ELON MUSK AND TWITTER: MUSINGS FROM AN MBA CASE STUDY POV

The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

The recent Elon Musk-Twitter ‘fiasco’ was expected by some who have noted Musk’s ‘Twitter-troubles’ and moved on, but to many MSM readers this latest MSM ‘reveal’ has been a titillating new flavor experience to those who are programmed to be fed the latest MSM uncovering on just about anything, but especially juicy-ness about public notables of whatever kind...as noted in the following article:

Twitter brings Elon Musk’s genius reputation crashing down to earth

Nevertheless, the ‘roilings’ from Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media giant, Twitter, has drawn attention from even investors and techie observors to ‘Musk the person’ behind ‘Musk the inventor’.

‘Elon Musk the inventor’ seems to mask something we did not fully expect, except for some who have worked with him. That revealed ‘something’ about Musk is enlightening, yet also a bit off-putting for a ‘businessman’ who has attracted the attention of the globe, and billions of investment from Wall Street and the American defense world… as is discussed below.

Musk’s Twitter ‘chapter’ reveals he is not a business Superman, but nevertheless he still stands out in ways that should retain Wall Street’s interest, and preserve Musk’s reputation for major innovative thinking (and influence.)  Musk‘s technical talents are definitely special but his marketing of them is enhanced by public and investor perceptions and mystique…which have suffered by his erratic ‘leadership’ of Twitter.

That Musk is shown to be part perception-mystique shouldn’t alarm investors or the world at large. Musk can reliably be expected to keep generating new, innovative and world-shaping ideas, products and projects-with-spin-offs. But after Twitter’, the world sees there are border fences to the Musk ‘genius’… that Musk’s investor and staff ‘dependents’ should be aware of in order keep Musk within his skill areas…for the best interets of everyone.

Musk’s interaction with Twitter - with its internal clockworks, especially with Twitter’s human gears, etc — show he is not a people person. This is a serious gap for someone whose business pattern has been to exercise near-complete control over his projects.

That Musk is not a people-person is not a new ‘discovery’, but it hasn’t been significantly mentioned in the public media except as a somewhat amusing aspect of a recognized ‘genius’ (now seen more as a ‘savant’ with psychological overtones.)

After Twitter (and speaking as a layperson), Elon Musk seems a ‘Spectrum’ listee (DSM-5) — a tech innovator/savant overlaid with bi-polar, sociopathic ‘flavors’. (Disclaimer — this writer is not a professional mental health professional and reference is given of DSM-5 purely as background for serious reading.)

’Pre-Twitter’, the public tides generated by the newness of Musk floated his boat well above its waterline, i.e., Musk demonstrated a skill in cultivating a ‘mystique’ and using it to influence the public, the media and funding sources.

But the newness of Musk in the investor world seems to have worn off, as is historically natural, as investor needs for the ‘different’ has leaned to boredom. Musk’s Twitter flop has definitely led to investor shyness as witnessed by the resultant drop in Wall Street indices for Musk companies and projects as noted here:

Tesla gets downgraded on Wall Street over Elon Musk’s Twitter antics, banning of journalists.

But, Musk’s innovativeness is real and still stands, e.g., the ‘Tesla’ electric car and associated sub-industries (e.g., battery technology), Space-X and coming cyber products.

Musk appears to have one clear ‘flop area’, people skills — where, it seems that he has a ‘less-than’ average ability to communicte except by intimidation and non-verbal cues that are ‘understood’ by his longest and closest associates (and a few employees).

‘Elon Musk’ is no longer an enigma, it’s just that total awe of Musk has settled into seeing where he excels, and where he is just ordinary (and prone to flop just like any entrepreneur).

