Here again is the link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog, which has now closed. From there:
The Moscow-installed head of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, has urged residents to leave the area and asked Russia to help evacuate people.
Just hours later Russia confirmed it would evacuate residents from Kherson. The Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin said on state television: “The government took the decision to organise assistance for the departure of residents of the [Kherson] region to other regions of the country. We will provide everyone with free accommodation and everything necessary.”
I’ve read that the Ukrainian government is urging evacuation, but haven’t seen confirmation. I can’t imagine many Ukrainians want to board Russian transportation to points unknown.
Spain to provide Ukraine with 4 Hawk air defense systems.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made the announcement about Spain’s commitment to supply the American-made MIM-23 Hawk medium-range surface-to-air missile systems to Ukraine during a press briefing on Oct. 13.
As Russia continues to deplete its stores, Ukraine since yesterday has received previously promised air defense systems from Germany, is getting expedited air defense systems from the US, and has gotten new commitments for further transfers from the UK, Canada, France, Estonia, Spain, and NATO.
…“The scent of these candles are so strong that I can’t walk within 50 feet of a display without feeling like a monster pumpkin pie assaulted me, complete with massive headache,” wrote a reviewer on 9 October. “If you can’t smell this pie beast then you have Covid. Get tested, get booster, and mask up!”…
Oggie: Mathomsays
The January 6 Committee has voted to issue a subpoena for both documents from Donald Trump and to call the traitor before the committee to answer questions.
Wife and I are both predicting that Trump will lose his shit. And probably claim that the committee has no right to call a President, or former President (though he won’t admit the ‘former’ part), that this is unprecedented (even though they gave precedent in the hearing), that this is a witch hunt (no, just trying to find out what the fifth amendment claims were hiding). I want to see him, on TV, being grilled by the committee. Won’t happen, but I want to see it.
At the end of the hearing, the J6 Committee voted to subpoena Trump. The most shocking evidence today were emails they recently received from the Secret Service showing how much warning they had about the possibility (probability, really) of violence connected to Trump’s rally. They also showed congressional leaders behind the scenes on J6 working to get more police and National Guard support. Nancy Pelosi was as composed as always.
Oggie: Mathomsays
The most shocking evidence today were emails they recently received from the Secret Service showing how much warning they had about the possibility (probability, really) of violence connected to Trump’s rally.
Yeah. I want to know who stopped the usual Secret Service and police response. I was at an anti-nuclear protest down at the Capital back in 1982(?), and there were far more Capital Police and Metro Police for that small rally then there were on January 6. Who, specifically, quashed the usual contingency planning of federal law enforcement?
At the end of the hearing, the J6 Committee voted to subpoena Trump.
I think that was bad strategy. They should have called on Garland to indict, but instead they gave a perfect example of why not to give an order that won’t be followed. Calling for an indictment would also be merely advisory and easy for Garland to ignore except it would appear that they were not issuing a directive, merely offering a conclusive recommendation. Oh well, we shall see.
Top Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov says Russians were so excited to see the latest strikes against Ukraine, because they weren’t sure there was enough weaponry in their storehouses, since their uniforms, equipment and ammunition for the mobilized are nowhere to be found.
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
“Where are the results?”
“There’s 1,150,000 in our army. Where are they? Is it the same way as ammunition in our depots? Or do they really exist?”
Oggie: Mathomsays
Trump is going to be so pissed off today. Keep the ketchup bottle away from him.
CNN — The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an emergency request from former President Donald Trump to intervene in the dispute over classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
Trump had asked the justices to reverse a federal appeals court and allow a special master to review about 100 documents marked classified, a move that could have opened the door for his legal team to review the records and argue that they should be off limits to prosecutors in a criminal case.
But in a brief order, the court denied the request. There were no noted dissents.
For now, the documents will stay out of the reach of the special master.
The court’s decision steers the court away from the political fray at a time when approval ratings of the 6-3 conservative-leaning court have dipped to new lows and liberals, including President Joe Biden, have attacked the legitimacy of the institution. The order was issued during the hearing of the House select committee’s investigation of the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack. . . .
Ukrainian Vice PM Mykhailo Fedorov: Over 100 cruise missiles attacked [Ukrainian] energy and communications infrastructure. But with Starlink we quickly restored the connection in critical areas. Starlink continues to be an essential part of critical infrastructure.
Elon Musk: You’re most welcome. Glad to support Ukraine.
Musk then provides a graph of Starlink usage growth in Ukraine over the past several months. I did read elsewhere that there were reports that it was still not working in Kherson, but I don’t know if that’s correct.
Yesterday I noted that Russian Telegram had been hyping up a supposed offensive out of Kreminna, pushing west toward Lyman. [tweet and map at the link]
Given Ukrainian advances across that entire front, all the way up to the strategic town of Svatove to the north, an actual successful Russian counterattack would be truly notable. It would mean that Russia had stemmed its losses, rallied its forces, and begun retaking the initiative. But as I also said yesterday, Russian Telegram is only truthful when they’re in blind-panic mode. Unsurprisingly, these Russian advances never happened. As far as I can tell, Russia never even tried. So how do these same propaganda sources explain Ukraine’s control of those towns? Well, there are lots of ways!
Maybe Ukraine counter-counterattacked and pushed the Russians out: [tweet and map at the link]
🇷🇺 propagandists say that they have lost Novodadove, Terny and Torske confirming that Russia never had them after being pushed out. 🇺🇦 soldier in the Lyman had said that direction was quiet too.
But wait, that’s embarrassing, suggesting yet another Russian military defeat. Those sting. Instead, how about Russians voluntarily retreated for the fun of it? [Tweet and map at the link]
Hmm, retreat isn’t much better. It means they can’t hold their ground against advancing Ukrainian forces. So how about this—Russia isn’t retreating, Those towns are a “gray zone” and, you know, anyone can possibly occupy them at any given moment. [tweet and map at the link]
Meanwhile, Ukrainian sources roll their eyes and are like “it’s quiet in that direction.” The real action is up north, at Svatove. Ukrainian forces have been steadily, methodically, pushing closer and closer to this strategic transportation hub. [tweet and map at the link]
Let’s pull back to get a sense of the broader strategic picture: [map at the link]
It’s funny [strange but good!] seeing Izyum so far from the front lines, around 40-50 kilometers depending on the exact location of the front lines. (@War_Mapper shows fewer Ukrainian advances than DefMon, who himself is very conservative in his map updates. War Mapper likes to wait for official confirmation.)
If you look closely at Svatove, you can see that almost every road in that region runs through Svatove, making it strategically important to both sides. But even more importantly, Svatove opens up the approach to Starobilsk, with almost no natural barriers to slow down a Ukrainian advance (except maybe for rainy season).Every road and railroad in that sparsely populated agricultural steppe region runs through Starobilsk.
That means if Svatove is retaken, a big chunk of Russian-held red territory in the middle of that map above automatically turns Ukrainian yellow. But if Starobilsk is liberated? The entire Russian presence in the northeast will clear out, cut off from supplies, down to the Luhansk purple on the map. And best of all, that dark line through Starobilsk is Russia’s last functional rail link into Ukraine from its main supply hub at Belgorod, just north of Kharkiv. Once Ukraine cuts that line, Russia’s logistics are truly f’d, and will need to be completely reconfigured toward eastern Ukraine.
Russia, for its part, is rushing its best and its brightest to Svatove’s defense, and some of them aren’t even 60 years old (the guy in the middle, at least): [tweet and video with English subtitles at the link]
These mobiks were mobilised on 27 September and already 3 days later ended up in the trenches at Svatove, without any training or supplies. They were lucky to have stumbled upon a Ukrainian checkpoint on their way out, where they were able to surrender.
[In the video, the Russians say they were sent to fight with no food or water.]
These sad saps were called up from their hometowns, sent to Belgorod, then trucked to Svatove, where they were dumped into flooded trenches they said were “half destroyed, even with weapons lying around, as the guys before us also ran away from there.” They waited in those trenches, under constant Ukrainian mortar fire and without food or water for three days (because why would Russia care about its own), until water came up to their waist. They said screw it and walked down a road thinking they were walking back to Belgorod, until they came across a Ukrainian checkpoint and happily surrendered.
This is what “shaping the battlefield” current looks like for Ukraine—forcing Russian defenders from their entrenched defensive positions, and apparently the rain and Russian incompetence is assisting. Ideally, by the time Ukrainian forces are ready to march on Svatove itself, there won’t be many defenders left.
Russia’s inability to support and train its forces can lead to some … I want to say “hilarious” situations, but people are dying so that feels wrong. On the other hand, come on … [Video at the link]
Hitting a buried anti-tank mine? That’s bad luck. You can’t see them. But here, the Russian driver pulled onto the road, with two rows of neatly laid out mines, and didn’t even pause or slow down as he drove over them with the all-too-obvious result. Clearly, no one ever told this driver “those things go boom boom, so don’t drive on them if you see them.” He’s in a war zone, without even the most rudimentary education on what to expect. And yet they put this guy behind the wheel of an armored infantry vehicle, full of comrades in the back!
Stung by criticism in Russian media about the lack of training for the mobilized, their Ministry of Defense staged this Potemkin “training” to pretend otherwise. It’s quite hilarious (and this time, no has died … yet). [Tweet and video at the link] They are literally pretending to shoot as Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu “inspects” the training. (Turns out Shoigu hasn’t been ousted as some rumors suggested.) They superimpose small arms fire over the video to try and complete the illusion, but their clumsy effort pathetically fails. They don’t even care enough to give those trainees empty magazines to make the whole thing more believable! [That is quite hilarious.]
If you want to see what competent infantry training looks like, here’s my son’s advanced infantry training unit doing live fire drills during the day, and at night (using night-vision gear Russia can only dream of having). Notice how it’s not a chaotic clusterfuck, and how they’re actually firing live rounds. (By the way, since I know you’ll ask, he’s doing great, still working his way through the pre-Ranger pipeline. Of the roughly 30 in his training unit that began the process, just two are left. My kid is stubborn and refuses to quit. Assuming all goes well, he’ll start Ranger school on November 1. If you don’t know what that is, you can read this, or watch this.) [embedded links are available in the article posted at the main link]
Meanwhile, on a more practical level, Russia’s indiscriminate mobilization threatens to bring its country’s educational system to a halt. With all male teachers and administrators hauled away, there are fewer teachers left to educate Russia’s children.
SC in comment 5: “Nancy Pelosi was as composed as always.”
Yes she was composed, and in dire circumstances she was able to focus on the most important issues. She emphasized the fact that people needed to see that government was still capable of functioning, and that the confirmation of the electoral college votes would go ahead as the Constitution required.
Both Pelosi and Schumer brainstormed about how to get help to the Capitol since Trump was obviously not doing so.
In that moment, we could see why Pelosi is a real leader.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled their country since President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial” mobilization on September 21. We asked men who have crossed the borders into Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan what they think about the war in Ukraine….
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
Someone on Twitter recently was pointing out the scale of this exodus, saying it’s the equivalent of like almost a million people fleeing the US. I think in all of the Vietnam War, around 30,000 people fled to Canada (with maybe 100,000 or something total leaving the US). Imagine close to a million people trying to cross the Canadian and Mexican borders in a few weeks.
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an emergency request from former President Donald Trump to intervene in the dispute over classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
That is such good news! I hadn’t seen that yet.
Trump will likely rant, rave and spew spittle all over his fake Twitter platform today. Fine.
In other news, Trump’s fake Twitter platform is in so much financial trouble that it too is likely to soon go down the drain.
ravensays
I see PZ turned over the Infinite Thread again.
I’ll just repost my last comment since it was so cheery. /s
I knew something was lacking this week.
The Russians haven’t threatened to kill me and my cat in a few days.
It is late but here it is.
“Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War Three,” TASS quoted Alexander Venediktov, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, as saying.
Venediktov is a high Russian official and his boss Patrushev is a hardliner who might be Putin’s replacement.
Well, so what.
It is inevitable Ukraine will eventually join NATO and Russia will just have to deal with it.
We are already in World War III and so far, Russia is losing.
Russian official warns of ‘guaranteed escalation’ to World War Three if Ukraine joins NATO
Full NATO membership for Ukraine is far off as all the alliance’s 30 members would have to give their consent
Reuters Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly Publishing date:Oct 13, 2022
If Ukraine is admitted into the U.S.-led NATO military alliance, then the conflict in Ukraine would be guaranteed to escalate into World War Three, a Russian Security Council official was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin formally proclaimed the annexation of up to 18 per cent of Ukraine on Sept. 30, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a surprise bid for fast-track membership of NATO.
Full NATO membership for Ukraine is far off because all the alliance’s 30 members would have to give their consent.
“Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War Three,” TASS quoted Alexander Venediktov, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, as saying.
Venediktov, who is deputy to Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a powerful Putin ally, said he felt Ukraine’s application was propaganda as the West understood the consequences of Ukrainian membership of NATO.
“The suicidal nature of such a step is understood by NATO members themselves,” he said.
ravensays
One of the heads of the EU had a reply to the Russian Security Council, saving me the effort of making one.
AFP News Agency @AFP
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Moscow on Thursday that its forces would be “annihilated” by the West’s military response if President Vladimir Putin uses nuclear weapons against #Ukraine️
This is the foreign policy chief of the EU.
The EU can make this happen if they want to.
The population of Russia is 140 million and the EU is 447 million.
The EU is far more powerful than Russia in any way you want to measure and they are slowly realizing that.
The first cracks have started to appear among Iran’s political elite over the country’s month-long women-led protests, with a senior figure calling for a re-examination of the enforcement of compulsory hijab law and an acknowledgment that the protests have deep political roots, and are not simply the product of US or Israeli agitation.
The call for restraint came from Ali Larijani, a former speaker of the Iranian parliament and an impeccable establishment figure.
His tone contrasted with a continued uncompromising line on Wednesday from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, parliament and security forces, as well as concerted efforts to undermine the credibility of the family of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who died after being arrested by morality police last month, sparking a wave of protests across the country.
Protesters had called for a mass rally in Tehran on Wednesday after violence overnight in the capital and in the Kurdish towns of Sanandaj, Saqez, Bukan and Dehgolan. Many shops remained shut in protest against the regime, while a demonstration led by the Tehran bar association was broken up by security forces.
Internet blackouts have continued in an effort to stop the protesters gathering, as it has become increasingly clear that many on the streets are no longer only interested in the policing of the hijab, but want the entire regime overthrown.
The Iran Human Rights centre, based in Oslo, said the death toll had surpassed 200. A well-known reformist politician, Mostafa Tajzadeh, was also sentenced to eight years in prison for collusion with others against the system. Ali Salehi, prosecutor general in Tehran, said 60 indictments had been issued against rioters in the capital.
But in a sign that the one-dimensional harsh line of the government is not universal, Larijani broke a long period of silence to question excessive state enforcement of the hijab, the issue that may have led to Amini’s death.
In a lengthy interview with an Iranian news site, he warned that extremism in enforcing social mores leads to extremist reactions. “The hijab has a cultural solution, it does not need decrees and referendums. I appreciate the services of the police force and Basij [paramilitary militia], but this burden of encouraging the hijab should not be assigned to them,” he said.
…
He also rejected the widely promoted theory that Iran’s Islamic society may crumble the way that Andalusia – according to some scholars – fell into Christianity in the 15th century due to the removal of the requirement to wear the hijab. [The fuck?]
…
Larijani has been a central figure in Iranian politics for decades. He was banned from standing for the presidency last year ostensibly because the guardian council deemed him unqualified, but in reality due to the threat he posed to the winner, Ebrahim Raisi, the candidate favoured by the supreme leader.
Criticism is also creeping into the heavily censored press that veers from denouncing the riots to dismissing the notion that any protests exist.
“What is currently happening on the level of governance in our country is based neither on the separation of powers nor [the inclusion of] a diversity of outlooks in management,” read a piece in the daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami.
“We have witnessed the consequence of a non-inclusive view [of governance] in our country over the past 14 months,” it said.
Excerpts from Talking Points Memo’s coverage of the January 6 Committee hearing:
[…] Rep. Schiff is walking us through how many specific warnings about plans to attack the Capitol were circulating among Trump administration officials in the days and weeks before Jan. 6.
Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, recalled speaking with David Nordquist, then deputy secretary of defense.
“The greatest threat is a direct assault on the Capitol,” Milley recalled Nordquist telling him before Jan. 6. Milley added that he would “never forget it.”
A Secret Service memo from late December cited by the panel included a line saying that those planning to travel to D.C. thought “they will have a large enough group to march into D.C. armed and will outnumber the police so they cant be stopped.”
[…] Apart from Antrim County, Trump also fixated on video of what he believed to be a suitcase full of ballots in Atlanta, Georgia.
It became the focus of a horde of right-wing conspiracy theories, and ruined the lives of two election workers captured in the video.
Donoghue, a top DOJ official under Trump, recalled telling him “there is no suitcase.”
In fact, the object was just a box that the local precinct used to carry ballots.
“That is just how they move ballots around that facility,” Donoghue recalled telling Trump.
Trump continued to claim that the suitcase was evidence of fraud. [Sheesh! You almost have to have some sympathy for people like Donoghue.]
[…] The panel heard testimony that Trump was told over and over, by multiple federal officials, that there was no mass voter fraud. When presented with bogus allegations of fraud from Michigan and Georgia, both former Attorney General Bill Barr and former deputy AG Richard Donoghue said in their testimony that they had debunked the claims repeatedly.
“There was never an interest in what the actual facts were,” Barr said in video testimony.
Cassidy Hutchinson recounted Trump’s reaction to losing at the Supreme Court, on Dec. 11.
She was walking down a hallway in the White House, and came across Trump in a rage.
“I don’t want people to know we lost,” he kept repeating to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff.
It’s a quote that utterly reveals the man: fretting that people might believe he lost the election, weeks after losing it for everyone to see. It’s an expression of insecurity, but also disconnection from reality — nobody around Trump seriously believed that the election had been stolen.
[…] per Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).
Trump would admit that Biden had won the election, and was set to take over as President, Kinzinger said.
Per one clip from communications aide Alyssa Farah, she came across Trump watching TV at one point in the Oval Office.
“Can you believe I lost to this F-ing guy?” Farah recalled Trump saying.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley recalled a meeting in which Trump said that he would let “the next guy” deal with an unspecified issue.
And Cassidy Hutchinson, the Mark Meadows aide, recalled her boss discussing Trump’s admission of reality.
“A lot of times he’ll tell me that he lost, but he wants to keep fighting it,” she recalled Meadows saying.
[…] Per Rep. Lofgren, Brad Parscale told the committee that Trump was planning to declare victory — “even if he lost” — as early as July 2020.
We also got treated to an audio clip of Steve Bannon speaking to Chinese associates days before the election.
Bannon, in a moment of candor, admitted that Trump would lie and claim victory if he lost, and suggested that the greater the magnitude of the defeat, the faster he would react.
“If Biden is winning, Trump is gonna do some crazy shit,” Bannon said.
The panel also showed a memo from Tom Fitton, the Judicial Watch leader, outlining a statement for Trump to declare victory and urge votes to stop being counted on the night of Nov. 3.
Don’t you just hate it when you put on your nice dress uniform for a parade demonstration and some drunk asshole in an armored vehicle runs over you?
Link. Videos of Russian military parade in full FUBAR mode, as well as other embarrassing videos, are available at the link.
[…] And we have what might be military history — the first wartime dogfight between drones. Naturally, the Russian drone gets the worst of it. [video at the link]
Kerch Bridge update:
Meanwhile, things are going swimmingly over at the Kerch Bridge. Is anyone shocked that Russia apparently didn’t use any rebar in the concrete for the bridge supports? [image at the link]
@14: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an emergency request from former President Donald Trump to intervene in the dispute over classified documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.
I am to the point where anything sane coming out of SCOTUS brings a cautious sigh of relief.
More excerpts from Talking Points Memo’s coverage of the January 6 Committee hearing:
[…] Even after fighting had begun outside the Capitol and police were at risk of being overwhelmed, Trump wanted to join his supporters at the Capitol.
Per Secret Service messages obtained by the committee, dated around 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 6, staff were advising that Trump still wanted to go to the building.
The panel cited unnamed White House security officials as saying that they believed that Trump wanted to start an “insurrection.”
“We all knew that this would move from a normal, democratic event to something else,” one anonymous person said. […]
One message from the morning of January 6 described someone saying that Pence would be a “dead man walking if he doesn’t do the right thing.”
Other messages show the Secret Service fully aware that members of the crowd on the Mall — but beyond the magnetometers that led to the Ellipse — were armed.
Another threat, also from the morning of January 6, relayed alerts “saying that they will storm the capitol if [Pence] doesn’t do the right thing.”
[…] On January 6, 2021, Pence lawyer Greg Jacob sent Eastman an email asking if he advised the president that the vice president “DOES NOT have the power to decide things unilaterally,” to which Eastman replied “He’s been so advised…” [Yeah, Trump had been so advised dozens of times]
[…] Pence’s staff was aware of a plan from Trump to declare victory “prior to the election results being known.”
[…] “The evidence in these hearings have come from Republicans,” he [Rep. Bennie Thompson] notes.
[…] the opening statement offers a sweeping perspective on Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election result — not one confined to the violence of Jan. 6, but an effort that spanned months and which, Thompson added, continues today.
“Donald Trump knew he lost,” Thompson says.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Reginald Selkir @21″
I am to the point where anything sane coming out of SCOTUS brings a cautious sigh of relief.
No surprise to me. Did it kill a black person? Did it take rights away from women? Did it make it more difficult for people of colour to vote? Did it eviscerate laws that limit what corporations can do? Did it open up land to full-bore exploitation? Did it give more money and power to the 1%ers? No? Then it is safe for them to think of actual law rather than politics.
Oggie: Mathomsays
And, on a lighter note, the US Space Cadets have released . . . Sorry. The Space Force have a Theme Song. Halls of Montezuma it ain’t. It actually sounds like something Tom Lehrer would have written.
The night before the January 6 attack on Congress, Roger Stone danced on a stage in Washington’s Freedom Plaza to a rap song featuring his own money-raising slogan: “Roger Stone did nothing wrong.” Minutes later, the longtime Trump adviser—clad in a pinstriped suit and tan fedora—declared that the “fight” to keep the defeated president in power represented “an epic struggle for the future of this country between dark and light, between the godly and godless, between good and evil.”
“I will be with you tomorrow, shoulder to shoulder,” he told an estimated 2,000 supporters of Donald Trump.
In fact, as Trump fans stormed the Capitol the next day, Stone was in a downtown DC hotel, from which he hightailed it back to his Florida home. Ever since, Stone has pointed to his absence from the protests that day as evidence that he had no role in, or advance knowledge of, the insurrection.
This is sort of Stone’s schtick. Beginning with his glancing involvement in the Watergate scandal as a 19-year old, he has publicly promoted himself as a plugged-in operator, a self-proclaimed “agent provocateur” involved in a long list of controversial GOP machinations—even as he has scrambled to avoid legal consequences. He seeks notoriety but also deniability. […] while Stone was promoting the Big Lie, Trump pardoned him. After January 6, Stone reportedly asked a Trump lawyer to help him secure another, preemptive pardon in case he was charged in connection with his efforts to overturn the election.
[…] Stone has also come up repeatedly in the ongoing seditious conspiracy trial of five Oath Keepers, including the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes. A chat called “Friends of Stone” on the encrypted app Signal—which included Stone and 46 or so of his allies—has become a key source of evidence for prosecutors seeking to show that Rhodes was planning violence as soon as Trump lost. “The final defense is us and our rifles,” Rhodes told the group, after news outlets called the election for Joe Biden. “Trump has a duty to stand, but so far, her [sic] hasn’t. As Roger Stone said.” It’s not clear what statement of Stone’s Rhodes might have been referencing.
[…] Stone had a striking number of links to people charged with taking part in the attack on Congress, along with ties to Trump and others who helped chart Trump’s legal and political maneuvers. He was a nexus. Stone appears to have acted, at least, as an early adopter of outlandish election fraud lies and as a connector and cheerleader for extremists interested in helping Trump hold on to power.
Here is a partial rundown of Stone’s activities surrounding the election:
1. “Stop the Steal”
Years before Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee, Stone coined the name of the movement that would falsely claim Trump won in 2020. In 2016, Stone launched a nonprofit called “Stop the Steal” to raise money to prevent the Republican Party from denying Trump the GOP presidential nomination at its convention. In 2020, Ali Alexander, working with Stone, adopted that name for his effort to overturn Biden’s victory. A Stone associate set up new group called the Committee to Stop the Steal, and Stone relaunched a previously dormant Stop the Steal webpage, which was updated to argue Biden had not legitimately won.
2. An early call for martial law
During a September 10, 2020, call to a show hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Stone said that Trump could only lose through election fraud. Stone suggested Trump declare “martial law” or invoke the Insurrection Act to stop it. In the ensuing months, the Insurrection Act became a preoccupation for many right wingers who argued Trump could use it to take emergency measures to expose imaginary fraud and cling to power. […]
3. “The key thing to do is to claim victory”
In an indication of how much he relishes attention, Stone granted extensive access to a Danish documentary crew, even as he was discussing how Trump could remain in power if he lost. The filmmaker provided footage to the January 6 Committee, including video from November 1, 2020, in which Stone, speaking to Trump fans, seemed to anticipate Trump’s plan to prematurely declare victory. Noting the results would likely be too close to call on election night, Stone said: “The key thing to do is to claim victory. Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”
This statement was similar to Steve Bannon’s private comments, just a day earlier, in which Bannon said Trump’s “strategy” was to declare victory early on Election Day, even if he was losing. As Mother Jones reported, Bannon said: “With like 20 percent of the vote counted, Trump’s just gonna walk in and go, ‘I’m the winner.’” […] This is precisely what Trump did, falsely declaring, “Frankly, we did win this election,” while the votes were still being counted. Stone’s words are more evidence that Trump had a preexisting plan to use lies to try to retain power and that various Trump advisers knew about it.
[…] Stone anticipated violence after Election Day. “Fuck the voting,” Stone said. “Let’s get right to the violence. Shoot to kill. See an antifa, shoot to kill. Fuck ’em. Done with this bullshit.” Stone then added that he was “kidding.” […]
4. Friends of Stone
As it became clear that Biden had won, Rhodes and other extremists began plotting how to stop him from taking office, according to the Justice Department. And the Signal group bearing Stone’s name was a key venue.
“Trump has one last chance right now to stand. But he will need us and our rifles too. But will he finally act?“ Rhodes told the Friends of Stone group, as news outlets called the election for Biden. “So will you step up and push Trump to FINALLY take decisive action? That’s what we must do now. And then if he still refuses to do his duty, we will still have to do ours. And we will.” According to prosecutors, Rhodes also sent the group a “step-by-step” action plan based based on an obscure Serbian academic’s account of a mass protest in 1999 that ousted Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic. One of those steps: Storm parliament.
In mid-December, Rhodes pushed for Trump to claim emergency powers. “People keep saying invoking the Insurrection Act is a ‘last resort,’” Rhodes wrote to the group. “Trump cannot wait til after Jan 6 to expose all the traitors. He must do it NOW.”
Stone said in December 2020 that he was advising Trump on how to ensure that “he continues as our president.” Rhodes seems to have hoped Stone or other Trump associates would pass on his thoughts. Rhodes told other Oath Keepers he was “busy on back channel working groups trying to advise the president.” […] It’s not clear how much attention Stone was paying to these messages. […]
5. Ties to Proud Boys and Oath Keepers
The Friends of Stone group included Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the neofascist Proud Boys. Like Rhodes, Tarrio has been charged, along with four other senior Proud Boys, with seditious conspiracy. Stone has longstanding ties to Tarrio and the Proud Boys. Stone has said he has advised them since 2018. Notably, the January 6 Committee has even aired video showing Stone reciting an oath—featuring the phrase “I’m a Western chauvinist”—that reputedly is part of the Proud Boys initiation process.
[…] 7. “We will fight until the bitter end”
Stone’s remarks in Freedom Plaza on January 5 were among a series of similar speeches he delivered calling for listeners to take action to keep Trump in power. […]
Stone has defended his remarks by insisting he urged listeners to engage in “peaceful protest.” That is untrue. While Stone’s calls to “fight” can be defended as nonliteral, he did not specially call for nonviolence in the public remarks he gave in this period. In a statement regarding his January 5 remarks, Stone also said: “I am certainly entitled to my apocalyptic view of America’s future as expressed in my speech.”
Stone tends to defend his conduct ahead of January 6 in legal terms. As with Trump, this argument limits questions of moral responsibility to criminal liability. If there is no charge, then everything is okay. […]
For its part, the January 6 committee has a far more expansive mandate—to investigate the attack and, at least in theory, to expose the truth. For Roger Stone, the truth could be a problem.
Some Trump nonsense, posted on his failing social media site:
Why didn’t the Unselect Committee ask me to testify months ago? Why did they wait until the very end, the final moments of their last meeting? Because the Committee is a total “BUST” that has only served to further divide our Country which, by the way, is doing very badly – A laughing stock all over the World?
[…] Brad Parscale, a former top Trump campaign official, told the committee that Trump had planned as early as July 2020 that he would say he won the election, even if he lost. […]
The January 6 Committee has the receipts. Trump’s plan to declare victory—no matter what—was months in the making.
Excerpts from Wonkette’s coverage of the January 6 Committee hearing:
[…] 1:07 Thompson points out that it isn’t Democrats accusing Trump of attempting to overthrow the government — although we’re certainly doing that. Almost every witness against Trump has been a Republican. The facts are the facts, and they don’t care about your feelings, partisan or otherwise.
[…] 1:15 Cheney says that Trump had a “premeditated plan” to declare victory on election night and stay in office no matter the actual vote tally. Trump was in a “unique position” to know that the election was not stolen. He had Justice Department investigators telling him there was no fraud; he had lost in every court; and his own campaign told him the fraud claims were bullshit. He knew.
[…] 1:29 Lofgren is showing a memo from Pence’s team trying to keep him far away from Trump’s ratfuckery. […] And now we’re getting the video of Steve Bannon saying that Trump would use the levers of power to stay in office: “If Biden’s winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit.”
1:40 Adam Kinzinger is up, with his signature “cut the shit style” talks about the reality that Trump knew he’d lost. And one way we know he knew was that he did a whole bunch of crazy shit to prepare to leave office. Like pulling all our troops out of Afghanistan and Somalia and pardoning all his cronies.
1:45 Bill Stepien talks about how shitty it was for the “Truth Squad” to have to tell Trump that he’d lost when Rudy and the weirdos were having so much fun telling him lies. Poor, poor Billy!
1:50 Witnesses are describing Trump’s temper tantrum when the Supreme Court rejected his preposterous election LOLsuit.
Liz Cheney asks Mike Pompeo if the election was a done deal when the electoral college met on December 14. Yes.
Patsy Baloney and Bill Barr and even Vanky testify that the electoral college vote put an end to the matter. Super brave to say that almost two years later. Slow clap!
1:54 Kinzinger finishes: “His intent was plain: Ignore the law, and stay in power.”
That guy will land on his feet, he’s a superstar.
1:56 Now for a sizzle reel of Trumpland lawyers telling the former president that the stuff he was saying about Dominion voting machines switching votes were total bullshit.
[…] 2:08 Time for Rep. Stephanie Murphy to fuck it up … or tell us about the fake electors scheme. Could be that one. Rumor is she’s going to run against Florida Senator Rick Scott in 2024. Bring it, girl!
Ronna Romney McDaniel is testifying about Trump calling her to introduce her to John Eastman, who briefed her on getting the RNC in on the plot to round up fake electors and send fraudulent electoral slates to the National Archives. And with that done, it was just a hop, skip, and a jump to getting Pence to play ball. […]
This cartographic Tapestry is woven from a geologic map and a shaded relief image. This digital combination reveals the geologic history of North America through the interrelation of rock type, topography and time. Regional surface processes as well as continent-scale tectonic events are exposed in the three dimensions of space and the fourth dimension, geologic time. The large map shows the varying age of bedrock underlying North America, while four smaller maps show the distribution of four principal types of rock: sedimentary, volcanic, plutonic and metamorphic.
It looks like Russia is now just going through the motions with their war.
Trying to lose as slowly as possible.
These conscripts were sent to the front…” without having ever used a gun, we were deployed in an assault group with only two grenade launchers – we were pure cannon fodder. I had to read a manual on how to use [the grenade launchers]. ”
No training, almost no equipment. At least the grenade launcher had a manual with it.
They didn’t even have shovels to dig trenches. They died after 6 days at the front.
In terms of military effectiveness, they aren’t going to make much difference.
They should make the war more unpopular back in Russia though.
Ukrayinska Pravda “Pure cannon fodder”: BBC on deaths of recently conscripted Russians
KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – THURSDAY, 13 OCTOBER 2022, 20:14 Edited for length
Russia has acknowledged the deaths of several of its conscripts in Ukraine. Russian media reports that these soldiers have been sent to the front without training.
Source: BBC News Russian, citing relatives and close friends of the dead soldiers
Details: BBC journalists identified three out of five soldiers [whose deaths were reported by the Chelyabinsk Oblast military commissariat on Thursday, 13 October]: Anton Borisov, Igor Yevseev and Timur Akhmetshin.
They were conscripted by the Korkino military commissariat [in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia] between 26 and 29 September. A total of almost 1,000 people were conscripted around that time, the relatives of the deceased said.
On 3 October, the men found themselves near Luhansk. From there, they were transferred to Kherson Oblast. By 9 October, their relatives received the first death notifications.
Quote: “The first day we arrived [at the front], without having ever used a gun, we were deployed in an assault group with only two grenade launchers – we were pure cannon fodder. I had to read a manual on how to use [the grenade launchers].
More details: The narrator of these events said that Timur Akhmetshin had taken up a position 1.5 kilometres away from his own; that area “was razed to the ground”: “He was carried on stretchers, he was 200 [dead – ed.].”
“What the soldiers say about their commanders cannot be quoted; they say that they had never even been to a firing range and that they had to use bayonets to dig their trenches on the front,” the BBC wrote.
In reality, however, the first conscripts ended up on the front in Ukraine only a few days after the announcement of mobilisation; many had since died there, the BBC News Russian wrote.
Previously: At least five conscripts from Russia’s Chelyabinsk Oblast are confirmed to have died in the war in Ukraine.
Since they first started arriving in Ukraine last spring, the Starlink satellite internet terminals made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been a vital source of communication for Ukraine’s military, allowing it to fight and stay connected even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia.
So far roughly 20,000 Starlink satellite units have been donated to Ukraine, with Musk tweeting on Friday the “operation has cost SpaceX $80 million and will exceed $100 million by the end of the year.”
But those charitable contributions could be coming to an end, as SpaceX has warned the Pentagon that it may stop funding the service in Ukraine unless the US military kicks in tens of millions of dollars per month.
Documents obtained by CNN show that last month Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon saying it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink service as it has. The letter also requested that the Pentagon take over funding for Ukraine’s government and military use of Starlink, which SpaceX claims would cost more than $120 million for the rest of the year and could cost close to $400 million for the next 12 months.
“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote to the Pentagon in the September letter.
Among the SpaceX documents sent to the Pentagon and seen by CNN is a previously unreported direct request made to Musk in July by the Ukrainian military’s commanding general, General Valerii Zaluzhniy, for almost 8,000 more Starlink terminals.
In a separate cover letter to the Pentagon, an outside consultant working for SpaceX wrote, “SpaceX faces terribly difficult decisions here. I do not think they have the financial ability to provide any additional terminals or service as requested by General Zaluzhniy.”
The documents, which have not been previously reported, provide a rare breakdown of SpaceX’s own internal numbers on Starlink, detailing the costs and payments associated with the thousands of terminals in Ukraine. They also shed new light on behind-the-scenes negotiations that have provided millions of dollars in communications hardware and services to Ukraine at little cost to Kyiv.
Reports of outages
The letters come amid recent reports of wide-ranging Starlink outages as Ukrainian troops attempt to retake ground occupied by Russia in the eastern and southern parts of the country.
Sources familiar with the outages said they suddenly affected the entire frontline as it stood on September 30. “That has affected every effort of the Ukrainians to push past that front,” said one person familiar with the outages who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations. “Starlink is the main way units on the battlefield have to communicate.”
There was no warning to Ukrainian forces, a second person said, adding that now when Ukraine liberates an area a request has to be made for Starlink services to be turned on.
The Financial Times first reported the outages which resulted in a “catastrophic” loss of communication, a senior Ukrainian official said. In a tweet responding to the article, Musk didn’t dispute the outage, saying that what is happening on the battlefield is classified.
SpaceX’s suggestion it will stop funding Starlink also comes amid rising concern in Ukraine over Musk’s allegiance.…
…
Musk also argued privately last month that Ukraine doesn’t want peace negotiations right now and that if they went along with his plan, “Russia would accept those terms,” according to a person who heard them.
“Ukraine knows that its current government and wartime efforts are totally dependent on Starlink,” the person familiar with the discussions said. “The decision to keep Starlink running or not rests entirely in the hands of one man. That’s Elon Musk. He hasn’t been elected, no one decided to give him that power. He has it because of the technology and the company he built.”
…
Though Musk has received widespread acclaim and thanks for responding to requests for Starlink service to Ukraine right as the war was starting, in reality, the vast majority of the 20,000 terminals have received full or partial funding from outside sources, including the US government, the UK and Poland, according to the SpaceX letter to the Pentagon.
SpaceX’s request that the US military foot the bill has rankled top brass at the Pentagon, with one senior defense official telling CNN that SpaceX has “the gall to look like heroes” while having others pay so much and now presenting them with a bill for tens of millions per month.
…
“You could say he’s trying to get money from the government or just trying to say ‘I don’t want to be part of this anymore,’” said the person familiar with Ukraine’s requests for Starlink. Given the recent outages and Musk’s reputation for being unpredictable, “Feelings are running really high on the Ukrainian side,” this person said.
Musk is the biggest shareholder of the privately-held SpaceX. In May, SpaceX disclosed that its valuation had risen to $127 billion and it has raised $2 billion this year, CNBC reported….
Reintegration Ministry: Ukraine’s army has liberated over 500 settlements in Kharkiv Oblast.
According to the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, Ukraine’s Armed Forces have liberated 502 settlements in Kharkiv Oblast, 75 in southern Kherson Oblast, 43 in Donetsk Oblast and seven in Luhansk Oblast over the past month.
chrislawsonsays
Evangelical church accused of sacking worker for correctly reporting to charities regulator.
A Hillsong whistleblower alleges she was unlawfully disciplined for providing information to the charities regulator during an investigation into the global church’s accounts, a court has been told.
Worst defence ever?:
While Boncardo said there had not been any good reason why Hillsong hadn’t filed a defence, the church said the matter was complex.
“The allegations in the statement of claim are quite substantial … and required quite a few people to give instructions,” Michael Seck, acting for Hillsong, told the court.
“The defence is nearly ready and finalised.”
Hillsong is the preferred church of our recently-ousted, congenitally dysempathetic Prime Minister.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar on Thursday certified that 49 migrants who were flown to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last month were victims of a crime. The move clears a pathway for those migrants to get a special visa to stay in the country that they otherwise would not have received.
Rachel Self, a Massachusetts attorney working with the migrants, told radio station WGBH that the move by Salazar is a key part of the migrants’ applications for a “U visa,” which is reserved for victims of crime or people who witnessed a crime. In a statement, Salazar said his office had submitted documents with the federal system “to ensure the migrants’ availability as witnesses during the investigation.”
Attorneys like Self are seeking the visas for the migrants on the grounds that they were taken to Martha’s Vineyard under false pretenses.
“Based upon the claims of migrants being transported from Bexar County under false pretenses, we are investigating this case as possible Unlawful Restraint,” Salazar said in a statement.
Migrants said they were convinced to board the airplanes by a woman known only as “Perla” who offered them jobs, housing and education if they went to Massachusetts.
Salazar said his office has identified witnesses in the case but could not release their names because the investigation is ongoing.
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[…]
Demilitarization of russia.
By using hundreds of high-precision missiles against civilian objects of Ukraine, the aggressor state reduces its ability to strike the military targets. Two conclusions:
– russia’s military defeat is inevitable;
– russia is a terrorist state.
Graph at the link showing the depletion of the Russian high-precision missile arsenal since February. If it’s even close to accurate (especially with regard to the Iskander missiles), wow.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there (more re #1 above):
Kherson council member condemns Russian ‘evacuation’ as ‘deportation’
A Ukrainian member of Kherson’s regional council has condemned Russia’s “evacuation” of the occupied city, saying it is in fact a “deportation”.
The council member also said that it is an evacuation for collaborators, urging residents to go to Ukrainian-controlled territory if they can, reports Reuters.
Evacuees from Ukraine’s southern Kherson region were expected to begin arriving in Russia on Friday after a Moscow-installed official suggested residents should leave for safety, a sign of Russia’s weakening hold on territory it claims to have annexed…
…
Serhiy Khlan, a member of Kherson’s regional council reporetdly told a briefing:
We understand that there can be no evacuation, this is nothing more than deportation that Saldo calls for.
This ‘evacuation’ announced by Saldo is an evacuation for collaborators and traitors in the region… they want to take these collaborators to Russia.
The occupiers understand that they will not be able to hold on for long, especially on the right bank (of the Dnipro River) and in the city of Kherson.
Kwarteng has been sacked. Also from the liveblog: “Nicholas Watt from BBC Newsnight has been told that a group of senior Tories will call on Liz Truss to resign as prime minister next week.”
Every single Republican in Congress voted against:
– Giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug costs
– Capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors at $2,000 a year
– Capping insulin costs for seniors at $35 a month
the Italian Chamber is about to elect as president Lorenzo Fontana of the League, a Putin admirer who traveled to Crimea in 2014 to support Russia’s illegal annexation, connected to the World Congress of Families and the Malofeev network
goodnight Italy
He’s now been elected. Far-right Catholic, religious bigot, hates immigrants, hates LGBT people, opposed to reproductive rights, loves Putin,…
Huge montage in Tehran taken down within 24 hours after protests by those depicted or their relatives
The Iranian authorities suffered a PR fiasco after being forced to take down a giant billboard in a central square in Tehran when women in the poster, or their relatives, objected to being depicted as supporters of the government and the compulsory-wearing of the hijab.
The billboard controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was a montage of about 50 Iranian women wearing the hijab under the slogan Women of my Land[†]. It was taken down within 24 hours after at least three of the women pictured said they objected to their image being misused.
Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, a multiaward-winning actor was the first to protest, releasing a video. Not wearing the hijab, she said: “I am not considered a woman in a land where young children, little girls and freedom-loving youths are killed in its fields.”
“I am Mahsa’s mother, I am Sarina’s mother. I am the mother of all the children who were killed in this land. I am the mother of all the land of Iran, not a woman in the land of murderers,” she added, referring to Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death in police custody sparked protests across Iran, and Sarina Esmaeilzadeh, a 16-year-old who Amnesty International has said was killed by security forces at a protest.
Soon after the video was released, the film director Marzieh Boroumand and the mountaineer Parvaneh Kazemi also denounced the use of their image on the billboard.
Boroumand wrote on her Instagram account: “Gentlemen, remove my photo from the wall under which you oppressed children and young people. I will never allow any group inside or outside the country to use my cultural identity for their own benefit.”
[…]
Kazemi, who has reached the summit of Everest and several 8,000-metre peaks, also took to Instagram, writing: “So angry to see my picture in this poster. It’s a shame that the name and image of us women are used only for abuse.”
The son of the late actor Homa Rousta also objected to the “shameful” use of his mother’s image and called for it to removed.
[…]
In a tweet, the director and screenplay writer Reza Dormishian pointed to the photo of an Iranian actor that came from one of his films, and that another image was of the photojournalist, Nooshin Jafari, who is serving a four-year term in Evin prison for insulting the state. […]
[…]
Some of the photos appear to have been taken from the tombstones.
Supporters of the government claimed the poster had been taken down because it included a suspect in the protests, but did not identify the individual.
Apparently, the poster is now back up sans all photographs. There is an image of the original poster at the link.
† I decided to set that otherwise not-necessarily offensive slogan in eejit quotes because, as the article explains, it implies the people shown support the unstated message. Which some don’t. I.e., it’s misleading and intended to mislead.
birgerjohanssonsays
Re. The sacking of the British chanchellor Kwarteng- Liz Truss is trying to blame him for her disastrous mini-budget so she can remain in power (it will not succeed).
Recent polls show if elections were held today, the tories would only get four (4) seats in parliament!
SNP would get more. DUP would get more. Everyone else would get more.
birgerjohanssonsays
BTW according to Chinese authorities absolutely nothing happened in Beijing today.
Demonstration? What demonstration?
Survey shows strong support within alliance for tougher sanctions and Nato aid, but more pro-Russia views elsewhere
Nearly eight months into Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, citizens in core western alliance countries show little appetite for the kind of concessions to Russia that might form part of an eventual agreement to end the fighting, according to a major survey.
The YouGov-Cambridge globalism project, which gauged public opinion in 25 of the world’s largest countries, also found strong support for maintaining, and often toughening and expanding, military and economic measures against Moscow.
But while the survey found respondents in most western nations in an uncompromising mood, multiple countries around the world — including some in the west — were markedly more ambivalent, or even sympathetic, towards Russia.
“If Putin is counting on waning western resolve, this research suggests more bad news for his beleaguered military campaign,” said Joel Rogers de Waal, YouGov’s academic director. “But it’s not an international consensus.”
The polling, between 24 August and 22 September, found that of 13 western or anglophone countries — France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Poland, the UK, US, Australia and Canada — a “core group” of 10 backed maintaining economic sanctions on Russia. Greece, Hungary and Italy were outliers.
Much later on in article that “outliers” comment is explained:
Three European countries were consistent exceptions in the west. Asked whether Nato was doing too much to help Ukraine, only 7% in Denmark, Poland and the UK answered yes — but the figures in Italy, Greece and Hungary were 22%, 23% and 31%.
At 37% and 32%, support in Greece and Hungary for maintaining sanctions on Russia was half some western countries, while barely a fifth of Greek and Hungarian respondents backed Nato sending heavy weapons to Ukraine, against 44% in France, 57% in the UK and 65% in Poland. Italy often fell between Hungary and Greece, on the one hand, and the core western bloc on the other.
Similarly, Greece, Hungary and Italy were significantly more likely to favour concessions to Russia: for example, 31% of respondents in Greece, 28% in Hungary and 23% in Italy favoured recognising Russian sovereignty over Crimea even if Russia gave up none of its new Ukrainian territory, against 8% in Denmark and 6% in the UK.
See the link for more details about various levels of support in the “10 country core group”. Continuing the excerpt from after the explanation of the “outliers” comment (my added emboldening):
Only minorities in 25 countries around the world — ranging from 3%–6% in the UK and Spain to 22% in India and 23% in Saudi Arabia — believe the world would be a safer place if Russia achieved its aims in Ukraine.
In the west, most respondents overwhelmingly rejected the narrative spun by Moscow to justify its invasion of Ukraine and broadly accepted the alliance view of what was causing the war, the YouGov-Cambridge study found.
[…]
In the same 10 core western countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany, Sweden and Poland, barely 20% — and just 8% in the UK — said they believed Russia’s line that the invasion aimed to protect ethnic Russians from genocide.
Similarly low numbers accepted another Russian argument, that Ukraine had fallen under the influence of nazism, with slightly more — but generally less than 25% — believing Moscow’s claim that the west had tried use Ukraine as a base to threaten Russia.
Among the core 10, the western view that Russia had invaded because Putin did not view Ukraine as a proper country, and that the war was driven by Russian imperialism and a desire to increase Russia’s global status, was backed by 65%–79%.
Again, however, Greece, Hungary and to a lesser extent Italy were notable exceptions in Europe, with 43% of Greeks believing Kyiv was in the grip of Nazi sympathisers and 41% of Hungarians saying the west had sought to threaten Russia from Ukraine.
Several countries in the Middle East and Africa, including Turkey, reflected similar beliefs — although, significantly, all 25 countries around the world showed strong, generally majority support for the view that it was Russian imperialism and status that lay behind the war.
[… O]f all the 25 ountries surveyed, only in Saudi Arabia, India and Indonesia did more respondents (24%, 28% and 26%) believe that the west was more to blame for the war in Ukraine than was Russia (23%, 27% and 15%).
I, for one, welcome our new…
No I don’t. Kill it with fire.
ravensays
The Russian government claims the Kerch bridge will be repaired in 10 months.
This means the damage was far worse than they first claimed.
I’ve seen photos of the railroad part of the bridge. The fire was hot enough to soften steel to the point where it deformed. Meaning hot enough to reduce the load bearing part of the railroad bridge, which is all steel.
This is going to markedly reduce the logistics supply chain for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a sign of a highly successful attack.
Russian government wants Crimean Bridge repaired by July
Ukrainska Pravada
IRYNA BALACHUK — FRIDAY, 14 OCTOBER 2022, 11:02
The Russian government has ordered that the Crimean Bridge be rebuilt no later than 1 July 2023. Nizhneangarsktransstroy [a construction company in Irkutsk — ed.] will carry out the works.
Source: Kremlin-aligned news agency RIA Novosti, citing the corresponding order of 13 October
Quote from order: “To set 1 July 2023 as the deadline for the conclusion of state contracts for the performance of the works.”
Details: By the same document, the Russian government has appointed Nizhneangarsktransstroy LLC as the sole contractor for the bridge restoration works
ravensays
Elon Musk does it again.
Something cuckoo that doesn’t look right.
It turns out that almost all the Starlink terminals in Ukraine were bought by someone, governments and private people.
In fact, a lot of the Ukrainian soldiers…ended up buying their own Starlinks out of their own bank accounts.
An article claims 85% of the Starlink terminals in Ukraine were paid by someone.
It also appears that the Starlinks get broken a lot since they are on or near battlefields.
To be fair, everyone in Ukraine says they are really useful.
Dimko Zhluktenko 🇺🇦 @dim0kq
0. I admire the actions of SpaceX of enabling StarLink service in Ukraine. It is a true game changer for Ukrainian army in the open fields of no cellular, and long distances not suitable for radios, given the situation is changing quick on the battlefield.
It’s a game-changer.
6h
1. Despite that, I have not seen ANY StarLink which was bought by the governments, or by SpaceX. All the Starlinks I have seen / used – were bought either by volunteers like myself, or soldiers put their personal money in.
The subscription price is also paid out of the pocket.
KGsays
“Nicholas Watt from BBC Newsnight has been told that a group of senior Tories will call on Liz Truss to resign as prime minister next week.” – SC@52
My colleague Dan Sabbagh has been attending a background briefing on the situation in Ukraine from western officials, and he reports:
The Russian position around Kherson “is extremely fragile” with “a significant force on the wrong side of the Dnipro River”. Asked could the city fall in a week, the officials said “It is conceivable that something happens within a week, but it’s also perfectly conceivable that it doesn’t.”
The officials said Russia is “rapidly exhausting its supply of long range, precision munitions”, and in particular, air launched cruise missiles. Russia cannot sustain attacks like Monday’s. The officials roughly endorsed Ukraine’s estimate that Russia has used two-thirds of its “high-precision” stock.
The officials continued by saying that any use of nuclear weapons by Russia “would break a taboo that has held since 1945”, and would lead to “severe consequences” for Moscow. The consequences were not spelled out though, leaving a deliberate ambiguity.
On the Nord Stream explosions, the officials said “It is our assessment that it is almost certainly sabotage” but they were still not in a position to attribute responsibility to Russia or anybody else.
There was concern that the Ukrainians “won’t be able to maintain their offensive indefinitely,” and that there will come a point later this year when the weather changes, and “a new phase of the conflict” begins. “But for the time being, Ukrainians retain the initiative and momentum.”
@raven: I’ve seen photos of the railroad part of the bridge. The fire was hot enough to soften steel to the point where it deformed.
I saw some pictures claimed to be of the bridge’s cracked pylon: no rebar. It may be that the builder sold the rebar and bought a dacha or something like that (Russian construction practices) If that’s true, then the whole bridge was going to collapse anyway, someday.
With her former chancellor and “great friend” Kwasi Kwarteng gone, how long with Liz Truss survive in her position? Will she last longer than a 60p Tesco lettuce? That’s the big question.
The Daily Star has set up a live “lettuce-cam” YouTube feed with a portrait of the PM next to a lettuce wearing googly eyes.
Who do you think has a longer shelf life? Lettuce know (sorry).
KG@64, Some speculations on “Why the delay [in telling alleged-‘PM’ Truss to follow the rats]?”: Increase the pressure; Don’t interfere with the enemy when they are doing something stupid; More rope (time) to further tie themselves in knots; Hoping they will leave before actually having to stick their necks out; etc. (All assuming there actually is a plan afoot to foot it over to Number 10 next week.)
It’s driving me crazy that so many people are saying that Musk’s demands for more Starlink money are some sort of retaliation for the Ukrainian leadership clapping back at him for his atrocious Twitter poll and related commentary. Now Musk, because he’s a dishonest assclam, is playing it up himself.
As the CNN article @ #37 clearly describes: “last month Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon saying it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink service as it has,” subsequently referring to it as “the September letter.” The Ukrainian military began having issues with Starlink around the same time. Musk’s Twitter obnoxiousness about Ukraine and the responses to it began on October 3, so neither the letter to the Pentagon nor the Starlink service disruptions could be a response to the Ukrainian tweets.
In any event, I’m of the opinion that the US government should pay him off if they can get him out of the loop, because he’s a dangerous dilettante dingdong. They’ll probably get it back eventually in fines anyway.
Since the success of Ukraine’s massive counteroffensive in early September, Russian officials have repeatedly raised the possibility of peace talks — even after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree officially ruling out the possibility of Ukraine ever negotiating with Vladimir Putin. Meduza has learned from multiple sources close to the Russian government that the Kremlin has simultaneously been lobbying Western leaders behind closed doors to convince Kyiv to agree to a temporary ceasefire. But according to the sources, Putin has no intention of ending the war; instead, his ceasefire campaign is part of a wider strategy to buy time for training conscripts and replenishing supplies in order to launch a “full-scale offensive” in February or March.
[… Putin] wants Russia to maintain control of the occupied Donbas territories — and “doesn’t even want to discuss Crimea.”
According to two sources close to the Kremlin and one source close to the Russian government who spoke to Meduza, Putin’s positions haven’t changed. However, the sources said, the Russian authorities have developed a new “tactical option.” In this scenario, rather than getting Ukraine to agree to a full-fledged peace treaty, the Kremlin would seek a temporary ceasefire. Russia’s leaders believe this could be arranged through negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian troops — without the involvement of either country’s president.
[…]
“It’s very hard to hold Kherson right now, and the withdrawal of troops from the region could be done as a gesture of goodwill and a step forward towards Ukraine,” one source close to the Kremlin said.
I found gesture of goodwill amusing, as that’s one of the euphemisms the invaders use to describe routs / retreats of their own forces.
According to Meduza’s sources, the Kremlin has been trying to “influence Western leaders” and Turkish President Recep Erdoğan to “convince” Ukraine to return to negotiations with Russia. Meduza’s sources claim that Russia is using a “simple argument” in its communications with foreign leaders: “Civilian casualties must be avoided.” These talks have been going on amid the widespread shelling of Ukrainian cities that Russia launched after the explosion on the Crimean Bridge on October 8 and Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive in September.
It’s been pointed out the huge missile barrage aimed at Ukrainian civilians and civil infrastructure after the Kerch Bridge (presumed-)attack must have been planned before that attack. (That has caused some to claim the attack was some sort of “false flag” operation, which is not a very believable hypothesis.) Presuming Meduza’s (source’s) are correct and Putin’s cronies have been pushing “Civilian casualties must be avoided” to gain a halt to the fighting to allow for Putin to regroup, then a pre-planned show of force by targeting civilians, etc., in a massive attack seems like something Putin, etc., might “think” would “convince” Nato-powers to ask Ukraine to agree a cease-fire.
That seems very unlikely to work: Besides being obviously cynical and clumsy; Increasing Ukrainian resolve; Perhaps not actually damaging all that much; Ukraine and the Nato-powers are well aware of the desirability to keep Russia’s culminated exhausted under-supplied and freezing forces unstable and guessing.
At the same time, Meduza’s sources emphasized that Vladimir Putin has no plans to end the war, and that he hopes to use the prospective ceasefire to prepare for a new offensive. As Putin sees it, the truce would allow the Russian army to train newly mobilized soldiers for war and replenish its equipment. […]
[… A] source from Volodymyr Zelensky’s office […] called on Russians to do their part to make the negotiations happen sooner: “Bring down that delusional Putin of yours.”
The source added that Ukraine has long been distrustful of any statements — and “gestures of goodwill” — from Russia: “He keeps lying, Putin does. He talks about how he’s reading for negotiations, then he launches missile strikes on civilians. I don’t think there will be any ceasefire until our territories are de-occupied, until they’re liberated.”
More details on the reported Russian submarine sighting from Reuters:
A Russian submarine was spotted sailing on the surface off the Brittany coast at the end of September and was escorted by the French navy, the French navy said on its Twitter feed.
It said British and Spanish warships had also been involved in monitoring the submarine’s movements.
BFM TV reported that the incident took place on September 29.
A [St] Petersburg woman has been placed under house arrest for leaving a note on the grave of Maria and Vladimir Putin, parents of Russian president Vladimir Putin. The note addresses the “parents of a serial killer,” and asks them to “take him, we have so much pain and misery from him.” The prosecutor’s office called [60-year-old Irina] Tsybaneva’s actions a brazen crime. […]
[…]
It remains unclear how Tsybaneva got to the president’s parents’ grave. Security on the cemetery grounds and specifically around the grave of Maria and Vladimir Putin was strengthened at the end of September, after the activist Anastasia Filippova left a small sign there. Modeled on a page of a grade school notebook, it read: “Dear parents! Your son is behaving disgracefully! He skips history classes, fights with classmates, threatens to blow up the whole school! Take action!”
[…]
The court sentenced Tsybaneva to house arrest until November 8, 2022 and forbid her from using the internet, phone, or mail. [Her son] Maxim Tsybanev told Mediazona “in the context of the actions she took it’s too harsh, but, well, in the context of the current situation in this country it’s really not that bad.”
In this scenario, rather than getting Ukraine to agree to a full-fledged peace treaty, the Kremlin would seek a temporary ceasefire. Russia’s leaders believe this could be arranged through negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian troops — without the involvement of either country’s president.
The court sentenced Tsybaneva to house arrest until November 8, 2022 and forbid her from using the internet, phone, or mail. [Her son] Maxim Tsybanev told Mediazona “in the context of the actions she took it’s too harsh, but, well, in the context of the current situation in this country it’s really not that bad.”
Translation: “She coulda been shot or sent to a labor camp in Siberia.”
blfsays
SC@75, Yeah, I found that idea so preposterous I was giggling whilst trying to write my commentary. It has since occurred to me that might be an invader’s euphemism for (localised) “surrender”, which is a smart move on the part of the invaders’ cannon fodder.
Lynna,
Thanks to you and PZ for these threads.
SC in comment 5: “Nancy Pelosi was as composed as always.”
@ 12 Lynna, OM Yes she was composed, and in dire circumstances she was able to focus on the most important issues.
In reply Sherman says: I agree that, yes, she is mostly professional and composed, but you can’t blame her when her life is being threatened by a bunch of violent, redneck aholes.
ref https://doonesbury.slate.com/
“I hope he comes, I’m gonna punch him out. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m gonna punch him out, I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m gonna be happy.”
— Nancy Pelosi, when told on Jan. 6 that Trump intended to go to the Capitol
There are many nationalities in Ukraine but we are all a united Ukrainian nation.
We fight together for a free and independent Ukraine.
I think everyone who supports us is also Ukrainian a little, don’t you agree?
📹: Ministry of Internal Affairs
This week’s show is entirely dedicated to China’s Communist Party Congress, taking place this week. It’s a days-long conclave that meets once every five years and shapes the country’s leadership. This year’s congress will be particularly closely watched with President Xi Jinping expected to further cement his rule.
In this episode we break down the importance of the event to Chinese society and the international community. We also take a look at Xi’s rise to power and his strongman policies. Lastly, our correspondents show us what life is like in China under Xi’s “Zero Covid” policy.
Video at the link. It’s only 12 minutes long, so each segment is pretty brief.
Keir Starmer has told the Guardian that Britain needs a general election, regardless of whether or not Liz Truss stays or goes. Asked whether there should be a general election, he told my colleague Rowena Mason:
Yes … We are in the absurd situation where we are on the third, fourth prime minister in six years and within weeks we have a got a prime minister who has the worst reputational ratings of any prime minister pretty well in history. Their party is completely exhausted, and clapped out. It has got no ideas, it can’t face the future and it has left the UK in a defensive crouch where we are not facing the challenges of the future because we haven’t got a government that could lead us to the future. For the good of the country we need a general election.
Don Bolduc said that fertility clinics disposing of embryos after IVF is a “disgusting practice.”
Oggie: Mathomsays
Don Bolduc said that fertility clinics disposing of embryos after IVF is a “disgusting practice.”
It is appropriate that US election day is so close to Halloween. Conservative politics is like a movie monster — no matter how many times an idea is killed, or dies of old age, or is forgotten, it is guaranteed to show up a political generation later. I remember this from the 80s. And the early naughties. They just never die.
Latest update from “Karl,” the Estonian military analyst. With @holger_r:
“Main point of focus should be in Luhansk and Kherson where it is a question of 1-2 weeks when the next Russian defense lines should break. It’s only a matter of time.”
“It is doubtful that the collapse would lead to Ukraine taking Kherson on the west bank of the Dnipro river but they would get to the vicinities of the city. Russia will likely make an attempt to still keep the city for a while.”
“Russia has made a small advance in Bakhmut but compared to what Ukraine has been reclaiming, it is like the Vatican and Italy. It would still be a long way for Russia to advance to Kramatorsk and Slovyansk from Bakhmut.”
“Considering that Russia has advanced there only 5-6 km over several months, there’s not too much concern yet. Ukraine should get their artillery reinforcement there and that will help get the initiative back.”
“When Russia started the advance on Bakhmut they still controlled Izyum. That would’ve allowed to put pressure on Kramatorsk from two different directions. They don’t have such a possibility anymore.”
“The main motivator for the rocket fire on Kyiv and other cities this week was Russia’s dire situation on the frontlines. The Kerch bridge came only as a secondary reason, which helped prove to the home audience that they indeed are doing something.”
“The rocket attacks were uncomfortable but the effect would’ve been much larger if they’d have done it when the real heating season began. Ukraine itself assesses that Russia still has around 600 precision missile left. How reasonable is it to use 80-100 in one such attack?”
“The Kerch bridge explosion caused a lot of damage. The renovation is intended to finish only by July next year. This means that Russian logistics on the southern front will be deeply impacted for months.”
“It will become evident after a few weeks when the supplies that already are in Crimea start to become depleted.”
“A noteworthy detail about the bridge: you can see that some spans broke up because of poor construction, not directly because of the explosion. It indicates how much money was stolen from the construction project. (Constructed by Putin’s very close friend Rotenberg.)”
“I assess that there won’t be an attack from Belarus coming anytime soon. It’s an information operation to keep the Ukrainians on their toes and tie up some of their units. It’d be a suicide for Lukasheko.”
“Ukraine itself assessed a few days ago that there were only around 1,000 Russian troops in Belarus. In fact, Russia has taken both equipment and ammunition away from Belarus to Donbas.”
“A recent trend is Russians capitulating in small units. The latest news is 27 soldiers surrendering near Kreminna. This indicates they are totally without equipment and lack the support of artillery and airforce. That’s when such decisions to surrender are taken.”
“The high days of Iranian drones are over. The percentage of the drones taken down is already at 80-90%. Noteworthy that during the missile attacks this week Ukrainians only managed to intercept 50%. Usually the rate is somewhere around 65-75%…”
“… When the next day the number of missile coming in was smaller, that rate was back to normal again.”
“Russia itself is afraid of Ukraine advancing across the Dnipro river and starting an offensive from the left bank as well. I don’t see that as likely (see above) “but it keeps the option open – Ukraine has managed to make surprise moves, as we know.”
“If that were to happen, the entire southern defense would collapse. Ukraine would be in the range to hit the Kerch bridge every day as much as they please.”
Let’s be honest. Like it or not, @elonmusk helped us survive the most critical moments of war. Business has the right to its own strategies. [Ukraine] will find a solution to keep #Starlink working. We expect that the company will provide stable connection till the end of negotiations.
If there was ever proof that @elonmusk is playing games this is it. I’m not sure someone like this can be trusted to any longer do business with our government.
New footage published by the Daily Beast shows Stone’s meltdown upon learning that Trump wasn’t going to pardon him again after Jan. 6.
ravensays
If there was ever proof that @elonmusk is playing games this is it. I’m not sure someone like this can be trusted to any longer do business with our government.
QFT.
The US government should just pay Starlink and Musk for the Starlink units and the bandwidth like any other business transaction.
To get Elon Musk out of the loop.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
– SpaceX – Launches. On Saturday, September 24 at 7:32 p.m. ET, SpaceX launched 52 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.Sep 24, 2022
SpaceX and Starlink are undoubtedly very successful and important achievements of Elon Musk and his companies.
But Musk and SpaceX are dependent on US government support for a whole lot of things. The US government is one of their main customers.
And, SpaceX uses US government facilities such as Cape Canaveral in Florida to launch their rockets.
It should dawn on the guy that playing silly games with the US government is not a good idea.
Tethyssays
Follow the money is a highly useful metric. Elon has been seeking financing to purchase Twitter. From who?
The FTC and the SEC are involved in the lawsuit he received this week.
His claims to millions of tax dollars for starlink systems is utter grift. He got paid, he is a liar, and an utter fraud. I prefer espionage charges for his attempts influence a war and paint himself as some hero while lacking any actual human traits like humility or empathy.
It should dawn on the guy that playing silly games with the US government is not a good idea.
I wish this were true, but forty years of Reaganite politics has entrenched the idea that government exists to serve the whims of wealthy industrialists.
chrislawsonsays
Reginald Selkirk@61 (re the Danish AI political party)–
My first thought is that this was an art project, and indeed that link you provided says it’s the work of an artist collective. But then it also says:
Some of the policies that The Synthetic Party is proposing include establishing a universal basic income of 100,000 Danish kroner per month, which is equivalent to $13,700, and is over double the Danish average salary.
And now I wonder if it’s a front for undermining confidence in progressive ideas like UBI.
Population of Denmark = 5.9M
Cost of proposed UBI = $164,400 per person per year
Total cost = 5.9M x 164.4K = $970B
If restricted to adults = $776B GDP of Denmark = $355B
“#BREAKING Iranian plainclothes forces raided a girls’ high school in Ardabil, northwest of Iran, on Thursday, injuring 10 students and arresting seven others. One schoolgirl has died of internal bleeding, according to the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association.”
This is confirmed, so the entire premise of this story is wrong. [map of Bakhmut frontline, plus additional tweets and maps, at the link]
Bakhmut, The Russians are constantly shelling the area. There are reports of accumulating RU units and equipment in the area. Pro RU Grey Zone reports the AFU is rotating troops.
Lots of new artillery guns headed into Ukraine from Western allies. Wouldn’t be a bad idea to flood this area with a big chunk of that new artillery. It’s easier to eliminate Russians attacking out in the open, than hiding in trenches.
All that said, I still don’t see this direction remaining this active for long. We’ll see if this promised offensive happens, but I’ll be surprised if it does
The enveloping of Svatove continues. I’ll have more on my next update, but the Kremlin has begun an investigation into WarGonzo, Igor Stelkov, and other nationalist pro-Russian milbloggers for criticizing the war effort. [tweet and map at the link]
Lukashenka says the regional grouping of troops of Belarus and Russia will include 70,000 Belarusian troops and they will be deployed in the “western direction”
1) Belarus doesn’t have 70,000 troops. Most credible estimates have current military at 20,000, and could double with full mobilization to 40,000.
2) I stand by my previous assertion that this is all theater, designed to hold off Putin’s pressure, and that we are as likely to see Belarus enter the war, as we were to see 40,000 Syrian fighters promised back in March. All Lukashenko has to do is proclaim Poland a threat and he must defend his “western direction” border.
About 90 missiles were fired on October 10. So they could do several more of those, but nowhere near the amount necessary to take out Ukraine’s power grid and keep it down, like the Russian stans want. [tweet and chart showing number of missiles Russia started with and the number left, available at the link]
Last night’s situational update from Ukraine General Staff had a rare and curious omission: there was no mention of any Russian/Wagner mercenary attack toward the Donbas town of Bakhmut. As much fun as we’ve had mocking Russia’s nonsensical attacks on a strategically irrelevant town, we may finally be seeing the culmination of Russia’s last offensive operation anywhere in the entire country of Ukraine. [map at the link]
Bakhmut is in Donetsk oblast, and Ukraine’s General Staff says orders have come down to stop attacking.
In some areas of hostilities, in particular in the Donetsk oblast, enemy units began to receive orders from the top commanders to temporarily stop offensive operations. The main reason is the extremely low morale and psychological condition of the recruits, numerous facts of desertion from among the mobilized and non-fulfillment of combat orders.
There is also news that Ukraine has recaptured several positions near Bakhmut, suggesting either that Russia is fully spent, or might actually be retreating.
No, there is not street fighting in Bakhmut. Wagner have not entered the city. They have not captured Ivanhrad.
Wagner briefly took control over Ivanhrad, but a Ukrainian counter attack destroyed them and cleaned the town. It is now 100% Ukrainian. Opytne is 100% Ukrainian.
Ivanhrad isn’t on the map, [map at the link] it’s the red circle area. It’s literally a one-street village. Yet Russian stans had celebrated its capture as some kind of epic victory. It’s sad and pathetic. And even if Russian forces somehow made it into Bakhmut, there’s a river running through town that they couldn’t possibly ever cross. It’s all so futile, and has been for months!
[Russians] are busy building defensive lines well behind the front lines, around 35 kilometers to the east of Bakhmut. [tweet and image at the link]
This new defensive line is even behind Popasna, which Russia occupied back in early May. [map act the link]
You might be wondering, why is Russia building such elaborate defenses so far behind the current front lines. It’s not a trick question, the answer is obvious: Because Russia doesn’t have faith it’ll hold those existing lines. There’s literally no other explanation.
Warner might still rustle up some more prison cannon fodder to mindlessly throw at Bakhmut. They are so desperate for a victory, any victory, that they might see it worth their while. But no one builds defensive lines deep in their backfield if they really expect to advance.
Meanwhile, further north: [Tweet and map showing AFU progress available at the link]
This is exciting, as this puts Ukraine on the P07 road with a straight shot down to Svatove. (Not sure why DefMon calls it P66, as that’s further south.) Perhaps even better, those forces can take that road to the northeast, cutting off Svatove’s northern supply lines. Remember, Ukraine doesn’t actually want to take the city head on. It’s much better to envelope it from multiple sides. That position on the P07 highway opens up several approaches, adding to the pressure on Svatove. [map at the link]
That’s the dream, Ukraine still has got a ways to go. Now notice that north-south ridge line running through Svatove’s eastern edge. Unfortunately for Russia, it features a gentle west-facing slope, making it harder to defend. Once Ukraine takes it, all those towns to the east of that ridge line will be impossible to defend.
The unseasonably wet conditions might end up Russia’s best friend for the next month or so as we see the return of Ukraine’s famous mud. Yet the weather might also be Russia’s biggest nightmare, as nighttime temperatures are now hitting freezing. Russa’s ill-equipped cannon fodder will have even more of a reason to quit.
Speaking of [Tweet “Rare footage of Russians surrendering into captivity” and video at the link]
There’s a steady stream of the smartest Russian mobilized turning themselves in at this border crossing near Kharkiv. The alternative is this: [Tweet and image detailing the deaths of Russian mobilized men]
“FYI, your husband is dead.” A piece of paper with an official looking stamp. That’s it. And check this out:
Recently mobilized #Russian soldier shows his everyday life in the camp. They don’t receive anything, so to survive, they need to steal basic things like mattresses or wood stoves from others. [Tweet and video at the link, with special emphasis on how cold they get a night]
If they’re already sick and barefoot, but with tents and wood stoves at least, imagine what it’s going to be like in Ukrainian trenches with no jackets, no heat, no tent, and a hell of a lot colder.
Borrel has stated: “Any nuclear attack on Ukraine will bring a response, not a nuclear response, but a military response so powerful that the Russian army will be annihilated”
Getting clearer. He’d have been authorized to say this. [tweet and image at the link]
Josep Borrell is the European Union’s security chief. Vladimir Putin knows NATO can back this threat up. There’s already little left of Russia’s military. NATO would finish off its navy and remaining Air Force.
For the third time this year, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has made Putin wait before a joint meeting. [Tweet and video at the link] Putin used to get his kicks off making other people wait. Those days are gone.
More evidence that Monday’s terrorist strikes were designed for Russia’s domestic audience, not military efficacy:
Top Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov says Russians were so excited to see the latest strikes against Ukraine, because they weren’t sure there was enough weaponry in their storehouses, since their uniforms, equipment and ammunition for the mobilized are nowhere to be found. [tweet from Julia Davis and video available at the link]
Russia’s celebration has become short lived, however, as they begin to realize that their armed forces can’t maintain that level of destruction longer than a single morning. According to Ukraine’s General Staff, Russia launched only three missiles on Thursday. Sure, they also shelled civilian areas with GRAD MLRS rockets and Iranian drones, but those won’t seriously threaten Ukraine’s core infrastructure. Pro-Russian ghouls can dream about freezing Ukrainian civilians the winter, but Russia simply can’t deliver. Russian troops in trenches, on the other hand? That’s guaranteed.
birgerjohanssonsays
NOOOO!
Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid in Harry Potter, and many other roles) has died at just 72.
@chrislawson
And yet, it’s still better than some suggestions that are being tossed around, like the one where we outsource refugee administration to a camp in Rwanda, a country known for human rights abuses. That’s our supposedly left-of-center government. The right wing includes people spouting literal nazi rhetoric, although most of them are still stuck in tax-cuts-fix-everything territory.
Personally, I’ll be voting for the never-gonna-happen, green, anti-capitalist party, but the AI is not a crazy choice in these circumstances.
Roger Stone has a big tattoo of Richard Nixon’s face on his back. Stone was convicted of seven felony counts and faced a sentence of 40 months in prison, and then Donald Trump used his powers as chief executive to commute Stone’s conviction. Trump even wrote a glowing letter along with the commutation of Stone’s sentence. It was real bootlicking stuff.
A new video has emerged from film maker Christoffer Guldbrandsen, who shot 170 hours of Stone and friends in the months leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol grounds. The new footage is 22 seconds’ worth of Stone on the phone, in a car, raging after finding out that Donald Trump had not yet granted him a pardon. In those 22 seconds Stone is able to insult bad-at-all-trades Jared Kushner while also calling Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who is bad at advising the president, an “abortionist [B-word].”
Stone, uncut, comes across as badly as Stone cut comes across. With no filter, Stone’s antics and profound grotesquery, his abusive nature, and how far off the hinges he can and is willing to go become so stark.
In the clip, Stone seems to be telling whomever is unlucky enough to receive Stone ‘s phone calls that he is going to have Kushner physically expelled from Florida. “Jared Kushner has an IQ of 70,” Stone begins. Wait. Let’s take that in. That’s pretty funny. HAHAHA. Oh man. Okay, where were we?
ROGER STONE: He’s coming to Miami. We will eject him from Miami very quickly. He’ll be leaving very quickly. Very quickly. Very quickly. (Ed note: Yes, three times.) He has 100 security guards? I’ll have 5,000 security guards! You want to fight? Let’s fight. Fuck you and your abortionist [B-word> daughter.
[video available at the link]
Stone has promised to sue Guldbrandsen. It seems Stone’s plan of attack is to say that every clip Guldbrandsen releases showing Stone saying or doing something terrible is a deepfake.
As Former Dept. of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor explains, the reason why Trump did nothing on Jan. 6 to stop the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, instead gleefully watching the sordid events unfold on television while his aides panicked and pled with him fruitlessly to do something, is very simple: he wanted people to die.
As Taylor points out, the more deaths that occurred (especially deaths to members of Congress) the better justification Trump would have for invoking the Insurrection Act, declaring martial law, and thus preventing the peaceful transfer of power.
In this clip, which aired Thursday evening on MSNBC, Taylor speaks as someone who knows Trump and has spent a significant amount of time with him. He understands Trump’s depraved mindset as well as anyone. [video at the link]
From Matthew Chapman, reporting for Raw Story:
“It made my heart race to watch today’s hearing, really, because they brought up Trump’s mindset, and the question was, what was his mindset?” Taylor told anchor Nicolle Wallace. “I’m going to demystify that for America right now. I’ve spent time with the guy in the Oval Office, the White House situation room, and Air Force One. I’ll tell you what his mindset was on January 6th.”
“I believe Donald Trump wanted people to die,” said Taylor. “He wanted people to die who were elected officials, en masse, so he could call out the military, so he could invoke the Insurrection Act, so he could prevent the peaceful transfer of power. That’s not a conspiracy theory. In fact, in hindsight, it’s pretty damn clear to me this is what he had in mind from day one in office.”
