Ukraine gave up its nukes at America’s urging, leaving them powerless to stop Russia. Now what happens?

Now what happens? https://t.co/YrjFVRxAKV

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) February 5, 2017

White Widow 'killed by sniper in Ukraine' World's most notorious woman terrorist is 'DEAD'

◼ A BRITISH woman terrorist suspect dubbed the "White Widow" has been killed in Ukraine, it was claimed today. - Express [UK]

Samantha Lewthwaite, 30, was gunned down by a Russian sniper two weeks ago, alleged Regnum news agency in Moscow.

One of Britain's most wanted people, she was reported last month as fighting for the Islamic State's terrorists in Syria.

Morning Jolt: Our Vacation from Paying Attention to Ukraine & Russia Just Ended

◼ So it turns out Putin thinks he has more flexibility after the election, too - BBC via Jim Geraghty/NRO

An armoured column including 32 tanks and 30 trucks has crossed into eastern Ukraine from Russia, Kiev says.

The trucks were carrying ammunition and fighters, said a military spokesman, but the BBC cannot confirm his report.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 5 September, although hundreds of people have been killed since then.

More than 4,000 people have died since fighting erupted in April after pro-Russian separatists seized control in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Collapse of Consensus

◼ We have entered treacherous waters when it comes to international security because there is no longer a consensus about US interests and US responsibilities.  - Larry Johnson/No Quarter

...I have watched with a combination of fascination and horror that wide variety of strategic prescriptions being advance by politicians and pundits on dealing with the threat of ISIS. It is completely fragmented, with one important exception.

Most Americans agree with the mantra, “no boots on the ground.” Of course, these same Americans are either ignorant, willfully blind or uninformed about the fact that we do have US “boots on the ground” in Iraq....

Canada: Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & ‘accidentally’ entering #Ukraine

Geography can be tough. Here’s a guide for Russian soldiers who keep getting lost & ‘accidentally’ entering #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/RF3H4IXGSp

— Canada at NATO (@CanadaNATO) August 27, 2014

1,461 Days of Summer

◼ Obama’s endless second-term vacation - Matthew Continetti/Washington Free Beacon

The headline was brutal. “Bam’s Golf War: Prez tees off as Foley’s parents grieve,” read the cover of Thursday’s New York Daily News. Obama’s gaffe was this: He had denounced the beheading of James Foley from a vacation spot in Martha’s Vineyard, then went to the golf course. Seems like he had a great time. Such a great time that he returned to the Farm Neck Golf Club—sorry, membership is full—the next day.

Technically, Obama’s vacation began on August 9. It is scheduled to end on Sunday, August 24. With the exception of a two-day interlude in D.C., it has been two weeks of golf, jazz, biking, beach going, dining out, celebrating, and sniping from critics, not all of them conservative, who are unnerved by the president taking time off at a moment of peril.

Attacking the president for vacation is usually the job of the out party. But these days it is the job of all parties. Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, ISIL, Ebola, child migrants on the border, racial strife in Ferguson, an American murdered by the caliphate—critics say the president who danced to every song at Ann Jordan’s birthday party seems remote and aloof from, and even mildly annoyed by, such concerns.

I disagree. Not with the judgment that Obama is detached, dialing it in, contemptuous of events that interfere with his plans. I disagree with the idea that this August has been different, in any meaningful way, from the rest of Obama’s second term. For this president, the distinction between “time off” and “time on” is meaningless. For this president, every day is a vacation. And has been for some time....

Dana Milbank: Obama vacations as the world burns

◼ President Obama must really be teed off. - Washington Post

Hillary Rodham Clinton, his once-loyal secretary of state and his likeliest successor, has gone rogue, criticizing his foreign policy as too timid.

Obama responded with not one but two rounds of golf.

Clinton, in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg published by the Atlantic over the weekend, offered a withering comment on the Obama doctrine, described in shorthand by White House officials as “don’t do stupid s---.” Said Clinton: “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle.”

As the criticism became public, Obama was doggedly sticking with his plans to go on vacation — a decision that, if not in the category of stupid stuff, could fit under the heading of “tone deafness.”

