The UK Is Probably Wishing It Had An Effective Navy Right About Now

The Guardian: Russian frigate fires warning shots at British yacht in Channel

Yes, in the English Channel, a Russian warship fired rounds at a British yacht that was getting too close  for the Russian's liking.

A Russian warship fired warning shots within a few hundred metres of a British pleasure yacht sailing across the Channel on Tuesday morning amid a period of heightened tensions between London and Moscow.

The rare incident took place at 11.40am more than 20 miles south of the Isle of Wight and less than 40 miles north of Normandy, France, when the yacht, identified as the private vessel Bright Future, sailed close to the Admiral Grigorovich and ignored at least one warning.

“We assess that this is an isolated incident and not linked to the UK’s interception of the Smyrtos this weekend. HMS Mersey has been monitoring the Russian vessel and support has been provided to the crew of the yacht. ”British sources said initial indications were that more than one shot was fired by Russian sailors after the yacht had got close to the heavily armed frigate. “Following attempts to contact a British vessel in the channel, the Grigorovich fired warning shots. These were not aimed at the vessel and were an attempt to prevent a possible collision,” the Ministry of Defence said.

 

Do note that the only ship the Royal Navy could manage to have in the area,  HMS Mersey is a fishery protection patrol vessel and badly over-matched by the Russian Frigate.

 

That the Royal Navy can't even sortie a frigate to shadow the Russian frigate in  the English Channel is a sad commentary on the state of the Royal Navy.

 

Britannia used to rule the waves, now it can't even rule its own home waters.

Now That's A Take There Russia

A spit-take mind you, but quite a take all the same:

That the Russians are saying that is rather hilarious. 

That thread on Twitter of the Russians going on how the Maduro grab was unimpressive and they would have done it so much better is just amazing for its pure distortion and inversion of reality.

We will note the Russian special forces attempted just such a smash and grab in Ukraine and it happily failed spectacularly, leaving lots of dead "elite" Spetsnaz and VDV troops behind - smashing the myth of Russian Special Forces awesomeness and even their delusions of adequacy.

Heck, Russia went from being touted as the second best military in the world to being the second best military in Ukraine.

Thanks, But No Tanks, For The Parade

Russia does love its Victory Day parade.  

But this year's parade seemed impressively short on Armor:

Russia only had a single, solitary, World War 2 vintage T-34 tank to clank on the  parade route, rather than the columns of armor in years (see here for 2019 for example) past.

Per observations by OSInt, there was a distinct and marked shortage of armored vehicles on display this year.  Most of Russia's armor is now parading not in Red Square but instead on parade as hulks situated along Ukrainian roads with their turrets blown off.  

There were also no flyovers in the parade, unlike in years past. The war in Ukraine is clearly going badly for Russia, as demonstrated by a lack of armor and armored crews to spare for their premier parade.

The Biden Admin's WNBA-Level Negotiation Performance

The only WNBA trade to raise anyone's interest, is that of Anti-American druggy Brittney Griner for Russian Arms Dealer Extraordinaire Viktor Bout.

American Paul Whelan (falsely accused and convicted of Espionage) was not part of the deal and is still left behind in Russia. Interestingly according to NBC apparent Russia offered one or the other and then NBC edited that this offer had occurred.

Apparently the Biden Administration asked nicely for Whelan to be released, Russia said "No", and Biden apparently said "Ok then".

Biden said: “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up ”

"We will never give up" he says, while giving up by trading away the best leverage the US had in the deal by not insisting Whelan be included for Bout as Bout clearly has a higher value than Griner, and indeed more than Griner and Whelan combined.

As a result, there was a  trade of a high-value infamous international arms dealer with blood on his hands and a tool of Russian foreign policy for an avowed anti-American, intersectional, progressive, drug-using, and mediocre ball player to win domestic popularity points.

Biden's negotiators clearly missed out on their negotiation 101 skills and were playing checkers as the Russians played chess or just wanted a quick success for domestic consumption while losing their main chance at freeing Whelan.

So, any one know if there are other Russian criminal masterminds with ties to the Russian regime in American jails at the moment?

Biden Panders To BLM, Ignores An American In Need

An interesting action and  cotinued inaction by President Biden today.

In the case of Brittney Griner, the anti-American WNBA player who refuses to show up for the National Anthem being played before the game  and claims America is systemically racist has been clamoring for America to get her out of the mess she's made when she was arrested in Russia for bringing drugs into the country and been imprisoned for five months pending trial.

Biden has made a point of contacting and speaking with her family.

But, in the case of Paul Whelan however, who has been imprisoned in Russia for three and a half years while being accused of being an American spy - a charge he and the US government both absolutely deny. In his case, Biden has been silent and has not bothered to contact his family at all.

Quite an interesting disparity in treatment.

In one case you have a woke person who admits to having illegally brought drugs into a country where they are banned,  and has now pled guilty to drug charges in Russia, and Biden is all for her and reaches out to her family.

In the other case an innocent businessman is being imprisoned on trumped-up charges of espionage for political games and Biden says nothing.

That silence speaks volumes.

Andrei, have you lost another ship?

The Mirror:  Russia's Admiral Makarov warship 'on fire after being hit by Ukrainian missile'

So, a Russian frigate has apparently been hit by a Ukrainina anti-ship missile and is currently on fire.  

Be interesting to see if the Makarov's  damage control is on a par with the Moskva.

The cost to Russia in blood and treasure for their misguided invasion adventure in their near abroad is certainly mounting. 

Whether Putin's Russia can extract itself from this mess of their own making or will decide to further escalate this stupidity out of control will be an interesting question.

Whatever Happened To Silent Professionals?

Washington DC leaks like a sieve. It seems no one can keep their mouth shut about some elemental national security matters. 

Doing something is one thing, talking about it is something else.

The intelligence establishment apparently can't shut up.

CNN: US provided intelligence that helped Ukraine target Russian warship

NY Post: US intelligence reportedly helped Ukraine kill Russian generals

Again, doing it and providing Ukraine that intelligence is appropriate and that's one thing. 

Announcing you are doing it and broadcasting it to the world -- including to Russia -- that you're doing it is a rather stupid -- both as an unnecessary escalation, and stating that we're doing it needlessly confirms information for Russia that they shouldn't be given.

Simply stupid. 

Update:  Revealing this information isn't from a leak. It's amazingly an officially sanctioned policy to reveal and confirm this information:

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed to the Times that the US provides “Ukraine with information and intelligence that they can use to defend themselves,” while refusing to “speak to the details.”

This is unfathomably stupid.  Whatever happened to "No Comment"?

Do Svidanya Moskva!

From news reports, it appears the Ukrainians have sunk the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Cruiser Moskva (Moscow) with two Harpoonski  (Soviet copies of the US Harpoon, apparently upgraded since by the Ukrainians) missiles.

The Wall Street Journal:  Russia’s Black Sea Flagship Abandoned, Damaged After Ukraine Claims Missile Strike Sank It

Considering the stated impressive anti-missile defenses on the cruiser, the loss of it implies the Russian Navy is in the same sad shape as the Russian Army.  The anti-missile systems (including six Russian copies of the US Phalanx CIWS system) not work to knock out a couple missiles.  On top of that, the crew abandoned ship and their damage control procedures and efforts seem to be rather sub par.  Much smaller US Navy ships have been hit by bigger missiles and survived, thanks to exellent damage control procedures and training.

The training and equipment seem to be so sub par that the Moskva may have already transformed into a Sub, albeit one that cannot surface.

To add to the festivities, it was Moskva that had shelled Snake Island  and to which the Ukrainians famously  replied to surrender demand by telling the ship to do something anatomically impossible.

A loss of a major surface combatant is a big deal, and the extensive string of Russian failures on land and sea both is not exactly making them look like a competent peer military power that they had been proclaiming themselves to be.

Biden's Handlers Really Need To Get Him To Shut Up

The President of The United States is a public figure, one of the most consequential figures in the world. Even off the cuff statements matter, especially concerning major events on the world stage.

So far Biden's gaffes regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine have included a multitude of consequential statements. 