The news media long ago fell into the trap of portraying Donald Trump person as some sort of gruff but still amusing blowhard, boorish but mesmerizingly larger than life, essentially an entertainer spewing riveting (if raw) verbiage tailor-made for media consumption. This was the image he cultivated on The Apprentice, and it’s the same image that got him elected. To this day the media regard Trump more with fascination than the horrified repugnance he actually warrants. It’s almost as if the idea that someone in such a position of power could be so utterly bereft of human decency is just too much for our media to process. Thanks in large part to this treatment he received prior to the 2016 election, nearly half the electorate — and perhaps more — continue to regard him as a type of media-savvy clown […]
Many in this country began to realize exactly what Trump was when they took note of the things he said during his rallies, by his weird embrace of murderous dictators, and by his solicitude towards virulent racists. But what really should have been a colossal, waving red flag to the vast majority of Americans was the complete disregard of human life he exhibited during the COVID-19 pandemic. As things turned out, enough people got the message about the kind of evil we were really saddled with in Donald Trump as hundreds of thousands of people of people died miserably and unnecessarily for the sole reason that they’d placed their faith in Trump’s words, and the words of those whose political careers stood to profit from their allegiance to him. Even then, at no time did Trump exhibit the slightest degree of empathy or compassion for those deaths, nor has he expressed or intimated such sentiments since.
What we have with Trump is not a clown, not a boor, not a “populist,” but someone with the mindset of a cold-blooded murderer. Now most people would react harshly and negatively if they knew their neighbor was a sociopath with no trepidations about murdering others to satisfy his inclinations, but the incongruity of witnessing someone with such a mindset placed at the pinnacle of American power, someone fawned upon by the media and who (for many) gave voice to their own inner resentments, operated to obscure that basic fact, even from those who truly should have known better.
The Jan. 6 Select Committee has done yeoman’s work in unmasking the fact that Trump was intent on maintaining power and instigated a deadly insurrection among his most virulent followers to achieve that end. But it still hasn’t managed to convey in the clearest possible terms what is blatantly obvious: that this man fully intended to kill as many Americans as necessary for him to preserve his own position and status. And worse, that he would not have lost a second’s worth of sleep over it.
“‘Don’t let anybody know where you are!’ Never before seen video: Nancy expresses concern to Mike Pence about his safety, all while Trump was stoking violence against Pence.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. There’s more of this video coming out today. It was shot by Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra, who’s finally found a worthwhile niche.
Trump responded with 14 pages of nonsense repeating his rally stump speeches, because the Big Lie continues. Previous guy suggests he’ll testify only if “We’ll do it live” for the “Hacks & Thugs”
[Scott Macfarlane tweeted] In sprawling, 14-page response to House Jan 6 Select Cmte, Trump doesn’t commit to an interview or to sharing documents… instead doubling-down on baseless election fraud claims, with mentions of “Antifa”, “Hacks and Thugs”, “Hoax”, “Fake News”… and an opening line in ALL CAPS [Trump’s rant is available at the Twitter link: https://twitter.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1580913218457079808 ]
[…]
Well, that’s all laughable. Trump even claimed that the television ratings for the Select Committee hearings are “very poor,” which they are not.
Trump shared a Truth Social photo that was posted. It portrayed him as second only to Jesus.
The latest behind-the-scenes footage suggests that key Republican claims about Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s efforts on Jan. 6 are ridiculous.
While much of yesterday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing contextualized information the public had already seen, there was some video footage that was entirely new. NBC News reported:
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection presented previously unseen video Thursday of congressional leaders pleading for help from governors, the acting secretary of defense and the acting attorney general as rioters attacked the Capitol. The video montage began with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., walking through the Capitol flanked by security guards at 2:23 p.m. ET after the Capitol was breached…. “We have got to get to finish the proceedings or else they will have a complete victory,” Pelosi said to someone, who wasn’t identified, on her cellphone.
Clip after clip, by way of stunning footage was shot by Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra Pelosi, the House speaker was seen doing what Donald Trump would not: playing a leadership role and making every effort to secure the nation’s seat of government.
Just as importantly, the California Democrat was in communications with then-Vice President Mike Pence, expressing concern about his safety — even as his boss back at the White House put his life at risk — and following through with him on plans to ensure he could fulfill his constitutional duties.
NBC News’ report added:
The video from Thursday’s hearing shows Pelosi and other congressional leaders repeatedly asking for help from law enforcement. Eventually, the video showed Pelosi and Schumer in a room with GOP congressional leaders at the time: Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., then the majority leader; House GOP Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.; and Senate GOP Whip John Thune.
Under normal circumstances, this may not seem especially notable. Does it really matter who was in the room as congressional leaders worked to line up security forces for the U.S. Capitol? Does it matter who was alongside Pelosi as she worked the phones to find law enforcement personnel and Guard troops who could be deployed to the Hill?
In this case, it actually matters very much.
Much of the Republican Party decided months ago to try to shift blame from Trump to Pelosi, and to that end, assorted GOP leaders have argued that Pelosi was offered National Guard assistance before Jan. 6, but she rejected it. To date, Republicans have substantiated these allegations with nothing, and since the House speaker’s office doesn’t control the Guard, the claims have long been difficult to take seriously.
But as a Washington Post analysis explained, some top Republicans have also occasionally argued that Pelosi “might have delayed the National Guard even after the unrest began.”
This claim is also baseless. And the Jan. 6 committee on Thursday played new video showing Pelosi and other leading Democrats were indeed quite keen on getting the National Guard in. In multiple scenes, they are shown pushing hard for a response as the Capitol is besieged. At one point, Pelosi makes such a plea while House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) looks on. But back in June, Scalise encouraged Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), after Banks had suggested Pelosi might have delayed the Guard.
It’s worth emphasizing for context that some of Pelosi’s leading GOP detractors have been vague at times about the specific timeline, to the point that it’s difficult to pin them down on exactly what they expected the speaker to do and when.
But the fact remains that for months, far too many Republican leaders have raised public allegations that Pelosi, in the midst of the crisis, was directly responsible for keeping Guard troops away from the Capitol. The latest behind-the-scenes footage suggests those claims aren’t just ridiculous, they’ve been promoted by people who were literally in the room with Pelosi as she worked to get Guard troops to the Capitol.
Yep, the Republicans have actually worked to demonize Nancy Pelosi for decades. I still remember how much my conservative parents hated her, (and my parents passed away years ago). It was/is an irrational hate, stoked by disinformation and the worst kind of propaganda. I’m not saying Pelosi is perfect. Disinformation makes it difficult to confront any errors she makes.
Pelosi is often right, often a good person, often an effective politician. She is the antithesis of sociopathic Trump.
The Justice Department on Friday officially appealed the decision to appoint a special master to review documents retrieved at Mar-a-Lago.
The DOJ has opposed former President Trump’s request for a special master, citing national security interests and arguing that it would hinder its investigation into Trump’s handling of classified records.
[…] This morning, the former president released a deeply odd, 14-page letter to the House select committee, the first sentence of which read, “THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLEN!”
In reality, the election was neither rigged nor stolen — even Trump knows he lost — and his meandering letter did not improve after that unfortunate opening:
“Despite very poor television ratings, the Unselect Committee has perpetuated a Show Trial the likes of which this Country has never seen before. There is no Due Process, no Cross-Examination, no ‘real’ Republican members, and no legitimacy since you do not talk about Election Fraud or not calling up the troops. It is a Witch Hunt of the highest level, a continuation of what has been going on for years.”
As part of the brazenly dishonest letter, [Trump] proceeded to whine about the House select committee failing to explore “the massive size” of the Jan. 6 crowd. (This remains the one element of Jan. 6 that Trump cares about most.) [LOL]
He also made more specific claims about fraud, which have been thoroughly and completely discredited.
At no point, however, did Trump get around to saying whether he’d testify or not.
It’s worth emphasizing that those expecting [Trump] to honor the subpoena are likely to be disappointed. He could begin a lengthy court fight that would take months to fully resolve, but it’s just as likely that Trump and his lawyers will simply try to run out the clock: As we discussed yesterday, the pending summons will expire at the end of the current Congress, which will wrap up in roughly 80 days, and if Americans elect a Republican majority in the House, that will end the matter.
To be sure, this might make him look like something of a coward. The former president has had plenty to say about Jan. 6 and the investigation — in conservative media, at rallies, and online — but given a chance to answer questions under oath, Trump’s too afraid to respond to a legal subpoena? A profile in courage it is not.
Of course, as his lawyers have probably explained to him, it’s better to look like a coward than to show up and deliver incriminating testimony in the midst of multiple investigations.
There is, however, one related angle to keep an eye on: The New York Times reported that Trump has told his aides that he actually wants to testify, “so long as he gets to do so live.”
Whether the select panel would tolerate such a spectacle is unclear, though it seems unlikely.
A Connecticut jury’s imposition of a billion-dollar penalty on Alex Jones will have a “chilling effect on lying,” Tucker Carlson warned.
Choking back tears as he delivered his commentary, the Fox News host said that the jury’s decision “was no more and no less than a direct attack on the lying life style.”
“For those of us who make our living by spreading falsehoods, baseless conspiracy theories, and extremist fever dreams, this is a time to be afraid,” he said. “Very afraid.”
“I think I speak for many Fox viewers when I say I don’t want to live under a tyranny of facts,” he added.
Carlson’s concerns about the impact of the jury’s decision on the mendacity profession found support on Capitol Hill from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“I want to say that the jury was manipulated by mind-control rays beamed down from the Rothschild family’s satellites, but now I can’t afford to,” she said.
Minutes after the congressional committee investigating the January 6th insurrection voted unanimously to subpoena the former President, Donald J. Trump responded by submitting a note from his podiatrist.
The foot specialist, Dr. Harland Dorrinson, indicated in the note that Trump’s chronic bone-spur issues, which had been asymptomatic in recent years, had suddenly “been acting up again.”
“This afternoon, Mr. Trump began experiencing unbearable pain consistent with bone-spur inflammation,” the podiatrist wrote. “For this reason, I cannot in good conscience give him permission to testify.”
The podiatrist’s note did not appear to discourage one committee member, Representative Liz Cheney, who volunteered to hoist Trump onto a luggage trolley and wheel him into the hearing room.
A 15-year-old suspect was taken into custody after a ‘long standoff’ with police in connection with a shooting that killed five people and left two others injured Thursday evening in Raleigh, North Carolina, officials said.
Embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss axed her finance minister and a flagship policy Friday, in a bid to save her job after weeks of market panic stoked by her economic plan. Truss announced at a news conference that she would scrap a planned tax cut, the latest reversal in the face of mounting political and economic pressure.
A federal judge in Texas on Friday extended an order temporarily allowing hundreds of thousands of young immigrants enrolled in a program to work and study in the U.S. without fear of being deported.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen of Houston had ruled last year that the decade-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was unlawful, but allowed it to stay intact as advocates appealed his ruling. In a decision last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to Hanen, saying he should consider whether a new rule issued by the Biden administration impacts his findings.
The administration’s revised version of DACA, aimed at codifying and strengthening the protections, is set to go into effect on Oct. 31.
In his ruling Friday, Hanen said he would maintain what’s been the status quo since his ruling last year: allowing the Department of Homeland Security to grant application renewals for those already in the program but blocking DHS from “granting DACA status for any new applicants.”
At a hearing Friday, Hanen ordered attorneys in the case to provide more information and said he expects additional legal arguments related to the new rule. While he did not not lay out a timetable for the case moving forward, the current protections are expected to remain in place for at least several more months as each side presses their case.
[…] Barring legislative action, DACA’s fate is expected to ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The program narrowly survived a different challenge before the high court in a 5-4 ruling in 2020, but the court now has a larger conservative majority.
The final expected trial of special counsel John Durham’s probe took an unexpected turn Wednesday, with Durham grilling and rebuking his own witness after the witness seemed to bolster the defense of Igor Danchenko, a key Steele dossier source.
LOL
ravensays
Question to Google, How much does a Starlink subscription cost?
$110 per month
In the US, you can get Starlink service beginning at $110 per month with a one-time hardware cost of $599. There are no long-term contracts, data caps or exclusivity requirements. Starlink Business is available for remote and rural businesses across the globe for $500 per month with a one-time hardware cost of $2,500.Sep 25, 2022
What is Starlink? Everything you need to know about Elon …https://www.zdnet.com › … › Networking › Broadband
Something doesn’t add up here.
Starlink is charging $600 a terminal in the USA with $110 for unlimited bandwidth.
He is charging Ukraine $1500 a terminal and an astonishing $4500 a month for the bandwidth.
It is even 9 times more than the remote business price of $500 a month for the bandwidth.
Somewhere in here, Starlink is trying to price gouge Ukraine because they really need something like Starlink.
It is just a satellite internet service anyway. I don’t know how it differs from something like Hughsnet that sends me advertising every few months.
Unnamed group inside Iran published charter of “women, life, freedom” movement.
1- Our goal is to establish the “Republic of Iran”. The secular state does not interfere in any kind of religiosity (including beliefs and rituals); foreign policy based on national interest.
2- Our priority is to protect women’s rights. Legal equality and facilitation of women’s social roles are the main goals of rewriting laws and regulations.
3- Our red line is the country’s territorial integrity. The governance of each village, neighborhood, city, and province is the responsibility of the residents of that region; Protection of natural and cultural heritage of Iran is a national duty.
4- Our method is a peaceful transition with perseverance in this direction. The right of legitimate defense against violent repression is reserved.
5- We believe that majority rule is through free elections.
The majority cannot violate the fundamental rights of the minority; The constitution will include freedom of assembly and association, prohibition of govt censorship, protection of privacy, and human rights.
6- Our goal is to provide equal opportunities, civil liberties, and welfare needs for all citizens. Iran is common property of all Iranians regardless of gender, language, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and class; Govt obliged to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
7- Our proposal to form a transitional govt by a representative who defends “daughters of the revolution” with the presence of factions that adhere to these principles. Agenda of government is a general amnesty, to a fact-finding commission to answer for the victims…
…to integrate the IRGC into the professional army (the abolition of conscription), to resolve the nuclear case, and to address the economic situation.
8- Our attitude is to welcome everyone with open arms, including those affiliated with the current regime and the previous regime.
We are publishing this manifesto for discussion and as an ally to “women, life, freedom.”
I am told that this manifesto was assembled by a group of political activists and intellectuals in Tehran that includes both women and men. They want as wide as distribution as possible as well as discussion and input
whheydtsays
Report on the BBC quoting a Ukrainian colonel saying that the Russians are now using T-62 tanks that were manufactured in the 1960s.
“During live state TV broadcast of pro-regime rally today in Tehran religious singer Mahmoud Karimi says he’s in favor of optional hijab, and receives wild applause from crowd. TV quickly cuts away. ‘So…’, the host says…”
Video at the (Twitter) link. At a pro-regime rally!
There’s a need to be filled, and churches are not meeting it, but blaming atheism is futile. If people would rather have nothing at all than what you’re offering, it’s time to reconsider your message.
This guy: “Elon is following @rogerwaters lead and turning to a pro-Assad Canadian blogger, who moved to Russia to produce propaganda for the Kremlin, to feel like a hero who is being targeted by imaginary Ukrainian assassins….”
Perhaps thousands of Ukrainian civilians who disappeared from occupied areas may be imprisoned in Russia
Nils Adler LA Times Fri, October 14, 2022 at 2:00 AM·6 min read Edited for length
When Olga Shcherba learned that her husband might be in Russian captivity, she was relieved.
It was a strange feeling. But it was better than the alternative.
Bohdan Shcherba, a 31-year-old industrial worker from outside Kyiv, had gone missing two days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Though devastating, word that he had been sighted in a detention camp in western Russia meant he might still be alive.
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of Ukrainian civilians who disappeared in Russian-occupied areas are imprisoned in Russia, human rights groups say. By formal and informal channels, relatives are gleaning what information they can about their fate — and desperately trying to negotiate their release.
Some of these civilians are being held because their captors think they have information that would help the occupiers, or because they are suspected of ties to the Ukrainian military, or because they could prove useful as hostages, according to groups trying to secure their freedom. Rights organizations and Ukrainian officials say the Russian tactic of forcibly “disappearing” Ukrainians in occupied areas also serves a cynical military end: terrorizing and demoralizing the captives’ compatriots and relatives.
In addition to her husband, Shcherba is also trying to bring home her brother, Ramiz Musaev, 24, and a friend, Roman Kissel, 30. The three men disappeared Feb. 26 near the Kyiv suburb of Bucha — which was to become notorious for gruesome torture and killings of civilians during a monthlong Russian occupation.
“I felt better, because I realized I had hope,” she said. “They were alive at least, and that meant they could potentially be rescued.”
Like their three dozen fellow prisoners, the men were weak and emaciated, sharing a single person’s share of rations among them, the soldier recounted. Their quarters were cramped and squalid, and captives were routinely beaten.
Then, in September, a flare of hope: Another letter arrived, this one from Shcherba’s brother. It was written in Ukrainian and seemed authentic. He avoided any mention of mistreatment, writing that the three men were doing all right, and that they loved and missed everyone.
That number of thousands of civilians in the Russian Gulag is likely to be a huge underestimate.
The number of Ukrainians deported or refugees in Russia are reported variously as 1.6 million to 2. 8 million.
What happened to almost all of them is unknown.
Disappearances don’t just happen.
This is an old terrorist tactic.
The whole point is in the disappearance and you never know what happened to them.
That happened to my friend’s father after the war in Poland.
One day the Russian soldiers came and took his father (a German from Konigsberg) away and they never saw him again.
In this latest intercepted call, the Russian soldier in Kherson shares his concerns about the fact that even Australia supplies weapons to Ukraine, as he did not believe it had any.
@123: Australia doesn’t need weapons, they have wildlife. They are shipping an assortment of snakes, spiders and jellyfish to eastern Ukraine.
If jokes are not your thing, research where “Metal Storm” was invented.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Report on the BBC quoting a Ukrainian colonel saying that the Russians are now using T-62 tanks that were manufactured in the 1960s.
T-62 tanks, a little newer than the US M-60, have, been updated through various upgrades of electronics, engines and suspension (generally by end users). As of 2018, some 1400 (mostly upgraded) T-62s were still in service around the world. Many nations are still actively upgrading T-62s — Egypt is in the progress of updating their mid-1970s production armour with Egypt-made 120mm main gun and a license-built 890hp engine. So, yes, they entered production in 1961. That does not mean that they are useless on a modern battlefield.
US M60s, last updated by the US Army in a project that ended in 1989, were updated to the M60A3. It didn’t end there. Italy’s Leonardo is a fully modernized M60 update that began production in 2017.
Ukraine was updating T-62s at their Kharkiv-Morozov plant into the T-62AG (updated modular applique armour, a getter main gun, and an uprated engine) and the T-62AGM (with a 120- or 125-mm main gun, a 1,000hp powerplant, and AT-11 ATGM secondary armament). Even the US M1 Abrams has been so thoroughly uprated that the only thing still left from the original early 1980s production is the actual hull and turret — everything else has been replaced: gun, electronics, suspension, transmission, engine, optics, ECM, etc. This is normal.
I suspect, though, that, although Russia used some T-62s (uprated) at the beginning of the invasion near Melitopol, these were some of the 191 T-62s still active in the Russian Army as of 2018. The newest reports of T-62s in use by the Russian Army appears to be some of the 700 or so that were not sent to Syria (2011-2018) or scrapped by Russia (2013). The ones in mothballs had been upgraded to the T-62M standard (laser rangefinder, better optics, dual munition 115mm gun (both conventional and ATGM rounds), with composite add-on armour) which brought the capabilities of the T-62M up close to the T-64 and T-72. The main reason the Russian Army sold off and scrapped so many is that they were/are severe maintenance hogs. You need a highly trained crew, good mechanics, and good electronic experts to keep them up and fighting.
So, yeah, the Russians are using tanks older than me. There is a good reason. Tanks are expensive (that is why the US keeps recycling the hulls of M1s). The Soviets could not afford very many T-72s or T-80s. Nor could the Russian Army. And the T-14 Armata, a tank with no crew in the turret (they are all in a capsule in the hull), excellent armour protection (the equivalent of almost 36 inches of RHS (Rolled Homogenous Steel), 125mm main gun, and a top speed of around 50mph, looked to be a world beater. The plan was to build over 2000 of them. Budget constraints, however, reduced the production run to 100 experimental models. With lots of experiments built in. I have not seen evidence of the Armata being used in the Ukraine invasion (however, my ‘sources’ are not nearly as good as they used to be (even MIs retire)).
Between the difficulty of obtaining modern electronics from outside sources for new and upgraded old armour and the severe lack of training in the Russian Army (I’ve written about that before — last infinite, thread, couple of pages back), the T-62M is probably the best bet for the draftees in the Russian Army. Even with the Russian upgrades, they are simple enough for someone with a sixth-grade (US) education to operate and fight. But, again, they are maintenance hogs and Russia has never had a large group of good mechanics — army or civilian — who can diagnose and fix the problem (fix? yes, diagnose? meh).
Given the choice, though, I’d rather be in an upgraded M60A3 than a T-62M any day of the week. Well, I probably would not even fit in the T-62 — I’m too tall and too wide.
Re: Oggie: Mathom @ #126…
Given the apparent service life of Russian armor in combat in the Ukraine, somehow I don’t think maintenance is going to be an issue.
Here’s a bonus Friday night update, mostly because I don’t want to get up early Saturday to write the next one!
Ukrainian forces continue to advance around Svatove, and are now just one small town away from the city’s outskirts. Mark Sumner, who is on vacation, still took the time to update his map. [map at the link]
Ukraine is on the edge of that ridgeline that overlooks Svatove and the roads supplying it. […]
Down in Kherson, the lines haven’t moved much in a while. The Russian puppet mayor of Kherson announced an “evacuation” of the city on Thursday, then Friday said “nevermind,” so not sure what he’s so panicked about. We’re in that place again where Ukraine isn’t saying much, and Russian Telegram isn’t panicked. They need to be properly panicked to tell the truth, otherwise they just invent glorious victories to sustain themselves.
Though it turns out, even that isn’t enough for the Russian authorities. From pro-Russian Telegram:
Nine Russian military correspondents and military correspondent projects at once risk falling under criminal charges for discrediting the [Russian Federation] Armed Forces. These are: Igor Strelkov, Semyon Pegov (WarGonzo), Yuri Podolyaka, Vladlen Tatarsky, Sergey Mardan, Igor Dimitriev, authors of GreyZone, Rybar and, suddenly, Kristina Potupchik. The content in their TG channels is already being analyzed for fakes, defamation, and other prohibited and punishable things.
According to our information, the statement to Roskomnadzor with the requirement to check the work of the above authors was signed personally by the Chief of the General Staff. On the part of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the case is being handled by the head of the department for supervision over the implementation of the law on federal security, terrorism, extremism and interethnic relations. The reason is the criticism of the Ministry of Defense and its decisions during the [Special Military Operation].
How long the check will last is still unknown. But if the corpus delicti is collected, and the guilt is established, the military correspondents will either get off with a fine, or receive up to three years in prison. friendly fire
Rybar has confirmed the news. The inclusion of GreyZone is interesting, as that is the Telegram outlet for Wagner mercenaries. There have been persistent rumors of a rift between Wagner CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin, “Putin’s Chef,” and other Russian elites like Minister of Defense Sergey Shoigu (who somehow still hasn’t been thrown out a window). Throwing GreyZone in a group including other stalwart Russian nationalists would be great cover for any effort to discredit Wagner and Prighozhin.
Want to hear a funny story?
Belgorod is a Russian city just a few kilometers up the road from Kharkiv, which Russia has used as their central logistical hub during their war. So this happened:
Russians shot missiles, then shot them down with their own SAMs and those landed on their railway tracks knocking those out! Talk about three birds in one stone
[Tweet and image at the link]
No joke, Russia somehow managed to destroy its own rail lines. And then, to celebrate this own-goal, they did it again. [Images at the link]
Russia telegram channel:
19:06: loud. Our launches towards Kharkiv
19:10: Our Air defense working
19:23: blackout at Kharkivska Gora district in Belgorod
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
They literally destroyed their own electrical substation! Here’s the moment of arrival: [video at the link]
Alright, alright, critically evaluating the situation, there’s a chance that Ukraine launched that attack. But given the timeline above, I really hope it was a second own-goal in a single day, because that’s a hell of a lot funnier. [Ukraine says they did not launch the attack.]
Let’s check in on how Russia’s draft is coming along.
Dystopian. Draft commissioners wait for males exiting the building. [video at the link]
I wonder why the draft commissioners themselves don’t get on a bus to the front. They appear to be in far better condition than the poor saps getting dragged off instead:
I think Russia’s come up with a cunning plan. They’re conscripting fat and unfit people, who’ll struggle to run away from #Ukraine’s forces. 😊 [video at the link]
The passivity of the Russian psyche blows me away. It’s an entire society built around the notion that life is shit, but that’s okay because you can drown the pain away with vodka.
What’s life like for newly-mobilised Russian troops in their barracks and temporary accomodation? Terrible, from all accounts, with no heating, no food, no sleeping bags, no hot water, no toilets, freezing tents, bedbug-infested mattresses and no training. [image at the link]
No matter how bad or incompetent Russian authorities are, no one protests. Those who could afford it fled, and everyone else just rolls with it. Meanwhile, Russia is doing everything possible to kill some of these guys off before they’re even in Ukraine, where they’ll likely freeze to death in trenches if a Ukrainian shell doesn’t get them first. I mean, look at the photo at the top of this story. It’s obvious that none of these conscripts are properly outfitted for freezing rain and the bitter cold that’s fast approaching.
I’ve often written that the challenge with new weapon systems isn’t training the operators, it’s training the maintenance crew. For example, a Patriot air defense system operator trains for 13 weeks before heading off to their unit (where seasoned NCOs continue their education), while the soldiers who maintain it train for 53 weeks—a full year, or four times as long!
In practice, this is what it looks like in Ukraine: [Tweet and image at the link] Whenever those systems need maintenance, they have to be trucked out of the country, back to Poland, Lithuania, or Romania, where people who know what they’re doing can bring those systems back online. As you can imagine, it’s an incredibly inefficient workaround. Presumably, there are Ukrainian mechanics and maintenance people learning from NATO personnel doing the repairs, but that takes time.
It’s likely the biggest reason the U.S. and allies haven’t outfitted Ukraine with Western battle tanks, and it’s absolutely the reason Ukraine hasn’t gotten Western warplanes.
[…] In 1989, my unit provided MLRS support for a cavalry unit patrolling the Czechoslovakian border. Two days after the Berlin Wall fell, a couple of Army buddies and I snuck into East Germany to take pieces of the border wall, and then went to Berlin to grab our piece of the wall. That’s me with the punk rock hair and leather jacket, on the then-East-West German border grabbing myself a historical souvenir: [images at the link]
Crazy to think neither of those countries exist anymore in that configuration.
As many of you know, my son is making his way through a pre-Ranger program, and will start Ranger school in two weeks. This is a nice mini documentary on one of the first women to graduate from the school, which also offers a pretty good luck at the grueling school: [video at the link]
You won’t be surprised to learn that the incel “Manosphere” has attacked those women, attempting to belittle their accomplishment. They claim “special treatment” that includes the exact same pre-Ranger program that my son is currently attending. So dastardly! Also, they complain that one of the women was about to quit, and some general talked her out of it. You see, male quitters don’t get a pep talk the way the ladies did. Not fair!
But let me offer a bit of extra context for that video: There is an anecdote about Mountain Phase that is quite telling. At some point during that phase, students must hike up a mountain wearing 100-pound rucksacks (no exaggeration), water, and a full squad’s worth of weapons (which includes heavy machine guns). It’s an all-night, all-day ordeal, all uphill, made worse by severe sleep deprivation and starvation. In the video, a guy says he was carrying extra weaponry and couldn’t do it anymore. Look at him: strong guy, looks a good 160-170 lbs. So he asks for help carrying his load, and no one steps forward (“they all looked like deers in headlights”) except for the 150-pound female protagonist, adding even more weight to her load.
Fuck anyone who belittles their accomplishments. Most wouldn’t last the first hour.
cicelysays
Hi, Tethys! Yes, it is I, cicely-wth-a-small-c, Despiser of Peas, Avoider of Horses!
I fell off the world for a bit, but I’m cautiously dipping a toe back in. I hope everybody is doing as well as circumstances allow.
_
I’ve been following this Twitter re the war in Ukraine: https://twitter.com/wartranslated
(later)
Looks like I’m not the only one following Dmitri1
_
Perhaps Australia should send emus…or cassowaries!
_
cicelysays
Crap.
Sorry about the Italics Storm; only the I was supposed to be italicized.
_
StevoRsays
For those who are interested & in Australia; we’re going to be seeing quite a lot of International Space Station fly overs over the next few days starting tonight.
For Adelaide tonight one is happening pretty soon (short notice sorry) at 8 pm for 7 min.
for the best times when and what direction to look are below.
Canberra – Tonight (15 October) – 8:32pm from NW to SE for 6 minutes
Canberra – Sunday (16 October) – 7:44pm from NNW to SE for 7 minutes
Canberra – Tuesday (18 October) – 7:43pm from WNW to SE for 7 minutes
Sydney – Tonight (15 October) – 8:32pm from WNW to SE for 6 minutes
Sydney – Sunday (16 October) – 7:44pm from NW to SE for 7 minutes
Melbourne – Tonight (15 October) – 8:32pm from NNW to ESE for 6 minutes
Melbourne – Monday (17 October) – *:31m from WNW to SE for 7 minutes
Brisbane – Sunday (16 October) – 6:43pm from WNW to SSE for 6 minutes
Hobart – Tonight (15 October) – 8:33pm from NNW to E for 5 minutes
Hobart – Sunday (16 October) – 9:21pm from WNW to SE for 5 minutes
Hobart – Monday (17 October) – 8:33pm from NW to ESE for 7 minutes
Adelaide – Tonight (15 October) – 8:00pm from NNW to ESE for 7 minutes
Adelaide – Sunday (16 October) – 8:49pm from WNW to SSE for 6 minutes
Adelaide – Monday (17 October) – 8:00pm from WNW to SE for 7 minutes
Perth – Tonight (15 October) – 7:02pm from NNW to SE for 7 minutes
Perth – Monday (17 October) – 7:02pm from WNW to SSE for 7 minutes
Darwin – Sunday (16 October) – 4:51am from SE to NE for 4 minutes
Darwin – Monday (17 October) – 5:40am from NW to NNW for 2 minutes
Source : Via Dr Brad Tucker & the Spot the Station site so I gather.
Silentbobsays
@ StevoR
Wishing you clear skies. I’ve never seen it myself, I’ll try. Thanks for the heads up.
Silentbobsays
@ ^
Do you know if there’s a site where you can see the path wrt constellations and so on?
Oggie: Mathomsays
whheydt:
Given the apparent service life of Russian armor in combat in the Ukraine, somehow I don’t think maintenance is going to be an issue.
Historically, there is a direct connection between vehicle maintenance and vehicle survival. There is also a direct connection between crew training and vehicle survival.
The Russian Army, in The Winter War, the Polish invasion, The Great Patriotic War, and the Afghan War, suffered from a disconnect when it came to crew training and vehicle maintenance.
StevoRsays
PS. For those who might be wondering who is currently aboard our biggest “brick moon” so far see :
I’ve seen enough.
Musk isn’t dumb but he does a lot of dumb things and has a toxic personality.
.1. The reason is he price gouging the US Pentagon and Ukraine for his Starlink system is that SpaceX is losing money at $20 million a month.
.2. “Most users in Ukraine are subscribed to a tariff of $60/month.” That is true in Europe as well. The US monthly charge is $110.
He is trying to charge all of Ukraine $4500 for the monthly bandwidth fee.
.3. Starlink is just a satellite com service.
“Politico reports that the Pentagon is speaking to other satellite communications companies…”
.4. There are other satcom companies.
I get advertisements for DISH and Hughsnet in my mailbox every few months.
.5. The US government and the Pentagon are one of SpaceX’s main supporters and customers. He has clearly made them angry at him which isn’t very bright.
” But we know there are other companies, not just SpaceX, that we can certainly work with when it comes to providing Ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield” said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.
Says it all.
mil.in.ua.com
15 October, 2022 The Pentagon is working on preserving Starlink communications system in Ukraine
The Pentagon said to be looking for the possibility of further operation of the Starlink communications system in Ukraine.
This is stated on the website of the Pentagon.
At the same time, representatives of the U.S. Department of Defense are hinting that they are ready to cooperate with other companies that provide satellite communications.
This happens after Elon Musk’s SpaceX asked the US Department of Defense to take over funding the Starlink services. They assured that with or without Elon Musk, there will still be satellite communication in Ukraine.
“We [the US Department of Defense – Ed.] certainly recognize the advantages that any satcom [satellite communications] capability has that allows the Ukrainians to use not just on the battlefield, but within the country itself.
We understand the fragility in those communications, and it’s important that not just command and control may remain intact on the battlefield but throughout [the country]. We’re assessing our options and trying to do what we can to help keep these, these satcoms remain for the Ukrainian forces. I’m not going to reveal right now what it is or who we’re talking to. But we know there are other companies, not just SpaceX, that we can certainly work with when it comes to providing Ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield” said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.
SpaceX claims their services will cost $124 million and $400 million in 2023 by the end of 2022. The company claims to have spent nearly $100 million of its own funds.
In the documents reviewed by CNN, there is information that 85% of the 20,000 terminals currently operating in Ukraine were paid by the United States, Great Britain and Poland. They also paid about 30% of subscription traffic.
Most users in Ukraine are subscribed to a tariff of $60/month. SpaceX instead claims to give everyone access at a tariff level of $4,500/month. Therefore, the company believes that payment for traffic is only 1.3% of the amount for actually provided services.
Politico reports that the Pentagon is speaking to other satellite communications companies following a report that SpaceX can no longer financially support Starlink terminals in Ukraine, which the country has said is critical for battlefield communications.
SpaceX turned to the Pentagon after receiving a new request from Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. He said that now 4,000 terminals are operating at the same time for defense needs. However, about 500 devices are lost every month in battles. The Ukrainian general asked Elon Musk for another 8,000 terminals.
It is noteworthy that after this correspondence, the founder of SpaceX on October 3 announced his scandalous “peace plan” for Ukraine, which essentially provides for the legitimization of the loss of 5 Ukrainian regions and the neutral status of Ukraine.
ravensays
Here it is, the daily Russian threat to nuke my cat and myself.
They were late and had me worried for a while.
I thought maybe it is Saturday and the Russians were taking the weekend off.
They announced at the UN that they are transferring nuclear capable cruise missiles launched from planes to Belarus.
Which really makes no sense.
The Iskander missile has a range of 500 km which means that transferring them to Belarus doesn’t get them much.
It just makes Belarus move up in the list of targets for Ukraine and the West in case something goes drastically wrong.
mil.in.ua.com Belarus are preparing to carry nuclear weapons
Russia is re-equipping some Belarusian Su-25 jet aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.
This was stated by the deputy head of the Russian delegation at the meeting of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee, Konstantin Vorontsov, as reported by the media of the aggressor country.
According to the Russians, their actions are justified by the “possible advancement of NATO’s nuclear infrastructure to the east.”
“At this stage, this regards to the transfer to the Republic of Belarus of the Iskander-M systems with dual equipment with missiles in conventional equipment, as well as providing some of the Belarusian Su-25 jet aircraft with the technical ability to carry nuclear weapons.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The Kyiv Independent is reporting that Ukrainian troops have launched an offensive in Kherson Oblast, although this has not yet been confirmed by the Ukrainian government.
A missile strike has seriously damaged a key energy facility in Ukraine’s capital region as the Russian military strove to cut water and electricity in populated areas, the country’s power system operator said Saturday, as reported by Associated Press.
Andrew Roth, Moscow correspondent, has covered the return of the first coffins of Russian conscripts who had died in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country.
“Andrei Nikiforov, a lawyer from St Petersburg, was one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians mobilised since last month to hold the frontlines in his country’s faltering war in Ukraine.
On 25 September he received his call-up papers. By 7 October, just two weeks later, he was dead.
“We don’t know what happened,” said Alexander Zelensky, the head of the Nevsky Collegium of Lawyers, of which Nikiforov was a member. Zelensky and a member of Nikiforov’s family confirmed his call-up and death. “All we have is a date and a place.”
That place was Lysychansk, one of the most dangerous spots near the frontlines.
The first coffins are now returning to Russia from Ukraine, bringing the remains of ordinary Russians who at first were promised a quick “special military operation” and now have been drafted to go and fight in a war. Their deaths may mark another inflection point for Russia in this conflict, where mismanagement has led to Kremlin infighting and at least half a million men have been drafted or fled their homes to avoid it.”
Nearly eight months into Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, citizens in core western alliance countries show little appetite for the kind of concessions to Russia that might form part of an eventual agreement to end the fighting [?], according to a major survey.
Endemic corruption hampering Russian military progress, says UK MoD
Many Russian reservists called up to fight in Ukraine are probably having to buy their own body armour – and its prices have soared, the latest British intelligence briefing says.
The UK Ministry of Defence also said in its daily update that “endemic corruption and poor logistics” remained a cause of Russia’s “poor performance” in Ukraine.
The ministry said the average amount of personal equipment Russia was providing to its mobilised reservists was “almost certainly lower than the already poor provision of previously deployed troops”.
It tweeted:
Many reservists are likely required to purchase their own body armour, especially the modern 6B45 vest, which is meant to be on general issue to combat units as part of the Ratnik personal equipment programme.
The ministry said the vest had been selling on Russian online shopping sites for 40,000 roubles (about US$640 or £570), up from about 12,000 roubles in April.
It said that in 2020 Russian authorities announced that 300,000 sets of the Ratnik armour had been supplied to its military – “ample to equip the force currently deployed in Ukraine”.
Before Sen. Ralph Warnock and Herschel Walker walked onto the debate stage Friday night, supporters for both men raged outside of the venue in Savannah, Georgia, holding signs and chanting loudly.
While Sen. Warnock’s supporters were primarily Black, with chants that were heartfelt and deeply soulful, fans of the Republican nominee Herschel Walker were primarily white, and their cheers were sad and sort of out of rhythm. In many ways, the supporters mimicked the candidates.
Walker, who has the endorsement of Donald Trump, toed the GOP company line at the debate. He blustered against Warnock with the all too familiar rhetoric of high taxes, open borders, inflation, and Christian values […] bashing transgender athletes. His opening statement ended with “I’m gonna fix it,” something only someone with zero understanding of governing would say.
Warnock spoke about growing up as one of 12 children in a housing project just a mile from the debate stage, and talked about policies that offered equality for all on issues such as health care, student loan debt, a price cap on insulin, and an American’s right to choose their reproductive health. There is no doubt these two men could not be more different.
Walker was on the attack out of the gate. He wanted to prove that he could, in fact, string some sentences together and was fit to lead the state. When asked about government cuts to inflation, he went down a winding path about the country needing to be “energy independent” because “we’re getting our gas from enemies who don’t like us.”
Warnock countered with his record of helping to pass “the single largest tax cut” for middle-class families. He was talking about the Child Tax Credit within the American Rescue Plan. Under the plan, “families will receive tax credits up to $3,000 for each child between the ages of six and 17 and up to $3,600 for children under the age of six,” according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. Warnock also played a part in passing the Inflation Reduction Act.
When asked about Georgia’s voting laws, specifically SB 202, Walker said it “made it easier to vote and harder to cheat.” Let’s unpack that.
One of the most significant reasons Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is encouraging Georgians to vote early is that Republicans are doing everything they can to disrupt this election and stop Democrats from being able to vote.
This year, Republicans have attempted to purge thousands upon thousands of voter registrations, all in the name of alleged voter fraud. They’re using SB 202, a bill signed into law by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after the loss of Donald Trump in 2020, to “police Georgia’s voter list,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s (AJC) Mark Niesse writes.
Nsé Ufot, chief executive of the New Georgia Project Action Fund, told The Guardian, “There’s no doubt that the senate bill 202 push, much like the January 6 insurrection, was a response to the sort of multiracial rising American electorate. Full stop … I see a straight line between those two dots. No curve.”
When Walker was asked about whether or not he believed Biden won the election in 2020. He admitted that he had. Finally.
But that’s not what he said during a Fox News interview in December 2020. “I can guarantee you, Joe Biden didn’t get 50 million people to vote for him, but yet, people think that he’s won this election.”
In the debate, Walker added, “President Trump is my friend.” [LOL]
In one heated exchange on the topic of abortion, Walker defended allegations reported by The Daily Beast that he paid a former girlfriend to have an abortion. Walker called the story “a flat-out lie.”
But, when it comes to a total ban on abortion, which he’s said he supported, Walker back peddled and said he supported the “heartbeat bill,” which has exceptions for rape and incest because he supported the bill voted on by Georgians. Warnock has said repeatedly and said so during the debate that he is pro-choice. “I trust women more than I trust politicians,” Warnock said.
Walker continued to challenge Warnock on his Christian values and on the depth of his faith.
Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, ended that segment of the debate with: “I think he wants to arrogate to politicians more power than God has.”
When asked about student loan forgiveness, Walker said he was opposed to it because not everyone wants to go to college. “Maybe they go into the military and lost an arm.” […]
On putting a federal minimum wage into place, Walker opposed it, while Warnock advocated for a “livable wage” for all.
Warnock refused to dip his toes in Walker’s mess, and took an overall calm tone. Except when challenged on whether or not he supported law enforcement. That’s when things got Walker-weird.
Warnock responded with, “We will see time and time again, as we have already seen, that my opponent has a problem with the truth,” Warnock said. “And just because he says something doesn’t mean it’s true.” Adding, “one thing I’ve never done is pretended to be a police officer, and I’ve never threatened a shootout with the police.”
Then, out of nowhere, Walker pulled out what appeared to be a fake sheriff’s badge, saying, “I’ve worked with many police officers.” A move that was against the rules of the debate. When the moderated told him no props were allowed, he claimed it “was real.” [OMFG. Halloween]
Walker has claimed time and again to have been in the FBI and even once to have worked with the Cobb County, Georgia, police department.
[…] lie upon lie about everything from his graduating from the University of Georgia, as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; to hiding the fact that he had any children other than his 22-year-old son Christian; to the mammoth exaggerations about his business acumen; to the tall tale about the time he founded (or co-founded) the veterans’ organization Patriot Support—which he did not. He recently tried to deny that Donald Trump ever said the 2020 election was stolen, and lies about his companies’ alleged charitable donations, nearly none of which were able to be verified by The Washington Post. Walker even tried to tie himself to Indigenous people by claiming that his mother told him that his grandmother was “full-blood Cherokee,” something that has not been verified, and even his mother seemed confused about when asked.
Following the debate, the only one where the candidates will face off before the election, Walker sent in his surrogates to speak with the press.
First up was Ralph Reed, a political strategist in GOP politics for three decades, and the former state party chair. Reed told reporters he was elated by Walker’s performance.
“Herschel did a good job of keeping expectations low,” [LOL] Reed said. And Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter, a Republican state congressman, told the press, “I have not been as proud to have Herschel Walker on my team since he played football for the University of Georgia.”
In the end, Walker’s strategy was to tie Warnock to Biden as a negative thing. But the truth is Biden has achieved so much in just two short years. […] no matter what Walker and the GOP say, you can’t take away the numerous accomplishments. […]
The Atlanta Press Club will host another Senate debate on Monday. Warnock has agreed to attend, along with Chase Oliver, a Libertarian candidate in the race. Walker has not committed, The Washington Post reports.
Instead, Walker has agreed to sit down for a televised town hall hosted by Fox News’s Sean Hannity in Acworth, Ga., north of Atlanta.
Videos of debate segments are available at the link.
On October 12, the German journalist Katrin Eigendorf interviewed the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the ZDF TV channel. When she arrived to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv, he suggested, on the spur of the moment, that they talk in Russian. We [Meduza] have transcribed and translated some highlights of this extended interview, in which Zelensky spoke openly about “iPhone diplomacy,” how Europe should talk to Russia, Putin personally, and handling Russia’s nuclear and energy blackmail.
On Ukraine’s strength
Our main energy source in this war is being right. This means: someone came to us and, for many years, takes away something that is ours — people, territories, peace of mind, and so on. Our strength is in being on the right side. We don’t fight on Russian territory, or any other country’s. This war is happening on Ukrainian territory. The whole world can see this. Yes, some people still keep their eyes shut, they’re still afraid to open them — and to believe what’s happening. {…} But truth is like water — it’ll get though. It’s only a matter of time.
On ‘iPhone diplomacy’
I always thought that truth gets across faster than lies. And faster than diplomacy, if that diplomacy involves some share of deceit. The truth, though, travels the shortest distance to getting, or not getting, a result. […] With the full-scale invasion, I began, quite naturally, to talk to people as I think they deserve to be talked to. I don’t have time to bow, or to wait in line. It’s all just direct communication. […]
How Europe should speak to Russia
[…] Energy threats — that that the whole of Europe will freeze — and nuclear blackmail on Russia’s part, and so forth — this is happening because, for many years, Russia was handed the initiative. Europe curtsied and bowed — but you cannot do that, you have to look them straight in the eye. I’m not saying that the Russians should have been made to bow and scrape. All countries must be equal and look each other in the eye. […]
On talking to Russia
We’re ready to talk to those who want peace. Including the Russian Federation. I was ready to talk to Putin since the first day of my presidency. But they didn’t want to talk — for two years leading up to the invasion. They wanted to show that the don’t have to talk, that they’ll just come and invade. So they began “invading” — and now that they can’t do it, he goes on all the channels, saying I’m ready to talk. But who does he think he is? He has killed people, his soldiers have raped children. He says, no, you made it all up, this cannot be true, Ukrainians did it all themselves. He says all this while dealing a hundred blows to Kyiv.
[…]
With every missile strike, the chances of talks are vanishing, they simply evaporate. To our country today, he is the composite image of a terrorist. What would we talk to him about? This is why, as a country that stands for peace, we say: Yes, we’ll talk with Russia, but via a different person. Someone else will surely show up.
On possible future scenarios
No matter how much {the Russian president} might like it, you cannot remake a society — a different society in another country. He has entered a house that did not belong to him. He made it filthy, he killed and raped in it. All of this is now on his hands.
But I’ll describe to you my forecast. They will strike the Ukrainian gas transport system. They’ve exploded the Nord Stream 1. Next, they’ll explode something else, at home. […]
He is disconnecting us from energy, and terrorizing our people — so that they’d come out into the streets demanding that I pacify Putin, that our army surrender, that we sign our capitulation, or something along those lines. It’s all very primitive.
Within two months, what I told you about the gas is going to happen.
On the future of the world
There’re two possibilities. Either the world will be lorded over by strong countries who will overwhelm all the rest with their threats. This is what will happen if Russia is permitted to win. Then everyone will see that this works — and so, not just Russia, but others can do this, too.
[… T]here can be an opposite kind of scenario — in which everyone on Earth will know that, regardless of what country they live in, they have the same rights and protections as any other person in the world. Ukraine’s example can prove this: regardless of how big Russia is, the world will come to your defense if your rights are violated.
What could be better? I prefer this model of equality and freedom. But the world itself has to decide how to live.
Russia has continued to try to hit Ukrainian’s energy infrastructure but Vladimir Putin’s forces did not appear to have enjoyed any significant success.
One missile seriously damaged a key energy facility in the region around Ukraine’s capital and 10 missiles and four drones hit locations in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia.
There were periodic electricity blackouts in Kyiv but fires set off in Zaporizhzhia and subsequent damage to electricity substations did not appear to affect supply in the city.
Evidence on the ground suggested that a number of the missiles launched at Zaporizhzhia had badly misfired, damaging only cars and smashing the windows of apartment blocks rather than disabling the critical infrastructure.
New documents released under Florida’s sunshine law have revealed more details of the Perla-DeSantis hoodwink operation in San Antonio. DeSantis Public Safety Czar Larry Keefe, the former lawyer for the contractor Florida has already paid $1.5 million for the Vineyard migrant flight, was closely involved in the operation. He directed the “Perla” crew’s operation from Florida. Critically, Keefe made at least one trip to San Antonio to oversee the operation.
That is important because it makes Keefe a potential target of the criminal investigation being conducted by the Bexar County (San Antonio) Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff’s office has said that only those physically in the jurisdiction and participating would be charged.
Indiana Democrats are coming out against a Supreme Court case brought by one of their own municipally owned corporations that risks hobbling critical social safety net programs like Medicaid.
Local activists have been pressuring elected Democrats to use their influence over the Indianapolis-area Health and Hospital Corporation’s (HHC) board for months, hoping that they’ll push the board members to drop the case.
Some members of the clunkily named Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council have already come on board.
“As I’ve learned more, I would like us to get out of this,” Councillor Ali Brown (D) told TPM in a recent interview. “I’ve been educating other councillors.”
[…] The case initially grew from a garden variety dispute over treatment of a nursing home inhabitant, but has since swelled to include the question of whether beneficiaries of spending programs like Medicaid can sue in federal court at all when their rights are violated.
[…] In a Wednesday statement, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett (D), who also appoints a few HHC board members, issued a declaration.
[…] “I call upon the Board of Directors of HHC to instruct HHC leadership to narrow its arguments before the Supreme Court to the well-reasoned position outlined by the Biden administration,” he added.
Activists maintain that a narrowed case is not enough. Bryce Gustafson, an organizer with Indiana’s Citizens Action Coalition, told TPM that they will continue to lobby HHC to drop the case altogether at its Tuesday board meeting.
State Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D), who represents Indianapolis, joined the growing chorus calling for the case to be dropped on Friday.
“The pursuit of HHC of Marion County v. Talevski has the potential to strip millions of vulnerable Americans of critical legal protections when their rights are violated,” he said in a statement. “For that reason, I call on the Health and Hospital Corporation to withdraw their suit. As should any citizen, the poor, elderly and disabled should have the right to protect themselves against negligence and abuse by seeking justice through the state and federal judicial system.”
The ripples have reached the state’s federal representation too, with a member of Indiana’s U.S. House delegation tweeting out a statement Thursday.
“I’m very concerned and disappointed to see a lawsuit filed that could make it harder for low-income patients to exercise their rights if they’re been mistreated,” Rep. André Carson (D-IN) said. “I will be closely monitoring this litigation and also exploring legislation to clarify our Congressional intent to preserve the ability of low-income patients to exercise their legal rights if they’ve been treated badly, particularly if they’ve relied on federal social safety net programs.”
As TPM first reported, the case has even attracted the attention of congressional leadership, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), along with relevant committee chairs from both the House and Senate, pounding the alarm that the case could have “disastrous consequences.”
The Biden administration also intervened, giving the Supreme Court justices an offramp where they can deal with the nursing home part of the question, but not the larger question of beneficiary lawsuits.
Oral arguments in Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County, Indiana v. Talevski are scheduled for November 8.
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, extremist candidates, state legislatures and disgruntled Trump supporters have come together to attack election workers. Among the fruits of their labor are a collection of new laws across the country that impose strict new penalties on election workers — in some cases for minor mistakes, or for carrying out their work in the way they have in past elections.
At least six laws in five states — Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma — create new penalties for election workers, according to a Brennan Center for Justice analysis […]
The penalties for these new rules aren’t light, either: At least half of them threaten election workers with felony convictions.
Two such laws were passed in Arizona […]: H.B. 2237 prohibits same-day voting registration while H.B. 2492 requires that election officials ensure that voters provide “satisfactory evidence of citizenship” to cast their ballot.
Arizona’s laws both threaten Class 6 felonies, which can result in a prison sentence of up to 5 or 6 years. [yikes!]
The laws “criminalize basic human error,” said Tammy Patrick, a senior advisor to the Elections program at the Democracy Fund and a former Arizona elections administrator.
“In some states, if you mail out information that turns out to be incorrect or have a proofing or transcription error, those would then be criminal activities,” she told TPM.
[…] “Election officials, of course, always strive for 100% accuracy and correctness,” Patrick said, “but elections are conducted by people and people can make mistakes.”
The severity of these penalties have already led some election workers to leave their jobs. […]
Iowa’s S.F. 413 shortened the early voting period from 29 days to 20 and closed polls an hour earlier. But it also imposed fines on poll workers of up to $10,000 for making any “technical infractions” that violate the state’s election rules or guidance from the secretary of state, and made it a felony to disregard election guidance from the secretary of state.
[…] The new rules couldn’t have come at a worse time for election workers, as thousands across the country have either been flooded with death threats or manipulated by partisan actors trying to control the process from within.
[…] “There’s an ongoing weaponization of election administration,” Patrick notes. “They’re again trying to pull in this narrative that the 2020 election was illegitimate, and that’s why they have to pass these kinds of laws, to curtail all of the supposed rampant fraud that occurred when in reality there was no rampant fraud.”
[…] “It’s a tough job,” she said. “We want people who are really committed to it to continue.”
Putin expects that ru-military will be fighting to the last for Kherson so that the leader can “save its face”. But they are busy: dividing and taking away the loot, waiting for escape. When looting becomes part of the system, there is no room for discipline and fighting spirit.
ravensays
From blf’s 143.
Zelensky: How Europe should speak to Russia
[…] Energy threats — that that the whole of Europe will freeze — and nuclear blackmail on Russia’s part, and so forth — this is happening because, for many years, Russia was handed the initiative.
Russia’s cheap gas wasn’t really cheap.
It’s price including losing national sovereignty and national security.
Not a good deal.
Russia is clearly at war with the EU right now.
It’s an economic and threats war but nevertheless a form of war.
The EU has 447 million people and a huge economy to Russia’s 145 million people and much smaller economy that is going nowhere.
The EU is far stronger than Russia, they need to act like it, and they are slowly figuring that out.
On possible future scenarios
No matter how much {the Russian president} might like it, you cannot remake a society — a different society in another country.
Actually you can replace one society with another.
It requires a lot of killing and takes decades but it happens eventually.
Russia has been doing it for centuries and it is called Russification which is another word for ethnic cleansing and genocide. They are almost done with it in Belarus. Hardly anyone speaks Belarusian any more and the language is being actively suppressed by the head of Belarus.
We could have won in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Just kill a lot of them, deport a lot of them, make a lot of them refugees, bring in a lot of American and other settlers, repress their culture, language, and religion, and you are done.
That was fortunately far more crimes against humanity than we were willing to inflict on them.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Two addenda to my #126:
Upgrades of the T-72 and T-80 MBTs have been for export. Three quarters of the production, and upgrades, of the T-90 MBT have been for export. Given how poorly Russian Army armour (and rockets, and missiles, and artillery, and anti-aircraft artillery, and command and control facilities, and APCs, and (you get the point), has performed during the Ukraine invasion, what is going to happen to Russia’s weapons export market? That, along with energy, have been large bright spots in Russian foreign exchange.
Second, T-14 Armata (Chariot) production has not been 100. It appears to have been less than 40. The Russians (like the US, Germany, England, France and others) have figured out that upgrading existing tanks to modern standards is far less expensive than developing a whole new tank.
For the first time since 1996, we have a mouse (possibly more) in our house. Trying to live trap it (them). I guess the smell of cats has finally faded from ten years ago.
blfsays
[W]e have a mouse (possibly more) in our house.
Early trick-or-treaters.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Nah. Just coming inside to hide from the cooler weather.
Meanwhile in Russia: An expert proposes flooding countries hostile to the US with weapons, so they can start blowing up American military bases all over the world. He believes this would force the US to negotiate with Russia—meaning it would force the US to stop helping Ukraine.
A foolproof plan. Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. From there:
We should keep in mind that Ukraine is no more than an instrument. I agree that Ukraine is meant for the sole purpose of causing us maximum damage, and provoking chaos in our country like in 1991, the dismemberment of Russia and so on.
The U.S. has no incentive to sit down at the negotiating table. They are totally covered in chocolate…
Elon Musk just tweeted: “The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free”
Will geofencing also be turned off on the front lines where the Ukrainians are launching counteroffensives @elonmusk?
birgerjohanssonsays
The Wehrmact fought well in defeat because the nazis had inherited a good military from the Weimar Republic, and the corruption in other parts of nazi German society did not have time to spread into the military.
Finland had an army who fought extremely well in defeat for a variety of reasons one of them being the strong confidence the soldiers had in their NCOs and the junior officers. They kept fighting against extreme odds.
.
None of these conditions exist in the brutal, hazing- riddled and corruption-riddled Russian military. These are negative traditions that go all the way back to Imperial Russia and grew worse in the Soviet era.
Russian media is reporting an unknown individual/individuals opened fire at Russian soldiers in Belgorod.
According to Russian Telegram channels there are multiple dead and wounded.
More details now emerging: reportedly 22 killed and 16 wounded at the shooting at a Russian military unit in Belgorod. Three perpetrators were involved, two were shot dead at the scene whilst one managed to escape.
A fire has broken out at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, with footage posted online showing flames and smoke billowing from the area.
Gun shots and alarms have been reported as coming from the jail, the primary site for detaining political prisoners.
State media say calm has been restored to the prison, and has blamed “criminal elements” for the blaze.
The fire comes as Iran continues to be rocked by its most intense unrest in decades.
Protests have been taking place across the country once again on Saturday.
…
It is unclear what was the cause of the fire at Evin prison, but there are further reports that special forces have been deployed to the area. Firefighters are at the scene, according to state media.
A witness told Reuters news agency that “families of prisoners have gathered in front of the main door”.
They added: “I can see fire and smoke. Lots of special forces. Ambulances are here too.”
As well as political prisoners, journalists, and many dual and foreign nationals are also imprisoned in Evin.
British-Iranian dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were both held on spying charges, which they denied, before their release earlier this year. They were imprisoned for six and five years respectively.
The prison has long been criticised by Western rights groups. Human Rights Watch has accused authorities at the prison of using threats of torture and of indefinite imprisonment, as well as lengthy interrogations and denial of medical care for detainees.
Oggie: Mathomsays
SC (Salty Current)
I would ask why you don’t get more cats, but I’m sure you have your reasons.
Wife and I have had wonderful cats. Sherman, Oreo, Dust. Dust was a 30-pounder who could stand on his hind legs and rest his chin on the counter. He was also the sweetest, gentlest, cuddlable, loveable cat ever. We don’t want another cat because it wouldn’t be Sherman, Oreo, or Dust, who basically spoiled us (okay, Sherman got weird in his last few years, but one skritch and he purred). Also, we have reached (earlier than planned) retirement — I took a disability retirement, Wife is working on one now. Which means we can travel. We can take off on trips when we want. Simplicity is what we are trying to achieve. Cats are not simple (well, Dust was kind of simple).
We visit Girl’s cats. And she is getting a dog next spring. So our life will get a little more complicated.
So, basically, we are not getting another cat because we are a little selfish. So be it.
This is our position:
👉Belarus must officially withdraw from 🇷🇺 war participation.
👉Every 🇷🇺 soldier must leave Belarus unconditionally.
👉All involved in 🇷🇺 attack from Belarus must be held accountable.
👉Democratic Belarus & 🇺🇦 should build an alliance against 🇷🇺 aggression.
[…] Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the woman who is the rightful president of Belarus after winning the 2020 election that Lukashenko hijacked, told Politico.EU that Lukashenko hasn’t already joined in with Putin because he is not sure his army wouldn’t defect to Ukraine. How weak and pathetic is that? […]
I would add that the United States and its European allies should recognize her as the legitimate president of Belarus and a Belarusian government in exile as the rightful holder of the country’s seat at the UN. Won’t happen, but it should.
What does “counter-terrorist operation” in Belarus mean:
👉KGB & police receive unlimited powers
👉political purges in elites
👉more arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture
👉prohibition of leaving/entering the country
This is primarily a war against the people, not foreign enemyMeanwhile, there is a crackdown going on in Belarus, worse than usual it would seem.
First results of the “counter-terrorist operation” in Belarus
👉 Catholic church in Minsk was shutdown
👉 two female journalists were recognized as terrorists
👉 goalkeeper of the national football team was detained
👉 pop-band that represented Belarus at @Eurovision was jailed
In a rearguard action to prop up the prime minister, her cabinet allies tonight warned MPs they would precipitate an election and ensure the Tories were “finished as a party” if they toppled a second leader in just a few months.
It’s unclear whether that means another Tory leadership election, or a general election. This is certainly highly amusing on one level, but it’s millions of people’s basic financial security they are playing with. Vile as they have long been, the Tories have until now retained a reputation for basic competence in keeping the country running, and in hanging on to power. The first has now evaporated, and the second looks like it could follow at any time.
Oggie: Mathomsays
That was quick. Fifteen minutes and two live traps went off. Both mice have been released into the wild about a mile away. Well, not wild, but out of the neighborhood. Away from our house.
I like the cartoon that shows Trump with the number 45 on his back, while nearby people comment, “Number of criminal/civil investigations.”
There’s also a cartoon of a disheveled Alex Jones holding a sign that says, “Will lie about a mass school shooting for food,” while he begs on the street.
Oggie @ #165, those were the two potential reasons I had thought of. What a sweet tribute to your former cats.
whheydtsays
NBC is reporting that two recent Russian conscripts at a firing range near Belgorod shot and killed 11 Russian soldiers and wounded 15 more before being shot and killed.
I guess this is fragging, Russian style. At that exchange rate, the 200K conscripts could wipe out the entire Russian Army, though it would only take 40K of them to eliminate the “effective” part of the Russian army.
Will Wilkerson, one of Trump Media & Technology Group’s first employees, alleges the company violated securities laws and that Trump pressured executives to hand over their shares to his wife. He shared a cache of internal documents with The Post and federal investigators that he says support his claims.
Will Wilkerson, then an executive at former president Donald Trump’s start-up Trump Media & Technology Group, was at a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., coffee shop with company co-founder Andy Litinsky last October when Trump called Litinsky with a question: Would he give up some of his shares to Trump’s wife, Melania?
Trump Media, the owner of the fledgling social network Truth Social, had just been boosted by a huge merger agreement and a flood of investment that had made the stake worth millions of dollars. Trump had already been given 90 percent of the company’s shares in exchange for the use of his name and some minor involvement, leaving everyone else to split the rest.
Litinsky tried to brush it off, telling Trump “the gift would have meant a huge tax bill he couldn’t pay,” Wilkerson said in an interview. “Trump didn’t care. He said, ‘Do whatever you need to do.’ ”
Five months later, Litinsky, who first met Trump in 2004 as a contestant on the TV show “The Apprentice,” was abruptly removed from the company’s board. Wilkerson said he believes it was payback for his refusal to turn over a small fortune to the former president’s wife. Litinsky thought so, too, according to an email Wilkerson and his attorneys shared with The Washington Post and the Securities and Exchange Commission. In that email, Litinsky complained that Trump was “retaliating against me” by threatening to “ ‘blow up the company’ if his demands are not met.” […] [image at the link]
The email — one of hundreds of previously unreported company messages, documents, photos and audio recordings that Wilkerson has provided to the SEC in connection with a whistleblower submission — reveals a stunning portrait of the animosity that has built up inside Trump Media since its high-profile debut last year.
Promoted as the centerpiece of Trump’s post-presidential business ambitions, the company had marketed itself as a budding media empire, with enterprises planned in social media, video streaming, live events and online payments — a powerful rival not just to Twitter but Disney, Google and Amazon.
But inside the company, Wilkerson said, those plans gave way to bitter infighting, technical failures and a chaotic jockeying for power among Trump allies that undermined its potential and left some employees crying at their desks.
Wilkerson, who was fired from his job Thursday as a senior vice president of operations at the company after he spoke to The Post, filed the whistleblower complaint with the SEC in August. The complaint, drafted by Wilkerson’s attorneys, alleges that the company’s bid to raise money via an investment vehicle known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, relied on “fraudulent misrepresentations … in violation of federal securities laws.”
[…] his attorney, called the termination “patent retaliation against an SEC whistleblower of the worst kind.”
Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC that is pushing to take Trump Media public, has asked shareholders to give the company more time to finalize the merger, which would unlock hundreds of millions of dollars for Trump Media but is effectively frozen pending the outcomes of the federal investigations. […]
The revelations to the SEC from Wilkerson, the most prominent company official to speak publicly about its operations, come at a turbulent time for Trump Media’s business. Investors, discouraged by the halted merger, have sent the SPAC’s share price plunging from a high of $175 to less than $18 on Friday. Roughly 4 million users follow Trump on the company’s sole product, Truth Social — far below his Twitter peak of 88 million. The company has pledged to investors it would surpass 50 million total users by 2024.
In past public statements, Nunes, Orlando and Trump have argued that Trump Media will ultimately prove to be a successful business. But Wilkerson said he expects its internal problems could lead the company to fall apart.
[…] as the company became more legitimate, it also started running into problems. Trump’s umbrella company, the Trump Organization, disputed a long-signed agreement between the start-up and Trump himself, demanding more control over how Trump’s likeness would be used, Wilkerson said. And Trump’s adult sons — Donald Jr. and Eric — began asking for large stakes in the company, Wilkerson said, even though they had been almost entirely uninvolved. […]
“They were coming in and asking for a handout,” Wilkerson said. “They had no bearing in this company … and they were taking equity away from hard-working individuals.”
[…] The log cites daily notes of Moss, Litinsky and Wilkerson strategizing how to handle the Trump family’s growing interest in the business’s rising fortunes; one person advised them, for instance, that Trump Jr. “needs a bedtime story and some love,” an entry shows.
The timeline entries also show the men growing accustomed to dealing with Trump’s sudden reversals and rage. On Sept. 23, 2021, the log records cite Litinsky saying, “President trump calls me in morning to yell at me because don jr is upset.” The next day, “Don jr calls Wes and yells at him.” On Oct. 12, “djt calls in crazy mood and he tries to renegotiate the entire deal … don jr walks in room and wants to get paid.” On Oct. 30: “djt is pissed.”
[…] In March, Wilkerson said, the company underwent a major shake-up. The board of directors, once composed of Trump, Litinsky and Moss, dropped Litinsky and added Nunes, Trump Jr. and a former Nunes aide, Kash Patel. Within days, the company’s chiefs of technology, product development and legal affairs resigned. Wilkerson said he remembers some other employees tearfully processing the sudden upheaval.
“It was such a violent removal of the founders of this thing,” he said. “It was a very jarring experience, and it set this company on a path where it may not be able to be redeemed.”
[…] Trump has also undermined confidence in the deal, saying in a Truth Social post last month that he may just end up skipping out on the SPAC deal and taking the venture private because he’s “really rich.”
“If he takes his bat and his ball and goes home, what value does the company have at that point?” Wilkerson said.
Wilkerson said he hopes that by speaking out he will help protect the company’s shareholders from possible harm. His attorneys said the information he has shared should shield him as a protected whistleblower from company retaliation, and they have questioned the terms of Trump Media’s nondisclosure agreement.
“It is drafted to silence him, to prevent him from talking, and to punish him if he does so,” his attorney Phil Brewster said.
…This is the utter surreal chaos as Evin burns, and regime forces block highways while residents attempt to reach prison and rescue detainees
Scene on the highway to Evin where impromptu protests are erupting.
Scenes of chaos and clashes between security forces in protesters on the outskirts of Evin prison
There is a massive fire at the most infamous prison in Iran. We don’t know what caused it. We don’t know why there are explosions and gunfire. But thousands of people are crammed in there and are very very vulnerable. Politics aside, saving lives must be the priority for everyone
Pro regime media platform claims to fire has been completely put out and there’s nothing going on
Pro regime channel interviews source reportedly inside the prison. He says there was a riot that the security forces put down. He claims the fire is out and that everything is under control and there is nothing going on in the vicinity of the prison either.
Pro regime media outlet claims there was a fight between criminal convicts that caused the fire and that none of the so-called security detainees were involved….
Tethyssays
In Wisconsin the execrable sitting GOP Senator Johnson and his opponent Lt. Gov. Barnes had a debate on Friday. It did not go well for Johnson, he was openly laughed at after imitating tfg and uttering the phrase ‘corrupt FBI agents tried to set me up’.
Frustratingly most news sources I can find are in full faux objective mode that fails to mention that the audience became quite hostile towards Johnson, or his open fascism.
At least this one provides context on the multiple horrendous things done by accessory to attempted coup Johnson, like being duped by Putin and having the FBI come have a chat with him about being an asset to Russia.
This source gives an accurate report of the debate, rather than omitting any mention of Johnson’s record of odious maga crap such as attempting to facilitate massive voter fraud for tfg.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson repeatedly faced laughter and boos from the audience gathered at Marquette University on Thursday for the final debate between the two-term GOP incumbent and Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin’s key U.S. Senate race.
With less than a month to go before the November midterms, Barnes — Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor — took Johnson to task over his opposition to abortion rights, support for cutting Social Security and Medicare, and 2017 vote in favor of former President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular and regressive tax cut for the rich and large corporations.
Elon Musk just tweeted: “The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free”
I just saw this.
This didn’t happen but it should have.
The Pentagon showed Musk an updated fee schedule for using Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg launching facilities to launch SpaceX rockets.
Musk gets a huge amount of tax breaks and other government subsidies for his companies.
I had to look.
It is worse than I thought.
It was 4.9 billion by 2015 in government subsidies so you could probably double it by now.
Business Insider
Elon Musk is speaking out against government subsidies. Here’s a list of the billions of dollars his businesses have received.
Jason Lalljee Dec 15, 2021, 5:30 AM Edited for length
Elon Musk’s companies have received billions in government subsidies over the last two decades.
In 2021, Musk has opposed higher taxes for the rich, and said the government shouldn’t control “capital.”
He recently said he opposes government subsidies. One of his companies accepted them as recently as April.
However, over the years, Musk’s companies — Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and SolarCity — have received billions of dollars from government loans, contracts, tax credits, and subsidies. According to a Los Angeles Times investigation, Musk’s companies had received an estimated $4.9 billion in government support by 2015, and they’ve gotten more since.
SpaceX lands a $2.89 billion contract with NASA in April 2021
SpaceX signs a $653 million contract with the US Air Force in 2020
Nevada provides $1.3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives for a new Tesla “Gigafactory” in 2014
(Plus lots more. It’s a long list but you get the idea.)
ravensays
Did NASA subsidize SpaceX?
One of the largest beneficiaries of these programs was SpaceX, which, in its first decade, operated on a total budget of $1 billion—about half of which came from government contracts from NASA. And just last year, SpaceX won a $2.9 billion NASA contract to build a moon lander.Mar 3, 2022
Why Elon Musk’s SpaceX is a Strategic National Asset | City Journal https://www.city-journal.org › why-elon-musks-spacex-is-
Without the Federal government and NASA, SpaceX probably wouldn’t exist.
ravensays
The numbers of Ukrainians who have been deported, fled, or are refugees in Russia are all over the place. Who knows which ones are right if anyone actually knows.
The US State Department, quoting Russian sources say that 260,000 Ukrainian children have ended up in Russia. Somewhere. No one knows where most of them are except it is often in the most remote places in Russia such as Siberia.
state.gov (USA)
Department Press Briefing – October 14, 2022
VEDANT PATEL, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON
WASHINGTON, D.C.OCTOBER 14, 2022
One other thing: I wanted to offer – on behalf of the department, wanted to offer a sincere thanks to the journalists in this room and around the world who continue to accurately report on Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, especially in talking about the enormous and increasing human costs.
Our EUR Bureau and colleagues across the department, including our Embassy in Kyiv, were especially moved by the AP story yesterday on Russia’s ongoing and deliberate efforts to kidnap children from Ukraine and transfer them to the Russian Federation for adoption.
Russia’s human filtration operations is something that we remain extremely disturbed by and focused on. As the Secretary said in July, “Reports indicate Russian authorities are deliberately separating Ukrainian children from their parents and abducting others from orphanages before putting them up for adoption inside Russia.”
Estimates from a variety of sources, including the Russian Government, indicate that Russian authorities have uprooted 260,000 children from their homes to Russia, often to isolated regions in the Far East.
We, here at the department, thank you all for your dedication in telling these stories and extend our gratitude to those working even from inside Russia to tell these stories.
And with that, I’m happy to take your questions. Matt, if you want to kick us off.
Ukrainian activists are offering USD30,000 for the capture of one of the most prominent Russian terrorists, propagandists, and warmongers Igor Girkin, who was allegedly called up for military service in Russia.
That’s according to Ukrinform.
His wife announced on social networks that Girkin was allegedly going to war, publishing a joint photo showing her husband sporting a military uniform.
Ukraine-based activist Serhii Sternenko reacted to the news on Twitter, noting that he would give $10,000 from his personal savings to whoever would capture Girkin.
Subsequently, Taras Topolya, leader of the Antytila rock band, who is currently defending Ukraine in the ranks of the Armed Forces, responded as well, promising to add another $10,000 to the bounty sum.
Military serviceman and writer Valeriy Markus also decided to contribute $10,000.
Thus, according to Sternenko, the total amount had reached $30,000 He added: “In general, there are many more writing in the comments and replies, so in reality those who capture this war criminal will receive even more money.”
Igor Girkin (Strelkov) is a former FSB officer and ex-“Minister of Defense of the DPR”. He is a suspect in the case of the MH17 downing, who has been put on the international wanted list.
Girkin, aka Strelkov, has repeatedly admitted that he took an active part in the process of the occupation of Crimea by Russia.
Ukrainian law enforcement opened criminal cases against Girkin, having charged him with terrorism, violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, torture and intentional murder, as well as violation of the laws and customs of war.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
More than 30 settlements in Ukraine hit by Russian strikes
More than 30 settlements in Ukraine have been hit by Russian strikes in the last day, according to the Ukrainian military.
The latest update from the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said the strikes had hit civilian areas.
It said particularly targeted had been an area east of capital Kyiv as well as others in the eastern regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia and the southern regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson.
“Violating the norms of international humanitarian law… [Russia] strikes critical infrastructure and the homes of the civilian populations,” it said.
It added that Russia also continued to shell the position of Ukrainian troops “along the entire contact line”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the situation in eastern Ukraine is “the most difficult” near the town of Bakhmut, a few days after pro-Russian forces announced they were moving closer to the city.
Russia ‘probably unable to replenish missile stocks’, says UK intelligence
Russian is “probably incapable of producing advanced munitions at the rate they are being expended”, according to the latest update from the UK ministry of defence.
The ministry said attacks like those launched across Ukraine on Monday, in which Russia fired some 80 cruise missiles, represent a “further degradation of Russia’s long-range missile stocks, which is likely to constrain their ability to strike the volume of targets they desire in future”.
Russia continues ‘massive, forced deportations’, says think tank
Russia continues to conduct “massive, forced deportations” of Ukrainians that “likely amount to a deliberate ethnic cleansing campaign”, according to a US-based think tank.
In its latest assessment of the conflict, the Institute for the Study of War notes that Russian officials have “openly admitted to placing children from occupied areas of Ukraine up for adoption with Russian families”.
It adds: “Russian authorities may additionally be engaged in a wider campaign of ethnic cleansing by depopulating Ukrainian territory through deportations and repopulating Ukrainian cities with imported Russian citizens.”
For years, and especially since the invasion of 24 February, Russian state media has been calling to wipe Ukraine off the map, for killing Ukrainians en masse, and dehumanising its people, smearing them as “Nazis” who need to be “denazified”.
As the cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression and genocide pile up against the Russian leadership and military, is there a way to hold members of the propaganda machine accountable as well?
Are they protected by freedom of speech or is their role qualitatively different: not mere trumpeters of abhorrent opinion but facilitators of crimes?
Meanwhile in Russia: Andrey Gurulyov, former deputy commander of Russia’s southern military district, complains about problems with alcoholics being mobilized, discusses the Kherson offensive and claims that Ukrainians are advancing solely to help the Democrats in the midterms.
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
A point in favor of further attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure:
If the sewers are stopped up for a week, epidemics will start, dysentery and other nasty stuff.
WANTED: Igor “Strelkov” Girkin, the Russian former FSB officer who infamously boasted about firing the first shot and sparking the war in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Reports suggest he’s back on the front in the south. Ukraine is offering a $100,000 reward for his capture.
AFP: “#UPDATE The fire that broke out in Iran’s Evin prison in Tehran overnight killed four inmates and left 61 others injured, the judicial authority said on its website Sunday.”
“Belgorod in Russia today, which is gradually turning into a frontline city in this war. Reports that the airport has been heavily damaged in strikes this morning.”
According to the Ukrainian Deputy of Defense, the ratio of losses is 1 to 6.5, Ukrainian to Russian.
This is believable but he would say that anyway. I wouldn’t take it too seriously, although I’m sure the Russians are taking heavy losses.
I have no idea how they determine that at a ratio of 1 to 8 the Russian army will collapse. This looks like something someone just made up.
I’ve read that during the heavy fighting, the ratio of Ukrainian to Russian casualties is more like 1:2.
The fighting here is something no one has seen in about forever. Close quarter combat with trenches and small arms such as rifles and grenade launchers.
censor.net Painter on the ratio of losses of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to the army of the Russian Federation: Currently, it is approximately 1 to 6.5. The critical limit is 1 to 8
News Censor.NET War in Ukraine 10/16/2022
The ratio of losses of Ukrainian defenders and Russian occupiers in the South is currently about 1 to 6.5.
Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Malyar announced this on Facebook , Censor.NET informs.
“I witnessed how the Commander of OC “South” Major General Andriy Kovalchuk inspires the military to fight the enemy. I will not be able to publish all the words and tasks here, but believe me – it is powerful,” she said.
According to Painter, he also told interesting facts about the demoralization of enemy units in the South and about the increasing losses of the enemy.
