Polyticks: Bob Butler's Perspective

[Bob Butler]

Ben Meiselas at the Meidastouch YouTube network is reporting CNN viewership in greatly tanking. He blames it on how new executive Chris Licht is trying to turn CNN into a Trump - MAGA friendly network. I can see how this would be a bad idea. CNN has been traditionally a MSM and blue organization. Any Trump - MAGA viewers would have a hatred and distrust. The existing CNN viewers expect a more MSM blue slant, and would leave to find something they agree with.

Seems to be larger than just the Town Hall event.

[Bob Butler]

I have been wondering about NATO after Putin. I can see NATO refusing to kill the sanctions unless Russia disarms. Quite possibly, a post Putin government could be forced to agree. In which case a circumstance might come up which would see NATO severely weakened. What good is a containment alliance against a situation where there is no autocratic expansionist power adjacent? Who would NATO be defending against? Could you see another autocratic expansionist power replacing the threat of Russia? Iran? China?

History aside (easy said) the obvious place for China to expand is into Siberia. No population. No resistance. Expanding in most other directions they run into various hazards. The populace of India? Fighting a sea war with the US? If Russia were to be forcefully disarmed and the common supposed ideology removed, would the conflict naturally go north?

In such a case, could you see Russia pleading to join NATO? Irony, anyone?

Sounds bonkers to me. China cannot go expansionist without worrying about their oil being cut off at sea between the Middle East and the Philippines. The one part of their economy which is still working which they need desperately is the remnants of globalism. They seem to be enthusiastic about threatening everyone in sight and seeming big and intimidating, but their weaknesses are equally outsized.

But at any rate, it does not seem a likely development for this crisis. I just wonder if Russia is forced to disarm, why should the europeans maintain a strong military?

[Bob Butler]

The Russians murdered half my family. I hope the war drags on and millions of Russians die.

It isn’t the Russians I hate so much as a tendency to tolerate Putin. If you tolerate what is wrong with a culture, in this case autocratic expansionist rule, you perpetuate it.

In our culture, prejudice, using the government to impose religious doctrine, and allowing the rich undue influence over the government are the big problems.

I bumped into a blurb asking why the conservatives threatens democracy. They are not so much against democracy. They wish to impose their culture on others. Alas, such imposition imposes on the majority. In a democracy, that will eventually create a problem.

There is a tendency in a S&H crisis for America end up more being itself. Independence. Freedom. Containment. As well as being values, they are important lessons learned about the greatest problems of the time. One just has to note the greatest problems of the time to guess what the new values coming out of the crisis will be.

[Bob Butler]

One possibility is that China could
invade Taiwan, and blame the invasion on
America "purposely" colliding with a
Chinese warplane or warship. This would
presumably convince other countries not
to invade on the side of Taiwan.

This would be insanity, of course, but
no more insane than Japan's bombing of
Pearl Harbor, and no more insane than
other Chinese actions, such as pursuing
military action over the other 21 border
disputes China has with all its
neighbors.

I would not call Pearl Harbor insane, but the only possible response to provocation. The Japanese invasions already started demanded oil among other things. FDR knew he had to get the US involved in the war. Just prior, the White House had generated a memo on how to do this, including cutting off the oil among other things. While there is no proof that FDR saw that memo, all the actions that were proposed to provoke war were taken. This left Japan with little choice but to wake up the sleeping giant. They were counting on democracies being weak and decadent, which turned out to be a grave mistake.

Note, I generally approve of FDR and the end result was positive, but how we likely got there is something the US Government has not been proud of. The other dubious thing that was done is the 90 division policy. We could have mustered many more infantry divisions, but chose to optimize industry instead. The arsenal of democracy, indeed. Let the Russians and Chinese do the dying. It didn't entirely work. We let the Russians get too far west. The Chinese were busy enough saving aid for use against each other that the US had to take out Japan from the Pacific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War ... alties.svg

Today, I think the Chinese actions are too obvious and too typical of them. They have purposefully provoked all their borders. They are not even capable of generating a collision without making it obvious that that is what they are doing. A successful collision would thus prove nothing but a well known habit of brinksmanship and threat of force.

***

On a slightly different tack, some major cracks have developed on the back of one of the home built Chinese aircraft carriers. This has led to conjecture on corruption, of some in the military accepting bribes to allow acceptance of cheap steel for carrier decks. Will continued provocations result in unusable carriers? Don’t know, but will keep an eye out.

https://twitter.com/OsintTV/status/1665648815737643016