PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: Lucifer on February 26, 2023, 10:15:25 AM
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So far FJB and his cohorts in congress have given Zelensky over $100billion of our dollars (with no accountability), and now are telling us we need to provide pensions for Ukrainians among other social services.
At what point will Zelensky demand we send troops into the war to do his fighting? So far, everything he's demanded he eventually gets.
Oh, and now China is proposing a cease fire resolution. So Xi steps up to the world's stage to show once again China is the new world super power.
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Black mail is not cheap, you should know that.
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The senile pedophile is so pathetic that nobody even tries to pretend he is anything but useless, corrupt and sinister.
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The senile pedophile is so pathetic that nobody even tries to pretend he is anything but useless, corrupt and sinister.
It’s not just him. Cocaine Mitch just lectured us they we have to get serious about the Russian threat.
This is turning into the 21st century’s Vietnam. Soon we will be sending advisors. Then limited troops, like 50,000. And so on and so on.
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It’s not just him. Cocaine Mitch just lectured us they we have to get serious about the Russian threat.
This is turning into the 21st century’s Vietnam. Soon we will be sending advisors. Then limited troops, like 50,000. And so on and so on.
And while our guys are dying on the battlefield, Zelensky and his ilk will be funneling billions into private bank accounts.
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It’s not just him. Cocaine Mitch just lectured us they we have to get serious about the Russian threat.
This is turning into the 21st century’s Vietnam. Soon we will be sending advisors. Then limited troops, like 50,000. And so on and so on.
News flash….our advisers have been there and elsewhere before Putin invaded. They’re training Ukraine troops in Eastern Europe, Poland one location, and back here in the states.
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News flash….our advisers have been there and elsewhere before Putin invaded. They’re training Ukraine troops in Eastern Europe, Poland one location, and back here in the states.
News flash. In Vietnam our advisors weren’t in Japan or the Philippines or Guam training South Vietnam military. They were in-country, fighting next to or usually in front of the ARVN.
We haven’t gone there in Ukraine, yet (to my knowledge.)
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News flash. In Vietnam our advisors weren’t in Japan or the Philippines or Guam training South Vietnam military. They were in-country, fighting next to or usually in front of the ARVN.
We haven’t gone there in Ukraine, yet (to my knowledge.)
U.S. military have been in Ukraine since at least middle of last year. Allegedly U.S. military trainers were temporarily pulled from Ukraine just before the Russians invaded - about the time the U.S. warned Ukraine that Russia would attack. I would be surprised if there weren't also a lot on military intelligence personnel in the country, along with advisors to babysit equipment like HIMARS.
One source:
U.S. military inspectors in Ukraine to keep further track of weapons and equipment (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-military-inspectors-ukraine-keep-track-weapons-equipment-rcna54891)
First few paragraphs of the article:
Oct. 31, 2022, 4:30 PM MDT
By Courtney Kube and Phil McCausland
American military personnel are now in Ukraine to help keep track of the billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and equipment the United States has sent since the start of the Russian invasion, a senior U.S. defense official and senior U.S. military official said.
Led by Brig. Gen. Garrick Harmon, the U.S. defense attaché to Ukraine, the inspections have already begun with the help of the Office of Defense Cooperation personnel who have returned to the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, the officials said. The U.S. had conducted similar checks on aid prior to the war, but they stopped for months after Russia invaded on Feb. 24.
“There have been several of these inspections,” according to the senior defense official, who declined to give details on the locations of the on-site inspections. The Ukrainians have been “very transparent” and are supporting the inspections, the official added.
NBC News has not confirmed how many members of the U.S. military are in Ukraine to conduct the inspections, how many inspections they’ve completed or when the program restarted.
These inspectors in Ukraine appear to be some of the first members of the U.S. military to re-enter the Eastern European country since the start of the war, outside of military guards posted at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, the capital. The Pentagon ordered the departure of U.S. troops in Ukraine on Feb. 14 — 10 days before the invasion — as the crisis escalated.
The inspections come after Russia and some Republicans in Congress have alleged that weapons and military equipment sent to Ukraine may have ended up on the black market. Serving as a rebuttal to these concerns, the Biden administration released a plan last week that would aim to keep closer tabs on the aid it has sent.
The U.S. has not seen any evidence of weapons being diverted to a black market or used for anything other than their original purpose, the defense official said, but the Pentagon and State Department remain aware of those risks and are taking efforts to prevent it.
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News flash. In Vietnam our advisors weren’t in Japan or the Philippines or Guam training South Vietnam military. They were in-country, fighting next to or usually in front of the ARVN.
We haven’t gone there in Ukraine, yet (to my knowledge.)
Sure
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We're there in numbers. I don't believe anything the Pentagon, this Administration, nor the Media says at all. The magnitude of lies varies. If they say advisors, it means troops, boots on the ground. I hate these people (not our soldiers, those that send them).
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News flash. In Vietnam our advisors weren’t in Japan or the Philippines or Guam training South Vietnam military. They were in-country, fighting next to or usually in front of the ARVN.
We haven’t gone there in Ukraine, yet (to my knowledge.)
And my brother was not in Laos in 1971-72 loading bombs on American Air Force bombers, wearing civilian clothes because we had no troops there either.
He often made fun of the Air Force calling them "civilians in uniform". Except when they were in Laos, he called them 'Airmen in Civies"
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And my brother was not in Laos in 1971-72 loading bombs on American Air Force bombers, wearing civilian clothes because we had no troops there either.
He often made fun of the Air Force calling them "civilians in uniform". Except when they were in Laos, he called them 'Airmen in Civies"
What branch of the service was he in or was he CIA or corporate consultant?
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First few paragraphs of the article:
Oct. 31, 2022, 4:30 PM MDT
By Courtney Kube and Phil McCausland
American military personnel are now in Ukraine to help keep track of the billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and equipment the United States has sent since the start of the Russian invasion, a senior U.S. defense official and senior U.S. military official said.
And a few others to make sure "The Big Guy" gets his 10%
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What branch of the service was he in or was he CIA or corporate consultant?
Air Force. That's why he made fun of them. He said he joined the Air Force to avoid the draft and be forced into the military.
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And here it is
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/zelensky-u-s-will-have-to-send-their-sons-and-daughters-to-die/
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And here it is
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/zelensky-u-s-will-have-to-send-their-sons-and-daughters-to-die/
All the people flying Ukraine flags outside of their homes or have Ukraine flag emojis must go first.
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And here it is
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/zelensky-u-s-will-have-to-send-their-sons-and-daughters-to-die/
Entire context:
Zelensky was asked about U.S. support. He said that if support declines and Ukraine loses the war, then:
"Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the U.S. will have to send their sons and daughters, exactly the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters, to war.
And they will have to fight because it's NATO that we're talking about and they will be dying, God forbid, because it's a horrible thing."
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And here it is
https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/zelensky-u-s-will-have-to-send-their-sons-and-daughters-to-die/
Maybe we should go fight AGAINST Ukraine?
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Entire context:
Zelensky was asked about U.S. support. He said that if support declines and Ukraine loses the war, then:
"Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the U.S. will have to send their sons and daughters, exactly the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters, to war.
And they will have to fight because it's NATO that we're talking about and they will be dying, God forbid, because it's a horrible thing."
Zelensky is making threats to the west to support him. So far, everything he has demanded has been granted.
Eventually he would like to see foreigners fighting his war so he doesn't lose any Ukrainians.
It's coming.
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Zelensky is making threats to the west to support him. So far, everything he has demanded has been granted.
Eventually he would like to see foreigners fighting his war so he doesn't lose any Ukrainians.
It's coming.
My use of language differs from yours. To me a threat has roughly the form "If you don't do X then I will do Y." A warning has roughly the form "If you don't do X then Y will happen."
Zelensky was attempting to persuade by making a warning. Not unlike the warning you and others post to this forum about political topics to persuade people to adopt your views. The clip was clearly edited in an attempt to obscure the context.
As to getting what he wants: He wanted Ukraine in NATO and in the EU. Neither has happened yet. He has been asking for tanks and planes for the last year. A year later he is getting a token number of tanks and might get a token number of aircraft.
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My use of language differs from yours. To me a threat has roughly the form "If you don't do X then I will do Y." A warning has roughly the form "If you don't do X then Y will happen."
Zelensky was attempting to persuade by making a warning. Not unlike the warning you and others post to this forum about political topics to persuade people to adopt your views. The clip was clearly edited in an attempt to obscure the context.
As to getting what he wants: He wanted Ukraine in NATO and in the EU. Neither has happened yet. He has been asking for tanks and planes for the last year. A year later he is getting a token number of tanks and might get a token number of aircraft.
Which makes my point. So far, he's getting everything he ask for. And like most dictators, he will keep wanting more and more.
He's already been making detrimental remarks about Americans that don't support him or his war.
As far as NATO, they are already capitulating to his demands.
Go ahead and buy into the hype of how Ukraine has a "democracy" and how Zelensky is a "Churchill" type. It's garbage.
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Which makes my point. So far, he's getting everything he ask for. And like most dictators, he will keep wanting more and more.
He's already been making detrimental remarks about Americans that don't support him or his war.
As far as NATO, they are already capitulating to his demands.
Go ahead and buy into the hype of how Ukraine has a "democracy" and how Zelensky is a "Churchill" type. It's garbage.
Well the U.S. is a republic, not a democracy, so...?
I regret to inform you that I do not buy into your hyperbole, either. Including your often repeated bogus claim "Ukraine has long held the distinction of being one of the most corrupt countries in the world."
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Well the U.S. is a republic, not a democracy, so...?
We're talking about Ukraine, not the US. ::)
I regret to inform you that I do not buy into your hyperbole, either. Including your often repeated bogus claim "Ukraine has long held the distinction of being one of the most corrupt countries in the world."
Believe what you want. I do my research, and base my opinions on that.
You still believe in the libertarian fairytale, so that speaks volumes in itself.
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Believe what you want. I do my research, and base my opinions on that.
Did your research show that Zelensky was demanding or predicting that we will send US soldiers to Ukraine to fight?
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Did your research show that Zelensky was demanding or predicting that we will send US soldiers to Ukraine to fight?
He has alluded to it. As this war escalates, he will need more men to fight, hence why he wants NATO membership.
Many EU countries are resisting being pulled into the quagmire, and for good reason.
Think about this: FJB and McConnell, among others, have publicly stated that we (the US) are backing Ukraine "as long as it takes".
Notice they never define "as long as it takes"? Gee, wonder why?
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My use of language differs from yours. To me a threat has roughly the form "If you don't do X then I will do Y." A warning has roughly the form "If you don't do X then Y will happen."
Zelensky was attempting to persuade by making a warning. Not unlike the warning you and others post to this forum about political topics to persuade people to adopt your views. The clip was clearly edited in an attempt to obscure the context.
As to getting what he wants: He wanted Ukraine in NATO and in the EU. Neither has happened yet. He has been asking for tanks and planes for the last year. A year later he is getting a token number of tanks and might get a token number of aircraft.
If you take Zelensky in the way he meant by using the Diplomacy filter you'd know he was making a direct threat.
Our involvement in this war is for the MIC and to money launder for our politicians and others.
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Maybe we should go fight AGAINST Ukraine?
Putin lover!
(No green font in Tapatalk)
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If you take Zelensky in the way he meant by using the Diplomacy filter you'd know he was making a direct threat.
Our involvement in this war is for the MIC and to money launder for our politicians and others.
I will never understand libertarians who constantly play word games and pretend to know, or democrats that attack the GOP as war mongers, while rushing into every conflict they can get us into.
I guess they are all the same just pretending differently.
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My use of language differs from yours. To me a threat has roughly the form "If you don't do X then I will do Y." A warning has roughly the form "If you don't do X then Y will happen."
Zelensky was attempting to persuade by making a warning. Not unlike the warning you and others post to this forum about political topics to persuade people to adopt your views. The clip was clearly edited in an attempt to obscure the context.
As to getting what he wants: He wanted Ukraine in NATO and in the EU. Neither has happened yet. He has been asking for tanks and planes for the last year. A year later he is getting a token number of tanks and might get a token number of aircraft.
Token number of tanks? I think you need to update that. Last week Biden said we have given Ukraine 700 tanks, but even before that, check out the chart on this article how Ukraine is Tapping the US Arsenal:
https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts
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Token number of tanks? I think you need to update that. Last week Biden said we have given Ukraine 700 tanks, but even before that, check out the chart on this article how Ukraine is Tapping the US Arsenal:
https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts
Trivial ::)
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Token number of tanks? I think you need to update that. Last week Biden said we have given Ukraine 700 tanks, but even before that, check out the chart on this article how Ukraine is Tapping the US Arsenal:
https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-aid-has-us-sent-ukraine-here-are-six-charts
Biden says a lot of nonsense.
The chart in your linked article includes things promised but not yet delivered:
"31 Abrams tanks"
The WSJ reported "Abrams Tanks May Never Reach Ukraine. The war may be over by the time the U.S. fulfills its promise to Kyiv."
As good as they might be (they did very well in the Iraq war; superior training with superior equipment) 31 Abrams is not enough to make a difference.
The only tanks in that chart that were allegedly U.S. delivered were:
"45 T-72B Tanks"
Soviet era tanks from the Czech Republic, so not a draw from the U.S. arsenal but a NATO draw. Likely the Czechs replace with something more modern.
According to this article today, only Poland has managed to get any non-Russian made tanks into Ukraine:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1741099/ukraine-weapons-commitments-by-country-spt (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1741099/ukraine-weapons-commitments-by-country-spt)
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Jim, quit bringing forth real data.
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Believe what you want. I do my research, and base my opinions on that.
I researched the corruption claim a few months ago but never bothered to post what I found because it was not worth the time. Since you recently brought it up, here is what I found:
First I found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index) which most articles seem to reference. By that measure (of perception only!) Ukraine was last measured as being less corrupt than Mexico. Both ranked in the lower half of the indexed countries. Another measure that tries to measure corruption more directly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Corruption_Barometer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Corruption_Barometer), uses surveys on actual bribery. By that measure Ukraine is about on a par with Taiwan and less corrupt than India or South Africa.
You still believe in the libertarian fairytale, so that speaks volumes in itself.
You may have a point there against me. Even with that admission I think libertarian principles, to the extent I understand them, are incomplete at best. And almost useless for making decisions with respect to international politics and war. It's like being asked to decide which slave owning thug is more deserving of support? The one that beats their slaves less often? Or the one that beats their slaves much more, but feeds and houses them better?
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The best tanks in the world are useless if the crews don't know what they are doing and the leadership doesn't know how to properly utilize them.
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I researched the corruption claim a few months ago but never bothered to post what I found because it was not worth the time. Since you recently brought it up, here is what I found:
First I found https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index) which most articles seem to reference. By that measure (of perception only!) Ukraine was last measured as being less corrupt than Mexico. Both ranked in the lower half of the indexed countries. Another measure that tries to measure corruption more directly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Corruption_Barometer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Corruption_Barometer), uses surveys on actual bribery. By that measure Ukraine is about on a par with Taiwan and less corrupt than India or South Africa.
You may have a point there against me. Even with that admission I think libertarian principles, to the extent I understand them, are incomplete at best. And almost useless for making decisions with respect to international politics and war. It's like being asked to decide which slave owning thug is more deserving of support? The one that beats their slaves less often? Or the one that beats their slaves much more, but feeds and houses them better?
Yep, no bias in Wikipedia......none at all ::)
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Yep, no bias in Wikipedia......none at all ::)
Go to the original sites - that is where I first found the info. I only used Wikipedia as a starting point. What source have you been relying on?
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Go to the original sites - that is where I first found the info. I only used Wikipedia as a starting point. What source have you been relying on?
Cat Turd?
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Go to the original sites - that is where I first found the info. I only used Wikipedia as a starting point. What source have you been relying on?
Wikipedia is a lame source for research. It's not a matter of what they use necessarily, it's also what they omit.
And yes, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries on earth. The past 10 years of their history should be an indicator. There's a reason so many politicians are clamoring to "support" Ukraine, and patriotism has nothing to do with it.
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Go to the original sites - that is where I first found the info. I only used Wikipedia as a starting point. What source have you been relying on?
As you libertarian principles probably ignore, wiki allows anyone to adjust their pages.
anyone with an agenda...
anyone with something hide...
anyone with something impossible to prove.,,
responsible educational institutions forbid students to site wiki for any reason... but your libertarian principles probably forbid you seeing that.
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The best tanks in the world are useless if the crews don't know what they are doing and the leadership doesn't know how to properly utilize them.
