The future is not in the battlefield, in conquest, in taking by war, either directly or via proxy. It is in building more sustainable systems, exploring the oceans and space, realizing the dream of fusion power, creating newer and more humane and equitable living arrangement, and so on. It is not in this ass backwards pseudo-Rome imitation thing was have going on. Honestly, put these guys in togas and they would fit right in with the Senate around 300 ad, when Rome was long past its high water mark. Pathetic morons, all of them, trying to take a Paleolithic mindset and apply it to the modern age. I doubt that dummy with the Ukraine flag underwear even knows that the internet exists. I don’t know who will replace, but hopefully they learn from our mistakes.
The least you could do, Rod, is be gracious in defeat. Beware of becoming a mouthpiece for Orban. There is that danger, and as a journalist,one must not become predictable.
"This lot that governs us, and the imperial Ruling Class, are like Late Ottomans."
That's a fascinating historical allusion, but unfortunately I don't have a strong grasp of the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire. This would be a fascinating topic for you to explore in a post.
I'm really not sure where to stand in regard to Russia and Ukraine. I'm pacifist both by tradition and doctrine. Yet it's hard to fully buy the newfound (or at least newly rediscovered) skepticism of empire from many on the right in regard to Ukraine, when they seem to be adamantly pro-empire in the Middle East. That's all to preface my main point in the next paragraph by clarifying that I am not a reflexive Ukraine hawk.
My core comment: the comparison between 2003 and now seems badly flawed for one glaring reason: Putin actually IS on the march. Saddam in 2003? Not so much.
At the time I thought this famous quote from (most likely) Karl Rove was stupid and deranged, but now it seems quite apt and prescient (if too long to fit on a national tombstone):
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."
That arrogant blather was blurted in defense of the Imperial adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, which (tellingly for our moment), were 1) total disasters that achieved none of their stated aims, wrecked millions of lives for no real purpose, were mostly forgotten in a few years and yet; 2) had zero negative consequences for any of its architects, whose lies and mistakes were swept under the rug by the press (aka the Empire's PR/propaganda wing), and were more or less treated by Americans as if they were a slight speed bump on our road to the glorious future.
But just as apt here is the novel that best explains how Americans see the world and are seen by the world, Graham Greene's "The Quiet American", where no possible reality-based incident could ever dent the bulletproof self-regard of the crusading proselytizing American, who believes in his blood and brain that he is God's chosen vessel, the literal embodiment of the Superman slogan (Truth Justice blah blah) and who can walk away from any and every disaster saying and believing: How can I be held responsible? I meant well, and my good intentions are all that matters....
But I think more a more apt analogy here is a rich kid who's never had to suffer a single consequence from a bad decision bc he has a wealthy papa and a bunch of older brothers who beat the snot out of anyone who hurts his feelings: Americans, but really our rulers and parasite class inside the Imperial City, have never once had to face the ugly results of their reckless behavior, if anything endless war provides endless opportunties for graft, promotion and re-election, and every one of our supposed leaders will die in their gilded beds imagining themselves as some cross bw Churchill, the French Resistance and the Freedom Fighters, and nothing can change or dent their monumental self-regard.
Like all other Empires, we will just have to wait for the inevitable cataclysm up ahead, whether that's an environmental or financial collapse or the loss of a war, but it will take a straight, hard shot to the head for Americans to at last give up their/our fantasy life and return to reality.
There is a good case to be made against backing Ukraine in a war it would appear it can’t win but that does not require parroting Russian talking points. Russia’s security was never remotely imperiled. This is an imperialist war. Now you can argue- sensibly- it’s not our problem anymore than Libya and Iraq were our problems. We do not have the power to micromanage the world. And that’s probably a good thing.
Before Bush43's pronouncement, there was Bill Clinton's Enlargement doctrine, which espoused the same philosophy. I've always argued that if Bush41 had had a second term, many things would now be different.
Seems like they want Ukraine to be the next Israel.
In very much the same flavor, US foreign policy and the DOD budget has been continuously drained by massive commitments to that country. It's very arguable they were the main driving force behind the whole Iraq War (remember how Netanyahu adamantly pushed the WMD theory before congress and painted Iraq as a post-9/11 target? Despite Israeli intelligence knowing that info was bogus I might add).
