Update from Ukraine | Ruzzia Attacks Again and Fails Again

fieldmarshaldj: "I see two posts from Brother Joke got yanked (presuming he didn’t request his own spam to be pulled)."

I had not noticed, but it appears now the reason was my inclusion of FR's resident snow-flake Allegra in my address line.

Clearly, there's a new rule here that I don't understand -- how can anybody "take offense" at being included in the addressees of a post in a thread they've already made posts to, thus clearly indicating their interest in the subject?

If you don't like what I post, then ignore it, nobody requires you to read it, must less respond.

Sure, I confess, I'm a relative new-comer, only been here around 20 years now, but in that time I've never requested a post be deleted or demanded that somebody not ping me.
I've long noticed that the name here is Free Republic, implying the land of the free, home of the brave.

Now it seems we are to be ruled by woke snowflakes who "take offense" at any infraction or "micro-aggression"?

The old rule was, we are to list everyone in the address line who's part of that conversation, directly or indirectly.
The new rule is, leave snowflake Allegra off the address list, even if the post discusses him (her?) directly.

I can live with that rule.
But I don't see how Allegra can.

fieldmarshaldj: "He passed unstable a long time ago.
When he’s not insulting everyone as “LIARS !” for not viewing the world and facts the same way as he sees them, he goes on those diatribes.
He must think we’re all hanging on his every long-winded harangue.
I don’t bother reading or replying to most of the nonsense.
Add to that, he outed himself as a Socialist when he denounced individuals that had to save their countries from open Communist evil, as if he should be seen as heroic for standing with Allende or the Communist Spanish Republicans. Total derangement.
As you pointed out, too, he openly disregards the request of others to stop pinging them long after they’ve disengaged.
Pretty much just your quintessential globalist-Marxist troll."

And yet... in all of that BS nonsense you present not even one fact or logical argument to support Russian aggression in Ukraine.
All of it is just personal attacks and LIES against someone here to defend the cause of the free republic of Ukraine against Vlad the Invader's imperial aggressions.

Seriously, I don't "get" it.
How did your brain get so fried?

R - Trust Putin’s Plan./s

You mean a ghoul like Putin? He wants a lot more.

fieldmarshaldj: "I’m reminded of then-Sen. Bob Dole’s biting remarks to then-Sen. Fritz Mondale in the 1976 Vice-Presidential Debate about the 'Democrat Wars.' "

This much at least we agree on.
But Democrat Wars didn't begin with Wilson and WWI.
They go all the way back to the first Democrats, Jefferson and the Barbary Wars, Madison and the War of 1812, Polk and the Mexican War.
The US Civil War was a war Southern Democrats declared against the United States lead by Republicans.

So Democrats have always loved to start wars and since WWII they also love to see the US defeated, and the more humiliatingly, the better they love it, prime examples being Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Their reasons for starting wars include Democrats' globalist outlook and their reasons for loving to see us defeated are because it's usually more conservative Republicans who actually fight wars, and any defeat for Republicans is a win for Democrats.

In short, Democrats are historically far more evil than most people imagine.

fieldmarshaldj: "Anything to try to get the public’s mind off of domestic failures across the board and to try to gin up fake popular solidarity to get behind the Pedo’s trifecta of wars and help him “win” in 2024."

All that being true, the fact remains that Vlad the Invader is a clear and present danger to not just Ukraine, but to every country near Russia, from the Baltics to the Caucuses.
The analogy today to the 1930s Rhineland, Austria & Czechoslovakia is almost perfect.
The lessons of history could not be clearer.

If we ignore such threats when they are relatively easy to defeat, then we will soon enough face a power we cannot defeat short of a desperate total war with tens of millions of deaths resulting.

When I was a young man that lesson from history was obvious to everyone, Republican, Democrat, conservative or liberal -- only wild-eyed leftists wanted to see the Old Soviets & Chi-Coms victorious.

Ukraine Battle Map:

US military aid to Ukraine has decreased by 93.5% per month from what it was in the first half of 2023.

In the past 30 days, there has only been one military aid package to Ukraine.

Biden administration still has over $5 billion of unused military aid they… pic.twitter.com/5Y24OAui4k— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 22, 2023

Very Low IQ

The American "world order" or "Pax Americana" is a different matter. It has nothing to do with "empire" and everything to do with voluntary alliances held together by economic and security interests.