"Wasted trip Baby. Nobody said nothing about locking horns with no Tigers."
"The only way we have to keep them interested is to let them shoot holes in us!!!"
Oddball, "Kelly's Heroes"
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(https://i.imgur.com/F5BQZCa.gif)
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Cat Turd?
I would trust Cat Turd over Wikipedia.
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Catturd can trust a fart, the other 2 can't.
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Catturd can trust a fart, the other 2 can't.
What is that ride they are in? Seems to be too narrow to be a limo or AF1.
And I don't think those two would be taking Uber.
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What the…???
Who could have thought?
Washington: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his entourage have embezzled at least USD 400 million, which was sent to the country for the purchase of diesel fuel, reported Russian news agency TASS citing US Journalist Seymour Hersh's website.
On his website, Hersh, citing sources, claimed, "The Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments. One estimate by analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency put the embezzled funds at USD 400 million last year, at least."
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ukraine-president-volodymyr-zelensky-embezzled-400-million-from-fuel-purchase-aid-report-3947123/amp/1?fbclid=IwAR3OYllDX4OQxXJ1SkCUMqF2BJPe_IFc3na2u4xmGhngsLlj7ValltkXPKg&mibextid=Zxz2cZ
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What the…???
Who could have thought?
Washington: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his entourage have embezzled at least USD 400 million, which was sent to the country for the purchase of diesel fuel, reported Russian news agency TASS citing US Journalist Seymour Hersh's website.
On his website, Hersh, citing sources, claimed, "The Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments. One estimate by analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency put the embezzled funds at USD 400 million last year, at least."
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ukraine-president-volodymyr-zelensky-embezzled-400-million-from-fuel-purchase-aid-report-3947123/amp/1?fbclid=IwAR3OYllDX4OQxXJ1SkCUMqF2BJPe_IFc3na2u4xmGhngsLlj7ValltkXPKg&mibextid=Zxz2cZ
The Russians naturally think the story is great. This is Hersh's original story:
https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/trading-with-the-enemy (https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/trading-with-the-enemy)
it relies on just "one knowledgeable American intelligence official" who remains anonymous. In the past Hersh cross-checked with multiple sources, so it is below his past standards.
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Ukraine is nothing more than a money laundering operation.
The deaths? Collateral damage.
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Ukraine is nothing more than a money laundering operation.
The deaths? Collateral damage.
And anyone who questions where the money is going or steps up and reports malfeasance will just "disappear". No wonder that so few speak up. What's a few lives when all these riches are involved?
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And anyone who questions where the money is going or steps up and reports malfeasance will just "disappear". No wonder that so few speak up. What's a few lives when all these riches are involved?
The MIC sent 50,000 and millions of civilians to their death during VN. Just business. Got a break a few eggs to make that omelet.
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And anyone who questions where the money is going or steps up and reports malfeasance will just "disappear". No wonder that so few speak up. What's a few lives when all these riches are involved?
Or at least be accused of supporting Putin - the moniker attached to - wait for it - Tucker Carlson - when he started questioning why we are involved with Ukraine.
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https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1659583852225101824
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I would love to see the U.S. Dollar be once again backed by gold or silver but these Fascists would never allow that as they'd rather see the dollar go the way of the Duetche Mark prior to WWII.
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I would love to see the U.S. Dollar be once again backed by gold or silver but these Fascists would never allow that as they'd rather see the dollar go the way of the Duetche Mark prior to WWII.
The whole reason to dump the gold standard and go to a fiat currency was so the government could just print as much money as it wanted.
This has NEVER succeeded in history, and has always led to a meltdown and eventual insolvency.
But what about the elites? Keep an eye out as they will be dumping the dollar and buying currencies in the BRIC countries. You and I will be left holding the bag.
Better start buying gold folks. But look for the government to start restricting that as well.
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https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1659583852225101824
Macgregor has been predicting Ukraine losing since the beginning of the war. I recall watching him express his prognostications last spring and the reality turned out quite different.
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Macgregor has been predicting Ukraine losing since the beginning of the war. I recall watching him express his prognostications last spring and the reality turned out quite different.
Ukraine won’t lose as long as the U.S. keeps pouring money and equipment into them. Putin has got to be beyond pissed. Ukraine won’t win either. It’s a stalemate until Putin decides to use his nukes. When that happens (when, not if) the U.S. can respond in like, or not respond, and I don’t know which will be worse.
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Ukraine won’t lose as long as the U.S. keeps pouring money and equipment into them. Putin has got to be beyond pissed. Ukraine won’t win either. It’s a stalemate until Putin decides to use his nukes. When that happens (when, not if) the U.S. can respond in like, or not respond, and I don’t know which will be worse.
It's beyond foolish to think Ukraine will prevail. Zelensky is lining his pockets with the river of money from FJB. The MIC wants this to become Afghanistan, just keep doing enough to keep the war going for decades. It's business as usual for them.
It's been floated several times to have peace talks, and the FJB regime shoots them down every time.
Zelensky, a former comedian, is now estimated to be worth more than $1.5 billion. Nice work if you can get it.
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It's beyond foolish to think Ukraine will prevail. Zelensky is lining his pockets with the river of money from FJB. The MIC wants this to become Afghanistan, just keep doing enough to keep the war going for decades. It's business as usual for them.
It's been floated several times to have peace talks, and the FJB regime shoots them down every time.
Zelensky, a former comedian, is now estimated to be worth more than $1.5 billion. Nice work if you can get it.
Elon Musk was trashed when he suggested negotiating. Anyone suggesting it is accused of siding with Russia.
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Elon Musk was trashed when he suggested negotiating. Anyone suggesting it is accused of siding with Russia.
The Afghanistan debacle cost this country over a trillion dollars.
Ukraine is their next honey pot.
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The Afghanistan debacle cost this country over a trillion dollars.
Ukraine is their next honey pot.
We got some evidence of money being made with this debacle, in this case the Nordstream pipe sabotage. Europe’s gas shortage has caused increased demand on our exports. They are expanding a plant near here that liquifies the gas and puts it on ships headed for Europe. At the same time, the boomers are retiring and they’re desperate for experienced engineering managers. So somebody contacted my husband about coming back to work as a consultant (he retired last year). The contract would be in the neighborhood of $200K a year.
I said to hubby, “Hey, here’s our opportunity to participate in the warmongering grift!” But they wanted a 3-5 year commitment. Hubby said, Hell no! He would have considered a few months but no more. He wants to enjoy life before he dies.
I don’t know if natural gas production is considered part of the MIC profit machine, and I doubt the gas industry are the ones who blew up Nordstream, but intentional or not, they’re profiting from Russia’ invasion of Ukraine (unless you think the Nordstream explosion had nothing to do with that.)
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LNG is not part of the MIC.
It is part of the head in a** global warming and no nuke BS.
EU is closing nukes and coal and still need to stay warm. They are slitting their own throats.
I am not a logistics person or an engineer, but I do not understand how they can go from nuke/ coal to LNG without some major conversion, unless the conversion happened long ago and the powers that be invested in that infrastructure before the EU population realized what was happening.
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LNG is not part of the MIC.
It is part of the head in a** global warming and no nuke BS.
EU is closing nukes and coal and still need to stay warm. They are slitting their own throats.
I am not a logistics person or an engineer, but I do not understand how they can go from nuke/ coal to LNG without some major conversion, unless the conversion happened long ago and the powers that be invested in that infrastructure before the EU population realized what was happening.
Insanity. Can’t have coal. Can’t have nukes. And natural gas is bad now too, can’t have stoves. If we can’t have gas stoves because they poison our homes, what about natural gas heaters? Maybe Europe isn’t as crazy as our Dems on that matter. I don’t know how Europe heats their homes but running new gas lines to everybody would be as bad as having to convert power plants.
My mother has a natural gas heater in her dining room, affixed to the wall, that she uses on really cold days. Maybe that’s why she’s gone demented.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/highway-hell-ukraine-loses-2040-men-since-friday/
Not much mention in the state controlled media.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/highway-hell-ukraine-loses-2040-men-since-friday/
Not much mention in the state controlled media.
Because the MSM has to verify how they identify as before reporting "men".
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Say what? I thought we didn't have any military in Ukraine.
I'm old enough to remember that VietNam started out by having "advisors" in country.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/07/27/us-troops-in-ukraine-can-now-earn-hazard-pay/?mc_cid=1871fcaafc
The Pentagon has authorized additional hazard pay for U.S. troops serving in Ukraine, a defense official confirmed Thursday.
The bonus, known as imminent danger pay, is offered to troops who serve in areas where they could be harmed by hostile fire or mines, insurrection, civil war or terrorism.
Service members in Ukraine can now earn an extra $7.50 per day, capped at $225 per month, in addition to their base salary and other bonuses. Troops who qualify will get back pay dating as far back as April 24, 2022, the official said.
Grier Martin, who is temporarily serving as the Pentagon’s top personnel official, approved the change in a July 13 memo, which was posted to the unofficial “Air Force amn/nco/snco” Facebook page on Thursday. Military Times confirmed the memo’s authenticity.
U.S. forces could already receive a separate $150 allowance, known as hardship duty pay, for working in Ukraine. That amount will drop to $100 each month when combined with the new bonus, the memo said, meaning troops can earn $325 in total monthly hazard pay.
The pay is retroactive to align with the State Department’s parallel decision to offer danger pay to employees in Ukraine in April 2022.
The Pentagon has said a small number of U.S. troops are stationed at the American embassy in Kyiv, working as its security detail and accounting for billions of dollars of military equipment the U.S. is sending to Ukraine.
A small U.S. special operations team working out of the embassy helps Ukrainian troops with intelligence operations and provides security for high-level visitors, but is not fighting alongside Ukrainian troops on the battlefield, ABC News reported in April.
A former U.S. official told ABC the team has helped Ukrainians plan operations that have led to “hundreds, if not thousands, of Russian military casualties.” The group arrived shortly after Russia launched a major invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Pentagon officials have emphasized that U.S. forces are not conducting combat operations inside the country.
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Say what? I thought we didn't have any military in Ukraine.
Article claims they're part of Embassy detail. Most, possibly all, embassies have Marine Security Guards.
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Article claims they're part of Embassy detail. Most, possibly all, embassies have Marine Security Guards.
I guarantee SF are there, either posing as Mercenaries or openly fighting and training Ukraine troops.
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Article claims they're part of Embassy detail. Most, possibly all, embassies have Marine Security Guards.
Yes they do. The article also said
A small U.S. special operations team working out of the embassy helps Ukrainian troops with intelligence operations and provides security for high-level visitors, but is not fighting alongside Ukrainian troops on the battlefield, ABC News reported in April.
The Special Ops Team is there as "advisors". Several of our other "wars" started out by having advisors on the ground, most famously VN. You can also be assured that a couple of other three letter agencies have "Operators" on the ground there as well, along with a few "contractors".
The Russians are killing Ukrainian soldiers at a high rate. To keep Biden's war going, at some point they will need fresh troops.
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Yes they do. The article also said
The Special Ops Team is there as "advisors". Several of our other "wars" started out by having advisors on the ground, most famously VN. You can also be assured that a couple of other three letter agencies have "Operators" on the ground there as well, along with a few "contractors".
The Russians are killing Ukrainian soldiers at a high rate. To keep Biden's war going, at some point they will need fresh troops.
They’d better NOT start sending regular American troops over there. Jesus Christ. Another proxy war with a nuclear superpower. Surveys are showing American enthusiasm for continuing the Ukraine entanglement is cooling off. People are sensing extreme danger. We need to get the fuck out of there. Let Ukraine fall. Better than WW3.
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They’d better NOT start sending regular American troops over there. Jesus Christ. Another proxy war with a nuclear superpower. Surveys are showing American enthusiasm for continuing the Ukraine entanglement is cooling off. People are sensing extreme danger. We need to get the fuck out of there. Let Ukraine fall. Better than WW3.
Ukraine is a small country. At the rate of attrition, they will not have enough of their own military to keep Biden's war going. Those fresh troops will have to come from somewhere.
BTW, Zelensky's people are starting to turn on him. How much longer until Zelensky is on a private jet speeding away to a country that will give him asylum so he can enjoy the hundreds of millions US dollars he's raked in while Ukraine is in shambles.
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Ukraine is a small country. At the rate of attrition, they will not have enough of their own military to keep Biden's war going. Those fresh troops will have to come from somewhere.
BTW, Zelensky's people are starting to turn on him. How much longer until Zelensky is on a private jet speeding away to a country that will give him asylum so he can enjoy the hundreds of millions US dollars he's raked in while Ukraine is in shambles.
The ONE thing I admired him for, even found sexy, was him staying in the country, even in Kyiv, while it was under attack. If his country falls and he doesn’t go down with that ship then he will be nothing but a spineless worm.
If I were Ukrainian I’d turn on him too. They rebuffed Russia from Kyiv. I was with them to that point. When it became clear Putin was dead set to take Donbas and withdrew from Kyiv, that was the time to negotiate. There was a good chance of ending the war at that point and saving Ukraine as a sovereign nation albeit a bit smaller. Donbas is full of a bunch of ethnic Russians anyway. In Zelensky’s defense he may have been willing to do that but Boris Johnson thwarted it, and Biden never stepped up to offer the U.S. services in assisting negotiations. Zelensky at that point saw that Biden was willing to turn the faucet of money into a firehose and it looked unending so that gave him a strong disincentive to negotiate an end to the war. He could continue indefinitely. Meanwhile Ukrainians are dying and not financially benefiting like Zelensky so at that point if I were Ukrainian I’d turn violently against him and regret ever voting for him.
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Article claims they're part of Embassy detail. Most, possibly all, embassies have Marine Security Guards.
I was a Marine Security Guard at our embassies in Japan, Republic of Georgia, and Ireland. All embassies had other military on the embassy staff. And all had other military members in country in other advisory roles, mostly training the local military. I won't get into all the other agencies that worked out of embassies, but our government loves keeping their fingers in as many pots as possible in foreign lands.
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But what about the dominoes? If Ukraine falls, there's nothing keeping Russia from Poland, then the Baltic states, then all of Eastern Europe, and when that happens France will surrender, Germany will cave, and it's a Russian Europe. We HAVE to send troops in.
(all in green)
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But what about the dominoes? If Ukraine falls, there's nothing keeping Russia from Poland, then the Baltic states, then all of Eastern Europe, and when that happens France will surrender, Germany will cave, and it's a Russian Europe. We HAVE to send troops in.
(all in green)
Eisenhower, a Republican with a little experience in warfare, originated the domino theory:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-gives-famous-domino-theory-speech (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-gives-famous-domino-theory-speech)
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Eisenhower, a Republican with a little experience in warfare, originated the domino theory:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-gives-famous-domino-theory-speech (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/eisenhower-gives-famous-domino-theory-speech)
Thanks Cliff
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Thanks Cliff
Anytime, Norm.
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(https://i.imgur.com/aOA3Xf2.png)
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(https://i.imgur.com/hYZAIPT.jpg)
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Do you honestly think the Russians are going to stop in Ukraine? They're trying to plug up holes through which invasion forces have historically come, and Ukraine is one of them. The next ones involve both Romania and Poland.
The minute the Russians attack a NATO ally they get to fight us. And based what happened in Ukraine I'm pretty certain they'll be annihilated by us in a matter of days. At that point what's left retreats toward Russia which now has an existential crisis. They think this is for their survival, so they either give up or use Nukes. If they use Nukes it gets really messy.
We don't want that war, we don't want the specter of a nuclear conflict. So we supply the Ukrainians with whatever we can so long as we don't put boots on the ground, i.e. so long as we don't escalate. This war will be fought sooner or later, the Russians want security from invasion. I can't blame them, they've only been invaded a bunch of times. So it gets fought in Ukraine, and it is in our vested interest to keep the Ukrainians well supplied with American arms. Supplying Americans with weapons in Ukraine is way cheaper than us defending Poland, and if the Russians win in Ukraine that's what we'll be doing.
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I’m sure we have American military operating in Ukraine. Some as advisors, others actually participating. Every conflict this is how we get involved, classic example was Vietnam. I’m retired military so “I know a little” as Lynyrd Skynyrd sang :) 8)
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Do you honestly think the Russians are going to stop in Ukraine? They're trying to plug up holes through which invasion forces have historically come, and Ukraine is one of them. The next ones involve both Romania and Poland.
The minute the Russians attack a NATO ally they get to fight us. And based what happened in Ukraine I'm pretty certain they'll be annihilated by us in a matter of days. At that point what's left retreats toward Russia which now has an existential crisis. They think this is for their survival, so they either give up or use Nukes. If they use Nukes it gets really messy.
