Tuesday, May 09, 2023
Friday, February 24, 2023
Toxic Train Disaster in Ohio
A Norfolk Southern train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, 2023. East Palestine is a population 4,700 town near the State line of Pennsylvania; an hour from Pittsburgh and a half hour south of Youngstown.
NTSB and Ohio EPA
On board the trains tanker cars were toxic chemicals including Vinyl Chloride which spilled, ignited and was allowed to "burn off" over the next 36 hours billowing a massive black, noxious cloud over the city which drifted south on air currents
The hazardous stew spilled from 10 cars into a trench where it was burned away. Ohio EPA and Local officials recommended the town evacuate immediately after the accident, but have repeatedly assured the residents that the city water is safe to drink, but are recommending bottled water. Some waterways are contaminated but Ohio EPA reports contamination as “contained“.
Municipalities downstream will close water intakes as the “containment plume“ is tracked and the toxins get near. Ohio EPA surface water chief says “low levels“ of remaining contaminants are not getting to the public.
Local residents are of course, uneasy about the state of their water, air and soil. Some 43,000 fish and marine wildlife in the local waterways have died, while pets, livestock and birds are also dying or exhibiting odd behavior.
Vinyl Chloride is a Disaster for the Environment
Primarily used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC), Vinyl Chloride is a flammable gas that is carcinogenic. Property owners with private water supplies are being urged to get their water tested. Some scientists worry about other persistent chemicals produced during the burn off.
This is a major Eco-disaster which has upended the lives of all who live nearby and down river.
Second only to the Mississippi, the Ohio river flows through or next to 6 states over 900 miles south till it joins the Mississippi river.
While Joe Biden has seen fit to visit Europe and Ukraine in the last two weeks, he hasn’t gone to visit the residents of East Palestine and his transportation secretary finally made an appearance and press conference on site on February 23. Donald Trump however has visited. The 42nd president flew to Ohio and met with the townspeople, handed out cases of water and capitalized on the political points Biden had left him in a place Trump won in 2016 and hopes to count on for support in 2024.
Government Credibility
The credibility, government-wide, has never been as shaky in our history. In two successive democrat presidencies almost all trust has been removed from the American people in their governments ability to function on a basic level much less tackle disasters. The justice department has never been as politicized and, or Weaponized as Obama and then Biden have made it.
-katykarter
February 24, 2023
Wednesday, February 01, 2023
From American Thinker, food for thought on the Ukraine-Russia War
The following was taken in complete form from American Thinker.com. American Thinker is a quality website sharing news and analysis from the Conservative perspective. The information in this article has all been explained before, none of it is new info for me. However, if the general consensus of the American Public is weighed regarding this conflict, it's clear that this history is an inconvenient one and a real historical accounting of the causes for Russian aggression in Ukraine. American Eagles seemingly, are turned to vultures.
-katykarter
The Real Lessons of the Real History of The United States and post-Glasnost Ukraine
I am responding to "Ukraine and the Unlearned Lesson of History," by Jacob Fraden. published in AT 1/31/23.
I’ll start with the author’s contention that Russia’s war against Napoleonic France was one of its wars “of aggression.” On June 24, 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with an army of 650,000, approximately the 12th European county to receive the French tyrant’s military attention. Who was the aggressor here? Tsar Alexander I was a hero at the Congress of Vienna, for crushing that invasion and breaking the French chronic aggressor’s back once and for all.
And most of Christian Europe had the sense to be grateful to Russia for driving the hated Turkish muslim conqueror and oppressor out of the Balkans and other parts of Europe. As to Russia’s wars with the Swedes, Lithuanians, Poles and Germans (13th through early 17th centuries), for much of that time those four, not Russia, were the aggressors. In fact, the Poles and Lithuanians burned Moscow in the early 17th century. And yes, in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries Russia expanded eastward through Siberia and Asia, absorbing territory thinly populated by backward peoples. Who, of all people, are we Americans to fault Russia for THAT? Go to the blackboard, and write MANIFEST DESTINY 100 times.
It’s not merely this writer’s logic about the present that’s flawed - he’s terminally confused about the past.
More pertinently to the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine, after the Soviet collapse in 1991, Russia wanted peaceful integration into the European economic, political and security system. No knowledgeable person at the time doubted the sincerity of this wish; and no one in the 1990’s saw prostrate Russia as a threat to anyone. It was we, rather, the US military industrial complex (“MIC”) and neocon hegemonists, who rejected this desire, fervently and repeatedly expressed by both Gorbachev and Yeltsin.
