. . .
K “So what happened?”
J “Not sure. Not sure that we are intended to know what happened. If anything happened.”
. . .
K “The last person he sees has the most impact on his latest whim. That is considered by some to be a bit disconcerting.”
J “Looks like he meets with the Europeans and Zelensky today.”
K “Then who does he talk to next before spouting some incoherent drivel?”
. . .
J “Stay tuned.”
. . .
. . .
K “Biden clearly was not in charge. Trump appears not to be in charge. The U.S.A. escalated and expanded its war with further charges on and charges dropped on Russia. The most powerful faction in his fractured administration is committed to war and making the command decisions.”
J “They are hitting dangerously close to home.”
K “They could hit dangerously close to home.”
J “The fundamental nature of war has changed in two big leaps. First, the use of drones in the Armenia and Azerbaijan war in 2020 voided so many legacy weapons. Second, hiding and moving the drones in mobile innocuous appearing civilian vehicles and using them on civilian infrastructure is a game changer. Technology and technique are rapidly evolving.”
. . .
K “I could end the war in one (1) day. Others have not the ken, the courage or the clear vision to craft a solution. Cease the ISTAR [intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance], no war; continue the ISTAR, war. The U.S.A. elected to escalate and expand the war. One profound and effective way to cease the war in under twenty-four (24) hours is to warn the combatants that every deployed missile will be redirected back to land on its point of origin. And then just do it once.”
J “They could hit close to home.”
. . .
K “And then there is the exploding bodaciously bad budget bill.”
J “At least that action is being done with Congressional approval.”
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
Cease the ISTAR [intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance], no war; continue the ISTAR, war.
. . .
K “We are now one hundred days into the Trump regime. Biden’s War is now officially renamed and rebranded Trump’s War.”
J “Trump must continue the war without hesitation or interruption.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier.” Donald Trump, Inaugural Address.
“When two neighboring countries fight each other, just know the USA visited one.” Nelson Mandela
“Let everyone who advocates war be enrolled in a special regiment of advance guards, for the front of every storm, of every attack, to lead them all!” Leo Tolstoy
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason. . . . The only way to combat the murder that is war is to show the dirty combinations that make it and the criminals and swine that hope for it and the idiotic way they run it when they get it so that an honest man will distrust it as he would a racket and refuse to be enslaved into it.” Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter”, “Esquire”, September 1935.
“No one man nor group of men incapable of fighting or exempt from fighting should in any way be given the power, no matter how gradually it is given them, to put this country or any country into war.” Id.
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” Smedley D. Butler in a poem in the September 1935 issue of the magazine “Common Sense” that later become a classic.
. . .
K “Four score years ago on May 8 / 9, the Russians defeated the Germans and won World War II; since that time the United States has lost every single war it has instigated or inflamed. What an enviable record in the history of empires.”
J “Except Grenada. Do not forget Grenada. A few grenades in Grenada is all that one took. Not really a record worth writing home about. It was more of what the sports world calls a ‘friendly’ competition.”
. . .
K “An entire generation was condemned to slow percolating despair and an utterly pointless collective death. I remember fearing that I was given a death sentence with an indeterminate start date. I found my unburned draft card last year that proclaimed me ‘fit to die’ and recall my low two-digit draft number that said ‘ready to die’.”
J “The idea of a lottery may be the only way to distribute scarce resources. The Fates cut strings; the government plucks a ball out of a bin and decrees who has good luck and who does not. The spectacle is so surreal and perverse and macabre.”
. . .
K “We are also talking about the war on drugs and the war on poverty and the war on terror and the war on peace and the war on war. It does not end. The goal now is for war not to end.”
J “I can’t fail to advance the contention that there are times when thoughtful and purposeful military intervention is necessary.”
K “It don’t disagree, yet America does not think and embarks on so many thoughtless and purposeless crusades on purpose.”
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
[See the e-commentary at Special Edition. Deciphering Derivatives. Oh, And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! (March 17, 2023).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
How many Frenchmen does it take to liberate Paris? . . . None. The U.S. always has to do it.
. . .
K “Vice President Vance’s Valentine’s day speech to the Munich Security Counsel is a much needed and sobering analysis . . . and thus a seismic shock. The text will appear in future foreign policy texts and treatises.”
