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What Biden learned the last time Putin invaded Ukraine

<p>Few American presidents have spent as much time thinking about Ukraine as Joe Biden.</p>
<p>The Eastern European country is perhaps the only topic that gets more space than family or a presidential run in his 2017 memoir. Biden reflects on 2013 to 2014, when mass protests unseated the Ukrainian president and a Russian invasion led to the annexation of Crimea. Both tested the Obama administration. “The Ukrainian people had been on a thrilling and sometimes harrowing roller coaster for the previous year, and I felt like I had been on it with them,” he writes.</p>
<p>That crisis has striking similarities to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22894163/russia-ukraine-putin-biden-nato">the one unfolding today</a>, especially Biden’s role as foreign-policy problem-solver. Russia has mobilized more than 100,000 soldiers and threatens an attack on neighboring Ukraine, a larger deployment of troops than during its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26787709">2014 offensive</a>.</p>
<p>That year, Obama’s team badly misjudged the ferocity of Russian President Vladimir Putin, it was naive about resetting relations with Russia, and it didn’t anticipate the pernicious tactics Russia would pursue against Ukraine and, ultimately, the United States. Those mistakes from eight years ago are informing the White House’s response now.</p>
<p>Biden traveled to Ukraine six times as vice president. He called its leaders on a weekly basis to cajole them into strengthening their democracy and pushing back on Russia more forcefully. “What happens there will resonate well beyond Ukraine. It matters to all — not just in Europe, but around the world,” he <a href="https://ua.usembassy.gov/remarks-vice-president-joe-biden-munich-security-conference/">said</a> in a 2015 speech to security leaders in Munich.</p>
<p>In 2014, the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/9/3/18088560/ukraine-everything-you-need-to-know">whole ordeal</a> took then-President Barack Obama’s team by surprise.</p>
<p>Ukraine, a former Soviet republic headed by the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, was pursuing a trade agreement with the European Union in 2013. But Russia pressured Ukraine to not sign it, which upset a public eager for new openings with Europe. Soon, 100,000 protesters gathered in Kyiv’s central square, the Maidan. US diplomats <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-victoria-nuland-wades-into-ukraine-turmoil-over-yanukovich/">visited</a> the demonstrations, in symbolic gestures that further agitated Putin.</p>
<p>Biden worked the phones with Ukrainian leaders as security forces, with Russian backing, arrested hundreds of protesters, according to his memoir. In February 2014, snipers and other authorities killed 88 protesters in what came to be called the Revolution of Dignity. Yanukovych fled the country days later, and protesters took over much of the capital.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">A protester holds the Ukrainian national flag from a burned building during a face-off against police in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 20, 2014.</span></figcaption>
<span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images</cite></span></figure>
<p>Then came the war. “We were obviously surprised,” <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/evelyn-farkas/#799">said</a> a senior Obama defense official. In March, Putin deployed special operations troops and irregular forces — soldiers without Russian insignias that gave Putin plausible deniability, who came to be known as “little green men” — to take Crimea in Ukraine’s south. Crimea remains under Russian control today. Historians <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26488652">noted</a> that the annexation was the European first land grab since Hitler in 1938, and showed the lack of guardrails keeping Europe’s security in check.</p>
<p>One Obama adviser <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/john-brennan/">wondered</a> if Putin “recognized that President Obama was reluctant to engage in military conflicts,” and which meant that Russia could get away with it.</p>
<p>Russia went on to back separatists in the <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/content/conflict-ukraines-donbas-visual-explainer">Donbas</a> region in Ukraine’s east, in an ongoing conflict where 14,000 people have died since 2014. A Russian brigade <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/9/26/18080548/mh17-ukraine-malaysia-airlines">shot down</a> a Malaysian plane over Ukraine and killed 298 civilians.</p>
<p>The Obama team was slow to rebuke Putin and sloppy in coordinating with European allies. “The 2014 crisis was one that sharpened a lot of minds,” said Max Bergmann, who was a State Department official at the time. “What I think you see now is the effort to get the ducks in a row right away, to send very clear messaging about what the cost would be to Russia.”</p>
<p>In the first month of the Obama presidency, Vice President Biden said the administration would work to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/washington/08biden.html">reset</a> relations with Russia. Initially, the US pushed for Russia to join the World Trade Organization. Antony Blinken, who advised Biden for almost two decades, suggested a new beginning. “We’re not trying to build our own sphere of influence,” he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/world/europe/22biden.html">said</a> in 2009 while visiting Ukraine with Biden. “The partnerships aren’t being built against anyone. They’re being built for the purpose of addressing common challenges that Russia also faces.”</p>
