What Russia’s Collapse Might Look Like

Fascinating clip.

But a potentially unstable world order were Russia’s collapse to occur.

BLM’s Balance Sheet

This is from the AP which is pretty neutral on race and culture war issues.

That said, what’s been going on at BLM, the org?

AP Exclusive: Black Lives Matter Has $42 million in Assets

To be clear, that $42 million represents NET assets.

For context, here are the key numbers from BLM’s balance sheet, including the exact net assets number:

Revenues — $79,644,823
Functional Expenses — $37,710,135
Net Assets — $41,934,688

Reading the various schedules, I noted that while $25,977,945 of the org’s expense load went to GRANTS, there was also a HEFTY EXPENSE ITEM called “OTHER” which accounted for $7,648,768 — or approximately 20% of the operation’s TOTAL EXPENSES.

It’s likely that that sum includes the $5,046,907 shown in various line items that was paid to “a small grouping of consultants . . . some of whom have close ties to founders and other BLM organizers.”

“For example, the tax filing shows the foundation paid nearly $970,000 to Trap Heals LLC, a company founded by Damon Turner, who fathered a child with [Patrisse] Cullors, one of the group’s founders.”

In addition, what should the other $2,601,861 from the $7,648,768 listed as OTHER EXPENSES be applied to? Where did THAT money go?

Here are the key four paragraphs of the AP’s overview:

“The tax filing suggests the organization is still finding its footing: It currently has no executive director or in-house staff. Nonprofit experts tell the AP that the BLM foundation seems to be operating like a scrappy organization with far fewer resources, although some say Black-led charities face unfair scrutiny in an overwhelmingly white and wealthy philanthropic landscape.

Still, its governance structure makes it difficult to disprove allegations of impropriety, financial mismanagement and deviation from mission that have dogged the BLM foundation for years, one expert said.

“It comes across as an early startup nonprofit, without substantial governance structure in place, that got a huge windfall,” said Brian Mittendorf, a professor of accounting at Ohio State University who focuses on nonprofit organizations and their financial statements.

“People are going to be quick to assume that mismatch reflects intent,” he added. “Whether there’s anything improper here, that is another question. But whether they set themselves up for being criticized, I think that certainly is the case because they didn’t plug a bunch of those gaps.”

THIS IS ONE I’LL BE TRACKING.

AI Poetry

Will CREATIVITY be whisked away?

Robots Are Writing Poetry, and Many People Can’t Tell the Difference

Can YOU tell the difference?

Maxine says I’VE BEEN WRITING AI POETRY FOR YEARS. A trailblazer, so to speak. She calls it WOOD-BLOCK POETRY. I agree that it has that feel to it, but to be PRECISE — and I’ve told Maxine this — it’s poetry that ANTICIPATED the BLOCKCHAIN.

LINKY-LINKY-LINK.

Anyway, let ‘s hope that the HUMAN DIMENSION simply doesn’t atrophy — in POETRY or anything else; and that while AI can fake poetry with SIMULATION, it lacks the WIT to split the poet from the poem.

THE REAL ONE.

WOOD-BLOCKS OR NOT.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The 1920 John Barrymore classic.

Superb, eh? And from this, sprung films, such as A Perfect Murder and American Psycho.

BUT DO NOT, UNDER PAIN OF PROBABLE CANCELLATION, SHOW THIS VIDEO TO ANY ME-TOO MEMBERS.

Even more troubling, your doing so could result in my being CONDEMNED under NON-DUE-PROCESS-HISTORICAL-ASSOCIATION-ACCUSATION RULES as an accessory after the fact to HYDE’S MANY CRIMES.

If Huckleberry Finn can be cancelled why not Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Wasn’t Robert Louis Stevenson a member of a SLAVE-TRADING EMPIRE, and weren’t WOMEN “SUBJUGATED” in Victorian England — or whatever period is depicted in the film?

Yes, I’m being facetious — BUT TO MAKE A POINT.

Context is EVERYTHING when assigning responsibility for so-called “crimes” committed in and/or by cultures THAT FOLLOWED DIFFERENT RULES.

And then there’s the EVEN LARGER POINT WHICH THIS FILM SO ARTFULLY DELIVERS:

WE’RE CREATURES WITH HORRIFICLY DARK IMPULSES WE STRUGGLE TO CONTROL OUR ENTIRE DIVIDED LIVES.

Which is why the film and the novel it was based on RESONATE SO AUTHENTICALLY. They remind us of who we are IN TOTO.

