Reading Putin: July 2021 Foreshadows February 2022

 

On July 12, 2021, the Kremlin published an article with Putin as the official author. This was a Moscow-centric telling of the history of Russia and Ukraine. It denied, by omission, the Holodomor and the ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tartars, because Stalin had been rehabilitated as a great patriotic leader by Putin. On February 21, 2022, when Putin went before the Russian and international public with his effective declaration of war against Ukraine, readers of the official English translation found a message consistent with last summer’s supposed historical account. We were all warned, before the execrable Biden regime execution of the Afghan exit.

Putin issued his justification paper last summer in the context of internal moves to whitewash Moscow’s Soviet era depredations and the Democrats, emplaced and empowered by the social media billionaires, unilaterally crushing American oil and gas dominance. The Democrats, empowered by evil Alphabet (Google/YouTube) and Zuckerberg’s stealing of the 2020 election, made the world much more dependent on Russia and other bad actors, pouring petrodollars into a struggling economy, enabling the financing of military adventurism. Now they say we must pay for the effects of their lab-coat leftist regime by massive increases in the cost of fuel and every item delivered by truck.

President Trump had Putin tightly contained, unlike Bush the Younger (who lost the country of Georgia’s independence), Obama (who green-lighted the initial covert invasion of Ukraine), and now the Biden regime. President Trump contained Putin by making NATO members take ownership of their treaty obligations, by praising Polish independence in Poland while recalling the wrongs done by both Germany and Russia, by being much more decisive militarily, by effective financial threats to stop Nord Stream 2, and by driving down energy costs and flooding the world market with American oil and gas capacity. The current regime undid all of this in the first months of 2021, signaling Putin that he could go back to reestablishing the pre-1991 borders of Greater Russia.

In case you start nodding about Moscow’s claims to have some right to “protect” or speak for all ethnic Russians, understand that was exactly the claim advanced by Hitler, pretending that Austria, parts of Poland, and Czechoslovakia were in need of his solicitude. Indeed, as Kiev was an early Rus cultural and political center, so Austria was an ancient center of Germanic culture and politics.

As a side note, Tsar Putin must have in the back of his mind the unfortunate parallels Emperor Xi might invoke, citing Putin’s own telling of history and subsequent actions to justify a similar telling of the history of what is now the eastern end of the Russian Federation. Xi has at least as good a claim to take back “Vladivostok” as “Hai Shen Wai.” Just as Putin blames Lenin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev, so Xi can blame Hu Jintao for his 2005 agreement on the territory ceded in the 19th Century treaties now styled “unequal” by the Chinese. Oh, and the collapse of Russian birthrates and the surplus of Chinese men has led to economic migration back into the territory once within Chinese borders.

Here are the direct links to the 2021 article and Putin’s recent justification for invading Ukraine:

  1. Article by Vladimir Putin “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians
  2. Address by the President of the Russian Federation

I earlier extensively quoted important earlier statements by Putin, whitewashing Stalin’s crimes against humanity and his role in starting World War II as an aggressor. Those two posts, also linked to the official Kremlin transcripts, are worth your attention, if you had not previously read them. Putin’s February 2021 speech is consistent with these earlier positions, as he has been building a case for Greater Russia, a revived Russian empire, while insisting Russia has always been in the right and must not be criticized.

  1. The Time When Life Changed: 25 December 1991
  2. Fragments on Ukraine
Published in Foreign Policy
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  1. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    @she in her excellent post, Quote of the Day: ‘Rosyjskie Diabły’, recommended Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia. I have just begun listening to it, but one point he makes is that headlines from the 19th century with respect to Russia and its neighbors are very similar to what we hear today. The Russian Bear is always on the prowl and requires a strong cage. Weak opponents invite Russian adventurism. Biden is the weakest of opponents who hollows out his own country and then acts tough. Vlad isn’t buying any of it.

