Another war in the former USSR.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are fighting again.
This has been going on for decades.
Armenia is owned by the Russians.
They are surrounded by two large countries that hate them, Turkey and Azerbaijan. They need Russian troops to survive. Not much of a deal though.
Why now? It is predictable. Russia is tied down with their war in Ukraine and while the cat is away, the mice will play.
Armenia says at least 49 killed in attack by Azerbaijan, spurring fears of broader hostilities
SEPTEMBER 13, 2022 / 11:07 AM / CBS/AP
Azerbaijani forces shelled Armenia’s territory Tuesday and killed at least 49 Armenian soldiers, Armenia’s prime minister said. The large-scale attack fueled fears of broader hostilities breaking out between the longtime adversaries.
The hostilities erupted minutes after midnight, with Azerbaijani forces unleashing an artillery barrage and drone attacks in many sections of Armenian territory, according to the Armenian Defense Ministry.
The ministry said fighting continued during the day despite Russia’s attempt to broker a quick cease-fire. It noted that the shelling grew less intense but said Azerbaijani troops still were trying to advance into Armenian territory.
The ministry added that the Azerbaijani shelling damaged civilian infrastructure and also wounded an unspecified number of people.
Azerbaijan charged that its forces returned fire in response to “large-scale provocations” by the Armenian military, claiming that the Armenian troops planted mines and repeatedly fired on Azerbaijani military positions, resulting in unspecified casualties and damage to military infrastructure.
This image taken from YouTube footage released by the Armenian Defense Ministry on Sept. 13, 2022, reportedly shows Azerbaijanian servicemen crossing the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and approaching the Armenian positions.
ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY VIA AP
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed “deep concern” over the military action at the border in an overnight call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, according to a State Department readout.
“Secretary Blinken urged President Aliyev to cease hostilities and stressed that the United States would push for an immediate halt to fighting and a peace settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan,” the readout said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week war in 2020 that killed more than 6,600 people and ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal. Moscow, which deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers under the deal, has sought to maintain friendly ties with both ex-Soviet nations.
Azerbaijan’s Aliyev held a meeting with military officials to discuss the situation. “It was noted that the responsibility for the current tension rests squarely with the political leadership of Armenia,” his office said.
Turkey, an ally of Azerbaijan, also placed the blame for the violence on Armenia. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for Yerevan to halt its “provocations,” and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar condemned “Armenia’s aggressive attitude and provocative actions.”
Speaking in parliament early Tuesday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Azerbaijani shelling killed at least 49 Armenian soldiers. He squarely rejected the Azerbaijani claim that it was responding to Armenian provocations.
Pashinyan noted that the Azerbaijani action followed his recent European Union-brokered talks with Aliyev in Brussels that revealed what he described as Azerbaijan’s uncompromising stand.
As the fighting raged overnight, Pashinyan quickly called Russian President Vladimir Putin and later also had phone calls with French President Emmanuel Macron, European Council President Charles Michel, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Blinken to discuss the hostilities.
The Armenian government said it would officially ask Russia for assistance under a friendship treaty between the countries and also appeal to the United Nations and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a Moscow-dominated security alliance of ex-Soviet nations that includes Armenia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refrained from comment on Armenia’s request but added during a conference call with reporters that Putin was “taking every effort to help de-escalate tensions.”
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said top officials from the security grouping held a meeting to discuss the fighting. Armenia’s representative at the grouping emphasized during the meeting that Yerevan expects its allies to take “efficient collective steps to ensure security, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry urged both parties “to refrain from further escalation and show restraint.”
Moscow has engaged in a delicate balancing act, maintaining strong economic and security ties with Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base, while also developing close cooperation with oil-rich Azerbaijan.
Since we’re in a new chapter, here again is the link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. They’ve just posted the Kyiv Independent tweet I posted at the end of the previous chapter:
Official: Ukrainian forces have liberated over 300 settlements in Kharkiv Oblast since Sept. 6.
Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said on Sept. 13 that 3,800 square kilometers of Kharkiv Oblast had been liberated during Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive.
“More than 150,000 of our people have been liberated from (Russian) occupation, during which they were, in fact, hostages,” Maliar said.
Adding:
Maliar said that these were only the confirmed figures and that the real number of reoccupied territories in the Kharkiv region “is almost twice as much”.
France 24 has an interview with Ksenia Torstrem, one of the initiators of the petition described in #452 of the previous chapter – “18 municipal deputies of Moscow, St Petersburg demand Putin resign.” I don’t see it in their English version.
…France 24 : Pourquoi avoir lancé cette pétition contre Vladimir Poutine maintenant ?
Ksenia Torstrem : Nous voulions exprimer notre soutien à nos amis de Smolninskoye [le district de Saint-Pétersbourg dont les élus ont appelé à juger Vladimir Poutine pour trahison, NLDR].
Nous admirons leur courage et ne pouvons que regretter les ennuis qu’ils ont maintenant avec la police qui les accuse d’avoir discrédité les forces armées.
On s’est concerté entre élus locaux pour savoir ce qu’on pouvait faire pour exprimer notre solidarité. Et dans le contexte actuel ce n’est pas facile, sans risquer nous-mêmes d’avoir des ennuis avec les autorités.
Alors on s’est dit qu’une pétition était le moyen le plus sûr. Jusqu’à présent, il n’est pas interdit par la loi en Russie de signer une pétition.
Une pétition qui appelle Vladimir Poutine à démissionner n’est-elle pas dangereuse en elle-même ?
Il n’y a rien qui l’interdit. Après il est vrai qu’on ne sait jamais à quoi s’attendre en ce moment avec le gouvernement. C’est d’ailleurs pour ça que j’ai été choisie comme porte-parole pour les pétitionnaires, car j’ai quitté la Russie pour la Finlande après le début des combats. Je risque moins que d’autres collègues qui, eux, ont choisi de rester.
Mais il est clair que même signer une telle pétition fait peur. Quand nous avons commencé à faire circuler le texte sur Telegram pour demander à d’autres élus de signer, il y en a un certain nombre qui ont reconnu avoir peur de le faire, ne serait-ce que parce qu’ils ont des enfants. D’autres ont refusé parce qu’ils estimaient que cela ne servait à rien de prendre de tel risque pour une pétition qui, selon eux, n’aura pas d’effet.
Quel est votre objectif, pensez-vous vraiment que Vladimir Poutine pourrait décider de démissionner ?
Pourquoi pas. La démission serait un moyen pour Vladimir Poutine de quitter le pouvoir pacifiquement.
Et puis une telle pétition est importante dans le contexte de propagande actuelle. Tout est mis en œuvre pour faire croire qu’il n’y a pas de critique de la politique menée par le pouvoir. En fait, il y a des millions de Russes qui ne sont pas d’accord, et une telle pétition permet de leur signaler qu’ils ne sont pas seuls.
Peut-être aussi qu’au sein de l’élite, il y a certaines personnes qui aimeraient lancer une procédure de destitution contre Vladimir Poutine. Nous voulons aussi leur indiquer qu’ils ont des soutiens au niveau local.
Est-ce que vous estimez qu’avec une soixantaine de signatures, votre pétition est un succès ?
Ce n’est pas mal. C’est sûr que si on la compare avec d’autres pétitions qui au début des combats avaient recueilli bien plus de signatures pour s’opposer au conflit, cela peut sembler faible.
Mais nous avons tout de même reçu des signatures d’élus locaux d’un peu partout dans le pays, que ce soit à Saint-Pétersbourg, Moscou, Irkoutsk ou encore Vladivostok….
As the Guardian reported earlier today, the Kremlin has already made menacing suggestions about the petitioners. Meanwhile, the Daily Beast reported that Putin is vacationing in Sochi, having skipped a meeting with military officials yesterday.
“‘If we take back the House and the Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote on our bill. If the Democrats are in charge, I don’t know if we’ll ever have a vote on our bill’. – [Lindsey] Graham on his federal abortion ban, in a clip Dems would be happy to run as is”
Apparently, it is still illegal in the UK under Section 3 of the Treason Felony Act 1848, and punishable by life imprisonment, to call for the abolition of the monarchy. According to the linked article, the law lords (now called the Supreme Court) dismissed a case arguing that the statute conflicted with the Human Rights Act on the grounds that it was “unnecessary” to make a ruling, basically because everyone knew that anyway. But the Truss junta intends to replace the Human Rights Act (which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law) with one crafted to their own convenience… On the other hand, Truss herself once advocated the abolition of the monarchy, and AFAIK, the Treason Felony Act 1848 has no statute of limitations. So maybe some public-spirited person will take out a private prosecution! (The Director of Public Prosecutions can take over such a case then drop it, but it might serve to make future prosecution of anti-monarchists for peacefully expressing their views less likely.)
KGsays
Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh in a six-week war in 2020 that killed more than 6,600 people and ended with a Russia-brokered peace deal. – raven@1 quoting CBS
I’ve seen reports that the Azerbaijanis have been systematically destroying all signs that Armenians ever lived in the areas they conquered in 2020.
Text quoted by SC in comment 494 in the previous chapter of this thread:
The EU “must confess we have adopted too naïve an attitude toward Russia and based our expectations on…erroneous ideas,” Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin tells the European Parliament.
“We should have listened to our Baltic and Polish friends who lived under Soviet rule.”
Yes. That seems so true to me.
There are people in the USA who have also been too naive toward Russia.
Pierce R. Butlersays
SC… @ # 482 in previous thread, quoting Kyiv Independent: … satellite imagery … shows just four Russian vehicles left…
I really enjoy the sometimes-ambiguity of the English language. Did they mean “four vehicles remain” or “four vehicles departed”?
Potentially big news from the front lines. Multiple sources are reporting that Ukrainian forces have either captured or bypassed Davydiv Brid. This town is is at the north end of the bridgehead that Ukraine established across the Inhulets River over a month ago. While Ukrainian forces had some success in moving east from that position, they hadn’t taken Davydiv Brid, which represented a reinforced front line position.
With multiple reports suggesting that Russian forces in Kherson are suffering a supply shortage, and in particular, a shortage of artillery shells, related to the destruction of the two bridges across the Dnipro River east of Kherson, this breakthrough could be a signal of a weakening Russian position.
On Monday, local officials in Kherson indicated that Russia was negotiating for the surrender of forces in the region. However, there has been no repeat of that claim, or any obvious result, on Tuesday.
Democrats have repeatedly warned voters that Republicans will pursue a national abortion ban. Lindsey Graham is proving them right.
After Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade, Sen. Lindsey Graham didn’t just celebrate the outcome, he also touted the process that would soon follow.
As the South Carolinian wrote in June, it will now be up to “elected officials in the states to decide” whether their constituents can have reproductive rights. Last month, the GOP senator boasted on CNN about how “consistent” he’s been in arguing that “states should decide the issue of abortion.”
Like so many of Graham’s stated principles, which he discards whenever it suits his purposes, the Republican apparently didn’t mean what he said. NBC News reported:
. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will introduce abortion-related legislation on Tuesday, according to his office. It’s expected to call for a 15-week ban nationwide, with exceptions for rape, incest and safeguarding the life of the mother, three sources said.
Since the NBC News report was first published, the text of the senator’s legislation was formally introduced. The preliminary assessments were accurate: Graham’s bill, called the “Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act,” [oh FFS] would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
It would include exceptions for rape, incest, and protecting the life of those who are pregnant, though it would also allow states to impose harsher restrictions if they want to. It also does not appear to make exceptions for severe fetal abnormalities.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s break down the bill and the strategy behind it.
This was inevitable. After Roe was struck down, Republicans like Graham paid lip service to a state-by-state model, but the party’s far-right members and their allies made clear that this would never be sufficient. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her members in May, “Republicans have made clear that their goal will be to seek to criminalize abortion nationwide.” Today’s developments help prove her right.
This is poorly named. A typical human pregnancy lasts about 40 weeks. To ban abortions after 15 weeks and call it a ban on “late-term” abortions is to strip words of their plain meaning. [Correct!]
This is medically dangerous. The vast majority of terminated pregnancies in the United States happen before the 15-week mark. The exceptions tend to be medically necessary responses to potentially dangerous pregnancies. These are the ones that will be targeted by this bill, creating a federal law that leaves Americans with no blue-state islands of refuge.
This is part of a clumsy political strategy. Republicans are struggling badly with the issue in the wake of Roe’s demise, and Graham’s bill appears to be part of an effort to give GOP officials something concrete to run on, allowing the party to define its own goals instead of letting Democrats do it. What’s more, a 15-week ban might appear more “moderate” than, say, a complete ban. But…
This divides the GOP and unites Democrats. As Democrats on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue rush to condemn Graham’s bill, some of the South Carolinian’s own Republican colleagues are not overly eager to endorse his proposal. As a rule, successful politics is about uniting allies and dividing opponents — and this does the opposite.
This is exactly what Democrats hoped to see. With eight weeks remaining before Election Day 2022, Democrats are eager to tell voters that Republicans want a national abortion ban. Graham just handed them a piñata to hit repeatedly for the next 55 days.
This was pitched in a way that will appear in campaign ads. With a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, a national abortion ban obviously stands no chance of success. But Graham declared today, out loud and on camera, “If [Republicans] take back the House and Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote” on his legislation.
Prepare to see and hear that quote quite a bit over the next eight weeks.
This is so obviously shoot-yourself-in-the-foot tactics from Lindsey Graham that I wonder what the heck he is thinking.
Back in the UK and still very happy to keep my opinions on this all largely to myself, but there is nothing more appalling to me as a British citizen than seeing my compatriots arrested for dissent. This is a democracy, and our authorities have thoroughly disgraced themselves.
We watched in horror as Russian protestors were kidnapped off the streets of Moscow for holding placards. We watched in horror because that is not the way our liberal democracy functions. What right do we have to say that today. Utterly unconscionable.
I’m very comfortable keeping my Republicanism [small r, man!] to myself, particularly at a time like this, but there are lines that have been crossed now, and it wasn’t the protestors that crossed them.
Everything is so slippery these days: floors, windowsills in hospitals, luxurious yachts in Vladivostok.
Ivan Pechorin, a top #Russian energy boss, allegedly fell overboard near Vladivostok. His body was found washed up around 100 miles from the city.
Tethyssays
I learned a new word from the video of the Georgian women kicking some Russians off their bus.
Khuilo- It can be translated as “dickhead”, but its connotation is far more pejorative in those languages than in English. The words are identical in Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. In May 2014, media outlets reported that the Russian profanity khuilo had been added to the Urban Dictionary as a synonym for Vladimir Putin.
Speaking of bodies washing up on shore, I watched the docudrama “Vanishing Act” on Hulu recently. I read several reviews pointing out that it’s too soon and that it was trashy and exploitative, which…I can’t disagree with, but on the other hand Melissa Caddick was pretty trashy so I think it captured that vibe. And Kate Atkinson is so good in it. (I don’t believe I’ve seen her in anything before, but she makes this series.) Anyway, it piqued my interest and I listened to the Sydney Morning Herald podcast about Caddick called “Liar, Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions.” I recommend it, and I learned quite a bit about the science of feet washing up on shore!
Tethys @ #18, it was new to me, too! I didn’t see that about the Urban Dictionary. LOL. I’m glad they didn’t translate it so we could look it up and learn about it.
Trump again going mask off with the QAnon stuff on TruthSocial today. He “retruthed” a photoshop of himself wearing a Q pin plus a couple of Q catchphrases from a Q account.
Trump’s not flirting with QAnon anymore, he’s moving in.
Just a reminder that the “Storm” referenced below is the big end date for QAnon, when Trump is supposed to round up all of his political enemies and hang them in public after a brief military tribunal.
I have no idea if he knows this, but he shouldn’t be playing around with it.
Screenshots at the (Twitter) link. He absolutely knows it. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
This is a different kind of update. […] this is the story of why Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine when he did, why Ukraine is waging its counteroffensive now, and how Russia is engaged in a desperate last-shot gamble that still could pay off. So just for this morning, no maps, and no tweets of captured Russian gear … at least until we get around to the updates to the update. This morning we’re starting with the price of natural gas.
Right now, natural gas is trading for a global price of around $8 per MMBTU (a BTU is an arcane unit involving the amount of energy required to heat a fixed amount of water). That’s not a historically high price. As recently as 2008, natural gas touched $14/MMBTU. Go back a decade more, and it was routinely above $20. The use of fracking, which accelerated globally around 2000, made gas much more readily available. It was the rapidly falling price of natural gas that radically altered the energy market in the United States, and pretty much blew up the coal industry starting in 2008.
By 2009, prices of natural gas plummeted. For better than a decade, prices bounced around between $4 and $6, and twice dipped down to $2 when world storage facilities were nearly full. Then Russia’s illegal, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions drove prices to spike above $9. There was even a brief period, right after Putin sent the tanks across the border, where the markets went into a full-scale panic, driving prices to $23. It’s fallen back since, but $8 is still very high when compared to the usual cost since 2009.
When newscasters report that energy costs are rising 80% in Germany, the U.K., or in other areas, that’s what they’re talking about. For just over a decade, Europe, like the United States, has been engaged in replacing other forms of power with natural gas. Because gas was so cheap. In 2008, there were dozens of new coal plants on the drawing board in the U.S. Some were even in construction. None ever got up and running because gas was just so darn cheap. Anyone who thinks that something as large as how the world makes electricity can’t make a rapid change should look again at how that market has changed, and changed again, in the last two decades.
Now natural gas has gone up—up to a price that’s still cheap historically—but high compared to the last dozen years. Europe never had any doubt about the source of its cheap gas. They had only to look at the twin giant pipelines draped across the Baltic Sea to see it. In converting to an energy system dependent on an abundance of cheap natural gas, Europe made a huge bet on the stability of the Russian Federation.
This means that right now, prices are high. And there is damn little Europe can do about it. Gas, even more so than oil, is a fungible product, with prices set on a worldwide balance of supply and demand. Take out some of that supply, and prices go up everywhere. That’s true even for places like the United States, which is a net exporter of natural gas.
High energy prices are definitely hurting Europe right now. They make the cost of everything made there more expensive. They make workers unhappy because workers see more of their paychecks going to pay the light and heating bills. They make politicians unhappy because unhappy workers make for unemployed politicians.
Russia is now engaged in its biggest propaganda campaign of the war. It’s engaging social media, traditional media, and funding “grassroots” protests in multiple nations all on the same theme: Without Russian gas, Europe’s industrial base will collapse, unemployment will soar, and people will be left shivering in freezing houses over the winter.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this narrative is just what a fine job Russia has done in getting Western media to repeat it. Everyone loves a good doomsday story, and you can certainly find this one on CNN, Fox News, and other fine purveyors of video clickbait.
But that story? It’s not going to happen.
It’s not going to happen for one very simple reason: Europe is rich. If it can’t get super-cheap gas through a pipeline from Russia, it will just get more expensive gas from elsewhere. Energy bills will go up. It will generate inflationary pressure. None of that stuff is good. But no one is going to freeze, and no national economies are going to fold because of this. Europe is now paying a price for gas that’s higher than it has been, but it’s still way cheaper than it used to be.
The only real threat here is the political one. Russia may not be sending gas, but it is really, really pumping that propaganda. It is working very hard to sell the idea that “Russian gas = good economy,” and the media is helping. It’s helping both by pushing the ”winter is coming” story Russia is selling, dire wolves and white walkers included, and by giving the kind of outsized attention to Russian-supported rallies that U.S. media provided to the Koch-funded Tea Party.
That’s the big bet Vladimir Putin is laying right now. He thinks, or at least hopes that, with the help of media horror stories, synthetic protests, and genuinely high energy bills, European politicians will be pressured into suspending support for Ukraine, dropping sanctions against Russia, and pushing for a negotiated settlement that leaves Russia with territorial gains (or, at least, no loss).
The “freeze in the dark” narrative has extended into Russia’s on-the-ground strategy in Ukraine, especially after the Russian military was handed its corruption-riddled ass in Kharkiv. The new strategy being pressed from Moscow and supported by pro-Russia propagandists doesn’t really call for the Russian army to do much of anything. They just need to hold their ground while the “missileists” do the work.
The theory goes that by attacking Ukrainian power plants with ballistic missiles, Russia can make Ukraine even more of a burden. In recent months, Ukraine had offered to export electricity to the rest of Europe. But, say the pro-Russian sources, if Russia can take out enough of Ukraine’s generating capacity, Ukraine will have to import power instead, making it even more of a burden on neighbors who have already donated billions and taken in millions of refugees.
It’s unclear how effective this strategy might be in causing misery in Ukraine. One of the power stations that was hit over the weekend appears to be up and functioning on Tuesday, with power restored to most of the area. However, this strategy doesn’t require anything of the Russian army, and if the last seven months have demonstrated anything, it’s that this is the best way to start any plan.
And there’s another part of this same story, one that explains why Putin attacked when he did. The reason for that also goes back into those long-term energy trends.
Europe has been aware, even as it built out an economy that was ever more tied to cheap, available natural gas over the last decade, that this was a temporary situation. They’re aware of this thing called the man-made climate crisis. Far more aware of it than most people and politicians in the U.S. They’ve already made the commitments to transition their nations away from fossil fuels, including natural gas, in the next few decades.
Vladimir Putin sees European dependence on natural gas as a lever that he can use to exert political pressure on the West. Every pipeline built, every cubic meter sold, has had, for him, the happy result of both increasing Western reliance on Russia and putting more money in Russian banks (or personal accounts of oligarchs who keep their money in Cyprus … all the same as far as Putin is concerned).
But that lever is on a timetable. Because another long-term energy trend has been the constantly dropping cost of wind and the absolutely plunging cost of solar. In 1980, the cost of generating electricity with wind was double that of natural gas—and that’s when natural gas availability was erratic, and prices were higher. The cost of solar at that point is barely worth mentioning. It was at least an order of magnitude higher than wind. But by 2010, even though the prices for natural gas has collapsed, the constant improvements in wind and solar meant they were only 20%-40% more costly. Which is, admittedly, a lot when it’s on your energy bill.
As of 2020, the average cost per megawatt of new power created by both wind and solar was cheaper than natural gas. That was before Putin’s war doubled the cost of gas. At this point, environmental pressures and economic pressures are very much on the same side. Both are pressuring to replace much of Europe’s natural gas with renewable energy. Based on what the world saw when gas became significantly cheaper than coal and other sources, that change can happen very quickly.
What do you get out of all this?
If Putin wanted to use his perceived lever to make a play for expanding Russia, he had to do it now. Because in a decade, there’s a very good chance that lever will be much, much weaker. If not nonexistent. The tumble of gas prices to the $2 range in the summer of 2021 likely played into Putin’s now-or-never thinking.
Ukraine needed to make a significant counteroffensive now, not just because there was an opportunity to attack, but because it needed a significant indicator that it was going to be able to defeat Russia quickly, not over some very lengthy timeframe. It needed that opportunity before winter. Otherwise, European politicians would be much more easily pushed out of supporting Ukraine by a populace facing high energy bills—and a media so eager to see some of that freezing that it might just pitch someone into an icebox.
Those pressures in Europe also apply to the United States. Those who had not been watching Fox or listening to Republican campaigns might have missed the none-too-subtle discussion of how U.S. prices were being adversely affected by support for Ukraine, with a direct tie to Tucker Carlson’s nightly “Russia has this in the bag, we should pull for those guys” telethon. It’s very definitely there.
Unfortunately for Russia—and Republicans—Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Kharkiv didn’t just work, it worked spectacularly. It made it clear that, rather than dragging on year after year, this conflict really could be over in months.
Long term, that’s a huge burden on Ukraine. Pulling off a spectacular win on a regular basis is a lot harder than doing it once. But Ukraine doesn’t have to worry about the long term right now. It has to worry about the next few weeks, and what happens when nations like the U.K. allow higher energy prices to reach the public.
The win in Kharkiv has thrown a real crimp into Russia’s “inevitability” narrative. Heading toward winter, Ukraine is now well positioned to continue receiving assistance and support, and resolve concerning Russian sanctions is much less likely to soften.
Finally, on the other end of this stick, Russia is making a big deal of how it’s continuing to sell high volumes of natural gas in spite of sanctions, and is finding new markets with China and other customers in the East. Which is true. However, what’s also true is that those customers know they have Putin over an enormous barrel: Russia’s economy is absolutely dependent on selling gas, and he literally has nowhere else to go. So all that oil Russia is selling now is going out at a steep discount. At least 50%.
So while prices may be high because of Russia, Russia is not benefiting from those high prices. It’s selling less gas and selling it for about the same prices that were going on last year. They can jigger the numbers all they want, and the media may be standing by to assist, but this war is extremely costly for Russia in terms of men, materiel, and rubles.
It’s amuses me to no end that we’ve now reached the point in tankiedom that Western tankies are in deeper denial about the Kharkiv offensive and the situation for Russian in Ukraine than literal Russian TV propagandists.
[…] Though the war is far from over and Russia can find new ways to punish Ukraine, collapsing Russian forces have not only been pushed back; in abandoning their former headquarters in Izium, they also left behind large stores of equipment and ammunition that the Ukrainians can now use against them. … Building on months of careful efforts to both prepare Ukrainian forces and waste Russian ones, Ukraine has achieved a strategic masterstroke that military scholars will study for decades to come.
Earlier today, one of the biggest lobbying outfits in Washington- the Family Research Council, which has provided model legislation and fiscal and logistical support to politicians across the country, issued a statement- which I will not be linking to- stating that “Abortion is never necessary to save the life of a mother.”
This is so dangerously false, I am outraged that the social media platforms it was posted on didn’t immediately delete that statement, nor- as I write this- have they yet.
I’m an emergency department nurse. Emergency departments provide a staggering amount of OB/GYN care to patients who are unable to seek primary care services, which, I’m sure I don’t have to remind people here, is a serious problem in our country. And if you have an ectopic pregnancy- which are 2% of all pregnancies!- or your water breaks at 16 weeks, or you have a septic uterus, you will end up in the ER, preferably sooner rather than later, because the longer we wait, the more likely the patient is to die.
Well, hold on, because I want to be stunningly clear here: that’s the only option. If you have an ectopic pregnancy, you either get an abortion, or you die. There is no other option. There is no alternative. If you are reading this post, you know multiple people who had ectopic pregnancies, who would now be dead had they not sought treatment.
And these conditions can deteriorate fast. With an ectopic pregnancy, you can go from mild discomfort to rolling on the floor, screaming in pain and minutes from death, incredibly rapidly. Again, because we see so many people who are unable to access primary care services, we see that first hand in the ER. Someone who could call their OBGYN and get a prescription called in the same day… if they HAD an OBGYN, or had insurance for one, or could get in to be seen by one… decides to “tough it out a belly ache” instead. Or goes to a Crisis Pregnancy Center and is told their symptoms are “normal”. Or thinks they just have a kidney or gall stone.
Regardless, they’ll end up in our ER… or they’ll end up dead. Until very recently, the most blood I’ve ever had to give a patient in the ER was on a patient with a ruptured ectopic. Watching blood come out of a patient faster than you can infuse it, to the point where you’re grabbing the bag of blood and squeezing it with your hands as hard as you can to try and desperately save that patient’s life, is something you don’t forget.
Ever.
Anyone who suggests otherwise is living in a fantasy world, where a woman’s well-being is less of a concern to them than how much control they have over a woman’s body- and they want to force you, my daughter, all of us to life in that same world.
In Texas’ gubernatorial race, former Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke is poised to get a big boost from a group called Coulda Been Worse: The new organization is investing $6 million in attack ads targeting Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. The name of the group comes from comments Abbott made after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
[…] A striking statistic about U.S. House races for you to be aware of: “Using the latest data from FiveThirtyEight’s 2022 midterm election forecast, we can see that 118 election deniers and eight election doubters have at least a 95 percent chance of winning.”
The National Archives has informed congressional aides that it is still unsure whether former President Donald J. Trump has surrendered all of the presidential records he removed from the White House as required, even after months of negotiations, a subpoena and a search of his Florida property, Mar-a-Lago, according to the House Oversight Committee.
On Monday, there were reports from local officials that Russian forces inside Kherson were trying to negotiate their withdrawal from the oblast. Kos discussed this in detail, offering three alternatives: this could by psyops; this could be only a portion of the forces in Kherson; or this could be a wholesale withdrawal. That followed reports on Sunday that Russian forces in the area were attempting to pull back closer to the city of Kherson, so that they could be supported by artillery firing from across the Dnipro River, where they didn’t have the supply problems now facing Russian forces on the west side.
Either of those things might still be underway, but they’re apparently not happening quickly enough for Ukrainian forces. Because on Tuesday Ukraine launched what is reported to be a serious counteroffensive at two of the positions most critical to Russia’s front line in the region: Davydiv Brid and Snihurivka.
Both these areas have been the object of Ukrainian counterattacks before, and Snihurivka has been the target of significant attacks on multiple occasions. But now—perhaps encouraged by what’s happened in Kharkiv, perhaps sensing that Russia really is running into problems with supply—Ukrainian forces have reportedly reached both towns. According to some reports, they have even liberated both towns. On the other hand, official Russian outlets are reporting that the attack at Davydiv Brid was repelled. It’s probably too early to credit either report. [map at the link]
[…] At last report, Ukrainian forces held Olexsandrivka, but until someone sweeps the villages on either side, no one is likely to hold it. Ukraine was reported to be close, again, to full possession of Kyselivka, with some reports saying that a handful of Russian forces were left in the south part of the town. I’ve indicated Arkhanhel’s’ke as in dispute based on reports of two Russian attacks that made it into the edges of the town.
And … that’s about it. Maybe in the next 24 hours, we’ll see whether there’s any truth behind either plans for withdrawal or a tactical relocation closer to Kherson. But Russia should realize that if they wait long enough that Ukraine achieves a major breakthrough, they won’t be in a mood to negotiate.
The same kind of too-much news and not enough is going on at the far end of the battlefield in the area around Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. [map at the link]
What’s certain is that Ukrainian forces have reversed months of exceedingly slow “progress” in this area by Russian troops. Ukrainian forces have been engaged in Lysychansk, and Severodonetsk, and in Rubizhne. It’s unclear what scale of conflict is underway in any of these places. From the videos, it’s not even certain there is conflict, as most of what’s out there is people driving past signs. But it seems that Ukraine hasn’t liberated any of these cities, as satisfying as that might be to imagine.
Even in the murkiness of the post-counteroffensive chaos, this area is especially dark.
However, there is one decidedly odd report. In the town of Kreminna, northwest of Rubizhne, Russian forces have reportedly completely left. There are other locations where this has happened, but regional DPR or LPR conscripts remained. In this case, even the regional troops are reported to have gone. So Ukrainian partisans have reportedly taken the lead to declare the town liberated and raise a Ukrainian flag. The reports agree that there are no Ukrainian soldiers present; just some townsfolk and a flag. So I’ve given the town a unique color to represent its unique status: self-liberated (actually, it may not be unique as the same thing has reportedly happened in Starobilsk, but that’s a major city, deep in Luhansk, and it’s going to take more than a couple of reports before I believe it).
[Posted by Dmitri]
If a garden snail started its 50km journey from Lysychansk to Bakhmut on 3 July, when Lysychansk fell, at the speed of 0.05km/h, it would have already made it to Bakhmut and almost made it halfway back. Unlike Russians.
[map of Kharkiv Oblast showing locations geoconfirmed as liberated] In Kharkiv Oblast, I’ve spent the better part of the day going location by location, trying to find confirmation that sites really have been liberated. We finally have that confirmation for such important locations as Lyptsi—meaning Russia is no longer in position to shell the city of Kharkiv, a huge accomplishment all on its own. There are also confirmations for a string of towns and cities along the Oskil River. A few spots, like Vavarivka in the north, have checked in, but I’m still waiting for confirmation that Ukraine has full control over towns on the east side of the Oskil, which is a critical factor in moving toward those locations north of Lyman.
This seems to match this map from the Russian military, which rather than ceding the entire oblast, as was announced, still holds on to that part of Kharkiv east of the Oskil. [map at the link]
Give it another couple of days, and we’ll see if that line holds. There are reportedly intact bridges across the Oskil north of Velykyi Burluk, and Vovchansk is on the east side of the river. In fact, that whole westward-pointing arm on this map appears to be in Ukrainian hands. So Russia already has less than what they show here.
All those areas where Russian forces are reportedly abandoning the town, and leaving the holding of that location to LNR or DPR conscripts? Here’s a good thread on what that means. Svatove is another location where this is reportedly the case.
A damning account of a DPR company in Ukraine:
Equipment:
‘The company is mostly armed with outdated AK-74 variants and weaponry from the 1930s is commonly used.
They have been given 2 grenade launchers in total, and one DShK gun, which nobody in the company knows how to use.
Experience:
The company is commanded by 2 reserve officers, neither of which have any previous military experience.
Of the 120 men in the company, only 4 of them had ever been in combat.
The company was sent into battle in March of this year without receiving any training.
[…] One platoon, which did not have a commander (he was taken off duty due to being diabetic), ran away as soon as shelling stopped.
[…] The 3rd platoon managed to defend against the 🇺🇦 forces during the day. But by nightfall, the platoon had run out of ammunition. It was then accidentally hit by friendly artillery but did not have any way to communicate and stop the barrage.
Having lost half its men, 3rd platoon withdrew in the darkness, carrying several wounded.’ […]
Donald Trump recently issued a statement on his struggling TRUTH Social platform: “Why are people so mean?” This came in the middle of a conservative crusade to depict liberals and Democrats as nasty folks. Trump’s remark captured the absurdity of this campaign. The fellow who routinely assails political foes and critics as “losers,” whose misogynistic history of denigrating women is unparalleled in American public life, who rose to the top of the GOP pile by disparaging the physical appearances of his opponents (and, in one case, the wife of an opponent), who railed against Muslims and “shithole countries,” who called for locking up his political rival, who worships revenge and lives on spite, who denounced journalists as “the enemy of the people,” who relishes conjuring up ugly and dismissive nicknames for his political adversaries, whose entire political project is built upon denigration and vilification—this guy complains about people being mean? And this list does not include his incitement of an insurrectionist riot or his attempt to destroy the foundation of American democracy.
Yes, you can chalk this up to Trump projection: his habit of accusing others of his own pathological sins. But his whine occurred as other right-wingers boo-hoo’ed about President Joe Biden’s recent blast at Trumpism. During a campaign rally in Maryland, Biden noted that Trump has embraced “political violence” and no longer believes in democracy: “What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the—I’m going to say something—it’s like semi-fascism.” Of course, the right went berserk over this.
A Republican National Committee spokesperson howled that Biden’s comment was “despicable.” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu exclaimed that it was “horribly inappropriate” and urged Biden to apologize. Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted that “communists have always called their enemies ‘fascists.’” (Biden is a communist?) But what to call a movement that denies election results, falsely claims an election was stolen, and refuses to admonish or excommunicate a leader who encouraged and used violence in his effort to overturn that election? In a flurry of unhinged tweets this week, Trump demanded his restoration to the presidency (a move impossible under the Constitution) and hinted that the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago might spur his supporters to violence. That all sounds a bit fascist-ish.
Trump and his cultists are masters at the I’m-rubber-you’re-glue form of name-calling. Each day, I receive a bunch of fundraising emails from Trump or other Republicans lambasting evil Democrats as radical socialists or communists pursuing devious plots to purposefully destroy America. In a recent request for money, Sen. Marco Rubio, citing the FBI raid, railed that the Biden administration was comparable to “Marxist dictatorships.” (As the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rubio ought to care about the handling of the intelligence community’s secrets. Yet he pounded the FBI for the raid, claiming in MAGA-like fashion that the bureau was “doing more to erode public trust in our government institutions, the electoral process, and the rule of law in the US than the Russian Federation or any other foreign adversary.”) During the 2020 campaign, Trump asserted that Biden was in league with antifa, Marxists, looters, anarchists, Black Lives Matter, terrorists, and radicals to demolish America’s suburbs, where a law-abiding citizen could easily become the victim of a “very tough hombre.” (Not too subtle, eh?) He portrayed Biden as an ally of “far-left fascism.” For decades, the GOP has depicted Democrats as an anti-American force (commies! radicals! subversives!) actively scheming to wreck the nation. Now they cry foul?
Alt-right (and white supremacy-supporting) Stephen Miller went bananas on Fox. Referring to the FBI search, he huffed, “What you are seeing is the classic technique of tyrants and authoritarians where they use the methods of dictatorships while accusing their opponents of being fascists.” (Miller called the FBI raid an effort to “seize and steal [Trump’s] property and his documents”—an utterly false characterization. The records belong to the US government, not Dear Leader.) Also on Fox, right-wing commentator Mollie Hemingway harrumphed that Biden’s semi-F-word remark “is more hateful than the worst thing Donald Trump has ever said.” Last year Hemingway enthusiastically tweeted out an article from the conservative Federalist that proclaimed Biden’s vaccine program was a “fascist move.” Apparently, F-word for thee, not for me. And amid this kerfuffle, Trump posted a photograph of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which their faces were covered by the words “Your enemy is not in Russia.” In other words, they are your enemy. Not mean, right? Such meme-ing could well lead to violence.
One of the silliest retorts of the right came after Matt Lewis, a level-headed conservative columnist for the Daily Beast, posted a column that zeroed in on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz and asked, “When did the GOP become the party of jerks?” Right-wing writer Bethany Mandel replied, “If I had to pinpoint a moment, when Mitt Romney spent his entire campaign being accused of killing Big Bird, building binders full of women, torturing the family dog, etc etc.” That certainly set off Twitter. She was suggesting that Trump’s party was driven mad-mean because the Ds had been too rough on good ol’ Mitt.
Did Mandel forget that in the years prior to the 2012 campaign, Republicans and conservatives regularly accused Barack Obama of being a secret Muslim socialist who despised the United States and was conspiring to ruin the nation? Did she not watch the Tea Party rallies attended by John Boehner, then the top House Republican, where the crowd cried out, “Nazis! Nazis,” when Democrats were mentioned? Did she never view Glenn Beck on Fox, as he claimed the Obama administration was creating concentration camps and prominent Republicans appeared on his show to validate his conspiratorial lunacy? Nothing said about Romney matched the right-wing vitriol hurled at Obama. (At McCain-Palin rallies in 2008, Republican voters shouted out that Obama should be killed.) And also: Rush Limbaugh. By the way, Romney embraced this guy named Trump, the number-one birther.
On September 1, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Biden again addressed the issue of MAGA extremism in a formal speech. Noting that not every Republican is a MAGA Republican—which is a charitable position these days—he declared, “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” He put it simply: “MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they’re working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself….They promote authoritarian leaders, and they fan the flames of political violence.” Factcheck: True. Biden did not use the F-word, but he fully and passionately explained how Trumpism presents a profound danger to the nation.
And this, too, triggered the Trumpers. Mercedes Schlapp, a former Trump White House official, exclaimed, “No Republican can feel safe in Biden’s America.” (Ask the 150 cops who were brutally assaulted by MAGAites at the US Capitol.) In pro-Trump internet forums, Biden was cast as Hitler. Ari Fleischer, the onetime White House press secretary who helped the Bush-Cheney administration lie the United States into the Iraq war, slammed Biden as “the most divisive, over the top, rhetorically vile, bumbling, inarticulate president in history.” Did Fleischer just wake up from a five-year coma? What’s more divisive than inciting political violence and purposefully doing nothing to stop it because it benefits you?
There has long been an asymmetry in American politics. The GOP, going back to McCarthyism, has wielded falsehoods and paranoia to cast its political enemies as malevolent and nefarious threats to the nation—as literal enemies of the state. Democrats have tended to assail Republicans as being on the wrong side. And now we see that Trump and his Republican enablers are snowflake fascists. They hurl false accusations to demonize and dehumanize adversaries, plot against democracy, peddle outrageous lies to their followers, support dangerous and nutty conspiracy theories, and fan the flames of political violence. Then they moan when they are called out. C’mon now. Fascists ought to be made of sterner stuff. Perhaps that’s why Biden called them semis.
Donald Trump and Gaslight Fascism
Last issue, I wrote about the “snowflake fascism” of Republicans and conservatives. As I explained, Donald Trump and his cultists have long demonized liberals and Democrats, often calling them fascists (or subversives and enemies of America), but now they clutch pearls and express outrage when President Joe Biden warns that baselessly challenging and refusing to accept election results and inciting (or downplaying or dismissing) a violent insurrectionist attack that attempted to overthrow democracy should be seen as “semi-fascism.” This is obviously a disinformation tactic adopted by MAGA Republicans, and it is being deployed in tandem with another propaganda tool: gaslight fascism.
This is when authoritarians deny their own efforts to impose an authoritarian regime. The GOP has been engaged in gaslight fascism since the January 6 riot, refusing to fully acknowledge the assault for what it was: a rampage of domestic terrorists who had been directed by Trump toward the Capitol and who tried to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. With Biden raising the stakes by calling out MAGA Republicans as a fascistic force, these gaslighting efforts appear to have intensified. Which makes sense: The raid on the Capitol and the GOP’s subsequent refusal to disavow the man who sparked this violence (and who this past week said he would consider “full pardons” for convicted January 6 rioters, should he again be elected to the White House) are key components of Biden’s compelling case for labeling the MAGA GOP a threat to the nation. To counter Biden and to claim that he (not Trump) is the divisive force in American politics—Trump called Biden an “enemy of the state” at a rally in Pennsylvania this weekend—MAGA-ites cannot admit the reality of January 6 and Trump’s various schemes and actions to sabotage the 2020 election.
I encountered this directly after Biden delivered his recent speech at Independence Hall blasting MAGA Republicans, when I got into a Twitter dust-up with Ric Grenell, the combative and nasty (and apparently misogynistic) Trumpster who served as Trump’s acting director of national intelligence for three months in 2020, despite his lack of experience in the intelligence community. Grenell contended that criticism of Trump and the Republicans for January 6 and the 2020 Big Lie was nothing but a Democratic attempt to “crush dissent.” He insisted that Trump had done no wrong on January 6 and only had called for a peaceful protest. He asserted that the fact-based description of Trump’s misdeeds—Trump declaring victory with no basis for that claim, subsequently plotting secretly to overturn the election results, and then doing nothing when his mob attacked the Capitol—was “fake” history.
This was full-scale denialism—so extreme as to be absurd. But this is how fascists and authoritarians debate. There is no real truth; there is only the self-serving truth they can concoct and enforce. George Orwell knew this. In 1984, what is the apotheosis of the Party’s desire to create a false reality? “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it,” Orwell wrote. “It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it.”
Trump fascists have been trying to do the same with the 2020 election: conjure an alternative reality untethered from confirmed facts and declare it to be the party’s truth. And in a two-plus-two-equals-five way, they transform a democracy-threatening authoritarian force into patriotic defenders of democracy. Grenell was casting the Big Lie brownshirts as heroic dissenters, not fascist thugs. More disturbing was that a pack of Grenell’s tweeps chimed in with assorted lies and distortions about the 2020 election and January 6. They were drowning in the Kool-Aid served by Trump, Grenell, and their co-conspirators.
This was not surprising coming from Grenell. Days after the 2020 election, he claimed that there had been widespread voter fraud in Nevada but refused to provide evidence to back up his assertion. (This allegation was judged a pants-on-fire lie by Politifact.) And now he was presenting a clear example of the MAGA playbook: insist Trump’s attack on democracy was no attack on democracy. With such a denial, it is far easier to blast Biden as a mean-spirited and divisive hater of MAGA. As former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley did, complaining of Biden’s speech, “It’s unthinkable that a president would speak about half of Americans that way.” You can only get away with this line if you ignore the fact that Trump has for years been accusing Democrats of seeking to destroy the United States. As I noted previously, during the 2020 campaign, Trump accused Biden of pushing “far-left fascism.” Did anyone get their knickers bunched over that? (By the way, Biden did not apply his warning to half of Americans. The number might be closer to a tenth of the population.)
The reality of Trump’s conniving to subvert the republic cannot be recognized by leading Republicans. Doing so would create a dilemma for them. They would then have to explicitly declare themselves in favor of or opposed to this Trumpian war on democracy. They realize an outright expression of support for autocracy would not be good for the GOP, yet a declaration of opposition to the Trumpist assault on the Constitution would alienate any Republican from the party’s cult-like base. (See Liz Cheney.) To survive within the GOP, they must deny. They must say black is white. War is peace. Authoritarianism is democracy. That is the only way the party can now exist. The logic of their position demands it.
KGsays
Lynna, OM@23,
While a lot of what that DailyKos story says is true, a lot of gas in Europe (at least in the UK and Germany) is used to heat homes and power industry directly – it’s not burned to make electricity. And switching to electricity for those uses means replacing a hell of a lot of infrastructure. In the UK, the gas grid is by far the largest store of energy. For domestic use, it’s still uncertain whether the best approach is to switch to domestic electric boilers and where possible, heat pumps; to use electricity to make either methane or hydrogen and send that through the pipes (not straightforward in the case of hydrogen – the pipes as they are would leak, and boilers need adjustment at least); to distribute hot water directly; or, most likely, some combination of all these approaches. The fastest way to reduce domestic gas consumption is to improve insulation, at least in UK, where most homes are scandalously leaky (and of course our government is doing fuck-all about it).
But the point about the political consequences in Europe of the stunning counterattack by Ukraine is bang on. It immediately cuts the ground from under all those, on both the far right and the tankie left, saying arms supplies to Ukraine are just prolonging the war. Of course they will switch to warning that if facing defeat, Putin will start using nukes – and that possibility does need to be borne in mind – but it’s obvious that once you say we must do anything a nuclear-armed invader wants, you’re inviting limitless aggression and atrocities from any and every nuclear-armed power, and telling all the other states that could acquire nuclear weapons to do so a.s.a.p.
“Frontlines still quite fluid. ‘Hayday suggested Russian troops had also already started leaving the town of Kreminna, 25km north of Severodonetsk, but cautioned they had returned to … Svatove, which is further to the north, after initially fleeing'”
If a garden snail started its 50km journey from Lysychansk to Bakhmut on 3 July, when Lysychansk fell, at the speed of 0.05km/h, it would have already made it to Bakhmut and almost made it halfway back. Unlike Russians.
He also held roles as dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law and president of Baylor University, a tenure which ended in 2016 after an investigation into the school’s mishandling of sexual assault cases.
…
Starr reportedly aided the defense team that cut a deal sparing Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy sex offender and accused sex trafficker, of serious federal charges. Critics called that non-prosecution agreement a “sweetheart deal.” Epstein died by suicide in 2019, a month after being arrested and indicted in New York on charges of abusing dozens of underage girls.
More recently, Starr joined the legal team defending former President Donald Trump in his first Senate impeachment trial in early 2020. That trial revolved around Trump’s efforts to have Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announce an investigation into President Joe Biden, who at the time was considered a likely Democratic presidential contender.
In other words, a hypocrite and a wanker. I will not miss him.
The Guardian liveblog has updates on the situation at the nuclear plant, which has stabilized for now, and what people are finding in the towns in the northeast after the Russians cleared out. I just can’t quote them; raven can bear it better than I can. Or you can read it at the Guardian.
Jason T. Schofield, the Republican Rensselaer County Board of Elections commissioner, was arrested outside his residence Tuesday morning by the FBI and charged with fraudulently obtaining and filing absentee ballots last year using the personal information of at least eight voters without their permission, according to an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court.
The indictment handed up last week — and unsealed Tuesday during his arraignment — charges Schofield with 12 felony counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification.
Schofield was led into court in handcuffs just after 2 p.m. by three FBI agents, including two who have been pursuing the wide-ranging voter fraud investigation since last year. The 42-year-old entered a not guilty plea as a half-dozen of his supporters sat behind him in the courtroom. The proceeding concluded with U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart releasing him on his own recognizance with no objections from the U.S. attorney’s office.
…
Schofield had been scheduled to play in a Republican-sponsored golf tournament Tuesday, but it was cancelled….
The indictment accuses Schofield of using an online state Board of Elections portal to request absentee ballots on behalf of eight voters who had no interest in voting, did not request absentee ballots and didn’t know that Schofield was using their personal information to obtain the ballots. The indictment alleges the official “falsely certified” that he was the person requesting the ballot when he entered the voters’ names and dates of birth in the portal.
The ballots that were delivered to the Rensselaer County Board of Elections were subsequently filled out and submitted in last year’s primary election, the general election, and sometimes both.
In some instances, documentation was completed falsely claiming the ballots were mailed to the voters at their residences.
…
It’s unclear whether additional individuals will face charges in the ongoing investigation, though law enforcement sources say it is likely. The State Police also were conducting a separate investigation of alleged ballot fraud in the city of Rensselaer’s mayoral race last November — though that probe was not being coordinated with the U.S. Justice Department’s investigation.
…
County Republican leaders previously told the Times Union that they were unaware of any fraudulent activity by the party during the 2021 election, and that they had simply taken advantage of a directive from the state Board of Elections that allowed individuals to use absentee ballots if they did not want to vote in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The event…is hosted by the anti-abortion extremist group Susan B. Anthony’s List, and appears to be something akin to an anti-abortion Coachella with other headliners, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and smaller but equally loathsome names like Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco and Christian musician Natasha Owens, Newsweek reports.
Watch Putin loyalist on Russian state TV concede that Russia should acknowledge its recent defeats in Ukraine. He also proposed a radical solution of “the Ukrainian question”: recognizing that Ukrainian people really do exist. More in my latest article:…
Holy shit. Video and DB link at the (Twitter) link.
Jason T. Schofield, the Republican Rensselaer County Board of Elections commissioner
Near as I can make out, the best way to eliminate voter fraud is to remove Republicans from any office that has anything to do with elections, and make sure that no one registered as a Republican is allowed to vote by mail. That will eliminate all voter fraud over the last two years (the other ‘frauds’ that the GOP keeps touting were mistakes that were caught by the system, not actual fraud).
A federal judge on Monday rejected former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro’s claim that he is the victim of a Biden administration political vendetta, denying his request to probe why he has been charged with criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A newly unsealed copy of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit with fewer redactions shows how federal prosecutors grew suspicious of former President Trump and his attorneys in the weeks leading up to the August raid on the property.
The text beneath the newly removed redactions chronicles several key moments in the government’s ongoing investigation, including a June 3 visit by Jay Bratt, the DOJ’s top counterintelligence official, to Mar-a-Lago.
Bratt arrived with three FBI agents to receive documents in response to a grand jury subpoena that demanded Trump turn over records “bearing classification markings.”
There, the officials met with two people: Trump attorney Evan Corcoran, and Christina Bobb, the former OAN host who, in the DOJ’s telling, was the “custodian of records” for the documents.
Per the newly unredacted portions of the affidavit, Corcoran told the FBI that “he was advised all the records that came from the White House were stored in one location within Mar-a-Lago, the STORAGE ROOM,” and that the boxes of records located in the room were the “remaining repository” of Trump’s White House records.
“FPOTUS COUNSEL 1 further stated he was not advised there were any records in any private office space or other location in Mar-a-Lago,” the affidavit reads, referring to Corcoran.
But when agents arrived at Mar-a-Lago in August, they purportedly found records in a search of both the office and other locations outside the storage room. The affidavit doesn’t specify whether Corcoran’s client in the matter — Trump — or another party “advised” him.
Other details spring out of the newly released portions. Trump appears to have gotten another extension from the FBI on responding to the grand jury subpoena before the June 3 meeting. When agents arrived, they “observed that approximately fifty to fifty-five boxes remained in the STORAGE ROOM.”
Bobb, who signed a statement saying that all documents had been turned over in response to the grand jury subpoena, is noted as having “provided a Certification Letter.” The remainder of the section, after the text of the letter itself, is redacted.
After the June interaction, the affidavit says, prosecutors obtained a subpoena for footage from video surveillance cameras operated by the Trump Organization at Mar-a-Lago.
That June 24 subpoena demanded footage from Jan. 10 until the date of service — a time period that covers nearly the entire timeframe from when Trump first agreed to allow the National Archives to retrieve 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago.
After NARA employees found classified-marked records in the boxes, they referred the matter to the FBI. The subpoena for footage covers the entirety of the government’s criminal investigation.
What the DOJ found on the footage remains under seal.
“So we have a great record of endorsement, all of us together. It’s very close to 99%, and I endorse that guy, and I’m telling you, I will always tell you this, I’ll tell you the truth, and he is going to be a phenomenal representative for Pennsylvania. You gotta vote him in.”
“That guy” is Oz. Oz is running for Senate, not representative, but who cares! Donald Trump and this crowd have a 99% endorsement rate!
What is that, you ask?
It can’t be how effective Trump’s endorsements have been to electoral victories, so I think he must mean that almost 99% of the time, his crowd at this rally in Pennsylvania hears when he has indeed endorsed someone. […]
Ukraine’s Army was likely as surprised as so many others with the speed & success of their Kharkiv offensive over the last five days. It is & continues to be brilliant.
But as one who saw both success & failure in combat, I have some concerns…
…
Like others, I’m euphoric about UA’s advance in Kharkiv & Kherson & their continued active defense on the Donbas front.
A brilliant advance resulting from a solid maneuver plan, deception, technologically advanced weapons, use of intelligence, leadership & morale.
@PhillipsPOBrien perfectly describes the action as a Ukrainian military “masterstroke” in @TheAtlantic (attached).
And while @laraseligman suggests western officials were surprised by the speed of the advance in this solid piece, I’d sure Ukraine’s army were also stunned when their force – w/ great leadership, high morale, good tactics – shaped the battlefield, met a dispersed RU force with low morale, & “ran thru them like crap thru a goose.” (Patton)
Yes, it’s been an uplifting week of news from UKR.
But there’s lots of fighting remaining.
-RU forces fled dozens of villages in Kharkiv Oblast (an 12k sq mile area, 1/2 of West Virginia), & have relocated to Belgorod in Russia or Luhansk (about 10K sq mi, size of Vermont).
RU commanders will likely try to defend the key logistics hub of Kupyansk on the Donets River.
To the south (in northern Donetsk), RU forces are likely shoring defenses and probing with artillery near Sloviansk, Spirne, Mykolaivka, & other cities, believing the UA might continue their advance…
…while RU military & their families leave those locations.
In Kherson Oblast (size of Maryland), there’s not as much attention, but UA continues offensive operations there.
Remember, RU forces that moved there are now fighting & sustaining casualties in an attrition fight.
I still see mass RU POWs in the future.
So, what are my concerns?
Three things:
Tempo, fatigue, black swans.
First, tempo.
Tempo is defined in US Army doctrine (ADP 3-90) as”the rate of speed & rhythm of military operations with respect to the enemy’s activities.”
Tempo doesn’t always mean “fast.” Sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s slow…tempo is based on capabilities & support to the fight.
The commander determines the tempo of the ops based on the ability to maintain the initiative for offensive operations.
Better said: “Don’t go too far, too fast, without thinking about everyone that’s trying to keep up (artillery, intelligence, fuel, ammo, supplies).”
At times, a commander will see an opening & want to push.
But it’s important to remember supplies, intel, arty, air defense, engineers…all drive tempo.
2 mentors taught me:
GEN Franks: “know when to go fast & when to slow down”
GEN Dempsey: “Be quick, but don’t hurry!”
In truth, there are some elements of Ukraine’s force that can’t “keep up” with the front line fighters. That’s not an insult, it’s an understanding of the UA force.
Right now, UA field commanders – while excited about gains – must consider operational tempo.
It’s required.
2d Item: Fatigue.
Whether it was Vince Lombardi, Patton, or Shakespeare who said it, it’s true: “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”
Forces in the attack can attack for about 4-5 days without breaking down.
That’s not equipment, that’s human beings.
My experience in combat – as well as at our Army’s national training center, where we study this – is that units will begin to fail if they aren’t rested on day 5 of an offensive.
And commanders/leaders start making really bad decisions after 3 days of little/no sleep.
We’re waking up each day -after 5 days – looking at reports of UA’s advance & saying “hope they go farther, take more!”
UA forces are whipped right now. Not just caused by movement & lack of sleep, but emotions associated with fighting.
I anticipate some needed “pauses.”
Finally, “black swans.”
“An unpredictable event beyond what is normally expected in a situation that may have severe consequences. Black swans are characterized by unpredictability, rarity, severe effects & the widespread insistence they were obvious in hindsight.”
-What are the effects of Putin targeting power infrastructure in many UKR cities?
-What are effects of damage to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station?
-How will UA handle the capture of thousands of RU POWs?
-What is the status of UKR economy, labor market…& grain shipments?
-Will there be a coup at the Kremlin? Who might succeed Putin, and what will it mean?
-Will UKR attempt to recover Crimea?
-What has become of UKR citizens (and children) who have been shipped to camps and unknown RU locations?
-What if RU uses WMD?
All are Issues that have “severe consequences” that require thought, as we all cheer UA’s actions on the battlefield.
All that said, I’m thankful for those in Ukraine who continue to fight for their sovereignty against an illegal invasion…and those who support them!
I can’t believe that I, someone with no expertise and zero knowledge other than what I’ve read on Twitter and in the media, am venturing an opinion; but that said, this is the internet. I think the Russian forces in Ukraine and the Russian war effort more generally are more…crumbly than is generally believed.
Bloomberg: Russia’s energy revenues shrink to 14-month low.
Russian energy revenues fell to $11.1 billion in August as Western sanctions and European clients’ refusal to buy Russian oil have forced Russia to sell oil at cheaper rates in Asian markets, Bloomberg reports.
The Russians just threw Armenia under the bus big time.
Armenia has been locked in a decades long conflict with Azerbaijan that it is now losing. Armenia was also closely allied with Russia. Or so they thought.
Russia isn’t going to do anything for Armenia right now. They have committed most of their forces to Ukraine and are losing there right now.
Armenia is going to withdraw from the Russian version of NATO which is CSTO. On the basis that it is useless. (Azerbaijan isn’t a member of the CSTO.)
Things aren’t looking too good for Armenia here.
There are 3 million Armenians to 10 million Azerbaijanis. Their ally Russia which even has a base in Armenia can’t or won’t do anything to help them.
Since Armenia is part of the Russian block, the EU, NATO, and the USA doesn’t have much interest in helping them either.
The CSTO created by Moscow denied Armenia military assistance in the confrontation with Azerbaijan.
The Russian equivalent of NATO – the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – again denied Armenia military assistance.
It is likely that the country will start the exit process.
This was reported by the Russian Telegram channel BRIEF , which is believed to be associated with the Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan.
Armenia once again requested the help of the CSTO allies due to the escalation of the military conflict with Azerbaijan.
The country received another refusal.
” We consider the use of force unacceptable ,”
the organization said in response.
She also advised Yerevan to use “exclusively political and diplomatic methods and agreements” to resolve the conflict with Baku.
It is important that in the response of the CSTO they did not forget to praise Moscow: ” We highly appreciate the mediation efforts of the Russian Federation in the ceasefire .” They also expressed their condolences to the families of those killed in the collision.
BRIEF, referring to sources in Armenia, announces the beginning of the country’s withdrawal from the CSTO.
The organization has shown its complete uselessness in the defense of Yerevan.
It should be noted that today Russia is not able to provide any military assistance to Armenia. Its army is bogged down on the Ukrainian fronts, where it is experiencing an acute shortage of manpower and suffers heavy defeats.
She also does not have the military for the transfer to Armenia.
Apparently, there is no desire to do this either.
Russia’s direct involvement in the conflict would greatly anger Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey. And this is the last thing the Kremlin needs now
I tried to verify this and didn’t get anything either way.
“This was reported by the Russian Telegram channel BRIEF , which is believed to be associated with the Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan.” Margarita Simonyan is a rabid and prominent Russian nationalist TV host who frequently threatens to nuke the rest of the world, including the USA. (She is well known and famous in Russia and also a complete loon.)
She is also an Armenian born in Russia.
In a rare public statement, the late Benedict Arnold said that he would never have been remembered as the worst traitor in American history if he had had the benefit of a special master.
The disgraced military officer called his switching sides in the Revolutionary War “the kind of evidence that any special master worth his salt would have ruled out.”
“I think a special master would have taken a look at that and said, ‘Hold on, here—switching sides is a personal decision, so that’s privileged,’ ” he said. “That would have been a game changer for me.”
“I would have gone from ‘Benedict Arnold, notorious traitor,’ to ‘Benedict Arnold, victim of government witch hunt,’ ” he said.
Arnold added that, over the past few centuries in Hell, he has had ample time to ruminate about another event that occurred before he switched sides: his 1779 court-martial. “That would have played out differently if I had gotten to appoint the judge,” he said.
The situation on the ground is … hazy. Ukraine continues to mop up in Kharkiv Oblast, maybe it is attacking in Kherson Oblast, maybe it’s attacking in Luhansk, maybe Russian and proxy forces are retreating and/or deserting and/or surrendering. Let’s give it another day or two for some of the fog of war to clear.
Instead, let’s do another check in on the Tankies.
For those who haven’t read previous installments, Tankies are people who believe imperialism is bad, and only the United States can be imperialist. Thus, Russia is the aggrieved party here, only attacking Ukraine because NATO something or other. This tweet encapsulates it perfectly:
If you’re on the side of the US empire on any issue you are on the wrong side. Doesn’t mean the other side is always necessarily in the right, it just means a globe-spanning empire that’s held together by lies, murder and tyranny will always be in the wrong. Yes it’s that simple.
Tankies are named after communist sympathizers who witnessed Soviet bloody suppression of the Prague and Hungary uprisings, yet continued to defend the Soviet Union. […] they’re always good for a quizzical look askance, and then a surprised chuckle when you realize they’re actually serious.
Today we’ll start with Will Schryver, a Utah resident with 27,000 followers on Twitter.
I will simply note that the United States and its willing NATO vassals have deliberately raised the stakes of this conflict such that Russia will very likely now feel compelled to make a momentous decision in deference to the power of perception and narrative.
The empire has played the “ace up its sleeve” in Ukraine.
Over the past several months they methodically constructed a modest strike force of hoarded NATO weaponry and a briefly trained new cadre of Ukrainian soldiers – most of them fresh conscripts.
In addition to these new Ukrainian brigades, they also assembled multiple brigades of NATO troops – “foreign volunteers” – to serve as shock troops for an envisioned “counter-offensive”. The total count of these NATO soldiers is unknown, but is likely at least 3000 – 5000.
I’m persuaded the Russians were clearly cognizant of this build-up. They also clearly provided an irresistibly tempting target for the assembled force, and deliberately created a vacuum into which it would be permitted to advance. What they plan to do next remains to be seen.
“A handful of Ukranians and THOUSANDS OF NATO SOLDIERS took Kharkiv, even though the real number is unknown so I’ll just make up something that sounds good. Oh, and Russia let them, for reasons that even I can’t make up, so give me time to come up with something good!”
This is an ongoing theme—one American Foreign Legion guy took video at Izyum’s entrance, so therefore they’re all NATO. Most of those reports also insist on mentioning that the blacks were also there, likely referring to Malcolm Nance (who has also featured in Russian state propaganda). We know why they need to stress that. [OMG, I hadn’t realized. Racist Tankies?]
Moving on.
Don’t be fooled by the propaganda saying Ukraine has made huge gains. They have made gains but not major. Russian and Pro-Russian forces control over 120,000(low estimate) sqkm of what is internationally recognized as UA. This week UA gained back control of 2,000 ( 1.6%). Facts [posted by Patrick Lancaster]
Patrick Lancaster is an American, a Navy vet, who somehow become a chief Putin propagandist embedding with the Russian army.
The actual facts are that Ukraine has retaken 6,000 square kilometers in the current counteroffensive. Russia now controls around 116,000 square kilometers or Ukraine’s total land mass of 603,550, or 19%. I like that he says “internationally recognized,” because it should remind everyone that Russia shouldn’t be there in the first place. Crimea is 27,000 of those square kilometers.
Now, I guess you can argue that liberating 1 percent of Ukraine’s total landmass isn’t “huge gains,” but Ukraine is a big country. 6,000 square miles is bigger than the state of Connecticut about the size of Delaware, or two Rhode Islands, or half a Connecticut. And really, “they haven’t taken that much” is a pathetic retort when Ukrainian forces are on the march and Russia is struggling to firm up new defensive lines in northeastern Ukraine. And look at that big chunk of red east of liberated Kharkiv: [map at the link]
That’s about 20,000 square kilometers of a whole lot of big empty. If Russian positions have been abandoned in Svatove, as rumored, that whole chunk of land will be marked as liberated, and Lancaster will then argue that it’s still not that much because blah blah blah imperialist propaganda.
Capturing Kharkiv is a big deal. 6,000 square kilometers is a lot, but just as importantly, Russia’s northern supply routes into Ukraine have been cut, and Russia just supplied Ukraine with over 300 visually confirmed military vehicles, including 53 tanks and 94 armored infantry vehicles.
Ukraine is only losing men and equipment. Russia always retreats to avoid casualties and after that they just bomb the Ukranian and evil NATO to pieces, retake the lines again and continues the advance.
He had me at “Russia always retreats.” He should’ve quit while he was ahead.
[…] The nut graf:
BBC.com quotes you as saying that if support for Ukraine is strong the crisis will be shorter. Hmmm? I guess that might depend on what you mean by “support for Ukraine?” If by “support for Ukraine,” you mean the West continuing to supply arms to the Kiev government’s armies, I fear you may be tragically mistaken. Throwing fuel, in the form of armaments, into a firefight, has never worked to shorten a war in the past, and it won’t work now, particularly because, in this case, most of the fuel is (a) being thrown into the fire from Washington DC, which is at a relatively safe distance from the conflagration, and (b) because the “fuel throwers” have already declared an interest in the war going on for as long as possible.
Zelenska curtly replied that he had sent the letter to the wrong president. [Roger Waters wrote a letter to Olena Zelenska asking Ukraine to stop fighting back against Russia. Waters was asking for the Ukrainian first lady’s support to get world leaders to “stop the slaughter.”]
Fiorella Isabel posted:
Ukraine is playing chess like the west, terribly. Russians are masters at chess playing. This is a trap & will only cause Ukraine to lose more soldiers before Russia comes back in, fresh with minimal losses & that’s the military reality, not what western media or NATO bots claim.
Funny that Russian state media itself is more willing to admit battlefield reversals than RT’s English-facing propaganda shills.
Max Blumenthal posted:
In their post-counteroffensive triumphalism, US hawks reveal real objectives of the Ukraine proxy war.
“A victory in Ukraine’s understanding of the term also brings about the end of Putin’s regime,” Anne Applebaum wrote, urging Russia’s destabilization.
Yeah, Max Blumenthal thinks this is a GOTCHA moment—“AHA! See? They want Putin to fail!” So, guys? Plot twist! You are all now “US hawks” because we want to see an end to a murderous, expansionist regime.
Tom Whitmore posted:
Pundits are touting #Ukranian rout of the #Russians lately. I’m not buying it.Just seems too easy. I am betting the Russians pulled back to let the Ukranians fill the void. The trap is about to be sprung, watch for the big Russian artillery offensive.
[Lynna would like to point out that the Russians left a lot of their artillery and ammo being.]
Whitmore is a MAGA conservative with 42,000 followers on Twitter. And what better example of their modus operandi? “I don’t like what I see so I chose to reject it without any evidence. Instead, I will create an alternate reality that better comports to my biases and prejudices.”
CapitalH posted:
Obviously, this is a trap by the Russian. They willingly “surrender” as POW to be taken behind enemies line. Once there, they will break out and take over un opposed. The Ukrainian fell for it and will hasten their defeat.
The ol’ “mass surrender so we can rise up from the rear” ploy that has worked so well in about zero past wars.
Caitlin Johnstone posted:
If we were being told the truth about this war they wouldn’t be banning Russian media, we wouldn’t be hearing propagandistic messaging like “unprovoked invasion” at every mention of Ukraine, and those expressing scrutiny of all this wouldn’t be swarmed by astroturf empire trolls.
She’s talking about RT losing its broadcasting license in some European countries. Keep in mind it can still stream and publish online. Europe isn’t Russia, where all dissenting media has been shut, and myriad journalists imprisoned, along with the opposition party. Also where legislators that express opposition to Putin’s war are arrested and fined and threatened with seven-year prison terms.
[…] The North Atlantic Fellows Organization has certainly done a great job getting under the skin of Tankies and Russians. [video at the link]
The Ukrainians appreciate the meme warriors.
Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak on the information war between Russia and Ukraine: “Russia has archaic bot farms and trolls army. We have NAFO […] Truth always wins”
[…] Attack failed!
It didn’t? Oh…
It’s probably because Super Invisible Secret Army is about to be deployed!
[…] There was the “get asses kicked in the Afghanistan cold.” There was the “get asses kicked in the Finnish winter.” But “Trick your enemy into thinking they are winning, then fade and kill”? Yeah, haven’t seen that one before.
[…] This one is a thing someone (a Russian university professor) seriously wrote:
Whether you like Putin’s Russia or not, it must be admitted the country has come a long way from Stalin to Putin. Stalin didn’t care about casualties among his troops. Putin does. Minimization of human losses is the priority.
He may actually not be wrong. Putin does seem to care about a little more about Russian losses than Donbas, Chechen, or Wagner cannon fodder losses. But he still doesn’t care about Russian losses, since most don’t come from Moscow or St. Petersburg areas.
[…] [Bingo card for Russian defeat cope is available at the link]
Posted by Oleksiy Sorokin:
Ukraine’s Deputy PM: Russian officials reached out to attempt to negotiate amid counteroffensive.
She added that “Russians were offering talks now in order to stop the Ukrainian advance.”
Day 202.
[followed by a North Atlantic Fellows Organization meme: “Nonsense detected! Fire at will!”
NUR-SULTAN, Sept 14 (Reuters) – Pope Francis said on Wednesday that God does not guide religions towards war, an implicit criticism of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who backs the invasion of Ukraine and has boycotted a conference of faith leaders…
Now, about that Old Testament…
Oggie: Mathomsays
Forgot about this. Saw a car yesterday (well, actually, a super-sized Ram 2500 with duallies), and on the back bumper, next to the NRA stickers, a bright red ‘Q’, and a ‘Drill, Baby, Drill, sticker, was another bumper sticker:
Save Trump!
Save Christendom!
