EPIC PIECE FROM JEFF CHILDERS THIS MORNING . PAYWALLED ON SUNDAYS BUT THIS IS TOO GOOD FOR GOLDTENT TO MISS …SO HERE IT IS
Politico ran a shifty story this week headlined, “After Ukraine funding win, Biden shifts his messaging strategy.” He shifted it. In other words, exit, stage left. Biden sounded retreat.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/02/biden-messaging-strategy-ukraine-funding-00155638
From its first sentence, Politico credited Biden for the “massive” and lifesaving Ukraine aid bill he signed into law last week. More on that aid package in a moment. “But now,” Politico assured fretting democrats, “his team is poised to make America’s ongoing commitment to the Ukraine war less of a public focus.”
How about that?
In other words, what with the economy’s final cylinder clanking and threatening to throw its rod, and the border leaking like a spaghetti strainer, and Biden having greased the sweaty palms of the Eastern European Proxy War and refueled the CIA’s private army, it’s time for him to ixnay on the You-krane-yay:
Politico reported that nearly everyone agrees it’s time for a rhetorical strategic withdrawal from Kiev:
The reality of campaigns and presidencies is that time is a limited resource. White House and campaign aides said they do not foresee a relentless public relations push to bolster support for the war in Ukraine in the months ahead. One senior administration official added, “now that the supplemental passed Congress, it’s naturally less of a salient issue.”
Further tying himself to the war carries some political risks. Biden will enter a stretch of the political calendar in which he would be better off discussing his work tackling junk fees and job creation. In recent campaign appearances, Biden has centered his speeches on economic issues. Ukraine plays a role, but it is mainly as a vehicle for attacking Trump.
Democrats and committed transatlanticists who agree with Biden’s view largely believe the most important element for continued U.S. support for Ukraine and NATO is the president securing a second term.
He should talk about junk fees and job creation, and cannibals, not proxy wars, because who cares about those? But the real problem seems to be that Ukraine is running out of bullets. They are practically fighting with baseball bats and used frying pans at this point.
The government-approved magazine missed its most delicious irony.
From the very first line, Politico praised Biden for saving Ukraine by signing a $61 billion dollar check. But get this: Despite months of wrangling Congress when they could have been planning, now that it’s gotten the money, the reports from Ukraine are a stinker. It sounds for all the world like they are just now starting to think about what to buy next:
Russia (is) expected to make more gains in the coming weeks before the aid reaches the combat zone. Even if the tide does eventually turn, few expect it to happen in the months before November’s election. Russia has captured or begun operations in multiple villages over the past week, leading Ukraine’s top military commander to warn about an increasingly dire battlefield situation.
Gosh. That doesn’t sound very promising. You’d expect the news would’ve been the other way round. The situation on the battlefield should be less dire, the tide turning faster now, after Ukraine’s cash app dinged receipt of its $61 billion vitamin D infusion. But no. Apparently the Proxy War is actually getting worse, which might explain why President Peters is pulling a Homer Simpson:
“The situation at the front worsened,” Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a Sunday statement on Telegram. “Trying to seize the strategic initiative and break through the front line, the enemy concentrated the main efforts in several directions, creating a significant advantage in forces and means.”
Russia has a significant advantage? How could this happen?
I, for one, would like to know why, after were were promised the $61 billion would get Ukraine off the ventilator, Ukraine is still hemorrhaging tanks. It was as solid a promise as the time Mumbly Joe promised that if you take the damn shot you won’t get sick. But apparently, less than a week after all that cash — which could have been used to protect our own borders — they’re now admitting it won’t make that big of a difference after all.
Frankly, between you and me, I’m getting concerned about how low they are starting to set everybody’s expectations:
Even with the new military package, Ukraine will still fight an uphill battle with a significant weapons and manpower disadvantage. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently noted that Russia fires 10 artillery shells for every one shot by Kyiv’s forces. Russia has long signaled it will embark on a major offensive this spring, starting in May or June.
There aren’t any new superweapons ready, apparently, to send to Ukraine. But it gets even worse. The vultures are circling.
People are starting to notice there is other stuff Ukraine could do with all that money while it’s waiting in line for more missiles. Behold! Take a gander at the dot-connecting headline from this morning’s Wall Street Journal. America’s big, politically-connected investment firms, the ones who poured all that money into Ukraine in 2022 expecting to eventually own a ton of farmland at the end of the war, have tweaked their thinking.
For some reason, Blackrock would now perhaps prefer a piece of that sweet $61 billion, while they can still get it, that is:
They’re going to negotiate a deal! My guess is the deal will sound something like “how about you just buy us out while you have the money?” You probably think I’m exaggerating or being silly or something. Nope, check this out:
How fast is their “patience starting to run out?” Sixty-one billion miles an hour.
Maybe, and I’m only spitballing here, but maybe Ukraine will start getting more tanks and anti-aircraft missiles after they pay off their tab to Blackrock. We wouldn’t want Ukraine spending all that money first, wasting it on their dim prospects, not before they take care of their existing obligations. The Journal explained that Ukraine “only” owes Blackrock & Co. around “a fifth of $20 billion” — making us do the math — or $4 billion dollars.
A pittance! Just scrape it off the top! After all, wasn’t it Zelensky himself who famously begged, “just give us a credit!”
Now, haha, I know exactly what you’re thinking. You’re wondering, when will the former comedian pay off the American taxpayer? Just stop. Don’t ask silly questions. Unlike Blackrock, we Americans are motivated only by patriotism and a desire to save democracy in an Eastern European hellhole that doesn’t hold elections and jails journalists. But I digress.
Blackrock had better move fast. The country’s “dire situation” is all over the corporate media’s headlines, headlines which only a week ago — right before the aid package vote — were euphoric with optimism over Ukraine’s brightening, fully-funded prospects. Not now though. The Guardian’s headline:
Dang. That was fast. And there was another alarming development for Ukraine yesterday. For the first time since the start of the war, the Russians have now personally targeted the former comic actor, Zelensky, who is qualified to lead the country through war since he used to play Ukraine’s president on TV:
As if that weren’t bad enough, Zelensky’s five-year term as the plucky democracy’s president formally ends in two weeks on May 20th. An election would normally have been held in late March, but the parliament postponed the vote citing martial law. Although “legal experts” are outgassing pretzel-like “interpretations” trying to justify Zelenksy holding office past his term, Article 103 of Ukraine’s constitution clearly specifies a five-year presidential term, with no exceptions or extensions.
But Zelensky is saying it’s not safe for Ukraine’s citizens to go vote. So they just have to put up with no president, or with a fake, unconstitutional president. After all, it’s an emergency.
But I don’t see any problem with holding elections. Ukraine should just use mail-in ballots, which were certified as 100% fraud-free in the 2020 U.S. elections during an emergency.
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