It’s all a mix. Let’s start by reproducing an exchange in the comments this morning. It’s based in US politics, but there are far wider ramifications behind what made this assault on our constitutional order not only possible but even—to our rulers—desirable and necessary:
A powerful commentary Mark. I checked out the Daily Skeptic link and lo and behold last year’s Nobel Prize in physics, Dr John Clauser, has gone off the climate change narrative being pounded into us! A very interesting article providing some relief from the sophistry of bad science!
Those Western "liberal" societies have become Soros's "open" societies: no borders, no beliefs, no glue that binds people together. It hasn't helped either that we've had 60 or so years of the kind of material comfort that the most powerful potentates of the past (sorry, I was teaching alliteration to my students this morning!) would have envied. The latter fact alone is going to make people incredibly soft. I work indirectly with many left-wingers and it's always amused me how they regard the great "liberal" victories such as breaking up the family, abortion and "marriage for all" as massive wins for the individual. They aren't. Without exception, they give enormous power to the State by removing all protective intermediary barriers between Big Brother and the individual. I hope that when society finally hits the buffers, there will be enough strong people left to rebuild things.
Putin has no incentive to stop now for the following reasons:
1. Western Sanctions are actually helping Putin restructure the Worlds Economy, Russias economy, Russia’s military, and Russian Society, while hurting the West. As Rahm Emanuel said “never let an emergency go to waste”.
2. Putin has a Presidential election coming up, and is balancing between being aggressive to the Russian blood spent, while not wasting Russian resources.
3. Putin has no interest in a Minsk 3.0, that allows Ukraine to rebuild and start another war in a couple of years.
4. The us and West has shown they can’t be trusted.
5. Russia on the ground has not achieved their requirements of taking all Russian Land, of what is now part of Russia.
Saw this on GP re: fighting back against the diktats in London on enforcement of ULEZ rules. What do you do when outrageous rules are imposed by tyrants?
Unbelievable! But we better start believing, quick. This is what the U.S. govt wants our future to be. The British government has been in love with surveillance and cameras and monitoring all media for speech violations for decades already. They are only a very little ahead of the U.S. government. What is it with the Anglos and our resistance to the Magna Carta? Are we still looking for a King?
In my town a few years ago they reconfigured the elementary schools so that one would be grades 1-2 , another 3-4, another 5-6. So the kids were bussed all over rather than to their neighborhood school. The State test scores did not improve. I heard a lot of the younger kids were distressed greatly. Why can't they leave things alone?
Thank you Mr Wauck, very important post. With the collapse of law and principles-beyond-self, the powers that be are adopting an end-justifies-the-means, whaddyagonnadoaboutitthoughtso attitude. Shocking, dangerous
The growth in the AfD and Dutch farmers' party is built on a very powerful idea: that government is becoming dictatorial. They can ban and shut down and organisation, but they can't shut down an idea. It will re-emerge elsewhere.
An astute observation of a powerful force. It recapitulates a theme Rush constantly repeated with respect to the Tea Party movement in the US (uniparty stomped on by both Obama and McConnell & Ryan), which then became what we see as the intense support for Trump = Trump is the current carrier of this zeitgeist, but the political potency behind him is truly bigger than even Trump, and is not going away.
The comments from the Russians answer the question about the big offensive. The Kursk comparisions can be overdone, but it is essentially what is happening now. Back then, Stavka defended in massive depth and let the Germans attack and throw away their best armoured units. Only when the Germans were at their wits end, did the Russians counter-attack. There's still a bit more "degrading" of the Ukr forces to be done, but then we will see an offensive. The good Colonel will be proven right - eventually!
The game may go deeper still. With Russia and CCP allies of convenience, a rope-a-dope strategy to drain western military response capability through Russia sets up amplified risk to sovereign Taiwan. Such a move (an overt blockade or invasion of Taiwan) would make a mess of any claimed BRICS-currency stability, so it seems just letting the West exhaust themselves and forcing a re-understanding with both Ukraine/EU/US & Taiwan plus the ASEAN membership vis-a-vis Russia & CCP respectively is likely. Sun Tzu again.
I wonder what is the comparison as to the range of on & off topics for humor/public comedy between Russia and the West? I recall Russian rock band members being imprisoned for crossing lines with lyrics, and in the states humor is so hollowed out, many of the best comedians won't play on woke college campuses.
