| To: Les H who wrote (42983) | 7/22/2024 9:52:53 AM | | From: Les H | | | | What a Ukraine peace treaty brokered by Trump might look like
I hazard the guess that notwithstanding the claims that Trump may make that he has forced concessions on both sides to reach a peace, that peace will be largely based on the latest proposal by Vladimir Putin on the day before the phony Summit on Peace held in Switzerland in June.
To be sure, the Russians will give up their territorial claims to the entirety of the 4 provinces they have already incorporated into the Russian Federation but never fully conquered. It may even be that they will keep only two of these, Donetsk and Lugansk, while Kherson and Zaporozhie are returned to Ukraine under conditions that guaranty substantial autonomy to them, in the sense of the Minsk-2 accords that were never implemented for lack of active intervention by the West European guarantors of the accords. After all, Russia’s national interest was never territorial aggrandizement but its security from NATO encroachment.
Why the distinction between the 4 provinces? Firstly, because Lugansk and Donetsk constitute the most heavily Russophone part of Ukraine and suffered the greatest losses of people killed and property destroyed from the 8 years of shelling and ‘anti-terror’ marauding by Ukrainian military units as from 2014 to the start of the Special Military Operation in 2022. They are also the most valuable territory for their metallurgical and general manufacturing traditions. And they are essential to ensure the viability of Russia’s hold on Crimea. Letting go Kherson and Zaporozhie would return to Ukraine valuable Black Earth land which is essential to ensure the economic viability of the rump state.
At the same time, surely the Russians will set as a non-negotiable demand the formal refusal of Ukraine to ever seek NATO membership, a prohibition on the placement of foreign military infrastructure or personnel on Ukrainian territory and limits on the size and capabilities of the Ukrainian armed forces.
It is virtually certain that Russia will raise no objections to Ukraine joining the European Union. And it is conceivable that Russia will contribute to the rebuilding of Ukraine by ceding part or all of the 350 billion dollars in frozen Russian state assets now in the West as an act of good will, not as war reparations. Russia can well afford to do this because it recouped a large part of this amount in the first year of the war from the vastly inflated prices of the hydrocarbons it sold on world markets as a result of global disruptions in energy supplies. In return, Russia will surely demand, and likely the West will agree to rescind all economic sanctions that have been imposed on the country.
gilbertdoctorow.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| From: Les H | 7/22/2024 3:10:46 PM | | | | | | Fixed-price contracts to drive new losses for Boeing’s defense arm in second quarter: Exec
“We had a good start to the year, but this quarter you’ll see to be significantly challenged. It'll look like it looked the third quarter of last year,” Boeing's defense CEO Ted Colbert told reporters ahead of Farnborough Airshow.
By VALERIE INSINNA
on July 21, 2024 at 1:35 PM
breakingdefense.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (2) |
|
| To: Les H who wrote (42990) | 7/22/2024 3:33:18 PM | | From: Les H | | | | UN: Afghan Taliban increase support for anti-Pakistan TTP terrorists
The U.N. sanctions monitoring team released the assessment late Wednesday amid a dramatic surge in TTP-led terror attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilians, killing hundreds of them in recent weeks.
“TTP continues to operate at a significant scale in Afghanistan and to conduct terrorist operations into Pakistan from there, often utilizing Afghans,” the report read. It noted that the globally designated terrorist group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is operating in Afghanistan with an estimated strength of 6,000-6,500 fighters.
“Further, the Taliban have proved unable or unwilling to manage the threat from Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, whose attacks into Pakistan have intensified,” the document said. “Taliban support to TTP also appears to have increased.”
voanews.com
Countering increased US/Pakistan support for ISIS-K in Afghanistan. ISIS-K originally drew from the TTP in Pakistan as well as ISIL in Iraq and Syria. |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| To: Les H who wrote (42991) | 7/22/2024 6:29:48 PM | | From: Les H | | | | Israeli Forces Strike in Humanitarian Zone; Scores Reported Killed
An official at a major hospital in Gaza said hundreds of injured people had arrived there.
Israel renewed its military assault in parts of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Monday, in a ground and air operation that local health officials said killed and wounded scores of people, adding to the misery of a city deeply scarred after nine months of war.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had launched the operation because intelligence indicated that Palestinian militants had used the eastern part of the city — part of an area previously designated as a humanitarian, or “safe” zone — to fire rockets toward Israel and that Hamas was attempting to regroup there. Earlier on Monday, the Israeli military had warned people in that area to leave, and photographs showed thousands fleeing.
The Gazan health ministry said 70 bodies were brought to Nasser Hospital, and at least 200 other people had been wounded, adding that others were almost certainly buried under rubble. The Palestine Red Crescent said its teams in the area had dealt with at least 12 people who had been killed and 50 wounded.
nytimes.com
Logic would dictate that militants would be leery of moving with the civilians to a temporarily designated safe zone after so many Israeli attacks. No mention of any militants killed or targeted.
Very similar to the 1948 Deir Yassin massacre where the village had declared their peaceful intent. That attack precipitated the flight of 700,000 Arabs from Israel during the Nakba. So far, 200 thousand may have been killed by Israel while another 115,000 have fled to Egypt. |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
|
| From: Les H | 7/22/2024 9:57:45 PM | | | | | | China unveils world’s 1st meltdown-proof nuclear reactor with 105 MW capacity
The nuclear reactor has been in the works since 2016 and was only began operations in December 2023.
