Ukrainians on the front line dismiss new aid from US saying it will only prolong the war.

 

Ukrainians mourn a dead soldier. The Daily Beast/Reuters.

Ukrainians on the front line dismiss new aid from the United States saying it will only prolong the war. The Daily Beast. One civilian said "are you serious? Now this war will just continue" when informed that Congress had passed a new aid package. Another said that the money would be a drop in the bucket and doubted new weapons would stop the Russians from winning. A third man lamented the corruption in Ukraine and said the money from Congress will go to the wrong people, and detailed a personal experience with corruption. A woman said that she actually supported Russia and didn't care which side won. Finally a soldier who was in treatment in a mental ward for PTSD and a psychotic break said with tears in his eyes that the new weapons would not help. The interviews by The Daily Beast occurred in Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, a city that is likely to be Russia's next target and is under heavy attack. 

My Comment:

Some rare real journalism from the Daily Beast. They are not an outlet I use often since they are mostly biased, but in this case it's a good viewpoint that you rarely see in western media. I will give the Daily Beast credit for showing another side of the conflict and being fair to both sides as they also gave the more mainstream opinion that the aid will actually do something. 

Is this opinion widespread in Ukraine? It's hard to tell. It's important to note that Kharkov is a city that mostly speaks Russian and has a lot of Russian people. It's also near the front lines and is under frequent attack, unlike cities in Western Ukraine. Even Kiev has been less affected by the war than Kharkov has been. 

I am guessing that the people in Kiev don't share there views, for what should be obvious reasons. Those folks are mostly sheltered from the worst effects of the war and are where much of the graft and corruption is being sent too. And many of them are racists that hate both Russia and Russians and want the war to continue at all costs. 

But I think that the people The Daily Beast interviewed are pretty much right. Russia is pretty obviously winning the war and a few billion dollars in aid and weapons is not going to matter. Russia has a huge advantage in manpower and technology and has been steadily rolling back Ukrainian lines since their failed offensive last year. 

I do have to say that the human tragedy here is immense. Most of the folks interviewed by The Daily Beast had a rough time of it. The soldier interviewed was clearly traumatized and broken and probably had some serious physical damage along with the mental damage. He said he had 30 concussions and was still fighting on the front lines, which just shows how bad Ukraine's manpower issue is. And everyone seems to have lost someone...

I also think that they are right, peace talks should be happening. There is no reason for this war to continue until the last Ukrainian soldier is dead. And Ukraine itself would probably get a better settlement if they negotiate an end to the war instead of a unconditional surrender, which is now the most likely outcome for this war. But the Biden Administration won't allow any serious discussion with Russia to end the war, which means that everyone interviewed in this story will probably end up dead or crippled... 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson confronts pro-Hamas protesters at Columbia.

 

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson at Columbia. Politico/AFP/Getty.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson confronted pro-Hamas protesters at Columbia University. Politico. Johnson announced that he said he would call Joe Biden to send in the National Guard to break up the protests. Speaking over the protesters heckling him, Johnson said that the protests did not count as free speech and criticized the president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, for being weak and ineffectual. He is joined by his criticism of Shafik by many other Republicans and at least one Democrat, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman. The protests at Columbia have lasted a week and have spread to other campuses across the country. There have been incidents of outright antisemitism at the Columbia protests. 

 

My Comment:

I've got mixed feelings about this. I think Mike Johnson was pretty obviously trying to distract against the fact that Ukraine aid got passed. That was hugely unpopular among the Republican base, especially since Johnson didn't secure any border security measures. Taking on the Columbia protesters is a very good way to get that out of the news. 

With that being said, I do think the Columbia protesters do need to be confronted. They have been acting terribly to the Jews on campus and it's clear that they aren't protesting Israel's actions in Gaza, they are protesting the existence of Jews themselves. That's absolutely not acceptable and the protests need to be broken up.

Is Johnson right that this protest isn't protected under the 1st Amendment? I would believe so. Protest is protected under free speech but civil disorder is not. Occupying campus and preventing people from using it goes beyond simple protest and harassing Jews on campus is disorderly conduct at best and a hate crime at worst. 

That being said, I am concerned about free speech when it comes to Israel and Judaism. I don't support bans on the ideas that the protesters spout, as misguided and inaccurate they are. I also don't support laws about denying the Holocaust or other similar laws against antisemitism, people should be able to say whatever they want whenever they want. 

Regardless, I think there is a huge difference in how this is being handled at Columbia and other campuses compared to what happened at UT-Austin today. When an unlawful protest broke out there, police didn't waste time in breaking it up. The protest was disrupted and the leadership was arrested. Compare that to other campuses where the protests have lasted weeks. 

