Tag: Ukraine

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Fox News Lies Joe Biden Russia WTF?!

Fox Host Jesse Watters: The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine Was ‘Engineered’ By Biden As ‘A Distraction’

Proving yet again that there is absolutely no depth to which Fox News will stoop in an effort to undermine President Joe Biden and the NATO alliance, Fox host Jesse Watters speculated Tuesday evening that the invasion of Ukraine might have been “engineered” by the president as a “distraction.”

Speaking with  John Paul Mac Isaac, the Delaware computer shop owner who handed Hunter Biden’s laptop to the FBI in an effort to gain a few minutes of fame for himself, Watters asked:

“Seeing all the news about Ukraine and knowing the laptop and all the things you’ve seen and heard over the last couple years, what are your thoughts on the current situation?”

Isaac replied:

“It’s hard to tell. I mean, last time Ukraine was in this, or close to this situation, Joe Biden was in charge. And last time, Hunter Biden profited greatly off of his dad’s involvement in Ukraine. I think this time Joe needs a distraction more than he needs money.”

Watters:

“Do you think this was engineered as a distraction, or do you think this just kind of happened because of Vlad and this rush to war?”

To that, Isaac responded:

“Well, I would hate to think that the Ukrainian people would have to suffer the way they’re suffering now because Joe needed a distraction.”

Yeah, you’d hate to think it, but you said it anyhow because you want to make certain you’re invited back on Fox News again, right, Mr. Isaac.

On a side note, what in the hell is up with the hat Isaac is wearing? Is that thing supposed to give him credibility? If so, it does exactly the opposite.

No matter the issue — even when it’s a matter of national security — you can always count on Fox to choose politics over what’s in the best interest of the United States.

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Religion Russia

Evangelicals Hoping Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine Will Put ‘The Rapture’ Closer To Reality

As the majority of us sit and watch in horror as the Russian military inflicts damage on the nation of Ukraine to satisfy the deluded fantasy of Vladimir Putin that he can rebuild the Russian empire and once again be a world power, some evangelical Christians are actually hoping that the war in Ukraine might help speed up the end of the world and the Rapture.

In case you’re not familiar with the concept of the Rapture, here’s what it involves, according to Britannica:

In Christianity, the eschatological (concerned with the last things and Endtime) belief that both living and dead believers will ascend into heaven to meet Jesus Christ at the Second Coming (Parousia).

Is the Rapture found anywhere in the Bible? No. Not even once is the word used. Jesus himself never uttered the word, either.

Yet despite that, many Christian ministers are preaching that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be the beginning of the end. Of course, they said that same thing during both Gulf Wars and after the attacks on 9/11.

The Associated Press notes that Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas (a megachurch with over 13,000 members) is one of those who believes we could be living in the last days:

“Why does God permit evil like this to continue? …. Are we near Armageddon and the end of the world?”

“We are living in the last days. We’ve been living in the last days for the last 2000 years. We don’t know, is this the end? Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?”

Wow! Nice gobbledygook, Pastor Jeffress. You managed to say so much while actually saying nothing at all other than, Hell if I know.

There’s also the website raptureready.com, which rates the chances that the Rapture is near:

Their “Rapture Index,” — on which any reading above 160 means “Fasten your seatbelts” — was raised this week to 187, close to its record high of 189 in 2016.

Or perhaps you prefer the opinion of Pat Robertson, who came out of retirement just so he could take advantage of the Russian move on Ukraine and proclaim:

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

“It’s all there. And God is getting ready to do something amazing and that will be fulfilled.”

Hogwash, according to Rev. Rodney Kennedy, a Baptist pastor, who chides evangelical leaders that insist on trying to use world events for their own purposes:

“This evangelical insistence of involving the sovereignty of God in the evil of Putin borders on the absurd.

“Rapture believers fail to understand that if they assist in bringing about world war, there will be no Superman Jesus appearing to ‘snatch’ all true believers into the safety of the clouds

“The rapture is an illusion; the rupture caused by Putin is a deadly reality.”

As is so often the case, the real reason for sermons about how Russia is supposedly fulfilling prophecy is to get people in church and opening their wallets. It’s fear and grifting. Worst of all, it’s done in the name of God.

