Category Ukraine

May 2 2022

As Biden Asks for $33 Billion, Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff Surface in Ukraine Meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 1, 2022 | sundance 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a quietly organized trip with a small group of senior House Democrats, including Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Rules Committee Chair Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) to Ukraine.

The trip comes as Joe Biden is asking congress for an additional $33 billion in aid to fund the government of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, bringing the total U.S. taxpayer laundry operation to around $50 billion.  Pelosi and Schiff likely setting up the mechanics for the distribution of funds to include congressional family indulgency fees, or Fourth Branch brokerage costs.

“Our delegation traveled to Kyiv to send an unmistakable and resounding message to the entire world: America stands firmly with Ukraine,” the group said in a statement. “When we return to the United States, we will do so further informed, deeply inspired and ready to do what is needed to help the Ukrainian people as they defend democracy for their nation and for the world.” (link)

Apr 27 2022

Would Putin Use Nukes?


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Apr 27, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Andrei Kozyrev served under Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s. From his former position within the Russian Federation, Kozyrev believes Putin would only use nuclear weapons in “very specific situations.” Namely, if NATO became involved and Russia was backed into a corner from which there was no escape. “If Russia or one of those countries really threatened in their hearts – existentially, that is … if NATO troops come to Moscow, then probably they will resort to nuclear weapons,” Kozyrev told reporters.

Ukraine’s Zelensky has been touting that Russia is close to using chemical and nuclear weapons against Ukraine. “Not only me — all of the world, all of the countries have to be worried because it can be not real information, but it can be truth,” Zelensky said to CNN reporters, strategically in English. Zelensky stated that all nations should be concerned about Russia’s nuclear capabilities, but Putin is not that ignorant. The goal is to secure land that is believed to belong to the Russian people, not to create a nuclear world war. Putin believes he is winning the global battle financially by saying Russian sanctions have led to a “deterioration of the economy in the West.”

Similar to North Korea launching missile exercises to remind the world not to invade, Russia is touting its nuclear capabilities as a scare tactic to prevent the NATO alliance from decimating their country.

Apr 27 2022

Ukraine’s New Deal


Armstrong Economics Blog/Ukraine Re-Posted Apr 26, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

Apr 26 2022

Ukraine Asks for Billions More to Support Their Budget and Social Responsibilities for Ukrainian People


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 25, 2022 | sundance

The government of Ukraine is asking western nations to fund their budget.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked for $7 billion per month in financial assistance to retain their government obligations.  Yesterday, Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reiterated that demand saying, “the cash, in sense of our budget, is very important for social and humanitarian responsibilities of our state to our people.”

l am not wanting to belabor a point that many have discussed here, but there really does come a time when the American people must draw a red line and ask, ‘to what end?‘  The United States government, both the white house and congress, have already pledged $14 billion dollars to Ukraine without a single representative asking the American people if they support it.

Certainly, there is an argument to be made that Ukraine needs the support of the world as they struggle with a conflict in their nation.  However, charity begins at home, and for too long our national leadership has been willing to use our income taxes as tools for their own political agenda.  The brazen expectation by leaders of Ukraine for the United States citizens to finance their government is, in my opinion, the last straw of a series of straws.

The issue would not be so significant if that request was not also accompanied by the visibility of western European nations, supposedly NATO allies, barely spending any money of their own wealth to assist their direct neighbor.  The U.S. financial support is ridiculous when compared to how Europe is responding to the Ukraine crisis.

Compounding this issue is our own American economy and the serious pain being felt by American workers and taxpayers as the spending creates even more massive inflation that we have to cope with.   We gained national independence around the premise of taxation without representation from England, and yet here we are again sending scarce income, without consultation or representation, to DC elites who send that money overseas.

(CBS) – […] MARGARET BRENNAN: But, specifically, is it medical supplies you need most? Is it heavy weapons? Is it just cash?

PRIME MINISTER DENYS SHMYHAL: We need weapon, medical support. But many countries support us because they take our injured soldiers.  The cash, in sense of our budget, is very important for social and humanitarian responsibilities of our state to our people.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And that’s $4 billion to $5 billion a month Ukraine needs?

(read more)

Where is the social and humanitarian consideration for our own people. The American people?

