Red lines are political boogiemen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_lines_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War

This article clearly demonstrates that the red lines Russia has set have been of little to no value.

But what we have found is that when NATO has not made it clear something is off limits, Russia consistently violates it.

In response to us not letting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO in 2008, Georgia was invaded less than 6 months later.

In response to Euromaidan and no clear defense from NATO, Russia invaded Ukraine.

Biden promised that America would focus on how our domestic economy is falling apart in 2021. 6 months later, Russia further invaded Ukraine.

 

If you want to understand the impact of crossing a “red line” Russia makes, you have to look into game theory.

If Russia invades a sovereign country and the consequences are larger than the benefits to Russia, they will not engage in such behavior.

Biden’s speeches have put America’s willingness to defend non-NATO members into question, and the consequence is the invasion of Ukraine.

In reality, red line or not, you have to look through each of these declarations through a game theory lens.

Whenever you analyze Russian military strategy through game theory, it always ends with the same result. If Russia engages fully with NATO then the Russian military will be destroyed. This is the outcome of every NATO-Russia engagement if NATO puts in its full power. NATO has over 10x the number of people Ukraine has. Russia can’t even take over Ukraine. Russia wouldn’t stand a week.

Ukraine has already hit targets inside Russian territory. Russia has not fulfilled its “red line” pledge. It is so obvious that a nuclear attack would provoke a severe military response against Russia, and they so clearly do not have the military capabilities to stop a NATO invasion.

There has been a new front opened in Kharkiv by the Russians in light of this prohibition of Ukraine attacking Russian troops before they enter Ukraine.

David Cameron has even said Ukraine has the right to attack Russian troops before they kill and kidnap Ukrainians. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/kremlin-calls-cameron-statement-uk-arms-ukraine-direct-escalation-2024-05-03/

So, according to accelerationists, this is why a nuclear warhead struck London yesterday.

Checkmate liberals.

Except… that didn’t happen.

I have family in London, Munich, and Helsinki, NATO/EU targets that would be hit if Russia’s words carried any weight.

I am deeply invested, just like the government of Estonia, in the path which is least likely to have Russia attack NATO directly.

That path is to support Ukraine all the way to victory.

Finland has a long-range air defense system. https://www.defmin.fi/en/topical/press_releases_and_news/press_release_archive/2023/new_long-range_air_defence_system_for_the_finnish_defence_forces.13506.news

Poland has a missile defense system. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2023/06/29/us-state-dept-clears-15b-sale-of-missile-defense-system-for-poland/

The eastern flank of NATO is very well defended, and we have crossed many red lines Russia has set. They know that if they attack NATO with a nuclear warhead, it will not reach its intended target. But it would guarantee the end of Russia as an independent state.

Red lines are political boogiemen. What really matters is the outcome from game theory. Russia does not have the population, military, or economy even to conquer Ukraine, let alone survive a war with NATO.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-ukrainian-commander-had-russian-troops-in-his-sights-but-couldn-t-attack-he-says-a-us-rule-is-to-blame/ar-BB1mQbnU?cvid=66e273c8045a4ae3985d4b233670b858&ei=35

We must remove the ban on Ukrainians using weapons against the Russian military while the Russians are still in Russian territory.

The same thing applies to Russian red lines, which work with Israeli red lines. “This Administration never supports anything we do until we do it,” and this is the Biden manifesto. There is no reason to believe a thing this administration says. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/opinion-the-israelis-prove-biden-wrong-on-rafah/ar-BB1mSdZh?cvid=e1179e51787147a69ac08ddcb022f67b&ei=46

Crossing this red line will, of course, not change America’s long-standing 44-year-long policy of supporting Zionism.

The evidence is clear that red lines are not worth anything in politics in all of these example I have laid out.

Game theory is all that matters.

Israel will not seek a long-standing solution to Palestine until they are forced to by the United States.