Me thinks you've got a severely warped view about how we (USA) go about spreading our ideology with invasions and regime change......

- Cuba Invasion & Sanctions - Invaded Granada
- Invaded Panama
- Invaded Afganastain
- Bombed Yugoslavia
- Bombed Libya
- Arab Spring
- Maidan Revolution
- Ukraine proxy war

That's the shortlist.

While the Western European countries of old used their military power to "occupy" and control, we have brought the concept into modern times by using not only our military power but also our economic power, coercion, and stealth.

Do you honestly believe the countries now rushing to join BRICS don't see this? If not, you're quite the fool.

The issue with "Pax Americana" today is whether it can continue successfully with less and less American contribution to it.

Maybe it can, but it will be shared "Pax" with the world. If we are not willing to join the rest of the world in dialog and not continue our bullying as we have for 70 years, then it will not turn out well -- at all. On top of that, we have a declining, corrupt, inept military that can no longer continue the brute force of the past>

Bullying and brute force worked for the first 50 years. That's over now. The rest of the world has grown up, and "they're not going to take it anymore." Most societies start the rot from within. Clearly, that's where we are with $33 trillion in debt, no control of our borders and illegal migration, and a rapidly decaying social structure. We're on that same path to destruction, and the rest of the world sees that.

No amount of daily lies, propaganda, and brainwashing will change it. Slowly but surely, our country will reach critical mass to change -- I only hope we don't self-destruct before that happens. 'Cause we're sure on that path!

Our form of government and system is clearly not working. Maybe it's time to have a grown-up conversation and reevaluate.

The Roman Republic lasted about 500 years, the Western Roman Empire about another 500 years and the Eastern Roman Empire another 1,000 years beyond that. The American constitutional republic is now 235 years, so by historical standards, we are still quite young.

The roots of our country go back to the early 1600s -- another 150 plus years for almost 400 years -- not 235.

On top of that our world is orders of magnitude "faster" than it was 2000 years ago. Significantly so!

If we are headed toward loss of empire, which I believe we are, then we may be years away.

One thing is for sure. As an Anglo society, we have cratered about every 80 or so years. The last one was the Great Depression & WWII.

We're overdue about now!

"In short, Democrats are historically far more evil than most people imagine."

True statement, and ironic coming from one who supports Biden's war/notwar against Russia, and is unwilling to hold either the corrupt money-grubbing regime in Ukraine up to any scrutiny, or... come to think of it, any criticism or questioning of the Biden regime's actions on your part have been conspicuous in their absence.

So again...

Democrats are evil.

Joe Biden is a Democrat.

The people who own and operate Joe Biden are Democrats.

Joe Biden is the chin-balled face of the Democrat regime pushing war/notwar in Ukraine.

So which way is it, really? Democrats, Joe Biden, and his Democrat handlers evil, or not evil? Oh wait, you've answered that already.

How about Democrat/Joe Biden war/notwar, or foreign entanglement in the service of a corrupt CIA junta in Ukraine yes or no? Not even a little scrutiny on your part? Frankly what does that make you?

"All that being true, the fact remains that Vlad the Invader is a clear and present danger to not just Ukraine, but to every country near Russia, from the Baltics to the Caucuses."

For the sake of conversation one accepts your premise. That's why NATO exists, and that's why President Trump called several, perhaps all NATO countries to start pulling their own weight. Since the bloodbath in the service of corruption and money laundering began in Ukraine, Poland has conspicuously cut Ukraine off and is not prioritizing their own defense by conserving their resources. Germany is tapping the brakes a bit too. It would seem that one who claims to be rational would begin to ask some questions about Democrat Joe Biden's war/notwar at this point, but what we get from you is some blather about some treaty that was signed by Bill Clinton with the previous, actually legitimate government of Ukraine that preceded the Zelensky/CIA junta.

Tell you what, I'm not gonna stoop to someone else's level of name calling and accusation, but how about just you and I agree to disagree about Evil Democrat Joe's war/notwar? I don't think I can reason you out of anything that you weren't reasoned into in the first place. There's something else going on here with you that I choose to leave alone.

Thank you.

Typo correction: “NOW prioritizing”.

Ooops................ I left off a biggie in my previous list....

"Me thinks you've got a severely warped view about how we (USA) go about spreading our ideology with invasions and regime change......

