The U.S is bumbling toward a serious confrontation with Russia over Ukraine

 2024 dawns with America embroiled in a war in Eastern Europe. The United States is fighting a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine, and the Russians are winning.

The United States bears a large share of responsibility for this catastrophe. Our government destabilized Ukraine in 2014 when it goaded the Ukrainians into overthrowing a popularly elected pro-Russian president. Within weeks, Russia responded by annexing Crimea. Six years later, Russia invaded Ukraine and now occupies the largely Russian-speaking Donbas region in the eastern region of that wretched country.

The Ukraine war has been a humanitarian disaster. At least a half million people have been killed or maimed in Ukraine, and the country's population has been cut in half as refugees flee to other European countries to escape the fighting. 

Without question, Ukraine is losing its war with Russia. Ukraine's vaunted spring counteroffensive achieved almost nothing. The Ukrainians will never oust Russia from Crimea or the Donbas, and everyone knows it.

Anyone who thinks Russia will tire of the war and simply give up doesn't know Russian history. Hitler besieged Leningrad during World War II for 900 days and never captured the city, even though one million Russians starved to death before the Russians broke the siege.

Americans are mistaken if they think the Ukraine misadventure will not affect them. Our politicians crow that the Ukraine war is a windfall for the United States because the Ukrainians are killing Russians with American weapons while the United States sits safely on the sidelines.  The Ukraine war will weaken Russia, the pundits say, but they are wrong.

Russia's army is larger today than it was before the Ukraine war began, and it is the United States, not Russia, that is tiring of the war. Congress is balking at the prospect of limitless funding for the Ukraine project, and our European allies are beginning to wish they had never followed our cognitively challenged President into the briar patch that is Ukraine.

Americans will pay a price for for our feckless and arrogant foreign policy. President Putin will have his revenge against us. He is tirelessly working toward the day when the US dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency. We can expect some act of retribution on a scale that will shock us.

There will be a reckoning for our government's behavior, likely before the November 2024 election.

America is beginning to look like Germany in the early 1930s: Ten dollar mayonaise

In his novel, titled 1984, George Orwell described a world in which an all-powerful government manipulated reality to deceive the citizenry. For example, when the government cut the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 20 grams, it announced that it was raising it to 20 grams--a bald-faced lie.

When Orwell's novel was released in 1958, it was considered a utopian tale about a world that didn't really exist. Today, we are living in 1984.

President Joe Biden, our demented Big Brother, recently made this pronouncement about the American economy. “Today, we saw more progress bringing down inflation while maintaining one of the strongest job markets in history.” That's just bullshit.

Everyone I know expresses shock at the price of groceries. I went to the grocery store not long ago and discovered that the cost of Kraft mayonnaise was almost $10 a jar!

People who are retired and living on fixed incomes find their dollars’ buying power shrinking month by month. Yet the Biden administration claims that Bidenomics has made us all more prosperous.

The government’s official employment rate is more bullshit. Federal bureaucrats claim unemployment is below 4 percent, but that number hides the fact that millions of people are not working and not even looking for work. 

The United States is beginning to look like Germany in the early 1930s. Like the United States today, Germany was governed by a man suffering from dementia. Paul Von Hindenburg, president of Germany from 1925 until he died in 1934, drifted in and out of senescence.

Like Hindenburg, who appointed an Austrian corporal with a funny mustache as chancellor of Germany, Biden has made some terrible personnel decisions. Who believes Kamala Harris is qualified to be Vice President?

Germany, in the years leading up to World War II, was wracked by political violence from the left and the right. America, too, is plagued by a rising tide of political violence.

Then, there was inflation, which wiped out the German middle class and drove the German mark down to a million marks to the U.S. dollar. Likewise, America is teetering on the edge of hyperinflation, with millions of elderly people already reduced to poverty.

Evil days are ahead of us. The time may come when we will fondly reminisce about the days when mayonnaise only cost $10 a jar.

Antisemitism at Harvard. Should I Burn hy Harvard Diploma?

 I wish I were a billionaire who had given a pot of money to Harvard University. I would write Harvard a stern public letter rebuking its anemic response to anti-Jewish bigotry by Harvard students. I would vow not to give the university one more dime. A few billionaires have taken that action.

Indeed, there is strong evidence that antisemitism lurks in the shadows on Harvard's musty campus. Adrian Ahkenazy, a Harvard alum, and a  Harvard Jewish Alumni Association co-founder, wrote an op-ed essay in the New York Post a few days ago, noting that there are fewer Jewish students and faculty at Harvard than in years past. "Among many saddening discoveries," he wrote, "we see that Jews have been purged across campus--from the administration and the Board of Supervisors to the faculty and the student body." Jewish students comprise only 5 percent of the Harvard student body, down from more than 20 percent at the turn of the twentieth century.