- He was  calling for the removal of Putin, which was quickly walked back by his staff as a personal opinion and not that of the President of the United States;  

- He stated the 82nd Airborne would be going to Ukraine. Quickly walked back as a gaffe.

- In a statmeent reminiscent of Obama' famously ineffective redline Biden stated that  Biden: US response to Russian chemical weapons in Ukraine ‘would depend’ on use.

-And of course who can forget the gaffe that green-lighted it all, that Russia's minor incursion into Ukraine might be tolerated?

What the President of The United States says, even in moments of dementia has consequences. 

Now the latest gaffe by Biden:

The Guardian:  First Thing: Biden accuses Putin of genocide in Ukraine.

Expect this to get walked back by his staff post-haste and that even as the President said it (at least twice) it's somehow not the policy of the Oresident of the United States.

Declaring a genocide strongly implies the world has to do something about it. 

As Joe goes running his mouth he's making the situation worse.

Everyone knows the invasion is not going well for Putin, which is unquestionably a good thing. 

However as things continue to go bad, its important to not forget that Russia is a nuclear chemical and biological-weapon armed power run by an autocrat and said autocrat, Putin, needs to be provided a face saving way to get out of this mess he has created, as you don't back someone with the capability Russia has into a wall with no way out.

Autocrats are going to autocrat, and the abject failure of the Ukraine invasion already makes Putin's position in Russia perilous. 

Making statements for his ouster or treating him as a war criminal will make him likely to dig in and potentially expand the war rather than have him do a  face saving withdrawal where he proclaims victory for local consumption and ending the invasion if he feels his position is threatened even if he retreats.

You also don't make threats on the diplomatic stage that you're not willing to back up, and Biden has been rather demonstrative in his lack of backing his statements up, or having them repeatedly walked back by his staff, rendering him even more ineffective.

Biden's minor incursion gaffe, followed by his declarations of regime change, an ineffective chemical weapon warning (that may have already been taken by Russia as allowing them to use chemicals, and now using the "G" word are simply making the situation much worse.  

Combined with his staff walking his comments back or "explaining" them the United States is seen as indecisive in this situation and acting unpredictably which can be very dangerous when instead a clear message that Putin needs to stop the invasion if he wants to remain in power should be sent, along with a clear incentive that the world will lift the sanctions on Russia once they withdraw from Ukraine.

In short there needs to be an end to the meaningless and often reversed statements coming from Biden's mouth, and a more realistic and clear statements to Putin on a way to cease his invasion of Ukraine without it being conditioned on his removal.

Germans Now Doing What Trump Was Condemned For Asking Them To Do

In the face of Russian aggression, Germany is finally going to start spening on revitalizing it's military so it can begin honoring its NATO defense commitments.

The Detroit News: Germany to buy US-made F-35s to replace aging bombers

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced last month that the country would create a special fund of 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to bolster its armed forces and raise defense spending above 2% of gross domestic product, a measure on which it had long lagged behind other NATO countries on.

Better late than never, I suppose.

They're also going to buy some F-35s to replace their aging Tornados.

Of course the Left in Germany really hates the fact that Germany might have a credible air force again and most especially that an F-35 could potentially carry a nuclear weapon:

“We reject arming the Bundeswehr with new, nuclear-capable combat jets,” said Ali Al-Dailami, the [Left] party’s deputy defense spokesman. He warned that equipping German pilots to drop U.S. atomic bombs could “fuel the risk of nuclear war in Europe.”  

I hate to break it to the Left, but the Tornado, the plane the F-35 will be replacing, was also fully capable of carrying out a nuclear mission so this changes nothing potential nuclear capabilities-wise.  

Interestingly, Germany had previously said no to the F35 as too expensive and they didn't want to increase their defense spending, but Putin's invasion is making them pick a capable aircraft to replace their obsolescent fleet.

I don't believe in any case that anyone will be giving the Luftwaffe nukes anytime soon, but they do need to have a functioning air force again if they want to have any role in NATO at all.

Nice to see Trump being vindicated about Germany needing to spend more on its own defense.  I'm sure his critics will apologize for criticizing his requests that Germany do so any day now.  Really, any day at all.

