Category: Political Philosophies

Pick One: Democracy, Monarchy, Theocracy, Federated Republic or Anarchy?

Most US educated people will no doubt prefer a “democracy” because that is what has been taught to them by government schools for well over a hundred years. Most people also dislike monarchies but seem to love “kings” by other names (i.e. presidents, politicians, rock stars and celebrities). Most dislike theocracies since they associate them with Islamic extremists and not the Israel of Hebrew people they might have heard about from the Bible. Most will also be confused by the term ‘federated republic’ and would absolutely nix the term “confederated” (even though the colonies had a weaker form of government governed by the Articles of Confederation). Anarchy is also a scary term for most since they think this means chaos or no rules, but they fail to understand that the local Farmer’s Market is essentially anarchy in action:

It does seem that while anarchy does yield the most freedom for responsible individuals, most will opt for the safety from some other form of government servitude and eventually want and get “democracy”, which is always a stepping stone to socialism, marxism and eventually communism.

One of my favorite writers is Hans-Hermann Hoppe who wrote a book a few years ago called “Democracy: The God that Failed“. (The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy and Natural Order (Perspectives on Democratic Practice)).

The core of this book is a systematic treatment of the historic transformation of the West from monarchy to democracy. Revisionist in nature, it reaches the conclusion that monarchy is a lesser evil than democracy, but outlines deficiencies in both. … Informed by his analysis of the deficiencies of social democracy, and armed with the social theory of legitimation, he forsees secession as the likely future of the US and Europe, resulting in a multitude of region and city-states. This book complements the author’s previous work defending the ethics of private property and natural order. Democracy – The God that Failed will be of interest to scholars and students of history, political economy, and political philosophy.

While this is a rather intense read, it is an extremely valuable exercise in understanding not just cause and effect, but unintended consequences as well. To whet your appetite, try this YouTube video where Hans shares about this book in under ten minutes:

If there is one quote from this book that I would share at this time it would be the following:

“… Thus, privilege and legal discrimination — and the distinction between rulers and subjects — do not disappear under democracy. To the contrary. Rather than being restricted to princes and nobles, under democracy, privileges come into the reach of everyone: Everyone can participate in theft and live off stolen loot if only he becomes a public official. Likewise, democratically elected parliaments are, just like any absolute or constitutional king, not bound by any superior, natural law, i.e., by law not of their own making (such as and including so-called constitutional law), but they can legislate, i.e., they can make and change laws. Only: While a king legislates in his own favor, under democracy everyone is free to promote and try to put into effect legislation in his own favor, provided only that he finds entry into parliament or government…”

Furthermore, even worse than monarchies:

“In sharp contrast, the selection of state rulers by means of popular elections makes it essentially impossible for a harmless or decent person to ever rise to the top. Presidents and prime ministers come into their position not owing to their status as natural aristocrats, as feudal kings once did, i.e., based on the recognition of their economic independence, outstanding professional achievement, morally impeccable personal life, wisdom and superior judgment and taste, but as a result of their capacity as morally uninhibited demagogues. Hence, democracy virtually assures that only dangerous men will rise to the top of state government.”

This last quote shows how easy it is for the SWAMP to grow .. the fact is, this swamp started growing even before the thirteen sovereign colonies emerged from the American Revolution / secession from the British Empire in 1783 when the Treaty of Paris was signed.

But it gets even worse:

“Worse: Under democracy the social character and personality structure of the entire population will be changed systematically. All of society will be thoroughly politicized. During the monarchical age, the ancient aristocratic order had still remained somewhat intact. Only the king and, indirectly, the members of his (exclusive) court could enrich themselves — by means of taxation and legislation — at other people’s and their properties expense. Everyone else had to stand on his own feet, so to say, and owed his position in society, his wealth and his income, to some sort of value-productive efforts. Under democracy, the incentive structure is systematically changed. Egalitarian sentiments and envy are given free reign. Everyone, not just the king, is now allowed to participate in the exploitation — via legislation or taxation — of everyone else. Everyone is free to express any confiscatory demands whatsoever. Nothing, no demand, is off limits. In Bastiat’s words, under democracy the State becomes the great fiction by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else. Every person and his personal property come within reach of and are up for grabs by everyone else.

Are we seeing this in full force today or what? But I digress.

