Monday, March 28, 2022

Censorship, Biden WWIII

 

Censorship, Biden WWIII

 It has to be evident to anyone with a sense of fairness and decency that news should not be able to be censored, suppressed or falsified in this country.  Also, once a social platform like Twitter or Facebook establishes itself as a “public square” or “public clearing house” for news and opinions, their executives should not be able to ban people and opinions that they don’t like.

 Yet, this is exactly what has happened in this country.  Our mainstream media censors or falsifies news inimical to their political stripes, and our social platforms do the same, going even further by banning opposing voices altogether.  President Trump is still banned from Twitter and Facebook for political reasons.

 What this meant during the 2020 presidential election is that the combined mainstream and social media denied the existence and contents of the laptop that Hunter Biden left in a Delaware repair shop, and which contains details of crimes committed by the Bidens, including Joe Biden.  Just weeks before the election, the laptop and its contents were called “Russian disinformation” and “a right-wing kook conspiracy theory”.  Fifty left-leaning “intelligence agents” supported the “Russian disinformation” allegation without any evidence.  The FBI, who had the laptop by then, did nothing, and still is doing nothing.

 Four states, with 51 electoral votes, and 125,000 popular votes gave the election to Biden.  It has to evident to any discerning person, that even in just those four swing states, Trump would have been elected if the contents of Hunter’s laptop revealed Joe Biden’s role in the Biden crime family’s “pay for play schemes”. 

And they got away with it. Hunter’s laptop and the effects on the 2020 election are still being hidden from the American public and denigrated as right-wing propaganda.  Joe Biden continues as undisputedly the worst president in American History.

 How bad?

 I won’t reiterate the domestic issues.  Just buy gas, go to the grocery store or try to walk down any street in a major city without being mugged or accosted.

 At first, it was evident that Joe was senile and suffered from some dementia.  But his handlers dressed him in $1000 suits and made him look spiffy, coached him, and as long as he could just read from the teleprompters, he seemed almost OK.  A few slurred words, but nothing major.

 Where Joe got into trouble is when he went “off script”.  He normally avoided questions, but sometimes he had to get into a dialogue, and that’s when the lies and inconsistencies abounded, and his staff needed to “walk things back”.  Not to Joe though.  He did not admit any inconsistencies, and got really pissed off when they were pointed out. These bursts of anger are partly just Biden’s natural arrogance, and probably party a symptom of his dementia.

 Any time that Joe Biden went into the public, it was evident that he wasn’t “all there”.  He was not only missing a few steps, - he was missing a lot of brain cells.  Now even to the political opposition, there is a tendency to feel sorry for the old guy.  But we have to remember, this is the president of the United States, not my kindly, failing old grandfather.  Putin obviously was watching Biden’s weaknesses before he invaded Ukraine.  Xi Jinping is watching.  Kim Jung Un is watching.  So is every petty dictator in world looking to take advantage.

 Domestically, we go tsk, tsk and prepare to annihilate the woke democrats in the mid-terms and in 2024.  But internationally, we are already edging toward WWIII without Biden’s inappropriate comments.  Speaking off the cuff, off the prompter, with anger, - as if he were running in a senate primary in Delaware, Joe Biden came close to prompting Russia into WWIII this weekend  His staff had to “walk back” his ill=advised comments, while he denied what he had said on the three occasions in question, and was not walking anything back.

 Letting Joe Biden patter on and on about his socialist agenda may raise some political hackles, but it is not getting us closer to war with Russia.  Incoherent, and then forgotten angry comments by Biden on the international scene are really dangerous and have to be stopped.  Perhaps its time to think about the 25th amendment.  The only problem is look who the backup is – “the cackler”.  Well, maybe she’ll turn everything into SF word salad.  If the international bunch can’t figure it out, maybe they won’t do anything.

 Ray Gruszecki
Marc 28, 2022

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Hunter’s Laptop and the Worst President Ever

 

Hunter’s Laptop and the Worst President Ever

 We not only have the most abysmal “president” and “vice president” ever, in our history, they should have never been there in the first place.

 The deep state, consisting of the left-wing politicians, much of the media, big tech and entertainment industry have made it seem as if this is some conspiracy theory or misplaced right-wing lie.  And the gullible American public has swallowed the propaganda that Joe Biden won the 2020 election fairly.  He would not have been elected if Hunter Biden’s laptop was not supressed

 Even after admitting that Hunter Biden’s laptop and its contents are real, this same cabal continues to hide news about it and denigrate its existence. And where is the FBI, who has had the laptop since December of 2019?

 Let’s remember, if the news about Hunter’s laptop was not suppressed by the above dishonest mob just before the 2020 election, Joe Biden would never have been elected.  And all you have to do is look at the numbers.

 Biden won the electoral college in 2020 by 306 to 232, with 270 electoral votes necessary to win.  This included Arizona with 11 electoral votes with 10,457 winning popular votes; Georgia 10 electoral, 12,670 popular; Pennsylvania 20 electoral, 81,660 popular; Wisconsin 10 electoral, 20,682 popular.  These four states add up to 51 electoral votes, and would have given Trump a winning total of 283.  The total popular vote in the four states necessary to attain these 51 electoral votes would have been 125,469 out of the 18,360,000 total votes cast, or less than 7 tenths of one percent of the total votes cast in these states.

 It is pretty obvious that these small popular voter margins would have easily been overcome, and Trump would have been re-elected president, if the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop had not been suppressed by our dishonest politicians, mainstream media and big tech.

 https://townhall.com/columnists/larryoconnor/2022/03/25/media-collusion-to-ignore-hunters-laptop-was-epitome-of-election-tampering-n2605050

 https://www.worldtribune.com/timeline-fbi-refused-to-accept-hunter-biden-laptop-until-impeachment-hearings/

 Ray Gruszecki
March 26, 2022

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Hunter Biden’s Incriminating Laptop

 

Hunter Biden’s Incriminating Laptop

 PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION BEING RIGGED AND THE PRESIDENCY STOLEN FROM HIM.  If the truth about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop had not been suppressed prior to the election, voters in at least four of the swing states would have voted their electoral college votes, and the presidency, to Trump.

