Russian Forces Close In on Kyiv, Biden imposes sanctions.
As of this morning, t he Ukrainian capital came under renewed bombing, as Russian forces approached the city. President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed not to surrender and the capital’s defenders geared up for urban combat. The Ukrainians and their leader are clearly brave people but they are simply out gunned by the Russian Army.
Within a few days time a pro-western democracy could be radically altered to become a satellite state of Russia. It is a historic event, one of those rare events that won’t merely affect the world. It will change the world. The security system that had existed in Europe has been changed forever. The old world order is collapsing just 13 months into the Biden presidency. Vladimir Putin is well on his way to achieving his goal of reuniting Russia. On the other hand NATO has become galvanized. The ability of Joe Biden to step away from international entanglements to focus on competition with China has been undercut. It will have a big impact on American politics, creating friction between internationalists and isolationists. The invasion of Ukraine is renewing the uneasy debate between those who favor an active global role for the U.S.
That brings us to what undoubtedly is the most radical president in American history - Joe Biden. He presides over the longest surviving democracy in the world and he has caused it great harm. He has given the far left neo-Socialist wing of the democratic party all that it wanted and the nation is suffering because of it. A new Gallup survey found that only 36 percent of Americans back the president’s response to the “situation with Russia” while 55 percent disapproved. Like polling on every issue, Joe Biden is underwater.
The Week:
First and foremost, the CDC will announce new Covid-19 guidelines on Friday that lay out a new approach for preventing spread of the disease over the longer term. “Moving forward, our approach will advise enhanced prevention efforts in communities with a high volume of severe illness and will also focus on protecting our healthcare systems from being overwhelmed,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky tweeted Thursday night. The new guidelines come just before Biden's State of the Union address.
Also expected today will be Joe Biden's announcement on his Supreme Court selection. Biden famously promised to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court and has interviewed three contenders in recent days. She would succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer. It shall be interesting. Breaking: president Biden is set to name Ketanji Brown Jackson to Supreme Court.
U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) is expected to announce his resignation on Friday. Reports says Inhofe would remain in his seat through the end of the congressional session. The announcement is expected to come at a news conference at 12:30 p.m.
The DOJ is shutting down a China-focused anti-espionage program, largely because of perceptions that it unfairly painted Chinese Americans and U.S. residents of Chinese origin as disloyal.
What have we learned:
Biden’s decision to shut down his own nation’s energy production will be remembered as one of history’s gravest self-inflicted wounds.
Unfortunately we have been pretty much gaslighted here. This past week we saw numerous stories on the Ukraine invasion, which seldom mentioned who the current president happens to be. We were told that local crime stories were not really "news stories," yet believe it or not we had multiple stories on nothing more than various politician's statements, another story using QAnon and even a conspiracy theory on why the Russians occupied Chernobyl. What was most memorable was being told that "Biden is not a radical," "Electric cars are affordable' and last but not least "Nobody could have done any better than Biden."
Cartoon of the week:
Honorable Mention:
The brave man who remains in his capital city: Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy.
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Russia’s assault triggered a surge of calls to cut the country off completely from the global financial system, but fear of collateral damage is quashing the idea for now.
Russia's stock market already dropped fifty percent!
Our own Stock Market was down about 500 points until Biden gave his little speech. Let's see how many times we can pull the rabbit out of the hat.
Five hundred points is one and a half percent.
As you note, Biden's speech turned it around...
Again Russian Markets down FIFTY PERCENT!
And Russia’s economy is roughly a tenth the size of the U.S. economy.
As you note, Biden's speech turned it around...
For one day. His economic & energy policies have financed Putin's military adventure and are killing this country..
Again Russian Markets down FIFTY PERCENT!
If Putin doesn't care, why should you?
Biden’s speech “turned it around” for Russia too because the market is happy with weak sanctions that won’t effect business much.
“Russia’s currency and its benchmark stock index gained Friday after Washington implemented new sanctions against Moscow but refrained from completely cutting it off from the global financial system.”
Down 50% is right. What our friend here left out is the fact that it is indeed down 50%.................but from the highest point IN OCTOBER 2021. It didn't just dump 50% from Monday to Thursday. But it did drop 33% yesterday
Biden being dishonest? Shocking
Thank you for putting it in context.
What all of it means is that western deterrence has failed. That always depended on both sides believing the consequences would be too great.
And now this..........
" Ukraine has banned men aged 18-60 from leaving the country for at least 30 days, as the armed forces ramp up conscription orders in response to Russian military invasion ."
That is something they should have done months ago.
Biden: "Our forces are not, and will not, be engaged in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine." but, U.S. forces will defend "every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power."
That must have been so reassuring for the Ukrainians!
And once again America has to shoulder the brunt of the load for NATO. The Inspector of the German Army Lt. Gen. Alfons Mais has stated that the German army would be limited in it's ability to assist in a NATO mission. As he put it, the German Army is standing bare.
They are a pacifist nation. They can't have nukes and we provide defense.
Can you blame them?
The perfect answer to all the ranting:
If Biden doesn't care, why should you?
Joe only does as he's told.
