The Gulf War occurred after then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. George H.W. Bush took Kuwait back from a dictator who had only a few years before been a tool of the West in a proxy war against Iran. Bush famously uttered “this aggression will not stand” and made a show of refraining from invading Iraq wholesale.

[Previous thread here: Policing Problems Redux, May 23 thru Aug 27]

Mikhail Gorbachev signed peace accords that led to a withdrawal of Afghanistan in 1989. The Soviet Union collapsed two years later, toward the end of 1991.

Russia very quickly reverted to a similar system to what it once had and under Putin's leadership, it recreated many of the institutions of the Soviet Union, such as the KGB. However, it has an economy the size of Italy and its capabilities of coercing former Soviet republics are limited to what we saw with attacks on Crimea, Ukraine, or Georgia. It can't recreate the Soviet Union as a union of 15 republics.

A frenzied U.S. flight from Kabul as chaos descends.   link

"A frenzied evacuation of U.S. diplomats and civilians kicked into high gear, while Afghans made a mad dash to the banks, their homes and the airport. Crowds of people ran down the streets as the sound of gunfire echoed in downtown Kabul.

Rand Paul and Fauci had a big quarrel today in the Senate, accusing, blaming, without talking, calm testimony and inquiry, about the heart of the topic, virus research, like that at Wuhan and elsewhere. Some funded by the NIH.

They did not talk about what kinds of restrictions on virus research should exist or be tightened.

Viruses were being created for infectious disease research in Wuhan.

I think Andrew Yang found a new calling - this is him with legendary professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page. FYI he previously interviewed Nic Nimeth AKA Dolph Ziggler of WWE.

Go figure...

‘I put my life savings in crypto’: how a generation of amateurs got hooked on high-risk trading

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/19/life-savings-in-cry... 

Newly revealed information speculates that autism was pioneered by Soviet psychologists who wanted to integrate gifted children who had been marginalized socially. (A bit like the movie Elling.)

The methods of psychologists like Grunya Sukhareva and Lev Vygotsky were duplicated in parts of Europe that were inspired by the Soviet experiment, including Germany. When the Nazis took over these clinics, people like Hans Asperger steered them in to grooming centers for super-children who were either seen as gifted stewards of the Reich or sent them to be euthanized.

Not just Moore's Law - improved algorithmic approach helps make critical calculations much much faster, bringing their practical use closer. 

Trade wars over rights of passage 

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/04/europe/france-uk-jersey-brexit-intl-h...

Until the pandemic : Bill who?

Grave  doubts whether he would rise to a challenge if there were one.

There were was.  He did.