    • #1
  2. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Rodin (View Comment):

    @ she in her excellent post, Quote of the Day: ‘Rosyjskie Diabły’, recommended Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia. I have just begun listening to it, but one point he makes is that headlines from the 19th century with respect to Russia and its neighbors are very similar to what we hear today. The Russian Bear is always on the prowl and requires a strong cage. Weak opponents invite Russian adventurism. Biden is the weakest of opponents who hollows out his own country and then acts tough. Vlad isn’t buying any of it.

    I read Hopkirk’s book The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Europe earlier this year, after it sat on my shelf for years. Past as prologue. The Russians and British each probed, each concerned about the other. The British men who went out, sometimes without government cover, to gather useful information about terrain and people, were an amazing lot.

    • #2
  3. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot) Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot)
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Can you think of anything that we did to provoke Putin’s July 12, 2021 speech?

    I’ll give you a hint.  We did it on June 14, 2021.  In this instance, “we” means the US and our NATO allies.

    • #3
  4. Doug Watt Member
    Doug Watt
    @DougWatt

    Putin is claiming the Baltic States. as well as parts of Poland in his desire for Reconquista, in restoring the Novorossiya (New Russia). I doubt that Putin will be satisfied with a slice of Ukraine.

    The Ukrainians do not have many military options, and I’m not advocating sending US troops into Ukraine.

    Military options for Ukraine would be destroying rail lines, and highways that lead into western Ukraine. Prepare for small unit actions with Stinger missiles, and Javelin anti-tank missiles. Mining areas just off roads and highways. Flying their air force into NATO countries to avoid their destruction, or capture.

    US sanctions are one thing, but Putin should be informed privately that any cyber-attacks on the US, or NATO allies that originate in Russia, or Belarus will mean that the lights will go off in Russian cities. Any Russian military aircraft that attempts to enter any NATO nations airspace, or US airspace will be destroyed. Any Russian ships whether disguised as civilian fishing trawlers, or warships that are waiting for US submarines to head out to sea off the American coast will be sunk without warning.

     

     

    • #4
  5. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot) Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot)
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Clifford A. Brown: In case you start nodding about Moscow’s claims to have some right to “protect” or speak for all ethnic Russians, understand that was exactly the claim advanced by Hitler, pretending that Austria, parts of Poland, and Czechoslovakia were in need of his solicitude.

    Yeah, Hitler was actually right about that part.  He wasn’t pretending.  Ethnic Germans were being mistreated in Poland and Czechoslovakia.  These regions had long been part of the three major empires — Prussian then German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian — and new, unstable states were created in the aftermath of WWI.

    Just like new, unstable states were created in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Now maybe you won’t believe me about the Czechs and Poles.  Here’s a 5-minute discussion of the issue, with respect to the Czechs and Germans in Bohemia, from Thomas Sowell:

    I think that these situations are much more complicated than you seem to think.

     

    • #5
  6. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot) Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot)
    @ArizonaPatriot

    One more point.  About that “ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tartars.”

    I really think that you should think these things through.  If you start objecting to conquest and deportation of people, you create a little problem.  Because that’s exactly how we got our country, and exactly what we did to a lot of the Indians.

    I think it’s very unwise to adopt a modern, self-righteous moral stance that will necessarily undermine your claim to ownership of your own country, and mine.

    And, by the way, require you to condemn the President whose face is on the $20 bills in your wallet.

    • #6
  7. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Doug Watt (View Comment):

    Putin is claiming the Baltic States. as well as parts of Poland in his desire for Reconquista, in restoring the Novorossiya (New Russia). I doubt that Putin will be satisfied with a slice of Ukraine.

    The Ukrainians do not have many military options, and I’m not advocating sending US troops into Ukraine.

    Military options for Ukraine would be destroying rail lines, and highways that lead into western Ukraine. Prepare for small unit actions with Stinger missiles, and Javelin anti-tank missiles. Mining areas just off roads and highways. Flying their air force into NATO countries to avoid their destruction, or capture.

