Ukraine is a real country, but is Russia a real country?

I had the good fortune of listening to a podcast (Politics War Room) of an interview with Peter Pomerantzev, who was born in Kiev and is a Russian disinformation and propaganda specialist.  Al Hunt and James Carville talked with him about how expert Russia is at propaganda lies and distortions as an internal and international weapon – and how feckless America and the West are in return.  But the key and astonishing point was made when Carville said that Putin is claiming there is no Country of Ukraine, rather it is just an extension of Russia.  Pomerantzev’s response says it all – the question is not whether Ukraine is a country, but rather whether Russia is a country.

He said the best definition of what a country is was given by the scholar Benedict Anderson, who said that the simplest rule for the existence of a nation is whether people are prepared to die for it.  And we have seen that Ukrainians are definitely willing to die for their country of Ukraine.  Civilians are learning how to make Molotov cocktails and use weapons.  But, is Russia a real country?  Are they running off to Ukraine to die for their country?  Hell no.  Putin is actually hiding this war from his own people.  He is pretending there are no casualties and that Russians are not dying in Ukraine.  In fact, if anyone in Russia, including foreign journalists, uses the word “war” they will be sent to Russian prison for 15 years.  Russian prison is not somewhere you want to end up in. 

So  -----  Ukraine is a country.  But maybe Russia is not.

By the way, Pomerantzev confidently predicts that within a couple of months or so a large part of the world will buy into the Russian disinformation and propaganda campaign to convince folks that Ukraine is evil, corrupt, deserves to be liberated by noble Russian “interventions” and the whole cause of the Putin invasion is the dastardly evil and corruption of the United States.  Gee wiz, isn’t that what Fox News in America is already saying?  Money money money money …..

What is a man?

We live in a terrible time when men don’t know what it is to be a man.  Is it about scaring people? That is what Putin and Trump seem to think. To be a man is to be intimidating, scary, threatening, punishing, dangerous, cruel - Gunslinger cowboys like in John Wayne or Clint Eastwood movies.  Be tough.  Shoot people.  Scare people.  Squint and look dangerous.

But that’s crap.  Being scary and dominating is actually being a frightened, confused adolescent who hasn’t grown up yet – a frightened boy who can only think that he has to be scarier than those who scare him.  And we see the terrible wounds that these twisted, frightened domineering destructive overgrown adolescents do to our world – from Caesar and Stalin and Hitler and Mao to Putin today.  They are not men.  They turn themselves into monsters trying to be men.

A wonderful illumination of the actual qualities of true manhood is found in the virtues of chivalry laid out in the Court of King Arthur and his mentor, Merlin, in “Merlin-Arthur Legacy, Legend, Myth, and Magic”. 

Merlin the magician raised Arthur and infused in him these virtues of Chivalry: and Arthur collected the Knights of the Round Table, each of whom embodied one of the energies of chivalry, the True Masculine:

 

1. Honor/honesty – honor yourself, what is honest in me, what is real
2. Loyalty - vulnerability to yourself, know your weaknesses and strengths
3. Nobility - higher purpose, something beyond, lofty dreams and visions
4. Virtue - virility of character, call upon the virile strengths
5. Grace, gracious Giving - that which comes naturally to your noble and virtuous nature
6. Truth
7. Courage - willingness to face the truth, to live the life of your choosing
8. Courtesy - honoring the other, kindness, patience
9. Gallantry - bravery in the face of adversity, acting despite fear
10. Authority/empowered - be the author of your experience
11. Service - give of who I am, get involved
12. Humble - let it be new
    

 

These are alive, rich, fertile growing qualities of manhood.  They are open ended and always evolving.  They are ideals of manhood that can be pursued.  They are the very opposite of the twisted, toxic masculinity of masculine chauvinism – the twisted idea of manhood including intimidating and dominating, being cut off from feelings and compassion, being threatening and punishing, being cruel.  We see this too often in our history and in autocratic rulers like Putin and Xi, and in that pathetic failure, the Former Guy, wanting so desperately to be a man rather than the frightened little adolescent that he has always been.

Men are confused, and toxic, and destructive because they don’t know what it is to be a man.  Real men are beautiful, not scary or cruel.