J “Another Trump blunder delivered by his bumbling sidekick.”
. . .
K “The war is between the United States and Russia. Zelenskyy is not even legitimately elected and with his band of banderites and brigands have exploited and abused their fellow Ukrainians. Those who occupy the positions of power in Europe and the European Union have allowed themselves to be exploited and rendered themselves impotent and irrelevant. Why should they be involved?”
J “The Russians must be stopped. The Ukrainians must be involved. The Europeans must be engaged. The U.S. must be leading.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
J.D. Vance: “Europe must respect and tolerate free speech.”
Europe: “J.D. Vance is not free to speak freely in Europe.”
“The issue that has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.” Lord Acton
. . .
J “Russia.”
K “U.S.A.”
. . .
K “Both countries are getting extended.”
J “One country is retreating.”
. . .
K “Russia had little choice. Russia is moving purposefully because it must move purposefully. The U.S. is moving clumsily because it always moves clumsily.”
J “This is the biggest game changer in recent years.”
K “Turkey is the emerging big player.”
J “I do not doubt that there will be many unintended consequences.”
. . .
K “When you have someone cornered, you are in the same corner.”
. . .
K “They all certainly extended and expanded World War III. More war, more death, more destruction, more violence. More war, more death, more destruction, more violence. More war, more death, more destruction, more violence. And as I have said many times, when the tide shifts, the blowback over the next 100 years will be unprecedented in human history.”
. . .
“When two neighboring countries fight each other, just know the USA visited one.” Nelson Mandela
. . .
K “A mentally incompetent lame goose President is further provoking World War Tres after his party and ideas were resoundingly rejected and repudiated by a majority of Americans. He really has no legal or moral authority to do anything more than pack his bags and leave.”
J “Until a new President is inaugurated, he is in control.”
K “But is he? He is not. Those in control are evil beyond compare.”
. . .
K “The actual date when the U.S. and its vassals declared war on Russia is not clear at this time because it has been gradual, but the two decisions to allow the use of ATACMS missiles controlled and operated by Western technicians and also to use land mines may mark the red letter dates.”
J “Russia invaded. That is my fundamental factor.”
. . .
K “When the NYT is not mature and sober and responsible enough to see that nuclear war is not ducky, we are all doomed.”
J “The West needs to hold the line.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
The U.S. Declares War on Russia. Again.
Give complete nuclear annihilation a chance
The nuclear family, not the nuclear war
Dragon < Eagle > Bruin; Dragon + Bruin > Eagle; Eagle + Bruin > Dragon
. . .
K “‘Main’ sounds normal and ‘Stream’ sounds bucolic. Even the messaging is deceptive. How about using ‘WSM’ for ‘War/Wall Street Media’ to describe the corporate media.”
J “The alternative media is shrill, strident and polarizing. I am not unaware that the legacy media is favorably disposed to promote more war than necessary and to protect Wall Street to the exclusion of Main Street.”
K “We need an alternative alternative media.”
. . .
K “One week the NYT proclaims that Russian is running out of bombs and then the next week the NYT screams that Russia is preparing to run into Paris. Seems inconsistent to me.”
J “The NYT is part of the message machine.”
K “After reading the paper for many decades, I concluded a few years ago that any comment in the NYT is presumptively but rebuttably false. After reading the NYT, I am confident that Russia is not running out of bombs and is not preparing to run into Paris. After reading independent and credible sources in the alternative alternative media, I am very confident that Russia is not running out of bombs and is not preparing to run into Paris.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Propaganda is not just about creating fake news. Propaganda is also about hiding real news.
Be skeptical of the WSM
. . .
K “I never thought I would see that headline in my lifetime.”
J “It had to be done.”
. . .
K “I remain satisfied that it is a bad idea.”
J “It had to be done.”
. . .
K “The phrase ‘crossing the Rubicon’ is such a cliché that I do not believe I have ever used it in this life. The U.S.A.’s and Britain’s invasion of Russia crossed the Rubicon.”
J “It had to be done.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Did the Russians really win WW II?
Nous étions au bord de l’abîme, mais depuis, nous avons fait un grand pas en avant.
e-commentary 