Gutfeld Wrecks Democrats' 'Woke Insanity,' Says It Makes George Santos Look 'Like Mr. Rogers'

Mike Miller reporting for RedState 

Let me first be clear — in my not-so-humble opinion, that is. Freshman New York Republican Rep. George Santos’ history of lying may be unworthy of a member of the United States Congress and an albatross around the neck of the Republican Party’s moral authority over the Democrat Party, but he’s no Joe Biden.

As I asked in a December article, If Rep.-Elect Santos Should Resign Over Lies, Why Is Serial Liar Joe Biden Still in Office? Moreover, Biden’s 50-year list of lies and plagiarism continues to grow — and it’s a record that will likely never be broken.

Still, watching hypocritical Democrats dissolve into histrionic fits of hysteria every time another Santos lie is uncovered almost makes the embattled congressman worth keeping around.

This brings us to Fox News host Greg Gutfeld — AKA: “King of Late Night“— and his Friday night beatdown of the “woke insanity” of the Democrats.

Gutfeld said the purpose of the following segment was not to “let Santos off the hook,” but to expose the Democrats’ reaction to Santos as only the new Late Night King can do — and he managed to slip in a stinging jab at Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) along the way.

George Santos. Critics pounced over his checks that bounced. A new report claims that George Santos wrote 15 grand worth of bad checks to Pennsylvania dog breeders back in 2017, which means those dogs had sex for free. Santos was charged with theft but was able to avoid prosecution by claiming his checkbook was stolen. The charge was eventually expunged in 2021, but not before all the puppies were made into a coat for his mother. I know what an awful man.

Gutfeld then proceeded to gloriously rip the Democrats to shreds:

Meanwhile, House Dems have made moves to expel Santos from Congress, filing a resolution that would only require a two-thirds majority to pass. I, for one, hope he stays. Santos is no worse than anyone else in Congress, and he’s one of the better-looking drag queens in politics. Well, aside from Maxine Waters.

Ouch. Don’t you love it? Gutfeld then turned the screws tighter, recounting two recent House Democrat votes:

Now — and you realize he’s not, you realize he’s not the problem when you find out that 162 Democrats voted to allow illegal immigrants to vote yesterday, and even after a fellow Democrat was brutally attacked in D.C., a majority of her own party still voted against repealing the DC crime bill that reduces sentences for thugs just like the one that beat the s**t out of her! So they think Santos is apparently more dangerous than repeat offenders who beat up their female colleagues?

Gutfeld’s question, while perhaps rhetorical, points to an ugly side of the left. Truth be told, I’m sure congressional Democrats are happy to sweep Minnesota Democrat Rep. Angie Craig’s attack under the rug, given it butts heads against their narrative, although police said they believed the 26-year-old black suspect’s attack wasn’t racially or politically motivated.

I’m also sure they don’t give a damn about George Santos, either, and simply view the guy as a useful prop in their never-ending attack against Republicans, while sweeping their own dirt under the rug — or completely ignoring it— as often as they can.

Gutfield’s segment close was a thing of beauty:

Now, I don’t bring this up to let Santos off the hook. If he were your neighbor, he’d most definitely steal your mail and poop in your garden. I know that for a fact. But compared to this current woke insanity, he looks like Mr. Rogers.

It’s hard to compare George Santos to Mr. Rogers, but the woke insanity metastasizing within the Democrat Party, and the left as a whole, is far from child’s play.

The Forgotten Truth of War

by Roger Kimball for American Greatness

“Human skin,” Catherine the Great once observed, “is more ticklish than paper.” 

I wonder if the people beating the drum to escalate the war in Ukraine have taken that homely wisdom on board. I suspect that the American people writ large are beginning to. 

A year ago, soon after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, I saw the beautiful people in my deep blue town, the ones who had posted “Black Lives Matter” signs on their front lawn, substitute (or, if they were really gung-ho, add) a Ukraine flag on the poles they had erected to declare their higher virtue. 

Those Ukrainian flags, I’ve noticed, are beginning to come down. Why? In part because of simple economic self-interest. People—the ones not part of the government or its auxiliaries, anyway—understand that the sanctions “against Russia” are just as much sanctions against us. Ordinary people look at the price of gasoline and heating oil and think, “Why should I be paying for this?” 