Has there ever been a united Christendom? Catholic, Orthodox, Arian, Gnostic (a small sample which doesn’t even include early modern to modern sects) — Christianity has been fissioning with abandon since the second century. And Trump as its saviour? Even better.
MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell said Tuesday that federal agents seized his cellphone and questioned him about a Colorado clerk who has been charged in what prosecutors say was a “deceptive scheme” to breach voting system technology used across the country.
BOSTON (WHDH) – The FBI is now investigating the package explosion that injured at least one person on Northeastern campus Tuesday night.
Sources said the package contained a rambling note criticizing Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg and the relationship between academic institutions and the developers of virtual reality. The note was in a hard plastic container and detonated when the victim opened the latches and lifted the lid. The note also indicated this may the beginning of more to come…
A second similar package found during a search was ultimately rendered safe by a bomb squad.
Republicans spent the summer arguing that the states should have full control over whether they will allow abortion in their borders. That position changed this month when Congress returned from the August Recess and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposed a nationwide ban that would force the restrictions on all states.
Konnech Inc. sells software to help manage elections and has nothing to do with counting ballots. But a Texas group that supports former President Trump’s voter fraud conspiracy theories claims the company is subverting U.S. elections for the Chinese Communist Party…
Fox News host Tucker Carlson has a new description for the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. According to HuffPost, Carlson believes the insurrection was more of an “election injustice protest.”
On Monday, September 12, the primetime conservative host made his remarks during the recent segment of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
What’s next? Russian invasion of Ukraine is an internal Russian political issue? Secret US Government documents are magically not secret and belong to Trump because Trump is special? Anti-fascists are the real enemy? Biden saying that some Republicans are acting like fascists is unacceptable, but calling all Democrats fascists, communists, socialists, and un-American is just normal political rhetoric?
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. Their latest summary:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy made a surprise visit to Izium, one of the many settlements recently liberated by Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region. While there, he met with the victorious troops took part in the flag raising and surveyed some of the damages. “Earlier, when we looked up, we always looked for the blue sky. Today, when we look up, we are looking for only one thing – the flag of Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy said about 8,000 sq km (3,100 square miles) have been liberated so far, apparently all in the north-eastern region of Kharkiv. “Stabilisation measures” had been completed in about half of that territory, Zelenskiy said, “and across a liberated area of about the same size, stabilisation measures are still ongoing”. Ukraine now has set its sights on freeing all territory occupied by invading Russian forces.
While the mood is joyous over the recent gains the Ukrainian military, officials understand the challenges that lie ahead in the newly liberated territories – many of which had been living under Russian occupation for almost the entirety of the invasion. Much of the city of Izium was destroyed, and the people were terrorised. Investigators are now beginning to look into possible war crimes committed by Russian soldiers.
Russia has probably used Iranian-made uncrewed aerial vehicles in Ukraine for the first time, Britain’s defence intelligence said on Wednesday, after Kyiv reported downing one of the UAVs – a Shahed-136 – on Tuesday. The German paper Bild has added weight to the British defence intelligence reports, raising questions of the extent of weaponry that Moscow has at hand.
Russian forces have ordered that the mobile Internet be cut off in the Russian-occupied Luhansk oblast Wednesday, Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk oblast, said on Telegram.
One person was killed and a number more injured by Russian shelling in the Zaporizhzhia oblast in southern Ukraine over the past two days, according to the regional state administration.
Five civilians were killed and 16 more wounded in Bakhmut in the Donetsk oblast yesterday, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk oblast. The region has seen heavy fighting in the past day, Kyrylenko said, with Russian troops attacking infrastructure “with tanks, mortars and artillery”. In addition to the casualties in Bakhmut, Russian troops wounded 12 in Toretsk, one in Avdiivka, one in Kurdiumivka and one in Kodema, Kyrylenko said.
Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to thank the commander of the ground forces in Ukraine for the recent counteroffensive advances. He writes:
You can temporarily occupy the territory of our state. But you definitely cannot occupy the Ukrainian people. You can brainwash people’s minds, but you cannot do this to the hearts of Ukrainians.
I am thankful to commander of the ground forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky, to all our warriors for liberating the Ukrainian land from the enemy. You save our people, our hearts, children and the future.
ravensays
The newest war in the former USSR continues, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
.1. It is no accident it is occurring now.
Russia is distracted by the Ukraine invasion and can’t do anything else.
.2. This fighting isn’t in the perennially disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is elsewhere on the border.
.3. AFAICT, there is no real reason for this conflict.
Azerbaijan is just attacking Armenia because they can and no one can stop them. It is just ethnic hatred that is centuries old.
.4. This is very much another failure for Russia and their CSTO.
People in the region are realizing that Russia isn’t as strong as they claim to be and making another break for autonomy.
Ceasefire is short-lived as Azerbaijan and Armenia resume attacks
By Tara Subramaniam, CNN Updated 5:59 AM ET, Wed September 14, 2022
Armenian opposition supporters and relatives of servicemen wounded in border clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan gather in front of the parliament to call for the Armenian prime minister’s resignation, in Yerevan on September 13, 2022.
Despite earlier claims of a ceasefire, fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia continued Wednesday, a day after nearly 100 soldiers died in clashes, according to the Azerbaijani and Armenian ministries of defense.
Russia suggested it had brokered a ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan in a statement Tuesday, but it proved short-lived.
The Russian-mediated ceasefire was “almost immediately broken,” according to US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby.
Armenia’s Ministry of Defense on Wednesday accused Azerbaijan of attacking again, claiming artillery, mortar and “large-caliber firearms” had been fired at three Armenian towns, including Jermuk near the border between the two countries.
In a series of tweets, the ministry insisted that “the entire responsibility” for the current clashes and any future developments falls on Azerbaijan. Armenia’s government said Tuesday that at least 49 Armenian service members had been killed in action.
Azerbaijan, meanwhile, tweeted Wednesday that some of its military units were also being subjected to artillery fire. In a statement, its Ministry of Defense said a criminal case had been opened into the case of two civilians injured as a result of the ongoing conflict with Armenia.
“Two civilians were wounded as a result of a large-scale provocation committed on the night of September 12 by the Armenian armed forces,” the statement read. “The facts are currently being investigated.”
Fifty Azerbaijani servicemen were killed in deadly clashes on Tuesday, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They included 42 members of the Azerbaijan Army and eight members of the State Border Service, it said.
An ambulance moves on a street near a military hospital in Yerevan, Armenia, following night border clashes on September 13, 2022.
If the fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan continues, it could place key oil and gas pipelines in jeopardy, exacerbating issues with energy supplies already disrupted by the war in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
For decades, Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, a landlocked area between Eastern Europe and Western Asia that is populated and was controlled by ethnic Armenians but located in Azerbaijani territory.
The unrest in the region dates back to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the region, backed by Armenia, declared independence from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has long claimed it will retake the territory, which is internationally recognized as Azerbaijani.
In November 2020, renewed fighting broke out in the region for almost two months, killing at least 6,500 people, according to Reuters. Hostilities ended after Armenian-backed separatists agreed to relinquish control over territories in the restive region. Russia helped broker the ceasefire deal between the two countries, which saw President Vladimir Putin send peacekeeping forces along the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.
“As far as we know, that peacekeeping presence is still there,” Kirby told reporters Tuesday. When asked if Russia could reposition its troops to Armenia, Kirby said: “We haven’t seen any indication that Russian forces are repositioning now.”
On Tuesday, Armenia called on Russia to implement a 1997 defense treaty that stipulates the countries will defend each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in the event of an attack by a foreign country.
“A decision was made to officially apply to the Russian Federation for the implementation of the provisions of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, to the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the UN Security Council regarding the aggression against the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia,” a statement from the Armenian Prime Minister’s office read.
The request followed a session with the Armenian Security Council and a call between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Putin, according to a statement from Pashinyan’s office.
Just hours after Moscow said it had facilitated a ceasefire between the two nations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken voiced concern that Russia could try to “stir the pot” between Armenia and Azerbaijan “to create a distraction from Ukraine.”
Kirby said the US was “actively engaged” in trying to help end the violence, adding that Blinken had spoken with both the president of Azerbaijan and the prime minister of Armenia.
“We’re actively engaged with both the Armenian and Azerbaijani Government to see what we can do to end this violence,” Kirby told reporters Tuesday.
“A man who walked into a Demont, PA Dairy Queen, wearing a vest, rainbow wig, and a loaded firearm was arrested. He said he was ‘working to restore Trump as President King of the US’ and was going to ‘kill Democrats and liberals’.”
Video news report at the (Twitter) link. From the comments: “At least MAGA are dressing in their clown uniforms now.” Also, those are some ugly-ass buildings.
ravensays
I tried to verify that Armenia was going to leave the Russian controlled CSTO.
No information any way but it is true that Armenia asked the CSTO for help and they refused to do anything.
I was reading a blog thread with some Armenians on it.
Some people criticized them for being Russian allies.
They pointed out that they had no choice. In that region, it was either Russia or no one for them..
They were also bitter that Russia could not and would not do anything.
Russia isn’t much of an ally.
blfsays
Testing, testing, is this thing on?…
Seems to be.
To explain: I recently upgraded my system, and for various legitimate reasons I won’t go into, lost the ability to edit WWW text boxes (like these comment boxes) easily in a proper text editor. So after a bit of faffing around, I now have (the start of?) a script to ease the bi↔directional transfer of text between the comment box and the editor. It’s nowheres near as convenient as it used to be, but if I’ve got the design more-or-less correct, should work Ok.
The ol’ “mass surrender so we can rise up from the rear” ploy that has worked so well in about zero past wars.
LOL. Those tankie quotes are incredible.
blfsays
Follow-up (entirely from memory) to KG@6: Many many yonks ago (last millennium), the Grauniad reported it had asked the office of whatever — and presumably also their own lawyers — if running (a series of?) article(s?) about abolishing the hereditary dictatorship would cause problems due to that(?) law prohibiting discussions about abolition. The answer was yes, they could(? would?) have trouble. They didn’t run anything (as far as I know, at least in any editions meant for teh “U”K).
blfsays
Lynna@25, I wonder if the retreatingrunning as fast as they can invaders also left behind other sorts of useful / interesting stuff presumably found at an HQ, e.g., codebooks, cipher equipment, internal messages (encrypted or not), etc.? This is Putin’s mob, who don’t seem to be very competent, so I can imagine they didn’t practice good security and destroy such material (or take it with them, but then you run the risk of capture).
TV pundit Dmitry Kiselyov brought up the retreat at the very start of his show. He noted that the past week had been “one of the most difficult” since the start of the war, and that “it was particularly difficult in the Kharkiv area, where, amidst an onslaught of superior enemy forces, union troops were forced to abandon previously-liberated settlements.”
Meduza notes “Union troops […] is how Russia collectively refers to the Russian army along with the armies of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.”
Kiselyov also claimed that the Ukrainian army had suffered heavy losses — and that Russian forces managed to stabilize the situation and avoid getting surrounded. In a segment about Ukraine’s offensive on Kupyansk, a correspondent claimed that Ukrainian forces fired on residential areas and that their units are run predominantly by Western mercenaries.
Viewers were also told that Ukrainian troops in the Kherson region were unable to secure gains that appeared attainable at the start of the offensive, and that this was the reason why Ukainian soldiers began terrorizing civilians. Russian troops, said the correspondent, continue to gain ground in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.
Kiselyov also claimed that Ukrainians are carrying out filtration operations in their newly conquered territories, and that neo-Nazis have threatened to kill civilians — especially those who managed to get Russian passports. “It’s all very sad,” he concluded.
The quotes not typeset as eejit quotes are sufficiently true / plausible I didn’t not to alter the presentation. I suppose the resulting mix of quoting illustrates the mix of truisms and falsehoods typical(?) of propaganda. (Note: For some reason, I’m not seeing the eejit quotes typeset in a comical font when I Preview? I presume this is another glitch from the upgrade (see @69). Apologies if I borked something, I cannot tell!)
blfsays
More testing, sorry… Please ignore!
Some eejit blockquoting (has never worked for me).
For comparison, normal blockquoting.
And now an eejit quote (inline, which used to work for me); in @73 it looks like the class="creationist" was stripped from the <q …>, which is unlikely to be an issue on my system.
Russia missiles strike Kryvyi Rih, a populous city in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast in southeast Ukraine, said Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rih.
“We are all in shelters!” Vilkul posted on Telegram. “Another launch of rockets in our direction.”
blfsays
Another test… SORRY! Please ignore.
With the actual MS Comic Sans font now installed, eejit quotes are now showing up fine despite the missing(?) class="creationist", so try a quote without that parameter, to see what happens. In Preview it’s set as an eejit (but what about this inner?) outer quote (that contained nested quotes, only outer with the class=…).
The Democratic Socialists of America…condemned the Russian invasion. But their statement did not mention Putin by name, made no statement of solidarity with Ukrainian resistance, uttered both-sidesy noises about a diplomatic solution, and condemned the US for “imperialist expansion,” even though it was Putin who literally invaded his neighbor.
“We want to defeat the Ukrainian army? It seems practically impossible.” We meet the politician who said that on Russian TV. Our latest report from Moscow for @BBCNews…
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, then there is a very high probability that Russian propaganda will argue this creature is a tiger….
Lynna@25, I wonder if the retreatingrunning as fast as they can invaders also left behind other sorts of useful / interesting stuff presumably found at an HQ, e.g., codebooks, cipher equipment, internal messages (encrypted or not), etc.? This is Putin’s mob, who don’t seem to be very competent, so I can imagine they didn’t practice good security and destroy such material (or take it with them, but then you run the risk of capture).
I was wondering about that myself. If such items were found, Ukrainian leaders might be keeping it quiet.
Some Russian troops were so poorly equipped, and poorly led, that they may not have had HQ-level stuff.
There’s also the fact that the Russians have been using so many unsecured communication channels ever since the invasion that both the USA and the Ukrainians have been listening all along.
Nor has the Kyiv’s military bounty been just in conventional weapons. According to posts from Ukrainian aviation social media, UAF troops in the Kharkiv sector found the debris of a top-of-the-line Russian Su-30SM Flanker-H fighter jet, with an almost intact RTU 518-PSM jamming pod still on one of its wings.
The jammer, part of Russia’s Khibiny family of electronic warfare systems, is a key piece of Russian military aircraft defenses: when it works, enemy anti-aircraft radars have great trouble targeting a Russian jet. The highly-secret Russian jamming pod, captured on Friday, September 9, is likely en route to a NATO scientific team for study and reverse engineering, posters speculated.
It appears that today’s missile strikes on Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast were aimed at the city’s water supply. This attack aligns with Ukraine’s concern that Russia will continue to target the country’s infrastructure in retribution for Ukraine’s continued success in recapturing occupied territories.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces reported today that Russia forces hit civilian infrastructure of more than 15 settlements in the Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv oblasts.
“In total, during the current day, eight rockets, four air strikes and 15 shelling from the enemy’s battalion-fire jet systems were counted,” the general staff posted on Telegram.
Every once in a while, Donald Trump still blurts out John Durham’s name, hoping the prosecutor might yet bolster some of the former president’s conspiracy theories. As regular readers may recall, [Trump] has even suggested at times that Durham’s probe could serve as a possible vehicle for retaliating against his perceived enemies.
By way of his social media platform, Trump wrote last month, “The public is waiting ‘with bated breath’ for the Durham Report, which should reveal corruption at a level never seen before in our country.”
The word “should” did a lot of work in that sentence.
In reality, the longer the political world has waited for the investigation to produce something notable, the more the former president has grown impatient, asking, “Where’s John Durham?” It’s a line Trump repeated in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
As it turns out, there’s an answer to the question, though the Republican probably won’t like it. The New York Times reported:
Now Mr. Durham appears to be winding down his three-year inquiry without anything close to the results Mr. Trump was seeking. The grand jury that Mr. Durham has recently used to hear evidence has expired, and while he could convene another, there are currently no plans to do so, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Durham and his team are working to complete a final report by the end of the year, they said, and one of the lead prosecutors on his team is leaving for a job with a prominent law firm.
[…] The original investigation into Trump’s Russia scandal, led by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, led to a series of striking findings: The former president’s political operation in 2016 sought, embraced, capitalized on, and lied about Russian assistance — and then took steps to obstruct the investigation into the foreign interference.
The Trump White House wasn’t pleased, and the Justice Department’s inspector general conducted a lengthy probe of the Mueller investigation. Not surprisingly, the IG’s office found nothing improper.
This, of course, fueled even more outrage from Trump, so then-Attorney General Bill Barr tapped a federal prosecutor — U.S. Attorney John Durham — to conduct his own investigation into the investigation. That was over three years ago.
At this point, Durham’s investigation into the Russia scandal investigation has lasted longer than Mueller’s original probe of the Russia scandal.
After an extended period of apparent inactivity, the prosecutor last year indicted cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann for allegedly having lied to the FBI. The case proved to be baseless, Sussman was acquitted, and one of the jurors publicly mocked Durham’s team for having taken the case to trial. [LOL]
Soon after, the Times’ Charlie Savage wrote a report questioning why the Durham investigation existed. He added, “Mr. Barr’s mandate to Mr. Durham appears to have been to investigate a series of conspiracy theories.”
Those theories, however, lacked merit, which is why the Durham probe appears to be ending with a whimper.
There is a degree of irony to the circumstances: For years, Trump World insisted that the Russia scandal was pointless, but the Durham investigation was real. It now appears these Republicans had it exactly backwards: The Russia scandal was real, and the Durham investigation was pointless.
Russian missile strikes hydraulic structures in Kryvyi Rih, causes river level to rise
The eight Russian missiles that struck Kryvyi Rih at about 5pm local time were directed at hydraulic structures, and the damage to the structures are now causing the water level of the Inhulets river to rise, posing a serious threat to the city, officials said.
“Today, the Russian troops sent the maximum number of their weapons at hydrotechnical structures,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram. “The goal is obvious – an attempt to create an emergency situation. It is not important to them whether people will remain without water or whether the city will be in water.”
“This is a terrorist act against our people, against a specific city.”
“They need our panic, in which it will be difficult to make decisions. So don’t panic,” Tymoshenko said. “Services are already eliminating the consequences of the missile strikes, and the military administration is coordinating the work on the spot. The main thing is that there are no victims among the civilian population. We will restore the rest.”
Germany has delivered four more Gepard anti-aircraft vehicles to Ukraine, after receiving criticism that the country was not following through on its commitment to supply Ukraine with weaponry.
Yesterday, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, had harsh words for Germany and German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Early in the invasion, Scholz had shocked the world by announcing a historic 180-degree policy turn on defence spending and exporting lethal weapons and committing Germany to sending missiles and anti-tank weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression. But six months later, many of those weapons have yet to arrive.
“Disappointing signals from Germany while Ukraine needs Leopards and Marders now – to liberate people and save them from genocide,” Kuleba tweeted. “Not a single rational argument on why these weapons can not be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses. What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?”
In light of Ukraine’s recent victories in regaining territory, Ukrainian officials have been particularly outspoken on the need for more foreign aid in the form of military weaponry.
On Wednesday, President Volodomyr Zelenskyy visited the recently liberated city of Izyum and thanked the Ukrainian forces there for their amazing work in freeing not just that city but the whole of Kharkiv Oblast in a counteroffensive that stunned the Russian military, and much of the world. [Good photo and video at the link]
Once again seeing Zelenskyy out on the streets, talking to the troops, and even walking around in an area that was under Russian occupation just days before is in sharp contrast to the isolation and secrecy of Vladimir Putin. There is not a table long enough to get Putin to sit down anywhere inside the war zone he created.
Whatever happens with Zelenskyy following the war, there seems little doubt he is just the man Ukraine needed in this hour. Still, as one tweet pointed out, no matter how satisfying the Ukrainian president’s visit to Izyum may have been, there’s at least one Ukrainian soldier who had a better day. [Video: “that’s all great but did you ever liberate your own mama’s village?]
As Zelenskyy was speaking to the troops and meeting some of the shell-shocked residents of the city that had been under Russian occupation for months, there were still reports of Russian soldiers either surrendering or being captured within a few kilometers of his location.
The term “mopping up” has a particularly grim connotation in military parlance. It usually involves the last scattered forces of a routed enemy being eliminated as the victors march in to occupy an area. No doubt there’s still some of that kind of mopping up going on across Kharkiv Oblast today as Ukraine works to consolidate and secure the gains it made over the last week. However, with Russia retreating so quickly and from such a large area that Ukraine still hasn’t been able to officially liberate it all, it should also be expected that a lot of Russian forces simply got left behind.
That’s especially true of Russian troops on the former front line in areas south and west of Izyum. One moment they were among the most important units, holding the line of Russia’s invasion. The next they were in a backwater, many kilometers away from the action. Many of these units have tried to make their way across the suddenly lost territory to Russian positions in Luhansk. Others have simply put down their rifles and put up their hands.
[…] In any case, the absolute victory in Kharkiv is so great that it has left Ukraine with a lot of work to do in terms of getting to every liberated village and town, assessing local conditions, helping the citizens who were trapped so long behind enemy lines, dealing with sick and wounded civilians, restoring infrastructure destroyed by Russia, sorting through the enormous stockpiles of ammunition and other materiel left behind by fleeing Russian troops, and dealing with thousands of Russian prisoners. It’s … a lot.
All of that might give Russia something of a head start on digging in at the next line of defense, except no one seems to quite know where that will be. Some Russian forces seem to have positioned themselves just across the Oskil River, which is a natural defensive position. On the other hand, Russian statements indicate that they were regrouping out of Kharkiv Oblast, and the Oskil is not the boundary between Kharkiv and Luhansk. The actual Luhansk boundary is pretty much nothing more than a line on the map represented on the ground by a stream here, a road there, nothing at all in another place; not exactly the best place to lay down a 100-kilometer-long defensive line. But on the other hand … you get the idea. Ukrainian forces are already across the Oskil in at least two locations, which doesn’t make the river all that great a boundary either. [map at the link]
On Wednesday, there are reports that Ukrainian forces have crossed the river at two new places: near Borova and Kivsharivka. How these crossing took place isn’t clear as neither location is reported to have an intact bridge. Still, this isn’t the kilometer-wide Dnipro or a section of the Oskil that’s been turned into a reservoir by a dam. Ukraine may have simply brought in bridging equipment. They may even have used bridging equipment helpfully left behind by the Russians.
No matter how it happened, the Oskil River seems to be a porous barrier, and Russian forces attempting to set up on the eastern side of the river are in danger of being hit by Ukrainian forces moving north or south along the east bank. Already on Tuesday there was a report of a Russian convoy hit by Ukrainian troops all the way over at Kuzemivka, across the border in Luhansk Oblast, […]
reports that Russian forces have withdrawn from places like Svatove may or may not be true, but are easy to believe. If Ukrainian forces are across the Oskil, there is simply not much in their way.
That’s also what makes the fighting going on by Lyman so important when it comes to extending Ukraine’s counteroffensive gains. Zelenskyy even mentioned Lyman as the next target for liberation. That city doesn’t just offer a base that would open up areas across both the Oskil and Siverskyi Donets, it’s connected by rail and highway to other locations captured in Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Holding Lyman could make fast transport of troops and supplies much more possible. Plus it would be another very notable reversal for Russia inside Luhansk Oblast.
In the hours after the liberation of Izyum, there were many announcements that Lyman had already been freed by Ukrainian forces. (I even dropped this news in a premature headline.) What became clear over the next day was that while Ukrainian forces have crossed the Siverskyi Donets and retaken the southern suburbs, they were really only on the edge of the city itself.
As Russian forces withdrew from Izyum, it now seems that a significant number moved into Lyman, perhaps aware that Ukrainian troops were just outside the city. So rather than an easy time pushing out a small garrison in a lightly held city, Ukraine seems to be in the position at Lyman of facing a city where Russia has a large force in place—though that force may not be as organized or well-entrenched as it would have been had it been in Lyman for a more extended period.
Both Russia and Ukraine seem to be moving additional forces into Lyman as fast as they can move them down the highways. Unlike Izyum, this could well become an extended fight, taking place within a city, which would be a severe test of Ukraine’s new weaponry, training, and tactics. Shaky video shows what appears to be a line of infantry vehicles moving in from the Ukrainian side, so Ukraine appears ready to take this fight to the street. […] [map at the link]
In the area around Lyman, there no longer seems to be any indication that Ukrainian troops are pressing into Lysychansk or making an appearance in Severodonetsk. It seems likely the initial appearances of Ukrainian forces in those areas were a combination of exuberance and keeping levels of Russian panic high as the Kharkiv counteroffensive met with massive success. Still, I’ll wait another day or two before ceding this area back to red.
One spot that I did change today was Kreminna. After local officials announced on Tuesday that the town was free of Russian forces, they raised the Ukrainian flag and laid out a welcome mat for Ukrainian troops. Unfortunately, overnight the Russians returned, tore down the flag, and turned off the local internet. Whether any troops are now stationed in the town is unclear.
Oskil also got flipped back to “in dispute” on Russian claims that they still have forces in the town. However, Ukraine seems in full control of the surrounding area, and it’s not clear how seriously to take Russia’s statements.
[…] Meanwhile, in Kherson, reports are mixed. There continue to be claims about Russian forces negotiating for a wholesale surrender or withdrawal, as well as claims that Russia is deserting front-line positions and pulling back closer to the city. At the same time, there are reports that Russia is preparing locations on both the east and west side of the Dnipro River for the possible installation of a new pontoon bridge. Expect a deeper look at this area in the next update.
Mastriano’s relentless efforts to thwart the results of the 2020 presidential election, spread Donald Trump’s election lies, and suppress votes in future elections amounts to a 10-alarm fire for anyone who believes in a functioning democracy.
Republican Doug Mastriano is running for governor. Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro has a lead over Mastriano, 55% to 44%, so it looks like Trump’s pick will lose.
[…] Sen. Lindsey Graham unveiled a national abortion ban yesterday, and USA Today took note of a key provision of the South Carolina Republican’s proposal.
His bill also includes criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions, including up to five years in prison.
[…] Politico reported months ago, for example — before the Dobbs ruling was issued — that Republicans in state legislatures have “already enacted mandatory minimum sentences that would go into effect if Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion is handed down.” Those policies include the prospect of felony charges against physicians.
After the Dobbs decision came down, and red states scrambled to curtail reproductive rights, more doctors in more states faced the prospect of criminal charges.
In Indiana, meanwhile, where a physician treated a pregnant 10-year-old who couldn’t get a legal abortion in her home state of Ohio, Indiana’s Republican attorney general launched an investigation into the OB-GYN soon after.
It’s likely that GOP pollsters have found that mainstream voters simply aren’t comfortable with the idea of physicians ending up in handcuffs because of the Republican Party’s culture war agenda.
And yet, these proposals keep proliferating anyway, at the state and federal level.
Ever since the FBI came out of Mar-a-Lago last month with box after box of documents, some of them highly sensitive and classified, questions have wafted over the criminal investigation: Why did former President Donald Trump sneak off with the stash to begin with? Why did he keep it when he was asked to return it? And what, if anything, did he plan to do with it?
[…] I’ve covered Trump and his business for decades, and there’s something else people around him have told me over and over again: Trump knows the value of hoarding sensitive, secret information and wielding it regularly and precisely for his own ends. The 76-year-old former host of “The Apprentice” came up in the world of New York tabloids, where trading gossip was the coin of the realm. Certainly sometimes he just wanted to show off that he knew things about important people. But he also has used compromising information to pressure elected officials, seek a commercial advantage or blunt accountability and oversight.
[…] Take a little-known episode where Trump tried to pressure former Republican New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. In 1997, Trump, then a major casino owner in Atlantic City, was furious with New Jersey elected officials for supporting a $330 million tunnel project. The tunnel would run from the Atlantic City Expressway almost to the doorstep of a casino run by then-rival Steve Wynn. “Trump didn’t want Wynn in Atlantic City,” Whitman recently told me. Trump “wanted to control the gambling there.”
As a casino owner, Trump wasn’t able to make donations in New Jersey legislative races, contributions being one of his go-to methods of attempting to exert control over government decisions. But Trump could run caustic ads and file lawsuits, which he did. When none of that worked, and the tunnel was in the final stages of approval, Whitman said, Trump called her up.
A few years before the tunnel vote, Whitman’s son, Taylor, who was in high school at the time, had gotten falling-down drunk at a private dance at Trump’s Plaza Hotel off Central Park in New York City and had to be taken to the hospital. This is something that high school students stupidly do […] But in the call, Trump suddenly brought the episode up. He said it would be “too bad” if the press found out about her son’s drunken antics.
“He made the threat during the deliberations over the tunnel,” Whitman said, and it “blindsided” her because the high school dance was private and Taylor’s behavior had been a family concern. She had no idea how Trump found out about it, she said, but the episode made it clear to her that people collected and delivered sensitive information to Trump about what happened in his properties. She did not buckle to Trump, and he never made good on his threat.
Many people who have found themselves, for better or worse, in Trump’s orbit over the decades […] told me it was obvious that Trump collected information on people, delighted in it, even. And he was not shy about deploying it. “There was always someone watching,” one former high-level Trump Organization employee told me. “What Donald would do is he would let the person know he knows, in his around-the-corner way. […]” Like most other former employees, this person did not want to speak on the record for fear that Trump would still come after him all these years later.
[…] One top former New Jersey lawmaker told me that he’d been warned to be on his best behavior when he traveled to Atlantic City because Trump kept an eye on important people. Even as a rumor, it furnished Trump with power.
In one infamous case involving a journalist, Trump wielded his knowledge about behavior in the casino town.
In 1990, Neil Barsky, then a Wall Street Journal reporter, came upon a scoop. He was told by a banker that “Donald Trump is driving 100 miles per hour toward a brick wall, and he has no brakes” in Atlantic City. Four large banks had hundreds of millions of dollars of debt on the line. Trump was divorcing his first wife, Ivana, and trying desperately to keep his finances from her and out of the tabloids. Unfortunately for him, Barsky kept writing about Trump’s financial difficulties.
In early 1991, one of Trump’s senior executives offered Barsky comp tickets to a company-sponsored boxing match in Atlantic City. His editor encouraged him to accept a ticket for himself to cultivate Trump Organization sources. In what he later called “an act of bad judgment,” Barsky also accepted tickets for his father and brother. Writing about the episode in 2016, Barsky said he later learned that after the match, Trump called the New York Post, asking, “How would you like to destroy the career of a Wall Street Journal reporter?” The story that ensued conjured a picture of a malevolent Barsky, extorting the tickets in exchange for keeping bad stories out of his paper.
After it appeared, the editors moved Barsky off the beat and Trump no longer had to deal with his tough financial scrutiny.
A decade later, Trump tried the same thing with another journalist, New York Times real estate reporter Charles V. Bagli. For years, Trump had offered Bagli tickets to the U.S. Open. One year, Bagli finally accepted to advance his reporting on a story. Trump had been trying to ingratiate himself with an important beat writer — but now he had a piece of potentially compromising information.
Finally the moment came. After Bagli wrote a story fact-checking the opening credits to “The Apprentice,” writing that Trump “is not the largest developer in New York, nor does he own Trump International Hotel and Tower,” Trump pounced. His lawyer sent a letter to the Times threatening a lawsuit and stating that Bagli had tried to shake Trump down for the tickets and wrote the piece when Trump refused. The accusation was false, and the Times backed its reporter.
If people’s gambling and hotel habits can be valuable, top secret intelligence has the potential to be even more so. As it was back in his casino heyday, just the knowledge that Trump may have compromising secrets, and could use them, confers continued power.
The New Jersey tunnel Trump fought so hard against was ultimately approved, though Wynn, and then Trump, left Atlantic City. But Trump and Whitman never reconciled. In 2016 she declined to support him in the Republican primary for president. Displeased, Trump forwarded a letter to her, Whitman recalled, that again referred to her son’s drunken incident at the school dance. By this time her son, who now works in health care finance, was an adult. As Whitman remembered, on the letter were these words scrawled with a Sharpie: “Too bad you don’t remember the good old days.”
Trump as mob boss.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Trump: “Nice country. Nice and secure. Would really be a shame if something bad happened to it.”
[…] Fictional characters people. Fictional characters. One more time: You will never, ever run into an elf, a dragon (or its rider), or a mermaid. Can we acknowledge these things are true?
[posted by Team USA] It’s time we start taking a stand in pop culture.
We can start by boycotting Amazon’s “Rings of Power”. Which is filled with woke feminism and leftist themes.
We deserve to have culture too. And until they start respecting us as a viewer base, boycott them.
Oh my. This is the correct response.
“well what if they made tiana white?” tiana being black is important to her story, the only thing that is necessary for ariel’s story is that she is a mermaid it doesn’t matter what race she is
[…] Would these angry folks be upset if we said, “Hey, look, the original artist’s intent of every Shakespearean play was that men would play all roles regardless of the characters’ gender? So Juliet must be played by a man.” Of course, that is absolutely ridiculous, and the viewing audience has decided the narrative and the way they want to see the content today. This is how things work, in general. We rely on our imagination.
Some of these people are so upset about having a mermaid—yes, a creature that has never, ever existed in the real world—portrayed by a Black woman that they view it as a hate crime. I am not kidding.
[…] That’s right. Replacing a character with half of a fish body with a Black woman with half of a fish body is the absolute equivalent of the murder of a Black man to these racist trolls.
What is interesting is that for all the hatred and loud talk, as well as review bombing on major sites, the truth is the shows themselves are succeeding. Rings of Power? Yes, review bombed at major sites — but Amazon reports it is already receiving nearly 25 million views a week, the highest viewership they’ve had, period. The same with HBO’s House of Dragons. […]
“Race Swapping” among dwarves and hobbits, again, creatures that have never existed. It is the second bit of review bombing that had me in stitches. “The focus is to teach people they are bad” teach who? What people? Is the reviewer saying he sympathizes with the bad guys, the ogres, who, again, are fictional creatures, and that they should not be taught their bad ways or something similar?
I wouldn’t give Amazon’s new series a 5/5, probably a 4/5 as it is one of the most beautiful shows I’ve seen but we are still in the setup phase. I’m loving the Game of Thrones prequel, however, there are some scenes that even I avert my eyes! Still, I have never thought to myself: how dare they cast this character in any way? Why? Because I’m there for the storytelling. It is the story that drives a film, a book, or a play.
Wake up, racist trolls, and non-existent imaginary creatures aren’t the property of white actors. […]
Nearly 5,000 railway workers at the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) voted to reject a tentative contract agreement with railroads and authorize a strike, the union said Wednesday.
IAM members are the first to approve a strike and reject a contract based on recommendations released by a White House-appointed board last month.
The vote reveals that rail workers are not satisfied with the agreement, which calls for 24 percent raises and back pay but doesn’t address workers’ demands for more predictable scheduling and the ability to take time off for doctors’ appointments without being penalized.
IAM said that it would delay strike action until Sept. 29 at noon to allow union leaders to continue negotiations with railroads.
“We look forward to continuing that vital work with a fair contract that ensures our members and their families are treated with the respect they deserve for keeping America’s goods and resources moving through the pandemic,” IAM said in a statement. […]
It’s time for a quick check-in with Kari Lake, the batfuckingcrazy QAnon Republican person running for governor of Arizona. Lake recently emerged from behind her “Comfy Cozy Candidate” Zoom filter to speak to humans in the flesh at a church, and it was time for a Bible religion lesson, because church.
The lesson of the day was about persecution, because you know who is persecuted? White fundamentalist fascist Christians. And you know who persecutes them? Joe Biden, when he calls them names.
Listen to the word of the Lord, as explained by Kari Lake. [video at the link]
Mediaite with some transcript:
“You can call us whatever you want, Joe. You can call us extremists. You can call us domestic terrorists. You know who else was called a lot of names, his whole life? Jesus,” Lake proclaimed, pointing to a cross displayed in the corner of the stage.
“He never stopped. He never stopped. They called him names right up until his death. So why should we care what Joe Biden thinks of us?” she continued as the crowd burst into applause.
That’s right. Jesus was a victim of name-calling, and so are MAGA domestic terrorist extremist grunting people. Jesus kept going. Jesus didn’t care what people called him, and likewise so must MAGA people persevere through the persecution, at the hands of mean people like Joe Biden who call them names.
Lake continued:
“Do you think that our founding fathers really cared what King George said about them? I don’t think so. And they all had bounties on their head, by the way, hopefully that doesn’t get to that in this country,” she concluded.
In case you didn’t catch the parallel she’s drawing — it’s very subtle! — she’s saying MAGA people are just like the founding fathers, who literally led a war for independence from King George. But hey, don’t call these people seditionists or domestic terrorists or extremists!
In related news, in the same church event, Kari Lake decided to prove she wasn’t afraid to copy off Donald Trump’s paper and say offensive racist things Trump has already said. It’s not like she’s going to offend any of the bigots who love her and also love Trump.
But which racist thing would she say? Trump has only said about 75 million racist things in public in the past decade, how could she possibly choose? Oh, just the Mexican rapist one? She likes that one? Fuck it, she’s sayin’ the Mexican rapist thing. [video at the link]
Like a real Klever Kari, she said she knew the media might have a “field day” with what she was about to say, but she said it anyway, because she’s also a Konfident Kari. “They ARE bringing drugs, they ARE bringing crime, and they ARE rapists, and that’s who’s comin’ across our border.”
And the people at the church cheered and cheered, because that’s what people at MAGA Christian churches do in America, they stomp their feet and clap their hands when people say racist things about Mexicans.
But listen, if any Mexican people hear this and are offended by it, just take the Kari Lake quote above and Mad Lib it and read it back to her stupid fucking bigoted ass.
Like so:
“You can call us whatever you want, Joe Kari. You can call us extremists criminals. You can call us domestic terrorists rapists. You know who else was called a lot of names, his whole life? Jesus. He never stopped. He never stopped. They called him names right up until his death. So why should we care what Joe Biden some two-bit QAnon halfwit named Kari Lake thinks of us?”
Thank you for coming to our Bible lesson on name-calling, which was inspired by Kari Lake’s Bible lesson on name-calling.
Geoffrey Berman, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is on a one man mission to stick a shiv in Bill Barr’s rehabilitation tour. Barr, the former attorney general, spent two long years ratfucking the Justice Department for a criminal lunatic, up to and including trying to Saturday Night Massacre SDNY to get Berman out and put in someone who’d be more amenable to White House political directives. So Berman is not about to let that low rent Fred Flintstone pretend to be the voice of reason for simply pointing out over a year later that fomenting a coup is bad actually.
Yesterday that mission took Berman to Nicolle Wallace’s set at MSNBC, where he told the “Deadline White House” host:
I think we should look at people prior to the November 2020 election, right? When Trump lost the election, I think a lot of people went through a personal calculus of their personal self interest. And after the election, and after Trump lost, Barr and others scurried off the ship. But I think we should examine whether they followed their oath prior to the election. That’s the inquiry that’s important to me. And prior to the election, Barr did the bidding of the president, and he politicized the Department of Justice. And Barr couldn’t have done what he did without the help of others in the Department of Justice.
And by “others” he means the Justice Department lawyers who refused to participate in an actual coup, but had no qualms about turning the DOJ into a tool for the president to punish his enemies and reward his friends. Particularly Richard Donoghue, the former deputy attorney general who played a starring role in the House January 6 Select Committee hearings about Jeffrey Clark’s efforts to make himself acting AG and empower swing state legislatures to claw back the electoral votes won by Joe Biden.
Because before Donoghue moved over to Main Justice, he was the US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, from which perch he tried to help Barr [damage] the campaign finance investigation into Michael Cohen’s payments to Stormy Daniels and the National Enquirer to bury stories of Trump’s extramarital affairs. Barr had put a hold on the investigation in February of 2018 to see if he could find some way to undermine it, as Berman describes in his book Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department.
“While the case was shut down during that two-month period, I get a call from one of Bill Barr’s aides, Seth DuCharme, and he says, ‘Geoff, I spoke to the attorney general, Rich Donoghue is going to be overseeing the campaign finance violation cases that you are recused from,'” he told Wallace.
Berman was recused from the investigation, having participated in Trump’s campaign, and thus his career staff were handling the case. But Barr came up with a plan to have his pal Rich, a US Attorney from a totally separate jurisdiction, come in and take over the case.
“I said, ‘Seth, that’s not going to happen.’ And he said, ‘You don’t understand, this is not a request by the attorney general, this is a directive from the attorney general.’ And I said ‘Seth, Rich Donoghue is not stepping foot in the Southern District of New York.’ And the conversation ended.” [video at the link]
Berman describes similar political interference in the prosecution of Turkey’s Halkbank for evading sanctions to buy Iranian oil on the cheap. Thanks to Raw Story for transcribing this part for us!
“So Turkey owns 51 percent of Halkbank, so for all intents and purposes, it is a state bank. And we were looking into — we had already gotten convictions against officers of Halkbank for sanctions evasion, in advantage of Iran sanctions,” Berman told Wallace. [more video at the link]
He went on:
At the time, that is when the government was trying to put maximum pressure on Iran to bring them to the table to get the best deal possible. And here is Halkbank funneling money to the Iranians. So, it really undermined a huge diplomatic effort by the United States. And we were — we had already gotten a guilty verdict against a bank official and we turned our attention to the bank and we were looking at criminal charges against the bank and this is where, you know, my conflict with Barr became, I think, the most intense … because Barr wanted to pursue what he called a ‘global settlement’ which was not only a sweetheart deal for the bank, but letting — giving non-prosecution agreements for all of the other individuals who were involved and part of our investigation.
LOL, flashback to June 2020 when Maggie Haberman and Mike Schmidt reported that Bill Barr was shocked and appalled that Trump would play footsie with dictators like Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Guess not!
Asked by Wallace about the impact of the meddling, which included directives to investigate John Kerry for the crime of criticizing the pullout from the Iran nuclear deal and also to prosecute former White House Counsel Greg Craig for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act to even the scales after the Justice Department prosecuted Republican Reps. Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter, Berman pulled no punches.
“The pattern is horrendous. It’s the politicization of the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice is supposed to be independent. The cardinal rule is that partisan political concerns are not supposed to enter into any decision making. And that rule was repeatedly violated,” he said.
“Bill Barr should have been standing in front of those doors at the magnificent Department of Justice stopping political interference from entering. And instead he was the chief architect of that interference,” he said, twisting the knife. […]
Former President Donald Trump posted a late-night message on Truth Social in which he lashed out at the FBI for seizing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s phone as part of an investigation into voting machine tampering.
In the latest of his many attacks on the FBI, the twice-impeached former president accused the FBI of corruptly targeting conservatives.
“Breaking News: Mike Lindell, ‘THE Pillow Guy,’ was just raided by the FBI,” Trump wrote. “We are now officially living in a Weaponized Police State, Rigged Elections, and all. Our Country is a laughing stock all over the World. The majesty of the United States is gone. Can’t let this happen. TAKE BACK AMERICA!”
The New York Times reports that the FBI questioned Lindell about his ties to Tina Peters, the Trump-loving Colorado election clerk who has been indicted on charges of election equipment tampering.
Trump himself has also been the subject of an FBI search, as last month agents executed a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago resort to retrieve top-secret government documents that he had stashed there and had refused to give back even after receiving a subpoena for them.
The majesty of America? But, your majesty King Trump, I thought we did away with royalty here in the US.
On Wednesday, the editorial board of The Philadelphia Inquirer released a scathing takedown of GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, laying out his plans to interfere with elections in the name of former President Donald Trump’s conspiracy theories.
“Mastriano’s relentless efforts to thwart the results of the 2020 presidential election, spread Donald Trump’s election lies, and suppress votes in future elections amounts to a 10-alarm fire for anyone who believes in a functioning democracy,” wrote the board. “Days after the 2020 election — with no evidence of fraud — Mastriano said the results should not be certified until an audit was complete. On Nov. 23, 2020, the election results in Pennsylvania were certified and showed Joe Biden won the state by 80,555 votes.”
Ultimately, Trump and Mastriano failed to throw out Biden’s victory. But, the board noted, Mastriano then moved on to trying to change election law so that future elections would be easier for Republicans to win or overturn.
“In August 2021, he introduced a bill to replace the Pennsylvania secretary of state with a three-person panel appointed by the governor, House speaker, and Senate president. The following month, Mastriano introduced a bill to eliminate mail-in voting,” said the board. “In March, Mastriano continued his attacks on Biden’s election. He sponsored a ‘voter integrity conference’ that required attendees to sign a petition decertifying Pennsylvania’s 2020 election result. Mastriano has promoted plans to suppress the vote in future elections. In November, he proposed legislation to eliminate ‘no excuse’ mail-in voting. In April, Mastriano proposed a bill to ban drop boxes. In June, he pitched a plan to require voters to reregister — a move scholars say federal law prohibits.”
“If elected governor, Mastriano boasted about how he plans to interfere with election outcomes if he doesn’t get the results he wants,” the board noted, quoting Mastriano as saying, “I could decertify every machine in the state with the, you know, with the stroke of a pen.” “Pennsylvania does not need election-denying conspiracy theorists deciding the outcome of elections with the stroke of a pen.”
In addition to his election conspiracy theories, and his presence at the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Mastriano has come under fire for his ties to the QAnon movement, a radical church that believes the AR-15 is anointed by God, and the CEO of a far-right, anti-Semitic social media platform used by the Tree of Life Synagogue shooter.
This guy is what you give unwanted relatives at the holidays: a fruitcake.
[…] Nestled between the tundra of the Arctic and the mixed deciduous and conifer forests to the south is the largest biome on earth. The boreal forests are also known as the Taiga, making up one-third of forests still standing on the planet. These forests are known as circumpolar as the vast expanse covers the land area in most parts of Canada, Alaska, northern Scotland, Russia (including Siberia), and Scandinavia. The land is flat with some rolling plains, and [the forests] thrive in cold regions that do not get much rain.
Historically the Taiga does not receive warm and moist air, but they have in some abundance wetlands such as rivers, lakes, marshes, and bogs. Recent slumps in the permafrost due to the Arctic warming at least four times faster ( known as Arctic Amplification) than the rest of the earth, where thawing frozen soils fill these slumps with water, further degrading the stability of the permafrost with what is known in the north as drunken forests.
The Taiga does not have as much biodiversity compared to other biomes. But that does not mean that this area is not essential to the biosphere’s survival. These forests store 208 billion tons of carbon, or 11% of the world’s total” metric tons of carbon in biomass, dead organic matter, and soil.
The Financial Times notes that climate change and Putin’s war risk the Taiga’s survival. [map at the link]
The boreal ecosystem has historically sucked up more carbon than it releases, because of the massive amount of carbon dioxide it uses when photosynthesising during long hours of summer sunlight.
The resulting vegetation does not have time to fully decompose before the freezing winter sets in and this mossy “duff” builds up on top of frozen soil, or permafrost. Both are often stuffed with carbon, making the boreal forests the biggest land-based carbon store on Earth. They currently store more carbon than is currently found in the atmosphere — and twice as much as all human-caused emissions since 1870.
But as subarctic temperatures rise, this vital ecosystem is losing stability with swelling fire activity, thawing permafrost and insect infestations. More tree cover has been lost to fire in the boreal region over the past decade than anywhere else on Earth.
The transformations in these northern forests could trigger the ecosystem to reach a tipping point where it starts releasing more carbon than it absorbs, potentially for centuries to come.
This could be catastrophic for humanity’s efforts to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5C.
“People often talk about how to get carbon out of the atmosphere, but there has been far less focus on how to keep massive carbon stores in the ground,” says Anthony Swift, Canada director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.“The boreal is an under-reported story but one that absolutely has to increase in prominence. There has been a great deal of focus on tropical forests for good reasons . . . but what’s been happening in our global northern forests has been off the radar.”
Siberian forests have been on a cooling trend for seven thousand years. But that changed rapidly beginning in the nineteenth century. The Great Acceleration (population increase and rapid industrialization) has ended the cooling trend and ushered in unprecedented regional heating.
Ural University writes:
“Due to changes in the Earth’s orbit we would have expected a continuous, slow and gradual decrease of incoming summer solar energy and thus temperature at the subpolar latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere during last 8-9 millennia. However, as recorded by the trees growing in Yamal, this cooling trend has been interrupted in the middle of the 19th century, when temperature began to rise very quickly and reached the highest values in recent decades,” says Rashit Hantemirov, Leading Researcher of the Laboratories of Dendrochronology of the Ural Branch of the RAS and Natural Science Methods in the Humanities of UrFU.
Independently of the period length considered (from 30 to 170 years), the most recent period was the warmest. Not only the temperature has reached unprecedented warm levels, but also the rate of temperature increase (i.e. since the last 160-170) hasn’t been as fast as after the middle of the 19th century.
“The exceptionality of the modern warming is corroborated by observations that the last century was characterized by a total lack of cold extremes contrasted by the occurrence of 27 extreme warm years, 19 of which have fallen in the last 40 years,” specifies Rashit Hantemirov.
Vladimir Putin has eliminated all cooperation with other world climate scientists after western democracies imposed sanctions after his murderous rampage in Ukraine. As a result, a lot of data is missing, but western satellites have been taking measurements of forest cover, methane release from permafrost, and expansive wildfires across the region.
There can be a lot of damage from deforestation in the Taiga, as a study by Science Direct highlights below:
Hydrological responses to forest harvesting in boreal forests are reviewed based on three spatial scales and within an increased and broad disturbance context.
At the stand level, forest harvesting greatly alters snow processes, decreases evapotranspiration (ET) and water use efficiency (WUE), and negatively reduces soil infiltration.
In small watersheds, forest harvesting consistently increases spring freshets and overland flows, and alters the SW-GW interactions, while it often increases annual streamflow but with contradictory results observed in Siberia.
For larger watersheds and regions, forest harvesting is part of cumulative forest disturbance, which produces more varied and complicated hydrological responses. […].
In yet another warning to humanity, a new study has found that we either protect all of the world’s trees from extinction or endure the wrath of ecological catastrophe.
The Guardian writes:
A new paper predicts severe consequences for people, wildlife and the planet’s ecosystems if the widespread loss of trees continues. “Last year, we published the State of the World’s Trees report, where we showed at least 17,500 tree species, about a third of the world’s 60,000 tree species, are at risk of extinction,” said Malin Rivers, lead author of the paper and head of conservation prioritisation at Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). “Now we want to highlight why it matters that so many tree species are going extinct.
“Without acting now, it will impact humanity, our economies and livelihoods. Ecologically, it will have a catastrophic impact on the planet.” […]
The large-scale extinction of tree species would lead to major biodiversity losses. Half of the world’s animal and plant species rely on trees as their habitat, with forests containing about 75% of bird species, 68% of mammal species and as many as 10 million species of invertebrates. Forest-dependent species have already declined by about 53% since 1970. “When we look at extinction risks for mammals or birds, underlying that is habitat loss, and habitat loss is often tree loss,” said Rivers. “If we don’t look after trees, there’s no way we can look after all the other life there.”
The extinction of a single tree species can significantly alter an ecosystem, causing a domino effect in its ability to function. When eucalyptus and dipterocarp trees are destroyed, for example, forests are more at risk from fire, pests and disease.
Reginald Selkirksays
@92: As a casino owner, Trump wasn’t able to make donations in New Jersey legislative races, contributions being one of his go-to methods of attempting to exert control over government decisions.
Great idea. Maybe it should apply to owners of all companies.
EXCLUSIVE: Yvon Chouinard, who founded the outdoor apparel maker Patagonia and became a reluctant billionaire with his unconventional spin on capitalism, has given away the company. All Patagonia’s profits will now be used to fight climate change.
In a move with no precedent in the business world, Chouinard, along with his family, have forfeited all their shares in Patagonia, a company valued at about $3 billion, renouncing their status as one of the wealthiest families in the US.
“Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn’t end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people,” Yvon told me. [LOL] “We are going to give away the maximum amount of money to people who are actively working on saving this planet.”
Details of the years-long process, interviews with the board, other executives and more in the exclusive inside story of how Yvon Chouinard decided to give away the store.
World, prepare for the Victory of a nation that puts Freedom above all else!
This love of freedom makes the enemy’s blood freeze in their veins!
Because #FreedomIsOurReligion
Video at the (Twitter) link. They’re very good at this.
Oggie: Mathomsays
World, prepare for the Victory of a nation that puts Freedom above all else!
This love of freedom makes the enemy’s blood freeze in their veins!
Because #FreedomIsOurReligion
This sounds inspiring when coming from a group that is actually fighting to prevent cultural and physical eradication. But, the same words, coming from a middle-aged white man wearing combat gear, a MAGA hat, carrying a bible and an AR15, and flying the Traitor’s Flag from his giant pickup truck, isn’t inspiring. It’s more asshat scary.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 105
Pfffft… I bet this clown believes in Santa Claus too. Yvon and all you American liberals out the there, listen up;
Capitalism cannot be reformed, fixed, or “saved.” It is by its very nature corrupt and exploitive. It will ALWAYS lead to slavery and inequality. Capitalism must be destroyed and replaced with socialism.
Since there is a lot of interest in what is the reaction to the recent military setbacks in Russia, a [thread] with an update.
There are three distinct groups in Russia:
1) radicals – a sizeable but extremely loud minority that actively supports war, is engaged, follows the news and in rare cases even goes to the frontlines (15-25%). This is the audience of the milbloggers, Telegram channels and vampires like Solovyov or Skabeeva
2) dissenters – a sizeable minority that categorically opposes the war. It is banned from Russian-based media and generally depressed (20-25%)
3) laymen – a passive majority that is completely depoliticized and doesn’t want to have anything in common with politics & war (50-65%)
Laymen are the bulk of yeah-sayers when asked “Do you support the President’s decision to conduct the special military operation or are you a national traitor to be put in prison for 15 years?”
The laymen are the those carelessly enjoying their lives while people are dying in Ukraine. It is obviously deplorable but the upside of it is that these people are completely unwilling to participate in war actively in any way
Laymen try to shield themselves from any news about war as hard as they can and know very little about the defeat in Kharkiv (many of them wouldn’t even tell where Kharkiv is located). The mainstream radio and TV news are protecting them from this information
Importantly, as TV started promoting hard war propaganda, the viewership went down. Precisely because laymen want their soap operas, nutritionists, and standup, rather than boring news from the frontlines
Conversely, the radicals are seriously affected by Ukrainian counter-offensive. They exploded in finger-pointing and blaming military leadership, each other, and even Putin for this defeat. For the first time, there is a heated discussion between them
There is a variety of tones in this discussion – from relatively optimistic “we should unite around Putin and take revenge” to completely fatalist “the war is lost, no matter what”. But: all of them demand total mobilization of Russian society and more aggressive war
They are united by the belief that Russia would have easily conquered Ukraine, but for some reason (treason, incompetence, generosity) it wages the war with one hand tied
However, this discussion is significant. For the first time people start realizing that Putin is not invincible. Hard to overestimate how important this myth is for Russia. Belief that Putin will prevail no matter what paralyzes all independent action
The radicals are getting angry at the laymen for continuing with their normal life as troops are dying for the survival of the country under NATO’s assault. The laymen are angry at the radicals for trying to politicize their lives, e.g. introduce war propaganda to schools
I have seen people taking Boris Nadezhdin’s statements on Russian TV as a sign of a crack in the dominant narrative.
This is not the case
Nadezhdin is an old liberal from the 90s, a comrade of Boris Nemtsov. Nemtsov decided to mount a real opposition to Putin (with a dismal outcome). Nadezhdin opted for playing along Putin’s rules of fake opposition and joined one of his puppet parties
The benefit of this strategy is that you are regularly invited to these shitshows as a strawman to be humiliated. This is how you gain national recognition, (helps on the election day!)
However, Nadezhdin himself was obviously against this war from day one, and he is clearly against Putin, too – this is just something you cannot say openly on Russian TV. There was no change at all in his attitudes because of the recent setbacks
The brave statements of local MPs calling to impeach Putin are no sign of change either. They belong to dissenters and protested against the war as much as they could. This call is a farewell gesture – last week their term ended, many of them were not even allowed to run
Still, current situation puts Putin in a precarious position. He is dependent BOTH on the passivity of the laymen and the engagement of the radicals. That’s why he sells two contradictory narratives – one about an existential war and another about things running as usual
Now, the radicals’ demand for total mobilization is totally unacceptable for the laymen. However, the defeats on the frontlines make Putin’s reluctance to put the country on wartime footing unacceptable for the radicals
Putin’s strategy has been targeted mobilization – recruiting people among the radicals while leaving the laymen to their own devices. There is some room for him to continue with that strategy, but military defeats will make it increasingly strained
Putin is unlikely to yield to demands to declare mobilization now. It requires political mobilization first. Now is a bad moment. Even volunteers go to Ukraine to join a winning army and earn some $, not to face a strong opponent. The draftees will be even less enthusiastic
To sum up, balancing between depoliticizing society in general and mobilizing the radical part of it simultaneously will be increasingly difficult for Putin as the major defeat is looming
Can Putin sell a defeat as a victory? No. Radicals will not hesitate calling it a defeat, and laymen will not forgive him the distortion of their everyday life
Putin will not survive the military defeat in a war where he staked the whole country
You do have culture; it’s just really shitty. Shitty music, shitty books, shitty painting, shitty movies, shitty fashion, shitty hairstyles, shitty interior design, shitty architecture, shitty food, shitty schools, shitty comedy, shitty events, shitty protests, shitty slogans, shitty memes, shitty news… That’s why you have to try to force others to make their non-shitty culture shittier to cater to your shitty fascist values.
After my clip featuring Boris Nadezhdin went viral, top Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov wondered out loud why he wasn’t thrown in jail. Nadezhdin criticized unnamed officials for advising Putin to invade Ukraine and called for peace talks.
Video at the (Twitter) link.
ravensays
Russia is paying a steep price to invade Ukraine and not accomplish much.
The whole former Soviet Russian empire is unraveling right now.
Reuters Analysis-Why are Armenia and Azerbaijan fighting again, and why does it matter?
Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
Tue, September 13, 2022 at 8:35 AM
WHY HAS FIGHTING BROKEN OUT NOW?
The timing is significant because Russia has in the past been the most influential mediator between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Although the Kremlin said on Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin was making every effort to curb bloodshed in the south Caucasus, the war in Ukraine has undermined Moscow’s status as a peace guarantor in the region. That may have emboldened Azerbaijan to pursue more claims.
“I think there is a feeling in Azerbaijan that now is the time to deploy its power, its military advantage, and to extract the maximum that it can get,” said Laurence Broers, associate fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House think tank.
Azerbaijan and Armenia also categorically disagree on what a comprehensive peace agreement should look like. While Baku wants to dissolve Nagorno-Karabakh as a political entity and bar Yerevan from playing a role there, Armenian authorities have pledged to ensure the rights of local Armenians.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
A full-fledged conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan risks dragging in the big regional powers, Russia and Turkey, and destabilising the south Caucasus, an important corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas, at a time when the Ukraine war is already disrupting energy supplies.
Moscow has a defence alliance with Armenia and operates a military base there, while Ankara backs its ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan both politically and militarily.
A war between Armenia and Azerbaijan could create a need for more peacekeepers, at a time when Moscow could ill-afford to provide them.
“I think the risk is of the establishment of sort of new buffer zones, security zones, a kind of a fragmentation of at least the southern part of Armenia and a powerlessness amongst outside actors to stop that from happening,” Broers said.
The analysts all say what I was saying yesterday.
Russia is tied up with their failing invasion of Ukraine and can’t do much else.
So everyone who has a score to settle with Russia or was being kept in line by Russia are now free to act.
The Georgians are talking about a referendum in occupied South Ossetia.
Kazakhstan is distancing itself from Russia.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are fighting a low level war over something. Clash erupts between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan border guards https://www.aljazeera.com › news › clash-erupts-betwee…
17 hours ago — Both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are allied with Russia and host Russian military bases, but fighting over border issues is frequent and last …
I’m halfway expecting Finland, Poland, and the Baltics to decide this is a good time to take back some of the territory Russia has stolen over the last century. (Not really, but I’m sure the thought has occurred to them.)
This article is illustrated at the top with “Yet another This photograph taken on September 14, 2022 shows abandoned munitions crates on the outskirts of Izyum, Kharkiv Region, eastern Ukraine amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Russia has hit the dam at Kryvyi Rih with what is reported to be at least six ballistic missiles. The impact created sizable damage to a dam over the Inhulets River, resulting in a flood that for some time was raging downstream. Reportedly, several bridges have already been swept away, and a number of towns and villages on both sides of the river have experienced flooding as water levels rapidly rose.
However, additional reports indicate that local authorities have moved quickly to address the damage, and while water is still flowing from the fractured dam, the scale of the disaster has been greatly decreased. For the moment, at least, the threat of massive damage downstream appears to be on hold.
Like the recent attack on electrical infrastructure, this was absolutely a criminal act on the part of Russia. They aren’t going after military targets; they’re hitting civilian infrastructure as part of a direct effort to generate misery and outrage. Because somehow, seven months in, Vladimir Putin thinks that if he just hurts enough people, Ukraine will quit fighting. It is a definitive act, not just of state-sponsored terrorism, but of a terrorist state. [map at the link]
The dam is located several kilometers from the city, and from any military target. There is no doubt that, in this case at least, Russia hit exactly what they were aiming for—they expended multiple high-precision missiles to bring down critical civilian infrastructure. Not only is the attack on the dam a threat to every location downstream, it’s also an attack on electrical generation, drinking water, and water for agriculture and industry.
[…] This attack does have military consequences. Even though Kryvyi Rih is in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, it’s directly upstream from many of the critical locations in Kherson Oblast. Towns like Arkhanhel’s’ke, Davydiv Brid, and Snihurivka are all along the banks of the Inhulets River. The highest elevations in Arkhanhel’s’ke are only 10m above the river level in normal circumstances. Should that dam fail completely, it’s possible the whole town would be submerged in the resulting flood before water levels begin to drop. Downstream, pontoon bridges supporting the bridgehead south of Davydiv Brid would almost certainly be washed away; those bridges may be damaged or destroyed by the water that has already spilled. [photos at the link]
It will probably be some hours before the full extent of the damage is known, and days before it’s clear the threat has passed. Even a modest rise in river levels may give Russian units in the northeastern part of occupied Kherson some isolation from Ukrainian forces to the west. This may give Russia time to reposition or attack the Inhulets bridgehead. The whole Kherson area has very little in the way of topography, so significant flooding would likely spread out broadly across the surrounding area. [map at the link]
One big change is already on this map in an area that’s unlikely to see any effect from any flooding of the Inhulets River. Kyselivka, directly west of Kherson, is reportedly liberated by Ukraine. This is a big deal.
For some weeks, the town had been divided east and west, with some intense periods of street-to-street fighting. There had been news in the last few days that the number of Russian soldiers in the town was dwindling. Now it seems there are none.
This could be part of the repositioning some sources have been predicted, with Russian forces moving back to a closer arc around the city of Kherson. It could also be a matter of supplies running so low that Russian forces could no longer defend their position. Whatever the cause, it brings Ukraine that much closer to the city, restoring a position that’s as close to Kherson as Ukrainian forces have reached since Russia occupied the city in the first two weeks of the invasion.
While Russia may have hit that dam with six missiles, it’s clear that at least one didn’t reach its target. Maybe that’s the difference between “things are under control” and rampaging floodwaters. […]
One last Kherson area note: Guesses are now open for what this may be, but since there has been word that Russia is apparently trying to create a new pontoon bridge across the southern Dnipro, odds are good that these structures could be related to Russia trying to address its supply problem in Kherson. […]
Meanwhile, at the far end of the line, there are updates in Kharkiv and Luhansk. There are now enough locations in the northern part of Kharkiv that have checked in, or appeared in official lists, that it’s possible to say that the northeastern corner of Kharkiv Oblast appears to be locked down.
On the latest map, you’ll note that the eastern part of the oblast has mostly been turned white, because, unlike the yellow areas on the map, there’s no known actual conflict in the area. It’s just that we don’t know who controls what. But the upper section of the east has become a familiar blue, because it seems to be genuinely liberated, with Ukrainian forces in the area. Other locations have been reported as liberated, but it’s not clear whether they’re representative of the entire area. Still, expect the white area to shrink in the next couple of days and be replaced with either red, or hopefully, blue. One thing that’s notable in these changes: None of the rivers in this area appear to be settling in as the new boundary. At least, not so far. [map at the link]
At the southern end of the oblast, things have also changed a bit. That’s because towns and locations southeast of Izyum have been confirmed as liberated. At the moment, it doesn’t seem that anything on the south or west side of the Oskil or Siverskyi Donets Rivers in this area is still occupied by Russia, though there are still doubtless some Russian forces still wandering around or occupying individual fortifications. There also seems to be some evidence for further advancement by Ukrainian forces across the Siverskyi Donets to the west of Izyum.
As with everything in this area, we’ll know more in a couple of days. For now, cross your fingers and hope that dam holds.
⚡️Official: Ukraine has liberated 8,500 square kilometers in Kharkiv Oblast since Sept. 6. […]
NEW — #Ukraine President Zelensky was in a car accident tonight in #Kyiv & was lightly injured.
He was treated at the scene, by his presidential medical team.
[Video and tweet about mines Russians left in Kharkiv… yikes!]
Freeze frame from a video in Kryvyi Rih provides a pretty definitive ID for type of missile used. [Tweet and image at the link.]
Russia claimed to have footage of a Ukrainian attack on a barge across the Dnipro. What did the footage really show? A Russian helicopter colliding with a bridge support left over from World War II. [Tweet and video at the link.]
“This bill, frankly, doesn’t go far enough for many people,” one of the activists who worked on Senator Lindsey Graham’s abortion ban bill said today. Clear sense from activist community they would see 15-week ban as mere precursor to outright ban. That remains the goal.
Commentary:
[…] They won’t be happy until there’s a total national ban on all abortion. Period.
And if Republicans win, it could happen. Just a reminder, in 2015, Mitch McConnell put Graham’s 20-week abortion ban on the Senate floor. It was a symbolic vote then. It won’t be if he has another chance.
There’s no reason to believe McConnell won’t put Graham’s 15-week ban on the floor if he gets the majority in 2022. There’s no reason to believe he wouldn’t end the filibuster for legislation his people want. Because if he has the majority, his people will be the zealot Republicans.
Every single business Trump has managed has been driven into the ground: Trump Steaks, Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Network, Trump University, etc., etc. He somehow even bankrupted a freaking casino.
So OF COURSE his social network is failing.
It’s going down fast, yet not before his legion of tools decided to invest their life savings:
Trumpers discussing how much they have lost so far by purchasing shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp – which is Truth Social. How do these people not know that EVERYONE who invests with Trump ALWAYS gets wiped out? [See https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1569884115713019904 ]
Wow.
These people are giving money to help Trump even after they know it’s a grift, and continue to do so. It’s sad, but utterly fascinating to watch. [Lincoln Project advertisement titled “Sucker” is available at the link.]
Republican Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia is about to sign a law that will ban nearly all abortions in the state of West Virginia.
As reported by Abigail Tracy, writing for Vanity Fair:
While the bill outlaws abortions in nearly all circumstances, it does include narrow exceptions in instances of rape, incest, and medical emergencies. It also stipulates that for adults, abortions are legal up to eight weeks of pregnancy—but only in instances of rape or incest reported to law enforcement. Minors who are victims of rape or incest can obtain abortions before 14 weeks, provided that a crime was reported to law enforcement or that the victim was treated at a hospital in West Virginia.
Coupled with the passage of that law, the state’s Republican-dominated legislature adopted a formal resolution justifying its passage. The language of that resolution is redolent with dystopian overtones elevating the status of “motherhood” to near mystical status, and subordinating the state’s interest to its sacred preservation.
Some of the language from the resolution in support of the Bill confirms its theocratic overtones:
Further Resolved, That the maintenance of a peaceful and prosperous society depends upon the subordination of power and interest to the well-being of mothers, as their bearing and rearing of children determines the existence and quality of our common life together with infinitely greater efficacy than any federal or state policy; and, be it
Further Resolved, That we are cognizant that, as an institution,motherhood is prior to the state, and, as such, the state must work to serve mothers and their interests, as the health of any state can be determined, in the main, by their health and happiness. […]
Further Resolved, That motherhood does not impose obligations only upon women, nor only upon fathers, but upon all of society, as when a woman becomes a mother she becomes the rightful recipient of society’s care and solicitude; and, be it
Further Resolved, That she has a right to this care and solicitude, which empowers her in her ability to care for her children, and at the least, this right demands that the state protect her from powerful interests that would pressure her, through threats or promises, to reject her elevated position and return her to the ranks of “normal” citizens….
Context is important. It should be remembered that this high-minded language is being used not to encourage “motherhood,” but to justify preventing any escape from it. The “care and solicitude” it espouses is being used in the service of men to deny women or other pregnant people the right to control their own reproductive choices. This is not the language of empowerment, but of oppression.
As Tracy notes, the passage of this law is not an end for forced-birthers, but a beginning:
Furthermore, the resolution suggests that this is just the first strike by the Republican-led legislature against reproductive rights in the state. “The criminalization of abortion must be only the beginning of West Virginia’s post-Roe initiatives,” it says.
As reported by Lisa Lerer and Elizabeth Dias, writing for the New York Times, the national ban on abortion introduced on Tuesday by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham is seen merely as a first step.
A 15-week ban would be “the beginning,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, last week as she arrived at the Senate building. Ms. Hawkins said that she has been talking with congressional staff about introducing a federal ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy but called it a “work in progress.”
“Everyone here is focused on November,” she said. “We have our plans for January in place, but we’ve got to get to that point first.”
These people want Gilead, folks. They’re not going to stop until they get it.
Unless we stop them first.
ravensays
Lynna has already covered this above.
We are up to 8 cruise missiles here and the dam is partially destroyed.
This is a war crime.
UPDATED THU, SEP 15 20221:34 AM EDT Russian forces strike dam, flooding parts of Kryvyi Rih city; President Zelenskyy involved in car accident
Holly Ellyatt
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
Russian forces have targeted a dam on the Inhulets River near Kryvyi Rih — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home city — with eight cruise missiles, according to Ukrainian officials, leading to flooding in parts of the city and residents being evacuated.
