A report card on the Biden administration

[Sandy Shanks]

The Republican Party through its silence and participation supports the attempt to overthrow the elected government on January Sixth.

A majority of Republicans in the House and fourteen Republican Senators refused to certify the Electoral College results on January six, 2021.

Today, some Republican lawmakers are outspoken in their support of Donald Trump who continues to preach the election was stolen from him, which is the basis for the attempted coup. Others say nothing. The prefer not talking about the leader of their party. Their support for Trump is in their acquiescence.

So it is not surprising that the RNC will no longer participate in Presidential debates. They would be far too embarrassing and revealing.

The Times reports, "The Republican National Committee is preparing to change its rules to require presidential candidates seeking the party’s nomination to sign a pledge to not participate in any debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

"Republican committee officials alerted the debate commission to their plans in a letter sent on Thursday, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times. If the change goes forward, it would be one of the most substantial shifts in how presidential and vice-presidential debates have been conducted since the commission began organizing debates more than 30 years ago.

"The change requiring candidates to refuse participation in the commission’s debates is to be voted on at the R.N.C. winter meeting in Salt Lake City in February."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The Republican Party through its acquiescence and participation supports the attempt to overthrow the elected government on January Sixth.

A majority of Republicans in the House and fourteen Republican Senators refused to certify the Electoral College results on January six, 2021.

The Republican Party has a serious problem. Its leader will not accept that he lost the election despite his defeat in sixty court cases, rejection by the Supreme Court on the issue of a fraudulent election, Trump's DOJ insistence there was no fraud, and all 50 states agreed.

Despite all this, a number of Republicans in Congress and/or running for office believe the election was stolen from Trump. Not surprisingly, they offer no evidence to support this assertion.

Neither does Trump. Along with others, he just yells a lot when it comes to the lost election.

The Times reports, "Former President Donald J. Trump returned on Saturday to Arizona, a cradle of his political movement, to headline a rally in the desert that was a striking testament to how he has elevated fringe beliefs and the politicians who spread them — even as other Republicans openly worry that voters will ultimately punish their party for it.

"Mr. Trump’s favored candidate for governor, Kari Lake, is a first-time office seeker who has threatened to jail the state’s top elections official. His chosen candidate to replace that elections official, a Democrat, is a state legislator named Mark Finchem, who was with a group of demonstrators outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 as rioters tried to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

"And one of his most unflinching defenders in Congress is Representative Paul Gosar, who was censured by his colleagues for posting an animated video online that depicted him killing a Democratic congresswoman and assaulting President Biden.

"All three spoke at Mr. Trump’s rally in front of thousands of supporters on Saturday in the town of Florence, outside Phoenix.

"But as popular as the former president remains with the core of the G.O.P.’s base [largely education challenged voters from rural counties], his involvement in races from Arizona to Pennsylvania — and his inability to let go of his loss to Mr. Biden — has veteran Republicans in Washington and beyond concerned. They worry that Mr. Trump is imperiling their chances in what should be a highly advantageous political climate.

"Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, and other senior party officials have expressed their misgivings in recent days about Mr. Trump’s fixation on the last election, saying that it threatens to alienate the voters they need to win over in the next election in November."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Putin is bluffing. Russia with a modest GDP can't afford a costly war plus harsh economic sanctions from the U.S. and our NATO allies.

ABC News reports, "Russia's top diplomat angrily rejected U.S. allegations that Moscow was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine, as Russian troops that are amassed near the Ukraine border launched more drills Monday.

"The White House said Friday that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Russia had already deployed operatives to rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to carry out acts of sabotage there and blame them on Ukraine in a “false-flag operation” to create a pretext for possible invasion."

It should be noted that a false flag op is useless if it has been discovered beforehand.

ABC continued, "Speaking to reporters Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed the U.S. claim as “total disinformation.”

"He reaffirmed that Russia expects a written response this week from the U.S. and its allies to Moscow’s request for binding guarantees that NATO will not embrace Ukraine or any other ex-Soviet nations, or station its forces and weapons there.

"Washington and its allies firmly rejected Moscow's demands during last week’s Russia-U.S. negotiations in Geneva and a related NATO-Russia meeting in Brussels, which were held as an estimated 100,000 Russian troops with tanks and other heavy weapons are massed near Ukraine in what the West fears might be a prelude to an invasion."

