>>17695838

Narrative Failure Imminent?

Disclose.tv / @disclosetv

10/16/2022 12:32:07

Twitter: 1581684424915431424

JUST IN -Iranian President Raisi blames Biden for "inciting chaos and terror" in Iran — state broadcaster IRNA.

https://qagg.news/?read=O93555

Qrumb #66 review - now w/ memes

21 views ○ Oct 13, 2022 at 06:49 pm

https://tora3.com/embed/256ec69db37e93fcf0ceacf34094951a

12 mins

this is a good one…

Catherine Herridge / @CBS_Herridge

10/16/2022 11:28:33

Twitter: 1581668426879496192

New: 3 house republicans renew request transcribed interview w/fmr. FBI agent Thibault after WB claims he took “official actions for political reasons.” Continues, “Your refusal to testify is curious in light of your earlier public statement that you ‘welcome any investigation.’===

https://qagg.news/?read=O93547

@CBSNews asked Thibault rep for comment/response.

Complications of the Ukraine War

Unless we learn to respect the complexity of the situation, we risk turning it into something more dangerous.

By Christopher Caldwell, Claremont Review of Books

The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on October 4, 2022, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on the topic of Russia.

According to what we hear from the White House and from the television networks, the issues at stake in the Ukraine War are simple. They concern the evil of Vladimir Putin, who woke up one morning and chose, whether out of sadism or insanity, to wreak unspeakable violence on his neighbors. Putin’s actions are described as an “unprovoked invasion” of a noble democracy by a corrupt autocracy. How we ought to respond is assumed to be a no-brainer. The United States has pledged vast quantities of its deadliest weaponry, along with aid that is likely to run into the hundreds of billions of dollars, and has brought large parts of the world economy — particularly in Europe — to a standstill.

Now, whenever people in power tell you something is a no-brainer, there’s a good chance that it’s a brainer. And the Ukraine War is more complicated than we’ve been led to assume.

There are reasons why the U.S. might want to project power into the Black Sea region. But we must not ignore that the politics of the region are extraordinarily complex, that the Ukraine conflict is full of paradoxes and optical illusions, and that the theater we are entering has been, over the past 150 years, the single most violent corner of the planet. And unless we learn to respect the complexity of the situation, we risk turning it into something more dangerous, both for Europeans and for ourselves.

>>17695914

Enter the United States

With the end of Communism, Ukraine was beset by two big problems. First, it was corrupt. It was run by post-Communist oligarchs in a way that very much resembled Russia. In many ways Ukraine was worse off. In Russia, Putin — whatever else you may think of him — was at least able to rebuff those oligarchs who sought direct political control.

The second problem for Ukraine was that it was divided between a generally Russophile east and a generally Russophobe west. It was so divided, in fact, that Samuel Huntington devoted a long section in his book The Clash of Civilizations to the border between the two sections. But Huntington did not think that the line dividing them was civilizational. He wrote: “If civilization is what counts … the likelihood of violence between Ukrainians and Russians should be low. They are two Slavic, primarily Orthodox peoples who have had close relationships with each other for centuries.”

The U.S. didn’t see things that way. It backed the Russophobe western Ukrainian side against the Russophile eastern Ukrainian side. This orientation took hold in the Bush administration, during the democracy promotion blitz that accompanied the Iraq War. And in 2004, the U.S. intervened in a crooked election, helping to sponsor and coordinate the so-called Orange Revolution. But the pivotal moment — the moment when the region began to tip into violence — came in early 2014 under more dubious circumstances.

The previous year, Ukrainian diplomats had negotiated a free trade deal with the European Union that would have cut out Russia. Russia then outbid the EU with its own deal — which included $15 billion in incentives for Ukraine and continued naval basing rights for Russia — and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich signed it. U.S.-backed protests broke out in Kiev’s main square, the Maidan, and in cities across the country. According to a speech made at the time by a State Department official, the U.S. had by that time spent $5 billion to influence Ukraine’s politics. And, considering that Ukraine then had a lower per capita income than Cuba, Jamaica, or Namibia, $5 billion could buy a lot of influence. An armory was raided, shootings near the Maidan left dozens of protesters dead, Yanukovich fled the country, and the U.S. played the central role in setting up a successor government.

That the U.S. would meddle with Russia’s vital interests this way created problems almost immediately. Like every Ukrainian government since the end of the Cold War, Yanukovich’s government was corrupt. Unlike many of them, it was legitimately elected, and the U.S. helped to overthrow it.

