Why Munich 1938 concessions to Nazi Germany haunt Washington 2025 talks

“Vladimir Putin’s desire to grab Ukraine’s key defensive lines echoes how Adolf Hitler secured Czechoslovakia’s fortifications.

“Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defense industrial and defensive infrastructure in and around these cities,” the institute said.

If that happens, Russia would move its frontline roughly 80 kilometers further west, while Ukraine would be forced to build new defenses on flat and open terrain in neighboring Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk — far harder to hold than the fortified cities it controls now.

In September 1938, Adolf Hitler argued that handing over the ethnic-German majority Sudetenland region to the Reich would satisfy his ambitions and end the threat of war in Europe. France and Britain agreed, and browbeat Prague into accepting. Hitler — whose word was as reliable as Putin’s — said he had no further territorial ambitions.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-russia-war-in-ukraine-adolf-hitler-czechoslovakia/

Toppled Confederate statue will rise again in Washington

Statues of leaders in parks have less to do with history and more to do with celebrating certain ideologies and causes. A statue doesn’t tell you much about history, but it does honor the person in stone, and it honors what they are known for. Confederate leaders and soldiers are known for using deadly force in rebellion against the United States of America for the primary cause of keeping most black people in the south as slaves. These acts were traitorous, anti-freedom, racist, and anti-democratic because the south only seceded because they lost an election to an abolitionist named Lincoln.

Such statues should be removed legally.

“the National Park Service says it’s obligated to restore the Pike statue by executive orders issued by President Donald Trump”

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/04/confederal-statue-reinstated-washington-00493394

This Diplomat Saw the Fall of the Shah Coming. Jimmy Carter Ignored Him.

It’s important to have in-country experts who can see and feel the changes afoot in a foreign country.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/08/06/washington-ignored-his-warnings-about-iran-then-he-was-taken-hostage-00495072

Did Christianity Make the World More Moral?

Ethics and morality existed long before Jesus. Much of what Jesus said was said by someone before him. Nevertheless, Jesus and Christianity had a huge impact on Western ethics. The Greeks and Romans cared about people in their in-group. The Jews cared about fellow Israelites, including neighbors who had joined the group. Jesus preached that we should love all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA6FeavzG8c