Reconsider

Ukrainian victories on the ground have been swift, dramatic, and devastating. And each win seems to make them stronger.Russian victories (back when they happened), seemed to be slow and grinding, and wear the Russians down, making them weaker.Why is it that Russians lose momentum with each victory, but Ukrainians gain it? Why such asymmetric momentum?Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mitchell Orenstein is a professor of Central and East European Politics in the Slavic department at the University of Pennsylvania and an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian studies at Harvard. His research focuses on the political economy and international affairs of Central and Eastern Europe.This episode is the latest installment to the four-part series on Reconsidering Russia, where we try to dig into Russia's historical and geopolitical context to help you better understand some of their moves today and what's going on in their country today.Tune in to hear Eric, Xander, and Professor Orenstein dive deep into Russia's real objective in Ukraine, Eastern Vs. Western-leaning periods of Russian leadership, why Russia really needs to diversify its economy, and so much more.00:00 Introduction01:35 Why Geopolitics is not about reforms or democracy03:49 What does Russia really want?05:49 Understanding Russia's national interests and foreign policy preferences12:59 Eastern Vs. Western-leaning p

Time in Kyiv: 9am, Tues, Sep 13th.Kharkiv Oblast is free.Zelenksy announced about 6 weeks ago that a major counter-offensive in the South would take place. After a month of attacking bridges, rail depots, ammunition depots, C&C, bases, etc etc etc, the offensive started in earnest. 2 weeks in, they haven’t gotten a ton of territory back.But, as all of us paying attention know, the Southern offensive may have been the greatest diversion in warfare since WWII itself. Over the last week, Ukraine launched the most dazzling counter-blitzkrieg I can think of. We’re going to go over all of that in its glorious detail here. There’s so, so, so much we don’t know. Lots of opsec, lots intentionally hidden from the public. What I can say with certainty is there will be many a movie made about this in Hollywood -- this is one of the great moments in military and geopolitical history, period. It is very, very likely the tide of the war has turned, and for good. David is now on top of Goliath, pummeling him.Pl

Mark Schauss is the host of Russian Rulers History and Battle Ground History. Known for being heavily well-versed with the history of Russia, Mark Schauss joins us in today’s episode to talk about the Russian history in its most authentic form. Mark shares everything from Russia’s first invasion to how all these historic events reflect on how Russia moves socio-politically in today’s world.  Join the ReConsider PatreonTopics Covered What made mark start his podcast and how it’s currently going. The history of the first invasion and the second invasion of Russia. The geography of Russia and why it’s easy to invade Russia but why it’s difficult to stay. How Russia was able to balance European powers and how they were able to to set up alliances to protect their borders. Mark shares all about the Napolean and Crimean war.The casualties of the Russian Civil War. The transition period between 1917 to the World War 2. How Russia came back from the 2nd World War as a supe

Hot UpdatesSeverodonetsk fell slowly as expected, but then Lysychansk fell quickly because Russian troops surrounded it, and Ukrainian troops had to retreat rather than be destroyed. It’s possible the Ukrainians were out-gamed by Russian mid-level commanders.So far, Russians have not been able to break out of Donetsk city -- that part of the original Feb 24 defense line is holdingRussia appears to have deployed nearly 100% of its conventional combat capabilities to Ukraine, and is still getting clobbered.https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/25/ukraine-russia-balance-of-forces/ Russia is trying to recruit “volunteer” regiments to deploy in Ukraine to relieve Russian troops -- they will be low quality, and so their use would be to hang tight in certain areas and try to pin down Ukrainian units. Not useless, but not super useful.Once again we have returned to slow movement along the front lines now that Severodonetsk and Lysychansk fell. Ukrainians fell back to the 2nd of 3 highly defensible ur

Lots of ways we can split this. Much has been discussed about decoupling of wages from productivity. Also note we are absolutely not going to get into 2022. But it’s clear the price increases since the pandemic (due to supply shortages, super aggressive monetary policy, gasoline ,and other drivers of inflation) are really eating into real wages.See the full show notes at ReconsiderMedia.comJoin the ReConsider PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

OR, a tale of ups and downsLots of things seem to be getting worse, at least if you read the internet everThis is not an episode to say, “nothing is getting worse,” but that what you hear about is probably not very correlated with what’s going on.I’m leaving abortion out of this because honestly I can’t even deal with this shit right now. Major problem with talking about trends: how long are we talking here? A lot of stuff goes up and down. If you just look at this year and extrapolate, then the stock market trends down, which it obviously doesn’t. So we’ll do our best, I’m focusing on the current adult generation (Millennials/GenX), but keep all that in mind.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

UpdatesSituation in SeverodonetskHUGE numbers of troops from both sidesArtillery war“Road of life” from Bakhmut to Severodonetsk has 1km clearance from Popansa salient and has been a huge fight -- if it goes down, UKR at risk of losing >10k troops in that pocketAmmo situationUkraine out of Soviet ammo; now fully on NATO100% dependent on Western shipments Would have literally run out of ammo without that support -- possible insight into why Russia thought it could win DonbassUKR National Guard troops who are basically there to eat shells and prevent a breakout are losing moraleRussia has blown up the bridge between Severdonetsk and Lysychansk -- this is a major problem for the troops in Severodonetsk, but they could in theory make a river crossing“US General says Elon Musk’s Starlink has totally destroyed Russia’s information campaign” UKR seriously needs more heavy guns -- especially artillery. Losing 100-200 troops/day (to death; likely 500/day to wounds), mostly to artilleryOVERALL:Game’s far f

