Hostage To Bullies, Hostage to Nuclear Weapons

 We are hostages to nuclear weapons and the leaders that hold their finger on their launches. A decade or two, even a century may pass, and yet this threat never goes away. 

All it takes is one person, one person in power, to unleash hell on earth. 

If the great coward Hitler, who sent millions to their deaths, had his grimy little hands on the nuclear weapons launch, he would not have killed himself in the bunker. He would have taken at least half of humanity down with him. 

Hitler was not the first, nor will be the last, bully to ascend to power, with clingy sycophants all around. Fortunately for the world, Germany in the 1940's did not have nuclear weapons. 

Humankind produces weak, sadistic men and women all the time that rise to power. Bullies that make miserable the lives of the targets they choose to torment. Often these weak and evil bullies are in small positions of authority, maybe as a supervisor on a police department, in a factory, in a corporation, in government, in a school, but when one of them rises to a top position of authority, look out world below for a nightmare to follow. 

A bully and a nuclear weapon are the recipe for hell unleashed. 

The War That Never Had To Be. Ukraine

What does Putin hope to gain by invading the Ukraine? What was Russia lacking that made Putin feel compelled to attack Ukraine? Russia is the largest country in the world. It is rich with oil and other resources. It is rich with agricultural lands. It is a vast country lacking nothing. 

It is a nation that can never be attacked again. This is not WW2. Russia is a powerful nation armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons. 

Putin is threatening to use nuclear weapons. If he is mad enough to carry out the threat, we are all doomed. 

The Russian soldiers that were marched through Chernobyl on their way to Kiev may one day realize how little regard Putin and oligarchs had for their safety by marching them through contaminated radioactive terrain on their way to wage a war that makes no sense.

No matter what grievances Russia has with NATO, with the west leaning present government of Ukraine, or anything else, nothing justifies this invasion. 

There are those on the left and right that justify Putin's war based on the U.S. setting the precedent for such actions. When did one wrong ever justify another? One wrong never justifies another. 

The George Bush and company regime change folly in Iraq led to great suffering and death. 

Does Putin and company honestly think they can invade Ukraine and not pay a heavy price? 

The longer this war goes on, the more innocent Ukrainian civilians will suffer, the more Ukrainian and Russian soldiers will die needlessly, the more people will become permanently crippled and wounded, the more misery will spread.

There is a way for Russia to save face and for the war to end immediately. 

Negotiate with Zelensky some kind of agreement regarding the neutrality of Ukraine and NATO. Sweden and Finland are not in NATO. 

And then leave the Ukraine.  Stop the fighting while the negotiations take place. Enough people have already died, enough people have already been wounded.

Identity Politics, Wokeness, Victimhood And Violence and Hate

 

Pandering to victimhood and throwing personal responsibility out the window blossomed, or maybe even originated, in the 1960's. There is nothing new, useful or helpful about the so called woke movement and identity politics. 

As violence escalates in the states, white and nonwhite acceptance of violence, bigotry and hate as long as it comes from nonwhites, has led to the same thing that it led to many decades ago - more violence, more bullying, more hate. 

Racism is not just about overt hate and discrimination. Racism includes people of all races that use race to be a bully, to intimidate, to be violent, or to be a narrow minded bigot. Racism includes having lowered standards and expectations based on race. Racism includes failing to hold people accountable for their hate, bigotry and violence because of their race, or because they are granted victimhood status that misguidedly exempts them from responsibility. Accepting, condoning or excusing violence, bigotry and hate from people because they are of a certain race, religion, ethnicity or creed, leads to more violence, bigotry and hate.

The wokeness that now exists is no different than the perverted wokeness, victimhood worship, and identity politics that started casting its dark cloud in the 1960's.  Some of it is driven by a need for moral superiority and false virtuosity. Some of it is driven by racism itself. 

When excuses are made for violence, bigotry and hate, when violence, bigotry and hate are ignored, excused or condoned, all that results is more violence and more hate. 

Post Covid and The Drums Of War Are Back

 As people emerge from the covid pandemic, the focus is back again on war, missiles and killing each other. 

There is no way to know, without inside knowledge, what are Russia's true intentions. We rely on news sources that may or may not be accurate. If Russia does invade Ukraine, it will be proof once again that humans are the most foolish, destructive species that ever walked the planet.

A Russian Invasion Of Ukraine is Indefensible

Many on the left and right defend Russia's military buildup along the border with Ukraine and accuse the United States of war mongering. It is not necessary to defend the United States, or argue that the United States has not engaged in war mongering and unnecessary wars, to understand that this is not about the U.S. or U.S. war mongering. 

It is not necessary to defend NATO, or the expansion of NATO, to believe that Russian grievances with NATO do not justify a war with Ukraine. 

Russia is an armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons state. No country can invade Russia and expect to not be annihilated, along with the rest of the world from the nuclear weapons fallout. 

Ukraine and its civilian population must not suffer because of the failures of the west and Russia to reach agreements on NATO or anything else.

The world faces mass poverty, enormous environmental degradation and poisoning that threats life on earth, nuclear weapon proliferation, biodiversity collapse, and more, yet the pursuit of war continues to be a far greater priority.