In his first extended remarks since he started the war against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin today said that Ukraine “risks losing its statehood” if its leadership “continues to do what they are doing.” Given the fact that what the Ukrainians are doing is defending their nation from an all-out criminal attack on the populations of their cities, this is neon-lettered madness in all-caps.
Lucien do his remarks today qualify as a "Big Lie? Of course, they do. Wonder why he thinks he might be able to get some traction here with them? Hint. 75% of those who self identify as Republicans believe Trump won and Biden/the Democrats stole it.
Oh, headline in online edition of WAPO says GOP slowing funding of Federal government during crisis. So, it is not just the "average" Republican who sees profit from cozying up to Vlad. We now have a very active and large Fifth Column of anti democratic forces working to give aid and comfort to whatever Putin want to do.
Precisely. The GOP is the 5th Column and must be treated as aiders, abettors, and vicious anti-Americans, everywhere they congregate. Or are the Democrats and Independents scared to death by their weapons and cruelty?
A lot of Republicans who are also mad and indifferent to human life? I was at a local support-Ukraine rally earlier this afternoon. A question that came up in several conversations went something like "When was opposition to Putin ever NOT a no-brainer?" I'm hoping that this has gotten through to enough of the U.S. voting public that clips of Republicans praising Putin will help do the lot of them in this fall.
I’ve been ranting about this sorry POS for years. I always knew he was a lot worse than orange sewage, because he is an amoral heartless KGB propaganda-driven automaton who kills at will.
Fear of Mr. Putin's atomic weapons allows him to blackmail the west. China is learning what to do when they go for Taiwan. Russian generals are not likely suicides, they have children. Somewhere hopefully in the Kremlin there is a person who will get fed up and put a stop to this.
I've read phrases like "<blah blah> might start a wider war," but it's looking to me like Russia couldn't fight a wider war. I say that because I've read that the troops deployed around Ukraine are about half of Russia's army. One would assume it's the better half, so I wonder the other half is like. At this point I'd be surprised if anything Putin has even works reliably from nuclear missles to his great and glorious hypersonic missiles.
I haven't commented on the last several excellent items on Ukraine, just taking it all in. It's almost impossible to comprehend in thi s day and age how uncivilized we still are as so called evolving creatures on this planet, If we are evolving it is only in science and technology, certainly not in a spiritual sense. Of course it's only 2000 years since biblical times -- just the blink of an eye from an evolutionary perspective. But even nations with strong religious beliefs can become quite savage at times. Speaking of savages, there was a 2008 article on Putin just republished by Vanity Fair. :
Chosen as Russia’s next leader by Boris Yeltsin’s inner circle, in 1999, Vladimir Putin appeared to be a blank slate on which his supporters, his country, and the world could write their desires. Few saw what he really was, or the way he brutally erased his footprints on the climb to power. Fewer still have survived to decode him. As Russian forces bend Georgia to their will, Masha Gessen tells how one small, faceless man—backed by the vast secret-police machine that formed him—took control of the world’s largest country. (October 2008). Following is the beginning of the article.
In 1938 when Chamberlain at Munch gave in to Hitler's demand for the German-speaking Czech provinces, Hitler was disappointed, according to history books. He wanted to lead a victorious German army of conquest to violently take the provinces and then the nation. He accepted the proffer and then proceeded to take the whole country anyway. And he then moved on to invade Poland, knowing full well that Poland had mutual defense pacts with the U.K. and France. So it will be with Putin: he will move on to invade the Baltic states and Poland, knowing full well that they are NATO members and Article Five will be invoked. He believes he can hold the world hostage by rattling his nuclear saber. So far, he has been correct. And, ultimately, unless he is stopped by his own military and/or government, he will use that nuclear arsenal, just as Hitler used every weapon available to him in his mad effort to conquer Europe.
Putin is using up the majority of his army, and it’s not even enough manpower to hold the Ukraine, as Lucian already pointed out.
Rather than indulging in alarmist conjecture that this situation will escalate, even though it could, I prefer to see it as a reckoning for the Russian people, sort of like djt provides a political reckoning for the USA. It’s a major cultural turning point for Russia.
Usually a “major cultural turning point in Russia”, is accompanied by poison, swords and/or guns.