Now that public opinion seems to be shifting quite rapidly about Israel, it may be that the Military Industrial Complex needs their next cash cow lined up, and Ukraine fits the bill perfectly
Missing from this excellent post is the approval of over $26B for Israel. $17B for "defense aid" (isn't Israel on the offense) and $9B for humanitarian relief to Gaza. So we get them coming and going. Send Israel bombs to further demolish Gaza and then send some humanitarian relief to Gaza to repair the damage (unfortunately we can't raise the dead).
$26B - that's a great deal - about $3,000 per Israeli, sent courtesy of the US taxpayer. Also, $8B is included for Taiwan. The Taiwanese are cleaning our clocks making semiconductors and we are sending them money - probably so they can buy F35s with an abysmal 25-50% mission capable rate (making each cost around $300M for one working F35).
DC is arming the world, and you'd better not object because we make those arms here. It helps US GDP. We can't remove a bridge that clogs Baltimore Harbor but we sure can build things which have the sole purpose to destroy (and sometimes to defend).
Trump supported this legislation. Speaker Johnson rammed it through. Think voting in November will make any difference?
It is what it is. There's a sense of inevitability...destiny even.
The Regime is serving up its client state Ukraine to be sacrificed on a Wokeist altar for the sake of this insane proxy war with Russia.
Zelensky and his friends in the Regime's Kiev sub-chapter aren't worried. They know they'll be handsomely rewarded with tickets out of town no matter what happens. But what if the temple is pulled down on their heads too?
I'm often reminded of some words attributed to an ancient Greek playwright: "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
The conviction is that unless the rest of the world is “converted”, not just to democracy, mind you, but to “Western values”, there will always be rivalries and conflict between competing systems, and this is unstable. So, the “answer” is for the US to basically force the other “centers” in the world (not just of hard power, but centers of different values from Western values) to convert.
This is not a new policy, it goes back to the 1990s.
In the earlier phase, the thought was that if prosperity and free enterprise were spread, democracy would inevitably follow, and if that happened, Western values (which they consider universal in much the same way Christian missionaries viewed their only mission) will inevitably spread automatically because once free and prosperous, people everywhere will choose more or less the same values.
As we know, it didn’t turn out that way. China turned out to be quite, um, “recalcitrant” in its reluctance to embrace Western ideas and values despite modernizing its economy and creating many more middle and above income people than have ever lived there. Russia went through a period of kleptocratic rule by oligarchs, which was replaced by Putin’s authoritarian order, and Western values have not spread widely there. Iran has a large movement of young people who oppose the theocratic rule of the Mullahs, but even if the Mullahs were to go, as many Iran-watchers have reported the likely successor would be a nationalist Iranian regime that would be no more accommodating to the US or the West. India, while democratic, is in the grasp of an ethno-nationalist party whom the West largely despises. And we all know what happened with “nation building” in the Middle East over the past 20 years.
So what happened, writ large, is that the “carrot” approach (ie, get people rich by free trade, give them democracy by ejecting their tyrants, etc) failed. Instead, the other “centers” have retrenched in their opposition to American/Western global hegemony, both in economic, political and cultural terms. This has resulted in a shift from the carrot to the stick. The attitude is very much “well, okay, if you want to be like that, things are going to be much harder for you, and we’re going to stop you from achieving what you want to achieve, because we still have the raw military power (the “stick”) to do so — so it’s your choice, you can convert the easy way, or the hard way, but you’re going to convert.
This is all that’s happened. The underlying policy is the same as it was 25-30 years ago, it’s just flipped from the carrot side to the stick side, since the carrot side failed.
And we will now all get to experience whether the stick side fares any better.
"Fools. And now they’re going to sell off frozen Russian assets, which is theft. Good luck with foreigners backing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency after that. "
It's already happening, though the dollar's demise will be slow since it's still the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry. The Chinese are buying less USTs, and Russia, China, and India are settling more of their trading in their own currencies.
Also, this results in inflation here, as those overseas seek to recycle their dollars back to the US ASAP for fear of holding them (and maybe having them confiscated).