◼ It begins: Iraq crisis prompts Dems to dump on Obama’s foreign policy - HotAir

The Wall Street Journal observed on Sunday that President Barack Obama’s approach to foreign policy is drawing awful reviews from the critics. What critics? “James Steinberg, formerly the President’s Deputy Secretary of State, and Robert Ford, formerly his Ambassador to Syria,” and, delivering the unkindest cut of all, “Hillary Rodham Clinton, formerly his loyal Secretary of State.”

Steinberg said Obama’s decision to provide just limited support to the Kurds, and to direct all other aid through the Iraqi government which has intentionally dragged its feet, “just leaves you scratching your head.”

“Nothing we can point to that’s been very successful,” Ford said of Obama’s approach to the Syrian civil war.

President Barack Obama continues to lack a foreign policy doctrine which guides his approach to crises as they arise. With the best of intentions, the president’s admirers routinely try to rectify this oversight by crafting a doctrine for the president, leading to a variety of aborted experiments and unintentionally humorous episodes. One such attempt to define the Obama doctrine recently resulted in this gem: “Don’t do stupid s**t.”

Malaysian Plane 'Shot Down' With 295 On Board - UPDATED

◼ An adviser to the Ukraine Interior Minister says separatists shot down the passenger plane with a Russian-made Buk ground-to-air missile system. The separaists in Donetsk admit using these systems. - Business Insider ◼ Via Drudge

295 PEOPLE KILLED AS PASSENGER PLANE CRASHES IN EAST UKRAINE, GOVERNMENT SAYS IT WAS SHOT DOWN

◼ Flight MH17: What the Wreckage Is Already Revealing - TIME

The operating theory is that a ground to air missile took out MH17 while it was in cruise flight at its assigned altitude, now being reported as 33,000 feet. The evidence we already have corroborates that theory. When an airplane crashes into the ground under power or as the pilots are trying to regain control, the scattering of the wreckage is always very contained, usually within an acre or so. In this case, large parts have already started turning up miles away from each other, and that can only mean one thing: that the airplane broke apart at altitude and its parts descended on the currents of the wind until they impacted the earth. The higher the airplane was when it came apart, the more widely scattered the wreckage will be. We can conclude that MH17 came apart at a very high altitude. And it came apart very violently. I have seen a photograph of the floor structure of the airplane, torn apart at the metal structural ties, capable of withstanding many tens of thousands of pounds of force, resting in a field in rural Ukraine. The section in question weighs likely around 10,000 pounds. It’s not the kid of component that breaks off and flutters away. It was blown apart from the rest of the structure.

◼ Malaysian Plane 'Shot Down' With 295 On Board - Sky News
◼ BOTH SIDES IN UKRAINE DENY SHOOTING DOWN PLANE - AP Boeing 777 Travelling From Amsterdam With 295 On Board
◼ MALAYSIAN AIRLINES lost contact with flight - BBC
◼ REPORT: Was flying 33,000 feet when hit by missile fired from Buk launcher - CBS DC
◼ Crashed 35 miles from Russian border - TASS
◼ Body Parts Found Scattered - CBS Seattle
◼ VIDEO - Mail Online
◼ PHOTOS - Business Insider
◼ Updates - Telegraph UK
◼ EARLIER: Russian rocket may have downed military plane - CBS
◼ HORRIFIC SCENE! FIRST PHOTOS From #MH17 Crash Site - Gateway Pundit
◼ 'It looks like it may be a terrible tragedy': Obama sparks anger with 40-second mention of Malaysian plane crash that killed 23 Americans before launching into jokes and prepared transportation speech - Daily Mail

◼ Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 295 passengers on board including 23 Americans
◼ President Obama said his national security team is working on identifying the U.S. citizens – and then launched into jokes and 16 minutes of prepared remarks
◼ Twitter erupted with digital eye-rolls at Obama's curt mention of the 'tragedy' that the Ukrainian government quickly called a 'criminal case'
◼ House Speaker John Boehner offered a solemn statement, saying 'many innocents were killed today. It is horrifying.'

Twitter erupted, with thousands of users expressing emotions ranging from disappointment to disgust.

Former CNN host Piers Morgan reacted with his typical barbs. 'President Obama massively dropped the ball just now,' Morgan tweeted. '23 Americans killed and he says "it looks like a terrible tragedy" then back to jokes?' 'I agree,' responded singer Josh Groban. 'Bad prep. I was shocked.'

