Col Douglas Macgregor appeared for a sit-down interview with Tucker Carlson tonight to discuss the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

So far, Macgregor is the one who has been the most accurate in his assessments when compared to the results on the ground in Ukraine.  If what Macgregor outlines in this interview is correct, and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t, then President Putin has been planning this operation for a long time.

As the multinational corporations, multinational banks, collective corporate and political west along with the EU, NATO and media, tell Ukraine to keep fighting, it appears Russia is moving through a methodical plan they have no hope of stopping.  This would explain why the Russian convoys are pausing before going hardcore on the cities and population centers. WATCH:

(more…)

Tonight at 9:00pm ET the installed occupant in the White House will whisper, shout and mutter out loud as he reads words written by others.  The executive is required to deliver an annual ‘state of the union’ notification to the legislative branch.

The script reading begins at 9:00pm ET and will be broadcast on all major television networks.  Consider this an open discussion thread for your thoughts and comments if you are listening to the reading.

CSPAN Livestream Link – PBS Livestream Link

The Republican Response will be delivered by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds after the president concludes his address.

(more…)

House Republican Victoria Spartz (Indiana CD-05) is originally from Nosivka in eastern Ukraine.  Mrs. Spartz emigrated to the United States in 2000 after meeting her husband who is from Indiana.

During the Republican House press conference today, Representative Spartz delivered passionate remarks about her homeland and the regional war between Russia and Ukraine that is impacting her distant family.

The region in Ukraine outlined by Representative Spartz, is the eastern Ukraine region that has been in a state of constant conflict over the past eight years.  The Russian aligned separatists in eastern Ukraine have been fighting the western Ukraine military.  The Russian military forces are now supporting the separatists and tilting the outcome of the fight.

WASHINGTON DC – […] “This is not a war, this is a genocide of the Ukrainian people by a crazy man who cannot get over the Ukrainian people do not want socialism, Soviet Union, communism,” Spartz, who represents Indiana, told reporters during a GOP news conference about President Biden’s State of the Union address. “They want to be with the United States of America. They want to be free people. They want to be with the West.” (read more)

Mrs. Spartz also answered questions from media attendees (video below).

(more…)

We remember…

(more…)

Senate Republicans produced a video today announcing their position toward Ukraine.  WATCH:

Accept things as they are, not as you would wish them to be.

Place your bets on whether blue and yellow ribbons will be deployed for all State of the Union attendees?

(more…)

There comes a time in every performance of the United Nations production when the arch villain bombs the milk factories.  Today, Russian President Vladimir Putin takes his turn.

As we return to our seats from the lobby during commercial interlude, we discover the model U.N. interns have left the blue and yellow ribbons on our seats. We know exactly what segment of the melodrama comes next; the children are suffering.

The well attired gentlemen in the mezzanine know this is the moment when they must position their freshly pressed pocket kerchief for quick access.  Heart strings will be pulled, and silk gowns do not fare well as the tears begin to flow. Well educated chivalry, passed down from father to son, has prepared them for this moment.  It’s not quite time for the checkbooks yet; first they must feel the sound of the violins.

Surprisingly, Bono and Geldorf have not yet made their appearance.  However, with the speed of modern social media, and knowing the technology of our time means we cannot wait, the EU assembly must lay the groundwork for the great American oration that is center stage from the Capitol later tonight.

New York – Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky urged the EU to “prove you are with us” in a defiant speech on Tuesday.

Mr Zelenesky, who has become a symbol of defiance for his country, issued an impassioned speech via video link, where he called on the EU to stand with Ukraine as Russia continues its deadly advance on the country.

During his speech, Mr Zelensky described the missile strikes on Kharkiv, as an act of terror against the city, and indeed Ukraine.

(more…)

Remember that fourth quarter GDP result that seemed manipulated?  Well, I suspect the record setting trade deficit now being reported for January is an outcome of those pesky fourth quarter trade results being intentionally skewed by the withholding of December 2021 import data.

Additionally, methinks we are likely to get some increased economic clarity about why the White House needed Ukraine to become the big shiny thing with such urgency.

Just like everything else, geopolitical dynamics –especially those surrounding entrenched ideology– are always about the economics.  Someone, eventually, always has to pay.  Follow the money; there are trillions at stake.

First, keep in mind that missing Port of Los Angeles result from December as you review the import/export details:

(REUTERS) […]  The goods trade deficit jumped 7.1% to an all-time high of $107.6 billion last month. Imports of goods increased 1.7%, led by food and motor vehicles. There were also large increases in imports of industrial supplies, capital and consumer goods. Imports of other goods, however, tumbled 15.3%.

