Second Attempt at Prison Breakout 4/1/21

[DrStool]

This is MMT, outright. We're gonna see how it flies. 

After the boom comes the ...

fill in the blank. 

[DrStool]

I want to add a few more personal thoughts about the Ukraine situation, since it is in the news, and since we've seen some Russian anti-Biden propaganda on it. 

As you know, I am not a geopolitical anal cyst. I have a personal interest in this subject. I do research, collect and review facts to the extent that they're available, and form my personal opinion. I do so in the context of having paid attention to world affairs, to some extent, since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

I also have a smattering of knowledge of 20th century history pre-dating my personal experience. Some of that history is personal.  For example, my grandparents lived under Russian rule. My grandfather was a conscript in the Russian Army during the period when Russia ruled not just the Ukraine, but also Poland, until 1920. In 1900 he and other members of my family fled the Russian instigated pogroms in Poland to come to the US. They left after the death of my great grandfather, and many other Jews, in the town of Makow Mazowiecky, that same year. 

What happened there that year that so many died, and my grandfather and brothers and sisters left? I don't know. There's no record. 

Russia has a history of being expansionist, imperialist, racist, and homicidal, regardless of who led the government. The historical record is unclear as to the exact number, but Stalin killed between 9 million and 25 million of his countrymen. By most accounts, he murdered more people than Hitler did.

Today, Putin is promoting a rebirth of Stalinism. 

Meanwhile, Putin has rebuilt the Russian military into the second most powerful in the world. Ukraine is 25th. 

The whole notion that Ukraine could drive the Russian military out of Crimea and Donbass is laughably absurd. Ukraine knows it and Biden certainly knows it. So whoever is attempting to circulate that lie about Biden encouraging Ukraine to attack Russia won't get far. Ukraine would be inviting its own annihilation.  

Here are a few facts. Russia's military is 5 times the size of Ukraine's in manpower. It has 10 x the number of tanks, 20 x the number of jet fighters, 5 x the artillery, and 6x the number of rockets.  Putin invaded the Crimea and took it over by force. Putin is amassing more Russian troops on the border with Ukraine right now.

You don't think that Ukraine didn't resist the Russian attack and hasn't resisted its ongoing attacks for years? There's been a low grade war there ever since Putin invaded and took control of Crimea. 

Ukraine has no chance of winning.  They know it. Putin especially knows it, and Biden, of all people, knows it. 

Ukraine is merely trying to hold the line. Donetsk has been perpetually under siege by Putin and his supporters there. I know someone who was forced to flee her home there to move in with a relative in Kiev in a one room apartment. I also know a woman whose husband, a Ukrainian military officer, was killed in the conflict. Ask these Ukrainians about how they feel about the Russians invading their homeland. Or how they felt living under Russian rule for most of their lives. 

Regardless of its government, Russia's modern history has been one of repression, corruption, manipulation, and aggression against its neighbors.  Putin is just one of a long line of that type of ruler. 

Sadly, there are millions of outright fascists and quasi fascists all over the world willing to spew his lies and propaganda. Saddest of all is that so many "freedom loving" Americans are among their number. 

The Ukrainian government knows better than anyone that it has no hope of driving out Russian forces. In addition to Russian military might, the Russian government has indigenous support in the areas of Ukraine it currently controls.

Just as the Confederacy does in the US. That doesn't make it right. 

Putin invaded a sovereign nation. He has devastated Ukraine. I know the sadness and devastation that Putin has caused in Ukraine. Not just there, but anywhere in the world where he reaches his dirty fingers. 

Putin took the Crimea because he wanted control of the military base on the Black Sea in Sevastapol, not because of ethnic ties. He did it for strategic purposes. Did it matter that he had lots of ethnic support in Crimea? Sure. He knew he could use this as an excuse and get away with it, because strategically no one could force him out once he moved in. 

Military aggression is military aggression. Ukraine has the right to defend its sovereign territory. But it knows that if it tries to eject the Russians it will lose, and Kiev will again fall under Russian control. 

That is Putin's goal, and I don't know that NATO, led by the US, has the ability or the will to stop him. I don't doubt that Putin might take this gamble. However, his calculation now must be far different than it would have been when he controlled the White House. 

An attack will further destabilize the world order. The growing worldwide slide toward authoritarianism will march on. 

All around the world, including the US, democracy is losing. Political freedom and the Rule of Law and Reason are in retreat. Lies, disinformation, and repression are gaining. 

We saw an example of it here yesterday. 

That makes me sad. 

It has no impact on the stock market. 

[DrStool]

I apologize for overreacting, but I have zero patience for propaganda of any kind, particularly fascist propaganda. 

[Jimi]

On 4/1/2021 at 2:40 PM, Takachi-1 said:

There are rumors Biden is encouraging Ukraine to try to take back the Crimea with NATA responding in support of Ukraine against whatever Russia does to counter.  Crimea has always been ethnically Russian.  There is no justification.   

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Crimean_Tatars

GRU much?

[DrStool]

This just showed up on the login page of one of my mailing list programs. 

Charming, I thought. 

[DrStool]

His name is Stepan. 

 

[DrStool]

My namesake.