freedom – Page 6 – Oscar Valdes

The Business Side – China

Two American business executives, Ray and Andrew, talk about the China threat.

Ray – Much too much is made of China taking advantage of what we produce, then working with it to improve it.
Andrew – They do a good job at it.
Ray – They do. The way to deal with it is keep improving our products. Making them better and better. Sure, if a particular technology is highly specialized and critical for our security, we should consider not letting them have it. But only for a little while. We should see China as a challenge for us to keep getting better and better. We’re in the making and selling of stuff, anything, and constantly improving it.
To do that we need markets. China is a great market.
Andrew – Does the Chinese state subsidizing private businesses gives them an advantage?
Ray – Of course. So, for critical industries, we should get our government to subsidize us too.
Andrew – We can’t change China. Might as well join them.
Ray – In some things.
Andrew – Do you have any doubt that they have the ambition to become the dominant power in the world?
Ray – No doubt at all. We just won’t let them. Period. If we need to go to war, then that’s what we’ll have to do.
Andrew – Nuclear war?
Ray – We don’t need to go there. More sophisticated conventional weapons should do. In Ukraine, the mobile launchers they now have are making a difference. And if they get the F-16’s they were promised, it will turn things around.
We just have to compete better with China. They are stealing from us because we have more than they do. In some areas, where they’re making a lot of progress, we need to invest more here in the states.
But China ought to be seen as a great stimulus to us, so we can become more efficient.
Andrew – We need to keep track of what they produce so we won’t become dependent on them.
Ray – Right. We shouldn’t become dependent on any one country. Just in case there’s conflict and the supply lines get gummed up. Like with Covid and in Ukraine. That was amazing how Europe got so trusting of Russia to provide their energy needs.
Andrew – So you’re not afraid of China getting stronger?
Ray – I’m not. But we need to keep getting stronger than them. As I said, let’s look at them as a stimulus to do better. Not just economically but politically.
Andrew – Do you think immigration gives us an advantage?
Ray – I do. There’s two things that give us a huge advantage. One is immigration – people all over the world want to come here, not to China. And the other is Freedom. They don’t know what that is in China. But they dream of it in secret.
I’m a believer that as they continue to get richer, one day they’ll want to have their freedom, too.
That will upset a lot of people in the communist party.
Andrew – Any challenges that you see we’re having trouble with?
Ray – Yes. We need to give our people more opportunity for advancement. So they can get a better education and earn more. If that means raising taxes on the wealthier, so be it.
The more educated our work force the better.
But keep immigration open. And our freedom.
Andrew – You heard about Liz Cheney announcing she’s interested in a presidential bid?
Ray – I did. She needs to change her stand on abortion to have a shot. Just say, ‘I changed my mind. This is too important to women. I’m now pro choice.’ And women would run to vote for her, just to see her in the primary debates go up against Trump and say to him, ‘Hey, didn’t you just try to overthrow our government? What are you doing here?’
Andrew – You think Biden will run again?
Ray – I do. And if Ukrainians manage to push back Russians he’ll win handily. That’s how important that war is.
Andrew – What do you think of Musk?
Ray – I think they’ll force him to buy Twitter and he’ll say to himself, ‘I should watch my mouth.’
Andrew – Thank you, Ray. We’ll meet again.

Oscarvaldes.medium.com, apple podcasts.

Are We Becoming More Violent?

Two friends, Craig and Walter, talk about the state of the nation.

