The opposition to Justice Brown is purely racist and sexist.
The central reason anyone has a problem with this fabulous woman is because she is not white, because she is not a man, and because she stands for democracy and for diversity, and not for the Neanderthal society that keeps whites in charge, keeps men in charge, keeps straights in charge, keeps rich people in charge, and keeps Christians in charge (thank you Christy for the last one).
Welcome to the Confederacy, Marsha Blackburn, you are just another person who might as well be a KKK supporter.
Because they are afraid. They are in the process of being outnumbered demographically. And they think that life is a zero sum game. The "others" will take their jobs, their homes, their food and their rights to be bigots, controllers of women's bodies and wow...have differing religious views or even none. They are terrified of diversity - whether it is skin color or thought. Their world view is that of a warring pack of hyenas. They will not be converted to decency. They simply need to be outnumbered and outvoted. Marginalized.
That fear is fueled every day by Rupert Murdoch - an Australian billionaire puppeteer. And fueled by an economic system that rewards outrage and lies - that make millionaires out of liars. Carlson, Rogan and the like make fools of Americans and get rich doing it.
There needs to be a "fact check" channel that will evaluate the statements of all broadcasters, politicians, pontificators and podcasters.
Of course, if we were really serious about condemning such, we wouldn't buy the products pushed on Fox.
Maybe they will see the flaws in the autocrat thing, since even if Putin accomplishes his goal, he and his country will suffer greatly in treasure and lives. Even autocrats like Hungary's Orban and Turkey's Erdogan aren't supporting Putin.
Fear is the primary tactic used by the Republicans. FEAR is how Trump defined Power. Perfect explanation is stated by Michael Douglas in "The American President" when he says his opposition (in the movie) - clearly a Republican - is that the only tactic is to find something to make the voters fearful and then play on that fear - but never suggest a solution. In the current case, what would the GOP suggest as the "cure" of their fear of Judge Brown-Jackson - an all white SCOUS? (which is what they would say if they dared speak their position out loud)
With all of the frustration and distractions, and now the abomination taking place in Ukraine, the most pressing task for all of us is to ignore the lies of the right wing, overcome the voter suppression, and do everything we can to vote and to help those who are in danger of disenfranchisement to do the same. Watching the grim determination of Ukrainians in the face of enormous odds fight the enemy, the least we can do is to quit whining about inflation and the price of gas and decide to make a difference.
A fact check channel, indeed, Bill. I actually pitched Amazon on creating Amazon Orb, an app with an algorithm that collects all pertinent information on a subject and determines the truth. I realize the proposition is a little scary, but there has to be an alternative to politically motivated politicians and talking heads telling us what to think.
That's a great idea, although the GOP would simply refer to it as a "liberal" or "radical leftist" channel and completely ignore it! After all, they have "alternative facts"!
I keep seeing and hearing Jack Nicholson's famous line from A Few Good Men: ":You can't handle the truth!"
Yup.. wheww..and that is sure a tricky-one. We want to be careful of anyone who espouses writing some kind of "Rule-Book" for such. Thank you for the "Orb" thing. The last people we want to kick are those providing the "stuff". The "people" we need to pay attention to are the ones 'in charge of what can be said on their site(s). Remember, I said "keep an eye on" ..and that of course leads to the "fact Checker" and who is paying to keep that site on the air. Did I mention 'Advertisers'? How about some wealthy (politically driven) sponsor. Aarrrgh..gag me! I'm with you though, Randy.
Right! Although I've practiced Buddhism for many years, practicing equanimity in the face of racism, misogyny, viciousness and bad behavior in general, finds me giving into anger and polarization, too. It's hard to keep an open, understanding mind, much harder than say, posting a pic of Putin with a Hitler mustache on Twitter which I did yesterday! (God, it felt good!)
Unfortunately (well maybe) we are not dealing with Bots. Pulling a trigger is so easy, watching the consequence(s)..not so much.So hard to vacate the human mind of hatred.. Re: the South. Re: belief(s) in some kind of 'god' Re: one nation under god(?) Re: with freedom and justice for all. Hahahaaa..and I would be remiss if I failed to include Re: "we are a Christian Nation". Yeah...all others stay home! Huh? yeh HOME is where you just came from... now GO. Yea Ally House..., we have amongst us an angry mob, miss-guided lambs who have lost their way. And 'church' is now a small part of the answer. The 'church of trump' comes into view. Sickening.
While I agree with you 100%, I fear that many of these folks do not want to know the truth or the facts. The lies suit them and make them "feel good" (although it is not making them feel good.) A friend send me a scathing email a year ago, fuming that the price of gas was going to rise to $10 in the summer and furious at Biden over this. Huh?! Did they have a crystal ball? My take is that they're angry, they want to be angry, and they do not care about truth or facts because it's all about their feelings and emotions, "values" and principles." The times that I have confronted people I know with the falsities in their messages to me, they say nothing, and just keep hanging with their tribe, on to the next grievance.
I don’t think your comment was tongue and cheek. You hit a home run…..a hole in one. Bill you are a genius. I have long puzzled over the cure for disinformation. A fact finding channel! In concert with NPR perhaps. Or a subsidiary of Heather international. With true and believable due diligence we can appropriately penalize those who traffic in misinformation. Perhaps with categorical venues. You know, one for congressmen one for each so called news agency one for each political party. Call it the Stoplight . Green yellow red. Sum up monthly totals and give percentage evaluations to individual liars. Easy to fund with a para-mutual betting component. Since honesty in both photography and journalism is impossible to achieve your idea of a catch-all “fact-finding”channel might well replace or obviate the need for laws regulating truth in advertising. Let’s “Bill” em. 1500.00 per lie. 750.00 per half-truth. The GOP would be bankrupt in an hour.
And CNN is currently in a scandal involving the managers conspiring with the Cuomo family about how to present them in a favorable light. So they were caught doing what Trump did every day at Fox. Since tv is driven by commercial ads it’s hard to imagine one that would survive on checking all the boring facts.
Finally Liz, WE are spreading the 'light' if you will, that sites/networks, etc have to pay attention to what their sponsors wishes are. Simple fact, sponsors keep the "lights" on when viewership is great.., because 'Advertisers' whose cash pays the sponsor $$$$ are very happy with viewership numbers. So gunning down the poor folks we call the 'media' isn't where the problem is. So many people I speak with never really consider that aspect. Why is faux news everywhere..HAH!! Their advertisers are very happy.. Funny how that woiks :)) huh. I enjoy your posts.
Any chance there is a list of those advertisers somewhere? I don’t watch any of those channels.
I read recently that most of those networks makes most of their money not from advertisement but from cable fees. Also, that it’s some sort of law/deal that requires cable companies to carry them. Is there any truth to that?
A "fact check" channel. Absolutely! I have been dreaming about such a thing since the 80's when 'The Morton Downey, jr. Show' got big. Anyone remember that? He was on afternoon t.v. where I lived and became pretty well known. The garbage he spewed was maddening to me. I now see him as the first mass media assault on truth in ideological discussion. It's been stuck in my craw all this time as I've watched that cancer metastatize through society ever since. I always wanted a response show to dissect and refute his arguments point by point. Probably why I find Prof. Richardson's newsletter such a balm.
Yes, you write the truth. Fear is a great driver of evil and it’s been at the the root of humanity. From the beginning, everywhere, including here in America where we destroyed a people who lived here for millennia.
Depends on which "they" you are speaking of. The politicians are consumed by a dark lust for more and more power and money. The MAGA folks in the suburbs, cities and farms are the ones being manipulated by fear and anger being drummed into their heads by the evil rich folks.
Perhaps the all day, every day Fox News Demonization of anything associated with democracy or democrats has had a large impact on lining up Pubs?
IF a Republican were to support Jackson then the subsequent Fox News shrill howling at the moon would end their career in public life.
Also. The Rush Limbaugh show makes Fox commentary look reasonable. I listened yesterday and could not believe the nutty stuff they are faking as “callers”.
Lots of folks listening to all this hate that “freedom” allows Roland.
Mike, I read the letters late yesterday and so most probably didn't see this: I commented that I was utterly disgusted with Fox and Tucker Carlson and so emailed them to say that I was appalled with their misinformation, misguided "patriotism" and with Tucker Carlson in particular. I said it is probably a futile attempt, but I felt compelled to say something.
Should you or any other reader feel the same, here is a handy link to contact them.
BTW, back when Texas put out their outrageous abortion ruling, someone on the forum posted a list of the CEOs/addresses of the major corporations headquartered in Texas. I wrote every single one of them. Not even a form letter in reply from any of them.
Thanks for the link, Miselle. I wrote an email. And I don't care whose list I get on. I've been protesting since the 60's and feel that we must do all we can to oppose those who oppose democracy.
I wonder if Anonomous could take a mome t to shut down Murdick and expose the personal information of his members... Hello, Anonomous, are you there, reading HCR?
May I say that I think Rupert Murdoch and his family should be relieved of their citizenship (that Murdoch was awarded citizenship is thanks to Ronnie Raygun, which says everything one needs to know about the both of them) and tossed out of the country--after paying a huge fine in reparation for the damage to the nation's collective sanity--I doubt Australia would take him back, nor would the UK.
The Canadian and UK peoples were so profoundly uninterested in the baloney that Faux Noise parades as "news" that the network "decided to discontinue" airing the show there due to "low viewership". Smart countries...wish we were as smart.
Leave a message to tell them to stop the lies and why you are cancelling your Fox service. Then call or email your cable company and unbundle Fox from your selections.
I read that Fox is only surviving by charging much more to the cable outfits than other cable channels, hence cable prices would be less if Fox was not on the menu. Not sure if you can unbundle.
Yup.. and we need to keep it that way. Makes it easier to separate the wheat from the chaff. And It's of no use trying to explain to them where the Bear shit in the buckwheat. They get great pleasure dissing you and I as socialists and Bern-outs.
Perhaps it is but a pure, naked lust for power that is couched with rhetorical nonsense. I am not so certain that most Republicans could even clarify a particular ideology. Not to sound too quaint, but perhaps there is a certain thread of human darkness, little e evil that runs through them. You could, I suppose, elevate that idea and call it social Darwinism. There is something going on here that is difficult to describe.
"The disquietude at the “other” is baked in. Start from that premise."
And then move on to how that baked in disquietude is exacerbated, misdirected, and weaponized.
How racism is manufactured to misidentify the actual source of existential threats, misdirect rational fears away from that source, and misdirect justifiable anger away from its proper target.
Target the exploited rather than the exploiters
The entire right wing apparatus, including the Republican dominated courts, employed to perpetrate racial injustice in order to
perpetuate economic injustice.
Judges who bent German law to serve the Nazi regime were prosecuted at the Nuremberg trials, in order to emphasize the importance of an independent judiciary.
I really like how you extended my comment. But tonight the Like button died on the vine to prevent me affirming it.
Yes, I so agree. There is an impulse taken to the farthest reach in America to compete, to hustle, to get the edge on others, to exploit…It applies to perhaps 1% of the population but they do enormous damage.
And the result of how they manipulate is that it’s baked in more. Plus ça change, plus c’est le même chose.
Exactly so. You can’t build a cogent belief system in piles and piles of lies - so many contradicting the last, but allowed to seep down - and hope to address the real problems in the real world in a clearheaded way. I think these folks are angry and fearful because none of it makes sense anymore.
Lemme toss this out. I am fairly confident that there are may politicians faking it just to be in the right place should numbnuts run or even prevail. They "Fear" being accused of "failure to be uptight".., Thus having their career terminated, preventing them from actually doing some good, for Dems and R's alike, once the election is done with. A means to an end. Ughhh
The source of the opposition, besides opportunism and racism is the complete and utter moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the husk that is the Republican Party. It proudly has no platform or program. It exists solely to obstruct America’s best values and to grab power for its own sake. Oh, and the party is irredeemably corrupt. Other than that, no problem.
Yes. The whites-first or whites-only (+ males-first, straights-first, et al) mentality is rooted in low self-esteem. Who am I if I don’t have the power of being white in a white-dominated society?
"Russia is now playing Tucker Carlson's false "news" on Fox (regarding their invasion of Ukraine) to the Russian people. This is propagada. See the message below, call Fox, then unbundle Fox from your cable service!!!"
"Tell Fox News: Stop pushing Russian propaganda. Put America and democracy first. Please make a brief call right now. The Fox News number is 212-301-3000. You can tell them:
"I'm an American citizen and a patriot. What your channel is doing right now is aiding our enemies. Put America first. Put democracy first. Don't just push out Russian propaganda. I'm going to follow up with your advertisers and my cable network to tell them the same thing."
[I did it!!! I was able to leave a message after punching (a little angry) number 3. See script below. I also contacted Spectrum and told them to unbundle Fox Network from my TV cable service and I no longer will pay for their channel. (Spectrum isn't the only one that allows this). Thank You!]
Time was FCC regulations strictly limited content for News programs. That should be restored. Stations that do not meet those standards could be labeled (Network) opinion/gossip/nonsense/etc
Nancy It seems to me that station executives have set a strictly limited time for news. I remember Edward R. Murrow. who prohibited any advertising in the middle of his 30-minute nightly news programs. He had the now outlandish belief that he was responsible for providing news rather than an advertising sandwich with a sliver of news squeezed into this sandwich.
Incidentally, Campbell Soup agreed to Murrow’s terms. [My dad handled the Campbell’s advertising account at that time. He met Murrow when they both were in wartime England. Later I would go fishing with Murrow and he introduced my THIS I BELIEVE on CBS radio in 1954.]
Just wow. He and Walter are greatly missed. But another old wannabe “newsman” is trying to undo their standards. Well, abolish them. Too bad the younger generation has NO clue…
MaryPat, thanks for the suggestion and the script; I just called Fox and left a message. I don't have cable, but I do very much care about how the Murdoch family, Fox News, and its propagandizing personalities are undermining democracy and actively supporting Russia.
Roland, I believe that the furious opposition is based on their need to demonize Democrats, because otherwise they are barred from winning elections. If they admitted to the fact that Biden has kept his nose to the grindstone, has worked tirelessly to bring our democracy back on course, has managed the pandemic and would have mostly eradicated it except for Rethuglicans' determination that their minions would refuse vaccination, had passed the Relief Act and thus saved our economy, had passed the first infrastructure bill that, even in our Rethuglican-led State, is repairing infrastructure that was crumbling (of course Shotgun Kemp isn't advertising that Biden did this and it's Federal funds at work), then Georgia would be bright blue, rather than iffy purple. The reason for the opposition is simple, the right wing has no platform other than culture wars, to which the majority of voters are opposed, and cutting taxes for the uber wealthy, while the left wants to stimulate business and allow all of us to share in the rewards - you know - the Socialist/Communist thing. They're doing their best to gerrymander, nullify properly-cast votes, and spread misinformation at every turn, hoping that the voters will either be obstructed from casting votes in urban, diverse areas, or be stupid enough to listen to the miscreants on the right who tell them they need to stand up and prove their "Amurikan" creds. As for trying to defeat Ketanji Brown Jackson, surely the racist, sexist Neanderthals are desperate to keep her out of the club, where her presence would suggest to diverse voters that they might be considered citizens, too. I still hold that if the right isn't allowed to nullify votes, we can win the midterms, because whatever the perils, there are still more of us than them!
Thanks, Bill. I realize that many do not share my enthusiasm, but I'm sticking with it, although I can clearly see the downside possibilities. We can't give up.
The national party is now transcendent. There is no room for a Rockefeller Republican, a Jacob javitz. You can’t run for dog catcher nowadays without falling in line, or you will never make it thru the primary. You can thank newt Gingrich for this. Am anxious to see how Liz Cheney campaigns, if she bothers.
Evil Newt left an evil legacy, and a devoted Catholic, what a joke. Going to be a bottleneck at St. Peter’s gate when these deliberately evil types show up.