- Cuba Invasion & Sanctions - Invaded Granada
- Invaded Panama
- Invaded Afganastain
- Bombed Yugoslavia
- Bombed Libya
- Arab Spring
- Maidan Revolution
- Ukraine proxy war"

Don't forget the disaster we call Vietnam, where we lost 60,000 of our young men!

What, exactly, did they die for? Think of all the lives them and their families wasted -- for nothing except the whims of Washington, DC.

“Inherited nobility”??? W.T.F. ??
Is that where you hope to take Free Republic?

Where you been ?

-The Bush Family is now on its fourth generation seeking high office and has held public office in the States of Connecticut, Florida and Texas

-the Kennedy family has held office in the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Maryland,California and Connecticut

-Pelosi’s daugher is expected to “inherit” her Congressional seat
-Duncan Hunter did inherit his seat, until he went to jail.
-Debbie Dingell did take over her husband’s congressional seat.

-as of 2017 there were supposedly 20 Members of Congress whose parents were also in Congress.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/20-current-members-of-congress-had-parents-in-congress

In addition to political office, the children of the politically prominent cash in, and monetize their family connections. Pelosi’s son, Romney’s sons, Kerry’s sons were all operating in Ukraine.

And that is just the politicians. If you look at the members of the “Cathedral” Institutions (major newspapers, Ivy League, big Foundations) increasingly you see that they are the second or third generation.

The US has the worst possible outcome. Dynastic and untalented elites given the fraudulent validation of pretended democratic victory or individual merit.

For the USA, instead of an elite trained from birth to rule, there is now a decadent inherited oligarchy groomed from the start to cash in.

Prominent artistocratic families like the Howards and the Russells served England for many centuries.

The best the USA can do now is Hunter Biden and Andrea Pelosi.

“The American “world order” or “Pax Americana” is a different matter.
It has nothing to do with “empire” and everything to do with voluntary alliances held together by economic and security interests.”

You’ve got to be kidding !

THe USA forced Imran Kahn out of power because he was “aggressively neutral” on the Ukraine War.

And that wasn’t good enough for the GAE (Globohomo American Empire)

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/09/imran-khan-pakistan-cypher-ukraine-russia/

Apparently, you also can’t comprehend the concept of harassment.

"Seriously, I don't "get" it."

No $hit, Sherlock.

JohPreston: "Ukraine Battle Map:
US military aid to Ukraine has decreased by 93.5% per month from what it was in the first half of 2023.
In the past 30 days, there has only been one military aid package to Ukraine."

Thanks for an interesting graphic, I've seen nothing like it elsewhere and cannot verify if it's true or not.
What I can do is add up its numbers and they total to about $44 billion over the past 20 months.
That is an average of about $2 billion per month, with some months dipping below $1 billion in aid.

That is a far cry from other numbers I've seen, sometimes over $100 billion claimed of US commitments alone.

Here are the best numbers I can find now:

The US has sent $44 billion in military aid.
The US has sent $75 billion in total aid, meaning about $31 billion in humanitarian, financial and other non-military aid.
Total military aid to Ukraine from all countries is said to be just under $100 billion, of which the US contributed 47% and European countries 53%.
Total aid in all forms from all countries is said to top now $350 billion, meaning the US total contribution is about 21% of total aid to Ukraine.

How much actual aid reaches Ukraine from any given country in any given month is unknown, or how much is "in the pipeline" scheduled for future deliveries, also unknown.
My point is, Ukraine's actual situation cannot be determined from just this one graph.

If US aid is actually dropping long-term it will force Europeans to increase their contributions or leave Ukrainians incapable of anything militarily other than a stalemate.
And yet, certain weapons have not yet been delivered in large numbers, including longer-range precision guided missiles and F-16 fighter jets.
These could potentially change the military equations in Ukraine's favor and produce more dramatic results.

Clearly, Vlad the Invader's strategy today is to hold on defensively, while threatening offensive actions, until either NATO grows tired of supporting Ukraine, or Ukrainians themselves grow weary of fighting, and then hope for a "stand in place" armistice / peace treaty.
Everyone's best guess is that this will happen early in the next Pres. Trump administration, in 2025.

