President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Monday, arriving in Ukraine’s capital in a show of support for the war-torn nation and statement of defiance ahead of the one-year anniversary of the war Russia launched.
Biden arrived at 8 a.m. local time and the presidential motorcade drove to Mariinsky Palace, where he was met by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife. “Thank you for coming,” Zelenskyy said. Biden asked about the Ukrainian leader’s kids and then said that the purpose of his visit was to signal the United States was “not leaving” Kyiv during the conflict. “I thought it was critical that there not be any doubt, none whatsoever, about U.S. support for Ukraine in the war,” Biden said during a joint address with Zelenskyy.
The shock appearance happened under immense secrecy, with Biden taking off from Joint Andrews Base at 4:15 am local time. U.S. officials had expressed concerns that Biden couldn’t fly into Ukraine or take a ten-hour train ride without immense risk to the host nation or himself. Ensuring the president’s safety was a near-impossible endeavor, those officials said, though they acknowledged Biden had long wanted to go Kyiv.
But now Biden is in Kyiv for an eighth time, flanked this visit by a handful of staffers, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “Each time more significant,” Biden said.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/20/biden-ukraine-traveling-00083597
Comment: So the President apparently flew into Kyiv directly from Andrews AFB on Air Force One… pretty ballsy for an old man.
TTG
Hopefully this time it won’t be a ‘shake down’ of government officials. Gutsy trip alright for if the worst happened, then the worst will happen…’Heels Up Harris’ flounces into the WH.
You can say that again. “Trump” and “Truman” both begin with T R U M. We were spared, however, the disaster that HST unleashed on the two Japanese ports. But Kamala may be the real deal. She, like Harry, has H A R R in her name, but if she becomes president she will be, like Harry Truman, a VP who became President during, quite possibly, a major war. Her first name isn’t quite an anagram for Amalek, but it’s darn close. The first President Harrison, 9th directly before Tyler, died after 9 days in office. The second President Harrison I know nothing about.
Quite a few “H a r r” occurences in American history. How does “Harold” become “Harry?” I don’t know. “Harlequin” comes to mind – Hell Queen. Is Harold Har Old? Is Har = Gar or guerre (h and g often switch)? Also don’t know.
Sorry, Harrison the first served 32 days in office.
I am no fan of two fingers joey and his socialist party but give credit where its due. Yes, pretty ballsy for an old man. BTW, four days to “step off” for the ’23 renewal of the Russian invasion. What’s the scoop troop?
Does it count as a surprise if Sullivan sent “Don’t shoot” message to Moscow ahead of the visit?
Young,
This has been in the planning for weeks. I bet Putin had an inkling Biden was going to show up in Kyiv or Lviv one way or another, but I think it was a prudent move to warn Moscow. Don’t want to make them too nervous.
Don’t you think it was wise to let the bad guys know Biden was going to be in the neighborhood so as not to do anything provocative on that day. It seems like a no brainer to me.
Biden managed to get a cease fire for a photo op. Imagine How many lives could be saved if he had something besides reelection in mind.
How many lives could be saved if Putin ended his genocidal war against Ukraine?
You are suffering from a severe case of Biden Derangement Syndrome.
Genocide! Right, Putin is killing Ukrainians enmasse as policy. You should read Harper’s response to my question on his post, where apparently the Biden administration is proposing the same deal that could have been had a year and 100,000 casualties ago. Strange you haven’t commented on that yet.
What a welcome change to see our president standing for freedom in contrast to the orange old man serving as war criminal Putin’s lapdog.
It’s safe now, all the refugees can go home now. The US border is still too dangerous for him to visit. So is that town in Ohio. “Biden Balls” the new standard in courage. Like campaign circles, only bluer.
Biden took a train from Poland. Sullivan contacted the Russians to let them know about the visit and avoid uncomfortable escalation. These facts are in all the news stories.
Frankie P,
Yup. He took the train, ten hours in and ten hours out. He must have been in heaven.
I hope he had a chance to catch a couple of zzzs in and out.
Bill Roche,
I’m sure he did. It looked like a normal European rail car with compartments. I’ve spent a lot of comfortable nights on those trains all over Europe.
Coming home from a 6 mo. TDY in Helsinki I took a train, I think, to Stockholm, then a train/ferry to Copenhagen, and onto Fkt. Clean and efficient as can be. Months later I got a week off and took a train (deliberately circuitous) to Barcelona Spain. The further south the more ahemm, aromatic the ride. I too slept through much.