<p>The annexation of Crimea put an end to this.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">People walk by a mural depicting Vladimir Putin in Simferopol, Crimea, on August 17, 2015.</span></figcaption>
<span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images</cite></span></figure>
<p>Blinken, about one year out of the Obama administration, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/antony-blinken/">said</a> they had “misjudged” Putin, whom he ultimately concluded was a kleptocrat and rogue. By the time he invaded Crimea, “we really were in the zero-sum world where, from Moscow’s perspective, Russia’s strength was our weakness, and our gain was their loss,” said Blinken, who now serves as Biden’s secretary of state.</p>
<p>The Biden team learned that Putin will advance his goals with “asymmetric” tactics, or military and non-military approaches that operate within a gray zone, to trip up the United States. In 2014 and onward, Russia <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/02/08/273181826/a-possible-explanation-for-how-u-s-diplomats-call-was-tapped">leaked</a> a phone call to embarrass US diplomats, spread fake news, and sowed disinformation, which culminated in unprecedented attacks on the 2016 election in the US. It’s led Biden to grapple with “How to Stand Up to the Kremlin,” as was the title of a 2018 essay he co-authored for <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2017-12-05/how-stand-kremlin">Foreign Affairs</a>. He argued that the US must “impose meaningful costs on Russia when they discover evidence of its misdeeds.” He also said that, despite Russia’s belligerent tactics, “Washington needs to keep talking to Moscow,” to avoid unintended escalations of conflict.</p>
<p>As president, Biden has again taken on the role of problem-solver. He spent two hours meeting with Putin in a video call in December as Russia had mobilized troops to its border with Ukraine. “Biden is personally very active on this stuff,” said Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group. “Biden runs those meetings. He understands the details.”</p>
<p>It’s tough to corral the 27 member states of the European Union and the 29 other members of <a href="https://www.vox.com/22900113/nato-ukraine-russia-crisis-clinton-expansion">NATO</a>. In 2014, the US and its allies in Europe moved slowly in response to Russia’s aggression. That spring the US <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/24/politics/obama-europe-trip/index.html">kicked</a> Russia out of the G8 grouping of countries, worked with the EU to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/17/eu-imposes-sanctions-21-russian-ukrainian-officials-crimea">sanction</a> Russian leaders, and began multilateral <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27072351">negotiations</a> over the crisis. But it was not enough to deter Russia.</p>
<p>At the time, Julie Smith, a former adviser to Biden, was taking a break from government. Speaking at a panel in March 2014, she <a href="https://www.hudson.org/events/1135-ukraine-crisis-for-central-europe-and-the-transatlantic-alliance32014">said</a> the US and Europe deserved “pretty low marks, close to a fail.” The Obama administration’s attention had been trained on Asia and the Middle East, leaving behind Russia and Eastern Europe. “All in all,” she said, “a really rough start in part because of the blind eye that we had on this corner of the world for so long.”</p>
<p>Smith is now the US ambassador to NATO, and has focused on a united front in Europe. “I can’t remember a situation where we have seen such dogged diplomacy, day by day, almost hour by hour, to try to prevent a war in Ukraine. It really is all hands on deck,” said Charles Kupchan, a Council on Foreign Relations fellow who worked in the Obama White House from 2014 to 2017.</p>
<p>The Biden team internalized the lesson that allies count. Blinken in 2016 <a href="https://www.cfr.org/event/multilateral-diplomacy-modern-world-conversation-tony-blinken">acknowledged</a> that sanctions against Russia were more effective when “we rallied others” to participate.</p>
<p>Several former ambassadors to Europe told me that they were impressed by how quickly the Biden administration has employed old-fashioned diplomacy. “They have clearly inspired a purposeful, thorough, robust engagement with allies around this crisis that has already paid dividends,” said Dan Baer, an ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe from 2013 to 2017, who is at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.</p>
<p>“They are leaning into diplomacy big time, and they’re confronting the prospect that diplomacy might fail,” added Kupchan.</p>
<figure class="e-image"><span class="e-image__inner"><span class="e-image__image" data-original="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1644246044_6155_19696" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23218717,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/hxMVlJv4Zm0m-SGnlLdD5uQywMo=/0x0:4283x2855/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9BYLEsK1G3UExOBxHEcDtxdMUzo=/0x0:4283x2855/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zkxky66vzpBCTd45P1NY61T6yyg=/0x0:4283x2855/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/LhhswNfiPBCXWzQI5KKumXwGCzM=/0x0:4283x2855/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mWcFNJ6-o1hrt57nnNpg_WYRrmQ=/0x0:4283x2855/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/yWZq_WA64fWrveLX2F0W-SN3vDk=/0x0:4283x2855/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m5pHn3q5YMXEdh40A_gooEg0ptY=/0x0:4283x2855/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