Tag: peace

Government, Politics

You Have A Plan, Right?

Whooo boy, the dust-up in the Oval Office the other day sure stirred up the hornets nest. This issue is what’s known as a “shibboleth.” It’s a biblical term for a password used to distinguish one group from another, it’s evolved to mean a belief, issue, or even a phrase that serves as a clear marker of someone’s ideological tribe or moral stance. It’s a signal that cuts through the noise. Ask someone what they thought of the Zelenskyy, Trump, Vance verbal sparring and you’ll have a pretty good idea of their ideological leaning.

For all those folks once again posting “Glory to Ukraine” (the meaning of Slava Ukraini) on their social media, I have a question… now what? What’s the plan? How EXACTLY is this war going to end? Because I don’t see anything from the leftist warmongers or the EU that resembles any sort of path to end the killing. Nobody knows what the real figure is but 300,000 to 400,000 killed and wounded Ukrainian soldiers is a good rough guess. How long should that go on? It’s noble and all that you want to support the brave Ukrainians fighting against the evil Russians, but it’s now WWI style trench warfare with the added upgrade of remotely operated killer drones. As VP Vance said, the Ukrainian military is snatching people off the street and throwing them into this meat grinder. Do you really want this to continue indefinitely?

Absolutely nothing has changed since Sept of ’23 when I first said this. What’s the plan? How do we end this? I know that the left recoils at the mere thought that the horrible orange Nazi might be trying to do a good thing – but it’s pretty hard to deny that he genuinely seems to want to end the killing, stop the billions of dollars we’re spending, and prevent an escalation to WW3. How can you possibly be against that? I honestly want to understand the logic.

I get it – you think if we don’t stop them, the Russians are going to march across the frozen plains of Ukraine and invade the EU first chance they get. That’s all good and wonderful. Again, what is the plan? Put US/NATO troops on the ground? A NATO led no-fly zone in Ukraine? NATO strikes into Russia? Please explain in detail how that doesn’t escalate to Russia sending hypersonic missiles into EU cities? And what would our response to that be?

As much as the world would like Russia to suddenly decide this was a huge mistake and to pull all their troops back to the original border… it’s not going to happen. Sorry to disappoint you. Russia isn’t going anywhere. Choices are initiate a WW3 style offensive to push them out, or negotiate a deal that makes them happy. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s the truth.

If the EU really wants to push continued resistance and fighting, then you go girl. More power to you. We’re out. Oh, and just an FYI – if you poke the bear enough that he starts lobbing missiles at you, don’t look to us for help. We tried to warn you. And all that money you saved by not meeting your NATO security commitments… I guess you’re going to have to pay up now ’cause we’re not funding this nonsense any longer.

I’ll end where I started – if you’re in the ‘Slava Ukraini’ camp, what’s your plan? How do you end this without much of Europe becoming a smoldering crater? What death count are you comfortable with before this is done? Because I’ve seen nothing resembling a realistic path forward from anyone other than a certain orange man who can’t be named without TDS induced hysteria.

And that’s a hard pill to swallow…

Motivation, Solving the wrong problem

Uncomfortable Truths

As a forewarning, I’m ’bout to lay down some uncomfortable truths that might make you a little squeamish. Ready? The nature of man is violence. Always has been, always will be. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it’s true. The problem is that the “civilized” West has forgotten this and I fear we’re going to be reminded of it at some point.

I can already hear the pink haired liberal arts students and latte sipping soccer moms denouncing me as a Neanderthal who probably lives in one of those fly-over states (I bet he owns guns too, they whisper). To not think that violence is at the very core of our being, ignores history. I suppose it’s understandable. Roughly three quarters of the population is under 60. World War Two, Vietnam, Korea, the Ku Klux Klan… are already ancient issues in history books. Almost fifty percent of the population is under 40, which means they were likely brought up in the modern, woke education system. A system that tells children that our most pressing issue is climate change and that white colonizers are the most dangerous people on the planet.

I get it. We have been blessed with a level of security unimaginable in most of the world for the last fifty years. When you’re blessed with financial and physical security it’s easy to make the plight of the spotted owl your top priority. I don’t think that’s going to last much longer.

Man is a violent and brutal animal. The history of the world is built on conquest. From the Romans to the Vikings, and up to our own settlement of the nation – it was done through violent conquering of existing people. Mankind has always understood this and knew that violence was kept at bay by… violence. If you tolerate criminals, you’re going to get more crime. If you don’t prepare for invasion, you’re going to get invaded. These are not hard concepts to grasp.

