Howdy y’all!
ICYMI: The Week’s Posts
I’ve been wanting to write this one for several weeks. The role of the dark tetrad personality in shaping our current dilemma cannot be overstated. MAGA Nation and the GQP seem to consist mostly of these characters and they are willing to destroy everything to get what they want. It is the foundation of our political division.
It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Putin invaded Ukraine because the Ol’ Pussy Grabber has so weakened the US and the Western alliance that it will make it difficult for us to respond effectively. Putin’s end goal is to make the world safe for authoritarian fascist oligarchies again. More on this in our next post.
This is year two of commemorating Trayvon Martin’s tragic death on Ye Olde Blogge. Given the importance of #BLM and gun violence in American culture, it makes sense to focus on the anniversary of Martin’s death to focus our efforts and renew our spirit of change. Unfortunately, this year it has been overshadowed by Ukraine.
Nothing is more stressful than being helpless and nothing relieves stress like being helpful. I was fortunate enough to come across a tweet thread by Olga Burlyuk listing a half dozen or so organizations in Ukraine that are helping in the war effort. Please donate to one of them.
This week’s been dominated by Putin’s reckless and narcissistic invasion of Ukraine. Because it’s being widely reported literally everywhere (including on Ye Olde Blogge), we won’t dwell too long on it here. Besides, there have been several updates on the important storylines that have taken up so much of Ye Olde Blogge’s time and attention:
- THE #COVID19 PANDEMIC: How is it that the third year of the pandemic seems to be so much worse than the first two? Maybe it is not universally true, but it certainly is here:
- We were one teacher going out with #COVID19 to closing the school this week. We had every warm body we could in classrooms including the head of school. In the first two years, #COVID19 affected people far far from us. That’s how many on our faculty have been infected. Now, we are thanking the universe for having skipped.
- Most of our teachers with #COVID19 have missed a week, treated their symptoms with over-the-counter medication, and have avoided severe symptoms. Chalk that up to the vaccines.
- Ma Belle Femme and I have now gotten our fourth dose of vaccine. It was Pfizer. We now have AstraZeneca x 3 and Pfizer x 1. La Petite Fille will get her third of SinoVac (the only one authorized for the under 18 set here in Cambodia) in March.
- After nearly 50 days with a #COVID19-related death here in Cambodia, we are seeing daily deaths. Today there were five, the most since November. We’re seeing about 500 new infections a day, so deaths are lagging far behind, knock on something resembling wood.
- Ye Olde Beard has been trimmed back to accommodate a snuggly fitting mask.
- THE BATHROOM DOOR: The struggle is real. The giggling “repair” fellow who left right after arming me with the tools needed to free myself left and never returned. On Wednesday, the door blew shut with no one inside who could open it. On Thursday afternoon, a new and different much more serious repair person showed up and actually dismantled the doorknob and replaced the little dummaflitcher that slides out into the door frame! It took him all of fifteen minutes. Hunh. Go figure. Why that couldn’t happen the day of is just another developing country mystery.
- THE PASSPORT: Let this be a lesson to ya! Don’t lose your passport. You have to appear in person at the embassy to submit your application. It takes a month to get the appointment. It takes five to seven weeks to get the passport and only if you pay extra for the rush. I’ll be lucky to have it back in time for our summer travel… if we can travel this summer.
- #SILVERLINING: I’ve been guilt posting and using Ye Olde Blogge for procrastination purposes. See the ICYMI sidebar. All of that is going to come to a crashing halt, though. There are somethings that can only be put off for so long before they reach around and bite you in the ass.
The Week’s Reading
Reading during the week has resumed. There are some choice blog posts and interesting things coming out of the obscure commercial media sources that I follow. I hope everyone realizes that I skip most of what appears in the mainstream media in these lists and focus on stuff that most of us will have missed.
The Commercial Media
Here are a couple of interesting articles that have come across Ye Olde Computer during the week:
- SYG LAWS AND HOMICIDE: Just in time for Trayvon Martin Day, friend o’ the blog, bobcabkings, sent a link to this article. It should not surprise anyone, really. A recently published study in JAMA found that states with stand your ground laws have a statistically significant increase in homicides and gun homicides. The laws really are a license to kill and just another example of the dark tetrad personality characteristics at work.
