Tag Archives: Schumer

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Schumer the hypocrite

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This post would actually be funny if it weren’t true with just about all politicians across the board. It is amazing how something a politician says or writes can come back and hit them square in the nose, and that happens all the time with this POS and his cohorts in crime. Slimeball Chuckie Schumer’s letter to Clinton about his impeachment in 1999 is not aging well. He held different beliefs about impeachment of a president when it was a Democrat on trial. If you read this letter not knowing who wrote it, these arguments would easily apply to President Trump’s impeachment trial.

Here is the whole letter from Senator Schumer via the Town Hall: (Emphasis theirs)

Statement for the Record of Senator Charles E. Schumer
The Trial of the President
February 11, 1999

Mr. President, this is a day of solemnity and awe. I rise humbled that we are participating in a process that was mapped out more than 200 years ago by the Founding Fathers and that the words we say today will be looked upon by historians and future Congresses for guidance. That is quite a responsibility.

I began this process in the House where it degenerated quickly into bitter acrimony. I would like to say to Majority Leader [Trent] Lott and Minority Leader [Tom] Daschle, and to my new colleagues who have wrestled with this case, that I deeply appreciate your fairness and patience and the way this has been handled with such dignity in the Senate.

Growing up, our country and its government seemed like a mighty oak — strong, rooted, permanent, and grand.

It has shaken me that we stand at the brink of removing a President — not because of a popular groundswell to remove him and not because of the magnitude of the wrongs he’s committed — but because conditions in late 20th century America has made it possible for a small group of people who hate Bill Clinton and hate his policies to very cleverly and very doggedly exploit the institutions of freedom that we hold dear and almost succeed in undoing him.

Most troubling to me are the conditions that allowed this to happen, than the small group who precipitated them.

The small group is not the House Managers or particular officeholders of the Republican party.

It is the small group of lawyers and zealots who decided that they would invest time and money to exploit a personal weakness that people knew the President had, find a case to air it publicly, investigate the President’s private life to the point of obsession, and use it to bring him down.

So they found Paula Jones. And whether she was truly wronged or not, we all knew it was a politically motivated case. The people who financed it had no interest in helping Paula Jones. They never lifted a finger to fight for civil rights or for strong sexual harassment laws. It was opportunism pure and simple.

What is so profoundly disturbing is not that this small group of Clinton-haters hatched this plan. It’s that this group — or any group equally dogmatic and cunning — came so close to succeeding.

If you had asked me one year ago if people like this with such obvious political motives could use our courts, play the media and tantalize the legislative branch to achieve their ends of bringing down the President, I would have said “not a chance — that doesn’t happen in America.”

But it almost happened. And in the future it could be a left wing zealous organization or another right wing group or some other group with strong narrow beliefs.

We’ve got to understand how we’ve reached the point where any small group could have so much power.

Of course, mechanically, we can point to a myriad of bad decisions that brought us to the brink.

In all due respect Mr. Chief Justice, the Supreme Court allowed the Paula Jones suit to go forward arguing that it would not lead to politically motivated cases against future presidents and that the case was unlikely to occupy a substantial amount of the President’s time. What a miscalculation. The next President, even if he or she is a saint, will be sued 25 times if we don’t change the law.

Judge Webber Wright ruled that the Jones attorneys were entitled to depose any state or federal employee with whom the President may have had sexual relations. That’s a fishing license.

Ken Starr, the Independent Counsel, was chosen despite a known and documented bias against the President. He behaved like a special prosecutor; not the even-handed, down-the-middle counsel the law required.

But there is something deeper and more troubling at work than the individual mistakes and decisions by the courts and the personal behavior of the President and the Independent Counsel.

What Bill Clinton did was wrong and arrogant — we all agree. We are all angered.

But let’s express some sympathy.

Bill Clinton is an extraordinary but flawed individual. But so are many other revered leaders, including other presidents. And when we knew about their flaws or suspected as much, we didn’t make that a cause celebre — not because we condoned whatever character flaw they might possess, but because we realize that none of us are superhuman.

We are all flawed. “Let him without sin cast the first stone” is no more a cliche today than it was almost 2,000 years ago.

This democracy would not exist if only the perfect among us were allowed to contribute.

Put yourself, put any of us in Bill Clinton’s position — where your enemy is trying to expose your most embarrassing private flaw. Where they find a way to use the most public venue to humiliate you. Where they put you in front of a civil court of law in what seems to you to be a bogus, politically motivated case that should have never seen the light of day.

How would you react? Would you do what Bill Clinton did by trying to walk up to the line of perjury without crossing it? What would be going through your mind? Would you be thinking about the humiliation? Your family? The ridicule?

Bill Clinton really believes that he went up to that line and didn’t cross it. Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.

It’s a little arrogant on our part to think any one of us could be so certain that if we saw the very real possibility that everything we loved in our lives — and I don’t mean our jobs — but everything we really cherish to the core, burst into supernova on network television, that we wouldn’t consider trying to walk the same line Bill Clinton walked.

There are many of us in politics and many in the media who carry on and opine as if we and they are perfect.

We’re not.

Maybe we’re seeking an impossible duality. We demand, as we should, that our elected leaders be held to the highest standard. And then we shine the brightest light imaginable to expose those who don’t measure up.

But, of course, no one can meet that standard, particularly under the blinding bright glare of late 20th century light.

There is a fundamental question our society must address — how do we keep our standards high but at the same time accept, as the Founding Fathers did, that our leaders are only human.

Related to this is a second underlying cause that has allowed this small group of zealots to almost undo the President.

It seems we have lost the ability to forcefully advocate for our position without trying to criminalize or at least dishonor our adversaries — often over matters having nothing to do with the public trust. And it is hurting the country; it is marginalizing and polarizing the Congress.

In today’s environment, it would be easy, but wrong, for Democrats to lay the blame for this predicament simply on a narrow band of right-wing zealots out to destroy Bill Clinton.

It would be easy, but wrong, for Republicans to say that the only reason Bill Clinton survived this scandal is a strong economy.

What began 25 years ago with Watergate as a solemn and necessary process to force a President to adhere to the rule of law, has grown beyond our control so that now we are routinely using criminal accusations and scandal to win the political battles and ideological differences we cannot settle at the ballot box.

Both parties are to blame.

In what was close to a mirror image of this case — John Tower was a tremendous senator and was perfectly capable of serving our nation as Defense Secretary. He was ruined in a political feeding frenzy that was meant to shame him.

Newt Gingrich came to power by destroying others. He was destroyed by the same means.

The ledger is pretty much even between the two parties, but it has become more partisan and bitter. It is reminiscent of the Oresteia, a trilogy of ancient Greek plays by Aeschylus.

In the Oresteia, the warring factions of the House of Atreus trapped themselves in an escalating chain of revenge such that at the end of the chain, Atreus served his brother a pie that contained his own brother’s murdered children. Each side escalated until both sides were destroyed.
We risk our Congress becoming a House of Atreus.

In conclusion, we have all been shaken by these last six months, but there are two glowing beacons of optimism — two strong oaks that still stand mightily.

The first is the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. Every year I live, and every year I serve I am ever increasingly amazed at their wisdom and genius.
They didn’t know there would be political parties, but a simple mathematical fraction — two-thirds — a two-thirds majority in the “cooling saucer of the Senate” meant that removal of a President from office would have to involve more than the whims of a narrow band of politicians.

We walked up to the abyss and it was simply the elegant mathematics of the Founding Fathers that kept us from going over.

They have pulled America back from the brink of future chaos that might have occurred if we removed the President for human frailties and low crimes. God bless the Founding Fathers.

The second oak is the American people. They are not necessarily as informed as we are on the intricate particularities of this case. They didn’t follow every twist and turn. They knew that what the President did was wrong.

But they knew that the President’s wrongdoing reflected human frailty rather than malevolence or any abuse of power or duty. They knew from their common sense wisdom that this did not rise to the level of impeachment and removal either as defined by the Constitution or as defined by their common sense of justice, fairness, and right and wrong. They knew that if they were in Clinton’s shoes, they weren’t sure how they would react.
Many of my colleagues excoriate any mention of the polls. But my colleagues on this side of the aisle have cited the polls not as politicians putting their fingers in the wind, but as a measure of what the American people feel.

In the eyes of the Founding Fathers, that is a legitimate consideration in deciding whether a President should be removed. And for six months, the American people in every segment of the country have been unwavering in their view that the President should not be removed.

They remain unshakable in their belief that the Congress, the Courts, and the press had gone too far. They were the only, truly rational actor in the whole drama. God bless them.

