Eric Sangster

You may have noticed, I like to imagine things. Ukraine needs investment.  The people of Ukraine are suffering.  After liberation, investment will roar, but is there anything that can be done now?  My mind is an empty vessel, so I will imagine a meeting where I can once again, beg for wisdom! I walk into a well lit room, and begin speaking with someone who has been in the news lately.  He is an advocate for a friend to Ukraine, Kamala Harris.  (I will be voting for Kamala Harris, without question.)  Anyway, Mark Cuban has been acting as her advocate lately, and it is of him, whom I speak. He is an American business man.  I extend him the courtesy of believing him to be intelligent and truthful.  I also expect that he has spent much more time than I have considering money, and so I defer to his imaginary judgment.  But his wisdom is valuable, he did not become rich by giving it away.   It is with this eye, that I value the gift of hi...

I was thinking of the Powell Doctrine. In reviewing the famous questions posed by Colin Powell, preceding the engagement of American forces, I started to wonder what underlying objectives were important to consider. I believe the good man wanted to reduce the damage that he knew was inevitably done by war. It seems that he advised getting it over as quickly as possible, so that fewer human beings die. He suggested only risking the lives of our warriors when they could be given a clear and obtainable objective. What also seems important is the provision of overwhelming forces, to drive the enemy to capitulation. From my perspective as an advocate of Ukraine, no effort should be spared to end Russia’s murderous occupation. But I appreciate the commitment of American troops is unrealistic. Our provision of material assistance to our ally constitutes our participation in a proxy war against Putin and Russia. We have a duty to our ally to help them achieve victory. Just as they would do for...

I have been sleeping again. This time, in my mind’s eye, I walk alongside the 16th century’s best diplomat in an orchard outside of Florence. He invites me to hold a mirror up to myself, and imagine a world of principalities, and armies. What practical advice he has! And it is so nice to get the support of being able to do absolutely anything at all, to keep my little principality. He advises I keep my word lightly, but that I lean on the populace heavily. Sounds good to me! I sit at an ornate desk of the period, and write letters with the feather of a cherub. The orders fly! The steady ticking of the clock becomes a snare drum’s roll. Airborne orders cloud the sky! I become accustomed to wealth, power, influence, authority, control, and correction. I quickly see the wisdom of maintaining my principality at all costs. I dispassionately direct my subjects to use their means for my ends. And finally, the speeding passage of time brings me to my own end. My life is over, and my principali...

I am not accustomed to prayer. Recently, I demonstrated my ignorance in the manners of prayer by accidentally leaning on the crutch of vulgarity as I was communing with our Lord. I was praying for Donald Trump, and he messed up on YouTube, in real time during my prayer attempt. I expect to be punished. So in order to avoid that, I have decided to approach future prayer with more purity, almost like a child, reading an embroidered thing (vyshyvanka) upon their Grandmother’s wall. Father in heaven, hear my prayer. Keep Ukraine in your loving care. Be their guide in all they do, And let them know we love them, too. That should get me out of the doghouse with the old man. Here is the prayer above, read by a digital voice below!  The words are always my own!    

Autonomous munitions are right around the corner. Follow any war hipster, and you will see someone get hit by a sacrificial explosive drone.  That drone was almost certainly operated by a human being, connecting their intention to the machine with a radio signal sent from potentially ten miles away or more.  An infantry soldier, without anti drone equipment, has almost no chance against a single drone, much less four at once.   Right now, the dependence upon a radio signal protects many.  Electromagnetic signals can be jammed.  Which is why I would simply train my drones using machine learning, to see what an infantry man looks like, and where to fly to blow off their leg.  The quad copters of today, put to horrifyingly effective use by the Ukrainians, are the sketches of children compared to what is on the horizon. And electronic countermeasures are much more difficult to implement against a drone that requires no radio communication. I believe that C...

Thanks to our allies, the Ukrainians, and in no small part to our own State department, Russian influence campaigns are now common knowledge in the attention economy. I was recently easily able to end the comments of several pro-Trump sock puppets in a live chat by typing this phrase: “Trump belongs to Putin, his influence seems to affect the dimwitted.” To a sock puppet, the illusion of credibility depends in large part in the immediate flash of an idea in a few lines. The sock puppets were silenced temporarily, because they understood Putin’s connection to Trump. Also, had they continued to crow for Trump, they would have been the dimwitted ones. Again, because Russian influence is now common knowledge in the attention economy. There are memes that rip across our awareness, and we superficially accept them as if we had always lived by them. How sophisticated we are, with all of these memes whipping about! Of course, the understanding is shallow, and rarely evaluated. But in this case...

