It is our grave misfortune to be in a situation where desperation lies all around. A corrupt political class within the United States (known affectionately as the uniparty) appears to have decided that Ukraine is a suitable country to engage in grifting activity for failed relatives who need to make money for the family but are not skilled enough to do so in the United States in a legitimate fashion, thus sending their children to engage in various influence peddling to profit from the interests of post-Soviet nations to have better access to Western investment and favorable political treatment at the cost of enriching political families within those countries through various kickbacks and the like. Similarly, Russia is fairly desperate to maintain or increase its own influence in its near abroad by preserving friendly puppet regimes and destabilizing hostile neighbors through the support of breakaway republics as has been the case for years in both Ukraine and Georgia, as well as Moldova, to give just a few examples.

When we add to this situation the desperation that is faced by the Democratic party, which is seeing massive losses on decades-long issues such as efforts at nation-building in Afghanistan as well as the impending demise of Roe vs. Wade, and which is on track to a historical drubbing in the mid-terms that threatens the furtherance of any sort of progressive agenda in the near-term within the United States, it is clear that we exist in a dangerous climate where multiple desperate parties with colliding interests may be pushed into doing things that are even more desperate. This sought to concern us, since we cannot assume that any government is going to act in the interests of its people when its own interests of survival and profit are threatened as they now are.

We can look at the grim fate of Ukraine at present to see where the desperation of a global elite and the desperation of a Russian revanchist collide. The West has so far been entirely willing to pump billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, send weapons and provide training so that Ukraine can fight Russia in a proxy war that is aimed at both weakening Russia’s position by allowing the West to expand to Russia’s border and baiting Russia into foolish actions that endanger its own diplomacy by encouraging other nations (like Sweden and Finland) to move away from neutrality towards the West. The problem is that Russia’s own desperation could lead it to take truly desperate measures. Given the fact that Western involvement on the side of Ukraine is not really plausible to deny, is it possible that Russia is going to be willing to lob nukes at the West in revenge? Would that not be a truly horrific situation? How does one defeat someone without making them so desperate so as to risk that?