Tsarist Armies. . .

(Tsarist Armies. . .)

The Russian Army was known as the Russian Steamroller. It could field some ten million men and it was believed that in any war with Germany, this host would rapidly sweep through East Prussia for a straight-line march towards Berlin. The reality of the Russian Army. especially when World War I hostilities erupted in 1914, was more nuanced. The Army, at its senor command echelons, did not function as a team. Fealty to His Majesty, Tsar Nicholas II. was the prime requirement for command and not any particular talent that could be displayed on a battlefield. In 1914, the Army was divided into camps and these cleavages centered around the Russian Minister of War. In a narrow sense. the Minister was a "reformer" but such reforms had the potential to limit the patronage of the Tsar. Baltic Germans had been made Generals because of their loyalty to St. Peterburg. What it amounted to was a group of Russian officers that were in support of the Minister and those, like the Baltic Germans who opposed him. In the first clash of arms at Tannenberg, where two Russian armies were deployed to East Prussia, the northern commander was one who opposed the War-Minister, while the commander in the southern army was pro-Miniter. As the latter force was largely annihilated in August 1914, the enmity between the two commanders could have played a role in why the northern army did not render more aid to its struggling neighbor to the south,



Like the two Russian commanders at Tannenberg, so are Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. Much like the Russian Army, arguably the two most important Republicans were not a team. Bickering over candidates and resources, Trump backed candidates fared poorly but Senator McConnell diverted resources. Trump supported Blake Masters was just declared having lost to incumbent Mark Kelly. That is on the heels of the Oz loss in Pennsylvania. As Adam Laxalt in Nevada, one more Trump guy seems to be fading. If Warnock prevails over Walker Georgia ?


The Democrat strategy of banking mail-in votes has worked again. They keep rolling the dice until they win, the same formula that propelled Joe Biden to the White House two years ago. No one need be fooled by the reticent pace of vote counting in the Grand Canyon or Silver States. Masters was subdued by this process. As for GOP gubernatorial hopeful, Kari Lake, one more with a Trump endorsement. her fate remains to be seen but it would not be surprising if she is also overtaken by Democrat Katie Hobbs.


Trump and McConnell, Caesar and Pompey. destroyed themselves because they both lost sight of the broader aim. Democrats proved that they have no loss of focus. The weakness of the GOP in its fracture was able to be capitalized on by the other Party. For the moment, Republicans have the House. The Trump-McConnell feud has cost them the Senate.

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