What is going on? Its simple. Putin is creating an emergency to get what he wants. He has done that before, many times.

There are serious doubts it will work here. NATO is not about to submit to the Russian dictator's demands.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Business Insider reports, "Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, called for "trial by combat" while addressing a mob of pro-Trump supporters in Washington DC, just hours before hundreds of them violently stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.

"Giuliani, President Trump, and his son Donald Trump Jr. were among those who addressed a large crowd of the president's supporters outside the White House on Wednesday afternoon to contest the result of November's presidential election, which Trump continues to falsely insist that he won.

"Giuliani repeated false claims that the election results were "fraudulent" and told the crowd: "If we are wrong we will be made fools of, but if we're right a lot of them will go to jail. So let's have trial by combat."

The Guardian reports, "The US congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 Capitol attack has issued a blitz of subpoenas to some of Donald Trump’s top lawyers – including Rudy Giuliani – as the panel continues to gather information on the former president’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"The House select committee subpoenaed four of Trump’s legal team on Tuesday: the former president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and his associate Boris Epshteyn, as well as Sidney Powell and Jenna Ellis, who all worked to defend Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims as he attempted to undermine the election result."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Matters are getting worse from the point of view in the West.

Just as Putin planned it. As Trump and his gullible base along with key Republicans are working to divide America over the Big Lie, Putin is taking the opportunity created by a weakened America to achieve certain goals.

NBC reports, "The White House believes Russia could launch an invasion of Ukraine at any moment, press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, warning that an “extremely dangerous situation” is building along the Ukrainian border.

"We believe we're now at a stage where Russia could at any point launch an attack on Ukraine. I would say that's more stark than we have been,” Psaki said during her daily press briefing."

CNN adds, "The Biden administration is weighing new options, including providing more arms to Ukraine to resist a Russian occupation, to try to raise the costs for Russian President Vladimir Putin should he decide to invade the country.

"President Joe Biden has said that sending US combat troops to Ukraine to fight a war with Russia is off the table. But special operations forces already rotate in and out of the country to provide training to Ukrainian forces and a senior administration official said it is possible that other agencies could provide some support, likely the CIA. CIA Director Bill Burns traveled to Kyiv last week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and discuss risks to Ukraine, a US official said."

 

[easyt65]

BIDEN REPORT CARD:

He scored a 33% on his latest SAT (Suckass Approval Test)

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Our President did extremely well in his press conference today.

In the longest Presidential press conference in American history, President Biden answered questions from 24 reporters from the White House Press Corps. The questions were on every conceivable subject, and the President, using his vast experience, answered each in concise terms.

Some reporters, the reporter from Fox for example, tried to bait him, but Biden wouldn't bite. Instead, he had some fun with the reporter.

Biden rates an A+ for his performance.

To learn more about the press conference see Analysis: The 7 most important lines from Joe Biden's news conference

 

[Sandy Shanks]

“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.
When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules.
We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” President Donald Trump, January Sixth, 2021.

The Supreme Court with three Trump appointees issued the death knell to Trump's hopes of keeping secret his actions on and before the attempt to overthrow the elected government on January Sixth.

The case was a Constitutional clash on the scope of executive privilege and whether a former president may invoke it when the current one has waived it.

The Times reports, "The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused a request from former President Donald J. Trump to block the release of White House records concerning the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

"Only Justice Clarence Thomas noted a dissent.

"A special House committee investigating the attack sought the records from the National Archives, which gave both President Biden and Mr. Trump the opportunity to object.

"Mr. Trump invoked executive privilege, a doctrine meant to protect the confidentiality of presidential communications, over some of the documents.

"Mr. Biden took a different view in October in declining to assert executive privilege over some of the materials.

“Congress is examining an assault on our Constitution and democratic institutions provoked and fanned by those sworn to protect them, and the conduct under investigation extends far beyond typical deliberations concerning the proper discharge of the president’s constitutional responsibilities.”

Dana Remus, the White House counsel, added that executive privilege should not be employed to protect “information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself.”

"Lawyers for the House committee responded that the Supreme Court should not thwart its inquiry. “The select committee’s work,” they wrote, “is of the highest importance and urgency: investigating one of the darkest episodes in our nation’s history, a deadly assault on the United States Capitol and Congress, and an unprecedented disruption of the peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next.”