In an open letter to the Harvard community, Harvard's president implicitly admitted that antisemitism is a problem at the university. President Claudine Gay wrote that Harvard is "seeking to identify external partnerships that will allow Harvard to learn from and work with others on our strategy [to combat antisemitism]." To me, it sounds like Harvard plans to hire some consultants to study anti-Jewish bigotry until people forget about it.

I am not a billionaire and have never given Harvard any money (besides my tuition). How can I effectively express my contempt for Harvard's closet antisemitism?

I have a Harvard doctoral degree, which I could publicly burn as a protest of Harvard's cowardice and closet bigotry. I also purchased a crimson academic gown for my Harvard graduation ceremony in 1993. I could burn that, too.

However, I will not set my diploma or academic regalia ablaze. I don't believe in setting things on fire to express my political convictions. In any event, I don't think anything I might say or do would get Harvard’s attention. After all, I live in Flyover Country.

How do ordinary people censor an elite university trafficking in prestige while marinating in bigotry and moral cowardice? We can begin by deconstructing Harvard's image as the epitome of intellectual and moral superiority.

Many Americans believe that Harvard people are more intelligent and more morally sensitive than the rest of us. Having spent some time at Harvard, I can tell you that legend is untrue. There are some smart people at Harvard, but most Harvardians are no more intelligent than your favorite handyman or plumber.

Perhaps William F. Buckley said it best: “I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.”

 

Elderly white men have highest suicide rate in U.S. Who the hell cares?

 A few days ago, I heard a story on NPR radio about life expectancy in the United States. Americans can expect to live to about 77 years of age, three years fewer than a few years ago. Our nation's life expectancy rate is lower than other developed countries.

NPR gave several reasons for our shorter lifespans, including COVID and drug overdoses. One NPR guest pointed out that deaths from childbirth are higher in the United States than in other wealthy countries.

The NPR story did not mention suicide, which has reached an all-time high in the United States. Nearly 50,000 people took their own lives in 2022.

Men are four times more likely to kill themselves than women, and elderly white men have the highest suicide rate of any subgroup--far higher than the suicide rate among young people.

The NPR story also failed to mention recent research that shows life expectancy rates among white working-class people have dropped dramatically, partly due to rising suicide rates and deaths related to drug and alcohol abuse.

These omissions reflect the interests of NPR listeners, who are probably more concerned about the rights of transgender college athletes than the death rates of elderly and working-class white people. Many NPR listeners are young, and in the minds of many young people, elderly white people are “old and in the way” (to quote a song released by a bluegrass band called Old and in the Way in 1975).

Indeed, many young American elites are afflicted with gerontophobia--the fear of older people. Therefore, when old white people commit suicide or die prematurely, it makes the world better for young people who will have fewer older adults draining the National Treasury due to Social Security payments and Medicare.

Also, many young progressive Americans seem to think all elderly white people are racists. Today’s intellectual and media elites have only a passing knowledge of history. I suspect many of them believe white people my age are all racists who were raised on cotton plantations and got rich by exploiting people of color. They might be surprised to learn that my parents grew up poor in the Dust Bowl of northwestern Oklahoma and never exploited anybody.

When I was younger, I practiced law in Alaska and represented several Inuit school boards. The Inuit respect the old people in their communities and consult them about unimportant community issues. The elders and shamans in Inuit villages are not elected. Instead, they achieve their status based on a record of good judgment, wisdom, and common sense throughout their lifetimes.

America has little use for older adults apart from the elderly scammers in Congress and our geriatric President. Perhaps that's why the Nation’s suicide rate is so high among older white men.

 

photo credit: Dorothea Lange

 

America is beginning to look like Germany in th early 1930s

In his novel, titled 1984, George Orwell described a world in which an all-powerful government manipulated reality to deceive the citizenry. For example, when the government cut the chocolate ration from 30 grams to 20 grams, it announced that it was raising it to 20 grams--a bald-faced lie.

When Orwell's novel was released in 1958, it was considered a utopian novel about a world that didn't really exist. Today, we are living in 1984.

President Joe Biden, our demented Big Brother, recently made this pronouncement about the American economy. “Today, we saw more progress bringing down inflation while maintaining one of the strongest job markets in history.” That's just bullshit.

Everyone I know expresses shock at the price of groceries. I went to the grocery store not long ago and discovered that the cost of Kraft mayonnaise was almost $10 a jar!

People who are retired and living on fixed incomes find their dollars’ buying power shrinking month by month. Yet the Biden administration claims that Bidenomics has made us all more prosperous.

The government’s official employment rate is more bullshit. Federal bureaucrats claim unemployment is below 4 percent, but that number hides the fact that millions of people are not working and not even looking for work. 

The United States is beginning to look like Germany in the early 1930s. Like the United States today, Germany was governed by a man suffering from dementia. Paul Von Hindenburg, president of Germany from 1925 until he died in 1934, drifted in and out of senescence.

