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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas.  It's here.

MARCH 1,  2022

THE SPEECH – OVERNIGHT:  The president has delivered his State of the Union speech. The State of the Union is usually long, dull, boring, and egotistical, and Biden met those standards.  However, this year, because of the horror of Ukraine, the address did have a certain urgency.  What would the president say about Putin?  About our attempts to help the Ukranians? About our ultimate objective?  Would there be a nuclear war?

Despite all the "get tough" talk from the president, he actually said nothing much.  We have imposed sanctions.  There'll be others.  We're tough.  We'll get some weapons into Ukraine if we can.  We're tough.  We'll criticize Putin in public.  Tougher still.

But the fact is that the president did not predict success for our side, nor commit ourselves to that outcome.  He seemed at times to suggest that Ukraine is this week's fashion, with no real prospect of victory.  I was not exactly inspired to sign up.

The electric words were missing, words that would have instantly made Ukraine into a winning cause – words announcing that the president would reverse earlier decisions, and open up American oil and gas production.  We would instantly be transformed from an oil importing nation into what we were at the end of Donald Trump's administration –  energy independent, and ready to suck the wind out of Putin's greatest weapon, the fact that countries in Europe are dependent on Russian oil.   But not a word of it was mentioned.  The opportunity has been missed, no doubt to satisfy the environmental extremists who have the Democratic Party in a lock grip.  From Michael Goodwin in the New York Post:

It takes a special sort of political cynicism to publicly thank the Ukrainian ambassador for her nation’s bravery — and stress in the next moment that we will do nothing to defend her country with our military.

But then President Biden’s State of the Union speech was nothing but bumbling hypocrisy.

Start with the fact that the mask mandate Nancy Pelosi lorded over her members for years was suddenly lifted the day before the speech, showing that “follow the science” was a bald-faced lie. Next up, Biden begging for unity, then accusing Republicans of only helping the rich.

It was quite the performance. After years of bashing Donald Trump, Biden stole his stump speech. He rebranded Build Back Better as Build a Better America, and got cheap applause for claiming he was going to get businesses to stay in the US. This after Democratic administrations have signed trade deal after trade deal that have taken industries to China and Mexico.

But you think companies will be happy to stay after Biden blamed them for inflation, claiming that rising costs in stores were because of gouging, not supply issues and his own reckless government spending? Or that he’s instituting a “crackdown” on prices?

Corporations will long for the friendlier shores of, we don’t know, Venezuela.

Turns out “buy American” was just a stalking horse for Biden’s real agenda — trying to get the massive social spending of Build Back Better passed. He’s nothing if not consistent in his futility. Even though Joe Manchin has shot him down again and again and again.

COMMENT:  Joe and those around him just can't break through their mediocre leftism.  There were no advances made during the State of the Union.  He could have skipped it.

March 1,  2022     Permalink

FEBRUARY 28,  2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

SQUAD STAR BASHES OWN PARTY – FROM FOX:   "Real Time" host Bill Maher took aim at Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., over her scheduled rebuttal to President Biden's State of the Union address.  It was announced that the Democratic "Squad" member will be making a speech to push the progressive agenda on behalf of the Working Families Party following Biden's speech.   This is in addition to the traditional rebuttal made by the opposing party, which this year will be made by Republican Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.   "Now, I've always seen the opposition party give a rebuttal. This is from the same party. This is like sacking your own quarterback," Maher told the panel on Friday. "I don't know, maybe she's gonna say some nice things about Joe, but basically it's to present- … bad idea for the Democrats?"  Yeah, very bad idea.  We know the Working Families Party here in New York.  It's a remnant of the old red groups.  Maybe Tlaib can even put in a plug for defunding the police.  Very popular now, you know.

February 28, 2022       Permalink

THE COMING CRISIS – OVERNIGHT:  The buildup of Russian forces in Ukraine is frightening, a nightmare before us.  I have to wonder whether the Russians are planning to mount a major attack to coincide with President Biden's State of the Union address.  How dramatic is that?  From Fox: 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bombing Sunday of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is garnering comparisons to Nazi Germany's actions at the start of World War II.

"This reminds you of something doesn’t it?" Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. General Assembly on Monday. "Indeed, very clear parallels could be drawn to the beginning of the Second World War."

"The most recent example," he continued, "the Russian army shelled with Grad multiple rocket launcher systems the residential area of the city of Kharkiv – the second biggest in Ukraine."

"The level of the threat to global security has been equated to that of the Second World War, or even higher, following Putin’s order to put an alert to Russian nuclear forces – what a madness," he added. "If he wants to kill himself, he doesn't need to use nuclear arsenal. He has to do what the guy in Berlin did in the bunker in May 1945."

Kharkiv came under intense rocket fire Monday as Ukrainian and Russian officials met for peace talks near Ukraine’s border with Belarus. Those talks ended Monday without a deal being reached.

Ukraine officials said dozens of civilians were killed and hundreds more injured in the Kharkiv attack after Russian forces bombed residential areas and apartment complexes.

Vladimir Dubinin, a Ukrainian man hiding in a bomb shelter in Kharkiv, phoned into Fox News’ "America’s Newsroom" on Monday following the bombing attack.

"Everything [is] not so bad as it was several hours ago when Putin's troops attacked the civilians in our city," he said. "Right now we are – it looks OK, but we are waiting [for] a new attack anyway in several hours."

COMMENT:  Meanwhile, some European nations, notably Germany, are stepping up and promising to increase their defense spending, while also sending military equipment to the Ukrainian resistance.  My question is whether they will continue to do this good stuff if the Ukrainians are finally crushed.  "How quickly they forget," Johnny Carson used to comment.  And they can forget a whole people when they are the losers in a major conflict. 

February 28,  2022    Permalink