February 23, 2022

By John Kass

Has it only been 34 days since President Joe Biden opened his mouth and his nonsense plopped out?

Yes.

Please don’t tell me that with all the urgent news spin and old generals rattling sabers on TV, with those maps like some Risk board game, you’ve forgotten what our president said a month ago?

He said that if Russia moved into Ukraine, it would be OK with him, if it were only “a minor incursion.”

“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion and we [NATO] end up having to fight about we have to do and not do,” Biden said at a White House news conference on Jan. 19.

To belch such nonsense out publicly was disastrous for him, and the NATO alliance. The world watches and sees his incompetence.

He showed himself for what he is, an old man who was never really all that deep completely out whatever depth he possessed. A man without much of a political  future as some 30 House Democrats have decided to resign rather than face what he’s crafted for the Democrats come November.

And now other incompetents along with cynics of the bi-partisan American War Party are talking about how America must “show strength” and “resolve” to Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in his own backyard, on his own ground?

And for what? So that our old, dry bobbing cork in the White House can shore up his weak domestic political numbers that are falling day by day? It’s not working.

America doesn’t believe you, Mr. President. America wants no part of this. You’ve slurred Americans who don’t agree with you on Voter Integrity laws by calling them knuckle-dragging racists. “Jim Crow 2.0!” remember? You’ve portrayed parents of school children as “domestic terrorists,” and unleashed the Department of Justice upon them just because they don’t agree with mask mandates and Critical Race Theory.

And now you want us to band together under your banner to oppose Putin?

I don’t think so. Americans don’t much care what happens in Putin’s backyard. They care about increasing violent crime across America that you do little if anything about. You won’t even condemn the catch-and-release prosecutors fanning the rise of crime.

Americans do care about your inflationary policies that eat away at their paychecks. They care about how whether they’ll afford to get to work with the price of gas going up, after you killed off the American pipeline to satisfy the hard left.

And Ukraine? Isn’t that where your son Hunter Biden scored big on business deals leveraged by you when you were Vice President?

Yes, Ukraine. That Ukraine. Your son’s sandbox.

And all your horses and media men can’t put your presidency back together again. We don’t want your egg on our faces. Trust me on this Mr. President.

Hasn’t Russia strongman Vladimir Putin done exactly what the U.S. president invited Russia to do?

Russia has long considered Ukraine part of its fading empire and has now moved its forces into Eastern Ukraine. And as Putin made his move all we heard from the Biden White House was confused messaging.

First, it wasn’t an invasion. Then, No! Wait. It IS an invasion. Such confusing messaging does not inspire confidence. And then more confusion from the European Union. It’s all mind-numbing. Ambiguity sucks. Bullets are not ambiguous. Blood is not ambiguous.

“Russian troops have entered into Donbas. We consider the Donbas part of Ukraine,” E.U. official Josep Borrell said in Paris, as quoted by The New York Times.

“I wouldn’t say it is a fully fledged invasion,” Borrell added, “but Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil.”

Not a fully-fledged invasion? With Russian troops on Ukrainian soil? Oh, if you say so.

Adding to the fog is Vice President Kamala Harris. She brought her own fog machine—the one between her ears—to Munich to talk of Ukraine and Russia.

A retired senior U.S. diplomat had this to say:

“She (Harris) was talking about NATO as being stronger than ever before, yet at the same time that NATO’s unity was at stake. And subsequently a question was asked, sometimes journalists do ask questions even this environment, and one journalist asked, ‘How can you square the idea that Putin has already decided to invade with the idea that sanctions are a deterrent?’ And she was unable to answer. You’re scratching your head.”

That retired diplomat is my younger brother, Nicholas S. Kass, who spent more than 30 years working for U.S. government. Now in the private sector, he was a guest the other day on my podcast, The Chicago Way. Here’s a link if you care to listen.

My brother Nick’s judgement is that unclear messaging from the Biden administration undermines confidence in the U.S. across Europe.

Who would disagree?

In comments Tuesday as he announced sanctions against Russia, Biden said:

“Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belongs to his neighbors?” said Biden.

Who gave him the right? No one gave him the right.

But who gave Putin the incentive to act? You did Mr. President. You and your bi-partisan colleagues who have been intervening in Ukraine for years.

You opened your mouth and your nonsense plopped out.

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(Copyright 2022 John Kass)

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