WE hear many things from our corporate media sources and then there are other sources that are ignored to keep the public whipped up into a ignorant frenzy.

I think it is my job to bring you news that you may not have read recently.

The big news is that Biden says ‘NO’ to a negotiated peace for Ukraine….

The White House has come out against a ceasefire in Ukraine ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Moscow to potentially mediate between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart in Kyiv.

Xi is due to arrive in Moscow on Monday and is expected to speak virtually to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following his talks with Putin. Xi’s trip comes after Beijing released a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine that called for the two sides to cease hostilities and for peace talks to begin.

Zelensky expressed openness to China’s proposal, but it was immediately rejected by President Biden.

“We don’t support calls for a ceasefire right now,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Friday, according to Newsweek. “We certainly don’t support calls for a ceasefire that would be called for by the PRC in a meeting in Moscow that would simply benefit Russia.”

The US and its allies discouraged peace talks and mediation efforts that were conducted shortly after Russia’s February 2022 invasion. At that time, Moscow was seeking a deal that would have reverted to the pre-invasion territorial lines. But now, Ukraine stands to lose much more as Russia has annexed the territory it controls in the Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and the breakaway Donbas republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

(antiwar.com)

No negotiations–what could explain this reluctance?

Found it!

Biden’s newest military budget is extreme to say the lest….The White House is asking Congress for a whopping $886.4 billion military budget for the fiscal year 2024, with $842 billion of it going to the Pentagon. The rest would go toward other federal agencies’ military spending, including the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons program.

According to Responsible Statecraft, more than half of the budget will likely go to defense contractors, with Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon getting the biggest chunk. The budget includes $170 billion for weapons procurement and $145 billion for the research and development of new arms.

It appears that the US is having a problem with the ammo usage in Ukraine….

Ukraine is firing thousands of artillery shells each day in its battle to defend the Donbas city of Bakhmut, a pace that US and European officials don’t think is sustainable, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Two unnamed US officials told the Times that the Pentagon has raised the issue of Ukraine’s ammunition use in Bakhmut after a few days of non-stop firing. Ukraine’s war effort is entirely reliant on support from the US, as the Pentagon has shipped millions of artillery shells to the country.

…

Ukrainian troops fighting in Bakhmut have told the media that they are already fighting with severe ammunition shortages. Ukraine is also losing a lot of people as fresh recruits are being sent into Bakhmut, which has become known as the “meat grinder,” with very little training.

(antiwar.com)

Ukraine is losing their best soldiers…..

American officials estimate that at least 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the year since Russia invaded. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin painted a grim picture for Kiev, warning “Ukraine doesn’t have any time to waste.”

Politico spoke with unnamed American officials who gave the estimated death toll. “Upwards of 100,000 Ukrainian forces have died in the year-long war.” The outlet reported that this estimated death toll  “[includes] the most experienced soldiers.” The officials are “increasingly concerned about Ukraine’s dwindling supply of ammunition, air defenses and experienced soldiers.”

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/100000-ukraine-soldiers-killed-in-war-including-most-experienced-forces/

Then there is the airplane thing for Ukraine….

Poland will become the first NATO member to supply Ukraine with fighter jets as Polish President Andrzej Duda said Thursday that his country plans to give Kyiv four Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days.

“In the coming days, we are handing over four aircraft to Ukraine in full working order,” Duda said at a press conference. Ukrainian pilots are trained to use the MiG-29, so the Polish planes can be used in battle once they arrive. Duda said Poland will send more MiG-29s after the first four are delivered.

(antiwar.com)

Once again the idiot, Sen. Graham, has done what he always does…..shows what a warmongering pig he really is….

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called for the US to start shooting down Russian planes that encounter US aircraft in response to the downing of the MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea.

Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity that the US should tell Russia if “you ever get near another US asset flying in international waters, your airplane will be shot down.”

“What would Ronald Reagan do right now? He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets. American foreign policy is in freefall,” Graham added.

(antiwar.com)

With the war taking the forefront and the build-up to counter China one would think that the defense industry could be rolling in dough…..and yet….

The defense industry spent the majority of 2022 exploiting inflation as a justification for more military spending. It succeeded when Congress delivered a budget $45 billion higher than the president requested, but lesser known is how Congress quietly slipped contractors another form of so-called inflation relief in the annual defense policy bill.

Lawmakers authorized potential sweeping price increases to Pentagon contracts in response to any cost growth companies experience “due solely to economic inflation.” But there are no requirements for military contractors to prove their costs increased because of inflation alone.

Effectively, Congress is covering financial losses for huge companies — including corporations like Lockheed Martin, which is worth over $122 billion. More than 70 percent of Lockheed’s net sales were from the U.S. government in 2021, meaning taxpayers largely underwrote the $11 billion it handed back to its shareholders in 2022.

To make matters worse, lawmakers crafted this inflation bailout for the defense industry behind closed doors. None of the earlier versions of the defense bill included the provision, which means a few House and Senate negotiators — some of whom have received considerable campaign funding from the defense industry — added it to the legislative text without broader congressional input.

Lawmakers quietly gave weapons firms bailout for unproven inflation burden

That is my round-up for this beginning of Spring 2023……

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”