Thank you Louis for the thoughtful reply. Your point about limits as culturally connected (" ...limits in Russia, ... ") is true and I think a potentially revealing probe of the size and applicability of the Overton-window idea you point out. Complicated too - state norms, regional norms, norms attached to demographic descriptors. But certainly we see in the West that state censorship of speech is harmful (proscribed debate excludes ability to generate best ideas, covid, which see) and results in very strong back-pressure. Promoted forms of speech also have this effect (Latinx and acceptance in Spanish speaking communities, for example). I don't agree with Breitbart's aphorism that politics is downstream of culture (way too patchy & narrow, and another example of how damaging the idea the Clinton's gave us of all politics all the time), but limits on humor or musical lyrics (heh, or 'newspaper balance') seem a decent lens onto the Overton window of public sentiment vs state sentiment. Anthony Oliver's ballad Rich men North of Richmond shows a huge offset in those windows. During the O's years, no significant comics made jokes about him, despite the rich fields to plow. Wish I knew Russian, I bet there are some great jokes along the lines of an American, a Brit, and a Ukrainian walk into a bar ...
Yep. I took it to mean the economic and financial hardships coming to bear on NATO countries will dry up the spigot leaving Ukraine unprotected and on their own to defend creating more anxiety and exhaustion.
Yes and no. We do all have the totalitarian instinct within us, whether it's bending our kids to our will or bullying our co-workers. However, most of us manage to at least recognise and control this urge. The psychopaths in charge of us do not have this ability and wouldn't use it if they did.
Democracy is (probably) the least worst of political systems, but at the end of the day, it is still mob rule. We saw this during Covid. Sure, you are free not to wear a mask or get the jab, but you are also free to take your place in Skid Row and busk for a living.
A powerful commentary Mark. I checked out the Daily Skeptic link and lo and behold last year’s Nobel Prize in physics, Dr John Clauser, has gone off the climate change narrative being pounded into us! A very interesting article providing some relief from the sophistry of bad science!
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/08/15/last-years-nobel-physics-laureate-signs-world-climate-declaration-stating-there-is-no-climate-emergency/
Those Western "liberal" societies have become Soros's "open" societies: no borders, no beliefs, no glue that binds people together. It hasn't helped either that we've had 60 or so years of the kind of material comfort that the most powerful potentates of the past (sorry, I was teaching alliteration to my students this morning!) would have envied. The latter fact alone is going to make people incredibly soft. I work indirectly with many left-wingers and it's always amused me how they regard the great "liberal" victories such as breaking up the family, abortion and "marriage for all" as massive wins for the individual. They aren't. Without exception, they give enormous power to the State by removing all protective intermediary barriers between Big Brother and the individual. I hope that when society finally hits the buffers, there will be enough strong people left to rebuild things.
Putin has no incentive to stop now for the following reasons:
1. Western Sanctions are actually helping Putin restructure the Worlds Economy, Russias economy, Russia’s military, and Russian Society, while hurting the West. As Rahm Emanuel said “never let an emergency go to waste”.
2. Putin has a Presidential election coming up, and is balancing between being aggressive to the Russian blood spent, while not wasting Russian resources.
3. Putin has no interest in a Minsk 3.0, that allows Ukraine to rebuild and start another war in a couple of years.
4. The us and West has shown they can’t be trusted.
5. Russia on the ground has not achieved their requirements of taking all Russian Land, of what is now part of Russia.
Good summary. For Point 2, Putin is also going into that election with an 80%+ approval rate and will probably get 81m REAL votes.
Good read Ray. Hypersonic incentive.
I wonder if Puty's got a hypersonic nudge unit?
U.S. wants peace asap. Peace with honor…
Why?
1. Petro dollar is in danger.
2. It’s apparent Ukraine can’t win
3. Inflation is back
4. Presidential election
5. US / West arms stock are almost exhausted
6. France can’t fix Niger due to Ukraine
7. Danger of making coming recession worse.
8. Danger of more right wing gains in European elections.
9. US / Western arms shown to be ineffective/ over priced
10. Danger more dirt in Biden May come out of Ukraine
Western / US options being done:
1. Increase pressure on Russia militarily (we are seeing this, such as drone attacks against Moscow, Ship attacks, attacks on Crimea Bridge, etc).
2. Increase pressure via sanctions (we are seeing this). Russia Diamond trade to India is an example.
3. More noise / threats by Poland
4. International war crime charges against Russians
5. Promises of more military aid (f-16’s, m1 tanks, etc).
6. General talk by U.S. that Russia can keep Crimea
The neocons want peace with horror, not honour.
Maddening. Truly. You and your lists are the gifts that keep on giving. Good stuff.
Saw this on GP re: fighting back against the diktats in London on enforcement of ULEZ rules. What do you do when outrageous rules are imposed by tyrants?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/cameras-go-punish-drivers-name-climate-change-vigilantes/
https://www.thedrive.com/news/vandals-destroy-london-car-emissions-cameras-over-daily-tolls
That restored my faith in human nature. Even the Swiss have been destroying excessive road radars recently.
Unbelievable! But we better start believing, quick. This is what the U.S. govt wants our future to be. The British government has been in love with surveillance and cameras and monitoring all media for speech violations for decades already. They are only a very little ahead of the U.S. government. What is it with the Anglos and our resistance to the Magna Carta? Are we still looking for a King?
