Big J

The terrifying thing is to think where the US might be in 10-15 years time, when Musk has truly consolidated power. What's to say that Trump doesn't force through an amendment allowing foreign born US citizens to be president? The future is not a bright place.

Last cold morning for a while, if the forecast is to be believed. Minus 14c on the way to work today but I took the car. Ice skating this evening maybe a little snow in the morning.

I agree that 2014 was the inch that Putin took, that emboldened him to try to take a mile in 2022. And too much reliance on Russian energy is true as well. Many mistakes made along the way in terms of curtailing and containing Putin, but ultimately, the responsibility for the invasion and all the death falls firmly in his quarter.

I very much agree. I listened to The Rest Is Politics interview with his widow, Yulia Navalnaya yesterday. What a remarkable and brave family.

I didn't realise that defending what is right had a price cap. Not everything is transactional, not everything is a zero sum game. Sometimes good people just have to stand up against bad people. I think I feel the most pity for the poor Russian conscripts. At least the Ukranians know what it is they are fighting for. The Russians are fighting a needless war of aggression to fulfill Putin's imperialist fantasies of creating a Greater Russia again. I'm quite surprised that he's not been the target of assassination attempts yet. Would all this end if Putin died or would something even worse take it's place?

A really useful quote from Zelensky, that is worth remembering is that if Russia decides to stop fighting, the war ends tomorrow. If Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine. This war, this invasion of Putin's is one where it is incredibly clear to anyone with a basically developed morality that Ukraine is fighting for it's survival and Russia is in the wrong. Seeking to justify the actions of Russia is unforgivable. Russia is seeking to exterminate the very notion of Ukraine and that is why the Ukrainians are fighting. We should continue to support them as it's a fight that is to our benefit as well.

I listen to a lot of podcasts at work and one of the regulars is one called The Bulwark from the US which comes from what was originally a centre right conservative group of republicans who define themselves now as "Never Trumpers". A very interesting and usually moderate source of news and opinion. Anyway what was an amusing aside to an otherwise depressing escalation of events from the US, was that they referenced an old Mitchell and Webb sketch where Nazis on the front line in World War II have a moment of self-reflection and wonder, nay, realise that they are the baddies. Tim Miller of the Bulwark posed that question about the US now. Siding with Russia against Ukraine, denouncing European countries and repeatedly talking about forceful territorial expansion does nothing to dissuade me of that notion either.

I am not quite working 9:00 to 5:00, rather Monday to Friday shift work during the daytime. I seem to have fallen into the role of sawmilling contractor, working between the two big sawmills in the neighboring village. The work is good, and the cycle commute to get there is wonderful. It is not quite what I imagined I would end up doing, but it forms a perfectly satisfactory part of what is a very nice life. I appreciate your curiosity 😁 Proper Alpine cold as a wonderful thing. Those mornings where you can see the ice crystals hanging in the air, the deep frosts and possibilities for actually enjoying winter. I imagine that a Devon winter is pretty similar to an Irish one. They are genuinely insufferable, and the 19/20 winter almost broke me and was the final straw for us moving out of the country.

A little colder again this morning on the way to work. Minus 12°c. Made for some excellent beard ice. It's hard to get across to people in the UK that cycling in that temperature is much more pleasant than 3-4°c and rain in the UK. Here, there is no wind, no rain, no humidity and no mud. It's just cold. I personally do enjoy it, even if I prefer the warmer months.

The ice had been forming for a week or more, and we just had one period of a few hours of snow that lightly covered the ice. It's a good idea to try to clear it before the sun gets on to it because if the snow melts partially and then refreezes, you have a very rough surface to skate on. That whole corner of the lake is only about 90 CM deep. The lake as a whole is 120 ha and this corner is maybe 15. I use an auger to drill through the ice and take measurements from various places. It all tends to be pretty much the same though and we have about 95 mm of ice.

Wonderful weather at the moment. Deep frosts overnight and a degree or two above during the day. We did a lot of skating over the weekend on the lake. I am not a very good skater, but it is a lot of fun.

You're conflating the crews that flew the bombers with the commanders than designed the operations. The crews were not party to the level of civilian death they were responsible for. Bomber command (as in, the commanders) intended to kill maximal numbers of civilians and destroy maximal amounts of civilian infrastructure. I am not saying that this style of operation wasn't done by the Nazis too (although it was on a lesser scale - I don't think that's the most important issue - intent is intent), and that it's equally morally reprehensible. What I'm saying is that people in Britain have a habit of looking backwards with rose tinted, holier than thou glasses, whereas the truth is much less pleasant.

The thing is that very few in bomber command knew the totality of the plan that was carried out on Hamburg and Dresden. The flight crews were intentionally kept in the dark about the nature of their targets and the type of bombs that they were carrying. I am not blaming them for one minute. But Bomber Command knew exactly what they were doing, and what they were doing was intentionally massacring tens of thousands of people in the most brutal fashion imaginable. Look, Nazi Germany needed to be stopped, I fully understand and support that. It was a dark chapter in human history, but I do think that it's crucial to be cognizant of all actions on both sides, rather than sugar coating aspects of history that don't suit our agenda. You now have a situation where Musk, his cronies and the European far right are seeking to rewrite much of the history relating to the Nazis, which is frankly terrifying. Those who choose to ignore history are doomed to repeat it. I will fully agree with you that humans are mostly awful, or at the very least, capable of being utterly awful. We think we're civilised but we really aren't.

Dresden and the firebombing of Hamburg were war crimes. Hamburg especially. As many people died in Operation Gommorah (lasting 8 days and 7 nights) as the entire Blitz. Very few people actually knew the full scope of the operation and the truly evil details. Arthur "Bomber" Harris masterminded it, with the specific goal of maximising civilian casualties and terror within the German population. The sequence of bombing was as follows: first to be dropped were high explosive bombs to destroy windows and doors (creating the ideal conditions for the rapid spreading of fire). Then incediary rounds were dropped to create a firestorm, alongside timed high explosive to target emergency workers. A quarter ofbetter a million homes were destroyed. 37,000 (mostly) civilians died in a week. It was a war crime. Another example is the Bengal famine of 1943. Churchill intentionally diverted food away from Bengal and continued rice exports as the population starved. This was to supply well fed European soldiers and top up European stockpiles. He referenced the Bengalis as "breeding like rabbits". 3 million Bengalis died. Yes, the UK was fighting on the of what was right in WW2, but it doesn't absolve it of responsibility for heinous acts. Looking a little further back into the UK's past and you can take your pick of any number of atrocities, oppressions and wars for which the UK was entirely responsible. I detest this revisionist attitude towards British Imperialism as being a universally benevolent force in the world. Yes, it brought some benefit in some ways, but it was largely hugely negative. India, as an example, had between 25-35% of global GDP for the 1500 years preceding British colonialism, and 2% when the Brits left in 1947. Come to think of it, is there a single example of a country anywhere in the world that is objectively better for having being under colonial rule? Perhaps Australia and New Zealand, but their history with their aboriginal populations is chequered at best, and genocidal at worst. It's a huge topic

Morning everyone! Minus 15c here. Perfect for world-class beard ice whilst cycling. And I made an ice skating area on the lake. I love this kind of winter weather.