And speaking of paying, you don’t need an advanced degree in economics to realize that there is a connection between sending billions upon billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and Biden’s demand for higher taxes. How exactly, people wonder, is defending Ukraine and poking a major nuclear power in the eye in our national self-interest? 

A not entirely irrelevant data point: the federal debt of the United States is now north of $31 trillion. Even if you don’t know that, your children, their children, and their children’s children will learn about the significance of that albatross, fixed around their necks by irresponsible politicians, in ways too mournful to contemplate. 

There are other pragmatic questions. Joe Biden has siphoned off a large percentage of our strategic petroleum reserve in order to make a little dent in the runaway gas prices brought about by his incontinent spending spree. “Isn’t that dangerous?” people are asking themselves. “What if we needed the oil for our own military?”

And speaking of the military, what about all that hardware we’ve been shipping to Ukraine, not just the Abrams tanks (not the Stacey Abrams model, alas, but the M1), but also all those high-tech missiles, drones, and other kinetic matériel? What has that done to our own stockpiles of the stuff? Responsible news outlets—outlets, I mean, other than the New York Times, CNN, and kindred media middens—are warning that our own stores of Stingers, HAWK air defense systems, Patriot missile systems, HIMARS, Guided Multiple Launch Rockets System, etc., are dangerously depleted. 

Every day for the last 10 months or so, I have read headlines about how the walls are closing in upon Putin, how his army is nearing collapse, and his people are nearing revolt. But so far none of that has happened. Maybe it still will. The Russian army certainly had many early setbacks, much to the shock of naïve Russian war planners (and also, it must be said, to the surprise of equally naïve Western observers). But that was early on. Russia has learned or at least half-learned from its defeats. 

Now it is prosecuting a devastating series of artillery bombardments, smashing civilian and military infrastructure alike. Which brings us to the humanitarian side of the situation. A recent tally of Ukrainian casualties put the number of deaths at about 140,000. Who knows how many others are seriously maimed or wounded? That’s out of a population of about 40 million. 

Cui bono? Not us, surely, nor Ukraine, nor Russia. But how about China? It’s getting lots of oil at bargain-basement prices from Comrade Vladimir, oil that might otherwise be heating homes in Berlin. It is also watching as we expend expensive military assets in a theater far, far from our homeland. 

China is rattling its sabers, girding its metaphorical loins, moving various bits of its economy to a war footing. According to China observers like Gordon Chang, the signs are “unmistakable” that it is preparing for war. That was the not-so-hidden subtext of last week’s adventure, the Chinese surveillance balloon that was allowed to traverse the entire continental United States before being shot down. 

You wouldn’t really know this from the vicious, disgusting, and mendacious media that will lie about anything in order to bolster the regime narrative. They lied about Trump and Russia and about Trump and his call to the Ukrainian president back in 2020. They lied about the origins of COVID and about how best to handle and treat COVID. They lied about the 2020 election and that black thug who died of a fentanyl overdose in Minneapolis while resisting arrest. 

They lie about everything. I acknowledge that sometimes it is not quite fair to say that they are mendacious. Sometimes they are merely vicious, disgusting, and ignorant, but it amounts to the same thing. 

The problem is that we are in a situation akin to that faced by the Trojans after they landed in Italy and Aeneas was making nice to King Latinus with an eye to marrying his daughter Lavinia. Juno hated the Trojans and prevailed upon the hideous Fury Alecto in whose heart bred “Treachery, war, rage.” “Rouse your genius,” Juno urges, “Shatter their treaties, sow the seeds of war.” 

And so Alecto does, driving women as well as men mad with homicidal fury.  

After the Soviet Union broke up, the West prevailed upon Ukraine to give up its nuclear arsenal—at the time the world’s fifth largest—in exchange for a security guarantee. They did give up their nuclear weapons. And how did that security guarantee work out?

Now, as the military commentator Austin Bay points out, countries from South Korea to Japan, covertly or openly, are considering acquiring nuclear weapons. They have watched what has happened to Ukraine. They can hear and see what China is doing. Security guarantees from Antony Blinken and his ilk are all well and good. But as Catherine the Great observed, “human skin is more ticklish than paper.” That’s a fact Alecto, the “mourning-bringer,” is aware of, too. 

