“Nobody after two years of large-scale war can dictate conditions for waging this war in Ukraine.” So says Zelensky’s aid, Mykhailo Podolyak.
The United States has urged Ukraine to stop attacking Russia’s oil refineries, fearing a surge in global oil prices and Russian retaliation. Washington issued warnings to senior officials at Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, and its military intelligence directorate, known as the GUR, as per the Financial Times. Oil has risen 12 percent since March 12, 2024.
Mar 25, 2024
Ukraine has knocked another Russian oil refinery out of commission along with one of the country’s largest power plants in another long-range drone attack. Video from the Kuybyshevsky oil refinery in Samara, 560 miles from Ukraine, shows drones circling overhead and slamming down into the refinery, causing large fires to break out.
The drones, which have a distinctive V-shaped tail fin are the same ones used to target the Ryazan oil refinery a fortnight ago, blowing up the distillation towers and putting the facility out of action long-term.
More footage shows Ukrainian drones hitting the Novocherkassk power plant, located in the city of the same name just a short distance from the border. Again, flames could be seen lighting up the night sky as the plant – one of the largest in Russian – was repeatedly struck, though the extent of the damage was not immediately clear. Ukraine is in the midst of a campaign of long-range drone strikes against Russia, designed to rob the state of lucrative oil exports it uses to fuel its war machine and cause as much disruption to the lives of ordinary Russians as possible.
However, senior Ukrainian officials defended Kyiv’s attacks on oil infrastructure deep within Russian territory. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister, Olha Stefanishyna, said refineries in Russia are legitimate targets. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s aid, Mykhailo Podolyak, said, “Nobody after two years of large-scale war can dictate conditions for waging this war in Ukraine.”
Russia returns the favor
Three days ago-
Europe has been egging on Zelensky to expand his horizon in land to bomb. They have gotten more than they expected.
Feeling pert with his new weapons as I reported last week Zelensky’s new BFF
The British seem to think Crimea and the British long range missiles are the way to go. No doubt because Ukraine is running out of humans to put into the meat grinder. More on what we are not being told regarding Ukraine.
…British military officials advised that Ukraine should focus on defense in its ground fight against Russia in the east while focusing on targeted strikes against Crimea and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, The Sunday Timesreported.
…
“This will allow the Ukrainians to focus their efforts on the Black Sea and Crimea, where their forces, with the help of Western long-range missiles, have landed significant blows over the past six months,” the report said.
A recording of a conversation between German military officers that was recently published by Russian media revealed that the UK has soldiers “on the ground” in Ukraine helping Ukrainian forces use Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of 155 miles, making them capable of hitting targets throughout Crimea.
Attacks on Crimea have always been considered a red line for Russian President Vladimir Putin. But the risk of escalation hasn’t stopped Ukraine’s Western backers from assisting with such strikes, as Storm Shadows have been reported to be used in multiple Ukrainian attacks on Crimea.
OK so the new toys are being employed. There is no sound in the beginning clip. Later at about 4:50 Ukraine gives the spin. Describes the full range of the attack Two days ago.
Another BFF is Macron. He too sees no problem with Ukraine going rogue and what after all is the problem with another world war.
Then we have DW News- German Public Broadcasting Service
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė was in Berlin Thursday for defense and security talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Support for Ukraine’s war with Russia and German plans to station troops in Lithuania were on the agenda. After the meeting DW News spoke to Prime Minister Lithuanian Šimonytė.
News from the “Front” wherever that may be….. Europe will start another war, and it will be expected that the U.S. will clean up the mess.
Tucker Carlson began his interesting interview with President Putin with several questions, among them — Why is Russia fighting a war with Ukraine, and why is no one interested in finding a peaceful solution to this conflict? On the surface, these questions might be asked by any college sophomore, but they weren’t sophomoric. Wisely, Carlson asked the questions and allowed Mr. Putin to answer them his way.
Vladimir Putin is a well-educated man who became a leading reform politician during Russia’s Perestroika period. He was a former intelligence officer within the Committee for State Security (KGB), from which he retired in 1990 and took up work at Leningrad State University.
He later served as an advisor to the mayor of St. Petersburg, Russia, with subsequent advancement to the position of first deputy mayor. He has served variously as President and Prime Minister of Russia since 1999. In effect, Putin had a front-row seat to the events that led up to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Russian Federation.
Within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR) was but one of fifteen socialist republics. Russians did not always control the USSR. Khrushchev was Ukrainian; Stalin was from Georgia. During the Second World War, the United States and USSR were allies.
The United States’ decision to use the atomic bomb to end the war with Japan shocked the world. Never before had anyone witnessed such power in a single bomb. It also prompted the beginning of the Cold War (a term invented by English writer George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair) in his 1945 essay titled “You and the Atomic Bomb.” After the Moscow Conference in December 1945, the USSR transitioned from ally to enemy.
The first phase of the Cold War began when the United States and its Western European allies sought to strengthen their relationships and used the policy of containment against emerging Soviet influence.
