In Between Times 9-29-2023
RFK Jr. to run as independent, Faltering support in US for Ukraine?, Government shutdown looms
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to announce independent run
At this point it’s not surprising. He has been held in contempt by the Democratic Party establishment since he announced his candidacy. Kennedy has even been denied a Secret Service detail. RFK Jr. Practically all of official Democratic Washington DC has turned their backs on him for fear of enabling a spoiler.
But how an RFK Jr. presidential run works out electorally is anything but clear. Mr. Kennedy is one of the weirdest political animals we have seen in a long time, a traditional liberal who has broad appeal. (This is very unique in US presidential history.) He polls well with leftys who are outside of the establishment and he polls well with some conservatives at the same time. We can’t remember a candidate anything like him.
Consider this clip that RFK Jr. ran as an ad from a recent Hannity show. Yes that Hannity. Listen to the audience. The crowd roars with acknowledgement when Mr. Kennedy calls out the current system of crony capitalism even while talking about traditional “liberal” issues that many in the audience might take issue with coming from another politician. It’s a strange moment. It might be an important one.
To be clear this is by NO MEANS an endorsement. We don’t do endorsements here. But below is a remarkable little bit of history that adds color to Mr. Kennedy’s announcement today.
‘Plastic air pollution’: Microplastics in clouds could be exacerbating climate change, study says
The Ukraine War: Things start to fracture politically in the US?
There have always been people who were opposed to the US supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia. And these people are/were not all Trump loving “deplorables’ who secretly love Mr. Putin for some reason. Frankly that caricature does not seem to exist in reality pretty much anywhere, at least anywhere your editor has wandered online or offline.
What some people have issues with is the expansion of NATO (after we struck a deal with Russia saying we wouldn’t expand the alliance eastward “one inch” -attributed to Sec. Baker - in the wake of The Cold War.) Additionally there are issues with the over $100 billion in military aid we have sent Ukraine (which ranks as the second most corrupt country on Earth - after Russia). Still others point out the historical claims Russia has to the Donbas and the Crimea, (more than one war has been fought for the strategically important Crimean peninsula - it is also home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, essentially making “repatriation” of the Crimea practically impossible from a geopolitical perspective).
It should also be pointed out that the Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954 on the whim of then Soviet premier Khrushchev.
All of these points, and others (some particularly sensitive, such as the coup in 2014) are not covered widely in the US. We are told that Russia is bad and that Ukraine is good.
What in fact we have here is an ugly proxy war (for us) between the East and West. Russia felt NATO was moving into Ukraine which had served as a buffer state, in some ways similar to how Mongolia serves between Russia and China, and so it is argued by some, that is why Russia moved first.
Is this then a justified action by Russia? Certainly not. Pushing over international borders with arms and invading another country should never be justified. Even if the Crimea and the Donbas are ethnically Russian, speak Russian, and even may want to be part of Russia, this does not justify invasion.
Additionally there is a very important historical point that is a factor in this conflict that almost no one in the United States is aware of, the holocaust of Ukrainians at the hands of Stalin. It was probably as large as the Jewish holocaust at the hands of Hitler ten years later. (We don’t know the exact numbers.) In the 1930s four to seven million Ukrainians, mostly landowning farmers called Kulaks, were starved systematically. They were exterminated in an act of genocide in what is called the Holodomor. That Russia, the driver of the Holodomor is again having its way with the Ukraine is galling. This is a factor, again one that most Americans know nothing of, that plays in the mind of some Ukrainians. It was only 3 generations ago that children died in the gutters of Kiev simply because the communists wanted to eradicate elements of what they considered bourgeois resistance.
One can understand Ukraine’s perspective. One can understand why many Americans want to help. (Even if they don’t know about the Holodomor.)
Certainly most of Washington DC wants to “help”. Indeed, Ukraine as served as an example of policy resurgence for the camp called “neoconservatives” (they are not conservatives in the traditional American sense), the same people who made the case for Iraq and Afghanistan. These politicians, from both parties, have sent billions and billions of US taxpayer dollars to Kiev in blank check form. We are training Ukrainians on weapon systems. Any pretense that this isn’t the US battling Moscow with Ukrainian blood has fallen by the wayside.
But the American people after two years are increasingly wary.
We use the header “News for the Silenced Majority” at In Between Times. The above take may not constitute the majority take on Ukraine currently but it certainly represents a growing take from a larger and larger part of the American people. We just spent 20 years at war in Asia. Many Americans are asking why we are doing this again.
Russia does not pose an existential threat to the United States. Russia is not like the imperial Soviet Union spreading collectivism, oppression, and death. Russia is a gangster state. After China (which does pose an existential threat potentially to the USA) it is probably the world’s leading crony capitalist state. Putin can be legitimately called a thug. But gangsters and thugs can be dealt with, especially when they can’t project any power. They can usually be bought.
An aside. Few have considered what would happen if Putin fell from power. Right now a large swathe of Asia isn’t a problem for us because it is under Russian control. If chaos were to again reign in Russia we could have much bigger problems than the Ukraine. (You’d think we’d have learned this lesson by now.)
It seems to many Americans (mostly on the margins) that Ukraine is basically a battle between a small crowd in Washington and a small crowd in Moscow, with the Ukrainian people and the US taxpayers caught in the crossfire. An international pissing match. But this is the nature of wars generally. The powerful and connected send the poor, powerless, and the unconnected to their deaths. We are told over and over that this or that war is patriotic, that we need to send our men, women, and resources to faraway places that matter not at all for 99% of Americans.
There is no doubt that some of our readers will not like this post. We apologize but we seek to give you good, high quality perspectives that sometimes go against the grain. If you’d like to take us to task please feel free to do so in the comments section.
In fact, please do. This issue is becoming more nuanced by the day.
CNN Poll: Majority of Americans oppose more US aid for Ukraine in war with Russia
(From CNN)
Most Americans oppose Congress authorizing additional funding to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, as the public splits over whether the US has already done enough to assist Ukraine.
Overall, 55% say the US Congress should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine vs. 45% who say Congress should authorize such funding. And 51% say that the US has already done enough to help Ukraine while 48% say it should do more. A poll conducted in the early days of the Russian invasion in late February 2022 found 62% who felt the US should have been doing more.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky Slams Biden for Watching ‘From a Distance’ While Putin Closes In
(From The Daily Beast)
In a video statement posted early Friday morning, President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared to call out President Joe Biden and other western allies for not doing enough to stop Russia’s all-out assault on his nation. “This morning, we are defending our country alone,” said the Ukrainian president. “Just like yesterday, the most powerful country in the world looked on from a distance.”
“Alone”? This is a bit insulting. We appreciate the Ukrainian president’s concern but Americans certainly seem to have done quite a lot to help Ukraine. Over $100 billion is not chump change. Not to mention the geopolitical capital we’ve expended.
Is the Biden administration’s Ukraine policy sustainable?
US carbon capture pipeline setbacks reflect challenges in climate fight
A strange bedfellows (enviros and conservatives - in Iowa) coalition has sought to kill this tech in Cornland.
Thing is, sucking carbon from the air, if climate change concerns you, seems like a good thing to do.
(From Stock Target Advisor)
In the battle against climate change, carbon capture and storage (CCS) has long been hailed as a promising solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, recent developments in the United States, involving the rejection of permits for two significant carbon pipeline projects in the Midwest, shed light on the formidable challenges facing CCS. These setbacks not only pose questions about the viability of CCS as a widespread climate change solution but also underscore the deep-seated public concerns regarding its environmental and safety risks.
Click here for the article.
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Government shutdown, live updates
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