More on the Bibas family

The New Neo Posted on by

Now Hamas is saying they’ll give back the body of Shiri Bibas. It will, I’m sure, be examined and the DNA checked to see if it finally means that this kidnapped mother’s body has come home to Israel.

Awful, terrible, nightmarish situation.

And Israel has also announced the following:

Hagari said the evidence clearly showed that they [the Bibas children] were not killed in an airstrike as Hamas claimed.

“Contrary to Hamas’s lies, Ariel and Kfir were not killed in an airstrike. Ariel and Kfir Bibas were murdered in cold blood by terrorists,” he said.

“The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands. Afterward, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities.”

“This assessment is based on both forensic findings from the identification process and intelligence that supports these findings. We have shared these findings, intelligence and forensics with our partners around the world so they can verify it,” said Hagari.

Hagari added that he spoke on Thursday with the children’s father, recently released hostage Yarden Bibas, who demanded that he tell the world what had happened:

“Yarden looked me in the eyes and asked that all the world know and be horrified by the manner in which they murdered his children.”

Unsurprising, unfortunately. It also still doesn’t give details, and we may have to do without the details. But “bare hands” indicate something like strangulation, perhaps.

It was also announced that the return of six living hostages will go on as planned on Saturday. The article added that, among the Palestinian prisoners slated for the exchange, seven elected to remain in Israeli jails.

It’s probably a lot better there than in Gaza.

Will Trump lift sanctions on Russia?

The New Neo Posted on by

And if so, why?

Commenter “mkent” offers this idea:

Trump has said as a part of the ceasefire he’ll lift Western sanctions against Russia. It’s these sanctions which have ground Russian war production to a halt. They are having great difficulty building new tanks, helicopters, drones, and satellites because of the sanctions. Their tanks use Western radios, optics, and targeting computers. Ditto their drones, helicopters, and satellites.

For example, while the Russians can build older (pre-1990s) C-band communication satellites, they need Western parts like Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs) to build modern (1990s and beyond) Ku and Ka-band comsats. Even consumer sats like DirecTV and XM satellite radio are beyond them. Their Glonass (GPS equivalent) satellites use Western rad-hard chips. Their Glonass system (used for glide bomb guidance) is slowly degrading because they don’t have access to them. Similarly their oil pipelines and refineries are degrading because of the lack of spare parts.

Right now Russia’s military is big and dumb. It’s why Ukraine can hold it off. But if Russia can build modern comsats and glide bombs (among other things) at scale, its military becomes big and smart. At that point only America would be able to stop it, and it would cost us dearly.

I know next to nothing about weaponry, so let’s just assume the military details are correct or at least mostly correct.

I couldn’t recall what Trump said in the past about Russia and sanctions. But when I looked, I was surprised to find that he’d spoken about it quite a bit during the 2024 campaign – for example this:

Trump decided to address the issue of sanctions on 5 September at the Economic Club of New York, an NGO that has been studying US economic policy for over a century.

Trump expressed doubts about the effectiveness of sanctions for one specific reason: they undermine the status of the dollar as the global currency. The former president cited Iran, Russia and China as examples of sanctions that, in his opinion, have not worked.

Moreover, he believes that greater influence can be achieved not through sanctions but through tariffs, although he emphasised that he used them to prevent conflicts and wars.

But did Trump really talk about lifting sanctions on Russia, as Harris’s team claimed?

One would need to be very creative in interpreting his words to draw such a conclusion. At the very least, Trump mentioned “lifting” sanctions just once – in a hypothetical situation where he would impose “strong” restrictive measures first. …

This may indicate that Trump is willing to use sanctions as a tool in negotiations with Russia, although it’s unclear how. Even in the event of a theoretical victory, he wouldn’t immediately have the authority to lift sanctions on Russia.

Moreover, the sanctions “infrastructure” opposing Russia involves not only the US but also its European allies. A decision by Trump alone wouldn’t dismantle it overnight.

European Pravda, the origin of that article, is apparently a Ukrainian publication focusng on Europe.

But what is Trump saying now about sanctions on Russia in connection with peace talks on the Ukraine war? Let’s take a look at this from SOS Rubio:

Well, sanctions are all the result of this conflict. There are sanctions that were imposed as a result of this conflict. And so I would say to you that in order to bring an end to any conflict there has to be concessions made by all sides. We’re not going to predetermine what those are. We’re certainly not going to negotiate this today or in a press conference for that matter. But – and there are other parties that have sanctions. The European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point because they have sanctions as well that have been imposed.

