394 Comments

This is the clearest explanation I've seen of how these particular new sanctions against Russia would work - I now understand their significance for the Russian economy. Thank you, Heather, for your letters and for the huge public service you provide in your writings and research

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Do I sense a power shift to the Select Committee over those called to testify? Executive privilege are empty shell casings and refusals to testify may actually have real consequences. (We hope.)

Yesterday Nancy Pelosi at a news briefing flatly stated that she will "Never forgive the former president of the United States" for causing the Jan. 6 insurrection and putting members of Congress and their young staffers through that traumatic event. Neither should we. March on, Nancy!

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I have so much respect fo real reporters who dig deep and expose truths, newspapers who print these reporters findings, and historians, like you, who put it in context for people like me. Thank you. Every single day. Thank you.

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It still boggles my mind that the Right have become Russian toadies as they have. But it does strengthen my view that Stalinism was just another form of fascism that used different terminology. Thus the Post-Soviet Russians were so easily able to become the fascists their grandparents fought to defeat.

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I don’t know that Meadows or any of the other seditionists think that they’re going to win—they just want to “run out the clock” on the committee until the Republicans take over after the next election and end the committee’s work.

The committee members really need to pick up the pace to the extent that they can.

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The irony, that we can impose severe economic restrictions on Russia, but we claim helplessness at containing the threats from seditionists and their fascist financiers.

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Today's Letter describes two examples of America developing a relentlessness on behalf of what is right. 1) Putin fears the possibility of Ukraine becoming part of the West, part of NATO as did Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in 2004. While that change may have been unwise and goading Russia, they were decisions made by sovereign countries following what they saw as their best interests. Ukraine should have the same right to follow its best interests without a threat of invasion. 2) Congress is exercising its authority to learn about an attempted overthrow of the US government by an outgoing administration. That it is necessary to make such a statement is horrifying. That participants in that attempt would resist the investigation is to be expected. Congress needs to keep on pushing. We need to elect a Congress in 2022 that will continue to push.

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Iva Toguri (Tokyo Rose) and Mildred Gillars (Axis Sally) were both native born American citizens who joined forces with America's enemies, during WWII. 84% of G.I.s listened to their programs because they said it had "good entertainment.” One G.I. remarked, "[l]ots of us thought she (Tokyo Rose) was on our side all along."

Today, we can add Tucker Carlson (Moscow MAGAt) of Faux News to that exclusive list of traitors admired by our military personnel.

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President Biden warned Mr. Putin about what measures the West will take if Russia invades Ukraine. There is no reason to doubt that the nations which support the US position have the ability to accomplish those actions.

There is probably no way of knowing what caused the disruption of Amazon Web Services later the same day. My frivolous imagination suggests that it might have been Putin demonstrating a small example of what his cyber warfare agents could do in retaliation to Western economic sanctions. Not nearly as dire as total nuclear war, but even so extremely harmful to our economy.

I hope I'm wrong about this fantasy.

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Some of the rats are scrambling off the Trumptanic seeking parachutes, life lines, or even Fifth Amendment limited immunity. With Trump relatively safe in his Mar-a-Lago bunker, his sycophants feel exposed to subpoenas and grand juries—-not a comforting feeling, as the bane of them all, Steve Bannon, is already in the refuse-subpoena-proceed-to-criminal trial stage.

Meanwhile, President Biden and Putrid Putin conversed. Biden told Putin that, if he re-invaded Ukraine, he would encounter draconian economic push back. To date economic sanctions against Russia have been mosquito bites, not deadly wasp stings. Biden and his now-back-on-board Western allies have the Damocles sword of SWIFT.

SWIFT is the daily money transfer mechanism involving 200 countries and over 11,000 banks and financial institutions. It is the roadway for a majority of daily money global transfers. Biden and his buddies have the ability to cut Russia out of SWIFT. This would directly affect payment for much of Russia’s petroleum and natural gas exports, which are vital fuel to Putin’s gasping domestic economy.

The controversial Nord 2 natural gas line between Russia and Western Europe is also on the hard-ball retaliation table. The U. S. Has long objected to this new gas line, which would deny Ukraine major transit fees and increase West Europe’s short-term dependence on Russia’s natural gas. This pipeline is finished but not approved, while Germany seeks further bureaucratic procedures. There is a report that Germany threatened that a Putin invasion of Ukraine would result in the abandonment of Nord 2. WE MAY BE ENTERING A HARD BALL PHASE WHERE THE WEST HAS A POWERFUL FIRST TEAM PREPARED TO ENGAGE PUFFED-UP PUTIN. Gadzooks, Comrade Trump wouldn’t have treated his friend this way.

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The story behind the biggest political crime in the nation’s history is being revealed with increasing speed. Sinister, brazen, and shocking in scope describe what we know, yet so much more will come to light.

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Unless I have missed something, the last invasion of Russia (USSR) was by Hitler in June of 1941. He should have known better. It was a bust and guaranteed a speedy end to the Third Reich.

The Ruskies are still armed to the teeth with nukes. Not even global warming has ended Russian winters. NATO may or may not be able to defend Europe from a Russian invasion without resorting to nukes, but there is no chance in Hell that any nation, least of all any European nation or alliance of European nations will invade Russia ever again. Zero. So why does Putin even care what the Ukrainians are up to? He needs to gat a grip. Tucker Carlson is an utter fool.

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Thank you for outlining the details of the possible economic sanctions to help us understand how that all works, especially the pipeline shutdown part.

I just hope the US never gets in a spot where the rest of the world can isolate it economically, because, we have applied sanctions to so many countries, there is bound to be a backlash at some point.

But, definitely, economic sanctions, IF we are going to do anything at all if Russia invades Ukraine are infinitely better than the US going to war in Europe over the invasion after 20 years of wasting money on war already.

Plus, war with Russia on Russia's turf? That did not exactly work out for Hitler very well.

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I think Putin has painted himself into a corner. His “tough guy” persona has fallen flat. Biden called his bluff. A Russian invasion/occupation of Ukraine would be a disaster for Putin; Cold War brinksmanship is no longer a useful tactic. Ukraine is not Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968. If Putin can’t disburse petro-rubles to his oligarchical pals, his sway over them evaporates. They might decide it’s time for someone else.

Meanwhile, next door in Belarus, things are not going well for Putin’s puppet-president/dictator Alexander Lukashenka. (Read Dexter Filkins’ “An Accidental Revolutionary” in the 12/13/21 edition of The New Yorker.)

These are not happy days for Rootin’ Putin. (Sorry, I have resisted using that term as long as I could. The flesh is weak.)

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What HCR reports today is all the more reason for Democrats to give the highest priority to mobilizing enough voters to maintain control of both Houses of Congress less than eleven months from now. That must be done NOW if we don't want the see the January 6 investigation, support of democracy in Ukraine and President Biden's efforts to unite the world against global economic and political corruption quickly disappear! That is what Democrats must be doing today and as I have repeatedly said here, locking in the votes of massive numbers of women and persons of color, whose interests Republicans have consistently voted against at the national and state level, is the only path to victories in 2022 and the survival of democracy in the United States.

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Seems that someone or someones is providing Meadow's personal texts and e-mails to the committee. He's clearly violated standards of communication for a Chief of Staff, but committee now has evidence he was active in planning the Jan. 5th insurrection. It would appear that the net is tightening around him.

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