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, said on Telegram last night that Russian missiles had hit a “very large hydrotechnical structure,” widely reported as a dam near the city. Rising water levels on the river led a city official to ask residents to leave parts of the city.
This is yet again, another war crime by the Russians in Ukraine. Targeting civilians and civilian infratructure.
How much of this are we going to watch in Real Time before NATO gets directly involved?
Rhetorical question. I have no idea. But it is clear the Russians are losing and they are also escalating their atrocities. They seem to want to cause as much destruction to Ukraine as they can before they get pushed out.
Russia has also declared economic war on Western Europe, the EU. Their idea was to withhold their cheap natural gas so Europe can freeze over the winter while their industry shuts down.
It’s not working because they aren’t the only supplier of natural gas in the world.
But it is the thought that counts.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Flooding ‘receding’ in Krivyi Rih after 112 homes affected – reports
Following a Russian strike with eight cruise missiles on Wednesday on civilian water infrastructure on the town of Kryvyi Rih there has been flooding.
Reuters reports that Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Krivyi Rih military administration, said in a post on Telegram that 112 homes were flooded but that works to repair the dam on the Inhulets river were under way, and that “flooding was receding”.
The BBC quotes Vilkul saying that water levels had “dropped considerably” and that there were no casualties.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv oblast has degraded Russia’s artillery and air defence systems in the region, according to the latest report from the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think-tank.
The Ukrainian General Staff reported on 14 September that the intensity of Russian artillery attacks on Kharkiv City has decreased significantly, suggesting that Ukraine’s counteroffensive has degraded Russian forces’ ability to conduct routine artillery strikes on the centre of Kharkiv City as Russian forces have been pushed eastward towards the Oskil River and north back into Russia.
The body was found in the shade of a mango tree: a man’s life cut short in a frenzy of stabbing – and a horrifying symbol of the political violence that has gripped Brazil under its rabble-rousing president, Jair Bolsonaro.
“He showed no sign of remorse,” the police chief investigating the murder said of the prime suspect, a Bolsonaro-supporting lumberjack who allegedly committed the crime because he disliked the victim’s leftist views.
The murder of Benedito Cardoso dos Santos, which took place last Wednesday near a remote Amazon town, has sent shock waves through South America’s most populous nation as it braces for its most important presidential election in decades on 2 October.
Bolsonaro, a pro-gun former paratrooper notorious for his radical rhetoric, has not commented on the killing, which police say was the result of a political altercation involving one of his devotees.
But Bolsonaro’s political opponents are convinced the toxic climate whipped up by the far-right populist lies behind the murder – and a series of other violent incidents which have taken place ahead of next month’s crunch vote.
Within hours of last week’s murder Bolsonaro – who calls the election a battle between good and evil – demanded leftists be “eradicated from public life”. During the last election – when Bolsonaro himself was stabbed by a mentally ill lone wolf – he called for supporters of Lula’s Worker’s party to be “machine-gunned”. After winning power, Bolsonaro promised a cleanup of “red outlaws”.
…
Alexandre Padilha, a key member of Lula’s campaign team and former minister, said he had no doubt Bolsonaro bore responsibility for the spate of violent incidents, which include the fatal shooting of a member of Lula’s Worker’s party by a Bolsonarista and an attack on a Lula rally with an excrement-filled bomb.
“Bolsonaro and Bolsonarismo encourage political violence with an intensity Brazil has never seen,” claimed Padilha, a congressman for São Paulo state.
“Bolsonaro promotes hatred, he promotes the extermination of his adversaries and Bolsonaro has doled guns out all around the country,” Padilha added, noting how the number of privately owned weapons had soared to nearly 2m thanks to the president’s loosening of gun laws.
…
At a televised debate on Tuesday night, a pro-Bolsonaro politician was filmed harassing and insulting Vera Magalhães, a prominent female journalist who Bolsonaro recently branded “a disgrace to Brazilian journalism”.
Padilha cited the recent murders of the British journalist and Guardian contributor Dom Phillips and the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereria as further examples of the “extremely serious [wave of] political violence” affecting Brazil.
“Phillips advocated the protection of the Amazon and was denouncing illegal activities in the Amazon. Bolsonaro has turned the Amazon into a land without law,” he said.
…
Fears of a violent attack on Lula – which grew after the recent attempt to assassinate Argentina’s vice-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – are such that the former president has taken to wearing a bullet-proof vest beneath his shirt at rallies.
Padilha admitted politicians and activists were worried, but insisted they would not be frightened into withdrawing from campaign events. “We will face this political violence without hatred but without fear,” he said.
Ediane Maria also vowed to continue her political struggle despite the threats. “We will not abandon the streets. These things only make us more determined … to fight so we can defeat Bolsonaro and he is gone from government on 2 October,” she said. “They will not intimidate us. We will continue to advance.”
V.strong interview with German foreign minister @ABaerbock on #Ukraine . Regarding tanks: ‘we can only decide this together, as a coalition (strong hint towards the SPD to move)… We should not wait too long for that decision.’
She is pushing.
Also interesting:
1) work towards an innovation hub at the Polish/Ukrainian border to ensure maintenance and supplies.
2) her idea to organise production lines with defence industry to ensure flow of ammunition
Another Russian missile strikes Kryvyi Rih, hits industrial site
Another Russian missile has hit Kryvyi Rih, just barely half a day after eight Russian missiles took out hydraulic structures along the Inhulets river, causing extensive flooding.
The missile struck an industrial site in the city, said Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration. “The destruction is serious,” Vilkul said, but he added that authorities are still working to clarify any losses and further consequences.
Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The strike on the hydraulic structures, which resulted in forced evacuations and damaged homes, aligns with Ukraine’s concerns that Russia will continue to target Ukraine’s infrastructure in retribution for its success in regaining occupied territory.
A former high-level FBI agent who was involved in the investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia during the 2016 election has himself come under scrutiny by federal prosecutors for his ties with Russia and other foreign governments.
Late last year, according to internal court documents obtained by Insider, US attorneys secretly convened a grand jury that examined the conduct of Charles McGonigal, the former head of counterintelligence at the FBI field office in New York City. The Justice Department declined to comment on what the grand jury was investigating or whether it remained ongoing. But a witness subpoena obtained by Insider seems to indicate that the government, in part, was looking into McGonigal’s business dealings with a top aide to Oleg Deripaska, the billionaire Russian oligarch who was at the center of allegations that Russia colluded with the Trump campaign to interfere in the 2016 election.
The subpoena, issued in November, requests records relating to McGonigal and a shadowy consulting firm called Spectrum Risk Solutions. A week after the subpoena was issued, a Soviet-born immigrant named Sergey Shestakov said in a separate filing that McGonigal had helped him “facilitate” an introduction between Spectrum and Deripaska’s aide. The filing also states that McGonigal helped introduce the aide to Kobre & Kim, a New York law firm that specializes in representing clients who are being investigated on suspicion of “fraud and misconduct.” Shestakov, who has been identified on TV panels as a former Soviet foreign ministry official and former chief of staff to the Soviet ambassador to the United Nations, reported receiving $33,000 for the referrals.
While it wouldn’t necessarily have been illegal for McGonigal to work on behalf of Deripaska, failing to disclose activities covered by the Foreign Agents Registration Act, such as lobbying and public relations, is punishable by a $250,000 fine and up to five years in prison. Deripaska was sanctioned by the Treasury Department in 2018 for acting as an agent for the Kremlin, and has been accused of ordering the murder of a businessman. “If McGonigal is mixed up in any way shape or form with Deripaska, that strikes me as unseemly, to put it politely,” says Tim Weiner, the author of “Enemies: A History of the FBI.”
…
It is not clear whether McGonigal is a target of the grand-jury investigation, or simply a subject whose activities are somehow related to it. And there is nothing in the court documents or elsewhere to suggest that McGonigal behaved inappropriately during the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. But the materials requested in the witness subpoena raise questions about whether a top FBI agent may have been tapping the connections he made during his years of public service for private gain — an all-too-common practice among Washington insiders. And whatever McGonigal’s actions, the fact that he has been swept up in a grand-jury investigation is highly unusual….
…
According to the witness subpoena, prosecutors are also looking into whether McGonigal has ties to the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as any “payments or gifts” he was provided by the governments of Kosovo, Montenegro, and Albania.
…
Two sources told Insider that McGonigal was close to Edi Rama, who has served as the prime minister of Albania since 2013….
…
Since he left the FBI, McGonigal has continued to trade on his expertise in counterintelligence….
McGonigal’s profile on LinkedIn says he is the senior vice president of “global security and life safety” at Brookfield Properties, a multibillion-dollar real-estate company in New York. But that information, apparently, is inaccurate. “Charlie McGonigal is no longer with Brookfield,” Andrew Brent, Brookfield’s head of communications, told Insider. McGonigal left the company, he added, in early January — just as witnesses were scheduled to appear before the grand jury.
Chris Hayes: “This is almost a cartoonish scandal if it were not so devastating. A multimillionaire football star…and a Republican governor appear to be involved in a scandal with the misuse of federal dollars for the poorest members of the poorest state.”
It’s on par with Don’t Worry Darling for being one of the most talked about cinematic events of the fall, but just how bad is Goonies star Robert Davi’s film My Son Hunter? On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast, host Will Sommer and returning co-host Kelly Weill review the biopic of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. “It’s got legs on Don’t Worry Darling,” Weill says. “I think I fell into some kind of brain fog while watching it.” Also on the podcast, Ethan Chorin, Libya expert and author of the new book Benghazi!: A New History of the Fiasco that Pushed America and its World to the Brink, digs into the famous 2012 terrorist attacks and the way that Benghazi exists in our politics to this day, particularly on the right.
Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov reported two powerful explosions in the Russian-occupied city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Sept. 15. Fedorov didn’t provide any details about the attack but hinted at expected Russian losses.”
“Both mouthwatering and eyewatering. @ZelenskyyUa offers melons and watermelons from recently de-occupied villages in the Kherson region at lunch with @vonderleyen.”
Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Sept. 15 that the earlier reports that the village of Kysylivka in the neighboring southern Kherson Oblast were false.”
“Russian State Media Threatens Scorched Earth Response to Bitter Defeats in Ukraine: ‘We need to scale up our strikes against critical infrastructure… so that Ukraine is plunged into darkness… By December, 20 million residents of Ukraine should flee…'”
StevoRsays
Semi-Random Endangered Species of the Week here from a serioes I’ev been writing on (ahem)facebook :
When is a reptile known as a Spider? When it is this week’s Endangered Species of the Week, the Spider Tortoise – the 50th reptile species in this series. One of Madagascar’s less well known endangered – indeed, critically endangered animals; this superbly speckled rare creature is found only in a small strip of the spiny vegetation along that island’s sandy south-western shore. (Yeah, trying for a tongue-twister there! But also true.) Looking at the shell its pretty obvious how it gets its name with the spidery patterns and it’s also sometimes misleadingly named the common Spider turtle versus its even rarer close relative and the only other member of the Pyxis genus the Flat-backed spider tortoise (Pyxis planicauda) with the Madagascan or Malagasy prefix also occassionally featuring in their names. These shelled reptiles feature a membrane in their nostrils allowing them to drink through their noses, have varying individual personalities, are omnivourous eating insect larvae as well as grasses leaves and roots and can live up to 70 years despite staying fairly small growing to about 6 centimeters long and weigh almost half a kilo. Threatened by habitat loss, hunting for food especially as the larger radiated tortoise becomes rarer too as well as having their livers sent to Asia presumably for Chinese “medicine” and the illegal pet trade. They are particularly vulnerable due to their very limited range,and low fecundity laying “clutches” of just a single egg which then gets incubated for 220 to 250 days. It is feared that they may well be extinct within just fifteen years – unless we do manage to somehow save this Spider that is actually a tortoise.
* There’s fresh evidence that Georgia’s gubernatorial race is tightening: The latest Quinnipiac University poll found incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp leading Democrat Stacey Abrams ahead by only two points, 50% to 48%.
* As for Georgia’s U.S. Senate race, the same Quinnipiac poll showed incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leading Republican Herschel Walker, 52% to 46%.
* The news for the GOP was better in Wisconsin, where the latest Marquette Law School poll showed Republican Sen. Ron Johnson leading Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, 49% to 48%. Last month, the same polling outlet found Barnes leading the incumbent by seven points.
* As for Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race, the same Marquette poll found incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers narrowly leading Republican Tim Michels, 47% to 44%.
* The latest national Fox News poll showed Democrats ahead of Republicans, 44% to 41%, among registered voters. Last month, the same polling outlet showed the parties tied.
* With eight weeks remaining before the midterms, the latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found President Joe Biden’s approval rating on the upswing: It’s now 45%, up from 36% in July.
* Massachusetts’ gubernatorial race is shaping up to be a lopsided affair: A new Suffolk University/Boston Globe/NBC10 Boston/Telemundo poll showed Democratic state Attorney General Maura Healey crushing Republican Geoff Diehl, 52% to 26%.
* And speaking of New England, as recently as Tuesday, Republican congressional hopeful Karoline Leavitt referenced her work for Donald Trump in her Twitter bio, adding that she’s an “America First Candidate.” The day after the primary, the Republican removed the language.
Yikes. Here’s some anti-abortion news I had missed earlier:
[…] let’s not overlook what happened on the other side of Capitol Hill. Axios noted yesterday:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) dredged up the abortion conversation for Republicans on Tuesday by introducing the 15-week ban, despite saying as recently as last month that the issue should be left to the states. A group of 88 House members, led by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and other co-chairs of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, introduced a companion bill.
It generated less attention, but as Graham unveiled his bill, New Jersey’s Chris Smith did the same thing in the House. It appears to be the same bill, with the same name, pursuing the same goal: a federal 15-week ban.
What’s different, however, is the length of the list of co-sponsors.
In the upper chamber, Republicans have been far more willing to criticize Graham’s bill than endorse it. As of this morning, only three GOP senators have signed on as co-sponsors, and no one from the Senate leadership has formally backed the legislation.
But in the House, it’s a very different story: The companion bill in the lower chamber now has 86 co-sponsors — that’s roughly 40% of the House Republican conference — including several members of the GOP leadership:
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik
House Republican Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson
House Republican Conference Secretary Richard Hudson
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Emmer
Graham was noticeably short on likeminded allies in the Senate this week, but in the House, the idea of a national abortion ban appears to be quite popular among Republican lawmakers.
As Democrats tell voters that the GOP supports an abortion ban at the federal level, some Republicans will point to Senate skepticism as proof to the contrary.
In the House, however, GOP members and GOP leaders are helping prove Democrats right.
In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the Biden administration considered a series of policy measures related to abortion rights, and one of the most notable involved messages to pharmacists.
In fact, just three weeks after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization came down, administration officials took care to remind pharmacies not to refuse to fill prescription orders related to reproductive care.
“Under federal civil rights law, pregnancy discrimination includes discrimination based on current pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential or intended pregnancy, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth,” the guidance read. The Department of Health and Human Services sent the message to more than 60,000 retail pharmacies.
The concerns were hardly speculative. As NPR reported at the time, “HHS officials distributed to reporters a compilation of news stories about pharmacists refusing to fill doctors’ prescriptions in states that have restricted abortion after the Supreme Court ruling on June 24, such as Louisiana, but also in states where abortion is still legal, like Virginia.”
None of this escaped the attention of House Republicans. Politico reported yesterday:
House Republicans are introducing a bill today to roll back recent Biden administration guidance that warns the nation’s pharmacies of legal and financial consequences if they refuse to dispense abortion or contraception medication. The “Pharmacist Conscience Protection Act,” led by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) and first shared with POLITICO, would give pharmacists freer rein to refuse to provide medication they suspect could be used to terminate a pregnancy.
Remember, in recent months, there have been too many instances of pharmacists refusing to fill valid prescriptions because of concerns related to reproductive health. Some pharmacies, for example, have refused to dispense methotrexate — which is often used to treat cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and autoimmune diseases — because it can also be used to end dangerous ectopic pregnancies.
It’s against this backdrop that the White House is effectively telling pharmacists, “Valid prescriptions must be filled.” House Republicans find the administration’s efforts outrageous, and instead want to pass legislation to “protect” pharmacists who don’t want to fill prescriptions they don’t like.
[…] To be sure, the “Pharmacist Conscience Protection Act” will not be considered in a Democratic-led Congress, but for those wondering what to expect in the event of Republican majorities on Capitol Hill, this is the sort of policy fight Americans can expect to see.
Some Republican governors, including Texas’ Greg Abbott and Arizona’s Doug Ducey, have spent much of the year busing migrants to northern cities. By most measures, the trips have been clumsy political stunts, using desperate people as props.
This week, it appears Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took the campaign in an uglier direction. The Associated Press reported overnight:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday flew two planes of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard, escalating a tactic by Republican governors to draw attention to what they consider to be the Biden administration’s failed border policies. Flights to the upscale island enclave in Massachusetts were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director.
At this point, there are some relevant questions about details that remain murky. The Florida Republican was quick to claim responsibility for shipping the migrants to the small Massachusetts town, but The New York Times reported that the migrants themselves said they had started the day in San Antonio, Texas.
It’s also unclear what the migrants were promised. One told The Vineyard Gazette that they were assured there’d be “work and housing“ when they arrived, raising concerns about who may have lied to them, why, and whether someone perpetrated a fraud as part of this scheme.
As for the financing, a report from a local ABC affiliate added, “It was not immediately clear who paid for the private charter flights to the island; however, the statement from the governor’s spokesperson said the Florida Legislature appropriated $12 million to implement a program to facilitate the transport of undocumented immigrants from the state.”
In other words, it would appear DeSantis and his team may have used taxpayer money to fling desperate migrant families at Martha’s Vineyard as part of an apparent election-season stunt.
The Republican governor’s spokesperson said in a statement, “States like Massachusetts, New York and California will better facilitate the care of these individuals who they have invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as ‘sanctuary states’ and support for the Biden administration’s open border policies.”
Obviously, rhetoric about “open border policies” is tiresome drivel, designed to treat Americans like fools, but more notable was DeSantis’ office complaining about “incentivizing illegal immigration.”
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this little Martha’s Vineyard stunt won’t exactly discourage migrants. Imagine the message this sends to those weighing whether to seek a better life: If you reach the United States, Ron DeSantis might give you a free flight to a lovely coastal town in New England.
As for local conditions, officials didn’t know that dozens of migrants, including young children, would simply be dropped off in their community. A state senator told the Times that officials and volunteers from the island’s six towns “really moved heaven and earth to essentially set up the response that we would do in the event of a hurricane.”
A former federal prosecutor said Donald Trump just dug himself deeper into legal jeopardy with remarks he made in a radio interview.
The former president spoke Thursday morning with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, who summarized the interview by saying Trump told him he had declassified all the top-secret documents seized at Mar-a-Lago and therefore doesn’t fear indictment — but former prosecutor Renato Mariotti said he’d actually made things worse for himself.
“Big error by Trump,” tweeted Mariotti, who previously worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Northern District of Illinois. “His words could be used against him if he is charged. Staking out the position that he ‘declassified’ everything he brought to Mar-a-Lago may sound like it helps him, but actually it locks him into a story and makes it harder to pivot later if he is charged.”
Trump’s own lawyers haven’t made that argument in court, and the Department of Justice has stated that would be irrelevant to their subpoena seeking the government documents from the former president’s private residence, due to a subtle distinction pointed out by former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa.
“One of the key passages in DOJ’s brief is that the June subpoena didn’t ask for classified records,” Rangappa tweeted. “It asked for all records with *classification markings*. Any purported ‘declassification’ therefore still doesn’t get around obstruction by failing to return everything so marked.”
Trump is facing mounting legal pressure, with the Justice Department saying top-secret documents were “likely concealed” to obstruct an FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials.
He has denied all wrongdoing, saying the raid was “one of the most egregious assaults on democracy in the history of our country.”
In addition to the documents probe, Trump faces investigations in New York into his business practices, as well as legal scrutiny over his efforts to overturn results of the 2020 election, and for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
That part about all documents with classification markings is important. Even declassified documents have classification markings on them. And the documents are still US Government property. Even as Presidential Records they are still owned by the US Government, specifically the National Archives.
The consequences of European colonialism in Africa are ever apparent. Arbitrarily drawn borders have split tribes and regions of common interest, leading to decades of war, instability, and famine. For example, the Somali people in the Horn of Africa were split three ways: Somalia, Djibouti, and Kenya by the French, British, and Italians. Ethiopians were split three ways: Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti. This unstable region suffers from near-perpetual war and has recently been a breeding ground for ISIS militants.
The Tankies may not like to hear it, but Russia isn’t just a colonial empire. It has made exactly the same mistakes with arbitrary borders. Crimea, for example, only became part of the Ukraine in 1954 and is a major factor in this war.
Indeed, those arbitrary borders (along with forced deportations and ethnic Russian in-migrations) are a major reason Russia has been able to stir up so much shit in its former colonies. [map at the link]
Russia hasn’t just been able to foment such conflict when it suited it, but also used its perceived might to squelch conflict when that was the better option. Two of its tools have been the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a customs and economic cooperation union, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a NATO-style military alliance that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan. When a protest movement threatened the repressive Kazakh regime earlier this year, the CSTO, led by Russian VDV airborne “peacekeepers,” intervened to save the day.
Yet those arbitrarily drawn borders and Russia’s precipitous loss of prestige and military might are suddenly igniting the region in war.
Earlier this week, ignoring Russian peacekeeping forces (and shelling them in at least one case), Azerbaijan invaded its neighbor Armenia, looking to recapture the breakaway regions of Nagorno-Karabakh, populated mostly by ethnic Armenians. The region had been mostly occupied by Armenian separatists following a 1991-1994 war in the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution.
Azerbaijan clawed some of that territory back in a 2020 war, but Russian pressure brought on an uneasy truce that finally fell apart this week. […] I lack the knowledge to provide a nuanced view of the situation, particularly in a conflict that incites the same kind of passions as the Israel-Palestine one does. No one wades into this debate and walks out unscathed.
I mean, who can make sense of this? [Tweet and video at the link]
As a responding tweet explains: “Armenia is a Christian nation where a guy is waving an Iranian flag and a bunch of people are waving French flags. Azerbaijan is a Muslim nation and they are dancing with an Israeli flag.” Yeah, I’m not the guy to unravel all that as it delves into the 1915 Armenian genocide by Turkey, a close Azerbaijan ally, and literally hundreds of years of grievances.
Armenia is a member of the CSTO and triggered the mutual defense clause of their alliance. Yet Russia has shrugged it off. Not only does it lack any spare forces to engage, but it is still mad at the current Armenian government for making kissy-faces at the European Union a few years back. The ascendent opposition would be far friendlier with Moscow, so Russia seems happy to see the government flail and likely collapse in the next few days.
The European Union, for its part, is depending on Azerbaijani oil to help make up Russia’s shortfall. So their support for the democratic Armenia will be muted by their need for fossil fuels from yet another dictatorial regime. […]
CSTO members Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are too busy lobbing mortar and machine gun fire at each other. One-third of their 1,000-kilometer border lacks demarcation, and border clashes are common. Yet Russia has had military bases in both countries helping keep tensions to a slow boil. Without Russia holding the leash, the odds of war between these two nations increases.
Meanwhile, despite being bailed out by Russia earlier this year, Kazakh dictator Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has been increasingly hostile to Moscow in recent months. It started with refusing Russia’s request for troops in Ukraine, then escalated with this from back in June: [Tweet and video at the link]
Putin retaliated on stage by arguing that all the territories of the former Soviet Union historically belonged to Russia, which must’ve felt like a nuclear bomb to those former republics—they were just as at risk as Ukraine.
Tensions have escalated to the point that China is swooping in, seeing an opportunity to fill Russia’s leadership and military void.
After meeting President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Kazakhstan’s capital, [Chinese leader Xi Jinping] made it clear that Beijing would not tolerate any encroachments on Kazakhstan’s territory.
“I would like to assure you that the government of China pays huge attention to relations with Kazakhstan,” he said, in remarks quoted in Russian in Tokayev’s office’s readout of the meeting.
“However the international situation changes, going forward we will also resolutely support Kazakhstan in the defense of its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; firmly support the reforms conducted by you to assure stability and development; [and] categorically come out against interference by any forces in the internal affairs of your country.”
There is only one country that threatens Kazakhstan’s sovereignty, so it’s clear at whom this was directed. So much for Russia and China’s “no limits” friendship, declared shortly after the Winter Olympics. [yep]
Yet as much trouble as we might see in Central Asia, that might pale in comparison to what a breakup of the Russian federation might look like. Russia has 85 federal subjects, 21 of them republics like Chechnya, Dagestan, and Buryata. If those names sound vaguely familiar, it’s because those poor regions constitute a disproportionate number of Russia’s war dead in Ukraine.
Almost all of Russia outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg has been historically neglected by Moscow. Indeed, historian Kaleem Galeev argues that the city of Moscow is incapable of functioning as anything but a parasite sucking the life out of the rest of its empire. [Tweets and historical photo at the link]
[…] That’s why the economic effect of the war is so little visible in Moscow. The prince would make every possible expense and put every effort for maintaining the quality of life and the business as usual mindset in his Fürstenstadt. The rest of the empire can go fuck themselves […] Moscow’s annual season of bicycle-lane installation and sidewalk enlargement is already underway.
Underscoring that point, over one-fifth of Russian households lack indoor plumbing, a war is killing tens of thousands of countrymen and maiming untold more, yet this is what Putin is up to these days:
Today is the Moscow City Day. Festivities start on September 10 and end on 11. Putin is busy checking out new sports facilities, listening to reports about new beaches and heated pools so that Moscow citizens would be able to enjoy the beach season for 6-7 months a year
[video available at the link]
You may remember Russia’s push to stand up volunteer units in every one of Russia’s 85 federal jurisdictions. Forty such units were supposedly launched, and then … crickets. What happened?
Putin is so paranoid that he created a separate army personally loyal to him, the Rosgvardia (National Guard). Suddenly he was directly arming peasants out in the hinterlands? The effort seems to have died a quiet death, and most assume it was from lack of volunteers. But I’d be willing to bet that Putin got cold feet, that perhaps arming a future potential separatist movement might prove problematic. (Note that some reports say these troops were absorbed into the new 3rd Army Corps that went and already got its ass whooped at Kupyansk.)
There is a very real scenario in which Russia falls apart even more spectacularly than the Soviet Union, with those dozens of regional “republics” and federal areas demanding independence. It is not a scenario the West likely relishes—instability in these impoverished regions could easily spill into broader regional conflicts. And don’t forget nuclear weapons are stored in many of them, and everyone has learned from Ukraine’s mistake. No one is willingly giving up a nuke if they’ve got one.
Russia will lose in Ukraine. The question will soon be how much new misery this will cause on the Asian continent.
——————–
I’m fascinated by the amount of abandoned equipment left behind by Russians in Kharkiv Oblast. After today’s update, the tally now stands at over 400 visually confirmed military vehicles, including 61 tanks, 117 armored infantry vehicles, and over 20 artillery pieces. I pity Ukrainian mechanics working to bring this all back to full working condition. Undoubtedly, much of it will be sent to Poland for repairing, refitting, and updating.
Previously Kremlin head used to make world leaders wait for him.
Now president of Kyrgyzstan allows himself to be late for a meeting with Putin.
Pierce R. Butlersays
Oggie: Mathom @ # 139, quoting MSN: He has denied all wrongdoing, saying the raid was …
Note how even the supposedly liberal MSN falls into the trap of Trumpista rhetoric, accepting without quibble that a search under a legal warrant, without use of any force, threats, or (apparently) even a raised voice, was a “raid”.
Two and a half years into the COVID-19 pandemic, we now have a very good idea of where the disease first made the jump to humans. Three separate studies, summarized in Nature, indicate that the so-called “wet market” in Wuhan, China was in fact the source of the disease. In fact, the disease seems to have made the jump to humans at least twice, with both occurrences happening in this market, which sold live animals in addition to meat. The suspect carrier has still not been definitively confirmed, but suspicion is primarily at an animal known as the “raccoon dog” (which is neither a dog nor a raccoon, but most closely related to foxes). The theory that COVID-19 was either manufactured in, or escaped from, a genetics laboratory is not supported by any of these studies.
[…] what does it mean to live with a virus that is capable of reinfecting the same person over and over, with each infection offering anything from the sniffles to death? What can we expect in terms of long-term disabilities from a virus when even those with a mild infection can be left with detectable heart damage? What other effects can we expect long term as COVID-19 continues to circulate in the population?
Now, a series of studies provides more information about the damage COVID-19 infection does to the heart and vascular system, and just what the new generation of bivalent vaccines may do to help.
Right now, the United States is sill averaging over 60,000 new reported cases of COVID-19 each day. That’s an order of magnitude lower than in January, but “reported” may be the key word. Because in an era of home testing, it’s difficult to know just how many positive-but-unreported cases there are.
While most of these reported cases have mild symptoms, the seven-day average of deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 is still hovering at 475. […] that number has been disturbingly stable for over five months. On average, 4,500 Americans are admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms each day. Over the course of a year, that’s over one-and-a-half million making hospital visits from this single disease—a huge burden on individuals and on the health care system.
[…] When it comes to long COVID, the best estimate we have, according to Stat, is that this is about 20% of those infected with COVID-19. So far in the United States, there have been over 95 million recorded cases of COVID-19 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Depending on how many of these are repeats from the same individual, that represents an estimated 10-19 million people who now have long COVID, or somewhere between 3% and 6% of the population. That number is still increasing.
So what does it mean?
A recent study in Nature Medicine shows that when it comes to the heart, the results of long COVID are little short of awful.
We show that, beyond the first 30 d after infection, individuals with COVID-19 are at increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease spanning several categories, including cerebrovascular disorders, dysrhythmias, ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, pericarditis, myocarditis, heart failure and thromboembolic disease.
Having mild symptoms was not an indicator that there would not be severe problems later as these same increased risks affected even those who were not hospitalized. However, those who were hospitalized for COVID-19 had greatly increased risks down the road.
Our results provide evidence that the risk and 1-year burden of cardiovascular disease in survivors of acute COVID-19 are substantial. Care pathways of those surviving the acute episode of COVID-19 should include attention to cardiovascular health and disease.
[…] Even as we’re pretending that the pandemic is “behind us” and both media and regular folks talk about “back during the pandemic” as if it’s over, the true weight of what’s happening is still ahead. The cost—in terms of people and in terms of money—is unsustainable. A Harvard study suggests that COVID-19 could be endemic in 2024, with 15% of the population infected with COVID-19 at any one time. That’s not an end to the epidemic. […]
So what can we do about it? Well, thankfully, there is some bright light amid all this gloom. First, there’s this new peer-reviewed study showing that getting vaccinated and keeping up your booster levels can greatly reduce the chance of getting long COVID.
Of the 951 infected, 637 (67%) were vaccinated … those who received two vaccine doses were less likely than unvaccinated individuals to report any of these symptoms (fatigue, headache, weakness of limbs, persistent muscle pain) by 62%, 50%, 62%, and 66% respectively.
So, people who were fully vaccinated with two doses cut their risk of long COVID symptoms at least in half. […] vaccinated people are able to get back to work sooner after a COVID-19 infection. Which is a good thing for them, their families, their employers, the government, etc.
But wait. It gets better.
Compared to the 2447 included individuals who never reported SARS-CoV-2 infection, double-vaccinated participants were no more likely to report any of the mentioned symptoms.
The reports of these symptoms for people who were double-vaccinated was the same as people who had never been infected. This certainly doesn’t mean that people who are vaccinated can’t experience long COVID, but getting vaccinated, and keeping booster levels up, is fantastically effective not just in avoiding acute symptoms at the outset, but long COVID symptoms later. This is seriously good news. This study looked specifically at BNT162b2, the vaccine developed by BioNTech and distributed by Pfizer in the United States. However, there’s no reason to believe the Moderna vaccine isn’t at least as effective. Also note that only a portion of the people in this study had boosters. Just getting both rounds of vaccine was enough to give this boost.
Vaccines save lives now. Vaccines save lives later. And vaccines make all the time that comes after infection a lot more livable.
And there is even more good news. The preprint of a study now at bioRxiv looks at how effective the new generation of bivalent vaccines—those that contain portions of the spike protein from the originally sequenced form of COVID-19 as well as a matching protein from a more recent omicron variant—are at both preventing infections and reducing effects.
… the bivalent vaccines induced greater breadth and magnitude of neutralizing antibodies compared to an mRNA-1273 booster. Moreover, the response in bivalent vaccine-boosted mice was associated with increased protection against BA.5 infection and inflammation in the lung.
And yes, okay, this is a mouse study. Mouse studies of new drugs have a bad reputation for a good reason. However, this kind of study is exactly how most annual vaccines are tested. Once a mouse model has proven to be a good match for human reactions with a disease/vaccine combination, that generally makes it a very good predictor in testing updates of that vaccine.
What these mice are telling us is that the bivalent vaccines are not just more effective at keeping people from getting sick with omicron BA.5, by far the most common form of the virus now circulating, these vaccines are actually better at keeping people from getting infected in the first place. And the good results were seen no matter which version of omicron was used in creating the bivalent vaccine.
Let’s review (also know as tl;dr):
Long COVID can cause heart damage that persists even when symptoms go away. For those with acute COVID-19 symptoms, that damage is very often profound.
Being fully vaccinated greatly decreases the chances of having long COVID symptoms, so much so that it brings the chance of these symptoms back to the baseline of people who were never infected in the first place.
New bivalent vaccines are much better at protecting against acute illness from omicron variants, and can even prevent omicron infection in the first place.
So when can you get a dose of that sweet new omicron-blocking bivalent vaccine? Right now. They are appearing in pharmacies and clinics near you right this moment. If you’re near a Walgreen’s, they are taking appointments for the booster for everyone 12 and over. If you’re in CVC territory, they’re rolling out the new stuff as well. Or just check the link below and let the CDC be your guide. And hey, wear a mask. Masks work.
[Copied from the New York Times] Freight rail companies and unions representing tens of thousands of workers reached a tentative agreement to avoid what would have been an economically damaging strike, after all-night talks brokered by Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, President Biden said early Thursday morning.
The agreement now heads to union members for a ratification vote, which is a standard procedure in labor talks. While the vote is tallied, workers have agreed not to strike.
Not sure everyone has contemplated the magnitude of what could have occurred here, or the electoral consequences to Democrats in the midterms. Imagine the impact such a total disruption of the supply chain would have caused. Empty shelves (not just “I can’t find my favorite spaghetti sauce,” but really empty shelves) and absolutely skyrocketing prices for Americans less than two months before the 2022 midterms, as delivery of food, crops, raw materials and consumer goods all came to a sudden halt, on top of an already-fragile economy and an electorate unhappy about stubborn inflation. Guess who would have gotten the blame?
You don’t have to guess. Republicans were salivating for this strike, despite going through their usual anti-labor motions. They were going to try to paint President Biden and Democrats into a corner, knowing full well that Bernie Sanders and pro-labor Democrats would oppose any effort to force a deal on the railway conductors and workers via Congressional fiat. And even the Democratic Congress did that, they’d end up alienating one of their largest constituencies: organized labor. What could be better, from the GOP’s standpoint?
The Republican party would have loved nothing more than an acute economic crisis to take the focus off of Donald Trump and their planned national abortion ban, even if it plunged the country into a recession. Blaming it all on unions would have been the icing on the cake.
President Biden, Labor Secretary Walsh and his team just saved the country from months of misery. In doing so they also probably saved the Democratic Senate, possibly the House, and everything that entails. All by brokering a solid win for tens of thousands of railway workers. […]
Trump offered King Abdullah II of Jordan the West Bank. Though he had no authority to do so, he thought it was a great deal for the king. Abdullah? He was horrified. What the traitor wanted in exchange for his generous offer of land that is sacred to all three Abrahamic religions is unknown.
There are a few nuggets of the Trump crazy not previously reported in a book to be published next week. […]
Trump is a continued threat to this country, and he needs to be arrested and thrown in prison while he waits for trial. It’s stunning that it has not happened.
From the Washington Post:
President Trump once offered what he considered “a great deal” to Jordan’s King Abdullah II: control of the West Bank, whose Palestinian population long sought to topple the monarchy.
“I thought I was having a heart attack,” Abdullah II recalled to an American friend in 2018, according to a new book on the Trump presidency being published next week. “I couldn’t breathe. I was bent doubled-over.”
The unreported offer to Abdullah is among the startling new details about Trump’s chaotic presidency in the book “The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021” by Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, and Susan Glasser, staff writer for the New Yorker.
The book, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the latest in a long-running series of deeply reported behind-the-scenes accounts featuring, or written by, Trump administration insiders, with some claiming that they tried to curb the 45th president’s worst instincts. […]
The offer to Abdullah of the West Bank — which is bordered by Israel and Jordan, and which Trump had no control over — came in January 2018. Trump thought he would be doing the Jordanian king a favor, not realizing that it would destabilize his country, according to the book.
What an ignorant and dangerous buffoon. Though we are on the precipice of multiple calamities (one of which is our extinction), this monster continues to dominate the news cycle. And no, that is not hyperbole.
The Media will never change; his rap sheet is so long that the conversation will always be all Trump. Even after his death, his death cult will continue to stir up trouble for a long time.
Republican leaders have embraced a sinister tactic honed by the ex-president.
Just hours after federal agents entered Mar-a-Lago on August 8 to seize highly classified national security documents, Rep. Paul Gosar urged a fight to the finish. “The FBI raid on Trump’s home tells us one thing,” the far-right Arizona congressman tweeted. “Failure is not an option. We must destroy the FBI.”
Three days later, an Ohio man named Ricky Shiffer donned tactical gear, armed himself with an AR-15, and went to the FBI field office in Cincinnati. After failing to breach the facility, he fled and later died in a shootout with law enforcement. Shiffer was a frequent user of Trump’s Truth Social site, where the ex-president has kept up steady attacks on political opponents and the Justice Department and FBI. Shiffer had posted about imminent violence, telling fellow Trump supporters to be ready “to jump into civil war.”
[snippws more calls for violence]
[…] Shiffer’s actions point to a rhetorical method experts call “stochastic terrorism,” whereby a leader vilifies a person or group in ways likely to instigate random supporters to attack those targets, while the instigator maintains a veneer of plausible deniability. Trump made this form of incitement a hallmark of his presidency, galvanizing extremists by railing against and dehumanizing his “enemies.” The country saw the devastating consequences when his supporters stormed Congress to obstruct certification of the presidential election. And now a growing number of Republicans are emulating Trump’s technique.
[…]” Repetition and saturation through social media and news coverage further amplifies the effect […]
Violent threats have surged since Trump and his allies blasted the court-approved Mar-a-Lago search as a partisan conspiracy. The Justice Department filed charges against a Pennsylvania man who had allegedly posted threats online, including, “I sincerely believe that if you work for the FBI, then you deserve to DIE.” A Republican candidate for the Florida House announced he had a plan for federal agents to be shot “on sight.” Even the previously low-profile National Archives and Records Administration became a target. […]
Beyond merely stoking political anger, DeSantis and various Republican agitators have adopted an alarming feature of Trump’s tirades: insults that appeal to visceral contempt and revulsion. Trump routinely demonized adversaries as “sick,” “creepy,” “nasty,” and “disgusting.” GOP lawmakers, including Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz, have followed suit. That’s especially concerning—research led by psychologist David Matsumoto shows that anger combined with contempt and disgust produces a potent hatred that increases the likelihood of violence.
Trump has ratcheted up the incitement in pace with his growing legal predicaments. […]
National security expert Juliette Kayyem—who for years has warned of Trump’s role as the de facto leader of a domestic terrorism movement—sees the work of the House January 6 committee as helpful. “I am not looking for a single ‘blow’ to end MAGA incitement,” she remarked recently. “Violent movements either grow or weaken. There are significant metrics suggesting that post-January 6 efforts have taken their toll.” She sees a telling sign of weakness in Trump’s escalating rhetoric. Yet in the short term that may make him even more dangerous.
In Saragoza’s view, leaders in both parties face a moral imperative to confront incitement more honestly. “Our elected officials know by now that this is a serious problem,” he says. He and other experts have seen how anti-violence messaging can be effective, yet few public figures are trying to change the discourse. “More of them should be looking at the situation and be able to say, ‘This has really gotten out of hand.’”
Wonkette: “January 6 Committee Announces New Fall Season”
The House January 6 Select Committee is gearing up for the new fall season, and it looks to be a rager. This week Chair Bennie Thompson announced that the committee intends to hold its next public hearing on September 28. They’re clearly going to run this thing through the tape, acknowledging the very real possibility that Rep. Kevin McCarthy is going to take back the speaker’s gavel and devote all congressional hearings going forward to investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop. The committee plans to issue a final report, likely in December, summarizing its work.
The big news today is that the Secret Service handed over a big tranche of documents in response to a subpoena issued in July. Multiple congressional committees are investigating the wholesale deletion of texts from Secret Service agents’ phones just weeks after January 6, 2021, destroying evidence of what happened the day a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told Bloomberg that, “while no additional text messages were recovered, we have provided a significant level of detail from emails, radio transmissions, Microsoft Teams chat messages and exhibits that address aspects of planning, operations and communications surrounding January 6th.”
With limited time left on the clock, the committee members will have to make some decisions about what they want to prioritize.
“Each member of the committee has things that he or she really wants to continue to pursue over the next few weeks, based on the work that we did before the recess,” Rep. Jamie Raskin told Politico.
They don’t have time for a protracted legal battle to force Mike Pence and Donald Trump to testify. Frankly speaking, four months is probably insufficient to get a final court order to bring in Ginni Thomas, who professed herself eager to tell the committee what she knew, before her lawyer said NFW, (or Newt Gingrich, who was invited to come in and ‘splain, among other things, WTF he meant when he texted Mark Meadows at 10:42 p.m. on January 6 wondering whether there were “letters from state legislators about decertifying electors.”)
[…] Meanwhile, the committee is tying up loose ends with John Eastman, Trump’s hapless coup lawyer. Last night it petitioned the court to review a final tranche of Eastman’s emails currently residing on Chapman University’s server, since the former law professor couldn’t be bothered to set up a protonmail account for his coup plots. US District Judge David Carter has previously examined documents for privilege, and found that at least some messages were not subject to attorney-client privilege under the crime-fraud exception, and the committee would like him to look at 576 remaining documents and make a ruling before the end of this Congress.
And finally, the committee is going to have to make a decision about when and whether to hand off the mountain of evidence collected to the Justice Department. […]t over the past month, it’s become very clear that there are parallel grand jury investigations running in multiple jurisdictions. It’s clear that they’re running serious investigations into the fake electors scheme and the coup plot inside the Justice Department. Hell, they even seized the Pillow Weirdo’s phone in conjunction with the plot to ratfuck voting machines in Mesa County, Colorado. […]
Meanwhile, Republican Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are leaving Congress for good. Whatever you may think of their politics, they did set their careers on fire for their principles, and it’s not nothing. But it seems like going quietly is not remotely in the cards, so …
Be there. Will be wild.
Reginald Selkirksays
The primaries are over, time to run back to the center!
More re #133, with video (Twitter link) – Julia Davis:
Prominent lawmakers on Russian state TV say this is no longer a “special military operation,” now it’s a real war. They call for Russia to destroy critical infrastructure, “plunge Ukraine into darkness” and drive 20 million Ukrainian refugees to Europe.
Another fascinating video and possible future exhibit at the Hague. This might be the most delusional yet. Nobody thinks they’ve been fighting with white gloves on. They haven’t for one second changed their criminal, murderous, vicious ways, and anything they do going forward is a continuation of this. Nor do they have the capability to do many of these things now, which would simply contribute further to the weakening of their military and to global support for Ukraine.
Pierce R. Butler @ #142, it’s so aggravating. The one that’s annoying me most this week is the framing: “Trump/Graham/wackadoodle candidates are stepping on the Republicans’ message. The day should have been a bad one for Biden due to [X Republican talking point]. Republicans really wanted voters to be focusing on [Y and Z Republican talking points no one’s otherwise paying attention to], and this other stuff is a distraction.” It’s not the media’s job to assume the perspective of the Republican Party, much less to keep putting their talking points in front of the public through this framing.
Hungary can no longer be considered a full democracy, the European parliament has said in a powerful symbolic vote against Viktor Orbán’s government.
In a resolution backed by 81% of MEPs present to vote, the parliament stated that Hungary had become a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”, citing a breakdown in democracy, fundamental rights and the rule of law.
While the vote has no practical effect, it heightens pressure on EU authorities in Brussels not to disburse billions in EU cash to Hungary that is being withheld over concerns about corruption.
Hungary is battling to persuade the European Commission to release €4.64bn in Covid recovery funds, frozen for more than a year. Budapest is also trying to stave off a separate legal procedure that could lead to deductions from €24.3bn of cohesion funds, money for infrastructure and economic development.
The European Commission is expected to propose cutting 70% of Hungary’s cohesion funds on Sunday, but will also open the door to a compromise, according to two MEPs familiar with discussions. “More or less what we hear is that the commission will propose … these sanctions or financial measures,” said Moritz Körner, a German MEP, who has been briefed by the commission.
In a recent internal paper, commission officials suggested there was a “very significant” risk over Hungary’s management of EU funds, citing breaches in public interest rules and an unusually high number of contracts awarded to a single bidder – a red flag for transparency watchers. The paper, which has been removed from the commission’s website, suggests a 70% cut in funds as “proportionate” to the risk.
Hungary will be given until mid-November to get its house in order. After a charm offensive in Brussels, Hungary’s government is expected next week to propose a raft of laws to combat corruption. Critics fear the commission is ready to accept cosmetic changes to defuse the conflicts over EU funds.
“The commission has made a half-hearted deal with the Hungarian government on the kind of change they want to see,” said Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP, also briefed on the commission’s plans. “There is a very short timeframe and … to expect that the damage that Orbán has done with [his] constitutional majority over 12 years, can now be repaired in a matter of weeks, or a couple of months, I think is optimistic to put it mildly.”
…
The European parliament’s resolution, which points to “the risks of clientelism, favouritism and nepotism in high-level public administration”, however, will make any climbdown on the protection of EU funds more difficult.
…
MEPs, who have no power to deny funds to Hungary, have blamed the EU council of ministers and the European Commission for alleged inaction, a point made clear in the resolution. The MEPs expressed “deep regret that the lack of decisive EU action has contributed to a breakdown in democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary, turning the country into a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy”.
The parliament’s damning conclusion was based on reports from bodies belonging to the Council of Europe, as well as case law from the EU’s court of justice and the separate European court of human rights.
MEPs also cited the verdict of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which reported in April that Hungary’s election that returned Orbán to power for a fourth straight term was “marred by the absence of a level playing field”. The OSCE sent a fully fledged mission to Hungary, an almost unprecedented step for an EU member state.
The report also noted the concerns of Hungarian judges over judicial independence in their country, after numerous changes by the Orbán government, including the appointment of supreme court judges outside normal procedures.
The measure was opposed by MEPs from Eurosceptic and far-right parties….
As critics questioned whether she knew what the Nineteenth Amendment is, Rep. Lauren Boebert stated that “the Nineteenth Amendment doesn’t exist because God gave Moses only Ten Amendments.”
The Colorado lawmaker said that people who believe that there are nineteen amendments “need to turn off their NPR and pick up the good ol’ Bible.”
“God stood up on that mountain and said, ‘Here you go, Moses, my top Ten Amendments,’ ” she said. “Where are these bozos getting the idea that there are nineteen?”
Boebert said that God gave Moses only Ten Amendments “because more than that would be hard to chisel into the tablets and whatnot,” she said.
“If you had nineteen amendments, Moses would have had to carve ten on one tablet and eight on the other,” she said.
When it comes to Donald Trump’s legal troubles, Sean Hannity is not just another Republican player. On the contrary, the Fox News host has an insider’s perspective precisely because he’s long been a member of the former president’s inner circle.
When former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ Jan. 6 texts reached the public, for example, there were extensive communications that made it seem as if Hannity was effectively, if not literally, a member of the then-president’s political advisory team. The host had Trump’s interest at heart, and he appeared practically desperate to lend a hand.
More than 20 months later, Hannity still wants to help his Republican ally. It’s just not going especially well.
This week, the host aired a segment that presented Trump as a good and honorable leader who’s being harassed by rascally opponents who should just leave the poor guy alone. To bolster the point, Hannity showed viewers a lengthy list of investigations surrounding the former president.
There was, however, a rather important problem with the list: It was a little too good. As a Washington Post analysis explained:
The tactic (which Hannity deploys with some regularity) was to imply unimportance by indicating volume. Surely this barrage, unspooling slowly over Hannity’s shoulder, is proof that Trump’s opponents are trying to use any possible tool to derail him? If we slow it down, though, picking out the actual investigations included by Hannity, the picture changes. A lot of these investigations … make a lot of sense.
Quite right. The Fox News host wanted to give the impression that the long list was proof of harassment. Viewers were supposed to see it and think, “Wow, those darned investigators sure have bothered Trump a whole lot.”
But the closer one looked at the list, the more Hannity’s segment backfired: Viewers were actually reminded of all the completely legitimate scrutiny. What was supposed to present Trump as a victim instead made him look like a scandalous and prolific lawbreaker.
The list included investigations into:
Trump’s Russia scandal
Russian interference in U.S. elections to assist Trump
The controversy surrounding the Trump inaugural fund
Alleged Emoluments clause violations
Trump’s hidden tax returns
Improper gifts Trump allegedly received
Post-defeat election interference
Trump bringing classified materials to Mar-a-Lago
The Jan. 6 attack and efforts to overturn the 2020 election
Trump using military aid to extort Ukraine
Trump’s “hush money” controversies
Trump’s dubious pardons
Trump’s dubious fundraising operation
Trump’s alleged real estate fraud
Sure, Hannity padded the list with investigations that didn’t directly relate to Trump, a matter related to a former Trump lease that really wasn’t investigated at all, and a lawsuit over voting rights filed by the NAACP that could hardly be described as an “investigation.”
But putting that aside, the Trump scandals that Hannity listed on the air are proper controversies that, by any fair measure, are obviously worthy of scrutiny. In fact, it was generous of the host to package them together like this for the former president’s detractors.
Last week, by way of his social media platform Trump argued that Fox News is “really pushing the Democrats and the Democrat [sic] agenda.” It looks like Hannity stumbled into an instance in which he inadvertently bolstered the complaint.
A mass burial site containing around 440 graves has been found in liberated Izium, Deputy Police Chief of Kharkiv Oblast said.
He said the bodies individually buried at the makeshift site would be exhumed and taken away for forensic examination.
Guardian liveblog:
A Ukrainian volunteer medic captured by Russian forces during their deadly siege of the port city of Mariupol delivered devastating testimony before US lawmakers on Thursday, recounting her experiences of torture, death and terror.
Yuliia Paievska, who was detained in Mariupol in March and held by Russian and pro-Russia forces for three months, spoke before the Helsinki Commission, a government agency created in part to promote compliance with human rights internationally.
Known by the nickname Taira, Paievska gained global attention after she slipped her bodycam footage to the Associated Press just before they left Mariupol.
Her voice choked with emotion, she listed for the commission some of the atrocities she witnessed in Mariupol and in captivity:
Pregnant prisoners, their fate unknown to their relatives or to the state.
A fighter who was beaten for three hours and then thrown into a basement like a sack. And only a day later, someone came to him.
A dead child in a mother’s arm.
A seven-year-old boy with bullet wounds dying in my lap because I could not ward off death in this case.
Prisoners in their cells screaming for weeks and dying from the torture without any medical help during this internment of hell. The only thing they felt before death was abuse and additional beating.
My friend, whose eyes I closed before his body closed down. And another friend. And another, and another.
A city of a half a million people dying before my eyes, under air strikes, methodical, planned.
Airstrikes on hospitals and residential areas.
A hospital full of wounded soldiers and civilians where anaesthetic drugs have run out and antibiotics are about to run out too.
Soldiers and entire medical staff sleeping two, three hours daily because surgeries are one right after another.
Medivac cars arriving every five, 10 minutes where the wounded and the dead are lying on top of each other, and whose fates are too impossible to understand even if you tried.
Burning cars with burning people in them.
Police officers taking out of the rubble women and children mutilated beyond recognition.
People collecting water from puddles.
Looted homes.
Dogs who once were pets dragging human limbs around the city.
Prisoners who were forced to take off clothes by their killers before they were murdered slowly and slaughtered.
Specially prepared torture chambers
“Do you know why we do this to you?” Paievska said a Russian soldier asked her as he tortured her. “Because you can,” she responded.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she wants Russian president Vladimir Putin to face the International Criminal Court over war crimes in Ukraine.
“That Putin must lose this war and must face up to his actions, that is important to me,” she told the TV channel of German news outlet Bild on Thursday.
“We support the collection of evidence” with a view to possible proceedings at the International Criminal Court, she said, referring to allegations of war crimes committed in Ukraine.
“That is the basis of our international legal system, that we punish these crimes. And ultimately, Putin is responsible,” she said.
Asked whether Putin would one day be brought before the court, she responded: “I believe it is possible.”
Pierce R. Butlersays
SC… @ # 152: It’s not the media’s job to assume the perspective of the Republican Party…
Please double-check that: by now we have two-going-on-three (at minimum!) “news” networks at which reporters who don’t do that will likely lose their jobs.
Voters in Boise, Idaho, did something pretty dang awesome last week: For the first time ever, they elected a high school student to the Boise School Board. Five incumbents on the board of trustees were up for reelection; four of them won, but incumbent Steve Schmidt was defeated in his bid for a two-year term by 18-year-old Shiva Rajbhandari, a senior at Boise High School.
Rajbhandari, a third-generation Idahoan whose dad is originally from Nepal, is one of those cool activist kids who started getting all political at an early age, organizing around issues like gun control, voting rights, the environment, and especially climate change.[…] he decided to run last year after not hearing back from the school board after his efforts to push the school district to adopt a clean energy policy kept hitting roadblocks:
Two years ago, he said, a group of high school and junior high students tried everything they could think of to urge the board to make a commitment to renewable energy. “We sent emails; we did a postcard drive and wrote like 300 postcards; we met with our local power company; we had a petition, we delivered the largest petition ever to our school district,” Rajbhandari said, but the board never responded. “Last year, I wrote a letter to our school board president, just asking for a meeting … and I never got anything back. But I know that he read my letter because about a week later, I was called to the principal’s office.”
This is where we all smile and maybe tear up a little as we urge him to keep getting in what John Lewis called “good trouble.”
Rajbhandari said that since the board didn’t seem to see students as constituents, he’d just have to try to change that by getting elected.
“That’s not to say that my run for the board comes from a place of animosity,” he added, “but it comes from a place of need, which is that we don’t have student representation on the Boise Schools board, and our board members aren’t boots-on-the-ground in the classroom.”
Dude has a hell of a topic for his What I Did On My Summer Vacation essay: He ran for school board, and won. He also voted in early voting on August 30, the day he turned 18, along with a group of classmates.
Well there we go grinning like a fool again. Rajbhandari and the four incumbents who won reelection were sworn in Monday, and we love that he showed up in a tie and sneakers. [video at the link]
A few weeks before the election, Schmidt, the incumbent, received the endorsement of the “Idaho Liberty Dogs,” a local far-Right extremist group that earlier this summer tried to pressure the Meridian Public Library Board to eliminate all the pornography the group was absolutely certain was being distributed to kids. That effort failed entertainingly, as the would-be library censors were vastly outnumbered by library supporters at an August board meeting.
Schmidt, who hadn’t sought the Sad Puppies’ endorsement, very tepidly distanced himself from the endorsement, writing in a now-hidden Facebook post, “Depending upon your personal beliefs, that [endorsement] may give you cause for concern or comfort,“ and saying only “I am not a member of their group and I don’t represent them.” That was hardly the rebuke of extremism needed — the Dipshit Dogs regularly accuse LGBTQ people and supporters of “grooming” children simply by existing — so the Idaho Statesman editorial board, which had been leaning toward Schmidt, gave its endorsement to Rajbhandari instead. The endorsement explained,
That is the type of endorsement a candidate has to disavow forcefully to demonstrate that they can stand up for what is right. Schmidt’s failure to do so tipped the scales. We have no fear that Rajbhandari would make a similar mistake.
In addition to endorsing Schmidt, the Slobbery Poodles also attacked Rajbhandari on Facebook — on his birthday, no less — calling him a “liberal activist” who was endorsed by a local “radical leftist” who is very much not a radical. The Rabid Dogs said “Shiva is not an adult and thinks he knows best for your children,” although the post was later updated to note that he was indeed 18. And oh, the whining!
He has openly supported and lead groups who are Pro Abortion, Pro Masks/Vaccines, Pro BLM and Antifa. Shiva is known for disrupting Capitol meetings, disrupted prayers events, illegally blocked roads with other under aged high-school students and spilled paint onto the streets of Boise, which created traffic jams and costed tax payers money to clean up.
Is this who you want leading and making decisions for your children!?
Well sure, he sounds pretty cool, honestly. Apparently that “disrupting Capitol meetings” bit refers to his testimony — during public comments — against the cockamamie task force to “Examine Indoctrination in Idaho Education” that was set up by Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, which found no actual indoctrination but bankrupted her office with legal bills when McGeachin refused to comply with public records requests from journalists. Just look at this dangerous radical, disrupting his own allotted time to speak: [video at the link]
How mean of him to accuse McGeachin of setting up the “investigation” as a campaign stunt, and to reject out of hand the idea that schools are indoctrinating anyone. What’s more, he said, Idaho schools don’t teach enough real history, like the Tulsa Race Massacre or even the 1887 Hell’s Canyon Massacre right here in Idaho, during which as many as 34 Chinese gold miners were lynched by a gang of white horse thieves.
It seems the Paw Patrol has been on Rajbhandari’s radar for a while now, too, […] Beyond the library censorship attempt, he said,
“Last year, there was a kid who brought a gun to Boise High, which is my school, and he got suspended and they organized an armed protest outside our school.”
Rajbhandari, who started leading Extinction Rebellion climate protests in Boise when he was 15, is familiar with the group’s tactics. “We used to have climate strikes, like back in ninth grade, and they would come with AR-15s,” he said, bringing rifles to intimidate “a bunch of kids protesting for a livable future.”
He’s also no fan of the ubiquitous rightwing astroturf group the Idaho Freedom Foundation — a big backer of McGeachin — which led protests against public health measures during the pandemic, and has been a leader in Idaho wingnuts’ war on schools and libraries.
Congratulations, Boise! You put a real future leader on the school board, and we wish him all the best. Since he’ll graduate next spring, Rajbhandari hopes to find a way to have another high schooler serve out the rest of his term; if that’s not possible, he says he’ll take a gap year before college so he can finish the two-year term.
Heck, we may have to go to some school board meetings now.
Oggie: Mathomsays
The Fox News host wanted to give the impression that the long list was proof of harassment.
And all of the investigations into Benghazi and the emails was proof of Hillary’s perfidiousness. After all, as the right was fond of saying, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Turned out to be a smoke machine.
Not so much for Trump. Under most of those columns of smoke are raging dumpster fires.
He HEREBY ORDERED “more than 50 times” that James Clapper and John Brennan have their security clearances stripped, because they said mean things about him on TV.
He HEREBY ORDERED a stop to a merger between CNN and AT&T, because CNN said mean things about him.
He HEREBY ORDERED his aides make a plan to “cancel” the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, because it ruled against him a whole bunch. “Let’s just cancel it,” he said to Kirstjen Nielsen. He HEREBY ORDERED some legislation be drawn up to “get rid of the fucking judges.”
Everybody silently said fuck off and went about their day. […]
Gov. Tate Reeves said Jackson’s boil-water notice can be lifted Thursday. Recent testing indicates water is safe to drink and the state will continue to monitor the water and conduct additional testing. As Reeves’ press conference was underway Thursday, Jackson sent out a press release announcing the boil-water notice for all City of Jackson water customers has been lifted, per the Mississippi State Department of Health.
While China and Russia are increasingly isolated from the West, the latest meeting between their two leaders sends a clear message: They still have each other. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Uzbekistan on Thursday on the sidelines of a regional summit showcasing their ambition to provide a counterpoint to America’s global dominance.
Yeah, except that China still won’t support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. China won’t even sell ammunition to Russia. Putin had to go to North Korea to buy war supplies.
The Biden administration moved on Wednesday to establish a foundation to begin spending $3.5 billion to benefit Afghans, using funds that President Biden had frozen and seized from Afghanistan’s central bank after the Taliban took over the country last year.
The prosecutor investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia said this week that her team has heard credible allegations that serious crimes have been committed and that she believes some individuals may see jail time.
Justice Elena Kagan warned again on Wednesday that unsound reasoning and politically convenient conclusions have infected the Supreme Court’s recent opinions and are doing damage to the court’s standing with the American public.
“When courts become extensions of the political process, when people see them as extensions of the political process, when people see them as trying just to impose personal preferences on a society irrespective of the law, that’s when there’s a problem — and that’s when there ought to be a problem,” Kagan said during an event at Northwestern University School of Law.
Kagan has offered similar criticism of the high court on several occasions over the past summer, following its momentous, 5-4 decision in June overturning Roe v. Wade and wiping out a federal constitutional right to abortion that had been recognized for nearly half a century.
However, the recent criticisms from Kagan, an appointee of President Barack Obama and a former Harvard Law School dean, now seem more pointed because they come just days after Chief Justice John Roberts expressed concern publicly that the court’s reputation is being unfairly battered. […]
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has seized the cell phone of Mike Lindell, better known as the MyPillow guy, in the belief that he may have “committed crimes beyond selling shitty pillows,” an F.B.I. spokesman has confirmed.
Although the F.B.I. took custody of Lindell’s phone, they did not seize any of his pillows. “Nobody wanted those,” the spokesman said.
Shortly after the seizure, Republicans claimed that the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, was acting out of a personal vendetta because he had purchased a MyPillow and had been upset by how shitty it was.
“I did not purchase a MyPillow,” Garland clarified in a prepared statement. “However, I have heard that they suck.”
Lindell received vehement support from another Republican luminary, Don Bolduc, the G.O.P. nominee for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. “This is a rigged witch hunt,” Bolduc said. “The MyPillow guy has never sold a pillow.”
With eight weeks remaining before the midterms, the latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found President Joe Biden’s approval rating on the upswing: It’s now 45%, up from 36% in July. – Lynna, OM@135 quoting Steve Benen
It would be quite surprising if Biden doesn’t make a “surprise” visit to Kyiv in around seven weeks’ time – assuming Ukraine does not suffer serious setbacks in the meantime. He would be guaranteed a hero’s welcome, which would indeed be justified.
Researchers have discovered a 380-million-year-old heart preserved inside a fossilised prehistoric fish… The heart belonged to a fish known as the Gogo, which is now extinct… The Gogo fish is the first of a class of prehistoric fish called placoderms…
The Select Committee has obtained a recording of communications over a walkie-talkie app among Oath Keepers who were inside the Capitol and others who were sharing intelligence from elsewhere.
Listen to how they reacted to President Trump’s 2:38 tweet in real-time.
russians are withdrawing troops to #Svatove and #Troitske – they are digging in and preparing to defend themselves.Heavy fighting continues on many fronts, including in the #Luhansk region.The #Kharkiv rapid scenario will not be repeated. We will have to fight hard for our Oblast
…Experts now believe that Ukrainian pressure in Kherson Oblast, combined with its rapid counter-offensive in Kharkiv Oblast, presents Russian forces with a terrible dilemma.
“Russia likely lacks sufficient reserve forces to complete the formation of a new defensive line along the Oskil River… Prudence would demand that Russia pulls forces from other sectors of the battlespace to establish defensive lines further east than the Oskil River to ensure that it can hold the Luhansk Oblast border.”
The Kremlin continues its meaningless, unsuccessful attacks near Bakhmut and Donetsk, refusing to redeploy those forces to mitigate possible new Ukrainian advances across the Oskil River or Kherson. At the same time, it can’t afford to compromise its Kherson defenses for the sake of the Oskil River area.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin risks making a common but deadly mistake by waiting too long to order reinforcements to the Luhansk line,” the ISW said.
“The Ukrainian campaign appears intended to present Putin with precisely such a dilemma and to benefit from almost any decision he makes.”
Oggie: Mathomsays
I have been trying to grok Trump’s obsession with the classified documents being unclassified by Trump. Trump has ALWAYS been big on simple answers: Build the Wall instead of improve border security. The FBI spied on my campaign rather than some of my people were in contact with, and colluding with, Russia. He simplifies everything to an illogical extreme. So by insisting, in his mind and to his followers, that the government documents are magically unclassified and all belong to him, he is, once again, simplifying the entire sequence of events so that either he, or his sycophantic MAGAs, can understand. Or he could be trying to convince himself AND his MAGA idiots at the same time. But by simplifying everything, maybe this is his way of making it understandable to him?
@Oggie 175
Maybe Trump is used to insisting things are a certain way and having the social force to get it? He’s very socially sheltered. Used to making assertions useful, real or not.
“The Ukrainian enemy is at the gates, according to Leonid Pasechnik, head of the ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’, but he insists ‘there’s no reason to panic’
In fact he’s so sure that he has to repeat himself”
Video at the (Twitter) link. I know I’d feel reassured!
Volunteers unload dinner for the 48 migrants flown here from Texas courtesy of Florida @GovRonDeSantis. They are spending another night on the Vineyard
Video clip at the (Twitter) link. Yes, it’s that pretty.
Oggie: Mathomsays
SC @178:
How is this (the bussing/flying of undocumented immigrants to New York City, or the Vineyard) not kidnapping? The state (Florida, in this case) is taking someone into custody and transporting them (presumably) against their will to another state. How is this not a federal crime?
For the last week, it’s been nearly impossible to say just where the front line between Ukrainian forces and Russian invaders really fell. That was especially true in the days immediately following the liberation of Izyum, when Ukrainian scouts ranged far out into Luhansk Oblast and Russian forces seemed to keep right on running—even when Ukrainian troops stopped to take care of folks in newly freed towns.
Where things seem to be falling out in the area now is just where many predicted: along the banks of the Oskil River. Ukrainian forces had crossed the river in at least three locations and engaged in combat at locations a good 20 kilometers on the eastern side of the divide. However, when it came time to settle down and hold territory, it seems that both Ukraine and Russia are, for now, settling in along what may be the last big geographic feature short of the Aidar River, deep in Russian-occupied territory. [map at the link]
Ukraine may still have some forces across the river north of Horokhovatka. But if so, they don’t seem to be advancing at this moment, or at least there are no new reports of battles fought / towns liberated. In fact, the only active combat in the area on Thursday seems to be in the south, just across the Siverskyi Donets River, around the city of Lyman. [map at the link]
Even before the Kharkiv counteroffensive really kicked off, Ukraine was able to move forces across the river into Staryi Karavan and Ozerne, apparently unopposed. But even though Ukraine had forces on the south side of Lyman earlier this week, Russia reportedly reinforced that location with troops retreating from Izyum. It’s hard to tell just how much fighting is actually going on in the city. NASA FIRMS data shows very few hotspots in the area over the last five days, and Lyman right now may be more of a contest of troops getting into position, than actively exchanging artillery.
Over to the west, directly south of the dam across the Oskil, there were reports on Thursday (1PM ET / 10 PM in Kyiv) that Ukrainian forces had taken Studenok and the neighboring town of Sosnove. […]
Normally, the sources for the Studenok and Sosnove would have been good enough to mark them on the map, but since this week has included a lot of … enthusiastic reports even from normally conservative sources, I’m holding off on making any changes for now.
Speaking of enthusiastic calls. here’s the Kherson map from last night. That map reflected a call that Kyselivka was once again fully under Ukrainian control. However, that turns out to not quite be the case. [map at the link]
Kyselivka may be the most “Ukraine has taken it. No it hasn’t” point on the entire map. That’s because this Kyselivka is often confused with another Kyselivka just 25km to the north (how does anyone in the area keep them straight?). But in this case, there’s another issue.
For some time, the number of people actually in Kyselivka (pre-invasion population 2,500, current population approximately 0) has been shrinking. Ukrainian forces hung on to the western edge of the town, while a slowly-declining Russian group held the east. Now there are reports that Russia has completely left the town. Only that doesn’t mean that Ukraine has fully occupied it.
That’s because Kyselivka is just 10km west of a whole metric a$$-ton of Russian artillery near Chornobaivka. Occupying what’s left of the entire town is regarded as highly unhealthy, and impossible to maintain so long as Russia has some shells left for those guns. So right now, Ukraine doesn’t so much have Kyselivka as it is able to look into Kyselivka and see that it’s satisfyingly free of Russians.
And that’s it. If all this seems like pretty small potatoes after the excitement of the last week, that’s because Ukraine is now trying to sit back and digest a very large meal. Not only did it just liberate 8,500 sq miles, full of 350 villages and 150,000 people all of whom need to be attended to, it’s also dealing with thousands of Russian prisoners and enough captured Russian equipment to launch a new division. In tanks alone, it seems like Ukraine’s capture count is likely to exceed 100. That’s just captured, not including destroyed. […]
We could fill a week with nothing but images of Russian hardware that now needs to be checked for boobytraps, sent back from the front line for maintenance, given some quick rebadging, a fresh tank of fuel, and a new compliment of supplies before riding out as part of the Ukrainian army. And when it comes to all those Russian ammunition depots that have been recovered in amazing condition … [Tweets and videos at the link]
All the materiel needs to be moved from these locations before someone in Russia wakes up and says “hey, didn’t we leave a lot of artillery shells right about there?” If someone in Russia decides they can spare a missile from going after civilian targets, there might actually be an issue here. But then, that would mean they couldn’t spend that missile shooting at apartment buildings or dams.
(Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Thursday refused to let the Justice Department immediately resume reviewing classified records seized by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Florida estate in an ongoing criminal investigation, siding with the former president.
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon also appointed Senior District Judge Raymond Dearie as a third party to review records seized by the FBI for materials that could be privileged and kept from federal investigators.
snip..
“The court does not find it appropriate to accept the government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion,” Cannon wrote Thursday.
A Justice Department spokesperson and Trump’s attorneys did not immediately return requests for comment.
