War in Ukraine

Trump is going to have to do something major to have any chance of getting credit for Ukraine winning the war against Russia. Otherwise, Biden will be known as the guy that defeated Russia. And to Trump, getting credit is the most important thing to him. Not peace, saving lives, protecting democracy, or stopping violence or imperialism. Getting credit.

 

Without a doubt. That’s why I have asserted that Russian collapse (while it would feel good) is not in our strategic interest. That said, we cannot be so afraid of Russian collapse that we fail to apply all of the pressure we can short of general war, which has been one of Sullivan’s failures. We need to apply that pressure, tell Russia we don’t want them to collapse, but we will let it happen if Russia does not start making some wise decisions in its own interest.

 

I’m actually not aware of any civilian deaths during British and French bombing of the Ruhr in late 1939 and early 1940. History only seems to record that it had negligible military effect and might have killed some livestock.

 

It doesn’t matter who does what and when. Both sides are going to steal the credit for whatever goes right and deliver the blame for whatever goes wrong. And who gives a damn? What I care about is that the war ends on terms as favorable to Ukraine as possible, not who gets credit.

 

Taking fleets off at a time instead of individual ships is past due. This is also going to push oil up which will push inflation which....
Likely why Biden didn't do it before.
Hopefully Saudi follows up with threat and ramps up production so inflation doesn't stifle demand

 

I was fairly certain that some civilians would have to have been killed from air-dropped bombs at some point during the war. One of the chemical plants I work in is in that area, and still has a watchtower from WWII with 3'-thick concrete walls that has seen a lot of action, with numerous 12"- and 18"-radius hemispheres blown out of the outer walls. Any time they have dug earth to build new sections of the plant, they've unearthed unexploded WWII bombs and had to call the bomb squad. And, of course, there are a lot of old neighborhoods within a mile of the plant--not much buffer zone.

 

I think it might have been Lincoln who made the observation (paraphrasing) "It's amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets credit."

Trump seems to prove the opposite of this statement: "It's amazing how little you can accomplish when all you are concerned with is getting credit."

 

Elites not happy that the FSB has now moved into the military in ways previously unthinkable

Putin under pressure as Russian elites fume over military purge

Dozens of individuals lost their jobs and were imprisoned by Russian authorities, with three of them reportedly being close associates of Sergei Shoigu, the report revealed.

The former defense minister, a trusted ally of President Vladimir Putin, was dismissed from his position in May 2024. He now assumes the role of Secretary of the Russian Security Council.

"The lack of clear boundaries for the new waves of arrests and the uncertainty surrounding Shoigu himself are clearly making his entire clan nervous. Shoigu himself, although he has so far been kept out of harm's way by personal guarantees from the president, is forced to watch what is happening without any possibility of protecting his inner circle or stopping the new arrests," the report said.