So, Blinken and the Chinese are talking again. That’s good, but our message has to be definitive. “No weapons for Russia.” We have to make the Chinese understand that we will not accept territorial incursions into other countries by any nation in the world.
It’s kind of hard to get why certain countries in the word have trouble understanding the concept of sovereignty, and the fact that you can’t just grab a couple of counties from the country next door. It’s important to make clear to China that Taiwan is one of those places where the cost of acquisition will not be worth the economic gain.
*****
Last week a train loaded with toxic chemicals crashed in the town of East Palestine, Ohio. No, big deal, trains cash all the time. Only this time it released chemical elements that are turning the town toxic. The first problem is that no one seems to be able to identify what was in those tanker cars, which 9 times out of 10 means they are so toxic nobody wants to admit they were transporting them. The immediate reaction to this has to be how is it possible that a week after the accident no one from Norfolk Southern Railway or the company that shipped the chemicals can identify them? Of course, the official party line is that they are safe. So, how come, if they are safe, thousands of fish in the river in East Palestine are dead? Obviously, some kind of fish flu.
But the biggest question is, how come almost three weeks after this crash, no one outside of East Palestine is talking about it?”
If this crash happened in Westchester or New Rochelle, there would be screaming headlines in every newspaper in the country, and it would be the feature story on every TV station in the world twenty-four-seven. But no one gives a shit about some hick town in Ohio. And since no one seems to be able to say what was in those tankers, the citizens of East Palestine are still being told that the stuff is safe. Yup, here comes that bridge again.
There is no doubt in my mind that everyone in power will keep telling us it’s safe until half the town is dead or dying.
Of course, this will be a great excuse for the pipeline companies to gin up their demands to lay more pipe and pump more noxious chemicals under our homes and farmlands. Sure, pipelines are safer than railroad tracks but that doesn’t come close to making them any safer than the fireworks your drunken uncle Mike used to set off in your front yard. You remember Mike, the on with only two fingers on his right hand. Moving noxious shit will always be dangerous and the only way to reduce that danger is to replace it with wind, sun, and fission.
*****
Nikki Haley is running for President without seeming to have an opinion on Donald Trump who she must beat in order to become the GOP candidate. How do you think that’s going to work out? She’s been on his side and also against him ever since she ran for her first office. Now Ron DeSantis is killing them both in the early polls. It looks like we will get a chance to see DeSantis take his shot if he has the stones.
*****
Bernie Sanders was being interviewed this week by Margaret Brennan and they got a lot done. I love this guy. I’m not and never will be a Progressive, but I love this guy. You ask him a question, and he actually answers it! He doesn’t bullshit around it. It’s so refreshing.
*****
So, Biden did it. He gave them the nod and next thing anyone knew he was in Kiev. It was a hell of a bold move, but it was worth it. This is the statement that the world needed to hear.
More important, it is the statement that both Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, each for a very different reason, needed to hear. The message was clear and to the point. We are with our Ukrainian allies to the end. The world on hearing this so dramatically stated will rally even more to the aid of Ukraine.
Putin was starting to believe his own bullshit, that we would get bored with this war and pull out. Zelenskyy was worried that Putin’s fantasy might hold some water. Now both, along with the people they represent, can see that this is a futile war for Putin. For the most part he has already lost the real war. Now he has sunk to terrorizing old people and children as he continues his program of bombing civilian targets just to make the people who have stood up to him miserable.
The Ukrainians are a very special people. They have held their ground when most of the world thought they would surrender. Now they are fighting back with success, and they will continue to do so as long as the rest of the world keeps them supplied.
They aren’t asking for our fighters, just our hardware and if we supply them, they will fight the Russians to the last man. Biden knows that which is why his failure to give them our planes is so surprising. Ter is obviously something more to that situation but in any case, perhaps we should be training Ukrainian pilots for that eventuality.
Of course, the reality is that the Ukrainians are fighting the fight for all of Western Europe because the Russians have already shown that they want the Eastern half of everyone’s Western sandwich. If they take Ukraine they will soon be moving into Poland, Finland, Moldavia and God knows where else. The West made a huge mistake when they let Russia move into Crimea. That told Putin that we would not fight to protect western land. It was a major mistake. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again and protecting Ukraine is the best way to make that point.
*****
Marjorie Taylor Greene has been so busy proving that she’s certifiably insane that it’s hard to believe that she’s still walking around loose. Her latest is the demand that the nation divide into Red and Blue states and become separate countries with smaller governments. I believe that the Southern states tried this in the 1860’s. Anyone remember how that worked out? I also believe that such a suggestion is now called sedition. It is against the law and part of the whole treason thing. Of course, Marjorie is neither bright enough nor stable enough to recognize any of this just like she doesn’t seem to be aware of the economic consequences of such a move.
For years the Federal Government, which Marjorie hates so much has been keeping the Red States alive by mandating that we buy American, even though so doing costs the Blue States a huge amount of money. Red America can’t sustain itself except as an small town, agrarian economy that buys everything it grows, whereas Blue America would still be the same thriving economy except without the anchor of non-functional Red America around its neck.
Why do I consider Red America non-functional? Because they elect brain dead sociopaths like Marjorie Taylor-Greene to lead them.