EEoljcIdYWMfXxl8lIqRxZn2ZB4=/0x0:4283x2855/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5k2lv3HCUE8ryDAQlGbcPUE63a0=/0x0:4283x2855/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="4283" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/c9eXBMVdKPQfY9OELgRsE3xg_FQ=/0x0:4283x2855/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/EgTH21nzveypr2MPVuupbJbROXY=/0x0:4283x2855/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0G7Q1g-K8FcY9wV44cLX2zdhxEo=/0x0:4283x2855/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/2NejymzAu9YMGSj6-Lv2Nd_Jg94=/0x0:4283x2855/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/VJcGCSQdc_y_c4nqON9Qr7X1fOk=/0x0:4283x2855/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4q6OA_79W3ofjoLMEAU6dbZzNHg=/0x0:4283x2855/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rAPlGPX2D0Fmo-E-2Y1ZNsnGn2A=/0x0:4283x2855/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Ej_rbt66kNlpbPo1tsSRHSB9js0=/0x0:4283x2855/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZAI8WU0SNA6VYS0bF4cbG11MCRc=/0x0:4283x2855/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IFmsvl2Dr0ozjB-QFOTSxB3oIqE=/0x0:4283x2855/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4283x2855):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23218717/AP21167462206767.jpg 1920w" /></picture></span></span>
<figcaption><span class="e-image__meta">Russian President Vladimir Putin greets President Biden during a summit at Villa la Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16, 2021.</span></figcaption>
<span class="e-image__meta"><cite>Patrick Semansky/AP</cite></span></figure>
<p>Biden cares about Ukrainian democracy and is cognizant of the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/12/09/remarks-vice-president-joe-biden-ukrainian-rada">endemic corruption</a> that makes good governance difficult for the country. Nevertheless, he has unequivocally advocated for what the White House euphemistically calls “lethal aid” — that is, free weapons.</p>
<p>This contrasts with debates within the Obama administration. Obama was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/world/europe/wary-stance-from-obama.html">against</a> quickly arming the Ukrainians for fear of agitating Russia, and perhaps because the Ukrainian army was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/08/07/why-arming-ukraine-is-a-bad-idea/">undisciplined</a>. (And once so-called defensive weapons were approved for Ukraine, the transfers were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/us/politics/obama-said-to-resist-growing-pressure-from-all-sides-to-arm-ukraine.html">slow</a>.)</p>
<p>Biden was in the camp <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/us/politics/joe-biden-ukraine.html">urging</a> Obama to increase weapons transfers. Now, many Obama-era officials who took the hawkish position in advocating for sending weapons to Ukraine are in positions of power. As Biden <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/20150527_biden_transcript.pdf">explained</a> in 2015, “Believe me, helping Ukraine in its defense and deterrence against Russian aggression is critical, is critical to checking further aggression down the road.” He later <a href="https://www.cfr.org/event/foreign-affairs-issue-launch-former-vice-president-joe-biden">described</a> President Donald Trump’s shipment of advanced missiles to Ukraine as “a wise decision.” Biden <a href="http://ucca.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Biden-Overview-for-Ukraine-2020.pdf">pledged</a> to deliver weapons to Ukraine on the 2020 campaign trail, long before any new flareups.</p>
<p>So it should be no surprise that the Biden administration has quickly sent to Ukraine <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/22/1075064514/ukraine-lethal-aid-us-russia">$200 million</a> of weapons and more are likely on the way. Ukraine, for its part, is the <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46344/3">fourth-largest recipient</a> of US military funding for weapons. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/02/politics/us-troops-europe-russia/index.html">Thousands</a> of American soldiers are also headed to NATO partners in Europe.</p>
<p>Ian Kelly, who served as ambassador to Georgia from 2015 to 2018, speculates that Putin thought that the “Obama holdovers” on President Biden’s team would be reluctant to move like last time. “Obama didn’t want to sell lethal weapons, Obama didn’t want to escalate, Obama didn’t really react with much in 2014,” said Kelly. But Putin “miscalculated,” he explained, and the Biden team are “firm trans-atlanticists who believe in NATO.”</p>
<p>Still, lessons learned only go so far.</p>
<p>Like the Obama administration, Biden’s inner circle hadn’t prioritized Europe on paper. The interim <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NSC-1v2.pdf">national security strategy</a> from last year, a document that guides the Biden administration’s thinking, did warn of “strategic challenges” from a “destabilizing Russia.” But the Biden White House indicated that they wanted to prioritize above all China and climate change, addressing the pandemic and rebuilding the economy.</p>
<p>Now, Russia is taking much of the Biden team’s attention, and the new national security strategy that was <a href="https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/12/new-national-defense-strategy-be-released-early-2022/187385/">due out</a> in early 2022 has been delayed.</p>
<br />
<br />
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/7/22916942/biden-lessons-russia-2014-invasion-ukraine-crimea">https://www.vox.com/2022/2/7/22916942/biden-lessons-russia-2014-invasion-ukraine-crimea</a>

