So let's assume that the Russian military starts to break down to the point where it actually looks like they could lose a conventional war. Putin invading Ukraine with the fourth largest military in the world and losing to the next door neighbor with about a tenth of their firepower would not just be humiliating, but it would probably mark the end of Putin's 25 year reign as leader of Russia.
Many people are openingly suggesting that Putin will simply start to employ more and more dangerous and destructive strategies. Not just indiscriminately hitting residential areas as he has been doing with conventional bombs, but bringing in dirty bombs, chemical weapons, and even using smaller nuclear weaponry. Would he drop a big bomb on Ukraine? Nobody seems sure.
I think there are a lot of observers that believe Russia is a paper tiger and much like Iraq, does not have the weapons and army that we assume they do. Some are suggesting that much of their $60 billion military budget is being pissed away or even stolen due to inherent corruption. This (of course) is really just speculation, and quite obviously we do not know what they do and do not have. Some people believed Russia would run out of gas and supplies within a week.
But what they still are is a military power with advanced weaponry, up to and including nuclear weaponry. They are also being run by a crazy man who might be willing to employ such a bomb rather than accept defeat. In fact, it might actually be inevitable that eventually Putin will resort to whatever means necessary.
But what they still are is a military power with advanced weaponry, up to and including nuclear weaponry. They are also being run by a crazy man who might be willing to employ such a bomb rather than accept defeat. In fact, it might actually be inevitable that eventually Putin will resort to whatever means necessary.
67 comments:
"Putin has been planning this move for a very long time."
Yet, for four years he sat on his hands until another Feckless Democrat was installed as a figure head if the US.
Biden begged Putin for oil in Nov. 2021.
ABC NEW
"Pres. Biden responded to a question on gas prices as he arrived in Fort Worth, Texas, saying, "they're gonna go up." "Can't do much right now."
TOTALLY ignoring KanDim,
I am glad to be able to read an article by Ch that seems quite reasonable. These are serious matters, and call for sober, serious thinking, not just the unleashing of our usual political prejudices and proclivities.
To a remarkable degree, Ch did that.
Yet, here I am safe, warmed by my wood burning furnace , indecent from almost every inflationary factor .
Tomorrow, I will rise without a single care in the world. Tend to my animals, putting out extra hay ahead of a predicted 8" of new snow. Will clean chicken laying boxes and straw line them.
Because of today's sun collected about 500 gallon of snow melt to use to water animals and a host of vegetable and flower seed starts.
And my life goes in by design, flawlessly.
Indecent?? maybe insulated
Blinken Seeks to Deter Russia Attack on NATO
11:49 pm EST
“At nearly every stop on his whirlwind European tour over the last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had an identical message seemingly directed straight at Russian President Vladimir Putin,”
the Washington Post reports.
Said Blinken:
“We will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of our collective power.”
Russian Debt Default ‘Imminent’
“Fitch Ratings cut its credit ratings on Russia further into junk territory and warned that Moscow was likely to default on its debts shortly,”
the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The ratings company slashed its rating on Russia by six notches to a single-C grade, near the bottom of its scale, less than a week after downgrading the country from investment-grade status.”
U.S. Expects Putin to ‘Double Down’ in Ukraine
11:43 pm EST
“Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to ‘double down’ in Ukraine as his forces remain frustrated nearly two weeks into their invasion,
but he will find it ‘especially challenging’ to maintain control of captured territory and install a sustainable pro-Moscow regime in Kyiv,
the leaders of the top U.S. intelligence agencies told congressional lawmakers,”
Politico reports.
He has tactical nuclear weapons.
Relatively small but extremely powerful weapons, that leave nuclear pollutants.
The longer the war drags on, the higher the chances that Russia would use the world’s cruelest weapons. It’s time to imagine the worst.
But would Putin actually commit such a horrifying deed? How would that even look? And how would the United States and NATO respond if it did? “Putin must also understand that the Atlantic alliance is a nuclear alliance,” France’s Foreign Minister gravely intoned last month. The potential for a nuclear war seems so surreally devastating that it’s tempting to ignore the possibility. But the longer the war drags on, the higher the chances that Russia would use the world’s cruelest weapons. It’s time to imagine the worst.
Scholars debate why no country has used nuclear weapons since 1945. After all, nine countries possess them, including North Korea, China, India, and Pakistan. The political scientist Nina Tannenwald has fashioned one of the most intriguing theories: She suggested a global taboo is in place against the use of nuclear weapons. That seems reassuring in a sense because it means countries have been civilized enough to exercise self-restraint for more than 75 years. But the flip side is that the only thing keeping humans from using nuclear weapons is the moral choices of human beings. Like Vladimir Putin.
The good news is that most experts believe Putin will not use nukes. “There is not a significant risk at this point,” says Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. He says this not because he has faith in the decency of Russia’s leader but because “there are not significant changes on the ground for really doing that.”
Lynn Rusten, a former White House staffer now at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit, points out that Russia is already pursuing an ambitious assault on Ukraine using more traditional methods. “It seems unimaginable that Russia would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine,” she says. “There would be no reason for it.” Russia’s conventional forces are far stronger than Ukraine’s.
China is walking around,but doesn't condemn Russia.
WASHINGTON — The CIA’s director said Tuesday he believes China leader Xi Jinping has been “unsettled” by Russia’s difficulties in invading Ukraine, and by how the war has brought the United States and Europe closer.
