I’m begging ya
"As a discussion on the internet grows longer, the likelihood of a person being compared to Hitler or another Nazi, increases until it approaches 100%." - Godwin’s Law
For the love of everything holy and good… I am begging Democrats, Republicans, activists, keyboard warriors, and political commentators everywhere… PLEASE… Please read a book about any era of history other than the one from Austria and Germany that lasted between the years of 1933 and 1945.
Honestly, it’s like some of you have never heard of anything that doesn’t actually have anything to do with the Nazis.
Here are some fun examples of things to learn about that might help you talk about current events that have nothing to do with National Socialism in the middle of the last century:
The opium wars in China
Pancho Villa and Mexican banditos
Julius Caesar and his fine salad dressing
The history of the CIA and how it differs from the Culinary Institute of America
Cuba and Cubism and which one is a kind of painting
Charlemagne v. Charles the Great and why we let the Frenchies have that one. We don’t say Alexandermagne
The Cold War and why it made so many people sweaty
The Mongols and how their barbecue isn’t barbecue at all, but stir-fry
The Korean War
The Pacific theater v. musical theater and how South Pacific is an example of both.
See, not everything is Hitler. As a matter of fact, almost nothing is Hitler… except Hitler.
Just so you know: Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 to a middle class Austrian family. He grew up before a united Germany, under the Austria-Hungarian Empire. He was not particularly successful as a young man and failed at several pursuits.
He fought in WWI and was wounded. In the decade after WWI he got involved in a new radical movement, based in antisemitism and nationalism… movements like that were gaining traction in post WWI Germany because of the economic and cultural collapse that followed the loss of the war.
In 1919, Hitler joined what would become the Nazi Party (he was number 555). In 1923, he became its leader. In November of 1923, he led a riot at a beer hall and a bunch of people were killed. He was put in prison… where he wrote a book called Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In this book he outlined his philosophy.
He grew in power and in 1933 became the head of Germany. He believed that he was going to lead Germany into a 1,000 year resurgence of the Roman Empire. He would be the new Julius Caesar, and Berlin would be the new Rome. He had racial views that were as strange to modern ears as they were abhorrent. Oh yeah… and he was addicted to meth, but he did like dogs.
In 1939 he invaded Poland. In 1940 he invaded Western Europe. In 1941 he invaded the Soviet Union. He and his government rounded up Jews and other undesirables and killed them by the millions. His wars of aggression led to the deaths of tens of millions more.
It was a singularly idiotic and insane thing to do, and there is not a good comparison to anything that has ever happened, before or since. He literally tried to take over all of Europe and kill everyone who wasn’t of a pure race, by his own insane definition.
So… if you see someone doing that, please let us all know. But every time Donald Trump scratches himself, or every time Vladimir Putin shoots a Ukrainian, stop pretending like it’s WWII. It’s not. It’s not similar. It’s completely different. Study something else.
Please and thank you.
Ukraine
“So, Ukraine is a country in Europe. It exists next to another country called Russia. Russia is a bigger country. Russia is a powerful country. Russia decided to invade a smaller country called Ukraine. So basically that's wrong.” Vice President Kamala Harris
Man! Did we dodge a bullet, or what? Can you imagine where we’d be right now if that dingbat had actually won? She’d probably be conducting a two year search to find the world’s blackest crippled tranny to lead peace negotiations. But I digress…
If we are going to talk about Ukraine in any serious matter, we have to start by acknowledging a few facts.
Russia invaded Ukraine … in March of 2014.
Russia has continuously held Ukrainian territory since.
In February of 2022, Russia massed troops on the Ukrainian border and telegraphed her intent to mount a full scale invasion. At the end of February 2022, she did invade.
With help from the United States and other NATO countries, through the use of technology and gifts of weapons and cash, Ukraine has mounted an incredible defense of her country. It has been truly heroic.
