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Good morning,
Russia And KAOS aka Chaos
In the 1960’s ‘Get Smart’ was Mel Brooks/Buck Henry American TV Series, a parody on the James Bond films starring secret agent 86, who bumbled his way through the war on evil by fighting arch enemy ‘KAOS’ the international organization of evil.
KAOS wanted to dominate the world through any evil plot possible, with agents hailing from Eastern Europe, or, as Max called it, "the not-so-free world".
I doubt President Vladimir Putin ever watched ‘Get Smart’ and he doesn’t strike me as anyone who would ever appreciate the comedy, or comedy at all for that matter. But he does remind me of someone now dedicated to promoting KAOS aka chaos, both inside his country and exporting that around the world.
With that in mind powerful underwater explosions have been recorded by seismologists in Denmark and Sweden after the discovery of gas leaks in major Russian gas pipelines to Europe.
The discovery of the explosion came after Denmark’s prime minister claimed the leaks may have been caused by sabotage. Did Russia do this to escalate the gas crisis in Europe?
Former President Ronald Reagan referred to Russia in the Cold war as the evil empire. Today it’s this mad idea that Russia’s place in the world is to fight liberal democracies everywhere, without communism as a dual or opposing system, replaced by some looney notion of restoring the Russian empire.
You couldn’t easily make this stuff up even if you were a writer for Mel Brooks on ‘Get Smart’. The isolated world leader, who begins to lose touch with reality in his bunker during a pandemic, to emerge with his menacing finger on a nuclear button invading his neighbours and upending world peace. But here we are and it’s getting worse.
This week tragically more than 200 thousand Russians were fleeing in cars, on foot, by bicycle even to get away from Russian authorities trying to force them to fight a losing war in Ukraine.
They lined up for days crossing borders into Kazakhstan, Georgia, Finland, even Mongolia to get away before they die reinforcing the Russian army in eastern Ukraine to avoid dying for a war no one understands except Putins weird inner circle of chaos.
I know many Russians who despair, as their businesses are now worthless, and the thought of returning to their motherland is impossible.
This as Putin’s army is reportedly going door to door in eastern Ukraine forcing people to participate in sham referendums which will end with Putin declaring as soon as this Friday, he has annexed Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.
The ‘Kaos’ plot won’t be accepted by the world community. The referendums will be rejected as a sham.
But Putin will wave his Russia flag in victory in a meeting of Parliament 2 days from now and again threaten NATO with nukes, because eastern Ukraine is now part of Mother Russia he will say.
That’s the evil plot. Putin won’t ‘Get Smart’ soon it appears and the war will grind on with devastating and unpredictable consequences.
Other News…
-Hurricane Ian has cut Cuba’s electricity grid, and is now a CAT 4 storm menacing Florida today.
-A potential agreement between Israel and Lebanon could increase production of natural gas helping energy starved Europe.
-In Iran another night of protests, where demonstrators are demanding the regime step down. It follows the arrest and apparent murder of a 22 yr old woman taken into custody by morality police. Protesters say these street battles can only stop if Iran’s mullahs step down, and Irans leadership is expected to deploy more force and bloodshed. 240 protesters are now reported to have been killed and 12 thousand arrested in Iran.