The Books of Bokonon

Okay, since I am not well and can't really sleep, I will post a couple videos. I'll start off with Jon Stewart as he tries to cut through the crap old Trump and Vance pulled last Friday - an event that still has me muttering Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: The pro wrestling metaphor is fitting, actually. That's about as sophisticated as Trump and Vance can manage. And the Russian government and its state controlled media are jumping for joy. I'll finish with Jimmy Kimmel who had his own reaction to whatever old Trump's SOTU address was.

Say what you will about James Carville, but he is correct in pointing out that Trump is more unhinged than ever. Just like the self-styled heterodox crowd, he deftly uses the tactic of stating that he is "just asking questions" regarding the state of Trump's mental health given the debacle that happened on Friday. Maybe it's just the accumulation of decades of a bad diet, bad sleep habits, and a generally bad attitude. Maybe Trump has an undiagnosed  personality disorder that leads him to think (along with Vance, who also ain't right) that ambushing the leader of an allied nation is a "good" idea. Or maybe the Kremlin has some kompromat on Trump that can explain what happened Friday. Personally, I don't give a fuck what the reason or reasons behind Friday's ambush of Zelenskyy who was gracious enough to appear at the White House and effectively surrender some of Ukraine's wealth to soothe mad King Trump's easily bruised ego. The point is ...

I already considered Trump's attempted shakedown of Ukrainian mineral rights to be thuggish and unhinged. What happened on Friday during what was around the start of my lunch break was at a completely different level of insanity. Don't believe me? See for yourself:   Chris Hayes' commentary strikes me as spot on. But even if you want to skip his commentary, watching the 7-minute meltdown that occurred at that particular event is a sight to behold, and I do not mean that in a good way. It was beyond embarrassing, and it was something many of us would have predicted as likely to happen - maybe I would not have predicted this clusterfuck from yesterday, but some other unhinged rant followed by a betrayal of our allies was to be expected. Many of us warned you. Many of you did not listen. After this debacle, old Trump let slip that the US government was turning its back on Ukraine. Again, this was predictable. If we interpret what old Trump and Vance did as an ambush on a leade...

I've written reflections about the war at each anniversary since I started this particular blog. I'll let those posts speak for themselves. Ukrainians continue to hold the line, and up until the last few weeks, a US-led alliance has been instrumental in providing material support as Ukrainians defend themselves from Russian invaders. The Russian army has continued to do the only thing it knows how to do, which is to send in waves of poorly trained troops to the front lines and otherwise drop enough bombs to level whole villages, towns, and cities in the Donbas region. Russia has seen degradation of its available equipment, and is definitely strained economically. This year also saw Russia pull in North Korean troops into its continued invasion.  Perhaps the most audacious event from the last year was Ukraine's invasion of Russia's Kursk oblast, which borders Ukraine's Sumy oblast. A lot of the drone attacks on the Sumy oblast originate from Kursk, so in a sense, I c...

Kyiv Independent has a feature article about the Orange Revolution of late 2004 and early 2005. It's worth reading. This would not be the last time that Viktor Yanukovych would stare down the ire of the public and lose. There were credible accounts of ballot stuffing to where after two months of continuous protests a new vote was held and a more pro-European government was formed as a result. The Ukrainian people truly flexed their collective muscle then, and that sense of independence has carried the Ukrainian population since then. The regime in Moscow has made it clear that it does not view Ukraine as an independent nation or Ukrainians as distinct people and is in the process of perpetrating a genocidal war against Ukraine. Those heady days of 2004 are a reminder that Russian dominance - in the form of an empire, the USSR, or whatever sort of mafia government Putin runs - is not inevitable.

Zelenskyy is clear about Ukraine's need for security, and has point-blank stated that having some nuclear weapons available would be the next best thing to joining NATO . That has certainly created some consternation among Ukraine's allies and enemies alike. I'll turn things over to a blogger who goes by the name The Analyst to break this recent development down for us. ‘HE SHOULD NOT HAVE SAID IT’ That was the reaction that came thick and fast from even some of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters. They argue that it upset allies and Ukraine is a member of the 1968 Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, which it joined on December 5 1994. However you have to give just 90 days notice to leave the agreement. One of the biggest concerns is that Zelensky handed Putin a propaganda victory - I don’t think the Kremlin ever reacted so fast to something Zelensky has said.  It clearly rattled Putin’s cage and a torrent of escalation talk spewed forth. First off he said Russia must redouble it...

Never mind that Russia's Putin regime invaded Ukraine in 2014 and illegally annexed Crimea as it fought a low-scale war in the Donbas that had been on-going prior to 2022. Never mind that the same Russian regime ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and have been engaging in human rights abuses ever since. In Trump's deranged and demented mind, somehow it was the president of the invaded country who allegedly started the war with Russia . Yeah, it makes no sense and is completely divorced from reality. But that's Trump for you. It's also a harbinger of what to expect if Trump is reinstalled in the White House. Trump will cede Ukrainian territory to Putin against the will of the duly elected Ukrainian government and the will of the Ukrainian people. Bet on it. Then again, it would be in character for Trump to blame the abused spouse for being beaten (or worse) or the rape survivor for allowing the rape to happen. That's what you get from a former ...

