Links - 13th July 2024 (2 - Ukraine War)

Ukraine knocks out one of Putin's newest £51million Su-57 warplanes in drone blitz on Russian airfield - "Ukrainian forces knocked out one of Vladimir Putin's newest warplanes when a kamikaze drone exploded a Su-57 multi-purpose fighter plane, it has emerged.  The £51million aircraft was on the ground in Akhtubinsk military airfield in the Astrakhan region of southern Russia.  The drone - one of three - flew some 365 miles from the frontline, evading Russian air defences... 'Su-57 damage is the first such case in history.'... Russia has previously boasted the warplane is 'the best combat fighter in the world'.   The Ukrainian agency said the plane, which is capable of carrying stealth missiles across hundreds of miles, was among 'a countable few' of its type in Moscow's arsenal."

How Putin's gas empire crumbled - "Vladimir Putin is throwing everything he has got at ramping up Russia’s war machine.   That is why the nation’s economy – if one believes Moscow’s figures – has held up better than might have been expected in the face of Western sanctions. Rather than reflecting anything remotely like prosperity, the statistics show more weapons being produced for the meat grinder of eastern Ukraine.   The resources funding this include oil revenues. Higher oil prices send more cash into the Kremlin’s coffers, thanks in large part to sales via Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of embargo-busting tankers, ferrying black gold to customers without moral qualms in supportive or non-aligned nations.   But Putin’s financial firepower does not include one previously reliable source of cash: natural gas.   Gazprom, the largely state-owned energy giant, has tumbled to its worst loss in a quarter of a century, losing 629bn roubles, equivalent to £5.5bn, last year, as its revenues dived by more than one quarter in rouble terms. It is the biggest loss in at least 25 years... In 2021, more than 40pc of European Union gas imports came from Russia. That dropped to 8pc last year, according to the European Commission... Europe replaced the loss of Russian gas at considerable expense, but new networks have now been established which mean Moscow has lost its grip on the Western market forever.  Liquefied natural gas, imported on tankers, has grown in importance. The EU added capacity to import an extra 40bn cubic metres of LNG last year, and plans to add capacity for another 30bn this year."
Too bad Trudeau wants to weaken European "allies" by not helping

Russia Is Running Out of Missiles. That’s Bad News for Ukraine (Sep 2022)
Russia firing ageing cruise missiles because stocks are depleted, MoD suggests | Ukraine | The Guardian (Nov 2022)
Russia May Run Out of Missiles in Three Months: Intelligence Report (Jan 2023)
The Clock Is Ticking: Russia Has A One-Year Reserve Of Weapons (Apr 2024)
Trust the Experts!

Is Russia running out of ammunition? (Dec 2022)
Exclusive: Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine | CNN Politics (March 2024)

BBC Radio 4 - From Our Own Correspondent, Confronting racism on Chinese social media - "‘Frankly, I have an extremely negative attitude towards Ukrainians, he answers. Before adding, if I were Putin I'd smash all those Nazis. I reckon that's what all Russians think. His friend Sergey chimes in over the phone line: you know in 1941 everyone was telling Stalin that the fascists would invade the Soviet Union, but he didn't believe them, and then 27 million people died. But this time, to make sure it didn't happen again, we began a preemptive operation, Sergey goes on. Putin did the right thing by starting it literally a day or two before we were going to be attacked, he adds. As I tune in to one television program at work one morning, a presenter is warning what Ukraine could do if it somehow manages to liberate the now devastated city of Mariupol. The Ukrainians view the people there as collaborators, the Russian TV anchor tells her viewers. If they take the city back, they could stuff the children there into gas chambers. And as my conversation with Victor illustrates, there's a perverse sense of victimhood permeating the way many Russians view their country's actions in Ukraine. Why has the whole world turned on us?, he asks me. Just because we're giving the Nazis a good kicking. Well, that means they support the Nazis then. And state TV is not shy about threatening the West with Russia's wide array of nuclear weapons’"

Meme - "'Unfriendly' countries according to Russia
Countries where you can drink tap water
*very high overlap*"

Renson Seow | Facebook - "Let's talk about the deal between Russia and North Korea for artillery ammo. Some media outlets are dismissing NK ammo as unreliable, low tech etc. But the important thing to note is the potential 𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙢𝙚 NK can supply, and 𝙬𝙝𝙮 NK artillery stockpiles (which match Russian artillery calibres) are exceptionally large compared to other nations: Because NK battle doctrine plans for use of artillery as a pseudo-weapon of mass destruction (WMD) equivalent / deterrence against civilian populations, compared with conventional battle doctrine of other nations where artillery fire is usually used as battlefield support against military targets (see the graphic drawn from 2020 research showing how NK artillery will be used in a pseudo WMD role). The NKs know that in order for such a pseudo WMD to be effective as a deterrent, it will need to hit hard, fast, and in overwhelming numbers before US and South Korean counterfire / counterbattery gets to degrade the amount of outgoing fire. Means ammo supply cannot be a limiting factor when the NK guns are going at full rate. Unlike the slower arty ammo consumption of other nations which will likely depend on availability of battlefield targets, NK artillery used in a pseudo WMD role will not run out of (civilian) targets, and is thus expected to continue shooting until destroyed. We can thus conclude that arty ammo is stockpiled to the eyeballs in NK, and the NK ammo supply deal to Russia can't be easily dismissed as insignificant. (Nb: also note that the South Koreans took quite a risk to supply stocks of 155mm artillery shells to the US (and thus Ukraine) as this would degrade their counter battery fire capabilities. But this move likely led to NKs decision to free up some of their ammo as well, ironically demilitarising the Koreas a bit more.)"

Opinion | Everyone Wants to Seize Russia’s Assets. The REPO Act Is a Terrible Idea. - The New York Times - "The very act of seizing Russian assets would pose dangers to the U.S. economy, because other countries, not just Russia, would view it as an act of brigandage. This could weaken the dollar’s status as the main global reserve currency.  The dollar is probably the most valuable strategic asset the United States has. We exercise a degree of control over the world economy because the world, for trading purposes, allows its transactions to pass through our currency. This leaves us with cheaper transaction costs and lighter financial burdens. It gives us leeway to run up debt ($34 trillion of it so far) that other countries lack.  If Russia, China and other diplomatic rivals were to decide that their dollar assets were vulnerable and that they could no longer trust the dollar as a means of exchange, we would feel the pain of that $34 trillion in debt in a way that we don’t now. Retaining the advantages of a reserve currency depends on our behaving as a trustworthy and neutral custodian of others’ assets. If we start stealing people’s money, that could change... If the REPO Act is enacted, then currency seizures, now seen as a tool of last resort, might turn into standard operating procedure, to America’s detriment. Any foreign government liable to having an American voting bloc riled up against it — China, for starters — would think twice before parking its assets in the United States or with one of its NATO allies."