Winston Churchill once observed that “Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.” At the same time, he well understood that “The story of the human race is war.” That is a melancholy truth that, marinated in peace and affluence, we in the West have neglected at our peril.

X22, Christian Patriot News, and more- Feb 12

 

I thought I'd be a bit sad today given that this is the final full week of NCIS LA filming before the finale is complete, but then very early this morning, I saw this posted:

Daniela with 2 Assistant Directors behind the scenes of the season finale!👀#NCISLA pic.twitter.com/KxUzwQDHK7

— NCISverse Updates (@NCISVERSEUPDATE) February 12, 2023

 That looks an awful like a wedding setting. Earlier this Season, Callen said he wasn't going to get married without Hetty, so if the wedding is really taking place in the finale, then that's definitely got to mean Hetty is already home!! 🥳

Guess this work won't be such a bummer after all. 🤞

Here's tonight's news:

What Would John Adams Say about the Super Bowl?

If he were alive today, the second U.S. president would be pleased that we have the time and leisure to watch football.

by Jane Hampton Cook for American Greatness

If he were alive today, what would John Adams, the nation’s second president, say about the Super Bowl? Was football even a thing at the start of the United States? Surprisingly, the term football existed in Adams’ day.

Samuel Johnson defined football in his 1755 dictionary as “a ball commonly made of a blown bladder cased with leather, driven by the foot.” Football was a game played by boys and young men. The game involved kicking and teams of players.

In fact, Continental Army soldiers played football so often in and around Boston during their idle time, that Adams’ wife, Abigail, complained about it.

“This continent has paid thousands to officers and men, who have been loitering about playing foot-ball and nine pins [bowling], and doing their own private business whilst they ought to have been defending our forts and we are now suffering for the neglect,” Abigail observed in a letter to John Adams in 1777.

Nathan Hale, the famous Revolutionary War soldier who became a spy, noted in his diary that he spent his free time playing football and checkers while stationed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1775. Hale’s friends reflected he was such a good kicker that he could kick a football over the trees.

Football was also a political term to indicate being used or tossed about by political opponents, as John Adams’ son Thomas explained. “How art thou bandied about like a football, kicked, cuffed and squeezed, until thou hast scarce breath enough left to sigh a complaint, at thy indignities!”

While in Paris during the war, John Adams compared France and England’s treatment of America to being tossed like a football.

“For my own part I thought America had been long enough involved in the wars of Europe. She had been a football between contending nations from the beginning, and it was easy to foresee that France and England both would endeavor to involve us in their future wars,” Adams wrote in his diary.

After serving as America’s top diplomat to England, Adams used the term to explain that he was an independent politician. “To be the football of faction, I never was, and never will be.”

If he were alive today, Adams would most definitely understand both political football on Capitol Hill and recreational football on television. He would love to watch both college and professional football. He would not recognize many of the rules, such as the line of scrimmage and the number of downs, because they were invented after the Civil War.

The concept of competing for a football championship in the Super Bowl would not surprise him. In fact, he would view the existence of the Super Bowl as a fulfillment of his dream for America.

Adams believed that by defeating King George III’s tyranny during the American Revolution, future generations of Americans would have more time to pursue recreational activities.

While serving as a diplomat in Paris, he avoided spending time enjoying the paintings and palaces of France because he did not want to neglect his duty.

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain.”

He concluded that because his generation had obtained independence for America, then his sons’ generation would build the infrastructure and systems needed to make America economically stable and nationally secure from invasion. Then his grandsons’ generation and future Americans would not have to worry about political enslavement by tyranny or economic scarcity. They could live a better life, one filled with the beauty of the arts and the pleasure of recreation. 

And football.

Writing to his 12-year-old grandson John Adams in 1812, Adams encouraged him to play football at school. “I approve of . . . your playing football, cricket; running, climbing, leaping, swimming, skating; and have no great objection to your play at marbles. These are good for your health.”

Adams would, however, expect today’s leaders, whether the leaders of the NFL, Congress or the president, to lead with integrity. In the same year that he approved of his grandson playing football at school, he worried about America’s leaders.

“I am really grieved; I am ashamed; I am confounded to read such sophistry, such insincerity, such want of candor, or want of information in such bodies of American citizens,” he wrote about recent publications coming from both parties in Congress. Their lack of candor and selfish ambition concerned him. He believed that integrity was one of the most important qualities for America’s cultural and political survival.

