Ukraine

[Abandoned]

Very interesting reading, thanks for sharing view.  It is beyond me that Trump who was impeached not once but twice would be allowed to run for or hold public office ever again.  In my opinion he and several of his cohorts should be in Federal prison for treason and other high crimes. 

These are certainly troubled times we are in.  We can only hope for the best.

[kid1293]

I am not sure I can agree about your circle @Glenn
We are talking about very special people, not ordinary people.

With power comes responsibility, but power corrupts.
Only a few reach that level of power. It can be seen, to a
lesser degree, in criminal environments, where a leader
has the authority to do what he pleases.

Ordinary people can be duped to follow authority, but I am
sure they will not easily 'fall off' from right-left thinking.
To them, there is no circle, only the extreme.

Those few that, according to you, should overlap at the other
side of the circle, are people that can not be described by
right-left. They are often considered either mad or god-like.
They have left the 'ordinary' left-right and fallen into a
special group. A cross between nihilism and egomania.

[Glenn]

Kidd, you may well be correct, in that, perhaps we should add a spur at the bottom of the circle I theorised.

A spur at the point where the violent extremists of left and right wing political evil overlap, and become one.

Or perhaps we could create a special section, a category, a hinge pin at the bottom of the circle that joins the two extremes together.

For you are correct – there have only been a handful of individuals in history like Hitler and Stalin who could be said to epitomise true evil.

People who need a spur or a hinge pin that points directly to hell.

[Glenn]

In my first post on Ukraine I mentioned that Sir Halford Mackinder, the English geo-politician believed the Earth had a “Heartland” centred on the Eurasian continent, and whatever country controlled this territory would ultimately control and dominate humanity.

I also mentioned the “Long Cycle” of power politics that has plagued the western world every century for the last five hundred years, and how by using these two concepts I predicted in my thesis written in 2004 that between 2020-2025 the Western world would see the beginnings of the next great conflict between the Great Powers.

In the weeks that have followed my comments anyone who has been paying close attention to the conflict would have noticed that the concept of the “Long Cycle” has been mentioned twice by President Biden in an attempt to place what is happening in Ukraine into a wider historical context.

The reason I mention this is because last night on youtube the CaspianReport published an interesting piece on how the “Heartland” theory is central to understanding why Putin has invaded Ukraine, and why the Baltic States, Moldova and Poland are on Putin’s target list if Russia wins in Ukraine.

I would add Finland and Sweden to this list, and from what I can see both nations are already well aware of the dire circumstances they now face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkrLUFAcjH0

This report is well worth watching as it will open your eyes in a way that my words cannot.

I mention this not because the West after twenty years of blindness and naivety finally understands what is at stake in Europe, but to reiterate my opinion that NATO’s policy of fear based appeasement towards Russia will only make what is happening all the worse.

Here again NATO is thinking short term – remember Putin has the patience that Hitler lacked.

At best, by not committing their armies to confront and stop Putin while his military is relatively weak and ill trained, all NATO is doing is delaying the inevitable and allowing Russia’s armies to redeploy, rearm, retrain and learn from their mistakes.

Even if Ukraine prevails in the coming fight and forces Russia to retreat from eastern Ukraine and Crimea, only a fool would believe that Putin or any other similar Russian tyrant that follows would not try again.

The wheel of the “Long Cycle” has been turning for hundreds of years – it’s not going to stop now, and NATO’s cowardice in confronting Putin will only delay the inevitable wider conflict and the West will lose the opportunity to nip Russian aggression in the bud – to put out the fire before it becomes a firestorm.

When I wrote my thesis I believed this wider and far greater conflict would commence in the decade 2040-2050, now I fear that given everything that is happening in Europe and more recently with China in the South Pacific that this timeline has been rolled forward by a decade or more.

I pray it hasn’t arrived already.

[Glenn]

In my posts on Ukraine I mentioned that Sir Halford Mackinder, the English geo-politician believed the Earth had a “Heartland” centred on the Eurasian continent, and whatever country controlled this territory would ultimately control and dominate humanity.

I also mention how you can see the “Long Cycle” of power politics at work interplaying with the Heartland Theory and the war in Ukraine.

So in that regard I would draw your attention to another report published by CaspianReport on   2 October 2018 as it makes for interesting comparisons to what is now happening in Ukraine and in the United States in regard to Donald Trump and his brand of right wing extremist politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrafXfDL2CA

By watching this episode it will be easier for you to understand why, some three and a half years after the episode first aired, that some people are calling Alexander Dugin a modern day Svengali, or a Grigori Rasputin - a guiding light behind President Putin’s evil intent.

Anyone who has been closely following the war in Ukraine would have seen Dugin mentioned on several occasions.

It may also explain why Mr Trump still refuses - even when asked - to say that President Putin is an evil monster.

Perhaps we should ask why this is so?

We could speculate that Mr Trump is scared - if he condemns Putin, then Putin may respond by disclosing specific information in regard to a possible Putin, Trump and the Russian FSB link, bearing in mind that a few weeks ago Mr Trump asked - not for the first time – for President Putins’ help in undermining the American political process to help further Mr Trump’s extremists right wing political goals.

