What Now, Europe?

Silverfiddle Rant!

We hammered a few domestic politics topics hard yesterday, but left the topic of Europe and Ukraine largely unaddressed. Russia's invasion of Ukraine grinds on, Ukraine's harvest is piling up because Russia controls their access to the Baltic, and energy prices are not coming down.  In fact, they have increased almost ten-fold for some European nations.

Blogger buddy Geeez wrote a great post yesterday featuring comments from her stepchildren living in Germany.  It is an eyewitness report:  Real news from MUNICH

Vlad has finally pinched off Europe's gas pipe.  

What now? Putin knows European 'powers' are weak sisters.  This may be his gambit to end his bumbling Ukraine invasion.  Europe is stocked up, but they will still have to impose severe restrictions and rationing on homes and businesses. 

Our heating bills here in the US will bite hard, and look for worldwide riots and food shortages in poorer countries as Ukraine's war-shrunken harvest cannot export through Russian controlled ports.

Western nations will make it through, but this may be our own winter of discontent, and to what end? I don't see Europeans and Americans coming out the other side of this a happier people.

What say you?

Ukraine Predictions

Silverfiddle Rant!

Farmer got into quite a donnybrook with Constitutional Insurgent and Thought Criminal over who's to blame for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  I stayed out and watched, but today I'll throw some gasoline on the fire, and hopefully keep the fight going.  I'll chime in with my two cents and invite you all to do so as well.

Russia is to Blame:  Putin's invasion is a baldfaced rape of another nation.  

What Contributed?  Had western powers taken different actions over the past 30 years, could this have been avoided? 

Nuance-Free Zone

First, a lot of nuance is being overlooked. We can acknowledge Russia is a bad actor while also acknowledging there is a logic to what they are doing, and they take actions based upon their national interests (twisted and misguided as they might be by our lights.)

We can agree Putin is a horrible person who hates the US and Europe and would destroy us if he could. Dismissing him at the same time (as many wishful thinkers in government and the press have done) is stupid and irresponsible.  

NATO nations have taken the dumbest combination of actions possible since the wall fell:

* Western Leadership swallowed Francis Fukuyama's "End of History" hook, line and sinker and have been sleepwalking for the past 30 years, displaying a dangerous and naive cornucopia of malfeasance, ignorance, cupidity, stupidity, and pie-in-the-sky happythink.

* Europe made itself vulnerably dependent on Russian oil, gas and other natural resources, supposedly with the hope of bringing Russia into the family of nations that respects international norms. That failed. Due to Western diplomatic bumbling and wishful thinking? Or Russian intransigence?  

If Europe saw this gambit failing, why did they continue sucking Vlad's gas pipe?  Wishful thinking is what Europeans do best.

* NATO nations did the most ass-backwards thing: They talked crap and encouraged Ukraine to talk crap, while denying Ukraine NATO membership.

* We encouraged Georgia and Ukraine to get cocky with a very big and very dangerous neighbor, and the bear took a bite out of both of them while we stood by and watched.  What the hell was our goal with those nations?

* Once again, we have taught dangerous and malignant regimes worldwide a very important lesson: If you have nukes, you have wide latitude to attack others.

* It is becoming clear that Ukraine became a very lucrative cash cow for well-connected westerners, with US government bureaucrats running business consulting and gatekeeping out of the US embassy in Kiev.

Pointing all this out does not mean I want Russia to win. I want Ukraine to kick their asses back to Moscow, while knowing that is damn near impossible.

Once again, we have a big mess on our hands that smarter people could have avoided or ameliorated.  Pardon my dissent, but I expect a higher level of thinking from Western "leaders," especially the US foreign policy establishment.

My Predictions:

I predict the war will drag out, with a mumbly, lacunae-infested fizzle, status quo ante, with Russia still informally controlling the pace of events in the east, while Ukraine retains nominal sovereignty.  Europeans will mouth sanctimonious platitudes while doing nothing.

Five years from now, Germany and Europe will be importing Russian gas and oil, and will be enjoying pre-war Nato spending levels.

More importantly, what say you?

The Actual Biden Agenda

The Biden Agenda for Green Energy as explained by Tucker Carlson. Even if you don't like Tucker Carlson, please watch and seriously consider what he says in the video below (about 13 minutes):

[link in case the above video doesn't work]

Our government is corrupt beyond words!

Lies, Lies, Lies

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.

Smearing Mike Pompeo

Time for Trump to Pipe Down

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.

Russia and the Chickenhawks

Silverfiddle Rant!

Why are Democrats (and neocon GOP) hell bent on war with Russia?

What aspects of the Russian government and Russian nation make Russia a threat to the US and our interests?

Back in the old Soviet Union days, it was pretty simple:  democracy v. communism, freedom v. totalitarianism, Judeo-Christianity v. atheism, etc.

Now, Russia is a democracy, Orthodox Christian, and people can come and go freely.

So, what makes Democrats have blood in their eyes for Putin and Russia?

Has Russia and Putin become a totem used by the left and right to troll each other?

Related questions:  

What soured post-cold war US-Russia relations?

Should Georgia and Ukraine join Nato?  Why or why not?

Did we bring in nations to Nato that we should not have?

Is Russia's beef with Nato's eastern encroachment legitimate?  Why or why not? 

Are we in a new cold war with Russia?  Should we be?

How could we deescalate?

Please listen to the last 20 minutes of this podcast.  Marshall and Saager of The Realignment talk to a Hollywood screenwriter and former CIA agent specializing in the Soviet Union.  They discuss possible roots of this potential new cold war, and how we could deescalate.

What say you?

Hacking Vs. Truth-Telling Leaks

[Note: I had another post queued up for today, but pulled it back in order to post on the matter below]

Apparently, WikiLeaks reveaeld some inconvenient truths about Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.

According to the narrative of the past few days, however, those leaks, said to have originated with Vladimir Putin — with the intent of electing Donald Trump to the Oval Office, interfered with the United States 2016 National Election.

Yesterday, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks issued this related statement (partial transcript HERE at Infidel Bloggers Alliance):


Also see Obama Didn’t Do More About Russian Hacking Because Thought Hillary Would Win, Didn’t Want Cyber War at Weasel Zippers, citing NBC News.

There is also THIS (dated December 15, 2016):

So now we find out that the CIA will not OFFICIALLY brief, and testify before the Congressional intelligence oversight committees over their intelligence on who, what and how, and if the election process was hacked in the USA.

Yesterday we have the Director of National Intelligence Clapper saying we have virtually no insight or evidence about the chain of events in which Wikileaks GOT the information they released, IN OPEN TESTIMONY....

Read the rest HERE.

FEATURED QUESTION: World News

(This blog post will remain here for a few days)

Many all across the political spectrum are opining that Russian President Vladimir Putin has blood on his hands because of last week's downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.

This FEATURED QUESTION, in two parts:

(1) Is Vladimir Putin to blame for the downing of the flight?

(2) If Putin is indeed responsible, what is the appropriate reaction on the part of the United States?