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| Silverfiddle Rant! |
Remember the left breathlessly informing us Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin? The tastemakers lied--out of malice or ignorance--and the ignorant Lumpen Blue Blob echoed it far and wide, like the unthinking mynah birds they are.
Note to the humorless, willfully-ignorant literalists on the left : Tone and context matter. Comments ripped out of context provide daily rocket fuel to the leftwing outrage machine.
Praising Putin?
Trump didn't say what the leftwing liars and parrots said he said, and neither did Pompeo. Byron York reveals the lying liars and their willing patsies it in two short podcasts. You can hear the comments for yourself, in context.
For bonus points, who is the following quote from?
“Now, in regards to Russia, Putin is a murderer and he should never have invaded Ukraine. What he is doing is completely wrong. I stand with our Nato member allies and I’m completely against this war. Everything that he’s doing is wrong. He’s killing people over and over so I’m staunchly against it and I’m staunchly against Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.” (The Guardian)
Check out this headline...
Anger as Lauren Boebert heckles Joe Biden while talking about death of son Beau at State of the Union
Now go look and listen to the 31 second video in this article.
Biden mentions flag draped coffins, Boebert pipes up, "13 of them!" and then Biden invokes the name of his deceased son Beau.
That headline is typical, in that it leads one to believe she disrespected the memory of his son. Watch the clip and it is clear she did not.
This is where we are
People who know better--the pontificating tastemakers with cable news shows, twitter feeds and podcasts--spread blatant lies. Millions of Democrat followers eagerly gobble up the lies with a logic-free, animal-like instinct because the information came from "authoritative sources" on high.
We are in a bad place. If Donald Trump said it got dark at night, Democrats would not only deny it, they would pass laws forbidding the use of car headlights during nighttime hours.
I would find it difficult and value-less to partition my outrage only to the lies of the Left.
ReplyDeleteWe're in a bad place because most Americans do exactly that.....they simply don't care when their own party/politician lies.
So why should I care? We get the society we deserve.
Of course both sides do it. That's one of the many reasons I unplugged myself from the rightwingospehere years ago. I don't like being played.
DeleteNoticably missing from Trump's sound bite criticisms of Biden on the Russian invasion of Ukraine is what he would be doing instead. It wouldn't have happened under Trump? Why not?
Delete::crickets chirping::
Noticably missing.....
DeleteYou're probably not going to get that either. It's simply too easy to lob drive-by, lazy rhetoric grenades about how Russia invading Ukraine is Biden's fault. And how that invasion's impact on the world oil market.....is somehow also Biden's fault.
What you will hear, and we actually did.....is Trump complaining that Biden was releasing an amount from the Strategic Oil Reserves; which is what trump did in 2019.....
America is going to export more oil oh noes
DeleteIndeed. There is no way to know what Putin would or would not have done had Donald Trump still been in office.
DeleteBiden did shut down our operation with Canada and that pipeline, so that does force us now to buy oil from Russia. We are funding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Eeeh, no. The Keystone pipeline would have mostly pumped Canadian tar sand oil (garbage level profits in refining and even worse environmental soundness) to Gulf of Mexico warm water port then to China. Well, at most the highly acidic tar sand oil that didn't leak out all over the Midwest's corn and wheat crops and into the drinking water.
DeleteOil prices would need to go up even higher than they are now with the world going psycho to make Canadian tar sand oil profitable to refine, because it's such a shitty grade of oil.
DeleteIt eats through train cars the Canadians carry it in. Let's pressurize it and squirt it though metal pipes across our farmland. What could happen? Lol
DeleteWe became both natural gas and oil independent and exporters of both under Obama and Trump, and the Keystone pipeline was as it is currently... Non-existent.
DeleteBiden has signed more federal land oil leasing rights with oil companies than Trump did in his first 3 years in office combined. This doesn't even scratch the surface of leases signed by states and private land owners.
We've neither cut production, nor run out of domestic oil sources. If Russia is funding their war with just the $210 million they've made per year selling a tiny amount of oil we buy from them for high sulfur refining, it's no wonder their soldiers are out of gas and begging for food.
The only people being "played" by Biden re: energy policy are the Green New Dealers.
DeleteMeanwhile, I can still bounce my internet traffic through over 60 different VPN servers in the Ukraine. It's like Russia isn't even trying.
DeleteWe are importing Russian oil. Existing contracts have not been canceled.
Delete210,000 barrels per year times $115 per barrel divided by 52 weeks... and stuck in the SWIFT payment queue...
DeleteAw damn, no wonder the Russians soldiers are rationing Ramen noodles.
And gas prices are going up. Maybe you and Paul Krugman can get together and do a Abbott and Costello style comedy routine about it
DeleteI'm all for sticking it to the Russians just because they put dill on ice cream. Forget Ukraine, I can out petty the best of them when it comes to reasons to hurt Russians.
DeleteBut their 210,000 barrels of oil sold to us *per year* amounts to around 3/260ths of the 18.2 million barrels of oil that the US burns through *in a single day.* Russian oil sales to us per year will keep US oil consumption going for about 17 minutes today.
God damn that's too much! Boycott those bastards all the way!
@SF - I don't like being played.
DeleteI believe most people would say the same, but as they spew vitriol about the 'lies' of their opposition, they're silent when faced with the lies of their own party.
This isn't directed at you, but I'm absolutely fascinated when seemingly intelligent people engage in such base [and provable] hypocrisy. I'm not sure if they don't realize their doing it....or they just don't care.
CI, I don't get it either.
DeleteTC, Tell us the truth. A Russian prostitute hurt you. Bad. Be honest, we have a shoulder to cry on.
DeleteTC: Use this doll to show us where the bad man with the Russian accent touched you. lol
DeleteI did make a mistake. Russia sold 210k barrels of oil per day to us last year, not 210k total for the whole year. The math still works out to them covering our oil consumption for 17 minutes, everyday. The Fweedom Convoy has a better chance of winning on a scratch off lottery ticket on any given day than getting some of that naughty no-no Russian derived sulfur diesel in their tank. Cut 'em off anyway. It's not like traders are touching Russian oil futures anyway.
DeleteYou probably need to look at just-in-time delivery pencil pushers at all the corporate oil refining companies to figure out how replacing 265 days worth of Russian oil imports with 60 million barrels from the Strategic Reserve results in higher gasoline prices. Don't let this crisis go to waste lol. We obviously need Republicans to form a blue ribbon panel of investigators into why oil companies like money.
TC, you spent all that time when all you needed to do was go here:
Deletehttps://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MTTIM_NUS-NRS_1&f=M
Wow. Biden in his first year got Russian oil imports back to pre-Trump levels. That's a cool graph.
DeleteHere's another one.
Deletehttps://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=51338
Narratives Are Us.
ReplyDeleteWe need another pandemic lockdown and wave of unemployment to bring gas prices down ;)
ReplyDeleteI heard the praise with my own ears.
ReplyDeletedonald tRump: Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what's happening. Just stick with us, don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news".
You actually saying Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump praising Putin was all a lie based on some podcast revelation from the author of "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" and regular pundit to The Washington Examiner, The Federalist, and Fox News?
ReplyDeleteI'm saying it based upon their actual words, that you can hear by listening to the whole conversation or reading the entire transcript
DeletePulled your head out of the left wing outrage machine and try doing some independent investigation. You're being played, but I know you left his love that.
It's become the usual tactic to depict me as outraged or "triggered" and of course, indoctrinated or such by refusing to kowtow to the nonsense of the righty wing spin machine.
DeleteActually, tickled would be a realistic description as denying 5 plus years of Trump's constant slobbery all over authoritarian dictators such as Putin is pure comedy gold. This ranges from the "perfect call" to siding with Putin over the FBI to the Helsinki summit suck-up to saying he trust his denials of election meddling to “He’s been complimentary of me” to defending him to Bill O'Riely with “There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent to ""If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset" to "smart and savvy" and all points in between.
