Excuse for what? Well, for more government control (tyranny and totalitarianism), more economic disruption (or collapse), more environism, and more internal conflict and destruction of society. No, NOT just in Eastern Europe or in Asia. Right here in the States.
The powers-that-be constantly seek for and work towards a world in which they and their minions (and patrons) have near-absolute control over the rest of us. Just as they used COVID-19 Pandemic, so they are now using the war in Eastern Europe.
The entire COVID-19 Lockdown and follow-on mandates narrative is collapsing as we watch. It’s been happening for months, of course. The propaganda, the steady drumbeat of dictatorial edicts, the screams of horror and condemnation, have been steadily fading in their effectiveness to excuse the massive theft of liberty, prosperity, and security. In other words, more and more people are ignoring the powers-that-be. More and more people have decided not to put up with the garbage anymore.
State after State has caved, ending mask mandates, toning down their demands for vaccinations, reducing the quantity (at least) of vicious attacks against anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, and sceptics. That is, people who have long ignored their billions of propaganda pieces on radio, television, internet, billboards, buses and more.
The disgust for that pathetic ever-more senile geriatric politician has even effected mainstream Democrats. He is viewed as a talking head who can’t even do that well: the captive and puppet of all the special interests that “elected” the man. His running mate is even more of a joke. And his publicly-recognized advisors are seen, more and more, as fools who are unable to run their own bureaucracies, much less use them to accomplish any real goals.
SO… enter the Russo-Ukrainian War. What a WONDERFUL opportunity to leap forward from the great accomplishments of the FedGov, most State governments, and both old political parties during the Pandemic Panic! And give Uncle Joe and the other members of this corrupt and pitiful regime an opportunity to both burnish their public image AND get everyone to forget about their worthless behavior for the past 14 months.
AND this time, there appears to again be little difference between the so-called Right and Left, between the Demopublicans and the Republicrats. (Of course, initially, there were not that many differences between the two old parties – except for a few holdouts (like Noem of South Dakota) over the Beer Flu. But that has changed a lot in the last 24 months.) This time, though, I hear all the voices that questioned the economic disaster of the Panic and the health-bureaucratic dictatorship all cheering on the theme that “saving” the Ukraine is a G-d-given mandate for the FedGov and therefore every American.
To listen and read, it seems that everyone is agreed that (a) Putin is an evil Communist, Mafioso, corrupt, imperialist, tyrant and conquerer, (b) Ukraine is a wonderful, good, peaceful democratic freedom-loving nation “just like ‘Merica.” And on the side of the angels.
Don’t get us here at TPOL wrong. Putin is now clearly an aggressor and has gone far beyond anything that was justified by the conditions of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. We agree that he is evil. But he is NOT UNIQUELY evil – he is not significantly eviler than his foes in Kyiv or Europe or the UK or the FedGov. Indeed, he is just like virtually ALL government officials and decision-makers: power-hungry, controlling, ruthless, and overall a thug.
But even relatively that does not put Zelenskyy on the side of good. The corruption of the Ukrainan regimes both before and after the “pro-American/anti-Russian” coup of 2014 is very well documented. A corruption with which Uncle Joe and family are intimately familiar. Even Wikipedia reports on evidence of his corruption with events as recently as October (see the Pandora Papers.) And it is not just Zelenskyy that is a bad actor: he is backed by millions of Ukrainians. And by their supporters. And those idiots that think that a “Jew” cannot be a fascist (or even a Nazi). (Consider George Soros, among others.) He is no more “anti-establishment, anti-corruption” than Uncle Joe, the current Chancellor of Germany, or Putin himself. He indeed has handled the post-Soviet oligarchs of Ukraine in the same way that Putin had dealt with those of Moscow.
