Cancel culture goes international, with consequences
Here’s another recommended aritcle, this one on the parallels between cancel culture and what’s happening to Russia right now in terms of sanctions by private companies or private groups in particular.
The excesses have been piling up. Don’t play Tchaikovsky? Ban disabled Russian athletes? These activities might even have the opposite effect from the desired one, drawing the Russian people behind Putin as the world takes it out on them.
And of course our own sharp reversals of foreign policy since Obama took office have informed the world that they can no longer depend on a certain basic consistency and reliability from the US no matter who is in charge, not just militarily but financially. Whiplash.
The world can also observe that we have elected – and seem to be tolerating as leader – a person who was never smart to begin with and now is further diminished cognitively. This cannot be hidden. There are consequences for the entire country, and not just as long as Biden remains president but beyond. And it’s not limited to just the direct damage he’ll do.
Kamala Harris leaves a slightly different but similarly incompetent impression.
Along with cancel culture come social media calls for assassination, at least of the usual suspects. According to Reuters: “Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy. The social media company is also temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to a series of internal emails to its content moderators. . . . The emails said calls for violence against Russians are allowed when the post is clearly talking about the invasion of Ukraine. They said the calls for violence against Russian soldiers were allowed because this was being used as a proxy for the Russian military, and said it would not apply to prisoners of war.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-facebook-instagram-temporarily-allow-calls-violence-against-russians-2022-03-10/
How many divisions does General Zuckerberg have?
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/398155.php
People in the media simply have no integrity whatsoever anymore, so you have the executive editor of Forbes acting as the Biden Administration’s bitc*.
==
The harassment of random Russians is distasteful, of course. One aspect of ‘cancel culture’ is the politicization of every endeavour and every venue.
“These activities might even have the opposite effect…”
It is my belief that those doing these crazy bans are very ignorant and virtue signaling but some may be trying to get that opposite effect. Our radical Left flipped from love of the USSR to hatred when the Communist Mother Russia fell. That fall has never been forgiven even though it opened the path for the American Left to be the new dominant power on the Left.
Reading so much forget where I read the article that the early Communists started cutting off unwanted people from society, and Rules for Radicals picked it up so now it’s the Leftists/Marxists ritual.
Jacob Siegel (at Tablet) has written a very important piece entitled “Hate Putin! Hate Russia! . . . Hate Cats?”. The grotesque outpouring of indefensible Russophobia currently engulfing the culture (who can fail to be outraged by what has been done to the pianist Alexander Malofeev, in addition to Anna Netrebko and numerous others?) is yet another manifestation not simply of a moral panic, but of mass hysteria and collective psychosis. Our criminally maleficent elites not only misbehave with impunity (financially, sexually, etc) while preening as righteous, but they have the power, through control of the media, to convince much of the gullible public of their supposedly superior morality, when, in fact, they are embodiments of the decadent kakistocracy in which we are now condemned to exist.
sanctions by private companies or private groups in particular.
Problem is that a lot of it is happening at the behest of government, like the incident mentioned above where NIH leaned on Forbes to cancel the contributor writing about Dr Fauci’s finances and lack of transparency.
Our country, and all the other Western countries, have lots of regulations and regulators that can change things on a dime sometimes just with an informal communication. And maybe that isn’t legal, but it could take a very expensive lawsuit which you could lose, so compliance is the better part of valor.
Am orchestra dropping Tchaikovksy, probably not a regulator behind it, just an idiot. Canceling a shipment of machine parts, could very well be a regulator behind it, who maybe just sent an email or had a Zoom meeting.
The line between government and private action is increasingly blurry, both over time and increasing with the size of the private entity. Really big companies often have government as a big client.
It’s interesting comparing the levels of incompetence displayed by Biden and Harris. Biden still thinks that he knows what he’s talking about. Even when he says the most outrageous lie (“It’s simply not true that my policies have led to an increase in gas prices”), he says it with all the conviction his 79 year old brain can muster.
Harris, on the other hand, seems to know that she is in way over her head and reminds me of a student hoping not to get called on or a little leaguer praying that the ball will be hit anywhere except to him. She seems so nervous I can barely stand to watch her. I don’t know if there was ever a leader that inspired so little confidence.
Virtue signaling has little virtue. Russian composers? Russian cats? Russian immigrants? A Russian immigrant is running for county commissioner where I live. She’s a conservative, and I will certainly vote for her.
Apparently the foremost conductor of classical music has been canceled.
