Posts Tagged ‘Ukraine’

Under the Fedora Ukraine Developments, An Interesting Holy Week, A Pitiful Display, Expectation Games Trump vs Biden, Getting What you deserve in Seattle

Posted: April 13, 2022 by datechguy in Uncategorized
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While Don Surber is right to hit General Miley both on his destruction of the morale, discouraging recruitment and getting Afghanistan wrong I have to give him a little bit of a mulligan in terms of Kiev.

To my knowledge while very few people were cheering for Russia to conquer Ukraine to my knowledge very few outside observers anticipated a successful defense of Kiev. In fact I think the only public figure that had any confidence in Ukraine resisting Russia was Zelenskyy.

It is of course still early and the Russian Bear might return in force or even bearing battlefield nukes but right now it looks like Ukraine will still exist as a nation and the person who deserves the credit for it is Zelenskyy who shocked everyone by deciding to stay and fight rather than take the money and run.

Corruption and patriotism are apparently not mutually exclusive.

Between Catholic Cardinals and Bishops in Germany saying we need to rethink the catechism on Sodomy in Germany and Pope Francis excluding the crucifix from an event in Malta in Lent so as to not offend Muslim migrants who might attend it’s a very interesting time to be a Catholic of faith.

A great way to get though this is to remember that while people and cultures may change neither God, nor the message of Christ nor truth has and Truth is always pastoral and that this isn’t the first time we’re run into this kind of thing (remember when there were multiple Popes all claiming the chair of St. Peter?)

The Best way to get though it however is to keep the basics

  1. Go to mass
  2. Pray (particularly the Rosary)
  3. Have faith in the Holy Spirit and Christ words that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his church

And never forget love is being willing to say the truth to a person who might not want to hear it, but needs to hear it.

The most interesting thing about the pushback on the Florida law not allowing teachers to push sex on kids eight years old and younger and younger is the absolute apoplexy of teachers, particularly gay and transgender teachers at the thought of not be able to do so.

By any objective standard this should be the golden age for such people in the west. In three generations this stuff has gone from being illegal to being celebrated and affirmed to the point where if you don’t completely embrace the LGBTQ ETC ETC ETC agenda you risk your livelihood, your reputation and angry mobs harassing you.

So why are such folks, during the easiest time in the last 1000 years to be gay or lesbian or transgender in western civilization so insecure about their identifies and proclivities that they can’t function without pushing it on kids?

My own theory is that reality doesn’t care about such false cultural trappings. I think a creature that is made in the image of God can’t run from the internal, even instinctual feeling that something about them is wrong, so no amount of affirmation is enough to get them though the day.

That’s what happens when you take God out of society and replace it with an idol.

Having my own sins to deal and per the command of Christ I can’t judge such people but I do pity them.

The latest inflation numbers are out and are the worst that Americans under 40 have ever seen. and the worst since the days of Carter.

That Brings up an interesting thing about both the Biden and Trump administrations, I had very low expectations for both of them.

The degree of success he had both at home and domestically of those years was astounding. Repeatedly the good economic news was reported as “better than expected” by a press flummoxed by said success. The Trump years were the most prosperous years of my life since the early days of the George W. Bush Administration.

Trump not only exceeded my low expectation but did so beyond my wildest expectations.

As for Biden my expectations were even lower given the theft of the election. I expected a tough time.

We now have war in Europe, Inflation at Carter Admin levels, Oil and gas prices through the roof, Supreme Court Justices who don’t know what a woman is and don’t believe in natural rights and food shortages. FOOD SHORTAGES!

As I said I had very low expectation for the Biden administration but even these failures were beyond my wildest dreams.

If you told me in 1997 that twenty five years later I’d consider Bill Clinton would the most competent Democrat to hold the Whitehouse since Johnson and the Least Corrupt since Carter I wouldn’t have believed you.

Finally apparently we’re reached the point in Seattle where if you’re the victim of a sexual assault as far as the city is concerned you’re on your own:

So here we are in 2022 and as predicted the public safety situation has become untenable. The city lacks enough officers to investigate sexual assault cases. Maybe no one predicted this specific outcome but many warnings were given multiple times over the past 20 months that public safety was going to suffer because of the lack of staffing. That’s what happened. The predictions were correct. The defund the police supporters on the city council put the city in this position. They should be the ones answering for this mess.

This would be bad news for the woman of Seattle but as neither the mayor’s office nor the police are staffed by biologists apparently the city won’t come to that conclusion.

