Standing With Ukraine” while supporting Biden, Fauci, Pelosi, China, Soros & Co. in their destruction of freedom makes you a loathsome hypocrite.

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Former White House physician Ronny Jackson, who served in the role under the Obama and Trump administrations, said on Friday that Democrat President Joe Biden needed to immediately resign to spare putting the country through more suffering because Biden is not mentally fit to be president.

“Biden doesn’t know what’s going on with Ukraine,” Jackson tweeted. “He doesn’t know what’s going on with ANYTHING! He’s not cognitively capable of leading. He needs to RESIGN before our country suffers any more.”

We’re screwed with or without Biden. The Democratic Communists are an occupation, openly hostile to the U.S. Constitution, individual rights and economic freedom. We have to get rid of all of them, not just Biden.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason

Begin by ½³2reading Michael Hudson’s explanation that the sanctions actually fall on Germany and serve the interests of the three interest groups who rule in Washington. https://www.unz.com/mhudson/america-defeats-germany-for-the-third-time-in-a-century/ The sanctions do far more to serve Washington’s interest than to hurt Russia’s. For Russia the main burden of the sanctions is the insult.

Russia is in position to issue crippling sanctions against the US and Europe, but so far has not done so. The Russians seem determined to prevail with as little force as possible. The Kremlin has not paralyzed Germany by turning off the gas. The Russians have not nationalized US and European assets. The Russians have not disrupted global supply chains by refusing to sell minerals. The Russians have not stopped the export of wheat. The Russians have not issued international arrest orders for American and European war criminals for their crimes against humanity in Serbia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and for their various assassinations.

On the military front, the Ukrainian forces are essentially surrounded and incapable of counterattack or effective resistance except for some Nazi militias that have ensconced their heavy weapons among concentrations of civilians. Under the Kremlin’s current rules, the Russian forces are prohibited from firing heavy weapons into civilian areas. The Russians, of course, get no credit for this. The Western presstitutes continue to repeat fake news of indiscriminate Russian attacks on civilians.

It demonstrates the stupidity of Western people that they believe Russia would waste military resources on non-military targets. As Putin said, the West “is an empire of lies.” Soon we will be reading in the New York Times and hearing on NPR and CNN that Russian troops are throwing premature babies out of incubators and bayonetting children.

The West yells and screams threats and accusations because it can’t do anything else. Western morons threaten to send ISIS jihadists into Ukraine to fight Russians, to send in US veterans as volunteers, of raising a mercenary force in Poland. At the same time we hear Ukraine has stopped the Russian advance and is winning. So why are all of the fanciful outside forces needed?

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, calls for the UN to “disarm Russia,” an unimaginable feat. One wonders how Kuleba is a foreign minister when the Ukraine government does not control Ukraine. The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, declares “total economic and financial war on Russia,” and is told by Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev to “watch his words” or he will end up with a real war. The idiotic European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU is going to send the Ukrainians jet fighters via Poland, and was promptly contradicted by Poland’s president, Andrej Duda: “We are not sending any jets to Ukraine because that would open a military interference in the Ukrainian conflict. We are not joining that conflict. NATO is not a party to that conflict.” https://www.rt.com/news/550955-poland-bulgaria-deny-warplanes-ukraine/

Putin has warned NATO countries about supplying arms. Any such arms shipments would be destroyed in transit. Russia controls Ukrainian air space. The Ukrainian forces are surrounded. How are arms to reach them? Why is the idiot West trying to prolong a lost war? Why hasn’t the White House told Zelensky to surrender and negotiate the best deal he can get with Russia?

Nowhere in the West’s impotent bluster is there any talk of putting Ukraine in NATO. Instead, there is talk of putting Ukraine in the EU. The EU is an economic alliance, not a military one, and it is unclear what it means for a government in exile to be a member. Ukraine’s future depends on Russia pulling out after she achieves her aims.

