Some call it "Autocracy, Inc." funded by your not-so-favorite billionaires.
The parallels to the early 1930s in Germany are frightening. At that time a few wealthy industrialists funded the Nazis, who would never have come to power without the funding. The result was WWII-- 75 to 80 million dead and multiple countries in ruins.
When we only focus on the lunacy happening domestically, we are missing one key and crucial set of issues. There is a very real prospect of WWIII by not supporting the ejection of Russia from Ukraine.
We may get caught up on personality politics in the U.S. but, rest assured, none of the former Warsaw Pact or former Soviet Socialist Republics in the Baltics are interested in being returned to Russia. They will fight an invasion, which will set off WWIII. That would result in untold destruction in the Baltics, Poland, and other neighboring countries.
The sooner we stop Russia, the less expensive & horrific it will be down the road. At this point, we have it good. A relatively modest investment (considering the enormous amount of money going to the military), without putting in our own troops, can make Russia incapable of attacking its neighbors for the foreseeable future. But without enough military support for Ukraine to hold off Russia & take back their territory, Russia will proceed with its multi-century obsession with overrunning every country it can, which would soon include NATO countries & eventually all of Europe & North America.
Jaime, I read that some are suggesting the interest from the frozen Russian assets can be used to help Ukraine right now even if Congress does not act. It is an idea that I think should be pursued with vigor. It would be a fitting response to what the Putin wealthy supporters have done to a neighboring nation.
Yes, that would be an excellent source & should happen with no more delay.
We also have so much money invested in the military. Can't we use some it for Ukraine? Is everything in the Defense budget specified to a particular purpose for which Ukraine fails to qualify? Is our budget so inflexible that nothing in it can be directed to Ukraine?
And why can't Mike Johnson be removed from Congress and the Speakership, since he is an election denier and insurrectionist? What is he doing two heartbeats away from the Presidency? Giving comfort to our mortal enemies! Enabling Putin's aggression in Ukraine, and ultimately, other countries in the region, and beyond? All of trump's allies should be removed from Congress, the Senate, and the Courts, right up to the Supreme Court. Anyone in the military who is an ally should be out. Congress would not even have the slim majority it has if it wasn't for the gerrymanders and other tricks , like dirty money installing questionable candidates in Congressional seats.
Laurie, the problem is our Supreme Court has decided insurrection really isn't a problem and that only Congress can stop candidates involved in insurrection from running for or taking office. Alas, the oath of Republicans these days is worthless. The SC conservatives only like certain parts of the Constitution, those parts that fit with their ideology. Only rich white men should be able to vote; the second amendment means any white people can carry guns anywhere; abortion rights are only for rich white wives and the mistresses of rich white politicians and corporate CEOs; a president can pardon anyone even someone involved with participating in the president's crimes, even pardoning himself. It's disgusting! That's just one reason to push everyone with a brain to be sure they have registered to vote, then get out and vote Democratic in November!!
Ruth: The Supreme Court right wing majority has violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution. And are disabled! They are being racist, sexist and now help Mike Johnson to endanger our country by withholding help to Ukraine; our allies in Democracy. They allow laws to be made regarding religion: a major no no! The November vote 🗳 may not be enough! They are traitors guilty of high treason! They allow traitors to remain in office and on the ballot! Our remedy of the 14th Amendment, section 3 has been misinterpreted, like the voting rights act! They suggest that it no longer applies, because the Civil War was long ago, and things are somehow different now! It is actually worse, as we careen towards a world war three that may kill us all!
Margery Taylor Obscene wants to get rid of Mike Johnson because he didn’t block passage of the budget that will keep the government from shutting down. She wants a new Speaker, probably her. The Pigs are starting to eat The Pigs.
Scott Preston ; This happened with McCarthy after he had the nerve to do a bilateral agreement on the debt ceiling. apparently, the deal allows any member of the MAGA s to take out the Speaker. They eat their own, I guess. Anything to prevent doing their job, and maintaining the chaos and destruction. They should be fired!
The protections on our democracy, at least as (not) enforced by either Congress or our justice system, are practically nil. How did we let our democracy become so vulnerable?
Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society have been working for the very wealthy for awhile! Rules that say shareholders can ignore stakeholders who actually produce the wealth , because the shareholders Must get paid first! Are a big problem. Look at Victor Orban, and how he apparently "captured" going businesses and gave them to sycophants: stole them from those who built them. So he could live large (like he looks). How many in Hungary saw that coming? More importantly, what could they do about it? Look at our Corrupted 'Supreme' Court! Will they eventually give tRump the keys to the White House? With the whole world watching! 🌎!!
Jaime, I like your thinking! I have been wondering too why we can't use a chunk of our military budget to help out. The excuse if we need one, to keep us from having to go to war as a member of NATO when Russia invades a member country.
How could this interest on frozen Russian assets be accessed/used? Or the "chunk of our military budget" ? Now that Congress is in enemy hands, can our Commander in Chief declare an emergency and invoke his executive powers to get that done??
Laurie, those are excellent questions that I don't have the answer to, but I am sure someone out here does. The fact that I heard it discussed and people were looking at it as though it is a possibility makes me think it could happen, both the use of the asset interest and finding funds in our bloated military budget. I am guessing Biden et al are working on both.
I get the feeling that if Trump is not soon soundly defeated, we may have only civil war as the last resort to maintain our democracy. We really need leglislation that criminalizes spreading lies, and dark money in elections. Lying to gain political power is destructive, just like setting buildings on fire.
Ruth Sheets ; I have often wondered about the frozen Russian assets interest being used to help Ukraine. The attack was totally unjustified, and civilians have been slaughtered against any and all rules of warfare.
We should get rid of our own oligarchs as well; they have proven to be dangerous parasites.
Since they accuse us of being communists, we should confiscate and redistribute their wealth, and nationalize their businesses. Ever since the “fall” of the Soviet Union, emboldened criminals have made the plight of the workers around the world much worse. These criminal need to be the ones who are afraid.
I hate reading the word “scary” in response to some looming right wing threat; instead, substitute the words “fucking-mad” instead and do something about it instead of wringing our hands whilst in a cold sweat. Make them scared; make them run to their bunkers in New Zealand and then send in the Dirty Dozen to block off the ventilation systems.
Putin won't have to overrun North America, if Trump is elected, all it has to do is sent forces across the Bering Strait into Alaska, and Trump will surrender.
Back in 1971, I participated in a joint Canadian American exercise called Acid Test III.
fighting in sub zero weather with 5 feet of snow on the ground is exhausting, oil and grease freeze up in vehicles. steering does't work, brakes don't work, unless everything is degreased.
No doubt that Russians are trained and prepared. The Army is now just catching up, maybe.
All it would take is a show of force in Alaska, and a President Trump would gladly and rapidly cave.
If we are going to save our country, our democracy, much less ourselves from the wrath of the right. We had all best do what we can to be sure that Biden wins the election
People need to understand that this does not necessarily mean we will have a War of the Worlds, with giant weapons marauding across the countryside.
The fall of our democracy can happen with a war of words, a challenge of ideas, a struggle of votes … THAT is how they will end “government by consent of the governed,” — by getting us to vote for our very demise — and we end up with government by Strong Man.
The world gets a consortium of Strong Men all working together to cement their power.
I hope we don’t let them somehow redefine what “Strong Man” means, now. I hear the term a lot lately.
It does NOT mean competent and virile leadership; it means Dictator.
True Pat: But it doesn't mean that when democracy collapses, it will be a slow collapse either.
If we have Dictator Trump, expect almost immediate social upheaval as he and his cult seek retribution against not only his known enemies, but against liberals, like you and me, and they have the guns, the anger and the thirst for revenge.
We are facing a nightmare. I wish it wasn't so. People engage in wishful thinking, optimistic even, making lemonade out of lemons and all of that rot, I know the right from the inside, and I know what they are, and what they are is no respecter of the rule of law, democracy.
How many MAGAts do you think there are. 150 million? That's how many Sturmabeitlung there are.
Oh they won't take retribution on every liberal, just enough to scare the rest into acquiescence and silence.
Does anyone think that all of the people lining the roadways, giving Hitler the Roman salute, were enthusiastic NAZIs. I don't, all that is needed is a blood thirsty, self righteous, care of True Believers.
In 1932 Germany had a population of 61 million, and 2 million of them were brown shirts, the Sturmabeitlung, that is 3.3% of the population, and that is all it took to take over the nation.
Hindenburg trembled, and appointed Hitler Chancellor and he then enacted laws that, among other things, outlawed political parties other than the National Socialist German Workers Party.
Compare to the Cult of Trump. 40% of the voting population are die hard wannabe brown shirts,d lets say that the voting population of American fascists is just 50% of the total population, about half of which are children. You still have 20% of the heavily armed right wing population supporting their fuhrer.
One thing I know for sure, because Trump promised it, if he wins the election, it will not be business as usual, with a different party and agenda in power, but chaos, mayhem and physical violence if you are not a white Christian Nationalist., massive unemployment and a depression are nothing compared to the violence that awaits.
As long as most (actually practically all) of the plotters, organizers & perpetrators of the insurrection & attempt to overturn the election remain free, & Trump's own criminal trials are in limbo, I have no confidence that justice will be served, & if our so-called justice system continues to be so weak, negligent & ineffective, then I have no confidence our democracy can hold firm. Something substantial has to change quickly. Trump, Bannon, Flynn, Stone & others are clear & present dangers to our national security, & as such should be held captive, or at least under constant surveillance, as would anyone else who pose the risk they do.
I do not expect anything to happen to Trump,, maybe even not paying his fines, if he can delay until November. The fix is in. Trump election officials, armed Trump poll watchers, voter caging, voter suppression laws, and Muslims and black males flipping Biden and Dems the bird.
I fear this is the last free elction ever, unless every real American,not some neo NAZI, Christian fascist and their legions of Quislings and culture warrior, get off their ass and vote for Biden and a Democratic congress, if they don't, it is game, set and as Bugs said "That's all folks"
We've gone over the precipice and there is no coming back, not like in the cartoons.
Oh, Lee, I can’t put a like on that, but I know it is true.
I am afraid that changes will NOT be slow {as the changes wrought by Zero Sum Republicans in the Gingrich mode HAVE been somewhat slow since Reagan, getting us to where we are today, polarized to the max and primed for a quick coup de grace to end Democracy … Egad. … Egad, egad, egad.
I am currently working on a manuscript by a Philadelphia debutante who went to Vienna in the early 30’s, came home for a bit, and went back through the rest of the thirties and the war, not coming home again until 1946.
Yes, she spent WWII on the other side of the front, married and unwilling to leave her husband, but also a little stuck, an American in Austria during WWII. She talks about how dangerous it was to even have an opinion in those years, never knowing who was listening, who would “report” you, and who was going to “disappear” next. It’s chilling stuff. {She makes no bones about how fearful it was to live under the Reich, but she does not mince words about how Russian troops treated people on that front, either. Horrific.}
What I fear Jaime is that the Heritage foundation has laid out it's blueprint for a Trump Admin. Trump has said he will become a dictator on day
They have already drawn up executive orders and drafts of legislation, they have a rubber stamp congress, thanks to Gerrymandering, voter suppression laws and tactics.
Day 1 he fires all cabinet heads, including the Pentagon, and appoints his cronies as acting heads, thus no senate approval required. He did the same with the Dept of Def and the Dept of the Army the week prior to Jan 6th to put in place his cronies
Day 2 He declares martial law in response to protests and his coterie of ass kissing Generals calls out the troops. In the words of the Roy Orbison song: "Its over"
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but this time, more than any other in our history, every true patriot, not the treasonous, white Christian Nationalist faux patriots needs to turn out to vote, even the fence sitters who don't want to live under a dictator.
I got news for the Islamic patriots that live in the U.S. if you "ain't" happy with Biden, then you are going to be misearble with Trump, just wait and see, blackmail back fires.
Biden can't listen to all constituents, because his constituents have competing claims, win A and lose B.
What people have to come to grips with is the fact that as disappointed with Biden they may be, the alternative is much, much worse.
Biden may have sent Arms to Israel, but Trump has promised to eject all Arabs, even those born here.
This Israel/HAMAS war is a nut buster. The Israeli right has been harassing, shooting and driving Arabs out of their homes in the west bank.
However the ideology of Islam is that there is no Israel and it needs to be obliterated (that means 10 million Jews obliterated or more likely driven to America or Europe.
It is wishful thinking that Muslims and Jews can live side by side in peace. Wishful thinking if you eve read the Quran and Hadiths (sacred text of Islam).
On the other hand there are 2 million Arab citizens of Israel, with the right to vote, and some have served in the knesset. You can't say the same about Jews in a Muslim land, if you can find one that is.
There are even some Arabs serving in the IDF.
Problems have solutions. The situation between the Jews and Muslims have no solution, ergo not a problem, but a difficulty and a damn one that will plague the world so long as people believe in religions.
But, but, but it is all about the economy so says the corporate media and their press ho's.
On ground level it is about the culture war. What do you think the immigration fight is about, not about "wetbacks" taking away artichoke picking jobs from starving and hungry Americans, as the asshole tongue waggers on TV pretend, it is about an influx of brown people and the "great replacement" idea floated by Carlson and Fox. Actually it predates both.
Which is strange from one point of view, because Latino's are ultra conservative, culturally, superstitiously religious, misogynistic, homophobic, anti abortion, and hang on every word of the Pope and the Evangelical and Pentecostal "ministers" that converted them.
In fact there is a Hispanic red wave acoming, Univision is pro Trump now, and I just heard a Latina from south Texas, name of Mayra Flores, interviewed on MSNBC, she is 110% MAGAt and right winger. Her parents were born in Mexico, illegal migrants, and she is vociferously anti migrant, especially from south of the Border, NYT described her as a far right Latina.