So the message to Ukraine is "good luck, we'll send pillows" and just like in 2014 we'll levy some sanctions (but not on Putin or Russian energy, of course) and that will be the end of the independent Ukraine.
In a couple of months, it will be all be back to normal, except for Ukrainians.
And in between a lot of brave people die.
Asking civilians to fight the Russian army with Molotov cocktails is just terribly depressing.
We wouldn't even give them adequate weapons to defend themselves.
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Talk has never been cheaper
That's some serious gaslighting.
For sure!
This article is bizzare garbage, reflecting very poorly on Newstalkers.
I know, none of it happened/ S
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The author of this trash thinks that Trump was a great president, not only that but he's been an innocent figure unfairly persecuted by deranged liberals.
This conclusion is of course insane.
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Question of the day:
Biden reportedly did not kick Russia out of SWIFT because of German/Italian opposition. He doesn’t need their permission. Trump did it to Iran with Britain, France and Germany actively fighting it.
Why does Biden let weak links in the alliance get a veto?
Germany is a terrible ally. They’ve refused to pull their weight militarily and leech of the US, their energy policy has turned them into Putin’s puppets and they are more than happy to sacrifice Ukraine to avoid angering Putin.
Germany, with an economy four times the size of Russia, should have been able to deter Putin without any outside help. Yet here it sitS, helpless to do anything other than fight against strong sanctions against Putin.
I totally agree with that. Some of it I blame on the attitude of the current German generation, but some of it goes to the position they are in. After WWII we not only gave a lot of German territory away (look at the size of Poland!), but we quietly made sure they wouldn't have nuclear weapons. We provided them with military security and geography dictates that they will always have Russia to deal with. Sometimes I think that we can't really expect much from them.
Because he's a weak "leader".
Let me see, I know he's weak, you know it, the 60% who don't like his handling of the Ukraine crisis knows it, the all important player sitting in Moscow knows it and Zelensky definitely knows it!
The Kremlin said Friday, via a Russian state-run news agency, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to send a delegation to negotiate with Ukrainian officials over the country's "neutral status."
The message came in response to a Friday morning message from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, who said, in a video posted to his Telegram channel, that he was "not afraid" to engage in talks with Russia, if it could halt the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began Wednesday.
"We heard from Moscow today that they want to talk about the neutral status of Ukraine," Zelenskyy said. "We are not afraid of Russia, we are not afraid of engaging in talks with Russia, we are not afraid of discussing anything, such as security guarantees for our state, we are not afraid of talking about neutral status."
"Fighting is ongoing all over Ukraine. Let's sit at the table for negotiations to stop people dying," Zelenskyy continued.
Russia suggested that it could send a delegation to Minsk in Belarus, a nation led by close Putin ally, authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
http:// hill.cm/JDGEWal
Sounds like Putin is finding the going not so easy. Put(ing) that aside, taking any statement coming from a Russian State Agency seriously in a time of conflict is laughable.
I'm hearing reports that they are taking heavy losses. The funny part is that he has transformed the Russian army into a professional army.
I guess they aren't exactly the Wehrmacht yet.
I heard that too this morning. Ukraine was at 114 deaths and 400 plus injured. The report said that Russia had lost some 450 give or take.
I heard worse than that. We can't get much confirmed info out of there.
Yeah, it's hard to tell what's accurate. But the consensus I've come across is the Russians military's performance is underwhelming. One expert said a war with NATO would look like the first gulf war with Saddam.
Once again the fog of war dances with the cloud of unknowing setting the stage for Putin's propaganda boys to frame it as a kabuki war. The Russian citizen appears to see through it with a degree of clarity lacking in his western counterpart.
I hear they lost quite a few tanks - and I believe they even admitted as much. I can't remember where.
They are well behind their day 1 objectives.
I think many Russians are as outraged as Americans, who are united on this particular issue.
Sounds like Putin does not have all the cards and is at best an average chess player.
I think we may have given him cards, starting with floating the idea of NATO membership for Ukraine or false promises that the U.S. and NATO would stand up to Moscow and defend Ukraine when it came down to it
BTW at this moment Zelensky is pleading with the west to stop Putin.
Are there any slick comebacks for that?
Before we dance with the future, which always has the last laugh, I suggest trading in the partisan jack boots for a lighter shoe. The toes you tread on may be your own.
That you should.
i read a lot of the combatants are first year conscripts ( setting aside involvement of the "professional military) , and many thought they were on simple training exercises but were inserted as fodder(warm bodies ) and as a result , have either given up( surrendered) or are slow to respond .
that sounds awful familiar to the "Great Patriotic War".
either way , this shows me what would have had to have been expected if it happened during the cold war (45-89)
it also shows us today , what the concept of "total war" actually is , something this country has not practiced or seen for a very long ,long time .
I disagree.
it also shows us today , what the concept of "total war" actually is , something this country has not practiced or seen for a very long ,long time .
You disclosed more than you know. Actually, it shows that even Russia fights conventional wars in the nuclear age.
You said "could". I think you mean "will".
You said "collapsing". I think you mean "being reinstated".
So basically the 1980s called and want their foreign policy back?
Was he focusing on competition with China? Was that even on the list?