 

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Fox News Media in America Russia

WATCH Fox’s Jennifer Griffin Call Out Sean Hannity For Spreading Russian Propaganda

Fox News host Sean Hannity got fact-checked to his face Wednesday evening when he tried to spread Russian propaganda about the United States having built “biowarfare” labs in Ukraine, which forced Vladimir Putin to launch an invasion of the country.

Specifically, Hannity referenced Soviet-era bioweapons research labs that were constructed in Ukraine, remarking that “we never got clarity” about what became of those facilities:

“Jennifer, but we do know that Victoria Nuland admitted that labs existed. What exactly they’re for, we never got clarity on, correct?”

That’s when Fox Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin called Hannity out for being duped into parroting Russian lies:

“Well, we do have clarity, I have a fact sheet—that’s what I was just reading—from the Pentagon. It is a long program that has existed where the Pentagon has partnered with these biolabs. These were Soviet-era labs that—remember the Nunn-Lugar Bill and trying to deal with proliferation when the Soviet Union ended—that is part of this effort to try to clean up those Soviet-era labs and make sure that nothing escapes from those labs. And so the U.S. has been very open about its involvement there with that. But what Russia does is they take that information, distort it, turn it around, and turn it into disinformation, and that is what has U.S. government officials concerned.”

This is just the most recent instance of Griffin pushing back on lies being broadcast by Fox hosts who seem bound and determined to take the side of Russia, ABC News notes:

Griffin, who has reported for Fox News Channel since 1996, has attracted attention over the past two weeks as she has publicly corrected or contradicted several Fox analysts and hosts on the air about the crisis in Ukraine. When Tucker Carlson suggested this week that some reporters are acting as flacks for the Pentagon, some interpreted that as a criticism of his colleague.

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Donald Trump Foreign Policy Russia Vladimir Putin

Historian Says Putin Misjudged The Resolve Of NATO On Ukraine Because ‘He Was Listening To Trump’

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine isn’t going well, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian says that’s because he listened to Trump and thought NATO didn’t have the resolve to stand up to him.

Historian Anne Applebaum said Wednesday on CNN that Putin has long wanted to weaken the NATO alliance, and Trump’s feckless actions and policies led him to believe the Western powers wouldn’t be willing to defend Ukraine:

“Yes, I think Putin was listening to Trump’s denunciations of NATO and he imagined NATO was permanently divided and wouldn’t be able to unite again. I think he didn’t count on what the sight of tanks rolling across a European country would do to people in Germany, people in Italy, people in France, people in Europe, and of course people in the United States.”

However, NATO is now being tested, Applebaum noted, and the alliance is proving to be more than equal to the task:

“It reminds everybody of a part of the European past that we hoped would never come back and NATO was encouraged to prevent. You have seen a really remarkable shift all across Europe as Europeans do now what should have been done some months ago, which is to reinforce and rearm Ukraine.”

Putin has overplayed his hand. And that could well cost him the war in Ukraine, as well as his position of power and his life.

 

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Donald Trump GOP Impeachment WTF?!

Steve Scalise Gets Brutally Fact-Checked For Lying About Trump’s Extortion Of Ukraine 

Even though their continued devotion to failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is dragging down Republicans in the polls, they simply cannot help themselves when they’re asked a question about the Donald. They always defend him, frequently looking like complete fools as they tie themselves in rhetorical knots.

That’s exactly what happened to Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), the House minority whip who was asked about Trump’s infamous 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which the then-president attempted to extort Zelensky by suggesting he’d agree to release military aid to Ukraine in exchange for damaging information on Joe Biden or members of his family.

Rather than admit Trump had been wrong to do what he did, Scalise desperately tried to suggest that Zelensky had praised Trump for his “leadership.”

“You look at that conversation. President Zelensky had called President Trump to thank him for the leadership he provided. When Zelensky got elected, he said he modeled after President Trump’s, and ultimately, he got the relief money he wanted.

“President Trump stood with President Zelensky. In fact, the two of them had a really good relationship. In fact, when President Zelensky was asking for things like the Javelin missiles that the Biden and Obama administration said no to. President Trump said yes, and actually helped Ukraine get those tank-busting missiles that they needed and frankly have been using.”

Nope. That’s not what happened. Not even close. And we know that because we have the White House transcript of that conversation which was read into the record as part of Trump’s first impeachment:

“I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.”

In other words: Sure, we can send you the military aid you need to defend yourself from Russia, but first you’re gonna have to play ball and help me win reelection.

Scalise was hit with a brutal fact-checking on Twitter.