Our Special Tribe; Wise?

 

Douglas Adams wrote a very compelling bit of allegory about a sentient puddle of water which, upon viewing its condition remarked how well the hole it was in fit it so perfectly; as if the hole was created specially to fit the puddle. Then, as the day went on and the sun rose higher and the puddle evaporated, a bit of panic struck the sentient puddle as it slowly became non-existent. 

 

The allegory was meant as a counter-argument to the proposition that the earth was made, designed, created especially for human beings. (That the planet is populated with thousands of species suited to this planet and no other seems to have gone unnoticed to the proponents of grand design.)

 

As record-setting temperatures continue to topple to new record-setting temperatures, as glaciers evaporate and melt to raise ocean levels rise, as droughts grind on causing crops to fail amid rising world hunger, it must be understood that our own species; Homo Sapiens Sapiens, a twig on the branch of the Great Ape family, is NOT the sentient puddle. This world was NOT created to fit us. Homo Sapiens have been around for fewer than half a million years. A slim trifle when compared with the estimated four billion-year existence of the earth, itself. 

 

It is estimated that more than 99% of all life on the planet has gone extinct over the course of the planet’s existence. Humans are but a slim sliver of the history of the planet of water, oxygen and life. Others of far more scientific erudition than this writer have stated that this is so and have provided reams of evidence in peer-reviewed papers.  

 

However, the hubris of humanity, bolstered by the self-serving mythology that ‘we are special’ has placed the very existence of our species at risk. We are at risk of destroying our own bio-sphere – the sentient puddle’s hole – upon which our survival depends. Excessive heat warnings are issued by meteorological agencies and scoffed at hubristically by those whose very survival is at risk. (Recall the sight of the US Senator offering a snowball as proof that climate change is a hoax!)

 

Our species is most assuredly special in many ways; others have counted the ways in Shakespearean fashion.  However, our species is less than 1% of all the species which were formed on planet earth and are now extinct. It must be kept in mind that there have been numerous mass extinction events on this planet; the end of the Age of Dinosaurs is but one such event. Another is the Permian Extinction – the Great Dying – which happened 250,000,000 years ago. It is the worst, most extensive extinction event in the planet’s history and all but eliminated life on ‘our’ blue marble. Keep in mind that there were at least 4 other mass extinction events before our little tribe split off from the bonobos, chimps and other great apes on our way to becoming Homo Sapiens about 300,000 years ago.

 

Doomsayers claim that we may be witnessing one more such mass-extinction event. Are we - Homo Sapiens Sapiens, the ‘wise man’- actually wise enough to understand how precarious our existence is on this tiny orb in space? 

Roe, Roe Roe the Vote!

 

I’m stumped.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the GOP are shooting themselves in the foot after they’ve lodged it firmly into their mouth. 

To the point: Roe v Wade. The Religious Right has worked for decades to get this done, driven by somebody’s myopic, misogynic reading of a book from the Bronze Age. The GOP made their deal with Donnie the Devil to stack the Court with the nefarious assistance of Mitch McConnell who’d blocked Garland’s nomination. Everyone expected it. The historic leak of the drafted decision alerted everyone that this long-awaited catastrophe was imminent.

But, why now!?

The Court could have sat on this decision until after the mid-terms. The Court could have sand-bagged the decision; that would have been understood by even most ‘pro-lifers’.

If the Court had back-burner’ed the decision until after the Jan 6 Committee’s final report, that would have been understandable, as well. From the standpoint of the GOP leadership, such a move might have been seen as ‘good optics’

To release this decision now, on the heels of their declaring the New York’s long-standing gun law unconstitutional, in the midst of a very damaging Jan 6 Committee hearings and in the same news cycle with Biden signing a new Gun Bill, seems ‘bad optics’, at the least, and, at the worst, tantamount to discharging a firearm into your ear. 

Couple the continuing mass shootings, the stripping of human and civil rights, the gross greed of corporate overlords, the undermining of voting rights, the immense level of sedition and treason exercised by Trump and his heinous minions; all of which are the result of GOP policy and what we have here is a vast failure by the GOP to govern in a representative republic.

This bodes rather well for a resounding GOP defeat at the polls in November of this year.

 

Expand the Court

 

Well..

They did it. They over-turned Roe-v-Wade.

The GOP gambit succeeded. They courted the imbecilic, sociopathic insanity of Donald ‘the Narcissist’ Trump and got the ‘conservative’ majority on the Court. Of course, as Senator Susan Collins might acknowledge, these are not ‘conservatives’; they are reactionaries. 

 

They are also perjurers, liars and sociopaths as well: ACB, Beer Boy, Alito Thomas, Gorsuch. They all lied during their confirmation hearings. They all prevaricated. They all deserve to be impeached and removed from the Court for their felonious dissimulation.

It must be noted that lying to Congress is a felony. All of the aforementioned Justices lied through their teeth regarding Roe.

 

This radical decision of the highest Court means that more women will die from botched abortions. More women and young girls will be forced to carry the woeful result of rape and incest. This stripping go human rights will ruin their lives. It will, most probably, ruin the lives the resultant people whom these poor women will be forced to give birth to as unwanted babies.

 

As preamble to this egregious decision, the Court saw fit to intervene on gun safety by tossing out the New York state law restricting the open-carry of side-arms. 