I mean seriously, had Putin ever came to a sudden dead stop, Trump's head would have rammed straight up his ass.
And what's even funnier is that this comes right after my mentioning of the right wing sudden need to shift from rootin-for-Putin.
Donald Trump's anosognosia did emit Putin-admiring noises. That's not really different than when he fell in love with China's Winnie the Pooh Bear over chocolate cake.
DeleteThe best light you could spin it in would be analogous to being a Rams fan at the Super Bowl recognizing the Bengals have a top tier run defense while ignoring all the facemask penalties they got away with.
What both of you have failed to recognize in your haste to spew more stupidity, is that I have not issued a plenary defense of Donald Trump.
DeleteWhat I have done is point out one specific instance parentheses yes there are plenty parentheses
But I have chosen to point out one incident of Trump's comments being mischaracterized and one incident of pompeo's commas being mischaracterized.
You cannot refute what I have said because I have provided evidence, so you go off on a Looney tunes tangent. Have fun with yourselves
SF,
DeleteAnti-Trumpers are so easily triggered.
Please. You can't scream "context" with a coffee straw diameter tunnel vision view of what Trump said, which basically boiled down to ham-fisting his nipples into contusions to claim Putin is smarter than all his adversaries except himself.
DeleteI wasn't accusing you of defending Trump, but rather offering that there's less densely volatile minefields to dance in than trying to un-stupid what Trump actually said. You're not the Trump-to-English Rosetta Stone.
I trust my senses. tRump mocked a disabled reporter, his "perfect" phone call was an extortion attempt and the insurrection at the Capitol wasn't a normal tourist day.
DeletetRump has a history of praising Putin. And I believe each of these things actually happened (despite tRump supporters claiming they did not) because I REFUSE to be played. It's tRump supporters that love being deceived.
I know that since Biden has been such a disaster this year that we're all nostalgic for Reagan's return and a renewal of the Cold War, but it time to gtf up, people. Just because the future looks bleak/ unimaginable for the next three years doesn't mean we should crawl into our pasts...
DeleteWhat does it all mean? Are we seeking meanings for events which comfort us, or inform us?
DeleteEven the most courageous among us only rarely has the courage for that which he really knows. - Nietzsche, "Twilight of the Idols"
Sanders, did you cry big boo hoo tears when Obama mocked the special Olympians? Like the way you are whining now?
DeleteOle the return of the "But, but, but........OBAMMMMMAAAAA!!!!!
DeleteThis is more comical than an "Everyone Loves Raymond" rerun.
"I bowled a 129," Obama told Leno.
Delete"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.
But then came the foot-in-mouth moment: "It's like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.
What a retard!
Barack Obama's joke was insensitive but his intention was not to mock special Olympians. He apologized. Nobody on the Left tried to pretend it didn't happen.
DeleteNeither of these incidents caused me to cry. I was giving other examples of trumpers denying reality.
Trumpism pretty much is just a tu quoque fallacy with a circle jerk attached.
Delete"That's not true! Proud Boys don't masturbate!"
Even more entertaining than Sanders and Ronald's selective outrage is their defensive hissy squeals when someone points it out. Trump is an offensive lout??? WOW. You broke a big story there! lol
DeleteI'm sure the left feels they have something important to say. Personally it matters less to me that the leftist Trump says stupid things, it's baked into his left-wing ideology. The left tends to eat their own. Trump wasn't ever going to get a pass. Had he remained a loyal racist Democrat he'd have been beatified as a saint by now, without saying anything different. I really don't understand why his having destroyed the Republican Party doesn't improve his stature with the left. They know, as everyone does, that he only likes sycophants.
DeleteTC, That is why arguing politics is a fool's errand. Politics is an irrational and principle-free zone.
DeleteJump in and start arguing party politics, and at some point you will have to defend the indefensible.
The temple priests are running brothels and the atheists are warning of Doomsday.
DeleteNothing new under the sun. Move along please.
:P
DeleteJoe, that is an excellent song and video. I can understand why the Blue Stack ignored it. I wonder how far Google and YouTube pushed it down the search algo...