- WEIRD: Scientists have determined that the material making up the earth’s core is weirdly unique. It combines the qualities of solids and liquids allowing light elements in the “solid” outer rim of the core to be mobile and these same light elements remain mobile in molten inner core. (The Byte)
- CATALYST FOR CHANGE. Fifty years ago 25 January 1972, Shirley Chisholm launched her presidential bid. She paved the way for Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris, among others. In this lovely article reviewing her long-shot bid and the changes it helped bring about is a nice political quiz that we should all comment about in the comments! (The Nation)
Going to the Dogs
Everybody knows how much Ye Olde Blogge loves them some dogs. Here are several dog articles that we read this week:
- THE SKY IS FALLING! The sky is REALLY falling! A meteorite struck a dog house in Costa Rica on 23 April 2019 narrowly missing Roky who was occupying the doghouse at the time, knocking a seven-inch hole in the roof, and destroying the wooden floor. The doghouse is now being auctioned off by Christie’s. (The Byte)
- IT’S ALL IN THE VOICE. A recently published study found that dogs can recognize their owners simply by hearing the sound of their voice. No scent needed! (CNN)
- GRIEF. Another study has found that dogs grieve when their doggy friends die. Of course, all of us who’ve ever been multi-dog households knew that. I imagine they grieve their cat friends and any other friend, too. (NBC)
Fellow Bloggers
Being a part-time blogger and a full-time citizens is one of the most rewarding and difficult things I’ve done. I continue to be blown away by the content my fellow bloggers produce just for the joy of writing. When you visit, be sure to leave a sign of life! Likes, ratings, shares, and comments… if we even get that much.
- OLD HABITS: What’s the old saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? What do you do when you wake up one morning and realize that you are off track with all of your professional and artistic goals? You write an amusing blog post about it! (The Chatty Introvert)
- THANK YOU! One of the best things you can do for yourself is say thank you. Here is our favorite MDA blog thanking us all for our support. It’s okay if you’ve never visited or donated, there’s still time to do both. The other thing you can do to help yourself: say you’re welcome. You’re welcome, Wendy. I only wish I could do more. (Greater Than Gravity)
- NOW YOU ARE TWO! As important as saying thank you and you’re welcome are, we should also be celebrating the milestones that we reach. Here is a sweet celebration of a daughter’s second birthday. I’m not crying, you’re crying! (Simple Ula)
- #SILVERLINING – 2. What do you do when your lifestyle won’t allow you to keep a pet? You visit zoos, safari parks, and rescue centers on your travels! And, if you’re like me, you do the next best thing and visit the blog posts that chronicle their visits! (Snippets of a Traveling Mind)
Friends o’ Ye Olde Blogge
- A NEW STORY, PLEASE: Bobcabkings offers a quote of the day — a favorite regularly occurring post — and this one suggests that American liberals need to come up with a new story that is as compelling as the one being told by MAGA pens a poem exclaiming an experience we all are living — feelings of not belonging in our own country. How can we have grown so far apart that we no longer feel as if we belong? Or have we been that different all along? (Of Cabbages and Kings).
- HELPING UKRAINE! Tengrain supplies a list of organizations that can provide immediate relief for those in Ukraine and reminds us to be on the lookout for grifters. (Mock Paper Scissors)
- THEY CAN’T GET US ALL. In a lesson on the hubris being armed and angry brings, Ten Bears thinks that a Portland man… what are the kids saying nowadays? fucked around and found out when he shot into a crowd of protesters. Sure he killed one and injured a few others, but now he’s still in the hospital fighting for his life. (Homeless on the High Desert)
- UKRAINE UPDATES! Burr has all the links to all the Ukraine coverage from blogs and outlets big and small and all the snark, too… just in case you missed some of it. (Fair and Unbalanced)
- PROUD IS AS PROUD DOES! Not only does Scottie have his cartoon round up up, he has a terrific video of a “Karen” expressing her pride in white supremacy. Some of this shit has to be seen to be believed. (Scottie’s Playtime)
- AMERICA IS NOT A RACIST COUNTRY! Just when you thought our racism couldn’t get any plainer, Tucker Carlson clarifies it some more by decrying Biden’s SCOTUS pick… but in good racism news, the Tennessee woman who was sentenced to six years for trying to register to vote is getting a new trial! Tengrain runs Mike’s Blog Round Up, which has links to even more interesting blog posts!(Crooks and Liars)
- BEST UKRAINE SOURCE? In addition to his own blog round up, Infidel turns us on to the best source of updates about Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent (Infidel 753)
That’s been my week dominated by Putin’s foolish invasion of Ukraine. Let us know how your week was in the comments!
HUZZAH!
Jack
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Image Attribution
“Broken Doorknob” by Chris Campbell is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
The Psy of Life 
Hey Jack: Thanks for publicizing my blog about animals. You probably noted in this post that I attempted to inject a little levity amid these crisis ridden times.
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Howdy James!