Andrew Yang Hosts Ian Bremmer

Two bright guys talking. Plus, they’re friends.

Check out the clip or breeze through my notes.

THE POWER OF CRISIS

Russia/Ukraine

The West is now more coherent.
NATO has come together as Putin has united it.
To the G-7, Russia is now a pariah and an existential threat to ALL of Europe.
The West won’t unfreeze Russian assets or restart buying Russian energy.
All of this helped Macron get reelected.
The Poles, once outliers, now want greater EU integration.
Russians have committed massive war crimes.
These atrocities will define Ukrainian attitudes for decades.
Putin is not backing down or suing for peace but instead, looking at annexation of specific regions.
If Ukraine can gain a deadlock, it will solidify the West’s position.

China

Taiwan remains a point of friction between China and the US.
China has seen a robust US response in Ukraine.
Taiwan, with its semiconductor business, is much more strategically sensitive than Ukraine.
China is unsure if its military is up to the task after watching Russia fumble around in Ukraine.
China’s population is angry with its leadership.
There’s also more nationalism which includes greater animus towards the US.
China views the poor US response to COVID as indicative of weakness.
Yet, NOW, Shanghai residents are angry over the month long COVID lockdown.
In Shanghai, people are wealthier than in Portugal, and, to some extent, quite arrogant.
The pandemic did not bring together China and the US.
China refuses to license Western vaccines.
They don’t see the COVID crisis as serious enough to seek wider solutions.

Climate Change

Climate change could unite a) Americans as well as b) citizens of other countries.
India didn’t have a spring, but it won’t stop using coal until the rest of the world figures out how to help it.
Fortunately, the world at large is no longer ignoring climate change.
By 2045, a majority of the world’s energy will come from sources other than fossil fuels.
Climate change is a Goldilocks crisis and, as such, is solvable.
The UN is also now addressing it.

The Coming AI Crisis

Our institutions are out of date.
NAFTA worked well at first but then covered only 50% of our trade due to the emergence of digital trade.
Trump’s creating a new NAFTA was a GOOD thing.
Humans are now products since the profit tech companies earn come from data obtained from average citizens.
We need a world data organization.
It would consist of both governments and corporations.
Digital corporations function, in effect, as sovereigns.
AI is damaging civil society to the extent that data control and management are URGENT.
Yet, this is one crisis that could undo us.
Hence, we have NO CHOICE but to try to stop it.
Nuclear proliferation has been controlled as nuclear weapons rely on rare materials.
But with drones and cyber-weapons, there will be massive proliferation within a decade.
Bad actors will get hold of them as well.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to safeguard networks, but they’re increasingly easier to attack which is something governments are not addressing.
Only the EU, Canada and Japan are even attempting it.
Private-sector partners are needed.
The first tech player to realize what’s at stake will benefit most.
There are several companies that could do this.
But then, what about China which is at parity with the US re AI technologies?
If US companies agree to regulation but China’s don’t, China will take the lead in product development.
For instance, a new quantum computer could make all current cryptography obsolete.
Such a development could lead to war.
In fact, we’re already headed towards an AI war with China.
China invests directly in AI technology.
US efforts are almost exclusively privately led.
Key to regulating AI is global consensus.

THERE.

PAINLESS, RIGHT?

Medvedev: Sanctions Against Russia . . .

. . . Will Boomerang.

The OFFICIAL RUSSIAN LINE from former Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev:

Пункты совсем не поразившего своей новизной заявления глав МИД G7 по итогам трёхдневной встречи (с комментариями)

• Изменение границ Украины не признаётся.

Скажем мягко: нашей стране плевать на непризнание новых границ со стороны G7, важна истинная воля проживающих там людей. Не забывайте прецедент Косово, западные друзья.

• Киев будет получать оружие, пока это необходимо.

То есть G7 продолжит вести скрытую войну с Россией, вместо того чтобы заниматься проблемами с топливом и продовольствием для своих недовольных жителей.

• Активизируются усилия по сокращению зависимости от российских энергоносителей, включая поэтапный отказ от угля и нефти.

Значит, продолжится грабёж граждан «семёрки» для поддержки коррумпированного режима на Украине, о самом существовании которой знают далеко не все жители этих стран.

• Страны G7 призывают Китай не помогать России в обходе санкций, не оправдывать её действия и не оказывать ей военную помощь.

Это продолжение прямого вмешательства в дела Китая и намёк, что мы и вас наказать можем, ежели что.

• Против Москвы будут приняты дальнейшие ограничительные меры.