For years I have written that Russia’s patience with the West would not last forever, and unless the West quit pushing, Russia would push back. I said that the longer Russia waited the more forcibly she would have to push. I said that considering the utter stupidity of the entire Western world, the situation would become dangerous. With Russia and the US on nuclear alert, the situation is dangerous. If the US puppets in Europe who rule their countries in Washington’s interest ignore Putin’s warning not to interfere in the Ukrainian house cleaning operation, they could find themselves under attack, and then impotent NATO would have to put up or shut up. Watch now as the total stupidity of the West–“the empire of lies”– takes it to that point.

The Russians may yet conquer Ukraine. But Ukrainians have shown in the past few days that they will not let them hold it.

Now, one week into the war, it seems increasingly likely that Vladimir Putin is heading towards a historic defeat. He may win all the battles but still lose the war. Putin’s dream of rebuilding the Russian empire has always rested on the lie that Ukraine isn’t a real nation, that Ukrainians aren’t a real people, and that the inhabitants of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Lviv yearn for Moscow’s rule. That’s a complete lie – Ukraine is a nation with more than a thousand years of history, and Kyiv was already a major metropolis when Moscow was not even a village. But the Russian despot has told his lie so many times that he apparently believes it himself.

When planning his invasion of Ukraine, Putin could count on many known facts. He knew that militarily Russia dwarfs Ukraine. He knew that Nato would not send troops to help Ukraine. He knew that European dependence on Russian oil and gas would make countries like Germany hesitate about imposing stiff sanctions. Based on these known facts, his plan was to hit Ukraine hard and fast, decapitate its government, establish a puppet regime in Kyiv, and ride out the western sanctions.

But there was one big unknown about this plan. As the Americans learned in Iraq and the Soviets learned in Afghanistan, it is much easier to conquer a country than to hold it. Putin knew he had the power to conquer Ukraine. But would the Ukrainian people just accept Moscow’s puppet regime? Putin gambled that they would. After all, as he repeatedly explained to anyone willing to listen, Ukraine isn’t a real nation, and the Ukrainians aren’t a real people. In 2014, people in Crimea hardly resisted the Russian invaders. Why should 2022 be any different?

With each passing day, it is becoming clearer that Putin’s gamble is failing. The Ukrainian people are resisting with all their heart, winning the admiration of the entire world – and winning the war. Many dark days lie ahead. The Russians may still conquer the whole of Ukraine. But to win the war, the Russians would have to hold Ukraine, and they can do that only if the Ukrainian people let them. This seems increasingly unlikely to happen.

Each Russian tank destroyed and each Russian soldier killed increases the Ukrainians’ courage to resist. And each Ukrainian killed deepens the Ukrainians’ hatred of the invaders. Hatred is the ugliest of emotions. But for oppressed nations, hatred is a hidden treasure. Buried deep in the heart, it can sustain resistance for generations. To reestablish the Russian empire, Putin needs a relatively bloodless victory that will lead to a relatively hateless occupation. By spilling more and more Ukrainian blood, Putin is making sure his dream will never be realised. It won’t be Mikhail Gorbachev’s name written on the death certificate of the Russian empire: it will be Putin’s. Gorbachev left Russians and Ukrainians feeling like siblings; Putin has turned them into enemies, and has ensured that the Ukrainian nation will henceforth define itself in opposition to Russia.

Nations are ultimately built on stories. Each passing day adds more stories that Ukrainians will tell not only in the dark days ahead, but in the decades and generations to come. The president who refused to flee the capital, telling the US that he needs ammunition, not a ride; the soldiers from Snake Island who told a Russian warship to “go fuck yourself”; the civilians who tried to stop Russian tanks by sitting in their path. This is the stuff nations are built from. In the long run, these stories count for more than tanks.

The Russian despot should know this as well as anyone. As a child, he grew up on a diet of stories about German atrocities and Russian bravery in the siege of Leningrad. He is now producing similar stories, but casting himself in the role of Hitler.

The stories of Ukrainian bravery give resolve not only to the Ukrainians, but to the whole world. They give courage to the governments of European nations, to the US administration, and even to the oppressed citizens of Russia. If Ukrainians dare to stop a tank with their bare hands, the German government can dare to supply them with some anti-tank missiles, the US government can dare to cut Russia off Swift, and Russian citizens can dare to demonstrate their opposition to this senseless war.

