NO SNIGGERING AT THE BACK!
It sounds better as a title than "More Money Misery In Modern-day Mordor", doesn't it?
Okay, in case you are unaware, the planet Neptune's orbit within the Solar System was predicted by mathematical observations derived from perturbations in the orbit of Uranus. So that's where today's title and metaphor comes from. Art!
It's also referenced as a metaphor to the sinister Krendler, who has been quietly sabotaging Agent Starling's career, because she caught Hannibal and not himself. His delicate fee-fees were hurt, it seems.
Let's see what the AI Art Generator can provide us with. Art!
There you have "Neptune and Uranus", and I'm reassured that the AI didn't censor it because of the latter planet's name. You never can tell with these things.
More Money Misery In Modern-day Mordor: Thanks to Jake Broe for picking up this story on his Youtube channel. He was quoting Tymofiy Milovanov, who is an Economics Professor at Kyiv University, who in turn was quoting an incredibly important analysis of the Ruffian economy by Craig Kennedy, who has held senior positions at Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. His thesis is titled "Russia's Hidden War Debt" and covers fiscal planning that seems to have been completely overlooked - until now. Art!
Craig sporting a wry smile
The Kremlin's official military budget is an open secret, totalling some $250 billion so far. What Craig uncovered was a very covert, low-profile, off-budget financial scheme that mirrors the military budget in total expenditure. Since Day Two of the Special Idiotic Operation, the Ruffian state has been forcing banks to make preferential loans to businesses involved in the military-industrial complex, on terms that the Kremlin sets with no regards to normal fiscal safety measures. The total of these loans has now hit $250 billion, because what began as a short-term expediency measure is now in it's third year. It allowed Putinpot to point at his military budget and pretend that things were fine.
Well, they're not. Art!
"Elvira dreamed of crushing Putin's scrawny neck -"
Like the perturbations of Uranus, this huge debt is now one of the main, hitherto unsuspected, drivers of rising inflation, soaring interest rates - courtesy of Elvira above - liquidity problems for banks and the ever-increasing chance of what Craig coyly calls a 'credit event risk'. Which is where a bank goes bust, and has to be bailed out by the state. The longer the was continues, the higher the chance of this happening.
And it will happen. I mentioned 'fiscal safety measures' above, because the normal process for a loan being offered is for the borrower to be assessed by the bank, in order to work out if the loan can be repaid, or what risk is involved in the loan should a crisis arrive. None of this has been done. In fact these businesses have mostly been running at a loss, so they have no capital to pay back the loans given to them when they become due. Art!
Even the Mouth Of Sauron (as pictured above) has recently realised and revealed that the military-industrial complex is serious trouble. When slavish apparatchiks like this one start sounding alarm bells, you know things are going badly astray. Art!
This credit debt now amounts to almost 20% of the Ruffian's Gross Domestic Product, and to pay it off would take half of the entire federal budget of 2024. Elvira and chums have said that the strategic (i.e. war-economy status) of these preferential loans has made the ability of the RCB to control inflation very difficult, because this is not the usual commercial process. Hence high interest rates.
So when Charlie Chipmunk Cheeks tries to act insouciantly and pretends that time is on his side, he is both lying and whistling in the dark. He needs a ceasefire, not just wants one, and the longer the delay the worse things are going to get for the Ruffian economy.
That's not all. O Noes! But I shall mercifully save you from yet more money misery, at least until tomorrow. Conrad bets you can hardly wait.
Sal And SOCal
Which refers to Sal Mercogliano and Southern California, and here we have another instalment of Sal refuting silly conspiranoid loonwaffle myths about seawater and fires.
There is an assertion that seawater is less efficient at extinguishing fires because it cools less. Sal's robust scoffing at this was "I've tackled fires with seawater. You spray them with seawater, guess what, they go out." Art!
This is an old picture of Sal, with the caption: "Heading into my 17th year as a Captain" so when he informs about fires and firefighting, he knows what he's talking about from practical experience, rather than a paranoid conspiracy theorist wearing a tinfoil beanie typing from their parents basement. To quote a Commenter on Sal's vlog:
Physics PhD here, as for the ‘cooling ability’, I just checked online, the heat capacity of seawater is roughly 5% less per kilogram than water. But since seawater is 3% denser, then by volume, which is what really matters, the heat capacity of seawater is only 2% less than freshwater.
FitBit Nitwit
Unfortunately, my phone is refusing to take photographs again, so I cannot picure the errant device for you. The battery is running down ridiculously quickly at present, and I'm guessing that it's going to choke and expire in the near future. Art!
"The War Illustrated Edition 200 16th February 1945"
We come to the last of the photographs in the central page montage. Art!
A home from home where the dogfaces roam. The caption states that this is a 'crude dugout', which seems to be a rather large assumption since you cannot see inside it, thanks to the tarpaulin draped over the entrance. The soldier present is from the 10th Armoured Division, although since they were a South Canadian division perhaps that ought to be 'Armored'. On second thoughts no, it's going to stay as 'Armoured'.
Run To The Side! TO THE SIDE! TO THE SIDE!
Sorry for shouting in print. I am currently watching Episode Seven of "Department S", that being a specialist department of Interpol, called in when things are too obscure or mysterious for the conventional police. Art!
This chap wakes up on a runway at Heathrow Airport, in his dressing gown and slippers. Perhaps it was an extremely heavy bender he went on the night before?
ANYWAY what happens next but an aircraft comes in to land, as they tend to do on airport runways. Art!
Inevitably, it chooses to land on the runway Mister Casual Dresser has found himself upon. What does he do? Art!
HE RUNS DOWN THE LENGTH OF THE RUNWAY. Really! All he had to do was move ten yards either way and he'd be perfectly safe, at the expense of possibly getting his slippers wet with dew. But no, he has to try and outrun a jet travelling at possibly 120 miles per hour. He might have stood a chance if he'd simply stayed still.
Then again, it might be a short episode if there's no mysterious death involved, hmmm?
Finally -
Better go dig up that Fish Doria recipe. It's an Italian seafood dish. You know, fish, those things that live in seawater.
Pip pip!
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