The minions of Clarence Thomas. Amazing. Hair and make-up politically correct.

How many met Ginny at Trump's office? Was it actually Clarence Thomas that was president?

Just sayin'.

July 16, 2022
By Lauren Frias

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (click here) has faced growing ethical concerns from critics due to his wife Ginni Thomas's political activism and participation in partisan politics — especially her support for former President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

In January, Thomas held the lone dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court's order rejecting a bid from former President Donald Trump to withhold presidential records from the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.

A number of people who at one point ran in Clarence Thomas's circle went on to help prop up the former president — some of whom have been evoked during the January 6 House panel's public hearings.

Conservative news host Laura Ingraham and former Trump lawyer John Eastman are among those who formerly clerked for the Supreme Court justice and now share ties with Trump....

Lightning is a growing issue. It isn't necessarily predictive in it's behavior now.

This is from the Tampa Bay areas on July 6, 2022. Florida has also been finding water spouts more frequently than before. But, as for this lightning strike, it is mostly defying what we know about lightning. The idea the rubber in the tires is grounding the lightning might be violated as a trend of the air conditions found during storms.

This lightning not only struck the pick-up truck ahead of the photographer, it lingers long enough to strike both trucks. The people were not injured because the lightning was grounded into the tires. While that behavior by the lightning is normal, the strike itself was wide, easily discerned in the film and sustained longer than a normal single strike of lightning.

The filming has pixels and the actual nature of the lightning may not have fully been recorded. It is a video and not a captured voltage either. It would be interesting to know if there were any signs of the strike on the bodies of the trucks. That would indicate a more physical capacity that could prove to be a changing character of lightning.

I find this video very unusual. The lightning wasn't completely grounded by the first truck. It sustained passing into the ground long enough for the MOVING truck with the photographer to be struck as well.

Some of the characteristics I think may be the culprit is higher levels of static electricity in the air. I don't know if I enjoy the same enthusiasm as Penn State, but, they are sincerely concerned about the characteristics of lightning.

Nitrogen, oxygen and water vapor molecules (click here) are broken apart by lightning and associated weaker electrical discharges, generating the reactive gases NO, O3, HO2, and the atmosphere's cleanser, OH.

 

The reason for the California wildfires is not much different than the low levels of Lake Mead.

The drought has been more than two decades long. Where has everyone been? The US legislature only understands emergencies and petroleum industry subsidies. It seems to me those subsidies are poorly spent.

July 22, 2022
By Judson Jones

New satellite images (click here) released by NASA Wednesday reveal the dramatic loss of water at Lake Mead due to the ongoing mega-drought.

“The largest reservoir in the United States supplies water to millions of people across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico,” NASA wrote about the image. “It now also provides a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the US West in 12 centuries.”

When you compare these two natural-color images — one acquired on July 6, 2000, and the other on July 3, 2022 — you can see the lake full and, in the most recent imagery, you can see the mineralized lakeshore which used to be underwater.

Move the slider to the left to reveal the minimal water remaining in Lake Mead. Move it back to the right to see where the level once stood....

The multi-decade drought has dried the land where it touches. In that is a sad reality, in that fire spreads quickly and with voracity. There are some people seeking to pump the Mississippi to provide water to the west. That is not realistic. The Pacific Ocean and desalination is vital to the RETURN of moisture to the California air mass. There is no other answer. The wetter the air, the wetter the ground.

I find it foolish to end irrigation and/or lawn watering. The air has to be moist and it isn't going to happen without the ground being wet. Dry land evaporates water in the air. There goes the rain.

Irrigation is a must and every method of protecting land moisture need to be carried out. That means no building into wetlands and pouring concrete. Laying down any kind of anti-nature cover is absolutely stupid.

July 25, 2022
By Jacobs Rodgers

Hot and tinder-dry weather on Monday (click here) is expected to further test firefighters battling the explosive Oak Fire west of Yosemite National Park, which barreled out of control over the weekend into California’s largest fire of the year, forcing thousands of people to flee from their homes.