We don't want that war, we don't want the specter of a nuclear conflict. So we supply the Ukrainians with whatever we can so long as we don't put boots on the ground, i.e. so long as we don't escalate. This war will be fought sooner or later, the Russians want security from invasion. I can't blame them, they've only been invaded a bunch of times. So it gets fought in Ukraine, and it is in our vested interest to keep the Ukrainians well supplied with American arms. Supplying Americans with weapons in Ukraine is way cheaper than us defending Poland, and if the Russians win in Ukraine that's what we'll be doing.
Russia was doing nothing as long as Trump was in office, other than taking care of ISIS for us. They wouldn’t have dared invade a NATO ally. They even held off doing anything more in Ukraine. Why do you think that was? Let me guess: Trump was a Russian spy, Russia got him elected in 2016. He and Putin were best buddies.
Let’s say that’s true. Isn’t an armed truce better than Russia seeing America weakened under a demented Biden administration? RFKJr says his uncle stopped a nuclear confrontation with Russia by using diplomacy. Trump and RFKJr both say the Ukraine war could be solved today with diplomacy.
Why are you and the libs against that? Why do you support continued killing of young men on both sides for months going on years?
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Do you honestly think the Russians are going to stop in Ukraine? They're trying to plug up holes through which invasion forces have historically come, and Ukraine is one of them. The next ones involve both Romania and Poland.
The minute the Russians attack a NATO ally they get to fight us. And based what happened in Ukraine I'm pretty certain they'll be annihilated by us in a matter of days. At that point what's left retreats toward Russia which now has an existential crisis. They think this is for their survival, so they either give up or use Nukes. If they use Nukes it gets really messy.
We don't want that war, we don't want the specter of a nuclear conflict. So we supply the Ukrainians with whatever we can so long as we don't put boots on the ground, i.e. so long as we don't escalate. This war will be fought sooner or later, the Russians want security from invasion. I can't blame them, they've only been invaded a bunch of times. So it gets fought in Ukraine, and it is in our vested interest to keep the Ukrainians well supplied with American arms. Supplying Americans with weapons in Ukraine is way cheaper than us defending Poland, and if the Russians win in Ukraine that's what we'll be doing.
Do you honestly think Putin hasn’t thought of the implications of attacking a member of NATO?
He is looking at the US like we looked at Russia in Vietnam. They waged a proxy war against their Cold War opponent that lasted over 10 years. Our policies in VN that killed 58k Americans were in large part because we didn’t want to escalate into a shooting war with Russia. Thus we couldn’t bomb airbases or harbors in North Vietnam because there could be Russian advisors on those bases.
We have given Ukraine enough proxy war money and materiel. If they fall, I don’t care. It won’t escalate beyond Ukraine into a war with NATO.
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Leftists are now war mongers because they are told to be by this Administration, the MEDIA and many Democrat and Republican politicians.
They have made this war "patriotic" while allowing an illegal invasion at our Southern border. All to feed the MIC so they can retain power and kickbacks.
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Luxurious villa linked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s family opens on Egyptian coast
https://punchng.com/luxurious-villa-owned-by-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelenskyys-family-discovered-on-egyptian-coast/
Egyptian investigative journalist Mohammed Al-Alawi provided exclusive materials concerning the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to the documents, Zelenskyy’s family has acquired a luxury villa in “the city of millioners” El Gouna. According to investigation, Olga Kiyashko, whose name matches the name of Zelenskyy’s mother-in-law, owns a VIP estate worth $5 million. Political scientist Abdulrahman Alabbassy draws a conclusion that the president’s relative purchased the estate with the humanitarian aid funds allocated to Ukraine by the West to repel Russian military aggression.
https://medium.com/@deborahlarmstrong/zelenskys-5-million-villa-in-egypt-fe3f80f76940
Egyptian investigative journalist has discovered a document showing that the family of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky purchased a luxurious villa in El Gouna, which is known locally as “the city of millionaires.” The document reveals that the VIP estate, worth $5 million, is owned by Olga Kiyashko, whose name matches that of Zelensky’s mother-in-law.
El Gouna, which is thought of as the Venice of Egypt, is located on the coast of the Red Sea. The luxury villa sports lavish interior decorations and a swimming pool, panoramic views of the sea, and beach access. Next door to the villa is the estate of Angelina Jolie, the world-famous Hollywood actress.
The journalist who found the documents, Mohammad Al-Alawi, an Egyptian blogger, recorded a video near the villa stating that news of the villa’s purchase came from reliable sources. The video is in Arabic with English subtitles, and you can watch it on Al-Alawi’s YouTube channel. It includes more views of the luxury estate.
https://www.voiceofeurope.com/luxurious-villa-linked-to-ukrainian-president-volodymyr-zelenskys-family-opens-on-egyptian-coast/
The investigation found that the $5 million VIP estate belongs to Olga Kiyashko, whose name is the same as Zelensky’s mother-in-law. Political analyst Abdulrahman Alabbasi suggests that this property acquisition could divert Western humanitarian aid funds intended to counter Russia’s military moves. This magnificent estate, located on the Red Sea in the elite resort of El Gouna, often referred to as the Egyptian Venice, is a luxurious villa with exquisite interior design and a private pool.
The villa is located on the seafront, offers breathtaking sea views and direct access to the beach. Egypt is known for its luxury properties, aimed at wealthy citizens and foreign buyers, which makes such a villa unremarkable, except for an important detail: its new owner, Olga Kiyashko, bears the full name of the mother of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife. This connection was revealed by the Egyptian blogger and journalist Mohammed Al-Alawi, armed with exclusive finds. A video filmed by Al-Alawi in close proximity to a villa registered in the name of Zelensky’s mother-in-law highlights this discovery. The reliability of the information is confirmed by verified sources of Al-Alawi.
(https://external-preview.redd.it/ru-pov-zelenskys-5-million-villa-in-egypt-medium-v0-Snf7rXOQr8v9zOUWvfYnjFJqlKcTrSpFwfe95Vs93es.jpg?auto=webp&s=7aaafb1c80b70c638049333e32bee34b8b6a5122)
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So the Republicans are getting right on that, right? Investigating the allegations that the money was used to buy it to confirm or deny if it’s true? And if true, we cut off all aid to Ukraine and demand repayment. They’re getting right on that, right?
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you crack me up....
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How long will it be until Zelensky and family are reported to "escape" the Russians and exile themselves to Switzerland, or Cayman Islands, etc., to enjoy their hundreds of millions of our hard earned tax dollars?
When will the American people see reality and wake up?
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How long will it be until Zelensky and family are reported to "escape" the Russians and exile themselves to Switzerland, or Cayman Islands, etc., to enjoy their hundreds of millions of our hard earned tax dollars?
When will the American people see reality and wake up?
I say we hold our first PS Annual Meeting at that villa. We already paid for it.
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Who only knows what else he owns, Zelensky has been raking in billions at our expense. The comedian will get the last laugh.
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He still gets a tiny bit of credit from me for staying in a war zone. If he retreats to that villa he will become 100% scum to me. As opposed to somewhat less than 100 right now.
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Who only knows what else he owns, Zelensky has been raking in billions at our expense. The comedian will get the last laugh.
Can you cite any sources to back that up? I have only found refutations, but perhaps I am not looking in the right places.
One point though, many of my conservative friends don't like Ukraine because of Biden. Just because Biden took bribes from them and coerced them doesn't mean they are as bad as Biden. I blame Biden for most of the bad name Ukraine gets.
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Can you cite any sources to back that up? I have only found refutations, but perhaps I am not looking in the right places.
One point though, many of my conservative friends don't like Ukraine because of Biden. Just because Biden took bribes from them and coerced them doesn't mean they are as bad as Biden. I blame Biden for most of the bad name Ukraine gets.
Ukraine corruption has been rampant for decades. We have a government sending billions, and when asked for an accounting of the money, we are told no.
Ukraine corruption is nothing new. Why do you think the Bidens and other politicians flock there for "business opportunities"?
If you could do minimal research, such as I did on Zelensky's new vacation mansion, you'll find there is a river of dirty money flowing through Ukraine
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If you could do minimal research, such as I did on Zelensky's new vacation mansion, you'll find there is a river of dirty money flowing through Ukraine
Including chemical weapons labs.
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How long will it be until Zelensky and family are reported to "escape" the Russians and exile themselves to Switzerland, or Cayman Islands, etc., to enjoy their hundreds of millions of our hard earned tax dollars?
When will the American people see reality and wake up?
Um, he was expected flee after Russian paratroopers attempted to capture or kill him on the first day. The US and UK both offered to evacuate him and his family. His family left but he stayed. There have been several foiled attempts since then to have him and the top leadership of Ukraine killed.
Currently Zelensky has proven guilty only of imagined acts in the minds of people whose motivations are dubious.
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Including chemical weapons labs.
And bio weapons labs.
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Who only knows what else he owns, Zelensky has been raking in billions at our expense. The comedian will get the last laugh.
Or a CIA hit or by the equivalent Russian agency to the old KGB.
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Currently Zelensky has proven guilty only of imagined acts in the minds of people whose motivations are dubious.
Let's see, Dictator Zelensky has censored the media in Ukraine, arrested opposition leaders, dissolved opposing political parties, has tried to arrest and prosecute the former president of Ukraine, has shut down churches.
And suspended elections.
And snatching citizens from their homes and off the street to conscript them into the military against their will?
Yea, he's a guy "for democracy". ::)
https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-accused-censorship-over-ukraine-media-law-1770958
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110577439/zelenskyy-has-consolidated-ukraines-tv-outlets-and-dissolved-rival-political-par
https://news.yahoo.com/zelensky-nationalizes-tv-news-restricts-173820471.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/world/europe/ukraine-poroshenko-zelensky.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62202078
https://thehill.com/homenews/3795160-zelensky-signs-controversial-law-expanding-government-power-to-regulate-media/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10633237/President-Zelensky-suspends-11-political-parties-Ukraine-Kremlin-collusion-claims.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/tucker-carlson-claims-ukraine-president-dictator-why-not-backing-russisa-2022-2?op=1
https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-defender-democracy-opponent-religious-freedom-opinion-1766012
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Um, he was expected flee after Russian paratroopers attempted to capture or kill him on the first day. The US and UK both offered to evacuate him and his family. His family left but he stayed. There have been several foiled attempts since then to have him and the top leadership of Ukraine killed.
Currently Zelensky has proven guilty only of imagined acts in the minds of people whose motivations are dubious.
Hence the credit I give him for staying in the war zone. It is true he is a target and he chooses not to run. As for enriching himself from our money, I neither believe nor disbelieve that. I’m sure a lot does go to fight the war and that is where I have a huge problem with Zelensky. The first couple of months was a fight for Kyiv and hence Ukraine as a country. That I supported. But after Russia gave up on that and focused on Donbas, that was the time to negotiate an end.
Instead of allowing the people of Donbas to vote on their fate - many favor Russia - and trading Donbas for peace, Zelensky started censoring and arresting them. And because Biden (us taxpayers) are funding the war, Zelensky chooses to continue the fight for over a year now at a basic standstill with troops on both sides fed into a meat grinder. It would be different if there was any possibility of winning but it’s clear to all there isn’t. Russia can keep this up forever. Ukraine only can as long as the U.S. funds them. And so with no progress on the war front but continued money flow, it certainly makes it appear as if Zelensky is skimming it for himself and likes the income stream.
Whether that’s true or not becomes less important than the appearance of impropriety. Which reduces the chances of any other nation stepping up to help him, say for example, nations that themselves fear Russian invasion.
Sounds like how Trump would handle it. Time to let Europe fund their own defense. Maybe they can go back to cheap fossil fuel and quit spending money on “green” energy because that retarded little snot nosed brat Greta told them to.
The claim that if we negotiate an end to this war then Russia will just try again in the future or try to invade a NATO nation is irrelevant. Did we not learn from Vietnam that the domino theory didn’t actually happen? And even if it does, so what? We can never guarantee permanent safety. All we can ever do is get a temporary peace until the next shoe drops, and it always will eventually. But we can try to keep peace as long as possible like Reagan - peace through strength.
If this country can’t keep Russia fearing all out nuclear war because they see we would crush them, then humanity is fucked anyway. More important than funding Ukraine is beefing up our own stockpiles or developing a real Star Wars. Most important of all is a president who intimidates Russia, instead of being laughed at. We need Trump more than ever right now. As for after Trump? We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there.
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I'm sure Zelensky made all of his money by trading in the stock market.
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Let's see, Dictator Zelensky has censored the media in Ukraine, arrested opposition leaders, dissolved opposing political parties, has tried to arrest and prosecute the former president of Ukraine, has shut down churches.
And suspended elections.
And snatching citizens from their homes and off the street to conscript them into the military against their will?
Yea, he's a guy "for democracy". ::)
https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-accused-censorship-over-ukraine-media-law-1770958
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110577439/zelenskyy-has-consolidated-ukraines-tv-outlets-and-dissolved-rival-political-par
https://news.yahoo.com/zelensky-nationalizes-tv-news-restricts-173820471.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/world/europe/ukraine-poroshenko-zelensky.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62202078
https://thehill.com/homenews/3795160-zelensky-signs-controversial-law-expanding-government-power-to-regulate-media/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10633237/President-Zelensky-suspends-11-political-parties-Ukraine-Kremlin-collusion-claims.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/tucker-carlson-claims-ukraine-president-dictator-why-not-backing-russisa-2022-2?op=1
https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-defender-democracy-opponent-religious-freedom-opinion-1766012
Those are absolutely reasonable attacks. Claims of imagined future millions or billions in riches are not reasonable.
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Those are absolutely reasonable attacks. Claims of imagined future millions or billions in riches are not reasonable.
Right. Explain the mansion in his MIL's name. Was Momma that wealthy?
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He still gets a tiny bit of credit from me for staying in a war zone. If he retreats to that villa he will become 100% scum to me. As opposed to somewhat less than 100 right now.
Do we know that he has stayed in the war zone? It’s pretty easy for him to leave and hop a plane to Washington to lobby Congress a few times.
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Right. Explain the mansion in his MIL's name. Was Momma that wealthy?
The claims of the original Punch story are disputed because they can't be verified:
https://blackdotresearch.sg/zelenskyy-mother-in-law-mansion/ (https://blackdotresearch.sg/zelenskyy-mother-in-law-mansion/)
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The claims of the original Punch story are disputed because they can't be verified:
https://blackdotresearch.sg/zelenskyy-mother-in-law-mansion/ (https://blackdotresearch.sg/zelenskyy-mother-in-law-mansion/)
Ah, OK. Fact checking with a Singapore website now are we? ::) You had to dig that deep to find someone?
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Do we know that he has stayed in the war zone? It’s pretty easy for him to leave and hop a plane to Washington to lobby Congress a few times.
By stay I don't mean uninterruptedly. Sure maybe he takes a trip somewhere. But he's living there, or at least did when Russia was attacking Kyiv. That's when I was paying attention. I suppose it's possible he staged the videos somewhere else and lied and was actually in a bunker somewhere in New Zealand or something. But I don't think so.
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https://donsurber.substack.com/p/surprise-surprise-he-is-a-dictator
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https://donsurber.substack.com/p/surprise-surprise-he-is-a-dictator
Didn’t you hear? He’s a martyr! We need to support Ukraine at all costs because ……. First Ukraine, then all of Eastern Europe. You know, almost like Vietnam and Korea. Smh.
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https://donsurber.substack.com/p/surprise-surprise-he-is-a-dictator
Martial law in Ukraine would have expired by now had it not been extended by Ukraine's parliament. Zelensky does not have the authority to unilaterally extend it. Ukrainian law requires their parliament to vote to extend it every 90 days or it expires. That is what they have been doing. And as I've previously noted, Ukraine's constitution precludes elections during a state of martial law - a clause the predates Zelensky by many years.
Here's a deeper explanation of the money aspect:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4)
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Martial law in Ukraine would have expired by now had it not been extended by Ukraine's parliament. Zelensky does not have the authority to unilaterally extend it. Ukrainian law requires their parliament to vote to extend it every 90 days or it expires. That is what they have been doing. And as I've previously noted, Ukraine's constitution precludes elections during a state of martial law - a clause the predates Zelensky by many years.
Here's a deeper explanation of the money aspect:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4)
Say every word of that article is true.
“ $135 million was needed to carry out the election during wartime. As Rugg mentions, the operation would require election observers to be sent to the frontline to ensure voting was fair.”
We should spend that $135 million to send non-partisan observers to PA, GA, WI, AZ and MI to oversee our 2024 election to ensure our election is fair. Ukraine’s election integrity isn’t our problem.
