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Sandhill crane

Thursday, February 24, 2022

2/24/22

One of the problems I have been facing in the last year is recovery time. I just can't bounce back from a week on the road like I used to. I am exhausted but still trying to be productive every day. Not working really well today. But it's not just me. I talked to Warmboe today and he is beat as well. That is why I am trying to forsake back to back shows, they are just too brutal.

Too tired to work also means too tired to write. I have some things to say about Ukraine but don't want to be too half assed about it while I am deplete. But I will say that events bring me back to something my 10th grade history teacher Mr. Reagan taught me; countries are as moral as economically feasible. And so are people. And it often turns into; not very.

So whether it is countries in Europe willing to overlook Russian intransigence so their gas supply doesn't get shut off or the other golfers mad at Phil Mickelson for accidentally telling the truth about Saudi barbarity, the answer is the same. Don't expect humans to do the right thing or to stick up for the little guy against the bully or ask if the holocaust can happen again because of course it can and it probably will. Because we are usually only good when it fits our selfish purposes.

What was the Napoleon Bonaparte quote that I recently read and mentally footnoted; A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. Or for other people's rights. Pretty much.

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Still I have to chuckle when I see the convolutions regarding the current invasion amongst my Republican brethren. Steve told me that he could never back Liz Cheney because she is a war monger. This is a position first laid out of late by Rand Paul and I guess further back to Neville Chamberlain. The isolationist appeasers. I am old enough to remember a time when it was the liberals who championed peace at all costs. Now the scripts have flipped and the GOP is becoming the antiwar party.

Would humanity have the gumption and strength to stop a Dachau or Birkenau today or a Killing Fields for that matter? Very doubtful. Is anybody worth saving if it will cut into our cushy lives?

Of course we have the Tucker Carlsons and Laura Ingrahams giving Vladimir the greenlight and a disgusting ex President who claims that the invasion is a smart move for a despot who senses weakness in his neighbors. Or the fault of his successor for not projecting enough strength. He claims to be so good at everything but forgets that he couldn't deliver on the most basic promises during his administration, even with a Republican congress, on things like fixing health care and a host of other promises that went nowhere. A study in incompetence. And lest we forget, the man who withheld $400 million dollars from the Ukraine in military aid because they refused to participate in a scheme to defame his political adversaries.

Does the GOP even believe in right and wrong anymore? Or do any of the rest of us for that matter? And how far will we go out on a limb for our friends? These questions are largely rhetorical, I frankly don't know.

Anyway, that is about it for me. I am played out. By the way, I free handed my title script today for the hell of it. First time, doesn't look too bad, if I may say so myself. Considering I can hardly write cursively any more.

take care,

Robert


3 comments:

Liz said...

You are writing for me also

Anonymous said...

Robert, what the hell are you talking about? Tucker Carlson has been very outspoken against Russia, Russia, Russia! He railed against the Washington war machine, both Repubs and Dems.
for advocating war with Russia or at the very least being dishonest or dumb regarding our approach to Russia. He has had Tulsi Gabbard and Doug McGregor on many times discussing our mistake in not backing off on pushing Ukraine into NATO. A NATO country on Russia's border (remember when Russia put missiles in Cuba) with nuclear capabilities is a no go with Putin.
Restoration of the old Soviet Union has also been mentioned.
Tucker Carlson is conservative, yes, but one of the few honest voices, critical of Republicans and Democrats, in a wilderness of misinformation: Facebook, Washington Post, New York Times MSNBC CNN...to many to list. We have had four years of lies about US-Russian relations...it wasn't Tucker Carlson creating That!
JS

Blue Heron said...

From today's paper- "Mr. Trump’s media cheerleader, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, urged Americans to ask themselves what they had against Mr. Putin and echoed the Kremlin as he denigrated Ukraine as not a democracy but a puppet of the West and the United States that was “essentially managed by the State Department.”