What matters in the Russo-Ukrainian war is that NATO must give Ukraine the weapons it needs to defend its people and let them attack the Russian military before they are in Ukrainian territory. This saves lives. It will not lead to nuclear war.

A single nuclear blast against anywhere in NATO would guarantee the end of Russia as an independent state. Russia knows this. We also have a high probability of being able to destroy their missiles and planes before they even reach NATO territory.

We need to have a plan, and we likely do, on how to properly respond to Russia if they attack a NATO member state. Estonia might be small, but if we let them shoot a single bullet into Estonia, that will either be the end of NATO, and we will be destroyed one by one, or a NATO vs Russia war, which would be a resounding victory for NATO.

Again, they can’t even defeat Ukraine.

When you analyze the situation through game theory instead of “red line” pseudoscience, you discover the only way to avoid a Russian attack on the United States is to support Ukraine to the point where every Russian soldier is either imprisoned, dead, or in Russia.

Every other path in the game theory tree leads to a NATO-Russia war.

There is no path to victory for Russia.

Ukraine fact check

“Wait a minute, this war has been going on for 10 years, Russia has had every advantage, and after 10 years they only occupy 18 percent of Ukraine,” Hodges said. “They [have] lost half a million troops, the Black Sea Fleet is getting worse by the day, and the Air Force is unable to get air superiority.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-war-hang-on-in-2024-to-win-in-2025-putin-zelenskky-russia-counteroffensive/

This quote summarizes the situation precisely. The Russian “naval fleet” in Sevastopol is quickly being turned into the Russian submarine fleet. Despite four times the people, 10x the GDP, and almost twice the military spending, and almost 3 times the number of available trained military personnel, Russia is unable to take over Ukraine.

Despite having the support of China which does not depend on passing through Congress, so it is stable and consistent Russian advances in Ukraine have been small. They were able to take Avdiivka, but that took them over six months when Ukraine was running out of weapons due to delayed military aid from the United States, courtesy of the Republican Party.

If Ukraine and Russia were tied in military ability, one would expect Russia to have already taken over Ukraine, but they have not. Corruption is a major issue with Russia’s military, which squanders their ability to fight.

Simple math shows that for every Ukrainian soldier who is killed defending their democracy, 4 Russian barbarians need to be unalived.

Currently, 2.5 Russian vatniks have been unalived for every Ukrainian who has been killed.

If NATO weapons can increase the ratio to 4:1 and allow Ukraine to attack Russian troops before they reach Ukrainian territory, it will become impossible for Russia to win.

Allow Ukraine to bomb military targets in Russia. The Kremlin is a military target.

Send Ukraine every weapon they request as long as possible because that is what China will do so they can invade Taiwan if Russia wins.

But Russia cannot win.

Even with unstable NATO support and stable Chinese support, Russia still cannot make advances proportional to its advantage in terms of total military equipment and total soldiers.

Even though it has taken more than a week to deliver promised weapons to Ukraine, Russian advances are small. Once the latest aid package reaches Ukraine, which has taken far too long already, Russia will be able to be pushed back.

If Ukraine, with NATO support, can increase the death ratio to 4 Russians for every Ukrainian who dies defending their home, Russia will lose the war. They are already 62% of the way there despite unstable NATO support.

Defeat Russia in Ukraine, unalive Putin, and we will have peace and stability in Europe.

France unemployment rate

https://tradingeconomics.com/france/unemployment-rate

France has not seen unemployment below 7% since 1981.

In this world, we have a choice: you can have all of the labor protections you have so you never lose a job, or you can have high wages and low unemployment.

The costs of hiring in France are extremely high because it is nearly impossible to fire people. This makes businesses cautious about hiring, so unemployment stays high.

That’s it.

Freedom of speech and the press

It is not a coincidence that Donald Trump is suing George Stephanopolous at the same time that there is a bill in Congress claiming criticizing policies done by Netanyahu and his government is on par with Holocaust denial and calling for genocide against Jews.

They are two sides of the same coin.