While there are legitimate arguments about how this might have been avoided, nothing changes the fact that Russia conducted this invasion in violation of international law and norms, and is the aggressor in this war.
Ukraine cannot sustain this war and will eventually collapse if peace cannot be negotiated. If things are allowed to continue as they are currently going, Kiev will fall and Russia will take all of Ukraine.
As of today, the war has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, has displaced tens of millions of people, and cost the American taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars. Much of that money is unaccounted for and likely stolen.
Those are facts. So what should Donald Trump do? What should Zelenskyy do?
The American people simply didn’t sign up for another forever-war. We are exhausted by the wars. We always seem to be playing a major part, even if we aren’t actively fighting them.
Right now, ask any working American… any normal, middle class, working American… How much money out of their paycheck every two weeks would they like to contribute to the war in Ukraine? I can tell you the answer. The answer is ZERO. It’s zero dollars and zero cents, and will likely be followed by curses and epithets.
Does that mean we shouldn’t have supported Ukraine? Should we immediately cut off their support now?
Of course not. We don’t make foreign policy decisions based on whether or not some factory worker in Dublin VA wants to carve extra money out of his paycheck. There are international priorities that the United States needs to tend to, whether Bubba the truck builder agrees or not. That said, what it does mean is that the policy of the United States should be to end the conflict on acceptable terms, not continue it indefinitely.
This was not sold to the American people as a years long war. It was not sold to us as a reason to risk nuclear conflict with Russia. It was not sold as a several hundred billion dollar adventure. We were told that we needed to help defend Ukraine from an invading force and deter Russia long enough to allow a peace to be negotiated. However, for some reason, time after time, the United States and our NATO allies have refused to enter into that negotiation.
The war has become a stalemate… and if WWI taught us anything, there is no limit to how expensive in lives and treasure a stalemate war can be. It just goes and goes until one side runs out of young men to throw into the meat grinder… and in this case, the country that will run out first is Ukraine.
The war needs to end, and it needs to end now. Terms will not be better a year from now when Ukraine has even fewer men and the United States has even less willingness to fund the slaughter.
The terms are the same terms that would have prevented the war in the first place. Get comfortable with them:
Recognition of Crimea and Donbas as Russian territory
No Ukraine in NATO
Security guarantees for Ukraine
No offensive weapons placed in Ukraine
That’s the deal. Some version of that is what is going to happen. In return, we get peace. It’s not appeasement, it’s pragmatism and ending the war.
I guess my only question is, why doesn’t Zelenskyy seem to want it?
DOGE
Folks, I’m just not the right guy to complain to about layoffs. The vast majority of Americans have had their household affected by reductions in force, corporate bankruptcies, restructurings, changing directions, or whatever other euphemism you want to use for, “we aren’t going to be paying your ass any more.”
For some reason, the folks who work for the Federal government were under the impression that they were immune to that reality the rest of us have always lived in.
“I’m a civil servant. I can’t just be fired. I have protections from that.”
Apparently not.
Look, I’m really not celebrating people losing their jobs. I get it… it’s tough. It’s scary. They thought they were secure and it turns out they weren’t. Now they are going to have to find something else to do.
But that’s life, hun. I didn’t make the rules… I’m just here playing the game along side you. There is no such thing as a job you can’t get fired from, unless you own the company. Everyone else is at risk. Sometimes it’s your fault, sometimes it isn’t.
Now buck up, buttercup… because you aren’t going to find a lot of sympathy out there among us ‘real worlders’. Shit happens. Cancel the trip to Disney this year, brush up that CV, and dive into that LinkedIn bottomless pit with the rest of us.
Non Sequitur
A few things I’ve learned. In no particular order:
smoke cigars
don’t think about yourself so much
communism failed everywhere it has been tried
enjoy the moment, you are more fortunate than most
God loves you
all taxation is theft
spicy food is good food, but not Thai spicy. that’s too spicy
See you all soon!
—Virgil
Another good one. Glad you’re writing again.