Today 3/6/22 at 6:00 PM CT. Barnes continues on his way posting the most transparent Russian propaganda over the Ukraine War. Having said that, he was also briefly put in Twitter jail over this. I vehemently oppose cancel culture no matter my position on a particular issue.
Frei and Barnes
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
If a mad dog (Putin) is in the neighborhood, you don’t antagonize the dog through the fence (NATO) and you don’t taunt the dog (Biden) without a muzzle to back things up (Biden’s team, formerly Obama‘s team).
If the dog gets loose and bites people it’s definitely the dog’s fault but-
Anyway now that we’re here it is what it is. Lindsay Graham is right but damn did he have to post that on the Internet..
I simply do not get Barnes’ thinking. Putin is showing the entire world who he & his forces are by shelling the largest nuclear power plant in Europe while shooting at Ukrainian firefighters attempting to put out the fire, destroying hospitals while killing/maiming those in them, repeatedly striking civilians without mercy. Are Barnes & people like him just ignorant of these facts? Or do they simply not care? I have read where some of them are claiming that Putin is cleaning up the corruption in Ukraine—and that it needs to be done. I know of no one more corrupt than Putin.
Barnes has always given too much credence to conspiracy theories, and one such conspiracy theory is about the revolution which toppled the pro-Russian president in Ukraine in 2014. Additionally, he has taken a dim view of most of our military involvements since World War II. I would disagree with him, but I would have no problem if he would simply make his case forthrightly. Relying upon Russian propaganda to attempt to get around the fact that this is naked aggression by Putim, simply isn’t intellectually honest.
Barnes has always given too much credence to conspiracy theories, and one such conspiracy theory is about the revolution which toppled the pro-Russian president in Ukraine in 2014.
The continual repair to this event is a red herring. The Ukraine has held five competitive elections since Victor Yanukovich skipped town. The Russophile parties, which once commanded about 40% of the electorate, have bounced around 16% since then. VP’s 3d chess skills are so awesome he gets outmaneuvered by a Democratic Party patronage appointee, one Victorian Nuland.
Mac!
In 2022, “intellectual honesty” is a virtue almost as rare as chastity in a bordello.
In 2022, “intellectual honesty” is a virtue almost as rare as chastity in a bordello.
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One example of intellectual honesty from a Catholic on the ground in Kyiv who is giving a daily report of how her faith & reliance on God is enabling her on a moment by moment/day by day basis.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250575/dairy-kyiv-podcast-catholic-journalist
In the list of atrocities being carried out by Putin & his murderous hordes, I failed to mention he is starving & freezing people to death.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250583/ukrainian-archbishop-warns-that-bombings-have-left-people-without-heat-in-freezing-temperatures
Barnes equating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the 2003 invasion of Iraq is ridiculously dishonest. One can vehemently oppose the latter without equating it to the former.
Barnes is just flat lying in his live stream. He said that Russia has gone in “softly” and avoided civilians deaths and he is saying that Russia has caused very few civilian deaths. He is saying only Ukrainians have violated the rules of war. Just pure lies.
Barnes is burning his credibility to the ground, and apparently he’s going to salt the earth for an encore.
He can say what he wants on the war, but I don’t have to respect him from now on.
Sadly correct Dale The program tonight has been congealed mendacity.
I would be very wary of making categorical statements about military actions in progress. Note, though, you’re not ‘treading softly’ when you work to conquer a neighboring country just because you can (under the premise that it’s been captured by fictional Nazis and in any case its people are fake or something).
The Ukraine has suffered poor economic performance and a great deal of political corruption. It’s a negligible problem for anyone living outside its borders and is not an abattoir. The distinction between Iraq and the Ukraine (and the aims of the parties in question) is not that difficult to understand.
