Blinken on How We Ran out of Ammo: Russia’s Attempt to Topple Ukraine Failed
On Tuesday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Today,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question on how we ended up having to send cluster munitions to Ukraine because we’re essentially out of ammunition by stating that Russia’s attempts to topple Ukraine’s government and take over the whole country failed.
Co-host Savannah Guthrie asked, “I understand the argument saying, look, this is a temporary solution, this is a backstop because Ukraine is running low on munitions. However, this war has been going on for 500 days, the West has sent billions of dollars to Ukraine — how do you find yourself in this position where you’re essentially out of ammo and having to resort to this highly controversial weapon that is banned by many, many countries, including allies?”
Blinken responded, “Well, first, take a step back. Sixteen months ago, Russia was on the doorsteps of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. It was working to take over the entire country, to topple its government, to erase Ukraine from the map, to end its independence, to subsume Ukraine into Russia. That has failed, and it’s failed because of the incredible courage of the Ukrainian people. It’s also failed because of the very strong support from country after country. Everything has gotten pushed to the east and the south. Ukraine’s working to get more of its land back that Russia has taken from it. We’re in the fight with them, and it’s vitally important that they do everything they can to succeed. But, in terms of what Russia was trying to do, it’s already failed. And now we want to make sure that Ukraine can do as much as it possibly can to recover territory that remains in Russian hands.”
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Donald Trump Blasts More Ukraine Aid: ‘Joe Biden Should Not Be Dragging Us Further Toward World War III’
“Joe Biden should not be dragging us further toward World War III,” former President Donald Trump said in a statement released Tuesday, calling to “immediately end the bloodshed in Ukraine” and for a return “to a focus on America’s vital interest.”
Trump reacted to the Biden administration’s recent decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite President Joe Biden admitting that “we’re low on [them].”
“It took me a while to be convinced to do it. But the main thing is, they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now…keep them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these areas, or they don’t. And I think they needed them,” Biden said during an appearance on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS.
WATCH — Biden: We’re Sending Cluster Munitions to Ukraine Because “We’re Low on” Ammo They Need, and They’re “Running out of” Ammo
Trump, however, believes it is a mistake, asserting that Biden is essentially “dragging us further toward World War III by sending cluster munitions to Ukraine.”
Trump warned:
He should be trying to END the war and stop the horrific death and destruction being caused by an incompetent administration. These unexploded cluster munitions will be killing and maiming innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children for decades to come, long after the war—we pray—has ended.
He continued:
If, as Biden inadvertently admitted, the reason for sending cluster bombs now is that the United States is “running out of ammunition” (a great breach of classified information), that only further emphasizes the urgency of immediately deescalating this bloody, dangerous, and out of control conflict. It certainly means we should not be sending Ukraine our last stockpiles at a time when our own arsenals, according to Crooked Joe Biden, are so perilously diminished.
There could be no more vivid proof that Joe Biden’s policy of endless war in Ukraine has tremendously weakened the United States than the humiliating admission that the USA is now out of ammo, something our enemies are undoubtedly salivating over. This “admitted” weakness is an invitation to enemies all over the world. Joe Biden is needlessly and dangerously leading us into World War III, which would be a nightmare beyond imagination—obliteration!
Trump said it is crucial to stop the “insanity” and bloodshed in Ukraine and “return to a focus on America’s vital interests.”
WATCH: Demonstration of the Devastating Cluster Bombs Biden Is Sending to Ukraine
Nellis Air Force Base via Storyful“Most importantly, we must completely rebuild our depleted military so it is once again so strong—like it was just 3 years ago when I rebuilt it—that no nation would even think of threatening our people,” Trump said.
“We must have ‘PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH’ and in a short time, the Presidential election of 2024 will produce that result,” Trump added.
His remarks stand in sharp contrast to those of his competitor and former running mate former Vice President Mike Pence, who told Breitbart News Saturday that defending Ukraine is in the “best interest” of the U.S., despite admitting it is not “our war.”
“What you don’t read is that the Russians have been using those cluster bombs over the last year and a half,” Pence said, asserting that the Biden administration has been “dragging” its feet.
“But supporting the Ukrainian military to repel and defeat the Russian invasion is in the interest of the United States of America, and it’s in the interest of freedom,” Pence said.
