Frank Lasee directs our attention to this Heartland article:

Russia's Minuscule Economy: The Mouse That Roars

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Timothy Birdnow

I saw this add on Facebook. It's a sign of the times. Gold prices are sky high right now. Gee I wonder why?

(This is true of real estate as well. People want to be holding tangible stuff, not paper money or stocks or bonds.)

GOLD IS AT $1967 AN OUNCE. SELL US YOUR SCRAP GOLD SELL US YOUR GOLD COINS WE ARE PAYING MORE NOW THAN WE'VE EVER PAID AND WE HAVE MANY ORDERS TO FILL.
Please note our new address 9130 South US highway 1

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Steven Chase

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Timothy Birdnow

Maldives to Drown Again:

I've said it before and I'll say it again; why would the Maldives spend good money building airports if their country was going to be underwater soon. Wouldn't that money be better spent relocating the residents, or at least trying to mitigate the problem?

Somebody clearly thinks they are going to profit from five new airports for extra tourism.

In point of fact the islands have actually grown in recent years. But try telling that to the Gang Green.

"But the end of the Maldives... could come sooner if drinking water supplies dry up by 1992, as predicted."

—Canberra Times, 1988

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Timothy Birdnow

There is a saying much beloved by Second Amendment rights advocates that paraphrases the Bible:

"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who keep their guns".

This saying has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson, probably falsely. But it is still an astute observation.

During the '70's and '80's we had the nuclear freeze movement. The idiot liberals (but I repeat myself) thought that if America just unilaterally disarmed the Soviets would do likewise and we would have peace on Earth.

Now I know to many this was just a ruse to get us to surrender in the Cold War and so Communism would triumph. For others it was a handy political tool and nothing more; certainly Ted Kennedy supported it for that reason.

But a lot of the rank and file, the utopian moonbat types, believed the weapons were the problem and not the people wielding them.

Just get rid of the weapons...

I remember when Ronald Reagan began his Strategic Defense Initiative aka Star Wars. He wanted to abrogate the Outer Space Treaty which didn't allow any sort of weapons in space. Now this was logical at the time it was signed because nuclear weapons in orbit greatly reduced whatever lead time we had. But after a certain point it was pointless; what good does three or four minutes do you when your city will be turned to glass?

Reagan wanted to shoot Soviet missiles down before they ever got here.

(Bill Clinton shrunk the Reagan vision down, insisting on "hitting a bullet with a bullet" a near impossible task. Reagan's vision called for lasers and particle beams, essentially hitting a bullet with a shotgun blast. But that's another story.)

At any rate, there was a scholar of some note (whose name I do not recall) who, when asked about "militarizing space" said he dreamed that we would put ALL of our weapons there and that eventually they would just float away.

A lovely fantasy, but it's not the weapons that matter but those who would wield them.

Which brings us back to the point of this; the Ukrainians hammered their weapons into plowshares at the request of the United States in 1994, with the promise of being protected if they did.

Russia did not. Russia took money to do so and did in fact eliminate their nuclear arsenal - and used the money they saved to build a new, better arsenal.

So now Russia is invading Ukraine. Those who hammered their guns into plowshares are going to be plowing for those who kept their guns.

If ever there was proof the nuclear freezenicks were wrong this is it. Getting rid of your weapons doesn't  bring peace but rather war.

And the same holds true for gun control; take guns away from the citizenry and you only guarantee their are powerless to stop those who kept their guns. That is true of criminals and true of an out of control State (as in Canada.)

I doubt the Left will learn anything from this though.

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"Independence is exceedingly exacting, self-control is arduous, self-government is difficult... This is the reason that to certain of our native-born, and more often to our foreign-born, the American Republic proves a disappointment. They thought that self-government meant the absence of all restraint, that independence meant living without work, and that freedom was the privilege of doing what they wanted to do. It has been a hard lesson for them to learn that self-government is still government, that the rule of the people does not mean absence of authority, that independence means self-support, and that complete freedom means complete obedience to law... They are disappointed more than ever when they learn, as they ever do, that these are so, not because they have been decreed by some body of men, but that they are so by the very nature of things, and all the governments in the world are powerless to change them."

—Calvin Coolidge, "Speech before the Evanston Sunday Afternoon Club,” 1923.

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Timothy Birdnow

In a discussion with Valerius Anders he points out how strange this war between Russia and Ukraine has been, as has our response.