I do hope to share more about this book in the weeks to come. In the mean time, check out the video above or buy the e-book, paperback or hard cover BUT know, when a book commands $40 for paperback and $440 for hardcover .. you know it is a good one!

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” – H. L. Mencken

-SF1

Did Israel (France, UK, US) Just Overplay Their Hand in Syria?

17SEP2018 Russian MOD Map – Syrian coastline (Red) Russian IL-20 AWACS Surveillance Plane Route (Blue) Israeli F-16 and French naval ship actions

To understand the chess match (yes, leaders of the “free” world are sociopaths who love this “game” that involves other people’s lives) that is being played out on the world’s stage I will be drawing from various sources for this post:

  • Pat Buchanan’s article from Lew Rockwell
  • Moon of Alabama’s article
  • Robert Bridge article from Strategic Culture share on Lew Rockwell

[NOTE: A good researcher pulls from various sources and also thinks critically about the situation at hand before sharing their own thoughts]

From a high level view a few days later it becomes clear that Putin took a lot of heat from those in Syria as well in his own country in not retaliating against the actions of the west in the Mediterranean Sea near Syria this past week. I think of the mechanical operation of a ratchet, using rather small moves one can over time place a lot of torque on a situation IF one is patient and in the end have the upper hand.

Moon of Alabama, who follows the events in the Middle East so very well (I highly recommend a site visit there and IF you feel inclined, please do considering supporting that site) has a great overview of the political milestones that led up to this moment where a Russian propeller plane is accidentally shot down by a Syrian S-200 missile site that was focused on an Israeli F-16 that was shadowing the Russian IL-20 AWACS-like plane. Less than 24 hours prior to this setup:

Turkey and Russia agreed on a further de-escalation in Idelb province in Syria (see the update here). This agreement takes away the chance of an imminent wider war in which the U.S. and some of its allies would use a fake ‘chemical attack’ as a pretext to launch missiles against a large number of Syrian government targets and military positions.

.. peace was about to break out in Syria. However:

A peaceful solution of the Idleb situation is unsatisfying for Israel. The successful Syrian defeat of the Jihadi enemy inside the country would allow Syria and its allies to concentrate their forces against Israel. Israel wants the Syrian government destroyed and the country in chaos.

On Sunday September 16 Israel tried to hit an Iranian Boeing 747 freight plane at Damascus airport. The plane allegedly carried an Iranian copy of the Russian S-300 long range air defense System for the Syrian army.

Imagine any country in this world that can get away with attacking INSIDE another sovereign country and getting away with it. I can only think of two countries, Israel and the United States of America.

On Monday around 10:00pm local time 4 F-16 jets of the Israeli airforce, coming from the sea, launched missiles against at least three targets on Syria’s coast. The strike came only hours after Israel released satellite images of what it called “strategic targets” in Syria. The integrated Syrian and Russian air-defenses responded.

The Israeli air force had warned the Russian forces in Syria only one minute before the strike. A Russian IL-20 electronic warfare airplane (red line) was preparing to land at the Russian airport near Latakia just as the Israeli attack (blue) happened.

Israel chose to give a 60 second warning that could never be enough time for the IL-20 propeller plane to clear out of an area to a safer zone. Israel knew this but wanted to provoke the “Bear” so as not to loose even more strategic ground in the Middle East for their “defense”. Israel has chosen this path, and there will be blowback.

The IL-20 was hit 35 kilometers off the coast by a S-200 air-defense missile fired by the Syrian military towards the Israeli attack. There were 15 Russian soldiers on board of the plane which were likely all killed.

The Israeli attack came out of the same direction as the Russian IL-20. The large 4 propeller plane creates a much bigger radar reflection than the small F-16s fighter jets. The S-200 missiles have a semi-active radar homing seeker. These are passive detectors of a radar signal which is provided by an external source, in this case the Syrian and Russian radars on the ground. While the missile was aimed at the F-16 its seeker likely mistook the larger radar reflection of IL-20 for the intended target.

At the same time as the Israeli air force attacked, a Russian frigate (red) near the coast detected missile launches from the French Frigate Auvergne (blue) nearby. The French frigate carries air, ship and land attack missiles.

With so many Russian ships in the area plus Russian and Syrian radar sites on the mainland in Syria, there is plenty of evidence untainted by spin by Western powers to twist. Similar to Lincoln’s provocation at Ft. Sumter and FDR’s provocation of the Japanese before Pearl Harbor and even Bush I’s green light to Saddam in Kuwait at the start of Gulf War I, this was a blatant attempt at provoking conflict in the midst of the last two years of Russian accusations (election meddling) and US sanctions.