“The casualty ratio is approximately 1 to 6.5. According to him, the critical limit of the casualty ratio is 1 to 8, after which the enemy’s army will psychologically “fall”. According to the commander, the enemy is already in a rather difficult situation in the South, but it is not time to relax On the contrary, we need to gather all our strength and power and squeeze the Russian army out of our land,” Malyar added. Джерело: https://censor.net/ua/n3374106
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 178
And yet Johnson is still leading. Too many racist dirt farmers and suburban white flight refugees in this shithole state.
The scandal that erupted in August over former President Trump taking, secreting, and refusing to hand Presidential and classified records back to the government was based in a dispute that had been ongoing since he left office.
Nineteen months of discussions with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and Trump officials escalated into a federal criminal investigation, as Trump and those around him blew off requests from the government to return its documents.
Along the way, people in Trump’s orbit floated excuses for why the records actually belonged to Trump and, in some cases, became involved in discussions with NARA themselves. Below is a timeline of events in the scandal from when Trump left office until the FBI’s raid in August.
Jan. 19, 2021 [2021!]
Trump names seven people as his National Archives designate representatives. These people typically have significantly greater access to records than the general public. They are called on to provide input on records on behalf of the former President, and themselves have unfettered access to the materials. Trump names Mark Meadows and members of his White House counsel’s office.
Jan. 20, 2021
Trump leaves office. By law, all records from his administration need to be handed over to the National Archives.
May 2021
National Archives attorney Gary Stern contacts Trump attorneys Patrick Philbin, Mike Purpura, and Alex Cannon, asking about missing documents that should have been turned over to the archives as Trump left office. Stern mentions that correspondence between Trump and Kim Jong-Un is among the records that have not been returned
December 2021
Trump advisors first tell NARA that they have identified specific records that are being held in Mar-a-Lago.
Jan. 31, 2022
The National Archives says that it’s received records that were “torn up by former President Trump,” and that while records management officials had taped up some of the materials, others had not been reconstructed.
Feb. 7, 2022
NARA says that it retrieved 15 boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago in mid-January 2022. The records included classified material. “NARA pursues the return of records whenever we learn that records have been improperly removed or have not been appropriately transferred to official accounts,” the agency said in a statement.
Feb. 9, 2022
Multiple outlets report that NARA found classified records in the 15 boxes of materials that Trump returned to the government, and that the agency referred the matter to the Justice Department for investigation. House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) asks NARA in a letter about the 15 boxes and about whether it had made a criminal referral to the DOJ.
Feb. 18, 2022
The National Archives confirms in a letter to the House Oversight Committee that it found classified records in the 15 boxes it retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, and that it’s working to determine whether more materials remain at Trump’s beach estate. The agency also confirmed that it had communicated the matter to the DOJ.
Feb. 24, 2022
The House Oversight Committee asks NARA to describe and catalog the 15 boxes of records that Trump returned to the government in January.
March 28, 2022
NARA declines to provide Congress with information about what was taken. It cites “consultation” with the Justice Department regarding the matter.
April 2022
Trump aides at Mar-a-Lago begin to receive interview requests from FBI agents regarding records held at Mar-a-Lago, per several subsequent news reports.
[…] May 1, 2011
Trump asks for another delay in granting the FBI access to the NARA records.
May 5, 2022
Kash Patel, the former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Trump DoD staffer, floats for the first time to Breitbart the excuse that Trump had already declassified federal records held at Mar-a-Lago, claiming that the markings on the documents had not been updated to note the declassification.
May 10, 2022
NARA sends a letter to Trump attorney Evan Corcoran saying that it will immediately allow the FBI to access materials from the 15 boxes of government records that Trump handed over.
May 11, 2022
The DOJ obtains a grand jury subpoena for classified records held at Mar-a-Lago. The subpoena is issued to the custodian of records for Trump’s personal office.
May 12, 2022
A federal grand jury, the New York Times reports, issues subpoenas to the National Archives for the 15 boxes of records that it retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January.
May 2022
Trump reportedly tells staff to move boxes of government documents to his residence at Mar-a-Lago after receiving the subpoena.
May 16, 2022
The FBI starts to review materials from the 15 boxes retrieved by NARA, per a government affidavit. This includes highly classified records. […]
We still don’t know the extent of a new Ukrainian offensive down in Kherson oblast in southern Ukraine. While Russian Telegram sources and at least one Ukrainian artilleryman on Twitter (quickly deleted, because OpSec) have reported mass artillery barrages, there has been no conformation of on-the-ground movements.
NASA FIRMS data, which tracks forest fires and burning military equipment, shows action happening south of the front-line city of Mylove. [map at the link]
In this map you can see that this would place fighting well below the previously recognized front lines. [map at the link]
That MyLove cluster of fires is in a dirt road intersection that loops around the edge of that estuary-reservoir-river-whatever-it-is. There are no structures of any kind there. Whatever is burning there, it’s someone’s equipment. And it’s big.
FIRMS fires around Sukhanove also suggest Ukraine is putting pressure across a wider front than just Mylove itself. Last time we closely tracked FIRMS, it was Russia pushing the lines into Ukrainian-held territory. It’s nice seeing the situation reverse.
We’ve been tracking the disaster that is Russia’s mobilization efforts. Well, things have taken a particularly dark turn at one mobilization site: [See SC’s comment 162] The casualties (and perpetuators) are said to be recently mobilized.
Once upon a time, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin struck fear in the heart of his neighbors, and he loved to exert dominance by being always late to meetings. Nowadays, he gets regularly stood up and lectured by his neighbors. The latest was particularly direct and humiliating, from Tajikistan dictator Emomali Rahmon (who was late to a meeting with Putin at a different gathering last month).
Tajikistan’s president demands respect from Russian President Vladimir Putin in a remarkable outburst at Central Asia-Russia summit in Astana [video at the link]
Rahmon blames the collapse of the Soviet Union on failure by Moscow to give proper consideration to the interests of the “small republics,” implying that Russia is making the same mistakes all over again
He should keep his distance from windows on high floors for the foreseeable future…
The casualties (and perpetuators) are said to be recently mobilized.
Once upon a time, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin struck fear in the heart of his neighbors, and he loved to exert dominance by being always late to meetings. Nowadays, he gets regularly stood up and lectured by his neighbors. The latest was particularly direct and humiliating, from Tajikistan dictator Emomali Rahmon (who was late to a meeting with Putin at a different gathering last month).
Here’s a loose translation of the remarks in text:
We have 2 million ethnic Russians. Russian language is a required study from kindergarten to university. But we don’t have Russian language text books, we ask, and ask, and ask, and I don’t want to offend you, but you don’t care.
Your businessmen come and rob us of our natural resources, they are not interested in anything but oil, gas that will enrich them. But how about our industry? Our national strategic interests? You don’t care!
I was there when the Soviet Union collapsed, I’ve witnessed it. I know why it has collapsed- it is for the same things you are doing now. It did not support the small nations, did not help them develop economically, preserve culture, traditions. Same as you!
We are not a big nation, we are not a hundred million nation but we have our history, we have our culture and traditions and we love them. We do not want your money, we want to be respected as we deserve.
We host your military bases, we do everything you ask for, we really try to be what you pretend to be to us “strategic partners.” But we are never being treated like strategic partners! No offense, but we want to be respected! (Loose translation/summary)
If only Putin had an army left, he’d show this insolent Rahmon a thing or two! But he doesn’t have an army anymore, which is why the Tajik leader felt emboldened to unload as his fellow Central Asian heads of state watched approvingly. These screencaps really do capture the vibe: [Screen captures available at the link.] There was even finger wagging!
Other than Belarus, which is playing its own rope-a-dope games with Russia, the rest of Russia’s neighbors all agree. Russia is more isolated than ever.
Also, there’s something wrong with Putin’s face. Those cheeks aren’t normal.
Speaking of Belarus, there is still no real sign it plans on entering the war, no matter how much it pretends otherwise. That’s why the country is happy to ship off its decrepit old tanks to Russia. If those tanks are destined for destruction (and they are), best to have Russians inside them. [Tweet and video at the link]
On the other hand, Belarus is still pretending to threaten northern Ukraine with a new joint “regional group.”
The Belarusian Defence Ministry has published a video of the arrival of the first group of Russian troops from the ‘joint regional group of forces’ announced by Lukashenko last week. [video at the link]
This is all for show. If Russia and Belarus were serious about opening up a new front near Kyiv again, they wouldn’t be shipping the armor off to Russia and who knows where in Ukraine (somewhere in the Donbas, presumably).
And remember, Russia’s best VDV airborne troops, with no fortifications north of Kyiv, never reached the Ukrainian capital. Today, Ukraine has heavy fortified the border and approaches, has well-entrenched battle-hardened territorial defense forces manning those lines, and has HIMARS/MLRS. Just imagine what HIMARS would’ve done to that “40-mile column” in the early days of the war. Russia hasn’t solved its logistical issues, and poorly trained mobilized rabble, the same ones complaining about lack of shoes and killing each other in Russia, are going to be even less of a threat than the shit Russia previously sent on that approach.
Police and military officers swooped down on a Moscow business center this past week unannounced. They were looking for men to fight in Ukraine — and they seized nearly every one they saw. Some musicians, rehearsing. A courier there to deliver a parcel. A man from a Moscow service agency, very drunk, in his mid-50s, with a walking disability.
“I have no idea why they took him,” said Alexei, who, like dozens of others in the office complex, was rounded up and taken to the nearest military enlistment office, part of a harsh new phase in the Russian drive.
In cities and towns across Russia, men of fighting age are going into hiding to avoid the officials who are seizing them and sending them to fight in Ukraine.
Police and military press-gangs in recent days have snatched men off the streets and outside Metro stations. They’ve lurked in apartment building lobbies to hand out military summonses. They’ve raided office blocks and hostels. They’ve invaded cafes and restaurants, blocking the exits.
At a predawn sweep on the Mipstroy1 construction company dormitories on Thursday, they took more than 200 men. On Oct. 9, they rounded up dozens at a Moscow shelter for the homeless. [video at the link]
The press-gangs appear to descend at random. It is terrifying — and, at times, comically haphazard. Alexei, a 30-something pacifist, lives with his cat and, until he was hauled off, enjoyed hanging out with friends in bars, cafes and parks, going to concerts and planning his next holiday in Europe. (He and others in this report spoke on the condition that his last name be withheld out of concern for his safety. The Washington Post has confirmed the raid, but could not independently verify the details he provided.)
An official barged into Alexei’s office on Tuesday. Two police officers and several plainclothes military officials arrived and demanded his identification. They ordered him to go with them quietly “or we will use force,” he said.
“I was panicking,” he said. “I’d never been detained before. Everyone knows that if you are detained by the police in Russia, it’s very bad.”
Suffering massive military casualties and repeated defeats in Ukraine, Russia has begun cannibalizing its male population. The hard-eyed pundits on state television are demanding more Ukrainian blood and more sacrifice from Russian men who they say have grown too used to soft living.
But the new phase of Putin’s mobilization risks denting Russians’ tacit support for the war and even his manufactured popularity — and could stir social unrest. Particularly in Moscow and St. Petersburg, major cities that until now have been largely untouched by the war. […]
Well, that sounds like it is going really well.
Tethyssays
@193
And yet Johnson is still leading. Too many racist dirt farmers and suburban white flight refugees in this shithole state
Racism is definitely a problem, but the gerrymandering and the right wing media that is piped in via rural news radio are the reason.
A blast of phone banking is coming towards his district. MN is very much tired of its drunk neighbor, and it’s pig farmer neighbors too.
WI currently is enforcing a total abortion ban from an 1846 law, which means that WI women have to drive to the Twin Cities like it’s the 60’s.
Alex Jones, who long ago demonstrated his estrangement from reality, has been putting on a brave front in the wake of this week’s jury verdict in Connecticut awarding the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre nearly $1 billion in damages for having smeared them relentlessly after the tragedy. Going on both his Infowars program as well as other talk shows, he’s been busily mocking the verdict: “Do these people actually think they’re getting any money?” he told his audience.
His fellow conspiracy theorists, however, have registered an apocalypse-level freakout over the news, certain that the verdict is a sign that “the regime” (that is, the “globalists” they all believe secretly run the world) is about to start rounding them all up—even though this was a civil verdict. None of any of these reactions, however, bear any relationship to the complicated legal realities that are about to unfold. [video at the link]
The judgement—totaling $965 million for the eight families of the victims who filed the lawsuit—reflects both the real outrage arising from the facts of the case and the abysmal failure of Jones and his legal team to even attempt to mount an effective legal defense. From the very first day of the tragedy—on Dec. 14, 2012, when a young man named Adam Lanza embarked on a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 20 children and six teachers and staff members—Jones had not only proclaimed the entire event a “false flag” operation by “globalists” intended to inspire a crackdown on gun ownership, but spent much of the following decade claiming the young victims and their parents were fake “crisis actors.”
The ensuing torrent of harassment and abuse against those families grew to such monumental proportions that Jones consequently ended up facing four lawsuits: the first two, decided in August by a Texas jury, ended with a $45.2 million judgement, which was dwarfed by the size of the judgement in the third lawsuit in Connecticut. The fourth lawsuit, filed in Texas by Sandy Hook parent Scarlett Lewis, is ongoing. Jones also faces a lawsuit filed by the families against Jones and his parent company, Free Speech Systems, claiming that he has been using shell companies to hide his assets in an effort to avoid paying the judgements against him.[Of course he has been using shell companies to hide his assets.]
As the verdict was being rendered, Jones went on his Infowars program live, mocking the huge dollar amounts as well as the families, who could be seen on live broadcasts weeping while the judgement was read aloud. He called the verdict a “joke,” saying he was only worth a few million. And then he pitched a fundraiser to help with his appeals, vowing that none of the money donated would wind up in the hands of the families. [OMFG]
“This is hilarious,” he said, as the separate awards were listed. “Do these people actually think they’re getting any money?”
“Ain’t gonna be happening, ain’t no money,” he told his audience as the dollar amounts were read aloud for the eight families. “Now remember, I’m in bankruptcy, we’ve got two years of appeals, the money you donate does not go to these people. It goes to fight this fraud, and it goes to stabilize the company. They want us shut down. That’s why the ambulance chasers did this, why they used these families.”
[…] Jones told his audience the liberal Democratic establishment wanted to destroy him, and that “your pennies counter their millions.” He announced he would hold a 16-hour “emergency” broadcast to “save Infowars,” he said, and beckoned his viewers to “flood us with donations.” [It’s a scam.]
[…] Jones later talked about the verdict with Infowars host Owen Shroyer, dismissing the amounts in the judgement as unimportant. “Quite frankly, the way inflation is going, the way it accelerates towards the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe—in 10 years, there’s such inflation a billion dollars will be like a thousand dollars.”
He added: “No, I’m not scared. I am disgusted. And I really feel proud of myself, because I’ve told the truth about this, I’ve said when I was wrong, they have created this whole synthetic identity for me, the straw man, and then they sat there and had to lie to a jury and suppress the truth and tell them I was guilty, and rid this kangaroo court. So I myself can hold my head tall.” […]
The legal realities of the verdict, however, are much more complicated—particularly when it comes to extracting anything resembling $965 million from Jones’ conspiracy-theory media empire. The biggest complication involves determining just how much money he really has.
Testimony at an earlier defamation trial showed that Infowars raked in $165 million between 2016 and 2018. Yet Jones claimed Wednesday that he has less than $2 million to his name. He has repeatedly refused to make his financial information public.
A forensic economist who testified in the Texas trial estimated Jones’ combined net worth with his business entities at somewhere between $135 million and $270 million. […]
According to The New York Times, the verdict’s fallout is likely to follow one of the three paths available for attorneys on both sides. In the first, the families could end up being entitled to Jones’ future earnings and obtain garnishments to pay off the judgment, although this would also permit Jones to remain in the business of smearing them and many others. The second option would involve the families selling their claims to hedge funds or other investors—giving them cash up front, though only at a fraction of the claims’ value—while the new owners would then attempt to make profits from them by investigating Jones’ assets. The third scenario would involve the liquidation of Jones’ businesses by the bankruptcy court, selling off their assets for cash.
Attorneys for the Connecticut families have vowed to pursue Jones. “We will be active down in Texas in an action we brought to track fraudulent transfers of assets he’s made, and in bankruptcy court where we are now very significant creditors of Alex Jones and Free Speech Systems,” said Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the families. “We are going to enforce this verdict as long as it takes, because that’s what justice requires.”
Meanwhile, Jones’ longtime cohorts and enablers on the right—particularly those who have built careers like his, peddling conspiracy theories and catering to the lowest common denominator of right-wing politics—were not so cheerily brazen as Jones. Many of them took to Twitter and other social media to indulge in a panic over the totalitarian crackdown they believe the ruling portends.
White nationalist conspiracy theorist Darren Beattie—best known for concocting the risible claim, amplified by Tucker Carlson, that the FBI secretly planned and coordinated the Jan. 6 insurrection—penned a piece for his far-right outlet Revolver News headlined: “Love Him or Hate Him, the War Against Alex Jones is a War Against All of Us.” [nasty propaganda] […] “The aggressive use of defamation law is just the latest tool in the Regime’s arsenal to silence dissent.”
[…] Benny Johnson, a conspiracist host for Newsmax, whined on Twitter: “Just like deplatforming, this isn’t about Alex Jones, it’s about silencing political enemies,” he wrote. “The regime is setting a precedent that if you speak out, they will come after you & try to destroy you.”
[…] Mike Cernovich, one of the main progenitors of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theories and multiple other fraudulent claims and currently an Infowars host, posted on Twitter that Jones had “killed no one” and had “apologized for his erroneous reports, of which there weren’t many.” He added: “Stalin’s ghost has returned.”
[…] Jack Posobiec, the white-nationalist provocateur, called the verdict against Jones an “obvious attack on freedom of speech.” He claimed on Twitter that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow faced a similar lawsuit in 2019 that was dismissed because “courts ruled she was obviously an opinion show and she couldn’t be held liable for what she said on air, even if exaggerated.” Posobiec argued that Jones’ different outcome was “not hypocrisy, it’s hierarchy.”
Posobiec’s most recent cohort, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, said Jones “owes a billion dollars for saying mean things on his show” before questioning “how much should the propagandists at CNN, MSNBC, WaPo, and The New York Times pay” for promoting COVID-19 vaccination. [JFC]
[…] Kirk also posted a video in which he ruminated on the meaning of the verdict. “It is not about whether you like Alex Jones,” he said. “It is completely irrelevant. What is relevant is, do you think that the law industrial complex, in collusion with the media, can work in harmony to obliterate someone financially, for saying something wrong and then apologizing afterwards! Oh, so they’re gonna go for Mike Lindell next. Or are they gonna go for Steve Bannon, or are they gonna for this program, or are they gonna go for Tucker Carlson? The New York Times says this now holds lessons. This is practice for them. This is a spring football game. This is Spring Training. […]
In reality, the verdict was simply a long-overdue measure of accountability within the framework of the nation’s longstanding network of laws designed to prevent people from being harmed by irresponsible smear artists, particularly in the media. “The judgment also sends a message to anyone thinking of deliberately deploying disinformation to disrupt people’s lives for financial gain: Think twice—or risk being hit with a similarly large damages payment,” observed Chris Stokel-Walker at Wired.
“There has to be some message sent here to people like him that this is simply not acceptable in a civilized society,” NYU journalism professor Stephen D. Solomon, the founding editor of First Amendment Watch, told Stokel-Walker.
As Southern Poverty Law Center reporter Jason Wilson put it:
Punishing Alex Jones is less important than destroying the business model that allows people like him to profit by pumping toxic horseshit into the national discourse. Let’s hope this accomplishes both.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
At least three people have been killed and three people hospitalised after a series of kamikaze drone attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a dead woman was recovered from the rubble of a house in Shevchenkiv district, where an explosion has occurred as a result of a drone attack. Another person is under the rubble, he added. Search and rescue operations are ongoing. An official said that 19 people had been rescued. Klitschko said that there had been five explosions after 28 drones had been directed at the city.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal said “Today, Russia again attacked civilian and energy facilities in Ukraine. Apartment building in Kyiv is among the terrorists’ targets. People are injured. The world’s response to these crimes must be clear: more support for Ukraine and more sanctions against the aggressor.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said after the new wave of drone attacks that Russia should be expelled from the G20 group.
Iran said again on Monday that it had not provided Russia with drones to use in Ukraine. “The published news about Iran providing Russia with drones has political ambitions and it is circulated by western sources. We have not provided weaponry to any side of the countries at war,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said.
EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc “will look for concrete evidence” about the participation of Iran in Russia’s war on Ukraine.
…
The UK Ministry of Defence says in its latest update that Russia is “likely” facing more acute logistical challenges as a result of the Kerch bridge bombing on 8 October. “A large queue of waiting cargo trucks remains backed up near the crossing,” the ministry reports.
…
European Union foreign ministers are expected to agree on a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian troops from next month and an extra €500m worth of funding for arms deliveries to Kyiv when they meet in Luxembourg.
Also from there:
Russia attacked ‘critical infrastructure’ in three regions: Ukrainian PM
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal has provided further detail about the extent of Russian attacks this morning. He said that strikes had hit critical infrastructure in three regions, knocking out electricity to hundreds of towns and village across the country.
“Russian terrorists once again attacked the energy infrastructure of Ukraine in three regions”, he said. “Five drone strikes were recorded in Kyiv. Energy facilities and a residential building were damaged.”
He said Russia had also launched rocket attacks on “critical infrastructure” in the central Dnipropetrovsk region and Sumy region in the east.
“Hundreds of settlements were cut off as a result of the attack,” he added. “All (government) services are working on fixing the consequences of the shelling and restoring electricity supply.”
Shmygal urged Ukrainians to reduce their electricity use, particularly during peak hours. The president’s office said Russian missile strikes on critical infrastructure had left several people dead and wounded. And in Dnipropetrovsk, three Russian missiles were shot down but another hit energy facilities.
A Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was pulled into Chinese consulate grounds in Manchester on Sunday and beaten up.
Unidentified men came out of the consulate and forced a man inside the compound, before he escaped with the help of police and other demonstrators.
The protester told the BBC: “They dragged me inside, they beat me up.”
A consulate spokesperson said protesters had displayed an insulting portrait of China’s president.
The Foreign Office said it was urgently seeking clarity on the incident. Greater Manchester Police has launched an investigation.
Speaking after the incident, the protester, called Bob, told BBC Chinese that “mainlanders” – people from mainland China, as opposed to Hong Kong – came out of the consulate and destroyed their posters.
“As we tried to stop them, they dragged me inside, they beat me up,” he said, adding that he was then pulled out by the UK police.
“It’s ridiculous. They [the attackers] shouldn’t have done that. We are supposed to have freedom to say whatever we want here [in the UK].”
After the incident, the crowd remained angry. Protesters shouted at the men from the consulate and the British police, arguing they could have done more.
…
Protests outside embassies and consulates in Britain often involve a few scuffles. Police are often on hand to keep the peace.
But rarely do consular staff emerge on to the street to pull down banners and posters. And even more rarely are protesters dragged through the gates and apparently beaten up.
So it is not surprising there are growing calls for the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, to summon China’s ambassador in Britain for an explanation. Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman, David Lammy, said the alleged assault was unacceptable. “The quashing of peaceful protest will never be tolerated on our streets,” he said.
The police and the Home Office will investigate first and decide what action to take – if any – from a criminal justice point of view. As for the Foreign Office, it will have to decide whether to make any diplomatic response.
Britain is, of course, a signatory to the Vienna Convention, which gives some diplomatic immunity to consular staff and their properties. But diplomats and their employees are still covered by UK law and can potentially be declared persona non grata by the British government.
The demonstrators were protesting as the ruling Communist Party congress began in Beijing.
President Xi Jinping, who is set to secure a third term in power, said he had turned the situation in Hong Kong from “chaos to governance”, referring to China’s suppression of pro-democracy protests there.
A spokesperson for the consulate said the protesters had “hung an insulting portrait of the Chinese president at the main entrance”.
“This would be intolerable and unacceptable for any diplomatic and consular missions of any country. Therefore, we condemn this deplorable act with strong indignation and firm opposition,” the spokesperson added.
The Guardian’s Daniel Boffey has published a vivid report from on the ground in Kyiv. He describes the tension as residents become aware of drones circling ominously overhead before selecting a target.
A certain sense of fatalism took over as the drone hovered directly above, turning this way and that. A surreal yet bewitching calm. Then grim-faced soldiers and armed police broke the spell as they vainly fired their AK-47s in its direction, rat-a-tat-tat, as did the slightly heavier sounding air defence systems. To some the heavy burst of fire was what first made them aware of the mortal danger.
The question on everyone’s mind was which way would it turn now, where was it heading? Then the drone fixed on its target. Where was it pointing? It turned in the air, a wing tilted to the right – and it dived. Faster now, not a kite but a swallow. Five seconds, no more, and the boom of an explosion, a burst of flames, screams from those closer to its final destination. Dark grey smoke billowed from the unfortunate spot. Relief for some meant horror for others….
Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Air Force, says 43 drones kamikaze drones have been launched by Russia from the south to attack Ukraine since Sunday evening, with air defenses successfully downing 37 of them.
Ignat had this message for folks firing hunting rifles and other weapons out of their windows: “Really, let the military do their job. You don’t need to shoot from the window, because bullets in densely populated cities then return to people’s heads.”
Look at @YouTube protecting Russian propagandists. They’ve deleted 60 of my videos this morning. For those who preferred to watch and share my videos from there, sorry about that. Try to watch as soon as I post, because YouTube is likely to delete, to protect the Kremlin’s image….
KGsays
Reposted with minor changes from Mano’s blog.
The new Chancellor Truss appointed, Jeremy Hunt (who came last in the first round of voting among Tory MPs in the contest that ended with Truss as PM), has today ditched almost all the measures in the “fiscal event” that caused the near-meltdown of the UK’s financial system, and has promised further tax rises and spending cuts. “The Markets” have responded favourably, and Tory MPs have started worshipping at his feet. He’s obviously the real PM now, and my guess is that he’ll get the title to go with the power as soon as the Tories can work out how to winkle Truss out and put him in. My further guess is that Truss will be prevailed upon to go to Charles Windsor and resign, probably this week, advising Charles to call on Hunt to form a government, so we don’t have a repeat of what happened with Johnson — a politically dead PM walking while their successor is chosen. The Tories will then announce a contest for the party leadership (note that there’s no rule that the PM has to be a party leader), which Hunt will win either by default — no other candidates — or with such an overwhelming majority among Tory MPs that the final part of the contest — the party members choosing between the top two candidates chosen by the MPs — will also give him a huge majority. But I may be overestimating their ability to act even with a degree of rational self-interest: the swivel-eyed loons who supported Truss, andor the Johnsonites andor the Sunakites, may balk.
ravensays
NATO begins nuclear drills Steadfast Noon.
Things like this always bring me back to my early childhood. And not in a good way.
At the same time, the planes will not use weapons.
That is reassuring, I guess.
NATO begins nuclear drills Steadfast Noon
NATO begins nuclear deterrence drills in Europe on Monday. They are called Steadfast Noon.
mil.in.ua.com 17 October, 2022
60 aircraft from 14 countries will take part in the drills with bombers, fighters and reconnaissance aircraft.
Aviation flights will be carried out over northwestern Europe and the North Sea.
In particular, B-52 strategic bombers are involved in the U.S. drills.
Training flights will be conducted over Belgium, Great Britain and the North Sea. They will last until October 30, 2022. At the same time, the planes will not use weapons.
The Alliance emphasized that the drills are regular and not related to any events in the world. Their goal is to test the effectiveness of the Alliance’s nuclear deterrent.
“These exercises will help ensure that the alliance’s nuclear deterrent capabilities are protected, effective and remain secure,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said.
While Steadfast Noon is a traditional regular exercise, this year it will take place amid tensions with Russia. The tension heightened after President Vladimir Putin threats of possible nuclear weapons use in response to the success of recent Ukrainian counteroffensives.
At the end of October, Russia plans to conduct its own Grom nuclear exercises.
They will include large-scale maneuvers of strategic nuclear forces, as well as missile launches from various carriers.
On October 13, Josep Borrell, Head of Diplomacy of the European Union, said that the West would give a powerful military response to any use of nuclear weapons by Russia against Ukraine.
Josep Borrell, Head of Diplomacy of the European Union
According to Borrell, the response will not be nuclear, but one that will destroy the Russian army.
The Russian Book Union (RKC) recently sent a letter to Russian State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein expressing concern that the parliament’s latest “LGBT propaganda” bill could render multiple works of classic Russian literature illegal to publish, Kommersant reported on Monday.
In the letter, the RKC says it’s received “many inquiries from publishers” regarding which books will be banned if the bill becomes law. They list a scene in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel Devils that describes child sexual abuse, a monologue from Alexander Ostrovsky’s play The Storm that could be considered “suicide propaganda,” and an excerpt from Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel Morphine that could be considered “drug propaganda” as three examples of content that should ostensibly be prohibited under the prospective law.
Khinshtein himself reportedly told Kommersant that while he hasn’t read the letter from the RKC, he is confident that classic works of literature would not be subject to any new bans since the bill refers specifically to “propaganda,” which he defines as “information aimed at the formation of non-traditional sexual attitudes.”
The bill in question would broaden Russia’s existing “gay propaganda” law by banning “the denial of family values” and “the promotion of non-traditional sexual orientations.” It’s currently under consideration by the State Duma.
“The sky above Kyiv this morning brought death, destruction. On Zhylianska St. this evening, near where Russian drones exploded, people are kissing, playing chess, photographing flower bouquets, sipping coffee, walking dogs. The sky is cotton candy. Ukrainians won’t be terrorized.”
Today, Putin continued to commit war crimes. This time incorporating newly purchased Iranian drones to attack civilians.
Many are commenting how to counter these weapons so it might be best to understand the Iranian Shahed 136 (Russia calls them Geran-2).
A new [thread]
The Iranian Shahed 136 (we’ll call it G2 for RU Geran-2) is termed a “loitering munition” drone, according to the Oryx handbook.
It’s one of dozens of Iranian drones of myriad types.
Shahed translates as “witness,” Geran is the RU for “geranium.”
Facts about the G2:
-It has a published range of 2500 km (about 1500 miles). That’s suspect.
-It weighs about 200 kg (≈ 450 lbs)
-The payload (explosives) are estimated to be ≈ 50-60kg (130 lbs of explosives, smaller than the lightest 250 lb bombs delivered by aircraft).
-It’s usually launched from a “rack” of 5
-It’s launched w/ “rocket-assistance” (but that kicks over to a moped-type engine for flight).
-It does NOT have a camera
-It flies via GPS/satellite navigation.
-It’s built from cheap & easily available parts; costs about $20k
-It’s mobile (put on a truck, ships, etc)
-It has a nearly invisible radar signature, so it’s very difficult to detect.
-It’s designed to evade technologically-advanced & costly air defense.
-It’s noisy, slow & visible when flying overhead.
Iran’s design is cheap, small yield, difficult for advanced air defense to shoot down. Desire is to attack critical & easily damaged STATIONARY military targets: Airfields, radars, command centers, fuel & ammo dumps.
Unveiled in 2021, used in Yemen.
While Iran designed it for specific military targets…
…RU is using G2’s as a terror weapons.
Some have compared it to Hitler’s use of V1 or V2 terror weapons used against England, but those had a higher yield, were more expensive, & were not precision weapons.
Some suggest these are another reason Ukraine needs more Air Defense (ADA).
Would C-RAM (counter rocket, artillery, mortar) systems work?
Recall, ADA relies on radar warning, defend a small area/point targets.
It’s impossible to predict G2 targets
For G2s, the best counter:
-electronic jamming
-shoulder-fired AD (Stingers)
-massed small arms fire
-Laser weapons (under development)
Though a few G2 struck buildings & caused civilian deaths today, there are also reports of most being engaged.
Drones are valuable weapons when used against military targets.
When used for terrorizing civilians & civilian infrastructure, they are evidence of war crimes & Putin’s increasingly failed attempts to subjugate Ukraine.
The intent of this [thread] is to provide info.
Photos and links at the (Twitter) link.
whheydtsays
Re: SC (Salty Current) @ #215….
The comparison weapon…
Fiesler Fi-103, aka V-1. From Wikipedia:
Mass 2,150 kg (4,740 lb)
Length 8.32 m (27.3 ft)
Width 5.37 m (17.6 ft)
Height 1.42 m (4 ft 8 in)
Warhead Amatol-39, later Trialen
Warhead weight 850 kg (1,870 lb)
Detonation
mechanism
Electrical impact fuze
Backup mechanical impact fuze
Time fuze to prevent examination of duds
Engine Argus As 109-014 Pulsejet
Operational
range
250 km (160 mi)[2]
Maximum speed 640 km/h (400 mph) flying between 600 and 900 m (2,000 and 3,000 ft)
Guidance
system
Gyrocompass based autopilot
Fighter plane crashes into building in Russian city near Ukraine
A Russian fighter plane has crashed into a residential building in the southern Russian city of Yeysk, near Ukraine.
Footage on social media, which has been verified by BBC News, showed a large fireball erupting from what appeared to be a multi-storey building.
Yeysk is located on the coast of the Sea of Azov which separates southern Ukraine and southern Russia.
Russian news Agencies said the pilots had ejected and officials were trying to establish information about casualties on the ground.
RIA news agency said the plane was a Sukhoi Su-34, a supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber, and crashed during a training flight from a military airfield. TASS said the crash was caused by an engine fire.
Interfax, another Russian agency, quoted the local emergencies ministry as saying five floors of the apartment building were on fire, the upper floors had collapsed and about 45 apartments were damaged.
The article is topped with a photo of “Children play in the crater of a Russian missile targeting a military significant swing set.”
Who knew? A “woke” army, one in which people understand the differences that make all of us unique, and build unit cohesion by respecting those differences, is a good thing. Over the weekend, three Muslim Russians opened fire at a mobilization site, killing at least 30 soldiers of Sen. Ted Cruz’s favorite anti-woke Russian army. They responded after being bullied about their religion.
The following is a translated interview of a Russian service member who witnessed the attack:
“It all started when some of our soldiers – a Dagestani, an Azerbaijani and an Adyghe – said that ‘this is not our war’ and tried to write a report saying that they did not want to serve anymore.
Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Lapin, when he learned this through the company commander, gathered everyone and started to say that “this is a holy war.” Everything happened in the morning at the parade ground, where the formation takes place, the anthem is sung.
A conflict broke out, people started pushing each other, including a few from my company. The Tajiks told Lapin that a holy war meant [only] a war between Muslims and infidels.
Lapin said that “Allah must be a coward if he does not allow you to fight for the country to which you took an oath”. I personally think that’s what hurt the most, the phrase that “Allah is a coward”.
The phrase shocked a lot of people – those who were standing there on the parade-ground. Because we also have Muslims among our officers, both Bashkirs and Tatars.
After the formation, the Russians and Muslims continued the conflict, after which everyone dispersed and, it seems, calmed down.
And an hour and a half later, around lunch time, they sent us all to the firing ranges, and three of the Tajiks, who were on contract service, brought their automatic rifles, they had live ammunition, and shot our commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lapin, he died on the spot.
And they started shooting indiscriminately. At the range there were both contract servicemen and mobilised. I saw only the dead, of whom there were 29 people. The 30th is Lieutenant Colonel Lapin.
This does not include two of the Tajiks; counting them too, there were 32 killed. I do not know exactly how many are wounded, some of them have already been taken by helicopter to Belgorod, and some of them are in Valuyki now with me.
This ethnic Russian soldier got off easy after threatening ethnic Kazakhs. Warning, guy gets pummeled in the video:
[Dmitri posted] Kazakhs (and Russians) in Russia attacked a mobik who said something bad about Kazakhs. This appears to be happening somewhere in Volgograd Oblast. The ethnic Kazakhs here are likely to have Russian citizenship and are part of the mobilisation efforts. [video at the link]
Ethnic, racial, and religious fissures are increasingly out in the open, as Russians in the hinterlands realize they are being sucked dry by the Moscow elites, doing most of the dying, and sacrificing most of their men. Many are doing the previously unimaginable and speaking out against the injustices. Here is the governor of the Islamic region of Dagestan:
The Governor of Dagestan condemned a mobilisation effort in Derbent, which called on all male adults to head to the nearest enlistment office.
The video led to further outrage in the region, where large anti-mobilisation protests had already taken place in the regional capital. [video with English subtitles is available at the link]
We’ve already seen Russia’s neighbors more aggressively stand up to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, telling him off to his face. Given the sorry state of Russia’s crumbling army, there is little reason to fear reprisal. No VDV airborne troops are landing in another foreign country anytime soon. The remnants of those units are currently stuck in Kherson, and there aren’t many guys left.
But that might not be Putin’s worst nightmare. Russia’s official name is the “Russian Federation,” and that conglomeration of regions presents massive potential for unrest. [map at the link and here]
There are 83 federal subjects in the Russian Federation—oblasts, republics, okrugs, federal cities, and the “Jewish autonomous oblast” created by Stalin to entice Russian Jews to settle the empty region. (Only 0.2% of the oblast remains Jewish.)
Oblast are like provinces or American states, same as in Ukraine. Okrugs are similar, but populated by indigenous people. There are two federal cities—Moscow and St. Petersburg, because of course the elite will make sure to set themselves apart from everything around them.
And then there are the Republics—these are areas populated by non-ethnic Russians, with the supposed right to their own official language, constitution, and legislature. It is here that Russia’s control has depended on Rosgvardia thugs (Putin’s national guard) to maintain order and control. Those guys have been decimated in Ukraine.
I have only rudimentary knowledge of these regions and their individual allegiances (or lack thereof) to Moscow, but Dagestan is particularly restive right now, Chechnya has a proven history of rebellion, and we just saw Tajik Russians wipe out 30 mobilized ethnic Russians in that one attack (Muslim mobilized were warned ahead of time to steer clear of the kill zone).
The weaker Moscow becomes, the greater the chance that many of these “republics” and other regions demand greater autonomy or independence from Moscow, and there are plenty of regional powers who might happily support such activities, either out of regional power plays (Turkey, Iran, and China) or ethnic/religious allegiance (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and other Central Asia republics). Western powers might find it hard to steer clear, particularly given the presence of nuclear weapons in many of these regions. It could get ugly and bloody. Sometimes the only thing keeping internal conflict at bay is repression and autocracy, like we saw in Iraq and Libya.
A shattered Russian Federation is such a fearful scenario, it’s likely a factor in Western Europe’s repeated desire to offer Putin an “off-ramp.” The Putin we know might be far better than an ethno-religious conflict spanning the entire length of today’s Russia. Heck, if Russian scholar Kamil Galeev is right, a Federation breakup might not even need the ethnic or religious spark. [Tweets and map available at the link]
HIs long-running thesis is simple: Moscow and St. Petersburg have sucked the rest of the country dry. We see it in the yachts and Italian villas, and the missing 1.5 million winter coats that were supposed to keep their own soldiers warm this winter. As such, even ethnically Russian regions have a valid grudge against a Russian ruling elite who have intentionally kept them economically destitute. There’s a reason Russian soldiers are carting off washing machines.
With the mobilized already dying just two weeks after getting drafted, Putin may face his own winter of discontent, as the historically passive Russian people finally reach their breaking point. And wouldn’t it be ironic if the man who invaded Ukraine out of fury at the dissolution of the Soviet Union, then created the conditions for the final collapse of the Russia state?
More updates regarding Ukraine. Scroll down at this link:
Can you imagine being Russian, seeing your army get mauled, and then thinking it has anything to do with American domestic politics?
[Posted by Julia Davis] Meanwhile in Russia: Andrey Gurulyov, former deputy commander of Russia’s southern military district, complains about problems with alcoholics being mobilized, discusses the Kherson offensive and claims that Ukrainians are advancing solely to help the Democrats in the midterms. [video available at the link] [posted earlier by SC in comment 185]
Ukrainian advances are utterly irrelevant to people’s voting decisions November 8, but it’s a fascinating insight into the Russian mind—everything is a conspiracy involving nefarious American and NATO actors. God forbid they confront the truth, that they’re getting their asses handed to them by a Ukrainian nation they assumed inferior.
GreyZone is the Telegram channel run by Wagner mercenaries, one of those rumored to be under investigation by authorities in Moscow for sometimes spilling the truth. While other targeted Telegram channels have mostly fallen in line this past week, GreyZone appears less interested in doing so. In addition to casting shade against Russian proxies in Luhansk and Donetsk, they are now praising their Ukrainian opponents:
Wagner almost always fights alone, it’s more reliable. The situation near Bakhmut is stably difficult, the Ukrainian troops are putting up decent resistance and the legend of the fleeing Ukrainian is just a legend. Ukrainians are guys with the same steel balls as us … and that’s not bad. We Slavs should be proud of it.
Given that Wagner has been beating their head against Ukraine’s Bakhmut defenses for over two months now, it goes without saying that Ukrainian troops aren’t doing any fleeing.
This is so painfully cringe:
The Belarusian Army has released a new propaganda video trying to prove that their army is professional and strong enough to take on Poland and Ukraine.
Looks… questionable [video at the link]
If you’re wondering what’s happening down in Kherson, join the club. Strict operational silence has put a lid on any information.
Ukraine isn’t waiting to rebuild. [Tweet and good video at the link]
Russia turns children’s playgrounds into war zones. Little Askold has been playing in Shevchenko Park since he was a baby. A hole now marks where his favourite swing used to stand. The 9-year-old talks about the brutality of war. Like an adult. [video at the link]
That’s how old I was living in the middle of a civil war in El Salvador. I’ve carried it my entire life.
Well, yuck, this is a terrible debate. Marjorie Taylor Greene broke all the debate rules … and she got away with it. Sheesh.
For kicks, I watched the debate between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (GA-14) and Marcus Flowers, her opponent. Just a couple of days ago I’d endured the state’s Senate debate between Sen. Raphael Warnock and tarnished celebrity Herschel Walker (who’d brazenly claimed that he was already representing citizens of Georgia), so I figured that this couldn’t be as grueling.
Yet it appears to me that MTG and Walker must share consultants in common, because their debate stances were the same. Don’t just stay on offense: that’s passe. That’s Newt Gingrich’s playbook. No, now the strategy is, attack, even wildly, and always cut off the opponent.
If it’s your turn to talk. If it’s not your turn to talk. If it’s your turn to ask your opponent a question. If it’s your turn to answer your opponent’s question.
No matter what: interrupt, distract, switch gears, and above all, attack.
At no point was Flowers able to have both a clean beginning of a response and a clean ending—most times, he had neither. Greene was preemptive and retaliatory.
A choice point in the debate came when she was challenged on her cutesy clarification question (reminiscent of the stalling technique employed by entrants in spelling bees when they’re furiously trying to conjure an answer). The challenger was one of the moderators, Josh Rowe, a local news anchor with WTVC. He asked her how she vetted what she claimed to be true. Green attempted to follow up by asking what might qualify as “controversial” about her various comments. Rowe pointed out that she’d used that maneuver in other debate venues. That instant he became her enemy.
[Video at the link]
Now, this bad behavior will continue until someone puts their foot down.
That has to be the moderators.
Take a look at that footage, at any point of the debate. It got to the point that the host, Karen Greer (herself a local anchor for WSB-TV), lamented for all to hear that the first round took nearly ten minutes to wade through. This was all because MTG decided that she would enact the equivalent of a filibuster. […]
Something more needs to be done. At the start of each debate, candidates need to be reminded of the agreements they enter into when they consent to participate. If they break the rules, they need to be ejected. Maybe have one “flag” or strike. And then, boom.
Followup to comment 222: Marjorie Taylor Greene can’t say the word “controversial.” She says “controversal.” And she never did answer the moderators question.
Non-Hispanic White Americans were about 85% of trump voters in 2020. (with 59% of the U.S. population).
The political pundit class continues to ignore or downplay the actual whitness of the Republican coalition.
Republican voters are not just White people without 4-year degrees. The party is the preferred choice of White Evangelicals, who trump won by 69 points in 2020. Rural Whites- trump by 43 points; Whites in the South- by 29 points; White men- by 17 points; White Catholics- by 15 points; White women- by 7 points.
In short, every white demographic preferred tump both in 2016 and 2020.
[…] Trump’s company charged the Secret Service as much as five times more than the government rate for agents to stay overnight at Trump hotels while protecting him and his family, according to expense records newly obtained by Congress.
The records show that in 40 cases the Trump Organization billed the Secret Service far higher amounts than the approved government rate — in one case charging agents $1,185 a night to stay at the Trump International Hotel in D.C. The new billing documents, according to a congressional committee’s review, show that U.S. taxpayers paid the president’s company at least $1.4 million for Secret Service agents’ stays at Trump properties for his and his family’s protection.
“The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) wrote to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
The records contradict the repeated claim made by Eric Trump, the president’s son and the Trump Organization’s executive vice president, that the family’s company often gave the Secret Service agents the hotel rooms “at cost” or sometimes free, providing steep discounts for the security team to stay at Trump properties
.
[…] While the documents do not cover all Secret Service expenses at Trump properties during his presidency and reflect only a fraction of those expenses since he left office, they offer a more detailed financial accounting than previously known of what taxpayers paid for Trump’s frequent choice to stay at his properties. Trump visited his properties more than 500 times during his presidency.
[…] Maloney stressed that the Secret Service continues to pay the Trump Organization while protecting Trump since he left office, and she is concerned by reports of excessive fees the agency is charged for the former president’s travels. Her committee obtained records that stretch over his four-year presidency and continue from President Biden’s inauguration to September 2021. […]
As the midterms elections near, voters don’t appear focused on Republican plans for Social Security and Medicare. That’s probably a mistake.
The latest New York Times/Siena College poll asked respondents about the major issues facing the country. The volunteered responses highlighted familiar problems and challenges: the economy, inflation, the health of our democracy, abortion rights, and so on. The future of programs such as Social Security and Medicare did not make the list.
President Joe Biden recently warned the public that Social Security and Medicare would end up on “the chopping block” if Republicans make gains in this year’s midterm elections […] plenty of prominent GOP voices […] have bolstered Biden’s claims.
[…] a member of the House Republican leadership broached the same subject yesterday morning. Bloomberg reported:
Representative Steve Scalise, the number two House Republican, defended his party’s approach to Medicare and Social Security, which has become a campaign issue ahead of US midterm elections in November. It’s a mis-characterization to say the GOP plans to “cut” the programs, Scalise said on “Fox News Sunday.”
As part of the on-air appearance, host Shannon Bream asked the Louisiana congressman about the proposed budget plan from the Republican Study Committee, which Scalise is a member of. […] the plan, among other things, included proposals for “raising the eligibility ages for each program, along with withholding payments for individuals who retire early or had a certain income, and privatized funding for Social Security to lower income taxes.”
Yesterday was an opportunity for Scalise to distance himself from the document and its recommendations. He did largely the opposite. “That budget talks about shoring up and strengthening Social Security. That’s not ‘cutting’ Social Security,” the House minority whip said. [bullshit] He added, “We’ve brought forward legislation to stave off cuts to Medicare. We want to stave off cuts to Social Security. Democrats haven’t supported any of that. They want the programs to go bankrupt.”
For now, let’s put aside the question of which party cared more about the future of Social Security — a debate Republicans obviously can’t win. Let’s instead consider the two key elements of the broader debate.
The first is the nature of the GOP pitch: Republicans don’t intend to “cut” Social Security and Medicare, Scalise argued, so much as the party intends to “shore up” the programs’ finances. At first blush, that might sound worthwhile, but as the Bloomberg report added, “To avoid insolvency in the programs, spending would need to be cut, revenue raised or some combination of the two.”
Quite right. Indeed, the arithmetic is stubborn […]
GOP officials aren’t about to raise taxes anytime soon, so that necessarily means spending less on benefits that Americans currently enjoy. Scalise doesn’t want that to be seen as a “cut.” […]
But the other angle to this that’s worth keeping in mind is that Republicans not only want to impose changes on Social Security and Medicare, they also have a plan to make these changes happen. Bloomberg Government published a striking report last week, sketching out GOP officials’ plans to work around a veto threat and force President Joe Biden to accept cuts to the popular social insurance programs.
Social Security and Medicare eligibility changes, spending caps, and safety-net work requirements are among the top priorities for key House Republicans who want to use next year’s debt-limit deadline to extract concessions from Democrats. The four Republicans interested in serving as House Budget Committee chairman in the next Congress said in interviews that next year’s deadline to raise or suspend the debt ceiling is a point of leverage if their party can win control of the House in the November midterm elections.
the extortion plan is profoundly dangerous, but likely to be implemented anyway: If voters put Republicans in the majority, they’ll demand changes to Social Security and Medicare, and if the White House balks, GOP lawmakers will simply refuse to raise the debt ceiling.
In other words, Republicans are prepared to crash the economy and trash the full faith and credit of the United States in order to achieve unpopular and regressive cuts that the public doesn’t want. […]
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said via Twitter last week, “[I]t’s shameful that House Republicans are once again threatening to hold the debt limit hostage and risking the U.S. economy in order to slash Medicare and Social Security programs.”
With 22 days remaining before Election Day, I realize this isn’t much of a campaign issue. I’m less sure why this isn’t much of a campaign issue.
“[…] Trump began by insisting that no president “has done more for Israel” than him. Perhaps now is a good time to note while the Republican took a series of steps he considered to be pro-Israel while in office, by his own admission, Trump didn’t necessarily understand his own policies.
The former president went on to argue yesterday that “our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative” of his record than Jews, before boasting that he could “easily” become the Israeli prime minister thanks to the strength of his support among Israeli Jews.
Trump concluded, “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel — Before it is too late!”
Response:
[…] reaction from Willamette University historian Seth Cotlar, who wrote, “A leader, appealing to his angry base of ‘Christian Patriots’ and warning American Jews that they better be grateful for what they have ‘before it is too late’ will sound especially chilling to anyone who knows about American fascism in the 1930s.” […]
Update on the the “Who is Perla” question. Josh Marshall:
The Miami Herald has another richly reported article on the migrant bamboozling operation Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ran in San Antonio, Texas — the one that left 50 Venezuelan migrants in Martha’s Vineyard and spawned an on-going criminal investigation in Bexar County, Texas. The article is paywalled. So if you’re a subscriber give it a read. If not I want to summarize a few key new pieces of information, drawn mainly from public documents the DeSantis administration has been compelled to divulged under Florida’s sunshine law as well as on-the-ground reporting from the Herald. [embedded links available at the Talking Points Memo link]
The key detail is this: Perla Huerta, the woman running the recruitment operation in San Antonio, is an employee of Vertol systems, the military contractor the DeSantis administration hired to run its flights. Huerta was only weeks out of the Army, in which she had served for 20 years. The DeSantis operation was apparently her first assignment working for Vertol. There were several other Vertol employees, most or all retired military, also overseeing the operation in Houston. At Vertol the operation was overseen by top executive Candice Wahowski, an Air Force veteran who had been a military police officer in the Air Force. Wahoswki was also on location in San Antonio. Many of the migrants recruited in San Antonio had met with her.
Much of the article is based on the story of “Emmanuel,” another Venezuelan migrant Huerta hired to help her recruit. In one of the many telling details, she paid him in cash in what amounted to dead drops — money stashed behind dumpsters which he was to retrieve as his compensation. [Totally normal. Totally above-board I’m sure. Sheesh!]
“The money is going to be in the Bill Miller [restaurant] near your house. It’s going to be behind the dumpster outside in a white envelope.”
Around the whole operation there was a climate of secrecy enforced by Vertol — no recording devices that could capture the voices or images of Vertol employees and so forth. Former employees said the whole company is tinged by an air of paranoia and secrecy. It was this which warned some of the migrants off, fearing that they were being snared in some kind of government operation, which of course was precisely what was happening.
In a notable irony, as Perla and her crew quickly closed down their operation as the flights became a national story, they had a plane ticket to Florida for Emmanuel to get him out of town ahead of any investigation. In other words, the state of Florida ended up footing the bill for Venezuelan asylum seeker Emmanuel’s flight to Florida, the kind of Texas-to-Florida trip DeSantis’s operation was notionally aimed at preventing. A short time later Emmanuel returned to Texas to cooperate with the Bexar County sheriff’s ongoing investigation.
Rising COVID-19 cases in Europe are setting off warnings that the U.S. could experience a new surge this winter.
Previous jumps in the U.S. have followed a pattern in which cases first rise in Europe, making officials nervous they could see a spike in U.S. cases as the weather turns.
[…] “We are seeing variants, we are seeing that they are emerging and it seems like we will have one of those,” said Truelove.
The BA.5 omicron subvariant, the dominant strain in the U.S., has begun losing its foothold in the U.S., with sublineages like BA.4.6 and BQ.1.1 growing in prevalence. In some parts of the Midwest, BA.4.6 now accounts for a fifth of COVID-19 cases.
[…] The prevalence of people getting vaccinated and practicing viral mitigation methods like masking and social distancing has largely fallen out of favor.
Experts who spoke with The Hill strongly encouraged people to get the updated bivalent booster ahead of the holiday season.
“The best holiday present that you can give — whatever you celebrate — that you give for yourself and your family members is protection and safety. And the best way to do it is to go and get your booster and your flu shot,” Mokdad said.
Fiona Hill, a Russia expert who served on the National Security Council under former President Trump, said billionaire Elon Musk was “transmitting a message” for Russian President Vladimir Putin when he tweeted out a proposal to end the earlier this month.
Hill told Politico in an interview published Monday that before Musk tweeted out his so-called peace proposal earlier this month, he made a similar statement at a September event in Aspen, Colo., suggesting the Crimean Peninsula remain in Russian hands.
Musk also said then that control over the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions should be negotiated because Crimea would need water supplies from those regions, Hill noted.
“The reference to water is so specific that this clearly is a message from Putin,” she said.
[…] Putin “often uses various trusted intermediaries including all kinds of businesspeople.”
“I had intermediaries sent to discuss things with me while I was in government,” she told Politico. “This is a classic Putin play. It’s just fascinating, of course, that it’s Elon Musk in this instance, because obviously Elon Musk has a huge Twitter following.”
[…] CNN reported that Musk has been floating the peace proposal at conferences for weeks, citing sources familiar with the matter, who also alleged Musk may have been in contact with the Kremlin.
[…] Hill argued that Musk is merely a pawn in Putin’s game, noting that the billionaire is extremely popular in Russia.
“He’s got a longstanding reputation in Russia through Tesla, the SpaceX space programs and also through Starlink. He’s one of the most popular men in opinion polls in Russia,” she said.
“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin.”
Three years ago, along with many other outlets, we reported on the “Make Women Great Again” Convention, a ridiculous event put together by a manosphere nut who calls himself Anthony “Dream” Johnson. Because nothing is cooler than a guy who makes up his own flattering nickname.
Guess what? It happened again this weekend! It’s also still happening today. We could have paid $2,499 (or $3,499 for VIP tickets) to attend, but we didn’t, and we’re willing to bet nobody else did either. But let’s see what we missed!
YOUR FUTURE IS PATRIARCHY
You’ve been taught that freedom comes from hating men and embracing a hyper-independence that makes you feel completely unfeminine and manly. You were taught that masculinity is “toxic”, useless, and outdated, and that femininity is subjective. That you and your sisters are oppressed by some mysterious patriarchy boogeyman, haunting women for thousands of years like a cartoon ghost.
This is all absolute nonsense with serious consequences. American women are the most obese, unhappy, confused women to ever walk the earth. You’re not drowning in patriarchy, you’re drowning in feminism and starving for patriarchy.
Submission to the leadership of a good, solid, alpha male patriarch is the only choice that can unleash your natural femininity, maximum beauty, and ultimate happiness.
At The 22 Convention the future and your future is patriarchy.
And literally nowhere else.
GET YOURSELF A PURE BLOODED ALPHA MALE
Face it you want an alpha male. 100% alpha, 0% beta. Every woman wants one. Yet finding and keeping one seems about as easy as winning the lottery these days.
And don’t even mention those fake girls who pretend they like “nice guys” and “male feminists”. We call most of those guys vichy males. Traitors, snakes, and sexual harassers in hiding.
You want a strong man who is unapologetically masculine and leads with absolute conviction in his voice, his life, and his soul. Only a worthy woman, unapologetically feminine in nature deserves such a man. We’ll teach you how to boost your femininity by over 500%, find these unicorns, get wifed up and knocked up.
These unicorns are actually extremely easy to find. All you have to do is make fun of Joe Rogan on the internet, and they’ll be in your mentions in moments, telling you exactly why you need to die in a rape fire.
This year, they actually did have two female speakers, whom I’ve never heard of, to accompany the many male speakers I’ve also never heard of. This included Men’s Rights attorney Melissa Isaak, who is already breaking their woman rules by having a job, and who has a grand total of 170 followers on Twitter. The other was anti-feminist YouTuber Jennifer Moleski. […] she feels “honored” to make her husband a cup of coffee.
I’m admittedly a little bummed I didn’t get to hear this man talk about how all women have a DEADLY inner succubus. [tweet and video at the link]
I think I’d make a pretty awesome succubus, despite the fact that I never learned to speak Esperanto.
It’s not terribly surprising we didn’t hear anything about this. It doesn’t appear anyone else did, either, as there’s been practically no one talking about it online. You would think the legions of definitely-not-imaginary women enthusiastic enough about it to spend $2,499 to listen to a bunch of men tell them how be better women would at least drop a few hashtags about it.
If I didn’t know better, I might just assume the entire audience consisted exclusively of the [guys] who were there to speak.
birgerjohanssonsays
Sweden has a new, conservative PM.
Unlike the last conservative PM we had
(and that I respected) , this one is no friend if pragmatism. He (just like Liz Truss) knows the neoliberal ideology is the one true ideology.
Unfortunately for him, he us in a coalition government. The xenophobe party (SD) set the agenda for the government program even if they have no ministerial post.
The small liberal and Christian Democrat parties are in the coalition along with the conservatives. But SD is bigger than the conservatives and can call the shots.
The coalition will lose power if only two MPs defect.
I am going to grab popcorn and watch the new PM try to herd cats that all dislike each other through the next four years.
It will not be quite as entertaining as Trump, Bojo or Truss but I will love to see the populism of the conservative PM backfire.
Tethyssays
from #232 quoting Fiona Hill
He’s [ Musk] one of the most popular men in opinion polls in Russia,” she said.
Hurling an October surprise into his race for the United States Senate, Herschel Walker has revealed that he is an honorary Power Ranger.
In remarks to reporters at a campaign stop in Atlanta, Walker said that the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers designated him an honorary member sometime in the nineteen-nineties.
“They made me an honorary red Power Ranger,” he said. “They gave me the red costume, and the Power Sword and the Tyrannosaurus Power Coin.”
Offering further details of his superpowers, Walker said, “I can control the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord. Raphael Warnock can’t say that.”
Walker revealed that his status as an honorary Power Ranger was the real reason that he did not participate in the most recent candidates’ debate. “They wouldn’t let me wear my costume, because they claimed it was a ‘prop,’ ” he said, adding that he intends to wear it later this month when he goes trick-or-treating.
I don’t know if that will help. The anti-trans crowd is not exactly data-driven.
Reginald Selkirksays
Fiona Hill, a Russia expert who served on the National Security Council under former President Trump…
That is a huge asterisk on her expertise in my book.
ravensays
This is an analysis by a Belarusian journalist. He is:
Tadeusz Giczan Belarusian journalist, PhD Researcher
@UCLSSEES
. Belarus’ crony socialism⬜️🟥⬜️ Fellow @cepa . Sufferer of WHUFC⚒️Torpedo Minsk
The tl;dr version. Belarus is just pretending. They won’t invade Ukraine.
Tadeusz Giczan 10/17/2022
Twitter logo
8h • 16 tweets • 5 min read
Let me try to explain what’s wrong with the new wave of deployment of Russian troops in Belarus and why the threat of a new attack on Kyiv from the north is a bluff.
Last week Lukashenko announced the deployment of a joint Belarusian-Russian regional grouping of troops composed of Belarusian ground forces and several thousand Russian troops (Belarusian MoD later specified there would be 9,000 of them). 2/
The first trains with Russian troops have already started arriving in Belarus, and three important points should be made here. 1) Judging by the photographs, it is not regular Russian army units that arrive in Belarus, but freshly mobilised Russian reservists. 3/
2) Russian military trains don’t carry any heavy equipment – only trucks, petrol tankers and passenger cars with soldiers. 3) Russians are not being brought to the border with Ukraine like in January, but to training bases in northern Belarus. 4/
In other words, at this stage, we are almost certainly talking about the training of Russian reservists in Belarus, as all Russian ranges are overloaded. The Ukrainian military intelligence announced this back in late September (they estimated the nr of reservists to be 20k). 5/
According to the AFU joint forces command, as of early October, there were up to 1,000 Russian troops, 6 aircraft, 4 Iskanders and 12 S-400s in Belarus. In theory, the mobilised troops could reinforce this grouping after training, but there are several “buts”. 6/
First, the Russians, as I noted earlier, arrive without heavy equipment. The videos that have been circulating on Twitter in recent days, allegedly showing Russian tanks, APCs, and howitzers with ‘menacing new tactical markings’ arriving in Belarus aren’t real. 7/
Or rather, the videos are real, but they show trains of the Belarusian army. This can be easily determined by the blue passenger cars (Russia’s are grey) and the triangle-shaped tactical markings adopted by the Belarusian army in late Summer. 8/
Also, these Belarusian troops aren’t being deployed on the border with Ukraine, it’s just a rotation. Those brigades that have been reinforcing the border in recent months are returning to their bases, being replaced by fresh ones. The total number of troops remains the same. 9/
The Belarusian MoD said today that Russia plans to transfer 170 tanks to Belarus, but so far we see the opposite process. Without any statement last week alone, Belarus handed over at least 92 T-72A tanks and dozens of trucks to Russia. 10/
So if anything the Belarusian flank is being weakened rather than strengthened, and all Belarus can do is put on a good face and loudly announce that Ukraine should be scared. In recent days Lukashenko and his minions made a whole bunch of loud statements: 11/
About the deployment of a regional grouping of troops, pre-emptive strikes, partial mobilisation, issuing of weapons to firefighters, etc. Some of these statements aren’t even new, they were just repeated this week for greater effect. 12/
The main target audience of these statements is the West. For the first time in living memory, the Belarusian MoD has decided to communicate its actions also in English and Spanish. A stark contrast to February, when the attack was real and the Belarusian MoD was silent. 13/
The only real things we have so far are the arrival of Russian mobiks, the handover of >100 tanks and trucks to Russia and isolated “mobilisation readiness exercises” in some areas of Belarus, which look as pathetic as in Russia. Everything else is just hawkish rhetoric. 14/
And last but not least. The Belarusian-Ukrainian border is almost entirely covered by the impassable Polesie marshes, the largest wetlands in Europe. The few sections along the roads where the Russians attacked in February have been turned by Ukrainians into the Maginot Line. 15/
With minefields, echeloned defence, blown-up bridges, etc. An attack on them by the Belarusian-Russian grouping in its current state would be suicide which would likely result in Lukashenko’s political suicide. So no, there will be no attack from Belarus, at least for now. 16/16
Russia’s population has been slowly falling due to low fertility and lack of immigration.
Thanks to Putin, it is likely to keep falling even faster.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a significant contributor.
Russian statistics aren’t reliable in the least but they probably had around 800,000 die from the virus. Their vaccine didn’t work very well and Russian medical care access isn’t all that good.
The war will lower their population and the population growth rate even further by direct and indirect effects. It is estimated that something like 500,000 young men have fled Russia to avoid being called up.
Demographic problems play out very slowly so this won’t have any effect on the war right now.
Putin’s War Escalation Is Hastening Demographic Crash for Russia
(Bloomberg) October 17. 2022
President Vladimir Putin spent years racing against Russia’s demographic clock, only to order an invasion of Ukraine that’s consigning his country’s population to a historic decline.
Besides casualties in the thousands on the battlefield, the enlistment of 300,000 reservists to join the fight — and an even bigger flight of men abroad — is derailing Putin’s goals of starting to stabilize the population already this year.
Crippling disruptions from the war are converging with a population crisis rooted in the 1990s, a period of economic hardship after the Soviet breakup that sent fertility rates plunging. Independent demographer Alexei Raksha is calling it “a perfect storm.”
Plans by Putin’s government had set the goal of starting to reverse the decline in the population in 2022 before growth should resume in 2030. Yet weeks before the mobilization was announced in September, an internal report drafted for a closed-door meeting showed officials were already concluding those targets were unrealistic.
Citing the consequences of the coronavirus and migration outflows, the report instead proposed a revision that envisaged a decrease of 416,700 people in 2030.
Should military operations continue in the coming months, as expected, Russia may see less than 1.2 million births next year, the lowest in modern history, according to Igor Efremov, a researcher and specialist in demographics at the Gaidar Institute in Moscow. Total deaths in Russia average close to 2 million annually, though the number increased during the pandemic and approached 2.5 million last year.
‘Chief Blow’
“The chief blow to the birth rate will be indirect, because most families will have their planning horizon completely destroyed as a result,” Efremov said. “And the impact will be stronger the longer the mobilization lasts.”
A demographic reckoning has arrived for Russia, its economy starved of young employees and now at risk of stagnation or worse long after the war is over. Bloomberg Economics now estimates Russia’s potential growth rate at 0.5%, down two percentage points from before the war — with demographics accounting for about a quarter of the downgrade.
Unfavorable demographics in the areas of Ukraine that Putin plans to annex is only likely to add to the challenges Russia faces from a growing population burden, Renaissance Capital economists said in a report this month.
While demographic traumas usually play out over decades, the fallout of the invasion is making the worst scenarios more likely — and much sooner than expected.
What Bloomberg Economics Says…
“Russia’s population has been declining and the war will reduce it further. Reasons? Emigration, lower fertility and war-related casualties. This will both erode potential growth and stretch fiscal policy, as the government tries to reverse labor-force decline with pro-natalist policies.”
–Alexander Isakov, Russia economist.
The mobilization is upending families at perhaps the most fraught moment ever for Russian demographics, with the number of women of childbearing age down by about a third in the past decade. It’s also coinciding with one of the highest death rates in the world as well as a depleted and graying labor market, alongside immigration outflows and questions about Russia’s ability to attract workers from abroad.
For Putin, who just turned 70, Russian demography has long been an existential issue, and just last year he declared that “saving the people of Russia is our top national priority.” He’s presided over efforts to buy time with costly policies that contributed to a steep gain in longevity and ranged from lump payments for new mothers to mortgage relief for families.
But as Russia approached the invasion of Ukraine in February, it was coming off its deadliest year since World War II — made worse by the pandemic — with the population in decline since 2018. It reached 145.1 million on Aug. 1, a fall of 475,500 since the start of the year and down from 148.3 million in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed.
The continuation of the military campaign and mobilization until the end of next spring would be “catastrophic,” according to Efremov, likely bringing births down to just 1 million in the 12 months to mid-2024. The fertility rate may reach 1.2 children per woman, he said, a level Russia saw only once in 1999-2000.
A fertility rate of 2.1 is needed to keep populations stable without migration.
“It is likely that in conditions of uncertainty, many couples will postpone having children for some time until the situation stabilizes,” said Elena Churilova, research fellow in the Higher School Economics’s International Laboratory for Population and Health. “In 2023, we are likely to see a further decline in the birth rate.”
ravensays
This article has been circulating on the internet for a while.
It is from the Baltics, mostly Estonia.
These are people who lived under Soviet Russian rule for decades like Ukraine did.
They all hate the Russians for good reasons.
They all know someone or of someone who was disappeared, sent to the Gulags, or just killed. Nothing unusual in that part of the world. I live a few miles from the Pacific ocean and know people who lost relatives to the Russians.
The former captive nations of the Russian USSR are scared, they are angry, and they will fight. After a century, they are finally free, they don’t have to take the Russians any more, and they aren’t going back.
Human Life Has No Value There“: Baltic Counterintelligence Officers Speak Candidly About Russian Cruelty
(1)
The Estonian weekly Eesti Ekspress interviewed the heads and several employees of Estonia’s, Latvia’s, and Lithuania’s state security agencies. This is what they had to say regarding Russia.
Eero Epner
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The photo on Aleksander Toots’s slightly tattered old work ID is faded and worn. He looks much younger than he does now: short-haired and sharp-featured. Next summer will be his 30th at the Estonian Internal Security Service (abbreviated KAPO in Estonian). How he plans to mark the occasion, I do not know. He spends most of his free time out in nature and working with his hands, though he won’t say where. „Let’s not try to profile me,“ he responds with a cool smirk when I ask what his favorite book is. „Let’s not make things easier for the adversary.“
Toots has been dealing with Russia for 15 of the last 30 years. He’s endeavored to predict its next steps, offered a surprise or two of his own, and uncovered Russian spies, several of whom were colleagues. He doesn’t reply at first when I ask what he felt the first time he interrogated Aleksei Dressen, a former superior and later subordinate. They greeted each other in the mornings, waved goodbye when they left for the day, and perhaps kicked the wheels of their vehicles while chatting in the parking lot. All until it was revealed that Dressen was a traitor working for Russia.
„Details,“ Toots says tersely when I ask what gave Dressen away. But when they were ultimately sitting across from each other and his recent colleague, maybe even somewhat of a friend, was in handcuffs, Toots says he felt no great emotion.
„There are no hot-headed decisions.“
He only displays irritation once in our meetings – when I ask if it might be possible to interview Eston Kohver, his colleague abducted by Russian intelligence. Reservation isn’t a mere character trait: it is Toots’s strategic weapon against Russia.
As Russian intelligence agents have confided in him: „[Estonians’] advantage is that you’re all levelheaded.“ Dressen also hoped that Toots would show emotion during his interrogation, and lost his footing when it failed to come to fruition. They don’t know how to keep it in check. Or they simply can’t. They become emotional, testy, irate, confused. At some point, Russian agents lose control and are unable to do anything about it – it’s just the way things are. As they admit: „You can’t beat Russia with reason.“
As Russian intelligence agents have confided in him: „[Estonians’] advantage is that you’re all levelheaded.“
According to Toots, an intrinsic element of Russian society is pokazukha: pretending everything is fine while reality is anything but. It also applies, at least partly, to Russian intelligence, no matter that it’s a powerful system employing thousands.
„Chaos is a trait of Russian culture. There always needs to be a shepherd; otherwise, it’s anarchy,“ remarks Toots, who grew up in the Russian-majority eastern Estonian city of Kohtla-Järve. While discussing Russia, he purposefully uses the word „adversary“ instead of „enemy“, which he believes is unnecessarily charged. When engaged in a struggle with Russia, one can expect them to be excessively emotional, but also relentless. They are great, ambitious, merciless, and most of all, cruel.
Toots wasn’t surprised by the atrocities committed in Bucha. Nor were any other of the counterintelligence agents I interviewed in Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania. They’re aware of how Russians conducted themselves in the Baltics during the Second World War. Of how they conducted themselves before that. Of how they’ve always behaved. The West lacks such awareness.
„[The West is] fortunate,“ Toots remarks. „We’re a buffer between them and Russia. They’ve forgotten a lot and think Russia is just like them.“
It isn’t. And Putin isn’t the only issue.
„When the war began, we were worried about people saying it was only Putin’s war,“ says Director General of the Latvian State Security Service Normunds Mežviets as we speak in a soundproof office in a featureless building located in a suburb of Riga. His diction is soft, brisk, and punctilious, just like that of your favorite psychiatrist. Russians are no strangers to Mežviets. He grew up among many Russian-speakers and scuffles were an everyday occurrence.
„I witnessed Russian mentality every single day.“
Mežviets’s colleagues in the other Baltic states echo his sentiment.
„Obviously, you can’t abstractly accuse an entire nation,“ says long-time Director General of the Estonian Internal Security Service Arnold Sinisalu. „But a society and a nation constitute a whole. The state may brainwash, but the germ of chauvinism still springs from the people itself.“
When Director of the Lithuanian State Security Department Darius Jauniškis served in the Soviet military, he was constantly confronted by Russian soldiers with an intent to dominate.
„I fought them,“ he says, „because I knew that as soon as you submit to their will, you become their slave. But if you strike back, then you might even earn their trust.“
When I ask how many scuffles he was in, Jauniškis’s hand shifts to reveal a talisman on his wrist. There were many, he says. Very many. The subject isn’t incidental. He uses it as educational material for his younger colleagues, broadening the experience into an analysis of Russia as a whole: they recognize and respect strength alone.
That is precisely how Baltic counterintelligence officers refer to Russia – not ‘it’, but ‘they’. The war in Ukraine is not Putin’s war. The cruelty is not Putin’s. The rapes, murders, gouged eyes, hangings, and burned corpses aren’t special tactics employed by Russia’s leader. It is Russia as a whole.
„The majority of Russians are to blame,“ says Sinisalu.
Western colleagues sometimes have a hard time believing this.
„They’re certainly more naïve and optimistic than we are,“ says one Baltic counterintelligence officer.
„When we tried explaining to our partners that Russia can’t be trusted, they denied it,“ another adds, visibly resentful. Georgia, the Crimea – nothing changed. „And here we are in 2022.“ Several interviewees imply that they’ve had to tirelessly remind Western partners of the dangers of such naiveté.
Toots says that to be fair, he can’t find any fault with Western intelligence services. „They know Russia well enough.“ In Europe and further afield, agents who are fully immersed in Russian matters echo a common understanding of the country and the threat it poses.
„When we tried explaining to our partners that Russia can’t be trusted, they denied it,“ another adds, visibly resentful. Georgia, the Crimea – nothing changed.
However, problems persist among politicians and heads of foreign intelligence agencies. Denial. Dismissal. Reducing everything to Putin and his closest circle because one shouldn’t pigeonhole all Russians or believe there exist common national characteristics.
Baltic counterintelligence officers’ conclusions about Russia are obverse. As one remarks: „Our understanding has been the polar opposite of the West’s.“ We coinhabit the world with a country whose citizenry primarily adheres to a code of force. The war in Ukraine was not a surprise, but rather a logical progression. And at some point, it will repeat again.
First-Hand Experience
Those whom I interview were born in the late 1960s or early 1970s. They grew up among so many Russians that when they speak rapidly, several, including Toots, reveal a slight Russian accent. They were all conscripted into the Red Army.
„Total idiocy and foolishness,“ Sinisalu grunts when asked about his former officers and fellow conscripts. Toots witnessed dedovshtshina, the violent subjugation of junior soldiers, on a daily basis.
When the heads of Baltic counterintelligence meet, they converse in English even though Russian could also serve as a common language. Each is so fluent in the latter that when Sinisalu or Toots begins quoting a Russian saying, the other finishes for them. One of Putin’s remarks from 1999 comes up: „We’ll whack them, even in the outhouse.“ They point out the use of delinquent Russian street slang.
According to the directors, the turn of phrase isn’t incidental. It’s a layer of diction that can be used to interpret the fundamental patterns of behavior practiced by Putin and his retinue. It holds no commonality with Western leaders who wore formal uniforms at private schools, went on to study political philosophy at Harvard, and know where to set a salad fork. Russia has, of course, no shortage of fascinating, intelligent, heartfelt, and genuine people, but they do not determine the main tone of Russian society.
„If you want to know Russia, then don’t go to St. Petersburg or Moscow,“ says Toots. He once spent six months in Kronstadt, a stone’s throw from St. Petersburg but filled with an entirely different breed of people. There, no one removed their hats at the table or knew a single thing about etiquette. Everything was decaying and chair legs were on the verge of snapping off beneath you, but no one lifted a finger to fix anything, simply sighing „Ah…“ and giving a dismissive a wave of the hand. The atmosphere was infused with something intrinsically foreign to the West – Russian society is accustomed to suffering. An injustice that sends Parisians out onto the streets won’t make a single resident of Novosibirsk scratch the back of their necks.
„You can’t understand Russia through books or analyses,“ Jauniškis adds. „You have to live there a while.“
None of the counterintelligence directors have visited Russia in a very long time; at least not officially. Nevertheless, they’ve seen their share of Russian villages that lack reliable electricity, navigable streets, or even indoor toilets. True, they rarely have business to conduct in such areas, where even food is scarce. There’s only ambiguous pride of belonging to such a great – and strong – nation.
One acquaintance who has frequented smaller Russian settlements gave a vivid description of common local history museums: one room covering a period that stretches from the Paleolithic to 1941, followed by five rooms covering the years 1941–1945. The Second World War. Victory over the Nazis. The sole source of honor in such humble environs, where an expanse of endless mud begins at the museum door and a local drunk is curled up against the wall, dozing like a sleepy housefly.
There are those who say the Baltic states’ true practical knowledge of Russia began only in the 1940s.
„Look at what they did in the Second World War,“ Sinisalu says when we discuss the mass graves, rapes, and deportations in Ukraine. „It’s the exact same.“ Sinisalu’s maternal grandparents were deported to Siberia, where both perished. What’s happening in Ukraine today has been seen and endured before in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius.
„Everything comes back full-circle; nothing changes,“ a 90-year-old former dentist says to me at my grandfather’s birthday celebration. My grandfather is turning 96 and a few months later, he sends me a draft article calling on people to stop using expressions like „the Soviet regime“, as he believes there was no Soviet Union. „After the breakup of the 20th-century Russian empire, only those who carried out orders were declared villains,“ he writes angrily. In his view, Russian society as a whole carries the responsibility.