In fact, the constant influx of these Latin American immigrants could provide a never ending source of support for the Republican Party with their conservative thinking. Initially more may be Democratic, probably due to gratitude for a more welcoming attitude by Democrats, but eventually, due to their cultural & religious background, they begin shifting rightward, as can clearly be seen now.
If they’re able to destabilize our democracy, they don’t even NEED to take us over — just get a consortium of “Strong Men” running things, Oligarchs owning things, and the rest of us serving them.
That sounds so draconian, but look at the countries where it has happened. South America, Eastern Europe, Asia {and we rarely even hear about Africa!!}… When Posobiec said they plan to bring down Democracy, what did we think he meant?
Two years ago, Ukraine unfroze the conflict in the Donbass by initiating its long-awaited invasion, precipitating immediate Russian retaliation. There's a complicated background story, involving American meddling -- in violation of the principles of international law -- to overthrow Ukraine's former corrupt and vulnerable Russia-friendly government in 2014.
We've been shoving Russia since the 1990s and our move on Ukraine precipitated a Russian "Cuban Missile Crisis" reaction against what they perceived as an existential threat.
But around here, many people parrot bellicose Biden administration talking points, heedless of the fact that our industrial capacity is so depleted and our technology so outdated that we have little chance of winning a hot war against Russia.
Ukraine did no such thing! It's the exact opposite of what actually did happen: a totally unprovoked massive Russian invasion of Ukraine. You & that other troll, Libor Soural, have picked the wrong place to try to deceive the readers & commenters. We're a lot better educated & more internationally aware than most Americans, & we can spot a russofascist Putin apologist troll right away. What rational being in this world is going to believe that Ukraine would do such an irrational, suicidal thing as invading Russia when we saw very clearly the exact reverse?
WooHoo, Jaime!! I love your response to that idiot!! Way to go!!! These trolls only come on here to ruffle feathers. All we need to do is hit them with the truth and the simple fact that we are not like the mouth drooling magas who believe ANYTHING!! Keep taking it to them, Jaime!!
Victor, yes, we need respectful dialog; however, the only thing republicans are doing right now is screaming in your face, insulting, intimidating, hate-filled diatribes with no room for anyone to have any kind of meaningful dialog. their little orange leader stood up and made fun of our President's speech impediment and ALL of them laughed and egged him on!! Do you think that is respectful??
The claim that the US and/or NATO somehow provoked Russia into invading Ukraine is simply false, as anyone who had been following events in that part of the world knew from the start. It's an assertion based on false premises, including the claim that NATO had formally promised Russia it wouldn't expand to the east, the claim that the US overthrew Ukraine's pro-Russian president (when it was the Ukrainian people who did it), and the claim that NATO was about to admit Ukraine and Putin was only trying to forestall that (there was no prospect of Ukraine joining NATO or even the EU before the war, though now Putin has made it much more likely).
Incidentally, the Koch brothers-backed Cato Institute is not exactly an unbiased source.
Paul, just because one media source makes a claim does not make it real. It is true Ukraine has been a near-ally for a long time, but there was a chance that Russia might have been one too, but alas, they or rather, their leaders chose a different route and it was not a positive one for anyone on or near Russia's borders. Putin is paranoid and wants to get everyone to believe the world is against him and Russia. No sane person attacks their neighbors. We should know that from our past "invasions of Mexico and Caribbean nations. Russia attacked Ukraine for their own gains, not due to anything we in the US did.
And here we have another Putin Troll. I knew it, thanks for outing yourself "Paul", what is the Russian for Paul?
The Cato institute is a right wing supposedly libertarian organization, but now that The Trump cult is full blown and unapologetic fascist, we can expect to see more of your ilk jump into the Putin/Orban/Trump tank.
That’s from the fascist CATO INSTITUTE which was started and funded by the Koch brothers whose father was a known Nazi sympathizer and who called for the assassation of JFK. Cato is less responsible of a news source than Fox. Wake up.
Jaime, was he claiming somehow that the Donbass was “legitimately Russian”? Just because Russia, during the Iron Curtain years, had seeded that part of Ukraine with Russian speakers moved in to lay claim to the territory {for the luvva Pete, Volodimir Zelensky was primarily a Russian-language speaker!! But even the Russian speakers in Donbass are fighting valiantly to drive the Russians OUT, because it’s NOT true they want to be part of Russia. Ukraine wants to be Ukraine!}The US did not spur the anti-Russian wave that swept Zelensky into office. That was Ukrainian throwing out a corrupt Putin-loving Oligarch.
No one in the Glasnost period even wrote or signed a binding agreement to keep hands off Eastern European countries, especially those that WANT to associate more with Europe than with Russia, and no one could have promised that those countries would never have the right to self-determination as to associating with the EU or NATO.
That was thirty years ago. No treaty or agreement on those issues.
Russia did not go the way Gorbachev would have liked. And now Putin has been leaning on once-Soviet states, and some of those once-Soviet states {like Ukraine and Rumania} are nervous about it! Finland and Sweden joined NATO because they are afraid of Russia —
Exactly as you say! Sending Russians to that region is typical of what they do to any country they want to conquer. Of, course, Ukraine has been in & out of their control many different times in their history, & have suffered many massacres under the hands of Russia over the centuries, so they know what subjugation under Russia is like & they naturally want none of it.
Right Jaime: The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians
China should focus on getting back Outer Mongolia which was stolen from them by the Czars. They might be watching now to see how the second best army in Ukraine fares against an out numbered foe.
We unleashed the "shock therapy" genocide that killed off all the old people in Russia.
(LOOK OUT Baby Boomers -- your turn is coming.)
We pushed NATO east to Russia's doorstep, after promising not to.
Then we supported a "color revolution" against the Russia-friendly President of Ukraine, but he got voted back into office because Russian speakers were a small majority in hodge-podge, cobbled-together Ukraine.
Then we supported a "color revolution" that overthrew he Russia-friendly government of Georgia; Russia created a "frozen conflict" that blocked Georgia from joining NATO.
Then in 2014 we supported another "color revolution" in Ukraine, this time with neo-Nazi thugs to make it stick.
Russia took back Crimea and created another "frozen conflict," blocking Ukraine from joining NATO.
Actually, there was a pathway to peace through this frozen conflict -- the Minsk Agreements -- but Merkel and Macron both admitted that they didn't take the Minsk Agreements seriously; it was just to give Ukraine time to rearm.
Then Zelensky got elected on a promise to make peace, and moved toward implementing the Minsk Agreements. But neo-Nazi war-mongers threatened to kill him, so he capitulated and started building up to invade the Donbass.
Finally Zelensky was ready for his Donbass invasion, with a 3-to-1 superiority of troops on the line of contact. Russia built up their troops on Ukraine's border and signed mutual defense treaties with the breakaway Donbass republics.
When Ukraine began its pre-invasion bombardment, Russia intervened.
Hahahahahaha, I had to laugh!! Two trolls arguing with one another!!! Victor and John keep arguing with each other and hopefully your circuits will blow!!
Pat, pushing back on these trolls with facts, as we've done quite well today, can be effective in discouraging them. They look like fools as well as the liars they are.
Except that you lied "John" or whoever you are. It was Putin that invaded Donbass two years ago, not the Ukraine, two years ago Donbass was part of Ukraine and still is, despite Putins phony referendum.
So says the Putin Troll.. What is your real name, it sure isn't John Schmeekle, how about Evgeny or Ivan, maybe Mischa. Ivan that is it, Ivan in England is John.
“We've been shoving Russia since the 1990s and our move on Ukraine precipitated a Russian "Cuban Missile Crisis" reaction against what they perceived as an existential threat.”
I won’t dispute that the US could have treated Russia far better than we did after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but your analysis is flawed on many levels.
First off, we gave aid to Russia the same way US AID works around the world. Most of the money is given to US corporations and NGO’s that support the host countries economic initiatives. Less than 20% would be actual cash changing hands. And Russia was broke thanks to its military folly in Afghanistan and self imploded; not because of the US, unless you include our support for the Mujahedin. However, then you’d have to include Russia’s meddling in Vietnam, Cuba and Korea.
That said, are you familiar with the Budapest Memorandum? It was a nuclear nonproliferation agreement signed by the US, Russia, Ukraine, China, France and Great Britain. Ukraine abided, and handed over its nukes, or we decommissioned most of the nuclear arsenal for them.
In the deal, all parties agreed that Ukraine would give all 20,000 nuclear weapons (second largest stockpile after Russia) in exchange for its independence and territorial integrity. This included Crimea, which was gifted to Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954 and the Donbas region which was always considered part of Ukraine.
As for many of the Baltics and Eastern European countries joining NATO and the EU, it was a choice made by independent countries that feared Russia. They have every right to pursue their own economic interests outside of the Russian Federation, as well as their own security interests, regardless how Russia perceives these countries to be threats.
If Russia wasn’t a clear and present danger to their very existence, none of these countries would feel the need to join a western alliance.
And Putin has been interfering in Eastern European countries as well as western nations elections since he took power in 1999. First, invading Chechnya in 1999 on false terrorism charges that were carried out by FSB members, and later in Georgia.
Putin has always been the aggressor. He’s interfered in elections in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Chechnya and most recently Great Britain during Brexit and the US in 2016. Our Cyber command has recently stated that Russia is already interfering with our 24’ election by promoting propaganda on social media networks.
You say America was meddling in Eastern Europe nations in violation of international law? Please state how and when? Russia has been in violation of far more international laws than the US; at least when it comes to Eastern Europe. The Middle East is another story.
As for Ukraine “unfreezing” the conflict in Donbas, please elaborate? Donbas was part of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty since the fall of the Soviet Union and the Bucharest Memorandum, so your point is irrelevant, and just another Putin propaganda talking point.
Well said!! Robert, you and Jaime have hit him with the facts. All he will be able to do is insult and try to intimidate. He has nothing in his arsenal except insults!!
Peggy, and he also has a full quiver of lies and misinformation as well as a bunch of folks out here who want to be lied to because the lies support their own agendas of hate and distrust. So, it is up[ to the people who care about democracy and freedom, not just the words to stand against their whining and lies.
Ruth, as someone else mentioned, we're likely to find more & more of these trolls as we get closer to the election. As we argue with them & rebut them with facts, it's good practice for us. We can all learn from each other & learn about the history & evidence that supports our arguments, which makes our arguments even stronger the next time we face them. As much as their lies may enrage us, we should welcome this opportunity to get the truth out there.
And that is enough out of you Mischa, or whatever your real name is "Paul", that fact that this Ivan or John, spewed lies, and disinfo, and you call it history is damning.. for you.
When assessing the rights and wrongs of all that has unfolded between Ukraine and Russia, a critical question is the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of the Maidan Revolution.
If so, was this part of an ongoing campaign to subjugate and/or dismember Russia?
The United States, by supporting regime change in Ukraine in 2014, imposed a reverse "Cuban Missile Crisis" on Russia with the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO and hosting NATO missiles pointed at Russia. We backed Russia into a corner, and they lashed out at us.
In addition, the post-revolution Ukrainian rump parliament began by passing a law to ban the use of the Russian language in government, in a multi-ethnic country where Russian was the first language of about half the population. This ban was enforced by making the far-right leader Arsen Avakov the Interior Minister, in charge of the police.
With Avakov in charge of the police, bigoted far-right extremist gangs operated with impunity in Ukraine, in an environment of lawless terror.
See "Far-Right Extremism as a Threat to Ukrainian Democracy":
The U.S.-sponsored Maidan Revolution brought ongoing civil war to Ukraine, in which neighboring Russia intervened.
It is well-known in Africa that Kenya licks the boot of the American neo-imperialists. Putin is respected in Africa for his resistance to American imperialist meddling. African countries on good terms with Russia include Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Mali, Algeria and others.
Right, Russia doesn’t interfere in Africa. I guess all the Wagner Group mercenaries working on Outin’s behalf for brutal crooked African regimes doesn’t count?
Seriously, this is about legitimacy. And Putin doesn’t get to tear up agreements to suit his interests. The Budapest Memorandum is real, and legitimate; end of story.
Putin also said that we should give Alaska back to them, because Czar Peter the Great made a very bad deal.
Of course, Russia was broke because of the Crimea War in 1867, but let’s not let details and facts get in the way of a Putin narrative!…:)
By Putin’s logic, we should give France back the Louisiana Purchase because Napoleon made a bad deal after Haiti declared independence, and they lost a profitable sugarcane industry.
The chorus went off the rails. If you want to save democracy at home and help Ukraine, you must focus on the US and not allow Trump and his fascists carry the US flag. If you don't wrest the flag from him, we are doomed!
The Budapest Memorandum is like the old treaty of alliance between the revolutionary U.S.A. and the King of France. After the French Revolution and the resulting French terror regime, President Washington decided that the treaty with the old regime was no longer valid. The same goes for Ukraine after the U.S.-sponsored Maidan Revolution.
OHHHHH, Schmeekle, so a signed memorandum is invalid, because “changing situation.”
But a No Actual Signed Agreement About NATO Expansion is the cause behind all the trouble, even though the No Actual Signed Agreement was, like, nearly 40 years ago, with loads of “changing situations,” and it didn’t actually exist.
You are comparing apples and oranges. The issue of NATO expansion relates to Russia's possible inclination to attack because they feel threatened, as in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
When does it become too late to act?? We and our proxy Ukraine provoked a Russian preemptive strike.
Perhaps the Russians miscalculated the perceived existential threat? Or perhaps not. These questions can be discussed respectfully, even among those with differing views.
