A Sorry Tale Of Woe, Bro
Perhaps I should have typed 'Broe' as it was Jake of that surname who blew the whistle on the utterly abysmal state of the Ruffian economy, which is far, far worse than the Kremlin has admitted. Art!
Incidentally, Jake has helped to raise well over a million dollars for Ukraine, resulting in a fleet of 50 pickup trucks being sent there for front-line use. Hence the North Atlantic Fella Organisation patch above, and now the AfD in the land of the Teutons are asking worried questions about NA
ANYWAY things continue to get worse for Modern-day Mordor, quite apart from the battlefield, where they regularly lose over a thousand troops per day in order to capture a duckpond and two chicken coops. What we're going to mention today is the National Wealth Fund. In case you're not familiar with this, it was a rainy-day fund built up from surplus revenue in the years before the Special Idiotic Operation. Art!
Here Bloaty Gas Tout proved that, rather than being a 3D chess master, he could barely compete at tiddlywinks, because half the fund was immediately frozen in the Western banks it was held in. Overnight it went from $600 billion to $300 billion. Putinpot probably expected it to be used for perhaps six months, until he'd completely conquered Ukraine and sanctions were dropped, except that neither of those have happened. Art!
By 01/01/2025 the National Wealth Fund was down to $37 billion and by the end of this month will probably be under $30 billion. So they have burned though 90% of the liquid assets. Initially in 2022 they used up to $50 billion trying to prop up the ruble, then gave up after six months because it was just a money pit. Ever since then they have used it to pay off the monthly deficit, which is the difference between incoming revenue and outgoing expenditure. Thanks to how they (mis)manage their economic accounting, the deficit in December is far larger than the other months: in 2023 it was 3 trillion rubles. Prune60 on Bluesky has noted that the Ruffians haven't yet published the deficit figures for December yet, possibly crossing their fingers that nobody notices the omission. You may also note that the only liquid assets the fund has left are Chinese Yuan and gold, the euros, pounds and dollars have long been spent.
Thus, the NWF is going to be gone by April. When it's funds are exhausted, the only option left for the orcs is to print more and more money, which will drive up inflation.
That's not all. O noes! Art?
This is the Ruffian State Duma, supposedly their equivalent of Parliament or the South Canadian Senate, but which in reality merely rubberstamps anything that Putin orders it to do .
Normally.
You see, the Ruffian state is so desperate for money that there is talk of 'freezing' citizen's savings of more than $13,000 value. When they say 'freezing' what they mean is 'stealing', because that money will go from banks to the state without any compensation. Ordinary orcs are now getting worried because the state has been denying it, and it's not true until Peskov has denied it officially. This has alarmed members of the normally placid and docile Duma so much that they are now trying to craft legislation that will prevent the Ruffian Central Bank from being able to impose this cash-grab. One can understand why; seeing one's savings accumulated over years vanish into the maw of the Special Idiotic Operation may well inspire revolt. It's doubtful whether the Puffy-Phaced Petrol Pimp will dare enact this measure because, like another mobilisation, he understands how hated it will be.
That's not all, there's even more bad news recently announced. Which I will save and savour for later.
Fire And Water, Reprised
More musings from Mercogliano, ex-merchant mariner and currently Fire Captain of over 17 years standing. Sal was demolishing a series of myths about why seawater wasn't being used to tackle the South Californian wildfires.
Before doing a little conspiracy-busting, he explained that part of the problem facing firefighters was a shortage of water. People evacuating were not shutting off their water supply at the mains, meaning when houses were destroyed, their water kept running. Water stored in water towers has been exhausted, with no time to fill them again. Art!
Not contemporary
One for the history buffs. Sal referenced the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, where 90% of the damage was caused by fire, not the earthquake itself. As a result, San Fran has a dual-hydrant system; one set is connected to the normal water mains, and a separate different set which are gravity-fed but with an option to pump in seawater. Art!
One of the conspiranoid loonwaffle's assertions is that seawater will instantly kill all plant life where it is used, because it's as deadly as Hydrazine. Not true. Sal gave the example of North Carolina, where he lives. This state experiences coastal flooding, after which 'stuff grows back'. Don't forget the British American Candair CL-215s use seawater to 'bomb' fires, over five tons of it per drop. Surprise! stuff grows back.
In an aside - you see, other people do it as well - Sal mentioned that there is nil historical evidence that the Romans salted the ruins of Carthage after they destroyed it.
"One Of Our Submarines"
I did warn you there was more to come on this Thomas Morgan Dolby Robertson song, and here it is.
TMDR wrote the song as a tribute to his uncle, Stephen Spring-Rice, who was lost when the sub he was second in command of, the P48, was lost at sea. TMDR believed at the time of writing that the sub had gone down near Plymouth, where she was based, and was simply the result of an accident. Art!
HMS P48
It's now known that P48 was lost, not in the English Channel, but off the coast of Tunisia, and not by accident but by design, the designer in this case being the Italian torpedo-boat Ardente. She successfully depth-charged P48 on Christmas Day 1942, which is a rotten present to get. Art!
That's Zembra Island, and the wreck lies at map reference 37°15'N, 10°30'E
TMDR posted his update on the saga back in 2018, so there may have been dives to the wreck in the meantime. Since the crew died in the sub itself, it is very probably designated a war grave and no fiddling or poking about permitted.
No "The War Illustrated" I'm Afraid
My phone is still refusing to store pictures even after Restarting, and there's no Cache to empty. There isn't that GIF with an exclamation mark present, so this might be a different iteration of a problem. Or, it's sulking because it doesn't like being described as the 'devil's digital device', which Conrad thinks is a pretty fair description.
Likewise, No Fish Doria Photos
I had the recipe hand-written on a piece of paper, with a lack of instructions about what to do with the white fish fillets, or when to add the cucumber. It turned out very satisfactorily, although I'm not sure it will keep very well, given all the seafood in it. So I may have to cook a Sunday Stew as well. O the humanity! Art?
I must remember to add that tin of Palm Hearts to it.
Finally -
Conrad needs a shower, and since I can't get my dressing wet, is going to have to tape a couple of plastic bags over my foot. This should be interesting.
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