“I think President Xi and the Chinese leadership are a little bit unsettled by what they’re seeing in Ukraine,” Central Intelligence Agency boss William Burns told US lawmakers during a hearing on global threat assessments.
Axios five minutes ago.
Vladimir Putin's plan to seize Ukraine's capital in the first two days of Russia's invasion has been a complete failure, thrown off course by a fierce Ukrainian resistance, poor planning and a series of profound miscalculations.
Why it matters: An isolated and angry Putin is expected to double down on his brutality as the war in Ukraine drags on for weeks, months or even years, according to top U.S. intelligence officials. It could be his undoing.
Driving the news: "He has no sustainable political end game in the face of what is going to continue to be fierce resistance from the Ukrainians," CIA Director Bill Burns testified to a House committee Tuesday.
Even if Russia eventually captures Kyiv, the U.S. intelligence community does not see a way that a pro-Russian puppet regime can stay in power given the Ukrainian people's absolute refusal to capitulate.The U.S. estimates that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have already been killed, "far in excess" of what Putin anticipated or has admitted, Burns said.Putin was ready for sanctions, but not the speed and unity with which the Western world brought the hammer down — especially private companies like McDonald's, Starbucks and Coca-Cola, which all halted Russian sales Tuesday.
Reality check: Despite the setbacks, Putin is "unlikely to be deterred," Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified.
The people who will suffer most are Ukrainian civilians, who are already beginning to see the vicious tactics Putin adopted to achieve his military aims in Syria and Chechnya.The upside is that what Putin "might be willing to accept as a victory may change over time, given the significant costs he is incurring," Haines predicted.
------
Predictions about Putin is a fool's joke.
WASHINGTON—President Biden will sign an executive order on Wednesday instructing agencies across the federal government to study the possible risks presented by the explosion in popularity of cryptocurrencies and consider the creation of a U.S. digital currency.
The executive order will urge federal regulators to review the risks a roughly $1.75 trillion crypto market presents to consumers, investors and the broader economy. Federal agencies will have several months to prepare a report with their findings, which will then inform any new regulatory actions the White House takes, a senior administration official said.
About 16% of adult Americans, or roughly 40 million people, have invested in, traded or used cryptocurrencies, according to a White House fact sheet. That growing prevalence of digital assets, which include volatile cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and so-called stablecoins pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar, has pushed the Biden administration to centralize its work on the topic. White House officials have been working with the crypto industry and experts for several months to prepare the executive order.
“This is not a niche issue anymore, and it’s profoundly important that we have the right tools to mitigate the risks to consumers and to investors and frankly to the entire financial system,” a senior administration official said.
We have a unique General Mark Miller.
Milley is an archetypal American commander — barrel-chested, gruff, profane, boisterous and sentimental. At every stop, Milley, an Irish American from Boston, took time to banter with soldiers, quiz them about their personal lives or conduct surprise inspections of their prefab “hooches.” Any soldier who shared Milley’s Boston heritage got a shout of “Red Sox Nation” or a jesting offer of instant promotion. But make no mistake: Underlying this bluster is a remarkable war record. Colleagues say Milley has probably seen more combat under fire than any Joint Chiefs chairman in modern times.
Milley doesn’t advertise it, but he’s also a cerebral Princeton University graduate with an encyclopedic knowledge of military history. Talking about the Ukraine war, he will recall campaigns from Valley Forge to Stalingrad. Weighing the dangers of a confrontation with Russia, he quotes war theorists from Carl von Clausewitz to Thomas Schelling.
It’s this intellectual focus that led Milley to demand from his staff a way to visualize the assault that Russia was planning.
We have the best General in charge now
On the eve of Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Biden ordered Milley and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to brief Congress on what the map showed — and then to give the same briefing, on “deep background,” to the Pentagon press corps. This was a declassified version of code-word intelligence, drawn from communications intercepts, surveillance satellites and spies on the ground. America’s best weapon against Putin, Biden decided, was the truth. The administration had found a way to weaponize intelligence.
Milley greets U.S. Army soldiers in Pabrade, Lithuania, on March 6. (AP)
Milley’s trek across Europe sometimes had the feel of a NATO pep rally. He met for strategy talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the defense chiefs of Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania. And he visited U.S. troops across Europe, whose numbers have jumped since the Ukraine threat surfaced in October from a normal 65,000 to about 100,000.
Though it’s largely invisible to the public, the United States has moved an astonishing military presence forward in Europe, from a mere 200 in Hungary and 350 in Bulgaria to 2,500 in the Baltic states, 10,000 in Poland and 38,500 in Germany — forces in 17 countries, bolstered by 11,000 in ships at sea. It’s a forbidding display of force.
At one stop near the Ukrainian border, we watched one of the 14 widebody cargo planes that arrive at the local airfield each day with Western weapons; near the runway stood a rack of Javelin antitank missiles, awaiting shipment into Ukraine. If you want to see where they end up, just watch the videos on social media of Russian tanks and trucks exploding into fire.
Milley can’t resist jousting with American troops. It’s like the trash talk on a sports team; he’ll ask soldiers what’s wrong with their officers; he’ll take instant polls on whether an officer is a good leader. He introduces by name the senior generals traveling with him, the local commanders and even the local squad leaders. “I’m running for public affairs officer,” he muttered during a stop at the Nowa Deba training camp in Poland.
We are seeing incredible bipartisan support for Ukraine.
24 minutes ago
Lawmakers reach deal for $13.6 billion to aid Ukraine, European allies
Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal early Wednesday providing $13.6 billion to help Ukraine and European allies plus billions more to battle the pandemic as part of an overdue $1.5 trillion measure financing federal agencies for the rest of this year.
Though a tiny fraction of the massive bill, the money countering a Russian blitzkrieg that’s devastated parts of Ukraine and prompted Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II ensured the measure would pass with robust bipartisan support. President Joe Biden requested $10 billion for military, humanitarian and economic aid last week, and Democratic and Republican backing was so staunch that the figure grew to $12 billion Monday and $13.6 billion just a day later.
“We’re going to support them against tyranny, oppression, violent acts of subjugation,” Biden said at the White House.
Party leaders planned to whip the 2,741-page measure through the House on Wednesday and the Senate by week’s end, though that chamber’s exact timing was unclear. Lawmakers were spurred by the urgency of helping Ukraine before Russia’s military might makes it too late.
Over $4 billion of the Ukraine aid was to help the country and Eastern European nations cope with the 2 million refugees who’ve already fled the fighting. Another $6.7 billion was for the deployment of U.S. troops and equipment to the region and to transfer American military items to Ukraine and U.S. allies, and there was economic aid and money to enforce economic sanctions against Russia as well.
“War in Europe has focused the energies of Congress to getting something done and getting it done fast,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the measure would provide loan guarantees to Poland to help it replace aircraft it is sending Ukraine. “It’s been like pulling teeth” to get Democrats to agree to some of the defense spending, he said. But he added, “It’s an important step. It needs to be passed. It needs to be passed quickly.”
The bipartisan rallying behind the Ukraine aid was just one manifestation of Congress’ eagerness to help the beleaguered country, though not all of it has been harmonious.
Republicans accused Biden of moving too slowly to help Ukraine and NATO allies and to impose sanctions against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Democrats countered that time was needed to bring along European allies that rely heavily on Russian energy sources. And a bipartisan push to ban Russian oil imports had become nearly unstoppable before Biden announced Tuesday that he would do that on his own.
The huge overall bill was stocked with victories for both parties.
For Democrats, it provides $730 billion for domestic programs, 6.7% more than last year, the biggest boost in four years. Republicans won $782 billion for defense, 5.6% over last year’s levels.
In contrast, Biden’s 2022 budget last spring proposed a 16% increase for domestic programs and less than 2% more for defense — numbers that were doomed from the start thanks to Democrats’ slender congressional majorities.
--The Associated Press
UPDATED 6:05 AM
Russia says it will achieve its goal of a "neutral" Ukraine, but prefers to do so through negotiations
The spokeswoman for Russia's foreign ministry said Wednesday that while Moscow was determined to achieve its goal of ensuring that Ukraine adopts a "neutral status" — rejecting NATO membership — it would prefer to do that through negotiations rather than via military means, according to the Reuters news agency.
Maria Zakharova said Russia's objectives "do not include either the occupation of Ukraine or the destruction of its statehood, nor the overthrow of the current government" of pro-Western President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"We hope that a more significant step forward will be taken in the next rounds of negotiations," Zakharova told a press briefing, repeating Russia's consistent claim that it's "military operation" was "proceeding strictly according to the plan."
START AT THE BOTTOM AND
READ UP TO SEE HOW THESE
APPEARED at politicalwire.com
Russia’s Tech Workers Flee the Country
8:39 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Financial Times:
“The wave of emigration, if permanent, will prove a significant long-term drag on an economy already hit by EU and US sanctions that have crippled its stock market and currency and cut it off from western financing.
“With almost all European airspace closed to Russian aircraft, flights to Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi have been sold out for days, while other travellers have packed on to buses to the Baltic states.”
Republicans CHANGE THEIR TUNE on Ukraine
8:30 am EST
“In the final years of Donald Trump’s presidency, Republicans portrayed Ukraine as an Eastern European Wild West run by nefarious oligarchs and unlawful politicians, a bad actor that sought to tamper in American elections and channel millions of dollars to Joseph Biden”s son,”
the New York Times reports.
“Now such voices are fading, as the bulk of the Republican Party tries to get on the right side of history amid a brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine. Republicans are among the most vociferous champions for the United States to amp up its military response, and are competing to issue the strongest expressions of solidarity with Ukraine’s leaders.”
WHAT? NO MORE ROOTIN' FOR PUTIN ON FOX NEWS?
BRAVE UKRAINIANS!
Ukraine’s Air Defenses Hold Against Russian Jets
8:02 am EST
Britain said Ukraine’s air defenses were having success against Russian jets, likely preventing Russia from controlling the airspace,
Reuters reports.
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. to send Patriot Missile systems to Poland.
Russia Bars Purchases of Dollars
7:54 am EST
“As it scrambles to keep the ruble’s value from plummeting further, Russia’s central bank today announced that it is prohibiting citizens from using rubles to buy dollars and other hard currencies for the next six months,”
the Washington Post reports.
“The measures are designed to prevent Russians from making a run for dollars as the ruble plummets to fresh lows in the wake of Western economic sanctions, which have limited the central bank’s access to its hard currency reserves.”
Putin Has Strengthened and United His Adversaries
7:43 am EST
“If there’s anything we’ve learned about President Vladimir Putin over the 22 years or so that he’s been in power in Russia it’s that he has systematically and repeatedly tried to weaken and undermine the West,”
CNBC reports.