But apparently they are. Somewhere along the line we decided that prioritizing clean energy electric buses was more important than having cops on the street. We decided that prosecuting criminals and keeping them in jail was bad for their self-esteem. And the results have been predictable. I guess we’re not allowed to talk about it because of race or DEI or something. But hey, if nothing else the New York City police department now has a killer new dance team. All cities should follow their lead. Just imagine, we can have a nationwide police dance-off!

And while police departments are dancing and criminals are looting stores at will, we have a literal invasion happening at our border. We don’t even pretend anymore. I guess as a nation we simply decided that everyone on the planet is welcome to come. No worries, we’ll just print more money to take care of all our wonderful new residents. What could possibly go wrong?

Well clearly there’s about a thousand things on the list that could go wrong, but number one… October 7th. You know, that little incident in Israel. The savage, barbaric nature of that attack IS the true nature of man. That is what historically happened when towns were invaded. Do you think the Romans took care to spare civilians when they conquered a city? What do you think the aftermath of the various crusades looked like? When one group hates another, or needs resources, all bets are off. Mankind will do some truly horrible things to one another.

I know that here in the West we don’t want to think of such things. We’re more civilized than that. We’ve evolved. Besides, those are problems for over there. We’re untouchable.

Lest we forget, 19 people carried out 9/11. We’re currently at 7.5 million people who have streamed across our border in the last three years. You don’t think out of all those people there are another 19, or a thousand, or ten thousand who wish us harm? You’re a fool if you don’t.

The Islamic Caliphate is real. They hate us and Israel with a passion. Do you think that went away when we left Afghanistan? Silly rabbit. October 7th? It’s going to happen here, mark my words. Meanwhile, there’s nothing to stop the cartels from simply moving in and taking over US cities mob-style.

Mankind hasn’t changed. Weakness begets violence. Israel got complacent and worried about left-wing public opinion. Hamas, prompted by the Islamic State, took advantage. And given a chance, they’ll do it again. And because of that, Israel is doing the right thing in their response.

Historically when you invaded a city, you killed all the fighting age males, kept the children, and sold off the women as slaves. Why? Because if you didn’t, they’d come back and invade you in retaliation. Do you really think things are different today? Wars and conflicts end when the enemy has lost the ability to continue. It’s not pretty, but if Israel doesn’t end Hamas completely… they’ll be right back at the same place in a few years.

And the same holds true for us. If we don’t end the nonsense at the border and sort out who’s here, we’ll be right back in the Global War on Terror. We’re going to suffer a 9/11 on steroids, we’ll respond with a bombardment of Iran, and then we’re off to the races.

I know it’s not fashionable to say, but man is violent. Roman Emperor Hadrian first said “peace through strength or, failing that, peace through threat.” Reagan repeated it in the 1980’s. It was true then and it’s true today. It holds true for crime in the streets as well as keeping the Mongol hordes at bay. The latte sipping leftists are going to learn it one way or another.

History is a bitch, ’cause it just keeps repeating.

Government, Politics, Solving the wrong problem

Lesser Of Two Evils

I get it. Everyone thinks Russia is evil. Putin is a monster that launched a war that has resulted in massive loss of life. I think the reasons he did it are complicated and will be debated for years, but implementing a blitzkrieg march straight through to the Netherlands is not one of the reasons. You’re quite naïve if you think that was the ultimate goal. You can debate all you want about good vs. evil, ulterior motives, blah, blah, blah… What’s important is – here we are. Now what?

How does this play out? The war hawks claim we’ll support Ukraine to the end. So what does that look like? Russia is not going to suddenly say sorry and pull back to pre-war borders. Therefore, the only way to force Russia back East is to inflict the complete and total annihilation of the Russian military.

Given that, I have an honest question:

Can anyone give a plausible scenario in which that happens? I’m honestly interested in hearing from someone who believes that’s possible.

Ukrainian losses are in the ~300,000 range, with another 100,000 or so wounded. Kill ratios are 8-15:1 depending on the region. Russia has decimated Ukrainian equipment and artillery. Ukraine has run out of fighting age males. They are snatching people off the streets and conscripting them into the military. They’re now taking women and old men. They’re threatening anyone who fled the country with arrest and forfeiture of their passport/citizenship if they don’t come back to fight.

Russia currently has about 750,000 men in theater, with plans to ramp up to 1.2 million. They have complete air superiority. They have very sophisticated aerial/drone and artillery targeting capability. They’ve ramped up their wartime production of shells, missiles, and ammo to the point they can fire many hundreds per day without fear of running out. They’ve built three rings of massive concrete defensive positions. There are hundreds of thousands of mines to cross before you even get to their defensive lines.