    US sanctions are one thing, but Putin should be informed privately that any cyber-attacks on the US, or NATO allies that originate in Russia, or Belarus will mean that the lights will go off in Russian cities. Any Russian military aircraft that attempts to enter any NATO nations airspace, or US airspace will be destroyed. Any Russian ships whether disguised as civilian fishing trawlers, or warships that are waiting for US submarines to head out to sea off the American coast will be sunk without warning.

     

     

    The Ukrainian ultimate defense measure is destruction, real long term destruction, of the gas pipeline system. Pull down the temple around you if those who promised to protect your territorial integrity stand by.

    • #7
  8. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    One more point. About that “ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tartars.”

    I really think that you should think these things through. If you start objecting to conquest and deportation of people, you create a little problem. Because that’s exactly how we got our country, and exactly what we did to a lot of the Indians.

    I think it’s very unwise to adopt a modern, self-righteous moral stance that will necessarily undermine your claim to ownership of your own country, and mine.

    And, by the way, require you to condemn the President whose face is on the $20 bills in your wallet.

    Sad. Really sad. “Modern?” We are talking about the 1930s, not ancient history, and the lie that Putin is merely acting on behalf of Russian people who were always on the land. But you certainly do a good job of representing the line Moscow has been running in this country since the 1930s.

    • #8
  9. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    The theoretical underlining for Putin’s worldview came from an academic – Alexander Dugin.

    Dugin was asked in 2008, “How does Russia view the development of friendly relations between the United States and former Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia?”

    He replied: “As a declaration of war.”

    • #9
  10. Ekosj Member
    Ekosj
    @Ekosj

    If reports are accurate, a full scale invasion of Ukraine appears to be underway.

    NATO had better very quickly start thinking about Poland and Lithuania.   The Russian oblast of Kaliningrad sits on the coast and is surrounded on its land-side by Poland and Lithuania.    Putin’s historical manifesto in July about Ukraine points to The historic enmity between Russia and the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.    Putin also blames Poland for starting WW2.  So I’d expect to start hearing Putin bemoaning the fate of the cutoff Russians of Kaliningrad and the need to unite them with their brethren.

    • #10
  11. She Member
    She
    @She

    Rodin (View Comment):

    @ she in her excellent post, Quote of the Day: ‘Rosyjskie Diabły’, recommended Peter Hopkirk’s The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia. I have just begun listening to it, but one point he makes is that headlines from the 19th century with respect to Russia and its neighbors are very similar to what we hear today. The Russian Bear is always on the prowl and requires a strong cage. Weak opponents invite Russian adventurism. Biden is the weakest of opponents who hollows out his own country and then acts tough. Vlad isn’t buying any of it.

    Thanks for the shout-out, and yes, I think that’s right on point.   It’s a terrific book.

    • #11
  12. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Rodin (View Comment):

    The Russian Bear is always on the prowl and requires a strong cage. Weak opponents invite Russian adventurism. Biden is the weakest of opponents who hollows out his own country and then acts tough. Vlad isn’t buying any of it.

    Or, as Instapundit points out (citing, I think, Walter Olson) not exactly a real opponent at all:

    Because fuel exports are the basis of the Russian economy, Putin’s war-making capability depends critically on energy prices being high, as they are now. The most effective step countries like the U.S. can take in response does not require sanctions, let alone military action. It’s simply to remove artificial constraints on energy production, especially on relatively clean natural gas. That means removing roadblocks to fracking, pipelines and LNG export facilities that could supply Europe.

    It also means reversing our decades-long suppression of nuclear power.

    Cross reference that with Richard Epstein’s Main Feed piece: Halt the EPA’s Takeover of Energy Markets to see a discussion of the war on coal and oil as waged by the administrative state in its effort to establish a “utopia” like that of David Weber and John Ringo’s fictional Caravazan Empire.

    Following the ascent of Pierpaelo Cavaza – a devotee of the Church of Ryback (an organization dedicated to removing “humanocentric” damage from the universe) – to the throne shortly after the Dagger Years, the empire embraced the tenets of the church into law. The move had triggered a short civil war that Cavaza had won proving that he was just as ruthless as his ancestors. Now the empire is led by his followers, religious eco-freaks who seek to impose their belief on how nature should be handled. As part of this belief system, the Saints “reclaim” certain worlds by forcing humans to remove all human influence and pollution (including their own waste – which is why they basically starve the people sent to reclaim these worlds to death).