She also directed Dearie to prioritize the classified documents and conclude his work by Nov. 30.
DoJ will probably appeal as they indicated earlier.
[…] Cannon rejected the Justice Department’s motion for a partial stay of Cannon’s Sept. 5 order, which enjoined the government from using documents seized on Aug. 8 in its criminal investigation of Trump. The government had asked that it be allowed to continue reviewing and using the 100 discrete documents labeled as classified that were seized from Mar-a-Lago. […] Cannon wrote in her order that the partial stay would require the court to accept two “compound premises” that it was not prepared to accept “hastily” prior to review by a special master. The first compound premise, according to Cannon, is that the 100 documents labeled as classified “are classified government records, and that Plaintiff therefore could not possibly have a possessory interest in any of them.” The second compound premise, Cannon asserts, is that Trump has no plausible claim of privilege as to any of the documents seized at Mar-a-Lago. Cannon wrote that until a “neutral third party” reviews the documents, these questions cannot be settled. […]
So she thinks the documents marked “classified” might not be classified? She is repeating Trump’s ridiculous talking points.
A federal judge has appointed Raymond J. Dearie, a former chief federal judge in New York, to sort through the more than 11,000 documents — including classified materials — that FBI agents seized from former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence last month, to see if any should be shielded from criminal investigators because of attorney-client or executive privileges.
The decision could significantly slow a high-profile investigation of the former president, one that prosecutors say has already been paused at a key juncture by the judge’s skepticism that the Justice Department has treated Trump fairly.
Trump’s legal team proposed Dearie as a candidate to be the special master in the high-profile case, and the Justice Department agreed with the selection last week. But the two sides still disagree on whether searching through the highly sensitive classified documents taken by the FBI should be part of the special master’s responsibilities.
Ultimately, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled in Trump’s favor and said the special master should examine about 100 documents with classified markings, and said Dearie should prioritize those materials over the more than 11,000 nonclassified documents that were taken in the Aug. 8 search. She denied a bid by prosecutors to allow them to use the seized material in their ongoing criminal investigation before Dearie conducts his review.
In her Thursday night ruling, Cannon rejected Justice Department arguments that her decision will cause serious harm to the national security investigation. Evenhanded application of legal rules “does not demand unquestioning trust in the determinations of the Department of Justice,” the judge wrote in a decision that is almost certain to be appealed by the government.
[…] prosecutors asked that any special master review not include the classified documents the FBI found among the confiscated materials when it executed the court-approved search warrant. The government said that delaying investigators’ access to those documents could pose national security risks. The Washington Post reported on Sept. 6 that the seized material included information on a foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities and other sensitive documents so closely held that only a small circle of top government officials are permitted to access them.
In asking the judge to back off at least part of her special master ruling, prosecutors had argued that Trump could not possibly have an attorney-client or executive privilege claim over classified documents, which by definition are the property of the federal government.
Cannon roundly rejected those arguments in her filing, saying that whether the documents marked classified were actually classified is a matter of dispute. […]
In appointing the special master, Cannon appeared to leave most details of the review up to Dearie, including what type of material might be covered by executive privilege, a loosely defined legal concept that has historically been applied to material about a sitting president’s deliberations, to shield them from another branch of government or the public. In this case, Trump’s lawyers have raised the possibility that Trump, as a former president, could claim such a privilege over material sought by the executive branch. Cannon’s rulings in the case have not made clear how she would define such a privilege.
Cannon’s order Thursday night also seems to imply that it will be in some measure up to Dearie to decide whether the 100 or so documents marked classified are, in fact, classified, and whether Trump can make any privilege claim over them. […]
Here’s Cannon’s full order. She says she is not entering a stay because she isn’t yet persuaded the documents are classified and/or not privileged. She implicitly seems to think Trump could have a possessory interest in formerly classified govt records. [Southpaw]
Comments posted by readers of the Talking Points Memo article:
setting forth absolute and unmitigated bullshit.
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Cannon isn’t drinking the flavoraid, she’s mainlining it.
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The invention of new powers and rights attached to [former president] in order to rationalize the poor legal reasoning here is so damn depressing. I really did want to grow old in a still-improving republic.
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It is not like there are any compelling issues involved, like national security. If there were, I am sure she would see things differently.
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In sixteen years, I have NEVER had a judge just blithely dismiss classification markings on a government document and say it’s something that is up for debate. [Bradley Moss]
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something that all trumpers have in common is their unwavering confidence that they are smarter than everyone else, and this judge, despite being roundly criticized for her lack of legal reasoning by legal experts at all ends of the political spectrum, continues stubbornly on the same path
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In what world is a FPOTUS allowed to claim government documents with classifications to be his? This is where we are. A judge who is 39 or 40 yrs old gets to.
I’ll have a lot more to say about Judge Aileen Cannon’s order blowing off National Security in favor of Trump’s half-assed claims of being a victim. Her order is a radical assault on national security and rule of law.
But for the moment, I want to look at this part of her work flow order.
Make available for inspection by Plaintiff’s counsel, with controlled access conditions (including necessary clearance requirements) and under the supervision of the Special Master, the documents marked as classified and the papers attached to such documents […]
It orders the government to make the classified documents stolen by Trump available to his attorneys, including Evan Corcoran, who is either a witness or a subject of this investigation. None are known to be cleared. […]
In her order, she claims this involves sharing only with the Special Master, Raymond Dearie.
The Government also presents the argument, in passing, that making the full scope of the seized materials available to the Special Master would itself create irreparable harm [ECF No. 69 p. 18]. Insofar as the Government argues that disclosure to a Special Master of documents marked as classified necessarily creates an irreparable injury because the special master process in this case is unnecessary, the Court disagrees for the reasons previously stated. Separately, to the extent the Government appears to suggest that it would suffer independent irreparable harm from review of the documents by the Court’s designee with appropriate clearances and controlled access, that argument is meritless
But these are completely contradictory. One document says the government must share classified information with Trump’s people. The other document says, “it’s only Raymond Dearie, don’t worry your little heads.”
And she just waves her hands and says the government must share this stuff, “including necessary clearance requirements,” without acknowledging that she doesn’t get to decide that. If the government says that none of Trump’s lawyers can be cleared, they get to say that […]
Another “brilliant” Cannon point: Trump could not be expected to “concretize” his position on the documents as he has not seen the seized docs – without the court ever saying he had them at MAL and in his friggin office for 18 months!
Judge Cannon is a partisan hack: she says it is “disputed” that the documents are classified, but Trump never said in court he declassified them and submitted NO evidence, so the only evidence before her is that they are and are so marked. She really is totally in the tank here.
Laurence Tribe:
Hard to imagine Cannon really expects to get away with this garbage, but she evidently thinks the Eleventh Circuit is in the tank with her. Only they can prove her wrong.
StevoRsays
In astronomical news, it seems we may now be able to predict at least one type (II-P) of supernovae shortly before it happens :
I would be interesting to see what would happen if Biden stood outside of Trump’s house and yelled “reclassified!”.
I bet Trump would yell “declassified!” back and get into a cycle.
More from comments posted by readers of the TPM article:
This is a truly stunning and lawless order. Classified documents are classified on their face. Whether they should have been classified in the first place is not an issue for a federal judge to determine, especially in this context. Documents marked “classified” are, by definition, the property of the government and, in this instance, the Executive branch. The judiciary has no role to play in the decision of whether information should or should not be classified. Further, ALL of the documents retained by Trump that were “presidential records” were the property of the government, regardless of whether they were classified or not. That is the law. A judicially appointed special master has no role to play at this point in the proceedings. The only point at which a special master could play a role in the context of a criminal case is to serve essentially as a neutral arbiter when and if the government seeks to introduce documents seized under the warrant in a criminal proceeding. Trump has not even been indicted (yet). A subject or target of a criminal investigation has no right to direct how the government’s investigation can proceed. This ruling is astonishing.
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She may have doubled down because she got assurances from the 6 TFGs judges that they will support her. And they have assurances that SCOTUS will back them up. The DOJ needs to start playing hardball with Federalist Society fifth-columnist bastards.
George Conway:
Conway: This ruling is absolutely a disgrace. And I don’t think it’s going to take very much to overturn it. Barr told The New York Times that the original motion by Trump’s lawyers was a crock of shit, a crock of shit. This opinion is worse than that..
StevoRsays
@191. Brony, Social Justice Cenobite : LOL. Yes. I can actually see that. It should be done as a sketch on Colbert or Corden or some show like those l reckon!
.***
The 300th Adelaide Refugee Vigil is on tonight at 5 pm, Rundle Mall -Gawler place intersection near the giant pigeon sculpture. An impressive if very saddening milestone for an event that started six years ago. (online events during covid too.) Please feel welcome to join us standing up for the refugees still imprisoned against the sadistic ineffective cruelty of the current disgraceful, off shore non-processing torture of those who committed no crime, pose no threat but are treated worse than criminals. Details :
Event by Adelaide vigil for Manus and Nauru
Duration: 1 hr 15 min
Public · Anyone on or off Facebook
Vigil members invite you to join us for this week’s vigil, in RUNDLE MALL, at the intersection with Gawler Place, near the giant silver pigeon.
Late last year the Australian Government announced its plan to abandon the 110 refugee men remaining in Papua New Guinea, having detained them there, illegally, since 2013. That has now been in effect since January 1st, and continues to cause much anxiety. A new Memorandum Of Understanding was signed with Nauru, enabling the continuation of Australia’s offshore human warehousing to continue there, into the future. Although most of the Manus and Nauru refugees medevacced to Australia have at last been released into “community detention”, the government’s own figures record 6 as remaining in closed detention in Australia. 216 remain without resettlement in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
Please help us to keep a spotlight on this wrong, perpetrated in our name, and join us in standing for the freedom, safety and human rights of the refugees the Australian government wants us to forget. Over 200 still being held in inhumane conditions after almost 9 years of punishment on #Manus, #Nauru and now also Port Moresby PNG and Australian Immigration Detention.
The only laws that have been broken in their seeking of asylum are those which Australia itself has an international obligation to uphold, through its signing of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
Via Adelaide Refugee Vigil group fb page.
blfsays
Re @191: Nah, hair furor won’t yell back anything. If anyone yelled back, it’d be some low-paid flunky. Teh hair furor himself would go his twit-I-am-hugely, Lies Antisocial, and after a few covfefe’s, bang the mouse on the keyboard and yell This is ain’t wokinger! Bring me — did I ever tell you again the time I gets knighted by Putin-friend for saving whiteracinghorse, he said, said, to mes, Sir, you are the bestest of best! Where’s my new computter? Eventually, hair furor manages to ejactulate onto Lies Antisocial, Sleepy jOe is now pleading with me to >reclassify what I declassified. what Is balling biden so SCAReD OF???!? I know what;s on crrupt Huntr’s licktop.!
KGsays
StevoR@189,
Yes, I’ve followed up several of your recent recommendations – thanks!
Russia says at least 5 HIMARS rockets hit Kherson’s administrative building cluster, with video showing serious damage to the district court building.
Russian state media must make difficult decisions on whether to admit/report on the surge of Ukraine strikes at targets in occupied territories. So far they opt to publicize (hard to hide anyway) but represent the strikes as if targeting civilian infrastructure.
Russian media report the target was (among others) Kirill Stremnousov, deputy head of the the Kremlin-imposed occupation authority. Not surprisingly, he was also an anti-vaccination and anti-mask activist, and had been variously an extreme-right and extreme left figure.
This week, Brooke talks to Christo Grozev, lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat, about how he uncovered the real identity of a Russian “sleeper” agent who went by the name Maria Adela. Grozev tells Brooke about how rarely these kinds of spies are discovered, what made “Maria Adela” an unlikely spy and what kind of information she could have gathered on NATO.
Timothy Snyder: “As Ukraine re-establishes control over de-occupied territories, authorities once again have to chronicle Russian atrocities: torture facilities (everywhere), mass graves (Izyum), the absence of men (Horlivka). Russia’s war was genocidal in conception and is genocidal in practice.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Prosecutors, police officers and journalists are heading to Izium after authorities there said they had found a mass grave containing more than 440 bodies. Some of the people had been killed by shelling and airstrikes, authorities said. Serhiy Bolvinov, the chief police investigator for Kharkiv province, said that forensic investigations would be carried out on every body in the grave, which was reportedly located in woods near the city.
One day ago, with Ukrainian forces quickly closing in, Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the Russian-backed separatist authority in the Luhansk oblast addressed concerns, insisting repeatedly that “there is no reason to panic”. Today, a bomb set off at administrative offices killed the Moscow-installed prosecutor general, Sergey Gorenko, and his deputy.
“‘There is no reason to panic’, well well…” Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk oblast, posted on Telegram yesterday. “Luhansk oblast is coming home and it is inevitable!”
Deputy head of Russian-installed authority in Berdiansk killed along with his wife
The Russian-backed separatist authority in Berdiansk has accused Kyiv of killing the deputy head of military civil administration and his wife, who headed the city’s territorial election commission for the referendum to join Russia, the city administration said on Telegram.
The city administration did not provide details for how Oleg Boyko and his wife, Lyudmila Boyko, were killed in their garage Berdiansk, which is located in the Zaporizhzhia oblast in the south of Ukraine. But the city administration described the killings as a “double murder”.
“This terrible crime will not go unpunished and unanswered,” the post reads.
Elimination of so-called “LNR prosecutor general” and his deputy should be considered as showdowns of local organized criminal groups that could not share looted property before a large-scale escape. Or as RF’s purge of witnesses to war crimes. Investigation will show…
Reuters reporters saw multiple bodies at the mass grave site in Izium with rope round their necks and their hands tied – indicators that they may have not have just been killed in shelling and airstrikes.
Ukrainian police and forensic experts were helping to exhume the bodies at the site marked by wooden crosses where authorities said they had found a mass grave containing more than 440 bodies. While authorities said some had been killed by shelling and airstrikes, investigators have prepared themselves for the worst, after the discoveries of slain civilians bearing signs of torture in Bucha and other previously occupied territories.
A 22-year-old Iranian woman has died days after being arrested by morality police for allegedly not complying with strict rules on head coverings.
Eyewitnesses said Mahsa Amini was beaten while inside a police van when she was picked up in Tehran on Tuesday.
Police have denied the allegations, saying Ms Amini had “suddenly suffered a heart problem”.
It is the latest in a series of reports of brutality against women by authorities in Iran in recent weeks…
[Update to #205:] Reuters has just sent an advisory to say that it is withdrawing the story it reported earlier, and which we carried in this live blog, that bodies had been found with rope around their necks in Izium.
The advisory note reads “This story is being withdrawn because Reuters reporters did not see the bodies with rope around their necks.”
We are awaiting further clarification.
There were reports Friday of a “powerful explosion” in the Russian-occupied Melitopol, a city in the southern Zaporizhzhia oblast, said Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol.
This comes on the heels of attacks in Kherson and Luhansk that killed at least three individuals who were working for the Russian-backed separatist authorities – in additional to the Berdiansk killings of a deputy administrator and his wife, who headed the city’s territorial election commission for the referendum to join Russia.
The Russian-backed separatist authorities in all these regions have laid the blame squarely on Kyiv for all these attacks, but Ukraine has yet to claim responsibility.
While details remain scant in the Melitopol explosion, Federov was optimistic on Telegram. “We are waiting for good news,” he wrote.
An apparent member of Wagner got into a fight with Rosgvardia members at a hotel in Voronezh after returning from Ukraine. He repeatedly mentions that he fought for his country.
Would not be surprised if this becomes a greater problem going forward. A sense of resentment from Wagner members and other volunteers that they did the fighting and put themselves at risk while others did not and the state didn’t fully mobilize.
Video at the (Twitter) link. Quite a scene. Imagine the Yelp reviews: “Zero stars. Generic decor. No one at the reception desk. Armed thugs wearing balaclavas fighting in the lobby.”
“Wow. Indian PM Narendra Modi directly tells Putin that now is not the time for war in a stunning public accusation. ‘I know that today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this’, Modi said.”
It is clear that this war must be won. We thank the people of Ukraine for their commitment to Democracy for their own country, but the fight they’re making is for Democracy everywhere.
We are in it until victory is won by the Ukrainian people. #SlavaUkraini -NP
ravensays
More reporting on the war.
Not that war, the new one between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. They are now shelling civilian targets, villages on each side of the border.
Because the way you win a war is by killing civilian men, women, children, their pets, and their livestock.
The whole Russian world is falling apart since they committed all their military to Ukraine.
Both of these countries are members of the Russian NATO equivalent, and the CSTO can’t or won’t do anything to stop the war.
@Archer83Able
#BREAKING: Kyrgyzstan accuses Tajikistan of shelling a number of Kyrgyz villages near the border.
Armed clashes reported along the entire perimeter of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
8:26 PM · Sep 15, 2022
As the lines get drawn a bit more clearly up in Kharkiv Oblast, there are signs that a big eraser is about to redraw everything down at the far end of the line in Kherson. That includes the Ukrainian military announcing that some of their forces are now holding an unexpected town in a very difficult position.
It was Kherson where the first rumblings of a major Ukrainian counteroffensive began in August. In the space of just over a week, Ukraine used HIMARS and other long-range precision weaponry to damage or disable both of the bridges that Russia used to move forces back and forth over the broad Dnipro River. Then Ukraine used the same weapons to slice up the bridges across the Inhulets River, cutting the Russian-occupied area in half. Since then, Russia has made various efforts to sustain its forces west of the Dnipro with barges or pontoon bridges. None of them seem to have been very effective, or lasted very long.
In the last week, as Ukraine was taking back Kharkiv Oblast, there were reports that Russian forces in Kherson were so starved for ammunition that they were either A) trying to pull back to a small perimeter around Kherson city, or B) negotiating with Ukraine to withdraw from the area entirely, so long as they got to keep their weapons. Neither of those things has happened so far, and considering how much investment Russia has placed in the idea that “Kherson is Russia forever,” the idea that they would decamp from the city without even an exchange of fire seems wildly unlikely.
Still, Ukraine has pressed against the lines in Kherson. So has Russia. Things there seem to be at a slow boil at the moment, with indications that anything like a stable front line is transient at best. [map at the link]
The biggest change in the northern part of the area […] is the liberation of Vysokopillya by Ukrainian forces, which the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense made official on Sep. 12. This area was heavily fortified, strongly defended by Russian forces, and acted as both a supply and command center for Russian movements toward the city of Kryvyi Rih, 40 kilometers to the north. Kryvyi Rih is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town, and Vladimir Putin has all but announced it’s a very special target for Russia. Surrendering Vysokopillya was more or less surrendering any hope that Russia would ever get to Kryvyi Rih. Pushing Russian forces from Vysokopillya was a big deal.
However, to the south of Vysokopillya two other towns—Olhyne and Arkhanhel’s’ke—[…] seem to be in dispute again, with Russian troops reported in at least part of both towns. This shows that Russia hasn’t given up on holding positions in this area, and the level of fighting suggests that Russia is not about to put down its weapons.
Ukraine’s bridgehead across the Inhulets River persists, aided by the capture of a Russian pontoon bridge that Ukraine used to capture Blahodativka. Russia has made daily attempts to push back on this area, but instead Ukraine seems to have solidified its hold. Just how many troops Ukraine has over the river isn’t known, but it’s enough to withstand everything Russia has sent at them so far. [map at the link]
In the area to the south and west of the Inhulets River, Snihurivka remains Russia’s biggest fortress town. Rumors that Russia was about to abandon it or that Ukraine was very close to liberating the town have all, so far, proven false. More than any other point on this or any map, Snihurivka seems to be a place where Ukraine is acting like Russia: launching daily assaults on the same position. Making daily retreats after suffering casualties.
To the south, Russia has captured the town of Blahodatne and is threatening that over Kyselivka. This bulge of Russian control has been slowly growing for weeks, and Ukraine doesn’t seem to be all that concerned. Maybe that’s because just to the south of that, Ukraine is growing its own pocket of control, liberating a number of small villages north of … also Kyselivka. Ukraine appears to be currently pressing in at this point, hitting towns like Bohordytske, which is part of Russia’s primary line.
When it comes to Kyselivka, it seems there is still no one there. Russia has left, Ukraine hasn’t come in. Something similar seems to be happening at Klapaya, where Russia forces are streaming away, with no sign that Ukraine is taking their place. […]
Okay, now we get to the weirdness. The Ukrainian command has announced that its forces have moved into Sofiivka. See Sofiivka? It’s way down there at the bottom. And way over in the red.
Russia has another of its heavily fortified (i.e., lots of trenches, lots of mines, lots of pre-built pillboxes) at Tomyna Balka. Despite a false report from CNN as the Kharkiv counteroffensive was breaking loose, Ukraine doesn’t seem to have seriously threatened Tomyna Balka.
And yet … there they are at Sofiivka. Or at least, so says the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
How did they get there? It would have to be a cross-country trip. But then, the area is flat as a pancake and there are no villages between area held by Ukraine and that position at Sofiivka. So apparently they just got in their armored carriers, or possibly tanks, and headed across the country to grab this spot.
If Ukraine actually holds Sofiivka, it puts enormous pressure on the towns of Stanislav and Shyroka Balka in that southern tip of the area. Ukraine was already pressing in from Oleksandrivka on the west, but holding this area seemed almost impossible without cover and with too easy access from both sides.
Maybe this is Ukraine’s answer to the “who has Oleksandrivka today?” problem. If Ukraine can actually take the whole coastal region around to Sofiivka, that whole southern area might be more defensible. It also puts them on the flank of all that digging in Russia has down at Tomyna Balka.
Whatever the immediate goal, the positioning of forces at Sofiivka is daring—and possibly represents a heating up of the counteroffensive in Kherson.
Remember how, all the way back about … 12 hours ago? When I was talking about how Ukrainian forces had apparently pulled back behind the Oskil River, and as a result Kupyansk was split down the middile?
Forget that:
The Ukrainian Special Unit Kraken reports the complete liberation of Kup’yans’k city after crossing the Oskil River clearing the eastern side of the city.
[video at the link]
This makes it difficult to believe that the river will long remain an effective boundary to Ukraine’s eastward push.
It might seem that, having already repeatedly shocked the legal community by defying all precedent, procedure, facts, and law, Judge Aileen Cannon might decide to tread a bit more carefully in her latest ruling. Except that’s what someone who doesn’t know Cannon might think, because what she did is what she always does: bent over beyond backwards to give Donald Trump whatever he wants.
The last series of exchanges from Cannon, the government, and Trump’s legal team had both sides turning in a list of candidates as potential special masters. […] She went straight to Trump’s list to select retired U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie. However, Dearie was the only choice on Trump’s list that the Department of Justice agreed to, so that could be seen as at least moderately reasonable. Next up, just how long will Dearie have to take a look at the documents? The Justice Department, naturally, wanted this over quickly. But Cannon decided to give Dearie until Nov. 30, meaning that there’s no danger that the documents will be available to the Department of Justice before the election. But even that isn’t the really appalling part of this latest Cannon missive.
That’s because in this ruling Cannon orders the Department of Justice to hand back all the documents, including those which are classified; denies the Department of Justice request to take action to protect national security; and hands herself the ability to decide whether or not any documents are actually classified.
Dearie has experience on the FISA court, which should give him some experience in dealing with national security issues and classified information. On the other hand, one of the things that Dearie did on the FISA court was sit on the court that signed off on the warrants for Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. How Dearie feels about that, given the six-year effort to discredit that warrant, isn’t known. But it certainly would seem to create a potential for conflict. And the fact that Trump’s team put Dearie on their list after all the time Trump has spent railing against the FISA court would seem to suggest that they have some insight into Dearie’s feelings on this point.
But still … the government approved Dearie. Dearie has experience and a long judicial record that seems solid enough. No one regards the Reagan-appointed former judge as another Cannon.
Oh, and in case Dearie comes back with a decision that doesn’t fall in line with the results Trump wants, Cannon made sure to underline the fact that she can always pick someone else writing, “The Court reserves the right to remove the Special Master.”
But even that’s still within the bounds of normality once you get past the idea that there should never have been a special master appointed in this case. It’s what comes next where things really start to unravel the threads of rationality.
Naturally, in special master cases, the special master gets to examine the documents. That’s the point. However, even in cases where the question involves prosecutors being in possession of documents possibly protected by attorney client privilege, judges order that a copy of those documents be sent to the special master for evaluation.
Cannon didn’t do that. While she did order that the government provide a copy of all the material to Trump’s attorneys, and did order that the FBI privilege team send a copy of their work to both Dearie and Trump’s team, when it comes to the actual documents, Cannon leaves absolutely no option but taking them all, the originals, and depositing them on Dearie’s front porch.
At a minimum, the Government shall make available to the Special Master the Seized Materials, the search warrant executed in this matter, and the redacted public versions of the underlying application materials for the search warrant.
There’s nothing in this order to suggest that the government even gets to hold on to a copy of the documents … unlike Trump’s team. One other thing that got left out of Cannon’s order: any concern at all about the Department of Justice’s statements around obstruction or threats to national security. Cannon just blew right past that without discussion.
But wait. It gets worse.
It gets worse because on Thursday Cannon also responded to the Justice Department’s request for a stay to allow them to continue using the documents in criminal investigations. That request pointed out that there were genuine national security concerns in sitting on these documents. For example, if the documents were shown to someone, that could put human assets, technical assets, and decisions made based on the intelligence in these documents at extreme risk. The criminal case is intrinsically bound up with the intelligence and security case, and can’t really be separated.
Cannon’s response? I don’t believe you.
For the reasons discussed below, the Government’s Motion is DENIED … the Motion effectively asks the Court to accept the following compound premises, neither of which the Court is prepared to adopt hastily without further review by a Special Master. The first premise underlying the Motion is that all of the approximately 100 documents isolated by the Government (and “papers physically attached to them”) are classified government records, and that Plaintiff therefore could not possibly have a possessory interest in any of them. The second is that Plaintiff has no plausible claim of privilege as to any of these documents.
In this ruling, Cannon is making two absolutely extraordinary claims: First, she accuses the government of lying about whether or not the documents are classified. Then she argues that Trump may have “a plausible claim of privilege.” In other words, Cannon is arguing for Trump’s “I declassified them” position even though Trump’s legal team never made this claim in any submission to the court. This, more even than her ruling to appoint a special master in the first place, is a flat out breakdown of the entire process.
There’s also the fact that in doing this, Cannon is placing herself in a position to adjudicate whether or not the documents are classified without reference to any other authority. She’s opened the door to the point where she could simply decide that the classified documents belong to Trump, no matter what anyone says.
All of this is extraordinarily dangerous, both to national security and to the usual form of legal proceeding where courts recognize the government as the authority in determining issues such as classification and security risk. There have been reasons to doubt the government’s position in the past, but in those cases judges have citied those reasons. Cannon has simply gone down the rabbit hole, and she’s taking the law with her.
There seems little doubt that, no matter the outcome of appeals, Trump is going to get what he wanted: a hefty delay, one that should please Republicans by sidelining any criminal investigation involving these materials until well after the election. But all of this has to be appealed anyway, because … good lord. This is bad law.
“Amazing reaction shots. The Kremlin press pool (unintentionally?) subtweets the boss right after he publicly threatened to unleash more attacks on Ukraine”
Kharkiv governor: Izium mass grave site is ‘blood, brutal terror’
At the mass grave site in Izium, about 99% of the bodies exhumed today showed signs of a violent death, said Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor, on Telegram.
“This is bloody, brutal terror,” he said. Synegubov described how many of the graves weren’t even marked with names – just with numbers.
While authorities said some of those buried at the grave site had likely been killed by shelling and airstrikes, investigators have prepared themselves for the worst, after the discoveries of dead civilians bearing signs of torture in Bucha and other previously occupied territories.
Synegubov said that today, exhumers uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one person “with a rope around his neck.” “Obviously, these people were tortured and executed,” he said “There are also children among the buried.”
Investigators will conduct forensic examinations on the exhumed bodies. “After the identities of the dead have been identified, all of them will be buried with due respect,” Synegubov said. “Each death will be investigated and will become evidence of Russia’s war crimes in international courts.”
As Donald Trump’s legal troubles intensified, he was in the market for impressive legal representation. There was, however, an important problem: Respected defense attorneys didn’t want anything to do with the former president.
There were a variety of explanations for this — the Republican’s track record of ignoring legal advice, his habit of refusing to pay bills, the regret expressed by his former lawyers, etc. — but the bottom line remained the same: Trump wanted to hire the best, but the best kept saying no.
As recently as a month ago, The Washington Post reported that the former president was represented by a legal defense team that includes a Florida insurance lawyer who’s never had a federal case, a past general counsel for a parking-garage company, and a former host from a propagandistic cable outlet. It was, by any fair measure, rather embarrassing.
Two weeks later, however, Trump secured the services of Chris Kise, Florida’s former solicitor general, and a credible legal professional who’s argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court. I joked at the time that I hope Kise was paid up front.
I was kidding — but evidently, Kise was not. Politico reported:
Donald Trump’s outside spending arm has paid $3 million to cover attorney Chris Kise’s legal work representing the former president, according to three people familiar with the arrangement. The $3 million paid by Save America PAC is a significant sum, and comes as Trump faces a number of federal and state probes that will require substantial legal help.
[Trump’s donors, including small-dollar cult followers, are paying his legal bills!]
[…] The Wall Street Journal published a related article, noting that Kise “secured an upfront payment of $3 million.”
This isn’t normal. Client retainers are routine, even the best lawyers do not typically seek multi-million-dollar payments in advance.
It’s almost as if Kise had reason to wonder whether Trump would actually pay his bills.
That said, if Politico’s reporting is accurate, the former president didn’t reach into his own pocket to pay the upfront invoice: The lawyer’s hefty fee is being paid by Trump’s Save America PAC — which, coincidentally, also appears to be drawing scrutiny from federal prosecutors.
Kise will reportedly represent the former president in both the Mar-a-Lago scandal and the Jan. 6 investigation. By all appearances, Trump needs the help.
Other reports suggested that Kise had to establish his own law firm and offices in order to take the case. Any previous, reputable organizations he had been partnered with wanted nothing to do with Trump.
Some bits of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
* In Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, a newly released Monmouth University poll found Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro with a surprisingly large lead over Republican Doug Mastriano, 54% to 36%.
* On a related note, it came as something of a surprise today when the New Jersey Globe reported that Mastriano, a right-wing state senator in Pennsylvania, was also registered to vote in New Jersey as recently as 2021.
Good news. Mastriano needs to lose, and he needs to lose by a large margin.
Traditionally, prominent politicians, especially in Republican circles, went out of their way to appear aligned with U.S. military leaders. In recent years, however, a variety of prominent GOP voices have gone in a very different direction.
As regular readers may recall, Donald Trump didn’t just look askance at military service, he was especially derisive of generals and admirals, questioning their competence, blaming military leaders for failed missions he approved, and even going on the offensive against his own former defense secretary, retired Gen. James Mattis — whom he accused of acting like a “Democrat” for questioning the Republican’s less-defensible national security moves.
Trump has also reportedly lashed out at generals privately as “a bunch of dopes and babies.”
Evidently, Blake Masters, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Arizona, has argued along similar lines. Vice News reported:
Blake Masters, the Republican nominee for Senate in Arizona, has repeatedly said the U.S. should clean house on the senior ranks of the military, pushing the claim that all the generals and admirals are “woke” and “left-wing” losers who’ve never won a war. His solution? Fire them all, and promote “the most conservative colonels.”
At an August 2021 event, for example, a few months after launching his Senate campaign, Masters derided generals as “left-wing,” adding, “I would love to see all the generals get fired.” A month later, he went to tell an audience, “I think you probably want to fire most or all the generals and replace them with apolitical colonels, who will probably have conservative politics.” Two months after that, the Republican referred to leading generals as “woke corporate bozos.”
The report added, “Masters explicitly called for a wholesale firing of the generals at least seven times between August 2021 and March 2022, according to a VICE News review of his remarks, and harshly criticized military leadership numerous other times.”
To be sure, it’s a free country. Politicians are not required to support the military or its leaders. It’s certainly unusual for a Senate hopeful to repeatedly call for the ouster of his own country’s generals […]
But it’s worth emphasizing just how misguided an idea this is. In authoritarian regimes, politicians take power, oust military leaders whose ideologies are deemed suspect, and promote those considered to be aligned politically with the country’s rulers.
In the United States, we know better — or at least, we’re supposed to.
In theory, it’s tempting to shrug off rhetoric like this, and dismiss Masters’ nonsense as hollow posturing from a far-right hard-liner. But there’s a broader principle at stake: The more Republicans talk about politicizing the military, the more unsettling their rhetoric becomes.
Here’s more pieces of the puzzle. We now learn that “Perla,” the woman who coaxed the migrants on to the DeSantis Air flights under false pretenses, paid another migrant, a 27 year old Venezuelan named Emmanuel, for the contact information of the migrants Perla would eventually coax onto the plane. Emmanuel gave her contact info for about 10 migrants he’d met at the migrant center where they were staying.
Emmanuel told the San Antonio Report that he was at first hesitant to give Perla, who he described as a blonde driving a white truck, the migrants’ contact information. Perla told him the money came from an “anonymous benefactor” who was also paying for the flights.
Emmanuel showed the reporter, Raquel Torres, a picture of Perla’s business card which included her first name and a phone number that went unanswered Thursday evening.
What seems clear now is that “Perla” was tasked with organizing or procuring Venezuelan immigrants in Texas for the flights to Martha’s Vineyard which Ron DeSantis says was organized and paid for by the state of Florida.
Cannon’s order denying the DOJ’s stay request is insane enough that it seems to have overshadowed the other thing she did yesterday: issuing the attached “order appointing a special master.” The actual details of the order are gobsmackingly bad: the order neuters Dearie’s authority before the process begins, boxes in the DOJ, and puts Trump’s counsel in the driver’s seat of the entire process.
Normally, a special master would step in as a neutral party to sort out privilege matters — essentially, he would do the same thing that DOJ’s taint team did, but with the imprimatur of impartiality. This means a special master reviews the documents, identifies those where privilege might arise, and then consults with the party to come to a resolution on whether privilege exists or not (ruling on the matter if the parties can’t agree). Cannon’s order subverts that setup, giving Trump’s counsel a lead role in the process and consigning the special master to a backseat role.
Pages 3-5 are worth a look. Cannon imposes an insane “precise workflow” that gives Trump’s team full access to all of the seized documents, including the classified ones, and then allows Trump to sort the documents into four buckets. The four buckets are designed to block the DOJ from continuing to make some of the major arguments raised in its briefing — namely, that many of the seized documents are government records not subject to the PRA. The special master only weighs in after this review, and Cannon goes out of her way to make explicit that she will review all of his decisions de novo (aka without any deference to his recommendations). On top of all this, Cannon instructs the DOJ to secure all necessary clearances for Trump’s team — which, if WaPo’s reporting is to be believed, means reading his lawyers into a cabinet-level SCI compartment usually cleared for only a handful of people.
Honestly, there’s barely a reason to appoint a special master if this is going to be the process. Which, of course, is presumably what Cannon wants.
[…] It seems clear that the Venezuelan migrants who ended up in Martha’s Vineyard were lied to. They were told they were going to Boston and that they would be given working papers, 90 days of support and various other services there. More reporting is going to be necessary to find out precisely what they were told. It seems quite likely that since they were being lied to, “Perla” (the organizer of this scheme) told different people different things to get them on the plane. But if there’s a legal problem it’s likely tied to the mix of fraud and crossing state lines.
As a political matter, though, I think the dangling part of this that could come back to bite DeSantis is the issue of why they sent some crew to Texas to get these people. In political terms, weird can sometimes be worse than wrong. Did he want to have a stunt where he was ridding Florida of unwanted migrants but couldn’t find any and had to go to Texas? Does Texas have more Perlas who will trick people standing outside immigrant shelters into getting into planes on behalf of politically thirsty governors? And did DeSantis use Florida taxpayers’ money that was only approved for harassing immigrants in Florida? By a moral calculus these are comparatively trivial questions, but they may paradoxically be the most significant in other ways.
replace them with apolitical colonels, who will probably have conservative politics.
So if a senior military officer is centre or centre-right, or even progressive, they are not apolitical. But a conservative officer is apolitical. I do not think that conservatives use words in the same way that other English speakers do.
The House Oversight Committee held a hearing Thursday about how the fossil fuel industry chokes the life out of any real action on the climate crisis. Democrats invited experts to provide testimony, and Republicans acted like fools while auditioning for a Fox News guest spot. It was standard operating procedure, really, but Thursday’s debate stood out as particularly offensive when Rep. Clay Higgins from Louisiana started lecturing environmental lawyer Raya Salter about the wonders of fossil fuels.
Salter is the founder of the Energy Justice Law and Policy Center and member of the New York State Climate Action Council. Higgins is one of the 139 House Republicans who voted to overturn the results of a free and fair election. It’s absurd that he’s still allowed to serve in Congress. At the very least, no one should listen to anything he says, but here we are. House members can trade stocks and enable coup attempts. It’s a real chill vibe there.
Higgins demanded Salter “tell the world” how she personally would dispose of petrochemical products, which are literally killing the planet. Where’s her plan?
Everything you have — your clothes, your glasses, the car you got here on, your phone, the table you’re sitting at, the chair, the carpet under your feet — everything you’ve got is petrochemical products. What would you do with that?
Salter responded, “If I had that power, actually I don’t need that power, because what I would do is ask you, sir from Louisiana … ”
Higgins obviously interrupted her at this point because she was a woman speaking for longer than two seconds. [video at the link]
Salter passionately pointed out that petrochemical plants release pollutants that are killing “Black and poor people in Louisiana” while Higgins, a fully owned subsidiary of the fossil fuel industry, went full plantation master on her.
HIGGINS: My good lady, I’m trying to give you the floor, boo …
Yes, he called Salter “boo.” When the committee chair meekly asked Higgins to stop talking over Salter, Higgins said, “It’s MY time. If I reclaim my time, I shall. I’m going to give this young lady an opportunity: You might not like it but America needs to hear it. You’ve got no answer do you, young lady? About what to do with petrochemical products? So I’ll move on.”
Higgins thought he’d exposed Salter and other environmental activists as clueless hypocrites who smear the fossil fuel industry’s good name while enjoying all the benefits of electricity … and pollution and global warming and contaminated water. However, Salter was pretty clear about her preferred plan of action: “We need to move away from petrochemicals, we need to shut down the petrochemical facilities in [Louisiana] and move away from plastic.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez immediately called out Higgins’ boorish behavior. She told Salter:
I just want you to know that in the four years that I’ve sat on this committee, I have never seen members of Congress — Republican or Democrat — disrespect a witness in the way that I have seen them disrespect you today. I do not care what party they are in. I’ve never seen anything like that. For the gentleman of Louisiana and the comfort he felt in yelling at you like that, there’s more than one way to get a point across.
Out of respect for arcane House rules, Ocasio-Cortez referred to Higgins as a “gentleman” but she definitely doesn’t think he is one in reality. She added:
Frankly, men who treat women like that in public, I fear how they treat them in private
Yes, Ocasio-Cortez implied that Higgins is probably even more abusive to women privately. That’s not just a cold diss. Studies support her fear.
(UPDATE: I see I have to clarify that Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t going out of her way to be polite, like she was at a country club. This wasn’t a press conference but the House floor where she would’ve been sanctioned for violating House rules.)
Higgins is a jackass and seditionist, and Republicans like him are only going to get worse if they regain the majority.
There are few things less fun than thinking you are totally going to “own” someone and then have them turn around and not even care. […] The past week or so, Republican governors have been telling migrants that they are going to be sent to places where there would be jobs and housing waiting for them, only to send them to Martha’s Vineyard and Vice President Kamala Harris’s house. It’s a pretty terrible thing to do — an idea no doubt inspired by the “reverse freedom rides” during the Civil Rights movement, in which conservative governors in the Jim Crow South sent Black people to Hyannis, Massachusetts, telling them that jobs and housing were waiting for them and that the Kennedys would be there to greet them as they got off the bus.
The goal here was obvious — to point out liberal NIMBY hypocrisy on the issue of immigration, to show that the Left is only welcoming to immigrants when those immigrants are in someone else’s state. So far, that has not turned out to be the case! And because it’s turned out not to be the case, they have been hard at work trying to cobble together the story they want to hear. It’s kind of like The Secret. They think if they keep pointing and laughing and saying, “Oh look at all the liberals in their sanctuary cities freaking out!” anyway, that somehow this will come to pass.
[…] The 50 or so Venezuelan and Colombian migrants that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (possibly illegally) spent taxpayer money to fly to Martha’s Vineyard were told not only that they would have lodging and jobs, but that they were actually being flown to Boston. Which would have made at least some amount of sense given the many lawyers and legal experts in Boston. But rather than freaking out and exposing their own hypocrisy as the GOP had hoped, the residents of Martha’s Vineyard rallied to get them food, shelter, and medical care. [video at the link]
Of course, conservatives found one clip of a woman explaining that they would have to find somewhere else for the migrants (who, again, thought they were going to Boston) to live, in order to cry “liberal hypocrisy!”
Martha’s Vineyard is an island — a very small island, with only 17,000 year-round residents and a current housing crisis. It is not a place where there are a lot of jobs or homes or a lot of the help these people need. The Black Dog Bakery can only employ so many people. There is, however, help to be had in nearby areas like Boston, where there is a lot of legal help, and in Providence, where the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, a non-profit specifically dedicated to helping immigrants, is located. It is not hypocritical to treat these people like human beings and handle this in a way that is both thoughtful and effective.
Via the Miami Herald:
“Listen, Ron Desantis, one more Venezuelan speaking here,” he said, turning to film the crowd that had come to see the migrants flown by the state of Florida to Martha’s Vineyard and the Episcopalian church where they were now sleeping, eating and praying. “And, well, just grateful for the little prank you pulled on us.”
“You hit a home run.”
About 24 hours after they unwittingly agreed to board private planes to the island, a group of nearly 50 migrants — most, if not all, hailing from Venezuela — remained in limbo Thursday night as volunteer attorneys worked to understand their legal situations.
Migrants in the group said they’d agreed to fly to Massachusetts on the promise of jobs and assistance but didn’t realize they were bound for Martha’s Vineyard. No one on the island knew they were coming and, according to their attorneys, they’d been given falsified U.S. addresses by immigration officials, perhaps ensuring that they’d be deemed in the country illegally.
“They were told there was a surprise present for them, and that there would be jobs and housing awaiting for them when they arrived. This was obviously a sadistic lie,” said Rachel Self, a Boston immigration attorney who was assisting with the migrants’ cases.
Conservatives have also tried to claim “liberal hypocrisy” over the fact that when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent 300 immigrants to Chicago recently, Lori Lightfoot sent some of them to hotels in Burr Ridge, a “Republican suburb.” This was likely less “liberal hypocrisy” than it was because the Hampton Inn in Burr Ridge was able to accommodate a large number of people at a reasonable rate.
For the record, Chicago has the second highest population of Mexican-born residents in the country (670,000) after Los Angeles, and the highest number of Polish immigrants (70,000), and while I can’t find actual statistics on the number of Ukrainian immigrants here, I do literally live in a neighborhood called “Ukrainian Village” and occasionally shop at the Ukrainian Market down the street, as they have great rye bread and also sell some kind of fugazi Viennetta there.
Abbott also thought he was cute this week sending two busloads of confused, hungry immigrants to Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington, DC, but the reaction he’d hoped for never materialized. Volunteers, once again, were upset about how the migrants had been tricked and treated, not that they were there to begin with.
Via CNN:
SAMU First Response, one of the groups helping migrants in Washington, was not provided a heads up, according to the group’s managing director, Tatiana Laborde.”By the time our team got to the migrants, they were very lost,” Laborde told CNN late Thursday morning. “(The migrants) didn’t understand where they were standing — this is a very residential area.”
“Yes, we are receiving them, but what happened this morning and them being left in the middle of the sidewalk without coordination is what makes this job extremely challenging,” Laborde said.The leader of a civil rights organization working with Hispanic Americans also blasted Abbott for the busing on Thursday.
“They were just literally dumped like human garbage in front of the vice president’s house. That’s un-Christian un-Texan, un-American, and something that should not be allowed,” Domingo Garcia, national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, told reporters Thursday afternoon outside Harris’ residence.
Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott don’t know from doing things in a measured and reasonable way, designed to produce the most good for the most people. All they care about is getting to “own the libs” and prove that we are hypocrites who, deep down, are just as cruel as they are, despite the fact that it would take significantly less effort to just stop being so cruel to begin with.
They will be temporarily housed at Joint Base Cape Cod, according to Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker.
On Friday morning, the dozens of migrants who landed on Martha’s Vineyard this week filed out of the church they’d been sleeping in for two nights to hugs from the local volunteers.
They now had full bags and new cellphones. As they boarded the three white buses that would take them to the ferry, many cried. Eliomar Aguero, 30, put up a peace sign, smiling and thanking the dozens of volunteers waving him on. “Thank you all,” Aguero said in Spanish.
Soon, he and his wife, Maria, would board a ferry. Massachusetts authorities announced Friday that the 50 migrants would be moved from Martha’s Vineyard to a military base in Cape Cod so they can find shelter and chart next steps. The move is voluntary for the migrants, the state said.
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said the migrants will be offered “shelter and humanitarian supports” in dormitory-style rooms at Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne. State and local officials will also ensure migrants have food, shelter and other services. Baker said he plans to activate up to 125 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to aid in the relief effort.
[…] the unexpected arrivals are catching locals off guard and sending them scrambling to find supplies and shelter for the newcomers. Many of the migrants are from Venezuela, a South American nation that has been engulfed in a political and economic crisis, with shortages of food, water and electricity.
In a speech at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual gala on Thursday night, President Biden lashed out at Republicans.
“Instead of working with us on solutions, Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props,” he said. “What they’re doing is simply wrong, it’s un-American, it’s reckless.” […]
The facility also has space for access to legal services and health care. In the past, the base has sheltered Louisiana residents who fled Hurricane Katrina and Massachusetts residents affected by covid-19.
“We are grateful to the providers, volunteers and local officials that stepped up on Martha’s Vineyard over the past few days to provide immediate services to these individuals,” Baker said in a statement.
“While Wednesday’s arrival on Martha’s Vineyard was unexpected, the extraordinary response was not,” Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy said in the statement. “The work of so many state and local partners exemplify the best values of our Commonwealth, providing safe shelter, food and care for individuals that had been through a long harrowing journey.”
State officials said they had a plan to assist the migrants who decide to stay on the base, including clothing, personal hygiene kits and food. The migrants will have access to health care and mental health counseling in their native language. The base is unable to accept donations, officials said.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Friday threatened to escalate his war in Ukraine, even as he declared that the “main goal” of his invasion was limited to taking control of the Donbas region in the country’s east. [That’s NOT what Putin said earlier!]
In a news conference in Uzbekistan at the conclusion of a regional summit, Mr. Putin claimed that Ukraine was attempting to carry out “terrorist acts” inside Russia and “to damage our civilian infrastructure.” [Projection. Claiming others are doing what he is actually doing.]
“We are, indeed, responding rather restrainedly, but that’s for the time being,” Mr. Putin said. “The Russian armed forces delivered a couple of sensitive blows there. Well, what about that? We will assume that these are warning strikes. If the situation continues to develop in this way, the answer will be more serious.”
Mr. Putin appeared to be referring to Russian cruise missile strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure in recent days that caused blackouts in parts of the country and damaged a dam in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih.
His comments came after two days of meetings with Asian leaders showed that his war had strained Russia’s relationships with some of its most important international partners. On Thursday, Mr. Putin acknowledged in a meeting with Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader, that China had “questions and concerns” about the war. And on Friday, Mr. Putin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India that he knew of the “concerns that you constantly express” about the war.
“We will do our best to stop this as soon as possible,” [Bullshit] Mr. Putin told Mr. Modi in televised comments at the beginning of their meeting.
In Friday’s news conference, Mr. Putin made his first extensive public comments after Ukraine’s rout of Russian forces in the country’s northeast last weekend — a battlefield defeat that sparked unusual criticism of the Kremlin inside Russia. Supporters of the war said on state television that Mr. Putin was not waging the war with sufficient intensity.
Mr. Putin played down the Ukrainian counteroffensive, saying with a smirk, “Let’s see how it goes and how it ends.”
Asked by a Russian journalist whether Russia’s war plan needed to be adjusted, Mr. Putin insisted that it did not. But he also defined the main goal as control only of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, where Russia has recognized the independence of two Russian-backed separatist “republics.” The comment appeared to signal that the Kremlin saw other territory that Russian forces now occupy, such as the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, as being of secondary importance.
And Mr. Putin made no mention on Friday of the broader goals of “demilitarizing” and “denazifying” Ukraine that he announced when he started the war in February — terms that were widely seen as Mr. Putin declaring his intention to achieve political control over all of Ukraine.
“The main goal is the liberation of the entire territory of Donbas,” Mr. Putin said. “This work continues despite these counteroffensive attempts by the Ukrainian army. The general staff considers some things important, some things secondary, but the main task remains unchanged, and it is being implemented.”
Russia currently occupies most, but not all, of the Donbas. Several key towns and cities in the region’s Donetsk province, such as Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, are still controlled by Ukraine.
In his news conference, Mr. Putin did not set any conditions for possible peace talks with Ukraine — a departure from the rhetoric of senior Russian officials who have demanded total capitulation by President Volodymyr Zelensky. Asked under what conditions “dialogue” with Ukraine would be possible, Mr. Putin responded: “The first condition is that they agree. They don’t want to.”
An adviser to Mr. Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Friday that Russian forces had brought “rampant terror, violence, torture and mass murders” to the territory they occupied in Ukraine.
“We have no right to leave people alone with the Evil,” Mr. Podolyak said on Twitter. “‘Conflict resolution’ is extremely simple. Immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the entire territory of Ukraine.”
Local Venezuelan leaders and other immigration advocates gathered in Doral where they denounced what they call DeSanits’ blatant disregard for human life and the lies he told to the Cuban and Venezuelan communities. They point to a September 7th press conference in Miami where they said he promised that neither Cubans nor Venezuelans would be sent out of the state.
Ukrainian armed forces have hit four areas with Russian troops, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The armed forces also targeted an unloading station, in turn preventing Russian forces from deploying additional reserves.
Just try and imagine how many unmarked mass grave we’re going to reveal in Mariupol.
Satellite images are already showing giant fields of death around the city.
ravensays
More on the fighting in the former USSR.
It is a border dispute. It would probably be easier to just have the UN or some neutral agency come up with a border.
I looked at a few photos of the area of battle.
It’s treeless desert.
It doesn’t look like it is worth fighting over.
Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border: Almost 30 reported dead in clashes
Elsa Maishman – BBC News
Fri, September 16, 2022 at 2:14 PM
A still from a video released by Kyrgyz border guards, which they said showed fighting on the border
Almost 30 people have been reported killed and dozens injured in clashes on the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border.
Fighting regularly flares up between the two former Soviet states, whose border has been disputed since the collapse of the USSR.
A fresh skirmish which began earlier in the week continued on Friday, despite the two countries agreeing a ceasefire.
Both sides blame the other for beginning the violence and breaching the ceasefire.
Some 24 people in Kyrgyzstan have so far been killed, the Kyrgyz health ministry said on Friday.
Earlier reports from Tajikistan said at least three people had been killed there.
Almost 20,000 people have fled their homes to avoid the violence, a regional branch of the Red Cross reported.
The conflict has renewed fears of an all-out war between the two countries.
In 2021, unprecedented fighting killed almost 50 people.
The dispute flared up on Wednesday with at least two people killed in three separate incidents.
Kyrgyz border guards accused Tajikistan of taking positions on part of the border that has not been demarcated, while Tajikistan said Kyrgyz guards had opened fire without provocation.
The countries share a 1,000-km (600-mile) border, more than a third of which is disputed.
Russia -which has close ties with both countries – has offered to mediate, calling for “urgent” measures to stop the violence on Friday.
A ceasefire took effect from 16:00 local time (10:00 GMT), but Kyrgyzstan said two of its villages were later shelled.
It accused its neighbour of using tanks and armoured personnel carriers.
In turn, Tajikistan accused Kyrgyz forces of shelling an outpost and seven villages with “heavy weaponry”.
“Migrants caught in DeSantis’ monstrous stunt allege federal DHS agent involvement”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ inhumane and depraved stunt keeps getting worse as more facts emerge. On Wednesday, DeSantis loaded 48 migrants—who are asylum-seekers mostly from Venezuela—onto planes in in San Antonio, Texas. They then flew them to Florida, then eventually on to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, where there are no refugee services. Officials there had no warning, but the community rallied in support of the incomers to the point where officials received so many donations and volunteers that they had to turn them away.
That’s the heartwarming part of the story. The part that makes this so much worse than we even knew before is emerging as the story comes from the migrants themselves through the immigration attorneys who have mobilized to help them. That includes the allegation that U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents assisted DeSantis in this stunt.
According to the migrants, DHS agents met the migrants as they were boarding the plane. The agents gave them false addresses of homeless shelters from all over the country—from Tacoma, Washington, to Florida—and told them to use them as their contact addresses. “According to the paperwork provided to them, the migrants are required to check in with the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] office nearest to the fake address chosen for them by DHS, or be permanently removed from the United States,” Self said. Some are required to check in as early as Monday morning.
“It could not be clearer that this is an attempt to have these people ordered to be removed even if they try as hard as they can to comply with the instructions provided to them,” Self told a group of reporters.
“Their biggest concern today is that many of them have dates to appear in San Antonio Monday morning. Tacoma, Washington Monday morning. Washington, D.C. Monday morning,” Self said. “Their biggest concern is compliance.” Tallahassee immigration attorney Elizabeth Ricci told the Orlando Sentinel Friday that DHS and ICE had to be involved. “ICE likely conspired with the governor’s office to pull off the stunt,” Ricci said. “It couldn’t have been done without their direct involvement.”
DHS officials haven’t responded to the allegation yet, and they fucking need to.
The migrants were lured onto the planes thinking they were getting jobs and housing. Emmanuel, a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant, told the San Antonio Report that he had been paid $200 in cash by a woman who identified herself as “Perla” to recruit fellow migrants to board the flights. He said Perla told him the migrants would be sent to “sanctuary states” where the government would help.
She told him an “anonymous benefactor” was funding the operation, including his payment. “Perla informed me that in those sanctuary states, the state has the benefits to help migrants,” Emmanuel told the Report. “I’ve just been the mediator because I like to help people.”
[…] Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is based in Boston, is providing free legal services to the migrants. The group also says that it is investigating claims by migrants that they were tricked or sent against their will into taking the flights by DeSantis, making it a possible violation of human trafficking laws.
DeSantis remains belligerent and monstrous and promises this will continue. He says he has people in Texas who are intercepting Venezuelans seeking refuge in Florida, where they likely have family they want to rejoin. “What we’re trying to do is profile, ‘OK, who do you think is trying to get to Florida?’ You’re trying to identify who’s most likely to come.” Are DeSantis’ “people” in Texas the DHS agents who allegedly helped him essentially kidnap these 48 people, including families with children?
The Department of Justice needs to be investigating this now. That was true before the allegations emerged that federal employees—agents of the DHS—were complicit in DeSantis’ monstrous stunt. Those allegations make a federal investigation imperative, and urgent.
[…] as investigators exhumed mass graves of tortured and murdered Ukrainians, a skeletal hand was found with a Ukrainian-colored wristband. It’s a soul-crushing, grizzly image, but this meme transforms it into a symbol of defiance.
[…] After his disastrous SCO summit, Putin’s plane diverted from Moscow to head presumably to Putin’s castle in Sochi for an unplanned vacation.
Germany took control of the German business of Russian oil giant Rosneft Oil Co. as Berlin races to safeguard its energy supplies before its planned ban on Russian oil imports kicks in later this year. The German government said it would place Rosneft’s German subsidiaries under trusteeship.
There is crazy shit going down in Florida with Trump’s warrant case, where US District Judge Aileen Cannon just denied the government’s motion to stay her order not to use classified documents to investigate Donald Trump for the crime of stealing classified documents — at least not yet. And if you are thinking, “Holy shit, that’s crazy! That’s like a judge ordering the cops not to look at the sack of marked bills it found in the robber’s freezer!” you are exactly right. We have left the realm of actual law, and entered Crazytown in the state of Banana Republic, USA.
As we all know by now, after months of negotiations and a subpoena for documents which went largely ignored, the FBI was granted a warrant based on a showing of probable cause that they would find classified documents at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, which they did. After failing to challenge the warrant for two weeks, during which time the Justice Department conducted a filter for anything which might be subject to attorney-client privilege, Trump and his lawyers filed a batshit pile of nonsense masquerading as a lawsuit. By sheer luck, they happened to wind up in the courtroom of Judge Aileen Cannon, one of the Trumpiest of Trump appointees, who spent the past month giving them everything their hearts desired.
Not only is she appointing senior Judge Raymond Dearie as special master to filter out documents covered by attorney-client privilege, replicating a task already undertaken by the government in the two weeks while Trump’s lawyers sat there with their thumbs up their asses, but she’s tasked him with “making recommendations to the Court as to any privilege disputes between the parties (including any formal assertions of executive privilege).” Not to put too fine a point on it, but that is fucking nuts.
There is no argument that the executive branch owns all these documents, and the Presidential Records Act vests jurisdiction over executive privilege disputes with the US District Court in DC. Trump’s lawyers have suggested that it’s possible he could have declared them personal records, although there’s a procedure for that, and it doesn’t involve telling Melania to stuff papers in her brassiere and making a run for it. They’ve also suggested, without coming out and actually saying it, that Trump might have declassified the secret ones before he left the White House. Which is ridiculous, but wouldn’t make them any less government property were it actually true.
That is crazy enough, but what Judge Cannon did last night is so off-the-wall that it’s entirely possibly that even the Eleventh Circuit, which is dominated by Trump appointees, is going to toss it out. Because last week the Justice Department offered Judge Cannon an off-ramp in the form of a motion for partial stay to allow them to continue using documents with classified markings in their investigation, and to exempt those documents from the special master review. The government gets really, really touchy about letting people who are not the government look at top secret defense secrets. We are, after all, talking about stuff that can only be examined in a SCIF.
But instead of taking the off-ramp, Judge Cannon put the pedal to the metal. In a fuckbonkers denial of the motion, she brushed aside the sworn declaration by the deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division that the investigations of the intelligence fallout and the criminal activity involved in the unlawful retention of classified data are two sides of the same coin. Instead she adopted Trump’s position that the government is inherently untrustworthy, and so the DOJ needs her eyes on its internal investigation at all times.
[…] But that’s not even the craziest part! Because classification authority flows from the sitting president, and if President Joe Biden or his designee says that something is classified, then it is by definition classified. And that applies to any document that Donald Trump might claim to have declassified on his way out of the White House. Just to make that really clear, Trump can claim as a defense that the documents weren’t classified when he took them, but if Joe Biden says the document is classified as of today, THEN IT IS CLASSIFIED.
And yet Judge Cannon treats the classification status of these documents as an issue on which there could be an actual disagreement. […]
She even seems to entertain the idea that Trump could have declassified government documents and then converted them to personal use.
[…] That is pure Calvinball. Classified documents are definitionally government property, and even before he left office, Donald Trump had no personal “possessory interest” in them. And he can’t assert executive privilege (much less attorney-client privilege) against the sitting president with regard to documents which are the exclusive domain of the sitting president. This is so ridiculous that any argument about it inevitably descends into gobsmacked tautology. But here we are, with Judge Cannon making no bones about inventing a new set of rules for the former president who installed her on the bench after he’d lost the election. […]
And, to top it all off, she’s ordering the government to “Make available for inspection by Plaintiff’s counsel, with controlled access conditions (including necessary clearance requirements) and under the supervision of the Special Master, the documents marked as classified and the papers attached to such documents.”
There is no fucking way the DOJ is going to hand Top Secret documents over to the special master to be stored in his office, much less let Trump’s freak show lawyers see them. So look for and appeal to land at the Eleventh Circuit tonight. […]
(CNN)A former top official in the Trump White House counsel’s office told the National Archives last fall that, according to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, there were only 12 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago and they were just filled with newspaper clippings, a source familiar with the matter told CNN…
Reginald @240, other reports say Mark Meadows played a large role in supervising the packing of the boxes that were taken from the White House, so he may have lied to the National Archives, (and to the White House counsel?), and he may have been aware that he was lying.
[…] On Friday evening, The Washington Post reported a new aspect to the Doc-a-Lago affair. As with most such information, it showed once again that not only did Trump commit multiple crimes in taking and holding these documents, obstruction was apparent at every possible step. It wasn’t simply that he dragged his feet in response to requests, demands, and subpoenas from the National Archives and Department of Justice. Trump and his staff did what Trump always does, they lied.
In this case, the latest revelation is that Trump tried to push the National Archives off by claiming he didn’t even have any documents covered under the Presidential Records Act, much less compartmentalized information on the nuclear defense capabilities of a foreign power. Instead of hundreds of classified documents, and over 11,000 pages of documents that definitely are covered by the PRA, Trump told the National Archives that he had just 12 boxes of “news clippings.”
Making this even more egregious: This statement reportedly came directly from former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
According to the Post, National Archives attorney Gary Stern spoke with former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin. Philbin told Stern that he had spoken to Meadows about concerns Trump had left the White House with presidential records. But according to Meadows, Trump didn’t have anything. Just that dozen boxes of clippings.
According to Meadows and Philbin, “Trump’s team was aware of no other materials.”
This is an enormous lie. First, there was the simply quantity of the documents Trump ferried away. The National Archives got 15 boxes back in January. The FBI took more documents in July. And FBI agents took 12 boxes in the search at Mar-a-Lago. On top of that, we know they didn’t take everything. Donald Trump and Mark Meadows may not be excessively clever, but there should be an assumption they can tell the difference between twelve and more than thirty.
Then comes the actual nature of the documents. Even if Judge Aileen Cannon chooses not to believe the FBI, the National Archives have already stated that they found more than 150 classified documents just in the materials that were handed to them in January. That was before another stack of classified documents was handed over in July. And before the FBI carried out it’s search in August. In all, there were over 300 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
And, thanks to that one photo provided in a DOJ filing, we not only know that Trump has atrocious taste in carpet, but that these documents were clearly marked as containing some of the most sensitive information in existence.
[…] A spokesperson for Meadows has responded to the Post story with a statement that Meadows, “did not personally review the boxes at Mar A Lago and did not have a role in examining or verifying what was or wasn’t contained within them.” It’s too bad that’s not what he told Philbin.
If Meadows didn’t personally review the boxes, but he told Philbin they contained only ‘news clippings,’ then where did he get that information? Meadows deserves a chance to explain. Under oath.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a statement Saturday saying the main power line to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is working again.
The agency says all four main external power lines for the nuclear plant were shut off in recent weeks, with Russian shelling causing damage to them.
The 750 kilovolt (kV) line, one of the four lines, was shut off on Sept. 11 and reconnected on Sept. 16, according to IAEA.
“The restored 750 kilovolt (kV) line is now providing Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – whose last operating reactor was shut down on 11 September – with the electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other essential safety functions,” the statement reads.
The plant has been using back-up power lines to continue safety functions but has not been providing power to houses, factories and other buildings that rely on it for electricity since Sept. 5.
“The three other main external 750 kV power lines that were lost earlier during the conflict remain down. All the ZNPP’s six reactors are in a cold shutdown state, but they still require power to maintain necessary safety functions,” IAEA stated.
The nuclear plant is still under Russian control, IAEA says, but Ukrainians are handling its operations.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said there are still major concerns about the plant, despite the improvements, due to the conflict and shelling occurring in the areas around Zaporizhzhia. […]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
The Czech Republic, who currently hold the EU presidency, have called for a “special international tribunal” after a mass grave was discovered in Izium, a town in north-eastern Ukraine. More than 440 bodies have been discovered by Ukrainian officials, with some found with their hands tied behind their backs. In a series of tweets on Saturday, Jan Lipavský, the Czech Republic’s minister of foreign affairs said: “Russia left behind mass graves of hundreds of shot and tortured people in the Izyum area. In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent. We must not overlook it. We stand for the punishment of all war criminals. #StandwithUkraine. I call for the speedy establishment of a special international tribunal that will prosecute the crime of aggression.”
Russia is likely to stubbornly defend the Luhansk oblast in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region amid Kyiv’s counteroffensive, but it is unclear if Moscow’s forces have “sufficient reserves or adequate morale” to withstand another concerted Ukrainian assault, the UK Ministry of Defence says. Its latest intelligence briefing says: “Any substantial loss of territory in Luhansk will unambiguously undermine Russia’s strategy.” The assessment comes after Ukrainian forces recently recaptured more than 6,000 sq km of territory including the city of Izium, long regarded as the gateway to the Donbas.
…
Joe Biden has warned Vladimir Putin not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine. The US president was asked in an interview with CBS News what he would say to Putin if he was considering using the weapons. Biden said: “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. You will change the face of war unlike anything since World War II.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister has renewed criticism of Germany for failing to send tanks to help fight Russian forces, saying the new weapons pledged by Berlin were “not what we need most”. Berlin announced on Thursday it would send Kyiv more multiple rocket launchers and “Dingo” armoured troop-carriers as Ukraine’s troops carry out a counteroffensive against Moscow’s forces. But Agence France-Presse reported the foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, as saying Germany’s decisions were a “mystery” and that there was a “weapon wall” in Berlin that the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, had to tear down.
…
United Nations member states have voted to make an exception to allow Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address next week’s general assembly by video, despite Russian opposition. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted on Friday in favour of allowing the Ukrainian president to “present a pre-recorded statement” instead of in-person as usually required. Seven members voted against the proposal, including Russia. Nineteen states abstained.
Virtually all the exhumed bodies in Izium had signs of violent death, Ukraine’s regional administration chief said of the mass burial site discovered after Kyiv’s forces recaptured the east Ukrainian town. Exhumers had uncovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs, and one “with a rope around his neck”, Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv regional administration, said on Friday. “Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99% showed signs of violent death,” he said on social media.
The European Union was “deeply shocked” at the mass graves discovered by Ukrainian officials in Izium, said the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. “We condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms.” The French president, Emmanuel Macron, also condemned what he described as the “atrocities” committed in Izium, joining growing outrage in western countries over the burial site.
…
The United States department of defence has announced it is providing an additional $600m in military assistance to Ukraine to meet the country’s “critical security and defence needs”. In total, the Biden administration has committed about $15.8bn in security aid to Ukraine – $15.1bn since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February.
[…] This week, President Biden—through the Democratic-controlled Senate—managed to confirm five circuit court judges. While five confirmations in a week may not be a record, it is certainly worth celebrating.
The Trump administration revealed a lot of surprising things to many Americans that they probably hadn’t thought too much about before. One of the most jarring had to be the revelation that the “law” was not something generally fixed and predictable, applied more or less in the same way, time and time again; in the hands of certain judges it could become anything they happened to say it was. Americans soon learned that in the hands of a federal judiciary, polluted by Donald Trump and the Republican Party through the appointment of fierce ideologues and (in many cases) wholly unqualified political hacks, the law could be molded by a single judge (or a group of them) to fit whatever result was desired.
We’re seeing this play out in Florida’s Southern District right now, with a grossly inexperienced and possibly politically corrupt judge named Aileen Cannon, whose sole claim to fame before her elevation to the federal judiciary seems to be her membership in the right-wing judicial breeding pool known as the Federalist Society. Funded in large part by “dark money” donations from the fossil fuel industry and other corporations whose main concern is avoiding taxes and regulations that interfere with their profits, membership in that organization seems to be the only requisite for a federal judgeship, if you happen to be a Republican.
In contrast, one of the most striking features of the Biden administration thus far has been the outsized number of judges the president has nominated who aren’t both white and male (or FedSoc members). The fact that he’s managed to get these judges confirmed at a seriously fast clip—with the thinnest of Senate majorities imaginable—makes this feat all the more remarkable.
As pointed out in August by John Gramlich, writing for Pew Research Center:
Biden has appointed more judges to the federal courts at this stage in his tenure than any president since John F. Kennedy, and his appointees include a record number of women and racial and ethnic minorities, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center.
The five nominees confirmed in the last seven business days are no exception. On Sept. 7, the Senate confirmed Asian American Judge John Z. Lee, to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. A Harvard law graduate, Judge Lee had previously served for 10 years as a district judge for the Northern District of Illinois, and as a trial attorney for Environmental and Natural Resources Division at the U.S. Dept. of Justice. As noted by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Lee joins 29 active Asian American and Pacific Islander Article III judges in the country (out of about 850 judicial positions).
The very next day, the Senate confirmed Andres Mathis to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Mathis is a former criminal defense lawyer, previously serving on the Magistrate Judge Selection Panel for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, and on the Disciplinary Hearing Committee for the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. He will be the first Black man from Tennessee to sit on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (the last time a Black man was confirmed to the Sixth Circuit was 24 years ago).
On Sept. 12, the Senate confirmed Judge Salvador Mendoza, Jr. to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Mendoza was born in California to parents who immigrated from Mexico. He previously served for eight years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, being the first Latino judge ever to serve on that court. Prior to that time, he’d developed a distinguished resume helping low-income families and juveniles with drug problems.
On Sept. 14, Lara Montecalvo was confirmed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. She had worked for 16 years for the Rhode Island Public Defender’s office; afterwards she was named the Public Defender of Rhode Island.
And finally, on Sept. 15, the Senate confirmed Sarah A. L. Merriam to the Second Circuit. She had previously served as a U.S. Magistrate judge for the District of Connecticut. Like Montecalvo, she had also worked as a public defender, representing indigent defendants and witnesses prior to her judicial career.
These are all stellar appointments, in keeping with President Biden’s desire to diversify the federal judiciary. But they’re also notable because their prior careers all involve real-world service to the public, particularly those segments of the public who often receive short shrift by our legal and criminal justice system. All of their confirmations were also opposed by at least 40 Republican senators.