Fire crews issued several fresh evacuations on Sunday as the blaze metastasized in several directions — overtaking the communities of Jerseydale, Darrah and Lushmeadows while threatening the small enclaves of Bootjack and Mariposa Pines. But with nothing in the way of rain or cooler temperatures in the forecast, fire crews braced for more erratic fire behavior, while warning that the number of destroyed structures was likely to increase in the days ahead from an initial count of 10....

Desalination is not a threat to nature. The salt can be processed to add to the American diet. Everyone is familiar with "Sea Salt." I understand there is a built in pool that is best served by salt water to minimize the use of chlorine.

Marine biologists need to be asked to check the salinity of the oceans as all the ice fields, regardless of form of ice fields, melt into the ocean. The volume of fresh water melting into the ocean may have an effect on salinity. If there is a change in salinity in waters, even at the locality of the melting is not normal, salty formulations that match sea water will have to be returned to Earth's ocean. DO NOT dump salt into fresh water, there is very little fresh water on Earth.

United States Forest Service (USFS) Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS) (click here) The majority of the USA is currently assessed for at least moderate fire dangers. That is not good. 

This is the only way to think about Russia.

July 24, 2022
By Brad Dress

Moldova’s prime minister (click here) on Sunday said she is “very worried” about Russia invading her country next as it makes advances in Ukraine’s east and south, near the Moldova-Ukraine border.

“It’s a hypothetical scenario for now, but if the military actions move further into the southwestern part of Ukraine and toward Odessa, then of course we are very worried,” Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”...

Turkey calls them friends. NATO does not deal with terrorists. What is the problem with Turkey? 

May 24, 2022
By Alexander Ward and Nahal Toosi

President Joe Biden (click here) has finalized his decision to keep Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a terrorist blacklist, according to a senior Western official, further complicating international efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Another person familiar with the matter said Biden conveyed his decision during an April 24 phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, adding that the decision was conveyed as absolutely final and that the window for Iranian concessions had closed....

Terror on Sunday Morning

Did it occur after weekly collection of gifts to the church? It looks like a local criminal. They seemed comfortable with the acts. Besides armed robbery they conducted it in a remarkably calm manner.

July 25, 2022 

By Elder Sanders

New York - A bishop (click here) was robbed at gunpoint in the middle of a sermon Sunday in Brooklyn, and it was caught on video, CBS New York reports.

Bishop Lamor Whitehead says five to ten minutes into the sermon, he saw the door in the back of the room kicked open and three to four men walked in with guns. He believes he was targeted, the station says. The service was being livestreamed"I said, 'Alright, alright, alright,' pretty much stating that I'm not going to do anything because I know you're coming for me. You're coming straight to me. I don't want my parishioners hurt. I've got women and children there," said Whitehead, of Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries.

"As I got down, one went to my wife and took all her jewelry and had the gun in front of my 8-month-old baby's face. Took off my bishop's ring, my wedding band and took off my bishop's chain, and then I had chains underneath my robe and he started tapping my neck to see if anything else. So that means they knew. They watched and they knew that I have other jewelry," he explained. ...

 

Some areas of the country have less than $4.00 per gallon gas.

July 25, 2022
By Frank Witsil

Gas prices fell yet again (click here) - down 19 cents from a week ago, according to AAA — with Michigan drivers paying an average of $4.44 a gallon, an big drop from a month ago when gas was well over $5 a gallon.

"Michigan motorists have seen gas prices decrease 65 cents within the past month," Adrienne Woodland, a AAA spokeswoman, said Monday, adding that if demand remains low as supply increases, motorists "will likely see pump prices decline."

Gas is still $1.16 more than this time last year.

But one Biden senior official has predicted gas will eventually fall to about $4 a gallon nationally.

Motorists are now paying an average of $66 for a full 15-gallon tank of gasoline....

