We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day “Setting aside the stunning sexist double standard being applied to the current prime minister of Finland Sanna Marin, forgive me if I don’t think it’s news, or relevant, or important, or even noteworthy that she’s got moves. Look, I don’t believe politicians are any more noble or courageous or quasi divine than the rest of us. What’s more, if I were running a Western European democracy I’d imagine my stress level would be considerably higher than it is now. She’s got the right to burn off some steam, live life, and relax every once in a while. And unlike Dick Cheney’s hobby, no one went to the hospital.”
– G. Patrick Lynch, at the Econlog blog.
Elon Musk, the cheeky chap, has also weighed in on the issue.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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In Dick Cheney’s defense (words I never thought I would type), he only shot a lawyer. Nothing of value was lost.
I don’t actually think that anyone has criticised the Finnish Prime Minister, the ‘brou-haha’ has the look of something contrived by the media to make her the next Jacinta Arden, now that that horse has lost its pace.
If you want to be Prime Minister of Finland when Russia is getting aggressive, good luck to you.
There are too many women in positions of authority and too many weak men who think it’s ok.
Daft. Maggie Thatcher was great, Theresa May was execrable, the presence of tits was irrelevant.
Margaret Thatcher paid too much attention to the legal profession, and not enough to the education sector. Today, the UK is paying the price.
She also destroyed the coal mining industry, which again from today’s perspective might not have been such a good idea.
No, she didn’t ‘destroy’ the coalmining industry, she merely accepted the reality that UK coalmining was completely unprofitable and could only continue with unsustainable subsidies.
Interesting. My favorite libertarian environment is telling me guns suck, lawyers suck, and women suck. Money next?
I don’t think that Patrick Lynch appreciates that, contrary to the US, in the Nordic countries political figures are held to a higher standard: not only they cannot get away with storing classified info on a private server, they cannot get away with anything that common folk consider improper.
And where is the “sexist double standard”???
I don’t see a sexist double standard either. You can easily find video of Justin Trudeau dancing the bangra in India like the idiot he is, and people widely commented about what an unserious buffoon he is.
If the PM of Finland wants to hold drunken parties and put it all on TikTok we can say the same about her.
Interesting. My favorite libertarian environment is telling me guns suck, lawyers suck, and women suck. Money next?
1) Guns are awesome.
2) Lawyers, while necessary at times, do indeed suck.
3) Women suck if you’re lucky.
4) Money sucks when you don’t have any.
I completely missed where Samizdata was claiming that guns suck! Did Perry smite the comment (surely it was not a post) before I saw it or are my eyes just refusing to see so bizarre a remark? 🙂
I can more easily believe someone here said ‘lawyers suck’ – but I remark that Glenn Reynolds is a lawyer so they can’t all be bad.
Women – it was because Margaret Thatcher was above average that, as Nigel Farage said when the leadership contest was between May and Leadsom (before it was fixed) in 2016,
In the event, May fell well below ‘ordinary’, but Nigel’s point is valid – only the first one needs to be above average. (But as the late Walter Williams explained with many examples in 2008, while warning his friends not to vote for Obama, the first one does need to be above average.)
As for money, when it behaves like this, it does indeed suck.
As someone who was partaking of that hobby just yesterday with no hospitalizations, I took this as a slur on it. A few clay pigeons suffered. But they were born to suffer.
I’m probably being too sensitive, but it was a Warren Zevon line just waiting to be set free. 😉
I don’t really know much about her except to say she is kind of hot, and her dancing was pretty sexy. Even if her policies suck then surely she at least has that in her favor. I mean her policies have to be better than Biden’s, and nobody wants to see Biden twerking, that is for damn sure.
I don’t think it is so much a misogynistic standard as much as a grumpy “get off my lawn” bunch of buzzkill bores. I personally prefer people who like to party on their off time.
An excellent, i.e. accurate, meme from Musk.
Mr Ed:
I don’t actually think that anyone has criticised the Finnish Prime Minister, the ‘brou-haha’ has the look of something contrived by the media to make her the next Jacinta Arden, now that that horse has lost its pace.