Like Hindenburg (who appointed an Austrian corporal with a funny mustache as chancellor of Germany), Biden has made some terrible personnel decisions. Who believes Kamala Harris is qualified to be Vice President?

Germany, in the years leading up to World War II, was wracked by political violence from the left and the right. America, too, is plagued by a rising tide of political violence.

Then, there was inflation, which wiped out the German middle class and drove the German mark down to a million marks to the U.S. dollar.

Evil days are ahead of us. The time may come when we will fondly reminisce about the days when mayonnaise only cost $10 a jar.

 

 

Is Anti-Semitism the New Orthodoxy? Reflections on George Orwell's 1984 and the Attack on DNC Headquarters

Yesterday, a mob of anti-Israel protesters stormed the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC. CNN might describe this altercation as “mostly peaceful,” but the video images I watched showed protesters battling with police.

Who are these anti-Israel agitators? Why this explosion of anti-Semitism? Do these fools know anything about the history of Israel? Have they forgotten about the Holocaust? Have they no sympathy for the Israelis who were murdered and raped by Hamas terrorists on October 7^th?

Yesterday’s attack on the DNC headquarters reminded me of a passage from 1984, George Orwell’s dystopian novel. Orwell described a daily “Two Minutes of Hate” exercise, which the bureaucrats of fictional Oceana were required to attend.

The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. . . . A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledgehammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.

Curiously, Orwell continued, the hatred that the bureaucrats expressed was impersonal. “[T]he rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blow lamp.”

Likewise, there is an abstract quality to the recent outbursts of anti-Semitism; the racial hatred is not directed at any particular person. And yet, there is an element of cunning in these explosive, racist rants against Israel. The rioters seem to know that it is now acceptable to hate Jews. Anti-Semitism has suddenly become the new orthodoxy—almost overnight. Even the universities have signaled that they will tolerate their students’ open hostility toward Jews and Israel.

“Orthodoxy,” Orwell reminds us, “means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.” Indeed, there is a thoughtlessness that permeates the new orthodoxy—much like the thoughtlessness of the German people as the Nazis came to power. Non-Jewish Germans tolerated the persecution of  Jews because they believed the Nazis would direct their bestiality only toward Jews.

Later, Germans learned that Nazi brutality knew no bounds. Anyone who opposed Hitler's murderous agenda would be liquidated.

I say again that anti-Semitism is intolerable in the United States.  The District of Columbia should prosecute the rioters who attacked the DNC headquarters as vigorously as they prosecuted the January 6th rioters. The universities should expel students who publicly espouse anti-Semitism, and they should fire the professors who spout racist propaganda in their classrooms.

 

"Mostly peaceful"
Photo credit: The Mirror

 

American colleges are producing racists and it's a damned expensive process

American colleges are spending millions of dollars a year to fight racism. Virtually every school has a vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and DEI officers don’t come cheap. Ohio State University, for example, spends $20 million a year to promote diversity and employs 189 people to get the job done.

Curiously, the more the colleges obsess about race, the more racist their students become. After Hamas massacred more than a thousand Jews last month, college students all over the United States staged mass protests in support of the butchers. Some protesters have even called for the liquidation of the Jewish state. In other words, they have come out in favor of genocide.

A college education is expensive. It can cost a quarter of a million dollars to get an undergraduate degree from an elite university. Supposedly, college students are learning how to reason. Seemingly, they are gaining a deeper appreciation of diverse cultures, races, and ethnicities. Purportedly, they are acquiring the skills and dispositions they need to participate in a democratic society.

And now we are discovering that a college education is about none of that. Instead, American universities are teaching students to celebrate murder, rape, and infanticide and to hate Israelis.

The pro-Hamas college students think they have heightened moral scruples. In fact, they have the moral sensibilities of Nazis, and they are so stupid that they don’t even realize it. 

Graduation day at Columbia University

College Presidents: Stand up Against Anti-Semitism

On my tortuous route to Catholicism, I stopped for a while among the Anglicans. I remember a song the Episcopalians often sang: “Once to Every Man and Nation.” As I watched the rising anti-Semitism on American college campuses, the lyrics of this song came back to me.

Once to every man and nation

comes the moment to decide,

in the strife of truth with falsehood,

for the good or evil side.

Some great cause, God's new Messiah,

offering each the bloom or blight,

And the choice goes by forever

Twixt that darkness and that light.

James Russell Lowell wrote these words in 1845  as a protest against the impending Mexican War, but they ring true today as the United States faces a vicious wave of anti-Semitism.

Lowell was a Harvard graduate, and he would surely be astonished if he saw the ugly rise of anti-Jewish sentiment at Harvard University today. Indeed, racism at one of our nation's most prestigious institutions is shocking. Commenting on this phenomenon, Bill Maher observed that “Harvard makes students stupid.” Maher is undoubtedly correct.