Donald Trump gave another embarrassing speech. While on the campaign trail, Donald Trump took the opportunity to try and make some splash. This time, he pretended to know things about other countries, and what was going on in the world. I remain unconvinced. In Donald Trump’s speech, he criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a salesman. I imagine Donald has a sore spot there, as he was impeached for trying to extort Zelenskyy. I refer to impeachment classic, not ‘new’ impeachment. He had two, if you don’t recall. Anyway, after defaming President Zelenskyy as the best salesman in the world, he went on to lie about the amount of money the United States has invested in Ukraine. Well, he may not have been lying. He could also be stupid. I am an advocate of our American ally, Ukraine. President Zelenskyy is not the best salesman in the world, he doesn’t have to be. The righteous endeavor of the Ukrainians is obvious. As are the consequences of allowing Putin to gain from his ...

How unjust.  My beautiful Washington Post suffers from a business model that rewards her virtuous burden of veracity with poverty.  After creating a system to monitor current events with RSS feeds some fifteen years ago, I watched the ripples of ideas across American media.  I saw, in real time, as headlines appeared.  It was expected that the wire services would be copied.  A new revelation to me was that the ideas from the Washington Post and the New York Times represented the lion’s share of information reflected shortly thereafter in electronic publishing selling commercials.  Sounds fine.  But it is not.  The ethos of our august institutions was being hijacked by lies and influence campaigns, that ran right along side the poor imitations of great ideas from our newshounds.   The lack of regulation of our attention economy has left the world saddled with a vector for disinformation and misinformation.  In my time observing curre...

Taras Shevchenko was an amazing human being. He was a poet, an artist, and a lover of Ukraine. I was admiring some of his art recently, and I came across an interesting work . It was an engraving depicting King Lear. I had no idea the scope of his talents! His knowledge and insight as a poet, informed his graphical art, I am convinced. When I first saw this engraving, I didn’t realize it was King Lear, but the scene was cool! There was some old guy, being helped by a Jester, with a cloud of thorns over the old man’s head. Upon seeing the title, I recognized Shakespeare’s tragedy. In the Bard’s tale, King Lear divides his kingdom among his three heirs, and it ends badly. He makes his decision, ultimately loses his family, and what was once his kingdom, lies in ruin. In the end, the jester is his only loyal attendant. And that is the scene shown by Taras! A great lesson, by an insightful artist! I take his lesson to heart, and consider the importance of a unified force. We are forged tog...

I was sleeping again. In my dream, I was a mouse! I was outside on a fall day, and there was a farmer who was very cross with some cute little kittens! (Thankfully, I was immaterial and up in a tree during this observation.) As he laid out several filthy, burlap bags for the kittens, the bald farmer said something.  I couldn't make it all out, but he said it very politely.  Something to the effect of, “By entering these bags, you will serve the interests of the farm. And there is cash inside.” I had doubt that those kittens would find anything but grief in those bags, and as I was about to cry out, they started to act! They were all sorts of colors and types. Black kittens, yellow kittens, calico kittens, gray kittens, and tiger kittens! Kittens with brown eyes, kittens with green eyes, kittens with blue eyes, and kittens with yellow eyes. One had a book of matches. All of them were playing stupid. “Duh, what’s a bag?” A Tiger asked, as it rolled upside down. Its ...

I can’t write women’s dialog.  I know I can’t.  I don’t even try.  Shall I prove it to you?  No, though I don’t suffer the shackles of dignity, it would shame even me! A certain pity!  I have an excellent idea for a story for She-Hulk.  Well, it’s actually a story about Jennifer.  You see, I think super powers are neat and all, and what little girl wouldn’t want to lift a battleship over her head!  But the powers themselves don’t make the hero.  Virtue does.  I know, I know, I am so bankrupt of ideas, I must find one so out of fashion it can be described as ancient. Jennifer, through no fault of her own is given terrifying super powers.  In my comic book world, the She-Hulk does not twerk, she is a force of destruction.  In my story, Victor Von Doom is the one who is responsible for Jennifer’s affliction, and as he is flying her to his country, she awakens, becomes enraged and destroys the plane.  She falls onto Sardinia, ...

