The Judge: "I don't know how this ends unless there's a sea change in the majorities of the houses of Congress in the elections in 2026."
I don't see how ANYTHING ends well unless a majority of sane, uncompromised legislators who will be true to the Constitution and loyal to the vast majority of citizens are elected in 2026 and all subsequent elections. The lunatics are running the asylum and must be toppled from power. That is the whole point of this ... https://johnrachel.substack.com/p/the-contract-for-american-renewal.
We need real democracy, from the ground up, government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That will not happen unless citizens unite and focus on REAL CHOICE in the voting booth.
By signing the Minsk Agreement in 2015 Porochenko, very reluctantly, accepted that Donbas would be granted autonomy. So what Russia did with its SMO was force Ukraine, eight years later, to implement the agreement it had signed. Except that now, the only way to achieve autonomy was secession, since in the meantime Ukraine had armed itself to the hilt with NATO help. It became obvious when the SMO burst that Putin was right: Ukraine was getting ready to attack the Donbas who had already decided there was no way to live peacefullywith the hated Russian citizens. The conduct of the Maidan regime was diametrically opposite of what Ukraine had signed when they became independent in 1991. It was all love and kisses back then among the newly independent states.
There were indeed reports - apparently now lost to history, that Ukraine had 16 brigades (around 80,000 troops) ready to advance into the Donbas in March 2022.
I find it bemusing that many people continue to say "Putin" should have negotiated, when there was no one with whom to negotiate in good faith. I don't believe the purported treaty in 2022 would have been honored by the US or NATO - or by the Banderites in Ukraine. I recall a video of Zelensky walking up to a group of them before the war talking about peace and being laughed at.
After winning his election, Zelensky was handed his "marching orders" which forbade him from making the peace he promised. But Zelensky was hired only to win the election and he achieved his goal. After being elected he was unable to implement. One has to admit, Zelensky is a great actor. Betraying his script writers would be risky in the extreme. This is only my opinion, of course.
Yep. I suspect he will not walk away from this or be able to get out of Ukraine with his wife and children. When he has no more utility to anyone his bodyguards (said to be former SAS operators) will disappear.
Ukrainians are fighting for the global interests of the USA.
Look at the prisoner exchange numbers to get a real understanding of the casualty figures - about 30 to 1 in favor of Russia.
Diplomacy isn’t possible when one side isn’t willing or capable of doing it.
As an alternative for information read:
D. M. Glantz & J. M. House, When Titans Clashed - How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (2015).
Jacques Baud (Swiss Strategic Intelligence officer) The Russian Art of War - How the West Led Ukraine to Defeat, (2024).
Benoît Pare, What I Saw in Ukraine 2015-2022, Diary of an International Monitor - Far from the Media Narrative, (2025).
For a very detailed analysis Scott Horton‘s detailed 678 pages) PROVOKED - How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Russia, (2024).
I can’t imagine having serious diplomacy when one partner is consistently cheating and whose promises can’t be trusted!
Those casualty figures, regardless of accuracy, are certainly sufficiently up there to be sickening. It's a situation that has been allowed to get out of hand, first by the US abrogating its promise to Gorbachev not to extend NATO "one inch to the East" - this goes back to 1990-91, thereabouts - and then more recently with Putin and Zelensky on the verge of a peace agreement - actually, more than once, I believe - only to be scotched by this country, latest when Boorish Johnson was dispatched to Ukraine to do the dirty deed.
So diplomacy was being exercised, could have brought about peace and an end to the carnage, but this country was determined to stand by its principles, to fight Putin down to the last Ukrainian. Yeah, that same "land of the free, home of the brave," "leader of the free world," "beacon of democracy."
Do I have to say it again?!? As Russia remains bogged down in The Ukraine after 3+ years, the notion that Mr. Putin is going to march across Western Europe, vanquishing every target, is BEYOND UTTERLY ABSURD. Same tired-ass anti-Russia propaganda. In the news today, a hint that Trump may reduce US troop presence in Eastern Europe. Why, to send them onto the streets of "Blue" cities in the US?? Another thing he hinted at while on his Asia tour: using regular military domestically in place of National Guard units. He may as well just declare Martial Law, but that would smack too much of "legality," perverted though it would be. The Donald is above all laws as far as he's concerned.
