Crisis and Cure: Writing Both Political and Personal

  Have a good time, everyone. But stay safe! Remember, no drinking and driving. Okay? We need you alive and well.

  Worry image source: Officia do Palácio do Planalto, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons China, under Xi, is clearly aiming at world hegemony, if not outright world domination. It is spending huge sums on new weapons, building up its military, promoting a cult of hyper-nationalism at home, and building up its “soft power” (usually in the form of money) abroad. And everyone should be concerned about that. But, everything is not going China’s (and Xi’s) way. There was a very interesting article in the publication Quartz the other day. In “China is getting worried about Africa’s indebtedness to it,” Fatimata Racine Wane looks at how Beijing is beginning to be just a little concerned about how much money it is spending in pursuit of influence abroad, particularly in Africa.* China has loaned African governments and institutions billions upon billions of dollars for all manner of infrastructure and other projects. However, Beijing is starti

  Note To Iran: Maybe You Were Better Off With The Great Satan You Knew Here’s an interesting bit of news. On December 1, 2021, there was an “misunderstanding” between Afghan troops and Iranian border guards. In other words, there was some serious shooting along the border. Apparently, there was rifle fire, and, from the Iranian side, artillery fire. The Iranians seem eager to stress that this was just an accident. Apparently, the Taliban troops mistook some Iranian farmers for invaders. But, the Iranian authorities are quick to say, everything is calmed down   But…come. Let’s be real. This is just the beginning. Iran is a Shi’ite theocracy. The Taliban state is a Sunni theocracy…and one that is heavily populated by zealots who are just itching to go kill some infidels. The Taliban, and their chief rivals, ISIS-K, have been famous for sending suicide bombers into Shi’ite mosques. There may not be a serious shooting war between Tehran and Kabul, but neither are the countries going to be

  Putin's Folly There is a disturbing story over on the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty site, “Russian Man Who Revealed Shocking Conditions In COVID-19 Hospital In Siberia Flees Country.” According to the article, a young Russian gentleman, Sergei Samborsky, was disturbed when his grandmother was admitted to the hospital for Covid…but, he, the grandson, wasn’t allowed to see her. Something about the way the hospital was refusing any entry to anyone, and was not giving detailed status reports on the patient, disturbed him. He disguised himself as a medical professional and entered the hospital anyway. What he found was a nightmare. His grandmother had been simply left to die on a gurney in her own urine, feces, and vomit. There was no attempt to provide her with any medical care what-so-ever. Samborsky filmed his grandmother in the short time before her death, and posted the video the web. He also protested to authorities and began legal action against the hospital. Except…Putin’s R

  D*mn Idiots You know that I’m a little obsessed with the Taliban and its spectacular misrule of Afghanistan. Well, here are two more articles on the topic of the Taliban, and both re-enforce my general impression that the group is as awful a band of murderous idiots as it is possible to find this side of a slasher movie. The first is from Rolling Stone, no less. In “Where the Taliban Rule,” journalist Andrew Quilty presents us with an unflinching portrait of Afghanistan as it is under the Taliban. And, frankly, that Afghanistan is a hellscape of brutality, incompetence, and oppression. The article’s subhead probably sums it up nicely, “The conquering militants govern by fear. Poverty deepens, and behind closed doors journalists are beaten and rumors of executions spread…”(1)   The second piece is from a less mainstream but much respected publication, War On The Rocks. In “Brutally Ineffective: How the Taliban Are Failing in Their New Role as Counter-Insurgents,” Colin Clarke and Jona

  Let's Be Careful Out There Okay, everyone, the holidays have been great, and I hope the rest of your month is fun, too. But, remember, we still have some major problems out there--everything from Covid to Crazies with guns. So, keep your guard up, and stay safe . We need all the progressive votes we can get. ~mjt

 

  Wishing you the best on this Christmas Eve!

 

  In case you were wondering why we are failing... If you’re wondering why our educational system is failing, and by extension, why we’re failing as a nation…go read this article in the Washington Post, “Students loved this teaching assistant. They didn’t know he was living in his car,” by Kyle Swenson. And, yes, you got that headline right. Charles Peacock was a much loved teaching assistant at a Florida school. But he was being paid so little—less than $1000 a month—that he was reduced to living in his car. And he isn’t alone. Teachers and paraprofessionals (teaching assistants, aides, and so on) are being routinely underpaid across the country. That’s combined with the fact that teaching becomes a less attractive profession with seemingly every passing day. Activist school boards rail against everything from Critical Race Theory to evolution. Politicians who cannot control their own teenagers never-the-less feel qualified to dictate teachers’ day to day schedules and curriculums. Bu

