myata

Let's try to think of it this way: how is going to go on, continue? The wise caution strategy I mean. So you fail those who would actually stand up, and then what: next? Where will it go? The bully goes back home, stuffed and satisfied; the things return to their normal cycle, you know partying, spending countless dough on useless stuff, talking issues to death in "security councils"? That kind of rosy fantasy, as it happened always and every time in our history? Or, having digested the latest victim, the bully shows up on your doorstep, next? And what then? Where would all the great wisdom go? In front of whom to wring thin shaking hands, cry and swear of great caution and restraint, the avoidance of you know? Who will attend the show and give it five star marks for thoughtfulness? This is exactly how it happened the last time, by the way. Whoever needed to think one step ahead.

That's a good one. So definitely Putin would very, very much love his opponents to see it that way and in that frame: a meek halfhearted dash at "supporting" nothing too serious though... or it's something terrible. For him it makes a lot of sense. For who else, though? That's a great excuse right there, kudos! But wait.. does the Time accept those as valid tender? At what time could you explain indecisiveness and inaction, at a critical point of history by caution and wisdom and It like, OK sure buddy, I'm in the wrong here. Are we pipe dreamin, again? All the way till the reality knocks right on our door? Not when we can choose to stand by our words and principles, but being dragged into the fight that cannot be avoided, no chance kicking and screaming?

Why couldn't a stone fall upwards? Because it's not natural, defies the logic of the laws of Nature. Just the same way, the logic of the binary political environment encourages and forces the agents (at the penalty of permanent losing) to seek the maximum advantage for itself and inflict the greatest political harm on the opponent. Note how this, again very natural within the constraints of the system posture can have very little to do with the interests and priorities of the society? What's best for the political agents have little to do with the benefit of the society. Politics becomes a thing in itself, existing and operating mostly for its own benefit. Three hundred years ago, when Western world was dominated by authoritarian rule, the capacity to check and interrupt the absolute rule seemed like a great idea; its longer term effects may not have been obvious. All functional democracies that emerged in the new age, after the main events of the 20th century use the multi-party model. The binary system is just too closely associated with partisanship and there seems to be no formal instruments to prevent it.

Of course it is, factually and effectively. A functional democracy requires real accountability, checks and balances, not paper ones. It's so common for the left to not get it. Just like their despised counterparts they naturally believe that the word could mean any arrangement that works for them. Only with the opposite sign, and color. And that could be said of the China Communist Party too, not so long ago not sure about now.

And not only Canadians: Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Syria, yeah Venezuela, it's quite popular in Africa as it seems. A warm company.

It's a word. "Sanity" is a word what meaning is put into it matters. His "sanity" is one wise and benevolent party ruling by hand, with no checks for the observable perspective. Is this sane? Not in my world. Not in that of the founding fathers of the Constitution as I see it, either.

Yes he may be great at that, talking and "pushing". But of the Commander-in-Chief at a time of an existential challenge we expect more. It's in a different dimension of real though: not great words, but needed results. If the West will begin falling to the dictator's alliance piece by piece who will be there to explain the importance of restraint and complexities of politics? Nobody. Doesn't exist. If you don't come to the fight with all you have, the result will be a failure; defeat; not "go back home and fix your errors". This chance just may not be there, nobody promised it.

It happens in a bizarrely similar way to the last time: the liberal elites, running out of energy and ideas, increasingly senile, deflated of will and impotent. Imitation and repetition in place of perpetual seeing, knowing, responding and changing. But in evolution, no one is given a free ticket. It can only be earned for a few stations, generations at a time and then, needs to be purchased again and again to prove the viability and claim to the future. The Time, the reality will always take care that great lectures and claims will be tested and verified for their viability. There will be no inflated claims and free tickets stamped and approved for the eternity. That moment, the next critical test seem to be looming right ahead for the collective West. Another brutal dictator has risen. He's building a new Axis. He will kick, push and test every posture and claim. And what do we see? Missiles and hostile planes have been flying in the "protected" airspace ostensibly freely. No action. Next to zero, reaction. In a major NATO state, "unidentified" drones, suspected hostile, have being surveying critical defense facilities for over a year, with zero effective outcome. A battalion of five tanks is "strengthening" NATO border defenses. Putin fires hundreds of missiles in a single salvo, and throws dozens of his rusting tanks in a single attack. "Europe's muddled armed forces 'could be washed away by Russia'" (The Times) Is this serious? Or some silly childish pantomime? Who is it intended to impress? Who's listening to the great sermons of strength and unity when the reality is as plain as a palm of the hand? West doesn't want to fight. "Avoidance" is the main strategy these days. It abhors the idea of fighting. It wants to forget it and pretend, believe it out of existence. Just like the last time. That always worked. Just ask a scared child. Just look. The enemy knows it. They can see and have seen it in plain sight. And if those who can and will fight, couldn't stand much longer: what will happen then, next? The bandits, encouraged and having smelled the blood would just go back to their lair? All will return to the business as usual, perpetual partying and happiness? Keep dreaming while it lasts. But in this reality, it will happen exactly as it had the last time: some will be overwhelmed and defeated. Others, devastated, decimated and quit. Others yet, will make their separate deals with the bandits, for a time only, till they are taken down one by one. A pretty fairy tale that just couldn't stand the blizzard of the reality. How common in our history.