Frankie,
He had to get permission from Putin to visit Kiev? I wonder when he’s taking Norfolk-Southern to East Palestine Ohio?
Fred,
Why do you think it was permission? The White House informed Moscow of Biden’s travel a few hours before he departed DC on a C-32 rather than Air Force One. I also doubt he’d take a freight train to East Palestine. Maybe Amtrak passes through, although there are more recent scenes of deadly disasters and shootings he may visit first.
You’re a bitter man, Fred, a bitter, bitter man.
TTG,
Biden is in Kiev promoting a war while our own citizens are getting the shaft from his malfeasance. We are, via our proxies, killing russians by the thousands. which certainly fills some people with satisfaction. I look forward to hearing when Joe is going to Ohio or spending a fraction of the money on cleaning up the mess and assigning a fraction of the DOJ to go after NS executives for that tradgedy.
Fred,
The EPA and DOT were in East Palestine since the first day. The CDC is deploying a team of medical personnel and toxicologists to conduct public health testing and assessments working in the state established on-site clinic. FEMA reversed its decision is is now sending a team. This is all in support of state agencies. The EPA and NTSB is digging into Norfolk Southern’s shit. I don’t know if that is more or less than the feds do for other storm, fire, flood or other major disasters.
TTG,
FEMA reversed its decision only after Trump said he would be there this week. The CDC is only now deploying testing and toxicology teams? My, this is after I was told the EPA had monitoring teams already in place.
This post derailment toxic circus was caused by the digging of an open air trench, dumping multiple tank cars full of chemicals into it, and setting it on fire – two days after the derailment. That being allegedly needed due to a fire under the rail cars themselve that might set off an explosion. If they could dump it into a ditch they could have pumped it right out into waiting tank cars and driven elsewhere for disposal, leaving only the soil in the ditch contaminated. now it has flowed downstream at past multiple citie’s municiple water treatment plants. We have more ‘news’ coverage of Joe and Z’s love fest in Kiev than of an ongoing bureaucratic made disaster in our own country. The credibility of the Federal and State government declines by the hour. That of the press is non-existent.
Of course the locals are not brave Ukrainians fighting the invading Russians, thus they are not newsworthy. They are deplorables from flyover country that neither Biden, nor GOPe, nor any of the other elites of the Republic give a damn about. Thus the Biden administration shows his concern by providing them with the ‘white trash’ treatment. Meanwhile he is off on a glory seeking photo-op (with fake air raid alarm) trip in Kiev. Meanwhile the Chinese, who just teabagged America with a balloon fly by (“much ado about Something”) that was so meaningless it had to be shot down after it had completed its mission (and a trio of other balloons too, Chinese or not, shot down days later), are being warned not to aid Russia by Secretary of State’s veiled threats. I’m sure they are quaking in their boots.
Fred,
The EPA deals with soil, air and water contamination. The CDC deals with human toxic exposure. They’re two separate, but interconnected, fields with separate sets of specialists.
I do think your idea of pumping off the toxic chemicals into tanker trucks would have been better if it was possible. But the fire was never really under control and was far larger than fires under a few tank cars.
https://www.wfmj.com/clip/15372928/drone-aerials-show-extent-of-east-palestine-derailment-fire
The reason given for burning off the toxins was to avoid a massive explosion and the spreading of those toxins over a wide area. Burning toxins makes for ugly videos, but perhaps burnt toxins are less dangerous and persistent than toxins spread over a wide area by an explosion.
If they could dump it into a ditch they could have pumped it right out into waiting tank cars and driven elsewhere for disposal, leaving only the soil in the ditch contaminated.
Fred, you wrote that before. In spite of this huge disaster the tracks were and are still intact/undamaged/usable? … ? … ?
As would have been done under Trump?
*******
No one here, maybe Robert slightly, seems to be suffering from the stolen election quite as you do. Maybe the not present anymore Larry C. Johnson too?
TTG,
Your news story is from the 4th, before the decisions were made and provides no details on what was fueling the fire nor explanation of why standard methods for fighting such fires to prevent a bleve were not used by the “uncounted” fire engines from three states. If you can dig a trench around the chemical tanker cars you can do the same thing to remove the fuel source from the fire.
