The Cover Story Never Made Sense

In September 2022, the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines were blown up. The mainstream media claimed that the Russians had blown them up. This never made any sense–it was a source of income for Russia. There was speculation in some media outlets that in fact the United States was responsible (the claim was that the United States was the only country with the technology to blow up the pipeline). Well, it looks as if the truth might have stumbled out.

On Saturday, Fox News reported:

A former senior Ukrainian official was the coordinator of the explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines, the Washington Post reported, citing Ukrainian officials and European sources, and in conjunction with German periodical Der Spiegel.

Roman Chervinsky, a former commander of one of the Ukrainian special forces units, was the “coordinator of the Nord Stream operation” and managed a six-person team that carried out the devastating multibillion-dollar infrastructure attack in September 2022, according to the report.

The outlet said Chervinsky and the group of six people rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines. 

Chervinsky did not act alone and did not plan the operation, but was obeying the orders of high-ranking officers who ultimately answered to Ukraine’s highest-ranking military officer, Valery Zaluzhny, the Post said, citing people familiar with his role.

That makes sense. Blowing up the pipelines was one way to limit Russia’s income from fossil fuel revenue.

The article also notes:

In February, Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, alleged that U.S. Navy divers laid bombs that destroyed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under a direct order from President Joe Biden. 

The Seymour Hersh article reminds us that even Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists don’t always get the story right. The article makes no comment on who might have encouraged Ukraine to blow up the pipelines, so it is possible that the United States bears part of the responsibility.

Telling It Like It Is

On Wednesday, The Hill posted an article that included a few rather blunt comments from Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana.

The article reports:

Republican Sen. John Kennedy (La.) dug into President Biden’s foreign policy on Iran on Tuesday, claiming he would “take away” the president’s car keys if he were his son.

“When I look at President Biden in terms of his international affairs, national security and his domestic policy over the last two years and change — if it were my father, I’d take away his car keys, much less … the entire country, and I think … that’s what most Americans are thinking right now,” Kennedy said in an interview on Fox Business’s “The Bottom Line.”

The Senator also noted:

President Trump put tough, tough sanctions on Iran, so it couldn’t export its oil,” Kennedy said. “Those sanctions are still there, but President Biden hasn’t enforced them. So now, instead of … producing and exporting 500,000 barrels a day, Iran is exporting 1.4 million a day, and its foreign reserves have doubled. We had Iran down, and we were choking them economically.”

“President Biden, because he thought if he was a nice guy, Iran would cooperate in terms of its nuclear weapons — he let them up, and on top of that, he gave them … tried to give them $6 billion cash,” Kennedy continued, in reference to Biden’s prisoner swap with Iran last month that allowed for the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds.

The war in Israel would end quickly if the economic sanctions were put back on Iran and the aid to Gaza was stopped. The actions of America and the European Union are funding this war. The war in Ukraine could be stopped with American energy independence. All we need to do is drop the cost of oil so that Russia cannot afford to continue to war with Ukraine. Unfortunately too many people make too much money during a war, and those people make massive campaign donations.

About That Corruption Thing In Ukraine…

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported the following:

A top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly admitted that corruption is so rampant in the wartorn former Soviet state that officials are “stealing like there’s no tomorrow”.

Speaking anonymously to Time magazine, what is alleged to be a top presidential advisor to Zelensky said that the Ukrainian government’s efforts to stamp out corruption have proved fruitless, given that they were implemented too late to have any impact, including the firing of Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov.

“People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow,” the top advisor is said to have told the publication, saying that officials do not “feel any fear” of engaging in corruption because the firing of Reznikov and others took over six months after Zelenksy was warned that the Defence Ministry was drowning in graft.

Another advisor is reported to have told the magazine that by the time Zelesnky acted “it was too late” and that the corruption scandal had not only become known in Western capitals but also among soldiers on the frontline, where troops reportedly began making lewd jokes about “Reznikov’s eggs” — a reference to the accusation that the Defence Ministry had vastly overpaid for basic items such as eggs and coats for soldiers.

The article concludes:

For his part, in an interview with Time, President Zelensky has claimed that battling corruption is one of his chief aims but asserted that the issue is being weaponised to cut off funding.

“It’s not right for them to cover up their failure to help Ukraine by tossing out these accusations,” he said.

A top official told the magazine that Zelensky has begun to feel betrayed by his backers in the West for merely providing enough assistance to survive rather than sufficient weaponry to win the war against Russia.

However, another said that Zelensy “deludes himself,” adding: “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.”

The publication went on to claim that officials in Kyiv are beginning to believe that due to heavy casualties over the past year and a half, there may no longer be enough soldiers left to win the war.

Even if the United States were to supply all the weaponry needed, one aide said: “We don’t have the men to use them.”

This is not a winnable war. All we are doing is funding corruption. It’s time for the peace negotiations that the Biden administration blocked at the beginning of the war.

Ukraine As Vietnam

On Saturday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about British troops in Ukraine.

This is the headline:

The article reports:

First the backdrop.  Let us not pretend a confluence of events do not all go in one direction.

U.S. troops are conducting military exercises in eastern Moldova {link}.  The CIA and State Department are the operational mechanism for all Ukraine military operations, and in total control of the Ukraine government {link}.  American contracted mercenary troops operating in Ukraine are being treated at U.S. military hospitals in Germany {link}.  U.S. military operations are flying drone missions above Ukraine, and U.S. satellites are coordinating the battlespace.  Additionally, the U.S. is sending Abrams tanks, F-16 fighter jets along with support and training teams, and long-range missile launching systems into Ukraine.

For all intents and purposes, the U.S driven NATO military forces are already actively engaged in Ukraine.