Israeli Democracy in Peril

At the core of democracy is the freedom of speech and the press. There has been a massive erosion of democratic norms in Israel under Netanyahu’s rule, as we see from Israel arresting more journalists than all but five other countries despite being the 93rd most populous nation. Democracy cannot exist when journalists are frequently arrested or killed for doing their job. In 2020, Israel scored 69 out of 100 points in the Press Freedom Index, slightly above Hungary. Today, Israel scores 53 points, below every NATO country except Turkey.

There has been severe democratic backsliding in Israel over the last few years. To not recognize these facts and call them out is doing a great disservice to Israelis who want to live in a democracy and to support a corrupt, plutocratic government that is destroying the country.

To maintain power, Netanyahu is using more extreme methods, which is easily seen in how Israel is the 6th most dangerous place to be a journalist on Earth out of about 194 countries.

The Zionist movement is now trying to erode freedom of speech in the United States by passing a law criminalizing political speech. This is profoundly anti-democratic. Welcome to Zionism, an inherently authoritarian religious extremist movement of Evangelical Christianity.

To silence critics of their savior, serial rapist Donald Trump, Evangelicals are now working towards attacking journalists like we are seeing with the persecution against George Stephanopolous.

Zionism is Inherently Evangelical

Evangelical Christians believe the end times are coming soon. They have believed they have been coming soon for centuries and will always believe the end times are coming soon. Because of this, they believe Israel is the place where Jesus will arrive in Israel, as prophesied by the Book of Revelations, and so Israel needs to not be under Muslim control. This is why the United States will not endorse the two-state solution as long as Joe Biden is President. Joe Biden may be a Catholic, but he is obviously influenced by their ideology. He has only changed his social positions since the Obama Presidency. He is a fundamentally conservative Catholic.

This is why Evangelical Christians did not oppose the Third Reich, and the Catholic church had a mixed response. Israel was never about saving Jewish lives. It was always about putting Jews in danger instead of Christians, while the most radical Zionists became leaders and ensured perpetual conflict with their neighbors. This fits into Evangelical mythology of Christians being the perpetual victims, now putting Jews in the boat to be the ones in danger. I believe this is a big part of why not all victims of the Third Reich were able to reclaim citizenship immediately after Hitler committed suicide in a bunker because he was a coward.

Evangelical Christianity led to only some Third Reich victims being able to reclaim citizenship, and they opposed Jewish immigration to the United States, so Israel was left as the only option for many of these now-stateless people. It wasn’t a free movement. The claim it was a choice is mythology. It was forced on many Jews deprived of German citizenship who could not attain American citizenship.

Zionism has been a Christian idea since at least the First Crusade.

Biden’s version of Christianity is why he criticizes descendants of Holocaust victims who criticize Zionism as being anti-semitic.

Evangelicalism is Inherently Authoritarian

So here we have the stage. Zionism is a fundamentally Christian ideology. Evangelicalism takes the most extreme Christian viewpoints and puts them on steroids. They support an adulterer (Exodus 20:14) and cheater, claiming he is going to bring in Christian Nationalism. He has embraced their zeal against abortion (Numbers 5:19-22) and the death penalty. (Exodus 20:13)

So, George Stephanopolous’s criticism of Donald Trump is not just to criticize him personally but to attack the entire Evangelical movement.

Likewise, advocating for the rights of the Palestinians is to prevent Israel from having Bethlehem, which they believe is necessary for Jesus to return from the dead.

These ideas are based on mythology and are obviously never going to happen. But the Evangelical movement, in general, is not democratic. There is no process for the average members of many churches to elect their leaders. Their leaders are often appointed by those who came before, such as in the Mormon and Seventh-Day Adventist denominations. There is no direct way for members of such organizations to impact their leadership except to leave.

Their internal organization system, which stifles all disagreement, and their inherently authoritarian polity lead them to support sanctions against journalists. They do not care how Israel governs itself. It is irrelevant to their goal of the second coming of Jesus.