But that is beside the point of this commentary. For DC, the current Russo-Ukrainian War is just another excuse for further gaining power here in the Fifty States:
- for more and more military spending
- for massive inflation, especially of energy prices
- for triggering even more economic disruption through impacts on transportation and food production
- for more justification of ending “fossil fuels” for transportation and other uses – including electrical power
- for more disruption of the supply chain
- for more control over the media and free speech in general
All of this amounts to replacing the largely successful efforts of the political leadership and bureaucracy to use the COVID-19 pandemic against liberty, with a “Stage-2” assault on liberty at home and abroad to further their goals of a “new world order” in which they rule over a subservient populace. All “for our own good,” of course.
They don’t actually need to start World War Three to do this, of course. Indeed, the threat may be sufficient to accomplish their goals.
The Price of Liberty 
Good post. I pray for our country and for freedom to reign eventually.
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We do have the right to blow up a meth house because it poses a threat to our community. We do have the right to shoot trespassers because they infringe on our right to private property. I forgot how misguided Libertarianism is. Open borders, ok Drug use, ok Faggotry and Trannyism , ok. It’s funny how many dupes consider Libertarianism a conservative philosophy when it’s [sic] underlying principals [sic]scream “Lefty”!
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Mr. Eden, I fear that you are very much wrong.
We do not have a “right” to destroy private property just because activities going on there are wrong in our eyes, or may “pose a threat” to our community or our families or ourselves.
We do not have a “right” to shoot (and presumably wound or kill) someone just because they “infringe” our right to private property.
Our response to aggression must ALWAYS be commensurate to the act(s) of aggression: we must not use excessive force, as self-governors who are responsible for our actions and their consequences. We must respond appropriately: after assessing the hazard/threat and the risks involved. Taking a life or destroying property is something that should be a last resort, reluctantly undertaken, and only when it is respecting the rights of others. And understanding that the consequences of escalating the situation may lead to more death and destruction.
While I may agree with you that many Libertarians are misguided, you are making far too broad a statement. Particularly regarding these four issues (and many more we’ve all heard before) and those of us here at The Price of Liberty. TPOL has never claimed that it is OK to use (abuse) drugs. We have never accepted homosexuality (“faggotry” in your words) as OK. And I’m fairly certain we’ve never stated that “Trannyism” (if I understand what you mean by that) is OK. Indeed, we believe these things to be morally wrong and to damage people, families, communities, society, and indeed, the economy. Indeed, we reject them and teach against them.
As for “open borders,” we believe in them as much as we do in “open doors” and “open gates” and “open windows” and “open walls.” It is an area in which the current TPOL staff disagreed somewhat with Mama Liberty on the surface: that good fences (and walls) make good neighbors. Like our homes, our businesses, and our land, we are willing to be open to peaceful and honest visitors – both friends and strangers. Provided that they respect us and our rights. But that we have the right to defend our homes, our businesses, our lands, and yes, our communities and States against those who come only to steal, to prey, to destroy us.
Our rights are God-given and absolute. How we exercise our rights requires great discernment and accepting that with liberty, responsibility must be accepted.
I am a bit confused about precisely what all this has to do with the comments regarding Putin. As we’ve commented more than once, Mr. Putin has some admirable traits and he’s done some good things for Russia. But like all of us, he is flawed. And like virtually all politicians, he is evil – doing evil things, even if for the right reasons. His all-out invasion of Ukraine was the wrong thing to do.
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Yep! There’s the disclaimer “Putin bad! Gotta stay on the good side of TPTB.
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TPOL hasn’t had to worry about staying on the good side of the Powers-That-Be, and we haven’t for years. In fact, one of our staff, years ago, got fired (“laid off”) because of what he wrote and posted. We’ve never been on their good side.
That said, Putin did not respond in an appropriate way to the way ethnic Russians were being treated in the Donbass or elsewhere in Ukraine. I think a key part of the libertarian understanding of use of force for defensive purposes is understanding proportionality. Our response should be proportional to the threat posed. We don’t have the moral “right” to gun someone down because they trespass by walking across our property. We don’t have moral right to go blow up a house in our neighborhood because it seems to be a meth house and they are abusing their children. In this current war, I think that Putin has demonstrated that he is behaving in a thuggish way – as do virtually ALL political leaders.
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