Hello from the nation's capital, and my new home! Just a few days ago I moved to DC, and now I'm here to stay...for a few years at least. It feels exciting to be here, particularly in the midst of such an important election, and when there is tumult worldwide. Who will we elect in November, and how will (s)he respond to the complexities of the international affairs? An interesting, if somewhat under the radar, TDIH sets the tone.
As always, happy Wednesday and happy reading.
This Day in History
1962 - Almost a year after construction began, the first of nearly 80 victims is killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall from communist East Berlin into democratic West Berlin. Ostensibly to prevent the pernicious capitalist system from seeping from west to east, it is hardly surprising that no one was ever killed trying to escape from freedom into tyranny, but scores were killed - and more successfully made their escape - from the failing Soviet bloc into Western Europe.
Today the Cold War is a thing of the past, except it's not. Although I was only four when the Berlin Wall fell, and only six when the USSR collapsed, it seems the Cold War only lapsed for a decade. perhaps less, before it was rekindled (get it?) by neo-Soviet (and former KGB agent) Vlad "the Hacker" Putin. I have confessed the before, but it's worth repeating. I laughed at Mitt Romney in 2012 when he called Russia our biggest geo-political foe. Fast forward just four years, and one of our two major political parties is essentially just an arm of the Russian government - ironically, that's Romeny's party. Putin is closer to destroying the US with Donald Trump than any of the former Soviet premiers came with nuclear weapons.
Money Laundering Done Wrong
Just how corrupt is Putin's kleptocracy? It's hard to know exactly, but corrupt enough so that the internal market for money laundering is actually run through the state security apparatus (from Vox). Take a minute to reflect on that. The Russian government - which is synonymous with Putin - runs the country's quasi-legal money laundering scheme to keep corruption entrenched, thereby creating a perpetual cycle of systemic corruption.
Is it any wonder Putin is a petro-czar who is forced into aggressive foreign endeavors to mask the tension of economic failure at home? Where is Mitt Romney when I need him!? When will the US get our act together to block hacking attacks, or retaliate in a manner that discourages other nations to hack us? What leverage do we have against a nation that is nothing more than one man's dictatorship? Most importantly, how can we prevent that man from taking control of our country by having his mindless puppet elected?
When Putin Met Stalin
To their credit, neither FDR nor Winston Churchill was particularly happy about having to work with Stalin, but the Nazi threat was too great to ignore the mantra: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. When Hitler invaded Russia, an alliance of necessity among the US, Britain, and Russia blossomed, if only militarily and for a short time.
Today's Reich is ISIS, and today's Stalin is Putin (from the Strategy Bridge). Czar Vlad has already engaged in Syria on his own terms, but at what point, if any, do we align ourselves with him more directly to combat the mutual threat of Daesh? The policy of proxy control of Middle Eastern countries through neo-kings and autocrats has been tenuous for decades, and the closed societies we supported became breeding grounds for our enemies. Putin is the same type of strongman as Assad and Hussein except that he is stronger and capable of causing far more harm than either. Cooperating with him may speed the decline of ISIS, but it will only result in a situation worse than the one we currently face, as Putin works to install his favorites as dictators. Daesh is horrible, but they are incapable of the type of horror caused by the Nazis. It follows that we should be wary of an alliance of necessity that will lead to more headaches down the road.
What Happens Next...
It's easy for us to look at the world we inhabit - far, far safer and less violent than in the past - and feel secure. World Wars are a thing of the past, right? I'd like to think so too, but there are a lot of red flags around the world, and it seems too few are paying attention to them, content with the relative safety and stability we enjoy at him, perhaps willfully ignorant of how events elsewhere will ultimately affect us, and most terrifying, willing to cause gross harm and injustice in America by considering for president a man whose ideas are a massive part of the problem.
So what could happen next? A lot of things, not all of them bad, but multiple worst case scenarios in which the already weak and unwilling world order rolls over rather than stand strong and face our problems (from Medium). These are real possibilities, and the inward and outdated worldviews dominating across the west will only exacerbate global problems. We cannot retreat at the same time those opposed to our values and our way of life manipulate our elections, kill innocent civilians, spread misinformation, and fund terror, dictatorships, and instability. Not only can we not retreat, but we certainly cannot and should not be friendly with people who are openly tampering with the very essence of our representative government.
...And Can We Stop It?
That depends a little bit on what it means to "stop it," but at least as it involves using military force, the answer is iffy. America's military is still the world's strongest, but our population is also the world's heaviest, and increasingly our soldiers are becoming too fat to protect the nation (from Medium).
Nothing beats being on top, until you eat your way into oblivion, and are literally too swollen to fight off the next guy, whether that guy is Putin, Daesh, or whomever else. American jets may dominate the air for a few more years, even decades, but it's not worth much at all if the ground troops are too corpulent to protect the territory. Right now, in the fight against Daesh, this isn't an issue, but if Trumpism and Brexitism continue to flourish, it's only a matter of time before Putin's tanks roll into Lithuania, and then things will be different.
Feeling Chip(per)
Well, maybe in this picture feeling a bit more sleepy than chipper, but Chip is normally a happy-go-lucky kinda fella. Hailing from Mississippi where he lives with his humans Jo Ann and Ken, Chip spends a lot of his time missing his brothers Jake and Taylor who grew up and moved away from home as we humans tend to do. Don't let his dour stare fool you, though, Chip is only feeling lonely, and when he's with his friends, he's a bucket of fun! Thanks to Jo Ann for sharing Chip!
Will's Weekly Trivia
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IF you choose to answer the question, respond to staton.will@gmail.com with your answer. Please note that by competing you are giving me permission to publish your first name in the trivia leader board each week.
Correction!!
Last week's digest indicated Bill from MS as the trivia winner, with Steve from MS as a close second, close enough to force a recount, at which point it was discovered that Steve and Bill tied for first place. So much for the stereotype about Mississippians.
Last Week:
1. After the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, CA, which major American company refused to unluck the attacker's phone for the the FBI? ONE POINT
2. Which country invented gunpowder? ONE POINT
3. Who was the first man in space? ONE POINT
Answer:
1. Apple refused to unlock the San Bernardino attacker's iPhone.
2. The Chinese invented gunpowder
3. The first man in space was Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
This Week:
1. Czar Ivan the Terrible was which number Ivan? EG (Edward I, Richard II, Henry V) ONE POINT
2. Which Soviet Socialist Republic was Stalin from? (Hint: NOT Russia) ONE POINT
3. What does the acronym ISIL stand for? (Note: NOT ISIS, ISIL) ONE POINT