 Why was Hunter Biden’s laptop so important in the election process?  One just has to look at the numbers.

 Biden won the electoral college in 2020 by 306 to 232, with 270 electoral votes necessary to win.  This included Arizona with 11 electoral votes with 10,457 winning popular votes; Georgia 10 electoral, 12,670 popular; Pennsylvania 20 electoral, 81,660 popular; Wisconsin 10 electoral, 20,682 popular.  These four states add up to 51 electoral votes, and would have given Trump a winning total of 283.  The total popular vote in the four states necessary to attain these 51 electoral votes would have been 125,469 out of the 18,360,000 total votes cast, or less than 7 tenths of one percent of the total votes cast in these states.

 It is pretty obvious that these small popular voter margins would have easily been overcome, and Trump would have been re-elected president, if the truth about Hunter Biden’s laptop had not been suppressed by our dishonest mainstream media and big tech.

 The oligarchs who control the news and social media in this country had prohibited, and penalized any exposures concerning Hunter’s laptop, and had almost succeeded in completely suppressing any discussion about the importance of its contents, and the fact that it showed the involvement by Joe Biden in “pay for play” schemes for many years.  Just recently, the New York Times, somewhere on paragraph 18, or so, of a story about Hunter Biden’s business woes, finally admitted that Hunter’s laptop and its contents are real.

 After being disparaged as “Russian disinformation”, the recent acknowledgement that “the laptop from hell”, which was left at a Delaware repair shop, and which was eventually handed over to the FBI by the shop owner, was indeed Hunter Biden’s, and that the contents of the laptop prove the continuing criminality of the Biden crime family, including “the big guy”, Joe Biden.  This has re-opened the issue in a big way, with or without the acquiescence of original censors.

 The citizens of this country should be angry, and in fact, livid, that the 2020 presidential election was literally stolen from President Trump and handed to Joe Biden, largely because of the cover-up of the Hunter Biden laptop story, by liars in government, by the mainstream “media of record”, and by the despots of social media.  Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook still ban President Trump’s access to tell the truth about this and other collusions against him while president.

 I won’t reiterate the many harms to this country that have resulted from covering up the news about Hunter Biden’s laptop and “fixing” the election for slow, incompetent Joe Biden and his socialist/communist cabal.  We are reminded every time we go to the grocery store or fill up our cars with gas, or turn on our TV sets and watch about how close we are to a nuclear war with Russia, or hear about our next atrocious inner-city crime and “catch and release”.

 Once again, as in many times during his presidency, President Trump has proven to be right about an important issue in the long term, after at first being reviled and denounced by his political, media and big tech detractors.  Pity he was so much “in your face”, that he turned away so many voters in the 2020 election.

 Also, the protesters at the capitol on January 6, 2021 knew that the election was rigged and made their voices heard, but some got carried away and unfortunately resorted to violence.  Of course, this was seized upon by the same destructive elements in our administrative system that rigged the election, as an example of insurrection.  And the media turned the gullible sheep away from news suppression and election fraud to pictures and prosecution of the horned “Viking man” in the capitol building.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 24, 2022

Monday, March 21, 2022

More Hunter’s Laptop

 

More Hunter’s Laptop

 Just prior to the election, our lying dishonest media and big tech covered up any news about Hunter Biden’s laptop that would incriminate the Biden crime family, including Joe, “the big guy”.  Over 50 Trump detractors jumped on the anti-Trump bandwagon, claiming that Hunter’s laptop, its contents and the whole story around it were “Russian disinformation”.

 The New York Times has just recently admitted that the whole Hunter laptop story is true.

 Many think that if the truth were known at election time about the contents of Hunter’s laptop, it would have more than overcome the approximately 160,000 votes over five swing states that it took to “elect” Joe Biden.  Trump would have been re-elected president, just as he claims, and for which he has been has been disgracefully denounced.

 Most of the left-wing media and the 50 or so “intelligence community” liars responsible for perpetrating this egregious deception on the American people, either still deny any culpability for their actions, or demur, mumbling into their beers.  And the Justice Department, with Merrick Garland firmly in the Biden administration’s pocket, looks the other way.  They got away with it.  Biden is president, and that’s that.

 One has to ask what kind of dishonest and Machiavellian political party are the democrats, when they would willfully manipulate our media to withhold news that may have reflected negatively on their candidate?  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if Biden were not the worst president ever, including Andrew Johnson and Jimmy Carter, and is not weakly leading (from behind), the country into stagflation, into a godless upside-down society, and into possible nuclear conflicts with Russia and China.

 Unfortunately, the only news outlets carrying the Hunter laptop story again, are the right-leaning honest news outlets.  Already, the propaganda machines of the massive leftist cabal are working to discredit the truth about Hunter’s laptop, and relegate it to “conspiracy theory”.  Does anyone think that all of the media and other liars will just admit that they covered up and lied about the story in November, 2020?

 And the bulk of Americans are honest and gullible, and, to them, ABC, CBS, NBC. CNN NYT, WaPo, don’t lie, do they?  And Fox News, National Review, they’re just right-wing partisans, aren’t they?  And so, on and on it goes, the liars prevail, impose Marxist principles on the country, and elect really harmful people like Joe Biden.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 21, 2022

Sunday, March 20, 2022

Biden – Fake President

 

Biden – Fake President

 Honest Americans should be angry.  I am.  We are living in Biden’s dystopian society where nothing works right, and which may be on the cusp of a nuclear war with Russia, due to incompetence and weakness in Biden’s and nis handlers’ dealings with the megalomaniac in Moscow.