That’s incorrect. A few web searches reveal lots of attacks on her. She was criticised by various people, including opposition MPs.
Unlike Jacinda Adern, she appears marginally less authoritarian.
If you want to be Prime Minister of Finland when Russia is getting aggressive, good luck to you.
Well, Finland has a decent military, lots of experience in dealing with a belligerent and unpleasant neighbour.
While there were criticisms of her, they were hyped up by international media so that they could shoot them down and inflate her reputation as a ‘girl boss’ or supposed feminist icon. Kind of timely given that Saint Arden is crashing in flames.
I don’t know any Finnish but heard that at the time of Roe v Wade being overturned you’d hear on Finnish and Swedish media stories about how it was necessary to join NATO to get US protection but also how the Supreme Court decision showed America was barbaric and uncivilised. I understand they are scared of Russia but kind of think these woke idiots don’t deserve to be helped.
Sorry I should have stated that I heard there were Finnish and Swedish media stories.
And the Swedish PM even tweeted on it, as if it was a major issue affecting Sweden!
Margaret Thatcher may have gone along with the destruction of many Grammar Schools in the early 1970s – when the lady was Secretary of State for Education, but that was forced upon her – and it is odd for the left to complain about it, I did not think that the left were fans of Grammar Schools.
As for coal mining – more coal mines were closed in the time pf Prime Minister Harold Wilson than Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Did Harold Wilson “destroy the coal mining industry”?
And coal mines continued to be closed AFTER Margaret Thatcher stopped being Prime Minister – indeed Margaret Thatcher, in her retirement, protested AGAINST the closing of some coal mines in Nottinghmashire.
As for the Prime Minister of Finland – her politics are not to my taste, but her private life is her own affair.
As Prime Minister Wellington said “public and be damned” – no apologies, it is none of your damn business.
The mistakes of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – accepting the massive public sector pay increases agreed by the outgoing Labour government in 1979, those pay increases could not be afforded and led to a big deficit and helped increase UNEMPLOYMENT. Chancellor Howe said nothing could be done about the spending – he was wrong, and his tax increases were quite wrong.
The failure, for years, to do anything about union power – Employment Secretary James Prior was an utter disaster, and the failure (for years) to anything about union power fueled UNEMPLOYMENT. See W.H. Hutt’s “The Strike Threat System” about how governments gave powers to the unions, and how this power led to rising unemployment over time.
And going along with the Single European Act – everyone lied to Margaret Thatcher, they told her this measure was about Free Trade, in reality it was a power grab by the EEC-E.U. and it led to a tidal wave of regulations.
British industry in 1979 was a Potemkin Village – a charade, that would have collapsed whoever was Prime Minister. This was partly due to union power (created by governments – by Acts going all the way back to 1875, but made vastly worse by the Act of 1906 – these things take decades to have the full, terrible, effects), but also due to incredibly high rates of taxation on investment.
From the late 1960s taxation on investment was over 90% – governments bewailed the lack of investment in British industry, and then supported union power and rates of taxation that made investment in British industry a mug’s game.
My father, Harry Marks, like many other people, patriotically invested in an enterprise that claimed that British industrial investment could work – even with union power and very high rates of taxation.
That enterprise was “Slater Walker” and it was a FRAUD – its accounts were a work of fiction; no enterprise could earn real money in British industry with these levels of taxation and union power.
Like many other people, my father was ruined. It broke him – the money he had slaved for all his life (since he had started work at the age of 14) was gone. Someone who is born rich and loses their money can recover (“easy come – easy go”) someone who has had to work like a dog to raise themselves up from poverty, cannot really recover mentally if they lose the work of a lifetime. And they have no wealthy friends to help them.
Very high tax rates do not really “squeeze the rich till the pips squeak” as that “ex” Communist Denis Healey claimed (someone who supports taxation that is over 90% is not really an “ex” Communist) – the very rich, such as the Duke of Westminster, can protect their wealth in various ways. It is people trying to build up a business who are destroyed by this level of taxation.
Someone who says “I want productive industry, but I also want high rates of taxation on the rich and trade union rights” is really saying – “I want a cat – as long as it barks”.
