Russia is now unleashing its massive military assault on Ukraine and shattering every international norm in the process. Putin himself has shocked the world with his authoritarian actions and rhetoric. We are watching the blind rage of megalomania played out on a world stage. The only voice that seems to resonate in this madness is that of Putin himself. There has, however, been one voice that seemed to embody the best of our international and law values. It is the voice of Kenyan U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani. While many of you have likely heard parts of his incredible address, I thought that this would be an important time to hear his remarks, which include criticism of all of the world powers.
Here are his remarks on the violent thrashing of “dead empires.”
Notably, Kimani has a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire (1996). He also a master’s degree (2003) and a PhD (2013) from King’s College and the University of London.
The camera does not lie, whether it is a liberal camera or a conservative camera. Have an open mind.
“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f—- things up”
– Barry O
U.S. Officials Repeatedly Urged China to Help Avert War in Ukraine
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/us/politics/us-china-russia-ukraine.html
Each time, the Chinese officials, including the foreign minister and the ambassador to the United States, rebuffed the Americans, saying they did not think an invasion was in the works. After one diplomatic exchange in December, U.S. officials got intelligence showing Beijing had shared the information with Moscow, telling the Russians that the United States was trying to sow discord — and that China would not try to impede Russian plans and actions, the officials said.
This 100%. Foreign policy is not Joe Biden’s special strength. F*cking it up is what Joe Biden does exceptionally well.
China was wrong. Russia did invade. And of course China takes Russia’s side here. Because China wants to invade Taiwan.
Whose side are *you* on: Russia’s or Ukraine’s?
Vladimir Putin is an old man scared of death trying to turn back time. Ukraine and Ukrainians are as his blood sacrifice. His invasion of their country is his attempt to forestall his personal, inevitable demise.
As we grow older, death becomes harder to ignore. As it approaches it’s natural to want to reverse time. We become nostalgic, a little bitter about the present. As death closes in we commit silly acts to prove we are still young. We try, a little comically, to thumb our nose against the inevitable. Dodge reality.
But a dictator with limitless power, who has been in power so many decades he thinks he can do anything, who has murdered and imprisoned anyone who told him the truth, that sort of dictator, thinks he can take on time itself.
Putin fears death—like any 69-year-old. His fear, however, is particularly acute. He makes (or so the consistent rumour goes) visiting officials submit faeces test to ensure they are disease free. Since COVID-19, officials have to isolate several days before they see him. Those who don’t, like the visiting French President Emmanuel Macron, are seated down the other end of an absurdly long table. Is Putin immune-compromised? Maybe. He’s clearly petrified and paranoid of death. His extreme botox treatments, which gives his skin the look of melting wax, are yet another desire to turn back the clock.
Unlike the rest of us, he can project his fears onto whole countries. In his embarrassing ramblings about Ukraine he never talks about the future—he wants to escape the future and what it brings. He “justifies” his invasion through the desire to return the past: take Ukraine back to the 19th century, to the Soviet Union, to his youth. He rambles menacingly about restoring the glories of the Russian Empire, picking apart Lenin’s creation of Soviet Republics, undoing the revolution against his satrap Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. One plausible rumour about Putin’s invasion plan is he wants to cancel all Ukrainian laws passed since the revolution of 2014. A wilder, but symbolic one is that he will try to put Yanukovych back in power: as if the last seven years never happened. As if he’s still 62.
To stave off death and replenish himself the aging tyrant needs a youthful blood sacrifice—Ukraine. Ukraine is, of course, an old idea: a dream carried by Ukrainians through the prison camps of the Russian Empire and in Soviet Gulags. But it’s most recent iteration of independence is also its longest: thirty years. Just a youth in nation-years.
When he met President Macron, Putin quoted a vile Russian rape joke where sleeping beauty is sexually abused. Conflating Ukraine and Sleeping Beauty, he put himself in the role of the rapist: “Whether you like it or not my beauty, you will need to put up with all I do to you.” The choice of fairy tale was telling. Sleeping Beauty never gets old, even as the castle around her overgrows with rust and ivy.
In his replies the 44-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quipped “Ukraine is indeed a beauty but she’s not yours.” Replying to Putin’s historical fantasies he replied that instead of history lessons Ukraine thinks about its present and its future. If the Kremlin is death, Ukraine is life. Putin likely plans to kill him. And to make Ukraine his youthful, violated, slave-bride.
How easy it would have been for Putin to create a flourishing Russia, with its vast oil wealth and human talent, to become a country that Ukraine would want to be close to! Instead, he created a country that stinks of fear, death, and murder that Ukraine has been trying to escape from. The Soviet writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn once found a metaphor for the Kremlin’s system in the title of one of his novels: Cancer Ward. It remains a potent metaphor. Cancers want to spread: to metastasize through Europe and beyond.
Putin’s diagnosis is terminal. Who will it kill? Ukraine is fighting to the death—and choosing life.
Drivel Award nominee, supra.
The invasion is 100% on Russia. The conditions that allowed it to happen are because the United States has a President who is weak and has systematically weakened and done all he can do to destroy this nation, weakened law enforcement, order, businesses and declared war on the fossil fuel industry which in turn strengthened Russia. China is happily building coal plants at record pace and Russia them coal and selling the USA and Europe oil. What the heck?
The elites have sold out for personal enrichment and the education system attacks our nation.
He, our weak and addled President, will go down in history as one of the three worst and likely the worst in U.S. history. Buchanan and Hoover are on the list but Biden is on the hunt to be the very worst. I lived through Carter and at least he is a moral and principled person.
This will impact every person even though many have no concept where the Ukraine is or could care less. This will further fuel inflation, destabilize the economy and hurt at the gas pump, at the grocery store and in every aspect of life. The elites thrive and to profit from war and crises.
Why do you believe the alt-right lies about Biden being “weak”, “addled” and the other insults and untruths about Biden? The worse POTUS so far has been the record-setter for impeachments: the one you worship who will remain un-named, the one who pays off porn actresses and nude models, the one who tried to leverage aid to Ukraine in exchange for lies about Biden, the one who mounted an insurrection because his bruised ego couldn’t accept the fact that the American voters rejected him. “Law enforcement”, other than on the federal level, is local, so Biden couldn’t have “weakened” it at all. If your local law enforcement is “weak”, blame your local politicians. Biden hasn’t “declared war on the fossil fuel industry” either: he has taken steps to make America fossil-fuel independent, which has to happen sooner or later. We are going to run out of oil, and if we aren’t ready with a strong system of alternative energy sources, we will be vulnerable. Bridge and road repairs have been put off too long. Biden passed bipartisan legislation to address these issues. All your hero accomplished legislatively was to pass a tax cut that mostly benefitted the ultra-wealthy. And, BTW, Republicans are proposing to raise taxes on the middle class and lower income Americans, if they seize power by gerrymandering and lying in the midterms, which is the only way they can win.
Our economic woes are directly the fault of the one you worship. His botched handling of the pandemic resulted in factories slowing down or stopping production, his trade war with China slowed imports of things like computer chips that we need for everything from cars to computers and home appliances, restaurants and schools had to close down, and 130,000 deaths are directly attributed to his incompetence and lying about the seriousness of COVID. We have inflation because the supply chain hasn’t caught up with the uptick in employment. Unemployment was above 10% when your hero was forced to leave the White House. Yes, we have inflation, which always follows a recession. The Trump Recession was the worst since the Great Depression, and inflation was made worse by supply-chain problems due to the pandemic, and that’s why we have inflation. The economy overall is doing well, but your alt-right media keep painting a dismal picture that does not reflect the truth.
Biden will be impeached. For REAL high crimes, unlike the bull they pulled on Trump. Biden is a dangerous disaster for the country and the world. The British Parliament held him in contempt after his “dishonorable” withdrawal from Afghanistan where he never even let our allies know what the US was doing! The French recalled their ambassador after another Biden slight. On and on the list goes. The damage Biden is doing both at home and abroad is catastrophic. Anyone with eyes and ears knows this is so. Biden will be impeached.
The President of the United States is unable to take questions from reporters. He requires a list of pre-approved questions from the press that are approved by his handlers. They give him a sheet with the reporter’s name and question. He reads the answer. Am I missing anything?
He is diminished and it is abundantly clear by nothing more than simple observation. Reporters stand by and watch, perhaps throw him a softball occasionally. They seem to have their orders to back off.
He and his family and other elites, republican and democrat, tech elites, captains of industry former WH staff, military and many others of influence sell their contacts and special knowledge for personal gain to other nations, especially the CCP through consultancies and sweet backwater deals. Not for the good of this nation but for self gain.