DeleteFor starters SF, let's just for funnies say you're absolutely correct of the left and leftwing media spouting "Lies Lies Lies" and Pompeo and Trump are totally exonerated of praising Putin-in this admitted one isolated case.
DeleteNow it's interesting that you shun talking politics as it's such a "fool's errand" etc. after posting "Lies Lies Lies" of the left and this invented "outrage" from what you believe to be some exposure of context manipulation.
For starters and as you know because you've told me before, this is 2022. Remember?
So that kinda brings into question (without getting political of course) why after 4 years of the most lying administration in history with a long list of constant Putin praising, what's with this sudden gotcha moment?
Seems to me the reactions to these statements of people no longer in office has you more "triggered" than the "outraged left". I mean, what difference does it make? Does this one time great find of the left lying and Trump not praising Putin somehow exonerate the Great Mendacity Era and Putin worshiping of the Trump- who again, is no longer in office?
At first glance, it might look like you want to throw these political stink bombs and then cry apolitical while following the playbook of pointing "triggered". Nothing better and more sporting today than "owning the Dems", right?
But then, to dig deeper, Biden and Trump are very likely to be the political nominees in 2024 and as I've mentioned, there's a political need to shift from Trump's rootin-for-Putin to this-is-Biden's-fought" while of course, admonishing the hate spewing leftist as making everything about Trump and viewing everything from a political lens- while of course, not wanting to talk politics.
Perhaps the Federalist reading, Tucker watching, right wing podcast viewers and QAnon gulpers have been trained in sanctimonious gaslighting, quite possibly without even knowing it?
Biden didn't green light the 2014 coup in Ukraine like Ambassador Nuland stated? Who knew?
DeleteSo this isn't "Putin's revenge"? wow, glad you cleared that up.
btw - Didn't the whole Trump "Russia, Russia" narrative start with Alexandra Chalupa based upon the Democrat sponsored coup d'etat against Paul Manafort's former client and the ultimate victim of the 2014 Biden sponsored coup against Ukraine's 4th President, Viktor Yanukovych? And wasn't Hunter Biden's Burisma no-show job Biden's pay-off for that support?
Delete...and when Trump threatened to expose the DNC's link to the coupster's in a phone call to a new Ukrainian president, that they ginned up phony impeachment charges against Trump to prevent the evidence of said DNC-Ukrainian collusion and interference in the 2016 election from being exposed?
DeleteOh, but "Trump is Putin's puppet" is the real reason for all the Ukrainian heartache. Right?
DeleteRonald Ward and the Sanders guy are here standing up for the contemporary progressive reality:
ReplyDeleteThinking is hard!
I would NEVER accuse them of "thinking," sf.
DeleteBiden is slightly more rightish than Trump over there on the center-left. Wake me when there is a right wing, even center-right challenge to both of them.
DeleteIf "rightish" means Uniparty global "neo-liberal/conservative", I'd agree with you, beamish. Trump is too "classically liberal" for those "neo" variants of liberalism/ conservatism. Such a position may have been appropriate for the Cold War era, but WWII's almost 80 years in our rear-view mirrors now. It's time we got back to the "classically" liberal.
DeleteAh, the paternalism of lynching others for their own good. Trump lacks the libertarian bent required of classical liberalism. He's a 1930s progressive at best, which is no where near right-wing.
Delete1930's progressives (the progressive [arty came out of the Republican party) were both anti-government and anti-Trust/corp. Sounds pretty anarcho-libertarian to me.
DeleteThe Progressive Era was a direct result of the excesses and corruption brought on by the Gilded Age.
DeleteLa Foyette for President!
DeleteFace it beamish, you're a Warren Harding Teapot Dome Republican.
DeleteCalvin Coolidge, but close enough.
Delete"About the Declaration (of Independence) there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers." - from Coolidge's speech on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1926.
DeleteThe Left misses the definition of the word "progress" almost as badly as the Right mangles the definition of the word "globalism."