I haven't made a secret of my disdain for left wing protests in general and the pro-Hamas position specifically. These protests are absolutely pointless as Israel does not care at all what happens on American campuses, at least in terms of foreign policy. They do care about the Jewish students being threatened, but they absolutely aren't going to stop their war on Hamas regardless of what happens at college campuses in America. 

I think the idea is to put pressure on Joe Biden which also seems pointless. Biden no longer has any influence on Israel's actions, which is proven by their strike on Iran and their refusal to change their war plans. Any change in foreign policy by Biden won't actually do anything to stop the war in Israel. It could be this could be another effort for the progressive left to take over the Democrats, but that seems pointless when they basically have done so already. Biden, instead of shifting to the center, has gone hard left outside of his Israeli policy, so there isn't much of a point. 

As I have mentioned before, Biden is in a no-win scenario here. If he goes hard against the pro-Hamas wing of his party, he risks losing them, and he has indeed lost quite a few of them already. If he goes in their favor he risks losing Jews for Democrats for good. He has no good options and no matter what he chooses he will be hurt for 2024. Which side will he choose? I am not sure, both options are bad for him. I'd hope that he would side against the protesters but who knows what he will do? I doubt even Biden knows... 

Mitch McConnell believes that Republicans don't like Ukraine aid because of Tucker Carlson...

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. New York Post/AP.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has blamed Tucker Carlson for Republicans not supporting Ukraine aid. New York Post. McConnell said that Carlson's enormous audience was convinced by him to question aid and also said that he should continue to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin. McConnell also blamed Donald Trump, the Democrats and the border crisis for why it took a long time for the bill to pass. The Senate approved the bill sent to them from Congress that would give $95 billion to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. 

My Comment:

This is another example of Mitch McConnell being totally out of touch with his voters, along with Republicans in general. No, Tucker Carlson didn't convince everyone that Ukrainian aid was the wrong thing to do. We came to that conclusion on our own. Carlson is popular not because he shapes the discussion, it's because he follows the trends on social media. 

And the trends on social media? It's almost totally opposed to Ukraine on the Republican side. People are sick and tired of this war that nobody outside of the arms industry and the few remaining neocons wanted. Indeed, people on social media were absolutely furious when it was announced that the aid package passed, to the point where there was a semi-serious discussion that it was time to consider taking up arms. For me personally, it disgusted me to the point where I can no longer consider myself a patriot and thinks America deserves to fall. 

Even more infuriating was the fact that Republicans just laid down and died and did not extract a thing from the Democrats for this bill. You would think at the very least they would have gotten the border closed and illegal immigrants deported but not one thin dime went to help actual Americans. Indeed, we are doing more to enforce Ukraine's border than we are doing for our own. 

It's also pretty clear to people that actually do the research that Russia is winning the war and would be regardless of the aid Ukraine is getting. That was clear to me the second the war started but it became undeniable after Ukraine's summer offensive totally failed. Sending more aid will do nothing to actually change the course of the war. It will only prolong it. 

As for Tucker Carlson himself, I have to say that though he's not responsible for people disliking Ukraine aid, he is one of the few people out there doing true journalism. Journalists are supposed to challenge the status quo, not just parrot the party line and Carlson is doing the former, not the latter. It's a shame he reports in a format that I hate, video, otherwise I would consume his content a lot more than I do now. 

Russia destroys a TV tower in Kharkiv Ukraine, in a sign they are targeting the city.

 

The destroyed TV tower in Kharkiv. Reuters. 

Russia has destroyed a TV tower in Kharkiv, which is a sign of Russia's designs on the city. Reuters. President Zelensky said it was an effort by Russia to make the city uninhabitable. Russia has been targeting Kharkiv with missile and air strikes for weeks now and thousands have fled the city. The TV tower was hit by a KH-59 cruise missile. The pace of attacks from Russia has increased as Ukraine has ran out of air defenses and the Kharkiv region has been hard hit. 

Watch the moment the Kharkiv TV tower snaps in half and falls to the ground after the Russian attack.

The broadcasting signal was disrupted, and no casualties were reported.https://t.co/hhEnBfNWIW pic.twitter.com/5tYPvnIUqF

— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 22, 2024

My Comment:

The destruction of a single TV tower is not that significant in the big scheme of things. The tower has been attacked before and the attack is most notable as it was very impressive that the cruise missile managed to hit that tower so effectively. It was a very good shot.  

It's also telegraphing that Russia's next major target will be Kharkov. The city, now know by it's Ukrainian name Kharkiv, is a strategic and symbolic target for Russia. It's a major Russia-speaking city that functions as Ukraine's 2nd city. Taking the city would be a huge victory. 

