Ukraine Solution 2024

 

As the war in Ukraine drags on and our Congress is debating a massive military aid package for Ukraine, it seems to me that there is a better solution than a military escalation. From its beginning in 2022 the war in Ukraine has been a tragic failure of diplomacy on all sides. It is easy to blame President Putin of Russia and call him insane as our media like to do, but leaders in the West are also to blame for the diplomatic failure.

Faced with Russian warnings over the past few years, the government of the Ukraine only had to pledge that it would never join NATO or the European Union , or allow foreign troops on its soil.

 

In other words, while affirming its independence of both Russia and the West, Ukraine could have opted for neutrality in the same way that Switzerland has done for hundreds of years. This pledge would have retained Ukraine’s independence as well as its ability to deal politically and financially with both Russia and the West.  A pledge of neutrality would not have been appeasement. It would have allowed the people of Ukraine to live in peace and shape their own destiny. It was worth a try especially now that we see the  devastation and loss of life on both sides.

 

In March 2022, shortly after the war began, the Wall Street Journal, always hawkish on Ukraine, published an interview with Robert Service, a respected historian and analyst of Russian affairs. In the interview he pointed out that in November of 2021, President Biden dismissed Russian objections to NATO expansion. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted from two immense strategic blunders; Robert Service says. The first came on Nov. 10, when the U.S. and Ukraine signed a Charter of Strategic Partnership, which asserted America’s support for Kyiv’s right to pursue membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The pact made it likelier than ever the Ukraine would eventually join NATO—an intolerable prospect for Vladimir Putin. “It was the last straw,” Mr. Service says. Preparations immediately began for Russia’s so-called special military operations in Ukraine.

 

People will remember President Biden’s history of meddling in Ukrainian affairs as Vice President during the administration of President Obama. He even bragged about bullying the government of Ukraine by threatening to cut off U.S. aid unless it agreed to dismiss a prosecutor investigating corruption in the Ukrainian energy company whose board of directors included his own son, Hunter, who somehow got the high paying post with no experience or qualifications. Ironically, President Trump was impeached by Democrats because of a phone call to Ukrainian President Zelensky asking him to investigate corruption.

 

The Biden administration can now add the war in Ukraine to its list of failures which are too numerous to recount here. Any policy that results in war with its attendant destruction, loss of life, and displacement of  people must be regarded as a failure despite the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people.

 

I also blame Democratic politicians in this country for spending the four years of the Trump administration constantly harassing the President over a Russia collusion hoax that effectively hindered the President of the USA from coming to any kind of peaceful arrangement with Russia over the status of Ukraine. Remember that President Trump was a critic of NATO and its expansion. He even questioned its existence especially since the European partners seemed unwilling to bear the financial burden. Nevertheless, NATO went so far as to include tiny countries on Russia’s border like Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania as members. Does anyone seriously believe that the USA will go to war if those countries are invaded?

 

Of course, Vladimir Putin of Russia must bear the lion’s share of the blame for the tragedy in Ukraine no matter how the war turns out. It seems to me that he could have used Russia’s vast energy reserves as a much more potent weapon than his military. Ukraine and Europe are dependent on Russia for energy. Despite the long-standing animosity between Russia and Ukraine, they still could have worked together for each other’s benefit.

 

Despite his heroism in the current crises, President Zelensky could have and should have found a peaceful resolution to ally Putin’s fears. Looking at things now, what did he gain by signing the Strategic Partnership Pact with the USA in 2021?

 

Interestingly, Vladimir Putin, in his lengthy interview with Tucker Carlson earlier this year, claimed that preliminaries of a negotiated settlement of the war had been ironed out at a meeting in Turkey, but that the deal had been scotched by the last minute intervention of then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It is hard to imagine that Johnson acted without the concurrence of the Biden administration. 

 

Some day someone will write the history of Joe Biden's involvement in Ukrainian affairs from from his time as Vice President during the Obama administration to the present. In the meantime, the war is a real black mark on his Presidency. On the other hand, even Trump haters, who still believe that President Trump colluded with Russia, must admit that there was no war in Ukraine during the Trump administration. The war in Ukraine should be one of the leading issues in the 2024 Presidential campaign. 