Ahd this does not just apply to Labour Party people – such individuals as Mr Peter Hitchens are also very much in the “barking cat” brigade, nationalisation and all.
Back in the 1960s Commander Brown (look him up – both his military record and his intelligence work) asked then Secretary of Defence Denis Healey, who was busy undermining the Royal Navy, “precisely when and why did you stop being a Marxist?” There was no clear answer from the “moderate” Mr Healey. And Mr Healey was presented as a moderate over many years – even as a boy I was astonished by this false presentation of Mr Healey.
Although it should be noted that it was not just Labour Party people who questions can be asked about, for example the “Conservative” Prime Minister Edward Heath had a close relationship to the People’s Republic of China dictatorship over many years – Mao had murdered tens of millions of human beings but “Ted” Heath did not care.
This was the person that Margaret Thatcher replaced in 1975.
The “educated” rulers did not become despicable recently – they have been despicable for a very long time indeed.
I remind American readers of Franklin Roosevelt – his indifference to the murder of millions of human beings by “Stalin”, but also to Mr Franklin Roosevelt’s private indifference to the fate of the Jews under Hitler – for the latter see Paul Johnson’s “A History of the Jews”, for the former see his “Modern Times”. It is not just a matter of disagreeing with the policies of Franklin Roosevelt – he just was NOT the good man that Hollywood and the school textbooks present him as.
There is a difference between moral character and political beliefs – for example both Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were political progressives, but Theodore Roosevelt was a man of fine character (someone who one would be proud to have as a friend) – sadly this cannot be said of Woodrow Wilson.
Who cares if they are woke idiots? I briefly lived in Sweden, really didn’t like it. So what?
I couldn’t care less if Sweden (& indeed Finland) joining NATO is in Sweden’s or Finland’s interests (spoiler alert: it is), I only care that Sweden & Finland joining NATO is hugely, massively against Russian interests. And anything that dis-aggrandises Russia is in NATO & UK interests. Fuck Russia & the horse it rode in on, the entire place and its culture are a malignant cancer. Ending the Russian empire & decolonialising it should be a major foreign policy objective.
That might have some very unpleasant side effects. Large parts of “North Eurasia” would become (more) vulnerable to Chinese expansionism. Also these Russian provinces (края́ / kraya) are not necessarily very stable. Some have some pretty unpleasant ethnic minority groups who currently have the jackboot of the Russian state on their necks, lift that and you might uncork some seriously unpleasant genii. British meddling in the middle east almost certainly worsened the place over the long term (difficult to tell sometimes, and I don’t uncritically accept the notion that all British interventions were unnecessary or damaging, but I do think overall the score card is not looking good). Destabilising Russia would probably have serious long term geopolitical effects similar to this, but probably at a lesser scale.
Disbanding Yugoslavia had dreadful effects – and it wasn’t even an empire.
Russia is not going away – and maps such as the one Perry produces ignore the fact that such cities as Vladivostok (hard to get much further east than Vladivostok) are Russian, as for the Tartars and others – they think of themselves as their ethnic group and RUSSIAN. Intermarriage has been going on for centuries, and centuries of history will not be undone.
Mr Putin falsely claims to be the defender of Russia against Western plots – but the real threat to Russia is the People’s Republic of China, which Mr Putin (in his folly) has sold Russia out to.
Demographics and so on is a dangerous game for Westerners to play – after all many American and other Western cities are filled with people who have much less love for the various Western countries, than people in Russian cities have for Russia.
Unlike many cities in the West (especially in the United States – but not just there) Russian cities are still Russian, in Asia as well as Europe. From the Baltic to the Pacific – like it or lump it, Russia is not going away.
The point is to divide Russian patriotism from Mr Putin – to convince the Russian people that Mr Putin is, by his deeds, a threat to Russia. Trying to destroy Russia itself is madness – and plays into the hands of Mr Putin, and it also plays into the hands of the People’s Republic of China (the real threat to the West).
If Russia should break up, I can’t help but thing a lot of simmering ethnic tensions will finally boil over. There are a lot of “natives” in an area and those populations Stalin arbitrarily moved that were forced to live side-by-side that still haven’t fully merged. Without the threat of Moscow sending in troops, I can’t imagine how we wouldn’t see ethnic classes from the Urals to the Pacific Ocean.