This is from Waltz, although it’s not about sanctions:

If you’re going to bring both sides together, you have to talk to both sides. And we’ll continue to remind everyone literally within minutes of President Trump hanging up with President Putin he called and spoke with President Zelenskyy. So shuttle diplomacy has happened throughout history, it’s happened all over the world. We are absolutely talking to both sides. The Secretary of State just met with President Zelenskyy days ago, along with the Vice President, seven Cabinet members in Europe at the same time – really showing the importance of engaging our allies. President Trump spoke with President Macron just yesterday. Prime Minister Starmer is coming to Washington next week.

So I think we’ll – the facts – we’ll continue to push back on this notion that our allies haven’t been consulted. They’re being – they are being consulted literally almost on a daily basis. And we’ll continue to do so.

I also found this article, from a curious group that appears to be from the somewhat-isolationist segment of the right:

In a co-authored paper from April 2024, Keith Kellogg, President-elect Trump’s Ukraine envoy, said “the United States and its allies would pledge to only fully lift sanctions against Russia and normalize relations after it signs a peace agreement acceptable to Ukraine.” …

Detailed thinking is needed on how future sanctions relief for Russia might be phased in as part of a longer-term peace plan for Ukraine. That should include realistic and achievable milestones for Russian compliance to avoid the trap of the failed Minsk II agreement.

Any U.S.-brokered future ceasefire in Ukraine may end the fighting but it won’t represent a just peace without a longer-term strategy. Nor will it represent a normalization of relations. …

it also seems clear that negotiations to end the fighting will stall unless Vladimir Putin knows there is a realistic prospect of some sanctions relief. And he will be wary of any draft peace agreement that de facto makes sanctions permanent. That would repeat the same mistakes that made the Minsk II agreement fail. …

And although the Russian economy is overheating from the colossal injection of government war spending, it is more resilient than Ukraine’s economy, with low debt, respectable growth, and still considerable reserves. Ukraine is hugely indebted and kept afloat by Western aid, which accounts for almost half of government spending.

So, while he can’t fight forever, Putin can choose to stall. And European states know the financial burden of an already unaffordable war will increasingly fall on them with Trump in the Oval Office. …

So, we need more granular thinking on what sanctions relief means in the wide gulf between the status quo and no sanctions at all. Russia is subject to more than 20,000 sanctions that extend into the political, social and cultural realm as well as the economic sphere. …

Most sanctions have zero impact. No less than 92% of individual UK sanctions are against persons who have never traveled to Britain or held assets here. The picture is the same for 77% of sanctioned Russian companies and is mirrored across the EU, U.S. and elsewhere.

Upon the agreement of a peace deal for Ukraine, 16,000 zero-impact Russian sanctions could be struck down in a grand gesture brokered by the U.S., EU and UK. This would offer no economic relief to Russia but give Putin something concrete to sell to his public.

Letting Russia compete once more in international sporting and cultural events such as the Olympics would offer a hugely symbolic gesture that the West was seeking to normalize relations, with no economic relief attached.

To avoid a repeat of Minsk II, the hardest-hitting “economic” sanctions would need to be included in a roadmap for the peace process with realistic milestones that it was in Russia’s power to achieve.

Is this what Trump has in mind? Doesn’t sound so bad to me. But unfortunately, I don’t read his mind.

Lastly:

The U.S. could use “economic tools of leverage” and “of course military tools of leverage” if Russia does not agree to a good peace deal with Ukraine, Vice President JD Vance said in a Wall Street Journal interview published on February 14.

It was bad before, but now it’s much worse: the forensics on the Bibas family reveal …

The New Neo Posted on by

… that Ariel and Kfir were brutally murdered.

And that the body of the woman that Hamas so kindly returned is not their mother Shiri Bibas, but is instead some unknown person.

The military informs the Bibas family that the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas have been identified after their remains were given to Israel by Hamas on Thursday.

However, the third body at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute was not that of their mother, Shiri Bibas, says the Israel Defense Forces. Specialists at Abu Kabir were not able to identify the body.

The authorities, using forensic evidence and intelligence, assess that the two young boys were ‘”brutally murdered” by terrorists in November 2023, says the IDF. Ariel was 4-years-old and Kfir was 10-months-old when they were murdered.

“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead hostages,” says the IDF. “We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all of our hostages.”