What happens between now and then will most likely determine the final settlement lines, though I would not expect Ukrainians to ever agree to anything other than full restoration of their sovereign territories, including Crimea, meaning at best an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Bottom line here is that we are dealing with the fundamental nature and pathologies of Democrats, who historically are always quick to jump into wars, often regardless of any plan for victory, and then are just as quick to retreat and surrender after they've figured out ways to blame Republicans.
That is what I've always expected to happen in Ukraine, just as it did elsewhere, and today Republicans are giving Democrats every excuse they need to blame us and then refocus their spending elsewhere, leaving Ukrainians to the Europeans for support against Vlad the Invader's tender mercies.

icclearly: "Me thinks you've got a severely warped view about how we (USA) go about spreading our ideology with invasions and regime change......"

Clearly your eyes are blinded by something pathological because you sound like some third-world ally of the old Soviets and Chi-Coms.
Of course, they didn't like it when the US helped suppress their communist revolutions world wide, and they still don't forgive us for it.

But why would any American, especially a self-professed Free Republic style conservative, make their arguments for them?
Here again is the truth of this matter:

The idea of "American Empire" is pure fiction invented by anti-Americans to help inspire others likeminded.
The reality of "Pax Americana" is a fact due mainly to a powerful US military in alliance with many other powerful countries in Europe and Asia.
From 1945 to ~1991 "Pax Americana" was mainly focused on "containment" of Old Soviets and Chi-Coms, to include suppressing revolutions they inspired in third world countries.
After 1991 "Pax Americana" began to refocus on globalized Islamic state aggressors as in Iraq and Iran, then after 2001 on Islamic global terrorists such as those headquartered in Afghanistan.
Since the early 2000s, the CCP's rising economic power is accompanied by increasing military aggressiveness and, along with similar threats & actions from Vlad the Invader's Russia, together have increasingly demanded we again "pivot" the focus of "Pax Americana" away from Islamic pathologies to those of major global adversaries.
That is where we stand today.

icclearly: "While the Western European countries of old used their military power to "occupy" and control, we have brought the concept into modern times by using not only our military power but also our economic power, coercion, and stealth.
Do you honestly believe the countries now rushing to join BRICS don't see this?
If not, you're quite the fool."

I have no idea what you are babbling about "coercion and stealth" -- those are empty words meaning nothing.

As for BRICS, nobody gives a d*amn about Brazil, India or South Africa, because they are in no way threats to the USA or anybody else.
They are free to do whatever they want, and make whichever friends best suit them.

Vlad the Invader's Russia, CCP's Xi-snake, NoKo's Little Kim and Iran's Moolah Mullahs, those are very different matters.
All are very aggressive lawless dictators who threaten and attack their neighbors along with supporting terrorists such as those now attacking Israel.
Allied together, China, Russia, NoKo and Iran constitute a serious new "Axis of Evil" compared to which "BRICS" of Brazil, India and South Africa are a mere society of... you name the metaphor... old ladies quilting? Old men meeting at the Lions Club? No offense intended to either of those, but they are not threats to the post-WWII "Pax Americana".

icclearly: "Maybe it can, but it will be shared "Pax" with the world.
If we are not willing to join the rest of the world in dialog and not continue our bullying as we have for 70 years, then it will not turn out well -- at all. "

That is total BS garbage talk, where did you learn such nonsense?
The truth is that whenever our allies have contributed to enforcing "Pax Americana" they have had major says in what and how our operations go.
A typical example is the 1991 Gulf War which was joined by a coalition of 40 other countries from the UK and Saudi Arabia to Japan and New Zealand.
One result was these allies put limits on how far US forces could go into Iraq and how long they could stay there.

That resulted in Saddam's survival in power and conditions which sparked Gulf War II in 2003.
Gulf War II was fought by a much smaller coalition, basically just the US, UK and Australia plus Poland.
Its end was long and drawn out and unsatisfactory from any perspective I can imagine except as battle-tested lessons in what works and what doesn't.
Those are good lessons to learn, but at the cost of $trillions in dollars and thousands of US dead & wounded, seems like a very high price to pay for our failures in planning, intelligence and leadership.

icclearly: "Most societies start the rot from within. Clearly, that's where we are with $33 trillion in debt, no control of our borders and illegal migration, and a rapidly decaying social structure.
We're on that same path to destruction, and the rest of the world sees that."

No, we're on exactly the same path that Democrats put us on whenever they've been in power since the 1960s.
And we've always gotten off that path again as soon as we elect capable Republican leadership, most notably Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Pres. Reagan's impact and long-term influence was so positive that very few people today even remember how awful and defeated the US had become under Democrat Pres. Peanut Carter.
Now we're back to that same sense of defeat and depression -- Carter himself called in "malaise" -- that drove Americans to vote for Reagan in record landslides.

