Mike Huckabee

The polls have Democrats looking forward to the November elections with as much optimism as bugs look forward to a visit from the Orkin man. So between now and then, their friendly media will be trying to gaslight us in all sorts of ways to convince us that they’re not responsible for the messes they’ve created. You’ll be expected to believe that they never went overboard with COVID restrictions, that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is responsible for Putin invading Ukraine, and that most Democrats in Washington are patriotic moderates who don’t back the far-left radical ideas pushed by “The Squad.”

When you hear that, remember this:

In a move that some pundits are calling “a gift to Republicans,” Senate “Majority” Leader Chuck Schumer forced a show vote on a bill that would have made it legal to perform abortions at any time. It would have wiped away every state-level protection, making it legal to kill a child in the womb at nine months if a doctor says there’s a risk to the mother’s health -- despite the fact that obstetricians say there’s almost no circumstance under which an abortion at that stage is less dangerous to the mother’s health than birthing the baby.

As of that weren’t radical enough, check out this, from the Fox News write-up:

“The bill also claims that abortion rights qualifies as ‘reproductive justice’ seeking to address ‘systems of oppression, lack of bodily autonomy, white supremacy, and anti-Black racism.’ While the bill claims that abortion restrictions ‘are a tool of gender oppression,’ it also clarifies that despite using ‘the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women,’’ legislators intend to ‘protect all people with the capacity for pregnancy—cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals, those who identify with a different gender, and others—who are unjustly harmed by restrictions on abortion services.’”

That’s right: it’s “racist” to oppose abortion, even though blacks make up 14% of the population but black women get 36% of all abortions. Since Roe v. Wade, about 20 million black babies have been killed by abortion, more than the entire black population of America in 1960.

https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2020/02/25/abortion-the-overlooked-tragedy-for-black-americans/

And here’s now all those “moderate” Democrats voted: The House already passed it 218-211, with every Democrat except Rep. Henry Cuellar supporting it. And in the Senate, it was blocked by filibuster from coming to a vote by 48-46. Six Senators didn’t vote. Joe Manchin was the only Democrat to join Republicans in voting against it. And Manchin and Bob Casey (who did vote to bring it to debate) were the only Democrats who didn’t co-sponsor it.

How do these allegedly moderate Democrats who sponsored and voted for it compare to average Americans? A recent Marist poll found that only 17% of Americans think abortion should be available at any stage of pregnancy, as do only 31% of Democrats. The Democrats in Congress are so far left, they’re even out of touch with other Democrats.

So when you’re voting in November, unless you’re voting for Joe Manchin or Henry Cuellar, remember that all that talk about moderate Democrats in Congress is, as our President would put it, “malarkey.”

Mike Huckabee

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine entered its sixth day Tuesday, with Putin showing no signs of backing off despite worldwide condemnation, accusations of war crimes, and banking and oil sanctions devastating the Russian economy and sending the ruble plummeting in value. Even Switzerland dropped its famous neutrality and cut off Russian access to Swiss banks.

This is the link for the latest bulletins from Fox News:

https://www.foxnews.com/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-day-6

With his belief that this would be a quick and easy invasion blowing up in his face, Putin seems to be getting more dangerously angry and irrational. He’s even put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert. This article by Dennis Santiago at Redstate.com contains valuable information about the relative strengths of the Russian and Ukrainian forces, Putin’s thinking and his tragic miscalculations, and what should be done next to get him to climb down.

https://redstate.com/dennis_santiago/2022/02/28/analysis-as-russias-ukraine-campaign-struggles-the-west-must-neuter-putins-nuclear-threat-n529736

Here are some of the latest developments: The European Union accepted Ukraine’s emergency application for admission, which would allow it access to Europe’s power grid and ally it further with the rest of Europe against Russia.

Satellite images show Russia has sent a 40-mile convoy of “killing machines” to threaten the capital city of Kyiv, and Russia state media are warning of imminent attacks on the city.

Elon Musk sent a shipment of his Starlink Internet terminals to Ukraine at President Zelinsky’s request, to restore Internet access cut off by Russia.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/28/elon-musks-starlink-satellite-internet-terminals-arrive-in-ukraine/

There is a claim that a militia of mercenaries known as the Wagner Group has been flown in from Africa with orders to kill President Zelinsky and other prominent Ukrainians. Key line: “The Kremlin once again denied it has any influence over Wagner and suggested that (its reputed boss Yevgeny) Prigozhin only provides catering services to the Russian government.” I assume that “catering to Putin” means assassinating people.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10559811/Putins-militia-orders-kill-Zelensky-Blood-thirsty-mercenaries-Wagner-Group-revealed.html

The CEO of Shell Oil announced that Shell is cutting its business dealings with Russia and pulling out of the Nord Steam 2 pipeline project.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/shell-is-pulling-out-of-russia-dumping-gazprom-deal

