High Stakes Gambling

Statistical Map of Napoleon's Russian Campaign of 1812
The size of Napoleon's army during the Russian campaign of 1812 is shown by the dwindling width of the lines of advance and retreat. The retreat information is correlated with a temperature scale shown along the lower portion of the statistical map. Adapted from a map published by Charles Joseph Minard in 1869. - Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

I have been trying to figure out why our regime (the President and Congress) have been pushing this forty billion dollar aid package for Ukraine. These guys are smart, or if they aren't smart they are at least in tune with the political pulse of their environment. They must have a reason for doing this, right? They haven't all just gone insane, have they? I mean, 'cause that sure-as-shootin' is what it looks like. I was thinking they were all just doing it for the short term gains and to hell with the future because of an impending disaster that they are powerless to stop. What might that impending disaster be? Do they know something we don't know? Yeah, maybe, but that shouldn't affect our own wind detectors. Now it might be that the impending disaster is the upcoming elections this fall and the regime expects to be booted out on their heinies, so they're getting theirs while the gettin' is good. As a side benefit they are dropping a bomb in the economy that the new regime is going to have to contend with when they take power.

On the other hand, forty billion dollars is a lot of money. Maybe they see something even worse than losing the mid-term elections. Maybe they see Russia as a real threat. Seems a little far fetched, Russia seemed like a relatively benign country. Yes, they got involved in bunch of countries in Central Asia, but who hasn't? Oh, wait. Venezuela. Maduro has a friend in Moscow! Of course. Russia may not be benefiting from Venezuelan oil, but at least nobody else is either, and most especially those Western Imperialist running dogs. Oh wait, that's a Red Chinese curse. Whatever. Why don't I know any good Russian curses? Possibly because the Russians have suppressed the Communist Party, so we don't hear any more of the old Soviet curses?

I don't know what's going on over in the Ukraine. We get lots of reports of successful Ukrainian attacks and Russian failures, but those all come from the West. From Russia we get basically nothing. That's fine, I wouldn't expect an enemy to tell me anything about what they are doing. But whatever is happening it is still going on, and I'm wondering if our regime sees this as a threat to their hegemony over the world.

This is geo-politics at its finest.

I wonder how many people in Russia remember Napoleon and Hitler. Well, OK, nobody actually remembers Napoleon and hardly anybody remembers Hitler. But how about the stories about the invasions? I suspect most people eventually learn about them.

We keeping pushing back on the bear, and bear might react violently.