In the EU. There are no new supply because the companies don't want to pay wind fall profit taxes.

July 22, 2022

On 26 May 2022, (click here) Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced a temporary tax on the profits of oil and gas companies operating in the UK and on the UK Continental Shelf. This is a tax on companies that have made high profits, particularly where these result from increases in energy prices....

In the USA the burden falls to the national debt. Some Americans think that is a burden and a windfall profits tax is in order.

July 11, 2022

By Guest Commentary Ukaykiran Vissa

President Biden has called for Congress to approve a three-month federal gas tax holiday. (click here)

Although this has the potential to ease pain at the pump, responsibility for a viable solution should fall on large oil companies, especially given their record-high profits.

ExxonMobil, America’s largest oil company, reported that its net profit of $5.5 billion, more than doubled in 2022. Shell recorded its highest earnings ever, and Chevron reported its highest quarterly profit in almost a decade.

Even more infuriating is that oil and gas companies currently possess 12 million acres of leased U.S. public lands, along with 9,000 unused drilling permits, according to the Center for American Progress.

Given their record profits and vast land reserves, oil companies should technically have the ability to increase supply and subsequently lower fuel prices. So why don’t they? The simple answer is they choose not to....

The US State Department needs to arrange for asylum.

It may not have occurred to Mayanmar that asylum is available for people that are targeted for assassination.

July 25, 2022
By Zubaidah Abdul Jalil

Four democracy activists (click here) have been executed by Myanmar's military in what is believed to be the first use of capital punishment in decades.

The four - including activist Ko Jimmy and lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw - were accused of committing "terror acts".

They were sentenced to death in a closed-door trial that rights groups criticised as being unjust.

Family members of the deceased gathered at Insein prison on Monday desperate for information on their loved ones.

The mother of Zayar Thaw says she was not told when exactly her son would be executed, adding that she was unable to make proper traditional funeral plans as a result.

"When we met on Zoom last Friday, my son was healthy and smiling. He asked me to send his reading glasses, dictionary and some money to use in prison, so I brought those things to the prison today," Khin Win May told the BBC's Burmese Service. "That's why I didn't think they would kill him. I didn't believe it."...

"Good NIght, Moon"

The waning crescent

26.3 days old

11.3 percent lit

James Webb is worth it's weight in gold, literally and figuratively. It is sending back information about other galaxies. That is a good thing, because, I think Mars is old news and a new, young, livable galaxy is in order. 

The Russian language is used globally by people.

Vladimir Putin, on cue because the calendar said so, rolled his tanks into Ukraine. He sent troops to invade Chernobyl and then when their plans there fell apart because all the Russians were experiencing radiation sickness, they kidnapped scientists to run a lab in Belarus.

Putin's politics has become a genocide that encompasses not only the children and civilians of Ukraine, but, the global food chain that will cause food shortage and the suffering of starvation with people that don't even know where Russia is or how the president of Russia could hate them his much.

Victor Orban is not the man for the position of Prime Minister of Hungry. NATO needs to make that certain to the people of Hungry. NATO must end the propaganda about land that belongs to others as land to be annexed by Hungry.

DOES ANYONE HEAR THE RUSSIAN PLOT IN THAT BESIDES ME?

No NATO country is going to annex another NATO country's land. Out of the question and any tensions created by hate mongers like Orban need to be ratted out to the people. These are horrible men. Putin and Orban need to leave Ukraine and all other NATO countries' land alone. NOW!

Russia must stop it's aggression. There was never a valid reason for it besides Putin's guilt about the fall of the Soviet Union. He is not the president of the Soviet Union, he is the president, unfortunately, of Russia. Russia has no claim to Ukraine or any other Post-Soviet country.

The world has gotten to small for such nonsense. This is all nonsense and corruption. Russia believes it can walk into Ukraine because there is so much Russian corruption left over from Yanukovych that it looks like Russia's homeland corruption.