It will become evident in coming months that the combination of these two woefully unfortunate decisions will result in the deaths of many in the US. People will be shot and killed in the street

Women will die on make-shift operating table and in back-alleys as they did before Roe was supported.

 

Reaction to the Court’s over-turning Roe has been swift; streets are filled with protestors in all major cities and in front of the ‘Marble Palace’, where "Equal Justice Under Law" is chiseled.

The overturning of Roe is the realization of sociopathic, misogynic fever-dream of the right Wing. It must act as the catalyst for Dems and Independents to elect sane, educated, enlightened representatives to Congress. It must be the driving force that brings about the expansion of the Court and the expulsion of Thomas, ACB, Beer Boy and a return to humanistic justice.

News Flash: Evolution is Hard!

 

News Flash! 

Evolution is difficult. Evolutionary science is incredibly complicated. Learning even the very basics of the mechanics of evolution theory requires real effort. 

It’s little wonder that most (including yours truly…) would prefer to leave the heavy-lifting to the professional scientists, teachers and professors. It’s a small wonder that many would rather just claim ‘god made it all!’ than to actually study and grasp the intricate implications of evolutionary theory.

 

(Here, there must be a side-bar that addresses the definition of the word ‘theory’. A theory is not just a wild-hair, off-the-cuff notion that is declared without reflection or substantiation. A ‘theory’ in the parlance of science is nothing of the sort. (e.g. Your uncle at Thanksgiving may propose his theory that all ‘millennials are spoiled’ and cite his own nephew who refuses to come to the family table or purposes that the media is controlled by a certain Semitic community. (ahem) That is NOT a theory; your uncle is simply a blatherskite; he’s blowing it out his arse.)

 

Gravity, for example, is a theory. That diseases are caused by pathogens is the ‘Germ Theory of Disease’. Both ‘theories’ are the best explanation of the phenomena of gravity and disease which have been tried and tested and accepted as fact by the scientific community.

 

One is tempted to include a link to a video of Hemant Mehta listing the Top Ten list of asinine attempts to rebut evolution theory. Forrest Valkai (the Renegade Science Teacher of Tik-Tok fame) would be another video link that entices this writer. The dear reader might avail themselves of those video counter-arguments as they wish.

Caveat: Be prepared to think and to do further cursory research. As was stated at the beginning; ‘Evolutionary science is incredibly complicated.’ However, as a scientific theory, it is the best explanation available for the diversity of life on our planet.

It is no wonder that some would choose, in their utter and willful ignorance, to blurt out ‘god did it!’ 

Barr and Jan 6

 

 The obvious and pronounced reason for the televised January 6^th Committee is to gin up the public, make them aware, enlightened, entertained and pissed. The sessions are not primarily to educate the vast majority of the primary and secondary viewing public.

MAGA-dolts donated about $250,000.00 ($25 million!) to what they (in their addled brain-pans) was a ‘worthy cause’: ‘Save America!’.  Not only could they send thoughts and prayers, they could send their hard-earned money. Predictably (for those paying attention), instead, the needed trip to the dentist went into the grimy, fingered coffers of Donald J. Trump, Conman.

That should raise some MAGA-hackles. It should. They may blame Joe for inflation but reminding them on the TV that the Orange Scrounger made off with half a car payment is a very finessed move. Don the Con gets revealed as the louse he is. On the telly. And on repeat! 

That the money to ‘Save America’ would squandered on aught else but Trump perquisites should have been both obvious and expected. With the second televised hearing, that simple, fundamental fact of Trump-land – that all was for the greater glory of the Grand Persimmon and feck everybody else - was made clearly evident.

Kimberly Guilfoyle getting $60,00 for a 3-minute speech introducing El Grifto at the Rally prior to the Insurrection should make some MAGA-folks miffed at the former Scamster-in-chief and his crew of wanna-be douche nozzles. (One wonders if she got paid by the word…? $20K a minute to scream some version of her tag line seems extreme even for a former Fox regular.  Would Kilmeade have gotten that much? Or Hannity?)

As for the douche-nozzle ‘B’ team; Jason Miller had to have a filthy hand in the dissemination of ‘Stop the Steal’ missives. That little scanky merkin replacing his missing chin will not save him from prosecution. He undoubtedly signed a deal with the DOJ. The smart ones do. 

Trump’s last campaign manager, Bill Stepien, has most assuredly cut a deal for testimony. The opportune breeching of his child spared him from a ‘perp-walk’ into Committee Chambers, but his video-ed testimony, with this lawyer by his side, bland and hesitant as it was, verified the more candid remarks from the former AG, Barr.

One might be inclined to give an appreciative nod to Bill Barr for throwing The Donald so colorfully under the bus. We must take measures not to lionize this pole-cat. Barr is the under-handed arsehole who scuttled the Mueller Report, recall. He made like a Romanian gymnast in bending over for Trump and warped the rule of law to serve the Orange Monstrosity. He has done the good guys a favor with his colorful language but one must conclude that it was to save his own fat back-side. 

Hopefully, Barr’s apostasy will induce other MAGA-muddle-heads to break ranks with ‘El Trumpissimo’. That the damn has burst and the wall fallen may seem too Pollyanna, but considering Ivanka Trump sided with Barr against dear-ol’ dad… That speaks volumes.

Kevin, listen up!

