Good to see Joe Biden looking so Presidential in these troubled times.
The man can hardly finish a sentence.

And this is what the idiots on the left wanted to replace Trump with?

None of us should be surprised that the Russians are moving with the Democrat corpse puppet in power.

Yep we would surely have been better off with Trump who tried to withhold defence aid to Ukraine, wanted to recognise the annexation of Crimea and was an on the record admirer of Putin. But so long as 99 out of 100 Ukraine citizens survive I'm sure Stirling will assure us it's a fuss about nothing.

This is the latest from Gab, the self-proclaimed bastion of free speech. I am on their mailing list, so it arrived in my inbox a day or two ago. It can though be found here, as a blog:-

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So free they are sympathising with Putin over the way the nasty west are trying to disrupt his propaganda and comparing the way they are "treated" with it.

This is the "dissident right" in all its glory.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

I have been waiting for someone else to pick this bundle of misinformation apart but as nobody else has, I will. I can only presume that people are so tired of these kinds of baseless assertions they just cannot be bothered.

"For your information" Trump didn't sanction Russia immediately on taking office! He continued the policies of Obama, including the Magnitsky Act. Restrictions were placed 5 Russians over human rights abuses and then a bill was signed which targetted Russia's energy and "defence" industries.

That though wasn't done on Trump's initiative. It was all the work of Congress, which passed the measures with overwhelming bipartisan support. Congress had widespread concerns that Trump was too cosy with Putin and feared he could over-turn the sanctions by executive order. Trump had little choice other than to agree to sign the bill but did so grudgingly, saying it was "seriously flawed".

As we all remember Trump saying he believed Putin, rather than his own security forces, Congress's concerns can easily be understood.

Biden has NOT removed the sanctions. He has imposed new ones, whilst trying to assist the Germans with their pipeline, via some flexibility, although still maintaining it was not a sensible long term strategy. That's diplomacy.

This re-writing of history, as evidenced in the above, is a typical hard-right (and Trumpian) approach, worthy of the way that Putin himself behaves.

American is not funding European defence any more than Europe is funding American defence. They are both funding Nato and are doing so because it's in their mutual interest.

Trump was far from alone in thinking that Germany relying on Russian gas is a strategic mistake. Many felt unnerved by the implications. It hardly required a lot of brain power to work that out. It will change now.

Crimea is ethnically more Russian than Ukrainian, but it was the Russians themselves who transferred it to Ukraine in 1954, whilst both were part of the Soviet Union. So they don't have a leg to stand on.

The idea that Nato lied to Russia over any eastwards expansion has been comprehensively debunked in other comments. It isn't true. It's not even possible. Even Gorbachev has said it isn't true. More attempts at re-writing history by the right. That's the problem in getting your "information" from dodgy videos by self-appointed "experts" whose stock-in-trade are conspiracy theories. You get things wrong.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

First off the bat I'll say that my enthusiasm for going over this old ground is seemingly far less than yours. However, as your revisionism is what it is I will restate the facts of what actually happened.

Evidence of Trump's sanctions on Russia's pipeline. I'll state for the record no one could have forced Trump to have signed those sanctions.

To quote from back in 2019, Trump stated that the pipeline, 'could turn Germany into a "hostage of Russia'.

To further quote Trump's direct and recorded commentary to the Germans, 'I have to say, I think it's very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where you're supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.'

To quote the European and EU response at the time we have documented proof, presented here.

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To quote:

'The US sanctions have angered Russia and the European Union, which says it should be able to decide its own energy policies.

Earlier this week German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was "opposed to extraterritorial sanctions" against the Nord Stream 2 project.

German foreign minister Heiko Maas struck a more combative tone, saying the sanctions amounted to "interference in autonomous decisions taken in Europe.

Allseas, a Swiss-Dutch company involved in the project, said it had suspended its pipe-laying activities in anticipation of the sanctions.

The EU voiced its clear opposition to the US sanctions.

As a matter of principle, the EU opposes the imposition of sanctions against EU companies conducting legitimate business," a spokesman for the trading bloc told AFP news agency.'

End quote.

Also to quote the Democrats response to Trump's statements on Germany's reliance on Russian gas leading Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement, 'President Trump’s brazen insults and denigration of one of America’s most steadfast allies, Germany, is an embarrassment'

They then went on to bizarrely suggest that Trump's criticisms on Germany's reliance on Russian gas was pro Putin with, 'His behavior this morning is another profoundly disturbing signal that the President is more loyal to President Putin than to our NATO allies'

I will be fair though and state that both Kerry and Biden did issue similar concerns to Trump. But the Democratic party was....as you are....was criticising Trump regardless of what he did out of pure deranged malice.

Considering elements within his security forces worked directly against their sitting president I have no issues with what he said because it was true.

On taking office Biden waived Trump's pipeline sanctions. That's a fact, your strange revisionism doesn't change that.

If anyone 'rewrites history' it's you.

Here is the link as proof.

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Essentially Biden tried to undo anything Trump had done seemingly purely for ideological reasons whether it was sensible or not.....and most of the time it wasn't.

When someone can suggest that America hasn't been funding the defence of Europe for decades it's just a direct denial of the truth. It wasn't the non existent troop in Germany keeping the Soviet Union at bay was it.

America funds the lion's share of Nato and most of Europe literally outsourced their defence to Nato....It's incredible that you would contest this.....Anyone would weep for honesty.

Not true and thank god the documents exist to 'debunk' you.

The actual truth what was said at that meeting between Gorbachev and Baker and what was said to Russia by many other Nato and US officials was documented and it was released in 2017.

It's very important that those who listen to the lies on this actually look into this: Read the documents, they are referenced here:

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The declassified U.S., Soviet, German, British and French documents are at the National Security Archive at George Washington University and show that the promise not to move eastwards was recorded in that meeting.

In fact all the broken promises made to the Russians are proven in documents that can be directly referenced there.

I'm western, I'm pro Nato, but I will not stand for lying and broken promises. Nato and Russia should have worked together and the arrogance of western leaders not prepared to do that directly led to the completely avoidable conflicts and suffering now.

Boris Yeltsin also made a speech condemning Nato's expansion eastwards in the nineties. This would not be the case if there was agreement on this process. He directly warns that this will support extreme nationalism in Russia and end hopes of democracy.

December 6, 1994

'Europe, not having yet freed itself from the heritage of the Cold War, is in danger of plunging into a cold peace. Why sow the seeds of mistrust? After all, we are no longer enemies. We are all partners.'

'It is a dangerous delusion to suppose that the destinies of continents and the world community in general can somehow be managed from one single capital'

"We hear explanations to the effect that this is allegedly the expansion of stability -- just in case there are undesirable developments in Russia. If on those grounds ... the intentions are to move the responsibilities of NATO up to Russia's borders, let me say one thing: It's too early to bury democracy in Russia.'

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

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^^^^Just to lighten the mood^^^^

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!