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Martial law in Ukraine would have expired by now had it not been extended by Ukraine's parliament. Zelensky does not have the authority to unilaterally extend it. Ukrainian law requires their parliament to vote to extend it every 90 days or it expires. That is what they have been doing. And as I've previously noted, Ukraine's constitution precludes elections during a state of martial law - a clause the predates Zelensky by many years.
Here's a deeper explanation of the money aspect:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4)
They probably extend it so they can all get their cut.
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Martial law in Ukraine would have expired by now had it not been extended by Ukraine's parliament. Zelensky does not have the authority to unilaterally extend it. Ukrainian law requires their parliament to vote to extend it every 90 days or it expires. That is what they have been doing. And as I've previously noted, Ukraine's constitution precludes elections during a state of martial law - a clause the predates Zelensky by many years.
Here's a deeper explanation of the money aspect:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/fact-check-is-zelensky-refusing-to-hold-ukraine-election-unless-us-pays/ar-AA1fW7b4)
When a dictator arrest his political foes and outlaws opposition parties, it’s rather easy to get parliament to go along with him.
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When a dictator arrest his political foes and outlaws opposition parties, it’s rather easy to get parliament to go along with him.
I think you're supposed to repeat your claims three times to make them come true.
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I think you're supposed to repeat your claims three times to make them come true.
Did I forget to say “He’s trying to save his democracy”?
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Did I forget to say “He’s trying to save his democracy”?
Sounds familiar. >:(
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🚀 We haven’t had a real Proxy War update in a few weeks, apart from noting the steady dribble of the changing narrative. So let me bring you up to speed. In summary: Ukraine went all out, Russia responded in a totally predictable and very smart way, and then Zelensky hired a cleaner.
Media has not covered Ukraine’s “big push” into the south, which started last week. They appear — finally — to be throwing everything in the arsenal at breaking through the Russian defensive lines, with the well-known goal of cutting off the Crimean peninsula. This is supposed to give the Ukrainians strong negotiating leverage or something.
But the Ukrainians remain bogged down in their failing counteroffensive. In the south. So, Russia appears to be starting a significant new offensive in the north. That’s the kind of move you can make when you have a lot more men than your opponent.
Ouch! Ukraine now has to decide whether to move forces out the southern theater to defend against the new Russian incursion in the north. Meanwhile, tick-tock, tick-tock, the time is running out before U.S. election season begins in earnest later this fall, when Ukrainian winter weather makes counteroffensives even harder, and when the democrats aren’t going to want to be stapled to any so-called “quagmire” in Ukraine.
image 6.png
The Hill said it would be a “really big deal” if the Russian northern offensive gets any traction:
image 7.png
For even more context, there’s a perfectly good reason why the narrative is shifting and why the warlike Establishment Media has suddenly gotten all cynical about Ukraine’s chances. Take a look at this recent map showing all of Ukraine’s progress since the start of the CounterOffensive™ three months ago.
After billions of dollars worth of U.S. and NATO war material has been consumed, and after who knows how many Ukrainian lives have been lost, only the teeny-tiny blue areas have been recaptured from the wily Russians:
image 8.png
And then, what do you know? Yesterday Zelensky suddenly and unexpectedly fired his top war leader. Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov, who has been in charge of the Proxy War since day one, is out. What’s even more interesting is who is in. Here’s the Hill’s headline:
image 9.png
The Hill did not explain the need for the change, of course, and provided no detail whatsoever:
In a statement, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said he thinks the ministry “needs new approaches” and noted that Minister of Defense Oleksiy Reznikov had served in the position for 550 days of “full-scale war.”
But, what kind of new approach? The replacement Defense Minister, Rustem Umerov, 41, is the current head of State Property Fund (a government agency that sells state assets to private investors), has a background in telecommunications and finance — not military — and is an Uzbekistani muslim. He wasn’t born or raised in Ukraine.
So why him? Umerov is a dealmaker.
The New York Times reported that Umerov was the chief Ukrainian negotiator of the deal with Russia allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea, and has also been a prominent negotiator on ongoing prisoner exchange dealmaking with Russia. Shortly after the war started, Umerov — who attended early peace negotiations in March — told the BBC he was determined "to find political and diplomatic resolution to this brutal invasion.”
A political and diplomatic resolution with Russia.
So. If the incoming Minster of Defense has a background, not in military, but in negotiation and finance, what do we suppose they expect him to negotiate?
The obvious answer, which none of the newspapers I reviewed had the stones to even suggest, is a peace deal.
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Huh.
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Huh.
The Ukrainians want to I make a deal with Russia to stop the hostilities and end the war
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The Ukrainians want to I make a deal with Russia to stop the hostilities and end the war
Yea, but that will kill a big chunk of the money laundering, plus make it difficult for Zelensky to skim.
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The Ukrainians want to I make a deal with Russia to stop the hostilities and end the war
The Russians aren't interested in any deals that grant Ukraine anything of value. They want control over Ukraine much like have over Belarus. Definitely no deals involving western security guarantees of substance to Ukraine.
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The Russians aren't interested in any deals that grant Ukraine anything of value. They want control over Ukraine much like have over Belarus. Definitely no deals involving western security guarantees of substance to Ukraine.
We don’t actually know that as no meetings are being held to negotiate a truce. And the FJB regime doesn’t want peace talks.
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The Ukrainians want to I make a deal with Russia to stop the hostilities and end the war
Yeah, that would be a guy in Bakhmut and two more in Mariupol.
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The Russians aren't interested in any deals that grant Ukraine anything of value. They want control over Ukraine much like have over Belarus. Definitely no deals involving western security guarantees of substance to Ukraine.
I didn't say the Russians were going to make a deal. I said the Ukrainians WANTED to make a deal.
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I didn't say the Russians were going to make a deal. I said the Ukrainians WANTED to make a deal.
The Russians wouldn't even keep the grain deal they had with Ukraine. Prior to that the Russians violated a cease-fire in 2014 and seized Crimea. To say that Ukraine doesn't trust the Russians to abide by any deal would be an understatement. IMHO it is a big misread to think this change in command is a prelude to a deal.
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I didn't say the Russians were going to make a deal. I said the Ukrainians WANTED to make a deal.
I don't know where you get your news but from all I have heard, the Ukrainians want the war to end, but not if it means making a deal to give up part of their country and just let the Russians off scott free.
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I’ve had Ukrainians argue with me on Twitter that they want the money to keep coming so they can win the war but I bet the Ukrainian soldier I saw getting his leg blown off probably wishes it had already ended.
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I’ve had Ukrainians argue with me on Twitter that they want the money to keep coming so they can win the war but I bet the Ukrainian soldier I saw getting his leg blown off probably wishes it had already ended.
For those not sent to the meat grinder, yes, the war is good and profitable. For those who are rounded up and conscripted they would like nothing more than a truce.
On the Russian side, there are many that want this war to end.
Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.-
Herbert Hoover
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https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OVa_IxshQugJ:https://dnyuz.com/2023/09/04/where-is-the-money-military-graft-becomes-a-headache-for-ukraine/&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
‘Where Is the Money?’ Military Graft Becomes a Headache for Ukraine
The removal of Ukraine’s minister of defense after a flurry of reports of graft and financial mismanagement in his department underscores a pivotal challenge for President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership: stamping out the corruption that had been widespread in Ukraine for years.
Official corruption was a topic that had been mostly taboo throughout the first year of the war, as Ukrainians rallied around their government in a fight for national survival. But Mr. Zelensky’s announcement Sunday night that he was replacing the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, elevated the issue to the highest level of Ukrainian politics.
It comes at a pivotal moment in the war, as Ukraine prosecutes a counteroffensive in the country’s south and east that relies heavily on Western allies for military assistance. These allies have, since the beginning of the war, pressured Mr. Zelensky’s government to ensure that Ukrainian officials were not siphoning off some of the billions of dollars in aid that was flowing into Kyiv.
Just last week, the United States’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met with three high-ranking Ukrainian officials to discuss efforts to stamp out wartime corruption. It comes as some lawmakers in the United States have used graft as an argument for limiting military aid to Ukraine.
Mr. Zelensky has responded to the pressure from allies and criticism at home with a flurry of anticorruption initiatives, not all of them welcomed by experts on government transparency. The most controversial has been a proposal to use martial law powers to punish corruption as treason.
Mr. Reznikov, who has held a range of positions during Mr. Zelensky’s tenure, submitted his resignation Monday morning. He has not been personally implicated in the allegations of mismanaged military contracts. But the widening investigations at his ministry posed a first significant challenge for the government on anti-corruption measures since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“The question here is, ‘Where is the money?’” said Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center in Ukraine, a group dedicated to rooting out public graft that is now focused on war profiteering.
“Corruption can kill,” Ms. Kaleniuk said. “Depending on how effective we are in guarding the public funds, the soldier will either have a weapon or not have a weapon.”
At one point this year, about $980 million in weapons contracts had missed their delivery dates, according to government figures, and some prepayments for weapons had vanished into oversees accounts of weapons dealers, according to reports made to Parliament. Though precise details have not emerged, the irregularities suggest that procurement officials in the ministry did not vet suppliers, or allowed weapons dealers to walk off with money without delivering the armaments.
Ukrainian media reports have pointed to overpayments for basic supplies for the army, such as food and winter coats.
The public revelations of mismanagement so far have not directly touched foreign weapons transferred to the Ukrainian Army, or Western aid money, but they are nonetheless piercing the sense of unquestioning support for the government that Ukrainians had exhibited throughout the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Two officials with the Defense Ministry — a deputy minister and the head of procurement — were arrested during the winter over the reports of the purchase of overpriced eggs for the army. Mr. Zelensky fired the heads of military recruitment offices last month after allegations emerged that some took bribes from people seeking to avoid the draft.
His proposed initiative to treat corruption as treason set off a wave of criticism that it could lead to an abuse of martial law powers.
Oleksii Goncharenko, a member of Parliament in the opposition European Solidarity party, said of Mr. Zelensky’s record, “I cannot praise his efforts in fighting corruption during the war period.”
Government officials acknowledge that some military contracts failed to produce weaponry or ammunition, and that some money has vanished. But they say that most of the problems arose in the chaotic early months of the invasion last year and have since been remedied.
Mr. Reznikov, the departing defense minister, said last week that he was confident the ministry would return prepayments to suppliers that have gone missing.
Military spending now accounts for nearly half of Ukraine’s national budget, and the reports of contracting scandals point to a shift in the sources of public corruption.
Before the full-scale invasion, the primary source of embezzlement had been poorly run state companies, of which there were more than 3,000 on the government’s balance sheet. Money was siphoned off through myriad schemes by wealthy insiders, while the national budget, propped up by foreign aid, absorbed the losses.
Anticorruption groups say the huge influxes of funds to support the war has prompted them to shift their focus to military spending.
Ukrainian investigative journalists have highlighted overpayment for basic supplies for the army, like eggs for 17 hryvnia, or 47 cents, each — far above prevailing prices, according to a report in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, a Ukrainian newspaper. Canned beans were bought from Turkey at more than the price for the same cans in Ukrainian supermarkets, the newspaper reported, even though the military would be expected to purchase at less than retail prices.
The ministry also bought thousands of coats that turned out to be insufficiently insulated for Ukraine’s bitter winters.
Western donors are closely watching how Ukraine tackles the problem, the chairwoman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s anticorruption committee, Anastasia Radina, said in an interview.
Particularly worrying is the proposal to punish corruption as treason because it could allow the domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., which is under direct control of the president, to investigate official corruption.
The meeting last week with Mr. Sullivan, the American national security adviser, included the heads of a specialized investigative agency, a prosecutorial office and a court that were set up after Ukraine’s Western political pivot in 2014, with help from the United States and international lenders such as the International Monetary Fund. These are the Ukrainian agencies that could lose power under Mr. Zelensky’s treason proposal.
Western governments are wary of the agencies’ potential weakening, Ms. Radina said, adding that if the proposal goes forward, “most likely they will object.”
But, overall, Ms. Radina, a member of Mr. Zelensky’s governing Servant of the People party, defended the government’s efforts to fend off graft in wartime.
The arrest this past weekend of Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s richest men, was seen as a sign of the drive to curb oligarchs’ political influence. Suspected of fraud and money laundering, Mr. Kolomoisky supported Mr. Zelensky’s 2019 election campaign, but since the war began, the president has appeared to break all ties with him.
In other crackdowns this year, investigators pursued one of their highest-profile prosecutions ever for bribery, against the chief of Ukraine’s Supreme Court, who was ousted and arrested in May. In addition, a deputy economy minister is on trial, accused of embezzling from humanitarian aid funds.
That high-level cases of corruption are coming to light is positive, said Andrii Borovyk, director of Transparency International in Ukraine, rather than an indication of a nation bogged down by insider dealing; it shows that the country can fight the war and graft at the same time, he said.
“Scandals are good,” he said. “The war,” Mr. Borovyk added, “cannot be an excuse to stop fighting corruption.”
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https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:OVa_IxshQugJ:https://dnyuz.com/2023/09/04/where-is-the-money-military-graft-becomes-a-headache-for-ukraine/&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
‘Where Is the Money?’ Military Graft Becomes a Headache for Ukraine
Huh. I’ve been calling it grift all this time but apparently it’s graft.
https://archinfos.com/graft-vs-grift-understanding-the-difference-a-story-of-deception-and-clarity/
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Huh. I’ve been calling it grift all this time but apparently it’s graft.
https://archinfos.com/graft-vs-grift-understanding-the-difference-a-story-of-deception-and-clarity/
Grift, graft, it’s stealing taxpayer citizens money to enriched theirselves.
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https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1699532109352747384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1699532109352747384%7Ctwgr%5E77c4845052ead78f7b9a9509836dd36f135f22a8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frantingly.com%2F
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https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1699532109352747384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1699532109352747384%7Ctwgr%5E77c4845052ead78f7b9a9509836dd36f135f22a8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frantingly.com%2F
Consider the alternatives that Blinken could have announced:
"We stand with Ukraine till December 31st, 2023." (or some arbitrary date)
"We stand with Ukraine till we've spent another $10 billion and not a penny more."
"We think Ukraine should cede to Russia all the land they not only occupy but that which they claim and refuse to further support Ukraine."
And so on.
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Consider the alternatives that Blinken could have announced:
"We stand with Ukraine till December 31st, 2023." (or some arbitrary date)
"We stand with Ukraine till we've spent another $10 billion and not a penny more."
"We think Ukraine should cede to Russia all the land they not only occupy but that which they claim and refuse to further support Ukraine."
And so on.
Or... Fuck the corrupt ukraine regime.
Our money has not been properly spent... and not another fucking dime.
the regime can fund their private villas and numbered personal bank accounts elsewhere.
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Here's how I see it. Putin is trying to plug up historic invasion routes. Russia has been invaded multiple times in its history, the Soviet Union had all those blocked. Putin wants that again, and he isn't alone. Had his quick war with Ukraine succeeded his next venture would have involved Poland, a NATO ally. It would have involved us.
From what we now know the conflict would have been quick, asymmetric, and decisive with the Russians losing. Now here's the really dangerous part. The Russians would have a choice at that point, either bring the soldiers home or start using nuclear weapons. This is now existential for the Russians, they're thinking about survival and potential invasion, and I think at that point their nuclear weapons become a viable choice for them. And once things go nuclear they get really bad really fast.
Better we give Ukraine lots and lots of weapons to fight the Russians. Better they go down fighting Ukraine than fighting us. Whatever we give the Ukrainians is money well spent in my view.
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Here's how I see it. Putin is trying to plug up historic invasion routes. Russia has been invaded multiple times in its history, the Soviet Union had all those blocked. Putin wants that again, and he isn't alone. Had his quick war with Ukraine succeeded his next venture would have involved Poland, a NATO ally. It would have involved us.
From what we now know the conflict would have been quick, asymmetric, and decisive with the Russians losing. Now here's the really dangerous part. The Russians would have a choice at that point, either bring the soldiers home or start using nuclear weapons. This is now existential for the Russians, they're thinking about survival and potential invasion, and I think at that point their nuclear weapons become a viable choice for them. And once things go nuclear they get really bad really fast.
Better we give Ukraine lots and lots of weapons to fight the Russians. Better they go down fighting Ukraine than fighting us. Whatever we give the Ukrainians is money well spent in my view.
With no accountability? Just send money and "trust" they use it as intended?
