On the Other Hand

Captured Russian soldiers in Ukraine - via The Mirror (U.K.), 11 March 2022.

Notice the helpless position they have been restrained in:  hands cuffed behind their backs, outer coats peeled back, outer pants pulled down to their ankles.  Any statement made under such a state of duress is, predictably, going to be what the interrogators want to hear.  There are numerous such videotaped confessions posted online by the Ukrainian authorities.

Your Head Trucker has refrained from mentioning his reservations about the war in Ukraine up till now - but today's story of Ukrainian soldiers executing Russian prisoners of war, is sufficient cause for me to speak up.

There can be no doubt whatsoever that Putin launched an unprovoked war on Ukraine, invading large swathes of territory, raining death and destruction all across Ukraine, deliberately and horrifically targeting civilians in homes, schools, hospitals, and all manner of non-military places.  The world has already seen indisputable evidence of Russian brutality and war crimes, deliberately and mercilessly done.  Russia's transparent lies and two-faced denials of these atrocities are so obvious that they are almost laughable.

Nevertheless - there are disturbing reports of Ukrainian brutality and war crimes too.  We don't want to hear those things, of course, because we want the good guys to be totally good, as in the movies.  But has there ever been a war in the long, bloody annals of recorded history in which neither side violated the rules of war, and of common decency?

This story came up in my news feed today - a manifest violation of the Geneva Conventions.  (Have you ever read them?)  I wonder how much continuing coverage it will get in mainstream Western media.

• The Guardian reports:
  

Ukrainian soldiers killing captured Russian prisoner of war

(video not yet available on YouTube)

• NBC published this report on March 29th:

U.N. urges investigation into videos of alleged POW abuse by Russia and Ukraine

• The Journal.ie (Ireland) published this report on March 12th:

How Ukraine is dealing with Russian POWs - and how they are supposed to be treated by law

Not long after the start of the war, I was alarmed by the sight of Russian POW's with their hands obviously tied behind their backs giving video confessions to their Ukrainian captors, which they promptly broadcast to the world - again, most definitely a violation of the Geneva Conventions (forced confessions, and publicizing prisoner's identities for propaganda purposes).  From the American broadcaster Radio Free Europe on February 27, the fourth day of the war:

As my recent posts have shown, I understand and deeply sympathize with the fact that the Ukrainians are fighting for their lives, and using all possible means to prevent the destruction of their nation.  In such a state of desperate warfare, misdeeds are often made by individuals, and by national leaders, in a fit of fury.  War is a bad business, even when fighting for a good cause.

That does NOT justify war crimes, however, no matter who commits them.  Two wrongs do NOT make a right, in peace or in war.  The powers that be will, I hope, be recording and investigating all such crimes by both sides in what is, to some degree, very like a civil war - which because of its fratricidal nature is often the most vicious kind.

Western policymakers should also take the long view into consideration:  what will it mean for Europe and America if Zelensky achieves his goal of making Ukraine a "big Israel" - in a perpetual state of armed alert, if not actual war with its neighbors?  Think about it.  I do not say that would be good or bad - I merely say it is a possible outcome of this present war, which will not likely end with a nice, neat peace treaty anytime soon.

For the Record:  I do not hesitate to admit that we Americans have sometimes been myopic about atrocities committed by our own armed forces, I am very sorry to say.  From My Lai to Abu Ghraib, and at other times and places, American soldiers have shown they are not always the fighting saints we would like them to be.  And that is a very sad thing that the world has rightly condemned.

But I hope my overseas truckbuddies will understand, and my American truckbuddies will agree, that such crimes have never been embraced by the American public or remained immune to prosecution afterwards.  Though I frankly don't know what to say about Guantanamo, which somehow is still operating.  All these things are great black marks on our record, and I, for one, am deeply ashamed of them.  

On the other hand, Americans have sacrificed themselves, expending their time, talents, and treasure, individually and collectively, many times in many places to maintain the peace and stability of the world for the last 80 years; alongside our faults and failings, history will record our nobler deeds in golden letters for the admiration of ages to come.  And no matter what any lame-brain politician or demagogue or fanatic might say now or in the future, crimes against humanity are most definitely not the American way.  