I have been hollering about Newt ever since I subscribed here. In addition to all of his other crappy contributions, he took republican sociopathic mendacity and organized it for them. The Contract with America was their class project. He deserves a significant part of the credit for what the rethugs are today.
Selfish ambition begets fear which begets contempt which begets divisions, necessitating alliances for control - being mindful that even these alliances will soon enough be at war with each other. tfg proved this is the way he treats his friends.
I am reminded of "Gone With the Wind." Simply put, their way of life is over. Their vituperative, often irrational statements and behaviors mean desperation IMO. Similarly, as a rich white male supremacist Christian Orthodox authoritarian, Putin is desperate, too. That's not to say they will "go easily into their graves," or that the change is immediate but it is inevitable. On some level they know it.
I'm also reminded of a joke: A man of the nature described above was languishing in Hell. A newcomer arrived and the man recognized and old friend. "Good Lord, Beauregard, what brings you here?" he asked. "You've always led an exemplary life." Beauregard answered, " I did go to heaven and met God. She is Black! I had no other choice."
They want to run the country and support their donors. They seem to have little love for this country as a truly democratic society. The ignorant (as opposed to stupid) do not understand this and have little knowledge of our history. That’s why.
Personally, I think this is more relevant. The repubs are basically against anything Biden says or does or doesn't say or doesn't do or thinks or doesn't think.
It's also because the Republicans deny the legitimacy of any nomination by the Democrats...just as they deny their right to govern when faced with an election that gave results that they consider inconceivable.
Yes. And why would Republicans in Congress (representing their ilk in society at large) deny Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the right to govern, pushing the Big Lie, voting in large numbers on January 6 after the attack to nullify the election and keep Orange Sewage in charge? What is the source of that furious animosity-opposition-hatred?
Propaganda non-stop against the libtards and socialists, bull Schitt all. HST knew them well “Socialism is the epithet they have hurled at every advance the people have made inThe last 20 years. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.” Make that ever instead of 20 years in our time.
It is not always instructive to reduce those that hold views that are differen in binary terms...black and white as you would suggest. There's a lot more to it than that. Be it loss of status, opposition to social programs, taxation or government spending, desire to bring the power closer to the people or whatever. The list can be long but everybody doesn't have to agree with the Dems and will never do so thankfully as that way does represent necessarily the will of ALL the people.
Senseless blind loyalty to The Team ... the very idea that Judge Jackson is "radical left progressive" is laughable ... progressive yes, contrasted with radical right regressive mentality ... radical left? Not even close - if that were so, would she have gone to school, gotten the degree, gotten the job, paid her taxes and worked within the system?? Uhmm ... maybe not ....
Yes. If you are still living in the bubble, the obsolete reality, of the old whites-only male-dominated world, of course putting a black woman on the Supreme Court is radical. Having Michelle and Barack in the White House is radical. So what is laughable to people with their eyes open, who accept the equal status of women and people who aren’t white, is radical to a woman (and an entire political party, Orange Garbage included) who is clearly a relic of the antebellum South. If going into that world is unfamiliar, you have to pull out an old western or old whites-only style movie, to get a feel, or a reminder, for that gestalt.
I happen to be vacationing in Charleston SC among many normal and nice southerners enjoying the 80 degree weather and I’m enjoying the ante vellum architecture that I’m very glad survives though they shot the first cannon at Ft. Sumter.
Thanks, Liz. Many people see a southern “red” state and assume that it means that we are all right-wing, Confederate-flag-waving crazies. We are not. In evidence, I present the 2020 election. Over the U.S. Census South Region, President Biden received approximately 28M votes to the 31M that TFG received. Yes, we lost most of those states. Those losses hide the great diversity of the South. (Thank you, Electoral College and red/blue maps…) In particular, Brookings shows that, “Fully 58% of the nation’s Black population resides in the South.” There are also several areas with above average populations of Latinx people in the South.
Also, people need to remember that no news reporter (or comedian) ever comes to the South looking for sane people. What Americans see in the media does not necessarily reflect the makeup of the places visited.
Still, there is much to fix, starting with Marsha Blackburn! Help us.
Thank you for the reminder, Liz - every era contributes value to the evolving organism of human culture ... and I get that people for whom that paradigm works want it to survive - only, how do we see that it does not work well for one and all - it has a place in the whole scheme of things - but is not fit to dominate and dictate universal values for everyone ... who has that right and wherewithal to govern - especially when it descends into perpetual rape/murder and exploitation of the disadvantaged ...?
When the first African-American became President, when we had our first African-American First Lady, they freaked. That’s when it suddenly dawned on them that the changes in society are structural, permanent, and that their way of life, the old (racist and sexist) society of whites in charge and men in charge, the old society that is near and dear to their hearts, is being seriously threatened. When you think “Republican Party,“ you have to think “diehard racism and sexism,“ or their actions just don’t make sense.
About two days after Obama's inauguration, I turned on N PR in my car only to hear several minutes of diner-dwellers whining "I want my country back." NPR wouldn't call out the racism then and I doubt they, or NYT or WaPo, will do it going forward. Our media are complicit in the destruction of our democracy.
It is a Substack glitch. Two solutions: Keep clicking on the Heart button or refresh the page and see if it "took" the first time; if not, try again and it should work.
Marsha Blackburn is trying to be worse than her male, dumb colleagues. She will say and do anything to make sure she stays in the spotlight with them. When we talk about the fact that women should be in charge, we are NOT thinking of her!
I was disappointed in Sen. Marsha for just saying that the nomination is evidence of the Radical Progressive Left. She left out Communist, Maoist, Trotskyite, etc. Jabba would never forget to throw in all the words he has learned lately.
I’ve lost track of all the embarrassments. They’re in every state. I cheered wildly, in my heart, when Devin Nunes retired from politics to go to a new venture that is guaranteed to fail, just another orange grift.
“Biden and Senate Democrats are hoping for a bipartisan vote on the nomination, but it’s unclear if they will be able to win over any GOP senators after bitterly partisan confirmation battles under President Donald Trump.”
The Democrats did their best to shoot down Republican nominees to the Court. Republicans will return the fire.
Nope. I'm done believing there are "reasonable" Republican. They are, each and every one of them, Republiqans, devoted to hatred and conspiracy theories. Murkowski is enough of a maverick that she might vote for Jackson, but not Collins or Romney.
COMPLETELY CLEAR. And HORRID. All the power and gratitude to President Biden for appointing such an outstanding candidate to our Supreme Court. Time for democracy to reign.
Agree completely. So bogus that she says the President cannot nominate anyone when there is a war somewhere. What she means is that no Democrat should nominate anyone ever. Who knows she might actually be a KKK supporter since she is clearly for white supremacy.
Michelle, it occurs to me that there was a "war going on somewhere" when Jabba appointed justices. More republican hypocrisy on top of layers of hypocritical lies....
It appears her degree in Home Economics prepared her for many things but not for being on the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. Senate. This is not a slam against Home Ec in anyway, just her amoral behavior.
I didn't think Biden should have restricted his choice by promising a nominee of a particular gender and race. But it's obvious to me that Brown is eminently qualified to be on the Supreme Court, and I think that as a Black woman, her perspective will make it a better, fairer Supreme Court.
Biden could have chosen a white male and the Republican reaction would have been the same. This is their standard reaction to everything he does. In fact, I am surprised they did not tie this to him aiding Putin, and weakening America. But wait, the days are early yet. Whatever he does they will be coming up with all kinds of outlandish and crazy stories about each and every thing he does because that is the party modus operandi. It us up to everyone else to throw that back on them and say, "they are obviously unhinged and not operating with a full deck!"
Ukraine is alone. The people do not know how they will survive.
Last night, on The Rachel Maddow Show, a man spoke with Rachel, a restaurant owner who is living with some neighbors in the basement of their apartment building, which was bombed by the Russian military. He said that he didn’t know whether to stay in Kyiv or to leave. ‘No place is safe.’ He asked the people of the world to help Ukraine. ‘We are a small country. We cannot match …’
‘Please, don’t be silent.’
‘My friends are in basements, in flight, and under fire. Help.’
By Timothy Snyder
‘Yesterday I sent out a list of charities and NGOs who are helping Ukrainians during Russia’s senseless and murderous invasion. Some of you asked for places where you could use your credit cards instead of bank transfers. The below list are international charities working in Ukraine who can take donations from credit cards:’
Libereco Partnership for Human Rights, evacuation and medical assistance
#1 Click here for a curated list of organizations you can choose from to support the people of Ukraine. These have been vetted by partner organizations we trust and our friends on the ground.
Russia's at war with Ukraine. Here's how we got here (NPR) - A detailed overview of what's happened between Russia and Ukraine since Ukraine gained independence.
"I have been breathless watching the terror in Ukraine unfold. Russia’s invasion comes in the midst of nearly a decade of escalating tension, violence, and antagonization. Since 2014, at least 14,000 lives have been claimed as the result of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and persistent military presence.
"To the people of Russia: We see you marching in the streets, risking arrest, bearing the cold, and holding your signs high: NO WAR. Your courage is a beacon. You show the world that Russia’s leadership is not Russia’s people. Only you have the power to stop this war at the source. Keep going!
"To the people of Ukraine: We see you — waking to the sound of sirens, pulling your children from the windows, and preparing to protect all you love. We tremble with you, and wail with you. You are not alone. We are rising up in solidarity and sending you our prayers, our action, and our aid.
"To the children of Ukraine: When I told my son about you, he wanted to send you our prayer Tati Vao Na Lagi. My grandfather sang this as a soldier in World War II. When German air raids came at night, he slept on the ground and imagined this Sikh prayer as his shield. So tonight, we closed our eyes and sang his prayer for you. We imagined a shimmering gold shield around your homes and your families and you. The prayer means: “The hot winds cannot touch you, you are shielded by Love.”
"And so, I ask all of us:
"What if we made a shield of love?
"What if this was the moment an unprecedented number of people around the world stood against war? What if we shifted collective consciousness so that never again would any government win support to start a war? What if our voices and songs and actions flooded Russia and Ukraine now, bringing aid and courage and change?
"We can choose to see no stranger — to see the people of Ukraine as our family, and the soldiers of Russia as lost ones who can be called home. We can let that sight shape how we grieve — and what we do. Each of us has a role.
"Just remember, my love, we are tired and wired and stressed from pandemic and injustice. Now, war. So breathe and rest before you push, read and learn before you respond. Revolutionary love is not the sacrifice of an individual, but the practice of a community. Together, courage."
... and more, from this inspired, purpose driven young mother:
A GUIDED INQUIRY FOR THIS MOMENT
I invite you into this guided inquiry to process emotion and find breath and action.
Where do you notice feeling grief in your body? What is the quality of that grief? What is the shape of grief inside of you? If it feels uncomfortable, take another deep breath and stay with it. Breathe through it.
What does your body need to be brave with this grief? What do you need to feel it and to move through this energy? What rituals are you called to? Who do you need by your side.
Who have you not yet grieved with? Whose story have you not fully let into your heart? What community’s struggle have you not fully taken in? Notice what is happening in your body. If your fists tighten, or your heart beats fast, or if shame rises to your face, it’s okay. Breathe through it. Trust that you can. The heart is a muscle: The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. You don’t need to know people in order to grieve with them. You grieve with them in order to know them.
What do you need to do to be able to grieve with them? What vigils or marches need you? What houses of worship are you ready to visit? What phone call are you ready to make? You can begin where you are, with a simple text or email, saying to someone “I’m here for you."
You have a role to play that no one else can play. You don’t have to know all the answers now. You simply need to allow yourself to feel the power that you have, the abilities that you have, the voice that you have, and invite that deepest wisdom inside of you to guide you into what you need to do now and next.
*******
This guided inquiry comes from the GRIEVE portal on our Learning Hub. Explore the full Learning Hub, with all our resources, available to you here:
The Revolutionary Love Project envisions a world where love is a public ethic and shared practice in our lives and politics. We generate stories, tools, and thought leadership to equip people to practice the ethic of love in the fight for social justice.
The Revolutionary Love Project is a project of Community Partners, a nonprofit fiscal sponsor and intermediary organization that provides us with administrative services, expert guidance, and the benefits of tax-exempt status.
How could I have not known about the Revolutionary Love Project and Valerie Kaur until now? This is just what our country and the world needs. I know that I need it. I look forward to reading Valerie Kaur’s book, See No Stranger.
Thank you so, so much, Kathleen, for sharing this.
Envisioning a shield of love and compassion and strength is exactly how I went to sleep last night, after watching the NYT video of ordinary citizens taking up arms to protect their home, women included. Certainly this has happened for millenia, but only in recent years have we been able to watch it happen in real time. Yes, if we all did this, created a shield of love, what might happen? Let's try.
... with you in circle of healing light and love, Beth ... many such networks of focused energy and intent wrapping around our planet - it's the least we can do!!
And thanks to you too Fern - and all of us who spend hours on end to share in this forum - especially to Professor Cox-Richardson for giving us the timely information, insight and platform to share ...!!
When you look into what the Ukrainian people have gone through at the hands of the Russians in the past you can begin to imagine why they are fighting so very hard for their country and their way of life.
The movie 'Mr. Jones' is a painful, horrible story about the Soviet Union starving millions of Ukrainians (don't watch it if you are not feeling particularly sturdy emotionally) ~ it gutted me, but did give insight into the history of Ukraine under Russia. It's currently available on Hulu.
Thank you Fern! I am happy to contribute, only sorry that I can't give more. I would get on a plane, and learn how to shoot a gun and get there asap and help fight if I could. I am devastated about this.
A wonderful, inspiring letter Professor Richardson, thank you. I salute the Ukrainian people and their brave leader. I think of Allen who wrote here the past two days and I hope he’s safe with his wife and dog Lucky! I keep thinking of him and so many like him. Photos of women and children in hiding, the resignation of the little ones in contrast to our privileged schoolchildren in America who must not be made “uncomfortable” by what they are taught… it’s sickening. But as usual, Heather gives me a ray of hope.
Open letter from Russian scientists and researchers, published in Le Monde - I've found an English-language article about it. A quick quote: "Following the invasion, scientists in Russia swiftly circulated the letter, which was then published on TrV-Nauka – an independent Russian science news site. The letter states that having unleashed war, Russia has “doomed itself” to international isolation and to the position of a “pariah country”.
“This means that we, scientists, will no longer be able to do our job normally: after all, conducting scientific research is unthinkable without full cooperation with colleagues from other countries,” the letter states, adding that the isolation would result in further “cultural and technological degradation” of Russia with the war with Ukraine representing a “step to nowhere”.
“We respect Ukrainian statehood, which rests on really working democratic institutions,” the letter states. “We treat the European choice of our neighbours with understanding. We are convinced that all problems in relations between our countries can be resolved peacefully.”
But that reliance on Beijing comes at a very heavy price that Putin doesn't want to pay. China does not consider that it has equal partners; you are either a "competitor" or a follower.
Putin will become Xi’s vassal. China covets Siberian resources. Putin May not care as long as he and his oligarchs remain wealthy. The wild card remains Russian urban populations especially those under 40 who grew up post USSR and are wired together on Signal and Telegram and get their information from the web. Will demonstrations expand? What happens when coffins come back home?
The great threat, blocking SWIFT, is not yet imposed because it would hurt Germany and Europe too much. As long as Putin can sell Russian gas and oil to China I think he is comfortable as a follower.
Agreed about the normal shying away from principles and pain of the soft underbelly of the EU but china is a stern taskmaster and as with Fauste, he will have to pay the price and bend the knee. His fellow oligarchs will "deal" with him before he gets that far down the road. They fear their chinese counterparts' ruthlessness perhaps more than the fear the US.
'Paria' comes from the British observation of the Indian caste system, and its lowest 'the untouchables'. Which in turn was the outcome of one of the few instances in world history where a conquering, city based civilization, was hurt by microbes among their 'primitive' victims. So, having common germs of autocracy I would say the largest country and the second largest economy are company.
... and three’s a crowd. Who else could possibly be added to that unholy alliance between Putin and China? North Korea? This is a “friendship” with very little space for new players.