I fail to see what this discussion of yours has to do with either Democracy or the Rule of Law. "Intellectuals" seem unable to define either one; that to me has a certain significance. On my own understanding, the United States is not a Democracy, nor does it follow any Rule of Law. I don't mean that it's an "imperfect" Democracy, which one might be tempted to tolerate—after all, nobody's perfect. No, it is not a Democracy at all on any reasonable definition that I can think of. Nor does it follow any Rule of Law for which I can think of any reasonable definition. That's another thing that "intellectuals" have been unable to define. They just babble. This is nothing new that comes from Trump. He has only one virtue, which is that he let's it all hang out, which no one did previously. He makes it plain that we just ought to stop even talking about "Democracy" or the "Rule of Law"; it's a pure waste of time. I don't want to debate the Ukraine conflict, but anyone who takes Zelensky or anything he says seriously is someone with whom I cannot talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5JROJGoqWE
I agree the U.S. isn't a democracy. I also agree the U.S. routinely violates the rule of law. Far too often, a saying from Thucydides applies: the strong do as they will and the weak suffer as they must.
In the interview, the Judge and I talk about how the U.S. is violating the rule of law, and how these violations are setting the stage for even worse violations to come.
With respect to Zelensky, I never said I take what he says seriously. After all, he's just a politician who's acting a part. He even has his own set uniform.
Aaron Maté has done so much research on this, and I believe that he is correct in his analysis. Karl, in his comment, offers some excellent reading suggestions. That's my humble opinion.
THE Incentivization of World Peace, 2025, by Raymond G. Wilson, rwilson@iwu.edu
Any earlier version of this topic appeared in the last chapter of the 2004 book All Things Nuclear by James Warf. The late James C. Warf, former Manhattan Project Section Leader, plutonium scientist, and USC distinguished professor of chemistry, realized that the ideas expressed in my workable moral strategy represented a useful new way of thinking about achieving and preserving world peace. Jim’s excellent book is a splendid work that reads at times like a novel.
Consider this: It would be fair to say that since 1945 the United States, alone, has spent something of the order of $20,000,000,000,000 ($20 Trillion, AI-Gemini agrees) on all preparations to patriotically defend the United States and our friends from the opposition. Let me put it another way: Since 1945 there has been spent more than twenty Trillion dollars for all preparations to destroy with nuclear and other weapons most of what man has created over the past centuries, and collaterally kill millions of people and their children, and experience our own similar demise since some enemies also have nuclear weapons. Consider all the worker-earned-and-paid taxes that have gone into that twenty Trillion dollars, instead of being used for all phases of the betterment of mankind. Truly, that has got to be the greatest act of diplomatic stupidity. Good Lord, we are taxed, investing, and preparing for the obliteration of our world’s civilization. The world oligarchs turn the money into the weapons which will destroy all the major cities, and radioactively contaminate the world. Franklin D. Roosevelt told us that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the United States since the days of Andrew Jackson. Is the “financial element in the large centers” responsible? Oppenheimer probably understood this, naming the goal, not elimination of nuclear weapons, but the elimination of war itself.
To be more brief:
Page ii are the captions for the cover illustrations.
Page iii tells what this book is about.
There is a two-page frontispiece.
Pages 1-9 describe our first nuclear war with two small
primitive nuclear weapons (undoubtedly crimes against
humanity), and a request for new ways of thinking.
Page 10 onward: Achieving and Preserving World Peace.
Page 65 is About the Author; I am age 93 in 2025.
Why not offer this approach to the UN General Assembly?
See what they think. What would the Russian, Chinese, and American populace think about this Incentivization?
“NO! Let’s continue all the costly war preparations”(?)
What would world citizens think about this proposal?
The Judge: "I don't know how this ends unless there's a sea change in the majorities of the houses of Congress in the elections in 2026."
I don't see how ANYTHING ends well unless a majority of sane, uncompromised legislators who will be true to the Constitution and loyal to the vast majority of citizens are elected in 2026 and all subsequent elections. The lunatics are running the asylum and must be toppled from power. That is the whole point of this ... https://johnrachel.substack.com/p/the-contract-for-american-renewal.