This article is meant to go towards answering the dissatisfied clamor over what is perceived as Merrick Garland’s inaction.  The DOJ ain’t going anywhere and neither are Trump’s crimes.

The aim of the televised committee hearings is this;

First, get the more peripheral MAGA-folks riled up enough to turn against Donald Trump.

Second; present clear facts of criminality for those who have been paying attention all along.

Third, prosecutorial referrals fall like cleansing rain on the seditionists.

Stay tuned.

WTF and Why?

 

There is one, all-encompassing question that has plagued me since the first evidence that the GOP were actually englamoured by Trump.

Why?

Why fear this bumbling bozo of a clown, born on third base but thrown out at home trying to steal countless times?

Why attach oneself lamprey-like to such an infamous fraud?

To the point, why do Kevin McCarthy, et al. continue to provide aid and comfort to such an enemy of democracy as Donald J. Trump?

One can understand the warped reasons that impel McConnell to pitch in on the evil; Supreme Court picks and association with a fellow graft-master.

But McCarthy, Jordan, Cotton, Hawley? What’s the deal?

(Notice I left off Boebert, MGT and Gosar from that short list. They all, clearly, grabbed the short-end of the stick. When they passed out brains, these three heard ‘rain’ and ran for an umbrella.)

I have always suspected blackmail as the glue that adheres these venal people together. Given the Donald’s crime-blotched past and well-known use of such tactics, blackmail has suited me as the motivating factor.

However, there was always a niggling reminder that Trump, himself, would be subjected to counter-slander in a heartbeat. Then, it hit me; another part of the dark substance that holds the GOP in thrall to the Orange Pumpkin.

It might be called ‘Alt-blackmail’. It was also known in former times as ‘calumny’, vicious, false gossip. Nowadays it’s called ‘slander’.

Such accusations, founded or unfounded involve lawyers, court cases, suits and counter-suits, motions and motions and motions upon motions. This is a game that Donnie excels in; backed by Daddy’s money, this is how Trump survived all his failures and scandals

Playing the shady side of the legal system was what Donnie had learned at Roy Cohn’s knee.  

To wit: Should any of the GOP muckety-mucks choose to throw-up their hands and back away from The Donald (as Kevin tried to do in the emotional wake of the insurrection), then the muck-raking would commence. Dirty laundry would be displayed with no regard to the source or in-authenticity of the soiled undies in question.

None of these folks are like driven snow; they all have dark secrets. Hence, though acclimated to potential blackmail, the fear of prolonged expenditures in attorney’s fees, retainers and court costs with little hope of out-lasting The Donald’s neurotic resolve is call for concern. On an existential level.

As Trump loses his influence more Republicans will draw away from him. His failing forays into social media and "Tish" James having the Donald’s yarbles in a vise both went a good way to that end.

Kevin (et al.) trashed their lives and tossed away any shred of honor or reputation they had clung to in order to serve The Donald’. How they deal with it will be at the core of the book deals they sign.

 

The Woefully Myth-taken (part, the first)

 

Pilfering the term ‘myth-taken’ from Terry Pratchett’s lexicon, myth-taken can be applied to the actions of a disturbingly large demographic in the US of A.

Take the Trumpian/MAGA/Q GOP for example; they are seriously myth-taken. They are not simply mistaken on issues such as climate change, gun control and pandemic mitigation, bodily autonomy, etc., they are, more fundamentally, wrong. Yes, they espouse a contrary view to those on the ‘Left’, (or anyone slightly left of extreme right) but they also have a deeper problem; a melding of confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. In short, they buy the lie. They are heavily invested in delusion. They take lame metaphor as truth, The delusions they cherish are many and layered, intertwined and inter-dependent.

They are myth-taken.

Offered here is an primer list of myths of the myth-taken.

One of their shared delusional myths is the one of white supremacy. The myth-taken are so invested in the myth of racial superiority that there is a separate, supporting myth called ‘The Myth of the Lost Cause’ which glorifies the Confederacy as a noble enterprise. The ‘ Cause’ was the preservation of a gentile way of life; one based on chivalry, honor and tradition. according to the myth. 

This supporting myth to the myth of white supremacy is meant to enable confirmation bias. The ‘Lost Cause’ is suffered by the perfect Southern man, a gentile and noble patriot. To assert that the Myth is not founded in truth is to deny each of them the role of ‘perfect Southern man’.

This is a regional myth, less substantial than Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed and less believable. The fundamental tenet of the ‘Myth of the Lost Cause’ is that the American Civil War  - ‘War of Northern Aggression’, in the parlance of the Myth - was about the struggle for ‘states’ Rights’ and only incidentally about the issue of slavery. The Daughters of the Confederacy (arguably the initiators and propagators of the Myth) erected monuments to the glory of a seditious, treasonous, rebellious bunch of traitors so as to sow the meme-seeds of the Myth of the Lost Cause’.  Many Americans wear and display the emblems of the Lost Cause. Many consider these ensigns as ‘call-signs’ to other white supremacists and white nationalists. White supremacy groups in Germany (fascist right-wingers) have taken to displaying the Confederate battle flag, the Stars & Bars, as replacement for the banned Nazi flag.

Much has been done and written on the subject of slavery, reparations and civil rights. Constitutional Amendments were enacted, for instance. Yet much yet needs to be done. Dismantling the myth requires more than enactment of legislation. Criminalizing the display of sigils, signs and flags of the treasonous Confederacy would deprive the myth-taken of their symbols.  