“But in his invasion of Ukraine he seems to have achieved exactly the opposite, managing to unite most of the international community in its condemnation of Russia’s aggression toward its neighbor.”
Axios:
“Putin’s plan to seize Ukraine’s capital in the first two days of Russia’s invasion has been a complete failure, thrown off course by a fierce Ukrainian resistance, poor planning and a series of profound miscalculations.”
Putin Has No Good Way Out
6:53 am EST
Tom Friedman:
“If you’re hoping that the instability that Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has wreaked on global markets and geopolitics has peaked, your hope is in vain.
We haven’t seen anything yet.
Wait until Putin fully grasps that his only choices left in Ukraine are how to lose — early and small and a little humiliated or late and big and deeply humiliated.
“I can’t even wrap my mind around what kind of financial and political shocks will radiate from Russia — this country that is the world’s third-largest oil producer and possesses some 6,000 nuclear warheads — when it loses a war of choice that was spearheaded by one man, who can never afford to admit defeat.”
THEY HAVE THEIR OWN TRUMP OVER THERE, THE TROUBLE IS, HE'S FAR MORE DANGEROUS
Quote of the Day
6:49 am EST
“The good news is we now have a very specific reason for rising gas prices and a specific villain. Before, it was kind of ambiguous: What’s going on? Why are gas prices going up?”
— Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, quoted by the Washington Post.
EVEN CHINA IS CHANGING ITS TUNE
China Signals Shift on Ukraine
6:43 am EST
Nikkei Asia:
“China appears to be shifting its tone on the war in Ukraine, as Beijing counts the costs of defending a Russian ally accused of war crimes and braces for the economic fallout from Western-led sanctions.
“On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping told his French and German counterparts that Beijing was ready to work with the international community to ‘prevent the tense situation from escalating, or even running out of control,’ in his strongest comments yet on the two-week-old invasion.
“Hinting at China’s growing alarm over Russia’s invasion, Xi also called for ‘maximum restraint to prevent a large-scale humanitarian crisis,’ as the number of civilian casualties mount, including children.”
Meanwhile, CNBC reports CIA Director Burns says Xi and Chinese leadership are “unsettled” by blowback from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Harris Heads to Poland Amid Turbulence Over Jets
6:40 am EST
“Vice President Kamala Harris’ trip to Warsaw to thank Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion took an unexpected turn before she even left Washington. She’ll be parachuting into the middle of unexpected diplomatic turbulence over fighter jets,”
the AP reports.
“It was a rare moment of disharmony in what has been a largely united effort by NATO allies to assist Ukraine without getting embroiled in a wider war with Russia.
“And it meant Harris was flying into fractious terrain Wednesday as she opens a two-day visit to Poland and Romania and tries to patch things up.”
Playbook:
“It is rare that a VP steps into the middle of such an important diplomatic negotiation.
Ukraine is desperate for air power.
The Poles have kicked the decision to the Americans (or tried to).
The question of whether a transfer can happen without triggering a dangerous escalation is unanswered.
The world will be watching how Harris handles this delicate moment.”
CNN:
“The trip is the second time in a month that Harris has been dispatched to Europe as the Biden administration seeks to rally international support behind its efforts to isolate and punish Russia for the war in Ukraine.”
A Formidable U.S. Force In Europe
6:37 am EST
David Ignatius:
“Though it’s largely invisible to the public, the United States has moved an astonishing military presence forward in Europe, from a mere 200 in Hungary and 350 in Bulgaria to 2,500 in the Baltic states, 10,000 in Poland and 38,500 in Germany — forces in 17 countries, bolstered by 11,000 in ships at sea. It’s a forbidding display of force.”
Lawmakers Reach Deal on Spending Bill
6:31 am EST
Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal early Wednesday to provide $13.6 billion to help Ukraine, as part of a $1.5 trillion measure funding the government, the AP reports.
from last night:
Blinken Seeks to Deter Russia Attack on NATO
“At nearly every stop on his whirlwind European tour over the last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had an identical message seemingly directed straight at Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Blinken:
“We will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of our collective power.”
Re Rogers 6:25
What the hell should we make of this? Is Putin being forced to cave?
JUST IN
Ukraine Warns of Radiation Leak Risk
March 9, 2022 at 8:51 am EST By Taegan Goddard
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear company said that radioactive substances “could be released from Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant because it cannot cool spent nuclear fuel after its power connection was severed,”
Bloomberg reports.
“It said fighting made it impossible to immediately repair the high-voltage power line to the plant, which was captured by Russian forces after the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.”
Here is the latest revision of my proposed letter to the editor for our local paper The Pantagraph of Bloomington-Normal, IL:
_________
As a retired pastor of a mainline Protestant denomination, I have sadly concluded that there are now a small but significant number of Republicans who no longer represent what this nation stands for. Unfortunately, they have misled many Americans, including working class people, into thinking they are “for” them, “for the people,” when actually they are would-be dictators who want to rule our nation for the sake of their own selfish personal profit.
In this they resemble the corrupt oligarchs who, with Vladimir Putin’s help, are now ruling a captive Russia.
What can we do about this? Oppose them. Vote them out. Free ourselves of them.
In addition, I find myself wishing that, for the sake of future generations to be born into our land, most Americans would now unite in absolutely insisting on rewording our pledge of allegiance to make it include words like these: “I pledge allegiance to the United States of America, a nation intended [by God] to have government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people – not of, by, and for the rich.”