Since a commenter above stated Russians were shelling a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, I think it is important to debunk disinformation. No safety-critical equipment, no vital area equipment, no protected area equipment was hit. Only the Training Bldg in the Owner Controlled Area was hit. There was NO release of radioactivity. Please read this:
https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-11-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine
A quote from the article:
“Ukraine informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) today that Russian forces had taken control of the site of the country’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), but that the nuclear power plant continued to be operated by its regular staff and there had been no release of radioactive material, Director General Rafael Mario Grossi said…. Ukrainian counterparts informed the IAEA that a projectile overnight had hit a training building in the vicinity of one of the plant’s reactor units, causing a localized fire that was later extinguished.”
The Training Building was hit by a projectile and that apparently caused the fire.
“The safety systems of the plant’s six reactors had not been affected and there has been no release of radioactive material.”
“Of the plant’s reactor units, Unit 1 is shut down for maintenance, Units 2 and 3 have undergone a controlled shut down, Unit 4 is operating at 60 percent power and Units 5 and 6 are being held “in reserve” in low power mode.”
Here is Wikipedia’s description of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant: six 950 MWe Russian VVERs (Russia’s version of the Westinghouse 4-loop PWR design)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporizhzhia_Nuclear_Power_Plant
Here is Wikipedia’s description of the Russian VVER design:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VVER
Obviously, like all of you, I vigorously oppose the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. But there is propaganda and disinformation on both sides of the fence: Ukrainian and Russian. And I pity equally the innocent Ukrainian people who are victims of unprovoked aggression and the conscript Russian troops being ordered to do what must horrify them. I have learned elsewhere that Russian morale is low, and the Russian people have staged anti-war protests much to the chagrin of the Kremlin. This conflict is not worth one drop of either Ukrainian or Russian blood, and I pray that God softens and changes Vladimir Putin’s hard heart such that he orders withdraw of the Russian military from Ukraine. Failing that, it God’s infinite justice, may he follow the way of Benito Mussolini.
Since a commenter above stated Russians were shelling a Ukrainian nuclear power plant, I think it is important to debunk disinformation. No safety-critical equipment, no vital area equipment, no protected area equipment was hit. Only the Training Bldg in the Owner Controlled Area was hit. There was NO release of radioactivity.
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LQC, the statement I made was factual. The Russians’ were deliberately shelling the grounds of a nuclear power plant to the point that it was on fire. That is pure insanity. Now the rest of the things you mentioned were not in my statement. You may be countering somebody’s misinformation, but it is not mine. I am not responsible for the things you hear in your head, that are not there, when you read my posts.
Understood, Christian Teacher. Yes, shelling the grounds of a nuclear energy facility is insanity. Nevertheless, only the Training Bldg in the Owner Controlled Area was hit. No safety-critcal structure or system was hit. No release of radioactivity occurred. And one reactor continued to operate at 60% power while the others were in hot standby or shutdown for regular maintenance.
Another thought about the Russian attack on the Training Building at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility in southern Ukraine, why is there no hysteria and panic over:
(1) Russian attacks on oil and methane gas tanks and pipelines whose destruction has released deadly toxic fumes into the atmosphere?
https://www.energylivenews.com/2022/02/28/ukrainian-oil-and-gas-facilities-hit-by-russian-missiles/
(2) The possibility of an eventual Russian attack on the Dneiper River hydroelectric facility whose destruction could causes hundreds of thousands of fatalities by drowning?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnieper_Hydroelectric_Station
(3) The possibility of an eventual Russian attack on the many chemical plants in Ukraine, the destruction of many of which could result in a disaster equal in magnitude to the Union Carbide toxic gas release of 1984 in Bhopal, India?
I shall you why: hyperbolizing nuclear is sensationalist and commands attention. Radiation is the invisible agent from which “we’re all a’gonna die,” but toxic gas fumes from burning petroleum facilities are rather mundane because after all, even the prehistoric Neanderthals understood fire.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is going to have a significant and harmful impact on both environment and the population of both Russia and Ukraine long after its end if only because of the destruction of the more mundane facilities like storage tanks of oil, methane, ammonia, and chlorine. And if an attack on the 1548 MWe hydroelectric facilities on Dneiper River succeeds in its destruction, the human fatality will far exceed anything that could result from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power facility. It is important to have perspective.
