The Winds of War Words

President of the United States Joe Biden:

“We have reason to believe the Russian forces are planning to and intend to attack Ukraine in the coming week, in the coming days. We believe that they will target Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people.”

“We’re calling out Russia’s plans loudly and repeatedly not because we want a conflict, but because we’re doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine and prevent them from moving.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin:

“Again, I don’t believe it’s a bluff. I think he’s assembled the right kind of – the kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion.” 

“I want everyone in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia to know – and I want President Putin in the Kremlin to know – that the United States stands with our allies.”

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

37 thoughts on “The Winds of War Words”

  2. meanwhile, another sort of word war on the other side of the world

    Here’s the deal China offers American companies and celebrities: we’ll give you access to our billion-plus consumers, as long as you shut up about the whole “police state-genocide” thing.

  3. from france24:

    Zelensky will attend the Munich Security Conference on Saturday and return home later the same day, according to a statement from his office. 
    The Ukrainian leader’s trip had been under scrutiny due to concerns in some Western countries that Russia is poised to launch a military offensive against Ukraine and could do so while the president is out of the country.
    Without referring to US President Joe Biden’s questioning of whether it would be wise to leave Kyiv, the Ukrainian presidential office statement insisted that the situation in the country’s east “remains under full control”.

  4. bink, wouldn’t be surprised if your post last thread shows up in SNL skit tonight

     Maybe he has a stand-up gig in Munch he can’t get out of


    ”Take my country… please!”  🥁

    this whole miserable thing for ukraine does have the makings of a pretty dark comedic movie plot in years to come. 

    there have been past stories of the jester in the court heroically confronting danger – can’t remember whether it was a mark twain tale or a danny kaye/charlie chaplin type movie.

  7. https://warontherocks.com/2022/02/the-deadly-business-of-dissent-in-russia/

    “This week’s Horns of a Dilemma podcast explores the uncomfortable ways in which jokes about stifled expression in the Soviet Union still resonate in Russia today.”

    “…discuss the role of propaganda, the rigging of elections, and the effect of social media on Putin’s control of information. They conclude with an analysis of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.”

    “…Ukrainian-born immigrant to the United States who took the stage name Yakov Smirnoff… “In Russia, we have only two TV channels. Channel 1 is propaganda. Channel 2 is a KGB officer telling you to turn back to channel one.”

    In the US, we have Fox Noise and NoiseMax.

  8. Although not fresh as in breaking within the last twelve hours, the news that SFB ate documents is still stunning.  I doubt putin eats documents, he has others to do that for him, so comparing lunacy is not exact.  How far into an alternate world the guy is will be the subject of books for decades to come.  What is probably more unsettling to me is these crazy things keep coming out.  The media is so complicit in keeping that guy in office when he should have been locked up to prevent harm to himself and others.  What will be next?

  9. speaking of the former guy

    Judge Lets January 6 Lawsuits Against Trump Move Forward—But Dismisses Case Against Giuliani And Don Jr. (forbes.com)

    TOPLINE
    Lawsuits brought against former President Donald Trump seeking to hold him liable for the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol can move forward, a federal judge ruled Friday—as can challenges against the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boy leader Enrico Tarrio—but the judge dismissed claims against attorney Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr.
    […]
    The judge ruled there was sufficient evidence that Trump’s speech at a rally prior to the attack could constitute a “plausible conspiracy,” as were the Oath Keepers and Tarrio’s actions, meaning the cases against them can move forward.
    Trump’s speech was made with the goal of blocking Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote and the then-president should have understood it would be taken “as a call to action” by his supporters, Mehta ruled.
    The judge was unpersuaded by Trump’s arguments that his speech was protected under the First Amendment, saying “it’s plausible” it was unlawful “words of incitement.”
    However, the judge ruled that Giuliani and Trump Jr.’s speeches at the same rally were protected because they “uttered no words that resembled a call to action” and would make them legally liable, including when Giuliani called for “trial by combat.”
    CRUCIAL QUOTE
    “It is at least plausible to infer that, when he called on rally-goers to march to the Capitol, the President did so with the goal of disrupting lawmakers’ efforts to certify the Electoral College votes,” Mehta wrote. “The Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and others who forced their way into the Capitol building plainly shared in that unlawful goal.”
    […]
    KEY BACKGROUND
    Mehta’s ruling concerned Swalwell’s case, a separate lawsuit brought by more than 10 House Democrats and a third suit brought by two Capitol police officers. Additional police-led lawsuits against the president are moving forward separately in court. The lawsuits seek to hold Trump and his allies liable for the trauma the events of January 6 brought the members of Congress and officers, who were present at the Capitol building at the time of the attack, as well as for how it interfered with lawmakers’ efforts to certify the presidential election result. The plaintiffs have alleged Trump helped incite the January 6 attack based on his efforts to overturn the presidential election—particularly through his statements made at the January 6 rally, such as telling his supporters to “fight like hell” and saying they could “go by very different rules” to challenge the vote count. “If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump told his supporters before directing them to march to the Capitol.

