Below is my column in the Hill on a proposal for legislation to address allies supporting Russia through gas contracts. Congress can constitutionally freeze aid to countries undermining sanctions by buying cut-rate gas from the Putin regime. In the meantime, India’s major gas contract pumping money into the Russian economy will not be treated by the Biden Administration as a sanctions violation. Congress can force a bright line on foreign aid that aligns with our public and moral positions on Ukraine. Under its Article I powers, Congress can condition such foreign aid and, if necessary, override a veto from President Joe Biden.
Here is the column:
As Russian forces lay waste to Ukraine in an unprovoked war, U.S. senators acted this week to “send an unmistakable message that the U.S. Senate stands with Ukraine, stands against Putin.” The message was a resolution supporting an investigation into war crimes in the conflict.
In reality, there are legal barriers to holding Russia’s Vladimir Putin responsible for war crimes, even though the evidence of such crimes mounts by the day. The fact is, international economics rather than international law is more likely to force an end to Putin’s regime. Yet that effort is being undermined by our own allies, who continue to give billions in life support to Putin’s otherwise comatose economy. (In fairness to countries like Germany, the Biden administration also initially resisted severing Russian gas, even though America buys a far lower percentage of its energy from Russia.)
Unfortunately, Congress is spending time on dubious “economic” measures that are politically popular but likely legally ineffectual. Take the bill “Yachts for Ukraine,” which combines a brilliantly sound-bited title with a universal revulsion for yacht-owning oligarchs. In reality, it is far easier to seize a yacht than to keep it; most of these oligarchs are likely to recover their yachts, and might even successfully sue the United States for damages and costs.
What sustains Putin is oil, not oligarchs. Yet, from the outset, President Biden emphasized that “The goal was to maximize impact on Putin and Russia and minimize the harm on us and our allies and friends around the world.”
Well, it is time to choose. You cannot “stand with Ukraine” while funding Russia.
Some countries are openly opportunistic. Russia on the ropes means gas on the cheap. When Russia unleashed hell on Ukraine, the first in line in Moscow was Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who openly sought “a major gas pipeline deal.” India was not far behind in inking a deal for cut-rate Russian gas.
The Biden administration warned China that it would take action should Beijing help Russia evade Western sanctions, but it has struggled to avoid criticizing India, even when India abstained from the vote by 141 nations in the United Nations to denounce Russia for its invasion.
A State Department cable recently warned diplomats that India and the United Arab Emirates were “in Russia’s camp” regarding Ukraine. (When the cable was leaked, it was promptly recalled by the Biden administration.)
India has entirely decoupled its diplomacy from morality — and from the teachings of Gandhi, who once warned that “Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as it is to cooperate with the good.”
In response, Congress should draw a clear line for both the Biden administration and our allies.
We have an inherently conflicted foreign policy: First, we ask U.S. citizens to bear the costs of cutting off Russian aid and of sending billions to Ukraine to fight Russia, and then we send billions to foreign countries that are giving money to Russia through gas deals. It is like draining a pool on one end while pumping the water back in at the other end.
The solution? Congress should pass a law that freezes foreign aid to countries purchasing Russian energy products in circumvention of sanctions. That money could then be redirected to Ukraine or returned to U.S. taxpayers in the form of gas-price relief.
In 2019, U.S. foreign assistance totaled an estimated $48.18 billion, or 1 percent of the federal budget authority. The objectives of foreign aid have been reduced to five basic categories: “Peace and Security, Investing in People, Governing Justly and Democratically, Economic Growth, and Humanitarian Assistance.” Helping Russia to evade sanctions is antithetical to all five of these goals, as well as U.S. interests and foreign policy.
In 2019, Congress opposed an effort by the Trump administration to freeze foreign aid. Congress itself, however, can condition these funds. It is entirely reasonable to condition aid on the respect of U.S. sanctions on Russia. Indeed, every aid dollar given to Pakistan, India or other countries effectively allows those countries to spend another dollar in subsidizing Russia.
In the recent U.N. vote, the world stood largely united against Russia’s invasion. Only five nations voted against the measure, including the United Arab Emirates. Thirty-five countries could not muster the moral courage to even condemn the invasion, including India, Pakistan, South Africa and other major U.S. aid recipients. The list included 16 African nations.
The inclusion of South Africa was particularly striking, since many countries and companies supported the Sullivan Principles and the boycotting of South Africa under apartheid. It is a country reborn in the cause of freedom from tyranny. Nelson Mandela famously declared that “to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” It is now criticizing the West for its actions on Ukraine while refusing to condemn Russia.
Congress cannot legislate morality in its own citizens, let alone those of other countries. It can, however, use our foreign aid to hold the line against tyranny. It is not possible “to maximize impact on Putin and Russia and minimize the harm on us and our allies and friends around the world.” We have to choose a side, as do our allies. They can choose petrol over principles if they wish — but they should do so without the aid of American taxpayers.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. Follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
The elite(including Turley) are far removed from the consequences of their proposed actions. That is why they do not seem to care about the fact that the bottom 90% of our population are drowning in inflation. Cutting the US off from Russia, China, India, Brazil, et al will crush our economy yet they persist. They are reaping a whirlwind that will devastate everyone in the end.
World War II strarted in 1937 in China. It began in Europe within a few days of Hitler’s attack on Poland because Britain and France declared war on Germany, even though they did not come to Poland’s aid. Germany’s ally, Italy, did not enter the war until June 1940. The USSR also attacked Poland in 1939, but then remained neutral until June 1941 when Germany attacked it. The United States entered in December 1941, after Japan attacked its military and naval bases in the Pacific, but by 1938 it was already using Claire Chennault’s “volunteers” to fight the Japanese in China and planning to use B-17s to fire-bomb Japan once they were available. A link to a review by Martin Scherwin of Michael Schaller’s The US Crusade in China, 1938-1945.
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/01/14/archives/some-chinese-puzzles-china.html
Regime change is a polite term for subversion and the antithesis of democracy and representative government because it depends on the violent overthrow of an existing government by an armed minority, without consulting the people of the state being targeted. The results of regime change tend to be dramatic, but they are not predictable, as Libya, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan have shown.
Dear (Fill in country) please stop buying gas from Russia. No, I don’t know where you SHOULD get gas, but, just STOP, okay??
Thanks a lot, your pal for life,
JB
p.s. if you don’t stop…kiss all that free stuff goodbye. Jes sayin
anon @ 8:40
Uh, it was Russia that broke the Nazis in WW2, but never mind.
If by “stop it” you mean blowing up the world in a nuclear war with Russia, then you are right. You happy now moron?
anon @ 7:34
If you are the same moron as at 5:47 you have confirmed your idiocy. If not, you guys should form a club.
“why would it start World War 3 if the United States were to shoot down Russian fighter jets?” That is known as an “act of war”. Between Russia and the US, that is an act of war between the two nations on earth with by far the most nuclear weapons. That is something that we so far have managed to avoid with first the Soviets and currently the Russians. Some of us think that is a good thing.
“Stop being such a fraidy cat of Russia.” It has nothing to do with being a ‘fraidy cat’. It has everything to do with not wanting to start WW3, and certainly not start it by stumbling into it over someplace like the Ukraine where we have no, none, zip, nada strategic interest.
We have escaped WW3 so far through a combination of the strategy of “Mutually Assured Destruction” and buckets of good luck. It seems likely that “Mutually Assured Destruction” with about 13 syllables in 3 words is profoundly beyond your reading comprehension. You would be grateful, if you had even a little sense, that many of the leaders and military of both the US and Russia clearly understand it. The ones who do not are morons like you and fortunately are not in a position to blow up the world, yet.
Congress needs to confront the crisis created by the progressive left’s disastrous climate stranglehold. Pull out all the stops to reverse the Biden Administration’s war on American energy production. Return America to energy independence. Now. Before more working-class Americans are impoverished by a catastrophic rise in energy prices that is a direct result of progressive climate alarmism And before even more Ukrainians lose their lives in a war funded by those same rising energy prices.
“Climate Change is among the leading causes of rising global hunger according to a new report… Pointing to extreme weather events, land degradation and desertification, water scarcity and rising sea levels, the authors show how climate change already undermines global efforts to eradicate hunger.”
Who cares about global hunger, right? Who cares if that’s going to drive even more immigration, right? Who cares about the flooding of low-lying cities — it’s not going to effect you, just others, right? Let’s leave it to the next generation to deal with.
The left’s mindless devotion to climate alarmism is cultlike in its mendacity. Progressive elites cocoon in their second homes in heated, air conditioned comfort enjoying broadband internet connections fueled by cheap energy. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig tells Americans who can’t afford to put gas in their cars to get to their median $50,000 a year jobs that they should just just go out and buy a Tesla. Ah yes, the life wisdom of a McKinsey consultant living high on the hog at highest levels of the government bureaucracy. The tragedy of the Peloton delayed, eh Jen? Even Elon Musk thinks they’re nuts.
Meanwhile, millions of working-class Americans scrape from paycheck to paycheck, beaten down first by draconian COVID lockdowns that destroyed the economy and now by unprecedented inflation, fueled by exploding energy prices that are a direct result of the progressive war on energy. Billions of impoverished people in rural India are still burning wood and cow dung for cooking and heat, for Pete’s sake. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, I guess we can let them cook with solar.
And there is actually, today, a real live war in Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians are dying right now in a war that Putin is funding though the windfall of rising energy prices (Russian soldiers are dying too, but in the progressive calculus, the lives of the untermenschen don’t count, so never mind). The true tragedy? The war is distracting us from the horrors of global warning. No less an authority than John Kerry says so, so it must be true.
The solution is staring us in the face. Reverse the Biden administration’s war on energy production. Return America to energy independence. Now.
“Pete Buttigeig tells Americans who can’t afford to put gas in their cars to get to their median $50,000 a year jobs that they should just just go out and buy a Tesla.”
Liar.
A true visionary, that Pete Buttigeig. What better solution to exploding gas prices than a $5 billion dollar boondoggle that allows rural, suburban, and urban Americans to all enjoy the gas savings of driving an EV. Music to the ears of the elite progressive faithful. Not so much for working-class Americans struggling to make the rent, put food on the table, and buy shoes for their kids. With advocates like Mayor Pete, no wonder the progressive ideology is a depressing, failed experiment headed for a historic drubbing in the midterms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QSm91Rwmc
If progressives really cared about the American people, they would reverse their disastrous energy policy. And there actually is a real live war, killing Ukrainians by the thousands, that Putin is funding though inflated energy prices. Not to mention the impoverished people enjoying the rural Indian privilege of cooking their family’s breakfast over cow dung.
As I said, you lied when you claimed “Pete Buttigeig tells Americans who can’t afford to put gas in their cars to get to their median $50,000 a year jobs that they should just just go out and buy a Tesla.”
You could rail against him honestly, but no, that’s too hard for you, so you lie, and when you’re called out on the lie, you just move the goalposts.
“Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig tells Americans who can’t afford to put gas in their cars to get to their median $50,000 a year jobs that they should just just go out and buy a Tesla.”
It’s worse than that.
He told Americans to take public transportation.
God forbid. [sarc]
“God forbid. [sarc]”
And there is your herd mentality.
Deny Americans the pleasure and convenience of private transportation. Stuff them into smelly, unreliable buses. After all, Americans are just herd animals to be corralled by social justice warriors.
ROFL that you suggest Buttigieg is “Deny[ing] Americans the pleasure and convenience of private transportation. Stuff[ing] them into smelly, unreliable buses” and treating Americans like “herd animals to be corralled by social justice warriors.”
You’ve made some stupid comments in your time, Sam, but this has to be one of the stupidest.
“ROFL . . .”
Keep chuckling, as Americans suffer under the yoke of your Green tyrants.
Your laughter in the face of such pain and suffering is truly vicious.
I laughed at your hyperbolic dishonest misrepresentation of what Buttigieg said. I am not laughing as any actual “pain and suffering,” despite your dishonest choice to pretend otherwise.
Reinstate the true, actual President, President Donald J. Trump.
Trump lost. Biden won the Electoral College vote, and Congress certified it. It’s over.
You’re advocating something unconstitutional, despite your daily charade of quoting the Constitution.
Or….if the Republicans had not spent the last 30 years fighting any and all efforts to reduce our dependence on oil and gas, we might not be in the situation at all and already have a clean energy infrastructure.
OT
Andrew Whitney will be added to the list of co-conspirators in the Obama Coup D’etat in America.
“British operative Andrew Whitney inserted himself into President Trump’s orbit before the 2020 Election and was given the opportunity to present a solution for COVID-19 in the White House. The Washington Post wrote a hit piece on President Trump and used this as an example to support their thesis that the President was looking into crazy alternatives to address the COVID-19 pandemic.”
– Joe Hoft
________
“We will stop him.”
– Peter Strzok to FBI paramour Lisa Page
___________________________________
“[Obama] wants to know everything we’re doing.”
– Lisa Page to FBI paramour Peter Strzok
_________________________________
The Obama Coup D’etat in America is the most egregious abuse of power and the most prodigious crime in American political history.
The co-conspirators are:
Kevin Clinesmith, Bill Taylor, Eric Ciaramella, Rosenstein, Mueller/Team, Andrew Weissmann,
James Comey, Christopher Wray, McCabe, Strozk, Page, Laycock, Kadzic, Sally Yates,
James Baker, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Priestap, Kortan, Campbell, Sir Richard Dearlove,
Christopher Steele, Simpson, Joseph Mifsud, Alexander Downer, Stefan “The Walrus” Halper,
Azra Turk, Kerry, Hillary, Huma, Mills, Brennan, Gina Haspel, Clapper, Lerner, Farkas, Power,
Lynch, Rice, Jarrett, Holder, Brazile, Sessions (patsy), Nadler, Schiff, Pelosi, Obama,
Joe Biden, James E. Boasberg, Emmet Sullivan, Gen. Milley, George Soros, John McCain,
Marc Elias, Igor Danchenko, Fiona Hill, Charles H. Dolan, Jake Sullivan, Strobe Talbot,
Cody Shear, Victoria Nuland, Ray “Red Hat” Epps, Don Berlin, Kathy Ruemmler, Rodney Joffe,
Paul Vixie, L. Jean Camp, Andrew Whitney et al.
Troll.
Meanwhile back in Ukraine….from The Week – ‘Zelensky nationalizes TV news and restricts opposition parties’ – Mar. 20, 2022.
https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1011528/zelensky-nationalizes-tv-news-and-restricts-opposition-parties
Many of us have been following the madness precipitated by the continued participation of UPenn swimmer Lia (fka William) Thomas, a biological male, in the NCAA women’s swim meets. If Thomas decides to live as a woman, that is Thomas’ business. But the issue is that Thomas’ unquestioned physical advantages have unfairly destroyed any semblance of competition in the women’s meets. No less than Martina Navratilova and Caitlin Jenner have called out the unfairness.
Some commentators have suggested that the young women on the swim team could put and end to the madness by refusing to swim against Thomas. No, no, a thousand times no. That is compounding unfairness upon unfairness, heaping burden upon burden. These women have worked their whole lives, dedicated countless hours, and made innumerable sacrifices to swim at an elite women’s level. The swim meets are a crowning achievement in their athletic careers, a lifetime experience that they may never have the chance to repeat. We should all join them in celebrating their hard earned moment in the sun. This is what women’s athletics – and Title IX – are all about.
There is a far better way to put an end to this state of affairs. The college administrators who have sanctioned this madness – or more accurately, forced it upon the other members of the swim team – should bear the cost of their actions. Secure in their well-paid administrative roles, it is their actions that have harmed countless young women and made a mockery of women’s athletics. Hold the administrators personally liable. Then the madness will stop.
Another problem with women refusing to compete in protest of Thomas’ participation – Possible loss of athletic scholarships.
Unless they can get a large number of fellow women athletes to stand with them in protest, they will be ostracized by leftist University Administrators.
“Congress can constitutionally freeze aid to countries undermining sanctions by buying cut-rate gas from the Putin regime.”
“Under its Article I powers, Congress can condition such foreign aid and, if necessary, override a veto from President Joe Biden.”
– Professor Turley
_______________
Someone please direct me to where Article 1 overrides the Article 2 powers of the president/senate to make treaties?
It appears that the presidential/senatorial power to make treaties is limited and restricted to acts which are not funded by taxation.
Congress has no power to tax for foreign aid.
Congress has the power to tax for common defense.
Common defense is of States, not foreign countries.
Treaties must not require taxation for expenditures for foreign aid.
Treaties may only require taxation for common defense.
“Interpretation” and “mission creep” regarding taxation are unconstitutional – they are not the “manifest tenor.”
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Article 1, Section 8
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense…
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Article 2, Section 2
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;…
Oh, my God! Where to begin?
Quoting Nelson who? Did he create flight, enhance crop yield, cure cancer, or invent computer software? What, exactly, did this pitiable supplicant do, who knows, his ancestors may have rounded up and sold their fellow countrymen?
___________________
“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
– Nelson Mandela
______________
Truer words were never spoken.
Every person in the world is an American-In-Waiting, waiting to collect their “free stuff.”
Hey, Nelse, can Americans have their “respected and enhanced” freedom, oh, and their country back from illegal aliens who have perpetrated their crimes since 1863 when contemporary immigration law, the Naturalization Act of 1802, was arbitrarily, illicitly and illegitimately ignored and abrogated, creating a deleterious, parasitic and dependent class rather than appropriately and compassionately repatriating victims? Which abductee does not possess a singular, overwhelming desire to go home? The kind looking for “free stuff” and a free ride.
Can Americans get rid of unconstitutional and bizarrely compulsory matriculation affirmative action, grade-inflation affirmative action, employment affirmative action, quotas, welfare, food stamps, minimum wage, rent control, social services, forced busing, public housing, utility subsidies, WIC, SNAP, TANF, HAMP, HARP, TARP, DACA, HHS, HUD, Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Labor, Energy, Obamacare, Social Security, Social Security Disability, Social Security Supplemental Income, Medicare, Medicaid, “Fair Housing” laws, “Non-Discrimination” laws, etc., now?
Nelson’s successors (and maybe Young Thug, 2 Chainz and 50 Cent) should get together with those of Sitting Bull, Cesar Chavez et al. to form the “Woe is Me, Pitiful and Tormented, Lonely Hearts Club and Leech Society” and solicit global-class alms for the poor. Wait! They already did that, huh? How much do Americans pay in gross taxes now, something like 50%?
God knows they are the only people who have sacrificed and suffered; the only people to commit blood, sweat and tears just to survive, right?
Sergey Lavrov, during an English-language interview on RT, says that “only Fox News is trying to represent some alternative points of view” while calling the rest of the US press propaganda because “there is no such thing as an independent Western media.”
They’ve been playing clips of Tucker Carlson on Russian media. Will Turley ever decide that Fox has gone to far and speak about that?
So, no freedom of the press, comrade?
Wait.
Listening to the adverse, hostile and meddling Sergei Lavrov is not dissimilar to listening to Barack Hussein Obama, which is de facto listening to a direct and mortal enemy, one who is inimical, race and covetous based, and obsessed with “fundamentally transforming” the United States of America to the will and desires of the masses of illegal aliens therein, since inception in 1863.
You’re joking, right?
I’m right, am I not?
Let’s go ask Xi what our orders are, K?
Troll.
Anonymous points out:
“They’ve been playing clips of Tucker Carlson on Russian media. Will Turley ever decide that Fox has gone to far and speak about that?”
You are joking, of course. Turley has NEVER said an untoward remark about Carlson’s lies, why should he do so now?
Indeed, you won’t see Turley invited to give his opinion of Ukraine on the prime time shows of Hannity, Carlson and Ingraham. His opinions are antithetical to Fox’s. His viewpoint is cancelled from Fox’s airwaves. However, he still profits from their anti-anti-Putin propaganda without saying a word publicly. He is self-censoring his obvious disapproval of Carlson’s Putin-serving rhetoric.
Sell-out.
Remember Ashli Babbitt
-January 6, 2021
She is remembered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Ashli_Babbitt
Pitch in to improve the page.
She is remembered as the traitors scum she was. The line of devils to bug her is a mile long.
More and more Americans are recognizing the abject contempt that many of those on the progressive left hold for their political opponents. Ashli Babbitt was murdered for her political views. No, Sammy, Ashli Babbitt was not a traitorous scum. She was a 105 pound woman, an Air Force veteran, and a young wife. She did not deserve to die at the hands of the capitol police. And her killer is free as a Byrd.
The cop who put down Babbitt was a hero, protecting Congress and ridding the would of trash. Had he not done so Jan 6 could have gone so much worse. “I want to kill members of Congress” is not a political belief. Eternity of getting bugged by devils is just punishment. I feel sorry for her family, who has to live with the fact that Babbitt was such a horrible person.
Many of the world’s most ghastly crimes have been rationalized by casting the victims as subhuman. As untermenschen. Ashli Babbitt was a human being. She did not deserve to die.
I acknowledge that Babbitt was biologically a human. She was in the process of attempting a coup. You say that she died because of her political views, that is only true in that if she had different views then she would not have attempted a coup. Her death was justified under US law. She was not murdered.
She wasn’t murdered.
She was lawfully killed by a LEO as she was trying to break into the Speaker’s Lobby in the House while there were still members of Congress and staff in the House chamber. Byrd did the same thing that Secret Service would have done if Pence had been in the House: he warned her, and then he shot her to prevent her from unlawfully breaking into the House chamber while there were members there.
ATS, at least your line of argument is outwardly more sophisticated than Sammy’s. A commenter who says out loud that Ashli was put down. Like a dog. Ashli Babbitt was a human being who did not deserve to die. If not for her political views, Ashli would still be alive today. Americans who have watched the video can see what happened. They are horrified by Ashli’s murder. Americans are equally horrified by the progressive left’s increasing penchant for openly dehumanizing their political opponents. Which may be one of the most dangerous elements of the left’s quasi-religious, fearful, and dead-end ideology.
Yes, of course she was a human being. But she chose to break the law in a place where a Capitol Police Officer was trying to protect members of Congress and staff from rioters, she was warned to stop climbing through the window opening, and she did it anyway, knowing that an officer had his gun pointed at her and had ordered her to stop.
Lots of people are killed by law enforcement without deserving to die. But the only one you seem to care about is the Trumpist.
Your claim that “If not for her political views, Ashli would still be alive today” is BS. Thousands of people with similar views were in the Capitol (building + grounds) that day who weren’t killed. She died because she was trying to break into the Speaker’s Lobby — a highly restricted area that directly opens onto the House floor — while there were still members of Congress and staff in the House chamber, and she refused to stop when ordered to stop by a LEO who was pointing his gun at her. If Secret Service shot someone trying to break into a room right next to one that Trump was in, would you condemn that officer too? (I doubt it, though perhaps I’m wrong.)
If she had simply stopped climbing through the window when ordered, she’d be alive today, just like all the other protesters who were with her just outside the Speaker’s Lobby.
The only reason you seem to care is because Babbitt was a Trumpist. I don’t see you voicing concern about ANY other police shootings. Did everyone else killed by police deserve to die? If not, name some other people you think did not deserve to die.
I’m a member of the progressive left, and I’m not trying to dehumanize her or anyone else. There are idiots on the left and right who do dehumanize political opponents, but I don’t believe that individuals on the progressive left have any greater “penchant for openly dehumanizing their political opponents” than those on the conservative right. I condemn everyone — on the right and on the left — who dehumanizes people. How about you — will you condemn both?
Remember Ashli Babbitt
-January 6, 2021
I said “If Secret Service shot someone trying to break into a room right next to one that Trump was in, would you condemn that officer too?”
Your response: crickets.
I said “I don’t see you voicing concern about ANY other police shootings. Did everyone else killed by police deserve to die? If not, name some other people you think did not deserve to die.”
Your response: crickets.
I said “I condemn everyone — on the right and on the left — who dehumanizes people. How about you — will you condemn both?”
Your response: crickets.
Your unwillingness to respond to these questions is very revealing.
I again encourage you to do something more than just repeat “Remember Ashli Babbitt.” Get off your butt and improve the Wikipedia page on her death.
I’ve read several articles that made a good point. If Nazi Germany had nuclear arms, no one would have intervened. Great Britain would not have defended Poland, but rather called it a “border dispute”, and the Holocaust would have been deemed internal unrest.
No country would have taken direct action against Hitler, because they would have all feared being dragged into nuclear war.
We see this unfolding with Putin. We observe him invading his smaller neighbor, and making plans to conquer more. We tsk tsk, and slow walk aid, some of it very expensive. But we’ll sit here and watch Putin invade and conquer whomever he wants. I have my doubts that NATO would intervene if he invaded a NATO country. The same arguments would apply. He’s a nuclear power, and we mustn’t upset him. We’d rely on sanctions, China would prop him up using their global economic leverage, and the fact that they’ve bought up tremendous amounts of real estate in the US and elsewhere. One by one, Putin could conquer Non-NATO as well as NATO nations, and we won’t do anything effective to stop him.
Then, the reason given for why we won’t intervene is because the new USSR will be too big to fight.
We haven’t slow walked aid. There have been widespread efforts by many countries to quickly provide Ukraine with military intel and weapons, create severe financial sanctions against Russia, to take in millions of refugees, …, and many businesses have also acted, shutting down their operations inside Russia.
You say Putin is “making plans to conquer more.” What evidence of that do you have? Often it is said that Putin plans to reconstitute the USSR. There appears to me to be no evidence of this. He has often expressed regrets about the collapse of the USSR, but that is far from developing a plan to rebuild it by conquest. And after the difficulties Russia has experienced in taking a few cities in parts of Ukraine, it seems even less likely to me that Putin would be inclined to initiate other battles, especially against NATO countries.
That having been said, I agree with your point about the significance of Russia’s possession of an extensive nuclear arsenal. Without it, the US and NATO would be far more willing to come to the military assistance of Ukraine.
Daniel:
Russians are to be found throughout countries formerly part of the Soviet Union. There appears to be a pattern in which Russians living in those countries declare they want to be under Russian rule, and form separatist movements, coordinated with Russia. This creates civil unrest. That’s what happened in Crimea, and was the excuse for Putin to invade Ukraine again.
Moldova has a similar situation, in which Transnistria is under the control of Russian separatists. A map of Moldova in Belarus, used by Lashenko, discussing the invasion, showed Russia taking Transnistria.
https://inews.co.uk/news/russia-invade-moldova-will-lukashenko-battle-map-putin-plans-after-ukraine-1493407
Putin has openly threatened to invade Sweden and Finland if they joined NATO.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-threatens-finland-sweden-nato-ukraine-invasion-1682715
It always appears to me that when the dems, hollywood and the ladies of The View glom on to a cause, it is wise to carefully investigate both the cause and those advocating so strongly for it. I do think you will find that the president of Ukraine has more in common with Justin Trudeau and his world view than he does with conservative America. But this “crisis” sure is getting our eyes off of the miserable mess made by sleepy joe and his handlers. It seemed less important to obama when Putin invaded the Crimea – what changed?
Well said. Only a change of guards-Biden is much weaker if that is possible than Obama. Perhaps hanging on to the sinking ship as the world slips through his eyesight. Does not take much to bring down the nations not prepared for the world stage.
So let me get this straight.
Democrats waged war on oil and gas, and seek to shut off all exports of LNG. This makes Europe more reliant on Russian oil, which gives Putin leverage. The green movement went after European nuclear energy. Since wind and solar require fossil fuels to back them up, this also made Europe more reliant on Russian oil. So now we’re going after allies who buy Russian gas? You can’t do that unless you offer an alternative.
We also need to wage a communication war, reaching Russian people behind the iron curtain of Putin’s propaganda. So many Russians have no idea that they invaded Ukraine without provocation. Some believe that small Ukraine was planning to invade Russia. Reach the Russian people with the truth.
I think that there are varied reasons for why allies or aid recipients buy Russian oil. Some can be defended, such as a lack of alternatives, while others cannot. A blanket policy would not address these reasons. We would need a more targeted, case by case approach.
Karen, people with family in Russia are trying to reach their family and counter the Russian propaganda about the war.
Neil Hauer: “The people we watched crawl out of the rubble today told us their relatives in Moscow didn’t believe them. Videos of their destroyed home were met with ‘it’s a fake’ or ‘Nazis did it.’ *Every* bond between Ukrainians & Russians – familial, cultural, historical – is being broken.”
https://twitter.com/NeilPHauer/status/1505274811337089025
There’s plenty of reporting about this. An example: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60600487
If Russians won’t believe their own family in Ukraine, how do you plan to reach them?
Anonymous:
Propaganda and brain washing are, indeed, very difficult to deprogram.
I would be interested in hearing Prof Turley’s comments on the report 300+ Biological (Gain of Function) Research labs in & around Ukraine & the world & the US laws & international legal penalties that apply.
And also his opinion on agreements made between GHWB/ Sec of State James Baker made with the then new Russian Govt regarding borders of Russia & Ukraine.
Maybe I’ve missed his comments?
