Biden Ramps Up

Isn’t this a threat we will send in troops? Biden: “If Russia targets Americans in Ukraine, we will respond forcefully.”

craig, perhaps joe will unleash these robot dogs instead. technically (being weapons which we have already been supplying ukraine) we wouldn’t be sending combat troops.

meanwhile, on the disgraced twice impeached former guy

Could Thursday Be the Worst Day Yet for Donald Trump and His Kids Ivanka and Don Jr.? (thedailybeast.com)

Former President Donald Trump and two of his adult kids are aggressively trying to avoid explaining—under oath—why so many of their business properties have wildly different values on paper. A New York judge will decide their fate on Thursday.
On Feb. 17, Judge Arthur F. Engoron will hear defense attorneys and investigators spar over whether Don Jr., Ivanka, and their former president father can keep dodging subpoenas recently issued by the New York Attorney General’s office, which is investigating potential bank fraud.
The trio was supposed to sit down with investigators at the New York City office of AG Letitia James during the first week of January. Instead, the civil lawsuit quickly spiraled into a nasty, high-stakes fight with both sides going straight for the proverbial jugular.
[…]
At the start of the year, Trump and his two adult kids—both executives at the family company—refused to show up to scheduled depositions. They then upped the ante by exposing details of the AG’s investigation in court documents. In those filings, the Trumps are trying to convince the judge that James’ lawsuit is just a thinly veiled attempt at double-dipping, getting them to make statements in a civil case that could be used against them in the separate criminal matter.
In mid-January, James hit back with an unconventional legal maneuver. She dumped reams of new evidence in public court filings that laid out what her investigators have uncovered so far.
[…]
The details James exposed were cited as the reason the company’s outside accounting firm, Mazars USA, severed ties with the Trump Organization and disavowed 10 years of Trump’s personal financial statements in a letter Feb. 9.
That forced Trump to make a public statement defending his dynasty as a “great company with fantastic assets.” But the chest-beating also came with an odd financial disclosure about his personal wealth that made no accounting sense.
In the statement, Trump lumped together his “net worth” and “total liabilities”—which aren’t conventionally added together—in what appeared to be a sloppy attempt to distract from the fact that he owes a gargantuan $523 million in assorted business obligations.
The local judge overseeing this case could force the ex-president to subject himself to investigators’ questions, but it doesn’t mean Trump will even try to answer them.
During a deposition in October at Trump Tower, he reportedly dodged questions for four-and-a-half hours about how his building’s security team allegedly assaulted protesters in 2015. Then again, sometimes he’s said too much, as he did in his disastrous lawsuit against journalist Timothy L. O’Brien.
Regardless of whether the judge forces the former president to be deposed or not, the political damage is already done. The revelation that Trump’s long-time trusted accountants decided to ditch him—citing the AG’s investigation—has spooked Trump’s own inner circle. And the company is now on financially shaky ground, as banks could immediately call back their loans and force him to seek money elsewhere.
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Ukraine crisis: Nato fears Russia trying to stage pretext for attack after reports of multiple shelling incidents – live | World news | The Guardian

Shelling is a “big provocation”, says Ukraine president

Ukraine Blames Russia-Backed Separatists for Shelling in Stanytsia Lushanka – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

KYIV, Ukraine — Artillery shells struck a town on the Ukrainian government-controlled side of the frontline in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, damaging a kindergarten and wounding three adult civilians, the Ukrainian military said, as a flare-up in a long-running conflict added to tensions between Kyiv and Moscow.

The artillery strike also knocked out electricity and sent residents scrambling into basements to seek cover. The strike, which was not unusual given the level of violence along the front that has persisted for years, came amid Russia’s military buildup near the Ukrainian border.

The artillery fire hit the town of Stanytsia Luhanska, in northeastern Ukraine, which lies along the frontline that separates government forces from Russia-backed rebels in the eastern Ukraine war. It is also near the border with Russia, where Western governments say Moscow has amassed a large military force that is poised to further invade Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military statement blamed what it called “occupation” forces for the strike, suggesting that the artillery was fired by Russia-backed separatist troops that have been operating in eastern Ukraine for eight years.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, blamed Russia for a “severe violation” of the tenuous cease-fire agreement in the region, while President Volodymyr Zelensky described it as “provocative shelling.” Ukraine and Western leaders have warned in the past that a full-scale attack by Russia could be preceded by some sort of provocation, perhaps manufactured by Moscow.

In Brussels, the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, said that the reports of shelling were “troubling.” While the United States was still gathering details, Mr. Austin said: “We’ve said for some time that the Russians might do something like this in order to justify a military conflict. So we’ll be watching this very closely.”

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Ukraine and Moscow-backed separatists trade accusations of shelling in potential eastern flash point – The Washington Post

[…]
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will tell the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that “the evidence on the ground is that Russia is moving toward an imminent invasion. This is a crucial moment,” U.S. United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

The decision for Blinken to stop in New York on his way to the Munich Security Council and speak directly to the U.N. Security Council was made in a series of overnight conversations at the White House, Thomas-Greenfield said. “Our goal is to convey the gravity of the situation,” she said.
Before Blinken took off for New York, a senior State Department official characterized the present situation as “perhaps the most perilous moment for peace and security since the end of the Cold War.” The official said it was still unclear whether the shelling Thursday morning marked what U.S. officials have warned could be moves to fabricate a pretext for an invasion, or whether it was more of the typical tit-for-tat that has been happening in Ukraine’s east.
The Security Council meeting was called by Russia, which currently holds its rotating presidency, to discuss implementation of the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements on ending the war in eastern Ukraine.

In Moscow, state news agency RIA Novosti reported Thursday that Russia is expelling the U.S. Embassy’s second-ranking diplomat, Bart Gorman. No reason was immediately given for the expulsion of Gorman, the embassy’s deputy chief of mission.

[…]
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels that Russia’s willingness to challenge the post-Cold War European security order means the bloc faces a “new normal.”
The Western alliance is considering adding more battle groups in central, eastern and southeastern Europe — including possibly in Romania and Bulgaria — to complement the four established in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Separately, Britain confirmed Wednesday it will double the size of its force in Estonia under NATO command. “NATO and our allies have been clear that an invasion of Ukraine will be met with severe consequences,” British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in a statement.
Eleventh-hour talks aimed at achieving a diplomatic resolution to the crisis are continuing, even as the West and Russia offer alternative versions of reality on the ground. Ukraine has reportedly asked the United Nations Security Council to discuss a move by Russian lawmakers to ask Putin to recognize contested territories in eastern Ukraine as independent states. There is unlikely to be any concrete action against Russia, which is one of five permanent members of the council and could veto any resolution.
Vice President Harris will arrive in Germany on Thursday night for the Munich Security Conference, a gathering launched by Western nations at the height of the Cold War to address security challenges. The Kremlin has said it won’t send any officials. Harris, who will be joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, is set to meet NATO’s Stoltenberg and the leaders of the three Baltic states. Germany’s Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday that foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations will hold crisis talks on Ukraine on the meeting’s sidelines.
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