For his part, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was determined never to allow the invasion of a foreign power again. After the United States and its allies established NATO, directed against Soviet expansion, Stalin began to assemble a collection of buffer states around the Soviet Union. Stalin referred to these states as Warsaw Pact Member States. Winston Churchill called it the Iron Curtain.
For forty-four years, the U.S. and NATO alliance members confronted the USSR and Warsaw Block at every turn. Both the US and USSR engaged in proxy wars, notably throughout Eastern Europe and the Far East. Ultimately, however, the communist state proved economically inadequate.
The USSR could not keep pace with the United States industrially or technologically. Note: I recall speaking with a tourist from Russia, a man claiming to be a retired Russian Army colonel (c. 2008), who told me that after observing the United States in action against Iraq in 2003/2004, he and his contemporaries realized that the USSR could never have won in an all-out war with the United States. It was an interesting acknowledgment, but one I took with a grain of salt.
The point is that the USSR was moving toward collapse long before 1992.
Two developments dominated the politics in the USSR between 1979 – 1989: the crumbling of economic and political structures and patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. After the rapid succession of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev implemented perestroika to modernize Soviet communism and make substantial changes in the party’s leadership. Mr. Gorbachev’s reforms led to unintended consequences. His policy of glasnost facilitated public access to information that undermined the authority of the communist party.
Glasnost allowed ethnic and nationalist disaffection to reach the public stage, and many constituent republics (particularly the Baltic Republics, Georgian SSR, and Moldavia) sought greater autonomy, which Moscow initially rejected.
This led to the revolution of 1989, and the USSR began losing allies in Eastern Europe. Suffering from low prices of petroleum and natural gas, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, outdated industry, and pervasive corruption, the USSR’s planned economy became an epic disaster. Shortages in commodities were prevalent and noted on Western television — although my exchange student from Moscow (1994) told me that neither she nor her family ever experienced such televised shortages.
Meanwhile, tensions between the USSR and RSFSR were personified as a power struggle between USSR Chairman Gorbachev and RSFSR Chairman Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin presented a formidable opposition to Gorbachev and ultimately replaced Gorbachev as USSR Chairman and, in 1990, became chairman of the Supreme Soviet. A month later, Yeltsin produced legislation prioritizing Russian laws over Soviet laws — and withholding two-thirds of the USSR’s budget. In its first-ever free election, Boris Yeltsin became the President of the Russian SFSR in 1991.
On August 19, 1991, Russian dissidents launched a coup d’état against Gorbachev, but the effort faced overwhelming popular opposition and collapsed in three days. At this point, the disintegration of the USSR was imminent, and the icing on that cake was Russia’s assumption of authority over all USSR institutions.
At this point, the United States government, faced with the opportunity to end the quest for global communism, showed the world its true colors. All the language used by U.S. Presidents, from Harry Truman through George H. W. Bush (and beyond), about seeking global peace was pure political rhetoric.
At this stage, the United States had the opportunity to welcome a new country into the world of free nations. The disintegration of the old USSR was a complex matter, made more so by oligarchs who were intensely trying to obtain control of the entire Soviet military infrastructure — from nuclear delivery systems to the weapons themselves.
Stated hopes and ambitions aside, it wasn’t enough to watch the disintegration of the Soviet Union; the United States then embarked upon a program to stamp as much of it out as possible. They did this by manipulating weak sisters in Ukraine, a breakaway republic, and offering former soviet republics access to membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The incentives were both military and economic.
During his interview with Mr. Carlson, President Putin (as did Gorbachev during his address to the American people on January 2, 1986) provided a (somewhat) lengthy overview of Russian history. He believed that doing so was necessary as an explanation of the importance of Russian sovereignty. His lecture began around A.D. 900 — about the same time King Alfred the Great tried solidifying his hold over southern and central England.
After that, Mr. Putin began to ask a series of questions about the motives of the United States. For example, if the United States understood how the Russians felt about sovereign territory, particularly in light of the Mongol invasion (1223 – 1440), struggles involving the Polish-Lithuanian Empire (1547 – 1764), invasion of the German Army (1914 – 1917) (1942 – 1944), a bloody civil war (1917 – 1922), and the Cold War.
Until around twenty years ago, I always viewed the U.S. government as the guys in white hats, the good guys, the people you could trust to do the right thing. Much of that attitude concerned me not knowing all the facts.
This attitude changed when I observed what the U.S. government was doing to people who value their Bibles and Constitutional Rights to live free from invasive government policies. If the federal government can treat its citizens like “an enemy,” then let’s look at how it treats competitive nations. My conclusion is that we never wore white hats.
There are many examples to discuss, and I think President Putin did a fair job bringing them to Mr. Carlson’s attention. I would be interested to hear Tucker Carlson’s “takeaways.” Putin did ask how it is possible, of all the countries in the world, for the United States to provide financial support to Ukraine’s neo-Nazis — the valuable idiots under the direct control of Ukraine’s President Zelensky.
It is also a fact, as stated by President Putin that following the 2022 Ukrainian Eastern counteroffensive, Russia renewed calls for peace for the fifth or sixth time, and Ukrainian leaders refused to reopen discussions, claiming that the Russian government was not fully committed to peace. And why should Zelensky be interested in peace talks with Russia? The United States has become a cash cow for the Ukrainian comedian … and he must be thinking that life can’t get any better than this.