LeaNder, you should ask Norfolk Southern the status of their rail line.
Fred,
Yes, that video is from the 4th. It showed the extent of the fire the morning after the derailment. How they managed to drill holes in one or more tank cars in that conflagration is beyond me. Maybe a robot. Maybe the same for the trench.
TTG: “Why do you think it was permission?”
A thought experiment: Sullivan rings the Russians to inform them that in a few hours time Biden will depart DC on C-32, destination Kyiv.
The Russians respond with “How odd, we are planning to launch a missile barrage into Kyiv at precisely that moment. We wish him good luck.”
If that was the message do you think Biden would have continued that trip?
Yes? Or No?
Yeah, Right
“Permission”
To a point it doesn’t matter, but we had the Russians tacit permission. Moscow could have advised against it, but didn’t. They have no reason to stop the visit. It wouldn’t serve a purpose.
– Eliot
I’ll repeat my question: if the Russians had responded to Sullivan’s pro-forma phone call by saying that they will not suspend their missile attacks then would Biden’s trip have gone ahead?
Yes? Or No?
If the answer is “No” then in what way is that trip not subject to Russia’s permission?
If the answer is “Yes” then in what way is that trip anything other than foolhardy and irresponsible to a breathtaking degree?
Finally some good sense on the Ukraine boondoggle:
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-zelenskyy-instrument-total-destuction
Tucker Carlson makes some stunningly good points.
E.g. when he quotes a question asked by Donald Trump:
A question many Ukraine supporters don’t seem to want to address.
Keith Harbaugh,
Carlson vastly overstates the trade ties between China and Russia. Trade between those two are in the billions. Trade between China and the West is in the trillions. That’s the whole point of the Belt-Road Initiative. China will make a cold, strategic choice.
“China will make a cold, strategic choice.”
I’m quite certain that you are correct in that statement.
After all, they know that if Russia is broken apart then they are next.
Not meaning to be rude, but not all “strategic choices” are calculated in $$$$$
China is making nice with Kazakhstan right now big time. With Putin bogged down in Ukraine, this would be a good time and Mr. Smiley knows it.
And would the Chinese be doing that because Chinese/Kazakhstan trade is in the $trillions while Chinese/Russian trade is in the mere $billions?
If so then your point of order supports TTG’s thesis: states make their “cold, strategic choices” based on what brings in the most money.
If not then your point of order supports my thesis : states don’t necessarily look at the trade balance sheet when making their “cold, strategic choices”.
So, basically, thank you for your support.
Yeah, Right,
It make perfectly good sense for China to pull Kazakhstan and other ‘stans into her sphere of influence. The energy resources alone would be worth the effort.It would also enhance and secure part of their Belt-Road Initiative. They probably figure they could pull that off without doing something as stupid as a military invasion.
I’m seeing a lot of supposition there, TTG.
What if the Chinese decide that staying sweet with all the counties in that region is better for their national security than doing a bit of snatch-n-grab just because they can?
Yeah, Right,
I specifically said China could do this “without doing something as stupid as a military invasion.” China is fully capable of using diplomatic, economic and informational tools to bring the ‘stans into her sphere, especially with a weakened Russia.
Yeah, TTG, I fully understand the concept of a superpower “color-revolutioning” smaller states.
I’ve seen that movie before, just never with the main cast being oriental.
Lot’s of projection taking place in this thread.
Yeah, Right,
It’s hardly projection. Think of Tibet. That was a heavy handed invasion and occupation. They’re not quite as heavy handed in the South China Sea. In the ‘stans, as in Africa, they’re much better at the whole IW game.
“Think of Tibet. That was a heavy handed invasion and occupation.”
Pardon me? Tibet was a Chinese province.
It was a REBELLIOUS Chinese province, sure.
It was a Chinese province that refused to recognize the authority of the central government, sure.
But it was a Chinese province nonetheless.
When a central government reasserts its authority over a rebellious province is that an “invasion”? Is that an “occupation”?
I’d say “no, times two”,
It is what it is: a purely internal security issue for the Chinese state.
Nothing more. No less.
Honestly, you have some funny ideas.
Yeah, Right,
Tibet was an independent country when it was invaded, occupied and annexed by the PRC in 1950. China’s claim that Tibet was always part of China and remain so is no more, or less, legitimate than the PRC claim on Taiwan.
“It’s hardly projection.”
