Favorites June 19th 2022

Ammo, Textualism, and The Ruble

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a dragonfly stay still this long before.

Neil Hauer @NeilPHauer

"The Russian onslaught consumes ammunition at rates that massively exceed US forecasts & ammunition production. For US to act as arsenal in defence of Ukraine, there must be a major look at the manner/scale at which US organises its industrial base"

rusi.orgThe Return of Industrial WarfareCan the West still provide the arsenal of democracy?

Interesting article about the West's capacity to make ammunition, it's turning out to be quite important. One thing I hadn't thought about is that US artillery shell manufacturers have only one buyer, and so if the US government stops buying as much, the factories go out of business and we simply lose the capacity. Gun culture in the US means we can retool civilian stuff for military manufacturing, but that doesn't help with stinger missiles.

Daniel A. Horwitz @danielahorwitz

This sort of anti-textualist bullshit has happened almost every single time a legislature has passed a law allowing a person to sue law enforcement. This, § 1983, the law enforcement proviso of the FTCA, application of state public duty doctrines, etc. It’s truly unbelievable. https://t.co/0fpPojadnC

Sheryl Ring, anticapitalist civil rights lawyer @Ring_Sheryl

Antonin "I'm a textualist" Scalia wrote the 7-2 majority SCOTUS opinion, saying that the plain language of the statute was irrelevant in light of "long-standing police tradition". I'm serious. https://t.co/ymIbTdSTml

There's more in the thread, but this pair of tweets already summarizes the situation well.

Robin Brooks @RobinBrooksIIF

Putin is cutting gas deliveries to Europe. Europe was always going to end up here - no Russian gas - except that an embargo would have allowed us to hold our heads high. As Churchill said: "You were given the choice between war & dishonor. You chose dishonor & you will have war."

One of the threads has more detail about why exactly Russia is cutting gas exports.

Threads

• Thread covering problems caused for Russia by a strong Ruble. (And why it forces Russia to stop selling gas to Europe)

• I hesitate to even link to this, but there are some very sketchy rumors that China may *not* change the term limit rule for state leaders. But it's almost certainly BS.