NEW — the #Biden admin is considering designating #Russia’s Wagner Group as a terrorist organization, per @DanielPFlatley & @StephaniBaker.
18 HIMARS missiles, reaching out to touch a Russian military target. [video at the link]
In response to Russia’s constant threats and attacks on civilian infrastructure and residential areas, NATO is considering something that was off the table a year ago.
URGENT: #NATO is discussing the transfer of Patriot air defense systems to Kyiv
This was stated by NATO Secretary General Jens #Stoltenberg after a meeting of the NATO summit in Bucharest.
Add Patriot into the already strong mix of systems being deployed in Ukraine, and “closing the skies” begins to seem more real.
At this hour (8 AM ET), air raid sirens are sounding across Ukraine. Expectations are that Russia will launch another massive attack at some point in the next few days, using missiles, drones, and strategic bombers in an effort to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses and bring more destruction to civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
Reports of launchers being prepared in western Russia and of bombers being serviced for action have been circulating over the last few days, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has warned of an impending large-scale attack, with perhaps 200 missiles and drones threatening Ukrainian cities over a short period.
Constantly improving skills in dealing with Iranian-made Shahed drones and newly arrived air defenses have made Russia’s success rate in recent attacks as low as 10-15%. However, those missiles and drones that have made it through have continued to strike at residential buildings, as well as electrical substations. By mounting a massive attack, Russia hopes to increase the rate of penetration now—before Ukraine is able to receive additional air defense systems from the United States and Europe.
[…] In early November, Ukraine received its first NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems), which integrates U.S. and European components into a series of networked launchers that can take down incoming missiles at a range of up to 50km. A second unit is now reportedly in place, and additional NASAMS units are on the way.
The UK has supplied Ukraine with at least six Stormer surface-air missile systems. Germany has provided at least 30 Cheetah anti-aircraft guns and has already provided at least one of the promised four IRIS-T surface-air missile systems (which Ukraine claimed had a 100% shoot-down rate in an attack on October 31).
In addition to more NASAMS on the way, the United States has also pledged to provide both Avenger air defense systems and HAWK missile air defense systems. France has promised to provide Crotale ”Rattlesnake” surface-to-air missile systems. Spain has promised to deliver Aspide surface-air missiles.
In many areas, Ukraine is currently dependent on the older S-300 missile system, which dates back to the Soviet era. More S-300 systems have been provided by European nations. Ukraine also has other older defensive systems, including ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns and 9K33 Osa missile systems. Ukraine has also captured several air defense systems from Russia, including at least four Pantsir surface-air missile systems.
The Iranian Shahed-136 drone, which was so devastating when Russia first began launching them toward Ukrainian cities in September and October, has become less effective over time as Ukrainian forces have learned how best to bring them down with man-portable missiles or machine gun fire. However, their low flight profile can make them difficult to spot until very near the target, and some percentage of these drones are still getting through. With a reported cost of only $20,000, taking these drones down with high-end air defense systems where every shot is significantly more expensive quickly becomes problematic.
While the Shahed drones have been primarily used against civilian targets, Russia’s Lancet drone has increasingly been their go-to solution in the field. Part of the reason that the number of Russian armored units lost in the area around Bakhmut has decreased, even as the number of troops lost each day has remained at ghastly levels, is how much Russia is leaning on these drones. Drones and human waves operating under artillery cover seems to be the new version of “combined arms” that Russia has concocted in the area.
But though the Lancet has quickly gained a fearsome reputation, not every strike is all that effective. For example, if all you saw was the first part of this video, this hit on a D-20 howitzer may look devastating. [video at the link] But keep watching for a few minutes, and the result of the Lancet strike turns out to be … a flat tire. All those “lancet destroys X” videos may be counting a lot of deaths that aren’t real.
On Tuesday morning, the Ukrainian government announced that it has a 30% deficit in electricity and that more widespread rationing and lengthy blackouts can be expected in many cities. This announcement comes just two days after the state energy company, Ukrenegro, reported that most power had been restored in Kyiv and that they have even successfully restored power lines to Kherson and other recently liberated cities.
However, replacing damaged power plants is expected to take much longer, and there are fears that additional damage from Russia will keep Ukraine facing extensive blackouts until better air defenses allow addressing energy production, as well as distribution. With fears of another Russian wave attack looming, there seems little that the company can do to harden the electrical system against potential damage.
Over the past few months, thousands of generators—from human-portable to rail-car sized—have been sent to Ukraine to allow backup power for hospitals and other critical infrastructure components. This has helped to keep the lights on in these facilities even when Russia has taken out local power. Longer term, multiple nations have pledged to help Ukraine replace the damaged power plants. Earlier this month, the U.S. announced that it would work with Ukraine on the construction of a Small Modular Reactor (SMR), a new design for nuclear plants that is expected to be much safer than large older plants.
Numerous images emerged on Tuesday of a very large explosion near the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. Russia which is over 1,500km away from Ukraine near the border with Kazakhstan. Russia has reported that this resulted from too many explosives being used in a blast meant to shatter rocks as part of a construction project, and is not an act of sabotage or war. Right now, it does appear to be an isolated incident, whatever the cause. [video at the link]
Things have been looking very grim south of Bakhmut over the last 48 hours, with reports that Russia had fully captured the towns of Ozarianivka and Optyne. However, on Tuesday morning, this does not seem to be the case. Both towns are reportedly still in dispute, with Ukrainian forces holding on to locations in areas of both. Ukraine still appears to have full control of Kurdyyumivka, which falls between the two areas of dispute. [map at the link]
In the last two weeks, Russia appears to have shifted much of its effort in the Bakhmut area south of the city. It has gained ground along the T0513 highway, and the assaults along this line from south of Ozarianivka up to Bakhmut have been particularly intense. On Monday evening, Russia appeared to be pushing west toward the rail lines north of Kurdyyumivka and toward two small villages in this area. If Russia takes this area, they would be better positioned to move toward Bakhmut from the south.
At this point, the number of Russian forces lost in the attempt to capture Bakhmut numbers in the tens of thousands. Capturing the city no longer represents a significant strategic goal, as Russia is no longer positioned to make a serious play for all of Donetsk. The areas along the front line have been so reduced that comparisons to World War I battlefields are made daily.
Taking Bakhmut would gain Russia nothing. But the cost of the battle over this city continues to rise with high casualty rates on both sides. Ukrainian defenders at Bakhmut have seen the worst fighting and worst conditions of the war. And they’ve seen it for months on end.
I’m going to have to add some whole new categories of drones to the guide.
Germany will transfer 14 THeMIS Milram Robotics robotic ground complexes to Ukraine, which are designed to transport the wounded military personnel and cargo. [image at the link]
[Looks, as one reader noted, like an “ambulance” with a machine gun.]
Visegrád:
After February 24th, the Russian Army took 119 000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine has now liberated 75 000 out of those 119 000 square kilometers.
It shows just how bad the war is going for Russia. [graphic at the link]
In wake of defeats, purges of Russian army officers have started.
Gee, a war started by an ideologically-driven unpopular leader who wanted to unite the country via war propaganda, who insisted that the invasion would be met with open arms by the populace and therefore required no contingency planning or logistics management, and as the war drags on the top military keeps getting swapped out, each new wave instructed to (and promising to) do radically new and successful things with the same old troops, and then — to nobody’s surprise — continuing to do the same old things and being replaced in their turn. The parallels to the Iraq invasion continue to pile up — except that, unlike the US, if and when the war finally unseats Putin, he will actually face repercussions for it, rather than both his own loyalists and his opposition colluding to make sure nobody ever faces any consequences for any of it, like we did in the US.
@#489, SC (Salty Current)
Julia Davis:
Meanwhile in Russia: top propagandists and their friends in high places are getting worried about the possibility of losing the war to Ukraine and being tried at the Hague….
Another potential difference from the US and Iraq. They should do like the US did, and pass a law mandating that if anybody from Russia is ever put on trial for war crimes Russia will immediately attack the Hague with everything it’s got. You know, like we did (with overwhelming Democratic support in the Senate, incidentally, and of course like everything evil pushed through under Bush not repealed under Obama).
Wonkette: “Elon Musk Picks Fight With Apple, Tim Cook. That’s How Bad He Is At This.”
Time for another Elon Musk, Super Genius post. Mobsters deliberately running Twitter into the ground so they could set fire to the place for the insurance money probably would’ve done a better job than Musk. And major advertisers have noticed. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that General Mills, Audi, and Pfizer had paused advertising on the social media site, partly due to concerns about content moderation. Twitter continued to bleed advertisers through November, including United Airlines and Chipotle.
Monday, Musk tweeted that Apple “has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter.” Then he started ranting like a scorned lover, asking if Apple hates “free speech in America.” He demanded, “What’s going on here @tim_cook?” as if the Apple CEO would publicly discuss advertising decisions in his Twitter mentions. Musk further claimed that “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.” It’s all the unrestricted hate speech, you ninny. [Tweets at the link.]
Obviously, Apple hasn’t violated the First Amendment if it refuses to give Elon Musk money, but right-wing Musk supporters feel otherwise. Podcaster Lex Fridman tweeted, “Apple should support free speech.” Once again, Apple is under no moral or legal obligation to subsidize anyone’s speech. […]
Michael Saylor, founder and executive chairman of the Microstrategy analytics firm, replied to Fridman, “Monopolies should be subject to the same limits we placed on our government in the Bill of Rights: … make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
So that’s absurd. Apple isn’t a monopoly. It has competitors. Musk cultists are already threatening to toss their iPhones into the sea and replace them with Androids. Failed Republican congressional candidate Jason Nelson even suggested that Musk is deliberately alienating Apple as part of some ridiculously circuitous plan to launch his own smartphone company. […]
More to the point, though, Apple is not the government, which is also under no obligation to fund everyone’s speech. Remember when Republicans wanted to kill the National Endowment of the Arts,shut down PBS and privatize “Sesame Street?” Now, apparently, American democracy itself depends on advertisers saving a single billionaire’s corporate Xanadu. [Musk tweet at the link]
Musk whined, “This is a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.” Free speech involves choice — from both consumers and advertisers. Movies regularly flop. TV shows are canceled. Theatres shutter. Publications that aren’t just safe spaces for Nazis shut down. You can’t compel people to support your platform.
Always eager to claim her title as the dumbest person in any room, GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called private companies pulling their advertising from Twitter “corporate communism,” which is a nonsense term consistent with the level of intellect that reflexively labels everything it doesn’t like “communism.”
She said “corporations” are “using their economic power to force their political agendas. They need to go back to the ‘Customer is King’ mentality, not corporations are king.” There’s no clear evidence that Apple’s decision is politically motivated. Musk made dramatic changes to Twitter and its overall product. It’s not personal. It’s business.
The Financial Times reports that Musk has jeopardized Twitter’s $5 billion a year advertising business with his “ad hoc approach to policing content and decision to axe many of its ad sales team.”
After several waves of job cuts and departures, Twitter’s ads business team has shrunk so much that many agencies no longer have any point of contact at the company and have received little to no communication in recent weeks, according to four industry insiders.
Some brands have been unable to get feedback on how previous campaigns have performed because of the staffing shortages, one media buyer said. Others are complaining Twitter’s ads systems have also become buggy, making it difficult or even impossible to run campaigns.
This is arguably “corporate communism” in the sense that Musk’s Twitter runs like an East German car manufacturer. [LOL]
Musk’s solution to his self-inflicted crisis is apparently to personally call chief executives of brands that have paused advertising and yell at them. He’s also still trash-talking Apple and its business practices. These are all genius moves from a super genius. [Ron DeSantis video at the link]
Today, Musk’s BFF and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended Musk’s decision to let COVID-19 misinformation run wild again on Twitter. He even suggested that Congress should “respond” if Apple denies Twitter access to its online store, arguing that this would prove “a really raw exercise of monopolistic power.”
You know, because you just knew Ron DeSantis was out there babbling about this.
Team USA advances: Pulisic goal against Iran sends U.S. to next World Cup round NBC News link
Christian Pulisic’s goal late in the first half gave the United States a dramatic 1-0 victory over Iran in Qatar on Tuesday, sending America through to World Cup knockout action.
With this do-or-die win at Al Thumama Stadium in Al Khor, the United States finished in second place of Group B play with five points.
The Americans advanced to round-of-16 play and will play Group A winner Netherlands at 10 a.m. EST Saturday at Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan.
Reaching the round of 16 marked a huge achievement for the U.S. program, which failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has been meeting with a group of Russian mothers whose sons are fighting in Ukraine.
However, the founder of Russia’s Council of Wives and Mothers – Olga Tsukanova – has accused the Kremlin of handpicking attendees and criticised Putin for not inviting her group.
Critics say the mothers who met the president were carefully chosen for the meeting and several of them are members of pro-Kremlin movements.
The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and his four associates charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Along with Rhodes, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell and Jessica Watkins – all fellow Oath Keeper members and associates – were also on trial on various charges, including and beyond seditious conspiracy.
Rhodes and Meggs were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
Caldwell, Harrelson and Watkins were found not guilty of seditious conspiracy.
Jurors reached their determination on the third day of deliberations following a trial in federal court in Washington that spanned weeks.
A thread here for those who don’t understand why the China protests over the weekend protests are so shockingly rare.
Surveillance. In. China. Is. Extreme. Think you could evade Chinese police? Let’s walk through it:
“There’s tons of people protesting, they’ll never catch me,” nope – Chinese police stations use huge networks of facial recognition cameras that can retroactively trace people for days or even months.
For example, this 2018 police document describing a network of thousands of cameras in a single Tianjin district that saves faces within the last 90 days, traces people over time and generates alarms for “high risk behavior” like *checks notes* being out after midnight.
“But I’ll just wear a mask or sunglasses then,” nope – I’ve seen 1000s of procurements describing Chinese police surveillance systems over the years – most recognise people despite face coverings (and whether you have a “yellow, white, black or brown race face” – Guangxi 2019)
It’s tough to know for sure how effective they truly are, but COVID gave us hints – like when officials in Tianjin used surveillance cameras to ID thousands near a supermarket and conduct home visits.
“But I’m at a university, kids protest, surely it’s more relaxed?” nope – University surveillance is high, and heightened by Covid – last year I spoke to students about what it’s like to be put to bed by surveillance cameras :
“But I only protested online” – nope, China since 2014 has steadily enforced real name registration that links your national ID via your phone number to any online service – social media companies are bound by law to comply, and police enforce it.
Example, when Wuhan residents in early 2020 went online to say that relatives were falling ill from a disease the govt had so far denied was contageous, some told me they were visited within hrs by police. In one case, police came to the hospital to order a family to remove posts
“But there’s so many people posting, they can’t see everything,” nope – virtually every city police bureau has embraced big data 舆情分析 (public opinion analysis) technology – designed to monitor dissent and filter through millions of data points to find instigators.
I wrote a bit about this system here earlier this year, and how it’s increasingly covering overseas social media:…
“But I’ll just alternate apps to communicate then” nope – here a 2022 proc doc describes a standard Chinese police phone forensics kit & the apps they pull data from: over 1000 local + foreign apps from Twitter to Telgegram, Airbnb, Fitbit and Uber, which isn’t even in China.
More and more frequently, police are employing mobile smartphone forensic systems on the streets, procurements show. I wrote about people’s experiences with them here:…
And as China reporters have noted – people are reportedly being stopped by police who are checking phones fore apps like Signal and Instagram, and deleting photos (an experience most China reporters in the field have also gone through at least once)
“But after all that, at least people will remember my protest” – not likely, a search on Weibo (China’s Twitter) today shows nothing is happening at all. Why? Each company has 1000s of censors. I wrote about one of these incredible censorship factories:…
“Ok, no protest then – I’ll just use the legal, government sanctioned complaints system, aka ‘petitioning’ where you can submit official grievances online and in dedicated offices across the country” – nope, not really a good idea.
Beijing champions this system as a legal way of raising grievances but using it can quickly land you on blacklists. Procurements for police surveillance systems list petitioners alongside fugitives, drug addicts, mental patients, and Uyghurs as “key personnel” that trigger alarms
For example, a Liaoning government procurement from last week outlines a new services database for military veterans – sounds great, except a major function of it is to track petitioners – including surveilling veterans so any protest won’t interfere in “major” political events.
“Ok so I’m caught holding a white piece of paper, can I even be charged for that?” yes – China has vaguely defined laws against “picking quarrels and provokling trouble” or “gathering a crowd to disrupt order”, which set a low bar for charges or legal threats
A quick scan of available Chinese court records show these charges are no joke, some with long jail terms, like these people who protested the demolition of their village, inc going to Beijing to petition, and in 2020 were sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for ‘gathering crowds’
A good story today from @martinpollard21 & @ParkSuAm1996 on how police are beginning to track down people involved over the weekend…
“Just as #IranvsUSA match was on going, news of more arrests in Iran. Regime forces came for actress Soheila Golestani and Hamid PourAzari, director.
Two days ago Ms. Golestani led a group of artists in making this powerful and now viral video in support of protesters.
And just outside the stadium where #IranvsUSA match was happening an Iranian fan being taken away by Qatar security forces as he chants: Woman Life Freedom.”
@10: For example, this 2018 police document describing a network of thousands of cameras in a single Tianjin district that saves faces within the last 90 days, traces people over time and generates alarms for “high risk behavior” like *checks notes* being out after midnight…
I had heard that “saving face” was important in Chinese culture, but I never dreamed it was so literal!
Reginald Selkirksays
Republican leaders denounce Trump’s dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes
It is nearly impossible to get Republicans to criticize other Republicans, so this is a pretty strong sign that Trump is toast within the GOP power structure. With FauxNews damping its support, what remains to be seen is whether the “Republican base” drops him as well.
But, as we all know, if they dump Trump they will find someone even worse to replace him.
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #14,,,
When Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he pushed what he called the “11th Commandment”, “Thou shalt not speak ill of other Republicans.”
Meanwhile in Russia: top propagandist Vladimir Solovyov shows off the improvised knee pads made by the mobilized Russian men out of plastic bottles. Later on, Solovyov casually threatens the viewer who asks him to stop lying and deceiving people.
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
“I wanted to get to the muddiest mud.”
The best part about these Solovyov clips is that it’s a morning show.
StevoRsays
Ex PM (our worst ever PM) Scummo has now been censured by Aussie parlt :
Why wasn’t it 135 to 1? How can anyone defend what Scummo did w the secret ministries? I know, partisan politics by the LNP but yeesh. Shades of Trumpism again..
But, as we all know, if they dump Trump they will find someone even worse to replace him.
DeSantis, most likely. He’s got all of Trump’s viciousness, but he is more focussed on policy (which is bad; Trump failed to pull off some things which probably would have been slam dunks because he has the attention span of a butterfly on cocaine) and doesn’t constantly hire either family members (like Don Jr.) or people who have already screwed up their careers so badly that their only hope is to be loyal to Trump (like Mike Pence). And, of course, in this last election DeSantis showed that he is capable of manipulating the Democratic Party into letting him control the conversation, so that they nominate terrible right-wing candidates, who adopt right-wing terminology, and then get no turnout as a result.
KGsays
Lynna, OM@492,
Thanks! That’s a more detailed account of Bolsonaro’s absurd gambit than I’ve seen elsewhere.
StevoRsays
On the world’s rarest marsupial Gilbert’s Potoroo see :
The governor of South Dakota issued an executive order on Tuesday banning the use of Chinese social media platform TikTok for state government agencies, employees and contractors on state devices.
In a press release the state government said the order was in response to the growing national security threat posed by TikTok’s data-gathering operations on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The order comes into immediate effect and prohibits not only the use of the platform, but also the downloading of the app, and even just visiting the site on any state-owned device with internet connectivity.
“South Dakota will have no part in the intelligence gathering operations of nations who hate us,” said Governor Kristi Noem. “The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform.”
Reading between the lines: Kristi Noem is a horrible fascist person. I wonder if hating on China (and I am not saying it is completely unjustified) is acceptable within Bizarro Right-Wing World in a way that hating on Russia no longer is because they think they can tie China to Biden – you know, through Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has highlighted Russia’s new foreign agents act in its daily update, which it says will be used to crack down on critics and dissidents. Vladimir Putin has changed the 2012 law so that personal details including the address of designated “foreign agents” can be published, meaning they could become targets of harassment. The change will come into force on Thursday.
Ukraine claims to have killed another 500 Russian soldiers in the last 24 hours, bringing the total who have died in combat since 24 February to about 88,880. The general staff of the armed forces said it had taken out three more tanks and six armoured personnel carriers.
The city council in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa has voted to remove and relocate a monument to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia that had recently been daubed with red paint at least twice.
The statue to the city’s founder, which towers over a central square, has been vandalised repeatedly since the invasion of Ukraine that has prompted many Ukrainians to reject their country’s historical ties to Moscow, Reuters reported.
The city council announced the decision to remove the statue on its website on Wednesday. Local lawmakers had also voted to remove and relocate a monument to an 18th-century Russian general, Alexander Suvorov.
A slim majority of Odesa residents had already voted – in an online poll organised by city authorities – to remove the statue to Catherine the Great, who was empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796.
Several petitions had also been submitted to president Volodymyr Zelenskiy calling for the statue to be removed, but only local authorities were legally empowered to make the decision.
The baguette – a mix of wheat flour, water, yeast, salt and a pinch of savoir-faire, and as much a symbol of France as the Eiffel Tower – has gained UNESCO recognition as the UN body on Wednesday voted to include the “artisanal know-how and culture of baguette bread” on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The baguette, now a symbol of France around the world, has been a central part of the French diet for at least 100 years, and there are several myths about its origins.
One legend has it that the bakers of Napoleon Bonaparte came up with the elongated shape to make it easier for his troops to carry, while another posits that it was actually an Austrian baker named August Zang who invented the baguette.
These days a baguette – which means “wand” or “baton” – is sold for around €1 ($1.04) each. More than six billion are baked each year in France.
Made only with flour, water, salt and yeast, baguette dough must rest 15 to 20 hours at a temperature between 4 and 6 degrees Celcius (39 to 43 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the French Bakers Confederation, which fights to protect its market from industrial bakeries.
