okay


[click image]


...

I hope he's right. I really hope he's right. As you know, I have reservations about the judgement of the guy on whose information he's relying, but he does seem to be the best-informed... or did at last count. This has been no year for me to have been so distracted by my personal life, and so I might be feeling more cautious than is warranted, but I have for many years now relied on Putin to be the sane one in all matters geopolitical, and I hope this guy is right, even if he comes right out and says he's relying on someone whose judgment I think falls short too often.

Perhaps I will spend the weekend concentrating on this information, and if I can't take the audible speech for two hours, I can switch over to the transcript.

This is putting me in mind of the time I had to answer a rabid and ranging Democrat the day after Trump was elected, asking for one good reason this didn't mean doom for the world. I said, "Because he loves his children." And no matter whether you are in the Trump-is-crazy-like-a-fox camp or the Trump-is-a-lying-fascist camp, you ought to both believe this simple fact, and know that no matter what it is still going to be better than the alternative.

I'm also remembering my Iranian friends who were not feeling so enthusiastic about their country relying on Russia. They didn't see how Russian hegemony could be better than American hegemony. They didn't see it. So, being as how their asses are on the line and I'm given to bouts of hero worship, I tried my hardest to see it their way. It came right down to who would I rather have as Emperor... if it's really psychopaths on both sides, which faction would I prefer. Putin's putative psychopaths still won.

Because he has not wavered from the truth in all these years. He doesn't lie. Neither does Lavrov. Put that up against any of our third millennium presidents and any of their top diplomats.

Are you nuts?

No you are not.


pipe up any time....