The number of good and decent Americans, people with sound moral values, humility, and a conscience, far outnumber the bad ones.  Our way is the path of liberty and justice for all - when we stray from it, we try to learn from our mistakes, and do better as we continue the upward journey.  Despite our flaws and failings, we are the leaders of the free world, proud to be a force for good in a troubled world, and I hope we will always be.

At least, that is the view of this old, obsolete American with no power or influence beyond this obscure little blog.

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Bucha

I have no words.

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War and Weirdness

Cover of The Atlantic, March 2022.

Here are two articles from the Atlantic that are thought-provoking, though I disagree with some points in each one.

1.  Anne Applebaum, "There Is No Liberal World Order" - excerpt:

For 30 years, Western oil and gas companies piled into Russia, partnering with Russian oligarchs who had openly stolen the assets they controlled. Western financial institutions did lucrative business in Russia too, setting up systems to allow those same Russian kleptocrats to export their stolen money and keep it parked, anonymously, in Western property and banks. We convinced ourselves that there was no harm in enriching dictators and their cronies. Trade, we imagined, would transform our trading partners. Wealth would bring liberalism. Capitalism would bring democracy—and democracy would bring peace. . . .

Even when the Russians, having grown rich on the kleptocracy we facilitated, bought Western politicians, funded far-right extremist movements, and ran disinformation campaigns during American and European democratic elections, the leaders of America and Europe still refused to take them seriously. It was just some posts on Facebook; so what? We didn’t believe that we were at war with Russia. We believed, instead, that we were safe and free, protected by treaties, by border guarantees, and by the norms and rules of the liberal world order.

2.  Olga Khazan, "Why People Are Acting so Weird" - excerpt:

The pandemic loosened ties between people: Kids stopped going to school; their parents stopped going to work; parishioners stopped going to church; people stopped gathering, in general. Sociologists think all of this isolation shifted the way we behave. “We’re more likely to break rules when our bonds to society are weakened,” Robert Sampson, a Harvard sociologist who studies social disorder, told me. “When we become untethered, we tend to prioritize our own private interests over those of others or the public."

The turn-of-the-20th-century scholar Émile Durkheim called this state anomie, or a lack of social norms that leads to lawlessness. “We are moral beings to the extent that we are social beings,” Durkheim wrote. In the past two years, we have stopped being social, and in many cases we have stopped being moral, too.

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War in Ukraine - Day 23

Map of recent Russian advances in Ukraine -
from the BBC, 17 March 2022, 2100 GMT.
Click to enlarge.

The cruel juggernaut lumbers on, the slow strangulation of a nation continues - George Floyd's death repeated over and over and over, with blood and bombs.

Sky News reports - "The life is being drained from Mariupol":

 

Sky News reports: Kiev residents say "Putin's trying to kill us":

 

Sky News reports: Rescuers dig frantically through steel and rubble to save one life:

 

CBS News reports: An American was shot to death in Ukraine while standing in a bread line to get food for his partner and other hospital patients:

 

President Zelensky warns that if Russia is not stopped now, it will embolden other aggressors to attack their neighbors:

 

Full text of Zelensky's speech here. 

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Putin vs. Schwarzenegger

Putin addressed his people yesterday in harsh, threatening terms:

Arnold Schwarzenegger released a very different message to the Russian people today:

   

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"Mama, this is so hard" - A Soldier's Last Words

In an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly today, Ukraine's ambassador reads texts from a Russian soldier to his mother shortly before he was killed - dying for a monstrous lie.

My heart aches for the Russian parents who are already losing their children in this vicious and appalling war, just as it aches for the civilians and the people of Ukraine. But when it comes to the Russian leadership that chose this path of violence, and I stress chose, this path of violence and aggression, there can be no possible excuse.

Never in all my study, my memory, of politics and international affairs have I seen so clear a distinction between right and wrong, between good and evil, between light and dark. And that is the real reason why Ukraine is our neighbour today.

And by the way, I say to all the countries around the world who may only just be waking up to the horror of what is going on – I say to everybody around the world, that is why Ukraine should be your neighbour, too.

--British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in an address at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in London yesterday. 

Cf. the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

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Russia Invades Ukraine

From Wikipedia:  Map of the first day's attacks on Ukraine - click for larger map.

