Stay Turned with Preet Bharara did a town hall in NYC recently and invited Ben Stiller, Garry Kasparov and Alexander Vindman. This is a must listen podcast. The first conversation with Ben Stiller is good in its own right, especially to fans of his hit series on Apple +, Severence. Best series on TV in decades. I’m serious. So so good. But enuf of that. It’s Kasparov and Vindman that get to the heart of the matter in Ukraine. I’ve heard similar sentiments from Timothy Snyder and Fiona Hill recently. Basically, Ukraine HAS to win, not only for itself but for the rest of us. It’s existential for the free world. Don’t believe me? Emmanuel Macron finished only 4 points ahead of Russian backed candidate Marine Le Pen in last weekend’s first round of elections for president of France. Voters will think of their own personal economy first. But Vindman and Kasparov make a case for dealing a knock out blow to Putin as quickly as possible.
In fact, there’s really no way around it. The west must show strength and determination against putin to get him to back down. The longer this drags out, the more painful it’s going to be for the entire world. Better to close the skies now, deal putin a crushing defeat and let Kremlin insiders take care of the rest.
As for putin dropping nukes, they both made some great points: 1.) Putin can’t pull the trigger by himself. There is a chain of command. And 2.) Putin can’t be within 30 feet of anyone, which indicates that he wants to live.
Great podcast. It’s a don’t miss. Catch it here.
Filed under: General |
The Confluence 
This vid of Chris Hayes interviewing Prof. Timothy Snyder is also good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRiDdvG-BDc
Yeah, I listened to that. Grim. It feels like he, Ioffe, Hill, Gessen, have all done the same thought experiments and they seem really freaked out at the prospect of Ukraine not winning.
It makes me anxious.
You seem to think Russia can win. It looks to me like they’re getting their, ahem, Bear ass kicked. 😈
But yes, send them the weapons and other equipment they need.
Send the things to Ukraine, I mean. I just realized the pronoun was unclear.
And on WordPress, I can’t fix it. One of the many ways in which WordPress is not fun, which is, I think, the main reason I don’t hang out here as much as I once did. I’m sick of WP’s inadequacies.
My initials, but I know you did not mean me, I think! 🙂
No; I was abbreviating “WordPress”.
Years ago there was a segment of the British comedy “Yes, Prime Minister” *the successor to “Yes, Minister”) entitles “Salami Tactics”. I’ve been reminded of this many times in the last few weeks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg-UqIIvang
BTW: You’d be shocked at how little time is devoted ot history in the typical International Relations PhD curriculum.
@Propertius, if that is your background or that of someone you know, tell us, please. I would have been shocked, oh, three months ago, before I started seeing all this sphere of influence punditry re Ukraine, from people who clearly had no idea of what has happened there in the last few centuries.
Dr. Dr. Mrs. Propertius. That first PhD is in International Relations from Dalhousie. Pretty much no history, because anything before the Cold War is irrelevant to the modern world. Seriously. I was stunned when she told me that a few years ago.