decline and fall

Full-Scale Mayhem

NEARLY A YEAR since 7 October, and tens of thousands of civilian casualties in, the world inexplicably still worries about…

About Ukraine, Russia, and Strategy

IF I WAS an American strategic thinker, I would want the war in Ukraine and the Russian…

15 June — The Chinese Yuan, the Golden Horde, the Swiss Summit, Putin’s Demands, and Fight Club

A LOT HAS HAPPENED. Life moves pretty fast, as someone played by Matthew Broderick once said. If you don’t stop, well … Enough of that. I think the one fact/event that…

30 May — Memories of Prigozhin, MoD Purge, the Narva River Buoy Incident, Israel, Mad Max, and Dune

It’s looking like this is going to be a bimonthly, only because life, other interests and, most importantly (or not) work make it difficult for me to churn out…

15 May — Blinken Jams in Kyiv, the Rapidly Dissolving Ukrainian-Russian Border, Georgian Dreams, and Fico Shot

I was proven wrong. Or is Tony Blinken the only person who is reading this site? Because last night, he got up in a club in Kyiv to play “Keep…

13 May — The Case for Subversive Humor, Shoigu and Patrushev Get New Jobs, and the Hoochie Coochie Man Visits Kyiv

My friend recently made a mock-up of an Estonian instructional pamphlet that’s been circulating that informs people of what to do if…

9 May — The Kennedy Brain Worm, Gaza Transgenders at The Met, Ryan Holiday Was Right Again, the

BOBBY KENNEDY CLAIMS A WORM ATE HIS BRAIN. Or part of it. It’s that darn fish heavy diet. Has awful…

11 April — The Medvedev Map, the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, Mike Johnson, Moscow Marjorie, and the Battle of Poltava

8 April — Russia, the New Not Normal, and Putin’s Reality Gap

We have entered a very interesting period, which I would call the new not normal. Russian Federation troops are advancing, sort of, overtaking small communities in the east that, frankly, aren’t really worth dying for. But…