 

And I pray to the Goddess to help awaken the true masculine in all of us.

Did Shakespeare predict Putin's downfall?

I had the pleasure recently to watch the excellent black and white Joel Coen production of Macbeth starring Denzel Washington.  I was reminded of a key dialog in Act 5 Scene 2 while reading some of the news coming out of Ukraine.  

 

Macbeth's rivals are marching against him:

 

MENTEITH
The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward and the good Macduff:
Revenges burn in them; for their dear causes
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
Excite the mortified man.

...

CAITHNESS
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:
Some say he's mad; others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
Within the belt of rule.

ANGUS
Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands;
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love: now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.

The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
Excite the mortified man.
ANGUS Near Birnam Wood
Shall we well meet them. That way are they coming.
CAITHNESS 
Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LENNOX 
For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file
Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son
And many unrough youths that even now
Protest their first of manhood.
MENTEITH What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS 
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
Some say he’s mad; others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury. But for certain
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.
ANGUS Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands.
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
MENTEITH Who, then, shall blame
His pestered senses to recoil and start
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself for being there?
CAITHNESS Well, march we on
To give obedience where ’tis truly owed.
Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country’s purge
Each drop of us.
LENNOX Or so much as it needs

 
The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
Excite the mortified man.
ANGUS Near Birnam Wood
Shall we well meet them. That way are they coming.
CAITHNESS 
Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LENNOX 
For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file
Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son
And many unrough youths that even now
Protest their first of manhood.
MENTEITH What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS 
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
Some say he’s mad; others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury. But for certain
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.
ANGUS Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands.
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
MENTEITH Who, then, shall blame
His pestered senses to recoil and start
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself for being there?
CAITHNESS Well, march we on
To give obedience where ’tis truly owed.
Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country’s purge
Each drop of us.
LENNOX Or so much as it needs

 
The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
Excite the mortified man.
ANGUS Near Birnam Wood
Shall we well meet them. That way are they coming.
CAITHNESS 
Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
LENNOX 
For certain, sir, he is not. I have a file
Of all the gentry. There is Siward’s son
And many unrough youths that even now
Protest their first of manhood.
MENTEITH What does the tyrant?
CAITHNESS 
Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
Some say he’s mad; others that lesser hate him
Do call it valiant fury. But for certain
He cannot buckle his distempered cause
Within the belt of rule.
ANGUS Now does he feel
His secret murders sticking on his hands.
Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach.
Those he commands move only in command,
Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe
Upon a dwarfish thief.
MENTEITH Who, then, shall blame
His pestered senses to recoil and start
When all that is within him does condemn
Itself for being there?
CAITHNESS Well, march we on
To give obedience where ’tis truly owed.
Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal,
And with him pour we in our country’s purge
Each drop of us.
LENNOX Or so much as it needs

 

It may well be that Putin, like Macbeth, has an army that is only following commands only, and do "nothing in love" for the madman.  But the Ukrainians 'burn with revenge", and indeed burn with love of country being invaded for no legitiamte reason.

Or so I hope.  I think there is no doubt that Ukraine will not be able to be controlled by Putin, regardless of whether he crushes it in the short term.  I just hope that that the Russian people, thousands of whom are braving prison to protest this unprovoked invasion, can have an effect and drive him from power.  More likely would be his oligarchs, upon losing much of their fortunes and perks of an elite, take him out. And most probable of all would be that his inner circle, who may or may not be oligarch wealth, see the the disastrous folly and remove him.

One thing that America must not do is engage militarily, or even call for his assassination as the remarkably idiotic South Carolina Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, did recently. That lets Putin shape his baseless slaughter as a legitimate defense against deadly America.  Goodness save us from the stupidity of Republicans trying to look "tough".  

By the way, it did not end well for Macbeth.  I am hoping for a removal and criminal war crimes trial for Putin.

Will vs Fear

Putin's attempts to crush Ukraine is not going well.  Thank God.  The entire western world is turning against this sick autocrat.  

 

It was looking for the last decade or so that autocratic, authoritarian cruel and fearsome dictators were taking over the world.  Putin was one of the leaders of that group.  Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Hungary, Turkey, Venezuella, Philippines, etc. etc.  "Strong men" ruling by fear.  And the United States with a wannabe "strong man", the overgrown schoolyard bully, the Former Guy, enthralled by the strutting spectacles of manly, manly men around the globe.  