Fiona Hill gave an interesting interview the other day in which she expressed her belief that Putin’s downfall won’t come from sanctions as Putin has elevated himself above the oligarchs he once depended on for support. (One did put a million dollar bounty out on vlad)
Rather, his downfall will come from the inner circle of military, personal friends among ex KGB that he now surrounds himself with and who he has placed in charge of this war. They are fanatics devoted to the restoration of Mother Russia in all of its 19 th century glory, and they crave, not money, but Russia’s recognition as a world power, a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately for both the generals and Vlad of the tiny appendage, that military showing is going depressingly bad, especially since he pulled out his big threat almost immediately. Dead bodies don’t lie, or hide, for ong, and the generals know it, even if the Russian people don’t, yet….It is her belief that this tiny cabal of fanatics may take him out if they see this “denazification mission” as destroying any chance of Russia coming out of this poorer and more loathed than any other race since the actualNazis. Even Hitler’s generals tried to stop him, many times.
It was also interesting to see that Vlad the impaler sat at his sadly performative and unsightly long table with his generals to discuss nuclear annihilation, yet had a communal dining experience with a bunch of flight attendants over the same topic. What a brave, brave man….
Irishgurl, yeah I thought that whole thing with the Aeroflot ladies was weird. Guess a 70 year old dude thinks flexing his “muscle” with a bunch of attractive younger women is a way for him to relieve the srtress of killing innocent women and children.
He's wrong that Putin knows us better than we know ourselves. He may think he does, and that is what makes him dangerous. Overconfidence. At this point he thinks he can predict the future. He can't. His "bet" if you have to look at him that way, was that his war on Ukraine would be quick and easy. We are seeing how wrong he was about that one. If he is stupid enough to see the West as weak and corrupt, he's wrong because the implication is he sees Russia as strong and pure, if you will. Wrong again. This piece heartened me, because if the author is even a little right about Putin, then he is even more deluded than I thought. You know that thing about how you can lie right up until you reach the courtroom where facts matter and lies are punishable under the law? The battlefield is the ultimate courtroom. You can't hide dead bodies. You can't lie a loss on the battlefield into a victory like Trump has tried to do with the election.
Given that the US and UK promised to defend and protect Ukraine when they shipped all of their nuclear weapons back to Russia, I find the wests response galling. Putin knows full well that the words of those leaders are meaningless. The UK doesn't want to jeopardize the huge financial benefit of all of that Oligarch money and the US won't put boots on the ground. Shame on these powerful, democratic countries leadership.
Agreed. But this is putting all of Russia through the wringer, something akin to what Trump, and all the reactionaries he represents, put us through. Just my view.
The wonderful thing about our democracy is the ability to voice our opinions and debate them. But it is never a productive or worthy thing to do making disparaging and personal insults. I appreciate that your earlier comment was deleted/edited.
Then the promises made were made in bad faith and Putin needed a strong meaningful response before his tanks moved anywhere near the Ukraine border. This we'll "count to three" parenting method doesn't work for children nor for rogue leaders.
I'm not pleased with the "support" of the West for Ukraine, self-limiting efforts that I hope are not too late; I consider Putin and his cronies political and financial dinosaurs, who can still create much havoc.
Tom, we've been around this bend before. Your calling a fellow commenter an "idiot" and a "moron" is unacceptable in my comments and you know it. Why do you do this stuff again and again? You've done this before with female commenters, too. You seem to have an attitude that you're smarter than everyone else and you're not. I'm going to contact you separately. In the meantime, I don't want to see your comments on my Substack column.
I have looked through all of the comments, and I do not see your apology to Karen, and to other commenters, for your behavior on my comments. What's with you? I want to see an apology from you, or I'm going to block you through the Substack system from commenting on my columns.
Hmmm, never mind. I'll continue to appreciate Mr. Truscott's insight but won't share my thoughts any more in response. Millennial moron. Idiot. Really?
For the record, I am a 73+ years old grandmother, recovering from knee surgery and sometimes a cyclist when not in restraints.
I watched bomb shelters dug during the cold war while riding my Huffy, did a few under-desk drills in school, edited the college paper during the Vietnam War, dated a Korean War vet, hotly debated the concept of war with my WW2 vet father, and became the only registered Democrat in my family.
My hallucinatory viewpoint was expressed after a week long slough through news reports.
I'll stick with the voices in my head from now on. Over and out, darling.
