And the Truth?

The news shows are nonstop "coverage" of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The usual instant and pre-cooked "experts" suddenly appear and tell us everything about the military tactics, the political objectives, and even the mental state of Vlad Putin. Must be nice to be so very smart and in the know. 

Not much, actually, makes sense. We know that Russia has invaded Ukraine despite weeks of US and other Western policy gurus telling us that this or that sanction was aimed at stopping such an invasion from happening. Not much commentary on the fact that Putin's war was made possible by the morons of the Green Universe who have gotten the West to degrade its energy independence, thereby, gifting Putin billions and billions of dollars to use to upgrade his military, and hold a swath of European countries hostage to Russian energy supplies. I hope the environmentalists, such as that moron John Kerry, hold fast to their hopes that Putin will work with us to reduce carbon emissions as they watch Ukrainian cities and oil depots burn from Russian missile strikes. 

A lot more things don't make sense. Why haven't the Russians, "masters" at cyber warfare, cut off Ukraine's connections to the outside world? I see Ukrainians walking around with iPhones freely making calls all over the world, and Western journalists "embedded" in Lviv and Kyiv freely broadcasting to that same world. Are the Russians that incompetent? Possible. Whatever the reason, Putin and his boys have lost the propaganda war bigly. We even see the usual tech giants moving to suppress "Russian propaganda and misinformation." The Iranians? No they can go ahead. The brave boys of CNN and others were enschonced in Baghdad during the Gulf wars, but I don't see much coming from Moscow. Putin gave a couple of long speeches barely carried and characterized as "insane" and "historically inaccurate." That might be an accurate depiction, but those speeches provide an important insight into how Putin and others around him see the world, and Russia's relationship to it.  Worth knowing, I would think.

I have written about this before, some eight years ago:

It does not require a genius to see what is happening in the post-USA world of the Obamistas. Other actors, many of them ruthless opponents of Western values of democracy and liberty, are stepping in to fill the power vacuum and reshape the world--and do it while laughing at us. Of these actors, Putin is the most determined and committed to reforming the globe into a place much less congenial for those Western values, and much friendlier to Russia's rise to the top. His plan is exceedingly simple. No Snowden-like revelations required. Taking advantage of the weakness and self-loathing of the Obama misadministration, Putin is out to neutralize Europe and make it into an economic resource for Russia, e.g., gas sales, investments, access to high tech, and to ease the US out of the picture. NATO is to be seen for what it increasingly has become, to wit, a joke. 

 

With his cost-free move in Crimea, Putin has put on notice all the former republics of the old Soviet Empire. Their freedom of action is severely constrained; they must never go against the perceived interests of Russia OR of Russians. He is reasserting Moscow's predominance over the "Stans" aided by our precipitous withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the Middle East, Putin is the savior of his Assad ally in Syria, and a behind-the-scenes force in getting the US and the West to give up on blocking Iran's nuclear ambitions.

I want Putin to have a major foreign policy reversal. I want the Ukrainians to triumph. My point is to make it irrelevant for the US. We should have the freedom of choice to decide what is in our interest not have Putin and others make it for us. We need to reestablish our energy and industrial independence. We need real leadership committed to Western values and strength.

Biden Disaster Biden Disaster Biden Disaster Biden Disaster, Etc.

Two words linked in perpetuity: "Biden" and "Disaster." 

Back in March 2014, I wrote a piece about Putin confronting what until then had proven the worst US administration in history, to wit, the Obama/Biden administration. 

