On Russia and Ukraine; Jimmy Lai and China; Donald Trump and dictators; political violence in America; and more
Back in 2005, Vladimir Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” John Bolton pointed this out a week or two ago in a podcast we did on Russia, Ukraine, and the West. In recent days, Putin has returned to the theme. The collapse of the Soviet Union was a “tragedy,” he said, and this collapse was the collapse of “historical Russia.” Putin linked the USSR with “historical Russia.”
To consult TASS, the Moscow news agency, go here.
Putin has amassed 120,000 troops along the border with Ukraine. He has prepared the military ground — prepared it for an invasion of Ukraine (another invasion). He has also prepared the rhetorical ground, it seems to me.
All the lights are flashing red.
• I wish to recommend a piece on the matter — Russia and Ukraine — by Frederick Kagan. In concise fashion, it says what needs to be said. “Western ambivalence about defending Ukraine,” writes Kagan, “stems in part from confusion about Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent state.” So true.
Kagan also writes, “Americans and Europeans must understand that Ukraine’s independence is of vital import — for ourselves as well as Ukraine — and must act accordingly.”
Yes, but there is little chance of that, I’m afraid.
• The West is lousy with apologists for the Kremlin. So it was when I was coming of age, in (what turned out to be) the last stages of the Cold War. We conservatives and anti-Communists said, “The Kremlin might as well save money on its propaganda departments. There are so many in the Free World willing to do the work for them.” The same is true today.
I hear the same old things: “We provoke Moscow, you know. They feel encircled, threatened. They are merely responding to our own belligerence.” That sort of thing.
Commentary’s Noah Rothman tweeted something apt: “I’m beginning to think the nationalist Right doesn’t know the foggiest thing about Russia save that the people they don’t like in America also don’t like Putin.”
• Hong Kong always had a commemoration on June 4 — a commemoration of the Tiananmen Square Massacre (which the Chinese government committed on June 4, 1989). Now, however, Hong Kong is like every other Chinese city: and there can be no commemoration. A Hong Kong court has just sentenced eight people for trying to hold a commemoration last year. One of them is Jimmy Lai, the media mogul and democracy champion.
To see a report, go here.
If commemorating Tiananmen is a crime, said Lai, then “let me suffer the punishment of this crime, so I may share the burden and glory of those young men and women who shed their blood on June 4 to proclaim truth, justice, and goodness.”
There we have a man.
• The U.S. House passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The bill was approved 428 to 1. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “If the U.S. does not speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out for human rights any place in the world.”
Who cast the one vote against? Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican. He said he did not want to interfere in the internal affairs of another country. (To see a report on all this, go here.)
I often think of Solzhenitsyn — who said, “On our crowded planet there are no longer any ‘internal affairs.’ The Communist leaders say, ‘Don’t interfere in our internal affairs. Let us strangle our citizens in peace and quiet.’ But I tell you: Interfere more and more. Interfere as much as you can. We beg you to come and interfere.”
• Upon a stage the other day, Donald Trump was asked, “Who was your favorite world leader to speak with? Who did you enjoy speaking with the most?” (To see a clip, go here.)
“The ones I did the worst with,” said Trump, “were the weak ones. We had weak leaders in the world, too. The ones I did the best with were the tyrants. And they all say, ‘Oh, he loves tyrants, he wants to be a tyrant!’ No. I just, for whatever reason . . .
“I got along great with Putin. I got along great with President Xi of China. I got along great with Kim Jong-un of North Korea. [Audience applause.] And isn’t that good? Isn’t that better than having a nuclear war? I did, I got along great with him. I liked him, he liked me.
“He wrote me beautiful letters. He wrote me beautiful letters. I called them ‘love letters,’ and the press said, ‘He’s saying he wrote . . .,’ and they are, they are love letters.”
Do you have any idea what goes on in North Korea? What the dictatorship does to people?
Look, I can understand why a certain class of amoral people might dig Trump’s words, or be indifferent to them. But I have a harder time understanding the anti-Communists of yore: people who for years demanded moral clarity in our foreign relations, and the championing of freedom, democracy, and human rights. How can they dig Trump’s approach? How can they be indifferent to it?
Many do, and many are. There will be books analyzing the phenomenon (and such books exist already, no doubt).
• I will repeat what I’ve said in Impromptus before: For years, I have opposed “the litigious society.” We Americans are over-suers, in my book. At the same time, I think people are responsible for their actions. They ought to be held to account — and some lawsuits are just.
Cable networks — Fox, Newsmax, OAN — aired outrageous lies about, for example, Dominion Voting Systems. This threatened the ability of DVS to do business, and it led to personal threats against DVS employees. The company is suing these networks. I say, Good. You can’t just lie about people, creating havoc in their lives, with no consequences.
In the bad old days, George W. Bush talked about “personal responsibility,” and said he wanted to help bring about a “responsibility society.”
The latest is this: Two women, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, mother and daughter, have filed a defamation suit against The Gateway Pundit, a website. The women were election workers in Fulton County, Ga. In dozens of articles, the website claimed that the women had committed fraud in the 2020 presidential election — stealing the election from President Trump.
In his infamous phone call of January 3 to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, Trump brought up Ruby Freeman’s name 18 times. (To read about Freeman, Moss, the lawsuit, etc., go here.)
Followers of The Gateway Pundit made the lives of Freeman and Moss a hell. The women received endless death threats. On the advice of the FBI, Freeman fled from her home. She also had to close down her online business (which sold fashion accessories).
Lies are not mere fun and games. Not everyone knows we’re “jes’ playin’,” just performing. Gettin’ the clicks or whatever. These lies can have devastating consequences to actual people. Said Ruby Freeman in a statement, “I want the defendants to know that my daughter and I are real people who deserve justice, and I never want them to do this to anyone else.”
Can’t everyone relate to that, R and D alike, red and blue alike?
• A headline: “O.J. Simpson granted early release from parole, now ‘a completely free man.’” (Article here.) Justice has not been served.
• Well, this has been a completely un-fun Impromptus. Sorry about that. How about a little language? This is not so fun either. Here is a typical headline: “Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores is giving back to community.”
This language of “giving back.” The language is right, in some cases — but not in all, not in many. What have these businessmen “taken” from the community? Mainly, they have provided services. To say that they are “giving back” makes it sound like they are thieves, or something, and are paying restitution.
• A lady I know has just read a new, and popular, novel. “I liked it,” she said. “But I kept thinking, ‘It would be better if Mark Helprin had written it.’” Mark, by the way, has a new web address: markhelprin.org. You can find him and his works — is there a difference? is there ever a difference for an artist? — there.
• End on a grievance? I’ve got grievances. Here’s one: I am not so bothered by junk mail, sent through the USPS. Maybe I should be, but I’m not. Because we have lived with such mail for so long? I am bothered by “spam,” in e-mail — but I’m really bothered by something new, at least in my life: spam, or junk mail, via text. It seems so violative. And outrageous.
• No, let’s end on a photo: a slice of New York, all watery and twilighty.
Thanks for joining me, everyone. Catch you soon.
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