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State of Free Fall - 485
a year ago
It's been more than a month since my last update, but what have I got to add since I last wrote a journal. Very little of note. Some pre-fab shelves fell down in my bedroom that had to be replaced. Not every newsworthy. I have still not resolved my problems with Revenue Canada and papers I need to complete for my subsidized rent review, but the problem is entirely at the government end, so Ontario Community Housing is not pressing me, and the likelihood of a satisfactory outcome remains high. The weather is improving, week by week, and daylight hours lengthening. None of this makes for exciting journal writing.
Not that there isn't plenty at issue in the "real" world -- Forest Trump makes more and more of a fool of himself every day, as well as the Supreme Court demonstrating without doubt to be nothing but a tool of the fascistic leanings of the far right. The war in Ukraine was looking dire in the extreme, but when the Republican house leader finally caved and allowed a vote to be taken to continue aid for the beleaguered nation; things took a needed turn for the better. While MAGA red-necks whine about too many brown migrants in their Idaho potato fields, we are in the midst of a slow motion WWIII. We always thought it would be fought with nukes, but that seems to be off the menu, thankfully. But make no mistake about it. I was evident to me at least ten years ago that Vladimir Rasputin's Russian had declared war on the west that long ago, waging a quiet war of misinformation, hacking and destroying the last vestiges of democracy in Russia itself, in preparation for the reconstitution of a restored Soviet empire of conquered neighbors. It occurred to me that Russia never actually finished WWII, and has likely been at war with the west since 1945. You might argue that isn't so, but one thing that is so is that WWII was not started by the Nazis. The Nazis and the Soviets both started WWII together, as a conspiracy to divide up Poland between them. After Hitler double-crossed Stalin, it became convenient for the allies to pretend that the war was begun by Germany alone, but Russia was every bit as guilty. We should make a point in future of never forgetting this. Russia and Germany were both guilty and always were. Unless Russia is drive back from the borders of Ukraine, and thoroughly whipped, it will only try again … because that's what empires do. They expand or die. If Russian doesn't? I won't bother to complete that statement...
On happier note, I've begun another long Fraggle Rock story, one that is the culmination of the saga of Darl and Kiki. There may be one or two short bits of filler to come, but "A Still Small Voice" is the grand finale.
Not that there isn't plenty at issue in the "real" world -- Forest Trump makes more and more of a fool of himself every day, as well as the Supreme Court demonstrating without doubt to be nothing but a tool of the fascistic leanings of the far right. The war in Ukraine was looking dire in the extreme, but when the Republican house leader finally caved and allowed a vote to be taken to continue aid for the beleaguered nation; things took a needed turn for the better. While MAGA red-necks whine about too many brown migrants in their Idaho potato fields, we are in the midst of a slow motion WWIII. We always thought it would be fought with nukes, but that seems to be off the menu, thankfully. But make no mistake about it. I was evident to me at least ten years ago that Vladimir Rasputin's Russian had declared war on the west that long ago, waging a quiet war of misinformation, hacking and destroying the last vestiges of democracy in Russia itself, in preparation for the reconstitution of a restored Soviet empire of conquered neighbors. It occurred to me that Russia never actually finished WWII, and has likely been at war with the west since 1945. You might argue that isn't so, but one thing that is so is that WWII was not started by the Nazis. The Nazis and the Soviets both started WWII together, as a conspiracy to divide up Poland between them. After Hitler double-crossed Stalin, it became convenient for the allies to pretend that the war was begun by Germany alone, but Russia was every bit as guilty. We should make a point in future of never forgetting this. Russia and Germany were both guilty and always were. Unless Russia is drive back from the borders of Ukraine, and thoroughly whipped, it will only try again … because that's what empires do. They expand or die. If Russian doesn't? I won't bother to complete that statement...
On happier note, I've begun another long Fraggle Rock story, one that is the culmination of the saga of Darl and Kiki. There may be one or two short bits of filler to come, but "A Still Small Voice" is the grand finale.
This fact is self-evident, to wit: In two years of fighting Russia has managed to gain control of about 20% of Ukrainian territory, due in no small part to part to the fact that area has a majority of ethnic Russians, most of whom don't like the government in Kiev. Furthermore, the GDP of Russia pales in comparison to, say, Germany, and is utterly dwarfed by the combined economic power of the rest of NATO. Likewise, the Russian military is heavily outgunned by NATO, though a lot of member states are low on ammunition because they have given much of it to Ukraine's failed efforts to defeat the Russians. In short, there is simply no way Russia could ever reconstitute the old Soviet Union, even if it wanted to.
As I said, Russia has been fighting Ukraine -- the poorest country in all of Europe -- for two years and has gained control of only about 20% of Ukrainian territory. So it is beyond ridiculous to assume Russia could somehow overrun the rest of the former Soviet states, especially considering that some of them are now members of NATO.
Let's look at Crimea and Ukraine. The Russian naval base in Crimea was allowed to stay there until 2017.
- 2004 pro russian-ukraine cooperation candidate Viktor Yanukovych gets elected, Orange revolution occurs, gets kicked out because of election fraud.
- In 2010 gets elected fairly, he signs a treaty extending the Crimea russian naval base 25 years past 2017 with Russia.
- Subsequently wants to replace EU trade treaty project with Russian one, gets removed in 2014 following protests from pro-EU citizens.
- Pro EU president Oleksandr Turchynov replaces him, no suspens on what would happen next.
Russia just wasn't going to let go that naval base in 2017 or even earlir. Crimea was no surprise, it already had an attempt at going "independent" from Ukraine in the 90's so it was easy to take it for the Russians.
Then there's the Germany and France involvement. They were supposed to guarantee the Minsk accords. Merkel and Holland admited it was just meant to let Ukraine arm itself, not aimed at attaining peace.
Had France and Germany pressured Russia and Ukraine to follow the Minsk accords, Dombass could have been peaceful and Russia wouldn't have had an excuse for invading Ukraine.
But if you're so eager to fight Russia, then maybe get off the couch and join the Canadian army. Or perhaps the Ukrainian army -- I hear they're looking for volunteers.
To that mindset, it's always a Munich Moment, and we're always up against a new Hitler -- whether that was Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein or, now, Vladimir Putin. And in each case those people were proved wrong -- catastrophically, in some cases (e.g., Iraq, Libya).
I'll concede that Vladimir Putin is not a nice guy. But he's no Hitler. He's not even a Stalin. But he has been far more effective than many in the West imagined. And you can talk all you want about putting up a united front against Putin, but NATO has already been defeated on the steppes of Ukraine. Pushing for direct NATO intervention against Russia in Ukraine would only invite World War 3. And that is insane and stupid.
You were right then and are right now, but it goes back even further than that. Doubtless 9/11 was one of the catalysing events; indeed a great deal of the current geopolitical malaise can be traced to the twin catastrophes of 9/11 and the West's anti-Westphalian reaction to it.
The MAGA Red-necks I know, only talk about Russia, Ukraine, the economy, Israel, Hamas and rarely the border crisis. The only reason the border crisis comes up is that I live in Texas, so it's very close to home.
Sorry to hear about your shelves, we just had a huge section of brick wall in front of our house damage by careless construction workers on the road.