Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Thursday, October 6, 2022

Now THIS Is Scary

 I remain convinced but not certain that Vladimir Putin will not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. I have a hunch China might be letting him know that's a dealbreaker. We know Kazakhstan has already broken with him and he's running out of friends.

Obviously, one outcome we've all probably hoped for (OK, not Tucker Carlson) is that Putin gets overthrown. The idea of a liberal regime taking over from Putin, or even a military-backed technocratic coup, is pretty damned remote. If anyone removes Putin by force, it will be these crazy-assed lunatics.

There are worse people in Russia than Putin, at least in part because Putin empowered some pretty awful people with pretty awful ideas. Kind of like Trump did here, Putin loosed the worst impulses of his country. At this point, the best we can hope for is Russia collapsing into civil war, and even that is mildly terrible.

No comments: