The protracted nature of the war between Russia and Ukraine is an argument to restart negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. A failure to do so runs the danger of a further escalation of the war, including the likely introduction of new and more devastating weapons and the triggering of a wider conflict.

Realpolitik — a sober estimate of the state of the fighting between the two warring countries, one, Ukraine, defending its homeland, the other, Putin’s Russia, invading a neighboring country, equipped with its superior military and financial resources — is an imperative at this moment.

Justice, of course, lies on the Ukrainian side, but in this war the superior weaponry of one side and the ruthlessness of its leader is an inescapable reality that can’t be assumed away. It’s a shame as well as an expression of analytical and moral bankruptcy that significant sections of the U.S. peace movement would reduce the fighting between an expansionary, immoral, and imperial power on one side and a state and people fighting for their independence on the other to no more than a “proxy war” between Russia and the United States.

The great and ever exuberant Bill Walton is gone, but still refuses to fade away!!! Tip my banner to the big redhead!. Walton attended over 1000 Grateful Dead concerts. Once he took his Celtic teammates —- Bird, McHale, Parish. Johnson, et all —- to a Dead concert in Worcester, near Boston. And they loved it!

By the way, Fade Away was written by the Great Buddy Holly.

Trump and the MAGA crowd, encamped in Christian churches and colleges, legislative halls and courts, the media and social media, and insurrectionary and proto brown shirt groups, see this moment as “their moment” to transform the state, society, and country into a white nationalist, Christian neofascist fortress.

What is more, in their calculus, electing Trump is the necessary gateway and once in a lifetime opportunity to realize their vision. What should we do in the face of this existential threat and challenge? Simply said, engage the American people and do the sweated labor and unsung work to get out the vote on Election Day.