It should not be lost on anyone that the entire progressive apparatus views with deep disdain anyone associated with Mr. Carlson’s meeting with President Putin. American media put Hillary Clinton on camera, who announced on at least two occasions that Carlson was no more than a useful idiot. From a former Secretary of State whose ambition was always imagined to be world peace, Clinton’s performance was dismal.
Moreover, the American media, which has become little more than the propaganda arm of the Progressive (Neo-Marxist) Movement, dismissed Tucker Carlson as a “Gonzo Journalist” and Mr. Putin as a “petty dictator.” Putin may be a dictator, but there’s nothing petty about the man. Facts tell us otherwise.
I have to add here that the American left’s efforts to keep this nation in a perpetual state of war leave me nearly speechless. Do the American people realize that this country has been at war more-or-less constantly since 1940? Why is that? It isn’t something we can blame on only one party if anyone thinks of George H. W. Bush and his not-so-bright son as conservative.
Since 1940, this country has given up hundreds of thousands of our precious young people to war — men and women who might have found a cure to cancer, and in the process, the government has squandered trillions of working America’s tax dollars. To what end? How is the world in better shape today than it was in 1933?
The interview was a good one; I hope something worthwhile comes from it. I’m not holding my breath. Too many people in this country are heavily invested in global war and discontent.
Korean War (1950 – 53)
Vietnam War (1953 – 64, 1965 – 77, 1974 – 75)
Laotian Civil War (1959 – 75)
Permesta Rebellion (1958 – 61) (Indonesia)
Lebanon Crisis (1958)
Bay of Pigs (1961)
Dominican Civil War (1965 – 1966)
Korean DMZ Conflict (1966 – 69)
Cambodian Civil War (1967 – 75)
Lebanon Intervention (1982 – 84)
Invasion of Grenada (1983)
Bombing of Libya (1986)
Tanker War (1987 – 88) (Iran-Iraq War)
Invasion of Panama (1989 – 1990)
Gulf War (1990 – 1991)
Iraqi No-Fly Enforcement (1991 – 2003)
Somali Intervention (1992 – 95)
Bosnia-Croatian War (1992 – 95)
Haitian Intervention (1994 – 95)
Kosovo War (1998 – 99)
Afghan War (2001 – 21)
Yemen Intervention (2002 – Present)
Iraqi War (2003 – 11)
Pakistan Intervention (2004 – 18)
Second Somali Intervention (2007 – Present)
Indian Ocean Intervention (2009 – 16)
Libyan Intervention (2011)
Ugandan Intervention (2011 – 17)
Niger Intervention (2013 – Present)
Iraq Intervention (2014 – 21)
Syrian Intervention (2014 – Present)
Libyan Intervention (2015 – 19)
Houthi Intervention (2023 – Present)
Total estimated costs: $10 Trillion (1950 – Present)
Putin was right … U.S. diplomats are stupid.
Exclusive: Tucker Carlson Interviews Vladimir Putin
Hillary Clinton stops drinking her Chardonnay long enough to come out of the woods and opine on “the useful idiot” which sure is saying something coming from her. How many died on her watch? Russia Russia Russia. Tucker Carlson has made the left very very unhappy. One wonders what it is that they are so afraid of.
CNN: “Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin hasn’t been posted online yet, but he is already doing the Russian authoritarian’s bidding.”
Anyone who follows twitter for the last couple of days knows Tucker has pinched the beast. He has been trending for days. Add that Tucker has an interview with Julian Assange waiting to unleash. We may only see State approved interviews apparently.
Just in:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talks with Alex Wagner about the strange attraction some Americans feel toward authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin, describing it as “absolutely gobsmacking terrifying.” MSNBC’s Ali Velshi joins for analysis.
Tucker Carlson, the man himself.
Tucker Carlson to interview Vladimir Putin after Biden interference claims
Candace Owens: Media in PANIC mode over Tucker Carlson interview with Vladimir Putin
On Wednesday, a reporter with The Grayzone challenged Biden’s State Department spokesman on the President’s decision to send F16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which Biden said would be “World War III” just last year. This comes just two days after the President warned, while speaking with donors in California, that Vladimir Putin could use a tactical nuke.
Last year:
President Biden defended his decision to veto the US-facilitated transfer of fighter jets to Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion, saying, “that’s called World War III.”
Biden faces bipartisan blowback for rejecting Poland’s offer to transfer 28 Soviet-designed MiG-29s — after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that Poland had a “green light.”
Last week:
June 19 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden said on Monday the threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is “real”, days after denouncing Russia’s deployment of such weapons in Belarus.
On Saturday, Biden called Putin’s announcement that Russia had deployed its first tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus “absolutely irresponsible”.
Last week, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The deployment is Russia’s first move of such warheads – shorter-range, less powerful nuclear weapons that could be used on the battlefield – outside Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Thank goodness the Pentagon found that accounting error so another 6.2b can be funneled to Zelensky….er, Ukraine. The great news is that means the Pentagon has accountants, so that government audit should be happening any day.
