Over the past several weeks I’ve referred to the emergence of an inflection point—a corner soon to be turned, if you will, in the collective West’s war on Russia, its war for global dominance.
A Polish teacher who was an orphan after WW2 told me that 20% of Polish children were orphans after the war, living in huge orphanages. I presume there were similar situations in all areas where the Germans passed through--going and returning. Also in some parts of Germany.
Our biggest problem is not the end of our empire. It is the end of us as a nation. "There are two more years to a presidential something or other—here in the US we call them ‘elections’—so there’s plenty of time for blowback to reach even the hinterlands. Americans aren’t used to being laughingstocks, or defeated." I don't consider myself defeated. What those clowns in Washington do is not my concern, except for the problems they create on the home front. They are no longer the home team. This is sad, and apparently as long as they can keep stealing elections and maintain power they are not concerned about little people like me. The feeling is mutual.
I went to serve jury duty recently. After check in, all hundred of us watched a short video to teach us what implicit bias is, and how to avoid letting it affect our judgment should we become jurors. The narrator was... you guessed it: a black female judge.
The script was very anodyne, but sadly, implicit racial bias is now accepted as proven fact in our judicial system much like catastrophic anthropogenic climate change is accepted as proven fact in our educational system.
That's not even original. I think they stole it from Duck Soup where Groucho (Rufus T. Firefly) is the head of the country. They have a cabinet meeting that went like this:
Groucho: Allright, this meeting is called to order. First off, is there any old business . . . . . .
Minister: . . . . I'd like to discuss the tax.
Groucho: I'm sorry. That's new business. Is there any old business to discuss . . . . allright is there any new business.
I submit the EU is Germany, who no longer wants the job as herd boss for the exotic menagerie in the European barnyard.
I continue to predict Germany will turn east. It will kiss and make up with Russia, deal with China, and become the westernmost node of Mackinder's Nightmare.
I figure Poland already has close to 5000 casualties in Ukraine, and is likely to incur at least another 5000 before the final chapter on this war is written.
I don't foresee the Polish fools who bumbled into this mess sitting at a table with Germany and Russia when it's over.
Rumint from a usually reliable source with a history of providing accurate information says that US advisors are on the ground in Ukraine assisting with M777 and HIMARS employment.
I'm currently reading Trevor Royle's account of the Crimean War of 1854. Remarkable parallels across the annals of history: UK government ministers calling Russia a "barbarous nation" that must be destroyed; ordinary people swept up in "war fever" against the Russian bear; heady, delusional optimism and "home by Christmas". Amazing how we never learn.
"four oblasts in Western Ukraine that Poland had captured from the USSR in 1920". I thought that Galicia has been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to being incorporated into Poland in 1920.
Austria collapsed in October 1918 and the period from then to 1920 was a period of warfare in the Eastern Borderlands, with the major players being Soviet Russia, Ukrainian nationalists, and Poland. Each trying to expand at the expense of the others, with the Bolsheviks seeking to incorporate all of the former Russian Empire and the Poles who followed Piłsudski seeking to recreate the Intermarium from the Baltic to the Black Sea. After Russia was knocked out of WWI and the Bolsheviks seized power, Ukraine in a fairly expansive sense was briefly an independent SSR, but a battlefield between the West and the East. The Poles at the same time, newly independent, attempted to expand East beyond the so-called Curzon Line envisioned by the Allies, while the Soviets attempted to expand West, hoping to march to Berlin. The Poles struck first against the Bolsheviks, getting as far as Kiev, but were then driven back to Warsaw, before winding up with the interwar borders as we know them. Austria was no longer a factor in any of this after October 1918. Both the Soviets and the Poles had to suppress nationalist Ukrainians in their respective parts of Ukraine into the 1930s.
thanks for this explanation. I defer to you in anything to do with Poland. But based on this interesting chronology, it sounds like Galicia was briefly part of Ukraine SSR in 1920, but not part of the Union of SSRs. I've been very struck by the degree to which the most extreme Ukro-Nazis come from the part of Ukraine that was in Austro-Hungarian Empire. It struck me as somewhat interesting that Ukro-Nazi icon Konovalets was born into Austro-Hungarian Empire within a year or two of Hitler, also born into Austro-Hungarian Empire.