     

     

    • #12
  13. Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot) Member
    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patriot)
    @ArizonaPatriot

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    One more point. About that “ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tartars.”

    I really think that you should think these things through. If you start objecting to conquest and deportation of people, you create a little problem. Because that’s exactly how we got our country, and exactly what we did to a lot of the Indians.

    I think it’s very unwise to adopt a modern, self-righteous moral stance that will necessarily undermine your claim to ownership of your own country, and mine.

    And, by the way, require you to condemn the President whose face is on the $20 bills in your wallet.

    Sad. Really sad. “Modern?” We are talking about the 1930s, not ancient history, and the lie that Putin is merely acting on behalf of Russian people who were always on the land. But you certainly do a good job of representing the line Moscow has been running in this country since the 1930s.

    I don’t think that this response addresses my point, at all.

    Your argument invalidates the legitimacy of our claim to much of our country.  That is a problem, don’t you think?  We see the Left using precisely this argument quite regularly, though it seems to be worse in places like Canada and Australia.  It’s the whole “stolen land” thing.

    It looks like Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783.  That’s before the American conquest of much of our country. 

    Following your link, it reports on deportations of Crimean Tatars in 1944, after the Soviets cleared Crimea of the German invaders.  The Soviet allegation was that the Tatars collaborated with the Germans.  I don’t know whether or not this is true, but it seems plausible.  The number of people deported was about 180,000, apparently.

    Remember that this occurred at about the same time as our own Japanese-American internment, which involved about 120,000 people, I think.  Was that an “ethnic cleansing”?  If so, then your argument undermines the legitimacy of the US government, doesn’t it?  Because you seem to be arguing that something done by the Soviets about 75 years ago reflects on the present Russian government.

    I think that Western countries have been in this quandary since the 1930s, when the British led the opposition to the Italian conquest of Ethiopia (called Abyssinia at the time).  It was an act of remarkably brazen hypocrisy, as Britain had conquered large swaths of Africa in the preceding 50 years or so.  Likewise, around the time of WWII, folks decided that conquest of land was illegitimate as a general proposition, apparently for purposes of propagandizing against the Germans and Japanese.  Again, this ignored the effect of the application of this rule to the countries that adopted it, including us.  Hypocrisy comes back to bite you in the long run, I think.

    I adopt a more realist approach.  “Render unto Caesar” and all that.

    • #13
  14. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    The most effective step countries like the U.S. can take in response does not require sanctions, let alone military action. It’s simply to remove artificial constraints on energy production, especially on relatively clean natural gas. That means removing roadblocks to fracking, pipelines and LNG export facilities that could supply Europe.

    It also means reversing our decades-long suppression of nuclear power.

    Yes, this is why the leadership of Biden is so pernicious — he can’t or won’t take the most reasonable action. Nuclear power is making a comeback with Gen 4 reactors.

    • #14
  15. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Rodin (View Comment):

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):

    The most effective step countries like the U.S. can take in response does not require sanctions, let alone military action. It’s simply to remove artificial constraints on energy production, especially on relatively clean natural gas. That means removing roadblocks to fracking, pipelines and LNG export facilities that could supply Europe.

    It also means reversing our decades-long suppression of nuclear power.

    Yes, this is why the leadership of Biden is so pernicious — he can’t or won’t take the most reasonable action. Nuclear power is making a comeback with Gen 4 reactors.

    Under optimum circumstances, there will be a long lead time before it makes a major difference. Long and dangerous.

    • #15
  16. Mad Gerald Coolidge
    Mad Gerald
    @Jose

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown: In case you start nodding about Moscow’s claims to have some right to “protect” or speak for all ethnic Russians, understand that was exactly the claim advanced by Hitler, pretending that Austria, parts of Poland, and Czechoslovakia were in need of his solicitude.