Even Dostoevsky has been canceled.
The excellent article to which Neo linked mentions an unintended consequence of the severe sanctions imposed upon Russia; implicit to the severity of the sanctions is the message that any nation that gets out of line can be cancelled.
Maybe a very slight silver lining to the catastrophe that is our national government- if the rest of the world understandably concludes that the US is insubstantial, foolish, and not to be relied on for assistance or advice, maybe we can pull back a bit from the world and stick to our own knitting. I’m willing to take a hit to my standard of living to decrease the risk that my kids or grands will have to go overseas in the military and get hurt, or have some nutcase from the middle east try to get revenge here by blowing up a building or the finish line at a marathon.
We are getting to the point that we can’t afford this foolishness, so maybe we will step back and stop trying.
Banning Tchaikovsky is stupid, but this sort of thing is hardly some new, “cancel culture” development. Recall the waves of moronic anti-German sentiment that accompanied WWI, from shutting down German language programs in schools to the renamed “Liberty cabbage.”
y81:
It is certainly the case that it’s not new, although the fact that it’s now internet-mediated is.
But in WWI, we actually were at war with Germany rather than just sanctioning the country.
My mother’s family was German-speaking, and some regularly read German newspapers on the subway. But they stopped doing that during WWI.
It is all part of a plan to atomize people from each other. Until Barack was elected race relations were improving. Then he got elected and started the process of splitting the body politic. Then the prohibition of certain words. His administration accelerated the process of allowing speech to be suppressed then the “malefactor” be cancelled. And the supposed “liberal” free speech advocates were silent.
Shameful and you no longer have to give any deference to those organizations that once stood for free speech including legacy media. In fact I no longer get my information from them (excluding Tucker Carleson) but from outlets like sub stack content providers, Rumble and trusted blogs that prove themselves over time like this site, Conservative Treehouse. Meaning in History, Viva Frei and certain Zero Hedge contributors. I am much better informed than others. I recommend it.
Apologies to Harold MacMillan* but “cancel cancel” is way better than “war war”. If the worst thing that happens to Russia and Russians is Western nations canceling them, that coupled with the ridiculously negative ROI on the military cost of trying to invade and occupy Ukraine may make other nations think twice–potential bad actors would signal they are up to no good by preemptively disengaging from anything they could be “canceled” from, which would not only be slow but also make them poorer.
*Lots of people think this was Churchill, and MacMillan might have thought he was quoting Churchill, but I can’t find an earlier source than MacMillan.
Frederick::
I have long suspected that quote wasn’t Churchill. It doesn’t sound like his usual elegant use of language.
Geoffrey Britain:
They will be canceling Solzhenitsyn next.
Maybe they already have, come to think of it.
When they tear down the Lenin statue in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle I’ll take them seriously. Until then, well nyet so much.
A friend posted a video of Indian pundits talking about the sanctions.
Not only is it the case case that ordinary Russians are hurt while leaders evade the pain.
In addition the huge reverberations hurt common people everywhere. A person in India is affected by inflation and food shortages and companies shedding employees and investments tanking and …
The pundit-fest was called something like “Why Should We Pay For The West’s Folly” and they were pretty bitter about it.
“The excesses have been piling up. Don’t play Tchaikovsky? Ban disabled Russian athletes? These activities might even have the opposite effect from the desired one, drawing the Russian people behind Putin as the world takes it out on them.”
Like casual Trump voters, or voters who voted against Hillary. Being doxxed, called names, treated as villains. Eventually get sick of it and start fighting back, not because they love Trump, but because they get tired of the B.S
The pundit-fest was called something like “Why Should We Pay For The West’s Folly” and they were pretty bitter about it.
Russia invaded the Ukraine. That’s not the west’s folly.
JimNorCal:
Blame Russia for that one, not the sanctions.
I have read that food shortages will be caused by the invasion itself. The reason is that Ukraine is a big grain exporter for many regions of the world, including India but not limited to it. Ukraine has been attacked by Russia, and that makes it difficult to ship grain (or even harvest it, for all I know).
You can find an article about it here.
I tell you: the pundits blamed the US.
In their view:
1) sanctions have been used before. See Iran, Iraq, Venezuela and on and on
2) sanctions so far NEVER hurt rulers of the target nations
3) sanctions always harm the local people of the target nations
4) sanctions, in addition, hurt innocent people across the globe because common people everywhere are negatively affected by the damage being done to the world economy.