 

[Lakhota]

President Joe R. Biden, how refreshing that sounds. What a refreshing day. Our divisive, erratic, foolish, conspiratorial, narcissistic President is gone, replaced by a President who deeply wants to unite us. Barring ill-advised preconceived notions about President Biden, his task should be easy. We are all Americans.

That said, although I voted for Biden for obvious reasons, not unlike 81 million Americans who did the same, I am a conservative Independent. That's official. In CA, we have to declare our political posture. Until I was driven out by Trump, for over a quarter of a century I was a declared Republican. I voted for Biden, but I have some reservations concerning him, mostly having to do with taxation and spending.

I said all that because I want to be honest with readers. I want them to know where I am coming from.

Whether or not Biden will be a good President is obviously an open question, but I think he is a good man. He will do his best to unite us and adopt policies that benefit all Americans, while removing those policies that do us harm. He wants the United States to rejoin the community of nations, and the days of isolation and making unitary decisions that involve other nations, in particular our traditional allies, are over.

The European Union's top politician, Ursula von der Leyen, said it best. "After four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House."

For the first time in four years, there is optimism in America created by a popular President. 59% of Americans approve of Biden.

On day one, Trump's approval rating was 40%, and, although it went lower than that, it never got much higher. Thus the reason for American optimism.

More Republicans Take Credit For Infrastructure Funding They Voted Against​

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Manchin and Sinema are on record of joining with Republicans to defeat voting rights legislation, freeing up state Republican legislatures to pass more laws to make it harder for Americans to vote.

The Republican Party has no shame in restricting voting access.

Vladimir Putin, who wanted Trump to become our President in 2016, could not be more pleased. Why? Restricting voting access restricts American democracy as fewer people have a say in their government, and that is the entire intent of the Republican Party.

CNN reports, "Senate Democrats suffered a major defeat Wednesday evening in their efforts to pass voting rights legislation -- a key issue for the party, which is under pressure to take action ahead of the midterm elections just months away.

"An attempt by Democrats to change filibuster rules in order to pass a voting bill failed amid opposition from moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. The vote was 52-48, with the two moderates joining all GOP senators. After the vote failed, there was a loud round of applause from Republicans."

"After the vote failed, there was a loud round of applause from Republicans."

Sinema provided some politicalese B.S. to justify her vote. She said she was opposed to "actions that would deepen our divisions and risk repeated radical reversals in federal policy."

In other words, the Democrat voted against the wishes of her party and the Democratic President because some disaster may happen some time in the future while allowing a disaster to happen in the present.

Between January 1 and September 27, at least 19 states enacted 33 laws that make it harder for Americans to vote. Voting Laws Roundup: October 2021

"As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis runs for president and looks to the final year of his first term in office, he is, again, turning to the nonexistent notion of widespread voter fraud to bolster his appeal with the Republican base. His latest proposal is the creation of something called the Office of Election Crime and Security. That move comes just months after DeSantis signed one of the most restrictive voting bills in the country into law," CNN.

Manchin's excuse is even more lame, bordering on the surreal, something about favoring bipartisan compromise. That's a dream. With the exception of infrastructure funding, the GOP is the party of "NO." They want the Biden administration to fail.

As do Manchin and Sinema.

It is self-evident both Manchin and Sinema want exactly what the Republican Party wants -- make it harder for Americans to vote and make it impossible for President Biden to achieve his agenda.

 

[tahuyaman]

President Joe R. Biden, how refreshing that sounds. What a refreshing day. Our divisive, erratic, foolish, conspiratorial, narcissistic President is gone, replaced by a President who deeply wants to unite us. Barring ill-advised preconceived notions about President Biden, his task should be easy. We are all Americans.

That said, although I voted for Biden for obvious reasons, not unlike 81 million Americans who did the same, I am a conservative Independent. That's official. In CA, we have to declare our political posture. Until I was driven out by Trump, for over a quarter of a century I was a declared Republican. I voted for Biden, but I have some reservations concerning him, mostly having to do with taxation and spending.

I said all that because I want to be honest with readers. I want them to know where I am coming from.

Whether or not Biden will be a good President is obviously an open question, but I think he is a good man. He will do his best to unite us and adopt policies that benefit all Americans, while removing those policies that do us harm. He wants the United States to rejoin the community of nations, and the days of isolation and making unitary decisions that involve other nations, in particular our traditional allies, are over.