Who wouldn’t want to eliminate fossil fuel? But China and India continue to build coal plants at a fast pace. China now possesses more than 80% of the market share of the clean energy industry. Russia possesses a lot of fossil fuel.
CCP gains come from predatory tactics, corporate espionage and leveraging slave labor and virtual slave labor. What other reason would the Apple manufacturing plant put nets by the stairways and windows? To prevent workers who put in a 75 hour week for 450 dollars in wages from jumping to their death to satisfy the consumer in the west. At least they are paid. The Uyghurs are not so lucky.
Is that ethical sourcing?
Corporations made huge concessions trying to gain access to China’s markets. To do that, they promised to ship many of our jobs to China. Why would they care, they were lavishly rewarded. Now the supply chain is dependent on a country who seeks to diminish us.
Shut down the pipeline (there are many) to Canada. Stop all federal leases, force banking to stop financing fossil industries. It’s a good start for destabilizing the industry. Fuel costs more therefore all production is more costly. Simple arithmetic. No need for any newscaster on either side to comment.
The über rich don’t even notice. What is a few more bucks per gallon? A few more dollars a pound for a steak? Meanwhile the bloodthirsty whose profession is war sees this weakness. Appeasement in any form will lead to further aggression. Those who supply the war industry could not be happier.
Who would defend these immoral elites? Those who flagrantly push aside us mere mortals and look down their upturned noses at the common citizen in disdain.
Just curious. Do you think Hilary would like to push the reset button again with mr. Lavrov?
Diversity and inclusion experts speculate the firepower in just one trans admiral is capable of leveling 3 Russian cities to the ground using the incredible destructive power of intersectional identity politics. Foreign policy experts believe Russia is outmatched by America’s stunning diversity and inclusion capabilities and will soon be forced to surrender.
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-warns-russia-that-if-they-dont-stop-he-will-deploy-deadly-trans-admiral
Putin should be arrested and put through a Nuremburg trial of sorts.
“Putin should be arrested and put through a Nuremburg trial of sorts.”
******************************
For what? Doing exactly as he warned he would do unless we and the Ukranians gave assurances they would not apply nor would we accept their becoming a member of NATO. Putin may be a bloody realist but he’s one in service to his own interests. We’re a bunch of middle school girls wringing our hands and calling names when Russia is doing exactly what any power would do if a potential enemy set up camp on their vulnerable souther border. Any American President — save ol’ Corn Pop here – would go all Putin on Mexico if it joined in an alliance with Russia for military portection. Grow and realize the world is a scary place for us as well as are potential enemies and if the big dog growls the little ones ought to pay heed.
The breathlessly ignorant pro-Putin garbage you believe from your alt-right sources (based, of course, on your hero’s praise of Putin and that of Pompeo, shown repeatedly as propaganda on Russian television) skews the truth of one critical detail: NATO does NOT invade other countries. Putin’s perception of NATO as a “potential enemy” is based on the fact that NATO would stop Russia from invading other European countries to the West. NATO is a shield against Russia, and it would never aggressively invade Russia. If NATO’s Article V requirement for allies to protect member countries against aggressive invasion makes NATO an enemy of Russia, that’s a good thing for the rest of the world. It’s calculated to prevent WW III. I truly can’t believe that Trump disciples like you actually defend Putin.
Natty:
Sorry to jar you from your Pollyanish bubble but geopolitics and strategic military maneuvers aren’t your strong suits. Hating Trump is, so we’ll defer to you on that.
NATO hasn’t accepted Ukraine, and several NATO members already border Russia. Your argument makes no sense. You are excusing the invasion of a peaceful country.
Your argument is silly. Putin made his intentions clear whether you agree or not. Oh and no other NATO country bordering Russia threatens its warm water ports.
I suggest that your read Covert Action’s report about this struggle. Nazis types were encouraged in Ukraine after the US toppled
the Ukrainian election, and since that time the AZOV group as I believe they are called have been bombarding Eastern Ukraine which has wanted independence since that time. Many people in Donbass and Lughanz have been killed by the Ukrainian bombing
and apparently they recently asked Russia to help them. War is certainly not the answer, but simply laying blame doesn’t help.
CNN and MSNBC seem to have better in-depth coverage of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine than Foxnews.
They are propaganda super spreaders of misinfo, disinfo, and false narratives. Period. There should be zero viewer trust in anything coming from CNN or MSNBC. Zero.