Like Americans today, he would want America’s leaders to be honest. He would expect integrity on serious matters, such as cases before local, state and federal judges, as much as he would expect the Super Bowl’s referees to make fair calls. America would fall back under tyranny without widespread integrity guarding against corruption.

If he were alive today, Adams would be pleased that Americans have the time to watch football. He probably wouldn’t appreciate the humor in last year’s ClickUp Super Bowl commercial, which fictitiously portrayed him as losing the latest draft of the Declaration of Independence. Though he’d probably support the Eagles because of the time he spent living in Philadelphia during meetings of the Continental Congress, he probably wouldn’t care who wins this year’s Super Bowl because Adams, a proud Bostonian, would be a Patriots fan.

Study Finds Republicans Happier In Their Marriages Than Democrats

Evita Duffy-Alfonso reporting for The Federalist

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, a new study from the Survey Center On American Life found that Republican men and women are significantly happier in marriage than their Democrat counterparts. According to the survey, “Republican men report being most satisfied in their relationships, while Democratic women report being the least.”

Forty-eight percent of the surveyed Republican men stated that they are “completely satisfied” in their marriage, and 42 percent of Republican married women said they are “completely satisfied.” On the flip side, only 36 percent of Democrat-married men and 29 percent of Democrat-married women said they are “completely satisfied” with their marriage. 

Republicans and Democrats view gender roles dramatically differently. Republicans tend to embrace traditional gender roles, while Democrats tend to question them. Modern liberal Democrats attribute gender roles to established social norms they deem “oppressive.” This leaks into their relationships, often causing some to purposely flip traditional gender roles on their heads. On TikTok, videos titled “life of a stay-at-home husband” or “life of a trophy husband” are an entire genre.

It’s official that “stay-at-home husbands” are in, while concepts like “the man is the head of the household” are offensive and out. Masculinity is toxic and “stay-at-home mom” is code for slave. Unfortunately for progressives, men and women’s differing yet complementary skills and talents are not a construct but rooted in human biology, and fighting nature will never make one happy.

Indeed, conservatives’ comparatively greater happiness goes beyond marriage. The 2022 American Family Survey found that thirty-seven percent of conservative men reported they are “completely satisfied” with their lives versus twenty-one percent of liberal men.

The largest discrepancy is between women. Liberal women are the least happy, with only 15 percent stating they are “completely satisfied” in their lives, contrasted with 31 percent of conservative women. Liberal women were also the most likely to report feeling “completely dissatisfied” with their lives, while conservative women were the least.

For decades, progressives have espoused that focusing on one’s career, holding off on marriage and children, and overthrowing gender norms would make people—particularly women— happier. 

A 2022 Bloomberg article claims that “women who stay single and don’t have kids are getting richer” than their married with children counterparts. Bloomberg uses personal testimonies to insist unmarried, childless women have a “deep sense of satisfaction” from their work and “financial freedoms,” but none of that is backed up by the data.

Conservative couples know traditional values and lifestyles are the best at cultivating loving and fulfilling lives. No conservative couples on Valentine’s Day need to be told twice that they’ve made better life choices than the careerist cat lady or the trophy husband. 

Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand Says, “We Engaged and Defeated the Object” That Entered Canadian Airspace

Canada’s politically and culturally correct Defense Minister Anita Anand held a press conference in Ottawa after a US warplane shot down an unidentified object flying over northern Canada on the orders of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

While reminding Canadians of the vital importance of working to protect the indigenous people of North America, and reminding the nation that all measures will be taken to ensure their safety as the recovery efforts continue, Defense Minister Anand emphasized the importance of the moment stating (06:55), “we detected this object together” with NORAD, and “we defeated this object together.”