Government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" –- of, by, and for all the people -- those are words that need to be heard, learned, and repeated often by the children of our land.
James Boswell, Normal
You guys are all the time saying I never present my own thinking here, yet this is the third or fourth time I have published a version of the above letter, FULL of my own thinking, and you have not said a peep about it.
Look at this thread nothing but copy pastes from you 2
It’s pathetic
James makes many assertions in his commentary. However, the facts do not support them. They instead support the opposite - that today's gop is far aligned with the working class than the elitest democrat party. It was Trump policies that created a 5.5% increase in hourly wages in 2019. The largest of any labor group. It was AOC who killed the planned major Amazon distribution hub in NYC, taking with it 20,000 jobs. Not Republicans. It was Trump, and Republicans in Congress, who put through the tax overhaul that capped mortgage interest deductions for the wealthy while expanding the standard deductions for the working class.
So James is entitled to his opinions. But simply putting forth his assertions do not make them true or accurate.
Pederast no one gives a shit about your stupid letter to the editor of a tiny paper
So post it 87 more times
Well, at least balls answered with dignity and an attempt at being factual, not like your vapid statement, Cal
The American Thinker shows how many Republicans are scared of reasonable people.
#NeverTrumpers,” NR’s editors succumbed to Trump Derangement Syndrome. And perhaps it is generational -- the Rich Lowry generation of writers and editors have been shaped to some extent by the same decaying Western culture that has afflicted our society at large.
Williamson’s article is another “hit piece” on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, whose television program, as Williamson admits, reaches a greater audience in one evening than National Review reaches in twenty years. Williamson decries what he calls the “cable news bubble,” and the “fractured media landscape,” and then criticizes “modern right-wing Internet journalism.” His main point, though, is that even with all of his viewers, Tucker Carlson’s impact on the general public and our culture is relatively small.
Williamson rightly points out that the FOX and MSNBC news stars all inhabit a single “bubble”: they all work in Manhattan, live in the same neighborhoods, and their children go to the same schools. “[T]hey have a lot more in common with one another,” he writes, “than either has in common with the shmucks who compose their audiences.” Of course, Williamson fails to mention NR’s own “bubble” which consists largely of Ivy League intellectuals who regret having to tolerate the populist conservatives that have usurped NR’s influence over modern conservatism.
Carlson and Fox News (with all of its flaws) have made a difference. They have been the lone media giant that the “shmucks” and “deplorables” and those who cling to their religion and guns can turn to for information untarnished by the elite, smug liberalism that infects all the other giant media and so much of our culture. It is Tucker Carlson, not National Review, who today is standing athwart history yelling “stop.”
Caliphate4vr said...
Pederast no one gives a shit about your stupid letter to the editor of a tiny paper
FACT CHECK - TRUE
9:02 Another meaningless vapid statement.
Benny
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1501386971847053319
BREAKING: Pulitzer Prize Winning New York Times Reporter @AllMattNYT: Says January 6 Media Coverage was an ‘Overreaction,’ FBI Involved, Event Was Not Organized Despite Ongoing Narrative
https://twitter.com/UnmaskNYT/status/1501361297694232580/video/1
Twitter desperately trying to cover-up for him and do damage control
But it is all over the place, except corporate state media...
Brandon Straka
@BrandonStraka
Project Veritas exposing the left’s lies about J6.
Patriots- please, please, PLEASE- watch this and RETWEET IT. Important!!!
VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/BrandonStraka/status/1501373405567803396
This still is up as I post for example
IS IT TRUE THAT
Western Populism Is [NOW] Reeling
10:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard t
Janan Ganesh:
“By cutting immigration and elevating technocracy, the coronavirus pandemic wounded populism. But the Ukraine war is much the worst setback for that movement since its electoral breakthrough in the US and UK in 2016.
“In the west, a certain kind of leftism never recovered from the vicarious shame of the Soviet quelling of Hungary in 1956. This moment might come to be recorded as an equivalent watershed for the west’s populists.”
There are many Republicans who have seen Thecoldheartedtruth about President Biden
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Joe Biden is not a very good president. His communication skills are subpar, e.g. when he found himself praising the “Iranian” instead of the Ukrainian people in his State of the Union speech. His political judgments are sometimes poor, e.g. devoting most of his first year to assuaging the demands of the progressive wing of his party. His stubbornness can be destructive, e.g. his decision to withdraw precipitously from Afghanistan. And his priorities are often wrong, e.g. focusing on voting rights legislation that addressed small problems like the number of days of early voting and dropboxes at the expense of the urgent need to reform the Electoral Count Act.
And yet, I thank God every day that Biden is president. The Russian offensive against Ukraine is the first crisis of his presidency (other than COVID, which was ongoing when he assumed office) and in this emergency he has redeemed the hopes of those who voted for competence. The administration’s warnings to Moscow were unambiguous without being hysterical. Our revelations of intelligence unmasking Russian disinformation and false flag narratives were on the nose. Biden’s coordination with European allies was neither bullying nor “leading from behind,” but a skillful presentation of unity (special kudos to Secretary of State Antony Blinken). Biden’s muscular reaffirmation of the U.S. commitment to NATO was crucial not just for Europe but for the world. China is taking notes on how the globe is responding to Putin and perhaps thinking twice about trying to conquer Taiwan.
By proclaiming American solidarity with Ukraine and our democratic allies around the world, Biden has restored our equilibrium. If Ronald Reagan were still alive, he’d find little to criticize in the administration’s approach.