The people and the founders are the twin oaks that stand tall amidst this sad episode of American history. But if the cycle of political recrimination and scandalizing continues, the American people will become more alienated and cynical and shaken by the political process and they, too, will lose faith in the great instrument the Founding Fathers have given us.

If it gets to the point where the American people become too cynical we could lose it all.

After this is over let’s end the recriminations. Let’s not blame Ken Starr, or bash the President, or scapegoat the House Managers. Let’s instead think about what brought us to this point.

Let us shake hands and say we are now going to forego bringing down people for political gain. Let us understand that our leaders have foibles, and though we must be held to a higher standard, let us not make it a sport to expose those weaknesses.

The American people have saved us from ourselves. Let’s not ask them to do it too many more times.

Originally posted 2020-01-22 14:08:58.

Recent Posts

Fascism – Which party supports it?

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An excellent article by a dear friend and brother Marine (retired). “HB”, goes by Mustang. I’m sure most of you know the term, but for those who do not, it is a title earned by an Officer of Marines who came up from the enlisted ranks. HB is a true Mustang in all respects!

September 30, 2019 — Bunkerville

By: Mustang

America’s political left continually refer to conservatives as “fascists.”  Is this true?  Hardly —and here’s why.  We must begin with an understanding of what fascism really means, who started it, and what was that person’s overlying political philosophy.

We know, for example, that the father of capitalism was Adam Smith (1723-1790), a Scottish philosopher and a key figure in the Scottish enlightenment.  And we know that the father of Marxism was Karl Marx (1818-1883).

Most people, however, do not know the name of the person who started “fascism.”  There is a reason we do not know that much about Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944): most academic historians, who identify with leftist politics, have worked overtime to erase Gentile from our memory.  But, in his own time, Gentile was one of the most influential philosophers.

Giovanni Gentile

Giovanni Gentile believed that there were two diametrically opposed forms of democracy.  The first was liberal democracy, which we Americans sometimes call “classical liberalism.”  This was what our founding fathers believed.

Gentile thought of this as individualistic, overly focused on human liberty and personal rights.  He thought of this, not as unalienable rights, but as socially selfish.  The other form, according to Gentile, was “true Democracy,” which occurs when individuals willingly subordinate themselves to the will of the state.

In a manner similar to Karl Marx, Gentile argued for a society that was formed much like a family, a condition in which all of us faced life’s challenges “together.”  We have witnessed this peculiar view in the statements, platforms, and policies of the Democratic Party.

In 1984, Governor Mario Cuomo argued that America is much like an extended family, where, through the government, people take care of each other.  Thirty years later, in 2012, Democrats argued that “government is the only thing we all belong to.”

Giovanni Gentile was a man of leftist politics.  He was a committed socialist, and in his mind, fascism was a form of socialism —and, indeed, the only workable form.  Whereas Marx sought to organize people based on class, Gentile wanted to arrange society based on class and national identity.  In other words, Gentile believed that fascists were socialists with a national identity; it distinguishes them from others, with similar beliefs, from other countries.

One may recall that the Nazis of Germany were “National Socialists.”  Gentile believed that all society should be organized to serve the public interests.  There was no room for private interests.  The administrative arm of society was, in Gentile’s view, the state.  To submit to the will of society was to acquiesce to the will of the state —not just in economic issues, but in all matters affecting society.  And, since everything in society is political, the people must empower the state to tell everyone how to think, and what to do.

The first national leader to convert Gentile’s philosophy into action was Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the Italian dictator who controlled Italy from 1922 to 1943.  Mussolini once proclaimed, “All is in the state, and nothing human exists or has value outside the state.”  It was a statement that paraphrased the philosophy of Giovanni Gentile.

Americans today do not remember Gentile because leftist academics have successfully erased him from our memory.  What does remain, however, is his philosophy, which has been entirely adopted by the American political left.  Renamed, it is the philosophy of the Progressive Movement in the United States.

It does not require a political scholar to realize that Progressive politics, that is to say, the Democratic Party, has vastly expanded state control over the private sector.  We can see this in matters of economics, education, banking, and energy.

State directed capitalism is exactly what German and Italian governments implemented in the 1930’s.  Importantly, American leftists cannot acknowledge Gentile because in doing so, it would become the glue that binds American progressivism to fascism.

So let us now review: what do conservatives want?  They demand smaller government and expanded personal freedom.  They demand liberty.  The American political left wants to achieve the opposite: the resources of the individual and industry in the service of a centralized state, such as exists in Russia and China.

Were the American political left to acknowledge Giovanni Gentile, they would have to also acknowledge that fascism bears a deep kinship to the ideology to the Democratic Party.

Are fascists part of the conservative right?  No.  They are clearly the spawn of the ideology and political philosophy of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Jerry Nadler, Maxine Waters, and a host of other un-American idiots like Peter Buttigieg, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.

Thinking Americans should know world history … our country’s survival depends on this knowledge.  Fascist, thy name is Democrat.

Mustang also blogs at Fix Bayonets and Thoughts From Afar

 

Originally posted 2019-10-07 09:15:04.

Current Events

Four Months To Go

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27 reasons and counting

By: G. Maresca

 

As the lead-in to the November midterms gears up, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thought it wise to delay passing legislation that would provide additional security for Supreme Court justices and their families saying, “nobody’s in danger.” This was after a gunman showed up in the middle of the night at Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home. For the first time a justice on the Supreme Court faced an attempted assassination.

Nor was it enough that the pro-abortion group “Ruth Sent Us” tweeted they are watching Kavanaugh’s wife and children, along with Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s home and where her children attend school. Leftists support a woman’s right to decide, unless that woman is Amy Coney Barrett.

The Democrat’s version of job creation is selling maps to the homes of conservative Supreme Court Justices. Notice how no one has attempted to kill or in the middle of the night yell obscenities at the homes of those justices who identify with the left.

In Pelosi’s America, parents’ confronting local school boards results in domestic terrorism investigations, while harassing and intimidating justices at their homes is applauded. Perhaps Pelosi was too consumed with Gay Pride month as she surfaced at “Ru Paul’s Drag Race” saying, “This is what America is all about.”

Pelosi should do the honorable thing and resign for subjecting these justices to threats of violence and hinting that she would not mind attending a funeral for a justice, so Biden could nominate a new one.

The 82-year-old Pelosi is simply shameless.

The bipartisan legislation finally passed 396-27 and parallels the protections offered for senior members of Congress. Twenty-seven Democrats voted against such an essential security measure. Since they swore to uphold and defend the Constitution and in the hallowed name of equity, these infamous 27 need to relinquish their protection and be removed from their committee assignments because they cannot be impeached.

The bulk of the 27 hail from New Jersey and New York and yet they wonder why their states are losing seats in Congress. The notorious 27 underscore how the demarcation lines are shaping up for the fast-approaching November midterm election. They should be routed out of office but that remains to be seen.

There is simply no rational reason to vote against such a bill other than wishing harm on others. But what did you expect when Democrats failed to censure Sen. Chuck Schumer who blatantly threatened Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the steps of the Supreme Court saying, “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

Where is the Department of Justice investigation of Schumer? Here is a sitting senator threatening Supreme Court justices, while President Biden is MIA. This is extreme even for Democrats.

Threats to our constitutional system are of no consequence provided it does not coincide with leftist dogma. Whatever happened to civil discourse and common sense? Many need to do some deep soul searching.

From urban anarchy to ignoring death threats, the chasm between extreme and moderate Democrats provided there are any left within the party, are an endangered species. Conservative justices are not the only ones threatened – just rally against leftist dogma and you will incur their wrath. Rioting, protests, and looting will not win over the majority who are worn-out from these narcissistic hypocrites.

Taking a knee in prayer is bad, while taking a knee in protest of the national anthem is good. School choice is unhealthy, and abortion is healthcare. Such noxious behavior underscores how far we have fallen from comprehending what is necessary for a sustainable and free society.

Anything the left perceives as disorder from the right is condemned, prosecuted, pilloried in the media and weaponized against conservatives; whereas any lawlessness from the left is ignored, unprosecuted, whitewashed by the media, and tacitly endorsed by Democrats.

Until the rule of law is stripped of its partisan underpinnings, this is not going to get any better.

As the demarcation lines are being drawn in the religious, cultural, and political arena leading up to the critical November midterms, a thorough empirical examination of the issues will be appraised in this space.

With all the news always going in the direction that the Dims want, let me ask you a question. How are your 401Ks and IRAs doing?  As of the market this a.m., my combined IRAs have lost 19.12% in the last 12 months, and 25.28% YTD. And I have good stocks, which I feel certain will eventually rebound. That is as soon as we get an administration that has a clue what they are doing. What was that saying “It’s the economy stupid.” November looms gang, get ready and be damn sure you vote!!!