And no, there aren’t voices in my head – well, at least not normally. But if I start answering them, then we’re in trouble. 😉
I don’t think we’ll have any reliable information about what’s happening on the ground until a year or so after the war has ended. Outside of that we’ll just be able to tell very broad facts, eg. which cities are in conflict.
The Ukrainians definitely are putting out propaganda both to raise the morale of their citizens and to paint themselves as good as possible to the intentional community. (Just like every other nation that’s ever been in a war.) The media is pushing a definite narrative and so is willing to push propaganda. On top of that, each and every single person here is well aware that the media routinely screws up reporting on religion, science, medicine, local politics, etc. beyond recognition. Don’t fall victim to Gell-Mann amnesia and think that they’re giving you a 100% accurate picture of what is happening in Ukraine.
Now with all that said, none of this means that Russia’s actions or motivations are justifiable. While it is demonstrable that the international media is going to bias things in favor of Ukraine, that doesn’t mean that in a more level-headed version of events Russia would be acting blamelessly or that their conduct in the war would all be within the rules of war. It is possible for Ukraine to make them worse than they are, while still having them be bad, or for the bias to be focused in a certain area. (For example, I get the gut feeling that Russian incompetence is being exaggerated far more than their immorality.)
But there’s currently not really any good way to see the whole picture. If you bypass the mainstream international media you’re basically left with three choices: literal Russian propaganda, scattered eyewitness reports, and analysis by pundits. There are obvious issues with listening to Russian propaganda. The eyewitness reports are too scattered to form a coherent picture, and many of them could be hoaxes anyway. And the analysis by pundits usually tells us more about the pundits than what is actually happening.
Rudolph is correct.
Suddenly the Left and Media (I repeat myself) is waving the flag around around a new 24/7 shiny object… hoping we’ll forget how much we’ve been lied to over and over again while taking the heat off the Biden & Democrats.
Knowing at least 1/3 of us will believe their new propaganda.
Are you SURE Barnes is wrong?
Suddenly the Left and Media (I repeat myself) is waving the flag around around a new 24/7 shiny object… hoping we’ll forget how much we’ve been lied to over and over again while taking the heat off the Biden & Democrats.Knowing at least 1/3 of us will believe their new propaganda.Are you SURE Barnes is wrong?
Get it through your head. Russia invaded the Ukraine.
Are you SURE Barnes is wrong?
Wrong and completely misguided on this.
I’m not giving credence to any commentators on this topic, unless I know them to be foreign policy experts. I’ve actually never listened to Frei and Barnes (I’ve heard good things about them though), but from what I understand Barnes is a lawyer.
I’m not giving credence to any commentators on this topic, unless I know them to be foreign policy experts.
“Foreign policy experts’ aren’t necessarily going to be helpful to you either.
Been hoodwinked too too many times…
If my wife tells me she read it in the news… my default position is: “I don’t believe it.” On Facebook:.. default position “I really don’t believe it.” Saw the video! My default position is: “The video is a lie..”
That doesn’t mean I won’t change my mind, but default position in these days of a powerful deceptive, manipulative, physiologically trained, agenda driven narrative media has to be: “Nope, I ain’t buying it.. ”
Don’t watch any news at all… I listen to a variety of reasoned, principled podcasts.. cross spectrum: liberal (in the real sense), moderate and conservative… no cable. Great savings and others are doing the legwork for me. It’s a lot of work these days to try and understand what the hell is really going on.
But it doesn’t seem like you’re equally skeptical in all directions, David.