A rather odd choice of selected words, inferring “the object” was fighting back.  WATCH:

ESG and DEI are Worse Than You Think

 

ESG and DEI are Worse Than You Think

Mises Institute scholar and Troy University business school Dean Allen Mendenhall is among the leading critics of woke capital. He leads a new initiative against the perverse investment practices demanded by ESG/DEI commissars, and joins Jeff Deist to discuss both the origins of "stakeholder" capitalism and what we can do to push back against ideological purity tests in capital markets and corporate America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXum6VRFd40&list=PLALopHfWkFlFTj__lkebZfUw5s-CWVuIt&index=1

Democrats Know Their Policies Hurt Black People. They Don’t Care

posted by Jeff Charles at RedStateVIP 

Every now and then a Democrat will make sense. Too bad the rest of the left can’t follow suit. But in this case, a left-leaning CNN political contributor nailed the problem with Democrats’ approach to the crime issue. But unfortunately, his words will fall on deaf ears, and there is a reason for that.

Paul Begala, a Scholar at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, made an appearance on HBO’s “Real Time” with host Bill Maher. During the conversation, he noted that while red state and rural areas have problems with crime, he would like for “a Democrat to stand up and say, you know, some people belong in jail.”

He pointed out that it is Democrats who “supposedly care about who are victims of crime here.”

Maher highlighted a Los Angeles Times article reporting on crime rates in Portland, Oregon, and asked Begala: “This is a big Achilles’ heel for the Democrats, is it not?”

Begala answered in the affirmative:

They need to get out in front of it. They need to — I want a Democrat to stand up and say, you know, some people belong in jail. … And by the way — and it’s not the 10-year-old girl in Indiana who got raped and needed to have an abortion to save her life. That’s who they want to put in jail on the other side.

Begala continued:

Democrats, first off, they do have a story to tell, Bakersfield, CA hometown of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), voted for Trump, Republican mayor, much higher murder rate than Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) San Francisco, why aren’t Democrats talking about that? If this — Third Way is a think tank, they did a study, even if you take the cities out, the seven states with the highest murder rate, all Trump states. The 25 states that went for Trump have a 40% higher murder rate than the states that went for Biden.

In other words, the crime problem is in rural America too and it’s in suburban America. And I do think — look, I think the left doesn’t want to hear and the right doesn’t want to hear that we need more cops and fewer guns. Better training, better screening, we will never tolerate police brutality, but those are the two things, some on the left don’t want to hear it either.”

The CNN contributor acknowledged that Democrats claim to care about poverty-stricken minorities who are disproportionately the victims of crime. “And by the way, if you look at all of the polling and the voting, it’s those folks who are voting for more security, more safety, more and better cops, and it’s the white liberals who want to defund the police. It’s not actually the heart of the Democratic Party,” he concluded.

Begala is spot on. But there’s a problem.

Democrats already know that their soft-on-crime policies harm black and brown Americans the most despite being so vociferous in their virtue signaling about how much they care about the plight of the folks living in the cities they run.

The fact is that Democrats do not care how their policies affect those living under their governance. They are not unaware, they are unconcerned. It is why far-leftists pushed for defunding the police, even though blacks overwhelmingly favor a police presence in their communities. Instead of employing policy to protect civilians, they prefer releasing criminals on bail – even those suspected of having committed violent crimes.

Even further, their policies lead to substandard education and poverty, which are tremendous contributors to the crime issue. They have done very little to improve the lives of racial minorities in America despite having led their cities for decades. At some point, it is difficult to assume it is not deliberate.

Oakland Store Owner Jen Angel Was Robbed and Killed; Her Friends Demand the Police Let It Go

Jerry Wilson reporting for RedState 

It’s easy to mock the progressive mindset–for example, those people who scream about the need for full vaxxed status, yet after getting their fourth booster, come down with COVID. That said, there are times when it’s not funny at all.

On Monday, February 6th, Jen Angel, the owner of a cupcake store in Oakland, was robbed. But things got much worse.

On Monday, Angel was sitting inside her car behind a bank on Webster Street in Oakland when a thief broke into the car and grabbed her purse. The robber darted into a getaway vehicle that was waiting nearby, police said.

“The victim exited their vehicle and attempted to retrieve their stolen belongings from the individual. While the victim struggled for their belongings, they were knocked to the ground and sustained injuries,” the Oakland Police Department told KRON4.

Angel was dragged by the getaway car. The entire incident happened in broad daylight.

On Thursday, February 9th, doctors switched off Angel’s life support.

Jen Angel checked off every woke box possible.

“Jen makes cupcakes, and Jen makes community. Often those intersect, in her life and in the lives of those who know and love her. Jen has worked hard to build a small business in Oakland, and to do so in a way that treats her employees as full humans, including providing a living wage. She paid herself last. She gave away cupcakes to community groups wherever she went,” said Angel’s friend, Tobias Smith.

