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PUTIN’S CHESS GAME

History Lesson — What Have We Not Learned — I was born during the Second World war and grew up admiring the likes of Gen. Patton and Gen.  McArthur in my teens, they were my hero's.  Then the draft board sent me a letter  — My family ( brother) served and I learned a lot from my uncles who also served.  And I served and still willing to this day although they would take me after women and children.

Both of the Generals in statements made at the end of the War to end all wars saw that those we fought for would eventually fight us.  McArthur wanted to go into North Korea and rid them of their leadership and the Chinese Troops fighting us and Patton said why stop at Berlin, let's deal with the Russians, now, how true, how true.

Our leadership did not pay attention, their ideas were dismissed and today they come back to haunt us.

In my world,  I am a history “ Political history”  buff of that era, the Holocaust, the Rise and Fall of Red Communism, the continuum of the " Christian Nationalism Doctrine", The Third Reich,  Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Putin and Donald T-RUMP.   They all segwayed into each other,  and all required basically a sick evil minded bully at the helm,  and the others were doing nothing about it.

Russia-Ukraine War Blessed By The Russian Orthodox Church

Patriarch Kirill:  He is the Scumbag Fake Patriarch of the Russian Unofficial Communist Orthodox Church — Putin ally faces backlash after ‘blessing’ war.  The Pope and several priests appeal to the Russian Orthodox Church leader after he endorsed the Ukraine invasion.  President Putin and Patriarch Kirill have enjoyed a close relationship for years. 

On March 16, Pope Francis held a video meeting with Patriarch Kirill, the 75-year-old leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and a longtime ally of President Vladimir Putin.

The head of the Catholic church warned the Russian patriarch against hiding behind religion to justify armed aggression and conquest.  “Once upon a time there was also talk in our churches of holy war or just war,” the Pope said, according to the Vatican press office. “Today we cannot speak like this.”

Ten days earlier, in a sermon, Patriarch Kirill appeared to endorse Moscow’s so-called “ Special peacekeeping operation,” as the war on Ukraine is officially called in Russia.  “We have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance,” the patriarch said.

He referred to gay pride marches as an example of what outsiders were trying to force on the people of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, on whose behalf Moscow was ostensibly intervening.  “He expressed his view that behind the war in Ukraine there is a spiritual difference between the West and the Orthodox world, and it is obvious that for him, the latter is the better,” Thomas Bremer, who teaches Eastern Churches Studies at the University of Münster in Germany, told Al Jazeera.

“So according to him, the war is not about political aims or influence, but about spiritual, or, as he put it, ‘metaphysical’ aims. Thus, he gives the official Russian point of view a theological underpinning.”

Putin And The Patriarch Enjoy Close Ties, With Patriarch Kirill Describing

Putin’s 2012 Election Victory As A “Miracle Of God”

And as Putin sees Ukraine as part of the “Russian world”, so Patriarch Kirill claims dominion over the churches in Ukraine and Belarus.  But despite their shared origins in 10th century Kievan Rus’, when Byzantine missionaries converted the pagan Prince Vladimir, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine broke away from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2018.

Disappointed, Moscow then cut its ties with the Istanbul-based Eastern Orthodox Church, which backed the independence of the Ukrainian clergy. “Today, the real schism seems to be between the Russian Orthodox Church and its remaining branch in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” said Bremer.

Backlash —

👺  “After the war, the Russian Orthodox Church will probably lose a large share of its faithful in Ukraine, as they feel betrayed by the Patriarch,” he added.  And as the war continues, more figures of the Russian Orthodox Church are becoming frustrated with Patriarch Kirill, signalling a deepening split.

👺  Nearly 300 priests and deacons, including military veterans, recently signed an open letter titled Russian Priests for Peace.
👺  “We respect the God-given freedom of man, and we believe that the people of Ukraine should make their choice on their own, not at gunpoint, without pressure from the West or the East,” the letter reads.  
👺  “I don’t follow politics, but now I only see one thing – people are dying,” said Alexander Vostrodymov, a priest from a village near Moscow, who was among those who signed. “The rest doesn’t matter to me.”
👺  “All wars, even those lasting a century, always end in one thing – negotiations and peace. Is it worth all these orphans, widows, cripples and mountains of the dead, only to sit down and agree later? Why don’t we skip this uncivilised part altogether? Every mother gives birth to a son in the hope of having grandchildren in old age. And for her, her Vanya or Magomed – it doesn’t matter – he is the best. There’s no need to interrupt this natural life with bullets or shrapnel.”

👺  “I considered it my pastoral duty to sign this appeal. It is impossible to remain silent at such a moment when a bloody fratricidal ‘special operation’ is unleashed,” he said. “There are those who, although they agree with the content of the letter, did not sign it: some of them are shackled by fear, some are afraid of losing their position as rector, some are worried about their career.
👺  “This is a catastrophe and a crime of enormous proportions. This is a complete violation of the commandments of God. And we, Russians, will have to answer for this and compensate for all the destruction,” he said.   The priest said signatories of the letter have come under pressure from ecclesiastical authorities and state bodies. The only permitted position is to pray for peace, he said.
👺  “Without in any way rejecting prayer as such, it should be noted that we will definitely answer for such silence later,” the priest said. “Of course, religious duty obliges us to raise our voice against such a terrible war.”

👺  Priests have not been spared in the crackdown on dissent. One clergyman in central Russia was reportedly fined $330 for using the word “war” in an article on his church’s website. It has become illegal to refer to the ongoing invasion as a war; rather, the Kremlin approved “special military operation” euphemism must be used.

👺  Meanwhile, Orthodox clergy worldwide have condemned the invasion, including Patriarch Daniel of Romania, Archbishop Leo of Finland, Patriarch Theodore II of Alexandria and all Africa, and the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church in Paris and Estonia.

👺  In an open letter on March 9, Metropolitan John of Dubna, archbishop of the Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe, urged Kirill to raise his voice “against this monstrous and senseless war and to intercede with the authorities of the Russian Federation so that this murderous conflict ceases as soon as possible”.

👺  A Russian Orthodox church in Amsterdam split from the Moscow Patriarchate in protest, joining their rivals in Istanbul instead. The Amsterdam church received a solemn visit from a senior Russian archbishop and then threats; the pro-war Z symbol was painted on the Amsterdam church’s gates.

👺  The communists who came to power after the Russian Civil War in the early 1920s tried to stamp out religion by burning down churches and shooting priests, only to revive it to rally the faithful during World War II.

👺  Since the end of Soviet atheist rule, religion has made a comeback and more than 70 percent of Russians now identify as Orthodox, though considerably fewer are regular churchgoers.

👺  Observers say President Putin, an Orthodox Christian, views the church as a symbol of Russian nationhood. The Kremlin has embraced “traditional values” as an ideology, passing laws against the “propaganda” of same-sex relationships.

👺  Cyril Hovorun, a Professor of Ecclesiology and International Relations at the Sankt Ignatius Theological Academy in Sweden, described the church’s relationship to the state as “complex”.  “It is not just about the church’s complete submission to the political authorities,”  “The church also tried to influence the Kremlin. 

In a sense, the Russian Orthodox Church was successful, because the Kremlin at some point adopted the political language of the church, which became known as the ideology of the ‘Russian world’. This ideology originated in the church and then was weaponised by the Kremlin.”

THE  RUSSIAN COLLUSION

A POEM BY AL JACOBSON From My Book Of Poems About Assholes

To Donald with Love From Vladimir 

Your twits and stones won’t break my bones, and twitter names will never harm me
But nukes, troops, ships, and cruise missiles might possibly alarm me.

Your claims and bravado from one who draft-dodged his countries service,
I laugh, you’re bragging, self adornment falls just short of making me nervous...

Spew all the junk, the flim, flam, and the twitts,  
Go back to playing with those porn queens t*t’s

Please keep twitting and claim fake if thats all that you can,
Since my GRB’s  superb hackers  just delete all your spam...

Be aware, my friend, I was trained by the elite KGB,
And we got all the hacks free by perusing the DOD

So be kind to me and keep kissing my ass...
For a scumbag like you, I’m way above your class

In the midst of all your trials, tribulations and talk of defense,
Your nether-lands are well protected by your stooge Mike Pence 

And to think you can be my friend and imitate me, thats your quirk...  A simple coward pretend bully like you will always be a simple third grade jerk...

Have a bigly day....         
Your Fiend, Vladimir 

LET'S GO MAGA-PUTIN

MAKE AMERICA GREAT —  LET’S ASSASSINATE!  A ND TAKE T-RUMP WITH HIM --

Spooks from Langley to Kyiv are likely to be quietly untangling an espionage conundrum that dare not speak its name, according to a former senior intelligence agent who was once regularly involved in such discussions: “Could President Putin really be assassinated?”

“The operation is on every intelligence agency’s design table,” a veteran clandestine operative for France’s General Directorate for External Security (DGSE) told The Daily Beast. “I know this because I used to plan them.”

To be sure, killing Putin as a means of ending his war in Ukraine is a volatile topic to raise officially. It’s also diplomatically discourteous. “Oh, wouldn’t it be great if someone internally just took this guy out and eliminated him,” Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio recently mused, hurriedly adding, “that’s not the official policy, obviously, of the United States, no one’s talking about the US doing it.”  But we pray for it everyday and take T-RUMP with him.

The retired DGSE agent—an elimination specialist whose attention to detail receives high praise from his fellow liquidators—said the most efficient method would be poison.

“The attempt will be from within the Kremlin. This is not an outside job,” he said.

This would certainly not be the first attempt to assassinate a sitting Russian leader. Back in 1866, the revolutionary nihilist Dmitry Karakozov tried and failed to murder Tsar Alexander II in St. Petersburg. He was executed for his effort.

WHAT DOES PUTIN WANT?

 A WORLDWIDE FASCIST APOCALYPSE NOW BACKED BY KIRILL
THE HEAD OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

By Umair Haque — Short Version — I Condensed It For Brevity And Space But  An Incredible Brilliant Honest Appraisal Of The Russian Madman As He Gets Into Putins Head In My Opinion With A Chainsaw… First Article That I Have Read That Really Answers Why And The Things That Influence This Madman's Dream — And Our Nightmare — 

Social realities like war aren’t hard physics. A haze of uncertainty surrounds them. The most a thoughtful person can say right about now is something like this:  This could be the beginning of another World War. And that is not a particularly nice conclusion to have to reach. The question of whether Putin will push the nuclear button or escalate all this into a new world war is perhaps the question right about now. How far will he go?

The short version of the answer is: Putin will go all the way, if he’s allowed to. Right to the point of nuclear war, world war, and right up to annihilation. The situation we are dealing with here is much, much worse than you probably think. The long version, if you want the scary, gory details, goes like this.

• Putin does not care about human life
  
• He wants to build a grand new empire, in which Russians are supreme, and everyone else is subhuman,  a Reich.
• The thinkers he admires fanatically crave world war to make that happen
• Putin does not care about human life. At all. In that respect, he is very much like Hitler, and the comparisons are apt, not overblown. 
  
• Remember what Putin helped Assad do in Syria? He armed the government with extreme weapons of war. Not just heavy weapons, but extreme ones. Ones which were prohibited under the Geneva Convention. Putin had absolutely no problem seeing these extreme weapons of war — from chemical weapons to cluster bombs — used to kill innocent civilians. 
• He was completely indifferent to death on a mass scale. What happened in Syria is probably the closest thing the world has seen to total war on a mass scale since World War II. Putin was Assad’s armourer and key ally. He didn’t care whatsoever about death on the scale of a genocide or an emerging Holocaust.  So let me say it again, because it is the single most salient fact that we in the West have to contend with right about now. Putin does not care about human life at all.  
• It’s not speculation to imagine that Putin is the kind of man who will inflict death and misery on an entire country of millions, and watch it stony-eyed. That is true on his side, too. Putin appears relatively indifferent to the scale of death his military misadventures cause for Russia. He’s already lost several thousand soldiers in Ukraine, and appears totally unmoved. 
• Putin is a kind of especially cold-blooded leader, then. The only figure developed nations can really relate to at this level is his underling Trump — who turned a blind eye to almost a million Americans dead of Covid.   Putin appears totally unmoved by mass death. Human lives appear to just be pieces on a chessboard to him, if even that much. Their only objective is power. They are only means to an end.
• Psychologically, clearly, as in, is this person capable of such a thing, the answer is a resounding yes. Most of us are not capable of pushing the nuclear button. It takes a special kind of person to be indifferent to mass death, and that is the kind of person the West is dealing with now. 
• Now the question becomes a deeper one. Why would a person end up indifferent to mass death? What makes someone a Hitler, Mao, Stalin — or, like Putin, aspiring to be one?  The answer to that question is simple enough too. Money, power, and hate. Philosophy, sadly, used to justify it all. What made Hitler a mass murderer? An idea. The “Final Solution.” What made Stalin a killer of millions upon millons? Ideology. Russians must be purified by suffering, committed to the communist cause. Mao? Ideology, again. An entire nation had to be “reeducated.”
  

