The Fastest Knee-Buckle in the West
Only hours after Russia recognized the “Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republic” — insurrectionist areas of Ukraine — and ordered Russian troops into it on a “peacekeeping” mission, Washington signaled its acquiescence to Moscow: Putin’s move “did not constitute a further invasion that would trigger a broader sanctions package”. Decency would have allowed for an interval […]
Ukraine: A Very Personal Decision
Russian claims about the national security threat posed by Ukraine and even NATO are absurd. Alas, the Western press looks to compete in the absurdity stakes through speculation over Putin’s intentions. When will Putin decide to invade Ukraine? Has he decided already? If he hasn’t, what can/should the West do to get him to decide […]
Ukraine: Thugs Don’t Forget
As officialdom in European capitals and Washington tries to discern Russian intentions on an invasion of Ukraine, speculation by observers in and out of government runs the gamut. What will Putin do? Why is he doing it? And why is he doing it now? Conventional wisdom—fed by relentless rhetoric out of Moscow—says Russia is fed […]
Trapped in the Past: #2
Which is worse: to be governed by a decent man who sees a country that no longer exists, or by a thug who sees it all to clearly and aims to extract from it every possible personal advantage? Cheery illusion-based optimism or clear-as-cut-glass reality? Stay with the former and the latter will prevail. On January […]
Trapped in the Past: #1
We’ve left port on our way through 2022. We sail into Year 3 of a global — and often lethal — pandemic, chiefly because a substantial and vocal minority interferes with sensible public health measures. We see the usual big-power wrangling over geopolitical influence, caused not in no small part by cults of personality. And […]
Generals and Parrots
Ukraine remains in the headlines. Russia has 100,000+ troops and materiel on the border. On cue, the curtain on the ballet goes up. Experts (self-professed and real) divine Putin’s intentions. The US does the two-step: concern that an invasion may come soon, and signals to Russia of “grave consequences” if it invades. And the press, […]
Time to Disavow Biden
There was a time when my support for Joe Biden extended beyond the need to find someone, anyone, half-decent and honest to replace the walking, scheming, immoral and unprincipled catastrophe that is Trump, to the hope that the new president would deliver both a reckoning to those who did damage and a hard push to […]
Ukraine, again … still
Give it credit for decades of consistency. The American foreign policy apparatus continues its streak of group-think and lack of imagination on geopolitical issues. Admittedly, such criticism reflects the casual observer’s (and taxpayer’s) assumption that, consistent with the rhetoric machined by government mouthpieces, the management of such issues to a useful, preferably non-lethal and stability-inducing […]
Ukraine: Not Quiet on the Eastern Front
Correction and Amplification The first paragraph of the piece below incorrectly suggested that the recent massing of Russian troops at the border with Ukraine was simply another attempt by Putin to put pressure on the government in Kyiv, to distract his own population from its economic and COVID-related woes, or both. This omits salient facts […]
The Washington Post to Garland Critics: Back off!
The Washington Post (with The New York Times lord protectors of whoever is in power) chastises Garland critics — “armchair quarterbacks” — not enamored of what appears to be a less than robust approach to the January 6 prosecutions. “The volume on these complaints is cranked way up — and it needs to stop.” Well, then. […]
Merrick Garland: All Attorney, No General
He’ll never admit it publicly, but when President Biden looks up the street toward DOJ, he sees Garland, all attorney, no general. Nine months in, the hope 81 million had in DOJ’s prosecuting the head of the Trump criminal enterprise for obstructing justice and fomenting insurrection is dead. Like Lincoln’s McClellan, Garland is about his […]
Inherent Contempt Power: Why Not?
Why does the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol not use its powers under the Constitution to get what it needs? It has the inherent contempt power over individuals who refuse to cooperate with the its investigation. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) chairs the Committee, which recently invited […]
Sedition – Part 1
Federal law defines clearly the crime of sedition — more precisely, “seditious conspiracy”— in 18 USC 2384: “If two or more persons … conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by […]
Accountability American-Style
The predictable American accountability pantomime is in full swing: Who lost Afghanistan?!?! Just as the endeavor itself was a 20-year exercise in bloodlust, deluded expectations, venality, and performance art, so is the pale imitation of the reckoning with its end. Never mind the absurdity of the question, though telling as it is about the mentality […]