Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Yes, context matters. In another example, I never found Robert Downey Jr's performance in Tropic Thunder insulting even though he was in blackface, because in the context of the movie the performance is making fun of actors and "method acting," not making fun of black people. It's really quite a feat that they pulled it off, there are few things just as through-and-through insulting as blackface and it would have been easy for them to think they were only making fun of actors but slip into mocking black people too.

 

I do not believe that for a momen although Trump being Trump he was makin some stupid comments about the alliance. But the end result was that he forced some EU government to finally spend some money on their own defense. And his speech in Warsaw during his only visit there was a clear commitment to NATO in its current borders. Not reported on CNN or, if I recall, anywhere in American media. And it was believed where it counted the most, the Eastern edge of NATO.
He dumped on the NATO members that were clearly that were abusing the US duty to protect the NATO countries, but ha d completely different approach to the government that were spending their fair share on defense.

 

Trump at the very least projected the idea of a kind of isolationism that suggested a pullback from NATO, even if that wasn't a reality in the actions of his administration. I guess that could be said for quite a bit of Trump's presidency and illusory policy positions.

 

Why would any country, including US, be for expansion of NATO at this point is beyond me.
The whole point of NATO is to create a credible threat to Putin preventing him from attacking. The more countries it includes the least credible is the threat. Ukraine deserves independence and it should be supported economically, improving their ability to defend themselves in any way possible, and there are other ways that CIA can use very well.
But to be on direct collision course with Russia in more and more places does not make any sense considering China

 

The thing is, Awkwafina is a rapper ffs, of course she's going to use a "blaccent" occasionally, just like some black people "code switch"... aka, use their normal "blaccent" (god i hate that word) speaking voice around friends and family and then a more "proper" speaking voice when around white people or when going for a job interview.

But it's generally accepted that blaccents are used in urban areas by all kinds of people, black, white, hispanic, asian... it's more of a class thing. "Cultural appropriation" is an idiotic term in this sense, since blacks aren't the only one to use blaccents and code switching and nobody really cares except narcissistic social media parasites, basically professional "victims", just looking to boost their profile. Their aim in life is to profit from victimization narratives.

I remember back when George Clooney said in an interview any celebrity on twitter is a moron. There's no element of mystery to stars anymore, which is probably why the Oscars ratings are in the toilet.... they're constantly in your face on social media now. And they live or die by the online mob.

 

Sometimes I like to be a smartarse, that will not work, we only buy washers from China:



washing machines:



are still made to a not negligible amount in Europe.

 

So very true. Dec 7th, 1917 is when USA entered WWI and we have been Western Europe's army ever since (more than a 100 years! our very own "100 years war"!!"). Yes there has been trade, but the cost to USA people has been enormous (though the elite got rich as usual). Easy to say things like "history will judge..." but man looking back at 100 years of 'free' defense for the euro tax payer, and we mostly bilked ourselves into it.

It would have been interesting if Trump had had party backing. If Republicans were real conservatives and had allowed him to get some, any, "peace" dividend...but both parties were never going to allow that to happen.

I have to admit, I almost with Russian tanks had rolled across Western Europe at the height of Cold War. They fully deserved it - the moralism of "democracy vs. evil empire" being so much bullshit, and the average USA taxpayer would probably be better off today...maybe...

 

I can't claim to understand the complexities, but I don't understand why the world lets's big bullies like China and Russia just invade other countries. I don't think we should stand by and let Ukraine be invaded, and I don't think we should have stood by and let Tibet be invade by China either. I don't know what Russia would do if the entire world sent troops to Ukraine to stop them, but big picture, I feel it's the right thing to do.

 

Now the question is, will China use this timing to launch an attack on Taiwan.

 

Don't have anything thoughtful or smart to say right now. Let's hope this isn't cheers to WW3 right now...

 

Definitely not. But if Russia was invading the UK, it would be WWIII, or at least the rest of the Western world vs Russia. And everyone would feel it was justified. Part of me just doesn't' feel it's right that countries like Ukraine and Tibet don't receive that same treatment.

I would of course prefer that Russia f**k off and leave Ukraine alone.

 

Hopefully not, there are two big meetings coming in in early March, then a even bigger one in November or something, to make sure who the real boss is. So probably after 2022? But don't take my words. I don't think I can pass any "Common Chinese polities test" as a Chinese guy.

Although I've been avoiding simplified Chinese social media for some years, I can still receive trends and feedbacks based on my friend's reactions on events. And the sad thing is that it seems most of mainland social media users are cheering for war now. Yes, it's a monitored and moderated result, since we are in China, but I bet major of the population agrees on "take back Taiwan", and many of them would agree with invasion. Some idiots called China being soft (on Taiwan), and thought Russia as a great example of power and determination. BTW most of Chinese people LOVE Russian, due to controlled education and further social media influencing. They see Russia as a nation of warriors, sigh.

And as information gets more isolated in China, I see no improvement on this "Wolf Warrior" mindset (A Chinese film, showing a soldier flexing in Africa? I didn't watch it, though it was the biggest hit in China) . I don't know whether there would be any internal pushbacks by the time the invasion of Taiwan really takes place. Me and some of my friends don't want to see any of the invasion, but we all see it coming.

Really really sad today.

 

Well, the UK is historically a stable and productive partner for the US and (yes, I know, Brexit, stop laughing) the rest of the European countries in NATO, for the most part.

That's not the boat Ukraine is in; Russia's political influence cratering there is a relatively recent development, and generally Western governments haven't trusted anyone there to be a particularly stable partner. Yeah, it's not fair that some countries are in a position to be pushed around like this, but when you're talking about deploying actual people to kill and die, it's harder to make the argument to do it for a place that you're not sure will really be in your corner. Even when it's obviously very costly in many ways to not do it.

Harder still when there are other potential military issues to worry about, too. The US isn't omnipotent. It has things it needs to prioritize over others, but it hasn't seemed to act like it until very recently. Leaving Afghanistan is the first clear sign in recent years that anyone involved really understands that there are limited strategic resources available. And a lot of the people involved did not want to do that - even to pull off a messy withdrawal took a lot of effort from Biden to make sure he had things like a cooperative staff in place with the authority and wherewithal to follow through.

Yeah, this is extremely ugly (the kind of ugly that could make some really unpredictable dominoes fall). But the US would've needed to behave differently going back at least a few years, maybe a decade or more, to see this go differently, I suspect.

 

Ukraine has requested foreign assistance for defending their airspace. If this happens and foreign fighter jets are sent to counter Russian attacks in Ukraine, I'd say there's a real change of the situation escalating into WW3.

 

Every war must be paid for in blood. Think for a moment how willing you are to give your life, or the life of someone you love, to defend Ukraine?

Any leader taking that decision must weigh the cost to families across their country. From a moral standpoint, a political one, and even an economic one. They also have to weigh the risk of escalation into World War, and their strategic position vs other larger threats. No one wants to get dragged into war unless there's absolutely no choice.

Politicians who make those decisions are their own flawed beasts, subject to the systems of government. They'll need political support, ideally bi-partisan, in the long term. With everything now muddied by hybrid warfare.

Even if it's the right call many will be against it. Even with the lessons of WW2 behind us. Because they won't recognize the larger danger, or they're naive, partisan, self-serving, politically opportunistic, lack objectivity, or are just plain scared of the consequences.

Morally I'm with you, and I think something needs to be done about Putin. The longer it's not the worse it'll be, unfortunately life isn't so simple.