"The Ghost of Kyiv" is entirely possible, since there are Ukrainian fighter pilots who have been trained at Top Gun, according to a good friend of mine who is a former commander of the training school and "in a position to know these things."
If he or she is not real then he or she would of necessity been invented as a prerequisit of strengthening the resilience of the people and their resistence to the oppression of the invaders. They are necessary during the conflict to strengthen the morale of the troops and can become a rallying cry for opposition and insurrection thereafter should it be necessary.
While so much anguish fills Ukraine, I love that the hopes and spirit of her people soar high above all of Putin's madness to manifest themselves in the courage and bravery of the Ghost of Kyiv!
"The Ukraine resistance has given rise to the Ghost of Kyiv, a fighter pilot who may or may not be real, and who may or may not be a woman, and who has shot down six Russian planes. Such a superhuman legend symbolizes Ukraine’s people this terrible week."
Thank you, Heather, for leaving us with this strengthening image.
I look at the pictures of this fine old city, and I think of the part of Moussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" that everybody recognises: The Great Gate of Kyiv. Listen to this, and weep, and be strong. THIS is Russia.
Thank you Anne-Louise! “Pictures…” has been a favorite since I was quite young; but especially “The Great Gate…”! I always thought Kyiv was in Russia. A pox on the late, unlamented USSR!
That recently acquired knowledge sent my brain reeling, thinking of all the peoples/cultures that have been absorbed, “disappeared” throughout history! It made me think of my people; all the African American communities that have been moved, paved over, drowned, urban renewed, gentrified, and on and on and on.
Another of my favorites (I could never hope to master the tuba part in Bydlo) but have heard many renditions of "Pictures at an Exhibition". The "Great Gate of Kyiv" is an amazing brass piece.
My heart is with Allen, Tanya, and Lucky, the Ukrainian people, the 1800 Russians who were arrested for their anti-war protests, and all the innocents who suffer under autocratic governments around the world. Sending them love and light.
My love is also, believe it or not, with a war hawk, General Leonid Ivashov. Strange times makes strange bedfellows.
Don’t believe the misinformation about his rank: “Colonel-General” in the Russian army is one rank below Marshal. Marshal is essentially Napoleon’s rank, military head of government. So Ivashov had the highest rank possible to him.
In a letter from an association of retired Russian military officers, he is speaking the consensus of that group.
Strange bedfellows, indeed. Very important reading though, Roland. Thanks very much for sharing. The curse and the blessing of being open-minded (i.e. liberal) in philosophy is to understand the importance of truth-telling, wherever we find it. Kinda sorta like heralding Liz Cheney's stance on tfg while admitting that I don't agree with her political point of view.
Liz Cheney may well mother the former Republican Party out of hiding. She is loved in Wyoming now after the hiccup Republicans dug their rowels in her flanks flaying her with their spurs. You don’t mistreat your horses there, and you damn sure don’t mistreat women. You can take that to the bank! I kinda suspect that tough little gal would make ole Will Rogers smile with respect and he’s still a hero in some parts. I bet she snores like a chainsaw!
"...[the EU] and Britain froze the European assets of Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov..."
Something that will affect far more Russian oligarchs than just those two:
"Feb 25 (Reuters) - British transport minister Grant Shapps said in a tweet on Friday that no Russian private jet can fly in UK airspace or touch down, effective immediately."
Owning property in a stable country such as the UK is a classic method for laundering the proceeds of crime. It must be humiliating to have to use public transport to visit estates owned by Russian oligarchs.
Jonathan, it is my understanding that the Biden White House also sanctioned Putin and lavaroff. Delta Airlines will no longer share codes with Aeroflot, to enable transfers to connecting flights to Russia. International businesses, sports associations, racing, and performers are cancelling events in Russia and banning Russian teams from play or participation. This will be be hardest on the Russian people, not the oil-igarchs — but my hope is that it will cause a general uprising and drive vlad and his rich friends from the kremlin.
Now just watch for the attempts to sell the most expensive houses in London by their purported company owners who are registered in some idyllic Central American or Carribean financial haven. Then come across town to the City and observe the share movements where the same cash whitewashing entities try to move their ressource to "friendlier" climes.....and all with the help of the brightest legal and accounting minds working for the the world's major banking, legal and audit services.
Fun and games all over the world. What price "Panama Papers" ? This Bank has being going through an interesting period with severe losses and carelessly choosing and losing a number of very important Directors.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is an excellent choice. Contrary to Senator Marsha Blackburn, I actually took solace that Biden was moving ahead despite the war in Ukraine - without hesitation, it is exactly what should be done! I suppose the republicans are now going to say there isn't enough time left in Biden's presidency.
The war in Ukraine is disturbing on so many levels and distressing for what the future might hold. Putin may have overplayed his hand but he is not going to back off (and lose face) no matter how much destruction is done or how many lives are taken and destroyed. Once again a narcissistic madman wreaks havoc. In today's world, there are enough unhinged people in power where the tactical use of nuclear weapons is a hair raising reality.
Marsha the Dumb Bunny is proof that you *always* need to know the political affiliations of your medical professionals (she was a nurse), lest you allow your vitals to be touched by a moron. She got her start supporting the Sacklers who drugged out the community she's supposed to "represent."
TC, I’ve always known that Blackburn was a vicious opportunistic sociopath, but I didn’t know about the opioids. By a nurse, no less. So she is the real moron. Thanks.
Jeri. Having, as a ChE gone through much of the curriculum that premeds go through I can tell you that those premeds were routinely in the bottom half of the class performance.
Furthermore. Their overall curriculum prioritizes memorization not systems analytics.
So. A newly minted MD’s first need and exposure to complex analytics necessary to diagnose (anything) is after they graduate and start practice.
Yes. Their lack of analytical training shows up every day all day in misdiagnosis.
However. There are no consequences for misdiagnosis in American medicine often in even grievous instances of misdiagnosis unless the patient dies and can prove the misdiagnosis as cause.
I know a brilliant girl, Gynecologist, whose dad accepted no dissent from his republican nonsense her whole life. She married a radiologist with the same bent. Doubt she ever questioned either. BTW, Mom never questioned him either and she is the smartest woman I have known. Generational ignorance and so proud
hmm...I made it all the way through school and post-grad training thinking about mechanism and principle, memorized only what was necessary and thought my way through most of it. I worked very hard, was definitely not lower half of the class, nor were most of my med school classmates. You're painting with an awfully broad brush.
Sending prayers for him and his family as he defends our democracies. I understand this is a multinational NATO response force put on standby in case of incursion by Russia into NATO countries.
Thank you, Janet, for lower-casing “republicans.” Perhaps it is time to diminish people like marsha blackburn. Oh, excuse me, senator marsha blackburn, dishonorable senator from what is otherwise the great state of Tennessee.
Unfortunately when you lower case their name it implies that they respect "republican" values which can be highly ambiguous no matter how nice it sounds.....somewhat democratic (small "D") verging on the "Left" in nature in certain parts of the world such as France but very misused in others where it only really implies dictatorship by someone who does not declare he or she is there by "divine right" and "annointed by God"! This ambiguous word leaves a very wide gap for them to charge through and trample any opposition if they could or when they can.
Putin overplaying his (and his fellow oligarchs) hands may be the only way for the Russian people to finally rise up and depose him. I first wrote "dispose" him. That, too.
I’ve been thinking that, thanks for voicing. This event, Ukraine, might be his undoing, if not his end. Elsewhere here on this page, I said that he would be executed. Came to me yesterday out of the blue.
The current price of oil (presumably also natural gas) should support all manner of alternatives to Russia's supply, provided the infrastructure to distribute it from other sources is there. I don't see why the US is withholding its leverage over this international system of money transfer. There's a full scale war going on in the Ukraine; what more provocation is needed to lock up their access to cash from the sale of oil and gas?
The world is full of guns for hire; why not funnel money to mercenaries who will fight alongside Ukrainians? It'll be awhile before we learn what our CIA, Britains secret service and other clandestine arms of other countries are doing during this time, but you can bet your last dollar that they are playing some sort of role, very likely in the cyber-realm.
Our MAGA crowd has now shot themselves in the foot so often it's a wonder they have any feet left at all as they publically admire Putin and label Biden "weak" when the US has galvanized all of Europe and other allied nations into coordinate sanctions against Russia. The GOP has boxed itself into a corner when it's only agenda is to criticize everything that Biden says and does, even when those things might otherwise fit nicely into a republican agenda. I feel terrible for Ukrainians, but oddly thankful for something "real" to draw our attention as an alternative to the endless drone of US national politics over the last 18 months or so.
Because it's not just Russian oligarchs who benefit from SWIFT. Russian retirees who are citizens of the Balkans receive their retirement payments from the companies they used to work for through SWIFT, among others. As has been pointed out by people who know more about finance than you and I do, the sanctions on the companies and individuals target them more effectively and more completely than hitting them with the scattershot of SWIFT.
Though at some point TC compensation programs can be put in place for relief of individuals but the essential point is that freedom has a price and we will all have to pay it to keep the flame alive.....the Russian people too.
Consider how Putin's monstrous actions can turn against him in Russia We are all going to me affected by what he is doing. There will be at least thousands of deaths, pain, suffering and economic losses, not just at the pump. The Russians are going to suffer and suffer, emotionally and economically. too. Does he care? Not a bit. Taking Russia out of Swift and any other sanction and military deployments -- doing what is necessary to put an end to this DEVIL, must be done and done carefully to protect people as much as we can and to protect the planet.
Let's see, we'll avoid inconveniencing Russian retirees while Ukrainian citizens die of rocket attacks. That sounds like a reasonable tradeoff. I'm sorry, but if the tools we have are blunt instruments, then let's pound away with those blunt instruments. Those Balkan retirees can migrate over to Moscow and collect their pensions in paper money, or use some alternative to the system used by the West. Somehow I don't feel all so sorry for financial collateral damage, when flesh and blood is being spattered against the earth in Ukraine.
There is the additional problem that when you are acting as part of a coalition, it's like being in a convoy - you can't go faster than the slowest ship.
Psaki said again and again this week. The current sanctions are aimed at the Russian wealthy. The Administration is trying to spare the Russian people.
indeed...let's spare Russian citizens inconvenience while their Ukrainian cousins are dying in firefights. It's those Russian citizens that are one lever against their president. The quicker they feel the pain, the quicker they will begin to take steps to push him aside.
They have far more to lose when Putin acts without consequence than they will ever have from the inconveniences of sanctions against him and his country.
I think that European leaders see that, too. The BBC reports that even notoriously pro-Putin Viktor Orbán is now joining other EU leaders in condemning the invasion of Ukraine.
From my current vantage point in Athens, studying Greek in the same time zone as Kyiv, it’s clear many Euro-Americans have become interested in The Current International Affair.
They marvel at what they try to imagine: modern warfare conducted in a European metropolitan area. They think they might be able to relate. “What would I do …?”
I wonder if many of them know what they’re witnessing.
The Euro-American economic system is based on the Big Lie that promises the freedom of massive overconsumption, as a proxy for progress toward social justice, for everyone. This is to be achieved through unsustainably endless economic expansion and technological innovation, providing a constantly growing pool of cheaper and cheaper consumer goods, and allowing all to enjoy the dream - if rarely the reality - of constantly increased access to those goods.
The inevitable outcome of this system is now clear: It is the destruction of the planet in our lifetimes, while producing deepening and irreversible inequality as its primary design feature. It’s ultimate end state is oligarchic, authoritarian Euro-American states, spinning into autocracy, on a dying planet. The ongoing pandemic has provided the cover in many Euro-American states to accelerate this process.
The difficulty in coming to this realization, is that there is nothing in human history or philosophy that has any possibility of successfully replacing it.
It’s not just that the current false ideology of “Freedom through Capitalism” is too deeply embedded in nearly every human being’s DNA for it to be challenged as The Way We Want Things To Be.
It’s also that everything humans have considered and tried to date - every other “-ism” known to humans - has produced, far more quickly, only even greater autocracy than the current system.
This doesn’t make Capitalism (especially when combined with the Abrahamic religions) the better system. It only makes it the more successful “con game” than all the others. It has the key feature of all successful cons:
The “mark” WANTS to believe.
We WANT to believe that we are free. And we are happy to confuse “freedom” with overconsumption, and with speaking without risking sanction (and frankly, not much else), especially when we are disappointed at our failure to access what we believe to be our entitlement to a constantly expanding pool of consumer goods.
Now, today, we add to this “con” in which we are willing “marks” the collapse of the international architecture that had assured the Euro-American populations of an absence of modern warfare on our national territories, in facilitation of the global extension of the “con.” (Even while we repeatedly conducted war all around the globe to control the resources required to sustain endless economic expansion for those lucky enough to reside in the Euro-American land masses, all the while convincing those being victimized that they, too, should want what we have.)
All this changed on February 24, 2022.
**********
Yes, many know that The Rules For International Conduct as enshrined in such aspirational documents as the UN Charter, were unenforceable, and that the P-5 only pretended - unconvincingly - to abide by them. Especially the P-5 member whom I served my entire working life.
Above all others, the US pretense was the most brazen, painting our thievery as being within something we called The Rule Of Law. But when your stick swings in the widest arc, you know folks will likely stand back so’s not to get accidentally bonked on the head.
All the P-5 were clear that the place where we had to abide by the letter of the rules - no pretense - was Where White People Rule. The violent disintegration of my ancestral homeland (Grandpa was a Serb) we could accommodate under ideals of self determination. And intervene as P-5s when the determination seemed overzealous.
But no P-5 member sought territory through the intervention. Only the loosest of client relationships were pursued (and after all, one must choose carefully one’s clients - hence very few EU members to date have come from that pool).
Even a professional thief knows that stealing is against the law. And knows WHY it’s against the law. And perhaps avoids targeting his fellow thieves.
After testing The Rules in 2008 (Georgia) and 2014 (Crimea), and seen a response that amounted to pearl-clutching from a Euro-America addicted to his primary exports of fossil fuels and filthy money (often the same things), one P-5 member has now torn The Rules to shreds.
He has stated he’s ready to target his fellow thieves. He has stated it explicitly, via international broadcast media, for everyone to see and hear. No pretense here.
And if between-the-lines reading is allowed (along with interpretive dance), what he said was:
Three of you P-5s were covertly thieving in my plot. After already stealing three of my handsome baubles (the Baltics), and denying me the use of some problematic but much juicier chunks of What Was Mine (the Central European former Soviet Bloc).
So. F**k. You.
Game over.
************
However one assesses the value of everyone pretending to obey the rules, there was at least the convention that said, “The Rules Exist.”
Even a thief knows it is against the law to steal.
As of 5AM local time on 24 FEB 2022, there is no longer a rule that says P-5s cannot invade other Places Where White People Rule in order to take territory.
A P-5 member has done at the international level what The Last POTUS did domestically to the US:
There are no longer any norms for political or international behavior.
In short: The white people who rule the Euro-American land masses and have been thieving the rest of the world blind, in order that a tiny handful of them can be pornographically rich, with everyone else employed in the service of that minority, will now be tearing out each other’s throats in Europe while melting down their dysfunctional economies, without even the pretense of constraining rules by which to abide, delivering power into the hands of homegrown dictators, and rendering the Earth uninhabitable - all within the next 50 years. Charitably figured.
Which leaves us all with the question:
What Now?
It’s gonna be exciting.
Michael Zorick
US State Department Foreign Service Officer (ret.)
Also read "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein - and also, "Confessions of an economic Hit Man" (original version) - the USA has been doing this - especially in S America, for yonksl
The last ten years (to 2013 - and you can Google “michael zorick somalia”) I stayed for two reasons: to get a pension; and to bear witness. I make no claim to personal integrity. mz
Michael, I would like to email your comment to a friend. I think he'd appreciate it at least as much as I do. He's also a subscriber but may not be around for a bit. What do you say?