President Biden has exposed the abject weakness of American and European munitions supply, as Ukraine runs out of artillery ammunition and their soldiers fall back.
Biden, fulfilling his earlier threat, destroyed the Nordstream pipeline. Together with sanctions cutting off trade with Russia, the German economy is starting to buckle under the weight.
The U.S. misadventure in Ukraine has awakened darker-skinned countries' fears of western imperialism: Russia has been winning the propaganda war in Africa.
Now "everybody" wants to join the BRICS countries with their common agenda of de-dollarizing international trade.
For decades we have been exporting inflation, creating fiat dollars that are absorbed by other countries trading among themselves. The end of the Almighty Dollar is at hand, thanks to the stupidity of Joe Biden. The result, as dollars come sloshing home and other countries politely decline to buy any more U.S. Treasury bonds, will be hyperinflation here in the U.S.A. (creating dollars to service the UnpayableDebt), thanks to Joe "mashed potato brain" Biden.
Yet inflation is lower in the US than the rest of the world. But yes, Putin & MBS, with Trump's prompting, are scheming to cut oil & gas production in order to spike inflation & create fuel shortages just before the election to sabotage Biden's chances. The fascists & authoritarians of the world are uniting against Biden.
The evidence implicates Russia more than the US in the destruction of the Nordstrom Pipeline. The Russians did something very similar on a pipeline between Finland & some island in the Baltic Sea? (I may have the details wrong from a vague memory). The same Russian boat was spotted in the area during the time of both disasters.
The running out of ammunition by Ukraine is largely on the House Republicans guided by the russophilic sadonarcissist Benedict Donald, but also due to the poor planning of all NATO nations in not having sufficient quantities in production.
Post-Soviet Ukraine was like post-Communist Yugoslavia. Both countries were artificial amalgamations imposed by outside forces without any voting by the people. Both countries, after the end of Communism, devolved into civil war, but that process took longer in Ukraine.
NATO intervened in the Yugoslav civil war as progressed Saturn was exactly conjunct the Ascendant in the correct U.S. horoscope (set for May 15, 1776 at 5:00 p.m. in Philadelphia.)
Here's a map of Ukraine in 1917 in the middle of a civil war (outlined in red) showing all the other parts that were added over the years:
Ukraine in 1991 was an artificial creation that had been cobbled together by arbitrary Soviet decisions, apparently driven by the desire to keep the Russian-speaking population above 50%. This led to Ukraine’s civil war after the Maidan Revolution and the rise of the neo-Nazis who targeted Ukraine's bare native Russian-speaking majority.
Now do a map of Russia's gigantic expansion over the centuries to become over half again as large as the next largest country, & that's still not enough for the insatiable imperialists.
You have served up a lot to rebut. I'll start it off as follows:
Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.
A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.
When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.
In August, after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken announced more aid for Ukraine, Zelensky posted a video showing him with Ukraine's most prominent Neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky:
See also (from 2019) "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine":
"Five years ago, Ukraine’s Maidan uprising ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to the cheers and support of the West. Politicians and analysts in the United States and Europe not only celebrated the uprising as a triumph of democracy, but denied reports of Maidan’s ultranationalism, smearing those who warned about the dark side of the uprising as Moscow puppets and useful idiots. Freedom was on the march in Ukraine.
"Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
“Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.”—John Schmeeckle
All speculation, and please name the Nazi warmonger? Ukraine was fighting for its life. And it suppressed 11 political parties with links to Russia: they committed treason.
“A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.”
It was a mistake, and as you noted, Rota immediately resigned. What does this have to do with anything?
“When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.”—John Schmeeckle
Nonsense. There were growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine in early 2022, and Russia officially recognised the DPR and LPR on February 21, 2022. Following that decision, on February 22, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the Minsk agreements "no longer existed", and that Ukraine, not Russia, was to blame for their collapse.
Just because Putin says Ukraine broke the agreement doesn’t mean it’s true. I suppose you believe it was Ukraine who invaded Russia, not vice versa?
Zelenskyy, and Ukraine is fighting for their lives. And Andriy Biletsky is not a neo-Nazi, they are white nationalists. I don’t see you criticizing Trump for saying “stand back and stand by” after White nationalists (anti-semites) attacked and injured over 31 people, killing one in Charlottesville? Or how CPAC and so many republican members of Congress associate and speak at white nationalist gatherings.
I won’t bother disseminating the rest of your comments since it’s pointless. Everything you write is irrelevant to the topic at hand.
I do t need to see a map of Ukraine in 1917. Russia also disintegrated around that time with the Bolshevik Revolution. Pre-Soviet Union boundaries no longer exist. East Germany no longer exists. The UN recognizes the 1994 boundaries, not Putin’s delusional wet dream!
The Budapest Memorandum defined Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty in 1994. It was agreed to by all parties. Ukraine gave up its nukes, and until 2014, all was fine until Putin invaded Crimea and the Donbas region.
I’ve read part two and three, and again, all speculation and irrelevant conclusions. Sorry I don’t have the time to debate. You bog yourself down with irrelevant minutiae.
If Trump's efforts result in his reelection in 2024, Democracy in this country will be given a back seat to Autocracy. Trump hates the election system in this country because he can't control it. To Donnie Boy, what good is a system if you can't find a way to cheat it? The school yard bully who tried to topple a government by overturning an election is a heartless, insensitive, product of a relationship started by Fred and Mary. These two weren't much on parenting and results are proof positive. Donald Trump is a weed of a man with absolutely no reverence for law and order. To allow this creep to find his way back into power in this country would spell the end of everything we hold as dear. However, if the worst happens, upon winning Trump will make a phone call and arrange to have an attractive young woman "Escort" him into the future, where even God is absent.
Paul--The termination of the EC is a must, those days when it was needed have left us. Trump only wants the people who support him to be allowed to vote. Not much of a free election system. The man is an abject criminal.
Paul--A democracy is ruled by the voice of the people, the "Majority." The EC is undemocratic in nature because it circumvents the will of the people it's supposed to represent. The Democratic party has won a number of elections only to lose them because of an outdated "blue law." Yes, I know it's not a blue law but it sure is as stupid as one.
As I responded further down the thread, this is all distortions and lies.
The commonly made (by pro-Russian propagandists) claim that the US "promised" Russia it wouldn't expand NATO eastward is false. The only promise of that sort was made by then-Secretary of State Baker to Gorbachev, and Baker wasn't authorized to promise anything of the sort. For such a promise to be meaningful, there would have to be a formal, written agreement, and no such agreement was made.
Another claim popular among pro-Russian conspiracy theorists is the assertion that the US was somehow behind the 2014 Maidan revolution that overthrew Yanukovych. Anyone who was paying attention at the time knows that this is false. Yanukovych's administration was utterly corrupt, and was by the time the protests started it was very unpopular. Even members of Yanukovych's own party had begun to abandon him. The protests were a massive, grassroots movement, as virtually all successful mass protest movements are. The US of course supported the protestors, as did anyone else who was pro-democracy and anti-corruption, but it didn't start or control them in any way. It was the Ukrainian people who overthrew Yanukovych. "Neo-Nazi thugs" did not play a significant role in the success of the protests, or in Ukrainian politics since that time.
Finally, anyone who was paying attention knows that it was Russia that in early 2022 first began a military build-up in Donbass and on the Ukraine-Russia border. Ukraine was not preparing to invade Donbass. And the claim that you make below that Ukraine began a "pre-invasion bombardment" is so utterly contrary to what we all saw happen that it's unbelievable that anyone could seriously make such a statement.
Sounds like you're channeling Vladimir Putin. Congratulations. Why don't you tell us how China is just waiting for Russia to expend its Armies to the point they can't defend themselves and China will march into Siberia? Then Russia will definitely have a 2 front war. Putin is so smart.
Putin sympathizer like you need to stay the fuck out of Americas politics - Russia is a screwed up dictatorship with a mentally corrupt person at the helm of their sinking ship … Putin will fail as Russian people are questioning why Navalny was “ MURDERED “ in a Siberian jail. You can’t control people forever, they will rise up to free.
Your scenario is reality-based. China has been laying low, watching things proceed, which in many ways have gone badly for Russia as they expend their defensive capabilities. China also has a more justifiable claim on certain land in Siberia that Russia stole from China long ago than either China has over Taiwan or Russia has over Ukraine (or other countries it's contemplating invading).
Thanks for the link Daniel I have been looking for information on this. I assume Putin "may" do whatever he can get away with, and that includes backstopping loans to Trump, feeding misinformation to the starving R's in the House (Smirnov and hs BS about Biden), etc. Still it's difficult to ascertain the truth about many matters. I just now looked at Seths ss and I have no reason to think he is a reliable source.
Daniel, I suspect a whole lot of people assumed a Putin connection or one from Musk when they heard about the bond. It is clearly someone who is hoping for a Trump victory in November so Trump can repay the gift with interest. How is it our courts permit it?
Trump is revamping the RNC. He is preparing for the eventuality of a loss in 2024 and by placing key people in positions to aid his efforts Trump plans on winning the next election even if he loses it.
Tell ya what Shmuck, let’s let Ukraine win then we can see for ourselves if what you are so busy throwing around here and HCR’s newsletter is accurate. Does that work for you?
Oh yeah - Putin and his thugs said in January 2021 as they were amassing military along Ukraine border - were just doing war exercises, nothing to see here - that scumbag and Trump are worthless pigs willing to kill innocent people for their own fragile egos. Our equipment and technology far EXCEEDS Russian crap - plus most of the Russian soldiers are “ forced into service “ so the Russians citizens don’t want to support Putin stinking ideas but are afraid of him.
John Schmuckala, I guess you just want to roll over and bare your butt to Trump and Putin. I prefer to fight and in a war against totalitarianism, there are no rules or polite play.
The only thing Putin did to tarnish Uncle Joe was to openly say that he wanted Joe to win. Obviously a simpleton’s ploy to get some of the non thinkers in the electorate to think that he’s afraid of Trump He’s not. He’s counting on the Repiglicans to win so that they will hand him Ukraine. Not too hard to figure out.
But, don’t fret too much your man will probably win because all these fundamentalist Jesus Christers think Trump is the second coming. I can make a case, even as an atheist, that Trump is probably the Satanic entity which they should fear; but they are lost in the trance of his awkwardly woven lies.
In the extremely remotely likely event that I should cross paths with an incognito Uke "Seal Team 6" bent on doing what they must do, I'll shake their hands, stand them a round of their favorite tasty beverages, and send them on their way wishing them "happy hunting!"
Our military budget is a very small part of our GNP. Why don’t we use some of that “black ops” money to really fund Ukraine to win and not advertise to the world that we are doing it? Why do we always telegraph our punches to these criminals? We should just do it.
Zelensky said from the beginning "we will do all the fighting. We're not asking you to send your own troops. Just for your military & financial assistance". (paraphrasing from memory)
I blame our government for not being more forthcoming, & delaying the delivery of necessary armaments until too late.
The evidence, facts & their own rhetoric & actions support the thesis that Russia will pursue its centuries-long ambition to control as much of the world as they can by invading country after country for as long as they are able to. If they annihilate a people along the way, well, that is a pleasure they are more than happy to engage in.
All other US engagements in conflicts since WWII could be reasonably deemed unnecessary if not reckless, but this has the same global import as WWII with its impact on international security, sovereignty, democracy & peace. The sooner we nip it in the bud, the better for all. We've already let this go on too long by being too hesitant & weak in our support of Ukraine, especially since the Republican House took over.
Your answer is appeasement & "let them do whatever the he'll they want". Well, it didn't work on Hitler's Germany, & it won't work on Russia, which has shown us what it's all about every century its been in existence, which is attacking & invading its neighbors, acquiring territory, committing genocide & expanding empire. You really want to encourage that? It's only going to keep getting worse, & the stakes higher if we let it go on, to say nothing of other countries getting a cue from our weakness to invade the countries they want to take over.
To wake people up we need to tell personal stories of how lives will change if those speakers that are quoted in this newsletter are followed.
Tell of the parent that doesn’t come home because they were taken in. Tell of the child who repeats what they heard at the kitchen table and then sees their father arrested.
Tell of people being fired to give the job to a party worker.
The authoritarians have countries with plenty of victims. Make those stories as gut wrenching as Katie Britt made her story when she lied.
I am afraid that many people do not understand what is valuable about democracy and if we don’t make it clear like we are talking to children, we won’t get to them. Spell it out in stories why democracy is important. What happens if you can’t speak your mind, if the media is only state propaganda, if people in power can never be removed and will make you disappear if you complain. What will your family do if you simply never came back from work or school or a walk in the park? That is what the authoritarian regimes are promising.
I was an attorney in the 60's working with a Black housing group when the police came in the morning and rounded up every Black person on the street (tens of people) regardless of who they were or what job they needed to go to because some Black person somewhere at some unspecified time had allegedly committed a burglary. I thought we had gotten beyond that but bigotry seems to be on a rebound. Democracy for all is what we need.
I remember as a child my parents and grandparents relating stories of the Gestapo coming to relatives' homes in the middle of the night. As a child I was terrified.
I am old enough to remember some of world war 2, heard Hitler ranting on the radio, saw photos of liberation of death camps IRT - we of that generation are dying out and young people live in a different world, and their ideas of that time are far less vivid. I fear that, as we have done since descending from the trees, we will repeat, repeat, forget and then repeat again
My parents, refugees from then Communist Czechoslovakia, always said the answer to everything was “education, education, education.” We can see how, now it is the non-college educated (and white) middle class (mostly men), now Perpetual Victims as the Evangelical Right, furiously accusing the “Deep State” of victimizing them, their heads in the sand about their real victimizers, billionaires and the industrial military complex, and who are now led by the Victim King and Orange Dictator Wannabe, who displays extraordinary skills at convincing them of their victimhood and that only he can bring them salvation, being brought to them as the Second Coming of Christ, and especially retribution, despite having been convicted by a jury of his peers of “sexual assault” (the NYC legal nomenclature for rape) and indicted on 91 felony counts in 4 different court jurisdictions. It just boggles my mind. And terrifies me. This may be our last free election!