 It would be bad enough if, as we thought, we had a legally elected president with socialist/communist handlers.  We do not.  We have an imposter, chosen and installed by an elitist media and big tech and administrative cabal, just like in the old banana republics or modern communist countries.

 Oh, I know that the popular view in the country has been hijacked to accept that the 2020 presidential election was legal and valid, and that Joe Biden is really a president.  To question this party line is to be labelled a conspiracy theorist, or insurrectionist, or worse.  The fact that the majority of Americans have subscribed to this lie and follow it as fact illustrates the power and efficacy of the left-wing propaganda, (or the gullibility of the majority of Americans), - not sure which.

 Less than 160,000 votes in five swing states, out of some 155,000,000 total votes cast, or less than one tenth of one percent, swung the election to Biden.  People forget the anecdotal reports of illegal and/or fraudulent activity that were somehow swept under the rug by a media antagonistic to President Trump.

 In fact, the news media and big tech were so inimical to President Trump, that they covered up and perverted major news stories that would help Trump and hurt Biden.  The New York Times just recently admitted that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real and in fact does contain incriminating information against the Biden family, including Joe Biden, as originally exposed by the New York Post during the 2020 election campaign, and covered up by the media, big tech and the administrative cabal.  Just this one piece of news, if presented honestly, would most likely have been enough to change the very small vote margins in the swing states, and result in Trump being re-elected.  Can we imagine the differences in our society and foreign affairs?

 Also not to be forgotten are the unconstitutional revisions of swing state election laws to allow such aberrations as ballot harvesting, mail order voting, voting without identification, etc. during the Covid pandemic.

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to turn out likely Democratic voters. But this wasn’t traditional political spending. He funded a targeted, private takeover of government election operations by nominally nonpartisan — but demonstrably ideological — nonprofit organizations.  The 2020 election wasn’t stolen — it was likely bought by one of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful men pouring his money through legal loopholes.  Overall, in 2020, democrat donors donated $1,688,045,733.  The republicans donated $775,165,627, less than half that of the democrats.

But the most egregious abuse by the cabal that brought Biden into office remains the subversion of the media and press that denied that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real, and that it contained incriminating information that would have changed the election outcome.

 

Ray Gruszecki
March 20, 2022

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Memories of Russia

 

Memories of Russia

 I visited Russia, and the three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, in September of 2017.

 When I take one of these trips overseas, I research the countries that I will visit, take daily recorded and written notes, and later formalize a writeup and a Power Point presentation of the trip, both personal experiences, and research.  This allows me not only to make Power Point presentations to various groups, it also allows me to go back and refresh my memories.

 On the trip to The Baltics and Russia, I attended lectures by academicians and notable news people concerning the society and politics in each country.  I also met and socialized with normal, everyday people, and got a citizen’s view of life in the country.

 Without going into a lot of detail, a common theme in the three Baltic countries in 2017 was fear that Russia would act to re-absorb them back into something like the old Soviet Union.  All three of these countries are members of NATO, but this was at a time that President Trump was shaking NATO up (particularly Germany), to contribute their promised 2% of GDP to NATO defense.  Trump, in fact was questioning the efficacy of the U.S. continuing in NATO.  This was not pleasant news to hear in Vilnius, Riga or Tallinn.

 People in Russia were pleasant and helpful.  St Petersburg and Moscow in Western Russia were very European in nature, and except for the difference in alphabets, I could have as well been in Berlin or Paris or Rome.  I was particularly impressed with St Petersburg, Peter the Great’s “Venice of the North”.

 A family of three generations in St Petersburg hosted us for “an impromptu snack” on a Sunday afternoon.  This was actually a feast, with beet borscht, piroshky, a samovar, and rivers of vodka.  Talk was of their work, family, sports (primarily European football), and then talk drifted to them wishing to visit the U.S. or Western Europe, but being prevented by the sanctions that the U.S. had imposed against Russia at that time because of Russia’s invasion and absorption of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.  Even in 2017, Western sanctions were impacting average Russians.

 Later in the week in St Petersburg I heard a lecture by Sergei Akapov, PhD, a full professor at the Department of political science, St.-Petersburg Campus of Russian Research University “Higher School of Economics” (HSE SPb).  https://www.hse.ru/en/org/persons/73196268

 Dr. Akapov’s topic was Russia’s domestic and international orientation in the modern world.  Some of his main points were as follows:

 

1.)   Russia consists of 85 states, 145 million people and is diverse and multi-national.

 

2.)   Russia currently is a “semi presidential federation”, which means a president is popularly elected and exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the latter two being responsible to the legislature. It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has a popularly elected head of state, who is more than a purely ceremonial figurehead. Modern France is another example of a semi presidential system. Vladimir Putin is the directly elected President or Chief of State of Russia since 2012. He is a member of the United Russia party, which he and Medvedev started.  United Russia got 63.6% of the vote in the last election.  Dmitry Medvedev is Prime Minister or head of government, elected with a Duma vote of 299 to 144.

 

3.)   Putin has over an 80% approval rating.  He is regarded as a Russian hero who is re-establishing Russia as a world power. (sic)

 

4.)   Putin is regarded by the Russian public as a mediating influence in the Ukraine, Syria and other Russian foreign adventures, and not as an aggressor.  Most consider Eastern Ukraine as part of Mother Russia. (sic)

 

5.)   There is dissatisfaction with the oligarchs from Yeltsin’s time, some of whom are perpetuated by Putin.

 

6.)   Russia is a victim of globalization and cannot compete with western countries like the U.S., U.K., Germany, et al.

