Posted on 08/22/2025 11:00:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
By nature’s curious design, I was born an optimist — though in some obscure recess of my soul a cynic curls and whispers his dry, inconvenient truths. I believe neither in immaculate conceptions nor second comings, and certainly not in the benevolence of Russian rulers.
The fragile hope entertained by some, that they might one day act with reason, springs from a naïve faith in miracles, and miracles stand at odds with both nature and common sense. At all times, under all tsars, commissars, and the latest Kremlin grotesques, Russian rulers, with rare exceptions, have acted not for the benefit of their people but against it and against the peace of neighboring lands.
These summer days find the sensible world intoxicated with hope, almost giddy with expectation. There is talk, wistful and bright-eyed, of Trump’s extraordinary plan: that he might, by sheer force of his strong will, summon Ukraine’s Zelensky and Russia’s Putin to one mythical table where reason will descend like a dove and the guns will fall silent. And afterward, so the dream goes, Europe will stand shoulder to shoulder, guardians of a fragile new peace against Russia’s future temptations.
Sweet dreams indeed — but somewhere deep within me, the cynic stirs and scratches, begging to be heard, so let us give him his say.
[SNIP]
This is the unspoken heart of Russia: almost every ruler it has known (save, perhaps, for the brief and tragic apparition of False Dmitry in the seventeenth century) has treated the will and welfare of its people as faint abstractions if not outright inconveniences. Compassion finds no foothold there. The entire machinery is designed to secure power, not to share it.
Putin is no different, save that he hides his wealth more cleverly.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Misunderstand this, and you misunderstand everything. To dream of peace with Ukraine is to dream against Putin’s nature, against his hunger, against the architecture of his soul. The war does not threaten his wealth or his health, but peace — peace imperils everything. Peace steals his legend; it risks his throne. He will conjure endless war if endless war serves him.
Well stated.
Makes sense.
Putin may have wealth but Mother Russia is suffering mightily from a lack of cash. Her Cupboard is presently barei
More of the “Putin and Russia is congenitally corrupt and evil down to their DNA” silliness.
But I guess it makes the DC crusade feel more righteous. After all, they are evil to the very core, barely even human. And we are Sir Galahad on a white charger... rescuing the virgin damsel of Banderist Ukraine.
Putin will be 73 in October. He is eligible to be president constitutionally until 2036.
Drone him
“The difficulty in understanding the Russian is that we do not take cognizance of the fact that he is not a European, but an Asiatic, and therefore thinks deviously. We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinaman or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them, except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them. In addition to his other Asiatic characteristics, the Russian have no regard for human life and is an all-out son of bitch, barbarian, and chronic drunk.”
George Patton (8 August 1945)
There can be no peace in Ukraine, as long as Putin rules Russia, since he denies Ukraine's right to exist as an independent state.
This is the unspoken heart of Russia: almost every ruler it has known (save, perhaps, for the brief and tragic apparition of False Dmitry in the seventeenth century) has treated the will and welfare of its people as faint abstractions if not outright inconveniences. Compassion finds no foothold there. The entire machinery is designed to secure power, not to share it.
Putin is no different, save that he hides his wealth more cleverly. Some whisper he is richer even than Elon Musk, though his treasures are buried beneath a labyrinth of cutouts. His true passions, however, are not counted in gold. They are three, and they are absolute: to hold power until death, to prolong his life and to carve his name into history as the restorer of the Russian Empire.
How can you not know by now that everyone knows for sure that Putin started this war by invading Ukraine? Too late in the fighting to try to gaslight anyone else...
“Some whisper that Putin is richer even than Elon Musk, though his treasures are buried beneath a labyrinth of cutouts.”
The Atlantic Council DC/London Axis accounting. If Putin stays in a villa, he owns it, if he sails on a yacht, he owns it, if he has dinner with a CEO, he owns the company.
if they applied the Putin standard here, the President would own Camp David, Air Force One, the company of every CEO he interacted with, etc etc.
Meanwhile Zelinsky and the EU leaders stay up at night reading Madison and Jefferson, the Federalist Papers, etc.
Silliness....Gaslighting propaganda.
We fomented an illegal coup that threatened the Russian naval base in Crimea. We'd take the same action to secure the Panama Canal if it were threatened in the same way.
The illegal coup installed a government hostile to Moscow and resulted in mass NATO military build up. If Russia or China tried something similar in Mexico, we'd invade.
It's been well known since the fall of the Soviet Union that Russia wasn't going allow NATO be expanded to its borders or allow Ukraine to be anything but a neutral country toward it.
But, Zeepers like you refuse to abandon a narrative that is completely false and are being spewed to cover up the aggression of our elite that have been working with Ukrainian oligarchs to make $$$ like Biden and George Soros.
Oh, never mind, the $12 trillion dollars of rare earths or that the defense industry thrives off hatred and paranoia of Russia.
You are all uninformed.
Putin’s degree is in mineral economics. His closest friend in the world is presently the CEO of Rosneft.
He Understands Russian Dominance Is Inevitable.
He doesn’t have to do these bizarre things you are imagining. Their land surface area GUARANTEES their oil runs out after everyone else’s. There is nothing anyone can do about this.
He need only act to prevent anything from threatening this inevitability. Which is why the Donbas was so important. Get a map. Look at the distance to the Volga River. About 1/2 of Russia’s oil flow is up that river out of the Caspian area.
There was never any way any one rational in Russia could allow NATO that close to the Volga.
This stuff about restoring the Russian empire and invading Europe is just silly. That global dominance is coming without taking those risky moves that could start nukes flying.
Best to watch oil field depletion in the US and in the Middle East and realize there are enormous Russian fields not even touched yet and . . . see the inevitable future.
Which has nothing to do with invading Europe. That’s not the way they will crush all the folks currently demonizing them. They will, instead, offer to provide oil to those places in exchange not for paper money, but for the toilet cleaning labor of the grandchildren of folks alive now.
You get it
God, that writer’s flowery drivel must have been inspired by a nightcap…or two…or three
He thinks he knows Putin and what drives him
because, well…..
Yeah, and Patton was a great cavalry leader and tanker. But he was an elitist rich guy with more than a little racism in his blue blood.
And he flipped the finger to Jesus by believing in reincarnation like a pagan. He thought he fount in the Punic Wars with Rome, and with Napoleon invading Russia.
If I have a question about tanks, or maneuver warfare... he’s the source. But his theology and assessments of other peoples...are lacking, at best.
He was a genius, but like all geniuses, he was appallingly ignorant in other areas.
All 3 of your statements about the US are wrong. For your information Putin invaded Ukraine so that Russia would be an empire again. Even if Putin did not want NATO on his doorstep he has no right attacking Ukraine that was not a member of Ukraine.
And what makes this NATO narrative even more stupid is if Putin controls all of Ukraine, their new neighbors are NATO members!!! So, taking over Ukraine would make him closer to NATO instead of farther away.
“Look at the distance to the Volga River. About 1/2 of Russia’s oil flow is up that river out of the Caspian area.
There was never any way any one rational in Russia could allow NATO that close to the Volga.”
That was pretty much the very reason for the Battle of Stalingrad.
Wokester whining
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