BTW, do you know where the Strategic Oil Reserves went to and where they are going now, which was stated by Joey to lower our gas prices? Well they went and are still going overseas. Can someone please explain to me how that is supposed to lower our fuel prices? You don’t need to be an Economist to answer that question.

Originally posted 2022-07-07 10:18:41.

Current Events

I’m Sick!

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Have you ever thought about the idea, what if your mother was not pro-life? I know that is meant to be somewhat of a joke, but think about what is actually going on in our country today. I cannot believe some states are killing babies in the last trimester, some just weeks before they are to be born. Unbelievable. These democratic scum have no morals at all; it’s all about the woman’s right to choose whether to give birth to this “thing” or not,  and that’s exactly how one must think of it — a “thing.” Yet they can’t even define what is a woman. I’m sick over this whole issue.

 

Criminal from the gate

By: G. Maresca

 

Of all the columns this space has hosted through the years, abortion has received plenty of ink.

Why?

Abortion gnaws at the American conscience because Roe v. Wade that codified this horrific procedure into law was the most egregious decision ever rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court. As a result, 65 million lives have been lost and counting. If leftists were honest, they would admit abortion is unconstitutional and a legal abomination – a result of judicial activism – that must be undone.

The left remains in a tizzy over the continued slaughter of babies and reveres abortion as American as methadone, shoplifting, and welfare. Leftists claim this gruesome procedure is healthcare for women, when they cannot even define what a woman is.

For the left, life begins not at conception but when you vote Democrat.

The war on the baby opened up a second front as the nation experiences a shortage of baby formula. A recent News-Item poll found that the majority believe abortion will return to the states, but most disconcerting was the 19% who did not care either way.

Memo to the left: provided the Supreme Court holds fast and overturns Roe, it will not end their most profane sacrament. Rather, abortion will be in the hands of the states and their elected representatives like many other civil and criminal issues underscoring how all politics is truly local.

The Supreme Court’s unprecedented leak of Justice Alito’s draft would overturn Roe as his opinion is consistent with Constitutional originalism. Whomever leaked the draft wanted and received the backlash we have been witnessing in the hope of coercing the justices to reverse their decision, which is still an option.

Intimidating and threatening members of the Supreme Court at their homes is straight out of a banana republic. Such tactics fail the constitutional order and like abortion itself is un-American. What about the life, liberty, and happiness of the unborn, the most innocent among us?

The vandalism of several Catholic churches and pro-life centers nationwide occurred ironically during Mother’s Day weekend. They underscore how the Catholic Church has stood steadfast in defending the unborn. Anti-Catholicism is alive and well in 21st century America. Leftists are today’s exemplars of the 19th century’s Know Nothing Party.

Commenting on Alito’s opinion, President Biden remarked: “The idea that we’re gonna make a judgment that is going to say that no one can make the judgment to choose to abort a child … goes way overboard.” Biden, in his own jumbled and twisted way, admits that abortion kills a child. Those in cognitive decline tend to speak truths they comprehend.

Abortion is not a “Constitutional right,” but the poisoned fruit of the Sexual Revolution run amok.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called Alito’s opinion a “dark and disturbing day for America,” while trying to codify Roe into federal law. From Schumer this is expected, but from Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., who has scandalously masqueraded as pro-life right up until he voted for the bill, it was not.

The bill did not pass.

Perhaps, the pro-aborts who made it this far can answer a few questions. The consequences of ending Roe will save more babies, so why is this such a terrible thing? Why are Democrats like Biden and Casey who both claim to be practicing Catholics so driven to defend abortion? Provided most Americans supposedly support abortion, why are you opposed to having each state vote on the issue? How long does God bless a nation that aborts the most innocent among us?

The right to control over our bodies is all the rage – except when it comes to vaccines, wearing masks and promoting adolescent transgenders.

Provided Roe is overturned women would not lose the right to vote, nor will the chains of slavery return. Alito’s spot-on opinion reconditions the Supreme Court to its founding role: an impartial arbiter of the law, rather than an activist judiciary beholden to the left.

 The fight for life in the womb is far from over.

Abortion will remain legal in some form throughout our fruited plain for now. Provided Alito’s opinion holds, however, it is a large step in the direction of life and has leftist ideologues terrified.

I want to throw up! I say take these democratic bastards who are doing this out behind the barn and shoot them! There are Third World countries that don’t even do what we do. We live in a shit hole. God, where are you?