Let me quote my words--at some length, sorry--of wisdom from eight years ago, written on the occasion of Putin's prior invasion of Ukraine:

"Time to face facts. None of Obama's supposed "talents" works when dealing with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the Shining Shooting Tsar of Eurasia--arguably the smartest national leader in the world. Let me back up. "Smartest" might be the wrong word. Yes, it definitely is the wrong one. That word is too loosely defined and too easily pinned on too many. What makes Putin successful and such a formidable geopolitical foe (thank you, Mitt Romney) is not that he is just "smart," but that he is a throw-back to a different era. He hunts and fishes, and doesn't care about the political fashion and sensitivities of the day; pajama boy has no place in Putin's cage fighter universe. Despite his upbringing as a Communist, he is now devoutly religious and wants to see religion restored to Russian life. As the jihadis have discovered, they have in Putin a rival as ruthless and religiously committed as they, and not bound by the conventions of political correctness

 

Putin is a man of hard-work, careful preparation, an avid student of potential opponents, willing to exploit opportunities, and, above all, driven by a vision on his mission: restoring Russia to the top ranks of the world hierarchy. He is determined to end what he sees as the world's mistreatment of and disregard for Russia. He saw the condescending manner in which Clinton and other world leaders treated the amiable sclerotic alcoholic Boris Yeltsin, who named Putin Prime Minister in 1999. Putin will not allow that again. He wants his legacy to be the man who restored Russia's greatness and made the world recognize it. 

 

Let's sum up this part of the post:
Putin is a patriot; Obama is not.
Putin has a deep understanding of his country's history and people; Obama does not.
Putin wants his country to be number one; Obama could not care less.
Putin knows that words have meaning; Barack "Red Line" Obama hasn't a clue.
Putin has Lavrov; Obama has Kerry.
Advantage Putin."

You can read the rest, if you want, no mandate to do so. I, however, think that little piece holds up well; all you need do is substitute "Biden" for "Obama," and "Blinken" for "Kerry," and it looks very up-to-date.

So, as the wise man said, "history repeats as farce." We have a helluva farce underway. Joe Biden, a bumbling dementia-rattled fool who holds the office of President illegitimately, hasn't a chance when dealing with Putin, the world's greatest poker player. He knows that Russia hasn't been dealt the best hand, but sheer determination and astute analyses of his opponents makes him a winner. He also has my old sparring partner Lavrov as his foreign policy man: the best foreign minister on the planet, as he demonstrated recently with his cruel but deft handling of hapless British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who competes with Blinken for the gold medal in the category of stupid foreign policy "experts."

So Mummy Joe came out and announced some "sanctions" on Russia: half of them are already ostensibly in place, and the rest might have long-term effects which will do nothing for the Ukrainians who don't have a long time to resist the Russians. We, furthermore, note that these "sanctions" require long-term commitment by the West to produce the desired effect of inflicting punishment on Russia. How many of you think that in three, four months, pick a time span, the Western countries will still hold fast to those sanctions? There will be cries to move on, recognize the new reality, or simply ignore the sanctions. 

China is watching, my friends. This manifestation of Western weakness is not going unnoticed. China has big bucks; what sanctions will be placed on the PRC if they take Taiwan?

It is time to remove the sanctions we have placed on ourselves. 

We need to free our energy industry once again; we need to build nuclear power plants; we need to insist on bringing our industries home. Those are not short-term fixes and they will not help Ukraine in the immediate, but they will allow the United States and the West to regain a freedom of action they do not now have to confront the tyrants in Russia, China, Iran, Canada. 

Vichy and Munich, Part Two: Time to Offer Canadians Refugee Status

The destruction of Canadian democracy continues apace. The Reichstag Parliament has extended the Enabling Act Emergency powers, giving the Fuehrer Prime Minister the legal and political cover to continue dismantling Canadian democracy. I am no expert on Canadian politics, but some of the statements by party leaders were stunning; they voted to give Herr Trudeau the powers of a dictator in order to avoid the collapse of the government and the calling of elections. What? Isn't that one of the features that parliamentary government supporters always cite as the superiority over our Presidential system? If the PM loses support, elections are called. They don't have to wait as we do with Biden. 

What would have been wrong with new elections in Canada? The country was not convulsed in riots and mayhem. Canada could easily have had the public weigh in, even with the government's control over the media. Is Canada what the future holds for the West? 