All across the country, college students are publicly endorsing hatred toward the nation of Israel and Jews. So far, there has been minimal violence, but the rhetoric exhibited at anti-Israel demonstrations is every bit as vitriolic as the Nazi rhetoric of the 1930s.

Our nation’s college leaders have remained mostly passive about the wave of racism sweeping their campuses or have mumbled nothing but pious platitudes. They have not done what they ought to have done, which is to expel racist students and fire antisemitic professors.

Today's college leaders have a moral obligation to take a public stand against the vile racism that is spewing forth on their campuses. This may be the only opportunity they have over the entire span of their entire careers to show some courage.

Lowell’s words remind us that the opportunity for an individual to stand up to evil may come but once in a lifetime. If college presidents don’t act vigorously and quickly to thwart antisemitism on their campuses, they will show themselves to be nothing but moral cowards.

"Harvard makes students stupid."

Are Pro-Palestian College Kids Antisemitic?

Several years ago I worked with a Jewish professor at a Texas university. I recall he had a sign on his office door that said: “ Anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”

At the time, I disagreed with my colleague. I thought it possible for Americans to be sympathetic to the Palestinians and critical of Israel’s policies toward them without being anti Semitic. Now I am not so sure.

I am shocked by the. anti-Israel demonstrations taking place on college campuses all over the nation--protests supporting terroristic thugs. And I am apalled by the cowardly stance of university administrators, who refuse to denounce these demonstrations.

The Hamas raid out of Gaza on October 7 killed 1400 Israeli citizens, including children, women, and the elderly. Reliable reports have established that Hamas terrorists raped women, slaughtered babies, and kidnapped over 200 people. Some Israelis were burned alive in their homes.

As incredible as it seems, the Hamas terrorists committed acts of savagery against the Jewish people that are equal to the Nazi barbarism of the Holocaust.

It may be true that most Palestinians do not support Hamas and are helpless bystanders to Hamas atrocities. It is certainly true that innocent Palestinians have suffered and died during the latest round of fighting in Gaza.

Nevertheless, Israel holds the moral high ground in its long- running conflict with the Arab world. The United Nations made an eternal commitment when it recognized Israel as a sovereign state in 1948. The world’s obligation to Israel can never be canceled or annulled.
The college students who are demonstrating against Israel are either antisemitic or ignorantly dismissive of the unspeakable atrocities that have been committed against European Jews. I suggest they do a little research. There are hundreds of books about the suffering of the Jewish people during the twentieth century.

They might begin by reading two books of fiction by Leon Uris: Exodus about the founding of modern Israel, and Mila 18, which is a tale about the Warsaw uprising during World War II. 

University leaders must denounce the anti-Israel protests on their campuses. Harvard University, arguably the most prestigious education institution in the United States, is a hotbed of antisemitic rants. Yet its motto is Veritas, the Latin word for truth. Unless Harvard firmly and unequivocally rebukes the idiots who are celebrating or defending anti-Jewish terrorism, it needs to change its motto to “Cowardly Appeasement.” I believe the Latin translation is Inertia Placatio.

Rite Aid files For Bankruptcy: Shoplifting’s Got Nothing To Do With It

 Rite Aid, once the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, filed for bankruptcy earlier this week. Why?

According to the New York Times, Rite Aid was brought down by slumping sales, poor management, and opioid lawsuits. The Times quoted a financial analyst who said the pharmacy company “has not been well managed for a very long time.”

 

How about shoplifting? An epidemic of smash-and-grab shoplifting has battered pharmacy chains across the United States. Walgreens, the nation's largest pharmacy chain, has closed several urban stores, particularly in California.

 

The word shoplifting was not even mentioned in the Times story, even though Rite Aid said recently that shoplifting was a massive problem for the company, particularly in New York City.  In a recent earnings call, Rite Aid’s CEO said the company experienced “unexpected headwinds this quarter from financial shrink, particularly in our New York urban stores.” Indeed, in just one fiscal quarter, Rite Aid experienced $5 million in theft losses in New York City.

 

Rite Aid closed NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen store earlier this year. A store employee described the out-of-control shoplifting problem. “They come in every day, sometimes twice a day, with laundry bags and just load up on stuff . . . . They take whatever they want, and we can't do anything about it. It's why this store is closing. They can't afford to keep it open.”

 

Why do you suppose the New York Times failed to mention Rite Aid's huge losses from shoplifting in New York City? Maybe the newspaper doesn't want its readers to know how much the quality of life has deteriorated in the Big Apple since the COVID pandemic.

 

Of course, New Yorkers can see the decline with their own eyes. That's why so many residents are leaving and moving to Florida.

New York’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, is happy to see her constituents move out of state.

“Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, OK? Get out of town. Because you do not represent our values. You are not New Yorkers,” she said.

Of course, Governor Hochel is correct. Unlike New York’s political leaders, people leaving New York have a low tolerance for crime—including rampant shoplifting.

