Adam Schiff

2/25/22

The events of the past 36 hours have been shocking and heartbreaking, and yet, with the benefit of good intelligence, not a surprise. Putin made up his mind to invade his neighbor, and he did so, rejecting all efforts at diplomacy. Now that we see the tragedy unfolding, I want to share with you some thoughts about how we got here, and where we go from here, as well.
Days ago, Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of a budding democracy on his border — Ukraine. It is a war that was wholly unnecessary, completely of Putin’s own making, and will spur a humanitarian disaster.
A budding democracy on your border is never a justification for war. But for Putin, an autocrat terrified his people want more than dictatorship, Ukraine is a threat. The color revolutions of the last decade — including the Orange Revolution that displaced a Kremlin stooge and brought a pro-western democracy to power in Ukraine — pose an existential challenge to a dictator like Putin. If Ukrainians, who have much in common with their Russian neighbors, can enjoy democracy, why must the Russian people suffer Putin’s tyranny? His aggression is driven by his own paranoia over losing power. A paranoia that I hope will one day prove warranted.
For the last few months, world leaders and those of us in Congress who have been focused on Ukraine have been calling for peace and diplomacy, while simultaneously taking steps to deter Putin and prepare Ukraine to defend itself. At times, Ukraine seemed unwilling to acknowledge the danger of a Russian invasion, and who can blame them. It was a prospect too terrible to contemplate. And yet our intelligence proved all too prescient, and Ukraine is now in a life and death struggle to maintain its democracy and independence.
Make no mistake, there is no way the United States or our Allies can escape the consequences of this war. If Putin is successful in this invasion and can subjugate the people of Ukraine, he will be emboldened and the next target may be a NATO country and one we are compelled to defend. What’s more, China is watching the world’s reaction, with an eye towards a possible invasion of Taiwan in the future. If it finds the West unwilling to stand together, it may embark on its own brutal war of choice.
And so, it is vitally important that we help Ukraine succeed in resisting Russian aggression, through punishing sanctions on Russia and through defensive military support for Ukraine. Thanks to the extensive diplomatic efforts of the Biden Administration, we have come together with our NATO and other Allies on a devastating series of sanctions on Russian banks, industry, technology support, and oligarchs. And it is my hope we will go even further. The Russian people must be made to feel the terrible folly of their leader’s deadly belligerence.
There will be some at home who seek to politicize this tragedy, like the former President who praised Putin as a genius, even while he was invading our democratic ally. But our focus must remain on Ukraine and its people, and the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding.
Over the days and weeks ahead, the images we will see from Ukraine will be devastating. Indeed they already are. Ukrainians deserve so much better and need our strong support.
Please keep Ukraine in your thoughts and prayers. Talk soon.
— Adam

These articles read like the official mouthpiece of the regime. Nothing but the official truth. Nothing even bordering on insightful or profound. It must suck to be a midwit leftist and think this is somehow enlightening stuff.

the usual wonderful contribution from GG

Posted by wylie715 on 2/25/2022 9:32:00 PM (view original):
the usual wonderful contribution from GG

GG, who simps for Andy Ngo and Glenn Greenwald

To be fair, anyone who keeps Fox News permanently on blast and then praises Richardson for her political writing (I don't know anything about her writing in her actual field) is mired in a giant pool of irony.

Well, there IS plenty of irony round these parts!

For those who continue to struggle with TRUTH…

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

February 25, 2022 (Friday)

This was a historic day in a historic week.

This afternoon, President Joe Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to the Supreme Court. “For too long, our government, our courts haven’t looked like America,” Biden said in a speech introducing Jackson. “I believe it’s time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications, and that we inspire all young people to believe that they can one day serve their country at the highest level.”

Educated at Harvard, Jackson clerked for Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring and whose seat she will take if she is confirmed. Jackson has shown the same focus on democracy that Breyer brought to the court. While so-called “originalists” defer to what they perceive to be the legal limitations written into the Constitution by its Framers, Breyer defers instead to the purpose of the Constitution, deciding cases in part by figuring out which outcome would best defend and expand democracy. His focus on democracy also means he prioritizes consensus and civility.

Republicans who will likely object to Jackson are using her nomination to hit at the Biden administration. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said it was “extremely inappropriate” for the president to nominate a Supreme Court justice just days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and she said that “Biden is putting the demands of the radical progressive left ahead of what is best for our nation.”

In contrast to Blackburn, one could see the act of nominating a justice in the midst of a crisis in the same way President Abraham Lincoln thought about holding the 1864 election in the midst of the Civil War. In November of that year, he told a group of visitors that no one had been sure that a democratic government could survive in times of emergency, but he believed that if an emergency could interrupt the normal process of democracy, “it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.” Holding the election was itself a victory for the rule of law.