Simultaneously, the Dept of Defense {link} and CIA {link} have announced the deployment of advanced artificial intelligence operations for U.S. internet systems. That creation aligns with the Dept of Homeland Security organizing “homeland intelligence experts” {link} to control and monitor public information and shape U.S. public opinion.  All of this is happening under the guise of national security.  We have the COVID-19 backdrop to identify the public-private partnership approach to controlling information.  This same process can easily be deployed to cover Ukraine sensitive content.

There’s your backdrop with citations.  Now, given all of that, doesn’t the alignment of the demonstrable datapoints all flow in one unilateral direction?

The War in Vietnam began with advisors. I don’t pretend to know exactly what the right solution for Ukraine is. However, I do know that we are draining the average American’s resources dry while those in the defense industry are making a killing (no pun intended) replacing weapons destroyed in the Ukrainian war.

The article concludes:

Last point, as you contemplate the severity by which everything is being organized, regardless of public opinion, don’t forget to overlay this context with their opposition to President Donald Trump; the one guy who could stop all of this.

Now do you see the context for the U.S. intelligence apparatus to manipulate everything about the 2024 election, including the use of RFK Jr?

What We Are Actually Supporting In Ukraine

On September 24th, CBS News posted an article about exactly how American tax dollars are being spent in Ukraine. The lack of financial accountability for the billions of dollars we have spent in Ukraine is disturbing.

The article reports:

The U.S. has spent just over $43 billion on military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded. That’s equivalent to about 5% of the American defense budget. European countries combined have contributed around $30 billion.

The article notes:

American taxpayers are financing more than just weapons. We discovered the U.S. government’s buying seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers… and covering the salaries of Ukraine’s first responders – all 57,000 of them.

That includes the team that trains this rescue dog – named Joy – to comb through the wreckage of Russian strikes looking for survivors.

And the U.S. also funds the divers who we saw clearing unexploded ammunition from the country’s rivers – to make them safe again for swimming and fishing.

These are worthwhile causes, but I am not sure it’s American taxpayers’ responsibility to fund them.

Also included in the expenditures:

Russia’s invasion shrank Ukraine’s economy by about a third. We were surprised to find that to keep it afloat the U.S. government is subsidizing small businesses…

…like Tatiana Abramova’s knitwear company.

Holly Williams: These are Ukrainian towns – that’s Kyiv I recognize.

Tatiana Abramova: Yes, yah! It’s Kyiv.

Tatiana Abramova: Especially in the condition of war, we have to work. We have to pay taxes, we have to pay wage– salary to our employees. We have to work, don’t stop.

Holly Williams: Why does that help Ukraine win the war?

Tatiana Abramova: Because economy is the foundation of everything.

American officials from USAID – the agency in charge of international development – helped Abramova find new customers overseas. In the midst of war, her company is supporting over 70 families.

Please follow the link to read further details. The interesting thing about this information is that it was shown on “60 Minutes,” generally a left-wing news source that supports the Ukrainian War. I wonder if this is an indication that the mainstream media is reading the tea leaves and giving up on convincing Americans that funding Ukraine is a good use of our tax dollars.

How Many Other People Were Involved?

The Biden family corruption scheme seems to be constantly adding more people to its criminal circle. The latest addition is not surprising considering the list of business partners, but it is interesting that it has taken us so long to get here.

On Monday, PJ Media reported the following:

…It turns out that Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, met with then-Secretary of State John Kerry mere weeks before Shokin (Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin) was fired in 2016, according to a report from Fox News:

Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired on March 29, 2016, less than four weeks after Archer met with Kerry at the State Department in Washington, D.C., according to a State Department email.

“Devon Archer coming to see S today at 3:00pm – need someone to meet/greet him at C Street,” reads the redacted email on March 2, 2016, which was previously released via the Freedom of Information Act.

Fox News Digital can confirm that “S” refers to Kerry, based on multiple other email communications. However, it is unclear what Archer and Kerry discussed at the meeting or whether Burisma came up in conversation.

At the time of the meeting, Archer and Hunter Biden had been sitting on the board of Burisma for about two years, and then-Vice President Joe Biden had recently wrapped up a trip to Ukraine where he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid if Ukrainian officials didn’t fire Shokin, claiming he was too lax on prosecuting corruption.

When the email was first released in 2019, Sens. Grassley, R-Iowa and Johnson, R-Wis., expressed concerns about the meeting and sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Pompeo requesting all records from the meeting in addition to other meeting, including Hunter’s 2015 meeting with Blinken.

It may well be that one of the reasons there seems to be so much difficulty in actually holding anyone responsible for the corruption of the Biden family is that the Biden family was careful to make sure there were enough other people in high places involved so that there would never be any consequences for their actions.

Does This Mean They Need To Indict Trump Somewhere Else?

At this point it’s a pretty safe bet that anytime something damaging to the Biden family comes out, President Trump gets indicted somewhere. Well, another smoking gun has surfaced, so I am waiting for another indictment.

On August 17, Breitbart reported:

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) demanded Thursday that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) hand over all documents and communications in which then-Vice President Joe Biden used pseudonyms such as “Robert Peters,” “Robin Ware,” and “JRB Ware.”

Comer listed the pseudonyms in a letter to NARA in which he demanded access to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s documents and communications regarding official duties that overlapped with his son’s activities in Ukraine.

One email, which Comer says the committee has already seen, includes an attachment with the vice president’s schedule, indicating that he had spoken by phone to then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The email was sent to a “Robert L. Peters” and cc’ed to the vice president’s son, Hunter Biden.