Putin is destroying the Satanists’ bio-weapons labs, the Obama/Clinton/Biden/Bergoglio money-laundering, child-sex-trafficking operations, and the Satanic NATO and EU threat.
The Satanists’ scamdemic and Remdesivir mass murder spree and bioweapon campaign are not even over, and the Catholic hierarchy and laity are jumping en masse onto the Satanists’ next bandwagon.
You got your stories messed up.
The Biden guys are the ones this comedian (literally) replaced; you’re supposed to spew some kind of crazy Jewish nonsense because the guy’s TV show was on a station owned by a Ukrainian Jewish millionaire that was avoiding the guys that paid off Biden, living in Israel.
Oh, that rich guy is also one of the “neo-nazis” that Putin keeps yelling about… because after he funded some defense forces in the “contested” areas, hate crimes on Jews went down some 20%.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/abp-vigano-globalists-have-fomented-war-in-ukraine-to-establish-the-tyranny-of-the-new-world-order/
Let’s hear from the man who exposed Bergoglio, Wuerl, and McCarrick as co-criminals when rest of the hierarchy maintained an airtight conspiracy of silence.
Ah yes, appeal to authority totally fixes error of basic fact….
I preferred Vigano when he resided in this frame of reality.
Putin is destroying the Satanists’ bio-weapons labs, the Obama/Clinton/Biden/Bergoglio money-laundering, child-sex-trafficking operations, and the Satanic NATO and EU threat.
In the 14 years of this blog’s existence Arthur you just squeezed the most crazy into the smallest amount of words. Well done!
I’ll just let Melvin Udall speak for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsZPWsVNTqo
“But it doesn’t seem like you’re equally skeptical in all directions, David.”
That’s true. I can sin in making a rash judgement like any son of Adam, and that temptation is directly proportional to any bad: memory, past observed behavior or experience.
The world is looking more and more like a ripe fruit that cannot go on clinging to the tree much as Rome was at His Coming, world bending tools for an anti Christ have appeared, broadcasts to every corner of the globe are possible, the stars grow dim as we no longer look up in wonder, children are slaughtered in the womb, sodomy is praised..
The Almighty must have Foreseen this.
Surprise is Not a Word in the Divine Vocabulary.
Sorry, it’s late, I just can’t help but wonder sometimes that all that has and is happening is but carpet bombing for the main event.
Understood, Christian Teacher. Yes, shelling the grounds of a nuclear energy facility is insanity. Nevertheless, only the Training Bldg in the Owner Controlled Area was hit. No safety-critcal structure or system was hit. No release of radioactivity occurred. And one reactor continued to operate at 60% power while the others were in hot standby or shutdown for regular maintenance.
LQC, Again, You will not find your counter points “countering” anything I said. But now, I will counter one of your points. Those Russians who were firing into the largest nuclear power plant in Europe had no way to know or guarantee that the damage would be limited. Period. It is pure insanity & absolute terrorism of the Ukrainian people. My statements are not sensationalism. Again, you may be addressing someone else’s misinformation, but not mine. Period.
To The Christian Teacher,
We agree that any shelling near a reactor facility is insane.
But equally dangerous are the Dnieper hydro-electric facility or the numerous chemical plants dotting Ukraine. Indeed, petroleoum and methane storage facilities in Ukraine have been attacked and are doing REAL damage, REAL environmental harm, and as a result, REAL fatalities are occurring right now. The pollution they are releasing will never ever decay away. Attacking any of those facilities – nuclear, petroleum, methane, chemical – is insane. It won’t take much for a Bhopal India style disaster to happen (the 1984 Union Carbide toxic gas leak).
Let’s continue to put things in perspective: a VVER reactor has three layers of safety barriers preventing escape of radioactive material (unlike a methane gas storage facility which has only the steel wall of the container holding the gas, or the hydro-electric dam on the Dneiper River whose failure due to shelling can cause hundreds of thousands of fatalities by flooding):
1) Fuel rods: the hermetic Zirconium alloy (Zircaloy) cladding around the uranium oxide sintered ceramic fuel pellets provides a barrier resistant to heat and high pressure.