Craig – Would you say that we’re becoming more violent?
Walter – Yes, I’d say that.
Craig – What do you think contributes to it?
Walter – The internet.
Craig – How so?
Walter – It’s now so easy to put anything you think of out there. Without the benefit of inner censors. So the most outlandish ideas get to circulate and gain supporters.
Soon enough people start making things up. Twisting facts. Selling fake news.
It’s odd. The greater ease of publication has led to less thinking rather than more thinking.
People are quicker to insult, to bash other people.
In democracies, inner censors are crucial, but that’s the task of a good education.
Leading up to the 2020 elections there was a news thread going around saying Joe Biden was a pedophile. I remember talking to an otherwise intelligent person and she swore it was true. She had seen it in a website, she said. I told the person those ideas were trash but she didn’t believe me.
‘I’ll send you the link,’ she replied. ‘Please don’t.’
Craig – Where do you think we’re heading?
Walter – More violence.
The church has failed. They’re in to preaching violence also. Take Iran. Salman Rushdie writes The Satanic Verses and the ayatollahs order him killed.
Craig – Have you read the book?
Walter – Parts of it. Rushdie is a very talented writer. Great command of the language. Amazing ease with words. He was making fun of religious beliefs, playing with them, taking artistic license, if you will, because that’s his talent. We need people to help us see religion in another light. But the ayatollahs saw his work as a great offense and issued an order to kill him.
It tells me those clerics are all closed minded. Men with fragile egos, their view of the world so narrow. It’s too bad they’re so many people in that nation who have not organized to revolt against the government.
So, on the one hand the church has failed us and on the other, people haven’t stepped up and learned to think for themselves. So you might say we’re in a transitional period, in a moral void.
I think we’re transitioning to discovering we have a mind. That we can think on our own. That we don’t have to wait for an ayatollah or a pope or a Putin or a Xi Jinping or a Narendra Modi or a Donald Trump or a Ron DeSantis to tell us how the cookie crumbles. It’s very sad to see the lack of intellectual independence in human beings.
In school there should be courses teaching us to think on our own. But the parents probably won’t allow it, because they may think the teachers are socialists. The parents, not able to think on their own, don’t want to allow their children to find their intellectual freedom.
We need more and more education early on. Teach us how to learn to manage envy, to be kinder to others.
Craig – So what do we do in the meantime?
Walter – With a few exceptions, we don’t have our best people in politics. The task of leadership is a civic duty. More of our best and brightest should be encouraged to run for office and so counter the professional politician with their set of alliances and bad habits.
We need leaders who can talk to us weekly and say, this is what is happening in our world, this is what needs to be done and why. It takes courage to do that.
We need men and women willing to lead and are not afraid of not getting reelected. People who can do what is best for our country regardless of whether it will be seen as popular or not.

Oscarvaldes.medium.com., apple podcasts

On Courage

It starts with the willingness to dissent.
To be able to disagree, to oppose, to not go along with something you do not favor.
It is a quality to be nurtured. It needs to be exercised because otherwise it shrinks and atrophies. And to allow that is to allow for our gradual devaluing. In our eyes and in the eyes of others.
You can be born with that precious quality or work to acquire it.
Having it makes life immensely satisfying for you have an essential tool to shape your life.
There are different kinds of courage. Physical, intellectual, emotional.
A physically strong person may be able to assert themselves in a physical confrontation but not so in an intellectual or emotional one, while an intellectually or emotionally strong person may not stand up for themselves satisfactorily in a physical confrontation.
But what sits at the center of courage? What feeds it?
Four things come to mind:
A willingness to set limits, to say, ‘I have before me the option of this or that but at this stage of my knowledge I set my limits here.’
The willingness to take the initiative on matters leading to our betterment, personal or professional.
The willingness to trust our intuition.
And the steady exercise of all the above.
Courage’s ever present companion is risk. Without risk there is no courage. They go hand in hand.
Courage can be built, if there is the desire. And it is most desirable for it makes life richer and fruitful.
Courage can be public or private.
Every one of us, in our personal lives, is always being asked by life’s circumstances to exercise a measure of courage. Everyday life presents to us a challenge.
Most of those demands are for private displays of courage. Sometimes, though, they are public.
If we have been thinking and acting on the matter, then we’ll be in a better position to meet the challenge.
And if we don’t, then we should learn from it, thus preparing for the next occasion which, unless we’re hiding under a rock, is sure to come our way.
Life is unsparing in that sense. It loves to test us. To incessantly ask us, ‘are you learning from what I bring you every day, or are you sleep walking through it?’ Pay attention.
Lives are better lived when there is courage. Of course, as in anything involving courage and risk, there is no guarantee of results. Every day could be our last one. But such is life.
A word about group or national courage.
Today we are witnessing a special moment. Ukraine has chosen to stand up against Putin’s aggression. It is a remarkable time in history. Thousands of men and women have lost their lives in defense of their land and their right to choose their destiny. Russians and others that stand with Putin, notably China, should be ashamed of their stance.
The rest of us should not forget this.
Political leaderships that silence dissent are a threat to all of us, even to those thousands of miles away.
And just like Russians and Chinese gave in to their leaders, we should be on guard that it doesn’t happen in our land.