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Here's how I see it. Putin is trying to plug up historic invasion routes. Russia has been invaded multiple times in its history, the Soviet Union had all those blocked. Putin wants that again, and he isn't alone. Had his quick war with Ukraine succeeded his next venture would have involved Poland, a NATO ally. It would have involved us.
From what we now know the conflict would have been quick, asymmetric, and decisive with the Russians losing. Now here's the really dangerous part. The Russians would have a choice at that point, either bring the soldiers home or start using nuclear weapons. This is now existential for the Russians, they're thinking about survival and potential invasion, and I think at that point their nuclear weapons become a viable choice for them. And once things go nuclear they get really bad really fast.
Better we give Ukraine lots and lots of weapons to fight the Russians. Better they go down fighting Ukraine than fighting us. Whatever we give the Ukrainians is money well spent in my view.
That is such a massive leap that you think Putin would immediately invade Poland, or any other NATO ally.
Putin is quite aware of MAD, and he’s not stupid.
Have we not learned our lessons by getting into two proxy wars in the last 75 years? Neither resulted in a victory for the US.
I would rather the 1/10th of a TRILLION dollars sent to Ukraine be spent on fortifying our NATO presence than having it go down the shitter in Ukraine.
How is it that democrats have become the hawks when it comes to willingness to spend limitless money to protect a non-ally?
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liberals LOVE the money to be stolen through war spending.
vietnam, afghanistan, south america, africa, panama...
proxy wars are profitable for scoundrels of the democrat persuasion.
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liberals LOVE the money to be stolen through war spending.
vietnam, afghanistan, south america, africa, panama...
proxy wars are profitable for scoundrels of the democrat persuasion.
The UniParty within the beltway all profit from proxy wars. War is big business for them, and very profitable.
Just one of the reasons the previous administration was so hated by the UniParty.
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Here's how I see it. Putin is trying to plug up historic invasion routes. Russia has been invaded multiple times in its history, the Soviet Union had all those blocked. Putin wants that again, and he isn't alone. Had his quick war with Ukraine succeeded his next venture would have involved Poland, a NATO ally. It would have involved us.
From what we now know the conflict would have been quick, asymmetric, and decisive with the Russians losing. Now here's the really dangerous part. The Russians would have a choice at that point, either bring the soldiers home or start using nuclear weapons. This is now existential for the Russians, they're thinking about survival and potential invasion, and I think at that point their nuclear weapons become a viable choice for them. And once things go nuclear they get really bad really fast.
Better we give Ukraine lots and lots of weapons to fight the Russians. Better they go down fighting Ukraine than fighting us. Whatever we give the Ukrainians is money well spent in my view.
Or we could have elected Trump to a second term and kept Putin too scared of Trump to do anything. Trump literally told him, “You invade Ukraine I’ll drop a bomb on Moscow.” That Putin refrained from acting shows he doesn’t want nuclear confrontation with the West anymore than we do.
He sees how weak Biden is. You’re right that he wants to “plug the holes” (he wants the old USSR back) but he’s not stupid enough to invade a NATO nation, hopefully.
The west fucked up when we broke our promise not to move NATO “one inch to the east” but the solution is NOT for America to become weak. Putin needs to fear direct confrontation enough to forestall his ambitions about recreating the USSR which was more or less working until we got a half dead dried up demented puppet in the White House.
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...until we got a half dead dried up demented puppet in the White House.
this one?
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https://twitter.com/JoeyMannarinoUS/status/1699875389059776669
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https://twitter.com/JoeyMannarinoUS/status/1699875389059776669
And if you want accountability for these funds, you’re a Putin-loving traitor.
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https://twitter.com/JoeyMannarinoUS/status/1699875389059776669
I'd like to know how much came back to Democrats and went to Zelensky personally. That’s a LOT of effing money.
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I'd like to know how much came back to Democrats and went to Zelensky personally. That’s a LOT of effing money.
I think a lot more went to Democrats (and Republicans) than to Zelensky.
I also believe that in spite of all the charges of Ukrainian corruption, most of the corruption is on our side. Yes, they have a history of corruption. But they have been doing a whole lot more about trying to clean it up that we have even thought about.
Which is why I support Ukraine. I think we could learn a lot about anti-corruption from them.
And I also think they could teach our liberals a lot about just how nice communism and Russia are NOT.
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I'd like to know how much came back to Democrats and went to Zelensky personally. That’s a LOT of effing money.
Sam Bankman-Fried was involved in laundering money through Ukraine via FTX, with much of it benefiting the democrat party.
Funny how that story vanished.
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I think a lot more went to Democrats (and Republicans) than to Zelensky.
I also believe that in spite of all the charges of Ukrainian corruption, most of the corruption is on our side. Yes, they have a history of corruption. But they have been doing a whole lot more about trying to clean it up that we have even thought about.
Which is why I support Ukraine. I think we could learn a lot about anti-corruption from them.
And I also think they could teach our liberals a lot about just how nice communism and Russia are NOT.
I think this is quite a stretch (after your first sentence.) The corruption of Ukraine is legend, and it has not gotten any better in recent decades. In fact, I’ll argue the Biden’s and FedGov have aided and abetted corruption within Ukraine. Why? Because such corruption serves a useful purpose for the US.
And in fact Biden literally announced it with this bravado. “Well son of a bitch! He got fired.”
https://youtu.be/UXA--dj2-CY?si=tV0_7e5m_jIj55JT
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I think this is quite a stretch (after your first sentence.) The corruption of Ukraine is legend, and it has not gotten any better in recent decades. In fact, I’ll argue the Biden’s and FedGov have aided and abetted corruption within Ukraine. Why? Because such corruption serves a useful purpose for the US.
And in fact Biden literally announced it with this bravado. “Well son of a bitch! He got fired.”
https://youtu.be/UXA--dj2-CY?si=tV0_7e5m_jIj55JT
All that was before Zelensky. Zelensky campaigned on cleaning up the corruption. I think he got drawn into it instead. Much like U.S. politicians get drawn into the swamp after they move to DC. It’s like the gravity of a black hole. You start with good intentions but the force pulling you is way too strong once you get too close to the center.
And then when Russia invaded, Zelensky lost any remaining ability to deal with corruption as he quickly saw it was the way to gain the massive amounts of money and weapons he’d need to stave off Russia. How much he unfairly skims off the top I am in no position to say. Even if he skims none, his people do, and we can’t afford to keep funding his war. My bigger problem with him is his refusal to try to negotiate an end to it.
I 100% agree with Biden and our Fed Gov’s corruption. That’s totally out of control.
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I think this is quite a stretch (after your first sentence.) The corruption of Ukraine is legend, and it has not gotten any better in recent decades. In fact, I’ll argue the Biden’s and FedGov have aided and abetted corruption within Ukraine. Why? Because such corruption serves a useful purpose for the US.
And in fact Biden literally announced it with this bravado. “Well son of a bitch! He got fired.”
https://youtu.be/UXA--dj2-CY?si=tV0_7e5m_jIj55JT
If you think about it, you agreed with me.
When a giant (USA) intimidates a midget (UKRAINE), how much blame do you assign the midget?
I agree that Ukraine has a history of corruption. But Zelensky was elected on a platform of fighting corruption, and he has sacked several leaders for corruption. What more do you want from him?
I do NOT believe the theories that Zelensky has taken billions in bribes. Prove me Wrong, with more than editorial hit pieces!
The part of your post that I highlighted indicates to me that most of the current corruption charges are due to BIDEN; not Zelensky.
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(https://i.imgflip.com/7yii7t.jpg)
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(https://i.imgflip.com/7yii7t.jpg)
Oh. Now I believe!
That sure is indisputable proof.
Speaking of kool aid . . .
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I see in the news that Elon Musk refused a request by Ukraine (or the US?) to expand Starlink coverage over part of the Black Sea to allow Ukraine to make remotely controlled drone attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet. It is claimed that he was convinced that to do so would precipitate a nuclear war or at least a wider escalation. Well within his right to do as he wishes, but some people are angry and seem to think he shouldn't be allowed to exercise his rights over a company he built and controls. They seem to overlook that he was never under any obligation to provide any connectivity to Ukraine. It was a gift at first. Same with making Starlink available in Iran.
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I see in the news that Elon Musk refused a request by Ukraine (or the US?) to expand Starlink coverage over part of the Black Sea to allow Ukraine to make remotely controlled drone attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet. It is claimed that he was convinced that to do so would precipitate a nuclear war or at least a wider escalation. Well within his right to do as he wishes, but some people are angry and seem to think he shouldn't be allowed to exercise his rights over a company he built and controls. They seem to overlook that he was never under any obligation to provide any connectivity to Ukraine. It was a gift at first. Same with making Starlink available in Iran.
Remember when Musk suggested a possible compromise to end the war and he was slammed for it? The guy can’t win.
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I see in the news that Elon Musk refused a request by Ukraine (or the US?) to expand Starlink coverage over part of the Black Sea to allow Ukraine to make remotely controlled drone attacks on the Russian Black Sea fleet. It is claimed that he was convinced that to do so would precipitate a nuclear war or at least a wider escalation. Well within his right to do as he wishes, but some people are angry and seem to think he shouldn't be allowed to exercise his rights over a company he built and controls. They seem to overlook that he was never under any obligation to provide any connectivity to Ukraine. It was a gift at first. Same with making Starlink available in Iran.
The last country to launch a large scale attack on another countries fleet got nuked.
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https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:01W4e0927fsJ:https://dnyuz.com/2023/09/09/in-ukraine-a-u-s-arms-dealer-is-making-a-fortune-and-testing-limits/&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
A half-dozen or so men gathered last month for afternoon drinks at the penthouse bar of the 11 Mirrors, one of Kyiv’s swankiest hotels, to discuss the lucrative business of arming Ukrainian troops.
The group included Ukrainian military and government officials, who are always in the market for explosive shells to lob at invading Russian soldiers. The center of attention was their gregarious host, a Florida-based arms contractor named Marc Morales, who regaled them with stories of his new $10 million yacht, the Trigger Happy, and his search for someone to manage his company’s nine-digit portfolio.
And joining the group was a stout, bearded man who served both the buyers and sellers: Vladimir Koyfman, a chief sergeant in the Ukrainian military whom Mr. Morales pays to arrange meetings with his government contacts. That unusual arrangement, legal experts say, tests the boundaries of American and Ukrainian corruption laws prohibiting payments to government officials.
The meeting, which was recounted by two people in attendance, offered a glimpse at a quiet aspect of the Biden administration’s war strategy. The administration has sent Ukraine more than $40 billion in security aid, including advanced weapons like HIMARS rockets and Patriot missiles. But the Pentagon also relies heavily on little-known arms dealers like Mr. Morales, who have the connections needed to secure ammunition, much of it lower-quality or Soviet-caliber, from around the world.
They operate in a notoriously shadowy, clubby arms trade, an industry made even more opaque as Ukraine rolled back years of anticorruption rules. Arms dealers rushed to the country, backed by billions in foreign aid.
Mr. Morales is among Ukraine’s most important such suppliers. The Pentagon has awarded his company about $1 billion in contracts, mostly for ammunition. And records show he has built a roughly $200 million side business selling to the Ukrainians directly.
In addition to employing Sergeant Koyfman, Mr. Morales hired away a longtime adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, who was fired recently amid concerns over graft and mismanagement. And Mr. Morales’s company has been under investigation by Ukrainian anticorruption authorities over a deal that government officials said was botched.
In that way, the deals with Mr. Morales are reminiscent of Ukraine’s freewheeling past, when arms dealers forged cozy relationships with military officials, contracts were signed in secret and weapons brokers frequently found themselves under investigation. The United States has lectured Ukraine’s leaders for more than a decade about the need to clean up that system.
Mr. Morales, 51, was an unlikely choice as one of the Pentagon’s go-to arms dealers.
The Justice Department indicted him in 2009 on conspiracy and money laundering charges after it said he was caught on tape discussing methods for paying bribes to foreign officials. “You just got to be smarter than the government,” Mr. Morales said on one recording. (F.B.I. agents badly botched the case, and prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges.)
But the war changed the calculus for the Ukrainians and Americans alike. The Biden administration, seeking to arm Ukraine but reluctant to commit troops, needs people like Mr. Morales, who proved in Afghanistan and Syria that he could consistently acquire and deliver weapons.
And Ukrainian officials, with national survival at stake, welcomed back local arms dealers whom, before the war with Russia, they had worked hard to sideline. Early in the war, which began in February 2022, officials scrapped many public procurement and transparency rules and invited private brokers to compete with government buyers. Now, after the firing of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, Ukrainian officials are publicly questioning this weapons-at-any-cost strategy.
Mr. Morales declined to be interviewed. Bryan Van Brunt, the general counsel for Mr. Morales’s company, Global Ordnance, said the company followed the law. “Contrary to what we may see in the movies, long-term success depends upon knowing, fully respecting, and following the rules of all countries involved,” he wrote in an email.
Sergeant Koyfman, a Ukrainian American with years of experience as an adviser to Ukraine’s national guard, enlisted when Russia invaded, documents reviewed by The New York Times show. His exact military duties are unclear. He told The Times that he is a chief sergeant in the Ukrainian territorial defense forces, where he supervises and trains a cadre of soldiers. “We are fighters,” he said.
One government official said Mr. Koyfman is a key person to see about weapons, though it was not clear whether that was because of his military position or his role in Global Ordnance.
For Global Ordnance, Sergeant Koyfman manages contractors in Ukraine and “sets up meetings between our staff and the Ukraine Ministry of Defense,” Mr. Van Brunt said.
Sergeant Koyfman said his military work is unpaid. Mr. Van Brunt was adamant that one job had nothing to do with the other. “Global does not pay for access,” he said. “Not before. Not now. Not ever.” Sergeant Koyfman agreed. “We do training on it every year and sign documents about it,” he said.
Mr. Morales hired Sergeant Koyfman in early 2021, in the months before the company signed a deal with Ukraine to buy explosives. Sergeant Koyfman was photographed alongside him at the contract signing. Other photographs show him attending parties that Mr. Morales threw in Tampa, Fla., this past December and May.
Last year, Global Ordnance posted a video on LinkedIn of Sergeant Koyfman, in uniform, standing beside what he said was a mass grave. “We need artillery. We need rockets,” Sergeant Koyfman says. He does not identify himself as an employee of Global Ordnance, which sells rockets and artillery shells.
American law prohibits companies from paying foreign officials to benefit their business. The law does not exempt volunteers like Sergeant Koyfman. What matters is whether they have influence, said Daniel Richman, a Columbia Law School professor.
Ukrainian law generally prohibits military officials from engaging in paid outside work. Whether Sergeant Koyfman is covered by that law depends on his military duties, not merely his rank. Early in the war, Sergeant Koyfman wrote a letter to Global Ordnance saying that he was “not an employee of the government” but rather a “civilian warfighter.”
Mr. Van Brunt said Ukraine’s government knew about Sergeant Koyfman’s work for Global Ordnance. He said the State Department, which regulates American arms dealing overseas, had also vetted Sergeant Koyfman.
Asked to confirm that, a State Department spokesman only added a new wrinkle. He said he would not “confirm the existence of investigations into possible violations of the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations.” The Times never asked about such an investigation.
Separately, Mr. Morales hired Denis Vanash, a longtime adviser to the defense minister. Mr. Vanash left his post early in the war to communicate with the Defense Ministry on behalf of Global Ordnance. Mr. Van Brunt said the ministry confirmed the legality of the hiring.
Mr. Morales’s competitors say that he has an unfair advantage, but it is not his ties to Sergeant Koyfman or Mr. Vanash. It is his ties to the Pentagon.
Arms brokers from around the world are competing for a limited supply of Soviet-style arms, mostly from Eastern Europe, to then sell to Ukraine. With cash pouring in from Washington, Mr. Morales can afford to pay more than his competitors do, several Eastern European arms dealers complained. He then makes good on his American contracts and buys more ammunition on his own to sell to Ukraine directly.
In several cases early in the war, for instance, Mr. Morales outbid rivals to buy explosive shells from Bulgarian arms factories, two competitors said.
Some of the competitors, officials and arms industry figures spoke on the condition of anonymity, either because Ukrainian weapons contracts are classified or because they did not want to get drawn into disputes with Mr. Morales and the Ukrainian government.
There is nothing illegal about outbidding competitors. But it shows how the Pentagon is shaping the global arms market and creating wealthy, politically connected weapons dealers. Ukrainian anti-corruption groups have said the billions of dollars pouring into Eastern European arms markets could shape politics and militaries long after the war’s end.
