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The New Neo Posted on by

There’s so much news I could go on and on. But here’s a small sample:

(1) Is Hezbollah’s Ali Karaki still safe, after an Israeli attack? Judge for yourself.

(2) Peggy Noonan, of all people – I stopped reading her long ago – calls Kamala Harris an “artless dodger.” Not a bad turn of phrase by Peggy:

(3) Mark Robinson’s candidacy is apparently a train wreck and he is very likely to lose the NC gubernatorial election, and this was true even before evidence of his alleged previous offensive comments on a sex site years ago came out.

(4) Reporter Olivia Nuzzi has been sending nude-ish photos of herself to RFK Jr. Sounds like some sort of honey trap action to me, or perhaps she really is infatuated with him. Ah, female empowerment! At any rate, the fact that this is coming out now, after his endorsement of Trump, seems like an obvious attempt to hurt him by implying RFK cooperated and encouraged her. He does have a history of philandering, but if memory serves he says he stopped that long ago, probably when he got sober.

(5) Zelensky appears in Pennsylvania and speaks out against Trump and Vance. The Biden administration had flown him to Pennsylvania on a U.S. Air Force C-17. Zelensky’s actual statements appear to me to be more anti-Vance than anti-Trump. About the latter, his statements seem mixed. I have assumed Zelensky would prefer Harris to Trump anyway, for obvious reasons.

(6) That UN resolution the other day calling for Israel’s withdrawal from the supposedly “occupied territories” saw thirteen other nations on the side of “no,” along with the US. They are an assorted bunch. I don’t know the reasons for all of these to vote that way, but here’s the list: Argentina, Hungary, Paraguay, Palau, Micronesia, Nauru, Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea, Malawi, and Czechia. The article at the link goes into some of the reasons; Argentina’s was obvious, and it’s Milei.

Much of Western Europe, on the other hand, are shameless appeasers of terrorists. Many of those countries abstained, and some voted “yes” – Ireland and Belgium, for example, two of the most anti-Semitic and anti-Israel countries in Europe. Here’s the list:

Among the 43 countries that abstained were Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and European Union countries Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden.

New Zealand supported the resolution as did 13 EU nations: Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain.

Comments

Roundup — 49 Comments

  1. Artless Dodger is good.
    Olivia others think is a whack job.
    And of course Zelensky wants the money and weapons flowing and I wouldn’t
    doubt not overly wanting the war to end is my bet. War ends, money stops.

  2. Zelensky and Ukraine are not to blame for doing whatever they can to further Ukraine’s survival against Russia. Biden and his handlers are very much to blame for how they are using Zelensky and Ukraine, especially when they have been instituting censorship here to prevent “foreign influence in elections”, which has been largely imaginary on the pro-Trump side.

  3. Well if it wasnt for biden or his handler there would have been no invasion

    Effendi karaki took the short straw (yes the python sketch suggests itself

    Um olivia who used a pic from house of cards kate o mara to suggest how far she would go for a story (nudge nudge)

  4. The Republicans frequently step on rakes when they foolishly nominate gimmick candidates like Robinson (no prize for guessing what the gimmick was in nominating him). They never learn.

  5. I voted against Robinson in the NC primary, because I thought he’d get creamed in the general election, and it looked like that would happen even before this latest pornography charge. We have a sad record here of nominating Rs for governor who can’t win. I think Stein, the Democrat, will be just as bad as Cooper, and I shudder to think what would happen if another virus came along. Cooper did a lot of damage with the last one, and now his health “expert” runs the CDC.

  7. The Ukraine War is to Neocons as Abortion is to Democrats. Both are wedge issues, and really a distraction to the larger issues of national sovereignty and economic stability here.

    The country needs new leadership to get us out of the morass created by the Democrats. Government spending is unsustainable, the debt continues to worsen and even with all of the stimulus spending, the Fed lowered interest rates by an unprecedented 50 bp and signaled another 50 bp by the end of the year. Extra stimulus spending and rate cuts are usually reserved to battle a recession. We are playing with fire.

    The economy is not healthy.

    With Kamala Harris, we are going to get even higher government spending, more largess going to favored constituencies and more debt. Harris is promising new unprecedented taxes on the hyper-wealthy that is going to result unintended consequences.

    What is happening in Ukraine is tragic– but the issues here need our attention.

  8. Vance seems to be as astute as Tucker when it comes to Russia’s war on Ukraine, which is a major disappointment. Red meat (waves) to the isolationists I suppose.

    But then the FJB/Harris junta have been only willing to help Ukraine enough to keep fighting but not with enough to set Russia back to it’s actual borders.

    Ukraine is damned to have to reley on FJB/Harris for so much ordnance.

  9. They stole that elecfion last time. How did cooper win the first time .

    So the shooter had six cell phones wonder who was on his contact list

  10. And Brain E shows how one can agree with Karmi and Shirehome (and neo) on Ukraine, but not agree with Karmi on Trump.

    Isolationists versus the dread Neocons.

    Walk and chew gum.

