No one ever said that being a parent was easy, but traditionally the parents were given the benefit of the doubt regarding the raising of their children.  Cases of parental abuse were dealt with by the court system and while not perfect, the welfare of the child as a minor incapable of rational choice was the main concern of the state.  In the public school system, there was a goal of parent/teacher co-operation and trust.

The one benefit of the lockdowns-admittedly at a huge cost-has been a re-examination of the parent-teacher relationship as parents have become more aware of the curriculum which has taken over many public schools with the full support of the teacher’s unions and power forces which are immune to parental concerns and desires.  Amazingly teachers who have failed to provide the three “R” s to students at a time when future employment and self-sufficiency will be more and more dependent on these basic skills more than ever, has seemingly taken onto their broad shoulders’ the sexual lives of children five years old and older. Thank goodness for their expert help! It is clear that teachers in many locations across the country are unable to fulfill the basics of their position so why would anyone believe they are competent to take on the sexual education of the children in their classes?

As if the arrogance of the teachers is not enough, corporate America has also decided that it is their responsibility to jump into the fight and help parents across America raise their children to be happy, responsible, and sexually fulfilled minors. It is obvious that if you take your child to Disney World, you are taking them there so that they will be exposed to the correct sexual role models, not to provide an innocent, if expensive, lapse into fantasy. At the same time, summer camp may now be available for parents to allow individuals with no professional expertise to provide their children with sexual toys, lessons on BDSM and other sexual advice that those foolish parents thought would be best handled by the parents themselves.

The two links to short articles by Christopher F. Rufo should be read by parents so that they may ask pointed questions when they decide to turn their children over to what has traditionally been a time of innocent fun, experience, and growth.  It seems that it is the view of more and more organizations and special interest groups that the role of parents is one to merely provide shelter and food to children and that parents should leave the moral and sexual education to those who know better or at the very least, have a self-serving agenda totally opposed to the will of those foolish parents.

https://www.city-journal.org/kentucky-summer-camp-teaches-sex-liberation

https://www.city-journal.org/disneys-ideological-capture

Bloodlands, Timothy Snyder’s monumental work has been complimented by Black Earth, The Holocaust as History and Warning. I must admit that I was initially put from this book due to numerous reviews which seemed to focus on one small portion of this work, that of trying to link the lessons of the Holocaust to climate change.  Such a premise held no interest to me as the horrors documented in Bloodlands was the result of conscious decisions by political systems which denied the basic humanity of mankind, whereas the arguments re: climate change are open to sloppy science at the worse as well as subject to hyperbole (we only have twelve years left) which undercut the actual science.

Given the reviews, rather than purchase the book as I would do with any Snyder book, I found it during a cruise in the ship’s library. I was wonderfully surprised that ninety-eight percent of the book was an excellent historical work which consolidated and exposed many forgotten historical facts as well as providing a key analysis between the goals and policies of Hitler’s Germany, Poland and the Soviet Union not only leading up to the Holocaust but also the misconceptions of those three powers and how they impacted the course of history.

For years, Hitler’s Germany attempted to woo Poland into an alliance which would result in a joint German-Polish invasion of the Soviet Union; the goal was the fulfillment of Hitler’s dream of Lebensraum but also (as the Poles realized) making Poland a client state of Germany.  For Stalin, the eliminate of Poland was key, in large part due to the Soviet’s defeat by the Poles in 1921 and Stalin’s part in the defeat, and to create a bigger buffer against Germany.  For the Poles, caught between two more powerful neighbors, the key was to play one off against the other by having non-aggression pacts with both Germany and the Soviet Union.

Robert Harris, the author of Fatherland has taken a key event in the history of France and created a novel that is a thriller and educational.  Written from the perspective of a key player in the events, the reader is drawn into a world of the “deep state” before the term was used.  It serves to remind us that those who have power seldom are ready to relinquish it, especially when they know no other life and possess no other skills that those they have acquired in the acquisition of their power.

 After their loss to Germany in the war of 1870, the French nation was torn between a paranoid fear of another German attack (a preventative war) and the French desire for revenge.  France, which had always been the predominant military land power on the continent was humiliated; it was other people’s lands which were despoiled and looted, not the sacred soil of France!

To achieve their desire for revenge, which included repossessing the key provinces of Alsace and Lorraine which the French had taken from the Germans centuries before, the French military was lavished with money and prestige.  They represented the honor of France and stood for the glory which had to be taken back from the new German empire.

In 1895, a Jewish officer of the General Staff was convicted in a secret military trial of passing secrets to the Germans.  Sentenced to life on Devil’s Island, he was isolated from the world; his wardens were not allowed to speak to him, he was chained to his bed at night, his view restricted by high wooden fences, his mail restricted and censored, his was a living hell of a punishment, especially for a man convicted on forged evidence. 