That was the point when Russia invaded Crimea. “Took over” might be a better description, because there was no loss of life due to the military operation. You can call this a brutal and unprovoked invasion or a reaction to American crowding. We cannot read Putin’s mind. But it would not be evidence of insincerity or insanity if Putin considered the Ukrainian coup — or uprising — a threat. That is what any military historian of the region would have said.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the strategist H.J. Mackinder called the expanse north of the Black Sea the “Geographical Pivot of History.” Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as Secretary of State in the Carter administration, used the same “pivot” metaphor to describe Ukraine in his post–Cold War book The Grand Chessboard. “Without Ukraine,” Brzezinski wrote, “Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.”

The danger to Russia in 2014 was not just the loss of Russia’s largest naval base. It was that that naval base would be acquired by the world’s most sophisticated military power — a power that had shown itself to be Russia’s enemy and that would now sit, with all its weaponry, at Russia’s gateway to the world. When Russians describe Ukrainian membership in NATO as a mortal threat to their country’s survival, they are being sincere.

American and European leaders, although they deplored the Russian occupation of Crimea, seemed to understand that a Russia-controlled Crimea created a more stable equilibrium — and was more to the natives’ liking — than a Ukraine-controlled Crimea. President Obama mostly let sleeping dogs lie. So did President Trump. But they also made large transfers of advanced weaponry and military know-how to Ukraine. As a result, over time, a failed state defended by a ramshackle collection of oligarch-sponsored militias turned into the third-largest army in Europe — right behind Turkey and Russia — with a quarter million men under arms.

>>17695914

Then, on November 10 last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed a “strategic partnership” with Ukraine. It not only committed the U.S. to Ukraine’s full integration into NATO but also stressed Ukraine’s claim to Crimea. This was hubris. Now the Black Sea region’s problems, in all their complexity, risk being thrown into our lap.

Our Problems in Ukraine

When Russia invaded, the U.S. stood by its potential future ally, but without much sense of proportion and seemingly without much attention to the stakes. Let us conclude by discussing the complex military, economic, and political problems we face in dealing with the Ukraine War.

Military Problems

I’m not competent to predict who is going to win this war. But given that Russia is much more powerful than Ukraine — both economically and militarily — the need for U.S. assistance will be immense and indefinite, no matter the war’s outcome. Keeping Ukraine in this war has already come at a high cost in weapons for the U.S. and a high cost in lives for Ukraine.

The U.S. is not just supporting Ukraine. It is fighting a war in Ukraine’s name. From early in the war, we have provided targeting information for drone strikes on Russian generals and missile attacks on Russian ships. Since this summer, the U.S. has been providing Ukraine with M142 HIMARS computer-targeted rocket artillery systems. Ukrainians may still be doing most of the dying, but the U.S. is responsible for most of the damage wrought on Russia’s troops.

This is a war with no natural stopping point. One can easily imagine scenarios in which winning might be more costly than losing. Should the U.S. pursue the war to ultimate victory, taking Crimea and admitting an ambivalent Ukraine into NATO, it will require a Korea-level military buildup to hold the ground taken. It will also change the West. The U.S. — for the first time — will have expanded NATO by conquest, occupying territories (Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine) that don’t want it there.

Economic Problems

American policymakers have launched an unprecedented type of economic warfare against Russia. They expect it to be just as effective as battlefield warfare, but to generate none of the hard feelings. At American urging, Russia has been cut off from the private-but-universal Brussels-based SWIFT system, which is used for international financial transfers. And the U.S. has frozen the hard currency reserves of the Russian central bank — roughly $284 billion.

Long-term, these actions carry risks for the U.S. Our economic power — particularly the dollar’s status as a reserve currency, which permits us to sustain deficits that would bankrupt others — depends on our carrying out our fiduciary responsibilities to international institutions, remembering that the money we are managing is not ours. If you are a banker who pockets his depositors’ money, those depositors will look for another bank. The danger to the United States is that not only Russia, but also China and India, will set up alternative systems through which to move their money.

>>17695914

Political Problems

Finally, we should have learned from the latter stages of George W. Bush’s administration that it is hard to build a forceful foreign policy on top of a wobbly domestic mandate. This is especially true of the Biden administration, which seems unable to distinguish between domestic policy and foreign policy. At the one-month mark after the Russian invasion, for instance, the White House sent a message in which President Biden proclaimed his commitment to those affected by the Russian invasion — “especially vulnerable populations such as women, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons, and persons with disabilities.”

President Biden seems to view Russia’s conflict with Ukraine as one of autocracy versus democracy — the same framework he used to describe “MAGA Republicans” in his militaristically choreographed Philadelphia speech in early September.