Yes, I’m “desperate” for any kind of levity and distraction that is available. I appreciate those who can provide us with those needed distractions.
Jack
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Calico Jack – A door fixed and lots of links
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Thanks for the shout out. That guy in Portland provide a good example on the hazards of SYG laws and “Get off my lawn.”
On COVID, we keep getting the same lesson and not learning it, that no matter how much we want to be done with the virus, it ain’t done with us, and won’t be unless we and until we all (as in world) do what needs to be done to get there.
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An old ’80’s thing that isn’t so widely repeated probably applies here, the universe keeps teaching your the same lesson until you finally learn it. Each iteration, though, tries a little harder to get your attention. Don’t let it turn into getting hit by a Mac truck. I think we can see the headlights of that truck rounding the corner.
Jack
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Could be.
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Then, there’s the one about the light at the end of the tunnel versus the oncoming train. Covid has been like that.
And, this:
“Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it.”
Gregory Bateson
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I certainly feel like Wile E. Coyote facing down the train in the tunnel most of the time nowadays. I think I’ve got a GREAT idea, but nothing seems to avert disaster.
I think Bateson was on to something to do with a priming effect. We’re primed for the things that will lead to war and can’t help but to commit those acts.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Another thing about Bateson’s observation is that we so often are trying to avert the last war and failing to predict how the next one will be different. The actions taken to prevent the last one push the old or new opponent to do something different.
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Howdy Bob!
It’s like the next election is fought over the last election, but isn’t decided by those issues. It is hard to get around that framing effect. I guess that is why it is so astounding when a Churchill comes along and is able to do it.
It’s funny because Trump didn’t have a framing effect in the 2016 election. He really did defy all conventional wisdom and win. But in the 2020 election, it was nothing but rerunning the 2016 election. He couldn’t separate himself from the framing effect. He’s still running the 2020 election. He can’t free himself from that frame.
In Ukraine, it seems to me that Putin is relying on conventional weapons and wisdom, tanks, armor, superior weapons, and greater numbers. But, it is like — I don’t know because I have no real good information — the anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons Ukraine is using are better than the armor and aircraft. Similar to WWI when the defensive weapons were better than the offensive and they ground to a stalemate.
I guess it remains to be seen whether missiles, thermobaric bombs, and drones can actually win the day over an angry and determined resistance. Will we have WWII Yugoslavia all over again? Or will we have Syria or Vichy France?
Huzzah!
Jack
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Ukraine appears to becoming a war of attrition by asymmetrical means by multiple players. I am convinced that Putin cannot pull back or moderate the campaign. He clearly sees control of Ukraine as necessary both for Russian security and Russian national identity. Politically (i.e., his relationships with the Russian military and the oligarchs) he has to win. At this point he has no off ramp that allows him to look strong. Therefore, the sanctions are not aimed at persuading Putin to back off. They are aimed at persuading the oligarchs and generals that he must be removed, that they need to find a way to that which allows them to put all the blame for the fiasco on him personally, a version of the Mad King story.
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Howdy Bob!
I read today where the first planes carrying US military aide have landed in Ukraine or in an neighboring country. It made me wonder when Putin would begin targeting the relief aide as part of his war effort a la German u-boats in World Wars I and II.
I’m working on a post for later in the week linking Putin’s misjudgment to groupthink and his self-imposed isolation from anyone who will contradict his decisions. He has fallen into the fatal trap that so many dictators do, he conflates the state with himself. Ukraine defying him and leaving the USSR were experienced by Putin as narcissistic wounds. His damaged ego is synonymous with the state. The only remedy is to annex as much of Ukraine as is possible. He can tolerate a subservient dictator like he had in Ukraine and has in Belarus, but he can’t tolerate a liberal democracy that might could join with Europe and the Western alliance structure.
For him to stop the war with anything less than creating a rump Ukraine — the minimum outcome that will salve his wound for the next few years — which will ally with Russia, is impossible. His ego is too deeply injured for him to stop prosecuting the war.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Exactly
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It was only a matter of time. Those who didn’t see it coming weren’t paying attention. It didn’t necessarily have to be Portland, almost my hometown, one I know more about than most of the people living there know about, it could have been any of the cities Trump and the Traitors targeted two summers ago ~ it was bound to happen. Might even be an anthropological, a sociological constant, demonstrated repeatedly down through recorded history: people can only be pushed so far …
Thanks Jack, that one was an original
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And from what I understand, Portland be just a bit cray-cray on both sides of the political divide. Still, it was a story that was inaccurately reported on when it happened, and most of us missed the corrections that came out later. I appreciated your focus on it.
Huzzah!
Jack
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