In some ways, complaints about Mr. Morales boil down to the fact that he is doing a better job than others. He has moved missiles, shells, grenades and armored vehicles to Ukraine from Bulgaria, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, according to government documents and interviews with weapons traders and government officials. And he is far from the only weapons dealer with relationships in the Ukrainian government.
Mr. Morales’s weapons career almost ended after his indictment was unsealed in 2010. In a sting, prosecutors said, an informant recorded him discussing a supposed arms deal involving payments to an official in the West African nation of Gabon.
He left the industry and, for about two years, sold items like chaise longues for his father-in-law’s outdoor furniture company. “He took the time to reflect on his life, his relationship with his wife and family, and with God,” Mr. Van Brunt said.
In 2012, the federal case disintegrated over issues including the F.B.I.’s handling of its informant. A judge chastised the Justice Department.
A year later, Mr. Morales started Global Ordnance as an arms business consultancy, drawing on more than a decade of experience. He bought a defense contractor and delivered arms to the Pentagon for use against terrorist groups like the Islamic State. His network, spanning the United States, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, proved reliable, and the Pentagon soon became his biggest customer. Global Ordnance won more than $78 million in defense contracts from 2016 to 2019, public records show.
Weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Pentagon awarded Global Ordnance a five-year contract worth up to $750 million to help arm American allies. That became a vehicle for arming Ukraine. Hundreds of millions of additional dollars followed.
The Pentagon declined to comment on Global Ordnance’s contracts.
Mr. Morales’s big break in Ukraine came early in the war. He had a warehouse full of ammunition in Bulgaria that the Pentagon had bought for use in Afghanistan. The Pentagon approved sending it instead to Ukraine in January 2022. It was up to Global Ordnance to get it there.
Mr. Morales made that happen. Sergeant Koyfman worked to redirect the ammunition to Ukraine in his role as a Global Ordnance contractor, Mr. Van Brunt said.
That made Mr. Morales invaluable in the war’s early days and endeared him to Ukrainian officials.
But there has also been friction.
An unintended consequence of Ukraine’s frantic buying was a competition between state-owned firms and private dealers. That drove up prices, costing Ukraine money. When the government buys weapons from state-owned companies, the government profits off the deal. When it buys from private sellers, the brokers profit.
That is legal, but has at times frustrated Ukrainian officials. One example involved the purchase of armored vehicles, which the military was desperate to receive. Early in the war, a government-owned company called Ukrinmash negotiated a roughly $65 million deal with an Egyptian seller to buy nearly 200 vehicles, said a person involved in the deal.
Then the deal stalled.
Soon after, Mr. Morales emerged with a contract to provide similar vehicles at similar prices. The difference was that Global Ordnance, not the government-owned company, would earn the profits.
Problems followed. The vehicles arrived improperly outfitted, said Volodymyr Havrylov, an assistant defense minister in Ukraine. Anti-corruption officials began investigating the deal, he said. Investigators have asked questions about both Mr. Morales and the Defense Ministry officials who authorized the contract, according to one person who was interviewed.
The Defense Ministry said that the investigation had been “eliminated.” Anti-corruption officials would not confirm that.
Mr. Van Brunt said that Ukrainian authorities routinely investigated military deals. “This is an ‘investigation,’ and to conflate it with what the public may understand to be an investigation would be inaccurate,” he wrote in an email. He declined to comment on the deal itself.
By the end of last year, Mr. Morales’s success was evident at home in Tampa. Global Ordnance flew its employees in from Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to attend a Christmas party. Mr. Morales posted on Facebook a photograph of himself with his colleagues: Sergeant Koyfman wore wraparound sunglasses and a black T-shirt with an American flag-painted skull. Mr. Vanash wore a traditional Ukrainian shirt embroidered with red and yellow flowers.
Mr. Morales sees a bright future in Ukraine. At the 11 Mirrors last month, conversation turned toward “large contracts that were about to be awarded,” Mr. Van Brunt said. Officials asked whether the company could handle big new deals.
Mr. Morales assured them that it could.
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Many are getting rich from the money and arms we're sending to Ukraine. I'm sure some of these arms are being sold to our enemies or potential enemies.
Yet they want to take away our legally owned and responsibly used firearms. Madness. I'm growing tired of this bullshit.
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https://babylonbee.com/news/jerkface-elon-musk-refuses-to-help-start-nuclear-war
KYEV — Ukraine boss Volodimir Zelensky is reportedly irate at the lack of international support he's received in his extended battle with Russia, including a recent snub by major certified butthead Elon Musk who has refused to help start a nuclear war.
"Not only have we not received the trillions of dollars in blank checks we requested, but stupid dipwad Elon Musk won't let us use his Starlink system to inch us closer to nuclear holocaust," said a visibly perturbed Zelensky from another mansion, but we're not sure which one there are so many at this point. "Doesn't he know how much sacrifice and prison time my political opponents have endured since this war began?"
U.S. President Biden showed support for Zelensky and all people of "Ikrania" by agreeing that Elon Musk was a "huge d-bag" and "a total dweeb" for not allowing Ukraine to manipulate international aid for unchecked personal gain while sending men and women to the front lines.
At publishing time, low-key small business owner Elon Musk had indeed activated the Starlink satellites, though rather than helping Ukraine, he just moved them around to form a floating shape too inappropriate to mention here. (It's a penis.)
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(https://i.imgur.com/4trwb5P.jpg)
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“It’s a total failure, so why can’t they negotiate?” Blumenthal asked. “Number one, why should Russia negotiate at this point, when the West has stabbed them… and sabotaged negotiations at every turn, leading to this proxy war? Back in April 2022, the US canceled negotiations between Zelensky and the Kremlin and said, ‘Keep fighting’. And they sabotaged the Minsk Accords before that. So why trust the West?”
“And why negotiate when you could actually start capturing more and more territory?” Blumenthal asked, “Given the terrible state of Ukraine’s military and the hundreds of thousands of casualties they’ve suffered? They don’t have much left, apparently.”
Blumenthal also pointed out that US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, “Has major skin in the game when it comes to continuing this war. He founded a firm called WestExec Advisors, which finesses contracts for the arms industry and Big Tech through the Pentagon and the State Department – him and his former colleagues from the Obama Administration founded this firm to profit off their connections with the major winners of the Ukraine proxy war: Raytheon, LockheedMartin, Palantir – all the Beltway Bandits, as we call them here in Washington.”
Past WestExec partners have included DNI Avril Haines, former Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki and CIA deputy director David Cohen, The Intercept reported 2021.
“If Tony Blinken leaves government, he could make a lot of money off this war, as long as it’s still continuing,” Blumenthal said. “That could be a frozen conflict, where Ukraine is just constantly at war with Russia and its entire society is securitized and mobilized. The tech industry is gonna love that as well because everyone’s gonna be under surveillance, drones and cameras everywhere.”
“Why would they want to end this conflict?” the son of Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal asked. “They’re the real winners of this war.”
The Grayzone editor Blumenthal criticized “the hatred of Russia that prevails among the Democratic Party foreign policy elite, but also within the Republican Party, the idea that we can’t ‘lose’ this war, that this is about ‘Democracy’.”
“There’s all these obstacles to negotiations,” Blumenthal said, “but obviously the war isn’t going well. There’s no progress for Ukraine in this war. They should’ve negotiated over a year ago, but they’ve been drunk off of these delusional fantasies spun out of Washington that they can somehow ‘win’, when Victory’s never even defined.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/max-blumenthal-secstate-tony-blinken-stands-make-lot/
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https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1700845324942925921
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https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1700845324942925921
That is very enlightening.
I don’t do twitter or facebook, so the only exposure I have is when you folks post a link.
Thanks.
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https://twitter.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1700845324942925921
Wow, this is corruption and illegal suppression of free speech to the extreme. Further confirms that the U.S. Intelligence and Law Enforcement agencies are weaponized against American citizens that disagree with the Democrat Fascism now ongoing.
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Dictator Zelensky has an opposition party member (a party he banned) arrested for spreading "misinformation".
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/09/16/ukrainian-opposition-lawmaker-arrested-on-suspicion-of-high-treason-spreading-russian-false-narratives24970632/
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The Ukraine military is running out of men to send into the meatgrinder. How long will it be before the dictator starts demanding other countries send troops in?
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Dictator Zelensky has an opposition party member (a party he banned) arrested for spreading "misinformation".
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/09/16/ukrainian-opposition-lawmaker-arrested-on-suspicion-of-high-treason-spreading-russian-false-narratives24970632/
Your use of quotes appears appropriate since the article doesn't use the word "misinformation". The allegations would seem to be even within the U.S. constitution's definition of treason (though I don't much care for it.)
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Your use of quotes appears appropriate since the article doesn't use the word "misinformation". The allegations would seem to be even within the U.S. constitution's definition of treason (though I don't much care for it.)
The dictator wants all opposition silenced. The FJB regime must be watching this with envy.
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The dictator wants all opposition silenced. The FJB regime must be watching this with envy.
There is a U.S. parallel in the trial and sentencing of Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") for treason. Seems similar to what the Ukrainian did.
I'm sure the FJB regime would love to bring or threaten treason charges against half the country, but the definition seems to imply the U.S. needs to be in a declared war.
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There is a U.S. parallel in the trial and sentencing of Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") for treason. Seems similar to what the Ukrainian did.
I'm sure the FJB regime would love to bring or threaten treason charges against half the country, but the definition seems to imply the U.S. needs to be in a declared war.
Which we are on the brink of. Just imagine what the FJB regime could do under "war time" emergency declarations.
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I listened to Jordan Peterson’s interview of Chris Christie. He wants to escalate and send MORE help to Ukraine. Good thing he has zero chance at the White House.
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I listened to Jordan Peterson’s interview of Chris Christie. He wants to escalate and send MORE help to Ukraine. Good thing he has zero chance at the White House.
The only place Christie wins big is at the All You Can Eat Buffet.
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https://twitter.com/SystemUpdate_/status/1703109560913854765
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https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1703522118015541722/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1703522118015541722¤tTweetUser=CitizenFreePres&mode=profile
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https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1703522118015541722/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1703522118015541722¤tTweetUser=CitizenFreePres&mode=profile
Says page doesn't exist.
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https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1703522118015541722
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https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1703522118015541722
The best info on stocks to invest in also come from taxi drivers.
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The best info on stocks to invest in also come from taxi drivers.
Yea, never believe them. Just ignore the mansions under the MIL’s name, the super yachts, wives flying around Europe with suitcases full of US currency, etc.
All that money is being well spent, and accounted for, to fight for Ukrainian freedom.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/video/president-zelenskyy-sunday-on-60-minutes/
I wonder how hard hitting that will be...
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Yea, never believe them. Just ignore the mansions under the MIL’s name, the super yachts, wives flying around Europe with suitcases full of US currency, etc.
All that money is being well spent, and accounted for, to fight for Ukrainian freedom.
I'm sure the Russians would have cleaned up all that corruption since their invasion was motivated by the benevolence and brotherhood of the oligarchs of Russia.
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I'm sure the Russians would have cleaned up all that corruption since their invasion was motivated by the benevolence and brotherhood of the oligarchs of Russia.
Yea, right Cliff.
How much do you donate each month to Ukraine btw?
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Yea, right Cliff.
How much do you donate each month to Ukraine btw?
We try to minimize our taxes, so hopefully not much. If it wasn't for doing Roth conversions for the last couple years we'd probably pay little or no tax to the Feds.
But no one should be forced to contribute their money to aid anyone else for any reason, so I try to not make arguments that contradict that. The main problem I see with your attacks on Zelensky is that he didn't start the war (in fact the Russian invasion of Ukraine had started years before he was elected.) And corruption per se occurs to varying degrees in every country, so seems to be special pleading.
To me the biggest tragedy of the war isn't the waste of money or the corruption but the violent destruction of so many lives.
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We try to minimize our taxes, so hopefully not much. If it wasn't for doing Roth conversions for the last couple years we'd probably pay little or no tax to the Feds.
But no one should be forced to contribute their money to aid anyone else for any reason, so I try to not make arguments that contradict that. The main problem I see with your attacks on Zelensky is that he didn't start the war (in fact the Russian invasion of Ukraine had started years before he was elected.) And corruption per se occurs to varying degrees in every country, so seems to be special pleading.
To me the biggest tragedy of the war isn't the waste of money or the corruption but the violent destruction of so many lives.
Your right, Dictator Zelensky didn't start the war, his pals in the FJB regime stoked those fires. Then after the shooting started, Dictator Zelensky and his regime has made out rather well financially. What a deal to have billions of our taxpayer dollars go unaccounted to a war that doesn't involve our country.
And Dictator Zelensky has had ample opportunity to stop the bloodshed, all he has to do is ask other nations to help him negotiate a ceasefire. But his pal and benefactor FJB has rejected that, and Dictator Zelensky also knows that will cut out a major part of the money flowing freely through his country.
So in the mean time, more pointless deaths, more pointless grift and ever increasing dragging our country, and our men into yet another pointless war.
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(https://i.imgur.com/YMtfLYQ.jpg)
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(https://i.imgur.com/YMtfLYQ.jpg)
Via the American Taxpayer. Us!
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The Clinton's smell money
https://news.yahoo.com/clinton-global-initiative-launching-network-125912086.html
The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is set to launch a network to provide humanitarian aid to Ukrainians, one day after beginning its annual conference in New York on Monday.
CGI Ukraine Action Network will be officially announced Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. The network is a product of a collaboration between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska.
The AP reported that several financial pledges are also set to be announced in conjunction with Tuesday’s initiative launch.
CGI is convening its annual conference in New York on Monday and Tuesday and will bring together leaders from countries throughout the world to support his year’s theme of “keep going.”
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Gee… I bet three cents, total not percent, make it to the people in need.
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Didn't Biden just appointment someone to be in charge of the economic recovery in Ukraine?
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Didn't Biden just appointment someone to be in charge of the economic recovery in Ukraine?
If so, I wonder what the qualifications were for that appointee...
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If so, I wonder what the qualifications were for that appointee...
Black Trans would be preferred, but to be "fair" they'd have to interview, Black, Lesbian Women too.
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Didn't Biden just appointment someone to be in charge of the economic recovery in Ukraine?
https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-names-penny-pritzker-representative-ukraines-economic-recovery-2023-09-14/
https://news.yahoo.com/penny-pritzker-us-special-representative-191530761.html
Penny Pritzker's brother, J.B. Pritzker, has been the governor of Illinois since 2019.
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(https://i.imgur.com/CfoXBHq.jpg)
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https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fworld-nation%2Fstory%2F2023-09-18%2Fslovakia-election-could-end-support-ukraine
In challenge for NATO, election front-runner in Slovakia wants to end aid to Ukraine
A populist former prime minister whose party is favored to win Slovakia’s parliamentary election plans to reverse the country’s military and political support for neighboring Ukraine, in a direct challenge to the European Union and NATO, if he returns to power.
Robert Fico, who led Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018, is the front-runner in the Sept. 30 election. He and his left-wing Smer, or Direction, party have campaigned on a clear pro-Russian and anti-American message.
His candidacy is part of a wider trend across Europe. Only Hungary has an openly pro-Russian government, but in Germany, France, Spain and elsewhere, populist parties skeptical of intervention in Ukraine command significant support. Many have national or regional elections coming up that could tip popular opinion away from Kyiv and toward Moscow.
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https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1704243770466738455
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This guy is a US Intel plant.
https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1704261152493199452
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https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1704872167488340030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1704872167488340030%7Ctwgr%5Ee3cf96fd12f70ad658d6fc39db00599ac2c89057%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frantingly.com%2F
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https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1704872167488340030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1704872167488340030%7Ctwgr%5Ee3cf96fd12f70ad658d6fc39db00599ac2c89057%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frantingly.com%2F
Bartiromo for the win!!!
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.1164a4f8db43b5408f33aab1e7c20019?rik=OWCrhGHOu7Zo4Q&riu=http%3a%2f%2f4.bp.blogspot.com%2f-y45wH6e-guE%2fUCSjnYpyQsI%2fAAAAAAAATuQ%2fcYdP-q59ecI%2fs400%2fmaria-04.jpg&ehk=PXizxXwH3%2f1LNpb7UrhHITfghHKDfh8fCzwnDxth8yM%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0&sres=1&sresct=1)
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Bartiromo for the win!!!
(https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.1164a4f8db43b5408f33aab1e7c20019?rik=OWCrhGHOu7Zo4Q&riu=http%3a%2f%2f4.bp.blogspot.com%2f-y45wH6e-guE%2fUCSjnYpyQsI%2fAAAAAAAATuQ%2fcYdP-q59ecI%2fs400%2fmaria-04.jpg&ehk=PXizxXwH3%2f1LNpb7UrhHITfghHKDfh8fCzwnDxth8yM%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0&sres=1&sresct=1)
Yeah but, he had to do that because of the war. ::)
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https://twitter.com/TexasLindsay_/status/1704326855212363848
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https://twitter.com/TexasLindsay_/status/1704326855212363848
WTF??? Seriously?