I think, I hope and pray, that's where we are headed again with a second Pres. Trump victory, only this time, dear Lord, let us put an end to the entire insane Democrat agenda that is ruining our youth and rotting our country from the inside.
Somebody much smarter than I am needs to find the great wellheads for Democrat lunacies and cap them permanently, reduce their flows to mere trickles the rest our nation can easily deal with.
Can that even happen legally? God knows, but the current rot is not sustainable long-term, in my opinion.
I would never support anything other than legal processes from constitutionally elected leaders.

icclearly: "Our form of government and system is clearly not working.
Maybe it's time to have a grown-up conversation and reevaluate."

Many profound thinkers have called for a Convention of the States, including one of my favorites, Mark Levin.
The advantages include: it is 100% constitutional and lawful and can propose literally anything in a new Constitution.

I would support a Convention of States in a heartbeat if I believed it was a realistic way to correct our manifest problems, but I don't see how it could.
A new Convention of States would give us only the exact same alliances of majority Democrats against minority Republicans that we've seen in Washington since the Great Depression and 1932.
I see no way anything good would come of it.

The only real answer is the same as it's always been, just as in the 1980s, to convince vast majorities of average Americans that Republicans can put an end to Democrat insanities and restore traditional values with real law enforcement at home, genuine economic growth and credible military deterrence against the world's lunatic dictators.

These overwhelming majorities cannot include just white married "middle class", but also "working class" minorities, Hispanics, Blacks and Asians.
Once such majorities are achieved and maintained long term, then the need for things like a Convention of the States disappears.

Finally, I'd invite you to consider that we likely agree on much of this and that therefore there's no real need to fill posts with mindless insults and personal attacks.
Reasoned discussions using facts and logic are always appropriate, even on Free Republic Ukraine threads, FRiend.

icclearly: "The roots of our country go back to the early 1600s -- another 150 plus years for almost 400 years -- not 235."

Sure, but if you want to count that way, then the same accounting gives us thousands of years for all the ancient empires like Rome and Brittain -- all were small settlements for thousands of years before they became a republic or empire.

Apples to apples comparison, the Roman Republic lasted about 500 years, beginning in 509 BC.
The American Republic has lasted now 235 years, beginning in 1788.
The British Empire lasted about 400 years, from the late 1500s to late 1990s with a peak of over 100 years from 1815 through the First World War.

There is no "American Empire" but "Pax Americana" has lasted for nearly 80 years now, since the end of the Second World War.

icclearly: "On top of that our world is orders of magnitude "faster" than it was 2000 years ago.
Significantly so!
If we are headed toward loss of empire, which I believe we are, then we may be years away."

There is no "American Empire" for us to lose, there never was, the whole idea is just anti-American propaganda.
"Pax Americana" was always an alliance of powerful countries friendly to the USA, including those in Western Europe and the Western Pacific.
For many years we represented up to 90% of the effective military forces deployable and correspondingly held over 90% of effective control in the alliances.
Today, as our contributions decrease, so will the level of control we exercise over our allies' policies.

Nevertheless, so long as we are first among equal allies, we will still have the majority of influence over united policies against such enemies as Vlad the Invader, CCP's Xi-snake, Little Kim and the Moolah Mullahs.
The USA cannot and will not abandon its leadership role in the western alliances.

icclearly: "One thing is for sure. As an Anglo society, we have cratered about every 80 or so years.
The last one was the Great Depression & WWII.
We're overdue about now!"

No, remember, the Great Depression affected different countries differently -- some experienced significantly shorter and shallower declines before bouncing back to relative prosperity.

In the USA, the Great Depression sank deeper and lasted longer than in nearly any other country because of very stupid Democrat big government, socialistic policies.
It did not need to be the decade long misery it turned into, with the right mix of government policies.
So that particular problem is unlikely to ever happen again.

Some other problem could well strike us in the future but again, as with our recent Covid experiences, it will be insane Democrat policies which make the crisis last longer and Americans suffer far more than necessary.

There's only one real answer to such threats and that is vote like our lives depend on it to make certain no Democrat is ever elected or appointed in charge of anything important ever again.

Will that ever happen?
Naw... unlikely in the extreme, but it is what we should aim for.
The alternatives are nearly all as bleak as you describe them.