vox What Biden learned the last time Putin invaded Ukraine

Few American presidents have spent as much time thinking about Ukraine as Joe Biden. The Eastern European country is perhaps the only topic...

Ottawa Mayor Declares State of Emergency Amid Ongoing Freedom Convoy Protests

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2022/02/awgkuhfgkuewhky.jpg" /></div>
<p><strong>Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency after 9 days of the Freedom Convoy rally occupying the city, claiming the demonstration is a “serious danger” to residents.</strong></p>
<p>“Declaring a state of emergency reflects the serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents posed by the ongoing demonstrations and highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government,” the City of Ottawa <a href="https://ottawa.ca/en/news/mayor-watson-declares-state-emergency-ottawa-due-ongoing-demonstration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> on Sunday.</p>
<p>“It also provides greater flexibility within the municipal administration to enable the City of Ottawa to manage business continuity for essential services for its residents and enables a more flexible procurement process, which could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders.”</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="3.6363636363636">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">“DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY! THEY’RE DANCING!” <a href="https://t.co/XUz0QT5TEF">https://t.co/XUz0QT5TEF</a></p>
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) <a href="https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1490445990264029194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="2.9">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Bouncy castles in Ottawa <a href="https://t.co/ydfjUCzUGd">pic.twitter.com/ydfjUCzUGd</a></p>
— Justice Centre (@JCCFCanada) <a href="https://twitter.com/JCCFCanada/status/1490422366840803334?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="3.5">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">This what a State of Emergency looks like in Canada. <a href="https://t.co/n9j7PNOgUj">pic.twitter.com/n9j7PNOgUj</a></p>
— The Next News Network (@NextNewsNetwork) <a href="https://twitter.com/NextNewsNetwork/status/1490456547352363009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="2.9807692307692">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Ottawa state of emergency <a href="https://t.co/4zLUa3cVfg">pic.twitter.com/4zLUa3cVfg</a></p>
— Wittgenstein (@backtolife_2019) <a href="https://twitter.com/backtolife_2019/status/1490457299617521671?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p>Shortly after, the Ottawa Police Department announced they would begin arresting anybody who provides “material support” such as fuel or food to the Canadian Freedom Convoy.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="5.3021276595745">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">IMPORTANT: Anyone attempting to bring material supports (gas, etc.) to the demonstrators could be subject to arrest. Enforcement is underway. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottawa?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ottawa</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ottnews?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ottnews</a> <a href="https://t.co/tp4e5d2xe1">pic.twitter.com/tp4e5d2xe1</a></p>
— Ottawa Police (@OttawaPolice) <a href="https://twitter.com/OttawaPolice/status/1490398101072490496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p>“It is not illegal to bring gas to someone,” noted <em>Rebel News</em> founder Ezra Levant. “Ottawa Police have obviously been instructed with political errands for the mayor or [Prime Minister] Trudeau.”</p>
<p>“They have no legal authority to simply declare peaceful protests unlawful or to punish people like this. They’re breaking the law,” he added.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="6.2063953488372">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">It is not illegal to bring gas to someone. Ottawa Police have obviously been instructed with political errands for the mayor or Trudeau. They have no legal authority to simply declare peaceful protests unlawful or to punish people like this. They’re breaking the law. <a href="https://t.co/a4mhX3ObR3">https://t.co/a4mhX3ObR3</a></p>
— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) <a href="https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/1490401636015038464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="5.6811594202899">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Canadian prisons:</p>
<p>What are you in for?</p>
<p>Church. You?</p>
<p>Donating firewood.</p>
<p>Hey new guy. What did you do?</p>
<p>Terrorism. I honked after 7. <a href="https://t.co/Pa5DwFXgui">https://t.co/Pa5DwFXgui</a></p>
— Sheila Gunn Reid (@SheilaGunnReid) <a href="https://twitter.com/SheilaGunnReid/status/1490422593328799744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="3.5338345864662">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">Is food next? “assisting an illegal activity” <a href="https://t.co/T0sEUhcXfz">https://t.co/T0sEUhcXfz</a></p>
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1490395693818728448?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p><em>Westphalian Times</em> reporter Marie Oakes claimed she asked a representative of the Ottawa Police to explain what law or statute grants them the authority to arrest Freedom Convoy supporters for providing fuel or food, but was denied an answer.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="6.9423728813559">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">I just called the Ottawa police media relations and they said they aren’t aware of this tweet and would not provide me with a law that could lead to an arrest on these grounds.</p>
<p>The police personnel then hung up the phone. <a href="https://t.co/QQs6RVOwDt">https://t.co/QQs6RVOwDt</a></p>
— Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheMarieOakes/status/1490407041030045697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
<hr class="wp-block-separator" />
<p><em><a href="https://futurenews.news/watch?id=61fafea23e01a0387330cab9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Powerful! The Message Of TruckStock: The Canadian Convoy Is Inspiring The World</a></em></p>
<br />
<br />
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/ottawa-mayor-declares-state-of-emergency-amid-ongoing-freedom-convoy-protests">https://www.infowars.com/posts/ottawa-mayor-declares-state-of-emergency-amid-ongoing-freedom-convoy-protests</a>

