The end of NATO the end of war, the end of hundreds of US military bases and our missile systems in Europe, the end of the Deep State. Bring the boys home, let them work a regular job, plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC contractors need hires. Sent the migrants packing, give peace a chance. USA has been in some form or another of war over 100 times since 1776 on the average every 4 years. It's high time we take a fork in the road, honest money, coupled with hard work and peace. Let the French kill the Germans, and the Germans kill the French.
John Bolt-on should be ashamed of himself, except that he lacks the capacity to have any shame.
The last time I checked, that goober was a United States citizen. Not a NATO citizen. His first duty should be the interests of the United States over any other alliance the nation got itself entangled. It's war pigs like him that give America a bad name in the European capitals.
But I do have a proposal for all those European "leaders": Let's substitute Ukraine for the United States within NATO.
You put your finger right on it Joel. Thank you. The Euros get to take shelter from behind the US, but only if the US acts as they direct - and, of course, pays the Lions share of the debt that is incurred. Not the "butchers bill" mind you. That debt is settled by the thousands of nameless young men on the field. What a world we live in? A world which assumes we Americans celebrate our war machine manufacturers profits and our feckless politicians, pushing an interminable war at incalculable costs and would happily join in with those chickenhawks, on both sides of our "nice ocean" who would vilify the efforts of a genuine peacemaker. Enough!
Volodymyr Zelensky has one agenda in mind: to upset his arch-rival, Vladimir Putin, w arms! He can't do that w/o the force and power of the US military behind him. He needs much more than US arms and cash. He wants and needs US boots on the ground to make that happen. Like Viet Nam, he believes that when US troops start dying on Ukrainian soil, DC will up the ante and go after Putin in Moscow w much greater force and zeal! And Z will emerge as victorious. He sees nothing less!
US war hawks are inclined to support Z in this effort. Not for Z or for "freeing Ukraine", but for beating Russia! No matter the cost! That is the only shared interest the Left has w Zelensky: beating Russia, and undermining Donald Trump!
Donald Trump has the larger objective in mind: World Peace! Putin sees the larger picture here as well. That is what these two men have in common: a future w shared interests, not hostility or combat! A gold-backed economy exchange, not combat w arms and missiles.
Zelensky only sees his future as military domination over Ukraine and Russia. He is using Stalinesque tactics over his own country to achieve that end: no more elections, jailing or slaying any overt opposition, burning the churches and seizing their assets, govt control over the country's resources, inducting Ukrainian citizens into the military at will and w/o their consent, and he shows no inclination to change those tactics in the future.
No, Zelensky is the renegade here, and the major obstacle to a cease fire to the conflict, as we saw at the press conference w DJT last week, he opposes any hard negotiating toward a future peace w/o superior arms on his side. Hard to believe, but Z is really making Putin look like the good guy, here.
No, settling Z's hash here is just the opening act. The real game plan is getting Putin and Trump together at a peace table to start hammering out ways to build a future together. Hospitality instead of hostility. If Ukraine is the catalyst to make that happen, so be it.
“Favorite politician” might be an oxymoron… but yes, I wrote a couple of articles on the crypto story a week or two ago, when it broke. Here’s the last one:
Joel, Thanks for this article of what the U.S.of A's Lion's share cost (roughly 2 thirds) for NATO's budget, and the cost of 800 bases around the world (from Andy's comment). I feel we have fullfilled our obligation to peace in the World at serious cost to the taxpayer.Time for the rest of the world step to the plate.
Certainly an odd meeting at the White House. No surprise that Zelenskyy doesn't trust putin, as he has lied many times before (it's a russian thing, maybe they learned it from Genghis Khan). What surprised me was that Zelenskyy was accused of being ungrateful; I do remember his thanking the US many times in the past. Maybe he should have taken the deal and hoped for the best, but it really doesn't matter - no matter what happens, the US and its allies are headed for WWIII (really a continuation of WWII, since WWII didn't really solve anything), except this time, the US and it's allies will lose. And then, all the events of Revelation 13 will take place. Remember, you heard it here first - unless you've read this book called the Bible; check your bookcase, it'll be the book with the most dust on it. God's people have been looking forward to the times we are living in, and we are lucky enough to see it, and maybe even take part in it. Stay tuned.