PUTINS FIRST THINKER — Alexander Dugin —  

• Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a Russian philosopher, professor, political analyst and strategist. He was the main organizer of the National Bolshevik Party, National Bolshevik Front, and the Eurasia Party.
  
• So what is Putin’s ideology? Putin is a hardened fanatic of figures like Alexander Dugin. Dugin is often called “Putin’s Brain.” He’s to Putin what Bannon was to Trump. What does Dugin have to say about this war?   “This is not a war with Ukraine. It’s a confrontation with globalism as an integrated planetary phenomenon. It’s a confrontation on all levels — geopolitical and ideological. 
• Russia rejects everything in globalism — unipolarity, Atlanticism, on the one hand, and liberalism, anti-tradition, technocracy, Great Resetization in one word, in another. Of course all European leaders are part of the Atlantic liberal elite. And we’re at war with just that.”
  
• But it has a logic all its own, which is internally consistent. For Dugin, this really isn’t just a war with Ukraine. He’s telling you flatly and in plain English that this is a war on us. On the West. On “European leaders” and “the Atlantic.” A “confrontation.” A “war” on “all levels” of epic and historic proportions. On which takes place around the world — that’s “geopolitical” and “planetary.”
• Dugin is talking about a World War. It…literally…doesn’t get more literal than that. And Putin is his fanatical student.  Now. You should also note how Dugin uses exactly the same language and concepts as our far right — all this bizarre nonsense about “liberal elites” and “globalism” and “tradition.” Why is that? He didn’t learn it from them. He invented it. 
• They learned it from him. Bannon studied Dugin. And Russian propaganda spread all this nonsense — “globalism as a planetary phenomenon” — so much that our far right effectively got completely brainwashed by it, having been bombarded with it a billion times to the point they were conditioned into repeating it mindlessly. That was the first front of this war — the disinformation and radicalization front, the sociocultural front.
• So. How do you end up being indifferent to killing on a mass scale? You get radicalised. Into being an ideological fanatic. You buy into a philosophy which calls for a grand “confrontation” of “planetary” proportions between factions or sides which can’t coexist. So you need a Final Solution.
  
  

THESE ARE MENTORS WE ARE DEALING WITH IN PUTIN’S SHADOW MIND —  

He is a persona far, far closer to Stalin or Hitler than a modern leader. His psychology — and the philosophy which created it — are completely alien to most of us.  Imagine if ISIS’s most hardened fanatic controlled half the world’s nukes. That’s the kind of problem we’re dealing with now.  That kind of mind divides the world up into humans and subhumans — to metaphysically justify killing on a mass scale. It simply means assassination might be the only way out and a massive cleansing of the Russian Oligarchy and return some power to the people.

HIS 2nd MENTOR —  Ivan Ilyin  — 

• Who’s Putin’s second favourite thinker? A dead Russian philosopher called Ilyin. “Putin routinely quotes Ilyin, has instructed Russian elites to study his writings, and has brought Ilyin’s archives from Michigan State University and his remains from Switzerland to Russia.”  
• Ilyin was essentially a philosopher of Christian Fascism. Yes, really. Essentially, he believed that a successful country “ Rejects representative democracy and the rule of law as direct threats to Russian purity. Instead, what’s needed is an indomitable leader, fortified by strong Russian Orthodox spirituality, who is unafraid to take brutal action to repel foreign enemies and root out domestic ones.”
  And “for Putin and his followers today, Ilyin has become something of a guru with a road map to a fiercely proud, spiritually pure, unconquerable Russia of the future.”
• Ilyin's works about Russia —  In exile, Ivan Ilyin argued that Russia should not be judged by the Communist danger it represented at that time but looked forward to a future in which it would liberate itself with the help of Christian Fascism.
• Starting from his 1918 thesis on Hegel's philosophy, he authored many books on political, social and spiritual topics pertaining to the historical mission of Russia. One of the problems he worked on was the question: what has eventually led Russia to the tragedy of the revolution? He answered that the reason was "the weak, damaged self-respect" of Russians. 
• As a result, mutual distrust and suspicion between the state and the people emerged. The authorities and nobility constantly misused their power, subverting the unity of the people. Ilyin thought that any state must be established as a corporation in which a citizen is a member with certain rights and certain duties. Therefore, Ilyin recognized inequality of people as a necessary state of affairs in any country. But that meant that educated upper classes had a special duty of spiritual guidance towards uneducated lower classes. This did not happen in Russia.
• The other point was the wrong attitude towards private property among common people in Russia. Ilyin wrote that many Russians believed that private property and large estates are gained not through hard labour but through power and maladministration of officials. Therefore, property becomes associated with dishonest behavior.
• In his 1949 article, Ilyin argued against both totalitarianism and "formal" democracy in favor of a "third way" of building a state in Russia:
• Facing this creative task, appeals of foreign parties to formal democracy remain naive, light-minded and irresponsible.
  For Ilyin, any talk about a Ukraine separate from Russia made one a mortal enemy of Russia.  He disputed that an individual could choose their nationality any more than cells can decide whether they are part of a body.
  
• Here’s how Timothy Snyder puts it. “Ilyin used the word Spirit (Dukh) to describe the inspiration of fascists. The fascist seizure of power, he wrote, was an ‘act of salvation.’ The fascist is the true redeemer, since he grasps that it is the enemy who must be sacrificed. Ilyin took from Mussolini the concept of a ‘chivalrous sacrifice’ that fascists make in the blood of others.”
• Ilyin’s bizarre philosophy — again, completely alien to modern eyes — is why Putin and his regime divide the world up into humans and subhumans. Who’s a human, an ubermensch? The ethnically pure Russians, who are genetically superior and pure of faith. Who’s a subhuman? Everyone else. From Ukrainians to Syrians to us in the West. We aren’t like good Russians, who are chosen by God, given superior virtue and genetics, and are going to liberate the world. From what? From us.

THEY CALL US SUBHUMANS —  We in the West are especially dangerous subhumans. We’re decadent and corrupt “globalists” who have persecuted the superior Russians, who should reign supreme over the world, liberating it from “liberalism” and “Atlanticism” and “unipolarity” after a “planetary confrontation.”