 

7.)   Recent sanctions have exacerbated the economic issues for Russia.

 

8.)   Russia is very statist and has many rules and regulations.

 

9.)   There is a brain drain because particularly technical education is of a high caliber and local salaries are lower than abroad.  Many graduates emigrate to other European countries where salaries are higher and living is easier.

 

10.)                    I specifically asked Dr. Akapov about Russian meddling in the U.S. election process, off the record, and not only the party line.  He smiled and basically reiterated the Trump administration’s position here, that “hackers may have accessed some unsecure servers, but Russian operatives did not affect the outcome of the U.S. election”.

 

11.)                    I also asked him what was the Russian opinion of our president Trump?  He again smiled and said “we have no greater problems with him than other American presidents”.

 

 

Later in our trip, I got turned around on a Moscow street from the Metropole Hotel where I was staying.  I asked directions from a chic, well-appointed young Russian woman.  She pulled out her smart phone and showed me the way back to the hotel, in English.

 

Ray Gruszecki

March 17, 2022

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

SAM’s and such.

 

SAM’s and such.

  Russian made S-400’s.  Everyone wants them.

 More about them:

 https://sofrep.com/fightersweep/how-scary-is-the-russian-s-400-sam-system/#:~:text=In%20response%20to%20the%20downing%20of%20a%20Russian,deemed%20to%20be%20hostile%20to%20Russian%20air%20operations.

 http://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Grumble-Gargoyle.html

 http://www.almaz-antey.ru/en/kontaktnaya-informatsiya/

  

The Ukrainians are using the predecessor s-300 against the Russians in the Ukrainian war.

 https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/03/s-300-the-air-defense-system-ukraine-is-using-to-battle-russias-air-force/

  

What is the U.S. equivalent of the s-400??

 “We don’t really have one. We have an air force with some of the best fighter aircraft and pilots in the world, and ten supercarriers who can park dozens of them off any coastline in the world, along with a worldwide network of allied bases where we can fly land-based fighters out of. We rely on them for our primary air defense and for offensive air superiority. Russia developed such air-defense missile systems because they know their actual aircraft won’t last long in a stand-up fight against ours. We didn’t develop one because we believe our planes and pilots are good enough that we don’t really NEED one.

 That said, we are not completely without anti-aircraft missile systems. We have the Patriot missiles, which have been demonstrating an ability to intercept ballistic missiles since the first Gulf War in 1991, although we haven’t had to actually use them in combat against enemy aircraft yet. We have the AEGIS system on board our warships, and a land-based version in development, which can shoot down satellites as well as ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and aircraft, although that too hasn’t really had to be tested in combat yet. We also have THAAD and a few other systems deployed in small numbers, but they haven’t been tested in combat either. No one has yet managed to get an air attack past our fighter planes to engage our air defense assets since the Vietnam War.

 By the same token, no one really knows yet how the S-300 or S-400 will fare in actual combat. But their predecessors have been tested a few times, and while they have given the occasional bloody nose to American or Israeli aircraft…they have not yet shown the ability to actually keep them from pretty much flying wherever they please, if they’re willing to take the occasional loss while doing so. Hopefully they will remain untested for a while longer yet. And the same goes for the advanced American near-equivalents.

  

A pretty good case could be made for the RIM-174, and the upgraded Patriot systems, but it is more important to understand the political and military ends being served.

 Russia's neighbors include states which may or may not be friendly at any given moment, and also includes the huge NATO alliance -right at Russia's doorstep. Her defenses need to be built accordingly, and the S-400 family is a logical part of that defense, and even includes a unit located so as to shoot down missiles from, of all people, North Korea.

 The continental United States, by contrast, has only friendly neighbors north and south, and vast oceans east and west. Where's the threat? What are we defending against? The threat is the fleet of ICBM's which could be launched from Russia. And for that, the United is working on variants of the THADD system. But let's get real, here: in the event of a launch of the ICBMs, everyone is basically toast, anyway, so a few S-400's or THAADs really won't matter.

 And that leaves everything else.

 And the "else" is big, referring to spheres of influence and operations. The United States projects power around the globe. Our "backyard" is basically everyone else's "front yard." In addition to air bases and troop deployments, an impressive navy is present. There's a reason for that. After WWII, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other military planners came to the conclusion that if there should ever be another major conflict, it would be fought on the enemy's turf, not ours. This central concept has been a core element of US foreign policy ever since. The development of military capacity can be tied directly to it.

 The United States is the only country with such a reach. With the exception of the Russian missiles in Cuba (now long gone), no one else -no one at all- maintains a foreign military presence in the Western Hemisphere. Such presence as is maintained at sea by potential adversaries is occasional and poses no real threat.

 Consequently our military hardware is designed for the scenario we actually have. The S-400 is simply not a "fit" with our actual need. It is a fit with the challenge faced by the Russians.

 We could, of course, make a "better" missile just to demonstrate the capacity to do so. But these things cost a lot of money, and it makes more sense to spend it where we get the most, ahem, "bang" for the buck.”

 Ray Gruszecki
March 16, 2022

Monday, March 14, 2022

Putin’s Nukes

 

Putin’s Nukes

 Consider for a moment what is happening in Ukraine, a European country that is an overnight flight from Middle America, probably with a change at Frankfurt, Germany.  How do I know? – Because in 2017, I flew from DFW to Vilnius, Lithuania, change at Frankfurt, just up the geographic line from Ukraine.

 Russia did not invade some poor, weak, backwater Asian or African country.  Russia invaded a fully evolved, civilized, European country, using all of the modern Russian weapons of war with the exception of nuclear weapons, and Putin has threatened the use of nukes too make poor, old Joe Biden quake in his boots and withhold weapons that Ukraine needs.