TRUMP'S DIGITAL 'CARDS' (A GRIFT, FOLKS): WATCH OUT NOW, HERE COME THE MARKS

 The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

Trump’s Digital Cards…Hmmm, That Is, ‘Digital Grifts’

America is going thru a test. ‘Yerp’, there it is… these last 6 years is not a real thing; it’s been a dream … navigable by those who try hard to keep their head straight. But sometimes… like this week’s ‘Trump Digi-Card Joint,’ things just ….(scream — life can’t be without some horse doodoo thrown around? Can it?) 

Trump’s latest ‘Jam' is his digital card Shtick (Grift!). 

Can’t ‘get a hold of it. Shall we just Rock On … Like the cool Americans we are, or pretend to be, or wanna-be? (Why oh Why-eee, does that Tiny-fingered D..ckhead continue to do this to us?)

Stopped reaching for my wallet with time to spare as my Arm-n-hand automatically sensed ‘scam,’ cut in to overrule the brain's reflex response to “Digital Stuff.” 

(I‘ve trained them to think for themselves if the rest of ‘me’ is about to be seduced by weird attractions. This is not, of course, to say this Trump play is weird….but, personally speaking, Trump flames.)

After DT’s “Big Announcement” last Wednesday, December 14, 2002, the planet (cum passengers) shook for a 'split nano-second' (a really short period of time), nevertheless most of us wearily continued on our ways except for the rabid Trumpians, viz.:

Trump's "major announcement" of NFT collection draws ridicule but sells out

After that “tremendous’ announcement, I had to sit, uncross my eyes, and…think. 

I mused ‘About Trump.’ About how America is truly diverse …with perhaps three top-level divisions — the Sane, the Often Sane, and the ‘Marks.’  

(Pets are exempt from these categorizations since our furry friends are super-sensitive to villains, card sharks, and all... ever wonder why Trump has no pets? I don't.)

We can safely let be the Sane and Often Sane…they can mostly take care of business…at least enough to survive. But, the Marks?

The ‘Marks’ are so far-gone lost in the American rat race that they are like the mushy detritus seen floating at the surface of a stormy sea …or a boiling pot of soup…or on America’s growing number of polluted rivers, lakes, sewer spillage. (The castaways.)

American Culture wind blows us here and there, wherever the latest con person leads…during the short time he/she captures media attention. And capturing media attention does require skills … of a kind that self-adjust in a split-second with changing social-media preferences. 

In other words, the Modern Survivor must cultivate, and be quickly able to learn, the skills to harbor the kind of inattention to reality characteristic of the deranged, or at least mildly deranged (erratically so)! (Trump seems to ‘qualify’ per the latter requirements.) Also, American Culture seems to provide nurturing soil for the Trumpian grifter type.

‘American ‘Culture’?

Is American Culture real? Is it imaginary? Seems all one can say is our culture is what one sees from split second-to-split second…a kind of drifting quantum foam.

American Culture is now truly entered the Quantum Age. 

With Trump catching so much media attention, we've ‘crossed over’ and are in a quantized mirror world where ‘Up’ is ‘Down’… or at least sometimes it is, and for short periods. ( ‘Alice’s” message all along.)

‘‘Yerp’, it’s happened folks, we are imaginary quantum states. (And Trump is the random-walk, quantum demon that brought us here — Trump, the ephemeral, erratic nuisance.)

But there is a ‘Way’…a ‘new way of walking’ ...in a quantized dream world. 

Just hold on tight and surf the imaginary, Schroedinger-foamed wavetops of THE CULTURE. Rock ON!

‘HANG TEN”, Dudes. Check the sun and waves. But keep one eye on the shore…if you can.

GUNS AT VOTING PLACES: WE MUST BAN OPEN-CARRY GUNS AT VOTING SITES, IT'S PLAIN INTIMIDATION (AS INTENDED IN THE 1876 SOUTH CAROLINA ELECTION POLL INSTRUCTIONAL FLYER TO PRE-KKK BLACK VOTER DISRUPTERS)

The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the styles and directions of American politics and culture, with an occasional comment on the impact of new technologies. Our observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted.

