Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page
Categories
QuicksearchLinks
Blog Administration |
Thursday, February 23. 2023Thursday morning linksThere is no evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang.Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose, famed for his work on black holes, claims we've seen evidence from a prior Universe. Only, we haven't. ROALD DAHL CAN NEVER BE MADE NICE. Rewriting his novels is about corporate safetyism, not social justice. Rank Innumeracy On The Cost Of Electricity From Renewables Yale sacred music center launches climate change art initiative Drucker on Education, 1969 Charters succeed at teaching — that’s why their enemies hate them Names, pronouns & the law Unease Over Biden's Proxy Quagmire in Ukraine Is Growing Racism in reporting: when they don't tell you the race... World’s Superpowers Threw Their Cards on the Table This Week and Every One of Them Came Up in Favor of WWIII Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
I was listening to a Russian attempting to describe and contrast Russian, ex-Soviet culture. Westerners see a fairly modern market economy, with Western sensibilities (more-or-less) when they look at the media reporting from modern urban Russia, and they assume it’s a Democratic Republic of sorts because it looks similar to us.
But when a Russian hears ‘Democracy’, they are reminded of the post-Glasnost era in the 80s and 90s, and they recall (in living memory) an era of rampant crime in the streets, violent gangs enforcing their schemes, human trafficking, and also rampant white-collar crime in the boardrooms. People losing their life savings overnight in oligarchic bank failures; People losing their professional pensions overnight as an outcome in corporate raiding. And so on – no protections, and no hope of recourse or recovery, all through no fault of their own. There are no fond memories of ‘Democracy’ in Russia, no longing for its western freedoms. They have experience to guide them; Russians are fatalistic. I worked in the FSU for years, and I can tell you, their capacity for suffering is formidable. And in all of Russia’s long, 1300-year cultural history, it’s been one foreign invasion after another from the East and from the West, and one strongman leader after another that has brought the country from existential doom to victory through perseverance and acceptance of suffering. Putin is that manifestation – he has brought order, but maybe not exactly law & order. Simple order is acceptable though, because it makes life fairly predictable. The Russian prefers Putin. Tangling with Russia by lavishly sending fortunes and armaments through a proxy as corrupt as the Ukraine is probably not a good idea. You are probably correct in everything you said BUT what next after Russia takes Ukraine? Moldova, Poland, Lithuania? What then? None of your arguments would have changed so do nothing right? Then Germany, Romania, Latvia and Estonia?
The correct answer is to support the Ukrainians, Not give them vast amounts of money or fighter jets, but give them humanitarian aid and ammo and weapons. Ukraine has a right to fight to protect themselves and their homeland and all free people should support that. Not buying it, and neither should anybody that cares about good governance. Happy to re-think when there are audit results to consider. And you forgot to mention the usual broken NATO promises made to Gorbachev. The methodical and subversive actions by the US, especially Nuland and her ilk, have made this conflict happen, not the other way 'round - or rather, their actions over the past decade + have made it impossible to pretend that Russia is solely responsible for acting, supposedly without provocation.
Again there is nothing wrong with what you said except that it would guarantee the taking of Ukraine and the killing of many Ukrainians by Russia. I believe regardless of Ukrainian leaders past dishonesty that the civilians of Ukraine should defend themselves and their country.
BUT what next after Russia takes Ukraine? Moldova, Poland, Lithuania? What then? None of your arguments would have changed so do nothing right? Then Germany, Romania, Latvia and Estonia?
Those of us of a certain age can remember when that very logic was presented to us as a way of justifying defending South Viet Nam from the North. We were told that if we didn't fight, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, and India would all fall to the Communists. It was called the Domino Theory. And then Saigon fell and none of that happened. Even if Russia was able to roll all the way to the Atlantic coast, so what? How is that an existential threat to US? I would argue that an invisible southern border, the printing of money, and woke ideology are a far bigger threat than the Russians. Very true. But those of us who are even older remember Russia invading those very countries I mentioned. The threat is real. Putin want to regain what the USSR was and that means taking Eastern Europe.
Yes there are other real threats to the U.S. but we are ignoring them for political reasons that should terrify thinking Americans and we are NOT ingoring them because of Ukraine. Understood, but I think the real problem is that we fundamentally misunderstand what motivates the Russians. I am defender, just pointing it out. Have a listen to this madman's speech in Red Square for instance, and how that impinges on their sentiments regarding the Ukraine. The Russians call WWII 'The Great Patriotic War' and as near as I can tell, they think of it like we used to think about our own Revolutionary War (and how some of us older farts still do).
https://youtu.be/E60A8fiB5DM And also I found this to be an interesting read: https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/in-the-spirit-of-russian-total-war Personally, I believe the Ukrainians have every right to defend their homeland, just like anyone else. But that doesn't make us their underwriter, and it also doesn't explain the complexities of Ukrainian regional thinking and allegiances.