The promises of no eastward expansion of NATO by Secretary of State James Baker (and no doubt other Western leaders) were promptly ignored by Clinton and his gang. NATO expanded successively in two major tranches -1999 and 2004 - and thereafter the well of the West’s relations with Russia was poisoned. But that poisoning, no doubt, was the neocon object of the NATO expansions.
The eastward expansion of NATO was condemned at the time of its first occurrence by no less an authority, and American patriot, than George Kennan, former ambassador to Russia and arguably the author of America’s Cold War policy of containing Soviet expansion.
In the 90’s Russia could do nothing about this massive breach of faith by the West. But object it did, and repeatedly. By Vladimir Putin’s assumption of power in 2000, no significant Russian leader could have been found who saw the West’s expansion of NATO as anything but threatening, or Gorbachev’s failure to prevent that expansion by formal treaty as anything but naive and incompetent.
Without firing a shot, in the period 1989-1991 the Soviet Union gave up an empire, more accurately, a cordon sanitaire, in Eastern Europe; and by 1994 it had withdrawn all of its troops from the region. At the same time, believing the West’s assurances that there would be no NATO eastward expansion and that Russia would be economically and politically integrated into Europe, Russia disbanded the Warsaw pact.
For all of these historically unique concessions Russia got no thanks, no integration into Europe, and successive gratuitous and - from its standpoint, threatening - eastward expansions of NATO.
By 2004 the US neocons had Ukraine in their sights as the next Western military base to be constructed on Russia’s doorstep - Ukraine, the eastern half of whose population was ethnically Russian, Russian speaking or pro Russian (or all three), and which for about 300 out of the last 350 years had been part of either Russia or the Soviet Union.
In 2007, in Vladimir Putin’s Munich speech, the Russian government made it plain that Ukraine was the reddest of red lines. Russia would never tolerate a Ukraine militarily aligned with NATO, stuffed with sophisticated American weaponry, on its front porch. In fact, that reality had been clear since America’s open and obvious support for the 2004 so-called “color revolution.”
This plainly and repeatedly communicated position was nothing more than Russia’s iteration of the same policy that President Kennedy announced in 1962 - that no great power would be permitted to establish a threatening military presence in America’s part of the world. Does America have a better right to a militarily nonthreatening Cuba than Russia has to a similarly benign Ukraine?
But nothing changed the attitude if the US neocons and MIC. In 2008 that deep thinker, George W. Bush, successfully twisted NATO’s arm (over German and French objections) into promising that Ukraine and Georgia would “eventually” be offered NATO membership. Russia was further enraged. And the clueless President of Georgia took the promise as a signal that he could, with impunity, move militarily against Russian ethnics living in the northern part of Georgia. In the event, Russian protective military action put a quick stop to that.
The final straw was US support for the violent, anti-democratic riots in Ukraine in 2014, which resulted in the the deposing of freely elected, pro-Russian Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovic. The pro-West, democratically illegitimate regime that replaced Yanukovic threatened to ban the use of Russian as an official language, and to take other steps perceived as highly adverse to the overwhelmingly pro-Russian Donbas population; in consequence, demands came from the Donbas for some form of guaranteed autonomy within Ukraine. The new Kiev government’s response was to wage a war against its own Donbas population, which, by 2022, had cost the lives of 15-20,000 Donbas residents.
Also shortly after its installation in 2014, the newly, non-democratically installed Kiev regime hinted that Russia’s long term Sevastopol naval lease would not be renewed. Russia responded by reincorporating Crimea - to the relief of the vast majority of Crimea’s population. With the exception of Nikita Khrushchev’s purely internal administrative change, Crimea had been part of Russia since 1793 when Catherine the Great had defeated the Turks.
When the Biden administration took power in 2021 it immediately began treating Ukraine as a defacto member of NATO. NATO troops paraded with Ukrainian in Kiev, the supply of Western weaponry to Ukraine dramatically increased, and, generally, there was every indication of an impending move by Kiev, assisted by US weaponry, to crush the pro Russian Donbas population once and for all.
