Thomas Paine: American Philosopher, & Revolutionary
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The mainstream media propaganda is once again on full display. In a CNN article headlined, “A remarkable Republican statement on the Ukraine invasion”, analyst Chris Cillizza vilifies Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the 3rd ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, as a Trump loyalist, implying that all Trump supporters are bigoted, hillbilly, “deplorables”, and any statements from such ilk should be discounted as illegitimate, unworthy among the morally superior intellectuals such as himself.
Her quote that he calls “remarkable” follows:
“After just one year of a weak, feckless, and unfit President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief, the world is less safe. Rather than peace through strength, we are witnessing Joe Biden’s foreign policy of war through weakness. For the past year, our adversaries around the world have been assessing and measuring Joe Biden’s leadership on the world stage, and he has abysmally failed on every metric. From kinetic and deadly attacks on our allies and partners, to the catastrophic withdrawal and surrender in Afghanistan, to the cyber attacks impeding American industry and infrastructure, to today’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden and his Administration have failed America and the world.” [1]
Every word of her statement is accurate. It doesn’t matter to the so-called “experts” at CNN. The message is clear; never question our opinion, shut up and conform to our ideology, or suffer our public ridicule. For some reason you are supposed to ignore factual data and bend a knee to their authority. Those are the prerequisites for political correctness and wokeness. Where can I sign up?
Marisa Schultz of Yahoo Finance quoted Stefanik as saying:
“President Biden’s weakness on the world stage has emboldened our adversaries, look no further than Ukraine and Afghanistan. The world is less safe because of his failed leadership.” [2]
Stefanik also said, “Putin is a deranged thug and authoritarian war criminal.” Then followed with, “The liberal media, who pushed the Russia hoax, is now serving as Joe Biden’s stenographers and melting down over the truth that Biden’s weakness has caused the world to be less safe. And the American people know it.”
Schultz wrote that Stefanik took shots at the media for coming to Biden’s defense, as if you are supposed to think that is despicable rather than a reasonable assessment. Two anointed “journalists” spewing the same propaganda, with the complete admiration of their editors. But Stefanik is absolutely spot on!
Just look at what has happened. On Biden’s very first day in office he cancelled the Keystone pipeline and signed other executive orders that were designed to cripple the energy sector. When Trump left office we were essentially energy independent and the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. Biden ruined that right out of the gate. Today the national average of a gallon of regular gas at the pump is $3.59, compared to $2.38 (a $1.21 increase, or 50.8%) when he took office.
Then he announced we would be pulling all US troops out of Afghanistan and botched the withdrawal, leaving 13 dead American soldiers and hundreds of stranded civilians in the wake. The world was watching and Putin took notes.
In the past few weeks, Biden sat helplessly on the sideline while warning us that Putin had amassed over 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border and an invasion was imminent. We sent them a few anti-tank missiles to help the Ukrainian military defend their sovereign country, but as the invasion unfolded, it was clear that was too little, too late.
As the Ukraine capitol of Kyiv falls under siege that could be catastrophic for millions of civilians, now surrounded and apparently ready to resist, we find out the “significant sanctions” imposed by Biden exclude the Russian energy exports, and in fact we are still buying oil today from Putin.
“Russia producers nearly tripled shipments of oil to the United States in 2021 – in 2020, the United States imported from Russia on average 76,000 barrels per day (bpd), while in 2021, that figure rose to 209,000 bpd, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy.” [3]
So, at $100 per barrel we are paying Russia nearly 21 million dollars per day while they are at war with the Ukraine. American taxpayers funding Putin’s war. I’m guessing CNN didn’t bring that to anyone’s attention.
• Does that sound like we are defending their sovereignty?
Please don’t try to make that argument. You can’t make chicken soup out of chicken shit.
• Could there be an underlying motive to allow this war to progress to its inevitable conclusion, a complete Russian takeover?
Well, all we see and hear 24/7 from the media, is Russia, Russia, Russia. Notice how the domestic policies have disappeared from the social consciousness? In Biden’s first year 2,000,000 illegal immigrants have stormed over our southern border, welcomed with open arms by every Democrat. Now they are outraged about the Ukrainian border while showing no concern whatsoever for our own citizens. Biden himself admitted that Americans will feel some “pain at the pump” from this war, but he assures us he will minimize the impact. After crippling our own energy sector, and tripling our oil imports from Russia, he says he’ll release “strategic reserves” (SPR) to mitigate the skyrocketing gas prices. Sure, Joe. And then how will you replace them?
• Are we powerless in convincing Putin to curtail his ambitions?
Basically, yes. He will not be deterred in his quest to overthrow the government of the Ukraine and install a puppet who pledges fealty to him. His vision is to reinstate the former Soviet Union and its territories, establishing a dominate geopolitical power, similar to Hitler’s takeover of the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia at the outset of World War II.
• Will Putin be satisfied with his conquest of the Ukraine, or does he plan to expand into the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia?
Those former Soviet republics are all NATO members, which would compel the other 27 NATO countries to invoke Article 5, whereby an armed attack against any member is considered an attack against them all, and they are to collectively defend the ally attacked. The Ukraine is rich with natural resources and the former “bread- basket” of the Soviet Union. The Baltic states are not that valuable economically, but it could get real very soon.
Comments welcome
[1] Cillizza, C., CNN, dated Feb 24, 2022
[2] Schultz, M., Money, Yahoo, dated Feb 24, 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russia-ukraine-stefanik-says-biden-234946925.html
[3] Global Energy, dated Feb 22, 2022
https://globalenergyprize.org/en/2022/02/22/u-s-nearly-tripled-imports-of-russian-oil-in-2021/