#1.2.2.1.1
Aggie
on
2023-02-23 11:59
(Reply)
I am not in favor of being their underwriter. I am in favor of giving them humanitarian aid and small arms and artillery.
Russia can easily drum up a patriotic fervor over anything including taking back Eastern Europe. I think we should resist that. But mother Russia will not like hundreds of thousands of their boys dying or being injured in Ukraine and after awhile if we don't provoke them thus giving them an excuse to drum up a patriotic fervor then the Russians themselves will demand an end to the war in Ukraine. I think we both agree that the U.S. and other countries have gone too far in giving Ukraine advance arms.
#1.2.2.1.1.1
Anon
on
2023-02-23 13:11
(Reply)
The USSR didn't 'invade' Eastern Europe; Roosevelt gave it to them.
#1.2.2.1.2
DeGaulle
on
2023-02-23 12:03
(Reply)
DeGaulle: The USSR didn't 'invade' Eastern Europe
The Soviets had 11 million troops and 20,000 tanks, mostly in Eastern Europe.
#1.2.2.1.2.1
Zachriel
on
2023-02-23 15:41
(Reply)
The Domino Theory was accurate. Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and Viet Nam did fall to communism, funded by the Soviet Union.
>BUT what next after Russia takes Ukraine?
Given their experience of the last year, almost assuredly 'nothing,' particularly not wrt an actual NATO member. Some other power, otoh, may be convinced that the West currently lacks sufficient armaments/money/will/morale/intelligent leadership. "BUT what next after Russia takes Ukraine?
Given their experience of the last year, almost assuredly 'nothing,' " EXACTLY!!! Because Ukraine is fiercely resisting. But they could not have done that without help. That is why helping is a good thing. Russia "CAN" win in Ukraine but at what cost. We may even see that in the next 6 months or so but the cost will be so high that they will be unwilling to repeat it soon. THAT is the whole point of helping Ukraine defend itself. It's not Innumeracy, it's dishonesty. The AGW scam is the biggest grift in history and a lot of people are making a lot of money. It really is as simple as that.
Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time and that's good enough" and that's as good an explanation for the Greenies messiahnism as you need.
QUOTE: no ...no evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang.... If the linked article is accurate, today's cosmology resembles the medieval version more than a little. The process of collapsing the universe and then creating a new one by a big bang expansion is totally destructive so why would we expect to find evidence. This could have happened multiple times and there wouldn't have been any evidence. Who knows how many times a universe was created, life formed, civilizations thrived and star ships explored only to have the universe collapse again.
A few years ago I came upon a CD video by the name of "The journey to the center of the Universe". It definitely changed my view of Cosmology and also ousted more than a few scientists who were more antireligion than pro-science. It provides considerable food for thought.
The initial data from the James Webb telescope is apparently not what was expected. Having the capacity to see backwards to the state of the universe as it's supposedly meant to have been 13 plus billion years ago, the telescope failed to reveal the expected 'baby' galaxies, but found lots of mature ones. Back to the drawing board?
Arkansas cops rule suicide in death of Clinton aide linked to Jeffrey Epstein - who was found shot and tied to a tree with an electrical cord around his neck - despite no sign of weapon
The death occurred last May. QUOTE: The grisly scene where a top Bill Clinton adviser was found hanged from a tree with a gunshot wound to his chest has finally been revealed nine months after he died. Middleton was Bill Clinton's special advisor who admitted Jeffrey Epstein to the White House on seven of the at least 17 times the late pedophile visited. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11759771/Mystery-Bill-Clinton-advisor-dead-gunshot-wound-no-gun.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus The Ukraine War’s Prelude to What?
VDH compares the Ukraine war to the Spanish Civil War and posits that the longer this war goes on, the better the chances are for WWIII. [https://amgreatness.com/2023/02/22/the-ukraine-wars-prelude-to-what/ I did not bookmark the article but in the last month I saw a good reassessment of the Spanish war. They were sure that Franco drug the war out in order to thoroughly and completely neuter the communist forces aligned against him. That tactic seems to have worked as he was never really challenged again during his entire tenure as leader.
I suspect this is the same tactic now being used in the Ukraine. The Russians will methodically eliminate any and all resistance until a neutral Ukrainian power comes to the front in an effort to end the slaughter and reach an agreement with the Russians. I also suspect this is the end of NATO. It was a defensive organization until it was weaponized to become an offensive force in all of Europe. Its main goal now is to be used as shit stirring organization to bully other European countries. Hungary is an example. They aren't LGBTWXYZ enough. The war mongers dug in at Serbia and moved on throughout Europe and have been run by various factions of the Hillary, Kerry, Nuland fuk the EU gang. They fear the EU will move to a lot of trade with Russia and less and less trade with the US. The US empire is dying but as it dies it is getting alot of people killed. An interesting comment on Wikipedia about Drucker - "Also, while Drucker was known for his prescience, he was not always correct in his forecasts. He predicted, for instance, that the United States' financial center would shift from New York to Washington."
Ummm...he was wrong about that? |