 Since Putin’s forces got bogged down and halted quickly by the Ukrainians, it is evident that Putin miscalculated his attack.  Putin’s three or four-pronged attack was apparently aimed at a “blitzkrieg” style, rapid conquest of the mostly flat country once known as the “breadbasket” of Russia, and now, of Europe.

 The Ukrainians, whose heritage includes ancient Scythians, then Mongols, and more recently, Cossacks, had other ideas.  Led by their charismatic young president Zelenskyy, they stopped the Russian advance, and made the Russians pay in blood and treasure for their invasion.  The Russian military is too massive for the Ukrainians to drive the Russians out of their country on their own, but it seems after 20 days of fighting that the Ukrainians are not giving up, and may not lose their country if the west provides enough help of the right kind.

 Where is NATO?  Where is the UN?  Where is the World Court?  When a nuclear-armed ex “superpower” can invade a smaller adjacent country, and face only talk, talk, talk, and “sanctions”.  It would seem that a quick NATO and/or UN presence is necessary in Ukraine to address the humanitarian crisis that Putin is causing.  Putin’s nukes should be faced down or met, if that’s the last resort.  This ridiculous dancing to the blackmail tune of Putin’s nukes has to stop, and the bully in Moscow has to be contained.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 15, 2022

No More Tweets – World War III?

 

No More Tweets – World War III?

This I write particularly to all of you who voted for Biden because you just could not stand President Trump’s tweets, bellicose manner and grating, in-your-face New York personality. I write to those of you who became complacent with $1.80 gasoline and $1.50 heating oil; with $100 going a long way toward a week’s groceries; with a relatively stable southern border and a relatively quiet Putin, Xi Jingping. Erdogan and Kim Jung Un; with clean energy self-sufficiency and net exports of energy; when we knew which bathrooms to use; and accepted all Americans rather than dividing us by race; when our leadership, although sometimes controversial, was respected throughout the world.

There was no war for four years. When Syria used chemical weapons in 2017, President Trump hit them and their Russian base in Syria with 59 Tomahawk missiles. There was no vacillating or hand wringing about Putin’s nukes.

Remember those days? Could it be just 14 short months ago?

 Well, the present economic, social and political dystopia is what you get when you vote against a candidate’s personality and you choose a president by mail order and loose election rules, and that president is more interested in not offending his socialist/communist left-wing, than in providing leadership for the country. And in addition, that “president” is the burnt-out, senile hulk of one of the most shallow and opportunistic politicians in our history, with nearly 50 years in government with consistently the wrong decisions at the wrong times.

Oh, Biden looks pretty enough, after his valet and barbers and make-up artists send him out. And he almost sounds OK reading from the teleprompters until he gets pulled “off text”, or gets a little tired. Ever wonder why he doesn’t answer questions? Well, because the answers cannot be entered into the teleprompters ahead of time. He pre-plans his favorite media questioners and sometimes the questions, but not the answers to the questions. A far cry from President Trump’s free-flowing news sessions.

The “straw horse”, “whisperer in charge” could almost carry it off if the people that run him were giants of knowledge and political acumen. They are not. They regurgitate the ideas and principles that they must have learned in sophomore days in political science classes at left-wing colleges. So, we have a senile, but arrogant old man being run by socialist/communist sophomoric handlers. That’s our government.

Our back-up is not stable, staid, Christian Mike Pence. Instead, we have the token “woman of color”, Kamala, our cackling vice president, who can’t seem to string a cohesive sentence together on any subject, without going off on a cackling fit.

One just has to ask “how could we have not seen these charlatans coming”? I guess that we were weary of Covid, weary of Trump’s tweets, and Joe Biden was represented as such a stable, experienced, kindly, alternative, that we could excuse his sitting in his basement for most of the campaign as Covid related.

So, we got taken, particularly American democrats, who are still consume the preponderately left-wing biased media, and try to justify Biden and Kamala as mavens of environmental purity, social justice and “strong democratic principles”. Unfortunately, what flies in face of this altruism, are our 8% inflation, our $5-7.00 per gallon gasoline prices, and an incipient World War III with Russia over Ukraine.

Hopefully we may have learned, one more time, to vote results, and not personalities.


Ray Gruszecki
March14, 2022

Sunday, March 13, 2022

Lyin’ Biden

 

Lyin’ Biden

 How can Joe Biden and Jen Psaki stand there in front of us and straight out-and-out lie to our faces?  The “whisperer in chief” would have us believe that his adding trillions of dollars in social program spending to the economy did not contribute to our inflation.  He must have been listening to those mavens of Keynesian economics Robert Reich and Paul Krugman for such an utterly erroneous statement.

 Another big whopper, - that Putin is responsible for our runaway gasoline prices.  Putin’s attack om Ukraine gave gas prices a “bump”, but Biden’s stifling energy policies already had gas prices approaching all-time highs before Putin’s war came along.

 This lying Biden administration will go down in history as the most destructive and debilitating, ever, on the public, and the American economy.  Obviously, Biden’s sophomoric advisors and handlers are socialists, and take their cues from “the squad”, which if not officially named as Marxist, certainly hews Trotsky’s and Alinsky’s Marxist party line.

 The Biden cabal’s weak-kneed, follow from behind foreign policy, is already responsible for the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle.  Their vacillation on the Polish MIGs for Ukraine and on other decisions about Putin’s war in Ukraine shows a similar incompetence.

 These people, with Joe Biden as their stalking horse, are ruining are country, and then lying to our faces about it.  We need to vote these destructive, corrosive elements out of our government before they complete their socialist, yea, communist, takeover of our country.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 13, 2022

Friday, March 11, 2022

Military Help for Ukraine

 

Military Help for Ukraine

 It occurs to me that there are more ways to supplement Ukraine’s air power than risking World War III by flying fighters to Ukraine from NATO countries in the face of Putin’s rattling his nukes.  Biden and his sophomoric handlers seem really cowed by the bully’s nuclear threats, so we need to explore alternatives.