  10. as to the phrase “war is hell”

    “I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, “war is Hell!”
    William Tecumseh Sherman speaking to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy on June 19, 1879

     
     
    but according to mash
     

    Hawkeye: War isn’t hell. War is war and hell is hell, and of the two, war is worse.
    Fr. Mulcahy: How do you figure that, Hawkeye?
    Hawkeye: Easy, father. Tell me, who goes to hell?
    Fr. Mulcahy: Sinners, I believe.
    Hawkeye: Exactly. There are no innocent bystanders in Hell, but war is chock full of them. Little kids, cripples, old ladies. In fact, except for a few brass involved, almost everybody involved is an innocent bystander.

  11. Do you think CNN is right wing now?  Looks like it is to be the next faux news channel.  John Malone, sfb supporter and billionaire, is poised to run the channel soon.  CNBC interview, I am have a problem finding this not behind a paywall.

  12. Dulce et Decorum est

    By Wilfred Owen

    Seems appropriate today.  On Kindle so you will need to look it up if you don’t know the poem.  Let us hope it isn’t as accurate a commentary as it was the first time around.

  13. the guardian:

    Amid the grim assessments and growing fears of an imminent Russian invasion that have consumed the security conference in Munich, the Ukrainian president offered an unexpected moment of levity.

    Tapping his headset, Volodymyr Zelenskiy joked that it might have been hacked by Russia.

    “I think, cyberattack,” he said with a wry smile, before explaining that the translation had stopped working.

    As he waited for a replacement, he deadpanned: “See, Russia’s not here, but they’re here.”

    The audience roared with laughter.

  14. from same guardian link:

    The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy challenged the west to explain why it had not done more to protect Ukraine, not just now that the country was under the threat of invasion by Russia, but during the onslaught over the past eight years. Describing the policy as one of appeasement, he called for world leaders to meet to create a new security architecture.
    He also called for Nato to give an indication of how long it would take for Ukraine to be given membership, and in the meantime for the country to be given security guarantees.
    Flying to Munich from Kyiv with America warning a Russian attack on his capital was imminent, Zelenskiy said he had left his country in good hands with its soldiers and people. “I had my breakfast in Ukraine and I will have my dinner in Ukraine,” he reassured the audience.
    He used much of his 20-minute address to challenge the west about what had happened to its promise of Nato membership, and asked what message the west had for the two soldiers killed on the frontline on Saturday.
    He said he did not know what Vladimir Putin wanted, which was why he proposed a meeting, saying he was willing to discuss the Minsk agreements with him.
    “We do not need your sanctions after our country has been bombarded and we have lost our borders.”
    He added that if Russia pulled back its troops there would be no sanctions, but then said he feared “if the west cannot even disclose what will happen to whom when the war starts then I doubt it will be triggered at all after it happens”.
    He insisted his army was keeping calm, resilient and adult in the face of cynical Russian attacks on the territory it controls, he nevertheless acknowledged that the risks were high and one provocative shell fire could yet spark war. He said his country could not secure stability if there were constant predictions of war the next day.
    “Ukraine is longing for peace. Europe is longing for peace. The world is saying it does not want any war and Russia is claiming it does want to intervene. Someone here is lying.”
    “We are told that the doors of Nato are open but for the moment we are told that it is not possible. Are these doors really open? You have an open door but strangers do not seem to be allowed.
    “Open doors are good, but we need answers,” he said. “If you don’t want to see us there, be honest about it. All these questions require answers.”
    Recalling the recent attacks on a kindergarten in eastern Ukraine, he said the “kids were not turning to Nato, they were going to their classrooms”.
    He opened by asking: “Has our world completely forgotten the mistakes of the 20th century and where does the appeasement policy usually lead to? These are horrific history lessons. How did we get to this point in the 21st century where the war is being waged and where people are dying how did we end up in the biggest security crisis since the end of the cold war?”
    He added: “The security architecture of our world is brittle, obsolete and the rules that were agreed dozens of years ago are no longer working. The security system is slow and failing us time and time again.”
    He blamed “egotism, arrogance and irresponsibility at the global level. Some countries resort to crime and others resort to indifference”.
    “It is too late to fix the current architecture. It is high time for a new one before we pay with millions of casualties.”
    He vowed his country would support itself with or without the help of its partners.