We should not overestimate how much Americans know or care about Russia and Ukraine. In August, the Pew Center published a study listing the top 15 issues motivating voters in the 2022 elections. Here are those issues in order: the economy, guns, crime, health care, voting rules, education, the Supreme Court, abortion, energy policy, immigration, foreign policy, big government, climate change, race and ethnicity, and the coronavirus. Ukraine doesn’t appear on the list, and generic foreign policy didn’t make the top ten. That doesn’t look like a level of voter buy-in sufficient for running such big economic and military risks.

A dispassionate and honest discussion of Vladimir Putin’s conduct through the years would find much to criticize. Unfortunately, Putin’s name has been dragged into American politics primarily for the purpose of discrediting the presidency of Donald Trump. And the main thing Americans were told about Putin — that he and Trump colluded to steal the 2016 U.S. election — turned out to have no basis in fact. Since then, Congress has become as much an investigative body as a legislative chamber. Should Republicans end up with a majority in one or both houses of Congress next January, it would not be surprising if they investigated the allegation that President Biden’s family enriched itself by trading on his name with corrupt foreign elites — most prominently those in Ukraine.

The largest problem America faces is distrust, both at home and abroad. Thus far the war’s most important world-historical surprise has been the failure of the U.S. to rally a critical mass of what it used to call “the world community” to punish Russia’s contestation of the American-led world order. In the past few decades the U.S. has developed a method of intervention against those it considers ideological adversaries. The U.S. first expresses moral misgivings about a country and then tries to rally other countries to pressure it economically and to isolate it until it relents. This time, India and China did not join us in isolating Russia. It seems they fear that this same machinery can easily be cranked up against them if they’re not careful. And in fact it is being cranked up against China.

Another factor is surely that, after the Iraq War, other countries have less trust in the judgment of the U.S. as to which territories are likely to be suitable candidates for “spreading democracy.”

Finally, the big transformation that has been predicted for a generation now — that power would shift from the U.S. and Europe to Asia and other places — is now measurably underway. In the 1990s, between the Gulf War and the Iraq War, the U.S. and its Western European allies controlled 70 percent of world GDP; that number is now 43 percent. The West still does relatively well, but not so well that it can count on the rest of the world to rally behind it automatically. Whether in victory or defeat, Americans may be about to discover that you cannot run a twentieth century foreign policy with a twenty-first century society.

https://patriotpost.us/opinion/92078-complications-of-the-ukraine-war-2022-10-15

>>17695914, >>17695918, >>17695919, >>17695920 Complications of the Ukraine War

for notables

Raphael Warnock: Money-Grubbing ‘Man of God’

The hard-left Georgia senator and pastor is making money hand over fist while his church evicts poor tenants from its properties.

When Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock launched his U.S. Senate campaign in 2020, the media carefully built his image on the idea that he’s a man in touch with the working class and a servant of God interested in representing the downtrodden on Capitol Hill.

Then again, when Democrats like Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Stacey Abrams just about tripped over themselves to endorse Warnock, we knew something was up.

Case in point: Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was once the spiritual home of Martin Luther King Jr. and which now employs Warnock as a pastor, pays him a generous annual salary of more than $120,000 and a housing allowance of $7,417 per month. That’s a lot of take-home pay for a humble pastor, and that’s above and beyond the $164,000 he earns as a U.S. senator and the quarter-million he received as an advance for his book.

There’s nothing wrong with earning a good living, but it seems that the love of money has corrupted the Reverend Raphael Warnock.

How so? The Washington Free Beacon reports that Ebenezer’s business partner, Columbia Residential, filed eviction lawsuits against tenants of Columbia Tower apartments during the coronavirus pandemic. Some residents in receipt of eviction notices owed as little as $125. Seems a bit harsh, no? And especially for a business so closely tied to such a champion of the working class and the downtrodden.

Making matters even more complicated, the CEO of Columbia Residential donated more than $14,000 to Warnock’s Senate campaign. If you think the relationship between a pastor-turned-senator, a famous church, the CEO of a company, and a building that receives public fundings seems problematic, even borderline unethical, you’re not alone.

Earlier this week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the following: “A charity arm of Ebenezer Baptist Church should face an IRS audit for allegedly concealing its ownership in an Atlanta apartment building which houses chronically homeless and mentally ill residents, according to a complaint” filed by a watchdog group called the National Legal and Policy Center.

Given that the NLPC “promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education, and legal action,” we’re not surprised that the organization is calling for an IRS investigation.

