In general, these days – and long before Putin invaded Ukraine – I have been opposed to alliances and supra-national organizations (NATO and UN, eg). They tend to hamstring national policy and, especially as they’ve been construed after WWII, they are usually a one-way street: we take on an unlimited obligation to defend other nations without reciprocity. We can see what that has got us: weak “allies” in Europe and around the world. We are committed to the defense of nation after nation and they are not committed to rise to our defense. So, on the whole, I would end all alliances and withdraw from all international organizations.
But if we are to retain them, then they have to be iron-clad and reciprocal. If we’re going to rush to Poland to defend them from Russia, then I want the Poles to send an army to help us fight China. Any such alliance should really be spelled out: how much GDP is spent on defense, what sort of military force each party is to maintain as a bare minimum and plans already made for deployment anywhere around the world as circumstances warrant.
Furthermore, if we go to war with any nation, then I want us to impose the full financial cost of the war on them after they are defeated. No more free rides: no more forcing us to go to war and then after putting us through death and destruction, we rebuild them. No: they can rebuild themselves while also shelling out 10% of their annual GDP to us for 50 years after the war.
Aside: I’m tired of the American Empire.
As for Ukraine: the Russians seem to still be grinding ahead with some big gains in the south and nearly none in the north. I think the Russians took too big a bite of the apple: going after geographic locations rather than seeking to destroy Ukrainian military power. But I suspect there’s a reason for this: Putin wants the Ukraine physically intact as far as possible. A great deal of Ukraine’s military force is concentrated in point defense of major cities: to quickly destroy this military power would have taken massive, destructive bombardment of the cities. This is cruel, but clever tactics on the part of the Ukrainians – they are essentially using their civil population as a human shield, knowing that any civilian killed by Russia will be written down as a war crime, thus increasing sympathy for Ukraine internationally. But I suspect we are getting close to the end: the increasingly shrill calls for a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine (which would amount to a de-facto declaration of war by NATO against Russia) indicates that the Russians do have air supremacy and the Ukrainians are simply being ground down by superior weight – unless the pressure can be removed, it is only a matter of time.
On the other hand, some are saying that Russia is running out of first-rate material. Not so sure about that: and in second-rate material, Russia is well supplied – but that second-rate stuff is old style artillery, the use of which would cause immense destruction and loss of life. Meanwhile, there is some growing domestic opposition in Russia. Putin better wrap this thing up pretty quick. I don’t think his power is at risk, but the longer the war drags on, the more difficult it will be for him.
What has astounded me is the number of voices on the Right who are taking Ukrainian propaganda at face value. All of a sudden, they’re quoting MSM sources as if they are reliable. I think this is psychological for some of them: being overtly pro-Ukrainian provides distance from the allegedly pro-Russia Trump and supporters (a ridiculous view, but it exists out there). In short, it allows these people to make friends with their Progressives pals again. There is one thing which can save the Democrat’s political bacon in November: the GOP signing on to a Biden war for Ukraine. I think some on the right are willing just that: they fear the sort of GOP which is likely to emerge after the mid-terms…far more Trumpist, far more America-First, far more conservative (they despise GOP moves to enact pro-life and ant-CRT laws at the State level). They hate people like Greene and Boebert; and they can see in the GOP candidates more and more like them. And they hate them because the more we get people like that, the more the GOP will be forced to enact laws the GOP base wants. A war with Russia may deflect or at least delay that.
The joke of the week is that Putin is going to get the Nobel Prize for medicine for having cured Covid. Its like it dropped off a cliff, isn’t it? People were asking where the ubiquitous Fauci had got to and one guy looked it up: basically reduced to appearances on public access cable. The (political) Science has spoken: Covid is political death for Democrats and so we won’t be hearing much about it. At least, not right now: if Ukraine folds in the next week to ten days, they might have to bring it back to distract us from rising prices. We’re up a bit more than 20 cents a gallon for gas in the past week while oil and food staples climb to near-record highs.
