https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-rating-agencies-say-bidens-spending-plans-will-not-add-inflationary-2021-11-17/

Ah. SUDDENLY I understand why we’re hearing about inflation now. Republicans have started the election.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/11/12/oklahoma-guard-goes-rogue-rejects-covid-vaccine-mandate-after-sudden-change-of-command/

My dad was in the 45th Division. Pretty sure he would not have been on board with this ho…gwash.

We have two, count ’em, two, holidays in which we celebrate military service and zero holidays in which we celebrate the orderlies who will be changing my bedpan in 30 years when I’m scared and in pain, and grouchy, or the teachers who did their best to instill critical thinking and good social habits into my kids.

Apart from whatever holidays Congress has enacted in order to score votes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incurvatus_in_se

Ha! A fancy way to say “self-centered”!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/08/briefing/covid-death-toll-red-america.html

«the immunity from vaccination appears to be much stronger than the immunity from infection, which means that conservative Americans will probably continue to suffer an outsized amount of unnecessary illness and death.»

https://jill.substack.com/p/whos-afraid-of-what-happened-in-virginia

Good post. No neat answers, lots of stupidity.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/us-china-war/620571/

«The People’s Liberation Army Navy is churning out ships at a rate not seen since World War II»

Did some more reading after the above article.

China now has the world’s largest Navy in terms of raw ship count, I guess, but it has a different shape from ours.

And I guess we shouldn’t ignore our allies: https://thediplomat.com/2021/04/yes-china-has-the-worlds-largest-navy-that-matters-less-than-you-might-think/

«“We’ve got a Navy that we’ve worn out bombing trucks, weddings and huts in Afghanistan for 20 years,”»

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2021/04/12/chinas-navy-has-more-ships-than-the-us-does-that-matter/

«Japan, Australia and South Korea all sport robust navies in the region, and the United States is increasingly working to bring India into the fold as that country deals with its own Beijing-related rivalries.

“We just take for granted the incredible network of allies we have around the world,” 

(ibid.)

(And then we just dump on them because we think we’re the mighty, mighty exceptional United States and we stand alone.)

I voted (for school board, because, somehow, these elections always seem to go sideways and there’s a guy running who thinks school kids should not learn about systemic racism).

Where’s my social media flair?

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/579338-juan-williams-parents-rights-is-code-for-white-race-politics

https://news.usni.org/2021/10/28/stefany-repairs-to-uss-connecticut-could-cause-perturbations-in-public-shipyards

«”CBO projects that the Navy will experience maintenance delays throughout the next 30 years because the demand for labor will exceed the shipyards’ supply of it in 25 of the next 30 years”»

Why are we here? Because business wants to get things done as efficiently as possible. “Just-in-time” manufacturing. “Do more with less.” All that garbage. Reminds me of this other thread I stumbled across yesterday: