Really Right

Yes, I said it and stay tuned because I mean it.  Volodymyre Zelensky or however the heck you spell that Scrabble winning name has finally done it.  He touched a nerve that cannot be untouched.  Crossed the red line that cannot be crossed back.  He has become an ungrateful prick.

This guy is a former actor or comedian or something. Frankly I do not care. He is not a leader; he is the definition of a bottom feeder.

He won election in 2019, as such he should have been well aware of Russia illegally annexing Crimea, and parts of the Donbass Region (Donetsk and Luhansk) back in 2014.  This is when Russia rolled through and Ukraine more or less just let them take the area’s they wanted.  No defense was raised, and little was ever done except international condemnation.  I’m sure Putin is still shaking about other countries calling it “an illegal occupation.” 

He knew full well Ukraine was not a member of NATO or the EU because Ukraine didn’t want to be.  They are and still remain one of the most corrupt nations in the world, just look it up for yourself.  If you think the; Biden’s, Clinton’s, or Trump’s are bad, get ready to be stunned, Ukraine is very corrupt.  Back to my point about NATO and EU, since they are not member nations, they are supposed to get no benefits.  Think of it like declining to buy healthcare insurance, then after finding out you have cancer, you think you can buy and get benefits.

Well for about a year Russia was stockpiling troops, vehicles, and tanks at the border with Ukraine.  For God only knows what reason, Ukraine didn’t seem to care or heed the warnings from the West about the build-up.  Then came Russia putting up makeshift hospitals and blood banks. Again, Ukraine didn’t react.  Finally in February of 2022, Russia attacked, and rolled through quite a bit of Ukrainian territory.

Once this occurred the supreme leader of Ukraine made daily demands of weapons and artillery from the West.  Bear in mind, Ukraine is not a member of NATO or the EU, and the alliance was not bound to help.  Keep in mind he ignored the Russian threats for about a year prior to the attack, it was all choreographed.  SAD!

Zelensky’s demands grew louder by the day, and as a result some NATO countries sent supplies.  Ukraine was fighting Russia with mostly the same military vehicles and the like.  The problem with NATO and EU supplying Ukraine with military might is the Ukrainians are not trained to use it, so the host country would need to send trainers (military advisors) as well.  As such, now NATO began to get involved in the war.

NATO countries Turkey, Britain, Germany, Canada, and the US all sent surplus weapons, drones, supplies etc.  Ukraine demanded more, and better ones to boot.  Turkey sent quite a few drones, and applicable bombs, the US sent Javelin anti-tank missiles, and NATO began to empty old stockpiles and it became a proxy war.  This still was not good enough as Ukraine continued to want more and more, also for free.  Now Ukraine has begun getting even more modern NATO weapons such as the US HIMARS (a very expensive mobile missile launcher.)  AKA a massive killing machine with very long range.  Poland sent the Krab, France has sent the Caesar, all of these are modern killing machines.  Oh, now that Ukraine has exhausted the ammo, they now are demanding more ammo.  Free gratis by the way.

Then came November 15^th of last year, a missile hit NATO country Poland, killing at least one.  Poland summoned Russia to essentially ask what happened, Ukraine claimed it was all the fault of Russia and for NATO to enact title 5.  Title 5 is NATO’s way of saying an attack on 1 is an attack on all, and basically God have mercy on the attacker’s soul because NATO will not.  Turns out it was a Ukrainian missile, yup.

Ukraine has also been employing Taliban type tactics of housing military under hospitals, or air defense inside a school…. don’t believe me?  Check out the news.  Sure, Russia has blown up homes and schools, but they also blew up the air defense system located right on top of it.  Of course, that won’t be reported here by the mainstream media as it doesn’t fit the narrative.  Also, the news about the wayward missile that hit Poland?  Oh yeah it is no longer discussed.

Now there is talk of a major Russian attack coming. Our intelligence has told Ukraine this for a couple weeks now, again Ukraine did nothing, and now they are demanding fighter jets, more modern weapons including our signature tank.  Free again; well because we hate Putin too.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of seeing this Zelenskyy guy all over the media/news all the time.  He never says thanks, demands all kinds of stuff.  Like the homeless guy you walk by each day, first you gave pocket change, now he wants dollar bills, then higher bills, now he wants lodging and food for free.  Where does it end?  How come they had no military?  Why did they never join the EU or NATO?  Nothing is good enough for this guy.  I feel bad for what is happening there but I’m sorry you aren’t in the alliance; we have no duty to help you.  Biden keeps sending more and more, and by the way did you see the report from the Pentagon that Ukraine cannot account for about a third of what we have sent them?  No breakdown of equipment or money, but they cannot account for it.  Corrupt nation anyone?

The disturbing thing about that last sentence is not the unaccounted for money, we have a bigger problem with that at home than abroad, it’s the equipment.  You see in NATO, countries share technology and in essence can buy weapons off one another.  All weaponry is equipped with a kill switch so if a plane, tank, or what not is taken down or disabled, the kill switch blows up the equipment.  Thus, you cannot copy the IP.  If Ukraine has lost NATO’s state of the art weapons who is to say China won’t copy the IP?

And we want to let Ukraine into NATO when this is over?

Think about it!

The Chief

I know, I know I’m whacking poor Speaker Kevin again, but I want to illustrate a point I failed to make in yesterday’s blog.  One thing that irritated the establishment GOP and the Left is Trump’s negotiation skills.  While many likely went out and bought Art of the Deal, you could have saved your money and just watched. 

Trump is a master at negotiating because he knows exactly what he needs and has his finger on what the other side wants.  He knows he can give the other side some while getting all of what he wants.  A perfect example is the stimulus checks, he insisted they have his name and signature on them.  The Democrats got a check, the GOP was fine with it (the bloggers here were not) but Trump got what he wanted.  Also look at the judges Trump got onto the court, he tried to negotiate, knew it was pointless and told Mitch McConnell via the media to “go nuclear.”  Suddenly Mitch turned conservative on Trump’s judges.  Bottom line, Trump knew how to negotiate and when to let someone else (media) do it for him.  Case in point, Lindsey Graham.  Either his balls finally dropped, or he realized getting called out in the media was going to burn him badly, suddenly he became a fire breathing conservative.

Contrast that to Kevin McCarthy, our new Speaker.  McCarthy strikes me as the awkward kid no one liked growing up, then he realized if he gained power folks would like him, and if they didn’t, he could wield his power and change their mind.  His negotiating skills bear that out.  During his time in the Assembly in Sacramento, and in Congress he always seemed to negotiate from behind.  This is the opposite of Trump.  McCarthy would start at zero and try to get to 50/50.  He would call that a win, to be fair Ryan, and Boehner before him operated the same way.  Boehner was known for chain smoking and crying, Ryan was known for being a policy wonk and speaking in robotic terms about GOP talking points.  It is because of these 3 “conservatives” that people like those on this blog have given up on the party.

In fairness to the 3 aforementioned leaders of the party, I will say again, what does the GOP actually stand for?  I heard my entire adult life, get us elected and we will; cut taxes, reduce spending, yada, yada, yada.  It never happens like that.  I’ve watched for 20 years the GOP giving the other side at least half of every deal, likely more, even when we had sizable majorities in the House and Senate. 

Even the Trump tax cuts had to be bulldozed through by the Trumpster himself, and even then, they are temporary.

I will go back to my point on McCarthy and my perception of his upbringing again.  McCarthy and other folks who negotiate like him are always trying to “buy friends” or in their case “buy votes.”  They do not want to be the mean guy who upsets anyone, so as a result I’ll give you what your side wants if you don’t say mean things about me.  Remember the chief goal of a politician is not making good on campaign promises, slogans, or other sayings, it’s about getting re-elected.  In the case of McCarthy, it’s about keeping a majority as to guarantee him the speakership.

Congrats to the Democrats on getting at least half of what they want.

The Chief

Happy New Year. To those of us in California, I hope you are weathering the storm.  It has been a crazy first couple of weeks for the national GOP.  Speaker McCarthy has already been a trash fire.  Here is my take on things.

First off, remember back to when Donald Trump was elected President.  First thing he said to Congress was “Let’s get a plan to repeal and replace the health law.”  Predictably they did nothing.  The law stands in place today.  I see this current Congress playing out the same way.

First, the Speaker vote was embarrassing on every level.  How does it take 15 votes to elevate the Minority Leader to Speaker when no one else even ran against him?  How can one be so tone deaf?  McCarthy had to have known the hard right, aka the real conservatives, were tired of the status quo. Why didn’t he reach out to this group and negotiate behind the scenes with them? He only had two months to work out a deal, but it seems he did nothing until after he started losing votes.

Did McCarthy think being a smug prick was wise toward this group?  They embarrassed him!  The items the Group of 20 or so asked for aren’t out of line at all.  A motion to dismiss the chair is never out of order, unless Madam Pelosi is Speaker, but McCarthy didn’t want to lose power.  The members of that Group of 20 who lost committee assignments wanting them back, this isn’t out of line either.  Term limits goes back to the old Contract with America circa 1994.  I’m not seeing much out of order here.  Put it up for a vote, when it goes nowhere…. say sorry, I tried but we must move on.

However somehow McCarthy was not the biggest clown in the circus these past couple weeks, that award goes to Sean Hannity of Fox News fame.  Full disclosure, I do not have cable. I watch bits and pieces while I work-out daily, about 20 minutes max then I turn something else on.  Hannity spent each night on his show trying to go to bat for McCarthy for reasons I do not understand. Hannity kept saying its “his turn.” 

(Editor’s Note: this is the same logic that gave us such great political luminaries as Bob Dole and John Kerry as frontrunners for President. It was their turn. Yuck. Also, this was actually McCarthy’s second turn to try for Speaker, but he dropped out last time after it went public that he was poking interns on the side. Somehow, I missed the apology tour where he got the wife to “stand by her man” as he faked contrition for getting caught.)

Hannity’s argument was that the Speaker’s job is reserved for only the powerful elite.  Hannity rolled out Newt Gingrich and a whole host of GOP establishment types to bully the Group of 20 to “just relent.”  He even went as far while interviewing Lauren Boebert, one of the Group of 20, to tell her “You and your colleagues should stop your circus.”  Little did Sean understand, no one else wanted the job of Speaker, they just wanted concessions on a couple of things.

Sean and Kevin got their way, but at a major price.  McCarthy is wounded. First why hold a vote when you will not win, then decide to hold a “vote-a-rama” whilst watching your vote totals keep dropping?  What is the definition of insanity? This shows an alarming lack of leadership. McCarty had to have known this would happen.  Then he, just like Hannity, chose to sit back and insult and make fun of that group.  This creates hurt that can backfire big time. Little does Hannity understand that Group of 20 is not a rubber stamp for McCarthy.  Worse yet, if they vote in blocks against it, his “agenda” goes nowhere.

Speaking of which, what is the GOP agenda?  I never heard a plan, let alone ideas.  Seems to me the plan is just block Biden and investigate Democrats. While that is admirable, fixing the issues plaguing this country would be a better start.  McCarthy and Hannity do not understand that voters want solutions not more inaction.  I am seeing nothing out of either.

In closing I will say this Hannity looks and comes off as a total clown.  I think he views himself as a kingmaker in the GOP, he is the opposite.  I actually used to like him. He held the Democrats to the fire and held the GOP accountable.  He does not hold the GOP accountable at all anymore.  His ardent support of McCarthy proves one of two things; either Fox executives are telling him what to say, or he just wants to remain relevant with the GOP leadership. 

It’s odd really. Hannity used to go on nightly monologues about lower spending, less regulations, lower taxes. Now he goes out of his way to elevate a CA moderate who at best likes to play nice with the other side. And folks wonder why no writer for this blog is registered as a Republican anymore?  Hannity blew all of his credibility; or maybe he was always this way? At his best, maybe he just mimicked Rush Limbaugh for his nightly talking points and now that Rush is gone he’s showing his true colors. Makes you wonder.

The Chief

PS Wanna bet Hannity called McCarthy a “good conservative” as the Speaker votes were being held?