Similarly, it seems to me a mistake to characterize Jackson as a part of a “radical progressive agenda” unless democracy itself has become such a thing. Jackson’s tightly reasoned briefs show a focus on democracy that is similar to that of her mentor, Breyer. She has become famous, for example, for a 2019 opinion rejecting the idea that a president’s advisors cannot be compelled to testify before Congress. “Presidents are not kings,” she wrote. “This means that they do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control. Rather, in this land of liberty, it is indisputable that current and former employees of the White House work for the People of the United States, and that they take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Like Breyer, as well, Jackson has a “reputation for pragmatism and consensus building,” according to former president Barack Obama, who nominated her as a district judge.

At today’s event, Jackson defined America as “the greatest beacon of hope and democracy the world has ever known.”

If she is confirmed, Jackson will be the 116th Justice in American history, University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck pointed out on Twitter. She will be the eighth who is not a white man; she will be the sixth woman.

Anticipating criticism suggesting that Jackson’s judicial experience has been brief, Vladeck also compiled a chart of the judicial experience of all Supreme Court justices since 1900. The information showed that Jackson’s 8.9 years of prior judicial experience is more than four of the justices currently on the court—Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Elena Kagan, and Amy Coney Barrett—had combined. It's also more experience than 4 of the last 10 justices had at their confirmations, or 9 of the last 17, or 43 of the 58 appointed since 1900.

“Today, as we watch freedom and liberty under attack abroad, I'm here to fulfill my responsibilities under the Constitution, to preserve freedom and liberty here in the United States of America,” Biden said.

This week was historic precisely because it brought into the open the degree to which freedom and liberty are, in fact, under attack, as Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a war of aggression against neighboring Ukraine.

Fighting in Ukraine is approaching Kyiv, where the government has armed its civilians to defend the city. Washington Post military reporter Dan Lamothe tweeted information from a senior defense official, who said that Russia is getting more resistance than it expected and that it has not managed to establish air superiority over Ukraine. The U.S. believes that Russia has launched more than 200 missiles at Ukraine, aimed at military sites but hitting civilian areas as well. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said today that 150,000 Ukrainians have been displaced since Russia invaded.

Putin today called for Ukrainians to overthrow their own government and negotiate peace with him.

Putin needed a quick victory in Ukraine, and the heroic resistance of the Ukrainians has made that impossible, buying time for pressure against him to build. Last night, 1800 Russians were arrested for protesting the war at rallies around the country; prominent Russians, including the children of leading businessmen and lawmakers, are speaking up against the invasion.

When Facebook fact-checked Russian state media accounts and put warning labels on them, the Kremlin limited Russians’ access to the site, where they were sharing their anger at Putin’s war. Apparently, ill-trained Russian conscripts are shocked to be on the front lines in Ukraine—Russian law says only volunteer troops are supposed to be used there.

Tonight Meta, the parent company of Facebook, banned Russian state media from running ads or raising money on Meta platforms anywhere in the world. While the ban apparently does not eliminate third-party ads, it does show which way the wind is blowing.

Today, members of the European Union and Britain froze the European assets of Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The U.S. also sanctioned Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, as well as Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is intended “to attract capital into the Russian economy in high-growth sectors,” according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. The Russian Ministry of Defense was hacked and taken down, and the personal information of its employees was leaked; the hacker group Anonymous claimed credit.

For the first time in its history, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) activated its rapid response troops that can deploy quickly in case Russian troops cross the borders of NATO countries.

Putin is rapidly becoming isolated. Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the invasion and calling for an immediate end to hostilities and the withdrawal of Russia’s troops from Ukraine, but it was notable that China, India, and the United Arab Emirates abstained rather than vote. Also today, President Milos Zeman of Czechia and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, both of whom have been supporters of Putin, came out strongly against the invasion. So did Romania and Bulgaria. Kazakhstan has refused to send troops to Russia.

The Ukraine resistance has given rise to the Ghost of Kyiv, a fighter pilot who may or may not be real, and who may or may not be a woman, and who has shot down six Russian planes. Such a superhuman legend symbolizes Ukraine’s people this terrible week.

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

February 27, 2022 (Sunday)

Southern novelist William Faulkner’s famous line saying “The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” is usually interpreted as a reflection on how the evils of our history continue to shape the present. But Faulkner also argued, equally accurately, that the past is “not even past” because what happens in the present changes the way we remember the past.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the defiant and heroic response of the people of Ukraine to that new invasion are changing the way we remember the past.