The American way is the *superior* way.
DeleteIf we could just get past trying to teach the savages of the non-American world "bomb babies bad" we'd have post offices on Neptune by now.
DeleteWe need to make sure the next Presidential term is filled with someone worthy of giving the 250th July 4th anniversary speech in 2026.
DeleteBiden and Trump need not apply.
the American way died with small business owners in the gilded age. We've got British mercantilism now, and it's even less pretty now than it was in 1775. Corporate America has become the East India Company with the King's navy backing it.
DeleteMercantilism; A system of wealth extraction (as opposed to capitalism's system of wealth creation) driven by tariff policies meant to increase exports in a farcical misunderstanding that economic reality is a zero-sum game where trees will die if you pick all the fruit off of them.
DeleteYeah, Trump sucked.
I guess that we all now know where beamish lies on this curve...
DeleteMaximum consumption/ minimum production.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Trump's pointless trade war with China kicked their GDP growth rate into overdrive as Adam Smith told everybody it would.
Delete:P
DeleteSo how long do you think that the Chinese will keep accepting American computerized 1's and 0's on a deficit ledger as payment in return for goods shipped to consumers at Walmart? If you think "indefinitely", I've got some great Pokemon NFT's for sale...
Think they'll settle for Alaska as payment on the bill?
Delete...for didn't Smith postulate that "land" was "The (true) Wealth of Nations".
DeleteOnly the Chinese and Emirates are creating more land (islands).
DeleteModern post-Brenton Woods economics have got NOTHING to do with "reality", after all.
DeleteIt's symbolism on steroids... aka hyper-real and a hyper-reality.
DeletePretty soon the bankers in Bejing are going to start putting purchasing restrictions on your American crypto-credit dollars.
Delete...and no, you won't be able to purchase arms with them, as DOD's account will have been "suspended" and only available for use in performing "social Justice" training to non-existent "volunteers".
DeleteBest get a few Yuan before they stop taking dollars.
DeleteThat is, if you think that they'll allow "foreign devils" like you a social credit account with which to spend them.
DeleteNo. Disneyland.
DeleteWhen I was a little kid I thought I'd love to live in Disneyland... 'til I discovered that Disneyland only existed so as to make me believe that there was a "real world" outside it.
DeleteKnow what they call it when you find yourself trapped inside someone else's dream? Nightmare.
DeleteTime to grow up, Peter Pan. You can't remain a boy forever.
Delete1883 s1:e10
DeleteElsa: “To survive the frontier you must learn to recognize those others who won’t, and be wary of their doomed decisions. They are to be avoided at all cost, because their fear is tragedy’s closest cousin, and tragedy is contagious in this place.“
There are no 'E' tickets where we're headed.
DeleteForeign Devils only qualify for A's and B's.
DeleteMost of the US debt isn't to China. And China owes the US around the same amount we owe them. Yawn.
DeleteWell, SF, we both know the left are nothing, but liars and the majority of the media are fake news. We should not be surprised they lied about Trump and Pompeo. Typical of them, yes sad, but typical. I cannot even get angry anymore. So done with the lying left and fake news.
ReplyDeleteAnd the icing on the cake is when the deranged anti-trumpers whine and scream when you point it out.
DeleteThis is war: all sides are propagandising, including those of us that haven't deployed troops. It's quite interesting to observe,
ReplyDeleteA veritable Kissenderian "Athens vs Sparta" (US/Russia) conflict.
Deleteerratum -"Kissingerian" above.
DeleteJust heard on Fox News there is now a cease fire in Ukraine albeit I am sure it is temporary. They have taken over the nuclear plants and could possibly shut down most of the power in Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteI hope you all heard what Lindsey Graham had to say about Putin. I won't repeat it, but I am sure you could look it up if you missed it. It was shocking that he said this on air, but he was right.
That's frightening, actually, considering the last time a Russian pushed a button in a Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
DeleteJust gotta make sure no one flushes a toilet at the same time....