 

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Review. M.J. Sangster: The Real Inconvenient Truth

     

I have been a Climate Change skeptic but after reading M.J. Sangster’s, The Real Inconvenient Truth,  a 2018 book on all the factors that make up the Earth’s climate, I now accept the opprobrious label of Climate Change Denier (CCD). It is not that I deny that the Earth might be in a warming phase, or that the CO2 level in the atmosphere has been increasing over the last 100 years. 

But in Sangster’s extremely well-researched book, he demonstrates that human-caused CO2, is a tiny fraction of the CO2 produced by nature, and that it makes up an  even tinier fraction of Greenhouse gases (GHG) which are 95% water vapor. In other words, human caused CO2, is little more than a drop in the vast ocean that is our atmosphere. Despite the claims of Climate Change Alarmists (CCA), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), human-caused or natural, is not poisoning the planet. Here are some facts from Sangster’s book.

 

“Carbon dioxide  (CO2) is not a toxic gas; it plays a vital role in plant and animal processes, including photosynthesis [CO2+sunlight+Water produces Plant food (carbohydrates) + Oxygen). Obviously, we need the oxygen, and plants need the carbohydrates.” … [199]

“That CO2 is directly correlated with temperature is not the issue however, the issue is whether or not the relationship is the dominate climate driver in the presence of other natural events and feedbacks, and clearly it is not or, as CO2 increases linearly, so too would temperature… It is just one climate forcing event in a complex Earth system… “[198]

 

The major factors in the complex Earth climate system are the Sun, Tectonics, Wind and Ocean Circulation, Oceanic Oscillations, Clouds and Aerosols, and Greenhouse Gases.  Sangster devotes a chapter to each of these factors and they are must reads for anyone really interested in following the science. Actually, his book is a fascinating introduction to Earth science. Did you know, for example:

That the Sun revolves in a relatively circular orbit around the nucleus of our galaxy at a speed of over 500,000 miles per hour. It takes 11 Earth years to complete its immense orbit, and drags us along with it although we don’t feel a thing. On route, we pass through fields of cosmic rays that bombard us. Our atmosphere protects us, but these cosmic rays still effect our climate. 

That the plate tectonics that formed our continents is still going on and generating vast amounts of energy. They also create mountain ranges. Did you know that 85% of the Earth’s volcanos are below the surface of the oceans?

That wind and Ocean circulation is a major factor in our climate. Without the warm waters of the tropical Gulf Stream, Northern Europe would be uninhabitable.

That clouds play a key role in regulating our climate. Some let in needed heat from the Sun, while others reflect it back into space. As noted above, water vapor makes up 95% of the greenhouse gas that keeps heat in, and that prevents the entire planet from looking like Antarctica. Sangster quotes former President Obama’s Science Czar, Dr, John Holdren: “a 1% increase in cloud cover would decrease the surface temperature by .8 degree C., the entire warming amount attributed to CO2 since the start of the Industrial Age.” [196]

That water vapor makes up 99% of the greenhouse gases that help regulate our climate, and that it is entirely natural. There is nothing we can do about this fact, or any of the other facts noted above. 

Finally, Sangster points out a basic truth: “Earth is the only planet in the solar system with an atmosphere that can sustain life. The blanket of atmospheric gases not only contains the air we breathe but also modulates the energy balance… “[197].

I have limited this post to Climate Science. The rest of “The Real Inconvenient Truth” deals with the politics of Climate Science. We will deal with that in a subsequent post, but for now I will just say that it appears to me that it is the height of hubris to think that humans can combat the vast and powerful natural forces that have shaped our Earth on its incredible journey through space and time. 