Sure - but please take responsibility if I start to get a bunch of personal attacks. My comment here on HCR’s blog is an imposition on her - but not, I hope, an attack. I have no intention of arguing my points. I do miss having an excuse to write. (And BTW - it only took an half hour. Blogging to a small audience, AKA being a “reporting officer” was my job for 26 years …)
I will only take responsibility, Michael, for personally attacking you and if my friend does so. A hug and or handshake is the worst you can expect from us. You put in out there, and there are thousands now for you to watch out for. Cheers!
I appreciate the authenticity of your posting coming from experience in serving the US. The UN was a product of its time, a compromise among equals in appearance mostly and a Euro-American invention of White, businessmen-diplomats, capitalists, Christians, winners. I hear your caution as we stand on the side, wringing our hands, waving sanctions, daring not to confront a member of the P-5 even if it is democracy that is being trampled upon in this incursion by Russia. I can despair as well as a hope for the UN and the NATO pact was to prevent the very thing that has (been let to?) play out in an almost model of a nation pursing democracy be choice. Thanks, Michael Zorick.
Oh whatever glorious times for a poor German princess who became Catherine the Great. Initially it was not an easy journey. She slept through much of it—it might be called upward sleeping, because she chose her lovers carefully.
Eventually she became empress consort and her husband became emperor, which displeased her. She soon arranged for his ‘displacement’ (and convenient sudden death). Whether one of her lovers was involved in this royal switcharoo is unclear.
Catherine the Great was well read, a regal power, and well bedded. She was gracious to her former lovers, one of whom became king of Poland. Over her reign, through military victories and political legerdemain, she significantly expanded Russian territory. An admirer of Voltaire, she sparked the Russian Enlightenment. Russia was considered a great power. Education was touched with English pedagogy.
The serfs fared less well, There were various serf revolts, to which she responded unkindly. She had the habit, on royal occasions, of giving away up-to-100,000 serfs to favorite members of the nobility.
On balance the rule of Catherine was successful. Since then there have been major ups and downs in Russian history, including the assassination of the entire royal family soon after the Soviets seized power.
Stalin liked to kill and take countries. After his compadres let him die came Khrushchev, whose folky and volatile style obliged the Politburo to oust, but not kill, him. Brezhnev was boring and took years to die a slow death. The next several Russian leaders were sickly and soon died, passing the baton to a new type of communist—Gorbachev.
Gorby and Ronnie worked towards ending the Cold War. Gorby’ s efforts to retain communism and the Soviet empire while trying to transform the Russian economy went less well. An alcoholic jerk named Yeltsin pushed Gorby aside and, with the help of oligarchs, sought to govern. When Yeltsin started fading fast, he selected a once-obscure KGB officer as his successor.
Putin has ruled and then reigned since 2000. His first few years went quite well. Then he got quite full of himself and sought to become authoritarian, emulating such past Russian leaders as Ivan the Terrible.
Over time Putin seemed to care less and less about the Russian economy and the Russian people and more and more about himself. He attacked neighboring areas and savored the bloody results. He relished being among the Big Boys and was distressed that he wasn’t treated as a Russian emperor.
A growing fixation was his belief that the break up of the Soviet empire was ‘the greatest tragedy of the 20th century.’ Stealthily and then more callously he sought to restore Russian hegemony in ex-Soviet satellite states. The core of his Greater Russia was Russia/Belarus/Ukraine. Recently the leader of Belarus, who lost re-election, but ignored the results, slithered into Putin’s arm pit.
Ukraine was a less happy saga. A pro-Russian leader was forced out after massive protests. The pro-Western tenor of subsequent Ukrainian governments caused Putin increasing displeasure.
Personal pique led him to deliver an ultimatum:
1) the West must get its ass out of Eastern Europe;
2) Everyone must acknowledge Russian hegemony over the ex-Soviet satellite states; and
3) a Ukrainian military invasion was his Damocles sword, if he didn’t get 1) and 2).
Subsequently things haven’t worked out as he had imagined. Unable to accept the humiliation of public failure, Putin initiated a massive invasion of Ukraine. Depending on how this plays out in coming months and years, he could become Putin the Ingrate, which is quite distinct from Catherine the Great.
Catherine was however in tune with the values of her times......democracy as we purportedly know it was hardly even a flicker in the intellectual mind...and not necessarily in Voltaire's. Putin has alternately tried to emulate her style and acknowledge the influence of his boozy mentor by playing the Russian Sylvestre Stallone. He can't make up his mind which best pleases the serfs that he has no intention of giving away to his circling cronies and eco-political vultures. As the army is the only thing, linked with the KGB residual, that he currently really controls he is using it as he sees fit to ensure his own survival. I keep coming back to an interview he gave prior to becoming "Emporer" to someone like his "friend" Oliver Stone which quoted Putin saying "I know what I'm getting myself into, but I don't know how, if or when I can get out" He diddn't finish his thought by saying "alive".
In dictatorial systems violence is, historically, the only reliable succession process.
Stuart Exactly why I book ended Catherine the Great with Putin the Ingrate in my handy handy guide to Russian/Soviet/Russian history. Katy was in the 18th century while Pipsqueak Putin is more than 300 years later, when basic morality and core human rights have changed considerably in some countries. While I don’t think it fair to call him a Russian Sylvestre Stallone, Putrid Putin seems a natural capo to The Godfather.
Don't know why, but as you described Catherine's appetites and accomplishments, in my head I kept hearing "she had it all done her way" and an image of Hilly C and Kim Kardashian doing hi-fives. Never know how some folks are inspired by your writing. 🤣
Fred As Sergeant Friday said”Just the facts.” Bed and bored seems a centuries-old theme, though I wouldn’t put Hilly and Kim in the same category—the first seems more bed and board, speaking broadly.
I suspect it won't take years or even months. So mark April 15th on your calendar. "All the Kings men and all the Kings horses, couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again."
I am struck by the heroism of those Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island who, facing their inevitable deaths, still told a Russian warship where to go.
I am awed by the courage and bravery of President Zelenskyy who despite knowing that he has been marked for death, is still in Kyiv, leading his people.
I've been so very impressed by his continuing to lead in place rather than escape the capital knowing he is a hunted man. And continuing to cheer on his people and advocate for his country under the most threatening of circumstances. However this ends, he will be held up as a Global Hero by democracy loving citizens everywhere, and rightly so. May he be an ongoing inspiration to leaders and ordinary citizens around the world.
In rough terms, Russia invading the Ukraine could be Mexico invading California.
(per population; if you want to get technical, Mexico + Guatemala)
Think about that analogy. California was once part of Mexico. In Southern California, when I am working down there, I am the only person in my industry who is not fluent in Spanish.
There have been reports that Putin is so lost in his bubble that he thought Ukrainians were on his side. Obviously he expects that they want a return to the Soviet-era dictatorship that he still lives inside of, in his head, a delusion supreme. This guy has lost it.
Remember those stories of Japanese soldiers lost in the jungle somewhere in Southeast Asia, who thought the war was still going on decades later?
Let’s be completely clear:
The opposition to Justice Brown is purely racist and sexist.
The central reason anyone has a problem with this fabulous woman is because she is not white, because she is not a man, and because she stands for democracy and for diversity, and not for the Neanderthal society that keeps whites in charge, keeps men in charge, keeps straights in charge, keeps rich people in charge, and keeps Christians in charge (thank you Christy for the last one).
Welcome to the Confederacy, Marsha Blackburn, you are just another person who might as well be a KKK supporter.
And because she is appointed by Biden and not Republican. Let's still hope for her swift approval.
And why are Republicans so united in opposing the Democrats? What lies underneath that animosity? What is the source of that furious opposition?
Because they are afraid. They are in the process of being outnumbered demographically. And they think that life is a zero sum game. The "others" will take their jobs, their homes, their food and their rights to be bigots, controllers of women's bodies and wow...have differing religious views or even none. They are terrified of diversity - whether it is skin color or thought. Their world view is that of a warring pack of hyenas. They will not be converted to decency. They simply need to be outnumbered and outvoted. Marginalized.
That fear is fueled every day by Rupert Murdoch - an Australian billionaire puppeteer. And fueled by an economic system that rewards outrage and lies - that make millionaires out of liars. Carlson, Rogan and the like make fools of Americans and get rich doing it.
There needs to be a "fact check" channel that will evaluate the statements of all broadcasters, politicians, pontificators and podcasters.
Of course, if we were really serious about condemning such, we wouldn't buy the products pushed on Fox.
Bill, You said it all. FEAR.
Exactly!
Explains their need for guns ‘n ammo.
Also explains their need for an autocrat in the WH.
Maybe they will see the flaws in the autocrat thing, since even if Putin accomplishes his goal, he and his country will suffer greatly in treasure and lives. Even autocrats like Hungary's Orban and Turkey's Erdogan aren't supporting Putin.
I would also add in a strong dash of rage.
Fear is the primary tactic used by the Republicans. FEAR is how Trump defined Power. Perfect explanation is stated by Michael Douglas in "The American President" when he says his opposition (in the movie) - clearly a Republican - is that the only tactic is to find something to make the voters fearful and then play on that fear - but never suggest a solution. In the current case, what would the GOP suggest as the "cure" of their fear of Judge Brown-Jackson - an all white SCOUS? (which is what they would say if they dared speak their position out loud)
.
Love that movie. And that soliloquy.
Bill, they're already outnumbered, now we need to be sure they're outvoted!
👍 x a gazillon
BBBAMMO!! good shot Nancy.
With all of the frustration and distractions, and now the abomination taking place in Ukraine, the most pressing task for all of us is to ignore the lies of the right wing, overcome the voter suppression, and do everything we can to vote and to help those who are in danger of disenfranchisement to do the same. Watching the grim determination of Ukrainians in the face of enormous odds fight the enemy, the least we can do is to quit whining about inflation and the price of gas and decide to make a difference.
😊
Amen!
A fact check channel, indeed, Bill. I actually pitched Amazon on creating Amazon Orb, an app with an algorithm that collects all pertinent information on a subject and determines the truth. I realize the proposition is a little scary, but there has to be an alternative to politically motivated politicians and talking heads telling us what to think.
That's a great idea, although the GOP would simply refer to it as a "liberal" or "radical leftist" channel and completely ignore it! After all, they have "alternative facts"!
I keep seeing and hearing Jack Nicholson's famous line from A Few Good Men: ":You can't handle the truth!"
Love your idea Randy 🏆
Yup.. wheww..and that is sure a tricky-one. We want to be careful of anyone who espouses writing some kind of "Rule-Book" for such. Thank you for the "Orb" thing. The last people we want to kick are those providing the "stuff". The "people" we need to pay attention to are the ones 'in charge of what can be said on their site(s). Remember, I said "keep an eye on" ..and that of course leads to the "fact Checker" and who is paying to keep that site on the air. Did I mention 'Advertisers'? How about some wealthy (politically driven) sponsor. Aarrrgh..gag me! I'm with you though, Randy.
Don't forget the hatred. Anger is an easier emotion to have.
Indeed. It is much easier to be angry than admit to fear.
Right! Although I've practiced Buddhism for many years, practicing equanimity in the face of racism, misogyny, viciousness and bad behavior in general, finds me giving into anger and polarization, too. It's hard to keep an open, understanding mind, much harder than say, posting a pic of Putin with a Hitler mustache on Twitter which I did yesterday! (God, it felt good!)
Reiki also asks that we do the same and it is darn hard especially in the face of monstrous evil. So I make exceptions and use reiki to ground myself.
Unfortunately (well maybe) we are not dealing with Bots. Pulling a trigger is so easy, watching the consequence(s)..not so much.So hard to vacate the human mind of hatred.. Re: the South. Re: belief(s) in some kind of 'god' Re: one nation under god(?) Re: with freedom and justice for all. Hahahaaa..and I would be remiss if I failed to include Re: "we are a Christian Nation". Yeah...all others stay home! Huh? yeh HOME is where you just came from... now GO. Yea Ally House..., we have amongst us an angry mob, miss-guided lambs who have lost their way. And 'church' is now a small part of the answer. The 'church of trump' comes into view. Sickening.
Yes, it can stop us, or push us into heinous acts. Or acts of good and mercy. What is in between? Good vs Evil.
Yes.
While I agree with you 100%, I fear that many of these folks do not want to know the truth or the facts. The lies suit them and make them "feel good" (although it is not making them feel good.) A friend send me a scathing email a year ago, fuming that the price of gas was going to rise to $10 in the summer and furious at Biden over this. Huh?! Did they have a crystal ball? My take is that they're angry, they want to be angry, and they do not care about truth or facts because it's all about their feelings and emotions, "values" and principles." The times that I have confronted people I know with the falsities in their messages to me, they say nothing, and just keep hanging with their tribe, on to the next grievance.
I agree with you Kim—it’s like their point of view is their armor and their anger a drug of choice.
Hi Liz. Hope you are well. Good to see you here. And thanks.
Rock On Kim, rock on. "they're mind" is made up.. and they won't (ie WILL NOT!) be confused by the facts. Yeah.. NEXT! hahahahhhaaa.
I don’t think your comment was tongue and cheek. You hit a home run…..a hole in one. Bill you are a genius. I have long puzzled over the cure for disinformation. A fact finding channel! In concert with NPR perhaps. Or a subsidiary of Heather international. With true and believable due diligence we can appropriately penalize those who traffic in misinformation. Perhaps with categorical venues. You know, one for congressmen one for each so called news agency one for each political party. Call it the Stoplight . Green yellow red. Sum up monthly totals and give percentage evaluations to individual liars. Easy to fund with a para-mutual betting component. Since honesty in both photography and journalism is impossible to achieve your idea of a catch-all “fact-finding”channel might well replace or obviate the need for laws regulating truth in advertising. Let’s “Bill” em. 1500.00 per lie. 750.00 per half-truth. The GOP would be bankrupt in an hour.
Brilliant!!!
BLAMMMO.. good shot Pat.
And CNN is currently in a scandal involving the managers conspiring with the Cuomo family about how to present them in a favorable light. So they were caught doing what Trump did every day at Fox. Since tv is driven by commercial ads it’s hard to imagine one that would survive on checking all the boring facts.
Zucker, the head of CNN who resigned was also connected to trumps web. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/02/03/jeff-zucker-donald-trumo-cnn/.
hahahaa...bye bye Zucker. Keep an eye on that seemingly spinless kid.
And can someone explain to me what their motivation is for doing an entire show about Alex Jones?!?
Finally Liz, WE are spreading the 'light' if you will, that sites/networks, etc have to pay attention to what their sponsors wishes are. Simple fact, sponsors keep the "lights" on when viewership is great.., because 'Advertisers' whose cash pays the sponsor $$$$ are very happy with viewership numbers. So gunning down the poor folks we call the 'media' isn't where the problem is. So many people I speak with never really consider that aspect. Why is faux news everywhere..HAH!! Their advertisers are very happy.. Funny how that woiks :)) huh. I enjoy your posts.
Any chance there is a list of those advertisers somewhere? I don’t watch any of those channels.
I read recently that most of those networks makes most of their money not from advertisement but from cable fees. Also, that it’s some sort of law/deal that requires cable companies to carry them. Is there any truth to that?
A "fact check" channel. Absolutely! I have been dreaming about such a thing since the 80's when 'The Morton Downey, jr. Show' got big. Anyone remember that? He was on afternoon t.v. where I lived and became pretty well known. The garbage he spewed was maddening to me. I now see him as the first mass media assault on truth in ideological discussion. It's been stuck in my craw all this time as I've watched that cancer metastatize through society ever since. I always wanted a response show to dissect and refute his arguments point by point. Probably why I find Prof. Richardson's newsletter such a balm.
YES, hell yes.
You are absolutely right! Fear of becoming the subject of hate and discrimination after years of promoting such behavior.
That’s a curious thought: the racists and sexists becoming the subject of scorn and contempt the same way they have treated others. Nice Judith 👍
So good!