That is a tiny window into how Putin probably really thinks. His thinking is a synthesis of Dugin — the leading figure of today’s global far right — and Ilyin, Russia’s Christian Fascist from the 1920s and 30s.

That synthesis — modern far right with classical fascism — is especially dangerous. It is way, way beyond the Cold War’s Marxist Leninism.

If you put all that together, and really try to understand Putin, where do you end up? In a very, very dark place indeed. You end up with a picture of a mind and a regime which wants to reconstitute a Reich. A Reich which liberates itself from the West, and brings a new order on the world. Humans — in this case, not pure-blooded Germans, but faithful and persecuted and superior Russians — in their rightful place, above, and subhumans, who are the rest of us, in theirs, below.

For such a mind, this isn’t a war on Ukraine. No, not at all. It is the beginning of something much, much bigger.  All that is why the West is right. Putin must be stopped. Every indication is that he is a figure much much closer to Hitler, Stalin, or Mao than to anything remotely understandable in modern terms. He is alien to us because he is not like us. He is — or has turned into, anyways — a monster from history. 

We struggle to understand him because it’s hard for modern eyes and minds to relate to any of that, a metaphysics which justifies mass murder, a morality of supremacy, a contempt for human life, an indifference to mass death, the glorification of violence and suffering as ennobling, the wish for an empire of supremacy, which is a Reich, the craving for a world war.

None of us are like that. None of us. Nobody you will ever meet really wants a world war. Except the most hardened fanatics. That is who we are dealing with. And he has nukes. The West is right to pull out all the stops to contain him. His wish is our annihilation.

ED:    And he has the means, too, to bring it about.  And nothing will work right again if we do not remove Putin and T-RUMP totally from the planet, MAGA  should read  “ Make America Great- Assassinate”    

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO — We saw this Ukraine assault on a peaceful democracy coming, others saw this incursion of a sovereign nation about to happen, and with a two month lead did nothing.  Biden put NATO together but that will not be enough.  

If the others like Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary and the Baltic and Ural states do nothing, Putin will knock them off ,one by one.  Germany now understands that.  All the former Soviet UNION states have to show solidarity and destroy the bully, which of them will be next, like Poland -- they have to show solidarity and courage.

Update:    Putin underestimated several strategic issues and is embarrased With a large portion of his ARMY displaced as it is now.  Let’s show the world only if the world commits it the time to take the bully out.  Destroy his ground forces, most are T-90 tanks which are T-72’s upgraded but are not sophisticated enough to go against a strong NATO. He fights a ground war, reminiscent of WWII,  we fight on all levels. He underestimated the resolve of the Ukrainian people. He underestimated the resolve of NATO and Joe Biden.

Europe and the United States do not want a war but Putin pushed the ‘ GO” button.  we have the tools before some other smartass bastards like China, North Korea, and Iran get too big for their britches and we have to go after them. They seem to be watching very close as to the extent of the resolve the rest of us have.

Let NATO declare an invasion of a solid state and let's send that Russian Army back in body bags. Do it now before we have to do it on our land.  Thats where T-RUMP comes in. He needs to be removed. T-RUMP and his bastard allies in this country are the basis of :

Nazism and Fascism are two faces of the same coin of totalitarianism. Although both Nazism and Fascism reject the ideology of liberalism, democracy and communism, there are some fundamental differences between the two.

Nazism and Fascism have their origin in the 20th century. Fascism and fascists are commonly associated with the rise of Mussolini in Italy while Nazi and Nazism are associated with Hitler in Germany (Weimar Republic).

Both ideologies played a key role in igniting the Second World War which led to an untold amount of destruction and chaos. As of today, both Nazism and Fascism are looked at in an unfavorable light by a vast majority of the world’s population.

While Putin's propaganda speaks of rescuing Ukraine from Nazism, in realty he, besides 
Donald T-RUMP, is the closet thing to Hitler we have seen in seventy years.

CAN PUTIN BE TRIED FOR WAR CRIMES 

According to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, a war crime is any act by which combatants and commanders fail to ensure respect for the civilian population, or illegally subject civilian objects to hostilities. Many other duties flow from this baseline, such as warning civilian populations "unless circumstances do not permit" and obligations to take "all feasible precautions" to minimize harm to civilian lives or property.

War crimes law relies on the foundational principle that fighters must "at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants -- and between civilian objects and military objectives, and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives."

The laws of war apply in Ukraine because the Russian invasion is real. Despite the Russian label of the war as a "special military operation," the Geneva Conventions on armed conflicts apply "even if the state of war is not recognized" by Russian officials. 

BASED ON THAT DEFINITION, HAVE WE SEEN THIS ALREADY IN UKRAINE?

A record 41 other states have asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to formally investigate crimes committed inside Ukraine because there is "reasonable basis" to believe that Russian forces are committing war crimes. 

The list of possible charges grows daily. Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor, observed that "if attacks are intentionally directed against the civilian population: that is a crime. If attacks are intentionally directed against civilian objects: that is a crime. ... There is no legal justification, there is no excuse, for attacks which are indiscriminate, or which are disproportionate in their effects on the civilian population." 

Attacks aimed at demoralizing civilians are war crimes because civilian morale is never a legitimate military target. Russians have been accused of launching attacks inside the boundaries of the designated humanitarian corridors. Targeting of humanitarian convoys or relief operations providing food, water and medicine may constitute the crime of intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare. 

WHAT ROLE IN DOCUMENTING WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE? — The US Senate should confirm President Joe Biden's nominee for US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, Beth Van Schaack, by voice vote immediately. The ambassador has a vital role in coordinating US government efforts to document war crimes in a granular legal sense. 

In war crime trials, prosecutors must have sufficient evidence to convict perpetrators beyond reasonable doubt based on their individual responsibility. The ambassador coordinates allied efforts, much as the UN War Crimes Commission facilitated prosecutions in Nuremberg after the Second World War.

IF BOMBING A CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL ISN'T CROSSING A RED LINE —  
The Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice represents an important voice within the State Department and interagency, and Van Schaack's leadership would help ensure success for the new joint US-EU project documenting war crimes. 

Prosecution of Russian leaders, oligarchs and commanders for crimes in Ukraine must be a "whole of the Free World" approach. Brave Ukrainian lawyers are doing their part, and we should support them.

American leadership provides the centripetal force to consolidate documentation efforts and incorporate the rapidly coalescing array of private documentation efforts. Investigations will also provide corroborating evidence to refute Russian propaganda and legal distortions. 