The European Union's top politician, Ursula von der Leyen, said it best. "After four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House."

For the first time in four years, there is optimism in America created by a popular President. 59% of Americans approve of Biden.

On day one, Trump's approval rating was 40%, and, although it went lower than that, it never got much higher. Thus the reason for American optimism.

Biden's approval rating is in a steady decline. It's now around 40% . The Biden administration is an abject failure.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The Supreme Court with three Trump appointees issued the death knell to Trump's hopes of keeping secret his actions on and before the attempt to overthrow the elected government on January Sixth.

As the January Sixth Select Committee closes in, Donald Trump is having a very bad week.

The Times reports, "The House committee investigating the Capitol riot requested cooperation from the former president’s daughter and revealed what it has learned about what unfolded inside the White House that day.

"The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot on Thursday requested cooperation from Ivanka Trump, as it revealed pieces of what it has learned about a scramble inside the White House that day to get President Donald J. Trump to denounce and call off the mob that was laying siege to the Capitol.

"In a letter to Ms. Trump, the former president’s eldest daughter who served as one of his senior advisers, the committee said it had obtained evidence that multiple White House officials — including Ms. Trump, at least twice — had implored Mr. Trump to call off the violence, only to be rebuffed."

In addition to Trump's daughter, Trump's son, Eric, and the Supreme Court rejection, Trump's lawyer received a subpoena. Giuliani is deeply involved in the stolen election scheme, and that could have an affect on Trump's guilt or innocence.

Giuliani was not doing this on his own. He was being financed by Trump.

CNN reports, "Trump campaign officials, led by Rudy Giuliani, oversaw efforts in December 2020 to put forward illegitimate electors from seven states that Trump lost, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the scheme.

"The sources said members of former President Donald Trump's campaign team were far more involved than previously known in the plan, a core tenet of the broader plot to overturn President Joe Biden's victory when Congress counted the electoral votes on January 6.

"Trump and some of his top advisers publicly encouraged the "alternate electors" scheme in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico. But behind the scenes, Giuliani and Trump campaign officials actively choreographed the process, the sources said.

"One fake elector from Michigan boasted at a recent event hosted by a local Republican organization that the Trump campaign directed the entire operation."

The scheme was integral to Trump's plan to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to throw out Biden's electors and replace them with the GOP electors on January 6 when Congress counted the electoral votes.

 

[georgephillip]

In the longest Presidential press conference in American history, President Biden answered questions from 24 reporters from the White House Press Corps. The questions were on every conceivable subject, and the President, using his vast experience, answered each in concise terms.

The questions were not on "every conceivable subject" as Ralph Nader has pointed out:



"They never asked about climate disruption and the Republican opposition to doing anything about it.

"They didn’t ask about the military budget, where Congress gave Biden $24 billion more than the Pentagon even asked for.

"They didn’t ask about the drain on the Treasury from hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate welfare, which is a kind of corporate socialism.

"They didn’t ask about the corporate crime wave that is ripping off consumers and exploiting labor in this country and has been reported around the country.

"And he didn’t raise those questions, either..."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

In the longest Presidential press conference in American history, President Biden answered questions from 24 reporters from the White House Press Corps. The questions were on every conceivable subject, and the President, using his vast experience, answered each in concise terms.

Very often a gaffe is revealing about a person's true beliefs. This may be true of the Republican Senator from Kentucky.

"This outrageous mischaracterization of my record as a result of leaving one word out inadvertently the other day, which I just now supplied to you, is deeply offensive," the Kentucky Republican said Friday in Louisville.

CNN reports, "On Wednesday, at his weekly policy news conference at the US Capitol, McConnell was asked whether voters of color would be hurt if Democrats' election legislation did not pass, and he replied: "The concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans."

McConnell's explanation only made matters worse.

"He again misspoke on Friday and incorrectly stated what the omitted word had been and had to come back to the mics to clean it up again. At first he said he had meant to say the word "almost" before Americans in his comment. At the end of his news conference, he returned to the mics after consulting with an aide, who seemed to tell him he had misstated it again, clarifying he had meant to say the omitted word was "all.'"

And Republicans are telling us that our President is senile!

 

[Sandy Shanks]

Politico reports, "A draft executive order that then-President Donald Trump considered signing in December 2020 would've directed the Pentagon to seize voting machines in key states and hunt for evidence of fraud, according to a draft published by Politico.

"Trump never signed the executive order. But it would've directed the Secretary of Defense to "seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records" related to Trump's false claims of an international vote-rigging conspiracy to deprive him of a second term in the White House, according to the draft.

"It is unclear who wrote the draft order, which is full of legal language asserting presidential powers to seize the election equipment and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election."

On its surface this matter is superfluous. Many draft orders are written for the President, and many go unsigned.

The significance of this draft order is that it illustrates how far around the bend the President had gone.

In addition, the draft order illustrates the mood of the White House. Order "the Secretary of Defense to "seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records" related to Trump's false claims of an international vote-rigging conspiracy to deprive him of a second term in the White House."

It is surreal to imagine an order like that, signed or unsigned, being written in the White House.

But it was written in the Trump White House.

This is just the start of the evidence being compiled by the January Sixth committee as a consequence of the Supreme Court's rejection of the Trump lawsuit.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

California’s GDP is larger than Russia’s.

There are serious doubts Russia will invade Ukraine. Wars are very costly, and Ukraine has a respectable, battle hardened military. In addition, she will get military assistance from NATO. If she invades, the sanctions placed on Russia and Russian leaders by the NATO countries will likely be more costly than the war itself. Russia is bluffing to obtain security assurances.

I wrote that several days ago, and as matters are supposedly worsening, I stand by my statement.

ABC News reports, "As tensions rise in the standoff over Ukraine, the Department of Homeland Security has warned that the U.S. response to a possible Russian invasion could result in a cyberattack launched against the U.S. by the Russian government or its proxies."

CNN reports, "As many as 8,500 US troops have been put on heightened alert for a possible deployment to Eastern Europe as Russian troops mass on Ukraine's border, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday.

"US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued the prepare to deploy orders at the direction of President Joe Biden, the latest step the US has taken to prepare for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine that officials have warned could be imminent."

Significantly, "no final decision to deploy the troops had been made," CNN.

Of course, the State Department had to get into the act. NPR reports, "The State Department ordered the family members of staff at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, to leave the country, as fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine grow."

"Ukraine criticized the move to withdraw diplomats’ families as “premature, and a result of "excessive caution,'” NBC.

The fact that Ukraine is critical of the U.S. moves is highly significant. Apparently, Ukraine also has serious about a Russian invasion.

Because of my belief that Putin will not order an invasion, I have suspicions as to why the Biden administration is doing all this. Is it because they want to draw attention away from domestic problems such as inflation, the long suffering pandemic, legislative failures, and very low marks in the polls, as well as other issues?

Just asking.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

I got a real charge out of this when I read it.

CNN writes, "The White House pivot comes with Biden now under searing pressure from Republicans to show more strength in the confrontation and follows a week in which he was heavily criticized for hastily walked-back comments that played into the Russian leader's hopes of dividing NATO.

"Several Republicans accused the President of showing weakness and appeasing Putin in talk show appearances on Sunday. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo struck a jarring tone by describing the Kremlin strongman as a "very talented statesman" who knew how to use power. GOP critiques of Biden ignored the party's tolerance of ex-President Donald Trump's craven deference to the Russian leader and some came across as an attempt to use a national security crisis to damage Biden politically ahead of midterm elections in 2022 and the 2024 presidential election."

Now that's funny, and here's why. Republicans are counting on Americans forgetting Helsinki.

July 16, 2018, "Helsinki, Finland CNN US President Donald Trump, in a stunning rebuke of the US intelligence community, declined on Monday to endorse the US government’s assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, saying he doesn’t “see any reason why” Russia would be responsible.

"Instead, Trump – standing alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin – touted Putin’s vigorous denial.

“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said during a joint news conference after he spent about two hours in a room alone with Putin, save for a pair of interpreters."

No one, and I mean no one, knows what transpired during those two hours, not any of Trump's closest advisors, and certainly not the news media.

We only know, at great expense, Putin managed a campaign in 2016 to get Trump elected. Considering Trump's continued attack on America's free elections -- from Putin's viewpoint -- it was an effort that keeps on giving.