Oscarvaldes.medium.com, anchor.fm, apple and google podcasts.

Xi Speaks His Thoughts

He’s sitting at his desk in his office in Beijing.
He’s going through reports of his subordinates’ performance. Some are as loyal as he wants them to be, some not so much. The latter are put on the heap for reassignment, i.e. demotion.

News of Nancy Pelosi’s (Speaker of the US House of Representatives) plane arriving in Taiwan flashes on a large screen on a wall across.
He smiles.
‘Beautiful.’
He pauses as he takes in the landing of the plane, the sight of the welcoming committee waiting on the tarmac.
‘The more Americans challenge me on Taiwan, the more I can keep my people furious about their interfering with our sovereignty and the more they will accept the restrictions I impose on their freedoms.
Freedom should be reserved for the leadership, the very accomplished and faithful to the ideas of the party.
Freedom in the hands of regular people leads to chaos, like in the West, where freedom got Trump to be elected. And where they may elect him again.’
He laughs.
‘But what really gets my people to tolerate the harshest of restrictions on their liberties is the promise that one day soon, we will make our move for world dominance. And we’ll have Americans queuing up to learn Mandarin. Won’t that be a beautiful sight?
I can’t wait.’

A voice through a speaker on his desk interrupts.

Speaker phone – Chairman, the cyberattack committee wanted to go ahead with targeting the list of American and English companies they sent you this morning. Have you had a chance to go through it?
‘I have. Leave company D out for now but proceed with the rest. We need their technology.’
Speaker phone – Indeed, Mr Chairman.
‘Thank you.’

He grows silent, a hint of worry on his furrowed brow.

‘That drone attack that killed the Al Qaeda leader in the center of Kabul has got me worried.
I don’t think the Americans would ever try that on me. We would fire missiles immediately on them… but so would they on us. In the confusion, would Russians jump in, too?’

He returns to his papers, assessing the loyalty of his subordinates.

He pauses again.

‘Western businesses have been very good for us… and our forcing the transfer of technology has been essential to what we have become in so short a time.
But they are growing more distrustful. Which is why we’re trying to extend our influence over other nations… but the idea of freedom keeps coming up. It’s hard to squash it, snuff it out, like we’re doing here in China. Maybe the Chinese are more pliant… more willing to tolerate structure… and surrender their personal dreams in the interest of the nation.
That is what we’re banking on to build the new Chinese Empire. The pliant quality of Chinese citizens, willing to work hard for the good of the party and the nation, and willing to surrender their personal ambitions.
In the meantime, I get to extend my rule… until I die… like Mao did.
Oh, to die in power… what a wonderful idea. The whole nation grieving for me.
The thought of it brings tears to my eyes.’

He dabs his moistened eyes.

‘And now this war in Ukraine. When will it end? Putin acts like he’s going to win… but it’s starting to look like he’s not. The West has got bolder… now committing to sending in fighter jets. And the Russian military may want a change in leadership… which may align with us or not.
New leadership aligning with the West would be disastrous for us… which is an argument to assist Russia win the war… but if I do… western markets may close off to us. They’ve warned us, Biden has.
Anyway, we’ve bought enough Russian oil.
Putin should be bolder… send in a team to kidnap Zelensky… take him to Moscow and try him for crimes against humanity.
I fear he’s running out of time. He may ask us for more drones, to attack Zelensky in Kyiv, like the Americans did in Kabul… but if one of our drones hit Zelensky… that would be a problem.’

He closes his eyes for a moment.