The future is not in the battlefield, in conquest, in taking by war, either directly or via proxy. It is in building more sustainable systems, exploring the oceans and space, realizing the dream of fusion power, creating newer and more humane and equitable living arrangement, and so on. It is not in this ass backwards pseudo-Rome imitation thing was have going on. Honestly, put these guys in togas and they would fit right in with the Senate around 300 ad, when Rome was long past its high water mark. Pathetic morons, all of them, trying to take a Paleolithic mindset and apply it to the modern age. I doubt that dummy with the Ukraine flag underwear even knows that the internet exists. I don’t know who will replace, but hopefully they learn from our mistakes.
I was a big fan of Boris Johnson. But he brought both the UK and the Ukraine to their knees. What a horrific disappointment.
Last I heard The Ever Victorious Ukrainian Army was driving the Russian Army into the Pacific Ocean! Has something changed?
The least you could do, Rod, is be gracious in defeat. Beware of becoming a mouthpiece for Orban. There is that danger, and as a journalist,one must not become predictable.
I wonder (I hope) can both of the Dynamic Duo cling to.life until November? How has it come to this?
A rare election where maybe you do essentially vote for the Vice President.
"This lot that governs us, and the imperial Ruling Class, are like Late Ottomans."
That's a fascinating historical allusion, but unfortunately I don't have a strong grasp of the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire. This would be a fascinating topic for you to explore in a post.
I'm really not sure where to stand in regard to Russia and Ukraine. I'm pacifist both by tradition and doctrine. Yet it's hard to fully buy the newfound (or at least newly rediscovered) skepticism of empire from many on the right in regard to Ukraine, when they seem to be adamantly pro-empire in the Middle East. That's all to preface my main point in the next paragraph by clarifying that I am not a reflexive Ukraine hawk.
My core comment: the comparison between 2003 and now seems badly flawed for one glaring reason: Putin actually IS on the march. Saddam in 2003? Not so much.
At the time I thought this famous quote from (most likely) Karl Rove was stupid and deranged, but now it seems quite apt and prescient (if too long to fit on a national tombstone):
"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out."
That arrogant blather was blurted in defense of the Imperial adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, which (tellingly for our moment), were 1) total disasters that achieved none of their stated aims, wrecked millions of lives for no real purpose, were mostly forgotten in a few years and yet; 2) had zero negative consequences for any of its architects, whose lies and mistakes were swept under the rug by the press (aka the Empire's PR/propaganda wing), and were more or less treated by Americans as if they were a slight speed bump on our road to the glorious future.
But just as apt here is the novel that best explains how Americans see the world and are seen by the world, Graham Greene's "The Quiet American", where no possible reality-based incident could ever dent the bulletproof self-regard of the crusading proselytizing American, who believes in his blood and brain that he is God's chosen vessel, the literal embodiment of the Superman slogan (Truth Justice blah blah) and who can walk away from any and every disaster saying and believing: How can I be held responsible? I meant well, and my good intentions are all that matters....
But I think more a more apt analogy here is a rich kid who's never had to suffer a single consequence from a bad decision bc he has a wealthy papa and a bunch of older brothers who beat the snot out of anyone who hurts his feelings: Americans, but really our rulers and parasite class inside the Imperial City, have never once had to face the ugly results of their reckless behavior, if anything endless war provides endless opportunties for graft, promotion and re-election, and every one of our supposed leaders will die in their gilded beds imagining themselves as some cross bw Churchill, the French Resistance and the Freedom Fighters, and nothing can change or dent their monumental self-regard.
Like all other Empires, we will just have to wait for the inevitable cataclysm up ahead, whether that's an environmental or financial collapse or the loss of a war, but it will take a straight, hard shot to the head for Americans to at last give up their/our fantasy life and return to reality.
There is a good case to be made against backing Ukraine in a war it would appear it can’t win but that does not require parroting Russian talking points. Russia’s security was never remotely imperiled. This is an imperialist war. Now you can argue- sensibly- it’s not our problem anymore than Libya and Iraq were our problems. We do not have the power to micromanage the world. And that’s probably a good thing.
Before Bush43's pronouncement, there was Bill Clinton's Enlargement doctrine, which espoused the same philosophy. I've always argued that if Bush41 had had a second term, many things would now be different.
"because Hitler, or something"
Well? ... Happy Birthday!
Seems like they want Ukraine to be the next Israel.