That's the big one. If the Russians go for Odessa, Ukraine is finished. It will no longer have sea access and the Russians will be able to stop any monkey business in Moldova. If, of course, they can conquer their fear of the Screaming Eagles there!
Me neither. Maybe Odessa was never part of the original SMO, but seeing how the Russians have been treated by the West, we can hardly blame them for going all the way.
Yes, here in Europe, we really feel like piggy in the middle. I say "we" guardedly, because most Europeans are still fully asleep. Our teams are all through to the next stage of the World Cup, so everything's okay, right? Meanwhile, I'm off with my son to our local forest tomorrow to collect firewood.
Yes, fast asleep…in the public transport system in Paris, this: “let’s continue with good habits and wear masks while commuting…” Bonnes habitudes??? Plus ça change, etc…
Habitual face covering outside the home. Do you live in a Muslim country by any chance? I hafta laugh at the Chinese demonstrators against lockdowns--every photo I've seen has everybody masked up. Security? Habit? Seems ironic in the circs.
I did not realize how bloody the history was.
1797 - Poland partitioned
Post WW1 - Poland reborn after being partitioned in 1797, and tries to culturally integrate Ukrainians.
WW2 - Russia invades Poland and through deportations and liquidation tries to pacify.
WW2 - German pacification of Poland
WW2 - 1943 - Ukrainian nationalists ethnic cleanse areas of Poles, as German presence reduced
WW2 - Overall 20% of population killed per Wikipedia
End WW2 - Russia redraws borders
A Polish teacher who was an orphan after WW2 told me that 20% of Polish children were orphans after the war, living in huge orphanages. I presume there were similar situations in all areas where the Germans passed through--going and returning. Also in some parts of Germany.
Our biggest problem is not the end of our empire. It is the end of us as a nation. "There are two more years to a presidential something or other—here in the US we call them ‘elections’—so there’s plenty of time for blowback to reach even the hinterlands. Americans aren’t used to being laughingstocks, or defeated." I don't consider myself defeated. What those clowns in Washington do is not my concern, except for the problems they create on the home front. They are no longer the home team. This is sad, and apparently as long as they can keep stealing elections and maintain power they are not concerned about little people like me. The feeling is mutual.
Etch-a-sketch it all, there and, here.
Said differently: Kill them all and let God sort it out.*
* This statement is not intended as a threat to do violence or encourage others to do violence against any person, or entity of any sort.
I abhor violence.
This phrase of somewhat undetermined origin has been known for at least 800 years. One exposition, among many, can be found here:
https://naturallawinstitute.com/2018/06/the-origins-of-kill-them-all-and-let-god-sort-it-out/#gsc.tab=0
https://www.unz.com/isteve/washington-supreme-court-makes-kendis-butterknife-the-law-of-the-land/
I went to serve jury duty recently. After check in, all hundred of us watched a short video to teach us what implicit bias is, and how to avoid letting it affect our judgment should we become jurors. The narrator was... you guessed it: a black female judge.
The script was very anodyne, but sadly, implicit racial bias is now accepted as proven fact in our judicial system much like catastrophic anthropogenic climate change is accepted as proven fact in our educational system.
That's not even original. I think they stole it from Duck Soup where Groucho (Rufus T. Firefly) is the head of the country. They have a cabinet meeting that went like this:
Groucho: Allright, this meeting is called to order. First off, is there any old business . . . . . .
Minister: . . . . I'd like to discuss the tax.
Groucho: I'm sorry. That's new business. Is there any old business to discuss . . . . allright is there any new business.