This brings to 82 the total number of President Biden’s Article III judges confirmed by this bare-majority Democratic-controlled Senate, without which none of them likely would have received a hearing, let alone be confirmed. […]
Bendery interviewed University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias:
“It is important for the public to appreciate that appeals court appointees serve on courts that are the courts of last resort for 99.9% of cases in their regions of the U.S. on issues like capital punishment, abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration, etc.,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor and an expert on federal judicial nominations. “The key is they resolve 50,000 cases per year and the Supreme Court resolves 100.”
More than anything else, the appointment and confirmation of judges like these—all confirmed in rapid succession within one week—is why it’s imperative that Democrats retain their majority in the U.S. Senate.
Charles McGonigal, former counterintelligence head in the New York City office of the FBI, is now being investigated for his own ties to Oleg Deripaska, one of Putin’s favorite industrialists. This story has many, many ramifications.
First a bit of background: back in 2019 Deripaska made a deal with Addison (his real name) McConnell to lift sanctions in exchange for building an aluminum mill in Kentucky. At the time skeptics figured this boost to McConnell’s fortunes would last until a few months after the 2020 election, and indeed in early 2021 financing for the mill “unexpectedly” fell through. Imagine that.
Second, the NYC office of the FBI was notably lax in investigating trump’s many cons and ties to Russia. Later Michael Sussman, who brought news of questionable ties between a Russian bank and the trump campaign, was himself persecuted by William Barr’s hatchet man, John Durham — whose work went nowhere. Now we might understand why the New York office took it easy: the chief investigator could himself have been in the tank for trump’s handlers.
Third, we also know the New York FBI office hated Hillary Clinton. We know they leaked an ongoing investigation into Anthony Weiner’s laptop to Rudy Giuliani, we know they leaked to Devin Nunes, and we know they were aware the leaks could affect the election. One might speculate the hatred could have been ginned up by a rogue agent in the office, perhaps someone beholden to a foreign power which saw an advantage in having their creature in the White House.
In other words, with today’s news it is entirely possible that senior FBI agent Charles McGonigal, in a breathtaking act of treachery which makes Robert Hanssen’s twenty years of spying for the KGB look like small potatoes, knowingly helped Russia elect donald trump.
Hundreds of people gathered in Kyiv to say farewell to beloved Ukrainian ballet dancer Oleksandr Shapoval, who was killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Some dropped to their knees and others clapped as soldiers carried his casket draped in a Ukrainian flag into the National Kyiv Opera.
Relatives, colleagues, soldiers and fans came holding flowers walking past photos of the artist on stage and on the frontlines, AFP reports.
Shapoval’s two teenage daughters were in the crowd.
Shapoval, 47, had been a ballet dancer with the Kyiv Opera since 1994.
He retired and started teaching dance in 2021, before volunteering to help defend his country on February 25 the day following Russia’s invasion.
After Russian troops withdrew from Kyiv, Shapoval fought in the eastern industrial Donbas region.
He died in mortar shelling near Mayorsk, in the Donetsk region, on September 12.
This is, in many ways, the easiest job of “war correspondent” anyone has ever had. No one is shooting at me. I’m not wearing a flack jacket, sleeping on a cot, or feeling the concussive thump as artillery strikes the ground nearby. The only threats I get arrive by email. The real correspondents, the one who deserve every word of praise and unlimited appreciation, are the ones who have already given their lives so that the world could be informed about the injustice of the unprovoked, illegal invasion of Ukraine, and about the desperate resistance of the Ukrainian people.
39 journalists killed in Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion – minister of culture and information policy
Today is the Day of Remembrance of Ukrainian Journalists marked in Ukraine every year on the third Friday of September.
[image of journalists at the link]
This week didn’t just mark a day of remembrance for those journalists lost in reporting this war, it provided the grimmest of reminders about why Russia must be defeated. And it did so in a way that, even for armchair journalists over 5,000 miles away, was very difficult to take.
As Ukraine made its sweeping counteroffensive across Kharkiv Oblast over the last week, it liberated over 8,500 square kilometers and over 350 cities, towns, and villages from Russian occupation. And in just the last few days, as that darkness was stripped away, we’ve begun to get a glimpse of what was happening behind the front lines.
This isn’t the first time. When Russia’s attempt to capture Kyiv collapsed at the beginning of April, every step Ukrainian forces took into the area that Russia had occupied seemed to reveal a fresh set of atrocities. No place seemed more emblematic of the horrors Russia had committed than Bucha, where a mass grave containing over 450 bodies, bodies that illustrated cruelty including torture, rape, murder, and dismemberment. More than twenty bodies lay in the streets of Bucha for weeks without any of the Russian forces making a move to bury them. Some of those bodies had been run over multiple times by Russian vehicles. Including tanks.
Bucha wasn’t alone. As Russian forces moved back toward the border, the same story was found at both what had been bustling towns and in tiny villages. Torture chambers and mass graves. The bodies of those who had been shot. The bodies of those who had been tortured. The bodies of those who had been beheaded. The bodies of children burned on a playground.
It wasn’t so much an occupation as a rolling massacre. It’s perhaps what might be expected from the army of a nation where the leader has spent decades delegitimizing the neighboring nation and dehumanizing its citizens.
Perhaps the worst thing about Bucha was this: Russia only held the town for less than a month. For other areas, that occupation clock has now been ticking for six months, or longer.
In the case of Izyum, Russian forces reached the city in the third week of March. Now that Ukrainian forces have pushed Russia away from the town, what’s being revealed is a whole new set of horrors. [Tweet and video at the link. there’s evidence the soldiers were tortured.]
These weren’t statistics on Vladimir Putin’s chessboard. They were men, women, and children. They were people’s family and friends. They were people like the Stolpakov family, who are now all dead. Their bodies were all piled together in that mass grave at Izyum. Those children opened their presents at Christmas. They didn’t know it would be their last Christmas. Look at that little girl holding up a peace sign. That’s the real price of this war. [Tweet and image of Stolpakov family at the link, also another tweet and video of Ukraine exhuming more than 400 graves after forcing Russians to leave the area.]
This is the easiest war correspondent job anyone ever had. But sometimes it still seems hard. There are videos out there showing in graphic detail the bodies being uncovered at Izyum. Videos that are not so well and tastefully done as the BBC clip above. I urge you not to watch them.
But it is very hard not to think about what has happened in cities like Kherson, Melitopol, Nova Kakhovka, and Mariupol. It’s harder not to think of what is still happening there. Right now. Today.
It’s not just vitally important for the entire world that these bastards be beaten. It’s important that it happen as quickly as possible. For all the Stolpakov families who are left.
How many places can Ukraine cross the Oskil River to push into the area Russia was trying to hold as the new front line? It turns out that Ukraine can cross where there is a bridge. And where there isn’t a bridge. And just about anywhere it wants.
Reports on Friday and Saturday indicate that Ukrainian forces have captured the eastern side of Kupyansk, and crossed the river in force at Dvorichna as well as around Borova. Apparently all of these movements have happened with relatively little resistance and it’s unclear at this point how far Ukrainian troops have spread out from these crossing points. [map at the link]
On the other hand, fighting around Lyman has been called “incredibly intense” and even “the fiercest exchange of the war.” Ukrainian forces have liberated the towns of Studenok and Sosnove at the west end of this new line, but are now reportedly engaged at Rubtsi, Krymky, and Oleksandrivka. If Ukraine can push Russian forces back from these positions, they’ll be better configured to come at Lyman from multiple sides—which is just what allowed Russia to capture the city in the first place.
Ukrainian forces south of the city are in a regional park with heavy forest and rugged terrain. This may sound like a place with good cover, but it’s also reportedly a very difficult place from which to advance on the city. So right now Russian forces, reportedly reinforced by three battalion tactical groups formerly in Izyum, have been able to keep Ukraine from taking the city. Both sides are reportedly suffering very heavy casualties in the ongoing conflict.
Ukraine may need forces to move in from the west, or to come down from one of those river crossing positions on the north, to finally end this confrontation. However, Ukraine’s progress in capturing those locations on the west and the suburbs directly south of Lyman has been confirmed. (There’s nothing sensitive about this video. I don’t know why it’s marked that way.) [video at the link, there's also a tweet and image showing the flags of all the volunteers serving in Ukraine]
Russian MoD finally approves the wording of the stamp which is being stamped on military IDs of “refuseniks”, soldiers who refuse to take part in a “special military operation in Ukraine”. My source sent me a photo of his friend’s military ID with exactly the same stamp.
“DESERTER! Refused to perform a combat mission! Prone to BETRAYAL!” should be (and is) written on the stamp.
This document with the new wording was published by a Russian lawyer, who helps “refuseniks” to fight for their right to go home instead of fighting in Ukraine. Here’s my recent interview with him.
The lawyer says this wording is a rude violation of the law. There’s an article in the Russian penal code, devoted to “desertion”. 1) Refusing to fight in Ukraine doesn’t equal “desertion”. 2) Only a person convicted in court of violating this article can be called a “deserter”.
He says every soldier who received such a stamp should go to court and will probably succeed in contesting it.
There are many different examples of such stamps with different wordings since Russian soldiers started to refuse to take part in the war (e.g. since Feb. 23). Now, at least in the Eastern Military District, there’s an attempt to unify them.
The fact itself that Russian army needs such a stamps says that there are a lot of “refuseniks”. This is confirmed by multiple reports, like one I did about the 64th motorised rifle brigade. It lost about 300-500 people who refused to fight in Ukraine
Images and links at the (Twitter) link.
ravensays
Russia Today journalist Kholmogorov: “If a choice arises between the victory of Ukraine and a global nuclear war, a nuclear war is more preferable.”
I knew something was lacking this morning.
No one has threatened to kill me and my cat along with the USA in a nuclear war yet.
It is late but here it is.
“Egor Kholmogorov is a Russian political figure, journalist for Russia Today channel.
He wrote a text calling for genocide of Ukrainians.”
I keep saying that Russia is what you get when a country is led by internet trolls.
Tethyssays
This downfall meme video is superbly executed trolling. I imagine Putin is having a similar meeting at his Sochi palace. The slippery cliffs there are known to be quite hazardous for officials who are in disfavor.
A near-perfect storm is bringing hurricane-force winds and a massive storm surge into vulnerable communities in coastal Alaska
A powerful extratropical cyclone is blasting into the western coast of Alaska — bringing potential perils from a storm surge that threatens to top out at 18 feet and gusts that will reach up to 90 mph.
“This continues to be a dangerous storm as it is producing water levels higher than any seen over at least 50 years,” the National Weather Service’s Fairbanks office wrote in its Saturday morning forecast discussion. [My brother says the creek near his house is running about four times higher than he has ever seen it.] The National Weather Service has issued several warnings to account for a multitude of hurricane-like threats.
As the powerhouse system approached Alaska late Friday and into early Saturday, roaring south-to-southwesterly winds battered the state’s west coast. Through Saturday morning, widespread gusts had reached 45 to 77 mph.
Massive amounts of water, shoved north by the high winds, were sloshing ashore, raising the ocean multiple feet and battering vulnerable coastal communities with severe erosion. The tide gauge in Nome, which is known for being the end point of the famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, showed water levels more than 8 feet above normal levels early Saturday.
Reports from social media indicated power outages and damage in a number of coastal communities because of the rising waters. In Hooper Bay, a small city on Alaska’s central west coast that is home to 1,375 people, some families were reportedly evacuating their homes because of the flooding. Major flooding was also reported in the small coastal cities of Golovin and Shaktoolik, where evacuations were necessary.
An offshore ocean buoy reported waves at or above 35 feet for 12 hours, peaking at more than 50 feet, while winds gusted over 70 mph for 11 hours.
The storm will stall just offshore of the Seward Peninsula over the weekend, continuing to push the Pacific toward Alaska’s vulnerable coastline.
“The duration of the high water is quite a bit longer than we often see, so that will lead to a longer duration of high-impact surge and waves pounding the coastline,” Ed Plumb, a senior service hydrologist at the National Weather Service’s Fairbanks office, told The Washington Post.
Coastal flood warnings and high wind warnings both remain in effect until late Saturday evening, while storm warnings have been hoisted at sea to warn mariners of extremely dangerous conditions. […]
In Nome and in villages along the northern Bering Sea, […] water pushed into communities by powerful southwesterly winds will inundate structures, wash out key roads and damage important infrastructure.
[…] The massive storm surge and gigantic waves that may crest at over 50 feet would cause heavy beach erosion at any time of year, but the fact that the storm is striking in September heightens the erosion risk. […]
When massive, extratropical storms track through the Bering Sea, it is usually later in the year — particularly into November and December. By that time, sea ice has built up along the coast, buffering significant wave action. But with this major storm striking in September, the coastline is without its icy barrier, making it particularly vulnerable.
“This will be the deepest low we’ve ever seen in the northern Bering Sea in September,” Plumb said, adding that this would be a strong storm at any time of year. “It’s taking the classic textbook perfect track for causing significant storm surge in the northern Bering Sea.”
A September strike is also concerning because it is still hunting season, meaning hundreds of people may be hunting in the remote Alaskan wilderness and not getting updates about the storm.
The road that many hunters and Alaskans use to travel inland, the Nome-Council Road, might end up washed away by the storm, leaving off-the-grid hunters stranded in the wilderness.
The storm is so big it will take about 3 hours for the sun to fully set on it.
[…] scientists expressed concern that climate change has set the stage for greater impacts from large nontropical cyclones in Alaska. Warmer summers and oceans have caused a greater-than-normal seasonal loss of sea ice, which makes the region more vulnerable to ocean inundation.
[…] The powerful weather system blasting Alaska is, atmospherically, something of a perfect storm. The remnants of Merbok, once a Category 1-intensity Pacific typhoon, merged with a pair of nontropical storms as it veered toward the Bering Strait, the thin strip of water between Russia and Alaska. […]
I have relatives that live in Alaska. They will hunker down and try to ride out the storm as their house is in an area not likely to be flooded. Still scary.
There are lots of images, maps and charts at the link.
Wonkette: “What The Hell Is Wrong With People Who Think Idaho Is Teaching Kids Pornography?”
The Idaho Department of Health Welfare (IDHW) had to send out an actual press release this week denying that they are funding or in any way providing lessons on “porn literacy” to elementary school students. This was because a ridiculous organization for right wing fanatics with poor reading comprehension skills called the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) has been going around saying they were.
Rather than teaching Debbie Does Dallas 101, of course, what students are actually learning in the entirely optional sex-ed classes offered by public schools is … literally just the normal sex-ed that they have everywhere.
Via IDHW
IDHW does not support or fund any “porn literacy” for children in Idaho. DHW provides evidence-based, optional sex education curriculum, called Reducing the Risk, for Idaho schools. Reducing the Risk does not discuss porn literacy, and it is not a subject taught in the curriculum DHW provides. DHW does not collaborate with or seek the endorsement of Planned Parenthood for sex education curriculum.
Sex education in Idaho schools is addressed in Idaho Code 33-1608. High schools or school districts can choose to offer Reducing the Risk as part of a sex education curriculum. Schools that choose to offer Reducing the Risk do so with parental consent. They offer opt-in or opt-out for parents, in accordance with school district policies and Idaho Code.
Reducing the Risk is medically accurate and covers the following National Health Education Standards:
-How to say no to sex
-Abstinence planning
-How to avoid sexually transmitted infections
-Birth control methods
-Where to find a healthcare provider
-Talking to parents/caregivers about values
The “Reducing the Risk” course materials are provided by an education non-profit called Education, Training and Research, which provides a number of different health-related courses for students and teachers. The materials that the IFF objected to were not, in fact, actually included the “Reducing the Risk,” course — which, again, is entirely optional.
IFF’s initial press release included a number of big stretches that involved following links on school health curriculum pages that went to websites that acknowledge the existence of trans people, explain concepts like gender transitions and polyamory, and address how to get an abortion (in states where it is legal, which, sadly, is not Idaho).
I am just gonna point out that the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints has a settlement in Idaho and that Sister Wives is still running on TLC. These kids probably don’t need to go to an educational website to find out that polygamy, a form of polyamory, exists.
The organization does provide a “porn literacy” course, but it is not for students. It is for parents and teachers who want to know how to talk to children about pornography, should the issue come up. Given that it is very likely that adolescents will encounter pornography or find out what it is at some point, what with the internet and all, this is actually a very good idea. While these IFF-type parents may feel they know exactly how they would handle such a thing — probably with some thorough shaming, a steady diet of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes and some creepy Victorian anti-masturbation devices … [image at the link]
But others may have questions, and that is what such a course is for. Parents who would want their children publicly or even privately shamed by a sex-ed teacher for mentioning pornography or confessing to having looked at it on the internet are very likely in the minority, as are parents who think that if no adults ever tell them that pornography exists, young people will never find out about it.
There were also a number of other accusations about the course being thrown around by right wing media, where one site even went so far as to claim that the schools were teaching “students how to hide porn browsing from parents.” The IFF didn’t even claim that, they just made it up. It seems very clear that these people are taking “porn literacy” to mean something entirely different than what sex educators are talking about, just as they do literally every time they learn a new academic term.
There has to be something deeply, deeply wrong with the people who believe this nonsense. I truly cannot wrap my head around the idea that these people seriously think that their kids are gonna go to school and watch pornography. Is it that they are just completely sheltered and assume everyone outside of their culture is evil and on a mission to corrupt all of their children and turn them into MKULTRA-programmed sex robots?
Is it that they are paranoid and delusional? How does any of this work? How does anyone believe anything this objectively stupid?
Quite frankly, anyone who does believe it, if they have children, should be subject to a welfare check and a psych eval to ensure they are not the Mom from Carrie. I, for one, am very concerned that they may be locking their children in closets while screaming about their dirty pillows.
[…] A new report released this week found that election deniers, or Trump loyalists who’ve advanced the Big Lie that the 2020 election was rigged, are running to oversee the democratic process in 27 states this November. At least 43 candidates are running for governor, attorney general or secretary of state across the country. In two swing states — Arizona and Michigan — they’re running to fill all three seats. Meanwhile, election officials and poll workers have received so many threats against their safety since the 2020 election that several state legislatures have passed laws to reinforce their security.
[…] Some formerly outspoken big lie candidates have begun to self-censor as they approach the general election, including Republican New Hampshire Senate hopeful retired Gen. Don Bolduc, who said this week on Fox News that “the election was not stolen,” even though he just last month bragged about signing a letter endorsing the Big Lie. […]
Having joined with Hitler to start #WWII, the Russian laughing & saluting the Nazi swastika beg[a]n. Today Russia’s become Nazi Germany; & it’s again committing genocide in Europe. #Ukraine”
Specifically, Russian troops sank nine railroad cars near the Kakhovka hydropower plant in order to build a crossing on the Dnieper, Ukraine’s General Staff said.”
There might have been a firefight in Kherson (city) earlier, which might have been Russians fighting each other.
Yeshiva University says it’s pausing all student clubs on campus just days after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a lower court ruling that ordered the school to recognize an LGBTQ group.
In an unsigned email to students, the New York City school said that, considering upcoming Jewish holidays, “the university will hold off on all undergraduate club activities while it immediately takes steps to follow the roadmap provided by the US Supreme Court to protect YU’s religious freedom. Warm wishes for a Shannah Tovah.”…
Meanwhile on RT’s show “Beautiful Russia,” propagandist argues that Russia shouldn’t worry about the way events like Bucha are being perceived or covered in the West. Instead, he says, Russia should lay into that: “Yes, that’s how we are… We’ll show you even more. Fear us!”
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. Genocidal maniacs.
As his legal woes pile up, it’s no secret that former President Donald Trump has employed more than a handful of lawyers in his time. David Enrich, a business investigations editor at The New York Times and author of the new book, Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice, tells hosts Molly Jong-Fast and Andy Levy on this episode of The New Abnormal that it’s certainly a pattern. Also on the podcast, G. Elliot Morris, data-driven journalist and author of the book, Strength in Numbers: How Polls Work and Why We Need Them, describes the “pretty complex” world of polling and sampling.
Military analysts often talk about the way forces seek to ‘impose dilemmas’ in their enemy on the battlefield. The extraordinary Ukrainian advance from Kharkiv is imposing a series of dilemmas both military and, more importantly, political on Putin. And, faced with a choice of difficult options, none of which look especially palatable, he is doing what he usually does: dodge the hard decisions, dig in and hope things work out.
From tactical nukes and mobilisation to why bother with increasingly transparently rigged elections, a run through the dilemmas and possible responses.
Out in the field again, Annie Kelly attended the protest (and counter-protest) of a UK Drag Queen Story Hour event in Norwich. There she found a group of fascists and bigots with increasingly slick talking points designed to ratchet up anti-LGBT panic and recruit people into far-right movements.
American culture focuses on letting go of grudges and redemption narratives instead of the perpetrator’s obligations or recompense for harmed parties. As survivor communities have pointed out, these emphases have too often only caused more harm. But Danya Ruttenberg knew there was a better model, rooted in the work of the medieval philosopher Maimonides.
For Maimonides, upon whose work Ruttenberg elaborates, forgiveness is much less important than the repair work to which the person who caused harm is obligated. The word traditionally translated as repentance really means something more like return, and in this book, returning is a restoration, as much as is possible, to the victim, and, for the perpetrator of harm, a coming back, in humility and intentionality, to behaving as the person we might like to believe we are.
Security forces in Iran on Saturday fired tear gas at protesters, gathered in the northwestern city of Saqez following the death of a young woman in custody.
The rally took place after the funeral for 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the so-called morality police in Tehran on Tuesday over her headscarf or hijab.
She was declared dead on Friday, having spent three days in a coma after what police said was a heart attack but which some Iranians believe was a beating [FFS].
The Fars news agency reported that police showed up after protesters chanted slogans in front of the local governor’s building in Saqez, about 460 kilometers (280 miles) west of Tehran.
Once they fired tear gas, the demonstrators dispersed and there was no immediate information about any injuries.
Videos posted on social media on Saturday purported to show protesters in Saqez chanting antigovernment slogans.
They included, “Death to the dictator” — a reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
…
Amini’s death triggered an outcry from celebrities and prominent figures on social media.
Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, who rarely reacts publicly to events in Iran, expressed sorrow and called Amini’s death a “crime.”
…
Since 2017, after dozens of women publicly took off their headscarves in a wave of protests, authorities have adopted tougher measures and violators face public rebuke, fines or arrest.
However, political reformers have urged Iran’s parliament to cancel the hijab law and do away with the morality police.
Protest over woman’s death in custody turns violent
This suggests the protesters were violent, which isn’t what the article reports.
after what police said was a heart attack but which some Iranians believe was a beating
I’ve already noted this. She was 22.
political reformers have urged Iran’s parliament to cancel the hijab law and do away with the morality police
“Political reformers” makes it sound like an extremely oppressive system represents the majority and some ancient status quo, which isn’t the case. Also, I doubt you would refer to these “morality police” without scare quotes if they were operating, say, in Germany.
[…] Putin’s TV propagandists then started to spin a new line to deflect criticism from the Ministry of Defense and military commanders. It wasn’t the Ukrainian military that was forcing Russian forces to retreat, but NATO forces, including African-American soldiers.
So then we got this example of Russian propaganda provided by Julia Davis of The Daily Beast who monitors Russian state TV.
Apparently, the African-American in Ukraine’s international legion who strikes such fear in that manly Russian army touted by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is none other than former MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance, a 61-year-old U.S. Navy veteran. Nance is shown multiple times in this Russian state TV propaganda segment.
The segment begins with state TV host Olga Skarbeeva claiming that “foreign mercenaries are the backbone of Zelenskyy’s army,” including professional soldiers from Academi (formerly Blackwater) who supposedly took down a Russian flag in Kupyansk.
[…] Oleg Matveychev, a member of the Russian parliament, said, Americans are “the ones doing the fighting … This war is not against Ukraine.”
He then drew an absurd analogy. He imagined some street team scoring a goal against Real Madrid, the European football powerhouse, That would be “shameful to be outmatched by street kids … how could the coach let this happen?”
(So in his mind the Russian army are champions like Real Madrid, the Ukrainian army is dismissively considered as a team of street kids. As for the Real Madrid coach, could it be Vladimir Putin?)
Well not to worry? Matveychev has an explanation for what’s happening.
“We’re not fighting against some street team,” he said. “There are no Ukrainians left in some cities near Kharkiv. There are the British, some Negroes speaking English, commanding and reporting in the English language to some English commanders. NATO units are fighting there with NATO weapons along with Academi mercenaries. All of Europe’s resources are behind them.”
(Of course, no mention of Russian mercenaries in the Wagner Group recruited right out of prison yards to be cannon fodder.)
Igor Korotchenko, a military expert, then offered another bizarre analogy. He claimed that British, American and French mercenaries who are entering captured cities are going around mocking Russian babushkas watching as they tear down Russian flags. And he says these grandmas are likely going to face “punitive action.” [JFC]
He then compares footage from the current war to videos from World War II of German troops entering captured Soviet towns and villages “exactly the same way.”
“They (the Germans) entered the territory of historical Russia. Ukraine is historical Russia. This is our land, this is our territory which we are liberating today,” he said.
(So Ukraine doesn’t actually exist in his deluded mind. But if anyone is acting like German troops during World War II, it’s Russian forces who have left behind mass graves in cities such as Izium recently recaptured by Ukrainian forces.)
Another military expert, Andrei Klintsevich, follows up by explaining: “Russia isn’t fighting against the Ukrainian army staffed with NATO. we fight against a NATO army staffed with Ukrainians. Not everywhere because some divisions are 100 percent staffed with mercenaries.”
(So the Ukrainian army is only imaginary.) [So much bullshit]
[…] So there you have it. If you want to know why Russian forces are retreating, it has nothing to do with the Ukrainian military. Russia is losing to Academi mercenaries, divisions of NATO troops and a bad-ass 61-year-old Black Navy vet and cable TV analyst [Malcolm Nance].
I understand that the court of appeals has given Trump til noon Tuesday to respond to the Government’s emergency appeal. That’s a very positive development, speeding things up to take account of the govt’s national security timing concerns.
A spat between 8kun’s Jim Watkins and Kiwi Farms’ Josh Moon hasn’t helped both hate sites as they struggle to stay working under relentless DDoS attacks.
With Ukraine moving forward on multiple fronts, I scoured recent Ukraine General Staff reports to see if Russia was still managing any offensive actions. Turns out that yes, but just a few. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the same town names popped up:
During the current day, units of the Defense Forces repelled enemy attacks in the areas of the settlements of Bakhmut, Zaitseve, Pervomaiske, Mykolayivka Druga and Novomykhailivka.
Friday morning’s update also included the town of Vesela Dolyna, but otherwise, it was a virtual copy and paste over the past several days. Let’s see where those towns are: [map at the link]
Russia’s entire offensive operations span a 75 kilometer (46 mile) strip of front out of roughly 800 kilometers of active front (500 miles)—less than 10% of the contact line.
Russia has been banging their heads against most of those towns for months. I added Kodema, because pro-Russian outlets were so proud of taking that insignificant little spot on the map at the same time that Ukraine was sweeping across Kharkiv Oblast. [Tweet and images at the link]
My favorite sarcastic response to that tweet, “That’s a cool hill truly,” brought home the absurdity of the Russian celebration.
I also include Pisky because the General Staff report is an admission that Pisky has finally fallen to Russia (War Mapper, the author of the colorful map above, still hasn’t marked the town Russian controlled). Russia would be unable to attack Pervomaiske if Ukrainian troops were still holding on to Pisky.
But … so what? Who cares that Russia has gotten Pisky, or Kodema? They won’t capture Bakhmut, but if they did, also so what? It’s patently absurd that at the same time that Ukraine is notching gains in Kherson, Kharkiv, and northern Luhansk Oblasts, Russia is wasting time, men, and material pushing forward in a region that offers no strategic payoff.
Indeed, the original point of attacking this front was to form the southern claw of a pincer movement that would’ve trapped tens of thousands of entrenched Ukrainian forces in the Donbas. Let me dig up an old map that shows what they intended: [map at the link]
This pincer plan was the reason Russia pushed hard into Izyum, at great logistical cost. They tried to make this thing happen, god knows they tried. That’s why they spent two months trying to take tiny Dovhen’ke, south of Izyum. But this was always a stupid plan doomed to fail. Russia was incapable of extending supply lines 25 kilometers from a railhead, but they were supposed to manage several hundred kilometers of penetration, vulnerable to Ukrainian flank attacks, and then hold it long enough to starve those Ukrainian defenders?
Still, as long as they held Izyum, Russia could maintain the fiction that pushing hard in Donetsk oblast made some kind of military sense. But now that Izyum is liberated, what exactly is the military reason to continue this self-destructive behavior? Russia threw their best forces at Pisky—prewar population six—for two months before taking a town literally across the street from the Russian-occupied capital city of Donetsk oblast! Why are they still bothering with this idiocy?
The reason is simple: Russia isn’t actually in charge in this corner of the front. [See explanation below.]
This is Wagner PMC (private military contractor) territory. Russian forces lack a unified command: there’s the Russian army (divided into sectors led by separate military districts), VDV (airborne)corps, Luhansk proxies, Donetsk proxies, Rosgvardia (Putin’s personal army, the national guard), the Chechen Kadyrovites, and Wagner mercenaries. The result is a real clusterfuck, both in command, in cooperation and communication, in motivation, and in agendas.
So we laughed at pro-Russian sources for celebrating the capture of that hill near Kodema while the entire northern front was collapsing. Yet they were genuinely celebrating in Wagner circles, and in their Telegram channel, they reacted angrily at rumors that they were redeploying to help hold the line in Kharkiv oblast.
The information about the transfer of forces of the “Wagner Group” to the Izyum direction, as well as near Kupyansk, is not true.
“Musicians” [their self-styled nickname] continue their work on the fronts assigned to them, and at the moment they are almost, if not the only ones, who not only hold the front in Ukraine, but also advance it. No one is going to be removed from especially difficult areas to plug holes.”
In short, “We’re the only ones making any progress, so fuck off anyone else that needs our help!” Perhaps this attitude might hold water if Wagner was gaining anything other than a sad hill at Kodema or the empty husk of the town of Pisky, across the street from Russian-occupied Donetsk city. But Wagner’s corporate leadership apparently decided that “we’re the only group in Russia making progress” was a much better business development slogan than “we’re all in this together.”
So yes, it’s true, Wagner forces are inching forward here or there, but in a militarily insignificant slice of front. So as always, we need to come back to this meme: [“We are very lucky that they are so f*cking stupid” meme available at the link, tally of documented Russian losses is also available at the link.]
Note that the tally includes vehicles destroyed when Russia first swept through this area in March and April. They weren’t visible until now. So the captured-to-destroyed ratio is even more lopsided than what we see here, meaning there was very little fighting during Ukraine’s blitzkrieg.
The number of captured vehicles is stunning: tanks (74), infantry fighting vehicles (143), artillery (58), trucks (64), and plenty of miscellaneous other equipment. And they’re still documenting and counting more captured vehicles! I saw at least a half-dozen new captured tanks posted to Telegram after this graphic was posted.
A Russian Battalion Tactical Group (BTG) is 10 tanks and 40 infantry fighting vehicles (plus assorted artillery and support vehicles). Looking at the list above, we’re looking at 4-5 Russian BTGs essentially gifted to Ukraine.
———————-
[…] Yesterday, there was heavy fighting inside Kherson city, yet Ukrainian forces are still a couple dozen kilometers away from the city. [Tweet and video at the link]
Other views of the fighting here and here. The official Russian explanation is that they killed “terrorists.” But we know they lie, so there are several theories:
Insurgent activity. Self-explanatory.
Staged fight for propaganda purposes. We’ve seen the Kadyrovites make ridiculous TikTok videos of them shooting traffic lights and bushes. In fact, this might be the most popular theory, but note the video above, at the 2-3 second mark, there’s an incoming tracer round ricocheting off the surface toward that armored infantry vehicle. Something was shooting back.
Fratricide. I wrote above about all the different armies operating under Russian banner, and there have been multiple reports of these forces turning fire on each other (oftentimes as a result of alcohol). Kadyrovites have just arrived in Kherson, and they’re rumored to be used as blocking forces, shooting any Russian soldiers trying to flee the front lines. Maybe those rumors have merit, or maybe it’s just anti-muslim bigotry from other corners of the Russian empire. Or maybe two units were fighting over a looted washing machine. There are plenty of reasons internal conflict could spark into open warfare.
———————–
What the fuck is this? [Tweet and videos of Trump’s rant about how the US is declining, set dramatic music. Weird and cult-like. Aaron Rupar: “This is one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen at a Trump rally. All it is missing is passing around Kool-Aid right after.”]
————————-
There are reports that Russia is actually pulling missiles from air defense around Russian cities in order to have more missiles to launch into Ukrainian cities. While this may not seem like a very sustainable idea (and it’s not), it makes some sense as Russia is phasing out missiles using in the S-300 system for those in longer range S-400. So it can move the older missiles to kill civilians in Ukraine with little threat to civilians in Russia,
That’s assuming, of course, that the new missile systems work more reliably than every other system Russia has built since the end of the Cold War. Sleep well, St. Petersburg. [Tweet and images at the link]
—————————-
[…] We’re up to 93 captured tanks. […]
After former President Donald Trump regurgitated the racist “great replacement” theory, and otherwise trashed America in an odd endorsement of Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance, portions of a crowd of more than 6,000 attendees raised their single fingers in the air. It was an alarming move for social media users who described the gesture as remarkably similar to the Nazi salute. Investor and journalist Morten Overbye called the crowd a “fascist cult.” CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem said the hand symbol was the sign of conspiracy theorists championing the QAnon theory. [photo at the link]
“This is the week when Trump became Qanon,” Kayyem tweeted. “This isn’t a political statement; it just is, however, disturbing. The week began with images of Trump on Truth Social wearing a Q pin and promoting their slogans, it ends with Q music and the Q ‘one’ sign by crowd at his rally.”
Exactly what members of the Youngstown crowd were trying to communicate by raising their fingers in the air may be up for debate, but the message from the former president at the rally was far less subjective. He supports Vance but not nearly as much as Trump supports himself. [Disturbing cult videos are available at the link.]
Trump described himself as a victim of an “unhinged persecution” in which witnesses of the January 6 insurrection he is accused of inciting were forced to turn against him. “They take good people and they say, ‘You’re going to jail for 10 years … unless you say something bad about Trump, in which case you won’t have to go to jail,’” Trump said.
He also alleged that the government “spied” on his campaign, “and nobody wants to do anything about it.”
“Can you imagine if I spied on the campaign of—forget Biden—how about Obama’s campaign?” Trump asked. “Can you imagine what (the punishment) would be? Maybe it would be death. They’d bring back the death penalty.”
Trump, so absorbed in his own public defense, even seemed to forget the reason he was at the rally and started taking shots at Vance. “J.D. is kissing my ass,” Trump said. “He wants my support so bad!”
It wasn’t a completely off-base political analysis. The number of Republicans overly devoted to the insurrectionist former president seems to be ever-growing, with some of the more prominent ones also in attendance at the Ohio rally.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Trump the “one true leader” of the Republican Party. “He’s the one we elected in 2016 and the one we re-elected in 2020, who won the election,” she said, promoting utter lies. While “fresh off appearing to kick a climate activist on video” as Rolling Stone put it, Greene also mocked Democrats concerned about climate change. [video at the link]
“We know that cheap gas won’t last,” Greene said at the rally. “You want to know why? Democrats worship the climate. We worship God.”
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, another Trump supporter, also referenced God in saying he “prayed” then-Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff would win in runoff elections last January because it helped cement the claim of widespread “election crime” happening in the United States.
There is no such evidence of widespread election fraud, by the way—a fun fact Republicans choose to ignore alongside their fear-inducing leader. [Tweet and video at the link]
“We are a nation in decline,” Trump said at the close of his speech. He failed to mention he’s a large reason why.
The vibe at Trump’s rally was religious and fanatical. People were worshipping Trump. At least that’s the impression I got from watching the videos.
The reactionary, right-wing Fifth Circuit today published an opinion today which ignores many long years of traditional interpretations of the First Amendment. The decision essentially says that social media platforms do not have the right to enforce terms of service, such as prohibitions against advocating violence, and promoting hate speech. […]
A Texas statute named House Bill 20 generally prohibits large social
media platforms from censoring speech based on the viewpoint of its speaker.
The platforms urge us to hold that the statute is facially unconstitutional and
hence cannot be applied to anyone at any time and under any circumstances.
In urging such sweeping relief, the platforms offer a rather odd
inversion of the First Amendment. That Amendment, of course, protects
every person’s right to “the freedom of speech.” But the platforms argue
that buried somewhere in the person’s enumerated right to free speech lies a
corporation’s unenumerated right to muzzle speech.
The implications of the platforms’ argument are staggering. On the
platforms’ view, email providers, mobile phone companies, and banks could
cancel the accounts of anyone who sends an email, makes a phone call, or
spends money in support of a disfavored political party, candidate, or
business. What’s worse, the platforms argue that a business can acquire a
dominant market position by holding itself out as open to everyone—as
Twitter did in championing itself as “the free speech wing of the free speech
party.” Blue Br. at 6 & n.4. Then, having cemented itself as the monopolist
of “the modern public square,” Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct.
1730, 1737 (2017), Twitter unapologetically argues that it could turn around
and ban all pro-LGBT speech for no other reason than its employees want to
pick on members of that community, Oral Arg. at 22:39–22:52.
Today we reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First
Amendment right to censor what people say.
This ruling says that the government can force a private entity to allow users to post any speech they want on servers which the private entity is paying for. Platforms no longer have the right to moderate the speech of their users. Sites like this one could be forced to allow hate speech, spam advertising blogs, blogs promoting the Republican party […].
they’ve adopted an interpretation of the 1st Amendment that has been rejected by courts in this country, including the supreme court, more times than I can count –– and they’ve dressed up their bullshit in the rhetoric of individual liberty. Matthew Cortland 6:20 PM · Sep 16, 2022·
The Fifth Circuit has dropped another opinion that makes me question why I bother being a lawyer. I like how a corporation has the religious right to decide what health benefits to provide to its employees, but not the right to prohibit racist speech. Fascinating stuff. Andrew Kinsey 4:46 PM — Sep 16, 2022
[…] This backwards ruling effectively destroys free speech while claiming to protect it. It will serve the interests of those promoting intolerance. Who knows how the Supreme Court will rule on this, but I don’t have high hopes.
EDIT: This is another example of how the conservative ideal of “socialize the cost, privatize the profit” is seeping into more aspects of everyday life.
“Religious Freedom” allows entities and individuals to fail to perform aspects of their job which they say conflicts with their “religious beliefs”. The religious person has to do nothing, and the inconvenienced one has to pay a cost in time, effort and energy to get what they want.
This ruling is more of the same thing of socializing cost and privatizing profit. The ones paying the bills for the servers have to bear the cost of supporting posts they do not endorse, and the ones making the posts have to do nothing.
Excerpts from the DOJ Appeal to Judge Cannon’s decision to basically join Team Trump [bolding added]:
[pg 2]
Plaintiff has no claim for the return of those records, which belong to the government and were seized in a court-authorized search. The records are not subject to any possible claim of personal attorney-client privilege. And neither Plaintiff nor the court has cited any authority suggesting that a former President could successfully invoke executive privilege to prevent the Executive Branch from reviewing its own records.
[pg 9-10]
The district court erred in exercising jurisdiction as to the records bearing classification markings. Even if the exercise of jurisdiction were proper, there would be no basis for preventing the government from using its own records. And the court’s suggestion that there are “factual and legal disputes” about the records bearing classification markings, A7, is incorrect and not relevant in any event.
[pg 13]
Accordingly, even if an assertion of privilege might justify withholding the records at issue from Congress or the public, there would be no basis for withholding them from the Executive Branch itself. […]
Third, the limited stay sought here would impose no cognizable harm on Plaintiff. It would not disturb the special master’s review of other materials, including records potentially subject to attorney-client privilege. Nor would a stay infringe any interest in confidentiality
[pg 21-22]
Plaintiff has identified no cognizable harm from merely allowing criminal investigators to continue to review and use this same subset of the seized records.
Plaintiff’s only possible “injury” is the government’s investigation, but that injury is not legally cognizable. “[T]he cost, anxiety, and inconvenience of having to defend against” potential criminal prosecution cannot “by themselves be considered ‘irreparable’ in the special legal sense of that term.” Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 46 (1971).
[pg 15]
C. No factual or legal disputes justify the district court’s order as to the records bearing classification markings.
The district court did not identify any basis on which Plaintiff might successfully assert executive privilege—or any other legal ground—to prevent the government from reviewing the records bearing classification markings. Instead, it stated that the special-master process is needed to resolve “disputes as to the proper designation of the seized materials.” A7-A8. That is doubly mistaken.
[pg 10]
Plaintiff lacks standing at least as to the discrete set of records with classification markings because those records are government property, over which the Executive Branch has exclusive control and in which Plaintiff has no property interest. See 44 U.S.C. § 2202; Exec. Order 13,526, § 1.1(2); see also Dep’t of Navy v. Egan, 484 U.S. 518, 527 (1988).
[pg 21]
Plaintiff has no property or other legal interest in those records. None of the potential harms to Plaintiff identified by the district court, cf. A34, are applicable to those records.
[pg 11]
Plaintiff has no right to the “return” of records with classification markings, which are not his property.
ravensays
Some good news for once.
Membership in Southern Baptist congregations continued its long-term decline with a 3% drop from 14,089,947 in 2020 to 13,680,493 in 2021.May 12, 2022
Southern Baptists See Baptisms and Giving Rebound in 2021 https://research.lifeway.com › 2022/05/12 › southern-bapt…
The Southern Baptists lost 3% of their members last year, 2021.
I used to follow the decline of US xianity but lately, not as much.
It seems irreversible and the fewer there are, the more ugly and vicious they get.
Fighting continues with urban skirmishes and artillery bombardment in places like Kherson and Kramartorsk. Some review of the Kharkiv advance demonstrates the contrast between Russian mercenaries and Ukrainian morale. […] [video of "patriots tear down Russian banners"]
There is a stark contrast with the Russian defenders. Faced with a lightning Ukrainian attack that cut off the strategic city of Izium a week ago, some departed in haste, abandoning tanks and other munitions and engaging in looting generators, telephones, and computers they nominally withdrew from the frontline.
“Morale,” says Jack Watling, a land warfare expert at the Royal United Services Institute military thinktank, “is the most important factor for ground forces”.
“It is not just about how soldiers feel about their prospects relative to the enemy, it’s also about the experiences they have recently had and how they are anticipating into the future.”
On one side is an army – Ukraine’s – that considers itself to be fighting for the cause of national liberation. Having beaten off the Russians from Kyiv and pushed them back in Kharkiv, Ukraine increasingly believes it will one day win the war, helped by western intelligence, financing and above all artillery and other fresh munitions. […]
Such a contrast between motivated and mercenary is likely to accentuate into next year and will play a critical factor as the war runs on […] “I believe we are now on a trajectory for a Russian defeat in Ukraine next year,” Watling said.
[…] Reports from visiting wounded Ukrainian soldiers frequently emphasise that many want, if at all possible, to return to the frontline, and say that the fight against Russia is necessary, despite what has happened to them. http://www.theguardian.com/...
[maps at the link]
Ukraine continues its offensive in the northeast while Russia has established a defensive line between the Oskil river and the town of Svatove, protecting one of its few main resupply routes from Russia’s Belgorod region, British military intelligence said.
[…] Western sanctions are starting to hurt Russia’s ability to make advanced weaponry for the war in Ukraine, a top NATO military adviser said, though he added Russia could still manufacture “a lot of ammunition”.
Belying Putin’s claim that Russia is not isolated because it can look to Asian powers such as China and India, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assailed the Kremlin chief, telling Putin this was not the time for war. A day earlier, Putin acknowledged what he said were Chinese President Xi Jinping’s concerns about the conflict.
Zelenskyy said he would only back the idea of reopening Russian ammonia exports through Ukraine if Moscow handed back prisoners of war, an idea the Kremlin quickly rejected. http://www.msn.com/…
After a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northeast of the country, the messy war that Russian President Vladimir Putin started is now being fought directly on his doorstep, with artillery strikes hitting military targets in Russia and Russian officials in cities and towns along the border ordering hasty evacuations.
On Saturday, a new round of strikes hit the Belgorod region in Western Russia, killing at least one person and wounding two.
On Friday, Ukraine reportedly struck the base of the Russian 3rd Motorized Rifle Division near Valuyki, just nine miles north of the Russia—Ukraine border. Russian officials did not acknowledge that a military target was hit but said one civilian died, and the local electrical grid experienced a temporary disruption.
Russia blamed the attacks on Ukraine, but Kyiv did not claim responsibility for striking targets in Russian territory.
Kyiv has assured U.S. officials that donated weapons would not be used to strike targets inside Russia proper. But Ukrainian forces are now so close to the border that they can hit targets using their own less-advanced weaponry.
That Russian citizens are starting to seriously feel the impact of the war directly is another new source of pressure on Putin, who returned home this weekend from a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan where he faced a remarkable public rebuke by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questions about the war from Chinese President Xi Jinping.
[…] Ukraine has made stunning advances in the Kharkiv region, in the northeast of the country, in the past two weeks. During its advances, it has also uncovered hundreds of mass graves and stories of Russian forces terrorizing residents in the liberated city of Izyum. http://www.washingtonpost.com/…
[map at the link]
Excerpts from The Spectator:
[…] The data demonstrates that the realities of the war diverged considerably from the public narrative. To take an example, many have speculated that Russian electronic warfare systems – comprising interference with electronic systems – have been ineffective. Just look at the proliferation of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) throughout the conflict: surely Russian electronic warfare and air defences could have neutralised these technologies. Yet UAVs have proven their usefulness. The Ukrainian military would agree that the overview of the battlefield they offer is vital.
However, the operational data reveals that 90 per cent of Ukrainian UAVs flown before July were lost, mainly to electronic warfare. The average life expectancy of a quadcopter was three flights. The average life expectancy of a fixed wing UAV was six flights. Surviving a flight does not mean a successful mission; electronic warfare can disrupt command links, navigation and sensors, which can cause the UAV to fail to fix a target. Contrary to the narrative, Russian EW has been successful on the battlefield. Instead, what has proved decisive is the sheer number of drones that Ukraine has been able to deploy. The most useful UAVs, according to the data, are cheap fixed wing models. This is not because they are difficult to defeat but because they are inefficient to target, flying too high for short-range air defences while being too inexpensive to engage with medium or long-range systems.
[…] UAVs need to be cheap, mass producible, and treated like munitions.
Excerpt from The Washington Post:
[…] The Russians used Kupiansk as the seat of their occupation government. A propaganda radio station, called “Kharkiv-Z” – the letter “Z” has become a symbol of the Russian military – blared through local shops. Residents could only make calls to Russia. Even without formal annexation, the town became so integrated into Russia that Udovik even had a relative visit from Vladivostok, the Far East Russian city near the North Korean border. The Moscow-established authorities advertised that people could receive Russian passports.
More at the link, including video of Ukrainian amphibious operations; video of the Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile, moskva-killer class; video of Russian propagandists claiming that the West wants to enslave Russians; Twitter thread excerpts analyzing Ukrainian victories (What happened in Kharkiv oblast is the result of a sum of gross mistakes and unresolved problems in the Russian army:
A) Lack of unified command
B) Supply failures
C) Lack of replenishment
D) Poor training of the army
E) Tactical mistakes); and much more, including additional maps.
Oggie: Mathomsays
raven @282:
Keep in mind, though, that the Southern Baptists suffered a large hemorrhage of membership back in the late 1970s when the leadership apologized for supporting slavery in the antebellum South. This resulted in the creation of the independent Baptist churches, full gospel Baptist churches, evangelical Baptist churches, and all the other permutations out there now. The drift from the SBC* has continued as people shop for a Baptist church that better fits their individual beliefs and, more important, politics. To a MAGA Republican, the SBC is probably too liberal.
*I giggle a little when I use that now as one of our local craft breweries is the Susquehanna Brewing Company — SBC.
A bit of good news: The crowd at Trump’s Ohio rally was quite small. The arena was barely two-thirds full.
Donald Trump boasted about his ‘sold out’ Ohio rally on Saturday hours before taking the stage, and said most Republicans ‘would lose’ their races if not for his endorsement.
Trump is speaking at the 7,000-seat Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio at 7pm – but the ‘massive crowd’ he bragged about on his Truth Social app only fills about two-thirds of the stadium. [from MSN]
In ridiculous news: Trump claimed he came up the term “caravans.” Trump casually referred to immigrants as murderers and rapists … again. Trump claimed that he actually finished the border wall. [LOLLOLLOL] Trump says he wants to execute drug dealers like they do in Singapore and China. Trump lied about Democrats supporting the murder of babies, all while the NewsMax screen showed an ad for a “Free Gold Coin” (a Trump fundraising scam) at the same time (split screen).
Trump claimed that J.D. Vance fell in love with him. He repeated that Kim Jong Un fell in love with him. Trump said Sean Hannity is a “sweetheart.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Four medics have been killed and two patients injured after Russian forces fired at a psychiatric hospital in the village of Strelechya, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, has said. The facility was in the process of being evacuated and medical staff were removing patients from the hospital while under heavy fire, Syniehubov said. He added on Telegram: “During the evacuation, the Russians started a massive shelling. According to preliminary data, unfortunately, 4 medical workers died, 2 patients were injured.”
Vladimir Putin is “failing on all of his military strategic objectives”, the chief of the defence staff has said. Adm Sir Tony Radakin said the conflict was likely to “grind on for a long time”, despite recent successes by Ukrainian military forces. Asked about the situation in Ukraine, he told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “At the very outset, we said that this was a strategic error by President Putin and strategic errors lead to strategic consequences. And in this instance, it’s strategic failure. Putin is failing on all of his military strategic objectives. He wanted to subjugate Ukraine, that’s not going to happen.”
Russia has reacted to its military setbacks in the past week by increasing its missile attacks on civilian infrastructure even if they do not have any military impact, according to the latest intelligence report from the British Ministry of Defence. It says in a post on Twitter that the move is intended to destroy the morale of the Ukrainian people.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of provoking fighting in Kherson after a video showed clashes in the centre of the occupied Ukrainian city on Saturday evening. The Ukrainian army is leading a counter-offensive to retake the southern city, which was seized by the Russian army in the first weeks of the invasion. Russian official media Vesti-Crimea broadcast a video on Saturday evening showing an exchange of fire around two armoured vehicles near Kherson train station.
Prosecutors in an area of Ukraine where Russian forces recently retreated in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive are accusing Russia of torturing civilians in one freed village. Prosecutors in the Kharkiv region said, in an online statement, that they had found a basement where Russian forces allegedly tortured prisoners in the village of Kozacha Lopan, near the border with Russia, Associated Press reports. They released images showing a Russian military TA-57 telephone with additional wires and alligator clips attached to it. Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of using the Soviet-era radio telephones as a power source to electrocute prisoners during interrogation.
Beloved Russian singer Alla Pugacheva has posted a message on her Instagram account asking the country’s justice ministry to list her as a foreign agent alongside her husband, Maxim Galkin. The post called for an end to “the deaths of our boys for illusory aims that make our country a pariah and weigh down the lives of its citizens”. Pugacheva’s message comes a day after Galkin – a comedian who has repeatedly spoken out against the war with Ukraine – was designated a foreign agent by Russia for political activities. Russia’s ministry of justice says that his source of foreign funding is from Ukraine….
Jack Watling, a senior research fellow for land warfare at the Royal United Services Institute, has written an analysis piece for the Guardian on Russia’s underperforming military capability, and why it could lead to its downfall.
“Russia’s military was designed to fight short, high-intensity wars. Without full national mobilisation, it is too small, its units lack the logistical enablement and its equipment is ill-suited to a protracted war. When the Russian military issued orders to its troops in the autumn of 2021, it estimated a need for them to be deployed for nine months. They are now reaching that limit. The Ukrainians, by contrast, have been organising their military since 2014 for precisely this kind of war.”
Policy research organisation the Institute for the Study of War has published data suggesting Ukrainian forces are expanding positions east of the Oskil River and north of the Siverskyi Donets River that could allow them to envelop Russian troops holding the city of Lyman.
They say: “The Russian defenders in Lyman still appear to consist in large part of Bars (Russian Combat Army Reserve) reservists and the remnants of units badly damaged in the Kharkiv oblast counteroffensive, and the Russians do not appear to be directing reinforcements to this area.”
Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili levied heavy criticism against Russia on Sunday after the discovery of mass graves in Izium earlier this week.
Zourabichvili condemned “in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by Russia in Izium,” adding that “these war crimes must be answered by justice,” the Kyiv Independent reports.
Trump, so absorbed in his own public defense, even seemed to forget the reason he was at the rally and started taking shots at Vance. “J.D. is kissing my ass,” Trump said. “He wants my support so bad!”
US Flags can be seen everywhere in Yerevan today.
Moreover, Putin’s posters removed from the city streets.
Nancy Pelosi is there this weekend. As people have pointed out, California has a large and politically active Armenian community (Kardashians included).
Orbán says that he will fight for the lifting of sanctions against [Russia]. Let’s call a spade a spade. Hungary – Trojan horse seeking the collapse of [the EU] at the expense of European taxpayers. Orbán hates [Ukraine] and dreams of “Russian world” in Europe. Should EU finance these diversions?
Today, our Congressional delegation had the high privilege of meeting with Prime Minister @NikolPashinyan of Armenia, a valued partner in advancing security, prosperity, and Democracy in the Caucasus region.
Our Members expressed our appreciation & commitment to strengthen the U.S.-Armenian partnership. We also expressed our pride in President Biden last year becoming the first U.S. President to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide, following the lead of the House in 2019.
I also expressed the condemnation of the Congress for Azerbaijan’s attack & reaffirmed the US’ commitment to a negotiated, comprehensive, and sustainable settlement to all conflicts related to Nagorno Karabakh that will lead to a future of peace and stability.
Lots of cartoons and commentary at that link. One of my favorites is a bunch of Republicans standing around and one says, “But be careful not to create some crazy loophole where we’ll still have to respect their rights after they’re born.”
Lauren Boebert, and others, are preaching that the world is going to end soon:
According to the conveniently deceased California pastor Kenton Beshore, the world started ending last year. According to (also deceased) psychic Jeane Dixon, it was supposed to end the year before that, in 2020. In fact, the world was supposed to end most years in the last few decades, according to someone or another. Poor Harold Camping spent his whole life predicting the Rapture and the apocalypse and promising it was going to happen on May 12, 2011 (well, after it didn’t happen on any of the other dates he had predicted), which it did not. Awkwardly, Camping was still alive on that date so he had to answer a lot of questions about why the world did not end. He went with “the apocalypse happened, but it was invisible,” as his explanation.
Now we’ve got a doomsday preacher in Congress — Lauren Boebert! While Boebert is not giving out any specific dates, she did make clear in a recent speech at a Christian conference held by the Truth and Liberty coalition in Colorado that she believes the world will be ending any minute now. Jesus is coming back, she said, so we had better get busy turning the United States into a theocracy. [Tweet and video at the link]
Via Business Insider:
“It’s time for us to position ourselves and rise up and take our place in Christ and influence this nation as we were called to do,” the Colorado Republican told the crowd […]
“We need God back at the center of our country,” she added.
Boebert heavily quoted scripture in her speech. She framed the formation of the US as divinely inspired and described the founding fathers as men of faith who were motivated by God — contentions that have been challenged by historians.
“We know that we are in the last of the last days,” Boebert later said, referencing the belief held by some evangelical Christians that Jesus will return after a period of tribulation, or great suffering, and save believers. “But it’s not a time to complain about it. It’s not a time to get upset about it. It’s a time to know that you were called to be a part of these last days. You get to have a role in ushering in the second coming of Jesus.”
Isn’t Jesus supposed to be God? Are we to assume that an all-powerful immortal deity is sitting up on a cloud, staring at his watch, waiting for Lauren Boebert and friends to help usher him in? Shouldn’t Jesus be able to just pop by whenever he wants? It’s not like he has to get his Dad’s permission, given that he is his own Dad.
Not that I believe in this shit, but it seems that if Jesus did exist and was going to return, he kind of missed his window for a particularly dramatic entrance in 2000 or 2012 (Surprise! The Mayans were right!). Even a few months after COVID struck would have been pretty impressive. But now? At a time when fewer Americans are identifying as Christians than ever? Not great timing! What’s he gonna say? “Oh, I saw those Drag Queen Story Hours and had to come back?”
Also, if he’s supposed to be getting here so soon, then why not let him handle all of the theocratic government stuff when he arrives, instead of guessing about what he would want. Sure, I get that Lauren Boebert probably wants to stand there and be like “Hey Jesus! Look at everything we did for you! We’ve been horrible to immigrants and LGBTQ people and poor people and forced so many young girls to have their rapist’s babies, just as you would have wanted! Wait until you hear about privatized health care — you’re going to love it!” but does he really need her help?
Ukraine’s top prosecutor on Sunday said his office has documented 34,000 potential war crimes throughout the ongoing conflict with Russia and is mounting a case on genocide.
“We have a case on genocide in the Office of the Prosecutor General, and we are all the time in communication with International Criminal Court … We understand that all of these facts put together will lead us to possible a conviction in crime of genocide,” Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Kostin said the Ukraine office is in communication with the International Criminal Court’s lead prosecutor, Karim Khan.
The Ukrainian prosecutor acknowledged the challenges of any attempt to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin, a sitting leader, for genocide, but said that “we know who is responsible” for “the crime of aggression.”
“The crime of aggression is the mother of all of these crimes — of war crimes, genocide — because without aggression, there will be no other war crimes. And for that reason, for the crime of aggression, the highest [political] and military leadership should be prosecuted and should be punished,” Kostin said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of genocide after graphic footage and reports of violence in Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv. Zelensky praised President Biden after the U.S. leader followed suit and called Russia’s actions genocide.
No sitting leader has ever been prosecuted for genocide.
The Prosecutor General’s office is also sifting through the 34,000 possible war crimes, prioritizing cases in the Kharkiv region, Kostin said Sunday. […]
Former President Trump’s favorability rating has dropped to a new low after slowly trickling down over the past few months.
A new NBC News poll released Sunday found that 34 percent of registered voters said they have a positive view of Trump, while 54 percent say they have a negative view of him. […]
While Trump’s favorability score has trickled down, President Biden’s score has gone up, though only slightly. This month, 45 percent said they approve of the president — a 2-point increase since last month. […]
Poland, Baltic states reportedly close borders for Russian tourists on Sept. 19.
Kristi Raik, director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, tweeted that Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania would temporarily restrict Russian citizens holding EU visas from entry.
Only some categories – family members and holders of EU residence permits – will be able to enter the countries.
I spoke with Azerbaijan President Aliyev today to welcome the recent ceasefire and to urge a disengagement of military forces and a return to peace negotiations.
Ukrainian civilians were fleeing heavy fighting on Sunday, as Russia’s armed forces tried to hold off a further dramatic advance by Ukrainian troops in the north-east of the country.
Cars packed with families streamed out of the city of Kupiansk, which Ukraine recaptured just over a week ago as part of a stunning counter-offensive. Residents said they had been forced to leave because of heavy day and night shelling. The Russians were bombarding the town and surrounding villages, they said.
In the space of a few days Ukraine managed to recapture almost the entire Kharkiv region, liberating at least 300 settlements. Demoralised Russian troops pulled back to a new defensive line on the east bank of the Oskil river, which is about 10 miles from the largely destroyed city of Izium. Others fled across the border back to Russia.
Kupiansk, a strategic railway junction, sits on either side of the river. It is on the new frontline after Ukrainian forces on Friday crossed to the right bank. They are now poised to push further into Luhansk province, which the Kremlin and its local proxies have controlled entirely since June, and partly since 2014.
Locals in Kupiansk said they had been told to evacuate, and that the explosions were very loud. The city was now without electricity and water and it was difficult to get a proper phone connection, they said, adding that people were hiding in their basements or had taken refuge in their garages.
…
On Sunday, buses were ferrying civilians to the town of Shevchenkove, outside the range of artillery fire. Hundreds of people who had spent six months under occupation queued in the central square to register with the authorities. Others travelled in battered Lada cars and waited by the side of the road at checkpoints.
“We spent two days sitting in our cellar. It was impossible to carry on like that so we decided to leave,” said Valery Prihodko. He said he and his relatives had fled Kupiansk and had no clear plans as to where they would go next. “The fighting is pretty bad,” he said.
Ukrainian armoured vehicles were visible on the road heading to Kupiansk. The Kraken special forces unit, which was established in Kharkiv in March, said it was in control of the frontline city. It has played an active role in this month’s lightning offensive, in which Ukraine has retaken 300 settlements and an area half the size of Wales.
…
Russia is now in danger of losing Lysychansk, a key Donbas city it seized over the summer after months of heavy fighting. According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Kremlin has failed to send large-scale reinforcements. It was vulnerable to a Ukrainian counter-offensive, the thinktank said, while carrying out a pointless and “robotic” attack against the city of Bakhmut.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday said his armed forces would repeat their success in the Kharkiv region in other occupied parts of the country, including the southern city of Kherson. “Wherever there is Ukraine, there will be our flag. This atrocity – Russian fascism, which repeats what the Nazis did – will remain nowhere,” he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Zelenskiy has said that Russia established torture chambers in more than 10 north-eastern areas they occupied….
“In a rollercoaster of an intercepted call, a serviceman from the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation is leaving with the remnants of the platoon to Russia via Donetsk, telling a comrade that there are no more Russian positions around.”
Audio with translation at the (Twitter) link. “What advancing? They’re right here!”
Oggie: Mathomsays
@295: “A new NBC News poll released Sunday found that 34 percent of registered voters said they have a positive view of Trump…”
Shocking isn’t it?
Yup. One third of Americans are racist, anti-democracy, pro-neofascist, immature, gullible rubes. And assholes. Not really shocking. More unbearably depressing.
In addition to the suspension, Ronnie Goldy, the commonwealth’s attorney for Bath, Menifee, Montgomery and Rowan counties, also faces possible disbarment.
MOREHEAD, Ky. — The Kentucky Supreme Court has suspended an Eastern Kentucky prosecutor who promised to help a defendant in exchange for nude photos…
The first of three episodes of this airs tonight (in a few minutes) on PBS in the US – “The U.S. and the Holocaust”:
The U.S. and the Holocaust, a new documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, examines the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany in the context of global antisemitism and racism, immigration and eugenics in the United States, and race laws in the American south.
Governor: Ukraine destroys Russian military base in occupied Luhansk Oblast.
Serhiy Haidai said that the Russian base in Kadiivka was attacked overnight on Sept. 19. The official added that Ukraine also successfully struck Russian military equipment and troops in Novoaidarsk.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says Russia president Vladimir Putin is “increasingly relying on irregular volunteer and proxy forces rather than conventional units,” in its latest update on the Russian campaign.
“Putin’s souring relationship with the military command and the Russian (MoD) may explain in part the Kremlin’s increasing focus on recruiting ill-prepared volunteers into ad-hoc irregular units rather than attempting to draw them into reserve or replacement pools for regular Russian combat units,” the ISW said.
Russian attacks in east and south repelled, says Ukraine military
Ukrainian military said on Sunday that its forces repelled attacks by Russian troops in the areas of the Kharkiv region in the east and Kherson in south where Ukraine launched counteroffensives this month, as well as in parts of Donetsk in the south-east, Reuters reports.
It said Ukrainian troops had advanced to the eastern bank of the Oskil River in Kharkiv region.
“From yesterday, Ukraine controls the east bank,” it said on Telegram. Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the neighbouring Luhansk region, said this meant the “de-occupation” of his region was “not far away”.
Russia is highly likely to have lost at least four combat jets in Ukraine within the last 10 days, taking its attrition to about 55 since the beginning of its invasion, the British military said on Monday.
There is a realistic possibility that the increase in losses was partially a result of the Russian air force accepting greater risk in a move to provide close air support to Russian ground forces under pressure from Ukrainian advances, the defence ministry said in its daily intelligence on Twitter.
Russian pilots’ situational awareness is often poor, it said. “There is a realistic possibility that some aircraft have strayed over enemy territory and into denser air defence zones as the frontlines have moved rapidly.” (Via Reuters)
…Russian troops struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region early on Monday but its reactors have not been damaged and are working normally, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said.
A blast took place 300 metres away from the reactors and damaged power plant buildings shortly after midnight, Energoatom said in a statement. The attack has also damaged a nearby hydroelectric power plant and transmission lines….
According to the Head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration Serhiy Haidai, around 200 #Russian soldiers died as a result of #Ukraine’s strike on it….”
The pylon-adapter seen in the video appears to be specially fabricated to incorporate the American anti-radiation missile.
According to ‘Ukraine Weapons Tracker,’ an OSINT Twitter handle that tracks the war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force is employing the AGM-88 missiles using the standard LAU-118/A launcher that is mounted on a newly fabricated pylon-adapter, intended especially for AGM-88.
The LAU-118/A missile launcher provides the mechanical and electrical interface between the AGM-88 missile and the launch aircraft, usually the American F-16s or F/A-18s.
Through this interface, the HARM can communicate with the aircraft’s radar warning receiver (RWR) and the launch computer of the aircraft.
The AACR started trialling Proofig, an image-checking programme developed by a startup going by the same name as their product based in Israel…
Four papers out of the 208 were withdrawn, and one was rejected afterwards.
“Following Pelosi visit to Yerevan, now the U.S. has organized (quickly, it seems) a meeting today in New York between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and @SecBlinken.”
The thread @ #289 continues: “In Keshavarz Boulevard, central Tehran, women take their headscarves off as protesters chant ‘death to the dictator’ on the fourth day of unrest in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by morality police”
“In another display of confident government, politicians from Kremlin party say they are starting hearings on banning ‘lgbt propaganda’ on Sep 29. Previous restrictions were loosely worded but referred to propaganda among minors.”
ravensays
It isn’t emphasized but the Russians have declared war on the West, the USA, UK, and EU.
Not yet a shooting war but an economic war by withholding their natural gas.
That means the EU citizens will freeze during the winter while their economies shut down.
Or so they thought.
It isn’t working well because Russia isn’t the only supplier of natural gas in the world.
The Germans have learned the lesson.
As one prominent leader pointed out, cheap Russian gas isn’t really cheap. It costs them their national freedom, national sovereignty, and national security. It isn’t worth it.
Russia is an unreliable supplier and no one smart is going to rely on them again.
taggesschau.de German MP says “Nord Stream 2 will never go into operation.”
News
Minister President Weil: “Nord Stream 2 will never go into operation.”
According to Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will never be put into operation, even after the end of the Putin era. “The loss of confidence is so fundamental that there will never again be a situation in which a German government can rely on energy from Russia,” Weil told the dpa news agency.
In general, he said, there will never again be an energy partnership with Russia. Russia has long since burned all bridges, Weil said. “This cooperation has been irretrievably destroyed. And the West will recover from it faster than Russia.” Anyone who still agreed to cooperate with Russia now would have to fear being fooled a second time, he added.
The German government had put the approval process for the completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline on hold in February. Putin had recently said he wanted to put the pipeline into operation if needed. Gas deliveries through the other Baltic Sea pipeline, Nord Stream 1, have been suspended by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom – with reference to technical problems that allegedly could not be resolved due to the sanctions. The German government considers this justification to be a pretext.
In most campaigns, candidates want to convince voters that they’re competent. In Georgia, there’s a reason Herschel Walker is saying he’s “not that smart.”
[…] as a Savannah Morning News report made clear, there’s a reason Herschel Walker made the comments.
On Wednesday, Walker agreed to a televised debate against [incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock] before a live audience in Savannah…. The highly anticipated debate is less than a month away, but Walker downplayed himself when asked what he is doing to prepare for the showdown against Warnock.
“I’m a country boy,” the former football player said. “I’m not that smart. He’s a preacher. [Warnock] is smart and wears these nice suits. So, he is going to show up and embarrass me at the debate Oct. 14th, and I’m just waiting to show up and I will do my best.”
In campaigns, this is what’s known as “managing expectations.” Ahead of their Senate debate, it’s in Walker’s interest to set expectations so low that he’ll win just by showing up. Warnock is one of American politics’ most gifted orators; Walker struggles to speak coherently; so the Republican is deliberately downplaying his chances so that viewers will tune in and be impressed if he manages to speak in complete sentences.
And who knows, this might very well work out for him. As political forums go, debates tend to favor those who struggle with substantive details because, due to practical constraints, candidates are required to give short answers. Plenty of wildly unprepared contenders have survived debates by simply memorizing a few soundbites.
The next day, voters are confronted with headlines that effectively read, “Candidate Jones didn’t drool on himself,” and flattering assessments soon follow.
The trouble is, Walker still isn’t a good candidate. At a campaign event last week, the Republican told supporters, “They get mad at me cause I say, ‘I don’t want any more trees.’ I don’t. I want police officers. I want border patrol. I want somebody in my schools to protect my kids. Eighty seven IRS agents. They’re laughing ‘cause I said trees. No, I don’t want trees. I want police officers.”
First, running on an anti-tree agenda is a little weird.
Second, no one laughed at Walker because he referenced trees. He did, however, raise a few eyebrows when he complained about new climate legislation by insisting that “we have enough trees,” which really didn’t make any sense.
Third, the United States is the world’s wealthiest country, and there’s no reason to think we have to choose between trees and police officers. We can afford both.
And finally, Walker randomly referenced “87 IRS agents,” but I think he was trying to complain about 87,000 IRS agents — which is a common Republican complaint about a problem that doesn’t exist in reality.
Georgia’s Senate debate is four weeks away. Watch this space.
ravensays
Russia just launched a missile at another Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
It landed nearby but didn’t hit the reactors.
This isn’t the first time or even the second time they have done this.
One wonders what will happen if they manage to hit one of the power plants and they have a core meltdown like Fukushima or Chernobyl.
or
One wonders how many Russian atrocities we can watch before we get more involved in this war on the side of Ukraine.
Reuters September 19, 2022
12:48 AM PDT Ukraine says Russia strikes Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, reactors undamaged
View shows a shell crater left by a Russian military strike at a compound of the Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant in Yuzhnoukrainsk
KYIV, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Russian troops struck the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region early on Monday but its reactors have not been damaged and are working normally, Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom said.