But if the ingredients are always the same, each bakery has its own subtle style, and every year there are nationwide competitions to find the best baguette in the land.
Algerian Rai music and Tunisia’s harissa condiment were also among this year’s contenders for recognition as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, which started deliberations Monday in Morocco….
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, says he donated equally to both Democratic and Republican politicians before his cryptocurrency platform filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, wiping out billions of dollars in customer deposits. And that fact is going to come as a real shock to right-wing political operatives on Fox News who’ve tried to claim Democrats were the only ones beholden to FTX cash.
“I donated to both parties. I donated about the same amount to both parties,” Bankman-Fried said, according to a November 16 phone call published to YouTube by crypto commentator Tiffany Fong on Tuesday…
The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried, who’s reportedly still living in the Bahamas, said that he was able to make his donations anonymously because of Citizens United, a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that declared unlimited political donations were a form of speech and should be protected by the First Amendment. The case has allowed millions of dollars of so-called “dark money” to enter the political system without disclosures on who’s making the payments…
Bankman-Fried was very public about giving to Democrats, even appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press Reports to discuss his left-leaning donations with host Chuck Todd before the 2022 midterms. But Bankman-Fried’s donations to Republicans were done secretly, according to the former crypto billionaire, because most reporters are “super liberal.” …
In a move he said is aimed at tackling the city’s mental health “crisis,” New York Mayor Eric Adams announced a directive Tuesday instructing police and first responders to remove people displaying severe symptoms of mental illness from the city’s subways and streets and take them, even involuntarily, to area hospitals.
The directive, his office said, is in response to an “ongoing crisis of individuals experiencing severe mental illnesses left untreated and unsheltered in New York City’s streets and subways.”
“These New Yorkers and hundreds of others like them are in urgent need of treatment yet often refuse it when offered,” Adams said at a news conference. “The very nature of their illnesses keeps them from realizing they need intervention and support. Without that intervention, they remain lost and isolated from society, tormented by delusions and disordered thinking. They cycle in and out of hospitals and jails.”
The directive would give the city’s mobile crisis teams, police, firefighters and other emergency response personnel a “step by step” process to evaluate and take people showing mental health symptoms to area hospitals for evaluation. Adams said the workers will “receive enhanced training on how to assist those in mental health crisis” to make the determinations and “compassionately care for those in crisis.”
First responders will work with clinical co-response teams deployed in subways to aid in a coordinated mental health response, Adams said Tuesday.
The move was criticized by some mental health professionals who said the city should focus on long-term solutions and avoid treating people who refuse.
“My most striking concern is this plan relies too much on coercion and the involuntary use of hospitals, and adding coercion to a failed system that is inadequate to begin with doesn’t really address the fundamental issues of engagement and access to quality care,” said Harvey Rosenthal, the CEO of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.
New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman also condemned the plan.
“The Mayor is playing fast and loose with the legal rights of New Yorkers and is not dedicating the resources necessary to address the mental health crises that affect our communities,” Lieberman said in a statement. “The federal and state constitutions impose strict limits on the government’s ability to detain people experiencing mental illness — limits that the Mayor’s proposed expansion is likely to violate. Forcing people into treatment is a failed strategy for connecting people to long-term treatment and care.”
…
The city conceded that the legal landscape for such authority may be murky,…
Authorities have abruptly lifted Covid restrictions in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, where protesters scuffled with police on Tuesday night, as police searched for demonstrators in other cities and the country’s top security body called for a crackdown on “hostile forces”.
After days of extraordinary protests in the country that also prompted international demonstrations in solidarity, the US and Canada urged China not to harm or intimidate protesters opposing Covid-19 lockdowns.
On Wednesday afternoon, authorities suddenly announced a lifting of lockdowns in about half of the districts across the southern city of Guangzhou. Official announcements told local officials to variously remove “temporary control orders” and to redesignate areas as low risk. They also announced an end to mass PCR testing.
One resident told the Guardian that within an hour of the announcement they had seen apartment security staff quickly leave, and neighbours hurrying out with luggage “to escape”.
The easing of restrictions, which came despite rising cases in the city, did not extend to all districts. Some areas, including parts of Haizhu, where protesters scuffled with police on Tuesday night, according to witnesses and footage, remained under restrictions.
The city recorded almost 7,000 Covid cases on Tuesday. In Haizhu there had been several protests and clashes with police over the past month, and it was the site of the most recent protests in a wave of civil disobedience that escalated dramatically on Friday.
Late on Tuesday, security personnel in hazmat suits formed ranks shoulder-to-shoulder, taking cover under riot shields, to make their way down a street in Haizhu district as glass smashed around them, videos posted on social media showed.
In the footage – geolocated by Agence France-Presse – people could be heard screaming and shouting as orange and blue barricades were pictured strewn across the ground. Others threw objects at the police and later nearly a dozen men were filmed being taken away with their hands bound by cable ties.
A Guangzhou resident told AFP on Wednesday he witnessed about 100 police officers converge on Houjiao village in Haizhu district and arrest at least three men on Tuesday night.
Haizhu, a district of more than 1.8 million people, has been the source of the bulk of Guangzhou’s Covid-19 cases. Much of the area has been under lockdown since late October.
…
On Tuesday, China sent university students home and flooded streets with police in an attempt to disperse the most widespread anti-government protests in decades, as the country’s top security body called for a crackdown on “hostile forces”. In an apparent effort to tackle anger at the zero-Covid policies, authorities also announced plans to step up vaccination of older people.
Such a move is a vital precursor to loosening controls without mass deaths or overwhelming the health system in a country where there is almost no natural immunity to Covid, after nearly three years of trying to eliminate the virus. China has not yet approved mRNA vaccines, proven to be more effective, for public use.
National health officials said on Tuesday that China would respond to “urgent concerns” raised by the public and that Covid rules should be implemented more flexibly, according to each region’s conditions.
…
In a sign of official concern, the Communist party’s central political and legal affairs commission, which oversees all domestic law enforcement in China, met on Tuesday. Its members blamed “infiltration and sabotage” by “hostile forces” and called for a crackdown, according to a readout of a meeting in the state news agency Xinhua.
Residents of at least one compound in Guangzhou were allegedly told by building managers that Taiwanese and American-paid trolls had “infiltrated the homeowner [chat] groups of various residential areas, inciting the people to resist the epidemic prevention policy”.
Screenshots of the message, seen by the Guardian, warned against attending any protests and urged people to report any neighbours making inflammatory remarks to national security agencies. A resident of that compound said friends elsewhere in the city had received the same message.
Chinese authorities often blame discontent on “foreign forces”, although the claim is likely to be shrugged off by many people in China frustrated by the fierce restrictions deployed to try to keep Covid out of the country. One weekend protest video showed a sarcastic crowd asking whether accusations about “foreign forces” referred to Marx and Engels, the fathers of communism, whose works still feature on the Chinese syllabus. [LOL]
The protests appear to have blindsided authorities. The foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, a champion of hyper-aggressive “wolf-warrior” diplomacy, was rendered briefly speechless on Tuesday by a question about whether the government would consider changing course on Covid after the demonstrations.
China’s zero-Covid policy has helped keep case numbers lower than those of the US and other major countries, but global health experts including the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) increasingly say it is unsustainable. China dismissed the remarks as irresponsible….
Spanish police say blast at Ukrainian embassy injured one employee
Spanish police said an employee at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid was injured on Wednesday in an explosion that occurred while he was handling a letter.
The staff member suffered light injuries and went to hospital under his own steam, police said in a statement.
Detectives are investigating the incident, aided by forensic and intelligence investigators, the statement added.
Ukraine’s embassy to Spain was not immediately reachable, Reuters reported.
The area surrounding the embassy has been cordoned off, state broadcaster TVE reported.
Some more on that blast at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, Spain, now from the Reuters news agency.
It reports:
A security officer at Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid was injured when he opened a letter bomb addressed to the ambassador on Wednesday, and Kyiv ordered a bolstering of security at all its representative offices abroad.
The security officer suffered light injuries and went under his own steam to hospital for treatment, Spanish government official Mercedes Gonzalez told broadcaster Telemadrid.
In the wake of the incident, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba ordered all Kyiv’s embassies abroad to “urgently” strengthen security, a ministry spokesperson said.
The minister also urged Spain to “take urgent measures to investigate the attack”, the spokesperson added. The perpetrators, he added, “will not succeed in intimidating Ukrainian diplomats or stopping their daily work on strengthening Ukraine and countering Russian aggression”.
Russia invaded Ukraine nine months ago.
The letter, which arrived by ordinary mail and was not scanned, caused “a very small wound on the ring finger of the right hand” of the employee after he opened it in the garden of the embassy, Gonzalez said. It was addressed to ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev, she said.
Detectives were probing the incident, aided by forensic and intelligence investigators, Spanish police said. Spain’s High Court will lead the investigation.
An officer at the embassy declined to comment. Correos, the Spanish state-run postal company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the origin of the letter.
The residential area surrounding the embassy in northwestern Madrid was cordoned off and a bomb disposal unit was deployed to the scene. Reuters footage showed scores of police officers, armed with assault rifles and blocking roads with vans, in the neighbourhood around the embassy.
McCarthy said, “I don’t think anybody should be spending any time with Nick Fuentes. He has no place in this Republican Party. I think President Trump came out four times and condemned him, and didn’t know who he was.”
A reporter responded: “Well, he just said he didn’t know who he was. He didn’t condemn him or his ideology.”
Twitter has a problem with white supremacist and neo-Nazi content proliferating on the platform—and Elon Musk is making that problem worse.
In recent days, the platform’s new CEO has reactivated the accounts of known neo-Nazis; shared a picture of a white supremacist who said he’d like Trump to be more like Hitler; failed to prevent users from posting videos of the Christchurch massacre; tweeted a popular alt-right meme; used a known antisemitic trope; and, inadvertently or not, shared a dogwhistle that white supremacists interpreted as praise for Hitler.
Musk’s apparent embrace of the white supremacist community has already led to a rise in hate speech on the platform, and it’s about to get even darker. In far-right forums, extremists of all stripes are salivating at the prospect of being able to share their hateful ideologies on a platform with much greater reach when Musk reinstates accounts that were banned for spreading hate speech….
whheydtsays
NAPA — A North Bay naturopathic doctor who sold fake COVID-19 immunization treatments and fraudulent vaccination cards during the height of the coronavirus pandemic was sentenced Tuesday to nearly three years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Juli A. Mazi pleaded guilty last April in federal court in San Francisco to one count of wire fraud and one count of false statements related to health care matters.
During Tuesday’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer handed down a sentence of 33 months, according to Joshua Stueve, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mazi, of Napa, did not immediately respond to phone calls and an email seeking comment. She was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on or before January 6, 2023.
The case is the first federal criminal fraud prosecution related to fraudulent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination cards for COVID-19, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In August, Breyer denied Mazi’s motion to withdraw her plea agreement after she challenged the very laws that led to her prosecution.
Mazi, who fired her attorneys and ended up representing herself, last week filed a letter with the court claiming sovereign immunity. Mazi said that as a Native American she is “immune to legal action.”
She provided fake CDC vaccination cards for COVID-19 to at least 200 people with instructions on how to complete the cards to make them look like they had received a Moderna vaccine, federal prosecutors said.
She also sold homeopathic pellets she fraudulently claimed would provide “lifelong immunity to COVID-19.” She told customers that the pellets contained small amounts of the virus and would create an antibody response, they said.
Mazi also offered the pellets in place of childhood vaccinations required for attendance at school and sold at least 100 fake immunization cards that said the children had been vaccinated, knowing the documents would be submitted to schools, officials said.
Federal officials opened an investigation against Mazi after receiving a complaint in April 2021 to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General hotline.
Last year the owner of a Northern California bar was arrested after authorities said made-to-order fake COVID-19 vaccination cards were sold at the establishment to undercover state agents for $20 each.
After Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith, Donald Trump demanded that Republicans fight for him. Elise Stefanik apparently got the message.
After Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith to oversee the criminal investigations into Donald Trump, the former president wasted little time telling his Republican allies about his expectations.
As we recently discussed, just hours after Garland broke the news about the new special counsel, Trump declared at Mar-a-Lago, “You people have to fight. You have to fight. You have to be strong.” Earlier, he said something similar to Fox News, insisting that the Republican Party should “stand up and fight” on his behalf.
It appears that House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik got the message. Indeed, the New York congresswoman spoke yesterday to a far-right outlet called Breitbart News, which reported:
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), the third senior ranking House Republican, ripped special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday for being a “compromised” member of President Joe Biden’s politicized Department of Justice.
“The facts are clear: Jack Smith is compromised,” Stefanik told Breitbart News. “Joe Biden’s weaponized DOJ has launched an illegitimate special counsel to investigate his number one political opponent.”
She added that the incoming House GOP majority will launch a new investigation into the Justice Department over what she sees as its “corrupt” politicization of law enforcement.
To the extent that reality still has meaning, Stefanik’s rhetoric is impossible to take seriously. There are no “facts” to suggest Smith, a respected prosecutor who most recently served as the chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, has been “compromised.”
[…] But just as notable as Stefanik ongoing descent — remember when she encouraged voters to see her as one of Congress’ “most bipartisan“ members, voted against GOP tax breaks, and was reluctant to even say Donald Trump’s name out loud? — is what her nonsensical claims might signal about Republicans and Smith’s investigation.
Brendan Buck, a former top aide to then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, recently appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and explained that Republican leaders “spent an incredible amount of time behind the scenes trying to get our members not to undermine” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.”
Buck added that GOP lawmakers “wanted to try to meddle in” the process, but House Republican leaders had to say, “Hard no.” The former aide concluded, “I don’t know that the current House of Representatives is set up to be that disciplined.”
It’s a safe bet that it isn’t. Not only is the House GOP Conference chair lashing out at the special counsel by way of a conservative website, but Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio — the likely next chair of the House Judiciary Committee — has also vowed to investigate Smith’s appointment.
Ideally, Trump’s sycophants on Capitol Hill would let the process play out, wait for the findings, and let the chips fall where they may. As the former president demands that Republicans try to shield him, that’s obviously not good enough for the likes of Stefanik and Jordan.
whheydtsays
Re: SC (Salty Current) @ #36…
You’re welcome. It’s interesting to see how many ways she went full on nut-case to try to wriggle out of being obviously caught dead to rights.
A crisis is coming in the U.S.-Israel relationship. It may be one of the greatest foreign policy challenges Joe Biden faces during the next two years. It will certainly test, and may possibly irrevocably alter, the uniquely close ties that have endured many challenges since Israel’s founding.
The U.S. was the first country in the world to recognize Israel. President Harry Truman’s administration did so 11 minutes after the birth of the new country was declared on May 14, 1948. U.S. support for Israel has been vital to that country’s survival ever since. But, thanks to the recklessness of both Benjamin Netanyahu—soon to become the next Israeli prime minister—and his supporters on the far right in both Israel and the U.S., it is now fair to ask whether that special relationship will endure much beyond its 75th anniversary next spring.
Certainly, President Biden has sought to send a message that what once was seen as one of the most important strategic partnerships the U.S. had in the world was still in robust shape. In July, he stated emphatically that it was “deeper and stronger” than ever. In the wake of Netanyahu’s recent electoral success, Biden stated that the U.S. commitment to Israel is “unquestionable.”
Netanyahu repeated the “strong as ever” language. But then he set about making a series of decisions that now have close observers deeply concerned about the plans of the man who is Israel’s seeming prime minister-for-life and their implications for Israel, the Palestinian people, and what U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides has cited as the “unbreakable bond” between Washington and Jerusalem.
Among the most disturbing of Netanyahu’s decisions was his selection of the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit Party, Itamar Ben Gvir, to the role of National Security Minister in his forthcoming Cabinet. This role will include oversight of both Israel’s police and of Israel’s settlements on the West Bank.
Netanyahu wooed the Israeli far right in his effort to return to power and Ben Gvir was one of the most consequential and disturbing beneficiaries of that effort. Ben Gvir was convicted 15 years ago of racist incitement against Arabs and support for a group considered a terrorist organization by both the U.S. and Israel.
While Ben Gvir has been seen as seeking to moderate some of his most extreme views in the weeks leading up to and since the formation of the coalition, concerns about him flared again this week as it was reported that he would announce another extremist activist as his chief of staff.
Israel newspapers called Chanamel Dorfman “the most likely candidate” for the job. This is despite the fact that Dorfman, who has been deeply involved in efforts to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank, has called Israel’s police forces “antisemitic” and “a mafia.”
Another extremist appointee to the new administration, Bezalel Smotrich, appears likely to be put in charge of the agency that oversees settlement construction projects. He has been deeply critical of past Israeli efforts to demolish illegal settlements and has promoted their expansion, even against the wishes of past Israeli governments.
In addition, the upcoming coalition government has committed to giving a senior government post to another far-right leader, Avi Maoz, whose party is both anti-Arab and anti-LGBTQ. This prompted the outgoing prime minister, Yair Lapid, to describe the composition of the new government as “full-on crazy.”
U.S. officials have been deeply concerned about these appointments. One described them to me as “potentially destabilizing” to the U.S.-Israel relationship. Others have stated that they will not meet with them, regardless of the seniority of the positions to which they are appointed.
The LA Times quoted former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer as saying, “We provide nearly $4 billion a year to the (Israeli) Defense ministry… and do we want to put our money in the hands of these guys? I’d say no.” Another former US ambassador, Martin Indyk, suggested the two countries were headed for a “rocky” period in the relationship.
Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas said to me, “The relationship may reach a point of inflection in the next 12 months… What is at stake is not a particular policy vis-à-vis Iran or the Palestinians but the core concept of “shared values” that is undermined by the composition, nature and expected policies of the new administration.”
The challenge is exacerbated in the eyes of Pinkas, who served as Israel’s consul general in New York and as a senior adviser to multiple Israeli prime ministers, because “Netanyahu, consciously and deliberately, with the help of politically expedient Republicans has politicized the issue of Israel in the U.S. and transformed it from an ostensibly bipartisan issue to a hyper-partisan issue by aligning himself unequivocally with the MAGA GOP, alienating both Congressional Democrats as well as grassroots Democrats and the majority of American Jews.”
There is no doubt about this last point. Netanyahu long ago chose sides in U.S. politics, allying himself closely with the American right and, in particular, Donald Trump. The degree of Netanyahu’s closeness to Trump and the right may be seen in his complete silence in the wake of Trump’s recent dinner with outspoken anti-Semites Nick Fuentes and Kanye West.
That silence is particularly striking even as Republicans like former Vice President Mike Pence and former Trump ambassador to Israel David Friedman condemned the former president. Netanyahu, like others in the GOP who have remained silent on the issue, apparently seeks support from the U.S. right at any cost—even if that comes at the expense of the well-being of American Jews. He, like Trump, is more interested in winning power than in principles [“more” here meaning 100% vs. 0%], and for now that includes building support among white supremacists and Evangelicals, Jewish interests be damned.
…
…Platitudes about the past nature of the relationship are unlikely to be an effective countermeasure. That is not due to a lack of sincerity on the part of those who articulate them in the U.S. Rather, the core problem is that Netanyahu does not seem to care about the opinion of the administration in much the same way he does not mind being viewed as choosing sides in U.S. politics.
He has committed Israel to a collision course with its most important friend. That is because that relationship is secondary to his own desire to wield power. If that kind of political narcissism means getting in bed with crazed and dangerous extremists, embracing racist policies, and blowing up vital relationships worldwide, so be it….
Back in 1969, engineer and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke made a statement that speaks to the future of one particular technology and one matching bit of semantics.
“If man survives for as long as the least successful of the dinosaurs—those creatures whom we often deride as nature’s failures—then we may be certain of this: for all but a vanishingly brief instant near the dawn of history, the word ‘ship’ will mean- ‘spaceship.’” — Arthur C. Clarke, Voices from the Sky
Every major war seems to have some technology that comes into its own. Helicopters were invented decades before World War II, and throughout that war there was a rapid exploration of that technology that included everything from massive transport helicopters to backpack helicopters to helicopters with rotors driven by jets. But it wasn’t until Vietnam that the technology and tactics around helicopters gelled together to make that piece of kit almost the defining instrument of the conflict.
In Ukraine the tanks still roll, artillery still pounds, and the eight-decade struggle between missiles and air defense goes on. But the weapon that continues to emerge as the centerpiece of this war is the drone. Russia is using drones as a cheaper form of missile to attack Ukrainian cities and as an alternative to artillery in hitting Ukrainian units near the front line. Ukraine is using drones to go after Russian tanks and armored vehicles, and to root Russian soldiers from trenches along a heavily fortified front. Drones have even taken to the seas as Ukraine has used automated vessels to attack the Russian fleet at anchor in Crimea. Soon enough, drone land vehicles will be joining the fray. The first ones are being used to deliver supplies or carry away the wounded, but should Russia’s invasion carry on for more than a few months longer, it’s almost inevitable that at least some of the weapons rolling across the fields will have no one inside.
[…] In any case, like all wars, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is redefining tactics for the next war, and right now it has become a hotbed of experimentation for what can be done with a weapon that had seen battle in previous conflicts but never really been taken off the hook as it has in Ukraine.
And that makes this school, as reported on by NPR, particularly interesting.
The Female Pilots of Ukraine is the country’s first school dedicated to solely teaching women — both civilians as well as those serving in Ukraine’s security forces — how to fly drones.
When we think of the word “pilot” today, we may think of the blue-uniformed women and men who nod and thank us for traveling with them as we step off a Boeing 767 or Airbus A319. Or we may think about Tom Cruise grinning madly as he sets a record for breaking the most rules, and laws, in a single minute. But for the future, unless the neologists get busy and come up with a new term, most uses of the word “pilot” are going to involve someone who has their feet on the ground.
Eighty percent of the women who train at the drone school in Ukraine take their newly acquired skills to the front lines. The first class has now graduated, and 40 more women are signed up to learn to be pilots in this new age. Right now their biggest constraint is budget. The school is not an official part of the Ukrainian military, and the founder is paying the $3,000 a month bills out of his own pocket (and yes, I am looking into how funds might be sent to this school).
