The red line on the map of Eastern Europe below shows the peak of USSR dominance in 1950. For decades the West has known that Vladimir Putin’s dream is to restore Russia to its largest expansion that was created by the Warsaw Pact. Evidently Vladimir thinks it is time to begin restoration.

The Russian aggression has pushed out of the news the inflamed issue of Pacific Ocean dominance vis-à-vis China. Today the issue is Ukraine and Crimea, which are immediately to the east of Poland and Romania, bordering the northern shore of the Black Sea. Crimea, already forcibly annexed by Russia, is the island at the north end of the Black Sea

One of the intellectual victories that came out of WWII negotiations, and one which sustained national independence through the Cold War, was an agreement that national boundaries cannot be changed by brute force.

Ukraine was part of Russia until it officially declared itself an independent country on August 24 1991, when the communist parliament of Ukraine proclaimed that Ukraine would no longer follow the laws of USSR and only the laws of Ukraine, de facto declaring Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union. For the likes of Russian plutocrats, this has remained a thorn in the side. Vladimir surely believes that Ukraine and Crimea have always been part of Russia and should remain so.

Economically, Russia is hurting the way dictatorships usually suffer: Government sucks every dollar it can (not unlike American private equity firms) leaving too little for the citizenry to survive comfortably. The one thing Russia cannot tolerate is to be cut off from international trade via intensely restrictive sanctions – the strategy Biden and the EU have been touting. The problem that throws sand in the gears is that the EU is dependent on Russian oil and natural gas.

What Putin is banking on is that an invasion could be accomplished in a few days before opposing nations could respond to Russia’s execution of overwhelming military force, borrowing Syria’s strategy which is to level everything without regard for future functionality; Ukrainian leaders, like the opponents of Adolf Hitler, would be summarily executed.

On paper this has merit since Ukraine is not part of NATO and is not automatically protected.

The 1950s question is whether nations will be able to enforce the idea that boundaries cannot be changed by brute force without using brute force themselves.

All eyes are on Vladimir Putin.

Ancient Mariner

It never fails to impress mariner how Non Sequitur can simplify so many complex issues into one comic frame. Here’s a great example:

Facts are immutable. That is their strength. Truth is culture, also a strength.

When facts are ignored over time, culture fills in the gaps; the longer the time, the more abstract culture becomes. Finally, disparity overcomes rationality.

The fact that the working class has not been given a fair shake when matched against the facts of inflation and loss of benefits since 1980, culture has adapted to accept this situation until disparity could no longer be denied.

Hence Donald. Hence January 6. The pandemic, a factually based circumstance, has magnified culture’s disparity a hundred fold. Today, a disparate culture is in the midst of collapse.

Who will steer culture back to a factually driven reality?

Not The House of Representatives.

Not the Senate.

Not the housing shortage.

Not global warming.

Not China.

Not Russia.

Not even the European Union.

Not big data.

Not the oligarchy.

Not even religion, which has its own disparate issues.

The United States situation has been represented accurately  by Wiley’s cartoon.

Ancient Mariner

We must be thankful, truly thankful, if we had a good, heartwarming, soul refreshing holiday season. To have been so blessed in these times is a privileged experience. Mariner had such a holiday. His son and daughter-in-law, a four year old, a one year old, a frisky dog and a cat spent Christmas week with mariner and his wife.

It was commotion and noise, of course, and special meals and decorations and presents and special conversations. It is how Christmas should be experienced. Opportunities to have inter-human experiences are growing less common. Some of it is due to the migration of children (or parents) and close relatives to distant geographic locations; some of it is due to the massive interruption of Covid; some of it is due to the powers of the internet; more common than we may think, some is due to debilitating poverty; finally, some of it is due to cultural disruption caused by a failing national ethos and the unknown future that will be created with artificial intelligence.

But it is our duty to hang on, to sustain the normal pleasures and responsibilities that come with being human. It is our mandate to be among humanity. Our saneness depends on unity amongst the species. We should take every opportunity to share time with others, to mingle, to share common courtesies and goals; to take responsibility for the human condition.

Think about this: all things are subject to evolution. Is our house the first evolutionary form that will become our Matrix casket? Will the growing, amoral reality of machines that can think live our lives for us?

We no longer have to shop outside our home. Our bills are paid automatically. We talk to other human beings on the internet rather than in person; it has become common to go to work without leaving the home; we arrange lifelong partners according to internet specifications. Our house, evolutionarily speaking, is our Matrix coffin. For most of us, that final coffin is beyond our lifespan but in the meantime, let’s celebrate face to face human interaction at every opportunity!

Ancient Mariner

Mariner stumbled across a small analysis that suggests the United States is struggling with an ingrown caste system very much like the caste system that exists in India. Americans don’t pay much attention to India (they should, it’s a sumo nation). India covers a large part of Asia and has a cultural history dating back six thousand years. The culture is a mix of authoritarianism, Buddhism, Hinduism and a current political structure instituted by the British occupation during the age of Colonialism (1600s to mid-1900s).  Rather than devote pages of copy to describing India’s history, mariner will provide simplistic comparisons between the two caste systems. A simple chart describes India’s caste system:

The smaller type in parentheses is helpful. Twice Born, loosely interpreted, means those who were born under normal circumstances but remade themselves into successful leaders of the nation, religion or wealth. In the United States a similar structure exists with different terminology. For example, where would the reader put the white-college-successful democratic party? Where would the reader put the labor class? Taking into consideration India’s stronger theocracy, where would the reader put conservative evangelicals? And obviously, where would descendants of slavery be put? And the Oligarchs and capitalists?

Mariner hopes this is enough information to demonstrate how castes work. Certainly the two systems don’t reflect identical cultures but the point of the analysis was how hard it is to deconstruct what are, in fact, culturally cemented castes. The samples mariner used for the United States date back to the nation’s origin. The first settlement introduced slavery from the get-go. Remember the Puritans? Remember Native American genocide? Etc. etc.

That the Declaration of Independence says ‘all men are created equal’ doesn’t displace Western Civilization’s long practiced, class-based social structure.

Having read the analysis – just a paragraph in a larger article about politics – mariner now has a different perspective about the troubles the U.S. is having. Maybe people can’t break embedded castes but a pandemic plus artificial intelligence together are having a go at it. Primarily, the changes are superficial and economic in nature, caused by recent changes in elitist society. Unfortunately the embedded castes like racism, Christian theocracy and plutocracy will be around for the foreseeable future.

Is there a U.S. comparison to India’s sacred cows (in light of the fact that the United States virtually eliminated the existence of the American Buffalo)?

Ancient Mariner