From the Nov 26, 2022, New York Times -"guns, protests and open-carry."

At Protests, Guns Are Doing the Talking

Armed Americans, often pushing a right-wing agenda, are increasingly using open-carry laws to intimidate opponents and shut down debate.

 the effects of more guns in public spaces have not been evenly felt. is uneven - with Democrats largely eschewing firearms and Republicans embracing them — . This has  has warped civic discourse. "Deploying the Second Amendment in service of the First has become a way to buttress a policy argument, a sort of silent, if intimidating, bullhorn."

One observer described a gathering at an LGBTQ rally.... “What I saw was described as "a group of folks who did not want to engage in any sort of dialogue and just wanted to impose their belief.”

A New York Times analysis of more than 700 armed demonstrations found that, at about 77 percent of them, people openly carrying guns represented right-wing views, such as opposition to L.G.B.T.Q. rights and abortion access, hostility to racial justice rallies and support for former President Donald J. Trump’s lie of winning the 2020 election.

From this blogsite: (

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2009

President Obama's First Year, Pt 1: From The Bottom of the Pit, The Spirit of South Carolina's Zombie Racism (Red Shirt Vigilantes) Rides Again)

The history of deliberately wearing(and openly showing) guns at political gatherings...to intimidate, especially at votng sites, goes back to America's days of Reconstruction (1870s) when the former Confederate supporters sought to cancel out the votes of newly-freed slaves.

Also, the wearing of guns at the President's town meetings and the shouting of "Liar" by the South Carolina Congressman (Joe Wilson) is a strategy first laid down in print in post-Civil War Dixie in 1870 by the Dixie states in their efforts to squelch the voting of newly freed African-Americans by intimidation (showing of guns at town meetings and political rallies) and murder, if intimidation was not effective. Here is an excerpt from a  1876 South Carolina poster giving instructions to the white supremacist vigilante group, the South Carolina Red Shirts, how to intimidate and disrupt town meetings - the similarity with tactics used recently to disrupt Mr Obama's town meeting can't be denied:

2. That a Roster must be made of every white and of every Negro in the Townships and returned immediately to the County Executive Committee. 3. .... be armed with rifles and pistols and such other arms as they may command..... . . . 13. "... soon as their leaders or speakers begin to speak ..., tell them then and there to their faces, that they are liars, thieves and rascals, and are only trying to mislead the ignorant Negroes and if you get a chance get upon the platform and address the Negroes. 14. In speeches to Negroes you must remember that argument has no effect upon them; they can only be influenced by their fears, superstitions and cupidity. . . . Treat them so as to show them, you are the superior race, and that their natural position is that of subordination to the white man. . . . 16. Never threaten a man individually. If he deserves to be threatened, the necessities of the times require that he should die. . . . 29. Every club must be uniformed in a RED SHIRT and they must be sure and wear it upon all public meetings and particularly on the day of election. 30. Secrecy should shroud all of our transactions. Let not your left hand know what your right hand does.

(Source: William A. Sheppard, editor, Red Shirts Remembered: Southern Brigadiers of the Reconstruction Period (Ruralist Press, 1940), pp. 46-50, reprinted in Paul D. Escott, et al, eds., Major Problems in the History of the American South, vol. 2, second ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999), pp. 37-38.) 

Post-Midterm, Republicans Look in the Mirror for Solutions to Their Lacking Performance…They blame SingleWomen For Not Supporting Them But Are Still Frightened of Diversity

  The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old, beginning from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the shapes and directions of American politics and culture, with occasional comments on the potential impact of new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted. 

‘Republicans Looking in the Mirror’ (with full-on, myopic admiration of themselves) appears to be a significant political meme for 21st century American politics. What Republicans see reflected are their own images that they approve of mightily with only minor adjustments of eyeliner, hair tint, or toupees. 