Criticism of Israeli politics and journalists investigating Donald Trump are both attacks on the Evangelical movement. This is why they are fighting for the criminalization of such acts.

Democrats must oppose both the conflation of hate speech with political speech and the suing of journalists. Hate speech is not free speech. Criticizing policy is not hate speech but the most protected speech under our laws.

Evangelicalism is a threat to American democracy and global security.

References:

Israel-Gaza War

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/18/israeli-arrests-of-palestinian-journalists-soared-in-2023-cpj

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68582953

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Index

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism

How to end the Israeli-Palestinian War

First of all, the United States recognizing and supporting the government of Afghanistan after 2001 was not a support for the Taliban but a critical part of the effort to fight the Taliban and al Qaeda. Likewise, the best way to fight Hamas is to support the Palestinian Authority and recognize them as the legitimate sovereign state of Palestine. Right now, we do not recognize any government, which creates a de facto power vacuum, which gives Hamas room to maneuver. If you want to fight the Taliban, support a free Afghanistan. If you actually want to “kill Hamas,” you need to support Palestine.

There is a quick and easy way for Biden to end the War in Gaza, and that is to recognize the Palestinian Authority, regardless of what Netanyahu says.

The United States needs to recognize Palestine as a state and support their accession to the United Nations if there is to be peace, assuming a one-state solution is off the table.

The 1967 border will be controlled, and Israelis will need visas to go to Palestine because of the hate crimes committed by settlers against Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority will have full sovereignty over Palestine. While Israelis will have the right to travel to Palestine, assuming they pass a background check in a rigorous visa process, there should not be an extradition treaty to Israel. If you attack a Palestinian in Palestine and you are found guilty of assault, you will not be extradited to Israel. If an Israeli commits violence against a Palestinian on Israeli territory, they will be extradited to Palestine. If a Palestinian commits violence against an Israeli on Palestinian territory,  they will be extradited to Israel. This arrangement will prevent future violence.

The border will be patrolled and customs will be done by the United Nations. Israel and Palestine will surrender their right to run customs on this border. This will be better than allowing Israeli police to unlawfully detain and harass Palestinians.

The visa policy for Israelis to Palestine and Palestinians to Israel will also be controlled via a third party to prevent it from being hijacked by another far-right government.

A third party will prosecute state violence against Palestinians by Israel or Israelis by Palestine. I recommend the International Criminal Court.

This third party will be a UN peacekeeping force, where both Israel and Palestine will be unrepresented, and no country will contribute over 10% of the troops to maintain security and lasting peace in the region.

In the future, once conditions change, the UN peacekeeping force can be disbanded if Israel and Palestine enter into a customs union with an open border or a one-state solution. Until there is an open border between these two states, the customs between the two must be managed by a neutral third party, and a multinational task force led by the United Nations can provide that security. There is no reason to believe that Israel or Palestine will treat citizens of the other state fairly.

Israel and Palestine will both be fully demilitarized, and NATO will protect their security, but neither will be member states of NATO.

 

With regards to the whole “Israel is a democracy” despite their policies against Palestinians… people who believe that probably think Andrew Jackson believed in equal rights for black people.

Free Speech is profoundly American

Hate speech is being debated again, and I think I can clarify this.

It is profoundly American and protected by our constitution to criticize our government. The United States Constitution gives it the highest protection. The freedoms outlined are as follows:

  1. Habeus corpus
  2. Ban on bills of attainder
  3. Ban on ex post facto application of laws
  4. Prohibition of a state religion
  5. Freedom of religion
  6. Freedom of speech.

It is literally the sixth right clearly outlined in the Constitution. When not in violation of other rights, the Supreme Court has long upheld a very broad definition of this right regardless of political party.

There are limitations on free speech, of course. They are well outlined in this Wikipedia article.

Criticizing our government, or any foreign government, is explicitly protected by the First Amendment.

Brandenburg v. Ohio is the key case “holding that government cannot constitutionally punish abstract advocacy of force or law violation.”