To sum up, their view is not that they think Russia is a moral paragon. But they do think the US is pursuing a chicken-shit virtue signaling policy. It won’t work, and it will harm legions of the innocent.
They feel about us like we react to some millionaire who says “I want gas to go to $10/gallon. I want a clean conscience. Plus, I drive a Tesla.”
Throughout this whole process (cancel culture, not RU vs UA), I’ve been amazed by how deep the rot goes. At every level, there are Karens eager to punish the out-group.
Maybe because I live in a deep, deep blue area, but I really see it everywhere. Government, of course, both elected and bureaucratic officials. Teachers and school administrators at every grade level. Corporations big and small. And it’s at many levels in the corporations. I’m retired now but when I was working, even at the level of our monthly “group activity” we stopped going out for lunch and instead did some Woke Activity. Of course, all the online social platforms. How come NextDoor cares ONLY about people who believe they’re being lied to about Covid? The list of forbidden topics and opinions is not large. All of them are in the US and all of them affect people who have a conservative political outlook. Down to the PTA and neighborhood associations. If you attend a concert, the conductor or performer will feel compelled to make disparaging remarks about, well, us.
So that’s been the shocking part. How could so many people at so many levels of society be so petty, so intolerant?
It’s not just a few isolated leaders.
The Indian pundit-fest “Why Should We Pay For The West’s Folly” was protesting the collateral damage that Non-European nations will suffer, as a result of the West’s sanctions on Russia.
Russia is #1 for grain exports @ 37,267,014 tons per annum. Ukraine is # 5 for grain exports @ 18,055,673 tons per annum.
Cutting off Russia’s wheat exports is sure to place a severe strain on grain supplies with a commensurate impact on pricing. Add to that the likely disruption in the Ukraine’s wheat exports and the effect would be compounded. Bread, cereals and anything wheat based is going to get much higher.
Russia also is a primary supplier of nickel, used most notably in stainless steel production and EV Batteries. There’s already been a huge spike in the price of nickel.
Related…
(WARNING—Before reading link, if not already seated, SIT DOWN firmly, and place your drink, if you have one, on a flat surface at least 1.5 yards away.)
‘Obama econ adviser: No, this is not “Putin’s inflation” — it’s Biden’s’—
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/03/10/obama-econ-adviser-no-this-is-not-putins-inflation-its-bidens-n454408
File under: The Audacity of Honesty.
Speaking of consequences, if another country did to our economy what we’ve done to Russia’s economy, would we not consider that an act of war? Mulitple NATO leaders have referred to the sanctions as “economic war.” Then consider the weapons and materiel that we are providing the Ukrainians. The petty cancellations of Russians and Russian culture just add insult to injury. Real shooting wars have started over much less.
We should not be at all surprised if Putin decides to retaliate against NATO or the US. The only thing that would hold him back is his own calculation about whether he could win (or not lose) a war against NATO. The Ukrainians seem to be giving Putin all he can handle conventionally, so hopefully he decides not to engage NATO. What concerns me most is how Putin would view a nuclear exchange. Does Putin believe he could win (or not lose) a nuclear war with NATO? Does Putin believe that China would enter a war against NATO? Let us pray that the answers to all of those questions are no because the continued existence of the world as we know it may depend on that.
The takeaway, though, is that our leaders have already put us in a position where we are at extreme risk of war, and nuclear war at that. If we are drawn in, they will blame it on Putin (just like they are trying to blame inflation on Putin now). It will not be wrong to blame Putin, but the fecklessness of our own leaders will be as much at fault. And there was no democratic discussion or debate. It’s much like climate change. Are people willing to “do something” about climate change? All the polls say yes. When that “something” starts to actually have a cost, though, the polls flip. Are people willing to “do something” about Putin’s agression in the Ukraine? I think most people of good will are (including me). Are people willing to risk nuclear war over the Ukraine, however? I suspect the answer would be “no,” overwhelmingly. And yet we are risking nuclear war.
Yes, Russia invaded Ukraine. Why? Putin wants to put the band back together? Or the West supported and installed government was failing to follow the Minsk 2 accords? Or NATO is too liberal in claiming to be defensive, and the EU or NATO in Ukraine is unacceptable? Is Ukraine putting up stiff resistance or is Putin trying to minimize civilian casualties and infrastructure damage?