Joe Biden was the designated foreign policy point person to Ukraine during the Obama administration. The House Oversight Committee argues that Joe Biden threatened to withhold U.S. aid to Ukraine in 2015 until the president of Ukraine fired prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who had jurisdiction for an investigation into the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

This is a portion of the letter sent to the National Archives and Records Administration:

The Committee seeks unrestricted special access under the PRA to Case Number 2023- 0022-F, entitled “Email Messages To and/or From Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden related to Burisma and Ukraine,” which has been published on NARA’s website. These records have been redacted for public release pursuant to the PRA and FOIA. For example, an email bearing the subject “Friday Schedule Card,” is withheld in part under a “P6” and “b(6)” restrictions, denoting personal information regarding the subject under the PRA and FOIA respectively.

Attached to this email, and made available on the NARA website, is a document that indicates at 9:00 a.m. on May 27, 2016, Vice President Biden took a call with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. It is concerning to the Committee, however, that this document was sent to “Robert L. Peters”—a pseudonym the Committee has identified as then Vice President Biden. Additionally, the Committee questions why the then-Vice President’s son, Hunter Biden—and only Hunter Biden—was copied on this email to then-Vice President Biden.

Expect another Trump indictment–this is the equivalent of a secret server!

How Much Evidence Will It Take Before Someone Is Held Accountable?

On Wednesday, Townhall reported that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has released records of overseas deposits into Hunter Biden’s back accounts during the time that Joe Biden was Vice-President.

The article reports:

“During Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden sold him as ‘the brand’ to reap millions from oligarchs in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. It appears no real services were provided other than access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden himself. And Hunter Biden seems to have delivered. This is made clear by meals at Café Milano where then-Vice President Joe Biden dined with oligarchs from around the world who had sent money to his son,” Comer released in a statement. “It’s clear Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings and allowed himself to be ‘the brand’ sold to enrich the Biden family while he was Vice President of the United States. The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the money trail and obtain witness testimony to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised or corrupt, and our national security is threatened.”

…According to the memo released by Comer, the Biden family received over $20 million in foreign transactions and the payments were distributed to multiple members. The payments were hidden through shell companies and funneled through Hunter Biden’s business partners, including Devon Archer. Archer and Biden earned $6.5 million from Burisma alone.

The article concludes:

“When President Biden ran as a presidential candidate, he assured the American people his family received no money from China. President Biden recently claimed the Committee’s bank records regarding his family’s receipt of funds from China are ‘not true,'” a second Committee memo states. “The White House refuses to correct President Biden’s dishonest statements. The lack of transparency surrounding the Biden family’s foreign business deals raises serious national security concerns.” 

There is no happy ending to this story. Impeaching President Biden will not work–even with overwhelming evidence, the Senate will NOT impeach. Even if the Senate were to impeach, we would then have President Kamala Harris. Meanwhile we have a President who not only is mentally compromised but is probably being blackmailed by half the countries in the world. At some point this charade has to end.

I Can’t Believe He Said That

I used to think that Mike Pence was one of the good guys. Now I believe that he is part of the Washington swamp. On Sunday, an article appeared at American Greatness that confirmed my suspicions. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Mike Pence made a statement that is truly cringe-worthy.

The article reports:

Who won the Republican blow-out interview lalapalooza with Tucker Carlson in Iowa Friday night? Besides Tucker himself—who was on the Q side of this extended Q & A—the participants were South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

…But even though Tucker emerged as one of the stars of the evening, the show was not about him but about that clutch of GOP hopefuls. Who among that gang of six won?

It’s probably easier to start with the loser, chief among whom was Mike Pence, who might just as well have used the occasion to perform an act of self-immolation. The key moment came in an exchange about foreign policy, in particular U.S. policy with respect to the war in Ukraine. Pence said he was distressed that we had yet to send Ukraine the promised Abrams tanks or train Ukrainian pilots to fly F16s.

“You are distressed,” said Tucker, “that the Ukrainians don’t have enough American tanks. Every city in the United States has become much worse in the last three years. . . .and yet your concern is that the Ukrainians . . . don’t have enough tanks? Where’s the concern in the United States in that?”

“Well, that’s not my concern. Tucker, I’ve heard that routine from you before, but that’s not my concern.”

“Not my concern.”

Bang. “Not my concern.”

I am sure that the comment was not what it seemed; however, his handlers should have better prepared him for the interview. I personally would rather vote for someone who is more concerned for America than for Ukraine. He is running for President of America–not Ukraine.

Please follow the link to the article to read the ‘rest of the story.’

Loose Lips Sink Ships

“Loose Lips Sink Ships” was a popular phrase during World War II. If you are a fan of Tom Clancy novels, he often illustrated how a casual remark by someone could be very helpful to a foreign agent seeking information. In one example, a foreign agent wooing a secretary to a high official wanted to plan a getaway with the secretary of that official during the time her boss was away so that she would have time off. Thus he was able to figure out the travel schedule of her boss and set up an ambush. Anyone who works for the government and deals with sensitive information needs to be careful what they say. Unfortunately, President Biden evidently has not figured that out.

On Sunday, The Daily Wire reported:

President Joe Biden faced backlash on Sunday after he revealed sensitive U.S. military information during an interview that critics said could make America’s adversaries more aggressive.

Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that the reason that he is giving cluster munitions to Ukraine is because the U.S. is running out of 155mm artillery shells.

…“The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition,” Biden responded. “The ammunition, that they used to call them 155-millimeter weapons. This is a war relating to munitions, and they are running out of that ammunition and we’re low on it. And so what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to, not permanently, but to allow for in this transition period where we have more 155 weapons, these shells for the Ukrainians, to provide them with something that has a very low dud rate. It’s about — I think it’s 150, which is the least likely to be blowing.

Why not work toward peace instead?

Peace Would Be Better Than Escalation

It is unfortunate that we keep throwing money and arms into an endless war that is doing nothing but kill large numbers of people on both sides. It is unfortunate that no one seems to be interested in finding a peaceful solution.