Sure the bully (Israel) “apologized” but said “it was not our missile”. Whatever. There is ZERO honor in that and there was no US response that indicated any kind of remorse at all.

The honor (again) came from “Cool Hand” Putin. As Robert Bridge points out:

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, took admirable efforts to prevent the blame game from reaching the boiling point, telling reporters that the downing of the Russian aircraft was the result of “a chain of tragic circumstances, because the Israeli plane didn’t shoot down our jet.”

Nevertheless, following this extremely tempered and reserved remark, Putin vowed that Russia would take extra precautions to protect its troops in Syria, saying these will be “the steps that everyone will notice.”

Now there is much consternation in Israel that the IDF will soon find its freedom to conduct operations against targets in Syria greatly impaired. That’s because Russia, having just suffered a ‘friendly-fire’ incident from its own antiquated S-200 system, may now be more open to the idea of providing Syria with the more advanced S-300 air-defense system.

.. or even the highly advanced S-400 systems:

The Israeli gamble did NOT pay off. Their reputation as a greedy neighbor who steals and maims others in the ‘hood all the while not adhering to international law that it demands others to follow. (While having 200+ nukes in their back pocket) The Russians know this and are being very patient in protecting a friend that asked for assistance back in 2015.

In summary, Pat Buchanan does a masterful job at giving a grand overview that spans decades of political ebb and flow on a global scale when he states:

By the end of his second term, President Ronald Reagan, who had called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” was strolling through Red Square with Russians slapping him on the back.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive. And how have we husbanded the fruits of our Cold War triumph?

This month, China’s leader-for-life Xi Jinping stood beside Vladimir Putin as 3,000 Chinese troops maneuvered with 300,000 Russians, 1,000 planes and 900 tanks in Moscow’s largest military exercise in 40 years.

An uncoded message to the West from the East. Richard Nixon’s great achievement in bringing Peking in from the cold, and Reagan’s great achievement of ending the Cold War, are history.

Squandered. The “shining city on a hill” and “American Exceptionalism” are but a myth. The real DNA of our government along with that of Israel and NATO aligned countries are bent on war. Pat continues:

.. Bolshevism may be dead, but Russian nationalism, awakened by NATO’s quick march to Russia’s ancient frontiers, is alive and well. Russia appears to have given up on the West and accepted that its hopes for better times with President Donald Trump are not to be.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is berating Russia for secretly trading with North Korea in violation of U.N. sanctions, saying, “Lying, cheating, and rogue behavior have become the new norm of the Russian culture.” Cold wars don’t get much colder than defaming another country’s culture as morally debased.

The U.S. has also signaled that it may start supplying naval and anti-aircraft weaponry to Ukraine, as Russia is being warned to cease its inspections of ships passing from the Black Sea through the Kerch Strait into the Sea of Azov. The three-mile-wide strait lies between Crimea and Kerch Peninsula. In Russia’s eyes, both banks of the strait are Russian national territory.

With U.S. backing, Ukraine has decided to build a naval base on the Sea of Azov to “create conditions for rebuffing the aggressive actions of the Russian Federation in this region.”

Kiev has several patrol boats in the Sea of Azov, with a few more to be transferred there in coming months. Russia’s navy could sink those boats and wipe out that base in minutes. Are we going to send our Navy across the Black Sea to protect Ukraine’s naval rights inside a sea that has been as historically Russian as the Chesapeake Bay is historically American? ..

This is the height of American Empire stupidity. It is what Thomas Jefferson feared centuries ago that the United States arrogance may lead to:

Trade is honorable. Political solutions that promote peace is honorable.

The American Empire is not (nor has it been since the end of WWII) honorable. You can’t fix this, you can’t drain the swamp enough BUT you can research for yourself the reality of today’s political world and it does impact you, indirectly maybe, but it will eventually touch you or your kid’s lives. Not unlike the Roman Empire, this empire is entering its last days and only God knows the months or years this will take.

Be prepared

-SF1

The Historical Path of Freedom – Weaves Through the Reformation Period (1500s)

Free thinkers has always been a problem for those in authority. Back when the thought existed that the King was divine or the closest to it, any contrary thought was typically squashed. In time when the free thinkers did get traction, they too would tend to quash any public rebellion to tyrannical leadership, whether religious, state or both.