Deletethe potty defense
DeleteThe world needs the Great Gasmasked Hero. Biden is going to make greens into endangered species. Bernie can smoke pot with spotted owls if he doesn’t get our oil fields going. The Great Gasmasked Hero stood with Truckers and Farmers vs gobalist elites.
DeleteHi Beak.
DeleteBeamish is just peeved because during Canada's "Nazi Terror Truck" kerfuffle, his short stack sat naked and sad, bereft of Canadian maple syrup.
It's impossible to stand with truckers. Truckers are actually moving at speeds up to 70 mph.
DeleteOK, TC, that was funny. I don't care who you are...
DeleteJust heard one of the Russian Generals committed suicide. The soldiers are afraid to tell Putin this is wrong and that they really do not want to fight, but apparently if they do not, they will be assassinated by Putin. Putin is apparently according to the source on Fox News Putin is losing his mind. The Russians are not using WW11 equipment, but the equipment from Korean War. Still, they out equip the Ukrainians. He is a modern day Hitler or Stalin. A psychopath for sure my friends.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteEvidently Putin's tanks in Ukraine have run out of gas, so Putin has joined "Only Fans" in a desperate attempt to raise money for tank fuel.
DeleteJoe, if you must respond to a bot, please do so in the main thread so I can completely zap the bot but preserve your comment.
DeleteGo ahead and zap this thread. All I posted was lame sarcasm.
DeleteThanks for the vote of confidence, but an exhibition of rank sarcasm is usually a pretty poor excuse for a post, and I am guilty of that far too often. I suppose it has its' origins in a general "disgust" for what passes for politics these days.
DeleteListening to TV personalities telling you what to say is so much easier than thinking for yourself...
ReplyDeleteFinding the transcript of the National Interest interview is difficult, so I cut indoctrinated left some slack for accepting their "news" filtered through MSNBC.
I can also understand how pinheads cannot understand when serious people make serious assessments of our adversaries.
Progs scream "TRAITOR!" at the mention of Putin as "smart, cunning and capable," which are intel assessments, btw.
What Pompeo should have done, is called Putin a doo doo head. That's how progs do it.
Cartoonish people need cartoons.
'Vladimir Putin is smart and cunning and capable. He's also evil and should be crushed,' Pompeo told The Des Moines Register.
'I was taught you need to know your adversary, you need to know your enemy. You shouldn't pretend your enemy is weak,' Pompeo added.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10552177/Mike-Pompeo-suggests-Biden-blame-letting-dictator-Putin-terrorize-Ukraine.html
Here's the whole thing:
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/discussion-mike-pompeo-russia-ukraine-crisis-and-future-us-nuclear-strategy-200694
We both know that the only reason they're pushing the "Russia" angle is to appeal to prejudices. Russia is no longer our communist enemy. China is. The sooner everyone realizes this, the better. Russia constitutes NO threat to any ethnically non-Russian state. They don't need any "liebensraum". China does.
Deleteps - The feud in Ukraine is between ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians. The ethnic Russian Ukrainians want to maintain close business ties with Russia. The ethnic Ukrainians see an opportunity to prosper in tying their sails to the EU. I frankly could care less which faction "wins" provided that the US stays out of the conflict.
Deletealthough I do hope George Soro's enterprises in Ukraine ALL are bankrupted.
Why I don't care about Ukraine, and neither should you.
DeleteFull disclosure from fake news: Writing in Politico, journalist James Kirchick argued in 2016 while commenting on Donald Trump's Russian relationships that The National Interest and its parent company "are two of the most Kremlin-sympathetic institutions in the nation’s capital, even more so than the Carnegie Moscow Center."
DeleteGee... Some Republicans may have favoured the Ukrainian-ethnic Russian business factions...
Could it be that many had business ties with Ukraine's 4th President, Viktor Yanukovych and deposed in the 2014 Biden sponsored Ukrainian coup?
This is just one more problem of corporate globalism... everyone starts fighting for a war that will enrich their personal business interests... and many times the internal political parties will choose opposite sides to support (ethnic Ukrainians (D) or ethnic Russian Ukrainians (R).