  11. Well if it wasnt for biden or his handler there would have been no invasion

    Um . . . no. If it weren’t for PUTIN, there would have been no invasion.

    I’m angry with Zelensky for what he said re Trump and Vance. Even so I support, and hope the U.S. continues to support (but not take part in), Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression.

  12. My comment from the Open thread:

    Zelensky made specific negative comments about Trump and Vance in addition to “asking for weapons.” If he had focused on the second and not on political statements about the US presidential election he would not be getting this criticism.

    We should remember that it was Biden whose first reaction to the Russian invasion was to offer Zelensky a ride out of the country. Further, he has, for the 2.5 years of the war, given Ukraine just enough ammo and rules of engagement to enable Ukraine to survive, mostly, but not to win. Now, with the drones, Ukraine is able to bypass US restrictions and hit Russian airfields, ammo storage, and logistical routes not just in Ukraine but in Russia. Ukraine is doing an end around Biden.

    Biden tried the same stunt with Israel. He wanted them to fight but not to win. They ignored him, and they ignored him with respect to Hezbollah as well. And as Ukraine has done, they’ve used innovative technology to make significant moves against their enemies.

  13. Democrats and the deep (blue) state are throwing an insane amount of money towards Kammies pursuit of POTUS. Some of it from big internet corps famous for election interference in the 2020 “election”. Yet, she’s still resorting to slurs, smears, and obvious lies (to me). All that price control talk is absent, same with the excessive profits and unrealized gains taxes from her “plan”. I wonder what the team Kammie internal polling is saying.

  14. If there hadn’t been the illegal overthrow of Yanukovych in 2014, elected by Eastern Ukrainians, there would not have been an illegal invasion. No overthrow, no independence declaration of the Donbas and Crimea and no basis for Russia to invade Ukraine.

  15. The sad trombone plays the ever resonant counterfactual notes.

    A weak reed. Clutching at straws again.

  16. Brian E:

    It’s been explained here many many times how and why Yanukovych left.. Turtler in particular has gone on at great length about it in many comments. I’m not going to spend hours and hours to find them all, but here’s one.

  17. Typical Republicans. Just assume the charges against Mark Robinson are true. I’m not buying it. But Lowry types will run for the hills, as usual.

  18. I don’t assume the charges against Robinson are true. He denies them. Besides, he himself says he is, and appears to be, a changed man since those days. Stein is going to be a bad governor and we’re probably stuck.

  19. Shooter left his latent print on the tape he attached the scope to (this is woody allen territory)

  21. Neo, there is nothing in the Ukraine constitution that allows removing a President for dereliction of duty. That would be a cause for impeachment.

    Turtler can put lipstick on a pig, but what the Rada did was not constitutional. Even he lamented the limitations the constitution had placed on the options.

    All the illegal acts Turtler accuses Yanukovych of committing are all acts that would be evidence in an impeachment.

    After the agreement was brokered by several EU countries, the rioters rejected the deal and said they were coming after Yanukovych if he didn’t resign. There is no reason to believe they weren’t serious, since some of the police/rioters had been killed by this group.

    It wasn’t the pro-Yanukovych crowd that was threatening the Rada and Yanukovych. There was time to go through the process of impeaching Yanukovych on an expedited basis. The vote that was held to remove Yanukovych would not have been sufficient to impeach him.

    What the Rada did became legal only because the Western powers deemed it legal.

  22. The extent of the Obama administration’s meddling in Ukraine’s politics was breathtaking. Russian intelligence intercepted and leaked to the international media a Nuland telephone call in which she and U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Geoffey Pyatt discussed in detail their preferences for specific personnel in a post-Yanukovych government. The U.S?favored candidates included Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the man who became prime minister once Yanukovych was ousted from power. During the telephone call, Nuland stated enthusiastically that “Yats is the guy” who would do the best job.

    Nuland and Pyatt were engaged in such planning at a time when Yanukovych was still Ukraine’s lawful president. It was startling to have diplomatic representatives of a foreign country—and a country that routinely touts the need to respect democratic processes and the sovereignty of other nations—to be scheming about removing an elected government and replacing it with officials meriting U.S. approval.

    America’s Ukraine Hypocrisy
    https://www.cato.org/commentary/americas-ukraine-hypocrisy

    There is an older couple in my church that emigrated to the US from eastern Ukraine 30 years ago or so. They blame the CIA for Yanukovych’s ouster. On the surface it appears all it took was the State Department.

  23. If there hadn’t been the illegal overthrow of Yanukovych in 2014, elected by Eastern Ukrainians, there would not have been an illegal invasion. No overthrow, no independence declaration of the Donbas and Crimea and no basis for Russia to invade Ukraine.
    ==
    He wasn’t illegally overthrown. He skipped town when he discovered no one was going to shed blood to protect him. His own party abandoned him. Each of his three successors has been put in place via constitutional processes. Putin’s invasion in 2014 was his exercise in power politics, as was his invasion in 2022. You shouldn’t be making any excuses for it.

  25. Some sage advice from Foreign Policy in 2019. Granted it’s only an opinion piece:

    …Ukrainians would do well to consider that Russia’s occupation of the territory has actually been a godsend for their country.