The NLPC complaint details the apparent relationships between Ebenezer, two nonprofits called Ebenezer Building Foundation and MLK Village Corporation, and the aforementioned for-profit called Columbia Residential, which owns the remaining 1% and manages the building. In addition, the complaint “also asks the IRS to find out where some $200,000 in rental income went based on discrepancies in the Foundation’s financial statements.”

Nor are we surprised that Warnock’s opponent in next month’s election, Republican Herschel Walker, is weighing in on the controversy, especially given that he and Warnock are in a statistical dead-heat. “I have never known a preacher that likes abortion even after birth, won’t pay his child support, and evicts poor people to the street,” tweeted Walker. “I will pay the $4,500 in past due rents listed in this news article to keep Reverend Warnock from evicting these people.”

It was a powerful if opportunistic punch from Walker, the former football star who has also been beset by credibility and character issues of late. That’s why his focus should remain on Warnock, his complete lack of compassion for people struggling to make ends meet, and the hypocrisy of a man who neglected the very people he promised to help.

Warnock’s ex-wife, Ouleye Ndoye, ought to know. She told the media back in 2020 that Warnock’s a “great actor” after accusing him of running a car over her foot during a disagreement. She added, “He is phenomenal at putting on a really good show.” Ndoye claimed in court documents earlier this year that Warnock didn’t follow through with promised childcare payments, leaving her financially strapped.

Political campaigns are often full of “gotcha” moments, and there have been plenty to go around on both sides in this one — especially when it comes to the candidates’ personal lives. But beyond this, Warnock’s hard-left policy positions seem far out of step with everyday Georgians. And the more we learn about Warnock both personally and financially, the more he seems like a corrupt, self-serving, and even heartless individual.

Whether enough Georgians will see what we’re seeing is anyone’s guess. But if they do, Heisman Trophy-winning Herschel Walker will flip a crucial seat in the Republicans’ fight to take back the U.S. Senate from Joe Biden’s Democrats.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/92056-raphael-warnock-money-grubbing-man-of-god-2022-10-14

Wounds of a Friend

Confrontation is never easy. But if I see my brother stumble, and I fail to come to his side, am I really showing Christian love?

“You’re talking down to Lynne!” An awkward silence followed. No one likes being called out for sinful behavior, especially when you’ve been a Christian since 1976 (I’m carbon-dating myself here — that’s what you do with fossils). Roger (my twin brother) had come to Houston to get a second opinion on prostate cancer treatment. He took advantage of a brief window where it was just the two of us to lovingly confront me. My mind was racing, attempting to justify my actions, knowing in my heart that there was no justification. I had to swallow my pride and thank him for bringing it to my attention. Later I asked Lynne for forgiveness and told her to challenge me if I ever did that again.

Proverbs tells us, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart” (21:2, ESV). Some weeks ago, my men’s group was challenged to identify our fatal flaw. It’s a “fatal flaw” because we never see it, and it takes someone else pointing it out to us. That’s because “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). The King James says, “Who can know it?” That’s why God calls us to fellowship with other godly men. We are stronger together than alone.

In the movie “Gladiator,” Maximus (Russell Crowe) called the gladiators to stand together when they entered the Coliseum. A few didn’t listen and were easily picked off. The rest quickly learned the value of standing together. Men standing shoulder to shoulder, shields locked together, can stand against any spiritual assault of the enemy.

That’s how it should be with us because our fatal flaw is a blind side that the adversary of our soul will seek to exploit. Satan would love to drive a wedge in our marriages and undermine our testimonies to those who know us. Scripture tells us to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15), and because my brother is also my spiritual brother, he lovingly confronted me. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (I Corinthians 13:4-8). The King James says that “love never fails.” I would qualify that by saying God’s love never fails, and when we are walking in the realm of the Spirit, it is God’s love working through us.

My brother loved me enough to confront me on my sin (let’s be honest, that’s what it was). Proverbs gives some insight into this matter: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (27:6). “Whoever rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with his tongue” (28:23). Humility is a prerequisite on both sides of the exchange. In our church, fighting for relationship is an important principle, one sadly missing in the broader Church today.

Confrontation is never easy. Most of the time I’d avoid it if I could. But if I see my brother stumble, and I fail to come to his side, am I really showing Christian love? When I asked Lynne what my fatal flaw was, she wasn’t sure where to start. She wanted to “think about it,” meaning she wasn’t sure if I really wanted to hear the answer (it’s not like there was only “one” flaw). I’m to blame for that. Humility and transparency are required if true Christian brotherhood is to be effective.