National Review reporter Charles Cooke tweeted: 'Shorter Obama: 'Something awful has happened with a plane. It’s awful. Awful. Republicans are bastards for not funding new airports".'

Traveling in Denver, this reporter heard gasps from guests watching a hotel lobby television as Obama spoke. One remarked: 'A tragedy is when you lose control and fly into a mountainside. This is mass-murder. What a disappointment.' '

His distance from reality is just bizarre,' said another.

News of the plane crash reached the White House before Obama left for Delaware on Thursday morning. He ignored a question, shouted by a reporter as he departed, asking what he knew about the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777.

Obama finished his speech by saying 'Let’s build some bridges. Let’s build some roads. God bless America.' His next stop after Wilmington was New York City, where he will headline a Democratic Party fundraiser Thursday evening.

@piersmorgan I totally agree. Bad prep. I was shocked.

— josh groban (@joshgroban) July 17, 2014

Let me help, Mr President - it IS a terrible tragedy, and it's more probably mass murder of your citizens & many other nations' citizens.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 17, 2014

Jews urged to flee Ukraine by Holocaust survivor

◼ ALL Jewish people should leave Ukraine at once, a Holocaust survivor warned last night, after “grotesque” anti-Semitic leaflets were handed out in the country. - Marco Giannangel/Express UK

The pamphlets and posters, distributed in the eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk, demanded that the Jewish population register, pay a new tax or leave.

They are a terrifying echo of the anti-Jewish atrocities carried out by Ukrainians under Nazi occupation during the Second World War.

The leaflets, apparently signed by pro-Russian group the People’s Republic of Donetsk, have enraged the world....

Sam Pivnik, 86, was only 14 when his family were rounded up in Bedzin, western Poland, and sent to the death camp at Auschwitz.

After his parents, brothers and a sister were chosen “with the flick of a glove” for extermination by “Angel of Death” Dr Josef Mengele, the teenager, tattooed with a prisoner number, was left to survive alone. Mr Pivnik, who now lives in Golders Green, north London, said he was not surprised by the literature’s anti-Semitism....

As the climate of fear grows, however, the authenticity of the pamphlets is being called into question. Denis Pushilin, leader of the breakaway pro-Russian People’s Republic, vehemently denied his organisation was behind the leaflets. “Look at this document, I have never called myself the people’s governor, my job is different,” he told the Sunday Express.

“The stamp is bigger than it should be because it was Photoshopped from some real document.”

...They called on Ukraine’s police and secret services to find the real culprits, claiming the authors “tried to provoke a conflict”, and pin blame on the separatists.

Dr Efraim Zuroff, of the respected Simon Wiesenthal Centre, agreed, suggesting the Donetsk flyers were “an attempt to paint the pro-Russian forces as anti-Semitic”.

Speaking late Sunday on Russian state television, Viktor Yanukovych claimed that CIA director John Brennan had met with Ukraine's new leadership and "in fact sanctioned the use of weapons and provoked bloodshed."

◼ Ukraine's ousted president puts blame on CIA - AP

Ukraine's ousted president has accused the CIA of being behind the new Ukrainian government's decision to deploy armed forces to quash an increasingly brazen pro-Russian insurgency.

Krauthammer Hammers White House on Ukraine

◼ With Russian forces continuing to push into Ukraine, Kiev asked the White House for military arms. In return, Obama offered pre-packaged military meals. - Heritage

Serious

Moscow Warns it May Change Stance on Iranian Nuke Talks...

◼ Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted Wednesday as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia didn’t want to use the Iranian nuclear talks to “raise stakes,” but may have to do so in response to the actions by the United States and the European Union. - CBS DC

The statement is the most serious threat of retaliation by Moscow after the U.S. and the EU announced sanctions against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.

Independent Crimea lasted less than 24 hours:

◼ RUSSIA’S HIGH-SPEED ANNEXATION OF CRIMEA - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

Russia’s annexation of Crimea happened fast. The dodgy Crimean independence referendum, denounced as illegal by the “international community, took place over the weekend. On Monday, Russian president Vladimir Putin thumbed his nose at the aforementioned “international community,” said it was too a legal referendum, laughed at the notion of sanctions, and signed a decree recognizing Crimean independence… which lasted less than 24 hours, as Tuesday morning saw Crimean leaders signing a treaty to make it part of Russia.

