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MARCH 13, 2022

THE REAL AMERICA SPEAKS – OVERNIGHT – and what it is saying will not produce a victory party in the White House.   From Fox:

PHILIP, S.D. – President Biden has been "absolutely worthless" and "has done nothing for us," residents of a small South Dakota town say as their community continues to deal with the fallout from the Keystone XL Pipeline cancelation.

"He does not care," Paulette, a resident of Philip, told Fox News. "If he did care, Keystone would be going."

Biden revoked the Keystone XL Pipeline's building permit his first day in office over concerns about its potential impact on the climate.

"Biden and his administration ran on Build Back Better, and, that is, from where I'm standing, a load of crap," West Central Electric Cooperative CEO Jeff Birkeland told Fox News. "I think his new slogan should be ‘butchering booming business.'"

Birkeland said the Keystone XL Pipleine was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" for Philip, a town with a population of 779. The project would have brought unprecedented growth to their otherwise stagnant community, he told Fox News.

West Central, which is located in Philip, was one of three electric co-ops in South Dakota working on substations for the Keystone pipeline.

Birkeland's co-op had invested $9 million into the project when Biden halted it after one day in office, the energy CEO told Fox.

"He's literally pulled the rug out from under us and killed our economy," Birkeland said.
Paulette told Fox News the effect of Biden's decision to cancel the pipeline "was huge. He got no love from this area."

"There was going to be a lot of money coming in here to help our schools, help our community," she continued. "It was going to be a good deal, and he trashed it."

Duane Adair, manager of the town’s only motel, the Motel West, said: "There's no common sense in making that decision to shut down pipelines – and then turn around and we have a problem with not having enough oil."

For three consecutive days this week, gas prices hit their all-time highest mark, with the national average reaching $4.35 per gallon Thursday, according to AAA.

Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports Tuesday in response Moscow's war on Ukraine. The president warned that Americans would see higher prices at the pump.

COMMENT: Americans are figuring it out. Biden destroyed our energy independence and almost wrecked the energy industry – because the far left in his party demanded it.  Now he's begging dictatorships around the world, from Russia through Iran to Venezuela, to pump more oil to the tottering little United States. What a performance.  It flashed weakness, and we got the invasion of Ukraine.  But the totalitarian left is pleased.

It will get worse.  From everything we hear, Field Marshal Biden and Grand Admiral Harris are giving Iran a huge victory in the nuclear talks. Looks like the Iranians will have tens of billions of dollars more to finance terrorism, and will likely have a nuclear weapon whenever they want it.

How would you like to be an American ally right now?  That may be the question of the decade.

March 13,  2022     Permalink

MARCH 12, 2022

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

A GOOD GUY IN A BAD SITUATION – FROM COLLEGE FIX: A University of Pittsburgh economics professor and ex-Ukrainian government official has jumped into action, raising a reported $5 million in humanitarian aid and reporting from the scene as bombings continue.
“You understand what is happening, right? Both countries are prepping for a continued war. Russia scrambles troops from possibly Syria, tries to provoke Belarus to join,” Professor Tymofiy Mylovanov tweeted Friday from Ukraine. “Ukraine has mobilized 100s of 1000s reservists and they have been training these two weeks. (We are safe for now).”
Mylovanov is an associate economics professor at the University of Pittsburgh and president of the Kyiv School of Economics in Ukraine. He is a Ukrainian citizen who splits time between Pittsburgh and Kyiv and was in the country when the invasion occurred and now must stay and help fight, TribLive reports. In a telephone interview with The College Fix on Friday, Mylovanov declined to say where exactly in the country he is, citing safety concerns. He said everyone is traumatized and worried, and there is tension everywhere.   I hope he's welcomed back to his campus as the hero he is, but the left will probably find a way to reject him.

March 12,  2022     Permalink

MANY PEOPLE BELIEVE THAT RUSSIA'S ACTION IN UKRAINE WILL ONLY ENCOURAGE THE CHINESE TO TRY TO TAKE TAIWAN. AND THESE PEOPLE COULD BE RIGHT. FROM FOX:

Any country supporting Taiwan militarily would face the "worst consequences," China's government warned Saturday, adding that "no one and no force" would be able to stop the Communist Party if it took action against the island country, according to a report.

China’s relationship with Taiwan has come into focus against the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the island bolstering its own defenses since the war started in case of aggression from the mainland.

Taiwan said it planned to double its yearly missile-production capacity this year. The announcement from the defense ministry came after Taiwan approved an extra $8.6 billion for military spending over the next five years.

Beijing doesn’t see Taiwan as a sovereign country but rather as a breakaway province that can be absorbed back into China by force if deemed necessary.

The Communist Party’s warning came a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping held diplomatic talks with Australia, according to Sky News Australia.

China’s Ministry of National Defense accused Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton of "ideological bias" after he said the country would do "whatever we can" to keep China from attacking Taiwan, Sky News reported.

China has taken a more aggressive stance against the Democratic island nation lately, sending a record number of fighter jets into Taiwan’s air defense zone late last year.

And last month, as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, nine Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defense zone, prompting a broadcast warning from the island nation.

Taiwan has been increasingly on edge since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, seeing parallels between their own situation with Beijing. After the invasion, the slogan "Today, Ukraine, tomorrow, Taiwan!" spread online, according to The New York Times.

According to some estimates, China spends more than $250 billion on its annual military budget, while Taiwan spends around $13 billion.

The Communist Party characteristically balked at Taiwan’s recent concerns in the wake of Moscow’s war in Ukraine, suggesting its exaggerated rhetoric meant to make Beijing look aggressive.

COMMENT:  I would not be shocked if China invaded Taiwan within the next year, and eventually captured it. What precisely would we do to stop the invasion?  Send ground troops to the beaches of Taiwan?  Send the Navy's Blue Angels over Taiwan in a show of support?  Threaten China with economic sanctions, but only if the sanctions didn't backfire against us?  Take the USS Missouri out of mothballs at Pearl Harbor to demonstrate how tough we once were? Ban Charlie Chan movies? The basic fact is that, having done so little about Ukraine, we are unlikely to do much more against a China that is much more formidable than Russia.  And our Asian allies will then see how valuable our promises really are.

March 12,  2022     Permalink 

We are limping along trying to repair as much of the electronic damage as possible that occurred here in the last few days.  We can operate, but some archival features of Urgent Agenda may take longer to bring back online than others.  We try to keep our expenses down, however we will have to modernize our software and install some new security bumps.  Some of our software dates from the Lincoln administration.

I preferred the old type in a stick.  No software.  No Russian hackers.

Pencil and paper, even better.