Imagine a MAGA-mutt without his hat. Imagine the Jan 6 insurrection without Trump flags.

 

Here's Kevin!

 

Kevin McCarthy (GOP, Cali) is prepping for his role as featured, recurring goof-ball in the January 6^th Committee televised ‘poli-com’ premiering soon. Kevin will play the outspoken neighborhood dolt reminiscent of Eddie Haskell but without the inherent wit or intelligence. 

In his role as foil for the likes of Adam Schift and Liz Cheney, Kevin will be punching far above his weight-class intellectually. His innate bone-headed ineptitude will be the staple of his character. Whether he testifies before the Committee or not is yet to be determined but his sustained bleating of ‘witch-hunt’ will become his catch-phrase in press scrums, there is little doubt.

That such a shop-worn utterance will mark his nearly every media interview must be expected. Kevin, by dearth of his limited intelligence will find his catch-phrase and the narrow mind-set behind it a challenge, nevertheless.

However, as comic as the catch-phrase might be to some, it will be the intermittent faux-pas and ironic bon mots which will accentuate his role of spoil-sport dope. Much as his blurting out of Russia’s owning of a fellow GOP Congress member disconcerted Paul Ryan, Kevin will bring his Dunning Kruger ‘A’ game as half-wit and nincompoop in a daft attempt to thwart the Committee and frustrate its members.

Riotous hi-jinx will ensue!

Cue the laugh-track.

 

Gun Laws

 

Texas Congressman, Dan Crenshaw was squawking to CNN’s Dana Bash that he was against 'red flag' laws (both on the federal level as well as the state level) because 'such laws would require enforcing the law before it was broken' (!) What utter gibberish.

'Red flag laws' are prohibitions, first and foremost; one cannot vote or buy booze or automobiles or life insurance or a house, before a minimum legal requirement is met. The minimum requirement for each is determined on both the state and the federal level. Similar prohibition already applies to gun sales; one must of a certain minimum age to legally buy and sell a firearm or ammunition.

In a similar way to the right to vote, the right to bear arms is restricted until a minimum requirement is met. (By the way, there is no constitutionally guaranteed right to own a firearm. Chief Justice Warren Burger proclaimed as fraud that notion.)

There is no sensible reason that one prohibiting stipulation be that the potential purchaser of a firearm must be of sound mind and character. Nutters and spouse-beaters need not apply.

For example, if one is required by law to go door to door announcing oneself as a pedophile, then said person would be prohibited from buying a gun. Similarly, if one was convicted of a violent crime (e.g. murder, rape, armed robbery, assault, etc.) then that one would be also be prohibited from the legal purchase of a firearm.

Apologists for ammosexuals and opponents to new gun laws will sputter that gun laws won’t deter the determined criminal. Duh… A quite wonderful (snark) argument for undermining the basic tenets of the Rule of Law. Following that fallacious logic: Why write the Magna Carta when the nobles knew that King John was going to transgress and break the law to assert himself? Why engrave ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ on stone tablets if people would continue to kill each other through the ages?

For reasons too obvious to state, we must have laws and regulations in a civilized society. Ask Hammurabi.

Let us be stalwart in our efforts to enact sensible gun legislation and deny the NRA such specious arguments as the aforementioned against common sense and public safety.

Call, write and pester your law-makers to bring the USA up to the level of the UK, New Zealand, Japan, Canada and countless other nations where the mass slaughter of children and citizens is not a regular occurrence.

Putin's Folly

 

Mr Putin’s fundamental folly is that he wanted more than life itself to return to the vainglorious eras of the Russian Empire and the USSR. His folly was two-fold; first, to think that anything of the kind of was remotely possible and second, that a return to the Soviet era would not necessitate the inherent presence of M.A.D. (mutually assured destruction). 

Putin has provided us further evidence of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Vlad has over-estimated his talents, his resources and has misplayed his hand based on those faulty estimates of his own infallibility and genius. He has committed the age-old caveat about under-estimating your opponent. The invasion of Ukraine has been far more than he bargained for militarily, economically and diplomatically.

He and his sycophantic general staff have botched up their ‘special combat operation’ at ever phase and in every aspect of war: tactics, strategy, logistics and operations.

As example; tactically, the surrounding/investment of Kyiv should have been accomplished in the first few hours of the very first day of the war. The task bogged down from the very git-go; under-supplied and traveling only on roads and highways. (Lessons taught by the Germans ‘Blitzkreig’ were not learned, obviously.)

Strategically, sighting on Kyiv, such an obvious target, and announcing for weeks beforehand that attacking Ukraine and taking Kyiv was the Russian plan was both asinine and amateurish. For the vaunted Russia military - which defeated both Napoleon and Hitler - to bungle so badly is baffling.

Operationally, the Russians left themselves open to the ever-alert monitoring of communication by the Western allies. Generals used unsecured cell-phones which Ukraine and NATO could accurately geo-locate. Ooops. Jam up communications and see how far a modern army gets when they’re deaf and blind.

Logistics seems to have been absent from the curriculum of military colleges in Russia. It was as though the general staff never considered that a modern mechanical operation might need… fuel! WTF? Columns of mobile armor sat motionless for days and weeks for lack of petrol. Fuel was so scarce that soldiers were suffering frost-bite because they couldn’t even run the heaters in their vehicles. Not to mention that they were sitting ducks sitting dead still on the highways.