She established a social justice event production organization called Aid and Abet. She was also the publisher of Clamor Magazine, a bi-monthly alternative magazine. She was “deeply involved in organizing work for media justice and building a better world,” her friends wrote.

Regardless of a person’s political or societal beliefs, to die in such a brutal fashion should evoke sympathy from all. Unfortunately, those associated with Angel have made the task much more complicated than needed.

If a suspect is arrested by police, Angel’s family said she would not want her assailant to be prosecuted in criminal court. Angel did not believe in incarceration as an effective or just solution to social violence and inequity.

Her friends wrote that Angel would want “alternatives to traditional prosecution, such as restorative justice. Jen’s family and close friends ask that the media respect this request and carry forward the story of her life with celebration and clarity about the world she aimed to build. Do not use her legacy of care and community to further inflame narratives of fear, hatred, and vengeance, nor to advance putting public resources into policing, incarceration, or other state violence that perpetuates the cycles of violence that resulted in this tragedy.”

Really?

The lengths to which progressives go to deny humanity’s fallen nature should no longer astound, yet it still does. The only thing missing is an apology to those who committed the crime. Your friend was robbed and killed. Your response is blaming the “state” for criminals committing such acts? No.

Evil’s existence substantially predates the present generation’s futile fantasies. Wokesters passionately believe humanity possesses innate goodness. It does not. There is no successful mocking of God, and the Scriptural truths regarding our fallen nature and utter dependence on salvation through Christ Alone and repentance from sin have no expiration date. In a touch of delicious irony, the atheist’s atheist, Bill Maher recently expressed this exact sentiment minus the Christ and confession of sin parts.

Warning: the video below contains coarse language.

No, people who steal, in the process thereof murdering innocent people, are not societal victims. They are criminals who deserve maximum punishment, so they will not harm another person and then another. Jen Angel’s death is not a vindication of her and her friends’ lollipop dreams in a cotton candy sky. It indicts their reality as being a mansion built on sand.

British weapons could be made in Ukraine

 

British weaponry and military vehicles could be manufactured in Ukraine under plans that would mark a deepening of the country’s ties with Nato.

Senior UK defence industry officials are discussing the plans with their counterparts in Kyiv, with any deal likely to be seen as a significant strengthening of Britain’s relationship with Ukraine.

British executives have  travelled there with a view to setting up joint ventures that would manufacture arms and vehicles locally under licence.

Other European defence companies are also in talks with Ukraine, with British companies keen not to be beaten to the punch by French and German rivals. A race is on to put the UK “at the front of the queue”, one executive told The Telegraph.

It comes after Rishi Sunak opened the door to Britain sending fighter jets to Ukraine following a plea from Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, during his surprise trip to the UK last week.  

Any joint venture is likely to require sign-off from Mr Sunak. Russia has repeatedly threatened retaliation against the West for sending arms to Ukraine, and any manufacturing support is likely to further inflame tensions   

On Saturday night, Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence declined to comment, saying it was a matter for industry.

But Ed Arnold, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank and a former British army Nato officer, said: “Industry cooperation drives closeness in international relations. This might be initially billed as commercial, but it will need tacit political approval at least.”

Mr Arnold added that a deal on military equipment would “point to future long term cooperation, deepening ties between Britain and Ukraine to a level they haven’t been yet”. He said a deal of this kind would bring Ukraine “closer towards Nato and European security structures”.

Ukraine has applied to join Nato, but the alliance is unlikely to accept while the country is in a state of war. As a Nato member, fellow members would be legally compelled to actively defend it against Russia, a commitment that goes well beyond the supply of weapons.

James Black, a military procurement expert at Rand Corporation, a US security think tank, said a deal seeing a Western power manufacture heavy arms in Ukraine would be a first because the country has little history of industrial co-operation.  

He added: “The Ukrainian defence industry has been primarily focused on producing and maintaining Soviet-era or indigenous technologies, and since independence it has suffered from several decades from underinvestment, stalled reforms, corruption issues, and other challenges.”

Ukraine has made some Israeli and US small arms, such as rifles, under licence, and has adapted some of its tanks to incorporate Israeli electronics.