And we might even see the Japanese retake the Kurils by force. That alone might be the spark that sets off a major war in the Pacific.
If a Russian from the 1940s arrived in a large Russian city today he (or she) would notice that Marxist rule had collapsed (but then many Russians in the 1940s could remember the time before the Soviet Union existed) – but the city (all the large cities of Russia) would still be obviously Russian – regardless of where in Russia they were. The majority non-Russian cities left when the Soviet Union collapsed at the start of the 1990s.
If an American from the 1940s arrived in many American cities today, what would they think? Or a British person from the same time period arriving in many large British cities? Say an American or British soldier returning home from World War II – in what sense would many of the large cities of these countries still be home in 2022? An American serviceman in a ticker tape parade in many of the large cities in America in 1945 would, if they suddenly found themselves in the same physical place in 2022, think “oh my God – how do I get out of here”. A Russian from 1945 would have no problem at all in thinking of Russian cities as home – the big cities that were not majority Russian left when the Soviet Union collapsed after 1991, what is left is RUSSIA.
So let us NOT open this can of worms – let it remain unopened. No more fantasies about destroying Russia – we in the West have a massive amount of cultural assimilation work to do if our own nations are to survive. Changed yes, but survive – it is possible (possible) that Western countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States will survive – if a lot of real cultural assimilation occurs (it is possible). And cultural assimilation has got nothing much to do with sport and pop music – it is about being part of the national story, adopting it as your own. There is nothing automatically religious about that – Carl Benjamin (“Sargon”) is an atheist (he also has black ancestors – so it is not a racial point), but he understands this very well.
Tartars and others in Russia think of themselves as part of the Russian national story (part of Russia) in a way that many groups in the West simply do not feel part of the national story of Western countries – but it is to be hoped that they will do in the future.
And let us support Ukrainian independence – after all the people of Ukrainian cities are Ukrainian.
In my collection of quotes, i find the following:
Which of the states in Perry’s map are populated by ignorant and savage peoples, or corrupted by the vices of decrepit civilizations, is most definitely not for me to say.
I’ll add just one remark: breaking up China might be more of a priority than breaking up Russia.
I’m not sure how much more support the US can give Ukraine. This is the fourth time we’ve fought a proxy war with the Russians (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan I), we’re domestic spending ourselves to death for social programs, we just spent the last twenty years fighting or training and equipping various flavors of Afghans, and thanks to COVID relief (read: just printing even more fiat currency) inflation is the highest it’s been since Carter. Now we’re being asked to give a couple trillion more to the Ukrainian war. In short, we’re broke and our military is worn out.
Frankly, just like the breakup of Yugoslavia, it’s a European problem (unless the Russians hit a NATO member). Europe was warned the Russians were going to be a problem, Europe was warned to increase defense spending, Europe was warned to get off the Russian natural gas teat, and Europe collectively told the US to kick rocks.
Sorry, we gave at the office.
@Steven R, thanks, you have summarized a lot of what I feel quite succinctly. My only additional point is that one lie that we are all supposed to believe because it fits the goodies verses baddies narrative, is that Ukraine is this great persecuted democracy and that its leader is Saint Volod. It isn’t at all. It is the sort of place that arrests opposition political leaders, shuts down opposition parties, shuts down media that doesn’t toe the line, arrests people for not joining the army. Saint Volod has quite disturbing tyrannical tendencies too. Not that that justifies the Russian action, or that Saint Volod is in the same league of bad as Putin. But let’s not pretend this is something it isn’t. Please be clear also, I have been to Ukraine. I used to run two software development centers there in Kiev and Odessa. The Ukrainian people are some of the most lovely, hospitable and generous people you will ever find. But, as with most places, it is lions lead by donkeys.
BTW, the fact that many of the criticisms I have just made of Ukraine could easily be made of the USA is quite terrifying. The fact that that has only become true in the past two or three years tells you more than you might wish to know. Did you hear Biden last night? Does he share a speech writer with Castro?