VATICAN CITY, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Pope Francis went to the Russian embassy to the Holy See on Friday to relay his concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Moscow’s ambassador, in an unprecedented departure from diplomatic protocol.
Good.
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_globalbanking310.htm
Pope Francis is an antipope.
I think I’m turning into a Democrat. I have been a staunch Republican and Fox viewer, but lately I have been watching Rachel Maddow and Stephen Colbert. Their positions on Ukraine are more in line with mine. Their content about Ukraine is actually quite substantial, in depth, and serious. As a Trump supporter, I have despised these people, but now I am warming up to them. I have flip-flopped: Tucker Carlson is the one that I despise now.
Your hour is up. See you next week when we can continue this discussion.
Next patient, please.
Rachel is a Rhodes scholar. She does her homework, too. Her staff and the research they do is amazing.
Rachel is a propaganda super spreader of misinformation, disinformation and lies.
Rachel knowingly LIED to her viewers for years about Russia Russia Russia. This has been proved. Alex Jones’s information is more reliable, credible and trustworthy than anything coming from Maddow’s info-tainment show. She blew her credibility a long time ago. Pity the brainwashed useful idiots who still give her any credence whatsoever.
Garbage in. Garbage out.
“I think I’m turning into a Democrat.”
You’re going in the wrong direction, buddy.
The propaganda brainwashing is strong in you.
“…as a U.S. Army Vet., Russia doesn’t scare me and never did. It’s Capital looks like an ice cream shop crashed into Disney World.”
Quote taken from youtube. I thought it was funny.
So a Russian dictator who is acting like a Nazi is liberating Ukraine from imaginary Nazis? Putin is a mad man. He needs to be toppled. Surely, there is someone in Russia with a rifle who can do the job of assassinating him.
Why is Trump lauding Putin’s choice to invade Ukraine and start a war? Why is Trump repeating Putin’s lies about being a peacekeeper?
“I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine -, of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So Putin is now saying it’s independent, a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ … Here’s a guy that says, you know, ‘I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent’ — he used the word ‘independent’ — ‘and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.’ You gotta say that’s pretty savvy.”
Putin’s acts are not savvy. They are evil. Trump carries Putin’s water.
Putin’s acts are not savvy. They are evil.
Hey idiot, savvy can be used for good and evil. The strategic-thinking warrior assesses the strengths and weaknesses of his enemy. If he thinks only tactically and doesn’t appreciate his enemy’s strengths, his arrogance will result in defeat.
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. Sun Tsu
Hey idiot, I don’t agree that Putin’s invasion is savvy.
And even if I did, there is a difference between privately assessing whether an evil act is savvy and publicly lauding it. Trump is carrying Putin’s water, and he should be condemned for it.
“Trump is carrying Putin’s water, and he should be condemned for it.”
The dilettanti of the left have yet to see that Trump has left the scene and Biden is now President. Have we had enough of these under-achievers that only know how to destroy but cannot build?
Will Putin gobble up Ukraine or create a neutral Ukraine whose NATO desires are squelched? Biden provided Putin with a weakened, demoralized America and lots of money to partially fulfill Putin’s dreams of reestablishing Russia’s control over this part of eastern Europe. Biden has opened the gates for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The left has gotten what they wanted, an imbecile in the White House along with a significantly weakened America.
The dilettanti of the left have yet to see that Trump has left the scene and Biden is now President.
These demoralized, useful idiots carry the water for the Marxist’s destroying this country. Everything, and I mean absolutely everything they think they know is only what they’ve been told to know. And it all begins and ends with the enemy of their Marxist agenda: Conservatives. And to them, the face of Conservatives is Donald Trump. So pick any event happening anywhere, foreign or domestic, that actually reflects negatively on this administration and/or Democrats in general and like clockwork, these idiots will attempt to blame it on Conservatives in general, and specifically Donald Trump.
Will Putin gobble up Ukraine or create a neutral Ukraine whose NATO desires are squelched?