Cancel culture reminds me of C. S. Lewis’s “Inner Circle”, which uses a quote from a Russian novelist. Seems in the novel a general must wait while a captain is getting instructions from a lieutenant. But the lieutenant is a noble, so all is good. People crave approval and acceptance. Get cancelled and a person, or nation, is deprived of both. But cancellation only works if the victim accepts the consequences. My suspicion is the leftist are more prone to conformity than those on the right.
Welcome back to the Cold War, Roosia, aka Vladistan, vs Europe and the West
and what will Xi do?
Or the West supported and installed government was failing to follow the Minsk 2 accords?
There was no ‘west supported and installed government’. At any time. Victor Yanukovich fled the country and the next man in line was the speaker of the legislature, who took office for a brief period ‘ere a new president was elected. The Ukraine has had five competitive elections since 2014 including two presidential elections. Mr. Zelenskyy defeated the previous incumbent in 2019.
Real shooting wars have started over much less.
When?
Cutting off Russia’s wheat exports is sure to place a severe strain on grain supplies with a commensurate impact on pricing.
In 2019, about $1.56 tn worth of foodstuffs was exported by the world’s countries. About $24 bn was exported from Russia, or about 1.5% of the total.
@Art Deco: So wheat is inexpensive? Foodstuffs vary in cost by a lot, so saying Russia was 1.5% of 2019’s food exports by cash value isn’t all that informative when it comes to starvation; $24 billion of wheat will feed far more people than $24 billion of foie gras.
A percentage by calorie rather than dollar is far more likely to be a useful (albeit still flawed) metric.
“Wheat Exports by Country”
https://www.worldstopexports.com/wheat-exports-country/
Russia: US$7.9 billion (17.6% of total wheat exports)
Ukraine: $3.6 billion (8%)
United States: $6.32 billion (14.1%)
Canada: $6.3 billion (14%)
It is a certainty that cutting off 17.6% of the world’s wheat supply and possibly disrupting another 8% will put a severe strain upon world wheat supplies with much higher pricing.
It’s already started:
“Wheat Finds New Record High” 3/7/2022
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-07/card/wheat-finds-new-record-high-Z2AadqbHDvMoDuag9mYC
It is a certainty that cutting off 17.6% of the world’s wheat supply
It doesn’t seem to occur to you that wheat is not usually exported. Russian exports by volume account for 5% of total metric tonnage.
Art Deco:
Russia is the number one exporter of wheat in the world. Not the number one producer, the number one exporter:
https://oec.world/en/profile/hs92/wheat
Also, plenty of wars were sparked by behavior much less provocative than what we’re doing to Russia now.
– The American Revolution – Stamp Act; Intolerable Acts
– The War of 1812 – Impressment
– WWII (For the US) – Oil embargo of Japan
And those are just American wars
Also, plenty of wars were sparked by behavior much less provocative than what we’re doing to Russia now.
Did it occur to you that issues are not causes?
“Did it occur to you that issues are not causes?”
Did it occur to you that YOU don’t get to decide for other people the difference?
Mike
Hey YOU (Bunge), lets not argue about WHO killed WHO. This is supposed to be HAPPY occassion. 🙂
It’s all about who gets to decide (what words mean). – H. Dumpty.
It certainly was a very bad thing for FDR and Congress to have passed the “Lend Lease Act” in March of 1941? It might have been what provoked Germany and Japan to attack the US? Maybe not. Probablly not, IMO.
Issues and causes.
Art Deco,
“In 2020, worldwide wheat exports by country totaled an estimated US$44.9 billion.”
“Below are the 15 countries that imported the highest dollar value worth of wheat during 2020.
Egypt: US$2.7 billion (5.6% of total imported wheat)
Indonesia: $2.6 billion (5.4%)
Turkey: $2.33 billion (4.8%)
China: $2.26 billion (4.7%)
Nigeria: $2.06 billion (4.2%)
Italy: $2.04 billion (4.2%)
Algeria: $1.65 billion (3.4%)
Philippines: $1.57 billion (3.2%)
Japan: $1.53 billion (3.1%)
Morocco: $1.42 billion (2.9%)
Brazil: $1.34 billion (2.8%)
Bangladesh: $1.28 billion (2.6%)
Mexico: $1.1 billion (2.2%)
South Korea: $970.5 million (2%)
Netherlands: $955.1 million (2%)”
I would think that a BILLION dollars US buys a considerable amount of unprocessed wheat.
om,
If memory serves, WWII Germany did not first attack the US. Germany declared war upon the US, after we declared war with Japan. The attack on Pearl Harbor was arguably, the result of our oil embargo upon Japan, rather than the Lend-Lease Act.