I would urge all of you to contact your Congressional reps, especially Senator Ted Cruz (a former Canadian, himself), and urge legislation granting Canadian citizens asylum or refugee status. We would have done so had these events taken place in Costa Rica or Colombia. Open the northern border to any Canadian citizen who wishes to flee the dictatorship. The Biden Clown Show has no sympathy for the Canadian people and supports the darkness sweeping over that country. 

On Ukraine: all proceeds as anticipated. We see a pale copy of the original Munch conference in which the Western powers of the time gathered to try to placate the territorial demands of a dictator. Chamberlain flew back to the UK waving a piece of paper with Hitler signature in which the Nazi "promised" that the Sudetenland was his last territorial demand in Europe. The German ethnic portion of Czechoslovakia was surrendered to the Nazis. We sent Kamala Harris to Munich 2.0, and she did not disappoint. If you want to laugh/cry, go to whitehouse.gov and read  "Remarks by Vice President Harris in Press Gaggle," February 20, 2022. The woman is an idiot. At least Chamberlain was an intelligent and well-educated man with a notable political career and accomplishments. Harris? Not so much.

So Putin has done what many of us expected he would do, he has hived off the Russian ethnic portions of Ukraine, recognizing their "independence," and now sending troops to protect them. The West will do nothing, and Putin will, in effect, incorporate eastern Ukraine into Russia, and put the fear of the Vlad into the rest of Ukraine and Europe. 

Carter looks good in comparison. 

Vichy, Canada

While our putative masters in the White House seek to divert our attention from what is happening in our neighborhood to what might or might not be happening in Ukraine, the 21st Century International Communist/Fascist movement has made its move in North America. 

Before I get to that, let me comment on Ukraine. 

I find this White House incredibly tone deaf or just historically ignorant. We have sent perhaps the most stupid politician on earth, the quasi-Canadian (appropriate) and alleged US VP Kamala "Sleep My Way to the Top" Harris to Munich (!) to discuss a dictator's territorial claims in Eastern Europe. You and I know this will end well. We have read the book and seen the movie. MUNICH!!! What could possibly go wrong?

In addition, I hear lots of easy-breezy talk about sanctions on Russia--sanctions which the Europeans will never impose given their dependence on high-cost Russian energy. You want a sanction that works? It's called FRACKING. Before the illegitimate ones took over the White House, we had achieved energy independence AND had become a major exporter of cheap oil and natural gas. 

You want to put a dent in Putin's plans? Get back to making our own energy! Drive down the price of oil and gas; that will ruin the Russian economy. Idiots . . . complete idiots.

As long as we're talking about European cities linked forevermore to the Second World War, I would mention Vichy. 

Our great northern neighbor has, in the blink of an eye, become Vichy France. 

You will remember that the original Vichy France was a device cooked up by Hitler--clever fellow, he--to allow a sorta version of France to rule the French empire in his name. The 21st Century International Communist/Fascist movement has decreed that Canada will be the experiment in modern totalitarianism. Canada, yep. The original Marxists, of course, thought that Germany or Britain or America would be the first Communist state because of their highly developed capitalist and industrial economies. Nope. It was backward Tsarist Russia first up to bat. So we see the unlikely development in which Canada, peaceful and democratic, becomes the first exemplar of what the 21st Century International Communist/Fascist movement hopes to see for all of us in the West--complete with seized bank accounts, arrests in broad daylight, mounted police running down peaceful protestors, and cops threatening to kill dissidents' dogs. I am sure other steps will come: delaying elections, and nationalizing key industries such as banks, trucking, and other key means of production and service? Sure, why not? The media and the tech giants will not only remain silent, they will comply, and will actively abet the plans of their Boy Fuhrer in Ottawa.

Stay tuned.