People. Not gov, Leo. Not even the people in-gov. The people who wield the gov weapon.
If fungal NATOenails - for which everything has, & will continue to, look like hammers are the tools du jour - changes its name 800 (+?) hammer & jarhead bases around the planet pudding proof positive that it hasn't & won't change its “game."
Peripheral vision is a powerful, un-hypnotizable, thing. With it you can see not only the toes, you can even see the fungus move as it grow-metastasizes.
Besides, staring is rude, or an attempt at dominance that deserves all the whuppings it begets.
U S-ssssstink-toes started the ukie meatgrinder.
Now the guidos want the minerals to heal their cracked heels.
Art of the Heel Dealing, right there.
Contemptible, as usual.
Socks, even hermetically sealed, aren’t enough.
Amputation.
And no prostheses. Or wheelchairs. Or parking dispensations. Or soup for youse.
Instead of a neck-hole, a couple of ankle-holes for the Lord of the Flies devils islanders:
Whoever loosed hopium from its box & onto the world to conflate-hallucinate puny mankinds’ prospects & all these delirium projections with anything approaching possibility-reality just might deserve the combo Sisyphus-Prometheus wages of sin/ecure.
Uphill boulder-rolling whilst an eagle eats Camu’s must-be-happy (because it transhumanist daily regenerates - like a lizards tail?) liver, forever & ever.
Heinlein's competent man Valentine Michael Smith trades Mars for Earth, figures everything out - grok grok grok - including tax exempt status for churches - so he starts one - gets murdered.
Now Dark Maga Rainman Elon wants to trade Earth for Mars via Church of America tax mules.
Joel, you fell into the trap of ASSUMING that a Trump negotiating tactic was actually a plan. This Eastern European humanitarian crisis is a revival of a longstanding territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine. If anything, it has proven this: Post Soviet Russia is a toothless tiger, only capable of eviscerating its own economy via bullying a tiny neighboring country. The mighty Russian military machine has cost 100's of thousands of young Russian men their lives. It has effectively lost the Black Sea fleet. Russian oligarchs and Kremlin politicians are restive, along with the Russian population in general. Putin is in real danger of losing his LIFE, having demonstrably lost the "war" with Ukraine. Trump's kerfuffle with Zelenskyy was to demonstrate that Ukraine all along has been just a pawn in the true conflict between Russia and the US (proxy for USA). Trump's PLAN is to gain US access to valuable mineral rights in Eastern Ukraine and Western Russia and giving Putin a path toward being able to deny the reality of his losing the war. But the most important outcome will be a lasting peace in the area and gradual withdrawal of the US from the NATO war machine. "And that's all I have to say about that." --Forrest Gump, 20th century philosopher
If you want to be top dog in the neighbourhood, you have to take the trouble to regularly patrol it, pissing on each lamppost to mark your territory (i.e. keep the world a quiescent place through military might so that your dollar remains king, making it attractive for exporting countries to recycle their excess funds by buying your debt – the bit Trump always forgets about).
If you stay in your kennel and let other mutts mark those lampposts, multiple nasty snarling biting territorial fights will break out, and you won’t stay top dog for very much longer.
The end of NATO the end of war, the end of hundreds of US military bases and our missile systems in Europe, the end of the Deep State. Bring the boys home, let them work a regular job, plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC contractors need hires. Sent the migrants packing, give peace a chance. USA has been in some form or another of war over 100 times since 1776 on the average every 4 years. It's high time we take a fork in the road, honest money, coupled with hard work and peace. Let the French kill the Germans, and the Germans kill the French.
Dude, lay off those drugs, that's just not going to happen.
John Bolt-on should be ashamed of himself, except that he lacks the capacity to have any shame.
The last time I checked, that goober was a United States citizen. Not a NATO citizen. His first duty should be the interests of the United States over any other alliance the nation got itself entangled. It's war pigs like him that give America a bad name in the European capitals.
