The war in Ukraine keeps chugging along. It looks like the Wagner Group is no longer a factor there, but the Ukrainians are running out of ammo and that brings up a very touchy problem. It seems we are also short of ammo because of the volume that we are sending Ukraine. What we do have, are plenty of cluster bombs, a weapon banned by most of our allies because of their danger to civilian populations. Zelensky wants them anyhow. Should we give them to him? I say yes. The Russians will do more damage to the civilian population than any bombs the Ukrainian soldiers may use. The deal is to win the war.
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The NATO members said at their meeting this week, they will not, at this time, open their doors to Ukraine. This position is mirrored by large numbers of Republicans whining about spending too much money to help Ukraine, and Donald Trump, the obvious leader of their party, wanting to snuggle up with Putin.
The NATO people are slowing the roll because of a couple of phony reasons like Ukraine has to adjust their financial rules and some of their political structures. There is, however, one very real reason to hold off on admissions now. If NATO admits Ukraine now, while they are at war with Russia, according to its own charter, NATO will have to declare all-out war on Russia, and they are just not ready to do that.
*****
While he was President, Donald Trump investigated the idea of using the IRS to harass and investigate the FBI because he thought the Feds were coming after him for his alliances with Putin. He never bothered to find out if his actions were illegal, they were. Being the egomaniac he is, it never occurred to him that he couldn’t just do anything he wanted.
John Kelly, Trump’s Chief of Staff has testified that Trump asked why two FBI agents who were looking into Trump’s affiliations with Russia could not be investigated by IRS. This is just another example of Trump’s inability to see a world where he couldn’t do anything he pleased, and where his wanting to do something made it okay for him even if it was illegal for everyone else.
A law was passed just after the Nixon fiasco, in which congress made it illegal for a President to “directly or indirectly,” order an IRS investigation or audit. The question in this case is, whether Trump actually ordered such an investigation, “directly or indirectly.” Will this be a new avenue on which Jake Smith will drive another truckload of indictments? Will we be seeing a whole new criminal process in the near future? Will Trump’s backers ever get enough evidence that their boy us nothing but a common criminal?
*****
The American public stumbles and sputters along, refusing to acknowledge the accomplishments of the best President we have had since FDR, while the rest of the world sees clearly that we are fortunate enough to have such a man lead us. Last week Erdogan of Turkey accepted the offered security guarantees for his country. He stepped aside and paved the way for Swedish entry to NATO. This closes the loop on the northern group of countries including Latvia, Finland and now Sweden, who will create for NATO an entire northern security border against Russian incursion. How did this happen? It seems that once again, Biden’s entry into the negotiations were the motivating force.
Richard Haas, probably the most knowledgeable of American foreign policy commentators, makes this abundantly clear in his comments about the situation. Biden gets shit done. That’s the bottom line, and the GOP is too stupid to understand this. Almost single handedly he put NATO back together after the stupid bumbling Trump almost tore it apart. Along with NATO, which is now stronger than ever, Biden has put together an alliance of southeast Asian nations including Japan, India, Australia, and Indonesia to stand against Chinese incursions into the territory of other nations around the South China Sea. This was done after Trump got the Chinese so bent out of shape that they started pushing everybody in the area. Biden had to pick up the pieces of Trump’s blunders and organize a sort of Mini Asian NATO to deal with all the small problems that naturally escaped Trump but could lead to bigger ones.
*****
Just 500 days ago, Vladimir Putin looked like one of the great Russian strongmen of all time. Now 500 days into the “Great Russian Blunder,” he looks like a fool who has revealed his nation to be a paper tiger, a stumbling giant that lacks military efficiency, financial stability, and international stature. Now Putin will go down in Russian history as an incompetent fool who led his nation over the cliff and onto the rocks below.
Russia is still one of the huge national land masses with enormous natural resources, but it is just a stumbling giant in the way it operates. Its military, outside of its nuclear capabilities has been revealed as a joke, failing in direction because it is being led by men who have no ability to plan or lead. It has been kicked around by an undermanned, underequipped Ukrainian army that is almost entirely without air support. Its only developed financial resource is oil, which has been reduced in importance by Europe’s refusal to buy it from them. Right now, Russia’s main market is China, and the Chinese are not loath to use this as a bargaining tool.
The reality is, Putin has to find a way out of this dilemma and fast. His problem is, it has to look like a win, or he will be looking at an assassin’s bullet. That is, after all, the way they do politics in Russia. Prigozhin showed that Putin is vulnerable. Now Putin has to demonstrate that he is above vulnerability and still in charge. Closing down the war, while showing the Russian people that he has come away with a win is essential. But how the hell does he do that? Zelensky sees that he is backing Putin into a corner, and he is not going to let Putin close down the war without getting back all of the Donbas and Crimea. That would be a deal killer or maybe a dictator killer for the Russian people.
*****
James Comer, one of the pathetic miscreants that the GOP has elected to congress, is currently wasting his time, and that of congress in a futile pursuit of Hunter Biden for anything he has ever done or ever will do in his pretty much wasted lifetime.
I am obviously no fan of Hunter. He has been nothing but an impediment to his father’s work. But he is neither an elected official nor an appointed member of government so, unless he is actually committing a crime, I feel that these publicity seeking hacks should get out of the Hunter hunting business and try to do something, anything, to earn their salaries.
Comer’s hero is a supposed whistleblower and career criminal named Gal Luft, who is currently a fugitive from Federal law enforcement on charges ranging from illegal arms dealing with Libya, to spying for the Chinese government. He was recently arrested in Cyprus for brokering an illegal arms deal.
So, Mr. Comer’s star is actually a bottom feeding crook who will say anything to escape the charges against him. Exactly the kind of support the GOP has for all their hair-brained schemes.