 A little history first.  Mainly American volunteer pilots formed the now famous “Lafayette Escadrille” and flew for France against Germany before the U.S. entered World War I.  The Flying Tigers were an FDR sanctioned group of American volunteer pilots that flew for China against Japan in early 1941, before Pearl Harbor and the start of World War II.  (As an aside, I visited the Vinegar Joe Stilwell Flying Tiger Museum in Chongqing, China during my trip to China in 2015.)

 There have been other mercenary air forces flying modern jets, not always by “good guy” Americans.  The Katangese air force of the 1960’s comes to mind, as well as several private mercenary air forces through the years.

 There are, right now, a number of private military companies that have access to air power.  Blackwater, renamed Xe Services, and now known as Academi, is one that is quite well known.  One of the oldest and most intimidating is Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), a subsidiary of Textron conglomerate.  The Russian owned Wagner Group, that has been trying to assassinate President Zelenskyy, is another sinister one.

https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/25991-world-s-most-powerful-private-air-forces

 The point is, why don’t our CIA “spooks”, in cooperation with the Ukrainian FISU Intelligence Service, get in touch with one (or more) of these “military service companies”, and see what they can do for Ukraine.  Maybe they already Have, I’m just sayin…

 Lest we forget, Putin occupied Ukrainian Crimea in 2014, and then invaded and is waging war against a democratically elected, sovereign country.  This is in violation of the 1994 Budapest memorandum, which guarantees the territorial integrity of Ukraine against attack if they relinquish their substantial inventory of nuclear weapons, (which they did).  Putin could give a “fiddler’s f---” for international agreements.  We have to be a little creative against his bullying tactics, not shake, weak kneed, in our basements.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 11, 2022

Thursday, March 10, 2022

Early Ukrainians – Horsemen and Fighters

 

 

Early Ukrainians – Horsemen and Fighters

 Scythians, also called Scyth, Saka, and Sacae, a nomadic people, originally of Iranian stock, known from as early as the 9th century BCE who migrated westward from Central Asia to southern Russia and Ukraine in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. The Scythians founded a rich, powerful empire centered on what is now Crimea. The empire survived for several centuries. The Scythians were feared and admired for their prowess in war and, in particular, for their horsemanship. They were among the earliest people to master the art of riding, and their mobility astonished their neighbors.

 The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the 13th century, destroying numerous cities, including RyazanKolomnaMoscowVladimir and Kiev. The campaign was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River in May 1223, which resulted in a Mongol victory over the forces of several Rus' principalities. The Mongols at first, retreated, having gathered their intelligence which was the purpose of the reconnaissance-in-force. A full-scale invasion of Rus' by Batu Khan followed, from 1237 to 1242. The invasion was ended by the Mongol succession process upon the death of Ã–gedei Khan. All Rus' principalities, including most of Ukraine, were forced to submit to Mongol rule and became vassals of the Golden Horde, some of which lasted until 1480.

 In the 15th century a new martial society—the Cossacks (from the Turkic kazak, meaning “adventurer” or “free man”)—was beginning to evolve in Ukraine’s southern steppe frontier. The term was applied initially to venturesome men who entered the steppe seasonally for hunting, fishing, and the gathering of honey. Their numbers were continually augmented by peasants fleeing serfdom and adventurers from other social strata, including the nobility. Banding together for mutual protection, the Cossacks by the mid-16th century had developed a military organization of a peculiarly democratic kind, with a general assembly (rada) as the supreme authority and elected officers, including the commander in chief, or hetman. Their centre was the Sich, an armed camp in the lands of the lower Dnieper “beyond the rapids” (za porohy)—hence, Zaporozhia (in contemporary usage, Zaporizhzhya).

 Note that the Cossacks are mentioned with pride in the Ukrainian national anthem.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 10, 2022

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Bidens Executive Order Dystopia

 

Bidens Executive Order Dystopia

 Remember Joe Biden’s first day as president?  He had a stack of executive orders, of dubious legality, which he was furiously signing.  He signed thirty (30) during he first three days by CNN’s count.

 Many of these were not legal, and were prepared by Joe’s minions simply to spite President Trump.  Stable border with Mexico?  Open it up to all comers.  Energy self sufficiency and a net energy exporter?  Shut down exploration and shut down the pipelines.  Kill carbon emitting energy sources. An economy recovering from the Covid pandemic?  Spill trillions of socialist spending into it to fuel inflation.  Police pretty much controlling crime?  Defund them and institute “catch and release” without bail.  Putin, Xi, Erdogan, Kin Jong Un pretty much stabilized?  Project weak-kneed foreign policy to encourage their designs.

 Many of these executive orders were illegal and were eventually rescinded, but the damage was done.  Every positive accomplishment of President Trump was obliterated.  “Take that, you tweeting, combed over, loud-mouthed New York republican”.  No matter that we had a relatively stable country under Trump, (save for Covid).  His bellicose personality and tweets had to go, and be replaced by AOC’s and the squad’s sophomoric view of the world.

 That’s how our dystopia started, could it be a little more than one year ago?  And this one-year experience illustrates how rapidly a misguided and incompetent president and government can effectively ruin a country.

 It was bad enough before Putin invaded Ukraine, encouraged by the puerile, weak kneed response to his threats.  Now that he has invaded and is bogged down by the stiff resistance of the brave and courageous Ukrainian Cossacks, he waves his nukes like the bully he is, and our “coward in chief” and his sophomoric minions quaver in their boots.  Some of us learned as seven-year-olds in the playground, that you can’t back down from a bully, or he will “own your ass”.  No one wants nuclear war, but if we don’t help Ukraine with those MIGs from Poland, and in other ways, because Putin rattles his nukes, he will “own our asses”.