 

Originally posted 2022-05-20 11:03:11.

Current Events, Recent Posts

Strength Respects Strength

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And as Greg points out, power has always respected power. Its been that way since Adam and Eve. Putin is no different than anyone who has a left and right brain that are somehow connected, which rules out Biden and his gang of idiots.

 

A Putinized disaster

By: G. Maresca

 

Vladimir Putin never accepted defeat in the Cold War. The former KGB agent stated how the dissolution of the Soviet Union was one of the greatest tragedies in world history.

Given their strategic location, rich natural resources and fertile farmland, an old Russian proverb says there is no Russian Empire without Ukraine. Since the 1772 Partitions of Poland Agreement, Ukraine had been part of Russia until 1991.

For over 30-years, Ukrainians have realized greater economic freedom and opportunities that they never experienced as a satellite of the former Soviet Union. Such successes intimidate Putin. Economically, Russia has been stagnant fueled by a declining population. To offset any further demographic and economic slide, Putin hopes to return those old Soviet republics to the Russian fold.

Ironic how Russia did not invade Ukraine when they had a “Russian asset” in the White House. According to Biden, the borders of Ukraine are sacrosanct and must be protected. The American border not so much.

Rewind to 2014, when Ukraine lost the Crimean Peninsula after President Obama’s chemical weapons “red line” in Syria disappeared and Hillary Clinton’s “re-set” was outright dismissed prompting Putin to make his move. Fast forward eight years, and Obama’s vice president has the top job and tells Putin at their initial meeting that “the adults are back in charge.”

Those adults alongside Biden are Harris, Pelosi, Kerry, Trudeau, and Macron. Kerry’s response to Putin’s invasion would be comical if it wasn’t so pathetic: “I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.” Watching our Woke powder puff team of generals grossly mismanage our withdrawal from Afghanistan was no help.

The West’s superlative six are nothing but appeasement, global elitists more concerned about wokeness, gender pronouns, defunding the police, open borders, and handcuffing America’s gas and oil resources.

Since assuming office, Biden went to war with American energy production by canceling the Keystone Pipeline that would have prolonged our energy independence. It would have kept world oil and gas prices in check and limit a major source of Russian revenue, while easing American inflation. Moreover, sustaining sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline under the Baltic Sea would have denied Putin additional income and political leverage.

Barring new Alaskan production and exploration in the lower 48 states only handcuffs American energy independence and potential. This not only hurts Americans at the pump, but our allies, too, while the high price of oil pays for Russia’s invasion.

Biden’s irrational energy policy underscores another Vlad, this one named Lenin and his infamous wisecrack about how the “capitalists will sell us the rope by which we hang them.”

How pathetic is it when a Canadian waitress who donated $50 to the freedom truckers suffered more financially than Putin when Trudeau locked down her bank account?

The Russian invasion of Ukraine highlights just how fundamentally inept the UN is.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney was spot-on saying how Russia was foe number one but was mocked by Obama and Biden who believed Putin to be an equitable geopolitical partner.

Like all despots, Putin understands, and values strength and he certainly empathizes with the legacy of the Romanov Tsars and their successors in the Kremlin. Negotiating with Putin, China, and the ayatollahs of Iran only comprehends dynamism, defiance, and dominion. The results are playing out in real time in Ukraine with the Baltic states lying in the balance.

Don’t dismiss the Chinese desire to reunify Taiwan with the mainland, and who could forget our favorite ayatollahs in Tehran finally obtaining their nuclear warhead and those North Koreans forever aiming south. Power only respects power. It has been that way since the dawn of civilization, yet the West fails to comprehend its lesson.

Civilians throughout Ukraine are battling back in what the New York Times calls, “a massive grass-roots movement” that must be giving Democrats heartburn. The next time you hear leftists threatening to take away your guns and ammo think about our friends in Ukraine fighting to keep their freedom.

May God bless, guide and protect the Ukrainian people whose courageous resolve reminds us how precious freedom is that many take for granted.

So where does the U.S. fall in this power and strength struggle for respect? Well, let’s look at the current status of the foundation of  our power and strength – the military establishment.

