The Peanut Gallery: Medvedev Can Suck an Egg - Might Does Not Make Right
March 4, 2024
Welcome to the Peanut Gallery! Today we’re going to talk about thermodynamics.
Please remember that I know nothing.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairperson Dmitry Medvedev promoted Russia’s extensive territorial objectives that expand deep into Ukraine’s territory.
Medvedev gave a lecture on March 4 called “Geographical and Strategic Borders” at the Russian World Youth Festival, a Kremlin-organized event.” (...) Medvedev defined all the territories on the left bank of the Dnipro River and many territories on the right bank of the Dnipro River as “integral” to Russia’s “strategic historical borders.”
Medvedev spoke against the backdrop of a hypothetical English-language map of Eastern Europe that he originally posted on his Telegram channel in July 2022 (...) The map shows Ukraine existing as a rump state only within the borders of Kyiv Oblast and the rest of modern-day Ukraine as part of Russia — well beyond the areas that Russian forces currently occupy, and the four oblasts Russia has illegally annexed.
The fact that Medvedev reused a map from 2022 underscores that the Kremlin’s maximalist territorial objectives have remained unchanged since the beginning months of the war.
Let’s talk about the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Buckle up, kids. This is a science episode.
So the Laws of the universe are quite simple: nothing can be created nor destroyed, not matter nor energy. Far as we know. The absolute (that means total) energy we have in our universe now is the exact same absolute energy as we had some thirteen billion years ago. We are one-to-one, only now it’s all spread out. That spreading is what we call ‘entropy’.
Think of energy like a ladder. Gamma rays (the stuff that turns people into the Hulk) are way at the top, while the shit you use to microwave a burrito is way at the bottom. Now imagine the Hulk jumped off the ladder to People’s Elbow someone microwaving that burrito, only to find, surprise, the Hulk was actually a water balloon full of green paint...and it just gets everywhere, like all over the fucking place. Ain’t no putting that Hulk Balloon back together. Also, that burrito is ruined.
That’s sort of what everything does when it hits shit: it diffuses. Every stream flows downhill. Every fart dissipates. And every pie cools. Such is the unfortunate nature of the cosmos. To freeze entropy is to freeze time itself.
Where the fuck am I going with this, you might ask? Well, it’s simple: the universe doesn’t give a shit about any of us. We grew up in a jungle, one where we had to fight and scratch and claw for every scrap. Might made right back then because it was all we knew worked.
But now we know more. Now we know that might does not equal right because the result is always equivalent to suffering. It’s a well-worn circle, and, collectively, we have chosen a different path, one which acknowledges ideals above divinity and violence. To walk this path is to defy the cosmos themselves, to groan against the inexorable tug of entropy. By ripping free of this cycle, we are acknowledging the value inherent in all sentient life. To bellow, “Might does not equal right!” is to cry out in protest against the inexorable decay of the universe.
Are such efforts futile? No, because I, at least, am here to say they're not. What say you?
The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) reported that unknown actors detonated explosives and severely damaged a Russian railway bridge over the Chapaevka River near Chapaevsk, Samara Oblast on March 4.
Ukraine apparently agrees because they’re blowing up a whole hell of a lot of the Kremlin’s stuff. Today it was a bridge deep in Russia. The fact that Ukrainian insurgents are operating so deep in Russia is remarkable, especially since I’m willing to bet these bridges are guarded day and night. Or at least it damn well seems like they should be lest this sort of thing keeps happening.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly awarded a Russian Airborne Forces (VDV) and Spetsnaz-affiliated Russian milblogger, likely as part of the Kremlin’s longstanding efforts to co-opt milbloggers and make them loyal to the Kremlin.
It’s a classic carrot-and-stick approach: punish violently for disobedience, reward slavishly for subservience. Putin is attempting to appeal to these milblogger’s patriotism, yet at the same time he’s smearing, arresting, and murdering them with wanton abandon. To say something which defies the Kremlin’s narrative lands someone in jail, like the presently pickling Igor GIrkin.
At this point I sincerely doubt any milblogger gives a shit about some Kremlin-given award, at least on a patriotic level. Anyone with two brain-cells to rub together can probably figure out the receivers of these awards blatantly favor the most sycophantic of the regime. These awards are far from meaningful legitimacy.
Russian authorities in Moscow Oblast created “training programs” for people potentially considering adopting illegally deported Ukrainian children in Russia.[80] The program reportedly falsely conflates Ukrainian and Russian culture. The program reportedly tells participants that their main objective is to create a “second homeland” for Ukrainian children in Russia and that they will need to overcome “difficulties in international differences.” Participants of the training program must undergo interviews in which Russian authorities ask if they have Ukrainian friends and relatives. ISW continues to assess that the forced deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children likely amounts to a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Please give Ukraine what they need to bring this war to an end.
‘Q’ for the Community:
Ukraine blew up a bridge last night! What should they blow up next?
Join the conversation of on /r/TheNuttySpectacle!