In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

There's something evocative about the story of the Titanic sub. It probably owes a lot to the Titanic myth itself, which is reflected in the title of the book Down with the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic Disaster by Steven Biel (1997), which according to this review , ". . . seared itself into American memory not because it was timeless but because it was timely". . . . Groups on all sides of the volatile issues of gender, class, religion, and race all found in the Titanic lessons and judgements to bolster their causes. The much smaller Titanic sub disaster is having the same effect. Biel's title, by the way, is taken from a 1938 country song by the Dixon Brothers: The lyrics conclude, Your Titanic sails today, on Life's Sea you're far away For Jesus Christ can take you safely through Just obey his great command, over there you'll safely land You'll never go down with that old canoe Sailing out out to win her f...

What's held my attention most in the story of the missing Titanic sub is the subplot involving wealth -- and it sounds like much of it is either inherited or of unidentifiable origin -- and a strange subcluture where a clique of wealthy people feed their own deep insecurities. Let's just start with the CEO of OceanGate, Stockton Rush. According to this story, In past media appearances, Rush appears calm, collegiate and telegenic. With silver hair and business-casual attire, he looks like he might be more at home on the golf course than thousands of feet under the sea. However, questions are now swirling about some of his decisions related to the submersible. . . . Rush has described himself as having been "born into" wealth and then "grew it," according to a 2017 Bloomberg profile. The grandson of an oil and gas magnate, he became a private investor alongside working in aviation, earning his pilot's license at the age of 19, the outlet reported...

As I look at this morning's news, I'm beginnoing to think Austrian Col Markus Reisner buried the main insight in the presentation I linked yesterday. I quoted him there : The West will only support Ukraine as long as the West believes it is important to support the war against Russia, and the West believes the Ukrainian forces are winning. For now, the second part of his statement is key, and it sounds as if President Zelensky is acutely aware of the problem, especially since Ukraine's winter counteroffensive didn't happen at all, and the spring counteroffensive, which Zelensky announced only on June 8, has apparently now been paused after only a week. But even as of June 8, the day Zelensky announced the start of the counteroffensive, Forbes reported problems : A Russian artillery strike on a Ukrainian vehicle column during a daytime assault on or around the town of Novopokrovka—35 miles southeast of Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine—apparently knocke...

As of June 11, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have confirmed that his country's long-awaited counter-offensive against Russia has started. "Counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place," he said. But he added that he would not talk in detail about which stage or state the counter-offensive was in. The comments come after an escalation of fighting in the south and east of Ukraine and speculation about progress of the widely anticipated push. But as oif June 18, only a week after that announcement, The Institute for the Study of War reported , Ukrainian forces may be temporarily pausing counteroffensive operations to reevaluate their tactics for future operations. Head of the Estonian Defense Forces Intelligence Center Colonel Margo Grosberg stated on June 16 that he assesses "we won't see an offensive over the next seven days.” The Wall Street Journal similarly reported on June 17 that Ukrainian forces “h...

Axios ran as piece over the weekend that supports my view of Biden's Friday "God save the queen" remark that I ran on Saturday: Biden’s quirky aphorisms are sometimes weaponized by Republicans to insinuate the 80-year-old president is in mental decline. But Biden has been using unique phrases for years — but even some of his aides aren't exactly sure what he means by them. . . . Biden also said, “God save the queen,” when he was vice president in January 2017, after he certified Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, The Telegraph reported at the time. The story noted that they'd asked several Biden aides what he meant by the phrase, but none could give a clear answer. But it went on, During this year's State of the Union, he told Republican lawmakers, “Lots of luck in your senior year.” Some Biden allies believe that's his way of saying, "Good luck with that." But at the time, the White House declined to tell The New Y...

The headlines at the right-wing aggregators were misleading: Dodgers Wind Up With About 60 People Attending The Game For Their Anti-Catholic Stunt . What actually happened was that the Dodgers, caught between a rock and a hard place, split the difference and gave the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence their community hero award at a ceremony on the field but considerably before the actual game. (Most of the aggregators, including Breitbart at the link, eventually clarified this.) The 60 people who were there were just a select group watching the little pre-game ceremony. Nevertheless, a few booed loudly. So the Dodgers' strategy was to finesse the "sisters" without re-un-disinviting them, without an apology or even a direct acknowledgement of the problem, and hope it all blows over. This has mirrored the corporate strategies of Bud Light and Target, as well to a lesser extent other companies like Kohls and Starbucks, which have quietly removed Pride Month signage and...

From CTInsider: President Joe Biden ended his keystone speech Friday at the National Safer Communities Summit at the University of Hartford with a line that has drawn confusion and criticism. "God save the queen, man," Biden said. The site gave the White House explanation for the line: The comment puzzled some people because Queen Elizabeth II died last September, but White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Alair Dalton said Biden's remark was directed at someone in the audience. Dalton said Biden was unable to do a full rope line, where he usually interacts with audience members in close spaces, because he needed to leave as a storm approached. The certainly leaves open the interpretation that Joe is completely out of touch, recognizing neither that the queen of the UK isn't sovereign over the US, but beyond that, she's deceased, and there's now a king. But I simply think it's another indication of the Dunning-Kruger Effect ...