Friends, if you watch either the mainstream media, or Fox News, you're probably under the impression that everybody hates Russia and its invasion of innocent, minding-its-own-business Ukraine. In the West, that impression might be largely accurate, but in China and the rest of the "Global South", you'll find that, in a fight between Russia and the West, many are inclined to root for Russia. Moreover, the West's weaponization of the global financial order against Russia worries a lot of Third World leaders. Consider it...food for thought.
In other news, Ukrainian President Zelensky is not only banning opposition parties -- he's also seizing control of his country's broadcast media. How "democratic" of him! Sorry, I meant Democratic.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/zelensky-nationalizes-tv-news-restricts-173820471.html
Here's the latest on the Russia-Ukraine War. A lot of back and forth.
https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/russia-ukraine-war/2022/03/22/id/1062455/
Finally, it turns out that the Disney Corporation isn't the "happiest place on earth" for its conservative employees. Far from it!
Our greatest enemies are other Americans right here at home. However, and in order to detract from the fact that it is they who are destroying our country, our ruling elites create outside enemies. For now, it is Russia. Next week, or next month, or next year, it will probably be some other country. Who knows. To paraphrase an old cartoon character, I think it was Pogo who said "We have met the enemy and they are us" or something to that effect.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: The WSJ article was well selected! First I understand the Brazilian President is often condemned as being "far right", as are many of our convictions. We could look upon his view as being a balance between empathy with Russia's justified fear of a Natoized Ukraine and revulsion at its present inhumanity. I would suggest that that is close to what we think.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: I was very much schooled by the article's description of the weaponization of economic systems. The article's proposition that dreamy leftist western perfectionist environmentalists might seek to IMPOSE upon nations emerging from destitution of which many westerners are incapable, despite their "caring",of comprehension, prosperity destroying sanctions! And
ReplyDeletesuch nations understandably fear that a perhaps increasingly radicalized US might direct the crushing economic sanctions it has demonstrated against Russia, against THEM, for airy radical convictions perhaps, again understandably, of DOUBT to them in the real world.
Dr. Waddy frm Jack: Ah, but Ukraine is in extremis. Their President may be justfied thereby.
ReplyDeleteDr.Waddy from Jack: Russia's onslaught on Ukraine could not have occured without a direct geographical and military threat to Russia. Nato recklessly proposed this in Ukraine;Ukraine thoughti
ReplyDeletet' self protected! BUT, war with Russia itself? Naw . . . .
Ray, America is a strong country, and felicitously we're well-protected by two giant oceans (plus a rather beefy military), so we really don't have to worry too much about anyone conquering us. We do, however, have to worry about succumbing to moral weakness and self-sabotage. I agree: the enemy within is a thousand times more dangerous than Russia, Russia, Russia...
ReplyDeleteJack, Bolsonaro, I suspect, isn't sympathetic towards Russia so much as he's irked by the West's assumption that the international financial system is its to control. Pretty much any non-Western country could imagine being the victim of similar sanctions to those now imposed on Russia -- and never even contemplated against China, even though China's negligence just killed its one millionth American. Go figure.
Good point that the cause of future punishing sanctions could be climate change. Maybe, although thus far Western countries seem to quite enjoy exporting their emissions. It doesn't seem to occur to them that carbon is just as carbon-like in Shanghai as it is in Seattle.
Is Zelensky justified in banning the opposition and taking over the media? I dunno. Frankly, it hardly matters. He could line up every Russian-speaker and have them shot and the West wouldn't bat an eyelash. The narrative is set in stone already.
I agree; neither the West nor Ukraine took Russia seriously. Of course, Russia didn't seem to take the Ukrainian military very seriously either. Plenty of mistakes to go around! Having said all that, I'd rather be the guy with nukes making an oopsie than the guy with wheat.