But I do have a proposal for all those European "leaders": Let's substitute Ukraine for the United States within NATO.
Bolt-on! Egggsellent. A true deep state tool and evil bastard.
The US needs a new template for peace and prosperity for mankind
The sword we've been using has not allowed us to prevail in any substantive post WW II conflict
All we did was kill millions of Vietnamese, Iraqis and Afghans
These three dirt pile countries were no threat to us.
Back from the ‘real world’ refreshed and in great form.
Thank you, good sir! It’s amazing what a little digital detox can do for one’s spirits!
Another great piece, Joel.
With the latest kerfuffle over Ukraine, it's worth remembering how we got here, and knowing what to do next:
https://jdbreen.substack.com/p/the-fluid-frontier-2ff
You put your finger right on it Joel. Thank you. The Euros get to take shelter from behind the US, but only if the US acts as they direct - and, of course, pays the Lions share of the debt that is incurred. Not the "butchers bill" mind you. That debt is settled by the thousands of nameless young men on the field. What a world we live in? A world which assumes we Americans celebrate our war machine manufacturers profits and our feckless politicians, pushing an interminable war at incalculable costs and would happily join in with those chickenhawks, on both sides of our "nice ocean" who would vilify the efforts of a genuine peacemaker. Enough!
Volodymyr Zelensky has one agenda in mind: to upset his arch-rival, Vladimir Putin, w arms! He can't do that w/o the force and power of the US military behind him. He needs much more than US arms and cash. He wants and needs US boots on the ground to make that happen. Like Viet Nam, he believes that when US troops start dying on Ukrainian soil, DC will up the ante and go after Putin in Moscow w much greater force and zeal! And Z will emerge as victorious. He sees nothing less!
US war hawks are inclined to support Z in this effort. Not for Z or for "freeing Ukraine", but for beating Russia! No matter the cost! That is the only shared interest the Left has w Zelensky: beating Russia, and undermining Donald Trump!
Donald Trump has the larger objective in mind: World Peace! Putin sees the larger picture here as well. That is what these two men have in common: a future w shared interests, not hostility or combat! A gold-backed economy exchange, not combat w arms and missiles.
Zelensky only sees his future as military domination over Ukraine and Russia. He is using Stalinesque tactics over his own country to achieve that end: no more elections, jailing or slaying any overt opposition, burning the churches and seizing their assets, govt control over the country's resources, inducting Ukrainian citizens into the military at will and w/o their consent, and he shows no inclination to change those tactics in the future.
No, Zelensky is the renegade here, and the major obstacle to a cease fire to the conflict, as we saw at the press conference w DJT last week, he opposes any hard negotiating toward a future peace w/o superior arms on his side. Hard to believe, but Z is really making Putin look like the good guy, here.
No, settling Z's hash here is just the opening act. The real game plan is getting Putin and Trump together at a peace table to start hammering out ways to build a future together. Hospitality instead of hostility. If Ukraine is the catalyst to make that happen, so be it.
I thought for sure you'd have something to say about Javier Milei, your favorite politician.
He seems to be in a bit of crypto trouble.
“Favorite politician” might be an oxymoron… but yes, I wrote a couple of articles on the crypto story a week or two ago, when it broke. Here’s the last one:
https://joelbowman.substack.com/p/the-ol-rug-pull
Seems to have faded since then. We’ll see…
Joel, Thanks for this article of what the U.S.of A's Lion's share cost (roughly 2 thirds) for NATO's budget, and the cost of 800 bases around the world (from Andy's comment). I feel we have fullfilled our obligation to peace in the World at serious cost to the taxpayer.Time for the rest of the world step to the plate.
Nice. Good comments, too. I like this amusement park, where the rides are intellectually stimulating as well as emotionally satisfying.