On Saturday, The Daily Caller reported:

Political leaders from Spain and the United Kingdom voiced their disagreement Saturday with President Joe Biden’s change of heart over providing widely-banned cluster munitions to Ukrainian forces, according to Politico.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Spain’s Defense Minister Margarita Robles each voiced their disagreement with the Biden administration’s decision to provide cluster munitions to Ukrainian forces in Saturday remarks to reporters, according to Politico. Biden’s decision to send the munitions marks the latest reversal of U.S. policy to send weapons to the Ukrainians that had previously been deemed too sensitive.

Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stated the administration’s view that Russia’s use of cluster munitions in the war “would potentially be a war crime” in February 2022. Biden said that the choice to change his mind and send cluster munitions to the Ukrainians was “a difficult decision” in a Friday interview with CNN.

The article notes:

“Spain, based on the firm commitment it has with Ukraine, also has a firm commitment that certain weapons and bombs cannot be delivered under any circumstances,” Robles said Saturday, according to Reuters. “No to cluster bombs and yes to the legitimate defense of Ukraine, which we understand should not be carried out with cluster bombs.”

The munitions are banned by numerous other U.S. allies, including Germany, France, Japan and Australia, because the submunitions they contain often do not detonate right away, leaving the dangerous duds on the ground and posing high casualty risk to civilians, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition’s website.

On July 8, CNN reported:

Cluster munitions scatter “bomblets” across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines. Over 100 countries, including the UK, France and Germany, have outlawed the munitions under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the US and Ukraine are not signatories to the ban.

I can’t help believe that this is a decision that America will regret in the future.

 

 

More Fact Checkers

On Thursday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about President Biden’s recent speech on Bidenomics.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden promised a “fundamental break” with “trickle-down economics” in a speech on Wednesday in which he relied on a number of misleading claims to make his point.

Touting “Bidenomics,” the White House’s name for its economic agenda heading into the 2024 race, Biden floated a plan that would involve spending more taxpayer money and boosting union labor.

Here is the fact check on that speech:

“My predecessor enacted the latest iteration of the failed theory. Tax cuts for the wealthy. It wasn’t paid for, and the estimated cost of his tax cut was $2 trillion.”

Former President Donald Trump‘s tax cuts did not benefit only the wealthy, and they didn’t cost the government nearly as much as critics claimed.

Last year, the Congressional Budget Office actually said the government is expected to collect more revenue over the next decade than it had projected before the tax cuts were signed into law.

In fiscal 2018, the first year after Trump signed the tax cuts into law, the federal government actually collected slightly more revenue overall than it had the previous year.

We learned this during the Reagan administration–when you cut taxes, revenue goes up.

The article continues:

“Wind and solar are already significantly cheaper than coal and oil. You’re not going to see anybody building a new coal-fired plant in America — not just because I’d like to pass a law to say that; it’s too expensive.”

One key reason that renewable energy is now cheaper than traditional energy production is because the Biden administration has offered sweeping tax breaks and subsidies to green energy companies.

…“Today, inflation is less than half of what it was a year ago. And that inflation [was] caused by Russia and by the war in Ukraine and by what was going on.”

Inflation still remains significantly higher than before Biden took office, even if it has fallen from the heights of last year.

Before Biden took office, the consumer price index, a measure of inflation, rose 1.4% for 2020.

The CPI climbed 4.9% from April 2022 to April 2023, meaning prices this year are still rising far faster than before Biden’s inauguration.

While inflation was indeed worse last year, with prices jumping by 8.6% between May 2021 and May 2022, it remains a significant problem for many at nearly four times the level it was before Biden’s presidency.

…“When I took office, unemployment was over 6%. With the American Rescue Plan, we provided relief and support directly to working-class families. Our economy came roaring back. Unemployment dipped below 4% by the end of my first year in office.”

Like Biden’s claim about the number of jobs created, this statement is misleading because the unemployment rate was artificially high when he took office.

The unemployment rate had already begun to come down from its high of 14.8% in April 2020 by the time Biden took office.

Ending lockdowns and easing pandemic restrictions were the primary drivers of the unemployment rate’s fall, but Biden opposed both as a presidential candidate.

…“Just in my first two years in office, my team and I reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion.” 

Biden has previously touted the deficit reduction that occurred on his watch, and it’s been misleading every time.

The national debt grew by $7.8 trillion during Trump’s four years in office.

But much of that occurred in 2020 as a result of emergency pandemic spending.

The deficit at the end of fiscal 2020 was more than triple what it was at the end of fiscal 2019, a result of the massive rescue packages Congress passed to blunt the effects of lockdowns.

…In fact, Biden has pushed for record levels of spending, and he asked Congress for relief funds in 2021 well in excess of what was needed at the time.

Please follow the link to the article for further details.

Creating Global Chaos

The Biden administration has created global chaos. Remember when voters were told that President Biden would bring stability and ‘normalcy’ to America? How is that working?

On Wednesday, American Greatness posted a list of President Biden’s foreign policy ‘accomplishments’.

Here is a summary of the list:

1) Joe Biden abruptly pulled all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

2) The Biden Administration allowed a Chinese high-altitude spy balloon to traverse the continental United States, spying on key American military installations.

3) In March 2021, at an Anchorage, Alaska mini-summit, Chinese diplomats unleashed a relentless barrage at their stunned and mostly silent American counterparts.

4) In June 2021, in response to Russian cyber-attacks against the United States, Biden meekly asked Putin to at least make off-limits certain critical American infrastructure

5) When asked what he would do if Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden replied that the reaction would depend on whether the Russians conducted a “minor incursion.”

6) Between 2021 and 2022, Joe Biden serially insulted and bragged that he would not meet Muhammad bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and one of our oldest and most valuable allies in the Middle East.

7) For much of 2021, the Biden Administration made it known that it was eager and ready to offer concessions to re-enter the dangerous Iran nuclear deal—at a time when Iran has joined China and Russia in a new geostrategic partnership.