Geoffrey, you have cross border trade in foodstuffs totaling $1,560 bn in a given year and you’re fretting over Russia’s $8 bn in wheat, which doesn’t amount to 5% of the wheat produced in the world. What’s going to happen is that enterprises which use wheat as an input will substitute other crops or go looking for other sources, which will in turn persuade grain farmers to change their product mix for the year. Is Mearsheimer pretending to be concerned about commodity markets now?
Bauxite actually buys into the Paul-bot nonsense that Japan, which had for a decade invested contextually enormous sums in attempting to conquer parts of China, attacked the United States to retaliate for a commodity embargo.
Did it occur to you that YOU don’t get to decide for other people the difference?
Again, the notion is silly. They’re not going to increase their haul of fuel and minerals by bombing Pearl Harbor.
Geoffrey:
Issues, causes, and pretexts.
The Lend Lease Act was a means by which the US supplied war materials to countries in active combat against Japan and Germany. Japan and Germany decided to attack and declare war, respectively, on the US 9 months later for their own reasons. But you know that.
Even before that declaration there were shooting “incidents” between German U Boats and US warships in the Atlantic, but neither side declared war IIRC.
Issues, causes, pretexts, excuses, and reasons for war; both sides have a viewpoint and a calculus.
Art Deco – Your distinction between “issues” and “causes” makes no sense. If the British hadn’t been impressing US sailers and restricting US trade in the early 19th century, we likely wouldn’t have declared war on Britain in 1812. That’s causation.
If the British hadn’t passed the Stamp Act and similar taxes, the American colonists likely wouldn’t have revolted. That’s causation.
If the US hadn’t enacted an oil embargo on the Japanese, Japan wouldn’t have needed to conquer US and European territories with additional sources of oil and the need to keep the US from interfering wouldn’t have existed. That’s causation.
I agree with MBunge on this one. The other guy ultimately gets to decide what level of provocation justifies war. We can believe with all our hearts that what we’re doing shouldn’t provoke violence or that it would be irrational for the other guy to respond to our actions with violence, and maybe we’re even right, but once we provoke, it’s out of our hands.
Also re: lend/lease – Just because an action is provocative and might prompt a violent response doesn’t mean that it’s wrong.
The Lend Lease Act was a means by which the US supplied war materials to countries in active combat against Japan and Germany.
Japan wasn’t formally at war with Britain until December 1941. It was not at war with Soviet Russia until August 1945. Lend-Lease aid in 1940 and 1941 was for Britain.
Art Deco,
Why would Russia cut off its revenue from those commodity exports, if they know it will only minimally affect the West?
I’m sure that buyers of wheat will look for alternative suppliers. But if wheat prices continue to rise from the current 60% increase… much higher inflation is a certainty. Nor is wheat the only commodity increasing in price.
WWII Japan produced no oil and conducting its expansionist war required oil and fuel. The US embargo cut off the fuel for Japan’s war machine, which was the entire point of the embargo.
If the US hadn’t enacted an oil embargo on the Japanese, Japan wouldn’t have needed to conquer US and European territories with additional sources of oil and the need to keep the US from interfering wouldn’t have existed. That’s causation.
The Philippines have never been an oil exporter of note.
There were raw materials in Indonesia which were captured by the Japanese military in early 1942. The Japanese could have taken Indonesia without doing something betwixt and between to trigger an American declaration of war. Indonesia was run by a relict Dutch administration, the mother country having been occupied by Germany. British forces in the Malay states weren’t a position to prevent the Japanese advance.
Why would Russia cut off its revenue from those commodity exports, if they know it will only minimally affect the West?
That it will have minimal effect is right there in the numbers. Russia has no magic which will turn a small problem into a large one.
Art Deco:
Lend Lease Act had provisions to supply Republic of China which was in a war with Japan, see Wickedmedia. Japan’s ongoing warfare in China was one reason for economic sanctions applied to Japan.
Issues, causes, pretexts. A tangled web indeed. 🙂
Lend Lease Act had provisions to supply Republic of China which was in a war with Japan,
Notionally. Very little had been distributed to China prior to December 1941.
Art Deco,
“Why would Russia cut off its revenue from those commodity exports, if they know it will only minimally affect the West?” GB
“That it will have minimal effect is right there in the numbers. Russia has no magic which will turn a small problem into a large one.”