BidenPutin will do what all Communists do: divide, conquer, expand. Fidel Castro was not satisfied with a coup in Cuba. He expanded to Angola, Nicaragua, Venezuela, the Caribbean, even as Cuba collapsed economically just like Russia is collapsing under Putin.Biden is not remorseful with his gift to Putin vis a vis Ukraine debacle. Biden, just like in his failed Afghanistan Charlie foxtrot, is now changing the subject as usual, and lobbing yet another divide and conquer strategy, typical of leftist guerrilleros, with his recent SCOTUS nomination
The disordered thinking of people like you is literally stunning. Trump hasn’t “left the scene”–he was forced out of the White House, but never conceded, and his fat axx is on alt-right media in some form or another every single day, spewing lies, attacking Biden, praising Putin, generally proving the endless depth of his malignant narcissism and breathtaking ignorance of world affairs and lack of patriotism. Ukrainians want to be part of NATO. Putin doesn’t want that because NATO would stop him from taking over those countries that became independent when the Soviet Union was dissolved.
Ukrainians do NOT want to be part of Russia, and there are massive demonstrations in major Russian cities against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, so Russian citizens don’t want it, either. Putin is a megalomaniac who is threatened by NATO because it is a shield against his aggression. If he steps one toe into Poland, which is part of NATO, the US will get involved. We may literally be on the brink of WW III. Civilians and soldiers of both armies have died, and people like you only criticize Biden. What the hell is wrong with you?
America is neither weakened nor demoralized, no matter how many times this lie is told on your alt-right media. It is not only a lie, but it is anti-American and un-patriotic to say these things. Biden had nothing to do with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Just this morning, I saw an interview with an expert on Russia, who said that Putin has been quietly stashing away large sums of money as a hedge against the sanctions that he knew would be coming when he invaded Ukraine. It has taken him a few years to do this because if he had done it all at once, his intent to invade Ukraine would have been apparent even while the one you worship was in office. If anyone is weakening or demoralizing America, it’s Trump and Pompeo, whose praise of Putin is being broadcast on Russian television. Blind Trump disciples like you are part of the problem, too.
You work for Act Blue don’t you?
“Trump hasn’t “left the scene”–he was forced out of the White House, but never conceded,”
Natacha, I assume that the rest of your post contains the same ignorance, so I will not bother to read it. Trump is no longer President. Even though the election was lawless and your mind fails to comprehend, there was a peaceful transition.
When Biden came in, he made a mess out of Afghanistan and imported terrorists into this country that we will have to deal with in the future. Biden supported terrorists in the Middle East, which led to war. His policies incentivized Russian aggression into Ukraine. Much of that Russian war effort is financed by Biden so that the American people can pay for Russian aggression. Biden policies will likely create a war over Taiwan and might lead to a world war in the future.
Your brain is permanently stuck in a loop blaming Trump when he prevented war and kept peace in the world for four years. We hear your words that make no sense, so we can tell that you strongly support Biden’s policies that are injurious to the world and Americans.
You can keep talking and repeating yourself while not making sense, We all recognize your type of crazy rhetoric and are used to it.
“The disordered thinking of people like you is literally stunning.”
Natacha, I don’t read through long word salads that can’t stay focused so I will deal with your first statement.
Let us take Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I don’t think any of us on the blog want to see Russian aggression. You can correct me if you do. Russia not long ago had a lot of economic problems. Biden’s decisions regarding oil have boosted Russian revenues from oil (its cash cow), and those profits are used to fund their attack on Ukraine. Russia’s economic problems might have held them back without that flow of money.
Biden demonstrated weakness and an inability to manage problems that quickly develop. That weakness provides the opportunity for Russian aggression.
The history of Russian aggression in Ukraine existed when Biden was VP.
We have the history of Biden’s management of Ukraine in the past, Biden’s weakness and an influx of money to Russia. Those are pretty strong incentives for a nation desiring to take back parts of eastern Europe for over 15 years now while Biden is President.
Though there is more, what do you have to say about these three things? Skip the verbiage and deal with what is in front of your eyes.
You work for Act Blue don’t you?
No. Trying to make Ukraine and Georgia part of NATO is evil(and dumb) and is what brought us here. Our failure to negotiate and recognize Russia’s security needs is our fault. Stop falling for the propaganda we get from our media. Meanwhile we are still occupying half of Syria…so please tell me who is evil again?
Perhaps the Kremlin is paying you to post here.
Are you on Russia’s side in the Syrian war too?
I voted exclusively for the Dems from 1986 – 2008…then I learned that both parties are owned by the corporations. Our occupation of half of Syria is absurd and illegal…something you are clearly in favor of. Stop being a puppet(useful idiot) of the corrupt and failing establishment.