  What role for the army? If you have any interest in the long-term peace and stability of the planet, you are probably looking with considerable concern at Taiwan. It is all too likely that the our next major war will break out there should Xi’s China decide to invade the place. There is a very interesting article over on the War On The Rocks webpage on the topic that more than deserves a glance. In “The Uncomfortable Reality of the U.S. Army’s Role in a War Over Taiwan,” Jacquelyn Schneider looks at the role the United States Army might have should such a war breakout. It is a more complicated issue than you might think. We know what the Navy and the Air Force would do in a Sino-Taiwan conflict. Dr. Schneider also has a few words about what the Marine Corps might do. But the Army? That’s a puzzle. She notes that stationing large numbers of American troops on Taiwan might deter China from invading in the first place — but that would come at the cost of withdrawing forces currently de

  Suicide Bomber So this is yet another posting about Afghanistan’s Taliban, a group whose only redeeming feature is that its members are not quite (almost, but not quite) as bloody-minded a collection of psychopaths as its nearest rival, ISIS-K. There is another interesting article over on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Gandhara site, “As Taliban Attempts To Transform From Insurgency To Government, Suicide Bombers Remain Key To Its Strategy,” by Abubakar Siddique. In it, Mr. Siddique looks at how the Taliban continues to rely on suicide bombers as its main defensive and offensive weapon. Even though it is now in power, and, in theory, is a respectable government, it is basing is military strategy on the assumption that lots of its own people will strap on explosive vests and go charging off into crowded places, there to blow up scores of innocent civilians, including women and children. That’s interesting, for lack of a better word. Suicide squads and suicide weapons aren’t unique

  The Minaret of Jam.  Image source: david adamec, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Minaret_of_jam_2009_ghor.jpg Here is a sign of things to come. In a certain valley in Afghanistan, there is a little known cultural treasure, the Minaret of Jam. This is a magnificent brick structure, over two hundred feet tall, which was probably constructed around the year 1190 CE, probably by the Ghurid dynasty, probably to celebrate Islam’s victories in Central Asia. It is a graceful, lovely structure, which was rightfully designated a UNESCO world heritage site some years ago. And, of course, under the Taliban, it is in danger. The Minaret has suffered wind and weather damage. It is also subject to vandalism. (I’ve heard it said that local people covet its bricks for their own building projects.) Thus, the structure is in severe need of repair and of protection from the elements and perhaps from local people. Under the former, US-backed government, there was some chance of that happening. There w

The Qult!  [click to check it out] So lately I’ve been reading the reddit group “The Qult Headquarters” ( https://www.reddit.com/r/Qult_Headquarters/ ). The group describes itself as a subreddit “dedicated to documenting, critiquing, and debunking the chan poster known as 'Q' and his devotees.” In other words, the clever folk in the group look for, share, and discredit the rather more ghastly statements and beliefs of that odd little sect known as QAnon. I salute these people. They are doing their best to hold the line in a world all too threatened by paranoia, conspiracy fantasies, and flat-out lunacy. And by “lunacy” I don’t mean “mental illness.” That comes upon you without your wishing it. These people have voluntarily embraced theories which are so irrational as to be classified as genuinely insane. They have, in other words, chosen to be mad. But, as I read the stories which are posted to this subreddit, I’m struck by how very easily manipulated the QAnon Cultists must b

  image source:  Bob Jagendorf from Manalapan, NJ, USA [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons I see in news reports that Chris Christie is actively running for president. Or, rather, he’s made no secret of his wish to be the GOP’s standard bearer in 2024. To that end, he has apparently started saying harsh things about those of his fellow Republicans who cling to Trump’s coattails, and worse, to Trumpian fictions of the election of 2020 being “stolen.” Honestly, I’m not certain how I feel about Christie’s candidacy. On the one hand, it is terrific to hear someone in the Republican Party actually criticizing Trump and his “Big Steal” delusions. On the other, well, Christie is not an easy man to like. Besides, at least what I’ve been told is that Democratic Party strategists are rather hoping that Trump will run again (and if he did, apparently, he would almost certainly be nominated. His control of the Republican Party is too great). But, the De

  The Drone Ranger Image source: Mustafa.KarabasTUSAS, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons Back in November, I did a short piece on the fact that Ukraine is using drone aircraft purchased from Turkey to fight Russian-backed separatists in its eastern territories (see “Ukraine Uses Turkish Drones On Russian Proxies,” November 20, 2021. https://theleftcrisis.blogspot.com/2021/11/ukraine-uses-turkish-drones-on-russian.html ). I was intrigued by this Ukraine-Turkish partnership because, at least in theory, Turkey and Russia have good relations. In theory, they are almost allies, at least as far as the United States is concerned. But, here they are, on opposite sides of a fairly serious little war. Since then, I’ve run across another piece of interest on the same topic. In “Turkish Drone Doctrine and Theaters of War in the Greater Middle East,” which appeared on the webpage of Small Wars Journal , 11/04/2021, scholar Ridvan Bari Urcosta