The old maxim; ‘An army travels on its stomach’ was another lesson Putin was ignorant of. The news is rife with tales of Russian conscripts looting grocery stores sacking the larders of babushkas and mugging citizens for food.

The word ‘cock-up’ does not begin to describe the military bone-headedness of the invasion of Ukraine. Any war-gamer or amateur military historian could do a better job than Putin and his general staff have done. 

Sadly, the military screw-ups are bloody and deadly. The effects of diplomatic isolation and economic strangulation, not so much. However, those less deadly effects will have to be endured for many years by the entire world, not just those on the battlefield of Ukraine.

This is Putin’s legacy: Folly, disaster and calamity.

Putin's Debacle?

 

All of the military experts and talking head noobies are scratching their heads about Putin’s battle plan in Ukraine.

What’s he up to?

What does he want?

It all? Piecemeal and in utter ruins?

Does he see Ukraine’s total annihilation and destruction as a fitting punishment for not fulfilling Vlad’s fever dream of empire? 

Entering the mind of a madman is always a dangerous proposition but questions must be raised.

What modern, mechanized army launches an invasion in February/March, after a brief thaw when the ground is marshy, sodden and impassible even for tread vehicles?

As for the infantry, the word ‘slog’ comes to mind.
This is not ‘lightening war’, that’s for certain.

As one military analyst described, ‘The Russian assault on Kyiv is a single lane wide and stuck in traffic.

A forty-mile long convoy, stalled for lack of fuel, replacement parts and solid ground; that is the stuff of cautionary tales for military history classes.  

The Russian slo-mo invasion will be featured on a YouTube channel that animates history’s greatest military blunders. It’s like Hannibal crossing the Alps but leaving the elephants behind. It’s the obverse of a ‘bridge too far’; it’s as if no one amongst the General staff actually thought any of this through.

Tanks? Check…

Missile launchers? Check…

Conscripts? Check…

Fuel? … duh…

 

Putin Bungles It

Ooops.

A slight miscalculation.

Putin got two vital things wrong; he overestimated the effectiveness of his unmotivated armed forces and he underestimated the resolve of his enemy. He obviously ‘mis-under-estimated’ the depth and breadth of response from NATO, the EU and the United States. Even Switzerland has taken sides against Putin’s madness.

Dispirited Russian forces seem to take running out of petrol as a sign to surrender and tuck tail. The Ukrainians, on the other hand, are determined to defend their nation to the death rather than welcome the Russians with bouquets and warm wishes.

‘Go Fuck yourself’ is the recurring war-cry from even old Ukrainian women. The granny who offered sun-flower seeds to the Russian soldier she scolded for being in her country is well-known. The troops on Snake Island who told the Russian war-ship to go fuck itself outside Odessa are international heroes.

What this arm-chair analyst got wrong was to base my assessment on the notion that Putin would act ‘rationally’. War, itself, is an irrational endeavor but war-planning follows well-established tenets; tactics, strategy, operations. Writers such as Clausewitz, Liddel-Hart and Sun-Tse are assiduously studied and adapted as changes of technology are adopted and utilized. It is generally considered irrational to try to swallow an entire nation in one go. (‘Biting off more than one can chew’ is a faux-pas in war just as it is a no-no at the dinner table.) 

To recap:

Putin snatched the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in order to maintain Russia’s only naval access to the Mediterranean. Crimea was the site of numerous wars and battles; including the eponymous one in which Florence Nightingale gained fame. Since ancient times when the Greeks colonized the area, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, Crimean Peninsula and the Kerch Strait have been regarded as the area of constant dispute and the place of opposing political interests. 

Due to its strategic and historic importance, it was concluded that the Russians would demand a land bridge along the shores of the Black Sea to address the necessity of supplying the Russian base in Sevastopol. The Russians had built the Crimean Bridge at a cost of 230 billion rubles but as magnificent as that bridge might be, it was not enough to meet the constant need of re-supply which the various Russian military bases required. In the world of war, launching military action to establish that land-bridge would have been considered ‘rational’.

In that rationale, threatening to invade and occupy Ukraine was seen as a feint, a ruse, a political arm-twisting to create leverage whereby Ukraine might be willing (under duress) to grant Russian forces access from Rostov oblast (province) through the Donbas region to the Crimean Peninsula.

The rational war plan would be for the Russian forces in Crimea to move north into Ukrainian territory, taking Kherson and then procede east toward Mariupol as forces move from Russia through Donetsk, linking up with the forces based in Crimea, all the while being supported by Russian war ships in the Black Sea. This would have been a war plan that would have been seen as ‘rational’. The effort to subdue Ukraine by attacking on 3 sides seems to have accomplished nothing of strategic value for the Russians.

If, on the other hand, Putin’s plan had been to take Kyiv and decapitate Zalenskiy’s government as has been widely speculated, then the thrust from Belarus with the aid of Belarussian forces, would have been done all in one ‘go’ without the simultaneous attacks along the eastern and southern Ukrainian borders except as diversionary tactics.  This could have been accomplished in a 90-minute Wehrmacht-like blitzkrieg before Ukraine had steeled itself for invasion.

