When this era is over and the history of the US Republic is written, the book that chronicles the blunders that contributed to our fall is going to make Gibbon's work on the Roman Empire look like a leaflet.

I had dinner with my in-laws last night. At one point my FIL was a brilliant and successful estate and tax attorney. But, he's the typical uninformed news "consumer." I tried to be on my best behavior since we were celebrating my MIL's birthday, but he made one too many digs at Putin and I totally lost it in the restaurant. They had no idea about the Azov battalion, Zelensky's sudden wealth accumulation, or that Israel's PM told him to unconditionally surrender. He, like most Americans and many of our soldiers apparently, have no clue what it's like to fight a technologically and militarily equal, let alone superior, foe. And I'll be goddamned if my son is going to go fight and die there to protect the douchebags here and there that are responsible for this.

All that fighting experience our soldiers have is against a foe armed with mortars and maybe unguided rockets. All those foreign adrenaline junkie "volunteers" are too stupid to realize that bringing a cellphone to a modern battlefield might as well be a homing beacon for guided munitions. The "greatest sniper ever" lasted all of 24 hours before being liquidated, and he wasn't even on the front line. Gotta strap on your Go-Pro and upload your high-speed kit and action to Tik-Tok.