What Biden has prophesied for weeks - and Putin has steadily denied - came to pass last night when Putin launched the Russian military on a multi-pronged attack against Ukraine.  This blow came while the United Nations Security Council was formulating an urgent plea for Putin not to make war on his neighbor - which goes to show Putin's contempt for the United Nations and all democracies.

There is no longer any doubt about it:  Putin is the new Hitler.  And sadly, Ukraine is shaping up to be the new Czechoslovakia, though its people and president have shown plenty of balls, defiantly insisting that they are not afraid and will defeat the overwhelming Russian forces bearing down upon them.

I hope they will - but I believe they hope in vain if they think any Western nations are going to put boots on the ground in Ukraine.  For one thing, Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and thus not entitled to that kind of aid.  For another, to put American troops on the front line against Russians would probably mean the start of World War III.  Putin threatened as much, in a veiled way, in his broadcast overnight.

God forbid.

And I very much doubt that economic sanctions will have any effect on Putin's plans, any more than they had on Hitler's.  The Bear is hungry, and will gobble up all he wants, regardless of consequences.  His recent statements suggest he will not be satisfied with devouring Ukraine only.  And he is sitting on some nasty weapons of his own - at least Hitler didn't have nukes or ICBM's.  But President Biden has said we will defend "every inch" of NATO territory, no matter what.  The what might come at any time.

So if careful steps are not taken, we could soon be facing the nightmare that has haunted the world for seventy years.  Nobody has said this out loud yet on TV, but I'm saying it.  As many commentators have noted.

I see no easy way out of this crisis.  As a truckbuddy said to me, after many subtle moves here and there, the scheming grandmaster Putin has put us in check, if not checkmate.  He has been playing to win, while we have been playing with ourselves, it seems like.  We should all be praying for our president and for all those working for the common good, that they may see clearly and act wisely.

I won't rehash here all the details of the Ukrainian struggle, but for whatever help it may be to my truckbuddies, here are some useful links to related information that you might want to bookmark.

News sources:

American TV network news websites are clogged with stupid advertisements that make it hard to get to the videos of what you want to see.   Here are three European broadcasters with 24/7 live coverage in English always available on YouTube - sometimes they provide a perspective on issues different from what is provided on American news shows.

Sky News (United Kingdom)

France24 (France)

DW News (Germany)

And the Guardian, which favors the views of the Labour Party, is one of the few British newspapers not hidden behind a paywall; in times of crisis, the website usually carries a live blog of events and commentary.

Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is to a large extent a leisure site for lonely, nerdy guys to write on, and get into bitch fights over political correctness, so what you read there should always be taken with a grain of salt unless supported by other, more reliable sources.  Nevertheless, it is usually a good source for quick facts about countries and notable people.  Here are a few topics you might want to refresh your memory of.

NATO and the European Union - they are not the same thing.

Ukraine - did you know it's nearly as big as Texas?

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine - yes, there's already a wikiarticle on it.

Russia - nearly twice as big as the United States, but less than half the population.

Other reading:

Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration - "Eight Sobering Realities about Putin's Invasion of Ukraine," 2/24/22

Editorial in The Guardian (U.K.) - "Putin's War in Ukraine:  A Bleak New Beginning." 2/24/22

The past is never dead - it's not even past.

--William Faulkner

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Rumors of War

Map of Ukraine.
Click to enlarge.

Yesterday, Putin sent troops into the breakaway territories of eastern Ukraine and proclaimed them independent states.   The Secretary-General of the United Nations says Putin has violated international law.  President Biden and other Western leaders have announced stiff financial sanctions against Russian money and elites.  And suddenly, this faraway pot on the back burner of the world seems to be boiling over, and may set the whole place on fire.

The parallels with the Nazi threat to the peace of Europe in 1938-39 are striking, though not exact.  If you care to read up on the period, I recommend Churchill's The Gathering Storm, the first volume of his World War II memoirs, as an excellent, incisive introduction.

Your Head Trucker is not a pacifist per se, but neither is he a warmonger.  To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose . . . .  But what time is it now?  And whose turn is it to die?  The obvious answer is not always the best answer.  I offer these few newsbites as food for thought, and leave you to draw your own conclusions.

1.  A voice from the grave:  the late Senator John McCain interviewed in 2014, after Russia annexed parts of Ukraine.

 

2. Ukrainian foreign minister Kuleba, quoted on the BBC News website today: 

Click to enlarge.