Yeh.. sowing seeds of "hate" and, dissension. Their advertizers' might just pull their ads... bbbboink ...lights out! Gotta luv that!
Yes, you write the truth. Fear is a great driver of evil and it’s been at the the root of humanity. From the beginning, everywhere, including here in America where we destroyed a people who lived here for millennia.
Depends on which "they" you are speaking of. The politicians are consumed by a dark lust for more and more power and money. The MAGA folks in the suburbs, cities and farms are the ones being manipulated by fear and anger being drummed into their heads by the evil rich folks.
Fear + Greed = Monstrous Destruction
Perhaps in part. But I think it is a psychosis that overwhelms any logical fears. It is visceral
Fear? U-Kno-It! Rock on Bill..., rock on!!
Nice Bill. Excellent. 🥰
If Murdoch marginalized and isolated.
Roland.
Perhaps the all day, every day Fox News Demonization of anything associated with democracy or democrats has had a large impact on lining up Pubs?
IF a Republican were to support Jackson then the subsequent Fox News shrill howling at the moon would end their career in public life.
Also. The Rush Limbaugh show makes Fox commentary look reasonable. I listened yesterday and could not believe the nutty stuff they are faking as “callers”.
Lots of folks listening to all this hate that “freedom” allows Roland.
Mike, I read the letters late yesterday and so most probably didn't see this: I commented that I was utterly disgusted with Fox and Tucker Carlson and so emailed them to say that I was appalled with their misinformation, misguided "patriotism" and with Tucker Carlson in particular. I said it is probably a futile attempt, but I felt compelled to say something.
Should you or any other reader feel the same, here is a handy link to contact them.
https://www.foxnews.com/contact
Considering all that the Ukrainians have to face and fight, sending a quick email seems very little to ask to have our voices heard.
Have a good weekend, Mike S. Spring is coming soon.
Sent Fox my "feelings". We should really look at the list of advertisers.
https://dropfox.com/advertisers/
I looked at that, Bill. Depressing.
BTW, back when Texas put out their outrageous abortion ruling, someone on the forum posted a list of the CEOs/addresses of the major corporations headquartered in Texas. I wrote every single one of them. Not even a form letter in reply from any of them.
Thank you for Fox advertiser list. Will boycott and spread the word.
Thanks for the link, Miselle. I wrote an email. And I don't care whose list I get on. I've been protesting since the 60's and feel that we must do all we can to oppose those who oppose democracy.
Miselle. Thank you.
I will think about if I want to elevate my email and IP address to Fox.
It might be a bad idea long term.
We do not know how this story turns out and there is no guaranteed happy ending.
It might even be a bad idea to be a subscriber here.
I wonder if Anonomous could take a mome t to shut down Murdick and expose the personal information of his members... Hello, Anonomous, are you there, reading HCR?
Agreed, Miselle!
Thanks! Will do!
Done.
And I know--from some in my own family--that Fox is the only place they get their "news."
Yes. They are more loyal to Fox News propaganda than to their own family.
If someone in their family disagrees with Tucker Carlson they are excommunicated from said family.
Amazing accomplishment.
Fox has made people religiously radical about Fox lies and propaganda.
May I say that I think Rupert Murdoch and his family should be relieved of their citizenship (that Murdoch was awarded citizenship is thanks to Ronnie Raygun, which says everything one needs to know about the both of them) and tossed out of the country--after paying a huge fine in reparation for the damage to the nation's collective sanity--I doubt Australia would take him back, nor would the UK.
The Canadian and UK peoples were so profoundly uninterested in the baloney that Faux Noise parades as "news" that the network "decided to discontinue" airing the show there due to "low viewership". Smart countries...wish we were as smart.
All the more reason to troll fox and present truth to the propaganda. Use your voice!!
Ugh
Call Fox News
212-301-3000.
Leave a message to tell them to stop the lies and why you are cancelling your Fox service. Then call or email your cable company and unbundle Fox from your selections.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/31/1933075/-If-you-have-cable-you-are-subsidizing-Fox-News-It-might-be-time-to-cut-the-cord-Here-s-how
I read that Fox is only surviving by charging much more to the cable outfits than other cable channels, hence cable prices would be less if Fox was not on the menu. Not sure if you can unbundle.
Spectrum allows unbindling. Check with your cable company.
That's the exact situation.
In my opinion lil tommy tucker and fools Rush in are keys tools in the attempted destruction of our country. Thank you Mike.
Yup.. and we need to keep it that way. Makes it easier to separate the wheat from the chaff. And It's of no use trying to explain to them where the Bear shit in the buckwheat. They get great pleasure dissing you and I as socialists and Bern-outs.
Perhaps it is but a pure, naked lust for power that is couched with rhetorical nonsense. I am not so certain that most Republicans could even clarify a particular ideology. Not to sound too quaint, but perhaps there is a certain thread of human darkness, little e evil that runs through them. You could, I suppose, elevate that idea and call it social Darwinism. There is something going on here that is difficult to describe.
Propaganda explains all, just ask Goebbels
They leave no room for thought. To do otherwise would lead to differences of opinion.
Visceral combination of hatred, guilt and fear of blacks. They would gravitate to Martians before people of color. “Practical” fears are a rationale.
The disquietude at the “other” is baked in. Start from that premise.
"The disquietude at the “other” is baked in. Start from that premise."
And then move on to how that baked in disquietude is exacerbated, misdirected, and weaponized.
How racism is manufactured to misidentify the actual source of existential threats, misdirect rational fears away from that source, and misdirect justifiable anger away from its proper target.
Target the exploited rather than the exploiters
The entire right wing apparatus, including the Republican dominated courts, employed to perpetrate racial injustice in order to
perpetuate economic injustice.
Judges who bent German law to serve the Nazi regime were prosecuted at the Nuremberg trials, in order to emphasize the importance of an independent judiciary.
I really like how you extended my comment. But tonight the Like button died on the vine to prevent me affirming it.
Yes, I so agree. There is an impulse taken to the farthest reach in America to compete, to hustle, to get the edge on others, to exploit…It applies to perhaps 1% of the population but they do enormous damage.
And the result of how they manipulate is that it’s baked in more. Plus ça change, plus c’est le même chose.
Exactly so. You can’t build a cogent belief system in piles and piles of lies - so many contradicting the last, but allowed to seep down - and hope to address the real problems in the real world in a clearheaded way. I think these folks are angry and fearful because none of it makes sense anymore.
Lemme toss this out. I am fairly confident that there are may politicians faking it just to be in the right place should numbnuts run or even prevail. They "Fear" being accused of "failure to be uptight".., Thus having their career terminated, preventing them from actually doing some good, for Dems and R's alike, once the election is done with. A means to an end. Ughhh
They fear their own base.
The source of the opposition, besides opportunism and racism is the complete and utter moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the husk that is the Republican Party. It proudly has no platform or program. It exists solely to obstruct America’s best values and to grab power for its own sake. Oh, and the party is irredeemably corrupt. Other than that, no problem.
And this sells like hot cakes to what I used to call the rank and file. Now I just call them cult
People who are emotionally immature and are just obstructionist, and then there is their fealty, their obeisance to Trump.
Their hate runneth over. I also suspect and underlying self esteem issue.
Yes. The whites-first or whites-only (+ males-first, straights-first, et al) mentality is rooted in low self-esteem. Who am I if I don’t have the power of being white in a white-dominated society?
We Can Stop Fox Network's Lies:
"Russia is now playing Tucker Carlson's false "news" on Fox (regarding their invasion of Ukraine) to the Russian people. This is propagada. See the message below, call Fox, then unbundle Fox from your cable service!!!"
"Tell Fox News: Stop pushing Russian propaganda. Put America and democracy first. Please make a brief call right now. The Fox News number is 212-301-3000. You can tell them:
"I'm an American citizen and a patriot. What your channel is doing right now is aiding our enemies. Put America first. Put democracy first. Don't just push out Russian propaganda. I'm going to follow up with your advertisers and my cable network to tell them the same thing."
[I did it!!! I was able to leave a message after punching (a little angry) number 3. See script below. I also contacted Spectrum and told them to unbundle Fox Network from my TV cable service and I no longer will pay for their channel. (Spectrum isn't the only one that allows this). Thank You!]
Time was FCC regulations strictly limited content for News programs. That should be restored. Stations that do not meet those standards could be labeled (Network) opinion/gossip/nonsense/etc
Nancy It seems to me that station executives have set a strictly limited time for news. I remember Edward R. Murrow. who prohibited any advertising in the middle of his 30-minute nightly news programs. He had the now outlandish belief that he was responsible for providing news rather than an advertising sandwich with a sliver of news squeezed into this sandwich.
Incidentally, Campbell Soup agreed to Murrow’s terms. [My dad handled the Campbell’s advertising account at that time. He met Murrow when they both were in wartime England. Later I would go fishing with Murrow and he introduced my THIS I BELIEVE on CBS radio in 1954.]
WOW Keith!!!
Just wow. He and Walter are greatly missed. But another old wannabe “newsman” is trying to undo their standards. Well, abolish them. Too bad the younger generation has NO clue…
Fox is legally labeled entertainment, but doesn’t keep them from blasting Fox News everywhere. Should be a law against this
I still fail to see what is entertaining about that whole pack of lies.
MaryPat, thanks for the suggestion and the script; I just called Fox and left a message. I don't have cable, but I do very much care about how the Murdoch family, Fox News, and its propagandizing personalities are undermining democracy and actively supporting Russia.
And I'm sharing your script on FB, to widen the action among my contacts. Thanks.
Yes!!
Fox IS a propaganda outlet, like state-operated propaganda outlets in totalitarian countries. Think Tass, Chinese outlets. Think Orwell.
I think Goebbels on steroids
Roland, I don’t wanna think Orwell....
Yup.
I did this and ditched a few advertisers that I knew about.
Jabba....
Lol!
Roland, I believe that the furious opposition is based on their need to demonize Democrats, because otherwise they are barred from winning elections. If they admitted to the fact that Biden has kept his nose to the grindstone, has worked tirelessly to bring our democracy back on course, has managed the pandemic and would have mostly eradicated it except for Rethuglicans' determination that their minions would refuse vaccination, had passed the Relief Act and thus saved our economy, had passed the first infrastructure bill that, even in our Rethuglican-led State, is repairing infrastructure that was crumbling (of course Shotgun Kemp isn't advertising that Biden did this and it's Federal funds at work), then Georgia would be bright blue, rather than iffy purple. The reason for the opposition is simple, the right wing has no platform other than culture wars, to which the majority of voters are opposed, and cutting taxes for the uber wealthy, while the left wants to stimulate business and allow all of us to share in the rewards - you know - the Socialist/Communist thing. They're doing their best to gerrymander, nullify properly-cast votes, and spread misinformation at every turn, hoping that the voters will either be obstructed from casting votes in urban, diverse areas, or be stupid enough to listen to the miscreants on the right who tell them they need to stand up and prove their "Amurikan" creds. As for trying to defeat Ketanji Brown Jackson, surely the racist, sexist Neanderthals are desperate to keep her out of the club, where her presence would suggest to diverse voters that they might be considered citizens, too. I still hold that if the right isn't allowed to nullify votes, we can win the midterms, because whatever the perils, there are still more of us than them!
Your eloquence is only exceeded by your enthusiasm.
Thanks, Bill. I realize that many do not share my enthusiasm, but I'm sticking with it, although I can clearly see the downside possibilities. We can't give up.
Money....
Power.
Fear of losing money and power.
Yep, and white dominance.
The dread of losing power.
All in lockstep with the propaganda master
The national party is now transcendent. There is no room for a Rockefeller Republican, a Jacob javitz. You can’t run for dog catcher nowadays without falling in line, or you will never make it thru the primary. You can thank newt Gingrich for this. Am anxious to see how Liz Cheney campaigns, if she bothers.
Evil Newt left an evil legacy, and a devoted Catholic, what a joke. Going to be a bottleneck at St. Peter’s gate when these deliberately evil types show up.
I have been hollering about Newt ever since I subscribed here. In addition to all of his other crappy contributions, he took republican sociopathic mendacity and organized it for them. The Contract with America was their class project. He deserves a significant part of the credit for what the rethugs are today.
We need Cheney. Would understand if she retires, but maybe she can keep the faith in the spirit of Kyiv.
... team players ... they are playing football ... GameTime USA!!
Selfish ambition begets fear which begets contempt which begets divisions, necessitating alliances for control - being mindful that even these alliances will soon enough be at war with each other. tfg proved this is the way he treats his friends.
Fear and hatred.
I am reminded of "Gone With the Wind." Simply put, their way of life is over. Their vituperative, often irrational statements and behaviors mean desperation IMO. Similarly, as a rich white male supremacist Christian Orthodox authoritarian, Putin is desperate, too. That's not to say they will "go easily into their graves," or that the change is immediate but it is inevitable. On some level they know it.
I'm also reminded of a joke: A man of the nature described above was languishing in Hell. A newcomer arrived and the man recognized and old friend. "Good Lord, Beauregard, what brings you here?" he asked. "You've always led an exemplary life." Beauregard answered, " I did go to heaven and met God. She is Black! I had no other choice."
They want to run the country and support their donors. They seem to have little love for this country as a truly democratic society. The ignorant (as opposed to stupid) do not understand this and have little knowledge of our history. That’s why.
“Let's still hope for her swift approval.”🏆🙏
I can see it now. The irony of VP Harris casting the tie breaking vote in her favor.
YES Roland.
I will give it all my hope energy Roland.
Personally, I think this is more relevant. The repubs are basically against anything Biden says or does or doesn't say or doesn't do or thinks or doesn't think.
I'm in favor
For some background about Ketanji Brown Jackson and how she thinks, here's a Slate article about her first Appeals Court opinion piece she wrote this week. Clear and logical. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/02/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-nominee-opinions-rulings.html
Thanks for this link Barbara.
My first thought as well.
Yes please.
It's also because the Republicans deny the legitimacy of any nomination by the Democrats...just as they deny their right to govern when faced with an election that gave results that they consider inconceivable.
Yes. And why would Republicans in Congress (representing their ilk in society at large) deny Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the right to govern, pushing the Big Lie, voting in large numbers on January 6 after the attack to nullify the election and keep Orange Sewage in charge? What is the source of that furious animosity-opposition-hatred?
Propaganda non-stop against the libtards and socialists, bull Schitt all. HST knew them well “Socialism is the epithet they have hurled at every advance the people have made inThe last 20 years. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people.” Make that ever instead of 20 years in our time.
More like nearly 200 years. The needle stuck on their disc a long time ago.
Hunter S Thompson said that??
Apologies for the attempt at levity. The escapism of Gonzo Journalism was too hard to resist
Nice diversion but...
It is not always instructive to reduce those that hold views that are differen in binary terms...black and white as you would suggest. There's a lot more to it than that. Be it loss of status, opposition to social programs, taxation or government spending, desire to bring the power closer to the people or whatever. The list can be long but everybody doesn't have to agree with the Dems and will never do so thankfully as that way does represent necessarily the will of ALL the people.
But, as we all have seen ad nauseam, propaganda works
❤️
I agree—reductive reasoning negates complexity.
Senseless blind loyalty to The Team ... the very idea that Judge Jackson is "radical left progressive" is laughable ... progressive yes, contrasted with radical right regressive mentality ... radical left? Not even close - if that were so, would she have gone to school, gotten the degree, gotten the job, paid her taxes and worked within the system?? Uhmm ... maybe not ....
Yes. If you are still living in the bubble, the obsolete reality, of the old whites-only male-dominated world, of course putting a black woman on the Supreme Court is radical. Having Michelle and Barack in the White House is radical. So what is laughable to people with their eyes open, who accept the equal status of women and people who aren’t white, is radical to a woman (and an entire political party, Orange Garbage included) who is clearly a relic of the antebellum South. If going into that world is unfamiliar, you have to pull out an old western or old whites-only style movie, to get a feel, or a reminder, for that gestalt.