And to think there were international observers speculating that annexation might take weeks or months! Try hours, ladies and gentlemen. And then take two of those hours back, because the Crimeans announced they would be resetting their clocks to Moscow time on March 30, which will put them two hours ahead of Ukraine time.

European and American sanctions – leveled against just 21 and 7 individual Russian officials, respectively – did nothing to slow Putin down....

Putin referred to the new Ukrainian government as “neo-Nazis, Russophobes, and anti-Semites” in his speech on Tuesday, to thunderous applause. That doesn’t bode well for harmonious co-existence.

RUSSIA LAUGHS AT OBAMA 'SANCTIONS'; CALLS HIM 'PRANKSTER'

ABC US News | ABC Business News

◼ link - ABC

MOSCOW – Russia’s deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama’s sanction against him today asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list.

The Obama administration hit 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials with sanctions today as punishment for Russia’s support of Crimea’s referendum. Among them: aides to President Vladimir Putin, a top government official, senior lawmakers, Crimean officials, the ousted president of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian politician and businessman allegedly tied to violence against protesters in Kiev.

It remains to be seen whether the sanctions will dissuade Russia from annexing Crimea, but one an early clue that they will not be effective came just hours later when President Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea as an independent state, perhaps an early step towards annexation.

Is Obama trying to kill Putin by causing him to laugh himself to death? http://t.co/4kiV6SlKYw #tcot

— Howard Notelling (@BluegrassPundit) March 17, 2014

◼ Krauthammer: If Obama thinks that sanctioning seven Russians is a sanction, he’s living in a different world - HotAir

As Krauthammer puts it, “if he thinks that sanctioning seven Russians, out of a population of, what, 150 million, is a sanction, he’s living in a different world.” I don’t know about Dr. K’s suggestion that we could get the Europeans to join in on real, robust economic sanctions, given their degree of energy dependence on Russia, but today’s announcement definitely amounts to little more than weaksauce symbolic gesture...

◼ Bolton: US Sanctions Against Russia 'So Weak It's Embarrassing' - Newsmax

The sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States in response to its invasion of Crimea were "so weak that it's embarrassing," and would have no effect on future threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, said former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.

"I mean, naming 11 individuals and imposing visa restrictions on them and freezing their assets in the United States — it is nothing in the big picture," Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News' "America's News HQ" on Monday.

The sanctions were especially timid, Bolton explained, since Putin had "put thousands of Russian troops across an international border" and held a "Soviet-style" referendum in Crimea, where 97 percent of voters cast ballots Sunday to return to Russian rule. On Monday, the Crimean parliament formally requested that Russia annex the breakaway peninsula.

RETALIATE: PUTIN TARGETS US SENATORS...
DEFIES WEST WITH CRIMEA DECREE...
RUSSIACHINA PUSH FOR CONTROL OF INTERNET...
REVOLT: Crimeans toast future with Moscow after 95% approval vote...
Venice votes on cutting ties with Italy...
Battle in Canada rekindled with Quebec election...
Scottish independence looms...
Putin's Popularity Soars...
Obama Sends New Warning...
Crimean PM Mocks With Photoshopped Pic in Russian Uniform...
Markets rally over 'weak' sanctions...
France Set to Deliver Helicopter Carriers to Russia?
State TV says Russia could turn USA to 'radioactive ash'...
Threatens switch to other currencies over sanctions...
Moscow Accuses Ukraine of Electronic Attack on Satellite...

RISE OF A NEW MOTHERLAND

◼ Crimeans vote in referendum on whether to break away from Ukraine, join Russia - Washington Post

◼ Bill Clinton: Vladimir Putin is 'highly intelligent' and 'deeply, deeply patriotic' - Charlie Spiering/Washington Examiner @charlesspiering

"He is highly intelligent, deeply, deeply patriotic in terms of Russia, but he sees it more in terms of the greatness of the state. I think he's got a sort of fatalistic view of the misfortunes that befall ordinary people when larger things are at stake," said Clinton, according to a report from the International Business Times.