I hope that you will continue to respond Karen. Your perspective is so valuable. TC was/is way out of line, and I'm sure he knows it. But, having one of his war books ("TC" = author Thomas McKelvey Cleaver) here on my end table, I can tell you he knows way more about war and nuclear weapons than I ever could handle. Putin's nuclear threat rightly terrifies him. Not apologizing for him, just giving some background.
We had a support-Ukraine rally Saturday afternoon. To one paper's coverage of it, a local citizen commented: "Per Capita gun ownership in the Ukraine is 9.9, the US 120. I’m thinking the Ukraine would be in a much better position if the citizens were well armed and I’m doubly sure most of those at Five Corners today are fans of gun control in the U.S. Just saying." This guy is not a millennial. Obtuseness is, unfortunately, multi-generational. I'm also afraid it's contagious.
I'm okay with "idiot." Not so much "moron." But I totally get your frustration TC - and fear. This is the REAL DEAL that we hid under our tiny desks from. Our protections now are no better.
Hang this around the neck of every GD Republican who is running for office. Every. Damn. One.
Amen Mary, second that!
Hear Hear‼️
Lucien do his remarks today qualify as a "Big Lie? Of course, they do. Wonder why he thinks he might be able to get some traction here with them? Hint. 75% of those who self identify as Republicans believe Trump won and Biden/the Democrats stole it.
Oh, headline in online edition of WAPO says GOP slowing funding of Federal government during crisis. So, it is not just the "average" Republican who sees profit from cozying up to Vlad. We now have a very active and large Fifth Column of anti democratic forces working to give aid and comfort to whatever Putin want to do.
Precisely. The GOP is the 5th Column and must be treated as aiders, abettors, and vicious anti-Americans, everywhere they congregate. Or are the Democrats and Independents scared to death by their weapons and cruelty?
Then who thought? Who didn’t see his madness and indifference to human life?
A lot of Republicans who are also mad and indifferent to human life? I was at a local support-Ukraine rally earlier this afternoon. A question that came up in several conversations went something like "When was opposition to Putin ever NOT a no-brainer?" I'm hoping that this has gotten through to enough of the U.S. voting public that clips of Republicans praising Putin will help do the lot of them in this fall.
I’ve been ranting about this sorry POS for years. I always knew he was a lot worse than orange sewage, because he is an amoral heartless KGB propaganda-driven automaton who kills at will.
GWB looked into his eyes and saw his "soul", and said "good to go".
"Ukraine is not a state, but it is in danger of losing statehood." - Stop the Steal® chairman Vladimir Putin
😆
Frankly, I never thought irony was his strong suit
Fear of Mr. Putin's atomic weapons allows him to blackmail the west. China is learning what to do when they go for Taiwan. Russian generals are not likely suicides, they have children. Somewhere hopefully in the Kremlin there is a person who will get fed up and put a stop to this.
With extreme prejudice.
I've read phrases like "<blah blah> might start a wider war," but it's looking to me like Russia couldn't fight a wider war. I say that because I've read that the troops deployed around Ukraine are about half of Russia's army. One would assume it's the better half, so I wonder the other half is like. At this point I'd be surprised if anything Putin has even works reliably from nuclear missles to his great and glorious hypersonic missiles.
I haven't commented on the last several excellent items on Ukraine, just taking it all in. It's almost impossible to comprehend in thi s day and age how uncivilized we still are as so called evolving creatures on this planet, If we are evolving it is only in science and technology, certainly not in a spiritual sense. Of course it's only 2000 years since biblical times -- just the blink of an eye from an evolutionary perspective. But even nations with strong religious beliefs can become quite savage at times. Speaking of savages, there was a 2008 article on Putin just republished by Vanity Fair. :
Chosen as Russia’s next leader by Boris Yeltsin’s inner circle, in 1999, Vladimir Putin appeared to be a blank slate on which his supporters, his country, and the world could write their desires. Few saw what he really was, or the way he brutally erased his footprints on the climb to power. Fewer still have survived to decode him. As Russian forces bend Georgia to their will, Masha Gessen tells how one small, faceless man—backed by the vast secret-police machine that formed him—took control of the world’s largest country. (October 2008). Following is the beginning of the article.
Read More
If we are evolving it is only in science and technology, certainly not in a spiritual sense.
Love these articles. Putin is tre-cray. One defcon higher than cray-cray.
