Russian Civil War averted?

 

I thought I was watching a civil war about to break loose.

Instead of 1991, it felt more like 1993....The head of the Wagner Private Military Company said he was "protesting" the prosecution of the war in Ukraine and then began driving towards Moscow,  Would there have been an armed conflict if Progozhin, Wagner's founder and leader, actually made it to the Russian capital? It is hard to say, but like I said earlier, it was not 1991 or 1917.

No one is sure how this effects the war in Ukraine or what this means for Putin.

His term ends net year, so probably he will run out the clock and retire quitely,

Progozhin is supposed to be in Belarus as part of the deal they reached to end the rebellion in exchange for an exile to Minsk with no charges filed for revolting against Moscow. Now, the question is "do the Russian security forces gun him down."

Russia will probably just muddle along.  China remains committed to their alliance and the United States continues to have mounting internal problems. If there is one thing I have noted about Cold War 2.0 is that no nation seems particularly competent. 

China shouts about who anyone dealing with Taiwan will "play with fire" while the US military disintegrates from pronoun training and a recruiting problem that is getting worse. 

Russia's conduct in Ukraine speaks volumes.

Instead of a race for world domination, it looks like a slow motion collapse of the demolition of the Kingdom c.1999.

US trying to back off from China?

 

US SecState Anthony Blinken went to Beijing in an effort to try and thaw out frost US-China relations that reached a nadir over the last year or so.  It was a refreshing departure front the needless antagonism causes by Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last year  and the surprisingly inept Chinese response of firing missiles in to the water around the island.

Equally perplexing was Biden's declaration that the US would defend Taiwan despite decades of "strategic ambiguity".  In Beijing, Blinken stated that the US did not support Taiwanese independence.  I guess it is back to keeping things fuzzy.

 Still it is a step in the right direction.

A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would not help anyone.  It could still happen and I think China will reign over the island one day.  They clearly know how hard an invasion would be and if there is one thing you can say about the Chinese, they are not stupid.  They have something else in mind.

Probably waiting for the US to finish disintegrating from within.   

Take a look at our recruiting crisis and tell me I am wrong :-(

Happy Megalodon Day!

 

Today, we celebrate the mighty Megalodon today, honoring the greatest shark ever to swim the sea!  Between 40-60 feet long, Megalodon patrolled the seas from 23 million years ago to 2.5 mya, eating whatever it wanted.

This shark hunted whales with teeth nearly 7 inches long!  I have a couple that I found on fossil hunting expeditions and I cannot helped but be impressed. I don't think they went extinct, I think they just downsized to the Great White. The teeth seem almost similar and many believe the Megalodon even looked like a larger Great White.

I do wonder about the Black Demon of the Sea of Cortes though.

Since life will continue for another couple of billion years, so maybe the Great White bulks back up to Megalodon size!

Definitely stay out of the water!

Happy Memorial Day!

 

Trex--Hunter or scavenger?

 

I remember this debate from a few years ago, and for some reason, it keeps popping back up.

Was Tyrannosaurs Rex, the greatest meat eater of all time, an active hunter or scavenger?

Seems pretty obvious to me that it was an active hunter.  Look at the teeth! Granted, it probably stopped off to eat something it found that was dead and not too rotten.  Still, the idea that T-rex was a scavenger is ridiculous. 

T-rex teeth or their crowns, have been found embedded in the bones of other dinosaurs, usually plant-eating herbivores, and the bones have healed.  So, said duckbill was bitten by T-rex, escaped, and the bite healed.  Remember, not every hunt is successful.  Even the Predator did not win every time!

T-rex vs Predator.....

...Now there is a debate we can start!

Invasion

 

On May 11, 2023, hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants began pouring over the US-Mexican border.  I was thinking about putting the poster for "Red Dawn", but this picture seemed a bit better.  

Our government seems more interested in the Russian-Ukrainian and Iraqi-Syrian border than our own border.  Protecting the people is the first job of any government. DC refuses to do its duty.

In 406 AD, several Germanic tribes crossed to frozen Rhine on the last day of the year.  From that point on, the Roman Empire's decline began to take a steeper angle.  When I saw the footage of chaos engulfing Brownsville and El Paso in Texas, and Yuma in Arizona and I thought of Fifth Century Rome.

We are seeing history in action.

It's not the good kind.

As the Chinese cruse goes, "May you live in interesting times."

It is going to get very interesting.

Watching China

 

As the United States preoccupies itself with gender pronouns, China starts to look at Taiwan.

In 1973 , Egypt had many military maneuvers, one after another, and suddenly attacked across the Suez Canal and gained operational surprise.  Egypt did not win, but caused the Israelis a lot of damage and won some prestige or Egyptian arms.

China holds drills ad infinitum around Taiwan and one wonders i the exercise turns real one day.  It seems obvious that plan is to surround the island with naval might and strangle it before making a massive landing that would make Normandy, 1944 look like preseason football. 

The best time to attack across the strait is April or October. 

I am sure that when the attack comes, it will be a story after some piece about drag queens at a library.

What will America do?

Not sure.

The US says it is committed to Taiwan's defense, but with an unstable domestic scene and a woefully unprepared military, confidence is not high.  On the plus side, China's military has no real world experience.  

On the other hand, declining hegemons do tend to focus on outside enemies when domestic politics become unstable.  Will a preemptive strike against China be in the works in a desperate attempt by DC to unite the country. 

Either way, it till be the biggest event of the twenty-first century.