That was not how it has played out, of course. Apparently, Putin, in a massive fit of hubris, decided to take the entire nation of Ukraine in one giant bite. So far, he is choking on his own greed as the Ukrainians offer stiff resistance, thwarting the Russian troops all along the border between the two nations. One is inclined to ask what Putin is up to.

Former US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul told Chuck Todd on meet the Press that “He (Putin) sounds completely disconnected from reality. He sounds unhinged”. Others have remarked that Putin is not who he once was. Mark Galeotti, an author and expert on Russia, wrote that it is “now clear he (Putin) is truly divorced from reality. This is a tragedy.” Putin’s baseless and bizarre description of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government as a band of ‘drug addicts’ and ‘neo-Nazis’ could be cited as an example of Putin’s change. (It should be noted that Zalensky is Jewish.)

All in all, Russia’s battle plan has been a massive cock-up. Former U.S. Marine Corps officer, Rob Lee, a war policy researcher at King's College London, wrote in February 28^th that ‘the Russian military is committing some very basic mistakes from the strategic to tactical levels.” Such mistakes, as was inferred are fundamental ones which anyone of a military mind would have fore seen and avoided. However, Putin is most asssuredly a megalomaniac who would have ram-rodded such a hubristic cluster-fuck of a plan over the more clear-sighted objections his generals.

Ooops. 

More on Brinkmanship

 

Saw one of CNN’s advisors on military affairs proclaim what the Russian strategy would be re: the ‘peace-keeping’ forces expected in Donetsk and Luhansk. He surmised that Putin would push to expand and create a buffer zone well past the boundaries of the People’s republics.

His appraisal sent me squawking at the box and bellowing my own prognostication at my wife. As it happens, my nerves were calmed when I later saw a different military advisor whose assessment mirrored my own.

Putin’s aim with all this is to gain a corridor through Ukraine to the Russian bases on the Crimean Peninsula (that bit he stole last time from Ukraine). He is assembling troops enough to accomplish that by force of arms but that is a sort of window dressing

He’s practicing brinkmanship – the old Cold War modus operandi – by which one state threatens then backs off from the brink with a stronger negotiating hand, diplomatically speaking.

Putin is banking on the notion that Europe does not want another European war. Indeed, the UN and NATO were supposed to have eliminated expansion by conquest from the language of global politics; all but eliminating the possibility of Europe at war.

Enter brinkmanship. Think ‘Neville Chamberlain if the Sudetenland hadn’t yet been invaded’.  Think of Soviet presence in Cuba without the nuclear missiles. Think of a green gorilla in a tutu.
Sorry…

Russia’s amassing of forces along the Ukraine border, threatening military invasion, declaring prior sovereignty of territory, denying the sovereignty of an independent Ukraine, being stridently bellicose and generally operating outside of the norms of the 21^st century is Putin’s exercise in brinkmanship.

Putin was raised in the world of Real Politik and the global chessboard concept of willful domination and power. This is Putin practicing brinkmanship; Brinkmanship Putin-style.

Push can assuredly come to shove, but Putin is relying on the EU and NATO to dither, hem, haw, gather support, spell out sanctions and schedule summits, while mustering troops and setting battle plans. All of that global finagling allows for the build-up of forces to create greater tension; greater anticipation. That tension is the core of brinkmanship.

When Putin relieves that that tension by a slight draw-down or pull-back – when he backs away from the brink - he’ll be in a more favorable position to demand a corridor from the newly recognized Donetsk People's Republic to Russia’s Black Sea bases in Crimea.

That’s what Putin wants. (That and to be seen as a Stalin-esque strong man and hero of Mother Russia, restorer of the Empire.) He’ll risk the lives of thousands or tens of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians to attain those ends if the ploy of brinkmanship fails. 

Biden is also well-versed in Cold War shenanigans; that he’s making all of Putin’s moves public is brilliant; a stroke of genius. It takes the wind out of Putin’s sails and decreases the tension by making known what would normally be held under wraps.

The EU and NATO, according to the Cold War script, must play a kind of four-dimensional cat and mouse game; play the mouse to Putin’s cat while preparing a bigger cat to bag Putin’s rat. Deception within deception; standard fare from the Cold War. 

Germany halting the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia came as a big blow in the first salvo of sanctions. Germany’s action will force the hand of the other nations to follow suit, cutting off the flow of natural gas from Russia and the cash flow thereof as well. That, in turn, will knock the pins out of Putin’s reliance on the interminable vagaries of real politik diplomacy to prolong tension and forestall an attack order. The threat of loss of revenue to Gazpron may force Putin’s hand. Perhaps Germany should have acted more mouse-like.

We shall see.

The General Assembly is abuzz with speechifiers denouncing in the strongest terms the reprehensible, atavistic behavior of the Russian Federation. Outlaws! Gangsters! Bullies!

All true, of course, but are NATO and the EU willing to respond with a force of arms? 

Putin’s bet is that they are not. However, his bet is also that this show of strength, if it succeeds in Russian gaining some concession for a land corridor along the Ukraine coast to Crimea, will be enough to off-set the economic effects of sanctions sure to be felt by the Oligarchs and the people of Russia. 

There’s a lot riding on that bet.

Putin's Brinkmanship

 

“Brinkmanship’ is from the lexicon of the Cold War. Brinkmanship is the practice of trying to achieve an advantageous outcome by pushing dangerous events to the brink of active conflict. 