Bionic Mosquito has had a series of posts on a book by Gerard Casey called ‘Freedom’s Progress?: A History of Political Thought‘ and shares clips from it in his post on “The Reformation”. Here are some quotes to consider:

It is better that all of the peasants should be killed rather than that the sovereign and magistrates should be destroyed, because the peasants take up the sword without God’s authorisation. – Martin Luther

So the leader of the 1517 movement toward reforming the church was still resolute in thinking that the common man needed a ruler and needed to be restrained. Even free thinkers prior to this like John Wycliff focused his message of freedom towards the church itself but not the state in the 1370s.  His recommendation that pope and the church were second in authority to Scripture earned him an early death. Wycliff also questioned indulgences and confessions at that time BUT it was out of the box thinking that common man could even own their own property according to Wycliff.

Basically, Bionic points out that where people start from usually restrains them in their own revolutionary thinking:

As you will note from the opening quote from Luther, Augustine’s unfortunate interpretation of Romans 13 was influential; Luther, after all, began his religious life as an Augustinian.

“As Ellen Meiksins Wood puts it, ‘there hardly exists in the Western canon a more uncompromising case for strict obedience to secular authority; and this…belongs to the essence of Lutheran doctrine.’”

John Calvin too started out as a lawyer, so there is no doubt there are limits to where freedom SHOULD* be limited in his mind to as we will see in his role in governance over Geneva, Switzerland.

[NOTE: SHOULD is a word I try to avoid, I recommend that friends not SHOULD on their friends .. to honor them as unique individuals created in God’s image, COULD is a better suggestion ]

This is an important rabbit trail for me as I was raised in a religious environment, that while it had plenty of good in it, it also had plenty of guilt trip traps along the way. I find this with any controlling authority whether it be religious or the state. Try taking a knee these days and you will find out, blind obedience is mandatory at some points, you can’t make it look like authority does not have total control of you “in public” (or now with the NSA, in private either)

I like how Wayne Jacobson lays it out in this article at Lifestream where the difference between religion and relationship is revealed:

There’s nothing about real love that can be made into a weapon. But that doesn’t keep people from trying, especially scared parents and religious people.

They turn their twisted view of love into a weapon. When you’ve done enough, especially the things they think you should do, they will love you. When you don’t, they will not only withhold affection from you, they’ll resort to whatever means they have at their disposal to get you to change. They’ll give you the cold shoulder or disapproving glance. They will gossip about you with other family members. That will rant and rave until you conform to their desires. They will should all over you thinking that increasing levels of obnoxiousness will endear you to their point of view.

This is where the early reformation leaders went, they did not like attributes of the Catholic church they were rebelling against and yet they could not release the “control” of common people to their exercise of natural rights. Religion at some point demands obligation and obedience.

As Bionic shares again from Gerard Casey’s work:

“It is worth noting the prevalence of a popular but mistaken belief that the Protestant Reformers, in contrast to the repressive Catholic Church, were the apostles of liberty.”

“The Reformation was many things but by no stretch of the imagination was it the result of a clamour for religious liberty or, indeed, for liberty more broadly construed.”

In fact, it ushered in perhaps the most intolerant period in Christian history.

If anyone has the interest and the time, there is a lot of information on the Reformation period that proves that freedom did not always advance. Like I mentioned before about John Calvin and his actions in Geneva where he and four other pastors and 12 lay elders ruled the city. While his written works ( ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion‘ ) contained great thoughts on how the Catholic church focused on things wrongly, his actions to me speak louder than words. At the end of the day, I am not a fan of John Calvin.

Not all what happened during the Reformation is gloomy, there were bright spots as well in those that followed Luther and Calvin and even those in Scotland as they would give future generations hope in what real freedom and liberty is all about:

Eventually, the idea of private resistance to the prince would gain some traction, more by those who followed Luther and Calvin than in the two leaders themselves – driven by the fact that the secular leader was removing privileges previously granted to the Protestant communities. Where the secular leaders were unsympathetic to Protestant views, private resistance was seen more favorably – and Biblical interpretation would therefore evolve according to this necessity.