    The Donbass has consistently supported Ukraine’s most retrograde, anti-reformist, anti-European, pro-Russian, and pro-Soviet political forces. It was the Donbass that made Viktor Yanukovych, whose political career was dedicated to bringing Ukraine back into Russia’s orbit, president in 2010. It was out of the Donbass that came his corrupt Party of Regions. And it was the Donbass that opposed popular pro-democracy uprisings in 2004 and 2014.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin’s occupation of the eastern Donbass in the summer of 2014 effectively disenfranchised its voters. That was bad for the voters, but it enabled pro-democratic forces in unoccupied Ukraine to win the presidency and control of the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in 2014. Most of the reforms that have been adopted in the past five years—along with …Ukraine’s steady march toward Europe—would have been impossible had the Donbass remained a part of Ukraine.

    If the eastern Donbass is brought back into Ukraine’s fold, many of these changes could be reversed or stalled, and whatever hopes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has for pursuing more reform would be dashed. By the same token, Putin would be emboldened by Ukraine’s appetite for self-destruction to make even greater encroachments on its sovereignty.

    It’s Time for Ukraine to Let the Donbass Go
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/12/06/ukraine-better-without-donbass-costly-reconstruction-pro-russia-west/

  26. Australia is currently run by a coward intimidated by communists.
    No shocker in that abstention.

  27. Brian E

    Step away from the keyboard and put down the trombone. Nothing done to Yanukovich justifies or explains Putin’s war on Ukraine.

    That dog don’t hunt.

  28. It’s a little puzzling, if the Nuzzi photos story is taken as veritable, how come Kennedy hasn’t leaked the stuff into publication, if only on the sporting challenge: “photos or it didn’t happen”? And what the heck, isn’t as if she wouldn’t benefit by the exposure, is it?

  29. Brian E.:

    Here’s a fairly clear explanation of the situation. Some excerpts:

    When he resurfaced in Russia, Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych claimed he had been the victim of a coup. Was his removal from power by the Verkhovna Rada unconstitutional? As with many statutory questions, the devil is in the details. The new Rada majority was in a challenging constitutional situation by the disintegration of the Yanukovych government. The Rada made the best attempt to resolve the conundrum while in a limited timeframe and with no independent and legitimate Constitutional Court able to provide aid.

    How was Yanukovych removed?

    The Rada did not follow, or claim to follow, the impeachment route. They passed a resolution that established that Yanukovych had removed himself from fulfilling his constitutional duties. The resolution stated that due to the fact that Yanukovych had unconstitutionally stopped fulfilling his presidential duties, the Rada was calling early presidential elections as is their right under Article 85/7. It seems that nothing in the constitution prohibits parliament from passing such a resolution, which has the full legal force of a law, according to Article 91. The speaker of the Rada signed the resolution, again in accordance with the constitution (Article 88/3).

    Why didn’t the Rada impeach Yanukovych?

    The impeachment process, as outlined by the Ukrainian Constitution, was not the most obvious constitutional option in the situation that existed on February 21-22. The impeachment process is a drawn-out procedure that is reserved for cases when the president has committed treason or other crimes. The immediate problem on the evening of February 21 was that the Yanukovych regime had dissolved and Yanukovych had left the capital, apparently not intending to return for a while. The dissolution of his regime was evidenced by the Interior Minister and the Speaker of Parliament also leaving the country, the departure of several important Party of Regions MPs, and, furthermore, the chief of the army resigned.

    While we cannot know Yanukovych’s intentions for certain, the dumping of his documents in the lake at his fancy Mezhigorie residence and the traces of hectic packing suggest that the president was indeed fleeing rather than just going to a meeting in Kharkiv, as he later claimed. His midnight disappearing act left the country effectively without a president and a government.

    The Ukrainian Constitution (like many other constitutions) does not provide any stipulation about how to remove a president who is neither dead nor incapacitated, but is nonetheless absent or not fulfilling his duties. The lack of such provisions creates a dangerous loophole. Any leader who is about to lose power, whether because his government dissolves, or because loyal supporters abandon him, or because he is about to lose an election just as the last vote are in, could simply skip town and doom any government by declaring it as constitutionally illegitimate. Leaving the scene would undermine the constitutionality of any acts subsequently passed by whoever succeeds the missing president and would allow him to keep a minimally legitimate constitutional claim to returning and claiming his office back.

    More at the link.

    Also [emphasis mine]:

    Yanukovych said in a televised address that he would not resign. He subsequently declared himself to still be “the legitimate head of the Ukrainian state elected in a free vote by Ukrainian citizens”. However, no country recognized this claim except Russia, which only recognized Yanukovych as head of Ukraine for a few more months.

  30. Kate; Eeyore:

    Unfortunately, Robinson was a weak candidate who has been significantly behind in the polls the entire time. That said, it’s impossible to know at this point if the charges are true or not. The allegations from CNN are that at the website, that commenter used Robinson’s actual name when he signed up, and also his real email address (this was back in 2008-2012). Of course, we don’t know if CNN is correct on that, nor do we know whether, if it is correct, someone even back then was pretending to be Robinson in order to implicate him. However, at the time, Robinson was not in politics. But people can have enemies nevertheless.