This link between Putin, Trump and the Russian FSB, has long been speculated about, and by Mr Trump failing to condemn President Putin we can hypothesise that there may be more to the story as to why the American extremist right continues to undermine American democracy both in its legal basis and more recently its political traditions.

[Abandoned]

I had those same thoughts about Trump from the start.  If any states should be investigated for election fraud it should be the states that went to Trump in both elections.  I found it hard to believe that that many people in this country, especially those with children and grandchildren, were that stupid and ignorant to vote for him not once but twice.  Something is seriously wrong with the system, the people, or both.

[Glenn]

Yes, I agree American democracy is far from perfect, but having said that so is democracy in general.

However, the overriding principle of any democracy should be to fix its flaws when found, not make them worse.

In democracies you have law and then you have tradition.

In Australia some for these laws are - voting is compulsory and equal representation is set by an independent body called the Electoral Commission - both federal and state.

There is one federal commission and multiple state commissions.

But it wasn't always this way - voting wasn't always compulsory - it was introduced a century ago when voter turnout dropped to the less than 50 percent.

Now voter turnout tends to be around 95 percent.

Nor was equal representation always fair and just.

One state - Queensland - had a rigged voting system - gerrymandered - where a corrupt right wing government could be elected with 20-30 percent of the vote, and thereby stayed in power for more than twenty years.

It was so bad that in the May 1972 state election, the Premier - Governor in the USA, emerged victorious despite receiving only 20 percent of the vote which allowed him to form a coalition with another right wing party.   
   
A government seat - electorate, would have 4-5,000 votes whereas an Opposition seat would have 25-26,000 voters.

The gerrymander was eventually overturned by people power, but not before an extremist right wing Premier abused one of the nation's most sacred electoral traditions.

The tradition was - if a federal senator died in office then the Premier of the state which elected the senator would appoint a replacement senator from the same party, thereby doing away with the need for a byelection - the replacement then served out the balance of the dead senator’s term.

In this case the Premier, who by the way was completely corrupt, refused to do so, and for the first time in the nation’s history appointed a senator from another Party in an attempt to shift the federal balance of power and this in turn set in motion the greatest attempt in our history to pervert and override our democracy.

That was fifty years ago and Australian democracy still shows the scars left by few greedy, corrupt, and power hungry individuals.

A nation’s democratic traditions are every bit as important as its laws.

Laws do not foresee everything, and they have loopholes – all of which are fixed/remedied by tradition.

Perverting democratic traditions lays the ground for authoritarian control by moving parts of the political process and political accountability away from the people.

I see that in what has just happened in the USA where the GOP has said it will no longer participate in presidential debates during the 2024 electoral cycle.

Here again the question should be - why?

I like questions - it helps see behind the veil - see what they are hiding - what they really meant or intend.

Why does the Republican Party leadership believe that putting their presidential candidate on display for national and worldwide accountability and suitability for office assessment is now no longer in their best interest?

Why does the Republican Party now spend so must time persecuting minorities, vilify personal choice, and perverting the right to vote?

Such actions show a clear and continuing shift to the extreme right.

Remember the further away any political party moves from the moderate centre the closer a nation is to danger of evil that is found in the political extremes.

One of my favorite television shows is an American show - The Handmaid’s Tale

I wonder?

Having said all that, forgive me for being rude – but I feel like turning my head and GOPing on the floor.
 

[Glenn]

On the 6 March I made the following observation in regard to what China’s options were in regard to the war in Ukraine.

*

Given what is happening in Europe, China has several long-term strategic options which it would now be evaluating.
1)   Do nothing at all and pick up the pieces with Russia in the years to come.
2)   Help the West
3)   Strike at Taiwan
4)   Take back Russian Manchuria as it is still claimed by China as being historically controlled Chinese territory.

Depending how things go for Putin in Ukraine one of two things will most likely happen.

If Putin wins then China will see the West as weak and the Taiwan option will moved to the top of the list for evaluation.

If Putin loses then Russian Manchuria will move to the top as it’s an opportunity China may never see come again; - Taiwan however, can wait for another day.

*

Given what we now know about how the war in Ukraine has gone, and how it is progressing, I would like to draw your attention to point 4 and what now may be happening in China, and what may happen if point 4 turns into a reality.

So in that regard you may like to watch;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpBquLM9tCQ&ab_channel=JakeBroe

He gives a reasonable explanation of what could very well happen if point 4 turns into a reality.

You may also like to read the following article cited by Jake Broe.

https://www.theklaxon.com.au/home/china-russian-border-drills

It was published on May 31.

Human nature, cause and effect, great power rivalry, and the generational cycles of power politics – when, if ever, will it ever end.

Only time will tell where we go from here as it appears point 4 is quickly becoming a very real possibility, whereas given President Biden’s recent commitment to use military force to defend Taiwan may mean that point 3 has been put off another decade or longer.

China may even trade off recognising the independence and sovereignty of Taiwan for the Wests acceptance of it reclaiming its historical territory in Russian Manchuria, and this could be determined by the outcome of Chinese 2022 Party Congress later this year and the leadership outcome.

Russian Manchuria is the “safe” option, Taiwan is not.