Further, in Calvinist communities of Scotland, for example, the idea of private resistance had traction almost from the beginning. Hey, they are Protestants…to each his own! But without the medieval Church and its recognized authority to sanction the prince, such resistance had little power or authority behind it.

Out of this period came other free thinkers that gave the Dutch Republic, a confederation of seven provinces from 1581 – 1795, ..

Dutch Republic

.. as well as the American confederation of thirteen colonies from 1776 – 1787 (under the Articles of Confederation)

John Paul Jones flag 1779

… a fair amount of written works on liberty and freedom.

We too, stand on the shoulders of all those who went before us, in terms of seeking freedom and liberty from any external controlling human force whether it be religion or statism. It is imperative that each person research as they are convinced toward, and be convicted of their own thoughts and principles in their own mind.

“… one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience ..” Romans 14:5 in the paraphrase The Message

I leave you with this inspiring song based on German 13th century written works of  Walther von der Vogelweide on the freedom of one’s thoughts and later in the 1780s became five stanzas in distributed leaflets and later put to music called “Die Gedanken Sind Frei”

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday y’all!

-SF1

Ukraine Conflict Ramp Up Eminent?

Donetsk People’s Republic leader Alexander Zakharchenko

No sooner had I posted a couple days ago about Novorossiya federation in the eastern areas of Ukraine that emerged in 2014 and word comes of possible escalation on the Kiev government’s fight in two eastern provinces with assistance from the US, of course. A tip-off toward this trend that might neglect the Minsk II Agreement agreed to (Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany) on 12FEB2015 (to a protocol that was agreed to the previous September 2014 called Minsk I) was the assassination of a leader of the unrecognized Donetsk People’s Republic leader Alexander Zakharchenko on 31AUG2018.

This “match” was lit to activate those in Russia who believe that Putin is too passive when it comes to these two provinces in Ukraine that are saturated with Russian culture / language. Putin actually urged these breakaway republics (Luhansk (LPR) and Donetsk (DPR)) NOT to ask for reunification with Russia for geopolitical reasons. The US/NATO wants a fight to break out here just like they hope a fight will break out in Syria.

The latest detailed map for the Minsk II Agreement lines between Ukraine and “rebel” forces can be seen at this excellent site.

The rebels are attempting to hold this all together as the leader’s wife met with them on the front lines as articulated in this article:

Wife of the DPR Head Nataliya arrived to the front to talk to soldiers. She told them to tell all the questions and problems to the Commanders and that she would take part, and do everything possible to help.She asked them to save that her husband Alexandr Zakharchenko started in 2014.

The rebels have been getting Intel that things are brewing again, courtesy of the United States as outlined in this article and quoted below:

According to DPR Deputy Commander-In-Chief Eduard Basurin:

“(o)ur intelligence (indicates) that subdivisions of (Kiev’s) 128th Brigade are on full alert. Main attack force was deployed on the Mariupol direction” near Donbass. An offensive could start any time.

On Sunday, DPR spokesman Daniil Bezsonov said large numbers of US and Canadian military personnel arrived in Ukraine ahead of what may be a major offensive in Donbass, saying:

“Our intelligence noticed the arrival of a large number of foreign servicemen to the 56th motorized infantry and 406th artillery brigades near Urzuf.”

“The arrival of a group of high-ranking military officials from the US and Canadian armed forces to the headquarters of (Kiev’s) Operational Command East was also noticed.”

“(I)t seems that the command of Ukraine’s ‘unified forces operation’ allocates the central role in an offensive to the 36th marines brigade, 56th mechanized infantry and 79th assault airborne brigades.”

“Nazis from the Azov group will be tasked to back the offensive in the rear. All these operations will be commanded by the military from the United States and Canada, or, in other words, by NATO military.”

I find it no coincidence that the US would choose this time to escalate pressure in both eastern Ukraine and Syria. The neo-cons in Washington DC are itching for a fight somewhere as elections loom on the horizon and having a conflict break out that the US could “police” and ensure “humanitarian” efforts are made would look good on the Trump administration AND would bring in the war-hawk Democrats under the DC neo-con umbrella. Unifying the remnants of the McCain era allies that crossed political aisles is a win-win for any administration that is in power, because if the Deep State is happy, then the government, politicians and MIC are all happy.

I swear, DC stands for Dysfunctional Central .. where sociopaths and psychopaths hook up.