    In addition, we know that sexual charges against black Republicans are rife, and often are false (or impossible to know). Are these true? We simply don’t know, and probably don’t have enough time to find out prior to the election. But I believe Robinson was already toast.

  31. Ref (5). neo has linked to a Legal Insurrection article that is a right-wing hit piece that would make most MSM’s hit-pieces against Trump look like Mother Teresa had written them:

    Zelensky Trashes Trump and Vance, Signs Artillery Shells in PA

    You know that if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to America, trashed VP Kamala Harris & Gov. Tim Walz, and signed artillery shells, the left’s heads would explode.

    This Legal Insurrection article keeps mentioning “Trashed” and “trashed” but I have not seen any of Zelensky’s words that are trashing Trump. Zelensky did say Vance was “He is too radical” but I would not consider that trashing Vance, IMHO.

    Foreign leaders come to America all the time, and many are taken on trips to sites these visitors may be interested in—usually with American provided security, travel mode, lodging, etc. However, article author Mary Chastain is dismayed, i.e., I guess that is what her ‘Gah’ meant by Zelensky being flown to a site in Pennsylvania who makes Ukraine’s much needed 155 mm shells. Basically a war business trip that will help Ukraine be able to make their own 155 mm shells.

    ‘Gah’ – a new free world word for me…Geez.

    Mary ‘Gah’ Chastain then moves to the Joshua Yaffa (of The New Yorker) interview of Zelensky, but not before adding that Zelensky ‘criticized former President Donald Trump and VP candidate Sen. JD Vance’ in it.

    Did anyone find where Zelensky “criticized” Trump in that Joshua Yaffa article? Anyone find where Zelensky “criticized” Vance in it—besides Vance being “too radical”?

    At this point in Mary ‘Gah’ Chastain’s article I decided to find the actual New Yorker article.

    1) this one will require something like the Epic browser or a New Yorker subscription. Anyone here with a New Yorker subscription?? 😉 Volodymyr Zelensky Has a Plan for Ukraine’s Victory

    The Ukrainian President on how to end the war with Russia, the empty rhetoric of Vladimir Putin, and what the U.S. election could mean for the fate of his country.
    By Joshua Yaffa
    September 22, 2024

    2) this one is some free “archive” – that may belong to Legal Insurrection: archive.is/Z36Nz. It is linked to from the article, but seems to be the correct article from The New Yorker.

  33. Neo, there are some flaws with this article you linked to IMO.

    First Article 85/7 says “designating elections of the President of Ukraine within the terms envisaged by this Constitution;”

    What are the “terms envisaged by this constitution”?

    There are only four articles where the “pre-term termination of the President of Ukraine” is envisaged and that’s stipulated in Article 112. Those are spelled out in Articles 108, 109, 110, 111– Resignation, Health, Impeachment or Death.

    The article says impeachment wasn’t an option for several reasons:

    “The Rada made the best attempt to resolve the conundrum while in a limited timeframe and with no independent and legitimate Constitutional Court able to provide aid.”
    I have to question this statement. The constitution gives the President the authority to appoint 1/3 of the justices. The Rada may not have liked the Constitutional Court, but it certainly was legitimate (constitutional).

    “The impeachment process is a drawn-out procedure that is reserved for cases when the president has committed treason or other crimes.”

    This is speculation on the author’s part and certainly abandoning his position would constitute an “other crime”. If it didn’t fall into the “other crimes” provision of the impeachment process, how could it be sufficient to just pass legislation?

    “The Ukrainian Constitution (like many other constitutions) does not provide any stipulation about how to remove a president who is neither dead nor incapacitated, but is nonetheless absent or not fulfilling his duties.”
    Yes it does. It’s called impeachment.

    “The speaker of the Rada signed the resolution, again in accordance with the constitution (Article 88/3)”, according to the article.

    The problem is it only has force of law if it is signed by the President within 48 hours. If the President does not return to bill to the Rada within 15 days it is considered signed. (Article 94)

    The author claims the Rada had no choice, since it would leave the government rudderless. But that’s not true. Article 112 specifies the remaining term of the President when a “pre-term” termination is implemented passes the authority of the President to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Of course that’s true only when the four legitimate articles for removal are followed– Resignation, Health, Impeachment, Death.

    Quite frankly the remainder of the article is merely justification for the Rada’s not following the constitution.

    However, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court has been highly politically dependent and its credibility has been low. Whatever they might have ruled after Yanukovych’s departure, would have lacked legitimacy. A ruling in favor of Yanukovych would have likely reflected their fear/dependence on him; a ruling against him would have likely reflected their fear/dependence on the incoming government…..The solution that took place within the Rada was more legitimate than any strictly legal solution that could have come from the Constitutional Court. The Rada was legitimately elected in 2012, and the majority of its members participated in the important debates on February 21-22. Moreover, a big majority (close to three quarters of all Rada deputies) voted for the Rada resolution, including many MPs from the Party of Regions.”