"Several Republicans accused the President of showing weakness and appeasing Putin."

Aw, man, that's rich.

Today, Trump is the acknowledged leader of the Republican Party.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

There are serious doubts Russia will invade Ukraine. Wars are very costly, and Ukraine has a respectable, battle hardened military. In addition, she will get military assistance from NATO. If she invades, the sanctions placed on Russia and Russian leaders by the NATO countries will likely be more costly than the war itself. Russia is bluffing to obtain security assurances.

The White House said a Russian invasion was "imminent," and American troops have been placed on high alert to deploy to Europe in a show of reassurance. President Biden told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin “continues to build forces along Ukraine’s border,” and an attack “would be the largest invasion since World War II. It would change the world.”

Not so fast, according to Ukraine's leadership.

ABC News reports, "Ukraine's leaders sought Tuesday to reassure the nation that an invasion from neighboring Russia was not imminent, even as they acknowledged the threat is real and received a shipment of U.S. military equipment to shore up their defenses.

However, as ABC points out, "Several rounds of high stakes diplomacy have failed to yield any breakthroughs, and tensions escalated further this week. NATO said it was bolstering its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region, and the U.S. ordered 8,500 troops on higher alert for potential deployment to Europe."

“We have no intention of putting American forces or NATO forces in Ukraine,” President Biden has said.

ABC continued, "Ukrainian authorities, however, have sought to project calm. Speaking in the second televised speech to the nation in as many days, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians not to panic."

"We are strong enough to keep everything under control and derail any attempts at destabilization,” he said.

"The decision by the U.S., Britain, Australia, Germany and Canada to withdraw some of their diplomats and dependents from Kyiv “doesn't necessarily signal an inevitable escalation and is part of a complex diplomatic game,” he said. ”We are working together with our partners as a single team."

"Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told parliament that “as of today, there are no grounds to believe” Russia will invade imminently."

All of this is getting curiouser and curiouser.

 

[Sandy Shanks]

This is an interesting aside to the current crisis involving Ukraine.

CNN reports, "An undersea pipeline set to deliver gas from Russia to Germany has become exactly what the two countries have always insisted it would never be: A weapon in a geopolitical crisis.

"The United States, United Kingdom, Ukraine and several European Union member states have fiercely opposed the pipeline ever since it was first announced in 2015, warning the project would boost Moscow's influence in Europe.

"The 1,200-km (750-mile) pipeline was completed in September and is now awaiting final certification. But even though the pipeline isn't operational yet, it has already acted as a huge wedge between the traditional allies at a time of huge tensions between Russia and the West.

"According to experts, that on its own is a win for Russian President Vladimir Putin."

 

[Sandy Shanks]

The leader of the Republican Party is an enigma when it comes to the Republican Party.

CNN explains. "Former President Donald Trump has been relentless in his attacks against Senate Minority Mitch McConnell, making Republicans uneasy as they battle for the majority in the November midterms.

"But McConnell doesn't see his clash with the former President emerging as much of an issue -- at least not yet (or so he says).

"In an interview with CNN, the GOP leader noted that he and Trump are on the same page in backing the same candidate in two of the hottest Senate races -- Nevada and Georgia. He has stayed neutral in Alabama where Trump endorsed a primary contender. And the Kentucky Republican believes that no matter which GOP candidate emerges from intraparty battles in Pennsylvania, North Carolina or Ohio, his party will be well-positioned to hold the GOP seats there."

Then there is the Big Lie.

CNN continued, "But one issue continues to percolate over the party: Whether the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, a lie that Trump continues to peddle and which a growing number of GOP candidates are embracing to curry favor with the former President.

To which McConnell responded, "It's important for candidates to remember we need to respect the results of our democratic process unless the court system demonstrates that some significant fraud occurred that would change the outcome."

CNN added, "The delicate dance underscores the stakes for the 2022 midterm elections. While Republicans have the most favorable environment in years, buoyed by President Joe Biden's sinking approval ratings, historical trends and voter anxiety over Covid-19 and the economy, the GOP knows full well that battle for control of the Senate remains on a knife's edge -- and that any single factor could upend a majority-making race."

And that single factor most certainly could be Trump and the events before, during, and after January Sixth, 2021.

As has become customary, there will be no response to the issues by the forum's Republicans. Their inability to defend their own party is truly remarkable.