I'm re-reading Hiroshima by John Hersey...

Blinken says he has no plans to meet with diplomats from Russia and China.

This was featured in live coverage.

3h ago

...because I wonder what it would be like, and where they would strike here in America, if we really put the pedal to the floor on this whole war thing, and it gets escalated up on both sides... You hate to think like that,but truth be told -- love me my country, but not as confident in our intelligence agencies and "defensive" mechanics as most "USA USA" chestbeaters, I bet.  Those are still people in power. You say, Russia can't even run tanks successfully into a little spit of a peasant country next door, but...  Russia PLUS Team China today up against our intelligence agencies/defense systems?  Why, we let a freaking balloon fly across the country before our radar seems to have even picked up on it.  And the more our people get "exposed" -- whether it be by whatever we were "investing" in over in the biological lab (perhaps weaponized, perhaps just a bad negligent leak...), well -- we're tops at "MakingMoney!", looking good and selling celebrity, but maybe America has just let her guard down for too long, and we've been kinda relying on the brains and goodwill of the People of the Past who put our country in this position the Boomers have been free riding -- with very little contributions of their own really -- for the past 50 "post war years".  We have, you know.  Our mindset, our brains, our loyalties to each other... I wish I were more confident in us, had faith that we could pull together and pull off a war win in the past, but... I'm not.  We're a silly, trivial people now that thinks money and weapons always win, and we might get wised up fast on that.

Think about it:  the 9-11 attack was successful, and required very little to carry out AND ... instead of taking some of the money we spend investing in securing foreign borders like lil Israel, say, we still have our barn door to the South wide open.  Can you believe it? 22 years post an attack on our homeland:  we still do not know who -- or what -- is coming or going in and out of our land.  Nevermind Fang Fang, and let's not be looking askew at ever intelligent immigrant who has entered our land in the recent decade, but we're still pretty darn trusting and open to all in a way that might be to our detriment.  I guess if you grow up with everythings-fully-covered insurance policies, and you have short memories of things like the 9/11 attack, it's easy to forget there is costly evil in the world and you need to be on guard, always.  We're not.  And the people paid to protect us?  I wonder like in so many other fields now, if people really aren't in it for the love of wanting to do the job, well done, taking pride in their work and always working ahead for the best possible outcome left behind, but more for the paycheck, what you can get "extra", and the innate desire to simply advance one's own offspring -- at the expense of others, if need be.

We're a silly people, for sure, relying first on our wealth and weaponry to protect us, and maybe we'd pull together with passion in the name of OUR country if pushed, but I bet the price would be very costly -- like with 9/11 -- for that to come out again, and even then, a lot of national goodwill has been burned since then, with the idea that different regions really don't give a damn about what is going on elsewhere in the country if we're getting richer and fatter for the power players at the top.

Early morning rambling, but you wake up thinking your thoughts, and of course, everyone likes to be a keyboard advisor, simply CERTAIN that they have all the answers and can drop advice about... well everything!  No advice here, but I'm humble/d, and I necessarily have a defensive mindset.

"You Don't Start None, There Won't Be None" is good advice our national leaders -- and whoever is controlling Joe Biden's brain -- don't seem to be interested in heeding.  We need that lithium because we are transitioning our vehicles to electric soon and very soon (been to an Auto Show lately?) and God knows, corporate America does not admire the best negotiators -- fair and honest -- so much as we admire dominance and might and taking what we believe to be rightfully ours, no matter where it lies.

No way America wants this war to end without Russia vanquished so we can get at Ukraine's national treasures long run.  We want to control their country, we think we NEED to control their country, so our corporations can march in and run the show.  Maybe it will be an American city soft nuked, but maybe like with Hiroshima, clearing ground in Ukraine -- or putting off a warning nuke to perennial wartime loser Poland is more in the cards?

Ok, coffee me.  I don't get paid to ponder, of course, but it's hard for some of us to look past the flowers and chocolates, rainbows and ponies, happy happy happy trivial nothing stuff that so many others are conditioned to believe in... that everything is coming up giggles and grins because we are America, we have money and guns, and nothing in the world will touch US ever.  How do you people do it?  Put that much faith in our national leaders who have failed us so often?  Drop me a line if you can share that easy fix, please.  In the end, youthful innocence might be America's greatest daily defense tool, even if it's all in the minds of the aging who seem only too willing to sacrifice up our country's future, plus the lives of so many of us whom don't really seem to count for much in elite circles.  (like when that burned up that chemical train in Ohio, to make the explosive problem simply... go away.)  

Nature and those who live close to life know better about the costs of easy fixes, and the price of life all the way down the chain, but we're not really about checking each other for the good anymore, criticizing and questioning those calling the shots and determining our national values.  Why, we've got elders who still wonder why in the heck our young people are depressed, our gun culture is out of control, and promise a law "taking back guns and banning them from the baddies!" would work in reality.

If only it were that simple, eh?  I sometimes wish I too could think like that, but then I've always preferred reality genre over fiction and fluff.  Make it a great day, friends.  Stay safe.  Look out for others -- if you're being paid well to perform a task? -- as much as you work the system to up your own. Thanks.  I guess that's all we can ask until like with 9-11 more national humbling drops in wartime.

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Soundtrack to the post?

"Out here, the street's are on fire -- it's a real death waltz -- between what's flash and what's fantasy... and the poets down here don't write nothing at all, they just stand back, and let it all be... and in the blink of eye, we burn our moment in time... down in AmericaLand."