What’s after Kherson? Medical truths. Taking initiative

20221114

Kherson is free.  One of you subscribers has been living there, keeping your head down and with very intermittent Internet support. I'll be happy to include anything you would like to write as part of this blog.

The left bank of the Dnipro opposite Kherson is low country. The largest town is Hola Prystan, a little bit downstream from Kherson. The military analysts say that otherwise there's not much there worth holding, and no cover for defenders. Therefore it is not surprising that the Russians say they are pulling back.

Two of the people who shared our house from 2013 to 2018 were born and have parents in Hola Prystan.  They have been living under the Russians now for nine months. I will be happy to use this blog to post their observations as well.

Some of you readers have occasionally suggested that we might find a way to make peace with the Russians. That we might find some common ground. The stories coming out of Irpin, Bucha and Gostamel after the Russians left Kyiv, and Izyum and Kherson oblast should have convinced you of their treachery and their unwillingness to live by the rules of war. The trickles of news from Kherson and Gola Prystan during the war suggested that the Russian soldiers were unprepared for this conflict, unprofessional and unpredictable.

Brutality was certainly part of their playbook, but not all of them. The levels of deceit within Russian society are so great that these young soldiers had no idea what to believe. I posted a story in August about the East German ladies' observations about Russian soldiers in Berlin. It is the same all over.

The levels of Russian deceit and brutality are exposed when they lose back territory. The lies about being welcomed as liberators just about anywhere are obvious. The areas that they conquered in 2014 were probably initially the best disposed to Russia. There is no question that they spoke Russian and had historical ties. Kherson and the lands now being freed were resolutely Ukrainian and, language aside, wanted no part of the Russians. In particular, we are going to learn the details of the totally fraudulent annexation votes.

The loss of Kherson appears to be making Russia's supposed friends have second thoughts. Nobody wants to associate with a loser.  Iran may be less well disposed to providing cruise and ballistic missiles. It would only further antagonize their enemies, and friendship with Russia doesn't look like a thing to be valued.

The countries in Russia's shadow such as Finland and the Baltics are abandoning their traditional cautiousness. Finland and Sweden are signing up for NATO. They are building border walls. Tiny Georgia, which Russia invaded in 2008, is becoming a bit bolder in pushing back. Russian client Armenia is distancing itself somewhat now that Russia is unable to support it in its quarrel with Azerbaijan.

The ethnic enclaves within Russia that had been assembled by the czars over the centuries but never assimilated are also getting restive. One of the larger ones is Tatarstan, an economically modern Muslim region that was brutally subjugated by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. They have to ask themselves the benefit of remaining part of the Russian Federation. Were one such region to leave, and remained surrounded by Russia, they would face problems. If the Russian Federation dissolved in each went on its own, free from the dictates of Moscow, they might all be more comfortable.

My best guess is that Putin will be unable to survive this debacle.  However, since he has no alternative, the carnage will continue until some entities in Russia itself force him out.  Alexander Dugin, “Putin’s brain”, a man whose idiotic rantings in The Fourth Political Theory may have put Putin up to this debacle and whose daughter was killed by a bomb meant for him, has turned on him.

What happens to Ukraine after this war is a topic of increasing discussion. The drift now is that Ukraine will be welcomed into both the European Union and NATO. I hope that cooler heads prevail at the time. Without Russia there is no need for NATO. Ukraine would assume the obligation to defend other countries while having no enemies of its own. Why do that?

The European Union would force all sorts of unwelcome dictates on Ukraine, including the acceptance of unwanted immigrants, vaccine passports, central bank digital currencies, social credit systems and burdensome rules with regard to commerce. Given the number of different voices within any sovereign entity, it is hard to have a coordinated policy of deception. Nonetheless, I hope Ukraine is simply saying all the right things to continue to get support in the war, but that we take a cold hard look at the benefits of the European Union and NATO after the war ends.

What happens to Russia is an even bigger question. It is not in the nature of the United States to simply leave well enough alone, but I think that would be the best policy. Let the Russian Federation fall apart into separate entities that are each too small to cause any real trouble. Rather like the Balkans or the Baltic states. Once that happens, the world would be able to negotiate for natural resources such as petroleum, rare metals and agricultural exports with willing partners. Much as the world now negotiates, quite successfully, with former Soviet Ukraine.

A positive outcome of this Covid episode is that we are seeing how corrupt the entire medical establishment is. Moreover, a number of doctors who see things as they are have found their voice on the Internet. Heading the list are of course Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, Dr. Meryl Nass and many other brave souls.  The doctor who writes in the greatest depth, and most prolifically, is “A Midwestern Doctor.” Yesterday he had of this wonderful piece on Alzheimer’s, which managed to touch on many other topics. Once you follow this link, go to his site and you will find a trove of other long and valuable posts.

I think we are seeing a major change in the way medicine is perceived.  The doctors’ high status in society and high credibility has been profitably exploited by big Pharma, and corporate medicine for decades now. Covid was one step too far, and the whole edifice is crumbling.  Many people are coming to the conclusion that we are generally better off without medicines. Lifestyle changes require discipline, but they are far preferable to taking pills.  This is what I said in my banned-by-YouTube video of a Toastmasters speech. 

Toastmasters asked me to make a speech last Saturday – there was only one on the agenda – which gave me an opportunity to deliver this one on taking initiative that I had posted here a week ago. I was glad to have Eddie in the audience, and as a bonus Sasha and Vika, the parents of his best friend Artem, chose to visit as well.

Our next week’s theme is exes.  With two ex-wives and 33 years’ clock time (28 cohabitation) in failed marriages I am certainly the most experienced member of the club. I took the initiative and made a karaoke of George Straight’s “All My Exes Live in Texas”.  I am sad to say that Eddie and Zoriana don’t feel up to joining me in singing it, and nobody else in the club has sounded enthusiastic. I don’t think it will happen.

My speech for the occasion will be a real stretch. I’m not a great actor, and I am going to attempt to assume the personas of the wives to whom I was married for a total of 33 years. Though I don’t have to worry about hurt feelings because neither of them talk to me, I have stuck to real events and only slight exaggeration.

Listening to the speeches has been an education for my present children. I have not had vast occasion to tell them about my past life. They are not very curious about their half siblings.

This week I completed the last of my blackout preparations, getting an uninterrupted power supply so we have Internet connectivity when the power is out. At the moment the power is on about 60% of the time, but the blackouts last only about four hours each. The UPS keeps the Internet on all the time, and the laptop batteries hold long enough for most of what we want to do.

Eddie now knows that there is a hierarchy of power demands. Heat requires far and away the most, followed by mechanical stuff such as the washing machine, and that followed by lights and computers. The bottom line is that we can survive quite easily getting electricity only one third of the time, but were we to lose it altogether it would be a hardship. That would force us to turn to charcoal for heat. The BTU content of the charcoal in our shed is equivalent to about two days’ usage of electricity. In other words, if the electricity is altogether out we will be wrapped in blankets, shivering around a single charcoal fire.

That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where history is happening at an accelerated pace, though we can only guess where it is headed. Meanwhile the good-looking woman is happily teaching at home and in kindergartens, the kids are enjoying as close to normal of a life as possible, and the strong man is putting together plans for an eightieth birthday party.

Graham