Althouse: At the Lunchtime Café...

August 2, 2022

At the Lunchtime Café...

... write what you want.

16 comments:

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Monarch butterflies are in decline and they thrive on milkweed - which is also in decline.

Plant, nurture and celebrate milkweed, everyone.; 8/2/22, 11:19 AM
rehajm said...: Who knew it would be LIV Golf that would make the unstable crazier than a betsy bug...; 8/2/22, 11:42 AM
Temujin said...: Which of these will happen first?

We're all talking about Monkeypox and how we know someone with it.
Or...
We're all talking about China invading Taiwan.; 8/2/22, 12:23 PM
Howard said...: It's funny... hot weather is coming to New England this week yet it felt like fall started to come into the pond last Saturday.; 8/2/22, 12:27 PM
rhhardin said...: Those who play with fire will perish by it. - Xi Jinping

Those who fling mud lose ground. - Charlie Chan; 8/2/22, 2:08 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Our milkweed has gone to seed. The photo shows Joe Pyle weed.; 8/2/22, 2:37 PM
Carol said...: I planted some milkweed but it's not looking good.; 8/2/22, 2:43 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Joe Pyle - I thought it looked a bit different; 8/2/22, 2:53 PM
Michael K said...: Monarch butterflies are in decline and they thrive on milkweed - which is also in decline.

My daughter has a milkweed garden and they have some monarch caterpillars. We will see them this weekend. No monarchs in AZ.; 8/2/22, 3:46 PM
Joe Smith said...: The 'Vogue' photo shoot of the Zelensky's was terrible optics.; 8/2/22, 4:37 PM
rehajm said...: The Garland lawsuit sounds like he should have just taken ten steps closer to the SCOTUS ruling before he read it.

I’m sure Ann will be along soon to ‘set us straight’…; 8/2/22, 6:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Sorry for the autocorrect typo: it’s not Pyle. It’s Pye.; 8/2/22, 6:09 PM
Dave Begley said...: This is too rich. OPPD director Craig Moody held a FB Live event just now. OPPD has to delay the closure of two coal-fired units because otherwise OPPD might have forced power blackouts.

Moody identified himself as he/him. In the comments, I identified myself as beep/bop/boop.

Moody said my comment was “borderline offensive.”

Libs can’t take a joke.; 8/2/22, 6:42 PM
Dave Begley said...: China will takeover Taiwan in the next two years.; 8/2/22, 6:43 PM
readering said...: Beep/bop/boop: Nothing in CCP past indicates such a capability.; 8/2/22, 10:24 PM
Michael McNeil said...: Success by the Chinese People's Liberation Army is by no means assured. What the Chinese fear in launching a Taiwanese invasion is disastrous failure — which is not unlikely. People look at the relative sizes of China vs. Taiwan and wonder how could China fail? But folks thought the same thing about the U.S. vs. (North) Vietnam or North Korea — and look how those wars turned out. Plus, unlike those other nations, Taiwan is defended (as Britain was during WWII and on many another occasion) by a formidable (>100 miles in the case of Taiwan) moat. Then, too, even once across that strait the island of Taiwan is quite mountainous, containing much daunting geography from the point of view of an invading army.

Added to the difficulties of the question are the capabilities of modern Western weapons now being demonstrated in Ukraine, such as HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) launchers, capable of firing 6 or 12 GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) “rounds” — missiles guided by GPS with a range of more than 50 miles — at a time. (Here's a video showing how unguided versions of such missiles [Syrian MLRS firing on Daesh] can trash a target.) Guided rockets are much more devastating yet. Beyond that, the Chinese Army hasn't fought a capable opponent in decades. How good is it? Nobody — definitely not Xi — knows for certain.

Here's an interesting piece by Francis Turner detailing some of the difficulties an invading Chinese army would encounter trying to conquer Taiwan.; 8/3/22, 7:57 AM