 

Never forget that the Former Guy was thrilled by the Putin declaration of sending in "peace keeping forces".  Oh boy! Tanks!  How exciting. What a genius!

 

This seems to some to be their distorted essence of manliness - to scare people, threaten people, bully people, kill people.  Manly, manly men.  Guns, explosions, big bangy things.

 

But, a couple of real, adult men have responded to show us the contrast.  Zalensky is defending himself and is inspiring the entire free world to cripple Putin's Russia.  Biden is quietly leading NATO and the Free World in very intelligent and targeted sanctions and boycotts to cripple the tyrant's country.

 

There should be no confusion about what makes a man.  Threats do not make a man.  Causing fear do not make a man.  Puffing yourself up and strutting around like latter day John Waynes and Clint Eastwoods do not make a man.

 

Will is one of the things that make a man. Zalensky and Biden are demonstrating will.  Not will to dominate and crush another; not Hitlerian Putinesque brutality of will, but a noble will to protect freedom, truth, and goodness.  The will of a soldier to respond to a demand to surrender or die by saying "Go fuck yourself".

 

By the way, if you think that Biden isn't leading this resistance, please remember the last president that crushed Moscow - Ronald Reagan, who once said it is amazing what you an accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.  The free world is freely crushing Russia financially and culturally.  They all get the credit.

 

But it starts with Zalensky - who refused and refuses to be bullied.  And it is also Biden, who is not operating as America Alone, or "America First".  He is doing what the free world did in WWII, what America and NATO and the Free World did in the Cold War.  He is reaching out to create cooperative, coordinated, intelligent responses to stop the slaughter of a weaker nation by a tyrant.

 

My biggest prayer at this point is that a humiliated and sick Putin does not start sending nukes all over the place to prove that he is really a manly, manly man after all. 

"I need ammunition, not a ride" - Zelensky

 Looks like Ukraine is going to give Putin as much trouble as they possibly can.  

 

"President Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned down an American offer early Saturday to be evacuated from the capital city, Kyiv, which is under attack by Russia."

 

“I am here. We are not putting down arms. We will be defending our country, because our weapon is truth, and our truth is that this is our land, our country, our children, and we will defend all of this,” he said, according to a translation by CNN.

“That is it. That’s all I wanted to tell you. Glory to Ukraine,” he added."

 

Earlier he had said "This may be the last time you see me alive"

 

Russia has overwhelming force, of course.  But do the young Russian soldiers share the 70 year old Putin's obsession to forcibly re-establish the Soviet empire's borders?  Why would they care?  Why would they want to kill Ukrainians?  

 

Let this be Putin's fatal mistake.  I hope and pray that Ukrainian Spirit thwarts the autocrat's greed.  I hope and pray that Russian youth depose the tyrant.  I hope and pray that the opposition leader, Navalny, is freed and purges the massive corruption and tyranny of Putin and the Russian olilgarchy.

 

Probably just a wild fantasy, but ...

 

 

The Psychopath threatens nuclear war

 Putin has invaded Ukraine.  It is a massive invasion.  And he threatens nuclear war if NATO or the United States interfere with his hideous intentions.

 

Please remember that this is the man that Trump admires and obeys.  And this is the man that FOX News Tucker Carlson defends.  

 

It seems clear to me that Putin intends to recapture the Balkan countries same as he wants to recapture Ukraine now.  He clearly wants to re-establish the borders of the defunct Soviet Union.  He has stated this many times.

Now is a good time to remember the terrible lesson of WWII - do not appease a psychopathic autocrat, it only encourages him to attack.

 

My hope is that Putin has made a self destroying mistake by strengthening the NATO-U.S. bond.  And wars never go the way the initiator expects, and Russia may find more difficulties in Ukraine than the psychopath expects, and the Russian people may turn on Putin and end his reign.

 

Or so I hope. 

Things are not good right now.

The rats are deserting the ship?

 Trump's accounting firm has said that Trump's finances are fraudulent and they are not about to go to prison to help keep this lifelong criminal from prison.  