Turkey and Hungary need to get straightened out with open and fair elections and the DEPROGRAMING of the people.

As far as Trump? He needs to be charged with crimes against his own country. He is somewhat responsible for the instability that brought this about, but, Putin pulled the lever on a magical day on his desk calendar.

By the way, everyone in the USA knows McDonald's left Russia. I love that. But, what most Americans don't know is that the real estate was taken by the Russia government and given to somebody's brother to become a global oligarch selling hamburgers. 

Well, Moscow Mitch won't get a chance to put Russian McDonald's in Kentucky because all the Russian customers have become sick. No lie. They are feeding people some kind of junk they want to pass off as hamburger or something. Putin keeps this up and the Russian people will be seeking refugee status asap.

July 6, 2022

Russians took to Twitter and Telegram (click here) to post photos of moldy buns on their burgers from Russia's rebranded McDonald's, Vkusno i tochka, which translates to "Tasty and that's it."

The photos, which were sent in from subscribers to popular Telegram channels in Russia, mostly show food from the rebranded restaurants around Moscow. Vkusno i tochka opened in June after McDonald's sold its Russian franchises to Russian businessman Alexander Govor amidst the country's war in Ukraine. McDonald's first opened in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union, and operated in the country for 30 years....

Peace means peace.

It is not some kind of propagandized ideology of "let's prepare the nukes for war."

We are all human beings, not some date on a political calendar set for termination!

Two can play at that game!

December 25, 1991 was the day the Soviet Union flag came down at the Kremlin. Unfortunately, that is Christmas on my calendar otherwise I would be celebrating for a different reason. I think those Russian bozos picked December 25th for a reason. I will have to come up with another date to dance on the Soviet Union's grave!

Stop allowing Russia to have it both ways!

This is ridiculous. Russia is to stop bombing Ukraine! If the Russians won't stop dropping bombs then the rest of the world needs to stop them. The missiles MUST stop dropping on Ukraine! 

That is not Vladimir Putin's target! Not anymore!

Odessa is the supply chain to feed the world. This is outrageous that one missile is dropped on these precious lands. This is enough!

THIS IS NOT OKAY!!!!!!!

July 24, 2022

A spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry (click here) said Sunday that Russian missiles destroyed military infrastructure Saturday in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa, a site that is vital for the exportation of Ukrainian grain.

Maria Zakharova posted on her Telegram account "Kalibr missiles destroyed military infrastructure in the port of Odessa, with a high-precision strike."

Russia earlier had denied any involvement in the Saturday strike that came a day after Russia and Ukraine had signed agreements allowing Ukraine to ship millions of tons of grain out of its Black Sea port.

It was not immediately clear what caused the reversal of facts from a Russian official.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Russia for jeopardizing the deal.

Zelenskyy said late Saturday in his daily address, “Today's Russian missile attack on Odesa, on our port, is a cynical one, and it was also a blow to the political positions of Russia itself. If anyone in the world could still say that some kind of dialogue ... with Russia, some kind of agreements are needed, see what is happening. Today's Russian Kalibr missiles have destroyed the very possibility for such statements.”...

Some casual reading about Hungry and it's wayward Prime MInister.

Maybe Orban wants to be charged with genocide for taking Putin's side? Yes? I am sure it can be arranged. 

August 17, 2020

Hungary’s democratic backsliding (click here) and increasingly nationalist rhetoric threatens the stability of the alliance. NATO needs to respond.

On June 6, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Órban visited a small town on the Hungarian-Slovak border to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Trianon. The agreement, signed in the wake of World War I, dramatically shrunk Hungary’s territory from its Austro-Hungarian empire borders, resulting in Hungary ceding two-thirds of its territory and leaving sizable populations of ethnic Hungarians outside of the new boundaries. In his speech, which was imbued with nationalist resentment, Órban described every Hungarian child inside and outside of the country’s borders as a “guard post” to protect national identity. Additionally, he boasted about the speed at which Hungary has increased defense spending and built “a new army,” proclaiming, “We haven’t been this strong in a hundred years.”...