Even Jesus wanted His three closest disciples — Peter, James, and John — to watch with Him in prayer at Gethsemane. They failed Him miserably. Jesus had told them that “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). I don’t want to fail my brothers, nor do I want them to fail me. I hate seeing the destruction that Satan has brought into the midst of the Church. Through our obedience, we can watch God destroy the works of the enemy. What say ye, Man of Valor?

https://patriotpost.us/articles/92055-wounds-of-a-friend-2022-10-14

Donald J. Trump

2m

The grossly incompetent former Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, who was an even worse V.P. candidate with RINO Mitt Romney, and a man who couldn’t run for “dog catcher” in the Great State of Wisconsin (he quit), did everything possible to stop the construction of the Southern Border Wall. He was almost as bad as the Dems, but I got it done, including certain additions, anyway. It made a big difference, and is a primary reason we set record lows on illegals pouring in. Dopey Paul was bad news!

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109181200105620085

End chan is down

Ghislaine Maxwell Breaks Silence On Her ‘Special Friendship’ With Bill Clinton

Photo of Carmine Sabia Carmine SabiaOctober 16, 2022

Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex trafficker, has broken her silence on those who were close friends.

Among those friends was former President Bill Clinton whose friendship she described as “special,” she said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Mail.

“It was a special friendship, which continued over the years,” she said of her friendship with the former president.

“We had lots in common. I feel bad that he is another victim, only because of his association with Jeffrey. I understand that he, like others, can no longer consider me as a friend.

“I said in open court in my statement that meeting Jeffrey Epstein was the greatest mistake of my life,” she said.

“And obviously, if I could go back today and I would avoid meeting him, and I would say that would be the greatest mistake I’ve ever made, and I would make different choices for where I would work. Obviously,” she said.

“I think there are many women who can identify with my story. Many have either fallen in love with or had relationships with men that in hindsight they look back on and say ‘What was I thinking?’ I imagine there’s not a woman on the planet who would not think that about one or other of their boyfriends,” the former socialite said.

“There were things to mention here about him that I cannot discuss because of the appeal, but I can’t say anything more than that.

“All this is a fictional version of me.

“It has been created to fit the storyline. It has nothing to do with who I am.

“So many people contribute to the fake, created version, like a Disney character, the Wicked Witch if you will,” she said, before going on to say she is frightened of what will happen to her in prison.

“Jails are dangerous.

“And, actually, given what I have seen and witnessed in jail – guards selling drugs and being inappropriate in every way, I have seen all those things and therefore feel prisons are not safe spaces.

“Until you’ve been here, you really don’t understand how appalling it is.

“I would tell anybody to do everything possible to avoid coming to jail,” she said.

She also spoke about her former friendship with Prince Andrew.

“Yes, I follow what is happening to him,” she said. “He is paying such a price for the association with Jeffrey Epstein. I care about him, and I feel so bad for him.

“There are many people who have been impacted by this story who have been canceled, some friends of mine who never even met Epstein lost their jobs. People who literally had nothing to do with him whatsoever have been canceled.

“So I think for all those people, including some of them who never met him, it’s been a very heavy price that has been paid due to the cancel culture. So, you know, from that perspective, I think it’s been very difficult for a lot of people,” the former socialite said.

“I accept that this friendship could not survive my conviction.

“I don’t have an expectation. People who I have been friends with – and very close friends with – whoever they may be, well, I can’t think about what they will want to do or not do. I can only control what I do,” she said.

Earlier this month it was reported that Maxwell, may be getting set to talk and that could mean a world of issues for some famous people.

“Bill Clinton should be sweating bullets,” reporter Kari Donavan said for The Republic Brief.

“It has long been suspected by court watchers that a notorious list of clientele for Epstein, allegedly including Clinton, would eventually emerge, and they may be right, according to investigators and lawyers who have followed the complex case.

“The shocking warning came out of a new documentary that investigated the role of Britain’s Prince Andrew and his close ties as a client of Epstein’s, when the comments were made that there could be further revelations about other clients of Epstein’s because his madame- Ghislaine Maxwell – who was recently convicted for crimes associated with Epstein has until June 2023 to cooperate with prosecutors, in possibly overturning more names,” she said.

In a new documentary, “Prince Andrew Banished,’ Florida-based attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represents some of Epstein’s victims, said that Maxwell has until 2023 to cooperate with authorities to get her free from jail quicker.

https://conservativebrief.com/ghislaine-maxwell-breaks-silence-on-her-special-friendship-with-bill-clinton-67408/

>>17695946

cant seem to find all the gizliar maxhell memes

>>17695949

lurk moar, moran