"Get out of town."

Russian Foreign Minister says U.S. is "directly at war" with Russia. Why wasn't I informed?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made an interesting comment during a press conference he hosted recently in New York City.  A journalist asked him when Western involvement in the Ukraine conflict would escalate to the point that the US and its allies were at war with Russia.

Lavrov responded that the United States and its allies are “directly at war” with Russia right now.

What? The U.S. is at war with Russia—a nuclear power? Why wasn’t I informed? Is it time to start building a bomb shelter in my backyard? Should I cancel my plans to visit Spain next year?

No, of course not. Obviously, Mr. Lavrov is misinformed. The United States is not directly at war with Russia. Nevertheless, I understand how Lavrov and the Russians might get the mistaken idea that America has gone to war with Russia without a formal declaration.

After all, The US has given Ukraine Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, F16 jets, and missiles capable of sinking Russian ships in the Black Sea. General Mark Milley has been helping the Ukrainians manage their counteroffensive against Russia and providing intelligence to assist them in planning their drone attacks on Moscow. America has given Ukraine cluster munitions to kill Russian soldiers more efficiently. And we're going to provide them with depleted uranium artillery shells.

On second thought, maybe the United States is at war with Russia; we've just been so distracted by more important matters that we haven’t given the war much thought. For example, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is probably looking for another transgender person to be the International Woman of Courage award for 2024. The U.S. Senate is pondering whether its members should be allowed to wear gym shorts on the floor of the Senate.

As for President Biden, he’s probably been tied up planning General Milley’s retirement party.

Give me a minute to slip into something more comfortable.

 

 

NYC may remove George Washington's statue: But what if George was transgender?

The New York City Council is pondering whether to remove statues around the city of people linked to slavery or other evil deeds. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Christopher Columbus are on the chopping block.

The Big Apple already removed a statue of Theodore Roosevelt from its prominent place in front of the Museum of Natural History. It seems inevitable that Columbus, Washington, and Jefferson will be carted off to the dustbin of New York City’s history.
All that could save them now would be some exculpatory evidence showing that some of these historical figures were woke.

Penelope Birkenstock, an assistant professor of herstory at Vassar College, recently published a paper arguing that George Washington was transgender. According to Birkenstock, Washington was born a biological female (or birthing person) named Charity Washington. While in junior high school, Charity’s teachers encouraged her to explore her sexual identity. 

As Birkenstock has documented, Charity was highly self-conscious about her height. She was over 6 feet tall and often teased by other colonial school girls. Although she excelled at basketball, Charity couldn't get an athletic scholarship to Harvard because Harvard didn't admit females. 

At age 15, Charity sensibly declared herself a male and changed her name to George. Birkenstock also established that Washington’s preferred pronouns were they, we, and them.

Perhaps Birkenstock’s research may cause progressive scholars to reevaluate Washington’s role in US history. It appears that he (or she or they) is (or are) the nation's only transgender president.

As for Jefferson and Columbus, however, it seems inevitable that these racist scamps will be erased from the history of NYC.

And there is more to come. Henry Ford was a famous anti-Semite, which may require Ford automobiles to be renamed in New York City, along with the Ford Foundation, which has its headquarters in New York.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. was heavily into eugenics and believed that Anglo-Saxons were superior to other races. There goes Rockefeller Center and the Rockettes.

Critics may say that the New York City Council is just a bunch of loons for wanting to expunge various prominent historical figures from the civic landscape. But I say go for it!

New York City has already distinguished itself as a sanctuary city that will accept illegal immigrants from anywhere in the world except Texas. It has also broken new ground in the field of law by releasing violent criminals onto the streets while prosecuting citizens who object to being pushed in front of subway trains. Tearing down statues seems a natural step on New York City’s road to becoming the nation’s capital woke city.

Goodbye, Teddy. We hardly knew ye. Photo credit New York Post

Is Ukraine fighting Russian mercenaries in Sudan? Say it ain’t so, President Biden

CNN ran a story a few days ago suggesting that “Ukrainian special services were likely behind a series of drone strikes and a ground operation directed against a Wagner-backed militia near Sudan’s capital . . . ." As CNN reported, “Covert strikes by Ukraine in Sudan would mark a dramatic and provocative expansion of Kiev’s theater of war against Moscow.”

Neither Ukraine nor the United States have acknowledged that Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian mercenaries in Africa. However, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made this provocative statement: “Our strategy is not to replace Russia but to free Africa from Russia’s grip.”

What would it mean for Americans If the CNN hypothesis is correct— that Ukrainians are fighting Russians in Africa?

First, it would mean that some American armaments and money sent to Ukraine are being used to support a Ukrainian military adventure on the African continent.

Secondly, it is inconceivable that Ukraine would be fighting Russians in Sudan without US approval and support.
Therefore, the United States has enabled the Ukrainians to fight Russian mercenaries in Africa— far from the European theater of war.