Disclose.tv
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1501333050248081417
JUST IN - Saudi Arabia and the UAE declined to speak with Biden about countering Russia and containing a surge in oil prices, WSJ reports.
Joe is sure getting the respect abroad that he deserves
Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1501238690655444999
Biden claiming his policies aren't to blame for gas prices skyrocketing is a rare example of literal gas-lighting
actually it is lying
YOU REALLY WANT TO GET INTO THE JAN 6 THINGY?
“The House Jan. 6 committee has waged high-profile legal battles with Donald Trump and his closest allies as it tries to uncover every detail of what happened that day and determine what culpability the former president may have for the violent attack on the Capitol,” the Washington Post reports.
“But it has also been focused on another part of its inquiry that panel members said is of equal importance to the success of the investigation — tracing every dollar that was raised and spent on false claims that the election was stolen.”
Proud Boys Leader Arrested in His Underwear
Apparently taken by surprise, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was handcuffed in his underwear early this morning, as police arrived at his home to arrest him on conspiracy charges.
Select Committee Gets Another Batch of Trump Documents
“The National Archives has transmitted another crop of Trump White House documents to the Jan. 6 select committee, officials confirmed Tuesday — suggesting that former President Donald Trump has opted against seeking a renewed court challenge to the committee’s work,” Politico reports.
First Capitol Rioter Trial Leads to Conviction on All Counts
“A jury convicted a Texas man of obstruction and other charges for riling up the mob on Jan. 6 last year, confronting police while armed and later threatening his children not to report him, in the first trial of one of the more than 750 people who face charges related to the U.S. Capitol attack by pro-Trump rioters,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“While more than 200 others have pleaded guilty, hundreds more are fighting the charges. The verdict against Guy Reffitt could reverberate through many of the other cases as defendants weigh whether to take plea deals or continue to fight their charges.”
Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1501404452384874505
Biden released the 20th 9/11 hijacker from Gitmo back to Saudi today and is trying to hope no one will notice
Just like he is hoping nobody realizes he is having Russia serve as his negotiator on a new Iran "deal" with "help" from Communist China
Guess he's either Putin's puppet or Xi's or Khamenei's.
Or all three
as well as Biden actually going to help the indicted narco-terrorist Madura in Venezuela by buying "his" oil
Well the Biden Crime family has no bounds
Biden exposed by himself:
https://twitter.com/DefiantLs/status/1501323885169364996
FJB worst "president" ever
and destroying America in record time
Donald Trump Jr.
https://mobile.twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1501336793941258240
Well that went from conspiracy theory to senate testimony in about 6 days… It used to take six months to go from conspiracy theory to fact.
Ian Miles Cheong
@stillgray
U.S. Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland says Washington is working with Ukraine to prevent biological research facilities from falling into Russian hands. She just confirmed every conspiracy theory about the existence of those labs.
What a POS she is, another Fauci
Disclose.tv
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1501348464562782210
NEW - U.S. destroyer can’t deploy because the commanding officer won’t get COVID vaccine, Navy says.
we are fucked under Biden
or fucked over
however you want to put it
Catturd ™
https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/1501534983504211975
The Democrats are going to clearly see in November just how many people really want to pay triple gas prices for Ukraine.
if we aren't in the middle of Biden's WW3
or haven't surrendered to China
Biden is probably practicing taking a knee
Thank God NATO appears to have overridden Blinken and Biden
VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1501034485340647428
America is being led by idiots.
and state media/big tech
thank God we have independent journalists and a few good ones on Fox
Balls, why did Trump cut taxes for the rich after compaigning on a promise to raise taxes on the rich?
(Because, he said, they "should" pay more in taxes.)
Ever since F-Daddy
showed up:
vapid comments
vapid comments
vapid comments
I specifically pointed out that he cut taxes on the working class and raised them on the rich. He did this through the examples I specifically gave.
Did you just pretend to read my comnents?
In a very difficult situation since the Russian invasion, our President has done quite well enough to deter Putin from restoring the Russian empire.
The economic battle against Putin is weakened him.
Retired US and European military leaders advocate for advanced air defenses for Ukraine
From CNN's Kylie Atwood and Peter Bergen
A group of senior retired US military officers and former chiefs of defense of three Eastern European countries are advocating for supplying the Ukrainian military with air defense capabilities to defend against attacks by the Russian air force, according to an open letter obtained by CNN.
Supplying the Ukrainians with such weaponry would be effective in allowing them to shoot down aircraft or missiles in their airspace, and it is something that Ukrainians have specially asked the US and western countries to provide.
“The purpose of this letter is to urge, in the strongest possible sense, immediate action to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with a viable mid- and high-altitude air defense capability. They need immediate reconstitution of their capability to defend themselves against air attacks from the Russian Air Force,” the retired military officials write. “We cannot stand idly by and wish them well as Russia prosecutes an unrestricted campaign of destruction on the Ukrainian government, its infrastructure, and its people.”
This move should would stop short of creating a no-fly zone, which the US and NATO have so far resisted supporting due to concerns that this could embroil the alliance in a war with a nuclear-armed power.
Earlier this week 27 foreign policy experts published an open letter calling on the Biden administration and the international community to establish a limited no-fly zone in Ukraine surrounding the humanitarian corridors.