„There are no separate nations or distinct societies,“ argues a vehemently anti-war Russian acquaintance. „I believe that so-called nations are an instrument used by giant imperialist conglomerates fighting amongst themselves in Ukraine for global domination, all at the expense of the lives and destinies of working-class people – what ‘nation’ is there to speak of…“
However, officers of the Baltic security services do not describe Russia’s imperialism and brutality as a military tactic, but a rampant social norm.
„I believed that their mentality changed over the years and they had a reckoning after the war. That would have been normal,“ Jauniškis says. „But I was mistaken:“
Indeed, how could Russia have any reckoning when the country has never been held responsible? The Nazis temporarily rose to the top of the cruelty ranking during the Second World War, which has caused people to forget Russia’s atrocities.
„They’ve never been held accountable,“ Sinisalu says. „And that has made them feel invincible.“
Empire
I’m not told his full name, even after asking. All I know is his first name, that he is a historian, and that he works with KAPO’s spies and detectives. The historian, let’s call him Peeter, is tasked with helping to unravel crimes committed during the Soviet occupation of the 1940s and later. As Russia stands at the very center of the Soviet Union’s horrible deeds, they greatly help to understand the country’s actions today. No one would use Angela Merkel or Olaf Scholtz to improve their analyses of Nazi history, but nothing in Russia has changed.
Peeter studies how the Soviet deportations were planned and the partisan Forest Brothers tracked down and executed, as well as what became of the survivors. He has searched for secret KGB cemeteries and combed through archives to find proof of the innumerable human-rights crimes committed during the Russian occupation.
He sometimes confers directly with Sinisalu, whom he calls an „above-average amateur historian“.
„Over the last few years, history has been repeating much more vividly than we could have ever expected,“ Peeter says. Every day, he leaves the archives, reads the news, and sees no great difference between what happened then and what is happening today. „It seemed like they’d retired their tactics, but they’re coming back in the exact same form as before.“
Even so, he was surprised when the first reports of Russia’s brutalities in Ukraine began to emerge.
„I thought they’d go right back to their old rhetoric, but the past manifesting anew in a cruder and more robust way was unexpected,“ Peeter remarks. Deportations. Rapes. Alleged struggles with hostile elements, but actual executions of children.
In Russia, history is more alive and present than anywhere else.
„Our assessments of Russia haven’t changed in the last 30 years,“ says Mežviets. The chief analysis is this: Russia wishes to regain its status as an empire by any means.
„To them, there are no states, only zones and territories,“ Peeter explains. Russia sees itself as being surrounded by vassals and ancillaries – there is no third option.
„They’ll never come to terms with the breakup of the USSR,“ Mežviets says. As Russia’s leaders themselves have declared: Russia ends where it is stopped.
„It’s a conqueror’s mindset,“ Jauniškis says. „Everyone around them are enemies.“
Official polling paints a clear picture of Russian society’s true convictions.
Surprisingly, the heads of all three Baltic counterintelligence agencies answer with the same name when I ask about the origins of Russia’s present-day mentality: Ivan the Terrible.
„They come off as children who have been wronged and are now seeking revenge,“ Jauniškis adds. He claims the Soviet way of thinking is so deeply embedded in Russian society that even their manner of resistance still dates to the 1970s: people sit in their kitchen, drink vodka, and complain, but as soon as they leave their apartments, they report to their jobs and work obediently till evening. Nevertheless, Mežviets says this conqueror’s mentality is no mere Soviet remnant, but extends far deeper.
Surprisingly, the heads of all three Baltic counterintelligence agencies answer with the same name when I ask about the origins of Russia’s present-day mentality: Ivan the Terrible. A ruler who lived almost 500 years ago, conducted successful military campaigns aimed at territorial expansion, and stood out for his exceptional cruelty, even slaying his own son in a fit of rage. Russia’s modern-day brutality and expansionism is a carbon copy of Ivan the Terrible’s murderous imperialism.
Regarding the former grand prince of Moscow as the root of modern Russia isn’t a mere figment of Baltic counterintelligence’s imagination. Peeter recently read a lengthy Russian propaganda article lauding Ivan the Terrible as a genius and role model. Russia has increasingly used historical events to justify its present actions, erecting, for example, monuments with a White Army and Red Army soldier standing side by side and a plaque reading: „Both fought for Russia.“ Peeter almost snorts and laughs when he tells me.
The pair is absurd in a historical context, but anything is possible in Russia. Imperialism, perpetual expansion coupled with nationalism, centering Russians themselves in everything – there, such absurd bedfellows are able to nestle together and make ordinary development impossible.
Russia has increasingly used historical events to justify its present actions, erecting, for example, monuments with a White Army and Red Army soldier standing side by side and a plaque reading: „Both fought for Russia.“
Sinisalu isn’t the only history buff in Estonian counterintelligence: Toots can trace his genealogy back 300 years and is uncharacteristically enthusiastic when he starts telling me about his ancestors. One of his grandmothers descended from aristocratic Baltic Germans and distrust is no unfamiliar topic: a rift formed in the family when she decided to marry an Estonian, who were simple peasants at the time. Toots has carefully preserved every scrap of correspondence related to the story.
Russian intelligence officers are no less interested in history, albeit a warped version.
„Over the last few years, they’ve vigorously emphasized shaping the present through history,“ says Mežviets. And to a Russian intelligence officer, „history“ primarily means conflicts and war. Long-ago clashes are used to justify fighting today, and according to Peeter, Russian intelligence officers receive „a special dose“ of these lessons, fueling not only their desire to expand, but to exact retribution.
Disappointment of falling behind the West has caused Russians to either ramp up national exceptionalism or take offense, grow embittered, and believe that the country has been robbed of something. As one Russian acquaintance tells me, „Russians aren’t interested in truth, but justice.“ No matter that this historical justice is nothing but a paper-thin fantasy.
One needn’t dig very deep into colonial history to understand modern-day France. Russia is a different case. All is but a continuation set to the rhythm of the past. Today’s Russian security forces are astonishingly identical to their predecessors established centuries ago, and even the country’s primary propaganda methods were perfected in tsarist times. Russia’s wars in Syria and Afghanistan were conducted the same way as the Great Northern War (1700–1721) and the Livonian War (1558–1583). Tanks have replaced swords and soldiers wear combat boots instead of spurs, but their intentions, behavior, and perhaps even some of their equipment are centuries old.
The cruel culture pervading Russia’s modern army was entrenched during the era of Stalin’s Gulags. It isn’t random, but systematic. Rigid hierarchies, an inability to account for variation, autocrats locked in information bubbles, and, at the same time, a population yearning for autocracy – perhaps the hardest aspect for Westerners to wrap their heads around – have existed in Russia for centuries and will only persist.
„Violence is a historical pattern in Russia, and that will not change,“ Sinisalu calmly adds. „Human life has no value there.“
Baltic counterintelligence directors don’t only speak about Putin, but recall the reign of Peter the Great, who ordered all Swede-supporting Russians to be executed. Again, Sinisalu and Toots chime in together with a Russian maxim: „Beat your own to frighten others.“
„Violence is a historical pattern in Russia, and that will not change,“ Sinisalu calmly adds. „Human life has no value there.“
The massacre in Bucha wasn’t unique, but a repetition of Katyn. The detonation of the Olenivka prison was a copy of the explosion in Sambir, which killed 1,200 female prisoners in 1941. Nothing has come as a surprise for anyone familiar with Ukrainian history, as Ukraine isn’t simply Ukraine – it is also Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the 1940s.
They Aren’t Like Us
„They only respect force,“ says Jauniškis, „and if you answer theirs with your own, then you might even become friends.“ The principle is diametrically opposed to the suit-and-tie diplomacy and ordinary negotiations to which the West is accustomed.
„For Russia, both sides winning equals a loss,“ remarks an Estonian entrepreneur who has organized complex business transactions with Russians for decades. „They need for there to always be winners and losers, even when negotiating.“ And only they may come out on top.
„There, diplomacy is a sign of weakness,“ says Mežviets. „Russia only recognizes force. It’s hard for the West to understand, as Westerners hold different values and believe that others do as well.“
Jauniškis compares contemporary Russian society to the medieval Mongols. Though Lithuania once joined forces with Russian princes to counter the Mongolian hordes, he feels that Russia switched sides given the behavior of its officers and soldiers alike. „They’re animals,“ he frankly states.
„I don’t want to think so primitively; to believe such evil could truly exist in Russian society,“ Peeter tells me. „I’d like to believe something nobler. But it’s simply the truth.“
Jauniškis is well aware that such statements are not politically correct. It has nothing to do with national characteristics or all Russians being bad eggs, of course.
„For generations and generations, people in Russia have been born into fairy tales where life is terrible, and they’ve almost never enjoyed the freedom of expression, so what else can you expect?“ says a human rights activist who refuses to strip the entire population of its human face. We must speak not of Russians, but Russian society.
Constantly, we’re told that Russia is composed of ingredients like Chekhov, borsht, generosity, fraternity, piousness, and Dostoyevsky. But let us recall what Dostoyevsky wrote: a Russian can only operate in radicals, being radically good or radically evil. One of his protagonists allows a „thoroughly native object to be seen – an enormous fist sinewy, knotted, and overgrown with a sort of reddish fuzz, and it became evident that should this profoundly national object descend upon anything it would leave nothing after it but a damp spot“.
Sinisalu is an avid reader of Lyudmila Ulitskaya and watches all her interviews. He was initially surprised that although the writer heatedly opposes the war, she didn’t leave Russia before it broke out. „But, well, then I took a deeper look and realized she’s not a real Russian, but a Jew.“ And what do they say about Jews in Russia? As one of Sergei Dovlatov’s characters is told: „I’d give a dozen Ukrainians for one Jew.“
Contempt for Ukraine isn’t just one of Putin’s delusions – its roots stretch much deeper. Before interviewing a well-known Russian theater director, I was warned he is generally a liberal anti-Putinist but believes that Russia occupying the Crimea was the right move, as Ukrainians „aren’t human“.
When discussing Russia, Jauniškis repeatedly uses the words „unique mentality“. Russia does not belong to our ecosystem. It has its own set of rules and values. Even the jokes are different. Baltic counterintelligence officers often try to tell their Western colleagues Russian jokes, but fail to get a laugh because they can’t see how such things could be funny. Only those who have been raised in the Baltic sphere can laugh at both the anecdotes told here and those told in the West.
When discussing Russia, Jauniškis repeatedly uses the words „unique mentality“. Russia does not belong to our ecosystem.
„It’d be overly simplistic to attribute the Russian mentality to propaganda,“ says Jauniškis. „Imperialism, chauvinism, brutality – they’re a part of Russian education, upbringing, and culture, but are also part of their values. And it’s been that way for centuries.“ Alas, neither Jauniškis nor any other Baltic counterintelligence officer I interview believes it can change.
Nothing Changes
When the Baltic states regained their independence in 1991, Russia also became temporarily more democratic. Elections were seemingly held, leaders spoke of opening up, and everything appeared to be changing for the better. But only the West believed Russia had taken a turn.
„When we made our plans, we assumed that Russia would go back to being its old self and the empire would return at least a year later,“ said Raivo Vare, who served as Minister of State at the time. He’s had a lifelong interest in Russia and lived there for 17 years. „Practical experience“ was the basis for the assessment.
„Alas, we were overly optimistic,“ Vare adds. It only took a few months before Russia began manipulating Estonia again, this time with oil.
Everyone who works for a Baltic counterintelligence agency asserts that nothing will change.
„In Russian schools, they teach children that the Baltic states have only been lost temporarily,“ Peeter remarks. He wraps his hands around his coffee mug before continuing. „Pushkin can’t lead a country like Russia.“ Peeter doesn’t believe anything would improve even if Aleksei Navalny were, by some miracle, to become Russia’s leader. „The mentality is the same. There would need to be a total purge, but that won’t happen.“ Russia’s youth have abandoned hope, the state apparatus is massive, protests lead nowhere, and all the West’s long-held hopes for a peaceful democratic transition are utterly naïve, overlooking Russian history, its mindset, and reality.
Just recently, Estonian Ambassador to Ukraine Kaimo Kuusk stood at the edge of the mass graves and visited the former torture chambers in Izum. He was told that the Russian torturers weren’t yokels, but spoke in elegant urban St. Petersburg or Moscow accents. Russia’s total defeat in Ukraine is the sole opportunity for change.
„Historically, force has always had an effect on Russia,“ Peeter says. „No matter how much you wish there was another solution, there isn’t.“
„At the moment, I can’t think of any force that could spread democratic values in Russia,“ says Jauniškis. „They demand the respect of every other country and exact it through brutal compulsion.“
Mežviets presses his palms together and dispassionately lists the bullet points of Latvian counterintelligence’s strategic assessment. Russia will not conquer Ukraine. Putin’s mentality will begin to shift, but no one can say when. It depends not only on himself or Russia, but on the West’s level of activity. Here, Mežviets briefly pauses.
„Nevertheless, Russia’s mentality will not change,“ he concludes. „Not even Putin’s death will change anything. To our region, Russia will always be a threat, and not only because of its leaders.“
The directors of all three Baltic counterintelligence agencies perceive that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not herald a change in the former, but it certainly did in the West. Now, Western politicians are gradually starting to comprehend that Russia cannot be treated the same way as other states, though it is a very fine line to tread. People still refer to „Putin’s war“. They emphasize that „ordinary Russians“ should not be persecuted. They assert that we must remain humanist and understanding, for otherwise we would not be European.
It’s a contradictory cocktail that requires, in the name of Western values, convincing ourselves that Ukrainian corpses are merely the act of a crazed war-waging fanatic, not the outcome of a much broader, tenacious mindset that has gone unpunished for centuries. Many are prepared to allow Putin to save face, no matter that the cost is Ukrainian bodies with nooses tied around their necks and their faces removed.
Of course, Russia isn’t the only country that proceeds from a historical narrative.
„Roosevelt was also naïve,“ says Sinisalu, noting how the former president sacrificed the Baltic states in an effort to win over Stalin as an ally. He recalls the indignation that erupted in American audiences after watching a Latvian film that compared communists to Nazis. „The West has shown a lot of cynical self-interest,“ says Sinisalu. „The political leadership always makes the rules: you have to keep communicating with Russia somehow.“ When I ask what feelings the West’s approach elicits, he shrugs. „What could they be? Not positive, in any case.“
Sinisalu acknowledges that attitudes in the West have improved since the beginning of the war, but not enough. He calls any references to „Putin’s war“ or suggestions that Russia should avoid humiliation „a stupid thing to say“. Being well-versed in history, he knows all too well that revolutions have only happened in Russia after a war was lost.
It’s possible that the Baltic state security agencies will soon lose their exact knowledge of Russian society: younger generations have had contact with local Russian speakers but not Russia proper, which is something entirely different. It’s not a question of ethnic nature, but nurture. Today’s Baltic youth generally do not speak Russian, cannot pick up on nuances, and may err in the details.
„I’m a relic,“ says Toots.
Will the new generation bring naivete? I ask.
„No, on the contrary,“ Jauniškis responds. „They have the experience of the generations that came before them.“
Russia’s espionage in the Baltic states has slightly weakened since the war began, but my interviewees believe it is only temporary.
„My job has been relatively routine for the last 15 years,“ Toots casually remarks. He calls catching the adversary’s spies „assembly-line work“ and his own profession a „lifestyle“. There haven’t been any shifts on a larger scale, he says – the only surprises are tactical in nature.
When I interviewed Toots early in the summer of 2021, he spoke about Russia’s efforts to spread influence in schools and transit businessmen who were vying for better ties to the colossal empire. A year later, everything has changed. The adversary’s tools have changed, but vigilance is still crucial. „If you go into anything expecting them to be just like us, then you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.“
During the Soviet occupation, Toots spent time working in a missile division stationed in Ukraine. Once, they were ordered to construct a large, paved launch pad. They were supplied with no gravel, asphalt, or a single piece of equipment. They didn’t even have vodka that could be traded for supplies. Against all odds, it was finished two days later. The division stole the steamroller and scraped the rest of the materials together from who-knows-where.
„You’ve got to be creative,“ is all he says.
When I interviewed Toots early in the summer of 2021, he spoke about Russia’s efforts to spread influence in schools and transit businessmen who were vying for better ties to the colossal empire.
The weekend after the invasion of Ukraine, Toots was scrolling through Soviet propaganda posters from the Second World War and came up with an idea. He called a few colleagues, had some quick discussions, and was sending files to a print house by Sunday evening. Several days later, posters appealing for tips and warning of possible recruitment attempts by Russian intelligence officers were put up at Estonia’s border checkpoints. How successful was the campaign? I ask.
„I have a selective memory,“ he replies with a smirk, though he acknowledges an astonishing number of tips poured in.
Toots postpones one of our meetings by several weeks.
„Toots isn’t here,“ is all the KAPO press representatives will tell me.
„He’s busy in Narva,“ Sinisalu adds tersely. That’s to be expected. He was on alert in Eastern Estonia – his childhood stomping grounds – while a Soviet-era tank was moved from a pedestal in Narva to an open-air museum.
Toots isn’t particularly agitated when he returns. Everything went according to plan, which doesn’t mean it was easy. Apparently, Russian intelligence wasn’t very active during the contentious removal. KAPO did, however, had to employ the only means of quelling possible unrest: semi-forcibly bringing in certain „necessary individuals“.
It’s possible that Toots put on a Russian-language record when he got home from Narva. He’s a fan of Russian music and would gladly talk to colleagues about Kino or Akvarium, though there are more historians than music aficionados in their ranks. We meet a total of three times and Toots speaks about Russia at length, but barely says a word about himself.
„Maybe these are the last interviews I’ll ever give,“ he says.
Over the last dozen years, Toots’s unit has caught and arrested 21 Russian spies, each of whom was found guilty. I suspect he’s hinting at another capture as we conclude our conversation and he says: „Just wait a bit. There’ll be news before the year is over.“
Lithuanian counterintelligence doesn’t make a similar promise, but there is no shortage of Ukrainian flags on lapels in Vilnius. A few weeks after the invasion, Jauniškis’s father said he would have never believed he’d see another war in his lifetime.
„One day, Russians will wake up and realize what they’ve done,“ Jauniškis asserts. „And their guilt will be excruciating.“
When I leave the Latvian VDD headquarters and am returned the pens that were confiscated from me, I ask the security guard if work has been busier than usual. He nods, but doesn’t say a word.
I drive back to Estonia. A few days later, we celebrate my great-aunt’s birthday. She’s turning 100. Her children say she’s in good shape, still as sharp as a tack, and climbed up onto the roof to teach the chimneysweep a thing or two just a few years ago. However, she hasn’t slept well since February 24th. Insomnia struck after reading the news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
„She’s afraid,“ say her children. „She’s afraid the rapists will come back again.“
StevoRsays
Just stumbled on a couple of really good Halloween skeleton dissections on youtube and linked them here :
whheydt@240, On poor-quality semiconductors being supplied from Big China to Russia: That doesn’t surprise me at all. One large problem we had when I was actively working in the industry was helping our customers detect and reject counterfeit chips (mostly from Big China). There were numerous different types of counterfeiting, including (1) Excess production / sales not reported to the rights owners and sold on the grey market (these would maybe be “legit” had the rights been paid, but often didn’t pass the testing criteria); (2) Deliberately mis-marked chips (e.g., marked / sold as version “B” when really were (sometimes surplus / unsalable) version “A”); and (3) Completely fraudulent (there was(? is?) a YouTube(?) video of low-paid workers in Big China forcibly removing (which does not mean de-soldering, they were literally prying the chips off boards!) chips from boards, filing off the markings, and then the de-identified chips being repackaged as more-or-less anything with the same “footprint” (pin count / arrangement). Probably other schemes as well which I do not recall or were not known to me at the time.
One reason these sometimes crude methods worked is that chips are generally sold in (giant) “reels” resembling tape, for use in automated board-manufacturing processes. It was common practice for the customer to check / verify only the first few chips (and sometimes, last few) on the reel, and if all those were Ok, to assume the chips “in the middle” were also Ok. The flaw here is obvious, someone with the skills to make a reel-of-chips would have no problem “salting” the reel with genuine chips at the beginning and end, whilst stuffing the reel with dubious chips.
At the time I was active in the industry, there was a move towards randomly-sampling reels, which I presume is nowadays common practice. More expensive chips (e.g., the microprocessor in your computer / smartphone) usually have unique serial numbers and other technologies to detect cloning / counterfeiting. The most secure — which I was working with (including design) — won’t even boot (normally or perhaps at all) if there is detected problem, which can include physical attacks, such as improper clocking, improper temperature, improper supply voltage, physical penetration of the chip’s case, etc. (These chips are typically used in ATMs, as one example.)
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Russian forces carried out new airstrikes on Ukrainian energy facilities on Tuesday, causing several explosions in an area of northern Kyiv where there is a thermal power station. Dnipro, Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr were also targets.
City mayor Vitali Klitschko said today’s attack was on “critical infrastructure” in northern Kyiv, and urged resident to conserve electricity and stockpile drinking water.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said: “Since 10 October, 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed, causing massive blackouts across the country”. Describing the Russian strikes on power supplies as “another kind of Russian terrorist attacks”, Zelenskiy said there was “no space left for negotiations with Putin’s regime”.
A new air defence package for Ukraine is being prepared in the wake of what western officials describe as an Iranian-aided effort by Russia to destroy Ukraine’s entire national electricity network.
Both the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, and the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, are flying to Washington for a separate round of meetings to discuss how to respond to Iran’s intervention in the battlefield, including whether to raise the issue at the UN, impose new sanctions, and even cut off talks on the Iran nuclear deal….
Ukraine’s foreign minister has announced he is submitting a proposal to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to cut diplomatic ties with Iran.
Amid claims Iran had supplied weapons to Russia, Dmytro Kuleba insisted it bore full responsibility for destruction across Ukraine.
Kyiv would send an official note to Israel calling for immediate air defence supplies and cooperation, he said….
Russia’s Duma has indefinitely stopped broadcasting live plenary sessions to protect information from “our enemy”, a leading lawmaker said on Tuesday as parliament’s lower house debated topics related to the war in Ukraine.
“Those questions that require sensitive discussion in a narrow professional circle should not be the property of our enemy,” Vladimir Vasilyev, head of the dominant United Russia faction, told the military news channel Zvezda TV.
Reuters reports the move meant there was no live broadcast on the Duma website or social media of Tuesday’s session, where deputies were due to consider a report from deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin on the process of moving civilians to Russia from the Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are waging a counter-offensive.
In a separate development, Interfax has reported in Russia that Google has blocked the Russian Federation Council’s YouTube accounts, which had about 200,000 subscribers and contained some 20,000 videos.
Russian telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that Google immediately restore the accounts.
Germany’s interior minister has sacked the country’s cybersecurity chief, following allegations he had turned a blind eye to a firm with with links to Russian security circles.
Arne Schönbohm, the president of the German Federal Office for Information Security, was released from his duties with immediate effect on Tuesday, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported citing security circles.
A spokesperson for interior minister Nancy Faeser confirmed that Schönbohm would be barred from his office, after “necessary public trust in the neutrality and impartiality of his leadership as president of the most important German cybersecurity agency has been damaged”.
Schönbom, who has since 2016 been in charge of the agencies overseeing the government’s computer and communication security, has come under scrutiny after his links to a Russian company in a previous job were highlighted by Jan Böhmermann, a German comedian, in a late-night satire show.
In a report which they are labelling an exclusive, Reuters claims that two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats have informed it that Iran has promised to provide Russia with surface to surface missiles, in addition to more drones.
The report claims that a deal was agreed on 6 October when Iran’s first vice president Mohammad Mokhber, two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and an official from the supreme national security council visited Moscow for talks with Russia about the delivery of the weapons.
“The Russians had asked for more drones and those Iranian ballistic missiles with improved accuracy, particularly the Fateh and Zolfaghar missiles family,” said one of the Iranian diplomats, who was briefed about the trip….
…19-year-old Nergis [a pseudonym] also joined the protests, and was hit by rubber bullets in her back and legs. She says Panahi’s death has motivated her and her friends to continue to protest, despite the danger.
She says what happened to Panahi – as well as the deaths of two other schoolgirls, 17-year-old Nika Shahkarami and 16-year-old Sarina Esmailzadeh, both at the hands of the Iranian security forces – has united young people across Iran under a common cause.
“I don’t have a single relative in Ardabil, but with this brutal crackdown on our sisters, who were just 16 years old, they’ve awakened the whole nation,” she says.
“We never knew we were so united – across the Baloch regions as well as the Kurdish regions. The world has heard about Nika, Sarina and Asra, but there are so many other nameless children who we know nothing about.
“It’s not just Asra’s death,” she says. “The Islamic Republic has been killing our people for 40 years, but our voices weren’t heard. Let the world know this is no longer a protest – we are calling for a revolution. Now that you’re all listening to our voices, we will not stop.”
According to the latest report by the Iran Human Rights group, 215 people, including 27 children, have been killed in the nationwide protests, as of 17 October.
Chris Hayes: “Right-wing politics as currently embodied by MAGAism—which is the dominant ethos of one of two of America’s major parties—has always been and will always be fundamentally a threat to tolerance and pluralism that will inevitably target Jews.”
Rachel Maddow looks at the history of antisemitism going hand in hand with authoritarian political messaging, including in the United States, and the reemergence of those themes from Donald Trump Republicans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
“Now is not the time to remain silent or to give the GOP a pass…These are not isolated or unconnected acts of antisemitic hate…It’s all part of the same thing: The rising & dangerous fascism on the American right.”
Ukraine intensifying calls for Israel to provide air defense amid Russian attacks w/Iranian drones: “We [have been] working hard for a long time in order to ask Israel to get open to cooperation with Ukraine in the air defense sphere,” Ukrainian FM Kuleba told reporters today.
“If Israel’s policy is to counteract Iran’s destructive actions, then it is time for Israel to openly stand with Ukraine,” he added. “Today, without any exaggeration, the same drones that destroy Ukraine are aimed at Israel. I think [that’s] enough said.”
‘I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine’.”
Longer quote at the (Twitter) link.
ravensays
More on the Nordstream pipeline attacks.
The Norwegian undersea robot shot video of the pipeline holes.
You can see them yourself at the short video at the link.
The conclusion is that powerful explosions tore apart 150 feet of the pipeline.
They still claim no one knows who did it.
It is not for sure, but it has to be a state level entity with a lot of High Tech gear.
This pipeline is 300 feet underwater in the middle of the ocean. Even finding it is going to be hard.
Most likely it was the Russians.
As the EU is realizing, Russia has declared war on the West.
Not a shooting war (yet) but an economic and political war.
The whole reason to take away their gas supplies is to freeze Europeans during the winter and wreck their economies.
Nord Stream blast ‘blew away 50 metres of pipe’
Watch: Swedish newspaper’s undersea video of ‘blown-up Nord Stream 1 pipeline’
By Merlyn Thomas
BBC News October 18, 2022
At least 50 metres (164ft) of an underwater pipeline bringing Russian gas to Germany is thought to have been destroyed by a blast last month.
Video shot by a Norwegian robotics company, published by Swedish newspaper Expressen, appears to show the massive tear in the Nord Stream 1 pipe.
Danish police believe “powerful explosions” blew four holes in the pipe and its newer twin, Nord Stream 2.
It is still unknown who or what caused the blasts amid suspicions of sabotage.
Gas deliveries have been suspended since the 26 September explosions on the pipes crossing the Baltic Sea.
The Kremlin has accused Western investigators of seeking to blame Russia for the damage.
“Elementary logic” shows damaging the pipeline was not in the Russian interest, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Western leaders have stopped short of directly accusing Russia but the EU has previously accused Russia of using its gas supplies as a weapon against the West over its support for Ukraine.
Working with Expressen, Blueye Robotics used a submersible drone to film the twisted and bent metal of the Nord Stream pipe 80m beneath the surface of the sea.
Parts of the pipeline are either missing or buried in the seabed, the company said.
“It is only an extreme force that can bend metal that thick in the way we are seeing,” drone operator Trond Larsen told Expressen.
Danish police findings appear to confirm those of Swedish authorities who have also been investigating the leaks in the pipelines.
“The inspections have confirmed that there has been extensive damage to Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the Danish exclusive economic zone,” said Danish police.
German, Danish, and Swedish authorities have all been investigating the incident but Swedish prosecutors reportedly rejected a joint investigation out of fears of sharing sensitive information related to national security.
Russia previously demanded to be involved in any investigations, saying the damage was in international waters, but Denmark and Sweden refused.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline has not transported any gas since August when Russia closed it down, saying it needed maintenance.
It stretches 1,200km (745 miles) from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to north-eastern Germany.
Nord Stream 2 was still awaiting clearance for use when Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
ravensays
“An intelligence assessment shared in recent days with Ukrainian and U.S. officials contends that Iran’s armaments industry is preparing a first shipment of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, two well-known Iranian short-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets at distances of 300 and 700 kilometers, respectively,”
Russia is escalating the war by terrorist attacks on cities with long range drones and missiles. They were running out but are getting resupplied by Iran.
Ukraine can’t retaliate in kind because they don’t have much in the way of long range missiles and drones. Yet.
They claim to be developing them and quickly but I’m sure it will take more time than they claim or have.
They have started hitting military bases in Russia near the borders with what weapons they do have though.
The West needs to supply them with long range aerial weapons and if they hit military targets in Russia, so what?
Just sitting around like a rabbit in the road while Russia launches missiles and drones on their cities and power plants isn’t good tactics or strategy.
Iran plans to send missiles, drones to Russia for Ukraine war, officials say
Increased flow of weapons from Iran could help offset steep Russian weapons losses, rebuild supply of precision-guided munitions
By Joby Warrick, Ellen Nakashima and Shane Harris
October 16, 2022 at 2:30 a.m. EDT Washington Post edited for length
Iran is strengthening its commitment to supply arms for Russia’s assault on Ukraine, according to U.S. and allied security officials, secretly agreeing to send not only attack drones but also what some officials described as the first Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles intended for use against Ukrainian cities and troop positions.
The increased flow of weapons from Tehran could help offset what Biden administration officials say have been huge losses in Russian military equipment since Moscow invaded in February, and a rapidly dwindling supply of precision-guided munitions of the kind used in last week’s strikes against multiple Ukrainian cities.
Independent news outlets in recent days published photos of the remains of what appear to be Iranian-made drones used in strikes against Ukrainian targets, calling into question Iran’s repeated denials that it has supplied such weapons to its ally Russia. Pentagon officials also publicly confirmed the use of Iranian drones in Russian airstrikes, as well as Ukraine’s success in shooting some of the drones down.
In an apparent sign of Iran’s expanded role as a military supplier to Moscow, Tehran dispatched officials to Russia on Sept. 18 to finalize terms for additional weapons shipments, including two types of Iranian surface-to-surface missiles, according to officials from a U.S.-allied country that closely monitors Iran’s weapons activity.
An intelligence assessment shared in recent days with Ukrainian and U.S. officials contends that Iran’s armaments industry is preparing a first shipment of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, two well-known Iranian short-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets at distances of 300 and 700 kilometers, respectively, two officials briefed on the matter said. If carried out, it would be the first delivery of such missiles to Russia since the start of the war.
The officials spoke on the condition that their names and nationalities not be revealed because of the extreme sensitivities surrounding intelligence-collection efforts.
In August, some of the same officials identified specific Iranian drones, the Shahed series and the Mohajer-6, that Tehran was beginning to supply to Russia for use in Ukraine. The remains of both types have been recovered, analyzed and photographed by Ukrainian forces in recent weeks. Russia appears to have repainted the weapons and given them Russian names.
The officials briefed on the planned missiles shipment said Iran also is preparing new deliveries of unmanned aerial vehicles for Russia, including “dozens” of additional Mohajer-6s and a larger number of Shahed-136s. The latter, sometimes called “kamikaze” drones because they are designed to crash into their targets, are capable of delivering explosive payloads at distances of up to 1,500 miles. Iranian technical advisers have visited Russian-controlled areas in recent weeks to provide instructions on operating the drones, the officials said.
ravensays
Ukrainian FM Kuleba
“Today, without any exaggeration, the same drones that destroy Ukraine are aimed at Israel. I think [that’s] enough said.”
He has a point.
As many have pointed out, Iran is testing out its own weapons on Europeans, the Ukrainians.
They are working well.
Iran’s weapons are going to be directed towards their enemies which include especially Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Arabs, and the West in general.
Estonian parliament declares Russia terrorist regime.
The Estonian parliament condemned Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories and voted to declare Russia “a terrorist regime” on Oct. 18.
“Putin’s regime, with its threats of a nuclear attack, has turned Russia into the biggest danger to peace in Europe and in the whole world,” reads the statement submitted by 85 Estonian lawmakers.
Russian strikes have left more than 1,100 villages and towns in Ukraine without power after targeting energy facilities across the country, Kyiv has said.
Vladimir Putin’s troops have launched around 190 attacks using missiles, kamikaze drones, and artillery in 16 regions including the capital, Ukraine’s emergency services said.
More than 70 people have been killed and 240 more injured in the assaults.
“For now, 1,162 settlements in Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovogod, Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Lugansk, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions remain cut off from electricity,” spokesperson Oleksandr Khorunzhyi told a briefing.
In Episode 145 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg contrasts statements from anarchists in Ukraine and Russia—who call unequivocally for Putin’s defeat and removal from power—with the relentless lecturing from stateside “leftists” that the Ukrainians must cede territory in exchange for “peace.” These stateside voices include (inevitably) Medea Benjamin and (of course) Noam Chomsky on (predictably) Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now. They actually call for the United States to “negotiate” with Russia—the Great Powers deciding the fate of Ukraine, without the participation of the Ukrainians (exactly as in the 1938 Munich Agreement, in which Czechoslovakia was betrayed to the Nazis). Both these ostensible leftist positions line up with figures from the political establishment. On Chomsky’s and Benjamin’s side are Elon Musk and Donald Trump. On the side of the intransigent Ukrainian and Russian anarchists are Ukraine’s former defense minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk writing in Foreign Affairs, and President Joe Biden, who told CNN: “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.” Is it possible that Joe Biden has a more progressive position than Noam Chomsky? Actually, yes.
(“The Russian Empire was an empire. That’s why it was called the Russian Empire.” LOL.)
From CNN: Trump showed off the Kim letter to Bob Woodward. There are also recordings of Trump bragging that his button is bigger than Kim’s button. It is bizarro.
During a December 2019 Oval Office interview with then-President Donald Trump, Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward asked whether his bellicose rhetoric toward North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had been intended to drive Kim to the negotiating table.
“No. No. It was designed for whatever reason, it was designed. Who knows? Instinctively. Let’s talk instinct, okay?” Trump said. “Because it’s really about you don’t know what’s going to happen. But it was very rough rhetoric. The roughest.”
Trump then instructed his aides to show Woodward his photos with Kim at the DMZ. “This is me and him. That’s the line, right? Then I walked over the line. Pretty cool. You know? Pretty cool. Right?” the president said.
SNIP+++++++++++++++
The interviews offer unvarnished insights into the former president’s worldview and are the most extensive recordings of Trump speaking about his presidency — including explaining his rationale for meeting Kim, his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Trump’s detailed views of the US nuclear arsenal. The audio also shows how Trump decided to share with Woodward the letters Kim wrote to him – the letters that helped spark the DOJ investigation into classified documents Trump took to Mar-a-Lago.
“And don’t say I gave them to you, okay?” Trump told Woodward.
The whole article is mindblowing.
But it also brings to my mind THE QUESTION: to how many other people has he shown classified documents, and how many of them are agents of a foreign power?
I agree with those who (like Christie) who have said that Trump’s collection of documents is all about Trump having something to show off, having something that no one else has, having memorabilia from his time in the White House. But, retaining classified materials to soothe his ego does not mean that he is carelessly showing them off or trying to monetize the ones that still remain.
“Soon Ukraine will turn into the Syria of 2015. No water, no electricity, the whole country is in ruins,” – Russian telegram channel rejoicing, more than 4 thousand likes. Under each message alike. The same in comments to Simonyan’s posts
“Attacks all around Ukraine,”- almost 5 k positive reactions. “Iskanders launched “, “Infrastructure in Kharkiv hit” – same
Ukraine’s parliament recognizes Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as temporarily occupied by Russia.
The Verkhovna Rada’s decision on Oct. 18 to recognize the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as temporarily occupied by Russia is awaiting the signature of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine’s parliament also voted to condemn the Russian genocide of the Chechen people. The resolution was supported by 287 deputies.
Nato will deliver air defence systems to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russian drone attacks.
…
“The most important thing we can do is deliver on what allies have promised, to step up and deliver even more air defence systems,” Nato’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said.
“Nato will in the coming days deliver counter-drone systems to counter the specific threat of drones, including those from Iran. No nation should support the illegal war of Russia against Ukraine.”
raven @242, well that’s very depressing … and it clarifies a lot. The text you posted prompted me to remember that the writers of Ukraine updates for DailyKos have, more than once, noted the peculiar passivity or apathy of Russian people when they are faced with the wrongdoings of Russian leaders. I wonder if that apathetic aspect contributes to the development of the kind of overt cruelty we saw Russian soldiers commit in Ukraine.
“A high-ranking Belarusian KGB officer escaped to [the EU]. The regime fears that he might become an essential source of information. The security services immediately began a campaign to discredit him. Lukashenka is terrified of betrayal and holds a massive internal purge.”
blf @244, that’s interesting information concerning the semiconductors. I have one relative who used to work for Micron. He said that testing semiconductors was a never-ending task. The fact that Big China sells semiconductors that have to be rigorously tested before use does not surprise me. Looks an even bigger problem for Russia though.
Unlike Georgia’s senatorial debate last Friday where the incumbent was forced to confront prop badges and incomprehensible, constant diversions, Monday night’s gubernatorial debate was a thing of beauty.
With a surgeon’s precision and a chess player’s skill, Stacey Abrams reduced Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to slivers. Abrams came out of the gate attacking Kemp on everything from voter suppression to crime, to Medicaid expansion, to gun control, to reproductive justice.
Kemp continued to attempt to push back on Abrams via “her record,” but the reality is Abrams doesn’t have a record in the same way that he does. He’s the one currently serving; Abrams capitalized on this, highlighting the failings of the state under his leadership.
When Abrams was attacked by Kemp on her support of law enforcement, she came back strong and with the receipts.
“I support law enforcement. And have done so for 11 years … I’m probably the only person standing here who’s ever actually written an SOP [standard operating procedure] for a police department when I was working for the city of Atlanta,” Abrams said.
Then she told a story about her two brothers. One who’s “committed crimes.”
“I want his victims to be able to call the police and get the help that they need, and I’ve always supported that right,” she said.
Then she talked about her other brother, the one who said has been pulled over for ”driving while Black” when he was coming home from his job as a social worker.
“Unlike you,” she said to Kemp, “I don’t have the luxury of relying on slogans to describe my position on public safety. I believe in safety and justice … and like most Georgians, I lead a complicated life where we need access to help, but we also need to know that we are safe from racial violence. While you may not have had that experience, too many people I know have.”
When Kemp tried to attack Abrams on her support of the defunding the police movement, accusing her of not having the support of sheriffs in the state, Abrams called out Kemp for lying.
She told Kemp that she did, in fact, have the support of sheriffs but also victims, advocates, and “those who want to be treated fairly in our system.” She added, “I have to have conversations with the entirety of Georgia. I don’t have the luxury of being part of a good ol’ boys club where we don’t focus on the needs of our people.” [video at the link]
[…] Abrams went after Kemp’s lack of support for Black and brown owned-businesses. [video at the link] “We know that $10.9 billion has been delivered to the state of Georgia […], and Brian Kemp does not have a plan for making certain people of color have access to contracts … He has said we need to study it. I would tell him just cheat off my paper. I know the answer. We need a governor who believes in equity. Racial equity.”
On gun control, things got heated. In April, Kemp signed legislation making it legal for Georgia gun owners to carry a concealed handgun in public without a license.
When Abrams attacked Kemp on background checks, he responded by saying there was a “federal background check” on everyone who buys a gun.
“That’s not true,” Abrams said, adding that if someone buys a gun through a gun show or private sale, they are not subject to a background check.
Abrams is right.
“While federal law requires background checks for all gun sales by licensed gun dealers, it does not require background checks for guns sold by unlicensed sellers, like non-dealers who sell guns online or at gun shows. This loophole enables people with felony convictions, domestic abuse restraining orders, and other people with prohibiting histories to buy guns with no questions asked. The loophole should be closed to require background checks on all gun sales—not just on the sale of firearms from licensed gun dealers,” according to Everytown Research. [video at the link]
Abrams put a nail in Kemp’s coffin when asked what she saw as the most significant issues in Georgia and how she would fix them.
“This is a governor who, for the last four years, beats his chest but has delivered very little for most Georgians. He has weakened gun laws and flooded our streets. He’s weakened our privacy rights and women’s rights. He’s denied women access to reproductive care. The most dangerous thing facing Georgia is four more years of Brian Kemp. We need a governor who actually understands the math and the morality,” she said.
Oggie: Mathomsays
@260:
I wonder if Russia has the highest rate of self-defenestration in the world?
Artillery has been pounding positions on both sides as rasputitsa, aka mud season, arrived weeks early to Ukraine this year. Normally, it’s not expected until November. [tweet and video at the link]
By restricting movement to main roads, the rain and mud have made advancement by either side difficult. Any attempt to go off road in these conditions will mean reduced range and maneuverability at best, and bogged down immobilized vehicles at worst. Y’all remember Russia’s difficulties back in March, don’t you? While we’re not quite at that level yet, things are definitely getting dicey. Armored vehicles have to mostly stick to roads. [tweet and video at the link]
It’s hard to hide movement on roads, and easy to plot coordinates on a map. Advance is difficult. [tweets and videos at the link, mostly showing the precision of Ukrainian artillery strikes when Russian equipment is trying to advance on roads]
Aside from the issues of mud and roads, you may be marveling at the impressive accuracy of those Ukrainian artillery guns. For sure, those guys know what they’re doing, but there is inherent margin of error on “dumb” artillery shells. These are Excalibur precision-guided artillery rounds, homing in on laser targets provided by loitering drones. In contrast, GMLRS rockets fired by HIMARS and M270 MLRS are GPS guided. They both have their purposes—GMLRS hits weapons depots, military bases, and fixed defensive positions, while Excalibur picks off individual armored vehicles one by one, even while moving.
In the video below, Excalibur rounds take out a high-value surface to air missile system. Strikes like these allow the Ukrainian Air Force to fly more aggressive ground-support missions at the front. [video at the link]
Another Excalibur strike: [video of camouflaged Russian tank being obliterated]
[…] The rounds cost around $68,000 each, about half the price of a GMLRS rocket, though significantly more expensive than a $800 dumb artillery shell. Still, one shell does the job of 50 dumb shells, which sure, still isn’t as expensive, but the one-and-out shot means the artillery gun can break down and move far quicker, enhancing survivability of precious howitzers and their crews. The U.S. has sent 2,000 Excalibur rounds in the last month alone.
September 15: 1,000
October 7: 500
October 14: 500
That will make for a lot of wrecked armor, the perfect tool to “shape the battlefield” as HIMARS focuses more on taking out bridges and barges resupplying Russia’s forces around Kherson.
Interestingly, every video above has been in the Kherson front, I haven’t seen Excalibur strikes anywhere else. For all the talk of potential misdirection, that maybe Ukraine is preparing an offensive in the southeast corner of the country, around Zaporizhzhia and southern Donetsk oblast, it remains clear that Ukraine is deploying its best munitions around Kherson.
Russian artillery may not be as precise, but it’s no fun being on the receiving end of it. [tweet and video at the link]
[…] Ukrainian advances have pushed so far forward near Kherson, that those forces might soon be in range of Russia artillery positions on the other (supplied) side of the Dnipro river. [tweet and video at the link]
That shouldn’t be an issue until Ukrainian forces take Mylove and push further south. But unless Ukraine can finish the job on the Kerch bridge, Russian forces on the south side of the Dnipro won’t have any trouble pounding advancing Ukrainian forces … and the city of Kherson if it’s liberated.
Full operational silence means we don’t know what’s going on around Kherson, but I’m less and less inclined to believe we’re seeing major advances. Rather, the weather has made movement difficult, so why not wait a month for the ground to freeze while systematically degrading Russian defenses? As the weather turns cold, we might even see more Russian surrenders, defections, and desertions.
Once the ground is frozen, Ukraine can advance with even larger force. Britain alone is training 2,500 Ukrainians every six weeks, with Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, and the Baltic countries recently joining the effort. More armored vehicles and artillery guns are arriving in Ukraine daily. Russia, on the other hand, is relegated to sending untrained, under-equipped, unmotivated mobilized conscripts to serve as speed bumps in miserably cold and wet trenches. While Belarus empties its armored vehicle stores for Russia, Excalibur and GMLRS rocket artillery systematically whittles away Russia’s capabilities.
Over summer, Ukraine was under pressure to prove it could recapture territory, lest Western allies lose Western faith throughout a cold winter. Those days are past. Ukraine’s capabilities have been well-proven. Now, it makes sense to wait for the more tactically advantageous conditions to press the attack.
I haven’t talked much about the Kyiv Blitz—Russia’s Nazi-like effort to break Ukraine’s spirits be using Iranian suicide drones to strike both energy infrastructure and civilian targets. I suspect those civilian targets are accidental, given the shitty quality of Russian (and Iranian) gear. Russia couldn’t have possibly wanted to waste an $18 million cruise missile on a playground swing set. Those Iranian drones don’t even have cameras.
Thing is, despite the attention those Iranian drones are generating, they’re militarily irrelevant. Hitler was able to reduce much of London to rubble using his V2 rockets, these Iranian drones are causing limited damage. A large percentage have also been shot down, with more air defenses arriving soon.
If anything, those cheap drones (reported cost, around $20,000 each), deployed by the hundreds, might overwhelm Ukrainian defenses, causing shortages in expensive surface-to-air missiles. But in Russia’s best case scenario, what could they ultimately accomplish? Each civilian target, whether intentional or not, merely intensifies Ukrainian resolve and builds more pressure in the West for long-range rockets like ATACMS for HIMARS launchers, as well as NATO tanks and aircraft. Maybe Russia manages to take down significant portions of Ukraine’s power grid, making the Russian milbloggers like Rybar happy? Yeah, that would suck. It would mean lots of cold people this winter, but Ukrainians aren’t soft people. They’ll adapt and survive, just like they did last February and March in places like Mariupol, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv.
I’m betting Ukraine will figure out how to effectively combat those drones within the next 4-6 weeks, with both additional Western help (like anti-drone jammers) and domestic ingenuity. Meanwhile, the on-the-ground tactical and strategic situation will remain completely unchanged because even now, Russia still [is not using] its rockets, missiles, and drones to strike military targets.
More than 1.3 million people are forced to put their lives in danger every day because they can’t afford their life-saving prescriptions. Congress could have fixed that this year, but Republicans in the Senate refused to do it. Repeatedly.
The Annals of Internal Medicine published a study Monday estimating that 16.5% of adults with diabetes delay, skip, ration, and decrease their prescribed doses of insulin because of the cost. […] “If people have poorly controlled diabetes … they end up with lots of complications and earlier death.”
Patients in the U.S. pay as much as 10 times more than those in 32 foreign countries in the OECD, according to a 2018 analysis. The average price for a standard unit of insulin, which costs less than $10 to produce was $98.70 in the U.S., $8.81 in those countries. […]
Democrats single-handedly passed a price cap on insulin for people on Medicare this summer, fixing as much of the problem as Republicans would allow. A provision of the Inflation Reduction Act caps the cost of insulin for people on Medicare at $35 a month. They used a process to pass that bill that didn’t rely on Republican votes, but that doesn’t mean that Republicans couldn’t join them on the bill.
Not only did Republicans refuse to help pass that bill, they blocked that price cap on insulin from being available to everyone with health insurance. That provision was in the bill, but keeping it there required 60 votes. But 43 Republican senators forced it to be stripped out, including three who are up for reelection this year—Marco Rubio of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Those three could have saved the day. There were seven Republicans who decided that they weren’t cruel enough to want diabetics’ premature deaths on their heads and voted with Democrats. […]
Democrats—singlehandedly—will have helped the 11% of diabetics on Medicare who reported they have had to ration their insulin. The more than 20% of younger adults with diabetes who reported they skimp on their use of insulin. That’s one-fifth of people in America with diabetes who are risking their lives because they can’t afford a drug that would cost them less than $10 if they lived in a civilized nation.
Rubio and Scott didn’t really bother to defend their votes. Johnson claimed he did it because Democrats were doing it the wrong way.
He’s not against people affording insulin, he’s against Democrats using a legislative process they all agreed to allow to do it.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is one of the leaders in the Senate trying to make insulin affordable for everyone. Here’s what his opponent—who actually could become a U.S. Senator—said about the issue in their only debate: “I believe in reducing insulin but at the same time, you gotta eat right. I know many people that’s on insulin. Unless you’re eating right, insulin is doing you no good. So you have to get food prices down and you gotta get gas down so you can go get insulin.”
I’ll just leave that there.
Given majorities in Congress next year, Democrats will take up the issue again, and this time could prevail if the Senate majority is big enough to kick Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to the curb and get rid of the legislative filibuster. But that means a Democratic majority. It means a serious upgrade in Wisconsin and the end of Ron Johnson’s political life. It means keeping Herschel Walker the hell out of the place.
President Joe Biden, flanked by banners calling to “RESTORE ROE,” promised Tuesday to sign legislation codifying abortion rights first thing in January if Democrats win enough seats to pass it.
“Here’s the promise I make to you and the American people,” he said at a Democratic National Committee event at Howard Theatre in Washington D.C. “The first bill that I will send to the Congress will be to codify Roe v. Wade. And when Congress passes it, I’ll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe was first decided the law of the land.”
He also promised to quash Republicans’ plans to pass a nationwide abortion ban.
“If such a bill were to pass in the next several years,” he said, lowering his voice to a whisper, “I’ll veto it.”
Biden went on to list other legislative accomplishments from his first two years, in some cases, promising to build on them. After touting the gun reform bill passed in June, he vowed to go further.
“If you give me a Democratic Congress, we’re gonna ban assault weapons again,” he said to cheers. “I did it once, I’ll do it again.”
He also slipped in some news, regarding the student loan debt forgiveness application that the administration officially unveiled on Monday.
“Just since yesterday, four million more people applied,” he said.
In the final weeks before the all-important midterms, with voting already underway in some states, many Democrats are making abortion rights a central part of their messaging. It’s a new twist on a decades-old dynamic where Republicans turned their base out on the promise that controlling the White House and Senate would result in Supreme Court justices who’d overturn Roe. […]
On Sunday, […] Trump used his Truth Social account to assure his audience that he would not be outdone in the current alarming escalation in antisemitic rhetoric on the American right. “No President has done more for Israel than I have,” Trump wrote, his use of present tense falsely suggesting he retains power. “Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” These Jews, Trump went on, even more menacingly, “have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!”
It is impossible not to read “have to get their act together” as a threat, particularly with his addition of the phrase “Before it is too late!” at the end. The threat is susceptible to multiple meanings — probably intentionally — and none of them are good.
One interpretation is theological, a topic on which Trump is notoriously illiterate, although he’s likely spent enough time around evangelicals to know they believe they have an imperative to convert Jews to Christianity. They seek converts now, because you never know when Jesus is actually coming back, and you want to be saved already when it happens. The evangelicals who await Jesus’s return at the battle of Armageddon envision it as an event during which Jews will be forced to accept Christ, or perish in a lake of brimstone. “Before it is too late!” has a very particular meaning here.
Another interpretation is purely political. Trump demands loyalty, and he gets it from an overwhelming majority of white evangelicals, but only a tiny minority of Jews. In this interpretation, Trump is angry not to see Jews at bended knee. Jews’ supposed failure to “appreciate what they have in Israel” is actually a failure to appreciate that Trump has done heroic things for Israel. Those things, which include tearing up the Iran nuclear deal and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, are valued by evangelicals, but not so much by American Jews. Trump, then, rather than seeking Jewish support through other means or gestures, uses it as a bludgeon against them — which is itself antisemitic. As the historian Federico Finchelstein noted on Twitter about Trump’s post, “This is an old concern in the history of antisemitism. For antisemites, Jews do not appreciate the leader’s power/refuse to believe in the leader’s cult, etc & thus undermine him.” […]
A third interpretation combines these theological and political factors — and is perhaps even more disturbing. Without evangelical support, Trump would not have won the presidency in 2016. He would not have remained in power throughout multiple scandals and impeachment without their unbreakable dedication to protecting him. One might think this was transactional: that Trump fulfilled promises, such as the embassy move, that evangelicals had long sought, and they supported him in return. But it’s more than that, and more tightly intertwined with their view of Trump as a divinely anointed leader.
Christian Zionists believe that policy steps should be taken to ensure that what they consider to be all of Israel — including the illegally occupied West Bank, which they refer to as Judea and Samaria — is in Jewish hands as a precondition for Jesus’s return. Christian Zionists insist that God granted this land to the Jews (who will nonetheless have to convert or die), and that U.S. law should reflect this biblical imperative, regardless of the illegality of the annexation and occupation of Palestinian land under international law. John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel — who was famously sidelined in 2008 by then-GOP presidential nominee John McCain over antisemitic remarks — was close to the Trump administration. Hagee has long preached that the decisive battle at Armageddon will unfold on God’s time, but that God will punish America if it fails to “bless” Israel as, he claims, is required in the Book of Genesis.
Hagee boasted on his website that he had helped convince Trump to make the embassy move […] This conflation of Trump’s role (the miracle of the embassy move) in what Christian Zionists believe is a fulfillment of divine prophecy (Christ’s return) places Trump in a rarefied space that no other president has occupied. To his evangelical supporters, Trump is deified not because of what he has done “for Israel” but actually for the evangelical vision of what Israel represents — the location of Jesus’s return, and of his envisioned global thousand-year reign.
Trump has a long history of making antisemitic remarks, embracing the support of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, peddling antisemitic stereotypes, and accusing Jews of disloyalty to him. He claims to be a great supporter of Jews and Israel, yet, for example, he has never commented on how one of the insurrectionists he incited to the Capitol on January 6 wore a sweatshirt with “Camp Auschwitz” on the front and “staff” on the back. Underneath, he wore a t-shirt celebrating Hitler’s paramilitary, the SS. In the current climate in which Kanye West is engaging in scapegoating rants, GOP candidates are promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories, and others are emboldened to adopt a full-throated Christian supremacy, Trump’s post — and the complete silence from GOP leaders about it — is more ominous than ever.
ravensays
Lynna:
…more than once, noted the peculiar passivity or apathy of Russian people when they are faced with the wrongdoings of Russian leaders.
The Russian people have centuries of brutal dictatorships and have never been a democracy.
The Russian government has killed tens of millions of its own people one way or another. The Holodomor Stalin Famines of the 1930’s, the Gulags, the disappearances, the exiles in Siberia, and the human wave tactics during World War II.
They are good at smiling and nodding at whatever their government does without showing their true feelings. What other choice do they have?
Being antiwar in Russia today is a serious crime.
I wonder if that apathetic aspect contributes to the development of the kind of overt cruelty we saw Russian soldiers commit in Ukraine.
Undoubtedly.
I’ve seen enough of Russian culture and society to draw the same conclusions as others.
.1. Human life is cheap and meaningless in Russia.
You can die any time someone with money or power decides you are in the way and we see it happens often.
.2. They have high rates of social problems to show for their dysfunctional society.
Alcoholism is very high and results in many children born with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Domestic abuse is also high. The Russian government recently just decriminalized it because it was so common.
.3. In Russia everyone is looking out for themselves.
That is why corruption is very high and a normal part of their society.
The attitude is that life is hard, no one is going to help you, and you have to do whatever you can to survive.
.4. No rule of law.
.5. The whole Russian Federation is set up to feed resources from all of Russia to the elites in Moscow and St. Petersberg.
This is a Third World government/economic model.
IMO, Ukraine is fighting for the entire West, the EU, North America, and so on.
And if we don’t stop the Russians now in Ukraine, we will end up paying a far higher price down the line anyway. As many analysts have said, the only thing Russia understands is force.
Someone please explain to the white evangelicals that Jesus was born, lived, and died Jewish.
———————-
are these people supporting Trump and his actions because they think Trump and his actions will lead to Armageddon?
———————-
Drugs may fry brains, but so do cult religions like this.
——————-
Just a reminder that Hagee is the same demagogue who preaches that at Armageddon all Jews will be slaughtered except 144,000 Male Virgins who will convert to Christianity.
Make no mistake about it. Hagee and his fellow Xtians want to finish what Hitler started.
———————–
Jesus wept.
At the beginning of August, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida did one of his publicity stunt press conferences where he appealed to the basest fears of the conservative world. No, this wasn’t the time he went after LGBTQ+ children or teachers. No, this wasn’t the millions of dollars in taxpayer money he used to separate immigrant families in order to score political points with xenophobes. This was the time he announced that he was going to create a Gestapo-like outfit of election fraud law enforcement officials. Like everything DeSantis has done, it costs the taxpayers a lot of money in order to punish a few (almost always entirely innocent) people.
Subsequently, DeSantis announced with confetti that his crack squad of election-fraud-stateers had arrested “20” Florida residents for illegally voting in the 2020 election. It turns out that the number was 19, and it also turns out that most of the people in that number were Black (at least 13 of the people taken into custody), 12 were registered Democrats, and virtually every single person arrested by the DeSantis goon squad were told in one form or another that they could vote by various Florida officials. The move works on two levels: 1) DeSantis gets to make a big splash with the national Republican base by championing the conspiracy theory bullshit that fires up their old racism, and 2) DeSantis creates fear of voting among communities unlikely to vote for a dirtbag Republican in Florida. The cost? Some citizens’ freedoms and lives.
Now video of a few of the arrests through police officer body camera footage has been obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. It shows Florida citizens absolutely baffled and demoralized while apologetic police officers arrest them on these politically motivated hack charges.
The first video shows Tampa resident Tony Patterson being arrested by a couple of officers in front of his home. He is completely blown away by the idea that he is truly being arrested. The police officer, clearly uncomfortable with being the bearer of fascism in this case, attempts to offer an olive branch saying that Patterson’s bond has been “reduced quite a bit,” and so the two felony counts Patterson is facing will only amount to $1,000 bond. Patterson puts his hand over his face, frequently saying, “Oh my God, man.” He isn’t yelling—he isn’t even angry. What you are seeing is a man who is bewildered by how profoundly unfair, inhumane, and maddening what’s happening to and around him is.
As Patterson puts his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, he asks, “Why are they doing this to me? I didn’t do nothing to nobody.” As they walk Patterson over to one of the officer’s vehicles—a long walk mind you, out across two lawns in the middle of the day—Patterson is informed that he will be searched against the vehicle once they get there, and he responds, “What is wrong with this state?” The answer to that question is large, but if you wanted to distill it down into a few words that might capture some of the moral decay involved in what is happening to Patterson here, that answer would be “Ron DeSantis.” [video at the link]
The next person is 55-year-old Romona Oliver. Oliver is getting into her car, in her driveway, to go to work. It is not yet 7 AM when Florida police officers walk up to her and inform her that they are arresting her. Her car is running and the driver’s side door is open. She is gobsmacked, saying, “Oh my God,” numerous times as officers arrest her in her driveway and tell her apologetically that she will be let back out right after being booked in at the station. “I know you’re caught off guard but unfortunately that’s how this stuff works.” The officer is trying to be nice but the stuff isn’t “unfortunate,” this is exactly how this is supposed to “work.”
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Oliver “registered to vote at the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles on Feb. 14, 2020.”
After brief eligibility checks by the Department of State — which reports to DeSantis and is responsible for cleaning the rolls of ineligible voters — she was given a voter ID card both times.
Oliver wasn’t removed from the rolls until March 30 this year, more than two years later.
Please note at the beginning of the video how after the female officer asks Romona Oliver if she just got married (she did), and then informs Oliver that she’s being arrested on a voter fraud warrant, Oliver attempts to—politely and frazzled—go and tell her husband what is happening. It is heartbreaking. [video at the link]
Then there’s 49-year-old Nathan Hart, who, after being handcuffed and while he’s being searched and having his keys and such taken out of his pockets, very calmly, explains that the guy at the “driver’s license place” convinced him to register after he explained he had a felony conviction. “He goes, ‘Well, are you still on probation?’” Hart’s probation was over and the man at the DMV explained he could at least fill out the form and if they let him vote (the state of Florida) then he could vote! One of the officers says that that sounds like a good defense against the charges. [video at the link]
But the most telling moment is back with Patterson as he sits in the back of the police car, handcuffed. Patterson laments listening to his brother, who convinced him to go vote. “Why would y’all let me vote?”
The officer responds, “’I’m not sure, buddy. I don’t know.”
Patterson goes on, “And then why now? This happened years ago. Why now? Why me?”
The video jumps a short while later as the police officer tells the dispatcher on the radio that he is working on whatever paperwork needs to be done before taking Patterson to jail. You can hear the dispatcher ask about the case he’s working on. The officer makes a “psssst” response and then says, “I’ve never seen these charges before in my entire life.” [video at the link]
ravensays
AOC (on twitter) : “It’s not anti-war to support Russia’s imperialist projects. Ukraine, like other countries, has the right to self-determination. The only person instigating threats of nuclear war is Putin”
It is a myth that what little there is of the US left is antiwar about the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A few of the clueless old line hard core leftists like Noam Chomsky might be.
Most of the moderate left such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can see who is right and who is wrong.
You can add me to the list as well.
A few weeks ago, I met up with two of my old antiwar group from the Vietnam war days**. We all agreed that Russia was clearly in the wrong and Ukraine deserved all the support the USA and NATO could give them. Antiwar doesn’t mean anti-self defense.
**The other thing noteworthy is that we are all still alive.
The Vietnam war was 50 years ago. Some of the old group are now dead of age related causes.
cicelysays
raven @242
Well, that was thoroughly depressing reading—but it agrees with things I’ve read elsewhere. :(
_
My sister-in-law is an evangelical, and a Christian Dominionist (though she wouldn’t call it that). Back when Trump was running, she was all excited about it. I detailed his moral and ethical flaws by the standards of her Xtianity, and her response was that “God can even use a flawed vessel to do His Will!”
I asked her about Clinton, who she had been reviling on the regular, and asked her why, from her viewpoint, her god couldn’t just as easily work through Clinton—“Is that too heavy a rock for him to lift?”
She finally had to admit that it came down to the fact that she didn’t like Clinton—so, obviously God wouldn’t choose to work through her.
_
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 276
It’s mainly Tankies like Chomsky and Glen Greenwald and red-browns/NazBols like like Caleb Maupin and Peter Coffin (and the latter’s status as “leftist” is debatable, at best) the cheer lead for Russia.
Also, to avoid confusion, there is a Russian company called “Technoserv” (sans trailing e). It has nothing to do the blameless charity “Technoserve” (with trailing e); this is currently causing confusion in the dKos comments. E.g., from Frobes, Brotherly Heist: A Sad Story Of A Failed Russian Bank And Its Toxic Aftermath (2018): “[Brothers Dmitry and Alexei Ananyev] built their business empire in 1992 with a company called Technoserv. Today, Technoserv is the largest systems integrator in Russia which also specializes in IT services and software development. Major Russian private companies, foreign firms, and government ministries are its clients.” (As an aside, the Grauniad has a 2020 interview with Dmitry Ananiev who claims the brothers’s allegedly-“failing” bank’s takeover was actually a forced seizure by some of Putin’s cronies, “I’m presented as a criminal”: the banker forced to flee Russia, which is quite contrary to the Forbes story, and the current Kyiv Post article apparently-incorrectly claims the brothers still own the bank.)
Anyways, according to the Kyiv Post:
[…]
In perhaps one of the largest IT-security breaches in Russian history, Kyiv Post was contacted on Oct 17 by hackers who indicated that they were supporters of the Russian NRA[, …] an organization of Russian opposition members seeking the overthrow of the Putin regime, including via the use of violent means.
The NRA-affiliates told Kyiv Post that they had hacked several major Russian technology firms that are currently providing services critical to the Russian Government’s national security. The hackers provided Kyiv Post with exclusive access to a large volume of documents and photos which they said came from the internal servers of companies which the NRA-hackers believe are making Russia’s war possible.
One of the reportedly hacked businesses is Technoserv — Russia’s largest systems integrator — which operates in various countries in a consultancy capacity. The company is headquartered in Moscow […]
A Russian businessman who formerly worked in the Russian IT sphere with government contracts [… said] what the hackers stood to gain would likely be “significant” as Technoserv is known as “the people who are the architects of the Russian Government.”
Using data stolen during this hack, the businessman confirmed that the hackers could “begin serious breaches across large swathes of the Russian Government — a very serious breach.”
[… vague details…]
NRA-affiliated hackers also sent Kyiv Post several screenshots indicating that they had taken-over the websites of various other Russian Government service providers. When the Kyiv Post sought to check the contractors’ websites, a large logo of a woman with a white-blue-white flag, a common symbol of the Russian opposition to Putin, was the only item found on the sites.
The Russian Government has not yet publicly commented on the NRA’s reported hacks. […]
However, an awkward point here is the (English translation) of a message “apparently left for Technoserv’s system administrator” reads — at least to me and some of the dKos commentators — more like a ransom note than an anti-war or anti-Putin maneuver. (The English translation of that message is at the Kyiv Post, and reproduced at dKos.)
Also, Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge says Meduza(‘s editor), among others, doubts the Russian NRA even exists.
Russian forces commander says situation in Ukraine tense, particularly around Kherson, with report of civilian evacuation in southern city
The new commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, Sergei Surovikin, acknowledged on Tuesday that the military situation in Ukraine was “tense”, especially around the occupied southern city of Kherson.
…
Reuters is reporting that the Russian-installed administrative chief in Kherson has announced an ‘organised displacement’ of civilians to the left bank of the Dnipro river.
“The Russian army will above all ensure the safe evacuation of the population” of Kherson, general Sergey Surovikin told state television Rossiya 24, AFP reports.
…
Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-appointed official overseeing the are, has said that those removed from Kherson would be sent to Crimea, a peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
(There are major problems with the presentation here, including using the Russian language of evacuation and the statement that Russia annexed Crimea. They did get “Russian-installed” right here, though. News outlets really need written guidelines for this stuff. Also, they don’t need to keep repeating Russia’s and Iran’s denials about the drones. There’s an AFP photo of one close up all over the internet, as they themselves note.)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow’s widespread use of Iranian-made drones in recent attacks on his country was a symbol of the Kremlin’s “military and political bankruptcy”.
“The very fact of Russia’s appeal to Iran for such assistance is the Kremlin’s recognition of its military and political bankruptcy,” Zelensky said in his daily address.
But, he added “strategically, it will not help them anyway.”
“It only further proves to the world that Russia is on the path of defeat and is trying to draw someone else into its accomplices in terror,” Zelensky said.
He didn’t commit to a proposal from his Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, on Tuesday that Kyiv cut diplomatic ties with Iran, AFP reports.
“We will definitely ensure an appropriate international reaction to this,” Zelensky said, referring to the use of the drones.
Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones in attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks. The Kremlin said Tuesday it had no knowledge of its army using such weapons.
Tehran said it was ready for talks with Kyiv to clarify the “baseless” claims that Iran is providing Russia with the drones.
Argh.
Iran has sent trainers to occupied Ukraine to help Russians overcome problems with the fleet of drones that they purchased from Tehran, current and former U.S. officials briefed on the classified intelligence told the New York Times.
According to the newspaper, Iranian trainers are operating from a Russian military base in Crimea where many of the drones have been based since being delivered from Iran.
The new commander of Moscow’s army in Ukraine has announced that civilians were being “resettled” from the Russian-occupied southern city of Kherson, describing the military situation as “tense”, writes Dan Sabbagh and Pjotr Sauer.
“The enemy continually attempts to attack the positions of Russian troops,” Sergei Surovikin said in his first televised interview since being appointed earlier this month, adding that the situation was particularly difficult around the occupied southern city of Kherson.
Surovikin’s statements on Tuesday come amid Ukraine’s fierce counter-assault in Kherson, a region in the south of Ukraine that Moscow claimed to have annexed last month after staging a sham referendum.
“In a late-night address posted on Telegram, Russian-installed Kherson official Kirill Stremousov calls for people to ‘evacuate the city as quickly as possible’ and says Ukraine ‘will begin an offensive on the city of Kherson very soon’.”
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. He’s in front of a plain curtain – probably already gone. See #s 41 and 51 above for context and the Ukrainian response to this talk about “evacuation” and “resettlement.”
A study published Monday exposed a network of shadowy editors, the likes of which have been attempting to sway the narrative about the Russo-Ukrainian war by making changes to the website’s articles. The study doesn’t definitively point the finger at the Russian government but still finds plenty to be worried about when it comes to “suspicious edits” made on the open-source platform…
Alexandria, Virginia CNN —
Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, was acquitted Tuesday of four counts of lying to the FBI in an embarrassing defeat for special counsel John Durham.
Durham has taken two cases to trial, and both have ended in acquittals. After more than three years looking for misconduct in the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, Durham has only secured one conviction: the guilty plea of a low-level FBI lawyer, who got probation…
NEW: Russia declares it sees no need to maintain a diplomatic presence in the west anymore, toying with possibly severing diplomatic ties. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov: “You can’t force love… there’s no work to do…”
Okay, with all the recent discussions of Russian threats to freeze Europe, I remembered how Russia’s been basically hoping for it since… forever.
So here’s my hand-picked selection of “Russia waiting on everyone to freeze” from the depths of the RU internet. Enjoy…
NEW: Russia declares it sees no need to maintain a diplomatic presence in the west anymore, toying with possibly severing diplomatic ties.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
Russia is heading towards being the North Korea of Europe, a hermit empire that we all wish would stay away from us.
And why is Russia in the UN and on the UN Security Council as well?
Could we ask them to bring back the Iron Curtain? It would save us the effort of building it ourselves.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Rage. Anger. Fury. The GOP does not care a fig leaf for the health and safety of women. Thank you, Jezebel. . Her water broke at 17 weeks. And her senator referred her to a non-medical crisis pregnancy center. Spits.
In August, a pregnant Missouri woman named Mylissa Farmer suddenly needed an abortion, just over a month after her state enacted its near-total abortion ban. Her water had broken 17 weeks into her pregnancy, and her medical records indicated a number of health factors placing her at greater risk of pregnancy-related complications, including increased risk of sepsis, loss of her uterus, and even death. Farmer is also 41-years-old. Doctors treating her recommended an abortion, but, of course, couldn’t provide her one under state law, reported the Springfield News-Leader.
Farmer and her partner consulted with doctors and experts across several states and made “countless phone calls,” with—in her words—“a baby dying inside me.” They learned there was no way for their wanted pregnancy to be viable or even last another six weeks, since Farmer’s cervix was already open. If she waited it out, she and the fetus could suffer tremendously. “The thing [a doctor] said was, ‘There are things worse than death, and I have seen it,’” Farmer recounted.
Farmer told the newspaper she’s always identified as “pretty pro-life”—but she found herself seeking abortion care, anyway, even calling her state senator’s office to seek help. She didn’t find it.
The office of her state senator, a Republican named Bill White, told her the state ban that was literally jeopardizing her life was actually “designed to protect the woman’s life.” Farmer recalled telling White’s aide, “It’s not protecting me.… There’s no chance for a baby; she’s not going to make it. It’s putting my life in danger.” She continued, “I’m 41, it’s not something I can recover from quickly. I could lose my uterus, there’s a lot of things that could happen. We just want to move on, we just want to grieve.” White’s office promised it would talk to the state’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt on her behalf and then connected Farmer with an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center in the state. Farmer never heard from White’s staff again.
There are layers to just how unhelpful it sounds like White was, but I’m particularly struck by the callousness and stupidity of trying to direct her to a crisis pregnancy center—these Christian-run “clinics” exist solely to dissuade people from having abortions by pushing lies, and the most help they could possibly offer Farmer is a non-medical pregnancy test and some diapers for her dying fetus—if she attends enough Bible study classes. These “clinics” often don’t even staff actual health care workers, and as such, they’ve increasingly become sites of surveillance—and thus, possible criminalization—for pregnant people, because their notably non-medical staff aren’t subject to the privacy standards set by HIPAA.
That White couldn’t think of any way to help Farmer beyond sending her to a crisis pregnancy center, even as she was already losing her pregnancy (and possibly her life), is as clear a demonstration as any that anti-abortion politicians have no idea how to combat the varying life-threatening ripple effects of their bans. Yet, still, they’d rather ghost constituents in need than do anything to reverse these laws.
After being failed by her predictably unhelpful anti-abortion state senator and the fake clinic to which he referred her, Farmer searched for abortion clinics, struggling to find a clinic in a nearby state where abortion is legal that wasn’t overbooked. With help from an abortion fund, she was connected to a clinic in Illinois, but because of all the delays, by the time she got to the clinic, she was already in labor.
Several days after Farmer learned her pregnancy wasn’t viable and could possibly kill her, she received life-saving abortion care. It was a relief, but it wasn’t easy. Farmer recalled the toll of being confronted by anti-abortion protesters harassing her outside the clinic; she told the newspaper they echoed the sentiments her own friends had expressed to her, “saying we were killing our baby and that we were evil.”
“It was awful, you know? We were just going through so much,” Farmer said. “We didn’t want this … but at the same time, we had no choice.”
Beyond the trauma of losing a wanted pregnancy and experiencing a serious threat to her life, Farmer and her partner had been shrugged off and dismissed by her state senator, ostracized by her support system, and still had substantial bills to pay and a job to get back to. “If this was a year ago, they could have induced labor and I would have been able to hold her and say goodbye,” Farmer’s partner, Matthew McNeill, told the newspaper.
Their story is one of almost countless post-Roe v. Wade nightmares unfolding across the country recently, between teen girls denied life-saving medications they’ve always taken because they’re childbearing age and the medications could induce miscarriage, and, recently, a Tennessee woman forced to take a costly six-hour ambulance ride across state lines for a life-saving abortion. Pregnant people are being forced to carry skull-less or entirely nonviable fetuses; pregnant child rape victims and cancer patients are being forced to cross state lines for care; and the doctors who try to help them are being threatened with prison time. We may never even know the full toll of these laws, as some reproductive health care providers recently came forward about being prevented by their employers from speaking out publicly.
All wanted abortions are medically necessary, regardless of the circumstances in which you’re seeking care. The laws unilaterally banning care are inflicting indiscriminate, dehumanizing suffering.
ravensays
Where do most Russians live outside of Russia?
The largest number of Russians living abroad was recorded in Europe, measuring at nearly 6.2 million people in 2020. Furthermore, over four million Russians resided in Asian countries. Northern America was a residence of nearly 482 thousand people who were born in Russia.May 18, 2022
Russian population living abroad in 2020, by region – Statistahttps://www.statista.com › Society › Demographics
This is referring to my previous comment on the New North Korea of Europe once known as Russia.
The fact is, the best and brightest Russians have been leaving Russia any way they can for anywhere they can go. The USA itself has almost 1/2 million Russian immigrants and the EU has 6.2 million.
Young people don’t see much of a future in Russia. Young males see themselves ending up as dead cannon fodder.
This is a serious brain drain for them.
The rest of the world is also Russia’s safety relief valve. People who don’t want to live in a cruel dictatorship can always just leave. Which is what they are doing.
The real answer is that Russia needs embassies around the Western world to serve their citizens living abroad with all sorts of help.
OTOH, Russia doesn’t much care about its citizens anyway, so that might not be much of a reason.
Oggie: Mathomsays
And another one (also from Jezebel . A six hour ambulance ride to get an emergency abortion. These awful stories need to spread far and wide and expose the sheer callousness of the GOP’s position against women.
<
blockquote>A pregnant Tennessee woman with high and rising blood pressure had to take a roughly six-hour ambulance ride to get an abortion in North Carolina, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. When she got to the second hospital several hundred miles away, her blood pressure was dangerously high and she was showing signs of kidney failure.
The woman’s doctor in Tennessee, Leilah Zahedi-Spung, is a high-risk obstetrician who spoke to the WSJ for a story about how abortion bans impact medical emergencies. Zahedi-Spung said the patient was in her second trimester when her blood pressure began rising; the fetus had been diagnosed with genetic abnormalities and wasn’t expected to survive. Zahedi-Spung worried the woman could develop life-threatening preeclampsia and thought she needed an abortion, but the procedure has been banned in Tennessee since late August. Eight states border Tennessee and abortion is banned in all but two of them.
“She kept asking if she was going to die,” Zahedi-Spung told the WSJ. “I kept saying, ‘I’m trying, I’m trying, we’re going to make it happen. We just need to get you to the right place where you can be taken care of.’” She said she was relieved to see the patient alive a few weeks later.
The Tennessee law, which makes providing abortions a felony, doesn’t contain explicit exceptions for abortions “necessary to prevent death or serious and permanent bodily injury”—instead, doctors have to prove the procedure was necessary via what’s known as an “affirmative defense.” The Associated Press described affirmative defense this way: “Instead of the state having to prove that the procedure was not medically necessary, the law shifts the burden to the doctor to convince a court that it was.” (Bans in North Dakota and Idaho—both of which are currently blocked—also use affirmative defense language.)
Given these realities, Zahedi-Spung said she feared if she performed the medically necessary abortion, the state would still charge her with a crime that would lead to a long legal fight and upend her ability to practice medicine.
