F88k me we really don’t deserve the media we have, or do we? 🤔

The amount of vapours from the media over Zelensky being an absolute dumb ass is just over the top. Personally the sooner America walks away from the Ukraine and leaves them to Europe the better 🙄

Mailman,
There will be the announcements, but the results may be different.

Perhaps it'd be instructive for Zelenskyy to contrast how the euro-leaders behave in a group versus one-by-one when they deal with Trump. Might it be similar with Ukraine? As a group, they're all supportive, but singly, maybe not so much.

Enjoyed the latest EconTalk with James Barr on the history of the Middle East. It looked at both high and low levels at the ways the various countries were formed and did a good job surveying the complexities without getting bogged down.

Be interesting to hear what Two Tier comes out with after todays meeting with Trumpitler in the WH??

Chagos dead? Peace in Ukraine?

tomo,
I'm sure you're right about the sense of deja vu some former East Germans have been feeling about their great reunited nation (that map doesn't make the nation look all that united). And it's funny how the "right" most strongly attracts those who were formerly in the warm embrace of the "left".

The paradox in "consensus" positions on Gaza and Ukraine has a pretty strong 1984 feel to it. So many people thinking whatever they're told to think (i.e. not thinking at all). To perfect the Orwell picture they'd need to switch sides overnight. Not that hard to imagine in this age of internet "influencers".

Enjoyed Katie Hopkins's piece. Inviting the unthinking to think might be a little ambitous.

Mailman,
Yes, much like Katie's piece, all those deeply held beliefs don't matter that much when the money stops flowing.

I was musing a bit on the Ukraine situation yesterday. I feel a lot of what the internet has done is to turn things into sports: you get behind your team and cheer them for the win. Problem is that (as I've mentioned here once or twice) there's no full-time whistle, no finishing line. It really isn't much of a sport when it never ends.

That put me in mind of the zen-like statement by Zhou Enlai: when he was asked whether the French Revolution was a good thing or a bad thing, he answered that it was too soon to tell. Well yes, where's the finishing line? Looking up his statement yesterday, it turns out he wasn't talking about the French Revolution at all. Had to laugh.

And another thing for a laugh: Broken Hill, that had the multi-day blackout when it lost access to the grid, despite sharing this isolation with a large wind farm, abundant solar, big battery and diesel generators, has now signed up for compressed air energy storage. Apparently, if what you have isn't working, you just need more of it.

Interesting change of tone on the news this morning.

soy boy Macron comes out saying a ceasefire in the Ukraine could be achieved within the next couple weeks.

And that was it. No reporting of condemnation from Germany and no leftists freaking out about France being Russians bitch.

Wonder what changed since last week when the media was reporting everyone in Europe losing their shit at Trump surrendering and giving Ukraine to Putin???

A total 180 given the reporting these last couple weeks about peace coming in the Ukraine.