The retired military leaders say that NATO’s decision to reject a no-fly zone was “devastating to the Ukrainian government and people’s morale.” They go on to assert that supplying the mid- and high-altitude air defense capability would prevent the Russians from dominating Ukrainian “airspace while delivering devastation of Ukraine’s cities.”
They note that, “Some nations have air defense systems similar to those which were previously destroyed in the opening days of the Russian campaign. Those nations could transfer existing stocks of Soviet-era and Russian-produced weapon systems to include radars. Other nations can purchase them on the international market and expedite their delivery to Ukraine.”
This proposal may have a better chance of success than implementing a no-fly zone because supplying the Ukrainian military with advanced air defense capabilities,
The Ukrainians already have some S300 missile systems — which are a type of air defense — which means they are trained in operating these. The Croatians and few either other NATO nations have S300s in their inventory.
Turkey could use this an opportunity to offload the S400s they bought from Russia, which was a purchase that created deep tensions within the NATO alliance.
The letter's signatories: They include General Phillip M. Breedlove, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and General Sir Richard Shirreff, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
The former chiefs of defense of three Eastern European countries also signed on to the letter Lieutenant General Raimonds of Latvia; Lieutenant General Vytautas Jonas Žukas of Lithuania, and General Riho Terras of Estonia.
A number of key former leaders of US Special Operations Forces also signed the letter including Lieutenant General John F. Mulholland, former Deputy Commander, Special Operations Command, Vice Admiral Sean Pybus, former Deputy Commander, Special Operations Command; Lieutenant General Francis M. Beaudette, former Commanding General, Army Special Operations Command, and Major General Michael S. Repass, former Commander, Special Operations Command Europe.
CNN military analyst, Lieutenant General, Mark P. Hertling, was also a signatory to the letter.
WASHINGTON — The CIA’s director said Tuesday he believes China leader Xi Jinping has been “unsettled” by Russia’s difficulties in invading Ukraine, and by how the war has brought the United States and Europe closer.
“I think President Xi and the Chinese leadership are a little bit unsettled by what they’re seeing in Ukraine,” Central Intelligence Agency boss William Burns told US lawmakers during a hearing on global threat assessments.
With all due respect (and in this case I provide very little)....
Our CIA director has no fucking clue what Xi is thinking and would have absolutely no inside information on any of it. The Chinese are locked down tighter than a drum. We can't even trust their Covid numbers.
While it might just seem intuitive to an American that a Chinese dictator would be "unsettled" by what is happening in Ukraine, if you base it completely on the narrative that Americans have created. One that has been created by people "assuming" that they understand Putin, what Putin feels, and what his intentions and expectations have been every step of the way.
Pedo
Vapid copy pastes are all you got
Regarding my letter at 8:17AM,
Balls says
"James makes many assertions in his commentary. However, the facts do not support them. They instead support the opposite - that today's gop is far aligned with the working class than the elitest democrat party. It was Trump policies that created a 5.5% increase in hourly wages in 2019. The largest of any labor group. It was AOC who killed the planned major Amazon distribution hub in NYC, taking with it 20,000 jobs. Not Republicans. It was Trump, and Republicans in Congress, who put through the tax overhaul that capped mortgage interest deductions for the wealthy while expanding the standard deductions for the working class.
"So James is entitled to his opinions. But simply putting forth his assertions do not make them true or accurate."
__________
What you see above are Balls' opinions and he has a right to have them.
But as for "facts":
Regarding what Balls says about my letter at 8:17 AM above, I now invite any of you to google
"Did Trump raise taxes on the rich?"
and see what you get.
:-)
Number 2 story on google, pedo
As Democrats in Congress and the White House make the case for tax hikes this year, expect a lot of disinformation that will somehow escape the attention of Facebook and Twitter censors. In particular there will be voluminous and erroneous claims about the landmark 2017 Trump tax reform and its impact on wealthy filers. Therefore this is perhaps the perfect moment for a preemptive reality check.
And who better to provide it than the industrious Erica York at the Tax Foundation? This week she reports:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released data on individual income taxes for tax year 2018, showing the number of taxpayers, adjusted gross income, and income tax shares by income percentiles. The new data shows how taxes changed in the first tax year after passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in December 2017.
The data shows that the U.S. individual income tax continued to be progressive, borne primarily by the highest income earners...
The share of reported income earned by the top 1 percent of taxpayers fell slightly, to 20.9 percent in 2018 from 21 percent in 2017.
Their share of federal individual income taxes rose by 1.6 percentage points to 40.1 percent.
Since 2001, the share of federal income taxes paid by the top 1 percent increased from 33.2 percent to a new high of 40.1 percent in 2018.
In 2018, the top 50 percent of all taxpayers paid 97.1 percent of all individual income taxes, while the bottom 50 percent paid the remaining 2.9 percent.
The top 1 percent paid a greater share of individual income taxes (40.1 percent) than the bottom 90 percent combined (28.6 percent).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-trump-taxed-the-rich-11612556008
And look another
IRS data proves Trump tax cuts benefited middle, working-class Americans most
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/584190-irs-data-prove-trump-tax-cuts-benefited-middle-working-class-americans-most
Regarding what Balls says about my letter at 8:17 AM above, I now invite any of you to google
"Did Trump raise taxes on the rich?"
and see what you get
Opps.. accidently googled does Bigfoot exist instead.
Turns out that according to google, that he does? There is even DNA evidence, and there is an FBI file, and there are real actual video captured.
I mean who knew?