Even bans that don’t require an affirmative defense and have more standard exceptions for the “life of the pregnant person”—like, for instance, treating ectopic pregnancies—are often meaningless in practice. Perhaps the hospital lawyers don’t want to risk a lawsuit, or the doctors themselves may fear legal action (and many have hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt and their own families to provide for). But it’s easy enough for a part-time state lawmaker to throw some words into a bill.
Zahedi-Spung spoke to the WSJ in her personal capacity and didn’t name her employer. Multiple OB/GYNs recently told CNN that their employers are muzzling them from talking about the impacts of abortion bans—whether they work in states where their patients can’t access the procedure, or in places where people are traveling to get care.
Zahedi-Spung decided it’s too risky for her to practice in Tennessee and recently accepted a job in Colorado where abortion is legal. It’s a predictable loss of a medical provider thanks to a hostile environment. Per the WSJ:
Chloe Akers, a criminal defense attorney based in Knoxville, Tenn., read the law after Roe fell and was surprised to see it contained no exceptions, only defenses that doctors could use after the fact. She founded a nonprofit Standing Together Tennessee and began giving seminars to doctors and others about the law.
Ms. Akers tells healthcare providers there are ways to manage risk, such as keeping robust records of their decision making. But if a doctor asks how to take that risk to zero, she answers, “You stop providing obstetric care in the state.”
Let this story be a reminder that abortion bans harm everyone who can get pregnant.
Oggie: Mathomsays
And all hail Borkquotia and Puncuatio, accolytes of Tpyos.
Watch: this is how Russian state TV deals with those who dare to contradict the approved rhetoric: they’re hammered and threatened by other participants to the point of reversing their position. Beware that the origins of the clip they discussed were intentionally misrepresented.
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. The Russian word for fake sounds like fake.
“You just voiced it with your disgusting tongue!”
“You’re working for Ukraine over here!”
ravensays
Russia might declare Martial Law tomorrow.
This information is unconfirmed but I’ve seen it in several places and it derives from Russian sources of unknown reliability.
Apparently they are having a huge problem with young men fleeing from the draft. Many have fled out of the country.
Even more are hiding in country. Russia is a big place and apparently a good place to hide.
The other issue here is that most likely, most people don’t like or trust their own government and don’t feel like cooperating.
Sergi? Sergi who? No sorry, haven’t seen him in weeks.
Why should they anyway?
Their own government has murdered tens of millions of their own citizens for the weakest of reasons.
dialog.ua/war October 18, 2022
Media: Putin urgently convenes the Security Council and the Federation Council, they can introduce martial law and close borders Tomorrow,
October 19, martial law may be introduced in Russia with the closure of borders. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, October 19, convenes an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Immediately after it, a meeting of the Federation Council will take place. Quite serious decisions are expected to be made regarding the war with Ukraine.
This is reported by the Russian edition of “Layout”. There is no confirmation of the information yet.
It is known that the main topic of the emergency meeting of the Security Council will be “the issue of migration.” This means that Putin may decide to close the Russian borders. There is also the possibility of introducing martial law or a state of emergency on the territory of the country. ” Members of the Federation Council received SMS messages informing them that tomorrow’s plenary session of the upper house will continue after a break from 17:00 ,” writes the Russian edition. It clarified that this is the first time the meeting of the Federation Council is scheduled for such a late time. The senators could be asked to stay longer, since without their formal consent it is impossible to introduce martial or state of emergency in the Russian Federation. This is fraught for Russians with restrictions on freedom of movement and the press, a ban on public speaking, the imposition of a curfew, and many other inconveniences.
Halloween is coming early this year and proving to be a lot more scary than just Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, and Republicans.
.1. The threat from Lavrov to break diplomatic ties with the West is apparently a huge deal. Even the old USSR didn’t do that.
There have been claims of unknown reliability from “many people” that this is actually a large step towards war between Russia and the West.
There are also claims of unknown reliability that the West leadership seems to know this and right now things are happening.
.2. The declaration of Martial law in Russia is also a huge deal.
It officially ends any shred of hope that Russia is anything more than a Third World dictatorship run by a kleptocracy.
It also ends any shred of hope that the Russian people will ever have a normal life in a normal country.
The North Korea of Euope will look like the North Korea of Asia, with poverty stricken people living short, deprived lives with no hope whatsoever.
It all looks like Russia is losing, they know they are losing, and it is Gotterdammerung time.
Russia continues to react hysterically to something in Kherson:
[Tweet and video at the link] In a late-night address posted on Telegram, Russian-installed Kherson official Kirill Stremousov calls for people to “evacuate the city as quickly as possible” and says Ukraine “will begin an offensive on the city of Kherson very soon”
This actually contradicts Russia’s new supreme commander Surovikin, who has claimed both that Ukraine is going to blow the dam at Nova Kakhovka, and that Russian positions in ill-supplied Kherson oblast, on the right bank of the Dnipro, are untenable.
Surovikin speaks: “Our plans in the city of Kherson will depend on the tactical military situation that is already very uneasy. We will seek to protect the lives of civilians and our service members. We will act in a timely manner, without excluding the most difficult decisions.”
“We’re going to evacuate because we’re humanitarians and don’t want people to drown” is better spin than Stremousov’s WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE message, which can also be translated as “We can’t defend you, nor this land we pretend is actually Russia.” Weird that they’re not all on the same page.
In both the Svatove and the Kherson areas, operational security on the Ukrainian side has been tight over the last two weeks. That’s led to chasing rabbits set loose by Russian propagandists and a lot of fingernail-nibbling. But it seems possible to give a fair estimate of where things stand at the moment.
Keen-eyed observers might have noticed that I sneaked away last week for some “boy, there are so many things that need doing around the house” vacation. Over that period, the biggest change in the maps was, unfortunately, that I destroyed the maps. Tinkering with them I managed to save the files just as a power outage hit, and in spite of a surge protector the files ended up so corrupted that I had to redraw the maps from scratch. So I took the time to reorganize the various villages, towns, and cities in order of size, hopefully making it easier in the future to highlight areas of interest without requiring a lot of fiddling. But the immediate result is that the boundaries all got redrawn based on my best estimates of where things stand today. In some cases that means lines may have moved even though nothing really happened. [map at the link]
All day long, there have been those rumors that Russian forces are being relocated across the Dnipro in advance of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kherson. Considering how much “Kherson is Russia” propaganda was cranked even before the so-called referendums, it seems unlikely that Russia would simply leave the area to be a walk over. It may be they’ve determined that the area north of the Kahkova Bridge isn’t worth the effort. However, for now this is all based off a handful of reports, mostly from Russian sources, which hasn’t proven to be the greatest method of predicting coming events in the last few weeks. Russia also apparently issued warnings on Tuesday that the Nova Kakhovka Dam was in danger of collapse, calling for the evacuation of areas on both sides of the river. No idea if there is any truth behind this.
Whatever is going on, there seems to be a lot of indications that things in Kherson are about to heat up in a big way. Russian forces are definitely very nervous.
When it comes to the northern part of the Kherson area, the map is left looking much as it did when I checked out. On the west end of the line, Ukraine has reportedly liberated both Bruskynske and Ishchenka at points in the last two weeks, but if those reports were true, they were not able to make them stick. There were also reports that Russia moved additional forces into Ishchenka and make an attack toward Davydiv Brid. That also appears to have gone nowhere.
Russia also seems to be deploying some of its collection of Iranian Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones in this area. That includes a reported attack on Davydiv Brid on Tuesday using no less than nine drones. Honestly, seeing Russia use these drones in combat, rather than directing them against civilian areas, is a relief. And all of them appear to have been shot down.
On the east end of the line the area of “in dispute is wider” because claims have been more extreme. A few days ago, Telegram sources began reporting that Ukraine had instigated a major push toward Mylove — usually with some descriptor such as “with thirty tanks.” But as that day and the next wore on, there seemed to be absolutely no evidence for this advance coming from either side. It began to look more as if Russian sources had talked up this advance just so they could follow up with claims of how it had been defeated and generated a huge Ukrainian loss. If there are dozens of dead Ukrainian tanks in a muddy field north of Mylove, Russia seems unable to snap a photo of even one.
Maybe Ukraine is still regrouping from its rapid advance across areas to the north. Maybe Russia has just moved enough forces into place that they’ve reached a density able to withstand Ukrainian assaults, in spite of the limitations on supply imposed by destruction of the bridges. But the best guess for what’s going on along this line seems to be limited to skirmishing and jockeying for position rather than a hard press at any point. Ukraine made it’s rapid advances in September by using intelligence, avoiding fortified positions, and moving rapidly beyond the front line into lightly held regions. If they feel like waiting is more likely to produce the conditions necessary to give them that weak point, they’ll keep waiting, no matter how many times it means staring at the same map. [map at the link]
In the north, Ukrainian forces continue to make steady progress toward liberating the transport hub at Svatove. This city was where a large number of Russian forces were relocated following the liberation of Izyum. It’s not as critical to Russian supplies in the east as Starobilsk, which is sitting over there in a spiderweb of rails and roads, but it is key to supplying points south, such as Kreminna and even Severodonetsk.
At the south end of this line are a string of villages and towns that were liberated in the aftermath of Lyman: Torske, Zarichne, Terny, and Nevske. In the last week, Russian sources have claimed that Russia has retaken one of all of these locations as a prelude to recapturing Lyman. Some Russian sources still show Russia holding these towns and advancing west. Absolutely none of these claims appear to be true. Ukraine has repeatedly confirmed, and provided evidence, that it holds these locations. […]
However, Russia has been consistently shelling these locations, and reportedly made an attack on Nevske. Ukraine has reportedly moved additional forces into this area in anticipation of further attacks, and it is possible that Russia may be delaying Ukrainian movements south of Svatove by putting pressure on Ukraine’s hold over the road connecting this string of towns.
Ukraine seems to have moved toward Svatove through a process of taking a town in the south, then the north, then the middle. Then changing up the order and doing it again. They haven’t made a thunder run down a single highway, or even tried (so far) to put the town in pincers. They’ve just moved toward it like the tide.
On this map, there are two locations in the Ukraine-liberated area that might be considered optimistic: Raihorodka to the west and Kuzemivka to the north. Ukraine certainly has forces in both towns, but placing them in the Ukraine column was done because of multiple days in which Russia shelled these locations. Neither has been confirmed as liberated, but both of them have to be at least close.
Looking more closely at this area …[map at the link]
What happens next from Kuzemivka has been the subject of a lot of speculation, with many military bloggers expecting this part of Ukraine’s force to turn northeast up the road leading to Nyzhnia Duvanka, then eventually moving toward Svatove from the north. Not only would this allow Ukraine to approach the city from multiple angles, Russia has reportedly heavily reinforced the area between Kuzemivka and Kryvoshyivka along the P07 highway, which might also make a NE jog seem like the better approach. However, so far there are no reports of fighting at Nauholne, which would be the first hot spot if Ukraine were moving in that direction.
But that northern approach may not be necessary. The terrain west of Svatove gives Ukraine a tremendous advantage if they can approach from that position. The city lies down in a depression. If Ukraine can reach the area around the P07-P66 intersection, they will have a commanding position over the city below and be able to essentially select artillery targets as they please. […]
It’s possible Ukraine is waiting until it can bring more forces up from the south, or move to control the P66 highway, before moving to that intersection.
Dammit, opsec. Just let me know what’s up. I won’t tell the Russians.
Meanwhile, in the east …[map at the link]
This is the first time in some weeks that I’ve put out a map of the Bakhmut area, and there’s little to see here that wasn’t there in August. Russia is still trying to take Bakhmut. They still haven’t. It seems likely that Russia has not consolidated their control of Vesele Dolyna and Zaitseve to the southeast of the city. Meaning that, after months of reducing this area to rubble with artillery, then reducing the rubble to dust, and sacrificing thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Russian troops … Russia has moved onto the dust. Russia also seems to have progressed into the suburb of Optyne, but the lines here are harder to draw.
At every point along the line in this area, fighting has been incredibly hard for incredibly long. Look just 20km east of Bakhmut and you’ll see the town of Popasna. That town, and neighboring Pervomaisk, were the subject of this article back in April. After the 2014 invasion, the space between these two towns was eventually locked in as the boundary of the Russian-occupied portion of Donetsk, with the actual border effectively at that point where the highway makes an angle, east of town. After dozens of assaults, Russia finally took Popasna at the end of April. In the 170 days since then, Russia has moved 23 kilometers to the west, a rate of about 13.5 meters (44 feet) per day. And the truth is almost all of that distance came before July. Since then, the actual rate of advance could likely me measured in centimeters.
Bakhmut remains the the center of a completely irrational level of attack from Russian forces. In particular, it’s been the singular contribution to the invasion of the mercenary Wagner Group, who has sent an endless stream of their untrained prison recruits to die over a tiny strip of land. But what Russia would do if it actually got Bakhmut at this point it completely unclear. Once it was vital to supplying troops in Severodonetsk. That’s no longer true. Since Russia started attacking Bakhumut, Ukraine has liberated far more of Donetsk Oblast than Russia has occupied. But they just keep throwing bodies at this point. It’s the exact opposite of how Ukraine has obtained success in recent months.
And in the extra-scratchy headscratcher category: What is Russia doing over there northwest of Zolote? That’s the location of that big concrete “dragon’s teeth,” followed by trench, followed by more dragon’s teeth, followed by more trenches, fortification that Russia has been constructing. The wall is actually just west of the town of Hirske (pre-war population around 9,000) and appears to face northwest toward nothing but open fields. This location isn’t just kilometers away from the current front line, it’s actually slightly behind the line of Russian occupation on Feb. 24.
And it looks like something borrowed from World War II, if not World War I. [Tweet and image at the link]
The image below give a sense of just how much construction is going on at this location, but be careful of the orientation — this image actually has west at the top. (rotated because the original image had west at the top). [image at the link]
If Russia was going to construct a line to hold, why isn’t it closer to the current lines? Why isn’t it in an area that gives them more topographic advantage? Why Hirske? Why are they doing this at all? [Tweet and video at the link]
This is some high level strange.
[…] Okay, this would not work. There’s no way to effectively aim, and the recoil from each shot would send it spinning. But it’s also a scary prediction of something likely to be real before the end of this war.
Hello Shahed-136 !
We attached a mini-machine gun to the drone.
1000 likes on this video and I’ll post a video of this drone in action!
If anyone starts talking about Russia’s recent gains in the Bakhmut area …[map at the link]
On Tuesday afternoon, Judge Raymond Dearie, who is acting as “special master” in Donald Trump’s attempt to claim ownership over documents seized in an FBI search at his Mar-a-Lago club, conducted a conference call that was supposed to be restricted to dealing with a small portion of the documents. In this case, the call was aimed only at those documents that had already been culled by the FBI “filter team” that was set up to find documents potentially protected by client-attorney privilege and which the Department of Justice has already excluded from their investigations. However, the conversation soon sprawled to all parts of the special master process, and during this conversation Dearie made it exceptionally clear that his patience is beyond exhausted.
For everyone who spent a week contorting hyperspace in an effort to explain how 200,000 pages could fit into 32 small boxes, we finally got an answer as to how many pages were really in all those documents: 21,792. That greatly reduced number didn’t stop Trump’s team from once again asking for more time.
Trump’s attorney also submitted a preliminary list of documents pulled by the filter team that Trump believed should be returned to him under some form of privilege. Except what Trump’s legal team failed to provide was any details to support why those documents should not be part of the DOJ’s investigation. “It’s a little perplexing,” The New York Times reported that Judge Dearie said on the call. “As I go through the log. What’s the expression? Where’s the beef? I need some beef.”
The reasons listed on what was apparently a quite skimpy list from Trump attorney Jim Trusty caused Judge Dearie more than one headache. For example, there was one document that Trump claimed was “personal property” and was also covered by executive privilege. Dearie challenged Trusty concerning how it was possible that a document could fall into both these categories. As reported by CNN, Dearie said, “Unless I’m wrong—and I’ve been wrong before—there’s certainly an incongruity there.”
It may take someone of a certain age to remember the ad campaign to which Dearie was referring when he mentioned “beef,” but it doesn’t take any background in either advertising or law to understand his frustration. Trump was apparently doing what he always does: throw things against the wall to see if something will stick. Or at least, if something will clog up progress.
Dearie also noted that some of the documents that Trump was claiming as protected by attorney-client privilege didn’t seem to be sourced from an attorney. Trusty promised to get back the judge on how a document from a third party could still be protected, which should be an interesting—or, at least, funny—legal claim when it arrives. [LOL]
At one point Trusty claimed that a letter written to the Department of Justice itself should be considered private. When Dearie asked how that was possible, Trusty said because the letter was unsigned, and had not been sent. Dearie asked the DOJ to check and see if they had received a copy of the letter before looking into it further. “I don’t want to be dealing with nonsense objections and nonsense assertions,” said Dearie, “especially when I have one month to deal with who knows how many assertions.”
During that call, Trump attorney Jim Trusty also insisted that they needed another 10 days to review the files before making any claims of privilege. This is after District Court Judge Aileen Cannon already granted Trump what he wanted by halting Dearie’s earlier proposal for “rolling submissions,” or dealing with the collection of documents in a series of groups, insisting that everything come in at once, and extending the end of the process until November 30. The request didn’t meet with any enthusiasm.
During the call, Dearie tried to get some sense of just how many claims he was going to be reviewing as special master. Did he need to hire additional staff? Out of the 11,000 documents, was Trump going to claim privilege over 10, or was it going to be 10,000? Trusty didn’t seem prepared to answer this question. He also wasn’t prepared to provide Dearie with such basic information as a list of Trump’s past and current attorneys, so that names could be checked against claims of attorney-client privilege. [LOL]
When it comes to the greatly reduced number of pages, the DOJ had a simple explanation: a consultant hired to scan documents had taken the 11,000 documents and multiplied by 18, which is a typical length for business documents. However, the DOJ attorney acknowledge that not only was the real number much smaller, but that 200,000 documents would not have even fit in the 32 boxes removed from the site.
[…] One of the roughly 26 sexual misconduct accusations that have been leveled against Trump involves journalist E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in a New York department store in the mid-’90s. Carroll has sued Trump, saying that his denial of the alleged rape—which included Trump’s standard, and totally depraved, “she’s not attractive enough to rape” defense—amounted to defamation.
Well, it looked for a time like Trump might squirm out of this one, in part because his allegedly defamatory statements were made while he was cosplaying as president. It was an absurd argument, but it appeared to be the best defense he had.
Yeah, well, about that …
A Tuesday report from VICE News suggests Trump really stepped in it when he repeated the denial at the heart of Carroll’s defamation suit. After a judge ruled last week that Trump must answer questions under oath on Oct. 19 in connection with the lawsuit, Trump freaked out, writing, in part, “[Carroll] completely made up a story that I met her at the doors of this crowded New York City Department Store and, within minutes, ‘swooned’ her. It is a Hoax and a lie, just like all the other Hoaxes that have been played on me for the past seven years.”
Well, it turns out that’s about the worst thing he could have possibly “Truthed.”
Trump’s lawyers have argued for months that he can’t be held personally responsible in the suit because his denial took place during his presidency, and therefore fell under his official duties as president. But by repeating his denial last week in an online tirade posted on his social media site, Truth Social, and blasted out in an emailed statement, Trump essentially re-upped the activity at the heart of the lawsuit—at a moment when he’s not the president anymore.
In other words, Trump may have just kicked the legs out from under one of his strongest legal defenses, according to Barbara McQuade, who previously served as Detroit’s top federal prosecutor.
“She [Carroll] should amend her complaint to include an additional count based on the new statement,” McQuade told VICE News. “Because Trump is no longer president, this statement was most certainly not made in the scope of his federal employment.”
Indefatigable Trump taunter George Conway has more:
GEORGE CONWAY: “So a woman accuses you of rape. You make a bunch of statements accusing her of lying. She sues you for defamation. Your defense (such as it is) was that you were POTUS when you made the statements so you can’t be sued personally.
“You litigate that FOR YEARS. You still have a chance at winning that argument. Meanwhile, the judge orders you to be deposed anyway. YOU GET BIG MAD. SO WHAT DO YOU DO??
“You issue a BRAND NEW statement REPEATING all the earlier defamatory statements, but since you’re no longer POTUS, you NO LONGER HAVE THAT DEFENSE you’ve been pushing for years that you made the statements while you were president!!!
ABSOLUTELY
BRILLIANT!!”
Well done, Mr. Magoo! Say, can you just shoot someone on Fifth Avenue already so we can close out this refulgent chupacabra fart of a timeline?
Godspeed to Ms. Carroll. She’s presumably been waiting for justice for a long time, and it must be infuriating to see this clammy wad of iniquity continually getting away with his evildoing. Or somewhat more infuriating for her, anyway, than it is for the rest of us.
Alan Dershowitz is not a Donald Trump supporter. He always will tell you that. He is the biggest non-Donald Trump supporter of all time! It’s just that he always is defending Donald Trump (including in Trump’s impeachment!) and he’s always on TV telling people that everybody in Martha’s Vineyard (including the librarian!) has canceled him ever since he started defending Donald Trump and one time one of his biggest fans was on the beach reading their favorite Alan Dershowitz book and everybody on the beach PUNCHED THAT GUY IN THE FACE!
Alan Dershowitz is the most liberal Jewish non-Trump supporter on Martha’s Vineyard, darnit! And don’t you forget it!
Therefore he is eminently qualified to comment on whether Donald Trump is being antisemitic when he demands American Jews be a little more grateful for everything he’s done for Israel. And the answer is NO.
At least probably not. It’s just that thing Trump does with his mouth, when he moves it and sounds come out. [Tweet and video at the link]
Dershowitz explained on God knows what wingnut TV show that “virtually every time” he ever saw Trump, Trump would ask him — you know, because Alan Dershowitz is Jewish, therefore when Trump has a question about Jewish people and he can’t find Ivanka or Jared he asks Alan Dershowitz — “Alan, how come, you know, the Jews don’t show their admiration for me by voting for me?”
Break down that question.
“How come the Jews.”
Why don’t “the Jews,” Alan Dershowitz?
“How come the Jews don’t show their admiration for me?”
Show their admiration for him.
And Dersh would explain to Trump each and every time apparently that Jewish people don’t all just vote based on what is happening in Israel, on account of how they are American and they aren’t necessarily concerned with the affairs of a whole different country, no matter how much antisemites think Jewish people have dual loyalty. (It’s not like the way all Trump’s decisions took Russia’s interests into account over America’s, for Christ’s sake.)
Dershowitz would say “don’t take it personally” and tell Trump “every Jew I know” admires what Trump did for Israel. (Gotta lick the guy’s ass, after all.) It’s just that Jewish people care about other things, and on those other things, they can’t stand Donald Trump.
Apropos of nothing, but just to show everybody how impartial Alan Dershowitz is, here he is saying the DOJ must indict Hunter Biden if it wants to fairly indict Donald Trump. [Tweet and video at the link]
In summary and in conclusion, fuck Alan Dershowitz.
Tethyssays
The North Korea of Euope will look like the North Korea of Asia,
This is ridiculously over dramatic on multiple levels, beginning with the fact that Russia is located in ASIA.
It’s 5am in Iran and yet a sizeable crowd has gathered at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport to welcome Elnaz Rekabi, a female climber who competed without a hijab in Seoul and was subsequently censured and forced into an apology by Iranian authorities.
The crowd cheers as Elnaz Rekabi, a female climber who competed without a hijab in Seoul and was later censured and forced into an apology by Iranian authorities, arrives at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport in the early hours of the morning.
At Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport, a crowd chants “Elnaz is a heroine” upon the arrival of Elnaz Rekabi, a female climber who competed without a hijab in Seoul and was later censured and forced into an apology by the Iranian authorities.
Elnaz Rekabi is welcomed by her family at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport this morning.
She competed without a hijab at an Asian climbing competition in Seoul and was later censured and forced into an apology by the Iranian authorities.
Elnaz Rekabi was interviewed by state media upon arrival. She repeated her Instagram story about her hijab “inadvertantly” falling off. [What an absurd situation.] She added she was feeling “stressed” and “tense” about returning but was fine, and denied she intended to retire.
Photos and video at the (Twitter) link.
From the article @ #246: “Iran Wire, a small anti-regime website, quoted a source as saying that Rekabi would be flown back to Tehran on Tuesday – one day earlier than scheduled – to deter possible protests at Imam Khomeini international airport.” So, fail.
Rob Grigjanissays
Tethys @303: While 75% of Russia’s land area is in Asia, 75% of Russians live in Europe.
I’m aware, though most sources place the continental division between Europe and Asia on the west side of the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan also straddles the division, but nobody considers it a European country.
StevoRsays
As I understand global geography (from memory) both Russia and Turkey straddle both Asia and Europe. Possibly a few other nations too. The Ural mountain range is the dividing line or at least one of them so I gather. Technically, I ‘spose theres a case for all of Europe being considered part of Asia since it is a peninsula of it a bit like how India is considered Asian despite having its own tectonic plate and continental nature too* although I could be mistaken about any or all of this natch.
.* If India is South Asia, I guess Europe should really be West Asia?
Grauniad snarking, Britannia rechained: Liz Truss enters her hostage era (“Britannia rechained” is snark about the previously-obscure Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, et al., 2012 book “Britannia Unchained” — or “Meine Katastrophe” as I prefer to call it — which more-or-less described what Truss & Kwarteng actually did):
The lesson of the past few years in British politics is that new lows can always be found. Barely three months ago, it seemed there could be nothing less elegant than Boris Johnson’s dignity-aborting exit from Downing Street. That now seems like an exquisite performance of the Royal Ballet. Yesterday was mainly spent watching Jeremy Hunt try to persuade the markets to get back together with the UK, their maddest ex. At some level, it’s slightly adorable that the markets continue trying to make it work with a country that repeatedly demonstrates itself to be a basket case. It’s possible they’re the most hopeless romantics of all.
Quick recap: the prime minister is in special measures. Black Monday’s already taken, so I don’t know how you’d describe yesterday’s lunacy. Crack Monday? The upshot is … Britannia has been rechained. The Britannia unleashed in the mini-budget three weeks ago — only to wreak appalling havoc everywhere from the bond markets to household budgets — has been lassoed by incoming surprise chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Hunt has immediately re-manacled her, then wound 40ft of heavyweight steel chain round her to prevent her threatening public safety again. […]
The prime minister certainly now presents as a captured beast, having spent the entire summer campaigning stridently against the hideous failings of precisely the policies she is now saying are the only thing that make sense. Yet as Hunt outlined the biggest U-turn in modern political history to the Commons yesterday afternoon, Truss flanked him, wearing that sad, faraway smile of a Tory wife standing next to her husband explaining why he’s resigning over a sex scandal. This arguably isn’t the optimal look for a leader.
Earlier, temporarily released from her oubliette, the PM had put out a tweet. The British people rightly want stability, this began, which is why we are addressing the serious challenges we face in worsening economic conditions. We have taken action to … No, sorry, I haven’t got the strength to reproduce the thing in full. Long story short: she’s pissed down your back, and now she’s telling you it’s raining.
[…]
If you’d told any of us this time a week ago that Jeremy Hunt would be chancellor — apparently in the German sense — then we’d have struggled to get our heads round it. […] The narrative threads of the current political crisis are now so completely nutso that you have to conclude the Conservative Cinematic Universe has officially entered its multiverse era. Only the true fanboys can explain it.
Of course, the key difference is that the long-term governing party is not on to a winner with this. Whereas Marvel have found a way to almost guarantee money from the notoriously unpredictable movie business, the Conservatives have managed to preside over a period from 2016 in which the UK economy contracted from being 90% the size of Germany’s to now being just 70%. Eventually the sole remaining business in our economy will be the hipster trade in ironic In Liz We Truss mugs. I don’t know if this was forecast by any of Truss’s wingnut economists, but I guess it’s called growth? (Incidentally, speaking of Liz’s spirit economists and thinktank army, do now settle in for literally decades of them whining that the problem with their ideas was that they weren’t done properly, like communism or Brexit.)
[… W]e learned from armed forces minister James Heappey that none of them even realised Truss’s mini-budget had the potential to backfire.
Or take Thérèse Coffey — the actual health secretary — who on Sunday admitted she has illegally shared her own supply of antibiotics with others, in an absolutely disgracefully deranged revelation she seems to have got away with simply because further disgracefully deranged things have happened after it. […]
[…] Odd that MPs who talked of nothing but “the will of the people” for years are deafeningly quiet on the subject now. The tiny electorate who installed Truss as Tory leader did not represent the will of the people, and getting rid of her will place the next leader a full two removes from the electoral mandate won in 2019.
The governing party has now spent many, many years breaking things at the same time as explaining that only they can fix them. […]
The Kremlin had never expected mobilization to be “popular” with the Russian people. This is the often-cited reason for Russia’s delay in declaring even a “partial mobilization.” Recent urban focus groups, commissioned by the Kremlin itself, have made clear that practically no one approves of the war in Russia’s larger cities. Only some of the very elderly people, who would never have to go to the front, still approve of the “special operation.” Perhaps even more dismaying to the Russian President’s Office is the the growing “frustration” with Vladimir Putin himself. Meduza’s special correspondent Andrey Pertsev interviewed sources close to the Kremlin about how the government gauges political temperatures around the country, and how it tries to keep the society from reaching a boiling point.
On October 17, Moscow’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced that the city had completed its “partial mobilization.” […] Sobyanin added that mobilization offices would close by mid-day, and that residents could disregard the draft letters already sent. According to the mayor, Moscow’s mobilization goal of 16,000 had been met in full. Still, no legal conditions for ending the mobilization are specified in the President’s mobilization decree, or in any other legislative document.
By evening the same day, Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow Region, also announced that the region had met its mobilization quota. […]
Kremlin insiders explain this sudden sea change as a result of the “frustration” that, the government sensed, was building among Moscow’s urban population. When police and draft officers began to “ambush” men near subway stations earlier this month, the public responded negatively:
Everyone literally hid. People are afraid and uncertain about their future. Many have left. The level of fear and disapproval is rising all the time. Moscow has turned into a completely different city. These subway raids were a complete circus, it had to be stopped.
The methods that so much upset the public, our source thinks, all came from the Defense Ministry and the law enforcement. In that situation, Sobyanin, who normally prefers “not to associate himself with the military agenda,” had to stoop to the demands and comply with mobilization orders.
When announcing the “completion of mobilization,” the Mayor spoke of the draft (“a great hardship for thousands”) in a tone you might expect of someone speaking about a natural disaster. It’s worth noticing that he didn’t use the official cliché, special military operation — not even once. […]
[…] According to sources close the President’s Office, [Kremlin-commissioned] focus groups produced a completely foreseeable result: they made clear that everyone, and not just Muscovites, were “frustrated.” What emerged was
a perfectly clear anti-Putin trend, even among those who support the “special operation.” Even people in favor of it would say that everything is badly organized, and it’s the president’s fault — since it was he who appointed all the other officials and the military. The only ones clearly in favor of the “special operation” are the really elderly people, retirees.
In other words, the war in Ukraine appeals only to Russians who would never have to fight.
[… P]ractically the opposite is happening in the Russian regions, away from the largest urban centers. Despite the fact that, on October 14, President Vladimir Putin publicly promised to end mobilization across Russian within two weeks, some regional authorities are, once again, conscripting people.
[…]
Sources agree that this additional recruitment of soldiers will only take place in some regions, and that it certainly shouldn’t be called a “second wave” of mobilization. One of them pointed out that extra mobilization is a “key performance indicator” for regional authorities.
Still, the insiders Meduza spoke to do expect a real “second wave” of mobilization to take place this winter, when logistical chains and military bases are unloaded from the current round of the draft. Sources also expect that the winter round of mobilization will be more localized, and will rely on the cooperation of employers. Meduza is already in possession of a written request, sent by a regional prosecutor’s office to organizations operating within a local municipality, asking them to provide information about male employees born in 1988 or earlier and fit for military service, together with their addresses and phone numbers.
The Kremlin understands that continuing the mobilization is just as unpopular a step as starting it. The ratings of Russia’s acting government have already plummeted, due to the mobilization. Still, it remains “the president’s order, not up for discussion.”
“There is neither point nor desire to maintain the previous presence in Western states. Our people work there in conditions that can hardly be called human,” Lavrov said, according to TASS. “Problems are being created constantly for them; they face threats of physical assaults.”
Tass should be considered dubious (but see my remarks at the end).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said Moscow could reduce its diplomatic presence in Western countries, blaming relations with Europe and the United States and Russia’s need to build ties elsewhere.
“Of course we do not see any sense in or have any desire to maintain the same presence in Western countries… and third world countries, both in Asia and Africa, on the contrary, need additional attention,” Lavrov said in an address to new foreign ministry recruits.
Both Tass’s and AFP’s translations, whilst not identical, essentially agree he threatened to not maintain “the same [diplomatic] presence”. Precisely what means is ambiguous. Assuming it’s not yet another empty Putin threat, downgrading — not severing — diplomatic relations, as the AFP chooses to interpret it, is both possible and plausible.
First Dog on the Moon in the Grauniad joins the ridicule / snarking, To all Australians: please desist immediately from using the gauche sobriquet ‘BoM’ (cartoon). The “go stand in a corner” snark in the cartoon is a (probably) a reference to (from the Grauniad’s A$70,000 article linked-to above) “Staff were treated like ‘naughty school children’ if they slipped up and referred to Bureau of Meteorology by its common acronym”.
In fact, across the country, the backlash against anti-racist books and efforts that include The 1619 Project, has now paved the way for the return of overtly racist, sexist and queer-phobic books in schools, filling the void left by so many bans of “critical race theory”.
Those on the right pushing for these bans are really arguing against any schooling that involves a reckoning with American racism and other ills. The argument: Learning uncomfortable truths will lead to psychological damage in white students.Never mind that Black, Brown, Indigenous and queer students – the majority of public school students – must continue to face erasure and daily trauma at the hands of callous politicians and educators and the hyper-masculine whiteness they practise and encourage.
The result of such bans is also a further undermining of confidence in public schools as a public good while bolstering privatisation and school choice efforts – pet priorities for the far right. Already, some Black parents have shifted to homeschooling in response to the trauma and erasure their kids have faced in recent years.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Kyiv has recently introduced a news blackout in the south of the country, leading to speculations that it was preparing a new major offensive on Kherson. “When the Ukrainians have a news blackout it means something is going on. They have always done this before when there is a big offensive push on,” Michael Clarke, a former director general of the Royal United Services Institute, told Sky News.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to the Ukrainian president, has warned Russia that “reality can hurt” [“if you live in a fictional fantasy world”] after the Russian-installed leader of the occupied Ukrainian region of Kherson urged residents to evacuate amid escalating pressure from a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
A senior Ukrainian official has accused Russia of staging a “propaganda show” in occupied Kherson after Russian-installed officials said they were preparing to defend the city from imminent Ukrainian attack and urged civilians to evacuate.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, also denied that Kyiv’s troops were shelling the city in southern Ukraine.
In a post on Telegram, he wrote:
The Russians are trying to scare the people of Kherson with fake newsletters about the shelling of the city by our army, and also arrange a propaganda show with evacuation. Propaganda will not work.
The Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer writes that Russian-installed officials in the occupied city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine have removed a monument to the forced starvation of the Holodomor famine of 1932-33.
Multiple explosions heard in central Kyiv
Multiple explosions have been reported in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, just now.
Britain’s ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, said the explosions are likely the Ukrainian air defence system in action.
Putin imposes martial law in annexed territories in Ukraine
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has announced that he has signed a decree imposing martial law in the four Ukrainian regions annexed [gah] by Russia, Russian state-owned news agency Tass is reporting….
…Putin also announced that extra security powers will be granted to the Russian-installed leaders of the occupied regions.
…
The Financial Times’ Max Seddon writes that Putin’s announcement is a clear response to Russia’s recent military setbacks as Ukraine’s counteroffensive advances.
President Vladimir Putin didn’t immediately spell out the steps that would be taken under martial law in the four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia.
But legislation indicates it may involve restrictions on travel and public gatherings, tighter censorship and broader authority for law enforcement agencies….
In his address to Russia’s security council, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree restricting movement in and out of eight regions adjoining Ukraine.
The measures apply to the southern regions of Krasnodar, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov, which are all near Ukraine, and the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
He also ordered a new coordination council to be established under the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, to increase interaction between various government agencies in dealing with the fighting in Ukraine.
They also link to a tweet from Jake Cordell at Reuters:
The Kremlin’s actual decrees go much further than Putin let on in his speech (as usual) on martial law, outlining sweeping new security measures, movement restrictions, vehicle checks and wholesale “economic mobilisation” across much of western & southern Russia
SC already summarizes this in #317 Guardian liveblog.
The rumors were true.
It is also meaningless.
The regions that Russia occupied were already de facto under martial law, meaning Russian soldiers were free to loot, torture, and kill anyone they wanted to. Putin says that in his address.
CNN October 19, 2022
Russian President Putin announces martial law in four Ukrainian regions he claims to have annexed
From Uliana Pavlova
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that he has signed a law introducing martial law in four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin has sought to annex, in violation of international law.
The regions — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk — are not under full Russian control. Western nations have decried the annexations and vowed not to recognize them as Russian territory.
Putin made the comments during a scheduled Security Council meeting.
“In this regard, let me remind you that in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Luhansk People’s Republic, as well as in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, martial law was in effect before joining Russia,” Putin said during a televised address. “Now we need to formalize this regime within the framework of Russian legislation.”
“Therefore, I signed a decree on the introduction of martial law in these four subjects of the Russian Federation, so it will be immediately sent to the Federation Council,” Putin added.
The Federation Council will consider the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on martial law in the regions as soon as possible, said Andrei Klishas, chairman of the Federation Council committee on constitutional legislation, in a statement on his Telegram channel.
A man whose job it is to help preserve Japan’s cultural heritage has accidentally smashed his car into the country’s oldest toilet at a centuries-old Buddhist temple.
ravensays
Cthulhu, this isn’t good news.
It is what the rumors from last night implied. Russia the dysfunctional dictatorship has become more dysfunctional and more of a dictatorship.
Putin is doing what he planned, which is recreating the old USSR.
Because that worked so well that they were always behind the rest of the world and eventually just imploded and fell apart.
Russia isn’t a fun place to live for most of its citizens and things just got a lot worse for them.
Putin says he will increase power of local authorities in all Russian regions
From CNN’s Katharina Krebs and Chris Liakos
Russian President Putin said Wednesday that he will give “additional powers” to the local leaders of all Russian regions.
“Senior officials of the subjects of the Russian Federation should pay the necessary attention to the implementation of measures designed to ensure the safety of people, the protection and anti-terrorist protection of critical facilities, maintaining public order, increasing the stability of the economy, industry and expanding the production of means necessary for a special military operation,” Putin said.
This comes after Putin announced on Wednesday that he has signed a law introducing martial law in four Ukrainian regions the Kremlin has sought to annex, in violation of international law. The regions — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk — are not under full Russian control. Western nations have decried the annexations and vowed not to recognize them as Russian territory.
“To coordinate the work of the heads of regions will receive the authority to create the appropriate headquarters. I instruct the government, the Ministry of Defense and other departments to provide them with all necessary assistance,” Putin added.
Putin also said that he has instructed the government to establish a special council to coordinate the changes.
“The council will include vice-premiers, representatives of law enforcement agencies, the socio-economic bloc of the government, the presidential administration, and the State Council, which will ensure close interaction with the regions,” he said.
ravensays
This is the Internal Passport system of the old USSR.
You weren’t free to travel around Russia in the USSR.
According to Wikipedia, they still have the internal passport system.
This looks like they will set up checkpoints and record and restrict the movement of people in the area around Ukraine.
“… “introduction and maintenance of a special regime for entry into and exit from the territory, as well as restriction of freedom of movement on it.”
More dictatorship.
Russia looks like a horrible place to live and things just got worse for the Russia citizens.
Putin signs second decree imposing additional restrictions on Russian regions near Ukraine border
From CNN’s Uliana Pavlova, Katharina Krebs and Chris Liakos
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a second decree on Wednesday which, among other things, imposes restrictions on movement in and out of eight regions adjoining Ukraine.
The movement restrictions apply to the southern Russian regions of Krasnodar, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov — which border Ukraine — and the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol, annexed by Russia in 2014.
What the decree outlines: The decree published on the Kremlin’s website listing other measures as: “strengthening the protection of public order and ensuring public security, the protection of military, important state and special facilities, facilities that ensure the vital activity of the population, the functioning of transport, communications and communications, energy facilities, as well as facilities that pose an increased danger to human life and health and to the natural environment” as well as the “introduction and maintenance of a special regime for entry into and exit from the territory, as well as restriction of freedom of movement on it.”
This is the second decree signed by the Russian president today in regards to changes and restrictions in Russian regions. He also signed a decree Wednesday imposing martial law in the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims to have annexed in defiance of international law — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia does not fully control these territories and Ukraine continues to advance in its offensive of these regions.
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti Wednesday that Russia does not intend to close the borders in light of the introduction of martial law in four regions.
Exxon just left Russia.
No surprise since Putin seized their assets.
They’ve already taken a $3.4 billion tax writeoff over it.
British Petroleum left a while ago.
It is clear Russia isn’t a good place to do business and make any money.
Exxon fully withdraws from Russia after Putin seizes assets
moneywatch BY AIMEE PICCHI cbs.com
OCTOBER 17, 2022 / 4:50 PM / MONEYWATCH
Exxon Mobil on Monday said it has fully exited Russia, with the energy giant saying that President Vladimir Putin had expropriated its assets in the country and “unilaterally terminated” the company’s Sakhalin-1 oil project.
“With two decrees, the Russian government has unilaterally terminated our interests in Sakhalin-1, and the project has been transferred to a Russian operator,” an Exxon Mobil spokeswoman said.
She didn’t disclose whether Exxon received compensation for the assets, but added that Exxon plans to reserve its legal rights under international law and its production-sharing agreement to pursue remedies.
Russia’s move to seize Exxon’s assets come after seven months of negotiations over a transfer of the company’s stake in the Sakhalin-1 project, according to Reuters, which first reported on Exxon’s move to complete its withdrawal from the country.
“We made every effort to engage with the Russian government and other stakeholders,” an Exxon spokesperson told the news service.
In March, the energy giant announced it planned to exit Russia in response to the nation’s invasion of Ukraine and that it would not make any new investments in Russia.
Exxon’s Russia holdings were valued at more than $4 billion as of 2021, according to company documents. The Sakhalin-1 project, which Exxon has managed since 2005, has generated $16 billion for the Russian government, according to Exxon.
Earlier this year, Exxon took a $3.4 billion after-tax charge for its Sakhalin-1 assets.
KGsays
The latest bizarro event in Tory politics: the (utterly vile) Suella Braverman has resigned as Home Secretary – this is one of the three “great offices of state” below the Prime Minister. She’s from the right of the party, but not the so-called “libertarian” right – rather, she seems to agree with the hardline racists who would throw her out of the country if they had their way – she is the child of immigrants and of Indian descent, but hates immigrants like poison. She’s saying she resigned because she sent an official document from a personal email, which technically violated the ministerial code, but that seems to be a cover for her disagreement with either Truss, or the people who have forced her to resile from her tax-cutting policies, or both – she’s used her resignation letter to stress how people in government (read: Truss) should take responsibility for their mistakes, but she complained that the Tories who forced her to abandon her tax-cutting had carried out a “coup”.
Just Huffing That Copium
Yes, Special Counsel John Durham’s crumbling investigation of the investigators took yet another massive hit yesterday when the jury acquitted a researcher in what’s likely to be Durham’s final prosecution, but Fox News host Sean Hannity isn’t letting a pesky “not guilty” verdict ruin the anti-Trump “Deep State” conspiracy theory he’s worked so darn hard to sell to his viewers.
“This ruling is meaningless to me,” Hannity announced during his radio program yesterday.
Fox News’ Gregg Jarrett stayed on message, opining: “[T]he not guilty verdicts are a minor footnote in the sordid story of the greatest mass delusion in American political history.”
It’s been quite a ride for the conspiracists hoping to ride Durham to glory:
Today: Durham loses Danchenko case.
May 2022: Durham loses Sussman case.
Past year on the WSJ edit page: ⬇️⬇️⬇️ [more at the link, showing past hyperbole touting Durham as being successful.]
[Benjamin Wittes tweeted] John Durhams record in counts that went to trial.
Convictions: 0
Dismissal: 1
Acquittal: 5
Back In The Reality-Based World
Durham’s defeat unleashed a new round of blistering criticism that he even brought these cases to trial:
John Durham racks up another acquittal, this time on a case he tried personally. His investigation will go down as a shameful abuse of prosecutorial power in service of political vengeance. Juries – our most basic civilian bulwark – have firmly rebuked this abuse of power.
———————
[Chris Hayes] Add John Durham to massive pile of people who had good to very good reputations before coming into Trump’s orbit and just threw themselves on the MAGA Dignity Bonfire.
——————–
[Andrew Wissmann] Durham lost both trials he brought. Mueller won all the trials he brought. So glad Durham investigated the investigators. Not.
———————-
[Renato Mariotti] Many federal prosecutors have lost fewer trials in their entire career than John Durham lost in the past year alone.
It is apparent that his judgment is poor and that he overcharged these cases. His use of the legally meaningless “no collusion” phrase at trial betrays his bias.
I just posted her resignation letter. She seems unhappy that the government wasn’t doing enough to stop immigration.
I didn’t know she was a child of Indian immigrants. What is it that kills any sense of empathy in these people?
ravensays
This is a translation from a Russian video.
The mobilized soldiers are being abandoned in the forests without any supplies whatsoever. No food, ammo, water.
No Shovels. No big deal. Real soldiers can dig trenches with their bayonets.
Hmmm, well no bayonets either.
The Russian army is so disorganized that it is quite possible these mobilized soldiers were dropped off in the forest and completely forgotten.
The Russian army might not know where they are or even care where they are.
ChrisO @ChrisO_wiki
1/ Relatives say that mobilised Russian soldiers have been “abandoned like dogs”, “with no ammunition, no food, no water, they are being shelled by the Ukrainians, there are wounded, killed … left without their commander.”
2/ The independent Russian media group ASTRA reports:
“70 Russian men have been left without food, water and sufficient uniforms in the forest in Kharkiv region. According to the relatives, the men are digging trenches with their hands, as they have not even been given shovels.
3/ It is difficult for the relatives to name the exact location of the mobilised men in Ukraine. According to their information, the Russians were sent to the war from the village of Marshala Zhukova in the Kursk region on 10 October.
4/ “We do not know exactly where they are. Somewhere near Lyman. They do not know themselves. They are talking about some kind of forest. Two of my relatives are there, two brothers. The guys are asking for help, this is not the way it should be in a war.
5/ We are a great country, and it’s terrible what’s happening to them now,” Anna, a relative of the two men who were mobilized, told ASTRA.
Meanwhile, other relatives claim on social media that their husbands “have been abandoned in the Kharkiv region”.
6/ “My son called me yesterday, after a week of silence. What did he manage to say: alive, living in the woods, nothing to eat, no humanitarian aid. I started calling people who deal with humanitarian aid, asking for help, and came to the conclusion: no one needs them …
7/ Of course, no one called, but I received a text message from a contact and the answer killed me: ‘will they be looking for them in the forest?”, Elena Levchenko, the mother of one of the mobilised, wrote on social media.
8/ “Today we were at the military registration and enlistment office on Dimitrova, at the regional military registration and enlistment office on Soyuznaya, at the regional security committee, at the military registration and enlistment office, in Zhukovo, where they were taken…
9/ …we addressed the governor – Nobody! No one knows what happened to them or where they are!”, another relative of a mobilised man, Yekaterina, claims.
10/ Roman Starovoit, Governor of the Kursk Region, has already managed to answer the relatives online: “All military registration and enlistment offices belong to the Russian Ministry of Defense and are not subordinate to the Kursk Region Administration.” /end
Over the last three days, what started as a trickle of Telegram statements hinting at Russian units being reassigned out of the Kherson area has turned into a flood of evacuation orders instructing people to leave the city immediately. On Wednesday morning, Russian soldiers, local officials, and civilians were all visible along the west bank of the wide Dnipro River, waiting for barges and ferries that will take them away to the east.
Some Russian spokesmen, like Kirill Stremousov, who serves as the head of Russia’s occupation government in Kherson, are stating that “the battle of Kherson is about to begin.” Others, like the commander of the Russian army group “South,” Gen. Sergei Surovikin, seemed to be sending every possible signal that Russia is preparing to withdraw from the entire area. Overnight, Vladimir Putin formally declared martial law in all four of the oblasts now claimed by Russia. Something is definitely changing.
Local officials have issued evacuation orders giving every possible excuse people might need to leave the city—from warnings that the dam at Nova Kakhovka is in danger of failure, to claims that Ukraine is about to use some “illegal,” but unspecified, weapon on the city. More than one of these warnings has also come with insinuations that Russia might engage in “total war” against Ukraine’s forces in Kherson, a term that some have interpreted as meaning Putin could break out a tactical nuke. Or nukes.
Of course, that fear is constantly present when dealing with Putin. […] Russia has actually reduced the nuclear saber-rattling considerably over the last few days. While it’s easy to read a nuclear threat into any large action taken by Russia, bombing a city that Putin has claimed as his own makes no more sense now than it has in the past, and honestly, if that’s his intent … it would be a move so irrational that it’s not clear there’s anything that can be done about it.
While some are reading the declaration of martial law as another signal that Putin is about to open the silos, he himself has brushed it off as a “technicality.” More likely, that declaration is about stomping on human rights and forcing Ukrainians to somehow participate in their own destruction, as both limitations on rights and the possibility of mobilization were mentioned in the declaration.
Kherson is the largest city Russia has managed to occupy, and the only regional capital it has taken since its 2014 invasion. Even before the mock “referendums,” Russia had invested a lot of effort into the whole “Kherson is Russia forever” theme. That idea was plastered on billboards, turned into state-sponsored “celebrations,” and taught to children in schools where attendance was somewhere beyond mandatory. That Russia would then simply abandon Kherson—or destroy it—seems unthinkable.
Of course, Ukraine has done much to grease the skids to this moment. By damaging first the Antonivskyi Bridge at Kherson, then the Kakhovka Dam Bridge at Nova Kakhovka, and finally the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia and Crimea Oblast, Ukraine systematically increased the difficulty of keeping Russian forces west of the Dnipro River supplied and maintained. Ukraine then began a counteroffensive that meant Russian forces sitting and hoarding their limited supplies was out of the question.
For the past two weeks, it’s largely seemed as if that counteroffensive was frozen in place. Even when there have been reports of Russian forces pulling back from a location, Ukraine seems to have not risked sizable forces in attempting to gain additional ground. But if each day along that line was forcing Russia to expend ammunition and equipment it couldn’t easily replace, then the strategy was brilliant. Every day has brought Russia closer to either retreating before the bullets run out, or surrendering in place when they do.
That, of course, is speculation. But however it was achieved, Russia is giving every sign of departing from Kherson. So … what now?
1. Russia leaves completely, and Ukrainian forces stroll into Kherson to cheering crowds.
This is, of course, the dream scenario. Starved of supplies and with a pending collapse of their position in sight, Russian forces simply get on boats and leave. Along with them go civilians who collaborated in their Vichy government, the traitors who allowed them across the Antonivskyi Bridge in the first place, and everyone who thinks that deportation to Russia sounds like a peachy idea. Left behind are all the Ukrainians who have weathered the storm, and a city that’s remarkably intact.
How likely is this outcome? Frankly, I don’t have the means to determine the likelihood of any of these scenarios. Following such a departure, Russia might well decide to sit up across the river and fire artillery back into the city. They might also do their best to damage the city as they are departing. But if Ukraine gets a major city without a major battle, it’s a miracle of the first order.
2. Russia ships off a portion of the civilian population, turns Kherson into a fortress, and digs in.
Some weeks ago, when Ukraine first damaged the bridges, there were rumors that Russia intended to withdraw forces from much of Kherson, create a much smaller circle around the city itself, and defend that location, counting on overlapping fields of fire to reduce the overall amount of artillery ammunition required. Something similar could still happen. Russia reportedly isn’t thrilled about the idea of engaging Ukraine in a street fight, where it would be forced to defend Kherson block by block against advancing Ukrainian forces, but it might still have the appetite for shortened defensive ring around the city.
3. Russia uses this as an excuse to deport tens of thousands from Kherson.
There’s always the possibility that Russia doesn’t withdraw from Kherson at all. Instead, it creates an atmosphere of fear, loads Ukrainian civilians onto barges, and its next stop is Siberia. Have fun at your new home in the gulag! Meanwhile, a reduced population is easier to keep fed, and Russian soldiers have more choices of homes to ravage. In other words, this is all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Or at least, nothing that really changes conditions in Kherson militarily.
4. Vladimir Putin does something really stupid.
Maybe he’s watched The Dark Knight Rises one too many times, and he leaves a nuclear bomb sitting in the central plaza. Maybe he drops a rain of incendiaries and tries to blame it on Ukraine. Maybe he blows the dam at Kakhovka and claims it was all HIMARS’ fault. Maybe he has a box of extra-flea-ridden plague rats warmed up.
If Putin decides to engage in the “if I can’t have it, nobody can” view of Kherson (or thinks it’s better that the city burn than the horrors of what Russia has been doing there are revealed), there’s not a lot that can be done to stop him. But there’s a hell of a lot that can be done after. I’m not even going to get into those scenarios.
If I were forced to bet which of these outcomes is more likely, I’d guess what’s coming is something closer to 2 or 3 than either the happy, or disastrous, results at the ends of the scale. The idea that Russia would just leave Kherson seems so unlikely, I expect something like another repositioning, one that would cede more ground but leave Russia still fighting in the area of the city.
But please, surprise me. Watching Ukrainian forces flow into Kherson is one parade I would actually pay to see.
Is it too late to send them some dress uniforms? [map at the link]
There are reports this morning that Bruskynske has been liberated again, which could be an indication that a withdrawal from the front line is beginning. [Tweet, “Good morning🇺🇦 Kherson region🍉” and image at the link]
A resident of liberated Olgine village in Kherson region tells about occupation.
Russians stole everything: from clothes to canned food.
They took away a fridge with all the food inside it.
Grain and fertilizer were stolen from farmers in truckloads. [Tweet, “They were constantly drugged or drunk.” and video with English subtitles at the link]
This is the Russian authority telling the people of Berdyansk that it’s okay to collect deadwood without applying for a permit. Which is causing a bit of confusion. Berdyansk is a city with a population over over 110,000. It’s not exactly the deep forest. People are used to having electricity and gas to heat their homes.
Congresswoman does not mess around. She gets to the point quickly and effectively. She came with her charts pointing out that corporate profits/greed is responsible for more than half our inflation rate. [video at the link]
Whenever we speak about inflation, it is imperative that we display Porter’s chart. It is a dereliction of their duty that the mainstream media have not given the proper context to our current inflation.
When the Biden administration said inflation would be transitory, the only mistake was not saying transitory absent evil corporate greed raising its head. We recently got out of a pandemic. Corporations knew Americans had a few bucks banked from not spending as much during a pandemic, plus having received some stimuli.
And what do corporations do? Because they have pricing power on the vital goods and services Americans need, they jack prices up beyond any increased cost from supply chain disruptions, pandemic disruptions, weather disruptions, and necessarily increased wages. They chose to raise prices, hurting millions of Americans in the process.
What is very sad is that the supply chain disruption problems are of corporations’ own doing. They chose to increase their profits by manufacturing offshore for cheap labor and low environmental standards. They chose just-in-time-inventory, which means they had no buffer to weather pandemics or weather disruptions. In other words, they were inept. And who pays for their ineptitude as they further maximize their profits using inflation? We do.
In a recent Congressional hearing, Congresswoman Katie Porter dangled her charts again. What she showed from studies is what many inferred for quite some time. Inflation was primarily caused by corporations raising prices much more than necessary to increase their profits by wide margins. This is the classic definition of legalized theft.
And instead of using fiscal policy to neuter the corporate thugs using windfall redistributive taxes, the Feds put more pain on Americans by increasing interest rates steeply. In other words, yet again, we bear the pain of recessionary actions to slow our spending. God forbid we pass laws to stop the corporate thugs from fleecing us. They win again as they also profit from the increased interest on the margins.
A more informed America will vote for their interests. Please share.
blfsays
I first saw this mentioned in an unsourced-comment at dKos, a le penazi claim that the French Ambassador to Ukraine had resigned, and “quoted” the Ambassador as saying (in translation) We no longer know what we are defending here, even Volodymyr Zelensky is no longer here in Kyiv, why continue to sacrifice the Ukrainian people. The Ambassador himself tweeted back very quickly (in translation) “This is fake news please remove it immediately”.
Non, l’ambassadeur de France en Ukraine n’a pas démissionné : « L’annonce du départ d’Etienne de Poncins, motivé par un prétendu découragement, avait été relayée notamment par un membre du conseil national du Rassemblement national. L’ambassadeur a confirmé qu’il était toujours en poste à Kiev [sic†]. »
No, the French ambassador to Ukraine has not resigned (mostly Generalissimo Google™ Translate):
The announcement of the departure of Etienne de Poncins, motivated by an alleged discouragement, had been relayed in particular by a member of the national council of the National Rally [teh le penazis]. The ambassador confirmed that he was still stationed in Kyiv.
This is fake news that has been widely disseminated on social networks since Tuesday: the supposed resignation of the French Ambassador to Ukraine, Etienne de Poncins. However, this information is false, the diplomat is indeed at his task, in Kyiv […].
[… the exchange of tweets, including screenshots…]
The presence of Etienne de Poncins in Kyiv was notably attested by the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Anne-Claire Legendre in a tweet, in which she pays tribute to the work of the embassy.
Although it is currently impossible to say with certainty, this digital attack could have been guided by pro-Russian activists.
In addition to being disseminated on social networks by hundreds of fake accounts, this false information was also relayed by the account of the Russian state channel RT Afrique.
Apparently the nonsense didn’t originate with teh le penazis, but was quickly retwitteringed by them.
† Like English, both Kiev and Kyiv can be used. But, for example, AFP now recommends the use of Kyiv (apparently since the beginning of this year, almost two months before Putin invaded).
blfsays
“Would you like to see Vladimir Putin go to jail?”, “Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu didn’t hold back with his answer in an interview with DW” (very short twittering video with English subtitles).
KGsays
I didn’t know she [Suella Braverman] was a child of Indian immigrants. PZM@327
It’s slightly more complicated: her mother immigrated to the UK from Mauritius, her father from Kenya – both places with considerable Indian communities formed during British imperial rule; and her family name at birth was Fernandes, deriving from her father’s Goan ancestry. You would indeed think she might have some empathy for migrants, but I imagine she wants to prove herself 110% British.
Russian hackers affiliated with the National Republic Army (NRA) have released 1.2 terabytes of sensitive Russian data. This includes information concerning Russia’s key national security infrastructure, blueprints for cyber security strategies and other related data. Kyiv Post was given exclusive access to the trove, which is made public here for the first time.
[…]
This is apparently breaking news so there isn’t much else at the moment. I still have not seen any independent confirmation of the either the Russian NRA’s existence, or more importantly, that someone did break into Technoserv (sans trailing e) and others (still unnamed).
[…] It sure looks pretty bad to me — can’t wait for analysts to go over just what is in there. You know they are saying rogue Russian FSB agents are involved in that breach. There is a link to those files in there — so people are looking at this now — and I am not saying you should hit that link! But boy am I curious.
NRA means the National Republic Army — they really dedicated to getting rid of Putin and getting their country back.
Posted by readers of the article:
“Trump’s Perversion” … “Извращение Трампа”
——————–
At this point it’s unclear whether the released data is significant or not. We’ll see. Sometimes hacks that are hyped up turn out to be less than they appear.
——————-
[from a side discussion about Elon Musk] The thing about Capitalism is that Capitalists love it when the other guy does all the leg work and proof of concept. But the MIC is going to be all over an alternative to Starlink. The military doesn’t like blackmail and the big Corporations are going to be right there showing the DOD that they don’t have to depend on that unstable asshat Musk to get what they need.
I just wish the Boards of his companies actually did what was right for the shareholders and the companies and removed him from everything. He’s toxic.
———————
Its hard work keeping effective security up to date on the internet. Hard, continuous and expensive; and the results aren’t dramatic & sexy, they’re near invisible. Something today’s governments and corporations are unwilling to invest in. They want large, quarterly increases in profits, and must have shiny, in-your-face evidence of their “success” to wave in front of the world.
So, instead, they go for the sparkly appearance of security. Not effective against a determined enemy.
———————-
When Yanukovich fled Ukraine in 2014, he left behind a ledger of foreigners on his payroll, including of course Paul Manafort. I so dearly wish to find Putin’s digital ledger among the hacked documents.
————————-
I can’t read Russian. otherwise I would use a dedicated computer with nothing else on it and put a virtual machine on it, and download this onto the virtual machine to archive it and look through it.
————————-
Yeah, don’t click the link.
I haven’t seen this reported anywhere yet other than the Kyiv Post.
I have to say until I see reporting from other reputable sources outside the war zone, I have to remain more than a little skeptical. With an apparent IT breach of this size (that came with sufficient warning), either Putin doesn’t care or it’s the world’s biggest fishbait lure.
————————
With or without former spies weighing in, I would like to at least see a news agency reporting that has reliable vetting of stories like this.
That being said, one can certainly assume that if this is a legit information dump, our own spy agencies are already all over it like ants on a half-eaten candy bar.
———————-
The guy that wrote that story is a pretty serious guy. Check him out — Jason Jay Smart. He has connections all over the place.
————————–
The American NRA = the New Russian Army.
———————-
1.2 tb is not a lot of data, especially if it includes os files.
It sounds like 1 or 2 servers or a small storage device.
A month ago, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Donald Trump, his eponymous business, and his three eldest children alleging a pattern of fraudulent conduct spanning decades. In the intervening four weeks, the family has assiduously ducked the process server, attempted to get the case moved to the Commercial division and out of Justice Arthur Engoron’s courtroom, and established a brand spanking new company the exact same day the AG filed suit.
Want to guess what the name of that company is?
Trump Organization II LLC.
We shit you not.
AG James, the OG highlighter girl, has also been busy. Last week she filed a motion requesting (1) an independent monitor to ensure that the Trump Organization doesn’t file any more hinky financial statements, (2) an injunction to stop them moving money into the new company, and (3) permission to serve the former president and his dingbat son Eric electronically, since they’re being such pissants about it. And, as she’s done throughout the three years it took her to get these goobers to cooperate with her investigation, she seized on their non-compliance as an opportunity to put their shit on the public docket. [LOL]
In fact, she put a whole lot of shit on the docket. So if anyone wants to wade through all 71 EXHIBITS in support of the motion to show cause why the court should appoint the monitor and grant the injunction, the case number is 452564/2022, and you should have at it!
Some fun highlights include deposition transcripts of Don Sr. and Eric throwing a tantrum about WITCH HUNT, then taking the Fifth and refusing to answer any questions.
“This is the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country. There has never been another president or perhaps even another politician who has been persecuted, harassed and in every other way unfairly treated like President Donald J. Trump,” the former president began, vomiting out several hundred words we’ve all heard before and no one needs to hear again. Although this little colloquy comparing decades of lies about his finances to a bum weather report is the Lord’s holy perfection:
Anyone in my position not taking the Fifth Amendment would be a fool, an absolute fool. One statement or answer that is ever so slightly off, just ever so slightly by accident, by mistake, such as it was a sunny beautiful day, when actually it was slightly overcast, would be met by law enforcement at a level seldom seen in this country, because I’ve experienced it. The United States Constitution exists for this very purpose, and I will utilize it to the fullest extent and defend myself against this malicious attack by this administration, this Attorney General’s Office, and all other attacks on my family, my business and our country.
[bluster, humbug, braying assholery]
Meteorologists can breathe a sigh of relief with Donald Trump standing up for their interests. Ditto “our country.”
Young Eric’s deposition shitfit read more or less along the same lines, except, because his was taken on October 5, 2020, during the campaign, he promised that the Supreme Court was going to git that dang Tish James.
The United States Supreme Court has stated that prosecutors are prohibited from engaging in arbitrary fishing expeditions, initiating investigations out of malice or an intent to harass, or using the power to try and interfere with a President’s official duties. Furthermore, the Supreme Court has made it very clear that any effort to manipulate a President’s policy decisions or retaliate against a President for official acts through the issuance of a subpoena is unconstitutional.
Adorbz!
Here on Planet Earth, that never happened. Although the Trumps did file one of their signature LOLsuits in federal court demanding someone make that mean AG lady stop picking on them. [Tweet of Eric Trump claiming that Letitia James suing Trump violates the constitution.]
Spoiler Alert: FUCK OFF.
Weirdly enough, Don Jr. was as chatty with the AG as he is on social media. [Excerpt at the link]
Guess he didn’t get the memo. […]
In the meantime, Justice Engoron scheduled a show cause hearing for 10 a.m. on October 31 for the Trumps to explain — to the very court they stonewalled for so long on discovery that they got themselves held in contempt — why they’re such avatars of trustworthiness that they can be trusted to submit clean financials and not move their assets out of the jurisdiction.
A rightwing Idaho group has drafted a bill that would “ban drag performances in all public venues,” and plans to have the bill introduced once the state Legislature comes into session in January, the Idaho Capital Sun reports. Blaine Conzatti, president of the “Idaho Family Policy Center,” claims the proposed ban on personal expression anywhere in public would be perfectly legal under Idaho’s state constitution, which mentions morality and there you go, it’s legal.
What First Amendment? There are culture wars to pursue!
Conzatti’s group was only formed in 2021, but the Family Fear Foundation is already becoming a familiar player in rightwing culture wars in Idaho. The Family Policy Center produced Idaho’s legislation that copied the Texas abortion ban enforced by “bounties” on abortion providers earlier this year. Conzatti told the Capital Sun that a bill banning public drag performances is ready to go and should be introduced right away once the Lege is in session, but he declined to show the paper a copy of the bill or say which legislators will be introducing it.
He also has the official anti-trans language down pat, claiming that drag is by nature a “sexual” performance, which is bullshit, but that’s what he said: “No child should ever be exposed to sexual exhibitions like drag shows in public places, whether that’s at a public library or a public park.” We should point out that this is a classic example of “begging the question,” since it relies on the unsupported assertion that a drag show is a “sexual exhibition” in the first place.
The bill is part of the far Right’s politically motivated moral panic over the existence of LGBTQ+ people, a cynical effort to gin up controversy and votes over the supposed lifelong damage that might result from little Christian children knowing that other people exist and have value. Locally, the perpetually aggrieved have been freaking out since a Boise Pride festival in September, which had been scheduled to include a “drag kids” performance by kids aged 12 to 17, who’d been planning to wear sparkly outfits and lip-synch to pop music, and if that isn’t a sex act what is? (Oh yes, actual sex acts are.)
The performance was postponed indefinitely after professional shit-stirrer Christopher Rufo directed his Twitter flying monkeys at the event’s corporate sponsors, many of whom withdrew their support. Dorothy Moon, chair of the Idaho Republican Party, also demanded sponsors pull their financial support for what she claimed was “the sexualization of our children and the perverse idea that children should engage in sexual performances with adult entertainers.” The organizers of Boise Pride received death threats, as is mandatory these days.
Again, all over sparkly dresses and lip-synching. To Kelly Clarkson. If anyone’s sexualizing children, it’s the creeps who imagine a song and dance act is the preface to a child sex orgy.
Now, just in case the scourge of children possibly hearing a book read to them by someone in drag wasn’t enough of a threat to civilization, Conzatti also had an outright lie ready to justify a ban on drag performances, too, the Capital Sun notes:
Conzatti also cites a drag performance in Coeur d’Alene in June as another example of public indecency, when a performer was accused of exposing himself during a Pride in the Park event. After complaints, the local prosecutor’s office determined the video was edited to look like the performer had exposed himself when he had not. The performer has since filed a defamation lawsuit against North Idaho blogger Summer Bushnell over the incident, according to reporting from the Coeur d’Alene Press.
Feels like that needs some follow-up, though; if the reporter didn’t know it was bullshit when Conzatti said it, was there an attempt to contact him once it was clear that never happened? In any case, it’s very important we protect children from anything that might be modified to seem obscene, like that Twitter account that adds cussy captions to scenes from Star Trek. [video at the link]
The bill would almost certainly be unconstitutional, since we’re fairly certain the First Amendment doesn’t allow the prohibition of an entire form of expression, even if you say it’s “sexual” really loudly. But for shits and giggles — to be banned in Idaho in 2024 — Conzatti thinks Idaho’s state constitution provides all the justification you need, as do US Supreme Court decisions from long ago. The Family Panic Center circulated a petition calling on the Lege to ban drag performances,
citing a section of the Idaho Constitution that states the “first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people and the purity of the home.” It says the Legislature should “further all wise and well-directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality.”
“There were many Supreme Court decisions from the 19th century dealing with public virtue and how sexual practices should not take place in public because it degraded public virtue,” Conzatti said.
There are one or two potential problems with that reasoning, we think. As we like to note, Yr Doktor Zoom is not a lawyer, but we’re fairly certain that those general principles about virtue and sobriety and morality don’t really have the force of law, and beyond that, a state constitution’s very broad claims about morality can’t exactly overrule the US Constitution. As for Conzatti’s second point, we’re fairly sure that not even the Roberts Court would be willing to stretch the meaning of “sexual practices” to include a drag performance that doesn’t have any sex in it. Like, not yet at least.
Still, the bill certainly has the potential to cause all sorts of mischief it it somehow became law. Even in Idaho, that may be unlikely, depending on whether the state Senate is taken over in the midterms by far-right loonies like the House has. Remember that last year’s bill imposing life sentences for providing gender-affirming care to minors died in the state Senate without even being considered, as did another bill that could have sent librarians to prison for letting minors check out sex books (defined as anything Idaho wingnuts think is dirty). Big surprise: Both had the support of the Idaho Family Policy Fuckers, too.
If what’s left of the institutional guardrails fall, however, as gender law expert Alejandra Carballo points out on the Twitter machine, the bill could — depending on its exact wording — “effectively criminalize being trans and/or gender non-conforming in public.” It’s certainly not difficult to imagine that the “Christian” nationalists pushing to force LGBTQ people back into the closet might go for the broadest definition possible, to scare trans people out of public life. As Carballo notes,
This is exactly what the Stonewall riots were about. The police raiding gay bars and arresting drag queens and trans people for not wearing clothes associated with their sex assigned at birth. That’s effectively what the Idaho Family Policy Center wants.
In conclusion, I am finally starting to think it might make more sense to get the fuck out of this godforsaken state. Lucky thing I am lazy and hate moving, so I will probably end up staying and fighting for a while longer, the end.
Let’s talk about con men. The way confidence men work is that they retell you a dream with pieces you vaguely already have in your mind, and then promise you that your feelings are correct and justified […] Then the confidence man says you are a special snowflake, and he knows how to make those things line up for your success. This results in the mark giving them resources—usually cash. When confidence men are at the top of the game, they simply rig the game while funneling money up the pyramid scheme to the very top. The trick for them at that point is distancing themselves enough to be able to plead plausible deniability in the conspiracy to defraud you of your money.
When a confidence man is super successful, he can get that distance by having lower-level wannabe scam artists buy into his Amway-like product with the promise that they, too, can make his kind of money—provided they sacrifice a little first. Every single less-than-competent MAGA candidate throughout the nation wants a little taste of that fundraising power Trump has. Trump’s fundraising is, at this point, transparently unscrupulous. Like everything with Trump, the campaign scammery is so crass they’ve even stooped to lying about “meet-and-greet” events in order to keep the small-dollar donations flowing in.
On Wednesday, reporter Sam Stein tweeted out how Trump’s Save America PAC was sending out fundraising emails that featured GOP Senate candidate for Arizona, Blake Masters. Masters is running against incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly and is losing. Masters would love a chance at getting some power and money, and he has sufficiently kissed Trump’s swampy ring in order to get an endorsement. Masters’ ability to fundraise for his unpopular campaign hasn’t gone so well of late. But as Stein points out, just because you are being let into the con, doesn’t mean you get to have anything more than a sliver of the profits.
Save America emails have featured Blake Masters recently. Click through to see donations are actually split. Click again to see default breakdown is, err, heavy to Trump ($4.95 to $0.05) […] Look closer and you’re signed up to auto-give to Save America [Tweet and image from Trump’s fundraiser available at the link]
Oh my, that is a pretty steep cut Trump is taking out of the ol’ Blake Masters fundraising haul! And here’s a very important reminder: this fundraising is just about squeezing money out of working Americans. The people who are really funding dirtbags like Masters have the budget and are using it accordingly.
[Robert Reich tweeted] Peter Thiel has poured nearly $30M into the midterms — backing his personal protégés JD Vance and Blake Masters.
Nike co-founder Phil Knight is throwing millions into Oregon’s governor race — siphoning votes from Democrats.
Billionaires are shaping our elections to their whims.
Donald Trump’s fundraising, whether for his hotels, his campaigns, his lawyers, or his Big Lie, has always been a confidence game where the suckers are the MAGA types who believe that Donald Trump and his brand of Republicanism will provide everyone with a golden toilet bowl to sit on for the end of their days. There are ongoing investigations into his organization’s use of other people’s money. The world of bigots and low-level scam artists attaching themselves to Trump’s garbage fire wagon are under the impression that in getting the blessing of the Donald, they will be able to get into a coveted position from where they will then be able to make bigger bucks being a corrupt GOP official. That’s the whole scheme. That’s the Republican Party.
President Joe Biden told attendees at a Democratic National Committee event Tuesday that he would fast-track passing a national abortion rights measure if Democrats strengthened their majorities in Congress this fall.
“If we do that, here’s the promise I make to you and the American people: The first bill I will send to the Congress will be to codify Roe v. Wade,” Biden said to the crowd at the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C. “And when Congress passes it, I’ll sign it in January, 50 years after Roe was first decided the law of the land,” Biden added.
Former Vice President Mike Pence took Biden’s pledge as his cue to remind voters that Republicans are unwaveringly committed to banning abortion nationwide.
“I’ve got news for President Biden,” tweeted Pence. “Come January 22nd, we will have Pro-Life majorities in the House and Senate and we’ll be taking the cause of the right to Life to every state house in America!”
[…] Republicans absolutely plan on banning abortion nationwide if they are given the keys to Congress and the White House. Pence views retaking the House and Senate this November as a first step in the Republican march toward inserting the government into every pregnancy-related decision people make in this country—from family planning to how and when they conceive to the reproductive health care decisions they make along the way. […]
[…] […] Trump knew that data supposedly showing voter fraud in the 2020 election was false, but signed a court document attesting to it regardless, a federal judge said on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge David Carter for the Central District of California found that Trump likely lied to a Georgia federal court in December 2020, when he claimed that Fulton County had counted the votes of the dead, convicted felons, and unregistered voters.
Trump had already filed a lawsuit making the claims in Georgia state court.
But when the former President’s legal team began to consider moving the state court case to federal court, Trump attorney John Eastman realized that the data was flawed, Carter found.
“Although the President signed a verification for [the state court filing] back on Dec. 1, he has since been made aware that some of the allegations (and evidence proffered by the experts) has been inaccurate,” Eastman wrote in a Dec. 5, 2020 email cited by Carter. “For him to sign a new verification with that knowledge (and incorporation by reference) would not be accurate.”
Trump and his lawyers ended up filing the federal lawsuit with the faulty information anyway, Carter said. The judge remarked that the federal lawsuit was filed “without rectifying, clarifying, or otherwise changing” the incorrect data.
There was never any serious evidence to support Trump’s claims of voter fraud. But the clarity of Eastman’s remark that Trump signing a new verification based on the same claim “would not be accurate,” followed by Trump doing exactly that — signing a new verification — comes as yet another potential example of brazen lawlessness by the former President.
Carter added that Eastman’s message and other emails “show that President Trump knew that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and to the public.”
Carter made the finding in an opinion filed in an ongoing lawsuit over a subpoena that the January 6 Committee issued to Eastman.
Eastman has argued that he should not have to turn over many of his records to the committee due to attorney-client privilege protections.
Carter has since found that while some of the materials are protected by attorney-client privilege, the actions of Eastman and his client, Trump, in the run-up to January 6 ran afoul of the law on two fronts: trying to disrupt congressional proceedings on January 6, and engaging in a conspiracy to defraud.
Carter has found, then, that at least some of Eastman’s messages can be released to the committee because they likely serve as evidence of a potential crime.
Carter ruled in March 2022 that Eastman and Trump likely committed obstruction of Congress in their effort to overturn the election results, describing Eastman’s efforts as “a coup in search of a legal theory.”
blfsays
Re the alleged Technoserv (sans trailing e) data acquisition, allegedly by the mysterious Russian NRA (see @279, @334, & Lynna@335), I myself am now in the process of downloading the (alleged-)1.2 terrabytes, with various precautions. Since it’s a Tor link plus other reasons, it’s proceeding “slowly”, current ETA is sometime tomorrow morning (my time) to complete. The download stuff sofar seems to be largely unencrypted PDF-formatted scans of documents, perhaps mostly invoices, all(?) in Russian; Generalissimo Google™ Translate of a semi-randomly selected sample finds nothing obvious(-to-me) interesting. There are also Zip files (unencrypted) and what is presumably M$-Word stuff (documents and spreadsheets), none of which I’ve sampled yet.