‘But I don’t trust Putin. Sooner or later, he’ll remind me that he has more nuclear weapons than I have… I know that’s coming. But what I admire in him is how he’s domesticated his people to do as he pleases. I should learn from him. And how he persuaded Donald Trump that he had nothing to do with interfering in America’s elections. That was beautiful to see.’

He returns to his paperwork, sorting out the most loyal from the less loyal.

Oscarvaldes.medium.com, anchor.fm, apple and google podcasts

Mr Biden, Sell Us the War!

Photo by Sima Ghaffarzadeh on Pexels.com

Sell the war to the American public. It is a remarkable achievement, one that we should all be proud of. Sell us the war!
You have been key in rallying the western alliance. You have motivated, encouraged and persuaded the fence sitters. To you belongs a great deal of the credit for where Ukraine now stands.
Do not underestimate this triumph.
I recall you getting lots of flak for pulling out of Afghanistan. But if you hadn’t done so your focus would have been divided and your resolve diminished.
There has not been a moment like this in our recent history.
This is a far greater achievement than the first Gulf War in 1990 (Bush the elder) and the war in Bosnia in 1995 (Clinton).
This war has been a major determinant of inflation but our economy has slowed enough that Jerome Powell in the Federal Reserve kept the latest rise in interest rates to .75 bps. The markets have responded positively.
Gas prices may remain high while Putin continues to squeeze Europe by reducing gas supplies but the western alliance has held strong in spite of such pressures.
Trust that Americans will understand the importance of backing Ukraine.
The recent choice of providing them with warplanes is hugely important. Now it is becoming clearer that Putin can and must be driven back.
Your political courage in resisting the Russian offensive deserves full acknowledgment.
Had Trump been reelected, Putin would’ve had no problem annexing Ukraine.
Why, Putin would have been a regular guest at Mar-a-Lago and Trump would have been invited to the installation of Russia’s new puppet regime in Kyiv.
But the freedom of a courageous people would have been forgotten.
Sell us the importance of the war so we can avoid losses in the House and Senate this November.
With the Supreme court’s overturning the federal mandate protecting women’s right to an abortion, a significant percentage of women will show up at the ballot box to express their displeasure.
Meanwhile, the hearings on the January 6th attack on the Capitol make obvious the tyrannical intent of Mr Trump and should be a source of embarrassment to most who voted for him.
Beware of the polls suggesting you are unpopular. There are groups of people who will not see the evidence even when put in front of them, but they will not be consequential when it matters.
This first year and a half of your tenure has been remarkable. Covid is retreating and even Joe Manchin chose to turn around and back your bill.
Your recent performance in Saudi Arabia was excellent. You did not come back with a tangible concession but you stuck to your guns and did not flinch from restating your belief that the prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggi’s death.
Sell us the war, Mr President. It is an achievement that is transforming Europe and the West and all Americans should own it.

Oscar Valdes, medium.com, anchor.fm, buzzsprout, apple and google podcasts.