Remember neighborhood schools?
‘UNMITIGATED DISASTER’ Lawmakers Call for School Choice After Students Soil Themselves Stuck on Buses for 6 Hours
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/08/11/kentucky-lawmakers-respond-to-jcps-bus-disaster/
Wow!
In my town a few years ago they reconfigured the elementary schools so that one would be grades 1-2 , another 3-4, another 5-6. So the kids were bussed all over rather than to their neighborhood school. The State test scores did not improve. I heard a lot of the younger kids were distressed greatly. Why can't they leave things alone?
That would imply that prior generations were wise. But we're on the right side of history..
A German rhyming echo to the Dutch move to shutdown Forum for Democracy may be found in the move to make the German AfD (Alternative for Germany) party illegal and jail their leaders: not tinfoil territory, actually espoused by a 'pro-immigration' ngo leader and amplified by the German press = https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pro-refugee-ngo-founder-calls-afd-be-banned-and-its-leaders-jailed
Thank you Mr Wauck, very important post. With the collapse of law and principles-beyond-self, the powers that be are adopting an end-justifies-the-means, whaddyagonnadoaboutitthoughtso attitude. Shocking, dangerous
The growth in the AfD and Dutch farmers' party is built on a very powerful idea: that government is becoming dictatorial. They can ban and shut down and organisation, but they can't shut down an idea. It will re-emerge elsewhere.
An astute observation of a powerful force. It recapitulates a theme Rush constantly repeated with respect to the Tea Party movement in the US (uniparty stomped on by both Obama and McConnell & Ryan), which then became what we see as the intense support for Trump = Trump is the current carrier of this zeitgeist, but the political potency behind him is truly bigger than even Trump, and is not going away.
Yes, Trump is a great example. In himself, he has all the human flaws. But as a symbol, he represents an idea that millions of Americans share.
Most shocking and most dangerous: they believe to the core of their being that their cause is moral and just.
The comments from the Russians answer the question about the big offensive. The Kursk comparisions can be overdone, but it is essentially what is happening now. Back then, Stavka defended in massive depth and let the Germans attack and throw away their best armoured units. Only when the Germans were at their wits end, did the Russians counter-attack. There's still a bit more "degrading" of the Ukr forces to be done, but then we will see an offensive. The good Colonel will be proven right - eventually!
The game may go deeper still. With Russia and CCP allies of convenience, a rope-a-dope strategy to drain western military response capability through Russia sets up amplified risk to sovereign Taiwan. Such a move (an overt blockade or invasion of Taiwan) would make a mess of any claimed BRICS-currency stability, so it seems just letting the West exhaust themselves and forcing a re-understanding with both Ukraine/EU/US & Taiwan plus the ASEAN membership vis-a-vis Russia & CCP respectively is likely. Sun Tzu again.
Yep. At this stage, the Russians and Chinese just need to sit back and let the neocons do their work for them.
I wonder what is the comparison as to the range of on & off topics for humor/public comedy between Russia and the West? I recall Russian rock band members being imprisoned for crossing lines with lyrics, and in the states humor is so hollowed out, many of the best comedians won't play on woke college campuses.
Thank you Louis for the thoughtful reply. Your point about limits as culturally connected (" ...limits in Russia, ... ") is true and I think a potentially revealing probe of the size and applicability of the Overton-window idea you point out. Complicated too - state norms, regional norms, norms attached to demographic descriptors. But certainly we see in the West that state censorship of speech is harmful (proscribed debate excludes ability to generate best ideas, covid, which see) and results in very strong back-pressure. Promoted forms of speech also have this effect (Latinx and acceptance in Spanish speaking communities, for example). I don't agree with Breitbart's aphorism that politics is downstream of culture (way too patchy & narrow, and another example of how damaging the idea the Clinton's gave us of all politics all the time), but limits on humor or musical lyrics (heh, or 'newspaper balance') seem a decent lens onto the Overton window of public sentiment vs state sentiment. Anthony Oliver's ballad Rich men North of Richmond shows a huge offset in those windows. During the O's years, no significant comics made jokes about him, despite the rich fields to plow. Wish I knew Russian, I bet there are some great jokes along the lines of an American, a Brit, and a Ukrainian walk into a bar ...
Yep. I took it to mean the economic and financial hardships coming to bear on NATO countries will dry up the spigot leaving Ukraine unprotected and on their own to defend creating more anxiety and exhaustion.
Yes and no. We do all have the totalitarian instinct within us, whether it's bending our kids to our will or bullying our co-workers. However, most of us manage to at least recognise and control this urge. The psychopaths in charge of us do not have this ability and wouldn't use it if they did.
Democracy is (probably) the least worst of political systems, but at the end of the day, it is still mob rule. We saw this during Covid. Sure, you are free not to wear a mask or get the jab, but you are also free to take your place in Skid Row and busk for a living.
LOL