My acquaintance in Latvia 
has blind spots. He supports aid to Ukraine and NATO membership to Ukraine.
His world view is that Russia has been evil for 1000 years or longer and that every one including the west must sacrifice everything to defeat Russia.
I understand why he hates Russia but expecting everyone to see the world from his geopolitical lens is childish and dangerous
He believes that NATO membership protects Latvia from Russia
This attack on Russia in Moscow is the Rubicon moment for Russia.
Now there is no turning back.
I hope you will like my different posts.
“Hence peace is only temporary in the outer until we make peace in our inner … slaying our demons.”
With respect, Mr. Lorenzen, there may be something else to consider. We all wrestle with our demons (often losing), but we mess up only ourselves and often our families in the process; we generally don’t impose burdens on the broader community. The demon that really hurts society is the desire of some individuals to lord it over the rest of us. It would be nice to think that such a defective gene could be bred out of the human population – but maybe this defect is not genetic? Anyhow, as long as that defect remains in the human population, there will be struggles in the “outer”.
As for the sad situation in the Ukraine, I will continue to beat the drum that Russia clearly seeks a stable long-term internationally-acceptable legal solution. The obvious long-term solution for Rump Ukraine (the one which no-one is talking about) would be a UN mandate to China to maintain a permanent large military peace-keeping force in de-militarized Rump Ukraine with the twin objectives of (1) keeping NATO/EU/US military out, and (2) keeping Russia’s military out. China also has the money to invest in rebuilding Rump Ukraine, and has well-established methodologies for dealing with the Ukraine’s world-leading corruption.
Dearest Gavin,
You are right that the outer component what we call society can develop into a very painful structure and suppress and oppress its citizens and its neighbours.
But the ancient seers or guides of humanity have never supported one specific modus operandi for a society as they saw this as a common learning field for all citizens. However they always preferred rulers with the highest personal integrity and who showed fairness and compassion.
Our “problem” today is that we find almost no such leader anymore.
Hence our deeply troubled world as we see today.
With respect to Ukraine, which I have followed since 2014 and seen the trouble emerging, we can discuss and imagine many outcomes of this conflict.
I started writing my substack as a way for me to externalise my feelings and view points which may or may not be right.
View points are just that, a point of view, and everyone has one 
But as long as we can exchange our views in a respectful way and listen to each others view points then a dialogue can happen and if we are open to change then we can all learn in the process.
However this has almost evaporated from society today hence our crazy world and we are left with “my way or the highway” attitude which will help no one.
Welcome aboard HL!
We have cussed and discussed Ukraine extensively. I suspect most everyone is agreed that the current “war” is not really in the best interests of Ukraine; it is, however, apparently in the “best interests” of the CIA and its many elite supporters who benefit from any state of war.
This may soon be over despite our and the West’s best efforts to keep it going. Gavin’s proposal is not much to my liking, as it seems all it does is replace a military with yet another military. Recollect what happened in the Philippines when Teddy “liberated” them from (?) Spanish rule. WE became the “new” military and were faced with the Moro insurrection. The Philippinos wanted freedom not yet another controlling colonising force. I suspect Ukraine might well react similarly.
But what is now on the near horizon is Russia’s victory in Ukraine - and that with little risk to their men. Russia has now adopted a new strategic initiative, and NATO and Ukraine seem to have no credible response. The Russian attacks now are on the Ukrainian electrical grid. They have wrought havoc on the distribution of electricity and are now going after the electrical production means. Kind of reminds me of our own 8th Air Force assault on Germany. They managed to hit every single major production point in Germany before D-Day.
Given that Russia’s disinformation warfare has been killing folks in the West, the immediate destruction of the information warfare elements in Russia could be the best next step. It’s not a very expensive one, and Putin’s power depends on it.
I’m not sure I get what Russian disinformation has killed westerners, but even if true, it isn’t in the same order of magnitude as the number of folks killed due to american (sic) disinformation warfare - against our own population. For example, two false narratives have been so firmly established that tey are widely believed, despite being glaringly FALSE: 1. the astounding and unending false depiction of this society as “systemically racist” and 2. that police inordinately shoot black men. These assertions have been studied many times and objectively shown to be FALSE. Thus, the leftists with monopoly control of all the institutions and the permanent deep state have completely propagandized us and the lies have had intended and violent effect; many scores (at least) died as a direct result in the wake of the FALSE George Floyd narrative.
