Excerpts from a few other speeches that were given today
I’m ignoring Biden’s speech for now, although you’re welcome to talk about it. Here are excerpts from some speeches that interest me more.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN:
The Kenyan ambassador:
Zelensky addresses the European Parliament:
“Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people” Joe Biden, SOTU
Neo, you’ve posted three speakers that have spoken with more intelligence and more leadership than anything ol’ Joe could have said (or thought of).
Great and interesting speeches.
I’d like to give the EU the benefit of the doubt in their sincerity, but the image of that hall instantly brought me back to them disallowing the display of British flags and cutting Nigel Farage’s microphone when Britain voted for independence. I guess a nation can leave the Soviet Union, but leaving the EU is a bit stickier.
charles:
Yes, but that’s a pretty low bar.
Rufus T. Firefly:
I liked Mark Steyn’s characterization of Merkel:
____________________________
You can take the girl out of East Germany, but you can’t take the East Germany out of the girl.
The gentleman from Kenya has the right of it. Water under the bridge is best forgotten. Look to the future. Make the best of that future, not yearning to bring back the past. Nzuri!
I ignored Brandon too. I usually ignore SOTU’s, but I especially had no interest in watching a demented sock puppet barely blurt out what’s on the tele prompter.
In any case, here’s a paraphrase of the gist what Brandon is saying about Ukraine:
“My fellow Americans. We face a great and foreboding challenge. A country most of us never thought about until last week has been invaded by the most powerful tyranny on the globe that does not rhyme with ‘Myna’. Its leader is pure evil and the second coming of Hitler, even though the last administration of my party, in which I served as vice president, tried to push the ‘reset’ button with him, despite his making his intentions clear and consistent for many years.
Anyway, he’s evil and a huge threat to freedom and democracy. Yes, the president I served under made a flippant joke about worrying about him. (‘The 1980s called…’) but still…we need to stop him by all means at our disposal….EXCEPT ceasing buying his oil and *GASP* working to become more energy independent (don’t you dare even think the word ‘Keystone’). That would displease my Big Green campaign backers.
Anyway, we need to protect Ukraine to protect democracy. Okay, it’s not much of a democracy, but it’s not Russia. Evil evil Russia. Evil Putin. Look, here’s the thing: we owe the Ukrainians, big time. They’ve done so much for us (by ‘us’, I mean my family). Look, Hunter needed money. All those hookers and blow doesn’t pay for itself.
C’mon, man! If you disagree with anything I’ve said, you’re racist. If you question what any of this has to do with race, that just proves your racism and white privilege (regardless of what race you are).
God bless America! And Uganda…or …uh…Uruguay? Oh yeah, Ukraine. God bless America and Ukraine. And Corn Pop.”
I include the below for a fuller picture of the lead up to the current events and some backgound into Mr. Zelensky.
Some may find it of interest that Zalensky in 2019 was and still is profiled as a Young Leader on Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum webpage. WEF are the proponents of the “Great Reset”.
https://www.weforum.org/people/volodymyr-zelenskyy
Canada’s DP Freeland sits on the W.E.F. Board, as does Al Gore and Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, BlackRock
https://www.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance
I realize that skepticism is called for with the acknowledged communist website below. That said, other western sources have confirmed the highlighted portions.
An article from an admitted communist website; The World Socialist Web Site is published by the International Committee of the Fourth International, the World Party of Socialist Revolution founded by Leon Trotsky.
“Ukraine announces joint military exercises with NATO amid rising tensions with Russia” 4 april 2021
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/04/05/ukra-a05.html
The Kenyan UN Ambassador makes points which a lot more people should listen to. In fact, if Nikole Hannah-Jones were to listen to him, she might learn something about the continent and peoples which her ancestors left, and she might learn that working with life, where you are, is a much better approach than blind hatred.
“Go get him!”
Sums it up for me.
I saw the Kenyan ambassador’s speech on my personal YouTube suggestions yesterday, gave it a listen, and was profoundly impressed. In my view, he neatly hybridized an unusually candid view of the geopolitical facts of life (unusual among the diplomatic speechifying crowd, I mean) with a measured expression of hope, while not being drawn into the trap of confusing this with romantic idealism.
His rejection of several different forms of such idealism in a few brief sentences – or, if rejection is too strong a word, then at least his challenge to them – extended even to some types that must no doubt have a visceral appeal even to many of his countrymen. But the way in which he elegantly framed all this as a caution and warning to the Russia of today in particular without ever being so crass as to point a finger is the icing on the cake, IMO.