 3. Political analyst Fareed Zakaria on the Russian-Chinese bruderbund:

 

4. Guess who thinks Putin is the greatest?

 

 5. President Biden announces sanctions against Russia:

 

Give us peace in our time, O Lord.

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This Week in Trumpocracy, 3/4/17

Embed from Getty Images

1.  Rachel Maddow shows the chilling reality of Putin's autocracy in this segment of last night's show - most enlightening for those of us who until now haven't really known what Putin was all about - and its as blood-curdling as any Cold War thriller, if not more so:




2.  In a must-read article, Jonathan Chait in New York Magazine spells out the lies and the treason at the heart of the Trump regime in no uncertain terms - excerpt:

[The unfolding Russia scandal] is spinning off in multiple directions, but at bottom it suggests a betrayal of American sovereignty by Trump that is unprecedented in the history of the republic. For a still-unclear combination of reasons — greed for power, greed for money, vulnerability to blackmail, or motivations unknown — the incoming administration cooperated with the undermining of American democracy by a hostile foreign power.

This is already known. On July 4, Franklin Foer wrote in Slate the first major story in the American media identifying a Russian plan to influence the presidential election. He pieced together such evidence as Trump’s extensive financial ties to Russia; Vladimir Putin’s pattern of intervening in elections in the West in order to support his preferred candidates; Russia’s hacking of Democrats’ emails; and the fact that a number of Trump advisers had been paid by sources loyal to the Kremlin, including Trump’s then-campaign manager Paul Manafort, who had carried out a similar strategy on behalf of a pro-Russian candidate in Ukraine that he seemed to be doing in the United States.

In the months that have followed, more reporting on this strange and sinister axis has emerged, mostly in the form of reports that have burst onto the scene as bombshells, only to be quickly displaced by other stories in the disorienting, surreal news environment that is Trump’s Washington. The New York Times has found that “phone records and intercepted calls” reveal that Trump associates had “repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials” and that U.S. allies had uncovered meetings in European cities between Russian officials and Trump associates.

It is not illegal to meet with Russian agents or spies. However, Trump and his advisers have repeatedly lied or contradicted themselves about these meetings. Former national-security adviser Michael Flynn lied to the FBI about his discussions with Russia following the election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who told a Senate committee during his confirmation hearings “I did not have communications with the Russians,” in fact met twice during the campaign with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Only after the Washington Post reported on the meetings did Sessions agree to recuse himself from his own department’s investigation into the matter.

Trump’s statements on his relations with Russia have oscillated wildly. Asked in 2013 if he had a relationship with Putin, Trump said, “I do have a relationship, and I can tell you he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today.” In 2014, he recounted, “Putin even sent me a present, beautiful present with a beautiful note, I spoke to all of his people,” and that he “spoke indirectly and directly” with Putin. In 2015, he boasted, “I got to know [Putin] very well.” Last year, he insisted, “I have no relationship with Putin” and that “I don’t know Putin … I never met Putin.” . . .

On March 2, House Speaker Paul Ryan asserted that he had seen “no evidence that anybody on the Trump campaign or an American was involved in colluding with the Russians.” What evidence would he like? A Trump adviser coyly revealing his advance knowledge of stolen email dumps, then admitting he has a “back-channel communication with Assange”? Because that exists. Maybe video of Trump asking Putin to hack his opponents’ email? Because that exists, too. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump announced at a press conference last summer. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” (Trump later claimed he was joking.) Even if Trump had nothing to do with encouraging the Russian hacking, aggressively exploiting it was a ­conscious choice. Other Republicans, like Marco Rubio — in one of his periodic outbreaks of conscience — asserted that the GOP should renounce the use of information from WikiLeaks rather than reward foreign interference in American elections. Trump made the opposite decision.

And Trump’s party has mostly decided likewise. All of it is fine — the nondisclosure of tax returns, the unprecedented self-enrichment, the fantastic lies and authoritarian lingo. Republicans in Washington see Trump as a useful vehicle for their policy objectives. Indeed, at least for the time being, Trump’s nationalist ravings have utility for special interests from the Kremlin to Wall Street, all of whom look upon the American president with smugness and satisfaction at a deal well struck. In Trump’s short tenure as president, his demagogic claim that elites have betrayed the American people out of solicitousness to foreign powers has finally become true.​

3. "Donald Trump just can't quit Barack Obama." - Politico reports on Trump's obsession with the former President, which culminated today in a bizarre Twitter attack at dawn. Excerpt:

From entering politics as the chief promoter of the birtherism conspiracy—complete with claims of mysterious calls coming in to him with new information to detectives he claimed he sent to Hawaii but were never heard from again—to waking up Saturday morning tweeting, “How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones,” Obama’s always there.