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https://michaelsavage.com/dr-francis-boyle-creator-of-bioweapons-act-says-coronavirus-is-biological-warfare-weapon/
He drafted the U.S. domestic implementing legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention, known as the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, that was approved unanimously by both Houses of the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
********
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/08/23/us-continued-biological-weapons-research-until-2003/
More…
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=fm++++Sec+of+State+James+Bakers+1990+deal+with+the+fr+USSR+regarding+Ukraine&ia=web
I know it well-why it should have been honored by USA. Agreed to never move further East-to Russia. Instead, we continued to place Nato troups on Russian Border between Ukraine & Russia-why? Provocative actions. Do we have rougue govenrment agencies out of control?
Oky:
One of the labs that participate in the Smallpox Virus Retention is located in Russia.
Russia’s ally, China, engaged in gain of function of coronaviruses. An internal document discussed the bioweapon applications. Then Covid was released upon an unsuspecting world, and China faced zero consequences or accountability.
Gain of function research plus smallpox viral samples are a very bad thing. Russia is a nuclear power.
I think Putin could do just about anything he wanted and the world would not militarily engage for fear of escalation. Putin’s escalation does not count in the calculus.
Look how the media ran interference to cover for China’s culpability in the global pandemic and subsequent economic meltdown.
https://www.livescience.com/russia-lab-stores-smallpox-explosion-fire.html
Any Russian official statement on the purpose, biosafety, or incident report involving this lab should be treated as Pravda propaganda. Not to be trusted.
Now would be a good time to deploy a covert operation to destroy the Russian smallpox sample.
Yes Karen+S, we all need to attempt to keep an open mind for all that threaten us.
Few people in the US seem to be able take a neutral look what is happening real time verse the propaganda of the current leadership that stole control of the US Govt has been serving them up with.
F’ Hannity, Levin & the rest of the Igit media War Mongers. They should get their rears over to Ukraine themselves. There’s nothing their I’m interested in Ukraine & Russia seems to have the superior titles claims.
People in the US can hardly even see the Fauci’s/Biden/Clinton/Pelosi/McConnell/McCarty related bio attack against the US.
Where’s you food coming from???
*****
Exclusive: Biological Weapons Expert Exposes Labs In Ukraine And China Run By U.S. Government
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Mar 14, 2022
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The Alex Jones Show
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Dr. Francis Boyle joins Owen Shroyer live via Skype to deliver his expert analysis on the U.S. run biolabs in the Ukraine and across the world.
https://www.banned.video/watch?id=622fa3198e5a4374b649cbbf
Economics used as a Weapon? Currently the west is using Economic Warfare against the government of Russia, the Wealthiest Russians Oligarchs, and do to trickle down factors the general population of Russia and by fault the remainder of the world’s population. The impacts vary according to prior reliance of any goods, services or finances Russia may have provided both domestically or globally.
With this in mind, who gave any one member of the Society of Interbank Financial Telecommunications (Swift) the rights to ban another member outright from using this messaging network for financial transactions? Further who granted the right of any government to seize personal property of citizens of another country? These two examples are just a few of the many questions that could have far reaching consequences for the United States in coming years or decades should the ($) Dollar go out of favor for international commerce. If one government can use commerce valued transactions as a weapon to disfavor another nations global transactions impacting their citizens’ rights of free movement and sustenance that could be considered an action of war, possibly leading into new or continued armed conflict, and in my estimation is a declaration of war regardless if lethal weapons are used or not.
Since Economic War has been declared by the majority of NATO members and lethal War has been declared by Russia against Ukraine the next logical move would be for European NATO members to state unequivocally that they are ready to move against Russia forces in Ukraine lethally if their movements do not stop with troops and equipment removed. Given a timeline for Russia to stop its siege against Ukraine it puts the onus on them to determine if they so choose to further declare an expansion of their war effort against a similarly equipped force or acquiesce to NATO’s demand to cease their invasion of Ukraine. As an Olive branch NATO could offer Russia full reintegration into World Order, a summit to discuss and agree on a realignment of Border States to Russia, a peace agreement between those states, Russia and European NATO members. America really has no standing in this matter as there is no direct impact to our population and must stand down from interference. This must be foremost for the world’s path towards Peace.
Sadly, we have watched leaders of nations of Nato make agreements with Russia about the expansion of Nato to avoid Russian Border-they have not kept the agreement- Nato is the USA -For 70 years America has been and is in fact “Nato” who calls the shots. If only all countries would keep their word-this may have been avoided-perhaps.