Tag: Russia

Categories
Religion Russia Vladimir Putin WTF?!

Pat Robertson’s Take On Why Putin Invaded Ukraine Is Beyond Cringeworthy

According to televangelist Pat Robertson, the Russian invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin is all part of God’s plan and is meant to help bring about the end of the world.

The 91-year-old Robertson, who was supposedly retired, made his statement Monday on “The 700 Club,” and what he had to say left many shaking their heads, according to Media Matters:

“I think you can say, well, Putin’s out of his mind, and yes, maybe so. But at the same time he’s being compelled by God. He went into Ukraine, but that wasn’t his goal. His goal was to move against Israel, ultimately.”

Compelled by God? Since when does Putin listen to God or anyone else?

Robertson then added:

“God is getting ready to do something amazing, and that will be fulfilled. And what Putin is doing, by moving as he is, to set up Ukraine as a staging ground for one of the armies, and then across is Erdogan in Turkey, and you’ve got between them that little Dardanelles area. And it’s going to happen. So I say, that is what’s coming up. Is Putin crazy? Is he mad? Well, perhaps. But God says, I’m going to put hooks in your jaws and I’m going to draw you into this battle, whether you like it or not. And he’s being compelled, after the move into the Ukraine, he’s being compelled to move to get a land bridge, and then across the Dardanelles with Turkey, and watch what’s going to happen next. You read your Bible, because it’s coming to pass.”

Those of us who’ve read the Bible can tell you there is absolutely no mention of Russia. None whatsoever. Russia never comes up. Probably because it didn’t exist when the Bible was written.

That doesn’t keep people such as Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California from trying to make a square peg fit a round hole. Laurie writes:

But let’s come to the situation in the Ukraine. Many Bible scholars believe in the Ezekiel 38, as it speaks of Magog attacking Israel, that that is modern day Russia. I could go and talk about that for, you know, 30 minutes, why they believe that’s true. I happen to agree with them, but it says in Ezekiel that the Jewish people will be scattered and regathered in their land again.

We know, during World War II and after the Holocaust, Jewish people from around the planet began to return to their land. And Israel officially became a nation on May 14, 1948. So that part of their prophecy has been fulfilled. But then scripture says a nation from the extreme north of Israel will march on her called Gog and Magog.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that this isn’t the first time Robertson has predicted the end of the world is imminent, according to HuffPost:

Robertson, who turns 92 this month, is a serial doomsday cheerleader. In the 1970s, he predicted a 1982 ending. In the 1990s, he predicted a 2007 ending. In 2020, he predicted Donald Trump would win reelection ― “without question” ― and it would lead to the end. (In that case, it wasn’t a war that would end the world, as he is currently predicting, but something a lot more natural, like an asteroid.)

Someone needs to put Pat Robertson back in the crypt he crawled out of, because he has nothing valuable to say.

hy 

Categories
Donald Trump Foreign Policy The Trump Adminstration WTF?!

Delusional Trump Gets Slammed For Saying NATO Wouldn’t Exist If It Wasn’t For Him

Even though failed, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is known for being a habitual liar and malignant narcissist, something he claimed today has set off a wave of angry responses.

In a statement he had his spokesperson, Liz Harrington, post on Twitter (since the one-term ex-president remains banned from the platform), Trump boldly claimed that were it not for him, the NATO alliance wouldn’t exist:

“I hope everyone is able to remember that it was me, as President of the United States, that got delinquent NATO members to start paying their dues, which amounted to hundreds of billions of dollars. There would be no NATO if I didn’t act strongly and swiftly. Also, it was me that got Ukraine the very effective anti-tank busters (Javelins) when the previous Administration was sending blankets. Let History so note!”

Talk about revisionist history. The Donald is now claiming that NATO would have crumbled if he hadn’t been president, despite the fact that he signaled on several occasions it might be time to disband the alliance, which was formed in 1949.

In 2019, NBC News reported:

The Russian Orthodox church celebrated Christmas on Jan. 7, but President Vladimir Putin received his present from America a few days late. The destruction or weakening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been the goal of Soviet and Russian leaders since the organization’s creation following World War II. New reports that President Donald Trump repeatedly discussed with advisors his conviction that the United States should leave NATO represent nothing short of a triumph for Russian national security policy — even if nothing definitive has happened (yet).

Who would have benefitted from the U.S. leaving NATO? Putin and Russia. And had Trump done so, the Russian army would likely have already gobbled up every member of the alliance within a 1,000-mile radius of Moscow.

It didn’t take long before pushback to Trump’s bullshit began to appear on social media:

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1498317154361487360?s=20&t=QNnUED29AS87_aU6HmU2ZQ

When July 4 rolls around, will Trump claim the Declaration of Independence was his idea, too?

Categories
Donald Trump Foreign Policy Russia

WATCH Tom Cotton Get Called Out For Refusing To Condemn Trump’s Lavish Praise Of Vladimir Putin

Proving that he has the spine of a jellyfish, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) resolutely refused to condemn failed, one-term former President Donald Trump for his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, which he called “savvy” and “genius.”

ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked Cotton point blank on Sunday:

“Are you prepared to condemn that kind of rhetoric from the leader of your party?”

The Arkansas Republican replied:

“George, you’ve heard what I have to say about Vladimir Putin, that he is a ruthless dictator who has launched a naked unprovoked war of aggression. Thankfully, the Ukrainian army has anti-tank missiles that President Obama would not supply, that we did supply last time Republicans were in charge in Washington.”