I find myself completely unable to muster any outrage over it as the people, like many others in blue cities are getting exactly the government they deserve.

Stacy McCain Spots the Flaw in My Ukraine War Reasoning

Posted: April 11, 2022 by datechguy in blogs, war
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The Network: You are children and you require guidance. There is no room for imperfection.

Gary King: Hey earth isn’t perfect alright? And humans aren’t perfect and guess what? I ain’t perfect!

The Network: And there in lies the necessity for this intervention. Must the galaxy be subjected to an entire planet of people like you?

Andrew Knightley: Hey who put you in charge? Who are you to criticize anyone? Now, you might think Gary is a bit of a cock and he is a bit of a cock, but he is my cock!

The World’s End 2013

I few weeks ago I wrote this about Russia and the War in Ukraine

The real wild card is that we don’t know the actual war aim of Russia. If it was to secure eastern Ukraine they’ve pretty much already done so and everything else is gravy. They can pretty much stop fighting and declare victory at any time. It remains to be seen if Putin wants the whole thing (I suspect he does) not just because he wants to rebuild the old Soviet/Russian empire but also because Biden and company has given him the chance to achieve a bigger goal, the humiliation of the west and as long as the continued existence of the Ukraine is in doubt that goal is in reach.

Whatever happens Putin will declare victory.

Meanwhile Ukraine has a single goal, to survive as an independent nation. Even if Russia carves out large chunks of the nation if any is still there at the end they can claim to have held off the Russian bear. That’s the bottom line here, I predict that is the endgame of the western media and powers, to wait for this result and then declare it the greatest military victory since Midway. 

It’s been a few weeks and the news reports indicate that the Ukrainians have been having success around Kiev and that the Russians may be in retreat in that sector at this time.

As I’ve already stated I take all reports with a grain of salt as neither Russian, Ukrainian nor MSM sources are reliable, the first two because they will naturally in time of war spin things for their end and the latter because they’ve proved themselves dishonest and dishonorable. Furthermore I neither have the time nor the inclination to dedicate myself to sorting out the actual reality so the only thing I can state as an undisputed fact is that as of this writing Ukraine hasn’t fallen.

Stacy McCain however has a bit more time than me and he’s come across what, if true is one of the most important stories concerning the war about what the Russians did to the people of one village when the expected quick victory became a slow costly slog.

On Monday, police forensic teams arrived to investigate along with a team of men to dig out the bodies.

They hauled the man up who was slumped at the bottom of a well with a bruised and lacerated face and upper body.

Next they dug out Ms. Litvynenko’s body from the nearby grave. Her father glanced into the hole as four men pulled her out.

“Yes,” he said. “It’s her.”

The village is mourning its loss. Alina Sukhenko, who grew up in Motyzhyn, recalled her grandmother saying the Nazis only killed one person when they were in the village.

The Russians “looked for the strongest people,” said Ms. Semenova, Ms. Sukhenko’s friend. “Olha was a locomotive who pulled everyone else behind her.”

“If there is no locomotive, they think we will be slaves like in Russia,” she said. “But we will never be slaves.”

Assuming this report is correct we must presume that this type of thing is happening anywhere that the Russians are fighting. This should not be a big surprise as the Russians were not known for their gentle nature on their way to Berlin although in fairness in that case they were provoked, as the Ukrainians are now.

And this is the point where Stacy McCain calls upon Human nature to make a critical point:

 It would appear, based on this account, that Motyzhyn was perhaps the southernmost advance of the Russian force that came south out of Belarus via Borodyanka. The atrocities inflicted on the villagers at Motyzhyn seem to have been typical of the brutality that Russian troops practiced everywhere in Ukraine.

Now, let me ask: If you were Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would you be willing to cede anything in negotiations with the Russians who had done this to your people? Or would you rally your people to fight until there was not a single invader left alive to return to Russia? Whatever the cost, cut off their retreat, surround them and kill every one of them — no quarter.

By God, I know that’s what I’d do. 

It’s one thing for diplomats and elites to come up with compromises and trade away territory, it’s another to give into a blood enemy how has committed atrocities upon your people. If the Ukrainians didn’t think of the Russians as blood enemies before I suspect they do now.

This won’t end well, in fact the best case scenario will be two blood enemies boarding each other armed to the teeth.

Russia, Germany and Mutually Assured Stupidity

Posted: April 4, 2022 by datechguy in war
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Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.