Did Hamas actually believe it could get away with this? I guess they did – they’ve gotten away with so much so far. I suppose they think that their supporters, who believe the Israelis are devils, will just discount everything Israel says as being a lie.

This deception may have serious repercussions, although I don’t know exactly what I mean by “serious.” Hamas still holds a great many living hostages, although we don’t know the exact number. But this is outrage piled on outrage.

And Hamas had to know that this would be discovered. No wonder they dragged their heels.

Who is this unknown poor woman whose body was returned? Where is Shiri Bibas? What torture for the family.

I actually think it’s possible that Hamas doesn’t know where she is. It’s also possible that they don’t wan’t to return her body because of some sort of evidence it would reveal that would make them look even worse than they already look. A third possibility is that she’s actually alive, and they lost track of her. If you recall, the story is that the family was kidnapped by a group called “Lords of the desert” and then transferred to a group known the Mujahideen Brigades of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement.

An utter nightmare.

ADDENDUM:

More here:

The military identified Oded Lifshitz definitively before confirming the identities of Ariel and Kfir Bibas. The body that was posing as the remains of Shiri Bibas, in a coffin locked and sent with keys that did not match, was an anonymous woman. After arrival, she was dressed in items of clothing, but still not a match to the Bibas’ mother.

Experts attempted to perform DNA matches to the other Israeli hostages held in Gaza, finding no match.

Plus, a failed terrorist attack on buses.

Kash Patel is the new FBI head

The New Neo Posted on by

Patel has been confirmed by the Senate, and this time McConnell voted yes, and Collins and Murkowski voted no. When Pete Hegseth was confirmed, I wrote this post about Murkowski and Collins, and what I wrote there applies to the Patel vote as well. The summary version is that I cut Collins a lot of slack, but not Murkowski.

As for Patel, I can’t recall when I first became aware of him, or in what context. But he immediately impressed me as very sharp. Democrat hate and fear him, in part because they tried to destroy him and they know what vengeance they would wreak if they were in his shoes.

I see at Patel’s Wiki page that he helped write the Nunes memo back in Russiagate days. Well done, Kash.

If the GOP didn’t control the Senate by at least a few votes, Trump would not be getting any of his nominations through except Rubio and maybe a couple of others. Elections have consequences.

ADDENDUM: And Mitch McConnell won’t be running for re-election. Is there anyone on earth who’s sad about that?

Ghoulish Hamas parades the bodies of the Bibas family

The New Neo Posted on by

Today Hamas returned the bodies of the Shiri Bibas and her baby and toddler, and of elderly Oded Lifshitz. We really didn’t need more evidence of the ghoulish nature of this entire society, but we got it nevertheless. When we say that Gazan society is a death cult, believe it.

Plenty of people have written about what happened today. I’ll just take an excerpt from one of those pieces entitled “BEYOND BARBARISM: Hamas Parades the Bodies of Dead Israeli Babies While Palestinians Celebrate”:

In a dusty plain outside the ruined city of Khan Younis, Hamas put on a show. The stars of this show were the caskets containing the dead bodies of four Israelis, including 32-year-old Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Ariel and Kfir.

Kfir was nine months old. …

In another example of Hamas’s courage and fortitude, the body of 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz was also part of the Hamas extravaganza. …

The coffins carrying the dead Israelis were placed on the stage, each with a picture and the text “date of arrest: 7 October 2023.” …

“Date of arrest”? Goebbels is smiling in his grave.

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were on hand to cheer the spectacle as spritely martial music played in the background. …

The Red Cross never visited any of the hostage families or the hostages themselves for the entire time they were held. But they were on hand to participate in the Hamas spectacle.

Is any of this surprising? I don’t think so. And of course there was the claim – as though it matters in terms of culpability – that Israeli bombs killed them. Perhaps that’s even true; there’s no way to know at this point, but taking anything the Palestinians say at face value is a bad idea. And of course, even if they died that way, Gazans are at fault. In the case of Shiri Bibas, Kfir, and Ariel, they were actually kidnapped by what I call “freelancers” – that is, Gazan civilians, or at least a group that was not part of Hamas.

For what it’s worth, I believe their deaths occurred quite early, because otherwise they would have been exchanged with the other civilian women and children back in late 2023.