Certainly an odd meeting at the White House. No surprise that Zelenskyy doesn't trust putin, as he has lied many times before (it's a russian thing, maybe they learned it from Genghis Khan). What surprised me was that Zelenskyy was accused of being ungrateful; I do remember his thanking the US many times in the past. Maybe he should have taken the deal and hoped for the best, but it really doesn't matter - no matter what happens, the US and its allies are headed for WWIII (really a continuation of WWII, since WWII didn't really solve anything), except this time, the US and it's allies will lose. And then, all the events of Revelation 13 will take place. Remember, you heard it here first - unless you've read this book called the Bible; check your bookcase, it'll be the book with the most dust on it. God's people have been looking forward to the times we are living in, and we are lucky enough to see it, and maybe even take part in it. Stay tuned.
Thank you Joel for this witty summary. Had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading.
People. Not gov, Leo. Not even the people in-gov. The people who wield the gov weapon.
If fungal NATOenails - for which everything has, & will continue to, look like hammers are the tools du jour - changes its name 800 (+?) hammer & jarhead bases around the planet pudding proof positive that it hasn't & won't change its “game."
Peripheral vision is a powerful, un-hypnotizable, thing. With it you can see not only the toes, you can even see the fungus move as it grow-metastasizes.
Besides, staring is rude, or an attempt at dominance that deserves all the whuppings it begets.
U S-ssssstink-toes started the ukie meatgrinder.
Now the guidos want the minerals to heal their cracked heels.
Art of the Heel Dealing, right there.
Contemptible, as usual.
Socks, even hermetically sealed, aren’t enough.
Amputation.
And no prostheses. Or wheelchairs. Or parking dispensations. Or soup for youse.
Instead of a neck-hole, a couple of ankle-holes for the Lord of the Flies devils islanders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKWQbp4Zl94
Whoever loosed hopium from its box & onto the world to conflate-hallucinate puny mankinds’ prospects & all these delirium projections with anything approaching possibility-reality just might deserve the combo Sisyphus-Prometheus wages of sin/ecure.
Uphill boulder-rolling whilst an eagle eats Camu’s must-be-happy (because it transhumanist daily regenerates - like a lizards tail?) liver, forever & ever.
Andy, you are a strange one.
In A Strange Land, Tlasso.
Heinlein's competent man Valentine Michael Smith trades Mars for Earth, figures everything out - grok grok grok - including tax exempt status for churches - so he starts one - gets murdered.
Now Dark Maga Rainman Elon wants to trade Earth for Mars via Church of America tax mules.
Who gets murdered remains to be seen.
Joel, you fell into the trap of ASSUMING that a Trump negotiating tactic was actually a plan. This Eastern European humanitarian crisis is a revival of a longstanding territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine. If anything, it has proven this: Post Soviet Russia is a toothless tiger, only capable of eviscerating its own economy via bullying a tiny neighboring country. The mighty Russian military machine has cost 100's of thousands of young Russian men their lives. It has effectively lost the Black Sea fleet. Russian oligarchs and Kremlin politicians are restive, along with the Russian population in general. Putin is in real danger of losing his LIFE, having demonstrably lost the "war" with Ukraine. Trump's kerfuffle with Zelenskyy was to demonstrate that Ukraine all along has been just a pawn in the true conflict between Russia and the US (proxy for USA). Trump's PLAN is to gain US access to valuable mineral rights in Eastern Ukraine and Western Russia and giving Putin a path toward being able to deny the reality of his losing the war. But the most important outcome will be a lasting peace in the area and gradual withdrawal of the US from the NATO war machine. "And that's all I have to say about that." --Forrest Gump, 20th century philosopher
Oops, please edit "...the US (proxy for USA)" to "...the US (proxy for NATO)".
I don’t know groundpounder, let the little territorial dogs fight each other as long as you are still the biggest and baddest dog in the world.
If you want to be top dog in the neighbourhood, you have to take the trouble to regularly patrol it, pissing on each lamppost to mark your territory (i.e. keep the world a quiescent place through military might so that your dollar remains king, making it attractive for exporting countries to recycle their excess funds by buying your debt – the bit Trump always forgets about).
If you stay in your kennel and let other mutts mark those lampposts, multiple nasty snarling biting territorial fights will break out, and you won’t stay top dog for very much longer.