The Biden administration needs to come clean with the American people. If, in fact, the United States is backing Ukrainian military operations in Africa, Biden needs to inform the public about this new initiative. More importantly, President Biden should explain how it is in anybody’s interest for America to allow Ukraine to open a second front on the African continent in its war with Russia.

Image credit: Youtube &  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiPoQxCQ_EA

David Ignatius comes to praise Joe Biden AND to bury him (WaPo is bailing on the Big Guy)

Marc Antony, Shakespeare told us, came to bury Julius Caesar, not to praise him. David Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post, did Marc Antony one better. In a recent op-ed essay, Ignatius came to praise President Joe Biden and to bury him.

Ignatius’s column began by heaping obsequious praise on the Big Guy, even complimenting him for how he handled the Ukraine crisis. “In foreign policy, Ignatius effusively writes, “[Biden] managed the delicate balance off helping Ukraine fight Russia without getting America itself into a war.”

And then Ignatius slipped a knife into old Joe's back, writing that Biden and Vice President Harris should not run for reelection. Why? Two reasons. First, a majority of Americans believe Biden is too old to run for a second term. Second, most Americans disapprove of Kamala Harris, who would be Biden's running mate if he sought a second term.

Ignatius’s op-ed essay is a coded memo to the mainstream media and the progressive left. Joe Biden is finished. He will probably escape impeachment and a criminal indictment, but his days in the White House are numbered.

Some Americans may believe that the Ignatius column is no big deal. After all, Ignatius is only expressing his own views, not the views of the Washington Post. But think about it. Ignatius’s essay would never have seen the light of day without authorization from the highest level at the Post and perhaps with the tacit approval of the White House.

Now that Ignatius has said that the emperor wears no clothes, other left-wing influencers can jump on the bandwagon. It will not be long before stories appear in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Associated Press that undermine Biden. Now that Ignatius has spoken, Anderson Cooper and the other CNN hacks can begin criticizing good ol’ Six-Pack Joe.

Americans will see some fancy footwork in the coming weeks. Somehow, Biden's handlers will need to ease Kamala Harris off the stage. The upper echelons of the Democratic Party have already chosen Biden's successor, and that person will need to be introduced to the guileless public. Who will that person be? Perhaps Gavin Newsome.

Meanwhile, like a hurricane forming in the Atlantic, Donald Trump is getting stronger and stronger. The Democrats are using all manner of legerdemain to drive a stake into Trump's heart—to destroy him and put him in jail.

Nevertheless, Trump will almost certainly be the Republican nominee for President. I foresee violence and turmoil in the coming months. Meanwhile, our government is conducting a proxy war with Russia, a major nuclear power. 

You should buy your popcorn before the show starts because you don't want to miss a single minute of this upcoming adventure movie.

Image credit: Global Vision Conference

New York Times: Don’t worry your pretty little head about the Ukraine war

New York Times reporter Vanessa Friedman published a story last month with advice about what American tourists should wear when vacationing in Europe. It’s okay to wear sneakers, Friedman assures us. However, Americans should wear low-top running shoes to avoid being spotted as tourists. Good to know!

The New York Times’s shoe article contains a subtle, hidden message: Don’t worry your pretty little head about the Ukraine war.

It’s true that a half million soldiers have been killed or maimed over the past 18 months in the fight between Ukraine and Russia. And millions of civilians have fled the war zone and are living as refugees. But the war won’t interfere with Americans’ plans to get drunk at Oktoberfest this fall or smoke dope in Amsterdam. Just be sure to wear the shoes that the Times recommends when you’re frolicking in Europe.

And don’t worry about the money our government is sending to Ukraine. Uncle Sam has plenty of money and can always print more if he runs out.

America’s legacy media has broadly supported the Ukrainians in their senseless war with Russia. The Times and the progressive news outlets have downplayed the fact that Ukraine is losing this war.

But again, don’t worry your pretty little head about it. After all, who cares which side wins the war in Ukraine so long as it doesn’t interfere with our vacation plans.

War in Ukraine? Will it interfere with my vacation?

The Dixie Apocalypse: An Aventure Tale About Post-Apocalyptic Texas

In this near-future, post-apocalyptic novel, retired lawyer-turned-professor Willoughby Burns finds himself trying to survive against hunger and deadly threats in southern Louisiana. The Dixie Apocalypse takes place in an America ravaged by natural disasters, lack of petroleum, plagues, and terrorism. What is left of the United States is controlled by martial law. Life itself becomes primitive and favors those who can grow their own food or handle firearms. 

Will befriends US General Merski stationed in Baton Rouge, LA, and founds a farming community of fifty farms on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River due south of downtown Baton Rouge. General Merski enlists Will as a civilian commissary officer in charge of carrying out errands for his troops without arousing suspicion. Readers join Will on his travels through Louisiana and Texas as he seeks to establish a sense of order and peace in the South.

