I’m still hoping against hope that this week’s round of negotiations will bring an end to Russia’s bloody criminal attack on Ukraine, or at least a temporary ceasefire. The longer the war continues, the body count will grow exponentially and so will the temptation for western powers to use the war as an excuse for the injection of foreign troops, airpower, and weapons of mass destruction, thereby raising the ante and bringing us ever closer to world war.
The economic ripple effects from the war are already being felt globally with disruptions in the flow of energy and the daily increase in the spiraling cost of fuel and basic goods hitting hardest on the world’s poor. This is driving many countries to increase their reliance on nukes. Oh shit!!!
But the war has been a boon for the defense industry, while billions of taxpayer dollars are funneled from basic human services, environmental protection to arms production, and the weaponization of new technologies.
Case in point. Ukrainian President Zelenskiy spoke to SpaceX and Tesla boss Elon Musk, announcing the country will receive more of its Starlink satellite internet terminals this coming week.
Turkish Bayraktar drones have appeared not only in Ukraine, but also in Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Libya, and Syria.
More bad news…Yesterday’s second temporary ceasefire in the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol which would have allowed thousands of civilians to flee the Russian siege on the city lasted less than a day. The humanitarian situation in Mariupol is “catastrophic” and it is vital that civilians be evacuated, a senior official from the NGO Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières MSF) warned.
Speaking of Doctors Without Borders… two staff members from this heroic group of medical workers have been kidnapped in Yemen, according to Reuters, and their whereabouts are unknown. The reason I bring this up now is that the war in Ukraine has so dominated the headlines that the continued US-Saudi-backed war in Yemen has continued under the radar, as has the latest Israeli assault on the Palestinians.
Zelenskiy wants Israel involved as the peace talks mediator, and what could possibly go wrong there? After all, Israel has such a great record when it comes to peace talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has already met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Bennett later spoke by phone with Zelenskiy. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bennett’s meeting with Putin took place “with the blessing of the U.S. administration.”
Media censorship in Russia and the west…Reporters and media outlets are being pulled out of Russia and Ukraine. Tech companies and telecom providers in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Canada are blocking Russian state-controlled media outlets like Russia Today and Sputnik.
Trump mused Saturday to top GOP donors that the United States should label its F-22 planes with the Chinese flag and “bomb the s--t out of Russia.”
The good news is that last I looked, both country’s nuclear weapons are still in their silos.