The Evil and the Madness of the Woke State

I will rely on my Canadian readers to provide a view from the inside of the last day or two of developments in our Great Northern Neighbor. 

From this side of the Niagara Falls, however, those developments seem shocking, though not completely unexpected. We were told repeatedly that the truckers were just a bunch of fringe nuts, a minority really, and now, suddenly, they are the greatest threat to Canada's existence since, well, since ever. They must be crushed! The Man-Boy minority PM has lived up to his family heritage of preferring dictatorship to democracy. By "family heritage," I mean both that of his putative cigar-smoking Cuban father, and that of his legally recognized Barbara Streisand-dating Canadian father. Little Justin is no friend of freedom and like his woke brethren throughout the West prefers the strong-arm of the state to holding of free and fair debate and discussion. The PM has invoked the thus-far never used 1988 Emergencies Powers Act. The BBC provides a pretty good summary HERE of what the Act provides. You can read that, with all the legal-mumbo-jumbo caveats the BBC inserts, but keep in mind that, in practice, to wit, in the real world, the Act seems a bit vague; as far as I am concerned it is just shy of martial law. Hell, it is martial law but cloaked in civilian garb. Most troubling is the power granted to intervene banking transactions. In today's world, you don't need the army to destroy domestic opponents: compliant tech and media companies and financial institutions can do that for you.  Canadians will have to explain how the powers of the Emergencies Act clash or don't with the powers held by the Provinces and Territories. Can, for example, Alberta defy a Federal edict under the Act?

This is a remarkable development in the democratic world; certainly in the Anglosphere. It clearly sets a further precedent, one most notably started by vaccine and mask mandates and lock-downs, for the government to assume tremendous powers over the exercise of freedom. I am sure the Wokemasters in the White House, who egged the Boy PM on, now watch with great interest and envy.  I ask our Aussie and Kiwi readers to tell us whether their nations' governments are set to follow in the Canadian path, all in the name of "battling" a not-very-deadly virus.

Man-Boy PM is right about one thing: the truckers are a threat to him and to the Woke tyrannical state he so ably represents and protects. Future generations will have to build a monument to the embattled Canadian trucker who parked at the Ambassador Bridge and sounded the honk heard round the world, and place a plaque reading something like this:

By the steel bridge that arched Winter's flood, 

Here once the embattled Canadian trucker parked,

and sounded the horn blast heard round the world . . . 

The Revolt Continues

I used to tell Canadians that I saw Canada as Alberta ruled by Ontario, much as I saw the USA as Texas ruled by Massachusetts. Both countries have ruling elites far removed from the elements that make a country work. Both of these elites have a sneering, condescending attitude towards the people who actually work; the people who make, service, and deliver the things upon which we all depend; the people who fight our wars and patrol our mean streets. Look at the typical Hollywood depiction of farmers, truckers, mechanics, soldiers, etc. They come off as ignorant, racist, and--of course--brutally misogynist. The "elites," mostly brave reporters, lawyers, and principled gay/feminist/transgender activists, well, they might not wear capes but we know they're the heroes of the story. They know what's best for us, and do not hesitate to tell us.

That's beginning, maybe, just maybe, to change. I first noted it when the French "yellow vests" marched on Paris. There was something quite different about that protest over your usual protest. The media deliberately tried to misrepresent or ignore the "yellow vests," wishing them "into the cornfield" to borrow a phrase from a favorite Twilight Zone episode. While I saw there the beginning of the West´s revolt against the arrogant elites, the real Molotov Cocktail into the dry tinder, however, appears to have been tossed by the Canadian truckers. 