Rose Maly ; It helps tRump to spread his lies that he had Fox 'news' as his Megaphone!. I suppose Newsmax and OAN also helped him get his message out. Also, Eveangelicals are especially impressionable. If you can suspend your disbelief in a snake oil salesman in a Mega church, why not at a political rally? These folks are ripe to swallow lies hook line and sinker! They want to be saved, and visit their enemies with hellfire and brimstone! It does not even matter that tRump does not show a whit of integrity. Or love for anyone. Ripping off a charity for children with cancer! He is no longer allowed to run a charity! He hates women, and treats them like 🐕 dogs! Which he also hates!
An older college friend in the 70s relayed an experience she had visiting Berlin a couple years previously. I do not recall how she also visited the East German side, but she told me she spent an enjoyable evening with a few people in someone's apartment. Some people had guitars, and they had been singing folk songs, including some popular in the US. A day or so later, the person whose apartment they had been in had "disappeared" to be "reeducated."
The conquer America strategy of the Russians has always been to buy their way into democracy. They don’t need to invade us across the Bering Sea.
Russians are having trouble doing logistics and their invasion of the Ukraine. They’re really not up to invading the United States buy our political leaders Trump Mike Johnson, Mitch McConnell. It’s much easier and cheaper to buy off Americans through third-party subterfuge if necessary then it is to take us on in a military one on one fight.
Republicans are leading the way to the third world war by being weak weak weak on communism.
It’s even possible that the Republicans are too stupid to notice that they are being bought off by the Russians …
This is a shameful time in American politics. What would Eisenhower or Roosevelt or Kennedy or Johnson or Reagan? Say they’re definitely spinning in their graves …
Even if "The Predecessor" pulls the U.S. out of NATO we would end up in WWIII. China would likely attack Taiwin and U.S. assets there. That would trigger a response. Then we end up with Putin declaring war on the U.S. the same way Hitler did in 1941. Putin could also look at a nuclear strike on a city such as Berlin.
Isn't it time to ask the question-what the hell is wrong with Europe- the democratic countries of Europe? The US has since 2016 demonstrated itself to be unreliable in many ways. Even with the election of Biden in 2020 that was no reason for Europe's complacency given the obvious state of our politics.
The European "arsenals of democracy" have had time to crank up so that they could be providing more of the essential weapons to Ukraine. Even with the economic dislocations of the past years. The war is, after all, in their backyard.
Of course the US should continue to support Ukraine.
I'm remembering a documentary series on PBS in the 1980's called "World At War" which pictorially showed the autrocities of WWII world wide, but also mentioned that world wide casualities, military and civilian were closer to 140,000,000 +.
Are we willing to let these 'promoters' of what could become WWIII get away with their 'making the world great again' ? And what will this effort (win or lose) cost the entire planet and ALL ecosystems and their probable crash ? ? ?
This is REALLY chilling!! I was sent a voluminous copy of records kept during the Russian “Iron Curtain” days, detailing the tactics Russia used against dissidents and people they accused of resisting their state control of satellite countries. The person who had them wanted to put them in shape for publication. They had been worked on at one time by some academics in NYC. {Columbia, I think}
I had to stop reading the accounts of how they broke people down in order to create compliant behavior and dispel challenges.
It made me sick to my stomach and gave me nightmares. And there was very little physical violence involved in those records. It was psychological manipulation, but it kept me awake at night, afraid of the dreams I’d have.
You point out, Dr. Gilbert, that none of the former Soviet republics in the Baltics want to see Russia in charge again … Wow, you can bet they don’t!! People have no idea … It’s what Ukraine is desperately fighting against…Because Putin is exactly in line with the likes of Stalinists and their ilk…
Yes, Putin and his party want to stay in office and will kill any opponents challenging him. Putin must keep his people isolated and uninformed to control them - the Russians are scared of being arrested and die in a gulag. Trump wants the same here, control by misinformation and threats of violence for the opposition. We need to get rid Trump and most of the MAGAts in congress like Jordan Gaetz Greene and all of the Trump weasels unwilling to defend democracy worldwide. My father fought in WW2 - he would throw up in disgust listening to Trump and his DICKtator friends.
Dr. Doug Gilbert: The truth is WWIII began in earnest when Putin got away with invading Crimea in 2014. He broke international law. The harder truth to face is WWIII began when the US broke international law by invading Vietnam and Iraq and allowed the interference in Venezuela. I don't know enough world history to name how many other nations also contributed to the start of WWIII. Perhaps the real truth is that just as the American Civil War never really ended, WWII never really ended.
Rachel Maddow did a great job describing and informing about this type of propaganda on her show last night. She also reminded us that Biden said, "I will stop you" at attempts to dismantle Social Security and Medicare in the SOTU address. Reassuring.
Gloria, this propaganda will only intensify as the election draws closer. I am cheering for Robert Jaffee and Jaime Ramirez on this feed because they are deflecting the propaganda with truth. The trolls don't have truth, they have lies and insults so the contrast is what everyone on here needs to see. President Biden's State of the Union was very reassuring and called on all of us to keep up the fight!! Vote Blue, America!!!
Gloria J Maloney: I still don't understand how people can vote for the destruction of something they depend on like social security. Do they think something magic will happen and all will be well instead of figuring out, "Okay. No more social security money so how do I pay for food, shelter and maybe medical care? Now what do I do?"
"There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
"There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
Hmmm, Russia is already doing what Reich & Hartmann have been warning they will do: populating the internet with bots & trolls to spread disinformational propaganda to help Putin & Trump, 2 of the most dangerous, destructive & despicable people to have ever populated the Earth.
I've been following the totally unprovoked, barbaric Russian invasion of Ukraine very closely as well as the criminal & treasonous antics of the Siberian Candidate, Traitor Trump, getting my information from all sides.
You are here simply to stir things up with false russofascist claims.
Indeed, to paraphrase it, Trump and Putin's political ambitions are inseparable. Its okay for Putin to do whatever the hell he wants in Ukraine because when I'm in power I can do whatever the hell I want. Our allies and the rule of law be damned.. .Prime Minister Victor Orban has his ear. Orban was elected, but once.in power he took control of the courts, the media etc. Project 2025 that Trump endorses seems to be the same blueprint that Orban used to dismantle democracy.
Betty, and if Orban had anything of value to offer, he would not have believed he had to take over everything in the nation that would have served as a check on his power. It seems Trump has already taken over our House of Representatives and Supreme Court as well as several of the lower courts. It would be rather easy for him to get the rest. Russia already had a system of repression going on since the Czar days, so people were used to it. People here are not and I suspect even Republicans who want to do as much harm as they can to the people who don't believe as they do, will find they don't like a man in the throes of dementia and under the hand of puppeteers like Steve Miller and Steve Bannon running things, and will find their freedoms slipping away to the point they will not be happy with their Baby Donnie anymore. Unfortunately by that time, this nation will be a wreck. Trump won't care because he will be insulated from all of it. He will be dragged out to give his stupid rally speeches with paid people who will cheer for him. Poverty will rise to extremes and the oligarchs who wanted to take over all along will be able to return to slavery days with people working for as little as the oligarchs can manage. Maybe their brand of warped christianity will give them some comfort as their kids are starving and they are working 16 hour days for a tiny fraction of what they should be paid. Then, there's global warming that could put an end to all our suffering by that time because Baby Donnie and friends are into "drill baby drill" and only want science if it makes their own life better. Mar-a-Lago will be underwater by then and Trump won't notice because his dementia will have taken over his brain. Yeah, Republicans, that's a lovely future. I can't imagine what you see in it that fascinates you.
Some call it "Autocracy, Inc." funded by your not-so-favorite billionaires.
The parallels to the early 1930s in Germany are frightening. At that time a few wealthy industrialists funded the Nazis, who would never have come to power without the funding. The result was WWII-- 75 to 80 million dead and multiple countries in ruins.
When we only focus on the lunacy happening domestically, we are missing one key and crucial set of issues. There is a very real prospect of WWIII by not supporting the ejection of Russia from Ukraine.
We may get caught up on personality politics in the U.S. but, rest assured, none of the former Warsaw Pact or former Soviet Socialist Republics in the Baltics are interested in being returned to Russia. They will fight an invasion, which will set off WWIII. That would result in untold destruction in the Baltics, Poland, and other neighboring countries.
Time to wake up!
The sooner we stop Russia, the less expensive & horrific it will be down the road. At this point, we have it good. A relatively modest investment (considering the enormous amount of money going to the military), without putting in our own troops, can make Russia incapable of attacking its neighbors for the foreseeable future. But without enough military support for Ukraine to hold off Russia & take back their territory, Russia will proceed with its multi-century obsession with overrunning every country it can, which would soon include NATO countries & eventually all of Europe & North America.
Jaime, I read that some are suggesting the interest from the frozen Russian assets can be used to help Ukraine right now even if Congress does not act. It is an idea that I think should be pursued with vigor. It would be a fitting response to what the Putin wealthy supporters have done to a neighboring nation.
Yes, that would be an excellent source & should happen with no more delay.
We also have so much money invested in the military. Can't we use some it for Ukraine? Is everything in the Defense budget specified to a particular purpose for which Ukraine fails to qualify? Is our budget so inflexible that nothing in it can be directed to Ukraine?
And why can't Mike Johnson be removed from Congress and the Speakership, since he is an election denier and insurrectionist? What is he doing two heartbeats away from the Presidency? Giving comfort to our mortal enemies! Enabling Putin's aggression in Ukraine, and ultimately, other countries in the region, and beyond? All of trump's allies should be removed from Congress, the Senate, and the Courts, right up to the Supreme Court. Anyone in the military who is an ally should be out. Congress would not even have the slim majority it has if it wasn't for the gerrymanders and other tricks , like dirty money installing questionable candidates in Congressional seats.
Laurie, the problem is our Supreme Court has decided insurrection really isn't a problem and that only Congress can stop candidates involved in insurrection from running for or taking office. Alas, the oath of Republicans these days is worthless. The SC conservatives only like certain parts of the Constitution, those parts that fit with their ideology. Only rich white men should be able to vote; the second amendment means any white people can carry guns anywhere; abortion rights are only for rich white wives and the mistresses of rich white politicians and corporate CEOs; a president can pardon anyone even someone involved with participating in the president's crimes, even pardoning himself. It's disgusting! That's just one reason to push everyone with a brain to be sure they have registered to vote, then get out and vote Democratic in November!!
Ruth: The Supreme Court right wing majority has violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution. And are disabled! They are being racist, sexist and now help Mike Johnson to endanger our country by withholding help to Ukraine; our allies in Democracy. They allow laws to be made regarding religion: a major no no! The November vote 🗳 may not be enough! They are traitors guilty of high treason! They allow traitors to remain in office and on the ballot! Our remedy of the 14th Amendment, section 3 has been misinterpreted, like the voting rights act! They suggest that it no longer applies, because the Civil War was long ago, and things are somehow different now! It is actually worse, as we careen towards a world war three that may kill us all!
Margery Taylor Obscene wants to get rid of Mike Johnson because he didn’t block passage of the budget that will keep the government from shutting down. She wants a new Speaker, probably her. The Pigs are starting to eat The Pigs.
Scott Preston ; This happened with McCarthy after he had the nerve to do a bilateral agreement on the debt ceiling. apparently, the deal allows any member of the MAGA s to take out the Speaker. They eat their own, I guess. Anything to prevent doing their job, and maintaining the chaos and destruction. They should be fired!
The protections on our democracy, at least as (not) enforced by either Congress or our justice system, are practically nil. How did we let our democracy become so vulnerable?
Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society have been working for the very wealthy for awhile! Rules that say shareholders can ignore stakeholders who actually produce the wealth , because the shareholders Must get paid first! Are a big problem. Look at Victor Orban, and how he apparently "captured" going businesses and gave them to sycophants: stole them from those who built them. So he could live large (like he looks). How many in Hungary saw that coming? More importantly, what could they do about it? Look at our Corrupted 'Supreme' Court! Will they eventually give tRump the keys to the White House? With the whole world watching! 🌎!!
Jaime, I like your thinking! I have been wondering too why we can't use a chunk of our military budget to help out. The excuse if we need one, to keep us from having to go to war as a member of NATO when Russia invades a member country.
How could this interest on frozen Russian assets be accessed/used? Or the "chunk of our military budget" ? Now that Congress is in enemy hands, can our Commander in Chief declare an emergency and invoke his executive powers to get that done??
Laurie, those are excellent questions that I don't have the answer to, but I am sure someone out here does. The fact that I heard it discussed and people were looking at it as though it is a possibility makes me think it could happen, both the use of the asset interest and finding funds in our bloated military budget. I am guessing Biden et al are working on both.
I get the feeling that if Trump is not soon soundly defeated, we may have only civil war as the last resort to maintain our democracy. We really need leglislation that criminalizes spreading lies, and dark money in elections. Lying to gain political power is destructive, just like setting buildings on fire.
That's what I'm hoping.
Good question,maybe Prof.Reich would know.
Ruth Sheets ; I have often wondered about the frozen Russian assets interest being used to help Ukraine. The attack was totally unjustified, and civilians have been slaughtered against any and all rules of warfare.