In the world of unintended consequences: people around the world are looking about for alternatives to financial securities which can be frozen or seized. You know: like the Russian assets have been. A lot of people thought it cool the way Apple Pay was shutdown for Russians with a flip of the switch at Apple…but a lot of us were like, “WTF – they can freeze me out of my money if they decide they don’t like me”. America is kept going financially by people buying our bonds…and they will keep doing that, at least for now. But if you’re a foreign government or rich guy, do you want your money tied up in an asset that the United States can destroy at a whim? If the world does stop buying our bonds, then we’re financially ruined. And I mean completely. It would make the Great Depression look like a minor correction: one of the strength of Rule of Law societies is the security of wealth under it…that no matter what happens, your property is safe unless you actually break the laws of your host nation (or the host nation of your assets). Now, its funny to watch them seize yachts of Russian oligarchs…but where was the law in that? Some decree of some official. No court. No charges. No conviction: just stroke of the pen, your property is gone.
And that brings me to a point I’ve made recently and for years: national wealth is not dollars. It is what you make, mine and grow. Russia doesn’t just provide us oil, but also fertilizers and other crucial materials. Of course, a huge amount of our manufactured goods come from overseas. Suppose these people decide not to take our dollars in payment? What do we have then? We don’t even seem to make basic things like screwdrivers and scissors any longer.
Gold standard, guys: we have to get back on the gold standard. If our money is backed by gold, everyone on God’s green Earth will accept it no matter how much they hate us. And we must go back to Protection. No more of this “free trade” chimera…massive tariffs to force a rebirth of American farming, manufacturing and mining.
Blogs For Victory 
Aside: I’m tired of the American Empire.
ME TOO !!! In fact I am tired of every “empire”. Man is really an unimpressive species and the bigger the ego they have, the more unimpressive they are. There is more than enough room on this planet for all of us to have a good life. Plenty of land and minerals to accommodate all of us if we would all just learn to love what we have, rather than what we don’t. There is no need for expansionism particularly when men can’t even properly manage what they currently have. Putin would be far more successful in listening to, and caring for his citizens rather than bombing foreigners into submission, but that is unfortunately an unsavory part of human nature that has played out throughout history.
Re: The American Empire, I have always wondered why we thought we were so perfect that we had to promote our way of life throughout the globe. Really? What possibly would make us think that people in other countries would just welcome us? That requires a huge ego, and again whenever the ego is involved, problems follow. The American experiment is messy, often chaotic, and requires a high level of personal responsibility but I wouldn’t have it any other way. To many other people though, that is not the life they would choose and unfortunately that population also includes many “Americans” right now.
I implore all men and women in the world to stay within your borders and appreciate what God has given you rather than lust over what you don’t have. If everyone would just take care of their immediate family and improve their own neighborhoods, just think how great this planet could be.
On another note, I want to let all black and brown Americans know that if you don’t fully embrace all the white refugees from Ukraine, you’re a racist.
Democrats are starting to sound a lot like Trump:
Biden announces ‘Made in America’ plan to boost domestic products and make sure taxpayer dollars are spent US products amid mounting criticism over refusing to ban Russian oil imports
American Conservatives are also at war, we just haven’t engaged yet but we need to real soon:
“Should the constitution be thrown out?”
“It’s certainly not sacred. Let’s start there. The Constitution is kind of trash,” Mystal responded. Mystal argued the document that created the most prosperous country in human history was “trash” because “it was written by slavers and colonists and white people who were willing to make deals with slavers and colonists.”
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/nicholas-fondacaro/2022/03/04/view-cheers-extremist-guest-declares-constitution-trash
Mystal is more than a “staunch racist” he is a staunch Communist. And BTW he is also profoundly stupid. He repeats his whine that our Constitution was written by “colonists”. The man is so bone-deep stupid he doesn’t even realize that until we had a Constitution, which means we had a nation, every person here was a “colonist”. As for complaining about the Constitution being written by “white men” at that time nearly every educated and literate person on the continent was white.
I’d love to ask him just how well treated and respected women were back in Africa, and how educated the people were and capable of even considering, much less writing, a constitution. If it was so much better there, why didn’t they write their own, better, constitution, and lift themselves out of tribal savagery to create a nation taking advantage of the vast natural wealth of their land?