“I will tell you I have no doubt in my mind that if the Russian army was able to overrun Ukraine, it would not be too long before they crossed a border where, under our NATO charter, our American armed forces would be required to go and fight,” Pence continued, asserting that aiding Ukraine will also send a message to China, causing the authoritarian regime to “think twice about Taiwan or moving on anything else in the Asia Pacific.”
Meanwhile, People’s Party candidate Cornel West has offered a view more in line with Trump’s, asserting that the Democrat Party is “a party of war,” while also warning that “this proxy war between the American Empire and the Russian Federation could lead to World War III.”
These statements come as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admits fear of Trump returning to the White House.
“President Biden is the president during a full-scale war and he has been more helpful to us than President Trump,” Zelensky stated in part, telling the Wall Street Journal, “In a situation like this, when there is support, you are afraid of changes.”
This will crack you up!
Mexican Presidents Deny They Took Bribes from El Chapo
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2018/11/14/mexican-presidents-deny-they-took-bribes-from-el-chapo/
14 Nov 201898
Two former Mexican presidents publicly denied taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel. The statements came after the legal defense for JoaquÃn “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera made contrary claims this week.
The drug lord is facing several money laundering and drug trafficking charges at a federal trial in New York. In his opening statement, defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman spoke of bribes “including the very top, the current president of Mexico and the former.”
Soon after the statements became public, Mexico’s government issued a statement denying the allegations. Eduardo Sanchez, the spokesman for current Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said the statements were false and “defamatory.”
El gobierno de @EPN persiguió, capturó y extraditó al criminal JoaquÃn Guzmán Loera. Las afirmaciones atribuidas a su abogado son completamente falsas y difamatorias
— Eduardo Sánchez H. (@ESanchezHdz) November 13, 2018
Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon took to social media to personally deny the allegations, claiming that neither El Chapo or the Sinaloa Cartel paid him bribes.
Son absolutamente falsas y temerarias las afirmaciones que se dice realizó el abogado de JoaquÃn “el Chapo” Guzmán. Ni él, ni el cártel de Sinaloa ni ningún otro realizó pagos a mi persona.
— Felipe Calderón (@FelipeCalderon) November 13, 2018
Under Guzman’s leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel became the largest drug trafficking organization in the world with influence in every major U.S. city.
The allegations against Pena Nieto are not new. In 2016, Breitbart News reported on an investigation by Mexican journalists which revealed how Juarez Cartel operators funneled money into the 2012 presidential campaign. The investigation was carried out by Mexican award-winning journalist Carmen Aristegui and her team. The subsequent scandal became known as “Monexgate” for the cash cards that were given out during Peña Nieto’s campaign. The allegations against Pena Nieto went largely unreported by U.S. news outlets.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Mass Protests, Kidnappings, Blockades Erupt in Mexico After Arrest of Cartel Lieutenants
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets to block highways and riot against authorities to pressure Mexico’s government into releasing two cartel lieutenants. The government arrested the cartel leaders earlier this month. Unconfirmed information points to the protesters kidnapping 13 federal employees to pressure the government.
On Tuesday morning, Rosa Icela Rodriguez, Mexico’s top federal law enforcement official, revealed that members of the Ardillos criminal organization were behind a series of riots and protests in Guerrero to pressure the government.
Rodriguez said that authorities were ordered not to clash with the protesters despite provocations because the criminal organization had forced locals to attend.
En #ConferenciaMañanera, encabezada por el Presidente @lopezobrador, informamos sobre lo ocurrido en #Chilpancingo, Guerrero. En este gobierno tenemos una directriz clara de no enfrentar la violencia con más violencia y de siempre privilegiar el diálogo. pic.twitter.com/a5C6P8A5QH
— Rosa Icela RodrÃguez Velázquez (@rosaicela_) July 11, 2023
Officials revealed that protesters took five members of Mexico’s National Guard, five state police officers, two local officials, and one federal employee. The kidnapping victims are reported to be in good health, officials said.
The protests began on Monday when hundreds of individuals took to the streets and even blocked one of the main federal highways in Chilpancingo, Guerrero. After 12 hours, the groups stopped by night time but resumed their activities on Tuesday morning.