Yes, let’s unpack this for sure.
Here is the administration’s response when asked why we continue to escalate “when even the President himself is acknowledging the risk of nuclear war?”:
Biden 2022: F-16s for Ukraine would mean "World War III"
Biden 2023: F-16s for Ukraine are on the way
The Grayzone's @cosgrove_iv challenges the State Dept on the constant expansion of the Overton Window on which weapons are permissible to provide to Ukraine pic.twitter.com/yTHHX1g9Lo
The fear of the atomic bomb, present in the second half of the twentieth century, has disappeared. Nuclear weapons have been taken out of the equation. The practical conclusion is clear: there is no need to be afraid of such a Russian response.
This is an extremely dangerous misconception. The trajectory of the Ukrainian war points to an escalation of the conflict both horizontally (by expanding the theater of military action) and vertically (by increasing the power of the weapons used and the intensity of their use). It must be soberly acknowledged that this momentum is heading towards a direct armed confrontation between Russia and NATO. If the accumulated inertia is not stopped, such a clash will take place, and in this case the war, having spread to Western Europe, will almost inevitably become nuclear. And after some time, a nuclear war in Europe will most likely lead to an exchange of blows between Russia and the US.
The Americans and their allies are truly playing Russian roulette. Yes, so far the Russian response to the bombing of Nord Stream, the drone attack on the strategic Engels airbase, the entry of Western-armed saboteurs into the Belgorod region and many other actions by the Washington-backed and controlled side has been relatively restrained.
Bonus time. Another question earlier
The Grayzone’s @cosgrove_iv asked the Pentagon about an ex-DoD contractor’s revelation that the US massively overbills taxpayers for weapons to Ukraine
Where are all those millions upon millions of U.S. Dollars going for in the war in Ukraine? How much ammo and weapons are being used and at what rate? For those of us who have not served in the military and no background, it is hard put a face on these expenditures. What does the future portend if this war continues and what will we be willing to continue to do and at what cost?
It may come as a shock as to the enormous amount of shelling that is taking place. We get glimpses of the end result of the damage. But it appears that our supply of guns and ammo is not limitless. Russia? That is another question and perhaps this piece will explain why Russia may be willing to make a deal with their devil – China, to sustain the war.
Germany Public TV DW puts a face on this aspect of the war.
The best of the swamp. Then there is Lindsey Graham and the other Neo-cons.
The Mad Man and the Mad Hatter otherwise known as Zelensky and Biden will send us all to smithereens the rate we are going. Biden preened with Zelensky as he shuffled about embracing him, remarking on his appearance specifically, feeling “his guns.”
A major controversy is raging amid Russia’s grinding war in Ukraine. It all started with the U.S. claiming that China was providing ‘lethal support to Russia’. The U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken also warned China against arming Russia. Now, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged China not to support Russia as he fears that it will spark off a World War. Zelensky’s comments came as China ripped apart the U.S, for advising it on how to handle its relations with Russia. Watch this video for more details.
Put this in the what could possibly go wrong category.
World War III could break out if China actively supports Russia in its year-long battle to subdue Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“For us, it is important that China does not support the Russian Federation in this war,” the Ukrainian president told German daily Die Welt on Monday. “In fact, I would like it to be on our side. At the moment, however, I don’t think it’s possible.”
But Zelensky added that he sees opportunity for China to make a “pragmatic assessment of what is happening.”
“Because if China allies itself with Russia, there will be a world war, and I do think that China is aware of that,” he said. (Laugh line here, after all Zelensky was a comedian in his former life.)
The Ukrainian president’s remarks come one day after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken admitted the US was “very concerned that China’s considering providing lethal support to Russia” as it continues its long invasion of its western neighbor.
White House refuses to say whether Ukraine will receive toxic depleted uranium ammo with U.S tanks being sent.
A Biden official wouldn’t disclose whether Bradley Fighting Vehicles will be equipped with the anti-tank rounds, linked to cancer and birth defects.
Now
Russia claims Leopard 2 tanks may become “dirty nuclear bomb”
Russia has said that German Leopard 2 tanks are equipped with sub-calibre armour-piercing shells with uranium cores, and Moscow will consider their use in Ukraine against Russians as the use of “dirty bombs”.
Quote from Gavrilov: “We warn the Western sponsors of the Kyiv military machine against encouraging nuclear provocations and blackmail.
We are aware that the Leopard 2 tank, as well as the Bradley and Marder infantry fighting vehicles, are armed with sub-calibre armour-piercing shells with uranium cores, the use of which leads to contamination of the area, as it happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq. (It has been confirmed that the U.S. did indeed use this ammo.)
If Kyiv is supplied with such shells for NATO heavy military equipment, we will consider it to be the use of dirty nuclear bombs against Russia with all the ensuing consequences.”
Why not end the post and maybe the world with all of this funny business going on… don’t laugh, the following tidbit is true.
Neither Europe nor Ukraine are prepared to kick their addiction to Russian gas. Putin knows it, which is why behind the scenes business is going on as usual.
Europe and Ukraine are asking Americans to make sacrifices while they keep on doing business with Putin.