We can all be inspired to dare to do something, whether it is make a donation, welcome refugees, or help with the struggle online. The war in Ukraine will shape the future of the entire world. If tyranny and aggression are allowed to win, we will all suffer the consequences. There is no point to remain just observers. It’s time to stand up and be counted.

Unfortunately, this war is likely to be long-lasting. Taking different forms, it may well continue for years. But the most important issue has already been decided. The last few days have proved to the entire world that Ukraine is a very real nation, that Ukrainians are a very real people, and that they definitely don’t want to live under a new Russian empire. The main question left open is how long it will take for this message to penetrate the Kremlin’s thick walls.

• Yuval Noah Harari is a historian and author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Jacob G. Hornberger

February 18, 2022

The crisis in Ukraine demonstrates the sheer malevolent brilliance of Pentagon strategists. Yes, granted, it’s an evil strategy, but nonetheless one cannot help but admire it (in a negative way) for its sheer malevolent ingenuity.

The strategy has involved maneuvering Russia into having to make a choice between two scenarios, both of which have bad consequences. The choices are these: (1) Russia does not invade Ukraine, in which case the U.S.-controlled NATO absorbs Ukraine, which means U.S. bases, missiles, tanks, and troops permanently situated on Russia’s borders; or (2) Russia invades Ukraine and takes over the reins of government, in which case U.S. officials portray Russia as a horrific aggressor that now threatens the rest of Europe, the United States, and all mankind.

Like I say, it’s an evil strategy but everyone has to concede that it is absolutely malevolently ingenious. 

The box into which the Pentagon has placed Russia reminds me of the equally ingenious (again, in a negative way) strategy that President Franklin Roosevelt employed to get the United States into World War II. Prior to U.S. entry into the war, the American people were overwhelmingly opposed to entering the conflict, especially after the fiasco of U.S. intervention into World War I. 

This was at a time when U.S. presidents were still complying with the constitutional provision that requires them to secure a declaration of war from Congress before being able to wage war legally and constitutionally against another nation-state. Owing to the overwhelming opposition to entering the war, FDR knew that he could not get Congress to declare war on Germany. 

Thus, FDR decided that he needed to figure out a strategy that would induce Germany to attack the United States, which would then enable him to go to Congress and exclaim, “We’ve been attacked! I am shocked! This is a day that will live in infamy! Now give me my declaration of war so that I can begin waging war against Germany.”

Thus, Roosevelt did everything he could to induce the Germans into attacking U.S. vessels in the Atlantic. But the strategy didn’t work. The Germans knew what FDR was up to and refused to take his bait. 

So, Roosevelt looked instead toward the Pacific and embarked on a course of action designed to induce Japan into attacking the United States. FDR hoped that such an attack would give him a “back door” to the European war.

Knowing that Japan’s military needed oil to operate its war machine in China, Roosevelt imposed a highly effective oil embargo on Japan. That left Japan with two choices: (1) Withdraw its military forces from China, or (2) Attack the Dutch East Indies to secure a permanent supply of oil.

Not surprisingly, Japan chose Option 2. But Japan knew that the U.S. Navy was almost certain to interfere with its oil supply after it invaded the Dutch East Indies. Thus, the only way to ensure that a continuous supply of oil was by knocking out the U.S. naval fleet. That’s what the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor was all about. The attack was never about conquering the United States. It was always about simply trying to knock out the U.S. fleet to ensure a continuous supply of oil for Japan’s war machine in China.

The canny FDR left American warships (but not American carriers) in Pearl Harbor as bait for the Japanese. His strategy worked brilliantly in an evil and malevolent way. Sure, he had to sacrifice some warships and some troops at Pearl Harbor (as well as in the Philippines), but his ingenious strategy enabled him to achieve his goal. Soon after the Japanese attack, Germany declared war on the United States. FDR dutifully went to Congress, played the innocent, exclaimed a day of infamy, and got his declaration of war and U.S. entry into World War II.