 The current dystopia, with its myriad of really harmful ills affecting our country can be directly attributed to weak, incompetent, senile Joe Biden and his misguided socialist advisors.  We had a relatively stable, if not perfect, country before Joe and his handlers took over.  Now, we have a seriously economically hurt country that is on the brink of a nuclear war with the cornered rat, Putin, in Moscow.  Nice going Joe!  We should listen really attentively to what you and your Marxist minions are saying about the 2022 and 2024 elections, to avoid further socialist predations on our poor country.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 9, 2022

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Russian Oil and Gas

 

Russian Oil and Gas

 The U.S. just stopped all imports of Russian oil and gas.  All 3% that we have been importing.  Still, even this relatively small amount constituted about 672,000 barrels per day in 2021, and at $ 130 per barrel oil, amounts to some $87 million per day, or $32 billion per year, that Putin won’t get from the U.S.

 This sounds great, and makes us feel good, but it is somewhat only symbolic when compared to Russian oil and gas exports to the European Union.  In 2021, the EU imported $108 billion of Russian oil and gas.  This was at lower oil prices, say at $60/bbl.  It would have been $234 billion at $130/bbl oil.

 Putin has had the EU over a barrel (sic), of the EU’s own making.  Angela Merkel’s and Germany’s fervor to “go green”, away from fossil fuels, and away from nuclear energy, have led most of the EU toward reliance on plentiful and relatively cheap Russian gas and oil in the past, to fill the gap resulting from exhaustion of the North Sea gas fields, and from the EU’s rush toward using renewables.  France, being France, went to nuclear power in a big way, and produces over 70% of its electrical power from nuclear energy.

 However, the new, tough EU is poised to follow America, and to immediately decrease, and then phase out imports of energy related products from Russia.  The task will be tough, however, because the EU buys 45% of its imported gas, around a third of its oil and nearly half of its coal, from Russia. This makes the bloc vulnerable should Russia decide to retaliate for EU policies by curbing exports.

 The civilized western world is retaliating against Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign, democratically elected country, and the predations of the brutal Russian military on Ukrainian civilians.  It seems to be much more than the European and American propensity to talk, talk, talk, and do nothing.  The civilized world is exacting crippling penalties on Putin and on Russia.  Unfortunately, the innocent Russian people bear the brunt of these financial, economic and societal sanctions, as private citizens always do during wars..

 Decreasing oil, gas and coal imports from Russia will definitely harm Putin, Russia’s economy, and Russia’s ability to wage war.  But let’s not be naïve.  Xi Jinping and massive China and other outliers would just love to buy discounted Russian oil and gas.  Another massive country, India, has been silent about Russia’s aggression, and, like China, abstained in the UN Security Council vote to condemn the Russian attack.  Others, like Pakistan, are also non-committal.

 Some links on the issue of Russian energy exports and recent events

  https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/eu-phase-out-russian-gas-oil-coal-imports-leaders-draft-2022-03-07/

 https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/24/why-europe-depends-on-russia-for-natural-gas.html

 https://www.iea.org/news/how-europe-can-cut-natural-gas-imports-from-russia-significantly-within-a-year

 https://www.bbc.com/news/58888451

 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-europeans-discussing-banning-russian-oil-imports-blinken-says-2022-03-06/

 https://twitter.com/search?q=eu+energy+imports+2021&ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Esearch

 Ray Gruszecki
March 8, 2022

Monday, March 7, 2022

Help Ukraine

 

Help Ukraine

 Where is the UN?  Where is NATO?  (They were there for Kosovo in 1999).  How about the Budapest Agreement and the Helsinki Accords guaranteeing that Ukraine will never be attacked if they give up their nuclear weapons, (which they did)?  There are all manner of treaties and agreements guaranteeing the integrity of sovereign nations, all flushed down the toilet by Putin when he invaded Ukraine.

 We keep hearing from Blinken and others in Biden’s administration, that we mustn’t consider imposing a no-fly zone in Ukraine, for fear that U.S. and Russian planes will start shooting at each other, and start World War III with a nuclear armed and threatening Putin’s Russia.  We’d also better watch our sanctions for the same fear of Putin’s nukes.

 Have Biden and his handlers forgotten that Putin’s nuclear armed and threatening Russia has already effectively started World War III by an unprovoked attack on the sovereign, democratic country of Ukraine?  Putin’s nuclear posturing adds an additional threat.

 No one wants an all-out nuclear war with Russia, but the West (read Biden and Blinken), cannot allow themselves to be blackmailed into not helping Ukraine.  As a minimum, stop U.S. imports of Russian oil, forthwith, and prevail on reluctant Germany and the EU countries to limit Russian energy imports to the barest minimum.  Putin’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine is right now being financed by Russian energy exports to the U.S. and the EU.  This must stop!  Olaf Scholz and Germany are leading in Europe, although reluctant to decrease energy imports from Russia.  We need leadership in the U.S., not Joe hiding in his Delaware basement, or sending unbelievably incompetent Kamala to represent us.

 Prevail on ex Warsaw pact countries, particularly Poland, Hungary, Romania to send Ukraine some of their older MIG aircraft, which Ukrainian pilots are trained to fly, and replace these with modern American F-16’s.  There is fear in these countries of provoking Putin, but again, Putin is threatening the use of nukes without any further provocation.

 Make the sanctions stick, and show Putin that the world will not tolerate the unprovoked takeover of a sovereign country.  The Ukrainians are bravely resisting.  They need all the help we can give them.

 Many ex-military veterans from around the world are willing to fight for Ukraine.  These “foreign legions” should be encouraged and facilitated.  I wish that I were younger myself.