The rest of the story is well known, how another French officer by the name of Picquart gradually comes to realize that the prisoner, Alfred Dreyfus is innocent of the charges and that Major Esterhazy was in fact the real traitor. Shocked by the injustice done to Dreyfus, Picquart reports his findings to the army powers that be only to find out that they had known of the injustice but had decided that to save the “honor” of the army, nothing was to be done.  In fact, new evidence was “discovered” which further condemned Dreyfus.  What follows is an example of a handful of brave men including Picquart who fight against powerful forces within the government who use every tool at their disposal including humiliation, intimidation, and violence to cover up their crime against Dreyfus.  What is the importance of one man against the needs of the State?

In this excellent novel, we see nobility in the acts and courage of a man willing to lose all in the pursuit of justice.  We see prejudice in the antisemitism of France at that time. We also see courage, fear, and determination, not in fictional characters, but in those who lived these trying events. I can see readers finishing the novel and wondering which of those traits they would possess in a time of trials.

It was not that many years ago that our friends on the left were outraged and certain that the Russians had interfered in our national election, enough so that Donald Trump became President over the more highly qualified Hillary Clinton. Although they could not provide any proof, other than a “Russian” dossier bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton, they (along with Hillary) disputed his Presidency, claiming (again without any proof), that Donald Trump was in the pocket of Putin. Their moral outrage lasted the full four years of a stormy Presidency and nothing he could do regarding Russia could convince the moral arbitrators of the left that he was not guilty. Not when he hit the Russians with sanctions, not when he began to arm the Ukrainians, not when he gave the go ahead for U.S. troops to track down and kill Russian troops in Syria, etc.

The article linked below shows how the Russians at the direction of Putin have been funneling funds and other support to the advocates of the “green” agenda. Putin fully understands that getting the U.S. and other Western nations to move toward inefficient “green” energy and away from efficient fossil fuels will slow the growth of the West and allow Russia with its oil reserves to profit and provide the funds for his strategic vision. While the West is banning plastic straws, Putin works to gain control over much of the energy needs of Europe.

Is a call for election integrity really a disguise for voter suppression? Are American minorities less competent than six hundred million citizens of India who voted after showing government issued identifications? When South Carolina introduced the secret ballot, in 1950, the percentage of people who voted fell by twelve percent; was the secret ballot really voter suppression or did it simply stop voter fraud by eliminating voters getting paid for voting a certain way under the eyes of election judges.

We seem to have in the United States two streams of thought regarding voting; on one hand are those who believe that voting should be made as easy as possible while neglecting the possibility of fraud. On the other side is a party who wants to impose what they see as safeguards to eliminate voter fraud. Is there a middle way?

The article linked below examines some of these questions and puts our voting system in perspective to the Europeans, Mexico, and Canada. Are their cries of voter suppression in the dozens of nations which require voter id? If six hundred million citizens of India can vote and hear the results in a timely manner, what exactly is our problem? As usual, John Lott Jr., has authored an article that may make you a bit more skeptical when politicians make their usual defenses for their solutions.

The “Great Game” of the 19^th century is starting anew only instead of Britain and Tsarist Russia being the main players, we now see on one side Communist China and Putin’s Russia and on the other side, the United States and hopefully, most of the European states. I say hopefully because while the recent about turn by Germany regarding its military and Britain’s fledging steps towards fracking are encouraging, one must wonder if the Western European states will stay the course. And, what of the United States? The navel gazing centering on “white privilege” and the drive to the “green” agenda no matter the costs are hardly the policies on which survival against relentless and ruthless foes are successful.

The excellent article linked below lays out in realistic and stark terms fundamental issues and questions which we need to face if we hope to survive. It is said that liberty is always only one generation away from extinction and we may have already begun a journey down a dark path to that extinction. Let us hope that Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine will awaken in each of us, the realization that the world is a dangerous place and if we wish to continue our liberties and freedoms, we need to focus firstly on policies which strengthen our defenses.

https://quillette.com/2022/03/09/the-new-great-game/

The Soviet Union was well known for its efforts at disinformation and getting covertly involved in other nations political activities and elections. A prime example was during the Viet Nam war, when monies were funneled to various anti-war groups which helped to created pressure on the politicians to withdraw from that war. After the fall of the Soviet Union, most countries seemed to have let their guard down but, Russia kept up its efforts in that area.