There’s a political advantage to it—Obama is just as infuriating a figure as he was six weeks ago to the Republican base and the pro-Trump media that powered the president’s campaign.

And there’s a diversionary advantage to churning up a new controversy that this time takes away airtime and mindshare from the questions of just how many top administration officials had just how many undisclosed meetings with Russian officials. But there also seems to be a true sense in Trump’s mind that Obama is practically sitting beneath the floorboards of the West Wing, chipping away at his presidency. . . .

White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not respond Saturday morning to questions about whether he knows of a reason why Obama is on the president’s mind so much, or whether Trump still thinks he has a good relationship with Obama. Obama’s current spokespeople also declined to respond about the current status of the relationship, or whether they’ve continued to talk on the phone as they were doing with some frequency during the transition.

Kevin Lewis, a spokesman for Obama, aggressively pushed back against Trump's accusations. "A cardinal rule of the Obama Administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice," Lewis said in a statement. "As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."

The Obama circle continues to be frustrated that Trump’s comments are taken seriously, in the same way they were when Trump was taking potshots from the sidelines while Obama was in the White House.

“No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you,” tweeted Ben Rhodes, the former deputy national security adviser who’s working for Obama in his new office.

Responding to Trump’s tweet that “I'd bet a good lawyer could make a great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in October, just prior to Election!” Rhodes tweeted, “No. They couldn't. Only a liar could do that.”

Exasperated and annoyed, Obama aides try to cast their problem with Trump continually pulling their old boss into the conversation as about more than politics.

“My concern about Trump isn’t his day-to-day nonsense, it’s the notion that he could be governed by conspiracy theories and paranoia in a time of actual crisis,” said Bill Burton, former deputy White House press secretary for Obama. “All the rest of this is just the mutterings of a man deeply in over his head.”

4. For the record, and lest we forget - here is Trump last July, openly and deliberately inviting Russia to interfere with the election:




5. In recent weeks, so-called town hall meetings held by Republican congresspeeps have been full of angry, shouting constituents giving their elected representatives hell, and plenty of it. Today, pro-Trump demonstrators marched and fought with anti-Trump counter-demonstrators all across the country. Ah me, plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.  Brings back memories of the firey days of 1816, as Joshua Zeitz recalls in Politico Magazine - excerpt:

In the summer of 1816, Americans turned on Congress. Citizens from Massachusetts to South Carolina staged raucous public meetings where “several hundred persons of both political parties,” according to one contemporary, gathered to draft denunciatory resolutions, deliver angry speeches and, in some cases, stage mock court proceedings against their local House members. With a stridency heretofore unmatched in American politics, they condemned “high-handed and arbitrary” lawmakers—politicians who forced a “wanton sacrifice of our interest to their own private emolument,” perpetrators of “wrong,” “unjustifiable” and “reprehensible” actions.

The event that precipitated this resounding censure—the “daring and profligate trespass against … the morals of the Republic”—was Congress’ passage of the Compensation Act earlier that spring. With bipartisan support from Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans, Congress had increased its pay from $6 per diem to a flat annual salary of $1,500 (approximately $25,000 in current dollars). Some members derided the action as an exercise in extravagance, but a majority argued that since congressional stipends had remained flat since 1789, and the cost of living approximately doubled, it was time for a raise.

From his retirement, former President Thomas Jefferson observed, “there has never been an instant before of so much unanimous an opinion of the people, and that through every State in the Union.” Jefferson predicted that “almost the entire” Congress “will go out, not only those who supported the law or voted for it, or skulked from the vote, but those who voted against the law or opposed it, if they took the money.”

He was more or less right. Roughly 70 percent of Congress was defeated in the fall election, including a full three-quarters of the New York delegation. As Jefferson foretold, it really didn’t matter how members voted. “I have been dismissed for voting for the bill,” one ex-congressman marveled, “one of my colleagues for voting against it, and another one for not voting at all on either side.”