We need real democracy, from the ground up, government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That will not happen unless citizens unite and focus on REAL CHOICE in the voting booth.
By signing the Minsk Agreement in 2015 Porochenko, very reluctantly, accepted that Donbas would be granted autonomy. So what Russia did with its SMO was force Ukraine, eight years later, to implement the agreement it had signed. Except that now, the only way to achieve autonomy was secession, since in the meantime Ukraine had armed itself to the hilt with NATO help. It became obvious when the SMO burst that Putin was right: Ukraine was getting ready to attack the Donbas who had already decided there was no way to live peacefullywith the hated Russian citizens. The conduct of the Maidan regime was diametrically opposite of what Ukraine had signed when they became independent in 1991. It was all love and kisses back then among the newly independent states.
There were indeed reports - apparently now lost to history, that Ukraine had 16 brigades (around 80,000 troops) ready to advance into the Donbas in March 2022.
I find it bemusing that many people continue to say "Putin" should have negotiated, when there was no one with whom to negotiate in good faith. I don't believe the purported treaty in 2022 would have been honored by the US or NATO - or by the Banderites in Ukraine. I recall a video of Zelensky walking up to a group of them before the war talking about peace and being laughed at.
After winning his election, Zelensky was handed his "marching orders" which forbade him from making the peace he promised. But Zelensky was hired only to win the election and he achieved his goal. After being elected he was unable to implement. One has to admit, Zelensky is a great actor. Betraying his script writers would be risky in the extreme. This is only my opinion, of course.
If rumors are true - he gets his courage from the coke he's continually on.
Of course. Can you imagine the stress!
Yep. I suspect he will not walk away from this or be able to get out of Ukraine with his wife and children. When he has no more utility to anyone his bodyguards (said to be former SAS operators) will disappear.
Ukraine is a NAZI state.
Ukraine‘s government is illegitimate.
Ukrainians are fighting for the global interests of the USA.
Look at the prisoner exchange numbers to get a real understanding of the casualty figures - about 30 to 1 in favor of Russia.
Diplomacy isn’t possible when one side isn’t willing or capable of doing it.
As an alternative for information read:
D. M. Glantz & J. M. House, When Titans Clashed - How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (2015).
Jacques Baud (Swiss Strategic Intelligence officer) The Russian Art of War - How the West Led Ukraine to Defeat, (2024).
Benoît Pare, What I Saw in Ukraine 2015-2022, Diary of an International Monitor - Far from the Media Narrative, (2025).
For a very detailed analysis Scott Horton‘s detailed 678 pages) PROVOKED - How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Russia, (2024).
I can’t imagine having serious diplomacy when one partner is consistently cheating and whose promises can’t be trusted!
Kiev has lost the equivalent of two or three NATO standard multi corps formations. As for materiel losses the advancing side has big advantage.
Kiev troops are press ganged sent to front with little training to battalions the size of U.S. infantry companies.
The fiction on the U.S. media….
Those casualty figures, regardless of accuracy, are certainly sufficiently up there to be sickening. It's a situation that has been allowed to get out of hand, first by the US abrogating its promise to Gorbachev not to extend NATO "one inch to the East" - this goes back to 1990-91, thereabouts - and then more recently with Putin and Zelensky on the verge of a peace agreement - actually, more than once, I believe - only to be scotched by this country, latest when Boorish Johnson was dispatched to Ukraine to do the dirty deed.
So diplomacy was being exercised, could have brought about peace and an end to the carnage, but this country was determined to stand by its principles, to fight Putin down to the last Ukrainian. Yeah, that same "land of the free, home of the brave," "leader of the free world," "beacon of democracy."
Do I have to say it again?!? As Russia remains bogged down in The Ukraine after 3+ years, the notion that Mr. Putin is going to march across Western Europe, vanquishing every target, is BEYOND UTTERLY ABSURD. Same tired-ass anti-Russia propaganda. In the news today, a hint that Trump may reduce US troop presence in Eastern Europe. Why, to send them onto the streets of "Blue" cities in the US?? Another thing he hinted at while on his Asia tour: using regular military domestically in place of National Guard units. He may as well just declare Martial Law, but that would smack too much of "legality," perverted though it would be. The Donald is above all laws as far as he's concerned.