The propaganda caused Antifa and BLM to become the new storm troopers who brazenly implemented the violence knowingly and intentionally called forth by the orchestrated ad hoc blaring disinformation campaign (a sudden amplification of the chronic repetition of the narrative) implemented by our own government and it various organs and apparatuses. In addition to the direct killings post George Floyd, other gratuitous, random anti-white violent acts continue to occur endemically (mostly non-reported in coordination with the same propaganda). These are also a result of this carefully-curated and ceaseless propaganda - created narrative. If propaganda were an Olympic event, we win the gold, hands down.
1000 percent correct
Oh, speaking of wildly successful propaganda - I neglected to mention the campaign dis-establishing the simple biological fact known to all for all time: two sexes! And, this propaganda has resulted in many disfigurements and even deaths of children (and removals of children from their parents by the state for refusal to use the approved compelled “pronoun speak” with their own children in their own homes!). The destructive effects of Russian (information warfare extends destroying a society from within) propaganda on US society doesn’t begin to approach the destructiveness of our “own” propaganda.
I’ve mentioned it before, but if you haven’t read it, it might be worth the time. It’s called The Fifty Year Wound, written by some Scandinavian I believe. It follows our history in 4 year chunks, corresponding to each presidential term. It examines the CIA reports and predictions made to the president. It is uncanny how often the CIA got it wrong, to the point that a president could pretty safely take a CIA prediction and count on it being 180 degrees off the mark.
Now here is an interesting wrinkle in the mess that Our Betters have created:
UK insurers refuse to pay Nord Stream because blasts were ‘government’ backed - The Grayzone
"British insurers are arguing that they have no obligation to honor their coverage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which were blown up in September 2022, because the unprecedented act of industrial sabotage was likely carried out by a national government.
The insurers’ filing contradicts reports the Washington Post and other legacy media publications asserting that a private Ukrainian team was responsible for the massive act of industrial sabotage. …
The brief comes a month after Switzerland-based Nord Stream AG filed a lawsuit against the insurers for their refusal to compensate the company. Nord Stream, which estimated the cost incurred by the attack at between €1.2 billion and €1.35 billion, is seeking to recoup over €400 million in damages.
Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, who led the first private investigative expedition to the blast sites of the Nord Stream pipelines, describes the insurers’ legal strategy as a desperate attempt to find an excuse to avoid honoring their indemnity obligations.
“If it’s an act of war and ordered by a government, that’s the only way they can escape their responsibility to pay,” Andersson told The Grayzone."
The situation is even more complicated since the NordStream pipelines were about 50% owned by European companies. When is a war not a war?
1984 Oceana
We need to purge the outer party first then overthrow inner party
No need for action.
This will implode upon itself.
The End Is Near
The last two wars WWI and WWII was, as many before, centred around Europe.
Remember Europe is 5% of the World population.
So if Europe goes up in smoke it really does not matter so much for Humanity.
If Europe wish to continue to live then stop poking the bear.
But as I see this, they need and want this collapse of Europe and the elite does not care about the people.
Successful leaders have often noted the difficulty of getting honest reports instead of subordinates telling them what they think the boss wants to hear. Key word there is “successful” leaders. Here is a contrary example from the Canadian Armed Forces:
"A senior Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) officer, who is the Assistant Chief of Staff at the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC), faces court martial, “dismissal with disgrace”, and loss of his military pension for having disagreed with Canadian, American, and British military planners of Ukrainian battlefield operations against Russia. His disagreement was in private, when the officers were asking for his professional assessment, and didn’t like what he told them.
"Colonel Robert Kearney was charged by the Canadian military police on April 23. The charge sheet says he faces “five (5) x counts of Conduct Prejudice to the Good Order and Discipline pursuant to section 129 of the National Defence Act.” …
"… Canadian military sources believe Kearney is being court-martialed now because the Canadian government’s policy to finance, arm, train, plan, and direct Ukrainian operations against Russia is being defeated, and that the military collapse east of Kiev now risks loss of more territory and the lives of Canadians currently working in the Ukraine and at cross-border bases in Poland and Romania. At least one thousand Canadians have been counted by the Russian Defense Ministry on the battlefield since the start of the Special Military Operation; by March of this year, 422 had been confirmed killed in action. …
… The offences reportedly took place at the British staff headquarters of the ARRC in Gloucestershire, and then in Romania where the unit has been training for cross-border operations against the Russian Army. …"