However true that may be (wheat comprises 15% of total global caloric intake, though obviously much higher for some countries) that response does not answer my question; why would Russia cut off its revenue from its wheat exports, if they know that it will only minimally affect the West and the world?
that response does not answer my question; why would Russia cut off its revenue from its wheat exports, if they know that it will only minimally affect the West and the world?
You can ask the officials who did that. There is no doubt it’s not going to have much effect.
“There is no doubt it’s not going to have much effect.”
Do you agree that the rise in the cost of wheat will determine the accuracy of that claim? As example, official rate of inflation is 7.9%. Cost of wheat is up 60%. Which of course can’t yet be ascribed to Russia cutting off its wheat exports.
But if the cost of wheat rises to say 200%?
Is there any metric by which you’d concede that Russia ending its wheat exports, to any nation unfriendly to Russia, would be seen as inflationary?
Do you agree that the rise in the cost of wheat will determine the accuracy of that claim?
No, it will not. It’s too small a part of the global economy. Your problem right now is horribly irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy in Washington.
Art Deco
There was no ‘west supported and installed government’.
We must be reading different sources.
At any time. Victor Yanukovich fled the country and the next man in line was the speaker of the legislature, who took office for a brief period ‘ere a new president was elected. The Ukraine has had five competitive elections since 2014 including two presidential elections. Mr. Zelenskyy defeated the previous incumbent in 2019.
My guess is the way it works is like this: there are at least two teams, the corrupt, pro-Russian team and the corrupt not pro-Russian team, assumed Western friendly. When there is violence in leadership change, and it goes from one team to the other, some might call it a coup. When members of one team transfer leadership to another team member, without violence, that isn’t a coup. However, I sincerely doubt members of one team would peaceable transfer power to a member of the other team, legally. That is something Americans used to be famous for. The elections since 2014 don’t really feel impressive. Did they have international voting observers, one day of balloting with pre-registration, no absentee ballots without cause, and signature verified voting? Or did they vote Fulton County Georgia style?
Sound familiar?
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/1-reason-imperial-japan-attacked-pearl-harbor-oil-88771
Sound familiar?
Again, as a motive it hardly makes any sense. If you were ready to rumble over oil, rubber, and minerals, you’d take the bloody oil, rubber, and minerals and then see what the reaction was from Britain and the United States.
If you dust off public opinion surveys taken in 1938 in the United States, the share of those polled who favored participation in a hypothetical European war was around 4%. Even in 1940 and 1941, at a time when the U.S. was engaged in rapid rearmament and instituting Lend-Lease aid, the share favoring participation in the war was less than 20%. It’s difficult to believe that Japan taking the Dutch East Indies from the dangling colonial authority was going to change public opinion on foreign entanglements appreciably. Britain couldn’t defend their own possessions in the Far East, much less the Dutch possessions.
However, I sincerely doubt members of one team would peaceable transfer power to a member of the other team, legally.
Politics is played for keeps in the Ukraine. However, Russophile parties acceded to the transfer of the presidency in 2004 and Europhile parties did so in 2010. In re Yanukovich, neither the security forces nor his own political party would go to bat for him.
The Russophile parties have participated in all the elections held since 2014. Prior to 2014, they could command about 40% of the Ukrainian electorate. After, they were good for about 16%. You had two Russophile candidates in the 2019 presidential election. They won between them 16% of the vote.
Putin’s a crummy salesman. He’s been bested by a Democratic Party hack named Victoria Nuland.
Art Deco – You’re really off your game on this one. It doesn’t matter at all what strategy makes sense to you or how you believe the American public would have responded. The only thing that matters is what the Japanese thought, and we have a historical record on that.
The Japanese military thought that they needed to knock out US capabilities before making a move for the Dutch East Indies. Japanese military leaders were very much aware that the U.K. was bogged down and that the Netherlands was occupied by the Nazis. They were still afraid of the US responding. Maybe they were wrong. (Maybe the Japanese Empire would still be around if you had been advising them in 1941.) But wrong or right, that’s what they thought and how they responded to our embargos.
It’s the same situation with Putin today. I think it would be sheer madness for Putin to respond to our economic and cultural agression by launching a hot war with NATO. Are we sure Putin agrees? As the board sets up now, his is the only vote that matters.
The Japanese military thought that they needed to knock out US capabilities before making a move for the Dutch East Indies.
Whether that’s true or not, Bauxite, it does not establish a trade embargo as a cause of the 2d world war.