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(https://i.imgur.com/WFN0zdH.png)
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OK, how about this... FJB prints a lot of new money and sends it ALL to Ukraine with the provision that it can only be spent on stuff from non-US countries. Makes Ukraine happy, doesn't mess with our inflation, makes other countries pay for stuff as they have to cover the worthless currency. We all win! (Probably a lot of flaws in this plan, but I just made it up.)
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OK, how about this... FJB prints a lot of new money and sends it ALL to Ukraine with the provision that it can only be spent on stuff from non-US countries. Makes Ukraine happy, doesn't mess with our inflation, makes other countries pay for stuff as they have to cover the worthless currency. We all win! (Probably a lot of flaws in this plan, but I just made it up.)
FJB is already running the printing presses cranking out US dollars for losing propositions such as Ukraine. Hence why we have inflation.
Other countries are growing tired of the little dictator from Ukraine demanding more blank checks. Yet the dictator can't tell anyone his path to victory (there isn't one) and why he's not tried to negotiate at least a cease fire to stop the slaughter of his countrymen.
Dictator Zelensky is so accustomed to all this unaccounted money flowing in that he doesn't want it to stop. And the dictator knows eventually he'll convince FJB and NATO to send troops in to do his fighting.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/explosive-60-minutes-report-us-funding-ukraine-us/
In a story that will have a big impact on the budget debate this week, the CBS News program 60 Minutes broadcast a report Sunday night on U.S. government aid to Ukraine that revealed that in addition to the billions in military aid to help the country defend against Russia’s invasion, the U.S. has spent nearly $25 billion in non-military aid including paying the salaries of Ukraine’s 57,000 first responders and subsidizing small businesses to keep Ukraine’s economy functioning.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/explosive-60-minutes-report-us-funding-ukraine-us/
WHAT ABOUT SUBSIZING OUR SMALL BUSINESSES THAT YOU KILLED WITH COVID LOCKDOWNS!!!!
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WHAT ABOUT SUBSIZING OUR SMALL BUSINESSES THAT YOU KILLED WITH COVID LOCKDOWNS!!!!
There's no money in it for the political class.
We have a failing economy, our border is wide open and the US is under invasion. But the regime wants to send our money to a country that has a failing economy to secure it's border against an invasion.
The regime in the US wants censorship, one party rule, to imprison political foes and to wipe out personal freedoms. The dictator of Ukraine has accomplished this and more.
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There's no money in it for the political class.
We have a failing economy, our border is wide open and the US is under invasion. But the regime wants to send our money to a country that has a failing economy to secure it's border against an invasion.
The regime in the US wants censorship, one party rule, to imprison political foes and to wipe out personal freedoms. The dictator of Ukraine has accomplished this and more.
And we are propping him up.
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And we are propping him up.
Of course. It's business, and a highly profitable one.
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Um, where has this outrage been the last few decades over this aid:
Israel-Gaza: How much money does Israel get from the US? (https://www.bbc.com/news/57170576)
Meanwhile, I finally recalled that the US banned a political party, just like Ukraine has done:
Communist Control Act of 1954 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Control_Act_of_1954)
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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12558067/US-Ukraine-aid-farmers-businesses.html
The US has given Ukraine close to $100 billion in aid since it was invaded by Russia in February 2022 - and the money has not only been used to fund its military.
Billions of dollars has also been used to pay for Ukraine's first responders, subsidize its farmers and help small businesses, from baking firms to fashion brands.
A recent analysis by the Council on Foreign Relations shows that more than $30 billion - around 40 percent of US aid to Ukraine - has been financial or humanitarian support that is not directly linked to military costs. Military funding totals around $50 billion.
President Joe Biden is also asking Congress to approve a further $24 billion in support for Ukraine, despite growing disquiet among some Republicans about the rising cost to US taxpayers. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said international support is crucial to help defeat Russia.
Opponents of further aid are largely hardline Republicans who say it is not in America's interests and believe taxpayers' money should be spent at home.
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Um, where has this outrage been the last few decades over this aid:
Israel-Gaza: How much money does Israel get from the US? (https://www.bbc.com/news/57170576)
Meanwhile, I finally recalled that the US banned a political party, just like Ukraine has done:
Communist Control Act of 1954 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Control_Act_of_1954)
Nice diversion there Cliff.
Funding other country's militaries should not be a priority of the US unless it protects US interest.
On your second point, that act is rather meaningless, and mostly symbolic. We have in fact an operating communist party in the US.
However, the Dictator in Ukraine has abolished opposing political parties and is imprisoning people that oppose him. He's also had religious leaders arrested. He has shut down opposing media and censors other media.
And if no one has noticed, he's taken a liking to dressing in para military garb, much like other dictators.
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Um, where has this outrage been the last few decades over this aid:
Israel-Gaza: How much money does Israel get from the US? (https://www.bbc.com/news/57170576)
Meanwhile, I finally recalled that the US banned a political party, just like Ukraine has done:
Communist Control Act of 1954 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Control_Act_of_1954)
People left of center always out themselves by drawing comparisons between the shit hole aid to places like the ukraine which has never, and will never be, of strategic importance to the US, and Israel our ONE FRIEND in the region and where we happen to park the sixth fleet.
The comparison could (if one is deluded enough) be described as the exception that proves the rule, but that is probably way too complicated for a lefty.
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Nice diversion there Cliff.
Funding other country's militaries should not be a priority of the US unless it protects US interest.
On your second point, that act is rather meaningless, and mostly symbolic. We have in fact an operating communist party in the US.
However, the Dictator in Ukraine has abolished opposing political parties and is imprisoning people that oppose him. He's also had religious leaders arrested. He has shut down opposing media and censors other media.
And if no one has noticed, he's taken a liking to dressing in para military garb, much like other dictators.
The dictator in the U.S. is also imprisoning people that oppose him.
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The dictator in the U.S. is also imprisoning people that oppose him.
He's a dictator wannabe. And let's be real, it's really not him. He doesn't have the mental capacity to even understand what's going on around him.
The regime behind him wants a totalitarian state. They have been arresting or indicting those who oppose them. They are crafting a narrative that patriots, conservatives and MAGA are the enemy, and that it's ok to kill them, dox them, harass them and silence them.
There was a country back in the 30's that used this exact same methodology.
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He's a dictator wannabe. And let's be real, it's really not him. He doesn't have the mental capacity to even understand what's going on around him.
The regime behind him wants a totalitarian state. They have been arresting or indicting those who oppose them. They are crafting a narrative that patriots, conservatives and MAGA are the enemy, and that it's ok to kill them, dox them, harass them and silence them.
There was a country back in the 30's that used this exact same methodology.
All true.
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Now this fucking dictator is demanding we spend more money on climate change?
Who the fuck does this little twerp think he is?
https://twitter.com/alx/status/1704223149842157639/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1704223149842157639¤tTweetUser=alx&mode=profile
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(https://i.imgur.com/WFN0zdH.png)
That’s bullshit. Fake news.
Neither of them ever ask or say please.
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Now this fucking dictator is demanding we spend more money on climate change?
Who the fuck does this little twerp think he is?
https://twitter.com/alx/status/1704223149842157639/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1704223149842157639¤tTweetUser=alx&mode=profile
The page doesn’t exist. The new Twitter censorship?
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The page doesn’t exist. The new Twitter censorship?
Try this:
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1704227281391272439?t=39A0o-zkQNConCuJgbSwTA&s=19
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I read on Breitbart there was a German Leopard tank destroyed in Ukraine with a dead German crew. Don't know if it's been vetted enough but I guarantee we have SF there and "advisors".
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I read on Breitbart there was a German Leopard tank destroyed in Ukraine with a dead German crew. Don't know if it's been vetted enough but I guarantee we have SF there and "advisors".
The story originated from the Russian state owned Sputnik news agency.
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The story originated from the Russian state owned Sputnik news agency.
And?
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And?
so, of course, it is completely trustworthy.
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so, of course, it is completely trustworthy.
As with most sources, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find out.
I just don’t buy the blanket “If it comes from Russia it’s not to be trusted” mantra.
With the current state of US media outlets pumping propaganda daily, I hardly see the difference.
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Try this:
https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1704227281391272439?t=39A0o-zkQNConCuJgbSwTA&s=19
That works, thanks.
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https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1706847783410372652
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And?
I believe this is the original source:
https://sputnikglobe.com/20230923/russian-reconnaissance-team-destroys-leopard-tank-in-special-op-zone-with-fully-german-crew-1113608814.html (https://sputnikglobe.com/20230923/russian-reconnaissance-team-destroys-leopard-tank-in-special-op-zone-with-fully-german-crew-1113608814.html)
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As with most sources, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find out.
I just don’t buy the blanket “If it comes from Russia it’s not to be trusted” mantra.
With the current state of US media outlets pumping propaganda daily, I hardly see the difference.
The state of the U.S. Territorial Media and International media is so BAD that one can not believe anything anymore. There is no NEWS, just Propaganda. It's maddening.
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US Army hospital in Germany is treating US soldiers injured fighting in Ukraine, according to this article.
https://x.com/simonateba/status/1705996702950240618?t=1e0vEBO5uvY0jiWnEKfXJA&s=07
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US Army hospital in Germany is treating US soldiers injured fighting in Ukraine, according to this article.
https://x.com/simonateba/status/1705996702950240618?t=1e0vEBO5uvY0jiWnEKfXJA&s=07
Story says they are U.S. civilians who volunteered to fight under Ukrainian command. Not U.S. soldiers. Many countries, including the U.S., allow foreigners to fight in their armed forces. The newsworthy aspect is that the U.S. military is providing medical benefits to Ukrainian military personnel.
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Story says they are U.S. civilians who volunteered to fight under Ukrainian command. Not U.S. soldiers. Many countries, including the U.S., allow foreigners to fight in their armed forces. The newsworthy aspect is that the U.S. military is providing medical benefits to Ukrainian military personnel.
There are several mercenary groups, funded by the US. More than likely that is the source of these soldiers. So yes, the US will supply medical help, just as they have done in other conflicts.
But the camel’s nose is under the tent. Be assured there are “advisors” on the ground as well.
Ukraine is running out of soldiers. Eventually those fighting men will have to come from other sources.
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I am plenty old enough to remember,
"Hey Hey!! LBJ!!!
How Many Kids Did You Kill Today??"
The people behind this balls up should be standing in front of a firing squad.
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Story says they are U.S. civilians who volunteered to fight under Ukrainian command. Not U.S. soldiers. Many countries, including the U.S., allow foreigners to fight in their armed forces. The newsworthy aspect is that the U.S. military is providing medical benefits to Ukrainian military personnel.
Yea, I read what the article said. I also am able to look to see what the other hand is doing.
One man’s mercenaries are another man’s Special Forces operators.
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US Army hospital in Germany is treating US soldiers injured fighting in Ukraine, according to this article.
https://x.com/simonateba/status/1705996702950240618?t=1e0vEBO5uvY0jiWnEKfXJA&s=07
It doesn't sound like they're actually U.S. military, but Americans volunteering to fight for Ukraine, aka, Mercenaries.
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It doesn't sound like they're actually U.S. military, but Americans volunteering to fight for Ukraine, aka, Mercenaries.
And those mercenaries are funded by.........the US government. See how the game is played?
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And those mercenaries are funded by.........the US government. See how the game is played?
I know, and they may be SF posing as Mercenaries. Hey, I have no problem with Mercs fighting on our side, but this isn't WWII and they aren't the Flying Tigers fighting against Imperial Japan, but MIC plants, purely for monetary, and political reasons for the wrong people, Political Class Royalty.
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(https://image.cagle.com/278566/889/278566.png)
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https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1707726278835450020
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what will crackhead hunter and pedo joe do without the bribes off of that money?
how will they go on???
maybe the corrupt clinton foundation will forward bribe money in advance...
yeah... probably not.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/gop-controlled-house-approves-another-300-million-aid/
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https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1707726278835450020
I never heard of that “majority of the majority” rule.
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I never heard of that “majority of the majority” rule.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule
The Hastert Rule, also known as the "majority of the majority" rule, is an informal governing principle used in the United States by Republican Speakers of the House of Representatives since the mid-1990s to maintain their speakerships[1] and limit the power of the minority party to bring bills up for a vote on the floor of the House.[2] Under the doctrine, the Speaker will not allow a floor vote on a bill unless a majority of the majority party supports the bill.[3]
Under House rules, the Speaker schedules floor votes on pending legislation. The Hastert Rule says that the Speaker will not schedule a floor vote on any bill that does not have majority support within their party—even if the majority of the members of the House would vote to pass it. The rule keeps the minority party from passing bills with the assistance of a minority of majority party members. In the House, 218 votes are needed to pass a bill; if 200 Democrats are the minority and 235 Republicans are the majority, the Hastert Rule would not allow 200 Democrats and 100 Republicans together to pass a bill, because 100 Republican votes is short of a majority of the majority party, so the Speaker would not allow a vote to take place.[4]
The Hastert Rule is an informal rule and the Speaker is not bound by it; they may break it at their discretion. Speakers have at times broken the Hastert Rule and allowed votes to be scheduled on legislation that lacked majority support within the Speaker's own party. Dennis Hastert alleged the rule as being "kind of a misnomer" in that it "never really existed" as a rule.
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I never heard of that “majority of the majority” rule.
Had not either, though had heard of (but I did not know anything about) the Hastert Rule which is its other name. Seems the Speaker is not bound by it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule)
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https://twitter.com/RaheemKassam/status/1707152715770446152
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastert_Rule
Interesting.
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https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:y2nv4233OagJ:https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/28/rfk-jr-warns-next-step-military-advisers-ukraine-forgotten-vietnam/&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned on Thursday that the “next step of Ukraine War escalation” is stationing United States military advisers on the ground.
He flagged a recent article by Foreign Affairs titled “Why America Should Send Military Advisers to Ukraine: On-the-Ground Help Will Bolster Kyiv Without Risking Escalation.”
He posted on X: “Establishment journal Foreign Affairs signals the next step of Ukraine War escalation: stationing U.S. military advisors on the ground. Have they forgotten how we got embroiled in Vietnam?”
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(https://i.imgur.com/F47MGjH.gif)
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https://timcast.com/news/former-house-democrat-starts-lobbying-firm-will-receive-25k-month-from-ukraine/
A former Democratic congressman has created a new lobbying firm and recently inked a deal with a Ukrainian government agency that will pay him $25,000 per month.
The development has renewed speculation over whether the billions of dollars in aid provided to Ukraine is being laundered and returned to individuals within the U.S.
Earlier this year, James “Jim” Moran, who served as a Virginia congressman for 24 years before retiring in 2015, launched Moran Global Strategies (MGS), a lobbying firm with a growing number of international clients.
Under the federal Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), individuals engaged in certain political activities on behalf of a foreign interest are required to report their actions and register as a foreign agent.
Under U.S. law, an “agent of a foreign principal” is a person who acts as an agent, representative, employee, or servant, or otherwise acts at the order, request, or under the direction or control of a “foreign principal.”
FARA requires registration before acting as an agent of a foreign principal, as well as supplemental statements to be filed.
According to recent filings with the FARA Registration unit, MGS is listed as a foreign agent for Ukraine’s Ministry for Strategic Industries.
Explaining what services will be provided, MGC says it will “provide strategic advice and assistance to support the Ministry for Strategic Industries of Ukraine within the U.S., including representing the Ministry’s interests in the defense and intelligence industries before the U.S. Executive and Legislative branches of government.”
The filing further states the firm will “provide government relations services” to advance “the long-term security of the people of Ukraine.”
A letter of agreement from MGS to the Ukrainian ministry obligates the Ukrainian government to pay MGS a $25,000 monthly fee, which will be funneled through Ukraine Freedom, a nonprofit organization.
The contract is good for one year, with payments beginning on Oct. 1, 2023 and concluding Sept. 30, 2024.
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https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-mccarthy-united-states-speaker-war-russia-invasion-weapons-ammunition/
KYIV – After a year and a half of war, Ukraine’s leaders now have a new reason to worry: Mounting political chaos in America is threatening to derail their supply of money and weapons.
Days after lawmakers shelved a vital U.S. plan to send billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv, U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his own Republican Party colleagues. Aid to Ukraine was named as one of the reasons.