WHO  DECIDES IF ANY RUSSIAN LEADER IS TO BE HELD RESPONSIBLE ?   
Russian commanders, oligarchs and leaders may be prosecuted for ordering, committing or assisting war crimes. The law of command responsibility also criminalizes those who "knew or should have known" of crimes and failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to discipline the forces under their "effective control." 

The judges of each case assess the legal basis for every charge. Because the Geneva Conventions grant broad criminal jurisdiction to sovereign states, domestic officials may prosecute war criminals found on their territory, too. 

The ICC treaty permits charges against senior leaders because it applies "equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity." It adds that a person's capacity as head of state does not exempt them from criminal responsibility. 

HOW REALISTIC IS IT THAT THEY WOULD BE TRIED IN A COURTROOM?  

Russian leaders should feel deep disquiet in the face of a deeply entrenched body of precedents since the Second World War.   Prosecuting those responsible for crimes committed in Ukraine conforms with patterns of international criminal justice that include many defendants who thought that they were above the law.   Putin's bombs aren't weakening Ukraine's resolve to fight

The presidents, prime ministers, defense officials, military commanders and staff officers who have been brought to book represent a litany of infamy. Defendants included Slobodan Milošević, former Liberian President Charles Taylor, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, former Rwandan Prime Minister Jean Kambanda, former Rwandan General Augustin Bizimungu -- and many others. 

These cases are the common heritage of mankind. However, the ICC cannot prosecute the crime of aggression conducted by Russian leaders against Ukraine -- in part because Russia is not a state party to the ICC. We should instead work with our EU allies and/or the UN to establish a "New Nuremberg" empowered to adjudicate aggression-based offenses -- minus Russian judges of course.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM OTHER WAR CRIMES TRIALS?
These trials are inherently complex. They take more time to investigate and prosecute than victims would like. Proceedings must be based on compilation of evidence and procedural regularity absent overtones of political retribution. 

During the trial of Saddam Hussein, the judge rebuked one lawyer, saying "you are a legal man in a court of law, not a circus." No war criminals should develop complacency about escaping accountability because atrocity crimes are unconstrained by statutes of limitations.

Prosecutors exercise discretion based on actual evidence rather than polemics. Careful lawyering is the key. The sensational nature of charges requires close coordination with civil society and victims' organizations. The Congress of Vienna, which reorganized Europe after the Napoleonic wars, termed Napoleon Bonaparte "Enemy and Disturber of the tranquility of the World." Russian leaders are no less deserving of that title, yet political speech will help bring justice only when it is translated into binding legal opinion.

EVEN IF NO RUSSIAN LEADERS COULD BE EASILY CONVICTED, WHY WOULD IT STILL BE WORTH PURSUING CHARGES?
The United States has a moral imperative to help Ukraine win the war that Russia brought to its citizenry. As the ICC came into existence, American diplomats promised that the US would not "retreat from its leadership role in the promotion of international justice and the rule of law." We must uphold that promise. 

Indeed, coordinated efforts to restore the rule of law are necessary to augment financial sanctions. In the world's first military treatise, ancient Chinese general, military strategist and philosopher Sun Tzŭ wrote that "to fight and conquer in all your battles is not the supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting." 

SCUMBAGS ANONYMOUS

THE REAL COUNT  —  Hitler ( controlling the Axis powers with Hirohito and Mussolini) was one man who ended the lives and families totaling sixty-million dead through the Second World War. When we mention six million we are referring to those of the Jewish Faith only.   Total carnage from the entire AXIS in WWII exceeded 60 million. 

These leaders intend to destroyed the world order as it exists and are planning their own diversions as the core beliefs in all of them came from and inserted, induced, implanted by their parenting or predecessors.  They need to die to save the world.

THE UNITED SCUMBAG FRONT

👺 PUTIN = 👺STALIN — 👺 LENIN —  👺KRUSCHEV — 👺TROTSKY

👺 T-RUMP = 👺HIS Dirty-Daddy And 👺 Grand Father FRIEDRICH THE PIMP

👺 KIM JONG UN  = 👺 FATHER — KIM JONG Il - The Butcher — Murderer — 

👺 XI - JINPING = FATHER   XI ZHONGXUN WAS A CHI-COM REVOLUTIONIST — 

👺 BELARUSIAN PRES. LUKASHENKO  =  👺  PUTINS SCUMBAG BULLY FRIEND  —
 

👺 SEVERAL GOP SCUMBAGS =  👺  FROM DOGS - LOW LIFES AND TRAITORS — 

President Alexander Lukashenko of   Belarus is emerging as a key player to watch in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian intelligence suggests Belarus is showing a              “ Readiness to maybe participate directly" in Russia's invasion, “ in addition to allowing Russians to use their territory as well as letting them cross the border" into Ukraine, a Ukrainian government official told CNN.

Belarus and Russia have close military ties, and Russian troops recently deployed to Belarus for extensive military drills.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said last week that Belarusian troops could join the invasion “ if it becomes necessary.”

In that case if Belarus engages our Nato Force they will become fair game and we should destroy them. 

Maybe we should entertain the thought of treating Belarus as  an enemy and kick this fat bullies ass clear off the map.  Sooner or later Vladimir Putin will go off the track and make a mistake. At that point in time take all of Belarus toys of war away from this most hated bastard associate of the great hated bastard leader.

Elected president in Belarus' first democratic election in 1994 after the fall of Soviet Union, he has ruled for more than a quarter of a century. But subsequent elections have been marred by allegations of strong-arm tactics and voting irregularities and were won by suspiciously wide margins.

Late 2020 was marred by months of protests and violence across the country after a disputed election as riot police fired warning shots into the air, used stun grenades and arrested more than 200 people to deter tens of thousands of Belarusians who marched through Minsk on Sunday to demand the veteran leader leave power. 

"Europe's last dictator": Called "Europe's last dictator,” and about100 other names, his iron grip on his country has become increasingly forceful. His public appearances are tightly controlled and he is generally surrounded by fawning countrymen.  Lukashenko has increasingly strengthened his alliance with Putin, who has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid — Kremlin support that is likely to come with strings.

In an exclusive interview with CNN in 2021, Lukashenko told CNN what could happen if there's ever a provocation against the two countries:  

Lukashenko Said:  "If we need to, Belarus will turn into one military base for Russia and Belarus in order to withstand your aggression, if you decide, or if any one country decides to attack. And you should be clear on this, I have never made any secret of it.”   

