' bit.
Whatever they made - he deliberately avoids details - management were very shady, and told him to execute orders that were not very legitimate. They were, in fact, illegal.
'No!' was his response. Art!
So - they fired him. Obviously having forgotten that 'Only he'.
On his way out, he called the Federal Licensing department for his industry and informed them that they needed to remove him from their database.
Surprise! The fed who took the call informed OP that they had nobody else who was licensed or qualified as having signature authority. OP said it wasn't his problem any longer. By the time he departed the building and reached his car, the Feds had shut the business down.
He stated that it took them six months to regain their Federal contract by getting another qualified employee, costing them $1 million in business not done per month. Ouch.
Finally -
Your Humble Scribe had better get himself to the kitchen, since I need my tea (both sorts) and to get the breakfast stuffs together to shorten the prep time tomorrow. Plus I need to make a lunch up, I've consumed the last of the Kielbasa and Potato. You couldn't call it a stew, it has no liquid in it. Sandwiches ahoy!
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