Yes, it is.
You are not talking about a situation where Kazakhstan slides up next to China in some sleezy nightclub, slips a note with a phone number on it, and silently mouths the words “ring me, big boy” as it licks its lips and wriggles its hips.
This is a situation where you admit that Kazakhstan is a client state of Russia, and propose that when China senses a moment of weakness it will attempt to snatch that client state out from under Russia’s influence.
Now, I ask you, does that sound familiar?
Because it is very familiar: the USA has been doing this for decades, and it goes by the name of “color-revolution”. It ain’t pretty, and it ain’t without bloodshed.
I…. honestly…. why are you even attempting to pretend otherwise?
You and I both know that this is exactly what the USA does, and you insult both our intelligence when you pretend otherwise.
Yeah, Right,
China’s approach to extending influence and power projection is different from ours. Their method is almost purely based on economic diplomacy as in Africa. Ours is centered around ideological diplomacy, the spreading of democracy with economic and military measures supporting that central idea. Both approaches are homegrown and sinister in their own ways.
Xi announced the Silk Road BRI in Kazakhstan. I think it is through this project that China will extend her influence in Kazakhstan and it will eclipse Russia’s influence.
@TTG
“Ours is centered around ideological diplomacy, the spreading of democracy with economic and military measures supporting that central idea.”
Tsk! tsk! tsk! Still abusing the “strong stuff”.
How was ideological diplomacy used in Iraq, Afghanistan, Stria, Libya, Somalia?
jld,
The whole point of those extended interventions was nation building, to create little democracies that would forever be grateful to us for the resulting freedom and prosperity. That was our foolish delusion.
That was our foolish delusion.
Yes, I vididly recall. Your wife had to lock you in, to prevent you from embarking for Libya after watching how badly the revolutionaries handled their guns. 😉
How are they doing now?
“Ours is centered around ideological diplomacy, the spreading of democracy with economic and military measures supporting that central idea”
War is a racket, TTG. You and I and the Ghost of Smedley all know that.
The idea that “our” way of enticing someone else’s client state into becoming a client state of the USA is via being sugar and spice and all things nice is….. well…. let’s just say I don’t think much of that argument.
If Russia falls apart, China knows they pretty much inherit Siberia – an area they’ve felt was rightfully theirs ever since they were forced to leave as a result of the Amur Annexatioin of 1858-1860. They would be quite fine with that outcome, and it might occupy them to their north and give a few decades of breathing room for Taiwan, Vietnam, and all their designs on the South China Sea (OK, more properly the East Sea).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amur_Annexation
CIA needs to re-coup this country. The 2014 one was a valiant effort but unfortunately it was not build to last this long.
Babeltuap,
And yet Ukraine stands against the might of Russia.
Fred,
Yes, genocide. Putin is deliberately targeting schools, hospitals and innocent civilians. He could end death and suffering anytime by stopping his genocidal war against the people of Ukraine.
David,
Time to declare war, just like I said repeatedly. BTW what’s the genocide count sitting at? I’d like to pass that along to my member of congress. Care to comment on Harper’s story about the Biden Administration proposing a deal equal to the 2022 agreement Boris Johnson managed to have voided?
Fred,
The Russian abduction of Ukrainian children is a textbook crime of genocide. The number abducted is upwards of 300,000. Russian officials openly bragged about the abductions. This was a common practice of Moscow no matter what regime was in power. The current drive began back in 2014 when Russia began abducting Ukrainian children from the Donbas.
TTG,
The Russians were abducting Ukrainian children during the last two years of the Obama-Biden administration and neither one of them made any comments about “genocide”? All those kids being dead, right? Or did the definition, like that of the word vaccine, get changed recently? And of course during the administration of Trump…… (None of that is to be conflated with what cartels are doing South of our own border, those individuals not being ‘genocided’, though maybe “human trafficked”.)
“The Yale team says it has verified at least 6,000 Ukrainian children detained by the Russian government…”
394,000 more to verify.
https://www.npr.org/2023/02/14/1156500561/russia-ukraine-children-deportation-possible-war-crime-report
I wonder why ‘genocide’ doesn’t appear in that article? Nor in this Nesweek article that says 14,000 which is also not 400,000 like the Ukrainians are saying. (Not to be confused with the 8,000,000 refugees now being fully integrated into the booming EU economy.)