While “white men” were crafting the most brilliant and durable form of government in the history of civilization on this continent, Mystal’s ancestors were still enslaving each other, preying on each other and committing genocide when conquering neighboring villages, living in filth and squalor and often eating each other—and aside from the cannibalism they often still are.
Funny how a guest on The View advocating the overthrow of the Constitution isn’t accused of inciting subversion, sedition or insurrection.
I was just reading a Brad Thor book that touched on the violence and chaos of Africa and thought, not for the first time, that we on the Right are completely missing the chance to advocate for our form of government—as it was written, if not as it is practiced.
Look at Africa, and look at Mexico—both are very large and in terms of natural resources every bit as rich as North America, if not more so. So what is the reason for Africa never even achieving a decent basic standard of living in which people even have enough to eat, while in the United States even “the poor” usually have air conditioning and cars and smart phones and often multiple televisions? What is the reason millions of Mexicans risk their lives to try to come to the United States, when their own nation is so rich in oil, gold, diamonds, fertile soil and a warm climate?
The answer to both is government, and the definition of “government” in the United States is our Constitution.
“WTF – they can freeze me out of my money if they decide they don’t like me”.
Which is exactly like what just happened in Canada, and cheered by the American Left. What was the “crime” being punished? Opposition to government control over citizens.
This is just around the corner here in the United States if we don’t nip it in the bud.
I have previously written about the lurch to the radical Left by the U.S Forest Service, but this is extreme even for them, as it is a tacit admission to making decisions based on unexamined claims by a radical “environmentalist” group, the “Center for Biological Diversity”. This group claimed that feral cattle were “destroying” streams and the Forest Service obediently sent in “sharpshooters” to gun down the cattle from helicopters. The photos of the carnage are sickening.
The 65 head of cattle shot from a helicopter in New Mexico appear to have been gunned down by the U.S. Forest Service under pressure from the Center for Biological Diversity, with whom the agency reached a settlement agreement.
An August 2021 lawsuit filed by the CBD against the United States Forest Service sought to end grazing on federal lands, claiming that cattle grazing in the area has led to the stream-side meadows and riparian areas being “trashed” and alleged that the USFS violated various provisions of the Endangered Species Act through their administration of livestock grazing on grazing allotments within the Upper Gila River watershed on the Apache-Sitgreaves and Gila National Forests.
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Prior to the aerial gunning, during a phone conference between USFS and various cattle industry groups, USFS was asked how they determined that cattle were solely responsible for alleged damage to riparian areas versus elk or other wildlife. USFS told the callers they did not know that and were relying on photos provided to them by the CBD to determine if damage exists and the source of the damage.
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The photos include three bulls laying dead in a class 1 stream, a violation of both state and federal laws. A class 1 stream is determined by the USFS as one that provides quality habitat for fish.
Although during the court proceedings, the USFS assured Federal District Judge James O. Browning in Albuquerque that “the sharpshooter would be precise so the cattle wouldn’t suffer,” there is one mature bull with a broken leg that appears to have been shot in two, in addition to live calves that appear to be orphaned. The cattle photographed, according to the source, were shot multiple times in the head with a .308, an AR-10, and through the ribs with a rifle slug.
BTW, the streams appear to be in good condition.
Video footage, according to the source, shows the habitat along the river that is in very good condition with willows and “stirrup-high” grasses. The river crossings are in good condition as well. The fences, some around the riparian habitat of the mouse, had multiple holes cut with large sections laying on the ground, which the source said is likely attributed to the large elk herds in the area, hunters and other recreationalists. The video also includes documentation of trash left behind by recreational users.
“Whether it’s elk or livestock, the habitat is not being destroyed,” the source said. “Secondly, what destruction that is there is being perpetrated by recreationalists. With the fence destroyed in places, you can’t keep cattle off the river, which is supposed to be happening.”