If clear hate speech done by a member of the KKK is protected speech, then surely advocating for the 1949 ceasefire borders and Geneva protocols is protected by the First Amendment.

We also have the “clear and present danger” test, which was decided in Whitney v. California. There is no clear and present danger in criticizing a government for violating the Geneva Protocols.

We have the right to criticize our government as long as we do not present a clear and present danger. We also have the right to criticize other governments with that restriction. We absolutely have an undeniable right to petition our government when we believe our government’s actions violate morality or, god forbid, international human rights law.

As outlined via treaty, advocating for the enforcement of the 1949 borders falls within the rights outlined by the courts and the Constitution.

Given how Israeli policy has violated the 1949 borders for many decades with the construction of settlements in violation of this international treaty, which Israel is a party to, supporting the 1949 borders is a criticism of current Israeli policy.

This criticism of Israel is a criticism of their foreign policy and is, according to the IHRA’s definition of anti-semitism, on par with advocating for the Holocaust. I disagree with this definition; it is not calling for anyone to be genocided; it is merely advocating for Israel to follow international law, including laws that were written in the aftermath of the Holocaust. There is a clear difference between advocating for the slaughter of civilians and advocating for a government to respect international law.

The law passed today by the Supreme Court is in clear violation of the test the Supreme Court created in Whitney v. California, and the definition of anti-semitism, which defines criticizing the government of Israel as anti-semitic speech, will not pass constitutional muster and is profoundly anti-American.

Suppose the Supreme Court upholds this abhorrent law. In that case, we will be in a situation where obvious hate speech, which Clarence Brandenburg spouted, is seen as legal, but advocating for Israel to not attack civilians and respect international law will be seen as hate speech. It couldn’t possibly be more backward. Clarence Brandenburg was a terrorist. Petitioning our government to uphold international law is in no way worse than what he did.

This bill must be filibustered in the Senate. It is profoundly anti-American.

Read the ACLU’s statement on this unconstitutional bill on their website here: https://www.aclu.org/documents/aclu-urges-congress-to-oppose-anti-semitism-awareness-act

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/us-house-overwhelmingly-approves-anti-semitism-awareness-act/ar-AA1o0xn2

Not perfect, but better

The United Kingdom probably has the most screwed-up political environment of any NATO member right now. The US is in a close second, but we are not still having politicians beat their chest about Brexit and how great it was, even though it has been a disaster to the British economy.

In England, there are realistically only three options, the Tories, Labour, and the Liberal Democrats.

The Tories and Labour are both Euroskeptic, supported Brexit, and defend it today.

The Liberal Democrats opposed Brexit in 2016 and 2020 and are the only major English party advocating for the United Kingdom to rejoin the European Union, which is the only sane option.

Unfortunately, the Liberal Democrats want to keep the energy price cap at its current level, so they are not perfect, and no one in the UK is advocating for a fee and dividend approach.

However, the Liberal Democrats remain the only English party advocating for the UK to rejoin the European Union, so they are the only good party running in England today. If you live in the UK, they deserve your vote.

Labour and the Tories just aren’t that different anymore.

Overall

Labour has made three promises: not to rejoin the single market and customs union, and they oppose freedom of movement. This has already been demonstrated in their flat-out opposition to an agreement to make it easier for British students to study in the European Union.

The European Union has already made it very clear that if they want a trade deal more than just a free trade agreement like what the EU has with Canada, they would need to have the UK join the customs union. Only the customs union will give the UK the benefits of shorter lines for trucks when they cross into France.

The Labour or Conservative Parties cannot lower trade costs with the EU without breaking a red line Keir Starmer has already drawn.

It won’t have lower costs until the UK wants to join the customs union.

Unless the UK wants freedom of movement, British students will be treated like Canadians or Americans when applying to European Union universities.