news Ottawa Mayor Declares State of Emergency Amid Ongoing Freedom Convoy Protests

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency after 9 days of the Freedom Convoy rally occupying the city, claiming the demonstrati...

Sunday Live: Freedom Convoys Worldwide Derailing Great Reset, Globalists Are Panicked — Braced For Plan B, War!

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Globalists are using all options, from cutting funding to weighing using military, following the classic path of tyrants throughout history -- tune in and share this critical link everywhere!</div>
<div class="css-1lv0euf" readability="10">The good news is, from Europe to the U.S., official criminal investigations have been opened by major governments into the Davos group's role controlling the Great Reset via the COVID crisis.</div>
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<p><strong>Alex Jones breaks down how the fires of liberty are igniting across the planet as Freedom Convoys spring up througout Europe, Australia, and the US while some governments double down on their unscientific COVID tyranny.</strong></p>
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/sunday-live-freedom-convoys-worldwide-are-derailing-the-great-reset-and-globalists-are-panicked">https://www.infowars.com/posts/sunday-live-freedom-convoys-worldwide-are-derailing-the-great-reset-and-globalists-are-panicked</a>

news Sunday Live: Freedom Convoys Worldwide Derailing Great Reset, Globalists Are Panicked — Braced For Plan B, War!

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The GOP’s January 6 lies have reached a fever pitch