I happen to be vacationing in Charleston SC among many normal and nice southerners enjoying the 80 degree weather and I’m enjoying the ante vellum architecture that I’m very glad survives though they shot the first cannon at Ft. Sumter.
Thanks, Liz. Many people see a southern “red” state and assume that it means that we are all right-wing, Confederate-flag-waving crazies. We are not. In evidence, I present the 2020 election. Over the U.S. Census South Region, President Biden received approximately 28M votes to the 31M that TFG received. Yes, we lost most of those states. Those losses hide the great diversity of the South. (Thank you, Electoral College and red/blue maps…) In particular, Brookings shows that, “Fully 58% of the nation’s Black population resides in the South.” There are also several areas with above average populations of Latinx people in the South.
Also, people need to remember that no news reporter (or comedian) ever comes to the South looking for sane people. What Americans see in the media does not necessarily reflect the makeup of the places visited.
Still, there is much to fix, starting with Marsha Blackburn! Help us.
https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/2020presgeresults.pdf
https://www.brookings.edu/research/mapping-americas-diversity-with-the-2020-census/
https://bittersoutherner.com/ Learn about the better South?
Thank you for the reminder, Liz - every era contributes value to the evolving organism of human culture ... and I get that people for whom that paradigm works want it to survive - only, how do we see that it does not work well for one and all - it has a place in the whole scheme of things - but is not fit to dominate and dictate universal values for everyone ... who has that right and wherewithal to govern - especially when it descends into perpetual rape/murder and exploitation of the disadvantaged ...?
Liz, I wonder why AutoIncorrect substituted "v" for "b" ("ante vellum"!) It gave me a chuckle. Maybe it would have preferred to write on birch bark?
It seems that this particular Orange is NOT the new Black after all
😁
Haha!
Roland. See my other comment regarding Fox and other far right propaganda.
Propaganda. There are no lies told them except for everything told them
The lock step approach to hang onto power a la Mitch.
I'm sure those are factors, but I think Linda Weide hit the main reason, which is that Biden recommended her.
Yes, but why do they oppose everything Biden does?
Because that has become their platform since Obama was first elected. The Newt began the dismantling of across the aisle discourse,
Yes 👍
When the first African-American became President, when we had our first African-American First Lady, they freaked. That’s when it suddenly dawned on them that the changes in society are structural, permanent, and that their way of life, the old (racist and sexist) society of whites in charge and men in charge, the old society that is near and dear to their hearts, is being seriously threatened. When you think “Republican Party,“ you have to think “diehard racism and sexism,“ or their actions just don’t make sense.
About two days after Obama's inauguration, I turned on N PR in my car only to hear several minutes of diner-dwellers whining "I want my country back." NPR wouldn't call out the racism then and I doubt they, or NYT or WaPo, will do it going forward. Our media are complicit in the destruction of our democracy.
I’m not able to ❤️ your comment for some reason, but I totally agree.
My heart eventually popped up. I sometimes need to learn patience.
Try refreshing-works for me.
I'm having that trouble too, I wonder why?
It is a Substack glitch. Two solutions: Keep clicking on the Heart button or refresh the page and see if it "took" the first time; if not, try again and it should work.
Galilee, I ‘heart’ you. (Don’t have an emojis on this tablet).
It’s not a new thing, would require a trip back to Ronnie , maybe Dickie, or even the Coup of 1934. Being old helps
... marching lockstep with their team ... Major League GameTime USA!!
Marsha Blackburn is trying to be worse than her male, dumb colleagues. She will say and do anything to make sure she stays in the spotlight with them. When we talk about the fact that women should be in charge, we are NOT thinking of her!
I was disappointed in Sen. Marsha for just saying that the nomination is evidence of the Radical Progressive Left. She left out Communist, Maoist, Trotskyite, etc. Jabba would never forget to throw in all the words he has learned lately.
😆😆
No, we are not. I am daily surprised how low some women can go.
Reading about KBJ’s personal story in the NYT was JOY. She’s so very worthy.
Oh yes
Marsha is just true to form. Anything else would be shocking
She’s an embarrassment to TN
I’ve lost track of all the embarrassments. They’re in every state. I cheered wildly, in my heart, when Devin Nunes retired from politics to go to a new venture that is guaranteed to fail, just another orange grift.
Worse than
A snip from an AP story.
“Biden and Senate Democrats are hoping for a bipartisan vote on the nomination, but it’s unclear if they will be able to win over any GOP senators after bitterly partisan confirmation battles under President Donald Trump.”
The Democrats did their best to shoot down Republican nominees to the Court. Republicans will return the fire.
Anybody want to compare the Repub nominees to the latest one, Nah, nobody wants to remember Mitch’s dirty tricks and the less than stellar nominees…
Perhaps Murkowski and Collins will make it bipartisan....maybe Romney.
Nope. I'm done believing there are "reasonable" Republican. They are, each and every one of them, Republiqans, devoted to hatred and conspiracy theories. Murkowski is enough of a maverick that she might vote for Jackson, but not Collins or Romney.
... football ... time for a 'Statue of Liberty' play ...?
Gorsuch got three ( I think ) thumbs up from Dems, so I don’t expect parity at all.
Marcia should STFU and go back to reading her book.....
COMPLETELY CLEAR. And HORRID. All the power and gratitude to President Biden for appointing such an outstanding candidate to our Supreme Court. Time for democracy to reign.
Agree completely. So bogus that she says the President cannot nominate anyone when there is a war somewhere. What she means is that no Democrat should nominate anyone ever. Who knows she might actually be a KKK supporter since she is clearly for white supremacy.
What she means is that nobody should nominate a black, ever, ESPECIALLY if she is a woman.
But yes I agree, what she means is that no Democrats should nominate anyone ever.
Michelle, it occurs to me that there was a "war going on somewhere" when Jabba appointed justices. More republican hypocrisy on top of layers of hypocritical lies....
As Jan Brady might say at this juncture re: Sen. Blackburn, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha..."
Eloquently stated Roland. That is exactly the point. I think this sh*t is getting old.
Racism is getting old. Sexism is getting old. Stupidity-ignorance is getting old. The babies in our society need to grow up.
It appears her degree in Home Economics prepared her for many things but not for being on the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. Senate. This is not a slam against Home Ec in anyway, just her amoral behavior.
I didn't think Biden should have restricted his choice by promising a nominee of a particular gender and race. But it's obvious to me that Brown is eminently qualified to be on the Supreme Court, and I think that as a Black woman, her perspective will make it a better, fairer Supreme Court.
Biden could have chosen a white male and the Republican reaction would have been the same. This is their standard reaction to everything he does. In fact, I am surprised they did not tie this to him aiding Putin, and weakening America. But wait, the days are early yet. Whatever he does they will be coming up with all kinds of outlandish and crazy stories about each and every thing he does because that is the party modus operandi. It us up to everyone else to throw that back on them and say, "they are obviously unhinged and not operating with a full deck!"
Sick truth, dear Roland & Christy.
Perfect Roland! I wonder if Marsha would be ok if the mid-terms get delayed or canceled due to ongoing conflict with Russia?!
Ukraine is alone. The people do not know how they will survive.
Last night, on The Rachel Maddow Show, a man spoke with Rachel, a restaurant owner who is living with some neighbors in the basement of their apartment building, which was bombed by the Russian military. He said that he didn’t know whether to stay in Kyiv or to leave. ‘No place is safe.’ He asked the people of the world to help Ukraine. ‘We are a small country. We cannot match …’
‘Please, don’t be silent.’
‘My friends are in basements, in flight, and under fire. Help.’
By Timothy Snyder
‘Yesterday I sent out a list of charities and NGOs who are helping Ukrainians during Russia’s senseless and murderous invasion. Some of you asked for places where you could use your credit cards instead of bank transfers. The below list are international charities working in Ukraine who can take donations from credit cards:’
Libereco Partnership for Human Rights, evacuation and medical assistance
https://www.lphr.org/en/humanitaere-soforthilfe-fuer-die-ukraine/
Caritas, humanitarian assistance
https://www.caritas.org/ukraine-appeal-22/
Malteser International, evacuation assistance. (Make sure you have selected "Ukraine")
https://www.malteserinternational.org/en/donation.htmlamount-100&interval=0&fb_item_id=24633
‘And then others of you were intrigued by the mention of the crowdsourcing of the Ukrainian army. If you want to do that, go to
Army SOS'
https://armysos.com.ua/en/help-the-army
To fund protective and other defensive gear for the Ukrainian army, go to
Save Life'
https://savelife.in.ua/en/donate/
Please help them.
Fern, here are some additional resources from Valarie Kaur of The Revolutionary Love Project (( https://www.revolutionarylove.net/ )):
HOW TO HELP IMMEDIATELY:
#1 Click here for a curated list of organizations you can choose from to support the people of Ukraine. These have been vetted by partner organizations we trust and our friends on the ground.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CdrWLAkEaOMV7fBbIWzHsgHmFz8s1GM6e_7a57oc3ug/mobilebasic
*******
#2 Contact your elected officials to voice your support for peace in Ukraine.
https://www.uacrisisresponse.org/events
*******
To learn more, read these:
Russia's at war with Ukraine. Here's how we got here (NPR) - A detailed overview of what's happened between Russia and Ukraine since Ukraine gained independence.
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/12/1080205477/history-ukraine-russia
*******
Ukraine profile (BBC) - This timeline provides deep historical context on the evolution of the region that is modern day Ukraine.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18010123#:~:text=1772-1795%20-%20Most%20of%20western%20Ukraine%20is%20absorbed,development%20of%20Ukrainian%20literature%2C%20education%2C%20and%20historical%20research
... and this message from Valarie:
"My loves,
"I have been breathless watching the terror in Ukraine unfold. Russia’s invasion comes in the midst of nearly a decade of escalating tension, violence, and antagonization. Since 2014, at least 14,000 lives have been claimed as the result of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and persistent military presence.
"To the people of Russia: We see you marching in the streets, risking arrest, bearing the cold, and holding your signs high: NO WAR. Your courage is a beacon. You show the world that Russia’s leadership is not Russia’s people. Only you have the power to stop this war at the source. Keep going!
"To the people of Ukraine: We see you — waking to the sound of sirens, pulling your children from the windows, and preparing to protect all you love. We tremble with you, and wail with you. You are not alone. We are rising up in solidarity and sending you our prayers, our action, and our aid.
"To the children of Ukraine: When I told my son about you, he wanted to send you our prayer Tati Vao Na Lagi. My grandfather sang this as a soldier in World War II. When German air raids came at night, he slept on the ground and imagined this Sikh prayer as his shield. So tonight, we closed our eyes and sang his prayer for you. We imagined a shimmering gold shield around your homes and your families and you. The prayer means: “The hot winds cannot touch you, you are shielded by Love.”
"And so, I ask all of us:
"What if we made a shield of love?
"What if this was the moment an unprecedented number of people around the world stood against war? What if we shifted collective consciousness so that never again would any government win support to start a war? What if our voices and songs and actions flooded Russia and Ukraine now, bringing aid and courage and change?
"We can choose to see no stranger — to see the people of Ukraine as our family, and the soldiers of Russia as lost ones who can be called home. We can let that sight shape how we grieve — and what we do. Each of us has a role.
"Just remember, my love, we are tired and wired and stressed from pandemic and injustice. Now, war. So breathe and rest before you push, read and learn before you respond. Revolutionary love is not the sacrifice of an individual, but the practice of a community. Together, courage."
Yours,
Valarie
... and more, from this inspired, purpose driven young mother:
A GUIDED INQUIRY FOR THIS MOMENT
I invite you into this guided inquiry to process emotion and find breath and action.
Where do you notice feeling grief in your body? What is the quality of that grief? What is the shape of grief inside of you? If it feels uncomfortable, take another deep breath and stay with it. Breathe through it.
What does your body need to be brave with this grief? What do you need to feel it and to move through this energy? What rituals are you called to? Who do you need by your side.
Who have you not yet grieved with? Whose story have you not fully let into your heart? What community’s struggle have you not fully taken in? Notice what is happening in your body. If your fists tighten, or your heart beats fast, or if shame rises to your face, it’s okay. Breathe through it. Trust that you can. The heart is a muscle: The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. You don’t need to know people in order to grieve with them. You grieve with them in order to know them.
What do you need to do to be able to grieve with them? What vigils or marches need you? What houses of worship are you ready to visit? What phone call are you ready to make? You can begin where you are, with a simple text or email, saying to someone “I’m here for you."
You have a role to play that no one else can play. You don’t have to know all the answers now. You simply need to allow yourself to feel the power that you have, the abilities that you have, the voice that you have, and invite that deepest wisdom inside of you to guide you into what you need to do now and next.
*******
This guided inquiry comes from the GRIEVE portal on our Learning Hub. Explore the full Learning Hub, with all our resources, available to you here:
https://valariekaur.com/learninghub/
*******
The Revolutionary Love Project envisions a world where love is a public ethic and shared practice in our lives and politics. We generate stories, tools, and thought leadership to equip people to practice the ethic of love in the fight for social justice.
https://www.revolutionarylove.net
https://www.facebook.com/valarie.kaur.page/
https://www.facebook.com/revloveproject/
https://mobile.twitter.com/revloveproject
https://www.instagram.com/valariekaur/
*******
The Revolutionary Love Project is a project of Community Partners, a nonprofit fiscal sponsor and intermediary organization that provides us with administrative services, expert guidance, and the benefits of tax-exempt status.
https://communitypartners.org
How could I have not known about the Revolutionary Love Project and Valerie Kaur until now? This is just what our country and the world needs. I know that I need it. I look forward to reading Valerie Kaur’s book, See No Stranger.
Thank you so, so much, Kathleen, for sharing this.
<3
Thank you ☺️
❤️❤️🌿❤️❤️❤️
Yes, I am with Fern's many hearts on this! Another Bravo!!
❤️🌿❤️🪴
Beautiful.
Envisioning a shield of love and compassion and strength is exactly how I went to sleep last night, after watching the NYT video of ordinary citizens taking up arms to protect their home, women included. Certainly this has happened for millenia, but only in recent years have we been able to watch it happen in real time. Yes, if we all did this, created a shield of love, what might happen? Let's try.
... with you in circle of healing light and love, Beth ... many such networks of focused energy and intent wrapping around our planet - it's the least we can do!!
Oh my God, I am praying and crying for all of you.... this will be the turning of the tide in our world, I have to believe that.
This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing.❤️🥲❤️
And another...https://togetherrising.org/give/
Charity Navigator gives them a 97 rating.
BIG Thank you, Kathleen. Speaking for the forum, hoping there are no objections, Much Thanks.
And thanks to you too Fern - and all of us who spend hours on end to share in this forum - especially to Professor Cox-Richardson for giving us the timely information, insight and platform to share ...!!
Thank you, Kathleen. I shared these on Facebook.
Snyder has an excellent article on his sub stack "Thinking About" today and adds both lists where people can contribute.
I posted most of it here. It is near but not quite at the end of today's forum.
When you look into what the Ukrainian people have gone through at the hands of the Russians in the past you can begin to imagine why they are fighting so very hard for their country and their way of life.
The movie 'Mr. Jones' is a painful, horrible story about the Soviet Union starving millions of Ukrainians (don't watch it if you are not feeling particularly sturdy emotionally) ~ it gutted me, but did give insight into the history of Ukraine under Russia. It's currently available on Hulu.
Thank you, I have to watch it, painful or not. It's the least that I can do.
Thanks Fern.
Thank you Fern! I am happy to contribute, only sorry that I can't give more. I would get on a plane, and learn how to shoot a gun and get there asap and help fight if I could. I am devastated about this.
You are generous, Cynthia. Please stay strong in spirit and love. Salud!
Thank you, Fern. I shared these on Facebook.
Thank you, Mim.