On the day the protests began, a federal judge in Mexico denied bond to Jesus Echeverria Penafiel and Bernardo “C” on federal drug and weapons charges. Authorities arrested both men on July 5 as part of an investigation into the Los Ardillos Cartel in Guerrero.
That criminal organization controls several local “self-defense” groups, rural community police forces(UPOEG), and other civil organizations that allow them to operate under the radar.
During the protests, authorities identified two main organizers from Los Ardillos who controlled the crowds. One of them is 39-year-old Gilmar Jair Sereno Chavez, who Mexican authorities describe as the protest leader. Authorities claim that Sereno Chavez was responsible for a similar protest on February 16, where they kidnapped several military and police officers as a way to force the government to meet their demands.
Last week, a video went viral in Mexico where the mayor of Chilpancigo, Norma Otilia “Lady Pachangas” Hernandez, had met with Celso “La Vela” Ortega Jimenez, one of Los Ardillos’s top leaders. The mayor admitted that she had breakfast with Ortega but claimed there was no ill-intent or shady dealings.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
GRAPHIC: Mexican Army Kills 9 Gulf Cartel Gunmen in Border State Raids
Mexican military forces killed nine Gulf Cartel gunmen during a series of confrontations in the northern part of the border state of Tamaulipas.
The large-scale shootouts come at a time when rival factions of the Gulf Cartel have been waging a fierce turf war for control of lucrative drug and human smuggling routes in the northern part of Tamaulipas — particularly around the border city of Reynosa.
The raids began late last week when members of Mexico’s Army began tracking down cartel camps near San Fernando, Tamaulipas, and various rural communities such as Cruillas, Burgos, Mendez, and others closer to the Gulf of Mexico. Those areas have become highly relevant as rival factions of the Gulf Cartel gegan fighting for control of them in late April.
During raids on Thursday, military forces managed to seize various vehicles. On Friday, authorities raided some areas near the rural community of La Loma, Tamaulipas, where they found three armored vehicles and two other trucks. Soon after that raid, authorities received information about a group of gunmen stationed at a makeshift narco-camp in La Loma and moved to that location. As the military forces arrived at the camp, gunmen began shooting at them. The military forces fought back, killing nine gunmen and forcing the rest to flee.
In the aftermath of that shootout, authorities seized three trucks, weapons, and body armor with the letters CDG (Gulf Cartel) and the Roman numerals XIX, which is used by the group led by Jose Alberto “La Kena or Ciclon 19” Garcia Vilano, who is the current leader of the Matamoros faction. As Breitbart Texas reported, La Kena’s group went to war with the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel, known as Los Metros, over their connections to Cartel Jalisco New Generation.
Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to Mexico City and the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and their original Spanish. This article was written by “Francisco Morales” and “J. C. Sanchez” from Tamaulipas.
Mexico's president calls out Alvin Bragg, saying his indictment is a scheme to keep Trump off the ballot
Whatever you think of Mexico's leftist president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, there's no disputing he knows every dirty trick in the third world playbook, having been on the receiving end of at least some of it.
He's watching what's going on in the U.S. now, with Manhattan's "let-'em-all-out" district attorney, Alvin Bragg, seeking to indict President Trump on felony campaign finance charges, and smells the stench of 'banana republic' all over it.
According to Newsweek:
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday defended Donald Trump, saying a potential indictment of the former president could be a move to prevent him from seeking reelection.
"Right now, former President Trump is declaring that they are going to arrest him," López Obrador, who is also known by his initials AMLO, said during a press conference. "If that were the case...it would be so that his name doesn't appear on the ballot."
And it does have the stench of 'banana republic' all over it. A sudden epiphany of concern for rule of law, from a district attorney who let every crook out he could, is obviously about politics, not rule of law. Keeping Trump off the ballot is the obvious aim here and AMLO from abroad could see it from experience.
AMLO also pointed out that the U.S., which blew up the Nordstream II pipeline, had no business lecturing others on rule of law.
The Biden administration's response to that was predictably mealy mouthed.
That was wretched, given how little the Biden administration is doing to halt the fentanyl inundation with his open border.