Finally, the Warplanes

It was with much relief that I read the news yesterday that the West had decided to finally send warplanes to Ukraine. It has been a long wait.
And it will be a turning point in the war.
America is setting up to train Ukrainian pilots to operate F-15 or F-16 fighter jets. And while it will take some months for the aircraft to be put to use, the decision has all the markings of a game changing choice.
The underlying thinking is what I find most relevant. And that is the willingness to confront Putin. To not be cowed by his threats of using nuclear weapons.
For the longest, the West had hesitated to provide much needed warplanes fearing a nuclear escalation would follow. But no more.
The battle for Ukraine has become a defining moment for the West.
Not only is NATO in the process of expanding its membership (Finland and Sweden) as a result of Russia’s invasion, but a new resolve has been created.
Putin may boast that he has got around some of the sanctions imposed on him and may be dreaming of the pain he can still inflict by restricting gas supplies to Europe come winter, but it has become evident that his choice of massacring Ukrainians was a disaster.
Ukrainians’ blood and endless sacrifices, Zelensky’s steady and inspiring leadership, both have been critical in the new conviction that Russia can be defeated and pushed back to their own border.
All the nations that have banded together to oppose Putin and aid Ukrainians, deserve great credit for such courageous stance.
As an American, I thank president Biden for his strong leadership and commitment to uniting the West.
Inflation was an inevitable consequence of the war effort, and yet there are signs that this, too, will be manageable and the West will endure and thrive.
By contrast, Putin’s fate is sealed. He will forever be no more than a small man with grandiose ambitions who chose to ravage a neighbor nation.
History will not forgive him.
It will be up to Russians to depose him and I have no doubt they will.
He stands in the way of their political and economic development. Stands in the way of their cultural and technological growth. Whereas this was evident well before the war, the war has made it blatantly clear.
Russia cannot realize its possibilities with a man like Putin as their leader.
It is hard to say how Putin will be removed from office but I have no doubt that forward thinking Russians have given the matter serious thought.
I predict that Vladimir Putin will fall soon, perhaps even before the end of the year.
By contrast, Volodymyr Zelensky’s star will continue to rise, as will his commitment to rebuilding Ukraine into a first rate nation, a shining example of what political and moral courage are able to create.

Oscar Valdes, medium.com, anchor.fm, buzzsprout, apple and google podcasts.

9/20/22 Note: I wrote this article based on information that had appeared in the NY Times or the WSJ the day before (7/26/22). Yesterday, in the WSJ, and again today, I read that the US has no immediate plans to send war planes (F-15s of F-16s) to Ukraine. Something changed. Perhaps it is the concern that Putin will see it as an intolerable escalation on the part of the West. Thank you.

To Be Russian Today

The spotlight is on Russians.
Why did they allow a man like Putin to gather so much personal power?
Why did Russians give up their own power, giving it instead to Putin to do as he wishes?
Because they did, Putin went on unchecked, dreaming of recreating the Soviet Union.
And Ukraine has been ravaged with devastating brutality.
Russian foes of Putin’s rule have existed all along. Some have died, others are in prison, like Alexei Navalny.
A nation of great vitality, of considerable talent and inventiveness, has succumbed to a vulgar leader, a small man with dreams of ruling the world.
But Putin is not Russia.
And the rest of us need to be very clear about that.
To be Russian today is to admit that, as a people, they failed to summon the political courage needed to stop Putin’s rise to power.
To be Russian today is to admit that political courage is a priceless quality, and that without it freedom is not possible.
To be Russian today is to remind the world that without such courage life is diminished, and men like Putin will use the opportunity for their own aggrandizement.
To be Russian today is to admit that there is a critical time to dissent, and that means confronting the fear of reprisals.
To be Russian today is to remind us all that such fear exists in every one of us and that it must be confronted.
The fate of humanity depends on many things: hard work, inventiveness, compassion and the acknowledgment that every single one of us has something to contribute.
But without political courage, without the power to dissent, vulgar men will seek to dominate others by brute force.
Without political courage, all of humanity’s achievements can be destroyed.
The devastation in Ukraine today is happening because all of us, not just Russians, failed to object to the rise of a tyrant.
To be Russian today is to remind us that we’re all vulnerable to succumb to fear, and that standing up to it is a priceless quality upon which the survival of the planet depends.
The massacre in Ukraine, like the subjugation of any people anywhere, is a call to the rest of us to affirm our humanity and give assistance to all who are being forced to be silent.
Here in America, the forces of darkness elevated Trump, and he responded by trying to overturn his electoral defeat.
So we, too, like Russians, have failed to exercise our political courage.
The power to dissent is the road to freedom. And freedom the only path to the realization of humanity’s endless possibilities.
To be Russian today is to be anyone of us.

