@QMS The one time I came close to being wealthy was about the time every cent of it went to medical bills. Hospitals and doctors got it all. Trying to earn it back at age 48 has been rather unsuccessful.
I would set up a private school. Kids would be taught to think critically. It would be free. And I would hope these kids would grow up and help take care of me when I am an old geezer. They would be taught the value of sharing and repaying favors.

There are many kinds of wealth. Wisdom, experience, monetary, social and personal
to name a few. I missed the boat in the monetary realm but made up for it in the
experiential arena. Isn't that the Schwab formula? Die poor and be happy. Heh.

There is a small herd of belted cows in Newport. They remind me of autistic
Holsteins. Rigidly between the lines.

Or maybe disciplined Texas Longhorns?

Looks like we are going to miss the bullet with the Lee storm. Have most of my
fleet secure in any event.

Thanks for the OT and cheers for red hoppy!

@Socialprogressive 4 of these Belties. They were on a ranch about 20 miles east of Fredericksburg. Now, it is extremely hot there. And these cattle have coats for extremely cold weather. I don't know how they thrive there.
So, if I were rich, I would have to have a fancy ranch for the Belties in Wyoming.
Have a great weekend!

I remember the Mad Magazine parody of Fiddler. It was titled Fiddler made a goof.
Glad to hear Hoppy has recovered and is flying.

@soryang That article in the Times reads like it was written by a CIA agent who specializes in propaganda. Not a single fact was presented beyond the meeting took place at a specific time and place, and Kim came by train.
Lankov's take on it was very interesting and informative. Thanks for bringing it to us.
The Mrs.' is cooking for 50? That does call for skills, let me tell you.
Funny childhood story: The church congregants of our Baptist Church took turns having the preacher over for dinner. Well, my family ranched, so beef was the predominant meat on the plate at our home. But when the preacher came, we had chicken. Seems the minister referred to his home dinners as his chicken dinner circuit. That is all he ever got.
OTs are always open to all topics, so always drop in whatever you think is interesting. War and war preparation is frightening, dreadful, but damn sure interesting!

I wanted to post this before I lose access to this NY Times article. There is apparently no pay wall on this so they want people to know about it. Yeah! More escalation! More military tension! More fuel for war! I apologize in advance OTC because it's unresponsive to the bucolic theme of the OT. This is a constitutional problem on my part, I am more of an urban creature.

When President Vladimir V. Putin met North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, in Russia’s far east on Wednesday, they struck what North Korea called “a satisfactory agreement​” on “the immediate cooperation matters​” between the two states, which have found common interests in opposing the United States and its allies. If any specific arms deal was struck, neither Moscow nor Pyongyang was expected to announce it. Buying weapons from North Korea or providing help for its weapons programs are violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions that Russia itself voted for.

Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department in Washington,​ characterized the meeting ​as Mr. Putin “​begging Kim Jong-un for help.” But it is not just Russia turning to the Korean Peninsula for aid: Under deals worked out quietly with Washington, South Korea has been shipping large amounts of artillery shells to the United States for months. It insists that it is not supplying any lethal weapons directly to Ukraine. But its shipments to the U.S. military help free up American stocks for Ukraine to use in fighting Russia.

The article mentions the usual background boilerplate concerning the ongoing 70 years long armistice situation, never resolved by a peace treaty, and how North Korea and South Korea maintain large stockpiles of conventional weapons for their large standing armies.

Moscow has repeatedly warned Seoul against supplying weapons to Ukraine. But South Korea has been pressed by the United States, its most important ally, to help the war effort. The administration of President Yoon Suk Yeol decided to supply shells to the United States, designating it as the “end user” for the munitions.

“It’s basically left to the U.S. to decide whether to send the shells it received from South Korea to Ukraine,” Mr. Yang said.

History Turns Upside Down in a War Where the Koreas Are Suppliers
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/14/world/asia/north-south-korea-ukraine....

So nod, nod, wink, wink, the South Korean administration knows the end user agreement is a joke and engaged in the artillery shell transfers anyway. We already knew that. The fact that Kim went to the Vostochny Cosmodrome space center in Russia also highlights another thing we already knew. The Russians haven't yet transferred advanced ICBM technology to North Korea, although an authoritative source, a think tank, and some US media recently tried to tell the US public that they already had.