NASA: The Situation Is Desperate But Not Serious

The Russians in the face of sanctions are now threatening to take their ball and go home and leave an American astronaut stranded on the International Space Station.

No worries though, in the face of this announced threat, NASA is focused like a laser on . . .

Gender pronouns.

PJ Media: Russia Might Abandon a U.S. Astronaut on ISS, but NASA Is Worried About Pronouns

Top Men are running this show. Top Men.

Biden To Ban Russian Oil Imports With No Real Proposed Replacement

Except perhaps, to enrich our enemies in Iran and Venezuela instead of Russia, because increasing US production to the level Trump had it at is bad per Biden the Democrats, even as he lies and claims he's doing all he can to increase production and conveniently forgets his closing of Keystone and multiple oil and gas leases.

Youtube: President Joe Biden bans all Russian oil imports over Ukraine invasion

Do note he was rather late for the scheduled 10:45 am announcement. claiming he was on a phone call.  Probably they had to pump him up full of Adderall and wait for the Aricept to kick in before having him make the address.

At the end of his short address, he then refused to take a single question, and quickly walked out of the presentation room without looking back.

Biden did an excellent job of demonstrating the "Old Man Yells at Clouds technique" during the address,  threatening American oil producers  and accusing them of price gouging.  

Yet again in Biden-land it's the wreckers and kulaks to blame, when instead the increases began and are are due to his energy policies pre-Ukraine crisis and his inflating the economy by throwing trillions at it.   Note we weren't importing 8% of our oil form Russia pre-Biden. The Ukraine crisis is just making all this worse and showing the bad choices by Biden and the Democrats that got us here.

Biden also trumpeted his release of 30 million barrels from the strategic reserve - the same release where oil prices went up the same day of the release.  Brilliant and effective strategy there.

He also had the occasional weird stumble where he clearly was tripping over his words and changed statements mid-stream.

In short gas and oil prices in the USA are going to go up even higher, prices of items dependent on transportation (ie just about everything) will also go up higher,  and the Biden Administration has no solution for it and refuses to push for the one solution that might alleviate it - a rapid increase of American oil production with the Administration getting the hell out of the way and cutting the red tape they've laid to stop it, not to mention the need for immediately  reversing his policy of closing oil and gas leases on federal lands.  Chance of him doing so?  Slim to none but watch the polls to influence his actions, just as they did with Covid - assuming he can win over the prog-greenies to the necessity of it.

Top Men are really running this show. Top. Men.

The New York Times Buries The Lede Completely

The New York Times in The morning email (and on its website) asks an important question: Good morning. We look at why the West didn’t try harder to prevent the invasion of Ukraine.

The article asks and looks back to see if there was any way to have stopped the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what the West could have done. 

First the article really, really, realy soft-peddles the fact that Russia has strategic nuclear weapons, which is one helluva factor in any active boots-on-the-ground response, unlike the 1991 Gulf War they compare as an example of a grand alliance responding to aggression.  Pace the Times, this is one heckuva difference a a rather important one.

The article addresses the meek response by Western Europe, due to it's lack of military spending and military capabilities. Remember when Trump was cajoling them to spend more on defense as part of NATO and the NYT and others were aghast and agog that he dared do so and accused him of weakening the alliance?  Good times.

The article now expects Western Europe to start taking more of a role in its own defense.  Hmm, someone was pushing for that just a few years ago and was derided for it by the Times. 

The article also completely ignores Western Europe's deliberate decision to make themselves reliant on Russian gas rather than producing their own gas and power.

It then goes on to accuse America of being isolationist and not wanting to commit ground troops.  Rather facile that, and again ignores the whole potential for a nuclear exchange as a result, not to mention the deliberate weakening of the US military and its current laser-focus on diversity, inclusion, and equity over war-fighting.

One rather important event is conspicuously missing and completely unmentioned for why there was a lack of deterrence to a Russian invasion:

Namely, Biden's public statement that a minor incursion might just be accepted:

“I think what you’re going to see is that Russia will be held accountable if it invades, and it depends on what it does,” Biden said. “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion, and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera, but if they actually do what they are capable of doing with the force they’ve massed on the border, it is going to be a disaster for Russia.”