How...'Buffo' are the Republican Party (with males playing female parts.) How 'Rabelaisian' in their idiotic and farcical obstinacy. How not enjoyable yet intellectually fascinating, as a natural disaster can be sometimes.

Meanwhile, when not admiring themselves, Republicans expend an unholy effort to remold the reality of the world around them to fit their private, gender-race exclusive view of what the world ‘Should’ look like. (And they genuinely appear puzzled as to why the world does not want to kneel to their view of things.)

Republicans seem not to like the majority of Americans (as evidenced by their losing the popular vote in the last 5 or so POTUS elections, even though they ‘rigged’ 2 presidencies in that period.) 

But those voter signals haven't persuaded the Republican Party to broaden its base with more inclusive appeals and policies, even though they cry and complain why the broad American voters don't like them.

Republicans need to tap into the American voter diversity, but they shy away from diversity of all kinds and instead worship their mirrors. But ‘what the Hell’, political shannigans (and foreign campaign money, thanks to the Roberts Court) can change that, right? ‘Not’, per the last mid-terms.

The latest Republican farce is the complaint that their shockingly ‘less’ mid-term performance was because all those terrible “single women” didn’t show up to vote for a homogeneously white male political party that is singularly patriarchal, ‘retro’, misogynist, and racist (by the preferred absence of skin ‘tint’, except for burnt orange from a tube).

Owing to that ‘betrayal’ (shed a tear) by those single women, Republicans shakily ‘won’ the House but with nowhere near the ‘Red Tsunami’ they expected, and crowed about as they counted chickens that would hatch from rotten eggs.

What are those Republican, white male exclusionists to do? Why 'obviously', find other scapegoats. (Ah, there they are - single women..."that's the ticket" for sure.)

Meanwhile, America’s diverse audience has left the theater, leaving Republicans to creak open faded curtains on Act 2, mascared actors and all.

Are We Seeing a 1930s Weimar Era Deviousness in America’s Current Rightwing Political Drama? The Endgame Seems Similar: Authoritarian Dictatorship, Putsch and All

 The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old, beginning from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the shapes and directions of American politics and culture, with occasional comments on the potential impact of new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted. 

Prologue: Why does American politics under Trump since a year before his 2016 presidential election, and after he lost in 2020, continue to resemble ithe drama and craziness of Hitler's drunken-walk caryings-on through German politics of 1920-1933?. Trump's shouts  of 'foul-play' for losing the 2020 election, seem to mirror the drama of Germany in those times.

-----

After the unsuccessful Jan6, 2022 attempted putsch, which so far appears to be a thing of history, America’s democratic preference to let bygones be gone…, now has a breath of clean air in President Joseph Biden, who is an experienced Washington politician (Senator, 2-term Vice President, and family man). President Biden has steadied the American ship of State, though the media, right and left, quite readily have targeted his policy and even personal qualities.

Kurt von Schleicher was Hitler’s ‘fixer’ who orchestrated der Fuhrer’s decade-long rise to Chancellor (1933) after his 1924 imprisonment for sedition and attempted putsch of the Weimar Republic. Von Schleicher’s spider-webbed schemes on behalf of HItler are close to Machiavelli’s darkest political maneuverings. (But it wasn’t at all just about Hitler, the intention was to use Hitler to springboard a cabal of Germany’s industry-autocrat,..aristocrat-militarist elite into total authoritarian rule under a military head.) 

In this current era, it appears that von Scleicher has been resurrected in the Steve Bannon — William Barr duo who almost pulled off a 1933 style game play in the 2022 midterms except that the Democrat vote was even more the majority (8 million plurality) than in 2016 presidential election when Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes. Now, Bannon-Barr have been replaced by the Department of Justice’s new head, Merrick Garland, a methodical legalist whose style appears to be an unbiased adherence to Constitutional principles. Garland’s style at times appears frustratingly slow (America’s collective psyche prefers quick action), but in the end solid evidence and near-faultless case closures have consistently advanced his legal pursuit of justice for Trump-and-compny’s political injustices..