First, war update:Mariupol fell after 2.5 months of truly insane holding out. Gosh dang. 1900 surrendered and there is a POW complication that I”m not going to get intoUkraine has mostly booted Russia out of Kharkiv, though there is still some fighting and the Russians have not given it up entirely the way they did Kyiv/Sumy/etc, so there’s no obvious way to free up those troops for UkraineRussians trying really hard to cross the Siversky Donets river by pontoon, in order to encircle Ukraine’s core defense force in the Donbass (largely around a city called Severodonetsk and one called Lysychansk). It seems at least twice the Ukrainians knocked out entire BTGs trying to make that crossing, which is incredible.https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1528116469619367940Apparently Russia is generally short of pontoon type equipment…but Russia has a breakout of sorts, actually right in the northern part of the original Donbass battle lines, through a town called Popansa. TONS of troops moving through there

What happens when you start really believing your own bullshit?What happens when you’ve created a yes-man bubble where everyone only tells you what you want to hear?First a war update:Russia’s focus on the east and Donbass, which started a month ago, has made a bit of progress in a few places, but is now pretty stalledThey do seem to be regrouping from Mariupol, but they’ve also been going into a meat-grinderUkraine has made marginal advances towards Kherson and away from KharkivSOMEHOW, Mariupol’s troops still stand in the Azovstal steel plant despite months of constant bombings and stormings -- there’s really nothing like it in modern military history (Alamo has absolutely nothing on it, not even a tiny bit close)It REALLY seems like the vast majority of Russian attempts to advance are getting repelled, and that is going to grind them down and make them combat-ineffective…and now Ukraine is getting tons of heavy weapons:TanksBig, advanced howitzersRadar systems to aim at Russian artilleryRocket artilleryDro

The Russians are hoping to encircle Ukraine's defensive lines in the Donbass. If they do, they might be able to declare victory. The Ukrainians are racing east, not only to defend their territory, but might just also be able to counter-attack.Let's break it down.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So much has changed over the past month -- Ukraine is on the offensive. Kyiv is safe. The war moves east. Air superiority actually matters more than ever.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode, Erik interviews Lindsay Graham of American History Tellers and History Daily. They talk about the similarities and differences between today's political and economic climate and that of the Civil War and the Gilded Age.Support ReConsider on PatreonSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The war should have been short and decisive. And as it drags out, Russia looks ever-more inept. What's wrong with its military? What's wrong with its chain of command? Will its economy collapse? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

While this war is far from over... well, it's far from over! And nobody expected that. In this episode we talk about why Ukraine is winning, what it could mean for Russia and the world if they do win, and how warfare is changing as we watch it unfold.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Erik explains why Russia is invading Ukraine, what their war aims are, what the West is doing, how geopolitics plays into all of this, and a little bit of what might happen next. Get a little sanity of clarity amidst the livestream chaos.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"Another cause which kept the plebeians in as state of poverty was the unjust distribution of the public land (ager publicus) which had been acquired in war..."William C. Morey, Outline of Roman HistoryThe Optimates:Represented the Elites in the run-up to, and the middle of, the Roman Civil WarsBelieve the mob wasn’t really fit to rule, wanted to rule for themAlso represented special interests who benefited personally from a lot of laws that led to unsustainable economic conditions -- such as the (not) Lex Agraria(Lex Agraria: redistribution due to the landlessness of soldiers during the Punic Wars)Who are the Optimates Today?We might think they’re just the rich, or megacorporations (or sometimes, lobbyists). Those are certainly Optimates, but we forget that those with Special Interests are everywhere.See the full show notes at ReConsider MediaSupport the show by becoming a PatronSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/reconsiderpodcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Antiwork had a really bad daySource Article“Laziness is a virtue in this society” - r/antiwork moderatorhttps://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220126-the-rise-of-the-anti-work-movement“Supporters of the anti-work movement believe people should self-organise and labour only as much as needed, rather than working longer hours to create excess capital or goods.”USA is a tough crowd for this kind of pitch. See: bad branding.What does Antiwork stand for?Many people tried to give Erik the answer… and many were different-Worker’s rights / labor unions-Economic inequality-Surplus Value-Same standard of living for fewer hours-4-day week-Abolishing capitalism-etcAntiwork freaks outhttps://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/se7b86/how_do_you_fuck_up_this_bad/https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/se59eu/can_be_overworked_to_exhaustion_if_you_sleep_on/ https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/se4gfp/based_af/ https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/se418m/i_didnt_think_this_sub_was_literally_antiwork/&

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Today we talk about something I've reconsidered lately: AntiworkLeave Erik a Tip to Support the ShowJoin the ReConsider PatreonErik’s initial take-labor organization and rights are a great thing-Not putting up with crappy work conditions, and forcing companies to compete, is a great thing (and this is my opinion as an employer)-saying “I want stuff - someone has to make it- and I don't want to work in exchange” seems crazy-”Ending work,” part of the motto, is very explicitly about not working, even though antiworkers will sometimes say they're not actually about that. At the very least it’s terrible marketing.What do they say the’re about?"A lot of people mistake antiwork for being lazy, and like nothing has to ever get done," one moderator of the subreddit, who goes by u/rockcellist, told Business Insider. "But the truth of the matter about antiwork — and everything surrounding it — is that obviously things have to get done, but the current structure in which things get done and the way that capital flo