The White House later clarified his remarks, saying any movement of Russian forces into Ukraine would be considered an invasion.

Biden's statement provided the opposite of a strong deterrent effect and instead green-lit a "minor incursion", emboldening Putin to go for a lightning strike decapitation of Ukraine's leadership which thankfully failed. 

Biden's "minor incursion" remark will go down with April Gillespie's "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts" and that "the Kuwait issue is not associated with America" as exactly how you do not prevent an invasion and rather embolden and invader via diplomatic statements.

With Much Fanfare, A Drop In The Bucket

The Detroit News: Nations agree to release 60 million barrels of oil amid war

Fifty percent, 30 Million of the 60 Million barrels from the International Energy Agency 31 member countries will come from one country:  The USA. 

Apparently the other 30 can maybe cough up a million barrels each.  Some show of unity.

 60 Million barrels is however less than nothing and will maybe cause a dip in prices for a day or less. Biden released 50 million from the US Strategic Reserve to much fanfare and the price of oil didn't even dip much at all.  60 million will do even less considering how many more nations are affected.

You'll note in the article that even this measure does not get rid of the special exception to all the harsh sanctions on Russia - Oil and gas sales and money flows from same remain untouched under the sanctions.  After all, it is winter in Europe and they're dependent on Russian gas as they live out their Greenie fantasies.

Instead of this silly 60 million barrel showmanship, Biden and the rest should get serious about oil development to really deal with the problem - restart the Keystone pipeline that Biden shuttered; reopen the oil and gas leases Biden closed;  give support to the Israel-Greece-Europe pipeline that Biden stopped supporting and ended;  and importantly have Europe do some actual reliable power generation.

We'll know people are serious about energy supply, prices and hitting Russia where it hurts when these steps take place.   Until then, its energy theater, and prices will stay high hurting consumers while the elites that caused the problem remain above it all.

The Ukraine Invasion: Compare And Contrast

1. What A Leader Sounds Like:

The New York Post: ‘I need ammunition, not a ride’: Zelensky declines US evacuation offer

The US government offered to evacuate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Kyiv — but he declined.

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride,” Zelensky said, The Associated Press reported, citing a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation.

Zelensky, 44, instead chose to remain in Ukraine’s capital as Russian forces brought the fight to the city streets, where gunfire and explosions were heard overnight Friday into Saturday.

That's a leader.

2. What a Complete Dolt Sounds Like: 

New York Post: John Kerry blasted for saying he hopes Putin will focus on climate change as Russia attacks Ukraine

“But equally importantly, you’re going to lose people’s focus, you’re going to lose certainly big country attention because they will be diverted and I think it could have a damaging impact,” Kerry continued.

“So, you know, I think hopefully President Putin would realize that in the northern part of his country, they used to live on 66 percent of the nation that was over frozen land,” he said.

“Now it’s thawing, and his infrastructure is at risk and the people of Russia are at risk,” Kerry added. “And so I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with respect to what we need to do for the climate.”

That's a complete and utter dolt and dottard.

It's a very good thing he never became President.

3. What Biden Sounds Like:  Nothing.  

The White Hoiuse released a statement, so we don't know what he sounds like, or even if he wrote it.  The content of it is however rather underwhelming:

Basically he offers prayers, and 

"I will be monitoring the situation from the White House this evening and will continue to get regular updates from my national security team. "

Very inspiring. After releasing the statement, Biden then left the White House and headed off to Delaware for the weekend.

That's what we've got in office right now. That's on you Democrats, hope you keep on enjoying your minor incursion.

Just When You Think You've Heard The Dumbest Things On The Ukraine Crisis, Along Comes The New York Times

So how are you all enjoying the "Minor Incursion" so far?

Do notice how it didn't happen under Trump, whom many falsely accuse of being Putin's puppet  (forgetting that Trump put the biggest hurt on Russia of all the most recent presidents), but happened under the "adult in the room" Biden, and before him the last Russia into Ukraine incursion was under Obama.  