Garland is an important bright spot in America’s recovery after the Trump presidency and attempted putsch.

Garland uses Democracy to defend Democracy, instead of a Bannonist exploitation of Democratic principles, through clever wordplay, to promote authoritarian rule (Bannon and Barr Trumpism… and ‘others’ whose roles are yet to come into view…but their shadows are appearing in the distant fog).

Bannon is still, even under the threat of long-term incarceration, playing the role of Hitler’s ‘Kurt von Schleicher’, a 1930s German aristocrat (plutocrat) whose political ‘game’ attempted to use Hitler as an intermediary to replace constitutional government with an authoritarian miliary-dictatorship.

Of course, it can be seen that Trump, like his literary-historical mentor, Hitler, even facing possible incarceration or at least heavy political condemnation and possibly social exile, should not yet be counted out. Trump’s “Brown Shirt’ street thug supporters, the MAGA crowd, are still active, and the recent November midterm elections did not remove America’s government from being in danger by a rightwing takeover…as evidenced by the Supreme Court’s increasing open association with extreme right-wing industrial-political groups.

In coming acts of American political drama, there are reasons to expect that the current Trumpist supporters such as Bannon will be trampled under the wheels of Trump disfavor … Trump is a ‘Natural’ for the role of a Neo-Hitler…even to the point of promoting the unsuccessful Jan 6 ‘putsch’.

But, as for who or what group is pulling the strings for America’s right-wing players, the picture is yet incomplete… but shadows are now coming into focus. 

Elon Musk , the mega-entrepeneur, is one candidate to be added to that potential list of hopeful autocrats who would rule America like a gang-boss. (Although, Musk is a successful entrepreneur, his time at the political right-center stage is most likely a temporary red-Herring, the exploitation of a politically buffoonish savant.)

We will see what things take shape as this play goes forth.

PUTIN'S SPECIAL UKRAINE OPERATION: HE CONTINUES TO DIG DEEPER INTO A HELLISH PIT, AND WINTER IS HERE!

The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old, beginning from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the shapes and directions of American politics and culture, with occasional comments on the potential impact of new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted. 

Putin’s Ukraine debacle has turned into a more giant flop than it looked 2 weeks into his February 24, 2022 "Special Operation" (i.e., the invasion of Ukraine). 

And, Putin's big 'Fail', it seems, is because he did not see how fully he had already conquered his demons (the fearful anxiety from the days of the French-speaking Russian court that Russia was inadequate when compared to western civilization, i.e., that Russia wasn't really 'western' enough..just as Russia wasn't really Asian enough to play marbles with China.)

But despite the good position Russia was in domestically, internationally, and economically...and getting better with every barrel and liter of crude oil and gas that were flowing through the pipelines from Russia's Artic oil fields to Europe ... Putin still made an ill-conceived move that has substantially damaged Russia's global political and economic goodwill (and stability) built up since 1990. 

Putin set in motion a downhill rolling of a heretofore magically expanding, social-economic-political snowball full of riches. Things have steadily worsened since the Special Ukraine Operation began..

But Putin's latest move is perhaps more disastrous than the others that came before - his so-called "mobilization" of "300,000" patriotic fighters (read, 'untrained and physically doubtful') to go immediately to the Ukraine battlefront...often with just a few days of 'training', and badly equipped with WW2 (or even WW1) rifles...and virtually no winter clothing. (Conscripts have been 'asked' to shop for essential battlefield equipment themselves or funded by their families!)

I predicted the lack of training and support for these patriots in my September 21, 2022, post (UKRAINE: THE LAMENT OF NEW RUSSIAN CONSCRIPTS) ... which was a very truncated (arrogant even?) prediction of a disaster,... for the conscripts. But I was not prepared for the truth as it turned out. From that post: 

"The lament of a new Russian conscript headed for Ukraine — cotton shirt and pants (& winter’s coming), sneakers, a canteen of meth-laced weak tea, a WW2/1 rifle, and 30 bullets… you won’t last long enough to even use that. But, 'Rodina'."

