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ICYMIS

Putin in Ukraine: Predicting a Personalist Ruler using Groupthink

Everybody and their Uncle Vanya has an opinion on Putin’s war in Ukraine. SPOILER ALERT: It’s bad! You come to Ye Olde Blogge because we give you some insight into the psychology of the moment, and we have it in very familiar spades.

“Make It Worse!” America’s New Favorite Game Show!

Remember, it can always get worse! And, my kidney stones were no worse. Just when I thought it was safe to pluck the damned stone out and things would finally get better, well, god help me, it got worse. Much worse. But, at least it resulted in a funny story.

Welp, things are starting to get back to whatever passes for normal in 2022. This year has been so bad that taking getting minor surgery and needing three days off work to recover gets me covered in envy by my co-workers. It’s got everyone else scratching and trying to figure out how THEY can get minor surgery, too. How’s your 2022 going so far?

Long story short, I got the stent out two days early on Thursday. That was an outpatient procedure, so I was back to work on Friday. As soon as the verdammten thing was out, I felt 100% better. I got up off the table, walked to the changing room, got into my street clothes, walked to the desk, declined a wheelchair, settled my account, and took a tuktuk home. Easy peasy. I never felt so good.

The procedure was as strange as the operation with the spinal block, only this time it wasn’t my lower two-thirds that was numb, it was just my member. Filled it with numbing gel, they did in one of the unsexiest experiences of someone handling your junk ever recorded in the anals of human experience.

Lexapro Watch

Since all this happened, I’ve had much less anxiety and much more energy and direction and dry mouth. About the only side effect that I’ve noticed. What I have had are the SSRI jitters, if you know what I mean. So far, so good. I’m happy with it. I think it is helping. What else can you say about a psychotropic?

It’s funny about having something happen like removing kidney stones can really kick you in the nuts and get you up off of your couch and doing something! Really, one of the keys to good mental health is doing stuff. It’s just when you’re at your lowest, doing something is really the last thing you wanna do, so medical necessity really helps. Again, this weird-assed year strikes again. I’m thankful for my kidney stones because 2022. Who knew?

The Week’s Reading

ICYMI 2

“Make It Worse!” America’s New Favorite Game Show!

We all are despairing of our current situation with the anti-democratic regressive forces of authoritarianism marching across our land, but, believe it or not, we’ve been down this road before and have always pulled back. This time won’t be any different, if we all do our part and get out the fucking vote!

Luckily having so much down time means that I could catch up on work that I’d been procrastinating on — good thing my bosses don’t read Ye Olde Blogge, right? — and continue obsessively reading the blogs I subscribe to, the mainstream media, and other stuff. Here’s the best of what I’ve read:

Okay, okay, you’ve caught me! This is just a filler paragraph because, for whatever reason, the heading blocks don’t want to play nice with the cover blocks and allow the text to wrap around all nice and pretty like. So, now, I’m stuck with trying to find something semi-intelligent to say to fill in the, otherwise, ugly blank white space that would be right here. Obviously, I failed at the semi-intelligent part.

The Blogs

• BLACK AND WHITE: Few things are black and white, including race. Here’s an enlightening look at what it means to live the life that Rachel Dolezal only pretended to be. (suziland)
• SCAPEGOAT: What with Putin’s war in Ukraine and the GQP going all authoritarian on us, we’re becoming very familiar with the concept of scapegoat. Here’s a look writ small, i.e. how scapegoats are used by narcissists in their families. Very enlightening. (Carla Corelli)
• HAVE A LITTLE SQUEAKER: Here’s an amusing tale, and don’t we all need more amusing tales in our lives, about the misadventures of a little squeaker. This time it involves a garbage disposal, Tupperware, college girls, and binoculars. (Red’s Wrap)
• STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Some insightful reporting about the geopolitical fallout from Putin’s little misadventure in Ukraine. This time it is pushing India and China closer together whether they like it or not. (Insightful Geopolitics)
• OFF TOPIC: What do you blog about when you don’t know what you wanna blog about? Any damned thing you want, but maybe not if you’re blogging about a single topic. Here’s some thoughtful advice and things to think about before you venture off topic. (Blind Justice)

The Main Stream

• BANANA KETCHUP: Join me in scratching your head over this combination that is not well known the Western world, banana ketchup. (Food 52)
• CORRELATIONS: We all have seen those crazy correlations like between something extremely random like, the high grades of children and families that eat dinner together or voting for Trump and the number of holes in your head. But, there’s one that sounds crazy but probably has a neat spurious variable linking them together: #COVID19 deaths and Interweb access! Who knew? (Vox)
• ZERO PROBABILITY: Being a punditing talking head on the TV is so much easier than being a modern major general because the punditing class and say with 100% certainty that Putin would never use nukes, so it is okay for us to enforce a no-fly zone. (Rawstory)
• SIDEWAYS: It is no secret that things have gone badly wrong for Putin in Ukraine. There is no way to put lipstick on this pig and come up with anything other than a pig. But here’s an explanation as to how and why that is a little off the beaten path, but well informed and sourced, so it is well worth reading. (New Lines Magazine)
• SLAVUTYCH: Things have gotten so bad that the Russian army left a town and released its captive mayor AFTER citizens peacefully protested. (The Guardian)

The Friends

• SNATCH CAUTION BACK FROM THE WIND : Bobcabkings reblogs some cautionary advice on reacting to toxic men and an great example of how to put your 3:00 AM anxiety fueled insomnia to good use. (Of Cabbages and Kings).
• THEOCRACY TEXAS STYLE: The well-known lab for bad policy and worse law, Texas, is proposing to make abortion a capital offense! And, there is a receptive audience for it. Go figure. (Mock Paper Scissors)
• STROKE: There is some credible speculation that Putin may have had a stroke. It is possible, and if so, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. First it was Clarence Thomas, now it is Putin. We can all hope, can’t we? (Homeless on the High Desert)
• WHAT A WEEK! Burr rounds up a week of news and blogging, and what a week it has been! There has been news on the domestic and international fronts. Far more than I could keep up with. All reported and linked to with his usual flair. (Fair and Unbalanced)
• CARTOON ROUNDUP! Who doesn’t love them some political op-ed cartoons with a sprinkling of the regular funnies thrown in for fun? Time to tickle your funny bone and go, Hmmm… (Scottie’s Playtime)
• F’IN AROUND AND FINDING OUT! It’s always good news with a racist white supremacist gets his comeuppance. This time the fellow who thought the world would be more receptive to his message was a pilot. Mike’s Blog Roundup is being curated by Jon Perr. (Crooks and Liars)
• NOT SO TOUGH! Speaking of fucking around and finding out, Putin’s war has failed miserably and doesn’t have many prospects of getting any better. I guess this is what happens when you make corruption the central tenet of your approach to governing. (Infidel 753)

Huzzah!
Jack

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“When you think you’ve found a way to get rid of your kidney stones“ by followthethings.com is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.