DeleteTrump's SoS was Exxon's Rex Tillerson also a supposed "Russo-phile"?
Why does Zelensky fight?
DeleteSchumer told Zelenskyy that Congress will get the $10 billion in economic, humanitarian and security assistance to the Ukrainian people “quickly,” according to two people with knowledge of the call.
Ukraines's entire GDP in 2018 was $131b. That's over 6% in a single pop.
DeleteFrom DoS date 3/3/22... Since 2014, the United States has committed more than $5.4 billion in total assistance to Ukraine, including security and non-security assistance. In addition, the United States provided three sovereign loan guarantees totaling $3 billion.
Delete$10b will be a literal doubling down on US-Ukrainian investments... a pay-off that would be hard to resist.
The DNC and RNC are currently using Ukrainians and Russians to fight a corporate proxy war.
DeleteNext time we should just let Rex Tillerson hire his own army. I'm pretty sure that the folks at Blackwater would love the contract. Somebody call Constellis Holdings.
DeleteAlthough maybe Putin stole the contract with a 10% off coupon.
DeleteAnybody remember this? Seems that several "Uniparty" members really want an EU aligned Ukraine... so perhaps it's not an "old" DNC/RNC proxy war. But it might certainly be an old DNC/ new RNC one.
DeleteWouldn't surprise me a bit if the entire US Intelligence Community were in on the anti-Russia trope.
DeleteIt'll be interesting to see how this vote goes. It might reveal "who's who" on the American political sides of this possible corporate war in Ukraine.... although oil prices over $110 a barrel could certainly be enough of an "incentive" for a company like ExxonMobil, with strong Russian ties, to do some mischief in the region... even if they allow their "packet pols" to "ban" Russian oil. Exxon did make $51b in 2021 when oil was at an average $50 per/barrel. Imagine the profits when oil's at an average $110 per barrel. I'd be tempted to walk away from my sunk $4b Russian investment too. And just think of the CO2 emission reductions... such a boon for Green energy lovers...
DeleteYes, Democrats and Republicans were only interested in Ukraine for the money. That ambassador was running a Ukraine business lobby/broker out of the US embassy.
DeleteI've also heard a good amateur psychological analysis for why the progs hate Russia so much: They are an international proxy and convenient hate totem for white Christianity.
DeleteWhat say you Farmer?
Farmer,
DeleteI got about half way through this essay and thought of you...
https://unherd.com/2022/03/how-western-elites-exploit-ukraine/
...and I saw this and thought of you...
Deleteps - best quote in your link. " As one of American greatest strategists and the architect of “containment” against the Soviet Union, George Kennan’s reaction to the Clinton administration’s insistence on Nato’s enlargement is particularly telling: “I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the founding fathers of this country turn over in their graves.”
DeleteTHAT is one of the most intuitive classical liberals of the greatest generation speaking. He predicted the Soviet fall in '89. His is a voice well worth heeding.
...and there was "something" to that psychoanalytic analyses. The intersectional Left can't make the Chinese our enemies... for THAT would be "racist". They need "bad guys" (petite bourgeoisie or kulak "wreckers" to blame class divisions on)... and they CAN'T be minorities. That's why they're so fixated on "white nationalist right wing hate groups." Every "Trumper" now fills the bill. Their society would be 'perfect'.... but for us. Putin just provided another chance to depict their critical-race theory (CRT) derived "natural enemies".
DeleteI loved the Seinfeld clip! Thanks for sharing that.
DeleteI have known some Ukrainians here in the US, many not speaking much English, but they are all tough (and tough-minded) people and they all work. They also help new arrivals assimilate and get on their feet. Good people.
Also, I should have warned you that the essay I linked to could be considered Russian propaganda.
DeleteApologies for steering you to politically-incorrect, non state sanctioned informatzia designed to steer the people from their dewey-eyed (cost-free) emotionalism.
As another firm believer in the Analyst Discourse, you're forgiven. The University discourse can be quite trying... especially given the power to censor and control their societies "algorithmically".