Throughout 2021 Russia repeatedly requested talks with the Biden administration the object of which would be to assure Ukrainian neutrality and non-NATO membership and some form of protective guarantees for the the Donbas population. These pleas were ignored.
And the war came.
This is a brief, hurriedly written summary of Russia’s “wholly unprovoked” war in Ukraine.
Much more could be written about every topic touched on.
But that this tragic, needless war was in fact provoked by the West’s low-grade war against Russia over the last 30 years is indisputably clear simply by reciting the pertinent history. This does not excuse or justify the Russian invasion. But it shows that it was the West, led by American neocon hegemonists, that created Russia’s accumulating perception of threat, which in turn made the war all but inevitable.
We, successive governments of the United States of America, bear a large share of the responsibility for creating the conditions in which the Ukraine war occurred. If our self image of America as a uniquely humane and benign force in the world has any merit, it is we who have a moral duty to assist in bringing this ruinous, and highly dangerous, conflict to an end.
The flow of ever more destructive Western weaponry to Ukraine should stop. The mindless, anti-historical demonization of Russia should stop. Negotiations to bring about a conclusion to the war should begin.
Map credit: Basque Mapping CC BY-SA 4.0 license
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
Tuesday, September 06, 2022
Letter to the President, Constitutional Convention, 1787
This letter, written by Benjamin Franklin while at the Constitutional Convention upon our Nations' birth, was to implore the President to reinstate prayer to the official proceedings:
Mr. President,
The small progress we have made after 4 or 5 weeks close attendance and continual reasonings with each other---our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ays, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
In this situation of this Assembly groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings? In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance.
I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth---that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that " except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall be become a reproach and a bye word down to future age. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move---that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and it's blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.
Our Country was formed with Gods grace, and with all thanks voiced in unison to Him for his many blessings bestowed on this Nation.
Let our hearts continue to be open to Him and to trust and follow his guiding hand that he will see us through the darkest of times seemingly at hand.
-Ian Carroll
September 6, 2022
Houston, Texas,
United States of America
Tuesday, August 30, 2022
Some Wisdom from Denzel Washington
At a recent event, Denzel Washington paused to answer a few questions and had the following exchange with an entertainment reporter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwnNrr9RO2Y
(transcribed by katykarter)
Reporter: there's been a lot of buzz about fake news lately. You were the subject of some fake news recently
Denzel: Oh, yea. What did they say? I'm running for president or something...what did they say?
(reporter speaks off mic) Oh, yea that I'd switched sides or support...yea yea...
Reporter: What do you make of all this fake news, does it affect you?
Denzel: "If you don't read the news, you are uninformed. If you read the news you are misinformed"
Reporter: Hmm so what do you do?
Denzel: That's a great question. What is the long-term effect of too much information? One of the effects is the need to be first. Not even to be true anymore. So what a responsibility you all have (glancing around at the reporters). To be...to tell the truth. Not just to be first but to tell the truth. We live in a society now of it's just first, who cares just get it out there. We don't care who it hurts, we don't care who we destroy, we don't care if it's true. Just say it, sell it. Anything you practice you'll get good at. Including BS.
In another interview, Denzel cuts right to the heart of the matter in our struggling society.
Reporter: For black people in particular, do you think we can truly make change as things are right now?
Denzel: Well, it starts in the home. You know, if the father is not in the home the boy will find a father in the streets. Yeah. I saw it in my generation and every generation before me and every one since. It starts in the home. You know, if the streets raise you then the judge becomes your mother and prison becomes your home.
"My wife has a saying, To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did"
-katykarter
Sunday, August 07, 2022
Mark Levin reminds us of what is actually a good thing and what is utter garbage
A recent Twitter post from Mark R. Levin @marklevinshow
(transcribed as published)
"AND here come the corrupt media, celebrating Biden's "legacy-defining wins"; and the rest of the media sing in chorus. Ignore the horrific state of the southern border; ignore the massive increase in violent crime;
Ignore the unimaginable debt, recession, inflation, and energy prices; ignore the war on the Supreme Court, separation of powers, the electoral college, and the equal application of the law; ignore the destruction of women's sports;
Ignore the sexualizing of kindergartners; etc., etc. As for Biden's "legacy-defining wins," his appalling surrender in Afghanistan has resulted in the empowerment and rise of al-Qaeda; his appeasement of Iran has resulted in that murderous regime developing nuclear technology.