Please tell me how Ukraine defeats that?

The answer is they can’t. It would take the entirety of the US military plus NATO forces to attempt to defeat them. That would be literal world war three. The problem with that scenario is that Russia will not go quietly. I guarantee they’ll use tactical nuclear strikes along the western border of Ukraine before they allow NATO forces to advance further towards Russia. And we can all guess where that would lead.

So now what? Please, someone give me a scenario in which this plays out different if we keep going down our current path.

At this point it doesn’t matter any more if you think what Russia did was right or wrong. It has to stop, and soon. The longer this goes the closer we get to the nightmare scenario. I see our administration and virtually the entire congress gleefully speeding down this path with zero plausible ideas on how it ends.

I don’t know how we convince our leaders that what they’re doing is madness. They don’t listen to the citizenry and the press is in lockstep with these fools. How do we stop this?

I get it. Russia bad, Ukraine good. I don’t like what happened any more than the next guy, but I’m starting to think that if you have any interest in visiting Europe you may want to do it soon. It may be a smoldering crater before too long.

Daily Life, Government, woke

I Think It’s Over

Yesterday was a good day. The temperature approached 70 degrees. We got a bunch of yard work done. Multiple trips to the dump. I took a nap. We went out to dinner and watched the sunset over the lake. Just before bed, I rescued my garbage can from a marauding bear. We’re very blessed to live where we do and to be as fortunate as we are. It’s easy in my little corner of the world to feel like everything is hunky dory.

Meanwhile, there’s a literal invasion crossing our southern border. 10,000 people a day from countries across the globe. Folks who have limited job skills, can’t speak the language, no money, and carry scabies, lice, and TB. And our government facilitates it. We bus them to cities across the country. We give them cell phones. They receive court dates 4-5 years in the future. The majority of the migrants are single, fighting-age males. Your government is doing everything possible to hide this.

They are not leaving. No politician has the political will to take any meaningful action. We have conceded the southern border to the cartels. The cartels have clearly taken over the southern border states. They are now the primary gang in most major cities. Given our nationwide push to defund police and elect liberal district attorneys… how long do you think it will be before major parts the US look like cartel-run Mexico?

Mobs of violent criminals operate with impunity in major cities. They loot and steal without fear. Major brand name stores are pulling out of big cities at a record pace due to crime. If you’re stupid enough to try and defend yourself or others, you will lose everything. You will be prosecuted and vilified by the media. Antifa operates at will in most big cities and are never targeted by police or the FBI. Yet if you protest drag queens targeting children, you’ll be guaranteed to have federal agents busting down your door. Hate crime!

Our current national debt is $31.7 trillion. Our debt service alone is equal to our defense budget. The republicans have passed a bill raising another $1.5 trillion in borrowing, and the democrats immediately accused them of trying to starve grandma. These are not serious people. Debt, inflation, war, and a banking crisis don’t bode well for a long-term stable economy.

The average person in this country probably rarely hears any of this. CNN won’t cover it. They’re too busy trying to generate new Trump outrage for ratings.

So, what happens next? It’s the decline of the Roman Empire, 2.0. In my opinion, we’ve crossed the tipping point. There is no going back. It’s been a slow decline, but now it’s beginning to accelerate. I don’t think the collapse happens in my lifetime… but I also didn’t think society would crumble as fast as it has.

I fear two scenarios. The first is large portions of the country finally deciding they’ve had enough. Vigilante mobs form. Private “security” groups organize to patrol and protect neighborhoods. Violent encounters ensue with criminals and clashes with government forces trying to stop citizens taking matters into their own hands. The wild-wild west on steroids. The cartels will thrive in this environment.

The second scenario is the rise of a hugely influential politician. One who pushes an extreme nationalism as an excuse to massively expand the security and military industrial complex. Someone capable of convincing the masses to give up just a little bit of freedom in exchange for security. As a nation of sheep, we would happily follow a charismatic leader down a dark road. A real-life handmaiden’s tale.

In the face of my Sunday morning dystopian view, what can we do? Not much. Long-term, I think it’s going to happen no matter what. Do everything possible to get yourself out of bigger cities and go to a small town and put down roots. Be ready for food insecurity. Read and watch news sources other than mainstream media. Be a contrarian and reject the status quo. Learn to be realistic about what’s looming around the corner and realize that nobody’s coming to save you.

But then again, maybe the future will be amazing! Flying electric cars and helpful home assistant robots in every home. A borderless society with people living in peace, love, and harmony. A gluten-free and tofu driven nirvana.

Maybe. Meanwhile, enjoy life. Go do something fun today. Tomorrow is not a guarantee.