Luke 14:28-32

Saturday we talked about how stupid is was for Russia to complain about Ukraine hitting fuel dumps in Russia under the argument that it hurts potential peace talks on the grounds that if you decide to go to war with someone they retain the right to fight back.

Now it’s Europe’s turn to be stupid. Don Surber pointed out that virtue signaling by the Chemical Giant BASF (whose name I remember from the old blank VHS tapes I used to by in the 80’s) might just prove costly.

But in the meantime, Brudermuller described that “It’s not enough that we all turn down the heating by 2 degrees now” given that “Russia covers 55 percent of German natural gas consumption.” He emphasized that if Russian gas disappeared overnight, “many things would collapse here” – given that “we would have high levels of unemployment, and many companies would go bankrupt. This would lead to irreversible damage.” He continued:

But in the meantime, Brudermuller described that “It’s not enough that we all turn down the heating by 2 degrees now” given that “Russia covers 55 percent of German natural gas consumption.” He emphasized that if Russian gas disappeared overnight, “many things would collapse here” – given that “we would have high levels of unemployment, and many companies would go bankrupt. This would lead to irreversible damage.” He continued:

“To put it bluntly: This could bring the German economy into its worst crisis since the end of the Second World War and destroy our prosperity. For many small and medium-sized companies in particular, it could mean the end. We can’t risk that!”

The dire warning of coming disaster in the event Russian gas is shut off came in response being questioned over whether it’s at all possible to abandon Russian energy. 

Now remember what got them to this point, Germany joined others in going after Russia’s financial industry to punish them for their moves in Ukraine and of course like Russia’s shock and surprise that Ukraine would dare to hit back Europe in general and Germany in particular are shocked and surprised that Russia didn’t take this lying down.

After European nations imported the most gas from Russian sources yesterday in months, scrambling to stock up on supplies as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deadline to either pay for gas in rubles (or be cut off) came and went, Russian gas giant Gazprom has officially halted all deliveries to Europe via the Yamal-Europe pipeline, a critical artery for European energy supplies.

Instead of flowing toward Germany and the EU, gas supplies on Friday and Saturday started flowing in the opposite direction, according to Gascade, the network operator.

Well there is US LNG but they’re already at full import capacity there, well what about Nuclear Power, oh wait:

Germany on Friday is shutting down half of the six nuclear plants it still has in operation, a year before the country draws the final curtain on its decades-long use of atomic power.

The decision to phase out nuclear power and shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy was first taken by the center-left government of Gerhard Schroeder in 2002.

His successor, Angela Merkel, reversed her decision to extend the lifetime of Germany’s nuclear plants in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan and set 2022 as the final deadline for shutting them down.

The three reactors now being shuttered were first powered up in the mid-1980s. Together they provided electricity to millions of German households for almost four decades.

Alas for Germany Russia and before them the Old Soviet Unions investment in the Greens and anti-nuke activists have paid off handsomely.

One might argue that this will not stop Russia’s economic woes and possible short term collapse and you might be right but it must be remembered a people with a history of destroying their own cities and crops to harm an enemy are likely not going to flinch at a hardship if they can get revenge on those they consider its source.

It’s very possible that the war in Ukraine will cause long term damage to Russia’s economy but it’s also very likely that they will be very happy to take as many of those who decided to take them down with them.

With the Consecration to Mary Francis Nails it for a Change

Posted: March 21, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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I’ve written in the past that given 2000 years of Pope’s you’re bound to get a lemon or two. I’ve also written that while that description of Pope Francis is apt he has gotten a few big things right namely

  • His heavy stress on Mercy as emphasized by his Year of Mercy early in his papacy
  • His emphasis on the Devil being a real actual person, which is something that’s been lacking for decades

https://www.ncronline.org/news/theology/pope-consecrate-russia-ukraine-maryNow we can add a third thing to that list, his primary move on the Russian invasion of Ukraine:

 Pope Francis will consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a penitential prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica March 25, the Vatican said.

On the same day, the Vatican said, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, will carry out a similar consecration at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal.

This is EXACTLY the right thing for a Pope to do. It emphasises several key things

  • The primacy of God in all situations
  • The need for penance of man
  • The importance of prayer, particularly the unity of Christians in prayer
  • The Immaculate Heart of Mary and all it portends

It’s a nice change to see this Pope doing something very catholic. My advice for the future, more consecrations, less media interviews.

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