Yes, Roosevelt’s strategy was evil, but you can’t help but admire it for its sheer malevolent brilliance. Like the Pentagon has done with Ukraine, FDR manipulated the situation so that Japanese officials were put into a box that entailed choosing from two available alternatives, both of which came with bad consequences from the standpoint of Japan.

Today, all that the Pentagon — along with its loyal supporters in the executive branch, including President Biden and the bureaucrats in the State Department, and along with its loyal acolytes in the mainstream press — has to do is sit back and watch Russia squirm. If it invades Ukraine, it will be portrayed as the supreme aggressor nation, which will then be used to justify the continued existence of the U.S. national-security establishment and NATO, along with ever-increasing budgets, power, and influence for the U.S. “defense” establishment. It Russia declines to invade, NATO absorbs Ukraine and the Pentagon installs its military bases, troops, missiles, and tanks on Russia’s border, thereby ensuring a state of constant tension and crisis, which, once again, ensures ever-increasing taxpayer-funded largess for the national-security establishment, its Cold War dinosaur NATO, and the entire U.S. “defense” industry that feeds at the public trough.

The only way out of this evil statist morass lies with the American people. What is needed is a great awakening within Americans, one that comes with both a heightened sense of consciousness of the evil of a national-security state form of governmental structure and a heightened sense of conscience that enables people to recognize the evil and malevolence within their own government, not to mention the danger of playing games with a nation-state that has the potential of unleashing a massive number of mushroom clouds over American cities and towns. If that great awakening were to transpire, America could restore its founding governmental system of a limited-government republic and put our nation back on the road toward liberty, peace, prosperity, morality, and harmony with the people of the world. 

US President Biden claims Russian troops continue “encircling Ukraine” even as Moscow says they are withdrawing.

The Russian soldiers were never there for the purpose of invading Ukraine. They were in Belarus as part of a training exercise akin to the ones NATO continually conducts on Russia’s borders. The Troops in Ukraine were there to intercede if Ukraine invaded the Donbass republics.

The accusation of a Russian invasion was an obvious lie from the beginning. The purpose of the lie was to scare Europeans about Russia in order to keep them on the US reservation.

Biden claims there is no evidence of troop departure, and the presstitutes claim the Russians are not departing but repositioning for an attack. https://www.rt.com/russia/549485-biden-ukraine-russia-troop-withdrawal/

Western governments and presstitutes are now firm believers of their own lies. The London Times’ defense editor Larisa Brown cites an “unnamed official” who allegedly claims: “We have seen reinforcement of combat and other capabilities close to the border. On balance what we have seen is further reinforcement.”

This from the BBC presstitutes: “A small but politically vocal portion of the American electorate that admires Vladimir Putin’s muscular policies is seeking to undermine US President Joe Biden’s efforts to stand up to the Russian president.” It is Russia encircling Ukraine, not the US encircling Russia. It is the US standing up to Russia, not Russia standing up to the US. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60297302

The British Financial Times reports that “Western intelligence” (an oxymoron) has concluded that the Russians have chosen a former Ukrainian member of parliament, Oleg Tsaryov, to be installed as Ukraine’s president following the Russian invasion. https://www.rt.com/russia/549419-us-ukraine-coup-plot-theory/

The less evidence there is of an invasion, the more we are told it is about to happen. The latest from the British press is that according to US intelligence (an oxymoron) in the early hours of Wednesday morning Russia will invade with 200,000 soldiers after a massive missile blitz. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17655287/russia-set-invade-ukraine-tomorrow/ When Americans arise at 7AM Wednesday, it will be afternoon there. Have a look to see if Ukraine is still there.

My conclusion is that the West will declare there has been an invasion when there hasn’t, and the presstitutes will turn the lie into the truth.

How else are Biden, the Western governments, and the presstitute media going to avoid looking like total fools, victims of their own propaganda?