His cowardice in the face of Red China's provocations throughout the world has imperiled our ally Taiwan; and his failure to provide the right arms to Ukraine before it was invaded by Russia has cost tens of thousands of Ukrainians their lives; etc. etc.
Subsidizing big-tech oligarchs with billions in taxpayer dollars, further bankrupting the country, raising taxes in a recession, and hiring 87,000 new IRS auditors, among other things, are NOT "wins" for the country.
AP is a propaganda machine for the Left and the Democrats, like most of the corrupt corporatist media."
Known as "The Great One" by his peers at the highest level of Conservative Talk Radio, Mark has the ear of powerful and patriotic citizens and their best interests at heart. One of my favorites, you can continue to hear his show on nationally syndicated networks and is a constant contributor to Fox News and a frequent guest on other Conservative outlets. He is also the champion of the Hillsdale College and other Conservative institutions.
-katykarter
Thursday, May 05, 2022
The Seige at Azovstal in the Ukraine-Russia War
Russian Objectives
In the 60+ days of fighting in Ukraine, Russian troops have been seen concentrating on several objectives along the way- some, such as the attempt to take control of the capital Kyiv have been repelled by fierce defense of their home territory by Ukrainian regular military and their combat partners the militias of their regions, the Azov Battalion and the Pocket Army fielded by Ukrainian Billionaires. These militia's have received training from US and other Western Advisors, training on military equipment recently sent to Ukraine from the United States and some European countries. Now Russian objectives seem to liquify into holding territory gained in the eastern region known as the Donbas; the Donetsk and Dnipro regions. Military pundits seem to think a land-corridor to the Crimea is the objective, which would include conquering the large industrial city of Mariupol which is on the Southern coast at the Black Sea.
For weeks, Russian armor accompanied by infantry and air support have driven the defending battalions from all corners of Mariupol except one: the Azovstal Steelworks Factory. Up to 2000 Ukrainian fighters are reported to be there, along with 1000 militia and several hundred civilians.
Additional recent Russian objectives also include bombing and missile attacks on railway and other transportation hubs to halt the import of Western arms pouring into the country.
Humanitarian Mission
A UN Humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine said "101 people, women elderly and children were rescued from the bunkers under the Azovstal steelworks", however 24 hours later that was walked back by Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko from the city of Zaporizhzhia Tuesday where the evacuees were scheduled to be transported.
They haven't made it yet and it may take a while. Russian occupying forces allow the evacuees to pass through checkpoints only after complying with stringent documentation and interviews/interrogations according to humanitarian reports.
getty images
The massive Soviet-era steelworks plant is the last hold out for Ukrainian militia in the area, they have retreated to the labyrinth of underground tunnels originally constructed in 1933 under Joseph Stalin.
Medieval Siege
This fortress in a city is owned by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, whose company Metinvest also owns the nearby Illich Steel and Ironworks and is suing the Russian Federation for damages sustained during the war. Akhmetov is a majority owner of Shakhtar Donetsk, a Ukrainian professional soccer team who are presently playing in exile.
Akhmetov assumed the mantle of president of the FC upon the assassination of the previous owner, Oleksander Bragin on October 15, 1995 who's bombing also killed 4 body guards and would have killed Akhmetov had he not been late due to traffic delays.
Ukrainian President Zelensky has instituted anti-Oligarch laws in their legislature, as a large swath of their country is controlled by these private armies. Their ranks are filled with eager young fighters mostly from Ukraine who wish to enact strict nationalistic laws for the sake of their country's "purity".
In 2014-15, severe civil unrest was the result of pro-Russian leaders being replaced by Ukrainian loyal regime who sought to destroy the opposition bloc. Pro-Russian forces and their supporters were forced underground when components of the Azov Battalion were unleashed on an Odessa Government building (and elsewhere) in 2015 which was sealed with people inside and burned, killing everyone who were perceived to support the pro-Russian sentiment.
A contest of two Bad Guys?
The Azov Battalion and other militias are the subject of Russian President Putin's dismay in Ukraine, groups he denigrates as "death squads" and "bandits".
It seems Putin may have the upper hand in the coming days with regards to finally taking control of all Mariupol and routing the "Nazi-militias" from their holes beneath the massive steelworks. But it will be a highly dangerous endeavor to physically remove all the fighters as the catacombs are said to be extensive. Ukrainian fighters and politicians alike worry the defensive positions may be fortified enough that a chemical weapons attack may be seen as the only alternative to win this battle.
