War

On TV today I watched a Ukrainian couple being interviewed. They were running west to get away from Putin's SS troops, but they told the interviewer that America had started the war. All Putin had ever wanted to do was negotiate, they explained. 

Determining who started an aggressive war could not be more simple. Who first sent troops across another nation's border? But you do have the option of conspiracy theories. Some theorists, for example, tell you that America started World War Two. Never mind that the war began years before the Japanese attacked us and that Germany declared war against us the next day. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Marjorie Taylor Greene is as stupid and ugly as you can get and as mean as a rattlesnake, and she has won high office. This is the land of opportunity!

Fascism Has a Bad Name

Fascism has a bad name, of course, but 1945 was a long time ago. Is Don Trump a Fascist? What is a Fascist? I looked it up.

1. A Fascist government is a dictatorship for life led by one sociopath. 

2.  The dictator is often an ultranationalist intent on ruling everyone who speaks his native language. Hitler began by absorbing Austria and conquering Czechoslovakia, which had many Germanic citizens. 

3. In a Fascist system elections are rigged. Political opposition is suppressed with violence. Secret police assassinate opposition leaders. 

4. Fascists believe that the liberal democracies (anocracies) are obsolete, timid and easily swept aside in wars. 

5. Extreme nationalism motivates Fascist regimes to commit genocides, massacres and forced deportations. 

6. Human rights are discarded in favor of violence against a scapegoat group that includes torture, mass murders, etc. This tends to make a dictator more popular within his own ethnic group.

7. Sexism and homophobia are rampant in Fascist systems. 

Don Trump, experts agree, does not quite qualify as a Fascist. He's too erratic, weak and stupid to meet this very low bar. Of course, there are other national leaders around the world who do qualify as Fascists, although they will not use the term themselves. 

A Key Question

 How many Ukrainians will have to die to keep Putin in power?

Easy Covid Shot

If you want a quick and easy covid inoculation and you live nearby, the place to get one is the Roseland Community Center. Roseland is in the SW section of Santa Rosa, California.

On Friday Susan and I set off to get our second boosters. The community center in Rosalind offered all three main kinds of shots, and they took walk-ins. No appointment needed. You filled out a form and ten minutes later the shot was in your arm. (This fast program ends in June, I think.)

But on the way we got into a disagreement about the address of the community center. Susan claimed it was at 779 Sebastopol Road, while I maintained it was at 779 Sebastopol Avenue. We did agree that the Roseland Community Center would likely be found in Roseland, which has as its central street, Sebastopol Avenue, according to Siri. 

By the time we found the community center, I was ready to move on, but Susan asked the first person we saw inside the building what street we were on. Somewhat startled, the woman said we were on Sebastopol Road, but she looked and sounded uncertain. 

About 20 minutes later we were leaving, and I hit on the idea of looking at the street signs. The first one we came to read "Sebastopol Road." The second read "Sebastopol Avenue." 

The Putin Apologist

I said to de Selby, When it comes to war, I am against the man who fires the first shot. That's why I protested when Bush attacked Iraq. And when Putin attacked Ukraine.

"Putin has his reasons," de Selby replied. He was a man of the broadest understandings and seldom rushed to judgment. 

Everyone has reasons, I said, but someone has to shoot first. Have you ever been to Pearl Harbor?

"Of course," he said. "Japan had its reasons."

Later I had a thought. What sort of man wanted to become the dictator of Russia? Who would make that his goal? Why is de Selby afraid of police officers but not of male nurses?