Dear Reader, it won’t surprise you to find that I was wrong, again.  (What love a rapscallion like me must require, a burden for all but the deepest fonts of forgiveness.)  I used to say to myself, aspiringly, that I was an acolyte of Diogenes.  Ironically, I may still end up living in a large ceramic pot. But I can no longer call myself a student of that great man.  What was that Dear Reader?  Any idiot can be a student?  Then I have found my calling, indeed!  But how can I, with any intellectual integrity, profess to be a student of Diogenes, when my emergent disagreement with him is so fundamental? Perhaps it was the recognition of failure, thinly veiled as a celebration of poverty in the beginning.  My detractors would certainly describe it so.  But in reality what brought me to the sunlight of Diogenes was heartbreak.  I had endeavored to be able to provide for a family, and the love of my life, who couldn’t have cared less about me...

First and foremost, I am an advocate of Ukraine. I defer to Ukraine regarding any cessation of hostilities. The process of democracy is intended to drive self determination. I believe that Ukraine has earned the right to exercise it, fighting on behalf of the world. I wouldn’t dream of telling them what to do. To the diplomats of the world who have worked so hard, thank you. Your endeavors, like so many others, go unsung. Your work is important, and I enjoy the peace of your innumerable successes, again thank you. If I may put forth my humble (and do I mean humble!) opinion for your consideration? Ultimately, I am happy to defer to your best judgment. I suggest that any work that includes freezing the conflict as it is, would be immoral, as it would place Ukraine in a persistent destabilized state, and Putin has always taken advantage of destabilized states. Pressing our ally to submit to a temporary peace deal is suggesting we gift our enemy with the most precious resource: Time. Time...

There are things in my head that I like to go back to and look at.  It’s funny how some things form up there.  I must be adding details as time slips by, and eventually, when something intrigues me, I finally look up to observe it.  In this way, I see something as a result of the aggregation of time.  A perspective, that cannot be obtained in any one moment in time, but rather, emerges from all of the moments, collected. Recently, I took time to think about the European Union. I thought about all of the great people who worked toward the common goal of cooperation to improve their lives. Of course, I have no idea who these people were, but I see the artistry in their handiwork. A carefully sculpted body, its only intention to support, with no meaning beyond its ability to maintain a cohesive cooperative structure.  But expressing boundless virtue through each independent nation, well defined and beautiful.  I wonder if any of these countries could survive i...

While reading about the Holodomor in Ukraine, I came across the witness testimony of Halyna Huba.  On a website called, ' Share the Story, ' she and other survivors of the genocide told us of their experiences.  I fix it here so that I can look back in the future, and remember. Lately I have been very concerned about the subject of Ukrainian erasure. Halyna Huba's statement:  "My mother’s sister’s oldest daughter, Varvarka, came and told us that six children had died within six weeks. They didn’t know what to do anymore and came to us for help, but we didn’t have anything. So they returned home. We didn’t know what had happened to them for a long time. In the summer, father took a train to see them, to find out what had happened. When he came home he said that Uncle Fedir died after the children had died. They buried him in their own garden. They also didn’t go to the collective farm and they were also persecuted for not joining. So my aunt, her daughter and her oldest...

I propose for this sketch, to see Russia as having a persistent character through time.  I look at Russia as a perennial autocratic bureaucracy.  From the time of the Czars, through the General Secretary, to the forever president of today.  The person at the head of that bureaucracy completely served by the machinery of state.  Implementing any destruction, any evil, for his ends.  And they always try to hide it. Is it hard for you to see Ukraine?  When I look, even with deep appreciation for the newest recruits to democracy, I see what appear to be intentional obfuscations.  Russian influence has been trying to hide the evils that they do for as long as there as been Russian influence.  Have you ever heard of the Holodomor?  (The Ukrainian word for hunger is holod; mor means death.  So ‘hunger-death.’  Or death by starvation.)  A genocide visited upon the Ukrainian people by the Soviet Union.  It doesn’t surprise me if it...