News last week heralded a call for help from the fighters below the Azovstal, for food, water and ammo which all are running low. With their supply lines cut, how long can the fighters hold out? It remains to be seen, but rest assured the civilians in their midst will be exploited for their maximum value, to gain breaks in the shelling and the assault Russia is administering daily. Several have been evacuated from the steel plant, but haven't at the time of this writing been accounted for at any UN or Red Cross locations.
On a wall in the shattered remains of the coastal city, this message has been painted:
Monday, April 11, 2022
Corruption? What Corruption?
But this culture of corruption finds it's way to the highest levels as this article delineates. When the top man is self-centered and greedy, the second-to-the-top is also looking out only for themself also. All of their support apparatus is infected with this malady to democracy.
Not to mention, it is easily infiltrate-able.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/secret-service-employees-suspended-federal-agent-impostors/
-katykarter
Friday, March 11, 2022
From GRID: Should there be No-Fly Zones over Ukraine enforced by NATO?
Recently there have been calls for a no-fly zone, most insistently and daily from Ukraine's leadership, President Zelensky or his advisers and/or supporters. There are significant risks though, as you will find out upon reading the article below or remembering recent history.
https://www.grid.news/story/global/2022/03/09/what-is-a-no-fly-zone-why-ukraine-wants-one-and-why-nato-is-refusing/
from GRID:
Perhaps the political scientist Seva Gunitsky put it best when he wrote on Twitter recently, “the people calling for a no-fly zone should explicitly say they are willing to risk nuclear war and the people calling for backing off should explicitly say they are willing to tolerate war crimes. there is no moral high ground for anyone here.”- Seva Gunitsky, Political Scientist
Wednesday, March 02, 2022
Thursday, February 03, 2022
HNY and a look back
Happy New Year and may it be a prosperous time for you. Many crucial issues will cross into the new year with us, unresolved, their battles looming.
The following is a post from 2020 and well illustrates the Civ Comp mentality. It also demonstrates the need for properly educated youth, We can't trust such a precious commodity to be poisoned and grow up to poison a new generation any longer.
posted by katykarter
September 21, 2020
BLM or Black Lives Matter?
As a term of awareness, I'm all for it. There is plenty of evidence that black lives are not afforded the same value as others. As with all statistics, it is not absolute and the actual amount seems to only be measurable through crime statistics. When protests pop up following local police shootings, the frustration is that another life has been unfairly taken for little if any reason at all. People who go forward with this mind-set and ideology are brainwashed and misled.
Their message is fair, let black lives matter as much as all others. I get that. Unfortunately their movement towards social justice is marred by their acceptance of all the negative trappings that come along with any Marxist, Socialist or Communist organized action like BLM. The legitimate protesters, who are there in person to lend weight to this request of their fellow citizens don't want looting, Don't want more killings of blacks or any other race. Again, MOST don't want their cause to be consumed by this 'other' movement.
There is a subterfuge at work here. BLM is attaching itself to these protests until the blacks in America shun the violence and divisive tactics. But the American Black isn't much interested in politics, or public service or participating in citizen activism. They are almost exactly like all other racial lines in this country: they just want to be left alone. They love their lives as they live, no not satisfied completely but just like all of us, they are unwilling to give up their lives. What they see as injustice is unfortunately the outcome of the attitudes the black community have kept up through the years. Perhaps I understand this penchant to remain unincorporated or independent...or maybe I really don't.
If the solution to this problem is our collective unification, the blacks will have to come towards the center just as all others are willing to do. I can't speak for the actions of our forefathers and mothers.
For generations, the vile evil of slavery went on and the rich and privileged didn't have to be faced with it. When the nation began, still most didn't have to face it, but they knew it went on and they hated it. But to break ranks and speak up about it...alone...didn't make sense. Until later generations saw the atrocity and their parents' silence and private hatred, and decided to speak more freely about abolishion. But it was slow to take hold. Until another generation decided that enough was enough. And changes were made. But private contempt still remained: blacks were second class citizens as did the belief in the lie that they could never be a first class citizen.
The
rich were the upper class, then middle class which was closer to the
lower working class. Then came second class, or the poor. Generations
were now coming up in the black households who hadn't experienced actual
slavery but were part of a wide, overlarge black poverty population.