No, looks like you lost it. One-party rule is not democracy, under whatever great motto. And limiting the choice to just two isn't helpful, is ridden with risks and eventually causes a collapse of democracy. You lost it and didn't even notice. Don't mind it at all as long as it's your gang that gets to rule. Do you think that can speak for something? What if you too have arrived?

But this isn't the correct answer. The correct answer is: all that is needed and when it was needed. Yes or no? No. He sat on a multi-billion lend lease program and haven't used a single cent of it. The much-needed equipment is decommissioned and is rotting, instead of helping in defending the democracy. Not some far-away mind you. Yours. The western world. Because of what? What was the argument? Senile indecision? An existential fear of a brutal thug? Weakness or madness isn't a great dilemma. May not be any happy endings there.

The situation weirdly and disturbingly reminds of the pre-WWII one: deflated and progressively impotent liberal elites, despite all the great talking, and the alternatives, only of a rising degree of insane. No good, sane exits for you here: this is how the Time has decided it. Great words never heard and taken into account. "Europe's weak armed forces could be washed away by Russia": The Times Unable or/and unwilling to fight, the West will be forced to renege and give up on its values and principles, peeled like an onion shell until nothing is left. The time to stand up to the new existential challenge is here and now. The West needs leaders who can see, understand and have the will and resolve to act now. Tomorrow may be too late. In the evolution, there are no promises of a carefree future. Our ancestors learned it the hard way, but we have forgotten. Again.

Things can change in several decades. Partisanship finally eroding the last relatively unaffected branch, the judiciary. And you have it so ingrained in your picture of the world that you couldn't even see it, objectively. That in itself speaks for something, no? When only two options are allowed it doesn't matter which one is losing sanity: the democracy will fall, one way or the other.

Joe is a great talker, every word falls with at least five bucks of all-knowing wisdom, all set to write a bio of great achievements. The job isn't done though, by far. And there's a problem. It's the act, especially when needed decisively and firmly, that has been gone AWOL. The great words just wouldn't match the act, and the outcome. He had the Ukrainian Lend Lease Act passed unanimously by the Senate in April of 2022. Exactly zero dollars went to defend democracy under it, before it expired the fall of 2023 almost two years on. And now he's down to playing the finger-pointing game, complaining and washing hands of responsibility. He promised serious consequences for involvement of North Korea in the Putin's war. Un openly defied him by sending Putin massive stockpiles of weapons including ballistic missiles. Consequences: zero. Called (so called) "UN Security Council" session what's that - some joke? United States is a guarantor of Ukraine's security and territorial integrity given in exchange for abandoning nuclear arms. What "security"? Where's "territorial integrity"? With examples like this, who will take U.S. word for its face value? With these facts before them, who in this world would let go of the nukes as opposed to getting them at the first opportunity? What message is Joe sending to the world here? The Axis has grown in strength and influence and Biden's act has been nowhere near sufficient to limit and halt it. It comes as a bizarre and already troubling picture: he says all those great words but the acts go almost opposite to them. Is it some supreme old gran wisdom, next to impossible to discern for uninitiated? Trying to outplay a brazen aggressive bully by enticing him with apparent weakness? Or indecision and inability to act? Or something more? According to this piece by Newsweek, Biden was one of the architects of the Obama's infamous "reset" idea with Putin, ignoring multiple concerns. Is it as simple as him being afraid of Putin, hiding it behind those verbal performances? This is not the way to stand and win an existential confrontation with the Axis of tyrants. Indecision and fear of a bold act does not win this kind of conflicts, we do not have to guess because there are the lessons of history right before our eyes. It didn't work back then, and there's no slightest indication that it could be working now. If Ukraine is let down and allowed to fall, emboldened and smelling the blood, the Axis will be on the threshold of NATO in no time. Taiwan, conflicts, testing grounds all around the globe would follow. One cannot be blind so much to not see it. The logical answer that comes to mind is: fear and indecision. These are not the winning qualities of a Commander-in-Chief of the Free World in this kind of existential challenge. And I couldn't be at all sure what real value we can find and take from Joe's great speeches.