The sooner, the better …
We should get rid of our own oligarchs as well; they have proven to be dangerous parasites.
Since they accuse us of being communists, we should confiscate and redistribute their wealth, and nationalize their businesses. Ever since the “fall” of the Soviet Union, emboldened criminals have made the plight of the workers around the world much worse. These criminal need to be the ones who are afraid.
I hate reading the word “scary” in response to some looming right wing threat; instead, substitute the words “fucking-mad” instead and do something about it instead of wringing our hands whilst in a cold sweat. Make them scared; make them run to their bunkers in New Zealand and then send in the Dirty Dozen to block off the ventilation systems.
Putin won't have to overrun North America, if Trump is elected, all it has to do is sent forces across the Bering Strait into Alaska, and Trump will surrender.
Back in 1971, I participated in a joint Canadian American exercise called Acid Test III.
fighting in sub zero weather with 5 feet of snow on the ground is exhausting, oil and grease freeze up in vehicles. steering does't work, brakes don't work, unless everything is degreased.
No doubt that Russians are trained and prepared. The Army is now just catching up, maybe.
All it would take is a show of force in Alaska, and a President Trump would gladly and rapidly cave.
If we are going to save our country, our democracy, much less ourselves from the wrath of the right. We had all best do what we can to be sure that Biden wins the election
People need to understand that this does not necessarily mean we will have a War of the Worlds, with giant weapons marauding across the countryside.
The fall of our democracy can happen with a war of words, a challenge of ideas, a struggle of votes … THAT is how they will end “government by consent of the governed,” — by getting us to vote for our very demise — and we end up with government by Strong Man.
The world gets a consortium of Strong Men all working together to cement their power.
I hope we don’t let them somehow redefine what “Strong Man” means, now. I hear the term a lot lately.
It does NOT mean competent and virile leadership; it means Dictator.
True Pat: But it doesn't mean that when democracy collapses, it will be a slow collapse either.
If we have Dictator Trump, expect almost immediate social upheaval as he and his cult seek retribution against not only his known enemies, but against liberals, like you and me, and they have the guns, the anger and the thirst for revenge.
We are facing a nightmare. I wish it wasn't so. People engage in wishful thinking, optimistic even, making lemonade out of lemons and all of that rot, I know the right from the inside, and I know what they are, and what they are is no respecter of the rule of law, democracy.
How many MAGAts do you think there are. 150 million? That's how many Sturmabeitlung there are.
Oh they won't take retribution on every liberal, just enough to scare the rest into acquiescence and silence.
Does anyone think that all of the people lining the roadways, giving Hitler the Roman salute, were enthusiastic NAZIs. I don't, all that is needed is a blood thirsty, self righteous, care of True Believers.
In 1932 Germany had a population of 61 million, and 2 million of them were brown shirts, the Sturmabeitlung, that is 3.3% of the population, and that is all it took to take over the nation.
Hindenburg trembled, and appointed Hitler Chancellor and he then enacted laws that, among other things, outlawed political parties other than the National Socialist German Workers Party.
Compare to the Cult of Trump. 40% of the voting population are die hard wannabe brown shirts,d lets say that the voting population of American fascists is just 50% of the total population, about half of which are children. You still have 20% of the heavily armed right wing population supporting their fuhrer.
One thing I know for sure, because Trump promised it, if he wins the election, it will not be business as usual, with a different party and agenda in power, but chaos, mayhem and physical violence if you are not a white Christian Nationalist., massive unemployment and a depression are nothing compared to the violence that awaits.
As long as most (actually practically all) of the plotters, organizers & perpetrators of the insurrection & attempt to overturn the election remain free, & Trump's own criminal trials are in limbo, I have no confidence that justice will be served, & if our so-called justice system continues to be so weak, negligent & ineffective, then I have no confidence our democracy can hold firm. Something substantial has to change quickly. Trump, Bannon, Flynn, Stone & others are clear & present dangers to our national security, & as such should be held captive, or at least under constant surveillance, as would anyone else who pose the risk they do.
I do not expect anything to happen to Trump,, maybe even not paying his fines, if he can delay until November. The fix is in. Trump election officials, armed Trump poll watchers, voter caging, voter suppression laws, and Muslims and black males flipping Biden and Dems the bird.
I fear this is the last free elction ever, unless every real American,not some neo NAZI, Christian fascist and their legions of Quislings and culture warrior, get off their ass and vote for Biden and a Democratic congress, if they don't, it is game, set and as Bugs said "That's all folks"
We've gone over the precipice and there is no coming back, not like in the cartoons.
That’s scary sounding, Jaime. So … Big Brother.
AND YET, the MAGA types and the Heritage types, and the Manafort-Bannon-Miller-Stone contingent have not held back about their plans and intentions.
The Project 2025 is out there to read.
They did it once … yes, our system is afraid to come off looking like Putin abusing Nevalny, instead of the US putting Benedict Arnold behind bars.
{As an aside, did someone on this thread try to sell the idea that Gen. Flynn has been some kind of victim in the whole Affair Trump? Egad.}
Oh, Lee, I can’t put a like on that, but I know it is true.
I am afraid that changes will NOT be slow {as the changes wrought by Zero Sum Republicans in the Gingrich mode HAVE been somewhat slow since Reagan, getting us to where we are today, polarized to the max and primed for a quick coup de grace to end Democracy … Egad. … Egad, egad, egad.
I am currently working on a manuscript by a Philadelphia debutante who went to Vienna in the early 30’s, came home for a bit, and went back through the rest of the thirties and the war, not coming home again until 1946.
Yes, she spent WWII on the other side of the front, married and unwilling to leave her husband, but also a little stuck, an American in Austria during WWII. She talks about how dangerous it was to even have an opinion in those years, never knowing who was listening, who would “report” you, and who was going to “disappear” next. It’s chilling stuff. {She makes no bones about how fearful it was to live under the Reich, but she does not mince words about how Russian troops treated people on that front, either. Horrific.}
👍 Keep working on that book. I’ll buy a copy and maybe a few more to distribute. ♥️
Not only wins it, but that Trump & his mob are prevented from overthrowing it, which you know they'll try to do.
What I fear Jaime is that the Heritage foundation has laid out it's blueprint for a Trump Admin. Trump has said he will become a dictator on day
They have already drawn up executive orders and drafts of legislation, they have a rubber stamp congress, thanks to Gerrymandering, voter suppression laws and tactics.
Day 1 he fires all cabinet heads, including the Pentagon, and appoints his cronies as acting heads, thus no senate approval required. He did the same with the Dept of Def and the Dept of the Army the week prior to Jan 6th to put in place his cronies
Day 2 He declares martial law in response to protests and his coterie of ass kissing Generals calls out the troops. In the words of the Roy Orbison song: "Its over"
I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but this time, more than any other in our history, every true patriot, not the treasonous, white Christian Nationalist faux patriots needs to turn out to vote, even the fence sitters who don't want to live under a dictator.
I got news for the Islamic patriots that live in the U.S. if you "ain't" happy with Biden, then you are going to be misearble with Trump, just wait and see, blackmail back fires.
Yes, to all, Lee, They are not even HIDING what whey plan to do, and it’s exactly what you described.
OK, so voting “uncommitted” in a primary is a way to get someone’s attention. So be it.
And let’s hope Biden listens to all the constituents he wants on his side …
And then, when it’s time to vote…“Please, God, let them Vote Blue!”
{And I am an atheist, so you know I’m desperate …}
Biden can't listen to all constituents, because his constituents have competing claims, win A and lose B.
What people have to come to grips with is the fact that as disappointed with Biden they may be, the alternative is much, much worse.
Biden may have sent Arms to Israel, but Trump has promised to eject all Arabs, even those born here.
This Israel/HAMAS war is a nut buster. The Israeli right has been harassing, shooting and driving Arabs out of their homes in the west bank.
However the ideology of Islam is that there is no Israel and it needs to be obliterated (that means 10 million Jews obliterated or more likely driven to America or Europe.
It is wishful thinking that Muslims and Jews can live side by side in peace. Wishful thinking if you eve read the Quran and Hadiths (sacred text of Islam).
On the other hand there are 2 million Arab citizens of Israel, with the right to vote, and some have served in the knesset. You can't say the same about Jews in a Muslim land, if you can find one that is.
There are even some Arabs serving in the IDF.
Problems have solutions. The situation between the Jews and Muslims have no solution, ergo not a problem, but a difficulty and a damn one that will plague the world so long as people believe in religions.
Meanwhile we are facing our own Christomegadon.
Yes — what they have tried, they will try again, with lessons learned from the last time.
We DO need to get out the vote.
And we DO need to protect the vote.
Lots for the Left, for the states, and the Biden administration to be aware of and on top of.
But, but, but it is all about the economy so says the corporate media and their press ho's.
On ground level it is about the culture war. What do you think the immigration fight is about, not about "wetbacks" taking away artichoke picking jobs from starving and hungry Americans, as the asshole tongue waggers on TV pretend, it is about an influx of brown people and the "great replacement" idea floated by Carlson and Fox. Actually it predates both.
Which is strange from one point of view, because Latino's are ultra conservative, culturally, superstitiously religious, misogynistic, homophobic, anti abortion, and hang on every word of the Pope and the Evangelical and Pentecostal "ministers" that converted them.
In fact there is a Hispanic red wave acoming, Univision is pro Trump now, and I just heard a Latina from south Texas, name of Mayra Flores, interviewed on MSNBC, she is 110% MAGAt and right winger. Her parents were born in Mexico, illegal migrants, and she is vociferously anti migrant, especially from south of the Border, NYT described her as a far right Latina.
In fact, the constant influx of these Latin American immigrants could provide a never ending source of support for the Republican Party with their conservative thinking. Initially more may be Democratic, probably due to gratitude for a more welcoming attitude by Democrats, but eventually, due to their cultural & religious background, they begin shifting rightward, as can clearly be seen now.
If they’re able to destabilize our democracy, they don’t even NEED to take us over — just get a consortium of “Strong Men” running things, Oligarchs owning things, and the rest of us serving them.
That sounds so draconian, but look at the countries where it has happened. South America, Eastern Europe, Asia {and we rarely even hear about Africa!!}… When Posobiec said they plan to bring down Democracy, what did we think he meant?
Two years ago, Ukraine unfroze the conflict in the Donbass by initiating its long-awaited invasion, precipitating immediate Russian retaliation. There's a complicated background story, involving American meddling -- in violation of the principles of international law -- to overthrow Ukraine's former corrupt and vulnerable Russia-friendly government in 2014.
We've been shoving Russia since the 1990s and our move on Ukraine precipitated a Russian "Cuban Missile Crisis" reaction against what they perceived as an existential threat.
But around here, many people parrot bellicose Biden administration talking points, heedless of the fact that our industrial capacity is so depleted and our technology so outdated that we have little chance of winning a hot war against Russia.
Ukraine did no such thing! It's the exact opposite of what actually did happen: a totally unprovoked massive Russian invasion of Ukraine. You & that other troll, Libor Soural, have picked the wrong place to try to deceive the readers & commenters. We're a lot better educated & more internationally aware than most Americans, & we can spot a russofascist Putin apologist troll right away. What rational being in this world is going to believe that Ukraine would do such an irrational, suicidal thing as invading Russia when we saw very clearly the exact reverse?
WooHoo, Jaime!! I love your response to that idiot!! Way to go!!! These trolls only come on here to ruffle feathers. All we need to do is hit them with the truth and the simple fact that we are not like the mouth drooling magas who believe ANYTHING!! Keep taking it to them, Jaime!!
We need dialog, and for dialog to be productive it must be respectful.
Victor, yes, we need respectful dialog; however, the only thing republicans are doing right now is screaming in your face, insulting, intimidating, hate-filled diatribes with no room for anyone to have any kind of meaningful dialog. their little orange leader stood up and made fun of our President's speech impediment and ALL of them laughed and egged him on!! Do you think that is respectful??
The claim that the US and/or NATO somehow provoked Russia into invading Ukraine is simply false, as anyone who had been following events in that part of the world knew from the start. It's an assertion based on false premises, including the claim that NATO had formally promised Russia it wouldn't expand to the east, the claim that the US overthrew Ukraine's pro-Russian president (when it was the Ukrainian people who did it), and the claim that NATO was about to admit Ukraine and Putin was only trying to forestall that (there was no prospect of Ukraine joining NATO or even the EU before the war, though now Putin has made it much more likely).
Incidentally, the Koch brothers-backed Cato Institute is not exactly an unbiased source.
Paul, just because one media source makes a claim does not make it real. It is true Ukraine has been a near-ally for a long time, but there was a chance that Russia might have been one too, but alas, they or rather, their leaders chose a different route and it was not a positive one for anyone on or near Russia's borders. Putin is paranoid and wants to get everyone to believe the world is against him and Russia. No sane person attacks their neighbors. We should know that from our past "invasions of Mexico and Caribbean nations. Russia attacked Ukraine for their own gains, not due to anything we in the US did.
Cato Institute. “Admit it.” Apolitical? Right-wing think tank is hardly apolitical.
And here we have another Putin Troll. I knew it, thanks for outing yourself "Paul", what is the Russian for Paul?
The Cato institute is a right wing supposedly libertarian organization, but now that The Trump cult is full blown and unapologetic fascist, we can expect to see more of your ilk jump into the Putin/Orban/Trump tank.
The Cato Institute was founded by Charles Koch, so you have to take what they say with a grain of poisonous salt.
Another Troll!!!
Maybe we need to stop feeding them.
That’s from the fascist CATO INSTITUTE which was started and funded by the Koch brothers whose father was a known Nazi sympathizer and who called for the assassation of JFK. Cato is less responsible of a news source than Fox. Wake up.