    Hmmm. How about trying a “strictly legal solution” first. Take it to the Constitutional Court. That’s what the constitution calls for.

    I might have more sympathy for the outcome had the vote exceeded the impeachment clause of 3/4 of the Rada. It didn’t reach that level, so even had they used the impeachment route, it would have failed.

    Since the Rada was making it up as it went, wouldn’t it have been better to make the Chairman of the Rada the acting president until Yanukovych was impeached or returned to answer questions about his leaving Kiev?

    There was an alternative that should have been implemented– the agreement worked out between Yanukovych, the Rada, and representatives of the EU.

    It wasn’t because leaders of the Euromaidan Revolution disavowed it and threatened Yanukovych’s life if he didn’t resign.

    Of course the US and EU recognized the new government, since they were behind/encouraged the Revolution. The EU was going to benefit from Ukraine seeking EU membership.

    The overarching issue IMO is the effect this had on much of Eastern Ukraine. They elected Yanukovych and for many, would rather align with the Common Union than the European Union. They truly felt disenfranchised. Follow that up a few months later with a law making Ukraine the only official language and required all citizens to be proficient in Ukrainian.

  34. Doesn’t matter who wins the US election, Ukraine is losing and is going to lose. This is not pro this or anti that, just a fact. Constant grinding and grinding with years of planning and execution, something the average American on constant dopamine fixes can’t comprehend.

    And those who root to prolong the war for a lost cause are no better than the monster McNamara, who sent tens of thousands to die in Vietnam, killing and maiming thousands to fight for a people who were largely for the other side. Remember the average villager in eastern Ukraine speaks Russian as a primary language. Ukraine outlawed the Russian language and Russian Orthodox Church, sort of like if the US outlawed Spanish and the Catholic Church in California (and calling anyone who objects traitors, like our own Democratic Party does here). Yes, tell me about how you favor like killing others for “democracy” when if given a vote the majority of people in eastern Ukraine would join Russia (like Eastern Washington wants to join Idaho).

    But killing and maiming masses in foreign wars for “democracy” for petty dictators (remember Ukraine’s last election was suspended) matters greatly to rich idle Americans who had have little worries outside of cutting coupons or the latest ball game.

  35. Everything is Vietnam, speaking Russian means being Russian, Russia will always win, 600,000 Russian casualties in less than 3 years for Vladdy, …… so don’t bother. Whatever

    Whatever forgot that Ukrainians are Nazis. Isolationists aren’t what they used to be.

  37. A good Gatestone article, Barry. We can hope that Sinwar is no longer “negotiating” because he is dead, but he’s been thought to be dead a few times before and wasn’t.

    My opinion is that, having demolished Hamas in Gaza, Israel is now using targeted attacks to demolish Hezbollah. People living in northern Israel have been unable to return to their homes because of the Hezbollah rocket fire for almost a year. Enough is enough.

  38. Many people keep forgetting that “ending the war” is not the first priority and not the first goal; punishing Russia for breaking our world order is. Defeat it, humiliate it, force it to comply, compel to leave peacefully in Pax Americana.

  40. Churchill, who had more than a little experience with Russia, grin, thought it was a ‘mystery wrapped inside a riddle, inside an enigma’ Stalin was a blood thirsty mudzik, who fooled the likes of a generation of Western intellectuals from Reed,
    (mcMeekin goes to town on him) to Wells and Bernard Shaw, a rare figure like Malcolm Muggeridge or Gareth Jones, had the right angle on things, all of these keen intellects, who couldn’t see what was right in front of their face, who broke the World order, Biden and his stolen election,

    the Brits fought the Russia a hundred years before in Crimea, prior to his Iron Curtain speech, Michael Curtiz, tries to make logic of the light brigade film, by tying it to the Indian Rebellion, but I don’t think he stuck the landing, one of these days they will explain to me the logic of Rorke’s Drift, not the valor of the fighters, but why they went into that god forsaken valley in the first place

  41. Alas, it’s going to take a lot more than “merely” targeted attacks…

    Unfortunately, the collateral damage will NOT be able to be limited, no matter how much Israel tries—which suits Hezb’ullah just fine (just as it has suited Hamas and especially IRAN, the puppet master behind the carnage)….

    Did I say “suits”? They ALL planned it. Intended for it to occur. WANTED heavy civilian casualties, for which they and their raving, salivating, frenzied supporters would blame Israel, accompanied by the cross-the-board, corrupt and intellectually bankrupt media….

    ….In any event, here’s a companion piece with the previous one (both H/T Powerline blog):
    ‘Israel Must Battle the “But” ‘—
    https://claritywithmichaeloren.substack.com/p/israel-must-battle-the-but

  42. One might want to add Robert Conquest and of course Orwell.
    Arthur Koestler, too, finally came around, as did Whittaker Chambers…among others.