Opinion | J.D. Vance: The Math on Ukraine Doesn’t Add Up - The New York Times - "President Biden wants the world to believe that the biggest obstacle facing Ukraine is Republicans and our lack of commitment to the global community. This is wrong.  Ukraine’s challenge is not the G.O.P.; it’s math. Ukraine needs more soldiers than it can field, even with draconian conscription policies. And it needs more matériel than the United States can provide. This reality must inform any future Ukraine policy, from further congressional aid to the diplomatic course set by the president... The most fundamental question: How much does Ukraine need and how much can we actually provide? Mr. Biden suggests that a $60 billion supplemental means the difference between victory and defeat in a major war between Russia and Ukraine. That is also wrong.  This $60 billion is a fraction of what it would take to turn the tide in Ukraine’s favor. But this is not just a matter of dollars. Fundamentally, we lack the capacity to manufacture the amount of weapons Ukraine needs us to supply to win the war.  Consider our ability to produce 155-millimeter artillery shells. Last year, Ukraine’s defense minister estimated that the country’s base-line requirement for these shells was over four million per year but that it could fire up to seven million if that many were available. Since the start of the conflict, the United States has gone to great lengths to ramp up production of 155-millimeter shells. We’ve roughly doubled our capacity and can now produce 360,000 per year — less than a tenth of what Ukraine says it needs. The administration’s goal is to get this to 1.2 million — 30 percent of what’s needed — by the end of 2025. This would cost the American taxpayers dearly while yielding an unpleasantly familiar result: failure abroad. Just this week, the top American military commander in Europe argued that absent further security assistance, Russia could soon have a 10-to-1 artillery advantage over Ukraine. What didn’t gather as many headlines is that Russia’s current advantage is at least 5 to 1, even after all the money we have poured into the conflict. Neither of these ratios plausibly leads to Ukrainian victory.  Proponents of American aid to Ukraine have argued that our approach has been a boon to our own economy, creating jobs here in the factories that manufacture weapons. But our national security interests can be — and often are — separate from our economic interests. The notion that we should prolong a bloody and gruesome war because it’s been good for American business is grotesque. We can and should rebuild our industrial base without shipping its products to a foreign conflict. The story is the same when we look at other munitions. Take the Patriot missile system — our premier air defense weapon. It’s of such importance in this war that Ukraine’s foreign minister has specifically demanded them. That’s because in March alone, Russia reportedly launched over 3,000 guided aerial bombs, 600 drones and 400 missiles at Ukraine. To fend off these attacks, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and others have indicated they need thousands of Patriot interceptors per year. The problem is this: The United States only manufactures 550 per year. If we pass the supplemental aid package currently being considered in Congress, we could potentially increase annual production to 650, but that’s still less than a third of what Ukraine requires. These weapons are not only needed by Ukraine. If China were to set its sights on Taiwan, the Patriot missile system would be critical to its defense. In fact, the United States has promised to send Taiwan nearly $900 million worth of Patriot missiles, but delivery of those weapons and other essential resources has been severely delayed, partly because of shortages caused by the war in Ukraine. If that sounds bad, Ukraine’s manpower situation is even worse. Here are the basics: Russia has nearly four times the population of Ukraine. Ukraine needs upward of half a million new recruits, but hundreds of thousands of fighting-age men have already fled the country. The average Ukrainian soldier is roughly 43 years old, and many soldiers have already served two years at the front with few, if any, opportunities to stop fighting. After two years of conflict, there are some villages with almost no men left. The Ukrainian military has resorted to coercing men into service, and women have staged protests to demand the return of their husbands and fathers after long years of service at the front. This newspaper reported one instance in which the Ukrainian military attempted to conscript a man with a diagnosed mental disability. Many in Washington seem to think that hundreds of thousands of young Ukrainians have gone to war with a song in their heart and are happy to label any thought to the contrary Russian propaganda. But major newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic are reporting that the situation on the ground in Ukraine is grim.  These basic mathematical realities were true, but contestable, at the outset of the war. They were obvious and incontestable a year ago, when American leadership worked closely with Mr. Zelensky to undertake a disastrous counteroffensive. The bad news is that accepting brute reality would have been most useful last spring, before the Ukrainians launched that extremely costly and unsuccessful military campaign. The good news is that even now, a defensive strategy can work... By committing to a defensive strategy, Ukraine can preserve its precious military manpower, stop the bleeding and provide time for negotiations to commence. But this would require both the American and Ukrainian leadership to accept that Mr. Zelensky’s stated goal for the war — a return to 1991 boundaries — is fantastical. The White House has said time and again that it can’t negotiate with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. This is absurd. The Biden administration has no viable plan for the Ukrainians to win this war. The sooner Americans confront this truth, the sooner we can fix this mess and broker for peace."
Maybe the plan is to wait until Biden is out, then blame Ukraine's loss on Trump
Good luck to the US in its next war, when it will need even more than what Ukraine needs. But of course the left still wants to cut defense spending, while labelling those who don't want to provide unlimited support for Ukraine as traitors

Vice president of Russian bank falls to her death in Moscow apartment in latest mysterious fatality - "Kristina Baikova, 28, an executive at Loko-Bank, is just the latest mysterious casualty involving Russia's top business people.  Ms Baikova allegedly fell from her 11th floor apartment on the Khodynsky Boulevard in the early hours of last Friday. She died instantly at the scene... A spate of unexplained deaths of high-ranking energy officials has taken place since the start of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine in February last year.  In May this year, Russia's deputy science minister, allegedly a private critic of the 'fascist' invasion of Ukraine, died suddenly after falling seriously ill on a flight to Moscow.  Pyotr Kucherenko, 46, was returning from a business trip to Cuba when his plane was forced to make an emergency landing in southern Russia, the Science and Higher Education Ministry said.  Doctors performed CPR but were unable to save the official. His family said the death was linked to an underlying heart condition.   Independent journalist Roman Super wrote after the announcement that his 'old friend' had spoken in private about his inability to escape Russia following what he called the 'fascist invasion' of Ukraine. In April, energy boss Igor Shkurko was found dead in his prison cell after he was accused of taking a bribe.  The 49-year-old was the deputy general director of Russian energy company Yakutskenergo.  He was a member of the pro-Putin United Russia political party but his membership was suspended when the bribe allegation was made.  Only two months prior, Russian oil magnate Viatcheslav Rovneiko, 59, was 'found unconscious' late at night at his home.  Doctors were unable to save him from dying, according to a report by Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.  In February, a top Russian defence official was found dead after plunging 160ft from a tower block window last week.  Marina Yankina, 58, was a key figure in the funding of Vladimir Putin's illegal war in Ukraine as head of the financial support department of the Ministry of Defence for the Western Military District, which is closely involved in the dictator's invasion... On December 26, Pavel Antonov - the richest deputy of the Russian Duma (Russia's parliament) and a Putin critic - died in India falling out of a hotel window. His companion Vladimir Bidenov was found dead in the same hotel four days earlier.  Aleksey Maslov, 69, the former chief of Russian Ground Forces, died in hospital on December 25 while Aleksandr Buzakov - who had been the head of Russia's 'admiralty shipyards' for a decade - died on December 24 2022.  In July, 76-year-old Yevgeny Lobachev - a retired Major General of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation - was found dead in Moscow with a pistol nearby.   His death was also ruled as suicide.  Other recent deaths have included the editor of a popular Russian propaganda magazine, the vice-president of Gazprombank and a senior Gazprom official. Dmitry Zelenov, a real estate tycoon, died on December 9 in the French Riviera town of Antibes.  The oligarch, 50, was out to dinner with some friends when he began feeling unwell and tumbled down a flight of stairs, sustaining serious head injuries... The circumstances around the real estate tycoon's death are remarkably similar to those of Anatoly Gerashchenko, the former head of Moscow's Aviation Institute (MAI) who is said to have tumbled down a flight of stairs at the institute's headquarters in the Russian capital in September... Vladimir Putin's point man for developing Russia's vast Arctic resources 'fell overboard' while sailing off the country's Pacific coast.  Ivan Pechorin, 39, was managing director of Putin's Far East and Arctic Development Corporation and had recently attended a major conference hosted by the Kremlin warmonger in Vladivostok... The corporation's former CEO Igor Nosov, 43, also died suddenly in February, reportedly from a stroke.  On September 1, oil tycoon Ravil Maganov, 67, fell to his death from the sixth floor window of a Moscow hospital.  One report said the chairman of Lukoil - Russia's second largest oil company - was 'beaten' before he was 'thrown out of a window', though this has not been independently confirmed. Lukoil had previously voiced opposition to the war in Ukraine... Yuri Voronov, 61, head of a transport and logistics company for a Gazprom-linked company, was found dead in his swimming pool amid reports of foul play. Two more deaths of Gazprom-linked executives were reported in elite homes near St Petersburg, stoking suspicions that the deaths may well have been murders.  Alexander Tyulakov, 61, a senior Gazprom financial and security official at deputy general director level, was discovered by his lover the day after war started in Ukraine in February.  His neck was in a noose in his £500,000 home in the elite Leninsky gated housing development, yet multiple reports claim his body had been badly beaten, leading to speculation he was under intense pressure from bad actors.  That came just three weeks after Leonid Shulman, 60, head of transport at Gazprom Invest, was found dead with multiple stab wounds in a pool of blood on his bathroom floor in the same gated housing community.  Billionaire Alexander Subbotin, 43, also linked to Kremlin-friendly energy giant Lukoil where he was a top manager, was found dead in May.  One theory is that Subbotin - who also owned a shipping company - was poisoned by toad venom triggering a heart attack.  And in April, wealthy Vladislav Avayev, 51, a former Kremlin official closely linked to Russian financial institution Gazprombank, appeared to have taken his own life after killing his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter, 13... multimillionaire Sergey Protosenya, 55, was found hanged in Spain, with his wife Natalia, 53, and their teenage daughter, Maria, found dead from stab wounds...  Yevgeny Palant, 47, and his wife Olga, 50, both Ukrainian-born, were found by their daughter Polina, 20, having suffered multiple stab wounds.  An official briefing to the media claimed the woman took her own life in a jealous rage after Palant said he was leaving her - claims which were strongly disputed by the couple's best friend."
From June 2023

In Ukraine men aren't safe, no matter the age : MensRights - "Few days ago, in village Pryozerne of Odesa Oblast, a truly terrifying situation has happened - a 14 y/o boy literally got kidnapped by Ukrainian military commissariat (ТЦК). When he was walking to meet his girlfriend, three military men stopped near him, wrung his hands, and forcibly dragged him into their minivan, without asking any questions. Since he was scared and tried to resist, they began to apply the barrel of a gun to his temple, than to his forehead, afterwards he was hit with that gun on his back, and had his hands tied up. As was later found out during a medical exam, that military personal were quite experienced on hitting people "in the right way", since there were almost no bruises on the boys body, apart from hand ties, yet all his internal organs hurt. That boy got lucky, that the military guys decided to verify his age, in the middle of the ride. Only then he got released, and got threatened not to tell anyone about this situation, since they can easily find out where his relatives live. Since he was left in the middle of nowhere, he was forced to walk 7 km home by himself.  After his teacher found out about the whole situation, she immediately notified the head of the village, and the police, who ended up doing nothing. Only after two days, when this story started spreading across the whole country, police decided to simply come there, just to take a look. As of today, no comments were left neither by the Odesa military commissariat, nor by police, and no criminal investigation was started.  After all of this I just have one question: why such a country, that violates basic human rights, instead of being investigated, and having all responsible people tried in International court, offered benefits such as EU membership negotiations?"

