Bedfellows
To be very clear; there is no chance (as in zero, nada, ganz sicher nicht, rien, none) that NATO will invade Russia. Never was. There is no chance that the United States would ever invade Russia (everyone knows we only invade much smaller countries). No one knows the both better than Vladimir Putin. The fear of invasion by NATO, the EU, or the United States was not why he invaded Chechnya, Georgia, and now Ukraine.
Putin invaded Ukraine because, to him, the possibility of having a successful western-style democracy next door was the scariest thing imaginable. The idea of Russians, his people, being able to look over the border and seeing anything other than the Russian ‘Culture’, the Mother Russia of the tsardom he so wanted to restore; kept him awake all his nights. Alternatives can do that to some people.
How could he ever return Russia to the 19th Century if the Russian people wanted so much to be in the 21st? History doesn’t (can’t) repeat itself, but humans can and often do repeat the mistakes of the past. Tsar, Tzar, Csar, Czar Vladimir would be Nicholas I and restore Russia to her former greatness. The rest is history, or will be after the requisite butchery.
Xi, to Putin’s east, is a like-minded man in that he wants to restore China to the China of old, or, at least the emperor and the dynasty parts, which means the China of before the revolution. No mind. Like Putin, he is losing sleep, but this is due to an all too western Hong Kong and Taiwan all too visible to the Chinese people. Xi knows that Taiwan will never invade China, that it would be ridiculous to think that Hong Kong might; but the presence anywhere of an alternative to his autocracy is a threat to his legitimacy and these two are a way too close.
The thing both these two autocrats fear most is any alternative to authoritarianism. Any attractive alternative must be discredited or destroyed. For mere chump change, using software and Facebook, Putin helped put Trump in office, affected BREXIT, and weakened both NATO and the EU. Ukraine is at a $Trillion and climbing with the bodies piling up. Ukraine is a calamitous catastrophe with no end in sight. Biden’s reaction to Putin has Xi’s full attention.
That is some about the east and west of it in Asia. Here, in America, it is more about the north and south of it, with some blue and red for effect. As we just witnessed in the Judge Jackson Senate Confirmation Hearings, we have folks who too want to regress. Back to the days before the Civil Rights Era for starters; to the days when the states got to decide who had what rights; before food stamps, etc. On from there to address the egregious progressive social programs of the 20th century like Social Security. There is no end to what they would undo to get us back to as far as their eye can see.
Like Putin and Xi, the things Senator McConnell fears most are those that offer an alternative to his beloved neofeudalism. He isn’t afraid of liberals per se; he’s afraid his constituency might see the alternative and abandon him, ‘regressivism’, and the republican party. Trump built a wall to keep out Latin Americans, Mitch built a Supreme Court to stop the progressive liberals and to regain/retain control of who gets to vote and which votes count. Not barefoot and pregnant, but a close rhyme. Most of the more vicious attacks on Judge Jackson were carried out by highly educated elites like Senators Cruz, Cotton, Hawley, and Kennedy pandering to ignorance, the lowest common denominator — the Fox News audience. Senators Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, and Kennedy are just pretending to be ignorant. Senator Marsha Blackburn isn’t. But, Senator Blackburn would have her day. And, she did. Speaking with venom from ignorance, she spoke to turning back the clock and the calendar; to being sure that kids were never exposed to anything other than what she and their parents wanted them to be lest they become intelligent and educated; choose an alternative, choose to progress.
Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a neofeudalist like the mere mention of labor unions and to a lesser extent taxes on property and wealth. Senator McConnell shudders at the very thought of any of these things that would disrupt the natural order. Better to pull down those who are succeeding. Pull them down to where they too are working for sub-subsistence wages. Like Putin, get rid of the alternative before your constituents figure things out.
Putin, Xi, and the Marsha Blackburns of the world want to go backward (Cruz, Cotton, Kennedy, and Hawley are just pandering to regressives, ignorance and denominators; Mitch is just a sorry piece of work.) All things being possible, it may be possible to revert. Why would anyone willingly do so?
regressive
a much term than conservative which is so not accurate
I like it
Good catch
Ken
Enjoyed the read. If you woke up and decided to write this, it is well done.
The senators you have pointed out are indeed annoying. It does not surprise me if they were in on the January 6 insurrection. If not in the beginning, then joining in after the attack.
