The New York Times Continues To Pay Thomas Friedman Dump Trucks Full of Money To Be Wrong

A little over a week ago the columnist who introduced us to the "Friedman Unit" (between 2003 and 2006 he said at 14 different points that we need to wait "six months" to see how the latest Iraq strategy was working) wrote an article reminding us how much the media really knows about what's going on with Russia vs Ukraine:

For all you knuckleheads on Fox who say that Biden can’t put two sentences together, here’s a news flash: He just put NATO together, Europe together and the whole Western alliance together — stretching from Canada up to Finland and all the way to Japan — to help Ukraine protect its fledgling democracy from Vladimir Putin’s fascist assault.

In doing so, he has enabled Ukraine to inflict significant losses on Russia’s invading army, thanks to a rapid deployment of U.S. and NATO trainers and massive transfers of precision weapons. And not a single American soldier was lost.

Sadly, no:

About 20% of Ukraine's territory is under Russian control, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky, with the Donbas region "almost entirely destroyed."

Oh, and if Russia's losses are so significant, then what about -

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration plans to sell Ukraine four MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones that can be armed with Hellfire missiles for battlefield use against Russia, three people familiar with the situation said.

[SNIP]

Ukraine has been using several types of smaller shorter range unmanned aerial systems against Russian forces that invaded the country in late February. They include the AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma AE, and the Turkish Bayraktar-TB2.

But the Gray Eagle represents a leap in technology because it can fly up to 30 or more hours depending on its mission and can gather huge amounts of data for intelligence purposes. Gray Eagles, the Army's version of the more widely known Predator drone, can also carry up to eight powerful Hellfire missiles.

Other than that swing-and-a-miss, Friedman had the usual bad takes, such as underestimating Biden's goals as president:

Biden didn’t say it in so many words, but he didn’t have to. I could hear it between the lines: He’s worried that while he has reunited the West, he may not be able to reunite America.

It’s clearly his priority, above any Build Back Better provision. And he knows that’s why he was elected — a majority of Americans worried that the country was coming apart at the seams and that this old war horse called Biden, with his bipartisan instincts, was the best person to knit us back together. It’s the reason he decided to run in the first place, because he knows that without some basic unity of purpose and willingness to compromise, nothing else is possible.

What a Panglossian view of Biden's political motives and acumen. However, real life (and a number of Jimmy Dore videos) show that the current president can't be taken at his word. A few points:

• Biden was elected because other alternatives, namely Bernie Sanders, dropped out. That happened because before the South Carolina primary Barack Obama got everyone not named Sanders to drop out and back Biden.
• Biden's reputation as a bipartisan war horse fell flat on it's face thanks to Joe Manchin, which cost him (and the country) Build Back Better. He couldn't get one of the most conservative Democrats to come on board, and forget about mentioning the GOP.
• As for compromising, Biden's on record saying that he'd veto Medicare4All even if it reaches his desk. So, yeah.