Google... where to go to confirm your facts!
Trump cut taxes for the rich. Biden wants to raise them - CNBChttps://www.cnbc.com › 2021/01/27 › trump-cut-taxes-fo...
President Joe Biden's tax plan would raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans, especially those making more than $400,000 a year.
Jan 27, 2021
6 Ways the Trump Administration Is Rigging an Already Unfair ...https://www.americanprogress.org › article › 6-ways-tru...
Oct 28, 2020 — The tax bill that President Trump signed into law in 2017 dramatically cut taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations.
How Trump Took the Middle Class to the Cleaners - Rolling ...https://www.rollingstone.com › politics › politics-features
The Trump tax bill has taken America's ideal of progressive taxation — in which the richest pay the greatest share — and turned it on its head ...
Oct 26, 2020
The Trump Tax Cut Wasn't Just for the Rich - Bloomberghttps://www.bloomberg.com › news › articles › the-tru...
Oct 27, 2020 — While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was far from perfect, it did cut taxes on the middle class and fueled the economic growth that ...
Trump's tax cuts helped billionaires pay less than the working ...https://www.theguardian.com › business › oct › trump-t...
Oct 9, 2019 — Taxes on the rich have been falling for decades. In 1960 the 400 richest families paid as much as 56% in taxes, by 1980 the rate had fallen to ...
Trump keeps saying he'll raise taxes on the rich. He's lying. - Voxhttps://www.vox.com › policy-and-politics › trump-tax-...
Jul 26, 2017 — President Trump is once again claiming he wants to tax high-earning Americans more, in order to pay for tax cuts for businesses and the ...
Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Thanhttps://www.forbes.com › sites › 2019/10/10 › trump-ta...
Oct 10, 2019 — US President Donald Trump claps during a campaign rally in Rio Rancho, ... The Trump administration's tax cuts for the wealthy highlight the ...
Oh American progress, when I provide the hill and WSJ
Fuck you pedo
Keep googling and googling and googling.
:-)
Does Bigfoot exist?
No. If Bigfoot/Bigfeet were a species, we would have discovered skeletons and corpses and DNA evidence of him/ her/ them long before now.
Did Trump increase taxes on the wealthy, as he claimed he would?
No. He lied.
You’re too stupid to understand how tax law works, pedo.
Balls explained for a person with a Luke warm IQ to understand, which is way above your level on intellect
Look at the Heritage Foundation Reverend.
They are probably the most well versed in tax laws and the effects:
here they provide you (or confuse you) with numbers:
Over time, high-income Americans have shouldered a larger and larger share of the cost of government. Even the 2017 tax cuts—reviled by the political left—reduced tax bills for the lowest-income Americans by 10% while only cutting taxes for the top 1% by 0.04%. After the tax cuts, the rich pay a larger—not smaller—share of income taxes.
In fact, by almost every measure, the U.S. has one of the most progressive systems of taxation in the world, in which high-income people pay the highest tax rates.
Looking at all federal taxes, the Congressional Budget Office shows that the top 1% pay an average federal tax rate of 32%. The data show tax rates decline with income, and the poorest 20% of the population pay an average tax rate of just 1%. The left-leaning Tax Policy Center found similar results.
https://www.heritage.org/taxes/commentary/1-chart-how-much-the-rich-pay-taxes
According to their numbers (taken directly from the IRS) - the ACTUAL cut in taxes for the rich was not large or astronomical, but rather almost non-existent (0.04%). That comes from removing a bunch of the tax write off popular with the rich that offset the 2% top line number that most media hacks got tied up with.
Moreover, according to the actual number (taken directly from the IRS) - the Rich was paying a higher share of the taxes under Trump than they were previously paying.
Debunked again, Reverend!
With actual numbers!
Now let's argue bigfoot, shall we?
oh... btw Reverend.
The tax laws did cut taxes for corporations, just as Clinton cut taxes for corporations when he was President. That is what pushed our economic growth both under Trump and under Clinton. I make no apologies about supporting cutting taxes on corporations.
When we raise them, they simply move offices out of country, shift businesses to other countries, and work harder to avoid taxes.
Moreover, our tax revenue from Corporations has been somewhere between 130 and 370 billion since 2000. They remained well over 200 billion while Trump was in office, even in 2020 when we were hit by Covid.
We didn't break the deficit with corporate tax cuts.
I have specific examples. Facts not opinions. It's a fact that the mortgage interest deduction cap raised taxes on the wealthy by reducing their deduction.
Where’d the reverend go
LaoL
I just heard I ran from here.
I wasn't aware of that.
Most honest analysts tell us that Trump lied when he promised to raise taxes on the wealthy.
You know you're wrong Jamie on taxes .
That's ok, we expect nothing of you.
Vox:
Trump keeps saying he'll raise taxes on the rich. He's lying.
All of his plans would cut taxes for top earners, by a lot.
By Jim Tankersley Jul 26, 2017, 12:10pm EDT
President Trump is once again claiming he wants to tax high-earning Americans more, in order to pay for tax cuts for businesses and the middle class.
For some reason, people keep believing him — even though, in more than two years of making similar statements, Trump has never put forth a tax plan that would be anything but a huge windfall for the very rich.
WELL, HIS FOLLOWERS ARE KNOWN FOR BELIEVING THE BIG LIE.
Most honest analysts tell us that Trump lied when he promised to raise taxes on the wealt
Yet the numbers say you lied yet again…..
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