Why is Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state owned gas company, continuing to transport millions of cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe each month.
Russian oil and gas still travels through Ukraine on its way out to Europe and beyond. Russia pays Ukraine “transit fees” this going down in “this makes no sense at all.” category.
Why is Russia paying billions to a country it’s invading that can be used to finance its defense?
Why would Russia put its economic lifeline and massive amounts of gas at risk by using a country that it’s currently bombing with all the adroit aim of a drunk in a toilet as a transit point if it could be easily replaced? Neither Europe nor Ukraine are prepared to kick their addiction to Russian gas. Putin knows it, which is why behind the scenes business is going on as usual.
Europe and Ukraine are asking Americans to make sacrifices while they keep on doing business with Putin.
Why is Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state owned gas company, continuing to transport millions of cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe each month.
Russian oil and gas still travels through Ukraine on its way out to Europe and beyond. Russia pays Ukraine “transit fees” this going down in “this makes no sense at all.” category.
Last year when I posted this, Ukraine earned about $2 billion in transit fees from the Russian use of its pipelines to move gas to Europe. Russia, and Putin’s cronies in particular, (Biden family), obviously make even more than that.
Russia cashes in an estimated $400 million a day from its gas exports to Europe.
This story a year ago.
A portion from Bunks post. Daniel Greenfield tells us the details at Front Page Mag:
I have wondered what the deal is on the energy flow out of Russia. Now we know. Still flowing and Russia is continuing making transit payments to Ukraine. Yes, while the war rages. We of course buy Russian energy as well. Then we impose sanctions on Russia. I think I have it.
“If Europe continues importing gas from Russia, why shouldn’t Ukraine benefit from it?” so goes the statement. Yet Zelensky demands constantly from all governments to stop the purchase Russian energy.
One answer is that Russia continues paying billions to Ukraine to transport its gas.
Yesterday I caught this over at Pravda. 2/15/2023
Russian oil and gas industry sponsors Armed Forces of Ukraine
It was reported on February 15 that Gazprom increased gas supplies via Ukraine from 30.8 million cubic meters to 35.3 million cubic meters per day (+15 percent). This is the maximum value since January 15th.
Gazprom’s gas transit payments to Kyiv have been growing, and it is no secret how the Ukrainian administration is spending that money. They spend on military needs in the first place.
Today, Russian natural gas travels to Europe either through the territory of Ukraine or via the Turkish Stream pipeline. However, Russian MPs do not say anything on the topic. Instead, they prefer to attack a weaker rival.
State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin instructed the Security Committee to send a request to the Prosecutor General’s Office regarding a Lukoil plant that allegedly supplies fuel to Ukraine. Prior to that, German publication Die Weltwrote that Lukoil’s refinery in Burgas “saved” the Armed Forces of Ukraine with its supplies at a very difficult moment, having ensured up to 40 percent of Ukraine’s needs.
Lukoil representatives replied that they did not know where the fuel was redirected from its Bulgaria buyers afterwards. However, the Russian state should force Lukoil to sell its business in Bulgaria, as it did in Italy in order to save the lives of Russian military personnel.
….
Why allow transit to EU through Baltic ports?
It was also revealed that Kazakhstan actively supplies fuel and other products to Russia-unfriendly Latvia by transiting its exports to the EU through Russia. It goes about such products as:
petroleum products,
coal,
food.
.. Interestingly, President Putin interprets the problem from a completely different perspective. This is how he spoke about Gazprom’s transit payments to Ukraine — billions of dollars a year that are used to kill Russian military personnel.
“They call Russia an aggressor, but they keep getting the money for transit services. We pay them even if they call us an aggressor, although they are aggressors in relation to the Donbass. We counteract aggression, and not vice versa, but they take our money, and that is just fine for them. Money does not stink,” Putin said.
As a matter of fact, money does stink, and in this particular case, the stench is strong.
We are being played. Big time. Ukraine’s stench is everywhere. In case you missed yesterday’s post by Mustang.
A belligerent is someone who is aggressively hostile, or the word might apply to a nation engaged in lethal conflict (as recognized by international law). Of nations, the term belligerent suggests an active participant in acts of war — and this might include a country materially aiding and abetting one of the primary participants in the lethal confrontations.
Here are a few examples: a country that supplies another nation with tanks, rockets, and ammunition so that the aided country might gain an advantage over its opposing enemy. Such a condition could become even dicier when the aiding country actively participates in not-so-clandestine operations.
Recently, Joe Biden and State Department official Victoria Nuland stated that they intended to “end the Nord Stream Pipeline” if Russia invaded Ukraine. A few months later, the Russian pipeline was blown up in an undersea explosion. When asked about this event, both Biden and Nuland denied having ordered the mission carried out.
‘I Don’t Want That Pipeline Operational’: GOP Sen. Presses Nuland On Nord Stream 2. One year ago.
Joe Biden did make a public statement, captured by America’s ABC News on 7 February 2022 of this year, “If Russia invades … then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring it to an end.”
