Yeah, I was thinking self-stabilizing while writing that, but generally try to avoid bringing in too many doorknobs with unknown interlocutors :)

> Mamdani face to face. Like 2 lions ?

As that old russophone meme went: the diner sits; the waiter stands?

(can't find it right now, but along the lines of strategic ambiguity this is an amusing one: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FEZLJn8WYAQreU0?format=jpg&name=... )

This is wonderful! Not only does Gandhiji speak on multiple levels, but unlike many who attempt it he carries the conceit through to perfection, offering valid first-aid advice to complete the surface reading. https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/cwmg_volume_thumbview/M... (if one were only to read the first and last few pages, one would miss completely the change of tone in the middle; did EAB pick up this habit from the subcontinent?)

Heh. I just noticed DJT literally used the words "extraordinary military operation" during his press conference; does VVP's «специальной» have vastly different connotations in ru from "extraordinary" in en? Unlikely to be intentional plagiarism, maybe just parallel evolution?

  History repeats
  But then again, it has to
  Nobody listens

Given that "both sides" are quick to thow the fascist label, one has to be more specific about the lesson that hasn't been learnt.

Like: "weaponize constitution against executive branch".

https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/why-federal-courts-are-unli...

What was it you had in mind? A more effective ICJ?

(Some will argue, eg that getting ERII schooled in (nothing but) the subtleties didn't do anything)

Guess I'd been reflecting on how close CBO and EMO (if I'm doing justice to the ru meaning?) sound to me. But I was already complaining at the formation of the DHS that it sounded remarkably parallel to an infamous organisation:

  Department  Ministerium
  of          für
  Homeland    Staats-
  Security    sicherheit

so I'm probably just a whiner and malingerer.

There's always the general lesson; even if Hillel[0] didn't get nailed to a stick[1] for preaching it, he doesn't seem to have many followers in, say, Likud.

A more specific lesson for the Old Country would be The Frogs Who Desired a King?

I've lifted^Wliberated this from somewhere, but can't remember where atm: the trouble with revolutions is that when they succeed[2], you rapidly discover that you didn't need a better government, you needed better people.

One reason I haven't finished the Durants' The Story of Civilization yet is that if you binge it, you rapidly discover that despite the pleasant turns of phrase, it's largely 13'549 pages of people treating each other poorly.

Pedantry to (nothing but): ERII could at least take a Landy offroad[3], even if in practice, as a lady, she often left it up to her chauffeur.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillel_the_Elder#/media/File:H...

[1] I do love the characterisation in Master & Margherita which makes it sound like Mr. INRI was maybe on the spectrum (come to think of it, M&M is another frame story, but with the fantastic and realistic elements reversed)

[2] as the US 1776'ers, the Girondins, and the Mensheviks (to take just 3) might know?

[3] making her more accomplished than the modal Chelsea Tractor driver?

[2] Algolia-fu on yourself ;) do the inner party of SV or Fed have better people? It's possible that each of our "three hegemons" lose sleep over that question

Thanks!

The law of large numbers suggests that all of the hegemons:

  bellatores  military  ML
  laboratores economic  IEF
  oratores    political DI

should optimise their practices and procedures for the population mean[0]: although one of them will obviously have slightly better people at any given point, which one is subject to time and chance, and the odds that that advantage would be larger get exponentially smaller.

(then again, the boundaries are more porous[1] than in the feudal days; I know of at least two MGIMO alums moonlighting in the economic realm)

[0] we've already covered 孫中山's triad, right?

[1] or are they? I think a typical "retirement plan" for an aging but rich bellator was to endow[2] a monastery with a comfortable amount of land, and then take orders there, because who would bump off an orator[3]? In the modern world, I see RAK (https://static01.nyt.com/images/2017/12/29/world/29FACEBOOK-...) has grown a long beard since I last saw him; is he in the process of transitioning from bellator to orator? Maybe not: he seems to be feeling acutely unwell.

[2] compare El Cid's provision for his wife and daughters; or even Goldmund's father "gifting" Blaze the pony

[3] compare "Hideyori's son, Kunimatsu (age 8) was captured and beheaded; his daughter Naahime (Princess Naa) (age 7) was sent to Tōkei-ji, a convent in Kamakura, where she later became the twentieth abbess Tenshūin (1608–1645)."