Meme - "Senator Rand Paul single-handedly holds up $40bn US aid for Ukraine
Paul, a libertarian who often opposes U.S. intervention abroad, said he wanted language inserted into the bill, without a vote, that would have an inspector general scrutinize the new spending."
"40 billion is a metric fuckload of money. We should at least have someone keep track of how it's being spent."
"Treason charges are feasible."
"So one man is threatening the lives of millions. think we have a word for that. Terrorist."
"When are they hanging him for treason?"
"He is a Russian spy that's treason"
"He should be investigated for high treason, he is actively sabotaging US interests and aiding Russias."
"Rand Paul is a Fascist."
"He is the worst. I truly think he is a communist. Definitely a Russian sympathizer."
Government accountability is fascism and treason. Fascinating

Russians still enjoying American burgers and sandwiches as companies refuse to leave - "The franchises of Carl’s Jr., Papa John’s, Costa Coffee, Burger King, and TGI Fridays have continued to operate, business as usual. Of these six, Subway and Carl’s Jr. boast a unique accolade — they are the only Western food chains to never have stopped advertising on their Russian Instagram accounts at any point since the start of the full-scale invasion, actively marketing non-stop to their 20k and 6k followers, respectively."

Putin Withdraws From Ukraine After Celebrities Threaten To Sing 'Imagine' | Babylon Bee - "At publishing time, the celebs had confirmed the song will not be available on Spotify unless Joe Rogan's podcast is pulled."

Meme - Putin: "Let me in"
Ukraine: "Why?"
Putin: "So I can save you."
Ukraine: "From what?"
Putin: "From what I'm going to do to you if you don't let me in."

Richard Hanania on X - "If the right wanted to find a masculine hero, they could've had Navalny.   The man was poisoned by a *nerve agent.* I consider myself brave, but when I hear nerve agent I think I would do whatever it took to avoid that fate. But the man goes back to Russia to go on trial for fake charges cooked up by the Putin regime, and predictably faced a slow death in prison, maintaining his dignity through the entire process.  Instead they slobber over Putin. A man who sends tens of thousands to their deaths and has never shown any personal courage. He doesn't even have the honesty to call the major war he launched a war, or openly prosecute his opponents, instead sneakily working behind the scenes to frame them for crimes like the sadistic paper pusher that he is and then shrugging in interviews when asked about what happened. Remember, Zelensky regularly visited the front line of the war from the beginning, which only much later finally shamed Putin into making a few stage managed trips.   Of course, the reason many on the right like Putin and not Navalny is hatred of America is their driving motivation. All foreigners are simply props, judged by the nature of their relationship with the Great Satan.   Between Tucker's videos of him going into ecstasy over Russian shopping carts and Navalny's death, I hope this week has seen a final discrediting of the anti-American right. Yes, Eva Vlaardingerbroek will continue to slobber over Putin's "grasp of history," and losers driven by a combination of impotent resentment and horniness will give her an audience, but anyone with a minimum level of intelligence and sense of decency will see this style and mode of thought for what it is."

Ravaged by war, Russia's army is rebuilding with surprising speed - "Only nine months ago, American intelligence officials were telling the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that it would take a decade — or more — for Moscow to recover from the staggering losses inflicted by Ukrainian defenders. The German Council on Foreign Relations refined that estimate last fall, warning that the window would be more like five to eight years.  "They are sparing no effort in their reconstitution," Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme allied commander, said last month after a meeting of the alliance's chiefs of defence staff."

Meme - Lucas Lynch: "This woman is on the New York City council, lolllllll. "Where are these leftists They are literally on the city Council" Kristin Richardson Jordan (KRJ) @Kristin4Harlem: "The US, has been sending the Ukrainian military weapons ($650M in military assistance this past year alone) which have ended up in the hands of neo-nazi militias like the Azov Battalion. The ethnically Russian Donbass region (Donetsk and Luhansk ) has been under heavy violence and shellings from the Ukrainian military for the last 8 years. Last week a kindergarten was destroyed. Civilians are being targeted and killed for opposing fascism. Over 14,000 people have died as a result and Kyiv, with U.S. and NATO backing, has refused to implement the Minsk II Agreements which calls for a ceasefire and the withdrawal of illegal armed groups, military equipment, fighters and mercenaries. This is the tip of the iceberg. The U.S. and NATO have a violent history destabilizing the region, such as when it facilitated the breakup of Yugoslavia after bombing Serbia for 78 days. Ignoring or excusing the U.S.' role in this crisis is ahistorical and chauvinist."

Lift and strike (Bosnian War) - Wikipedia -"At the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 713 on September 25, 1991. The resolution imposed an international arms embargo on all Yugoslav territories, in an effort to prevent escalating violence"
People got very upset Elon Musk wouldn't let Ukraine use Starlink to escalate the war

Top Russian general issues stark warning over Ukraine war - "A top Russian commander has admitted that the war in Ukraine is ‘a stepping stone’ for the rest of eastern Europe. General Andrey Mordvichev hinted at Vladimir Putin’s future plans to expand the frontline, setting off alarm bells in Poland, Moldova and Georgia, which have long feared such escalation."
How can anyone deny Russia's right to self-defence?

Medical school wokeness imperils precarious Jenga tower of health care

Medical school wokeness imperils precarious Jenga tower of health care

"In Canada, our elected politicians are quick to point out that Canadian health care is the exclusive domain of the public sector — the enduring legacy of legendary national hero Tommy Douglas — and that government keeps a firm hand on the tiller. But trusting the political class in these dangerous days is tantamount to masochistic derangement, so I wanted to uncover more.

Recently, I spoke in depth with three well-placed professors teaching or administrating at leading Canadian medical schools. All three asked to remain anonymous for fear of the retributive repercussions routinely inflicted by their universities’ personnel departments and, in this article, go by they/them pronouns. Taken individually, their stories might be interpreted as anecdotal curiosities: unconnected tales of woe from disgruntled teachers on the margins; but taken together — scrutinizing the intersection that the left-leaning progressives always insist we must — a picture is revealed of a precarious Jenga tower of medicine, one where many of the constituent blocks are being systematically eroded and removed, threatening an ineluctable collapse in the provision of Canadian health care.

The first of the trio, a self-declared — but now sheepishly repentant — advocate for social medicine initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes among poor Canadians, told me that they first noticed something was up with the day-to-day praxis of training physicians when curriculum changes forced freshman medical students to endure lectures by shockingly left-leaning speakers. My informant, a physician, admits that for four years at McMaster University they helped transform the medical curriculum towards a more social justice lensing, but remains vehement about their motives: “The majority of disadvantaged people (in Hamilton, Ont.) are white.” Then, around 2016 — early in Justin Trudeau’s administration — doubts began to loom. In a session on reproductive rights and abortion, a module aimed at coaching new doctors on their own and others’ sensitivities around these divisive issues, centre stage was taken by a self-proclaimed “feminist ethicist” who went on to declare what was, to their mind, the irrefutable truth that men and women can never be equal. This was demonstrably a political opinion.

Very quickly it became clear to this doctor that the bizarre, neo-Marxist politicking that pervades social work was being ported over to medicine. Elsewhere, even university deans began openly ridiculing Donald Trump supporters and making tactless remarks in curriculum meetings. Such tolerance for fostering Trump Derangement Syndrome among young doctors, set against those regulators fastidiously jeopardizing other professionals’ credentials — think Jordan Peterson — revealed scandalously asymmetric political bias within the establishment. Crucially, for this doctor, such ongoing politicization of physicians and their mentors began to raise red flags because it so transparently threatens to alienate patients with certain unacceptable views.

Everywhere, it seemed, the medical curriculum was sprouting wild claims and assertions whilst, simultaneously, administrators were busily deprioritizing a clear focus on objective truth. Just prior to the pandemic, McMaster launched so-called “anti-oppression” sessions for its trainee physicians, hosted by an expert with a doctorate in microaggressions: “Who’s giving people PhDs in these frivolous subjects?” my source asks with unconcealed exasperation.

Then, a fellow doctor and outspoken vaccine sceptic had his licence suspended and lost his job at a nearby university hospital. “I always used to think that physicians are critical thinkers,” my source laments. “I now recognize we are not critical thinkers; we don’t train critical thinking. We like head-nodders and rule-followers.” It transpires that admissions interviews are now so peppered with the word “intersection” that it’s hard not to feel nauseous, but in fairness, eager students are simply box-checking and are not themselves to blame.

At McMaster, as elsewhere, competition for every hour of curriculum time is intense, so much so, that programs barely meet the bar for accreditation. Yet, inexplicably, I’m also told that in recent years Indigenous knowledge has been assiduously onboarded. “Do we need three hours on decolonization?” But the professors were told this was a sacred subject, and the university forbade any discussion because, my source says, “It was outside our teaching expertise. … Nobody was allowed to question the invited speaker. Everything was racist.”

Another emerging spectre that came to the fore was so-called “critical reflexivity,” which goads doctors to navel-gaze and then swear fealty to a doctrine that perceives everything as a hierarchy of power and oppression. In essence, then, the university’s philosophy department has hijacked its own medical school... at McMaster, seminar attendees are routinely browbeaten: “Have you re-examined this pharmaceutical product through a diversity lens?” Of course, the correct answer to this is no, because it is irrelevant. My interviewee sighs, collecting their thoughts. “It’s too big for one person. It affects my health. I thought I could do something, but the highest levels of the administration support this; the accreditors support this.”