  43. yes orwell and conquest, who ended up joining the evil IRD sarc, and Whittaker Chambers and Albert Krug nee Jan Valtin in Germany, and the author of the Yenan way in Latin America, name escapes me, Huber Matos, in the Caribbean paradise that progressives still see, including the Mouth of the Flint River Michael Moore,

    why are people who supposedly have a platform of value, I don’t think much of Noonan for reasons,
    but refuse to really speak truth to power
    All of these people who fell for the lies about Roy Moore for one example, in very NPC fashion,

    I would have to resort to some of my hard learned
    Castillian invective to describe the gal from oakland, see how diplomatic I can be about her, but I would have to bite my tongue until it bleeds to do so,

  44. whatever is no better than those who root for …. Mao, Ho, Fidel, Vladdy?

    How’s them apples “whatever?”

    And for Brain E, Ukraine and Russia is the “gender expression/ fluidity” of the isolationists.

  45. except Anita Dunn, was a big pom pom girl for Mao, (i don’t think she was his type,) who am I kidding, so was susan rosenberg, the ma barker of the so called Antifa and BLM

  46. @whatever

    Doesn’t matter who wins the US election, Ukraine is losing and is going to lose. This is not pro this or anti that, just a fact.

    No, it is not. It is historically illiteracy and fucking idiocy. And note I say this as someone who admits that Ukrainian defeat is not only possible but maybe (MAYBE) even Probable. But it is far from inevitable or “fact”. Especially when you actually drill into the situation and others.

    Constant grinding and grinding with years of planning and execution, something the average American on constant dopamine fixes can’t comprehend.

    Sophist horseshit on multiple levels. Firstly: “Constant grinding and grinding” generally happens in the absence of planning or from flawed execution. The failures of the Kremlin to replicate its coup in Crimea multiple times over shows that, as has Ukrainian inexperience. Made all the worse when you go past the issues of this or that regime’s ambitions or failures into the realm of cultural or national ambitions and hostility, which is what a lot of Russian Pan-Slavicists and the like have tried to turn this war into due to recognizing to acknowledge any separate independent Ukraine at all.

    Secondly: While I agree the attritional war lacks dopamine hits and “sexiness” for the modern MSM (and that has caused no shortage of it) that doesn’t mean the underlying issue isn’t at play.

    Thirdly: it isn’t just Americans that suffer from lacks of dopamine, and at least some of the reasons why the Kremlin resorts to a mixture of highly flamboyant and public threats and stunts (such as threatening to nuke Poland every other month through trusted but nominally deniable or unofficial mouthpieces) but pointedly refuses to not only do that, but also has not bothered declaring war formally or trying to go through the legal mechanisms for calling the conscripts to service, especially not in the Peter-Moscow diarch cities. The Kremlin and adjacent “organs” do not want to have to deal with protests, recruiting office arsons, or palace conspiracies where they live, and Muscovites and St. Petersburgers have at least greater capacity to make their displeasure to the regime known than the likes of the Buryats.

    Which is one reason why in spite of fighting this conflict for almost all of a decade the Kremlin has not obtained military or political victory in creating “Novorossiya”, let alone it plus a subservient Ukraine.

    And those who root to prolong the war for a lost cause are no better than the monster McNamara, who sent tens of thousands to die in Vietnam, killing and maiming thousands to fight for a people who were largely for the other side.

    Oh go Fuck yourself, you totalitarian piece of shit idiot. I do not have a good opinion of McNamara, but if you think he – or literally FUCKING ANYBODY on the Allied Sides – of the Indochinese Wars deserves the title of “Monster” more than Uncle Ho, Le Duc, Pol Pot, or so on, then you are morally bankrupt as well as historically illiterate, as it was they that plunged their people and associated nations into generations of war and another 20 years of post-war hunger and famine precisely because they would not share power.

    Firstly: “Fight for a people who were largely for the other side.” Even if I completely ignored the factual dubiousness of this (and it IS Factually Dubious)… what matter of that is to a US that is mortally endangered by communist imperialism, which the Indochinese Communists happily embraced being part of? America First means America First, and while it does not mean we necessarily should fight for every inch of ground or dubious ally, it DOES Mean that we need to prize American lives and American interests and the threats to them (such as communists) over whatever horse crap rigged vote the butchers in Hanoi cobbled together in the 1950s to try and legitimize the fundamentally illegitimate creature that is a totalitarian vanguardist regime based on am mixture of pseudoscientific bullshit (as Marxism and “Historical Materialism” are) and in the Indochinese case genocidally racist ethnonationalisms.

    Secondly: You talk about McNamara sending dozens of thousands to die in Vietnam as a “monster.” But you do not address those that sent Americans to fight and die by the dozens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands against the likes of the Japanese juntas, whose populace were far more “on the other side” than the Vietnamese, Cambodians, or Laotians ever were.

    You also ignore the fact that Ho and his ilk sent MILLIONS to kill or die, whether as political undesirables targeted for murder, conscripted soldiers meant to fight for Hanoi etc. al.’s grandiose pretentions to historic power and racial legitimacy, conscripted LABORERS sent to do corvee labor in war zones (and often expected to fight and die anyway), or so on. And often demanding they murder others who did not submit.