In the next war, AI might take on this role. Maybe we will come to trust the devices themselves to decide on targets, launch those missiles, drop those grenades. But for now, that’s a hard line that few seem anxious to cross. Right now, Ukraine needs pilots. And these women—who are also models, journalists, artists, and marketing professionals—are becoming pilots.
[…] Military technologist Samuel Bendett points out that Wagner Group mercenaries are also reportedly using drones to direct the movement of conscripted prisoners in the endless assault on Bakhmut. According to one Russian politician:
“During combat, the movement of (Wagner) units is controlled by drones, the headquarters receives all the data online. Based on this information, if necessary, the groups receive commands to stop or move.”
That may make it seem that the Wagner supervisors are being somewhat careful with their human waves; that they’re only advancing at times when they can advance without coming under heavy fire. Yeah, that’s not exactly the case. As the same politician notes:
“Even when they come under fire, assault groups do not retreat without a command, and independent withdrawal is allowed only for the wounded. Unauthorized departure without a command or without injury is punishable by shooting on the spot.” [Sheesh]
In this case, the mechanical drone is being used for observation, but it’s a different kind of drone that is doing the fighting. Like a pilot sitting back and moving around a tiny craft with a joystick, Wagner is running these men by remote control, sending them forward by relayed commands, observing their progress from a safe distance.
The Russian soldiers attacking Bakhmut aren’t just human waves. They are meat drones. [Tweet at the link]
Kos has talked many times about the difficulty of executing combined arms tactics and how Russia’s heavy reliance on artillery and the basic flaws of their battalion tactical group structure make it almost impossible for them to successfully fight the kind of battles that U.S. forces conduct. But between the muddy trenches east of Bakhmut, Russia is creating a new sort of combined arms: lancet drones augmenting artillery, surveillance drones extending vision, meat drones dispatched to capture positions. It’s an experiment that has cost them tens of thousands of men so far.
But it may be this ongoing experiment, more than the meters of ground gained, that has kept Russian forces engaged in this area for so long.
Speaking of combined arms, here’s what the real thing looks like. The full video is 20 minutes long, but you don’t have to watch it all to understand why executing this kind of operation is both so devastating to opponents and so difficult to carry off properly. [video at the link]
One big thing to note: Check out just how similar the fortified enemy position in this video is to the structures Russia is actually building. That’s not because this seven-year-old video predicted events in Ukraine. It’s because that structure has demonstrated effectiveness in thwarting armored assaults.
Here is how U.S. forces deal with such fortifications. (Bonus: When they’re handing out awards for “scariest looking thing on the battlefield that actually will not kill you,” give that trophy to the M104 Wolverine.) [Video at the link]
Once again, Russia is claiming to have completely secured multiple towns in the area around Bakhmut. However, Ukrainian sources are disputing these reported advances. For the moment it’s clear that heavy combat continues in the Bakhmut area, with Russia continuing to focus on the areas immediately south of Bakhmut.
To the north, the Ukrainian advance toward Svatove remains essentially where it was two weeks ago, held up just west of the highway intersection west of that city, and a couple of kilometers short of positions that would allow Ukrainian forces to fire directly downward on Russian positions. Russia apparently launched multiple attempts aimed at retaking towns liberated by Ukraine along the line between Svatove and Kreminna over the last three days, but all of those attacks appear to have failed. That includes the destruction of a Russian column that was led by a rarely seen T-90M tank.
With much of the current line of contact in the east defined by the same sets of trenches that have existed since 2014, here are some notes from retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who served in the Obama White House and was an instructor on military tactics at West Point. Hertling points out that the area along the eastern front has been mined and fortified over a period of eight years. There are multiple layers of defenses on each side, extensive trench networks, and vast mine fields. That’s a large part of why Russian efforts to push through this area have largely failed, as have Ukrainian efforts to punch through the line in the other direction. [Tweet and image at the link]
What to do about fighting through a trench line? That video of combined arms tactics above is from Hertling’s suggestion on how the U.S. handles these situations. Neither Russia nor Ukraine has the equipment, training, or skills to conduct an operation as described in that video.
So what happens now? What Hertling suggests is that Ukraine doesn’t beat its head against the trench line the way that Russia has been doing since the war began. Instead, they make another bold move in a war that has so far been defined by bold moves on the part of Ukrainian forces. [Tweet and map at the link]
The whole thread is absolutely worth reading for the history of trench warfare, why it remains effective, and why it’s so difficult to assault prepared positions. But it’s also a good signal that even if Ukraine doesn’t immediately follow Hertling’s advice to move across the Dnipro River in Kherson, they have options.
They can attack where Russia is weak and always know that they have the support of not just the West, but the people in the towns and cities they are liberating. Because those people are Ukrainian.
Russia was attacking Bakhmut when Ukraine retook Kharkiv oblast from Kupyansk to Izyum. They were attacking Bakhmut when Ukraine strategically took village after village to liberate Lyman. They were attacking Bakhmut when Ukraine freed first the north, then all of Russian occupied territory west of the Dnipro. Russia will probably still be attacking Bakhmut when [Ukrainian soldiers] tap those Wagner guys on the shoulder and tell them to put down their joysticks. Because it’s all over.
During World War II, the U.S. produced a series of films called Why We Fight that ran before features at movie theaters. In Ukraine today, no one needs a reminder of the stakes in this conflict, but just in case … [Tweet and video about Kharkiv schools before and after Russian shelling]
Securing funding for Ukraine before Republicans throw the House into chaos is a priority. To that end, President Joe Biden has asked for $1.1 billion specifically to assist in helping to restore destroyed infrastructure in Ukraine. As CNBC reports, the package also contains funding for 18 additional HIMARS, a very significant amount of HIMARS and M777 ammo, 150 APCs, 150 tactical vehicles to tow weapons, 40 trucks and 80 trailers to transport heavy equipment, two dozen radar systems, communications gear, and additional body armor.
Expect an update soon that details all the gear the U.S. has sent to Ukraine, as well as what’s been promised but hasn’t yet appeared in the field (looking at you, Switchblade 600, though 10 units have now reportedly been sent).
KGsays
He [Netanyahu] has committed Israel to a collision course with its most important friend. That is because that relationship is secondary to his own desire to wield power. If that kind of political narcissism means getting in bed with crazed and dangerous extremists, embracing racist policies, and blowing up vital relationships worldwide, so be it…. – David Rothkopf, quoted by SC@39
That raises the question: why Netanyahu’s political narcissism has led him to “getting in bed with crazed and dangerous extremists, embracing racist policies…”. Israeli politics has been moving rightwards for decades, Netanyahu’s ascent was itself an aspect of that, and allying with ever-more extreme racists has proved politically advantageous. There are parallels with Trump’s political trajectory, but in Israel’s case, I think the deeper lesson is that you cannot in the long term be both an ethnostate and a democracy.
Reginald Selkirksays
@40: “If man survives for as long as the least successful of the dinosaurs—those creatures whom we often deride as nature’s failures—then we may be certain of this: for all but a vanishingly brief instant near the dawn of history, the word ‘ship’ will mean- ‘spaceship.’” — Arthur C. Clarke, Voices from the Sky
I would like to point out that up until a certain movie came out almost three decades ago, raptor universally meant a bird of prey. Now it primarily means a type of bipedal dinosaur.
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ # 40..
I would maintain that the emergence of combat helicopters in the Viet Nam war had more to do with the Congressional restriction on Army operation of fixed-wing aircraft that it did with any virtues of helicopters.
After the debacle of Donald Trump’s meeting with avowed antisemite Kanye West and his Holocaust-denying sidekick Nick Fuentes, the AP reports that a rotating team of babysitters will supervise the former president around the clock.
In an acknowledgment of the severity of the backlash and an effort to prevent a repeat, Trump’s campaign is putting new protocols in place to ensure that those who meet with him are approved and fully vetted, according to people familiar with the plans who requested anonymity to share internal strategy. The changes will include expediting a system, borrowed from Trump’s White House, in which a senior campaign official will be present with him at all times, according to one of the people.
We’re all just going to skip over the premise that a man who wants to be leader of the free world can’t take responsibility for his own dinner arrangements? Cool, cool.
Hey, AP, we see you normalizing this shit by talking about the “anger and handwringing” from Trump’s minions after the Dear Leader “became embroiled in scandal.” And while we’re picking nits here, let’s just point out that having a senior campaign official present with him at all times in the White House didn’t stop that demented [deleted slur] from attempting to violently overthrow the government, so … YMMV.
Yesterday Trump told Fox that he was unfamiliar with Nick Fuentes’s diseased body of work: “I had never heard of the man — I had no idea what his views were, and they weren’t expressed at the table in our very quick dinner, or it wouldn’t have been accepted.”
And perhaps that’s true — no one but Trump has ever claimed that he’s much of a reader. But he certainly knows who West is, and can’t have failed to notice that the rapper has displayed increasingly noxious antisemitism, even threatening to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” Indeed, on his dumb social media vanity platform, Trump called his guest “a seriously troubled man, who just happens to be black, Ye (Kanye West), who has been decimated in his business and virtually everything else.” Forget the little Nazi twink and Milo Yiannopoulos, the “ex-gay” rightwing grifter who is now advising Ye’s “presidential campaign” and was also at this dumb dinner. It’s simply unacceptable that Trump would be meeting with West, irrespective of who he’s dragging around in his entourage.
Of course Trump knows who is to blame for this, and it is those dirty journalists.
“If you see him, the fake news media will create a problem,” he whined to Fox. “If you don’t see him, the fake news media will claim I’m a racist.” (Who among us hasn’t been called a racist for refusing a meeting with Kanye West?) [LOL]
This doesn’t exactly jibe with reports that Trump deliberately parked West on the patio for dinner because “it would be fun for the members” to see him. But it sure does sound like the guy who whips his pitchfork mob into a frenzy about the press being “the enemy of the people,” while refusing to condemn David Duke because “a lot of these people vote.”
Meanwhile, Marc Caputo at NBC talked to every weirdo in Florida to put together a bizarro world tick-tock of the pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Yiannopoulos, who made the arrangements for the evening, described it as some kind of elaborate troll “to make Trump’s life miserable.”
“I wanted to show Trump the kind of talent that he’s missing out on by allowing his terrible handlers to dictate who he can and can’t hang out with,” he told NBC, adding the he “also wanted to send a message to Trump that he has systematically repeatedly neglected, ignored, abused the people who love him the most, the people who put him in office, and that kind of behavior comes back to bite you in the end.”
“I hate to say it, but the chickens are coming home to roost,” Fuentes agreed. “You know, this is the frustration with his base and with his true loyalists.”
And the little fashy shit ain’t wrong! These people are Trump’s base. So while we’re not buying for one second that this was some sort of eight-dimensional chess move by that icon of heterosexuality Milo, you will get no argument here that Trump met with Fuentes, Yiannopoulos, and West because filthy antisemites are his people. […]
This is who the GOP is. This is who they always were.
And, PS, shit-talking the mother of West’s kids is so fucking trashy it has to be true:
Ye criticized Trump for not doing enough to help pay the legal bills of those arrested in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots; and he also told Trump he might run for president against him and said Trump should instead be his running mate — all of which angered the former president, who attacked Ye’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, according to two dinner participants and Ye, who blasted out a “Mar-a-Lago debrief” video to his 32.2 million Twitter followers the next day.
Israeli politics has been moving rightwards for decades, Netanyahu’s ascent was itself an aspect of that, and allying with ever-more extreme racists has proved politically advantageous.
There are parallels with Trump’s political trajectory, but in Israel’s case, I think the deeper lesson is that you cannot in the long term be both an ethnostate and a democracy.
I agree. (Although I think the deeper lesson applies to the Trumpist backlash as well.)
Of course, the choice not to remain an ethnostate has always been available, but the opposite trajectory has been chosen. I think Rothkopf has a point, which I’ve seen others make, that these choices have now and will continue to have terrible consequences for the country itself. I read an article a few years back (and now can’t remember if it was in an Israeli publication or like the Electronic Intifada, but I believe it was the former) arguing that by far the biggest security threat to Israel was its own racist and oppressive actions. This new government appears to be heading out on a campaign of destruction.
Here is an article from the economist analyzing the Ukraine and Russian armies.
It claims the Russian are better than we think and the Ukrainians were better prepared than we give them credit for.
Could be.
Right now the war seems to be mostly a stalemate.
The Ukrainians aren’t advancing and the Russians aren’t retreating.
The Russians are taking heavy casualties.
We don’t know about Ukraine because they don’t provide that info but it is likely they are also taking heavy casualties.
What is the war in Ukraine teaching Western armies?
It shows the importance of dispersal, firepower and stockpiles
Nov 30th 2022 the economist edited for length
“In battle nothing is ever as good or as bad as the first reports of excited men would have it,” remarked William Slim, a celebrated British field marshal in the second world war. From the moment that Russian troops crossed into Ukraine on February 24th this year, pundits offered sweeping pronouncements about the future of war. The death of the tank was declared on the basis of snatched video footage. Turkish drones were hailed as unstoppable game-changers. Western anti-tank weapons were thrust into an early starring role. Now, nine months into the war, more considered reflections are emerging. There is much that Western armed forces can learn.
On November 30th the Royal United Services Institute (rusi), a think-tank in London, published a detailed report* on the lessons from the first five months of the war, a period when Ukraine was largely on the defensive. The authors—including Mykhaylo Zabrodsky, a Ukrainian lieutenant-general, and a pair of rusi analysts—enjoyed extensive access to Ukrainian military data and decision-making. Their findings paint a more complex picture than the popular notion of a Russian horde coming unstuck in the face of nimble Ukrainians.
The invasion failed, but it was not foreordained to do so. Russia’s army had 12 soldiers north of Kyiv for each Ukrainian one, and Russia attacked 75% of Ukraine’s stationary air-defence sites by air in the first 48 hours of war. A Russian cyber-attack successfully disrupted Ukraine’s satellite communications. Ukraine endured this initial blitz largely because it had the foresight to disperse its munitions stockpiles from main arsenals a week before the invasion, with those efforts accelerating three days before the war. Aircraft and air-defence systems were dispersed within hours of the attack. As a result, only a tenth of mobile air-defence sites were struck.
That means armies need to fight differently. Concealment is one option, but it is “exceedingly difficult to sustain”, concludes rusi, because different types of sensors—such as optical cameras that pick up movement, thermal ones that sense heat and electronic antennas that pick up emissions of radios—can be “layered” on top of each other to spot even well-hidden troops. Another solution is to use hardened structures, like concrete pillboxes and bunkers. But these tend to fix soldiers to one place. The best way of surviving is simply to disperse and move more quickly than the enemy can spot you. Even Ukrainian special forces, who tend to operate in small teams, are spotted by Russian drones if they remain in one place for too long.
Contrary to popular wisdom, Javelin and nlaw anti-tank missiles supplied by America and Britain did not save the day, despite featuring heavily in video footage from the first week of the conflict. Nor did Turkey’s tb2 drones, which struggled to survive after day three. “The propaganda value of Western equipment…was extremely high at the beginning of the war,” noted Jack Watling of rusi, one of the report’s authors, recently on “The Russia Contingency”, a podcast on Russian military issues. “It didn’t really have a substantial material effect on the course of the fighting…until…April.” The decisive factor was more prosaic, he added. “What blunted the Russians north of Kyiv was two brigades of artillery firing all their barrels every day.
The pivotal role of artillery is a sobering thought for western European armies, whose firepower has dwindled dramatically since the end of the cold war. From 1990 to 2020, the number of artillery pieces among large European armies declined by 57%, according to a tally by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, another think-tank in London. Ukraine’s arsenal was formidable. It started the war with over 1,000 barrel artillery systems (those with long tubes) and 1,680 multiple-rocket launchers—more than Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Poland put together, and the largest artillery force in Europe after Russia. The principal constraint was ammunition.
Ukraine maintained “artillery parity” for around six weeks, far longer than almost any Western army would have managed under the same circumstances. Then it began running out of shells, giving Russia a ten-to-one advantage in the volume of fire by June, an imbalance that persisted until Ukraine received an influx of advanced Western artillery systems, including the American himars. “[C]onsumption rates in high-intensity warfighting remain extraordinarily high,” note the authors. Few Western countries have the capacity to build new weapons, spare parts and ammunition at the rate required. “nato members other than the us are not in a strong position on these fronts.”
Drones have played a vital role, though largely for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance rather than for strike missions. Russian units which had their own drones, rather than relying on those from a higher headquarters, could rain down “highly responsive fires”, says rusi, striking targets within three to five minutes of detecting them—a remarkably speedy sensor-shooter loop by historical standards. The figure for units without their own drones was around half an hour—with lower accuracy.
But a key lesson from Ukraine is that armies need more drones than they think. Around 90% of all drones used by the Ukrainian armed forces between February and July were destroyed, notes rusi. The average life expectancy of a fixed-wing drone was approximately six flights; that of a simpler quadcopter a paltry three. Such attrition would chew up the fleets of European armies in a matter of days.
It puts a premium on cheap and simple systems, which can be treated as near-disposable, rather than tiny fleets of large and expensive drones, with big liquid-fuelled engines, carrying advanced sensors. That, in turn, requires a larger number of trained personnel who can fly them, and a more relaxed attitude towards their use in peacetime. “At present, there are fewer administrative restrictions for [Britain’s] Royal Artillery to fire live 155-mm howitzer munitions over civilian roads,” sniffs rusi, “than for them to fly a [drone] over the same airspace to monitor what they are hitting.”
The war also shows how drones can be defeated. One approach is old-fashioned deception. Ukrainian forces found that when Russian reconnaissance units marked their positions with laser designators, they could respond by launching smoke grenades to obscure their whereabouts. But that also tended to blind the defending unit. The most important way of countering drones, says rusi, is to use electronic warfare (ew), a weapon whose invisibility has left it languishing in the shadows.
Russian ew has forced Ukraine to constrain how it uses its drones. In theory they can be remotely piloted over Russian targets and send back live footage to an artillery unit. In practice, the radio emissions required for navigation and communications, from both the drone and ground station, can be detected, and in some cases disrupted, by electronic attack. So Ukraine has instead had to fly many of its drones on pre-set routes, with the data downloaded on return. That is often hours later, by which time the target might have moved. Ukrainian data suggest that only a third of drone missions prove to be successful.
Russia’s army, since Soviet times, has supposedly been at the forefront of the field and practised using electronic warfare extensively in Syria, often causing havoc to civilian airliners in the area. It has undoubtedly been a serious challenge for Ukraine. But it is not always easy to use and fratricide is common. Mr Watling tells the story of two Russian pilots overheard complaining that their radars are scrambled. They quickly realise that their own ew pods—small missile-like attachments which can trick radars—are each targeting the other’s radar. The pods are duly turned off, forcing the planes to fly without electronic protection in a dangerous zone
It is easy to recount such stories of fratricide in order to send up the hapless Russians. But would Western armed forces fare much better in a similar situation? Mr Watling is sceptical. “We don’t have many exercise areas where we can actually turn all of our ew equipment on,” he says. “We can do it in niche contexts. We have not tested doing it at scale.” ■
* “Preliminary Lessons in Conventional Warfighting from Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: February–July 2022” by Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, Jack Watling, Oleksandr V. Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds, Royal United Services Institute, November 30th 2022
Kanye’s West’s “traveling roadshow of right-wing internet fame balls” may be the topic of the week, but according to Fever Dreams host Will Sommer, fame, like money, does not equal happiness. In this week’s episode, Sommer and co-host Kelly Weill discuss the aftermath of Ye’s controversial dinner with former President Donald Trump last week. Notably though, it was Ye’s guest, the white nationalist Nick Fuentes, that had tongues wagging. Then, Cerise Castle, who covers the presence of gangs in the LA Sheriff’s Department in her new podcast, A Tradition of Violence, explains what it takes to become a member.
Holy shit – I didn’t know anything about these gangs.
The idea that meditation is a “mind science” is popular, but in this interview Canadian philosopher Evan Thompson argues that this claim does not stand up to either scientific or philosophical scrutiny. As one of the pioneers of the Embodied Cognition movement Thompson reminds us that the Mind is not restricted to the Brain and we must also consider how other recent discoveries in neuroscience fail to support the claim that meditation provides neutral scientific insight into how the Mind really works.
Well, it seems the Loser of Oz (and Pennsylvania, thankfully) is desperate to get his old TV show back … or ANY TV gig for that matter… but no one will have him.
Oh the schadenfreude of it all! It’s almost too much for me to take (I said almost).
According to Jezebel, Yahoo and several other news outlets and sources:
Dr. Mehmet Oz left his syndicated TV show to pursue a deeply embarrassing run for Senate in Pennsylvania—where he does not live—and spent nearly $27 million of his own money, before losing the state by a bigger margin than Donald Trump did in 2020. The whole thing was a spectacular self-own. Now this man is reportedly desperate to get back on TV, and the industry is not particularly interested in his comeback.
“No one in the mainstream will touch him,” a source told RadarOnline. “You can’t alienate half of your audience with a political stance and expect to bring in an audience on your return to television.”
The Dr. Oz Show was cancelled when he announced his campaign for the PA Senate seat. And now Oz is reportedly groveling to everyone he knows in hopes of reviving his daytime show (or anything else to get himself back on TV) but no one, including his former producers will even TALK to him!
Apparently, he is too toxic for TV, especially his old show where the TV viewers are mostly women.
Also:
The campaign badly damaged Oz’s reputation, as media outlets reported on his questionable medical advice and naked opportunism. But it’s not just his history as an insanely rich quack that compromised him—it was also the damaging reporting that his medical research killed more than 300 dogs, him speaking at a high-dollar fundraiser in front of Hitler’s car, and his stupid comments about abortion.
But don’t worry, Loser, you might be able to get a gig on Faux or Newsmax.
Oh wait….
That may not go over very well since, you know, he lost.
“The last thing that conservatives want to hear right now is Dr. Oz giving political advice,” as Fox News contributor Joe Concha told The Wrap. “I’m not sure a lot of people want to be hearing from Dr. Oz after losing what would have been — if he won that, Republicans could have taken over the Senate.”
[…] Free speech is when you pay me money for goods or services. That’s free speech. When you do not give me money, that is censorship. Every second that you spend not paying me money for my services is another arrow stuck into the craw of liberty. Ah, liberty bleeds, and I weep for her! Please give me thousands of dollars; it is the only thing that can save her. Even if you must give them to me in small increments of $8 at a time, that is better than nothing. I believe that if you give me enough money (speech), we can still rescue this godforsaken country! […]
Reginald Selkirk@50, Supersizing the Mind.
This was in fact one of the first topics I commented on way back in 2008 (I think) when I first posted on Pharyngula. Really annoyed some numpty whose name I’ve forgotten, who thought I was proposing some supernaturalist woo-woo, and simply wouldn’t understand that I wasn’t.
An Iranian man was shot dead by security forces after Iran’s national team lost to the US and exited the World Cup, as anti-government demonstrations took place inside and outside the stadium in Qatar and across Iran.
Mehran Samak, 27, was shot dead after honking his car horn in Bandar Anzali, a city on the Caspian Sea coast, north-west of Tehran, according to human rights activists.
Samak “was targeted directly and shot in the head by security forces … following the defeat of the national team against America”, said the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR).
The contest between the two countries which severed diplomatic ties more than 40 years ago took place against a backdrop of violent repression in Iran after protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, in September.
Iran’s security forces have killed at least 448 people in the crackdown on the protests, including 60 children under the age of 18 and 29 women, according to IHR.
In an extraordinary twist, Iranian international midfielder Saeid Ezatolahi, who played in the US match and is from Bandar Anzali, revealed that he knew Samak and posted a picture of them together in a youth football team.
“After last night’s bitter loss, the news of your passing set fire to my heart,” said Ezatolahi on Instagram, describing Samak as a “childhood teammate”.
He did not comment on the circumstances of his friend’s death but said: “Some day the masks will fall, the truth will be laid bare.”
He added: “This is not what our youth deserve. This is not what our nation deserves.”
Ezatolahi, distraught at the result, had been seen after the final whistle being comforted both by his teammates and the US players.
Many Iranians had refused to support the national team, and after the match on Tuesday night, footage on social media showed crowds cheering and setting off fireworks….
The House Jan. 6 committee will release transcripts of interviews investigators conducted in the course of their investigation into the attack on the Capitol, the panel’s chairman, Bennie Thompson, said Wednesday. … The transcripts will be made public at the same time as the committee’s long-awaited report summarizing and detailing the probe, Thompson said, adding that he expects they would be released before the Christmas holiday.
In a terrorism advisory bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday raised concerns about potential threats to the LGBTQ, Jewish and migrant communities from violent extremists inside the United States.
Americans motivated by violent ideologies pose a “persistent and lethal threat,” a senior DHS official told reporters in a briefing on the bulletin. Intelligence officials across the federal government have consistently highlighted the growing threat of American extremists in recent years, while explaining that foreign threats such as the Islamic State terrorist group and Al Qaeda are no longer as persistent as they once were.
The bulletin was the latest summary of national terrorism threats, a document that has been updated about every six months since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Some extremists have been inspired by recent attacks, including the shooting at the LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the bulletin said.
Asked if recent antisemitic remarks by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, contributed to increased threats to Jewish people, a senior DHS official said any high-profile official or celebrity trafficking in conspiracy theories only serves to ignite violence among extremists.
“Certainly the Jewish community seems particularly targeted in recent days by that kind of activity in our discourse,” the official said….
The Biden administration is considering a dramatic expansion in the training the US military provides to Ukrainian forces, including instructing as many as 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers a month at a US base in Germany, according to multiple US officials.
If adopted, the proposal would mark a significant increase not just in the number of Ukrainians the US trains but also in the type of training they receive. Since the start of the conflict in February, the US has trained only a few thousand Ukrainian soldiers, mostly in small groups, on specific weapons systems.
Under the new program, the US would begin training much larger groups of Ukrainian soldiers in more sophisticated battlefield tactics, including how to coordinate infantry maneuvers with artillery support – “much more intense and comprehensive” training than Ukraine has been receiving in Poland or the UK, according to one source briefed on the proposal.
The proposal, which was made at the behest of Ukraine, is still under interagency review by the administration. News of its existence comes more than nine months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as the onset of winter is expected to slow military operations.
A senior Biden administration official declined to comment on the specifics of the planning, telling CNN that “we won’t get ahead of decisions that haven’t been made, but we are constantly looking for ways to make sure the Ukrainians have the skills they need to succeed on the battlefield as Ukraine defends their territory from Russian aggression.”…
The Winter War began on 30 November 1939, when the Soviet Union attacked Finland without declaring war.
The fighting lasted 105 days. Tens of thousands sacrificed their lives so that we could celebrate 105 years of independence on 6 December.
#OnThisDay
The fighting took a heavy toll:
– more than 25,000 dead
– around 44,000 wounded
– more than a thousand civilian casualties
– around 430,000 lost their homes due to loss of territory
Soviet losses were many times higher.
Ukraine is fighting against the aggressor for its independence and territorial integrity.
Finland is supporting Ukraine in many ways and will continue its support for as long as is necessary.
..
The winter will further increase the need for assistance in #Ukraine.
For private individuals, the most effective way to help is by donating money to aid organisations. Learn more about how to help on the Ministry of the Interior’s website:…
In the latest setback for Donald J. Trump, the restaurant at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, has received an avalanche of scathing Tripadvisor reviews from white nationalists.
Although the publicity surrounding Trump’s recent dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes seemed likely to boost the club’s popularity with anti-Semitic foodies, the one-star reviews from neo-Nazis suggest otherwise.
One Tripadvisor reviewer, using the handle JosephGoebbels2024, echoed the opinions of other white-nationalist commenters when he complained that the Mar-a-Lago restaurant had “slow service,” “drab décor,” and “too many ethnic dishes.”
According to a source close to Trump, the former President was shaken by the one-star reviews. “He kind of assumed that, no matter what, the white supremacists would be with him,” the source said. “He had no idea they were such picky eaters.”
QAnon leader Phil Godlewski, when he was a 25-year-old high school baseball coach, repeatedly had sex with a 15-year-old high school girl. In 2008, Godlewski had wormed his way into the girl’s (identified as B.D.) affections by consoling her as she grieved for her boyfriend, who had killed himself.
In 2010, the authorities arrested and charged him with various crimes stemming from his predatory behavior. After negotiating a plea bargain, Godlewski pled guilty to the corruption of a minor and the court sentenced him to three months of house arrest. (If that seems light, the reason will become apparent.)
In the years afterward, Godlewski discovered QAnon and its adherents. He soon realized he could roll those gullible rubes for profit. He started promoting the QAnon conspiracy with lengthy, live-stream, rambling videos that were nectar to his deluded fans.
He accumulated more than 600,000 followers on the social media app Telegram and 156,000 subscribers on the alternative video platform Rumble. Then, when he had hooked the gullible, Godlewski convinced them to sign up for financial ‘opportunities’ like a multilevel marketing scheme selling silver. By 2022, Godlewski had finagled enough cash to buy a $1.7 million house.
Godlewski’s arrest disappeared from public view until 2021 when a reporter at the Scranton Times-Tribune wrote a profile on the upstart QAnon promoter. In it, he mentioned Godlewski’s conviction. And his online critics seized on his criminal history to suggest he was not the upstanding QAnon believer (oxymoron?) he claims to be.
Godlewski decided to fight back against the newspaper with a defamation lawsuit. It was a monumental error. Had Godlewski consulted a crisis management firm, they would have undoubtedly advised him to say something like, “I have made mistakes I deeply regret. But my relationship with God has saved me. I owe it all to Jesus.” His sales would have doubled.
Instead, he pursued the Trumpian approach of fighting back. He sued the paper, assuring his followers that the reporter had “taken the bait.” In live-stream videos, Godlewski insisted there was nothing to the investigation, claiming B.D.’s mother was behind the criminal case because she wanted his money and calling his victim a “conniving” schemer who faked the texts he sent. He raised more than $26,000 in a crowdfunding campaign to pay for his lawsuit.
However, because he was now party to a lawsuit claiming the paper had damaged his reputation, the Times-Tribune was legally entitled to see the evidence and police reports from his 2010 case. And now they are a matter of public record.
Included are dirty texts and a video of his erection. And more information from the police. This revealed that Godlewski had showered B.D. with gifts, including a $2,800 pair of diamond earrings — confirmed by a letter from her parents filed into the defamation record.
Then there are tons of texts — including 300 in one day alone. Here is a sampling,
Godlewski wrote that they would only “ever be sexually satisfied if we did it like 4-5 times a day.”
He said the teenager, “looked so good and [was] giving incredible head” while lamenting his own sexual performance.
And “Realized that you’re only 15, but quickly stopped caring,”
And “Why are we so compatible? I’m 10 years older than you.”
Godlewski’s lawyer Timothy M. Kolman did his best by claiming that “any sexual relationship occurred when the couple were of age.” Nice try. But texts are dated.
Adding to the evidence against him is a recent affidavit from B.D. in which she claims that Godlewski contacted her before his 2010 trial and begged her to recant her claims against him, threatening to kill himself if she didn’t. Believing him, she stopped cooperating with law enforcement in the case. Which, in all likelihood, is why his sentence was so light.
For some reason, Godlewski persisted in his story that he had never had sex with B.D. — even when she was an adult. But, of course, there are more texts. Including one in 2021, in which he expressed his condolences on her grandfather’s death—and alluded to their sexual relationship. “I had no idea your Popa died. I’m so sorry. I think we had sex in their bed though.”
In a reply that will disturb home sellers, she texted, “We’ve probably had sex in like 40% of the homes in northeastern Pennsylvania,” an allusion to Godlewski’s use of his second job as a real estate agent to use for-sale houses for their liaisons.
Then Godlewski sent the woman a picture of his erect penis and claimed it had “got bigger.”
Godlewski compounded his problems when he reacted to discovery requests by claiming he had no texts. The newspaper’s attorney rebutted his lie in a November 2021 motion “These text messages did not slip [Godlewski’s] mind. He intentionally failed to disclose them in discovery for this lawsuit.”
Caught lying, Godlewski changed his tune. In a November 26 video for his fans, he admitted messaging the woman, saying he was also drunkenly text-flirting with at least a dozen other women simultaneously. Godlewski also claimed his marriage fell apart after the Times-Tribune article — I wonder why?
In the video, while seated in front of a woodcut model of the QAnon motto “Where we go one, we go all” he claimed he was so drunk during these flirting sessions he would fall down intoxicated and urinate on himself. Adding,
“I was flirting with every girl that ever knew me,” Godlewski said. “Some of y’all watching may have been a part of that.”
That is his defense? I have nothing.
Godleski’s lawyer tried some victim blaming by claiming the woman’s damaging affidavit had a “troubling and coercive background.” I do not even know what that means.
And if this cake needed icing, Godleski added it. In May 2022, during the defamation case. Godlewski again texted B.D. to once again attempt to pervert justice. He alluded to a “financial windfall” that he could not discuss in person, which would require them to work together. “I think it might be fair to say that here is a very, very large, and very, very unique financial opportunity that exists in front of you,” Godlewski wrote, according to text message records entered into the court record.
The paper’s lawyers referred to this witness tampering “Not only did Philip Godlewski commit a sex crime against a 15-year-old girl in 2009-2010, he has now solicited this same person to commit perjury in a Court proceeding so he can enrich himself.”
Being a rabid right-winger, Godlewski also texted, “I don’t trust those motherfuckers and I am literally foaming at the mouth to take them down once and for all.” […]
The president of Stanford University is the author of papers under scrutiny…
The president of Stanford has his reputation under the microscope because of scientific research papers he co-authored years ago.
It’s a story involving detectives, ethics, and concerns about inaccuracy.
“The problem is that there are concerns about the images in these papers, and the figures in these papers,” said Dr. Elisabeth Bik, science integrity consultant.
She was called in to investigate papers appearing in The EMBO Journal.
The concern, first reported in the Stanford Daily, is that University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne may have helped to create and publish papers knowing they contained errors.
“His name is an author on these papers, and in some cases he’s the corresponding author, so he’s the ultimate responsible person for that paper,” said Bik.
NBC Bay Area reached out to Stanford about the investigation and received a statement reading in part, “The university will assess the allegations presented. In the case of the papers in question that list President Tessier-Lavigne as an author, the process will be overseen by the board of trustees.”
An investigation ethicists say should be independent.
“Making sure that every T is crossed and every I is dotted and that there are no manipulated images,” said Don Heider, chief executive of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
The EMBO Journal is also reviewing the study.
“When it comes to academic research, especially the kind of research he does, science is built on this kind of research, and science that could affect human beings,” said Heider
Tessier-Lavigne is well-known in the biotech field, having worked at Genentech, before teaching, then leading Stanford.
I would like to point out that up until a certain movie came out almost three decades ago, raptor universally meant a bird of prey. Now it primarily means a type of bipedal dinosaur.
Both kinds of Raptors are bipedal dinosaurs. The white eagle is much more appealing than the extinct carnivorous type.
A team of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, working with a colleague from Syngenta Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre in the U.K., has developed a way to synthesize cocaine using a tobacco plant. The group describes how they synthesized the notorious drug and possible uses for their process in their paper published in Journal of the American Chemical Society…
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Nearly half of Ukraine’s electricity grid still damaged
A private energy company in Ukraine has said that 40% of the country’s power infrastructure is damaged, as Russian attacks continue to target the supply.
Millions have been without or with intermittent power since October, as Russia has focused on Ukraine’s energy system.
“Russia has destroyed 40% of the Ukrainian energy system with terrorist missile attacks. Dozens of energy workers were killed and wounded,” DTEK company said in a statement on social media.
“Electrical engineers are doing everything possible and impossible to stabilise the situation regarding energy supply,” the company said, according to Agence France-Presse, adding its technical teams are working “day and night” to quickly repair the infrastructure.
Nine people were confirmed to have died on Tuesday according to authorities, as incidents have increased where Ukrainians are trying to find alternative sources of energy, including generators and gas cylinders, both of which can be dangerous.
EU leader urges China to use influence on Russia to end war in Ukraine
The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has urged China’s top leaders to use their influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Michel, who chairs EU leader summits, held talks with Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Thursday, in the first face-to-face encounter between the head of an EU institution and China’s top officials since the start of the pandemic.
Speaking to reporters, Michel said the pair had met for around three hours, where they spent “a lot of time” discussing the situation in Ukraine. Michel said he had urged Xi to use its influence as a permanent member of the UN security council to convince Russia to accept international law….
An investigation is under way into a suspected letter bomb sent to the US embassy in Madrid.
It would be the sixth after five were sent to the Ukrainian embassy and Spanish government officials on Wednesday.
Spanish police confirmed to the Reuters news agency that an envelope similar to the previous letter bombs had been intercepted at the embassy.
The road outside the embassy in the Spanish capital is closed with police on the scene….
Russia has pulled back forces from towns opposite Kherson, says Ukraine
Ukraine’s military said Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnieper River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main frontline in the south.
The statement gave only limited details and made no mention of any Ukrainian forces having crossed the Dnipro. Ukrainian officials also stressed that Russia had intensified shelling across the river, knocking out power again in Kherson where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops vacated the city and fled across the river.
Since Russia abandoned Kherson last month, nine months into its invasion of Ukraine, the river now forms the entire southern stretch of the front, Reuters reported.
Russia has already told civilians to leave towns within 15 km of the river and withdrawn its civilian administration from the city of Nova Kakhovka on the bank. Ukrainian officials have previously said Russia pulled back some artillery near the river to safer positions further away, but until now had stopped short of saying Russian forces were quitting towns.
“A decrease in the number of Russian soldiers and military equipment is observed in the settlement of Oleshky,” the military said, referring to the town opposite Kherson city, on the far side of a destroyed bridge over the Dnipro.
“Enemy troops were withdrawn from certain settlements of the Kherson oblast and dispersed in forest strips along the section of the Oleshky – Hola Prystan highway,” it said, referring to a 25-km (15-mile) stretch of road through riverside towns scattered in woods on the bank opposite Kherson city.
It said most of the Russian troops in the area are recently mobilised reservists, suggesting that Moscow’s best-trained professional troops had already left. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
ravensays
Gas prices are dropping rapidly.
They are now at the level they were before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
There are a lot of reasons for this but one is that demand for gasoline is somewhat elastic.
Meaning when prices are high, people buy less by taking fewer trips and in the long term, buying more fuel efficient vehicles.
U.S. gas prices plunge toward $3 a gallon as demand drops worldwide
The average price of gas is back to where it was before Russia invaded Ukraine. It is putting real money back in Americans’ wallets.
Washington Post
By Evan Halper
November 30, 2022 at 1:52 p.m. EST
The average nationwide price of a gallon of regular gas Wednesday was $3.50, according to AAA. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News)
The cost of gasoline is falling so fast that it is beginning to put real money back in the pockets of drivers, defying earlier projections and offering an unexpected gift for the holidays.
Filling up is now as cheap as it was in February, just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine touched off a global energy crisis. AAA reported the average nationwide price of a gallon of regular Wednesday was $3.50, and gas price tracking company GasBuddy projected it could drop below $3 by Christmas. And all of that relief probably helped drive robust shopping over Thanksgiving weekend.
“People are realizing that they might be back to spending $50 to fill their tank instead of $80,” said Emma Rasiel, a professor of economics at Duke University. “It is the main signal consumers notice on inflation. It is the one thing they are likely to track, how much it has gone up or down, because every week they need to fill up their car.”
But Rasiel cautioned that less-expensive gas can also give consumers the wrong idea. Prices of other goods and services are much less volatile, and there is no indication that this moment of more-affordable fuel is pushing the cost of other things down.
Even as the plunge in prices at the pump helps fuel a national holiday shopping spree, it is a reflection of the financial strain consumers and businesses are confronting worldwide. Prices are going down because demand for oil and gas is falling as countries brace for recession, coronavirus outbreaks in China threaten major financial disruption and drivers cut back on gas-guzzling as they try to save money to cover skyrocketing mortgage payments and stock market losses.
Earlier worries that sanctions on Russian oil would create a shortage in supply and send prices soaring toward the end of the year have, for now at least, given way to ailing economies and jittery financial markets.
“We’re heading into serious recession in Europe and further economic slowdown in the U.S. as people struggle with high interest rates and worry about their personal wealth and savings,” said Ben Cahill, an energy security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Add it all up and it creates a bleak picture for oil demand. Prices are reflecting that.”
Also helping keep prices low at the moment are some key U.S. oil refineries that returned to churning out gasoline after months of being out of commission for maintenance and repairs.
But just as big a factor is the turmoil in China. As its leaders signal that new coronavirus lockdowns are imminent, touching off protests throughout the country, the expected economic fallout has turned oil traders bearish.
[Inside the Biden team’s fixation on gas prices]
China alone accounted for 16 percent of global oil demand last year, according to the research firm Capital Economics, which projects its purchase of oil will drop by 1 million barrels per day in December as coronavirus infections spread. The effect of such a drop on global oil markets is considerable, reducing the price of Brent crude by as much as $10 a barrel, or more than 10 percent.
“With COVID cases soaring to record highs in China and the threat of widespread lockdowns there increasing, the key question is how much demand could fall, freeing up supply for the rest of the world,” Edward Gardner, a commodities economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note.
While the high cost of gasoline over much of the past year was a major factor in the crushing inflation that hit the United States and other countries, the dip in fuel costs is doing little to stabilize the economy. Manufacturers that rely on large amounts of fuel need to see sustained low prices for months before they adjust the costs of the products they sell, analysts say. And drivers in some parts of the country are benefiting significantly more than in others. Californians are still paying an average of almost $5 for a gallon of regular.
“This is a pretty delicately held-together price decline,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, noting that any number of geopolitical or economic events could send prices rebounding.
There are other big factors making the price outlook murky. The United States and Europe are negotiating a price cap on Russian oil, to take effect Monday. The plan is to allow Russian oil to continue to flow into global markets but at prices that limit profits the Kremlin can use to sustain its war machine.
Such a price cap has never been imposed on a major oil-producing nation, and it threatens to trigger further instability. If the cap is set very low, as some European nations are advocating, Moscow could retaliate by cutting off its supply, creating a surge in prices globally.
Another wild card is the OPEC Plus consortium of oil-producing nations, which meets next week to consider how much oil its members should continue to ship in the coming months. The group could decide to cut its output to drive prices up.
“The OPEC meeting could be the skunk at the picnic,” said Andrew Gross, a spokesman for AAA. “Trying to guess what they are going to do is tricky.”
[How Joe Manchin’s change of heart could revive the U.S. solar industry]
Those are the kinds of things that worry John Catsimatidis, who owns hundreds of gas stations and a refinery — but not because they could affect his fuel business. When the businessman talks about gas prices, he is more focused on what they could ultimately mean for another business in his multibillion-dollar empire, the one focused on developing real estate.
Rising borrowing costs have made that enterprise much more challenging. A six-month stretch of $3 gas, he said, could help ease inflation and signal that it’s safe for the Federal Reserve to ease its recent rate hikes.
“If we get the price down and it stays there, we could fix the problem of inflation and the Fed can stop raising interest rates and putting everybody out of business,” Catsimatidis said.
One thing that is clear is that there is little leaders in Washington can do to keep gas prices down. They are at the mercy of global markets.
The Biden administration is probably pressuring Saudi Arabia, which dominates OPEC Plus, not to cut its output. But the administration’s lack of influence over such things was clear the last time OPEC Plus met, in October, when the group snubbed Washington’s request that it boost output, instead cutting it by 2 million barrels per day.
The administration last week eased sanctions on Venezuela as part of a bid to get oil flowing from that country again. But it will be many months before Venezuelan petroleum is shipped, and only marginal amounts will be available initially.
Most drivers are paying little attention to the broader dynamics of the global oil market. But even they are taking a cautious approach, despite maybe splurging on holiday gifts.