Here’s a photo that went viral that gives you an idea of Putin’s unstable frame of mind.

https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2022/02/28/recent-photo-of-russian-president-vladimir-putin-suggests-that-theres-something-to-all-those-rumors-that-hes-losing-whats-left-of-his-mind/

And as I always remind you, breaking news from a war zone often is unreliable. It can turn out to be an honest mistake or well-disguised propaganda. For instance, we already mentioned that the Ukrainian troops on Snake Island who defied the Russian warship were captured, not killed as originally reported. We’ve also learned that the former Miss Ukraine hadn’t actually joined the fighting but just posed with a prop rifle in a show of support. But all things considered, I'd still rather have her fighting beside me than Justin Trudeau. There are other stories, too, that we didn’t cover but that have since been debunked or amended. The National Pulse rounds up a few, some of them actually from movies or video games.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/02/28/pro-ukraine-propaganda-floods-social-media/

Kenneth Allard

As he often does, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates succinctly summarized the Ukrainian crisis, telling CNN’s Fareed Zakaria “Our long holiday from history is over.” He should know, having long shaped the structure that suddenly collapsed when Putin savagely invaded an inoffensive, neighboring republic. In a flash, seven decades, innumerable precedents, conventions, untold trillions in defense expenditures, and a pervasive sense of peace vanished in the roar of missiles reaching their targets.

The burning question: How long could the courageous but over-matched Ukrainians hold out before Admiral Nelson’s famous dictum caught up? “Numbers annihilate.”

But from the conflict’s first hours, Ukrainian fighters seemed determined to walk a hero’s path running from Bastogne and the Alamo back to Thermopylae. Thirteen Ukrainian border guards achieved immortality when their wonderfully obscene response to a Russian warship quickly galvanized global websites. There were startling reports of Russian transports being shot down, of armored columns ambushed and destroyed. Yet even as the bristling combined arms force bore down on him, Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskiy provided a classic demonstration of courage under fire, coolly dismissing an American attempt to evacuate him. “I need ammunition, not a ride!”

Defying early assumptions of Russian cyber-war, the global info-sphere instead carried resounding messages praising Zelensky and his embattled cohorts, while universally condemning Soviet-style aggression. That’s the thing about genuine heroism: Its blinding light immediately reveals and shames anything less. That is why, as the war grinds into its second week, Vladimir Putin is in real trouble. Not only has the outside world turned against him - the ruble plunging to all-time lows - but internal dissent is growing, thousands of peace demonstrators arrested on the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg. A star Russian athlete even used his television time to write “No war, please” on the camera lens. Were these people no longer afraid of the gulag and the dreaded secret police?

Far more serious was Putin’s chilling announcement that Russian nuclear forces had been placed on high alert. Was this anything more than an obvious intent to intimidate, invoking the nuclear genie to distract from Russia’s lack of progress on the ground? If so, it didn’t deter Germany - Europe’s center of gravity - from announcing that it would now support the Ukrainian resistance with anti-tank and antiaircraft weapons. Berlin’s stunning reversal - from what had been a deeply ambiguous neutrality - may have been a mortal blow to Putin’s reputation for winning by intimidation. With growing diplomatic and economic reversals now added to military ineffectiveness, there were immediate questions about the strongman’s own survival. Senior American officials like Condoleezza Rice were even wondering about Putin’s mental stability.

So is he crazy or just incapable of making sound decisions? Either way, one looked for answers from Russian history, where popular “elections” mostly ratify previous decisions of the ruling elites. So it was that Nikita Khrushchev, in October, 1962, boldly gambled and placed Soviet missiles in Cuba: but he was forced to withdraw them when confronted by President Kennedy, backed by American military might. Not many months later, Khrushchev was gone, quietly replaced because of his “adventurism” in Cuba. So why should Putin’s fate be any different?

That answer may well depend on the battles now immediately before us. Russia can reinforce its advantages in armor, artillery, hyper-baric rockets and long-range fires to trash major population centers like Kharkov and Kiev - all of it viewed in exquisite detail by an aroused global audience. NATO countries on Ukraine’s borders can reinforce the resistance by covert infiltration routes - also subject to Russian counter-attacks and increasing risks of escalation. The courageous persistence of Ukrainian fighters has already been established: but how long before Nelson’s Law takes effect? Can they win a longer insurgency?

It is a dangerous time, perhaps our most perilous since the Missiles of October, but there is no conceivable way of turning back. Watching these events unfold over this momentous weekend, I kept comparing Putin to the mad Inspector Javert from “Les Miz.” A single tune kept replaying in my mind and perhaps you heard it too:

Do you hear the people sing?

Singing a song of angry men?

It is the music of a people

Who will not be slaves again!

NOTE: Colonel Allard is the author of Command, Control and the Common Defense, winner of the 1991 National Security Book Award. After leaving active duty, he became an on-air military analyst for the networks of NBC News