Shiri’s husband and Kfir and Ariel’s father, Yarden Bibas, was returned from captivity recently. What he is going through can only be imagined, but for me the analogy is to a WWII concentration camp survivor who manages to survive the horrors of the war and the camps, only to find that most of his family members were murdered there (Otto Frank comes to mind for me). Yarden does still have some living relatives, though, although his in-laws – Shiri’s parents – were murdered on October 7, 2023:

Shiri’s father José Luis (Yossi) Silberman, and his wife, Margit Shnaider Silberman, were also presumed to be missing from the kibbutz. Margit Shnaider Silberman moved to Israel from Peru in the 1970s. José Luis (Yossi) Silberman was originally from Argentina, both Silbermans were in their 60s. The Silbermans were later found dead and officially identified as deceased on 21 October.

It seems likely to me that Shiri’s grandparents were Holocaust survivors who had fled to South America, although I can’t find anything to substantiate that.

Rest in peace Shiri Bibas, Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Yossi Silberman, Margit Silberman, and Oded Lifshitz.

What did Trump actually say about Zelensky starting the war?

The New Neo Posted on by

I realize that Trump actually said a great many things about Ukraine and about Zelensky, some of them contradictory. That’s par for the course for Trump. I think I’ve made it clear that I find some of those things alarming, although I also realize that – as is usually the case with Trump – it’s important to see what actually ends up happening and judge him on that. But words are also important, and at the moment, they’re what we’re working with.

Yesterday I happened across a podcast on the subject by Bill O’Reilly. I’ve never been a fan, but I’ve watched a few of his YouTube videos since he’s been creating them, and the ones I’ve seen have often made some good points. I think that’s true of this one, too.

He reminded the audience of something about the MSM that’s almost all of us knew but sometimes don’t keep in mind, which is that they are out to portray Trump as evil. One of the many ways they have been doing this is to amplify the idea that, since Trump’s first term, he’s been in league with Russia and Putin. In fact, this was the basis for so much of the propaganda against him during his first term.

So if they can convince people of its truth, it has the effect of helping to validate those earlier charges in people’s minds.

Now, perhaps Trump is indeed Putin’s puppet, or however you want to put it. The Ukraine War negotiations, and Trump’s turning on Zelensky in the last few days, have seemed to fit right into that ready-made narrative as though tailor-made.

But it’s a good idea to keep in mind, when consuming the news, the hard-won knowledge that things are usually more complex than reported in the MSM and that the MSM hates Trump and wishes to destroy him, and that before you completely take their word for it – even about video clips of quotes that seem very clear (for example, “good people on both sides” in Charlottesville) – you must get the context. Unlike the highly articulate speech of DeSantis and Vance, Trump’s words are blunt instruments. They can be very effective – especially at getting attention – and they can be very ill-advised and alarming. But they are also vulnerable to propagandist distortion.

I don’t think any of us have the time or inclination to listen to all that Trump says or to read all he writes. But I think that, if you want to understand what Trump actually said about Zelensky “starting” the war, at least on the occasion that got a lot of coverage recently, you’d do well to watch this from O’Reilly. It’s only 12 minutes long (note, also, that O’Reilly doesn’t agree with Trump, but he does try to clarify what he said):

[NOTE: Tomorrow I’m planning to write a post about what Trump actually said about sanctions on Russia.]

More on Trump, Zelensky, Putin, and the Ukraine peace talks

The New Neo Posted on by

Today I’ve already written one post on my concerns about Trump’s recent statements on Ukraine, and his dissing of Zelensky. One of the things that has kept me wondering what’s really going on is that Rubio is Trump’s Secretary of State, and I don’t see Rubio as part of the pro-Russia camp – what I call the Tucker Carlson wing of the right. And yet he’s in the position of being heavily involved in these negotiations, which makes me a bit more hopeful.

So just now I saw this [my emphasis]:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff met in Riyadh with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor Yuri Ushakov to hash out ways to end the conflict. Ukraine was absent from the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to provide specifics about the discussions, but she said the Trump administration was committed to brokering a peace deal to end the conflict between the two countries. …

Zelenskyy has stressed that Ukraine must be involved in negotiations and said Sunday that Ukraine wouldn’t accept a peace deal if his country was absent from negotiations.

But Leavitt said everyone would have a seat at the negotiating table — including other European allies — as the Trump administration seeks to advance a peace deal.

“We’re ensuring that all parties are heard,” Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News’ “America Reports” on Tuesday. “But you have to speak to both sides of the war in order to truly negotiate a deal and problem-solve. And this is a significant first step toward peace.” …

Trump and Zelenskky also spoke over the phone Wednesday about the negotiations, and Zelenskyy said he relayed that he believes Putin isn’t interested in peace with Ukraine.

