In the pursuit of evil, it only requires a single catalyst in the right explosive environment to unleash a massive wave of evil.
Germany was ready for Hitler because of the crushing economy that resulted from World War I. If you were a German man without a job, you did not really care about Hitler's plans if you got a job building armaments.
That is not an excuse by any means, but it is critical to understand how so many things are connected and nothing can be viewed in a vacuum.
Russia has an economy that is 25% smaller than Italy. The way to "fix" the Russians is to crush their economy. Reagan broke the USSR in the same manner. The Cold War win was one of the best things that happened to the world. Bravo, Ronald Reagan!
The Russians are at the bottom of the barrel as it relates to manpower, gear, and tech. Now, it is time to crush them.
The sanctions on Russia are working--they had a bloody potato shortage last month--but the west took way too long to get serious on energy. Just since the 5th of Dec the EU is finally in the game.
BTW, Russia has been buying scads of small to mid-size tankers with a useful life of 5-7 years to be able to send their oil to China and India because they have no pipelines like they had such as NordStream I/II. Did Trump nail it or not?
China is China, but India is a huge disappointment. They justify their actions on price. This is why US energy production is so critical. It would drive energy prices down to $20/bbl, neuter Russia, and take the prop out beneath India. Energy.
The military is not a policy making body. When the diplomats fail, the last act of diplomacy is force - war. When you give a man a gun and put aggressive leaders above him, there is no way that an army can conduct aggressive operations and not commit atrocities - My Lai comes to mind.
The best approach is to get the damn thing over with. This is why we should support the Ukrainians to the hilt.
Russia has some zany idea that their conscripts are going to fight effectively. They have no NCO corps, green and untested junior officers, and no tactical or strategic planning at the Division, Corps, or Army level. They cannot fix these things on the fly.
1. It - aiding the Ukrainians in destroying the Russian army - is the most cost effective way for the US and Nato to confront and neuter Russia.
2. The funding is a small fraction of the US military budget. Good God, $400B for student loan forgiveness? Give it to Ukraine in the form of our best weapons. The very best.
3. Russia will not cure itself. It must be defanged and used as an example as to what happens when barbaric, medieval, Dark Ages behavior is unleashed on peaceful nations. It is bloody 2023, not 1023.
An extremely valuable document about what happened in Germany is the memoir written by Sebastian Haffner, who grew up in that country between the wars. I reviewed it here:
The metastatic form of mimicry is populism. You rightly point out the left's. But the right has it in spades too. How else could Evangelicals give up Jesus to support a lying, philandering, Clinton donating, loser candidate who has/had no concept of any religious convictions whatsoever?
Predictably, Sam Bankman Fried wanted relief from his bail, and because he is a "vegan" with ADD shouldn't be in jail. Ha!
Senator McCarthy's tactics may have been crude, but the fact that there were communists all through the federal government is now beyond doubt.
In the pursuit of evil, it only requires a single catalyst in the right explosive environment to unleash a massive wave of evil.
Germany was ready for Hitler because of the crushing economy that resulted from World War I. If you were a German man without a job, you did not really care about Hitler's plans if you got a job building armaments.
That is not an excuse by any means, but it is critical to understand how so many things are connected and nothing can be viewed in a vacuum.
Russia has an economy that is 25% smaller than Italy. The way to "fix" the Russians is to crush their economy. Reagan broke the USSR in the same manner. The Cold War win was one of the best things that happened to the world. Bravo, Ronald Reagan!
The Russians are at the bottom of the barrel as it relates to manpower, gear, and tech. Now, it is time to crush them.
The sanctions on Russia are working--they had a bloody potato shortage last month--but the west took way too long to get serious on energy. Just since the 5th of Dec the EU is finally in the game.
BTW, Russia has been buying scads of small to mid-size tankers with a useful life of 5-7 years to be able to send their oil to China and India because they have no pipelines like they had such as NordStream I/II. Did Trump nail it or not?
China is China, but India is a huge disappointment. They justify their actions on price. This is why US energy production is so critical. It would drive energy prices down to $20/bbl, neuter Russia, and take the prop out beneath India. Energy.
The military is not a policy making body. When the diplomats fail, the last act of diplomacy is force - war. When you give a man a gun and put aggressive leaders above him, there is no way that an army can conduct aggressive operations and not commit atrocities - My Lai comes to mind.
The best approach is to get the damn thing over with. This is why we should support the Ukrainians to the hilt.
Russia has some zany idea that their conscripts are going to fight effectively. They have no NCO corps, green and untested junior officers, and no tactical or strategic planning at the Division, Corps, or Army level. They cannot fix these things on the fly.
1. It - aiding the Ukrainians in destroying the Russian army - is the most cost effective way for the US and Nato to confront and neuter Russia.
2. The funding is a small fraction of the US military budget. Good God, $400B for student loan forgiveness? Give it to Ukraine in the form of our best weapons. The very best.
3. Russia will not cure itself. It must be defanged and used as an example as to what happens when barbaric, medieval, Dark Ages behavior is unleashed on peaceful nations. It is bloody 2023, not 1023.
Be well. Merry Christmas.
JLM
www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com
An extremely valuable document about what happened in Germany is the memoir written by Sebastian Haffner, who grew up in that country between the wars. I reviewed it here:
https://ricochet.com/875108/how-a-country-abandoned-law-and-liberty-and-became-a-threat-to-humanity/
Lady Justice puking while drag queens dance for kids......The sickos will not prevail! Thanks for leading by example. #KeepItUp !
A good article from "The Free Press" - "Why Everyone Wants the Same Things" that goes along with your UofC class: https://www.thefp.com/p/why-everyone-wants-the-same-things
The metastatic form of mimicry is populism. You rightly point out the left's. But the right has it in spades too. How else could Evangelicals give up Jesus to support a lying, philandering, Clinton donating, loser candidate who has/had no concept of any religious convictions whatsoever?
Here's one of the most depressing outcomes of populism - the diminution of free trade. Truly a sad outcome that is applauded by left and right populists. "Donald Trump Staggered the Global Trading System. Joe Biden Might Finish It Off." - https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/capitolism/donald-trump-staggered-the-global-trading-system-joe-biden-might-finish-it-off/
A good summary of the depredations of the left but, typically, blind to the insanity of the Trump right.
What the right wing (in the US, I presume) did in the early 1990’s. What an absurdity.
"It’s not dissimilar from some of the things the right wing did in the early 1990s ..."
Such as?