But there is more. Putin's Problem is not just his current failures in Ukraine.

While Putin is virtually an absolute ruler, his absolute powers have led to a grandiosely myopic complacency that has prevented him and his generals from modernizing their leadership styles and especially updating Russia's political-military strategies and objectives. Russia has failed especially in keeping current with the tactical field operations of the Russian military itself. 

Combine these failures with the FACT that for the last 30 years or so, Russia’s generals and officer elite have been willing, if not initiating, factors in selling Russian technology and military equipment on the global black market. This has made the Russian army a paper mache' Tiger that in reality is a carnival ask made of gum wrappers and old rubber bands.

In terms of economics, Putin nearly had it all but threw it all away...the fox was in the hen house but greedily pounced too soon and for no good reason. 

Up until February 24, 2022, with his "Special Ukraine Operation," Putin had won Russia's 21st-century war - an economic, political-energy resource-intelligence dominance over the western world, including manipulating the political clockworks of America itself. 

Did Putin fail to recognize how fully he had conquered his demons? The answer has to be, "Yes". Western Europe was dependent on Russian fossil energy, the Russian people were pacified by the commercial detente that brought McDonald’s into their world at home, and perhaps the best of everything was that Russia’s satellites were happy, or at least not terribly unhappy, being commercial partners with what they thought was Putin’s modern leadership based on enlightened economic partnerships.  

In February 2022, Putin’s stupid invasion of Ukraine swiftly erased much, if not all goodwill (and apparent stability) built up since 1990. 

But Russia's loss of face and respect happened so swiftly that it raises QUESTIONS as to what exactly was happening underneath the Russian mask?  (we have a good idea that there was all along much less than we thought, or feared.). The big question now is, "will, or can Putin save his, and Russia's skin?"

ANOTHER TRY AT EXPLAINING RUSSIA

 The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the ways and directions of American politics and culture, and occasionally commenting on the potential impact of new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted. 

Russia’s Ukraine misadventure, Putin's "Special Operation", has transformed Russia’s aura from perhaps a somewhat romantic mystery to just plain national psychopathy.

Today, October 31, 2022, I, fortunately, stumbled across James Sunderland’s 2018 Medium piece, Twelve Reasons Why Russia Sucks, (Medium, June 9, 2018), … his grim picture of Russian culture and people from his years in Russia. (Is October 31 apropos for the decrepitude Sunderland observed in Russia?)

I wrote a ‘reply’ to Sunderland’s piece, below.

I had no knowledge of Sunderland’s 2018 piece before I wrote my own Medium, August 24, 2022, ‘Russia’ article - SOMETHING ABOUT RUSSIA: A LOOK AT ITS EMBARRASSING, SELF-DESTRUCTIVE INVASION OF UKRAINE… , (Medium, August 24, 2022).

Sunderland’s 2018 observations on Russia’s dark culture, alcoholism, and the hopelessness of its people eerily reinforce my August 2022 perceptions of what Russia might be made of (op cite). My perceptions are formed in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February 24, 2022, and the in-country behavior of Russian troops in their rape of Ukrainian women, girls, children, men of all ages…and their drunken rampages through the occupied Ukraine territories.

My reply to Sunderland’s 2018 article (op cite):

“This is a frightening, depressing (and more), yet terribly apt piece in the current 2022 context of Vladimir Putin’s national mobilization forcing “300,000 patriots” to go fight against Ukrainians in Putin’s ‘Special Military Operation’ that doesn’t even barely disguise Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. This piece [Sunderland’s] clearly explains for me the war crimes Russian soldiers (and Wagner Group mercenaries) have committed on innocent Ukrainian citizens during the last 8 months of 2022. No wonder Ukrainians refer to the Russian troops as “Orcs” [as Sunderland also uses]…, demons from Hell driven by dark forces and blind drunk rage to kill and maim.”