Following the break up of the Soviet Union, the only major separatism in the Russian Federation was from Chechnya and Tatarstan. The latter negotiated an agreement with Moscow and agreed to stay within Russia. Chechnya did go briefly independent and there were two very bloody wars there. Interestingly the only foreign government that formally recognised the Chechen independent state was the pre-9/11 Taliban. Although the wars in Chechnya were brutal, the place in the context of Russia is tiny.
From what I could find data wise, the Russian population is about 80% ethnic Russian. So it’s not as majority dominant demographically as say China, Japan, or Korea. But in the USA, less than two thirds are ethnic Europeans now.
To conclude, the recent history and demographics suggest there isn’t likely to be significant balkanisation within Russia.
I couldn’t help be struck by Paul’s comments on Jim Slater. An acquaintance of mine made a fortune and then lost it. He then turned to Jim Slater (amongst others) and his philosophy on investing. He re-made his fortune and then some. My acquaintance is also a complete arsehole.
To begin with, Ukraine IS a democracy, as demonstrated by the fact that an outsider like Zelenskyy could win a presidential election against the incumbent — and i stress the word outsider. To continue, Ukraine is a persecuted democracy, at least since 2014.
As for “Saint Volod”, that is your appellation, not mine. The reason people admire him is that he stayed to fight against what seemed impossible odds. Can you name a Western leader today whom you would trust to do the same? Just look at what Trudeau did when a bunch of heavy trucks descended on Ottawa.
It’s not as if this sort of thing is a first for Marin. Last year she was a covid close contact, and violated her own bureaucracy’s rules by going clubbing.
But you’ve got one group of people who want to excuse this because she’s a goodthinkful woman, and another group because she seems milfy. It’s a lot like female teachers who seduce a male student. A lot of guys were hot for teacher at that age, so they think the female teacher should get away with it, when they’d be horrified at a male teacher trying to seduce a female student.
+1 to Snorri Godhi (September 3, 2022 at 9:52 am). Zelensky is evidence that an outsider can defeat the system’s candidate in the Ukraine – more than could be said of the USA in 2020. And he did reply,
when Biden offered him the latter in late February. This is not a site where we expect too much of politicians and, like Snorri, I have never spoken of “Saint Volod”, but Zelensky clearly outperformed the expectations of Biden and his handlers – and of Putin.
As regards not ‘the USA’s business’, I suggest the problem is Biden’s percentage, not the sum that actually reaches the Ukraine.
Graft is a serious issue considering no one knows where that money really goes once the Department of the Treasury cuts the check, but then again it’s only taxpayer dollars. We’re 30.9 trillion in the red. It isn’t like another trillion or two of funny money is going to make or break us at this point.
The US could help itself AND Ukraine, and much of the rest of the world into the bargain, by re-adopting Trump’s energy policies.
But somehow, there are people who otherwise are Trump-aligned who seem to be blind to this: they only see the direct contributions of “Biden” to Ukraine, not the indirect contributions of “Biden” to Russia.
@Snorri Godhi
To begin with, Ukraine IS a democracy
Is it or was it? Remember Zelensky is the sort of chap who arrests opposition leaders, shuts down opposition parties, censors the press and did so before the war, and with particular vehemence during the war. I said he had tyrannical tendencies. I didn’t say he was a coward. He evidently isn’t. But tyrants often win their power by being brave in battle, so it was with Castro, Lenin and Genghis Khan. I’m not saying he is like all these men in every respect. But were Ukraine ever to normalize then I fear few men are willing to give up tyrant status very easily. In fact he could plainly do so right now by acceding to some minor territorial concessions in the east along with a part of Ukraine that is already Russian in all but name.
The US could help itself AND Ukraine, and much of the rest of the world into the bargain, by re-adopting Trump’s energy policies. But somehow, there are people who otherwise are Trump-aligned who seem to be blind to this: they only see the direct contributions of “Biden” to Ukraine, not the indirect contributions of “Biden” to Russia.