Valerius points out:

The Ukrainians did not destroy the bridge to Crimea- this made the invasion easier

The invasion routes have been printed for weeks - and yet there was no resistance

And all those US and UK weapons - mostly remain unseen

Even NATO took many hours before being able to get a few words on paper - as if NATO had not been predicting the invasion for months

There is something mysterious happening over there.

The US have refused to block the Bosporus to Russian Navy ships. Germany is preventing others from banning Russian companies from using SWIFT...

Tim adds:

That last is interesting. I heard a security expert discussing that bit about SWIFT - the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication - which controls the flow of money electronically. Stop that and Russia's economy will collapse, the expert claimed. Yet Germany is blocking that.

And why not? It's the dead of winter and Germany doesn't want to be without natural gas to heat their homes. Clearly the "green" technology they have invested in so heavily can't do the job.

So we have the means at our disposal to stop Russia at any time but are refusing to use it.

We could take steps to get the price of oil and gas to come down too; that would drain Russia's finances.

There are strange things about this war.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:47 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Timothy Birdnow

Like it or not we are pretty much forced to defend Ukraine at this point.

Back in the '90's when the Soviet Union was collapsing the Ukrainians had all these old Soviet nukes laying around (fully 1,900 strategic warheads, 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and 44 strategic bombers, or the third largest nuclear arsenal on Earth).

Bill Clinton asked them to destroy the weapons, something Ukraine was reluctant to do because they acted as a deterrent on Russian - and other - power. Clinton made assurances that the U.S. would protect Ukraine from invasion.

On December 5, 1994 the U.S., Great Britain, Russia and Ukraine signed a pact guaranteeing Ukraine's security in return for their destroying the nukes.

While Russia is now in breech of that treaty, the U.S. is still obligated to come to Ukraine's defense.Here is an overview of the process.

The Minsk agreement of 1991 was a part of the START agreement which the U.S. ratified.So was the Lisbon agreement of 1992. The Massandra Accords with Russia and the U.S. saw American guarantee Ukrainian security in exchange for fully dismantling the nukes. These assurances were cemented by the Budapest memorandum of 1994.

From the cited article:

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James Doogue

Ukraine is now in a state of emergency and it has been reported that the Ukrainian government announced compulsory military service for all men of fighting age.

Whether or not additional Russian troops have crossed Ukraine's border in recent days, there's no dispute about the fact that Putin has placed 200,000 troops plus plenty of artillery on Ukraine's Eastern border. They have also continued shelling targets within Ukraine. This of course is in addition to the many Russian troops and equipment which have been operating as 'separatists' within Ukraine since 2014.

Academics and diplomats might not want to call the situation an invasion for diplomacy's sake. Some politicians in the US didn't like it when Trump referred to the invasion at the US southern border. But the facts speak for themselves.

Certainly if the boot was on the other foot and NATO was funding and supplying a separatist movement within Russia, then declared parts of Russia as 'independent' nations, and amassed 200,000 troops and artillery and other equipment at the border and was shelling targets inside Russia, it would be considered by Putin as an invasion, and a 'casus belli'.

If Putin then staged an offensive to stop the shelling and attack the troops massed on his border, the UN would not be discussing war crimes against Putin.

As for what Zelensky says, he's walking a tight rope between not panicking his country but also needing to request help against Russia from the West. Putin on the other hand is clearly bent on taking the Donbas with as little conflict as possible, and without involving any military action from the West.

Truth is the first casualty of war.

Valerius Ander adds:

There are several mysteries in this war

I have the nagging feeling that most people in Ukraine and Russia did not expect it to happen.

The Ukrainians did not destroy the bridge to Crimea- this made the invasion easier

The invasion routes have been printed for weeks - and yet there was no resistance

And all those US and UK weapons - mostly remain unseen

Even NATO took many hours before being able to get a few words on paper - as if NATO had not been predicting the invasion for months

There is something mysterious happening over there.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:08 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Mike says:

To know Ukraine, know its history. Until 1945 the area known as Ukraine was controlled by whichever Empire carried the big stick, Russia being the last.

Stalin, who I believe wanted to stack the United Nations with known votes created what now is the nation of Ukraine to do so. Stalin could have just swallowed the area into Russia as was done in the past.

It was also part of the Soviet plan after the war to seed areas in their control with loyal Russians. In the Ukraine this plan was called Ukrainianization. After starving millions of Ukrainians the Russian needed to repopulate the areas where millions died. The genius of the plan was that for every Ukrainian used to repopulate 2 Russians accompanied them. And we make fun of Soviet long range plans!
 
Here we are 1991 and the people who now we can officially call Ukrainians voted for independence. That vote was telling in that the majority of no votes came from these seeded areas.