Over the past several weeks, commentators have drawn comparisons between recent town hall meetings—some staged by GOP congressmen; others organized by angry constituents whose Republican congressmen have dodged the voters—and similar events, driven by the rise of the Tea Party, that bedeviled Democratic lawmakers in 2010. Inspired by increasingly strong support for the Affordable Care Act, the meetings have “flipped the script” on Republicans who just seven years ago profited mightily from such popular indignation. Marco Rubio spoke for other members of his party when he explained his refusal to meet with constituents: He doesn’t want to be put in a position where people will “heckle and scream” at him.

Time will tell whether today’s town hall confrontations augur poorly for Republican members of Congress in 2018. But the example of 1816 is instructive. On its surface, the Compensation Act was the spark that lit the fire. But the real drivers of the political uprising were changes in how the public viewed politics, politicians and elite actors—changes that took the nation’s governing leaders by surprise. In 1816, many Jeffersonian Republicans who had for years encouraged a democratization of politics and expertise suddenly found themselves the focus of populist rage. Similarly, today, GOP congressmen who recently benefited from public indignation now find themselves its target.

Embed from Getty Images

Alone in the Taiga

Smithsonian magazine published a couple of years ago this fascinating article about a Russian family who fled Stalinist persecution to live in a remote area of Siberia in the 1930's and remained there with no other human contact for four decades, grubbing a living out of the wilderness and practicing their fundamentalist Old Believer faith - they didn't even know that World War II had happened until they were found by a team of Russian geologists exploring the area by helicopter in 1978. But they still refused to return to "sinful" civilization - now only one is left, 70-year-old Agafia, who is shown in this 2013 video.



This story brings up many profound reflections on human nature, society, religion, and materialism - but I will leave you readers to explore your own thoughts on those things. Your Head Trucker will say only that on some days he can well sympathize with the desire to find a remote, happy little spot far from the madding crowd - but he would damn sure pick a warmer spot than Siberia to exile himself to! Aruba, maybe.

Show and Tell

Your Head Trucker has been given to understand that these particular images are very popular on that Facebook thing now, which I suppose must be something like television, only with still pictures, maybe? Never have used it myself, and see no need for it, but these are worth a look:

 

 

Andrew Bacevich: It's Not about Syria, Mr. President

I never heard of Bacevich before now, but I like very much what he says.  Do make time today to listen to the whole lucid, plain-spoken interview, which covers much important ground besides Syria. Or read the transcript.



Okay, your Head Trucker is now officially opposed to this Syrian strike. But where are the marchers, the demonstrators, the protesters against the war? Does anybody care? 

Honk to Wounded Bird.


Update, 6:20 p.m.:  A lot has happened today - Kerry, speaking to reporters in London, made an offhand, strictly hypothetical remark that if Syria surrendered all its chemical weapons to international control, the strike would be called off. Well, in no time at all, Syria and Russia and the Secretary-General of the UN and even Hillary Clinton had all signed on to that idea, which seems a miraculous solution to the impasse.

Later in the day, the President gave interviews to six American news anchors and seemed to like the idea too - if it can be done, and verified.  He also said he's already been talking to Putin about it.  Here is the President speaking with Gwen Ifill of PBS Newshour:



The President will address the nation tomorrow at 9 p.m., EDT. 

Meanwhile, as the Senate and House take up debate on the issue this week, a CBS/New York Times poll shows that 6 out of 10 Americans oppose a military strike on Syria; and a CNN poll shows 7 out of 10 would oppose a military strike if Congress votes against it, with the same number believing that such a strike is not in the national interest of the United States.

United Nations inspectors who went to Syria in the wake of the gas attack are expected to present their report later this week.


What I Say: Your Head Trucker understands the President's reasons for striking Syria, as he states them in the interview, and his sincerity is evident. But as history has shown times without number, it is quite possible to be nobly motivated and perfectly sincere - and still be dead wrong.

From all I have seen and heard and read this past week, I cannot believe that this supposedly "unbelievably small" strike, as Kerry foolishly put it earlier today, earning deserved mockery from John McCain, will accomplish what the President's military advisors tell him it will. It is the wrong thing to do, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and in the face of all the world's opposition, very nearly.