I listened to an interview of Andrei Lankov yesterday, one of the most knowledgeable sources on Russian- North Korea relations in the world. He's fluent in Korean and had no trouble discussing this Kim-Putin summit on a popular South Korean morning radio program, the host of which is well versed in international affairs. Lankov's main point was that this summit with Kim was prompted by the new "block" orientation in Northeast Asia advanced by the US. Putin's main purpose was to warn South Korea it is marching down a dangerous path, and will be subject to certain strategic and economic risks on its current course. (the same might be said to Japan, but that is my inference). It is also sort of a chess move by Putin to show the US it is not going to gain by expanding the playing field of the war in the Ukraine to Northeast Asia. This represents the potential threat of horizontal expansion of the US-Russia conflict. He also pointed out, it is extremely unlikely that Russia would extend nuclear warhead technology to North Korea. Technology associated with satellite efforts is not in the same category in his view. ( Sounds like the old Loral contract scandal with China where certain US space flight missile telemetry technology was said to have been improperly released to China. Allegedly this advanced the Chinese ICBM program.)

Lankov emphasized that North Korea had no funds to purchase Russian military hardware, and would not have any in the foreseeable future. Therefore any Russian support to North Korea is either gratis or barter for North Korean ammunition or raw materials. This could be in the nature of fuel, food and fertilizer. Lankov downplayed the value of North Korean ammunition or weapons basically characterizing them as vintage although compatible with Russian weapons systems. The imagery of the summit was more significant than the substance. If I remember correctly Lankov characterized the Ukraine conflict as a WWI style war of attrition. He felt Putin's move was a warning to the US and South Korea more than anything else. Lankov also suggested that any new sanctions against North Korea prompted by the US, would only have a marginal impact.

I find it ironic that some US journalists made light of Kim's slow train. I wonder are they aware that Asians scoff at the pitiful state of US train transportation and our antiquated airports?

SOTA Missile Attack

depicted in this graphic by South Korean military analyst Shin In-kyun.

I like this graphic because it shows the variety of profiles of the strike weapons the North Koreans potentially have available. A coordinated attack definitely presents a problem for the defender. From the bottom up: drone envelope, cruise missile, hypersonic missile, ballistic missile with variable terminal guidance, and uppermost, the conventional ballistic missile. Added to the mix are 170mm mlrs, 240mm mlrs, and artillery at short range.

On North Korea's "dumb weapons systems," this is an article by a recognized expert on the latest North Korean "rocket artillery" system tested four years ago.

North Korea Unveils New “Multiple Launch Guided Rocket System”
BY: VANN H. VAN DIEPEN
AUGUST 6, 2019

https://www.38north.org/2019/08/vvandiepen080619/

Thanks for the OT Onthecusp! Wife's alarm woke me at 7:00am. The Church ladies are off to the Lotte market to get food for a feast on Sunday for the visiting ministers from the denomination. Ms. So's renowned traditional and professional mass cooking skills makes it a command performance. There will be fifty guests.

@JtC of The Cowboy Way (tm)
They sell good ropes at the local feed store. You can find a good horse easily.
Now, you do have appropriate boots, don't you?

and bike thieves:

@enhydra lutris irrigation system break down. Hope you are able to get it repaired quickly.
"Some" is tossed around a lot, isn't it?
The only cool chemtrails I even saw were in Brazil. On a religious holiday, the military aircraft made a chemtrail cross. Some irony. Bombers celebrating the Prince of Peace.
Have a great weekend, friend!

Out temps vary in a range that never deeps very close to the dew point for at least the next 10 days per Wunderground. Part of the irrigation system broke this am, so that is a new top priority, or second highest, as the case may be. Belties are cool, there are a few herds here in NorCal. Some is arguably the biggest 4 letter word, and the most omitted, in this case, as in "some chemtrails may be chemtrails". You will know them by the fact that they are well above normal cloud formation levels and do not dissipate.

Ah well, off to fix the irrigation system.

be well and have a good one

@lotlizard Good to see you, hope you are well.

… starting tomorrow!