-SF1

 

2014 Federation Attempt / 2018 Realities in Novorossiya

When the US/NATO interests back in 2013-2014, specifically the CIA, attempted the Ukraine Orange Revolution 2.0 (version 1.0 being back in 2004-2005), it became obvious rather fast that not unlike Syria (2011-?), this discontent was manufactured by US foreign policy interests. The US/NATO would love to have Ukraine (all of it) firmly in NATO and pressed up firmly on Russian’s border.

In a previous post, I talked a bit about the promises made in 1991-1994 to Russia that NATO would not enter any power vacuum that followed the split up of the USSR into many republics.  The US, never the upholder of treaties when violations of such ink and paper can offer something more for this anxious empire,  accomplished things behind the scenes like Ukraine’s Color / Orange Revolution in 2004 that triggered the masses to overthrow their government (which the US/NATO did not approve of) to tip the scales toward something more aligned with the US Empire’s mission and vision for the globe.

As noted in this Lew Rockwell article, version 1.0 became the template used elsewhere:

The Orange Revolution, as it was known at the time, was a classic CIA-engineered plot to impose their political outcome on the Ukrainian people. And they succeeded with flying colors.

That CIA-sponsored coup d’etat was so successful that it has since been used as a model for every other CIA-manufactured scheme that has toppled governments and reversed fair election outcomes the world over. In fact, the Ukraine is where the various social network utilities were used so effectively that the new MO has become known as the digital blitzkrieg. Never in human history have so many citizens been stampeded in the direction of overthrowing their government while being completely ignorant of the real forces manipulating the cattle prods.

Russia, when faced with foreign sponsored revolution directly on its border (how would the US react if this were happening in Canada or Mexico?), patiently assisted mainly to preserve life of Russian people in the region and ended up with Crimea asking to be annexed inside Russia itself. As far as the other Ukraine provinces that hold many Russians:

.. there was an effort to declare some type of separatist movement, whether absorbed by Russia OR independent along side Ukraine.

As it is many times when cultures overlap, there are never clear majorities or agendas in any given province, so a path forward is never clean and without disagreement, violence, or war.

Eight provinces emerged in 2014 full of ambition to federate into a New Russia:

.. with a flag that might look a little familiar in the United States, the original anti-tyranny flag based on the Christian St. Andrews cross:

 Novorossiya –

… proposed confederation of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, both of which share a border with Russia. Ukraine has designated the confederation as lying within an Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone.

Notice how this proposed federation would cut the rest of Ukraine from the Black Sea and the oceans and trade beyond. This is similar to how the Western (now Midwest region) states felt when the Confederate States of America was formed from seven seceded states. A panic would ensue when one thinks about the financial implications of such a change.

So in the last four years, there has been an uneasy state of “pause” in this movement as Russia sends these areas $1B USD annually, which is the SAME amount they also support the on-going Syrian defensive operations with. (NOTE: Iran supports the Syrian defenses to the tune of $10B USD annually, ten TIMES that of the Russians)

What are the thoughts now in these provinces toward the future? From this recent Russian Insider article:

According to a 2017 poll carried out by Germans, 45% want to join Russia, 35% want an autonomous status within the Ukraine, while only 21% want to return to the status quo.

The path forward and the timing of any Russian moves to solidify any path for these regions is unclear in the face of US sanctions and threats in the Syrian theater of operations. Russia is too smart to desire a two-front revolution/war of any kind.

As typical in an area that desperately wants to return to some normality in their lives and some security in their and their kid’s futures, some remain defiant, choosing an uncomfortable freedom instead of a stable slavery. People from the left as well as the communist side of the political spectum are aligned when it comes to Novorossiya:

Novorossiya is a core issue for almost all nationalists. Almost all of them can be expected to move from their current ambivalent position on Putin to outright opposition. [should Putin abandon the New Russia effort in Ukraine, which is highly doubtful]

While the nationalist response goes without saving, many Communists will also be quite unhappy. For instance, Zakhar Prilepin (famous author and chief editor of Svobodnaya Pressa, Russia’s best major leftist resource) and leftist activist Sergey Udaltsov (whom Western journalists called a political prisoner for leading the 2011-12 anti-Putin protests along with Navalny, before he revealed himself to be unhandshakeworthy in 2014) are Novorossiya supporters.

This is another region in which “stay tuned” is still a thing. Do your own research and learn more about other regions in this world that value liberty and freedom!

-SF1