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-identify-nearly-14000-children-abducted-deported-russia-1774522
That still leaves a disparity of close to 386,000; and not a mention of genocide; and less than 500 of those individuals listed as dead. I wonder why Biden did not mention all that genocide in his public comments in Ukraine and Poland, though he said it a year ago?Regardless, the Ukrainians are quoted as saying that is the number of dead children and thus it must be true. Call up the guard, start the draft, declare war. On to Moscow! I’m sure we can get NATO to do the same, for the children.
Oh, as a complete side note, this NGO (which is on the first page of google results under “How many children have gone missing in Ukraine” that conveniently gets suggested with the term ‘Russian abduction of Ukrainian children’. Somehow they went from 150 missing in 2015 to 400,000 dead in 2023. That should have been the lead story for years. But…..
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/ukraine-missing-children/reports/#menu
Fred,
Abducted does not mean killed. The children are taken, re-educated, reclassified as Russian citizens and often placed with Russian families. The forced transfer of children, with the intention of destroying a national group, is an act of genocide under international law and the Geneva Conventions. Sure some are legitimate orphans, but in that case, they must be repatriated back to their home country. Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, has openly touted this official Russian program. These are the numbers Russia admits to.
“August 16th. INTERFAX.RU – More than 3.4 million people, including almost 556,000 children, have been evacuated to Russia from the places of hostilities in Ukraine and the Donbass, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center (NTsUO) of the Russian Federation, said.
https://www.interfax.ru/world/856947
TTG,
Thanks for the article in Russian from 2022. “The number of people evacuated to Russia from Ukraine and Donbass exceeded 3.4 million people”
Where are all the artilces from May, through December of 2022 where this GENOCIDE is being called out by Biden, Macron, or any other NATO member?
“France’s Macron defends not using ‘genocide’ to describe Russian war crimes in Ukraine”
whoops. Never mind.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/france-s-macron-defends-not-using-genocide-to-describe-russian-war-crimes-in-ukraine/2564064
(And to think I was just in Paris this past November but no one was saying much about ‘genocide’ or even Ukraine, but they were mighty upset about fuel prices and unemployment.)
Of course India….
“Ukraine: Why India is not criticising Russia over invasion”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-60552273
It looks like it took a whole long time for anyone to start using that term again. Do you have any such article to point to, or only that one paragraph one in Russian?
Regardless of the past non-reports, Congress should declare war. They can explain why that is essential every day. The press, except Fox, is with them. Well, except for stories about Genocide in Ukraine.
Fred,
Why the reticence on calling on calling this genocide? I think it’s the same reason for only slowly providing more effective military support to Ukraine. The West is fearful of Putin’s reaction. What will he do in reaction to the introduction of ATACMS and F-16s? What will he do as the acknowledgement of ongoing genocide gets louder?
Here’s a few articles on Russia and genocide. Genocide requires proving intent. Seems many are catching on to the refrains of “Ukraine is not a real country” and “country 404” coming from Moscow and Moscow apologists. It’s getting harder to ignore.
https://www.csce.gov/international-impact/press-and-media/press-releases/helsinki-commission-briefing-russias-genocide
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/3859439-a-year-on-we-have-clear-evidence-of-genocide-in-ukraine/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/russia-reeducation-camps-ukrainian-children
https://www.manchin.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/manchin-capito-introduce-bipartisan-resolution-recognizing-russian-war-in-ukraine-as-genocide
TTG,
You will have to ask the President of France why he is reticent. Ditto the leaders of India, Italy, Germany, Guatamala, Haiti, Nigeria, etc. It has been many months and tens of thousands of casualties and yet there is no call for proceding into Russian territory to get all those children back to the Donbass and Lushank and the rest of Ukraine. Or even returned to their parents; or is group identity what we are now committed to defend? Not families?
What happened to the millions of parents involved in this genocide? Where are they and who on the “Helsinky Commission” managed to get into Russia to interview any of them? They did manage that, didn’t they?
I applaud the Senate for a resolution. It sure doesn’t read like a list of war mongering neocons, which is a vast relief. Will they be asking their counterparts in the House for a Declaration of War – to end the genocide, or does a strongly worded resolution do that? Will the Professor with tenure at Rutgers be asking his students to sign up to end the genocide? Maybe the same for the professors at Yale and Johns Hopkins with the appointments to the US Government Agency “The Helsinki Commission” that put out a policy piece in November? (I distinctly recall asking a bunch of Bush supporting Republicans the same thing about Iraq, and Obama supporters, when it was obvious that the latter wasn’t leaving there. Needless to say……)
Fred,
“What happened to the millions of parents involved in this genocide?”