Updated: Jul 22, 2024 08:20 AM EST
interestingengineering.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| From: Don Green | 7/23/2024 8:18:13 AM | | | | | | Complicit in the Biden cover-up, the lying Democrats have lost all credibility
They didn’t soulfully consider Joe Biden’s marked decline and decide, for the good of him, his party and the country, that he had to step down.
They lied, and they got caught.
The Democratic Party line on President Biden was that he had turned in an exceptionally effective State of the Union address. He might mess up a name here or there, but he had gotten better with age.
He should be judged on his achievements, which rivaled those of LBJ. Anything suggesting he was in decline was a paranoid lie, or — in a truly ridiculous neologism — “a cheap fake.”
Everything we saw with our own eyes was misleading. No, he hadn’t wandered off at the G-7 summit. No, he hadn’t frozen up at his Hollywood fundraiser.
No, everything was fine.
No one formally enforced this party line, but everyone knew to follow it — Democratic leaders, journalists and donors.
The whispered conversations stayed whispered.
Then the debate happened, and before it had ended, the party line was inoperative.
There were attempts to revive it, but it was a little like being a Communist in the 1930s when Stalin wrenched the party into a totally new position.
It didn’t matter whether the new had any connection to the prior line; it had to be followed.
So Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, who months earlier had issued forth with table-thumping assurances that Joe Biden was at the absolute top of his game, suddenly thought he might have to step aside.
George Clooney, who co-hosted the aforementioned Hollywood fundraiser, wrote in the New York Times that Biden at that event was a shadow of his old self, and suddenly former Barack Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau could say that everyone he talked to at the event was appalled by Biden’s state.
The president can be forgiven for being disappointed and angry that everyone who had been covering for him switched overnight.
There’s no honor among thieves, but shouldn’t there be at least a little among political co-conspirators?
Biden showed monumentally poor judgment in deciding to run again last year. He almost certainly was in the grips of legitimate self-delusion, though.
His enablers were truly cynical and dishonest, hoping that their fake narrative about Biden’s continued vitality could see them through until November.
Their credibility should be shot as they attempt their great switcheroo.
‘Defenders of democracy’ staged a cover-up and coup
Opinion by David Harsanyi
Democrats love to brag about how they are defenders of “democracy.”
Which is odd, because 2024 will be the first presidential contest in modern history featuring a nominee who wasn’t chosen by voters.
Kamala Harris did not get a single vote in the primaries.
And the same cabal that propped up Joe Biden, that hid his ailments, that put the nation in a perilous position, that used him to push hard-left policies, that bypassed the electorate, now promises that Harris is the very best person for the job.
Why would anyone believe them?
Al Sharpton contends that Kamala’s candidacy is a “grassroots” movement. Which is laughable. She has never displayed impressive political instincts. There is, and has never been, any organic movement championing Kamala Harris.
Now her base is Democratic Party elites.
Recall that Kamala couldn’t even make it to the Iowa caucuses in the 2020 Democratic Party primaries, as her campaign went broke and disintegrated into bickering factions before it even really got started.
What has Kamala done as vice president? I can’t think of a single accomplishment.
Democrats are now forced to create a fake primary that approximates a legitimate “process” so they can argue Kamala’s ascension is democratic.
see also Top Dems threatened to forcibly remove Biden from office unless he resigned, set him up to fail at Trump debate: SourcesIt is not. If there was a normal, open contest in 2024, Kamala would likely have faced a half a dozen accomplished governors, and almost surely lost.
So, this backroom nomination creates a lot of questions. For instance, will Kamala really be running the country, or do we have another Biden on our hands?
The Wall Street Journal reports that congressional leaders were worried about Biden’s mental state back in 2021. Democrats covered it up.
One person who knew the president was unable to perform even the most rudimentary tasks, incidentally, was Kamala Harris.
If Harris was a patriot, she would have done something about it. If Biden was a “patriot,” as so many Democrats now contend, he would have gotten out of the race months ago and allowed a credible candidate to emerge.
But the president didn’t step aside, he was bullied out of the race after the left’s gaslighting efforts about his mental acuity failed.
Only then did Democratic elites begin applying massive pressure on Biden to leave the race — among them big money donors, who stopped writing the president’s campaign checks.
Democrats love to scaremonger about the corrosive power of money in politics. Have big donors ever had a greater say in picking a major party’s nominee?
None of this is exactly new. Recall that the entire left-wing establishment, including the media, let Biden campaign from his home in 2020 to help him beat socialist Bernie Sanders.
see also Kamala Harris is not your wacky aunt, she’s more dangerous than BidenIn 2024, the Democratic National Committee changed the party’s nominating calendar and put South Carolina first in line, overturning decades of tradition, to ensure that Biden avoided any inconvenient challenges — even though most elected officials knew about his diminishing mental state.
Once in power, the “moderate” Biden spent trillions on the left-wing grab-bag “inflation reduction” bill, even when economists warned the spending would spark inflation.
Biden rolled back numerous border enforcement measures, despite being warned the country would be flooded by illegal immigrants.
Biden dropped a moderate abortion stance and supported the procedure on demand without any limit.
Biden coddled the Islamic regime in Iran and sold Israel out on numerous occasions.
That’s just a taste. These policies had Barack Obama written all over them.
Now, Kamala owes the same people, not voters, her political future.
Like Biden, Kamala will be a useful proxy for those who propped up her candidacy and perhaps her presidency.
Maybe Democrats have no other choice. But please don’t tell me this is “democracy.”
David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Twitter @davidharsanyi
nypost.com |
| | World Outlook | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last Read |
|
| |