Evidence is now coming out that Russia has been passing money to various environmental groups to support the groups efforts to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. Is Russia taking such action because its leaders believe in the “green” agenda? Hardly. Putin and his minions realize that the “green” agenda puts additional financial burdens on Western societies which in turn, slows their growth. Russia also realizes that movement away from efficient fossil fuel leads to a weaking of the national infrastructures due to the simple events such as a lack of wind or a cloudy day.

The article linked below is an excellent place to begin to realize that the old Soviet saying of “useful idiot” is still alive and well today. There remain those who have blinders on in their quest for what can be a positive goal, but hopefully they will begin to ask why some of the worse actors in the world also support their efforts.

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/596304-investigate-russias-covert-funding-of-us-anti-fossil-fuel-groups

Given the war in the Ukraine, I thought this might be a good time to repost this review which I originally posted in December 2019. Although as written it could be a history, it was written before so many events and was ignored by so many “leaders” in the West who were more concerned about their ideology or keeping their power. Why face reality when those who yell the loudest and demand the most of you are among the villians in this book. I guess that is the story of mankind; take the easy way and let someone else clean up the mess.

Mao Tse-tung once said that “political power comes from the barrel of a gun”, but Vladimir Putin could just as easily say that “political power comes from the end of a pipeline”.  This excellent book analyses how Putin uses his countries gas companies for both tactical and strategic means to his end; to regain the power, and perhaps the territory which was lost by the collapse of the Soviet Union.  How can he do this?  By providing the European nations the energy they need at a below market price and by letting them know that he holds the comfort and economies of many nations within the EU in the palm of his hand.

Of course, he could not pursue this course if it were not for the lack of political will on the part of numerous European leaders and their own ideology regarding energy in the 21^st century.  By pursuing “green energy”, being intimidated by the “green” movement (which is often subsidized by Russia to serve its own ends) and by insuring that the social safety net is kept in place. European leaders have mortgaged their energy futures to a nation which uses its energy reserves almost regardless of short term financial considerations all in the pursuit of increased European dependence on Russian energy.

Consider that the EU has reserves of shale oil and natural gas, but refuses to spend the monies to exploit them.  They would rather purchase the oil and natural gas from the Russians and the U.S. They don’t want to spend their money on their defenses and are more concerned with maintaining their social programs; in short, they are living at the sufferance of other powers.

For nearly twenty year, Kim Philby was the premier Soviet spy, rising through the ranks of the British Secret Service, acting as the head of Soviet counterintelligence for the British (he was charged to chase himself), and worked closely with both the CIA and the FBI (under Hoover).  This book starts out with an excellent introduction by Phillip Knightley who studied Philby for thirty years, and an exciting foreword by Graham Greene who not only knew Philby, but even visited him in Moscow after Philby fled the U.K.  From there however, the book fails to meet the promise.

Philby, in his position, was able to pass literally mountains of secrets to the Soviets and was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of anti-Soviet agents across Europe.  He was a true believer; he did not betray his country for money, but he did believe in the goal of Communism.  Even though he knew the true scope of Stalin’s crimes against his own people, he kept the faith based on a belief (as modern-day apologists proclaim) that it was not the “system”, but it was rather the wrong person at the top.  Yet he like today’s apologists never face the question of what kind of system is it that allows a murderer like Stalin to take control and exist for so long.

Needless to say, we are living in a dangerous world.  For a long time, many of our “allies” who have lived under our protection have felt free to go their own way, often mocking the U.S. and ignoring their treaty obligations.  Suddenly, though, reality has hit many of our “allies” and we are seeing them begin to once again arm against the slings and arrows of an outrageous world.  The nations who mocked our former Presidents’ demands that they live up to their treaty commitments are increasing their military budgets (for weapons and not, as previously, higher retirement pay) and joint consultations.  

Before we take a look at this further thought, I must say that in my humble opinion, this crisis with Putin and Russia will not go away soon.  There is no easy way out for Putin; if he crushes the Ukraine, there will be a difficult and bloody occupation which will impact the world economy for the foreseeable future.  If he is overthrown, which is a possibility, there will be a period of instability in Russia and the cost of rebuilding will be huge. This means that for the foreseeable future, the markets will be in turmoil. Depending on your risk tolerance, time frame, financial stability, etc., you should decide and watch your course of action.  

Some will flee the market and put their money in cash (and lose out due to inflation) or bonds (which will provide some protection).  Some will buy into the market in the belief that in the end, as in the past, the market will recover and move forward.  Some will put monies into annuities which, while illiquid, can provide downside protection.  Some will depend upon diversification, which is a combination of all the above.  In short, there is no one easy answer; as always, saving and investing depends upon your own personal paranoia.

WHAT WILL OTHER COUNTRIES DO?  Let us look at some of the players and see what their actions might be: