This weekend, I had a curious experience in writing my column on the Hill discussing whether Ukraine committed environmental crimes in the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines and then lied to its allies while receiving billions in aid. While writing the column, the Grammarly program automatically ran to check for typos. Suddenly, a message from the company popped up in the box for possible grammar problems. It was actually a message about my need to support Ukraine.
I actually support Ukraine and, in the column, I repeat my view that this is an unjust war by Russia against a sovereign nation. Furthermore, it is being prosecuted in violation of international law standards and modern principles of the laws of war.
However, I do not look to corporations to tell me how to be a better person, whether it is the NFL, Disney, or Grammarly. While I support Ukraine, many do not in terms of either spending hundreds of billions on the war or supporting the underlying territorial claims. People are fully capable of judging the merits for themselves without corporate nudges in their morning lattes or edits.
Nevertheless, as I was working out the nits on the Ukraine column, up popped my corporate reminder to stay faithful to Ukraine — a surprising note in a column suggesting that Ukraine may have committed a criminal act against NATO allies and then lied about it.
Yet, there was a political suggestion where a grammatical suggestion was supposed to be.
We still do not know much about the conspiracy, and both Russia and Ukraine have been accused of “false flag” operations. However, a recent warrant issued by a German court is zeroing in on Ukraine as the possible culprit.
The message asked if I would join the company in fighting for Ukraine:
Once again, Ukraine had me “at hello” on the issue, but not from a company that I pay to check my spelling, not my political viewpoints.
After hitting the x, the company allowed me to return to editing.
Notably, Grammarly was reportedly developed in Ukraine by Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn, and Dmytro Lider. It is now valued at $13 billion as a company.
I have written to Grammarly to confirm some information.
First, I am not sure if there are other political causes championed by the company through its editing system.
Second, I was not certain whether the system recognized that I was writing about Ukraine before inserting the message in the editing box. Ironically, the column was not favorable toward Ukraine on this issue, but the message still encouraged me to check out ways to support the country.
Third, I could not find any option to turn off corporate political messaging.
Finally, I would like to know if the company does business in Russia and whether such messages would appear for users supporting the war against Ukraine.
As a supporter of Ukraine, I still do not support Grammarly offering political tips with editing tips. I will let you know if the company responds to my queries.
Now, there is the final irony. When I was about to post this column on Grammarly pushing me to support Ukraine (as I wrote a column on Ukraine), the same message popped up in the edit box asking me again to support Ukraine (as I wrote a column on Grammarly asking me to support Ukraine).
This would seem to confirm that Grammarly is noting the subject of my writing and using the editing software to promote aid for Ukraine (regardless of the thrust or position of the column). I have never had prior such political tips appear in the editing box.
Once again, I fail to see why the NFL cannot focus on football and Grammarly cannot focus on grammar. Trust me, with my typos at 5 am every morning, there is ample work for Grammarly to do.
Typos aside, does it really never occur to Professor Turley that anything that’s being shoved down your throat is probably not what it seems?
The Covid jabs, which Turley enthusiastically supported, come to mind, and Ukraine is the latest instance of a blind adherence to the cause du jour. When Turley says he “supports Ukraine,” does he mean the people, who are seeing their sons, husbands, brothers, fathers and grandfathers exterminated in a war everyone has always known they can’t win, or the satanic clown puppet Zelenskyy, inflicted on the people after their more or less democratically elected government was overthrown by the CIA in 2014?
If professor Turley lived in Ukraine, would he be ok with having the entire male population of the country wiped out? Or would he perhaps choose to live to fight another day?
Truly should grab a gun and go fight on the front lines in Ukraine if he thinks it’s such a great war and a great cause.
The USSR dissolved. Russia allowed East Germany tonight with West Germany in exchange for NATO agreeing to not extend Eastward. NATO absolutely and clearly violated that contract over and over.
Anon, you see that…
Most businesses would do well to stop inserting political messages into non political services or transactions. We all went through a similar trend when we were pressured to pledge support for BLM everywhere from the work place to social media hobby pages. I got banned from a few social media pages for objecting to political pressure.
Some companies are inherently political. Athletic wear manufacturer XX-XY was founded to protect female athletes from having to compete against males, so some forms of political expression would be expected. Not so with a grammar editing browser extension. We just want our dangling participle corrected.
“… Alex Shevchenko, Max Lytvyn, and Dmytro Lider. It is now valued at $13 billion as a company.”
Seems to me They (Grammarly) should cash some of that $13 billion equity-value in and pay for their own War.
Next, Grammarly will want Us to send over our Sons & Daughters. (of which some are already in the Country’s theater)
Wasted some time today trying to determine if ‘Grammarly’s’ $13bn valuation is accurate. .. I mean, $13 billion for a grammar app seems a bit inflated to me.
Otoh, what do I know.
*U.S. military personnel, as well as covert Intel assets, have been operating in Ukraine for over 30 years. .. in 2021, Ukraine was USAID’s largest global expenditure (iirc, around $15bn).
Mi gremmer ain’t dat good butz eyes gez along.
In addition to poor gremmer, Prof Turley does not right or spill very well .. . but I know what he means.
THE ANSWER IN A FREE SOCIETY IS ALWAYS COMPETITION
The market works best when it is free.
Free markets thrive on competition.
Competition produces the best product at the lowest price.
There is no such thing as a monopoly; there is merely an absence of competition.
Free people may not complain about a monopoly.
Free people may compete with a monopoly.
A monopoly is deleterious and self-correcting.
An unpopular monopoly creates a vast customer base for its competition.
Exactly, and competition works best when consumers have as much information as possible about their choices — a situation that is aided when other consumers give critiques of the various products in the market place, just as Professor Turley does here.
I would add ‘free markets’ do not magically appear out of the clear blue sky. Ease of entry/egress into the market place, fair competition, market mechanics (supply and demand) and other social imperatives must be fostered and protected.
That’s the governments job.
*eg. see China
Thanks, comrade, but your ideation is unconstitutional; Congress has no enumerated power to regulate enterprises or markets, and the words “social” and “imperative” are not in the Constitution.
____________________
People must adapt to freedom.
Freedom does not adapt to people.
Dictatorship does.
Freedom and Self-Reliance.
Free people caveat emptor.
Free market dynamics are up to free people, not Congress, per the Constitution, or fundamental law in America.
But then, you know that—the Supreme Court knows that—don’t you?
Censorship and propagandizing are full-time, full-court press operations at Big Tech. Shame on the authoritarian oligarchs running Big Tech.
Supporting Ukraine is not a political issue, it is basic humanity.
First, BS. Second, companies producing a product without lecturing the customer on an unrelated issue is basic humanity. The professor made that but it went over your head.
oldmanfromkansas, That you are more concerned with a dismissable note on the screen that Turley has only to click on to remove over the deaths of tens of thousands of children in Ukraine due to an unprovoked attack by Putin indicates you don’t understand what humanity means.
I’m trying to stick to the topic of the article. You are pretending your political side is the only one that is on the side of “humanity,” and you are dishonestly pretending you are elevated above politics. That is the typical go-to for people who cannot understand anything but their own views . . . along with a highly simplistic, ahistorical understanding of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine.
For example, why did the United States foment a revolution in Ukraine in 2014, without which none of those deaths would have happened? Nobody is saying the “deaths of tens of thousands of children in Ukraine” is anything but tragic, but I’m not limiting my vision to only that: there have been deaths of many men and women in Ukraine too, as well as hundreds of thousands of Russian deaths. All of them are bad, I wish none of them had happened. But having a black-and-white view of complex events, such as pretending against the historical facts that the attack was in every way “unprovoked,” doesn’t advance the ball.
Of course you post your sanctimonious trash anonymously. If you really believed in it, you’d get a screen name and stick to it to promote actual conversation.
For example, why did the United States foment a revolution in Ukraine in 2014, which forced Putin to unmask his paramilitary “civilian” commandos who had been operating in the Donbas since 2008. Just like we engineered the 9/11 attacks, using the CIA to make it look like Muslims were reponsible.
oldmanfromkansas,
Did Ukraine launch any weapons into Russian territory? If not, then there was no provocation to war.
The rest of that response is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Cry me a river about Russian deaths, deaths that occurred from Ukraine defending against the mass murder they committed at the outset. Don’t want to die? Don’t invade.
Perhaps you are right. That Ukraine should never have sought to be a nation free of Russian puppets and remaining enslaved to Putin would have saved lives. But you don’t get to be the one who determines if someone else fights to be free of the real thing in Ukraine you imagine is happening in the US.
Regardless, this is the path Ukraine has chosen and Putin is free to stop it any time he wants to. While Putin runs a good chance of being killed for doing so, it was his choice to start and his result.
Supporting Ukraine is a European issue.
Supporting Ukraine is a European issue. But they weren’t the ones who convinced Ukraine to surrender their 3,300 nukes, rather than sell them to Iran, North Korea, etc in exchange for USA protection. We’re the ones who did that in fear for our safety – not theirs or Europe’s.
Yeah, forget about all that history stuff. Who needs it?
I find it a bit odd that America’s fiercest defender of free speech, Prof Turley, is objecting when being subjected to free speech albeit at surprising and inopportune times. On this occasion, you can vote with your feet.
Merely criticizing the content of another person’s speech is consistent with being pro-free speech. The Professor is not suggesting any state action be taken against Grammarly.
oldmanfromkansas,
Turley wants them to stop speaking freely. That they should not say what they want to say on their own platform.
He is unwilling to engage with these ideas.
That is the opposite of being pro free speech.
BS, he is saying that he *agrees* with the sentiments expressed, but there is a time and place, and that’s not it. He’s not calling for any punishment for the speaker.
As for being “unwilling to engage with the ideas” — I wonder, did you read the article? Again, he said he *agrees* with the ideas expressed, but that it seemed out of place on a grammar check.
Is that really too complicated a concept for you to understand? I expect you understand it very well, but you are engaging in sea-lioning.
PT felt it was annoying because it’s 5 A.M. and he simply wants a grammar check just as he wants to watch football only during a game etc…it’s annoying.
It’s like a bumper sticker in its usefulness. PT didn’t request a viewpoint edit! Perhaps grammars is expanding.
Professor Turley: I was just trying to get a grammar check and the thing said, “Support Ukraine.” I agree with supporting Ukraine, in fact I do support Ukraine, but WTF does that have to do with a grammar check? Can’t a writer get a latte or a grammar check without a political message anymore?
Low-IQ anonymous troll: Professor T is against free speech because he didn’t want to “engage with” the pro-Ukraine message by offering a counter view. And the pro-Ukraine message, if accepted with a nod of the head and a mental assent, instead of resistance, would have saved millions of innocent children from violent death.
Me: He wasn’t resisting the pro-Ukraine message, a message he said he agrees with at least twice. He was questioning whether a person can get a grammar check or a latte anymore without an unrequested political opinion.
Low-IQ anonymous troll: I refuse to engage with oldmanfromkansas’s thought, as I would prefer to stick to falsely accusing the professor of refusing to engage with certain thoughts, which is bad, because everyone should always engage with every thought at every time, otherwise they are anti-free-speech.
oldmanfromkansas: I have access to all the straw in the world to build a strawman. He says he supports Ukraine.
Rest of world: Then why is he writing a propaganda piece critical of the strategic severing of a pipeline that would have increased Europe’s dependency on Russia while sending more energy funds to support the Russian war against Ukraine?
oldmanfromkansas: Because that’s how you support Russia, err, Ukraine, yeah, he said Ukraine. It’s all a hoax. There is no war. Trump. Trump. Covefe.
Perhaps it would be a little different if Turley was writing a piece on the mass murder by Putin of Ukraine children, children targeted specifically by Putin. Or the massive ecological disasters from all the bombing and shelling and missile strikes on Ukraine by Putin. Or that the US promised to protect Ukraine in exchange for giving up nukes and asking why the US has not returned nuclear capability back to Ukraine.
Instead he is writing up a talking point that seems sent directly from Moscow. And then adding another complaining that anyone else is supporting Ukraine in a trivial way.
oldmanfromkansas,
Every time I have ever heard “time and place” it turns out to mean “never and nowhere.” He doesn’t have to call for punishment. He doesn’t like that there is any form of protest, at all.
He doesn’t set aside some time to support Ukraine – he set aside time to criticize their very rational severing of a gas pipeline, a position that is a direct support of Putin’s murderous efforts. And, in the middle of betraying innocent human beings to a mass murderer, it appears he is inconvenienced by a reminder of how barbaric that murder has been.
Too bad.
There is an individual right to filter out (ignore) speech judged by that same individual to be unhelpful, deceitful, boring, trivial…inconsequential. Free speech rights don’t oblige anyone to listen. Censoring is when government uses its power to shut you up. “Filtering out” is when anyone else chooses to ignore you, urge you to desist, or refuses to pass along your message. It’s up to you what you are willing to pay attention to. Those daily decisions have no connection with censorship.
Watchdog group hits Letitia James with bar complaint after federal judge tosses case
The group wants James investigated for alleged ‘illegal and dishonest conduct’ in relation to the case.
By: Michael Dorgan – Fox News ~ November 29, 2025
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watchdog-group-hits-letitia-james-bar-complaint-after-federal-judge-tosses-case
Documents Stuffed Into Burn-Bags At FBI HQ To Be Made Public: Kash Patel
Sensitive documents found in burn bags at FBI headquarters will all be made public, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a new interview with The Epoch Times.
“You’re going to see everything we found in that room in one way or another, be it through investigation, public trial, or disclosure to the Congress,” Patel told The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek in an exclusive interview, which is set to air on EpochTV at 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 29. (See Links below)
By: Tyler Durden ~ Nov 29, 2025
[Link] zerohedge.com/political/documents-stuffed-burn-bags-fbi-hq-be-made-public-kash-patel
Ref.:
By: Mr. Jan Jekielek, Senior Editor – American Thought Leaders – The Epoch Times TV (aired ~ EpochTV at 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 29.)
[Link] theepochtimes.com/epochtv/exclusive-kash-patel-talks-china-fentanyl-violent-networks-and-burn-bags-5950516
Video:
11th Circuit rejects Trump’s attempt to revive Hillary Clinton conspiracy
Citing untimeliness and bad faith in the president’s lawsuit over Hillary Clinton’s claims of Russian collusion during the 2016 election, an appeals panel also upheld nearly $1 million in sanctions against Trump.
By: Gabriel Tynes ~ November 26, 2025
https://www.courthousenews.com/11th-circuit-rejects-trumps-attempt-to-revive-hillary-clinton-conspiracy/
Why Is the Establishment Ignoring the Recently Declassified JFK Files?
Documents released this year expose how CIA spymaster James Angleton concealed Lee Harvey Oswald’s movements, hid a secret Israeli liaison, and lied to Congress, while the U.S. government spent decades redacting his ties to Israel.
By: Harrison Berger ~ Nov 28, 2025
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-is-the-establishment-ignoring-the-recently-declassified-jfk-files/
Jeffrey Epstein’s Federal Agents for Hire
The most recent Epstein emails disclose ties to DEA, FBI, CIA, and D.A.R.E.
By: Daniel Boguslaw , Harrison Berger ~ Nov 27, 2025
[Link] theamericanconservative.com/jeffrey-epsteins-federal-agents-for-hire/
The Harrison Berger piece is very, very interesting…
“Why Is the Establishment Ignoring the Recently Declassified JFK Files?”
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-is-the-establishment-ignoring-the-recently-declassified-jfk-files/
I wonder if the name “Meyer Lansky” occurs in those released files…
“Why Is the Establishment Ignoring the Recently Declassified JFK Files?”
This article is good for those who like to believe in antisemitic conspiracies. It mixes truth and lies together to create bigger lies.
The beliefs represent:
Guilt by association.
An all-powerful Israel/Jews conspiracy trope.
The idea of assassinating JFK is not all that different from blood libel. The CIA’s ideas presented are fringe ideas, and garner disagreement from many CIA/Israel critics who dispel any ideas of this JFK conspiracy theory.
Next, I expect the writers to accuse Israel of 9/11 and Putin’s attack on Ukraine. This type of article can link Mother Teresa to all sorts of nefarious crimes.
Greene Is Gone, or The Lost Art of Disagreeing Agreeably
Greene’s abrupt exit exposes a politician who put ego over teamwork, offering a sharp reminder that the MAGA movement rewards those who build—not those who burn bridges.
By: Arthur Schaper ~ November 26, 2025
https://amgreatness.com/2025/11/26/greene-is-gone-or-the-lost-art-of-disagreeing-agreeably/
Free Speech
Court to consider billion-dollar judgment for copyright infringement
The court will hear its big copyright case for the year during the first week of the December session, when on Monday, Dec. 1, it reviews a billion-dollar ruling against Cox Communications based on its failure to eradicate copyright infringement by its customers.
By: Ronald Mann ~ Nov 25, 2025
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/11/court-to-consider-billion-dollar-judgment-for-copyright-infringement/
FYI
All you ever wanted to know about the Supreme Court lottery
By: Nora Collins ~ Nov 26, 2025
[Link] scotusblog.com/2025/11/all-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-supreme-court-lottery/
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
– Declaration of Independence, 1776
Trump seems to be very concerned about South American leaders who may be involved in drug trafficking. One such leader is the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted in 2024, and currently is serving a 45 year sentence in a US federal prison.
At his trial the government introduced evidence that he took bribes from drug traffickers and had the country’s armed forces protect a cocaine laboratory and their shipments to the US.
The evidence quotes Hernández as saying he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos by flooding the United States with cocaine”.
Trump just announced that he intends to pardon Hernandez, most likely because he and his cartel associates offered Trump a substantial bribe.
Meanwhile, he is waging war against Maduro in Venezuela.
Clearly, the problem is that Maduro has failed to offer a sufficient bribe to Trump.
“most likely because he and his cartel associates offered Trump a substantial bribe.”
Can you support that with any external evidence or is it simply an internal example of TDS?
What other explanation could there possibly be, other than a bribe ????
The evidence against Hernandez was overwhelming.
The prosecution showed that he was responsible for trafficking 400 TONS of cocaine.
The jury needed only a few hours of deliberation to convict.
Why do YOU think Trump is going to pardon him ??
Do you not have a problem with pardoning someone proven to have facilitated the trafficking of 400 TONS of cocaine into this country ???
This knee jerk response of MAGA morons to defend Trump in all matters, at all times is truly astounding.
Absolute confirmation of cult behavior !!!!!!!
ha ha see below, where obama and clinton also pardoned heaVy drug traffickers as well as other acts that killed hundreds of civilians. clown.
One drug trafficker that Obama pardoned had been in prison for 26 years on a charge that today would not have gotten nearly that many.
Yes – war kills civilians. With Obama that number was well known, not hidden. Those civilians were killed in strikes on enemy leadership using drones. Doing anything else meant that those leaders would kill far more civilians. If ground troops were used even more civilians as well as US forces would be killed on the fight into the location and then the fight to get out again.
One drug trafficker that Obama pardoned had been in prison for 26 years on a charge that today would not have gotten nearly that many.
Why talk that instead of Obama pardoning murdering terrorists? Assuming that is actually true, and your copied example hasn’t been deliberately and carefully stripped of context, that’s a poor deflection in hopes people will forget Obama pardoned terrorists serving life sentences for murdering American citizens..
President Obama’s Pardon for Terrorist Murderer Oscar Lopez Rivera Trades a Terrorist for Votes
https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/president-obamas-pardon-oscar-lopez-rivera-trades-terrorist-votes
How much in bribes did that terrorist’s friends had to funnel through Obama’s convicted terrorist friend, Bill Ayers, to buy Obama pardoning that terrorist?
“What other explanation could there possibly be, other than a bribe ????”
ATS – that would be the LEAST likely explanation.
In what world do you think you can bribe a billionaire ?
With what ?
“The evidence against Hernandez was overwhelming.
The prosecution showed that he was responsible for trafficking 400 TONS of cocaine.
The jury needed only a few hours of deliberation to convict.”
I have no idea. I certainly do not trust you – or the MSM.
I do not trust your claim that a pardon is in the works.
Maybe there is, but you and the MSM have made so many stupid false claims, that what we can KNOW for sure is that this is either an outright lie or a half truth.
So that we are clear – I do not even trust your claims regarding the evidence against Hernandez.
That does not mean that what you say is not true.
It means that you have lied so often that there is no reasons to beleive anything you say.
“Do you not have a problem with pardoning someone proven to have facilitated the trafficking of 400 TONS of cocaine into this country ???”
I am libertarian – I have problems with US drug laws. Whether it is Trump or Biden or Obama or … enforcing them.
As Ron Paul asked the audience in 2015 – “If Shooting Heroine was legal, how many of you would shoot up now ?”
But accepting the possibility that your claim has some truth – what would cause a Billionaire president to commute the sentence of a major Narco trafficer ?
Useful evidence that would bring down lots of even bigger narco trafickers.
“This knee jerk response of MAGA morons to defend Trump in all matters, at all times is truly astounding.
Absolute confirmation of cult behavior !!!!!!!”
How many of your claims regarding Trump have EVER proved true ?
The collusion delusion was a hoax.
As was a long long long list of idiotic claims made by you left wing nuts.
You lie when you open your mouth.
If you EVER told the true about something of substance – few would beleive you – because you have lied so much.
Disbeleiving you does not make anyone part of a cult.
What it does is prove they are capable of a bit of critical thinking.
Not trusting the claims of established liars is NORMAL.
Believing repeated liars is cult-like behavior.
It is those of you on the left that are divorced from reality.
That appear to be living in a cult.
Can you name a significant claim regarding Trump (or honestly much of anything else) that you have been right about ?
John Say the Stupid
Why do you feel the need to leap to Trump’s defense when you admit you do not know any of the facts in the case, and you admit you do not know whether it is true that Trump is offering to pardon Hernandez.
Trump explicitly announced the pardon in Truth Social:
“Additionally, I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115629406693931908
You simply leap to the defense of your cult leader, like any good cult member would do.
You are a fool.
You are an idiot.
You have absolutely no credibility whatsoever.
Your insane, irrational, rambling, diatribes indicate severe mental impairment.
John Say,
Trump is a paper billionaire. He’s low on liquidity and high on debt. Even so, the richest people mainly got rich due to an insatiable thirst for wealth. Whatever they have is never enough. Trump could have retired on his inheritance, never worked a day in his life, and now still be wealthy. But he likes to boss people around, throw his money around, and keep to what is father taught him – that a deal is only a good deal when the other party loses. As a result he has driven many of his businesses into bankruptcy while scalping off the top to ensure the other parties are injured. He could have simply put the cash into the stock market, which has vastly outperformed his fine business skills.
For Trump to accept a bribe is obvious – someone has to beg him for a favor and he does like it when people beg. It’s not the money – it’s the smug narcissism of proving the other person is such a loser they have to pay Trump for some favor – that is the reason for Trump to accept a bribe.
“Heroine” is a person. “Heroin” is the drug.
John, you come across as mentally unstable with the amount of misspellings you produce.
What other explanation could there possibly be, other than a bribe ????
A year ago, there was deep silence from you commies who watched Biden AutoPen pardons to all the convicted drug dealers (how many HUNDRED was it?). Why the silence? Surely there could be no other possible reason for those pardons for any reason other than HUNDREDS of bribes?
Or was it then as it continues to be now: Nothing To See Here, Please Believe Me, Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes™Drug traffickers, crack dealers, cartel leaders and fraudsters appear on President Joe Biden’s list of nearly 1,500 individuals who he granted clemency Thursday, court records reveal.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/biden-commutes-sentences-of-drug-traffickers-crack-dealers-cartel-leaders-and-fraudsters/ar-AA1vLoIL
Did any of you flexing and projecting communist Democrat Biden Birthing Boyz ever notice that Biden got wealthy IN THE WHITE HOUSE – while Trump’s wealth DECREASED after he entered politics?
None of you commie Birthing Boyz noticed that Biden racked up over 150 Suspicious Activity Reports filed by worried banks with the federal government while millions from adversarial nations filled his White House pockets? And not a single SAP was filed by any bank against Trump?
Ooooohhhh the footprints of bribes going to presidents!
But yes… little Tranny Democrat Borg Bachi Boy… tell us about what Furry cult behavior looks like!
Trump has committed a large flotilla of the US Navy to go kill guys in fast boats to shut off the drug supply. That seems at odds with his support for the top masterminds who got drugs into the country.
Trump’s wealth has increased vastly from being in the White House:
From Forbes:
Sep 09, 2025
Donald Trump just had the most lucrative year of his life. The president is now worth a record $7.3 billion, up from $4.3 billion in 2024, when he was still running for office. The $3 billion gain vaulted him 118 spots on The Forbes 400, where he lands at No. 201 this year.
No president in U.S. history has used his position of power to profit as immensely as Trump. His primary vehicle for enrichment: cryptocurrency, an asset class full of hype and vulnerable to regulators. Teaming up with his three sons, Trump announced a crypto venture in September 2024 named World Liberty Financial, which initially struggled to gain traction. Then he won the White House.
Crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, whom the Securities and Exchange Commission had accused of fraud, invested $75 million, routing an estimated $40 million to the president-elect and millions more to his family members, kickstarting a bonanza that has since snowballed. In January, days before reentering the White House, Trump launched a memecoin, adding hundreds of millions to his pile of cash.
Suspicious Activity Reports:
These are not investigations. They are filed when some transaction meets some criterion. I have seen restaurants that are getting more popular get them for depositing ~$9,000 a week for weeks at a time because that is just below the mandatory reporting threshhold of $10,000 for deposits. Those up to no good might want to avoid the mandatory reporting, but coincidentally some business just happen to match that pattern.
Come back when charges are filed.
No president in U.S. history has used his position of power to profit as immensely as Trump.
Other than Obama – who was convicted terrorist Bill Ayers set on the path to the White House – who entered the presidency as upper middle class and left the White House worth over $60 million dollars. Or Biden, who used to brag he was lunchbucket Joe, the poorest senator in Washington. He left worth 50+ million dollars.
And then there’s the Clintons – who claimed they had to loot the White House on their way out because they were poorer than church mice. Their “non-profits” made them multi-millionaires… and left them scrambling to redo five years of taxes to claim the millions of dollars they spent on themselves.
Come back when you have something more than projecting and “Nothing To See Here, Please Believe Us, Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes™”
Suspicious Activity Reports: These are not investigations. They are filed when some transaction meets some criterion. I have seen restaurants that are getting more popular get them for depositing ~$9,000 a week for weeks at a time because that is just below the mandatory reporting threshhold of $10,000 for deposits.
So, you overly ambitious pathological serial Democrat liar: you now claim that not only do you work for the Treasury Branch. But you specifically work in that branch that reviews Suspicious Activity Reports, and feel free to tell us about restaurants that have had SAPS filed concerning them from banks?
You pathetically inept lying creature, if you were Pinoccio, your nose could serve as London Bridge.
Trump is about to start an open war with Venezuela on the excuse it is to stop the flow of illegal drugs, has ordered the killing of over 80 people in go-fast boats, including at least two who, under maritime law, should have been retrieved from the wreckage.
Either he’s against the drug traffic or he’s applying pressure to get a payout.
Releasing Hernández suggests it is the latter.
Donald Trump also pardoned private equity executive David Gentile, who had just begun a seven-year prison sentence for what prosecutors described as a $1.6bn fraud scheme, reported the New York Times.
The founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPB Capital, 59 year old Gentile was convicted and sentenced in May to seven years in prison for his role in defrauding thousands of individual investors.
He reported to prison on 14 November. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, Gentile was released on Wednesday, 26 November.
“The sentences imposed today are well deserved and should serve as a warning to would-be fraudsters that seeking to get rich by taking advantage of investors gets you only a one-way ticket to jail,” said Joseph Nocella Jr, United States attorney for the eastern district of New York, in a statement on the sentencing in May.
Clearly substantial sums of money are being exchanged for the pardons of Gentile and Hernandez.
Are you saying that Gentile offered or gave a bribe to TRump?
“In his most controversial final-day pardon, Clinton pardoned billionaire fugitive Marc Rich after his ex-wife, Denise Rich, lavishly donated to Democrats.
“The pardon was widely viewed as a legal form of bribery. The New York Times called it ‘a shocking abuse of presidential power.’” https://nypost.com/article/most-controversial-presidential-pardons-us-history/
You are right.
Pardoning Marc Rich was wrong.
And pardoning Gentile is equally wrong.
Your defense of Trump is not what you think it is.
You are simply equating Trump with Clinton. You seem to worship Trump, and now you are obviously worshipping Clinton as well.
Why do you MAGA morons play this stupid whataboutism game ????
no no no you are the one who is using the wrong pronouns and names for pardon-grantors.
YOU have alleged that Gentile (and Hernandez) bought pardons.
Gentile’s sentence was commuted, he was not pardoned, and there is no evidence of any bribe of any kind.
Further the shallow examination of the case is incredibly weak. I do not care if a Hedge Fund pays for hookers.
What matters is their return on Investment.
If GBP had a high ROI – there is no case.
If they did not – investors will go elsewhere and there is no case.
Regardless, this is a matter for investors, not government.
You are right.
Pardoning Marc Rich was wrong.
And pardoning Gentile is equally wrong.
Oooohhh… the attempted feeble moral equivilencey of that – skipping from Clinton to Trump! How did you miss including Obama and Biden in that desperate play you attempted? Democrat presidential history doesn’t exist between the Clinton presidency and Trump being reelected?
How about some truly evil, murderous people who had to wash the blood off their hands to accept a Democrat president’s forgiveness?
Biden Lets Cop Killer, Dangerous Criminals Walk Free In Last-Minute Clemency Action
https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/biden-commutes-sentences-of-drug-traffickers-crack-dealers-cartel-leaders-and-fraudsters/ar-AA1vLoIL
President Obama’s Pardon for Terrorist Murderer Oscar Lopez Rivera Trades a Terrorist for Votes
https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/president-obamas-pardon-oscar-lopez-rivera-trades-terrorist-votes
Which (as you want to go off topic), having those ones free isn’t close to how many Americans have died due to the Mexican/Guatamalan drug cartels that first Obama and then Biden told that they could consider the USA open for business. Think of it as more of those preemptive pardons that Obama and Biden were handing out to their favorite criminals before Biden’s final preemptive pardons for his family and unindicted co-conspirators in the FBI and DoJ.
Now: suspected bribes is your play of the day, why can’t you Furry Biden Birthing Boyz down there in Democrat Borg not notice that first Obama and then Biden finally got wealthy WHILE spending time in the White House – while Trump’s wealth began decreasing the first day he walked into the White House.
You want to play whataboutism how much was paid in bribes previously to Obama and then Biden to pardon imprisoned terrorists serving life sentences who murdered Americans, cartel leaders and lesser drug dealers, and the most vicious of murderers on federal death row?
We can do that… if you want to take a breather from your projecting to engage in whataboutism.
BTW, “Clinton in 1999 outraged members of both parties when he offered prison commutations to 16 members of the Puerto Rican terrorist organization FALN, which set off more than 100 bombs in the 1970s and ’80s, killing six.
“Clinton said the FALN members were serving disproportionately tough sentences and that those offered clemency ‘were not convicted of crimes involving the killing or maiming of any individuals.’”
hmmm. “disproportionately tough sentences,” Sounds like what TRump said about Hernandez.
Care to explain the difference?
You said it yourself.
“those offered clemency ‘were not convicted of crimes involving the killing or maiming of any individuals.”
Hernandez facilitated the trafficking of 400 TONS of cocaine that undoubtedly killed tens of thousands of Americans.
“Obama embraced the US drone programme, overseeing more strikes in his first year than Bush carried out during his entire presidency. A total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen during Obama’s two terms, compared to 57 strikes under Bush. Between 384 and 807 civilians were killed in those countries, according to reports logged by the Bureau. “https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2017-01-17/obamas-covert-drone-war-in-numbers-ten-times-more-strikes-than-bush
“Clinton also gave last-day pardons to Weathermen Susan Rosenberg, convicted of possessing 740 pounds of dynamite, and Linda Evans, convicted of helping bomb the US Capitol building in 1971.”
clown.
and we weren’t “at war” with “Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen” either, now were we?
clown.
So what you appear to be saying is that because Obama used drones to defend this country against Islamic terrorists, this gives Trump the right to pardon a drug trafficker who trafficked 400 TONS of cocaine into this country.
I guess this is what passes for logical thinking in the MAGA cult.
Also, you seem to prefer Bush’s approach of sending 300,000 troops to Iraq and Afghanistan where more than 7,000 of them died, over Obama’s targeted use of drones without risking any American lives.
So what you appear to be saying is that because Obama used drones to defend this country against Islamic terrorists, this gives Trump the right to pardon a drug trafficker who trafficked 400 TONS of cocaine into this country.
So Tranny Furry logic from the Democrat Borg has you saying nobody should notice you not minding in the slightest over the last 16 years as first Obama and then Biden pardoned the most vicious of murderous terrorists, pardoned hundreds of drug cartel leaders, as well as cop killers and murderers on federal death row
But inexplicably (for no reason anyone can think of), suddenly the pardon of Hernandez – who Obama and Biden gave permission to work with their Sinhaloa Cartels to bring drugs across our open southern borders – has you in sudden fits of rational rage! Now what could have caused that sudden outbreak of moral outrage?
Also, you seem to prefer Bush’s approach of sending 300,000 troops to Iraq and Afghanistan where more than 7,000 of them died
And now you’ve similarly forgotten that more Americans died during the Obama/Biden administrations than under Bush and Trump.
To paraphrase a commie useless idiot you know: I guess this is what passes for logical thinking in the Democrat Borg’s Biden Birthing Boyz Furry cult.
Or perhaps projecting to give voice to BBBBUUUTTTTT…. MUH TRUMPPP!!!!
“In one more end-of-presidency act of clemency aimed at prisoners serving long sentences for drug-related offenses, President Obama announced Thursday that he is commuting the sentences of 330 prisoners. He has granted clemency to more people than any president since Harry S. Truman”
The 330 grants of clemency were for people sentenced a long time ago to very long sentences for non-violent crimes mostly involving marijuana use, at a time when drug sentencing guidelines for marijuana were much harsher. Now, marijuana is legal in many states and where it is still illegal it is generally treated as a low level misdemeanor.
Under current laws and sentencing guidelines these people would never have been sentenced to decades in prison, as they had been.
Obama simply decided that this was not fair.
The commutations were conditional. The people had to have served at least 10 years of their sentence, and must have been non-violent and well behaved in prison.
Notably, he did not pardon any of them. He simply commuted sentences to time served.
In contrast, Trump is PARDONING a cocaine trafficker sentenced to 45 years in prison for trafficking 400 TONS of cocaine into this country.
And the Clinton Terrorists pardoned were affiliated with FALN which killed or maimed hundreds in terrorst actions.
Hernandez facilitated the trafficking of 400 TONS of cocaine that undoubtedly killed tens of thousands of Americans.
Here’s the teaser we’ll get to at the end. The greatest bribe involving an American president totaled $150 billion dollars.
But first Hernandez: whatever number of Americans died due to his participation in drug trafficking, when Obama became president, he started moving it right over our southern border in conjunction with those Obama/Biden favorite drug cartels, the Sinaloa drug cartel.
Over Obama’s wide open southern borders – while Obama’s Attorney Generals and FBI did nothing. What other reason than bribery to both Obama and Biden would those two have for allowing that if they weren’t involved in a massive bribery operation?
Now, before we invite you to calculate how many hundreds of thousands of Americans were killed by the Obama and then Biden’s co-conspirators in the Sinhaloa drug cartels with their Wide Open Southern Borders allowing fentanyl, crack cocaine etc to flow across our borders…
…tell us how many deaths you’re willing to defend Obama and Biden being responsible for as a result of first letting Iran’s Mad Mullahs out of their cages and then unlawfully giving billions of dollars of unmarked bills on pallets to continue killing Americans in the Middle East and once again begin funding terrorism around the world?
Obama and his foreign policy expert, The Oval Office House Plant (who later added to his foreign policy fame by abandoning Americans to die in Benghazi), killed thousands of Americans with the record setting $150 billion dollar bribe they paid to The Mad Mullahs so Obama could stroke his ego and political career with his nuclear “deal”. That wasn’t.
“Clearly substantial sums of money are being exchanged for the pardons of Gentile and Hernandez.”
Because you say so ?
Your post is just quotes from the Guardian – not a reliable source.
Even there – the reporting alone does not support the charges.
The Guardian did not provide evidence of actual fraud.
It provided evidence that the GBP spent some money in ways that prosecutors did not like.
That is not fraud. Fraud requires a LIE that deprives another of real property.
If GBP produced a 10% ROI for investors – none of that would care about Gentiles Ferarri.
If GPB lost invested money – investors should not care about Gentiles Ferrari – but his failure to provide a return on investment.
Purportedly none other than Letticia James is still Suing Gentile.
Which begs the question of why is it that investors are not suing him ?
This is not a case for the DOJ,
It is not a case for the NY AG
If Gentile actually defrauded investors – those investors should be suing him.
And if they can prove their case – they should get monetary damages.
ATS I have no idea if Trump is looking to pardon Hernandez, and I would not trust you ar the MSM on such claims.
As to the idiocy that Hernandez is bribing Trump – right, WITH WHAT ?
Trump has collected almost $100M from the MSM in defamation settlements.
What is it that you think Hernandez can offer ?
Idiots like you on the left constantly make these idioctic claims about bribing Billionaires.
How exactly do you Bribe Trump ? You can’t bribe Trump with money.
Again I have no idea if your claim regarding Hernandez is true – those of you on the left and the MSM have lied so much your claims are alsoways presumptively false.
That said – and I do not know this is occuring – just as I do not know that you are reporting anything with respect to Hernandez correctly,
There are things that Hernandez could provide Trump that might result in a communtation.
Such as information that leads to the arrests of other important Drug cartel members or that substantially impairs the supply of Drugs to the US or that helps thwart illegal immigration.
If Hernandez wishes to bribe Trump to get a commutation – he would have to give Trump something Trump actually wants – which is not a fist full of dollars.
Few of us would have problems with negotiating a deal with Hernandez if the public value from the deal is worthwhile.
Of course that is just speculation – but so is your claim. And they difference is that my speculation is actually plausible.
John Say the Stupid says the following:
“I have no idea if Trump is looking to pardon Hernandez, and I would not trust you or the MSM on such claims.”
Perhaps you will “TRUST” Trump when he said the following in a Truth Social post:
“Additionally, I will be granting a Full and Complete Pardon to Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez”
https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115629406693931908
You are an idiot, with absolutely no credibility whatsoever !!!!!!!!!!
The only possible explanation for this is a bribe.
Your irrational, rambling, incoherent explanation is absurd.
One such leader is the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted in 2024, and currently is serving a 45 year sentence in a US federal prison.
Same Hernandez who partnered up with the Obama/Biden besties, the Mexican Sinhaloa drug cartel, to take advantage of the southern border that Obama had thrown wide open?
The Hernandez who Obama and Biden allowed to run wild and free with their besties from the Mexican drug cartels, cashing in on the open border Biden left them?
The Hernandez who along with the Mexican drug cartels who Obama told his Attorney Generals to allow to operate freely and instead focus on creating and “leaking” the Trump-Russia Dossier?
How much money did Hernandez slip into Bribery Biden’s pockets and the wallets of Obama supporters to get their DoJ to look the other way?
Grammarly is free. The company has the right to generate whatever output they want. Turley has the option to not use it. If Turley was paying for it, Grammarly Pro, he could ask for a refund, but this whining is truly pathetic.
Boo hoo, Turley is being compensated to undercut support for Ukraine while weakly protesting his support for same to create the illusion of being impartial.
Ukraine made the sane decision to remove a bargaining chip that Putin might use to entice monetary support from European countries. The choice to frame this minor spill as an environmental disaster against the obliteration of entire cities and huge loss of human life is simply cruel.
To be clear this knife-in-the-back attack on Ukraine is:
brutal
vicious
savage
ruthless
sadistic
inhumane
merciless
heartless
barbaric
inhuman
barbarous
murderous
brute
ferocious
oppressive
atrocious
harsh
fiendish
truculent
hateful
malicious
pitiless
butcherly
wanton
unfeeling
red in tooth and claw
grim
bloodthirsty
vindictive
fell
spiteful
malignant
hard-hearted
malevolent
sanguinary
cutthroat
draconian
malign
sanguine
nasty
mean
ironhearted
stonyhearted
despiteful
catty
heavy-handed
draconic
hardhanded
Making a case over the release of natural gas against a backdrop of the tidal wave of blood is all of those.
First of all, I try my hardest to create a proper comment post to the best of my declining abilities (Parkinson’s).
This includes my minds mental ability to conclude the chain of thought(s) into a relevant comment. My mind is beginning to skip more in this process.
Grammarly, I don’t use it, but I do use NotePad to pre-press my post. That said I have noticed that A.I. has been interjecting itself into the work and in some cases changing the chain (the argument) with words that were not what was intended. At first I thought it was Spell Check, but now it is a deeper auto-check that conflates the meaning of the comment. I am still struggling with this WordPress Comment interface, but that’s a different fight.
Often when I am reaching for a Word and am struggling with it’s spelling, I use Google to find the correct spelling and meaning.
The ‘words’ are very important to in the conveyance of the message’s efficacy.
Note: Darren and Kirsten are welcome to edit my comments as needed anytime.
They say ‘It’s the thought that counts” and that becomes most relevant as you get older.
Jonathan and Kirsten do a wonderful job with great accuracy and expediency to get this Blog issued on time Day after Day.
at this point A.I. can’t replace that, so We are fortunate to have these Individuals in the parlance of our time.
And for that I’m grateful.
Prof. Turley:
The owners of Gramarly are as free to include political messages in their products, as the NFL and as sports and entertainment celebrities.
Life you I think it is GENERALLY a bad idea – a FEW products in niche markets can benefit by being associated with specific causes affiliated with their niche.
But the decision as to whether a company should take positions on issues outside its core business is up to the owners.
Disney has taken positions on various issues and it has cost it over 100B im market capitolization.
Anheiser Bush did so and lost 1/2 of its value and has not recovered.
Musk has taken positions and it has effected the Twitter/X as well as resulting in property destruction at Tesla Dealerships.
Aside from the Tesla Property destruction – all the rest is fine – a business chosing to express its views and consumers responding – usually negatively to that expression.
That is free Markets at work.
If you are upset about Grammarly’s including messgages regarding Ukraine in their product – Write to Grammarly or quit using the product.
That is the way to influence them.
Generally I beleive it is unwise for a mass market product to take direct positions on issues.
It is very rare that the corporate benefits outweight the harms. Further there are few large businesses like X/Twitter that are completely owned by one person where the decisions of the CEO, or te board to not cause actual harm to other stockholders.
That might justify a shareholder lawsuit.
You are free to make choices that cost YOU money, you are not free to make choices for others that cost them money.
Regardless, my point here is
LET THE FREE MARKET WORK.
I support your complaining to Grammarly.
I support your airing the issue publicly.
But should you move beyond that to Government should do something about it – you have lost me.
That is what distinguishes libertarians from conservatives and liberals.
Everything that someone else does that you do not like is NOT something government needs to act on.
This is also why Govenrment must be disentangled from the economy.
I do not honestly beleive the woke DEI Ivies can survive in a Free market.
But a colleges positions on most everything are the right of the Board and administration to decide.
And potential students, contributors, and parents of students can then decide whether they will to continue support.
But that does not work when govenrment subsidizes education – or anything else.
One of the fundimental reasons that Socialism always fails and under performs free markets ALWAYS is what is called the socialist calculation problem. Or more accurately – the failure of pricing in socialist and quasi socialist systems.
Grammarly is subject to the discipline of the marketplace. Their business will do better or worse depending on their choices – including choices related to expressing positions on issues.
All of that is reflected in the laws of supply and demand.
And PRICES which contra left wing nuts are not set by producers but by the market
are the signal to producers that they have made poor or wise choices.
When government subsidizes something – it undermines the signal that changes in demand supply to producers that tell them what it is that people want and need.
:Put differently if people WANT messages regarding Ukraine in their grammar tools – demand for Grammarly will rise.
If they do not it will decline.
The left likes to talk about democracy – but the ultimate in democracy is the free market – decisions to purchase or not and what to purcase are VOTES and the people vote every single day – they vote about how much gasoline they want at the current price, how much milk, how much of absolutely everything. And wise producers respond to that voting and give people more of what they want and less of what they do not.
When government subsidizes a part of the market that part of the market is disconnected from the signal – the message that consumers send and the result is they no longer do so good a job producing what people want and typically a better job producing what those currently controlling government want.
Of course Grammarly is free to do what it wants, and Prof Turley is free to argue against what it is doing. The market works best when information is freely disseminated
Is there something in my comment that claims the opposite ?
The Thrust of my comment – and my frequent criticism of Turley on issues such as this is that Turley remains a liberal.
Not a conservative, not a libertarian, not a progressive.
The core problem with Liberals (and conservatives and progressives) is that they want Government rather than markets to address their complaints.
Turley did not explicitly call for Govenrment action regarding Grammarly – he does not explicitly call for government action regarding other instances of what he usually correctly deems to be bad speech.
But he dances very close to the edge – to close for me.
I post to make clear – that is where the line is regarding speech that one does not like.
Boycott, speak out, protest, march. But do not seek to involve government.
The market works best when it is free.
Free markets thrive on competition.
Competition produces the best product at the lowest price.
There is no such thing as a monopoly; there is merely an absence of competition.
Free people may not complain about a monopoly.
Free people may compete with a monopoly.
A monopoly is deleterious and self-correcting.
An unpopular monopoly creates a vast customer base for its competition.
Grammarly should be subjected to a boycott until it gets out of its users’ personal business.
So boycott them.
I think Professor Turley just advocated that.
“Whensoever hostile aggressions… require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.” (Thomas Jefferson). https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-4620
That was true once; not sure if it still holds
trump is an idiot…
“Because I have invoked FAVORED NATIONS STATUS FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DRUG PRICES ARE FALLING AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, 500%, 600%, 700%, and more,”
So now drug companies are going to pay you to take their drugs?
IDIOT
Certifiable.
breaking. ‘Trump says Tariff checks should be mailed out by mid 2026’ .. . but I expect closer to Nov. elections, if at all.
*you don’t understand the ‘numbers’ .. .
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fM7cMyL-12E
So you think Trump is an idiot – because he exagerates, but you are not an idiot despite being completely wrong ?
Regardless, few of us trust Political quotes fromt hose of you who have lies and deceptively edited the statements of others – especially Trump.
You want to earn back trust – you need to provide accurate and complete quotes in context with cites from trustworthy sources.
Finally, you do not seem to grasp one of the most important things
Trump has done for US politics is clearly separated what is SAID from what is DONE.
Trump supporters care what Trump says – because in some form Trump nearly always DOES what he says.
They do not micro-parse his language. But they DO accurately grasp the gist of what he has promised and do punish or reqard him for delivering or failing to deliver on that promise.
Trump promissed to make the world more peaceful, and to reduce US involvment in foreign matters that do not concern us. That are not US interests.
Many of us have positions on Israel and HAMAS. Few of us are willing to give our lives, our childrens lives or even our tax dollars to either side.
We want peace in the mideast and we want the US out of the mideast – because we have little consequential interest anymore.
It MIGHT be legitimate to trade blood for oil – but ONLY if the US is in desparate need of oil.
Most of us have similar views regarding Russia and Ukraine. We can cheer on one side or the other – but there is no interest of the US that is at stake in Ukraine.
As such we support Trump’s efforts to acheive peace in Gaza and Ukraine
But aside from the special risk that the Russia/Ukraine war could trigger a global nuclear war – that war is NOT in our interests.
We especially support ratcheting down the risk of nuclear war.
Trump has promised to improve the mess that Biden and woke left wing idiots have made of our economy – and in 2016 and 2018 we will judge Trump and Republicans on the extent they have accomplished that.
I will be happy to debate the means to improve the economy – but I have little reason to think I can have an intelligent debate with someone who thinks the Affordable Care Act made heatlhcare more affordable.
John Say wrote:
“Most of us have similar views regarding Russia and Ukraine. We can cheer on one side or the other – but there is no interest of the US that is at stake in Ukraine. ”
I am in essential agreement with your last statement, with one major qualification. That view of national disinterest is tempered for me by the knowledge that the US, in the person of Victoria Nuland, along with largely unidentified CIA and other Deep State interests, was neck deep in deliberately creating a situation so threatening to Russia that those governing it felt they had no choice but to take the actions they did. Furthermore, Lindsey Graham, along with some of his cohorts, and whatever interests they chiefly represent (that certainly omits the general population of Georgia and the remainder of the US) has made strident and repeated efforts to escalate that conflict to the alleged benefit of Ukraine (and, of course, to facilitate the further enrichment of assorted defense contractors). I don’t think that there is any way to truly wash the dirt from that meddling from our national hands, but I do think that some responsibility for resolving the conflict in as equitable manner as is possible for both sides remains. I applaud Trump’s latest efforts to create a ceasefire, in spite of the fact that I think he has, on several past occasions, allowed himself to be mislead by some of his advisors into indecision on the subject. I do not think it to be in the true national interests of the US to further cultivate a well-deserved reputation for inciting conflict elsewhere, then abandoning the combatants whom we encouraged as soon as any resulting difficulties become incumbent upon us. That is nothing but cowardice.
I am completely in agreement with you that deep state forces in the US – Nuland, Biden, Hillary and others actively participated in provoking Russia – not just recently but also their annexation of Crimea.
That was 100% WRONG.
However the US meddling in Ukraine – as bad as it was, as procative as it was. Meddling that almost certainly drove Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine does not alter the FACT that Russia invaded a soveriegn nation.
There are a number of arguments that have been made to justify Russias invasion of Ukraine.
Some or all of them may be true.
That does not alter the FACT that Russia was NOT justified in invading Ukrainne.
Ukraine did not actually attack Russia.
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because the US strangled Jaoanese access to oil.
That is a fact, it is also not justification for a military attack.
Absolutely thee deep state operatives who played political power games in Ukraine should be excoriated.
Their conduct was WRONG.
But it was not justification for the invasion.
Nor does it change the fact that the US has no significant interests in Ukraine.
WE should not be funding the war there and we certainly are not sending our sons and daughters to die there.
Nor should we be engaged in nuclear brinksmanship.
HOWEVER – the invasion of Ukraine IS in the national interests of most of Europe,
And Europe would be absolutely justified in intervening – even more heavily on Ukraines behalf.
And if they truly did so – Russia would be pushed out of Crimea and the Donetsk
There is nothing wrong with combating an aggressor.
But no nation – not even the US is the policeman for the world.
I am glad if Trump manages a peace deal. But Ukraine/Russia is a european problem and Europe shoul dhave solved it.
“I do not think it to be in the true national interests of the US to further cultivate a well-deserved reputation for inciting conflict elsewhere, then abandoning the combatants whom we encouraged as soon as any resulting difficulties become incumbent upon us. ”
You seem to be embracing the “you break it you bought it” position.
Again I agree that the US has acted badly with regards to meddling in Ukraine. That we provoked Putin.
But that does not alter the fact that Putin invaded a sovereign nation – and the provocation did NOT justify that.
I do not disagree with those who claim Putin should LOSE this conflict – that the proposed deal is too good for Russia – though it iss not really all that good. Ukraine gets massive aide rebuilding. Russia not only gets NONE – but owes Ukraine for some rebuilding costs.
Russia has experiencd MASSIVE damage and it is not recovering in less than a couple of decades.
So this is NOT a great deal for Russia.
I would have prefered and expected thatproposed deal would be a return to the pre war status quo with the US participating in Rebuilding BOTH sides – but doing so profitably. Russia can not rebuild its energy infrastructure without US help.
Regardless, of US malfeasance in Ukraine – Ukraine STILL is not and never was in our interests.
If you want Russia and Putin defeated – and I DO,
That is in the interests of Europe – not the US. While Europe provided about half of Ukraines military assistance
It is THEIR national security that ws threatened – not that of the US.
Not only should Europe have provided money and weapons.
But they should have provided Troops.
That is the only legitimate route to an actual defeat of Putin.
Our bad conduct in Ukraine did not change the fact that Ukraine is NOT in the US national interests.
John Say wrote:
“You seem to be embracing the “you break it you bought it” position.”
Maybe I can illustrate my position best by analogy. When I was younger, I unfortunately became familiar with two groups of thugs led by loud mouthed, posturing, bullies, who operated by incessantly coercing their associate underlings to commit their desired acts of physical aggression for them. One of those erstwhile politicians ultimately met an untimely (at least according to his fellows) end when a recurring victim of his associates bypassed the intermediaries and retaliated directly against the person he held to be root cause of his problems. Can I make a legally valid case justifying that action? No, I cannot. A sound moral justification would be equally difficult to formulate. Nevertheless, I frankly admit that I celebrated the outcome at the time, and still view it as very satisfactory a few decades later. I would have been quite happy to have seen the other jerk meet a similar fate. I acknowledge the existence of poetic justice even if it should completely lack a moral or ethical basis. You may construe how that reflects on my character any way you please.
Hey, at least trump takes care of his fellow criminals…
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-grants-clemency-david-gentle-defraud_n_692c6dabe4b05a7b18768d0d
“Quiet. Quiet! Piggy.”
DJT – November 14, 2025
trump responded to a reporter attempting to ask him a question about Epstein…
“If there’s nothing incriminating in the files, sir, why not…” the reporter began before Trump snapped.
“Quiet! Quiet, piggy,” he said in a sing-song voice, while jabbing his finger towards the reporter.
Yep, IDIOT.
Could one add misogynistic idiot?
Dear Prof Turley,
Welcome to the Matrix.
Obviously, I don’t use ‘Grammarly’, or any other grammar program. I have, periodically, asked various ‘AI’ programs about the conflict in Ukraine .. . and they (ie. AI) all said it is an ‘unprovoked’ attack by Russia/Putin bent on the destruction of a ‘sovereign’ Ukraine, Russian expansion and European domination.
That’s absurd on its face .. . assuming AI has a face.
Briefly, for over 15 years the Russian position on Ukraine has been voluminous, specific and explicit: 1. Ukraine military neutrality (as spelled-out in Ukraine’s founding constitution) and 2. Ukraine must respect the civil/human rights of its ethnic, Russian-speaking citizens (approximately 50% of the population, including president Zelenskiy).
Given the history of modern Ukraine, especially after the collapse of the old Soviet Union and ‘Warsaw Pact’ (‘we’ won the Cold War!), that seems reasonable to me.
More importantly, I continue to believe the Russian position could be the basis of Peace in that war-torn country.
I shan’t dwell on the catastrophic U.S./Nato response at this time. .. I have left-over turkey & giblets that require my urgent attention.
*Biden did it .. .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSPfXLPUJHM
dgsnowden tried this:Briefly, for over 15 years the Russian position on Ukraine has been voluminous, specific and explicit: 1. Ukraine military neutrality (as spelled-out in Ukraine’s founding constitution) and 2. Ukraine must respect the civil/human rights of its ethnic, Russian-speaking citizens (approximately 50% of the population, including president Zelenskiy)… More importantly, I continue to believe the Russian position could be the basis of Peace in that war-torn country.
The ghost of Neville Chamberlain promises us a New Peaceful Putin through the mouth of dgsnowden!
Nothing says Putin actually respects civil and human rights like his kidnapping of somewhere between 30,000 and 700,000 Ukrainian children and his specific missile and bomb targeting of civilians rather than military targets. dgsnowden makes a hell of a case for supporting Putin as he does and continues doing this.
Briefly, dgsnowden is a Putin Useless Idiot Puppet. A puppet who hopes the Internet will forget the Russian Federation prior to Putin’s incredibly far more democratically elected terms as president, entered into a treaty where the Russian Federation recognized Ukraine’s sovereignty and promised to stay the fvck out of Ukraine and Ukraine’s sovereign affairs. We are now supposed to list that as “Things That Never Happened”???
Just as Ukraine didn’t meddle in Russia’s affairs while they were fighting beside us in Afghanistan and Iraq, watching Putin making military war on the civil and human rights of Georgians and Chechnyians (and lesser military incursions into Moldova, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), before Putin had Obama’s promised of no American interference when he finally turned his attention to violating that treaty Russia had with Ukraine and invade. A safe invasion, with no fear of the US stopping him from doing that with Obama’s agreement in his pocket.
Putin’s two invasions of Ukraine were justifed using the same R2P claims that Putin broadcast to defend his invasion of Georgia in 2008. The wording his too identical for a knowledgeable reader to ignore, if they’re actually interested in Putin’s attempts to correct was the greatest disaster of the last century – the collapse of his beloved USSR, with Russia controlling 14 vassal states.
Like the terrorist hajji Muslims who claim that any country that was ever under Muslim subjugation is Muslim to the end of time, Putin similarly believes that any country that was once a vassal state under the subjugation of his beloved Soviet Union is still the property of the new Russian Federation.
Long before Ukraine in Georgia and Chechnya and elsewhere, the world watched Putin take to the next level the USSR KGB’s hybrid warfare tactics. Tactics that one of his generals enunciated just years before Putin’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine in what is known in the West as the Gerasimov doctrine. A doctrine that as a senior KGB officer he worked at spreading in his 16 year long career with the KGB as a lieutenant-Colonel tasked with running subversion activities. One thing he excelled at, and was recognized for, was targeting gullible foreigners from NATO nations and subverting them to being sympathizers for the USSR and the murderous dictators that were its leaders. These activities were centered at and ran from the Soviet Cultural Center.
He still knows how to do that: Hello dgsnowden!