So here we are today. From 1991 until present in that area the Soviet preparations for the time when the West would be more focused on events inside their countries then out. It would be a no hassle, done deal takeover. And it will be.

I believe Biden told Putin the time was right with the Afghanistan withdraw.

Tim adds:

I can't say I disagree Mike.

Ukraine was one of the "Russias" insofar as it was part of the region of Rus. In fact, it was once the civilized part of Russia. Kiev was the great power in the region while Moscow was nothing at all, or just a small trading village. But the coming of the Mongols changed all that; they torched a buffer zone to keep Europe from counter-attacking, and Kiev and the rest of Ukraine were the zone. They would ride back in periodically and burn it out. So for a couple of centuries Ukraine was the true Borderland (hence it's name).

It diverged from Russian culture at that point.

It was such a pity because it was as civilized as any European area at the time and would have been a leader in Westerrn civilization. But after the Mongols the prince of Moscovy rose, and he learned everything he knew from the Golden Horde. He used their tactics, their secret police, their suspicious nature to take over their territory.

And as you say, they kept a tight grip on Ukrain. They couldn't afford it to rise again. It was a danger; a natural invasion route from Europe, and an area with great natural resources.

Your late history is pretty much accurate. Stalin murdered a large swath of the country and repopulated with loyal Russians. And now Putin's using them as a justification for invading the country again.

I doubt he'll annex Ukraine, but it won't matter; it'll be a puppet state, much like ByeloRussia (White Russia) is now.

And Biden did nothing. He could have prevented this had he been even remotely competent.

Put was encouraged by Biden's weakness. Putin was flush with cash thanks to Biden's war on fossil fuels and his push for "green" tech at the expense of oil. The price of gas shot up, and Putin became rich enough to do this. (See my article on the Georgian war in Pajamas Media. https://pjmedia.com/blog/timothy-birdnow/2008/10/24/drill-here-drill-now-helped-end-russia-georgia-war-n18506 ) He had Biden's gross mishandling of Afghanistan to show America wouldn't act. And he had the fact that Biden's family was deeply involved financially with Ukraine; it suggested he was bought by them. That is significant; better to take steps to remove the Ukrainian government than let them continue to partner with the American President. Especially with elections coming up this year.

And the U.S. was preoccupied with so much foolishness. Biden was cracking down on the political opposition and Putin knew a large number of Americans would be lukewarm in supporting him at best. The trucker protests in Canada were an echo of what was coming in the U.S. too, he knew, and so the time was ripe. It was no coincidence he launched this invasion in winter; Europe will want to stay out so they don't freeze. They will push Crazy Joe to not act.

The time was ripe for this, and Putin has always dreamed of doing it, ever since the U.S.S.R. came undone.

And now, if this succeeds, China will likely seize Taiwan.

We are moving inexorably towards world war.

And once again we will show ourselves fickle and unreliable allies. We made a promise to Ukraine to defend them from the Russian bear in return for their destroying their share of the Soviet nuclear stockpile. They did - and now we are reneging on the deal.

Biden is going to make Jimmy Carter look downright competent.

Squeezing Russia is the key to ending this. Drill baby drill! A major drop in energy prices would do the trick. But I fear Biden's handlers will tell him this means to push even harder for "renewable" energy to get us off of the "dependence on fossil fuel" as opposed to drawing the correct lesson, that it was the dependence on "renewable energy" that made this possible for Putin, as it gave him a monopoly on reliable fuel.

With an inflation rate over 8% in Russia Putin needed this as a distraction to the public. But then, so does Joe Biden with inflation over 7% here. Neither man can afford to back down. This will be the straw that will break the camel[s back come November if Biden fails here, I suspect. He is going to have to go to war or risk a Democrat slaughter. Putin can't afford not to win here either.

We are on a runaway train, with another heading down the track towards us and no Casey Jones to toss us off.

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James Doogue

So one country, Russia, recognises the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Then Russia unilaterally sends in 'peacekeepers' with heavy artillery, presumably to put down any resistance against the Russian backed separatists who have been carrying on terrorist activities in the region for years.

Has Russia ever taken concerns about these two regions in Ukraine to the UN Security Council? Surely as a permanent member with veto power, Russia could have raised concerns and had the UN involved in peacekeeping?

Well no, Russia have never raised a concern for the safety of the population in the Donbas region. They have simply claimed the region to be part of Russia.

The United Nations political chief says Russia’s recognition of separatist areas in Ukraine’s east is a violation of the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Russia was widely criticised by most council members for its actions on Monday.