What fat schmucks who are bullies don’t understand is just how fast their troops really do not have a stomach for stupid wars with no cause or reason other than power.

He might be out there alone and he is as big a target as T-RUMP — I see things sooner or later with folks who have just too much to swallow from these animals and we  eventually will have to take the garbage out.  So go ahead you oversized fat bastard and see what happened when the sh*t falls from the sky.

https://youtu.be/KudntsVcMPM

THE PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE, VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY IS JEWISH  —  Volodymyr Zelenskyy was born to Jewish parents on 25 January 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.  

His father, Oleksandr Zelenskyy, is a professor and the head of the Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware at the Kryvyi Rih State University of Economics and Technology; his mother, Rymma Zelenska, used to work as an engineer.

His grandfather, Semyon (Simon) Zelenskyy, served in the Red Army (in the 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division) during World War II; Semyon's father and three brothers were murdered in the Holocaust. 

Prior to starting elementary school, Zelenskyy lived for four years in the Mongolian city of Erdenet, where his father worked. At the age of 16, he passed the Test of English as a Foreign Language and received an education grant to study in Israel, but his father did not allow him to go.  

He later earned a law degree from the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics, then a department of Kyiv National Economic University and now part of Kryvyi Rih National University, but did not go on to work in the legal field.

In September 2003, Zelenskyy married Olena Kiyashko, with whom he had attended school. The couple's first daughter, Oleksandra, was born in July 2004. Their son, Kyrylo, was born in January 2013.

Zelenskyy was noted to have been the first Jewish President of Ukraine and with Volodymyr Groysman as Prime Minister, Ukraine was the second country to have both a Jewish President and Prime Minister.

Zelenskyy has been outspoken about his Judaism and his Jewish roots were widely known on the campaign trail.  The Ukrainian president said,  “ He grew up in an ordinary Soviet Jewish family,” not a very religious one since “ Religion didn’t exist in the Soviet State as such.”

A Short Poem
What A Wonderful World It Would Be!

— Adapted From The Great Louis Armstrong Hit  —  

The Russians Are IN RED, The Ukrainians Are in YELLOW AND BLUE
Attacked By Vladimir Putin and Endorsed By T-RUMP Too — 
They are both Scumbags, counting we have two — 
If both were dead, what a wonderful world it would be! 

I remember green trees, red roses too, for a change
In beautiful Odessa with no bombs falling near me or you —  
Yes,  I think to myself we had a  wonderful world  —  

I see the blue sky clear, clouds so white,   
Birds flying again,  not scared and within our sight  — 
Yes I think to myself we had a wonderful world 

The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, 
And no Russian murderers bestowing fright,
And I think to myself we had a wonderful world  — 

The colors of the rainbow were so pretty in the sky
Before T-RUMP and Putin brought hatred 
and death on those faces going by — 
And I think to myself what a wonderful world it could be — 

Taunted, tortured, scared and running from a
man who the T-RUMP called cunning  —  
Forcing the masses of the Ukraine, for their life,  they are running —
And I think to myself we had a wonderful world  —  

I see friendly nations shaking hands saying what can we do 
They're really saying,  “ We love you"
and when I hear, The babies crying,
 I want to watch them grow instead of dying — 
And I think to myself we had a wonderful world  — 

I’m tired of seeing the poison spread by a few —
Putin, T-RUMP and their followers too
The answer is simple, time to stop giving in, 
when one takes out the garbage, Death is not a sin —
Then we will have a Wonderful world! 

Al Jacobs

A Putin Celebrant

AMERICA SHOULD HANG DONALD T-RUMP

 — HE NEEDS TO BE SILENCED AND CHARGED AS A TRAITOR — 

—   HE IS THE REAL COWARD —  EXILE HIM TO RUSSIA — 

HE COULD OPEN A HOTEL “ T-RUMPS GULAG TOWERS"

THE ONE AMERICAN THAT WILL DESTROY OUR COUNTRY 

USING HIS MOUTH ALONE!

The American Reichfuhrer Herr T-RUMP — The GOP Favorite Political Scumbag, Racist and Certified Facist  Idiot T-RUMP has thrown gas on the fire, with his comments on how great Putin is, “ He’s a genius” . 

It’s understandable a coward like T-RUMP could like or admire  a COMMUNIST Russian like Putin —  Wannabe’s are “ Birds of A Feather “  He likes power but lacks  real talent and lies his way through things.

T-RUMPs heritage  coming from the grave of the Third Reich and Hitler had to of been caused by leaky condoms.   I do not understand their relationship unless both of their respective DNA's came from Adolf Hitler. and Stalin.  It’s possible… because one is an authorintarionist and the other is a copycat moron.

While the world is looking at a complete takeover of a sovereign nation of peaceful people who want nothing to do with Russian version of a democratic processes.  This is nothing but Hitler all over again. Remember he declared Austria to Germany, then he went into Poland and so forth,  six years later over 60 million people worldwide because of the AXIS were dead.  Six million were Jewish.   My family at the time of the first world was escaped to the US through China.  They were from Odessa, under attack now by Putin.  Ukraine was part of the Russian Federation, gained freedom and now Putin wants to turn the clock back.

And the one voice praising Putin is T-RUMP.   He must owe Putin money and afraid if Putin is not paid  Vladimir would put Round-Up in his hairspray.  On the other hand, maybe T-RUMP could take Putin out of the conflict with his charm and free Golf Passes.  

He could as a reality star use his acting talents and take the role of   Lord Chamberlain whose attempt to avoid war when he helped the British to avoid war with the NAZI’s was a ruse, and he failed miserably.    All that did was give Hitler time to build better weapons to use like Buzz Bombs and V-2’S — 

T-RUMP would be perfect to arbitrate the talks in Belarus —   We could call T-RUMP Lord Chamber-Pot!  He’ so full of sh*t anyway,  it’s a perfect match for a reality series.

IF T-RUMP HAD BEEN RE-ELECTED — THANK GOD HE WASN’T!

T-Rump —  “ Strictly Between Us - If You Let Me Build The Moscow Towers, I Will Deliver America To You In The Next Election!   “ And, Do What You Want With Ukraine In A Couple Of Years, We Won't Interfere, You Have My Word, Since I Will Still Be President” —  

Putin — Now There’s A Man After My Own Black Heart!

