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So the current Western Policy is similar to Underpants Gnome Economics:

Phase 1: Sanction Russia destroying our own economies, causing major economic chaos world wide, and doing minor damage to the Russian Economy.

Phase 2: ?

Phase 3: virtue and/or prosperity.

Hat Tip to:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2011/07/14/underpants-gnomes-political-economy/?sh=41f514e94e2e

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I wonder if banning ship insurance for carrying Russian Goods will also backfire?

London seems to dominate the industry.

Great way to create a competitor…

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/insurance-ban-eus-biggest-blow-yet-russian-oil-exports

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It's a multi-front war and we're losing. I used to think that Americans would have a robust response to all of this stuff. Occasionally we see peeps here and there e.g., the CRT protests but people's response to Covid said it all to me. Governments from federal to state said jump and 98% of people did, over and over. The "Silent Majority" is exactly that. Some will try and go their own way. Some will resist but, the vast majority will put their heads down and try and survive. Look at our Revolution - about 1/3 actively fought while another 1/3 kept their heads down and waited to see who won and the rest rooted for the other side. Look at Hitler's Germany - people sat and watched while a significant minority of people were thrown from their homes, shoved in cattle cars and murdered. Little resistance. Why? Because it meant bad things for those that spoke up. Look at what happened to the White Rose resistance group.

Hunted down and destroyed.

Sometimes its hard for me to put into words but, there is this sense of paralysis that infects a society when these things happen. It creeps up slowly and then all of a sudden...everyone is driving electric cars yet, people can't figure out how it happened. Look at what happened to the SUV for instance and I know this is an "off the wall" example. Nearly every single SUV-style vehicle has transformed into essentially the same thing. They all have the same basic structure. Why? CAFE standards. Small changes that have outsized effects. Want a real SUV? Sure, just pay $90,000 for one and BTW, it'll be electric soon whether you like it or not. That's how they do it in America. Death by a thousand cuts, in a million little ways. Gramsci was right. Little by little.

History tells us that republics are fleeting. Slavery in some form or another - literal and figurative - is the lot of mankind. The founders tried to find a different way (and they did) yet collectively we are allowing it to be taken from us.

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Jun 9, 2022·edited Jun 9, 2022

I infer the implication of the tweet & graphic "China being "aggressive" against Canadian and Australian warplanes...." is that the aggressors are actually the Aussies and Canadians given how far they are operating from their native soil.

This article from the United States Naval Institute gives a good background on the incidents in question:

https://news.usni.org/2022/06/07/china-denies-harassing-canadian-australian-patrol-aircraft-in-the-western-pacific

Of course, this isn't the first air encounter between the PLAAF and other countries' air forces. One may recall the mid-air in 2001 between a PLAAF fighter and a USN P-3 (forerunner to P-8):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident

(There are other incidents as well.)

If my inference is correct, I believe the tweet & graphic is very unfortunate, and a greatly misleading characterization of the ongoing situation. Freedom of the Skies, Freedom of the Seas must be exercised, or it is lost.

The ChiComs are playing at a very aggressive game of trying to secure the entire Western Pacific.

Freedom of Navigation is essential across the world.

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You'll know when the American people have had enough of leftist violence. But I must say (maybe going out on a limb here), I watched the new Jan 6 documentary this morning. I didn't make it more than half way.

I. AM. SORRY, but the people who went to D.C. and participated in ANY part of the Capitol riots are IDIOTS. They played right into the Dems/Deep State hands. They should have stayed the hell outside of the fencing. They should have backed 1/2 mile away from the Capitol when the first crap hit the fan. They should have let the fed provocateurs, FBI agents, and infiltrators play their games all by themselves. The rioting was a DISGRACE and too damned many Trump supporters ruined what could have been a powerful protest by taking the bait.

This is not to say that the feds aren't scum for what they did. This is not to say that the DoJ is not a bag of d**ks for how they have treated the people arrested. I had plane and hotel reservations to be in D.C. on Jan 5-7 but canceled them based on what I was reading in the days leading up to the events. What is happening right now in the Pelosi Star Chamber is exactly what they wanted to have happen. The police were alternatively permissive or violent instigators. The lies were all pre-planned. The narrative was ready to roll out. The only losers on Jan 6 were Trump and the America First movement. AND IT WAS OUR OWN DUMB*SSED FAULT. Watch the documentary. Our team on the field that day were idiots that walked right into the set up and destroyed what little chance Trump had remaining.

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I see where cocaine Mitch finally spoke up. Geez. Perhaps a Supreme Court militia could be created to serve and protect justices and their families.

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Boris Johnson’s downfall is more about his Covid hypocrisy / actions. Same with so called conservatives in Australia’s election trouncing.

Ukraine support has not become a huge political issue, yet. He was trying to use the Ukraine card to stay in power.

The economic damage due to Ukraine is getting closer, a huge meteor descending, but it has not impacted yet.

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