A blast took place 300 metres (yards) away from the reactors and damaged power plant buildings shortly after midnight, Energoatom said in a statement. The attack has also damaged a nearby hydroelectric power plant and transmission lines.
“Currently, all three power units of the PNPP (Pivdennoukrainsk Nuclear Power Plant) are operating normally. Fortunately, there were no casualties among the station staff,” Energoatom said.
It published two photographs showing a crater it said was caused by the blast. In one of the pictures a man stood in the crater to give a sense of its size.
Commenting on the strike on the Telegram messaging app, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: “The invaders wanted to shoot again, but they forgot what a nuclear power plant is. Russia endangers the whole world. We have to stop it before it’s too late.”
There was no immediate Russian reaction to Ukraine’s accusations.
The Mykolaiv region has been under constant rocket attack by Russian forces in recent weeks.
Another Ukrainian nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia – which is Europe’s largest and lies about 250 km (155 miles) east of the Mykolaiv site – was shut down earlier this month due to Russian shelling, prompting concerns about a possible nuclear disaster.
Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for shelling at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which is held by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian staff. The shelling has damaged buildings and disrupted power lines.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog said this weekend one of the four main power lines at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility had been repaired and was once again supplying the plant with electricity from the Ukrainian grid. read more
Reporting by Pavel Polityuk Writing by Olzhas Auyezov and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Toby Chopra and Gareth Jones
[…] In the south, the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk are just out of GMLRS range with the current front lines. If Ukraine manages to push that line back about 10 kilometers, they too will be under fire control. All rail lines connecting those ports to the rest of Ukraine are already in GMLRS range.
Russia would eventually have to work out new supply lines heading into eastern Ukraine, and if those are out of range of GMLRS rockets and need ATACMS to effectively shut down, then the Pentagon and Biden might be like, “Okay, Putin may throw a tantrum, but this benefit is too valuable to pass up.”
For now, GMLRS pods, with six rockets, pack a bigger collective punch, are more versatile, and are immune to Russian air defenses. They have been stunningly effective shaping the battlefield, earning the “game changer” title when it was doubtful any one weapons system could be that impactful.
ATACMS is a “would be nice” type of weapon, not a must-have.
What Ukraine does need, however, are more infantry fighting vehicles and armored troop carriers. Such vehicles are still too rare, and we’re seeing Ukrainians advance into enemy territory in janky civilian Scooby vans.
The M113s armored personnel carriers the U.S. and several allies have sent Ukraine are okay, but they are 50-year-old technology. The U.S. has thousands of M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles in storage, and they are better than anything Russia is fielding on their side.
In any case, no one likes to hear “the U.S. won’t send Ukraine the ATACMS it’s requesting,” but as of now, the Pentagon has done a good job of sending Ukraine exactly the tools it has needed for each stage of the war.
In Season One: The Battle of Kyiv, the U.S. and allies sent anti-tank rockets like NLAWS and Javelins, as well as shoulder-fired anti-air missiles like Stingers. It worked—those suckers defeated the Russian air force, and plucky guerilla-style tactics ended Russia’s designs in Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy.
In Season Two: The Battle for the Donbas, we saw bloody attritional artillery and trench warfare. The U.S. and allies rushed artillery guns, both towed and self-propelled, and millions of NATO-standard shells to fight Russia—with a once-massive artillery advantage—to a draw.
Season Three: Shaping the Battlefield culminated with the Battle of Kharkiv Oblast, or whatever historians end up calling it. It required the long-range attrition of Russian supply depots, supply lines, and command and control centers. Russia struggles any time it moves more than 25 kilometers from a rail hub, so why not force them to use hubs further behind the lines? And while Ukraine baited Russia into the obvious Kherson trap, it used the Soviet-era tanks Poland and several other nations sent, as well as M113, Humvees, and other infantry vehicles to create a host of maneuver units to go on the offensive along two fronts. HARM missiles degraded Russian air defenses to the point that armed drones were free to reenter the battle.
The Pentagon has been working closely with Ukrainian military leadership in helping craft next steps in the war. They’ll know best what weapons systems Ukraine needs for future seasons of this war.
Followup to comment 324. More updates from Ukraine:
[…] The gains aren’t as dramatic as a week ago, but Ukraine is steadily pushing forward. Look at that cauldron forming in northern Kherson as Ukrainian forces expand the Davydiv Brid bridgehead toward Beryslav and Nova Kakhovka, simultaneously putting pressure from the top. Russian forces are in danger of being cut in half.
Beryslav also hosts of one of Russia’s notorious concentration “filtration” camps. I’m not looking forward to the horrors they will unearth when it is liberated. [map at the link provided in comment 324]
——————–
OMG, Peak Tankie [Michael Tracey is a Tank]:
[Kyle Orton]The perils of trying to make the world fit your ideological fixation – in this case, that American military involvement is axiomatically a bad thing – at something like peak form: you can argue yourself into Holocaust “revisionist” territory and do so in a high moral tone.
[Michael Tracey] There is wide consensus that the “Final Solution” phase of the Holocaust was operationally initiated in Dec.1941, after the US entered the war. Jews had not been treated “nice” for some time, but it was only after US entry that they were subject to industrial-scale extermination.
[Noah Smith] See, Hitler was gonna be nice and let the Jews live, but then America had to enter WW2 and force him to do the Holocaust.
In central Tehran, protesters chant ‘justice, liberty, no to mandatory hijab’.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. The tweet just above it has video of protesters throwing things at a stupid truck brought in to spray them with water, forcing it to back away.
ravensays
There is wide consensus that the “Final Solution” phase of the Holocaust was operationally initiated in Dec.1941, after the US entered the war.
Cthulhu, that was stupid.
Correlation isn’t proof of causation.
There is far more proof and consensus, that if Germany had won the war, the Jewish genocide would have just been an opening act.
The Germans were after Lebensraum (living room) and openly planned to get rid of the Slavs (Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, etc.) and take their land and stuff,
The death toll would have been tens of millions more at the least.
Not to mention that if the US hadn’t entered the war, the Russians and the few free Europeans (UK, Spain) left might well have lost and all of Europe would be living under the Nazis.
Hurricane Fiona’s torrential rains continue in Puerto Rico as the storm moves toward the Dominican Republic. Most of the island is still without power, and a lot of the actual onsite reporting is being done via social media, with citizens posting calls for help from trapped families to Facebook and Twitter, along with video clips of flooding in their neighborhoods across the island. [map at the link]
Tuesday is the anniversary of Hurricane Maria’s total devastation of the island, and once again Puerto Ricans are facing the results of wind and water impacts from which the island still has not recovered in the last five years. [Tweet and videos at the link]
The Rio Grande de Loiza is out of its channel, affecting the Bosque and Marina communities.
[…] You can help by supporting community organizations like Taller Salud, Casa Pueblo, Comodores Sociales of Puerto Rico, and mutual aid centers.
If you truly want to help Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona, please do not donate through the government or anyone affiliated with it. There are numerous independent organizations that will ensure that assistance reaches us without being robbed or hidden
[…] [Soledad O’Brien]
All the tv news networks are running the funeral for a monarchy we ousted and basically doing little or nothing on Puerto Rico. Which has been devastated in a storm.
[…] [Adian Florido]
As images and stories emerge from Puerto Rican communities that have seen catastrophic damage from Hurricane Fiona, an important storyline is emerging. Why, 5 yrs after Maria, with some $50 billion set aside to harden the island for the next storm — is it still so vulnerable?
DISINFORMATION DIGEST: “How Russian Trolls Helped Keep the Women’s March Out of Lock Step,” by NYT’s Ellen Barry: “Over the 18 months that followed, Russia’s troll factories and its military intelligence service put a sustained effort into discrediting the movement by circulating damning, often fabricated narratives around [LINDA] SARSOUR, whose activism made her a lightning rod for Mr. Trump’s base and also for some of his most ardent opposition. … Many people know the story about how the Women’s March movement fractured, leaving lasting scars on the American left [?]. … But there is also a story that has not been told, one that only emerged years later in academic research, of how Russia inserted itself into this moment.”
They link to the NYT piece, but I don’t have access.
Ukrainian military officials reported that Russian forces are “conceding” and losing tactically significant positions in unspecified areas in Kherson Oblast.[24] The Ukrainian Southern Operational Command added that Russian forces have decreased the intensity of their artillery fire over some unspecified segments along the line of contact.[25] The Ukrainian Southern Operational Command noted that platoon-sized Russian elements still unsuccessfully attempt to assault Ukrainian positions in unspecified areas, however.[26] The Ukrainian General Staff also reported that Russian forces are coercing civilians to fortify Russian positions in Chonhar on the eastern Kherson Oblast-Crimean border, which may indicate that Russian forces are setting up defenses in anticipation of Ukrainian counteroffensives south of the Dnipro River.[27] Ukrainian military officials added that Russian forces continued to evict civilians from their homes west of Kherson City and in northern Kherson Oblast and are increasingly searching for deserters in the region.
[…] The Ukrainian Southern Operational Command reported that Ukrainian forces struck a Russian barge that was delivering military equipment and ammunition, resulting in the deaths of 62 Russian servicemen and destruction of at least five armored vehicles according to preliminary information. The Ukrainian Southern Operational Command added that Ukrainian strikes undermined Russian efforts to repair the Antonivsky Railway Bridge. Ukrainian military officials also reported the destruction of a Russian ammunition depot in Blahodatne, although it is unclear if they referred to the Blahodatne settlement in Mykolaiv Oblast or Kherson Oblast. Social media users also reported that Russian air defenses activated in Nova Kakhovka at least 10 minutes after a missile struck an unspecified target in Nova Kakhovka. Residents published footage of plumes of smoke in Yubileyne, Oleshky Raion (about 51km southeast of Kherson City), and the Ukrainian Southern Operational Spokesperson Nataliya Humenyuk noted explosions in Oleshky but did not specify their cause. Local Telegram channels also published footage from around Beryslav in northern Kherson Oblast, noting that Russian forces have been extinguishing the fire for more than two hours.
Ukrainian officials denied the involvement of Ukrainian forces in a street shooting in downtown Kherson City on the night of September 17 and September 18. The Ukrainian Southern Operational Command claimed that the shooting was a Russian provocation. Humenyuk noted that Ukrainian security services have previously warned civilians of possible Russian provocations in populated areas between September 17 and September 20 and claimed that the shooting in Kherson City is a Russian attempt to discredit Ukrainian forces. Advisor to the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office Mykhailo Podolyak noted that Russian street fights indicate that there are boiling tensions between the personnel of private military companies, Russian Armed Forces, Chechen units, and elements of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) amidst the pressure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Advisor to the Kherson Oblast Military Administration Serhiy Khlan suggested that the incident was “a cheap spectacle,” and noted that Russian occupation authorities are seeking to create a propaganda narrative that Russian forces are able to maintain control of the city. Russian proxy authorities denied the involvement of Ukrainian sabotage groups and did not provide any additional details. The initial Russian proxy denial makes the assessment that that incident was part of an information operation to discredit Ukrainian forces less likely. The incident may instead indicate that Russian forces are struggling to retain control of the city, possibly because of the infighting Podolyak suggests is prevalent. [Fraticide]
We didn’t want to waste time and energy discussing Donald Trump’s latest propaganda fest in Youngstown, Ohio, but you can’t really ignore rallies where the attendees raise their arms and salute their leader like a pack of Nazis.
Saturday’s rally was supposedly about Republican Senate nominee J.D. Vance, who is struggling to dispatch his Democratic opponent Rep. Tim Ryan. However, Trump predictably kept the event focused on himself and his own lengthy list of personal grievances. Whenever he did mention Vance, though, Trump found new ways of humiliating him.
“J.D. is kissing my ass,” Trump boasted. “Of course, he wants my support.”
It’s the one true statement Trump made at the rally. Vance, who once compared Trump to Hitler (unfavorably so!), willingly appeared at Trump’s Hitler rally. Vance didn’t actually invite Trump to his rally that some genius on his staff scheduled on the same day as an Ohio State game, but Trump exerted his dominance and came anyway. As we all learned after the 2020 election, you just can’t get rid of this guy.
Trump, of course, lied and bragged on his garbage Truth Social platform that “both J.D. Vance and Dr. Oz asked me to do big rallies for them.” They did no such thing.
After describing Vance as “a great person who I’ve really gotten to know,” Trump reminded the crowd that Vance is an opportunistic fraud who submitted fully to the MAGA cult.
“Yeah, he said some bad things about me, but that was before he knew me and then he fell in love. Remember, I said that about Kim Jong Un – he fell in love, and they said, ‘Oh, Trump was saying he fell in love.’ Actually, he did.”
See, that’s what happens when you let Trump crash your rally. He compares you to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.
Like the supreme leader, Trump has built a cult of personality around himself. So it’s not a shock that he’d embrace the QAnon conspiracy theory, which imagines Trump as some all-powerful, god-like figure.
QAnoners have shown up at Trump rallies for years now, but Trump is now openly catering to them. He’s reposted images of himself wearing a QAnon pin overlaid with the cultist rallying cry “The Storm Is Coming.” According to QAnon “lore,” the rapturous “storm” is Trump’s final victory, when he’ll supposedly regain power and his opponents will be tried and possibly executed on live TV. This seems more divisive than President Joe Biden suggesting that some Republicans are “semi-fascist.” It’s also practically his unofficial 2024 platform. It’s less a conspiracy theory now than an outright threat.
CBS News’s Robert Costa tweeted after Saturday’s spectacle, “Tonight in Ohio, fingers were pointed in the air in the crowd as Trump spoke and swelling orchestral music was played through the speakers. Trump spoke darkly of Democrats and cast the nation as adrift. A snapshot of American democracy, Sept. 17, 2022.”
[…] His rhetoric has rarely been uplifting but it’s grown increasingly darker since his election loss, and reeks of jackboots.
During his nightmare-fuel address, sinister orchestral music played — a fascist knockoff of Wagner. It was apparently eerily similar to the QAnon anthem “Wwg1wga” (“Where we go one, we go all”), but Trump’s aides insist it was a different song called “Mirrors.” Either way, it resulted in a chilling sight: People raised a single finger in the air, apparently referencing the “1” they believed was the song’s title.
After attempting to overthrow a duly elected government, Trump somehow remains free to lead an unstable army containing your neighbors and coworkers. This is today’s America, and it’s terrifying.
Video at the (Twitter) link. “Furious” is exactly the word that comes to mind when I watch these videos.
ravensays
We now see that:
.1. Russia itself has a lot of self created problems. Economic problems from the war and sanctions, the CSTO has two different wars going on now, etc..
.2. The Russian armies in Ukraine are losing.
Putin and Russia are getting desperate and desperate people do foolish and desperate things.
They may start bombing Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
They may even drop a tactical nuclear bomb or more than one.
I have no idea what the USA or NATO would do but they are aware of this and making plans for such an event.
FLASH @Flash_news_ua
⚡️The USA is discussing with its partners measures in response to a possible nuclear strike, which is threatened by the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, said the US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.
4:05 AM · Sep 19, 2022
FLASH
@Flash_news_ua
“We are working on this in the US as well, and we are discussing with our partners how we could act in response to those actions that would be completely unacceptable. And the president made this very clear,” – she said.
On Wednesday, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis took credit for dumping a group of migrants and their families on Martha’s Vineyard. On Friday, the victims of the Floridian’s stunt were taken to a military base for shelter and humanitarian support.
Evidently, Sen. Ted Cruz finds the political circumstances amusing. The Texas Republican published a tweet late last week that read:
“Leftists, hurriedly deleting their tweets saying the Martha’s Vineyard liberals ‘warmly welcomed’ 50 illegal immigrants: ‘Oh crap! They deported them IN 24 HOURS.’”
Before we get to the forest, let’s quickly review some of the trees — because Cruz managed to get literally every detail wrong.
First, “leftists” haven’t had to delete anything. Second, a great many residents of Martha’s Vineyard really did step up to welcome the desperate people Team DeSantis allegedly lied to and exploited. Third, to characterize asylum seekers as “illegal” border crossers is just factually wrong. Fourth, these migrants and their families weren’t “deported,” at least not by any definition that Americans would recognize. And fifth, two days is not 24 hours.
It’s not easy to squeeze five falsehoods into a two-sentence tweet, but [Ted Cruz] is a special kind of politician.
As notable as the details are, however, it’s the larger context that’s more interesting.
The day that DeSantis’ chartered planes landed on the Massachusetts island, his political operation hinted at one of the motivations behind the stunt: They were going to prove that liberal rhetoric about welcoming migrants was wrong. The proof would come when Martha’s Vineyard residents lashed out at the struggling people the Floridian had dumped in their community.
Those assumptions were quickly discredited when locals rallied to assist the human beings DeSantis exploited as political props.
But in a curious twist, Cruz and other Republicans are still clinging to the discredited initial claim. “See?” they’re effectively arguing. “Look how quickly those rascally libs deported the migrants!”
Reality keeps getting in the way. The migrants and their families were taken to a base on Cape Cod to be cared for because there were no comparable facilities on Martha’s Vineyard. As the NBC affiliate in Boston reported, “Shortly after the arrival of the migrants, Martha’s Vineyard residents joined with local and state officials to create temporary shelter and provide food and other necessities. But [Gov. Charlie] Baker’s administration said the island is not equipped to provide ongoing food and shelter, so transportation was provided on Friday to bring the migrants to the new temporary shelter on Cape Cod.”
To hear Cruz tell it, this proves that conservatives were right all along. This turns reality on its head. Residents of Martha’s Vineyard treated these migrants and their families with dignity and compassion, and they’re now poised to receive additional assistance from the state.
To the extent that DeSantis’ cruel stunt had a political goal, it failed spectacularly. To pretend otherwise is to ignore what actually happened.
ravensays
FWIW, the USA decided tactical nuclear weapons weren’t very useful and got rid of most of them.
They were supposedly battlefield weapons.
As the saying goes, “We didn’t want to be in a position where a sergeant could start a nuclear war.”
There also aren’t that many situations where you need to level a square mile or two.
They are also expensive and complicated to maintain. The components degrade or in the case of the tritium booster, decay, so they need to be rebuilt fairly often.
(A lot of people think most of the Russian nukes probably won’t work by now. The Russians don’t spend a lot of time or money on maintaining anything.)
The USA instead decided to go with high precision weapons (smart weapons) that could take out targets tens of miles away with high accuracy.
The day that DeSantis’ chartered planes landed on the Massachusetts island, his political operation hinted at one of the motivations behind the stunt: They were going to prove that liberal rhetoric about welcoming migrants was wrong.
It was so weirdly stupid to think. There was zero chance the people on Martha’s Vineyard would have been anything other than kind and hospitable. And more broadly, surely some of the people who cooked up this vile stunt have at some point visited New York or Boston. There are a ton of immigrants in this region, from all over the world. The Eastern seaboard has been a major point of immigration for centuries. It’s diverse. Martha’s Vineyard specifically has been a black vacation haven since the 1800s.
Here’s a list of the ten most diverse US states, in order: California, Texas, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Maryland, Florida, Nevada, Illinois.
Reginald Selkirksays
@322: Why Herschel Walker is telling voters, ‘I’m not that smart’
I was gonna say, “Because it’s true”, but that has never been a strong motivation for him.
There was an assassination attempt against Gulagu[dot]net founder Vladimir Osechkin in France. They fired at him into his apartment, but he got down in time because he saw a red dot on the wall. He was thankfully unharmed, along with his wife and children who were there
Gulagunet is one of the bravest investigative websites out of Russia, focusing on police violence, torture, and abuses of the security state.
(The site’s name/URL means “No to the GULag / No GULags”)
Note to my friends: when I say “I want a pony” I am speaking ironically. And if I were speaking literally, I would want that pony while I am still alive. Please do not give me a pony after I am dead, I would derive no enjoyment from that.
1. Popular[dot]info has obtained documentary evidence that migrants from Venezuela were provided with false info to induce them to board flights chartered by @RonDeSantisFL
The documents suggest that the flights violated criminal law….
The House and Senate both return to work Monday afternoon, with just 11 days to figure out what’s going to be included in the government funding bill and how to respond to weekend events that will scramble some priorities. The bill they left off negotiating on Friday isn’t going to be what they face this week thanks to natural disasters and presidential ad-libbing.
Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico hard over the weekend, causing an island-wide blackout. Power had only been partially restored to the island by Monday. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration Sunday, authorizing emergency funds. The White House had already requested $24 billion in natural disaster funding be included in the government funding bill, and that number might need to change, not just with hurricane season, but with flooding, drought, and wildfires afflicting vast swaths of the country this summer.
[…] Another fight that’s been dragging out for weeks is the side deal Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made with Sen. Joe Manchin for his support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is the big climate, health care, and tax bill Democrats passed using budget reconciliation in August. Schumer agreed to include in the funding bill a Manchin-sponsored bill to fast-track the energy permitting process, including ensuring that a pipeline he’s championing in West Virginia gets final approval. Nearly 90 House Democrats did not and do not agree to that, and have been pushing to do the permitting bill separate from the continuing resolution.
Last week House Democratic leaders suggested decoupling the Manchin provision from the funding bill. “We have agreed to bring up a vote, yes,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday. “We never agreed on how it would be brought up, whether it be on the CR, or independently or part of something else. So, we’ll just wait and see what the Senate does.” Since Manchin still has not produced legislative language for the proposal, and since Republicans have come up with their own bill rather than giving their support to his, it’s looking less and less likely that it’s going to happen.
Speaking of Republicans, the usual suspects in the House and Senate have been raising hell about the plans to have the spending bill last only until mid-December. They want it to go into January, arguing that the House will revert to Republicans in this election. “In light of that, why would Republicans cast one vote in favor of this tyranny?” Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry of Pennsylvania argued. The Senate agitators are clamoring about this too, including Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas, of course. They won’t succeed in preventing the bill from passing. Too many Republicans are not secure enough in their offices to risk being responsible for a government shutdown.
Outside of the government funding fight, the Senate is going to continue to vote on judges, which is good. Democrats have decided to punt on forcing Republicans to vote on marriage equality until after the election, which is bad.
Both the House and Senate could also move on reforming the Electoral Count Act, a project that’s been dragging out for months and months in the Senate in a bipartisan process Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has been in charge of delaying. Perhaps to kickstart that, Reps. Zoe Lofgren of California and Liz Cheney of West Virginia have prepared their own proposal, informed by their work on the Jan. 6 committee. The House could take up that bill this week, while the Senate Rules Committee has scheduled a markup and vote on the Senate version next week.
The national news media seems to have lost interest entirely in the story of the Venezuelan immigrants shipped off to Martha’s Vineyard as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s reelection campaign. The meta-story of course continues to get some attention — how it plays into the midterm, who it helps or hurts as a political story, etc. But I mean what actually happened. That’s unfortunate both in journalistic and political terms because even the barest look at the details we know make it very unlikely this was an official or on-the-books government operation. And yet it’s one Gov. Desantis has publicly taken credit for and said was paid for with taxpayer funds from Florida….
How does a Republican governor show compassion for the more than 150,000 people left without clean water in a majority-Black city? Apparently, by joking about their misfortune. Not more than 24 hours after a boil-water advisory was lifted in the city of Jackson, Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves joked on Friday that he was glad he wasn’t in the city, which is now facing a class action lawsuit.
“I’ve got to tell you, it is a great day to be in Hattiesburg. It’s also, as always, a great day to not be in Jackson,” Reeves said at a groundbreaking event for Jones Capital LLC headquarters. “I feel like I should take off my emergency management director hat and leave it in the car and take off my public works director hat and leave it in the car.”
I feel like Reeves should take off his governor hat permanently, and with any hope in 2024, voters will do it for him.
[…]C arey Wooten, a Jackson resident, told The Associated Press on Friday that the water flowing out of her kitchen faucet smells less like sewage than before but the smell remains.
While city and federal officials continue to take steps to address the water issue, many activists and scholars point to a root cause that is more difficult to mend—racism. Marccus Hendricks, an urban studies professor at the University of Maryland, told the AP: “The legacy of racial zoning, segregation, legalized redlining have ultimately led to the isolation, separation, and sequestration of racial minorities into communities (with) diminished tax bases, which has had consequences for the built environment, including infrastructure.”
Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross that Jackson, as well as other majority-Black cities facing a water crisis—like Baltimore and Benton Harbor, Michigan—have seen a “significant amount of white flight, which have reduced the tax base, reducing their ability to refurbish and maintain these systems.”
“And because water is a utility that’s managed at the municipal level, where we see patterns of segregation we also see patterns of failure in infrastructure,” Perry said. […]
Last month the FBI conducted a search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago bunker and found thousands of documents that he unlawfully took from the White House. Hundreds of them were highly sensitive and Top Secret national security documents. To date Trump has not explained why he took them, what he did with them, or why he lied about having them.
However, Trump has been tirelessly whining about his rights having been violated by FBI agents that he maligns as thugs and a Justice Department that he baselessly accuses of corruption. And on a near daily basis Trump floats some new defense for his criminal behavior. Each new attempt achieves new heights of absurdity.
On Sunday Trump announced in a post on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that he would be returning to Mar-A-Lago – aka, the scene of the crime – for the first time since the FBI’s visit. His typically rambling, incoherent comment was a goulash of lies and desperation. He wrote that…
“I’ll soon be heading to the scene of the unwarranted, unjust, and illegal Raid and Break-In of my home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago. I’ll be able to see for myself the results of the unnecessary ransacking of rooms and other areas of the house. It has already been proven that so much has been wrongfully taken, it is not a “pretty thing.” So sad! The 4th Amendment, and much more, has been totally violated, a grave invasion of privacy. I will keep the American public informed on TRUTH!”
For the record, here is an accounting of what was true and false in that post…
TRUE:
“…my home in Florida.” [though it is also a club for members who pay dues]
FALSE:
That the search was…
“unwarranted”
“unjust”
“illegal”
a “Break-in”
“unnecessary”
a “ransacking”
And that…
“much has been wrongfully taken”
a “4th Amendment” violation
an “invasion of privacy”
“will keep the American public informed”
Other than that, Trump’s comments was still a psychotic mess unleashed by a paranoid basket case. But he wasn’t nearly finished. On Monday morning he posted another comment describing what he encountered at his Palm Beach hotel/home. He wrote that…
“Arrived in Florida last night and had a long and detailed chance to check out the scene of yet another government ‘crime,’ the FBI’s Raid and Break-In of my home, Mar-a-Lago. I guess they don’t think there is a Fourth Amendment anymore, and to them, there isn’t. In any event, after what they have done, the place will never be the same. It was ‘ransacked,’ and in far different condition than the way I left it. Many Agents – And they didn’t even take off their shoes in my bedroom. Nice!!!”
So Trump is alleging that no one cleaned up after the FBI completed their search more than a month ago. And that the feds did damage so severe that the “the place will never be the same.” And worst of all, the FBI heathens “didn’t even take off their shoes in my bedroom.” How utterly uncivilized!
Everyone knows that decent law enforcement officers will remove their shoes before entering the bedroom of a suspected criminal. And this offense is especially heinous when considering that the victim, Trump, is so well known for his high standards for etiquette and decorum. Just take a look at the photograph above for proof that Trump would never breach bedroom shoe protocol. [photo at the link, showing Trump wearing shoes in his bedroom … not that we really care.]
Puerto Rico remains under tropical storm warning after Hurricane Fiona dumped more than 2 feet of rain over the weekend. More floods and landslides are expected Monday as intense rains are expected to continue until the end of day Tuesday.
An American contractor [Mark Frerichs] held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years has been released in exchange for a convicted Taliban drug lord jailed in the United States, the White House said Monday, announcing a rare success in U.S.-Taliban talks since the militant group took power a little more than a year ago.
The European Union’s executive branch recommended Sunday that the bloc suspend around 7.5 billion euros (dollars) in funding to Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding and the possible mismanagement of EU money.
Bad news, as posted by The Washington Post:
The administration of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) this weekend sharply restricted the rights of transgender students, sending schools into turmoil and drawing strong denunciations from Democratic legislators and some educators, but earning applause from Republicans and parents’ rights advocates.
Yeah, right. And Youngkin claimed to be a moderate when he was running for Governor.
Politicians who are far right wing are never “moderate” nor trustworthy—not in Hungary, not in the USA.
“Prison Telecom Company Forced To Give Back Half The Money It Stole From Families Of Prisoners”
Every year, American families spend more than $1.4 billion calling their relatives in prison. This is indicative both of the incredible number of people we have in prison, as well as the predatory nature of the telecom companies that make it incredibly expensive to call them, frequently more than a dollar a minute (and up to $14 a minute before the FCC capped rates in 2015).
But one of those companies is getting a little karma this week. In the last decade prison telecom giant Global Tel Link (GTL) has seized $121 million from prepaid accounts it had deemed inactive. People would pay a certain amount of money into a prepaid account in order to talk to someone in prison, but if it went unused for a certain amount of time the company would declare it inactive and just take the money. Some people call this “stealing.” [Yikes! I agree that that is stealing. sheesh]
Following the resolution of a class action lawsuit alleging that GTL had unjustly enriched itself by converting the money in “inactive” accounts to revenue, the company will be required to pay back $67 million of that money in refunds and credits to plaintiffs who had their accounts deemed inactive after less than 180 days, which is at least something. Obviously it would have been preferable for GTL to have to pay back all the money it stole, but that would involve treating it the way poor people who steal money are treated, and that would just be silly.
[…] GTL’s actions only actually came to light when it tried to pull this scam on an actual lawyer.
The details about GTL’s actions came to light as part of a class-action lawsuit brought by attorney Benson Githieya in Georgia. According to that suit, Githieya set up an account with GTL’s AdvancePay service and loaded it with funds so his cousin in a South Carolina prison would be able to call him. But after 90 days of inactivity, Githieya said GTL repossessed all the money left in his account. This policy played out across so many customers, that according to court filings, GTL brought in an average of more than $1 million a month from seized accounts over the course of eight years. […]
While Githieya’s claims have been public since April 2015 when he filed suit, the total sum of the fortune GTL seized was only recently released, spurring prison reform advocates to call the FCC into action. The court documents show that in October 2018 alone, GTL took $1.8 million in revenue simply by seizing customers’ unspent funds. The practice allegedly did not stop even after the suit was filed. Even now, the full extent of GTL’s seizures are unknown, as the court has allowed revenue since September 2019 to be redacted.
On the brighter side, the FCC proposed new rules earlier this month (PDF) that would bar GTL and other prison telecom companies from scamming people in this way.
To address allegations of abusive provider practices, we prohibit providers from seizing or otherwise disposing of funds in inactive calling services accounts until at least 180 calendar days of continuous inactivity has passed in such accounts, after which we require providers to refund the balance or dispose of the funds in accordance with applicable state law. We lower our cap on provider charges for individual calls when neither the incarcerated person nor the person being called has an account with the provider, as well as our cap on provider charges for processing credit card, debit card, and other payments to calling services accounts. Finally, we amend the definitions of “Jail” and “Prison” in our rules to conform the wording of those rules with the Commission’s intent in adopting them in 2015.
These new rules also require these companies “provide access to all relay services eligible for Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) Fund support,” so that prisoners with disabilities can communicate with people on the outside.
For 40 years, studies have consistently shown that the more contact prisoners have with their families and loved ones, the less likely they are to reoffend. Cynically, this means it would actually save us quite a bit money in the long run if we just subsidized those phone calls (because re-incarcerating people obviously costs money). But that would make some people feel icky, so we can’t. The best we can do right now is ask that these private prison telecom companies not literally steal money from people with family members in prison. So it is nice that this will be happening.
We knew Dennis Prager blamed women for all society’s problems, like he’d written the book of Genesis or something, so it’s not a shock that he also resents children. At least 50 percent of children become women and if you don’t care for those odds, you might as well get your hate on early.
Last week, Prager was apparently really grossed out when he saw a sign outside a school that read, “The world is better because you are in it.”
“What a stupid message,” proclaimed this emotionally damaged shell of a man, “Plus it’s not true. What has any fifth grader done to have made the world better because he or she is in it?”
Literally exist, you asshole! We don’t require that children win Nobel Prizes to earn their keep.
[…] Prager’s devastating parental revelation [his father was an alcoholic] shines a new light on his past comments about famous young person Anne Frank. Back in 2020, he dismissed Frank’s gripping, personal account of the Holocaust because “I don’t get my wisdom from teenagers.” He graciously acknowledged that Frank was “a wonderful young woman and wrote an unbelievably powerful document that will last forever,” but that was beside the point because she was just a kid. Worse than that, she was a “secular Jew” and wasn’t raised in a “religious Jewish or Christian home.” As a result, she didn’t understand that people are essentially garbage. Only a child — one without a proper religious upbringing — would dare write the words, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
[…] seriously, dude, get some help and let children thrive in peace.
So there’s a diary at Daily Kos with which I mostly agree (the tweets in question were gross and unseemly, and I say that as someone who enjoyed much of the trending black and Irish Twitter and stand by my post about Ken Starr @ #40). The responses contain a number of tangential points, and I partially agree with many of them, even those in disagreement. But one commenter, who could be terrible in other ways – I don’t know the commenters there or their history – and who surrounds this point with questionable others, makes an argument with which I agree entirely:
No one in a free society should have any political power whatsoever based on their ancestry
No one seems to be addressing this, there or anywhere, and I don’t see how it’s even arguable. The “political” is somewhat distracting here, but I would extend this to all power, as well as wealth and status. Bad.Good. The coverage in the US seems to want to sidestep this fundamental principle entirely, and it’s bizarre and frankly nauseating.
Pierce @355, I should have caught that error. Sheesh.
Cheney news:
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) [Correct!] on Monday said former Vice President Mike Pence “was essentially the president for most of” the day on Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in a failed effort to stop the counting of electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election.
“If you watched our hearings closely, you know that Mike Pence was essentially the president for most of that day,” Cheney, one of the two Republicans serving on the Jan. 6 House select committee, said in remarks delivered at the American Enterprise Institution.
“White House staff knew it, and so did every other Republican and Democratic leader in Washington,” she added.
In their public hearing on July 21, the Jan. 6 select committee documented Trump’s inaction during 187 minutes of the riot — he did not contact senior law enforcement and military leaders, D.C. government officials or Pence — and put a spotlight on the vice president’s role in mobilizing authorities to quell the mob.
The panel has sought to demonstrate that Trump was at the center of a scheme to keep himself in power.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pence called him two or three times during the riot.
“He was very animated and he issued very explicit, very direct, unambiguous orders. There was no question about that,” Milley said in a clip of his deposition shown at the hearing
.
“And he was — and I can give you the exact quotes I guess from some of our record somewhere, but he was very animated, very direct, very firm,” he added.
In response to a question Monday about Pence’s role on Jan. 6, and if he may have exceeded his constitutional duty, Cheney said the then-vice president “was doing absolutely what you would expect anybody in that situation to do.”
“I think that when you look at the other people who were involved that day and the actions they took, they all were acting in a way that you would expect them to. And I don’t believe that at any point the vice president exceeded his constitutional duties and obligations by saying ‘the Capitol is under attack and it needs to stop and we need to get help here,’” she added.
[…] Cheney, a three-term congresswoman who hails from a political dynasty, emerged as the face of the anti-Trump wing of the Republican Party after speaking out against the former president’s claims of election fraud and voting to impeach him following the Jan. 6 attack.
Her posture in the party has made her a frequent target of Trump’s ire, and has shaken up her political career: she was ousted from her place as the No. 3 lawmaker in the House GOP conference last year, and this summer she lost her reelection primary to Trump-backed lawyer Harriet Hageman.
After being driven out of her role as House GOP conference chair last year, the Wyoming Republican said she would “do everything I can” to keep Trump out of the White House. Last month, less than 24 hours after she lost her reelection bid, Cheney said she was “thinking about” running for president. […]
“I think for the Republicans, unfortunately right now, the fringe is in charge and is dangerous,” she said.
[…] Cheney on Monday night also told a story from the day of Jan. 6, when Republican lawmakers were in the GOP cloakroom before the riot signing up to object to slates of electors.
“As I was sitting there, a member came in and he signed his name on each one of the state’s sheets. And then he said under his breath, ‘the things we do for the orange Jesus.’ And I thought, you know, you’re taking an act that is unconstitutional,” Cheney recalled.
I would extend this to all power, as well as wealth and status
And attention! It’s not a fundamentally separate category, but in today’s world it warrants discussion. No person or family should get attention based on their ancestry.
Chris Hayes interviewed Ken Burns and Lynn Novick tonight about “The US and the Holocaust” (see #s 305 and 326 above). Burns:
After a while the ‘rhymes’ were getting too much for us, and we actually accelerated our production [to] come out now, this year, September, and not comfortably next year, because…there’s a moment in the film where Deborah Lipstadt says, “The time to stop a genocide is before it happens,” to which I would humbly add, “The time to save a democracy is before it’s lost.”
…The Kyiv Independent: What will be the consequences of this successful counteroffensive?
Ben Hodges: Three things come to mind right away. Number one, obviously, big parts of Ukraine have been liberated, and there’s a momentum they can keep going.
The second consequence is that now people around the world, not just in Ukraine, but in Europe, and the U.S., start thinking — wow, Ukraine can win. I’ve never doubted it. But now, I think, for more and more people, all of a sudden, the mythology of Russia’s inevitable victory is gone. This is a very important consequence. And I think other nations will start saying — hey, we want to help.
The third consequence is Crimea. I think this will change how a lot of people think about Crimea now. All of a sudden, it looks achievable (to liberate Crimea). That is from Kherson and down towards Donetsk as they start approaching Crimea. Soon, they will be able to hit Russian targets in Crimea. And then when they do that every day, it’s just a matter of time. I think people in Crimea are already starting to leave. They’re going across that bridge, getting out of there. And I think it’s a good thing that they leave that escape route for them to get out, for now.
The Kyiv Independent: So you don’t think that Ukraine should hit the Crimean Bridge?
Ben Hodges: Not yet. Because I think it’s useful right now. As an escape route, yes, for civilians, but also for military that want to desert, because the goal, of course, is the total restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty. And that should be the message that comes from Kyiv. Just like these little cards with a flag and then the QR code on the back, inviting them to leave. At some point, of course, after Ukraine has reestablished its sovereignty over all of its territory, to be able to use Mariupol and Berdiansk, the Sea of Azov for commerce, that bridge will have to go….
Mahsa Amini should be alive today. Instead, the United States and the Iranian people mourn her. We call on the Iranian government to end its systemic persecution of women and to allow peaceful protest. #مهسا_امینی
Russian state TV propagandists suddenly realized that downplaying the strength of the Ukrainian military and the effectiveness of US weapons only makes them look ridiculous, having recently lost occupied territories to an allegedly weaker enemy. Host slays an unsuspecting pundit:…
Translated video at the (Twitter) link. LOL – “This is sad.”
“We will conduct a nuclear strike not on Ukraine, but on Germany and Britain,” – a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) Gurulev
At least me and my cat aren’t on his list of who to nuke.
Gurulev hasn’t thought it through very far.
Britain is a long time nuclear weapons state.
Germany isn’t but Germany and the UK are part of NATO. Which means the US is pledged to defend them.
Russia should really grow up and join the rest of the world but I don’t see even a hint that this is going to happen.
Then again, the USSR was the other superpower and then one day they collapsed and few saw it coming either.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Ukraine has recaptured a village close to the eastern city of Lysychansk, in a small but symbolic victory that means Russia no longer has full control of the Luhansk region, one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s key war aims. Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, said Ukraine’s armed forces were in “complete control” of Bilohorivka. “It’s a suburb of Lysychansk. Soon we will drive these scumbags out of there with a broom,” he said. “Step by step, centimetre by centimetre, we will liberate our entire land from the invaders.”
The pace of Ukrainian forces’ advance in the north-east had thrown Russian forces into a “panic”, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in his nightly address. Zelenskiy said he was now focused on “speed” in liberated areas. “The speed at which our troops are moving. The speed in restoring normal life,” he said.
Ukrainian forensic experts have so far exhumed 146 bodies, mostly of civilians, at the mass burial site near Izium in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said on Monday. Oleh Synehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said the exhumed bodies included two children….
Almost every recent entry concerns Kremlin occupation stooges talking about staging a bogus referendum here or there. They do this several times a week, and I don’t see the news value.
“@ZelenskyyUa: The liberated areas of the #Kharkiv region can finally live. The time will come & we’ll rebuild everything destroyed by the occupiers. And the day will come when I will be able to say this about each of our cities that are under occupation.”
I’m sharing this primarily because there’s a photo at the (Twitter) link of determined Ukrainian cats.
The fact is that Ukraine controls 40% of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, and parts of Kherson and even Luhansk. Would be interesting how Russia incorporates in its borders the areas that it has not been able to conquer. Why not announce an online referendum in Kyiv and annex it too?
The news of a flurry of announcements that the proxy-Russian authorities in occupied areas of Ukraine will all be trying to hold referendums this weekend about joining the Russian Federation does not appear to have gone down well with the Russian stock market.
Reuters reports that stocks plunged to their lowest in a month as moves in Moscow reignited martial law fears with new legislation, and the plans to hold referendums in Ukraine sped forwards apace.
Russia’s parliament on Tuesday approved a bill to toughen punishments for a host of crimes such as desertion, damage to military property and insubordination if they were committed during military mobilisation or combat situations.
“Indices are clearly collapsing amid fears around the risks of mobilisation and martial law,” Tinkoff Investments analyst Kirill Komarov told Reuters, adding that Tuesday’s collapse would likely be the rouble-based MOEX index’s sharpest drop since June 30.
…At the more realistic end of the coping scale, people like [Max] Blumenthal, editor of pro-Russian website The Grayzone, actually acknowledged Russia had suffered a defeat. If this sounds like an odd thing to say, you’re in for a real treat as we work down this list….
Proxy Russian authorities in four occupied areas of Ukraine all announce referendums for joining Russia this weekend
The proxy Russian authorities in four occupied areas of Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – have all announced on Tuesday their intentions to hold referendums between 23-27 September on joining the Russian Federation….
Sham ‘referendums’ will not change anything. Neither will any hybrid ‘mobilization’. Russia has been and remains an aggressor illegally occupying parts of Ukrainian land. Ukraine has every right to liberate its territories and will keep liberating them whatever Russia has to say.
ravensays
Oliver Alexander @OAlexanderDK
The latest post on Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan’s Telegram:
“Judging by what is happening and still about to happen, this week marks either the eve of our imminent victory, or the eve of nuclear war.
I can’t see anything third.”
At least the Russians haven’t forgotten about nuking me and my cat.
I’m not sure where we are in the queue, before or after Germany and the UK.
Margarita Simonyan is a loon.
She is also a prominent Russian spokesperson and on their TV channels all the time.
Why the urgency in the Kremlin and D/LNR to pull off these “referenda”? Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive has shocked and worried them. Kyiv has the momentum. And it’s forces are still on the move, as the likely recapture of Lyman (waiting for official confirmation) shows.
ravensays
The Prime Minister of Spain just said what I pointed out.
Russia has declared war on the EU by withholding their oil and gas.
Not a shooting war but an economic war.
The goal is to have EU citizens freeze during the winter while their economies shut down from lack of energy.
It isn’t working at all.
Russia forgot that it is not the only supplier of oil and gas in the world.
Putin is at war with all of Europe, Spain’s Pedro Sánchez says
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is only making Europe stronger, Spanish PM tells POLITICO. 9/20/2022
NEW YORK — Russia is at war not only with Ukraine, but with the whole EU — and it’s losing, according to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “using energy as a war tool” because he is threatened by the EU’s values, Sánchez told POLITICO in New York, where more than 150 heads of state and government are gathering for the United Nations General Assembly.
But while Putin has succeeded in driving up the price of energy in Europe — forcing massive market interventions to reduce financial pain on households and companies, Sánchez insisted Moscow is actually pushing the EU closer together.
In Sánchez’s view, the bloc is learning from successive crises that have plagued the Continent since 2008, with the Spanish PM citing agreements between EU governments to pool debt, coordinate defense investments and wean themselves off Russian energy as the most recent examples of the trend.
Europe’s energy system is now “a market that doesn’t function,” Sánchez said, requiring creative new policies that would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. “Learning from the pandemic model, why don’t we centralize gas purchases, as we did with the vaccines?” the PM asked.
Europe’s political leaders now face significant tension between their expensive promises to shift to green energy, and the need to keep the lights and heating on as winter approaches. “Don’t use this energy crisis to block moving forward on the climate crisis,” Sánchez urged his fellow leaders on the eve of the General Assembly.
The occupiers’ playbook in action. As #Russia moves ahead with fake referenda in occupied territories of #Ukraine, let me say it loud and clear:
We will never recognize this.
Ukraine has every right to take back its territory. Donbas, Crimea, Kherson = it’s all Ukraine.
Russia keeps using blackmail and illegally tries to take what doesn’t belong to it.
Actions like this will have the opposite effect and rally our support to Ukraine. More military aid, more sanctions against the agressor, holding Russia accountable for its crimes.
KGsays
the Russians and the few free Europeans (UK, Spain) left might well have lost and all of Europe would be living under the Nazis. – raven@328
Spain was ruled by the dictator and mass-murderer Francisco Franco, who came to power with Hitler’s assistance, but cannily refused to get involved in WW2. Do you perhaps mean Sweden? Switzerland? I know, I know, all these European countries beginning with “S” are hard to tell apart!
Ruscist reconstructionists in the occupied territories never tire of repeating the Nazi referendum on the Anschluss of Austria. They are expecting 1938 results. Instead they will get Hitler’s 1945 outcome.
Hurricane Fiona is strengthening again and models have it hitting…Canada. Another storm, which would be Gaston, appears to be forming behind it in the Caribbean and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico.
“Three Meduza sources close to the Kremlin underlined that Russia believes the ‘referenda’ will stop Ukraine advance as they ‘won’t risk attacking Russian territory’.
Sounds like another miscalculation from Kremlin with quite scary possible consequences
There is just one big question for Russia at the moment as we approach the end of the seventh month of this illegal, unprovoked invasion: What the hell do they think they are doing?
No, seriously. Russia is continuing to make multiple attacks every day around the town of Bakhmut, scrambling to gain a single street, or a single meter, with a high cost in both men and materiel for each gain. If they get Bakhmut, then what? Months of fighting will have carried them an entire 15 kilometers from territory they occupied at the outset of the invasion. And they’ll still be 40 km from the well-defended cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk at the heart of Donetsk Oblast.
Ukraine has liberated more territory in northern Donetsk in the last three days than Russia has captured in the last three months. By nearly an order of magnitude. Right now, Ukrainian forces are moving town to town and simply routing Russian occupiers from their supposed strongholds. Studenok? Liberated. Sosnove? Liberated. Yatskivka, Yarova, Oleksandrivka, Krymky … all reported liberated. In the last three days.
Meanwhile, Russia is making multiple attempts to gain another block in Bakhmut. It’s continuing to shell dozens of locations. And it’s tossing missiles at civilian targets in Ukrainian cities. Absolutely none of which moves Russia 1 centimeter closer to any of its stated goals, much less anything that looks like winning.
The truth is that even before the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv, it was clear that Russia was a spent force. […] As every map made clear, they were simply incapable of obtaining their objectives. They couldn’t get Kyiv. They couldn’t get to Odesa. They can’t capture all of Donetsk. Now they’ve wasted so much of their strength that it’s debatable whether they can hold on to any of the territory they controlled inside Ukraine when the invasion began. And their response? Just keep wasting more.
A sensible move by Russia at this point would be to figure out if there is any portion of Ukraine it seriously needs to retain, then do everything possible to hold that territory. It’s not clear what they can do. It is clear that wasting more men at Bakhmut only makes Russia’s situation worse.
It’s baffling. It would almost be amusing … if it weren’t real human beings losing their lives, homes, and everything for absolutely no reason.
[map at the link] Looking in detail at the Lyman area, reports from Russians still inside the city on Tuesday morning insisted they were being attacked from three sides: south, north, and northwest.
Even before the Kharkiv counteroffensive, Ukraine had crossed the Siverskyi Donets River in multiple locations, liberated small villages, and moved into both Ozerne and Staryi Karavan. The initial assumption was that these were small groups of Ukrainian special forces simply poking at an area Russia had left lightly defended. However, almost simultaneously with the move in Kharkiv, it became obvious that Ukraine had moved a significant force across the river, and that this force was determined to roll back Russian advances in that area.
Immediately following the liberation of Izyum, it was claimed that Lyman had also been liberated. However, that report was premature, and Ukrainian forces had only reached the southern edge of the city. At least three Russian battalion tactical groups retreating from Izyum were repositioned at Lyman, and they joined with existing Russian troops in the area to try and hold back the Ukrainian advance.
Since then, Ukrainian forces have pivoted around the south end of the reservoir east of Oskil to take Yatskivka. Additional Ukrainian forces have crossed the river both east and west of Lyman, taking Yarova on Sunday, Krymky and Oleksandrivka on Monday, and continuing to press both north and east. Reports on Tuesday indicated that both Rubtsi (near Yatskivka) and Koroviya Yar had been liberated. If true, this would be another advance of 3-4 km along much of the line.
Considering the reports that Lyman is being attacked from the north, it seems likely Ukraine has already liberated Novoselivka and Drobysheve, though this is just speculation.
[map at the link] Stepping back just a bit to look at a bigger picture of the corner of Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk Oblasts (yes, I realize the map title is missing a “k.” No, I’m not going to redo it), this presents what’s going on at Lyman as part of the bigger picture of what Ukraine is doing in the “greater tri-oblast area.”
Not only is Ukraine across the Siverskyi Donets River at multiple points in the south, they’re across the Oskil River at several points to the west of Russian-occupied territory. Russia has reportedly moved more troops into the area of eastern Kupyansk, but Ukraine still holds the city on both sides of the river. Ukraine has crossed the river at Borova and reportedly captured the town of Pidlyman, which instantly became my favorite Ukrainian town name. And then there’s that force that came east from Oskil, which is not reportedly moving into the area of Lozove.
Russia tried to halt Ukraine’s counteroffensive at the Oskil River for good reason: There’s no comparable geographic boundary for a long way to the east. However, it’s become obvious that Ukraine isn’t going to settle in at the Oskil. Any one of these bridgeheads could turn into a major new eastward advance.
At the very bottom of the map, there was some excitement on Monday with claims from a normally reliable source that Ukrainian forces had liberated Lysychansk and were going on to Severodonetsk. These reports turned out to be another of those “just passing through” visits that generated excitement in the wake of the counteroffensive.
However, reports that Ukraine had liberated Bilohorivka soon after Izyum have proven to be true, with Monday bringing videos of both vehicle traffic and Ukrainian troops on foot that could be geolocated to this area. Bilohorivka is in Luhansk Oblast, making this the first settlement to be liberated in that area since Ukrainian forces fell back from Lysychansk.
Stay turned for changes. Because they are definitely coming.
[…] On May 3, Lindsey Graham said via Twitter that a Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade would mean that “every state will decide if abortion is legal and on what terms.” The Republican senator added that this would be “the most constitutionally sound way of dealing with this issue.”
On June 24, in another tweet after the high court’s ruling, Graham seemed to celebrate the fact that it would be up to “elected officials in the states to decide” whether their constituents can have reproductive rights.
On June 26, Graham told Fox News, “All of us in the conservative world have believed that there’s nothing in the Constitution giving the federal government the right to regulate abortion.”
On Aug. 2, Graham appeared on CNN and boasted about how “consistent” he’s been in arguing that “states should decide the issue of abortion.”
On Sept. 13, Graham unveiled a national abortion ban that would prevent states from allowing legal abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
On Sept. 18, Graham insisted, “I’m not inconsistent.”
No, of course not. Perish the thought. […]
The larger takeaway is that too many Republicans aren’t even bothering with pretenses. If there are proposals to restrict reproductive rights at the state level, they’ll support them. If there are related efforts at the federal level, Republicans will support those measures, too. […]
Trump won’t be able to claim he didn’t know keeping classified materials was wrong if one of his former lawyers specifically warned him not to do this.
In the days following the FBI’s search at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump claimed that the developments “came out of nowhere.” It was among the former president’s more outlandish claims about the scandal.
[…] officials from the Justice Department and the National Archives spent months pleading with the Republican and his team, urging them to comply with the law and return the sensitive materials Trump improperly took. Those appeals were ignored.
But there’s fresh evidence that Trump wasn’t just under pressure from officials outside his political operation, he also was facing related reminders from one of his own lawyers. The New York Times reported overnight:
A onetime White House lawyer under […] Trump warned him late last year that [he] could face legal liability if he did not return government materials he had taken with him when he left office, three people familiar with the matter said. The lawyer, Eric Herschmann, sought to impress upon Mr. Trump the seriousness of the issue and the potential for investigations and legal exposure if he did not return the documents, particularly any classified material, the people said.
If the Times’ reporting […] is accurate, it raises some difficult questions for the former president. For one thing, he won’t be able to credibly claim he didn’t know keeping classified materials was wrong if one of his former lawyers specifically warned him not to do this.
For another, there are statutory concerns. Ryan Goodman, an NYU law professor and former special counsel at the Pentagon, noted overnight that the Espionage Act requires proof that a suspect “willfully” retained information related to national security. If it’s true that Herschmann “sought to impress upon Mr. Trump the seriousness of the issue and the potential for investigations and legal exposure if he did not return the documents, particularly any classified material,” and the former president blew him off because he wanted to keep the materials, it’ll be that much easier for federal prosecutors to make their case.
[…] The Times did not disclose how it came to learn about alleged discussion, but it’s hard not to wonder whether Herschmann himself played a role in confirming the relevant details.
Or put another way, the lawyer didn’t just warn his former client about the dangers of keeping stolen documents, it appears the lawyer also wants us to know he warned his former client about the dangers of keeping stolen documents.
All of this, of course, comes on the heels of revelations from the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings, which presented Herschmann as a figure who worked behind the scenes against Team Trump figures who tried to overturn the election results.
In the scandal surrounding the classified documents Donald Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago, the former president and his lawyers appear to have everything they want. Team Trump insisted that a Trump-appointed judge assign a special master in the case to review the materials, and she complied. Team Trump asked for a specific judge to fill the role, and the Justice Department complied.
It’s against this backdrop that the former president and his defense attorneys still have a problem, not with prosecutors, but with the special master they sought out. NBC News reported:
Donald Trump’s attorneys said in a filing Monday night that they don’t want to disclose to a court-appointed special master which Mar-a-Lago documents they assert the former president may or may not have declassified. In a four-page letter to the special master, Trump’s attorneys pushed back against Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie’s apparent proposal that they submit “specific information regarding declassification” to him in the course of his review.
In other words, the Trump-requested arbiter asked the former president and his lawyers to disclose details about the documents he claims to have declassified. They responded that they don’t want to comply.
Why not? Because as Team Trump told Dearie, they don’t want to be forced to “fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment.”
Or put another way, Team Trump fears that a criminal indictment — against the former president or others in his operation — might be on the way, and answering the special master’s question might undermine a future legal defense.
The process is off to a great start, isn’t it?
[…] Dearie’s draft plan also set a deadline of Oct. 7 for the inspection process, while Team Trump responded that it wants to drag out the process until the end of November.
What’s more, a Politico report added, “Trump’s team also raised concerns about Dearie’s request for information about whether any subsequent Fourth Amendment litigation filed by Trump to reclaim the documents should be filed with the magistrate judge who authorized the search in the first place: Bruce Reinhart, who Trump has assailed without basis as biased against him.” [Yep.]
With U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, everything was a breeze for the former president. The young, conservative jurist simply ignored potential concerns about her professional reputation and gave Trump, who tapped her for the federal bench two years ago, pretty much everything he wanted.
If the Republican expected his handpicked special master to follow Cannon’s lead, it appears he’s going to be disappointed.
[…] “The folks that are contracted.” So they’re not government employees. The Florida legislature appropriated $12 million for transporting migrants out of Florida to blue states and cities. The appropriation said explicitly that it had to be removing immigrants from Florida — not from Texas. If you go by DeSantis’s statements his administration has contracted with private individuals, an organization or organizations in Texas to survey and surveil what we might call Florida-curious migrants in Texas. They are then paid to coax them on to planes destined to places like Martha’s Vineyard. This is almost certainly where “Perla” comes from. According to DeSantis, the state of Florida contracted with her or her organization to do this work in Texas. A private individual? A political organization? Who knows? But that’s certainly worth finding out. [Yes! Let’s find out.]
[…] The fact that the state of Florida is doing this work in Texas strongly suggests that this is not so much Florida hiring contractors to do work for the state of Florida as funding people who were perhaps already doing it or interested in doing it. [Yep. Who are these anti-immigrant yahoos?]
The idea that Florida is trying to interdict Florida-curious migrants while they’re in Texas is absurd on its face. These transports are not meant to meaningfully reduce the number of asylum-seeking migrants in a particular state. A million migrants have been allowed into the country while awaiting asylum hearings since January 2021. If you’re chartering two jets to take 40 at a time to Massachusetts you’re going to be chartering quite a few jets before you make a dent in that number. This is true even for states like Texas which have been busing migrants at scale. The governors in question have actually been pretty clear about this. The buses and plans are meant to illustrate the migration pressure on border states and put pressure onto President Biden. Since that’s the aim, the idea you’d be hunting for Florida-curious migrants in Texas to ship them off before they go to Florida doesn’t really add up. Can it really be true that there aren’t a few dozen migrants in Florida waiting on asylum hearings?
Again, none of that makes sense. And that’s a clue.
Late Update: To follow up in the points above, DeSantis appeared last night on Hannity and referred to “the vendor that is doing this for Florida.” [video at the link]
[…] Trump told the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in a Tuesday filing that as a former President, he still gets to say which government records belong to him and which do not.
It’s mostly a rehash of claims that Trump has made throughout his bid to slow down the DOJ investigation into his decision to take reams of federal records — some highly classified — from the government. He asked the appeals court to reject a request from the DOJ to allow its investigation to go forward, as it pertains to classified records seized from Mar-a-Lago in August.
Much of Trump’s argument focuses on the question of classification.
He has conspicuously declined to state that he declassified the records that he took with him to Mar-a-Lago, and potentially elsewhere, after his term in office expired in January 2021.
In a sense, Trump’s statements and representations to the Eleventh Circuit miss the point: the DOJ obtained a grand jury subpoena, and then a search warrant, for records that bore classification markings. That is separate from the question of whether the records themselves are classified or not.
But in the Tuesday filing, Trump asserted that even if the documents he took bear classification markings, they may still belong to him.
“The Government also argues incorrectly that President Trump cannot have a possessory interest in documents with classification markings, and therefore, the Government is likely to succeed on appeal,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
He added that he is entitled to still possess the records “irrespective of alleged classification markings.”
Trump also reasserted a line of argument that would put the ball in the DOJ’s court to prove that the records are classified.
Judges traditionally give the executive branch broad deference to say whether information held by the government is classified, and at what level.
Trump wants the Eleventh Circuit to agree with him that the DOJ has yet to “prov[e] this critical fact.”
The Eleventh Circuit case also saw a group of Republican state attorneys general file notice on Tuesday that they would submit an amicus brief in support of Trump. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading the effort. [Assholery]
Trump emphasized in the brief that he has the utmost care for matters of national security — just that the records, even if marked classified, belong to him.
“As noted previously, President Trump does not oppose any action advancing the legitimate national security interests of the United States,” one footnote reads.
According to DeSantis, the state of Florida contracted with her or her organization to do this work in Texas. A private individual? A political organization? Who knows? But that’s certainly worth finding out.
Also, I assume that even in Florida you can’t just hand over state funds to someone with no competitive process and keep their identity hidden!
SC @391, I hope so! That would be an excellent public relations move.
In other news, and as a followup to comment 392, here are some comments posted by readers of the article:
“The Government also argues incorrectly that President Trump cannot have a possessory interest in documents with classification markings, and therefore, the Government is likely to succeed on appeal,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
This is what we in the law call ipse dixit – or nothing more than an assertion without support in the law.
———————–
Trump has finally found lawyers as ignorant as he is.
———————–
The reporting on this issue should really stop using the term “classified documents” and instead “documents with classification markings.”
——————–
just say the entire country, and everything in it belongs to orange jesus,to do what he will with, and let the entire judiciary retire – certainly, his gop enablers would be fine with that
——————–
does there ever come a point in the process when trump or his lawyers are required to explain why he is so hot to keep government documents?
———————
In short, “mine.” It worked before Judge Cannon, because she was in the bag. In effect, Trump has asked the GOP judges on the 11th circuit, “Are you in the bag, too?”
——————–
Folks like to think the “coup” was one day of yahoos on the Capitol steps. Step back, look what’s happening. People (esp lawyers) focus way too much on the squirrels in the weeds but they are literally dismantling civil society. The coup continues.
Andrew Weissmann:
Trump appeal argument: govt has not proved it’s a duck other than it walks talks and looks like one, govt swore it’s one and we don’t deny it’s one. And it has a big sign on it saying “I’m a duck.” But other than that, govt has nothing.
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
Infuriated by Judge Raymond Dearie’s requests for information in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, Donald J. Trump has demanded that the special master be fired and replaced with what he called “an extra-special master.”
“This Dearie, he’s a beauty, he really is,” Trump told reporters. “He’s asking for information. He’s asking for information like you wouldn’t believe. He’s a bad or sick guy.”
Pressed to explain what he meant by an “extra-special master,” Trump said, “We need somebody in there, somebody who’s more special than this Dearie joker. If Dearie is special, then I don’t know what special is.”
Claiming that Dearie is “rigged against me,” Trump said, “After that guy is fired and goes back to Antifa or wherever he came from, we’ve got to find out what idiot chose him in the first place. This should never be allowed to happen in our country.”
SC @393, good point. This is just a guess, but I think we might find out that a rightwing organization that hides its donor information paid for the entire farce … and that they used DeSantis as their front man.
The White House has been in touch with officials in Delaware amid reports that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) may be flying migrants to President Biden’s home state.
Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the administration is coordinating with state officials and local service providers in Delaware to ensure they are prepared to welcome migrant families upon their arrival.
Officials are bracing for the arrival of migrants in Biden’s home state after reporters noted that a plane DeSantis used to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., last week is scheduled to travel from Texas to Delaware.
Jean-Pierre would not say how the White House was alerted to the potential arrival of migrants in Delaware, but that it did not come from DeSantis’s office.
“I can tell you we’ve been closely coordinating with the folks in Delaware, the officials in Delaware,” she said. “I can tell you our heads up did not come from Gov. DeSantis, because his only goal, as he’s made it really clear, is to create chaos and use immigrants […] as political pawns.” […]
Well, it’s 6.20pm UK time and still no sign of Vladimir Putin arriving to give his address to the Russian nation. The wait goes on, it seems.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is heading for the United Nations summit in New York “with the wind at his back”, and will deliver a firm rebuke of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan is telling reporters at the White House….
The speech was supposed to start an hour ago. Andrew Roth from the Guardian tweeted “have we been rickrolled.”
We are currently waiting on Vladimir Putin to address the Russian nation.
In the meantime, international leaders are chiming in about recognizing referendums from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories about joining the Russian nation.
French president Emmanuel Macron has said that the international community will not recognize such referendums, calling the plans “a parody” and “cynical”.
Similarly, Erdogan said that Turkey will also not recognize the results of the referendums, reported NEXTA.
You can now watch an episode of Chaiki (The Seagulls), a TV show about a women’s volleyball team.”
Pierce R. Butlersays
raven @ # 364: “We will conduct a nuclear strike not on Ukraine, but on Germany and Britain,” – a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) Gurulev
I get the impression that the talking heads on Russian tv, including most of the politicians who get air time, blither and bluster with the tacit approval of Putin and his Kremlin aides while allowing same a screen of “plausible deniability”. It does seem like the increasing threats of nuclear attack, perhaps originally intended as a chest-pounding bluff, may become more than that, much like the US having so often followed through on its own threats of violence to “protect national credibility”.
Has Putin ever undercut his own sockpuppets and backed down from growls they’ve made on his behalf?
@24tvua: In Russia, the Google query “how to leave Russia” has seen a dramatic increase in popularity today.
No-no, you “non-political”, “it’s not my business” ppl who want to enjoy top resorts while your compatriots are torturing and raping [Ukrainian] children, stay where you are.
There are reports that Russia is going for full mobilization.
This means the invasion is no longer a special military operation but an official war.
.1. Things just got real for Russian men.
They can’t leave the country and may be drafted as cannon fodder for the meat grinder.
This might diminish support for Putin which is supposedly quite high at 70% or so.
.2. It probably won’t do much good.
To fight in a war like this you need trained and motivated troops.
It would take months to train them in modern warfare.
And who wants to die in a losing war for Putin and the billionaire oligarches?
FLASH @Flash_news_ua
⚡️ We have information that Putin is preparing to announce mobilization, reports Presidential Advisor for National Security Jake Sullivan.
and
OSINTdefender @sentdefender
There are Unconfirmed Reports that after 2359 Moscow Local Time tonight, it will be Illegal for Military Aged Men between the ages of 18-65 to leave Russia and all Territories Occupied by the Russian Federation.
“Telegram accounts are reporting that Putin’s speech has been postponed till tomorrow. Condolences to all who spent the past two hours watching Russian state TV.”
Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys are asserting the top-secret government documents seized by FBI agents last month are subject to executive privilege because the former president scribbled handwritten notes on them.
Via Politico’s Kyle Cheney, Trump’s attorneys made this argument in a footnote in their latest court filing in which they argue the handwritten notes mean that the documents “could certainly contain privileged information,” thus “further supporting the need for an independent, third-party review of these documents.”
The scribbled notes make them Presidential Records. Which are, by law, owned by the United States Government, and administered by the National Archives. Unless it is a birthday card to, say, his favourite sycophant, all Presidential notes are Presidential Records.
johnson catmansays
re Oggie @408: His lawyers are merely flinging poo at the walls to see what will stick.
Video at the (Twitter) link. People being shot at and beaten for protesting the arrest and killing of a woman for not having a piece of fabric placed on her head to the satisfaction of theocrats.
SC @405, Just speculation, but maybe Putin canceled the referendum announcement because the situation in those areas of Ukraine is so bad for Russia that it is impossible to hold the referenda.
With the House Jan 6 committee set to begin holding more televised hearings, a Georgia grand jury reportedly ready to hand down criminal indictments for election tampering, and the Department of Justice ramping up its investigation of stolen government documents confiscated back from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump was up at 3 AM attacking CNN’s Don Lemon and then continuing on later in the morning.
Oggie: Mathomsays
His lawyers are merely flinging poo at the walls to see what will stick.
True. But most lawyers, most real lawyers, will, at the very least, try to find some aspect of actual law, no matter how small of a toehold, to back up their attempt. Near as I can make out, either his lawyers do not know that the Presidential Records Act exists, or they think that, for some reason, it doesn’t apply to Trump. Maybe crayon comments makes the PRA null and void?
On Oct. 8 later this season, UMass is hosting the Liberty Flames – an evangelical Christian university with quite conservative beliefs regarding gender and sexuality. As a result, it looks like the Minutemen will be scheduling Pride Day for the game against Liberty…
Oggie: Mathomsays
And, although it has nothing to do with current news, it is Russia oriented, I am currently waiting for Russia: Revolution and Civil War by Antony Beevor, one of my favourite historical writers. His history of the Spanish Civil War is readable, informative, and allows non-specialists to make sense of what happened. Same for his history of the WWII airborne assault on Crete.
Anyway, three stops away. Not that I am stalking it or anything.
It’s been hard to locate any reasonable military response for Russia at this point in their failed invasion of Ukraine. Because there isn’t one. but Moscow is now scrambling for means of justifying even more attacks on civilian infrastructure—and civilians—and it thinks it has that plan in the form of a series of “referendums” to be carried out in occupied areas of Ukraine over the next week.
In the so-called people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as in areas like Mariupol and Kherson, Russia is going to hold a vote. Not a vote on the kind of pseudo-independence that was the formal position of the areas it has occupied since 2014, but a vote that would make these areas “part of Russia.” Russia won’t be doing this in Crimea, because it already did so in the midst of its 2014 invasion, where they found an astounding 97% of the population super enthusiastic about joining Russia. That referendum took place less than three weeks after Russian tanks rolled across the border.
Russia has waited longer this time, but it now seems to be going down the same track. Russian Telegram channels report that in occupied areas of Zaporizhzhia, officials will go door to door “inviting” residents to make their votes. Which is the kind of practice that might easily result in an overwhelming result of “please don’t kill my family.”
All of this has the obvious goal of allowing Russia to claim that Kherson, much of coastal Ukraine, and large portions of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts joined with Russia voluntarily. And then, being part of Russia, can be defended in the same way that the Kremlin would deal with a threat against Moscow or St. Petersburg; including the threatened use of tactical nuclear weapons.
It also opens the possibility of a “mobilization”—a sort of large-scale national draft which, under current Russian law, isn’t allowed unless there is an attack inside Russian territory. The referendums could give Vladimir Putin a checkbox so that the next bullet that landed in Lyman or Lysyschansk was an excuse to pull the mobilization lever.
Likewise, the conscript soldiers who are forced to do required military duty in Russia are (supposedly) restricted from serving out of country. Earlier, there were many examples of making these people serve in Ukraine no matter what the law says, often by tricking or forcing them into signing a contract. The referendums could be used to remove that technical restraint from the occupied areas.
[…] On Tuesday morning, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to speak later in the day, and that he might institute some form of mobilization. Putin’s speech was described by Russian sources as “the biggest speech since the beginning of the special operations.”
The threat of mobilization was enough to drive prices of airline tickets out of Moscow to anywhere through the roof, and create a spike in Google searches on “how to escape Russia.” Rumors circulating in social media suggested, as of Tuesday evening in Moscow, men of military age would not be allowed to leave the country.
Mostly what the world did on Tuesday was … wait. Because Putin was over an hour late in beginning his speech, which was especially odd because the speech was supposedly pre-recorded. Perhaps Putin has defenestrated everyone in the AV Club.
