We explore real-life reformation here in this informed, online community.
After the big interview, I said to my wife, "I wish I could have briefed Putin before the interview on how best to connect with Americans and what to be sure not to leave out."
I think he missed an opportunity to document some of the most critical information on Ukrainian war crimes committed against Russia prior to The Special Military Operation of 2022.
But perhaps President Putin would have replied to me, "Mr. Botkin, thank you for your advice, but you fail to understand just how irrelevant America has become in serious discussions about foreign policy and world affairs. My interest is not in "connecting" with Americans, but in speaking to the hundreds of millions in those nations which did not join the West in sanctions against Russia. They listen carefully to what I say, even my lengthy history lessons."
This reality may have been best summarized by the writer SIMPLICIUS in the following post:
SIMPLICIUS Ѱ @simpatico771
"Westoids complaining about Putin's interview being too pedantic have an inflated sense of self-worth: they assume the interview is primarily designed to appeal to them. Little do they know the West has become so irrelevant that it's no longer even necessarily the chief intended audience for Putin's transmissions.
"For instance, many of Putin's statements go viral in China, generating hundreds of millions or even billions of views/impressions on sites like Weibo, vastly larger engagements than the entire population of most of the West combined. In the east, where the citizenry is learned, historically-literate, etc., Putin's longueurs are actually appreciated, dissected, and discussed. This is particularly the case in China, where the majority of people are not only history buffs, but have a sacred respect for history and tradition.
"In the West, Putin's words may fall on deaf ears and be drowned out by illiterate popculture noise, but the West is no longer relevant to the world. In other places, Putin's words will reverberate, consummating their intended effects."
11:06 PM · Feb 8, 2024
"There are times when a people tolerate an evil for so long that they cease to recognize its enormity. The evil acquires procedures, professional language, political constituencies, legal protections and respectable explanations. Eventually bloodshed receives a clinical name, partiality becomes public policy, and injustice—once sufficiently regulated—begins to look almost ordinary."
-- Bill Evans
The @EU_Commission met today with Meta & TikTok on the situation in Ceuta.
"Platforms must act decisively in keeping the integrity of the digital space, in particular during crisis situations. Monitoring must increase, cooperation with fact-checkers to be strengthened."
What has social media been commanded to do? Cover up the fact that 72,000 military aged males invaded Spain over a two day period? Spin the story? Hire fact checkers who say, "Don't believe the misinformation. It was only 72 migrants." What were the orders given to social media regarding the Hungarian election of 2026? What orders are being given to the new puppet government of Hungary by the EU?
In a new book, two New York Times writers describe an interview in which Trump had an aide bring out a two-page list of the most powerful leaders in history — Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, Hitler — and argued he’s more powerful than any of them. The most powerful man, he told them, ever to walk the face of the earth.
Why would he want any association with these genocidal tyrants?
"Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."
Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame."
I Corinthians 15:33-34