The only way for the United Kingdom to relieve the pain of Brexit is through either:

  • Join the Customs Union
    • Benefits: No taxes with the rest of the customs union. British companies get a competitive advantage.
    • Red line: trade policy is negotiated as a bloc.
  • Join the EFTA:
    • Benefits: all of the benefits of the European Economic Area, lower regulations for trade, more standing on the world stage
    • Red line: No free movement, regulatory autonomy, no financial contribution
  • Join the European Union:
    • Benefits: customs union, open border with the European Union
    • Red line: Loss of monetary autonomy, all of the above

I do not believe the UK will be able to rejoin the European Union with any opt outs again.

The minimum of what the UK should do is join the EFTA and then push for more nationalities to use the egates, including the ones who currently can use the British egates.

This is the only way for things to change.

Easy ways to close the federal budget deficit

This fiscal year, the United States Federal budget is expected to have a deficit of $1.8 trillion.

Deficit: -$1,800,000,000,000

Taxing capital gains as regular income would raise an additional $1.4 trillion, bringing the budget deficit down to $400 billion.

Deficit: -$400,000,000,000

This could then be closed by ending the home mortgage interest deduction, which increases the cost of housing. This would raise $800 billion, closing our deficit and creating a surplus.

Surplus: $400,000,000,000

If we did Medicare for all or some other universal healthcare system we could bring the annual per capita cost of health care to around $6000 per year per capita. Medicare For All would cost $1.8 trillion. Instead, the government loses $3 trillion by excluding employer contributions for medical insurance and medical care. This means the Federal government loses a net $1.2 trillion to our current health care system. Implementing universal health care and having the government cover health care costs through universal health care increases our surplus to $1.6 trillion.

Add 3 trillion of revenue, Add $1.8 trillion of spending.

Surplus: $1,600,000,000,000

This change means we will remove the $1.2 trillion spent on Medicare and Medicaid from the Federal budget.

Surplus: $2,800,000,000,000

We need to subtract the $350 billion in Medicare payroll taxes, which will no longer be levied because we can cover this from the general fund.

Surplus $2,450,000,000,000

We should keep HSA plans because there will always be some out-of-pocket costs for health care, both for copays and certain medical expenses Medicare might not cover. HSA plans are good. The only change here is likely removing the High Deductible Health Plan requirement. If we didn’t remove the HDHP requirement, people with HSAs would have higher deductibles from Medicare than those without HSAs; this would also reduce government spending.

I have turned a $1.8 trillion deficit into a $2.45 trillion surplus through these three changes.

We need to deal with Social Security OASI to prevent future deficits. OASI is expected to increase its costs by $1 trillion over the next decade. It is out of control. Allowing people to use superannuation, like in Australia and Singapore, will provide better retirements and reduce taxes and spending. More for less sounds good to me. This will be optional and gradually reduce the program’s cost over the long term. There will be fewer OASI tax receipts, but expenditure will decline more than revenue drops, especially in the long run. This is good for everyone.

Social Security Trust Fund has $2.6 trillion right now and is very poorly invested. It lost money over the last three years. This is absurd. We need to invest it in better investments like municipal bonds. A 6% interest rate on this money would raise $156 billion this year for OASI, closing the OASI deficit. DO IT NOW.

Surplus: $2,600,000,000,000

How should we spend this money? Personally, I would look at long-term investments, the best possible investment being education. Create guaranteed childcare subsidies that scale down gradually as people make more money. Reduce the cost of college and put government subsidies for higher education back to where they used to be while also ensuring that college expenses are within reason so the money can be used to increase access. We could eliminate customs duties. We could pay down the debt, but the interest rate is so low that it doesn’t make sense. We will want to have solid programs to cover the basic cost of living for seniors whose retirement accounts are not large enough to cover their cost of living. This will save us a significant amount of money in the long term.

That is how we can quickly close the federal budget deficit by cutting down on a few tax breaks and implementing Medicare for All.

Sources:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/budget_fy2024.pdf

Ranked: The Biggest U.S. Tax Breaks

https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4a1.html