We have, in the past few years, out here in the West seen example after example of the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service acting like hired thugs and impinging on the rights of citizens. It’s time for these rogue agencies to be reined in, dramatically pruned of their Leftist management and returned to their actual charters. We’ve seen ranchers targeted and one even killed in disputes over grazing rights when the BLM went into authoritarian mode.
This senseless slaughter and torture of innocent animals should result in criminal charges being filed.
And maybe it’s time for war between some radical Leftist groups. Time for PETA to take on the CBD.
Remember when President Trump moved the Bureau of Land Management to Grand Junction, Colorado, because it made sense to have the agency closer to the land it administers?
I am fairly confident that if the Forest Service, which is administered by the Department of Agriculture, were based out West this kind of bending the knee to Leftist activist groups would not happen. Trump moved Ag to Missouri—-not sure if Biden dragged it back into the Beltway Swamp but even so it needed to go farther west.
The charter of the National Forest created it to (1) provide an ongoing source of lumber for the nation, (2) to protect the national watersheds and (3) to provide places for recreation. Nowhere in the charter, or subsequent regulations, is there mention of handing over decision-making to activist groups.
Center for Biologic Diversity
OUR MISSION: SAVING LIFE ON EARTH
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
Yet they demanded gunning down cattle, providing false information to the acquiescent Forest Service to back this up—so much for “saving life on earth”.
What do they promote in this alleged crusade to save the earth? Among some hot-button topics to appeal to the bleeding hearts, including a few legitimate concerns, we find pet Leftist agendas
Tell Congress to Support Healthy, Climate-Friendly School Food
It’s Time to Ban Oil and Gas Leasing in the United States
Promote Reproductive Freedom Worldwide
Northern Rockies Wolves Still Need Your Help
Seriously: It’s Time to Declare a Climate Emergency
This is the kind of activist group now calling the shots for at least one federal agency.
Really good article by Dr. Robert Malone, about what passes for “journalism” these days.
Under the influence of large “grants” (I think they would more appropriately be called “strategic investments”), many journalism schools have taken to teaching “advocacy journalism.” Which is basically a fancy term for propaganda. Apparently news media now hire journalists specifically to report with skewed biases on topics of interest to these corporations (or governments), often with corporate sponsorship. Let that sink in for a moment. The advocacy journalists are often paid by an outside organization with an agenda. So let’s figure this out what exactly is going on, starting by defining terms. The definition of advocacy journalism from Meridian Webster is:
“journalism that advocates a cause or expresses a viewpoint”.
To me, that sounds like how one might define propaganda. So, am I wrong? The definition of “propaganda” (Meridian Webster ) is:
the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person
ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause
wikipedia has an actual admission of this, with a defense of it:
Classic tenets of journalism call for objectivity and neutrality. These are antiquated principles no longer universally observed…. We must absolutely not feel bound by them. If we are ever to create meaningful change, advocacy journalism will be the single most crucial element to enable the necessary organizing. It is therefore very important that we learn how to be successful advocacy journalists. For many, this will require a different way of identifying and pursuing goals.
For those of us convinced that our most dangerous enemy is Agenda Media, this is a valuable article.
A good accompaniment to the Malone article, by Jonathan Turley:
Why Have Advocacy Journalism When You Can Just Have Advocacy?
It was perhaps inevitable that the embrace of advocacy journalism (and rejection of objectivity in journalism) would eventually dispense with the pretense of the journalism part.
Advocacy journalism began in earnest in 2008 with the campaign of Barack Hussien Obama, the One who could never be criticized.
Stefan Oelrich, a member of the Board of Management of Bayer and head of the Pharmaceuticals Division, gave a speech at the World Health Summit focused on biotechnological innovation. He said his company is “really taking that leap … in cell and gene therapy.”
“Ultimately, the mRNA vaccines are an example for that cell and gene therapy,” Oelrich said at the event’s opening in Berlin.
“I always like to say, if we had surveyed two years ago in the public—‘would you be willing to take gene or cell therapy and inject it into your body?’—we probably would have had a 95 percent refusal rate,” he added.
The pandemic has given the pharmaceutical industry innovation opportunities that may have not been possible before, Oelrich said.