Five years after resigning from the KGB, Putin was back in the espionage and spy business after Yeltsin decided he was just the right surviving senior KGB spy to be running Russia’s new espionage/spy agency, the FSB. And he’s never looked back since while murdering Russians abroad and dangerous potential opponents keep falling out of hotel windows and other tragic accidents.
Trump is very good at messaging, probably as good as Obama before him, just not as slick and in conformance with the tastes of the the West’s propaganda media.
But no American president all the way back to Clinton and Bush are as good at messaging and selling their agenda as Putin, whose specific profession as a KGB Lieutenant-Colonel was subversion and messaging psy-ops intended to degrade western nation’s influence and power and co-opt Westerners to serve as Soviet puppets.
Anyone believing there will be peace with Putin by appeasing him by forcing Ukraine to give him part of their country should explain why they believe that appeasement, like communism, will work this time because it’s going to be done the right way. Ukraine won’t be Putin’s last military venture, it’s just the latest.
Europe tried appeasement with Hitler in the 1930’s. Israel has repeatedly appeasement with hajji terrorist organizations for over 40 years, culminating in October 7th. We’ve been appeasing Communist China since the days of Mao with trade treaties that allowed them to grow while they conducted ongoing espionage activities against us.
*In brief, dgsnowden definitely qualifies to be ranked among Putin’s Useful Idiots, even if Putin had never invaded Ukraine twice.
Anonymous – while I agree with your criticisms of dgsnowden,
Your arguments are NOT alot better.
Russia had no right to invade Ukraine.
The many mistakes that the US and EU made that provoked those invasions do no alter the fact that Russia’s conduct was intolerable.
At the same time the US has no interests at stake in Ukraine. It is NOT our problem.
It is however a Problem for Europe.
Next, Any Russian gains in Ukraine – through war or even those blessed by the peace process are phyric.
It will take decades for Russia to recover from the damage it has done to itself from this war.
That is if they are EVER able to recover.
No this is unlikely to encourage further Russian aggression.
If that were actually true – Russia would not be at the table seeking peace.
Russia is winning a war of attrition with Ukraine but only barely and only Because Russia has far more people, equipment and resources that it can afford to lose than Ukraine.
Is there anyone who honestly thinks that Russia is going to attack any other nation anytime soon ?
Is there anyone that honestly thinks that Russia would succeed in any attack on any NATO country in the future ?
Are you so stupid as to beleive that if Russia can barely manage a country 1/5th its size that it is going to attack countries 5 times its size ?
Russia has been exposed as a paper tiger bu all of this.
John Say says: Your arguments are NOT alot better… At the same time the US has no interests at stake in Ukraine. It is NOT our problem.
Cowardice and untrustworthiness are ALWAYS a problem for nations as well as individuals. We made a commitment to Ukraine out of deep interests in that country – once they’re of no further use to us doesn’t make them no longer our problem.
That’s the foreign policy of a feckless and untrustworthy coward. Which might not matter to the amoral, except the governments of the entire world are watching. And repeating pronouncements does NOT make those pronouncements facts.
Poland being one of those governments, who know the real stupidity lies with those who tell them they shouldn’t worry about Putin next door. Try selling the Poles your theories on Putin and Russia.
Tell us John, obviously superior trade, military and foreign affairs analyst that you are: what did WE promise Ukraine in exchange for them surrendering those 3,300 nukes and their delivery systems that their having them terrified us so much? You must have that nailed down given your overwhelming confidence.
We had multiple and very valid concerns, and as a result claimed a great interest and stake in Ukraine having those nukes.
One being that if Ukraine just wanted cash and a wider variety of military power, they wouldn’t have to look far to find willing buyers like Iran, North Korea, etc who could become America’s instantaneous adversarial nuclear powers.
Another being that some senior Ukraine officer who lost family in the Holdimor, or other grievance against Russia or some other nation, might just use one to turn the Kremlin into a glass parking lot.
And yet another being that a terrorist group like those sponsored by Iran might get enough money together to buy a manageable tactical nuke from some corrupt Ukraine officer to use against the USA that would make Beruit a few years earlier look like a kindergarten sand box squabble.
We were well beyond being concerned that Ukraine had those nukes. We finally offered them a deal they couldn’t refuse, to finally persuade Ukraine to surrender those nukes that Ukraine saw as their deterrent and defense.
Share your theory on what you believe Bush and then Clinton offered Ukraine from America that finally changed their mind?
Did we promise them that if they were invaded at some point in the future, we would give them some left over Cold War blankets, rations and some other musty old gear to fight Russia alone with – minus their nukes? Like Obama did.
Maybe put in a good word for them at the UN? While they were fighting and dying alone against the Russians at home and at the same time beside us in our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Did we promise them that we would give them some cash and weapons (that they could have gotten at any time by selling some nukes) to again fight Ukraine alone? Along with restrictions on what weapons we would give them, and limitations on what they could attack with those weapons? Like Trump finally did during his first term? Like Biden did in his term?
Did we promise them that they would definitely end up fighting alone (after fighting beside us for 14 years in Afghanistan and Iraq despite not being attacked themselves) – but we’d try to coerce the rest of Europe who weren’t part of our deal – to do our part for us? While at the same time we would coerce Ukraine to give us a slice of their resources while we continued limiting the weapons and their use that we gave them?
What kind of rational business mind would think ANY of those was a good exchange for surrendering all that nuclear power?
Tell us what YOU believe the USA promised Ukraine that finally made them decide it was worth it to accept in exchange for to surrendering their nukes.
Is there anyone – including you – who blindly and stupidly believes that Ukraine gave away those 3,300 nukes and delivery systems, a fraction of which they could have sold and traded for billions of dollars and weaponry, in exchange for nothing but limited weapons, money, musty old blankets, to fight Russia on their own while deprived of the most powerful weapons in the world?
Try harder, John, TRY! You can dream up better excuses if you try harder. So far you’re just an emotional illogical paper tiger where Ukraine is concerned due to your blind obsession with libertarianism and isolationism – when that suits your purposes.
As they watched Clinton and Obama take out Khaddafi after he backed down and almost became our ally, there’s a lot of both friendly and adversarial nations out there watching how trusting the USA and voluntarily fighting beside us in our war on terrorism turned out for Ukraine.
dgsnowden – Presuming that you are correctly reflecting Russias position – So What ?
Russia has no more business dictating Ukraines military alignment than the US has dictating Cuba’s
Russia has no more business dictating the civil rights of ethnic Russian than they do dictating civil rights in the US.
Finally NONE of russias complaints justify invading a sovereign country.
If I was a powerful Ukrainian businessman, I would do everything in my power to let the world know what Russia is doing to my country, even risking annoying my less tolerant customers. When your women are raped, your children “disappeared”, your 59 year old men living in the same foxholes for months at a time, no heat or electricity, one tends to bend the traditional business rules to help his countrymen.
If you were a powerful Ukrainian businessman, you would be just as corrupt as Zelensky’s right hand man, Andriy Yermak, who’s offices were raided by the Ukrainian anti-corruption agency for some $100 million in energy kickbacks. Andriy Yermak is currently hiding out on the front lines from the NABU anti-corruption investigations.
Can both be true, Upstate?
>”Andriy Yermak is currently hiding out on the front lines from the NABU anti-corruption investigations.”
I heard that too. I’ll believe that when I see it .. . maybe.
More likely Yermak is hiding out on the French Riviera.
*when it comes to the Ukraine ‘defense sector’, you can replace millions with billions .. .
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CUVztSJjTxg
There was also massive graft and corruption in the US civil war – particularly in the north.
UpstateFarmer says: If you were a powerful Ukrainian businessman, you would be just as corrupt as Zelensky’s right hand man, Andriy Yermak
But you would never be as corrupt as our America’s presidential families like the Clintons and Bidens as just two examples.
And you would know that, unlike Russia, corrupt American presidential families NEVER get raided and can walk around in the open as celebrities, rather than hiding from corruption investigations.
Or if you were the Cougar Of Wall Street, like Pelosi, you could stuff your pockets with tens of millions of dollars through coordinating what legislation you allow to go through and your financial trading expertise.
And nobody would call it corruption or call for your home to be raided like they do in Ukraine.
We are so much better at the corruption angle than the Ukrainians are.
Of course, we got our freedom about 250 years ago, so we’ve had a lot more practice – they’re rookies who have only been in the government corruption business for about 40 years.
You are free to do so, and the rest of us are free to elect not to buy or use your product because we did not ask for political messages with the product.