Data collected by AAA suggests they are sticking with the conservation-minded driving habits embraced when gas soared past $5 a gallon, lumping more errands into single car trips, driving at slower speeds, only partially filling their gas tanks. Prices may have plunged, but drivers are not taking their foot off the brake.
That much is also clear in the outlook of consumers, which often improves when gas prices drop. But the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index suggests this stretch of cheaper gas is getting overshadowed by other financial challenges straining Americans. Even as gas prices dropped, the national survey shows, consumer anxiety grew in November.
“Even though prices of gas have come down, prices of other things are still high,” said Joanne Hsu, who directs the university’s surveys of consumers. “There is a feeling of tremendous uncertainty.”
There are definitely times when you wish the early reports were wrong. [Tweet with images showing visual confirmation that Russian forces (Wagner) captured two towns.]
We’re starting this morning by looking at the two areas where intensive combat operations are underway: In the area around Bakhmut and along the line from Svatove to Kreminna.
For eight months, Russia has been attempting to press toward Bakhmut from every direction. This is the location for which the Wagner mercenary group has made repeat visits to Russian prisons, recruiting people to die fighting to obtain the same blocks over and over. It’s also the location where the gain and losses have been measured in such ridiculously small increments that observers have become intimately familiar with what is on each block. The hardware store. The cement factory. Or, to be more honest, they’ve become familiar with what shows up when you look at the map on Google—because all those businesses are now rubble.
In the effort to take Bakhmut, Russia has sometimes blanketed the streets east of the city with bodies. An October advance that seemed to show Russia finally reaching the outer blocks of Bakhmut proper was followed by a swift pushback from Ukraine that drove Wagner out of the town and back to positions it held in August. Then Russia went right back to attacking again.
However, it’s possible that in the last few days, the static situation may have changed.
We’re starting this morning by looking at the two areas where intensive combat operations are underway: In the area around Bakhmut and along the line from Svatove to Kreminna.
For eight months, Russia has been attempting to press toward Bakhmut from every direction. This is the location for which the Wagner mercenary group has made repeat visits to Russian prisons, recruiting people to die fighting to obtain the same blocks over and over. It’s also the location where the gain and losses have been measured in such ridiculously small increments that observers have become intimately familiar with what is on each block. The hardware store. The cement factory. Or, to be more honest, they’ve become familiar with what shows up when you look at the map on Google—because all those businesses are now rubble.
In the effort to take Bakhmut, Russia has sometimes blanketed the streets east of the city with bodies. An October advance that seemed to show Russia finally reaching the outer blocks of Bakhmut proper was followed by a swift pushback from Ukraine that drove Wagner out of the town and back to positions it held in August. Then Russia went right back to attacking again.
However, it’s possible that in the last few days, the static situation may have changed.
[video at the link] Video on Wednesday of Russian forces trying to take a location in Bakhmut with just six troops was labeled as Russia attempting to “storm” the location. Six people is not a storm. It’s barely a sprinkle. If Wagner is trying to simply reduce the population of the Russian prison system, surely there are simpler methods than this. [map at the link]
However, over the last two weeks, Russia has reportedly been making advances south of Bakhmut. In the process, Russian forces seem to have finally overrun positions that had held since the siege of the area began. Most importantly, in the last two days, Russian sources have claimed that they have captured all of Kurdyumivka. On Tuesday, those same sources claimed that Russian forces were advancing from that location, threatening the villages of Bila Hora and Dyliivka to the west.
The last official mention from Ukrainian sources indicated that Russia had gained control of portions of both Kurdyumivka and Ozarianivka, but local sources are indicating that on this one occasion, Russia doesn’t appear to be exaggerating its gains. Other sources have indicated Russian forces moving northwest, where they can pressure Ukrainians dug in around Klishchiivka.
Whether this breakthrough will eventually be significant, leading to Ukraine falling back from the line that has held over a period of almost eight months, or whether Ukrainian forces will respond and push back the Russian advance, or whether much of this capture proves to be illusory after all, is unclear. But at the moment, this seems to be the most concerning movement in the Bakhmut area since there has been a Bakhmut area to be concerned about.
Meanwhile, up the road, where Ukrainian forces have followed the liberation of Lyman by pressing into Luhansk oblast along a lengthy front, what’s happening remains … muddy. Both figuratively and literally.
Lyman was liberated in mid-October, and for much of the month that followed, Ukraine made slow but steady progress, moving the line forward, liberating small villages, and positioning themselves near the P66 and P07 highways that converge just west of Svatove. [map at the link]
But everything has been far from smooth. In early November, Russia launched an offensive at the south end of this area. It never achieved the “Now on to Lyman!” success that Russian sources claimed, but it did put towns like Makiivka and Neveske under heavy artillery fire and slowed Ukraine’s effort to capture towns north of Kreminna.
In the north, Ukrainian forces coming down the highway from Kupyansk ran into Russian forces positioned in wooded areas east of the road. Advancing has required moving past one ambush after another and moving down a road with an exposed flank, making a sustained push difficult. Right now, Ukrainian forces seem to have full control of the village of Novoselivske but haven’t apparently been able to dislodge Russian forces from the neighboring town of Kuzemivka. That has blocked reported plans to move to the east, allowing them to approach Svatove from the north.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces pushing directly toward Svatove have run into a very familiar factor that can be either friend or foe, depending on the situation: Mud.
Ukrainian forces approached the small villages of Popivka and Nezhuryne a month ago, but images even then showed tanks simply wallowing into position while non-tracked vehicles were axle-deep in muck. Ukraine apparently captured Popivka, and for several days appeared to have pushed Russian forces back far enough that the little place (“village” is almost overselling it) enjoyed something of a moment’s respite, but then Russia began shelling the location again.
Does Ukraine still hold Popivka? I think so. Have they dislodged Russia from Kuzemivka? Not according to any sources I’ve heard. But according to sources in the area, Ukraine is making advances toward Svatove. And some of those advances may be significant. [Tweet and video at the link]
Where along the line is this base? It’s been “geo confirmed” to be … along that line between Svatove and Kreminna. At the moment, I know no more than this.
Even though rains have diminished and cold weather is setting in across the region, you can see the condition of the ground in this video. Mud is still the name of the game. Ukraine has the T66 highway under artillery control, and has for weeks, but that doesn’t mean it can drive along that highway, because Russia also has the road under artillery control.
If Ukraine has been able to advance on the earlier gains down at Ploshchanka and gain an actual beachhead (bridgehead? Highwayhead?) by capturing areas on both sides of P66 and securing a clear route to bring their forces off the dirt roads and onto that route, things in Svatove-Kreminna might begin to move more quickly. Otherwise, pray for cold, dry weather.
On Wednesday, I mentioned the school training Ukrainian women to fly drones and the continued reliance on observation drones by both sides in this invasion. On the same day, The Economist ran an article concerning not just drones, but all the other “wonder weapons” that have been touted as game changers in the invasion of Ukraine.
The death of the tank was declared on the basis of snatched video footage. Turkish drones were hailed as unstoppable game-changers. Western anti-tank weapons were thrust into an early starring role. Now, nine months into the war, more considered reflections are emerging. There is much that Western armed forces can learn.
Those considered opinions are that all of the “hero weapons”—from St. Javelin to HIMARS o’clock—have had less impact on the war than many believe. What stopped that Russian convoy from advancing quickly to capture Kyiv in the opening days of the war? It wasn’t, as many seem to believe, Ukrainian forces launching portable weapons from ambush, or Bayraktars striking the columns as they moved slowly along the road from Belarus.
The decisive factor was more prosaic … “What blunted the Russians north of Kyiv was two brigades of artillery firing all their barrels every day.”
This by no means indicates that HIMARS or Javelins or drones of all sizes aren’t having a significant role in the conflict. But it does mean that many of the weapons aren’t working as well as, or in the ways that, many expected when the conflict began. As always, plans are only effective until they meet the enemy, and that’s even more true when it comes to plans that involve largely untested weapons systems.
The biggest role played by Javelins, Bayraktars, and the first arriving HIMARS may have been more psychological than physical—they gave Ukrainian forces hope, and they allowed Ukraine to publicize moments when it was able to punch back against what appeared to be an overwhelming force. That is no small thing. In fact, it may be more important than what actually happened on the ground, especially when it came to securing more Western assistance for Ukraine.
When it comes to drones, the role they are playing is both significant and expanding. But one factor that many are not considering is that, in a sense, every drone in Ukraine is a kamikaze drone, which is a factor that no other military has taken into account when thinking of how drones might be used in future conflicts.
A key lesson from Ukraine is that armies need more drones than they think. Around 90% of all drones used by the Ukrainian armed forces between February and July were destroyed, notes rusi. The average life expectancy of a fixed-wing drone was approximately six flights; that of a simpler quadcopter a paltry three. Such attrition would chew up the fleets of European armies in a matter of days.
All of this comes from a larger review by the Ukrainian military that is an absolute treasure trove of analysis concerning the opening months of the war. As soon as I have managed to read that full report, expect a more extensive look at the difference between the war-as-lived and the war-as-PR.
[Tweet and images of POW swap, showing 50 Ukrainian defenders returning home.]
In a paper published last week in the journal Paleontology and Evolutionary Science, paleontologists Elias Warshaw and Denver Fowler report the discovery of a 76.5 million-year-old fossil that they believe belonged to one of T. rex’s ancestors, a species now known as Daspletosaurus wilsoni.
And this dinosaur, expected to have lived during the Cretaceous period, seems to have been just as ferocious as its famous descendant. D. wilsoni, which literally translates to “Wilson’s frightful reptile,” after John P. Wilson who found the specimen to begin with, likely once had expended air pockets in its skull, a blue-grayish coloring, a set of sharp teeth and an elongated eye socket — rimmed with horns.
But in short, locating this species is a big deal for scientists because its existence could provide the “missing link” in T. rex’s family backstory, bridging a longstanding gap between older and younger tyrannosaur species named Daspletosaurus torosus and Daspletosaurus horneri, which lived about 77 to 75 million years ago, respectively…
[…] Trump’s floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, received another blow this week with the news that it has suffered a precipitous decline over the past couple of months. According to reports…
“Truth Social, the alternative social media platform founded by former President Donald Trump, has seen a consecutive two-month decline in unique visitors, according to a watchdog site that monitors conservative media.”
“TheRighting, which reports on and analyzes trends in the conservative media, found that the number of unique visitors to Truth Social dropped from 4.02 million in August — an all-time high — to 3.38 million in September, and then to 2.85 million in October.”
That’s a nearly 30% decline in only two months. And it comes at the time that Trump needs it the most. While Elon Musk has reinstated Trump’s suspended account on Twitter, Trump insists that he will not be going back to the site. If that’s true (doubtful), he would be forsaking his 80 million Twitter followers for the four million glassy-eyed disciples he has on Truth Social. That’s a pretty bad trade off, and one that hurts both Trump and Musk. […]
Russia planned to “subjugate” Ukraine in ten days and control it by summer as part of plans drawn up by a small group of officials led by Vladimir Putin. That’s according to a new report by Britain’s RUSI, an institute linked to Britain’s army, drawing on captured Russian orders.
Putin wrote his famous essay (asserting that Ukrainians and Russians were one people) in July 2021. That same month, the report says, the FSB was tasked with surveying Ukrainians. The result of their work seems to have been shaped by confirmation bias….
Russia’s army leadership said (and believed) it had achieved parity with the US due to military reforms. It devised a blitzkrieg plan, according to which several forces would seize different areas of Left Bank Ukraine. Only the Southern Military Command appeared to achieve goals….
Russian counterintelligence had been drawing up lists of Ukrainians:
– Those who were to be liquidated
-Those to be suppressed
– Those who could be induced to collaborate
-Collaborators
It considered most Ukrainians docile, to be controlled with electricity and heating.
The crushing of Ukrainian resistance was to culminate in monstrous show trials and executions of those involved in the Maidan Revolution:…
Meanwhile, Europe was to be kept inactive through targeted “blackmail” involving nuclear power plants….
The Russian plan did not assume any degree of Ukrainian agency. It was not subject to critical scrutiny and success was believed to be assured:…
My analysis: The report obviously was shaped by Ukrainian sources. It says that the initial Russian plan failed due to hubris and delusion. But it also seems that elements of it are being used in the occupied territories (eg. the Zaporizhzhya plant).
The report reflects Ukrainian decision-makers’ perspectives. A lot more reporting on the Russian plan is needed. This report, however, lines up with an investigation by the Washington Post:…
CNN political analyst Jonathan Martin reacts to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy warning House Republicans to back his bid for House Speaker and predicts what could happen if he loses.
“America is weak. Her sons are sickly and her daughters are decrepit,” Cawthorn began. “Our young men are taught that weakness is strength, that delicacy is desirable, and that being a soft metrosexual is more valuable than training the mind, body, and soul. Social media has weakened us, siphoning our men of their will to fight.”
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #79…
Perhaps Cawthorn should visit a few SCA events. I’d bet that if he got into armor, he’d be pounded into the ground like a stake.
The UK-based Royal United Services Institute defence and security thinktank published a paper on Wednesday that examined the early days of the Russian invasion in February.
A few snippets from the report’s executive summary. It believes that a Ukrainian victory is possible, but “it requires significant heavy fighting”.
The paper says that according to operational data from the Ukrainian general staff, Russia had a 12:1 advantage over the Ukrainian forces north of Kyiv in the immediate aftermath of the invasion.
The paper’s four authors said that the plan was to invade Ukraine over a 10 day period, which would have led to a full annexation by August 2022. It hoped to draw defending forces away from the capital, enabling a swift capture.
However it goes on to say: “The very operational security that enabled the successful deception, however, also led Russian forces to be unprepared at the tactical level to execute the plan effectively.
“The Russian plan’s greatest deficiency was the lack of reversionary courses of action. As a result, when speed failed to produce the desired results, Russian forces found their positions steadily degraded as Ukraine mobilised.”
It also claims that Russia planned to arrested and execute those involved in the 2014 Maidan revolution, which led to the resignation of pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych.
Rusi’s paper says that Russia underperformed tactically compared to expectations, and it was only superior weapons systems and Ukrainian troops using up their ammunition supply that has led to relative Russian successes.
The paper also paints a chaotic behind-the-scenes operation for Kremlin troops. It says the Russian army “are culturally averse to providing those who are executing orders with the context to exercise judgement”.
It also has lessons for UK and US forces. It says that it is only because of two artillery brigades that Ukrainian forces prevented Kyiv being captured, and initially it was able to match the resources of the Russians. However this has since shifted starkly in favour of Russia, and that the imbalance “must be rectified if deterrence is credible and is equally a problem for the [British] RAF and Royal Navy.”
Here’s the link to the RUSI report. From the executive summary:
…The tactical competence of the Russian military proved significantly inferior compared with the expectations of many observers based within and outside Ukraine and Russia. Nevertheless, Russian weapons systems proved largely effective, and those units with a higher level of experience demonstrated that the AFRF have considerable military potential, even if deficiencies in training and the context of how they were employed meant that the Russian military failed to meet that potential. Factoring in the idiosyncrasies of the Russian campaign, there are five key areas that should be monitored to judge whether the Russian military is making progress in resolving its structural and cultural deficiencies. These areas should be used to inform assessments of Russian combat power in the future.
1. The AFRF currently operate with a hierarchy of jointery [great phrase] in which the priorities of the land component are paramount, and the military as a whole is subordinate to the special services. This creates sub-optimal employment of other branches.
2. The AFRF force-generation model is flawed. It proposes the creation of amalgamated combined arms formations in wartime but lacks the strength of junior leadership to knit these units together.
3. There is a culture of reinforcing failure unless orders are changed at higher levels. This appears less evident in the Russian Aerospace Forces than in the Ground Forces and Navy.
4. The AFRF are culturally vulnerable to deception because they lack the ability to rapidly fuse information, are culturally averse to providing those who are executing orders with the context to exercise judgement, and incentivise a dishonest reporting culture.
5. The AFRF’s capabilities and formations are prone to fratricide. Electronic warfare (EW) systems and other capabilities rarely deconflict, while processes for identifying friend from foe and establishing control measures are inadequate. The result is that capabilities that should magnify one another’s effects must be employed sequentially….
QAnon leader inadvertently outs himself as a pedophile “groomer”
QAnon leader Phil Godlewski, when he was a 25-year-old high school baseball coach, repeatedly had sex with a 15-year-old high school girl.
It’s always projection, with these guys.
_
whheydt @80:
Perhaps Cawthorn should visit a few SCA events. I’d bet that if he got into armor, he’d be pounded into the ground like a stake.
I would garb up and pay money to see that—above site and non-member fees!
_
…Last weekend, Ukraine paused to mark the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor. Now, a new terror stalks our lands: the Kholodomor. Spelled with just one extra letter, this word means “death by freezing”. The words “hunger” and “cold” sound similar in Ukrainian, and the outcome is the same. Have you ever tried to imagine mass death from freezing? Millions of slow, torturous, painful deaths – no movie or book can convey these horrors, either, and we don’t even want to try to imagine them. But this is exactly the fate that the Russians are preparing for Ukraine today. For weeks now, with winter fast approaching, they have been peppering Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure with hundreds of missiles.
One extra letter makes no difference to the aim; the passing of 90 years make no difference. The essence is the same: genocide. The destruction of Ukraine, as an independent state, as a nation, as a free people. But again, the Kremlin’s attempts to swallow our state, piece by piece, as it did a century ago, are failing.
We repelled the attack on Kyiv. We pushed back the invaders from Kharkiv. We reclaimed Kherson. Now we see panicking Russian troops building fortifications in Crimea, rightly fearing that we will retake it, too. Donetsk and Luhansk will also return to Ukraine.
The aggressor state’s invasion was so pathetic that it has now chosen to follow the path of total terror. Turfed off the battlefields and fleeing from military combat, the Russian uniformed terrorists are now hitting Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. The power grid is their primary target. A blatant war crime.
In the western media, we sometimes read that this Kremlin strategy is an attempt to force Ukraine to sue for peace. This analysis is not completely accurate. Putin does not just want Ukraine to capitulate – he wants us to beg for mercy. He needs more than just an end to the war. He wants a triumph that will humiliate Russia’s enemies – not just Ukraine, but our western allies, too. The threat of humanitarian disaster that those Russian missiles carry serves the same purpose as the Holodomor 90 years ago: to subdue Ukraine, to break its ability to resist.
The Russian authorities mistakenly believe that Ukrainians will take to the Maidan (oh yeah, we always take to the Maidan!) in protests demanding an end to the war. The Russian authorities have far too long comforted themselves with the “one people” myth – that Ukrainians are essentially Russians. They do not understand that Ukrainians are different. We take to the streets because of injustice and the desire for freedom. We do not take to the streets to call for a future lived under the yoke of oppression.
Ukraine’s annus horribilis has taken an even darker turn. We are one step away from massive blackouts as the freezing winter approaches. Our armed forces intercept most of Russia’s missiles, but there are so many of them – several dozen in each salvo – and those that do hit are enough to leave millions of people dark and cold. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days.
But darkness will always be better than slavery. To stay free, we need further help from our friends and allies. Immediately. Now. Yesterday. We need reliable protection for our skies. We need resources to restore the power grids. We need generators to keep people warm while emergency workers repair broken infrastructure. In short, we need the light of hope.
To end Ukrainian civilisation, Russia believes that terminating the power supply might be enough. But they are wrong. Civilisation ends at the point where such evil is born. Civilisation is over for Russia.
Kanye’s InfoWars appearance is starting off great. [photo at the link]
There’s an interesting thing going on with the Kanye saga where these hucksters with big personalities rightly see him as a clout bonanza [see the Fever Dreams episode @ #48 above], but he doesn’t let anyone talk — to the extent that he started his InfoWars appearance yelling at people off-camera to stop talking.
That’s a reasonable trade for dumpsters-divers like Milo and Fuentes, who’s now left sitting silently on stage today with Kanye. But for people like Tim Pool and Alex Jones, they have their own stages already and get a bit restless, inevitably irritating Kanye.
This InfoWars appearance has already gone off the rails.
Alex Jones: You’re not Hitler, you’re not a Nazi.
Kanye: Well, I see good things about Hitler, also…Every human being has value that they brought to the tabled, especially Hitler.
Now Kanye is holding up a net of some kind and doing a high-pitched voice to mimic Benjamin Netanyahu, and saying Netanyahu might kill him.
Alex Jones is trying to close the segment, but Kanye keeps interrupting him with the Netanyahu voice and waving the net.
Jones: I don’t like Nazis
Kanye, as the commercial begins: I like Hitler.
Kanye: “They did good things too, we’ve got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time.”
This InfoWars interview with Kanye West is getting so thoroughly antisemitic that even Alex Jones is pushing back, after West has spent the last few minutes accusing Jews of being pedophiles. “I think most Jews are great people,” Jones says. “But I agree there’s a Jewish mafia.”
Honestly I’m not sure what to do here. I cannot tell you how unbelievably antisemitic this Kanye West Infowars interview is. This is straight up, old fashioned Naziism being mainstreamed from celebrities who are in the ear of the last U.S. president.
Getting a little horrifying. On Infowars, Kanye having a pretend conversation with Bibi Netanyahu (whose name he said he earlier learned two weeks ago). He brought a prop on a stick to argue with “Bibi” like a puppet, mockingly saying “I’m gonna take your family away from you.”
I cannot believe I’m saying this, but Alex Jones seems uncomfortable here, trying to get Kanye to take off the mask that covers his entire face and to at least slow down on the hatred of Jews.
“I’m not on that whole Jew thing,” Jones says.
This is just a shockingly antisemitic interview. However bad you think it is from the random quotes from Kanye today, it’s considerably worse. Overt Naziism that is making Alex Jones himself squirm.
It’s this kind of thing. Here is Kanye talking to a prop “Bibi Netanyahu” he brought with him. Unbelievably, this is one of the more tame parts of the interview. [video clip at the (Twitter) link]
…The tweet was deleted Thursday, as Ye was launching a lengthy antisemitic tirade during an appearance on the show InfoWars, hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who is known for promoting falsehoods around events like the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012….
Reginald Selkirksays
Looking for a good alternative to Tw#tter? Keep looking.
cicely @83, yes, “projection” is the right word. (That was such a yuck-inducing read about the QAnon leader.)