I speak now, specifically to my fellow Americans, all of them.  I begin by apologizing for not recognizing your excellence before!  I apologize if you haven’t had the opportunities you deserve.  I for one, have every confidence that you will do your nation proud, when given the chance.  I have something to say, would you do me the honor of listening? We are not a nation of murderers.  Stop trying to shoot Donald Trump.   I begin by imagining the bleak scenario in which you succeed in your shameful endeavor.  You, most certainly, are dead at the hands of one of the members of our excellent Secret Service.  You have altered history, and committed murder not to save democracy, but for self aggrandizement.  You cannot serve democracy and commit assassination.  If you believe in American democracy, assassination is not only unnecessary, but absolutely immoral.  You would, by your act of murder, not only rob millions of Americans of ...

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Before the recent presidential debate, and in my mind's eye, I see Donald Trump, in a luxurious, dark office, with scarlet carpet, surrounded by his counselors.  They are preparing for his debate. 'Please, sir.  Whatever happens, whatever she says, don't take the bait.  She will say something intending to make you angry.  Don't take the bait.' Another joined in, in this vision, 'Sir, by not taking the bait, you will make $600,000.00, over night!' Yet another appears from behind the second, waving a brightly colored graph, exclaiming its title:  Trump Makes Internet Record .  'Sir, all of the professors at M.I.T. have determined that if you do not take the bait when Kamala Harris offers it, you will win the internet.  For all time.' Something they have said has stirred Trump.  'Oh, yeeoow, yeah that hottie.kam!  Is she from India?  Look at that hair.  Hey, go get her picture from Time for me.' Weeping is heard from afar.  One sp...

I believe that public speaking is a fine skill to practice, and what better subject matter, than speeches?  With this noble intent, I set forth! Ronald Reagan is held in great esteem in the United States, and I believe he loved his country.  And his rhetoric at the Berlin wall, unquestionably, serves as proof, that words can matter.   But they can’t be meaningless, they must ring true in the ear of the listener.  When President Reagan called for that wall to be torn down, his words not only rang true, many of the listeners must have recognized the same yearning in themselves, that the words expressed!  “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Inspiring.  Such insights must have required a tremendous understanding of the complex international interests at play, and more importantly, the interests of the people.  I hear those people cheering President Reagan’s statements.  They cheered because they agreed!...

People of France! I approach you not as an envoy of the United States, but as a pauper, come to ask and learn. Have you met the people of Ukraine? Ah, wonderful! Then you need not be convinced of their quality, for to meet them is to love them. It is on their behalf that I seek guidance today. I have heard of some difficulty in policy concerning the conflict facing our world. I submit that lives could be saved by the effective, responsible, but most importantly, immediate free use of weapons against positions currently attacking Ukraine. I present the Ukrainian martial history of responsibility in this conflict. It doesn’t require my advocacy. What blessings could my worthless words add to it? It is not out of a generosity of spirit that I attribute responsibility to my ally, it is our shared history. They obey the rules. Recruiting them into democracy has been wonderful! Now, beautiful France, I remember you. I know that my freedom today is a direct result of yo...

As an American, I don't know the Ukrainians.  I only write what I see.  I must honestly say that I have never had a polite interaction with them.  I think most Americans suffer from the same lack of experience with these wonderful people.  If I ask you to imagine them with me--can you see them?     We used to see our brothers and sisters more clearly. I can remember when the Ukrainians were always portrayed in the same way: An image of a young girl, in a spectacularly white vyshyvanka (embroidered with thousands of vivid years of color and culture), peering into a blue sky, standing in a field of sunflowers.   Putin, to justify his evil war, would recast this image, and have us believe that which you see before you is no young girl at all, but a risen gorgon. The ribbons in her hair replaced with vipers. Preposterous! I present to you the manufactured evil of misunderstanding.   We know that Putin lies. We know that he spreads...

When I organize my thoughts, I frequently assert that Russia is an enemy of the United States and a threat to the world. (Obvious to any observer.) To my dismay I note that a second thought always pursues the first, “Russia, Russia, Russia.” I first experienced this meme, this thought virus, shortly after the esteemed Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian GRU officers engaged in election meddling (on behalf of Donald Trump, of course) in July of 2018. Shortly thereafter, a catchy little meme popped up! It was great! It sounded like an old piece of audio from a famous American television show, ‘The Brady Bunch.’ In the show, Jan is jealous of the attention given to her sister, Marsha. She has a line of dialog in an episode where she says, “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.” The young actress delivered the line, full of indignation and complaint! It stuck in people’s minds, and they repeated it. This collective American memory became the reference for our catchy little me...