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calling Potatus a 'wartime president

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Originally posted by tiwimon:

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Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
You think Putin is insane? Oh no, he's far from it. He's a calculated, patient, goal specific, effective leader. The West has become utterly impotent and puerile. Putin on the other hand is decidedly none of those things. He may be a thug. He may be a murderer and a mobster. He may be a dictator. But unlike the leaders in the West, Putin is a serious person.

I got roasted saying nearly the same thing with a group of coworkers just a couple days ago - and I will add Putin is very intelligent and saavy on a level ANY other current western leaders will ever be capable of.

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Now the question is how well the Ukrainians will hold up under the assault. That will determine if this will be a short or a long war.

To speculate more than that right now would be silly – there simply is not enough in open source to get a firm picture.

There are a few things I am willing to put on the table this AM.

1. The remaining delusions about the post-Cold War security arrangements in Europe should be firmly buried. History is back and she has her Festivus pole front and center. She has some issues with us, and we’re going to hear about it.

2. NATO has a German problem. While all the “right people” will not shut up about how wonderful former Chancellor Angela Merkle was, people need to be very clear eyed about what a complete disaster she and the German political class have been over the last two decades. They have starved what should be continental European NATO’s most potent military into irrelevance. Her disastrous feel-good, ethno-masochistic immigration policy weakened European cohesion and fed the worst parts of European political subcultures. Yes, she made a lot of well meaning Germans feel good about themselves, but it was a sugar-high that rotted the teeth and poisoned the national metabolism. While willing to defend Europe to the last Pole and Germany to the last American, she decided to preen in her neo-pagan EuroGreen superiority onomastic politics by ditching clean nuclear power and through the complete corruption of her elite, shacked herself to Russian energy oligarchs and thus the Kremlin. Germany needs to fix herself, and NATO needs to work around her and punish her until she starts to behave like a constructive 21st Century security partner.

3. As our friend Jerry Hendrix pointed out yesterday, the moral leaders in NATO right now are the Baltic Republics and I would add Visegrad nations. You can throw Romania in there too. France will go hot and cold as she fights her desire to do the right thing for European security while at the same time nurse her 1,000 year old drive to be the premier leader of Western Europe. Serious but weaker nations will lean on a reluctant USA and limited United Kingdom … simply because - to be frank - much of the rest of the alliance is not that capable.

4. In line with #1 above, it is time for Finland at least, and probably Sweden, to join NATO. They both have a long and bloody history with the Russians and should see clearly what time it is.

5. Ukraine waited too long to rearm. Weakened and distracted by a corrupt elite, the good parts of her nation could not get ready fast enough. After the first Russo-Ukraine war of 2014 she should have modeled the armed neutrality of Switzerland with a civilian populace trained and armed to the teeth. As we’ve discussed here before with the former Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact nations, every village needs a few ATGM militia teams trained to slow any advance through their patch of land. If Ukraine can, in whole or part, survive without vassalhood, perhaps they could get there. They can only get there if they build a nation people are willing to fight and die for.

6. Remember, the Russians hold the Presidency of the UN Security Council. The UN is a joke. OSCE is a joke. The EU is little more than a nest of rent-seeking, clock-watching grift-fest. NATO is, well, dysfunctional but better than nothing. Nations must take ownership of their own security. Yes, Taiwan and Japan I am talking to you. Study history. Be ready.

7. Is everyone clear what Russia is now? She has a small GDP and apocalyptic demographics, but she is taking what she has and is invading her neighbors, killing people, and taking land. If your nation, company, or neighbor is buying anything from them – they are paying for this military adventurism. If the press wants to do its job, start pulling that string.

Well, that’s my quicklook this AM during my 10am coffee break – now I’ve got to get back to the paying gig.

Pray for the Ukrainians. Pray that nothing stupid happens that makes this a wider war.

Remember – weakness encourages aggression.

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Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
You think Putin is insane? Oh no, he's far from it. He's a calculated, patient, goal specific, effective leader. The West has become utterly impotent and puerile. Putin on the other hand is decidedly none of those things. He may be a thug. He may be a murderer and a mobster. He may be a dictator. But unlike the leaders in the West, Putin is a serious person.