SC @85, 86 and 87. JFC. Kanye is certainly shooting himself in the foot multiple times. I noticed that he offhandedly blamed “the Jews” for pornography too (you can hear him say that in the video clip).
It is, however, kind of funny to see doofuses like Alex Jones trying to give Kanye an excuse or a way out, and then Kanye just digs the hole deeper and drags Alex Jones down with him.
Another journalist take a look at the Kanye West debacle:
Professional conspiracy promoter Alex Jones invited Kanye West onto his show today, one week after the rapper and antisemite West arranged a Mar-a-Lago dinner meeting with Donald Trump that included notorious white nationalist and antisemite Nick Fuentes. That meeting roiled the Republican Party, as there are few names more synonymous with America’s antisemitic far-right than Fuentes. Meanwhile. Fuentes and others on the far-right were giddy with their propaganda victory.
Jones presumably invited West and Fuentes onto his show as a bit of self-promotion. It immediately collapsed into antisemitic rants, praise for Adolf Hitler, and praise for Hitler’s Nazi Party. […]
West claimed at one point that “300 Zionists” are in control of the media and the government, speculated on pedophilia and the Talmud, and ranted bafflingly about Israeli political figure Benjamin Netanyahu. […]
It was his repeated and explicit praise for Hitler and Hitler’s Nazi movement that gained the most attention. […]
“The Jewish media has made us feel like the Nazis and Hitler have never offered anything of value to the world.”
“I don’t like the word evil next to Nazis. […] I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.”
“Woke culture is controlled by the Zionist media.”
[…] Kanye West’s Twitter account was personally reinstated by Elon Musk after Musk’s takeover of the company; West had previously been suspended from Twitter for other antisemitic remarks. West claimed during the interview that he would be allowing Fuentes and Jones to tweet from his reinstated Twitter account today—a move that would further test the limits of Musk’s support for antisemitic hate speech.
Whether West’s new outburst results in any action from the Republican Party (or Fox News) to further distance themselves from the antisemitic far-right is unknowable. […]
The Senate passed legislation Thursday to avoid an economically catastrophic rail strike, one day after the House approved the measure.
The bill now goes to President Joe Biden, who had pleaded with Congress to act swiftly, warning of major harm to supply chains that could disrupt clean drinking water and the movement of gasoline in an already fragile economy. He is expected to sign the bill.
The agreement, which required 60 votes, passed 80 to 15 with one senator voting present.
The chamber held three votes in succession, each requiring 60 votes for approval.
It rejected an amendment by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, to extend the “cooling off period” giving the relevant parties an extra 60 days beyond the Dec. 8 deadline to keep negotiating an agreement between unions and rail operators.
The Senate also rejected an amendment championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Democrats to add seven days of paid sick leave for rail workers to the agreement.
After that, the Senate voted to impose the agreement brokered by the Biden administration in September, approving legislation that already been passed by the House. While the deal was brokered by the White House and championed as a compromise, it was rejected by some of the unions.
At a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House, Biden defended the deal despite its lack of paid leave coverage that some Democrats were demanding, blaming Republicans for voting against it.
The president said he’ll continue to fight for paid leave after the agreement is approved by Congress and a rail strike is averted.
“I think we’re gonna get it done, but not within this agreement,” he said. “We’re going to avoid the rail strike, keep the rails running, keep things moving, and we’re gonna go back and we’re gonna get paid leave not just for rail workers, but for all workers.”
Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to six federal crimes, including identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official.
The ex-Florida tax collector whose arrest led to a federal investigation into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a former friend, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and other offenses.
Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty last year to six charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official, and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators as part of his plea agreement.
Prosecutors said Greenberg paid at least one minor to have sex with him and other men.
[…] Gaetz has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and previously said they were part of an extortion plot. No charges have been brought against the Republican congressman, who represents a large part of the Florida Panhandle.
Greenberg’s scandal-plagued term as Seminole County tax collector started in 2017, around the time he and Gaetz became friends. According to the plea agreement in his federal case, Greenberg met the minor that same year on a website advertising itself as a place where ‘“sugar daddies’ could find ‘sugar babies.'”
Gaetz was not named in Greenberg’s plea agreement.
QAnon leader inadvertently outs himself as a pedophile “groomer”
QAnon leader Phil Godlewski, when he was a 25-year-old high school baseball coach, repeatedly had sex with a 15-year-old high school girl.
I know this family (not closely). Most of them are normal Northeast PA locals. A few of them are diehard Trumpists. I didn’t know any had gone full-monty QAnon.
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #95…
Interesting..ranked choice and jungle primary. I see that they still wimped out about “None of the Above”…those will get counted, but if it wins, the top person still gets elected.
Despite a joint statement between Ye (fka Kanye West) and Parler in October noting that the two had reached an agreement for the rapper to buy the social network, that will not come to pass, Parler owner Parlement Techonologies said today…
whheydtsays
Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council has proposed banning Russian-affiliated religious groups, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Dec. 1.
The most significant of the groups is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, an affiliate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The National Security and Defense Council instructed the Cabinet to draft a bill on such a ban, and the bill is expected to be considered by the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.
“We will ensure complete independence for our state. In particular, spiritual independence,” Zelensky said. “We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul.”
Zelensky also said that Ukraine would impose sanctions against priests cooperating with Russia, and their names would be publicly announced.
Recently, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted multiple searches at the premises of the Russian church’s Ukrainian branch.
During the latest raid on Dec. 1, the SBU found Russian propaganda and xenophobic literature at a Moscow Patriarchate monastery in Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Oblast.
The agency said it had found books of xenophobic content and brochures denying Ukraine’s right to independence and stating that Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus should be part of a single political entity.
In the past week, the SBU raided at least three other buildings of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, finding Russian passports of the church’s leaders and documents with pro-Russian ideological messages.
In May, the Moscow-affiliated Ukrainian church said it would have “full independence” from the Russian Orthodox Church, reacting to criticism of Russian-backed church leaders amid the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian branch also said that it “condemns the war” and “disagrees with the position of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on the war in Ukraine.”
However, skeptics said it was just a ploy to appease critics since the Ukrainian branch effectively remained part of the Russian church and did not declare “autocephaly” – the Orthodox term for genuine independence.
Under Orthodox rules, only one independent – or “autocephalous” – church can exist in a specific country. The Russian-backed church’s full independence under Orthodox rules would imply its merger with the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine but the Moscow-affiliated church has opposed such a unification.
Despite the Moscow-backed church’s public statements about the war, its agenda remains intertwined with the Kremlin’s ideology, and they officially remain subordinated to the Russian church in the hierarchy of the Orthodox world.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has been vocal in his support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
During a sermon in September, he said that sacrificing life in the war against Ukraine “washes away sins.”
As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion, more and more Orthodox parishes started switching from the Kremlin-backed church to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
The number of parishes leaving the Russian-affiliated church amounted to 54 in March and 104 in April, peaking at 229 in May. After that, the process slowed down.
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Thursday ended an independent review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate, removing a hurdle the Justice Department said had delayed its criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret government information.
The decision by the three-judge panel represents a significant win for federal prosecutors, clearing the way for them to use as part of their investigation the entire tranche of documents seized during an Aug. 8 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago. It also amounts to a sharp repudiation of arguments by Trump’s lawyers, who for months had said that the former president was entitled to have a so-called “special master” conduct a neutral review of the thousands of documents taken from the property.
[…]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia invaded in February, according to Kyiv’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak. At certain points in the war, Ukraine said that between 100 and 200 of its forces were dying a day on the battlefield, making Podolyak’s estimate seem conservative. Speaking to Ukraine’s 24 Kanal, Podolyak said they were official figures from Ukraine’s general staff. He said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, would make the total public “when the right moment comes”.
Three people were killed and seven wounded in Russian shelling of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson over the past 24 hours, the regional governor said. Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Russian troops had bombarded the city of Kherson and other parts of the region 42 times in the same period.
…
The Finish prime minister, Sanna Marin, has called for Europe to build its own defence capabilities in the wake of the war in Ukraine, saying that without US help it is not resilient enough. “We should make sure that we are stronger,” Marin said in Sydney on Friday. “And I’ll be brutally honest with you, Europe isn’t strong enough. We would be in trouble without the United States.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency hopes to reach an agreement with Russia and Ukraine to create a protection zone at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by the end of the year, the head of the UN atomic watchdog was quoted as saying. The nuclear plant, Europe’s biggest, provided about a fifth of Ukraine’s electricity before Russia’s invasion, and has been forced to operate on back-up generators a number of times, Reuters reported.
The United States is reportedly working with two Middle Eastern countries to shift advanced Nasams air defence systems to Ukraine in the next three to six months. Kyiv received two of the eight approved deliveries of Nasams in early November.
Russia’s withdrawal from the west bank of the Dnipro River last month has provided the Ukrainian armed forces with opportunities to strike additional Russian logistics nodes and lines of communication, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has suggested. This threat has highly likely prompted Russian logisticians to relocate supply nodes, including rail transfer points, further south and east, the latest British intelligence report reads.
…
The chief economic adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called on BP to exit Russia entirely after the fossil fuel firm was offered a £580m dividend by the oil giant Rosneft. Oleg Ustenko has written to BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, to demand the British company cuts ties with the state-controlled Russian firm nine months after announcing its intention to leave the country.
…
Biden and Macron pledged to hold Russia accountable for “widely documented atrocities and war crimes” in Ukraine. Biden said their support would continue in the face of Russian aggression, which he added has been “incredibly brutal”. In a joint statement with Macron, the leaders said: “Intentionally targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure constitutes war crimes whose perpetrators must be held accountable.”
Also from there:
Several Ukrainian embassies abroad have received “bloody packages” containing animal eyes, Ukraine’s foreign ministry has said, after a series of letter bombs were sent to sites in Spain including Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid.
The packages, soaked in a liquid with a distinctive colour and smell, were sent to Kyiv’s embassies in Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Italy, to general consulates in Naples and Krakow, and the consulate in Brno, spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko wrote on Facebook.
UN-appointed investigators are looking into whether Russia’s attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine amount to war crimes, one of the inspection team said on Friday.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure since early October, causing blackouts and leaving millions without heating as temperatures plummet, Reuters reported.
Russia says the assaults do not target civilians and are meant to reduce Ukraine’s ability to fight and push it to negotiate – though Kyiv says such attacks are a war crime.
“Part of the analysis that we are engaged in at present … is whether the attacks constitute war crimes,” Pablo de Greiff told a news conference, speaking from Kyiv.
If they do, the team would work out what it “can do in order to make a contribution to the accountability for such crimes,” he added.
The three-member commission of inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council in March has already concluded that Russia committed war crimes in areas it occupied in Ukraine.
Moscow regularly dismisses such accusations as a smear campaign.
Moldova calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldovan territory, occupied Transnsitra.
That sounds good but they’ve been saying that ever since the USSR fell.
Moldova doesn’t have much of an army.
Their air force is 6 MIGs that haven’t flown in decades and are probably scrap metal.
It is for sure that if Ukraine falls, Moldova won’t last a week and end up part of the new USSR again.
Thread
NOËL 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 @NOELreports
😎Moldova at the OSCE meeting called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria.
“The illegal presence of the Russian armed forces violates the sovereignty and neutral status of Moldova. We strongly call for the complete and unconditional withdrawal…
whheydtsays
Infowars host Alex Jones filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas on Friday as he faces nearly $1.5 billion in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school shooting.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in bankruptcy court in Houston. His filing lists $1 billion to $10 billion in liabilities.
The bankruptcy filing comes as Jones faces court orders to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages to relatives of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the massacre a hoax.
A Connecticut jury in October awarded the families $965 million in compensatory damages, and a judge later tacked on another $473 million in punitive damages. Earlier in the year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $49 million in damages.
Jones has laughed at the awards on his Infowars show, saying he has less than $2 million to his name and won’t be able to pay such high amounts. The comments contradicted the testimony of a forensic economist at the Texas trial, who said Jones and his company Free Speech Systems have a combined net worth as high as $270 million. Free Speech Systems is also seeking bankruptcy protection (from my *very* limited understanding of bankruptcy law).
In documents filed in Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case in Texas, a budget for the company for Oct. 29 to Nov. 25 estimated product sales would total $2.5 million, while operating expenses would be about $740,000. Jones’ salary was listed at $20,000 every two weeks.
The Russians ate all the zoo animals at Yampol city.
That tells you a lot about Russian logistics.
They can’t even get enough food and water to their army.
It’s going to be worse during the winter right now. You need a lot more calories during winter outside to keep your body temperature up.
DURING THE OCCUPATION OF YAMPOL, RUSSIAN SOLDIERS ATE ALL THE ANIMALS IN THE LOCAL ZOO
20:45, 01.12.2022
Russian soldiers eat all zoo animals during occupation of Yampol in Donetsk region
Oleg Kotov
The occupiers ate bison, deer and ostrich.
The Russian military have starved wolves and a camel in addition to eating animals, the Vostochnyy Vyborat newspaper has reported.
Volunteer Vitaliy from VETMARKET Pluriton, which helps war-affected animals, said:
“We were given the number of the director of the leskhoz. We called him and he assured us that not all animals had had time to evacuate and started asking us: ‘Where were you before?’ We replied that we could not evacuate animals from all zoos in a row. But he said that the animals were fine, that they were released and fed by locals and given shelter, so we kept going to Liman because the situation there was terrible. The animals in Liman were rallying and were willing to jump on people from hunger.
According to residents, there were many deaths during the evacuation, animals were running around the village and being fed by locals. When the Russians occupied the entire zoo, they began to eat the animals.
Volunteer Vitaly said:
Many animals were eaten by orcs. Locals said that they ate kangaroos, we have not found bones yet because there are so many of them, they are scattered all over the zoo. There was a bison, it was running around the village and then it was killed and eaten. Several donkeys, ostriches were eaten. Someone ran away, ponies are now running around the territory, we are engaged in their evacuation.
Vitaliy shared details of the occupants’ atrocities towards wolves:
Terrible situation with wolves. People say that they were tame. They died holding their empty bowls in their paws, in closed enclosures. We found only skeletons. They were closed and covered with nets, we had to break the lock.
Now a team of volunteers is gathering materials to apply to law enforcement agencies in Ukraine.
ravensays
Putin made a lot of mistakes including invading the wrong country.
He would have been better off invading Kazakhstan.
A huge country with major natural resources including oil, gas, and uranium and only 20 million people.
Kazakhstan is also heavily Russified. A lot of Kazakhs don’t speak Kazakh or barely understand it. There is a large Russian minority.
Kazakhstan is well aware of this now.
If Ukraine falls, they are next after Moldova.
They are trying everything they can to get as much distance from Russia as possible.
The one thing they have going for them is that they also share a border with China. As Putin retreats in Ukraine, he is also losing Kazakhstan
As Putin retreats in Ukraine, he is also losing Kazakhstan
By Kamila Auyezova
The Atlantic Council
As Putin retreats in Ukraine, he is also losing Kazakhstan
Russia’s carefully choreographed political talk shows are notorious for their anti-Ukrainian invective, but in late November the target was Kazakhstan. “We must pay attention to the fact that Kazakhstan is the next problem, because the same Nazi processes can start there as in Ukraine,” commented one pundit on the prime time Evening with Vladimir Solovyov show. Russian officials subsequently criticized this thinly veiled threat, but many observers noted that in the tightly controlled world of Kremlin propaganda, such sensitive statements are unlikely to have been made without some form of prior approval.
The incident highlights rising concern in the Kremlin as the invasion of Ukraine continues to erode Russia’s position elsewhere in the former Soviet Empire. The most prominent shift since the onset of the invasion has been in relations with Kazakhstan, which has demonstrated its desire to distance itself from an increasingly isolated Moscow and pursue a more assertive multi-vector foreign policy with closer ties to China, Turkey, and the West.
Kazakhstan has traditionally been one of Russia’s closest allies. Due to a combination of factors such as common history, security cooperation, economic integration, and one of the world’s longest shared borders, there is little chance of a complete collapse in bilateral ties. Nevertheless, Kazakhstan has adopted a principled position in relation to the current war and has underlined that it does not approve of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made his position particularly clear during the annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. Seated on stage alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, Tokayev declared that Kazakhstan had no intention of recognizing the independence of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine. The move was widely seen as a very deliberate and very public snub to Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Tokayev’s comments in Saint Petersburg came following a series of moves signaling Kazakhstan’s decision to step away from Russia. Since the invasion began in February, Kazakhstan has chosen to abstain rather than back Russia during a number of key UN votes on the war. The Kazakh government has also vowed to strengthen energy cooperation with Europe at a time when Putin was hoping to use his stranglehold on oil and gas supplies to pressure European leaders into abandoning their support for Ukraine.
In a highly symbolic move, Kazakhstan canceled the country’s annual Victory Day celebrations in May. This gesture angered many in Moscow, where official reverence for the Soviet role in World War II is regarded as an indication of continued political loyalty to Russia.
As the invasion of Ukraine has escalated, so has the critical rhetoric from Kazakh officials. When hundreds of thousands of Russians fled to Kazakhstan in September in order to avoid mobilization into the Russian army, Tokayev vowed to provide humanitarian assistance. In a stinging rebuke, he said most of the fleeing men had been forced to leave Russia due to the “hopeless situation” in the country, before condemning Putin’s attempts to annex four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces.
Eurasia Center events
As Russian influence recedes, Kazakhstan is moving forward with a more assertive foreign policy of its own. In recent weeks, this has seen the Chinese and German leaders both visiting the Central Asian country. On November 11, Tokayev participated in the Summit of the Organization of Turkic States in neighboring Uzbekistan, where he again stressed the importance of strictly observing the UN Charter. In a further blow to Moscow, Kazakhstan has already begun to enhance the Trans-Caspian international transport route, which bypasses Russia and travels through China, Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and on to Europe via Turkey.
Russia is likely to fall further behind as other countries take advantage of Putin’s rapidly unraveling invasion of Ukraine to gain influence in Central Asia. Kazakhstan is now actively strengthening ties with two of Russia’s main Eurasian competitors, China and Turkey. During a May visit to Ankara, Tokayev signed an agreement on deepening security sector cooperation and joint development of military drones.
China is likely to emerge as the biggest winner from the shifting geopolitical balance of power in Central Asia, with Beijing understandably keen to emphasize its support for Kazakhstan. During a September visit to the Kazakh capital, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke of China’s “strong support to Kazakhstan in protecting its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”
Looking ahead, Kazakhstan faces the challenging task of maneuvering between the Russian bear and the Chinese dragon. Russia looks set to remain an important power in Central Asia and a key partner for Kazakhstan, but Moscow will now longer be able to dominate the region as it once did. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has already led to historic changes in Central Asia and sparked a push by Kazakhstan to pursue a more independent foreign policy.
For now, there is no question of Kazakhstan adopting an adversarial approach to Russia or choosing to side exclusively with Moscow’s rivals. Any such moves could have potentially disastrous consequences for the country’s security and independence. However, it is increasingly clear that as a result of Putin’s failing Ukraine invasion, Russian influence in Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asia region is in decline and has receded to levels not witnessed for over a century.
Amidst one of the most hostile legal landscapes for trans people in U.S. history, the first ever cohort of out trans attorneys were admitted to practice before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The ceremony, which recognized ten members of the National Trans Bar Association (NTBA), intended to “showcase to the Court the spectrum of legal talent that happens to be transgender,” in the words of Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, co-chair of the NTBA.
[…]
The ceremony had been in the making since 2019, when NTBA co-chair Kristen Browde was present for oral arguments in the Supreme Court case R.G. Harris Funeral Homes v. U.S. EEOC, which found that a trans woman had faced unlawful discrimination when she was fired for being transgender. Despite this, Justice Neil Gorsuch suggested that banning employment discrimination against trans people would lead to “massive social upheaval.” Browde was surprised upon learning that the Court did not know that at least half a dozen out trans attorneys were present in the courtroom, including two who were arguing the case itself.
The realization led to the formation of Wednesday’s cohort, with one of the group’s chief aims being to put a group of trans attorneys before the full bench of Supreme Court justices and force them to acknowledge their existence.
“This was partly about saying to the Supreme Court, look — we look just like you, we argue cases just like you, we have successes and occasionally lose cases just like you,” Browde said in a phone call. “I guarantee you that was not missed by some on the bench, and there were some who were visibly less comfortable with the fact they were being confronted by that reality.”
The cohort includes representation from across the legal sphere, such as law professor Zsea Ofure Bowmani, California senior district attorney Jesse Lee Ann McGrath, and Gene Michael Wissinger, a partner at a New York law firm. Being admitted to practice before the Court means that these ten individuals can now serve as witnesses or as advocates themselves in court cases.
[…]
During the ceremony, the cohort was seated in the second row of the Court, which member Carl Charles, a senior attorney at Lambda Legal, described as “an experience on its own,” since the group was so close to the justices. Each member stood as Browde read their names, and remained standing until everyone had been called.
Charles said he “could not help but look at Justice Brown Jackson, who was absolutely beaming at us, giving us the warmest and most welcoming smile. Justices Sotomayor and Kagan also looked warmly in our direction when the Chief Justice said ‘motion granted.’” (Justice Alito, he noted, seemed unhappy, which is perhaps not a surprise given his views on trans people.)
“As a trans lawyer at Lambda Legal who specifically works on cases regarding the rights of transgender and nonbinary people, being admitted to the Supreme Court holds both practical and symbolic meaning,” Charles said.
“That there were so many of us, standing in solidarity together before an overwhelmingly conservative Court was, to say the least, a way to speak truth to power that is by all accounts not on our side,” Charles said. “Though I know we are not the first and certainly won’t be the last trans attorneys to be admitted to the Supreme Court, we were there to answer the call, to stand together when our names were called and say proudly, ‘we are here, and we are not going anywhere.’”
It’s as if the political world is overdue for a conversation about the meaning of the word “seized.”