    Yeah, Hitler was actually right about that part. He wasn’t pretending. Ethnic Germans were being mistreated in Poland and Czechoslovakia. These regions had long been part of the three major empires — Prussian then German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian — and new, unstable states were created in the aftermath of WWI.

    Just like new, unstable states were created in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Now maybe you won’t believe me about the Czechs and Poles. Here’s a 5-minute discussion of the issue, with respect to the Czechs and Germans in Bohemia, from Thomas Sowell:

    I think that these situations are much more complicated than you seem to think.

    Good video.  Behold the destructive power of Identity Politics.

    • #16
  17. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Evan Thomas wrote a whole book on Eisenhower’s refusal to specify how, when and whether the US would use nuclear weapons (Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World ) in which the main point was that Ike knew how to use uncertainty to advantage.  

    In contrast, Biden blusters, then retracts or corrects.  He gets embroiled in battles between his current remarks and those from a day or a month before.  His track record is retreat, weakness, appeasement, and absolutely no bargaining skill. 

    After Putin bites off as much of Ukraine as he can chew, I expect China to make a move on Taiwan.  Should we also expect open demonstrations of Iranian-North Korean missile prowess?  Why not?  Will Blinken just send John Kerry to officially whine and beg for new concessions to be accepted?

    And to top it off, oil prices will likely soar, undercutting every incumbent democratic western government.

    • #17
  18. cdor Member
    cdor
    @cdor

    I have two questions swirling around in my head. Russia is, territorially, huge. Why would they risk an invasion of Ukraine to gain a tiny bit more land and a few more people under their control? It is apparent that Putin doesn’t consider this invasion a risk. He has looked at the players, Biden, Merkel, and Macron, and sees a serious lack of fortitude. It is very dangerous for leaders to project weakness in dealing with foreign countries. Secondly, I am stunned by how easily Biden took a strong economy and first in the world energy production that Trump had developed over four years and literally destroyed both within a single year. It’s really difficult to conceive of such incompetence and malfeasance.

    • #18
  19. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    cdor (View Comment):
    I am stunned by how easily Biden took a strong economy and first in the world energy production that Trump had developed over four years and literally destroyed both with a single year.

    Impeachable offense. If this wasn’t anti-American, I don’t know what is.

    • #19
  20. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):
    Under optimum circumstances, there will be a long lead time before [re-starting US energy strength] makes a major difference. Long and dangerous.

    Very true. But each day we wait and fail to announce this is where we are going, the longer and the more dangerous.

     

    • #20
  21. Mad Gerald Coolidge
    Mad Gerald
    @Jose

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Evan Thomas wrote a whole book on Eisenhower’s refusal to specify how, when and whether the US would use nuclear weapons (Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World ) in which the main point was that Ike knew how to use uncertainty to advantage.

    In contrast, Biden blusters, then retracts or corrects. He gets embroiled in battles between his current remarks and those from a day or a month before. His track record is retreat, weakness, appeasement, and absolutely no bargaining skill.

    “Red line” Obama trained him well.

     

    • #21
  22. She Member
    She
    @She

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    One more point. About that “ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tartars.”

    I really think that you should think these things through. If you start objecting to conquest and deportation of people, you create a little problem. Because that’s exactly how we got our country, and exactly what we did to a lot of the Indians.

    I think it’s very unwise to adopt a modern, self-righteous moral stance that will necessarily undermine your claim to ownership of your own country, and mine.

    And, by the way, require you to condemn the President whose face is on the $20 bills in your wallet.

    I think it’s perfectly reasonable to look back on the course of history and acknowledge both its sins and its accomplishments (and that–sometimes–the two of those things are intertwined, are one and the same, and are over and done with) without succumbing to a “modern self-righteous moral stance,” with what seems to be an implied unsavory connotation.

    Just as I think it’s OK to suggest that today, in the third decade of the twenty-first century, one bloodthirsty tyrant, or even a devout religious crusader (pick any religion for this thought exercise) probably shouldn’t be invading and overcoming another sovereign nation, or claiming that another sovereign nation belongs to him. Justifying and excusing such actions, and the resultant, often brutal and unconscionable fallout, on the grounds that “mommy and daddy have always done it this way,” is the very definition of lacking nuance.

