Financial Times Names Zelensky: Man of the Year

I wish anyone who expresses fawning over Zelensky on the grounds of liberal democracy to live in a liberal democracy of the kind they have in Ukraine. But perhaps these people want us to live in Ukrainian democracy, they just can’t do it yet.

I am not sure the Ukrainians show any particular resilience, what Zelensky has done is use Russia’s initial weak charge in Ukraine to present the latter as a sign of weakness, and to sell the Ukrainian public a vision of peremoha. This is quite frankly criminal and will cost Ukraine dearly.

Ursula’s 100,000 Dead Ukrainian Officers

I had to save this magic moment on my YouTube channel:

Ursula can be forgiven for thinking everyone in the Ukrainian military is an officer but is this a slip? Now, Ursula is being briefed by intelligence services on Ukrainian casualties, so the figure may be true. Nevertheless, the above quickly went viral and the European Commission, from what I have heard, deleted the above from any public press release.

But then, why is Ursula mentioning the same as Russian sources?

Ukraine Ain’t Gonna Win This Fight

While the mainstream media are full of victory dances over Ukraine’s territorial gains, and claims of Russian weakness, feeding copious amounts of hopium to idiots, whose minds are already fried by years of incessant Russophobic propaganda, there are those that look at things through a more sober lens:

Source

In the absence of a critical root-and-branch analysis of Russia’s national power and strategic interests, American senior military leaders and their political bosses viewed Russia through a narrowly focused lens that magnified U.S. and Ukrainian strengths but ignored Russia’s strategic advantages—geographic depth, almost limitless natural resources, high social cohesion, and the military-industrial capacity to rapidly scale up its military power.

And…

…the Biden administration repeatedly commits the unpardonable sin in a democratic society of refusing to tell the American people the truth: contrary to the Western media’s popular “Ukrainian victory” narrative, which blocks any information that contradicts it, Ukraine is not winning and will not win this war.

Yesterday, I wrote a comment in Czech on Facebook, asking whether anyone still believes in Ukrainian victory. To my surprise, many do…

I really suggest you read that American Conservative article because it is a really good analysis of Russia’s strategy in Ukraine.

Solid Logic

So, recently Prague was a scene of pro-globalist demonstrations, particularly in the connection with the anniversary of 17 November which has significance in Czech history. And these events produced some cursed imagery…

The above photo features two completely inane statements above an EU, Czech, and Ukrainian flag. The protesters have repeatedly expressed their solidarity with Ukraine. It says on the left:

“No to Russian gas, yes to Green Deal”

And to the right:

“No to rising prices, yes to the Euro“

I wonder which of the renewables are more effective, more energy packed, than Russian gas? If anybody thinks that our movement towards a future powered by renewables would not be costly, I wish him a good luck.

And the same goes for the introduction of the Euro. Any sane shopkeeper is going to drive the price of everything upward with the introduction of a new currency. It is naive to think that imports will somehow become cheaper if the importer pays in Euros.

And above is a phenotypically Czech looking family holding three flags but why is the Czech flag upside down? The Czech flag: 🇨🇿 Actually, in the upper photo it is also displayed in a wrong way, although that could be a camera effect.

Current Thing Olympics

Some people these days really want to use public events and spaces to promote their dorky political ideas. Apparently in Qatar homosexuality is banned. But Westerners think they hold the moral high ground and can virtue signal about it.

This dude packed up two other causes celebrated by the Church of the Current Thing, Ukraine and Iranian women. I am surprised he did not add the Chinese anti-covid protesters, the Tigre rebels, or some other Western media favourite. Well, China ain’t Russia or Iran, and actually has some influence. I guess a memo hasn’t been issued to show support to the protesting Chinese, and besides the point forces out here in the West wouldn’t mind instituting the same measures here. As for Tigre rebels, they lost…

The Ethnonym “Ukrainian” is Allegedly Sounding Like a Slur to Polish People

I have a working knowledge of Polish, and can understand it, especially in written form. But any intricacies of the language are foreign to me.

I don’t know how genuine problem this is but the ethnonym “Ukrainian” has entered circulation rather recently, and it comes from Polish. The first to speak of Ukrainian nation (украинская народность) was the historian Nikolai Kostomarov in an essay titled “Two Russian nationalities.” Where he said there are two branches of Russians, Greater Russians and Ukrainians. This however cannot be considered the first use of the ethnonym Украинец.

The latter was adopted by some circles by the end of the nineteenth century but remained widespread among political activists and intellectuals only. By the outbreak of the First World War and especially towards its end, this identification got more currency. (See my posts here and here and here). I recall Oles’ Buzyna saying that the ethnonym “Ukrainian” was first officially used in the Austro-Hungarian military in 1916, on the orders of Emperor Karl I.

Otherwise it took root in 1920s during Soviet Korenizatsiya…