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<p>On Friday, the Republican National Committee officially stated that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, which left at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-deaths.html">five dead</a> and about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html">140 injured</a>, was “legitimate political discourse.”</p>
<p>In a two-page <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/rnc-censure-resolution/58226d40412e4f18/full.pdf">censure resolution</a> <a href="https://www.vox.com/22917728/liz-cheney-adam-kinzinger-censure-january-6-committee">condemning</a> Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their participation in the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack, the RNC wrote that “Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes.”</p>
<p>In a subsequent tweet, RNC chair Ronna McDaniel <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1489693461452361748?s=20&t=Ql9-CnnWx7T3qC0AIG7sVA">expanded</a> on the language of the censure to clarify that it referred to “ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”</p>
<p>The original text of the resolution, however — which, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/republicans-jan-6-cheney-censure.html">the New York Times notes</a>, was “carefully negotiated in private among party members” before publication — is a fitting cap to a week that saw the GOP, led by former President Donald Trump, draw closer than ever to explicitly supporting the attack on the Capitol and its goal of overturning the 2020 election.</p>
<p>In addition to the censure, Trump last Saturday told supporters at a rally in Conroe, Texas, that he would <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/30/politics/trump-rally-texas/index.html">consider pardoning</a> those charged in connection with the January 6 attack, and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/02/trump-considered-blanket-pardons-for-jan-6-rioters-before-he-left-office-00004738">Politico reported on Wednesday</a> that he also contemplated doing so before leaving office in January last year.</p>
<p>“If I run and if I win [in 2024], we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly,” Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/30/politics/trump-rally-texas/index.html">said at the rally</a>, without addressing any specific concerns about the treatment of rioters. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons. Because they are being treated so unfairly.”</p>
<p>Trump also said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/1487943126396411906?s=20&t=ZBTpGUa4z4hu4gcfwHPrTg">statement last week</a> that former Vice President Mike Pence “could have overturned the Election!” — an assertion that, while incorrect, is among Trump’s most overt remarks about the intent behind January 6 and his actions leading up to it.</p>
<p>Trump has not yet announced an official run for the presidency in 2024, but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-drops-hint-about-2024-run-calling-himself-47th-president-2022-1">signs point</a> to a likely White House bid as he retains a tight grip on the GOP rank and file.</p>
<p>In the meantime, large swaths of the Republican party, still apparently in Trump’s thrall, have shifted their position on the Capitol insurrection, distancing themselves from the disturbing reality of those events and positioning the insurrectionists as innocent protesters, or even patriotic guardians of the Constitution.</p>
<p>That <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/03/lindsey-graham-familiar-arc-trump-bringing-his-gop-allies-meekly-heel/">reversal</a> — from horror at the falsehood-fueled spectacle that unfolded at the Capitol last January to condemnation of Republicans who defy Trump’s narrative — may have coalesced even more clearly over the past week and a half, but it’s been building almost since the attack, spearheaded by members of Congress like Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).</p>
<p>While some establishment Republicans, including <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/04/politics/romney-gop-cheney-kinzinger-censure-vote/index.html">Sen. Mitt Romney</a>, have spoken out against the censure and praised Cheney’s and Kinzinger’s moral compasses, while <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/592462-graham-defends-opposition-to-jan-6-pardons-after-trump-calls-him-a-rino">others have expressed dismay</a> at the idea of a future President Trump pardoning January 6 rioters, many have bought so wholeheartedly into Trump’s narrative that they attacked <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/pence-trump-election.html">Pence</a> for accurately disputing on Thursday Trump’s assertion that he could have overturned the results of the election.</p>
<p>Trump’s assertion that he wants fair treatment for the January 6 defendants may be superficially benign, but in reality, it’s just one front in the GOP attempt to mythologize the attack as less severe than it was.</p>
<p>Trump, along with members of Congress like Gaetz and Greene and would-be members like Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance, have made misleading statements about the slightly more than 700 people arrested for their roles in the attack, including describing them as “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-visited-jan-6-rioters-jailed-patriot-wing-2021-11">political prisoners</a>” and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/08/politics/fact-check-jd-vance-capitol-charges/index.html">claiming that they haven’t been charged with crimes</a> (they have).</p>