Exports dropped 1.8%, weighed down by consumer goods, motor vehicles, food and other goods. But exports of capital goods and industrial supplies increased. Trade has been a drag on gross domestic product for six straight quarters. (read more)

That missing Port of LA December import data, now being introduced into the month of January, might just be the cause of the “all time high” noted above.  I will bet one sustainable rice cake on it.

Next up, inflation.

(more…)

A fantastic piece by Peter Beinart on substack {SEE HERE} puts excellent clarity on the people around Joe Biden baiting Russian President Vladimir Putin to enter Ukraine.

Current CIA Director William “Bill” Burns was the former ambassador to Russia and Jordan.  Bill Burns had a 33-year career at the State Department under both Republican and Democratic presidents and speaks fluent Russian. If the people in the background of Joe Biden wanted an intelligence operative to trigger a specific result from Russia, there’s no one more strategically perfect for the job than CIA Director Bill Burns.

The article by Beinart is mainly focused on pointing out the irreconcilable nature of Joe Biden implying Ukraine could join NATO, while his own CIA Director has a history of giving serious warnings emphasizing the “brightest of all red lines” about that specific point.

[…]  “Two years ago, Burns wrote a memoir entitled, The Back Channel. It directly contradicts the argument being proffered by the administration he now serves. In his book, Burns says over and over that Russians of all ideological stripes—not just Putin—loathed and feared NATO expansion. He quotes a memo he wrote while serving as counselor for political affairs at the US embassy in Moscow in 1995. ‘Hostility to early NATO expansion,” it declares, “is almost universally felt across the domestic political spectrum here.”

On the question of extending NATO membership to Ukraine, Burns’ warnings about the breadth of Russian opposition are even more emphatic. “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin),” he wrote in a 2008 memo to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “In more than two and a half years of conversations with key Russian players, from knuckle-draggers in the dark recesses of the Kremlin to Putin’s sharpest liberal critics, I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests.” (read more)

Against this backdrop of Bill Burns, the details about the lead up to the Russia-Ukraine crisis gain quite a bit of clarity.

(more…)

A recent image attributed to the Moscow subway system presents some consideration for a potentially larger problem.

Increasingly, people everywhere have stopped using cash to pay for simple purchases.  The electronic payment systems shifted to credit cards and debit cards, and then, eventually as technology merged with phone platforms, the linking of your portable transponder to your financial institution in order to make purchases became an efficient way to make transactions.

However, as governments start using definitions of who is good and who is bad to create sanctions against the bad actors, and with Russia representing the most expansive modern targeting of the global financial system, the control of monetary transactions enters the sphere of integrated payment systems like VISA, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay and others.  With Russia being essentially “de-banked” on the world stage, this happens:

There’s an irony to this surfacing now… so soon after the Canadian government began targeting their political opposition for de-banking.

Essentially, what is happening in Russia, on an entire citizen scale, is the same issue that happened in Canada to the individuals targeted.  The financial mechanisms in this integrated system of payment are now creating havoc for the individual.

The SWIFT transfer system sanction(s) against the Russian government, end up debanking everyone in the country.  These are remarkable times, and this is an example of something that needs to be factored into how you can retain individual liberty and freedom.

(more…)

As the beatification of Saint Zelenskyy continues in the west, the Ukrainian president signs a request for EU membership.  The propaganda is thick obviously as these things take years; however, when the social media optics of World War Reddit need an angle, well, the selfie star is mandated to comply.

The western propaganda campaign continues in stunning form as the U.S. State Department coordinates the collaboration of global elites in their campaign against Russia.  However, there are a few conservative voices in the U.S, and the people outside the beltway who have started figuring this all out, beginning to wonder if the assembly of global leftists is really the Ukrainian cocktail party they want to attend.

Everything surrounding the propaganda push continues unabated, as the public image of Volodymyr Zelenskyy is maintained by the very best efforts of Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Silicon Valley.  All the best people, you know, the ‘elites’, are flowing in one direction.

At this point in the dynamic, the Big Tech social media groups have fulfilled the demands of the White House, State Dept, intelligence agencies, United Nations, EU, NATO, World Economic Forum, George Soros and U.S. Foreign Relations Committee, and rallied the collective west to defeat Russia using the cultural weapon of social likeability.

It is verboten to speak about warrior Zelenskyy with anything other than heroism.  References of David and Goliath are recommended.

(more…)