Briefly Noted: Reflections On The Midterms, Hint Of A Ukraine Breakthrough?

Reporting on the upcoming Midterm Election continues to be very positive for the GOP. Multiple sources—including one quoted in The New Yorker—are suggesting that the building Red Wave may reach tsunami proportions. I have nothing to add to those predictions, but Conrad Black offers his own view on the bigger picture here. It comes in a longish article at the New York Sun, the link to which I picked up from Clarice Feldman:

America Is, as the People Prepare To Speak, on the Brink of a Seismic Political Shock

. . . And Trump will emerge with greater control than ever of the GOP.

After lengthy ruminations on American history, which I didn’t find all that compelling, Black gets down to brass tacks for his concluding reflections:

... America won the Cold War and government became effectively a bipartisan enterprise operated for the benefit of the upper-middle-class and the wealthy. For the first 15 years of the new millennium, the middle and working classes made almost no progress in disposable income, a phenomenon that always stirs American democracy to electoral change.

Only Donald Trump saw that, …

He poached heavily in the traditional Democratic Party fiefdoms of the African-American and Latin American communities. The complacent bipartisan Bush-Clinton establishment was taken by surprise and has fought back savagely, showing that they were not a decrepit establishment.

Yet they have strained the system by recourse to manipulation of the criminal justice system to attack their enemies. The mistakes President Trump’s enemies made were to put an incompetent into the presidency and in seeking the broadest possible coalition, to hand far too much authority to policy extremists.

On Tuesday, the people will speak and the correction of these errors will determinedly begin. Almost all the Trump-endorsed candidates will be victorious, he will take greater control than ever of the Republican Party, the Congress will undo what it can of the incumbent administration’s extravagance and will turn congressional investigative powers against Trump’s enemies.

Wokeness is ending and will not be widely lamented. Close to half mistrust the last election result. ...

The truth of Black’s assertion that Trump has solidified his control over the Republican Party can probably be seen not only in the electoral stats but also in the usual suspects scurrying forward—now almost in supplicant fashion—to beg Trump not to run again. I doubt we’d be seeing this if this were only a PR victory for Trump—the fear is palpable that Trump’s control really has increased. There’s a lot that can be said for and against Trump running again, but his desire to vindicate himself against the establishment that deprived him of a true first term and then sabotaged his second term is too human to deny. He wants justice—don’t we all?

There’s also the question, If not Trump, then who? DeSantis endorsing the guy in Colorado—who is pledging to campaign against Trump—seems to me to have been a foolish move that undercuts DeSantis’ own credibility and doesn’t help the party. Another squish “moderate” with no convictions is not what the GOP or the country needs. Well, two years to go. In the meantime the House needs to defund the Dem funding of prog groups around the country and do some serious investigating and impeaching.

On the Ukraine front, the Bezos Post reports:

US Privately Telling Ukraine Be Open To Negotiations With Putin

The White House is now privately urging the Ukrainian government to show openness toward negotiations with Russia, The Washington Post reported Saturday. It follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pledging to never enter negotiations with Moscow unless Vladimir Putin is removed from power. 

The US administration appears to be trying to nuance the push not as a compromise, but under the optics of ensuring Ukraine "maintains a moral high ground in the eyes of its international backers" as "a calculated attempt to ensure the government in Kyiv maintains the support of other nations facing constituencies wary of fueling a war for many years to come".

Militating against this “nuance” is the admitted fact of “Ukraine fatigue”:

While U.S. officials share their Ukrainian counterparts’ assessment that Putin, for now, isn’t serious about negotiations, they acknowledge that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ban on talks with him has generated concern in parts of Europe, Africa and Latin America, where the war’s disruptive effects on the availability and cost of food and fuel are felt most sharply.

"Ukraine fatigue is a real thing for some of our partners," said one U.S. official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations between Washington and Kyiv.

So the no-negotiation stance has “generated concern” in Europe, Africa, and Latin America—why not in Asia? Oh, yeah, because most of Asia is backing Russia to one degree or another. So the mood of for goodness sake put a fork in this pointless war is a pretty much world wide sentiment. And you can bet those DC-Kyiv talks are very sensitive—it was the UK/US that forbade Zelensky from making a deal with Putin back in April, when it looked like there was a deal. Instead, the US is now getting all huffy and instructing Zelensky to show more gratitude:

There have also been recent revelations of US administration frustration with Zelensky, with accusations that he remains 'ungrateful' at the tens of billions Washington has already provided for the war effort, given he always asks for more. "Show a little more gratitude..." has been the Biden administration's private messaging for months.

Right. Thanks for nothin’. And we’re left with Neocons against the world. This won’t end well, but the new GOP Congress will have a chance to see that it does end.

Lastly, Larry Johnson has a trenchant article about the economic realities of war:

CAN THE UNITED STATES FIGHT A TWO FRONT WAR?

The short answer is, No. Or, to quote, “NO!!” The long answer is that we probably can’t afford even a proxy war. An excerpt to whet your interest:

Quick answer–NO!! The United States military is outfitted with the most expensive weapons systems in the world. But the process of deciding what to build and deploy is not based on a well-defined national security strategy that recognizes how those systems would be used in a real war. The prime example of the folly of the U.S. Defense industry is the air craft carrier task forces that represents the chief means for the U.S. to project force overseas. Why do I say “folly”? Because the Russians and Chinese have produced and deployed hypersonic missiles that can penetrate the anti-missile systems that are supposed to protect the carriers. In the event of a shooting war with China over Taiwan, any U.S. carriers deployed within 500 miles of China would be sitting ducks.

…

… The United States is spending billions on the equivalent of Lamborghinis while Russia is buying rugged Toyota 4 wheel drive pick ups. Building new “Lamborghinis” is time consuming and very costly. …

Take a look at the following video. A Russian drone, the Zala Lancet, locates and destroys a U.S. M777 howitzer:

So what? The Lancet costs thousands to make while one M777 costs $3.738 million. Compare these two weapon systems below. If the Lancet costs $100,000 to produce, that means 38 Lancets can be built for the price of just one M777 howitzer. Each of those Lancets can destroy one M777.

And he gets into the F-35 program as well as the matter of tanks. No wonder the Zhou admin wants Zelensky to negotiate—only it’s likely too late. Putin has too much invested at this point to give up anything. Which is a point he has made from the outset: The longer this lasts the fewer concessions, if any, Russia will offer.