My second foray was with a well-placed administrator at the University of Toronto’s Temerty School of Medicine, on a warm evening over a cold beer in a pub somewhere in Yorkville. A similar picture soon emerged. I began by refuting the idea that Canadian medicine is in crisis, on the well-founded grounds that having taught hard-core organic chemistry for a decade, I know that most students enrol expressly to fulfil tough medical school requirements. But I was soon put right. As this fellow scientist was at pains to point out, in this modern era of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) — and anti-meritocracy — such “colonial” prerequisites have long since been consigned to the academic dustbin.

Recounting an especially combative curriculum meeting, they described how deans from across the university had expressed anxiety over the emerging “uncompetitiveness” of U of T graduates, striving to enrol at medical schools, due to their lower grades — largely because STEM subjects at the university are so notoriously demanding. These deans have now successfully pressed for an easing in grading practices.

Until recently, medical schools favoured science training among successful candidates. Yet my source avowed that today, students need only a couple of courses in nutrition to satisfy the prerequisite for scientific knowledge among the next cohort of Toronto doctors. “Why do you think I go to the gym every single day? I can’t afford to fall sick, not with these people practising medicine.” Or words to that effect. I was dumbstruck.

But the problem is more of a general, rather than a local anesthetic. “There’s a crisis of competence coming down the pipe,” I was told, and then updated on the bleak reality, namely that the cream of Toronto’s medical establishment, many of them septuagenarians, will inevitably retire over the next three years, vacating hard-won roles built on international reputations for bona fide medical excellence...  the Vieille Garde is departing and their replacements — the New Equitarians — I am told will be mere shadows of their predecessors.

My third source, like the first, is a Hamilton-Niagara region community doctor, and a seasoned teacher who also expressed profound disillusionment with the activism now entrenched in the physician recruitment and apprenticeship process, drawing on first-hand experience training young would-be doctors at one of the region’s top medical schools. This individual has a profound depth of lived experience — the only kind worth having — and has worked extensively with marginalized groups, including the impoverished in our inner cities and First Nations people — citizens endlessly harassed by the virtues and values projected on them by white, middle-class ideologues. On our video call, I was soon to be disabused yet further of the notion that Canadian medicine was in rude health.

Enumerating their concerns with the calm precision of the medical professional, this doctor confirmed that medical school admissions committees are indeed prioritizing candidates who espouse social justice mantras in their applications. Bearing in mind Sibarium’s story, and that I, too, have reported on the trajectory of U of T faculty in particular, to be wreathed in glory for pledging allegiance to DEI, this is, in hindsight, an inevitable development. Moreover, traditional Family Practice is suffering, largely because today’s newcomers are not wowed, in the slightest, by the prospect of handling countless white, lower- or middle-class patients presenting with tedious medical complaints. Why? Because there is little-to-no prospect for broadcasting their moral superiority, deepening their social justice values or thereby supercharging their careers. After all, working with the “unhoused” as overpaid social workers, and climbing in and out of tents with granola bars and juice boxes for groups such as the mentally ill, racialized minorities and untreated drug addicts, is where the virtue signalling is at its most attractive.

Today, apparently, the academic cut-off for entry to the less urban Northern Ontario Medical School in Thunder Bay, Ont., is set at a 3.0 Grade Point Average. Yet no one talks openly about the “social” cut-offs. Anyone applying who isn’t white or heterosexual scores bonus points by dint of their ethnicity (for some), their sexuality (for a few more), and their gender identity (for many). Whereas a decade ago, these medical schools sought out prospective students born and raised in rural Canada in long-range hopes of their eventual return, today’s expectations now demand that incoming students “check their privilege” and are able to “reflect on the many ways they have experienced being an oppressor, or an oppressed member of society.” One nursing student reportedly quipped, “They kept wanting me to talk about my experiences of oppression as a Black person. But I was privileged: I had tennis lessons from age seven.”

Our conversation broadened to underscore the progressive evisceration of Canadian medicine, this last doctor warming to my Jenga tower analogy. It is true, they declared: there are pockets within medicine where the “first-do-no-harm” doctrine has been utterly obliterated. Consider, for instance, the field of addiction medicine, where the new orthodoxy has been to expunge the very words “addiction,” “treatment” and “recovery” from the medical lexicon when working with people who use drugs. Why? Because such words epitomize a language of white, Eurocentric dominance. But it is this self-same permissive Eurocentricity that insists drug users have rights to a clean drug supply and safe-injection spaces, unfettered from social norms — rather than charting a path to better health, independence and higher social functioning. “People are entitled to their euphoria,” I’m told, with an admirably expressionless conviction that makes me question whether they’re pulling my leg. The silence sprung from this ludicrous revelation hangs between us. The doctor sums up eloquently. What we are dealing with here is merely palliative care. In a nutshell it amounts to an ethnic cleansing of the lower socioeconomic classes, especially Indigenous Canadians, who are more at risk of succumbing to the perils of drug and alcohol abuse.

What else did I learn from my academic triumvirate? Unsurprisingly, that pediatric gender medicine is another glaring gap. This second potentially fatal chink in the tower has been swiftly and robustly plugged in recent days by the American College of Pediatricians. But for Canadians, the collective amnesia over alarming leaked documents from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the widespread dismissal of the findings of England’s Cass Review are now amplified to comic proportions, making a mockery of attempts this side of the border to protect Canadian children from harmful gender ideology and medicalization. “Make no mistake,” I was warned. “Families are being destroyed here in Canada; children’s lives are being destroyed.”...

Accreditors are looking to address perceived student mistreatment, claiming medicine embraces a culture of bullying and shaming, and mandating anonymous reporting systems to the point where medical faculty are now disinclined to give critical feedback. Apprentice doctors are being persuaded that obesity shouldn’t be considered a disease and that exhorting overweight patients to comply with dietary restrictions is no longer permissible. A cursory glance into continuing education among family doctors uncovers learning modules where it is impossible to avoid the intersectional clap-trap, as epitomized in a recent podcast by the Canadian College of Family Physicians. Even more gaps are poised to appear, the soon-to-vanish blocks etched with terms such as “geriatric medicine” and “end-of-life care.” The tower looks ever more precarious."

 

 

Links - 13th July 2024 (1 - Women)

Meme - Link (alt) @linktwo_alt: "all the women have smaller watermelon slices and have their knees together what is this game bruh"
Baked Turbo Flash @BakedTurboFlash: "Women eat less (well, not American women) and don't have testicle (well, not American Women)"

Meme - "J'accepte ta proposition, mais à une seule condition"
"Dis moi c'est quelle condition cherie"
"OK pas de sexe avant le manage"
"Et pourquoi ?"
"Parce je garde ma virginité pour I'homme de ma vie"
"OK, mais à une seule condition aussi"
"Laquelle ?"
"Pas de dépenses inutiles avant le mariage"
"Pourquoi"
"Je garde mes économies pour la femme de ma vie"
"Hein"

Meme - Roro @Lerasko_: "We are SO sorry that the guys your age want us young girls. SO sorry." - 2015
Roro @Lerasko_: "hai kabi but as a 31 year old what are you doing dating a 22 year old?" - 2024
The cope is that this is not hypocritical, because they used to be young and naive and don't want young girls to be groomed and preyed upon. Of course when it helps the left wing agenda, you're not learning from your mistakes but pulling up the ladder behind you

Meme - Hot Takes Nobody Asked For: "a woman records herself walking in spain and complains that people are staring."
"Malaga Centro. El centro de Malaga. went for a little stroll this morning to get my coffee and when I have never realised how much people fckn STARE"

Pregnant woman, 19, surprises her husband with Lamborghini - "A pregnant woman surprised her husband with a £160,000 Lamborghini as a reward for his help with their child after giving birth.   Malaysian cosmetic guru Anes Ayuni Osman, 19, is due to give birth to her first child with her entrepreneur husband Weldan Zulkefli, 20, in late March and will enter a 100 day confinement period.   The traditional practice sees women limit their movement after birth in order to reduce the risk of postpartum complications and help rebalance hormones.    As a reward for his help during the period, Anes surprised her husband with a Lamborghini Huracan Evo and shared a video of the moment to TikTok.

Companies run by women with a 'bit of an ego' are more successful - "Researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark examined the personality traits of chief executives and found that a higher level of narcissism in women CEOs was associated with improved company performance. The same effect, however, was not found for narcissism in male bosses."