Now at some point, one of these opposing combatants might turn their attention to the country providing aid and comfort to their enemy and conclude, quite logically, that the aiding country has become a belligerent in the conflict. In war, this conclusion makes perfect sense. Russia may view the N.A.T.O. alliance as a conduit for logistical support and target them.
In such an eventuality, the result will be devastating for innocents being made to suffer the foolishness of their governments. And that’s where we are at present vis-à-vis the Russo-Ukrainian War.
I’ll briefly add that there are consequences to choosing the wrong individual to serve as president. Some of these costs can be devastating. Now and again, I wonder if the loved ones of those killed in action regretted casting a ballot for the dim-witted president who sent their son, daughter, husband, or wife into harm’s way — where there never was a legitimate U.S. interest.
And they’re at it once more. Our leaders and media propagandists have fostered many self-serving myths about the Russo-Ukraine War. One of these is that Russia, without warning, attacked Ukraine. Another is that the Ukrainians are fighting and dying for their freedom. Another myth is that Russia’s assault was unprovoked. I have to say that all such stories are fairy tales. But none of these are the most dangerous of myths.
The most dangerous myth is that the U.S. and its N.A.T.O. partners can continue providing financial and logistics support to Ukraine without becoming an active belligerent and, consequently, become a Russian target themselves. This possibility is real, and not only that, a direct result of electing an utter moron to serve as president — and one who is playing a perilous game with a country that will always defend itself. I wonder, are the American people ready for what might follow?
No shaking your heads and tsking. There are all kinds of ways Russia can make our lives difficult. Ask any European about that. Since Dopey Joe took out the Nord Stream pipelines (an amazing event since Biden only made the lives of allied citizens much worse), nothing is very nice in Europe just now. It will get worse before it gets better.
This may be a time to acknowledge that the U.S. northeast is highly dependent on Russian petroleum products. Suppose the Russians took out the entire electrical grid for the northeast region of the United States — is such a thing even possible? Yes. Is it a plausible scenario? That would have to depend on the Russians. What are they willing to do to defeat Ukraine?
By the way, payback could quickly come from a different direction: it could come from one of Russia’s allies. Who might that be? China, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia (the Saudis cannot abide Joe Biden), Turkey, Venezuela, Mexico? All of them?
We are living in dangerous times. Biden hasn’t a clue. Do you? It might be time to jot a note to your congressman. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
Now that the drums are beating for a possible “tactical”nuclear war over Ukraine, just why are we willing to continue this dance with Putin? The Appearance from General Petraeus from this past Sunday’s ABC’s “This Week” has gone largely unnoticed. It seems a little nuclear war won’t be so bad.
“We would respond by leading a NATO, a collective effort, that would take out every Russian conventional force that we can see and identify on the battlefield in Ukraine and also in Crimea and every ship in the Black Sea,” Petraeus replied.
Karl noted radiation from a nuclear attack in Ukraine would also likely reach nearby NATO countries, effectively making it an attack on the alliance. “Yes. And perhaps you can make that case. The other case is that this is so horrific that there has to be a response”
First the foundation. Then our intrepid Mustang will put his shoulder to the plow and add his thoughts.
President Joe Biden’s Vice President Kamala Harris explained the Russia-Ukraine conflict and said, “Ukraine is a country in Europe,” during a segment on 93.9 WKYS’s “The Morning Hustle” on 3/1/2022.
Then Russia has no path to victory in its war against Ukraine even with the threat of nuclear escalation says Gen. David Petraeus on ABC’s “This Week”
Mustang picks up the story here.
But if we are being honest, we must admit that since Biden took his oath of office, Washington politics has been pretty damn entertaining to most of the rest of the world. Uproariously entertaining, even. I wonder if people laughed as Rome burned to the ground.
Well, this has been going on for a while. What were “we the people” thinking while our Washington insiders (people who are “in the know”) decided to intervene in such places as Serbia, Somalia, Syria, or Libya? Were we thinking, “Yeah — let’s kick some ass!”?
Did we ever ask, “Is this (fill in the blank) crisis worth even one drop of blood of a young American soldier?” I suspect not — which means that there was no flood of mail clogging up the postal system inside the House of Representatives … and OUR silence gave the green light to the Beltway Nabobs to do their worst … and they did.
I have to be honest here and say that I’ve never given much thought to Ukraine until it was revealed to me that Joe Biden and his son were somehow involved in a corruption scheme that made both of them richer — while Biden was serving as vice president of the United States.
Should I have been paying better attention? Maybe. But the fact is that Ukraine has never been a nation-state at any time before 1991. If Ukraine didn’t belong to the Russians, it belonged to the Poles or Lithuanians. Before that, it belonged to neanderthal tribalists.
Why are we NOW risking global war for Ukrainians who are no different from the Russians in any category you choose to identify?
If war isn’t scary enough for you, try to imagine an entire world entering the cold winter of economic collapse. Are you living in New England? Do you think that the cost of Russian oil matters to your household budget? Your cost, by the way, doesn’t come as a result of some heroic enterprise to free enslaved people — it is the result of choosing the wrong people to lead the nation.
Well, that is, if you were even paying attention. If you haven’t been paying attention, you aren’t alone. But you’d better start paying attention. Your life, and that of your loved ones, depends on it.