The problem the Russians face is that urban combat is an absolute mess under the best of times but is even worse when there are civilians everywhere. It's why they are targeting things like this TV tower and Ukraine's power generation. They want to make the city uninhabitable so these civilians will evacuate. That should make the city at least a little easier to capture. 

The real question is if Russia is going to have a major summer offensive or if they will continue their general offensive on a lower, less intense scale. There are arguments for both as Russia has had quite a bit of success with their more limited attacks. Indeed, just today they took the town of Ocheretino, which is west of Avdiika. The town was the center of their new defense line after evacuating that city and from what I understand that town fell extremely fast because Ukrainian soldiers fled the battlefield. 

Of course you would not know that if you only watch mainstream media. In the real world the fall of Ocheretino was a much bigger story than the destruction of one TV tower, but guess which one has dozens of articles in western sources while the other does not? Indeed, this post was going to be about the fall of Ocheretino but there were no western sources to use. 

Ocheretino shows that Russia's current strategy of airstrikes and pressure followed by infantry assaults is working, but there is a real temptation for a big "arrow" attack with concentrated forces. Doing so could help pain the map in a big way and could also lead to a major collapse of Ukrainian forces. And that could end the war. 

But the problem is that offensive warfare is a lot harder than defensive warfare and a major attack could cause tremendous casualties. Though Ukraine's military is obviously showing cracks and is rapidly running out of troops, the problem is that they can still do damage. If the offensive isn't effective Russia could damage their troops for no real gain. 

It's also possible that this is another feint. Though Russia appears to be gathering forces this might be misdirection and the attack could come somewhere else. Russia could attack some place where Ukraine's forces are weak and are falling apart. And they just might want to continue their effective tactics they are using now. 

White House condemns pro-Hamas protesters at Columbia University

 

Pro-Hamas protesters at Columbia University in New York. Politico/AP.

The White House has condemned pro-Hamas protesters at Columbia University in New York City. Politico. Biden condemned antisemitism at the campus after video showed protesters yelling and Jewish students saying "October 7th will be every day for you". Protesters have occupied portions of Columbia University for five days now. A Jewish Rabbi recommended for the 300 Jewish students that go to Columbia to "leave and never come back". Police swarmed the site on Thursday and arrested 100 protesters, but it did little to quell the protests. 

My Comment:

This is yet another example of the schizophrenic and bizarre policy the Biden administration has on Israel and Judaism in general. There appears to be no rhyme or reason as to their policy when it comes to this subject. Biden will condemn these protests but is also critical of Israel's behavior during the war. But not the one bad thing that Israel did, the bombing of an Iranian embassy in Syria. That got such a free pass that Biden defended Israel with our weapons. Today news broke that Biden is going to sanction a IDF unit while at the same time ordering our military to defend Israel. It's nuts. 

I am not sure if this just regular Biden incompetence or if they are unable to balance the pro-Hamas and pro-Israel sides of their party. Incompetence is always a possibility for the Biden administration and I don't want to discount it. But them talking out of both sides of their mouth might be because Biden needs both groups to vote for him in November if he is to have any chance of winning. 

I do think that American Jews are paying a price for supporting the far left. It was only a matter of time before they turned on them, the far left turns on anyone. They are a large group of people that follow trends and I doubt any of them actually know or care what is happening in Gaza. They just want to bully people who they think deserve it. 

I also think that any Jew that votes for the Democrats at this point is beyond foolish. Doing so is not going to work out for them, as the real power in the Democratic Party is the activist class. They are winning their war for the control of the party. 

Indeed, antisemitism seems to be increasing on both sides of the political spectrum. There are some of the people on the right that seem to hate Israel and Jews just as much as these Hamas supporters on campus at Columbia. I never really understood that, whatever sins the Israelis have, they are dramatically overshadowed by the sins of their Muslim enemies. 

As for the protests themselves, they aren't going to accomplish anything. Protests rarely accomplish anything in the first place. But I guarantee that nobody in Israel cares about what is happening in Columbia University. Israel will continue to do what it wants and even if these protests put pressure on Biden, Biden has little to no influence on Israel at this point. In global terms it's a lot of sound and fury that signifies nothing. 

But for the normal people that go to Columbia? This is a disaster for them. Even if you aren't Jewish it would be threatening to see people support the actions of Hamas on October 7th. And if you are Jewish? Then you are getting blamed for things you have nothing to do with and could even be in physical danger. It's not like people haven't died during protests or anything, I'd be concerned to be around a protest like this no matter what the cause is. Especially since the police aren't shutting it down. 

If there is good news is that this is mostly an internal squabble between Democrats, most Republicans aren't at risk from campus idiocy. And both sides in this conflict are going to be angry at Joe Biden for trying to thread the needle between both sides. And it's very likely that many of these folks will not be turning out to vote for Joe Biden...