Francis Tusa, an independent defence expert, said any new factories would present themselves as key targets for Russian bombing raids, adding: “A tank factory isn’t small. And quite frankly, if I’m Putin it’ll be one of the first places I take out.”

Deals to make Western armour would be likely be seen as antagonistic by Moscow, but Nato allies are unlikely to be intimidated by these threats in the wake of ever more complex arms donations, he added. 

“At this stage anything the West does, the Russians will say that’s provocation,” said Mr Tusa, adding that the West was likely to take the stance: “Well, tough.” 

Ukraine is understood to want to build Western-designed artillery, vehicles and weapons itself under licence rather than simply buying them.

Licensing military design for local construction is common because it offers arms companies a revenue source but allows the customer country to retain jobs and build skills. Britain’s Sea King helicopters, built in Yeovil, are licence-built versions of US Sikorsky models, for example.  

The move would allow Ukraine to maintain jobs for its tens of thousands of defence workers as it shifts from Russian designed armaments to Nato-standard arms.

An advisor to Ukroboronprom, Ukraine’s state-owned arms manufacturer, last week publicly said it wanted to do deals with Western companies to manufacture Nato-standard Western arms domestically. Serhii Markovskyi told Western representatives that Kyiv was seeking to strike deals to boost security in the region.

“In addition to direct participation in joint ventures and a form of cooperation with Nato industry, we can also act as an important tool for replacing the Russian and Chinese influence in countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa,” he told defence chiefs at a seminar hosted by the Royal United Services Institute last week.

Ukrainian soldiers are being trained to use Nato equipment, including British armoured vehicles, by various armed forces.

Joint venture manufacturing would help end Kyiv’s reliance on handouts from the West. Billions of pounds of equipment have been sent to the front lines by European allies and the US, but Ukraine continues to require huge amounts of support.

 

 

The continued demands have led to concerns that the West will be unable to ramp up production sufficiently to restock its own armouries and continue to supply Ukraine.

While armourers such as France’s Nexter, BAE Systems and Rheinmetall are increasing shell production, building a new line takes two years. 

In the meantime, European arms companies rely heavily on just two makers of the propellants that send the shells on their way when fired from artillery tubes.

Mr Markovskyi said: “The main challenges for the Western industry appear to be a shortage of qualified workers and engineers, dependence on China for those materials, insufficient volumes of production of explosive and special chemistry.”

Ukraine is an accomplished arms maker in its own right. During the Soviet era, it was a centre of high-spec military manufacture, with Dnipro known as “Rocket City” because of its prowess in space engineering and intercontinental ballistic missile design.   

It was reported on Saturday night that Nato believes British forces are so overstretched they will not be able to take on Russia, according to a source speaking to the Mail on Sunday.

A Ministry of Defence insider backed claims in the German media that Berlin had been asked to remain in charge of its rapid reaction force as the UK was unable to spare the 5,000-strong force needed.   

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/11/british-weapons-could-made-ukraine/  

Doctor Down

A black motorist runs down a doctor and stabs him in the back while screaming about “white privilege.”

by Lloyd Billingsley for American Greatness

Michael Mammone graduated from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in 1993. Dr. Mammone worked out of Mission Viejo and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Santa Ana, but since 2011 he has worked as an emergency room physician at Providence Mission Hospital in Laguna Beach. 

On February 1, the 58-year-old was cycling down Pacific Coast Highway when a Lexus ran a red light and struck him from behind. As the Daily Mail reported, driver Vanroy Evan Smith, screamed “racial slurs about ‘white privilege’” as he approached Mammone, then “stabbed the cyclist multiple times in the back, with brave bystanders tackling him to the ground.”

Smith, “who is described as a black man on his arrest records, can then be seen walking over to Dr Mammone and attacking him again before witnesses drag him away.” When deputies arrived at the scene, they found Mammone “lying in the intersection suffering from severe injuries.’” The father of two later died in hospital. 

“We are stunned by this devastating tragedy,” said Mammone’s employer in a statement. “The entire Mission Hospital family is grieving over the loss of an incredible physician and friend. We will honor Dr. Mammone’s dedication to our community and passion for medicine by continuing to provide exceptional care.” 

