Day: November 20, 2023

What’s Up With The Speaker?

After over a year of denial and avoidance the new Speaker of the House is said to be ready to release the security footage of the 06 January insurrection (you do remember that, right?)

Of course with everything that is ‘released’ to the public I am sure some sort of editing will occur, especially since these toads on the Right denied many of the claims of the participants.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he plans to publicly release thousands of hours of footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for the job. “This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said in a statement, per the AP. The newly elected speaker said the first tranche of security footage, around 90 hours, would be released on a public committee website on Friday, with the rest of the 44,000 hours expected to be posted over the next several months. In the meantime, a public viewing room will also be set up in the Capitol for viewing the footage.

For the last several months, the GOP-led House Administration Committee has made the video available by appointment only to members of the media, criminal defendants, and a limited number of other people. The video shows some of the fighting up close and gives a bird’s-eye view of the Capitol complex—one that visitors rarely see—as hundreds of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building, violently attacking police officers and breaking in through windows and doors. By expanding this access to the general public, Johnson is fulfilling one of the pledges he made last month to the most conservative members of his party, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who orchestrated the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Both Gaetz and Trump—who’s currently running for reelection as he faces federal charges for his role in the Jan. 6 attack—applauded Johnson’s decision. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump congratulated the speaker “for having the courage and fortitude” to release the footage. The move by Johnson will grant the general public a stunning level of access to sensitive and explicit Jan. 6 security footage, which many critics have warned could endanger the safety of staff and members in the Capitol complex if it gets into the wrong hands.

Now problem is why now?

And why are those the denied anything happened on that faithful day but a peaceful collection of MAGATs?

I believe it will be piecemeal releases.

This situation will need to be monitored, in my opinion, for I believe something is going on that could change many things.

Stay Tuned!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Zelensky Paradox

Oh yeah….Ukraine.

You remember that right?

The conflict story that ate up news reporting until the Gaza mash-up.

This is not a post about who is right or wrong in this conflict but rather the paradox that has invaded Zelensky’s time as the leader of Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelensky was willing to end the war. On multiple occasions in the early days of the war, long before the escalation and long before the horrifying loss of life, limb and land, the Ukrainian president was willing to preserve his people’s land and protect his people lives in exchange for abandoning the dream of membership in NATO, a dream that, even as late as three months after Russia invaded, was shared by only 59% of Ukrainians.

But the US and the UK restrained him. They insisted that Zelensky refrain from a policy of negotiating with Putin in favour of pursuing US policy by engaging in war. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Zelensky that Russian President Vladimir Putin “should be pressured, not negotiated with” and that, even if Ukraine was ready to sign some agreements with Russia, “the West was not.” Zelensky was persuaded to offer the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to continue the fight in the pursuit of US goals. Zelensky gave up peace for Ukraine for a promise – formal or informal – that the US and its NATO allies would provide it with all the weapons it needs for as long as it takes.

But when Zelensky calls in that promise and asks for what Ukraine needs for as long as it takes, he is accused of being ungrateful and is told that the time has come to negotiate.

And that is the first paradox. Zelensky was told not to negotiate and that he would get the weapons he needs to go on fighting; then he is told to no longer expect weapons because he should be negotiating.

The Zelensky Paradox

Now my question is…..is the monetary support from the West waning?

Is Israel putting a dent in the support for Ukraine?

How will this work itself out?

On a side note….the US will pay huge mark-up on some equipment to be sent to Ukraine….

Jordan is set to make a massive profit by selling Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft system to the US. The White House plans to send the weapons to arms to Ukraine. In 2013, Amman purchased the weapons 2013 for $22 million, and now the US will pay Jordan nearly $120 million to buy the anti-aircraft system for Ukraine. 

According to De Telegraaf,  the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper, “The Netherlands sold the sixty [Gepards] to the Jordanians in 2013 for about 350,000 euros each. At the time, it indeed involved a total amount of 21 million euros. While the Americans would now pay 1.8 million euros each for it.”

Han Bouwmeester, a Dutch brigadier general and military professor, said the increase in price was due to the steep demand for weapons caused by the multiple conflicts being fought around the globe. “The situation in the world then was fundamentally different than it is now. The geopolitical situation has now changed ,and that may affect the price of these [Gepard],” he explained. 

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/us-to-buy-anti-aircraft-weapon-for-ukraine-at-huge-markup/

War is good business and damn business is great!

Apparently the US has a bottomless pocketbook…..I do not believe that our support for Ukraine or for that matter any other conflict should be open-ended….there has to be a point of cessation of our involvement.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”