It’s beneficial to be king, as Mel Brooks famously remarked.
And if there ever was a king of the beggars, it would be Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.
No less than 46 aid packages from Americans have been requested by the comedian-turned-president to pay for a proxy war that no one has chosen to support.
So, when Zelensky showed up in Washington D.C. (only to be turned away for his request to address a Joint Session of Congress) and gave a speech at the United Nations General Assembly, where he predictably implored the world to give him “mo’ money,” it would seem only fitting that he would later dine with the world’s richest elites.
The New York Post reported that Zelensky brushed off his trademark army green fatigues and then joined a bourgeois soiree arranged by the megabankers at J.P. Morgan.
The billionaire boys in attendance? Mike Bloomberg, worth an estimated $96 billion; Ken Griffin of the Citadel investment empire, worth around $35 billion; Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, worth $20 billion; Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, worth $11 billion; Jonathan Gray, the president of private equity powerhouse Blackstone, worth around $7 billion; Barry Sternlicht, of Starwood Capital; worth about $4 billion; Bill Ackman, the high-profile hedge fund operator, worth nearly $3.6 billion.
Also in attendance, the Post was told, was a representative from BlackRock and Henry Kissinger himself.
“Investing in Ukraine has to be good for you and good for us. I understand capitalism,” Zelensky told the financiers in an effort to woo investment commitments.
Zelensky knows that ‘war is a business’ to these titans of financing. And business is good.
So, as Zelensky makes a bid to grab another $24 billion from American taxpayers, the Ukrainian president needs to show the world what all that money is buying. Because it sure isn’t peace, which he has ruled out from the onset.
The Russia-Ukraine war has stalemated for nearly a year and risks dragging the world unwillingly into a catastrophic World War III.
Nobody in Congress voted for the U.S.’ participation in a war. Ukraine is not even a historic U.S. ally.
It is also suspect to American taxpayers that these “aid” bills are being rammed through without a declaration of war. And the White House has resisted auditing these aid packages.
Senator Rand Paul took to the floor and excoriated lawmakers for giving $113 billion and counting to Ukraine.
"It's as if no one has noticed that we have no extra money to send Ukraine"
"Our deficit this year will exceed $1.5 trillion"
"Borrowing money from China to send it to Ukraine makes no sense"
🔊Rand Paul … 🚨🚨🚨
$113 billion and counting. Will it ever end? We have a lot… pic.twitter.com/bDWXIItCfH
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) September 23, 2023
“It’s as if no one has noticed that we have no extra money to send Ukraine,” he said, adding, “Borrowing money from China to send it to Ukraine makes no sense.”
Senator Paul also torched the so-called “democracy” of Ukraine in a recent media appearance.
“There’s also this incredible story about an American journalist, Gonzalo Lira. He’s reportedly right now in prison in Ukraine on allegations of spreading Russian propaganda. I don’t understand this, that Joe Biden could approve $113 billion of money to Ukraine, and yet he has not tried to get this American journalist out of prison there. How is that possible?” Fox News host Maria Bartiromo asked.
“It’s even worse than that. Maria, they’ve canceled the elections,” Sen. Paul replied. “What kind of democracy has no election?”
“So next year, Zelensky said he’s not going to have an election because it would be inconvenient during the war and would be expensive,” he continued. “Well, the thing is, if you don’t have elections, why in the world would be supporting a country that’s not a democracy? They ban the political parties. They’ve invaded churches, they’ve arrested priests. So no, it isn’t a democracy. It’s a corrupt regime. And are the Russians any better? No, the Russians are worse. But at the same time, we don’t always have to pick some side to beyond.”
“But the ultimate reason I’m against this is we don’t have the money, and when we borrow more money, it leads to more inflation,” Paul said. “It leads to more likelihood of recession in our country, and so we just can’t keep doing it.”
This is what an elected official sounds like when he is representing the American people, and not some glorified pauper presiding over a corrupt undemocratic country perpetuating a war with no end in sight.