Oscar Valdes, medium.com, anchor.fm, buzzsprout, apple and google podcasts

China and the US

We’re now in the thick of a struggle with China. A struggle for economic and technological primacy.
China has proved itself a formidable opponent. One that challenges us to the core, which is good for us.
Competition, with all its problems, has the advantage of pushing us to perform as best we can.
Unless we go to war, the likelihood is that this contest will last a long time.
Russia, for all its chest thumping in Ukraine and elsewhere, is not really part of this contest. They would like to be but, until they rid themselves of Putin and choose a different kind of leadership, they will remain a second level participant.
But back to China and the US.
This contest asks of us, which is the better social organization that can elicit the greater productivity from its citizens?
We both are presently thinking the social organization we presently have is the best one. But that is now in question.
China has shown a great deal of inventiveness and capacity for hard work. They acknowledged they needed to open themselves to other nations to promote internal prosperity, then did so and leaped forward in a spectacular manner in just 40 years. They have been called the factory of the world. Mastering the new information, they put it in their service.
Their social organization managed the transition effectively.
But will that same organization be able to address the complexities of the new environment they have created?
Recently we’ve seen how the political leadership, in the interest of ‘managed prosperity’, has inserted themselves in the governing of businesses and large conglomerates. My bet is that this approach will backfire and reduce the efficiency needed to compete.
The impulse of government to meddle in the running of successful businesses is ever present. We see attempts to do so here in America too, but in the end prove consistently detrimental to the creative and competitive impulse.
It will take time for the Chinese to acknowledge that flaw. The reason is their limits on free speech and the consequent drowning of critical voices.
We, in contrast, enjoy free speech, but are falling short on the discipline that must go with it.
How come, for instance, we’ve allowed ourselves to fall behind in the production of advanced semiconductors and so become dependent on a factory in Taiwan, which lies so close to China?
It is inexcusable. And it didn’t happen overnight.
Too many voices in America? No. We need them all. But we must be diligent in the setting of priorities and that’s a task for enlightened leadership.
Creativity is intimately connected to free speech. We need them both for ideas to fully flourish.
And while China continues to steal technology from the West, it is astonishing to see how they will not acknowledge the connection that makes it happen.
They know they have been enriched by trade with the West but are not willing to try and imitate the social and economic conditions that lead to such products, preferring to foist on the Chinese people a controlling system designed to preserve the elite’s political power at all costs.
To see China today, is to see a nation taking advantage of material advances but shrinking from their responsibility to mature politically.
The problem with immature political systems is that they turn violent on a whim. As is the sad case of Putin and Ukraine today.
Both China and Russia stand as examples of leadership manipulating their citizens.
As such they both should be subjects of study for all us here in America, since we also have witnessed recent serious attempts to manipulate us into believing false ideas.
Such study will show us how much we have got right and how much that can go wrong if we’re not on our game.
I would not want to live in any other political system than the one we have, but there is no doubt that we are a work in progress.
Democracy is a fragile affair, easily undermined by those whose main interest is their personal power.
Vigilance should be constant, and the journey worth every fight.

A quick aside:
On my way back home the other day, I saw a man standing at a corner holding an umbrella. I went up to him and said, ‘You’re making a statement with that umbrella.’
‘I am?’ he replied, amused.
‘Yes. You’re telling us that men also have sensitive skins.’
He laughed.

