Ukraine suffered its largest attack yet from Russia, Trump's response is to cut weapon shipments while dithering yet another two weeks on his Putin ultimatum

Trump is a detestable, amoral fiend.

Pentagon halts weapons shipment to Ukraine amid concerns over U.S. stockpile

... The weapons being delayed include dozens of Patriot interceptors that can defend against incoming Russian missiles, thousands of 155 mm high explosive Howitzer munitions, more than 100 Hellfire missiles, more than 250 precision-guided missile systems known as GMLRS and dozens each of Stinger surface-to-air missiles, AIM air-to-air missiles and grenade launchers, the two defense officials, two congressional officials and two sources with knowledge of the decision said. ... 

Ukraine has repeatedly appealed for additional U.S. and European air defense weaponry as Russia has stepped up its air raids in recent months. Over the weekend, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russia had launched the largest aerial attack on the country since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, firing 60 missiles and 477 drones. ...

The munitions were approved as part of Presidential Drawdown Authority and Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative packages during the Biden administration, the defense officials and two sources with knowledge of the decision said. Some of the shipments are already in the region but have been stopped before being turned over to Ukraine, according to a defense official and two sources with knowledge of the decision. ...

 

 

Ah, so the State Department's Darren Beattie married a Russkie

Good to know!

 

Germany lifts weapons restrictions on Ukraine

 

Putin pummels Kyiv for a third consecutive record night, makes a fool of Trump and his naive peace overtures and Friedrich Merz's promise of cruise missiles if elected in Germany

The West is supine before a third world dictator equipped with gas stations and nuclear weapons.

 

 

Russia sent a record number of drones into Ukraine as Trump says Putin has ‘gone crazy’

... The Russian bombardment on Sunday night included 355 drones, Yuriy Ihnat, head of the Ukrainian air force’s communications department, told The Associated Press.

The previous night, Russia fired 298 drones and 69 missiles of various types at Ukraine in what Ukrainians said was the largest combined aerial assault during the conflict. From Friday to Sunday, Russia launched around 900 drones at Ukraine, officials said. ...

Russia has this month broken its record for aerial bombardments of Ukraine three times. ...

 

Canes mortui sunt

 

Russia hits Ukraine with the largest drone-and-missile attack of the war so far, killing at least 12

 

 

... The scale of the onslaught was stunning — Russia hit Ukraine with 367 drones and missiles, making this the largest single aerial attack of the more than three-years-long war, according to Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force.

In all, Russia used 69 missiles of various types and 298 drones, including Iranian-designed Shahed drones, he told The Associated Press. ...

Ivan Fedorenko, 80, said he regrets letting their two dogs into the house after the air raid siren went off. “They burned to death,” he said. “I want to bury them, but I’m not allowed yet.” ...

Ukraine gets pummeled hard overnight by Russia but he who boasted over and over that he would stop it in 24hrs is impotent

 

We'll probably never know whether weak Russian invasion of Ukraine headlines like these at CNBC contributed to Trump's thinking that Ukraine started it

Shrinking from calling what Russia did an invasion was a temporary flight from reality for CNBC, probably motivated by keeping people from panicking and selling stocks.

It's all about the money, for Trump no less than for CNBC. And also for Vladimir Putin.

It should be about something else.

 

Russia repeatedly violates ceasefire on Ukrainian energy infrastructure

 Zelenskiy says Russia hit Ukraine’s power infrastructure, US should react 

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Russian artillery had damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the front-line city of Kherson, two days after the U.S. announced that each side had agreed to a truce on energy strikes. ...

Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now holds about 20% of the country, contends that it has observed an energy strike truce since March 18. Ukraine says Russia has attacked eight Ukrainian energy facilities since that date. ...

Kremlin Karoline shockingly spouts Russian propaganda, says Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station is on the Ukraine-Russia border

The official White House spokesperson is conceding that the lands taken in Russia's invasion of Ukraine are Russia.

This is a lie, a big lie, an utter disgrace.

 

 

If you thought the GOP pretending that Ukraine started the war with Russia was nuts, behold Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho who wants to pretend that Trump's 2017 tax law wasn't passed under reconciliation rules

 

 Honest to God, these people are clowns.

Republicans consider major budget change to obscure deficit impact of extending Trump’s tax cuts

... Extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Trump signed into law in 2017, would cost $4.6 trillion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the official nonpartisan scorekeeper.

That’s under the “current law” metric that has traditionally been used, as the tax cuts are slated to expire at the end of this year. But Senate Republicans want to use a different scoring method called the “current policy” baseline, which would assume that extending tax cuts costs $0 because they’re already law.

The chair of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, endorsed the “current policy” approach, telling reporters that it “recognizes that extending current law does not change the tax policy, does not reduce tax revenue.”

Congressional GOP aides say the idea could have a huge impact on what they’re able to pass in the budget bill. If they use the current accounting process, they have no chance of making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, because that would require paying for it. And this process would also be key to unlocking Trump’s other tax proposals, like slashing taxes on tips and overtime pay. ...

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said it would set a “terrible” precedent if Republicans adopt that budgeting approach.

He said it would be a backdoor way to nuke the filibuster and take an anything-goes approach to the reconciliation process, which Congress can use once per fiscal year to evade the 60-vote rule in the Senate for changes to spending and taxes. The process imposes significant constraints, like needing to pay for long-term laws that add to the U.S. debt.