We can always count on you to interject with your disinformation & take the side of russofascist, antidemocratic, anti-American trolls.
Troll
Jaime, was he claiming somehow that the Donbass was “legitimately Russian”? Just because Russia, during the Iron Curtain years, had seeded that part of Ukraine with Russian speakers moved in to lay claim to the territory {for the luvva Pete, Volodimir Zelensky was primarily a Russian-language speaker!! But even the Russian speakers in Donbass are fighting valiantly to drive the Russians OUT, because it’s NOT true they want to be part of Russia. Ukraine wants to be Ukraine!}The US did not spur the anti-Russian wave that swept Zelensky into office. That was Ukrainian throwing out a corrupt Putin-loving Oligarch.
No one in the Glasnost period even wrote or signed a binding agreement to keep hands off Eastern European countries, especially those that WANT to associate more with Europe than with Russia, and no one could have promised that those countries would never have the right to self-determination as to associating with the EU or NATO.
That was thirty years ago. No treaty or agreement on those issues.
Russia did not go the way Gorbachev would have liked. And now Putin has been leaning on once-Soviet states, and some of those once-Soviet states {like Ukraine and Rumania} are nervous about it! Finland and Sweden joined NATO because they are afraid of Russia —
Egad, Trolls!! Learn some HISTORY.
Exactly as you say! Sending Russians to that region is typical of what they do to any country they want to conquer. Of, course, Ukraine has been in & out of their control many different times in their history, & have suffered many massacres under the hands of Russia over the centuries, so they know what subjugation under Russia is like & they naturally want none of it.
I wouldn't want that either, Jaime!! Vote Blue, America!!!
Right Jaime: The Holodomor, also known as the Ukrainian Famine, was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians
They did Putin's version of history. Too bad he haven't seen all of the agitprop session with Phucker Carlson.
If Putin really wants to go back into history, then Russia belongs to Mongolia.
Lee — THAT was ludicrous, wasn’t it?
If my eyes roll any more, they’re going to fall out of my head.
China should focus on getting back Outer Mongolia which was stolen from them by the Czars. They might be watching now to see how the second best army in Ukraine fares against an out numbered foe.
Jaime, he is a Putin Troll, I reported him you can also just click the three .dots ... to the left under his post.
This not the wrong place to post views opposed to yours. Don't be an authoritarian!
You don't have a rebuttal; all you have are trollish sneers.
What rebuttal to made-up stories & outright lies is there other to deny them?
By the way, why do you say "we" ("we've been shoving Russia")? You're clearly not an American, not a patriotic one, anyway.
He is not an American, period Jaime.
We unleashed the "shock therapy" genocide that killed off all the old people in Russia.
(LOOK OUT Baby Boomers -- your turn is coming.)
We pushed NATO east to Russia's doorstep, after promising not to.
Then we supported a "color revolution" against the Russia-friendly President of Ukraine, but he got voted back into office because Russian speakers were a small majority in hodge-podge, cobbled-together Ukraine.
Then we supported a "color revolution" that overthrew he Russia-friendly government of Georgia; Russia created a "frozen conflict" that blocked Georgia from joining NATO.
Then in 2014 we supported another "color revolution" in Ukraine, this time with neo-Nazi thugs to make it stick.
Russia took back Crimea and created another "frozen conflict," blocking Ukraine from joining NATO.
Actually, there was a pathway to peace through this frozen conflict -- the Minsk Agreements -- but Merkel and Macron both admitted that they didn't take the Minsk Agreements seriously; it was just to give Ukraine time to rearm.
Then Zelensky got elected on a promise to make peace, and moved toward implementing the Minsk Agreements. But neo-Nazi war-mongers threatened to kill him, so he capitulated and started building up to invade the Donbass.
Finally Zelensky was ready for his Donbass invasion, with a 3-to-1 superiority of troops on the line of contact. Russia built up their troops on Ukraine's border and signed mutual defense treaties with the breakaway Donbass republics.
When Ukraine began its pre-invasion bombardment, Russia intervened.
Anyone who uses a modified Yiddish pejorative for a name can’t be real anyway. Just another nazi schmuck.
Hahahahahaha, I had to laugh!! Two trolls arguing with one another!!! Victor and John keep arguing with each other and hopefully your circuits will blow!!
YOU should READ the rebuttals before claiming they don’t exist. John!
But, of course, you aren’t going to read what you don’t like, are you, Schmeekle.
I do need to stop feeding the trolls.
Pat, pushing back on these trolls with facts, as we've done quite well today, can be effective in discouraging them. They look like fools as well as the liars they are.
Except that you lied "John" or whoever you are. It was Putin that invaded Donbass two years ago, not the Ukraine, two years ago Donbass was part of Ukraine and still is, despite Putins phony referendum.
He’s a Troll, Lee.
I wonder to what degree, too.
There are times when he tries to be “approachable” and “amenable,”” and then he gets aggressive and vitriolic.
Totally troll.
Do you fuckers really eat horse meat? That's gross!
So says the Putin Troll.. What is your real name, it sure isn't John Schmeekle, how about Evgeny or Ivan, maybe Mischa. Ivan that is it, Ivan in England is John.
“We've been shoving Russia since the 1990s and our move on Ukraine precipitated a Russian "Cuban Missile Crisis" reaction against what they perceived as an existential threat.”
I won’t dispute that the US could have treated Russia far better than we did after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but your analysis is flawed on many levels.
First off, we gave aid to Russia the same way US AID works around the world. Most of the money is given to US corporations and NGO’s that support the host countries economic initiatives. Less than 20% would be actual cash changing hands. And Russia was broke thanks to its military folly in Afghanistan and self imploded; not because of the US, unless you include our support for the Mujahedin. However, then you’d have to include Russia’s meddling in Vietnam, Cuba and Korea.
That said, are you familiar with the Budapest Memorandum? It was a nuclear nonproliferation agreement signed by the US, Russia, Ukraine, China, France and Great Britain. Ukraine abided, and handed over its nukes, or we decommissioned most of the nuclear arsenal for them.
In the deal, all parties agreed that Ukraine would give all 20,000 nuclear weapons (second largest stockpile after Russia) in exchange for its independence and territorial integrity. This included Crimea, which was gifted to Ukraine by Khrushchev in 1954 and the Donbas region which was always considered part of Ukraine.
As for many of the Baltics and Eastern European countries joining NATO and the EU, it was a choice made by independent countries that feared Russia. They have every right to pursue their own economic interests outside of the Russian Federation, as well as their own security interests, regardless how Russia perceives these countries to be threats.
If Russia wasn’t a clear and present danger to their very existence, none of these countries would feel the need to join a western alliance.
And Putin has been interfering in Eastern European countries as well as western nations elections since he took power in 1999. First, invading Chechnya in 1999 on false terrorism charges that were carried out by FSB members, and later in Georgia.
Putin has always been the aggressor. He’s interfered in elections in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Chechnya and most recently Great Britain during Brexit and the US in 2016. Our Cyber command has recently stated that Russia is already interfering with our 24’ election by promoting propaganda on social media networks.
You say America was meddling in Eastern Europe nations in violation of international law? Please state how and when? Russia has been in violation of far more international laws than the US; at least when it comes to Eastern Europe. The Middle East is another story.
As for Ukraine “unfreezing” the conflict in Donbas, please elaborate? Donbas was part of Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty since the fall of the Soviet Union and the Bucharest Memorandum, so your point is irrelevant, and just another Putin propaganda talking point.
Well said!! Robert, you and Jaime have hit him with the facts. All he will be able to do is insult and try to intimidate. He has nothing in his arsenal except insults!!
Peggy, and he also has a full quiver of lies and misinformation as well as a bunch of folks out here who want to be lied to because the lies support their own agendas of hate and distrust. So, it is up[ to the people who care about democracy and freedom, not just the words to stand against their whining and lies.
The actual history includes Russia literally starving Ukrainians. Look it up, folks.
The US and the West did not do that. Russia did.
Ruth, as someone else mentioned, we're likely to find more & more of these trolls as we get closer to the election. As we argue with them & rebut them with facts, it's good practice for us. We can all learn from each other & learn about the history & evidence that supports our arguments, which makes our arguments even stronger the next time we face them. As much as their lies may enrage us, we should welcome this opportunity to get the truth out there.
Another Trollish person, if not a Troll.
Paul, just stop it
And that is enough out of you Mischa, or whatever your real name is "Paul", that fact that this Ivan or John, spewed lies, and disinfo, and you call it history is damning.. for you.
You can't help but expose yourself Mischa>
👏👏👏👏👏
(Part 5)
When assessing the rights and wrongs of all that has unfolded between Ukraine and Russia, a critical question is the legitimacy (or lack thereof) of the Maidan Revolution.
See https://therealnews.com/iiopatonok0810ukraine
and
https://mate.substack.com/p/by-using-ukraine-to-fight-russia
Did the United States violate the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of another state?
https://pesd.princeton.edu/node/551
If so, was this part of an ongoing campaign to subjugate and/or dismember Russia?
The United States, by supporting regime change in Ukraine in 2014, imposed a reverse "Cuban Missile Crisis" on Russia with the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO and hosting NATO missiles pointed at Russia. We backed Russia into a corner, and they lashed out at us.
In addition, the post-revolution Ukrainian rump parliament began by passing a law to ban the use of the Russian language in government, in a multi-ethnic country where Russian was the first language of about half the population. This ban was enforced by making the far-right leader Arsen Avakov the Interior Minister, in charge of the police.
With Avakov in charge of the police, bigoted far-right extremist gangs operated with impunity in Ukraine, in an environment of lawless terror.
See "Far-Right Extremism as a Threat to Ukrainian Democracy":
https://freedomhouse.org/report/analytical-brief/2018/far-right-extremism-threat-ukrainian-democracy
The U.S.-sponsored Maidan Revolution brought ongoing civil war to Ukraine, in which neighboring Russia intervened.
It is well-known in Africa that Kenya licks the boot of the American neo-imperialists. Putin is respected in Africa for his resistance to American imperialist meddling. African countries on good terms with Russia include Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, Mali, Algeria and others.
Right, Russia doesn’t interfere in Africa. I guess all the Wagner Group mercenaries working on Outin’s behalf for brutal crooked African regimes doesn’t count?
Seriously, this is about legitimacy. And Putin doesn’t get to tear up agreements to suit his interests. The Budapest Memorandum is real, and legitimate; end of story.
Putin also said that we should give Alaska back to them, because Czar Peter the Great made a very bad deal.
Of course, Russia was broke because of the Crimea War in 1867, but let’s not let details and facts get in the way of a Putin narrative!…:)
By Putin’s logic, we should give France back the Louisiana Purchase because Napoleon made a bad deal after Haiti declared independence, and they lost a profitable sugarcane industry.
Seriously dude, this isn’t how the world works!
God, this guy just keeps rolling on with his tripe.
Russia has over & over proven itself an unreliable negotiating partner with all the international agreements & treaties it has abrogated.
There’s a difference between being “respected” and being abjectly feared.
Putin inspires fear.
The chorus went off the rails. If you want to save democracy at home and help Ukraine, you must focus on the US and not allow Trump and his fascists carry the US flag. If you don't wrest the flag from him, we are doomed!
Some of the most backward , impoverished countries of the world, led by despots, at least by the time Wagner/Russia gets through with them
(Part 4)
Robert Jaffe,
The Budapest Memorandum is like the old treaty of alliance between the revolutionary U.S.A. and the King of France. After the French Revolution and the resulting French terror regime, President Washington decided that the treaty with the old regime was no longer valid. The same goes for Ukraine after the U.S.-sponsored Maidan Revolution.
OHHHHH, Schmeekle, so a signed memorandum is invalid, because “changing situation.”
But a No Actual Signed Agreement About NATO Expansion is the cause behind all the trouble, even though the No Actual Signed Agreement was, like, nearly 40 years ago, with loads of “changing situations,” and it didn’t actually exist.
OK. I see your “logic,” guys.
NOT.
Pat Goudy O Brien,
You are comparing apples and oranges. The issue of NATO expansion relates to Russia's possible inclination to attack because they feel threatened, as in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
When does it become too late to act?? We and our proxy Ukraine provoked a Russian preemptive strike.
Perhaps the Russians miscalculated the perceived existential threat? Or perhaps not. These questions can be discussed respectfully, even among those with differing views.
(Part 3)
President Biden has exposed the abject weakness of American and European munitions supply, as Ukraine runs out of artillery ammunition and their soldiers fall back.
Biden, fulfilling his earlier threat, destroyed the Nordstream pipeline. Together with sanctions cutting off trade with Russia, the German economy is starting to buckle under the weight.
The U.S. misadventure in Ukraine has awakened darker-skinned countries' fears of western imperialism: Russia has been winning the propaganda war in Africa.
Now "everybody" wants to join the BRICS countries with their common agenda of de-dollarizing international trade.
For decades we have been exporting inflation, creating fiat dollars that are absorbed by other countries trading among themselves. The end of the Almighty Dollar is at hand, thanks to the stupidity of Joe Biden. The result, as dollars come sloshing home and other countries politely decline to buy any more U.S. Treasury bonds, will be hyperinflation here in the U.S.A. (creating dollars to service the UnpayableDebt), thanks to Joe "mashed potato brain" Biden.
Yet inflation is lower in the US than the rest of the world. But yes, Putin & MBS, with Trump's prompting, are scheming to cut oil & gas production in order to spike inflation & create fuel shortages just before the election to sabotage Biden's chances. The fascists & authoritarians of the world are uniting against Biden.
