Drumbeats category archive
Putin on the Fritz 0
Afterthought:
Me, I think Putin sees himself more as Peter than as Joe.
I also think he expected the people of Ukraine to welcome him, not to resist him.
He was wrong on both counts.
Potempkin Pillages 0
Der Spiegel offers a long and detailed analysis of what’s currently happening as regards the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
I commend it to your attention.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Der Spiegel interviews British historian Antony Beevor about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
It is a fascinating read. Beevor sees many echoes of Russia’s imperial past (and echoes of previous military miscalculations) in what is happening right now. Here’s one exchange:
Beevor: Putin’s distorted mindset, obsessed with the triumphant war against Nazism, has turned everything inside out. Isn’t it a great propaganda task to liberate the enemy of Nazism? Putin and his ideologues grotesquely depict the Ukrainians as born-again Nazis who need to be eliminated and re-educated, as the utterly manic article in RIA Novosti by Timofei Sergeitsev describes. The role of liberator from Nazism did indeed give the Red Army the idea that it could behave as it wanted both personally and politically. It was a notion of superiority. Rights of conquest meant not only imposing a Soviet regime on neighboring states. It also involved the comprehensive looting of the country as a form of reparation, and the idea that what Ilya Ehrenburg called “the blonde witch” – German women and girls – should pay for their menfolk’s crimes in the Russian motherland.
Psychopaths on the War Paths 0
Does this remind you of anyone in the news?
Supply Change 0
Ukraine is a major exporter of grain.
Der Spiegel takes an in-depth look at the implications of Putin’s war for the world’s food supply. It is disquieting.
A snippet:
Now that a significant share of this supply has vanished from the tightly woven global market, it has created a shockwave that can be felt in many areas of the world . . . .
Russian Impulses 0
The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini tries to remember, just what was the word for providing aid and comfort to an enemy?
Russian Impulses 0
At the Arizona Republic, E. J. Montini comments on the Republicans who are supporting Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. A snippet:
I bet he would if they were Democrats.
______________________
*A reference to Congresswoman Liz Cheney’s characterizing the Republicans who voted against sanctions against Russia as the “Putin wing” of the Republican Party.
The Lies of the Land 0
Behavioral economist Lionel Page explores how propaganda works. A tiny little snippet from a very long article:
In a related vein, Badtux argues that, strictly defined, propaganda may be slanted and manipulative, yes, but it may not necessarily be false.
______________________
*Hence the success of Fox News.
Stray Thought, War and Mongers of War Dept. 0
A bayonet is not a scalpel.
On the battlefield, there is no such thing as a “surgical strike,” despite what the mongers of war would have you believe.
All that Was Old Is New Again 0
In the Portland Press-Herald, Bill Nemitz reminds us that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.*
__________________
*As Mark Twain said.