Dear Mr. Astore,
I fail to see what this discussion of yours has to do with either Democracy or the Rule of Law. "Intellectuals" seem unable to define either one; that to me has a certain significance. On my own understanding, the United States is not a Democracy, nor does it follow any Rule of Law. I don't mean that it's an "imperfect" Democracy, which one might be tempted to tolerate—after all, nobody's perfect. No, it is not a Democracy at all on any reasonable definition that I can think of. Nor does it follow any Rule of Law for which I can think of any reasonable definition. That's another thing that "intellectuals" have been unable to define. They just babble. This is nothing new that comes from Trump. He has only one virtue, which is that he let's it all hang out, which no one did previously. He makes it plain that we just ought to stop even talking about "Democracy" or the "Rule of Law"; it's a pure waste of time. I don't want to debate the Ukraine conflict, but anyone who takes Zelensky or anything he says seriously is someone with whom I cannot talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5JROJGoqWE
I agree the U.S. isn't a democracy. I also agree the U.S. routinely violates the rule of law. Far too often, a saying from Thucydides applies: the strong do as they will and the weak suffer as they must.
In the interview, the Judge and I talk about how the U.S. is violating the rule of law, and how these violations are setting the stage for even worse violations to come.
With respect to Zelensky, I never said I take what he says seriously. After all, he's just a politician who's acting a part. He even has his own set uniform.
Good-oh!
Aaron Maté has done so much research on this, and I believe that he is correct in his analysis. Karl, in his comment, offers some excellent reading suggestions. That's my humble opinion.
Please note the CAUTION on the BOOK COVER.
THE Incentivization of World Peace, 2025, by Raymond G. Wilson, rwilson@iwu.edu
Any earlier version of this topic appeared in the last chapter of the 2004 book All Things Nuclear by James Warf. The late James C. Warf, former Manhattan Project Section Leader, plutonium scientist, and USC distinguished professor of chemistry, realized that the ideas expressed in my workable moral strategy represented a useful new way of thinking about achieving and preserving world peace. Jim’s excellent book is a splendid work that reads at times like a novel.
Consider this: It would be fair to say that since 1945 the United States, alone, has spent something of the order of $20,000,000,000,000 ($20 Trillion, AI-Gemini agrees) on all preparations to patriotically defend the United States and our friends from the opposition. Let me put it another way: Since 1945 there has been spent more than twenty Trillion dollars for all preparations to destroy with nuclear and other weapons most of what man has created over the past centuries, and collaterally kill millions of people and their children, and experience our own similar demise since some enemies also have nuclear weapons. Consider all the worker-earned-and-paid taxes that have gone into that twenty Trillion dollars, instead of being used for all phases of the betterment of mankind. Truly, that has got to be the greatest act of diplomatic stupidity. Good Lord, we are taxed, investing, and preparing for the obliteration of our world’s civilization. The world oligarchs turn the money into the weapons which will destroy all the major cities, and radioactively contaminate the world. Franklin D. Roosevelt told us that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the United States since the days of Andrew Jackson. Is the “financial element in the large centers” responsible? Oppenheimer probably understood this, naming the goal, not elimination of nuclear weapons, but the elimination of war itself.
To be more brief:
Page ii are the captions for the cover illustrations.
Page iii tells what this book is about.
There is a two-page frontispiece.
Pages 1-9 describe our first nuclear war with two small
primitive nuclear weapons (undoubtedly crimes against
humanity), and a request for new ways of thinking.
Page 10 onward: Achieving and Preserving World Peace.
Page 65 is About the Author; I am age 93 in 2025.
Why not offer this approach to the UN General Assembly?
See what they think. What would the Russian, Chinese, and American populace think about this Incentivization?
“NO! Let’s continue all the costly war preparations”(?)
What would world citizens think about this proposal?
Diplomacy? Is that like when U.S. embassy officials try to turn Maduro's pilot against him?