The Canadian truck convoy is a remarkable development.  It has terrified the ruling elites not just in Canada, but here in the USA, and across the world. It is a genuine workers' revolt, without the guillotines. It is driven by many of the same themes we saw in the DC January 6 "revolt," but much better organized, and, above all, focused. It is a brilliant act of political theater, and we see the Canadian and US ruling elites unable to formulate a response, except to threaten with brute force. I watched much of the debate in the Canadian Parliament, and I found the acting leader of the opposition, Candice Bergen, as impressive as the government ministers were not. The PM, Fidel Castro's son, in particular, seemed unable to answer legitimate questions and relied on stale talking points in response to Bergen's pointed barbs. There is something to be said for the parliamentary form of debate which proves much more lively, and requiring a quick wit, than our rather stilted and overly regimented Congressional "debates." 

I found some of the scenes on the streets of Ottawa disturbing, and very un-Canadian; in particular, the police stealing, and there is not other word for it, fuel canisters from the truckers, which given the temperature poses a threat to the health and life of the truckers, and the cops heavy handed approach to enforcing the "no-honking" edict issued by the Mayor. 

The elites are losing this one. We already see, both in Canada and here, Provincial and State authorities backing off on mask and vaccine mandates. SUDDENLY, the "science" tells our elites that COVID is so yesterday, and they can begin to give us back some of the freedoms they stole. They, however, clearly reserve the right to carry out that theft again--mail in ballots, eh, and since when do the loopy Deep State bureaucrats in the CDC have the power to issue edicts restricting the right of Americans to travel? How did that happen?

We see rampant confusion in the White House. The White House's version of Baghdad Bob, Jen Psaki, has become increasingly deranged and inarticulate as she tries to read her outdated press guidance. She shows that the alleged President hasn't a clue as to what is happening. Her answers, in particular, to questions about the closing of the Ambassador Bridge, make no sense. She might have expressed gratitude that Canadians have shown us how to close the northern border, and request their help in closing the southern border, but, nah . . . she hasn't the wit for that.

BTW, I got my money back from those thieves at GoFundMe, and will be making a contribution via another crowd funding site which I have been assured will get the money to the truckers.

The Cancel Torpedoes Do a 360

Two major sinkings by "cancel" torpedoes. 

The first is the hit on the execrable SS Whoopi Goldberg. This homeless-looking beast has held a seemingly secure spot on what must be the most stupid panel show on television, "The View." The show trades in idiocy; it is full of the Wokest of Woke sentiments, and is a source of really bad information. Whoopi Goldberg (Nee Caryn Johnson) has gotten herself into a bind with some SUPER idiocy about the Holocaust, clearly implying it was not that significant of an event since it "wasn't really about race"--and that's all that counts in Whoopi's world--as it involved two groups of white people. Pretty stooooopid. Following that logic, the world should not give a damn when one African group annihilates another, or when one group of North American Indians practiced genocide on another, or when . . . well, you get the point. So, let's all acknowledge that Whoopi is pretty stupid, so stupid that she got herself suspended and--perhaps--fired from her perch by her ultra-Woke network.

Is this fair? 

I might surprise some of you by stating I don't think she should be removed from TV for being stupid and having stupid views. I am against "canceling" coming from or against any quarter. We cannot fall for the Justin Trudeau standard of canceling people for holding "unacceptable" views--even by pathetic idiots such as Joy Behar and the others on The View. The First Amendment is for everybody; if we oppose cancel culture when it's aimed at the right, we must oppose it when it's aimed at the left. It, however, does provoke an inner chortle when I see the Progressive Saturn eating his children. 

The other torpedo on a 360º run claimed CNN's Grand Pooba Jeff Zucker. He got canned not for ruining CNN, not for running the most loathsome "news" outfit since Pravda, but for having an undisclosed affair with some Lesser Pooba in the company. Who cares? The Wokesters, however, wrote the rules (they don't apply to Kamala Harris, please note) and it's always satisfying when one of them, on rare occasion, gets blown up by the torpedoes they have launched. I think there is more to this story, as it is somehow related to an investigation of the dirty doings between the Cuomo bros; it strikes me as a smokescreen to hide something much more serious. Perhaps we'll find out.

Just some random thoughts on a chilly Wednesday.