If we fail to aid Ukraine and Russia succeeds in overwhelming that country, expect Putin to head to Moldova and Poland or the Baltic states next: his generals and his #2, Dmitry Medvedev have said so…
McFaul, Turner, Romney (R-UT), Tillis (R-NC), and Cornyn (R-TX) and a top aide to Senator Todd Young (R-IN), as well as former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and even Trump’s vice president Mike Pence, have warned about the party’s ties to Russia. Should be called to testify ASAP.
I take no comfort in the knowledge that tfg and his cultists will mostly die along with me when they bring on the devastation of nuclear war. And they will. Putin won’t care. He’s old and will go out with a bang, taking the world with him. Or living in some bunker, if you can call it that, with others of the morbidly rich. After all, there won’t be many attractive shopping options or vacation spots when nuclear winter descends. I want to scream at the cupidity, the stupidity, the venality, the immorality of these people. Yet I am utterly powerless to do anything to stop them.
My only recourse is my religious faith. I came late to Greek Orthodoxy, after over a half century as a hard core atheist. It gives me solace, hope, joy even. More than that, even if it is delusional, it reinforces the value of living life as I do, seeking to emulate the real Christian’s of the New Testament, not the demented grotesque so many “evangelical” tfg cultists claim as their own. An aside re Ukraine—its national Orthodox Church is part of a group included with mine in the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Russian Orthodox Church, headed by a kleptocrat who made his fortune smuggling cigarettes into the old Soviet Union, was expelled after he expressed staunch support for Putin and the war against Ukraine, promising heaven to every Russian soldier who died in that horrific criminal enterprise. All of which makes a sick joke of the MTG’s in MAGA who absurdly claim Ukraine is killing Christians. No Russian fighting voluntarily to subjugate Ukraine is Christian, if the New Testament means anything at all.
Ukraine isn’t perfect. No country is. But it is a titanic beacon of democracy compared to Russia. If we abandon it, we abandon our founding ideals, and the values that led us to aid Europe to defeat Nazi Germany in WWII. I do not want to have to end my years in a country that allows itself to betray all who have fought for her and what she is and can be, who include my father and his two brothers, all of whom spent WWII in the Pacific.
We must pressure Congress to free up the aid Ukraine desperately needs. And do everything in our power, great or small, to swarm the ballot boxes with blue votes for every office in November. If not, we are finished, and so, very likely, is any kind of world we would want.
We need to raise our voices and be heard right now, to support the courageous Ukrainian resistance.
A bipartisan majority of Our Representatives (both Dem & GOP) want to sustain aid to Ukraine. The National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 815), commonly known as the Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan aid package, passed in the Senate by a 70 - 29 vote weeks ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson has not brought it to the floor of the House, so Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force it out of committee and be voted on. The petition needs 218 signatures. It currently has 191 -- only one Republican.
Everyone reading this can help by calling Republican Representatives and urging them to sign the discharge petition for HR 815, to expedite delivery of military assistance for Ukraine before it's too late.
Once the bill passes the House it would go directly to the President for his signature and immediately become law.
Call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 to connect with any Representative, and call Speaker Johnson's office (202) 225-4000 to insist that he encourage Republicans to sign the petition.
For phone numbers of about about two dozen specific Republicans known to support Ukraine aid, please click on recent Ukraine-related posts at
Putin is the most dangerous psychopath in the world; he could end the world as we know it. Indeed he has already done that for millions. There are people who do not understand this, there are those using him for political ends, and there are the ones that absolutely recognize him and are just like him.
For those that know and are actively supporting Putin and his murders, especially members of our government, there is no other word than traitor. They have sworn an oath.
Sadly, Congressional Members are briefed behind closed doors and in SCIFs---they know a whole lot more than we do. This makes what they are doing even more disgusting and dangerous. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was on Colbert last night and specifically called out MTG. She confirms it all.
We are in the same boat as Ukraine, so is every creature on the planet. What the hell will Putin do next?!
Why biden does not slice the aid to ukraine like he does to israel? Keeping it lower and under the threshold needing congress approval? And he could do that every day several times, no?