Why is that, one wonders? 

Anyways, The New York Times doesn't consider such a question, no time to dwell on it I suppose, but it did go on to ask the following this morning.

The New York Times: Good morning. Why aren’t the U.S. and its allies imposing tougher sanctions?

Behind a paywall, but you can get it sent right to your email box.

The author of the piece notes the announced sanctions aren't exactly severe, (who coulda guessed that would happen?) and then wonders why more aggressive sanctions aren't being carried put and suggests some that reveal a complete lack of understanding of reality,  so let's get to the funny bits:

But it’s also worth taking a look at the potential sanctions that the U.S., Britain and the European Union have chosen not to impose. They are almost certainly more severe than the sanctions going into effect. A full-scale diplomatic response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could include:

-Suspending Russia from international organizations, like the SWIFT network of banks (as Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, suggested yesterday) and the Interpol network of law enforcement

-Seizing apartments, yachts and other assets owned by many members of the Russian elite in London, Miami and elsewhere, as Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic has suggested.

-Cracking down on Vladimir Putin’s propaganda tools in the West, including the RT television network, and on people like Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor who now works for a Russian oil company.

-Perhaps most significant, sharply reduce purchases of Russian oil and natural gas, by far the country’s largest source of revenue.

Ok, now that we're done laughing at the naivete, let's go through some of these.

Swift and Interpol: Dumping Russia from SWIFT and Interpol is not something that happens overnight. Doing it will have some dangerous effects on the world financial system, not to mention undermine lots of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism efforts and monitoring that happen in the SWIFT network and Interpol.  Want Russia's international money movements and their criminals activities outside of Russia to go totally dark?  Have at it.

Seizing Other People's Stuff: Notice how Progressives just love to seize other people's stuff?  Also there's nothing better than a pundit yelling: "Hey let's have you and him fight"  from their happy place. No chance any of that could go badly nor of any retaliation, nor seizing innocent people's stuff, right?

Cracking down on other media:  Ah, the MSM's ongoing dream of censoring other news outlets.  Obviously RT runs propaganda, but you can gain some useful intel from what they're saying - and what they're not saying. Not to mention they do run some actual news now and then that our MSM doesn't touch.

And now for the dumbest suggestion yet:   Have Western Europe and the US stop buying Russian oil and natural gas.

This is where you can tell the author has no damn clue whatsoever and an utter lack of seriousness.

Western Europe has been going on a greenie climate change binge for awhile now, and has dumped their power generation and heating capacity and is now fully and totally dependent on Russian gas.

It's not like they can just stop buying it - they can't.

Biden had lifted sanctions that had been imposed by Trump on the Russian pipeline bringing gas to Western Europe, cementing Europe's dependence on Russian gas.  Biden also cancelled support for the Israel to Europe gas pipeline making Western Europe even more dependent on Russian gas with no alternative supply.

Biden also cancelled Keystone and multiple oil and gas drilling leases in the US, reducing our production, so dont expect the US to step in, and we now we need to buy Russian gas too - they're now our largest foreign supplier.

What is Western Europe, with no alternate - by design - to Russian natural gas supposed to do mid-winter? Just turn it off and tell their people to freeze for the cause? 

Good luck with that happening, you Greenies and Dems toadying up to Russia made that impossible.  

It's not like there's now an American surplus of oil and gas to step in and provide supply.  Biden and the Dems aggressively nixed that opportunity and show no inclination of reconsidering and getting production up to even pre-pandemic levels.

The utter clueless-ness of the so called experts and the pundits of our media, in America's allegedly leading newspaper no less,  is rather hilarious and depressing as well.

Prediction on The Ukraine Crisis

Failing any miscalculation or an over-enthusiastic underling somewhere messing things up, here's how I expect the Ukraine crisis to resolve.

1.  Russia gets dominion, whether by formal annexation or by influence/ volunteer occupation, over the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which is likely all that Putin wanted this round anyways as well as sending a message that Ukraine was not to join NATO.

This was just affirmed by the Biden administration as it immediately announced sanctions over these two regions - before they have actually separated from Ukraine. That's a rather tacit recognition of the breakaway - you don't sanction a part of Ukraine that is still a part of Ukraine, especially when Ukraine is your putative ally.