The UN has met dozens of times to discuss the Ukraine crisis since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.

But it cannot take any action because Russia is a veto power along with France, Britain, China and the US.

Thus exposing just how useless the UN is. And why the UN has not been able to step in.

Reform or get rid of the United Nations. It is not fit for purpose.

Lithuania's Prime Minister and their Foreign Minister were on the mark when tweeting about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Though they also explain why some people believe either there is no invasion, or it's a false flag operation by Ukraine against their own people, staged to drag in The West against Russia in their support.

Lithuanian prime minister Ingrida Šimonytė has said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s move to recognise two separatist pro-Moscow regions in Ukraine puts "Kafka & Orwell to shame”.

Putin just put Kafka & Orwell to shame: no limits to dictator’s imagination, no lows too low, no lies too blatant, no red lines too red to cross.

What we witnessed tonight might seem surreal for democratic world. But the way we respond will define us for the generations to come.”

Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis also tweeted that Russia’s recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk "proves a total contempt for international law & UN charters.”

Tim adds:

The reality is this is an old, time-worn tactic and especially one employed by the Soviets and by Putin. The Afghan government invited the Soviets into Afghanistan, for example,  when they invaded too. And Putin used the exact same tactic in Georgia, and in Crimea. It's the Czechoslovakia gambit; take several bites rather than swallow whole and claim there are legitimate reasons, mainly defending ethnic comrads.

They won't stop at Donetsk Remember, they already carved a quarter of Ukraine off when they seized the Crimea. Putin has said quite plainly he wants to restore the Russia of the Tsars, and that would have to include Ukraine.

The United States made a solemn vow to Ukraine to defend her from any Russian invasion in return for them destroying the old Soviet nuclear arsenal. They wanted to keep the nukes but we strongarmed them into destroying them with the promise of our protection. If we renege on that now we will look even worse than we do at present.

Also, I would point out that part of the genesis of this conflict is the Ukrainian application for membership in NATO. To the Russians that means a potential invasion force on their doorstep. They were already very unhappy with NATO expansion to Poland and Hungary, but could live with that. But the Ukraine is one of "the Russias", an actual part of the old Russian empire.

Worse Ukraine has a lot of oil and gas as yet untapped, and is the primary route for Russian oil and gas to Europe. The Ukrainians were threatening to cut that flow off in response to price gouging from Gazprom. Putin could indeed freeze Europe with this - which is no doubt why he waited until the dead of winter.I would point out the exact same conditions existed when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008; an aspiring NATO member with a major pipeline running through the country posed a threat to Russia's energy hegemony and a dangerous spot for foreign invasion if war came. So Russia fomented revolution in South Ossetia then moved in as "peacekeepers" splintering off a pro-Russian state and guaranteeing Georgia stay out of NATO. It worked then and it will work now in Ukraine, as it did when they seized Crimea.

It doesn't mean we take military action; that would be insane against a nuclear power like Russia. But we can crush them economically through a number of sanctions. Most particularly, we can go back to the Trump policies of cheap energy. The drop in energy prices dried up the funding for Putin in Georgia at the time, and would do likewise here if we could ramp up supply.

I know Biden is using this to hide his failuires, and it is what makes this situation so very dangerous. Biden needs a big win at almost any cost at this point. This could have been handled quietly before the Russians invaded, but Biden believed the demonization of Russia done over the last four years and he also doesn't understand that the Russians - and particularly Putin - are not playing political games as is he. And since Russia possesses a nuclear arsenal as capable as ours (it's about half of the size of ours but far more modern and with multiple warheads probably as capable as many of our ancient birds won't explode) we are in great peril. Biden won't back down, I fear, and Putin certainly won't. Neither can afford to, with skyrocketing inflation in both countries. Now, stopping Russia was easy; keep the price of oil and gas low and Putin wouldn't have had the money to do this. It's what ended the Russo-Georgian war, I might add. Putin ran out of money when the price of oil and gas dropped during the war. We could squeeze Russia economically; they only have energy as their main export. But Europe committed to "renewable energy" a long time ago and Biden is doing likewise and that empowers Russia, plain and simple. I don't think Biden can get energy prices down fast enough because he has to go hat-in-hand to the Saudis and OPEC to get them to ramp up production. He's going to be in trouble with his base if he renews drilling here. So Biden lost the most potent weapon we had against the Russians. No doubt Biden will accept the new border drawn by Putin and declare he "won" by getting a Russian troop withdrawl by summer. Donbass will become a puppet regime under Russian domination, and thus Russia will have carved half of Ukraine away. But Biden will claim victory and do a dance to trick low-information voters into believing he is a strong President.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:27 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Timothy Birdnow

Russia has invaded the Ukraine.