Attitudes within schools and churches began to change with the wider
believed principle that blacks were entitled to the American dream.
Gradually, never suddenly, attitudes change, generations pass. A lie
that was once widely believed has since been debunked, and those who
once believed the lie are dead and gone.
Move Forward
We are here now and senses need to be soothed. We can do it, it's the first step to healing. Lend your ear and your heart: both Black and White. This will be the foundation our country will use to repel the evil of Socialism, Communism and Anarchy. We must believe in ourselves and our countrymen.
The ultimate purpose of this page and platform is to remind everyone who takes a moment to read, that we can have our quiet, prosperous, peaceful communities back and reclaim our streets from the forces of crime and anarchy because it starts with the one thing we affect directly: Our own homes.
It starts in the Home
We need to teach what is right and how to act with respect and love of our neighbors, our parents and our teachers. Teachers need the most help because the sad state of the childrens' moral compass today contributes so strongly to the anarchic mentality so many young people have today. This redefinition of social behavior will result in peaceful classrooms and accelerated learning while at school. Believe me when I say, our focus on improving the state of our national public education system needs to match the Left's focus which has been dominating school board rooms and teacher's lounges for decades.
-katykarter
Russia v NATO: Historical Stalemate becomes Current Threat
As the very public figure of the historical Russia, Present resident President Vladimir Putin has challenged expansion of NATO towards his country. As a lone operator in the East, east of Europe, and farther east than any allies, though these are solely the former Soviet Union states that broke away when the USSR broke up in the early 90's, Putin and Russia see themselves as being surrounded and threatened by NATO in contrast to a perceived promise made back in the 90's when the US' SecState James Baker and Russia's premeir Mikhail Gorbachev were meeting and negotiating terms.
Probably the most important facet of these negotiations was the fate of Germany who'd been split into East and West after WW2, both geographically and ideologically and was now reunifying after the collapse of the USSR who had been propping up East Germany.
Ever the paranoid statesman,("It's not paranoid if they really are about to invade"), Putin continues to use the threat of the eastward expansion of NATO to warn that it's security was being stripped and no buffer would protect Russia from a closely supported invasion from NATO forces.
In 1997 there was another agreement, although it was signed by Yeltsin it allowed NATO to expand to countries Russia once considered under it's security purview. Putin and other leaders from Russia have criticized it as allowing military hardware "at our borders".
During a Russia/US summit in Helsinki in 1997, Yeltsin agreed to receive "sort of a bribe" ($4B USD) to allow NATO to expand as it sees fit, but to have it's nonbinding opinion heard at the negotiating table. Clearly agreeing to receive the "sort of a bribe", now Boris Yeltsin had negotiated away any opposition Russia might be lawfully awarded in the future regarding NATO expansion.
2014 Putin directed Russian forces to seize the Crimean peninsula and Russia annexed the former Ukrainian territory. It was a move everyone understood as Russia's means to maintain that buffer. Crimea was a longtime strategic asset of Moscow. Their submarine fleet was manufactured and based on the Black Sea. Bad relations with Ukraine worried Russian war planners and the surprise invasion shored up Russia's buffer zone.
Now Putin wants a do over of the 1997 agreements. The former Russian premiers had all been lured by the promise of payouts to cede their strategic blocs. But not Vladimir. He will, in his well known fashion, turn the tables and possibly require large USD payouts not to invade Ukraine while being accommodated at the negotiating table with regards to which missile defense system may or may not be deployed there.
Boris Yeltsin
Premier of Russian Federation 1991-99
Mikhail Gorbachev
Soviet GS Communist Party, 1985-91
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Thursday, April 01, 2021
Sunday, March 28, 2021
New Customs and Border Patrol whistlblower Video from Project Veritas
Border Patrol Insider Reveals Encounters With ILLEGAL ALIEN SEX OFFENDER...
Conditions at the border are deteriorating daily.