There will be some noise, the announced sanctions will not actually prevent Russian hegemony over the region, and the sanctions themselves will be easily routed around by Russia. 

2.  Putin gets to shore up his support in Russia by appearing to be a strongman and looking after the Russians in the regions he just separated from Ukraine - not to mention the resources of the regions. He also made Western Europe very aware of his hand on their energy spigot.

3.  Biden gets the media to trumpet his foreign policy victory of preventing war in Europe by his "tough" imposition of sanctions on the region and threats of economic sanctions on Russia after he beat the drums on the crisis by repeatedly claiming Russia had decided to invade and he'll now claim his toughness stopped it.  He gets a foreign policy distraction from the mess he's made domestically and the media can showcase his  "success" in stopping a war in Europe.

4.  The media uses this to rehabilitate Kamala Harris's image a bit as she was sent there by Biden to represent him on the situation.  Even as she gave a ridiculous, pablum-filled,  and self-contradictory speech  ("We will deter an invasion because we will impose severe sanctions if Putin does anything" and "Putin has already decided to invade" - in the same speech) she will get lots of positive coverage.  The buffing of her image is already occurring.

5.  Western Europe, after reducing their own energy generation, now remains assured of a continued flow of their needed natural gas from Russia that they depend on, so long as they don't actually do anything against Russia's territorial ambitions. All it cost was a few regions of a country they don't care much about anyways and can't do much for in any case.

In short, everybody involved wins a nice victory for domestic consumption and distraction.  Everyone, that is, except Ukraine, and the Eastern European independent states that are going to be even more nervous of being left to twist in the wind after this crisis.

If Biden Was Putin's Stooge, What Would He Be Doing Differently, Exactly?

After all these years of the lefties and Dems claiming Trump was Putin's puppet, along comes Biden who appears to be more than over the top in doing Putin's bidding, undoing most moves Trump made against Russia in record time:

1.  Removing sanctions Trump had put in place on the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline;

2. Withdrawing support for the Israel-Europe Gas Pipeline, that would have relieved Europe from having Russia as their sole supplier of natural gas; 

3.  Reducing US pipelines, oil and gas production increasing the price of gas to benefit Russia and harming the US economy.

3. Giving a green light for Russia to do a "minor incursion" into Ukraine; and

4. Ordering the evacuation of US Embassy non-essential persannel from Kiev.

Let's see if the lefties can be honest now about their false labeling of Trump and their drumbeat of the "Russia, Russia, Russia" hoax, hmm?  As Mr. B notes,  Democrats doth project too much.

Biden Admin Finds Another Way To Harm American Gun Owners

So who is the Biden administration trying to hurt more (a) American Gun owners or (b) The Russian Government? The answer gets pretty to figure out in just two headlines.

BBC News: Biden lifts US sanctions on major Russian pipeline

Yep, billions of dollars of revenue to Russia now that the pipeline is no longer being sanctioned and blocked by the US.

and  US Department of State: United States Imposes Additional Costs on Russia for the Poisoning of Aleksey Navalny 

The Biden administration is banning future imports of Russian-made firearms and ammunition to the US.  Just as the ammo shortage was starting to ease, the Biden admin goes off and does this - appearing to be tough on Russia in one minor area while making sure American firearm owners, who tend not to be Biden fans suffer accordingly.  This is a much smaller financial loss to Russia than blocking the pipeline would be but it gives the finger to his domestic non-fans.

Funny how that happens.

Weird History: Holy Mother Russia!

Mother Russia indeed:

The greatest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the wife of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707–c. 1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia. In 27 confinements she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets

-The Guinness Book of World Records

Forget it takes a village - This unnamed mother of 69 kids made a dang village!

Feodor, not content to rest and just have 69 kids, then apparently went on to have another 18 kids with his second wife for a total of 87 children in 35 total births.  

Whereafter he died, most likely of exhaustion, at the age of 75.  

No one else has been insane enough to try and beat that record in the past two hundred and thirty-eight years, and for good reason.