Delete...for the Analyst's Discourse can be quite undecipherable at times. :(
DeleteNow sorry, I must leave to go hug some Ukrainians...
DeleteMy futile attempt at objective analytical detachment now requires me to go re-attach/ re-connect with the University discourse through some well-timed yet empathetic "abrazos".
"They are an international proxy and convenient hate totem for white Christianity"
DeleteNah, it's an authoritarian regime seeking to constrain not only her own population, but also her neighbours in their efforts to evolve into liberal democracy. My disapproval is as simple as that, as one who was emotionally persuaded by America et al.'s admittedlt naive rhetoric about planting democracy and nation building, I am equally repulsed by Russia doing the opposite.
I am comfortable in my political opposition to authoritarian regimes in non-white countries.
Jez,
Deleteand to be fair (I've been chided so much lately for unfairly targeting the left) Russia's Christianity and "traditional values" is probably what has lured some conservative Christians to not condemn them or to even mount a defense of Russia. I don't buy any of it. Putin's actions are not Christian, no matter what lens you try to view them through.
They are therefore incapable of self-agency and cannot truly be blamed for their actions.
DeleteGroups like the Palestinians have simply been far too contaminated by British Authorities for their own good. If they have any "authoritarian" faults, they are these.
DeleteXi Jinping will liberate them all, I'm fairly certain.
DeleteOf course, I'm sure some of this accidently rubbed off...
DeleteMao, I am sure, had a more correct opinion. And of course, the 3 Represents have perfected Mao's philosophy.
Delete...there only a few dissident minds left to purge from Hong Kong. The Tibetans will come around soon. As will those pesky Uighers.
DeleteTaiwan... we will not speak of THAT province. The Formosans always were a bit "fickle".
DeleteEven the Ottomans had to deal all those Janissary/ Xtian contaminants.
Delete...and before them, King Artaxerxes of Persia had to deal with that upstart Cyrus the Younger and his mercenary Greeks.
DeleteThe great and proud black civilizationos that flourished in those lands prior to colonialism were beating themselves up and oppressing one another for centuries before whitey turned up.
DeleteExactly. So what's the deal with all these stupid "intersectionality" arguments coming from the Left?
DeleteThe deal is, it's not surprising that you haven't understood a set of arguments which you have not tried to understand.
DeleteThat's funny. How many Zizek articles/books have YOU read? Herbert Marcuse? MIchelle Foucault? WEB DuBois?
DeleteRessentiment isn't an argument.
DeleteIt's a feeling.
Deleteps- Wanna know what the OPPOSITE of justice is? WISDOM.
DeleteMy largest exposure to that material is your blog. I don't understand it, but I don't blame you or zizek for my lack of effort.
DeleteJust sayin'... "I tried and FAILED" to understand the intersectionality argument. I did find a Leftist (Zizek) who finally made some sense on the topic, but most of the "establishment Left" hates his guts. He's a "humanitarian"... but not a PC supporter of intersectionality (aka The Oppression Olympics amongst the Left's more 'populist' and hysterical members).
DeleteI'm not a humanities guy. I find akala a more accessible source than zizek but I appreciate they're working on different academic levels, and he might be less interesting to a non-Brit.
Delete:)
DeleteThe "atheist hero's" have uncovered their duty.
ReplyDeleteThe neoliberal UniParty Deep State lives!
Delete...and every bureaucrat must do everything in his power to escape his ultimate fate.
DeleteWar as a bureaucrat's proxy for self-negation.
DeleteIn America we have separation of church and state... resulting in an "aimless" (and once thought "harmless") bureaucracy... to interpret the "masters" (elected president's) discourse for the citizens (hysterics discourse).
DeleteThis "university discourse" is therefore "infallible". All other alternative points of view must be considered "mis/dis-information". The bureacracy never makes mistakes. They are as infallible as an atheist Pope.
Let's just hope that ALL of our church-separated bureaucratic heroes self-discover their duties and approach the Divine much like the rest of us... e-e-e-e-r-p!
Delete