Brinkmanship is what Putin is doing with Ukraine. He’s pushing a posture of war, threatening an armed invasion. His stated purpose is to thwart the expansion of NATO and thusly protect Russian interests by this military threat.

The sub-text is that Putin still considers Ukraine a vassal state. Putin’s stated aim is the re-invigoration and re-establishment of the former Russian empire if not the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  This is, in short, why he snatched Crimea; to demonstrate for his nationalistic supporters that he is the strongman – the ‘Man of Steel’ – which they crave. 

As a chess player, Putin is playing to his nationalistic supporters as well as the Western powers and Ukraine. The current situation can be seen as a ‘forking move’; threatening two chess pieces with capture, forcing the opponent to choose which piece to lose. Putin is banking on the nations of NATO, being roundly averse to another devastating European war, would choose the sovereignty of Ukraine as the chess-piece that NATO will sacrifice. 

Putin bet that Ukraine would buckle when confronted with a Russian military build-up on its borders. Putin, further, has bet that the Americans – freshly withdrawn from Afghanistan – would convince its NATO allies that defending Ukraine was not worth the price of blood and treasure that would have to be paid. 

Moreover, Putin’s military display would bolster his support from the people of Russia. That is his plan; by the display of force, Putin hopes to gain politically and militarily while suffering little down-side. 

This is not to assert that Putin’s military threat isn’t real. Brinkmanship fails as a strategy if the threat of military force is not perceived as viable and imminent. Putin’s massing of forces along Ukraine’s borders in Belarus, Crimea and Russia presents a clear and present danger; of that there is no doubt. 

However, President Volodymyr Zelensky has pooh-poohed Russia’s threat and thwarted one prong of Putin’s strategy. The steadfastness of Biden’s administration and the NATO allies (specifically; Germany, France, Great Britain and Poland) have, furthermore, stymied Putin’s grander game of conquest and left him with a ‘Sophie’s Choice’. He must either back-down and show weakness or signal the invasion and suffer military and economic retribution from which he, himself, would not recover. His claims of a draw-down is a subterfuge.

He has been backed into a corner and has placed himself and the Russian Federation between a rock and hard place. (Never let it be said that diplomacy is a dull enterprise.) How Putin will play his end-game in Ukraine will be most interesting.

 

 

 

 

Signal!

 

‘Signal’. Know what it is? Not the common noun or the verb but the proper noun that signifies the communication app.
(FYI: Signal is a ‘cross-platform centralized encrypted instant messaging service’.) It’s like ‘Twitter’ but -  and here’s the Big But – but, it’s encrypted and private.

Interesting, you might say, but what has this to do with anything? 

One of the heretofore anonymous texters (Congressman Scott Perry) reached out to Mark Meadows on, January 6^th, 2021, and recommended that they use ‘Signal’ for further communication. Rep. Perry wanted to keep his texts to the Chief of Staff secret. You know, like a crook, or a spy or an insurrectionist might do.

In point of fact, Meadows used his own personal cell phone and email addresses, as well as Signal, for official government business. (This may trigger memories of the Republicans (e.g. Gym Jordon, Trey Gowdy, etc) screaming bloody murder for years when they accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of doing that very thing.)

Perry undoubtedly knew that Meadows used Signal, rather than another app, for secret messages and so made the recommendation to go ‘encrypted’.

Why the secrecy if you’ve got nothing to hide? Mr Perry can try to explain that when he testifies before the Jan.6 Select Committee.

This adage may be applied to Roger Stone’s recent use of the 5^th amendment to stone-wall the Committee and still give the appearance of not violating the subpoena to appear. Simply reciting a claim of 5^th Amendment protection when asked one’s name is not compliance or cooperation.   

An observer with a functional memory might recall, his Orange Eminence stated categorically that ‘taking the 5^th’ in and of itself was a tacit admission of guilt.

“If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” is generally attributed to Joseph Goebbels. It’s undeniable that Pius Thicknesse uttered the sentence in ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. It’s doubtful that either had ‘taking the 5^th’ in mind.

 

PowerPoint for Dummies

 

Hoo-boy! The 38-page ‘PowerPoint for Demented Dummies’ has certainly kicked over the camp latrine, hasn’t it? The ramifications of that stupendous reveal will ripple on for years. The January 6^th Select Committee must feel pretty big in the britches about now. One could almost imagine seeing smirks on the faces of several Committee members. Self-satisfaction was certainly playing around the eyes of Ranking Member, Liz Cheney.

Or was that me projecting?

One must wonder openly about what the hell Mark Meadows thinks he’s doing turning over truly block-buster documentation to the Select Committee and then – THEN – refusing to testify under the bogus and nonsensical claim of executive privilege!

Asha Rangappa, lawyer, former FBI agent, senior lecturer at Yale University, saw Meadows’ predicament as being ‘between Scylla and Charybdis’; a rock and a hard place. 

Apparently, an existential dilemma of this is sort is the key to remaining in the MAGA camp. Does Meadows somehow think that this is ‘taking one for the team’ or ‘falling on his sword’ while saving his own back-side? Ms. Rangappa also opined that Meadows may be hoping that the lesser jail-time for failing to honor a subpoena would forestall his being tried for more serious crimes. This woe-begotten tactic should favorably influence no one.  