From the Free Beacon

 • March 1, 2022 5:00 am

As Russia Wages War, US Army Trains Officers on Gender Identity. Mandatory military training program pushes soldiers to undergo gender reassignment surgery

While Russia wages a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Army is putting its soldiers through training on gender pronouns and coaching officers on when to offer soldiers gender transition surgery, according to an official military presentation on the subject obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The mandatory presentation, “Policy on the Military Service of Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria,” was given to officers earlier this month along with instructions for them to train their subordinates on the material. Portions of the presentation were provided to the Free Beacon by a whistleblower who was ordered to undergo the training as a high-ranking officer in the Army Special Forces.

An Army spokesman confirmed to the Free Beacon that the slides in question are part of “mandatory training” and come from an official program “used to train Army personnel on the recent changes to the DoD and Army transgender service policy.” All Army personnel, from soldiers to commanders and supervisors, are required to participate in the training by Sept. 30, 2022, according to the spokesman.

The transgender presentation follows on a June 2021 announcement by the Army altering its policies so that transgender soldiers can openly serve. The shift in policy is part of a larger push by the Biden administration to make the military more welcoming to transgender people. These efforts have prompted pushback from Republicans in Congress and some within the military who view the policy changes as an effort to promote “woke” propaganda within the service. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to spark a larger conflict, military experts and insiders say they are concerned America’s fighting force is prioritizing woke culture over protecting the American people.

“The Army allows transgender soldiers to serve openly,” states the presentation, which is tailored for Army commanders and leaders. “An otherwise qualified soldier shall not be involuntarily separated, discharged, or denied reenlistment or continuation of service on the basis of gender identity.”

The presentation offers several hypothetical scenarios for how soldiers should be treated if they are transgender or in some stage of transitioning to another gender.

In one situation, a “soldier who was assigned male at birth says he identifies as a female,” “lives as a female in his off-duty hours,” and “is not requesting to be treated as a female while on duty.” In that case, the soldier should be treated with dignity and respect and no further action is required.

If the transgender soldier, however, “later requests to be identified as a female during duty hours and/or experiences increased distress relating to his gender identity,” the officer in charge must “inform [the] soldier of the Army’s transgender policy and recommend that he sees a military medical provider.”

“Gender transition in the Army,” the presentation states, “begins when a soldier receives a diagnosis from a military medical provider indicating that gender transition is medically necessary.”

In another scenario included in the presentation, a “soldier is assigned female at birth. She tells her first sergeant that she identifies as male and would like to be treated as a male. She has not yet seen a military medical provider.”

In this situation, Army leaders are ordered to “inform [the] soldier that the Army recognizes a soldier’s gender by the soldier’s gender marking in DEERs,” or the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, a massive database that tracks military members. The soldier, according to the presentation, will be expected to meet the uniform, grooming, and physical readiness standards associated with their recognized gender.

The soldier will then be sent to a military medical provider who can determine whether “gender transition is medically necessary.”

Damn, don’t those kind of reports make you feel warm and fuzzy? I suspect reports like this  has Putin shaking in his KGB boots, ya think? I’ve made no secret on here that I am somewhat of a Putin fan. I shall pray for the people of Ukraine, but that’s as far as I will go. I have tired of us being the caretaker of the world only to lose men and women to useless political wars where we have no interests whatsoever. How dare we lose one American soldier, Marine, sailor, or airman fighting in Ukraine while our own country is going to the dogs and fast becoming a Third World Shithole. I’ve discussed Putin with some of my peers about how bad Putin is and what he’s doing. I make no apologies, while I may not agree with what he is doing, I do respect the man’s fortitude and determination to do what he considers necessary for the good of his country.  That’s a lot more than I can say about our nation’s leader.

Meanwhile, thanks to that person in our oval office, WTI crude opened this a.m. at $111.37/bbl and Brent crude opened at $114.43/bbl. And to think that on Trump’s last day in office WTI was $52.87/bbl, and before COVID hit Trump had it down to $3.32/bbl, and we were paying less for gas than we had paid in 30 years. Two years ago we were an oil exporter and  energy independent. Putin’s getting rich; we are paying for his actions in Ukraine at the gas pump.

Guys, we have major problems right here within our own borders e.g., CPI at 7.1% in January, literally 1,000s storming our borders every month, spending out of control, rising prices for everything especially the necessities for life, a military training to become warm and fuzzy powder puffs, Marines changing their entire force structure, and the list goes on. We are no longer the powerful nation to be respected like we were two years ago. We need to stay out of Ukraine , and let Europe stand on their own two feet for a change.

Originally posted 2022-03-04 11:23:00.