It’s difficult to say who was the first Republican to complain about the Biden administration successfully stopping illicit drugs at the border, though Rep. Andy Biggs was among the first. It was in July 2021 when the Arizona Republican complained via Twitter, “Under Joe Biden, enough fentanyl to kill 238 million Americans was seized at the southern border last month. Where’s the outrage in the media?”
Even at the time, it was an odd criticism. The Biden administration was seizing drugs before they reached the United States. It would make sense for drug dealers to be “outraged,” but it wasn’t altogether clear why Biggs saw this as controversial.
Nevertheless, in the months that followed, this became an oddly common criticism of President Joe Biden and his team. Every couple of months, from the Republican National Committee to the halls of Congress to the presidential campaign trail, as the administration seized more drugs, Republicans complained more for reasons that weren’t altogether clear.
Yesterday, Republican Rep. Pat Fallon of Texas joined the GOP chorus with a tweet that read in part:
“[Fiscal year 2022] saw OVER 14,000 [pounds] of fentanyl seized at our southern border. What is Joe Biden doing about it?”
The White House’s Ian Sams responded soon after, “What is Joe Biden doing about it? Um … seizing it?”
It’s funny because it’s true. The congressman’s tweet effectively asked why the Biden administration isn’t doing something that the Biden administration is doing. It’s as if the political world is overdue for a conversation about the meaning of the word “seized.”
[…] criminals have tried to smuggle illegal drugs into the country for many years. It’s happened during Republican administrations; it’s happened during Democratic administrations. Criminals have focused their efforts on the southern border, the northern border, ports, and even airports. The United States’ system of defense is far from perfect, but a dedicated group of professionals do their best to stop the shipments before they reach American streets — and lately, they’ve had several important successes.
That is, of course, what most Americans — again, excluding drug dealers — want.
[…] Two years ago, the Republican National Committee pointed to drug seizures as proof that Donald Trump and his policies were helping “protect our nation.” Now, the RNC is trying to convince Americans that more recent drug seizures are evidence of “Biden’s open border,” which obviously isn’t open, since officials keep seizing illicit drugs.
How do Republicans explain the obvious contradiction? By ignoring it.
If Republican officials want to argue that the shipments represent only a fraction of a larger whole, and that there are other shipments that border officials aren’t catching, they’re certainly welcome to make that case and present the evidence, to the extent that it’s available.
But that’s not what Republicans are saying. Instead, they keep complaining about U.S. successes, which is a tough sell.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates asked via Twitter last fall, “Wait, Republicans are now attacking us for stopping fentanyl trafficking?” As it turns out, that wasn’t a rhetorical question.
Earlier today, there were reports of a group of Russian’s surrendering in the area west of Svatove near Kolomyichykha, one of the few locations that Russia still holds on the west side of the highway. Mediation was reportedly carried out using a consumer-grade quadcopter drone, which then led the Russians to a location to lay down the arms and wait for Ukrainian troops.
On Friday, there are even more reports of Ukrainian movement toward both Svatove and Kreminna. Meanwhile, some of those reported Russian gains south of Bakhmut—shockingly enough [LOL]—might not be as large or decisive as Russia and pro-Russian sources have been claiming.
[…] On Thursday, there were images of a Russian position being overrun. After first indicating it was near Svatove, sources then indicated that the base had been geolocated closer to Kreminna, though they didn’t specify where. According to Ukrainian military sources, Ukraine actually took that position shown in the video some days ago and pushed on, which is why the Ukrainian military felt safe about allowing that video to appear.
Overnight, the reported location of that base featured in multiple videos and images changed again, the latest reports placing it northwest of Svatove at Kuzemivka. [map at the link]
Fighting has been going on at Kuzemivka for more than two weeks. Video released in the last two days confirms Ukrainian control of neighboring Novoselivske and showed Ukrainian troops there moving through that town without any apparent threat. That makes much more sense if Ukraine has now actually taken Kuzemivka. Russia had made this a hard point in their defense of Svatove, and if Ukraine now holds this location, it’s a major step toward liberating the whole area. I’m waiting for more confirmation (and to make sure the reported location of this base doesn’t move again) before updating the map. But this sounds like a good thing.
Another video is making the rounds on Friday, and this one not only shows another location where multiple Russian units were destroyed, but it also carries a definite location. [Tweet and video at the link]
That location is actually some 30km northwest of Svatove between the towns of Kyslivka and Nova Tarsivka. It matches perfectly with images showing Russian equipment being destroyed last Saturday, so though I’ve marked it with an attack symbol on this map, it actually represents a point to which we know Ukraine has advanced.
It’s probable that this video, like that of the base at Kuzemivka(?), is several days old. Ukraine may have moved on from this location. However, there has been no official announcement (or even an unofficial claim) concerning Nova Tarsivka. Should Ukraine take that position, it would help remove Russian forces from the area and protect the flank of Ukrainian troops moving down the highway from Kupyansk toward Svatove—a route that has been, and still is, coming under assault or artillery attack at several locations. But taking Nova Tarsivka wouldn’t actually represent much in terms of another route into Svatove, as Nova Tarsivka is pretty much an end-of-the-road location. There is a road going on to Verkhnya Duvanka, but it is dirt, appears to have been in bad shape even before the rainy season began, and would undoubtedly be hard slogging at this time.
Finally, there are reports of fighting along the P66 highway south of the P66/P07 intersection just west of Svatove. This could be Ukrainian forces that have pushed forward form Popivka, but some sources have indicated that Ukrainian troops were moving out of Raihorodka. It’s hard to be sure of anything, including the exact location of the fighting. To secure a connection to the highway that’s not under continuous assault, Ukraine will need to take that whole little wedge in there from Patalakhivka to Popivka. That may be what’s underway.
Ukraine has had a hard time with all the routes moving to Svatove. Russian forces have been able to maintain artillery to the east of the highway, keeping Ukrainian units under fire control as they’ve tried to approach from the northwest. Russian forces have also reportedly staged multiple ambushes from wooded areas along the roads. In addition to being slowed by mud, it seems that Ukraine has been forced to slow down and do a lot of clean-up operations.
Speaking of clearing out areas along the highway, that point up there at Volorymrivka has been one position from which Russia has been able to fire on forces moving along the highway. Clearing it has been made extra difficult because the road into Volorymrivka doesn’t originate over near Krokhmalne; it comes up from Kuzemivka. If Ukraine does not control Kuzemivka, don’t be surprised to hear that Russian forces in Volorymrivka have been eliminated.
Meanwhile, 40km to the south …[map at the link]
The biggest change on the map here is that I’m showing Ukraine in control of Chervonopopivka along the P66 highway north of Kreminna. While there has been no official announcement of the liberation of this location, the Ukrainian military on Friday reported that they had repelled a Russian assault on Chervonopopivka, indicating that this area is under the control of Ukrainian forces. Likewise, the military again confirmed Ukrainian control at Ploshchanka with reports of Russian shelling of the area.
There is reportedly still fighting in the area of Holykove, which leaves open the question of how in the heck Ukrainian troops made it to Chervonopopivka in sufficient forces to hold the town against a Russian assault. The road going directly to the west is long and twisty, and features enough up-and-down to make muddy conditions even more difficult. But in any case, it seems that Ukraine is there, and they are very close to holding not just fire control, but also physical control of a whole length of the highway along with the associated towns.
At the same time, Ukraine is reportedly fighting its way through the wooded area south of Kreminna. Reports of action on Friday morning indicated that Ukrainian forces were just 2km outside of the city. There were also indications that the particular Dibrova west of Kreminna (to distinguish it from other Dibrovas, including one only a few kilometers away) is again under Ukrainian control.
The movement toward Svatove and Kreminna hasn’t been the kind of swift action that saw so much of Kharkiv liberated within a few days, but it’s not been too dissimilar from the fighting that saw Lyman and the surrounding area liberated. Manuever and reinforce. Capture a village, secure a route, keep the options open.
Ukraine’s position has been difficult, not just because Russia has significant forces in the area, and not just because they were facing mud, but because they’ve been making a west-to-east move in an area where all the major highways tend to run north to south. If Ukraine can secure the P66—and push Russia back far enough that the road is not easily blanketed by short-range artillery—it will be a major step, not just in liberating Kreminna and Svatove, but in pushing Russia out of the entire region.
And now, another 50km south …[map at the link]
I’ve repeated Thursday’s map here because the thing that’s really changed at Bakhmut is the certainty. On Wedneday, Russian sources indicated that they had completely captured the towns of Ozarianivka and Kurdyumivka, a claim that was supported by images of Russian soldiers gathered around the signs for those locations. However, on Friday, Ukrainian sources claim that Russia does not hold all of either location and that Ukrainian troops in fortified positions are still in place.
So that big red arrow, which was tied to Russian reports that they were moving on to villages a few kilometers west, appears to be premature.
Ukraine also reported that Russia attempted to advance at Optyne and in the direction of Klishchiivka. Both assaults were repulsed. In what now appears to be an endless situation … Bakhmut holds.
Get your bids in now. I’d buy it myself, but I think it may be slightly above the 16’ limit for boats on my lake.
“$200m superyacht to be sold at auction to benefit Ukraine
A $200m superyacht owned by Viktor Medvedchuk, an oligarch and friend of Vladimir Putin who is under sanctions, is to be sold at auction after its seizure in Croatia earlier this year” [photo at the link]
I am not going to show you the video of shelter dogs killed by Russian shelling. I’m just not.
[…] One last little trip … 500km to the southwest. There are reports today that Russia is preparing to “evacuate” civilians from Nova Kakhovka and that Russian officials are leaving the area. There are also reports that Russian forces are thinning out all along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, possibly relocating to areas further east.
If this has any greater meaning, I don’t know yet. However, I do know that power has now been restored to over half the homes in Kherson and that the water there is running again. That’s a very good thing. [Photo of utility services being restored by workmen wearing helmets and military-grade vests.] […]
whheydtsays
Per the BBC… Putin is saying that there can’t be negotiations until the West agrees with Russia’s annexation of part of Ukraine:
Russia says the West’s refusal to recognise “new territories” seized from Ukraine makes peace talks harder, after President Joe Biden indicated he would be ready to meet Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin said it was open to negotiations, but not on the West’s demand to pull out of Ukraine.
Russia illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions at the end of September, without controlling any of them.
Nine months into its invasion, it has lost more than half the land it seized.
President Biden told reporters on Thursday night that he was ready to meet the Russian leader “if in fact there is an interest in him deciding that he’s looking for a way to end the war”.
Standing beside him in the White House, France’s Emmanuel Macron made clear the two men had agreed they would never urge the Ukrainians to make a compromise “that will not be acceptable for them”.
The apparent flurry of diplomatic activity followed months with little sign of enthusiasm for talks. Russia’s military has been forced into a retreat in southern Ukraine while launching widespread attacks on civilian infrastructure.
…
Of course, if that is conceded, there isn’t really anything to negotiate…until the next time Putin decides to carve off another chunk of Ukraine. Repeat until…no more Ukraine. So, not going to fly.
It took longer than it should have, but facing an unambiguous court order, the board of supervisors in Arizona’s Cochise County have finally certified the results of this year’s elections.
In other election news, at three different polls (CNN, SurveyUSA, and Emerson) show Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leading Republican Herschel Walker. Such good news. The leads in the polls range from 2 to 4 points, which is small, but consistent.
Today is the last day for early voting in Georgia. Warnock was joined by Barack Obama for one last rally yesterday. Obama is also the star of Warnock’s final minute-long campaign commercial.
A DC lawyer emailed me shortly after the 11th Circuit panel handed down its decision in the Mar-a-Lago case: “Wow. Complete and total rejection of everything the district court did.”
That pretty much sums up the reaction from legal observers.
Joyce Vance: “11th Circuit to Trump: You’re Not Above the Law!”
George Conway: “To say that the court of appeals today completely eviscerated Judge Cannon’s ruling and Trump’s arguments is an understatement.”
Barb McQuade: “11th Circuit decision dismissing the special master in the Mar-a-Lago case is obviously correct, yet still a relief to see the court get it right. This will clear the way for special counsel Smith to review all of the documents and make a charging decision.”
Neal Katyal: “The Mar-a-Lago Trump investigation is now going forward with the blessing of the Court of Appeals, in a decision signed by all 3 judges (two of whom were appointed by Trump and one by President George W. Bush) This Trump maneuver backfired spectacularly. Like all he touches.”
Lots of good news out of Arizona Thursday night, further confirming the old adage “timing is everything.” And bad timing usually gets you nothing. Both Kari Lake and Mark Finchem jumped on the so-much-fun Trump train of baselessly claiming “election fraud,” but rather late in the game. And both are now experiencing the consequences of that bad timing.
As reported by Isaac Stanley-Becker and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, writing for The Washington Post, the big news was Arizona’s Superior Court ordering the governing board screwballs of Cochise County to certify their election results. This happened to occur in tandem with a brutal federal court ruling Thursday in a separate suit brought by failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and her election-denialist sidekick, Mark Finchem. After previously dismissing that lawsuit, the same federal court has now ordered that Lake and Finchem’s lawyers pay the fees expended by Maricopa County to defend against this kind of frivolous garbage.
From The Washington Post article:
The denouement in Cochise County played out as a federal judge, also on Thursday afternoon, sanctioned lawyers for Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, the unsuccessful GOP candidates for governor and secretary of state, respectively. Taken together, the orders show how judges are scorning efforts to politicize ministerial roles and undermine election administration.
The federal judge, John Tuchi of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, wrote that sanctions would “make clear that the Court will not condone litigants … furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process.” …
Tuchi, who was nominated to the federal bench in 2013 by President Barack Obama, reasoned that payment of attorneys’ fees for Maricopa County was a proper sanction as the county and its lawyers had to “spend time and resources defending this frivolous lawsuit rather than preparing for the elections over which plaintiffs’ claims baselessly kicked up a cloud of dust.”
Attorneys are particularly averse to getting sanctioned themselves—especially by a federal judge and under Rule 11—because it may prevent them from practicing in other jurisdictions where they’re not generally admitted. It’s essentially a black mark on one’s professional record that follows them the rest of their careers. The specific attorneys being sanctioned are not named, but according to the Post article, one of them listed as counsel for Lake and Finchem is Alan Dershowitz. [LOL] Lake, Finchem, and Dershowitz could not be reached for comment, according to the Post.
Tuchi was quite acerbic in his ruling:
[A]lthough the Court does not find that Plaintiffs have acted appropriately in this matter—far from it— the Court concludes that sanctions are warranted only against Plaintiffs’ counsel, who signed and filed the offending papers. To sanction Plaintiffs’ counsel here is not to let Plaintiffs off the hook. It is to penalize specific attorney conduct with the broader goal of deterring similarly baseless filings initiated by anyone, whether an attorney or not. …
The Court shares the concerns expressed by other federal courts about misuse of the judicial system to baselessly cast doubt on the electoral process in a manner that is conspicuously consistent with the plaintiffs’ political ends …
Imposing sanctions in this case is not to ignore the importance of putting in place procedures to ensure that our elections are secure and reliable. It is to make clear that the Court will not condone litigants ignoring the steps that Arizona has already taken toward this end and furthering false narratives that baselessly undermine public trust at a time of increasing disinformation about, and distrust in, the democratic process. It is to send a message to those who might file similarly baseless suits in the future.
The courts are clearly getting sick of this nonsense.
Intel inside
According to a Mydrivers report (opens in new tab), Chinese customs authorities detained a woman who tried to smuggle 202 Intel processors and nine iPhones strapped inside her prosthetic belly.
The event occurred at the Gongbei Port in Zhuhai, where a supposed pregnant woman attempted to return to mainland China from Macau. The perpetrator claimed she was five months pregnant; however, her belly was huge for the alleged gestation time, and she was walking effortlessly, which caused a lot of suspicions. After careful inspection, the customs agents later discovered that she had used duct tape to fix and hide smuggled goods beneath the fake silicone belly. Either way, she wouldn’t have gotten away with it since it’s unlikely she could get past the X-ray image analysis or a metal detector.
On the “it’s all one front” front, here’s what’s happening down near Donetsk. Russian forces engaged in small scale assaults against Ukrainian troops in a number of towns, with the biggest push apparently along the highway to Pervomaiske. None of these attacks was successful. [map at the link in comment 120]
What do you do if all of your soldiers just walk away from the base? This video reportedly shows conscripts in the city of Kazan just leaving the base en masse. [video at the link in comment 120]
Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona seems to be upholding his version of Trump’s border wall promise. The Republican governor made a sad makeshift wall that first showed up on a strip of borderland near Yuma on Bureau of Reclamation Land, and now more recently on U.S. Forest Service land in Cochise County.
Made up of shipping containers, the wall allegedly went up without federal permission, prompting agencies to call for it to be removed because of its unlawful nature. Despite this, in a federal suit filed in October, Arizona asked a judge to stop the federal government from intervening. According to Fronteras, it argued the state should have jurisdiction over the border area without federal intervention.
In the latest case against the makeshift wall, the Department of Justice has asked the court to dismiss this claim, arguing that the shipping containers were placed on federal and not state land, Fronteras reported.
But where the shipping container wall is placed is not the only issue. Outside of how horrible the idea of a border wall even is, this specific one is not only wasteful but bad for the environment. Alongside the government, Arizona environmentalists have joined the fight against Ducey’s ongoing efforts to install a wall on the state’s Mexico border.
According to KGUN, officials from Coronado National Forest (CNF) warned the public not only about the “safety hazards” but about “unauthorized armed security personnel” in the area where the wall is placed.
“The roads are not designed to handle these large of vehicles. They are designed to handle small passenger cars, trucks. So they are getting impacted by this much traffic,” Starr Farrell of the U.S. Forest Service said. “There is a possibility people who are armed out there and so we don’t want any of those conflicts to occur.”
To make matters worse, KGUN noted that the “wall” was also constructed against the Cocopah Tribe’s wishes. Ducey not only filled in parts of a Trump administration border wall but constructed beyond that with his containers. But that’s not all: The “wall” doesn’t only impact people living in the area, but the animals as well.
“We’re seeing an impact to our environment,” Farrell said. “These are going in very quickly and because these are getting placed so quickly, normal procedures [didn’t take] place. This was an unauthorized project and because of that these containers did not go through a normal process that we would normally do to make sure that area would be able to support the installation.”
In 20 years of reporting on the US-Mexico border this is one of the most destructive, truly damaging and wasteful things I’ve ever seen, which is really saying something. This will cost $100 million, keep nobody out & forever harm endangered ocelots, jaguars and other species [more tweets and images at the link]
According to Arizona Central, the state’s contractor is placing the shipping containers on a line in an area known to have a population of endangered jaguars and ocelots.
Environmental advocates fear the containers will result in “extensive damage” to the animals’ habitats and wreck important migration corridors for larger species while blocking the ability of smaller ones to cross the border.
“That wall is harming endangered species as we speak,” said Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate. McSpadden provided Arizona Central with video footage of an ocelot captured by motion-sensing cameras less than 2 miles north of the new wall in 2018 and 2019 to argue his case. [tweets and images at the link]
Arizona Central also noted that the areas where the shipping containers are located stretch farther than what was planned for Trump’s border wall. These areas have extensive wildlife, causing many advocates to argue that the shipping containers would be more effective at keeping out wildlife than people.
In order to keep people out, Ducey and his contractors filled gaps with metal sheets in areas with gaps between the containers. As a result, any migrants who might try to cross may get cut by the steel. [Tweet and image at the link]
How far Republicans will go to keep migrants out is ridiculous.
A new interactive map of the universe presents the entire span of the known cosmos in stunning detail and with pinpoint accuracy. Astronomers created the map, which shows the positions and real colors of 200,000 galaxies, using two decades’ worth of data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The interactive map can be downloaded for free at mapoftheuniverse.net, allowing the public to access information that was previously available only to scientists.
Russia is consolidating its military presence in the captured port city of Mariupol by constructing a large army base, satellite photos released from the Earth observation company Maxar appear to show.
The new, U-shaped compound sits near the centre of the city. On its roof, the red, white and blue star of the Russian army can be seen, with letters reading “From the Russian army to the people of Mariupol”…
A large protective screen has also been erected around the remains of the city’s theatre, where hundreds of people are believed to have died after Russian forces targeted it in a missile strike on 18 March…
Other images show huge amounts of building supplies at the city shopping centre…
The University of Bristol took CT scans of fossilised remains of a reptile that sat in a Natural History Museum storage cupboard for decades…
It was thought lizards originated from the later Middle Jurassic period but the new findings show they lived in the Late Triassic period (237-201 million years ago)…
The fossil impacts all estimates of the origin of lizards and snakes, together called the Squamata, and affects assumptions about their rates of evolution.
The team has named its discovery Cryptovaranoides microlanius, meaning ‘small butcher’, in reference to its jaws, which are filled with sharp-edged slicing teeth…
Two far-right operatives who told tens of thousands of people not to vote by mail in a robocall scheme will now have to spend 500 hours registering people to vote thanks to a legal sentence from an Ohio judge.
Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman robocalled roughly 85,000 voters across Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Ohio in the summer of 2020, falsely telling them that voting by mail would risk “giving your private information to the man.”
Prosecutors say the pair were targeting neighborhoods known to have a high percentage of Black voters…
The robocall stunt was only one of several high-profile acts the two activists used to spread disinformation ahead of the presidential election.
Together, they tried and failed to frame Robert Mueller, Pete Buttigieg and Anthony Fauci of sexual assault allegations. They staged a phony FBI raid on Burkman’s own house, successfully fooling The Washington Post into doing a story. They allegedly stole the phone of a White House liaison that Wohl was dating to tweet out false allegations from her account, then said she’d accused Wohl of kidnapping.
I think the judge is reaching too far far a cutesy ‘appropriate’ sentence. I wouldn’t want these bozos handling my voter registration.
This article from an American Think Tank claims that an early ceasefire in Ukraine ultimately favors the Russians.
This is arguable.
The EU/NATO/US could just rebuild Ukraine, vote them into NATO, and set up a few NATO bases in Ukraine.
But ultimately, as long as Russia illegally occupies parts of Ukraine, there will always be the possibility of war and flareups.
As many have noted, it will be far cheaper in the long run to defeat the Russians now while they are floundering and running out of money, mobilized victims, and ammunition.