What's more, it follows from AMLO's earlier statements that fraud had tainted the last U.S. presidential election. He experienced that himself in 2006, when he had been ahead in the polls, but ballot counting in the dead of night suddenly stopped, went dark -- and then resumed with the other candidate in the lead. Been there, done that. AMLO was one of the very last world leaders to recognize Joe Biden as president, while the likes of even presumed allies, such as then-U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu, fell all over themselves to quickly congratulate Joe Biden.
AMLO has a long memory, and said so himself.
Newsweek's writer, who is also a Reforma correspondent in Mexico City, knows the backstory well, adding AMLO's explanation for his statement:
As for why AMLO might be supporting Trump ahead of a possible arrest, the Mexican leader alluded to criminal accusations he has faced himself. In 2022, a veteran Mexican politician and an investigative journalist said López Obrador and his government had links to organized crime, which the president has fervently denied.
López Obrador, who became president in 2018, has said election fraud caused him to lose his attempts to gain the office in 2006 and 2012.
"I say this because I too have suffered from the fabrication of a crime, when they didn't want me to run," López Obrador said Tuesday while discussing Trump. "And this is completely anti-democratic.... Why not allow the people to decide?"
Which is all entirely true.
Three thing stand out there:
First, that this kangaroo clown show indictment is being closely watched internationally, and the message being sent is that U.S. politics is starting to resemble the politics of a third world country where opponents are jailed on invented charges quite contrary to what the law says in a bid to keep an inconvenient opposition leader off the ballot. We've seen it in Venezuela, in Russia, in Pakistan, and even in France; it goes on in any place where political standards are low and a ruling elite is more convinced of its divine right to rule than it is of representative democracy.
Second, AMLO's relations with Joe Biden must be abysmal. U.S.-Mexico relations must be at some kind of unannounced low point for the Mexican president to make that kind of statement about the U.S. when similarly situated politicians -- such as Brazil's President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva, and Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu -- could say the same thing from experience as AMLO did, but didn't. Lula also got railroaded on questionable charges as his first term ended, and then came back to win a second election, albeit apparently a fraud-tainted one. Netanyahu's experience was similar. But they haven't said anything, AMLO did, laying out what was going on and what everyone abroad could see what was going on.
Third, it signals that AMLO will always be there for Joe Biden whenever he or his Democrats engage in banana republic politics. What could be more fun for someone in a shambling democracy that's been held up to scorn for years in the past, to hold up the U.S. as no better than they have been, and oftentimes, actually worse. It's a way of saying 'cut the crap' on American exceptionalism, and AMLO is glad to do that.
AMLO may not be the sort of person a Trump voter would vote for if he were running for office in the U.S., he's basically the Bernie Sanders of Mexico, but he should be lauded and respected for his independence and courage all the same, even if it's motivated a tad by resentment of the U.S. There's no doubt he's right and speaking truth from experience.
The U.S. political scene is becoming Latinamericanized, as Eric Hoffer once put it. Now it's getting bad out there, and those who have been there and done that abroad are noticing, and like a doleful Greek chorus, delivering their reproach.
Image: Screen shot from Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, via YouTube
By weight, 86 percent of heroin that entered the United States in 2016 was of Mexican origin, according statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Why does it matter? Well, because the U.S. under President Trump is trying hard to get along with the new Mexican administration, run by the leftist Andrés Manuel López-Obrador. His followers are the top suspects in this mysterious helicopter crash, which, if the investigation leads anywhere, is likely to cast a Putinesque pall over López-Obrador just as it gets its grounding. Prepare for relations to deteriorate if that grows as a backstory.
Mexican Arkancide?
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5440581937224467578#allposts/postNum=0
Sometimes, the coincidences get just too...coincidental.
Now we have, in Mexico, the sudden helicopter crash of a newly elected governor, after an apparently very bitter election. Here's the Globe and Mail report:
A Mexican governor and her senator husband were killed on Monday in a helicopter crash near the city of Puebla in central Mexico, the government said, just days after she had taken office following a bitterly contested election.
Martha Erika Alonso, a senior opposition figure and governor of the state of Puebla, died with Rafael Moreno, a senator and former Puebla governor, when their Agusta helicopter came down on Monday afternoon shortly after take-off, the government said.