— T-RUMP NEEDS TO BE REMOVED PERMANENTLY — 

— TO SAVE THIS COUNTRY  —

 Make America and keep America a better place to live.   Take out the GOP and White Nationalist parties.   No need for the GOP to support Putin.   Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah on Sunday blasted his fellow GOP members who attended a White nationalist event and those who support Russia President Vladimir Putin as the country invades Ukraine. 

Those NAZIFIED coalitions are the result of T-RUMPS paying attention to them calling them patriots.

"Look, there is no place in either political party for this White nationalism or racism. It's simply wrong ... it's evil as well," Romney told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union." 

"(Rep.) Marjorie Taylor Greene and (Rep.) Paul Gosar, I don't know them, but I'm reminded of that old line from the 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' movie where - where one character says, 'Morons, I've got morons on my team.' And I have to think anybody that would sit down with White Nationalists and speak at their conference was certainly missing a few IQ points."

The comment from Romney follows criticism from Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona for speaking at the America First Political Action Conference that took place in Orlando, Florida and was organized by White nationalist Nick Fuentes. Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, also a Republican, criticized Greene and Gosar. Greene spoke at the event in person and Gosar, who attended the same conference last year, appeared through pre-recorded remarks.  

Liz Cheney calls out fellow House Republicans for associating with White nationalist event "As Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep Paul Gosar speak at this white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Putin event, silence by Republican Party leaders is deafening and enabling," Cheney tweeted Saturday. "All Americans should renounce this garbage and reject the Putin wing of the GOP now.”

HIS DIS-CREDITS ADD UP TO A MENTAL BANKRUPSTY

• T-RUMP aided in the COVID death of almost one million Americans by March.
• Let’s exile T-RUMP to Russia so he can be with his friend Vladimir. And send the rest of his sperm bank with him, all his family as they are cohorts and crooks too dirty, like our politicians to remain in this country, world, universe, the only way to exterminate is the solution is exterminate the family. 
• Death, chaos , problems go wherever and whenever he shows up.  He is a magnet of  negativism and vows to destroy our nation but people in this country are too stupid to sense what he is doing.   We call them Trumpets.
• We eventually will be on that list of acquisitions by the Authoritarianism folks.  T-RUMP learned all that from Hitler.  
•  And we too,  if he exists,  will be the loss of our free democracy by takeover of the Republicans who are the biggest bunch of frickin fakes, cowards , crooks and scumbag cowards I have ever seen.
• T-RUMP has always dreamed of being powerful like those in history and today.  The major problem he has , being a living and talking f*cking imbecile moron, most learn who he really is and tend to back away.  He is only appreciated by other living and talking f*cking morons
• The Fueher T-RUMP brought upon our core, with his friendship moves to Putin, basically he gave the house, make that houses, land, freedom away just like he would do here in America and Biden says no.  Wake up you are damning the wrong person.
• I agree with my professors some Americans are really weak and ignorant of truth in their thinking and judgement.  They buy the fraud, lies conspiracies and false illegal gerrymandering, basically any sh*t the Republicans dish out.
• During COVID and T-RUMPS term his daughter and son in law Ivanka and Jared made almost 640 million dollars of government tax, shelters, off-shores and corrupt businesses, shell games money.   And quickly left the scene but the law is now catching up to them.  And 90% of you are starving. If you voted for him you got what you voted for.
• Our rural looser representative voters, party people, schmucks and idiot voters were the blame as stupidity and truth have a tough time working together — they prefer lies on a third grade educated level. 
• T-RUMP claims he’s raising money for the RNC* election money for candidates, steals it for himself and the dumbest of American voters contribute to and keeps it for his lawyers to keep him out of jail. I hope you all go broke. OH, RNC* stands for Reptilian Nazi Party
• Please include those traitors who assaulted our Congress on January 6th and make them pay for the death and pain they created . They are not patriots they are traitors.  And T-RUMP Calls them Patriots.
• We made great advances until  T-RUMPS lies and anti-vaxing conspiracies by cohorts and the Reptilian Party, whose beliefs inspired by weak minded Neanderthal and Cro-magnon thinking caused repeat occurances and problems  which like the spores spread via stupid ignorant dumbass people. 
• But the real enemy is lies  —  You have to follow the money — T-RUMP gave us the largest tax break in American History but it all went to the rich.
• Fakes, Frauds, Conspiracy writers, Anti-vaxxers, and Dumbass voters who don’t vaccinate and believe the lies handed to them.  They perpetrate more contagion. Alex Jones for one who should have his lips welded together with superglue encasing cyanide pills.
• Most authoritarianism forms of government like Fascism are best exampled by Adolf Hitler and now Donald T-RUMP.  Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy that rose to prominence in early 20th-century Europe  —  Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete.
• We will never forget the corruption, lack of leadership and lies, mis-information from the former president, who made a mockery of science and health using politics .  Soon, the result in loss of  life of more than onee million Americans…  And I am proposing that we simply call it what it is.  Call it Negligent Homocide and someone has to pay for it  —
• The  Topic of Medicine is one place we do not need gray haired frickin political hacks and liars delving info, and I am pointing at Congress — especially those with some really strange agendas and venues like Rand Paul could put Dr. Mengele to shame and should be treats as criminals).   They are just pawns in the political money making Congress.
• The real substance and cure is in the hands of the scientific community, Oh and add that mild mannered blowjob acolyte jackass ass-kissing moron homophobic dork like  former idiot and Vice President Pence eho was in charge of the COVID program.
• T-RUMP is and was the modern day Hitler even using the same playbook of distortion and corruption.  Hitler, Goebbels, Borman and Himmler, T-RUMP, McConnell, Pence, Jordan, Rand, many others, and Bolsonaro  —  and false narratives —  And people die and we have become swollen with hate and prejudice and numbers of the dead become just numbers.
• Forget political correctness, there is no correctness, just lies and corruption  — The gloves are off because I’ll call the bastard T-RUMP out.  The fault lies with a liar,  Donald J. T-RUMP and his belligerence, selfishness, greed, dirty and self-adorning incorrigible attitude, and mental incompetence and bad hair.
• He out-lies Hitler and Goebbels together, with a third grade mental education and stupidity,  but also how he disrupted the core values of our great nation.   He attempted a coup on our Constitutional Laws with Pence on January 6th.  And in addition with GOP members ready to take  over finally physically attacked the  House also on January 6th.  I rank that attack as  “ Day of Infamy"  the second day of Infamy,  just as Pearl Harbor was the first.  Hang those who harmed others.
• He has destroyed what little of the Republicans was any good  ( Not Too Much Actually)  and through their obstructionism, they all got rich and people starved and the cash corruption went on  during COVID.  Nothing will stop these corrupt, crooks, thieves and grifters of the Republican party and having learned in SERE and Ranger training the best way to stop a poisonous snake is to chop off  its head. 
• I am One with the Vigilantes  —  “Let’s Hang T-RUMP Him and Then Give hIm a Fair Trial in Nuremberg Where He Belongs With The Former NAZI's” .  Or perhaps our Evangelical friends can remember Salome who  is known in the Christian Gospels for her role in the execution of John the Baptist, asking for his head. Maybe it could be Melania, in that role.  Some of her outfits certainly warrant attention in the dance industry.  SEE MELANIA

• SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, a Republican from South Carolina, said on Wednesday that it “was a mistake” for former President Donald Trump to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a genius. 
•  “I think that was a mistake. I think I know what he was trying to say, you know, going into the Donbas. But, no. Let’s just make it clear, Putin’s not a genius, he’s a war criminal,” said Graham, a close Trump ally.
• On Wednesday, Graham introduced a non-binding Senate resolution that calls for Putin to be held accountable for numerous acts of war, aggression and human rights abuses. The resolution supports a complaint filed by the Ukrainian government against Putin in the International Criminal Court that alleges war crimes in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Graham said he hopes if the US backs the complaint, more nations will follow.
• Russia has been hitting civilian targets and residential areas in recent days, according to open source information and US officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of targeting civilians, including children, and called for an international investigation into the conflict on Sunday. 
• The International Criminal Court investigates and tries “individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community” including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the court’s website states.
• So far, Graham said he’s had some positive conversations with several Senate Democrats about the resolution and noted that he’s starting a “phone blitz” Wednesday calling allies, including the British ambassador, asking them to also back the complaint.
• Graham was joined at a news conference unveiling the draft resolution with Rep. Victoria Spartz, a Republican from Indiana, who is a Ukrainian-American, on Wednesday at the US Capitol.
• Spartz, who was born in Ukraine, is using her perch in Congress to call for stiffer sanctions, immediate aid and more military resources, saying the Ukrainian people want more weapons – not troops – because they want to fight the Russians themselves. She also is advocating for refugees and drawing attention to the horrors of the humanitarian crisis that is quickly unfolding.
• Graham said he expects Russia’s strategy to be “scorched earth” as Putin gets “more desperate” and “as you see that happen, we need to get international law organizations on board behind this complaint.” 
• “The world has let him get away with too much for too long,” Graham added of Putin. “He’s stolen the Russian people blind, he’s murdered Russian citizens to maintain his iron grip on the country.” 
• “To the Russian people, I doubt if you can hear my words, but our fight is not with you, you’re a victim of Putin as much as anyone, maybe more than most, and I just wanted to let you know that we understand the difference between the Russian people and Putin, but we’re going to need your help. In bringing justice to the table, you’re going to have to suffer,” Graham said. 
• Liar and Coward —  T-Rump did nothing except he handed Syria and Crimea to Putin on a platter  — Putin said that Russian troops in the Crimean peninsula were aimed “ To ensure proper conditions for the people of Crimea to be able to freely express their will”.
• Putin  sees the United States as weak and gets whatever he wants because T-Rump set the stage —  If you translated his two hour speech on Tuesday he forecast all that is happening and why,  even going back to Stalin, Lenin and Yeltsin. This is his legacy he is writing now, the restoration of the Soviet Union.  PUTIN is in a depressed state, some feel he is dementia bound and is extremely dangerous.   He and T-RUMP seem to be on the same page and both need to be removed.

UNDERESTIMATED  —  Russia's military buildup along the Ukrainian border increased, as they lied about talks and attacked  full blown with air support, helicopters , rocket missiles,  and tanks now using air-burst and cluster bomb configurations against civilians. 

WHO IS KIDDING WHO —  The US was still holding out hope that diplomatic efforts with Russia can lead to a de-escalation when massed 150,000 Russian troops entered UKRAINE.

UNDERESTIMATED —  Earlier this week, as many as 8,500 US troops were placed on heightened alert to prepare to deploy to Eastern Europe. Those troops include elements of the 82nd airborne division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as well as elements of the 18th Airborne Corps, the 101st Airborne Division and the Fourth Infantry Division, Kirby said Thursday.  These units include "medical support, aviation support, logistical support" and "combat formation," the Pentagon spokesman said.

Inside Europe, Kirby said top general of US European Command, Gen. Tod Wolters, was "taking prudent steps" to make sure that US troops based in Europe could be moved within the continent if needed. The Pentagon was "not ruling out" the possibility that forces in Europe could be moved to "help bolster capabilities of NATO Allies," Kirby said.

"We take our NATO commitment seriously. And we're going to be consulting with allies as we have been certainly in coming days. And if there's ways in which we can help bolster their capabilities to help their defensive postures, we're going to take a serious look at that," Kirby said.

MILLEY GOT IT RIGHT —  Biden's comments come hours after the top US military general, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, warned a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be "horrific" for the country and would result in "significant" casualties as he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to choose a diplomatic path instead.

MILLEY KNEW WAR IS COMING —  Milley, who along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed reporters Friday on the US military's preparations, spoke of Ukraine's geography, noting that when its "high water table" freezes, "it makes it for optimal conditions for cross-country tract and wheeled vehicle maneuver."

"There are many people and highly dense population centers throughout Ukraine. And if war were to break out on a scale and scope that is possible, the civilian population will suffer immensely," he said.

'IT WILL NOT BE COST FREE’  —  But Milley said that he thinks Russia's actions "feel different" than previous escalations. "This is larger in scale and scope in the massing of forces than anything we've seen in recent memory, and I think you'd have to go back quite a while into the Cold War days to see something of this magnitude," he said.  

He noted that the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian military have improved since 2014, “ But they need additional help to defend themselves especially from an invasion force the size that Russia is currently massing." 

HIS DECISION WAS MADE MONTHS AGO —  DIVERSION AND MIS-DIRECTION —  Russia has continued to claim it is not planning to attack Ukraine. In an interview with Russian journalists Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, "if it is up to the Russian Federation, there will be no war. We don't want a war.”  

While the Biden administration "welcomed" that message, a senior administration official said, it had to be backed up with action. "We need to see Russia pulling some of the troops that they have deployed away from the Ukrainian border and taking other de-escalatory steps," the administration official said on a call Friday. 

NEXT FULL SCALE WAR —  It’s Here and Now —