Keillor leads here from his strength—humor based on a true grip on the real—in this epic of Lake Wobegon, the imaginary small Minnesota town celebrated in Keillor’s weekly monologues on “Prairie Home Companion,” his show on Public Radio. Keillor’s fans will grab it, but word should get out to people who never heard of him: like Mark Twain, Keillor is a highly sophisticated teller of tales (his stories have appeared in The New Yorker) who gets to the essence of everyday America. There are some belly laughs in “Wobegon,” many chuckles—and always the pleasure of recognition. The book casually mixes autobiographical stretches with stories about the inhabitants of the town that can’t be found on the Minnesota map, along with its history and mores.
I recommend this series , How Resilient is BRICS in the Storm of Geopolitics?, by Peter Haenseler. He is a geopolitical analyst based in Moscow and the founder of Forumgeopolitica.com. He has lived in the US, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, and Russia, and his work is independent, not supported by government or private entities.
The following quote is from La Défaite de l’Occident (The Defeat Of the West) by Emmanuel Todd. As I said some time ago I found an English translation that has been done by Google, it is not great but is readable. The author does not accept the Narrative that media in the West wants everyone to believe. So far it has been a good book. Note: I’m thinking about doing a translation using some AI other than Google but researching that has proved it to be more complex that I originally thought. Maybe – maybe not!
The dominant discourse equates Putin with Stalin. But under Stalin, men were abundant, Russia was experiencing demographic expansion (even if fertility had started to decline around 1928), and the Red Army could therefore sacrifice men by the millions, as it did during the Second World War. Current Russian military doctrine, on the contrary, arises from the observation that man has become rare. This is one of the reasons why Russia entered Ukraine with only 120,000 troops. The Russians very obviously underestimated their adversary (we will see why in the next chapter) but nevertheless conquered, it must be admitted, a substantial fraction of Ukrainian territory along the Black Sea. Contrary to what we heard everywhere, the Russian army chose to wage a slow war to save men. The important role played by the Chechen regiments and the Wagner militia during the first stages of the conflict is the result of this choice, as are the partial, progressive mobilizations carried out sparingly.… This is the reason why talking about a conquering Russia, capable of invading Europe after it has destroyed Ukraine, is fantasy or propaganda. The truth is that Russia, with a decreasing population and an area of 17 million square kilometers, far from wanting to conquer new territories, is mainly wondering how it will continue to occupy those it already possesses. The Russians’ priority is not to seize as much territory as possible but to lose a minimum of men.…
So far, the Russians have taken their time; their entry into the war was gradual. To limit human losses. To preserve the fundamental achievements of the Putin era, the return to stability, guaranteeing a decent existence for all. At the current stage, the strategic calculation that I imagined seems to have been judicious: the months pass, the industrial and therefore military deficiencies of the Westerners have been revealed, one after the other. Today, time is on the side of Moscow. But we also know that the Russians do not have eternity ahead of them, and that they will have to achieve a definitive victory in five years. They must therefore defeat Ukraine and defeat NATO within a limited time frame, without ever allowing them to gain time, through negotiations, truces or, worse, by freezing the conflict. Washington must no longer have any illusions: Moscow wants victory, nothing less.
Mystery: Female Doctor Found Dead and Naked in Miami Dollar Tree Freezer
32-year-old Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez was found deceased and naked inside the store’s walk-in freezer in Little Havana on Sunday. Sanchez reportedly entered the Dollar Tree the night before she was found. She made no purchases and was found in an area designated for employees only.
Authorities [City of Miami Police] say no foul play is suspected.
A Mystery? No foul play suspected? She walks into a Dollar Tree into an employee only area, strips naked, walks into the freezer and dies? One of the most unusual suicides that I have ever read about – suicide by intentional freezing?