This is where Orban becomes divisive using the same type of wedge issue others use in their politics to create a political divide based in profound problems that live from generation to generation.

...Órban’s deliberately provocative and threatening speech was not a nationalist dog whistle intended only for the Hungarian public. Rather, it directly suggested that a significant amount of territory belonging to Hungary’s neighbors to the east—Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine—should be considered Hungarian....

A "Politico" article where Budapest is mentioned. 

June 28, 2022

By Andrew Desiderio, Alexander Ward and Quint Forgey

Madrid - Turkey isn’t the only “problem child” of the NATO family at this year’s annual summit. (click here) 

The Hungarian government is the lone objector blocking the establishment of a Center for Democratic Resilience within NATO, a yearslong effort by Rep. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-Va.), who serves as president of NATO’s Parliamentary Assembly.

It can sound like a tale out of the U.S. Senate, where one member can grind the chamber’s business to a halt. In NATO, all member-nations must consent to a decree in the Strategic Concept or expansion of the alliance. The center, as billed, would advise governments on best practices for maintaining and building a 21st-century democracy.

Hungary’s anti-democratic slide is no secret, so it’s not necessarily a surprise that its government is objecting to the creation of such an entity within NATO. VIKTOR ORBÁN, Hungary’s DONALD TRUMP-endorsed prime minister, has engineered crackdowns on the press and undermined election laws and the independent judiciary, leading critics to dub him an authoritarian.

“With the horror we’re witnessing in Ukraine, how could you not want to build democratic architecture within NATO to counter what we are experiencing in Ukraine?” Connolly told NatSec Daily here on day one of the summit. “You can’t argue the two aren’t related. Of course, they’re related. What do you think Putin is fighting against?”

Connolly, who leads what is effectively NATO’s legislative body, is pleading with Hungary to harken back to its roots — specifically, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, which was an effort to push back against Soviet influence....

This is the Budapest "Politico" is discussing, AKA "You can lead a horse to water..."

November 24, 2021

Washington, D.C. - The biggest train wreck (click here) on the track to NATO expansion in the 1990s – Boris Yeltsin’s “cold peace” blow up at Bill Clinton in Budapest in December 1994 – was the result of “combustible” domestic politics in both the U.S. and Russia, and contradictions in the Clinton attempt to have his cake both ways, expanding NATO and partnering with Russia at the same time, according to newly declassified U.S. documents published today by the National Security Archive.

The Yeltsin eruption on December 5, 1994, made the top of the front page of the New York Times the next day, with the Russian president’s accusation (in front of Clinton and other heads of state gathered for a summit of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, CSCE) that the “domineering” U.S. was “trying to split [the] continent again” through NATO expansion. The angry tone of Yeltsin’s speech echoed years later in his successor Vladimir Putin’s famous 2007 speech at the Munich security conference, though by then the list of Russian grievances went well beyond NATO expansion to such unilateral U.S. actions as withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the invasion of Iraq.

The new documents, the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the National Security Archive, include a series of revelatory “Bill-Boris” letters in the summer and fall of 1994, and the previously secret memcon of the presidents’ one-on-one at the Washington summit in September 1994.... 

To return to a sane moment.

The First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska wants Ukraine to be safe for children. She asked the US Congress to send armaments that will stop the missiles from falling. The Ukrainian people want to return to their homeland without hearing Russia missiles falling all around them. 

The First Lady of Ukraine is not unreasonable. She is not asking for the end of the Russian people. She is asking to be protected from Russian missiles. That is not anything any governing body anywhere should refuse. The Ukraine people need to return to their homeland and resume their lives to rebuild their country. Russia's missiles are the only thing standing in their way. 

Russia also MUST return all the children kidnapped by the country of Russia. THIS IS GENOCIDE, when children are removed from their homeland to be assimilated into a culture and country that is not their homeland.

