A surprising observation was made in a talk at Hillsdale College last month:

Continue reading “Two Assumptions in Question” →

Lawyer and pundit Robert Barnes has a theory about Donald Trump.

Continue reading “Former President Donald Trump makes a ‘special announcement’” →

Source: Moon of Alabama.

It is hard to say whether direct negotiations between the U.S. and Russia to end the war in Ukraine are a good thing. In principle they should be; one imagines, at least, that negotiations can’t hurt and might do some good.

Continue reading “U.S.-Russian Intelligence Chiefs Discuss Ukraine” →

Source: A Son of the New American Revolution.

The writer responds to a just-released GAO report on U.S. military readiness. He says he doesn’t want to be a “Debbie Downer,” but he’s a Debbie Downer.

A lot of western propaganda claims that Russia, in particular, has a weak military. I am unable to find any substantive reports to support that proposition, but it is perhaps more enlightening to contemplate Russia’s alleged military weakness in terms of our own.

As for China, who knows?

Source: A Son of the New American Revolution.

The writer points out that military logic is not the same as game show logic.

Bloggers, Telegrammers and commenters do not get to vote for who is the winner in Ukraine. That will be decided by who can put the most combat effective troops on the field, who can feed and supply those troops with the weapons and ammunition they need to fight, and who can destroy the opposing army, economy and political system.

Russia’s retreat from Kherson should be comprehended in terms of military logic. It is a mistake to assume that a loss of territory is the same as a strategic loss on the battlefield.

Source: The Unz Review.

I wrote yesterday that I suspect election fraud was widespread in the midterms, but that — lacking evidence for it — I hoped we’d see some analysis that explores the question. The writer offers an early step in that analysis:

The CNN exit polls show substantial erosion of the Democrat voting base since the 2018 election. How can such substantial erosion be consistent with the lack of any significant Republican gain on Tuesday?

Continue reading “Another Stolen Election” →

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and a group of German business leaders visited China on Friday. Because China is Germany’s largest trading partner, the event might be viewed as unremarkable in some respects, but the war in Ukraine surely played a role. The question is, How?

Continue reading “Our Changing World” →

Source: The Unz Review.

The writer proposes that superpower competition between China and the USA is the singular backdrop for geopolitical events today. According to this view, the U.S. wishes, if it could, to encircle China with military bases so that Chinese territorial and economic expansions can be curtailed or controlled. Russia, with its long border with China, stands in the way of this U.S. interest.

The writer may be onto something. But if he is correct about the prevailing mind set of the U.S. foreign policy establishment today, I want a reset. So what, if China’s per capita GDP surpasses the USA’s (circa 2030)? We needn’t view that as a threat.

Source: The American Conservative.

Some days all you can do is shake your head in wonder. It seems almost impossible to me that our political leadership might be contemplating sending an army to fight in Ukraine, but the signs are mounting.

We already have boots on the ground in the battlefield — allegedly inventory takers attempting to account for weapons and stores previously delivered. We also have boots near the ground in Romania — avowedly ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. And we have an increasingly bellicose-sounding commander in chief whose grip on reality is just loose enough to give the order.

Worse, the American people probably don’t know that the Ukrainian government and military are close to final collapse. To save them will be like saving a car after it has been totaled.

Source: Caitlin’s Newsletter.

What’s it going to take for Americans and their political class to grasp that they are not the cool kids of the planet?

“Among the 1.2bn people who inhabit the world’s liberal democracies, three-quarters (75%) now hold a negative view of China, and 87% a negative view of Russia,” the report reads. “However, for the 6.3bn people who live in the rest of the world, the picture is reversed. In these societies, 70% feel positively towards China, and 66% positively towards Russia.”

Antidotes to propaganda and “Three Wise Monkeyism” are my guess.