Enter Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, a Republican and former state assemblyman. When Spitzer ran for D.A., his website urged voters to “join the fight to keep OC safe” and “No LA in OC.” As the county’s top prosecutor, Spitzer bills himself as “a champion for public safety.” 

Smith, a 39-year-old Long Beach accountant, was charged with one count of murder, with an enhancement for the use of a deadly weapon, a knife, in the commission of the crime. Spitzer decried an “unspeakable act of violence . . . the murder of a complete stranger in broad daylight for what appears to be absolutely no reason.” 

The D.A., a UC Hastings law school alum, ignored the possibility of a racist hate crime.

Perpetrator Vanroy Evan Smith was black, victim Michael Mammone was a person of pallor,  and the two men did not know each other. Had a Lexus-driving pale person run over a black doctor on a bicycle, and shrieked racial epithets while stabbing the cyclist in the back, the people may be certain this would be denounced as a racist hate crime for the ages. 

With the skin tones reversed, the district attorney saw no trace of racism or hatred. That recalls a similar case from September 2020, in Los Angeles, which Spitzer does not want Orange County to be like. 

On a Saturday night, two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies stationed their patrol car near the Willowbrook Metro station in Compton. At approximately 7 p.m., a masked gunman appeared to walk past the vehicle then turned and fired multiple shots, hitting both deputies.

The ambushed deputies were a 24-year-old male and a 31-year-old mother, both recent additions to the department.  “I want everyone to have a prayer for them for their recovery at this time,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva told reporters. “This was a cowardly act,” and “words have consequences,” a reference to anti-police rhetoric raging in Los Angeles and across the country.

As Villanueva wrapped up, a mob confronted sheriff’s deputies, with one member shouting “It’s a celebration! It’s a celebration!” Others taunted deputies and took videos with their phones. As this played out, the ambush victims encountered another conflict at St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood.

A Black Lives Matter mob assembled outside the hospital chanting “Death to police!” The mob blocked the entrance to the hospital emergency room, where family members of the wounded officers were present. “I hope they fucking die,” one man yelled, with another adding, “Y’all gonna die one by one. This ain’t gonna stop.” 

President Trump tweeted that if the deputies die, “fast trial death penalty for the killer. Only way to stop this!” Joe Biden tweeted “This cold-blooded shooting is unconscionable and the perpetrator must be brought to justice.” Kamala Harris, formerly attorney general of California, told reporters “the perpetrator must be brought to justice.”

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti wrote, “we strongly condemn this cowardly ambush & stand prepared to offer aid.” Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the “cowardly, horrific act” and called for the perpetrator to be “quickly brought to justice.” 

Police arrested Devonte Lee Murray, 36, a convicted felon with an extensive criminal history that included narcotics sales, firearm possession by a felon, burglary and terrorist threats. He pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder. Records of his trial are proving hard to find, but the cause of the ambush shooting is clear beyond reasonable doubt. 

Hatred of the police is what motivates ambush shootings like those in L.A. and the murder of David Dorn in 2020. Hatred of people who look like Dr. Michael Mammone is what motivates someone to run them over in the street then stab the helpless victim in the back. For the woke ruling class, this brand of racism is now acceptable. 

Films produced by California “First Partner” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, shown in California public schools, considers the “privileged” to be “a cisgendered man,” “white,” “born in the United States,” “straight,” and speaking English as a first language. Whatever selfless, charitable acts a person might have performed, and despite any views he might hold, people who look like Michael Mammone are automatically considered “privileged.” That means they are part of an oppressor class and deserving of punishment.  

On February 3, the website of Governor Newsom honored two police officers and proclaimed Sean Duryea commissioner of the California Highway Patrol. Nothing about an emergency room physician being run down and stabbed in the back. On his official website, Attorney General Rob Bonta honored police officer Gonzalo Carrasco, killed in the line of duty. Nothing about Dr. Michael Mammone, murdered as he cycled down Pacific Coast Highway. 

Last month, Newsom and Bonta also kept quiet in the wake of six murders in Goshen, near Fresno. The victims included 16-year-old Elyssa Parraz and her child Nycholas Parraz, only 10 months old. Mother and child were both shot in the head, execution style. 

Meanwhile, Vanroy Evan Smith is being held in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, with bail set at $1 million. He has pleaded not guilty and a pretrial hearing is set for February 14.