On this I certainly agree with you. America and Europe’s contribution have been wholely damaging. Ukraine is a pawn in their foolish game. Cutting oil supplies without securing a 100% embargo is entirely pointless from all but a political point of view. To drive up oil prices is to boost their putative enemy’s coffers. A much better strategy would be to greatly increase oil supply to reduce the price of oil. Which would be better for everyone except Russia and the crazy left agenda.
And let me make a prediction: when the west is sitting in their homes freezing due to power cuts, or expiring from heat due to air conditioning black outs, or dying of thirst due to the lack of available potable water (as is, for example, happening today in the capital city of the state of Mississippi right now), then we can be sure that it won’t be blamed on the incompetent energy policies of their leaders. It will no doubt be caused by global warming. When it is a hard sell convincing people that global WARMING is the cause of granny’s hypothermia death, we will switch without blinking and call it climate change.
Sure, he actually wants to win the war. So of course he has banned/arrested the Kremlin’s people in Ukraine, much as indigenous pro-Nazi figures & parties were banned or arrested by western nations during WW2. Internal Russian manipulation of their politics has always been a massive problem in Ukraine: Kherson was lost early in the war because the local government was riddled with people on the Russian payroll. Ukraine is in a state of total war with Russia with all that implies.
@Perry de Havilland (London)
Sure, he actually wants to win the war. So of course he has banned/arrested the Kremlin’s people in Ukraine
Isn’t that for the people to decide? Apparently Donald Trump is a semi fascist who is a tool of Putin too. Should the Biden administration arrest him and ban the Republican party and Fox news?
I’ll grant you that during war we have to be practical, but were the USA at war would that be ok? Is there no price too high to pay? Is there no point at which you say, “no that is too high a cost, we must find a different way to counter this.” At what point have you sacrificed so much that the thing you are fighting for is no longer there? Is it ok to kill the patient to cure the cancer? Is tyranny under Zelensky better than tyranny under Putin?
It is true that, for example, free speech can be extremely problematic, since horrible people say terrible things. But the solution is not to give the power of the censor to politicians, it is to use that same freedom to counter their barbarism.
But I think we have had this same discussion several times already. So I’ll be happy to agree to disagree.
IS the Republican Party funded by Russia whilst the USA is at war with Russia?
Seriously? Want to make comparisons between Churchill and Hitler next, because it is *that* absurd.
Ukraine is in a state of total war with an enemy who (1) massively infiltrated its political system (2) will non-figurately exterminate Ukraine’s intelligentsia if Russia wins.
Sure, but why don’t Republican candidates say this every day in the runup to the election?
As I have pointed out before – if anyone denies a difference between the government in Russia and the government in the Ukraine, let them look at the school history textbooks. Which praise “Stalin” and which do not?
“But Paul – Stalin was a Russian ruler….” – actually he was not (he was Georgian) and he murdered millions of Russians. The Putin regime’s praise for “Stalin” (even the books that children are indoctrinated with) is utterly vile. And if “Stalin” was Russian (which he was not) that is no excuse to praise him – should the mass murderer Ivan the Terrible, or the rulers who imposed serfdom on so many Russians (yes serfdom was imposed by various edicts – the idea that it was an “economic process based on changes in the forces of production” is Marxist rubbish) be praised?
No, I would not have voted for President Z. – and I did not support his policies before the invasion, that in no way justifies Mr Putin’s invasion.
The task, for all people of good will, is to try and convince the Russian people (through the wall of censorship and control) that Mr Putin is a threat to Russia – that he is not the Russian patriot, and Orthodox Christian, he pretends to be.
That Mr Putin is selling out Russia to the People’s Republic of China – the real threat to the whole world.
In a basic way Mr Putin is similar to his supposed enemy Joseph “Joe” (“the Big Guy”) Biden.
They are both utterly corrupt – and they have both, over many years, sold their country out to the People’s Republic of China Communist Party Dictatorship.
The task, the incredibly difficult task, is to get this warning to the Russian people (and to the American people) before it is too late.
I think we need a psychologist to analyze the UK foreign policy establishment. The UK has official separatist movements in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, but what really preoccupies them is any separatist sentiment in Donetsk or Luhansk. Banning political parties, shutting down media, or assassinating journalists or elected leaders are unthinkable and would be universally condemned in the UK, but happily rationalized and justified to crush any thoughts of separation from any parts of Ukraine.
