Come to Jesus, Pogo.

vanity ^ | January 21, 2022 | Nathan Bedford

[cuban leaf]

We have entered a very dark time. We stepped through the door in november of 2020. We’re just starting to look around the room and the batteries in the flashlight are going dead.

History is being made, but not in the good way. It’s just getting spun up. It must happen while the democrats are in power. That gives them to next november.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. — Ephesians 6:12

Know your enemy and prepare accordingly.

[ComputerGuy]

If we ourselves are the problem (and we are), then how does the Ukraine matter?

[Sans-Culotte]

[usconservative]

^^ that right there.

[cuban leaf]

Precisely.

[Lurker]

“If we are concerned about losing credibility among our allies by making false in Afghanistan, how can we do it again to Ukraine?”

That ship has sailed, my friend. We abandoned South Viet Nam decades ago, and have done it since.

The fact remains that we have no strategic interests in Ukraine. None. There’s nothing there worth a single drop of American blood or another nickel of American treasure.

All talk of national honor aside Ukraine and Russia are two utterly corrupt oligarchies. Then there’s the tiny little logistical problem. Kiev is 5,000 miles from DC. The days of the US military being able to support a sustained military campaign half way around the world are gone.

Sending US troops there if things go hot would be a disaster. If the Brits or the French or the Norwegians want to defend Ukraine, then may God bless them. We have bigger problems in the Pacific.

L

[Lurker]

“The problem, Pogo, is not Ukraine, not even Joe Biden and, strangely enough, not China, the problem is we ourselves.”

Spot on, sir.

L

[nathanbedford]

I'm glad you finished reading it to the end. :-)

[Lurker]

You write so as it’s worth the time.

Best,

L

[nathanbedford]

Thanks

[RaceBannon]

the political answer to the Ukraine is to divest from China.

Quite a jump there. But inadequate.

The political answer to Ukraine is to rid ourselves of democrats who pumped up Russia their entire existence, remove republicans who did the same, and get back to being the strongest guy on the block by ending all foreign company but American owned businesses and bring manufacturing back home.

None of that will work. We have brought our nation to it’s lowest moral low of all time.

2Chr 7:13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;

2Chr 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

---

Acts 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.

Acts 17:30 And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Acts 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by [that] man whom he hath ordained; [whereof] he hath given assurance unto all [men], in that he hath raised him from the dead.

[bramps]

We have entered a very dark time. We stepped through the door in november of 2020.

*****************************
I’m compelled, since you use a biblical reference, to point out that Melania Trump, one month before the election, proudly announced that President Trump was the first president to enter office supporting gay marriage. And how many times did he try to ingratiate himself with his Evangelical base?

I voted for Trump but this was a gut punch that sounded like pitiful pandering . It told me that even though Trump has alleged Evangelical advisers around him, he really doesn’t take God seriously and we may be paying a price for that.

[Hatteras]

[Michael44.]

The major historical lesson, taught by Russia itself to Napoleon and Hitler, has not likely been forgotten. Putin is smart enough to know that it would apply to a westward invasion as well as it did to the eastward. They have already recovered their (historically) Crimean Peninsula, and the northwestern border area, populated primarily by Russians. What else does Ukraine have that’s worth “civilizational risk” to the Russians?

[nathanbedford]

You are quite right, there is seemingly little for Vladimir Putin to gain from invasion and occupation of Western Ukraine. That is the agricultural portion and he already has the Russian-speaking industrial half. He talks as though he were a nineteenth century Russian czar whose national security depends on the vastness of Russia. In the space-age, in the cyberspace age these time/space computations mean less and less. Yet Putin continues to advance them.

Suppose Putin's client is not his own conception of Russian national security, or even public opinion at home but suppose his client is China. Why China? Because China is an enormous threat to Russia and therefore it is understandable that Putin wants to make an ally rather than an invader of China. China offers a huge market for Russian minerals and energy as well as technology trade-offs.

He might believe that China is the wave of the future. He might want to forestall China encroaching on Siberia with its population to simply absorbed Rushias mineral wealth. He might just hold a grudge against the West and especially against America- a little man's inferiority complex that puts a chip on his shoulder. Whatever the motivation, even if it is not in Putin's direct interest as we would calculate it on his behalf, as prudent planners we must assume the worst.

[nathanbedford]

We ought not to forget the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact of 1939 that precipitated world war II. British emissaries were on route to Moscow by slow boat when Ribbentrop flew in and Stalin concluded from Neville Chamberlain's record of appeasement that he simply could not rely on the West to defend either him or themselves against Hitler. So he cut the deal with Ribbentrop.

A new Russian dictator, Putin, may also have concluded that the West simply would not stand up to China and he had better pick a side while the picking was good.

[Michael44.]

I agree that the greatest threat to Russia is from their east, which makes it an even more of a low odds proposition that they will they will bet their civilization on a westward adventure.

[nathanbedford]

By your lights and mine, the gain is not worth the risk for Putin but it is difficult to put ourselves in his shoes much less in his head so I will not bet the ranch that he thinks the way we do.

[Michael44.]

I know that this is not related to the matter at hand, but there is a domestic political matter in progress (filibuster) and I have not seen any view along the lines of mine. A year from now when the 52-48(+/-) Republican Senate is being sworn in, Joe and Kristen will be hailed as heroes for their stand. Somewhere, there exists a Dem tactician smart enough to figure out that these 2 could make the stand and still get re-elected. I’m having difficulty posting these days, and so haven’t been doing much lately. Over the years, I have observed your ability to make and present a case. Hopefully, this observation will be worth your presenting in future threads on that matter. Thanks, M44.