Midway through the novel, Willoughby, a native Texan, meets Cole Goodnight. a descendant of Charlie Goodnight, and together, they organize a movement for Texas to leave the United States and become an independent nation governed by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The Dixie Apocalypse is a fast-moving adventure tale with touches of humor and a happy ending. It is also an affectionate tribute to the popular culture of Texas with its rich heritage, vibrant music, and distinguished cuisine. The book can be purchased on Amazon.com.

George Will’s incoherent defense of the Ukraine war

I began reading George Will's columns back in the 1960s when I was in junior high school. My parents subscribed to Newsweek magazine, and every week, I would turn to the issue's last page to read George Will's commentary. His well-reasoned defense of conservative principles and use of historical references to buttress his arguments impressed me.

That was 50 years ago, but Mr. Will is still a powerful and persuasive political commentator. I was disheartened, however, by Will's recent column in support of American involvement in the Ukraine war.

Mr. Will’s arguments were based on two false premises. First, he said that Russia's war is an attempt to annihilate Ukraine. I don't think that's accurate. Russia's initial assault was a drive toward Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Putin may have thought his invasion would topple the Ukrainian government and bring Ukraine back into the orbit of Russian power.

However, it's evident that Russia is fighting a defensive war in Ukraine, and its territorial goals are modest. First, Russia is holding on to the Donbas, where Russian separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army for seven years.

In addition, Russia is firmly entrenched in Crimea, where it has long maintained a substantial naval base. Surely everyone realizes that Russia has a legitimate strategic interest in the Black Sea and that its ability to protect it would be severely crippled if Russia lost Crimea.

Will's main argument for supporting the Ukraine war is the claim that the U.S. promotes Ukrainian nationalism and the concept of nationalism as a vibrant political idea. Will writes:

 Cosmopolitanism has its virtues. But so does nationalism Because the nation-state is essential for protecting self-government, and pride in one’s cultural inheritance impedes the blandness of cultural homogenization.

Mr. Will is wrong to say that American involvement in the Ukraine war is motivated by a desire to promote nationalism. On the contrary, President Biden's administration is pursuing a globalist agenda that seems intent on weakening the United States on the world stage and dismantling America's traditional national values, such as patriotism, the nuclear family, and self-reliance.

Moreover, Will's journalistic home, the Washington Post, and all the legacy media are globalists--not nationalists.  Like the Biden administration, the mainstream media seems intent on stamping out America's national and cultural identity. Indeed, patriotism is seldom mentioned by the progressive elites, and the patriotic impulse has been redefined as "Christian nationalism" or "white nationalism"--code words for fascism.

As I read George Will’s defense of America's Ukraine policy, I sensed his heart wasn't in it. Unlike most of his prose, this particular essay is incoherent and unpersuasive. Perhaps on an unconscious level, Will knows that the Ukraine adventure weakens the United States as a world power and that the prime beneficiary of this disaster is the defense industry.

America's Ukraine project is going to blow up in our faces. And when the autopsy is complete on the disaster that befell Ukraine, the fingerprints of the nation’s political and intellectual elites will be all over the body. 

Mr. Will has a fine mind and a keen sense of decency. He should think of his reputation before allowing himself to be branded as an apologist for the Ukraine disaster.

Europeans die while Americans get rich off the Ukraine war: Is this a great country or what?

 Bruce Catton, the great chronicler of the Civil War, began one of his books with a quote from a chaplain in the Union Army who was struck by the fact that the war was devastating the South while bringing prosperity to the North.

“What a marvel is here!” wrote the chaplain. “Something new under the sun! A nation, from internal resources alone, carrying on for over eighteen months the most gigantic war of modern times, ever increasing in its magnitude, yet all this while growing richer and more prosperous!”

Americans should likewise be astonished. The United States is funding an all-out war with Russia, a conflict that has left a half million Russians and Ukrainians either dead or wounded. And yet Americans are prospering under Bidenomics. It’s an economic miracle! And all this new wealth has been conjured up by President Joe Biden, a demented criminal!

Unfortunately, America's growing wealth hasn't been distributed equitably. I, for example, haven't made a dime off the Ukrainian ruckus in spite of the fact that I'm a registered Democrat. 

The defense contractors, however, are making out like bandits.  Rob Rooke, writing for a socialist online publication, points out that a third of the Defense budget goes to just five corporations: Boeing, Raytheon, Northrup, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin. Undoubtedly, the Ukraine war has sent a lot of business their way.

Europeans are noticing that Americans are profiting from the Ukraine war while Europe suffers. As one senior European official put it: 

The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons. (As reported in The Economic Times)

 Is the defense industry sheepish or embarrassed about the money it's making off the war between Russia and Ukraine? Not at all. The Ukrainian embassy in DC recently hosted a reception celebrating the 31st anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian military. 