2) Reactor pressure vessel wall: a massive steel shell encases the whole fuel assembly and primary coolant hermetically.
3) Reactor building: a concrete containment building that encases the whole first circuit is strong enough to resist the pressure surge a breach in the first circuit would cause.
The VVER containment wall is similar to those of a Westinghouse PWR which can withstand an aircraft impact – six feet thick steel reinforced concrete. Therefore, any shelling that impacts the containment building would not reach the reactor pressure vessel, much less the fuel rods. However, doing something like that is (I agree) insane.
I will concede another point about which those who aren’t nuclear energy professionals may be unaware. The spent fuel pool where used fuel rods are stored is not similarly protected. I would be more concerned about shelling reaching the spent fuel pools and spreading radioactivity. Any defense of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility should concentrate on protecting the spent fuel pools and pre-arranging emergency water supply if the unthinkable happens. This concerns me a whole lot more than shelling containment. One errant shell landing on the spent fuel pool building is a bad day in paradise.
Another thing I will concede is this (also likely not known by those who are not nuclear energy professionals): the operators, engineers and technicians at Zaporizhzhia are not (I have heard) being allowed shift turnover. In the United States we have this regulation called “Fitness for Duty” in 10 CFR 26. There are very specific regulatory requirements at the Federal level on working hours to prevent fatigue. Anyone involved in safety-critical work is limited to 16 hours in a 24 hour period, 24 in a 48, and 72 in any rolling seven day period. The International Atomic Energy Agency, and the regulators of most countries (including Russia and Ukraine) have similar regulations. In fact, most countries imitate our US NRC (the “gold standard” in nuclear regulation – except for the Canadians, the British and obviously the French – they have their own regulations). So……….what I am saying is that long term, I am concerned about operator and engineer fatigue.
Now one final thing: compared to the RBMK reactors – the type involved in the Chernobyl disaster – the VVER (the type used at Zaporizhzhia) employ an inherently safer design because the coolant is also the moderator, and by nature of its design has a negative void coefficient like all PWRs. It does not have the graphite-moderated RBMK’s risk of increased reactivity and large power transients in the event of a loss of coolant accident. The RBMK reactors were also constructed without containment structures on grounds of cost due to their size; the VVER core is considerably smaller. And the RBMK was a plutonium-239 weapons breeder. The VVER is not. And lastly: a VVER CANNOT EXPLODE. Period. It is enriched to only 5% U-235. Greater than 92% enrichment is required for explosion.
The reason that I say that my gut reaction it that Russia’s incompetence is being exaggerated more than their immorality is as follows:
No matter how I slice it I can’t find a way to justify Russia’s attack under just war theory. That’s not to say that the attack came out of nowhere or that Putin is a cartoonish villain treating this as step one towards conquering the world. But even if you grant the provocation from the west, mistreatment of the Donbass region by Ukraine, threat of Ukrainian sanctioned neo-nazi troops, etc. it still doesn’t add up to a valid casus belli, at least not until the threat is more imminent and more options outside of war have been tried. So the Russians are definitely coming in at a handicap in terms of having their hands morally clean.
But we can analyze their actions coming into the war because we have seen what led up to it and can find official government statements on both side. The second you get into whether or not Russia is successful and things get a lot murkier. What strategic goals are they aiming for, and how far are they progressing towards achieving them? It’s almost impossible to answer either question.
There is a constant drumbeat of “Russia is about to collapse” but it reminds me an awful lot of the “Trump’s campaign/presidency is just about to collapse” which we heard for six years straight.
For The Christian Teacher – see my response above & checkout this report from World Nuclear – just click on the < + > symbols to see more detailed info.
https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-t-z/russian-military-operation-and-ukraine-s-nuclear-p.aspx