Meme - "Me at 13 *kid going down playground slide*
13-year-olds today *hot selfie*"

Why do I pick fights with my husband? Because I want a happy marriage
... women

Meme - Robert F.Kennedy @sexyR...: "MEN, which do you prefer? The aristocratic elegance of the small breasted woman, OR The Nietzschean pro-sex, pro-beauty large breasted woman? *Emma Stone, Sydney Sweeney*"

Meme - "WHEN YOUR GIRL IS CRAZY AND SHE FINDS YOUR SIDE CHICK *Tied up woman and another woman taking wefie with her*"

Meme - Crying soyjak woman: "I DON'T FEEL SAFE IN MY OWN NEIGHBORHOOD"
Man: "YOU LITERALLY VOTED FOR THIS"
"Leopards ate my face" only applies if you thwart the left wing agenda

Meme - "100% True
Wife: *9/10 cupboards*
Husband: *1/10 cupboards*"

Meme - "CHOOSE A WIFE
TRANSWOMAN
-is NOT a woman
-No interesting personality/hobby besides being a trans
-End of your bloodline
+Will get you laid a lot because being a girl is their biggest fetish (Freaky sex addicts)
FEMINISTS
-Overconfident
-Bad cook (Microwavable food/ Uber eats only)
-Don't want children
+Will bring money to the table
+Not required to marry to have sex with her
KAREN
-Protest ALOT
-Dry humor
-Start an argument without reason
+Come back to a warm home cooked meal everyday
+Religious & Traditional minded
SINGLE MOM
-Raise children that aren't yours
-Only here for your financial support
-comparing your small shrimp to her ex giant sausages
+N word pass"

Meme - r/EntitledPeople
"Karen complains about having to pay for pizza after answering her door naked.
This story happened to me, personally, in 2004. I was working for Pizza Hut. Mind you, at this point I had been dating my son's mom for six months, so I was appaed that a customer would answer the door in her birthday suit. I, choosing to remain professional, tell her the price of her order so she can pay.me and take her pizza. Karen, let's call her Alishia (Ironically, not a fake name, though it was meant to be), says "I gave you a free show, I want my pizza for free." I tell her "I am, not, at liberty to give her the pizza, for free. I am, not, a manager." She calls my manager, and asks to.get the pizza for free, for giving a free full body show. The manager calls my phone and says "bring the pizza back and call.the cops for indecent exposure. I call the cops, in front of Karen, who tries to tell the cops I sexually assaulted her. I left, the cops.came.to.the restaurant asking for a sworn statement on my side, which I gave. After Karen heard I gave a sworn statement in front of my son's mom, then girlfriend, she admitted to perjuring herself when she gave her statement."

California: Woman found dead in mountains was victim of state's first fatal bear attack - "Patrice Miller, 71, was originally thought to have died prior to the bear arriving at her property in a tiny mountainous town in Sierra Nevada, but a recent autopsy confirmed she was mauled to death."

Gen Z coin 'office siren' trend, but critics deem it inappropriate - "The 'office siren' trend is popping up on social media from creators across the globe, with influencers telling others to don fitted blouses, tight pencil skirts, kitten heels, and rectangular glasses, to their corporate workplace. The trend encompasses short and tight items that are unlikely to feature in many workplaces, and are instead, more suited to the fictional offices in The Devil Wears Prada or Ugly Betty. Perhaps like Betty would have thought in the hit show, many have deemed office sirens unsuitable for corporate environments, as reinforced by the trend using 'siren' in its name, which refers to women in Greek mythology that lured men to their death using sexual charm. The trend has attracted criticism online, and one person said: 'I frankly cannot believe that office siren has become a thing because who wants more attention in the workplace. Who are we dressing for girls?'... critics have been quick to counter the style and claim that tight clothing is unsuitable for the office. One said: 'Office siren aesthetic is definitely rooted in [the] sexualisation of women in office setting'. A second termed their own phrase for the office siren trend: 'I want HR to send me home today'-core'. A third agreed and said: 'Immediate call from HR'. A fourth wrote: 'I suddenly understand why they implemented work clothes etiquette training for Gen Z.'"

Meme - nikivincentia: "Me @ my cis guy coworker: "Did you like Taylor Swift's new album?"
Him, with a smile: "I don't really listen to Taylor Swift"
Men will smile at you because they're proud of their toxic masculinity and in that moment I felt a glimmer of misogyny, along with hurt because I love her. To mask how I felt, I said "oh no that's totally fine, I don't expect everyone to love her. I think her new album is really good though and I love her" and lifted myself up in doing so"
These are the same people who label others cultists

Meme - "My girl masturbating for her OnlyFans
Me filming her as she promised to buy me the Lego Star Wars set"

I make £5,000 a month on OnlyFans by pretending to have broken legs - I even make my own plaster casts and people love it - "Chloe Welsh, 36, from Wrexham, said she fakes the injuries - including a broken neck and legs - and dons leg casts in order to satisfy 'weird' requests from viewers... 'People seem to be into the whole MILF thing so in a way it's easier to make money the older you get now'.  Chloe's main bread and butter however comes from wearing stockings, tights, and pantyhose. From this she rakes in a whopping £40,000 a month.  She said she sees herself continuing to create niche adult content."

Meme - r/SingaporeRaw
"The current reality of dating in SG.
The one thing I'd love to know about you is
ur credit card details
22. Woman. 5'7. profesional future wife."

Meme - "Man goes viral after taking his opps girl on the FanBus when he refused to pay a debt
"Just gimme 5 more days. Please. Pleaaaaasseeee"
"No... I need dat today my boy. Or else ........."
"Or else what??? Ain't shit u could do to me Imaoooo"
"Bet! Say less"
*Pictures of blonde girl in shabby van with words written on ceiling with marker*
"See y'all took it too far"

Meme - Woman: "Now that I'm a powerful & successful boss babe I'm going to marry a rich, handsome man."
Man: "Now that I'm a rich, handsome man I'm going to date 26 year old hooters waitresses."

Meme - "THE ONLY VALUE IT EVER HAD"
Woman: "I'm a strong independent woman. I don't need no man."
*Man finishing sex robot*
Man: "I made a sexbot. She's now my robo waifu. Her name is >>EVERPEACH 1.0<<"
Robot wife: "How can robo waifu please her master today, master?"
Woman: "You pathetic virgin, you can't handle a real woman!  You privileged cis scum! Patriarchy! Help! I'm being neglect raped!"
Robot wife: "Why is biocunt so angry, master?"
Man: "Because that offal just lost the only value it ever had, waifu."

Why So Many Men Are Threatened By Smart and Successful Women in the Dating World – According to Research
The framing of the article is interesting. There is no mention of female hypergamy, or how either sex treat potential partners who have less of a certain characteristic than them

Mum glassed man in face in 'random' attack outside Bridlington pub - "A young mother left a man with a "devastating" injury after using a glass in an "unprovoked" attack outside a pub.  Blaze Jessop, 21, had been drinking when she shoved a glass into the man's face as a group gathered outside The George pub in Prince Street, Bridlington... Jessop, of Annandale Road, Greatfield estate, Hull, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.  She had a previous conviction in 2020 for assaulting an emergency worker... Jessop was given a 16-month suspended prison sentence, 20 days' rehabilitation and six months' alcohol treatment"
Male privilege strikes again!

Who Is the Hawk Tuah Girl? She's a Viral Sensation - "The girl became a viral sensation thanks to her answer to a question on Tim and Dee TV, on which a pair of social media creators ask people questions out on the streets. They caught the girl and her friend on a night out in Nashville, Tenn., and the girl was so charismatic, charming, and attractive (according to the commenters) that everyone wants to know who she is... The first video of the now-viral “hawk tuah girl” was shared on June 11, 2024, in which they asked her, “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” She quickly responded, “You gotta give ’em that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thing!” with the most charming southern drawl... Tim and Dee even shared more videos with the hawk tuah girl so that internet sleuthers could help them find her. In one video, they ask her to “leave a message to [her] last body,” referring to the last person she had a sexual relationship with. Very sweetly, she says to the camera, “I love you pookie, forever!” showing the true love and hope that America’s youth has when out for a fun night … and hopefully deterring some of the creeps who just want to slide into her DMs by proving she has a special someone in her life. There are several other videos on Tim and Dee’s page with the hawk tuah girl and her friend, and everyone is obsessed with finding her. While the video has gained traction thanks to the memes of the hawk tuah girl against a green screen in hilarious situations, such as trying to impress the family, it seems like the internet has been taken in by her unabashed ability to be silly while talking about sex on camera. And now, everyone, from men who want to share a hawk tuah moment with her to women who are inspired by her fearlessness, is eager to find her."

Meme - Tradwife: "I choose the bear"
Man: "I choose hawk tuah"

Meme - "Taylor Swift has written 100's of songs about men leaving her, but none about Hawk Tuah. coincidence? I think not"

Meme - "SPIT ON THAT THANG
HAWK TUAH"

Meme - Karen Brice Clark: "Well, divorce has been final for one month. Got my first 1600.00 alimony payment and excited about taking a vacation! Got a call today from the ex, he has stage 3 liver failure. Guess I can kiss the alimony goodbye. Not good news for either of us!"

Meme - "This morning I saw a quote saying, "what a privilege it is to clean a house made dirty by healthy children playing, wash dishes because we were able to eat 3 meals today, and to do piles of laundry because we all have clean clothes to wear everyday.""

Meme - "This is Karen. She has a healing power on women. Since she moved into the neighborhood, no women have a headache anymore... *busty blonde*"

🛑🛑🛑 This sub is called FAUX Breastfeeding for a reason!!!!!!!!! : r/FauxBreastfeeding - "None of these “babies” are real.They’re all dolls, with most of them being the hyper realistic Reborn Dolls!"