Good Night

Oscar Valdes, medium.com, anchor.fm, buzzsprout, apple an google podcasts

Parenting. Power. Envy

Being a parent implies we guide our child as they take their first steps into the world.
We brought them in so we owe it to them.
It is a journey with an uncertain destination which makes it the more unique.
Here’s my take on it.
Guide the child in the direction of their finding their own power.
It’s in them somewhere.
They just have to find it.
We can’t do it for them but we can have a hand in guiding them there.
They will need all their power because the world can be a rough place to be in.
Nature endows each one of us with a set of abilities. Helping the child connect to those abilities early on helps them find a reliable source of joy to offset the inevitable disappointments and failures.
At the start every child is a big question.
Yet what lies in them, when expressed, will have the capacity to dazzle, invent or soothe, discover or comfort, and so open the way for humanity’s betterment.
We have a huge role to play in facilitating the process.
Conversations with observant teachers, or anyone who interacts with the child, can be enlightening, for as the child is exposed to different situations their abilities will begin to reveal themselves.
Some abilities may not manifest themselves early on because they need time to mature, but so long as the child is experiencing moments of joy in exploring their world, sooner or later they will move toward something dear to them and which hard challenges they will endure.
Exposing the child to our interests is desirable, but they should not be imposed on the child.
Interests that flow freely are the ideal.
As we journey with our child we will come across envy. It is part of living, since nature scatters her gifts widely and entirely at her discretion, giving more to some and less to others.
The world being so competitive, envy is part of our daily existence.
Parents have a great deal to say as to how envy is addressed and managed.
We should not shy from calling it what it is.
Envy, the ‘painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another, joined with a desire to possess the same advantage’ (Merriam-Webster’s) is a powerful emotion that is seldom mentioned.
Think back on your own upbringing. How often was the word or sentiment expressed?
And yet it was often the source of conflict, hidden or manifest. Introducing it in our daily vocabulary becomes essential.
We learn to live with it by looking it in the eye, accepting it, then telling ourselves, ‘whatever the other has that I don’t have is their power. They found it. It is theirs. I must respect that. In turn I must focus on finding my own power. As I do I will better manage my resentment, and not let it fill me with hatred.’
If we say that, then we will be back on our own journey to find what gives us the most satisfaction.
We’re on the right path if what we’re doing is making us stronger and wiser. That goes for both parent and child.
Keep doing what makes us stronger and wiser and we stand a good chance of finding personal peace, while exciting our ambitions and capacity to love.
Our children can’t live our lives for us. It is up to every one of us.
It’s critical for the parent not to be envious of their children. Not to stand in their way.
Their course in life is for them to set.
We guide, encourage, assist, nurture, because that’s the agreement we entered when we brought them into this world.
And yet the process affects the parent, too.
The more a parent endeavors to recognize their own abilities and follow their own path, the more respectful they will be of the abilities of the child they brought into this world.
To parent a child is to learn to better parent ourselves. Overcome the deficits we’ve had to live with and work with what nature gave us.

Envy, release me from your hold,
Let my powers grow bold,
For as they do, my freedom soars.

Oscarvaldes.net, medium.com, anchor.fm, buzzsprout, apple and google podcasts

Putin on The Way It Is

The war rages on – almost 4 months now – inflation is hurting the world economy – food shortages are forecast – while Putin gloats in Moscow, ‘I made this happen,’ he says proudly.
‘I command the world’s attention. This is my moment. I have killed and killed Ukrainians and still millions and millions of people adore me and hold me up as a model. People in China, in India and all those smaller, peripheral countries destined to never amount to anything.
All the while China and I have a lock on the United Nations. Interesting organization… yes… and toothless, too. A place where every country can come in and blah blah blah until they run out of spit but where Russia and my great ally China hold veto power in the security council. So if we say no, then it is no. Never mind the secretary general. Without us he’s nothing.
The West talked about sanctions. I laugh. I have worked around them. I keep selling my oil and gas and our profits are growing.
And I have done it all because I know how to scare people.
I say I have nuclear weapons and most leaders pee in their pants, run around in circles crying, oh no, he will fire his nuclear weapons!
Don’t confront him, he’s dangerous, please, he cannot be humiliated!
Poor things. Afraid of a little inflation. Afraid of protests because the price of gasoline has gone up. I laugh. I would send the fire department with their water cannons to hose them down and wash them off the street and into the gutters, and those who insist on protesting I’d throw in a dungeon. That’s how you govern. And to be sure, Russians love my style. The want to be like me. Ha!
On this war, America started out with enthusiasm, with determination, but now they’ve lost their oomph. Now they’re back to their citizens complaining about the price of gas and how they don’t know any Ukrainians and how they’re so far away and what’s in it for them.
Of course, that’s when true leaders come in and set the record straight. Tell the complainers what needs to be done and why and enough with the whimpering. But they can’t do it. So it’s my game, all the way until I conquer all of Ukraine. All of it, damn it. All of it. And I’ll have Zelensky tried on charges of crimes again humanity. I’ll do it because no one will stand in my way.
What a joke the West is. Promising missiles and this and the other. But it takes them forever to deliver. Meanwhile I gain more and more ground. I love it. Before long I’ll have all of Ukraine’s eastern region under my foot. Beautiful. Then we’ll finish off occupying all their coast. Then back to Kyiv. Then push West, all the way to the borders with Poland and Rumania, scare them and their NATO bullshit.
I’m making the world my world. Slowly. This is the start of Putin’s world. And I’ve done it not with diplomacy but with bravado. With daring. With guts. With flair.
While the mighty West shits in their pants.’