In very much the same flavor, US foreign policy and the DOD budget has been continuously drained by massive commitments to that country. It's very arguable they were the main driving force behind the whole Iraq War (remember how Netanyahu adamantly pushed the WMD theory before congress and painted Iraq as a post-9/11 target? Despite Israeli intelligence knowing that info was bogus I might add).
Now that public opinion seems to be shifting quite rapidly about Israel, it may be that the Military Industrial Complex needs their next cash cow lined up, and Ukraine fits the bill perfectly
Missing from this excellent post is the approval of over $26B for Israel. $17B for "defense aid" (isn't Israel on the offense) and $9B for humanitarian relief to Gaza. So we get them coming and going. Send Israel bombs to further demolish Gaza and then send some humanitarian relief to Gaza to repair the damage (unfortunately we can't raise the dead).
$26B - that's a great deal - about $3,000 per Israeli, sent courtesy of the US taxpayer. Also, $8B is included for Taiwan. The Taiwanese are cleaning our clocks making semiconductors and we are sending them money - probably so they can buy F35s with an abysmal 25-50% mission capable rate (making each cost around $300M for one working F35).
DC is arming the world, and you'd better not object because we make those arms here. It helps US GDP. We can't remove a bridge that clogs Baltimore Harbor but we sure can build things which have the sole purpose to destroy (and sometimes to defend).
Trump supported this legislation. Speaker Johnson rammed it through. Think voting in November will make any difference?
Right on target, Rod.
It is what it is. There's a sense of inevitability...destiny even.
The Regime is serving up its client state Ukraine to be sacrificed on a Wokeist altar for the sake of this insane proxy war with Russia.
Zelensky and his friends in the Regime's Kiev sub-chapter aren't worried. They know they'll be handsomely rewarded with tickets out of town no matter what happens. But what if the temple is pulled down on their heads too?
I'm often reminded of some words attributed to an ancient Greek playwright: "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
The madness is now far advanced.
The conviction is that unless the rest of the world is “converted”, not just to democracy, mind you, but to “Western values”, there will always be rivalries and conflict between competing systems, and this is unstable. So, the “answer” is for the US to basically force the other “centers” in the world (not just of hard power, but centers of different values from Western values) to convert.
This is not a new policy, it goes back to the 1990s.
In the earlier phase, the thought was that if prosperity and free enterprise were spread, democracy would inevitably follow, and if that happened, Western values (which they consider universal in much the same way Christian missionaries viewed their only mission) will inevitably spread automatically because once free and prosperous, people everywhere will choose more or less the same values.
As we know, it didn’t turn out that way. China turned out to be quite, um, “recalcitrant” in its reluctance to embrace Western ideas and values despite modernizing its economy and creating many more middle and above income people than have ever lived there. Russia went through a period of kleptocratic rule by oligarchs, which was replaced by Putin’s authoritarian order, and Western values have not spread widely there. Iran has a large movement of young people who oppose the theocratic rule of the Mullahs, but even if the Mullahs were to go, as many Iran-watchers have reported the likely successor would be a nationalist Iranian regime that would be no more accommodating to the US or the West. India, while democratic, is in the grasp of an ethno-nationalist party whom the West largely despises. And we all know what happened with “nation building” in the Middle East over the past 20 years.
So what happened, writ large, is that the “carrot” approach (ie, get people rich by free trade, give them democracy by ejecting their tyrants, etc) failed. Instead, the other “centers” have retrenched in their opposition to American/Western global hegemony, both in economic, political and cultural terms. This has resulted in a shift from the carrot to the stick. The attitude is very much “well, okay, if you want to be like that, things are going to be much harder for you, and we’re going to stop you from achieving what you want to achieve, because we still have the raw military power (the “stick”) to do so — so it’s your choice, you can convert the easy way, or the hard way, but you’re going to convert.
This is all that’s happened. The underlying policy is the same as it was 25-30 years ago, it’s just flipped from the carrot side to the stick side, since the carrot side failed.
And we will now all get to experience whether the stick side fares any better.
"Fools. And now they’re going to sell off frozen Russian assets, which is theft. Good luck with foreigners backing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency after that. "
It's already happening, though the dollar's demise will be slow since it's still the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry. The Chinese are buying less USTs, and Russia, China, and India are settling more of their trading in their own currencies.
Also, this results in inflation here, as those overseas seek to recycle their dollars back to the US ASAP for fear of holding them (and maybe having them confiscated).