“I said that [Putin] is a liar,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday. “And he said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.'”

While Zelenskyy voiced gratitude for U.S. support, he said there is no “leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us, about us.”

This news from Leavitt indicates that Trump is at least indicating that Zelensky will have a voice, and that these first moves are efforts to soothe Putin.

Of course, if it’s just a question of presenting Zelensky with a done deal for him to sign, one that gives him none of what Ukraine wants and needs, then it’s trouble. Here’s where Trump’s unpredictable nature, and his bobbing and weaving when negotiating, get in the way of properly analyzing what the end point will be.

Six living hostages are due to come back on Saturday [UPDATED]

The New Neo Posted on by

[UPDATE 8:18 PM]: Israel has announced that the Bibas family’s bodies are due to be returned Thursday:

Israel has confirmed that Hamas’ youngest hostages, Kfira and Ariel Bibas, and their mother have been killed in Gaza — and their bodies will be returned to the Jewish state.

The news came as a crushing blow to the Bibas family, who continue to hold onto hope that the brothers and their mother, Shiri, are still alive until they return home.

Ofri Bibas, Shiri’s sister-in-law, said the family’s faith would not waver as she slammed the Israeli government for publicly naming her loved ones as dead on Wednesday before recieving their bodies.

“For 16 months, we have been waiting for certainty that they couldn’t provide us, and now it’s being decided before they’re even here?? Before they’ve undergone identification??,” Ofri wrote on Facebook.

The announcement by Israel is somewhat confusing to me. It’s been clear for a long long time that it’s highly likely the mother and her two children are dead – Hamas had announced it many many months ago. But Israel kept saying it couldn’t be confirmed. Are they actually confirming it now? And based on what new information? If there is no new information, why not wait till the bodies are identified?

There is a fourth person whose body is being returned Thursday. It is Oded Lifshitz, 84, “a veteran peace activist.”

So a mother in the prime of life, a baby, and a toddler; plus an elderly man. Hamas must be so proud. And it shouldn’t escape notice that Lifshitz was a peace activist. Not only has Lifshitz died, but that dream died, too – on October 7. His elderly wife was also kidnapped, but she was released in one of the first exchanges. Now she must deal with the knowledge of his death in captivity.]

The plan is for six living hostages to be returned to Israel on Saturday. After that, it will be just dead bodies being returned, to end Phase I over two more weeks. Six living hostages in one day represents a doubling of the usual number, although I don’t know what that may signify.

There’s also a report that Hamas has said they’ll release all the hostages in Phase II if Israel promises a permanent ceasefire (and basically, a Hamas win). That’s not an acceptable offer, of course. But so tempting, to get all the hostages back.

From that first link:

… [Four of the living hostages to be released], all of whom were taken on October 7, 2023, include father Tal Shoham and three young men kidnapped from the Nova music festival: Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert and Eliya Cohen.

The other two of the living hostages due to be released were taken about a decade ago. Yes, a decade: 2014 and 2015. It’s amazing that they’re alive. Their names are Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, both entered Gaza voluntarily, and both have long-term mental health issues:

According to his family and Israeli officials, Mengistu crossed into northern Gaza from the beach at Zikim in September 2014.

The then-28-year-old was spotted by IDF security cameras, but made it through the fence before troops could reach the scene. He was picked up by a Hamas patrol and was not heard from until the terror group released a video purporting to show him alive in early 2023.

Mengistu hails from Ashkelon’s working-class Ethiopian-Israeli community. According to his family, he suffered from mental illness, and was given an exemption from military service. …

Al-Sayed, a 28-year-old Bedouin Israeli from the village of Hura in the Negev desert, entered the Strip near the Erez Crossing in April 2015.

According to his father, this was not his first time going into Gaza, but in this case he was stopped by Hamas and taken into its custody. …

Like Mengistu, al-Sayed suffered from mental illness [schizophrenia, in his case], though he briefly served in the military before being discharged. …

The stories of the other four are much like ones we’ve heard before: they witnessed terrible things prior to being kidnapped, and they have been mistreated while in captivity. Just to take one story, Wenkert’s last text to his parents said he was “scared to death.” He also suffers from colitis, a very serious bowel disorder, and back in November of 2023 was already described by some of the freed hostages as being “dangerously underweight” and in need of medical care. And yet he is alive.