The evidence implicates Russia more than the US in the destruction of the Nordstrom Pipeline. The Russians did something very similar on a pipeline between Finland & some island in the Baltic Sea? (I may have the details wrong from a vague memory). The same Russian boat was spotted in the area during the time of both disasters.
The running out of ammunition by Ukraine is largely on the House Republicans guided by the russophilic sadonarcissist Benedict Donald, but also due to the poor planning of all NATO nations in not having sufficient quantities in production.
(Part 2)
Post-Soviet Ukraine was like post-Communist Yugoslavia. Both countries were artificial amalgamations imposed by outside forces without any voting by the people. Both countries, after the end of Communism, devolved into civil war, but that process took longer in Ukraine.
NATO intervened in the Yugoslav civil war as progressed Saturn was exactly conjunct the Ascendant in the correct U.S. horoscope (set for May 15, 1776 at 5:00 p.m. in Philadelphia.)
Here's a map of Ukraine in 1917 in the middle of a civil war (outlined in red) showing all the other parts that were added over the years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiya#/media/File%3AUkraine_Historical_Borders.svg
Ukraine in 1991 was an artificial creation that had been cobbled together by arbitrary Soviet decisions, apparently driven by the desire to keep the Russian-speaking population above 50%. This led to Ukraine’s civil war after the Maidan Revolution and the rise of the neo-Nazis who targeted Ukraine's bare native Russian-speaking majority.
Now do a map of Russia's gigantic expansion over the centuries to become over half again as large as the next largest country, & that's still not enough for the insatiable imperialists.
Robert Jaffe,
You have served up a lot to rebut. I'll start it off as follows:
Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.
A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.
When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.
In August, after U.S. Secretary of State Blinken announced more aid for Ukraine, Zelensky posted a video showing him with Ukraine's most prominent Neo-Nazi Andriy Biletsky:
https://mronline.org/2023/08/21/zelensky-holds-court-with-ukraines-most-notorious-neo-nazi/
See also "Ukraine is Brutally Repressing the Left, Criminalizing Socialist Parties, Imprisoning Activists"
https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2022/03/21/ukraine-repressing-left-criminalizing-socialist-parties/
See also "How Zelensky Made Peace with Neo-Nazis"
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/04/how-zelensky-made-peace-with-neo-nazis/
See also "How One Ukrainian Billionaire Funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, And Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion"
https://greatgameindia.com/hunter-biden-zelensky-neo-nazi/
See also (from 2019) "Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine":
"Five years ago, Ukraine’s Maidan uprising ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to the cheers and support of the West. Politicians and analysts in the United States and Europe not only celebrated the uprising as a triumph of democracy, but denied reports of Maidan’s ultranationalism, smearing those who warned about the dark side of the uprising as Moscow puppets and useful idiots. Freedom was on the march in Ukraine.
"Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
“Ukraine's oppressive neo-fascist thug regime is not "democratic." In Ukraine, all the opposition parties have been suppressed after Zelensky capitulated to neo-Nazi war-mongers and reneged on his campaign promise to bring peace to the Donbass region.”—John Schmeeckle
All speculation, and please name the Nazi warmonger? Ukraine was fighting for its life. And it suppressed 11 political parties with links to Russia: they committed treason.
“A few months ago, both Zelensky and Canada's Prime Minister Trudeau applauded as the Speaker of Canada's House of Commons praised a Ukrainian who was a real-life Nazi, a member of a Nazi SS unit that committed genocide against Poles during World War II. After international condemnation, Speaker Anthony Rota quickly resigned.”
It was a mistake, and as you noted, Rota immediately resigned. What does this have to do with anything?
“When Zelensky became President, he initially moved toward fulfilling the Minsk Agreements that had "frozen" the civil war in the Donbass and outlined a pathway toward peace. But then he capitulated to the Neo-Nazis (who controlled Ukraine's Interior Ministry, in charge of the police stations) and eventually re-ignited the frozen war, precipitating the Russian invasion. We are being lied to.”—John Schmeeckle
Nonsense. There were growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine in early 2022, and Russia officially recognised the DPR and LPR on February 21, 2022. Following that decision, on February 22, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the Minsk agreements "no longer existed", and that Ukraine, not Russia, was to blame for their collapse.
Just because Putin says Ukraine broke the agreement doesn’t mean it’s true. I suppose you believe it was Ukraine who invaded Russia, not vice versa?
Zelenskyy, and Ukraine is fighting for their lives. And Andriy Biletsky is not a neo-Nazi, they are white nationalists. I don’t see you criticizing Trump for saying “stand back and stand by” after White nationalists (anti-semites) attacked and injured over 31 people, killing one in Charlottesville? Or how CPAC and so many republican members of Congress associate and speak at white nationalist gatherings.
I won’t bother disseminating the rest of your comments since it’s pointless. Everything you write is irrelevant to the topic at hand.
I do t need to see a map of Ukraine in 1917. Russia also disintegrated around that time with the Bolshevik Revolution. Pre-Soviet Union boundaries no longer exist. East Germany no longer exists. The UN recognizes the 1994 boundaries, not Putin’s delusional wet dream!
The Budapest Memorandum defined Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty in 1994. It was agreed to by all parties. Ukraine gave up its nukes, and until 2014, all was fine until Putin invaded Crimea and the Donbas region.
I’ve read part two and three, and again, all speculation and irrelevant conclusions. Sorry I don’t have the time to debate. You bog yourself down with irrelevant minutiae.
So sorry John, That’s all she wrote!…:)
"How Zelensky Made Peace with Neo-Nazis"
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/04/how-zelensky-made-peace-with-neo-nazis/
You are a fraud and a liar for Putin, Ivan.
Accusing Ukraine of being NAZI.
Zelensky is a JEW.
"How One Ukrainian Billionaire Funded Hunter Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky, And Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion"
https://greatgameindia.com/hunter-biden-zelensky-neo-nazi/
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
6:58 AM (2 minutes ago)
If Trump's efforts result in his reelection in 2024, Democracy in this country will be given a back seat to Autocracy. Trump hates the election system in this country because he can't control it. To Donnie Boy, what good is a system if you can't find a way to cheat it? The school yard bully who tried to topple a government by overturning an election is a heartless, insensitive, product of a relationship started by Fred and Mary. These two weren't much on parenting and results are proof positive. Donald Trump is a weed of a man with absolutely no reverence for law and order. To allow this creep to find his way back into power in this country would spell the end of everything we hold as dear. However, if the worst happens, upon winning Trump will make a phone call and arrange to have an attractive young woman "Escort" him into the future, where even God is absent.
Paul--The termination of the EC is a must, those days when it was needed have left us. Trump only wants the people who support him to be allowed to vote. Not much of a free election system. The man is an abject criminal.
Paul--A democracy is ruled by the voice of the people, the "Majority." The EC is undemocratic in nature because it circumvents the will of the people it's supposed to represent. The Democratic party has won a number of elections only to lose them because of an outdated "blue law." Yes, I know it's not a blue law but it sure is as stupid as one.
Nonsense, John. I get it that Russia and Putin have been paranoid for generations, but blaming the US for what Russia did to Ukraine is just nuts!
Succinct summary, thanks, Ruth. Nuts, brutal, obscene. It got Sweden and Finland to join NATO. They would not have joined without Putin’s invasion.
As I responded further down the thread, this is all distortions and lies.
The commonly made (by pro-Russian propagandists) claim that the US "promised" Russia it wouldn't expand NATO eastward is false. The only promise of that sort was made by then-Secretary of State Baker to Gorbachev, and Baker wasn't authorized to promise anything of the sort. For such a promise to be meaningful, there would have to be a formal, written agreement, and no such agreement was made.
Another claim popular among pro-Russian conspiracy theorists is the assertion that the US was somehow behind the 2014 Maidan revolution that overthrew Yanukovych. Anyone who was paying attention at the time knows that this is false. Yanukovych's administration was utterly corrupt, and was by the time the protests started it was very unpopular. Even members of Yanukovych's own party had begun to abandon him. The protests were a massive, grassroots movement, as virtually all successful mass protest movements are. The US of course supported the protestors, as did anyone else who was pro-democracy and anti-corruption, but it didn't start or control them in any way. It was the Ukrainian people who overthrew Yanukovych. "Neo-Nazi thugs" did not play a significant role in the success of the protests, or in Ukrainian politics since that time.
Finally, anyone who was paying attention knows that it was Russia that in early 2022 first began a military build-up in Donbass and on the Ukraine-Russia border. Ukraine was not preparing to invade Donbass. And the claim that you make below that Ukraine began a "pre-invasion bombardment" is so utterly contrary to what we all saw happen that it's unbelievable that anyone could seriously make such a statement.
Sounds like you're channeling Vladimir Putin. Congratulations. Why don't you tell us how China is just waiting for Russia to expend its Armies to the point they can't defend themselves and China will march into Siberia? Then Russia will definitely have a 2 front war. Putin is so smart.
Terry Franzman, you appear to be fantasizing withour reason.
Putin sympathizer like you need to stay the fuck out of Americas politics - Russia is a screwed up dictatorship with a mentally corrupt person at the helm of their sinking ship … Putin will fail as Russian people are questioning why Navalny was “ MURDERED “ in a Siberian jail. You can’t control people forever, they will rise up to free.
One good conspiracy theory deserves another. Except mine is closer to reality than yours.
Your scenario is reality-based. China has been laying low, watching things proceed, which in many ways have gone badly for Russia as they expend their defensive capabilities. China also has a more justifiable claim on certain land in Siberia that Russia stole from China long ago than either China has over Taiwan or Russia has over Ukraine (or other countries it's contemplating invading).
I like good conspiracy theories. The better ones approach intelligence assessments.
I smell a stinky fucking cabbage pirozhki.
According to Seth Abramson, Putin may be subsidizing Chubb Insurance and Trump.
https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/experts-said-for-weeks-that-trump
Thanks for the link Daniel I have been looking for information on this. I assume Putin "may" do whatever he can get away with, and that includes backstopping loans to Trump, feeding misinformation to the starving R's in the House (Smirnov and hs BS about Biden), etc. Still it's difficult to ascertain the truth about many matters. I just now looked at Seths ss and I have no reason to think he is a reliable source.
Daniel, I suspect a whole lot of people assumed a Putin connection or one from Musk when they heard about the bond. It is clearly someone who is hoping for a Trump victory in November so Trump can repay the gift with interest. How is it our courts permit it?
Does Putin have the half a billion to cover the half a billion penalty of the Letitia James trial.
You are so full of B*** s***.
RNC--
Donald Hodgins <silencenotbad@gmail.com>
7:22 AM (1 minute ago)
Trump is revamping the RNC. He is preparing for the eventuality of a loss in 2024 and by placing key people in positions to aid his efforts Trump plans on winning the next election even if he loses it.
No doubt about it. They appear smug about regaining power no matter what. They have their schemes well-plotted out.
Putin's puppet spews the party line.
Tell ya what Shmuck, let’s let Ukraine win then we can see for ourselves if what you are so busy throwing around here and HCR’s newsletter is accurate. Does that work for you?
SPW, Once again, insulting someone because of his surname is like insulting someone because of the color of his skin.
Ukraine is now at risk of collapsing.
It makes sense to pay attention to what the other side thinks, because we might have to negotiate with them sonner than you think.
Oh yeah - Putin and his thugs said in January 2021 as they were amassing military along Ukraine border - were just doing war exercises, nothing to see here - that scumbag and Trump are worthless pigs willing to kill innocent people for their own fragile egos. Our equipment and technology far EXCEEDS Russian crap - plus most of the Russian soldiers are “ forced into service “ so the Russians citizens don’t want to support Putin stinking ideas but are afraid of him.
Susan Beall, I hope you will consider the possibility that you don't have your facts straight.
A consideration you never make for yourself
OK John, from where do you post St Petersburg or Moscow. So it was Ukraine that invaded the Donbass huh.
No it was Russia. You just outed yourself as a Putin disinfo troll.
You misrepresent what I said.
What utter nonsense. Exactly the opposite of the truth.
Dana, one could compare points of view and fact sets and find specific points of contention. I don't suppose you do that.
The truth, 180 degrees away from what you peddle in the comment, is something you apparently never absorb.
John Schmuckala, I guess you just want to roll over and bare your butt to Trump and Putin. I prefer to fight and in a war against totalitarianism, there are no rules or polite play.
So you're the kind of guy who likes to think about rolling over and baring your butt.
You still haven't figured out that they're using Joe "mashed-potato brain" Biden to throw the election to Trump.
The only thing Putin did to tarnish Uncle Joe was to openly say that he wanted Joe to win. Obviously a simpleton’s ploy to get some of the non thinkers in the electorate to think that he’s afraid of Trump He’s not. He’s counting on the Repiglicans to win so that they will hand him Ukraine. Not too hard to figure out.
But, don’t fret too much your man will probably win because all these fundamentalist Jesus Christers think Trump is the second coming. I can make a case, even as an atheist, that Trump is probably the Satanic entity which they should fear; but they are lost in the trance of his awkwardly woven lies.
Of course Putin wants Biden to win, because Biden's brain is turning into mashed potatoes.
In the extremely remotely likely event that I should cross paths with an incognito Uke "Seal Team 6" bent on doing what they must do, I'll shake their hands, stand them a round of their favorite tasty beverages, and send them on their way wishing them "happy hunting!"
Our military budget is a very small part of our GNP. Why don’t we use some of that “black ops” money to really fund Ukraine to win and not advertise to the world that we are doing it? Why do we always telegraph our punches to these criminals? We should just do it.
Absolutely! What better use for them? Great idea, Scott!