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Originally posted by Skull Leader:
I just look back on the history of the past 80 years and can't help but think what bullshit we could have avoided if we had just turned the German Army around and pushed on to Moscow like Patton had wanted to do.

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We promised the Europeans freedom. It would be worse than dishonorable not to see that they have it.

This might mean war with the Russians, but what of it? They have no air force, and their gasoline and ammunition supplies are low. I've seen their miserable supply trains; mostly wagons drawn by beaten up old horses or oxen.

I'll say this; the Third Army alone and with damned few casualties, could lick what is left of the Russians in six weeks.

You mark my words. Don't ever forget them. Someday we will have to fight them and it will take six years and cost us six million lives.


As quoted in The Unknown Patton (1983) by Charles M. Province, p. 100

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Originally posted by Gustofer:

Cyberwar is real, the Russians are good at it, and we are woefully unprepared to defend against it. They could very easily bring us to our knees without firing a shot. Then? All bets are off.

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How'd impeaching Trump work out, Zelensky?

As air raid sirens fill the air of Kyiv and Russian trucks head for Donbas, Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, is crying like a little girl over NATO's refusal to protect him and his country.

He attended the annual meeting of the Munich Security Conference and insulted the people he wants as allies.
He demanded, "What are you waiting for?"

I laugh at him. Who made the United States his servant? Why should our soldiers spill their blood for him? Who is he?

Ukraine may be a small country of 41 million people. (Make that 39 million now that Russia has officially recognized two county-sized regions as breakaway countries.) But Ukraine leads the league in corruption, doesn't it?

Two years ago, President Donald John Trump asked him to investigate Biden and his crackhead son for corruption.

Instead, Zelensky let Congress impeach Trump without protest.

And now Zelensky wants our help?

OK. We'll send Hunter Biden. Just tell him there's a ton of crack inside each tank and he will Rambo his way to Moscow.

Two years ago, Zelensky was a mouthy little man in an interview with Time magazine and three European news outlets.

Time reported, "The president explained that, despite getting caught up in the impeachment inquiry now unfolding in Washington, D.C., Ukraine still needs the support of the United States.

"Otherwise his country does not stand much of a chance, Zelensky said, in its effort to get back the territory Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, starting with the Crimean Peninsula. Nor can Ukraine rely on steady financial support from abroad if President Donald Trump and his allies continue to signal to the world that Ukraine is corrupt, Zelensky said. 'When America says, for instance, that Ukraine is a corrupt country, that is the hardest of signals.'"

Boo hoo hoo.

OK, we will stop calling Ukraine a corruptistan, while we watch Putin devour Kyiv and the rest of the totally-not-corrupt country.

I do feel for Ukraine. 6 million people starved to death in the Homodor in which Stalin deliberately cut off the nation's food supply. People cannibalized their babies.

But we have a border crisis of our own.

The shade Zelensky cast two years ago carries a price. Trump supporters are staying on the sidelines this time.

What did he say?

Time reported, "During the interview in his office in Kyiv, the comedian-turned-president denied, as he has done in the past, that he and Trump ever discussed a decision to withhold American aid to Ukraine for nearly two months in the context of a quid pro quo involving political favors, which are now at the center of the impeachment inquiry in Congress.

"But he also pushed back on Trump’s recent claims about corruption in Ukraine, and questioned the fairness of Trump’s decision to freeze American aid. 'If you’re our strategic partner, then you can’t go blocking anything for us,' he said. 'I think that’s just about fairness. It’s not about a quid pro quo.'"

Trump by the way knew nothing about the delay in releasing the funds. Zelensky knew that. He was playing politics.

Zelensky was oddly silent about Biden bragging to the Council for Foreign Relations nearly two years earlier about withholding aid to Ukraine unless it fired the prosecutor who was investigating the company that paid off his son.

Now Biden is president and Putin is rolling in and no one will stop him because Donald Trump is gone.

Zelensky wanted Trump out. OK, Trump's out. Enjoy Biden.

And by Biden, I mean Putin because Donald Trump was the only one stopping him from taking over Ukraine.

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Originally posted by SIGnified:
My god that was pathetic… That idiot couldn’t manage his way out of a wet paper bag.

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Originally posted by oddball:
Wonder how the stock market will open tomorrow.