THESE ARE NOT RUSSIA'S CHILDREN TO DO AS THEY PLEASE!

June 3, 2022
By Anthony Deutsch and Stephanie van den Berg

The Hague - Prosecutors investigating war crimes cases in Ukraine (click here) are examining allegations of the forcible deportation of children to Russia since the invasion as they seek to build a genocide indictment, the country’s top prosecutor said in an interview.

International humanitarian law classifies the forced mass deportation of people during a conflict as a war crime. "Forcibly transfering children" in particular qualifies as genocide, the most serious of war crimes, under the 1948 Genocide Convention that outlawed the intent to destroy - in whole or in part - a national, ethnic, racial or religious group....

The reaction to Russia's unexpected and vicious aggression...

...has resulted in aggressive posturing among the allies against Russia. Let's face it, Russia is on a genocidal rampage; first Ukraine and now the world. 

6 July 2022

At present, NATO has 30 members. In 1949, there were 12 founding members of the Alliance: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. The other member countries are: Greece and Türkiye (1952), Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009), Montenegro (2017) and North Macedonia (2020).

This posture by Estonia should make Putin nervous. NATO is an ally and if Putin thinks he is going to penetrate any border along any of these countries he will be met with a wall of preparedness.

Putin needs to remember one thing. He did this. He put his ego and politics before the lives of people and NATO took notice. There is no country in the world immune from a response to conducting genocide. If Putin wants this to calm down, he needs to end the confrontation with Ukraine and the world. When Putin deprives the world of Ukrainian grain it is declaring war across the globe in realizing there will be people to suffer from hunger and starvation. Every country on Earth is worried about their people and this has to stop. 

July 18, 2022
By Raul Gonzalez

Despite being geographically close (click here) Estonia and Russia have a fractious relationship, due in part to the former’s ties with the United States. In recent days the Estonian Defence Ministry has confirmed the purchase of a new weaponry system that will significantly bolster its armoury.

Estonia has bought a number of high-precision, long-range multiple launch rocket systems, with approval from US authorities, which will provide the small Baltic country with a defensive attack capacity.

NO ONE IS BACKING DOWN AND ALLOWING RUSSIA TO RUN ROUGHSHOD OVER THE WORLD.

Here is a little twist in the plot.

It is out of the Daily Star out of the UK. It isn't the BBC. There is a real good chance none of this occurred. 

23 July 2022
By Will Stewart

Putin looked awkward (click here) as he came down the steps of his presidential plane in Tehran but Ukrainian sources noted he moved unusually quickly and was more alert than in prior public appearances

A Ukrainian intelligence chief thinks Vladimir Putin may have used a body 'double' for his arrival at a summit in Iran this week.

Intelligence supremo Major-General Kyrylo Budanov was suspicious in a live interview on 1+1 channel, saying a Putin lookalike could have flown to Tehran to meet with the presidents of Iran and Turkey.

If there was a fake Putin at these meetings I would think Iran would know for sure. Not only that, but, it would create a "null and void" to any of the outcomes. My take on this? What the man who went to Iran a nuclear expert:

For the sake of argument, let's say it was Fake Putin that touched down i? Iran. It could have been arranged for the purpose of advancing Iran's nukes, but, it also creates a false face for Putin who is remaining in Russia to continue to plot his next assault.

I think Erdogan needs to discern who his real friends are and stop playing footsie with Putin.

Erdogan has his own ally.

Erdogan has been president of Turkey since 28 August 2014.

Since 9 July 2018, Erdoğan has served as the first president under the new executive system of government. The president is directly elected by eligible Turkish voters for a five-year term, re-electible once.

You could say, he pulled a Putin, and most admired by Orman and Trump, the wannabee dictators.