Written like a true authoritarian. Rather than discuss and argue rationally and logically, you default to the despicable tactic of trying to cast slurs and slander the opposition voices. You are as evil as anyone in this conflict. This is the true evil. You are why democracy withers and dies. Such a low intellect that accepts our own government’s agitprop unquestioningly.
You are *exactly* what you accuse me of. If you want to discuss then please engage…or rage on.
1. Our occupation of half of Syria is blatantly illegal.
2. Both NATO and the Ukrainian government have openly talked about Ukraine joining NATO for more than a decade. Can you not see how provocative and unreasonable that is from Russia’s perspective? To have a hostile military alliance move onto your doorstep? Russia demanded that NATO put in writing that Ukraine will never be part of NATO and we refused…that’s why we are here.
There are already several NATO countries that share a border with Russia. We are here because Russia is ruled by a sick dictator. Are you going to side with that sick dictator?
“recognize Russia’s security needs”? “Security needs”? NATO does NOT invade other countries. NATO is not, and could never be, a threat to Russia because it exists solely to serve as a shield to protect member nations against exactly what is happening in Ukraine. Ukraine wants to be part of NATO, but Putin wants to prevent this. Putin invaded Ukraine in order to kill its President and install a puppet government he controls. Putin is a megalomaniac who is threatened by democracy. He is a pathological liar, too. The Ukrainian President is Jewish. Members of his family perished in the Holocaust. These are facts. Putin has called him a neo-Nazi. What an ironic lie.
“recognize Russia’s security needs”? “Security needs”? NATO does NOT invade other countries. NATO is not, and could never be, a threat to Russia because it exists solely to serve as a shield to protect member nations against exactly what is happening in Ukraine.”
Natacha, I don’t want to be served another word salad, but I wish to remind you that Russia has been invaded many times. In the past, Germany, a NATO member, invaded Russia. Poland, another NATO member, did so as well in earlier years. We should not forget France under Napoleon and many other invasions, whether the Ottomans, Japanese or someone else. Russia has a history of invasions. I didn’t mention Britain, did I? Britain drew up war plans to invade Russia in 1945 but did nothing because it felt it might not prevail without US involvement. Of course, you think it Unthinkable that anyone would attempt to invade Russia. Come to think of it, the British invasion plans were called Operation Unthinkable.
Putin says he wants to de nazify Ukraine. So the president of Ukraine, who is Jewish, is also a nazi. I think mr. Putin’s lens is a little out of focus.
Azov Battalion, Red Sector, Stepan Bandera(Banderites), Babi Yar…you have no understanding of the situation in Ukraine.
I listened to Biden’s emphatically comments about Russia as he announced sanctions. Though I have sympathy for the people of Ukraine, I can’t help but wonder if Biden “owes” Ukraine for all the money they showered on Hunter Biden. Is Joe Biden defending Ukraine as payback for the huge monetary gifts by Ukraine to his son Hunter? The people of the USA shouldn’t have to sacrifice and pay for weapons or services going to the Ukraine until Hunter Biden pays back his I’ll gotten gains.
All will be exposed during Joe Biden’s impeachment trial.
I can’t help but wonder if you understand the difference between Ukraine (a country) and Burisma (a company), and if you understand Congressional approval.
Russia is authoritarian because much of its most valuable real estate lies in the Caucuses, which is covered up with separatism (Chechnya is but one example). Oil and gas are Russia’s chief exports, and the Caucuses has the lion’s share. The Ukraine produces enough wheat to feed all of Russia. Both a blessing and a curse. It was always unlikely that Russia could make it to any kind of substantive democracy, given the resentment of centuries.
When I was a boy, my father told me that the Russians were and are a very philosophical people. I was too young to understand that statement completely, but I didn’t need a lot of convincing. My favorite novelists will always be the great Russians: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Gogol, and my personal hero, Nabokov. Passion and reflection in a single, seamless thought. My father nailed it. The Russians are philosophical in the face of everything they’ve endured.
I write these pointless remarks because I simply have no answers for the Russian people. Only my admiration and pity, the paradox that is the subtext of all Russian history.
Mr. Putin is pursuing a hopeless irredentism. Territory can’t save Russia because the Russians themselves are being ghosted by poverty, corruption, and war–all the result of authoritarianism. Russian men murder ten years off their life spans with cheap vodka. No one wonders why.
Geography is not always destiny, but in the case of poor Russia, it is ineluctable.
Correction, most of Russia’s oil comes from Siberia, not the Caucuses. Oops.