The Ukraine government request/demand is just so matter-of-factly stated as if it’s just another day in the life of a group of people who have no concept they are discussing the distribution of your earnings.   They don’t even have the mental association or reference point for who and what the golden goose is that creates the baseline for them to even talk about it.

The American taxpayer is reduced to some weird, disconnected entity that was scraped from their loafer as they entered the boardroom.

At gas stations across the nation, people in real economic pain, psychologically draining and worrying anxiety, are pulling out thirty bucks to put a few gallons of gas to get them to their job where what?….

…Where they are expected to use their calloused hands to generate the payments for Ukrainian government officials to spend on their “social responsibilities of the state?”…  Think about that the next time we set down the hamburger meat at the supermarket because it costs too much, or we try and figure out how to make the kids shoes last just a few months longer.

The level of rage this geopolitical disconnect is creating is entirely unsustainable.

Americans generally do not like being angry, we are the most charitable and kind people in the history of all assembled nations on this planet, but this level of being taken for granted needs to come to an end, AND SOON.

I don’t know about everyone who reads this, but the people around me are more than a little sick of this nonsense.

Apr 25 2022

Major Riots Against Macron Throughout France Over Questionable Election


Armstrong Economics Blog/France Re-Posted Apr 25, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

There are major riots in just about every city in France over the validity of the election.  Police are breaking up protests by using teargas on civilians. The youth especially are protesting for Macron wants to create an EU army and that will inevitably lead to drafts.

Apr 25 2022

Should Russian Oligarchs Fund Ukraine?


Armstrong Economics Blog/War Re-Posted Apr 25, 2022 by Martin Armstrong

As the war in Ukraine continues, so does the need for funding. Zelensky’s people are now asking for $7 billion in funding per month. The World Bank estimates that it will cost $60 billion to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure and the war is still ongoing. Managing Director of the IMF Kristalina Georgieva said they secured the $7 billion in funding for two months already with funds from other nations. Who will pay for the rest?

The $60 billion estimate is over three times the amount of Ukraine’s GDP. They could never recover on their own. Some would like to use the forfeited assets of Russian oligarchs to fund the war. US Treasury Secretary Yellen warned that doing so would be a “significant step” that would require careful consideration among nations. This yet again brings NATO members one step closer to fully entering the war.

Former hedge fund manager Bill Browder, who has advocated freezing oligarch’s funds, also once warned long ago not to tamper with the oligarch’s funds after seeing their retribution firsthand. “You don’t want to take [the oligarchs’] money because if you lose it, they’ll kill you,” Browder stated. Hedge funds are now required to freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs but have not received direct advice on how to manage those frozen assets. This leaves funds open to future lawsuits if not violence if the sanctions are ever lifted. Some are pointing to the hedge funds and private management companies for collecting the money in the first place, regardless of whether it was earned in a perfectly legal manner.

For all intents and purposes, the people who lost their life savings are mostly private citizens who have been a victim of circumstance. They did not fund Russia’s invasion. This could be considered an act of war by Russia for it would certainly be a complete violation of international law. Using assets seized by private citizens to fund a war opens the door to a new form of warfare that will only cause people to refrain from investing in countries that allow this to go on. Welcome to the total collapse of globalization. We are staring into the eyes of a Great Depression that would make the 1930s look like a dress rehearsal.

Georgia confiscated the property of people who supported the king during the American Revolution. Because of that, Georgia remains one of the poorest states for it took over 100 years before capital began to return to Georgia.

Apr 25 2022

Sunday Talks, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal Interview with CBS Margaret Brennan, Cash is Important Because American Taxpayers Need to Fund Our Pensions and Salaries


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 24, 2022 | Sundance 

Given the scale of the stakes for western government; and given the professed intentions of govt-aligned big tech to control the story; it is almost impossible to have an honest and open dialogue on the internet about what is happening in Ukraine.  That said, for those who have been using independent resources to form their own opinion of the events in/around Ukraine, this interview highlights some important aspects.

First, notice how Prime Minister Shmyhal is not the least bit bashful about saying cash is important because American taxpayers, the working American people, have a duty to fund the pensions and retirement accounts of the Ukrainian people, including govt politicians. [03:37] Indeed, much of the financial assistance Joe Biden has been sending to Ukraine (beyond the weapons to support the proxy war) is going toward paying the wages and salaries of corrupt Ukranian leadership.