Putin is taking a somewhat similar risk by holding on to his belief in the Minsk Agreement, when Ukraine, by far the weaker party, demands that the issue with Russia, by far the stronger party, be settled on Ukraine’s terms.

Will this latest excuse for Ukrainian non-compliance with the Minsk Agreement result in the Kremlin finally seeing the futility of this approach? https://www.rt.com/russia/549412-ukraine-refuses-donbass-deal/

The United States has been in totally incompetent hands since the ascension of the Clinton regime. The practice of US manufacturers of offshoring the production of the goods and services that they sell in the US has exploded the annual trade deficit of the US to one trillion dollars.

Washington keeps on adding fuel to what it says is a Ukrainian crisis. Washington puppet Jens Stoltenberg, the nominal secretary-general of NATO, says NATO is considering a larger and permanent Black Sea presence. The Black Sea is to Russia what the Mediterranean Sea was to the Romans–mare nostrum, “our sea.” Stoltenberg’s announcement is akin to Russia announcing that Russia is considering establishing a “Chesapeake Bay Battle Group.” Stoltenberg added that NATO is planning to establish battle groups in Romania and in other countries around the Black Sea. Why such dangerous provocative actions at a time of such high tension? Why is Washington pouring gasoline on a fire?

Even I did not suspect this level of Washington irresponsibility. As if this isn’t enough, Stoltenberg declared the Black Sea to be of strategic importance for NATO, and the White House national security advisor said the buildup of forces on Russia’s borders are necessary for future contingencies whether or not Russia invades Ukraine.

I was mistaken to think that Washington took seriously Russia’s warning that she was not going to tolerate any more military buildup on her borders. Washington did not hear, or if Washington did hear is nevertheless determined to provoke a war. This stance presents Russia with only two choices–fight or surrender. Is there any hope that the peoples of the West can realize the insanity of their leaders and stop the march to war? I think not. They cannot even stop their own governments’ war against them. In the Western world democracy is a hoax.

At this time Russia holds all the cards. Will she wait, seeking solace in talks and negotiations, until Washington/NATO are better prepared?

Addendum: Is war upon us? The British armed forces minister James Heappey said today that all British troops are being removed from Ukraine “over the course of the weekend” as a Russian invasion is expected. The British soldiers have been training Ukrainians in the use of Western weapons for an attack on the Donbass republics. Washington believes that such an attack would result in Russian intervention, which can be labeled a “Russian invasion.”

Meanwhile the Kremlin remains mired in negotiations:

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. Deputy chief of the Russian presidential staff Dmitry Kozak has said that Russia’s partners in the Normandy Quartet (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France) tend to procrastinate on negotiations on a settlement of the intra-Ukrainian conflict – in strict accordance with the instructions they have received from the United States.

“For some reason, our counterparts think that time plays into their hands and that they should drag their feet in the negotiations,” Kozak told the media on Friday following Thursday’s meeting of the Normandy Quartet’s political advisers, which ended inconclusively.

“Moreover, from our friends in a NATO country, we have received a document – an instruction from the US Department of State to all NATO countries regarding the way they should conduct negotiations with Russia concerning the settlement of the conflict and the implementation of the Minsk Accords. It is an instruction on how to stall all negotiations.” https://tass.com/politics/1401971

See: https://sputniknews.com/20220212/lavrov-tells-blinken-propaganda-about-russian-aggression-against-ukraine-has-provocative-purposes-1092963955.html

Update: US pulls its troops out of Ukraine in anticipation of Russian invasion. Having provoked war the superpower runs away.

Even NBC polls say 72 percent of the country believe the country is on the wrong track. What’s a demented emperor to do? Early morning data dumps, mail-in voting and social media censorship might not be enough. Maybe he can start a war with Russia. You idiots who voted for this catastrophe: I blame each and every one of you.

Richard Ruggiero writes: “Biden and Biden’s handlers are setting us up for a humiliating failure [in Ukraine]. What would the Chinese Communist Party do if they were running America? THIS!”

I totally agree.

Michael J. Hurd, Daily Dose of Reason