Grandmaster Trash: Exact Trash Only on X - "No, I don't "make" her cum, she's her own person. She can cum if she wants to, which she doesn't I guess"

Meme - AI woman with lots of tattoos: "All my exes are Narcissists. Dating is tricky for us empaths."

r/relationships: My husband is already fine drinking the tarantula coffee - The Something Awful Forums - "My GF (27F) and I (28M) have been together for about 18-months. We don't fight often, but our biggest fight came earlier this year when I questioned what she wanted to wear to a groom's dinner at my friend's wedding. I was in the wedding party and we had spent the entire day setting things up for the wedding. The groom's dinner was that night and was going to be a very casual affair since everyone was sweaty and tired from working all day. My GF arrived later in the day and asked me if I could meet her at our hotel so she could change.  When we got to the hotel, she put on a pretty fancy dress. Kind of like a cocktail dress that she would wear to a club. I told her that the groom's dinner was going to be casual since everyone had worked all day and people weren't going to be dressing up. She scolded me and told me that I don't get to tell her what to wear. She said she will give me a pass that one time, but I should never again criticize or question what she wants to wear. I dropped it but when we got to the dinner and she saw how overdressed she was, she got embarrassed even though people commented on how good she looked.  This past weekend, we were invited to a pool party at my GF's friend's house. Since it was close to the 4th of July, I decided to break out my American flag speedo that I got in college as a joke. I was trying it on before we left to make sure it still fit OK and my GF saw me. She asked me WTF I was wearing and told me that I can't wear that. I asked her why not and she told me it's gross, revealing, and unattractive.  I told her the same thing she told me at the wedding, that she doesn't get to tell me what to wear. She told me that is not the same situation at all and I'm going to make a fool of myself. I told her that if I'm wearing this speedo, clearly I don't take myself too seriously and that I will bring a spare swimsuit if she's going to make such a big deal out of it.  When we got to the pool party, I took off my shorts to reveal the speedo and got a few laughs from my GF's friends. I started playing some pool volleyball with some of the other guys there and just went about my day having fun. My GF spent most of the day inside by herself or with a few friends, she barely came out by the pool.  One of the few times she came out, she pulled me aside and asked me to please change out of the speedo because I'm embarrassing her. I told her that she's the only one who is making a big deal out of this and that if I'm in the pool no one notices or cares anyway. She went back inside after that.  When we got home that night, she wouldn't talk to me so I gave her some space. She came to me a bit later and asked me if I was going to apologize to her. I told her I don't feel like I have anything to apologize for and she told me I embarrassed her all day even after she told me to take off the speedo. I told her she needs to loosen up because she's making a big deal out of a little fun joke but she thinks I'm an AH."
AITA For wearing an American flag speedo to a pool party and embarrassing my GF : r/AmItheAsshole - "And to be fair - OP wasn't trying to control what she wore in the first incident. He provided her information so she could make an informed choice and gf over reacted."
"Imagine if OP had described the girlfriend's dress as "gross, revealing, and unattractive.""

Meme - "When you meet a woman vs six months later *Britney Spears in 1999 with Compton Cheerleading outfit, Britney Spears with knives*"

Meme - "The women who say they wont date right wing men: *fat, unattractive, and one with blue hair*"

Meme - "Bryanna, 20
Liked you
420 friendly. Call me a happy meal bc i come with a kid and toys. My son comes first before anyone, you don't like that when swipe left. Snap banned, so ask for my number or my insta. For the people who have snap respectfully fuck you. Looking for someone who does tattoos so maybe we can date and I can get free tats. I need someone to teach me how to drive. I'm dating to marry"

Meme - Ben @benmenski: "Holy fuck... being a moderately attractive woman with big tits and no shame really does set life to easy mode, huh?"
DramaAlert: "Amouranth, the streamer who played the victim card regarding an abusive partner who allegedly forced unwanted sexualization on her, has made $57 million on OnlyFans. Was that drama all for show?"

4 wedding red flags that are telltale signs a couple won't last, according to a dating coach - "some of the least successful couples hosted elaborate weddings, which can come across more like spectacles than authentic celebrations of love. "A lot of brides really try to make the wedding as big as possible. And that is often a telltale sign that a bride is more focused on the wedding than they are on the marriage," White said. "What this means is 'I care about what other people think more than I care about the actual union.'""

Gilgandra High School students given free sports bras to boost participation in sport - "When leaders at a western NSW school heard that discomfort and pain was stopping female students from participating in sport, they stepped in to offer every one of them free sports bras.  It resulted in a 20 per cent lift in female participation at Gilgandra High School's athletics carnival... According to Sports Medicine Australia, 88 per cent of female adolescents wore a bra during sport that did not fit correctly... "They're talking about being more comfortable, having less back pain, all those little things they weren't aware of before but now they can see with the right bra, they're actually all OK."

Meme - "If she can push a baby stroller, she can push a lawnmower. Take the weekend off Kings."

Fake belly buttons sold as quick fix for women who want legs to look longer - "At the press of a button, you too can have longer-looking legs.  No need to visit some pricey Turkish chop shop to make one’s legs look longer. Cosmetics gurus have devised a much cheaper method of “lengthening” their stems — by applying an adhesive belly button.  The way it works is stumpy simply stick this faux umbilical cord remnant on their stomach above the real one and then pull up their skirt or pants to cover up the real one, as seen in tutorials blowing up online.  Voila, the wearer now has the illusion of legs for days... Initially started in China, this fad has metastasized to US with Ebay selling these “belly button tattoo stickers” for around $8 per sheet.  They even include pics of models before and after applying these stick-on stomach craters."

Links - 12th July 2024 (2 - Minimum Wage)

The True Story of the Minimum-Wage Fight - Freakonomics - "In 1976, a survey by the American Economic Association found that 90 percent of its members agreed that if you raise minimum wages, you decrease employment for younger and less-skilled workers. The idea was that employers don’t want to overpay workers who they think aren’t worth the wage. Another survey in 1990 found this was still the consensus view, with 80 percent of economists saying that higher minimum wages are bad for what they call total employment.
NEUMARK: When I was starting out in graduate school, the professor, Jim Medoff, came in, and he plopped down these five volumes, like the old New York phone book for those who remember what those are. And this was the report of the Minimum Wage Study Commission, and it was, I don’t know, 100 papers. And he said, “One thing you shouldn’t work on is minimum wages because we know everything.”
This may shock you, but it turns out that economists didn’t know everything. But also: things were changing. In the late 1980s, with rising inflation and a stagnant minimum wage, some states started raising their wages.
NEUMARK: Suddenly you had this multitude of different strategies for estimating minimum-wage effects.
Meaning: there were new data — and new research methods — to address the old minimum-wage question. In 1994, the economic consensus was abruptly overturned in a paper by the economists Alan Krueger and David Card. They took advantage of the fact that New Jersey had raised its wage while neighboring Pennsylvania didn’t. Analyzing employment data from fast-food chains on either side of the border, Krueger and Card found that the new law did boost the earnings of low-income workers without reducing employment. So: did the economics profession begin to converge around a new consensus, a pro-minimum-wage consensus? They did not. At this moment the field is, essentially, split. In a recent survey of academic economists, 45 percent agree that a federal minimum wage of $15 would lower employment; but 33 percent said they were uncertain, with the remainder mostly disagreeing. Even when asked if it would be good to peg the federal minimum wage to some kind of cost-of-living index, an astonishing 42 percent of economists were uncertain. And let me say this: economists almost never profess uncertainty around anything — even non-economic issues — so a 42-percent uncertain vote on this question is bizarre...
David Neumark is not a big fan of a $15 federal wage. Why?
NEUMARK: So my research on the minimum wage, one of the things it tends to say is there definitely is some job loss. And I’m quite convinced of that. So on net, there are winners and there are losers. I think then the question is, how do you add those up? So one reasonable metric is to say, “Well, okay, do we reduce poverty?” If we do, then maybe the costs are acceptable relative to the benefits. My reading of the evidence is that it’s pretty hard to find convincing evidence that poverty will fall... there’s a lot of minimum-wage workers who — they’re not in poor families. They’re not even in low-income families. Who are they? Well, like my daughter when she was in high school and had a job. I’m upper-middle income or upper income, depending on your definition... The second reason it’s a blunt instrument is because the single biggest reason people are poor is that nobody in the family works. More than half of poor families have zero workers. So raising the minimum wage, unless it somehow brings some of them into the labor market, it’s not doing anything for them at all...
So if Neumark thinks a $15 federal minimum wage is a bad policy to reduce poverty, what does he suggest?
NEUMARK: We could write checks to the poor. Or we could expand the earned-income tax credit, which basically writes checks to the working poor — which is something conservatives can get behind too, because at least they have to work, and it encourages work. Why are small business owners the ones who have to pay to fix this problem? The owner of the laundromat down the street from me has to pay more because we have a high minimum wage in San Francisco and in California and would everywhere if this bill passes. But the guy who works at Goldman Sachs who makes way more than the person who owns my laundromat isn’t going to pay anything for it...
Among economists who support a $15 target, Dube is one of the most prominent voices. And some of the high-quality research he mentioned is his own. One study looked at wages over 18 years in counties that border each other.
DUBE: Imagine a control group and imagine a treatment group. One side of the border raises the minimum wage, the other side does not. The bet here is that the side not raising the minimum wage is a good proxy to what would have happened had the treatment side not raised their minimum wage.
In this 2010 study, Dube and his coauthors looked at restaurants across 316 county borders — and found no negative employment effects after the introduction of a higher minimum wage. In more recent research, he’s come up with new analytic methods...
VIGDOR: From the first runs of the data to today, the story has remained remarkably consistent: We see evidence that when the minimum wage goes up, hours decline.
These declines in hours worked were primarily driven by whether a business was busy or not.
VIGDOR: It’s periods of time where there’s not as much work, where it might make more sense to send people home, to not have as many people working.
So what’s the net effect for workers? Is the higher wage enough to offset the reduction in hours?...
VIGDOR: The estimates from our data suggest that when you raise the minimum wage by what Seattle did in the period we studied, which is about 34 percent, that the more experienced workers were seeing their total incomes go up on the order of 9 percent at most. So as a tool for delivering more money to these families, it does deliver some. But it’s a real leaky bucket. And the leaks come from the forms of cutbacks in hours... If you are looking for your first job, never been employed before, and therefore you’ve never been in our data, it looks like it’s become harder to find your way into our data... A teenage worker comes up to you on Thursday and says, “Can I have Saturday night off? You know, I want to hang out with my friends.” The manager says back, “No, I need you to work Saturday night.” And the teenager says back, “Well, I quit.” And what we heard over and over again from the business owners and managers is that with a higher minimum wage, I want someone experienced. I need someone who I can rely on, who I don’t have to train on the job, who I can expect to be reliable day in and day out. And the older workers who have the track record, they have the references that you can check, and when you get right down to it, they need the job. They have to have the job. And that’s going to lead them to be a more reliable worker than the kid who is sort of indifferent between showing up for work and playing Fortnight.
Not all teenagers, of course, would treat a job so cavalierly. But Vigdor’s research suggests that a higher minimum wage may lead employers to treat all teenagers as a risk. And what happens when a young person who wants to work can’t get in the workforce? Walter Williams, the prominent Black economist who died last year, argued that minimum-wage laws contributed to the high rate of unemployment among Black men, since kids who used to get their first job at 13 or 15, like he did, were now getting priced out of the market by employers. And then many of them, especially those with low education, would never enter the labor force...
NEUMARK: Two huge contributors to wage growth, why people earn more, are schooling and job experience. And there’s actually some evidence on that. I have a paper that looks at if you’re a teenager where minimum wages are high, how are you doing later, like 30 or so? And the answer is a little bit worse.
Libertarians are going to be claiming that the economists who are skeptical of the literature finding that the minimum wage is bad are ignorant and don't know basic economics, since they are very good at Economics 101