    “We must remember history so that we can rationalize our repetition of its mistakes and some of its darkest moments” seems like an odd guidepost (and a perversion of Santayana) by which to live one’s life.  Although it does, in large part, seem to be the lifeblood of the Democrat party, whose selective recollection of events they’d like to keep on the boil continues to divide this country, as with “racism then, racism now, racism forever.”

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):
    I think that these situations are much more complicated than you seem to think.

    Right back at ‘cha. Please stop accusing those who disagree with you of being too lazy or dumb to follow what’s going on.  We appreciate your history lessons, flawed though some may find them, but we could do without the condescension.

    EDITED: To correct a math mistake.  Ah, me.

    • #22
  23. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    cdor (View Comment):
    Why would they risk an invasion of Ukraine to gain a tiny bit more land and a few more people under their control? It is apparent that Putin doesn’t consider this invasion a risk. He has looked at the players, Biden, Merkel, and Macron, and sees a serious lack of fortitude. It is very dangerous for leaders to project weakness in dealing with foreign countries.

    Putin believes that Russia is entitled to rule everywhere it once ruled and that it is an affront to be denied that expansion.  Osama Bin Laden believed it was a sacrilege that Spain is not still under Muslim rule. The Chinese really believe they are the Middle Kingdom and should dominate Asia.  Alabama alumni believe they are entitled to football dominance.  We discount motives that seem irrational or disproportionate at our peril. 

     

    • #23
  24. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Mad Gerald (View Comment):

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    Evan Thomas wrote a whole book on Eisenhower’s refusal to specify how, when and whether the US would use nuclear weapons (Ike’s Bluff: President Eisenhower’s Secret Battle to Save the World ) in which the main point was that Ike knew how to use uncertainty to advantage.

    In contrast, Biden blusters, then retracts or corrects. He gets embroiled in battles between his current remarks and those from a day or a month before. His track record is retreat, weakness, appeasement, and absolutely no bargaining skill.

    “Red line” Obama trained him well.

     

    But Obama capitulated and failed with style and grace. In terms of foreign policy outcomes, he and Joey Boombatz are twins but Obama was vastly better at faking character and competence.

    • #24
  25. Nanocelt TheContrarian Member
    Nanocelt TheContrarian
    @NanoceltTheContrarian

    Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

    One more point. About that “ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tartars.”

    I really think that you should think these things through. If you start objecting to conquest and deportation of people, you create a little problem. Because that’s exactly how we got our country, and exactly what we did to a lot of the Indians.

    I think it’s very unwise to adopt a modern, self-righteous moral stance that will necessarily undermine your claim to ownership of your own country, and mine.

    And, by the way, require you to condemn the President whose face is on the $20 bills in your wallet.

    So have you given your home back to the Tohono O’odham Nation?

    • #25
  26. Victor Tango Kilo Member
    Victor Tango Kilo
    @VtheK

    Democrats could only see Putin in terms of domestic politics. They made him into a cartoon villain – a Skeletor, a Snidely Whiplash – that their coalition of dimwits and box-wine sotted suburban divorced women could easily hate. 

    Trump saw Putin with more complexity. He saw Putin as a man of intelligence, who could be analyzed in terms of his ambitions, motivations, and Putin’s own domestic political prerogatives.

    Of course, Never Trump and the Democrat portrayed this as “See, BadOrangeMan love BadRussianMan.”

    But the reality of the matter is, treating adversaries as cartoon characters is an idiotic approach to global politics. And that’s why Putin waited until a gang of idiots was running the White House before they made their move.

    • #26
  27. No Caesar Thatcher
    No Caesar
    @NoCaesar

    The world reminds me of 1913 right now, The Proud Tower.  The old order had no idea it was on the precipice and it sleepwalked into its destruction.  It seems to me that we are seeing that replay as farce, but with equally deadly results.  It will not be WW1 in trenches, but it will usher in the war styles of the next epoch.  Our wars against radical Jihadists will look more like the Boer War, ie. basically of the past, with hints of the future styles of warfare.