A wonderful, inspiring letter Professor Richardson, thank you. I salute the Ukrainian people and their brave leader. I think of Allen who wrote here the past two days and I hope he’s safe with his wife and dog Lucky! I keep thinking of him and so many like him. Photos of women and children in hiding, the resignation of the little ones in contrast to our privileged schoolchildren in America who must not be made “uncomfortable” by what they are taught… it’s sickening. But as usual, Heather gives me a ray of hope.
Well, our children are taught to hide under desks and teachers are forced to learn how to shoot because America slaughters its children.
So SHAMEFUL!
Yes, I have been thinking about Allen also.
Allen ❤️‘ed my Zelensky post, so he’s reading us.
Great news!
Good to know.
❤️
❤️❤️❤️
💞
He has a post on his blog today. They are okay so far but have prepared if they need to leave.
Judy, can you give us a link to his blog. Haven't been able to find it.
https://dablogfodder.blogspot.com/
Thank you, Judy
Thank you for this, Judy. I sent Allen my thoughts.
Me, too.
Open letter from Russian scientists and researchers, published in Le Monde - I've found an English-language article about it. A quick quote: "Following the invasion, scientists in Russia swiftly circulated the letter, which was then published on TrV-Nauka – an independent Russian science news site. The letter states that having unleashed war, Russia has “doomed itself” to international isolation and to the position of a “pariah country”.
“This means that we, scientists, will no longer be able to do our job normally: after all, conducting scientific research is unthinkable without full cooperation with colleagues from other countries,” the letter states, adding that the isolation would result in further “cultural and technological degradation” of Russia with the war with Ukraine representing a “step to nowhere”.
“We respect Ukrainian statehood, which rests on really working democratic institutions,” the letter states. “We treat the European choice of our neighbours with understanding. We are convinced that all problems in relations between our countries can be resolved peacefully.”
Link to the article: https://physicsworld.com/a/russian-scientists-condemn-ukraine-invasion-as-international-projects-and-meetings-thrown-into-doubt/
Well done by the scientists, but I suppose Putin is relying on China for the future; so, not quite "paria country".
But that reliance on Beijing comes at a very heavy price that Putin doesn't want to pay. China does not consider that it has equal partners; you are either a "competitor" or a follower.
Putin will become Xi’s vassal. China covets Siberian resources. Putin May not care as long as he and his oligarchs remain wealthy. The wild card remains Russian urban populations especially those under 40 who grew up post USSR and are wired together on Signal and Telegram and get their information from the web. Will demonstrations expand? What happens when coffins come back home?
The great threat, blocking SWIFT, is not yet imposed because it would hurt Germany and Europe too much. As long as Putin can sell Russian gas and oil to China I think he is comfortable as a follower.
Agreed about the normal shying away from principles and pain of the soft underbelly of the EU but china is a stern taskmaster and as with Fauste, he will have to pay the price and bend the knee. His fellow oligarchs will "deal" with him before he gets that far down the road. They fear their chinese counterparts' ruthlessness perhaps more than the fear the US.
Stuart, You are correct. China will chew them up, take control of most of Eastern 'russia' and make them less than a regional power.
Putin? I'd stay away from windows on upper floors if I were him. Don't drink the tea and consider Depends instead of underware.
I was wondering if it would hurt the good old usa too much (read autocrats and corporations) that's why we haven't done it?
No. It was European countries blocking the SWIFT sanction, not us.
White house should hear from us. Go ahead and impose swift. We are at war, or, aren't we?
So, one's a paria(h), two's company?
'Paria' comes from the British observation of the Indian caste system, and its lowest 'the untouchables'. Which in turn was the outcome of one of the few instances in world history where a conquering, city based civilization, was hurt by microbes among their 'primitive' victims. So, having common germs of autocracy I would say the largest country and the second largest economy are company.
... and three’s a crowd. Who else could possibly be added to that unholy alliance between Putin and China? North Korea? This is a “friendship” with very little space for new players.
Modi in India
Relieved to see you here this morning. Still thinking of you and your family, hoping you're safe.
Ditto!
Tfg
Ready and waiting, puffed up and slimy
Wow.
"The Ghost of Kyiv" is entirely possible, since there are Ukrainian fighter pilots who have been trained at Top Gun, according to a good friend of mine who is a former commander of the training school and "in a position to know these things."
Long live the Ghost of Kyiv!
If he or she is not real then he or she would of necessity been invented as a prerequisit of strengthening the resilience of the people and their resistence to the oppression of the invaders. They are necessary during the conflict to strengthen the morale of the troops and can become a rallying cry for opposition and insurrection thereafter should it be necessary.
Stuart, I believe the woman who handed out sunflower seeds is another iconic person helping the people of Ukraine strength and the morale to continue.
“Sunflower Spirit.” Whatever gives hope. 🌻
Yes! Excellent! The element of story is so vital in boosting morale, in bringing hope and encouragement.
Zelensky may be an actor/comedian but he understands “strengthening the resilience of the people and their resistence to the oppression of the invaders.” Putin was not wrong to be terrified of Zelensky. He is admirable. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/02/26/zelensky-selfie-street-video-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/russia-ukraine-military-conflict/
I hope there really is a "Ghost of Kyiv." There are lots of tweets about him or her.
https://twitter.com/search?q=the%20ghost%20of%20kyiv&src=typed_query
While so much anguish fills Ukraine, I love that the hopes and spirit of her people soar high above all of Putin's madness to manifest themselves in the courage and bravery of the Ghost of Kyiv!
"The Ukraine resistance has given rise to the Ghost of Kyiv, a fighter pilot who may or may not be real, and who may or may not be a woman, and who has shot down six Russian planes. Such a superhuman legend symbolizes Ukraine’s people this terrible week."
Thank you, Heather, for leaving us with this strengthening image.
I look at the pictures of this fine old city, and I think of the part of Moussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" that everybody recognises: The Great Gate of Kyiv. Listen to this, and weep, and be strong. THIS is Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw7OM_Q810k
Thank you Anne-Louise! “Pictures…” has been a favorite since I was quite young; but especially “The Great Gate…”! I always thought Kyiv was in Russia. A pox on the late, unlamented USSR!
That recently acquired knowledge sent my brain reeling, thinking of all the peoples/cultures that have been absorbed, “disappeared” throughout history! It made me think of my people; all the African American communities that have been moved, paved over, drowned, urban renewed, gentrified, and on and on and on.
“A pox on the late, unlamented USSR!”
. . . and on the kleptocrats with their futile effort to revive it. Good luck with that.
Another of my favorites (I could never hope to master the tuba part in Bydlo) but have heard many renditions of "Pictures at an Exhibition". The "Great Gate of Kyiv" is an amazing brass piece.
A majestic theme reflecting the courage and faith of the people of Ukraine
Thank you so much for the link, we have much to learn from the Ukrainians!
My heart is with Allen, Tanya, and Lucky, the Ukrainian people, the 1800 Russians who were arrested for their anti-war protests, and all the innocents who suffer under autocratic governments around the world. Sending them love and light.
My love is also, believe it or not, with a war hawk, General Leonid Ivashov. Strange times makes strange bedfellows.
Don’t believe the misinformation about his rank: “Colonel-General” in the Russian army is one rank below Marshal. Marshal is essentially Napoleon’s rank, military head of government. So Ivashov had the highest rank possible to him.
In a letter from an association of retired Russian military officers, he is speaking the consensus of that group.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/593880-a-retired-russian-generals-criticism-may-signal-a-larger-problem-for?amp
Strange bedfellows, indeed. Very important reading though, Roland. Thanks very much for sharing. The curse and the blessing of being open-minded (i.e. liberal) in philosophy is to understand the importance of truth-telling, wherever we find it. Kinda sorta like heralding Liz Cheney's stance on tfg while admitting that I don't agree with her political point of view.
Yes, exactly
Liz Cheney may well mother the former Republican Party out of hiding. She is loved in Wyoming now after the hiccup Republicans dug their rowels in her flanks flaying her with their spurs. You don’t mistreat your horses there, and you damn sure don’t mistreat women. You can take that to the bank! I kinda suspect that tough little gal would make ole Will Rogers smile with respect and he’s still a hero in some parts. I bet she snores like a chainsaw!
"...[the EU] and Britain froze the European assets of Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov..."
Something that will affect far more Russian oligarchs than just those two:
"Feb 25 (Reuters) - British transport minister Grant Shapps said in a tweet on Friday that no Russian private jet can fly in UK airspace or touch down, effective immediately."
Owning property in a stable country such as the UK is a classic method for laundering the proceeds of crime. It must be humiliating to have to use public transport to visit estates owned by Russian oligarchs.
Jonathan, it is my understanding that the Biden White House also sanctioned Putin and lavaroff. Delta Airlines will no longer share codes with Aeroflot, to enable transfers to connecting flights to Russia. International businesses, sports associations, racing, and performers are cancelling events in Russia and banning Russian teams from play or participation. This will be be hardest on the Russian people, not the oil-igarchs — but my hope is that it will cause a general uprising and drive vlad and his rich friends from the kremlin.
I think we are moving fast to banning flights into and out of Russia and Belorussia or any phoney stop-over connexions originating there.
Not until recently did I make the connection between “Belorussia” and “Belarus.”
oil-igarchs 🏆🏆
Exactly.
Now just watch for the attempts to sell the most expensive houses in London by their purported company owners who are registered in some idyllic Central American or Carribean financial haven. Then come across town to the City and observe the share movements where the same cash whitewashing entities try to move their ressource to "friendlier" climes.....and all with the help of the brightest legal and accounting minds working for the the world's major banking, legal and audit services.
Can you spell C-R-E-D-I-T S-U-I-S-S-E?https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/20/credit-suisse-secrets-leak-unmasks-criminals-fraudsters-corrupt-politicians
Fun and games all over the world. What price "Panama Papers" ? This Bank has being going through an interesting period with severe losses and carelessly choosing and losing a number of very important Directors.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is an excellent choice. Contrary to Senator Marsha Blackburn, I actually took solace that Biden was moving ahead despite the war in Ukraine - without hesitation, it is exactly what should be done! I suppose the republicans are now going to say there isn't enough time left in Biden's presidency.
The war in Ukraine is disturbing on so many levels and distressing for what the future might hold. Putin may have overplayed his hand but he is not going to back off (and lose face) no matter how much destruction is done or how many lives are taken and destroyed. Once again a narcissistic madman wreaks havoc. In today's world, there are enough unhinged people in power where the tactical use of nuclear weapons is a hair raising reality.
Marsha the Dumb Bunny is proof that you *always* need to know the political affiliations of your medical professionals (she was a nurse), lest you allow your vitals to be touched by a moron. She got her start supporting the Sacklers who drugged out the community she's supposed to "represent."
TC, I’ve always known that Blackburn was a vicious opportunistic sociopath, but I didn’t know about the opioids. By a nurse, no less. So she is the real moron. Thanks.
Why not nurses, doctors were prescribing them by the million to their own financial advantage
Nice 🏆
Yup, she is a definitive POS.
Took the words right out of my mouth
In defense of my profession, we do have ethical codes we must follow. Her nursing license should be revoked if it hasn't been already.
Medical people are supposed to be smart, they can also be crazy and warped. She is proof
Jeri. Having, as a ChE gone through much of the curriculum that premeds go through I can tell you that those premeds were routinely in the bottom half of the class performance.
Furthermore. Their overall curriculum prioritizes memorization not systems analytics.
So. A newly minted MD’s first need and exposure to complex analytics necessary to diagnose (anything) is after they graduate and start practice.
Yes. Their lack of analytical training shows up every day all day in misdiagnosis.
However. There are no consequences for misdiagnosis in American medicine often in even grievous instances of misdiagnosis unless the patient dies and can prove the misdiagnosis as cause.
Interesting, Mike, I had no idea that the undergrad work was similar for Chemical Engineering and medicine.
I know a brilliant girl, Gynecologist, whose dad accepted no dissent from his republican nonsense her whole life. She married a radiologist with the same bent. Doubt she ever questioned either. BTW, Mom never questioned him either and she is the smartest woman I have known. Generational ignorance and so proud
hmm...I made it all the way through school and post-grad training thinking about mechanism and principle, memorized only what was necessary and thought my way through most of it. I worked very hard, was definitely not lower half of the class, nor were most of my med school classmates. You're painting with an awfully broad brush.
Look at the sociopaths that come from famous law schools. The same happens in medicine.
Wonder what the %age is by profession. I knew a candidate or two in psychology grad school dept in Houston.
A friend's grandson is part of a group now being deployed to the front lines in Poland. :(
Sending prayers for him and his family as he defends our democracies. I understand this is a multinational NATO response force put on standby in case of incursion by Russia into NATO countries.
From the US?
https://www.rferl.org/amp/us-troops-arrive-poland/31687938.html
Same.
Thank you, Janet, for lower-casing “republicans.” Perhaps it is time to diminish people like marsha blackburn. Oh, excuse me, senator marsha blackburn, dishonorable senator from what is otherwise the great state of Tennessee.
Unfortunately when you lower case their name it implies that they respect "republican" values which can be highly ambiguous no matter how nice it sounds.....somewhat democratic (small "D") verging on the "Left" in nature in certain parts of the world such as France but very misused in others where it only really implies dictatorship by someone who does not declare he or she is there by "divine right" and "annointed by God"! This ambiguous word leaves a very wide gap for them to charge through and trample any opposition if they could or when they can.
Ah, excellent point.
Putin overplaying his (and his fellow oligarchs) hands may be the only way for the Russian people to finally rise up and depose him. I first wrote "dispose" him. That, too.
I’ve been thinking that, thanks for voicing. This event, Ukraine, might be his undoing, if not his end. Elsewhere here on this page, I said that he would be executed. Came to me yesterday out of the blue.
"I suppose the republicans are now going to say there isn't enough time left in Biden's presidency." 🤣🤔😮😡
Exactly
The current price of oil (presumably also natural gas) should support all manner of alternatives to Russia's supply, provided the infrastructure to distribute it from other sources is there. I don't see why the US is withholding its leverage over this international system of money transfer. There's a full scale war going on in the Ukraine; what more provocation is needed to lock up their access to cash from the sale of oil and gas?
The world is full of guns for hire; why not funnel money to mercenaries who will fight alongside Ukrainians? It'll be awhile before we learn what our CIA, Britains secret service and other clandestine arms of other countries are doing during this time, but you can bet your last dollar that they are playing some sort of role, very likely in the cyber-realm.
Our MAGA crowd has now shot themselves in the foot so often it's a wonder they have any feet left at all as they publically admire Putin and label Biden "weak" when the US has galvanized all of Europe and other allied nations into coordinate sanctions against Russia. The GOP has boxed itself into a corner when it's only agenda is to criticize everything that Biden says and does, even when those things might otherwise fit nicely into a republican agenda. I feel terrible for Ukrainians, but oddly thankful for something "real" to draw our attention as an alternative to the endless drone of US national politics over the last 18 months or so.
Because it's not just Russian oligarchs who benefit from SWIFT. Russian retirees who are citizens of the Balkans receive their retirement payments from the companies they used to work for through SWIFT, among others. As has been pointed out by people who know more about finance than you and I do, the sanctions on the companies and individuals target them more effectively and more completely than hitting them with the scattershot of SWIFT.
Though at some point TC compensation programs can be put in place for relief of individuals but the essential point is that freedom has a price and we will all have to pay it to keep the flame alive.....the Russian people too.
How do we know this? How supple and fast acting is the Russian compensation system?
Consider how Putin's monstrous actions can turn against him in Russia We are all going to me affected by what he is doing. There will be at least thousands of deaths, pain, suffering and economic losses, not just at the pump. The Russians are going to suffer and suffer, emotionally and economically. too. Does he care? Not a bit. Taking Russia out of Swift and any other sanction and military deployments -- doing what is necessary to put an end to this DEVIL, must be done and done carefully to protect people as much as we can and to protect the planet.
Actually it was several of our NATO Allies that pushed against the SWIFT sanctions
Yes, it will hurt them. As this monster marches on, we all must take into account what he is doing -- he's a mass murder.
Not the Russians but the Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian governments using funding from Brussels...the EU knows how to write checks.