Knock it off, Vlad. You don’t have any excuses left.
It’s English.
Even the score by nuking the Kremlin.
No, idiot, we do not want a nuclear war.
Mr. Benson exclaims:
Mr. Benson exclaims:
What a mishmash of inane comments!”
Someone ought to read to Turley a handful of the comments from these Trumpists so that one might ask him:
Don’t you feel a moral responsibility to inoculate the bad speech on your forum with good speech of your own? If the vast majority misinterpret your statements, what have you accomplished? As a teacher, you shouldn’t you correct your followers from exaggerating your opinions to justify their pig-headed views?
What statements from Turley have been misinterpreted? How do you know you’ve interpreted him correctly?
Do you think Turley would agree with the Trumpist lie that Trump has been and continues to be persecuted by a sinister *Deep State”? Despite the fact that Turley has never even intimated that inane conspiracy theory, so many Trumpists here conclude that is the implication of Turley’s criticism of the legal analysis of some of the criminal charges contemplated against Trump.
Please translate that word salad for me so that you directly answer my question.
I think Jeff put too much Russian dressing on his word salad.
I do.
I now pronounce you a lying Trumpist if you think Turley believes in the “Deep State.”
I now pronounce you dillusional.
He likes dill pickles?
As Winston Churchill once said: “An appeaser is someone who feeds the crocodile hoping that he will be eaten last”.
After continually and persistently feeding the crocodile, why should it surprise anyone that the hand was bitten off? Sure, you can blame the crocodile, but you also need to blame yourself for putting yourself in that situation.
The strategic blunders that were committed in the Ukraine debacle were extremely grave unforced errors of judgment that enabled the situation and cleared the path for the invasion.
1) Telling Putin that the military option is off the table.
There is no strategic advantage whatsoever in letting Putin know this critically vital piece of information. Even if the US had made this decision internally, removing all doubt (in more ways than one) only acts as a probability accelerant. This is somewhat akin to two poker players playing for a large pot when one player suddenly reveals his entire hand and says I, um, check the bet….and furthermore, I suggest you do the same!
What happened next should surprise exactly no one (outside of this administration) — Putin went all in. And I do mean all in. Putin escalated and made the pivot to comparing the Ukraine situation to the US-Cuba missile crisis which was, notably, a nuclear standoff. Nuclear. Up the ante, anyone? That was followed by the threat of nuclear missiles in Belarus and even in Venezuela. Then, the demand that sweeping concessions that would need to be made by NATO (notice the pivot from a Ukraine centric issue to NATO). Putin correctly assessed that what Biden feared most of all was that a military confrontation could escalate into a nuclear conflagration. The objective of all this was to give Russia a chance to win big diplomatically without having to put boots on the ground.
If that gambit failed, Putin still would have the strategic optionality of taking Ukraine at a time of his choosing.
2) Revealing that a “minor incursion” might only be met by a minor slate of sanctions.
Let’s see…so, if you do like maybe just like a small or smallish-like invasion, you know, something on the smallish side, maybe this thing can work for both of us…you know, like you get some of what you want and I get what I need–something that I can spin politically in my favor. Ah, hark, I hear the dulcet sounds of American diplomacy in action.
At this point and pivoting back to reality, we’re talking about that rarified space of complete and absolute air between someone’s ears.
To borrow from Tolkien, as a wise old wizard named Gandalf once said….in fact, it’s better if you don’t speak at all, Joe Biden.
3) After all of the above, Biden reveals that “other options” are still on the table.
Do you like waffles? I know I do, especially for breakfast with warm maple syrup.
However, waffling when it comes to the negotiating table is the surest sign to the other side that they have you where they want you. Game over and, when it comes to Putin, that particular dish is likely served cold and most certainly does not come with warm maple syrup.
When Biden tried to indirectly allude to the fact that maybe military options might still be on the table–only to be immediately rebuked by our allies who assured that no military options were in play– if even the minutest doubt existed in Putin’s mind as to who and what he’s dealing with, they were completely and irrevocably removed permanently and for all time.
Beyond farcical.
Now that Russia has invaded Ukraine beyond all political spin and word smithing, we know that the sanctions will not include SWIFT nor personal sanctions against Putin nor other key measures. These are the widely threatened devastating sanctions. Underwhelming anyone?