CNN’s Elie Honig referred to Meadows’ actions as leaping half-way across a ditch; he’s neither in nor out. Neither a cooperating witness nor a hostile one. So, how does Meadows plopping down in the middle a muddy ditch serve himself or the former Guy? Time will tell but the smart money is on it failing miserably.

Or perhaps this is Meadow’s version of the grand gesture of throwing oneself on the hand grenade (to invoke the testimony of Gordon D. Sondland at the hearings on Trump’s demonic finagling with Ukraine.)

What is certain is that several Fox News entertainers have gotten caught with their feet wedged firmly their lying mouths. Ingrham, Hannity and that little weasel from the Fox & Fiends sofa all texted Meadows urgeing Trump to act presidential on that day while quieting their tele-sheeple with a gas-lighting fairy tale denying the dire reality of that day.

Little Donnie Jr even got into the act - to his dubious credit - begging Meadows (!) to talk to Junior’s Orange Daddy. Evidently, Jr. couldn’t call his own father, even given the drama and pompous circumstances of the day. Lawrence O’Donnell attributed that to caller I.D. Mary Trump said it was more that Jr. didn’t want to bring Big Daddy bad news. 

As a bonus, the public has learned of the existence of conspiracy theorist and PowerPoint maker, Philip Waldron, a retired U.S. Army colonel. One would imagine Chairperson Bennie Thompson has already drawn up a subpoena for that person of note.

Question: Were any of the leaders of the National Guard of a similar mind to Col. Waldron (rt.) on that day?

 

Inaction is NOT an Option

 

In his speech at the Democracy Summit, Biden said, “We should be making it easy for people to vote, not harder.” He went further, “And that’s going to remain a priority for my administration until we get it done. Inaction is not an option.”

There has been a lot of palaver criticizing Biden and the US generally for having the presumed audacity to host a summit on Democracy. The argument supporting this dismissive view runs thusly: The USA has fallen from its perch of moral superiority as a staunch proponent of Democracy in light of the Trump/MAGA-land attempt to negate a free and fair election. The argument normally has included reference to the various Republican-led moves to restrict voting rights and curtail the opportunities to vote by targeted communities. In sum, the US is in no position to lecture the rest of the world on Democracy if they can’t keep their own house in order, as it were.

The purveyors of this silliness ignore the fact that Democracy is always – always – a work in progress. It has always been; as each sub-set of a nation’s population gains recognition and power, that sub-set enters the democratic fray. The more democratic the society, the quicker each sub-set gains the power of its collective voice. That’s how Democracy works. 

The prime model for Democracy, the city state of Athens, did not allow women or slaves, or even the majority of the adult population of the state, to vote.  Nevertheless, Athens is cited as the cradle of Democracy. The USA, as the modern paragon of Democracy, by the aforementioned dismissive argument, did not allow slaves or women to vote until decades after its inception.

The struggle for Democracy is ongoing and perpetual. It is always a work in progress. Unfortunately, there will always some who turn to undemocratic methods, such as fascism, racism ultra-nationalism and autocratic rule to gain power. Those factions must be combated and repressed unceasingly. (Indeed, a great, inherent paradox of Democracy is that such undemocratic sectors must be included in the Democracy.)

They do not have to be tolerated but they must not be repressed, either. Thus, the struggle for maintaining a Democratic state is perpetual. 

Point of opinion; Biden’s duty as a world citizen and his role as President obligated him to call the Democracy Summit to counteract the growing presence and power of undemocratic actors.

“Inaction is not an option.”

 

The Goon Squad

 

                                          The GOP Goon Squad

I have recently written about the dire need to nullify the Insane Right. (i.e. Boebert, MTG, Gosar, Gohmert, Brooks, Cotton, Gaetz, et al.) The way that their narrative of alt-reality is nullified is not by debate. To debate their like is to elevate their nonsense to a legitimate, respectable platform. 

There is no debating psychosis.

There cannot be a rational response to the ravings of a lunatic. One cannot reason with insanity. When Alice entered the Looking Glass, she knew she was entering a world which was not governed by rationality and logic. In the words of Marty Balin of ‘The Jefferson Airplane, logic had ‘fallen sloppy dead’ and was not to be revived by the application of rational thought.

What must take place is not debate. The insane chatter of the Right must be usurped, over-thrown, derided and disposed of. That is done by the clear and repeated statement of the narrative which guides the rest of us to accept scientific findings, to place value in education, to instill a sense of social responsibility and require compliance with beneficial policies.

Moreover, the vapid and befuddling talking points of the Q-pixilated should not be addressed directly, nor quoted for the same reason that debate is discarded; to quote the right is to lend credence to the madness.

To be clear, the madness itself must be addressed. Mental illness must be treated but it must be treated by mental health professionals who can shepherd the addled to a safe haven. There, in professional care, the demented might gain a proper perspective of their own madness. There is little doubt that the members of the MAGA-cult have taken leave of their senses. MTG – perhaps by choice – exhibits symptoms of psychosis. It is a psychosis that is propagated by Donald Trump and his adherents and spread to a segment of the US population.

A delusion shared between partners is called ‘folie a deux’ – the madness of two. What has happened in the American public has been termed ‘folie de millions’ – the madness of millions - by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist and editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump".

https://www.salon.com/2020/11/09/psychiatrist-bandy-lee-trumps-election-meltdown-is-most-dangerous-period-of-this-presidency/.