James H. Kunstler (1948-) is an author and social critic. Here’s what he has to say about our madness:
“Let us agree that the place called Ukraine was never any of America’s business. For centuries we ignored it, through all the colorful cavalry charges to-and-fro of Turks and Tatars, the reign of the dashing Zaporizhian Cossacks, the cruel abuses of Stalin, then Hitler, and the dull, gray Khrushchev-to-Yeltsin years. But then, having destroyed Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, and sundry other places all on a great hegemonic lark, the professional warmongers of our land and their catamites in Washington made Ukraine their next special project.
They engineered the 2014 coup in Kyiv that ousted the elected president, Mr. Yanukovych, to set up a giant grifting parlor and international money-laundromat. The other strategic aim was to prepare Ukraine for NATO membership, which would have made it, in effect, a forward missile base right up against Russia’s border. Because, well, Russia, Russia, Russia!
We are wondering whether Washington’s Ukraine policy is worth its cost to America’s present and future generations. We don’t have to be historians to figure out the answer to this question. Even a brief look back to 1991 reveals that every Ukrainian presidential election illustrates a nation split between pro-Russian and anti-Russian sentiments.
It is a fact that begs the question: Isn’t this an issue Ukrainians should figure out for themselves? In any case, here’s what the election map looked like in 2010 — sentiments that are remarkably unchanged today. Still, there’s a problem …
(Readers, there was a visual here but we couldn’t get it in there for some reason. I apologize. In any case, the election map looked EXACTLY like the Russia/Ukraine battle map.)
Alexander G. Markovsky is a member of the London Center for Policy Research (founded by conservative Herbert I. London in 2012). He offers this insight into the issue of America’s involvement in the affairs of Ukraine:
“Today’s Ukrainian civil war is thus greatly exacerbated by the fact that unlike pluralistic societies such as the USA, Canada, Switzerland, and Russia, which are tolerant of different cultures, religions, and languages, Ukraine is not. Unsurprisingly, devotion to pluralism proved not to be her forte. Even though the Kyiv regime had no historical roots in the real estate it inhabited, it imposed Ukrainian rules and the Ukrainian language on non-Ukrainian people after declaring independence.
“As a result, pro-Russian sentiments – ranging from the recognition of the official status of the Russian language to outright secession – have always been prevalent in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. Western Ukraine has always gravitated toward its Polish, Romanian, and Hungarian roots. Emphatically anti-Russian, Poland may not miss this strategic opportunity to re-acquire its land and avenge the humiliation inflicted by the Yalta Conference.
“The West’s insistence on maintaining the status quo of the Ukrainian borders established by Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler exposes the disconnect between strategic doctrine and moral principles.
“Indeed, Poles make no secret of their ambitions. Polish President Andrzej Duda, recently declared, “For decades, and maybe, God forbid, for centuries, there will be no more borders between our countries – Poland and Ukraine. There will be no such border!”
“Romania is not far behind, especially in light of many inhabitants of former Northern Bukovina already carrying Romanian passports.
“The territory of Ukraine is a mosaic of other people’s lands. If we want to stop this insane war and ensure peace in Europe, instead of calling Russia’s sponsored referendum in Eastern Ukraine a sham, we should conduct an honest referendum in all the disputed territories under the auspices of the UN and let the people decide what government they want.”
I keep wondering: do we American ever get tired of fake news, fake countries, forever wars, and ruinous Washington politicians?
Bonus: This leak become more significant today than 8 years ago when it occurred.
Alleged audio of US diplomat Victoria Nuland
An embarrassing phone conversation about Ukraine politics between two high profile US diplomats has surfaced online. The audio clip of a woman and man is purportedly between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. The two people are heard discussing strategies to work with the three main opposition figures. She is heard telling him that she doesn’t think boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko should be in a new government and also saying “f**k the EU.”
This episode will be embarrassing for the US as President Barack Obama has denied the administration is manipulating the Ukrainian opposition.
Last week Germany’s minister of foreign affairs annouced Germany will stand with Ukraine Hell or High water and no matter how much their citizens suffer.
Minister Baerbock emphasized that sanctions will be in place during the upcoming winter, even if people go on the streets to express their dissatisfaction with high energy prices.
The Forum 2000 conference to took place in Praguefrom Wednesday to Friday last week. Russia’s response apparently was to turn off the gas to Germany. It was originally slated to be a three day shut-down.
“We will stand with Ukraine and this means the sanctions will stay also in winter time even if it gets really tough for politicians and we have to find good solutions all over Europe to balance the social effects because this is a part of this war, it is a hybrid war,” Baerbock added.
Germany and Europe are not only dependent on Russia for energy, they easily forget:
Someone made a list of what EU won’t get anymore with the Russia boycott.: “nat-gas, rare earths, inert gases, potash, sulfur, uranium, palladium, vanadium, cobalt, coke, titanium, nickel, lithium, plastics, glass, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, ships, inks, airplanes, polymers, medical and industrial gases, sealing rings & membranes, power transmission, transformer and lube oils, neon gas for microchip etching, etc., etc.”
Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock is from of the Alliance 90/The Greens party serving as Germany’s minister for foreign affairs since 2021. Here is a link to last week’s post:
Geez, a fellow blogger, I knew had connections to those living in Germany and I asked her if this was indeed true regarding the situation in Germany. Since her adult stepkids who live in Munich know first-hand what’s going on, and are Conservatives, she asked her stepson Alex, to please respond to their queries. Here it is:
“The energy crisis in Germany is self made and self inflicted (Z: and NOW Russia’s stopping all energy to Europe~!) Merkel decided in a dictatorial way to step out of nuclear power so renewable energy has been pushed over the years with enormous money spent. To guarantee a reliable power basis you need power plants so Russian gas was used more and more for that. Now this is cancelled, the last 3 nuclear plants will be shut down by the end of the year, no matter how bad it will be in Germany by then. We were very close to blackouts several times, now it is certain that it will happen.
Now the energy prices have gone up several 100 % just in a few months. The government is advising people to save money and prepare for the energy bills that will be coming next year for this year’s period, and to store food and water for 10 days. Food prices up, rents go up, energy; I predict that millions of people next year will be kicked out of their apartments or the government makes laws that the landlord has to carry the costs of everything if the renter can’t pay.
This will have consequences. BTW, the government is the one that kicks German people out of apartments. It works this way: the government has the duty to house all asylum seekers(NOT bio Germans) so they rent everything they can and pay any price. Landlords prefer renting to the state because that is safe money, the rent comes in for sure. The down spiral can’t be stopped. Merkel (the first green chancellor in the CDU) started this, the current parties under the leadership of the 15% party The Greens continue the destruction of Germany. The regular life even from middle class families will be eroding.
The full effects will show next year. People are now getting aware of what is coming toward them and I have no pity for them at all. Everybody could have known this beforehand but they all believed the propaganda news and elected the same standard parties. Now they feel the consequences.
About Baerbock (Z; Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and calling a LOT of the shots over there): she has no education, finished no school or university, lied in her CV, is talking quite a lot without thinking, has a lot of opinion without any knowledge, and talks Germany right into war with Russia.
Habeck, minister of economics, no education, no school, no university, used to write children’s books, said that he has no connection to Germany at all…
Chancellor Scholz, who had very strong connections to the GDR and has been in East Berlin in the 80’s quite often, lying all the time, covering finance companies who betrayed the state with taxation tricks, losing his memory all the time…
These are just 3 people of the whole parliament many of whom think this way. The war and the according prices for everything comes in for them handy to sustainably damage Germany. They are all puppets of the WEF, Klaus Schwab and Soros and follow their agenda .
We will all get much poorer for a war that is none of our business but they are pushing it until Putin drops the bomb on us.
So, yes, especially Germany will have a major downfall in a one year period. All the work of our grandparents and parents after WW2 will be destroyed in the snap of a finger.
The government knows that there will be protests and demonstrations in fall and winter and our interior minister (who has strong contacts to the militant lefty anitifa scene) has already declared that protestors are ultra right and nazis and has declared that the police will act against the demolition of democracy.
Kanzler(Chancellor) Scholz said (I think it slipped out) that there is no intention to shoot at protestors : “niemand hat die Absicht, auf Demonstranten zu schiessen.” This is absolutely unheard of but no reaction at all from the media.!! This is a quote of GDR Walter Ulbricht 1961 who said: nobody has the intention to build a wall (Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu bauen). Three days later they started to build the Berlin wall.
So this is small overview of what’s going on here in Germany. Still the import of illegals goes on and on, the Ukrainian people get all the money a German person in need would get, even more. None of those will ever go back, not now or later. Just too easy money and we have over 1 million of those here. So Germany took over 5 milloin people in the last 7 years. Wherever you go, even in the smallest city, you don’t see Germans anymore, just foreigners.
This is all to the liking to the parties in power. Please ask specific question that I can answer.
I hope this helps a little bit. Nothing much left of the Munich you used to know. All the cafes in Schwabing where you used to live and go to are now filled with foreigners.” (Z : I lived a totally blessed, lovely life in Munich several times between 1986 and 2000, the last time my husband and I were there together….very lucky to have known Munich and most of Germany in so much better times.)
Z adds: TRUMP SURE GOT IT RIGHT ABOUT GERMANY….TOTALLY BEHOLDEN TO PUTIN, and THEIR FAULT. I also want to thank Alex for this overview, as sad and depressing as it is……thanks, Alex
I add:
September 4 recorded Broadcast from DW is a public broadcast service from Germany:
Ukrainian PM in Berlin on mission for more military support | DW News
Ukraine’s Prime Minister is visiting Berlin, after months of frosty relations with Germany. Denys Shmyhal is meeting with Chancellor Olaf Sholz and other officials to push for heavy weapons from Berlin. Shmyhal has offered to send Germany more electricity across the recently-linked grid from its nuclear power stations, to help with its transition away from Russian energy. For its part, Germany recently announced a new $200 million aid package to help Ukraine’s internally displaced people, and a major boost to its military aid and weapons catalog.
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 