-kk
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Border Crisis
March 20, 2021
Border Crisis
Covid Outbreak at ICE Facility on Border
Texas governor Greg Abbott in an on-air interview on Fox news described the conditions at several migrant holding facilities in Texas as a disaster. Texas currently has 3 holding facilities, one in Dallas housing teenage migrants, (temporarily, 21 days then they will be moved to other states’ facilities), Corrizo Springs and in Midland. Running water at the Midland facility, which is drawn from a well, has yet to be approved for consumption, as federal authorities continue testing the purity of the water. Along with the water problems, more than 10% of the detainees have tested positive for Coronavirus in two locations, Midland and Corrizo Springs. While Speaker Pelosi asserts the Administration is getting the border situation under control, Gov. Abbott points out the Federal agencies did not adequately plan for this influx of border crossings. The ICE and Law enforcement agents are overwhelmed and face daily danger of contracting the virus and taking it home and spreading it through their families.
On Joe Biden’s first day in office, he began to fundamentally dismantle the efforts of the Trump Administration- and this is not exaggeration or fudging the facts slightly. Literally the first thing he did was to rescind several key programs that Donald Trump had started. Through executive order, Joe B killed the Iran Deal in which we pressured Iran into shelving or delaying their drive towards a working nuclear weapon. Also on the chopping block, the Paris Climate kerfuffle which Trump excused us from, Joe B reversed and plans to reincorporate those climate change measures set to unfairly burden our economy. Finally, Joe B has virtually opened the door at the border again, reversing several policies shrewdly put in place by Trump’s team including halting further wall construction. Although a Texas judge ruled the order unconstitutional, Biden ordered no deportations for 100 days.
Catch and Release
One of the tools Biden has thrown away is the “Stay in Mexico” policy which Trump got Mexico to support. That when a migrant comes to the southern border of the United States, and upon application of entry, the migrant is to stay in Mexico while his court date approaches. In our country, legal immigration is allowed and a certain number of migrant workers and other immigrants (such as students), are accepted. However the proper channels must be navigated, as in the courts and the requirements to legally enter must be met. Typically, when an undocumented worker or ‘illegal’ enters our country, they are arraigned in ICE court, then released into the US to await their ICE hearing. Overwhelmingly, most do not show up for this hearing on the date they’re ordered to return, becoming another of the tens-of-millions of undocumented immigrants who will not ever proceed lawfully to live here in the US. There will be no attempt to normalize their stay here, they will live in the shadows. They will typically not try to assimilate into this country at all, preferring to live and operate in the ethnic enclaves that exist here in every city.
Dreamer Act will cost $35B
Obama’s Dreamer act or DACA would legalize the presence of millions of young people who are here outside of the law. Young children brought here by parents would be legalized by a stroke of the pen, bypassing the normal requirements of obtaining legal status. In stark ignorance of the reality of accepting these millions of Immigration shortcutters, Joe B and the Leftist mob think it’s racist to require people of color, which most of these illegals are, to actually produce valid ID for such things as voting, driving and health care. They ignore the previous waiting list of people who’ve gone through the LEGAL channels and are waiting their turn to enter this country legally and start their new life on the right foot. Otherwise, they are simply substituting one oppressed life for another bringing this new land closer and closer to the old land they left behind.
Pelosi: Border is under control
When JoeB took office earlier this year, a push began through Central America up through Mexico to again form a large caravan of migrants who walk to the United States in hopes of getting in. They have been organized and at times transported by the agents of chaos funded in no small part by the global financier George Soros, which seeks to upend our Democratic society and turn it into a cog in the One-World Government-controlled states of Socialism. These latest gate-crashers were fed, watered and clothed in t-shirts that read, “Hey Joe, Let Us In!”.
We are now under a massive assault on the southern border, with videos of long lines of migrants patiently waiting for a boat to pick them up on the southern side of the Rio Grande and taken them over to the US side. Hundreds of people in lines that stretch out of sight. In plain view from our side, these migrant lines are speckling our southern border theatre.
Texas Governor Greg Abbot has deployed the State Troopers to the border to create a temporary wall in the areas the actual wall hasn’t been finished, in order to stem the flow of these ‘mujados’ who simply walk around the incomplete wall.
Border Violence and Brain Dead Politicians
Our world is unraveling at blinding speed lately, with the leftist mob gaining momentum through the cultural shaming going on and the flat-out “We will cancel you” if you disagree culture. This is why we see politician criminals proclaim the “Border is Secure” when it is obviously under siege, or when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is visiting the border today (although no press will accompany him), says the threat of Jihad is smaller than the violent threat of domestic terrorism.
As with all things from the Left, truth is inconsequential if it doesn’t fit the narrative.
-katykarter