Thanks, Thom, for another timely piece. However, I still buy Putin's claim that he doesn't want NATO expansion among his former USSR holdings, or nuclear weapons so close to mother Russia, and I wonder whether a, let's say, 10 yr. moratorium on applying for NATO membership wouldn't have prevented this mess. I love Ole Joe and the Dems, but we are indebting the US $1T more every 100 days, as we spend taxpayers money like it was water. Every coin has two sides, but Our Mad King Donald is a dangerous crazy man and I didn't need to become a psychiatrist to see that truth.
In a technical sense, it would not be treason as the Constitution defines it. We are not in a state of open war with Putin’s Russia. However, it isn’t in our national interest to have our politicians supporting a foreign power and a wannabe dictator who supports said foreign power. We have our own national interests, and one of them is to ensure a government that works for all citizens, while another is to fulfill our commitment under the Budapest Memorandum to assist Ukraine to defend itself against Putin.
Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union, but the country is financially disadvantaged, in large part because Putin is a kleptocrat who has allied himself with his country’s oligarchs. He’s trying to create his empire on the cheap, and his propaganda efforts have been successful with some of our citizens and elected officials.
Putin is the most dangerous psychopath in the world; he could end the world as we know it. Indeed he has already done that for millions. There are people who do not understand this, there are those using him for political ends, and there are the ones that absolutely recognize him and are just like him.
For those that know and are actively supporting Putin and his murders, especially members of our government, there is no other word than traitor. They have sworn an oath.
Sadly, Congressional Members are briefed behind closed doors and in SCIFs---they know a whole lot more than we do. This makes what they are doing even more disgusting and dangerous. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was on Colbert last night and specifically called out MTG. She confirms it all.
We are in the same boat as Ukraine, so is every creature on the planet. What the hell will Putin do next?!
If one remembers France was one of America's major supporters during the Revolution. Despite this reality one of the most effective campaign issues were to accuse a candidate of being on France's side for domestic policies. Now Repub candidates are pro Putin and pay no consequences. What a farce.
Putin and Trump both fit the classic definition of being Nazis, yet Putin claims not to be a Nazi and Trump claims to be Mandela or Jesus? Obviously they are lying to their supporters. And their supporters are stupid enough to believe them. Making anyone who doesn't believe them the enemy!
What could go wrong with two greedy, lying old man having nuclear weapons? Thank God they are Christians! /S. Xi strikes
me as being much more intelligent and rational.
I wouldn't be surprised if Garland was a Nazi either. The Democrats should be in control of the Congress and the Supreme Court by now and Trump locked up!
I think Jow Biden's intentional interference in peace talks back in March of 2022 is what will "give" Ukraine to Russia. There is abdolutely no way that Ukraine will defeat Russia militarily, every single military expert says as much, It is a fools errand of political expediency and propaganda to continue a futile war in lieu of diplomacy in the interest of making Biden look good. The same liars and incompetents who got us into Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest are orchestrating the disastrous intervention in Ukraine. Stop playing games and begin the diplomacy necessary to end the destruction. Putin is no crazier than genocide Joe.
1. Cut Putin off at the pass. Democrats control the Senate. https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/
Phone: (202) 224-1700
Fax: (202) 224-1772
McFaul, Turner, Romney (R-UT), Tillis (R-NC), and Cornyn (R-TX) and a top aide to Senator Todd Young (R-IN), as well as former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and even Trump’s vice president Mike Pence, have warned about the party’s ties to Russia. Should be called to testify ASAP.
2. George Polisher wrote Orange is the New Orange, documenting that Trump left a trail of tweets, witness testimony, and documentation relating to the Mueller Report. https://www.amazon.com/Orange-New-Our-Book-Impeachment/dp/169761907X
3. Trump's social media company Trump Media managed to go public last week only after it had been kept afloat in 2022 by emergency loans provided in part by a Russian-American businessman under scrutiny in a federal insider-trading and money-laundering investigation. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/03/trump-media-es-family-trust-2022-loans#:~:text=Donald%20Trump's%20social%20media%20company,trading%20and%20money%2Dlaundering%20investigation.