Who sponsored this gala event? The American defense industry! The logos of these four defense contractors appeared on the friggin’ invitation: Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Pratt & Whitney, and Lockheed Martin (as reported by Jonathan Guyer in Vox).

The defense industry and its lobbyists are significant contributors to our nation's elected politicians. Perhaps this explains why most of them support the Ukraine war--both Democrats and Republicans. 

I'm all in favor of people making money. After all, that's what this nation's all about. Nevertheless, I oppose American involvement in the senseless Ukraine war. Can't America's business sector make an honest buck that doesn't involve the slaughter or dismemberment of thousands of Europeans?

Photo credt: Vox

The Ukraine war. Do Americans know what's really going on?

The man who reads nothing at all," Thomas Jefferson observed,  "is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers."

Jefferson's observation was accurate when he wrote it, and it's even more true today. I am interested in the war in Ukraine and try to learn more about it by reading online news stories.

As I skim through the online newspaper reports, it seems like they're all written by the same person. Day after day, I read stories about Russian rockets and drones that injure Ukrainian civilians. According to the news stories, few civilians are killed by these attacks, and most Russian missiles are shot down. The overall message of these newspaper accounts seems to be that the Russian attacks are a sign of Russian brutality but are no more than a nuisance for the civilian population. I'm skeptical.

Today, I read that Ukrainians have introduced amissile with a range of 400 miles. Did the Ukrainians invent this new menace on their own? Again, I'm skeptical. Surely, most of these innovations were developed with American assistance.

Almost daily, the legacy media refers to Russia's "illegal” occupation of Crimea. Illegal in what sense? After all, the Crimeans voted on annexation and overwhelmingly said they wanted to be part of Russia. It's possible that the voting was rigged by the Putin government and that the people living in Crimea don't want to be part of Russia.

Again, I'm skeptical. Crimea has been part of Russia since at least the 18th century. Americans have no interest in history, but they should do a little reading on the Crimean War (1853-1856).

Russia had an important naval base in Crimea in 2014 when the region was annexed. It seems reasonable that the Russians were concerned about the security of that base when Ukraine made a radical shift toward aligning with the West after the Maidan uprising.

I am no apologist for Russian imperialism, but the United States should not be promoting a war in Eastern Europe without a clear sense of what that war is about. I'm beginning to think the US has bullied its way into a conflict that is none of our damn business.

The Ukrainian War isn’t a trivial event.  According to the New York Times, nearly a half million soldiers have been killed or wounded over the past 18 months. The Times estimates that 70,000 Ukrainian troops have lost their lives. An independent military analyst thinks the number is more than five times that number. Who knows?

One thing is certain. The war between Russia and Ukraine has wrecked Ukraine. Millions of refugees have fled the country. Millions more have been displaced from their homes. Ukraine is a significant source of the world's food supply, and its ability to raise and export grain has been severely hampered.

Americans seem indifferent to the fact that our country is prosecuting a proxy war against a nuclear power. We apparently think we can get away with this reckless behavior and that there are no consequences for our participation in the slaughter.

I don't think so.

A Half Million Ukrainian War Casualties and 6 Million Refugees: What’s the Point?

 During the First World War, it was said that the British military maintained three sets of casualty lists. One version was kept to hoodwink the public. A second set was maintained to dupe the British War Office. And the third set was kept to deceive itself.

According to the New York Times, nearly half a million troops have been killed or wounded over the last 18 months of Ukraine's war with Russia. The Times calculates that 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another 180,000 wounded. Russian military casualties are even higher: 120,000 deaths and 180,000 injured.

Of course, these numbers are only estimates. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have revealed their casualty lists. These tallies don't include civilian casualties, which must be severe given the routine bombing of Ukrainian towns and villages by the Russians.

As the Times put it, the toll of dead and wounded is “staggering.” To put it in perspective, about 58,000 American soldiers died during the Vietnam War, a conflict that stretched over ten years. Ukraine, a country with a much smaller population, lost 70,000 soldiers in only 18 months.

Then there are the refugees. Around 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country, and another 5 million have been displaced but still live in Ukraine.

Most Americans feel no moral responsibility for this catastrophe, even though American weapons and money have significantly contributed to the carnage. College students, by the millions, protested the war in Vietnam, but today's young students have more refined moral sensibilities. They can be whipped into a frenzy if a conservative judge gives a speech on a college campus. They don't give a shit about the Ukrainians.

And consider this. The New York Times may have miscalculated the death toll from the Ukrainian war. Douglas Macgregor. a retired U.S. Army officer, believes 400,000 Ukrainians have been killed during the war—more than five times the number reported by the Times.

America's legacy media report that Ukraine is winning this war, but that's untrue. Ukraine will never recover Crimea or the Donbas, no matter how many Ukrainians are killed or maimed in this senseless war with Russia. And make no mistake. The Russians will find a way to make America pay for provoking this pointless conflict.