In 1938 when Chamberlain at Munch gave in to Hitler's demand for the German-speaking Czech provinces, Hitler was disappointed, according to history books. He wanted to lead a victorious German army of conquest to violently take the provinces and then the nation. He accepted the proffer and then proceeded to take the whole country anyway. And he then moved on to invade Poland, knowing full well that Poland had mutual defense pacts with the U.K. and France. So it will be with Putin: he will move on to invade the Baltic states and Poland, knowing full well that they are NATO members and Article Five will be invoked. He believes he can hold the world hostage by rattling his nuclear saber. So far, he has been correct. And, ultimately, unless he is stopped by his own military and/or government, he will use that nuclear arsenal, just as Hitler used every weapon available to him in his mad effort to conquer Europe.
Putin is using up the majority of his army, and it’s not even enough manpower to hold the Ukraine, as Lucian already pointed out.
Rather than indulging in alarmist conjecture that this situation will escalate, even though it could, I prefer to see it as a reckoning for the Russian people, sort of like djt provides a political reckoning for the USA. It’s a major cultural turning point for Russia.
Usually a “major cultural turning point in Russia”, is accompanied by poison, swords and/or guns.
Fiona Hill gave an interesting interview the other day in which she expressed her belief that Putin’s downfall won’t come from sanctions as Putin has elevated himself above the oligarchs he once depended on for support. (One did put a million dollar bounty out on vlad)
Rather, his downfall will come from the inner circle of military, personal friends among ex KGB that he now surrounds himself with and who he has placed in charge of this war. They are fanatics devoted to the restoration of Mother Russia in all of its 19 th century glory, and they crave, not money, but Russia’s recognition as a world power, a force to be reckoned with.
Unfortunately for both the generals and Vlad of the tiny appendage, that military showing is going depressingly bad, especially since he pulled out his big threat almost immediately. Dead bodies don’t lie, or hide, for ong, and the generals know it, even if the Russian people don’t, yet….It is her belief that this tiny cabal of fanatics may take him out if they see this “denazification mission” as destroying any chance of Russia coming out of this poorer and more loathed than any other race since the actualNazis. Even Hitler’s generals tried to stop him, many times.
It was also interesting to see that Vlad the impaler sat at his sadly performative and unsightly long table with his generals to discuss nuclear annihilation, yet had a communal dining experience with a bunch of flight attendants over the same topic. What a brave, brave man….
Said the former flight attendant…..
Irishgurl, yeah I thought that whole thing with the Aeroflot ladies was weird. Guess a 70 year old dude thinks flexing his “muscle” with a bunch of attractive younger women is a way for him to relieve the srtress of killing innocent women and children.
Or as I like to say, a typical passenger.
I didn't understand Putin's "statehood" comment either. That's terrifying because he can say anything to justify anything in his insanity.
And sane people don't slaughter innocent friends, neighbors, and relatives.
The spectre and horror of a nuclear exchange looms large over the entire world.
All for internal consumption, just like TuckerSeanLaura garbage for Fox consumers.
Would appreciate your view of this article by Umair Haque. I rely on your knowledge and savvy. https://eand.co/putins-betting-the-west-will-break-it-s-up-to-us-to-prove-him-wrong-b984c6976147
He's wrong that Putin knows us better than we know ourselves. He may think he does, and that is what makes him dangerous. Overconfidence. At this point he thinks he can predict the future. He can't. His "bet" if you have to look at him that way, was that his war on Ukraine would be quick and easy. We are seeing how wrong he was about that one. If he is stupid enough to see the West as weak and corrupt, he's wrong because the implication is he sees Russia as strong and pure, if you will. Wrong again. This piece heartened me, because if the author is even a little right about Putin, then he is even more deluded than I thought. You know that thing about how you can lie right up until you reach the courtroom where facts matter and lies are punishable under the law? The battlefield is the ultimate courtroom. You can't hide dead bodies. You can't lie a loss on the battlefield into a victory like Trump has tried to do with the election.
Given that the US and UK promised to defend and protect Ukraine when they shipped all of their nuclear weapons back to Russia, I find the wests response galling. Putin knows full well that the words of those leaders are meaningless. The UK doesn't want to jeopardize the huge financial benefit of all of that Oligarch money and the US won't put boots on the ground. Shame on these powerful, democratic countries leadership.