“My advice is: If they adopt that policy, we should advise the American people to forget about their credit card debt,” Neal said. “You wouldn’t have to analyze revenue and expenditure.” ...

The budget framework passed this week by the GOP House is guaranteed to raise the national debt by $19 trillion in 10 years, which means we'll be $60 trillion in the hole by 2035. 

All the shenanigans and pretending and make believe used over the years to get us to the current point of $36 trillion in debt, trotted out yet one more time aren't going to stop us from a date with $60 trillion in debt.

 

WE ARE NOT A SERIOUS COUNTRY.

There's a conservative media blackout on the disgraceful US pro-Russia vote in the UN yesterday, 93 countries vote to hold Russia directly responsible without the US

 No stories up at Real Clear Politics.

None at Just The News.

"If we don't cover it, it didn't happen". 

 

The Trump administration voted against condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine at the UN yesterday, an unthinkable betrayal of the American record at the UN and of American values

This odious lot must be stopped.

 

The Putin-Trump Piece Plan demonstrates that neither Russia nor America has any respect whatsover for Ukraine's property

Left is, finally and above all, lack of respect for property.

-- Oswald Spengler, The Hour of Decision, 1934

 

Mad King Ludwig to say Russia not the aggressor, Putin not a war criminal, and leave the 40-nation coalition forming the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine

My country is dead to me.

Trump to abandon Russia war crimes prosecution:

Washington signals end to pursuit of Putin as third anniversary of Ukraine invasion looms

 

Joe Barnes

 21 February 2025 6:02pm GMT

The US has signalled that it could leave an international effort to prosecute Russia for invading Ukraine, The Telegraph can reveal.

US envoys refused to label Russia as an “aggressor” at a meeting of a “core group” of countries preparing a Nuremberg-style tribunal to try Vladimir Putin for his war crimes, according to Western officials.

Washington is similarly refusing to co-sponsor a United Nations statement that supports Ukraine’s territorial integrity and demands Moscow to withdraw its forces from the war-torn nation.

Mr Trump’s administration has also refused to sign off a planned G7 statement calling Russia the “aggressor” in the war with Ukraine to mark the third anniversary of the conflict on Monday.

The US president has blamed Ukraine for starting the war, branded Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” and pushed for Russia to be invited back to the alliance of industrialised nations.

European officials fear Mr Trump’s flattery of Putin could lead to the Russian despot being let off the hook for his invasion as part of any peace settlement.

This stance has put preparations for the final meeting of the “core group” next month in doubt. The group is leading a 40-nation coalition to form a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, modelled on the response to Nazi war crimes after the Second World War.

It would involve the US and other countries joining Ukraine to grant jurisdiction to a dedicated criminal tribunal to investigate both the perpetrators of the crime of aggression and those complicit in that crime.

The crime of aggression cannot be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“Unless they acknowledge it’s an aggression, they can’t participate,” an official said of US opposition to the labelling of Russia as an aggressor.

Losing Washington’s backing for the tribunal will be a major blow to the project’s international reputation and standing. 

“This is quite a drastic shift,” a European diplomat told The Telegraph. “Rewriting history and pretending that Russia wasn’t the one who started this war is something that we simply cannot and will not agree to.”

The US has not yet officially withdrawn from the scheme and is expected to attend its next meeting next month in Strasbourg, France.

A diplomatic note seen by The Telegraph revealed that European officials were “shocked” at US claims at a series of international meetings that Russia should be invited back into the “civilised world”.

European capitals are now holding talks over a possible collapse of the special tribunal if the US does walk away as feared.

The latest US position marks a significant shift in policy between Joe Biden and Mr Trump. 

The former president had branded Putin a “war criminal” and signed off a series of international statements that described Russia as the aggressor state.

Washington is now pushing for the almost three-year war to be called the “Ukraine conflict” in discussions with international allies.

A State Department readout of the meeting between Marco Rubio, the US state secretary, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, twice described the war as “the conflict in Ukraine”.

Victim blaming: Trump says Ukraine started the war with Russia

 Didn't he do this to women who accused him?

 

 

I'm really looking forward to the Ukraine-Russia war ending on Monday, or maybe even Sunday

 Here are 11 things Trump has promised to carry out on Day 1 of his presidency

... One of Trump’s most audacious promises was that he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office — or even before.

“That is a war that’s dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president,” Trump said during a September debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia. ...

New video clearly shows Russian beach was not targeted and was collateral damage after Russian defenses downed Ukrainian missile

 

 Here.

Russia warns the U.S. to brace for retaliation after Kremlin blamed Washington for missile attack that killed four in Crimea

 

Ukraine didn't target the beach in Crimea where Russians were collateral damage of Russian defense operations

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Video shows panicked beachgoers fleeing from falling shrapnel after Russian air defense intercepted the U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Don't sun on the beach in a war zone, unless you enjoy that sort of thing.

More.

American utilities have used the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war to price gouge the consumer for natural gas

American utilities have used the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war to price gouge the consumer. 

Natural gas prices have nosedived 73% since 3Q2022 but utility prices stopped declining a year ago and are down just 14% from peak.

Utility gas actually increased in 4Q2023 and again in 1Q2024.

Look at all that air under the red line.  First time that's happened in decades.

People should be MAKING A STINK!

 

Ukraine destroys another Russian warship, CNBC runs Ukraine is losing story instead

 With hopes of victory fading, Ukraine’s fight against Russia could get harder

UKRAINE DESTROYS RUSSIAN WARSHIP