  15. CNN seems to be becoming the actual news version of Faux Spews now that their commentary is completely laughable.  It will be like living in a two newspaper town years ago with one slanted right and one left between CNN and MSNBC.  

  16. i know ukraine is not finlandia but the piece seems to fit today’s mood. in any case, it’s time for a musical interlude.

    Finlandia, Op. 26 is a symphonic poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The first version was written in 1899, and it was revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, as the last of seven pieces, each performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. The premiere was on 2 July 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society conducted by Robert Kajanus. A typical performance takes anywhere from 7½ to 9 minutes. A recurrent joke within Finland at this time was the renaming of Finlandia at various musical concerts so as to avoid Russian censorship. Titles under which the piece masqueraded were numerous, a famously flippant example being Happy Feelings at the awakening of Finnish Spring. Most of the piece is taken up with rousing and turbulent music, evoking the national struggle of the Finnish people. But towards the end, a calm comes over the orchestra, and the serenely melodic Finlandia Hymn is heard. Often incorrectly cited as a traditional folk melody, the Hymn section is of Sibelius’s own creation. Although initially composed for orchestra, in 1900 Sibelius arranged the entire work for solo piano. Sibelius later reworked the Finlandia Hymn into a stand-alone piece. This hymn, with words written in 1941 by Veikko Antero Koskenniemi, is one of the most important national songs of Finland (though Maamme is the national anthem). With different words, it is also sung as a Christian hymn (Be Still, My Soul), and was the national anthem of the short-lived African state of Biafra (Land of the Rising Sun).

  17. for those who gave up on watching the finlandia video, you missed out on some neat wildlife starting at about 2:39 in….   particularly the bears.

  18. Felicity Ace Car Carrier Continues to Burn in Mid-Atlantic – Photos

     
    BERLIN/LISBON, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A ship carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, that caught fire near the coast of the Azores will be towed to another European country or the Bahamas, the captain of the nearest port told Reuters on Friday.
    Lithium-ion batteries in the electric cars on board the vehicle carrier Felicity Ace have caught fire and the blaze requires specialist equipment to extinguish, captain Joao Mendes Cabecas of the port of Hortas said.
    It was not clear whether the batteries first sparked the fire.
    “The ship is burning from one end to the other… everything is on fire about five meters above the water line,” Cabecas said.
     

    Felicity Ace Car Carrier Continues to Burn in Mid-Atlantic – Photos


     
    A very nasty business .

  19. Here’s the link to the whole Owen poem.  

    The last lines are where the horror resides:

    If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
    Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
    And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
    His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
    If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
    Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
    Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
    Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
    My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
    To children ardent for some desperate glory,
    The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
    Pro patria mori.
     

  21. Putin has moved massive numbers of troops from China border to Ukraine. Big opportunity for China to reclaim land Russia stole from them.

     As Churchill once said of China, they’re like a hotel burglar looking for an open door. Putin has left them open doors to his east.

  24. The Russians have a word  for the season just around the corner , I can’t spell it , but it translates to : “The time of no roads” .
    Great armies  have had to deal with it for as long as great armies have marched.  He can’t wait any longer  to move or mud season will grind his attack to a halt. 
     
    For years we have tip toed around this thug’s cyber attacks , if he pulls the trigger , I hope we turn the lights off from Valdisvostok to  St. Petersburg, and fry his gas pipeline compressors .
     

  28. Just finished  
    Mein Kampf: The Secrets of Adolf Hitler’s Book of Evil
     
    The link @ 7:18 .
    It was a flop  at first , in 28′ only after 1933 did he make money off it . By 1936 if you got married, you got  a free copy at the wedding.
    That bastard made over 12 million Euros off that book.
    It’s a really good documentary  less than an hour long  about that book.

  30. That German film of Poland in 1939 shows lots of horses in the German Army. 
    Just 83 years ago. 
    We have just sold Poland 250 A-1 Abrams  tanks. 
    My head spins trying to make sense of just why evil never sleeps. 
     
    Oh wait , I remember good men do nothing. 

  31. In 2014 when Putin took Crimea , that was Biden’s portfolio .
    On the other hand if Trump had truly won, he’d be giving the keys to the city of Kiev  to Putin on the steps of their city hall. 

  32. According to Burn’s, Willy made this for 4 grand in Dallas with 3 guys.  His record company hated it.  So they said to each other let’s release it , and when it flops he’ll learn his lesson. 
     

  33. Let’s all drive inflation  kids  , top off your tanks……… all of them . The vampires are waiting for war.
     
    If you have an EV  never mind  the price of oil in Oklahoma.

  34. So they re-ran  the Burn’s film  “Country Music” ……… 
    And I watched for the third time. 
    This time I thought  this should be re done as a country song  –

     

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