I wish Garland would at least start the process of bringing some of the insurrectionists to trial. Charge them. At least get Gaetz who is a piece of garbage.
One year later and we are still talking about it. Very discouraging that some were in on this from the beginning and may yet walk away unscathed. Cruz, Kennedy, Hawley were ready to overturn the EV process. This was not a snap decision.
And now we have a SCOTUS Justice involved indirectly. Roberts has to react to this.
Good read.
How did you guess? I had been thinking about it, woke up this morning thinking about it, formulated the piece in my mind, got up, and started typing.
Too original. I usually read multiple sources before I write and quote. It appeared you did neither, pulled from the past, and wrote.
For reasons I fail to understand, Roberts gets a pass. He doesn’t have to react, he doesn’t care. He gave us Citizen United, f’ed up the ACA and killed the Voting Rights Act. He is a menace to this country.
EM
Just a religious zealot, EM, following his Federalist Holy Grail like many others around us trying to turn back the clock of progress, humanity, equality, etc. Without the ignorance of many out there, there would be no power for them to manipulate.
Thomas may die yet and I hope they do not fall for the trickery of McConnell whose arm made him look like he was on blood thinners.
Speaking of getting a pass… how about Merrick Garland? We’ve known about 80+ fake electors that blatantly took part in an elaborate coup designed to overthrow the election and the government of the United States for well over a year. Can’t get much more black and white than that; yet they and their organizers run free to plan another day. Defending democracy in the U.S. is even more important than defending it in Ukraine. Seditious criminal acts without consequences do not a democracy make. Where’s the outrage?
Here are the latest developments.
NY Times – March 26
Nine unscripted words reverberate
President Biden on Monday stood by his comment
Here are the latest developments.
NY Times – March 26
WARSAW — President Biden delivered a forceful denunciation of Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Saturday as he wrapped up a three-day trip to Europe intended to bolster unity among U.S. allies against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Mr. Biden said of Mr. Putin as he concluded a fiery address in Poland that drew a stark line between liberty and oppression in the world.
Mr. Biden called the military clash in the heart of Europe the “test of all time” in a decades-long battle against the forces designed to crush democratic uprisings.
His speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw came amid reports that the Ukrainian city of Lviv just across the Polish border was hit by at least two missiles. The missiles hit targets in the eastern part of the Lviv, at or near what is believed to be an oil storage facility, and thick black smoke billowed over the city. …
Mr. Biden also warned Mr. Putin that while the United States was trying to avoid direct confrontation with Russia, Washington would fulfill its obligation to defense its NATO allies. “Don’t even think about going on one single inch of NATO territory,” Biden said, raising his voice.
The president’s visit to Warsaw came after Russian military officials had signaled that Moscow might be narrowing its military objective, focusing on eastern Ukraine and not on capturing major cities, but some analysts warn that it could be intended as misdirection while Russia regroups. …
I hope yer right, about WW3 & all.
‘Roberts has to react to this.’ Does he?
Since 2018, Thomas has been the senior associate justice, the longest-serving member of the Court, with a tenure of 30 years, 154 days as of March 26, 2022 … (Wikipedia)
The one power the Chief Justice has over the Associate Justices is the privilege to assign the ones who write the majority opinions.
So will it be “Mr Associate Justice Thomas, you go sit in the corner and do not write any more opinions until I tell you to come out”?
Thomas has been on the Court for almost twice as long as Roberts.
But now he has allies in the Trump appointees. He is unlikely to quit in frustration. A not-so-fine successor to Thurgood Marshal, alas.
If Russia invades a NATO country, will the NATO countries look the other way?
If so, what is the point of NATO?
It may seem deeply weird that American ‘regressives’, particularly in the Congress, are willing to be bedfellows with Putin and his ilk of oligarchs (well, maybe this isn’t that strange), but it’s not entirely unlike the attitude they struck back in the early fifties when they lambasted Dems for ‘losing China’ when the Chinese Nationalist guv’mint of Chiang Kai-shek fell to Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communists, and drove the Red Scare of that era. GOPsters have to support Putin because he’s not a Communist.
Tonight, 3/28/2022, The France 24 Debate team took on this very issue or a close relative. How did they do?
P.S. Eka Zgladze is worth the watching.
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/the-debate/20220328-call-for-regime-change-biden-departs-from-scripts-to-blast-butcher-putin
Eka ZGULADZE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eka_Zguladze