This could be a very, very bad thing.

It's time for prayers.

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Timothy Birdnow

Here is a little poem to memorialize the trucker's protests in Ottawa - and to shame those Canadians who simply ignore what their government has done.

Canada is teaching the world about resisting evil. Hopefully we will learn the lessons they are teaching now.

No Canada

Oh Canada, what have you done
your horses trample your women, your thugs arrest your sons
O Canada, how far you have sunk
you freeze the wealth of your free men
you seize the rights of your young
your leaders on power are drunk

Your cossacks ride into the crowds their hooves thundering and loud
batons like swords
slash heads unbowed

until they submit their rights to your might
the lashes are their plight

O Canada, how cold has thy heart become
to beat your children numb
And all the while with predatory smile
Baby Doc Trudeau nods approvingly at the show.

Yours was once a land so kind and free
A place where all people dreamed to be
But now you've thrown away your soul
Your land is now a frozen hell-hole
Do not ask for whom the bell will toll
For the whole world now can see
it clearly tolls for thee

Oh Canada, how do you suffer all of this
Your leaders are now tyrants and hell bent for the abyss

Is the death of liberty worth the price
of men behaving like mice

There were heroes in the trucker's protests
real Canadians who their lives did invest
But in the dark and in the cold
the cossacks made their arrests

What is Canada now but another dictatorship?
the blood of liberty can be heard in a steady deadly drip
Rise up, O Canada, and reclaim your rightful place
or history will place the blame
and her memory will erase

O Canada, thou has set a guard on thee. Blood in the snow as the icy winds blow
Soon many from you will flee.

O Canada, where are you now?
trembling in the cellar
or pleading as you bow
Will you stand together to resist the fascist leash
or fade away as you obey
will liberty rest in peace?

O Canada it's time for you to decide
will your country come to mend
or will we see you on your knee so gingerly to bend
and your faces fearfully hide?

Oh Canada, where art thy soul
will you take the blow
of the tyrant Trudeau
or crawl for your parole

Remember you were once so free
how can you suffer something so monstrously ugly

And all the eyes of many lands
look upon you now as you take your stand
hear the cries as freedom dies
it's what history demands

No Canada you must not accept tyranny's yoke
all for the pleasure of those who are woke

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:35 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Mike

Seattle, that shining bastion of all things progressive, has seen fit with all the mask mandates to abolish a 30 year law requiring helmets be worn while operating a bicycle because hispanics and blacks were refusing to obey the law. RACISM.

Here we have helmets known to save lives pushed aside over masks that do what exactly to totally prevent death?

 Remember the "if it saves one life" mantra that comes from the left. Yeah right

The question that really needs to be answered is how many times can you drop a democrat on its head protected by its invincible 95% effective mask before the democrat sees that a helmet might be the wiser choice?

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Timothy Birdnow

Albert Einstein Said No to CO2 Radiative Warming of the Atmosphere

Wonder what he would say about the crazy pandemic response?

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Timothy Birdnow

Like "real" money, crypto is backed by nothing but what people think it is worth. It's a psychological disorder. Just because people believe in something doesn't make it real. As Phillip K. Dick said, reality is that thing which, when you stop believing in it, won't go away. Sadly crypto will go away when people stop believing in it. But then so will modern money, which is also not backed by anything of intrinsic value. We are playing at monetary necromancy either way. It will not end well.

This from Carl R. Franklin:

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Michael McKee:

Solar huh!

Think the Solar Canopy is Powering EV Fast Chargers? Think Again

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Lance Sjogren

MSNBC ratings plunge with "Mad Dog" Maddow on a break from the show. Let that sink in. As horrible as Maddow may be, everyone else who could fill in for her is far worse.

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Timothy Birdnow

There have been guidelines for child development that have been in place for a long time. Among these are speech development standards. A child of two years of age was expected to know proper names and speak at least two word sentences.

But now, thanks to the Covid pandemic and the draconian response, the CDC has altered the long-standing standard to cover the fact their mask mandates and social distancing have produced children well below their developmental stage.

From Karen Vaites:

In latest changes, @CDCgov introduced a 30-month milestone, which didn't exist previously.

For the first time, @CDCgov milestones introduce expectations for number of words spoken: 50. cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearl…

Recall, @ASHAWeb says that 50 words at 2YO is a red flag for delays.

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