 

"...based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate."... " Mazars said it would no longer act as Trump's accountant, citing a "non-waivable conflict of interest."

 

The noose is tightening, and the Former Guy is sliding into cancelled show territory.  It happened on his TV show and now it is happening on his Presidential Reality multi-media show.  Yawn.... 

 

Tune in to the extravaganza prosecutions of the flailing has been famous former guy!

Putin is stunned

 I was listening to a podcast interview of Russian expert analyst, Ian Bremmer, who said that Putin is stunned at the resolve and leadership of President Biden as he pushes back on Putin's threat to invade Ukraine.  Putin had thought there was a real opportunity to split a weak and indecisive NATO, an opportunity to bully an old, senile Biden, and continue his project of re-establishing the old Soviet sphere of influence, especially pushing the U.S. out of NATO and reducing NATO military defenses.  He suffers from delusions of Russian empire along the lines of the Soviet empire.

 

But he found a firmly resolved U.S. led by Biden who has coordinated with the NATO countries to push back and inflict real pain on Putin if he misjudges and tries to take over control of Ukraine.

 

It is always possible, of course, that Putin will do damage, and it could be terrible, and I deeply hope that the U.S., NATO, and Russia can negotiate a resolution to Putin's mistaken power play.  But there is a real danger here.  Especially since Putin and China's Xi are buddying up to weaken the U.S for each of their own reasons. There has long been a terrible possibility that America could have military conflicts with both China and Russia.  I am hoping and praying that wise, and firm, and collaborative leadership by Biden and America can calm these tensions and lead to a more peaceful world, especially amongst these three powers.

 

(Don't even mention North Korea, who is probably feeling neglected and wanting flex its nuclear threats)

"Legitimate political discourse"?

In case there was any doubt, the Republican Party is no more.  The Republican National Committee formally announced its demise a couple of days ago by the way it censured the two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the violent coup attempt on January 6 last year. 

 

"RNC said that the investigation is “...a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.” ...  Repeat ... "...ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse".  !!!  Oh boy.

 

This was a violent smashing into Congress that killed people, calling for then Vice President, Mike Pence, and duly elected Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to come out of hiding.  They had handcuffing zip ties on them and a noose with a scaffolding outside the Capitol.  They had reserve forces hiding in hotels nearby with 15,000 rounds of ammunition.  This was not a "legitimate political discourse".  This was a violent attempt to overthrow an election.  Which failed. Thank goodness.

Add to this horror is a speech that the Loser just gave at a rally in Georgia where he called for violence under the wink, wink calls for "protests" - "...I hope we are going to have in this country the biggest protests we have ever had in Washington, D.C., in New York, in Atlanta and elsewhere" - for what reason? if he is indicted.  Indicted. He knows the grip of the law is closing in and he wants his Cult to commit violence to keep him out of bankruptcy and prison.  

And, oh yes, he made a very public and overt witness tampering statement when he promised pardons for those who would refuse to testify against him.  He did that during his presidency, of course by praising Roger Stone  for refusing to cooperate on investigations to his earlier crimes, and then pardoning him after he was sentenced.

I continue to hold hope and trust in the goodness of America.  I continue to hope that actual Republicans will turn against and turn away from the demented autocrat trying desperately to escape from the consequences of his life of crime and bullying and cruelty.  I praise Mike Pence for making a very public speech denouncing the Loser's false claim that the Vice President had the power to overturn the presidential election.  I praise the courage and integrity of Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for joining with the House Select Committee investigation into the violence of January 6, including the planning and buildup to that horrible day, and I hope that they can also investigate the concerted actions of the still active coup plotters as they have been and are plotting the next coup.

The question is, do the MAGA Cult need the Loser at all?  For the RNC to decide on their own to declare January 6 to be "legitimate political discourse" could well mean they are way beyond any need of the former leader of the MAGA Cult.  There has always been a white supremacist and a racist Christian Nationalist movement in this country since its founding.  But until they saw themselves being openly courted by the Former Guy, they were fringe dangers.  Now they run what used to be the Republican Party.

 

Not good for the Republican Party, or the United States of America, nor the world.  

I can only hope that actual Republicans say no, and turn away from these dangerous people.