Having failed to take Kyiv, then the Donbas, Putin is now apparently failing to take the podium. [posted by Dmitry Grozoubinski]
[…] it is now after 10 PM in Moscow. Putin has missed his announced time for the speech by over two hours. There have been unconfirmed reports that Putin’s speech has been delayed until Wednesday. Or maybe it was Putin who stood too close to a window. Hard to tell.
That this speech, which was hyped repeatedly on Monday and early Tuesday as “the most important speech since the start of the special military operation” has now been delayed surely means something. We just have no idea what that something might be. Is Putin getting pushback from inside military circles? Are his own oligarchs in revolt? Is whatever health problem has had his face looking like an overinflated balloon acting up?
An actual press attaché for the Kremlin is now posting: “The third world war has been moved to tomorrow, you can go to bed. See you tomorrow in the same place.” We assume that’s Russia’s idea of a joke. Maybe.
Putin’s speech appeared to be intrinsically tied to the announcements of the referendums. Have those also been delayed or changed in some way? Is Putin going to use this moment to raise the stakes and once again rattle a nuclear saber?
Chaos. That’s what this is.
Meanwhile, the European Union is considering a new round of sanctions against Russia in response to the referendum plan. After all, this is nothing short of annexation, and halting annexation is one of the principal reasons both the U.N. and E.U. exist.
There’s been a general assumption that Putin means to create some kind of mobilization that would allow Russia to flood Ukraine with new workers who, even without training, can take over the away-from-the-frontline positions, allowing soldiers to advance to the front. That presupposes that the incoming conscripts can do those away from the front jobs, and that those who are moving to the front are capable of fighting. Neither of which is a good bet.
Russians seem to love cheering on Putin’s invasion … from a distance. It’s far from a sure thing to think they’ll peacefully shuffle out of Moscow to die in Kharkiv.
And the guys trying to organize this invasion, couldn’t organize a speech.
Other world leaders have condemned the planned referenda from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories about joining the Russian nation.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau called the referenda “unacceptable”, adding that Canada would never recognize any such territories as part of Russia, reported Reuters.
“Canada denounces Russia’s planned ‘referendums’ in occupied regions of Ukraine. We will never recognize them,” posted Trudeau to Twitter.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also said that the EU strongly condemns Russia’s plans to hold referenda, reported Reuters.
“Russia, its political leadership, and all those involved in these ‘referenda’ and other violations of international law in Ukraine will be held accountable, and additional restrictive measures against Russia would be considered,” Borrell said.
Germany, too. I don’t have it at hand but saw it on Twitter. (Not that any of this is a surprise – just useful to have people on record immediately calling it out for the criminal farce that it is.)
Reginald Selkirksays
It would make me so sad to hear that he canceled his speech due to a sudden case of polonium poisoning.
Fox News’ answer to the concept of intelligence and decency, Tucker Carlson, went on his show last night to make a case for violence against teachers and the LGBTQ+ community in a long-winded, strangely rapid, and tightly wound rant against all things transgender and sexual education-based. After showing clip after clip of drag queens, combined with decontextualized story after story and misleading pull quote after misleading pull quote, Tucker decided to go attack the concept of sex ed.
Sex education: the concept that most Americans thought we got our minds wrapped around a few decades ago. Tucker asked his audience the rhetorical question: “What’s a ‘human sexuality’ lecture look like in my sixth grader’s class? Why don’t you tell me. Speak slowly. So I can take notes.”
[…] Tucker then launched into a really frightening litany of accusations against teachers and educators in general, calling “gender-affirming care” a “euphemism” for “sexualizing children.” From there things only got worse.
After running a series of quotes from various media outlets and interviewed professionals, including President Joe Biden, saying the phrase “lifesaving gender-affirming care,” Tucker went into this:
The reality of all this, behind the euphemism, is horrifying. It’s sexualizing children. And they go completely hysterical when you point that out because it’s true. And the real question is, “Why is everyone else putting up with this?” In a healthy country, with an intact social fabric, neighborhood dads would mete out instant justice to anyone who even thought about sexualizing their kids. And if you doubt that, go out and try it in Bulgaria or South Africa or the Solomon Islands. Good luck. Let us know how that ends, if you can still speak.
He then reiterates the old Sarah Palin “mama bear” truism that parents love their children instinctually. It’s a nothing burger on the face of it but when you realize what Tucker is really doing, it’s truly heinous. By reaffirming the truism that parents will protect their children at all costs, Carlson is saying to his [….] audience that parents of transgender children, especially ones who support their children, are not of the same humanity. They are in fact something else.
Tucker then goes on to say that Canadian and American liberals who support transgender care believe they are supporting a political movement that they misconceive as a “liberation struggle.” It is here that Carlson breaks what should be the biggest news of the day: “There’s no liberation struggle. The battle for trans rights is long over. Trans people have rights.” This may come as a surprise to most people around here who realize that trans Americans have been the subject of civil rights and civil liberty attacks for many years, and in recent years have been the obsessive focus of people like ego masturbator Tucker Carlson.
“They have the right to dress any way they like.” Oh. That’s not entirely true either, is it? Definitely not in school. But we get it: Carlson’s understanding of gender and identity is stuck inside of Bret Easton Ellis novels of yesteryear. It is here where Tucker does one of his classic logic pretzel, sleight-of-hand moves. He says “most Americans” don’t even care about transgender people living their lives how they want to live them. In fact, that’s what America is about: “We are a live and let live country, and it always has been.”
Besides the fact that this isn’t true historically, what Tuck-mo-Dee is trying to do here is offer up a pretend truism of American exceptionalism and equality in order to then entirely take apart the idea that our country has “always been” a place where we say “live and let live.” Carl-son-of-a goes on to say that all of the stuff he just said isn’t what is happening, so he can now continue his rant saying the exact opposite of what he posited was the American belief in not controlling other Americans’ lives.
These are not people who want to leave you alone or your kids alone. These are weirdos getting creepy with other people’s children. That’s exactly what it is. Say it. Say it. That’s what it is.
Tucklerton then explains to you that this truth is only coming to you right now as a result of Fox News being the only place you say this kind of “truth.”
These are sex crimes. And the people committing them should be punished. Now, try and say that out loud anywhere but on Fox News. You can’t. Why can’t you? Because it’s true, that’s why. You can’t say the truth things. You can claim that the Earth is flat and no one gets exercised. But when you start saying things like “all lives matter” or “sexualizing my children is a crime and if you keep it up, I’m going to hurt you because I am the dad”—say that? You’re done.
He proceeds to lament how the hatemongering Libs of TikTok got banned from social media sites in an attack on free speech, and now you cannot even say “groomer” on television without being charged with “hate speech.” He literally says, “But the term ‘groomer’ is now hate speech.”
After throwing to a video of someone talking on MSNBC about how the right-wing-o-sphere has been using terms like “groomer” in attacking medical professionals and education professionals, and singling them out for serious threats of violence from the GOP’s base, Tucker equates events like pricks inundating Boston Children’s Hospital with death threats, bomb threats, and harassment in a campaign against transgender care with liberals worried about “people being mean to doctors.”
Carlson finishes by making it clear that he is calling for violence and for breaking the laws of our country if need be:
What you’re seeing is a society that hates children. You would have to hate children in order to sexualize them. Because sexualizing children screws them up for life—ask anyone to whom it has happened—period. No one should put up with this. No parent should put up with this for one second, no matter what the law says. Your duty—your moral duty—is to defend your children. This is an attack on your children and you should fight back.
Tucker Carlson is a truly terrible person. [video at the link]
Defendants allegedly faked children’s names and randomly generated ages to claim they had served meals to those in need.
The Justice Department charged 47 defendants Tuesday for allegedly defrauding a federal program that provided food for needy children during the pandemic, describing the scheme — totaling nearly $250 million — as the largest uncovered to date targeting trillions in government aid.
Federal prosecutors said the defendants — a network of individuals and organizations tied to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit operating in Minnesota — in some cases obtained federal pandemic funds in the names of children who did not exist and then spent that money on luxury cars, houses and other personal purchases.
To bilk the government, the Justice Department said, the defendants relied on a complex web of shell companies and bribes. One participant allegedly created a list of fake children to whom it had supposedly served meals, populated with names generated from the website “listofrandomnames.com.” Others fabricated spreadsheets with invented ages or faked their invoices, all in pursuit of federal cash, the government charged.
Once they had that money in hand, some of the defendants bought “houses in Minnesota, resort property and real estate in Kenya and Turkey, luxury cars, commercial property, jewelry, and much more,” according to Andrew M. Luger, the U.S. attorney for the district of Minnesota, who briefed reporters on the case Tuesday.
The extent of the scheme, which siphoned away money meant for hungry children, led the Justice Department repeatedly to describe the theft as “brazen.” The acknowledgment underscored the immense challenge that federal prosecutors face to keep watch over the spending approved since the start of the pandemic — all while pursuing criminals who have treated the aid as a potential windfall. […]
Feeding Our Future could not be reached for comment. A call to a phone number listed on its website could not be completed, and a lawyer representing the organization in related litigation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Aimee Bock, the nonprofit’s founder and executive director, previously has denied wrongdoing.
The federal food aid is a critical part of the roughly $5 trillion in emergency spending that Congress has adopted since 2020. The money helped rescue the economy from the worst crisis since the Great Depression, putting shots in millions of Americans’ arms while helping workers find jobs and businesses stay afloat.
[…] The Washington Post is exploring the problem in a year-long investigation called The Covid Money Trail.
Targeting unemployment insurance, sophisticated criminals repeatedly stole the identities of innocent Americans, potentially draining much-needed jobless aid by more than $160 billion. Similar schemes targeted roughly $1 trillion in aid administered by the Small Business Administration, which provided loans and grants to businesses that did not exist, should not have qualified for help or appeared to operate abroad.
[…] Many Republican-led states have tried to put their allotments under a $350 billion aid program toward political pet projects, such as tax cuts and immigration crackdowns. Still another federal initiative to retrain veterans saw only 397 find new jobs, a far cry from what lawmakers hoped.
The scheme alleged by the Justice Department on Tuesday centered on the Federal Child Nutrition Program, administered by the Agriculture Department to provide free meals to children in lower-income families. The program essentially operates as a vast ring of networks: Nonprofits and other organizations provide meals or contract with vendors to do so, and they are reimbursed by states, using money from the federal government.
In response to the pandemic, the U.S. government made it easier for a larger set of providers to participate in the child nutrition program — and for those entities to supply meals at a wider array of locations. The tweaks aimed to help more families access food, particularly when schools had shuttered and couldn’t provide free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch as usual.
[…] On Tuesday, federal law enforcement officials stressed that they are continuing to probe the alleged fraud in Minnesota and other attempts to bilk money from a program meant to help hungry children.
“The defendants went to great lengths to exploit a program designed to feed underserved children in Minnesota amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, fraudulently diverting millions of dollars designated for the program for their own personal gain,” FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said in a statement.
ravensays
Delayed until Tomorrow: Putin due to address nation for first time since invasion – with leader set to announce escalation of war; ‘mobilisation and martial law’ mentioned in new Russian law; ‘panic’ in Kremlin
news.sky.com/story/…
There are a lot of rumors flying around the internet right now.
Full mobilization.
Russia is going to declare martial law.
What difference would that make?
Anyone in the way of the Putin regime is getting killed or sent to the Gulags if they are lucky already. It is a vicious dictatorship with no rule of law.
Chaos in the Kremlin
Probably but we would never know that.
Someone would just turn up accidently dead.
The undocumented migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard last week filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Florida officials.
…The migrants allege in the complaint that some were given misleading information promising cash assistance, employment services and housing assistance, which they called “bold-faced lies.”
The migrants said they escaped a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela for DeSantis to use them as “pawns in a political stunt.”…
“A significant difference of the current protests against compulsory hijab is that in the past, they were by and large acts of individual resistance but now have attained a collective form. Also, increasing number of religious women wearing the hijab have showed solidarity…”
And a large number of men! Amazing video at the link, with people throwing them into a fire.
Oggie: Mathomsays
And Mastriano has jumped on the anti-trans bandwagon, co-sponsoring a bill to ensure that all education is age appropriate and protect children from trans propaganda and yadda yadda yadda.
“BBC’s @jiyargol: People are not afraid of the regime anymore. In many cities, young people stand against the security forces and attack them. This video is from Rasht…”
The Sari town hall is seized by the protesters. They tear down photos of Khomeini and Khamenei former and current Supreme Leaders of the Islamic Republic
The current situation in Sari resembles a “melee” between protesters and police forces. One part has nothing but fists, another …
It is the first time we have seen Iranian protesters fighting back in this way. It’s another “first of its kind” in the recent protests in Iran. And it’s not just this video, there are dozens of them something has fundamentally changed in the protests in Iran.
Or this video of protesters in Tabriz pushing back anti-riot police motorbikes … remarkable. In 2009 and still in 2019, these anti-riot motorbikes were “scary” because of their brutality.
Russian military experts and pundits on Kremlin-controlled state TV advocate plunging Ukraine into the 19th century, destroying all of its power grid and access to the Internet, so that Ukrainians can’t keep trolling Russia using its own social media. I’m not kidding, just watch:…
Video at the (Twitter) link. “They want to deprive Russia of everything imperial, to deprive it of so-called conquered territories, to dismember it…”
Unprecedented scenes in Iran: woman sits on top of utility box and cuts her hair in main square in Kerman to protest death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the morality police. People clap their hands and chant “Death to the dictator.”
(article dated August 22)
The research and development contract for 10 of the Switchblade 600 drones in question, made by AeroVironment, is expected in the next 30 days, Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell said in an email to Defense News…
Part of the lag in getting the 600 to Ukraine is that unlike the earlier 300 variant, it’s not considered a fielded capability and, because it’s still in the prototype phase, must complete testing and evaluation. According to Maxwell, the Pentagon spokesperson, the delivery date will be set once the contract is finalized.
Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) have noted significant challenges posed by Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones, taking out armor and artillery systems in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
Dearie was Trump’s pick for special master. The reason Trump’s team put Dearie on the list of possible special masters is simply because Dearie was on the FISA court when the warrant for Carter Page was issued, and Trump assumes that Dearie would be as angry as he is about subsequent issues that have surfaced with information leading to those warrants.
In short: Trump picked Dearie because Trump assumed Dearie would also be angry at the FBI and ready for revenge.
Someone on Nicolle Wallace’s show (Asha Rangappa, I think) mentioned this as well, and pointed out that they vastly underestimated the commitment to national security of a former FISA court judge, which was a good point.
But it also reminded me – and I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before – of what I read recently in Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil’s Deal. The special prosecutor who led the investigation of the Boston FBI office and successfully prosecuted John Connolly was John Durham. He seems to have made a name for himself going after FBI corruption (and investigating but not prosecuting alleged CIA corruption/abuse), which I guess is why he was chosen by Barr and Trump.
But, interestingly, Connolly was extremely Trumpy (pp. 306-307):
John Connolly had emerged as the kind of quintessential public figure for the 1990s, a decade increasingly obsessed with style and celebrity. It was as if Connolly had decided that if he self-assuredly proclaimed himself the true hero in the story – and he made this swaggering claim unabashedly, even tenaciously – then it would be true. Forget about the mountain of evidence before Judge Wolf and the hours of incriminating testimony. And for the most part Connolly did have his way during his media blitz…..
When he was brought into court after his statements to the press, he pleaded the fifth more than thirty times. He was granted a medical release from a Florida state prison last year. (Oh, also, the book reminded me of all the mob connections between New York, Boston, and Florida.)
So it seems like the Trump team expected to have the same “success” they had with Durham in going after the institutions, but this time it doesn’t look like their scheme is working out.
ravensays
Ragıp Soylu @ragipsoylu
BREAKING: Putin declares partial mobilization, the decree has been signed.
“Only citizens who are currently in the reserve and, above all, those who served in the Armed Forces, have certain military specialties and relevant experience, will be subject to conscription.“
and
Ragıp Soylu @ragipsoylu
Russian defense minister says a total of 300,000 reservists will be called up
This isn’t going to be very popular in Russia.
More cannon fodder for the war.
StevoRsays
New series on Indigenous history and Australai’s Frontier Wars / colonial invasion on tonight on both NITV (c34) and SBS (c3) 7.30 pm (in Adelaide / SouthOz anyhow) trailer 1 and trailer 2 here.
People are also chanting با غیرت which I guess in English means “with honor” or “honorable”. It’s a counter to “without honor”. As you know, “loss of honor” is kind of a big deal in the culture (which at extreme cases leads to “honor killing”). The rightwing accuses women who don’t cover up or dress “modestly” as women who lose honor or cause loss of honor so people calling the woman “honorable” shows that they are sick of the fucking fundamentalists.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Vladimir Putin has announced a partial mobilisation in Russia in a significant escalation that places the country’s people and economy on a wartime footing.
The president also threatened nuclear retaliation, saying that Russia had “lots of weapons to reply” to what he called western threats on Russian territory and added that he was not bluffing. In a highly anticipated televised address, Putin said the “partial mobilisation” was a direct response to the dangers posed by the west, which “wants to destroy our country”, and claimed the west had tried to “turn Ukraine’s people into cannon fodder”. [cray]
“Military service will apply only to citizens who are in the reserve, especially those who have served in the armed forces, have certain military professions and relevant experience,” Putin said. Shortly after the president’s announcement, the country’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said 300,000 Russians “with previous military experience” would be called up. According to the decree signed by Putin on Wednesday, the contracts of soldiers fighting in Ukraine will be extended until the end of the partial mobilisation period.
Shoigu also announced that Russia had officially lost 5,937 personnel in the “special military operation” in Ukraine since it invaded on 24 February. The latest claimed casualty figure for pro-Russian forces by the Ukrainian armed forces is nearly ten times that number, at just over 55,000.
The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Putin’s decision to announce a partial mobilisation was a “predictable step” that highlights that the war was not going according to the Kremlin’s plan.
Putin’s speech was also swiftly condemned by western leaders. Germany’s vice-chancellor, Robert Habeck, said Russia’s decision to announce a partial mobilisation was “another bad and wrong step from Russia”. British defence secretary Ben Wallace said: “Putin’s breaking of his own promises not to mobilise parts of the population and the illegal annexation of parts of Ukraine are an admission that his invasion is failing.”
Putin’s decision to announce a partial mobilisation sent shockwaves across Russia. Since the start of the invasion, the Russian president has sought to shield his population from the grim realities of war, with the Kremlin eager to cultivate a sense of normality on the streets of Moscow and other major cities. But with the decision to announce a partial mobilisation and the call-up of 300,000 mostly young Russian men, the war will now enter the household of many families across the country.
Lithuania’s defence minister Arvydas Anušauskas has said the country is to put its rapid reaction force on high alert, as the mobilisation will also occur on its border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Latvia’s foreign minister Edgars Rinkēvičs said the country will not offer refuge to any Russians fleeing Moscow’s mobilisation of troops.
…
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in a video address released early on Wednesday, said in relation to the referendums: “Our position does not change according to this noise or any other announcement”. Kyiv said the “sham” referendums were meaningless and vowed to “eliminate” threats posed by Russia, saying its forces would keep retaking territory regardless of what Moscow or its proxies announced. Zelenskiy will speak to the UN general assembly by video-link on Wednesday.
As I said for months, Kremlin announces a mobilization and immediately rattles the nuclear threat. 300k to be mobilized over time. They will not be able to do this well. The system structurally cannot.
They will cobble together people and send them into the front with old training, poor leadership, equipment maintained an even worse shape than the active duty force, and send them in piecemeal because they don’t have time to wait.
If you thought the Russian military has had performance issues so far, just watch what this mobilized force will botch. The MOD know that the mobilization system stinks, they let it fall apart for 10+ years. B/c they said they’ve never fight a land war with mobilization again!
Mobilization at this scale is a disgrace from Shoygu/Gerasimov.It’s been a years since Russia has had a functional mobilization system. They’ve just signed many people to their deaths. What would I say to anyone in Russia reading this? Don’t let them take your husband/father/son.
“Russian business paper RBC says that all tickets for direct flights today and tomorrow from Moscow to Istanbul, Yerevan, Tashkent and Baku have sold out”
And another: “‘Slipped on the stairs’: Former Head of Moscow Aviation Institute Anatoliy Geraschenko died as result of ‘falling from a high altitude, passing several flights of stairs’ inside the institute.”
Nearly all flights out of Russia were sold out just hours after Vladimir Putin declared a partial mobilisation of reservists.
Google Trends data showed a spike in searches for Aviasales, Russia’s most popular website for buying flights, after Putin’s announcement sparked fears that some men of fighting age would not be allowed to leave the country.
Flights from Moscow to the capitals of Georgia, Turkey and Armenia, all destinations that allow Russians to enter without a visa, were sold out within minutes of Putin’s announcement, according to Aviasales data.
Within hours, direct flights from Moscow to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan had also stopped showing up on the website. Some routes with stopovers, including from Moscow to Tbilisi, were also unavailable.
The cheapest flights from Moscow to Dubai were costing more than 300,000 roubles (£4,320) – about five times the average monthly wage.
Reginald Selkirksays
Michael Kessler snatched baseball that represented Aaron Judge’s historic 60th home run, hugged it like it was a winning Powerball ticket and … just gave it back to Judge.
Because, Kessler said, it was the right thing to do.
blfsays
The mildly deranged penguin sometimes — rarely, but sometimes — overlooks a bit of cheese, even when not hidden from her. Last weekend I found a Camembert dated June this year. Camembert ripens / ages quicky, something like four–eight weeks, so it was trivial to predict this specimen was very Very overripe. And it was, there was an Ammonia scent (apparently caused by Ammonia being produced by the natural (over-)ripening process). After a quick check on the ‘Nets, I tried it. YIKES! Very VERY sharp taste… couldn’t eat more than a few bites. Some more checking on the ‘Nets suggested that “cooking” the cheese would work, e.g., in a casserole or soup or so on. (It wasn’t spoiled as such, spoiled Camembert has a very hard crust, but this one was quick soft.)
So I let it “outgas” for a day or so, then today made a simple make-it-up-as-you-go soup: Steamed potatoes, some (also elderly) sundried tomates in olive oil, stale (more elderly!) olive bread, and some more olive oil, butter, mustard, milk, and some vin rouge (none elderly). It’s rather good (especially with some paprika or black pepper (neither elderly) sprinkled on top), plus the rest of the wine (to drink), a Merlot-and-something… (For vegans, etc., I suspect you could use some plant-derived milk, and the butter can probably just be omitted — of course, the Camembert itself (overripe or not) would be an issue.)
…Russian capacity to implement partial mobilization is uncertain, as is the time it would take to produce results & how Russians will react to it. However, I’m also not sanguine on the proposition that it will make no difference. There’s room for caution here.
Morale will continue to be an issue. Stop-loss policies may yield fewer refuseniks, but more deserters. Most UA advantages will remain. What partial mobilization may do in the coming months, depending on what actually comes of it, is help RU mil stabilize their lines.
This is in part why these coming months remain an important window of opportunity for UA to retake territory. Over the winter the contest will likely be one more defined by attrition and reconstitution. The extent to which mobilization can help RU reconstitute is unclear.
Mobilization comes with significant political risks and downsides for Moscow, but it could extend Russia’s ability to sustain this war more so than alter the outcome. As always, these are just initial impressions and a very imperfect reading at best.
Perhaps a useful addition – mobilization & stop-loss might help Moscow stem the deteriorating quantity of the force, but not the deteriorating quality of the force & its morale. Having used up its best equipment, officers, & personnel, I don’t see how this can be recovered.
“Dutch leader Mark Rutte said Putin’s ‘rhetoric on nuclear weapons is something we have heard many times before, and it leaves us cold. It is all part of the rhetoric we know.'”
Putin’s announced mobilization of 300,000 “reservists” was jaw-dropping to me this morning, but not for the reason some might suspect.
Why? Because know how Russian soldiers are trained, in basic training & in their units.
A brief [thread] on some fun facts.
While I commanded US Army Europe before retiring, before that I commanded all basic & advanced soldier training for the Army (2009-11).
During that period,≈150,000 new soldiers/year at (then) 5 basic training sites & 21 advanced training locations, received training.
Most new US soldiers get 10 weeks of basic training (some get more at one-station unit training (OSUT) sites, like infantry, artillery, MPs). Those that don’t go to OSUT travel off to different length courses for advanced training in a “specialty” (logistics, intel, etc).
It’s a long period of time, trained by very professional drill sergeants. There is an extremely high resource overhead to all this.
Soldiers report to their units ready to be integrated in the specific mission.
Remember, the US population is 344 million & we train≈150k.
Russia, on the other hand, has a population of 144 million citizens, spread over 11 time zones.
Theirs is a conscript force w/ 1 basic training site, (Labinsk in S. Russia). Some RU get advanced specialty training, but most RU soldiers get most training in their 1st unit.
Russian soldiers got just a few days of basic training before being sent to Belarus starting last November (pre-invasion).
During 2 visits to RU, I saw basic & unit training. It was awful. Familiarization versus qualification on rifles, rudimentary first aid, very few simulations to conserve resources, and…most importantly…horrible leadership by “drill sergeants.”
Officers admitted to me that theirs was a “one year” force, with some – the poorest – volunteering or being elected for leadership roles.
Remember, RU soldiers get almost ALL training in units vs at basic.
How units are resourced play a big part.
One tank unit i visited near Moscow proudly told me they get 1 tank round/crew each year (US units spend hours in simulators & crews fire dozens of real rounds/year).
BTW, Ukraine’s army has taken the US model to heart after receiving training from US personnel in both individual and unit training techniques since 2014.
The establishment of JMTG-U by US Army, Europe was instrumental in that. Heres a link to that….
But I digress…
The issue is the Russian army is poorly led & poorly trained. That starts in basic training, and doesn’t get better during the RU soldier’s time in uniform.
…recruiting prisoners & using paramilitaries like the Wagner group) will be extremely difficult.
And placing “newbies” on a front line that has been mauled, has low morale & who don’t want to be portends more RU disaster.
Jaw-dropping. A new sign of RU weakness
StevoRsays
FWIW – probly sod all :
What did the distant British Queen think as her colonial subjects were killed?
The Blakfellas & the Whitefellows whose blood was on the Wattles spilled?
What did our Queen reflect upon when Guv MacQuarie’s report she read,
Of hostile natives terrorised, the sending of Pemulwoy’s head?
Did royal eyes tear up when supposed “British” subjects died
Or was it only for her redcoats that our foreign Queen once cried?
And did our Queen consider slaughtered bodies and their stink?
Or from the severing of black women’s heads did her imagination shrink?
Did royal heart & mind rejoice at the land grab underway?
Did she pause a seconds thought of black bodies, their heads all cut away?
– me just now first ish draft.
Queen vs Country.
Inspired by watching ‘The Australian Wars’.
Feel free to use as best suits. Spelling errors likely. Wrong words probly auto-correct. Feedback welcomed.
To be clear the specific Queen here would be Victoria not Lizzy two but also same family and undisavowed heritage.
Things are not all right in Mordor, I mean Russia today.
The Iron Curtain just reappeared but only for men between 18 and 65.
Reportedly, the antiwar movement is back.
Those people signing the petition are either very brave or very stupid.
The penalty for being antiwar in Russia is up to 15 years in prison unless you are killed by the FSB first.
Everything I’ve seen about Russia says it is a horrible place to live and dysfunctional.
WhereisRussiaToday @WhereisRussia
DEVELOPING:
Russian airlines have stopped selling tickets to Russian men aged 18 to 65 unless they can provide evidence of approval to travel from the Ministry of Defense.
and
4freerussia_org
1/2. In Russia, actions have begun against the mobilization today. Dozens of people have already been detained at these rallies in cities across Siberia and the Far East. More than 200,000 people have already signed a petition against mobilization.
and
Free Russia Foundation 4freerussia.org
@4freerussia_org
·
1h
The anti-war movement “Vesna” called on Russians to march on the streets of their cities on the evening of September 21. In turn, the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office threatened the participants of the protests against the mobilization with “imprisonment for up to 15 years.”
ravensays
Sig Chri @ChristSiegfried
Russian -Finnish Border! I guess that will build up to the longest traffic jam in history! #Ukraine #NAFO
Interested if Finland will close it if the storming continues.
People are fleeing Russia any way they can.
The above tweet shows the traffic jam at the Russia-Finnish border. I couldn’t see the end.
There aren’t even that many places the Russians can flee to.
A lot of EU countries have closed their borders to Russians.
I was doing something and couldn’t link to it live, but NY AG Letitia James’ press conference about the civil case against Trump, his organization(s), and his children just ended.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a sweeping lawsuit Wednesday against former President Donald Trump, his three eldest children and the Trump Organization in connection with her yearslong civil investigation into the company’s business practices.
In its 220-page suit, James’ office details efforts by the former president to inflate his personal net worth to attract favorable loan agreements. For Trump’s alleged wrongdoing, James seeks to bar the Trump family from being in the office of any New York-based company for five years. Additionally, James seeks to bar them from receiving loans from any New York registered financial institution for five years.
James’ office seeks approximately $250 million in penalties. The suit alleges more than 200 instances of fraud over 10 years.
“For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them,” James said in a statement. “Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples of this misconduct. With the help of his children and senior executives at the Trump Organization, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and cheat the system.”
…
James alleges years of large-scale fraud, saying the Trump Organization inflated the values of its properties in seeking bank loans or deflated them to pay less taxes. Her office has said in court filings that it “uncovered substantial evidence establishing numerous misrepresentations” in the company’s financial statements to banks, insurers and the IRS.…
She’s also sending the evidence to the IRS and a criminal referral to federal prosecutors. She called the extent of the fraud “astounding.”
Followup to SC @457. In addition to all that, the lawsuit filed by Tish James’s office intends to bar Trump from ever doing business in New York State again.
Trump will fundraise off this, and his cult members will send him more money, but if this suit is successful the damage may be too great for Trump to overcome. And then there is the likely followup from the IRS.
raven @ #456, that one appears to be false: “Finnish Border Patrol: The situation at the borders of #Finland has not changed considerably after #Russia’s #mobilization today. Many pictures and videos in social media have been taken previously in other contexts. False information abounds.”
[…] In the 200-page lawsuit, James alleged that the frauds were “approved at the highest levels of the Trump Organization — including by Mr. Trump himself.”
[…] The allegations are strikingly similar to those made by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, to the House Oversight Committee in 2019. There, Cohen alleged that Trump would inflate and deflate the value of his assets to secure various advantages.
James said in a footnote in the lawsuit that her office is referring her findings to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
[…] James claimed in the suit that Trump valued Mar-a-Lago, for example, at $739 million. She said that its real market value was closer to $75 million.
In another example, Trump allegedly valued a group of rent-stabilized apartments in one of his building at $50 million. Their total value, James said, was close to $750,000.
[…] “Claiming money you do not have does not amount to the Art of the Deal, it’s the Art of the Steal,” James said at a Wednesday press conference.
[…] Trump, for example, allegedly ran one scam that involved memberships at his Westchester golf club. A valuation he submitted said that members would pay $200,000 each for unsold memberships. James alleged that many members were in fact offered free memberships, and that Trump “specifically directed club employees to reduce or eliminate the initiation fees to boost membership numbers.”
Another alleged scheme was simple: Trump claiming that he owned cash which he did not. In one statement, for example, Trump allegedly claimed that money either held in escrow or held by a business in which he owned a minority stake “belonged” to him. […]
[…] After standing up the nation on Tuesday evening, Putin finally popped up on Moscow TV Wednesday morning to deliver his promised “most important speech since the beginning of the special military operation.” In this speech, Putin said this mobilization would be immediate, “starting on September 21.”
When Putin failed to show up for his scheduled speech on Tuesday, the initial word was that he intended to speak for over 3 hours on Wednesday morning, with Russian media carving out a big block of time. But in reality, the speech lasted just over ten minutes. Most of that time was devoted to simply lying about the invasion for the hometown crowd, blaming the invasion he initiated on NATO and “international terrorists.” Putin also claimed that Russia had no choice in invading because Ukraine, which notably gave up the hundreds of nuclear weapons that were on its soil when the Soviet Union collapsed, was “publicly seeking” such weapons. [Sheesh. That’s a fuckton of lies.]
Putin declared that, “The main goal of this operation, which is to liberate the whole of Donbas, remains unaltered.” Demilitarization seems to have vanished from the Kremlin vocabulary, though “Nazi” is still definitely present. In fact, Putin used the term at least once per minute, while blaming the atrocities that have taken place in Ukraine—including those just being discovered in liberated Kharkiv—on “the Neo-Nazi Kyiv regime.”
When it came to the war itself, Putin seemed to acknowledge that progress had been slow. As an excuse, he said that Ukraine had created very difficult defensive lines, backed by western weapons, and that Russian forces were fighting not just “against neo-Nazi units but actually the entire military machine of the collective West.” Because of that, said Putin, Russia’s slow motion movement was a feature, not a bug. According to Putin, “A head-on attack against them would have led to heavy losses…” And he would certainly know.
When it came to the sham referendums, Putin declared that Russia “will support the choice of future made by the majority of people in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions,” but didn’t specify what form that support would take before sliding back into a finale in which he blamed the West for “encouraging shelling of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant” and raising the threat of nuclear weapons. Followed by a threat that Russia would use nuclear weapons. [bitter laugh]
After Putin’s brief speech, it actually fell to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to fill in all the blanks. According to Shoigu, 300,000 people would be subject to the mobilization. Bizarrely, Shoigu said this while claiming that Russia has lost less than 6,000 soldiers while killing “half the Ukrainian military” or “over 100,000.” In fact, according to Shoigu, the whole Kharkiv counteroffensive has been a great success for Russia, as they have “killed more Ukrainians in the last three weeks” than Russia has lost in the whole war. (Bonus: Shoigu says Russia destroyed 208 Ukrainian tanks and 970 other vehicles during the Kharkiv advance. So big Russian win.)
So … Russia has lost fewer than 6,000. Has killed 100,000. Killed 7,000 Ukrainians in the last three weeks. And is now calling up 300,000 to fight the half of the Ukrainian military that remains? It doesn’t have to make sense. It’s Russia.
Those who are mobilized will be treated as “contract soldiers” rather than conscripts, meaning they can be sent outside of Russia and into combat regions. When it comes to contract soldiers, many of whom have contracts only for a few months, all of those contracts have been extended “indefinitely.”
It seems that everyone in the Russian army, and everyone called to the army, is now serving an infinite term. But wait, it gets better. The Duma has recently passed a series of new penalties for desertion, for disobeying an order, and for damaging military equipment. All now come with hefty prison sentences. All of which helps to explain why airline tickets from Moscow to anywhere are now sold out. And why the biggest spike in Google searches in Russia is how to break a hand, or arm, or anything that would get someone out of service, at least for a few weeks.
It also fell to Shoigu to make it clear “following the referendum” that Russia would consider the areas involved to be part of the “territory of Russia.” It’s amazing that Shoigu apparently knows the outcome of referendums that haven’t been held. However, the reason for making this statement is because Russian law allows for mobilization in case of invasion of Russian territory.
Combined with a portion of Putin’s speech in which he said, “The citizens of Russia can be sure that the territorial integrity of our Motherland, our independence and freedom will be ensured—I emphasize this again—with all the means at our disposal,” this certainly seems to be a threat that attacking any of the referendum areas would be possibly met with a nuclear response. Which is actually not what Russian law allows. Other than in response to a first strike, Russian law only allows use of nuclear weapons if the existence of the Russian state is under threat.
But again, Putin and Shoigu get to interpret this stuff as they want. That’s the benefit of being a dictator.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink summed up the response of both the U.S. and the world to Putin’s speech and Shoigu’s bluster.
Sham referenda and mobilization are signs of weakness, of Russian failure. The United States will never recognize Russia’s claim to purportedly annexed Ukrainian territory, and we will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.
Tankies on Twitter and pro-Russian channels on Telegram are bubbling over with a lot of “oh, boy, you guys are in for it now. Just you wait.” As they are all seemingly convinced that Russia kept all the super soldiers back home.
Meanwhile, everyone else points out that Russia’s logistical nightmare won’t be solved by adding more people. Russia’s increasing shortage of modern weapons won’t be solved by Putin wagging his finger at factories and telling them to make more, when they don’t have access to microprocessors and other necessary components. And perhaps most of all, Russia’s top-down, 1950s-era tactics won’t be made better just by throwing in more people.
How long it will take before any of those called up today actually arrive in Ukraine is unclear. But there are reports that military officers are already walking the streets in some towns—though not, of course, in Moscow—with “warrants” for reservists who are being shipped away today.
[…] Russian reservists saying they’ll either refuse to fight, or shoot their officers, if sent into Ukraine. Here you go, tankies, these are the guys who are going to save your Russian army. [Tweet, in Russian language, available at the link]
“I’m not going to fight, f**k you. Not only will I immediately give up, I will show you the way to the Kremlin.”
This is military commissariat. You’re to report tomorrow at 10am to be mobilized.
My name is Peskov. If you don’t understand it, I’ll address this issue on a different level…
So, can we put you down as volunteer?
Surely not!”
Video (no subtitles) at the Twitter link. I think I saw that this is a colleague of Navalny’s. I haven’t seen confirmation that it’s real, but I’m not sure what that would entail.
Five British nationals held by pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine have been safely returned, the UK’s prime minister Liz Truss has said.
Among the five British nationals captured in Ukraine and now released is Aiden Aslin, Aslin’s MP Robert Jenrick has confirmed.
The Saudi foreign ministry earlier said Russia had released 10 foreign prisoners of war captured in Ukraine following a mediation by its crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The released prisoners include American, British, Croatian, Moroccan and Swedish nationals, the ministry said in a statement, adding that a plane carrying the prisoners landed in the kingdom. The ministry did not identify the prisoners.
Aslin’s release “brings to an end months of agonising uncertainty” for his family, Jenrick wrote in a series of tweets.
As they are united as a family once more, they can finally be at peace. [weird phrasing]
Jenrick said he was “deeply grateful” for the work undertaken by the Ukrainian government, the Saudi crown prince [gag], as well as Britain’s prime minister Liz Truss and foreign secretary James Cleverly.
The GOP—under Donald Trump and perhaps soon under his would-be successor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—is rapidly becoming a party centered upon tormenting and humiliating the vulnerable.
In the sway of sadists, the Republicans are testing whether the celebration of cruelty can be the motivating force for a U.S. political party. But this experiment in grounding the GOP’s identity on the veneration of deliberate harm, while obviously immoral, may also be a political error.
RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH had for years encouraged his dear friend, Mehmet “Dr.” Oz, to run for office, spending hours talking about their shared desire for a unifying, “values-based campaign,” and what an Oz-led version of that would look like. Now, Oz is taking his old friend’s advice and running for a Senate seat, and Boteach is disgusted by what he sees.
“The man running for Senate is not Dr. Oz. This person is unrecognizable to me,” Boteach, a high-profile media personality and figure in conservative pro-Israel circles, tells Rolling Stone. Oz’s campaign for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat, Boteach says, has reduced the candidate to an “election-denying, genocide-denying caricature of an extremist.”
In a phone interview, Boteach bemoaned Oz’s embrace of Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, skewered the GOP Senate nominee over his positions on the Armenian genocide and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and denounced the campaign’s personal jabs against their Democratic opponent, John Fetterman.
Boteach jokes that Oz may have been kidnapped by “space aliens” who replaced the famous TV host with a morally depraved clone. But Boteach’s frustrations with the campaign are serious, as he says the run is a “disgrace,” “grotesque,” and a “festival of fraudulence.” And he says that if Oz plans to continue running his race as he has thus far — and especially if Oz continues being soft on Turkey’s authoritarian leader — he’s undeserving of a spot in the Senate and should withdraw “immediately.”
I disagree. Oz’s scampaign commercials come across as a con-man with no actual ideas and no clue as to what is going on. Sounds like his ‘morally depraved clone’ is just a ‘morally depraved person’, right in line with the Dr. Oz we all know and detest.
“Yeah, he stoled [sic.] it — little Hitler — because now we are going to show you God’s manifestation.”
After a costume change, the frequent Fox News guest appeared again onstage to flesh out his prophecy.
“Wait ’til November,” he told the audience, “the Republicans are going to wipe them out.”
Current polling indicates otherwise.
Chapman then went on to repeat the repeatedly disproven idea that ballot boxes had been stuffed in the 2020 election. The reality tv star followed it up with a rather un-Christlike thought about the man he called “little Hitler.”
“Hitler committed suicide. And do you know why? Because he was caught And you know what’s going to happen? They’re going to catch these cheaters. And I’m not saying with my tongue or my mouth that he’s going to commit suicide — but you never know.”
President Biden, speaking at the United Nations: “This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state — plain and simple — and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should make your blood run cold.”
On Wednesday [today], President Joe Biden stepped to the podium at the United Nations General Council and took both Russia and Vladimir Putin to task. Biden pulled no punches in going after Russia for its “brutal, needless war” in Ukraine, for overt threats of nuclear war, and for violating the most basic principles of the United Nations. […]
Biden spoke directly to the increased threat created on Tuesday by Putin’s “partial mobilization” that would allow them to draft hundreds of thousands into the Ukraine invasion. He also addressed the “sham referendums to try and annex parts of Ukraine,” which Biden described as “an extremely significant violation of the U.N. charter.”
In response to Russian claims that they had to invade Ukraine because they were threatened, Biden said “no one threatened Russia, and no one other than Russia sought conflict.”
Biden spoke to Russia’s position on the Security Council and how that allows them to hold veto power over any action the United Nations might take. He then called for reforms to how the security council is constituted and operates, so that no single member of that council can use their position to avoid the consequences of actions like those now underway in Ukraine. Among other things, Biden called for increasing the number of both permanent and nonpermanent seats on the council, for bringing in more nations from Africa and South America, and for taking steps to make the use of the veto “extraordinarily rare.” [Good idea]
To be very blunt, let us speak plainly: A permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase a sovereign state from the map. Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations Charter—none more important than the clear prohibition against countries taking the territory of their neighbor by force.
[…] Every victory won in the battlefield belongs to the courageous Ukrainian soldiers, but this past year, the world was tested as well. We did not hesitate. We chose liberty. We chose sovereignty. We stood with Ukraine.
Biden went on to speak […] to the basic purpose of the United Nations as an instrument of global peace, and to speak to the “basic principles” that are enshrined in the charter. He spent time on climate change, including the recently passed legislation in the United States, addressed global health crises, and announced more U.S. aid to global food programs. “In every country in the world, no matter what else divides us,” said Biden, “If parents cannot feed their children, nothing else matters.”
On a day when the conflict initiated by Russia was the principle theme, Biden also spoke to the situation between the United States and China, saying that “the United States will conduct itself a reasonable leader. We do not seek conflict. We do not seek a Cold War. We do not ask any nation to choose between the United States and any other partner.”
Biden went on to discuss conflicts in other areas, then addressed the issue of nuclear war. “A nuclear war cannot be won,” Biden said emphatically, “and must never be fought.” He stated that the United States would be open to arms control agreements no matter what else is going on around the world. Biden was forceful in saying that the United States would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, but also insisted that diplomacy was the best method to make that happen.
“And today, we stand with the brave citizens, and the brave women of Iran, who are fighting to secure their basic rights.” Biden declared that those nations that dedicate themselves to protecting the rights of women, all races, and LGBTQ communities will be the nations that succeed.
Biden left the stage to sustained applause. […]
Oggie: Mathomsays
Add-on to 469:
I am currently reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. The account of Stalin’s (and, by extension, Russia’s) attempts to completely destroy Ukrainian culture, the Ukrainian language, everything, is eye opening. And I say ‘eye-opening’ as an historian who has spent a great deal of time studying European history during the first half of the 20th century. I view the Crimean theft and the current war as a continuation of what has been done to Ukraine for hundreds of years. Putin is not new, not original, not anything unusual for Russia.
Russian occupiers plan to announce a turnout of about 70% of voters in Kherson pseudo-referendum, of which about 75% will allegedly vote “yes”, according to information of Deputy Chairman of Oblast Council Yuriy Sobolevskyi
Victoria Borodina:
what the hell is going on? Mobilization was announced. Our children will be driven to slaughter. I have a son in reserve. Now this war has touched me personally. Putin, may you die, you asshole!
It would be news if any resolution passes the Senate with 100% bipartisan support but yesterday Dick Durbin’s Senate Resolution S. R. 775 explicitly condemning rhetoric and violence aimed at FBI employees passed unanimously and apparently quietly. It mentions the Mar-a-Lago search and Trump specifically. File this under how they really feel.
explicitly condemning rhetoric and violence aimed at FBI employees passed unanimously and apparently quietly. It mentions the Mar-a-Lago search and Trump specifically.
Of course it is quiet. Commercial news sources do not spend a whole lot of time covering anything that cannot be divisive or controversial (not to mention they are still giving lots of coverage to the dead lady in England). GOP Senators aren’t going to publicize it as it shows them working with Democratic Senators AND would piss off more than half of the GOP.
Wonkette: “Why Putin Is Praying His MAGA Boys Take Congress This November.”
There is a lot of Russia news today, and it’s all of the “Vladimir Putin is cornered and losing, and this is what Vladimir Putin does when he’s cornered and losing” variety.
In a move that may not play well with his people, Putin is calling up some 300,000 reservists; it’s not a full draft but does expose a Russian genocide effort that’s been battered by losses at the hands of the good guys. (It also might take a bit of time to get them up and running, according to the analysts.) […] Putin’s hold on power requires as little buy-in from the Russian people as possible. He wants them apathetic. […] He wants them watching “The Great Russian Borscht Making Contest.” He wants them riding the dumb fucking Ferris wheel he built as a gift for his people which broke down after one day, literally while Russian troops were running away from Ukraine […]
In Putin’s whiny angry address to his nation this morning, he yelled at the West for supporting Ukraine, and he bragged about his big modern Russian weapons, which we are sure probably work better than “Ferris wheel.”
“To those who allow themselves such statements about Russia, I want to remind you that our country also has various means of destruction, and some components are more modern than those of the NATO countries,” he said.
Putin also spoke of upcoming (fake) referenda in Ukrainian territories annexed (stolen) by Russia — in the East, Donetsk and Luhansk, and in the South, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — where people will vote (“vote”) to say they love Russia and want to be part of it. After that, the theory goes, any attack on those regions is an attack on Russia (not Russia).
Putin wants us all to know that he ain’t bluffin’. “If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal to protect Russia and our people,” he said. “This is not a bluff.”
Some are calling all these angry words “veiled” nuclear threats, though they don’t seem very “veiled” to us.
In response, Ukraine said “oh fuck off,” or however you say it in Ukrainian. (Вбирайся! according to Google Translate!) The New York Times calls Ukraine’s reaction “dismissive and mocking.” For example:
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Mr. Putin’s remarks reflected the Russian leader’s desperation on the 210th day of a war that he had vowed would be brief and limited.
“Russians who demanded the destruction of Ukraine ended up getting: Mobilization. Closed borders, blocking banking accounts. Prison for desertion,” Mr. Podolyak said. “Everything is still according to the plan, right?”
Saucy! And then:
“Referendums and mobilization in the Russian Federation will not have any consequences, except for accelerating the collapse and revolution in Putin’s Russia,” said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Another government official, Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, said, “I think Russia is headed toward its own 1917,” which is VERY TEASING WORDS if you know anything about Russian history or have seen any of the film versions of Anastasia and think that makes you an expert.
Zelenskyy, in his address to his own nation last night, called any fake Putin votes a “sham.” Additionally:
“We enjoy the full support of our partners in this,” Mr. Zelensky said. “So let’s maintain the pressure. Let’s preserve unity. Let’s defend Ukraine. We are liberating our land. And we are not showing any signs of weakness.”
[…] a lot of Russia news, and a lot of solidarity among the good people of the world to see this through. But at the same time, a weak and cornered Vladimir Putin is scary as hell.
Would be a shame if anything happened in November and America’s enemies/Putin’s allies were to tip the balance of power and threaten America’s ability to provide aid.
Who can turn this around for Putin? MAGA fascist shitweasels could help!
Oh what’s that, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy? [Tweet available at the link]
There’s a lot at stake for America in November’s midterms. And there’s a lot at stake for Ukraine too. And Putin knows it.
In a Washington Post interview, Murphy says aid for Ukraine could go away if the MAGA fascists win either the House or the Senate, but that the House is the biggest danger. Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman note that Senate Republicans are generally pretty good on funding for Ukraine — the Biden administration is currently asking for $12 billion more — but think if the goons take over in the House, you can probably kiss that goodbye after January. They point to Defense News, which reports that current House Republican leadership won’t commit to funding for Ukraine in the event of a GOP takeover. Formerly traditional Republican organs like Heritage Action are now telling congressmen to vote against aid for Ukraine. More and more of them are listening, including 57 who voted against aid for Ukraine in May.
All of which means the openly declared enemies of Ukraine aren’t quite the outliers they used to be: [Tweet from Paul Gosar at the link: “Ukraine is not our ally. Russia is not our enemy” and blah, blah, blah.”]
More from Murphy:
“I think there’s a real risk that the continuing resolution will be the last time we supply funding to Ukraine,” Murphy said, noting that this is more of a threat in the House, because its members are more beholden to Trump. […]
“The MAGA wing of the party, which is the dominant wing, says and thinks a lot of nice things about Putin,” Murphy said to us.
You think Putin might have baked into his timeline some ideas about how if he can just hobble through to January, the Biden administration might have to sing a different tune on helping Ukraine, if some of Putin’s allies have taken over part of Congress?
Besides, as Putin’s best boy Tucker Carlson said a few weeks ago, just before the weekend when Ukraine started just absolutely annihilating Russia and reclaiming territory, “By any actual reality-based measure, Vladimir Putin is not losing the war in Ukraine. He is winning the war in Ukraine.”
Surely Putin’s boys in America could help him turn all this around if he can just hold on until next year, yeah?
“The Ukrainians are making serious progress and are likely to continue to make progress into next year,” Murphy told us. “If Republicans win the House, and word starts to leak out that they’re done funding Ukraine, that has potentially catastrophic impacts on Ukrainian morale and their ability to carry the fight.”
Sounds like Putin’s goal to us. Bet your ass.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Well, at the very least, the police officer should be charged with trespassing (once the engineer blows the horn for a crossing, the piece of road crossing the tracks becomes railroad property), risking a calamity (placing objects on railroad tracks can derail a train (calamity), punch a hole in the locomotive’s fuel tank (potential calamity (especially if in a drinking water supply area)), and willful endangerment (seriously, leaving a person in the back of a police car (no inside door latches) on the railroad tracks?). And I hope that the engineer and conductor avail themselves of the counseling that main line railroads offer after this type of incident.
And I am surprised that this is not being used by Fox News. Biden’s administration helped to avert the national railway worker’s strike. If the railway workers were on strike, this wouldn’t have happened. Therefore, it is Biden’s fault. (Why not? They blame him for everything else.)
While the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in Georgia found Sen. Raphael Warnock trailing Republican Herschel Walker, the latest Marist poll pointed in the opposite direction, showing the Democratic incumbent leading the former football player, 47% to 42%.
[…] Marist showing incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp ahead of Democrat Stacey Abrams, 50% to 44%.
Oggie: Mathomsays
broney @477:
Testing social boundaries on a national level.
I view it as playing to their base. People who like cruelty against the others.
Some GOP candidates are endorsing bans on contraception.
In recent months, Matt DePerno has become one of this year’s more controversial candidates for statewide office. The GOP’s nominee for attorney general in Michigan has been accused of helping orchestrate a clumsy scheme involving voting machine breaches after the 2020 elections.
Despite the fact that the lawyer is facing the prospect of a special prosecutor investigation, Michigan Republicans nominated him anyway.
But DePerno is also considered a provocative candidate because of his platform and political beliefs. The Detroit Free Press reported yesterday on remarks the GOP candidate made in which he seemed to endorse a ban on Plan B contraception.
[…] obtained a recording of DePerno at an event in Texas last month. On the tape, DePerno initially seemed confused about the nature of Plan B — also known as the morning-after pill — but then said, “You’ve got to figure out how to ban the pill from the state.”
[…] Late yesterday, the Michigan candidate did an interview with MLive and confirmed that he doesn’t consider Plan B contraception to be contraception. DePerno added that as far as he’s concerned, the morning-after pill would be banned under Michigan’s 1931 anti-abortion law — which was recently blocked by a judge from being enforced.
At this point, I could spend a few paragraphs explaining why Plan B contraception really is contraception. […] But assuming readers already know this, let’s instead consider the political implications of such rhetoric.
The Michigan Republican’s comments, for example, apparently came to the attention of the White House.
“Another week and another extreme and backwards proposal from Republican officials that will strip women of their rights,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement provided first to the Free Press. “Make no mistake: These proposals from Republican officials expand far beyond a women’s right to choose; there are Republican officials [who] want to ban contraception.”
[…] a prominent GOP lawmaker in Ohio said she’d consider a contraception ban, and soon after, Mississippi’s Republican governor was asked whether his state might ban certain forms of contraception. He didn’t say no.
Though the bill ultimately died, Republican legislators in Louisiana also explored an abortion ban this year that would’ve criminalized forms of birth control.
It’s against this backdrop that a Trump-backed state attorney general candidate in one of the nation’s biggest battleground states not only compared the morning-after pill to fentanyl, he also talked up the idea of banning Plan B contraception.
Democrats are eager to paint Republicans as radical on social issues, and it’s striking to see some GOP candidates bolster the Democratic claims.
The Texas sheriff who’s been investigating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) scheme to fly migrants in the Lone Star State to Martha’s Vineyard has been allegedly slammed with threats ever since he announced the probe on Monday.
A spokesperson at Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar’s office told Vice on Tuesday that the official, whose jurisdiction includes San Antonio, has been getting “numerous threats” and that there’s been “an influx of calls to our dispatch and administrative offices, along with hateful emails received.”
“Additionally, as in any instance when our office receives threats precautionary measures will be made for safety [sic] of all personnel,” the spokesperson said.
The office’s allegations reflect a growing trend in threats against investigators who look into wrongdoing by far-right leaders.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security reported last month that federal law enforcement and courts have been facing an “unprecedented” uptick in threats in the wake of the FBI’s raid of ex-President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where he had stashed classified documents.
The judge who signed the warrant for the Mar-a-Lago raid, Bruce Reinhart, has been targeted online by Trump supporters who’ve posted what they believe to be his address, phone numbers, and names of his family members.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 480
the latest Marist poll pointed in the opposite direction, showing the Democratic incumbent leading the former football player, 47% to 42%… Marist showing incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp ahead of Democrat Stacey Abrams, 50% to 44%.
OK, this doesn’t make any sense. You’d think that they’d both have similar poll numbers. Are you telling me that there are people who will vote for Warnock but will not vote for Abrams?
But the judge rebutted this claim by saying he would be inclined to treat a document as classified if the lawyers did not advance a claim of declassification and the Justice Department made an acceptable case that such records had remained classified.
“The government gives me prima facie evidence that these are classified documents — as far as I’m concerned, that’s the end of it,” he said.
[…] A favorite play was the conservation easement, whereby they [Trump and his kids] “gave up” the right to develop land that no one was ever going to let them develop in the first place. Prime examples include the Seven Springs estate in New York, which they spent two decades trying to subdivide for development. The entire parcel had a tax assessment of $19 million including the mansion and extensive grounds. Nevertheless, they claimed a $21 million easement after agreeing not to develop the unimproved portion, while keeping the mansion and grounds for themselves.
Or take the Trump golf course in Los Angeles, where a 1999 landslide pulled the 18th hole into the ocean. That didn’t stop Trump from taking a conservation easement in exchange for forswearing to develop the land, which was for all intents and purposes uninhabitable due to geologic instability. After some extremely aggressive massaging by Trump’s pals at Cushman Wakefield, they came up with a valuation of $21 million to compensate Trump for agreeing to continue to use the property as … a golf course.
And lest we forget: Mar-a-Lago, where Trump signed a conservation easement in 2002 incident to converting the property from a private home to a commercial club, but which he continued to value for the purposes of his financial statements as a personal residence with the potential to subdivide for future development — something he’d expressly given up the right to do.
Sometimes they lied about Trump’s wealth just to prop up the old man’s ego: “Mr. Trump made known through Mr. Weisselberg that he wanted his net worth on the Statements to increase — a desire Mr. Weisselberg and others carried out year after year in their fraudulent preparation of the Statements.”
In short, they lied for every reason and no reason. From valuing golf courses based on future member initiation fees at a time when Trump was waiving initiation for new members, to claiming his apartment was the most expensive in New York by saying it was 30,000 square feet — a mere 60 percent exaggeration! — and using a preposterous value per square foot, there was no lie too big or too small. And most of these lies were memorialized in Trump’s annual financial statements, which he used to secure loans and insurance.
[…] All told, Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization, and the other Defendants, as part of a repeated pattern and common scheme, derived more than 200 false and misleading valuations of assets included in the 11 Statements covering 2011 through 2021.
As the complaint lays out, these financial statements were more or less all the documentation Trump needed to get funding from Deutsche Bank after Jared hooked him up with their private wealth management department, which was happy to give him whatever he wanted as long as he promised that he was worth $2.5 billion (LOL) and agreed to personally guarantee the loans.
Starting in 2011 the relationship with Deutsche Bank was revitalized when Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization initiated a relationship with bankers in the Private Wealth Management (“PWM”) division of Deutsche Bank, which enabled them to obtain more favorable terms than they could have received through the CRE division by having Mr. Trump personally guarantee the loans based on his net worth as reflected in his Statements of Financial Condition.
And they were still at it while Trump was in the White House! “In July 2020, the Trump Organization received an appraisal with a value of $84.5 million but on the 2020 Statement the Trump Organization valued Trump Park Avenue at $135.8 million.”
[…] AG James will be referring the matter to the IRS and the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, of course. But mostly she’s looking to put the family out of business in her state with penalties including canceling the Trump Organization’s business license and appointing an independent monitor to oversee its operations, replacing the Trump kids as trustees of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, forcing Trump to prepare true and accurate financial statements for all his lenders, and barring Trump and his company from entering into real estate deals or loans for five years. Plus she’d like to ban Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Eric Trump from serving as an officer or director in any New York corporation or similar business entity for life, after they kick up $250 million in ill-gotten gains.
In, short, this is a big fuckin’ deal, and there’s a reason they fought this investigation tooth and nail for four straight years. All hail Letitia James.
‘If you don’t want to return to Russia, then, according to the Geneva Conventions and Ukrainian law, no one will transfer you back to Russia’, she said.”
But now, the David Rives Ministries are moving beyond media. The organization has purchased the more than 100,000 square foot Renaissance Center (Dickson, TN) from Freed-Hardeman University, and is in the process of transforming it into a tourist site…
The AP just reported that military documents show Ohio House nominee J.R. “Majewski never deployed to Afghanistan” [link].
Here he is in a tweet claiming he’d “gladly suit up and go back to Afghanistan tonight.”…
The AP reported on these remarks in its article: Here’s video of J.R. Majewski claiming he served a tour of duty in Afghanistan and then saying, “I don’t like talking about my military experience.”…
From the AP’s article:…
Here are more instances of J.R. Majewski claiming he was in Afghanistan:…
Over 1,000 protestors have been arrested in anti-mobilization rallies that are taking place throughout Russia.
According to OVD-Info, more than 1,178 people have been detained in 38 cities across Russia, with the majority of the detainees being in Moscow and St. Petersburg….
The Security Service of Ukraine has released a recording of an intercepted call by a Russian soldier in which he appears to complain about the setbacks faced by Russian troops in recent months.
“Locals hate us here. Ours rape local women,” the soldier appeared to say into the phone, adding that there is little to no chance of him returning home anytime soon.
“As part of prisoner exchange, Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin’s right-hand man in Ukraine was swapped for Azovstal defenders, including commanders Dmytro ‘Volyna’ Volontyrets and Svyatoslav ‘Kalyna’ Palamar.”
lumipunasays
As SC at 460 noted, there’s no sudden rush of Russians seeking entry into Finland (as social media rumors falsely claim).
Otherwise, Raven at 456 wrote:
People are fleeing Russia any way they can.
…
There aren’t even that many places the Russians can flee to.
A lot of EU countries have closed their borders to Russians.
There are still flights from Russia to at least various Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries – and those flights are now sold out, as reported in several recent comments upthread. The EU is more of a holiday destination for wealthy Russians, who are also de facto exempt from the newly announced draft.
Recently, most EU/Schengen countries bordering on Russia blocked entry for Russians (with humanitarian exceptions, I understand), after long restricting the issuance of new visas for Russians. Finland just recently joined the visa restrictions, and right now it seems we’re about to join the border closure, too.
This is relevant because once the entire land border is closed, and since there are no direct flights, Russian tourists need to use lengthy and expensive indirect flight routes if they want to visit France, Italy etc. Many EU countries are still issuing tourist visas, and those visas de facto allow travel all over the Schengen area. Wealthy Russians will still visit France, Italy etc., but with increasing inconvenience. Once Finland stops being the main entry point into EU, I expect only few Russian tourist will be seen wandering around here. Until now, Finland has been patiently lobbying for an EU-wide solution for curbing Russian tourism, with no success, while Baltic countries etc. went for a more aggressive route with national restrictions.
In a wide-ranging and impassioned televised speech at the UN on Wednesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the international community to adopt a 5-point formula to achieve peace and security.
Zelenskiy, who addressed the General Assembly in a pre-recorded video, laid out a “formula for peace” that includes the following measures:
1) Punishment for crimes of aggression including sanctions and the stripping away of veto rights
2) Protection of life as he cited the mass graves of tortured bodies found in Bucha and Izium
3) Restoration of security and territorial integrity, noting that Russia’s attempts at targeting nuclear facilities in Ukraine is going to impact “all of you…because none of you will find a vaccine against radiation sickness”
4) Security and safety guarantees
5) Determination for Ukraine to continue defending itself against Russian aggression
Zelenskiy concluded his speech by calling out the the countries that voted alongside Russia to oppose Ukraine’s request to deliver a remote address as traditional UN procedures only allow in-person participants to deliver addresses.
101 countries voted in favor of the televised address while 19 abstained.
Referring to the possibility of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, Zelenskiy said, “As for the talks between Ukraine and Russia, probably you have heard different words from Russia about the talks, as if they were ready for them… They talk about the talks but announce military mobilization. They talk about the talks but announce psuedo-referendums.”
In contrast, Zelenskiy reaffirmed that Ukraine is prepared for peace talks but only for “true, honest, fair peace.”
President @ZelenskyyUa set a clear task: to get our POW heroes back from RF. The result: our heroes are free.
There was a large exchange of prisoners. We got 215 people from RF captivity. Among them are commanders, defenders of “Azovstal” and pregnant military women.
This is a tremendous success and I am grateful to everyone involved in this operation – everyone who has done this titanic work. I sincerely congratulate our heroes on their return home.
Another war in the former USSR.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are fighting again.
This has been going on for decades.
Armenia is owned by the Russians.
They are surrounded by two large countries that hate them, Turkey and Azerbaijan. They need Russian troops to survive. Not much of a deal though.
Why now? It is predictable. Russia is tied down with their war in Ukraine and while the cat is away, the mice will play.
Since we’re in a new chapter, here again is the link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. They’ve just posted the Kyiv Independent tweet I posted at the end of the previous chapter:
Adding:
France 24 has an interview with Ksenia Torstrem, one of the initiators of the petition described in #452 of the previous chapter – “18 municipal deputies of Moscow, St Petersburg demand Putin resign.” I don’t see it in their English version.
“Pétition contre Poutine : ‘la démission serait une sortie pacifique pour le président russe'”:
As the Guardian reported earlier today, the Kremlin has already made menacing suggestions about the petitioners. Meanwhile, the Daily Beast reported that Putin is vacationing in Sochi, having skipped a meeting with military officials yesterday.
“‘If we take back the House and the Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote on our bill. If the Democrats are in charge, I don’t know if we’ll ever have a vote on our bill’. – [Lindsey] Graham on his federal abortion ban, in a clip Dems would be happy to run as is”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
“Only leaders of Russia, Belarus and Myanmar not invited to Queen’s funeral. (Even Iran to be represented at ambassadorial level, and we’ll see who comes from North Korea, if anyone!)”
Croos-posted from Have you considered forming a United Republic, maybe?
Apparently, it is still illegal in the UK under Section 3 of the Treason Felony Act 1848, and punishable by life imprisonment, to call for the abolition of the monarchy. According to the linked article, the law lords (now called the Supreme Court) dismissed a case arguing that the statute conflicted with the Human Rights Act on the grounds that it was “unnecessary” to make a ruling, basically because everyone knew that anyway. But the Truss junta intends to replace the Human Rights Act (which incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law) with one crafted to their own convenience… On the other hand, Truss herself once advocated the abolition of the monarchy, and AFAIK, the Treason Felony Act 1848 has no statute of limitations. So maybe some public-spirited person will take out a private prosecution! (The Director of Public Prosecutions can take over such a case then drop it, but it might serve to make future prosecution of anti-monarchists for peacefully expressing their views less likely.)
I’ve seen reports that the Azerbaijanis have been systematically destroying all signs that Armenians ever lived in the areas they conquered in 2020.
This is a bad look, NYT – using Julia Davis’ work and not crediting her (Twitter link).
Capito voted to confirm Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett:
Text quoted by SC in comment 494 in the previous chapter of this thread:
Yes. That seems so true to me.
There are people in the USA who have also been too naive toward Russia.
SC… @ # 482 in previous thread, quoting Kyiv Independent: … satellite imagery … shows just four Russian vehicles left…
I really enjoy the sometimes-ambiguity of the English language. Did they mean “four vehicles remain” or “four vehicles departed”?
Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:
Lynna @ #10:
I can only speak for myself, but I’ve been guilty of that.
Followup to SC’s comment 34.
Despite earlier vows, Lindsey Graham eyes national abortion ban
Democrats have repeatedly warned voters that Republicans will pursue a national abortion ban. Lindsey Graham is proving them right.
This is so obviously shoot-yourself-in-the-foot tactics from Lindsey Graham that I wonder what the heck he is thinking.
Pierce R. Butler @ #11, it’s the former: “shows just four Russian vehicles left” (vs. “shows four Russian vehicles just left”).
Oz Katerji:
Another one – Kyiv Post:
I learned a new word from the video of the Georgian women kicking some Russians off their bus.
Khuilo- It can be translated as “dickhead”, but its connotation is far more pejorative in those languages than in English. The words are identical in Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. In May 2014, media outlets reported that the Russian profanity khuilo had been added to the Urban Dictionary as a synonym for Vladimir Putin.
Slava Ukraine!!!
Speaking of bodies washing up on shore, I watched the docudrama “Vanishing Act” on Hulu recently. I read several reviews pointing out that it’s too soon and that it was trashy and exploitative, which…I can’t disagree with, but on the other hand Melissa Caddick was pretty trashy so I think it captured that vibe. And Kate Atkinson is so good in it. (I don’t believe I’ve seen her in anything before, but she makes this series.) Anyway, it piqued my interest and I listened to the Sydney Morning Herald podcast about Caddick called “Liar, Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions.” I recommend it, and I learned quite a bit about the science of feet washing up on shore!
Tethys @ #18, it was new to me, too! I didn’t see that about the Urban Dictionary. LOL. I’m glad they didn’t translate it so we could look it up and learn about it.
Here’s the link again. I love how they roll their rs.
Olexander Scherba:
Ben Collins:
Screenshots at the (Twitter) link. He absolutely knows it. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
In my comment 14, “Followup to SC’s comment 34” should have been “Followup to SC’s comment #4.”
In other news: Ukraine update: Natural gas, power plants, and why Putin’s strategy is as bad as his tactics
Eliot Higgins:
Link
Family Research Council actively advocates for women to die.
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
The New York Times reported this morning:
Ukraine update: Russian strongholds under assault on Kherson front line as Ukraine continues press
Donald Trump and His Two Forms of Fascism
These two columns, by David Corn, over at MotherJones.com are brilliant. They show Trumpism for what it really is.
Lynna, OM@23,
While a lot of what that DailyKos story says is true, a lot of gas in Europe (at least in the UK and Germany) is used to heat homes and power industry directly – it’s not burned to make electricity. And switching to electricity for those uses means replacing a hell of a lot of infrastructure. In the UK, the gas grid is by far the largest store of energy. For domestic use, it’s still uncertain whether the best approach is to switch to domestic electric boilers and where possible, heat pumps; to use electricity to make either methane or hydrogen and send that through the pipes (not straightforward in the case of hydrogen – the pipes as they are would leak, and boilers need adjustment at least); to distribute hot water directly; or, most likely, some combination of all these approaches. The fastest way to reduce domestic gas consumption is to improve insulation, at least in UK, where most homes are scandalously leaky (and of course our government is doing fuck-all about it).
But the point about the political consequences in Europe of the stunning counterattack by Ukraine is bang on. It immediately cuts the ground from under all those, on both the far right and the tankie left, saying arms supplies to Ukraine are just prolonging the war. Of course they will switch to warning that if facing defeat, Putin will start using nukes – and that possibility does need to be borne in mind – but it’s obvious that once you say we must do anything a nuclear-armed invader wants, you’re inviting limitless aggression and atrocities from any and every nuclear-armed power, and telling all the other states that could acquire nuclear weapons to do so a.s.a.p.
“Frontlines still quite fluid. ‘Hayday suggested Russian troops had also already started leaving the town of Kreminna, 25km north of Severodonetsk, but cautioned they had returned to … Svatove, which is further to the north, after initially fleeing'”
OMG, those poor people in Svatove.
:D
Quoted in Lynna’s #29:
I mean, that’s farcical.
Ken Starr, prosecutor in Clinton Whitewater probe, dies at 76
In other words, a hypocrite and a wanker. I will not miss him.
The Guardian liveblog has updates on the situation at the nuclear plant, which has stabilized for now, and what people are finding in the towns in the northeast after the Russians cleared out. I just can’t quote them; raven can bear it better than I can. Or you can read it at the Guardian.
Even the non-Trump, non-Q Republicans are awful.
Mike Pence to Attend Password-Protected Black Tie Gala Celebrating Fall of Roe v. Wade
Republican Candidate Cannot Answer Basic Abortion Question: ‘I Would Say, Yes, Abortion Policy’
Times Union – “Rensselaer County’s Republican elections commissioner arrested by FBI”:
Rot in hell.