The link in the Kyiv Post article should be “safe”, it’s just data needed for the Tor download — but you do need to understand Tor Onion and homoglyphs to use that data. When examining the data, however, I would recommend either being off-line (no Internet), or taking precautions, including — but not limited to — using a reliable secure VPN.
Meanwhile in Russia: anger and disappointment fill the studio, as the viewers are being prepared for the loss of Kherson and other territories. Host Olga Skabeeva bitterly questions why Russia was so wrong in the beginning, believing that Zelensky would run & NATO wouldn’t help.
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. It’s funny how they constantly try to convince themselves and others that they’re at war with NATO. Fools, if you were at war with NATO you’d know it.
The Washington Post reports that (Trump’s) former White House valet — the man who had to respond every time the president pressed his famous Oval Office Diet Coke button — provided key evidence that led to the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago in August…
There is a village in Madhya Pradesh where milk, curd and some other milk products are not sold rather the villagers happily distribute it to others. The villagers happily distribute. Name of this village is Chudiyan…
Former National Security Counsel director Fiona Hill became a household name during her deposition for Donald Trump’s first impeachment. Her fearless, straightforward, no-nonsense testimony on both Trump’s actions and diplomatic issues has made Hill one of the nation’s most respected experts on international relations, especially when it comes to all things Russia. Now, in a new interview with Politico, Hill is bringing equally blunt about what’s happening in Eastern Europe.
“This is a great power conflict, “ said Hill. “The third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century. It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”
The article itself is hidden behind a clickbait headline about Elon Musk, but while Hill does have something to say about the appeal of Putin to guys like Musk or Trump (“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin.”), the more important message is that the battle going on in Ukraine isn’t a fight about who will control Crimea. It’s about who will own the future.
It was during that deposition for Trump’s first impeachment that Hill called Trump’s blackmail call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “really kind of my worst fears and nightmares” in terms of an “effort not just to subvert the national security process but to try to subvert what really should be a diplomatic effort.”
Hill’s insightful, informed discussion of the issues, and her explanation of how both Russia and Ukraine saw Trump’s efforts to manipulate the situation for his own benefits made her a standout witness. In later interviews, Hill explained how she warned Trump that Vladimir Putin actually wants to use nuclear weapons, and that Russia’s threats to Ukraine couldn’t be ignored, but needed to be met with a “major international response.”
This time, what Hill has to say isn’t all about Putin’s ability to manipulate men who are easily bullied, but about how Putin himself defined the illegal, unproved invasion of Ukraine in a way that means the U.S., NATO, and the world can’t afford to step back.
As she points out, a hallmark of Putin is that when something he does turns out to be a failure, he doesn’t step away. He doubles down. “[Putin] always takes the more extreme step in his range of options,” said Hill, “the one that actually cuts off other alternatives. Putin has often related an experience he had as a kid, when he trapped a rat in a corner in the apartment building he lived in, in Leningrad, and the rat shocked him by jumping out and fighting back.” It says something that Putin identifies with that rat.
The Russian dictator insists on fighting even when, as in this case “he’s also the person who puts himself in the corner.” In spite of extraordinarily high casualties (Hill notes that some estimates now show Russian losses at over 90,000), Putin isn’t taking steps to reduce future casualties. Instead he’s throwing more bodies at the situation. Russia ran through many of it’s best trained, best equipped forces in the opening weeks of the war. Now it is mobilizing untrained men, most of them out of shape, many of them elderly or ill, and forcing them to the front with only the slightest nod toward training. That families of some of those who were “recruited” following Putin’s big mobilization speech, have already received death notices.
For Hill, Putin has launched himself into a no-win situation, but he’s unwilling, or even incapable, of stepping away. His only end game is one in which he leaves on his own terms. Putin doesn’t just want to win the war, he wants to crush Ukraine. To “cow” people into submission, erase their culture, obliterate their boundaries into “Novorossiya,” and “remove Ukraine from the map and from global affairs.” And just because what’s happening in Ukraine doesn’t fit the image people have for a World War III—one dominated by an exchange of strategic nuclear weapons—that doesn’t mean what’s happening is any more dismissible than the events that generated past world wars. […]
Putin doesn’t accept the boundaries of the world as they are now drawn. He’s willing to drag the world into food shortage and an economic crisis, and he’s willing to at least threaten nuclear war to see that the boundaries are redrawn in his favor. These actions and desires are indistinguishable from those that drove World War I and World War II. Just like the men who kicked off those wars, Putin expected things to go easily an in his favor.
“I’m sure Putin thought he would have been unassailable with a quick, victorious war,” said Hill. “Ukraine would be back in the fold and then probably after that, Belarus. Moldova as well, perhaps. There would have been a reframing of the next phase of Putin as the great czar of a reconstituted ‘Russkiy mir’ or ‘Russian world.’”
Only that didn’t happen. But it still could, if the U.S. and other allies falter in their support of Ukraine.
Hill: This goes back to the point I tried to make when I testified at the first impeachment trial against President Trump. There’s a direct line between that episode and now. Putin has managed to seed hostile sentiment toward Ukraine. Even if people think they are criticizing Ukraine for their own domestic political purposes, because they want to claim that the Biden administration is giving too much support for Ukraine instead of giving more support to Americans, etc. — they’re replaying the targeted messaging that Vladimir Putin has very carefully fed into our political arena. People may think that they’re acting independently, but they are echoing the Kremlin’s propaganda.
As if the Pillars of Creation could get any more iconic.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a fresh view of a famed celestial sight: the stunning star-forming region known as the Pillars of Creation.
The image, teeming with newborn stars and revealing new details of the region’s haunting spires of dust and gas, was released Wednesday. It is the latest cosmic portrait from the Webb observatory, building on the telescope’s already impressive collection.
David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist at the Planetary Science Institute, called the new Webb image “just spectacular beyond words.” […]
Re: Lyanna, OM @ 335…
As for a dedicated computer with nothing else on it (and that can be completely wiped when the task is done)…that’s a good use for a Raspberry Pi.
Zelensky: 3 power plants destroyed by Russia in past 24 hours.
Zelensky reiterated calls by other officials for Ukrainians to greatly limit their electricity consumption starting on Oct. 20. “Tomorrow, it is very important that consumption is as conscious as possible,” he said
Oggie: Mathomsays
SC at 349:
I freely admit that poliical history is not my strong suit. I know a little about the English Parliamentarian system, but I certainly do NOT know the ins and outs of the system. That said: that was absolutely incredible. She put her own party out on a limb, screwed them around, and then didn’t vote? That’s Trump level idiocy. How has Truss managed to put this much political incompetence into such a short term as PM?
ravensays
Belarus just defaulted on its World bank loans.
Because of Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.
No surprise.
Belarus says it is unable to pay off debt due to sanctions
October 18, 2022
(Reuters) – Belarus said on Wednesday it was unable to repay its foreign currency-denominated debt due to sanctions imposed on it by the European Union and the United States.
The World Bank said on Monday it had placed all loans made by its main lending arm to Belarus into “nonperforming” status effective immediately, citing overdue payments amounting to $68.43 million.
Ukraine’s military strikes Russian air defense in south.
Ukraine’s Armed Forces conducted six strikes on Russian Buk, Tor, and Pantsir surface-to-air missile systems in Ukraine’s south, the Southern Operational Command reported on Oct. 19.
KGsays
I know a little about the English Parliamentarian system – Oggie: Mathom
Well not a lot, if you think it’s the English system!
ravensays
The US has caught a few Russian spies.
No surprise.
I wonder how many more Russian spies there are?
I’m sure there are lots.
The US has 1/2 million Russian immigrants.
Tweet NEXTA @nexta_tv
The U.S. charges 5 Russians and 2 Venezuelans in a scheme to send military technology and oil to Russia
They obtained military technology from U.S. companies, smuggled oil and laundered millions of dollars for Russian oligarchs and sanctioned entities.
justice.gov
Five Russian Nationals and Two Oil Traders Charged in Global
“As alleged, the defendants were criminal enablers for oligarchs, orchestrating a complex scheme to unlawfully…
Oggie: Mathomsays
Well not a lot, if you think it’s the English system!
Yes, one wrong word invalidates all that I have ever written. I bow before perfection.
Reginald Selkirksays
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.
Oggie: Mathom@356. Don’t be so silly. But although the error is amazingly common among Americans (ditto “the Queen/King of England”, a title which, like the English Parliament, has not existed since 1707), it’s still a rather elementary error to make if you want to discuss UK politics. Why do you get in a huff because I pointed it out, hopefully helping you avoid it in future?
Truss has resigned as Prime Minister! Shortest time in office in UK history (44 days) says the Guardian – I’ll check that.
KGsays
I thought so – the Duke of Wellington’s second administration lasted just 23 days (17 November – 9 December 1834) – but he had been PM before, serving for 2 years and 299 days between 1828 and1830.
KGsays
The Tories (or at least, Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers), says they will choose a new leader in the next week. But this raises the question of how they will do it, when the last election took 10 weeks. I can see that they can speed up the voting among Tory MPs, but if the party membership are then to choose between the top two candidates, it’s not clear how they could organise it so fast. And if not, they will either have to change the rules – which has to go to something called the Party board, about which I know nothing – or rely on the runner-up doing the gentlemanly/ladylike thing and withdrawing – but I don’t think they can make this a condition of entering the contest without a rule change.
KGsays
Cruella de Vil (aka Suella Braverman) and the completely Upminster Kemi Badenoch are both going to stand to replace Truss. Both make her look like a pragmatic centrist. We’ll see what else crawls out of the woodwork, but my guess is that it’s Sunak’s to lose – if he wants it. Hunt has said he’s not standing, presumably delaying his bid until after the inevitable election defeat – but he may not have a seat at that point.
KGsays
Reportedly, Johnson is going to stand! If the MPs vote him into the top two candidates, and it goes to the membership, he’ll win. Yes, they really are that stupid.
blfsays
KG, there is an argument teh “U”K’s Parliament actually is the English legislature body pretending to be an all-“U”K assembly. That’s obviously not entirely true, the Parliament in London does deal with some genuine all-“U”K matters (e.g., military, some taxation, etc.), but the lack of any devolved England assembly means it does have a dual role: England’s legislature and also the all-“U”K assembly, whilst the devolved legislatures are strictly regional (N.Ireland, Wales, or Scotland). Hence Tam Dalyell’s West Lothian question, “whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales who sit in the House of Commons should be able to vote on matters that affect only England, while MPs from England are unable to vote on matters that have been devolved”; “To illustrate his point, Dalyell chose the example of a member of Parliament for West Lothian [Scotland] who could vote on matters affecting the English town of Blackburn, Lancashire, but not on matters concerning Blackburn, West Lothian in his own constituency.”
blf@367,
IIRC, SNP MPs don’t vote on matters only affecting non-Scottish parts of the UK, although legally they could. Dalyell opposed devolution and put foward his “West Lothian Question” as if he thought it was a knockdown argument, but it really isn’t. MPs for English constituencies, by their very number, and the limited range of devolved issues, have far more collective influence on what happens domestically in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, than MPs from the other parts of the UK have on what happens domestically in England. Theoretically, an English Parliament could be created, and the UK Parliament limited to issues not devolved below UK level, but in practice, it’s not going to happen.
KGsays
The executive of the 1922 committee is due to meet between 17.00 and 19.00 UK time to agree the rules for the leadership contest. Sunak is apparently going to stand, Penny Mordaunt is “taking soundings”, as is someone called Brandon Lewis (no, I’ve no idea who he is either). Meanwhile, from the Grauniad’s live thread:
The Conservative MP Sir Robert Syms says it is “mad” to think that Boris Johnson could be leader again. H was responding to this tweet from Tom Harwood from GB News
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
EU agrees sanctions over Iranian drones in Ukraine
The EU has agreed sanctions against three individuals and one entity supplying Iranian drones to Russia that have been used to bomb Ukraine, the EU’s Czech presidency has said.
“After 3 days of talks, EU ambassadors agreed on measures against entities supplying Iranian drones that hit Ukraine,” the presidency said on Twitter.
It added: “EU states decided to freeze the assets of 3 individuals and 1 entity responsible for drone deliveries. The EU is also prepared to extend sanctions to 4 more Iranian entities that already featured in a previous sanctions list.”
The sanctions will come into force today….
KGsays
A parade of Tory MPs are joining the “Bring Back Boris” bandwagon, on the alleged grounds that he has a mandate from the electorate.
From smiling triggerfish to a waving raccoon, the shortlisted images for the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photo awards have been announced. Whittled down from thousands of entries submitted by professional and amateur photographers from around the world, we’re presented with a wonderful mix of hilarious wildlife. The winners will be announced on 8 December…
General Staff: Russia may withdraw experienced forces from Kherson.
Oleksiy Hromov, a top officer at the General Staff, said that the Russian command might keep only freshly mobilized troops on the right bank of the Dnipro River.
Reginald Selkirksays
@372: … as is someone called Brandon Lewis (no, I’ve no idea who he is either).
“It’s clearly not the main point here, but this man [Johnson] is still supposed to be an MP, and he is still taking a £84k a year salary from the taxpayer.
What on earth makes him think he can just fly to the Caribbean when he’s supposed to be working?”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday, Oct.20, made an impassioned plea at the world’s biggest publishing event for authors to write about the “terror” unleashed by Russia’s invasion.
War-ravaged Ukraine is in focus at this year’s edition of the Frankfurt book fair, with numerous authors and industry figures appearing throughout the week at the country’s large stand.
“Instead of importing culture, Russia imports death,” Zelensky told the fair, in a video address.
“So I ask you, please do everything to make people know about the terror that Russia brought to Ukraine.”
“Knowledge is the answer,” he went on. “Books, documentary scripts, articles, reports — these are the answers.”
Zelensky’s wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, is due to appear in person on Saturday, Oct 22, speaking at a side event.
Organisers and participants see such high-profile events as key to promoting Ukrainian culture in the face of what they say are attempts to wipe out the country’s identity with Russian propaganda.
Meanwhile Russian state institutions, which usually run their nation’s stand, have been banned, with prominent opponents of President Vladimir Putin instead given the stage.
‘Lack of knowledge’
In his address, Zelensky also took aim at those who had not come out to condemn Russian aggression.
“We must be straightforward here — there are still plenty of public figures in Europe who are encouraging ‘understanding’ of Russia,” he said.
“These people are present in different spheres: politics, business, NGOs and media.
“Why is this possible?… the only answer is, the lack of knowledge.”
Sofia Cheliak of the Ukraine Book Institute, part of the culture ministry, underlined the efforts taken by Ukrainian industry players to attend the fair.
Getting furniture and books overland to Frankfurt was also a major challenge, said Cheliak, who helped organise the stand.
“Because of attacks, everything was closed. It was quite hard to find a car, and organise the whole process,” she said.
But the stand is there, with a wide array of Ukranian books of every variety. It also has a stage, above which a large red light flashes when air raid sirens go off back in Ukraine.
Forty-six Ukrainian publishers will take part in the five-day fair, which runs until Sunday. Among the many authors attending are the well-known “punk poet” Sergiy Zhadan.
…
And while the Ukrainian publishing industry initially ground to a halt following Russia’s invasion in February, it has since rumbled back to life.
Sales may not be what they were before the conflict, but some types of books are proving popular, said Cheliak. These include books on Ukrainian history and how to deal with trauma….
ravensays
Tweet @panyiszabolcs
‘Dramatic turn of events: Ukraine has launched an attack against Russia,’ Hungary’s largest pro-Orbán news site claims in an article, considering Kherson as Russia’s official territory.
This site (like many others) is directly controlled by the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office.
Hungary is rapidly joining the small number of Russian allies, along with Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Belarus.
Why is Hungary even in the EU then? They don’t belong there.
(While traveling the internet, I notice a lot of people are asking that question these days.)
Why is Hungary in NATO? They don’t belong there either.
They are on the wrong side of history while forgetting there own.
Hungary was invaded by Russia in 1956 and were controlled by Russia for 45 years.
Hungary shares a small border with Ukraine.
I’m sure about now, Ukraine wishes they didn’t.
Russian lawmakers Andrey Gurulyov and Konstantin Dolgov advocate freezing, starving the Ukrainian civilian population, forcing them into exile by making their survival otherwise impossible. State TV host Olga Skabeeva disingenuously claims that Russia simply has no other choice.
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
“How does one live in a country where nothing works?”
October 20, 20225:54 AM PDT
UK says Russian aircraft fired missile near British spy plane over Black Sea
By Kylie Maclellan and Farouq Suleiman
Summary
Malfunction not escalation blamed for incident
Wallace says U.S. trip no cause for alarm
But incident highlights risk of miscalculation
LONDON, Oct 20 (Reuters) – A Russian fighter jet released a missile near an unarmed British spy plane patrolling in international airspace over the Black Sea on Sept. 29, UK defence minister Ben Wallace said, in an apparent accident and not a deliberate escalation of tensions.
Russia almost shot down an unarmed British spy plane over the Black Sea.
I don’t believe for one second that this was an accident.
There are quite a few spy planes around this area right now.
The US has spy planes in the Black sea area and also around Kaliningrad in the Baltic sea area. We also have many large surveillance drones in the area.
It wouldn’t surprise me if sooner or later, the Russians accidentally shoot one down.
That is the sort of thing that the Russians do.
April 27: French internet cables cut
September 26: Nord Stream explosions
October 9: German rail system sabotaged
October 19: three subsea cables cut in Western Europe
+ ceaseless cyber attacks on Bulgaria, Moldova, and other countries, and other incidents I’m sure I’m forgetting…
flatmate has just asked me whether i think the lettuce voted leaf or romaine in the brexit referendum […]
Braverman lost to tofu, Truss lost to a lettuce, vegans having an amazing week […]
Surreal to think that a Liz Truss highlights package could only realistically include:
1. Queen died
2. That time she resigned
Truss’s CV:
> Barges into 10 Downing Street
> Kills the Queen
> Crashes the pound
> Refuses to elaborate further
> Leaves
Watching a Prime Minister’s resignation speech doesn’t feel historic anymore, just business as usual. They’ve even ruined that.
From yesterday, but lready out-of-date (“[…] could well be on for living through five chancellors, four home secretaries and three prime ministers by next Friday”):
My son has lived through four chancellors, three home secretaries, two prime ministers and two monarchs.
Oct 19 (Reuters) – A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s funding apparatus is unconstitutional, faulting a system Democrats designed to insulate the agency from requiring congressional appropriations.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the CFPB’s independent funding through the Federal Reserve rather than budgets passed by Congress violated the separation of powers principles in the U.S. Constitution.
That ruling, by a panel of three judges appointed by then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, in the process vacated a 2017 regulation the agency adopted aimed at combating “unfair and abusive” practices in the payday lending industry.
[…]
“Even among self-funded agencies, the Bureau is unique,” U.S. Circuit Judge Cory Wilson wrote. “The Bureau’s perpetual self-directed, double-insulated funding structure goes a significant step further than that enjoyed by the other agencies on offer.”
A CFPB spokesperson said there was “nothing novel or unusual about Congress’s decision to fund the CFPB outside of annual spending bills.”
The bureau could ask the full 5th Circuit to reconsider the case or take it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Multiple other courts have deemed the CFPB’s funding constitutional, a point the 5th Circuit acknowledged but disagreed with.
[…]
“Extreme right-wing judges are throwing into question every rule the CFPB enforces to protect consumers and businesses alike,” U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who proposed the CFPB’s creation, wrote on Twitter.
From the NYT, “The ruling, if it stands, could upend every regulation and enforcement action undertaken by the bureau since its creation in 2011.”
During his presidency, Donald Trump tended to make a spectacle whenever he signed new measures, but just one month after taking office, [he] did the opposite, quietly putting his signature on a measure that much of the country hadn’t heard about.
With the support of the congressional GOP majority in place at the time, […] Trump rolled back an Obama-era regulation and made it easier for people with mental illnesses to purchase guns.
[…] In early 2017, Republicans found themselves in control of Congress and the White House for the first time in over a decade. One of their first priorities — one of the first tasks they decided to check off their to-do list — was to take steps to get more people more access to guns.
All of this came to mind this week when House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik spoke to the conservative Washington Times, and talked about what voters could expect from a GOP majority in the chamber, not just over the course of two years, but specifically from the “first 100 days.”
The congresswoman pointed at pre-drafted legislation on several issues, but it was one priority that stood out:
Ms. Stefanik also said that leadership plans to drop several Second Amendment-oriented bills in a GOP-majority House. “There’s concealed-carry reciprocity,” she said, referring to a bill that would make licenses portable among the states. [So, Texas gun laws for everyone?] She also cited “the Second Amendment Guarantee Act, which I will reintroduce in the next Congress on the issues of constitutional rights,” which also would preempt most local laws on concealed carry and allow for lawsuits if licenses are denied.
The House GOP leader went on to talk about possible legislation that would prevent credit card companies from creating Merchant Category Code for purchases from gun stores.
“First of all, the credit cards are inaccurately going to tell you that they’re not flagging gun purchases. They are. It is a flag of gun purchases, it is unconstitutional [and] we will use every legislative and oversight tool possible to make sure that they do not infringe on constitutional rights,” Stefanik said, calling it a move “towards a national gun registry.”
The Republican added, “If they continue moving forward on this path, we will have to pursue legislative actions to stop that from absolutely happening.”
[…] priorities: Republicans haven’t yet control of anything, and they’re already exploring new ways to weaken gun laws at the federal level.
Graham Phillips, the Nottingham-born pro-Kremlin blogger who was sanctioned by then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, has posted an expletive-laden farewell message to her
In horrifically pronounced Russian, he declares: “We will win and I’ll return to the UK as a famous journalist”
Narrator: They would lose, and he would be returned to the UK as a war criminal.
Subtitled misogynistic rant at the (Twitter) link.
In Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, John Fetterman’s primary care physician said in a medical update yesterday the Democrat “has no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office” after an assessment of his condition following his stroke in May.
Other political news, as summarized by Steve Bannon:
As Sean Hannity’s Fox News program devotes each of its recent episodes to helping key GOP candidates, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes noted that the show is now effectively “an hour-long commercial for a Republican Senate candidate every night.” A related Washington Post analysis concluded that Hannity is effectively making a “million-dollar in-kind contribution to the GOP” with its program.
blf @389, thanks for posting that. Sometimes the short, humorous takes give us a clearer picture of Liz Truss’s pratfall.
Excerpt from Josh Marshall’s post about Liz Truss:
[…] this is the impact and inevitable collateral damage of the Brexit vote in 2015 in which the UK simply decided to light itself on fire for no reason at all.
Liz Truss was merely a foot soldier in this war for self-immolation. Perhaps the greatest single driver was none other than Boris Johnson, though his angling for the top job was delayed for a few years. And he was the one who actually finalized the deal. The political instability was driven by the mandate to enact a policy which condemned the UK to diminished wealth and trade, greater economic vulnerability and the real prospect of the eventual dissolution of the UK itself […] and do this in such a way as to be able to argue that none of these bad things would happen and that the result would be great. That effort required denial, continual deception and the eventual onset of those challenges once the first crisis arose which of course it did a few years later in the form of COVID.
One day after Vladimir Putin formally instituted martial law in all the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia, what’s going on there can best be described as martial lawlessness. Reports are pouring in from many regions, and from Kherson in particular, of Russian troops ransacking houses, making off with furniture and appliances, and stealing goods from the civilians they’ve forced from their homes. The Russian soldier trying to make his way back to Russia with a washing machine has been the unofficial symbol of the invasion from near the beginning, but as Russia flees from the west bank of the Dnipro River, the sense that all order is collapsing is rising quickly. Occupied Kherson, on both banks of the river, is looking more and more like pure chaos.
Some posted images now suggest that Russia has been slowly withdrawing forces from the area west of the river for at least two weeks. This extensive thread from Radio Free Europe reporter Mark Krutov documents multiple crossings of Russian ferries, carrying soldiers and equipment across to Nova Kakhovka on the east bank. And of course, they’re also carrying what’s really important.
It is also reported that – overnight, more than 60 trucks left on ferry crossings from the right to the left bank, which were allegedly filled with dozens of tons of household appliances stolen in Kherson
Meanwhile, there are good indications that the line along which fighting has continued after the big Ukrainian advance at the start of the month has begun to move again. Russia reportedly shelled some of the positions along that line, including Bruskynske, which is a good indicator that Ukraine now holds those positions. Meanwhile, Russian sources are reporting that they stopped an improbably large Ukrainian force near Sukhanove. FIRMS data on Wednesday showed hot spots at Mylove and north of Sukhanove, but over the last 24 hours, it’s all gone cool. […]
What is clear is that Russia’s position in Ukraine—not just in Kherson—appears to be on the brink of disintegrating. On Russian state TV, pundits who just weeks ago were sneering about how all of Ukraine would soon be under Russian control, are mourning what they describe as inevitable losses of territory. It’s been just two weeks since Putin announced the annexation of four regions in Ukraine, and Russia has lost territory in all of those regions. Now Russia seems to be poised for more massive losses at opposite ends of the front, even as they continue to make minimal gains in one tiny area.
The situation is bad enough that Russian pundits are now proposing genocide as the only possible solution. It’s horrific. But it’s also delusional. It’s just another example of how Russia finds anything at all acceptable, except for the idea of leaving Ukraine in peace. [See SC’s comment 185]
Russia has a choice. It can stand up to Vladimir Putin and end this disaster. That murdering other nations and peoples is more acceptable is testimony to cowardice.
The other aspect of what’s going on in Kherson is the mass abduction and deportation of Ukrainian citizens. That even includes the collaborators. They may have been of some use to Russia in Kherson, but what value do they have once they’re shuffled out of that region? Do they think Putin is going to give them a nice Hero of Russia ribbon and a pension to settle down on the Moscow ring road for their role in a humiliating loss? All of the Ukrainians being stolen away are headed for hard lives in bad places, and unfortunately, the great majority of those being forced out of their homes are not those who had a hand in Russia’s occupation government. This is just genocide by different terms.
The kremlin is urging immediate evacuation of our citizens from Kherson to russia.
Urging the same people who stopped 🇷🇺 tanks with their bare hands, who know the value of democracy, & who live on a beautiful land by the sea, a relocation to Siberia? They are insane.
Russia has been keeping up a pretense that it was using its own drones in the attacks against Ukrainian cities, even though everyone paying the slightest bit of attention knows this is patently untrue. Not even Russian announcers are good at keeping up this lie.
We previously saw some of these M30A1 shells stacked in crates in Ukraine, but this may be the first one that’s been seen in use in the field. This is absolutely the intersection where you did not want to be standing this morning. [video at the ink]
Right now, everyone is just waiting to see what happens in Kherson over the next hours or days. Expect updates. But of all the reports of Russians looting and running this morning, this may be the oddest. And possibly the most ominous.
Energodar residents report that Russians are leaving the city, looting and loading military trucks with household appliances and other valuables. [video at the link]
Enerhodar is, of course, the site of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant. It’s not in Kherson Oblast. It’s not near the Dnipro River. It’s great to see Russian forces leaving the area around the plant. Except it’s also more than a little nerve-racking. For Russia to surrender the power plant seems incomprehensible … unless they have something planned for that site that’s worse than the shelling they’ve already delivered.
ruzZian settlers returning to ruzZia from their short holidays in Ukraine. They do not want to stay in occupied regions when Ukrainian soldiers arrive.
This morning, at the Novoazovsk border pass (occupied Donetsk region). [video at the link, long lines of vehicles. Traffic at a standstill.]
Russian soldiers have shot dead a Ukrainian musician in his home after he refused to take part in a concert in occupied Kherson, according to the culture ministry in Kyiv.
Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko declined to take part in a concert “intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’ in Kherson”, the ministry said in a statement on its Facebook page.
Kerpatenko, who has been working in the Kherson Regional Philharmonic since 2000, was asked to work with collaborators in the philharmonic and with Russians who planned the concert for October 1, featuring the chamber orchestra “Gilea” of the Kherson Philharmonic.
“This concert was intended by the occupiers to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’ in Kherson. However, the conductor of the orchestra Yuri Kerpatenko categorically refused to cooperate with the occupants,” the ministry added. “We express our deepest condolences to Yuri’s loved ones and colleagues. Eternal memory.”
Kerpatenko, who was also the principal conductor of Kherson’s Mykola Kulish Music and Drama Theatre, had been posting defiant messages on his Facebook page until May.
The Kherson regional prosecutor’s office in Ukraine has launched a formal investigation “on the basis of violations of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder”. Family members outside Kherson lost contact with the conductor in September, it said.
Condemnation by Ukrainian and international artists was swift. “The history of Russia imposing a ‘comply or die’ policy against artists is nothing new. It has a history which spans for hundred of years,” said the Finnish-Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska, who was scheduled to conduct the Last Night of the Proms at London’s Albert Hall last month before it was cancelled because of the Queen’s death.
“I have seen too much silence from Russian colleagues,” she said. “Would this be the time for Russian musicians, especially those living and working abroad, to finally step up and take a stand against the Russian regime’s actions in Ukraine?”
[Good point.]
A fortnight ago Stasevska drove a truck of humanitarian supplies into Lviv from her home in Finland, before conducting the INSO-Lviv orchestra in a concert of Ukrainian contemporary music.
“We know the Russian regime is hunting activists, journalists, artists, community leaders, and anyone ready to resist the occupation,” said the prizewinning Ukrainian novelist turned war crimes investigator Victoria Amelina.
“Yet, even knowing the current pattern and history, we cannot and, more importantly, shouldn’t get used to hearing about more brutal murders of a bright, talented, brave people whose only fault was being Ukrainian.”
She drew a parallel between Kerpatenko and Mykola Kulish, the Ukrainian playwright after whom the theatre where the conductor worked is named.
“Kulish was shot on 3 November 1937, near Sandarmokh, with 289 other Ukrainian writers, artists and intellectuals. Yuriy Kerpatenko was shot in his home in Kherson in October 2022,” she said.
[Such distressing history.]
The Russians’ actions were “pure genocide”, said the conductor Semyon Bychkov from Paris, where he was performing as music director of the Czech Philharmonic. The St Petersburg-born conductor left Russia as a young man in the 1970s.
“The bullets don’t distinguish between people. It didn’t make me feel worse that this man was a conductor, it just confirmed the pure evil that’s been going on even before the first bombs fell on Ukraine.”
Ukrainian author Oleksandr Mykhed, who joined the military at the outbreak of the war, and whose home was destroyed by Russian shelling, said: “Russia is trying to reconstruct the Soviet Union in the occupied territories. To reconstruct something improbable.
“One of the key components of Soviet policy was the destruction of culture of the enslaved countries. Murder of cultural figures, purging of libraries, banning of national languages.
“The modern occupiers are fully following this strategy. Destroying culture, sports, education.
“And when our territories are deoccupied, we will learn about dozens and hundreds of such terrible stories. Stories of destruction and heroic resistance.”
“It is absolutely terrifying,” said chief stage director of Kyiv’s National Opera of Ukraine, Anatoliy Solovianenko. “Whether he was a doctor, or a worker, or an artist, it makes no difference. He was a human, and he refused to comply.”
…[C]’est un pari risqué car après la “mobilisation partielle” contestée dans le pays, ces mesures prouvent une fois encore que la guerre est une réalité tangible pour la population. Ce n’est pas ce que Vladimir Poutine avait promis aux Russes au début de l’opération spéciale. Le risque est de susciter davantage de contestation.
Et puis en Russie, la loi martiale n’a jamais été associée à des épisodes heureux pour le pouvoir. Il y en a eu des formes au plus fort de l’offensive allemande en Russie durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale et certaines mesures s’en rapprochant ont été appliquées au moment du coup d’État manqué de 1991. Mais le dernier à avoir instauré une loi martiale sur la majorité du territoire russe a été le tsar Nicolas II, peu avant d’être renversé par la révolution d’octobre en 1917. Ce n’est pas le meilleur des précédents pour Vladimir Poutine.
[…] KARA MCKINNEY (One America News (OAN) host): We’re not the first culture to experiment with, you know, free sex. That’s something that’s actually been tried many, many times before, and what you see through a lot of — especially a lot of ancient and pagan societies, is that the most high status of men, that they’re going to get all the women.
Host fails to give examples of all the cultures that have “experimented” with “free sex,” which has been “tried many, many times before.” But yes, all these pagan societies with the extremely high status of the men who get all the girls and?
And that it’s the lower status men who are not going to get women. And of course what you see in those men, you see a lot of them turning to aggressive violence, trying to kidnap women.
What you see in these ancient pagan societies McKinney just knows a lot about, the lower status men who don’t get the girls just turn to aggressive violence and kidnap all the women.
There’s a lot of problems socially that actually fall out from that, that women — that’s why you have the trope of the harems, you know, with the king.
The trope of the harems, you know, with the king. Lot of problems socially that actually fall out from that.
Did Sarah Palin ghostwrite this monologue?
You know, he gets his pick of all the nice young ladies.
The king gets his pick of all the nice young ladies.
And then like I said, the guys at the bottom of the totem pole, they can’t even find a single wife to settle down with.
Can’t even find a single wife! Poor totem pole guys!
And so we kind of see that today, but for a lot of young men who aren’t, like we were saying earlier, aren’t having sex — and of course we should see that within the confines of marriage,
Of course! Only in traditional marriage with the lights off and hymns playing!
but a lot of men, what do they turn to instead? They turn to porn, they turn to alcohol, they turn to drugs.
When men can’t have sex (in traditional marriages) they turn to porn and drinking and drugs. Nobody who is having sex avails themselves of any of these things.
We see the nihilistic mass shooter; plenty of them have been called “incel,” and I know that term’s been used by the left in a weaponized way, and so I don’t mean it like that,
Hate it how “the Left” has stolen the term “incel” and turned it into a bad thing.
but there is even young men who feel angry and hatred toward women.
Yes! They do! Have we veered through all these winding roads and somehow arrived at the correct answer, albeit accidentally?
But again what they’re mad at, and what women should be mad at, is actually the sexual revolution. Because it’s put men and women, actually both of us, in a very bad place.
We have not veered through all these winding roads and somehow arrived at the correct answer, albeit accidentally. Women should be mad at the sexual revolution that gave them all this freedom, because it also caused all these incel mass shootings.
YOU HAPPY NOW, LIBS?
If you’ve enjoyed today’s visit with OAN’s Kara McKinney, please enjoy other offerings like “Leftists are the REAL book-burners” and whatever this discussion of gay pride month is, where she talks about the “gross itty-bitty degenerate details” of gays’ sex lives and her guest talks about White History Month.
“Zelensky: Russians have planted bombs at the Kakhovska hydroelectric power plant’s [dam] on the Dnipro River.
Destroying the facility may flood some 80 towns and cities, including Kherson.”
ravensays
This is the strategy of the Russians in Kherson, according to the military staff of Ukraine.
They are going to move all their military supplies and ammo across the river along with all their most capable soldiers.
They will leave the newly mobilized troops behind to cover their retreat and slow down the Ukrainians.
Not much of a strategy really.
The newly mobilized are being left behind to die without resources or training and I’m sure they know it.
Most likely, they will just be a speed bump to the Urkainians.
Hopefully, they have enough common sense to just surrender and stay alive.
I’m sure the brighter among them will steal a kayak or inner tube from the Ukrainians and just cross the river when no one is looking.
The New Voice of Ukraine
Russian army will cling to south of Ukraine, Putin ready to sacrifice mobilized, Ukraine’s General Staff says
Thu, October 20, 2022 at 9:23 AM·2 min read
That’s what the “difficult decisions” that were previously mentioned by Sergey Surovikin, the new commander of the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine, could actually mean, Hromov said.
“We do not rule it out,” Hromov said.
“You understand that they will not withdraw in full if they do so when the troops withdraw. The enemy can withdraw and leave the consсripts to carry out the tasks of preventing the withdrawal of their troops, and move the most combat-capable personnel units in advance to the left bank of the Dnipro river.”
Therefore, the primary task of the Russian troops now is to maintain the front in the Kherson direction in order to ensure their retreat.
Read also: Danilov spells out consequences of Russia’s possible destruction of Kakhovka dam
“Intelligence data indicate that the primary task for the Russian armed forces in the near future is to hold the front… The enemy plans to solve this task mostly through the first wave of mobilization and by increasing the number of Russian troops on the right bank of the Dnipro river,” Hromov said.
As for the reasons why the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is so desperately clinging to the south of Ukraine, the main one is the land corridor to Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
“For Putin’s regime, the southern direction – Kherson, Zaporizhzhya and Mykolaiv – is strategically important from the point of view of preserving the land corridor to Crimea and the water supply of the peninsula,” Hromov said.
In addition, the Russian Federation still hopes to use the region as a springboard to capture Mykolaiv and Odesa oblasts.
Meanwhile, according to the media, fearing an attack by the Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the southern direction, Russian troops are already transferring equipment and personnel to the right bank of the Dnipro river.
Besides, the Kremlin regime already began the evacuation of its puppet governors and other collaborators from Kherson.
A reminder: after the destruction of key crossings across the Dnipro by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Russian troops located in this region found themselves in an extremely vulnerable position due to problems with supply and the inability to organize a large-scale evacuation of their forces.
… the planned movie, called “Rebel’s Run,” was based on a comic book character created by far-right blogger Vox Day that features a hero named Rebel who is “sometimes depicted in a Confederate flag bustier” and who fights against “a global police force hunting down freethinking conservatives.”
…
… Day, whose given name is Theodore Beale, decided to use a Utah-based firm called Ohana Capital Financial to hold the $1 million he’d raised in donations for the movie in escrow. … according to a federal indictment filed last month, [Ohana boss James] Wolfgramm’s wealth was a sham. …
“I wouldn’t count on us getting the money back,” said Day …
Lots of sad sick neo-fascist puppies out there today… How many of them will wonder how much of that $1M stuck to Beale’s fingers along the way?
johnson catmansays
re Pierce R. Butler @405:
. . . freethinking conservatives.
I had a literal laugh-out-loud moment when I read that phrase.
ravensays
Another terrorist attack by right wingnuts in the USA.
This one was threats by a Jan. 06 criminal in prison, from prison.
Death threats against Joe Biden on down, and a white powder attack.
The white powder proved to be a dud though.
I’ll give this one a B for effort and an F for carrying it out.
I don’t think death threats and white powder attacks from a prison cell are going to be very effective.
Reuters Pennsylvania man charged with threatening to kill Jan. 6 investigator
Daniel Trotta
Wed, October 19, 2022 at 4:05 PM·2 min read
By Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) – A U.S. grand jury has indicted a jailed Pennsylvania man for threatening to kill the chair of the congressional committee investigating the January 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Robert Vargo, 25, of Berwick, Pennsylvania, also threatened to kill the committee chair’s family and President Joe Biden, prosecutors said.
He was charged with threatening the president of the United States, threat by interstate communications, and influencing a federal official by threat, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania said in a statement.
Vargo, who once escaped from the Pennsylvania jail where he is being held, could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the federal charges.
Prosecutors allege Vargo sent a threatening letter and white powder to the congressional office of U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee that is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
The letter, which referenced the congressional probe and anthrax, also threatened U.S. District Court Judge Robert Mariani, according to prosecutors.
“I’m going to kill you! I will make you feel the rest of our pain & suffering,” the letter to Thompson said. “There is nowhere or nobody who can keep you from me. I am going to kill you & those you love.”
The letter also says, “You & Joe Biden soon will face death for the wrongs you’ve done to US.”
U.S. Capitol Police who investigated the threat found the white powder to be harmless.
Larry Kudlow on Fox Business 9/23/22: “The new British prime minister, Liz Truss, has laid out a terrific supply-side economic growth plan which looks a lot like the basic thrust of Kevin McCarthy’s Commitment to America plan.”
Liz Truss resigned today after just six weeks in office after her economic plan, including tax cuts for the wealthy, sparked economic turmoil and chaos in the United Kingdom.
Video clip at the (Twitter) link.
“The US midterm-elections cavalry arrived early, in London!”
For the past three days, the big story out of Ukraine has been about Russia getting out of Ukraine—or at least, out of a key part of it. The area of Kherson Oblast west of the Dnipro River has been a key location for Russia since the start of the invasion. Now it seems they may be leaving that entire area, which would include the only regional capital Russia has managed to capture during the invasion. It’s news worth celebrating, except for hints that Russia may be trying to cause as much damage as possible on the way out.
In an appearance on Thursday evening in Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia has mined the massive dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. If the dam is destroyed, the 18 million cubic feet of water behind that dam could flood over 80 settlements, including large parts of the city of Kherson.
Other sources have noted that the destruction of the dam would also significantly drop the water levels on the reservoir behind the dam, generating consequences far upstream. This could extend northeast to the city of Zaporizhzhia. Lowered water levels could threaten the safety of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Enerhodar, as well as limit the ability to operate the plant for years to come.
Throughout the war, Russia has warned that Ukraine and other parts of Europe would be starved for heating and electricity if the supply of Russian natural gas was shut down. However, that has proven not to be the case. Over recent weeks, the price of natural gas in Europe has continued to drop, falling below $120 this week from peak prices that exceeded $300. But Russia has continued to claim that without Russian gas, Europe’s energy and economy are doomed. This has become a central theme on Russia’s state-operated television channels.
Within Ukraine, Russia has been regularly attacking electrical generation facilities, as well as striking switching stations and major transmission lines. Electricity is now being rationed in Kyiv and in other parts of Ukraine. The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant and forced long-term idling of the plant at Enerhodar would put further stress on the electrical supply in Ukraine, and help to prevent an earlier plan in which Ukraine was going to export electricity to neighboring countries. The potential crippling of the nuclear plant might also provide a reason for why Russian forces were reportedly leaving the area on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the afternoon briefing at the Pentagon, press secretary and Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder gave a no-nonsense assessment that Iran is not just helping Russia by suppling them with drones, but that Iranian forces have been on the ground in Ukraine to help support drone operations. In terms of what that means, Ryder said that Iran was “complicit in exporting terror.” However, he seemed to stop short (for now) in officially naming Iran as a combatant in the war. [Tweet and video at the link]
White House NSC coordinator John Kirby put it even more directly, saying, “Iran is now directly engaged on the ground.” Which definitely gives the impression that not only are those Iranian troops a legitimate target, but Iran itself may be subject to additional sanctions and restrictions.
Earlier in the day a Washington Post report indicated that U.S. specialists have viewed the remains of drones recovered after attacks in Ukraine. At this point, Ukraine claims to have shot down over 200 of the Iranian drones, but Russia may have purchased as many as 2,400 and many of these drones are still obviously causing extreme damage. While the U.S. has supplied Ukraine with their own “kamikaze drones,” such as the Switchblade 300 and Switchblade 600, these drones are small and have a limited range. The Iranian-made Shahed-136 is much larger and capable of a much longer flight. That makes these drones easier to shoot down, but it also makes them a threat to civilian targets.
Russia managed to take the city of Kherson on the first day of March after traitorous local officials assisted in directing Ukrainian defenders away from the Antonovskiy Bridge while leaving that bridge intact for Russia to cross. Following that crossing, Russia occupied over 10,000 square kilometers on the west side of the Dnipro, at times threatening the cities of Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih. However, Ukrainian forces soon pushed back, keeping Russian forces confined to an area where they could be readily supplied across the bridge at Kherson and another bridge that crosses the top of a dam west of Nova Kakhovka.
At the end of May, Ukraine began a series of attacks using HIMARS or other precision weapons to damage and disable the bridges at Kherson and Nova Kakhovka. This forced Russia to begin supplying their forces on the west bank of the Dnipro using barges or ferries. On multiple occasions, Ukraine targeted the locations where vehicles were gathered to get onboard these ferries. Ukrainian forces also took out a series of ammunition and equipment depots in the area of Nova Kokhovka, further limiting the materiel available to forces in Kherson. When an explosion heavily damaged the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea and Russia in the first week of October, it seriously affected Russia’s ability to supply its whole southern war effort.
Also in early October, Ukraine massed forces along the northern edge of Russian-occupied territory in western Kherson and rapidly broke through Russian front lines. In just three days, the front lines were shifted 30 kilometers to the south. Ukraine liberated over 1,600 square kilometers in this single push, and left Russian forces fighting to maintain a new frontline that stretched from near the town of Davydiv Brid in the west to the town of Mylove along the bank of the Dnipro.
Now Russia is reportedly trying to relocate as many as 60,000 people out of the Kherson region, which allows them to hide collaborators and Russian officials among innocent Ukrainians, making their passage across the Dnipro River safe from Ukrainian attack. Many of the Ukrainians removed from the area are likely to face the same fate as those from Mariupol and other areas occupied by Russian—deportation after consignment to a “filtration camp,” followed by a very uncertain fate in Russia.
Following the Ukrainian advance in early October, Russia reportedly concentrated as many as 45 Battalion Tactical Groups west of the Dnipro to prevent Ukrainian troops from advancing to control the two bridges. How many of those forces remain inside Kherson isn’t known. At some long-fought-over “hard points,” like the town of Snihurivka, Ukrainian forces continue to report a large number of Russian troops and a large exchange of artillery fire.
At the far end of the line, there were reports on Thursday that some Russian forces had been withdrawn from Svatove. However, there don’t seem to be any new reports of settlements in that area changing hands, and these forces may have been positioned somewhere else in the immediate area.
[tweet about Russians subjecting their comrades to friendly fire.] […]
Remember how right-wing doo-doo head Candace Owens was seen hanging out with Ye (formerly Kayne West)? Then remember how Ye very recently announced that because he kept getting banned from Instagram and Twitter for threatening “The Jews,” he was going to buy the conservative social media app Parler? Well, Candace Owens’ husband, George Farmer, is the CEO of the failing Parler property. I say failing because, according to reports, the parent company has been struggling to create revenue for the application and has therefore been trying very diligently to get rid of the “low number of daily active users” app at a high price. [Ah… sounds like doo-doo heads scamming other doo-doo heads.]
Upon making the announcement that Ye would be bailing out some random executives by purchasing the Get, Rumble, and Truth Social competitor, the Parler Outreach Team emailed hundreds of Parler investors and notified users about the news. It was the standard this is exciting news for us Parler folks kind of pablum, but there was one catch: They forgot to BCC all of the emails and instead CC’d them. This means hundreds of peoples’ personal email addresses were exposed.
[…] Adam Ryan was the first person to point this out.
Today’s media operations fail:
Parler sent an email to all users with 300+ of their verified users CC’d instead of BCC’d
Now hundreds of people are replying and everyone has access to the personal emails of many verified users and Parler investors
[…] Tech news outlet Gizmodo reports that the people effectively doxed by their own right-wing hate machine were Parler users with “Gold Badges.” This is like a tier above Twitter’s “blue checks.” According to Parler, the Gold Badge:
This badge indicates the account is owned by notable influencers, celebrities, journalists, media organizations, public officials, government entities, businesses, organizations, non-profits, or anything of-the-like. The Gold Badge is intended to protect well known public figures and organizations against impersonation. In order to qualify for this badge, the account must provide proof of existence to Parler through various means depending on the type of account.
Who has a Gold Badge on Parler? […] people like Matt Walsh (anti-trans looney toon), Tim Pool (what if a somehow less funny Joe Rogan and a somehow less intelligent version of Ben Shapiro had a show), along with aides and former aides to conservative luminaries like Rep. Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn, someone working for Sen. Ted Cruz, and Eric Trump’s wife, Lara Lee. The @TrackInflation Twitter account wrote of the fallout:
“The email chain was incredible. Just a bunch of nobody verified accounts pushing their own product. Racial slurs. Upset individuals getting doxxed. One guy was pushing racist websites he ran. Incredible group of folks here.”
The big problem for conservative hucksters is that they never start with the product, they start with the con. This frequently means that creating something worthwhile is very low on the priority list. Instead, getting quick money and handing off the scam potato to the next pyramid scheme contestant is the number one mission. […]
Oggie: Mathomsays
in re: 410
But remember: Only conservatives know how to run businesses. And handle America’s security. And protect privacy. And make money (but if a liberal makes money, it is proof they are elitists who are out of touch with the common loon).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration this week pushed back against a lawsuit seeking the immediate release of all records related to the flights of migrants from Texas to Massachusetts but agreed to provide them no later than Dec. 1. […]
Gee, I wonder why DeSantis doesn’t want anyone to see those records?
The Biden administration says it is in critical need of more money to bring the Jan. 6 rioters to justice. But it’s not clear Congress will grant that request in a major funding bill planned for December. And if it fails to do so before the new year, a potential Republican-led House could imperil the resources they need. […]
Democrats pushed through climate change legislation this year that earmarked tens of billions of dollars to create a U.S. supply chain for electric vehicles. Republicans and the states they represent are poised to cash in on much of the political and economic windfall. For Republican members of Congress, none of whom voted for the climate law, it’s the best of both worlds. They can call the spending wasteful, while benefiting politically from the jobs and money that car and battery factories bring to their districts.
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘defending history’ by thinking a Union monument in NWGA is actually honoring Confederates (then quietly reposting to fix it) sums up a lot about her time in Congress+the state of our politics.”
Screenshots at the (Twitter) link.
Oggie: Mathomsays
From Jezebel. The ‘life’ in the petri dishes shown in this article are considered, by the GOP, to be more important than the life of a woman or girl.
The photos above [in the linked article] are of pregnancy tissue from abortions done at six and nine weeks of pregnancy, respectively. Currently, 14 states ban abortion at least this early in gestation, and more will pass bans next year. Even at nine weeks, the nascent embryo inside this tissue isn’t visible to the naked eye.
On Wednesday, the Guardian published … [the photos in the linked article] from abortions before 10 weeks of pregnancy, and they went viral. The petri dish images are from the group MYA Network—which includes abortion providers, activists, and patients—and show tissues from early abortions done via manual uterine aspiration, a five-minute procedure that involves a handheld device. The providers rinsed off menstrual lining and blood before taking the photos of what’s known as the gestational sac, the precursor to the amniotic sac. (The group also published the photos on their website.)
ravensays
Russian propagandists are already publishing an interactive map of the potential flooding of the Kherson region during the breakthrough of the Kakhovskaya HPP dam. It is noted that the wave will be almost 5 m high and will reach Kherson in 2 hours.
twitter.com/MiraMi…
The original tweet is in Cyrillic.
A wall of water 15 feet high. That 2 hours notice will be useful though.
If or when the Russian blow up the dam on the Dnipro river, it is going to hurt them as well. That dam is also how they feed the canal to Crimea.
And, they have a lot of soldiers and equipment along the river banks as well.
FWIW, this isn’t the first time a dam on the Dnipro has been blown up by the Russians.
Radio Free Europe:
In 1941, as Nazi German troops swept through Soviet-era Ukraine, Josef Stalin’s secret police blew up a hydroelectric dam in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya to slow the Nazi advance.
and
… the estimated number of victims varies widely. Most historians put it at between 20,000 and 100,000,
A dam upstream at Zaporizhzhya was blown up by Stalin to slow down the Germans.
It probably had little effect but did kill 20,000 to 100,000 Ukrainians.
ravensays
Tweet NLwartracker @NLwartracker
More news coming in from Kherson city. Apperently shops who were forced to accept rubles by 🇷🇺 authorities stopped accepting rubles as payment, also in the bazaar rubles are no longer accepted. Blackmarket price for rubbels crashed today. Seems the 🇷🇺 are running
#SlavaUkraïni
Strangely enough, it looks like the Russians are doing something sensible for once.
Abandoning Kherson.
I’m sure they have backup plans that involve huge numbers of dead people and large numbers of war crimes, but it isn’t obvious right now.
Maybe it is blowing up the Kakhovskaya dam after all.
Some children’s hospitals around the country are being overwhelmed with patients suffering from respiratory illnesses.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) in particular is on the rise, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases have spiked, especially in the Northeast and South.
For the last few weeks, Connecticut Children’s Hospital in Hartford has been over capacity as more and more young children have been admitted for RSV. The hospital is now in talks with the National Guard and FEMA about setting up a tent outside to expand capacity.
“We just don’t have as many critical care beds [for children] as we have adult critical care beds simply because we don’t usually need them,” said Dr. Juan Salazar, physician in chief of Connecticut Children’s Medical Center.
Cases began spiking in early September and rose exponentially, he said, which is something he’s never seen before.
“Our hospital was full,” Salazar said. “Our traditional pediatric in-patient beds, we have three floors with 25 beds in each location, we can expand to 28. All of those were full this morning.”
At Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, RSV cases in the emergency department nearly doubled in the last week, going from 57 to 106. Thirty children are admitted there for RSV each day. In contrast, they only see 1 to 3 children per day in the emergency department with COVID-19.
Several D.C.-area hospitals have also been at capacity for weeks, the Washington Post reports.
NBC News found hospitals in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Rhode Island were also under strain from an influx in RSV patients.
For most kids, RSV usually causes mild cold-like symptoms, including a runny nose, congestion, and a mild fever. Salazar said it can be much worse for children that are immunocompromised or have a heart defect.
“Why so much in September and October? We don’t know,” Salazar said. “We have theories: herd immunity, immune suppression, and everyone getting it at the same time — it’s the perfect storm at our emergency departments.”
Parents should look out for changes in their children’s breathing, which could be a sign of RSV. Other signs include:
Fast or short breaths
Grunting noises
Chest caving in with each breath
Skin turning blue or purple due to lack of oxygen. On darker skin, look for changes to lips, tongue, gums, and around the eyes.
There is no vaccine for RSV, but Salazar encouraged parents concerned about their child to ask their pediatrician about immunoglobulin therapy. For mild RSV cases, recovery typically takes a few days. […]
Re: raven @ #419…
Some articles I’ve been reading are suggesting that the Russian plan for Kherson is to evacuate the trained/experienced troops leaving new conscripts to hold off Ukraine forces as best they can.
The question then becomes: Will those untrained conscripts try to do so and get themselves killed, or will they decide to surrender, be captured, and live.
KGsays
this is the impact and inevitable collateral damage of the Brexit vote in 2015 in which the UK simply decided to light itself on fire for no reason at all.
Liz Truss was merely a foot soldier in this war for self-immolation. – Josh Marshall quoted by Lynna, OM@395
The vote was actually in 2016, and Truss was on the “Remain” side (or pretended to be – I’ve seen reports she actually favoured Leave, but thought Remain would win and followed her career interests).
KGsays
So, the rules for the new Tory leadership (hence PM) contest:
0) Candidates need at least 100 nominations from Tory MPs (it was just 20 last time). So as there are 360-ish Tory MPs, there can’t be more than 3 candidates getting 100.
1) If only one gets that many, they become leader.
2) If two do, there is an “indicative vote” among the Tory MPs, then the members have an online poll, which decides the matter. (The idea is that they will know what the MPs think, but really they had a pretty good idea last time that the MPs favoured Sunak.)
3) If three do, there’s a poll among the Tory MPs to eliminate one, then proceed as for (2).
The three likely candidates appear to be Sunak, Penny Mordaunt (who was ahead of Truss last time until the final MPs’ vote), and Johnson. There are reports this morning that 140 MPs will nominate Johnson! If so, he’d be practically certain to be in the final two, and the members are then almost certain to support him. At that point, I’d expect at least some Tory MPs to resign the whip, but I doubt it would be enough to bring him down. Marshall whom Lynna quoted@395 got some details wrong, but is absolutely right that this whole ludicrous clusterfuck is the result of the Brexit vote.
The European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MPs will convene a full plenary meeting on Monday morning to discuss who it should back in the leadership contest, the Telegraph reports.
The ERG are the ultra-Brexiteer carpet-chewers. According to the item, they are divided about whether to back the return of Johnson, since some of them called for him to go at the end of his time in office.
It [the US system] also protects us from leaders like Liz Truss who in her own words said she went “too far, too fast.”
Srsly? Trump
blfsays
KG@424, “ERG are the ultra-Brexiteer carpet-chewers.” I’d thought that by now, perhaps assisted initially, in part, by the decrepit state of Parliament’s building, they would chewed all the through not only whatever planet they were on, but also some of the supporting turtles. Probably all the while complaining French food tastes like mud, another reason to expell Europe, bring me more port & claret, boy, what’s a woman doing in Number 10? …!”
Around a dozen Tory MPs will resign the whip if Boris Johnson wins the leadership race, Rachel Wearmouth from the New Statesman writes.
Tory source reckons around a dozen Conservative MPs will resign the whip if Boris Johnson wins the leadership race
If that’s right, it’s nowhere near enough to get him out. But when the next Johnson scandal erupts (and you know it won’t be that long) perhaps others could follow their example.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukraine energy minister: Russia has hit at least half of Ukraine’s thermal generation capacity
Russia has hit at least half of Ukraine’s thermal generation capacity since 10 October, but not all stricken power units have stopped working completely, Ukraine’s energy minister said on Friday.
Herman Halushchenko told Reuters in an interview that 30-40% of overall national power infrastructure had been hit in attacks that he depicted as intended to destroy Ukraine’s energy system – a goal that he said had not been achieved.
“It’s quite a lot of capacity. I can tell you that. At least half of thermal generation capacity, even more,” he said, when asked about the scale of the damage.
Russia stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine last week using missiles and drones to target Kyiv, other major cities and energy infrastructure.
“We see that they targeted a number of new (facilities), but also they shelled (facilities) which had been already shelled before to destroy them absolutely,” Halushchenko told the news agency.
He said that electricity imports could be one of the options Ukraine pursues to get through the crisis, and that the damage caused so far amounted to billions of dollars.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a simple message for Mike Pence on abortion, after the former vice-president predicted “pro-life majorities” in both houses of Congress after the midterm elections.
“I’ve got news for you,” the Democratic New York congresswoman wrote. “Absolutely no one wants to hear what your plan is for their uterus.”
Pence was speaking in response to Joe Biden, after the president announced that if Democrats hold Congress in the midterm elections next month, he will seek to enshrine the right to abortion in law.
…
The tweet which stoked the ire of Ocasio-Cortez, a prominent House progressive, said: “I’ve got news for President Biden. Come January 22nd, we will have Pro-Life majorities in the House and Senate and we’ll be taking the cause of the right to Life to every state house in America!”…
If there was ever any doubt that Silvio Berlusconi would make an awkward “junior” partner in Italy’s next government, it was dispelled in sensational fashion this week as the octogenarian former premier was recorded boasting that he exchanged gifts of vodka, wine and “sweet” letters with Russia’s Vladimir Putin — earning rebukes from both Brussels and his coalition partner, Italy’s likely next leader Giorgia Meloni.
Berlusconi’s latest gasconade, which his Forza Italia party sought to deny at first, was confirmed in an audio recording published late on Tuesday by Italy’s La Presse news agency.
[…]
Berlusconi went on to repeat his past description of the Russian leader as a misunderstood man of peace. Among Putin’s five true friends, I am the number one, he added with customary bravado.
As word of Berlusconi’s comments spread, his office promptly issued a clumsy denial, claiming he had told an old story to lawmakers about an episode that occurred years ago. However, it was soon apparent that the remarks referred to his 86th birthday on September 29, four days after the right-wing coalition led by his ally Giorgia Meloni won the most votes in Italy’s general election.
Berlusconi’s comments instantly made front-page news, throwing into disarray Meloni’s efforts to share out cabinet posts among her allies. Forza Italia, now a junior partner in a coalition dominated by Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy, is gunning for the foreign ministry, among other key cabinet positions.
“Meloni hostage to pro-Russians,” headlined Wednesday’s La Repubblica newspaper, writing that the incident “undermined the credibility” of the government she is trying to assemble, “hurting Italy’s relationship with Washington”.
“Berlusconi is back to doing what he does best, the showman,” added La Stampa’s chief editor Massimo Giannini, describing the billionaire media mogul as a “Shakespearean fool wreaking havoc in Meloni’s nascent court”.
Meloni, Italy’s likeliest next leader, was said to be shocked and livid […], slipping out of parliament by a backdoor on Tuesday evening to avoid the press. […]
Breaking a daylong silence, Meloni issued a statement late on Wednesday insisting that she would lead a government with a clear foreign policy.
“Italy, with its head high, is part of Europe and the Atlantic alliance,” she said. “Whoever doesn’t agree with this cornerstone cannot be part of the government, at the cost of not having a government.”
Meloni’s own far-right credentials and long history of eurosceptic tirades have raised eyebrows in some European capitals. But she has staunchly supported NATO and Ukraine in the war, offering strong backing to EU sanctions on Russia.
That last bit, about being Meloni claiming to be pro-Nato, pro-Ukraine, and pro-EU(-sanctions), rather surprises me. Berlusconi’s mafiamob is well-known to be pro-Putin, so nothing surprising there.
“Meloni’s other main ally, Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigrant League party”, who is also a well-known pro-Putin eejit, also essentially jumped in with some anti-EU(-sanctions) burbling:
[…]
Salvini’s party colleague Lorenzo Fontana, who was elected Speaker of the lower house of parliament last week, caused further embarrassment for Meloni on Tuesday by describing EU sanctions against Russia as a boomerang for the Italian economy — prompting a swift rebuke from the European Commission in Brussels, which also noted that the sanctions ban imports “as well as gifts” of Russian vodka.
“This is no folklore or jokes,” tweeted Enrico Letta, the head of the centre-left Democratic Party, accusing Italy’s new right-wing majority of “increasing ambiguity” towards Russia. “Who’s harming Italy abroad?” Letta asked. “The opposition … (or) the president of the lower Chamber who delegitimizes EU sanctions against Russia? Berlusconi who reconnects with the invader of Ukraine?”
[… more Meloni–Berlusconi squabbling (not discussed in the video)…]
[…]
Berlusconi’s right-hand man in Forza Italia, Antonio Tajani, is expected to be the next foreign minister. He flew to Brussels on Thursday for talks with EU allies and assured them his party condemned Russia’s “unacceptable” invasion of Ukraine.
The crucial economy ministry post is expected to go to Giancarlo Giorgetti, the deputy head of the League and industry minister in the outgoing unity government headed by the former central bank chief Mario Draghi.
[…]
Former Trump strategist[hair furor puppeteer] also fined $6,500 for refusing to comply with subpoena issued by Capitol attack committee
[…]
The punishment makes Bannon the first person to be incarcerated for contempt of Congress in more than half a century and sets the standard for future and additional contempt cases referred to the justice department by the select committee investigating the Capitol attack.
The sentence handed down by the US district court judge Carl Nichols in Washington was lighter than recommended by prosecutors, who sought six months in jail and the maximum $200,000 in fines because Bannon refused to cooperate with court officials’ pre-sentencing inquiries.
Bannon […] had asked the court for leniency, and requested in court filings for his sentenc[ing] to either be halted pending the appeal his lawyers filed briefs with the DC Circuit court Thursday or otherwise have the jail term reduced to home-confinement — but the requests were denied.
[…]
Among other moments of interest, […] Bannon received a call from Trump the night before the Capitol attack while he was at a Trump “war room” at the Willard hotel and was told of then-vice president Mike Pence’s resistance to decertifying Biden’s win.
The close contacts with Trump in the days and hours leading up to the Capitol attack meant Bannon was among the first targets of the investigation, and his refusal to comply with the subpoena galvanised the panel’s resolve to make an example of him with a contempt referral.
During the five-day trial in July, Bannon’s legal team ultimately declined to present evidence after Nichols excluded the[ir ludicrous] advice of counsel argument because the case law at the DC Circuit level, Licavoli v United States 1961, held that was not a valid defense for defying a subpoena.
The justice department, according to Licavoli, had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Bannon’s refusal to comply was deliberate and intentional, and the assistant US attorney Amanda Vaughn told the jury in closing arguments they should find the case straightforward.
“The defense wants to make this hard, difficult and confusing,” Vaughn said in federal court in Washington. “This is not difficult. This is not hard. There were only two witnesses because it’s as simple as it seems.”
[…]
Akira MacKenziesays
You’d think that now would be the time for Labour to get their act together and wrest power from the obviously divided and demoralized Conservatives, but I take it that’s not in the cards?
Akira MacKenziesays
You’d think that now would be the time for Labour to get their act together and wrest power from the obviously divided and demoralized Conservatives, but I take it that’s not in the cards?
Akira MacKenziesays
Whoops, sorry about that double post.
ravensays
Elon Musk is an idiot.
The guy is coasting on his successes and no long thinking anything through very far.
The US is thinking of looking at the National Security concerns about Elon Musk and Starlink. (This tweet is confirmed.)
Must has gotten billions of dollars in US tax breaks and government contracts. His SpaceX company launches rockets and satellites from government facilities, Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force base.
Then he turns around and literally bites the hand that feeds.
Not the least, he is also rapidly alienating his potential customer base. I will never buy any product associated with Elon Musk and you hear that often these days.
KT “Special NAFO Operation” @KremlinTrolls
US weighs National Security reviews for Musk deals, including Twitter
Concerns over
@elonmusk
stance on Russia, threat to cut Starlink may lead to US taking control of the satellite internet service which Ukraine rely upon as critical military infrastructure to fight Russia
Scoop: Mar-a-Lago classified papers included highly sensitive secrets about Iran’s missile program and US intel-gathering aimed at China
WaPo link at the (Twitter) link.
ravensays
There is nothing novel about Starlink.
It is just a satellite internet service.
There are many such and more being planned.
I get offers from DISH and Hughsnet, every month or so for satellite internet.
AFAICT, what is useful about Starlink is that it has greater bandwidth but I doubt you need a lot of bandwidth on the battlefield.
I think Musk is going to learn what one of his largest customers, the US government, thinks about his pro-Russian sympathies. He is also operating under US laws, which control who can launch what satellites to where.
The twitter deal is also looking cuckoo.
IMO, twitter works and is actually useful. I find myself using and referring to it more and more. It fulfills a need for rapid and short communications.
Facebook is useless, toxic, and should (and is) sinking into the swamp it created.
If Musk gets a hold of twitter, I’m sure he will wreck it.
He is a right wingnut and it will soon be full of Nazis, Russians, and white racists.
The Guardian White House weighs up national security reviews into Elon Musk ventures
Concerns over foreign investors funding Twitter takeover and increasingly strategic role in Ukraine of Starlink
Elon Musk recently threatened to pull the plug on Starlink satellite service to Ukraine. Starlink is part of Musk’s Space X rocket business.
Fri 21 Oct 2022 08.56 EDT
The White House is considering whether to subject some of Elon Musk’s business ventures to national security reviews, including his proposed acquisition of Twitter and his satellite internet company Starlink, according to a report.
Bloomberg wrote on Friday that Biden administration officials were concerned by the Tesla chief executive’s plan to buy Twitter in a deal part-funded by non-US investors and his recent threat to pull the plug on the Starlink service to Ukraine, as well as the publication of a series of tweets containing proposals over the Ukraine conflict favourable to the Putin regime.
The report said US officials were concerned by Musk’s plans to buy Twitter with the financial support of non-US investors, including: the Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud; Qatar Holding, which is part of the Qatar Investment Authority; and Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, whose holding company is registered in the Cayman Islands. At the time, the financial support of Musk’s co-investors was worth about $7bn.
Musk is working to complete a proposed $44bn acquisition of Twitter ahead of a court-imposed deadline of 28 October, after which he faces the threat of legal action from the social media platform to force him to close the deal.
Bloomberg wrote that one avenue available to the Biden administration to investigate Musk’s ventures was the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United State (CFIUS), which can review business deals and recommend that the president suspend or block a transaction.
In response, Elon Musk flagged a tweet on Friday that cited the Bloomberg report and said it would be “hysterical if the government stopped Elon from over-paying for Twitter”. Musk responded with a laughing emoji and the 100 emoji, indicating support for the post.
It is not clear on what basis Starlink, part of Musk’s Space X rocket business, would be scrutinised by the committee.
On Saturday, Elon Musk announced SpaceX would continue to pay for Starlink’s internet service in Ukraine, a day after suggesting he could not keep funding the project, which he said was losing about $20m a month. Starlink, which operates via a constellation of 3,000 small satellites in low-Earth orbit, has become a key communications link for the Ukrainian army in its fight to repel the Russian invasion. There are now about 25,000 Starlink ground terminals in Ukraine, according to Musk.
Musk alarmed the government in Kyiv this month when he published a Twitter poll on the future of the country, with options including formalising Russia’s annexation of Crimea. In response, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tweeted: “Which @elonmusk do you like more?” and offered two responses: the Musk who supports Ukraine, or who supports Russia.
The US Treasury said: “CFIUS is committed to taking all necessary actions within its authority to safeguard U.S. national security. Consistent with law and practice, CFIUS does not publicly comment on transactions that it may or may not be reviewing.”
On Friday, one of the 20 formerly incarcerated Floridians arrested in August by Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) Office of Election Crimes and Security on voter fraud charges has had his case dismissed.
Robert Lee Wood, 56, was arrested on Aug. 18 on one count of making a false affirmation and one count of voting as an unqualified elector, charges which can come with a penalty of up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.
“I’m pleased, but not surprised,” Wood’s attorney, Larry Davis, told the Miami Herald.
The news was first reported by ABC.
The Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security was set up this year by DeSantis after myths of widespread voter fraud proliferated from the 2020 election.
Miami Circuit Court Judge Milton Hirsch found that the state prosecutor didn’t have jurisdiction over this case because the crimes didn’t occur in at least two judicial circuits. Wood registered to vote and voted within Miami-Dade County.
…
“Robert Lee Wood’s misconduct, if misconduct it was, consisted in registering to vote, and voting, in his county of residence,” Hirsch writes. “Yes, his voter application and his ballot were transported to another Florida jurisdiction. But they were not transported by him, nor by any putatively criminal co-perpetrator.”
He notes that since the alleged crime took place exclusively in Miami, it falls under the Miami-Dade state attorney’s jurisdiction, not the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor (OSP).
He closes the ruling by quoting Shakespeare’s Henry VI: “His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings.”
“How much wider even than that does OSP seek to extend its reach?” he writes. “In the case at bar the answer is simple: wider than the enabling statute contemplates, and therefore too wide.”…
ravensays
Things aren’t going well in Mariupol.
The Russians have occupied it for 6 months and haven’t done much to restore the city.
Their latest achievement is a giant morgue for all the dead bodies they accumulate.
Mariupol was the most pro-Russian city in Ukraine with 91% native Russian speakers.
Now 3/4 of the population is either dead, refugees, or have been deported to somewhere horrible in Russia. The city itself is destroyed.
I wonder how many of those left are pro-Russian these days?
Russia opens vast morgue in Mariupol due to extreme mortality rate
October 20, 2022, 03:18 PM The New Voice of Ukraine.com
Russian occupation “authorities” had to open a large morgue in occupied Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, in order to cope with extremely high mortality rates in the city, Mariupol city council reported via a Telegram post on Oct. 20.
The morgue reportedly is as large as 7,000 square meters in area.
“(Russian) invaders opened a huge morgue in Mariupol,” the message said.
“The city has an ultra-high death toll. Instead of investing in hospitals and restoring normal life, the Russians built a morgue with an area of about 7 thousand square meters.”
According to the report, Mariupol residents’ health is deteriorating, with dire living conditions making chronic health conditions more acute.
“People just can’t take it anymore,” the message reads.
This is a reminder: We do not know what’s happening in Ukraine.
That fog of war doesn’t just obscure the details of what’s happening right this second along the road between Kuzemivka and Nyzhnia Duvanka (which is something I would very much like to know this morning), that fog creeps in everywhere. It hides from us the experience of people still trying to go about their lives in Bakhmut, and it obscures the goals of those sitting in conference rooms in Moscow or Kyiv.
Videos, images, and Twitter posts may give us the impression that we have a grip on events, but they are tiny flashes in the darkness—a landscape glimpsed in lightning flashes as the train rolls through a stormy, unfamiliar country. All of us, at the top of the page and in the comments, are doing our best to piece together those flashes, pass them through a filter of research and experience, and put together something that looks like a complete picture. But it’s never going to be a complete picture.
Today seemed like a good day for this reminder simply because it’s a day when so little specific information seems to be coming through from the areas that have dominated the headlines: Kherson and Luhansk.
On a large scale, very exciting things are happening. There continue to be signals that Russia intends to withdraw its forces from the area west of the Dnipro River, which would allow Ukraine to liberate the largest city, and only regional capital, occupied during Russia’s latest invasion. Messages on Telegram and Twitter show Russian units which have been ordered to reposition to the eastern portion of Kherson, across the river. Or to move farther into Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Videos have shown Russia massing civilians in Kherson for reported deportation to points unknown. There have even been images showing Russian military forces being sent east at Nova Kakhovka—right below that dam Russia is threatening to blow.
But at the moment, there is no clear sign that the actual front in Kherson, either the line of villages where Russia dug in from Bruskynske to Mylove, or the southern part from Snihurivka on down, is collapsing. No great evidence that fighting has stopped, or that Ukrainian troops have advanced into areas abandoned by Russian forces.
Such reports could start rolling in at any time, but until they do, please take caution in taking reports of Russian relocations at face value — especially when those reports are coming from Russian sources. Yes, pundits on Russian state TV seem to already be bracing for the loss of Kherson; the loss of the bridges across the Dnipro (and into Crimea) would seem to make supplying forces in the west problematic, if not impossible; and everything we’re seeing reinforces the idea that Russia is preparing to pull up stakes and go home with as many washing machines as they can carry.
Just … take care in buying wholesale into the idea that Russia is going to surrender Kherson without an extended fight. When Ukrainian troops are being cheered along Perekopska Street and accepting flowers in Fountains Park, it’ll be real. Until then … just be cautious about anything that seems too friendly to your own position.
Up in Luhansk, Russian efforts to assault settlements east of Lyman appear to have failed. Torske, Terny, and the whole line of towns and villages liberated by Ukrainian forces two weeks ago are still flying Ukrainian flags on Friday. However, there’s little news from further north of any progress Ukraine is making toward Svatove.
One of those places where there has been a lot of news this morning is the area around Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast. Throughout the night and morning, wave after wave of Russian assault has broken up against what has to be the most fought over—and devastated—point in the entire invasion so far. If you haven’t already seen this image of what things are like near the front in Bakhmut, take a look. [Tweet and video at the link]
On Thursday, Russian forces continued to hit the area both north and south. And it’s at the southern end of the line where Russia appears to be making actual gains. According to the Ukrainian Telegram channel DeepState, Russia has occupied the village of Odradivka, which is the latest in several advances that Russia has made in this southern area of the battle. [map at the link]
In the last two weeks, Russia has managed to move the front line south of Bakhmut by about 3km. It’s a tiny change in the overall war, but it’s significant here, especially as it is gradually allowing Russia to strike the defenders in Bakhmut from a new direction. No one in Ukraine has fought longer, harder, or against more desperate odds than the defenders of this city.
On Friday morning, there were reports that Ukraine was staging some kind of counteroffensive along this same line, somewhere between Siversk (about 20km north of the map above) and Bakhmut. It’s too early to tell if this is true, or whether any such counteroffensive has been effective. But keep your fingers crossed, because these guys need some relief. [Tweet at the link]
Even with all the Russian forces in the area, headed up by Wagner and their horde of prison reject cannon fodder, here’s one of the most amazing images from this front. [tweet and video at the link]
#Ukraine helicopters patrolling #Bakhmut. This is timestamped lunchtime today, showing the Defenders still have air support and are able to adequately defend the town.
That Ukraine is still conducting air operations at all is one of the great wonders of this war. Knowing that Russia has neglected combined arms discipline in favor of a rigid “artillery is the king of the battlefield” attitude is one thing, but that they would fail to recognize the need to establish air dominance, in spite of dozens of examples of how this affects a modern battlefield, is just baffling. Someone needs to find whatever military genius in Russia determined that Russia didn’t really need to expend that much effort on air support and build him a statute. In Kyiv. Or maybe Bakhmut.
And damn, look at that Su-27 go. All the fourth-generation fighters, east and west, seem to have that death-on-a-stick look just nailed. Hope you turned down your speakers before clicking on this one. [Tweet and video at the link]
Someone needs to resurrect all the old Star Trek clips in which Chekov claimed something was invented in Russia. They’d probably be run as straight news on Russian state media right now. [Tweet and video at the link]
Russian propagandist Solovyov wonders what value the West has given to the world and “what did these people create”?
He says this into a microphone from the Chicago brand Shure, on the table he has an iPad from Apple,he has an iPhone 13 pro max, he wears an Apple Watch Ultra…
If you’ve ever been in a frustrating conversation with a tankie, try this educational thread to both illuminate what they’re talking about — and how the standard claims are a huge distortion. [Link to thread, and the start of the conversation, available at the link]
[…] It’s starting to look like that territory Russia just occupied, may be the same territory Ukraine just took back from them. [Tweet at the link]
Somewhat unrelated item, but … saildrone explorers are automated boats that operate using both wind and solar power. They’re pretty neat little tools, which skim around the world’s oceans gathering data on temperature, salinity, winds, and ocean acidification. They also aid in tracking animal migrations.
They may be unmanned boats, but they belong to NOAA, making them U.S. government vessels. Meaning that this is unlikely to go over well.
#UPDATE: Tasnim reports Iran has seized two unmanned US surface vessels in the Red Sea.
Probably the Saildrone Explorer that they tried to capture a few weeks ago.
Russia’s most important strategic assignment continues. [Tweet and video at the link]
Denazification and liberation of the washing machine by the brave russian soldiers.
ravensays
More on the impending Russian war crime.
The claim is that,…”may believe that breaching the dam could cover their retreat from the [western] right bank of the Dnipro River and prevent or delay Ukrainian advances across the river,”
I doubt if the Russians believe that or care.
It probably won’t do either of those things.
