Spring fertilizer application in the Northern Hemisphere runs through June. Parts of Africa are entering the primary planting season now — a critical window for the continent's most food-insecure populations. A missed window doesn't delay a harvest — it eliminates it. The shortfall will be invisible until it materializes in spiking prices and empty shelves next fall.  This is the story the Hormuz blockade coverage is missing. The crisis isn't just raising energy prices — it is breaking food supply chains. The world is facing a slow-motion catastrophe that will not announce itself until it is too late.

The world doesn't need this by June.  It needed it a month ago.  Even if they set up a corridor tomorrow, by the time any significant amount gets shipped, the window for fertilizer application will be closed.  5 out of 6 of India's production facilities are shut due to lack of inputs (LNG).  They have to both start getting the LNG AND get the production ramped back up AND ship the fertilizer to the farmers. Not gonna happen.

So, the skyrocketing prices and "food insecurity" are gonna happen.  FI is a euphemism for STARVATION.  A LOT of people are gonna starve as a result of Trumpolini's War, the only question is how big the number will be.  Will we ever get an accurate estimate of the number that starve to DEATH?  No, of course not, but you can be pretty certain it will be in the MILLIONS.  Trumpolini and Amerika may very well match or exceed Stalin in exterminating useless eaters.

RE

I am 100% on board with banning the FF Ads, but MEAT?  We're not talking just cows here, meat includes chicken, pigs, bear, moose, rabbits, squirrels...  Besides going all Veggie, all that leaves us is Fish & Insects.  Over-fishing has ALREADY decimated the global fish population, howz it supposed to provide a substitute for meat when all the carnivores switch over?  And Insects?  Even if you can get people to eat them, the insect population ALSO has been decimated by environmental pollutants and insecticides.

All I can say is hopefully by the time all the Bone In Prime Ribeye steaks have disappeared from the Meat fridges at 3 Bears or become too expensive to buy at least say 1/month (not yet but getting there), I will be planted 6 feet under with the worms feasting on my meat package, while my eternal soul is set free to roam time & space in search of a better place to spend my next incarnation of corporeal existence.  I can only feel great sadness when I think of all the kids doomed to finish out their current trip without Rack of Lamb, Honey Baked Ham and real Jewish Deli Pastrami on Rye.  It's almost too painful to contemplate.

RE

But the deal alone could not end the decades-long armed conflict for good. Subsequent administrations slow-walked the implementation of the settlement, which was rejected by Farc dissidents and other rebel factions.

At last one ongoing war not directly related to the oil biz.  In Colombia, it's all about the drug trade.  On one side you have most of the population who make their living off the sought after properties of the Coca leaf, on the other Da Goobermint which tries to control it.  Can they find a Happy Medium?  Don't count on it.

RE

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 29, 2026, 04:46 PMMy specialty pays quite well.

Bragging about how much you get paid is a violation of the CoC.  3 Days in the Cooler.

RE

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 29, 2026, 04:29 PMI've got a solid 6-8 inches on you, and probably 100# at that point in time.

Must have been someone else then.    I don't remember talking to any 6'2" Fat Guys, so if I talked to you, it wasn't very memorable.  Can't say for sure whether I told a joke or not, but it's irrelevant.  You don't recognize my jokes without clues, and I don't hand out clues, especially to fat trolls stalking southern redneck town fairs incognito.

RE

Quote from: K-Dog on Apr 29, 2026, 06:45 AMOr are you just going to say you never asked a question about Uyghurs now.  As you seem to not know the difference between authoritarianism and communism that would be your next move.

Can't say I've asked many questions about Uyghurs, no. As far as not knowing the difference between communism and authoritarianism, well, we all have our specialties. Political distinctions are interesting to some I suppose, not sure why, but to each their own. My specialty pays quite well. Do you get paid well for knowing nuances of various political definitions/organizations, or is it just a hobby to one-up other politically involved hobbyists?

Quote from: RE on Apr 28, 2026, 06:19 PMGranted, my sense of humor is somewhat idiosyncratic and not appreciated by everyone.  The reason I don't remember you is probably because you didn't laugh at my jokes and said nothing worth remembering.

Both of those conditions are likely to be true, you didn't tell any jokes, just threw out those little laughs on occasion as though you had, and I didn't say anything worth remembering.

I was there to see if the money you were investing in that little SUN exercise had any chance of being something. You did put significant resources into it if memory serves. After it was all over, the videos of your drunken scooter/ebike excapades, the commentary on the size of the liquor bill for the sales pitch on local political "intelligentsia" (otherwise known as "southern crackers" perhaps?) all seemed a bit...pricey for the final result.

Wendy gave me the impression that the entire exercise was designed to find support for a theme park showing people how great it would be to live Amish or something similar. As though taking a trip to Amish country wouldn't suffice?

Quote from: REI do remember vaguely meeting a somber little man in disheveled clothing I though might be a homeless schizophrenic off his meds and discussing electric scooters.  He didn't identify himself though, I figured he couldn't remember his name.

I've got a solid 6-8 inches on you, and probably 100# at that point in time. And you never asked me to identify myself, I certainly wasn't about to hand you a business card knowing your propensity for cyber stalking. Although Haniel was gone by then I believe and you hadn't found a tech replacement to do your MIB routine on Diner members.

QuoteAnd now the Communists have forced labor camps for the Uyghurs

Following ethnic rioting, and a series of deadly terror attacks within and outside Xinjiang which Beijing blamed on Uyghurs, President Xi Jinping launched a "Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Extremism" in 2014 that framed Uyghur identity as a security threat.

Seems that their supreme leader is responsible for their camps.  Communism would not have a supreme leader.  Communism has soviets.  Or are you just going to say you never asked a question about Uyghurs now.  As you seem to not know the difference between authoritarianism and communism that would be your next move.

Granted, my sense of humor is somewhat idiosyncratic and not appreciated by everyone.  The reason I don't remember you is probably because you didn't laugh at my jokes and said nothing worth remembering.  I do remember vaguely meeting a somber little man in disheveled clothing I though might be a homeless schizophrenic off his meds and discussing electric scooters.  He didn't identify himself though, I figured he couldn't remember his name.

RE

Quote from: RE on Apr 27, 2026, 10:11 PM

Quote from: TDoS on Apr 27, 2026, 07:03 PMYou just haranging on what you harang on doesn't give much in the way of clues.

You need clues to figure out if something is funny?

I met you before, you pretending to not remember being irrelevant. You had a habit, of saying something, then having this dry little laugh as though what you said was amusing enough to warrant it. I didn't laugh at all, as it was just conversation, and you weren't being funny. It was just some mannerism. You do it in your videos as well.

I don't need clues to figure out what is funny. It is an easy thing, you know it when you see it. In person, or in your videos, you see it everywhere. I do not.

Quote from: REIt's not detective work, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes.

RE

Nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. I didn't laugh when you were yucking it up over....whatever...in Inman either.