    And yet, where do you condemn totalitarian monsters like Ho as monsters, in spite of that being objectively what they are?

    Thirdly: To pre-empt the predictable horseshit comparison: you seem to be conveniently “forgetting” that the French WON the First Indochina War in the South in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia, utterly destroying or crippling the Viet Minh cadres there and setting up an easy coalition government (that would go on to be the core of South Vietnam) before trying to pursue the fight back North to re-secure the lost Indochinese-Chinese border and Laos, with to put it mildly much less success. But even after Dien Bien Phu the French had control of most of the North, and especially the littoral. THe reason for the pull out was primarily due to the cost and weakness in domestic uspport.

    Likewise, the early South Vietnamese government put down Ho’s attempts to re-infiltrate the South, quashing the Communist attempts to rig the election in the South in their favor (in favor of Diem rigging it in his favor and banning Ho) and was making good headway through the 1950s until the coup. And then the US – while far less successful on the whole – staved off multiple communist attempts to conquer the outlying countries (even succeeding in shattering a Communist combined siege of Phnom Penh as late as 1973 by concentrated bombing of the NVA and Khmer Rouge, delaying the conquest by a year and saving at least dozens of thousands of lives from Pol Pot).

    Again, the crucial weakness was domestic, in part due to scumbag useful idiots for totalitarian mass murders such as yourself.

    Remember the average villager in eastern Ukraine speaks Russian as a primary language.

    Which is something they share with Zelenskyy.

    Also, most Taiwanese speak Chinese as their primary language. Does that mean they wish to surrender everything they have for the CCP? Not even the CCP is dumb enough to claim this.

    Ukraine outlawed the Russian language and Russian Orthodox Church, sort of like if the US outlawed Spanish and the Catholic Church in California (and calling anyone who objects traitors, like our own Democratic Party does here).

    Great. So you’re one of those fucking idiotic totalitarian shills.

    Let’s break this crap down one by one:

    Firstly:

    Ukraine outlawed the Russian language

    No they did not, you absolute piece of shit idiot. And this becomes VERY obvious if you bother listening to the Rada when it streams at some point, because even though proceedings are neigh-universally held in Ukrainian now you will still often hear references and speaking and outbursts in Russian.

    A: Pray tell what law “outlawed the Russian language”? When was it passed? Kindly point to the name, date, and text. A link will suffice. If you could provide it.

    Which you’re not going to be able to do. Because you’re an idiot lying about very basic facts. The most the Ukrainian government did was it curtailed the special status the Russian language had in many facets such as public education, as well as other languages like that of Rusyn. You are welcome to argue about the merits of that case (were you capable of doing so competently or honestly), and I honestly am leery about it. But “outlawing the Russian language” it is not.

    B: Why does Zelenskyy semi-frequently speak in Russian (which I note is HIS MOTHER LANGUAGE)? Why is Russian language media repeatedly shown in Kyiv? What are the mechanisms for enforcement?

    Secondly:

    and Russian Orthodox Church

    No, they have not. Indeed most ROC churches are still operating, though under greater scrutiny (for reasons we’ll get into), and with a lot of the normal interactions with the Moscow Patriarchate banned.

    The problem with this analysis is that this ignores what the Moscow Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church IS, and especially what the current Moscow Patriarch is. The Patriarch of Moscow has long dishonored the church and the gospel by being an obedient, craven stooge of the various tyrants in the Kremlin for centuries, as shown by things like the illegal excommunication of Ivan Mazepa for grounds that make no sense whatsoever in religious law, because of his political rebellion against the Tsar’s rule. However, for most of its history it has not actually ABANDONED the Gospels or committed heresy in spreading them (at least by the standards of Eastern Orthodox).

    Patriarch Kirill has long since conga lined under that particularly low bar.

    For starters, he abandoned his oaths and duties to the Gospel to spy for the literal Enemies of Christ in the KGB.

    https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/02/05/media-russias-church-leader-patriarch-kirill-spied-for-kgb-in-geneva-in-1970s-en-news

    Secondly: Since getting his office he has advocated outright heretical claims such as that dying in the Ukraine War alone is enough to remit one’s sins. This is something literally no Christian Religious Authority with a whit of legitimacy has claimed, which tied the remissions of “crusaders” or other holy warriors’ sins to sincere penitence. In essence, Kirill declared that the unrepentant rapist, murderer, pdf. file, and nutjob can AND WILL go to Heaven so long as they die in some way connected to the Ukrainian War.

    To say that this is not just genocidal racism and the call for an extermination of an entire nation is old hat, what’s more important is that it is literal Blasphemy by absolutely any standard of Christian dogma you use.

    So is it ANY QUESTION why the Ukrainian Government would seek to surveil churches tied to a glorified Organs Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing preaching a message that would consign those that believe it to eternal damnation for the whims and wills of the plutocrats in the Kremlin?

    No.

    Also idiot, you compare this to a hypothetical where the US under the Democrats banned Spanish and the Catholic Church in California. What you “conveniently” ignore is the actual, closest comparison to this: when the Founding Fathers of the Continental Congress dealt with the Anglican Church under the secular command of the same King of Great Britain and Parliament that had violated their rights and laws and sought to impose unconstitutional military rule upon them.

