Friday, January 6: Ukraine's Shiny New Toys
Christmas came a little late for Ukrainian troops, but old Saint Nick didn’t shortchange their war effort. The United States will send Ukraine an additional ~$3 billion in military aid, in a massive new package that includes several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles (the luxury mid-size SUV everyone is clamoring for). Sources in the Biden administration claim this weapons package is the latest step to send increasingly lethal and powerful ammunition to support Ukrainian efforts to beat back Russian forces. How it makes sense for you and me as American taxpayers to fund this battle continues to baffle me.
This latest military aid package — totaling ~$2.85 billion — is the largest in a series of packages of military equipment that the Pentagon has pulled from its stockpiles/taxpayers’ pockets to send to Ukraine. The packages are aimed at getting as much weaponry to the Ukrainian forces as possible during these winter months, before spring sets in and an expected increase in fighting begins. Also included in the aid package will be HUMVEES, Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and a large amount of missiles and other ammunition. I imagine this is what Kevin would’ve felt like preparing his home in Home Alone if his dad was a weapons manufacturer.
Meanwhile, communities here in the United States are still reeling from a laundry list of issues (flooding, freezing, drought, homelessness, general dysfunction, etc.) stemming from years of underfunding, disinvestment, and outright neglect. But it’s always reassuring to know that if there’s a strategic geo-political proxy war to be fought on the other side of the world, our pockets will be emptied in support of the war effort. Thank god tax season is coming up, I’m sure the pentagon was starting to worry where all this money would come from.
Side Items
Living in a Spongebob Meme: How many times must Kevin McCarthy be taught this lesson? After another five unsuccessful votes, bringing the grand total to ELEVEN failed attempts, it’s clear that this is a man desperate for the impossible, much in the same way teenage Ahmad was desperate to become 6’4”. For those keeping track at home, this is now the longest speaker contest since before the Civil War. The entire process has been illuminating, revealing how transparently transactional the quest for political power is in this country. It’s also a reminder of how modern politics is almost entirely spectacle, to be followed much in the same way as a reality TV show
Damar Hamlin Update: The doctors treating the critically injured football player say that he is “awake and breathing” and was even able to communicate by writing with pen and paper, asking who won the game in which he was injured. Seriously, the man was in the deepest depths of a coma and he wakes up asking about a sports score. As happy as I am to hear of Hamlin’s improvement, it’s sad to think that his quick recovery could allow the NFL to sweep the whole incident aside with nothing more than “thoughts and prayers”
Watched So You Don’t Have To: The Menu, a “thriller/comedy/horror” starring Anya Taylor-Joy doing what she does best, staring vacantly and appearing upset. The film tells the story of an exclusive & luxurious restaurant run by a strange but innovative chef (Ralph Fiennes/Voldemort). To quote the online review of a complete stranger, “The combination of suspense and dark comedy is just top-notch and totally creative in the same kind of ways like how other directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Quentin Tarantino always like to interject and be more artsy with many of their own films.” There you have it folks, in the words of Joseph Broderick, it’s an artsy film starring Voldemort and the Queen’s Gambit. I give it a 4/10 for the lacking backstory, the uninspired acting, and the plot holes large enough to drive a semi truck through