Let's all pray that Kerry's other gaffe this morning bears fruit, and quickly; and as you see, all the diplomatic possibilities have not been exhausted, as the White House has been saying hitherto, so this golden opportunity should be seized. Otherwise, I can forsee nothing but evil consequences from the President's strike plan, however well-intentioned it may be.

And I just know that somewhere in Dallas, W is rocking back, laughing his ass off, and so are Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove.

From Russia with Love

 

 

 

Okay, this story and these pictures just made your Head Trucker lose it, totally. Groups of gays and lesbians and the rest of the LGBT community gathered quietly all across the vast extent of Russia yesterday, from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, to take pictures and thank the world for its moral support as the Putin government grinds down upon them. Stop whatever you are doing right now and go scroll down the page at Americablog, and look at those signs and those faces.

Event coordinator Natalia Tsymbalova explains in a Facebook message:

We, Russian LGBT people and their allies, would like to thank all the people around the world who support us and express their concern about the events in our country in hope of making a difference and pulling Russia out of a tightening medieval darkness.

To show that global support and solidarity are very important for all of us, we organized in response an acknowledgment action "From Russia with Love."

We did not plan this flashmob as an action to attract public attention. It was a friendly get-together to make a photo-shoot in the open. Our posters did not carry political information: we just wrote words of gratitude without even indicating to whom and for what: those who we are sending our smiles and thanks to, will understand it anyway.

Despite police’s nervous attention and a few attempts to disrupt us, we are glad that we were able to finish our action and send our friends abroad our deepest gratitude – this is the least we can do now. Thank you for your support and solidarity! Spasibo!

A tightening medieval darkness, exactly. And all of our gay brothers and sisters there are trapped like rats - as surely as the Jews were in Nazi Germany. 

The Jews in Germany and other Western countries at that time had enjoyed full civil rights and political equality for a century or more - but nobody went to war to save the Jews, or lifted a finger to stop the persecution of them.  Most countries, including our own, even refused to take as refugees the few Jews who could get out of Germany before the war started.

And nobody will go to war to save the gays, if it comes to that. No, they are trapped and completely at the mercy of their own dictatorial government and fanatical neighbors - whipped into a frenzy of hate by American evangelists who have toured around Russia, spreading every possible lie and stirring up violence.

You can protest and boycott all you want - but what concrete good will any of it do, really?   History, including our own recent American history, has shown time after time that governments set upon a certain course of action simply don't care what happens in piddling little demonstrations in other lands, or even in their own, which are easily enough dispersed and ignored.

What terrible things may befall our gay brothers and sisters as the shadows fall, I can hardly bear to think. It breaks my heart.  And yet there they are in these lovely snapshots, framed forever in sunlight and tranquility, smiling at us, heads yet held high with hope - bearing witness to the world.

God bless them.

The Game of the States

I always wanted to have that board game as a kid, but never got it.  Anyway, here's the latest marriage map of the country, courtesy of Freedom to Marry:

Note that same-sex marriage is not effective in Minnesota and Rhode Island until August 1st.

BTW, the latest USA Today poll shows a record high of 55%-40% nationwide in favor of same-sex marriage. The only groups with majorities not in favor are, as you might expect, Republicans, Southerners, and the over-65's.

Having said that, it's rather amazing how closely their views align with those of Russian President Putin, who has just signed a law banning all gay pride rallies and any other public form of support - "to protect the children," of course. American conservatives have in fact already been sidling up to the formerly dreaded Ruskies, and the notorious Scott Lively, who got Ugandan politicians all fired up to pass the "Kill the Gays" bill a few years back, has just finished a 50-city speaking tour in Russia. He boasts that the new law substantially follows recommendations he made.

May he rot in hell, is what your Head Trucker says. Meanwhile, a small contingent of pride demonstrators was beaten and arrested in Moscow this weekend. This is exactly what them good ol' boy, Bible-believing, God-fearing American patriots want to see happen here - and worse, and would do in a heartbeat to you and me, if only they could.



And in St. Petersburg, antigay thugs broke through police protection to beat up the gays:




Bottom line: While we're all deservedly a bit giddy over the Supreme Court rulings here, give a thought to our persecuted brothers and sisters in other lands.  And don't bitch so much about life in America, Miss Thing. You could living be in a much worse place.