◼ Vladimir Putin and the Lessons of 1938: He’s not Hitler. But we’ve got to stop him all the same. - Politico
DRUDGE HEADLINES:
Crimea votes for Russia union...
◼ 60,000 troops massed on border - Bloomberg
Ukraine calls up 40,000 reservists...
Putin's Popularity Soars...
Goals reach far beyond peninsula...
REPORT: Russia Downs US Drone...
Obama rejects vote results...
Has four days to stop...
◼ Kasparov: 'Carter looks like Churchill in comparison' - TIME

We'll see now. But so far, Carter looks like Churchill in comparison. RT @TomCrowe: wait, Obama is *worse* than Carter? @PatrickRuffini

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 17, 2014

Hillary was the captain of the Titanic that was US-Russia relations as Secretary of State. Her as admiral of whole fleet makes me nervous!

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 17, 2014

◼ Soros Predicts Ukraine Could Ruin EU - The Daily Beast
State TV says Russia could turn USA to 'radioactive ash'...
Threatens switch to other currencies over sanctions...

The Year Of Living Dangerously

◼ Gunmen Storm Crimea Hotel Full of Reporters on Eve of Referendum

A day before the breakaway leaders of Crimea stage a referendum on their secession from Ukraine, roughly two dozen commandos took over a major hotel on Saturday night in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, where dozens of journalists — including a TIME correspondent — are staying.

◼ UPDATE: Ukraine reports Russian 'invasion' on eve of Crimea vote - AFP
◼ Forces Seize Natural Gas Station - AP
◼ PAPER: Paranoia Leads Putin To Point Of No Return - Telegraph
◼ US Navy destroyer to conduct more Black Sea drills...
◼ REPORT: Russia Downs Drone - AFP
◼ Obama national security aides meet - AFP

U.S. weakness breeds global instability

◼ What America needs most right now is a strong leader. Russia has one. It’s why Putin has taken Ukraine’s Crimea without a second thought. - J.D Gordon/Washington Examiner

It seems Barack Obama thinks he can influence strongmen like Russia's Vladimir Putin, Iran's Ali Khamenei, Syria's Bashar Assad, North Korea's Kim Jong-Un and Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro like honest, well-intentioned business executives. That's fantasyland.

What is our foreign policy? Disliking global warming?

◼ Warnings From the Ukraine Crisis: A new century's dangers begin to come into focus. - Peggy Noonan/Wall St. Journal

What has been happening in Ukraine is not a wake-up call precisely but a tugging at the attention, a demand to focus.

There's a sense that in some new way we are watching the 21st century take its shape and express its central realities. Exactly 100 years ago, in August 1914, the facts that would shape the 20th century gathered and emerged in the Great War. History doesn't repeat itself; you can't, as they say, step into the same stream twice. But it does have an unseen circularity.

Sept. 11 started the century and brought forward the face of terrorism. It is still there and will continue to cause grave disruptions. Since then we have seen we are living in a time of uprisings, from the Mideast to Africa to the streets of Kiev. We are learning that history isn't over in Europe, that East-West tensions can simmer and boil over, that the 20th century didn't resolve as much as many had hoped.

...Not being George W. Bush is not a foreign policy. Not invading countries is not a foreign policy. Wishing to demonstrate your sophistication by announcing you are unencumbered by the false historical narratives of the past is not a foreign policy. Assuming the world will be nice if we're not militarist is not a foreign policy.

What is our foreign policy? Disliking global warming?

Ted Cruz chastises Harry Reid: It’s not his place to attack private citizens

◼ He also noted the hypocrisy of Reid, attacking the Koch brothers while not mentioning the billionaire who has pledged to give money to Democrats to get Climate Change laws passed. - The Right Scoop VIDEO

◼ Reid blames Ukraine standoff on Koch Brothers - The Hill

◼ Ted Cruz slams Harry Reid over Ukraine aid bill, demonization of Koch brothers

Sen Cruz layeth the smacketh down on Sen Reid.

— Matthew (@Matthops82) March 13, 2014

Love that Cruz is turning Dems' rhetoric back on them. Reid "held this bill hostage…"

— David Fair (@davidfair) March 13, 2014

◼ WaPo: Four Pinocchios for Dems’ Koch habit - HotAir

Harry Reid’s unhinged rants on the Senate floor about David and Charles Koch reflect not just one man’s paranoia but an empty strategy of demagoguery by a major political party....