    The ruling classes and institutions of the West are religious fanatics and simpering fools who have chosen not to bend.    So they will be broken.  They have blindly insisted their angry earth goddess demands sacrifices of all manner, and are going to follow through with that.  It is more likely than not that the next 5 years will be very chaotic and destructive.  What will come on the other side of this period is not knowable, but there is a real risk it will be fascistic in nature, cementing in the brutish instincts inherited from our largely pagan ruling class.  They have forgotten the foundations on which the successful institutions of the West stood.  We will all reap the whirlwind.

    Having said all that, I think there is also a distinct possibility for a bright future.  However, we must march through the maelstrom to get there first.

    • #27
  28. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Rodin (View Comment):

    Ontheleftcoast (View Comment):
    Under optimum circumstances, there will be a long lead time before [re-starting US energy strength] makes a major difference. Long and dangerous.

    Very true. But each day we wait and fail to announce this is where we are going, the longer and the more dangerous.

    Dangerous for you and me; many of the ones putting off going nuclear think that’s a feature, not a bug.

    • #28
  29. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    No Caesar (View Comment):

    The world reminds me of 1913 right now, The Proud Tower. The old order had no idea it was on the precipice and it sleepwalked into its destruction. It seems to me that we are seeing that replay as farce, but with equally deadly results. It will not be WW1 in trenches, but it will usher in the war styles of the next epoch. Our wars against radical Jihadists will look more like the Boer War, ie. basically of the past, with hints of the future styles of warfare.

    The ruling classes and institutions of the West are religious fanatics and simpering fools who have chosen not to bend. So they will be broken. They have blindly insisted their angry earth goddess demands sacrifices of all manner, and are going to follow through with that. It is more likely than not that the next 5 years will be very chaotic and destructive. What will come on the other side of this period is not knowable, but there is a real risk it will be fascistic in nature, cementing in the brutish instincts inherited from our largely pagan ruling class. They have forgotten the foundations on which the successful institutions of the West stood. We will all reap the whirlwind.

    Having said all that, I think there is also a distinct possibility for a bright future. However, we must march through the maelstrom to get there first.

    Which, as I sometimes point out, is how we get to Star Trek.  :-)

    • #29
  30. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    kedavis (View Comment):

    No Caesar (View Comment):

    The world reminds me of 1913 right now, The Proud Tower. The old order had no idea it was on the precipice and it sleepwalked into its destruction. It seems to me that we are seeing that replay as farce, but with equally deadly results. It will not be WW1 in trenches, but it will usher in the war styles of the next epoch. Our wars against radical Jihadists will look more like the Boer War, ie. basically of the past, with hints of the future styles of warfare.

    The ruling classes and institutions of the West are religious fanatics and simpering fools who have chosen not to bend. So they will be broken. They have blindly insisted their angry earth goddess demands sacrifices of all manner, and are going to follow through with that. It is more likely than not that the next 5 years will be very chaotic and destructive. What will come on the other side of this period is not knowable, but there is a real risk it will be fascistic in nature, cementing in the brutish instincts inherited from our largely pagan ruling class. They have forgotten the foundations on which the successful institutions of the West stood. We will all reap the whirlwind.

    Having said all that, I think there is also a distinct possibility for a bright future. However, we must march through the maelstrom to get there first.

    Which, as I sometimes point out, is how we get to Star Trek. :-)

    Hopefully, the current crisis does not get us to Star Trek.

    The Federation of Planets is the EU on steroids.  It is an Al Gore wet dream. The Prime Directive in the hands of some 8th generation Ruth Bader Ginsburg would effectively outlaw public religious expression.  The cops under some future Trudeaus would not leave their phasers on stun.  The Tea Party would be shipped to an outer planet in the delta quadrant, a planet stocked with denebian slime devils…  

     

    • #30
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