<p>The subtext of Trump’s argument about fairness is particularly alarming, given the shocking violence directed against police defending the Capitol on January 6. By floating pardons should he regain office, Trump rewrites the limits of acceptable behavior for his supporters — and reinforces that those loyal to Trump are in the right and will be rewarded for their loyalty, while those who oppose his claims to power are not only wrong, but unprincipled.</p>
<p>“There is no room for dissenters from Donald Trump’s views in the Republican party,” Alex Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told Vox in a Sunday interview.</p>
<p>Gaetz and Greene — both <a href="https://www.axios.com/jan-6-social-media-congress-democrats-40237d4e-7e9f-41f4-95b5-da7546aa6dc1.html">ardent supporters of Trump</a> — are leading proponents of the narrative that January 6 attendees are being mistreated (<a href="https://apnews.com/article/records-rebut-claims-jan-6-rioters-55adf4d46aff57b91af2fdd3345dace8">they’re not</a>). <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-jail-gop/2021/07/29/8362d17e-f096-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html">Last summer</a>, they, along with Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) visited a DC jail where some January 6 defendants were being held, demanding access as members of Congress and erroneously claiming they oversaw the budget for the jail, according to the Washington Post.</p>
<p>The group, joined by Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Bob Good (R-VA), also barged into the Justice Department this past summer, with Gosar calling January 6 defendants “political prisoners” and attempting to ask whether any of the defendants were being held in solitary confinement, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-jail-gop/2021/07/29/8362d17e-f096-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html">Washington Post’s Meagan Flynn</a> reported at the time.</p>
<p>The January 6 defendants are facing <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases">a variety of charges</a>, ranging from <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/january-6-riot-felony-obstruction-charges">obstructing an official proceeding of the government</a> to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/1/16/22886516/stewart-rhodes-seditious-conspiracy-january-6-oath-keepers">seditious conspiracy</a>. Some have already been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/01/06/jan6-sentencings-judges/">convicted and sentenced</a>; as of the one-year anniversary of the attack, the longest sentence was just over five years in prison.</p>
<p>As Keyssar <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/29/how-will-the-history-books-remember-2021-526219">told Politico</a> in a 2021 retrospective in December, the insurrection of January 6 accelerated “the downward spiral of American political life” and set off an “intensified, rancorous struggle over the preservation of democratic values and institutions.”</p>
<p>Trump’s insistence on pursuing his self-serving narrative of victimhood — and pulling the Republican Party along with him — doesn’t just affect the GOP, as Keyssar points out; it ultimately affects the functioning of democracy and people’s ability to participate in it. “It’s not just a matter of telling different stories,” Keyssar told Vox on Sunday.</p>
<p>Specifically, he said, Trump’s rhetoric around the insurrection is “storytelling to justify a particular social order.” According to Keyssar, the narratives forming around the insurrection echo the end of the Reconstruction period in the South following the Civil War. The Reconstruction era gave Black Americans unprecedented rights, power, and political representation for a brief period, until the end of the 19th century; in the decades following Reconstruction, the prevailing narrative among white Southerners was that the Civil War was an attack on Southerners’ ways of life, and the Reconstruction period was the result of corrupt Northern “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” taking over the remains of that society.</p>
<p>At the time, Keyssar said, the white Southern narrative argued that the disenfranchisement of Black Southerners and reinforcement of white supremacy “had to be restored in order to have a ‘good society’ again.” In the same vein now, Trump’s fiction — that he was the true winner of the 2020 election and widespread fraud robbed him of a second term in office; that members of his own party who don’t support his lies are unpatriotic; and that the people who protested and stormed the Capitol on January 6 aren’t criminals — aims to restore him to power.</p>
<p>Just because Trump’s talking points around the 2020 election and the Republican Party’s embrace of them aren’t exactly unprecedented, that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous, Keyssar said.</p>
<p>The polarization of the two parties, and their dominance in state legislatures, has emboldened <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/31/florida-voting-laws-elections-00003952">some places to propose laws</a> <a href="https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2022/02/03/west-virginia-lawmakers-advance-bill-to-enhance-voter-fraud-penalty/">targeting voter fraud</a> — though there was no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election — which can have the real-world effect of making it more difficult for disenfranchised communities, including Black people and those in poverty, to vote.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Keyssar said, the constant effort to delegitimize the election does serve to negate the peaceful means of changing power, which could portend further violence in one form or another. “If you discredit the mechanism of elections,” he said, “then what are you left with? Force.”</p>
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/6/22920432/trump-republican-party-january-6-lies-pardon-rioters">https://www.vox.com/2022/2/6/22920432/trump-republican-party-january-6-lies-pardon-rioters</a>