Russia spent $300M to covertly influence world politics
And then they started a war which made everyone hate them. I suspect they did not get a good outcome for their money.
Quoted in the link @ Reginald Selkirk’s #37:
Julia Davis:
Holy shit. Video and DB link at the (Twitter) link.
Nice sweater, though.
Near as I can make out, the best way to eliminate voter fraud is to remove Republicans from any office that has anything to do with elections, and make sure that no one registered as a Republican is allowed to vote by mail. That will eliminate all voter fraud over the last two years (the other ‘frauds’ that the GOP keeps touting were mistakes that were caught by the system, not actual fraud).
Washington Post:
Good news.
Hmmm:
Link
Donald Trump seems to forget Dr. Mehmet Oz’s name during bizarre endorsement speech
Thread from Gen. Hertling:
I can’t believe that I, someone with no expertise and zero knowledge other than what I’ve read on Twitter and in the media, am venturing an opinion; but that said, this is the internet. I think the Russian forces in Ukraine and the Russian war effort more generally are more…crumbly than is generally believed.
Kyiv Independent:
“Shenseea – Reggae Sumfest 2022 (Part 1 of 5)”
Part 1 of 5!
“Me and Bobby McGee”.
The Russians just threw Armenia under the bus big time.
Armenia has been locked in a decades long conflict with Azerbaijan that it is now losing. Armenia was also closely allied with Russia. Or so they thought.
Russia isn’t going to do anything for Armenia right now. They have committed most of their forces to Ukraine and are losing there right now.
Armenia is going to withdraw from the Russian version of NATO which is CSTO. On the basis that it is useless. (Azerbaijan isn’t a member of the CSTO.)
Things aren’t looking too good for Armenia here.
There are 3 million Armenians to 10 million Azerbaijanis. Their ally Russia which even has a base in Armenia can’t or won’t do anything to help them.
Since Armenia is part of the Russian block, the EU, NATO, and the USA doesn’t have much interest in helping them either.
I tried to verify this and didn’t get anything either way.
“This was reported by the Russian Telegram channel BRIEF , which is believed to be associated with the Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan.” Margarita Simonyan is a rabid and prominent Russian nationalist TV host who frequently threatens to nuke the rest of the world, including the USA. (She is well known and famous in Russia and also a complete loon.)
She is also an Armenian born in Russia.
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Ukraine Update: The Tankies don’t have a coherent explanation as to why Russian is losing
God does not back war, pope says in apparent criticism of Russian patriarch
Now, about that Old Testament…
Forgot about this. Saw a car yesterday (well, actually, a super-sized Ram 2500 with duallies), and on the back bumper, next to the NRA stickers, a bright red ‘Q’, and a ‘Drill, Baby, Drill, sticker, was another bumper sticker:
Has there ever been a united Christendom? Catholic, Orthodox, Arian, Gnostic (a small sample which doesn’t even include early modern to modern sects) — Christianity has been fissioning with abandon since the second century. And Trump as its saviour? Even better.
Haven’t heard from the MyPillow Asshat recently. Which doesn’t mean his crimes have disappeared.
FBI investigate package explosion on Northeastern campus; letter found attached to device
The GOP is all in for state’s rights. As long as those manifestations of state’s rights agree with the GOP’s welt Geist.
Election logistics firm sues perpetrators of voter fraud smear campaign
Tucker Carlson: tool of autocracy and propagandist extraordinaire.
What’s next? Russian invasion of Ukraine is an internal Russian political issue? Secret US Government documents are magically not secret and belong to Trump because Trump is special? Anti-fascists are the real enemy? Biden saying that some Republicans are acting like fascists is unacceptable, but calling all Democrats fascists, communists, socialists, and un-American is just normal political rhetoric?
Not for long!
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. Their latest summary:
Guardian liveblog:
The newest war in the former USSR continues, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
.1. It is no accident it is occurring now.
Russia is distracted by the Ukraine invasion and can’t do anything else.
.2. This fighting isn’t in the perennially disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
It is elsewhere on the border.
.3. AFAICT, there is no real reason for this conflict.
Azerbaijan is just attacking Armenia because they can and no one can stop them. It is just ethnic hatred that is centuries old.
.4. This is very much another failure for Russia and their CSTO.
People in the region are realizing that Russia isn’t as strong as they claim to be and making another break for autonomy.
“A man who walked into a Demont, PA Dairy Queen, wearing a vest, rainbow wig, and a loaded firearm was arrested. He said he was ‘working to restore Trump as President King of the US’ and was going to ‘kill Democrats and liberals’.”
Video news report at the (Twitter) link. From the comments: “At least MAGA are dressing in their clown uniforms now.” Also, those are some ugly-ass buildings.
I tried to verify that Armenia was going to leave the Russian controlled CSTO.
No information any way but it is true that Armenia asked the CSTO for help and they refused to do anything.
I was reading a blog thread with some Armenians on it.
Some people criticized them for being Russian allies.
They pointed out that they had no choice. In that region, it was either Russia or no one for them..
They were also bitter that Russia could not and would not do anything.
Russia isn’t much of an ally.
Testing, testing, is this thing on?…
Seems to be.
To explain: I recently upgraded my system, and for various legitimate reasons I won’t go into, lost the ability to edit WWW text boxes (like these comment boxes) easily in a proper text editor. So after a bit of faffing around, I now have (the start of?) a script to ease the bi↔directional transfer of text between the comment box and the editor. It’s nowheres near as convenient as it used to be, but if I’ve got the design more-or-less correct, should work Ok.
LOL. Those tankie quotes are incredible.
Follow-up (entirely from memory) to KG@6: Many many yonks ago (last millennium), the Grauniad reported it had asked the office of whatever — and presumably also their own lawyers — if running (a series of?) article(s?) about abolishing the hereditary dictatorship would cause problems due to that(?) law prohibiting discussions about abolition. The answer was yes, they could(? would?) have trouble. They didn’t run anything (as far as I know, at least in any editions meant for teh “U”K).
Lynna@25, I wonder if the
retreatingrunning as fast as they can invaders also left behind other sorts of useful / interesting stuff presumably found at an HQ, e.g., codebooks, cipher equipment, internal messages (encrypted or not), etc.? This is Putin’s mob, who don’t seem to be very competent, so I can imagine they didn’t practice good security and destroy such material (or take it with them, but then you run the risk of capture).Excerpt from Meduza about one tankie ( for Ukraine, the of Russian soldiers, and from Kyiv):
Meduza notes “Union troops […] is how Russia collectively refers to the Russian army along with the armies of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.”
The quotes not typeset as are sufficiently true / plausible I didn’t not to alter the presentation. I suppose the resulting mix of quoting illustrates the mix of truisms and falsehoods typical(?) of propaganda. (Note: For some reason, I’m not seeing the typeset in a comical font when I
Preview? I presume this is another glitch from the upgrade (see @69). Apologies if I borked something, I cannot tell!)More testing, sorry… Please ignore!
And now an (inline, which used to work for me); in @73 it looks like the
class="creationist"was stripped from the<q …>, which is unlikely to be an issue on my system.Sorry wasting electrons with this comment.
Guardian liveblog:
Another test… SORRY! Please ignore.
With the actual MS Comic Sans font now installed, are now showing up fine despite the missing(?)
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Noah Berlatsky and Aaron Rupar on Substack – “Chomsky, Greenwald, and left apologists for Russia look very foolish now.”
From the article:
FFS.
Steve Rosenberg:
Video report at the (Twitter) link.
Andriy Yermak in HuffPo (!) – “Russia Built Its Empire On Lies. My Country Sees The Truth.”:
blf @72:
I was wondering about that myself. If such items were found, Ukrainian leaders might be keeping it quiet.
Some Russian troops were so poorly equipped, and poorly led, that they may not have had HQ-level stuff.
There’s also the fact that the Russians have been using so many unsecured communication channels ever since the invasion that both the USA and the Ukrainians have been listening all along.
blf and Lynna, I saw this on Twitter yesterday, and the Kyiv Post has a write-up about it – “UAF Grabs Epic Haul of Military Hardware Abandoned by Russian Army”:
Guardian liveblog:
Just constant warcriming.
SC @81, thanks! Very informative.
In other news: John Durham’s probe appears to be ending with a whimper
“Totally insane video and instant historic document of late-stage Putinism: ‘Putin’s chef’ Prigozhin himself in a prison recruiting new mercs for Wagner, promising amnesty after six months if you survive, a burial if you don’t—and a bullet if you run away….”
(Twitter link.)
Guardian liveblog:
Guardian liveblog:
The Guardian liveblog just pointed out that Kryvyi Rih is Zelenskyy’s hometown.
SC @84, holy fuck.
Ukraine update: President Volodomyr Zelenskyy goes to Izyum
Philadelphia Inquirer:
Republican Doug Mastriano is running for governor. Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro has a lead over Mastriano, 55% to 44%, so it looks like Trump’s pick will lose.
Worse and worse: With proposed abortion bans, GOP eyes criminal charges for doctors
Kyiv Post:
People have wondered why the former president collected classified intel, speculating that he is just a packrat. But he has a long history of gathering and wielding sensitive info to help himself
Trump as mob boss.
Trump: “Nice country. Nice and secure. Would really be a shame if something bad happened to it.”
Tweet o’ the day. Righteous.
Link
My 93 is humour, not an actual quote.
Rail union becomes first to authorize strike, threatening supply chain
“Kari Lake Delivers Christian Bible Lesson On Name-Calling, Also Calls Mexicans Rapists”
https://www.wonkette.com/-2658210840
Link
From RawStory:
The majesty of America? But, your majesty King Trump, I thought we did away with royalty here in the US.
From RawStory:
This guy is what you give unwanted relatives at the holidays: a fruitcake.
Boreal forests near the tipping point ending the biggest land-based carbon store on Earth
Great idea. Maybe it should apply to owners of all companies.
It has now been confirmed that Sweden has voted Nazi.
David Gelles, NYT:
NYT link at the (Twitter) link.
Ukrainian Ministry of Defense:
Video at the (Twitter) link. They’re very good at this.
This sounds inspiring when coming from a group that is actually fighting to prevent cultural and physical eradication. But, the same words, coming from a middle-aged white man wearing combat gear, a MAGA hat, carrying a bible and an AR15, and flying the Traitor’s Flag from his giant pickup truck, isn’t inspiring. It’s more asshat scary.
@ 105
Pfffft… I bet this clown believes in Santa Claus too. Yvon and all you American liberals out the there, listen up;
Capitalism cannot be reformed, fixed, or “saved.” It is by its very nature corrupt and exploitive. It will ALWAYS lead to slavery and inequality. Capitalism must be destroyed and replaced with socialism.
Lesson ended.
Greg Yudin:
“for those keeping track at home, 12 ‘threw himself from window/shot himself 7 times in the head’ russian oligarch deaths this year so far”
Spreadsheet at the (Twitter) link.
Quoted in Lynna’s #95:
You do have culture; it’s just really shitty. Shitty music, shitty books, shitty painting, shitty movies, shitty fashion, shitty hairstyles, shitty interior design, shitty architecture, shitty food, shitty schools, shitty comedy, shitty events, shitty protests, shitty slogans, shitty memes, shitty news… That’s why you have to try to force others to make their non-shitty culture shittier to cater to your shitty fascist values.
“Olga ‘Simba’ Simonova died in battle for Soledar on 13th September.
She was originally from Chelyabinsk, Russia. Olga renounced her Russian citizenship and became Ukrainian.
She fought for Ukraine since 2014.
RIP, Hero.”
Julia Davis:
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Russia is paying a steep price to invade Ukraine and not accomplish much.
The whole former Soviet Russian empire is unraveling right now.
The analysts all say what I was saying yesterday.
Russia is tied up with their failing invasion of Ukraine and can’t do much else.
So everyone who has a score to settle with Russia or was being kept in line by Russia are now free to act.
The Georgians are talking about a referendum in occupied South Ossetia.
Kazakhstan is distancing itself from Russia.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are fighting a low level war over something.
Clash erupts between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan border guards https://www.aljazeera.com › news › clash-erupts-betwee…
17 hours ago — Both Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are allied with Russia and host Russian military bases, but fighting over border issues is frequent and last …
I’m halfway expecting Finland, Poland, and the Baltics to decide this is a good time to take back some of the territory Russia has stolen over the last century. (Not really, but I’m sure the thought has occurred to them.)
Ukraine update: Russia attacks dam at Kryvyi Rih in attempt to flood Kherson Oblast
This article is illustrated at the top with “Yet another This photograph taken on September 14, 2022 shows abandoned munitions crates on the outskirts of Izyum, Kharkiv Region, eastern Ukraine amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Posted by Alexander Nazaryan:
Commentary:
Link
Trumpers losing life savings investing in Truth Social
The new West Virginia abortion ban is premised on language straight out of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Lynna has already covered this above.
We are up to 8 cruise missiles here and the dam is partially destroyed.
This is a war crime.
This is yet again, another war crime by the Russians in Ukraine. Targeting civilians and civilian infratructure.
How much of this are we going to watch in Real Time before NATO gets directly involved?
Rhetorical question. I have no idea.
But it is clear the Russians are losing and they are also escalating their atrocities. They seem to want to cause as much destruction to Ukraine as they can before they get pushed out.
Russia has also declared economic war on Western Europe, the EU. Their idea was to withhold their cheap natural gas so Europe can freeze over the winter while their industry shuts down.
It’s not working because they aren’t the only supplier of natural gas in the world.
But it is the thought that counts.
“Official: Russia launches missile strike on Kryvyi Rih.
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, told residents to remain in shelters. No further information was provided.”
This is a second one.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “‘Bolsonaro promotes hatred’: violence stalks run-up to crucial Brazil election”:
News:
A useful Twitter thread from Dmitri (@wartranslated).
Guardian liveblog:
Business Insider – “Exclusive: Former top FBI official involved in Trump-Russia investigation under scrutiny by federal prosecutors for his own ties to Russia”:
All In with Chris Hayes last night (YT link) – “Brett Favre And The Collapse Of Conservative Government In Mississippi”:
“City council reports protests in Russian-occupied Mariupol due to lack of electricity, water supply.
According to the Mariupol City Council, some of the local residents say they haven’t had electricity or water supply for over two months.”
New Fever Dreams – “MAGA Cinema Cringe feat. Ethan Chorin”:
Hunter Biden is played by Laurence Fox.
“Mayor: Explosions reported in Russian-occupied Melitopol.
Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov reported two powerful explosions in the Russian-occupied city in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Sept. 15. Fedorov didn’t provide any details about the attack but hinted at expected Russian losses.”
“Both mouthwatering and eyewatering. @ZelenskyyUa offers melons and watermelons from recently de-occupied villages in the Kherson region at lunch with @vonderleyen.”
Photo at the (Twitter) link.
Update to #91: “Official: Kyselivka village in Kherson Oblast not liberated, hostilities continue.
Mykolaiv Oblast Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Sept. 15 that the earlier reports that the village of Kysylivka in the neighboring southern Kherson Oblast were false.”
“Russian State Media Threatens Scorched Earth Response to Bitter Defeats in Ukraine: ‘We need to scale up our strikes against critical infrastructure… so that Ukraine is plunged into darkness… By December, 20 million residents of Ukraine should flee…'”
Semi-Random Endangered Species of the Week here from a serioes I’ev been writing on (ahem)facebook :
With sources including this reptile database :
https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Pyxis&species=arachnoides
Plus this just over a minute long clip on the species here & this Five min intro to Spider Tortoises individuals Mittens, Salami and Nugget here.
Wonder if PZ knows about this particular type of Spider already?
Campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Yikes. Here’s some anti-abortion news I had missed earlier:
Link
House Republicans have a new priority: looking after pharmacists who want to balk at filling prescriptions they find morally objectionable.
Did DeSantis use taxpayer funds to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard?
Trump just cannot keep his mouth shut. But we all know that.
That part about all documents with classification markings is important. Even declassified documents have classification markings on them. And the documents are still US Government property. Even as Presidential Records they are still owned by the US Government, specifically the National Archives.
Ukraine update: This war just broke Central Asia
Posted by Anton Gerashchenko:
Oggie: Mathom @ # 139, quoting MSN: He has denied all wrongdoing, saying the raid was …
Note how even the supposedly liberal MSN falls into the trap of Trumpista rhetoric, accepting without quibble that a search under a legal warrant, without use of any force, threats, or (apparently) even a raised voice, was a “raid”.
The good, bad, and good news on COVID-19 and long COVID
In my experience, you can just call your local pharmacy.
Followup to comment 97.
Massive, crippling railway strike averted — President Biden saves the day (again)
Does truth social still have it’s version of moderation? This could get even more ugly as the masks come farther off.
Trump allegedly offered to gift King Abdullah II the West Bank.
How Trump Spread Incitement of Violence Throughout the GOP
Republican leaders have embraced a sinister tactic honed by the ex-president.
Wonkette: “January 6 Committee Announces New Fall Season”
The primaries are over, time to run back to the center!
New Hampshire GOP candidate does 180 after primary, says election wasn’t stolen
6 Best Bald Villains
More re #133, with video (Twitter link) – Julia Davis:
Another fascinating video and possible future exhibit at the Hague. This might be the most delusional yet. Nobody thinks they’ve been fighting with white gloves on. They haven’t for one second changed their criminal, murderous, vicious ways, and anything they do going forward is a continuation of this. Nor do they have the capability to do many of these things now, which would simply contribute further to the weakening of their military and to global support for Ukraine.
Pierce R. Butler @ #142, it’s so aggravating. The one that’s annoying me most this week is the framing: “Trump/Graham/wackadoodle candidates are stepping on the Republicans’ message. The day should have been a bad one for Biden due to [X Republican talking point]. Republicans really wanted voters to be focusing on [Y and Z Republican talking points no one’s otherwise paying attention to], and this other stuff is a distraction.” It’s not the media’s job to assume the perspective of the Republican Party, much less to keep putting their talking points in front of the public through this framing.
Idaho’s Far Right Suffers Election Loss to 18-Year-Old Climate Activist
Guardian – “Hungary is no longer a full democracy, says European parliament”:
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Even Trump’s friends can’t help him.
Kyiv Independent:
Guardian liveblog:
SC… @ # 152: It’s not the media’s job to assume the perspective of the Republican Party…
Please double-check that: by now we have two-going-on-three (at minimum!) “news” networks at which reporters who don’t do that will likely lose their jobs.
Followup to Reginald @153.
Boise Elected Liberal 18-Year-Old To School Board, And It ‘Costed’ Wingnuts Their Miiiiiinds
And all of the investigations into Benghazi and the emails was proof of Hillary’s perfidiousness. After all, as the right was fond of saying, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” Turned out to be a smoke machine.
Not so much for Trump. Under most of those columns of smoke are raging dumpster fires.
https://www.wonkette.com/-2658217234
Clarion Ledger:
Trump warns of ‘problems’ like ‘we’ve never seen’ if he’s indicted
“Nice country you got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.”
NBC News:
Yeah, except that China still won’t support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. China won’t even sell ammunition to Russia. Putin had to go to North Korea to buy war supplies.
New York Times:
Washington Post:
Politico:
Link
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
It would be quite surprising if Biden doesn’t make a “surprise” visit to Kyiv in around seven weeks’ time – assuming Ukraine does not suffer serious setbacks in the meantime. He would be guaranteed a hero’s welcome, which would indeed be justified.
World’s oldest heart found in prehistoric fish
J6 Committee:
Video at the (Twitter) link.
KG @ #169, not a day goes by that I don’t think about what would be happening in Ukraine had Trump been reelected.
Serhiy Hayday:
Illia Ponomarenko in the Kyiv Independent the other day – “With successful Kharkiv operation, Ukraine turns the war in its favor”:
I have been trying to grok Trump’s obsession with the classified documents being unclassified by Trump. Trump has ALWAYS been big on simple answers: Build the Wall instead of improve border security. The FBI spied on my campaign rather than some of my people were in contact with, and colluding with, Russia. He simplifies everything to an illogical extreme. So by insisting, in his mind and to his followers, that the government documents are magically unclassified and all belong to him, he is, once again, simplifying the entire sequence of events so that either he, or his sycophantic MAGAs, can understand. Or he could be trying to convince himself AND his MAGA idiots at the same time. But by simplifying everything, maybe this is his way of making it understandable to him?
@Oggie 175
Maybe Trump is used to insisting things are a certain way and having the social force to get it? He’s very socially sheltered. Used to making assertions useful, real or not.
“The Ukrainian enemy is at the gates, according to Leonid Pasechnik, head of the ‘Luhansk People’s Republic’, but he insists ‘there’s no reason to panic’
In fact he’s so sure that he has to repeat himself”
Video at the (Twitter) link. I know I’d feel reassured!
Sharman Sacchetti, WCVB:
Video clip at the (Twitter) link. Yes, it’s that pretty.
SC @178:
How is this (the bussing/flying of undocumented immigrants to New York City, or the Vineyard) not kidnapping? The state (Florida, in this case) is taking someone into custody and transporting them (presumably) against their will to another state. How is this not a federal crime?
Ukraine update: New front line takes shape in Kharkiv Oblast
JFC
Judge Cannon rules against DoJ
She also directed Dearie to prioritize the classified documents and conclude his work by Nov. 30.
DoJ will probably appeal as they indicated earlier.
Excerpts from LAWFARE blog
So she thinks the documents marked “classified” might not be classified? She is repeating Trump’s ridiculous talking points.
Followup to comment 181.
Washington Post:
Followup to comments 181 and 182.
Link to PDF
Comments posted by readers of the Talking Points Memo article:
Maybe we’ll get to the “Trump marked his territory on the documents so his feels matter forever”.
Followup to comments 181, 182 and 183.
Link
Josh Marshall:
Andrew Weissmann:
Andrew Weissmann:
Laurence Tribe:
In astronomical news, it seems we may now be able to predict at least one type (II-P) of supernovae shortly before it happens :
https://www.space.com/supernova-warning-system-star-explosions
Seems one idea of Saturn’s ring formation is now confirmed :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-16/saturn-rings-unusual-tilt-formed-by-moon-that-got-too-close/101446916
Whilst in palaeontology news a big fossil fishy heart find here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-16/gogo-fish-heart-discovered-in-wa/101438252
Hope these are interesting for folks here.
Maybe it has elements of a long chain of irrationality snapping like a whip?
I would be interesting to see what would happen if Biden stood outside of Trump’s house and yelled “reclassified!”.
I bet Trump would yell “declassified!” back and get into a cycle.
More from comments posted by readers of the TPM article:
George Conway:
@191. Brony, Social Justice Cenobite : LOL. Yes. I can actually see that. It should be done as a sketch on Colbert or Corden or some show like those l reckon!
.***
The 300th Adelaide Refugee Vigil is on tonight at 5 pm, Rundle Mall -Gawler place intersection near the giant pigeon sculpture. An impressive if very saddening milestone for an event that started six years ago. (online events during covid too.) Please feel welcome to join us standing up for the refugees still imprisoned against the sadistic ineffective cruelty of the current disgraceful, off shore non-processing torture of those who committed no crime, pose no threat but are treated worse than criminals. Details :
Via Adelaide Refugee Vigil group fb page.
Re @191: Nah, hair furor won’t yell back anything. If anyone yelled back, it’d be some low-paid flunky. Teh hair furor himself would go his twit-I-am-hugely, Lies Antisocial, and after a few covfefe’s, bang the mouse on the keyboard and yell Eventually, hair furor manages to ejactulate onto Lies Antisocial,
StevoR@189,
Yes, I’ve followed up several of your recent recommendations – thanks!
Christo Grozev:
Christo Grozev:
Videos at the (Twitter) link.
Speaking of Grozev…new On the Media – “How a Russian Sleeper Agent Charmed Her Way Onto NATO’s Social Scene”:
Timothy Snyder: “As Ukraine re-establishes control over de-occupied territories, authorities once again have to chronicle Russian atrocities: torture facilities (everywhere), mass graves (Izyum), the absence of men (Horlivka). Russia’s war was genocidal in conception and is genocidal in practice.”
“#Ukrainian official: #Russia has struck #Ukraine’s critical infrastructure in Kryvyi Rig once again, causing serious damage to its waterworks.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian liveblog:
Mykhailo Podolyak:
“In a single day at least 5 Russian-installed officials have been killed on occupied Ukrainian territory. Two in Luhansk, one in Kherson, & two more in Berdyansk. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility but this is sure to undermine Russian morale just as Kyiv presses its offensive”
Russia’s Wagner boss: It’s prisoners fighting in Ukraine, or your children
Does he not realize that prisoners are somebody’s children?
Guardian liveblog:
Marjorie Taylor Greene Appears to Kick Gun Control Advocate, Twice
Fury in Iran as young woman dies following morality police arrest
Guardian liveblog:
Rob Lee:
Video at the (Twitter) link. Quite a scene. Imagine the Yelp reviews: “Zero stars. Generic decor. No one at the reception desk. Armed thugs wearing balaclavas fighting in the lobby.”
“Wow. Indian PM Narendra Modi directly tells Putin that now is not the time for war in a stunning public accusation. ‘I know that today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this’, Modi said.”
Massachusetts’ Cranberry Harvest Is in Peril Due to Northeast Drought
Nancy Pelosi:
More reporting on the war.
Not that war, the new one between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. They are now shelling civilian targets, villages on each side of the border.
Because the way you win a war is by killing civilian men, women, children, their pets, and their livestock.
The whole Russian world is falling apart since they committed all their military to Ukraine.
Both of these countries are members of the Russian NATO equivalent, and the CSTO can’t or won’t do anything to stop the war.
Ukraine update: Strange days in Kherson Oblast
Judge Cannon shows she’s totally in the tank for Trump with latest ridiculous order
“Amazing reaction shots. The Kremlin press pool (unintentionally?) subtweets the boss right after he publicly threatened to unleash more attacks on Ukraine”
Guardian liveblog:
Link
Other reports suggested that Kise had to establish his own law firm and offices in order to take the case. Any previous, reputable organizations he had been partnered with wanted nothing to do with Trump.
Some bits of campaign news, as summarized by Steve Benen:
Good news. Mastriano needs to lose, and he needs to lose by a large margin.
Not good:
Link
Followup to comment 138.
Perla Spoke of “Anonymous Benefactor”
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-the-master
Followup to comments 138 and 221.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/perla-and-the-thirsty-governor
Followup to comment 220.
Blake Masters never served in the military.
So if a senior military officer is centre or centre-right, or even progressive, they are not apolitical. But a conservative officer is apolitical. I do not think that conservatives use words in the same way that other English speakers do.
Wonkette: “AOC Shreds Childish GOP Rep Who Called Full-Grown Black Woman ‘Boo’ ”
https://www.wonkette.com/clay-higgins-aoc-boo
Oggie @225, good point.
In other news: Republicans Are Pretending Their Cruel Immigrant Dumping Pranks Aren’t Blowing Up In Their Faces
Followup to comment 227.
Migrants sent by Gov. DeSantis to Martha’s Vineyard depart for Cape Cod.
Washington Post link
They will be temporarily housed at Joint Base Cape Cod, according to Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker.
New York Times:
Jeff Bezos Loses Spot as World’s Second Richest Person to Gautam Adani
Gov. DeSantis defends decision to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard: ‘We’re not a sanctuary state’
Someone tell the Cubans.
Guardian liveblog:
Illia Ponomarenko:
More on the fighting in the former USSR.
It is a border dispute. It would probably be easier to just have the UN or some neutral agency come up with a border.
I looked at a few photos of the area of battle.
It’s treeless desert.
It doesn’t look like it is worth fighting over.
Huge fire engulfs skyscraper in China
“Migrants caught in DeSantis’ monstrous stunt allege federal DHS agent involvement”
Link
Link
Wall Street Journal:
Wonkette: “Trump Judge Orders DOJ To Hand Over Classified Data To Trump’s Lawyers”
Trump team told National Archives that Mar-a-Lago boxes only contained news clippings
Reginald @240, other reports say Mark Meadows played a large role in supervising the packing of the boxes that were taken from the White House, so he may have lied to the National Archives, (and to the White House counsel?), and he may have been aware that he was lying.
Link
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant’s main power line restored, IAEA says
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their most recent summary:
“Women removed their headscarves to protest at the funeral of Mahsa Amini who died after being arrested by the [Iranian “morality” police].
Amini was buried earlier today in her hometown of Saghez amid widespread anger.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. According to some of the responses, they’re shouting “Down with dictator.”
I remember when we were all wondering what the heck the New York City office of the FBI was doing in 2016 (and before).
Top FBI Agent Tied to Russia — and that’s not all
See also:
https://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-fbi-charles-mcgonigal-trump-russia-grand-jury-oleg-deripaska-2022-9
Guardian liveblog:
Ukraine update: Images from Izyum show why Russia must be defeated as quickly as possible
Ukraine update, continued:
Particularly thorough video, Orla Guerin reporting for the the BBC in Izyum:
https://twitter.com/OrlaGuerin/status/1570899565141786624
Mark Krutov, RFE/RL:
Images and links at the (Twitter) link.
I knew something was lacking this morning.
No one has threatened to kill me and my cat along with the USA in a nuclear war yet.
It is late but here it is.
“Egor Kholmogorov is a Russian political figure, journalist for Russia Today channel.
He wrote a text calling for genocide of Ukrainians.”
I keep saying that Russia is what you get when a country is led by internet trolls.
This downfall meme video is superbly executed trolling. I imagine Putin is having a similar meeting at his Sochi palace. The slippery cliffs there are known to be quite hazardous for officials who are in disfavor.
https://twitter.com/KvotheTheArcane/status/1570910665703059456?
Strongest storm in decades battering Alaska
Washington Post link
A near-perfect storm is bringing hurricane-force winds and a massive storm surge into vulnerable communities in coastal Alaska
I have relatives that live in Alaska. They will hunker down and try to ride out the storm as their house is in an area not likely to be flooded. Still scary.
There are lots of images, maps and charts at the link.
Wonkette: “What The Hell Is Wrong With People Who Think Idaho Is Teaching Kids Pornography?”
Link
“On this day in 1939: RUSSIA ENTERS WAR; INVADES #POLAND. Formally Joins Forces With Nazis.
Having joined with Hitler to start #WWII, the Russian laughing & saluting the Nazi swastika beg[a]n. Today Russia’s become Nazi Germany; & it’s again committing genocide in Europe. #Ukraine”
Photos at the (Twitter) link.
In The Hall Of The Mountain King (acapella) VoicePlay ft Elizabeth Garozzo (video), found via The Charismatic Voice (Vocal ANALYSIS of VoicePlay’s New Release “In The Hall Of The Mountain King” (video)). Elizabeth Zharoff (The Charismatic Voice) “has multiple degrees in music and voice from the Curtis Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and Berklee College of Music. She’s also a voice science nerd. […] She […] aims to demystify singing for all. Elizabeth’s also a total geek who loves gaming, astronomy, […], and of course — discovering new music!”
A more traditional performance by the Seattle Symphony, Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” (video), and an illustration of the piece, Peer Gynt : In the hall of the mountain king (video).
“General Staff: Russian military prepares ways of retreat in Kherson Oblast.
Specifically, Russian troops sank nine railroad cars near the Kakhovka hydropower plant in order to build a crossing on the Dnieper, Ukraine’s General Staff said.”
There might have been a firefight in Kherson (city) earlier, which might have been Russians fighting each other.
Yeshiva University cancels all clubs after it was ordered to allow an LGBTQ group
Keith Olbermann at Daily Kos – “MEET CHRIS LICHT, CNN HATCHET-MAN.”
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. Genocidal maniacs.
Podcast episodes:
The New Abnormal – “The Bad Part of Being a Lawyer in Trump World”:
In Moscow’s Shadows – “In Moscow’s Shadows 79: Putin’s Dilemmas, on and off the battlefield”:
QAA (apologies if I posted this already) – “Episode 202: Grooming Panic”:
SWAJ – “Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg On Repentance – And Why Forgiveness Is Overrated”:
More re #s 207 and 245 – DW – “Iran: Protest over woman’s death in custody turns violent”:
I do not like that DW coverage.
This suggests the protesters were violent, which isn’t what the article reports.
I’ve already noted this. She was 22.
“Political reformers” makes it sound like an extremely oppressive system represents the majority and some ancient status quo, which isn’t the case. Also, I doubt you would refer to these “morality police” without scare quotes if they were operating, say, in Germany.
“Mahsa Amini’s mother at her 22-year-old daughter’s grave….”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Insanity.
And his makeup artists will contour until they can contour no more.
“Iran’s reformist newspapers all lead with #MahsaAmini’s tragic story.”
Photos at the (Twitter) link.
A propaganda update of sorts:
Link
Neal Katyal:
“Women of Iran-Saghez removed their headscarves in protest against the murder of Mahsa Amini 22 Yr old woman by hijab police and chanting:
death to dictator!
Removing hijab is a punishable crime in Iran. We call on women and men around the world to show solidarity.
#مهسا_امینی”
“Is It a Crime,” 1985
“September.”
“Strangers.”
Let Them Fight: Feud Breaks Out Between 8kun and Kiwi Farms Founders
Rep. Matt Gaetz Reportedly Asked Trump for a Preemptive Pardon for Sex Trafficking
In a sea of glurge over the death of a mega-rich, 96 yearold figurehead of empire, Stan Grant has written an incredibly powerful piece here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-18/queen-death-indigenous-australia-colonisation-empire/101445508
Ukraine update: The one corner of Ukraine where Russian forces are still (barely) on the attack
‘This is the week when Trump became Qanon’: Crowd responds with bizarre hand sign at Trump rally
The vibe at Trump’s rally was religious and fanatical. People were worshipping Trump. At least that’s the impression I got from watching the videos.
Link
Excerpts from the DOJ Appeal to Judge Cannon’s decision to basically join Team Trump [bolding added]:
Some good news for once.
The Southern Baptists lost 3% of their members last year, 2021.
I used to follow the decline of US xianity but lately, not as much.
It seems irreversible and the fewer there are, the more ugly and vicious they get.
Ukraine Invasion Day 207: a new round of strikes hit the Belgorod region in Western Russia
More at the link, including video of Ukrainian amphibious operations; video of the Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missile, moskva-killer class; video of Russian propagandists claiming that the West wants to enslave Russians; Twitter thread excerpts analyzing Ukrainian victories (What happened in Kharkiv oblast is the result of a sum of gross mistakes and unresolved problems in the Russian army:
A) Lack of unified command
B) Supply failures
C) Lack of replenishment
D) Poor training of the army
E) Tactical mistakes); and much more, including additional maps.
raven @282:
Keep in mind, though, that the Southern Baptists suffered a large hemorrhage of membership back in the late 1970s when the leadership apologized for supporting slavery in the antebellum South. This resulted in the creation of the independent Baptist churches, full gospel Baptist churches, evangelical Baptist churches, and all the other permutations out there now. The drift from the SBC* has continued as people shop for a Baptist church that better fits their individual beliefs and, more important, politics. To a MAGA Republican, the SBC is probably too liberal.
*I giggle a little when I use that now as one of our local craft breweries is the Susquehanna Brewing Company — SBC.
Followup to comment 279.
A bit of good news: The crowd at Trump’s Ohio rally was quite small. The arena was barely two-thirds full.
In ridiculous news: Trump claimed he came up the term “caravans.” Trump casually referred to immigrants as murderers and rapists … again. Trump claimed that he actually finished the border wall. [LOLLOLLOL] Trump says he wants to execute drug dealers like they do in Singapore and China. Trump lied about Democrats supporting the murder of babies, all while the NewsMax screen showed an ad for a “Free Gold Coin” (a Trump fundraising scam) at the same time (split screen).
Trump claimed that J.D. Vance fell in love with him. He repeated that Kim Jong Un fell in love with him. Trump said Sean Hannity is a “sweetheart.”
Trump forgot what city he was in (Youngstown).
Trump denied … again … the pee tape.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
OMG.
Armenia:
Nancy Pelosi is there this weekend. As people have pointed out, California has a large and politically active Armenian community (Kardashians included).
Here’s a Twitter thread with videos reporting on protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini. The protests continued today.
Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted:
Nancy Pelosi tweeted:
“Overturning Roe Remains as Unpopular as Ever” — The Week in Editorial Cartoons, Part 1
Lots of cartoons and commentary at that link. One of my favorites is a bunch of Republicans standing around and one says, “But be careful not to create some crazy loophole where we’ll still have to respect their rights after they’re born.”
Lauren Boebert, and others, are preaching that the world is going to end soon:
https://www.wonkette.com/lauren-boebert-end-times
Jesus.
Ukraine prosecutor says it has documented 34,000 war crimes, including genocide
Link
Hurricane Fiona has knocked out power to all of Puerto Rico.
Kyiv Independent:
Sec. Blinken tweeted:
Guardian – “Ukrainians flee shelling of Kupiansk as Russian forces try to slow advances”:
This Republican’s pivot should fool no one
I think H.L. Mencken had something to say about that. Republicans seem to be lapping it up. “Please, we can’t get enough. Lie to use some more.”
Shocking isn’t it?
“In a rollercoaster of an intercepted call, a serviceman from the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation is leaving with the remnants of the platoon to Russia via Donetsk, telling a comrade that there are no more Russian positions around.”
Audio with translation at the (Twitter) link. “What advancing? They’re right here!”
Yup. One third of Americans are racist, anti-democracy, pro-neofascist, immature, gullible rubes. And assholes. Not really shocking. More unbearably depressing.
Kentucky court suspends prosecutor who asked for nude photos
The first of three episodes of this airs tonight (in a few minutes) on PBS in the US – “The U.S. and the Holocaust”:
Tree stump to become throne
Dawlish lawn
The GOP’s American psychosis didn’t start with Trump. It won’t end with him, either.
Good ABC news article on the immeasurable impact of empire :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-18/queen-elizabeth-ii-empire-colonialism-history/101430296
here.
Kyiv Independent:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
“This is what #Russia’s military base in #Svatove, #LuhanskOblast, looks like now.
According to the Head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration Serhiy Haidai, around 200 #Russian soldiers died as a result of #Ukraine’s strike on it….”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
“#Ukraine has reportedly liberated #Yarova village in Donetsk #Oblast, which is around 18 km away from the t.o. city of #Lyman.”
Kudos HIMARS! Russian Military Experts Say US Systems Are Confusing Counter-Battery Ops By Changing Trajectory
S-400 “Crippler” — How Did Ukraine Integrate ‘Incompatible’ AGM-88 Anti-Radiation Missiles With MiG-29 Fighters?
Academic publishers turn to AI software to catch bad scientists doctoring data
“Official: Bilohorivka village in #LuhanskOblast is fully controlled by the #Ukrainian Army, says Head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration Serhiy Haidai.
The village is about 17 km away from #Lysychansk.”
“Following Pelosi visit to Yerevan, now the U.S. has organized (quickly, it seems) a meeting today in New York between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan and @SecBlinken.”
Study links temperatures with prevalence of hate tweets
The thread @ #289 continues: “In Keshavarz Boulevard, central Tehran, women take their headscarves off as protesters chant ‘death to the dictator’ on the fourth day of unrest in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, following her arrest by morality police”
“In another display of confident government, politicians from Kremlin party say they are starting hearings on banning ‘lgbt propaganda’ on Sep 29. Previous restrictions were loosely worded but referred to propaganda among minors.”
It isn’t emphasized but the Russians have declared war on the West, the USA, UK, and EU.
Not yet a shooting war but an economic war by withholding their natural gas.
That means the EU citizens will freeze during the winter while their economies shut down.
Or so they thought.
It isn’t working well because Russia isn’t the only supplier of natural gas in the world.
The Germans have learned the lesson.
As one prominent leader pointed out, cheap Russian gas isn’t really cheap. It costs them their national freedom, national sovereignty, and national security. It isn’t worth it.
Russia is an unreliable supplier and no one smart is going to rely on them again.
Why Herschel Walker is telling voters, ‘I’m not that smart’
In most campaigns, candidates want to convince voters that they’re competent. In Georgia, there’s a reason Herschel Walker is saying he’s “not that smart.”
Russia just launched a missile at another Ukrainian nuclear power plant.
It landed nearby but didn’t hit the reactors.
This isn’t the first time or even the second time they have done this.
One wonders what will happen if they manage to hit one of the power plants and they have a core meltdown like Fukushima or Chernobyl.
or
One wonders how many Russian atrocities we can watch before we get more involved in this war on the side of Ukraine.
Excerpts from a longer Ukraine update:
Link
Followup to comment 324. More updates from Ukraine:
Re #305, the episode that aired last night was very good, and very relevant to current events. I strongly recommend it.
“Tonight seems to be the biggest night of protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini, with videos of dozens of towns and cities joining the protests.
In central Tehran, protesters chant ‘justice, liberty, no to mandatory hijab’.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. The tweet just above it has video of protesters throwing things at a stupid truck brought in to spray them with water, forcing it to back away.
Cthulhu, that was stupid.
Correlation isn’t proof of causation.
There is far more proof and consensus, that if Germany had won the war, the Jewish genocide would have just been an opening act.
The Germans were after Lebensraum (living room) and openly planned to get rid of the Slavs (Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, etc.) and take their land and stuff,
The death toll would have been tens of millions more at the least.
Not to mention that if the US hadn’t entered the war, the Russians and the few free Europeans (UK, Spain) left might well have lost and all of Europe would be living under the Nazis.
Hurricane Fiona’s catastrophic flooding across Puerto Rico continues
From Politico’s Playbook:
They link to the NYT piece, but I don’t have access.
Ukrainian Update, more details, Kherson area:
Wonkette:
“Fairly large protests over the death of [Mahsa Amini] continue into the night in Tehran. Furious crowds chanting slogans despite a heavy security presence & many arrests.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. “Furious” is exactly the word that comes to mind when I watch these videos.
We now see that:
.1. Russia itself has a lot of self created problems. Economic problems from the war and sanctions, the CSTO has two different wars going on now, etc..
.2. The Russian armies in Ukraine are losing.
Putin and Russia are getting desperate and desperate people do foolish and desperate things.
They may start bombing Ukraine’s nuclear power plants.
They may even drop a tactical nuclear bomb or more than one.
I have no idea what the USA or NATO would do but they are aware of this and making plans for such an event.
One of points of the Martha’s Vineyard stunt was to prove that liberals would reject migrants. That plan failed. Republicans are now pretending it didn’t.
FWIW, the USA decided tactical nuclear weapons weren’t very useful and got rid of most of them.
They were supposedly battlefield weapons.
As the saying goes, “We didn’t want to be in a position where a sergeant could start a nuclear war.”
There also aren’t that many situations where you need to level a square mile or two.
They are also expensive and complicated to maintain. The components degrade or in the case of the tritium booster, decay, so they need to be rebuilt fairly often.
(A lot of people think most of the Russian nukes probably won’t work by now. The Russians don’t spend a lot of time or money on maintaining anything.)
The USA instead decided to go with high precision weapons (smart weapons) that could take out targets tens of miles away with high accuracy.
Wow:
Video clips at the (Twitter) link.
Kiwi Farms has been breached; assume passwords and emails have been leaked
O frabjous day!
Quoted in Lynna’s #335:
It was so weirdly stupid to think. There was zero chance the people on Martha’s Vineyard would have been anything other than kind and hospitable. And more broadly, surely some of the people who cooked up this vile stunt have at some point visited New York or Boston. There are a ton of immigrants in this region, from all over the world. The Eastern seaboard has been a major point of immigration for centuries. It’s diverse. Martha’s Vineyard specifically has been a black vacation haven since the 1800s.
Here’s a list of the ten most diverse US states, in order: California, Texas, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Maryland, Florida, Nevada, Illinois.
I was gonna say, “Because it’s true”, but that has never been a strong motivation for him.
Tweet o’ the day, from Kherson.
Aric Toler:
In France.
Emma the pony and other personal moments at funeral
Note to my friends: when I say “I want a pony” I am speaking ironically. And if I were speaking literally, I would want that pony while I am still alive. Please do not give me a pony after I am dead, I would derive no enjoyment from that.
Twitter thread by Judd Legum:
Usual GOP suspects clamor for shutdown as Congress gets serious on government funding
Josh Marshall at TPM – “The Search for ‘Perla'”:
Assholery:
Link
HAH! Trump Returns to the Scene of the Crime at Mar-a-Lago – And FREAKS OUT About the FBI’s Shoes
NBC News:
Associated Press:
Good news, as posted by The Hill:
Bad news, as posted by The Washington Post:
Yeah, right. And Youngkin claimed to be a moderate when he was running for Governor.
Politicians who are far right wing are never “moderate” nor trustworthy—not in Hungary, not in the USA.
https://www.wonkette.com/global-tel-link-lawsuit
“Prison Telecom Company Forced To Give Back Half The Money It Stole From Families Of Prisoners”
A baby step in the right direction.
https://www.wonkette.com/dennis-prager-show
“Iranian students protesting against compulsory hijab: ‘down with the oppressor, be it the Shah, be it the Supreme Leader'”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Lynna… @ # 345, quoting Daily Kos: … Liz Cheney of West Virginia …
[sigh] Whatcha get, for not sticking to reliable sources like Wonkette…
So there’s a diary at Daily Kos with which I mostly agree (the tweets in question were gross and unseemly, and I say that as someone who enjoyed much of the trending black and Irish Twitter and stand by my post about Ken Starr @ #40). The responses contain a number of tangential points, and I partially agree with many of them, even those in disagreement. But one commenter, who could be terrible in other ways – I don’t know the commenters there or their history – and who surrounds this point with questionable others, makes an argument with which I agree entirely:
No one seems to be addressing this, there or anywhere, and I don’t see how it’s even arguable. The “political” is somewhat distracting here, but I would extend this to all power, as well as wealth and status. Bad. Good. The coverage in the US seems to want to sidestep this fundamental principle entirely, and it’s bizarre and frankly nauseating.
Pierce @355, I should have caught that error. Sheesh.
Cheney news:
Link
I would extend this to all power, as well as wealth and status
And attention! It’s not a fundamentally separate category, but in today’s world it warrants discussion. No person or family should get attention based on their ancestry.
Chris Hayes interviewed Ken Burns and Lynn Novick tonight about “The US and the Holocaust” (see #s 305 and 326 above). Burns:
Kyiv Independent – “Retired US General Ben Hodges: ‘We’ve reached irreversible momentum for Ukraine’”:
Sec. Blinken tweeted:
Julia Davis:
Translated video at the (Twitter) link. LOL – “This is sad.”
Hahaha. (Twitter link.)
At least me and my cat aren’t on his list of who to nuke.
Gurulev hasn’t thought it through very far.
Britain is a long time nuclear weapons state.
Germany isn’t but Germany and the UK are part of NATO. Which means the US is pledged to defend them.
Russia should really grow up and join the rest of the world but I don’t see even a hint that this is going to happen.
Then again, the USSR was the other superpower and then one day they collapsed and few saw it coming either.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Almost every recent entry concerns Kremlin occupation stooges talking about staging a bogus referendum here or there. They do this several times a week, and I don’t see the news value.
Also in the Guardian:
“Rights groups condemn ‘lethal’ crackdown on protests in Iran”: “Civilians reportedly killed during clashes over woman’s death in custody after arrest by [so-called] morality police…”
“Met handcuff peaceful anti-Bolsonaro protester to delight of Brazil’s far right”: “Police accused of unnecessary force as president’s son shares video of detention to show Britons ‘don’t like communists either’…”
“@ZelenskyyUa: The liberated areas of the #Kharkiv region can finally live. The time will come & we’ll rebuild everything destroyed by the occupiers. And the day will come when I will be able to say this about each of our cities that are under occupation.”
I’m sharing this primarily because there’s a photo at the (Twitter) link of determined Ukrainian cats.
Yaroslav Trofimov:
“Just saw Russian air ticket site @aviasales has an option for destination: ‘Wherever I can go’. It’s definitely getting a workout today as many fearing again that Putin is about to announce mobilization and close the borders.”
OK, it is news – Guardian liveblog:
New Lines – “How the Pro-Putin West Is Coping With Russian Defeat in Ukraine”:
Guardian liveblog:
Max Seddon, FT:
Dmytro Kuleba:
At least the Russians haven’t forgotten about nuking me and my cat.
I’m not sure where we are in the queue, before or after Germany and the UK.
Margarita Simonyan is a loon.
She is also a prominent Russian spokesperson and on their TV channels all the time.
Christopher Miller:
The Prime Minister of Spain just said what I pointed out.
Russia has declared war on the EU by withholding their oil and gas.
Not a shooting war but an economic war.
The goal is to have EU citizens freeze during the winter while their economies shut down from lack of energy.
It isn’t working at all.
Russia forgot that it is not the only supplier of oil and gas in the world.
Tweets o’ the day.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas:
Spain was ruled by the dictator and mass-murderer Francisco Franco, who came to power with Hitler’s assistance, but cannily refused to get involved in WW2. Do you perhaps mean Sweden? Switzerland? I know, I know, all these European countries beginning with “S” are hard to tell apart!
Ukrainian Ministry of Defense:
Hurricane Fiona is strengthening again and models have it hitting…Canada. Another storm, which would be Gaston, appears to be forming behind it in the Caribbean and headed toward the Gulf of Mexico.
Shaun Walker quoting Meduza:
It’s patently absurd.
Ukraine update: Lyman under attack from north as Ukraine rolls through northern Donetsk oblast
Cartoon: Ron DeSantis in “Migrant mixup”
:)
Link
Trump lawyer reportedly warned him not to keep classified docs
Trump won’t be able to claim he didn’t know keeping classified materials was wrong if one of his former lawyers specifically warned him not to do this.
Team Trump pushes back against its own special master in docs case
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/clues
I wonder if the Ukrainians are waiting for Putin to finish speaking to announce that they’ve liberated Lyman…
Oh, FFS.
Link
Also, I assume that even in Florida you can’t just hand over state funds to someone with no competitive process and keep their identity hidden!
SC @391, I hope so! That would be an excellent public relations move.
In other news, and as a followup to comment 392, here are some comments posted by readers of the article:
Andrew Weissmann:
Humor from Andy Borowitz:
Trump’s team recommended Dearie to Judge Cannon.
SC @393, good point. This is just a guess, but I think we might find out that a rightwing organization that hides its donor information paid for the entire farce … and that they used DeSantis as their front man.
Link
I don’t know why I’m laughing so hard at this. (Twitter link.)
Guardian liveblog:
The speech was supposed to start an hour ago. Andrew Roth from the Guardian tweeted “have we been rickrolled.”
SC #367…’determined Ukrainian cats.’
One of my favorite bands.
Guardian liveblog:
“Vesti (the nightly Russian state news broadcast) is over. No Putin speech unless he interrupts upcoming programming.
You can now watch an episode of Chaiki (The Seagulls), a TV show about a women’s volleyball team.”
raven @ # 364: “We will conduct a nuclear strike not on Ukraine, but on Germany and Britain,” – a member of the Russian Duma (parliament) Gurulev
I get the impression that the talking heads on Russian tv, including most of the politicians who get air time, blither and bluster with the tacit approval of Putin and his Kremlin aides while allowing same a screen of “plausible deniability”. It does seem like the increasing threats of nuclear attack, perhaps originally intended as a chest-pounding bluff, may become more than that, much like the US having so often followed through on its own threats of violence to “protect national credibility”.
Has Putin ever undercut his own sockpuppets and backed down from growls they’ve made on his behalf?
The protests in Iran continue today. They’re unarresting people.
Kyiv Post:
“Perviy Kanal and RT removed the speech announcement”
Well-oiled machine.
There are reports that Russia is going for full mobilization.
This means the invasion is no longer a special military operation but an official war.
.1. Things just got real for Russian men.
They can’t leave the country and may be drafted as cannon fodder for the meat grinder.
This might diminish support for Putin which is supposedly quite high at 70% or so.
.2. It probably won’t do much good.
To fight in a war like this you need trained and motivated troops.
It would take months to train them in modern warfare.
And who wants to die in a losing war for Putin and the billionaire oligarches?
“Telegram accounts are reporting that Putin’s speech has been postponed till tomorrow. Condolences to all who spent the past two hours watching Russian state TV.”
I am not a lawyer (I don’t even play one on TV) but this “legal” argument strikes me as bugshit nuts!
The scribbled notes make them Presidential Records. Which are, by law, owned by the United States Government, and administered by the National Archives. Unless it is a birthday card to, say, his favourite sycophant, all Presidential notes are Presidential Records.
re Oggie @408: His lawyers are merely flinging poo at the walls to see what will stick.
“These videos are from today’s protests in #Hamedan, where security forces shot directly at the protesters.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. People being shot at and beaten for protesting the arrest and killing of a woman for not having a piece of fabric placed on her head to the satisfaction of theocrats.
SC @405, Just speculation, but maybe Putin canceled the referendum announcement because the situation in those areas of Ukraine is so bad for Russia that it is impossible to hold the referenda.
One would think that, with everything coming down, Trump would be working with his lawyers to plan for future possibilities.
True. But most lawyers, most real lawyers, will, at the very least, try to find some aspect of actual law, no matter how small of a toehold, to back up their attempt. Near as I can make out, either his lawyers do not know that the Presidential Records Act exists, or they think that, for some reason, it doesn’t apply to Trump. Maybe crayon comments makes the PRA null and void?
CFB (college football) world reacts as UMass picks perfect Pride Day opponent
And, although it has nothing to do with current news, it is Russia oriented, I am currently waiting for Russia: Revolution and Civil War by Antony Beevor, one of my favourite historical writers. His history of the Spanish Civil War is readable, informative, and allows non-specialists to make sense of what happened. Same for his history of the WWII airborne assault on Crete.
Anyway, three stops away. Not that I am stalking it or anything.
Ukraine update: As Russia prepares to force ‘referendums’ in occupied areas, Putin is a no-show
Guardian liveblog:
Germany, too. I don’t have it at hand but saw it on Twitter. (Not that any of this is a surprise – just useful to have people on record immediately calling it out for the criminal farce that it is.)
It would make me so sad to hear that he canceled his speech due to a sudden case of polonium poisoning.
The speech is now reportedly scheduled for 8 AM tomorrow local time.
Tucker Carlson’s latest call to violence cannot be contextualized away. It’s dangerous rhetoric
U.S. charges ‘brazen’ theft of $250 million from pandemic food program.
Washington Post link
Defendants allegedly faked children’s names and randomly generated ages to claim they had served meals to those in need.
There are a lot of rumors flying around the internet right now.
Full mobilization.
Russia is going to declare martial law.
What difference would that make?
Anyone in the way of the Putin regime is getting killed or sent to the Gulags if they are lucky already. It is a vicious dictatorship with no rule of law.
Chaos in the Kremlin
Probably but we would never know that.
Someone would just turn up accidently dead.
Whatever, we will know in a day or two.
Axios – “Migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard file class action lawsuit against DeSantis”:
“A significant difference of the current protests against compulsory hijab is that in the past, they were by and large acts of individual resistance but now have attained a collective form. Also, increasing number of religious women wearing the hijab have showed solidarity…”
And a large number of men! Amazing video at the link, with people throwing them into a fire.
And Mastriano has jumped on the anti-trans bandwagon, co-sponsoring a bill to ensure that all education is age appropriate and protect children from trans propaganda and yadda yadda yadda.
Sorry. Bill 996 in the Pennsylvania Statehouse.
These protests are different. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but they’re different.
“BBC’s @jiyargol: People are not afraid of the regime anymore. In many cities, young people stand against the security forces and attack them. This video is from Rasht…”
Twitter link.
Ershad Alijani, France 24:
Twitter link.
Julia Davis:
Video at the (Twitter) link. “They want to deprive Russia of everything imperial, to deprive it of so-called conquered territories, to dismember it…”
Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE:
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Beyond Meat suspends operating chief after arrest for allegedly biting man’s nose
Did 600,000 Men Leave Egypt with Moses?
No. Next question.
Ukrainian teenager who built landmine-detecting drone while sheltering in basement wins global prize
re Reginald Selkirk @432: Maybe he just needed some meat instead of “meat”. He should have had a cheeseburger instead.
Delayed kamikaze drone for Ukraine on track for next month: Pentagon
Iranian Suicide Drones Used By Russian Military Are Becoming A ‘Big Headache’ For Ukraine In ‘Recaptured’ Northeast
johnson catman @ #435:
The guy worked for fucking Tyson Foods for 30 years.
The incident took place after a football game in Arkansas.
You know what company he’s briefly worked for, and nothing about his personal diet.
I, however, am a vegan, and find your attempt at humor pitiful.
I learned something today from a piece by Mark Sumner at Daily Kos and also from “Deadline: White House” on MSNBC.
“Trump got the special master he wanted, but he’s finding that Judge Dearie isn’t what he expected”:
Someone on Nicolle Wallace’s show (Asha Rangappa, I think) mentioned this as well, and pointed out that they vastly underestimated the commitment to national security of a former FISA court judge, which was a good point.
But it also reminded me – and I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before – of what I read recently in Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil’s Deal. The special prosecutor who led the investigation of the Boston FBI office and successfully prosecuted John Connolly was John Durham. He seems to have made a name for himself going after FBI corruption (and investigating but not prosecuting alleged CIA corruption/abuse), which I guess is why he was chosen by Barr and Trump.
But, interestingly, Connolly was extremely Trumpy (pp. 306-307):
When he was brought into court after his statements to the press, he pleaded the fifth more than thirty times. He was granted a medical release from a Florida state prison last year. (Oh, also, the book reminded me of all the mob connections between New York, Boston, and Florida.)
So it seems like the Trump team expected to have the same “success” they had with Durham in going after the institutions, but this time it doesn’t look like their scheme is working out.
This isn’t going to be very popular in Russia.
More cannon fodder for the war.
New series on Indigenous history and Australai’s Frontier Wars / colonial invasion on tonight on both NITV (c34) and SBS (c3) 7.30 pm (in Adelaide / SouthOz anyhow) trailer 1 and trailer 2 here.
Plus artuicle here : https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/filmmaker-rachel-perkins-reveals-the-truth-of-the-australian-wars-the-battles-fought-on-home-soil/
@431 SC (Salty Current):
People are also chanting با غیرت which I guess in English means “with honor” or “honorable”. It’s a counter to “without honor”. As you know, “loss of honor” is kind of a big deal in the culture (which at extreme cases leads to “honor killing”). The rightwing accuses women who don’t cover up or dress “modestly” as women who lose honor or cause loss of honor so people calling the woman “honorable” shows that they are sick of the fucking fundamentalists.
D’oh! Last link in my #440 is broken – take II :
https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/filmmaker-rachel-perkins-reveals-the-truth-of-the-australian-wars-the-battles-fought-on-home-soil/1t4z93cxq?cid=sbs%3Aguide%3Atile1
which I hope works now.
See also this article here :
https://theconversation.com/in-the-australian-wars-rachel-perkins-dispenses-with-the-myth-aboriginal-people-didnt-fight-back-190967
Whilst in today’s latest conmtimnuing shameful Aussie racism news :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-21/alastair-clarkson-and-chris-fagan-named-in-hawks-review/101452320
Clearly a lot more anti-racism work to do..
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Dara Massicot:
“Russian business paper RBC says that all tickets for direct flights today and tomorrow from Moscow to Istanbul, Yerevan, Tashkent and Baku have sold out”
And another: “‘Slipped on the stairs’: Former Head of Moscow Aviation Institute Anatoliy Geraschenko died as result of ‘falling from a high altitude, passing several flights of stairs’ inside the institute.”
“Today, Tehran University.
DEATH TO DICTATOR
#MahsaAmini”
Video clip at the (Twitter) link.
More re #445 – Guardian liveblog:
The mildly deranged penguin sometimes — rarely, but sometimes — overlooks a bit of cheese, even when not hidden from her. Last weekend I found a Camembert dated June this year. Camembert ripens / ages quicky, something like four–eight weeks, so it was trivial to predict this specimen was very Very overripe. And it was, there was an Ammonia scent (apparently caused by Ammonia being produced by the natural (over-)ripening process). After a quick check on the ‘Nets, I tried it. YIKES! Very VERY sharp taste… couldn’t eat more than a few bites. Some more checking on the ‘Nets suggested that “cooking” the cheese would work, e.g., in a casserole or soup or so on. (It wasn’t spoiled as such, spoiled Camembert has a very hard crust, but this one was quick soft.)
So I let it “outgas” for a day or so, then today made a simple make-it-up-as-you-go soup: Steamed potatoes, some (also elderly) sundried tomates in olive oil, stale (more elderly!) olive bread, and some more olive oil, butter, mustard, milk, and some vin rouge (none elderly). It’s rather good (especially with some paprika or black pepper (neither elderly) sprinkled on top), plus the rest of the wine (to drink), a Merlot-and-something… (For vegans, etc., I suspect you could use some plant-derived milk, and the butter can probably just be omitted — of course, the Camembert itself (overripe or not) would be an issue.)
burp!
From a long thread by Michael Kofman:
“Dutch leader Mark Rutte said Putin’s ‘rhetoric on nuclear weapons is something we have heard many times before, and it leaves us cold. It is all part of the rhetoric we know.'”
Yes.
Thread by Gen. Hertling:
FWIW – probly sod all :
What did the distant British Queen think as her colonial subjects were killed?
The Blakfellas & the Whitefellows whose blood was on the Wattles spilled?
What did our Queen reflect upon when Guv MacQuarie’s report she read,
Of hostile natives terrorised, the sending of Pemulwoy’s head?
Did royal eyes tear up when supposed “British” subjects died
Or was it only for her redcoats that our foreign Queen once cried?
And did our Queen consider slaughtered bodies and their stink?
Or from the severing of black women’s heads did her imagination shrink?
Did royal heart & mind rejoice at the land grab underway?
Did she pause a seconds thought of black bodies, their heads all cut away?
– me just now first ish draft.
Queen vs Country.
Inspired by watching ‘The Australian Wars’.
Feel free to use as best suits. Spelling errors likely. Wrong words probly auto-correct. Feedback welcomed.
To be clear the specific Queen here would be Victoria not Lizzy two but also same family and undisavowed heritage.
See :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemulwuy
& https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appin,_New_South_Wales?fbclid=IwAR070iwj444HkotgGELramZBX0xoqId7lZOX_a-QcNbQNNK_wRKL6roLYI0#The_Appin_Massacre
& https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_frontier_wars
Things are not all right in Mordor, I mean Russia today.
The Iron Curtain just reappeared but only for men between 18 and 65.
Reportedly, the antiwar movement is back.
Those people signing the petition are either very brave or very stupid.
The penalty for being antiwar in Russia is up to 15 years in prison unless you are killed by the FSB first.
Everything I’ve seen about Russia says it is a horrible place to live and dysfunctional.
and
People are fleeing Russia any way they can.
The above tweet shows the traffic jam at the Russia-Finnish border. I couldn’t see the end.
There aren’t even that many places the Russians can flee to.
A lot of EU countries have closed their borders to Russians.
I was doing something and couldn’t link to it live, but NY AG Letitia James’ press conference about the civil case against Trump, his organization(s), and his children just ended.
“New York AG sues Trump, his children and their company on charges of large-scale business fraud”:
She’s also sending the evidence to the IRS and a criminal referral to federal prosecutors. She called the extent of the fraud “astounding.”
#LetitiaJames, #TrumpCrimeFamily, and #TrumpMeltdown trending on Twitter.
Followup to SC @457. In addition to all that, the lawsuit filed by Tish James’s office intends to bar Trump from ever doing business in New York State again.
Trump will fundraise off this, and his cult members will send him more money, but if this suit is successful the damage may be too great for Trump to overcome. And then there is the likely followup from the IRS.
raven @ #456, that one appears to be false: “Finnish Border Patrol: The situation at the borders of #Finland has not changed considerably after #Russia’s #mobilization today. Many pictures and videos in social media have been taken previously in other contexts. False information abounds.”
Followup to comments 457 to 459.
A few more memorable details:
Link
Ukraine update: Putin calls for ‘partial mobilization’ of up to 300,000 reservists
“Apparently Peskov’s son got pranked.
This is military commissariat. You’re to report tomorrow at 10am to be mobilized.
My name is Peskov. If you don’t understand it, I’ll address this issue on a different level…
So, can we put you down as volunteer?
Surely not!”
Video (no subtitles) at the Twitter link. I think I saw that this is a colleague of Navalny’s. I haven’t seen confirmation that it’s real, but I’m not sure what that would entail.
Guardian liveblog:
Tweet o’ the day.
Sadism to get votes?
Apparently, aliens trans-reversed Oz’s brain. Okay, that’s a bit of hyperbole (and stolen from Bloom County), but . . .
I disagree. Oz’s scampaign commercials come across as a con-man with no actual ideas and no clue as to what is going on. Sounds like his ‘morally depraved clone’ is just a ‘morally depraved person’, right in line with the Dr. Oz we all know and detest.
Yeah, this is from a shit site, but I know people who would read theological and political discussion by Dog the Bounty Hunter and bob their heads so fast they would risk dislocation. So here is that master of the language, DOG!!!
President Biden, speaking at the United Nations: “This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state — plain and simple — and Ukraine’s right to exist as a people. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should make your blood run cold.”
Ukraine update: ‘Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the United Nations charter’
Add-on to 469:
I am currently reading Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. The account of Stalin’s (and, by extension, Russia’s) attempts to completely destroy Ukrainian culture, the Ukrainian language, everything, is eye opening. And I say ‘eye-opening’ as an historian who has spent a great deal of time studying European history during the first half of the 20th century. I view the Crimean theft and the current war as a continuation of what has been done to Ukraine for hundreds of years. Putin is not new, not original, not anything unusual for Russia.
Euromaidan Press:
Victoria Borodina:
180 retweets.
Björk on moving full-time to Iceland from the U.S.: “The violence was just too much”
Well, this is interesting:
Link
Of course it is quiet. Commercial news sources do not spend a whole lot of time covering anything that cannot be divisive or controversial (not to mention they are still giving lots of coverage to the dead lady in England). GOP Senators aren’t going to publicize it as it shows them working with Democratic Senators AND would piss off more than half of the GOP.
A police officer in Colorado is on paid administrative leave after he parked his patrol car on a set of train tracks, leaving a young woman in the back to be struck by a freight train.
Re: Oggie: Mathom 466
Testing social boundaries on a national level.
Wonkette: “Why Putin Is Praying His MAGA Boys Take Congress This November.”
Well, at the very least, the police officer should be charged with trespassing (once the engineer blows the horn for a crossing, the piece of road crossing the tracks becomes railroad property), risking a calamity (placing objects on railroad tracks can derail a train (calamity), punch a hole in the locomotive’s fuel tank (potential calamity (especially if in a drinking water supply area)), and willful endangerment (seriously, leaving a person in the back of a police car (no inside door latches) on the railroad tracks?). And I hope that the engineer and conductor avail themselves of the counseling that main line railroads offer after this type of incident.
And I am surprised that this is not being used by Fox News. Biden’s administration helped to avert the national railway worker’s strike. If the railway workers were on strike, this wouldn’t have happened. Therefore, it is Biden’s fault. (Why not? They blame him for everything else.)
News of scarily close polls:
broney @477:
I view it as playing to their base. People who like cruelty against the others.
Armed man in custody after entering storm drain near 1st and Walnut, suspect identified as Eli Swartzentruber
Some GOP candidates are endorsing bans on contraception.
Link
Sheriff Investigating DeSantis’ Migrant Plot Bombarded With Threats
@ 480
OK, this doesn’t make any sense. You’d think that they’d both have similar poll numbers. Are you telling me that there are people who will vote for Warnock but will not vote for Abrams?
Akira MacKenzie @ #485, I think it’s the reverse: people who won’t vote for Walker but will vote for Kemp.
I don’t think Trump and his “lawyers” thought this one through. They asked for a special master who was a FISA judge who really understands document classifications. How’s that working?
Financial shenanigans, as posted by Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/-2658318258
“Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Russian soldiers should surrender. They won’t be exchanged against their will.
‘If you don’t want to return to Russia, then, according to the Geneva Conventions and Ukrainian law, no one will transfer you back to Russia’, she said.”
A New Museum: Competition in the Land of Young Earth Creationism
Eric Hananoki, MMFA:
Screenshots, videos, etc. at the (Twitter) link.
Guardian liveblog:
‘How to Break Arm’ Becomes Top Google Trend as Russians Face Conscription
“As part of prisoner exchange, Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin’s right-hand man in Ukraine was swapped for Azovstal defenders, including commanders Dmytro ‘Volyna’ Volontyrets and Svyatoslav ‘Kalyna’ Palamar.”
As SC at 460 noted, there’s no sudden rush of Russians seeking entry into Finland (as social media rumors falsely claim).
Otherwise, Raven at 456 wrote:
There are still flights from Russia to at least various Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries – and those flights are now sold out, as reported in several recent comments upthread. The EU is more of a holiday destination for wealthy Russians, who are also de facto exempt from the newly announced draft.
Recently, most EU/Schengen countries bordering on Russia blocked entry for Russians (with humanitarian exceptions, I understand), after long restricting the issuance of new visas for Russians. Finland just recently joined the visa restrictions, and right now it seems we’re about to join the border closure, too.
This is relevant because once the entire land border is closed, and since there are no direct flights, Russian tourists need to use lengthy and expensive indirect flight routes if they want to visit France, Italy etc. Many EU countries are still issuing tourist visas, and those visas de facto allow travel all over the Schengen area. Wealthy Russians will still visit France, Italy etc., but with increasing inconvenience. Once Finland stops being the main entry point into EU, I expect only few Russian tourist will be seen wandering around here. Until now, Finland has been patiently lobbying for an EU-wide solution for curbing Russian tourism, with no success, while Baltic countries etc. went for a more aggressive route with national restrictions.
“#IranProtests continue to spread:
Women burn their mandated headscarves in Ghaem…”
Video at the (Twitter) link. The regime has severely restricted the internet.
Guardian liveblog:
Andriy Yermak:
Here’s a thread with video from the protests today in Iran from Borzou Daragahi of the Independent.
“‘The whole nation has something to have a drink for tonight’, @ZelenskyyUa says”