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Dreams on a Rock Ledge

Someone told me that April is National Poetry Month, so I thought I would post a poem by my younger brother, Robert. Only a few years ago did I discover that he had been writing poetry. I have known him as a master science teacher and naturalist but recently he showed me a little collection of poems he has written, most based on his great love of nature. He claims that he wrote these poems to pass the time while proctoring classroom exams but it seems to me that they reflect a lifetime of experiencing nature at close hand.  Here is one that had a particular meaning for my wife and I as she celebrated her birthday yesterday. Below is Rob's explanatory note.

She

sat on the rock ledge

in her youth

and dreamed

now

in old age

the

same

rising sun

reflected off her radiant face

for a moment

the trials of

a long life

evaporated

 like morning dew

she

spied

a monarch butterfly

perched

on a nearby tree limb

she

sat motionless on the ledge

peering

into a

withering

field of goldenrod

gazing

into the future

butterfly goldenrod and

she

wondering

if there are any dreams

left

to be dreamt 

I never know what will inspire me to write a poem or a story.  Something might just catch my eye at the right moment.  My brother, Frank, and his wife, Linda, often visited my Aunt Rose’s log cabin in the Berkshires after they were married almost 60 years ago.   Now that I am in charge of the log cabin, they often visit my wife and me at the cabin.  We all have a great fondness for the cabin and its surroundings.  When Frank and Linda arrived on a recent clear, blue sky, sunny, Autumn day, a camera in my brain snapped an unforgettable photograph.  Linda walked to the log cabin, and then walked up the stone steps, but instead of going into the cabin, rested on a stone ledge that extends from the outside wall of the log cabin.  She placed her back against the logs and extended her legs on the rock ledge and let the Sun warm her body.  I smiled to myself knowing I would someday write a poem based on her actions.  I had been inspired.  I did not ask her, but I am certain she has rested on that rock ledge many times in the past.  I began to wonder what she might be thinking about at that moment, and what she might have thought about years ago when she rested there.

I wonder what the butterfly might be thinking about after she has laid her eggs.  I wonder what the goldenrod that has provided nectar and pollen for honeybees might be thinking about as its seeds have finally been shed.    Everyone has dreams when they are young, now older, I wonder if I have enough dreams left.

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Easter Signs 2024

  

I was born and raised a Catholic and have remained so for 84 years. Frankly, I have to say that I still like being a Catholic. One of the many reasons is the great feast of Easter. At Mass the other day, we heard the story of a woman who was about to be stoned to death for adultery by an angry crowd of accusers who had apparently caught her in the act. They brought her to Jesus to get his opinion before proceeding. His reply still resounds through the ages. "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone." 

Hearing those words, the crowd melted away, and the woman was left alone with Jesus. He said that since no one would condemn her, neither would he. But he just told her to sin no more. He had in effect raised her from the brink of death and then showed her the way to live thereafter. Her resurrection is a sign of his own resurrection that we celebrate on Easter. 

There are many other signs that remind us of Easter. Some have become secularized and commercialized but I still like them. The Easter egg is a symbol that refers to the tomb from which Jesus arose on Easter Sunday. The Easter bunny itself is a sign of the risen Christ seen by believers in the Eucharistic host. The great Renaissance artist Titian featured it in a painting that is usually called the Madonna of the Rabbit.

More often the risen Christ is depicted as the Lamb of God from the Book of Revelation. More than 500 years ago, Jan van Eyck painted the most famous version of the Mystical Lamb in the Ghent altarpiece. In my own parish church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Fairfield, Connecticut, the Lamb is shown in the center of a beautiful Rose window at the back of the Church. The Lamb reclines on the Book of the Seven Seals with a triumphal cross and banner.

 The word "Easter" comes from a Germanic goddess of spring. Latin peoples use the word pasqua from the Jewish pasch or passover. When the Germanic peoples were converted the Church wisely associated the word for Springtime with the feast of the Risen Lord. All around us new life is springing from the dead of winter. 

One of the many traditions associated with Easter was the famous Easter Parade, especially on New York's 5th Avenue. Here is a link to the ending of the film Easter Parade that featured Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. He was a little old but she was never lovelier than when she sang the title song. Or view the brief video below.

Happy Easter.