There are, of course, reasons for this–in our idealogically-driven push to be green, Europe and now the US are increasingly politically, economically and strategically dependent on Russia and China in particular for energy and rare materials among other key resources. It’s very hard to impose your will when you have diminishing and conflicted leverage.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. Given the Iran, Afghanistan and now the Ukraine debacles, we should fully expect that North Korea, the South Chine Seas and Taiwan will start to come into play as China will want to apply pressure on this administration after Ukraine. Lastly, we should not expect Putin to be done–after all, voracious appetites demand to be fed provided one has the hands left to feed them.
I don’t want to put too fine a point on the glaringly obvious but what we are witnessing is, quite simply, the most unspeakable kakistocracy in the history of civilization.
However, there’s no need to worry as apparently Joe has become quite good at fiddling.
Because you are a disciple and your alt-right sources don’t tell you this, the reason Biden hasn’t taken the ultimate step of encumbering all of Putin’s personal assets is that this would put Putin in a position to have nothing left to lose–this would incentivize him to push past Ukraine and into NATO countries, leading inevitably to WW III. Contrary to what your alt-right sources say, Biden does not control the SWIFT banking system that is managed by a consensus of all member countries of which US is only one member. There is not consensus at this time to kick Russia out because if they did, the system that Russia has that is similar to SWIFT would become more powerful, only the US isn’t part of that, so we couldn’t monitor the transactions that are going on. Biden has encumbered Russia’s finances and those of the oligarchs Putin controls. That will hurt them financially, but the full effect will take time. Putin has stashed away money as a hedge to the sanctions he knew were coming.
The US cannot directly send troops to Ukraine to defend it because Ukraine is not a member of NATO. Putin knows what Article V of the NATO Charter says as well as we do. Putin was always going to invade Ukraine, and who do you think you are to speak for what a megalomaniac thinks or imply that what he did is the product of anything other than his delusions of power and his massive ego? Even the Russian people don’t support Putin or his invasion of Ukraine. Putin has been preparing to invade Ukraine for years by putting aside large sums of money as a hedge against the sanctions he knew were coming.
The “Afghanistan debacle” is the fault of your hero who drew down our troop strength from 14,000 to 2,500 and released 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The master dealmaker didn’t negotiate for any air base or continuing presence in Afghanistan, either. Biden was stuck with the deal Trump made that didn’t include the Afghanistan government, who just laid down their arms and surrendered. All of this is Trump’s fault. Your glib blame-shifting to Biden is just part of the lies you’ve been fed from alt-right media that constantly stokes hatred of Biden, accuses him of weakness and senility, blames him for everything, and refuses to acknowledge his accomplishments.
Now, you’re repeating more of the anti-Biden projections of other countries’ plans you were fed on alt-right media. That’s what’s most shocking about all of this: the depth of delusion of you adherents to alt-right media. Putin is solely responsible for invading Ukraine. What we are witnessing now is the incredible delusionary beliefs of disciples of alt-right media and mindless devotion to a malignant narcissist hungry for power. It’s people like you that make America weak and vulnerable. What are you pushing for, anyway? All out nuclear war? Baseless threats of nuclear war? Or, are you just using a crisis as a cudgel to attack our President because the election cheater you support couldn’t cheat or bully his way back into power? Should Biden start biting his lip, pumping his fist and start lying and making baseless threats as proof of his manliness, or just continue to rationally rally our allies in a coordinated effort to deal with Russia?
“Biden hasn’t taken the ultimate step of . . .”
An ultimate step would be a total ban on Russian oil and gas. Wake me when Biden does that. Until then, his actions are mere finger-wagging.
Biden said he would do “everything in his power” to lower gas prices for Americans here at home. Like what? What is Biden doing? What is the “EVERYTHING he CAN do” that he is actually “doing”….right now…. to lower gas prices for Americans?
The answer is: nothing.
Putin waited to make his move when America was at its weakest, right now, with Biden in the White House. Putin watched Biden’s Afghanistan debacle. The world watched. Biden is weak, compromised and dangerously stupid. Putin tried nothing during Trump’s presidency. Trump told Putin that he would bomb the hell out of Moscow if he even tried to go into Ukraine. Putin knew Trump meant what he said, unlike the feckless and weak Biden who doesn’t mean a word he says.
Bad mouth empires all you want but at least acknowledge that they engender the opposite of the chaos we’re seeing now. There’s a reason the Roman Empire gave birth to Pax Romana.