Short Takes – 12-15-22

Democrats block GOP proposal to freeze federal funding until 2023. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “The Republicans have pushed for Congress to pass a stop-gap spending measure lasting until 2023 instead of a year-end omnibus bill that would increase defense and non-defense discretionary spending levels.”

Seven scenarios for McCarthy’s Speakership vote — ranked least to most likely. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “And it’s sparked a number of predictions — some of them more far-fetched than others — about how the day might evolve and who might emerge as the next Speaker if McCarthy falls short.”

Attrition: Ukraine Goes Deep With Cold War Surprises. StrategyPage.com article. Refurbishing Soviet drones. Pull quote: “This means the vital Kerch Strait bridge is in danger of suffering more damage. The railroad portion of the bridge is still being repaired and there is only very limited traffic on the surviving road bridge. Another few missile hits on the bridge and its rail and both road portions will be out of action for the rest of the war. That means supplying Crimea becomes very difficult and Russia will have a more difficult time stopping the continuing Ukrainian offensive in the 18 percent of Ukraine they still occupy.”

How Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s Switch Complicates Democrats’ 2024 Election Plans. WSJ.com article. Pull quote: “Every Republican senator running in this cycle represents a state that Mr. Trump won by at least 3 percentage points, limiting Democrats’ ability to flip GOP-held seats. Meanwhile, three of the Senate seats that Democrats are defending are in states Mr. Trump easily won in 2020: West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. Five contests are in states that President Biden won by less than 3 percentage points, including Arizona, where his margin was just over 10,000 votes.”

Your phone is terrible at phone calls. Here’s how to fix it. WashingtonPost.com article. “In the olden days, phone companies used to brag that you could “hear a pin drop” when you used their service. Not so long ago, smartphone reviews used to evaluate voice quality on new devices in addition to how good they were at taking photos. Not anymore.” Missed the point that long distance call quality is now as good as local call quality, distance does not matter.

QAnon, adrift after Trump’s defeat, finds new life in Elon Musk’s Twitter. WashingtonPost.com article. Folks still trying to pigeon-hole Elon. Pull quote: “Musk has never explicitly supported QAnon, and some of his closest allies say they doubt he believes some of the wilder things he says online. One person in Musk’s inner circle, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss Musk’s views, said he uses the claims merely to win the internet’s most prized currency: attention. “He wants to muck it up,” the person said.”

GPS Signals Are Being Disrupted in Russian Cities. Wired.com article. Pull quote: “The recently reported GPS interference in Russian cities may be linked to Ukraine’s attacks against Russian territories, Kannike says, although this remains unconfirmed. “The logical conclusion here is that this is a response to the Ukrainian strikes deep behind Russian lines,” Kannike says.”

GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) INTERFERENCE. CISA.gov article. Pull quote: “An investigation of the interference positively identified an emitter unintentionally transmitting a signal within the GPS L1 frequency. Some receivers within a line of sight of the transmitter experienced GPS signal disruption. The affected area on the ground covered approximately 50 nautical mile radius on the ground and spanned approximately 230 nautical miles in distance from the interfering transmitter at flight levels up to approximately 36,000 feet.