It wouldn’t be millions, just tens or hundred of thousands. They were killed, imprisoned or the term heard often among my family “sent to Siberia.”
We’re clearly not ready to declare war on Russia to stop genocide, other war crimes or a war of aggression. We’re also not ready to commit our troops to defend Ukraine on Ukrainian soil with or witrhout the war declaration. Any defeat of Russia in Ukraine will most likely leave Russia intact and Putin in charge. The chance of ever bringing anyone in for war crimes is pretty slim.
TTG,
We are NOT going to go to war to stop genocide? But it can happen here! The expert on the Helsinky Commission said so. If we aren’t willing to engage in actual war, and Putin is going to be in charge even if defeated, how many more men need to die to satisfy the blood-lust of those pushing the war?
I have some bad news for you, Fred. We’re not declaring war with China over their mistreatment of the Uyghurs, either. Why this sudden desire to declare war? Did you get struck by lightning over the weekend? Or is just the manifestation of “an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato?”
TTG,
Still avoiding answering direct questions? I was not struck by lightning nor suffering from Marley’s partner’s troubles. I just read your post and Biden’s speeches and boy did they convince me. Now you burst my bubble of anti-genocidism like a cheap Chinese weather balloon.
Fred,
I answered your question up this comment thread. I’ll repeat it for you.
“We’re clearly not ready to declare war on Russia to stop genocide, other war crimes or a war of aggression. We’re also not ready to commit our troops to defend Ukraine on Ukrainian soil with or witrhout the war declaration. Any defeat of Russia in Ukraine will most likely leave Russia intact and Putin in charge. The chance of ever bringing anyone in for war crimes is pretty slim.”
That’s reality as I see it. We are not going to right every wrong in the world. What are we willing to do? Keep a coalition together willing to pay the price to support Ukraine’s battle against an invading, atrocity committing Russian Army until all of Ukraine is free from those invaders. We’re not seeking regime change in Moscow or the break up of Russia. It’s up to the Russian people to decide that.
TTG,
“We’re not seeking regime change in Moscow or the break up of Russia. It’s up to the Russian people to decide that.”
We are getting thousands of Ukrainians butchered in a war of attrition with the Russians which the Ukrainians can not win. Germany will not pay, France will no pay, Italy will not pay, Norway will not pay, but we will, to ‘keep the coalition together’. Thanks for that clarity. I sure don’t remember Biden or anyone else campaigning on paying Europes bills in the midterms, but I’m sure it will be a winning message in 2024.
Fred,
I see you still believe in Russian invincibility. Ukrainians are fighting for Ukraine. They and the rest of the world see what Russians do on Ukrainian land they occupy, murder, torture, pillaging and kidnapping. Yes we pay to help Ukraine. So does the rest of that coalition including France, Germany, Italy, Norway and others. There’s a lot of European weaponry in Ukraine along with ours and more coming. That’s what this coalition is doing, sacrificing together for a greater good.
There were very few Republicans or Democrats campaigning on abandoning Ukraine and NATO in 2022. I doubt there will be many more doing so in 2024.
TTG,
Oh hogwash. I still believe it is corrupt and we’ve had neocons involved in it since the 90’s. The same swamp people that supported two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan support this war too? I am shocked, just schocked to hear that. Unlike the left’s view of genders, there are only two choices in foregin policy, “pro-Putin” or “pro-Ukraine”. It’s great discredit, disqualify rhetoric. It is bad policy making though.
TTG: “A ballsy move.”
———-
No. It wasn’t. “A ballsy” move would be parachuting onto the Maidan Square of Kiev (with some of Victoria Nuland’s cookies).
A ballsier move would have been parachuting onto Red Square in downtown Mosow.
Ballsiest of all would have been to parachute directly into the Kremlin compound. He could have asked Secretary Lloyd Austin for permission to borrow Superboy the caped Bisexual superhero from the LGBTQ+ Pentagon’s Officers in “Dress Uniform” pool. (Their motto is – “Ready to fight tonight, in drag preferably.” ) With the assistance of Superboy the caped Bisexual Superhero he could have been delivered directly – without parachute.