 
Ray Gruszecki
March 7, 2022

U.S. Oil Imports under Biden

 

U.S. Oil Imports under Biden

 I left the Oil industry a long time ago, and I never worked in the domestic oil industry.  I worked at refineries in Holland, Lebanon, Pakistan and Kenya, and was concerned with optimizing multi-refinery international supply systems while working at the New York City and Dallas company head offices.  So, I am aware of world-wide oil and energy supply considerations and economics.

 It does not require a lot of expertise to realize that the U.S. is, right now, importing upwards of 7% of $110 per barrel oil from Russia, (672,000 bpd, or 8% of total imports in 2021), and in effect is financing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.  Biden and his “woke”, “greenie” minions won’t stop imports from Russia because of the “Squad’s” stance on CO2 emissions.  Brave Ukrainians are dying, while AOC pontificates sophomorically.

 Opening the Keystone XL pipeline and increasing imports from (normally) friendly Canada would add 830,000 bpd of oil, more than replacing what we are importing from Russia.  Opening oil leases that Biden closed with his dubious executive orders would make the U.S. self-sufficient in energy, and in fact a net exporter, as it was when Trump was president.

 These links refer: 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-01/u-s-imports-of-russian-crude-oil-have-been-dropping-for-months

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-does-the-u-s-still-buy-russian-oil-11646151935#_=_

 https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/daily-on-energy-biden-holds-line-against-oil-and-gas-expansion-under-pressure-from-climate-hawks

 U.S. energy facts explained - consumption and production - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)

 https://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/fossil-fuels/gas-and-oil/the-united-states-was-energy-independent-in-2019-for-the-first-time-since-1957/

 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Can-The-US-Replace-Russian-Oil-Imports.html

 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-US-Imports-Record-Share-Of-Russian-Oil-Despite-Tensions.html#:~:text=U.S.%20refiners%20have%20turned%20to%20Russian%20oil%20and,energy%20standoff%20between%20the%20United%20States%20and%20Russia.

 https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline#econ

 Ray Gruszecki
March 7, 2022

 

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Putin’s Folly

 

Putin’s Folly

 Russia’s Putin has always seemed to be one smart cookie.  He was accomplished academically and physically, and educated as a lawyer.  He speaks German and English, in addition to Russian, and probably several other languages.  He has been in elective power in Russia off and on for nearly 30 years, and has enjoyed approval ratings in the past of upwards of 80%.

 Putin and Russia made short work of Chechnya in 1999, and shorter work of Georgia in August of 2008.  Apparently, Putin looked around, saw the senile, doddering old man in the White House, the socialists in Europe, and the ex-comedian as president of non-NATO Ukraine, concluded “easy pickings”, and invaded Ukraine with a multi-pronged attack.

 It seems that Putin’s decision was fueled by a distorted view of Russian military prowess, based on relatively easy past military victories, and further distorted by his own paranoia and delusions of grandeur.  Putin was wrong in oh, so many ways.

 Rather than a harmless, innocuous stand-up comic, Volodymyr Zelenskyy turned out to be a fearless leader, donning camo gear and leading his country from a bunker.  Zelenskyy’s Jewish heritage is reminiscent of Moshe Dayan and the Israeli freedom fighters.

 Rather than a docile, ovine population bleating baa—aa, to their Russian masters, the Ukrainian people remembered their fierce Cossack, Scythian, and even Mongol roots, and are battling the Russian invaders tooth and nail.  They have slowed the vaunted Russian military to a crawl, and inflicted heavy losses on them.  The Russians have a preponderance of military might and should eventually prevail, but they will be hurt and will suffer heavy losses inflicted by the determined Ukrainians fighting for their country on their own turf.

 Putin also miscalculated world’s reaction to his aggression against Ukraine, a sovereign European country, which is the second largest country by land area in Europe (after Russia), with a population of 45 million people.  Not exactly little Chechnya and Georgia.

 Not only did the Germans tell Putin to put the Nord Stream 2 pipeline where the sun don’t shine, and the world financial community restrict Russian banks’ use of the Belgian SWIFT system, the Germans effectively ended their pacifism with direct military and economic assistance to Ukraine.  Who would have thought that Chancellor Scholz of the SPD would be so forthright with German aid to Ukraine? (A cynical thought, - could this signal full German rearmament?)

 Putin’s excuse for invading Ukraine was to ensure that NATO does not border Russia (beware, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia).  Even Finland and Sweden reacted to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine by seriously considering NATO membership.  How would Putin enjoy a border with Finland in NATO of 800 plus miles?

 The Russian military attacked Ukraine from four directions, complicating command and control.  They apparently contemplated a Rommel style “blitzkrieg” to rapidly subdue the country.  Where was their superior air power?  Also, they obviously did not allow for sufficient food and fuel if the Ukrainians offered resistance and slowed them down. Some say that the Russians’ original plan was not to destroy the cities and population centers, but now, since they seem to be bogged down, and their losses mount from stiff Ukrainian resistance, they are between a rock and a hard place.  They have to bring in the massive anti-city weapons in their quest to conquer the bravely resisting Ukrainians.

 Putin and Russia have become international pariahs, and are being punished economically by most of the world. Significantly, China, India and UAE abstained during a UN Security Council vote to censure Russia.  Pakistan is another major country that has expressed neutrality.  Most other countries are universal in censuring and punishing Russia.

 Putin is a ego-maniacal bully who has become more dangerous because he is now reviled by the world and boxed into a corner.  Russia has nuclear weapons. But the Russian people are now living in the modern world, and not cowed in a Stalinist dystopia.  Let’s hope they can mitigate Putin’s actions, or get get him out of there before he can order more destruction on the world.

 Ray Gruszecki
March 2, 2022