Russia’s Ukraine misadventure has transformed Russia’s aura from perhaps a somewhat romantic mystery to just plain national psychopathy. (Russia seems to resemble a lost soul that wanders and blindly stumbles among modern nations that are striving to move on to the future.)”

Meanwhile, Russian citizens sheepishly bleat weak protests, allow themselves to be herded into cattle cars to deliver them to the Ukraine front lines…without training (a few weeks or even just a couple of days), with no uniforms or medical supplies, and even family-provided food … and obsolete, rusted weapons (or none) from WW2 (or even WW1), and 20–40 bullets that may explode in the barrels when ‘fired.’

That picture of the grossly inadequate preparation of Russian conscripts for front-line battle is even worse than I predicted in my recent September 2022, Medium piece, HOW UNPREPARED CAN NEW RUSSIAN CONSCRIPTS BE? I WAS SO RIGHT! SADLY (Medium, September 30, 2022).

My September 30, 2022, perception of how grossly under-supported Russian conscripts are going into battle in Ukraine: “I did not expect my September 20 exaggeration to fall short of just how rediculously pitiful their plight mught accturally be. I underestimated the idiocy and social debacle Putin’s ‘Mobilization’ has started.”

The best for the Russian people, and of course for Ukrainians, is for Russia to cease hostilities and leave Ukraine (intact).

BREXIT (UK) — A FAILED, TEAR-SHEDDING DREAM TO RESURRECT THE BRITISH EMPIRE FROM THE AGE OF SAIL IS IN THE GRAVE

 The Perched Eye blog is 12+ years old,  from 2009 with President Obama's election. Our focus has been eclectic ...  the ways and directions of American politics and culture, and occasionally commenting on the potential impact of new technologies. Pericles21's observations sometimes attract a critical eye, but the 'pen' remains unblunted. 

-------------

So, ‘Liz’ Truss resigned as Prime Minister (UK) on October 20, 2022 — after only 44 days in office, the shortest since 1827 when Tory George Canning died in office after 118 days. 

Her resignation speech is here — a signal example of a nationalist word salad of conservative slogans and hopeful but flawed illogic that some conservatives love to mouth but flounder on after a short time that shows how hollow those slogans actually are.

Ms. Truss makes the fifth UK prime minister in six years — the fastest turnover in nearly a century.

What can one say except it’s about time for the global fantasy-dreaming about past nationalist ‘glory’ to end … the ‘days of sail’ and exploitative spice trade are long over.

The ‘Now’ has changed from the crawling pace of sailing ships to the dynamic, high-tech, increasingly information-driven supersonic age that is above all sustained by interdependent associations not standalone empires… no one country is now truly self-sustaining. Not even America.

‘Brexit,’ the UK withdrawal from the European Union has proved to be an economic flop run by a false performer in a clown suit and Halloween wig (several candidates here, but …).

What Truss’s resignation means is that political posturing and claiming a mantle of past glory is what it sounded like to many— hot air and opportunism that rapidly turns into a disaster for the naive voter and certainly for their nation.

The lineup of guilty politicians who've covered their true motives or lack of true smarts is long but includes such stars as BOJO (Boris Johnson, Truss’s predecessor), Vladimir Putin, and, of course, the current era’s grand wizard behind the curtain, Donald Trump.

Putin is perhaps a special case as he seems to have the naked power to take Russia down with him, but he will not soften in his pursuit of personal glory and the glow of Tsarist Russia.

Let’s hope the UK will regain its senses…and find a way to re-enter the EU (big problems there with lots of 'cold crow' for the UK to swallow, but it has to be done to save England from economic collapse). And let’s hope the American path doesn’t curve back to Trumpism.