8) Almost immediately upon inauguration, the administration moved the United States away from Israel, restored financial aid to radical Palestinians, and both publicly and privately alienated the current Netanyahu government.

9) In serial fashion, Biden stopped all construction on the border wall and opened the border.

10) In the last two years, the Pentagon has embarked on a woke agenda.

Please follow the link to read the details. If this is normal, I don’t like it.

What An Incredible Coincidence!

On Thursday, The New York Post reported that two Russian businessmen who spent time with Hunter and Joe Biden have somehow avoided the sanctions the U.S. placed on Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine.

The article reports:

Two Russian billionaires who have managed to dodge US sanctions over Moscow’s year-old invasion of Ukraine went property shopping with Hunter Biden, dined with then-Vice President Joe Biden, and discussed “favors” they might swap, sources tell The Post.

New details of Joe and Hunter Biden’s association with Yelena Baturina and Vladimir Yevtushenkov flesh out tantalizing clues from the first son’s abandoned laptop. The sources spoke with The Post this week after the duo was yet again spared a fresh batch of sanctions announced by the Treasury Department Friday.

“I think it’s very fishy,” said one source who had firsthand knowledge of the business relationship between Hunter Biden and Yevtushenkov — who is sanctioned by the UK and Australia but not by the US.

“I think he should be sanctioned,” Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama, told The Post of Yevtushenkov — estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.7 billion. “I don’t understand why he has not been.”

The article also notes:

A Post reporter asked President Biden Wednesday on the White House lawn for an explanation of the non-sanctioning of his son’s Russian oligarch associates, but Biden didn’t reply and it’s unclear if he heard the question as he walked to his Marine One helicopter.

Biden allies previously sought to downplay his association with Baturina and the $3.5 million. An anonymous source told the Washington Post last year that Archer was supposed to dissolve the corporate entity that received the funds, but secretly kept it in existence for his own use.

However, emails from Hunter’s laptop show he was actively engaged in courting Baturina. About a month after the transfer, Archer wrote to Hunter to say he was “[w]ith Yelena” and an April 26, 2014, email from Hunter to Archer said “we should ask Yelena to fund a short-term development team to scope projects” after an attempted real estate deal in Manhattan fell through.

The Biden campaign in 2020 vaguely denied that the April 2015 Cafe Milano meetup even occurred, saying, “[W]e have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.” After Biden won the presidency, WFP USA’s former president Rick Leach told the Washington Post that Joe Biden did attend –but only briefly to meet with Greek Orthodox leader Alex Karloutsos.

Joe Biden’s interaction with his son’s post-Soviet associates at the meal is a pillar of Republican arguments that Biden misused his official roles to financially benefit his family.

Please follow the link to the article for further details. It does seem as if we have a pay-for-play scheme operating out of the White House.

An Incredible Coincidence?

About two years ago, many of us saw the following video clip on YouTube:

Basically, President Biden is bragging about having the investigator fired who was looking into the corruption in Ukraine involving Burisma, a company connected to Hunter Biden.

I was reminded of this clip after reading about some recent events in the United States Virgin Islands.

On January 2, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

After successfully settling a $105 million lawsuit against the estate of Jeffrey Epstein in early December, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise N. George then filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase saying the “bank knowingly provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid.”

Attorney General Denise N George has just been fired.

The article points out:

AG George is fired from her position as USVI AG after filing a lawsuit against JPMorgan. Where did Joe Biden go on vacation? The U.S. Virgin Islands.

The article concludes:

AG Denise George also seems uniquely qualified:

...”Attorney George served as an Assistant Attorney General and trial attorney in the criminal, civil, family, juvenile, White Collar and public corruption divisions of the Virgin Islands Department of Justice for a period of over 18 years.  During her tenure, she successfully prosecuted a full spectrum of violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter, rape, domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse.  As a member of the Child Abuse Task Force, she co-authored the Virgin Islands’ first criminal child abuse and neglect statute.  In the Civil Division, she represented the V.I. government in civil lawsuits filed against and on behalf of the government.

Attorney George also served for several years as the Director of the White Collar Crime and Public Corruption Division.  During that time, she managed the division and successfully prosecuted complex white collar crimes of embezzlement, forgery, fraud, racketeering and public corruption.” (more)

Maybe this is just an incredible coincidence, but it sure looks familiar.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted the following headline:

BlackRock Will Partner With Ukraine To Help Attract Investors, Rebuild Country, Zelenskyy Says

The article reports:

The Office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Wednesday that he had met with CEO Larry Fink of investment firm BlackRock, and that the two had agreed to coordinate their efforts to invest in Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Zelenskyy and Fink agreed to “focus in the near term” on efforts to attract investors for “the most relevant and impactful sectors of the Ukrainian economy,” according to a statement by Zelenskyy’s office. The two parties previously met in September to discuss the terms under which BlackRock might offer the Ukrainian government pro bono investment advice, according to Kyiv.

On December 28, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about Blackrock and its future involvement in Ukraine.

The Conservative Treehouse reports:

BlackRock, Inc. (together with its subsidiaries) is a massive publicly traded multinational investment firm with over $8.68 trillion in assets under management [December 31, 2020 financial statement] in more than 100 countries across the globe.  To say that Blackrock is invested in globalism, climate change and leftist politics, would be a severe understatement {See Here}.  Larry Fink is the CEO and people like Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s attorney of record, are on the board.

The Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, the guy who tells the $8.7 trillion investment firm BlackRock where to put their money, is Tom Donilon; President Obama’s former National Security Advisor (before Susan Rice), and a key advisor to Joe Biden throughout his career in politics; who was also recently put in charge of U.S-China policy by the State Dept. {link}

The article at The Conservative Treehouse concludes:

We have written about the previous conflicts {Go Deep Here} and {Go Deep Here}. So, now we have the Biden administration positioning U.S. taxpayer funds going into Ukraine.  That DC money will now blend with Blackrock rebuilding money and come out of the laundry operation to provide financial benefits to Blackrock, Zelenskyy and the Biden family syndicate.

Go figure.

There is a reason many politicians come to Washington as middle-class Americans and leave as millionaires. We are about to see that principle illustrated.

More Pinocchios For The White House

On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the Biden administration’s claim that the biggest driver of American inflation in the war in Ukraine. It is interesting that this claim is coming out as many economists believe that the economic growth numbers that will come out at the end of this month will show that America is in a recession according to the classical definition of the word recession.

The article notes:

Inflation was high and rising long before the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 0.6 percent in May of 2021 after rising 0.8 percent in April., On an annual basis, prices were up 5.0 percent, the largest 12-month increase since a 5.4-percent increase for the period ending August 2008.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, was 3.8 percent over the previous 12 months, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending June 1992.

The article concludes:

The biggest factor in the rise of energy prices has been increased global demand and a lack of capital investment. The latter was caused, in part, by ESG investing, Biden’s promise to end fossil fuels, and regulators discouraging fossil fuel production.

Yet inflation is still very high even with energy excluded. Absent energy, the CPI is up 6.6 percent year over year and rose 0.7 percent in May from April. This demonstrates that Putin has very little to do with the bulk of U.S. inflation.

People who normally invest in finding oil are being very cautious right now. Banks have slowed lending to oil companies for exploration because the government is not allowing the exploration needed to keep America energy independent. The first step toward ending inflation would be open up drilling (and the necessary pipelines) to keep the income from the energy market in America. The next step would be removing at least one in three government regulations on business and people trying to start businesses. Don’t look for either solution under the Biden administration.

 

What Are We Paying For?

On Tuesday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about the $40 billion that we are giving to Ukraine.

The article notes:

I think Scott Ritter jumped the gun in calling the $40 billion dollar Ukrainian aid bill a “game changer.” Once you take time to parse the details you quickly realize the media is misleading the American public on the reality of the $40 billion dollars ostensibly designated to buy weapons and equip Ukraine with a cornucopia of lethality. Mark Cancian at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (aka CSIS) provides an excellent breakdown of what was actually appropriated. Here is a quick summary:

$19 billion for immediate military support to Ukraine

$3.9 billion to sustain U.S. forces deployed to Europe

$16 billion for economic support to Ukraine and global humanitarian relief

$2 billion for long-term support to NATO allies and DOD modernization programs

…The $19 billion is carved up into smaller packages:

  • $6 billion for training, equipment, weapons, logistic support, supplies and services, salaries and stipends and intelligence support to the military and national security forces of Ukraine (and the specifics of the expenditures remain to be determined).
  • $9 billion to replenish U.S. weapons stocks already sent to Ukraine.
  • $4 billion for the Foreign Military Financing Program (this allows a foreign country like Ukraine to buy brand new weapon systems).

The article also notes:

Given these facts, Ukraine can only hope to receive $6 billion in military assistance in the immediate future. That is a sizeable chunk of change but there is no requirement that it be spent primarily on weapon systems that are effective against the Russians.

No matter what aid is provided to Ukraine in the coming weeks, the Russians enjoy a decisive advantage in their control of the air space, their precision missile and rocket systems and their robust electronic warfare capabilities.

Drone technology is a game changer. It can fly at any time without risking a pilot being shot down or killed. It can conduct reconnaissance and surveillance of enemy troop locations and movements, which provides the attacking force with precise geo coordinates to destroy enemy troops with missiles or rockets.

It does not matter if the U.S. shares complete Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance about Russian forces because Ukraine does not have the weapon systems to act on that information using lethal force. Ditto if Ukraine has its own powerful ISR systems. It does not have the air power or the missiles to attack the Russian forces. In fact, Russia’s air defense systems have been quite effective in shooting down those planes and missiles Ukraine tried to use.

We are throwing money down a bottomless pit.

About That Free Country We Are Supporting

First of all, let me make it clear that what is happening in Ukraine is horrible. Civilians are being targeted, innocent people are being killed, prisoners are being tortured and killed. It’s a horrible situation. I should also mention that the first casualty of war is truth, so we have no way of knowing how much of what we are hearing is true.

On Monday, Hot Air reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky put a program in place following Russia’s invasion of his country. His government is seeking to identify “traitors” who have expressed support for Russia and its war against “Nazis” in Ukraine.

The article reports:

Anyone who has been materially aiding the enemy is of course subject to prosecution, but people have been arrested just for expressing their support for Moscow on social media. That’s what happened to a man known only as “Victor” this month. Ukrainian security officers in full riot gear showed up at his apartment in Kharkiv to talk to him about some of his social media posts before hauling him off to jail. (Associated Press)

“Yes, I supported (the Russian invasion of Ukraine) a lot. I’m sorry. … I have already changed my mind,” said Viktor, his trembling voice showing clear signs of duress in the presence of the Ukrainian security officers.

“Get your things and get dressed,” an officer said before escorting him out of the apartment. The SBU did not reveal Viktor’s last name, citing their investigation.

Viktor was one of nearly 400 people in the Kharkiv region alone who have been detained under anti-collaboration laws enacted quickly by Ukraine’s parliament and signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

If four hundred people have been locked up just in the Kharkiv region under these disinformation laws, how many have been detained across the entire country? It’s almost certainly in the thousands, and all in a matter of a couple of months. To his credit, Zelensky at least got the Parliament to write up a law and signed it, which is better than doing it via an executive order the way Joe Biden did, but it’s still an alarming development.