Stephanopoulos pressed the senator again:

“Why can’t you condemn Donald Trump for those comments?”

Cotton waffled and refused to respond:

“If you want to know what Donald Trump thinks about Vladimir Putin or any other topic, I would encourage you to invite him on your show. I don’t speak on behalf of other politicians. They can speak for themselves.”

The ABC host asked again:

“You are a senior member of the Republican Party. Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. He said last night, again, suggested that he would be running for president. When Fox News asked if he had a message for Vladimir Putin, he said he has no message. Why can’t you condemn that? I feel quite confident that if Barack Obama or Joe Biden said something like that, you’d be first in line to criticize them.”

Cotton:

“Again, George, if you want to talk to the former president about his views or his message, you can have him on your show. My message to Vladimir Putin is quite clear. He needs to leave Ukraine unless he wants to face moms and teenagers with Molotov cocktails and grandmothers and grandfathers with AK-47s for years to come.”

Even though Trump is weaker politically than he’s ever been, most Republicans still refuse to cross him. That alone tells you the party is nothing more than a collection of gutless sycophants. Every last one of them needs to be voted out of office.

Here’s the video from ABC News:

 

Categories
Foreign Policy Russia

Former CIA Chief: Putin’s Invasion Of Ukraine Has Backfired Badly On Him

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has bogged down as Russian troops attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, according to The Telegraph:

Units in Russia’s vast army have got lost in Ukraine and some have run out of fuel as poor planning and fierce Ukrainian resistance appears to be hampering Vladimir Putin’s plans for a lightning invasion.

Russian forces seemed to be bogged down with the war a little over 48 hours old, as more Ukrainians took up arms and the West sent millions of pounds worth of new lethal weapons.

Russia on Saturday appeared to have sent secondary units to some areas, possibly in a bid to relieve exhausted troops and energise the advance on Kyiv.

These latest developments beg the question of whether Russian President Vladimir Putin has overplayed his hand and is now facing a protracted war and occupation that is already sparking large anti-war protests at home.

Steve Hall, who served as CIA Chief of Russia Operations, says he believes the Ukraine invasion has already backfired badly on Putin, telling CNN host Jim Acosta:

“It really is amazing, and it is almost like you would love to somehow have a phone call with Putin, and say really? Is this how you thought it was going to work? You spent most of the past decade trying to split the west and you are doing a good job of it, not just here in the United States, but split the NATO allies. There was a lot of discontent. People were talking about how much NATO was spending. Is it still relevant and all of that. All of a sudden you have this amazing unification.”

Hall added:

“The same thing inside of Ukraine. There was this sort of cultural similarity… and now, what he has done is what I don’t think any other Soviet leader or Russian leader could possibly have ever hoped to do, which is alienate Ukraine, which is a really significant country for Russia, so initially, it appears to have backfired. We have a long way to go on the fighting part of it. There is still a lot of Russian soldiers that are on Ukrainian territory. We’ll have to see how it works out. In terms where he wanted to end up geopolitically, it seems like the opposite of what he wanted.”

If Putin thought the Ukrainian people would roll over when they saw Russian troops, he was mistaken. Now he has what seems to be an endless war on his hands and unity among the NATO nations. He’s also facing crippling economic sanctions that threaten to cause astronomical inflation and bring the Russian economy to a standstill. That will only increase the anti-war protests, which will further weaken Putin.

It’s impossible to know exactly what Putin’s endgame is at this point, but it certainly appears he’s in one hell of a quagmire with no end in sight.

Categories
Fox News Media in America

Feds Investigating American Media Companies For Possible Ties To Russia

As right-wing media outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, and One American News continue to push what many consider to be a pro-Russian and anti-American message in their broadcasts, the federal government is now making a concerted effort to determine if any of them have financial ties to Russia.

According to CNN, the investigation comes just days after punishing new sanctions were imposed by the Biden administration on Russia and even Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24:

Conducted jointly with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the FCC review covers more than just media entities regulated by the FCC’s broadcast licensing program, the person said. It also covers a vast array of telecommunications and infrastructure companies, including wireless providers, submarine cable operators and foreign telecom services that connect US-international phone calls, the person said.

It is not yet clear how many companies with ties to Russia the review may uncover, the person said, describing the initiative as a “top-to-bottom” effort to “identify the universe of licensees that have Russian ownership that should be on our radar.”

Fox News hosts have been extremely vocal in their support of the Kremlin, suggesting that the reason Putin invaded Ukraine is because he sensed “weakness” from President Joe Biden.

Here’s some of what right-wing media has broadcast regarding the Russian move on Ukraine:

Tucker Carlson: “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity?”

“They have a president, and we don’t,” former Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani said on the conservative network Newsmax on Wednesday night. “Putin is prepared for this. Our incompetent [president] isn’t prepared for it.”

“How would you have avoided this conflict?” (Fox News host Laura) Ingraham asked Trump. The 45th president talked up his close relationship with Putin and decried the Biden administration’s “weakness.”

Of course, you can expect that Fox, Newsmax, and others will whine and suggest they’re being targeted because they present a conservative viewpoint. But if they have nothing to hide, there’s no need for them to be worried.

However, if any network of whatever political stripe does have financial ties to Russia, they need to be punished in the harshest manner possible.