There is a channel I follow on Telegram called Military & Strategic, and is typically signed by a blogger who refers to himself or herself as The Analyst. The primary topic is the on-going Russo-Ukraine war, but US politics gets mentioned from time to time, which is very pertinent to the Ukrainian cause. Here is one of The Analyst's most recent posts , which deals with the prospects for the Harris/Walz campaign's success in November: GROWING CONFIDENCE IN A DEMOCRATIC VICTORY We all know how important the coming election is in the US. We are quite literally faced with a fork in the road - one side takes us down a dark and dangerous path towards a semi-fascist autocracy and the other is the real America that despite its many flaws is a decent and honest democrat at its core. It’s a truly shocking difference in possible futures. However I am ever more certain that Kamala Harris will win the presidency. I am growing more certain that the Democrats will regain the House, and ju...

The following strikes me as a decent enough primer on the Ukrainian offensive. It'll only take a few minute to view the video. Since there are a lot of folks (including - maybe especially - milbloggers) who have questioned what the Ukrainian military is up to and what would be gained by this mission should it succeed, hopefully some light is shed. Obviously only the civilian and military leadership of Ukraine know for sure what their objectives are, but getting an idea of the lay of the land and a map or two can give you an idea of what controlling railroad lines in Kursk could do to mess up Russian logistics. That in itself would be a good thing. To the extent Ukrainian troops treat residents in the occupied towns and villages well, that will undercut Russian propaganda claims about Ukrainians, which also strikes me as a good thing. Although not mentioned in this video, oblasts like Kursk and Belgorod have significant Ukrainian ethnic residents, and at one point, these oblasts - o...

The Guardian had recently mothballed its Ukraine War live blog . It had been a daily resource to one that appeared irregularly at best. Wars are not entertainment, and their coverage is an obligation that goes well beyond advertising dollars. In the absence of the live blog, I have increased my reliance on my Telegram channels. Turns out a lot happens, even when the world isn't paying attention. For the time being, The Guardian's live blog is back. I doubt it will last, once this latest offensive loses its ability to grab headlines.

One of the things I am a stickler for is getting informed opinions that are more than just copium. It doesn't matter what issue, it's just a healthier way to face life. One Telegram channel I appreciate a great deal regarding the war in Ukraine is simply called Military & Strategic . The author of most of the posts simply refers to himself or herself as The Analyst. The person is at minimum very familiar with the far east of Europe, and seems knowledgeable about military strategy and tactics. This is not someone with a crystal ball, but rather someone who does offer an informed perspective and a willingness to communicate truths that are unpleasant when needed. The Analyst was initially very skeptical about the latest incursion into Kursk, and their concerns are understandable and within the mainstream. Ukraine has very limited resources, so pulling troops off the front where the Ukrainians really do have a serious fight on their hands to invade Russia does appear at first ...

Yesterday, while taking a bit of a work break, I looked at my Telegram channels (I subscribe to several covering the Russo-Ukraine War, primarily from a Ukrainian perspective, along with a couple general military conflict channels that are arguably less sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause) and noticed that apparently Ukrainian troops had crossed the border into the Kursk and Belgorod oblasts in Russia. Russian border security and air defense got caught with their pants down. At the time, it was not clear if this was some sort of quick incursion by the Russian Volunteer Corps or some other anti-Putin militia operating within Ukraine or an incursion by the Ukrainian Armed Forces with some greater objective.  As of today, it appears that the invasion of Kursk and Belgorod oblasts is on-going . There have been some conflicting reports about which villages the Ukrainian military has occupied. Sudzsha, a border village in the Kursk oblast was either completely or partially occupied by Ukr...

 Ever since Russia attempted a full-scale invasion of Ukraine beginning on February 24, 2022, I've searched for and found numerous resources I consider to be reliable. Obviously, I have my own perspective on the current phase of a war that started almost a decade ago, and the sources I seek out are ones that likely share my perspective. There's a difference between having an editorial slant and being a propaganda outlet. I have no room in my life for the latter. The sources I rely upon are ones willing to report the good, bad, and ugly as well as can be expected under obviously difficult circumstances. So let's get to it. First, I rely a lot on the Institute for the Study of War . ISW currently covers both the war between Russia and Ukraine and the current unrest in Iran that has been ongoing since last summer. For now let's stick with Ukraine. The coverage is based on any information that is open-source and publicly available, with relevant links provided. ISW is a US ...

Now that we're at the eve of the anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I want to take a few moments to reflect. So, this is an introspective post focused primarily on my impressions of the weeks leading up to the invasion, and after the invasion began.One thing I want to be crystal clear about is that Russia had already been at war with Ukraine for eight years by that point, having invaded Crimea in late February 2014 (following the Maidan Revolution that caused Putin's preferred despot, Yanukovich, to flee Ukraine) and would annex Crimea shortly thereafter, as well as invade portions of the Donbas region.  Late in the fall of 2021, Putin had published some rambling opinion piece that acted as a form of revisionist history in which he appeared to call for the reformation of the old Russian Empire. In a sense, I wasn't surprised, since Putin has consistently lamented the fall of the USSR, which was what the empire morphed into after the October Revoluti...

Here is something we need to keep an eye on, and it's something I feel is stating the obvious: Russian-inspired and Russian-backed influencers are not resting in their efforts to turn regular citizens in various parts of Europe and the US against the Ukrainian effort to defend itself from a full-scale Russian invasion, and against NATO itself. Martin Longman focuses primarily on the influencers in the US , and Reuters covers the influence campaign in Germany .  Many of the people Martin Longman refers to are political influencers who were once considered part of what counts for a far-left in the US, but who now are embracing and are embraced by far-right political entities. Some were writers I had some respect for, which is something I regret. Many of us who were left of center in the US were livid about the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and were equally livid about economic policies that left so many fellow Americans behind, and several of these individuals were among the ...