Minister: I'd like to discuss that tax.
Groucho: I'm sorry, that's old business now.
Will Schryver
@imetatronink
I submit the EU is Germany, who no longer wants the job as herd boss for the exotic menagerie in the European barnyard.
I continue to predict Germany will turn east. It will kiss and make up with Russia, deal with China, and become the westernmost node of Mackinder's Nightmare.
Will Schryver
@imetatronink
I figure Poland already has close to 5000 casualties in Ukraine, and is likely to incur at least another 5000 before the final chapter on this war is written.
I don't foresee the Polish fools who bumbled into this mess sitting at a table with Germany and Russia when it's over.
I wonder how many Americans are KIA & WIA ?
Rumint from a usually reliable source with a history of providing accurate information says that US advisors are on the ground in Ukraine assisting with M777 and HIMARS employment.
Me-? I know nothing.
I'm currently reading Trevor Royle's account of the Crimean War of 1854. Remarkable parallels across the annals of history: UK government ministers calling Russia a "barbarous nation" that must be destroyed; ordinary people swept up in "war fever" against the Russian bear; heady, delusional optimism and "home by Christmas". Amazing how we never learn.
interesting commentary, as always.
"four oblasts in Western Ukraine that Poland had captured from the USSR in 1920". I thought that Galicia has been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to being incorporated into Poland in 1920.
Austria collapsed in October 1918 and the period from then to 1920 was a period of warfare in the Eastern Borderlands, with the major players being Soviet Russia, Ukrainian nationalists, and Poland. Each trying to expand at the expense of the others, with the Bolsheviks seeking to incorporate all of the former Russian Empire and the Poles who followed Piłsudski seeking to recreate the Intermarium from the Baltic to the Black Sea. After Russia was knocked out of WWI and the Bolsheviks seized power, Ukraine in a fairly expansive sense was briefly an independent SSR, but a battlefield between the West and the East. The Poles at the same time, newly independent, attempted to expand East beyond the so-called Curzon Line envisioned by the Allies, while the Soviets attempted to expand West, hoping to march to Berlin. The Poles struck first against the Bolsheviks, getting as far as Kiev, but were then driven back to Warsaw, before winding up with the interwar borders as we know them. Austria was no longer a factor in any of this after October 1918. Both the Soviets and the Poles had to suppress nationalist Ukrainians in their respective parts of Ukraine into the 1930s.
thanks for this explanation. I defer to you in anything to do with Poland. But based on this interesting chronology, it sounds like Galicia was briefly part of Ukraine SSR in 1920, but not part of the Union of SSRs. I've been very struck by the degree to which the most extreme Ukro-Nazis come from the part of Ukraine that was in Austro-Hungarian Empire. It struck me as somewhat interesting that Ukro-Nazi icon Konovalets was born into Austro-Hungarian Empire within a year or two of Hitler, also born into Austro-Hungarian Empire.
That's the big one. If the Russians go for Odessa, Ukraine is finished. It will no longer have sea access and the Russians will be able to stop any monkey business in Moldova. If, of course, they can conquer their fear of the Screaming Eagles there!
I personally see no "if" about it.
Me neither. Maybe Odessa was never part of the original SMO, but seeing how the Russians have been treated by the West, we can hardly blame them for going all the way.
Yes, here in Europe, we really feel like piggy in the middle. I say "we" guardedly, because most Europeans are still fully asleep. Our teams are all through to the next stage of the World Cup, so everything's okay, right? Meanwhile, I'm off with my son to our local forest tomorrow to collect firewood.
Yes, fast asleep…in the public transport system in Paris, this: “let’s continue with good habits and wear masks while commuting…” Bonnes habitudes??? Plus ça change, etc…
Habitual face covering outside the home. Do you live in a Muslim country by any chance? I hafta laugh at the Chinese demonstrators against lockdowns--every photo I've seen has everybody masked up. Security? Habit? Seems ironic in the circs.