@earthling1 The next President, whomever that happens to be, will have to deal with the results of Team Biden foreign policy. They can say anything they want now. Eventually the Reality Principle will assert itself within their minds.

I cannot read minds. But my guess is that the Reality Principle grows stronger for the elites every day. Said Principle is, unfortunately, too weak in the minds of the Harris/ Trump faithful, who contjnue to believe that it matters a whole lot who wins in November.

But what if they are pushing Kamala into power so she takes the blame for the coming collapse of America?
The ultimate patsy. Evil bastards are like that.
Thanks for hosting today.

@enhydra lutris I’m only 20% into “Nuclear War” by Annie Jacobsen and don’t see how our defenses against nuclear attack could look much bleaker. Not a book with a happy ending, I’m sure.

~~Hiroshima

@on the cusp @on the cusp

Putin judo book to be distributed to millions of Russian schoolchildren

Awarded the rare eighth dan in judo in 2012, Putin has been practising the martial art since he was a teenager in St Petersburg, then known as Leningrad, when Rotenberg was his sparring partner.

Long known for his displays of sporting prowess, the president has co-authored several judo books, including Judo: History, Theory, Practice and Learning Judo with Vladimir Putin. He joined the Russian judo team for a training session in January and was filmed throwing opponents including coach Ezio Gamba to the mat.

The western reports, articles, editorials of course are always seeking to portray Putin in a negative light. Link him to the oligarchs. Imply he's corrupt himself etc. I doubt that, but this is not the point. I'm sure he's immersed in the philosophy of the martial arts.

I came across this short by Dr. Gao several months back and she addressed the Taoist concept of 無極 wújí in this brief outtake from a longer 20 minute presentation on the Taoist principle. Her discussion of the application of the principle to national affairs and martial arts is presented briefly here:

It's worth the minute and a half to listen. Then she gives her sales pitch for tutoring and translation services. This is the link to her 20 minute video on the same topic more generally-

A Key Taoist Concept 無極 or The Ultimate Nothingness??

無為 is an another expression relating to the same principle or more exactly 為無為 act without acting. The only answers the west has to Putin's martial strategy is what's the next weapons system we can use for escalation because what we're doing now isn't working. Ellsberg pointed out this syndrome and also related it to US internal politics and elections more so than it having meaningful effect on the strategic outcome of the Vietnam conflict. What is worse here, it that the US was able to introduce ground troops and continue the escalation process without regard to external threats by outside great powers then. Even so, the withdrawal from Vietnam was prompted solely by the futility of the conflict, it's costly nature, and the evolving political chaos at home.

One of the other incorrect assumptions or inferences taken mistakenly by neocons from the earlier Afghan intervention by Russia during the Soviet era, is that at the time, the Russians were overextended militarily, occupying other countries, and maintaining basically a world wide military presence to counter our own during the cold war. It exhausted them. Now we're in their position back then.

"Oh come on, we're the United States of American for chrissake. We can walk and chew gum at the same time." LOL

I don't think that will happen to Russia here. Russia is essentially an autarchy. Support from China and other states adds to that intrinsic strength. We however are overextended. The final escalation will be nuclear if our leaders don't wise up and cut their losses. I think both Adm Stavridis and Lawrence Korb were members of some center left foundation that Bill Press had years ago. It was "progressive" something or other, but it wasn't progressive at all. However, one thing I learned from a war college text Korb wrote were the guiding principles of cost/ benefit analysis and the nature of opportunity costs. The only thing that matters in decision making is future costs. You can't have any emotional or ideological attachment to failed policies in the past. When you're losing cut your losses. There is no "making up for losses" or recouping "sunk costs." When you've made a huge mistake there are no "do overs."

Opportunity costs are rarely accounted for. I think Stieglitz has made this point about the war on terror many times, trillions in accounted for losses. It hollowed us out. We can't continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Adding new weapon systems, even nuclear weapons to the escalation process is only going to make the situation much worse if not terminal. The only other option is to commit US and NATO ground forces openly and not even this will improve the outcome but only make the situation much worse and not even change the situation. We're the ones being weakened to the point where our entire system will face collapse.

Thanks for odd and ends, OntheCusp!

(edit multiple typos)

@ban nock

One doesn't have to vote for evil or lesser evil, one can pick from assorted other options or not vote at all. To vote for either of those choices is unacceptable and irrational.

be well and have a good one

https://youtu.be/NbPhlDip8EU?si=kR_vtRZ-sF42tpH8

She has this weird verbal tick where she says the same thing three times often using the same words. As if she is trying to say something profound but without substance. Very strange.

She's not crazy like Trump but maybe not very bright.

I'd assume corporate America sees someone they can tell exactly what to do. I can certainly see why Obama and Pelosi weren't very enthusiastic, if the public sees more of her Trump could end up winning.

I wonder what Oprah thought. Oprah is someone I'd never accuse of being stupid, she must see the same thing I do. Harris did an Oprah interview too.

So if those are the only two choices, who are you voting for. No cop outs.