He’s back. Or rather, it’s back. Hunter Biden’s laptop is in the news again. (See story here.) Given its dodgy provenance (see Wikipedia comments here), it’s far from a sure bet that the water-soaked laptop allegedly dropped off, and then abandoned, at a rabid (and legally bl[...]
Archive for the ‘Russia’ Category
Trump’s secret plan to end the war
Back in 1968, Nixon had a “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War: More war. He increased bombing and sent U.S. troops into Cambodia. Trump, too, has a secret plan to end the Ukraine war. Actually, two plans: Secret Plan #1 “Put Chinese flags on our F-22 fighter jets [and] bomb the sh[...]
BlackRock declares globalization dead
Globalization, the vast offshoring of manufacturing that shuttered American factories and destroyed blue-collar jobs, was already faltering before Trump came along with his trade wars and tariffs, followed by pandemic disruptions of supply chains that turned out to be more fragile than anyone suspec[...]
March 24th, 2022 - 3:42 pm § in Law and Courts, Russia
Has Putin seen this art lover?
If not personally, his agents may know where he is. John Ruffo (old photo, left; profile here), now 67, is a Brooklyn-born Italian-American con artist who disappeared in 1998 after being sentenced to prison for swindling U.S. banks out of $350 million. Why might he be hiding in Russia? Ruffo is a co[...]
Can Cyprus replace Russia as Europe’s natural gas supplier?
Before the sanctions, Europe imported nearly 40% of its natural gas supply from Russia, in part via pipelines through Ukraine. The invasion is making European leaders rethink their economies’ dependence on Russian gas. But the idea of cutting the energy cord with Russia isn’t new.[...]
4 things Putin got wrong
Kirill Rogov, a Russian political analyst (C.V. here), says Putin’s Ukraine war is “lost” and an “epic failure,” and propounds 4 major mistakes: “The mistake was the notion that the West was unwilling to resist aggression, that it was lethargic, greedy and divided.” “[...]
Trump issues threat to Putin
Trump claims Putin invaded Ukraine because Biden is “weak,” Huffington Post notes (see this story here). So how would he deal with Putin? Like this, he says: “Sending American nuclear submarine patrols into Russian waters” to threaten him. (See that story here). Uh, okey-doke[...]
March 18th, 2022 - 11:11 pm § in Russia
Ukrainian rock’n’roll (video)
https://youtu.be/2P9Eq1m1mgU Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
The GOP’s extremism problem
America’s democracy has always been rowdy, its politics can get ugly, and both parties have fringe elements. Our system has survived that, and often thrived despite it, so it’s not the outliers, per se, that threaten the system. It’s when an entire party goes bonkers. That’s [...]
March 17th, 2022 - 3:31 am § in Foreign Affairs, Russia
What’s Putin fighting for in Ukraine?
“When Vladimir Putin shattered the peace in Europe by unleashing war on a democracy of 44 million people, his justification was that modern, Western-leaning Ukraine was a constant threat and Russia could not feel ‘safe, develop and exist,'” BBC News says (here). That’s consis[...]