The USA is betraying that agreement. Absolutely. And so is Russia. Shame on the humans.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Ukraine
National suicide is precisely what Russia appears to be committing. 😉
Agreed. But this is putting all of Russia through the wringer, something akin to what Trump, and all the reactionaries he represents, put us through. Just my view.
Yes.
Unfortunately he and his gang of dead end KGB thugs have th3 Russian nuclear codes.
The wonderful thing about our democracy is the ability to voice our opinions and debate them. But it is never a productive or worthy thing to do making disparaging and personal insults. I appreciate that your earlier comment was deleted/edited.
Then the promises made were made in bad faith and Putin needed a strong meaningful response before his tanks moved anywhere near the Ukraine border. This we'll "count to three" parenting method doesn't work for children nor for rogue leaders.
😒
I'm hallucinating. Seeing Paper Tiger "power" figures of the West running around in a Jurassic Park of feral Rusky dinosaurs.
That's clever but it's not what I'm seeing. Could you explain?
I'm not pleased with the "support" of the West for Ukraine, self-limiting efforts that I hope are not too late; I consider Putin and his cronies political and financial dinosaurs, who can still create much havoc.
Tom, we've been around this bend before. Your calling a fellow commenter an "idiot" and a "moron" is unacceptable in my comments and you know it. Why do you do this stuff again and again? You've done this before with female commenters, too. You seem to have an attitude that you're smarter than everyone else and you're not. I'm going to contact you separately. In the meantime, I don't want to see your comments on my Substack column.
I have looked through all of the comments, and I do not see your apology to Karen, and to other commenters, for your behavior on my comments. What's with you? I want to see an apology from you, or I'm going to block you through the Substack system from commenting on my columns.
Hmmm, never mind. I'll continue to appreciate Mr. Truscott's insight but won't share my thoughts any more in response. Millennial moron. Idiot. Really?
For the record, I am a 73+ years old grandmother, recovering from knee surgery and sometimes a cyclist when not in restraints.
I watched bomb shelters dug during the cold war while riding my Huffy, did a few under-desk drills in school, edited the college paper during the Vietnam War, dated a Korean War vet, hotly debated the concept of war with my WW2 vet father, and became the only registered Democrat in my family.
My hallucinatory viewpoint was expressed after a week long slough through news reports.
I'll stick with the voices in my head from now on. Over and out, darling.
Karen, I'm sorry I didn't catch this yesterday. His use of language and behavior is unacceptable. I'm going to tell him.
It's all good. Today my millennial spawn asked if I had any "Abba" vinyl. I'm more of a Joan Baez fan m'self. Thanks for your consideration.
Karen, keep on trucking and never let the b tards stop you.
I hope that you will continue to respond Karen. Your perspective is so valuable. TC was/is way out of line, and I'm sure he knows it. But, having one of his war books ("TC" = author Thomas McKelvey Cleaver) here on my end table, I can tell you he knows way more about war and nuclear weapons than I ever could handle. Putin's nuclear threat rightly terrifies him. Not apologizing for him, just giving some background.
I'm content. My millennial offspring enjoy my newly defined status.
Now now, boys. calm down.
We had a support-Ukraine rally Saturday afternoon. To one paper's coverage of it, a local citizen commented: "Per Capita gun ownership in the Ukraine is 9.9, the US 120. I’m thinking the Ukraine would be in a much better position if the citizens were well armed and I’m doubly sure most of those at Five Corners today are fans of gun control in the U.S. Just saying." This guy is not a millennial. Obtuseness is, unfortunately, multi-generational. I'm also afraid it's contagious.
I'm okay with "idiot." Not so much "moron." But I totally get your frustration TC - and fear. This is the REAL DEAL that we hid under our tiny desks from. Our protections now are no better.
I've been in Ukraine several times -- wonderful, brave people. How can we help?
Timothy Snyder, Eastern European history specialist, offered some great suggestions how to help Ukraine on his Substack the other day. Here's the link: https://snyder.substack.com/p/a-few-ways-to-help-ukrainians?s=w
I donated to the Ukrainian community in North Port, FL. Find one near you.
The search term "surviving nuclear war" is trending on Google. As if any of us would want to. Watch The Road and see how desirable that outcome is.
Let’s hope the free world is working on a way the neutralize Russia’s nuclear arsenal.