I understand that a lot of bad things can happen during the fog of war, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is no exception.

The article concludes:

We already know that a similar situation has existed in Russia from the beginning. Anyone who spoke out of turn about the invasion using unapproved language – including journalists – was quickly hauled from the public square and locked up. How is what Ukraine is doing any different? It’s not, at least as far as I can tell.

Of course, the United States has surrendered the high ground in terms of speaking up about this. We now have our own Ministry of Truth in the Department of Homeland Security where our own Orwellian Santa Clause will be making a list and checking it twice to see who is engaging in speech not approved by the Biden administration. How can we criticize Zelenski for doing the same thing that his biggest foreign supporter is doing?

This doesn’t sound like President Zelensky supports free speech.

Is Europe Already At War?

On Saturday, The Western Journal reported the following:

A rise in tension between the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance and the Russian Federation has apparently been escalating for days in the skies above the Baltic and Black seas.

“NATO fighter jets stationed around the Baltic and Black Seas have scrambled multiple times over the past four days to track and intercept Russian aircraft near Alliance airspace”, a Friday NATO release reads.

Warning flags were first sent up on April 26 as multiple unidentified objects appeared on NATO radar arrays.

Fighters scrambled to intercept the unknowns and found Russian military aircraft tracking toward allied airspace.

A quick-reaction force is now on standby, ready to take to the sky at a moment’s notice. Aircraft securing the Baltic Sea region include fighters from Poland, Denmark, France and Spain.

The article notes:

Although NATO says the interceptions were operated in a “routine” and “safe” manner, the risks are clear.

“Russian military aircraft often do not transmit a transponder code indicating their position and altitude, do not file a flight plan, or do not communicate with air traffic controllers, posing a potential risk to civilian airliners,” NATO explained.

Of course, the danger to civilian airliners is minimal compared to what awaits if an interception between these two forces turns into a full-on engagement.

A fighter from any NATO member nation being attacked could trigger Article 5 of the alliance charter.

At this point, it is time to look at who benefits from a war between America and Russia. If it is a nuclear war, we all lose. If it is a non-nuclear war that weakens both countries, those who favor one world government win. America is a problem for the World Economic Forum. Americans like our freedoms and our prosperity (even in a recession, our quality of life is better than most other nations). There are as many questions about Vladimir Putin’s health as there are about President Biden’s health. The events in Ukraine need lots of prayers for wisdom for the leaders of Ukraine, NATO, America and Russia.

Are We Pretending That There Is No Corruption Within The Ukrainian Government?

What is happening in Ukraine is horrendous There is no excuse for killing civilians in the cities as Russia takes control of them. However, America does not have an endless supply of money it can spend to keep another government solvent. We are barely solvent ourselves.

On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

This is getting seriously out of hand.  On top of the $14 billion already appropriated for Ukraine assistance, Joe Biden is now asking for a supplemental budget allocation of an additional $33 billion for Ukraine.  Good grief, that’s almost $50 billion in aid, plus the billions in distributed weapons.

Biden is asking for U.S. taxpayers to fund the budget, salaries and pension obligations of the Ukraine government.  Biden made his request in a letter [SEE HERE] to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

[…] “I am writing to provide you with my request for fiscal year (FY) 2022 emergency supplemental funding for critical security and economic assistance to Ukraine.
 
I appreciate the Congress’ continued bipartisan support for Ukraine, NATO, and other partner countries affected by Russia’s War in Ukraine.  My Administration is committed to providing the Ukrainian people the assistance they need.  Our assistance to date has made a difference on the battlefield, helping Ukraine win the battle for Kyiv. 

This $33.0 billion request for additional funding and authority builds on the Congress’ supplemental appropriation of $13.6 billion on March 15, 2022, and seeks to address immediate and near-term security and economic needs.  Additional security assistance will put urgently needed equipment into the hands of Ukraine’s military and police, including ammunition, armored vehicles, small arms, demining assistance, and unmanned aircraft systems. 

Economic assistance will provide Direct Budget Support to provide rapid, flexible funds to assist the Government of Ukraine.” (read more)

Is any of that money going to help Burisma? Just asking. Americans are struggling with inflation and the possibility of higher taxes and the Biden administration wants us to fund Ukraine’s government. That doesn’t really work for me.

 

The Cost Of The Biden Presidency

If inflation is a tax, Americans have just received one of the biggest tax increases in history courtesy of the Biden administration.

On April 13th, Just the News posted an article about the latest inflation numbers.

The article reports:

Wholesale prices leapt 1.4% in march from the February figures to hit a record 11.2% annual increase as inflation continues to smack the U.S. economy.

The newly released numbers follow the news Tuesday of an 8.5% annual rise in consumer prices – the highest figure on record since December of 1981.

The Producer Price Index, which is also put out by the Department of Labor, measures the price of goods and services that businesses pay each other.

A significant portion of the wholesale price increase in March was due to the jump in energy prices brought about by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While outsized factors like the war in Ukraine, and the supply chain issues brought about by the pandemic, continue to impact inflation numbers, some economists are gesturing toward the federal government’s ongoing fiscal response to the pandemic as a driver of the issue.

Hoover Institution economist John H. Cochrane wrote in a beginning-of-year message that “n response to the disruptions of COVID-19, the U.S. government created about $3 trillion of new bank reserves, equivalent to cash, and sent checks to people and businesses. Mechanically, the Treasury issued $3 trillion of new debt, which the Fed quickly bought in return for $3 trillion of new reserves. The Treasury sent out checks, transferring the reserves to people’s banks. The Treasury then borrowed another $2 trillion or so, and sent more checks. Overall, federal debt rose nearly 30 percent. Is it at all a surprise that a year later inflation breaks out?”