This seems to happen a lot in Mexico, quite unlike any comparable place in the region that I know of.
A number of Mexican politicians have died in aircraft accidents in recent years, including federal interior ministers in 2008 and 2011. The latter two were also members of the PAN.
Maybe it was just the wildest of coincidences, but given the savage character of Mexican politics, I think it's natural to be a little suspicious. In most of these incidents, the motive is suspected but not utterly obvious. This one is different: it came after a bitterly contested election that the rabid left says was stolen. It sounds like the sort of fury we saw from the left when Trump won – except that now we see Mexican politics at play, potentially a straight-up assassination, possibly by the embittered left.
Mexico sees a lot of these helicopter downings, and what's more, it sees a lot of full blown assassinations. A presidential candidate from before Mexico got into multi-party politics, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was straight-out assassinated in 1994, and his wife died under murky circumstances shortly after that. Other elected officials have been gunned down or else died in mysterious car crashes. There was definitely one of those in Michoacán. Yes, some probably were the work of drug-dealers. But others were far more likely to be Mexico's toxic politics. It does happen.
Yet the Mexican government can get real touchy when you bring up any suspicions about the helicopter crash phenomenon. I remember how furious Mexico City's response was to an actually sympathetic editorial I wrote for Investor's Business Daily, I think in 2008, when a Mexican official was similarly killed in a helicopter crash. At the time, they were obviously worried about the potential impact on foreign investment, but my thought was to praise the Mexicans for their resolve and sacrifice in fighting drug lords. That's not the way they think over there.
Why does it matter? Well, because the U.S. under President Trump is trying hard to get along with the new Mexican administration, run by the leftist Andrés Manuel López-Obrador. His followers are the top suspects in this mysterious helicopter crash, which, if the investigation leads anywhere, is likely to cast a Putinesque pall over López-Obrador just as it gets its grounding. Prepare for relations to deteriorate if that grows as a backstory.
Perhaps even more, it matters because Mexico's politics seems to be the model for Democratic Party politics these days as rage over Trump dominates. In California, ballot-harvesting has been adopted as a legal practice, in what's a straight-out cultural appropriation of Mexican politics. If the Democrats are planning to make themselves the "perfect dictatorship" along the PRI model of one-party rule, starting in California and taking that style national, well, the unhappy question is, what else are they borrowing from Mexican politics as they (without saying so, of course) borrow from the Mexican Model? Yes, it sounds far-fetched. But we also know how implacably angry the Democrats still are at the election of Donald Trump and how they like to get away with things.
Image credit: Martha Erika Alonso de Moreno Valle, own work, via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
President Lopez-Obrador and the Wall
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/president_lopezobrador_and_the_wall.html
Over the last few years, I've had conversations with friends in Mexico. We usually end up talking about the border. For us, the border is illegal immigration. For Mexicans, it's guns and cash corrupting a very fragile political system.
As a Mexican friend said recently, the cartels have the politicians in their pockets, especially in the small towns where many of these vans full of cash and guns drive through.
There are many reasons to build that border wall, as former Secretary of Education William Bennett said on Sunday:
By weight, 86 percent of heroin that entered the United States in 2016 was of Mexican origin, according statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"After 9/11 we shut down the border. When we shut down the border, drugs didn't come in," Bennett said. "If you shut down that border, if you close it off, if you build a wall, it can have a real and profound difference."
There is another reason, as any rational Mexican will tell you.
On a weekly basis, lots of cash and guns go south. They are the profits and rewards of the drugs going north. According to unofficial estimates:
Officials in Mexico believe the tide of laundered money could be as high as $50bn per year, a sum equal to about three per cent of Mexico's legitimate economy -- more than all its oil exports or spending on key social programmes. Internationally, money laundering represents between two and five per cent of global GDP, or between $800bn and $2tn annually, according to the UNODC.
It would be more difficult for money or guns to go south if you had a wall on the border.
So President Trump should pick up the phone and call President Lopez-Obrador. He should thank him for keeping the caravans in Mexico and discuss the benefits of the border wall. Why wouldn't the Mexican president support the wall? I'm sure that the Mexican army and police would love to see that wall go up.
The lack of a stable border hurts both sides.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
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