Is there anywhere more emotionally invested in this proxy war than the UK? Opinion in Kherson or Kramatorsk and many other NATO countries are at best divided on the topic, but something about this Ukrainian civil war has the UK all in, and they largely have been since 2014.
Yes.
Snorri Godhi
Sure, but why don’t Republican candidates say this every day in the runup to the election?
Because Republican candidates are politicians and barely better than Democrat candidates. One should not make the mistake of thinking that they are on our side, they are at best described as “the enemy of my enemy.”
Republicans, well the establishment Republicans anyway, don’t want to win. They are happiest when they are a minority party with just enough votes to act as a spoiler to whatever it is the Dems want to run through Congress. They the Republicans can:
A) Trade their votes for favors or pork or something else they want
B) Campaign on how they did everything they could and at least managed to get some pork or provision or amendment to the bill attached
C) Put their hands out just in time for the next election and say “contribute donation funds so we can get them next time!”
Every now and then they’ll dig in their heels on a bill the Dems don’t really care about just so they can play it up to the rubes back home, but it rarely matters in the long run.
Once you realize the hows and whys of DC politics the whole thing makes perfect sense.
Oh FFS, please spare us the Russia Today drivel about the astroturf ‘separatists’ in Ukraine.
I guess you missed the whole “Ukraine is on a total war footing” newsflash. What do you think happened to pro-fascist/Nazi parties in Britain & France at the start of WW2? And are you really fretting about collaborators in occupied Ukraine being killed by partisans?
Nations like Britain, Sweden, Finland, Poland etc. are backing Ukraine because not seeing Russia move its imperial borders westwards is very much in their interests.
You will not find many Croatians or Slovenes who think it was not worth it.
Fraser: why don’t YOU put pressure on your House & Senate Republican candidates, instead of wasting time commenting on Samizdata about relatively irrelevant issues??
@Snorri Godhi
Fraser: why don’t YOU put pressure on your House & Senate Republican candidates, instead of wasting time commenting on Samizdata about relatively irrelevant issues??
All over England pint glasses are falling to the ground with the realization “Wot, you mean wif us talkin about politics n stuff don’t make a bloody bit of difference?”
Yes, instead put “pressure” on politicians who don’t give a flying f**k what I think with the imagination that that will somehow change things? Why didn’t I think of that?
I mean you can’t be serious. If you think discussions here are anything but recreational or if you think that you or I have even a gnat’s arse bit of influence on the policies of the government then I am afraid you and I have a very different perception of the world.
Hey, Fraser, never forget that one man (Farage) was able to start a party and harness a movement (UKIP) that led to Brexit. One man DID make a difference. In the future, that one man could be you.
Fraser: perhaps i did not make myself clear mean pressure your local representative or state senators to take action. (The latter are Democrats, anyway.)
I mean pressure your Republican candidates to make the aid that Biden is giving to Russia, a campaign issue.
It should be a no-brainer, and the fact that Trump does not mention it every day makes me wonder whether he is getting too old to be POTUS again.
@Nicholas (Unlicensed Joker) Gray
Hey, Fraser, never forget that one man (Farage) was able to start a party and harness a movement (UKIP) that led to Brexit. One man DID make a difference. In the future, that one man could be you.
He’s a better man than I am. I don’t doubt that if you fully dedicate your whole life to the cause then there is a chance that you can possibly make some small difference. Though only a chance. There are plenty who tried and failed too. However, I am a libertarian. I am not a fan of government action, I am a fan of non government action and government non action. And although I respect and admire people who dedicate their lives to getting the government out of our hair it is not my profession. I try to make the world a better place in the realm of business: really that is where the action is for those who are truly passionate about the free market. As I have said before: when a democrat sees a problem they create a new government agency to manage it, when a republican sees a problem they create a tax break, when a libertarian sees a problem they quit politics and start a business to address it.
@Snorri Godhi
I mean pressure your Republican candidates to make the aid that Biden is giving to Russia, a campaign issue.
How exactly would I do that? Especially so because for most republicans they think that aid to Russia is a damn good idea.