Less than a week ago, Russian president Vladimir Putin launched an assault on Ukraine, and with his large military force, rebuilt after the military’s poor showing in its 2008 invasion of Georgia, it seemed to most observers that such an attack would be quick and deadly. He seemed unstoppable. For all that his position at home has been weakening for a while now as a slow economy and the political opposition of people like Alexei Navalny have turned people against him, his global influence seemed to be growing. That he believed an attack on Ukraine would be quick and successful was clear today when a number of Russian state media outlets published an essay, obviously written before the invasion, announcing Russia’s victory in Ukraine, saying ominously that “Putin solved the Ukrainian question forever…. Ukraine has returned to Russia.”

But Ukrainians changed the story line. While the war is still underway and deadly, and while Russia continues to escalate its attacks, no matter what happens the world will never go back to where it was a week ago. Suddenly, autocracy, rather than democracy, appears to be on the ropes.

In that new story, countries are organizing against Putin’s aggression and the authoritarianism behind it. Leaders of the world’s major economies, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Singapore, though not China, are working together to deny Putin’s access to the world’s financial markets.

As countries work together, international sanctions appear to be having an effect: a Russian bank this morning offered to exchange rubles for dollars at a rate of 171:1. Before the announcement that Europe and the U.S. would target Russia’s central bank, the rate was 83:1. Monday morning, Moscow time, the ruble plunged 30%. As Russia’s economy descends into chaos, investors are jumping out: today BP, Russia’s largest foreign investor, announced it is abandoning its investment in the Russian oil company Rosneft and pulling out of the country, at a loss of what is estimated to be about $25 billion.

The European Union has suddenly taken on a large military role in the world, announcing it would supply fighter jets to Ukraine. Sweden, which is a member of the E.U., will also send military aid to Ukraine. And German chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany, which has tended to underfund its military, would commit 100 billion euros, which is about $112.7 billion, to support its armed forces. The E.U. has also prohibited all Russian planes from its airspace, including Russian-chartered private jets.

Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, tweeted: “Russian elites fear Putin. But they no longer respect him. He has ruined their lives—damaged their fortunes, damaged the future of their kids, and may now have turned society away from them. They were living just fine until a week ago. Now, their lives will never be the same.”

Global power is different this week than last. Anti-authoritarian nations are pushing back on Russia and the techniques Putin has used to gain outsized influence. Today the E.U. banned media outlets operated by the Russian state. The White House and our allies also announced a new “transatlantic task force that will identify and freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies—Russian officials and elites close to the Russian government, as well as their families, and their enablers.”

That word “enablers” seems an important one, for since 2016 there have been plenty of apologists for Putin here in the U.S. And yet now, with the weight of popular opinion shifting toward a defense of democracy, Republicans who previously cozied up to Putin are suddenly stating their support for Ukraine and trying to suggest that Putin has gotten out of line only because he sees Biden as weak. Under Trump, they say, Putin never would have invaded Ukraine, and they are praising Trump for providing aid to Ukraine in 2019.

They are hoping that their present support for Ukraine and democracy makes us forget their past support for Putin, even as former president Trump continues to call him “smart.” And yet, Republicans changed their party’s 2016 platform to favor Russia over Ukraine; accepted Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria in October 2019, giving Russia a strategic foothold in the Middle East; and looked the other way when Trump withheld $391 million to help Ukraine resist Russian invasion until newly elected Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to help rig the 2020 U.S. presidential election. (Trump did release the money after the story of the “perfect phone call” came out, but the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which investigated the withholding of funds, concluded that holding back the money at all was illegal.)

But rather than making us forget Republicans’ enabling of Putin’s expansion, the new story in which democracy has the upper hand might have the opposite effect. Now that people can clearly see exactly the man Republicans have supported, they will want to know why our leaders, who have taken an oath to our democratic Constitution, were willing to throw in their lot with a foreign autocrat. The answer to that question might well force us to rethink a lot of what we thought we knew about the last several years.

In today’s America, the past certainly is not past.

Posted by lostnfound74 on 2/28/2022 3:18:00 PM (view original):
RSVP we ask for a few lines, but you give us your version of the WSJ

He is pasting a daily newsletter feed from Professor Richardson.
I receive it in my mail every day.

Im grappling to understand what is clownish about the statement.

Lol keep working on it. This guy is a looney

i don know if heather cox richardson is right

but i sure hope she is



GO JOE

Posted by lostnfound74 on 2/28/2022 9:42:00 PM (view original):
Lol keep working on it. This guy is a looney

Please tell me because I think the statement was perfect.