In Kyiv, officials are at a loss as to what might happen next. Their staunchest military ally suddenly looks unreliable, despite assurances from President Biden and others the U.S. will remain steadfast until Ukraine’s invaders are defeated.
“We are freaking out. For us it is a disaster,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a senior Ukrainian MP who chairs the committee on the country’s integration with the European Union. “We are interested in getting things sorted out so American democracy can function, and so we can restore the bipartisan consensus on supporting their own national interest by supporting Ukraine.”
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https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-not-ready-join-eu-071140001.html
Ukraine is not ready to join EU because it is corrupt – Former President of European Commission
Jean-Claude Juncker, Former President of the European Commission, believes that Ukraine does not yet meet the criteria for membership in the European Union because of heavy corruption. However, the prospect of accession should be preserved for Ukraine.
Source: Jean-Claude Juncker in an interview with Augsburger Allgemeine, as reported by European Pravda
Quote: "We should not make false promises to people in Ukraine who are suffering all by themselves. I am outraged with some voices in Europe trying to convince Ukrainians that they can become members of the EU immediately. This would not be good for the EU or Ukraine".
Details: Juncker stated that anyone who had any relationship with Ukraine knows that "this is a country that is corrupt at all levels of society."
Ukraine is not ready to join the European Union, Juncker says.
Quote: "Despite efforts, it is not ready to join, it needs major internal reforms. We have had bad experiences with some so-called new members, such as the rule of law. This must not happen again."
Details: At the same time, Juncker believes that the European perspective for Moldova and Ukraine should be preserved, but "should not be associated with the hope that it can be achieved overnight, just by pressing a button."
"If progress is made in these countries, whether in Ukraine or the Western Balkans, they should certainly be able to participate in certain stages of European integration. We should work to make something like partial accession possible, a reasonable form of almost an expansion," the former President of the European Commission said.
Background:
There is no question of immediate accession of Ukraine to the EU.
Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, said at the end of August that he wants the EU to be ready for enlargement by 2030.
However, there are supporters of not being bound by any deadlines for the accession of new members in the EU, such as Portugal.
The Ukrainian authorities say they are ready to complete their part of the accession work as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that Kyiv wants to put "on the table a report that we are ready" in two years. At the same time, he emphasised that the decision on Ukraine's accession will take time after this approval.
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https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/10/31/zelenskyy-official-admits-people-are-stealing-like-theres-no-tomorrow/
Zelenskyy Official Admits, “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
The only people who deny financial corruption in Ukraine are those who benefit from it. That group includes U.S. politicians who gleefully send billions of taxpayer funds into the country of Ukraine while capturing returns in the process.
U.S. advisors and consultants, along with private sector contractors and multinational corporations like Blackrock, are all beneficiaries of the vast sums of money being dumped into Ukraine. We all know this. So, on one hand it is simple to see why the Ukraine government officials would use the same opportunity to enrich themselves
After all, U.S. taxpayers are not only buying bombs, missiles and bullets with the money sent to Ukraine, we are also paying the salaries and pensions of the same government officials who are skimming the proceeds. The corruption is everywhere, and every entity is participating in the graft, in one form or another.
Zelenskyy’s wife goes shopping in Paris during the war. Where exactly do politicians think she is getting the money to spend on glitzy holiday vacations? Everybody knows exactly what is going on. The glaringly obvious theft is a large part of the contention the American people have with this insufferable effort to fund Ukraine.
During a lengthy Time Magazine article, one of the close and key advisors to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admitted that the corrupt stealing of US funds is widespread. In addition to the theft, the overall tone of the Time Magazine article paints the war effort in Ukraine, what we have always called ‘World War Reddit’ for its mostly theatrical value, as a lost cause. This is not surprising; however, for Time Mag to make such an admission, that does indicate a narrative shift in the overall effort.
TIME – […] Since the start of the invasion, Ukraine has refused to release official counts of dead and wounded. But according to U.S. and European estimates, the toll has long surpassed 100,000 on each side of the war. It has eroded the ranks of Ukraine’s armed forces so badly that draft offices have been forced to call up ever older personnel, raising the average age of a soldier in Ukraine to around 43 years. “They’re grown men now, and they aren’t that healthy to begin with,” says the close aide to Zelensky. “This is Ukraine. Not Scandinavia.”
[…] As conscription efforts have intensified around the country, stories are spreading on social media of draft officers pulling men off trains and buses and sending them to the front. Those with means sometimes bribe their way out of service, often by paying for a medical exemption. Such episodes of corruption within the recruitment system became so widespread by the end of the summer that on Aug. 11 Zelensky fired the heads of the draft offices in every region of the country.
The decision was intended to signal his commitment to fighting graft. But the move backfired, according to the senior military officer, as recruitment nearly ground to a halt without leadership. The fired officials also proved difficult to replace, in part because the reputation of the draft offices had been tainted. “Who wants that job?” the officer asks. “It’s like putting a sign on your back that says: corrupt.”
[…] Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds. But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. “Simon, you’re mistaken,” he says. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
Even the firing of the Defense Minister did not make officials “feel any fear,” he adds, because the purge took too long to materialize. The President was warned in February that corruption had grown rife inside the ministry, but he dithered for more than six months, giving his allies multiple chances to deal with the problems quietly or explain them away. By the time he acted ahead of his U.S. visit, “it was too late,” says another senior presidential adviser. Ukraine’s Western allies were already aware of the scandal by then. Soldiers at the front had begun making off-color jokes about “Reznikov’s eggs,” a new metaphor for corruption. “The reputational damage was done,” says the adviser. (more)
Time Magazine, a far-left ideological ally of the Biden regime, is publishing this at the same time that Congress is debating another request for billions more dollars in Ukraine aid. The timing here would indicate a substantive shift in position for the leftist media. Perhaps they are starting to realize, the bloom is off the ruse.
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(https://i.imgur.com/RUoXCRv.jpg)
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(https://i.imgur.com/RUoXCRv.jpg)
It stinks to high heaven that The congressional swamp is demanding that Israel and Ukraine funding be put into the same bill.
Even Speaker Johnson’s stupid move to tie Israel funding with a cut in IRS funding (a poison pill if there ever was one) should have tied Israel funding to a cut in Ukraine funding, OR just be a standalone Israel funding bill (which is the proper way to go.)
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(https://i.imgur.com/5KeNGAJ.jpg)
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It stinks to high heaven that The congressional swamp is demanding that Israel and Ukraine funding be put into the same bill.
The UniParty protecting their investments.
Even Speaker Johnson’s stupid move to tie Israel funding with a cut in IRS funding (a poison pill if there ever was one) should have tied Israel funding to a cut in Ukraine funding, OR just be a standalone Israel funding bill (which is the proper way to go.)
I dunno, couple of ways to look at it. The establishment likes to cry about borrowing money when it's a funding bill that's not in their interest. So since they gave FJB a gift of $81 billion to fund the IRS with more agents (which is not even needed) then why not take that already appropriated money and move it into another bill, for better use?
I'm old enough to remember a Speaker McCarthy saying he would defund the $81 billion to the IRS, then once he was elected speaker, it never happened (among other things).
Speaker Johnson is putting forth a bill that questions the UniParty's true motives. Let them debate why the IRS getting a $81 billion gift for something it doesn't need against funding an ally in war.
Remember, under previous speakers these multi billion dollar gifts were never allowed to be debated. ALL congressional spending needs to be debated.
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Thank God for Rand Paul. He's about the only one.
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https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/major-shift-western-propaganda-ukraine/
Major Shift in Western Propaganda on Ukraine
News articles on Ukraine do not magically appear. They are produced with the intent to send a particular message. So pay close attention to last week’s Time Magazine piece on Zelensky (not a positive), the Saturday piece from NBC News, and Ukrainian General Zaluzhny’s interview with the Economist.
My previous article addressed the Time Magazine article. Let’s take a look at what NBC and the Economist are saying. The NBC News article, which was published with the blessing of the Biden Administration, signals that Ukraine is going to get the Afghanistan treatment:
WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions. . . .
The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.
They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements.
The challenge for Ukraine is simple and insurmountable — it is running out of men. The average age of Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines is 43. That means Ukraine is now forced to rely on guys who are 50 and 60 years of age. Why? Because Ukraine has lost more than 500,000 killed in action and at least 700,000 wounded. Ukraine’s population, which was 40 million at the start of Russia’s invasion, is now estimated to be 27 million. Thirteen million Ukrainians have fled and are showing no signs of returning.
The Economist interview with Zaluzhny was just the tip of the ice berg. Zaluzhny also published an op-ed in the Economist and gave Zaluzhny a platform to publish a longer essay on its website. The bottomline from the interview is bleak:
Five months into its counter-offensive, Ukraine has managed to advance by just 17 kilometres. Russia fought for ten months around Bakhmut in the east “to take a town six by six kilometres”. Sharing his first comprehensive assessment of the campaign with The Economist in an interview this week, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, General Valery Zaluzhny, says the battlefield reminds him of the great conflict of a century ago. “Just like in the first world war we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he says. The general concludes that it would take a massive technological leap to break the deadlock. “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”
There is no stalemate. Zaluzhny is peddling a delusional hope. Russia is pressing all along the front line and reports from multiple sources, including Ukrainian, indicate Russia is on the verge of capturing Avdeevka, which has been the cornerstone of Ukraine’s defensive position in the Donbass.
While the Biden Administration continues to press on with its public position that it is continuing to stand with Ukraine, these leaks to news organizations by Biden officials signal that the U.S. will jettison Ukraine and will get rid of Zelensky. Ukraine is now an afterthought. The Washington political establishment is focused on trying to save Israel. Count Ukraine as another casualty of the war against Hamas.
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/us-european-officials-broach-topic-peace-negotiations-ukraine-sources-rcna123628
WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.
The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.
The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.
They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements.
And there is unease in the U.S. government with how much less public attention the war in Ukraine has garnered since the Israel-Hamas war began nearly a month ago, the officials said. Officials fear that shift could make securing additional aid for Kyiv more difficult.
Some U.S. military officials have privately begun using the term “stalemate” to describe the current battle in Ukraine, with some saying it may come down to which side can maintain a military force the longest. Neither side is making large strides on the battlefield, which some U.S. officials now describe as a war of inches. Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said.
“Any decisions about negotiations are up to Ukraine,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement. “We are focused on continuing to stand strongly in support of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russian aggression.”
An administration official also noted that the U.S. has participated with Ukraine in discussions of its peace summit framework but said the White House “is not aware of any other conversations with Ukraine about negotiations at the moment.”
Questions about manpower
President Joe Biden has been intensely focused on Ukraine’s depleting military forces, according to two people familiar with the matter.
"Manpower is at the top of the administration’s concerns right now,” one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, “but if they don’t have competent forces to use them it doesn’t do a lot of good”
Biden has requested that Congress authorize additional funding for Ukraine, but, so far, the effort has failed to progress because of resistance from some congressional Republicans. The White House has linked aid for Ukraine and Israel in its most recent request. That has support among some congressional Republicans, but other GOP lawmakers have said they’ll only vote for an Israel-only aid package.
Before the Israel-Hamas war began, White House officials publicly expressed confidence that additional Ukraine funding would pass Congress before the end of this year, while privately conceding concerns about how difficult that might be.
Biden had been reassuring U.S. allies that Congress will approve more aid for Ukraine and planned a major speech on the issue. Once Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the president’s focus shifted to the Middle East, and his Ukraine speech morphed into an Oval Office address about why the U.S. should financially support Ukraine and Israel.
Is Putin ready to negotiate?
The Biden administration does not have any indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to negotiate with Ukraine, two U.S. officials said. Western officials say Putin still believes he can “wait out the West,” or keep fighting until the U.S. and its allies lose domestic support for funding Ukraine or the struggle to supply Kyiv with weapons and ammunition becomes too costly, officials said.
Both Ukraine and Russia are struggling to keep up with military supplies. Russia has ramped up production of artillery rounds, and, over the next couple years may be able to produce 2 million shells per year, according to a Western official. But Russia fired an estimated 10 million rounds in Ukraine last year, the official said, so it will also have to rely on other countries.
The Biden administration has spent $43.9 billion on security assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, according to the Pentagon. A U.S. official says the administration has about $5 billion left to send to Ukraine before money runs out. There would be no aid left for Ukraine if the administration hadn’t said it found a $6.2 billion accounting error from months of over-valuing equipment sent to Kyiv.
Public support slipping
Progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been very slow, and hope that Ukraine will make significant advances, including reaching the coast near Russia’s frontlines, is fading. A lack of significant progress on the battlefield in Ukraine does not help with trying to reverse the downward trend in public support for sending more aid, officials said.
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https://nypost.com/2023/12/05/news/ukraines-zelensky-is-turning-into-an-autocrat-claims-kyiv-mayor/
Zelensky turning Ukraine into authoritarian state just like Russia, says Kyiv mayor in shocking interview
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is becoming an autocrat who is reshaping Ukraine into an authoritarian state no different than Russia, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has shockingly claimed.
Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion-turned-politician, took the unprecedented step of publicly attacking Zelensky, an ex-comedian and actor, so vehemently for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 21 months ago.
While the pair have been political foes, such a blistering public condemnation was still shocking to many, given the country’s war crisis.
“At some point we will no longer be any different from Russia, where everything depends on the whim of one man,” Klitschko said in a new interview with the German news outlet Der Spiegel.
Klitschko, who has served as the mayor of Kyiv since 2014, praised his fellow mayors and regional governors for thwarting Ukraine’s descent into authoritarianism.
“There is currently only one independent institution, but enormous pressure is being exerted on it: local self-government,” he said.
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Surprise
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There's something happening in Ukraine?
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There's something happening in Ukraine?
Yeah, but what it is ain't exactly clear.
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Notice how the US wants a ceasefire in Israel, but never mentions it in Ukraine. In fact the FJB regime has thwarted ceasefire attempts in Ukraine.
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Notice how the US wants a ceasefire in Israel, but never mentions it in Ukraine. In fact the FJB regime has thwarted ceasefire attempts in Ukraine.
I have no idea what the FJB regime wants,
but I think most Americans want a cease fire in Ukraine (except perhaps for the MIC)
The difference is that if Ukraine ceases firing, they will be destroyed (faster).
If Russia ceases firing, the war will be over.
In Gaza, if Israel ceases firing, Hamas will continue to attempt to destroy them.
If Hamas ceases fire, no one believes it will last and then they will just start trying to destroy Israel again.
A cease fire in Israel won't change a thing.
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Yeah, but what it is ain't exactly clear.
Buffalo Springfield
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If'n we don't give more money to Zelensky we'll have to send Americans to fight. 8)
Isn't that kind of like extortion? Just sayin'
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If'n we don't give more money to Zelensky we'll have to send Americans to fight. 8)
Isn't that kind of like extortion? Just sayin'
It depends on who demands and enforces it?
If Zelensky demands more money or requires (rather than asks or pleads) for us to send troops? That would be extortion.
But if our Congress decides to send troops instead of money (or send both), that might be stupid, but not extortion.
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It will be the senile imposter that 'sends' troops to the totalitarian dictatorship in ukraine, not congress.
congress doesn't 'send' troops anywhere, apparently including the capitol on January 6, 2021.
Where you get that idea I have no idea...
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Notice how the US wants a ceasefire in Israel, but never mentions it in Ukraine. In fact the FJB regime has thwarted ceasefire attempts in Ukraine.
Ain't no money in it for the big guy for sending money to Israel.
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There's something happening in Ukraine?
Yeah, but what it is ain't exactly clear.
Well, there is a man with a gun over there.
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It will be the senile imposter that 'sends' troops to the totalitarian dictatorship in ukraine, not congress.
congress doesn't 'send' troops anywhere, apparently including the capitol on January 6, 2021.
Where you get that idea I have no idea...
Constitutionally, only Congress can declare war, so the president needs Congress’s approval for sustained military conflict.
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Constitutionally, only Congress can declare war, so the president needs Congress’s approval for sustained military conflict.
When's the last time that happened?
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It depends on who demands and enforces it?
If Zelensky demands more money or requires (rather than asks or pleads) for us to send troops? That would be extortion.
But if our Congress decides to send troops instead of money (or send both), that might be stupid, but not extortion.
If Congress uses this argument to shape public opinion out of fear of US soldiers being involved, that is absolutely extortion. Public opinion drive reelection, and they all want to be re-elected. Ergo, creating fear and giving taxpayers an either / or option to support the MIC policy that they want, they are extorting the public.
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I know your Trump Derangement makes you ill, but congress declares war.
Try to keep up.
Civics is hard.
The President SENDS troops.