А мы думали, что страны «семёрки» предложат России материальную помощь на денацификацию и демилитаризацию Украины. Ошиблись.

Ещё «семёрочники» забыли сказать про неизбежное использование Россией стратегических ядерных сил в конфликте и вероятные казни украинских националистов на Лобном месте Красной площади через четвертование. Всё ещё впереди.

In English.

A number of global supply chains of goods will collapse, a major logistical crisis is possible, including the collapse of foreign airlines, which are banned from flying over Russian territory.
The energy crisis will intensify in those states that have imposed “shooting in their own feet” sanctions on the supply of Russian energy carriers, further growth in fossil fuel prices will continue, and the development of the digital economy in the world will slow down.
A full-fledged international food crisis will come with the prospect of starvation in individual states.
A monetary and financial crisis is possible in some countries or communities of countries, associated with the undermining of the stability of a number of national currencies, galloping inflation and the destruction of the legal system for protecting private property.
New regional military conflicts will arise in those places where the situation has not been peacefully resolved for many years or the significant interests of major international players are ignored.
Terrorists are becoming more active, believing that the attention of Western authorities today is diverted to a showdown with Russia.
New epidemics will begin, caused by the rejection of honest international cooperation in the sanitary and epidemiological sphere or by direct facts of the use of biological weapons.
There will be a decline in the activities of international institutions that have not been able to prove their effectiveness in the course of settling the situation in Ukraine, such as, for example, the Council of Europe.
New international alliances of countries based on pragmatic rather than ideological Anglo-Saxon criteria will be formed.
As a result, a new security architecture will be created, in which de facto, and then de jure, the existing realities are recognized:

a) the weakness of Westernized concepts of international relations such as “Order based on rules” and other senseless Western junk;

b) the collapse of the idea of an American-centric world;

c) the presence of interests respected by the world community in those countries that are in an acute stage of conflict with the Western world.

SOME OR EVEN ALL OF THIS COULD HAPPEN. BUT ON THE OTHER HAND, NONE OF IT MAY HAPPEN.

WHERE DOES TRUTH END AND PROPGANDA BEGIN?

DON’T ASK POWER. IT WILL NEVER TELL YOU.

Gas Price to Triple in Europe

And I don’t mean GASOLINE. I’m talking AU NATUREL.

From Rystad Energy:

“There simply is not enough LNG around to meet demand. In the short term, this will make for a hard winter in Europe.

“For producers, it suggests the next LNG boom is here, but it will arrive too late to meet the sharp spike in demand. The stage is set for a sustained supply deficit, high prices, extreme volatility, bullish markets, and heightened LNG geopolitics . . . .”

Check out these graphs:

You can’t EAT globalization.

Once you lose your feedstock fuel source, affordable living DISAPPEARS.

And FAST.

On the Way to a Haircut

GREEN KNIGHT SERIES

Modernity sterilized feeling. What’s left are shards of loss.

CIKES & BYCLES I

Come May

Streets sparkle, breezes soothe,
Light enfolds the eye.
I pined for May all winter --
Its warm and cleansing sky.
Days like these are priceless now
But not because they last.
As much as I salute them,
It's fitting that they pass.

JAD, 2022

CHELSEA I

In the end, we’re cornered by compromise.

When There Isn't a Point

I.

I don't intend to blame them,
But words don't always come.
Are eyes too dry --
Their sockets drained --
To see that blanks can hurt?
Who likes scratching
Verse on slate
That no one can detect?

Is this what failure feels like?

I've seen the mind in
Stages mask the
Missing links of time;
The evening lost to
Cataracts;
The hours leaking sand;
Dementia worse than hunger
Squared,

The curse of nothing new.

II.

History hides its battle dress;
And death, its grim remit;
Once upon a cuspidor,
Lay traces of my spit.
Consciousness -- its calculus,
Its vision self-contained --
Reeks of rank intolerance,
Of minds that vomit fear.

Is this why witches burned?

Forces gather, mass, disperse
As time's own wake dissolves.
Lies are prized then sanctified 
As rockets buzz the moon.
Power's brazen, sullen lust
Is slated to erupt,
The weak have found their footing
Late.

The wise by now have left.

JAD, 2022

CIKES & BYCLES II

As tension ebbs, anxiety builds. There’s still that other shoe.

CHANGING STRIPES

Conundrum

I don't know where to
Place the pain.
They told me -- put it there.
But that was many
Wounds ago
When all I had was hope.
Now, I lack for nothing.
But do I still have hope?

JAD, 2022

CHELSEA II