vox The GOP’s January 6 lies have reached a fever pitch

On Friday, the Republican National Committee officially stated that the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, which left at least five...

Why Lata Mangeshkar was an Indian music icon

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q2K5j0mx76FU0Ahe53dScyTNigg=/0x295:3280x2012/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23221789/GettyImages_1264305927__1_.jpg" /></div>
<p>Lata Mangeshkar, the Indian playback singer who loaned her coy, girlish voice to the heroines of Indian film for more than seven decades and became one of Bollywood’s most powerful figures in the process, died Sunday in Mumbai. The singer, 92, had been hospitalized since early January with Covid-19.</p>
<p>Indian cinema is so intertwined with its music — just watch any classic Bollywood film — that a film can be a hit or a bomb depending solely on the catchiness of its songs. So directors chased Mangeshkar to breathe life into their Busby Berkeley-esque song-and-dance numbers with her impossible high notes and emotive delivery. The singer, whose voice could stretch an impressive four octaves (for comparison, Mariah Carey’s range is five), is believed to have recorded thousands of songs in more than 30 languages from Hindi to Urdu to Tamil to Bengali, as well as her native Marathi.</p>
<p>Upon news of Mangeshkar’s death, the actress Kajol, who lip-synced to Mangeshkar’s mellifluous voice in the film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxgvob1Ew0c"><em>Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge</em></a>, shared a tweet that suggested just how prolific the singer’s career was. “If we play her songs one by one,” the <a href="https://twitter.com/itsKajolD/status/1490218915854979077">actress wrote</a>, “we could hear her for a month and never hear the same song again.”</p>
<p>Mangeshkar’s death was also met with the announcement of a national two-day mourning, and her star-studded state funeral in Mumbai on Sunday drew political and Bollywood royalty, from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to beloved film star Shah Rukh Khan.</p>
<p>The term “playback singer” refers to a background player who sings the songs penned by composers and lip-synced on-screen by actors, but along with a few other high-profile South Asian singers, Mangeshkar managed to defy the rules of the role. Though her songs appeared across Indian film, her rise to fame came largely in tandem with the explosion of Bollywood into a <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/235837/value-of-the-film-industry-in-india/">more than $2 billion-dollar industry</a> with a global audience, a fact of which Mangeshkar seemed keenly aware. Though her singing voice could be famously coquettish, Mangeshkar was loud about singers’ right to cash in on the songs they’d helped to make famous, leading a battle for singers’ royalties that stretched for much of her career.</p>
<p>“What do I get from this? I don’t get any royalty. Now there is internet and the MP3 format,” she lamented in 2012 after her songs, owned not by her but by publishing companies, began appearing on various albums. In 2018, thanks in part to Mangeshkar’s decades-long cry for change, Indian singers began receiving royalties, and Mangeshkar was dubbed a feminist for her calls for fair pay and her ambition.</p>
<p>Mangeshkar, whose father was a classically trained singer, entered films at age 13 in an effort to support her family after her father’s death. Nicknamed “Lata Didi” — elder sister — and “Nightingale” or “Melody Queen” in the media and by many fans, Mangeshkar quickly became India’s own songbird, its answer to Edith Piaf. Mangeshkar, however, stands apart from the Western musical canon as much for her longevity as for her prodigious output: She appeared on hit albums for four decades, and is reported to have sometimes recorded several songs in a single day. “I recorded two songs in the morning, two in the afternoon, two in the evening and two at night,” she <a href="https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/how-lata-mangeshkar-had-to-fight-for-song-credit/511629/">would say</a>.</p>
<p>Her voice rang out (and still does) from India’s movie theaters and television sets, from cars and wedding halls. Though her face only appeared on-screen a few times in her career — she told reporters she hated acting — she was featured on <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/19810215-lata-mangeshkar-the-incredible-singing-machine-772672-2013-11-28">magazine covers</a> as “The Incredible Singing Machine” and interviewed widely. After the end of colonial British rule, she proudly performed for the nation’s new leaders, including Jawaharlal Nehru.</p>
<p>Directors declared her a chameleon distinct among the sea of Indian playback singers, which happened to include her own sister, Asha Bhosle. Love songs, such as her 2006 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ikZtcgAMxo">Luka Chuppi</a>, about a mother mourning her son’s death, were rendered a little more heartbreaking, and romantic songs, like her famous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFr6G5zveS8">Lag Jaa Gale</a>, a smidgeon more stirring in Mangeshkar’s hands, while seductive <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETyzbcajHUI">numbers</a> betrayed a unique vulnerability as the singer dialed into each character.</p>
<p>This weekend, Amitabh Bachchan, the legendary Bollywood actor whose films regularly featured Mangeshkar’s voice, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/voice-of-a-million-centuries-has-left-us-big-b-pays-respect-to-lata-mangeshkar-visits-the-singers-home-with-daughter-shweta/articleshow/89386592.cms">took to his blog</a> to acknowledge the value of Mangeshkar’s sacrifices. “The voice of a million centuries has left us … her voice resounds now in the Heavens.”</p>
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/6/22920720/death-lata-mangeshkar-singer-indian-music-icon-bollywood">https://www.vox.com/2022/2/6/22920720/death-lata-mangeshkar-singer-indian-music-icon-bollywood</a>

vox Why Lata Mangeshkar was an Indian music icon

Lata Mangeshkar, the Indian playback singer who loaned her coy, girlish voice to the heroines of Indian film for more than seven decades an...