This has, of course, created wholly predictable panic among the “scientists” desperate to convince us that the drugs being pushed on us are really innocuous and benign “vaccines” that won’t/don’t/can’t affect our DNA in any way.
Their response? That these comments are “taken out of context”. The government and vaccine makers deny the claim that the mRNA vaccine is a gene or cell therapy and say there is no risk of the vaccines integrating with our DNA or entering the cell’s nucleus that houses our DNA.
Yet a Swedish study—conducted outside a living organism, or in vitro—has shown that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine can enter human liver cells and convert the mRNA to spike DNA within six hours. In addition, these spike DNA were found in the nucleus. More studies are needed to examine whether the spike DNA integrates into our genome.
More studies are needed to examine whether the spike DNA integrates into our genome
Gee, wouldn’t you think that would have been a really important study to do before demanding that people put this into their bodies? And why is it being denied if they still don’t know?
I predict that history, if accurately portrayed, is going to find that the period in the United States between 2016 and 2023 represents the wildest and most bizarre and blatant attacks on the American people in history, all of it funded by and/or imposed by the United States government and some of its agencies as well as by the direction and oversight of two presidents—Obama and Biden.
In Russia:
Lawmakers passed amendments to the criminal code making the spread of “fake” information an offence punishable with fines or jail terms.
This is exactly what American Leftists want to do here.
A coincidence? I think not.
A jokester on Twitter put up a screenshot of that report and then, a couple hours later, the report of CNN pulling out of Russia.
And think about that: CNN broadcast Saddamite propaganda to retain “access” but they won’t do the same for Russia.
Former Vice President Mike Pence probably figures that if he is not the early front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, he is certainly in the hunt and probably makes the top five list of contenders.
What’s he smokin’? We’ve got the top two contenders proving that they have, (ahem) significant manly parts, and Pontius Pilate Pence thinks he is in the running? For what? “First to hide under the couch”?
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, on Friday, introduced a comprehensive energy independence bill, which will undoubtedly lead the Democrat Party to pretend to lose its collective “climate change” minds over the mere thought of American energy independence.
It’s got some good stuff in it. It:
Prohibits the president from unilaterally enacting leasing bans on federal lands.
Eliminates the presidential permit requirement for cross-border energy projects.
Mandates the onshore and offshore oil, gas, wind, solar, and geothermal lease sales which have been “paused” since January 2021.
Reduces foreign dependence on critical minerals by expanding access and streamlining permitting.
Expedites permitting and adds certainty to the scope of environmental review.
What it doesn’t have is easing of permitting of building new refineries.
It’s a good companion to this: NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would eliminate a national mandate requiring oil refiners to blend corn-based ethanol into their fuel mix – a proposal that would slam corn growers and is likely to face vehement opposition from the farm lobby.
Here’s yet another example of the impending collapse of the worlds society:
At least 22 people were brutally injured – two of them seriously – after a football match descended into carnage in central Mexico yesterday. Unconfirmed reports are circulating that up to 17 people could have died in the game between the host Queretaro and Atlas from Guadalajara – the reigning league champion. The match was suspended in the 62nd minute when multiple fights suddenly broke out in the stands – with men seen tearing off the jerseys of their rivals.
WTF is wrong with people?? At the risk of nuclear war, how long will the civilized world watch Russia systematically kill innocent people? And even more disturbing, Americans broadcast the war like it’s a mini series.
Cartels butchering people, enslaving people, Russians carpet bombing innocent civilians and good men around the world are silent and inactive. We had better step up soon.
Every single American media company violated their Constitutional responsibilities by complying to governments demands and being rewarded financially. Complete breach of trust.
In response to a FOIA request filed by TheBlaze, HHS revealed that it purchased advertising from major news networks including ABC, CBS, and NBC, as well as cable TV news stations Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, legacy media publications including the New York Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post, digital media companies like BuzzFeed News and Newsmax, and hundreds of local newspapers and TV stations. These outlets were collectively responsible for publishing countless articles and video segments regarding the vaccine that were nearly uniformly positive about the vaccine in terms of both its efficacy and safety.
