Ain't it funny, how time slips away? Christmas has come and gone and I hope you guys had a fine holiday, however you chose to celebrate it. No trip to my sister's home this year; Christmas Eve was spent at my niece's place with the traditional lasagna dinner. Her new husband is from Lebanon so there was a tasty assortment of Middle Eastern appetizers, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I like the way my sister's family has developed their own holiday traditions, much different than those of my childhood, the most significant being the Christmas Day foray to the movie theater. One year we saw one of the new Star Wars movies and watching a movie on Christmas Day is a dumb idea to me. I must be getting old because it seems to be a popular idea; the theater was packed. And tonight is New Year's Eve, so Happy 2020, guys.
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It looked like there was some channeling of Herman Melville going on, what with the discussion of whales and such. Nice job, fellas, but I have a question for you two. If whales are so intelligent, how can some guys in a rowboat chase them down and stick them with harpoons? I would think that they could swim fast enough to get away, or at least dive deeply and get out of harm's way but whale behavior and psychology is not one of my strong suits. There must be more to the tale of the whale.
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If memory serves, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, wasn't it? It's hard to tell where Russia ends and Ukraine begins but Putin is playing chess while the Dumpster is playing tiddly-winks. They are not playing the same game, not at all. The Russians have a long term game plan, and so far it's working well for them. I don't think they really cared who won the election in 2016; their goal is to destabilize the US and let NATO fall apart. A Clinton victory would have just taken more time. There was a book written in Russia more than twenty years ago, I may have mentioned it before, and it outlines their game plan very clearly. The title is The Foundations of Geopolitics and I don't think there is an English translation yet. It's a playbook for the Russian military leadership and the US intelligence community doesn't seem to give it much weight. Meanwhile the US keeps getting sucked more deeply into Middle Eastern intrigue; today I heard some pundit talk about resuming the Draft if things start going sideways in Iran and Syria, as if they weren't sideways enough already. Its like Vietnam all over again, this time in the desert instead of a jungle.
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There were times in 2019 when I didn't think we'd make it through the year, and yet here we are, looking forward to a new start in 2020. Election time, Yippee! I can't wait to see how the story will unfold and I remain cautiously optimistic. Happy New Year!
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