They just want to blow up the dam. It’s vandalism and destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure simply because they can.
Stalin did the same thing in 1941 to another big dam upstream. It didn’t do much but did kill tens of thousands of Ukrainian villagers.
Business Insider
Zelenskyy says Russia plans to blow up a Ukrainian dam. The Soviets used the same tactic in WWII to slow a Nazi invasion, killing thousands of civilians.
Jake Epstein Fri, October 21, 2022 at 8:52 AM·4 min read edited for length
Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of planning to blow up a major dam in southern Ukraine.
He said flooding would sweep across dozens of towns and hundreds of thousands of people in the area.
Retreating Russian forces in Ukraine may be planning to echo a tactic used by the Soviets in World War 2 — sabotage that reportedly led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in 1941 — according to allegations by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week.
During a Thursday address to the European Council, Zelenskyy claimed Russian troops mined the key Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant as its forces struggle to hold off advancing Ukrainian forces. Zelenskyy said Russia had kicked out Ukrainian workers from the dam, but Insider could not verify the claims of a pending Russia plot.
Echoes of an earlier disaster
If Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces carry out an attack on the Ukrainian dam, the move would mirror a deadly tactic used by the Soviet Union during World War II in the same area in an attempt to slow the German invasion.
As the Red Army retreated on August 18, agents with the predecessor of the KGB used dynamite to blow up the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station — which is just over 150 miles upriver from the Kakhovka dam that Zelenskyy alleges is now being targeted.
Flooding from the explosions cut off access to the city of Zaporizhzhya, slowing the German invasion. But a massive wave swept over nearby villages along the river, killing thousands of unsuspecting civilians as well as Red Army officers who were crossing the water.
According to a Radio Free Europe report on the tragedy, between 20,000 and 100,000 people died.
Russian attacks on civilian targets
Attacks on civilian infrastructure have also long been a part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s playbook, not just during the ongoing Ukraine war, but also in warzones like Syria.
Over the last few months, Russian forces have targeted schools, hospitals, humanitarian shelters, energy facilities, roads, apartment complexes, and other civilian targets in Ukraine as part of their unprovoked invasion.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a Wednesday analysis that Russian forces are “setting information conditions to conduct a false-flag attack” on the dam, meaning they would blame Ukraine for the destruction.
“The Russian military may believe that breaching the dam could cover their retreat from the [western] right bank of the Dnipro River and prevent or delay Ukrainian advances across the river,” the ISW wrote in its analysis.
New Molecules Are Lead Candidates for Alternative to Narcotics, Say UCSF Researchers…
Shoichet was encouraged to look for substances that would activate this adrenergic receptor, called alpha2a, by Basbaum, who had studied it in his lab and showed that it is tied to pain relief…
Each of the final six was tested on three different mouse models for acute and chronic pain, and successfully alleviated pain in all three instances.
The pain-relieving molecules, which were from chemically different families, are also entirely novel. None of them had previously been synthesized…
Oggie: Mathomsays
TOTALLY OFF TOPIC and AIMED AT LOUIS
I found the thread referred to last week. Here it is .
In fact, just to show you I’m not self interested, your local university would have the facilities for this. In fact, I know a guy called Harry Kroto at the Florida State University in Tallahassee who could easily grant you access to the facilities needed to do this. I’ve met him several times, he’s an absolutely charming bloke. Even better, unlike me, he’s a very famous scientist and has a Nobel prize, so who better to help you with your experiments?
As I understand global geography (from memory) both Russia and Turkey straddle both Asia and Europe. Possibly a few other nations too. The Ural mountain range is the dividing line or at least one of them so I gather. Technically, I ‘spose theres a case for all of Europe being considered part of Asia since it is a peninsula of it a bit like how India is considered Asian despite having its own tectonic plate and continental nature too* although I could be mistaken about any or all of this natch.
.* If India is South Asia, I guess Europe should really be West Asia?
Our convention of constructing continents is not based on tectonic plates (which were discovered only recently) but on some combination of shoreline geography, human culture and European-colonialistic perspective bias.
When we focus on natural continents, according to the shoreline, the usual scheme is Eurasia – Africa – North America – South – America – Australia – Antarctica. These do not include islands. Technically, there are land connections between Eurasia/Africa and North/South America, but those are usually deemed tenuous enough to not count.
Ancient Greeks originally perceived Europe, Asia and Africa/Libya as three continuous landmasses (without islands) surrounding the Mediterranean/Black Sea, separated by the Strait of Gibraltar and the rivers Nile and Don. Europeans later expanded on this scheme, from their own cultural perspective, as they explored the wider world.
In cultural terms, we typically distinguish Europe – Asia – Africa – America – Australia/Australasia – Antarctica. These tend to include islands that are near to the main landmass, but not necessarily islands that are far out in the oceans. Except for Australasia, which decidedly includes a huge collection of Pacific islands in addition to the Australian landmass. It’s all fuzzy and complicated.
Christian European scholarly tradition has been keen to count Europe as a culturally separate continent since the middle ages. Europe was, very roughly speaking, perceived as the domain of Christianity once the nearby parts of Asia and Africa had been taken over by Islamic regimes. It didn’t matter that the land bridge connecting northern Europe to northern Asia turned out to be very broad, with no obvious dividing line between. Even the term “Eurasia” reflects the view that Europe is something more than just a peninsula in western Asia.
Individual nations spanning two cultural continents (according to some more or less arbitrary dividing line) may be counted for both continents, or they may be considered as “primarily” belonging to one or the other. For example, Russia is culturally mainly a Christian country, and its historical heartland is in the west, in eastern Europe, so Russia may be considered a “European” country that happens to extend well into Asia. In fact, Russia’s medieval expansion to the Urals by 16th century is probably a large part of the reason why the nominal European-Asian boundary was moved further east from the river Don.
Of course, in popular perception, Russia has tended to fall culturally somewhere between “real” Europe and “real” Asia. This perception is very much compatible with Russian people’s own sense of exceptionalism, and the recent political drive to form a cultural contrast for the “degenerate West”. I hear that modern Russian media often uses the term “Eurasia” to denote the Russian-dominated cultural and economic sphere, which roughly corresponds to the former Soviet Union.
ravensays
Ukrainian Intelligence Service Has Dismantle Iranian Mohajer-6 and Found Something Unusual
Defense Express [email protected] October 21, 2022
But most importantly, the “internals” of Mohajer-6 turned out to be imported, for the most part. The engine is Austrian, and the cameras are of Japanese, Chinese and American origins. All these parts are for civilian use only. It was important for Ukrainian specialists to find out all these details, so that these components are not supplied to Iran anymore and this, in turn, would make the production of Iranian UAVs more problematic.
It turns out most of the Hi Tech components of the Iranian drones are not from Iran.
The electronics are Japanese, Chinese, and American (Texas Instruments).
The engine is Austrian.
“Engines from Austria on Russian terror drones ” The engines of the Shahed-136 drones are also from Austria.
So much for all those sanctions on Iran.
They shouldn’t even call them sanctions. They could call them speed bumps.
.2. Hey Austria!!! Which side are you on now?
Those Austrian engines seem to work well.
But they shouldn’t be on Iranian drones killing Ukrainian people in terror attacks.
Reginald Selkirksays
@452: When we focus on natural continents, according to the shoreline…
If you were following nature, you would use the continental shelves, not the shoreline.
lumipunasays
Reginald Selkirk – Indeed, I think that’s one definition of continents used in some narrow scientific context. Maybe I should’ve said “apparent contiments”.
Tethyssays
Ancient Greeks originally perceived Europe, Asia and Africa/Libya as three continuous landmasses (without islands) surrounding the Mediterranean/Black Sea, separated by the Strait of Gibraltar and the rivers Nile and Don. Europeans later expanded on this scheme, from their own cultural perspective, as they explored the wider world.
This may explain why the Middle East is west of India, but the Far East is at the Eastern end of the Silk Road. I suppose Jerusalem is in the middle east if your viewpoint is Ancient Greece or Rome.
lumipunasays
This cartoon needs some background: “Meanwhile, at the Finnish-Russian border”
Shortly after the Russian mobilization started, Russian border officials began stopping draft-eligible men who were trying to leave the country. For a while, there were portable shacks used as army recruitment offices placed at some border stations, at least one on Finnish border. Those offices were used to press-gang men who were conveniently crowding at the border station. At the same time, Finland began restricting entry for most Russians.
Now there’s talk in Finland of building a barrier fence in some parts of the border, in places that are easily accessible by road. These would restrict the movement of not only humans but also wildlife, such as wild boars. This is generally deemed problematic, but farmers and their allies actually want to stop the movement of boars specifically, to prevent the spread of animal diseases such as African swine fever.
Cartoonist Pertti Jarla presents a near future scenario where wild boars trying to wander from Russia to Finland are stopped by restrictive Finnish border policy and aggressive Finnish border security. At the same time, those boars are being rounded up by a Russian army official and drafted to the war, to replace increasingly severe personnel shortage.
The Jan. 6 panel’s subpoena matters because it sheds light on what exactly the committee wants from Trump, while crystalizing the accusations against him.
The biggest surprise at last week’s Jan. 6 committee hearing came at the very end: Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chair, introduced a resolution to subpoena Donald Trump. It was approved unanimously.
But as a procedural matter, there’s an important difference between agreeing to subpoena a former president and actually doing the work of preparing the legal directive. The committee vote was the first step, and as NBC News reported, the second step came today.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot subpoenaed former President Donald Trump on Friday for testimony and documents on his actions surrounding the bloodshed they say he instigated at the U.S. Capitol. The subpoena calls for Trump to testify on Nov. 14 — after the midterm elections.
At first blush, this may not seem especially significant. In fact, it may seem like paperwork: The bipartisan group of lawmakers effectively told the former president last week that they expected his cooperation with the investigation, so today’s announcement simply formalizes the demands, right?
Yes, but there’s more to it than that. The subpoena matters because it sheds light on what exactly the committee wants from [Trump], while crystalizing the accusations against him.
“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” the committee’s leaders told Trump in the first paragraph of a letter accompanying the subpoena.
The roughly three-page letter proceeded to remind the former president of his “multi-part effort,” which included, “purposely and maliciously disseminating false allegations of fraud,” “attempting to corrupt the Department of Justice,” “illegally pressuring state officials and legislators,” “orchestrating and overseeing” the fake-electors scheme,” “corruptly pressuring your own Vice President,” “pressuring Members of Congress to object to valid slates of electors from several states,” “filing false information, under oath, in federal court,” and summoning and deploying his followers “knowing they were angry and some were armed.”
The correspondence added, “In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any U.S. President to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself.”
And then came the list of information the congressional investigators expect to receive. From the NBC News report:
The committee told Trump it wants to ask him about conversations he had with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, longtime confidante Roger Stone, attorney John Eastman and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark — all of whom invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when they were interviewed by panel. It also demands that Trump turn over a number of documents by Nov. 4 — including any communications he had regarding extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, that were involved in the riot.
Among the other notable figures referenced in the subpoena, the select committee also wants to know about [Trump’s] communications with former Secret Service agent Anthony Ornato and attorney Sidney Powell.
The next question, of course, is what exactly Trump intends to do in response to the subpoena.
The day after the committee vote last week, the former president released a deeply odd, 14-page letter to the House select committee, filled with discredited nonsense. At no point in the document, however, did he indicate whether he’d cooperate with the investigation.
In theory, Trump shouldn’t have much of a choice. A congressional subpoena isn’t a request, so much as it’s a legal order.
In practice, however, he’s more likely to begin a lengthy court fight that would take months to fully resolve. What’s more, Trump and his lawyers may very well simply try to run out the clock: As we discussed last week, the pending summons will expire at the end of the current Congress, which will wrap up in roughly 74 days, and if Americans elect a Republican majority in the House, that will end the matter.
[…] this might make him look like something of a coward. The former president has had plenty to say about Jan. 6 and the investigation — in conservative media, at rallies, and online — but given a chance to answer questions under oath, Trump’s too afraid to respond to a legal subpoena? A profile in courage it is not.
Of course, as his lawyers have probably explained to him, it’s better to look like a coward than to show up and deliver incriminating testimony in the midst of multiple investigations.
[…] Trump has told his aides that he actually wants to testify, “so long as he gets to do so live.”
Whether the select panel would tolerate such a spectacle is unclear, though it seems unlikely.
White House weighs up national security reviews into Elon Musk ventures
Concerns over foreign investors funding Twitter takeover and increasingly strategic role in Ukraine of Starlink
After […] Trump blew a deadline in the Mar-a-Lago documents case, the special master called him out and gave him to the close of business today to remedy the delinquency.
Per an earlier order from the special master, U.S District Judge Raymond Dearie for the Eastern District of New York, both sides had to file by Thursday a list of unresolved disputes between them over a subset of the records seized by the FBI in its August raid.
The Justice Department filed its own rundown of the disputed documents in a timely fashion, but Trump attorney Jim Trusty seemed to unilaterally give himself four extra days to file. In a brief letter Thursday night, Trusty disputed claims that the DOJ had made about what documents that Trump wants shielded from the investigation, and added that Trump would file its full response on Monday.
Dearie wasn’t having it with the blown deadline and self-appointed new deadline. In a Friday order, Dearie said that Trump’s filings were now “untimely” and that he needed to submit his position by close of business on Friday.
Dearie’s chambers told TPM that close of business would be 6 p.m. on Friday.
Trump asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon for the Southern District of Florida to appoint Dearie as special master, apparently believing that his role in signing off on the Carter Page FISA warrant would pre-position him against the government.
Instead, Dearie has tried to force Trump to back up his claims with evidence. That has culminated in attorneys for the former President trying to ignore the special master.
The letters are intended to lay out what records each side believes are privileged, and for what reason. The DOJ said on Thursday that Trump was making over-the-top claims about what records were subject to executive privilege, what documents were personal records, and what records were, somehow, both.
Ukrainian cities including the capital, Kyiv, faced new power outages Friday as the country’s energy system struggles to cope with damage from a wave of Russian attacks. Kyiv residents were warned to prepare for temporary blackouts in the city Friday morning, just a day after widespread outages, as the government rationed energy use and urged residents to conserve electricity.
I did not change the filter on my furnace and turn it on for the fall/winter season until today. I was conserving in order to save money. Ukrainians are conserving electricity because Russians have bombed their infrastructure.
It is really nice to have central heating that works. I am feeling relieved to have a warm house, and I am feeling guilty because I know others don’t have that luxury. Plus, my recent experience of cold nights really impressed on me how difficult it would be to conserve electricity over a long period of time. Suffering … that’s what it is.
Attempts to block President Biden’s student debt relief programs were dealt dual setbacks on Thursday, as a federal judge in Missouri and Justice Amy Coney Barrett rejected challenges to the sweeping measure, one that could cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars.
The Pentagon will pay for service members to travel to obtain abortions, in a move the military says will ease the burden on troops who wish to receive reproductive care and are stationed in states where the procedure is no longer legal, the department announced Thursday.
Axios:
President Biden would support a federal fund for people who need to take time off work and pay for childcare to obtain an abortion, he said in an interview forum with NowThis that will air Sunday on social media.
The Environmental Protection Agency is launching an investigation into whether the Republican-controlled state of Mississippi violated the Civil Rights Act by depriving the predominantly Black city of Jackson of federal funds to repair its beleaguered water system.
lumipuna @457, Ha! That cartoon is a good one. Funny. Love the look on the face of the boar who has already been press-ganged into the Russian military.
I have been looking for any charitable crowdfunding campaigns to send portable solar generators to Ukraine. I don’t know if electrical grids across Europe are compatible, but there is a European company called Ecoflow that makes an excellent solar panel powered product that is capable of powering anything that requires electricity.
The panel is easy to move and the system can be expanded with extra batteries and generating capacity for a very reasonable price.
A defense official said Kurilla’s visit was not a response to any recent event or provocation, but is more a signal after months of mounting tensions, which have included attacks against locations housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
A common Twitter exchange:
Tankie: Stop arming Ukraine!
Reasonable person: What exactly do you suggest instead?
Tankie: Pressure Ukraine to implement the Minsk accords!
So what are the Minsk accords, and why is the tankie line on Minsk ridiculous?
A thread.
Footage of Hu Jintao being asked to leave the stage at the Great Hall of the People is drawing global attention as people try to work out what has just happened.
ravensays
The Russia conscription isn’t working.
They are being dumped on the front lines without any training or equipment. In some cases, they’ve complained about not even have bullets for their AK-47s.
“One of the conscripts asks his relatives to pull some strings and reach the local authorities. The other says to address more than just local level officials, but to appeal to the president of the Russian Federation, who unleashed this war.”
This isn’t going to work.
The authorities know, they just don’t care. This is desperation.
“Of the platoon that was released, three survivors remain.”
This isn’t how it is supposed to work.
There is no accountability for the leadership in Russia. That is what dictatorships are.
“Our command has gone f***ing nuts”: Russian conscripts on being sent to toughest spots on battlefield
VALENTYNA ROMANENKO — SATURDAY, 22 OCTOBER 2022, 12:02
Pravda.com.ua
Newly mobilised Russians are being sent to the frontline, so they are calling their families en masse, begging them to get themselves out of the war at all costs.
Source: press service of the SSU, the Security Service of Ukraine
Details: The SSU notes that it intercepted several similar conversations between invaders who are now stationed in Donetsk Oblast.
The calls recorded by the SSU attests to the fact that mobilised servicemen are enraged because they are thrown into hell on Earth without proper preparation. One of the conscripts asks his relatives to pull some strings and reach the local authorities. The other says to address more than just local level officials, but to appeal to the president of the Russian Federation, who unleashed this war.
Quote by an occupier: “Zaia (Bunny), do you hear me? Call parents! Call Vania’s wife, f***… bring it up again on the level of [Aleksandr] Bogomaz [the governor of Bryansk Oblast of the Russian Federation – ed.]. We are dumped into f***ing hell again. There are about 40,000 there… Of the platoon that was released, three survivors remain. We are dumped straight onto the f***ing frontline. Our command has gone f***ing nuts.
Quote from SSU: “Probably, it was only here that the Ruscists realised that being cannon fodder is their mission in this war.
Therefore, if there are any among them who want to save their lives, we remind you of the phone numbers launched for this purpose: +380665803498, and +380931192984.
We encourage you to share these contacts with your friends in the Russian Federation. The more Ruscists surrender, the sooner the war will end.”
KGsays
Akira Mackenzie@434,
Labour doesn’t have any way to force an election as long as the Tories in the Commons remain united at least in opposing one. The Prime Minister can request an election from Charles Windsor at any time, and except in exceptional circumstances he would grant one, but otherwise, it’s only if the government loses a vote of no confidence (VONC) in the Commons that the possibility of an election arises. My own view is that the Tories have lost any legitimate right to continue without a general election (whoever they choose as PM), and there should be a general strike and campaign of civil disobedience to force them to hold one. But this is unlikely to happen. If Johnson returns to the premiership, some Tory MPs will resign the whip and might then vote for a Labour VONC, but probably nowhere near enough for it to go through.
Sunak has more than 100 declared nominations – but hasn’t yet said he is standing. Some Johnson cronies claim he has 100, but there’s a lot of scepticism about that, as only 51 names are public. My best guess now is that Johnson will either fail to reach 100, or chicken out because he’s not confident of winning, probably trying to get a promise from Sunak to nix the ongoing Commons Standards Committee enquiry into Johnson’s lies to Parliament. But I could be wrong – I remember I was once ;-) – if the ERG (ultra-Brexiteer carpet-chewers) decide to back Johnson at their meeting on Monday.
KGsays
Tethys@456,
The term “Middle East” doesn’t derive from the Greeks or Romans, but from British imperialism. There’s some interesting history of the term here.
ravensays
China claims to be self sufficient in food.
That is almost true but not quite.
As their diet improves, they have started importing more and more food.
This is important to them because famines in the recent past killed tens of millions of Chinese.
And with 1.4 billion people, the Chinese have to pay attention to food production.
AFAICT, just about every acre (or hectare) that can grow food is…growing food.
Context For Xi’s Boast That All 1.4 Billion Chinese Are ‘Eating Well’
October 21, 2022 Lia Chien
Claim: China has “exceeded basic self-sufficiency in grain and absolute security in staple food” and the country’s “1.4 billion people are eating well with a great range of choices.”
Source: Xinhua News, October 13, 2022
MISLEADING
On September 28, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency posted a video quoting Chinese President Xi Jinping boasting about his country’s food supply.
Xi said all 1.4 billion Chinese are “eating well” and that China has “exceed basic self-sufficiency in grain and absolute security in staple food.”
Xinhua cited advances in soil improvement, seed productivity and farming technology. And it’s true that China produces a lot of food – about 20% of the global output, according to the University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics.
Yet, the impression Xi leaves is misleading. Despite improvements, many people in China continue to suffer undernourishment and poverty, with disparities in both urban and rural areas. Moreover, China’s changing diet and climate change each present long-term food challenges.
Though it is producing more food, China is importing more than it exports and increasingly finds itself “running a food trade deficit,” reports China Power, a project of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Between 2003 and 2017, China’s food imports grew dramatically, from $14 billion to $104.6 billion, China Power said. Food exports also grew, reaching $59.6 billion by 2017.
China imports nearly two-thirds of the world’s soybeans, vital as livestock feed for raising pork, the No. 1 protein in China’s diet. And the Chinese consume twice as much seafood per person as the global average, filling the demand by dispatching voracious fishing fleets across the globe.
There is no official definition of food self-sufficiency, so that leaves some wiggle room for a declaration like Xi’s.
The Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations (FAO) provides that “a self-sufficient country produces as much or more food than it consumes, even if some of the actual food items consumed by its population are different from those it produces domestically.”
In other words, a country can be food self-sufficient even if it imports from other countries.
The FAO places China in a category called “Consumption below adequate nutritional intake.” This means it produces about the same amount of food its population consumes, but that some Chinese still experience “mild or elevated levels of hunger.”
According to Reuters, China grew to be the world’s sixth-largest food importer by 2019 thanks to its decades of rapid economic growth and a burgeoning middle class. Top food imports, besides soybeans, include pork, cotton, corn and poultry. Continues
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 46
Thanks for the explanation.
ravensays
China is the largest food importer in the world.
The country’s food self-sufficiency rate has fallen to 76.8 per cent in 2020 from 101.8 per cent in 2000, a ratio that is expected to drop to 65 per cent by 2035, according to Du Ying, former deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission.Mar 6, 2022
China food security: 5 major concerns, from loss of fertile land …
This source, which is Chinese claims that China is only 76.8% food self sufficient right now. They are self sufficient or close in grains but import a lot of everything else.
Recent history says they could be self sufficient if they had a lower quality diet.
There is nothing inherently wrong with not being self sufficient in food. Many countries aren’t. But you have to have something to sell to get money to buy food to import.
PAHRUMP, Nev. — If the midterm elections degenerate into chaos in a couple of weeks — a very real possibility — then Nevada is poised to lead the way. Indeed, the chaos here has already begun.
The election supervisors in 10 of the state’s 17 counties have already quit, been forced out or announced their departures. Lower-level election workers have quit in the face of consistent abuse. The state’s elections staff has lost eight of its 12 employees.
The (Republican) secretary of state, who vigorously defends the integrity of the 2020 election, is term-limited, and the GOP nominee to replace her, Jim Marchant, leads a national group of election deniers running for office. Marchant is on record saying that if he and his fellow candidates are elected, “we’re going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again.”
In Reno’s Washoe County, the state’s second largest, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist led a harassment campaign against the registrar of voters, accusing her of treason and addiction, and she quit in fear for her family’s safety…
In Storey County, the clerk resigned earlier this year and was replaced by Jim Hindle, vice chairman of the Nevada GOP and one of the fake electors put forth as part of the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
A few Nevada counties, meanwhile, are in the process of sabotaging their vote-counting procedures. … at least four counties have taken steps toward abandoning voting machines and running elections by paper ballot and hand counting — a process certain to delay results and introduce more errors.
The furthest along in this return to the 19th century is Nye County, where Donald Trump won 69 percent of the vote in 2020….. The longtime county clerk, a Republican, resigned in frustration, and the commission appointed as clerk Mark Kampf, who has touted various election conspiracies and is now seeking election on the same ballot he is administering.
[…]
Hannah Fried, who runs the voting rights group All Voting Is Local, sees what’s happening in Nevada as part of a proliferation nationwide of “efforts to create chaos in our election system in service of undermining election results.”
Georgia has had mass challenges to voter registrations, Florida has a new police force that has engaged in voter intimidation, Michigan is battling rogue election workers, and many states have experienced harassment of elections officials, restrictions on voting drop boxes, and more. “It’s death by a thousand cuts,” Fried said. The push for paper balloting, because it will extend the vote-counting time and thereby potentially undermine confidence in the process, “is a tinderbox.”
[…]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. Their latest summary:
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that Russia launched 36 rockets in a “massive attack” on Ukraine. In a post on Telegram he said that most of the missiles fired overnight were shot down by the country’s air defence systems.
Russian military forces carried out another missile attack targeting energy facilities in western Ukraine, the country’s power grid operator said today. In a message on Telegram, Ukrenergo said that the “scale of damage is comparable or may exceed the consequences of the attack on October 10-12”. It said that repair crews are starting to repair the facilities after the rocket attack, but that restrictions are in place as they try to restore the electricity supply.
Hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Ukraine woke up today to power outages and periodic bursts of gunfire, as Ukrainian air defence tried to shoot down drones and incoming missiles. Kira Rudik, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, says 1.5 million people are without electricity after Russian strikes against power stations on Saturday.
Iran’s foreign ministry has strongly condemned a call by France, Germany and Britain for the United Nations to probe accusations that Russia has used Iranian-origin drones to attack Ukraine. Ukraine says that Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones. If found to be true [FFS], the allegations would be in breach of UN security council resolution 2231.
Ukrainian forces have bombarded Russian positions in the occupied Kherson region, targeting resupply routes across a major river while inching closer on Friday to a full assault on the key city. Associated Press reported that Russian-installed officials were said to be desperately trying to turn Kherson city – a prime objective for both sides because of its key industries and major river and sea port – into a “fortress” while attempting to evacuate tens of thousands of residents.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, warned today that Russia using nuclear weapons would be seen as an “act of hostility against humanity”. Kishida, who leads the only country ever hit with a nuclear bomb, described President Vladimir Putin’s sabre rattling as “deeply disturbing”.
…
Russian forces are continuing to reinforce crossing points over the Dnieper River and have finished building a barge bridge alongside the damaged Antonovskiy Bridge in Kherson in Ukraine’s south, the UK Ministry of Defence says. The ministry said using civilian barges probably provided Russia “additional material and logistics benefits” after losing significant amounts of military bridging equipment and engineering personnel during the war with Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the west to warn Russia not to blow up a hydroelectric dam that would flood a large part of southern Ukraine, as the Ukrainian president’s forces prepared to push Moscow’s troops from the occupied city of Kherson. In a television address, Zelenskiy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the huge Nova Kakhovka dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir, and were planning to blow it up. “Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster.”
…
The Pentagon confirmed a phone call between the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu. It said Austin “emphasised the importance of maintaining lines of communication” with Shoigu….
The Pentagon also published a readout of Austin’s call with the Ukrainian defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov. The US defence secretary pledged “unwavering US commitment” to supporting Ukraine against Russia.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the US would consider every means to advance diplomacy with Russia if it saw an opening, but at the moment Moscow showed no sign of willingness to engage in meaningful talks. Reuters reported Blinken as saying: “Every indication is that far from being willing to engage in meaningful diplomacy, President Putin continues to push in the opposite direction.”
General Staff: Ukraine pushes Russians out of Charivne, Chkalove settlements in Kherson Oblast.
The General Staff reported that Russian forces continue to leave the occupied parts of Kherson Oblast, adding that looting and robbery have become more frequent.
[…] Before we do anything else, here’s the invasion of Ukraine in a nutshell. This war is a tiny girl, hiding under a desk, and explaining, “I saw a robot today. It was flying. I saw it. It wanted to kill me.” [tweet and video at the link]
On Saturday, the messages that Russia is departing from Kherson city, and from the whole portion of Kherson Oblast lying west of the Dnipro River, grew only louder. Official messages from the occupation government calling for “immediate” evacuation of all officials, as well as the civilian population, are circulating widely.
As they’ve been departing, Russian forces have been taking away all they can carry. That includes washing machines. It includes furniture and fixtures stolen from homes and apartments. It includes the contents of stores and gear from television studios. It includes children even younger than the girl in the video above.
Back in July, as Ukraine both reached positions where Kherson was in the range of extended artillery and began to employ weapons like HIMARS that were capable of both greater range and precision, there were thoughts that rather than target Russian military assets that were inextricably mixed with civilian locations inside Kherson, Ukraine would go for the bridges. Just days later, Ukraine did exactly that, striking both the Antonivskyi Bridge east of Kherson, then the Kakhovka dam bridge west of Nova Kakhovka. From that point on, Russia’s ability to stay in Kherson was in serious doubt.
Almost immediately, as Russia began trying to support its forces in the west with ferries and makeshift bridges constructed by stringing together barges, there were rumors that Russia’s departure from the area was imminent. If Russian forces along the front line were expending ammunition and equipment faster than it could be resupplied, then Ukraine didn’t have to actually stage an assault on Kherson. It only had to wait.
Some other plans were apparently discussed, such as trying to hold onto a smaller area around the city of Kherson. However, the damage to the Kerch Bridge in Crimea at the start of this month, and the Ukrainian push down from the north that liberated over 1,000 square kilometers in three days, finally seemed to place enough stress on this already tightened supply that Russia was left with no other choice than departure.
In the last weeks, there have been multiple signs of Russia’s leaving Kherson. Some of those have been as predictable as increased theft of washing machines. Some have been much darker.
[tweet and image at the link] On Oct 7 Dr. Tetiana Mudrenko from #Kherson region & her husband were kidnapped from home during an unauthorized raid by #RussianArmy
A week later woman, known for her open pro-#Ukraine position, was demonstratively hanged in front of a court house
The possibility of a humanitarian disaster in Kherson—one that doesn’t involve a tactical nuke or an exploding dam—is still hanging out there. Russian soldiers who have watched thousands of their own companions die in an attempt to hold onto Kherson, are now being told to pack up and leave. Collaborators, Russians lured into Kherson with the promise of jobs in the occupation government, and military officials who were running day to day operations are all leaving. In fact, they are reportedly leaving today.
As the Associated Press reports,
Russian-installed authorities ordered all residents of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson to leave “immediately” Saturday ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture one of the first urban areas Russia took after invading the country.
Those authorities have apparently already hopped onto ferries and beat it out of Kherson. Ukrainian forces are still kilometers away from the city. There have been no reports of Ukrainian forces making a major advance toward the city, though there have been reports that Russian forces have been reduced, and Russian artillery fire has all but stopped, along the front lines in Kherson.
Right now, there are still thousands of Russian troops on the west side of the Dnipro River. The city of Kherson appears to be without any civilian leadership. It’s unclear to what extent there is any military leadership remaining. It’s just the citizens, and thousands of Russian soldiers who have been defeated in months of bloody fighting. That’s not a good formula.
There is no doubt that Russia would like to make an “orderly retreat” in which it takes with it as much military equipment (and washing machines) as possible. There’s also no doubt that Ukraine would like to prevent this. Tanks and artillery that don’t make it across the river, are tanks and artillery they don’t have to fight another day. On the other hand, Ukrainian military commanders are likely to be reluctant to risk their forces in attacking positions that are about to be abandoned. However, if there are signs of Russian soldiers taking their anger out on the civilian population as they depart, Ukraine is certain to plunge in.
Kherson stands on the brink of liberation. But it may not get there without passing through yet another bath of chaos. It’s a good time for everyone to hunker under a desk.
From the WTF breaking news desk, there have also been reports that Russia has also ordered the evacuation of Belgorod. However, this doesn’t seem to be actually the case. Apparently small numbers of people were evacuated from some towns and villages along the Ukrainian border, this was spread into the media, and now there are many reports that the whole of Belgorod Oblast, including the city of Belgorod, is being evacuated. These reports have become so widely repeated that there are traffic jams of people streaming out of towns in the region.
Russia seems to be getting extremely fearful. Almost like they think they’re going to be held responsible for what they’ve done in Ukraine. And Syria. And Georgia. And Chechnya. And… […]
UPDATE: Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 · 11:22:00 AM Mountain Daylight Time · Mark Sumner
Seeing more reports of Ukrainian forces liberating towns in Kherson area. Searching for confirmations and hoping to have an updated map soon. Probably will do another Ukraine Update in a couple of hours.
UPDATE: Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 · 10:57:49 AM Mountain Daylight Time · Mark Sumner
Russia has apparently ordered officers and medical personnel to evacuate the filtration camp at Beryslav. There have been horror stories out of this area. Don’t be surprised if Russia takes steps to burn or blow up incriminating evidence here.
UPDATE: Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 · 10:50:47 AM Mountain Daylight Time · Mark Sumner
The Ukrainian general staff has confirmed Russia’s withdrawal from the Chkalove area.
UPDATE: Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 · 10:44:30 AM Mountain Daylight Time · Mark Sumner
A close up look at the construction of the “Wagner Line” shows that the tank traps aren’t even fixed to the ground and are sitting far enough apart that an Abrams could clear the gap on many of them. How many ways can you signal “this is all for show?” […]
UPDATE: Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 · 10:29:58 AM Mountain Daylight Time · Mark Sumner
More reports coming in that Russia has abandoned positions in northern Kherson area. On the east side of the line, Ukrainian forces are reportedly at the northern edge of Mylove, without reports that this involved fighting. On the western end of the line, reports that a number of towns and villages around Chaklove are sitting empty of Russian troops. [map at the link]
[…] UPDATE: Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 · 9:58:55 AM Mountain Daylight Time · Mark Sumner
With all the emphasis on Kherson, there hasn’t been a lot of coverage in what’s happening up along the edge of Luhansk Oblast where Ukrainian forces had been working their way to Svatove. But that’s not because nothing is happening.
Russian forces have made multiple attacks toward the villages of Terny, Zarichne, and Torske in Donetsk Oblast near Lyman. Russia understands that if it can get one Russian flag into Lyman, even for a minute, it will represent a PR victory by “countering the counteroffensive.”
Russia claimed to have retaken this area and be moving “on to Lyman” last week. They were lying. There was another big push on Wednesday, followed by an attack on Friday. Ukraine still appears to hold all these locations. However, pulling forces down to defend this position has apparently succeeded in slowing Ukraine’s careful advance toward Svatove.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces that crossed the river at Kupyansk seem to be divided between continuing the advance to the southeast, and finally moving against some of the Russian locations very close to Kupyansk on the north. [map at the link]
[…] There are enough pieces in motion, especially at the north and south ends of the line, that reports of locations changing hands should be expected in the next day or so. Stay tuned.
We now return you to fretting about events in Kherson.
[…] UPDATE: Saturday, Oct 22, 2022 · 9:10:16 AM Mountain Daylight Time · Mark Sumner
Remember yesterday’s post on Bakhmut when Russia had advanced to the furniture factory, but couldn’t capture the hardware store? Now Ukraine has pushed them out of the garbage dump and back to the asphalt factory.
Seriously, this is what it’s been like every day around Bakhmut. Russia making ridiculously costly assaults, and Ukraine staging ridiculously brave stands, over an area that’s smaller than the average U.S. shopping center. [tweet and images at the link]
Republicans have always been a little on the fringes when it comes to things like logic and consensus reality and not burning down their own garden shed because their Virgin Mary bobblehead told them Hugo Chávez is smoking weed in there, but they’ve really gone off the deep end lately.
Patient Zero himself, Donald Trump, has recently embraced QAnon themes and theories as his base gets whittled down to people who think Hillary Clinton’s computer server was a clear and present danger to U.S. national security but Trump storing top secret government documents in his desk next to Martin Van Buren’s freshly exhumed coccyx is totally f*cking normal.
Republicans have gotten so weird lately that it’s become a little too easy to ignore—but seriously, folks. This stuff is not normal!
Some wild shit went down at the ReAwaken America Tour this weekend in East Hempfield Township, Pennsylvania, and in attendance were the actual son of the actual former president of the United States, the actual GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor, and the actual ex-national security adviser of the most powerful nation in the history of the planet.
For example, this happened (second tweet):
Crowd cheers as speaker Bo Polny declares prophecy that the “Angel of death” will be visiting these people by end of year
Ends speech by saying “45 is coming back!” [photos of Rachel Maddow, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, Stacy Abrams, Justin Trudeau, etc. etc.
In case you can’t see the photo, “these people” include President Biden, Vice President Harris, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chief Justice John Roberts, George Soros (natch) and, weirdly, Michelle Obama, but not Barack. (Guess someone really hates the idea of schoolchildren eating garden-fresh broccoli.)
And this happened (second tweet):
[video at the link] PASTOR GREG LOCKE: “So here’s the facts at a political conference. If you trust anybody but Jesus to get you to heaven, you ain’t going. Jesus is the only way to heaven. You say, ‘Well, what about the pope?’ He ain’t a pope, he’s a pimp, what he is, ladies and gentlemen. He has prostituted the church. He has prostituted the church. Jesus said when he comes again he’s coming for a spotless bride, not for a trashy hooker. Someone say ‘amen’ right there.”
Okay, then.
So roughly one-quarter of adult Pennsylvanians are Catholic. Maybe Doug Mastriano, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in PA and a conference attendee, should be asked about this? Just a thought.
And here’s an unidentified loud person begging the Lord Jesus not to surround Trump with “RINO trash” when He (we’re talking about Trump here) returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. [Tweet and video at the link]
I was going to transcribe that video, but my fingers decided to make a gnarly fist and punch my eye into bread pudding instead.
Again, this conference was attended by Eric Trump, Trump favorite and former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, and the current GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor, Doug Mastriano.
These are “mainstream” Republicans, and exactly the kind of people who would advise Donald Trump if he ever made his way back into the White House for a second helping of fungible nuclear secrets.
We ignore them—and their rabid band of orcs—at our peril.
But we have the power to stop them. We’re in the homestretch before the midterms, which could determine if we’re going to stay a democracy or be forced to recognize Donald Trump as the unofficial fourth member of the Holy Trinity as we glide ineluctably toward Christofacism.
Reginald Selkirksays
@491: Someone say ‘amen’ right there.”
“Please clap.”
Jeansays
Lynna @491
It’s not necessarily the wildest claim but it’s quite fucked up to claim that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, has committed treason against the United States. Or course, they don’t base their belief on anything close to reality but they’re already dangerous enough as US domestic terrorists (real, potential or stochastic) without directly threatening foreign officials.
As they say, elections have consequences but as a Canadian it is not reassuring to know that we can only observe what’s happening and hope that sanity will somehow prevail. Unfortunately, I’m not hopeful for the upcoming mid-terms or 2024. It won’t be as directly bad for us as for the US people but I fear significant collateral damage here.
Rob Grigjanissays
Jean @493: Yeah, apart from the collateral damage, we only have Pierre Poilievre to worry about.
Tethyssays
Jean~ but it’s quite fucked up to claim that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, has committed treason against the United States.
It’s likely that Trudeau is merely the only ‘foreign’ elected official of a country this gomer could find on a world map.
It’s bizarre to watch idiots try to claim anyone on that list has committed treason, but you can’t fix stupid.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 491
We ignore them—and their rabid band of orcs—at our peril.
And yet the MSM and the Biden administration are doing just that. Ignoring them. (And no, giving mealy-mouthed speeches that call them “semi-fascists” is less than useless.)
Akira MacKenziesays
Also @491
But we have the power to stop them.
If your only solution to fighting fascism is for the Democrats to never lose another election, I got news for you: They are going to lose this upcoming one. They didn’t go away when Biden won. They continued to grow, organize and plan.
The only way to end a fascist threat is to get rid of the fascists, but American liberals are too fucking squeamish to do that.
Tethyssays
The only way to end a fascist threat is to get rid of the fascists
Those days when a Russian position is clearly crumbling? Those are the best days.
On Saturday evening in Ukraine, Russia has once again targeted electrical production and transmission facilities with missile and drone attacks, causing blackouts that involve a large percentage of the population, including the majority of Kyiv. However, this appears to be about the only “good news” on Russian state media and Telegram channels. Because the situation in Kherson appears to be coming to a head sooner than expected.
On Saturday morning, Russian officials called for “immediate evacuation” of the city of Kherson. Officials seem to have followed this order by swiftly hopping on a boat and departing. There have also been reports that over the last two weeks Russia has been subbing in freshly mobilized troops for experienced fighters, while getting the forces who know which end of a rifle to hold across the river. There are also efforts reportedly underway to evacuate Russian personnel from the filtration camp at Beryslav.
Over the course of the day, these withdrawals appear to have become evident on the front lines. There are multiple reports of abandoned Russian positions, some of which have even been confirmed by the Ukrainian general staff (which is usually reluctant to report anything happening near the actual front line). It’s possible that the front line in Kherson is simply collapsing. That may be particularly true if those reports that the line has been replaced by inexperienced and recently mobilized troops. As soon as those guys no longer had someone holding a gun to their back, running away likely seemed like a Real Good Thing.
Ferries are reportedly doing frequent and rapid trips across the river on Saturday night in Ukraine, with Russians hoping to get as much across they can, while keeping an eye out for incoming HIMARS fire.
As Wagner Group Telegram channel GrayZone puts it: “The situation is even worse than in the Kharkiv region after the breakthrough to Balakliya. In fact, the implementation of an organized withdrawal of troops of the first line is impossible.”
GrayZone worked this into a lengthy post that included such stirring phrases as “a tale of the city of the Scythian sun has not yet sounded in our ears, but the air has already been saturated with a familiar unpleasant aftertaste that leaves a lump in the throat.” That could be Google Translate straining at the seams. Or a lot of vodka. In any case, they also took this opportunity to complain about Russian leadership wasting drones on civilian targets, and to metaphorically roll their eyes at the scheme to blow the Nova Kakhovka dam then blame it on Ukraine. Because nobody, not even pro-Russian military bloggers, would buy that story.
Every single source now seems to expect that the end of Russian occupation in Kherson isn’t going to be measured in weeks or months. It’s a matter of days. How many days is the only question. And it’s not going to be an orderly withdrawal with Russian tanks all neatly ferried across the Dnipro. It’s going to end with Russian forces clawing, or maybe shooting, to get that last spot on board.
What’s especially interesting, is that these Russian sources can see where things are going next, and understand well enough what caused them to lose the largest city they had managed to occupy in this invasion.
“The enemy has absolutely no motive to blow up the hydroelectric power station. The Armed Forces of Ukraine plan to take Melitopol in the spring. It plans to open a battle front in the Zaporozhye region, and also to attack from Kherson. So I subjectively believe that the enemy has no goals to destroy the already abandoned city [Kherson], which we simply do not have the opportunity to defend, not so much due to the smallness of forces and means, but in broken logistics.”
Right now, there are a lot of reports of Russian positions being abandoned, but little visual confirmation that Ukraine has moved into these locations. In part, that may be because it’s currently 11PM in Kyiv. When the sun comes up, expect to see some images and videos from locations that have been on the red side of the line for months. [map at the link]
Right now, there are reports that Chkalove and Charivne have been abandoned. The Chkalove claim has been supported by the Ukrainian general staff. It seems unlikely that these locations would be reported unless this also means that Ukrainian forces were currently there on the ground, but that still needs confirmation. Those locations cut deep into the formerly Russian-occupied area and make it possible for Ukraine to encircle any Russian forces that may remain in the area of Bruskynske. But there may be no one, as there were unconfirmed reports on Friday that this town was back on the Ukraine side of the divide. On Saturday, there are unconfirmed reports that Ukrainian forces have entered Mylove on the east, and have moved as far down as Chervomnyi Yar near the center of the line, several kilometers behind what has been the front over the last three weeks.
If all of this is confirmed, it seems that Russia’s northern line in Kherson is gone, and it’s not clear where, of if, Russian forces will form up again.
At Snihurivka, local sources report a large explosion at midday. Reports are that this was not a matter of Ukraine hitting the location with artillery or HIMARS, but Russian forces in the town blowing up remaining ammo as they prepare to withdraw. Departing Russian troops reportedly didn’t have time to take ammunition, because they were busy loading up TVs, refrigerators, and (of course) washing machines. Again, let’s hope these reports are accurate.
Honestly, while everyone on the front lines over the last months deserves praise, the real heroes of Kherson could be the guys in the backroom; the intelligence officers who (with help from the U.S. and others) correctly identified the weakness of the Russian’s supply situation in the west and what steps could be taken to exploit that weakness. Ukraine has been fighting to liberate Kherson since just days after the city was taken. In April, Ukraine’s dilemma in the area became clear—how to retake the city without resorting to the kind of tactics that Russia had used in taking Mariupol or would use at Severodonetsk. Ukraine wanted to liberate Kherson and, as much as possible, preserve the city and protect its people. How could it do that if Russia set up artillery in the middle of town and shelled Ukrainian positions with a quarter million human shields all around them? And how could they get there at all with Russia creating a set of nested fortresses along each highway?
Dammit if Ukraine didn’t find a way.
It’s still a long way to Kherson. In fact, Ukrainian forces have been closer to the city at least three times over the last nine eight months. But this time it’s not just momentum and hope that are propelling Ukraine forward. [tweet and video at the link]
Meanwhile, near Bakhmut…
Ukraine’s counter attacks in Bakhmut do not end with the asphalt plant. Wagner is getting its ass kicked
There are reports that Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the area is extensive enough that it can’t be measured by looking at what specific stores are held. Ukraine may have taken back the town of Zaitseve, thought this is still awaiting confirmation.
How is Buhkmut going? Not well if you’re Russian.
[…]
Aid volunteers in #Bakhmut try to reach the inhabitants and give them food where possible. Not everytime these volunteers are allowed into the city because it’s too dangerous. Russia shells everytime, no boundaries, again you see a children’s playground.. 💔
Ahh, fresh new thread.
The J6 hearing is just ending.
Here again is the link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog, which has now closed. From there:
I’ve read that the Ukrainian government is urging evacuation, but haven’t seen confirmation. I can’t imagine many Ukrainians want to board Russian transportation to points unknown.
Kyiv Independent:
As Russia continues to deplete its stores, Ukraine since yesterday has received previously promised air defense systems from Germany, is getting expedited air defense systems from the US, and has gotten new commitments for further transfers from the UK, Canada, France, Estonia, Spain, and NATO.
Guardian – “‘Zero scent’: could negative reviews of smelly candles hint at a Covid surge?”:
The January 6 Committee has voted to issue a subpoena for both documents from Donald Trump and to call the traitor before the committee to answer questions.
Wife and I are both predicting that Trump will lose his shit. And probably claim that the committee has no right to call a President, or former President (though he won’t admit the ‘former’ part), that this is unprecedented (even though they gave precedent in the hearing), that this is a witch hunt (no, just trying to find out what the fifth amendment claims were hiding). I want to see him, on TV, being grilled by the committee. Won’t happen, but I want to see it.
At the end of the hearing, the J6 Committee voted to subpoena Trump. The most shocking evidence today were emails they recently received from the Secret Service showing how much warning they had about the possibility (probability, really) of violence connected to Trump’s rally. They also showed congressional leaders behind the scenes on J6 working to get more police and National Guard support. Nancy Pelosi was as composed as always.
Yeah. I want to know who stopped the usual Secret Service and police response. I was at an anti-nuclear protest down at the Capital back in 1982(?), and there were far more Capital Police and Metro Police for that small rally then there were on January 6. Who, specifically, quashed the usual contingency planning of federal law enforcement?
At the end of the hearing, the J6 Committee voted to subpoena Trump.
I think that was bad strategy. They should have called on Garland to indict, but instead they gave a perfect example of why not to give an order that won’t be followed. Calling for an indictment would also be merely advisory and easy for Garland to ignore except it would appear that they were not issuing a directive, merely offering a conclusive recommendation. Oh well, we shall see.
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
“Where are the results?”
“There’s 1,150,000 in our army. Where are they? Is it the same way as ammunition in our depots? Or do they really exist?”
Trump is going to be so pissed off today. Keep the ketchup bottle away from him.
An exchange on Twitter today:
Ukrainian Vice PM Mykhailo Fedorov: Over 100 cruise missiles attacked [Ukrainian] energy and communications infrastructure. But with Starlink we quickly restored the connection in critical areas. Starlink continues to be an essential part of critical infrastructure.
Elon Musk: You’re most welcome. Glad to support Ukraine.
Musk then provides a graph of Starlink usage growth in Ukraine over the past several months. I did read elsewhere that there were reports that it was still not working in Kherson, but I don’t know if that’s correct.
Thank you, PZ, for the fresh thread.
Update: Ukraine approaches strategic Svatove, as Russian Telegram invents phantom wins
SC in comment 5: “Nancy Pelosi was as composed as always.”
Yes she was composed, and in dire circumstances she was able to focus on the most important issues. She emphasized the fact that people needed to see that government was still capable of functioning, and that the confirmation of the electoral college votes would go ahead as the Constitution required.
Both Pelosi and Schumer brainstormed about how to get help to the Capitol since Trump was obviously not doing so.
In that moment, we could see why Pelosi is a real leader.
RFE/RL:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
Someone on Twitter recently was pointing out the scale of this exodus, saying it’s the equivalent of like almost a million people fleeing the US. I think in all of the Vietnam War, around 30,000 people fled to Canada (with maybe 100,000 or something total leaving the US). Imagine close to a million people trying to cross the Canadian and Mexican borders in a few weeks.
Text quoted by Oggie in comment 9:
That is such good news! I hadn’t seen that yet.
Trump will likely rant, rave and spew spittle all over his fake Twitter platform today. Fine.
In other news, Trump’s fake Twitter platform is in so much financial trouble that it too is likely to soon go down the drain.
I see PZ turned over the Infinite Thread again.
I’ll just repost my last comment since it was so cheery. /s
I knew something was lacking this week.
The Russians haven’t threatened to kill me and my cat in a few days.
It is late but here it is.
“Kyiv is well aware that such a step would mean a guaranteed escalation to World War Three,” TASS quoted Alexander Venediktov, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, as saying.
Venediktov is a high Russian official and his boss Patrushev is a hardliner who might be Putin’s replacement.
Well, so what.
It is inevitable Ukraine will eventually join NATO and Russia will just have to deal with it.
We are already in World War III and so far, Russia is losing.
One of the heads of the EU had a reply to the Russian Security Council, saving me the effort of making one.
This is the foreign policy chief of the EU.
The EU can make this happen if they want to.
The population of Russia is 140 million and the EU is 447 million.
The EU is far more powerful than Russia in any way you want to measure and they are slowly realizing that.
Guardian – “Cracks appear among Iran elite as senior figure calls for hijab policing rethink”:
Excerpts from Talking Points Memo’s coverage of the January 6 Committee hearing:
Link. Videos of Russian military parade in full FUBAR mode, as well as other embarrassing videos, are available at the link.
Kerch Bridge update:
Well, that didn’t go well.
https://twitter.com/NOELreports/status/1580503683975897088
Video at the link.
I am to the point where anything sane coming out of SCOTUS brings a cautious sigh of relief.
Tweet o’ the day.
Followup to comment 18.
More excerpts from Talking Points Memo’s coverage of the January 6 Committee hearing:
Reginald Selkir @21″
No surprise to me. Did it kill a black person? Did it take rights away from women? Did it make it more difficult for people of colour to vote? Did it eviscerate laws that limit what corporations can do? Did it open up land to full-bore exploitation? Did it give more money and power to the 1%ers? No? Then it is safe for them to think of actual law rather than politics.
And, on a lighter note, the US Space Cadets have released . . . Sorry. The Space Force have a Theme Song. Halls of Montezuma it ain’t. It actually sounds like something Tom Lehrer would have written.
Actually, he did do it better:
https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/the-sac-song.pdf
https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/so-long-mom.pdf
And if you go here: https://tomlehrersongs.com/category/songs/ you will find recordings of some of his songs.
7 Ways Roger Stone Was Connected to the January 6 Attack
Some Trump nonsense, posted on his failing social media site:
The January 6 Committee has the receipts. Trump’s plan to declare victory—no matter what—was months in the making.
Link
Excerpts from Wonkette’s coverage of the January 6 Committee hearing:
https://www.wonkette.com/january-6-select-committee-the-final-chapter
“It’s now 28 days since #MahsaAmini protests in Iran began, but protesters are still going strong and show no desire to back down.
Tonight in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, protesters march in the city with chants of ‘death to the dictator’
#مهسا_امینی”
Video (in a thread of videos) at the (Twitter) link. There’s another, nicely rhythmic, part to this chant, but I don’t know what they’re saying.
Here’s the video (Twitter link) of Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders during the attack.
Pelosi has all of our respect. What a courageous woman she is.
The North American Tapestry of Time and Terrain
“#IranProtests2022 : Dancing in the street #Karaj #کرج #Mahsa_Amini”
Video at the (Twitter) link. Wonderful.
It looks like Russia is now just going through the motions with their war.
Trying to lose as slowly as possible.
These conscripts were sent to the front…” without having ever used a gun, we were deployed in an assault group with only two grenade launchers – we were pure cannon fodder. I had to read a manual on how to use [the grenade launchers]. ”
No training, almost no equipment. At least the grenade launcher had a manual with it.
They didn’t even have shovels to dig trenches. They died after 6 days at the front.
In terms of military effectiveness, they aren’t going to make much difference.
They should make the war more unpopular back in Russia though.
CNN – “Exclusive: Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer pay for critical satellite services in Ukraine, asks Pentagon to pick up the tab”:
OMG: “Pelosi’s response to hearing Trump might march to the Capitol is definitely worth watching”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Kyiv Independent:
Evangelical church accused of sacking worker for correctly reporting to charities regulator.
Guardian Australia:
Worst defence ever?:
Hillsong is the preferred church of our recently-ousted, congenitally dysempathetic Prime Minister.
AP – “How Moscow grabs Ukrainian kids and makes them Russians.”
Hey.
Hello cicely! It’s been a long time since I’ve read your ‘nym here. (assuming you are the same cicely who used to comment on TET).
Texas Tribune:
Bexar County sheriff certifies that migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard are crime victims, clearing path for special visas
JAMES BARRAGÁN / OCT. 13, 2022
Steven Swinford, the Times:
SC@45,
There was a reported comment from a No.10 spokesperson to BBC’s Chris Mason in response to being asked whether Kwarteng was being sacked:
That’s a “Yes”, I’d say!
Oleksii Reznikov:
Graph at the link showing the depletion of the Russian high-precision missile arsenal since February. If it’s even close to accurate (especially with regard to the Iskander missiles), wow.
KG @ #46, LOL!
Pricey, too.
See https://forbes.ua/war-in-ukraine/rosiyani-za-pivdobi-vipustili-raket-po-ukraini-na-400-800-mln-infografika-forbes-10102022-8899
(Source, not in English, easy enough to translate)
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian UK liveblog.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there (more re #1 above):
Kwarteng has been sacked. Also from the liveblog: “Nicholas Watt from BBC Newsnight has been told that a group of senior Tories will call on Liz Truss to resign as prime minister next week.”
Also in the Guardian:
“‘We all saw it’: anti-Xi Jinping protest electrifies Chinese internet”: “Scramble to censor posts about Sitong bridge incident in Beijing where defiant banners were hung and a fire lit in lead-up to Communist party congress…”
(“Many comments alluded to a revolutionary saying made famous by Mao Zedong: ‘A tiny spark can set the prairie ablaze’.”)
“Turkey: new ‘disinformation’ law could jail journalists for three years”: “Press freedom organisations warn bill will ‘subdue public debate’ in run-up to next year’s general elections…”
“Elon Musk under federal investigation over $44bn Twitter deal – filing”: “Court filing made public by social media company does not state what is being investigated, nor which federal authorities are involved…”
White House:
Mormon Church IT ransacked, data stolen by ‘state-sponsored’ cyber-thieves
FFS:
He’s now been elected. Far-right Catholic, religious bigot, hates immigrants, hates LGBT people, opposed to reproductive rights, loves Putin,…
From the Grauniad (please support them if you can), Iranian regime’s poster of 50 women in hijabs turns into PR fiasco:
Apparently, the poster is now back up sans all photographs. There is an image of the original poster at the link.
† I decided to set that otherwise not-necessarily offensive slogan in because, as the article explains, it implies the people shown support the unstated message. Which some don’t. I.e., it’s misleading and intended to mislead.
Re. The sacking of the British chanchellor Kwarteng- Liz Truss is trying to blame him for her disastrous mini-budget so she can remain in power (it will not succeed).
Recent polls show if elections were held today, the tories would only get four (4) seats in parliament!
SNP would get more. DUP would get more. Everyone else would get more.
BTW according to Chinese authorities absolutely nothing happened in Beijing today.
Demonstration? What demonstration?
From the Grauniad (please support them if you can), Westerners in no mood for concessions to Russia in Ukraine, poll finds:
Much later on in article that “outliers” comment is explained:
See the link for more details about various levels of support in the “10 country core group”. Continuing the excerpt from after the explanation of the “outliers” comment (my added emboldening):
A New Danish Political Party Is Being Led By An AI
I, for one, welcome our new…
No I don’t. Kill it with fire.
The Russian government claims the Kerch bridge will be repaired in 10 months.
This means the damage was far worse than they first claimed.
I’ve seen photos of the railroad part of the bridge. The fire was hot enough to soften steel to the point where it deformed. Meaning hot enough to reduce the load bearing part of the railroad bridge, which is all steel.
This is going to markedly reduce the logistics supply chain for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a sign of a highly successful attack.
Elon Musk does it again.
Something cuckoo that doesn’t look right.
It turns out that almost all the Starlink terminals in Ukraine were bought by someone, governments and private people.
In fact, a lot of the Ukrainian soldiers…ended up buying their own Starlinks out of their own bank accounts.
An article claims 85% of the Starlink terminals in Ukraine were paid by someone.
It also appears that the Starlinks get broken a lot since they are on or near battlefields.
To be fair, everyone in Ukraine says they are really useful.
The subscription price is also paid out of the pocket.
One can only ask “Why the delay?”.
Guardian liveblog:
Tweet o’ the day (via the Guardian liveblog).
@raven:
I’ve seen photos of the railroad part of the bridge. The fire was hot enough to soften steel to the point where it deformed.
I saw some pictures claimed to be of the bridge’s cracked pylon: no rebar. It may be that the builder sold the rebar and bought a dacha or something like that (Russian construction practices) If that’s true, then the whole bridge was going to collapse anyway, someday.
Guardian liveblog:
“LIVE: Can Liz Truss outlast a lettuce?”
KG@64, Some speculations on “Why the delay [in telling alleged-‘PM’ Truss to follow the rats]?”: Increase the pressure; Don’t interfere with the enemy when they are doing something stupid; More rope (time) to further tie themselves in knots; Hoping they will leave before actually having to stick their necks out; etc. (All assuming there actually is a plan afoot to foot it over to Number 10 next week.)
Guardian liveblog:
It’s driving me crazy that so many people are saying that Musk’s demands for more Starlink money are some sort of retaliation for the Ukrainian leadership clapping back at him for his atrocious Twitter poll and related commentary. Now Musk, because he’s a dishonest assclam, is playing it up himself.
As the CNN article @ #37 clearly describes: “last month Musk’s SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon saying it can no longer continue to fund the Starlink service as it has,” subsequently referring to it as “the September letter.” The Ukrainian military began having issues with Starlink around the same time. Musk’s Twitter obnoxiousness about Ukraine and the responses to it began on October 3, so neither the letter to the Pentagon nor the Starlink service disruptions could be a response to the Ukrainian tweets.
In any event, I’m of the opinion that the US government should pay him off if they can get him out of the loop, because he’s a dangerous dilettante dingdong. They’ll probably get it back eventually in fines anyway.
Meduza, Why Russia is pushing a return to negotiations The Kremlin wants to buy time to prepare for a ‘full-scale offensive’ in early 2023, sources say:
I found amusing, as that’s one of the euphemisms the invaders use to describe routs / retreats of their own forces.
It’s been pointed out the huge missile barrage aimed at Ukrainian civilians and civil infrastructure after the Kerch Bridge (presumed-)attack must have been planned before that attack. (That has caused some to claim the attack was some sort of “false flag” operation, which is not a very believable hypothesis.) Presuming Meduza’s (source’s) are correct and Putin’s cronies have been pushing “Civilian casualties must be avoided” to gain a halt to the fighting to allow for Putin to regroup, then a pre-planned show of force by targeting civilians, etc., in a massive attack seems like something Putin, etc., might “think” would “convince” Nato-powers to ask Ukraine to agree a cease-fire.
That seems very unlikely to work: Besides being obviously cynical and clumsy; Increasing Ukrainian resolve; Perhaps not actually damaging all that much; Ukraine and the Nato-powers are well aware of the desirability to keep Russia’s culminated exhausted under-supplied and freezing forces unstable and guessing.
Guardian liveblog:
Meduza, ‘Take him. You raised a freak and a killer.’ A [St] Petersburg woman is under house arrest after leaving a note on Putin’s parents’ grave:
Ha.
In other words, disregard the Ukrainian government and prevent them from negotiating as a unified whole. That’s…about as skeevy as Putin normally is…
The court sentenced Tsybaneva to house arrest until November 8, 2022 and forbid her from using the internet, phone, or mail. [Her son] Maxim Tsybanev told Mediazona “in the context of the actions she took it’s too harsh, but, well, in the context of the current situation in this country it’s really not that bad.”
Translation: “She coulda been shot or sent to a labor camp in Siberia.”
SC@75, Yeah, I found that idea so preposterous I was giggling whilst trying to write my commentary. It has since occurred to me that might be an invader’s euphemism for (localised) “surrender”, which is a smart move on the part of the invaders’ cannon fodder.
Lynna,
Thanks to you and PZ for these threads.
SC in comment 5: “Nancy Pelosi was as composed as always.”
@ 12 Lynna, OM Yes she was composed, and in dire circumstances she was able to focus on the most important issues.
In reply Sherman says: I agree that, yes, she is mostly professional and composed, but you can’t blame her when her life is being threatened by a bunch of violent, redneck aholes.
ref https://doonesbury.slate.com/
“I hope he comes, I’m gonna punch him out. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m gonna punch him out, I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m gonna be happy.”
— Nancy Pelosi, when told on Jan. 6 that Trump intended to go to the Capitol
“Encieh Erfani, cosmologist who resigned from Physics Department at Institute of Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences
‘I did not want to stay in that system. I had to keep silent about everything. Although blood is being shed in streets, faculty cannot speak out’
#IranProtests2022″
Nice video:
France 24’s Access Asia – “Xi Jinping’s iron fist on China: Exploring the leader’s political strategy”:
Video at the link. It’s only 12 minutes long, so each segment is pretty brief.
Alleged QAnon Mastermind Cancels His Congressional Campaign
Guardian liveblog:
Whoa:
New Hampshire GOP Senate Nominee: ‘We’ve Got to Do Something’ About In Vitro Fertilization
It is appropriate that US election day is so close to Halloween. Conservative politics is like a movie monster — no matter how many times an idea is killed, or dies of old age, or is forgotten, it is guaranteed to show up a political generation later. I remember this from the 80s. And the early naughties. They just never die.
Michael Weiss:
Mykhailo Podolyak:
Adam Kinzinger tweeted (in response to the Musk tweet in the first link @ #71 above):
I’m sure he cannot.
Roger Stone to Trump: ‘Fuck You and Your Abortionist Bitch Daughter’
QFT.
The US government should just pay Starlink and Musk for the Starlink units and the bandwidth like any other business transaction.
To get Elon Musk out of the loop.
SpaceX and Starlink are undoubtedly very successful and important achievements of Elon Musk and his companies.
But Musk and SpaceX are dependent on US government support for a whole lot of things. The US government is one of their main customers.
And, SpaceX uses US government facilities such as Cape Canaveral in Florida to launch their rockets.
It should dawn on the guy that playing silly games with the US government is not a good idea.
Follow the money is a highly useful metric. Elon has been seeking financing to purchase Twitter. From who?
The FTC and the SEC are involved in the lawsuit he received this week.
His claims to millions of tax dollars for starlink systems is utter grift. He got paid, he is a liar, and an utter fraud. I prefer espionage charges for his attempts influence a war and paint himself as some hero while lacking any actual human traits like humility or empathy.
Nearly half of COVID survivors haven’t fully recovered 6 months later: Study
raven@91–
I wish this were true, but forty years of Reaganite politics has entrenched the idea that government exists to serve the whims of wealthy industrialists.
Reginald Selkirk@61 (re the Danish AI political party)–
My first thought is that this was an art project, and indeed that link you provided says it’s the work of an artist collective. But then it also says:
And now I wonder if it’s a front for undermining confidence in progressive ideas like UBI.
Population of Denmark = 5.9M
Cost of proposed UBI = $164,400 per person per year
Total cost = 5.9M x 164.4K = $970B
If restricted to adults = $776B
GDP of Denmark = $355B
“#BREAKING Iranian plainclothes forces raided a girls’ high school in Ardabil, northwest of Iran, on Thursday, injuring 10 students and arresting seven others. One schoolgirl has died of internal bleeding, according to the Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association.”
Ukraine update: Russia’s Bakhmut campaign may have culminated [Update: It has not]
NOOOO!
Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid in Harry Potter, and many other roles) has died at just 72.
@chrislawson
And yet, it’s still better than some suggestions that are being tossed around, like the one where we outsource refugee administration to a camp in Rwanda, a country known for human rights abuses. That’s our supposedly left-of-center government. The right wing includes people spouting literal nazi rhetoric, although most of them are still stuck in tax-cuts-fix-everything territory.
Personally, I’ll be voting for the never-gonna-happen, green, anti-capitalist party, but the AI is not a crazy choice in these circumstances.
Roger Stone threatening Jared Kushner and calling Ivanka Trump an ‘abortionist [B-Word]’ is on video
Trump ‘wanted people to die’ so he could invoke the Insurrection Act and stay in power
“‘Don’t let anybody know where you are!’ Never before seen video: Nancy expresses concern to Mike Pence about his safety, all while Trump was stoking violence against Pence.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. There’s more of this video coming out today. It was shot by Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra, who’s finally found a worthwhile niche.
Subpoenaed Trump sent a 14 page rant back to the Select Committee because…
Well, that’s all laughable. Trump even claimed that the television ratings for the Select Committee hearings are “very poor,” which they are not.
Trump shared a Truth Social photo that was posted. It portrayed him as second only to Jesus.
Followup to SC’s comment 102.
Why the new footage of Nancy Pelosi’s efforts on Jan. 6 matters
The latest behind-the-scenes footage suggests that key Republican claims about Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s efforts on Jan. 6 are ridiculous.
Yep, the Republicans have actually worked to demonize Nancy Pelosi for decades. I still remember how much my conservative parents hated her, (and my parents passed away years ago). It was/is an irrational hate, stoked by disinformation and the worst kind of propaganda. I’m not saying Pelosi is perfect. Disinformation makes it difficult to confront any errors she makes.
Pelosi is often right, often a good person, often an effective politician. She is the antithesis of sociopathic Trump.
Axios
DOJ appeals appointment of special master in Mar-a-Lago probe
Followup to comment 103.
More details concerning Trump’s 14-page rant:
Link
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
More humor from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker Link
NBC News:
NBC News:
NBC News:
Here’s the CNN link where you can watch the unreal 17-minute video of Pelosi and the others on January 6th.
CNN:
LOL
Something doesn’t add up here.
Starlink is charging $600 a terminal in the USA with $110 for unlimited bandwidth.
He is charging Ukraine $1500 a terminal and an astonishing $4500 a month for the bandwidth.
It is even 9 times more than the remote business price of $500 a month for the bandwidth.
Somewhere in here, Starlink is trying to price gouge Ukraine because they really need something like Starlink.
It is just a satellite internet service anyway. I don’t know how it differs from something like Hughsnet that sends me advertising every few months.
Hee. (Twitter link.)
Borzou Daragahi:
Report on the BBC quoting a Ukrainian colonel saying that the Russians are now using T-62 tanks that were manufactured in the 1960s.
“During live state TV broadcast of pro-regime rally today in Tehran religious singer Mahmoud Karimi says he’s in favor of optional hijab, and receives wild applause from crowd. TV quickly cuts away. ‘So…’, the host says…”
Video at the (Twitter) link. At a pro-regime rally!
Fear not the atheist; they just might be right
Opinion piece in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News
This guy: “Elon is following @rogerwaters lead and turning to a pro-Assad Canadian blogger, who moved to Russia to produce propaganda for the Kremlin, to feel like a hero who is being targeted by imaginary Ukrainian assassins….”
FERRY DELAYS CAUSED BY STAFF MEMBER ‘BREAKING LEG AND DROPPING ROPE INTO PROPELLER’
That number of thousands of civilians in the Russian Gulag is likely to be a huge underestimate.
The number of Ukrainians deported or refugees in Russia are reported variously as 1.6 million to 2. 8 million.
What happened to almost all of them is unknown.
Disappearances don’t just happen.
This is an old terrorist tactic.
The whole point is in the disappearance and you never know what happened to them.
That happened to my friend’s father after the war in Poland.
One day the Russian soldiers came and took his father (a German from Konigsberg) away and they never saw him again.
Dmitri:
LOL. Subtitled audio at the (Twitter) link.
Guests can fly over Michigan zoo on new $2M zip line and ropes course
That will last until the first person falls into the tiger compound. Then zoo officials can have a nice sit-down chat with their insurance company.
@123: Australia doesn’t need weapons, they have wildlife. They are shipping an assortment of snakes, spiders and jellyfish to eastern Ukraine.
If jokes are not your thing, research where “Metal Storm” was invented.
T-62 tanks, a little newer than the US M-60, have, been updated through various upgrades of electronics, engines and suspension (generally by end users). As of 2018, some 1400 (mostly upgraded) T-62s were still in service around the world. Many nations are still actively upgrading T-62s — Egypt is in the progress of updating their mid-1970s production armour with Egypt-made 120mm main gun and a license-built 890hp engine. So, yes, they entered production in 1961. That does not mean that they are useless on a modern battlefield.
US M60s, last updated by the US Army in a project that ended in 1989, were updated to the M60A3. It didn’t end there. Italy’s Leonardo is a fully modernized M60 update that began production in 2017.
Ukraine was updating T-62s at their Kharkiv-Morozov plant into the T-62AG (updated modular applique armour, a getter main gun, and an uprated engine) and the T-62AGM (with a 120- or 125-mm main gun, a 1,000hp powerplant, and AT-11 ATGM secondary armament). Even the US M1 Abrams has been so thoroughly uprated that the only thing still left from the original early 1980s production is the actual hull and turret — everything else has been replaced: gun, electronics, suspension, transmission, engine, optics, ECM, etc. This is normal.
I suspect, though, that, although Russia used some T-62s (uprated) at the beginning of the invasion near Melitopol, these were some of the 191 T-62s still active in the Russian Army as of 2018. The newest reports of T-62s in use by the Russian Army appears to be some of the 700 or so that were not sent to Syria (2011-2018) or scrapped by Russia (2013). The ones in mothballs had been upgraded to the T-62M standard (laser rangefinder, better optics, dual munition 115mm gun (both conventional and ATGM rounds), with composite add-on armour) which brought the capabilities of the T-62M up close to the T-64 and T-72. The main reason the Russian Army sold off and scrapped so many is that they were/are severe maintenance hogs. You need a highly trained crew, good mechanics, and good electronic experts to keep them up and fighting.
So, yeah, the Russians are using tanks older than me. There is a good reason. Tanks are expensive (that is why the US keeps recycling the hulls of M1s). The Soviets could not afford very many T-72s or T-80s. Nor could the Russian Army. And the T-14 Armata, a tank with no crew in the turret (they are all in a capsule in the hull), excellent armour protection (the equivalent of almost 36 inches of RHS (Rolled Homogenous Steel), 125mm main gun, and a top speed of around 50mph, looked to be a world beater. The plan was to build over 2000 of them. Budget constraints, however, reduced the production run to 100 experimental models. With lots of experiments built in. I have not seen evidence of the Armata being used in the Ukraine invasion (however, my ‘sources’ are not nearly as good as they used to be (even MIs retire)).
Between the difficulty of obtaining modern electronics from outside sources for new and upgraded old armour and the severe lack of training in the Russian Army (I’ve written about that before — last infinite, thread, couple of pages back), the T-62M is probably the best bet for the draftees in the Russian Army. Even with the Russian upgrades, they are simple enough for someone with a sixth-grade (US) education to operate and fight. But, again, they are maintenance hogs and Russia has never had a large group of good mechanics — army or civilian — who can diagnose and fix the problem (fix? yes, diagnose? meh).
Given the choice, though, I’d rather be in an upgraded M60A3 than a T-62M any day of the week. Well, I probably would not even fit in the T-62 — I’m too tall and too wide.
No Smoking in Arabic
Re: Oggie: Mathom @ #126…
Given the apparent service life of Russian armor in combat in the Ukraine, somehow I don’t think maintenance is going to be an issue.
Ukraine update: Ukraine inches closer to Svatove as Russia shells its own city of Belgorod … twice
Hi, Tethys! Yes, it is I, cicely-wth-a-small-c, Despiser of Peas, Avoider of Horses!
I fell off the world for a bit, but I’m cautiously dipping a toe back in. I hope everybody is doing as well as circumstances allow.
_
I’ve been following this Twitter re the war in Ukraine: https://twitter.com/wartranslated
On the Kerch bridge: https://twitter.com/wartranslated/status/1581023172346118144
(later)
Looks like I’m not the only one following Dmitri1
_
Perhaps Australia should send emus…or cassowaries!
_
Crap.
Sorry about the Italics Storm; only the I was supposed to be italicized.
_
For those who are interested & in Australia; we’re going to be seeing quite a lot of International Space Station fly overs over the next few days starting tonight.
For Adelaide tonight one is happening pretty soon (short notice sorry) at 8 pm for 7 min.
Source : Via Dr Brad Tucker & the Spot the Station site so I gather.
@ StevoR
Wishing you clear skies. I’ve never seen it myself, I’ll try. Thanks for the heads up.
@ ^
Do you know if there’s a site where you can see the path wrt constellations and so on?
whheydt:
Historically, there is a direct connection between vehicle maintenance and vehicle survival. There is also a direct connection between crew training and vehicle survival.
The Russian Army, in The Winter War, the Polish invasion, The Great Patriotic War, and the Afghan War, suffered from a disconnect when it came to crew training and vehicle maintenance.
PS. For those who might be wondering who is currently aboard our biggest “brick moon” so far see :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_68
Plus NASA’s ISS page :
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
in addition to thsilive youtube following Humanity’s largest “brick moon” along ots low Earth orbital path and providig the view here .
I’ve seen enough.
Musk isn’t dumb but he does a lot of dumb things and has a toxic personality.
.1. The reason is he price gouging the US Pentagon and Ukraine for his Starlink system is that SpaceX is losing money at $20 million a month.
.2. “Most users in Ukraine are subscribed to a tariff of $60/month.” That is true in Europe as well. The US monthly charge is $110.
He is trying to charge all of Ukraine $4500 for the monthly bandwidth fee.
.3. Starlink is just a satellite com service.
“Politico reports that the Pentagon is speaking to other satellite communications companies…”
.4. There are other satcom companies.
I get advertisements for DISH and Hughsnet in my mailbox every few months.
.5. The US government and the Pentagon are one of SpaceX’s main supporters and customers. He has clearly made them angry at him which isn’t very bright.
” But we know there are other companies, not just SpaceX, that we can certainly work with when it comes to providing Ukraine with what it needs on the battlefield” said Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh.
Says it all.
Here it is, the daily Russian threat to nuke my cat and myself.
They were late and had me worried for a while.
I thought maybe it is Saturday and the Russians were taking the weekend off.
They announced at the UN that they are transferring nuclear capable cruise missiles launched from planes to Belarus.
Which really makes no sense.
The Iskander missile has a range of 500 km which means that transferring them to Belarus doesn’t get them much.
It just makes Belarus move up in the list of targets for Ukraine and the West in case something goes drastically wrong.
Eliot Higgins: “‘Myrotvorets is a Ukrainian government kill list’ is rapidly becoming the most effective way to identify the dumbest people in this website [Twitter].”
Brian Adcock in the Grauniad, On the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor (cartoon).
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
They finally debated: Warnock talked policy. Walker pulled out a prop sheriff’s badge
Well, it is near Halloween.
Videos of debate segments are available at the link.
Meduza, ‘I don’t have time to bow, or to wait in line’ — Zelensky on ‘iPhone diplomacy,’ Putin, nuclear risks, and the power of being on the right side (minor edits for formatting reasons (unmarked), with Meduza edits in {curly braces}):
Guardian liveblog:
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/and-theres-more-6
Momentum Builds As Indiana Democrats Speak Out Against Potentially Devastating Supreme Court Case
New Laws In Place For 2022 Midterms Could Slap Election Workers With Felonies For Minor Mistakes
Followup to comment 147.
I think Republicans are actually trying to make sure that elections in the USA don’t work well. They are sowing the seeds of failure.
“Don’t panic, says Stremousov, but you all might want to evacuate the right bank.”
Video (no subtitles) at the (Twitter) link. As people in the responses point out, Stremousov has already fled to Henichesk, about 175 km away.
#DontPanic
Mykhailo Podolyak:
From blf’s 143.
Russia’s cheap gas wasn’t really cheap.