    And if you actually LOOK at the track record, you’ll see the Founders actually went SIGNIFICANTLY FURTHER than the Ukrainian Government has done in a host of cases, including quite literally making it treason for any Anglican Churchman to pray for George III, something I view as downright unchristian and borderline heretical since we are meant to pray for the souls of those who wrong us, that they cease to wrong us and themselves, and that prayer for someone does not necessarily mean submission to them. Those that violated it or others faced the death penalty and more commonly imprisonment, and a great amount of Anglican Church land and property was confiscated by Congress Fiat or military orders from Washington and other, more regional commanders. In many cases I would say they went too far (biased as I am as an anti-woke Episcopalian who has seen much of their denomination’s churches bow to yet another worldly set of rulers at the expense of the Gospel).

    But underdogs have few luxuries, and what do YOU propose doing when confronted by a perverted church that has become enslaved to a worldly King trying to justify their usurpations and violations of both worldly law and god’s law with the robes of scripture?

    At least the Anglican Church – for all of its many many sins – never claimed that anyone going to fight the French/Spanish/Germans/Irish/InsertHere would have automatic remission of sins without fulfilling any of the perquisites for that. Which is one reason why even the Anglican Church in 1776 was far less tainted than the Moscow Patriarchate is in 2016. Or now. And don’t even get me started on Kirill’s Islamophillia or pandering to Jihadis.

    But sure brah, let’s ignore all that because you very obviously have a package of lies to run with and you can’t be bothered comparing the truth.

    Yes, tell me about how you favor like killing others for “democracy” when if given a vote the majority of people in eastern Ukraine would join Russia (like Eastern Washington wants to join Idaho).

    Oh quaint. A dishonest strawman.

    If Idaho sent special operations forces to seize Eastern Washington ahead of time, left the mutilated corpses of public opponents of this like Reshat Ametov in public in order to instill fear and quash public opposition campaigning in the leadup to the vote, then blatantly rigged the vote by throwing out many of the standards and announcing the results well before polls closed?

    Then yes, I would fucking favor killing Idahoan occupation forces and their local collaborators for illegally seizing their neighbors’ land and perverting the basics of freedom and self-determination.

    But I suppose you believe otherwise?

    But killing and maiming masses in foreign wars for “democracy” for petty dictators (remember Ukraine’s last election was suspended) matters greatly to rich idle Americans who had have little worries outside of cutting coupons or the latest ball game.

    “Remember Ukraine’s last election was suspended.”

    So were almost all British ones during WWII, and for all of Hitler’s many atrocities he never articulated any claim or pretense to wishing to destroy the British nations or the concept of a United Kingdom as a whole. Putin has. The US is a rare country that has gone without suspending national elections. That doesn’t make the others “dictators.”

    Also for all of Zelenskyy’s MANY issues, he does not rule by dictate, as even a cursory look at Rada procedures show.

    Also it is amusing how you blather about killing and maiming masses in foreign wars, when that is precisely what the Russian government has done in Ukraine, in violation of the law and its arguments. And on some level – for all of your idiocy and ignorance – you seem to know this, which is why at no fucking point do you actually make any pretense as to why the Kremlin had the right to deploy Little Green Men in Crimea in 2014 or Mr. Utkin to the Donbas in there.

    I prize American freedom over Ukrainian Freedom, or even the existence of Ukraine. But that does not mean I grudge the Ukrainians disagreeing with that or fighting for their country, especially against so blatant and violent a usurpation as what the Kremlin has done.

    And on such false grounds too.

  47. @LL

    Many people keep forgetting that “ending the war” is not the first priority and not the first goal;

    On that much we agree.

    punishing Russia for breaking our world order is. Defeat it, humiliate it, force it to comply, compel to leave peacefully in Pax Americana.

    I agree and wish it was so. But it’s not likely to happen when the Dems are appeasers trying to partner with the Kremlin and Iran for some kind of grand deal/steal like the “Iran Deal.” And even Trump is beholden to his pretenses of being a great peacemaker and a lot of groups that go from actual Isolationists to at least partially pro-Kremlin.

  48. so why are the die hard stalinists, like Raskin D Red Diaper, all in on this project, hes on board withe ACLU in ‘insuring our democracy’ as well, you scratch almost all the players from Ear Leader Obama, who must have heard the international in his crib, to Pelosi to Schumer, who insist on this caucasus crusade, while letting 10-15-20 million newcomers flood into the country, (the taxi meter is broken) who have released the criminals and terrorists and locked down the police, Aaron Heitke’s testimony confirmed what we already knew,

    McNamara didnt understand the enemy and didn’t really want to fight the war, and the results, its arguable that wheeler dealer Clark Clifford had any better idea, a decade later he would sell out to the next great power alliance out of the Gulf States and South Asia

    now there are republicans like Goose Graham, who are up for any war, no matter how insignificant, the Libyan war comes to mind, how did that work out again for everyone from Benghazi, to the Niger River basin,

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