Ultrastylishly postmodern Ballsiness, possibly of the six, seven or eight balls per participant variety, (or one huge bowling-ball sized testicle in place of the conventional two), would have seen President Joe Biden dressed up in a creature from the dark lagoon synthetic rubber pullover lizard mask dropped into Red Square while simultaneously, several of the secret forces of the new diversity LBGTQ+ Corps dropped from the skies and impaled themselves each on a sharp pointed spire of one of the Kremlin towers, while broadcasted from blaring loudspeakers was heard (with simultaneous sign language for the hearing impaired flashed on enormous flat screen digital TV screens in English and Russian) “President Joe Biden, with the helpful assistance of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, has hereby provided us with our long sought gender modification procedures, at no tax payer expense!” Later the cunning of our forces would have been widely acclaimed when it became known that sanctions had prevented the RF intelligence services from installing trampolines? No. Other devices atop the spires that I am too polite to mention.
You are aging before my eyes, TTG, and become an old man. You are comparitively a paleolithic retired Army intelligence officer of the Cold War version 1.0 Two Testicle per soldier non-hybrid wars era. And if we survive, the fate of now unseen Don Lemon may await you sooner than you expect. “Ballsy?” How about “Titsy” or “Clitsy?” Thankfully, I have graciously come to the rescue.
F&L,
When the original report of Biden flying directly into Kyiv on AF1 came out, I thought it was extraordinarily ballsy. The later revealed truth of a ten hour train ride was still pretty damned ballsy in my opinion. As was he and Z continuing to stride through the square when the air raid sirens blew. Of course the stiff legged old coot couldn’t have sprinted to a shelter if he wanted to.
Speaking of ballsy, for the longest time I dreamt of driving an explosive laden, flaming T-64 full tilt across Red Square and taking out the Lenin Mausoleum and a wall of the Kremlin in a massive fireball. This would have been my last act in a war to defeat the USSR and free the Baltic nations and the rest of Eastern Europe. I’ve calmed down in my old age.
Well, thank goodness you didn’t drive your blazing tank into the Lenin tomb. It would have been an utter waste of your life, and a loss of a father, son, husband etc, and you know better than I that the act, if successful would have stood no more chance of toppling the gigantic Soviet Union than would a successful attack on the Washington monument or Lincoln memorial have overthrown the United States of America. In fact the Soviets dismantled it themselves, or more properly, their elites did.
I don’t personally cotton too much to the stories that organized religions tell about their founders, but the story of Christ is certainly a powerful, hugely inspiring story, which I have enjoyed revisiting throughout my life. Sacrifice. Maybe that was a factor in determining your aspiration. But Christ did not found the Christian religion or its first Church. That was done, as a worldly person might necessarily expect it could only be, not by Jesus Christ, but by a man almost his diametrical opposite – Saint Paul – a man of fierce violence, a bloody persecutor of early Christians who experienced his vision of Christ on the road to Damascus. It could happen to you, who knows? Saint Paul, whoever he was, and whatever his true story, was certainly no ordinary individual. Not if he founded the Church, that is certain.
I wonder what would have happened if Saddam or Gaddafi would have travelled somewhere warning the queen of chaos in advance. And that’s the big difference between shock and awe and we will fight like real men do. So congratulations to Potus, he asked permission, it was granted. Oh, wait a minute, Soleimani was on a diplomatic mission, that did not help.
Motagua,
We informed Moscow of Biden’s pending arrival in Kyiv. Moscow informed us of their impending launch test of the new Satan-2 ICBM. In both cases, it was not asking permission. It was deconfliction to prevent something stupid from happening. But I agree. Killing Soleimani was a nasty piece of work and a horrible precedent.
That was Trump’s “tough on crime” gambit.
It seems more than a little likely that our govt. would consider it good press to depict Biden’s Kiev junket as a bold move where he bravely put his life on the line to go there and buck up Zelensky. But at the same time it seems very unlikely that he would have taken that trip without some back door agreement with Russia for it to provide a “professional courtesy” by agreeing to stand down for the time it took Biden’s “sealed train” to make the round trip. The Russians had nothing to gain by waxing Biden while he was in Kiev and it would have made fertile ground for western propaganda.
Besides, why interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake?
What mistake was Joey Two Fingers making by visiting Zelinskyy?