It’s price including losing national sovereignty and national security.
Not a good deal.
Russia is clearly at war with the EU right now.
It’s an economic and threats war but nevertheless a form of war.
The EU has 447 million people and a huge economy to Russia’s 145 million people and much smaller economy that is going nowhere.
The EU is far stronger than Russia, they need to act like it, and they are slowly figuring that out.
Actually you can replace one society with another.
It requires a lot of killing and takes decades but it happens eventually.
Russia has been doing it for centuries and it is called Russification which is another word for ethnic cleansing and genocide. They are almost done with it in Belarus. Hardly anyone speaks Belarusian any more and the language is being actively suppressed by the head of Belarus.
We could have won in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Just kill a lot of them, deport a lot of them, make a lot of them refugees, bring in a lot of American and other settlers, repress their culture, language, and religion, and you are done.
That was fortunately far more crimes against humanity than we were willing to inflict on them.
Two addenda to my #126:
Upgrades of the T-72 and T-80 MBTs have been for export. Three quarters of the production, and upgrades, of the T-90 MBT have been for export. Given how poorly Russian Army armour (and rockets, and missiles, and artillery, and anti-aircraft artillery, and command and control facilities, and APCs, and (you get the point), has performed during the Ukraine invasion, what is going to happen to Russia’s weapons export market? That, along with energy, have been large bright spots in Russian foreign exchange.
Second, T-14 Armata (Chariot) production has not been 100. It appears to have been less than 40. The Russians (like the US, Germany, England, France and others) have figured out that upgrading existing tanks to modern standards is far less expensive than developing a whole new tank.
For the first time since 1996, we have a mouse (possibly more) in our house. Trying to live trap it (them). I guess the smell of cats has finally faded from ten years ago.
[W]e have a mouse (possibly more) in our house.
Early trick-or-treaters.
Nah. Just coming inside to hide from the cooler weather.
I would ask why you don’t get more cats, but I’m sure you have your reasons.
Julia Davis:
A foolproof plan. Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. From there:
Elon Musk just tweeted: “The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free”
Dmitri Alperovitch:
The Wehrmact fought well in defeat because the nazis had inherited a good military from the Weimar Republic, and the corruption in other parts of nazi German society did not have time to spread into the military.
Finland had an army who fought extremely well in defeat for a variety of reasons one of them being the strong confidence the soldiers had in their NCOs and the junior officers. They kept fighting against extreme odds.
.
None of these conditions exist in the brutal, hazing- riddled and corruption-riddled Russian military. These are negative traditions that go all the way back to Imperial Russia and grew worse in the Soviet era.
Timothy Snyder:
Link at the (Twitter) link, or easily found on YouTube. I’m a few behind, but hope to catch up soon.
“The infamous Evin prison in Tehran is on fire. Gunfire heard. This is big.”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Belgorod:
More:
BBC – “Evin prison fire: Gun shots and sirens heard at notorious detention centre”:
SC (Salty Current)
Wife and I have had wonderful cats. Sherman, Oreo, Dust. Dust was a 30-pounder who could stand on his hind legs and rest his chin on the counter. He was also the sweetest, gentlest, cuddlable, loveable cat ever. We don’t want another cat because it wouldn’t be Sherman, Oreo, or Dust, who basically spoiled us (okay, Sherman got weird in his last few years, but one skritch and he purred). Also, we have reached (earlier than planned) retirement — I took a disability retirement, Wife is working on one now. Which means we can travel. We can take off on trips when we want. Simplicity is what we are trying to achieve. Cats are not simple (well, Dust was kind of simple).
We visit Girl’s cats. And she is getting a dog next spring. So our life will get a little more complicated.
So, basically, we are not getting another cat because we are a little selfish. So be it.
Posted by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya:
https://twitter.com/Tsihanouskaya/status/1579767134707933184
Link
https://twitter.com/franakviacorka/status/1580820838374178816
More Tory chaos: Senior Tories hold talks to discuss ousting Liz Truss to ‘rescue’ party. From the article:
It’s unclear whether that means another Tory leadership election, or a general election. This is certainly highly amusing on one level, but it’s millions of people’s basic financial security they are playing with. Vile as they have long been, the Tories have until now retained a reputation for basic competence in keeping the country running, and in hanging on to power. The first has now evaporated, and the second looks like it could follow at any time.
That was quick. Fifteen minutes and two live traps went off. Both mice have been released into the wild about a mile away. Well, not wild, but out of the neighborhood. Away from our house.
Cartoons by Matt Davies, Mike Luckovich, Jack Ohman and Drew Sheneman
Washington Post link
I like the cartoon that shows Trump with the number 45 on his back, while nearby people comment, “Number of criminal/civil investigations.”
There’s also a cartoon of a disheveled Alex Jones holding a sign that says, “Will lie about a mass school shooting for food,” while he begs on the street.
Oggie @ #165, those were the two potential reasons I had thought of. What a sweet tribute to your former cats.
NBC is reporting that two recent Russian conscripts at a firing range near Belgorod shot and killed 11 Russian soldiers and wounded 15 more before being shot and killed.
I guess this is fragging, Russian style. At that exchange rate, the 200K conscripts could wipe out the entire Russian Army, though it would only take 40K of them to eliminate the “effective” part of the Russian army.
“Iran-Tehran: People chant “death to the dictator” in streets near Evin Prison. Fire has erupted at the prison. Sound of explosions and screams can be heard in the video. Official sources claim that the fire has been put out with NO lives lost.”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Co-founder of Trump’s media company details Truth Social’s bitter infighting
Washington Post link
Will Wilkerson, one of Trump Media & Technology Group’s first employees, alleges the company violated securities laws and that Trump pressured executives to hand over their shares to his wife. He shared a cache of internal documents with The Post and federal investigators that he says support his claims.
More at the link.
From a long and ongoing Twitter thread with videos and reports from Iran:
Borzou Daragahi also has a frequently updated thread about Tehran:
In Wisconsin the execrable sitting GOP Senator Johnson and his opponent Lt. Gov. Barnes had a debate on Friday. It did not go well for Johnson, he was openly laughed at after imitating tfg and uttering the phrase ‘corrupt FBI agents tried to set me up’.
Frustratingly most news sources I can find are in full faux objective mode that fails to mention that the audience became quite hostile towards Johnson, or his open fascism.
At least this one provides context on the multiple horrendous things done by accessory to attempted coup Johnson, like being duped by Putin and having the FBI come have a chat with him about being an asset to Russia.
This source gives an accurate report of the debate, rather than omitting any mention of Johnson’s record of odious maga crap such as attempting to facilitate massive voter fraud for tfg.
https://www.salon.com/2022/10/14/debate-audience-laughed-at-ron-johnsons-claims–and-it-only-got-worse-from-there_partner/
I just saw this.
This didn’t happen but it should have.
The Pentagon showed Musk an updated fee schedule for using Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg launching facilities to launch SpaceX rockets.
Musk gets a huge amount of tax breaks and other government subsidies for his companies.
Realmuto hits inside-the-park HR as Phillies eliminate Braves
I had to look.
It is worse than I thought.
It was 4.9 billion by 2015 in government subsidies so you could probably double it by now.
Without the Federal government and NASA, SpaceX probably wouldn’t exist.
The numbers of Ukrainians who have been deported, fled, or are refugees in Russia are all over the place. Who knows which ones are right if anyone actually knows.
The US State Department, quoting Russian sources say that 260,000 Ukrainian children have ended up in Russia. Somewhere. No one knows where most of them are except it is often in the most remote places in Russia such as Siberia.
Wh- what?!
Ukrinform – ” $30,000 bounty in Ukraine for capturing Russian terrorist Igor Girkin
$30,000 bounty in Ukraine for capturing Russian terrorist Igor Girkin”:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The full piece by Peter Pomerantsev – “Russia’s genocidal propaganda must not be passed off as freedom of speech.”
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
A point in favor of further attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure:
An assessment of the situation in Kherson:
Update to #183:
AFP: “#UPDATE The fire that broke out in Iran’s Evin prison in Tehran overnight killed four inmates and left 61 others injured, the judicial authority said on its website Sunday.”
The demonstrations continue today.
Padres eliminate Dodgers, advance to NLCS for 1st time since 1998
“Belgorod in Russia today, which is gradually turning into a frontline city in this war. Reports that the airport has been heavily damaged in strikes this morning.”
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Andriy Yermak: “The 🇺🇦 offensive is strategic, and Russia’s defeat is inevitable.”
The ‘Deadliest Catch’ Disappears: Alaska’s Snow Crabs Have Vanished
According to the Ukrainian Deputy of Defense, the ratio of losses is 1 to 6.5, Ukrainian to Russian.
This is believable but he would say that anyway. I wouldn’t take it too seriously, although I’m sure the Russians are taking heavy losses.
I have no idea how they determine that at a ratio of 1 to 8 the Russian army will collapse. This looks like something someone just made up.
I’ve read that during the heavy fighting, the ratio of Ukrainian to Russian casualties is more like 1:2.
The fighting here is something no one has seen in about forever. Close quarter combat with trenches and small arms such as rifles and grenade launchers.
@ 178
And yet Johnson is still leading. Too many racist dirt farmers and suburban white flight refugees in this shithole state.
Debates are useless.
Timeline: The Mar-a-Lago Scandal From Start To Raid
Much more at the link.
Ukraine Update: Putin suffers yet another diplomatic humiliation; fog of war envelopes Kherson
Russia is grabbing men off the street to fight in Ukraine
Washington Post link
Well, that sounds like it is going really well.
@193
Racism is definitely a problem, but the gerrymandering and the right wing media that is piped in via rural news radio are the reason.
A blast of phone banking is coming towards his district. MN is very much tired of its drunk neighbor, and it’s pig farmer neighbors too.
WI currently is enforcing a total abortion ban from an 1846 law, which means that WI women have to drive to the Twin Cities like it’s the 60’s.
Alex Jones mocks $1 billion Sandy Hook verdict, but his fellow conspiracy theorists freak out
https://twitter.com/laney502/status/1579481875999256576
Cartoon, Alternate Pledge (featuring MAGA cult saluting a Trump flag)
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also from there:
A cat rescued from the rubble in Kyiv today.
Some images of the drone terror attacks. (Twitter link.)
The cat’s name is Filia.
Nolan Peterson:
BBC – “Hong Kong protester dragged into Manchester Chinese consulate grounds and beaten up”:
Reminds me of this incident in 2017.
@ 197
But Senate races are state-wide races, so gerrymandering doesn’t effect them.
GOP opponent who never served criticizes Gov. Tim Walz’s exit from National Guard
(Minnesota)
“Ukraine’s Interior Affairs Minister: 36 out of 42 Shahed drones were downed today”
Guardian liveblog:
Christopher Miller:
Julia Davis:
Reposted with minor changes from Mano’s blog.
The new Chancellor Truss appointed, Jeremy Hunt (who came last in the first round of voting among Tory MPs in the contest that ended with Truss as PM), has today ditched almost all the measures in the “fiscal event” that caused the near-meltdown of the UK’s financial system, and has promised further tax rises and spending cuts. “The Markets” have responded favourably, and Tory MPs have started worshipping at his feet. He’s obviously the real PM now, and my guess is that he’ll get the title to go with the power as soon as the Tories can work out how to winkle Truss out and put him in. My further guess is that Truss will be prevailed upon to go to Charles Windsor and resign, probably this week, advising Charles to call on Hunt to form a government, so we don’t have a repeat of what happened with Johnson — a politically dead PM walking while their successor is chosen. The Tories will then announce a contest for the party leadership (note that there’s no rule that the PM has to be a party leader), which Hunt will win either by default — no other candidates — or with such an overwhelming majority among Tory MPs that the final part of the contest — the party members choosing between the top two candidates chosen by the MPs — will also give him a huge majority. But I may be overestimating their ability to act even with a degree of rational self-interest: the swivel-eyed loons who supported Truss, andor the Johnsonites andor the Sunakites, may balk.
NATO begins nuclear drills Steadfast Noon.
Things like this always bring me back to my early childhood. And not in a good way.
At the same time, the planes will not use weapons.
That is reassuring, I guess.
Meduza – “Publishers worried new ‘gay propaganda’ bill could outlaw classic Russian literature”:
“The sky above Kyiv this morning brought death, destruction. On Zhylianska St. this evening, near where Russian drones exploded, people are kissing, playing chess, photographing flower bouquets, sipping coffee, walking dogs. The sky is cotton candy. Ukrainians won’t be terrorized.”
Photos at the (Twitter) link.
Gen. Mark Hertling:
Photos and links at the (Twitter) link.
Re: SC (Salty Current) @ #215….
The comparison weapon…
Fiesler Fi-103, aka V-1. From Wikipedia:
Guardian liveblog:
Ukraine update: As Putin weakens, so does the integrity of the Russian Federation
The article is topped with a photo of “Children play in the crater of a Russian missile targeting a military significant swing set.”
Kansas City Police Called Reports of Serial Killer Targeting Black Women ‘Unfounded.’ Then a Woman Escaped.
Yesterday’s tweet o’ the day.
Followup to comment 218.
More updates regarding Ukraine. Scroll down at this link:
Well, yuck, this is a terrible debate. Marjorie Taylor Greene broke all the debate rules … and she got away with it. Sheesh.
Link
Followup to comment 222: Marjorie Taylor Greene can’t say the word “controversial.” She says “controversal.” And she never did answer the moderators question.
Excerpts from a Washington Post article:
America’s problem is White people keep backing the Republican Party
Trump charged Secret Service ‘exorbitant’ rates at his hotels, records show.
Washington Post link
Scalise acknowledges GOP plan to change Social Security, Medicare
As the midterms elections near, voters don’t appear focused on Republican plans for Social Security and Medicare. That’s probably a mistake.
“Transgender Rights II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)” (YT link):
What Trump said or posted on Truth Social:
Response:
“This is Vika. She was a sommelier at the Goodwine store in Kyiv.
Her body was found today under the rubble of the destroyed building along with her husband and cat.
Vika was 6 months pregnant.”
Photo at the (Twitter) link.
Update on the the “Who is Perla” question. Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/more-details-on-the-perla-crew
Link
Link
Wonkette:
Sweden has a new, conservative PM.
Unlike the last conservative PM we had
(and that I respected) , this one is no friend if pragmatism. He (just like Liz Truss) knows the neoliberal ideology is the one true ideology.
Unfortunately for him, he us in a coalition government. The xenophobe party (SD) set the agenda for the government program even if they have no ministerial post.
The small liberal and Christian Democrat parties are in the coalition along with the conservatives. But SD is bigger than the conservatives and can call the shots.
The coalition will lose power if only two MPs defect.
I am going to grab popcorn and watch the new PM try to herd cats that all dislike each other through the next four years.
It will not be quite as entertaining as Trump, Bojo or Truss but I will love to see the populism of the conservative PM backfire.
from #232 quoting Fiona Hill
Damning with faint praise.
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
New Academic Journal Plans to Combat Misinformation on Trans People
I don’t know if that will help. The anti-trans crowd is not exactly data-driven.
That is a huge asterisk on her expertise in my book.
This is an analysis by a Belarusian journalist. He is:
Tadeusz Giczan Belarusian journalist, PhD Researcher
@UCLSSEES
. Belarus’ crony socialism⬜️🟥⬜️ Fellow @cepa . Sufferer of WHUFC⚒️Torpedo Minsk
The tl;dr version. Belarus is just pretending. They won’t invade Ukraine.
The Register is reporting here: https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/russia_china_semiconductro_failure_rates/ that semiconductors being supplied to Russia from China are showing a 40% failure rate. That’s up from a previous 2% failure rate, itself rather high.
Russia’s population has been slowly falling due to low fertility and lack of immigration.
Thanks to Putin, it is likely to keep falling even faster.
The Covid-19 pandemic was a significant contributor.
Russian statistics aren’t reliable in the least but they probably had around 800,000 die from the virus. Their vaccine didn’t work very well and Russian medical care access isn’t all that good.
The war will lower their population and the population growth rate even further by direct and indirect effects. It is estimated that something like 500,000 young men have fled Russia to avoid being called up.
Demographic problems play out very slowly so this won’t have any effect on the war right now.
This article has been circulating on the internet for a while.
It is from the Baltics, mostly Estonia.
These are people who lived under Soviet Russian rule for decades like Ukraine did.
They all hate the Russians for good reasons.
They all know someone or of someone who was disappeared, sent to the Gulags, or just killed. Nothing unusual in that part of the world. I live a few miles from the Pacific ocean and know people who lost relatives to the Russians.
The former captive nations of the Russian USSR are scared, they are angry, and they will fight. After a century, they are finally free, they don’t have to take the Russians any more, and they aren’t going back.
Just stumbled on a couple of really good Halloween skeleton dissections on youtube and linked them here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2022/10/09/halloween-doesnt-care-about-anatomy/comment-page-1/#comment-2153916
Also thanks Tethys for this comment here :
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2022/10/11/racists-are-still-upset-about-the-little-mermaid/comment-page-1/#comment-2153546
Explaining what colour Ariel – the fictional mermaid not the Uranian moon* – should authentically be..
.* https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/uranus-moons/ariel/in-depth/
whheydt@240, On poor-quality semiconductors being supplied from Big China to Russia: That doesn’t surprise me at all. One large problem we had when I was actively working in the industry was helping our customers detect and reject counterfeit chips (mostly from Big China). There were numerous different types of counterfeiting, including (1) Excess production / sales not reported to the rights owners and sold on the grey market (these would maybe be “legit” had the rights been paid, but often didn’t pass the testing criteria); (2) Deliberately mis-marked chips (e.g., marked / sold as version “B” when really were (sometimes surplus / unsalable) version “A”); and (3) Completely fraudulent (there was(? is?) a YouTube(?) video of low-paid workers in Big China forcibly removing (which does not mean de-soldering, they were literally prying the chips off boards!) chips from boards, filing off the markings, and then the de-identified chips being repackaged as more-or-less anything with the same “footprint” (pin count / arrangement). Probably other schemes as well which I do not recall or were not known to me at the time.
One reason these sometimes crude methods worked is that chips are generally sold in (giant) “reels” resembling tape, for use in automated board-manufacturing processes. It was common practice for the customer to check / verify only the first few chips (and sometimes, last few) on the reel, and if all those were Ok, to assume the chips “in the middle” were also Ok. The flaw here is obvious, someone with the skills to make a reel-of-chips would have no problem “salting” the reel with genuine chips at the beginning and end, whilst stuffing the reel with dubious chips.
At the time I was active in the industry, there was a move towards randomly-sampling reels, which I presume is nowadays common practice. More expensive chips (e.g., the microprocessor in your computer / smartphone) usually have unique serial numbers and other technologies to detect cloning / counterfeiting. The most secure — which I was working with (including design) — won’t even boot (normally or perhaps at all) if there is detected problem, which can include physical attacks, such as improper clocking, improper temperature, improper supply voltage, physical penetration of the chip’s case, etc. (These chips are typically used in ATMs, as one example.)
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian:
“Fears for Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi after she competed in Seoul without a hijab”: “Friends have been unable to contact athlete since Sunday, while embassy says she has returned home with rest of team…”
“Iranian schoolgirl ‘beaten to death for refusing to sing’ pro-regime anthem”: “Fresh protests ignited around Iran by 16-year-old Asra Panahi’s death after schoolgirls assaulted in raid on high school in Ardabil…”
Olexander Scherba: “RU is better in using human gullibility than in building tanks & drones.”
All In with Chris Hayes (YT link) – “From Kanye To Trump: The Mainstreaming Of Antisemitism On The American Right”:
Rachel Maddow (YT link) – “Republican Authoritarianism Adds Familiar Antisemitic Accompaniment”:
Mehdi Hasan (Twitter link):
Natasha Bertrand:
“GOP leader Kevin McCarthy tells Punchbowl that new Ukraine aid will have a more difficult road in a Republican House.
‘I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine’.”
Longer quote at the (Twitter) link.
More on the Nordstream pipeline attacks.
The Norwegian undersea robot shot video of the pipeline holes.
You can see them yourself at the short video at the link.
The conclusion is that powerful explosions tore apart 150 feet of the pipeline.
They still claim no one knows who did it.
It is not for sure, but it has to be a state level entity with a lot of High Tech gear.
This pipeline is 300 feet underwater in the middle of the ocean. Even finding it is going to be hard.
Most likely it was the Russians.
As the EU is realizing, Russia has declared war on the West.
Not a shooting war (yet) but an economic and political war.
The whole reason to take away their gas supplies is to freeze Europeans during the winter and wreck their economies.
“An intelligence assessment shared in recent days with Ukrainian and U.S. officials contends that Iran’s armaments industry is preparing a first shipment of Fateh-110 and Zolfaghar missiles, two well-known Iranian short-range ballistic missiles capable of striking targets at distances of 300 and 700 kilometers, respectively,”
Russia is escalating the war by terrorist attacks on cities with long range drones and missiles. They were running out but are getting resupplied by Iran.
Ukraine can’t retaliate in kind because they don’t have much in the way of long range missiles and drones. Yet.
They claim to be developing them and quickly but I’m sure it will take more time than they claim or have.
They have started hitting military bases in Russia near the borders with what weapons they do have though.
The West needs to supply them with long range aerial weapons and if they hit military targets in Russia, so what?
Just sitting around like a rabbit in the road while Russia launches missiles and drones on their cities and power plants isn’t good tactics or strategy.
He has a point.
As many have pointed out, Iran is testing out its own weapons on Europeans, the Ukrainians.
They are working well.
Iran’s weapons are going to be directed towards their enemies which include especially Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Arabs, and the West in general.
Kyiv Independent:
Guardian liveblog:
CounterVortex – “Podcast: anarchist voices on Ukraine”:
(“The Russian Empire was an empire. That’s why it was called the Russian Empire.” LOL.)
This was the earlier post: “Ukraine: anarchists reject Moscow propaganda.”
From CNN: Trump showed off the Kim letter to Bob Woodward. There are also recordings of Trump bragging that his button is bigger than Kim’s button. It is bizarro.
SNIP+++++++++++++++
The whole article is mindblowing.
But it also brings to my mind THE QUESTION: to how many other people has he shown classified documents, and how many of them are agents of a foreign power?
I agree with those who (like Christie) who have said that Trump’s collection of documents is all about Trump having something to show off, having something that no one else has, having memorabilia from his time in the White House. But, retaining classified materials to soothe his ego does not mean that he is carelessly showing them off or trying to monetize the ones that still remain.
Iryna Matviyishyn:
Kyiv Independent:
Another one – #13:
Tweet o’ the day.
Guardian liveblog:
raven @242, well that’s very depressing … and it clarifies a lot. The text you posted prompted me to remember that the writers of Ukraine updates for DailyKos have, more than once, noted the peculiar passivity or apathy of Russian people when they are faced with the wrongdoings of Russian leaders. I wonder if that apathetic aspect contributes to the development of the kind of overt cruelty we saw Russian soldiers commit in Ukraine.
“A high-ranking Belarusian KGB officer escaped to [the EU]. The regime fears that he might become an essential source of information. The security services immediately began a campaign to discredit him. Lukashenka is terrified of betrayal and holds a massive internal purge.”
blf @244, that’s interesting information concerning the semiconductors. I have one relative who used to work for Micron. He said that testing semiconductors was a never-ending task. The fact that Big China sells semiconductors that have to be rigorously tested before use does not surprise me. Looks an even bigger problem for Russia though.
In other news: Stacey Abrams made mincemeat of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and it was a thing of beauty
@260:
I wonder if Russia has the highest rate of self-defenestration in the world?
Oggie @ #266, gotta be.
Ukraine update: Artillery reigns supreme as mud season slows most movement
Followup to comment 268.
Republicans could have helped Democrats save the lives of diabetics. They refused
Biden Promises To Sign Bill Restoring Roe In January If Democrats Win More Seats
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/biden-roe-abortion-january-congress
Followup to SC’s comment 248.
How Many Forms Of Antisemitism Can Trump Cram Into One Truth Social Post? Let’s Count.
The Russian people have centuries of brutal dictatorships and have never been a democracy.
The Russian government has killed tens of millions of its own people one way or another. The Holodomor Stalin Famines of the 1930’s, the Gulags, the disappearances, the exiles in Siberia, and the human wave tactics during World War II.
They are good at smiling and nodding at whatever their government does without showing their true feelings. What other choice do they have?
Being antiwar in Russia today is a serious crime.
Undoubtedly.
I’ve seen enough of Russian culture and society to draw the same conclusions as others.
.1. Human life is cheap and meaningless in Russia.
You can die any time someone with money or power decides you are in the way and we see it happens often.
.2. They have high rates of social problems to show for their dysfunctional society.
Alcoholism is very high and results in many children born with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Domestic abuse is also high. The Russian government recently just decriminalized it because it was so common.
.3. In Russia everyone is looking out for themselves.
That is why corruption is very high and a normal part of their society.
The attitude is that life is hard, no one is going to help you, and you have to do whatever you can to survive.
.4. No rule of law.
.5. The whole Russian Federation is set up to feed resources from all of Russia to the elites in Moscow and St. Petersberg.
This is a Third World government/economic model.
IMO, Ukraine is fighting for the entire West, the EU, North America, and so on.
And if we don’t stop the Russians now in Ukraine, we will end up paying a far higher price down the line anyway.
As many analysts have said, the only thing Russia understands is force.
Followup to comment 272.
Posted by readers of the article:
Unbelievable videos emerge showing Ron DeSantis’ trumped-up election fraud arrests
It is a myth that what little there is of the US left is antiwar about the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A few of the clueless old line hard core leftists like Noam Chomsky might be.
Most of the moderate left such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can see who is right and who is wrong.
You can add me to the list as well.
A few weeks ago, I met up with two of my old antiwar group from the Vietnam war days**. We all agreed that Russia was clearly in the wrong and Ukraine deserved all the support the USA and NATO could give them. Antiwar doesn’t mean anti-self defense.
**The other thing noteworthy is that we are all still alive.
The Vietnam war was 50 years ago. Some of the old group are now dead of age related causes.
raven @242
Well, that was thoroughly depressing reading—but it agrees with things I’ve read elsewhere. :(
_
My sister-in-law is an evangelical, and a Christian Dominionist (though she wouldn’t call it that). Back when Trump was running, she was all excited about it. I detailed his moral and ethical flaws by the standards of her Xtianity, and her response was that “God can even use a flawed vessel to do His Will!”
I asked her about Clinton, who she had been reviling on the regular, and asked her why, from her viewpoint, her god couldn’t just as easily work through Clinton—“Is that too heavy a rock for him to lift?”
She finally had to admit that it came down to the fact that she didn’t like Clinton—so, obviously God wouldn’t choose to work through her.
_
@ 276
It’s mainly Tankies like Chomsky and Glen Greenwald and red-browns/NazBols like like Caleb Maupin and Peter Coffin (and the latter’s status as “leftist” is debatable, at best) the cheer lead for Russia.
There may be a potentially interesting story brewing in Russia. According to the Kyiv Post, Russians Against Putin: NRA [the supposedly anti-Putin National Republican Army (of Russia)] Claims Massive Hack of Russian Government Contractors’ Computers. So far I’ve not seen any confirmation of this; only the dKos article Massive Hack of Russian Government Contractors’ Computers — how serious is this for them?, which is a partial and somewhat confused regurgitation of the Kyiv Post.
Also, to avoid confusion, there is a Russian company called “Technoserv” (sans trailing e). It has nothing to do the blameless charity “Technoserve” (with trailing e); this is currently causing confusion in the dKos comments. E.g., from Frobes, Brotherly Heist: A Sad Story Of A Failed Russian Bank And Its Toxic Aftermath (2018): “[Brothers Dmitry and Alexei Ananyev] built their business empire in 1992 with a company called Technoserv. Today, Technoserv is the largest systems integrator in Russia which also specializes in IT services and software development. Major Russian private companies, foreign firms, and government ministries are its clients.” (As an aside, the Grauniad has a 2020 interview with Dmitry Ananiev who claims the brothers’s allegedly-“failing” bank’s takeover was actually a forced seizure by some of Putin’s cronies, “I’m presented as a criminal”: the banker forced to flee Russia, which is quite contrary to the Forbes story, and the current Kyiv Post article apparently-incorrectly claims the brothers still own the bank.)
Anyways, according to the Kyiv Post:
However, an awkward point here is the (English translation) of a message “apparently left for Technoserv’s system administrator” reads — at least to me and some of the dKos commentators — more like a ransom note than an anti-war or anti-Putin maneuver. (The English translation of that message is at the Kyiv Post, and reproduced at dKos.)
Also, Ye Pffft! of All Knowledge says Meduza(‘s editor), among others, doubts the Russian NRA even exists.
Guardian liveblog:
(There are major problems with the presentation here, including using the Russian language of evacuation and the statement that Russia annexed Crimea. They did get “Russian-installed” right here, though. News outlets really need written guidelines for this stuff. Also, they don’t need to keep repeating Russia’s and Iran’s denials about the drones. There’s an AFP photo of one close up all over the internet, as they themselves note.)
Guardian liveblog:
Argh.
“In a late-night address posted on Telegram, Russian-installed Kherson official Kirill Stremousov calls for people to ‘evacuate the city as quickly as possible’ and says Ukraine ‘will begin an offensive on the city of Kherson very soon’.”
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. He’s in front of a plain curtain – probably already gone. See #s 41 and 51 above for context and the Ukrainian response to this talk about “evacuation” and “resettlement.”
LOL – Marcy Wheeler: “Igor Danchenko Acquitted on All Remaining Charges.”
Ha:
Researchers Say ‘Suspicious Edits’ on Wikipedia Reek of Pro-Russian Propaganda
Primary source for Trump-Russia dossier acquitted, handing special counsel Durham another trial loss
Kyiv police praised for shooting down drone, but officials say leave air defence to military
Shannon Vavra, Daily Beast:
Good. GTFO.
This woman says she feels love differently since her heart transplant. She wants to know why
This is great:
Now I’ll have this stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
Sounds like a good idea to me.
Russia is heading towards being the North Korea of Europe, a hermit empire that we all wish would stay away from us.
And why is Russia in the UN and on the UN Security Council as well?
Could we ask them to bring back the Iron Curtain? It would save us the effort of building it ourselves.
Rage. Anger. Fury. The GOP does not care a fig leaf for the health and safety of women. Thank you, Jezebel. . Her water broke at 17 weeks. And her senator referred her to a non-medical crisis pregnancy center. Spits.
This is referring to my previous comment on the New North Korea of Europe once known as Russia.
The fact is, the best and brightest Russians have been leaving Russia any way they can for anywhere they can go. The USA itself has almost 1/2 million Russian immigrants and the EU has 6.2 million.
Young people don’t see much of a future in Russia. Young males see themselves ending up as dead cannon fodder.
This is a serious brain drain for them.
The rest of the world is also Russia’s safety relief valve. People who don’t want to live in a cruel dictatorship can always just leave. Which is what they are doing.
The real answer is that Russia needs embassies around the Western world to serve their citizens living abroad with all sorts of help.
OTOH, Russia doesn’t much care about its citizens anyway, so that might not be much of a reason.
And another one (also from Jezebel . A six hour ambulance ride to get an emergency abortion. These awful stories need to spread far and wide and expose the sheer callousness of the GOP’s position against women.
<
blockquote>A pregnant Tennessee woman with high and rising blood pressure had to take a roughly six-hour ambulance ride to get an abortion in North Carolina, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. When she got to the second hospital several hundred miles away, her blood pressure was dangerously high and she was showing signs of kidney failure.
The woman’s doctor in Tennessee, Leilah Zahedi-Spung, is a high-risk obstetrician who spoke to the WSJ for a story about how abortion bans impact medical emergencies. Zahedi-Spung said the patient was in her second trimester when her blood pressure began rising; the fetus had been diagnosed with genetic abnormalities and wasn’t expected to survive. Zahedi-Spung worried the woman could develop life-threatening preeclampsia and thought she needed an abortion, but the procedure has been banned in Tennessee since late August. Eight states border Tennessee and abortion is banned in all but two of them.
“She kept asking if she was going to die,” Zahedi-Spung told the WSJ. “I kept saying, ‘I’m trying, I’m trying, we’re going to make it happen. We just need to get you to the right place where you can be taken care of.’” She said she was relieved to see the patient alive a few weeks later.
The Tennessee law, which makes providing abortions a felony, doesn’t contain explicit exceptions for abortions “necessary to prevent death or serious and permanent bodily injury”—instead, doctors have to prove the procedure was necessary via what’s known as an “affirmative defense.” The Associated Press described affirmative defense this way: “Instead of the state having to prove that the procedure was not medically necessary, the law shifts the burden to the doctor to convince a court that it was.” (Bans in North Dakota and Idaho—both of which are currently blocked—also use affirmative defense language.)
Given these realities, Zahedi-Spung said she feared if she performed the medically necessary abortion, the state would still charge her with a crime that would lead to a long legal fight and upend her ability to practice medicine.
Even bans that don’t require an affirmative defense and have more standard exceptions for the “life of the pregnant person”—like, for instance, treating ectopic pregnancies—are often meaningless in practice. Perhaps the hospital lawyers don’t want to risk a lawsuit, or the doctors themselves may fear legal action (and many have hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt and their own families to provide for). But it’s easy enough for a part-time state lawmaker to throw some words into a bill.
Zahedi-Spung spoke to the WSJ in her personal capacity and didn’t name her employer. Multiple OB/GYNs recently told CNN that their employers are muzzling them from talking about the impacts of abortion bans—whether they work in states where their patients can’t access the procedure, or in places where people are traveling to get care.
Zahedi-Spung decided it’s too risky for her to practice in Tennessee and recently accepted a job in Colorado where abortion is legal. It’s a predictable loss of a medical provider thanks to a hostile environment. Per the WSJ:
Chloe Akers, a criminal defense attorney based in Knoxville, Tenn., read the law after Roe fell and was surprised to see it contained no exceptions, only defenses that doctors could use after the fact. She founded a nonprofit Standing Together Tennessee and began giving seminars to doctors and others about the law.
Ms. Akers tells healthcare providers there are ways to manage risk, such as keeping robust records of their decision making. But if a doctor asks how to take that risk to zero, she answers, “You stop providing obstetric care in the state.”
Let this story be a reminder that abortion bans harm everyone who can get pregnant.
And all hail Borkquotia and Puncuatio, accolytes of Tpyos.
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. The Russian word for fake sounds like fake.
“You just voiced it with your disgusting tongue!”
“You’re working for Ukraine over here!”
Russia might declare Martial Law tomorrow.
This information is unconfirmed but I’ve seen it in several places and it derives from Russian sources of unknown reliability.
Apparently they are having a huge problem with young men fleeing from the draft. Many have fled out of the country.
Even more are hiding in country. Russia is a big place and apparently a good place to hide.
The other issue here is that most likely, most people don’t like or trust their own government and don’t feel like cooperating.
Sergi? Sergi who? No sorry, haven’t seen him in weeks.
Why should they anyway?
Their own government has murdered tens of millions of their own citizens for the weakest of reasons.
Halloween is coming early this year and proving to be a lot more scary than just Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, and Republicans.
.1. The threat from Lavrov to break diplomatic ties with the West is apparently a huge deal. Even the old USSR didn’t do that.
There have been claims of unknown reliability from “many people” that this is actually a large step towards war between Russia and the West.
There are also claims of unknown reliability that the West leadership seems to know this and right now things are happening.
.2. The declaration of Martial law in Russia is also a huge deal.
It officially ends any shred of hope that Russia is anything more than a Third World dictatorship run by a kleptocracy.
It also ends any shred of hope that the Russian people will ever have a normal life in a normal country.
The North Korea of Euope will look like the North Korea of Asia, with poverty stricken people living short, deprived lives with no hope whatsoever.
It all looks like Russia is losing, they know they are losing, and it is Gotterdammerung time.
Followup to SC’s comment 284.
Ukraine update: Edging toward Svatove and the mystery of the Great Trench of Putin
Special master loses patience with Trump’s nonsense objections: ‘Where’s the beef?’
Trump shoots himself in the foot … again:
Wonkette: “Alan Dershowitz Just Saying Trump’s Antisemitism Part Of His Charm […]”
https://www.wonkette.com/alan-dershowitz-trump-antisemitism
This is ridiculously over dramatic on multiple levels, beginning with the fact that Russia is located in ASIA.
Update to #246 – Shayan Sardarizadeh:
Photos and video at the (Twitter) link.
From the article @ #246: “Iran Wire, a small anti-regime website, quoted a source as saying that Rekabi would be flown back to Tehran on Tuesday – one day earlier than scheduled – to deter possible protests at Imam Khomeini international airport.” So, fail.
Tethys @303: While 75% of Russia’s land area is in Asia, 75% of Russians live in Europe.
https://www.worldometers.info/geography/7-continents/
@ Rob
I’m aware, though most sources place the continental division between Europe and Asia on the west side of the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan also straddles the division, but nobody considers it a European country.
As I understand global geography (from memory) both Russia and Turkey straddle both Asia and Europe. Possibly a few other nations too. The Ural mountain range is the dividing line or at least one of them so I gather. Technically, I ‘spose theres a case for all of Europe being considered part of Asia since it is a peninsula of it a bit like how India is considered Asian despite having its own tectonic plate and continental nature too* although I could be mistaken about any or all of this natch.
.* If India is South Asia, I guess Europe should really be West Asia?
Turkey and Eurasia are on different tectonic plates.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolian_Plate
Grauniad snarking, Britannia rechained: Liz Truss enters her hostage era (“Britannia rechained” is snark about the previously-obscure Truss, Kwasi Kwarteng, et al., 2012 book “Britannia Unchained” — or “Meine Katastrophe” as I prefer to call it — which more-or-less described what Truss & Kwarteng actually did):
Meduza, ‘A clear anti-Putin trend’ — As the Russian mobilization devolves into chaos, people are, quite rationally, blaming the president:
Please note the assertion that Putin’s Russia may sever (break) diplomatic relations with the West is dubious. First, the Daily Best, You Can’t Force Love’: Russian Diplomats Told to Kiss the West Goodbye uses Tass(!!!) as its source:
Tass should be considered dubious (but see my remarks at the end).
Second, the AFP (according to Barron’s — I cannot find the AFP’s release), Lavrov Suggests Russia Could Downgrade Diplomatic Presence In West claims Lavrov made the much more plausible “threat” of downgrading diplomatic relations (quoted in full):
Third, AFP have published a video of Lavrov speaking, Lavrov suggests Russia could downgrade diplomatic presence in West (short video with English subtitles).
Both Tass’s and AFP’s translations, whilst not identical, essentially agree he threatened to not maintain “the same [diplomatic] presence”. Precisely what means is ambiguous. Assuming it’s not yet another empty Putin threat, downgrading — not severing — diplomatic relations, as the AFP chooses to interpret it, is both possible and plausible.
Steve Bell in the Grauniad, On a dark future (cartoon): “Death on a Pale Truss”, after the Gustave Doré 1865 illustration Death on the Pale Horse.
Ozland’s Bureau of Meteorology — apparently widely known as “BoM”–— announced earlier this week that “it should no longer be referred to by its acronym but by its full name in the first instance and ‘the Bureau’ thereafter” (BoMshell as BoM says it doesn’t want to be BoM any more — just call us the Bureau, complete with Grauniad snark: “The bureau [is] not to be mistaken for the long-running French thriller series, the 80s band or the US Federal Bureau of Investigation […]”). Apparently, they paid about A$70,000 (c.44,000 USD) for this, BoM paid communication consultants almost [A]$70,000 to rebrand it ‘the Bureau’. It’s been widely ridiculed, including by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek (BoM rebranding and logo cost [A]$220,000 as Plibersek shoots down weather bureau’s name change: “Environment minister says Australians free to call it whatever they want after Bureau of Meteorology updates name”).
First Dog on the Moon in the Grauniad joins the ridicule / snarking, To all Australians: please desist immediately from using the gauche sobriquet ‘BoM’ (cartoon). The “go stand in a corner” snark in the cartoon is a (probably) a reference to (from the Grauniad’s A$70,000 article linked-to above) “Staff were treated like ‘naughty school children’ if they slipped up and referred to Bureau of Meteorology by its common acronym”.
@ ^ blf : Thinking cartoons some good ones here :
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-cartoons-high-stakes-midterm-094609394.html
On the 2022 US mid term elections.
Also on the USA’s mid terms see :
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/13/2128671/-Women-It-s-Up-To-US-Again-And-White-Women-Don-t-Blow-It-This-Time
Which has a potentally good meme or slogan header rhyme.
Al Jazeera journalist Donald Earl Collins has this disturbing op-ed here :
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/10/19/racism-us-schools-critical-race-theory
Which notes :
Whilst on a more optimistic note :
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/10/18/will-africa-send-the-first-human-to-mars
By Cameroonian journalist Momo Bertrand is a hopeful piece for the future and hope he’s right.
YouTube loves recommending conservative vids regardless of your beliefs
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
They also link to a tweet from Jake Cordell at Reuters:
Visitors of Qatar World Cup Need To Install Spyware On Their Phone
SC already summarizes this in #317 Guardian liveblog.
The rumors were true.
It is also meaningless.
The regions that Russia occupied were already de facto under martial law, meaning Russian soldiers were free to loot, torture, and kill anyone they wanted to. Putin says that in his address.
Japan heritage worker backs car into oldest toilet at Kyoto temple
Cthulhu, this isn’t good news.
It is what the rumors from last night implied.
Russia the dysfunctional dictatorship has become more dysfunctional and more of a dictatorship.
Putin is doing what he planned, which is recreating the old USSR.
Because that worked so well that they were always behind the rest of the world and eventually just imploded and fell apart.
Russia isn’t a fun place to live for most of its citizens and things just got a lot worse for them.
This is the Internal Passport system of the old USSR.
You weren’t free to travel around Russia in the USSR.
According to Wikipedia, they still have the internal passport system.
This looks like they will set up checkpoints and record and restrict the movement of people in the area around Ukraine.
“… “introduction and maintenance of a special regime for entry into and exit from the territory, as well as restriction of freedom of movement on it.”
More dictatorship.
Russia looks like a horrible place to live and things just got worse for the Russia citizens.
Missouri Woman Denied Emergency Abortion Called a State Senator for Help. He Sent Her to an Anti-Abortion Clinic.
Exxon just left Russia.
No surprise since Putin seized their assets.
They’ve already taken a $3.4 billion tax writeoff over it.
British Petroleum left a while ago.
It is clear Russia isn’t a good place to do business and make any money.
The latest bizarro event in Tory politics: the (utterly vile) Suella Braverman has resigned as Home Secretary – this is one of the three “great offices of state” below the Prime Minister. She’s from the right of the party, but not the so-called “libertarian” right – rather, she seems to agree with the hardline racists who would throw her out of the country if they had their way – she is the child of immigrants and of Indian descent, but hates immigrants like poison. She’s saying she resigned because she sent an official document from a personal email, which technically violated the ministerial code, but that seems to be a cover for her disagreement with either Truss, or the people who have forced her to resile from her tax-cutting policies, or both – she’s used her resignation letter to stress how people in government (read: Truss) should take responsibility for their mistakes, but she complained that the Tories who forced her to abandon her tax-cutting had carried out a “coup”.
Durham Boosters Predictably Unfazed By Stinging Courtroom Defeat
I just posted her resignation letter. She seems unhappy that the government wasn’t doing enough to stop immigration.
I didn’t know she was a child of Indian immigrants. What is it that kills any sense of empathy in these people?
This is a translation from a Russian video.
The mobilized soldiers are being abandoned in the forests without any supplies whatsoever. No food, ammo, water.
No Shovels. No big deal. Real soldiers can dig trenches with their bayonets.
Hmmm, well no bayonets either.
The Russian army is so disorganized that it is quite possible these mobilized soldiers were dropped off in the forest and completely forgotten.
The Russian army might not know where they are or even care where they are.
Ukraine update: Evacuation of Kherson underway as Russia prepares to lose a regional capital
Rep Katie Porter destroys inflation myth. Watch her prove that corporate greed’s driving inflation.
I first saw this mentioned in an unsourced-comment at dKos, a le penazi claim that the French Ambassador to Ukraine had resigned, and “quoted” the Ambassador as saying (in translation) . The Ambassador himself tweeted back very quickly (in translation) “This is fake news please remove it immediately”.
Non, l’ambassadeur de France en Ukraine n’a pas démissionné : « L’annonce du départ d’Etienne de Poncins, motivé par un prétendu découragement, avait été relayée notamment par un membre du conseil national du Rassemblement national. L’ambassadeur a confirmé qu’il était toujours en poste à Kiev [sic†]. »
No, the French ambassador to Ukraine has not resigned (mostly Generalissimo Google™ Translate):
Apparently the nonsense didn’t originate with teh le penazis, but was quickly retwitteringed by them.
† Like English, both Kiev and Kyiv can be used. But, for example, AFP now recommends the use of Kyiv (apparently since the beginning of this year, almost two months before Putin invaded).
“Would you like to see Vladimir Putin go to jail?”, “Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu didn’t hold back with his answer in an interview with DW” (very short twittering video with English subtitles).
It’s slightly more complicated: her mother immigrated to the UK from Mauritius, her father from Kenya – both places with considerable Indian communities formed during British imperial rule; and her family name at birth was Fernandes, deriving from her father’s Goan ancestry. You would indeed think she might have some empathy for migrants, but I imagine she wants to prove herself 110% British.
Accorging to the Kyiv Post, the Russian NRA (the supposedly anti-Putin National Republican Army, see @279) has now release all of the data they alleged obtained, NRA Releases Full Trove of Data Critical to Russia’s National Security:
This is apparently breaking news so there isn’t much else at the moment. I still have not seen any independent confirmation of the either the Russian NRA’s existence, or more importantly, that someone did break into Technoserv (sans trailing e) and others (still unnamed).
Followup to blf @334.
Ransom is over – NRA just dumped all the stolen Russian computer files.
[cartoon of Putin crying, “Ukraine hit me back!”]
Posted by readers of the article:
Trumps Whine As NYAG Letitia James Kicks Their Ass All Over The Docket
Idaho Weirdos Plan Bill To Ban Drag Performances
Literally 99% of money from Trump’s newest ‘fundraiser’ for extremist Arizona Republican goes to …
After Biden pledges to codify Roe, Pence reminds Americans how dangerous Republicans really are
Videos are available at the link.
CA Judge Finds Trump Likely Lied To Court In Georgia Big Lie Case
Re the alleged Technoserv (sans trailing e) data acquisition, allegedly by the mysterious Russian NRA (see @279, @334, & Lynna@335), I myself am now in the process of downloading the (alleged-)1.2 terrabytes, with various precautions. Since it’s a Tor link plus other reasons, it’s proceeding “slowly”, current ETA is sometime tomorrow morning (my time) to complete. The download stuff sofar seems to be largely unencrypted PDF-formatted scans of documents, perhaps mostly invoices, all(?) in Russian; Generalissimo Google™ Translate of a semi-randomly selected sample finds nothing obvious(-to-me) interesting. There are also Zip files (unencrypted) and what is presumably M$-Word stuff (documents and spreadsheets), none of which I’ve sampled yet.
The link in the Kyiv Post article should be “safe”, it’s just data needed for the Tor download — but you do need to understand Tor Onion and homoglyphs to use that data. When examining the data, however, I would recommend either being off-line (no Internet), or taking precautions, including — but not limited to — using a reliable secure VPN.
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. It’s funny how they constantly try to convince themselves and others that they’re at war with NATO. Fools, if you were at war with NATO you’d know it.
Trump Was Betrayed by His Diet Coke Valet
Milk, curd not sold, but distributed free of cost in this village
Ukraine update: Fiona Hill declares Ukraine invasion is ‘the end of the existing world order’
NBC News:
Image available at the link.
Link
Re: Lyanna, OM @ 335…
As for a dedicated computer with nothing else on it (and that can be completely wiped when the task is done)…that’s a good use for a Raspberry Pi.
GitHub Copilot – a programming auto-suggestion tool trained from public source code on the internet – has been caught generating what appears to be copyrighted code, prompting an attorney to look into a possible copyright infringement claim…
Thread:
Kyiv Independent:
SC at 349:
I freely admit that poliical history is not my strong suit. I know a little about the English Parliamentarian system, but I certainly do NOT know the ins and outs of the system. That said: that was absolutely incredible. She put her own party out on a limb, screwed them around, and then didn’t vote? That’s Trump level idiocy. How has Truss managed to put this much political incompetence into such a short term as PM?
Belarus just defaulted on its World bank loans.
Because of Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.
No surprise.
Kyiv Independent:
Well not a lot, if you think it’s the English system!
The US has caught a few Russian spies.
No surprise.
I wonder how many more Russian spies there are?
I’m sure there are lots.
The US has 1/2 million Russian immigrants.
Yes, one wrong word invalidates all that I have ever written. I bow before perfection.
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.
Woman accused of unleashing bees on deputies serving an eviction notice in Massachusetts
Oggie: Mathom@356. Don’t be so silly. But although the error is amazingly common among Americans (ditto “the Queen/King of England”, a title which, like the English Parliament, has not existed since 1707), it’s still a rather elementary error to make if you want to discuss UK politics. Why do you get in a huff because I pointed it out, hopefully helping you avoid it in future?
Rare insect-eating mushrooms show potential to develop new anti-viral and cancer medications
‘It was the Russians’: Shetland islanders claim Putin conspiracy as phone system goes down
Truss has resigned as Prime Minister! Shortest time in office in UK history (44 days) says the Guardian – I’ll check that.
I thought so – the Duke of Wellington’s second administration lasted just 23 days (17 November – 9 December 1834) – but he had been PM before, serving for 2 years and 299 days between 1828 and1830.
The Tories (or at least, Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers), says they will choose a new leader in the next week. But this raises the question of how they will do it, when the last election took 10 weeks. I can see that they can speed up the voting among Tory MPs, but if the party membership are then to choose between the top two candidates, it’s not clear how they could organise it so fast. And if not, they will either have to change the rules – which has to go to something called the Party board, about which I know nothing – or rely on the runner-up doing the gentlemanly/ladylike thing and withdrawing – but I don’t think they can make this a condition of entering the contest without a rule change.
Cruella de Vil (aka Suella Braverman) and the completely Upminster Kemi Badenoch are both going to stand to replace Truss. Both make her look like a pragmatic centrist. We’ll see what else crawls out of the woodwork, but my guess is that it’s Sunak’s to lose – if he wants it. Hunt has said he’s not standing, presumably delaying his bid until after the inevitable election defeat – but he may not have a seat at that point.
Reportedly, Johnson is going to stand! If the MPs vote him into the top two candidates, and it goes to the membership, he’ll win. Yes, they really are that stupid.
KG, there is an argument teh “U”K’s Parliament actually is the English legislature body pretending to be an all-“U”K assembly. That’s obviously not entirely true, the Parliament in London does deal with some genuine all-“U”K matters (e.g., military, some taxation, etc.), but the lack of any devolved England assembly means it does have a dual role: England’s legislature and also the all-“U”K assembly, whilst the devolved legislatures are strictly regional (N.Ireland, Wales, or Scotland). Hence Tam Dalyell’s West Lothian question, “whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales who sit in the House of Commons should be able to vote on matters that affect only England, while MPs from England are unable to vote on matters that have been devolved”; “To illustrate his point, Dalyell chose the example of a member of Parliament for West Lothian [Scotland] who could vote on matters affecting the English town of Blackburn, Lancashire, but not on matters concerning Blackburn, West Lothian in his own constituency.”
Wikipedia Tells Users to Be More Specific When Searching ‘2022 UK Government Crisis’
House Candidate Apologizes for ‘Politically Incorrect’ Jokes About Choking Women
You get one guess which political party he belongs to.
US reminds pro-Putin Hungary it’s a Western ally
blf@367,
IIRC, SNP MPs don’t vote on matters only affecting non-Scottish parts of the UK, although legally they could. Dalyell opposed devolution and put foward his “West Lothian Question” as if he thought it was a knockdown argument, but it really isn’t. MPs for English constituencies, by their very number, and the limited range of devolved issues, have far more collective influence on what happens domestically in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, than MPs from the other parts of the UK have on what happens domestically in England. Theoretically, an English Parliament could be created, and the UK Parliament limited to issues not devolved below UK level, but in practice, it’s not going to happen.
The executive of the 1922 committee is due to meet between 17.00 and 19.00 UK time to agree the rules for the leadership contest. Sunak is apparently going to stand, Penny Mordaunt is “taking soundings”, as is someone called Brandon Lewis (no, I’ve no idea who he is either). Meanwhile, from the Grauniad’s live thread:
Of course Syms should know that just because it’s mad, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
A parade of Tory MPs are joining the “Bring Back Boris” bandwagon, on the alleged grounds that he has a mandate from the electorate.
A YouGov poll, taken 2 days ago:
:D – Guardian – “Comedy Wildlife Photo finalists – in pictures”:
Kyiv Independent:
Let’s go, Brandon!
“It’s clearly not the main point here, but this man [Johnson] is still supposed to be an MP, and he is still taking a £84k a year salary from the taxpayer.
What on earth makes him think he can just fly to the Caribbean when he’s supposed to be working?”
He’s in the Dominican Republic? WTF?
Kyiv Post – “Authors Must Document Russian Terror, Zelensky Tells Frankfurt Fair”:
Hungary is rapidly joining the small number of Russian allies, along with Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Belarus.
Why is Hungary even in the EU then? They don’t belong there.
(While traveling the internet, I notice a lot of people are asking that question these days.)
Why is Hungary in NATO? They don’t belong there either.
They are on the wrong side of history while forgetting there own.
Hungary was invaded by Russia in 1956 and were controlled by Russia for 45 years.
Hungary shares a small border with Ukraine.
I’m sure about now, Ukraine wishes they didn’t.
Tweet o’ the day.
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
“How does one live in a country where nothing works?”
Michael Beschloss: “She could not Romaine.”
Russia almost shot down an unarmed British spy plane over the Black Sea.
I don’t believe for one second that this was an accident.
There are quite a few spy planes around this area right now.
The US has spy planes in the Black sea area and also around Kaliningrad in the Baltic sea area. We also have many large surveillance drones in the area.
It wouldn’t surprise me if sooner or later, the Russians accidentally shoot one down.
That is the sort of thing that the Russians do.
LOL, the link @ #68 now.
“It’s moving beyond coincidence perhaps. Yesterday there were three cable cuts in the Med.
Marseille-Lyon
Marseille-Milano
Marseille-Barcelona”
More at the (Twitter) link.
April 27: French internet cables cut
September 26: Nord Stream explosions
October 9: German rail system sabotaged
October 19: three subsea cables cut in Western Europe
+ ceaseless cyber attacks on Bulgaria, Moldova, and other countries, and other incidents I’m sure I’m forgetting…
SC@384/386, In the Grauniad, Salad daze: lettuce and tofu to the fore as Twitter digests Truss’s departure contains a lot of jokes. A few snippets:
Truss’s CV:
From yesterday, but lready out-of-date (“[…] could well be on for living through five chancellors, four home secretaries and three prime ministers by next Friday”):
One I forgot – October 10: cyber attacks on US airports
Reuters:
U.S. consumer protection watchdog’s funding unconstitutional, court rules
Nate Raymond / October 20, 2022
From the NYT, “The ruling, if it stands, could upend every regulation and enforcement action undertaken by the bureau since its creation in 2011.”
Expecting to win a majority, GOP leaders eye new gun policies
Francis Scarr:
Narrator: They would lose, and he would be returned to the UK as a war criminal.
Subtitled misogynistic rant at the (Twitter) link.
NBC News:
Other political news, as summarized by Steve Bannon:
blf @389, thanks for posting that. Sometimes the short, humorous takes give us a clearer picture of Liz Truss’s pratfall.
Excerpt from Josh Marshall’s post about Liz Truss:
Ukraine update: Looting and chaos spread as Russian control of Kherson area unravels
Conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko murdered in his home by Russian troops.
France 24 – “Lois martiales à géométrie variable : Vladimir Poutine et l’illusion du contrôle de la situation”:
“WASHINGTON (AP) — White House says Iranian troops ‘directly engaged on the ground’ in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.”
Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/oan-kara-mckinney-incel-mass-shootings
“Zelensky: Russians have planted bombs at the Kakhovska hydroelectric power plant’s [dam] on the Dnipro River.
Destroying the facility may flood some 80 towns and cities, including Kherson.”
This is the strategy of the Russians in Kherson, according to the military staff of Ukraine.
They are going to move all their military supplies and ammo across the river along with all their most capable soldiers.
They will leave the newly mobilized troops behind to cover their retreat and slow down the Ukrainians.
Not much of a strategy really.
The newly mobilized are being left behind to die without resources or training and I’m sure they know it.
Most likely, they will just be a speed bump to the Urkainians.
Hopefully, they have enough common sense to just surrender and stay alive.
I’m sure the brighter among them will steal a kayak or inner tube from the Ukrainians and just cross the river when no one is looking.
Lynna @394
I assume you meant Steve Benen not Bannon.
Jean @403, yes. My apologies. Thank you for the correction.
Grift grift: Right-wing superhero movie ends ‘in disaster’ after $1 million in funders’ cash goes missing:
Lots of sad sick neo-fascist puppies out there today… How many of them will wonder how much of that $1M stuck to Beale’s fingers along the way?
re Pierce R. Butler @405:
I had a literal laugh-out-loud moment when I read that phrase.
Another terrorist attack by right wingnuts in the USA.
This one was threats by a Jan. 06 criminal in prison, from prison.
Death threats against Joe Biden on down, and a white powder attack.
The white powder proved to be a dud though.
I’ll give this one a B for effort and an F for carrying it out.
I don’t think death threats and white powder attacks from a prison cell are going to be very effective.
Bwahaha:
Video clip at the (Twitter) link.
“The US midterm-elections cavalry arrived early, in London!”
Ukraine update: Zelenskyy warns threat to Kakhovka dam, U.S. says Iran forces on ground in Ukraine
Parler accidentally exposes prominent users’ email addresses, triggering epic ‘Reply-All’ nightmare
in re: 410
But remember: Only conservatives know how to run businesses. And handle America’s security. And protect privacy. And make money (but if a liberal makes money, it is proof they are elitists who are out of touch with the common loon).
Politico:
Gee, I wonder why DeSantis doesn’t want anyone to see those records?
Could turn out to be problem:
NBC News
New York Times:
Kyiv Post: “Ukraine is reportedly striking the Antonivsky bridge in Kherson.”
“Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘defending history’ by thinking a Union monument in NWGA is actually honoring Confederates (then quietly reposting to fix it) sums up a lot about her time in Congress+the state of our politics.”
Screenshots at the (Twitter) link.
From Jezebel. The ‘life’ in the petri dishes shown in this article are considered, by the GOP, to be more important than the life of a woman or girl.
The original tweet is in Cyrillic.
A wall of water 15 feet high. That 2 hours notice will be useful though.
If or when the Russian blow up the dam on the Dnipro river, it is going to hurt them as well. That dam is also how they feed the canal to Crimea.
And, they have a lot of soldiers and equipment along the river banks as well.
FWIW, this isn’t the first time a dam on the Dnipro has been blown up by the Russians.
A dam upstream at Zaporizhzhya was blown up by Stalin to slow down the Germans.
It probably had little effect but did kill 20,000 to 100,000 Ukrainians.
Strangely enough, it looks like the Russians are doing something sensible for once.
Abandoning Kherson.
I’m sure they have backup plans that involve huge numbers of dead people and large numbers of war crimes, but it isn’t obvious right now.
Maybe it is blowing up the Kakhovskaya dam after all.
Link
Re: raven @ #419…
Some articles I’ve been reading are suggesting that the Russian plan for Kherson is to evacuate the trained/experienced troops leaving new conscripts to hold off Ukraine forces as best they can.
The question then becomes: Will those untrained conscripts try to do so and get themselves killed, or will they decide to surrender, be captured, and live.
The vote was actually in 2016, and Truss was on the “Remain” side (or pretended to be – I’ve seen reports she actually favoured Leave, but thought Remain would win and followed her career interests).
So, the rules for the new Tory leadership (hence PM) contest:
0) Candidates need at least 100 nominations from Tory MPs (it was just 20 last time). So as there are 360-ish Tory MPs, there can’t be more than 3 candidates getting 100.
1) If only one gets that many, they become leader.
2) If two do, there is an “indicative vote” among the Tory MPs, then the members have an online poll, which decides the matter. (The idea is that they will know what the MPs think, but really they had a pretty good idea last time that the MPs favoured Sunak.)
3) If three do, there’s a poll among the Tory MPs to eliminate one, then proceed as for (2).
The three likely candidates appear to be Sunak, Penny Mordaunt (who was ahead of Truss last time until the final MPs’ vote), and Johnson. There are reports this morning that 140 MPs will nominate Johnson! If so, he’d be practically certain to be in the final two, and the members are then almost certain to support him. At that point, I’d expect at least some Tory MPs to resign the whip, but I doubt it would be enough to bring him down. Marshall whom Lynna quoted@395 got some details wrong, but is absolutely right that this whole ludicrous clusterfuck is the result of the Brexit vote.
According to the Guardian:
The ERG are the ultra-Brexiteer carpet-chewers. According to the item, they are divided about whether to back the return of Johnson, since some of them called for him to go at the end of his time in office.
Liz Truss’s catastrophic tenure reveals a hidden weakness of American government
Reginald Selkirk@425
Srsly? Trump
KG@424, “ERG are the ultra-Brexiteer carpet-chewers.” I’d thought that by now, perhaps assisted initially, in part, by the decrepit state of Parliament’s building, they would chewed all the through not only whatever planet they were on, but also some of the supporting turtles. Probably all the while complaining
Again according to the Guardian:
If that’s right, it’s nowhere near enough to get him out. But when the next Johnson scandal erupts (and you know it won’t be that long) perhaps others could follow their example.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Guardian – “Ocasio-Cortez to Pence: ‘No one wants to hear your plan for their uterus’”:
Meloni rages as Berlusconi’s ‘vodka gifts’ from Putin hijack Italy’s coalition talks (video):
That last bit, about being Meloni claiming to be pro-Nato, pro-Ukraine, and pro-EU(-sanctions), rather surprises me. Berlusconi’s
mafiamob is well-known to be pro-Putin, so nothing surprising there.“Meloni’s other main ally, Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigrant League party”, who is also a well-known pro-Putin eejit, also essentially jumped in with some anti-EU(-sanctions) burbling:
And apparently, Giorgia Meloni tells Italian president she is ready to become PM (mostly redacted as much of it is similar to the above-excerpted France24 article / video):
Steve Bannon given four months in prison for contempt of Congress:
You’d think that now would be the time for Labour to get their act together and wrest power from the obviously divided and demoralized Conservatives, but I take it that’s not in the cards?
You’d think that now would be the time for Labour to get their act together and wrest power from the obviously divided and demoralized Conservatives, but I take it that’s not in the cards?
Whoops, sorry about that double post.
Elon Musk is an idiot.
The guy is coasting on his successes and no long thinking anything through very far.
The US is thinking of looking at the National Security concerns about Elon Musk and Starlink. (This tweet is confirmed.)
Must has gotten billions of dollars in US tax breaks and government contracts. His SpaceX company launches rockets and satellites from government facilities, Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force base.
Then he turns around and literally bites the hand that feeds.
Not the least, he is also rapidly alienating his potential customer base. I will never buy any product associated with Elon Musk and you hear that often these days.
Devlin Barrett:
WaPo link at the (Twitter) link.
There is nothing novel about Starlink.
It is just a satellite internet service.
There are many such and more being planned.
I get offers from DISH and Hughsnet, every month or so for satellite internet.
AFAICT, what is useful about Starlink is that it has greater bandwidth but I doubt you need a lot of bandwidth on the battlefield.
I think Musk is going to learn what one of his largest customers, the US government, thinks about his pro-Russian sympathies. He is also operating under US laws, which control who can launch what satellites to where.
The twitter deal is also looking cuckoo.
IMO, twitter works and is actually useful. I find myself using and referring to it more and more. It fulfills a need for rapid and short communications.
Facebook is useless, toxic, and should (and is) sinking into the swamp it created.
If Musk gets a hold of twitter, I’m sure he will wreck it.
He is a right wingnut and it will soon be full of Nazis, Russians, and white racists.
Rep. Pascrell:
LOL. (Twitter link.)
TPM – “Man Arrested By DeSantis’ Election Crimes Office Has His Case Dismissed”:
Things aren’t going well in Mariupol.
The Russians have occupied it for 6 months and haven’t done much to restore the city.
Their latest achievement is a giant morgue for all the dead bodies they accumulate.
Mariupol was the most pro-Russian city in Ukraine with 91% native Russian speakers.
Now 3/4 of the population is either dead, refugees, or have been deported to somewhere horrible in Russia. The city itself is destroyed.
I wonder how many of those left are pro-Russian these days?
(Partly) New Maintenance Phase – “Mini-Sode: The Dr. Oz Campaign”:
Malala:
Video at the (Twitter) link.
Ukraine update: Bakhmut survives wave after wave of attack and is still Ukraine
More on the impending Russian war crime.
The claim is that,…”may believe that breaching the dam could cover their retreat from the [western] right bank of the Dnipro River and prevent or delay Ukrainian advances across the river,”
I doubt if the Russians believe that or care.
It probably won’t do either of those things.
They just want to blow up the dam. It’s vandalism and destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure simply because they can.
Stalin did the same thing in 1941 to another big dam upstream. It didn’t do much but did kill tens of thousands of Ukrainian villagers.
Newsmax Cuts Ties With Lara Logan After Antisemitic Rant
Too offensive for NewsMax, that’s quite an accomplishment.
Ostrich-like dinosaurs found in Mississippi are among the world’s largest ornithomimosaurs at more than 800 kg
Non-Opioid Compounds Squelch Pain Without Sedation
TOTALLY OFF TOPIC and AIMED AT LOUIS
I found the thread referred to last week. Here it is .
Okay. Sorry. Enough nonsense for the day.
DERAIL ENDED
Conor Kennedy Reveals He Fought Anonymously in Ukraine
StevoR at 307:
Our convention of constructing continents is not based on tectonic plates (which were discovered only recently) but on some combination of shoreline geography, human culture and European-colonialistic perspective bias.
When we focus on natural continents, according to the shoreline, the usual scheme is Eurasia – Africa – North America – South – America – Australia – Antarctica. These do not include islands. Technically, there are land connections between Eurasia/Africa and North/South America, but those are usually deemed tenuous enough to not count.
Ancient Greeks originally perceived Europe, Asia and Africa/Libya as three continuous landmasses (without islands) surrounding the Mediterranean/Black Sea, separated by the Strait of Gibraltar and the rivers Nile and Don. Europeans later expanded on this scheme, from their own cultural perspective, as they explored the wider world.
In cultural terms, we typically distinguish Europe – Asia – Africa – America – Australia/Australasia – Antarctica. These tend to include islands that are near to the main landmass, but not necessarily islands that are far out in the oceans. Except for Australasia, which decidedly includes a huge collection of Pacific islands in addition to the Australian landmass. It’s all fuzzy and complicated.
Christian European scholarly tradition has been keen to count Europe as a culturally separate continent since the middle ages. Europe was, very roughly speaking, perceived as the domain of Christianity once the nearby parts of Asia and Africa had been taken over by Islamic regimes. It didn’t matter that the land bridge connecting northern Europe to northern Asia turned out to be very broad, with no obvious dividing line between. Even the term “Eurasia” reflects the view that Europe is something more than just a peninsula in western Asia.
Individual nations spanning two cultural continents (according to some more or less arbitrary dividing line) may be counted for both continents, or they may be considered as “primarily” belonging to one or the other. For example, Russia is culturally mainly a Christian country, and its historical heartland is in the west, in eastern Europe, so Russia may be considered a “European” country that happens to extend well into Asia. In fact, Russia’s medieval expansion to the Urals by 16th century is probably a large part of the reason why the nominal European-Asian boundary was moved further east from the river Don.
Of course, in popular perception, Russia has tended to fall culturally somewhere between “real” Europe and “real” Asia. This perception is very much compatible with Russian people’s own sense of exceptionalism, and the recent political drive to form a cultural contrast for the “degenerate West”. I hear that modern Russian media often uses the term “Eurasia” to denote the Russian-dominated cultural and economic sphere, which roughly corresponds to the former Soviet Union.
It turns out most of the Hi Tech components of the Iranian drones are not from Iran.
The electronics are Japanese, Chinese, and American (Texas Instruments).
The engine is Austrian.
“Engines from Austria on Russian terror drones ” The engines of the Shahed-136 drones are also from Austria.
So much for all those sanctions on Iran.
They shouldn’t even call them sanctions. They could call them speed bumps.
.2. Hey Austria!!! Which side are you on now?
Those Austrian engines seem to work well.
But they shouldn’t be on Iranian drones killing Ukrainian people in terror attacks.
If you were following nature, you would use the continental shelves, not the shoreline.
Reginald Selkirk – Indeed, I think that’s one definition of continents used in some narrow scientific context. Maybe I should’ve said “apparent contiments”.
This may explain why the Middle East is west of India, but the Far East is at the Eastern end of the Silk Road. I suppose Jerusalem is in the middle east if your viewpoint is Ancient Greece or Rome.
This cartoon needs some background: “Meanwhile, at the Finnish-Russian border”
https://twitter.com/PerttiJarla/status/1583543409410998272
Shortly after the Russian mobilization started, Russian border officials began stopping draft-eligible men who were trying to leave the country. For a while, there were portable shacks used as army recruitment offices placed at some border stations, at least one on Finnish border. Those offices were used to press-gang men who were conveniently crowding at the border station. At the same time, Finland began restricting entry for most Russians.
Now there’s talk in Finland of building a barrier fence in some parts of the border, in places that are easily accessible by road. These would restrict the movement of not only humans but also wildlife, such as wild boars. This is generally deemed problematic, but farmers and their allies actually want to stop the movement of boars specifically, to prevent the spread of animal diseases such as African swine fever.
Cartoonist Pertti Jarla presents a near future scenario where wild boars trying to wander from Russia to Finland are stopped by restrictive Finnish border policy and aggressive Finnish border security. At the same time, those boars are being rounded up by a Russian army official and drafted to the war, to replace increasingly severe personnel shortage.
Why the Jan. 6 committee’s new subpoena for Trump matters
The Jan. 6 panel’s subpoena matters because it sheds light on what exactly the committee wants from Trump, while crystalizing the accusations against him.
From raven’s #438:
Might be a good idea.
Special Master Calls Out Trump For Blown Deadline
NBC News:
I did not change the filter on my furnace and turn it on for the fall/winter season until today. I was conserving in order to save money. Ukrainians are conserving electricity because Russians have bombed their infrastructure.
It is really nice to have central heating that works. I am feeling relieved to have a warm house, and I am feeling guilty because I know others don’t have that luxury. Plus, my recent experience of cold nights really impressed on me how difficult it would be to conserve electricity over a long period of time. Suffering … that’s what it is.
New York Times:
Politico:
Axios:
Politico:
lumipuna @457, Ha! That cartoon is a good one. Funny. Love the look on the face of the boar who has already been press-ganged into the Russian military.
Cartoon: Cartoon: Energy crisis tips
I have been looking for any charitable crowdfunding campaigns to send portable solar generators to Ukraine. I don’t know if electrical grids across Europe are compatible, but there is a European company called Ecoflow that makes an excellent solar panel powered product that is capable of powering anything that requires electricity.
The panel is easy to move and the system can be expanded with extra batteries and generating capacity for a very reasonable price.
Chickenpox vaccine has ‘practically eliminated’ deaths from the disease, CDC report finds
Re: Lynna, OM @ #460…
Any claim to executive privilege made by Trump is over the top. That decision now resides solely with Biden.
blf @432:
“$6,500” should be “$65,000” … still not a big enough fine in my opinion. Bannon is wealthy, plus he has some money he scammed from Trump supporters.
whheydt @469, yep, that’s correct. Trump doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Sorry, hard seltzer — beer companies are into canned cocktails now
It is so hard to keep up with the latest hep fads.
Sesxame Street fans are shocked to find out Cookie Monster’s real name
Estonia turns back to shale oil as it cuts off Russian power
Fishing vessel, not sabotage, to blame for Shetland Island submarine cable cut
U.S. makes unusual disclosure of ballistic missile submarine’s presence in Persian Gulf
A defense official said Kurilla’s visit was not a response to any recent event or provocation, but is more a signal after months of mounting tensions, which have included attacks against locations housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
Responding to Mass Email, Penn State Officials Say to Avoid Proud Boys Founder’s Event on Campus
Link
The mysterious exit of China’s former leader
The Russia conscription isn’t working.
They are being dumped on the front lines without any training or equipment. In some cases, they’ve complained about not even have bullets for their AK-47s.
“One of the conscripts asks his relatives to pull some strings and reach the local authorities. The other says to address more than just local level officials, but to appeal to the president of the Russian Federation, who unleashed this war.”
This isn’t going to work.
The authorities know, they just don’t care. This is desperation.
“Of the platoon that was released, three survivors remain.”
This isn’t how it is supposed to work.
There is no accountability for the leadership in Russia. That is what dictatorships are.
Akira Mackenzie@434,
Labour doesn’t have any way to force an election as long as the Tories in the Commons remain united at least in opposing one. The Prime Minister can request an election from Charles Windsor at any time, and except in exceptional circumstances he would grant one, but otherwise, it’s only if the government loses a vote of no confidence (VONC) in the Commons that the possibility of an election arises. My own view is that the Tories have lost any legitimate right to continue without a general election (whoever they choose as PM), and there should be a general strike and campaign of civil disobedience to force them to hold one. But this is unlikely to happen. If Johnson returns to the premiership, some Tory MPs will resign the whip and might then vote for a Labour VONC, but probably nowhere near enough for it to go through.
Sunak has more than 100 declared nominations – but hasn’t yet said he is standing. Some Johnson cronies claim he has 100, but there’s a lot of scepticism about that, as only 51 names are public. My best guess now is that Johnson will either fail to reach 100, or chicken out because he’s not confident of winning, probably trying to get a promise from Sunak to nix the ongoing Commons Standards Committee enquiry into Johnson’s lies to Parliament. But I could be wrong – I remember I was once ;-) – if the ERG (ultra-Brexiteer carpet-chewers) decide to back Johnson at their meeting on Monday.
Tethys@456,
The term “Middle East” doesn’t derive from the Greeks or Romans, but from British imperialism. There’s some interesting history of the term here.
China claims to be self sufficient in food.
That is almost true but not quite.
As their diet improves, they have started importing more and more food.
This is important to them because famines in the recent past killed tens of millions of Chinese.
And with 1.4 billion people, the Chinese have to pay attention to food production.
AFAICT, just about every acre (or hectare) that can grow food is…growing food.
@ 46
Thanks for the explanation.
China is the largest food importer in the world.
This source, which is Chinese claims that China is only 76.8% food self sufficient right now. They are self sufficient or close in grains but import a lot of everything else.
Recent history says they could be self sufficient if they had a lower quality diet.
There is nothing inherently wrong with not being self sufficient in food. Many countries aren’t. But you have to have something to sell to get money to buy food to import.
WaPo/Opinion
In Nevada, election deniers prepare to sabotage the midterms
By Dana Milbank / October 21, 2022
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. Their latest summary:
Kyiv Independent:
Ukraine update: Russian authorities in Kherson order ‘immediate evacuation’
Also in the Guardian:
“‘Get Igor Girkin’: hopes MH17 suspect could be captured fighting in Ukraine”: “Flight victims’ relatives say it would be a ‘miracle’ if former separatist [sic] leader finally faced justice…”
“Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi reportedly under house arrest”: “Reports say athlete who competed in South Korea not wearing headscarf pressured into ‘forced confession’…”
Chris Riddell in the Grauniad, Who’s next for the Tory Brexit ogre? (cartoon).
Christian conservative conference attended by Eric Trump and Mike Flynn gets really, really weird
“Please clap.”
Lynna @491
It’s not necessarily the wildest claim but it’s quite fucked up to claim that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, has committed treason against the United States. Or course, they don’t base their belief on anything close to reality but they’re already dangerous enough as US domestic terrorists (real, potential or stochastic) without directly threatening foreign officials.
As they say, elections have consequences but as a Canadian it is not reassuring to know that we can only observe what’s happening and hope that sanity will somehow prevail. Unfortunately, I’m not hopeful for the upcoming mid-terms or 2024. It won’t be as directly bad for us as for the US people but I fear significant collateral damage here.
Jean @493: Yeah, apart from the collateral damage, we only have Pierre Poilievre to worry about.
It’s likely that Trudeau is merely the only ‘foreign’ elected official of a country this gomer could find on a world map.
It’s bizarre to watch idiots try to claim anyone on that list has committed treason, but you can’t fix stupid.
@ 491
And yet the MSM and the Biden administration are doing just that. Ignoring them. (And no, giving mealy-mouthed speeches that call them “semi-fascists” is less than useless.)
Also @491
If your only solution to fighting fascism is for the Democrats to never lose another election, I got news for you: They are going to lose this upcoming one. They didn’t go away when Biden won. They continued to grow, organize and plan.
The only way to end a fascist threat is to get rid of the fascists, but American liberals are too fucking squeamish to do that.
The only way to end a fascist threat is to get rid of the fascists
You can’t solve fascism by becoming fascist.
Ukraine update: In Kherson ‘organized withdrawal of troops of the first line is impossible’
Volunteers handing out bread.