Let that first point settle in deeply, as we consider how working Americans are being financially destroyed by U.S. monetary/fiscal policy, yet the same U.S. officials wiping out your bank account are funding the bank accounts of people in Ukraine.  Interview WATCH:

Second point.  Notice [06:02] how Prime Minister Shmyhal hedges, pauses and thinks about the response to the question of ‘what is victory’, a stalemate or Russian exit?  In the U.S. proxy war against Russia, Shmyhal is not the person who can answer that question, only the White House can.

This CBS interview is pure propaganda intended to keep the U.S. audience believing a false premise about the Russian war in Ukraine.  The pearl clutching faux empathy from Margaret Brennan is enough to make an intellectually honest person very angry.  This narrative engineering effort from the American corporate media is sickening, genuinely sickening.

The level of narrative control in combination with the extreme media promotion of government propaganda is totalitarian in scale. U.S. govt sponsored censorship and the collaboration with on-line Big Brother tech controls have reduced the internet discussion to a series of coded messages, and carefully scripted word assemblies in order to avoid the looming eye of Sauron.

It was only a few decades ago when the former Soviet Union was famous for their propaganda against their own citizens.  Now, with the multinational corporations dictating policy to western government via the World Economic Forum, that entire dynamic has flipped.

In 2022 we have even worse media propaganda against the U.S. citizens than Pravda ever attempted over the former Soviet states.  At least in the former Soviet Union the propaganda effort was laughed at by the citizens on the streets.  If you point out the media dynamic today in America, you become a target for the totalitarian political state and their FBI state police units.  It’s remarkable how the dynamic has flipped.

We, the free-thinking American people, are now intellectual dissidents in our own country.

Apr 25 2022

French Presidential Election Today, Emmanuel Macron vs Marine Le Pen


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 24, 2022 | Sundance 

The biggest election with global significance is taking place today in France as Marine Le Pen (economic nationalist) challenges current President Emmanuel Macron (economic globalist).  The world is watching this one, because if Le Pen can win it would be seismic in political consequence.

Current voter turnout is recorded as moderate (63% range) with rural areas running higher turnout than urban areas.  Forecasters were predicting around 71% voter turnout.   GBNews is on the ground with a report:

Marine Le Pen is a long shot.  If she wins it would be massive.

We will not know the early results for a few more hours, around 4pm ET.  Some other data below…..

P

Apr 25 2022

Sunday Talks, Interventionist Marie Yovanovitch Admits If Trump Won Election, Putin Would Never Have Invaded Ukraine


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 24, 2022 | Sundance 

This interview is gag-worthy as two condescending leftists wax philosophically about how progressive U.S. foreign policy should dictate global society.  However, it does show just how flawed the ideology of the interventionist political leftists has become, and why their expansionist ideology always culminates in conflict.

Example: Right now, China is threatening to put military bases in the Solomon Islands.  Australia and the collective west are aghast and ready to draw “red lines.”  At the same time the U.S/NATO put military forces ever closer to Russia and are shocked that Putin would eventually respond to the red lines he previously drew.  The geopolitical hypocrisy is ridiculous.

That hypocritical example above highlights the ironic point made in an interview between Margaret Hoover and former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as they discuss President Trump.

If Trump had won reelection, there was no reason for Putin to invade Ukraine because Donald Trump was not trying to expand pressure on Russia or any other foreign government.  Yovanovitch admits directly that Trump foreign policy did not create conflict; yet, Yovanovitch pretends not to see the cause and effect in her leftist intervention advocacy.  WATCH (prompted to 14:42):

Apr 22 2022

Zelenskyy Says He Needs $7 Billion Per Month Western Government Subsidy to Sustain Economy


Posted originally on the conservative tree house on April 21, 2022 | Sundance

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the International Monetary Fund today he needs $7 billion per month in global subsidy in order to supplement the economic losses currently being incurred.

(VIA CNN) – “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine needs $7 billion per month in financial assistance to make up for the economic losses from the war. 

In a virtual address to a World Bank forum, Zelenksy also said that it would take “hundreds of billions of dollars” to rebuild his country later. 

He said every country must be prepared to break all relations with Russia and that Moscow should “immediately” be excluded from all international financial institutions including the IMF and the World Bank.” (link)

Plus, “10% for the big guy”.