He laughs.

Now, if I were them… from the very start I would’ve said, Putin, you can’t do it. Don’t do it. You’ll be sorry. Look, we have intelligence telling us you’re going to invade. We’re going to give planes and missiles to Ukrainians so they can defend themselves. We won’t let you slaughter them. Don’t do it.
But I can see how Ukrainians had not yet proven themselves on the battlefield. But they have now, so what’s the excuse to not give them all they need to fight me?
What’s amazing in their story, is they’re willing to fight so hard for what they believe. That’s what’s amazing. I would love to have them on my side instead.
The reason Ukraine is so important today is just that… the show of commitment in defense of what you believe.
But the world is not getting it. The French and Germans are not getting it.
The Poles, on the other hand, have got it. From the very start.
In fact the French and Germans seem to be in a hurry to sit down to negotiate a deal to cease hostilities. And Macron wants France to be the mediator. Works for me, since Macron doesn’t want me to be ‘humiliated’ but if I were Zelensky, I’d choose the Poles to be the negotiators. Doesn’t matter to me that much who it is because in the end, if it’s not going my way, I’ll get up and leave and start shooting and bombing again.
One of my greatest achievements, of course, is to have convinced Europe that they could rely on me for all their energy needs. Convinced them that I was not just a nice bear, but a teddy bear. And they fell for it. Mind you, all this time I have been teaming up with Assad in Syria to slaughter their opposition, so it’s not like I was hiding anything. We’re Europeans, not Syrians, it won’t happen to us, they told themselves. We’re so chic. Oh, so cultured. So distinguished. So unique. Oh, dear, you name it. Until it happened. Denial is the word for it.

He laughs.

I was born for this moment. As far as China is concerned, they’re stuck with me. Who else are they going to turn to? India? No. They can’t stand each other. China doesn’t have anywhere near the nuclear warheads I have, and I’ll keep close tabs on them. I’m going to keep building even more, and if they start to pile them up, too, I’ll give Xi a courtesy call, say Xi, you can’t keep building so many warheads. Look, we’ve been good friends but you got a whole lot more people than I have… so you could run me over… but so long as I have more weapons, you’ll have to chill. So please stall on the building of nuclear weapons. I know your politburo designated you a ‘historical figure’, but that’s the way it is.
And they will do as I say because, in a confrontation between the two of us, they don’t have a chance. I have the upper hand and will keep it that way’
Life is beautiful… yes, indeed.
As to the next American elections, haven’t made up my mind whom to campaign for, using my team of cyber experts. Not Trump, though. I think his time has passed. I liked him. But now I need someone with even deeper isolationist sentiments. Someone who wants to isolate into oblivion. Build a wall in the South, in the North, East and West. The more chances for Russia and my buddy Xi, to go deeper into Africa, South America, the Middle East, the rest of Asia.

Pause

But what could America do to counter me at this time’
Give planes to Ukraine? More missiles? Sure. But what they should do yet I know they won’t because they don’t have the nerve, is to make a commitment to Ukraine and say, we will give you anything you need, planes, missiles, anything – except troops, of course – because we want you to win. And if in the end you don’t win, we’ll settle for whatever land you were able to defend, and we’ll help with negotiations, even the lifting of sanctions on Russia and so on, and we’ll do what we say we will, because with your heroism, you have behaved like no other nation in recent history… and so earned a place in our hearts and minds. Forever.’

Please see Ifw-Kiel.de. Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Ukraine Tracker

Oscarvaldes.net, medium.com, anchor.fm, buzzsprout, apple and google podcasts