4. Follow the money. Trump is a candidate, all members of the House are running for office, plus several in the Senate. Federal law prohibits contributions, donations, expenditures(including independent expenditures) and disbursements solicited, directed, received or made directly or indirectly by or from foreign nationals in connection with any federal, state or local election. https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/foreign-nationals/#:~:text=Federal%20law%20prohibits%20contributions%2C%20donations,federal%2C%20state%20or%20local%20election. Call Parnas to the stand.
5. Manafort was pardoned and therefore has no 5th Amendment rights. Same with Bannon and Flynn. Need to visit a grand jury ASAP.
I take no comfort in the knowledge that tfg and his cultists will mostly die along with me when they bring on the devastation of nuclear war. And they will. Putin won’t care. He’s old and will go out with a bang, taking the world with him. Or living in some bunker, if you can call it that, with others of the morbidly rich. After all, there won’t be many attractive shopping options or vacation spots when nuclear winter descends. I want to scream at the cupidity, the stupidity, the venality, the immorality of these people. Yet I am utterly powerless to do anything to stop them.
My only recourse is my religious faith. I came late to Greek Orthodoxy, after over a half century as a hard core atheist. It gives me solace, hope, joy even. More than that, even if it is delusional, it reinforces the value of living life as I do, seeking to emulate the real Christian’s of the New Testament, not the demented grotesque so many “evangelical” tfg cultists claim as their own. An aside re Ukraine—its national Orthodox Church is part of a group included with mine in the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Russian Orthodox Church, headed by a kleptocrat who made his fortune smuggling cigarettes into the old Soviet Union, was expelled after he expressed staunch support for Putin and the war against Ukraine, promising heaven to every Russian soldier who died in that horrific criminal enterprise. All of which makes a sick joke of the MTG’s in MAGA who absurdly claim Ukraine is killing Christians. No Russian fighting voluntarily to subjugate Ukraine is Christian, if the New Testament means anything at all.
Ukraine isn’t perfect. No country is. But it is a titanic beacon of democracy compared to Russia. If we abandon it, we abandon our founding ideals, and the values that led us to aid Europe to defeat Nazi Germany in WWII. I do not want to have to end my years in a country that allows itself to betray all who have fought for her and what she is and can be, who include my father and his two brothers, all of whom spent WWII in the Pacific.
We must pressure Congress to free up the aid Ukraine desperately needs. And do everything in our power, great or small, to swarm the ballot boxes with blue votes for every office in November. If not, we are finished, and so, very likely, is any kind of world we would want.
We need to raise our voices and be heard right now, to support the courageous Ukrainian resistance.
A bipartisan majority of Our Representatives (both Dem & GOP) want to sustain aid to Ukraine. The National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act (HR 815), commonly known as the Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan aid package, passed in the Senate by a 70 - 29 vote weeks ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson has not brought it to the floor of the House, so Democrats are circulating a discharge petition to force it out of committee and be voted on. The petition needs 218 signatures. It currently has 191 -- only one Republican.
Everyone reading this can help by calling Republican Representatives and urging them to sign the discharge petition for HR 815, to expedite delivery of military assistance for Ukraine before it's too late.
Once the bill passes the House it would go directly to the President for his signature and immediately become law.
Call the U S Capitol switchboard (202) 224-3121 to connect with any Representative, and call Speaker Johnson's office (202) 225-4000 to insist that he encourage Republicans to sign the petition.
For phone numbers of about about two dozen specific Republicans known to support Ukraine aid, please click on recent Ukraine-related posts at
https://www.FeathersOfHope.net
.
They're already doing it by denying aid.
Putin is the most dangerous psychopath in the world; he could end the world as we know it. Indeed he has already done that for millions. There are people who do not understand this, there are those using him for political ends, and there are the ones that absolutely recognize him and are just like him.
For those that know and are actively supporting Putin and his murders, especially members of our government, there is no other word than traitor. They have sworn an oath.
Sadly, Congressional Members are briefed behind closed doors and in SCIFs---they know a whole lot more than we do. This makes what they are doing even more disgusting and dangerous. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was on Colbert last night and specifically called out MTG. She confirms it all.
We are in the same boat as Ukraine, so is every creature on the planet. What the hell will Putin do next?!
