Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Bits and Pieces - November 19, 2014

Ta-Nehisi Coates's honesty and writing moved me. It's hard to change one's mind in this way, harder to say it.

On the other side of such things, the #shirtstorm continues, now fed largely by idiots maintaining their freedom to wear inappropriate shirts when serving as a spokesman for a stunning science mission. Here's something that makes more sense. And a collection of tweets.

This is strange news. Perhaps Vladimir Putin is deciding to deal with his troubles at home more directly, and not simply distracting with a nice little war in Ukraine. Or perhaps he is planning both. Or perhaps this report is wrong. Stay tuned.

Privatization of the American space program benefits a Florida firm and Russian oligarchs.

History: Nikita Khrushchev‘s visit to the United States in 1959. Even at the height of the Cold War, channels with the Soviet Union were kept open.

More history: The African-Americans who migrated to the Soviet Union in the 1930s and their descendents.

Dignity is important to the Iranians in the nuclear negotiations. But it's a hard concept to define.


6 comments:

The Blog Fodder said...

I'll believe Putin (and Ukraine) can crack down on corruption when I see it. It is one of the bred-in-the bone cultural characteristics going back to Peter the Great who apparently in his reorganization of the bureaucracy decided to keep taxes low by poorly paying bureaucrats and allowing them to make up the difference directly from the populace.

The Blog Fodder said...

I have tried many times to log into your other blog but it will not let me. I have registered several times and it keeps saying that it needs administrative approval and nothing ever happens. I do appreciate your articles and such on Putin.

Cheryl Rofer said...

I am beginning to think that the theme of cracking down on corruption may be the beginnings of an internal purge. We'll see, I guess.

Apologies on the problems with registration at Nuclear Diner! We get an awful lot of spam registrations, and I tend to delete everything that doesn't look real. I don't recall any that looked like they could be you. Try registering again. I'll be more careful this time - I know of other real people who will be registering.

Cheryl Rofer said...

If that doesn't work, send me a note via the contact page, and I'll get you registered.

The Blog Fodder said...

Contact page said not to exist. Tried registering again, same results, got an email with confirmation of user name and an assigned password. Attempt to log in resulted in message saying needs confirmation. Anyhow, good summary post on current situation in Ukraine. Will simply link to it in my blog post today.

Cheryl Rofer said...

Weird. I get the contact page from that link.