No, you missed it. If critical decisions are commonly split along the partisan lines it means the end of impartial non-partisan judiciary. The decision is not determined by the law anymore, but, effectively, by political affiliation of the judges. A democratic justice system cannot function like that. And it opens the way for autocracy.

Not caring to know, or pretending to be ignorant about a serial rapist buddy is dumb and f@ck-headed. That's it, the diagnosis: for the posterity. And that joke with confidently negative moral judgement used to give million buck inspirational speeches. Oh the irony of humanity, who and what can beat it?

Russia's dictator said at some point something like "any kitchen boy can run the Russian state". MAGA set out to beat that with "any crook can be the President of the United States of America". That's progress, right?

Just sickening too. Either just dumb or dumb and dick-headed (literally) and a liar. Disgusting. The stamp will stick for the rest of his life, and beyond. Dumb and dick-headed, the new standard.

Please mind, none of this is some abstract foreboding: we may be watching the demise of impartial, non-partisan judiciary in real time. If the coming decisions (Roe Wade was the first bell) are divided by partisan lines, that would be it: an effective end to politically-independent judiciary in essential and critical for the society and democracy matters. Representative, done; judiciary, done; executive, for a long time already. The End. Partisanship ended the democracy.

A binary political system will erode, degrade and eventually, destroy the democracy. Now, right in our eyes, the partisan rot is reaching and spreading over the judiciary. And once done, no institutional barriers to authoritarianism are left. Stolen elections, corrupted officials and courts, civic protests all the regular third world drama. The democracy, gone. An open civil confrontation as the only solution. The cycle closes itself. By the end of the last century it became very clear that the interests of a partisan political system are not aligned with and increasingly, contradict those of a functional people's democracy. The time to see; understand and act on it was back then. Nothing is ever guaranteed in evolution. Those who believe in the perfection from the start and are averse to change are likely to be on the train to extinction.

Keep playing dumb and deaf, it'll sure earn you many points with the voters.

Bullsh*t f@ckmanism, more like it. The elites need to cover their mental block, dead end of ideas and vision and administrative desperation with some great cover smelling of nice flowers. As they always did, something f@cked up pour a bucket of great words on it, even more public dough and watch it fixing itself. Worked like a charm (for them; not necessarily the issues and problems). Distract tired pueblo from seriously f@cked up situation with great songs and quests, like there's anything new under this Moon.

Okay. But a massive and unsustainable in any horizon immigration drive like these days smacks of a desperation already. If this is the only way to maintain a positive public cash flow, apart from pure ideology, the strategy is going to run right into a wall at some point and not too far away.

He isn't young and he doesn't want to be aware. Close eyes bury the head in the sand and the problem goes away, right? Also Iran, North Korea, China after Hong Kong and eyeing Taiwan and any number of aspiring dictators to whom Putin promised nukes in exchange for joining his club of dictator buddies. Unarmed, divided, weak and rich: is there a better strategy to communicate with, like in: attract attention with a big red rag, of an aggressive armed bandit?

Maybe that's the real reason for the immigration craziness? The elites, those with juicy PS jobs paying well into 5 digits (those one has to win a lottery like in 6/49 just to get an application in) and defined benefit pension plans: sure in this day and age, want one of those? need a constant increase in the head inflow just to keep the cash coming for their benefits as the economy is stagnating. That would make sense, understandable. Any other logical options?

Being associated, closely and undeniably with a serial rapist gang? Didn't know? Oh so innocent? Leave it for the hypocritical speeches bullsh*t. Not enough for the enlightened left, no? That, right here: is the real problem with the partisan politicking. At some point it becomes all about "me" and next to nothing about responsibility and democracy. Will become, one way or the other, certainly. The color and flavor matter not, as it appears. No good ways out. Binary politics is an existential danger to democracy.