So far it's been to stop or counter unprovoked imperialist aggression against a sovereign nation. The fault is all Putin's.
Zelensky said from the beginning "we will do all the fighting. We're not asking you to send your own troops. Just for your military & financial assistance". (paraphrasing from memory)
I blame our government for not being more forthcoming, & delaying the delivery of necessary armaments until too late.
The evidence, facts & their own rhetoric & actions support the thesis that Russia will pursue its centuries-long ambition to control as much of the world as they can by invading country after country for as long as they are able to. If they annihilate a people along the way, well, that is a pleasure they are more than happy to engage in.
All other US engagements in conflicts since WWII could be reasonably deemed unnecessary if not reckless, but this has the same global import as WWII with its impact on international security, sovereignty, democracy & peace. The sooner we nip it in the bud, the better for all. We've already let this go on too long by being too hesitant & weak in our support of Ukraine, especially since the Republican House took over.
Your answer is appeasement & "let them do whatever the he'll they want". Well, it didn't work on Hitler's Germany, & it won't work on Russia, which has shown us what it's all about every century its been in existence, which is attacking & invading its neighbors, acquiring territory, committing genocide & expanding empire. You really want to encourage that? It's only going to keep getting worse, & the stakes higher if we let it go on, to say nothing of other countries getting a cue from our weakness to invade the countries they want to take over.
The more like that, the merrier.
To wake people up we need to tell personal stories of how lives will change if those speakers that are quoted in this newsletter are followed.
Tell of the parent that doesn’t come home because they were taken in. Tell of the child who repeats what they heard at the kitchen table and then sees their father arrested.
Tell of people being fired to give the job to a party worker.
The authoritarians have countries with plenty of victims. Make those stories as gut wrenching as Katie Britt made her story when she lied.
I am afraid that many people do not understand what is valuable about democracy and if we don’t make it clear like we are talking to children, we won’t get to them. Spell it out in stories why democracy is important. What happens if you can’t speak your mind, if the media is only state propaganda, if people in power can never be removed and will make you disappear if you complain. What will your family do if you simply never came back from work or school or a walk in the park? That is what the authoritarian regimes are promising.
I was an attorney in the 60's working with a Black housing group when the police came in the morning and rounded up every Black person on the street (tens of people) regardless of who they were or what job they needed to go to because some Black person somewhere at some unspecified time had allegedly committed a burglary. I thought we had gotten beyond that but bigotry seems to be on a rebound. Democracy for all is what we need.
Agreed.
I remember as a child my parents and grandparents relating stories of the Gestapo coming to relatives' homes in the middle of the night. As a child I was terrified.
I am old enough to remember some of world war 2, heard Hitler ranting on the radio, saw photos of liberation of death camps IRT - we of that generation are dying out and young people live in a different world, and their ideas of that time are far less vivid. I fear that, as we have done since descending from the trees, we will repeat, repeat, forget and then repeat again
Gina ; without education, the next generation will repeat and forget.
My parents, refugees from then Communist Czechoslovakia, always said the answer to everything was “education, education, education.” We can see how, now it is the non-college educated (and white) middle class (mostly men), now Perpetual Victims as the Evangelical Right, furiously accusing the “Deep State” of victimizing them, their heads in the sand about their real victimizers, billionaires and the industrial military complex, and who are now led by the Victim King and Orange Dictator Wannabe, who displays extraordinary skills at convincing them of their victimhood and that only he can bring them salvation, being brought to them as the Second Coming of Christ, and especially retribution, despite having been convicted by a jury of his peers of “sexual assault” (the NYC legal nomenclature for rape) and indicted on 91 felony counts in 4 different court jurisdictions. It just boggles my mind. And terrifies me. This may be our last free election!
Your parents were right. " If you think education is expensive: try ignorance" is a bumper sticker I have seen now and then.
Rose Maly ; It helps tRump to spread his lies that he had Fox 'news' as his Megaphone!. I suppose Newsmax and OAN also helped him get his message out. Also, Eveangelicals are especially impressionable. If you can suspend your disbelief in a snake oil salesman in a Mega church, why not at a political rally? These folks are ripe to swallow lies hook line and sinker! They want to be saved, and visit their enemies with hellfire and brimstone! It does not even matter that tRump does not show a whit of integrity. Or love for anyone. Ripping off a charity for children with cancer! He is no longer allowed to run a charity! He hates women, and treats them like 🐕 dogs! Which he also hates!
If they don't try to stop it or block votes!
An older college friend in the 70s relayed an experience she had visiting Berlin a couple years previously. I do not recall how she also visited the East German side, but she told me she spent an enjoyable evening with a few people in someone's apartment. Some people had guitars, and they had been singing folk songs, including some popular in the US. A day or so later, the person whose apartment they had been in had "disappeared" to be "reeducated."
The conquer America strategy of the Russians has always been to buy their way into democracy. They don’t need to invade us across the Bering Sea.
Russians are having trouble doing logistics and their invasion of the Ukraine. They’re really not up to invading the United States buy our political leaders Trump Mike Johnson, Mitch McConnell. It’s much easier and cheaper to buy off Americans through third-party subterfuge if necessary then it is to take us on in a military one on one fight.
Republicans are leading the way to the third world war by being weak weak weak on communism.
It’s even possible that the Republicans are too stupid to notice that they are being bought off by the Russians …
This is a shameful time in American politics. What would Eisenhower or Roosevelt or Kennedy or Johnson or Reagan? Say they’re definitely spinning in their graves …
Mike Johnson Donald Trumpet 🎺, Mitch McConnell…
Dr Doug Gilbert ; As NATO members. If any NATO country is attacked. we are at war, because that is how the alliance works.
Even if "The Predecessor" pulls the U.S. out of NATO we would end up in WWIII. China would likely attack Taiwin and U.S. assets there. That would trigger a response. Then we end up with Putin declaring war on the U.S. the same way Hitler did in 1941. Putin could also look at a nuclear strike on a city such as Berlin.
Isn't it time to ask the question-what the hell is wrong with Europe- the democratic countries of Europe? The US has since 2016 demonstrated itself to be unreliable in many ways. Even with the election of Biden in 2020 that was no reason for Europe's complacency given the obvious state of our politics.
The European "arsenals of democracy" have had time to crank up so that they could be providing more of the essential weapons to Ukraine. Even with the economic dislocations of the past years. The war is, after all, in their backyard.
Of course the US should continue to support Ukraine.
My "backyard" stops at my fence line. Beyond that, it's someone ELSE's backyard.
alas, our backyards are all part of a larger interconnected society
But I don't treat something as "my backyard" unless it is truly mine.
Good fences make good neighbors.
Until the mess in Europe spills over in the Atlantic or pacific regions. “ Penny of Prevention is Better than a Pound of Cure”
"Peace in our time"---Neville Chamberlain. Will we never learn from history?
Have to read it before you can Learn anything. Reading history only happens in college professors offices.
I'm remembering a documentary series on PBS in the 1980's called "World At War" which pictorially showed the autrocities of WWII world wide, but also mentioned that world wide casualities, military and civilian were closer to 140,000,000 +.
Are we willing to let these 'promoters' of what could become WWIII get away with their 'making the world great again' ? And what will this effort (win or lose) cost the entire planet and ALL ecosystems and their probable crash ? ? ?
This is REALLY chilling!! I was sent a voluminous copy of records kept during the Russian “Iron Curtain” days, detailing the tactics Russia used against dissidents and people they accused of resisting their state control of satellite countries. The person who had them wanted to put them in shape for publication. They had been worked on at one time by some academics in NYC. {Columbia, I think}
I had to stop reading the accounts of how they broke people down in order to create compliant behavior and dispel challenges.
It made me sick to my stomach and gave me nightmares. And there was very little physical violence involved in those records. It was psychological manipulation, but it kept me awake at night, afraid of the dreams I’d have.
You point out, Dr. Gilbert, that none of the former Soviet republics in the Baltics want to see Russia in charge again … Wow, you can bet they don’t!! People have no idea … It’s what Ukraine is desperately fighting against…Because Putin is exactly in line with the likes of Stalinists and their ilk…
Yes, Putin and his party want to stay in office and will kill any opponents challenging him. Putin must keep his people isolated and uninformed to control them - the Russians are scared of being arrested and die in a gulag. Trump wants the same here, control by misinformation and threats of violence for the opposition. We need to get rid Trump and most of the MAGAts in congress like Jordan Gaetz Greene and all of the Trump weasels unwilling to defend democracy worldwide. My father fought in WW2 - he would throw up in disgust listening to Trump and his DICKtator friends.
There was just yesterday an attack on Vilnius, Lithuania, on Navalny’s top strategist. https://apnews.com/article/russia-lithuania-navalny-leonid-volkov-attack-b951ca8c07e0c441563b91b6468d55f8
Dr. Doug Gilbert: The truth is WWIII began in earnest when Putin got away with invading Crimea in 2014. He broke international law. The harder truth to face is WWIII began when the US broke international law by invading Vietnam and Iraq and allowed the interference in Venezuela. I don't know enough world history to name how many other nations also contributed to the start of WWIII. Perhaps the real truth is that just as the American Civil War never really ended, WWII never really ended.
Biden & Co. support Ukraine's oppressive far-right terror regime.
That is false russofascist propaganda.
Rachel Maddow did a great job describing and informing about this type of propaganda on her show last night. She also reminded us that Biden said, "I will stop you" at attempts to dismantle Social Security and Medicare in the SOTU address. Reassuring.
Biden's SOTU address was reassuring in many ways.
Renewing $3 trillion in tax cuts for the billionaire class sounds like "entitlements" for the rich. Protect and expand Social Security and Medicare!
Gloria, this propaganda will only intensify as the election draws closer. I am cheering for Robert Jaffee and Jaime Ramirez on this feed because they are deflecting the propaganda with truth. The trolls don't have truth, they have lies and insults so the contrast is what everyone on here needs to see. President Biden's State of the Union was very reassuring and called on all of us to keep up the fight!! Vote Blue, America!!!
Gloria J Maloney: I still don't understand how people can vote for the destruction of something they depend on like social security. Do they think something magic will happen and all will be well instead of figuring out, "Okay. No more social security money so how do I pay for food, shelter and maybe medical care? Now what do I do?"
TrumpTards have a few marbles missing in the cranium
a mystery of the ages
Hey, the magic of the stock market will save you, except when it falls, as it sometimes does.
On a related topic—Medicare, I have read, has an overhead of about 3%. Quite different from for-profit health insurers.
She also that Trump's desperate need for some half a $Billion to pay his court fines is an unacceptable conflict of interest
I replied here (and I have more to say):
https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-global-anti-democracy-movement/comment/51475369
No one wants to hear it.
You're getting weaker! Maybe you should power down and try a reboot!
"Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine"
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
"There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
I deleted him
Of course it is, but we keep giving the troll more opportunities to insert himself and his propaganda here.
"Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine"
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/
"There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and LGBT groups, book bans, and state-sponsored glorification of Nazi collaborators.
"These stories of Ukraine’s dark nationalism aren’t coming out of Moscow; they’re being filed by Western media, including US-funded Radio Free Europe (RFE); Jewish organizations such as the World Jewish Congress and the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and watchdogs like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, which issued a joint report warning that Kiev is losing the monopoly on the use of force in the country as far-right gangs operate with impunity."
Nope, do some proper, unbiased research. Start with mine, facts from MSM.
https://liborsoural.substack.com/p/nutzie-u-crane-z-sob-pow-x-planed
Hmmm, Russia is already doing what Reich & Hartmann have been warning they will do: populating the internet with bots & trolls to spread disinformational propaganda to help Putin & Trump, 2 of the most dangerous, destructive & despicable people to have ever populated the Earth.
I've been following the totally unprovoked, barbaric Russian invasion of Ukraine very closely as well as the criminal & treasonous antics of the Siberian Candidate, Traitor Trump, getting my information from all sides.
You are here simply to stir things up with false russofascist claims.
Indeed, to paraphrase it, Trump and Putin's political ambitions are inseparable. Its okay for Putin to do whatever the hell he wants in Ukraine because when I'm in power I can do whatever the hell I want. Our allies and the rule of law be damned.. .Prime Minister Victor Orban has his ear. Orban was elected, but once.in power he took control of the courts, the media etc. Project 2025 that Trump endorses seems to be the same blueprint that Orban used to dismantle democracy.
Betty, and if Orban had anything of value to offer, he would not have believed he had to take over everything in the nation that would have served as a check on his power. It seems Trump has already taken over our House of Representatives and Supreme Court as well as several of the lower courts. It would be rather easy for him to get the rest. Russia already had a system of repression going on since the Czar days, so people were used to it. People here are not and I suspect even Republicans who want to do as much harm as they can to the people who don't believe as they do, will find they don't like a man in the throes of dementia and under the hand of puppeteers like Steve Miller and Steve Bannon running things, and will find their freedoms slipping away to the point they will not be happy with their Baby Donnie anymore. Unfortunately by that time, this nation will be a wreck. Trump won't care because he will be insulated from all of it. He will be dragged out to give his stupid rally speeches with paid people who will cheer for him. Poverty will rise to extremes and the oligarchs who wanted to take over all along will be able to return to slavery days with people working for as little as the oligarchs can manage. Maybe their brand of warped christianity will give them some comfort as their kids are starving and they are working 16 hour days for a tiny fraction of what they should be paid. Then, there's global warming that could put an end to all our suffering by that time because Baby Donnie and friends are into "drill baby drill" and only want science if it makes their own life better. Mar-a-Lago will be underwater by then and Trump won't notice because his dementia will have taken over his brain. Yeah, Republicans, that's a lovely future. I can't imagine what you see in it that fascinates you.