I have saved the most sorrowful news for last: Hamas says that tomorrow it will return the bodies of Shira Bibas and her baby and toddler sons. Hamas has said long ago that they were killed by IDF bombs; getting their bodies may or may not tell a different tale. But it is obscene that Hamas would blame Israel for the death of these three in a war that was started by Hamas murdering over a thousand Israelis and kidnapping about 250, including many children, among them the Bibas boys. Obscene, but typical of their propaganda.

The Bibas family has not given up hope, because Israel has not confirmed the deaths. But I think that their deaths have been fairly clear for a long time, and the return of the father without the rest made it almost certain.

Trump’s not fond of Zelensky

The New Neo Posted on by

I find some recent Ukraine moves of Trump’s potentially alarming. Are we looking at an example of Trump’s mutable opening negotiation positions, meant to make Putin think he’s with him all the way, but expected to change? Or is Trump really with Putin all the way? With Trump, you can’t tell until the fat lady has finished singing.

But he issued statements that seem so personally insulting to Zelensky that I think Trump may really be intending to shut him out of all the negotiations for the fate of his own country, and also to call for a new election in Ukraine:

… Secretary of State Marco Rubio [had] sat down with a Russian delegation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to start mapping out a path to peace.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had made headlines in recent days over his ire at not being invited to participate in the Riyadh negotiations, saying:

“We were not invited to this Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia. It was a surprise for us. I think it was a surprise for many people,” Zelensky said …

[Trump said] “Well, [Ukaine has] had a seat for three years and a long time before that. This could have been settled very easily — just a half, a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without the loss of much land …

“Well, we have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine — I mean I hate to say it but he’s down at 4 percent approval rating — and where a country has been blown to smithereens. …

And, yeah, I would say that when they want a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, “It’s been a long time since we’ve had an election?”

Russia apparently wants to force a special election as part of a peace deal. And if Russia wants it, it’s not out of any concern for Ukraine, that’s for sure. Then again, we’ve had elections here in wartime.

So, what gives? My hope is that – as I’ve said before about many moves of Trump’s – this is just an opening bid made to soothe Putin enough to bring him to the table. And that Ukraine’s needs and protection will not be ignored.

There’s also this proposal of Trump’s as described by John Hinderaker. Again, I’m not sure what Trump’s actual goal is or what the fine print of any such agreement would be. Here’s an excerpt Hinderaker offers from the British Telegraph, which he characterizes as “one of Europe’s most pro-Trump papers”:

Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.

The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv. …

Washington will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy.

More at the link. What’s it all about? It seems to be based on a draft of what the Telegraph calls a “pre-decisional contract.” Is that a wish list, or ironclad demands? Is it just some kind of trade agreement? Why does the author of the article, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, call it “reparations”? Whatever it is, it doesn’t seem to be that. Could this just be a proposal for the US to invest in Ukraine and get something back?

I don’t read the Telegraph often enough to say whether it’s actually “one of Europe’s most pro-Trump papers” – or what that actually might mean, since I doubt Europe has many pro-Trump papers. But I did look up the author’s other pieces about Trump, and he clearly detests the man. That doesn’t mean that his reporting is wrong on this issue, but it means that I’m withholding judgment on what’s going on here. Which I was planning to do anyway.

[ADDENDUM: I hadn’t seen this story yet when I wrote this post, but it’s more very disturbing stuff from Trump today. He has doubled down on the rage against Zelensky. He seems to have gone full Tucker Carlson on this, which has me very worried. On the other hand, all the caveats I put in the article still stand.

If this is really Trump’s position, it is an example – the only one I can think of so far – of deception on his part in his campaign promises, which weren’t exactly pro-Ukraine but which were much milder than what he’s saying now.]

[ADDENDUM II: I have put up a new post on the subject.]

NOTE: As soon as I read the name “Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,” that hypenated surname rang a big bell from my anthropology minor in college. And yes, his father was the famous anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard, whose studies of the cattle-raising Nuer of Sudan were featured very heavily in my coursework. Alas, most of the minutiae of Nuer life is gone from my memory, but I do recall that cattle were everything to them.

Question about the blog

The New Neo Posted on by

A few days ago I did a couple of more tweaks on the blog that – hopefully – may have ended that periodic “too many requests” glitch. So my first question is whether you’re had any problem with that in the last day or two.

However, one of my adjustments has caused a possible cache problem, but only on cellphones and not on desktops or laptops. Weird, but my cellphone doesn’t always update the blog when I go to it. Sometimes I have to hit “refresh,” and then it updates just fine. I’m curious whether any of you have encountered that problem. Thanks!