They say history repeats itself. Properly forewarned, it doesn’t have to.

As Americans prepare to write a pivotal history for the ages this November—one way or another—it might be helpful to take a quick look at an earlier moment in time when a much divided, fractured world faced a pivotal challenge with one man at the barricade and the rest of the world too complacent to help.

Constantinople, the city that Constantine the Great founded in 330 AD and that the Theodosian walls later protected, stood as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for 1,000 years.

Although the rising Ottoman empire, by 1500, would stretch from the modern states of Algeria to Yemen to Hungary, in 1453, Constantinople was still Christian and a major thorn in the side of Muslim Sultan Mehmed II. He planned to fix that.

By late May, after besieging the city for two months and making no headway, Mehmed prepared to retreat. A small number of his advisors suggested giving the siege one last day before they withdrew. Mehmed agreed, and on May 29, the Ottomans threw everything they had at the city. Constantinople’s defenders repulsed the first three Ottoman assaults, and the Ottoman generals despaired at the prospect of defeat.

But then one of the great turning points in history happened.

It has been the most efficient offensive of the entire war. Ukrainian intelligence identified the Russians’ weak points. Special forces crossed the frontier in advance to prepare the ground. And when the attack on the Kursk oblast came on 6 August, it was a textbook example of what strategists call an all-arms maneuver.

This is the most significant Ukrainian victory in two years. Russian infrastructure is being degraded, bridges thrown down, gas installations hit. More airfields, refineries and supply depots are now within range. The gas plant in Sudzha has had its rail links cut. The nuclear power station in Kursk is at risk. Around 130,000 Russian civilians have been displaced.

What is Ukraine’s strategic goal? As is often the case, the offensive had a chief objective and several secondary ones. The principal aim was to alter the calculus within Russia, making the war less attractive and turning key figures against the man determined to prosecute it at any cost, Vladimir Putin. But before we come to that, let us consider what else Ukraine hoped to achieve.

[Strong language warning]

“Our society is now a strange hybrid of the Middle Ages, the Third Reich, and Brave New World. We have two classes — lords and peasants; we are in the midst of a very profitable genocide; and it’s all infused with surveillance technology, mind-altering drugs, and wall-to-wall propaganda.” — Dr. Toby Rogers

The alliance between Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Donald Trump is many things. But first it’s an all-clear signal to a large class of less-than-fully brain-damaged Americans that it’s okay to quit being insane.

As you know, this election is no longer a battle between the political Left and Right. It’s an epic struggle-session between the sane and the insane.

You just witnessed the Democratic Convention nominating an empty pantsuit whose only record as a high government official is failure to protect and defend the nation and to support its constitution.

All arranged without any real votes cast. Pretty neat trick, pulled off under the banner of Saving Our Democracy.

Please understand that it was the result of hypnotizing so many vulnerable personalities into a mass formation psychosis.

They were vulnerable because they are scared stiff by propaganda specifically targeting their deepest archetypal fears — in this case, fear of Daddy, meaning fear of behavioral boundaries, in short, of being civilized.

Every farmer, and most country people, know the insidious problem posed by rodents. The most common of these pesky rodents are, of course, mice and rats.

And, because their nature is to hide and invade by night, they create a need for more devious means of eradication than mere trapping. The solution is to feed them a poison they won’t fear eating, so others will also ingest it and die.

Blood thinners are, by far, the most commonly used for this purpose. They usually require multiple feedings and do their work over a period of several days, allowing others to be comfortable with the environment and taking the bait for themselves. It all works very well, but how?

Over a period of time, the blood is rendered unburdened by what it was meant to do. The platelets and other coagulants are similarly unburdened by their original purpose and the rodent dies without knowing why or what hit it.

To unburden someone or something of what “has been” is to unburden it from the lessons learned or the discoveries made that cumulatively create what we might call knowledge or wisdom. To “re-imagine” something is to reject it as it is, and find a replacement which may very well be inferior.

But the current group of people who make up the Biden-Harris administration find “what has been” America, a burden. They look at the United States as a blank canvas as one may roller-paint the Mona Lisa with ceiling white and start over.

The political philosophies of Engels, Marx, and Hegel are the rat poison of a country.

A long time ago, Charles Martel, uncrowned ruler of the Franks, led his Christian army to victory over the forces of Arab commander Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours (October 10, 732 C.E.).

The defeat of the Muslim invaders, especially dreaded for their heavy cavalry, marked a turning point in the long-standing war against the Umayyad Caliphate.

After crushing the Visigoths at the Battle of Guadalete (July 19, 711 C.E.), they had earned a reputation for being invincible as they expanded their dominion toward the north of the Iberian Peninsula, founding the province of al-Andalus.

At one point, it seemed inevitable that they would march on Paris. It is stated by historians, however, that the Frankish infantry finally succeeded in stemming the Islamization of Western Europe. At least for the time being.

It may very well be that present-day migrants, who traverse entire continents to reach the post-Christian, liberal, and affluent societies, landing on south-facing shores of Spain or crowding at border posts in the Balkans, are not armed and organized in ranks on arrival in the West.

However, they are far more numerous than the saber-wielding cavalrymen that ravaged Christendom in the past. They make a formidable invasion force.