Optimal Minimum Wage Policy in Competitive Labor Markets - "This paper provides a theoretical analysis of optimal minimum wage policy in a perfectly competitive labor market. We show that a binding minimum wage -- while leading to unemployment -- is nevertheless desirable if the government values redistribution toward low wage workers and if unemployment induced by the minimum wage hits the lowest surplus workers first. This result remains true in the presence of optimal nonlinear taxes and transfers. In that context, a minimum wage effectively rations the low skilled labor that is subsidized by the optimal tax/transfer system, and improves upon the second-best tax/transfer optimum. When labor supply responses are along the extensive margin, a minimum wage and low skill work subsidies are complementary policies; therefore, the co-existence of a minimum wage with a positive tax rate for low skill work is always (second-best) Pareto inefficient. We derive formulas for the optimal minimum wage (with and without optimal taxes) as a function of labor supply and demand elasticities and the redistributive tastes of the government. We also present some illustrative numerical simulations."

The Minimum Wage and the Market for Low-Skilled Labor: Why a Decade Can Make a Difference - "It is helpful to take a step back to consider what economic forces will tend to mediate the minimum wage’s effects and why. I emphasize the relevance of inflation, productivity growth, and factors specific to employers’ demand for the skill sets common among low-skilled workers."

Wages, Minimum Wages, and Price Pass-Through: The Case of McDonald’s Restaurants - "We use price and wage data from McDonald's restaurants to provide evidence on wage increases, labor-saving technology introduction, and price pass-through by a large low-wage employer facing a flurry of minimum wage hikes from 2016-2020. We estimate an elasticity of hourly wage rates with respect to minimum wages of 0.7. In 40% of instances where minimum wages increase, McDonald's restaurants' wages are near the effective minimum wage level both before and after its increase; however, we also uncover a tendency among a large subset of restaurants to preserve their pay 'premium' above the minimum wage level. We find no association between the adoption of labor-saving touch screen ordering technology and minimum wage hikes. Our data imply that McDonald's restaurants pass through the higher costs of minimum wage increases in the form of higher prices of the Big Mac sandwich. We find a 0.2 price elasticity with respect to wage increases, which implies an elasticity of prices with respect to minimum wages of about 0.14. Based on a listing of all US McDonald's restaurants from 2010 to 2020, we also find no effects of minimum wages on McDonald's restaurant entry and exit."

The employment effect of minimum wage using 77 international studies since 1992: A meta-analysis - "Until the early 90’s a strong consensus existed among economists that minimum wage has negative employment effects. However, in 1992, the studies by Card (1992a) and Katz and Krueger (1992), who found insignificant and slightly positive effects, respectively, came to create a schism. Since then a divergence of views expressed by conflicting empirical studies exists in the literature. In our paper, we use a meta-sample of 77 international studies from 18 countries to investigate this relationship. Our analysis suggests that there is evidence of publication selection, but no effect of minimum wages on employment measures. Additionally, using 27 moderators as potential explanatory variables in order to explain the variation among studies, we find that study characteristics related to the data, the model specifications and the group concerned, diversify the degree of the effect."

Publication Selection Bias in Minimum‐Wage Research? A Meta‐Regression Analysis - "Card and Krueger's meta-analysis of the employment effects of minimum wages challenged existing theory. Unfortunately, their meta-analysis confused publication selection with the absence of a genuine empirical effect. We apply recently developed meta-analysis methods to 64 US minimum-wage studies and corroborate that Card and Krueger's findings were nevertheless correct. The minimum-wage effects literature is contaminated by publication selection bias, which we estimate to be slightly larger than the average reported minimum-wage effect. Once this publication selection is corrected, little or no evidence of a negative association between minimum wages and employment remains."

Does the UK Minimum Wage Reduce Employment? A Meta‐Regression Analysis - "The employment effect from raising the minimum wage has long been studied but remains in dispute. Our meta-analysis of 236 estimated minimum wage elasticities and 710 partial correlation coefficients from 16 UK studies finds no overall practically significant adverse employment effect. Unlike US studies, there seems to be little, if any, overall reporting bias. Multivariate meta-regression analysis identifies several research dimensions that are associated with differential employment effects. In particular, the residential home care industry may exhibit a genuinely adverse employment effect."
The lack of reporting bias suggests there is an ideological difference in British and American economists

The impact of the National Minimum Wage on employment: A meta-analysis - "Increases in the UK national minimum wage since 1999 had no negative employment effects on the overall UK labour market. Many of the effects following these increases were largely positive in terms of reducing pay inequality and improving the standards of living for low-paid workers. However, a further sub-group analysis of the UK labour market found some adverse negative employment effects on certain sub-groups as a result of increases in the national minimum wage. This included part-time employees who have endured some adverse negative employment effects compared to other labour market groups. Only during the recession in 2008 were young employees adversely affected, with a decrease in employment retention probabilities. However, it is hard to link this solely to increases in the national minimum wage, as other factors linked to the recession may have contributed to this decrease."

Germany’s minimum wage boosted productivity but hit small companies | Financial Times - "Germany’s introduction of a minimum wage in 2015 drove workers from small businesses to larger, more productive companies, helping to boost overall productivity at the expense of smaller organisations, new research has shown.  The policy led to a 6.7 per cent increase in wages for workers who had previously been paid below the minimum, reducing inequality without any substantial effect on either unemployment or the employment rate, researchers at University College London and Nuremberg’s Institute for Employment Research found. This is broadly in line with previous studies.  About a quarter of the increase could be explained by workers moving to larger companies that paid higher average wages, with more full-time jobs, a more skilled workforce and a lower level of staff turnover, according to the research...  it also suggested that the minimum wage caused some small companies to go out of business — potentially leading to reduced competition and less choice for consumers...  It also found that workers earned more at the expense of a longer commute — with men being far more likely to make this trade-off. After the minimum wage was introduced the average commuting distance increased by 1.5km for low-wage workers relative to the high-paid; men were more likely both to travel further and to switch to a higher paying company... In the UK, the Low Pay Commission found that although employers often intend to offset a higher wage bill by raising productivity, most fail to do so in practice, with some simply asking staff to work harder."

