Even Lukashenko agrees that Putin is fighting "a dirty, unfair war" in Ukraine

Even Alexander Lukashenko knows what Putin is up to:
 Julia IoffeVerified account ‏@juliaioffe 14h14 hours ago           

Poroshenko: "He's fighting a dirty, unfair war.

" Lukashenko: "I know, I know. And everyone got that." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFY5tLaBJpI&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop … via @KSHN

Pope Francis gives his blessing to spanking children

Spanking children is OK according to Pope Francis:

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis says it's OK to spank your children to discipline them - as long as their dignity is maintained.
Francis made the remarks this week during his weekly general audience, which was devoted to the role of fathers in the family.
Francis outlined the traits of a good father: one who forgives but is able to "correct with firmness" while not discouraging the child.
"One time, I heard a father in a meeting with married couples say 'I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them,'" Francis said.
"How beautiful!" Francis remarked. "He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on."

Reverend Jeff Hood is spot on when he says that the Pope´s statement is ignorant:

A few days ago, Pope Francis endorsed spanking. Believing that one can spank children and leave them with dignity, Pope Francis even called such a means of punishment, "beautiful." Unless there are records or evidence of the Pope spanking children that are not his own, I don't think that the Pope has much direct knowledge with this subject. In an age of serial and often unreported abuse of children in the Christian world, I can think of few more ignorant statements than for the Pope to give his blessing to the abuse of children. Some might argue that the language of abuse is too strong. I would argue that abuse always begins with the violent exercising of power over someone who is powerless and this is what the Pope has just endorsed.

Roger Cohen in the New York Times: "It´s time to get real over Putin"

Roger Cohen, writing in the New York Times, is spot on:

It’s time to get real over Putin. He has not poured tanks and multiple-launch rocket systems over the Ukrainian border because he is about to settle for anything less than a weak Ukraine, sapped by low-level conflict in the Donetsk region, a country with its very own pro-Russian enclave à la Abkhazia or Transnistria, firmly within the Russian sphere of influence: the symbol of his definitive strategic turn away from closer cooperation with the West toward the confrontation that shores him up as oil prices and the currency plunge. He will not let Ukraine go.

There is a language Moscow understands: antitank missiles, battlefield radars, reconnaissance drones. Bolster the Ukrainian Army with them and other arms. Change Putin’s cost-benefit analysis. There are risks but no policy is risk-free. Recall that Ukraine gave up more than 1,800 nuclear warheads in exchange for that bogus commitment from Russia back in 1994 to respect its sovereignty and borders. Surely it has thereby earned the right to something more than night-vision goggles. The West’s current Ukraine diplomacy is long on illusion and short on realism. Two plus two equals four, in war and peace.

Merkel and Hollande as Putin´s useful idiots

Putin´s useful idiot

Angela Merkel and François Hollande seem to be happy acting as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin´s useful idiots. Fortunately, leading US representatives point out what their "peace initiative" in reality is: “Moscow bull****”.

A rift between Europe and the US over the Ukraine crisis appears to be growing after senior American figures reportedly compared the peace initiative by Angela Merkel and François Hollande to appeasement of Hitler in the run-up to the Second World War.

In a meeting attended by General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s military commander, and Victoria Nuland, the US’s most senior European diplomat, Angela Merkel was described as “defeatist” for her opposition to arming Ukrainian forces, according to details leaked to Bild newspaper.

Mrs Merkel and Mr Hollande’s peace initiative was dismissed as “Moscow bull****” at the meeting of American delegates to the Munich Security Conference, held behind closed doors at the conference hotel.

Senator John McCain reportedly compared the initiative to the Munich Agreement in 1938 between Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister at the time, and Adolf Hitler, which allowed Nazi Germany to annexe the Sudetenland.

“History shows us that dictators will always take more if you let them,” Senator McCain allegedly said. “They will not be dissuaded from their brutal behaviour when you fly to meet them to Moscow – just as leaders once flew to this city.” The reported remarks came as a new peace summit to be held in Minsk on Wednesday was announced, following a phone call between Mrs Merkel, Mr Hollande, Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president.

Putin more interested in Sochi ice show than in meeting "peace makers" Merkel and Hollande

Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on Friday gave two hours of his time to "peace makers" Angela Merkel and François Hollande, who travelled to Moscow without any real peace plan. Then Putin´s press service announced that the dictator has more important things to do - to attend an "anniversary ice show" celebrating the one year anniversary of the most corrupted Winter Olympics ever:

According to European diplomats, Putin had suggested reviving the Minsk agreement but with different ceasefire lines that recognised the territorial gains made by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. But that suggestion was rejected by Kiev.
The Russian president’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the talks involved just the three leaders without delegations, aides or experts. Despite the late start, there seemed little chance of the talks going to a second day, as Putin’s press service announced he would spend Saturday in Sochi at an “anniversary ice show” celebrating one year since the start of the Winter Olympics. He said the three leaders would hold a four-way phone-call with Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko on Sunday to discuss the proposals.
As the day went on it became increasingly clear that Merkel and Hollande had come to Moscow without a comprehensive plan. Instead, they had a response to proposals Putin sent them in letters earlier in the week, in which he envisaged an expansion of territory under rebel control.

There seems to be no limits to the naivity of the German and French leaders.

Vladimir Putin - "A common criminal dressed up as a Head of State"

 "A common criminal dressed up as a Head of State"

Yes, Vladimir Putin is nothing but a "common criminal dressed up as a Head of State":

Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “common criminal dressed up as a Head of State” who ordered the murder of Alexander Litvinenko to stop him exposing him, the inquiry heard.

The former spy was murdered for trying to reveal Putin’s close links to organised crime and a cabal of crime lords who prop up his corrupt regime, it was claimed.

Ben Emmerson QC, representing the Litvinenko family, said the trail behind the “act of unspeakable barbarism” led directly to Putin’s door.

He said Russia was a “Mafia state” where the Kremlin and Russian organised crime syndicates were “indistinguishable”.

Mr Litvinenko could even show crimes committed or authorises by Mr Putin personally, it was claimed.

And the seeds of hatred Putin had towards his former agent which would eventually lead to the murder were first sown in clashes more than eight years before, the inquiry heard.
Putin was a “ruthless and deadly enemy” and “we find Mr Putin's fingerprints as clearly as we find the traces of nuclear material in the forensic evidence”, he said.
In his opening statement to the inquiry, Mr Emmerson said: "Vladimir Putin should be unmasked by this inquiry as nothing more or less than a common criminal dressed up as a Head of State.

Read the entire article here
 

Al Gore and Mother Nature

Al Gore has appeared in Davos, Switzerland:

USA TODAY asked Nobel Peace Prize winner Gore what is needed to sustain public interest in a topic that routinely flits in and out of the news and still regularly divides many worldwide.
"Mother Nature has the most persuasive voice," he said. "Climate-related extreme weather events have really changed thinking dramatically."

Maybe Gore for once is right?

Mother Nature seems to be speaking with a "most persuasive voice" right now:

Much of the Northeast was going into shutdown mode Monday ahead of a blizzard of "historic proportions," with thousands of flight cancellations, a statewide travel ban in Connecticut and road crews and utilities braced for a long night of work heading into ...

(Fox News)

PS

No doubt Gore and other members of the Global Warming Church will say that the historic blizzard is caused by global warming ...