The Biden administration has searched left, right, and center for a scapegoat for the inflation issue that is hurting the wallets of so many Americans ahead of the critical midterm election. Thus far, blaming Big Oil companies for price-gauging and Vladimir Putin for escalating gas prices has done little to divert attention of the American people from what they view as failing policies of the administration.

For a little historical perspective on inflation, here is a chart from The U.S. Inflation Calculator:

As you can see from the chart, the inflation rate was beginning to climb before Putin invaded Ukraine. The Biden administration’s spending and energy policies paved the way for the inflation we are now seeing. The best way to deal with the current inflation is to vote out of office anyone in Congress who continues to vote for massive spending bills and to vote President Biden out of office in 2024.

Continuing The War On American Energy Independence

On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported that the Biden has more attacks on the fossil fuel industry in the works.

The article reports:

President Biden is calling on Congress to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Thursday.

“Companies that are producing from their leased acres and existing wells will not face higher fees,” the statement continued. “But companies that continue to sit on non-producing acres will have to choose whether to start producing or pay a fee for each idled well and unused acre.”

As part of the announcement Thursday, Biden will also order the Department of Energy to release a million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months.

The White House has repeatedly blamed Big Oil for not doing enough to combat high gasoline prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted global energy supplies. Biden and Democratic lawmakers suggested this month that oil companies have taken advantage of the crisis to pad their profits.

I have no way of knowing if the President actually believes the garbage he is spouting. The problem with gasoline prices sits in the White House–not in the executive boards of oil companies.

The article concludes:

Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma, meanwhile, noted the Interior Department is currently holding up permits on 3,800 leases while it conducts additional “climate change analysis,” about 4,600 permits are still awaiting approval and that the her group is defending thousands more in court.

“Western Energy Alliance has been in court for years defending 5,900 leases of 7.3 million acres and companies can’t develop on most of them when they’re caught up in legal challenges,” Sgamma told the DCNF in a statement. “But the president now wants to penalize us for these delays?”

“The White House conveniently forgets the government’s role in delaying pipelines and permits and introducing new financial and regulatory risks to American development,” she continued.

The Biden administration has actively pursued an anti-fossil fuel agenda, nixing the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ditching oil drilling in Alaska, not appealing a court ruling that prohibited a massive offshore drilling lease in the Gulf of Mexico, attempting to ban new drilling leases on federal lands and making it harder for utilities to gain approval for natural gas projects.

The actions of the Biden administration in the area of energy policy show a total lack of concern for the well being of the American people. A continuation of these policies will eventually wipe out the middle class in America. This may in fact be the goal of the Biden administration.

More Questions Than Answers

The war in Ukraine is horrible. Innocent civilians are the victims in any war. However, I am still struggling to figure out exactly what is happening here. Why are some of our political leaders trying so hard to get America involved? Does anyone actually believe that sending American troops to Ukraine would be a good idea? Why did Putin invade Ukraine? Is Putin really the mad brute the media is making him out to be–targeting civilians, etc.? I don’t know, but there are occasionally articles that make me wonder if we are being led down the garden path.

On Monday, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

Again, it must consistently be repeated – trust nothing from western or Russian state media about the issues in the Ukraine conflict. Everyone is shaping the war narrative to fit their agenda. Question everything you see and hear, wait to get the fulsome picture, and eventually the truth will surface.

An example today follows a U.S. and Western media claim that Russia arbitrarily targeted a shopping center in the capital city of Kyiv (Kiev). According to the narrative, this is an example of Russian military brutality and arbitrary shelling of civilians.

The article notes that the attack took place in the late-night-early-morning hours when the shopping center was closed to customers. So what is going on? The article posted a few pictures that explain a lot.

Here are some of the pictures:

Putting military equipment in civilian areas is not a new tactic. It does, however, result in the destruction of civilian areas. Someone much smarter than I once said, “The first casualty of war is truth.” We need to remember this as we view the reporting of the war in Ukraine.

Are We Really Sure Who The Good Guys Are?

Regarding the war in Ukraine–we know Putin is a bad guy, but what about Zelensky?

On Sunday, Breitbart reported the following:

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the banning of Ukraine’s main opposition party and ten others as part of an anti-Russian crackdown.

The Opposition Platform — For Life, Left Opposition, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialist Party of Ukraine, Socialists, Union of Left Forces, Party of Shariy, Opposition Bloc, Ours, State, and Volodymyr Saldo Bloc have all been banned by decree amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine for at least “the period of the martial law.”

The foremost victim of the crackdown is the Opposition Platform — For Life, which as of the 2019 general election was the second most popular political party in Ukraine after Zelensky’s own Servant of the People party — named after the television show of the same name which starred Zelensky as an ordinary man who became President, shot to fame by a channel run by the controversial Ukrainian-Israeli oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.

This doesn’t sound like someone who supports freedom and democracy.

The article continues:

“Therefore, the National Security and Defence Council decided, given the full-scale war waged by Russia and the political ties that a number of political structures have with this state, to suspend any activities of a number of political parties during martial law,” the statement continued.

All of the parties banned in the country — which has previously been described as “democratic” by U.S. President Joe Biden — have been considered Eurosceptic, anti-liberal, or pro-Russian by the Zelensky government, according to Der Spiegel.

…Western nations have also targeted Russia-linked media since Vladimir Putin escalated hostilities in Donbas into full-scale war, with both the European Union and United Kingdom taking measures to ban the distribution of content produced by Russian state-owned broadcaster RT, for example.

Meanwhile, Russia has experienced its own, even harsher crackdown on those voicing opposition to the war, with thousands reportedly being arrested by the country’s police for protesting against the conflict and people spreading what the state deems “fake” information threatened with significant prison sentences.

“The screws are being fully tightened,” said one human rights NGO active in the country. “Essentially, we are witnessing military censorship”

Something seems a little off here.