No American media outlet can be completely trusted – so view accordingly
https://emeralddb3.substack.com/p/fox-news-and-newsmax-took-biden-money?s=r
I suspect the mindset of all the media outlets that took HHS money to push the vaccines were either ignorant (intentionally or unintentionally) of the dangers of the vaccines or they figured there was safety in numbers, ie., the more people that are complicit in an act of evil, the more difficult it is to prosecute them.
And from the YCMTSU file; MSNBC this morning is lamenting the fact that Russian citizens are subjected to government propaganda and not getting the “full truth” of the invasion.
Yeah they actually said that. Their self awareness is off just a bit.
That really is funny, coming from the premier propaganda-monger in the United States
They’re going broke and are casting about for any revenue stream they can find – so, yes, the MSM is now entirely bought. I mean, it wasn’t like there was a glorious past where it wasn’t bought to one degree or another, but now it is completely bought. The most extreme example is the Never Trump people who are now taking positions 180 from what they took 2015 and earlier; because their Progressive paymasters demand it.
…taking positions 180 from what they took 2015 and earlier;…
That’s because those “positions” were not based on coherent political philosophy, but were merely Identity Politics labeled with Rs instead of Ds. We saw that when Colin Powell turned his back on conservative governance to latch onto Obama’s coattails because of skin color.
They are so blind to their own spinelessness that they describe allegiance to objective principles of governance as just the other side of the coin of their own motivations, and assume it is nothing more than blind allegiance to a man—Donald Trump—-and not to the principles of Constitutional government.
Well said
Certainly this can be seen as an indictment of the American press, but I think the most sinister thing about it is the proof that our own government has been so actively working, in so many arenas, against the well-being and even survival of Americans.
Our own government has been paying media outlets to issue propaganda encouraging citizens, by lying to them, to subject themselves to potentially dangerous, even lethal, experimental drugs while at the same time providing legal cover for the companies the same government is paying to produce these experimental drugs, by acting to protect them from legal liability. That doesn’t even get to the government using coercion ranging from intimidation to stripping professional licenses, or its out-and-out banning of drugs that compete with the pharmaceutical companies they are colluding with as they funnel billions of dollars to them. Or the collusion of government and Big Tech in silencing the people trying to educate or warn the people about these dangers, or alternatives.
The word “shameful” doesn’t even BEGIN to approach describing this reprehensible behavior. It is not an abandonment of the purpose and responsibility of government, it is a distortion of it so profoundly evil it defies description. How many people have died due to the government/media interference in promoting the use of valuable life-saving therapeutics? How many people have died due to taking these potentially dangerous drugs, and how many more have been permanently damaged or disabled because of them? (The answer to the latter won’t be known for decades, as health problems develop as the result of the impact of these drugs.) What is the level of damage to the nation, to our human capital, due to loss of productivity or a weakened military? What is the damage to the world?
AND THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING. THEY WERE AWARE AND COMPLICIT. For every one who claims ignorance, naivete, gullibility, there are more who callously promoted this attack on not just our nation but on the world.
Brad Thor wrote a book in which the selected demographic was to be given what was essentially a vaccine against a deadly pathogen which was then to be released upon the world. What we have seen our government do is a version of that—the release of a non-lethal pathogen with a nearly 100% survival rate followed by a fear campaign to get as many millions, tens of millions, of people to voluntarily subject themselves to the real danger.
So how many national leaders have been in on this, and how many just followed the lead of the country that has been acknowledged as a, of not the, leader of the world? I feel pretty comfortable in thinking Justin Dildeau is complicit. This may all shake out eventually. I kind of wish I were young enough to expect to see it happen.
The only person I can think of who has the personality and boldness to step up and talk about this now is Donald Trump, but sadly he is the prisoner of his own ego and to do so would be to step on what he still thinks is his crowning achievement, the development of this “vaccine”.
It is not an abandonment of the purpose and responsibility of government, it is a distortion of it so profoundly evil it defies description.
Even better said