You’re not cannon fodder

Yeah, it’s Halloween. When I had to avoid sugar I didn’t want to hand out sugar to kids and perhaps have some left over. So on Halloween I tended to make sure I was away for the evening. Alas, there are no movies worth seeing in area theaters this evening. I don’t have to avoid sugar now, though I still do. And I still don’t want to give any to kids. So the light near the front window is not on. A neighbor usually has a bonfire and several people on the block sit around it. I joined them for a couple hours – after the children has passed through. My Sunday movie was Speedy featuring Harold Lloyd. It is a silent film released in 1928. I got interested in it because it showed up at the Detroit Film Theater and I didn’t see it then. I saw it now because it is on YouTube (I saw the free public domain version). Lloyd was a combination of comedian and stunt man. Many of his films, including this one, feature quite involved action and chase sequences. This one features Lloyd as Speedy, a character who bounces from job to job – soda fountain attendant, cab driver – and isn’t worried when he loses a job. He is in love with Jane. Her grandfather owns one of the last horse-drawn streetcars in a neighborhood that loves his kind personal service and loves that he lets a bunch of Civil War vets use the car for their card games in the evening. A chunk of the first third of the 90 minute runtime is taken up by Speedy and Jane going to Coney Island with several sweet and amusing mishaps. The middle third is Speedy as a cab driver. One of his customers is Babe Ruth – playing himself – and Speedy must get him to the ballpark. Ruth is not at all happy with the ride. I thought this had some terrific staging and camera work as the cab veers from this narrow miss to that one. The last chunk of the movie is his effort to thwart the efforts of a streetcar baron trying to exploit a loophole to swipe the grandfather’s horse-drawn line. There’s a lot of help from the vets and a lot of chances for high speed action requiring innovative solutions. And, oh yeah, stunt work. There isn’t a whole lot of change in the war in Ukraine. Even so, there are a couple interesting related ideas. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos, in a report from last Wednesday, reviewed what Russia – then the Soviet Union – did in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Soviets committed war crimes and destroyed infrastructure. Wrote Sumner:

The crumbling cities and barren fields that we think of as characteristic of Afghanistan aren’t the nation the Soviets entered. It’s what they left in their wake.

That is a prelude to saying it seems mighty strange that Russians are offering jobs to Afghans to fight against Ukraine. These soldiers have a reason to be interested in the offer. They are soldiers that fought with the US against the Taliban. They are the elite of the Afghan military and have knowledge of US weapons systems. They were left behind when the US departed Afghanistan a year ago and are now jobless and homeless. They understand the “band of brothers” of the military and are thus easy pickings for Russian recruiters. They would be ideal in Russia’s battle against Western weapons. There is a way the US can prevent that from happening – quickly resettle these soldiers in the West. Russia needs the Afghan soldiers because the Russian soldiers aren’t any good – though they can fire a missile into Ukrainian infrastructure while drunk. Kos of Kos discussed the miserable lives of Russian soldiers, especially the recently mobilized conscripts. You know you’re in trouble when you’re commanding officer, just before you’re sent to the front, begins his speech by saying, “You’re not cannon fodder ...” Even if you don’t get killed, Russia doesn’t want you back. Your family is more interested in your cell phone than you (unless you manage to haul home a washing machine). You might as well get and stay drunk. Your best hope is to be a Ukrainian prisoner of war. At least there you aren’t subjected to gay prostitution. Dartagnan of the Kos community discussed the unintended effects of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. I and others have already discussed a few of the items (so Dartagnan briefly mentions them). It turned Russia into a pariah state, tanking its economy. It strengthened NATO. It showed how weak Russia’s military actually is. And the one that is the focus of Dartagnan’s article: a much bigger push to switch to renewable energy.

The IEA [International Energy Agency] is the world’s most authoritative forecast of global energy trends, and its annual report points to a significant shift in energy planning by the world’s most developed countries. The shift is spurred by higher fuel prices resulting from Russia’s disruption of global energy markets, most notably in fossil fuel production. As reported by Brad Plumer, writing for The New York Times, Putin, as leader of the leading natural gas exporter in the world, has managed to accomplish what climate scientists and activists have unsuccessfully lobbied for over the past 20 years: Created a peak target in fossil fuel consumption worldwide, and driven a more rapid shift to renewables and other cleaner technologies such as wind, solar and nuclear power.