Erdogan's ideological friend is, of course, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Órban

January 2019
By Kemal Kirisci and Ilke Toygur

In July 2018, (click here) having triumphed in the presidential elections the previous month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began to formally transform Turkey’s long-standing parliamentary system into a heavily centralized presidential one. The new system entrenched his one-man authoritarian rule at home and is having profound implications for the making and substance of Turkish foreign policy as well as Turkey’s relations with the West. This transition has taken place amid an international environment that is undergoing a significant transformation. Today, the West is far from a shining “city on the hill,” attracting Turkey and other countries toward the liberal values it is meant to represent. Populism and nationalism are on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic. President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies are eroding the world order characterized by multilateralism, free trade, and advocacy of liberal values. The European Union is weakened internally by the challenge of Brexit and by diminishing public support for a liberal Europe comfortable with diversity. Complicating this picture are emerging powers such as China, Iran, and Russia that are playing a much more assertive role on the global stage.

This paper argues that the confluence of a “new” Turkey and an evolving international order is likely to continue to strain Turkey’s relations with its Western allies. Although many of the challenges that crowd the Turkish-Western agenda predate Ankara’s formal introduction of its presidential system, these issues are likely to become more visible and harder to overcome. Yet, it is possible that the amount of authority and power the Turkish president has amassed for himself may also create new opportunities for transactional relationships....

July 23, 2022

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (click here) has called on the United States and Russia to hold peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, adding that Kyiv cannot win against Moscow’s larger force.

During a July 23 speech delivered in neighboring Romania, Orban also criticized the European Union’s strategy of imposing sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine, saying it is hurting the bloc.

"Only Russian-U.S. talks can put an end to the conflict because Russia wants security guarantees" only Washington can give, Orban said.

The United States and its Western allies were engaged in intense, monthslong negotiations with Russia over the Kremlin’s security concerns when President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine on February 24 on the false premise of protecting Russian-speakers in the Donbas.

A nationalist who has repeatedly clashed with the EU over his increasing authoritarian rule at home, Orban has been a thorn in the bloc’s side since the war began, undermining the image of a West completely united against Kremlin aggression....

Now that it is obvious Erdogan is playing both sides against the middle...

...there is no reason to prevent Finland and Sweden from joining NATO. Now, is there? Erdogan is finding the Ukraine war with Russia a leverage point since NATO was appalled at the inhumanity of Russia and is receiving a large number of the refugees that went west.

I think Erdogan is a COMPROMISE to the strength of the alliance. Erdogan needs to stop playing with Finland and Sweden as if they are bouncing balls between the court of the Free World and that of Russia.

June 28, 2022
By Hueryra Pamuk and Anne Kauranen

Madrid/Helsinki - NATO ally Turkey (click here) lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden's bid to join the Western alliance on Tuesday after the three nations agreed to protect each other's security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The breakthrough came after four hours of talks just before a NATO summit began in Madrid, averting an embarrassing impasse at the gathering of 30 leaders that aims to show resolve against Russia, now seen by the U.S.-led alliance as a direct security threat rather than a possible adversary....

July 18, 2022

Ankara - Turkey will freeze (click here) Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids if the Nordic countries do not keep promises on counter-terrorism made last month, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, adding he believed Sweden was "not showing a good image" for now.

Finland and Sweden applied for membership of the defence alliance in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but were met with opposition from Turkey, which accused the Nordic countries of supporting groups it deems terrorists....

President Erdogan of Turkey

Turkey, as a NATO ally, is very different than the rest of the alliance. Erodgan has interests on both side of the line between the alliance and Russia and it's allies. At least it thinks it does. I believe any recognition of Turkey by Russia is as a path to the Free World and the ability to COMPROMISE it.

July 21, 2022

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (click here) returned without any concrete results from talks with his Russian and Iranian counterparts in Tehran, to which he went with a thick dossier of bilateral problems. The many strains in Turkey’s ties with Russia and Iran remain unrelieved, and Erdogan’s quest for a green light for a new military intervention in Syria remains unanswered.