Why biden does not slice the aid to ukraine like he does to israel? Keeping it lower and under the threshold needing congress approval? And he could do that every day several times, no?
‘Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it treason’
From Epigrams by John Harington (d.1612) Godson of Queen Elizabeth I.
Some Democracy Labs infographs and maps to illustrate Thom's comments on Putin:
Putin’s MAGA Republican Cheerleaders Block Aid For Ukraine: Follow the money
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/02/04/putins-maga-republican-cheerleaders-block-ukraine-aid-for-trump/
Meet The Pro-Putin MAGA Republicans Who Voted To Block Aid For Ukraine
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/02/18/pro-putin-maga-republicans-trump-block-ukraine-aid/
From Russia with Lies: How MAGA GOP Spreads Putin’s $600K Disinfo
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/03/16/maga-gop-impeachments-spreads-putin-disinfo/
Thanks, Thom, for another timely piece. However, I still buy Putin's claim that he doesn't want NATO expansion among his former USSR holdings, or nuclear weapons so close to mother Russia, and I wonder whether a, let's say, 10 yr. moratorium on applying for NATO membership wouldn't have prevented this mess. I love Ole Joe and the Dems, but we are indebting the US $1T more every 100 days, as we spend taxpayers money like it was water. Every coin has two sides, but Our Mad King Donald is a dangerous crazy man and I didn't need to become a psychiatrist to see that truth.
In a technical sense, it would not be treason as the Constitution defines it. We are not in a state of open war with Putin’s Russia. However, it isn’t in our national interest to have our politicians supporting a foreign power and a wannabe dictator who supports said foreign power. We have our own national interests, and one of them is to ensure a government that works for all citizens, while another is to fulfill our commitment under the Budapest Memorandum to assist Ukraine to defend itself against Putin.
Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union, but the country is financially disadvantaged, in large part because Putin is a kleptocrat who has allied himself with his country’s oligarchs. He’s trying to create his empire on the cheap, and his propaganda efforts have been successful with some of our citizens and elected officials.
Putin is the most dangerous psychopath in the world; he could end the world as we know it. Indeed he has already done that for millions. There are people who do not understand this, there are those using him for political ends, and there are the ones that absolutely recognize him and are just like him.
For those that know and are actively supporting Putin and his murders, especially members of our government, there is no other word than traitor. They have sworn an oath.
Sadly, Congressional Members are briefed behind closed doors and in SCIFs---they know a whole lot more than we do. This makes what they are doing even more disgusting and dangerous. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was on Colbert last night and specifically called out MTG. She confirms it all.
We are in the same boat as Ukraine, so is every creature on the planet. What the hell will Putin do next?!
Loosely following the "logic" of MTG:
1- Putin is a Christian
2- Putin is an evil murderer
Therefore, Christians are evil murderers.
Way to go, Marge. You just took a SHIT on Christianity
If one remembers France was one of America's major supporters during the Revolution. Despite this reality one of the most effective campaign issues were to accuse a candidate of being on France's side for domestic policies. Now Repub candidates are pro Putin and pay no consequences. What a farce.
Putin and Trump both fit the classic definition of being Nazis, yet Putin claims not to be a Nazi and Trump claims to be Mandela or Jesus? Obviously they are lying to their supporters. And their supporters are stupid enough to believe them. Making anyone who doesn't believe them the enemy!
What could go wrong with two greedy, lying old man having nuclear weapons? Thank God they are Christians! /S. Xi strikes
me as being much more intelligent and rational.
I wouldn't be surprised if Garland was a Nazi either. The Democrats should be in control of the Congress and the Supreme Court by now and Trump locked up!
I think Jow Biden's intentional interference in peace talks back in March of 2022 is what will "give" Ukraine to Russia. There is abdolutely no way that Ukraine will defeat Russia militarily, every single military expert says as much, It is a fools errand of political expediency and propaganda to continue a futile war in lieu of diplomacy in the interest of making Biden look good. The same liars and incompetents who got us into Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest are orchestrating the disastrous intervention in Ukraine. Stop playing games and begin the diplomacy necessary to end the destruction. Putin is no crazier than genocide Joe.