Meme - "But I was told this hamburger would be $38
Now Hiring. Starting at $17.00 per hour. Earn up to $19.50 per hour. apply at In-N-Out.com
Double-Double - $4.50
Cheeseburger - $3.15
Hamburger - $2.85"

Meme - "Minimum Wage Should Be $55.80 per hour
Bogota Books: Min Wage was $3.10/hr in 1980. The circulating money supply was $1 trillion in 1980. Today it is $18 trillion. 18x$3.10 = $55.80 per hour. Minimum Wage should be $55.80 per hour. No equivocation. No further discussion."
The left has very bizarre logic

Meme - Warren Gunnels: "The owner of Pizza Hut, Yum! Brands, made a $1.3 billion profit last year. In the past 2 years, it paid its CEO, David Gibbs, $44.25 million. Pizza Hut isn't laying off delivery drivers because it can't afford to pay drivers $20 an hour. It's doing it because of corporate greed."
"California Pizza Hut franchises announce layoffs of delivery drivers before new $20 minimum wage: report"
"New Fully Auto MCDONALD'S with NO EMPLOYEES! Has Opened in Denver."
As usual, left wingers don't understand how franchises work, and can't calculate how much the CEO's pay would be if divided among workers

Steve Horwitz - "My two cents on the $15 minimum wage discussion: One question is what it will do to workers in the relevant industries, and there I think it's right to say it will be an upward redistribution away from lower-skilled workers toward higher-skilled ones. Fewer people at the McD's counter, more in the backroom running the tech and making sure the kiosks are working. How large this effect would be isn't clear, but it won't be zero. But the other potential beneficiaries are owners, managers, and even workers in the industries that produce the capital that will likely replace labor. Yeah, you want to be making the kiosks for fast-food places, or the robots that will slowly replace hotel housekeepers, and the like. And this effect will be larger in poorer areas where $15 is even higher relative to the median wage.  So yes, poorer/lower-skilled workers get the bottom rungs (and in some areas, many) of the employment ladder cut off while the owners of tech stocks (aren't they known as "capital"?) see the demand for their products grow. Capital gains, the modern day lumpenproletariat loses. I don't think that's really what the proponents of the $15 minimum wage want, but economic laws don't care about your feelings."

ELDER: Liberals love minimum wage though it hurts people they love - "the “groundbreaking” Card-Krueger study referred to in the New York Times 2019 editorial did, in fact, refute the consensus among economists that government-imposed minimum wage increases cause unemployment and higher prices and give added incentive to cut labour costs through automation. But about the study, Times columnist, economist and Nobel winner Paul Krugman, wrote: “Indeed, much-cited studies by two well-regarded labour economists, David Card and Alan Krueger, find that where there have been more or less controlled experiments, for example when New Jersey raised minimum wages, but Pennsylvania did not, the effects of the increase on employment have been negligible or even positive. Exactly what to make of this result is a source of great dispute. Card and Krueger offered some complex theoretical rationales, but most of their colleagues are unconvinced; the centrist view is probably that minimum wages ‘do,’ in fact, reduce employment. …” (Krugman now supports a minimum wage.) Other economists attacked the “groundbreaking study,” noting its researchers simply asked employers whether they hired more or fewer workers post-minimum wage hike. When, however, the same employers were asked to provide payroll records, it turned out the state with the higher minimum wage saw lower employment relative to the adjacent state that did not raise its minimum wage. This confirmed the consensus view that those hurt the most are the so-called unskilled, and that many of these would-be workers are the very black and brown liberals like the New York Times editorial board purports to care about. Ohio University economist Lowell Galloway examined the study and denounced it: “The Card-Krueger study is still cited because it is useful politically. … It still has legs because the minimum-wage notion is an idea that just will not die. You cannot put it to rest by any amount of evidence demonstrating its problems. Whenever people want to believe something strongly enough, any study that supports that belief — no matter how bad it is — will be accepted.”"

Meme - The Economy:
"Jobs that generate more than $15/hr in revenue" *houses higher up on beach*
"Jobs that generate less than $15/hr in revenue" *houses lower down on beach*
"$7/hr minimum wage" *beach*
How people think the minimum wage works
"Magic boats" *$15/hr Minimum Wage, floating on sea*
How the minimum wage actually works
*$15/hr Minimum Wage, underwater*

Meme - End Wokeness @EndWokeness: "California hiked the minimum wage to $20 per hour for fast food workers this week. You'll never guess what happened next.
March 29th prices
April 1st prices"
Damn greedy companies raising prices!

Major Burger King California Franchisee Adding Order Kiosks Over $20 Wage - "A major fast-food franchisee in California says he's rushing to roll out digital order kiosks as part of plans to cut costs over the state's new $20 minimum wage for fast-food workers.  "We can't move fast enough on this," Harsh Ghai told Business Insider in an interview in early April.  "We have kiosks in probably about 25% of our restaurants today," he said. "However, the other 75% are going to have kiosks in the next probably 30 to 60 days."... The new minimum wage, which applies to limited-service restaurant chains with at least 60 locations nationwide, came into effect on April 1. It's 25% higher than the state's general minimum wage of $16 an hour, though many cities and counties in California have set theirs higher... Some fast-food franchisees say that the higher payrolls could make it challenging to remain profitable. Many are desperately looking for ways to bring in more revenues and cut costs.  Ghai said that in a typical year his restaurants would put up their prices by between 2% and 3% but that he's raised them by between 8% and 10% in the last 12 months.  "The majority of that is going to get absorbed in the inflation of our food costs," he said. "So we're not even compensating for most of the labor costs that we're going to be experiencing with this legislation."  And he doesn't want to raise prices any further.  "I can't take more price than that," Ghai said. "Anything more than that is going to result in [a] significant impact to our traffic." Instead, he's taking a number of different measures to help offset the higher wage, including cutting workers' hours, eliminating overtime, pausing the development of new restaurants, and adding kiosks, he said... Ghai said that under his previous strategy, which included adding kiosks to new restaurants and ones he was remodeling, it would have taken him between five and 10 years to introduce kiosks to all his restaurants.  "But now we are just going ahead and installing the kiosks in every single restaurant in response to the legislation to be able to balance some of these labor costs that are hitting us," Ghai said.  "We've done the financial analysis and it makes more sense for us to spend the capital expenditure on the technology, and obviously when you're buying large amounts of the hardware, you obviously get it for a cheaper price as well," he continued."

WHO KNEW? Fast food restaurants are quickly replacing cashiers with kiosks after California's new $20 minimum wage - "Say goodbye to cashiers. Say goodbye to indoor dining in many places (who wants to pay someone to clean a dining room?)."
Time for California to ban self-ordering kiosks so greedy companies can't take advantage of workers!

CA Fast-Food Franchisees Fear Losing Diners to Chili's, Applebee's - "California recently raised its minimum wage for fast-food workers to $20, and franchisees raising prices to offset this fear they could send some diners into the arms of casual dining chains like Chili's and Applebee's.  These chains aren't subject to the new minimum wage and, therefore, aren't expected to raise prices as much. This could potentially cause the price difference between fast-food and casual dining restaurants to shrink... Paul said that transactions at his restaurants "are already trending down."  He speculated some of the diners could be going to casual dining restaurants like Chili's or Applebee's instead, which he said had deals that meant diners could have a sit-down meal for "a dollar or two more than us.""

They Make Minimum Wage. They Could Save Your Life. - "JENA: The first thing is she shows that higher minimum wages increase the earnings among the low-wage workers in the nursing homes. So that should make sense, right? That’s not surprising. The second thing she finds, which is I think a very interesting labor economics finding, but it has implications for health in a way that we’ll talk about in a second, is that those higher minimum wages lead people to remain employed by that same nursing home for longer. Now, here’s where the health stuff comes in. She finds that the minimum wage increases reduce the number of health inspection violations. The second thing that she finds, is that the fraction of nursing home residents with moderate to severe pressure ulcers — these are ulcers that happen usually on the bottom of the body because you’re laying in bed for long periods of time — falls, after the minimum wage increase goes into effect in certain facilities. And then the last thing that she finds is that nursing home mortality, so how likely are people who live in the nursing home to die — that probability falls in facilities where the minimum wage increases. So to summarize, we see a decline in inspection violations, we see a decline in things like pressure ulcers, and we see a decline in mortality. Those are three really interesting measures of healthcare outcomes or quality that all seem to improve when the low-wage staff in nursing homes are paid more.
Evidence on efficiency wages

People with disabilities are paid less than minimum wage - "Deepa Fernandes: “For decades, it has been legal for employers to pay people with disabilities less than the minimum wage. Even today, it's not uncommon for some workers to earn less than $3.50 an hour.  “The Labor Department has been engaging with advocates on the harms of paying what's called a subminimum wage and what reform could look like. Joining us now is Marissa Ditkowsky, an attorney who focuses on disability economic justice with the National Partnership for Women and Families.”...
“But it is true that this was passed in 1938 and it's not relevant to our present-day standing of disability or work. It really views disabled work as less valuable even though productivity can vary among nondisabled workers too.   “These really are capitalist beliefs about value that are rooted in sexism, racism, ableism. All of this is work that the National Partnership for Women and Families works on.”"
Left wingers really believe that everyone is equally capable and there's no link between pay and value/productivity. Clearly, if disabled employment goes down with an equal minimum wage for them, this will be discriminatory, oppression and proof that capitalism has failed
Obviously, productivity can only vary upwards, never downwards, and no one is less productive than the minimum wage