Let's see, we'll avoid inconveniencing Russian retirees while Ukrainian citizens die of rocket attacks. That sounds like a reasonable tradeoff. I'm sorry, but if the tools we have are blunt instruments, then let's pound away with those blunt instruments. Those Balkan retirees can migrate over to Moscow and collect their pensions in paper money, or use some alternative to the system used by the West. Somehow I don't feel all so sorry for financial collateral damage, when flesh and blood is being spattered against the earth in Ukraine.
There is the additional problem that when you are acting as part of a coalition, it's like being in a convoy - you can't go faster than the slowest ship.
Thanks for this TC
Thank you TC.
Psaki said again and again this week. The current sanctions are aimed at the Russian wealthy. The Administration is trying to spare the Russian people.
indeed...let's spare Russian citizens inconvenience while their Ukrainian cousins are dying in firefights. It's those Russian citizens that are one lever against their president. The quicker they feel the pain, the quicker they will begin to take steps to push him aside.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/world/europe/russia-protests-putin.html#:~:text=Thousands%20of%20Russians%20protest%20President%20Vladimir%20V.%20Putin%E2%80%99s%20assault%20on%20Ukraine.%20Some%20chant%3A%20%E2%80%98No%20to%20war!%E2%80%99
It's important to persuade our allies to go along with major sanctions, especially with ones that will affect them more than us.
They have far more to lose when Putin acts without consequence than they will ever have from the inconveniences of sanctions against him and his country.
I think that European leaders see that, too. The BBC reports that even notoriously pro-Putin Viktor Orbán is now joining other EU leaders in condemning the invasion of Ukraine.
Maybe Blackwater or current iteration can help. Sorry, snark
Probably helping the Russians. Wouldn't surprise me. Half snark
When you firmly believe that you can "walk on water", who needs feet?
Wise or profund. Can't decide. Appreciated, nonetheless.
From my current vantage point in Athens, studying Greek in the same time zone as Kyiv, it’s clear many Euro-Americans have become interested in The Current International Affair.
They marvel at what they try to imagine: modern warfare conducted in a European metropolitan area. They think they might be able to relate. “What would I do …?”
I wonder if many of them know what they’re witnessing.
The Euro-American economic system is based on the Big Lie that promises the freedom of massive overconsumption, as a proxy for progress toward social justice, for everyone. This is to be achieved through unsustainably endless economic expansion and technological innovation, providing a constantly growing pool of cheaper and cheaper consumer goods, and allowing all to enjoy the dream - if rarely the reality - of constantly increased access to those goods.
The inevitable outcome of this system is now clear: It is the destruction of the planet in our lifetimes, while producing deepening and irreversible inequality as its primary design feature. It’s ultimate end state is oligarchic, authoritarian Euro-American states, spinning into autocracy, on a dying planet. The ongoing pandemic has provided the cover in many Euro-American states to accelerate this process.
The difficulty in coming to this realization, is that there is nothing in human history or philosophy that has any possibility of successfully replacing it.
It’s not just that the current false ideology of “Freedom through Capitalism” is too deeply embedded in nearly every human being’s DNA for it to be challenged as The Way We Want Things To Be.
It’s also that everything humans have considered and tried to date - every other “-ism” known to humans - has produced, far more quickly, only even greater autocracy than the current system.
This doesn’t make Capitalism (especially when combined with the Abrahamic religions) the better system. It only makes it the more successful “con game” than all the others. It has the key feature of all successful cons:
The “mark” WANTS to believe.
We WANT to believe that we are free. And we are happy to confuse “freedom” with overconsumption, and with speaking without risking sanction (and frankly, not much else), especially when we are disappointed at our failure to access what we believe to be our entitlement to a constantly expanding pool of consumer goods.
Now, today, we add to this “con” in which we are willing “marks” the collapse of the international architecture that had assured the Euro-American populations of an absence of modern warfare on our national territories, in facilitation of the global extension of the “con.” (Even while we repeatedly conducted war all around the globe to control the resources required to sustain endless economic expansion for those lucky enough to reside in the Euro-American land masses, all the while convincing those being victimized that they, too, should want what we have.)
All this changed on February 24, 2022.
**********
Yes, many know that The Rules For International Conduct as enshrined in such aspirational documents as the UN Charter, were unenforceable, and that the P-5 only pretended - unconvincingly - to abide by them. Especially the P-5 member whom I served my entire working life.
Above all others, the US pretense was the most brazen, painting our thievery as being within something we called The Rule Of Law. But when your stick swings in the widest arc, you know folks will likely stand back so’s not to get accidentally bonked on the head.
All the P-5 were clear that the place where we had to abide by the letter of the rules - no pretense - was Where White People Rule. The violent disintegration of my ancestral homeland (Grandpa was a Serb) we could accommodate under ideals of self determination. And intervene as P-5s when the determination seemed overzealous.
But no P-5 member sought territory through the intervention. Only the loosest of client relationships were pursued (and after all, one must choose carefully one’s clients - hence very few EU members to date have come from that pool).
Even a professional thief knows that stealing is against the law. And knows WHY it’s against the law. And perhaps avoids targeting his fellow thieves.
After testing The Rules in 2008 (Georgia) and 2014 (Crimea), and seen a response that amounted to pearl-clutching from a Euro-America addicted to his primary exports of fossil fuels and filthy money (often the same things), one P-5 member has now torn The Rules to shreds.
He has stated he’s ready to target his fellow thieves. He has stated it explicitly, via international broadcast media, for everyone to see and hear. No pretense here.
And if between-the-lines reading is allowed (along with interpretive dance), what he said was:
Three of you P-5s were covertly thieving in my plot. After already stealing three of my handsome baubles (the Baltics), and denying me the use of some problematic but much juicier chunks of What Was Mine (the Central European former Soviet Bloc).
So. F**k. You.
Game over.
************
However one assesses the value of everyone pretending to obey the rules, there was at least the convention that said, “The Rules Exist.”
Even a thief knows it is against the law to steal.
As of 5AM local time on 24 FEB 2022, there is no longer a rule that says P-5s cannot invade other Places Where White People Rule in order to take territory.
A P-5 member has done at the international level what The Last POTUS did domestically to the US:
There are no longer any norms for political or international behavior.
In short: The white people who rule the Euro-American land masses and have been thieving the rest of the world blind, in order that a tiny handful of them can be pornographically rich, with everyone else employed in the service of that minority, will now be tearing out each other’s throats in Europe while melting down their dysfunctional economies, without even the pretense of constraining rules by which to abide, delivering power into the hands of homegrown dictators, and rendering the Earth uninhabitable - all within the next 50 years. Charitably figured.
Which leaves us all with the question:
What Now?
It’s gonna be exciting.
Michael Zorick
US State Department Foreign Service Officer (ret.)
Also read "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein - and also, "Confessions of an economic Hit Man" (original version) - the USA has been doing this - especially in S America, for yonksl
Michael. A complex and dark post to be sure. I will reread later.
However. Your main thesis of the US as a thief? Hard to disagree sadly.
Now, Zorick, I was impressed by your 'spur of the moment' soliloquy. Bravo! How in the world did you survive the USA's Foreign Service?
The last ten years (to 2013 - and you can Google “michael zorick somalia”) I stayed for two reasons: to get a pension; and to bear witness. I make no claim to personal integrity. mz
Michael, I would like to email your comment to a friend. I think he'd appreciate it at least as much as I do. He's also a subscriber but may not be around for a bit. What do you say?
Sure - but please take responsibility if I start to get a bunch of personal attacks. My comment here on HCR’s blog is an imposition on her - but not, I hope, an attack. I have no intention of arguing my points. I do miss having an excuse to write. (And BTW - it only took an half hour. Blogging to a small audience, AKA being a “reporting officer” was my job for 26 years …)
I will only take responsibility, Michael, for personally attacking you and if my friend does so. A hug and or handshake is the worst you can expect from us. You put in out there, and there are thousands now for you to watch out for. Cheers!
Fair remark. And shame on me for somehow expecting immunity on social media.
Dear Michael, it couldn't be a first.
Appreciate your trenchant perspective Michael.
I appreciate the authenticity of your posting coming from experience in serving the US. The UN was a product of its time, a compromise among equals in appearance mostly and a Euro-American invention of White, businessmen-diplomats, capitalists, Christians, winners. I hear your caution as we stand on the side, wringing our hands, waving sanctions, daring not to confront a member of the P-5 even if it is democracy that is being trampled upon in this incursion by Russia. I can despair as well as a hope for the UN and the NATO pact was to prevent the very thing that has (been let to?) play out in an almost model of a nation pursing democracy be choice. Thanks, Michael Zorick.
The P-5 is the UN Security Council, or Permanent Five, Big Five or P5.
Snake Island defenders, all 13 of them Ukrainian, when confronted by a Russian warship demanding surrender: “Russian warship: go F*** yourself.”
Last post.
More on the bravely defiant Snake Island 13:
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1497187425071865870?s=20&t=EbpCVUuhNhp3toxt60-WSg
https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1497379641614422016?s=20&t=EbpCVUuhNhp3toxt60-WSg
John, as you implied, they are heroes all. I salute them, and pray for their families.
FROM CATHERINE THE GREAT TO PUTIN THE INGRATE
(Russian/Soviet/Russian history in five minutes)
Oh whatever glorious times for a poor German princess who became Catherine the Great. Initially it was not an easy journey. She slept through much of it—it might be called upward sleeping, because she chose her lovers carefully.
Eventually she became empress consort and her husband became emperor, which displeased her. She soon arranged for his ‘displacement’ (and convenient sudden death). Whether one of her lovers was involved in this royal switcharoo is unclear.
Catherine the Great was well read, a regal power, and well bedded. She was gracious to her former lovers, one of whom became king of Poland. Over her reign, through military victories and political legerdemain, she significantly expanded Russian territory. An admirer of Voltaire, she sparked the Russian Enlightenment. Russia was considered a great power. Education was touched with English pedagogy.
The serfs fared less well, There were various serf revolts, to which she responded unkindly. She had the habit, on royal occasions, of giving away up-to-100,000 serfs to favorite members of the nobility.
On balance the rule of Catherine was successful. Since then there have been major ups and downs in Russian history, including the assassination of the entire royal family soon after the Soviets seized power.
Stalin liked to kill and take countries. After his compadres let him die came Khrushchev, whose folky and volatile style obliged the Politburo to oust, but not kill, him. Brezhnev was boring and took years to die a slow death. The next several Russian leaders were sickly and soon died, passing the baton to a new type of communist—Gorbachev.
Gorby and Ronnie worked towards ending the Cold War. Gorby’ s efforts to retain communism and the Soviet empire while trying to transform the Russian economy went less well. An alcoholic jerk named Yeltsin pushed Gorby aside and, with the help of oligarchs, sought to govern. When Yeltsin started fading fast, he selected a once-obscure KGB officer as his successor.
Putin has ruled and then reigned since 2000. His first few years went quite well. Then he got quite full of himself and sought to become authoritarian, emulating such past Russian leaders as Ivan the Terrible.
Over time Putin seemed to care less and less about the Russian economy and the Russian people and more and more about himself. He attacked neighboring areas and savored the bloody results. He relished being among the Big Boys and was distressed that he wasn’t treated as a Russian emperor.
A growing fixation was his belief that the break up of the Soviet empire was ‘the greatest tragedy of the 20th century.’ Stealthily and then more callously he sought to restore Russian hegemony in ex-Soviet satellite states. The core of his Greater Russia was Russia/Belarus/Ukraine. Recently the leader of Belarus, who lost re-election, but ignored the results, slithered into Putin’s arm pit.
Ukraine was a less happy saga. A pro-Russian leader was forced out after massive protests. The pro-Western tenor of subsequent Ukrainian governments caused Putin increasing displeasure.
Personal pique led him to deliver an ultimatum:
1) the West must get its ass out of Eastern Europe;
2) Everyone must acknowledge Russian hegemony over the ex-Soviet satellite states; and
3) a Ukrainian military invasion was his Damocles sword, if he didn’t get 1) and 2).
Subsequently things haven’t worked out as he had imagined. Unable to accept the humiliation of public failure, Putin initiated a massive invasion of Ukraine. Depending on how this plays out in coming months and years, he could become Putin the Ingrate, which is quite distinct from Catherine the Great.
Catherine was however in tune with the values of her times......democracy as we purportedly know it was hardly even a flicker in the intellectual mind...and not necessarily in Voltaire's. Putin has alternately tried to emulate her style and acknowledge the influence of his boozy mentor by playing the Russian Sylvestre Stallone. He can't make up his mind which best pleases the serfs that he has no intention of giving away to his circling cronies and eco-political vultures. As the army is the only thing, linked with the KGB residual, that he currently really controls he is using it as he sees fit to ensure his own survival. I keep coming back to an interview he gave prior to becoming "Emporer" to someone like his "friend" Oliver Stone which quoted Putin saying "I know what I'm getting myself into, but I don't know how, if or when I can get out" He diddn't finish his thought by saying "alive".
In dictatorial systems violence is, historically, the only reliable succession process.
Stuart Exactly why I book ended Catherine the Great with Putin the Ingrate in my handy handy guide to Russian/Soviet/Russian history. Katy was in the 18th century while Pipsqueak Putin is more than 300 years later, when basic morality and core human rights have changed considerably in some countries. While I don’t think it fair to call him a Russian Sylvestre Stallone, Putrid Putin seems a natural capo to The Godfather.
When he is chasing polar bears, bare-chested on a quad or playing violent icehockey what else would you call it.
😉🏆🏆
Don't know why, but as you described Catherine's appetites and accomplishments, in my head I kept hearing "she had it all done her way" and an image of Hilly C and Kim Kardashian doing hi-fives. Never know how some folks are inspired by your writing. 🤣
Fred As Sergeant Friday said”Just the facts.” Bed and bored seems a centuries-old theme, though I wouldn’t put Hilly and Kim in the same category—the first seems more bed and board, speaking broadly.
Broadly speaking, two book ends for the earwig, not equals.
I suspect it won't take years or even months. So mark April 15th on your calendar. "All the Kings men and all the Kings horses, couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again."
I am struck by the heroism of those Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island who, facing their inevitable deaths, still told a Russian warship where to go.
I am awed by the courage and bravery of President Zelenskyy who despite knowing that he has been marked for death, is still in Kyiv, leading his people.
Me too.
I've been so very impressed by his continuing to lead in place rather than escape the capital knowing he is a hunted man. And continuing to cheer on his people and advocate for his country under the most threatening of circumstances. However this ends, he will be held up as a Global Hero by democracy loving citizens everywhere, and rightly so. May he be an ongoing inspiration to leaders and ordinary citizens around the world.
Dr. Richardson, this is a stellar letter which is packed with inspiration on so many levels. Many thanks.
In rough terms, Russia invading the Ukraine could be Mexico invading California.
(per population; if you want to get technical, Mexico + Guatemala)
Think about that analogy. California was once part of Mexico. In Southern California, when I am working down there, I am the only person in my industry who is not fluent in Spanish.
There have been reports that Putin is so lost in his bubble that he thought Ukrainians were on his side. Obviously he expects that they want a return to the Soviet-era dictatorship that he still lives inside of, in his head, a delusion supreme. This guy has lost it.
Remember those stories of Japanese soldiers lost in the jungle somewhere in Southeast Asia, who thought the war was still going on decades later?
You see we are not the only people returning to revisit the ghosts of Pre-Civil War pretensions.
Rude awakening for Putie!
Putie is somewhat interesting in French suggesting that the "genntleman" could be screwed by all and sundry for the right price!
Had to look up the translation for "putie" Hence....I love your comment here.
Deeper and deeper truths are emerging. Thou speakest truth.
That’s funny 😆
HA! Thanks, Stuart! :)
Is it Putie or putie? 😉
Senor Puto is also acceptable.
Oh, I like where this is going. Congratulations Gary! Congratulations Stuart!
You choose! 😝