For Erdogan, the July 19 gathering held as part of the three-way Astana platform on Syria was a long-awaited face-to-face with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi. Erdogan had repeatedly sought to host Putin in Turkey as part of his mediation efforts in the Ukraine war but to no avail. A preliminary deal reached last week on an export corridor for Ukrainian grain via Turkey paved the way for the two leaders’ meeting. And his plan for a bilateral visit to Tehran, mooted since December, had been postponed twice.

Several factors have strained ties between Turkey and Iran in recent times, atop their conflicting positions in Syria. Chief among them is the political impasse in Iraq, where they have backed rival blocs to form the government. Tensions in the Iraqi theater have stemmed also from influence wars in Kirkuk, Mosul and Tal Afar; Iran’s reproof of Turkey’s pursuit of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on Iraqi territory; attacks on the Turkish base in Bashiqa by Iranian-backed militia groups; and their support for PKK-linked Yazidi forces in Sinjar. Meanwhile, a covert row has been brewing over potential Iraqi Kurdish gas exports via Turkey....

The word "peace" has a different meaning in the Russian language.

Peace by any outreach regarding Russia and it's allies does not mean a humanitarian effort is being waged to end hostilities. No, that is not their meaning. At all.

The word "peace" to Vladimir Putin means "opportunity." Not an opportunity to end deaths and suffering. Not at all. It is an opportunity to prepare for greater and worse barrage of death and suffering. That is the case across the board. All the pomp and circumstance around any signature of Putin's is nothing more than placating The Free World. It is a photo opportunity. It is a way of putting false hope in place to allow the Free World's politicians to attempt to tred water to those that elected them.

That is part of the strategy. Whether it is an arms treaty or one of peace in a war zone, the signature of Putin simply is a propaganda tool for both Russia and the Free World. The signatures of those from the Free World are weighted heavily in having it all work. That is part of the strategy. Let the Free World play hero to their people and Russia gets to be as deadly and dangerous as it wants behind the back of those dedicated to hope and a world that has peace.

This has been the way Putin has handled any aspect of the invasion into Ukraine.

Cruel and insincere. Genocide.

July 23, 2022

Well, that didn’t take long. (click here) On Friday, Russia’s defense minister raised a hungry world’s hopes by signing an agreement with the president of Turkey and the secretary general of the United Nations, according to which Moscow committed to facilitate resumption of large-scale grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Russia had previously blockaded these, causing stress on global grain markets. Less than 24 hours later, on Saturday, Russian ships launched four long-range missiles at the largest of those ports, Odessa, two of which Ukrainian air defenses intercepted — and two of which caused some structural damage, though no destruction of grain or human casualties. The United States’ ambassador in Kyiv called the attack “outrageous,” which is an understatement.

Saturday’s events were not surprising to those familiar with President Vladimir Putin’s record, in this war and others. He is notorious for violating humanitarian agreements establishing safe “corridors” through which Russian forces and their allies herded Syrian civilians escaping war zones in that country....

Is it truly a beacon of hope?

22 July 2022

The UN plan, (click here) which also paves the way for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets, will help to stabilize spiralling food prices worldwide and stave off famine, affecting millions.

Russian and Ukrainian Ministers signed the Black Sea Grain Initiative, facing each other at opposite ends of the table, while the Secretary-General and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sat in the centre.

“Today, there is a beacon on the Black Sea,” the UN chief said, speaking prior to the signing. “A beacon of hope – a beacon of possibility – a beacon of relief -- in a world that needs it more than ever.”

Mr. Guterres thanked President Erdogan and his government for facilitating the talks that led to the deal.

He commended the Russian and Ukrainian representatives for putting aside their differences in the common interests of humanity.

“The question has not been what is good for one side or the other,” he said. “The focus has been on what matters most for the people of our world. And let there be no doubt – this is an agreement for the world.”...

It would take hours for me to write what I think about this disaster of a country called Russia.