Frank's Musings

The Supreme Court.exists to enforce the rule of law, not to represent the range of views in America. Arguing that Ketanji Brown Jackson's appointment was overdue because she is representative of an important segment of he citizenry implies that the rule of law depends on who is able to interpret and administer it.. That is not the role of the Court. That is the President’s job.

Is government a precondition of life? No matter what, there will always a ruling authority. Entropy is not compatible with intelligent life. That is what has led us to postulate that there is a Supreme Being who is necessary to bring order to the universe and take it out of chaos.

Although that may only be a delusion, there surely is a microcosm in that universe where we thinking organisms live our brief lives. And that corner of space long ago became too crowded for allowing individuals to pursue their personal objectives in the absence of rules. Either those rules favor one or some of us, or they promote equal opportunity among us for the pursuit of happiness.

One of the Security Council’s permanent members. the USSR, was dissolved in 1991. Its position was assumed by a rump state, Russia. That state was not formally a signer of the UN Charter, which made five formal signers of the Charter permanent members of the Security Council and awarded each of them veto power.   A war of aggression by one nation-state against another is a legitimate issue for the SC to address.

Ukraine was a full new unfederated UN member created in the disappearance of the USSR.  Since one of President Putin’s justifications for Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine has been the supposedly historically inconsistent and illegal separation of Ukraine from his country, he may have thereby already acknowledged that he no longer governs a country that is the de facto successor to the USSR. That state, which participated in the creation of the UN, ceased to exist in 1991. Russia assumed its seat on the SC only through the ambivalence of the other four permanent SC members.

Now that Russia has acted in contravention of the principles of the UN Charter, the US, together with as many as possible of France, the UK and China. should seek the consent of the UN General Assembly for revisiting the question of succession to the USSR on the SC. Other reforms to the functions and responsibilities of the SC and its Permanent Members may also be considered. However, the important task of the community of nations must be to mobilize the world’s political and military resources and put a stop to Russia’s unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine.

If you believe in "The [eventual] End of History", even the forceful occupation of Donbas and Crimea will not last forever either.  At the conclusion of a patient wait, world order, at least in that region, has a chance to achieve a universal collaborative status.