The EU and NATO are far stronger than Russia and it is past time for us to realize that and act like it.
THE LONG-TERM RISKS OF A PREMATURE CEASEFIRE IN UKRAINE
Dec 2, 2022 – Press ISW
The Long-Term Risks of a Premature Ceasefire in Ukraine
By Frederick W. Kagan, Director of the Critical Threats Project and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute
The following article was originally published by CriticalThreats.org. The Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute supports ISW’s daily reporting on the war in Ukraine. CTP Director Frederick W. Kagan leads this supporting effort.
The wise-seeming counsel of seeking compromise with Russia at a point of high leverage for Ukraine is a dangerous folly now. It merely puts off and makes even more dangerous the risks we fear today. It might make sense to buy time in this way if time favored us. But it does not—time favors our adversaries. Accepting risk now to reduce the risk of worse disaster in the future is the wisest and most prudent course of action for the US, NATO, and Ukraine.
The West faces a choice: it can accept the short-term risks of continuing to support Ukraine’s effort to achieve a sustainable and enduring resolution to the current Russian invasion, or it can push for a premature cessation of hostilities that greatly increases the likelihood of renewed Russian aggression on terms far more favorable to Moscow. continues for many pages
Two movements in other areas worth noting this morning:
First, there continue to be reports of Russia relocating troops and collaborators out of areas on the eastern (left) bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson oblast. There have been reports of this in both Nova Kakhovka and in Oleshky directly across the river from the city of Kherson. Russia may be responding to shelling from the other side of the river, or they may simply feel that the kilometer-wide Dnipro provides enough protection that they can afford to thin their ranks in this area.
Second, Ukraine is definitely bolstering its forces in Bakhmut. Over the last few days new classes of equipment, including donated self-propelled artillery, have been moved into the area and some of the most experienced fighters from the counteroffensives appear to have been assigned to reinforce existing troops. This could be nothing more than cycling troops and equipment that have held this area for months back from the front for much deserved R & R. But it might also represent an intention to give Ukraine more flexibility for response in the area. Stay tuned.
When that picture at the top of the page came up in the list of images from Getty this morning, I couldn’t resist. Because Irpin? This was Irpin the last time we looked at the suburb of Kyiv. [Photo of lovely Christmas shopping scene is available at the link; followed by a photo showing soldiers help people across a destroyed bridge as they evacuate the city of Irpin in March.]
What we last saw of Irpin was rows of abandoned cars and horrific scenes of empty strollers left behind on highways when people were forced to take their babies in their arms and run. Destroyed buildings and soldiers fighting tanks with NLAWS in the streets. That’s the Irpin we last looked in on.
But since then, things have changed.
As Russia withdrew from the area around Kyiv, the scenes revealed in towns like Irpin were almost unbelievable. Like something from a post-apocalyptic film. [photo at the link]
Since then, the city has gone through a lot of clean up… [photo at the link, Ukrainians painted sunflowers on heaps of wrecked vehicles, making a strange but compelling art installation]
A lot of rebuilding. [photos at the link]
Some redecorating… [Local residents look at a Banksy painting on the wall of a destroyed residential building. Irpin, Ukraine. November 12, 2022.
And a return to normal life that’s almost as astounding as the destruction was horrifying. [A woman sells eggs at a sidewalk market. Irpin, Ukraine. December 2, 2022.]
Like other cities temporarily occupied by Russia, the level of destruction in Irpin is still high. Those scars will be decades being smoothed out. Like almost everywhere in Ukraine right now, the city is suffering from a shortage of electricity and damaged water and gas lines. That’s still making life difficult for many of those who have returned to Irpin.
But in this week when power and water have also been restored to three-quarters of the homes in Kherson, it seems a good time to remember that healing happens.No one is forgotten, but life goes on.
[…] The TL;DR version? The situation at Kreminna not only looks a lot like Ukraine’s approach to taking Lyman, it looks a lot like the final days before Lyman was liberated. [Lots more detail is available at link in comment 139.]
That doesn’t mean you should expect to see a “Ukrainian forces have entered Kreminna” update over the next day or two. But it means you shouldn’t be that surprised if you do.
The combination of mud, road positions, and the concentration of Russian forces that used to be spread out over all of Luhansk and Kharkiv is definitely making this situation harder on Ukraine. But it’s a long way from a stalemate. Even Russian propaganda channels are now reporting that Ukraine has “gained an advantage” near Kreminna and is “having some successes.”
Once Ukraine takes Kreminna things will be really interesting. Because then they will be positioned on that major highway with clear supply lines to the west. And that road doesn’t just run north toward Svatove, it also runs south to Severodonetsk.
[Tweet “AFU south of Bakhmut shot down a Russian SU-34”, followed by another tweet that shows an amazing photo] That’s at least 17 Su-34s documented as lost in this invasion. These are 21st century planes, which first entered active service in 2014. Russia has only built around 140. For comparison, over the whole history of the F-16, the U.S. has built more than 8,000 planes of which five have been lost to ground fire. (Unlike the F-15, which has a perfect record, an F-16 has been shot down in air to air combat … with another F-16.)
Cry hamster, and let slip the rodents of war! [Tweet and video of Ukrainian “battle hamster” on the frontline.]
Because I can never resists these videos … [Tweet “Morale is high” showing Ukrainian soldier dancing on the hood of a military vehicle. They do seem to love to dance.]
A few details regarding current Ukrainian offensive moves:
[…] Ukraine knows this is a critical area. [map: Ukraine approaching Kreminna from north and south.] They’ve made multiple runs at moving forces down the road to Ploshchanka and at least once managed to attack Russian troops in Krasnorichenske. However, it seems to be only in the last week that Ukraine has secured Ploshchanka sufficiently to move forces through the town and onto the P66.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done. Ukrainian forces have now entered the highway east of Ploshchanka, pushed south past Holykove, and are engaged in combat with Russian troops at Zhytlivka. They are also attempting to liberate Holykove because, while the town is off the highway, it is one of those locations from which Russia can easily attack forces moving on the road.
Remember the intensity with which everyone once followed what was going on at Drobysheve, Derylove, and other towns in the immediate circle around Lyman? That’s where Ukraine is now at Kreminna. In fact, Zhytlivka is closer to Kreminna than any of those towns was to Lyman. And, at the same time that they are fighting at Zhytlivka, Ukrainian forces are also pressing through the wooded area south of Kreminna. On Friday, they were reported to be within 2km of the city. […]
DeSantis keeps hosing down his defense contractor pals with more money. But there haven’t been anymore immigrant flights.
We’ve discussed already how a GOP-connected defense contractor, Vertol Systems Company, was awarded a no bid contract to run Gov. Ron DeSantis’s controversial immigrant relocation program which flew those bamboozled Venezuelan asylum seekers to Martha’s Vineyard back in September. The guy who ran the program for DeSantis, public safety czar Larry Keefe, was Vertol’s longtime lawyer. So everyone is real tight. The state of Florida had to waive its normal rules to pay Vertol in advance for the Martha’s Vineyard “project” and two more stunts, the latter two of which ended up getting scuttled or at least delayed after the controversy blew up in September and October. That meant that the state of Florida had paid Vertol $1.5 million for transporting just fifty immigrants to Massachusetts.
But now there’s more.
The Miami Herald reports that new documents show that Florida paid Vertol an additional $1.9 million in mid- or late October. (The authorizations to pay out the money were on October 11th and October 17. It’s not clear precisely when the money was disbursed.) So that’s a total of $3.4 million.
But what has Vertol done? DeSantis’s administration refuses to say anything. They’ve been in a tug of war with newspapers and public interest organizations trying to unearth the records under Florida’s quite generous sunshine laws. It’s conceivable Air DeSantis has run some other operations that no one has heard about. But that seems unlikely since the whole point of these efforts is the public spectacle.
Are more projects in the works? That seems much more plausible. And given how the first operation went down they would likely want to keep up operational security. They currently have one class lawsuit and a criminal investigation in Texas resulting from the Martha’s Vineyard stunt. And why does Florida keep paying so much money in advance? When Vertol was already sitting on about a million unused dollars before this latest payment (actually two payments of $950,000 each) went through?
[…] the intersection of fascism and failure is not one where top drawer talent tends to congregate, but the future of the GOP looks…hoo. Bit grim.
After failing damn near every test of basic human decency for years, expectations of political courage from the Republican Party are appropriately low, but I feel like the Ye/Fuentes dinner was like the teacher taking pity on the paste-eating kid and giving him a sticker for spelling his name right.
And yet.
So, the former Kanye West’s public breakdown slash Neo-Nazi media tour swung by Mar-a-Lago for a dinner party, with prominent anti-Semite Nick Fuentes in tow. That’s an easy one, fellas. Do you realize how fucked up it is, how warped your party has become, that any of you did anything except condemn it, at the top of your lungs, at the earliest opportunity?
Especially here, in the immediate aftermath of the third consecutive election this idiot game show host’s fashy shenanigans cost you. Cognitive test-passing abilities notwithstanding, he’s not exactly a hot prospect with a bright future, y’know? Can y’all just take the goddamn off-ramp, pick up a fucking bucket, and join the rest of us in fighting the fire y’all started? Please?
No, somehow it took still more vileness from Ye, a stream of babbling bigotry that shocked even Alex Jones, to make the House GOP recant their allegiance to America’s most famous Jew-hater, […]
I don’t think you should need an autopsy report from Blake Masters (though he keeps a couple under his mattress) to figure out how America got so sick of your shit.
Lookin’ at YOU, Arizona Republicans. Goddammit you guys, must we really do this? No off-ramps will be taken by the Republican Party of Arizona, no fit shall remain unpitched, but you can’t make anyone pay attention to your tired act. […]
Hey, maybe America’s just sick of loud, crazy, hateful assholes, ever think of that?
Look at the way your shitty little movement responded to the mass shooting in Colorado Springs. Look at what Ben Shapiro said. What Matt Walsh said. What Herschel Walker said, on the campaign trail. If your stomach can take it, watch Trump attorney Jenna Ellis’ obscene take. [embedded links available at the main link]
Loud. Crazy. Hateful. Assholes. When you put it like that, the electoral drawbacks seem clear, don’t they?
Think about that while you wheel Herschel around Georgia Weekend-at-Bernies-style, ducking new abuse allegations and hoping no reporter corners you on the divisive werewolf/vampire issue. […]
Ah well, I wouldn’t worry, not with Kevin McCarthy’s steady hand on the tiller. He’ll lead you through these turbulent times, he’s real good at leadin’, just give him a minute to finish capitulating to Fuentes associate Marjorie Taylor Greene; she needs her committees back, y’see, if he wants her support for Speaker, and oh yeah, also a blank check from taxpayers to “investigate” every internet hoax she falls for. (And folks, she falls for ‘em all.)
Things are gonna change ‘round these parts under Marshal McCarthy, you’ll see. They’re gonna READ THE CONSTITUTION OUT LOUD […] and admittedly it gets a little murky after that, but the Constitution-reading part, that’s down in INK. They’re gonna read the shit outta that Constitution. That and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committees. Consider it a contract, America. […]
According to new research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and other groups that study online platforms, the rise of hate speech since Elon Musk took over Twitter is “unprecedented.”
Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day.
Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.
And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.
These findings — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League and other groups that study online platforms — provide the most comprehensive picture to date of how conversations on Twitter have changed since Mr. Musk completed his $44 billion deal for the company in late October. While the numbers are relatively small, researchers said the increases were atypically high. […]
Another update from Ukraine: […] It turns out that Russian predictions were right. People really are freezing from the effects of their invasion of Ukraine. Those people are in Russia.
People across Russia are freezing in their homes in temperatures as low as -38°C because essential utility workers have been mobilised – even after the supposed end of mobilisation – and sent to Ukraine, hindering repair and maintenance work at home.
The “We can explain” Telegram channel reports that several regions and cities in Russia, including Astrakhan, Krasnodar and Rostov, are suffering problems with their communal heating systems because the engineers responsible for maintaining them have been mobilised.
A source in Astrakhan’s municipal services says: “We have appealed to the military registration and enlistment offices and officials, explaining that the heating season is coming soon and we need people, but we never received a clear answer.”
Despite being engineers, most of the mobilised workers were used as infantry. They were “told to hold a difficult section of the front, although there were no professional soldiers among our men, some had just finished their military studies, others were already in their 40s.”
Some of the men, who were fighting near the village of Mirolyubivka, were forgotten about by their commanders during the retreat from Kherson. They were left behind, resulting in them being captured by the Ukrainians.
Two of the municipal workers were sent to serve with engineering forces near Kherson, then subsequently sent for training in Belarus before they are due to return to Crimea to build defences there.
The source notes that the men were given draft notices even after the partial mobilisation was claimed to have ended. Essential workers are supposed to be exempt from mobilisation, but military officials have widely ignored such exemptions.
Problems with heating have been reported across Russia, exacerbated by a lack of engineering personnel. Residents of Novosibirsk were left without heating in mid-November in temperatures of -30°C due to a damaged pipeline.
270 apartment blocks housing 70,000 people in Abakan faced a similar problem around the same time. At Artemovsky, a heating breakdown lasted for several days in temperatures of -38°C.
Former President Trump called for the termination of the Constitution’s rules regarding elections to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election following the release of more detailed information about Twitter’s role in suppressing a story about Hunter Biden.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
[…] A laptop that allegedly was dropped off at a Delaware computer repair shop included evidence demonstrating Hunter Biden’s actions, former Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the Post.
There were widespread concerns about the authenticity of the laptop’s contents at the time, and Twitter took steps to block users from sharing the link to the story on its platform.
The Federal Election Commission ruled last year that Twitter did not break any election laws when it blocked users from sharing links to the story, saying that it was for a valid commercial reason and not a political one.
[…] The posts on Twitter’s response to the Hunter Biden story do not show evidence of a widespread conspiracy to limit the content but some chaos, confusion and disagreement among Twitter employees about the platform’s reasoning for censoring it.
Cross posted from PZ’s “The latest non-scandal” thread: Josh Marshall analyzes the situation:
[…] I was frankly shocked at how underwhelming it was.
I really thought they’d come up with more. Any big organization has a large number of idiots within it. I figured you could cherry pick some embarrassing asides from junior employees, at least since they have access to everyone’s emails and chats. Basically it was the responsible executives discussing whether to invoke their post-2016 rule against publishing hacked material. They decided to do so, said they needed to be cautious and most of all find out more information.
Again, people taking their responsibilities seriously, trying to make the right decisions. Shocking stuff.
You might agree or disagree but there was nothing underhanded or dishonest about it. In fact, to me it was clearly the right decision. But that’s a topic for another day. The highlight from Musk and Taibbi’s perspective, it seems, was an email that came in that day from a GOP lobbyist in D.C. saying Republicans were going to be super mad. Which of course they would be.
The whole thing was an underwhelming joke. There are various more details. But that’s the gist.
The people still getting very sick with the Covid-19 virus (a lot BTW, our local hospital is over full with respiratory patients, flu, RSV, Covid) are mostly; the very old i.e 80, organ transplant patients, cancer patients, and antivaxxers.
About 3% of the US population is immune suppressed for one reason or another.
And, the antivaxxers laugh at these people.
Wearing a mask and getting vaccinated for someone else’s benefit is beyond their abilities to care about anything.
LA Times The more pandemic precautions fall away, the more COVID risk is concentrated on this one group
Melissa Healy
Fri, December 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM·9 min read edited for length
For Filipino Americans like Giancarlo Santos, holiday parties are typically a free-for-all of revelry, with friends and family spilling into every corner of the house, and Christmas decorations twinkling everywhere.
This year, Santos will get to enjoy the decorations as he receives treatment for an aggressive type of cancer called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. But holiday celebrations at his home in Chino will be strictly limited to his wife, Michelle, and their three children, who will be wearing masks and maintaining a safe distance from their 46-year-old father.
“I’m not normal; this is all abnormal,” Santos said from his hospital bed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His children “are ready for the pandemic to be over — hanging out with friends, going out, taking kickboxing classes,” he said. But they’ve met him halfway, getting vaccinated and wearing masks to protect their dad, whose disease has left his immune system unable to protect him from COVID-19’s deadliest ravages.
If only everyone in his life were willing to do the same.
Almost three years into the pandemic, many Americans have decided that the health emergency is over. In late October, when the polling organization Morning Consult gauged Americans’ concern over COVID-19, only 11% said they considered it a “severe health risk” within their communities.
At the start of the pandemic, for instance, near-universal vaccination was touted as a way to protect the medically fragile by surrounding them entirely with immune people. That goal of creating “herd immunity,” however, has been put out of reach by a virus that continues to undermine vaccines’ protection.
“We find ourselves in a particular moment where the virus and the politics of the time have conspired to make it even harder” to convince Americans they should make sacrifices for the sake of others, Kahn said.
People with impaired immune systems typically don’t produce a lot of antibodies after getting COVID-19 vaccines, which makes it easier for the coronavirus to sneak past one of the body’s first lines of defenses. Many immunocompromised patients also lack a robust army of B-cells, a second line of defense that blunts infection once a virus has established itself in the body.
The result: Even when they’ve been vaccinated, they’re more vulnerable to infection than their healthy peers. And once infected, they’re more likely to become severely ill or die.
A two-year study found that across 10 states, people with compromised immune systems were overrepresented among hospitalized COVID-19 patients by a factor of four. Even when vaccinated, these hospitalized patients were 40% more likely to require intensive care than fellow patients with healthy immune systems, and 87% more likely to die.
Transplant patients, who take powerful medications to prevent their immune systems from rejecting their new organs, have endured especially extreme peril. In the pandemic’s first 20 months, a study found that they died of COVID-19 at rates four times (for liver transplant recipients) to seven times (for kidney recipients) higher than the U.S. adult population as a whole.
Almost 3% of Americans — roughly 7.2 million adults — have immune systems that have been deliberately suppressed to ready them for cancer treatment, to prevent rejection of an organ transplant, to treat autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, or to tamp down dangerous levels of inflammation.
Then there are the more than half-million patients like Santos, who has a malignancy of the blood or lymph nodes that cripples a vital line of defense against infection. An additional 400,000 Americans with advanced or untreated HIV have T-cell depletion that can profoundly compromise their immune function.
That’ll be more difficult given the dimming effectiveness of two key COVID-19 medications. The preventive drug Evusheld has been a potent adjunct to vaccine in protecting against infection, while the monoclonal antibody bebtelovimab has been used to treat mild or moderate COVID-19 in people who are at risk of becoming severely ill.
Thanks to the emergence of new coronavirus variants, Harvard infectious disease specialist Dr. Jacob Lemieux puts Evusheld’s effectiveness at less than 25% “and dropping.” He assesses bebtelovimab’s ability to block disease progression to be 35% at best, and diminishing fast.
The antiviral Paxlovid, meanwhile, is of limited use to these patients because it can’t be safely taken alongside medications that are widely prescribed to immunocompromised patients.
As these pharmaceutical defenses against COVID-19 peel away, “it’s going to be tough times ahead” for people with weakened immune systems, said Dr. Camille Kotton, who specializes in treating people with immune impairment at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her patients aren’t immune to pandemic fatigue either, and she worries that many have let down their guard.
“At some point for them too, there’s a need to get on with life,” Kotton said.
And many Americans with weak immune systems haven’t taken full advantage of the armor that is available to them.
At Cedars-Sinai, Merchant is collaborating on a study of 1,000 patients who are severely immunocompromised. They “represent the whole spectrum” of COVID-19 beliefs, and their levels of protection reflect that, he said.
Roughly 10% of them have yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 25% have never received a booster shot. Fewer than 10% have gotten the newest booster, which is designed to target the Omicron strain.
This article explains Russia’s plans for Ukraine.
It was genocide.
Russia has been trying to eliminate Ukraine as a separate nation and identity for centuries. The current war is just a continuation of the plans started with the Russian empire.
“Dividing Ukrainians into four categories for killing, intimidating, or inducing to collaborate, wargames to hunt down and kill Ukrainian activists, and filtration camps to deport unruly Ukrainians into Russia, all to destroy Ukrainian sovereignty and identity and steal Ukraine’s military enterprises and nuclear power plants.”
If Russia had won, that would just be the beginning of decades of nightmares for the Ukrainian people.
Mass deaths, concentration camps, mass deportations to Russia, mass kidnapping of children, millions of refugees into Western Europe, mass theft of Ukrainian factories and anything portable, mass theft of Ukrainian land and housing, mass movements of Russians into Ukraine after the native population is removed.
FWIW, this is what Russia has done to all of the dozens of minorities it has conquered.
After Russia conquered part of Finland, Karelia, there are more or less no Karelians left there. It’s all Russians.
The same thing happened to Belarus.
Hardly anyone in Belarus speaks Belarusian any more and the language is being actively suppressed by their own government. The dictator of Belarus is a Russian puppet who holds power because of the Russian army in Belarus.
Belarus is probably past the point of no return as an independent ethnic group.
Russia had a secret plan to wipe Ukraine off the face of the Earth. This report tells why it failed
Euromaidan press
Credit: Ukraine’s General Staff
2022/12/04 – 02:10 • ANALYSIS, FEATURED
Article by: Klaidas Kazak
Dividing Ukrainians into four categories for killing, intimidating, or inducing to collaborate, wargames to hunt down and kill Ukrainian activists, and filtration camps to deport unruly Ukrainians into Russia, all to destroy Ukrainian sovereignty and identity and steal Ukraine’s military enterprises and nuclear power plants. A recent report by the RUSI Institute tells why Russia decided it could pull it off (spoiler: they tested the west’s reaction) and why it ultimately failed.
A report published by the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) defense and security think tank has shone a light on Russia’s initial invasion plans, revealing how Russia’s strategic objective was the subjugation of the Ukrainian state and how the plans were formulated first and foremost by Russia’s special services and a small group of senior officials led by President Vladimir Putin.
The report, which details Ukraine’s strengths and vulnerabilities during the early phases of the war and what lessons can be drawn, includes in its first chapter details of Russia’s invasion plans “as set out in captured copies of the orders issued to a range of Russian units.”
Russia’s invasion goal: destroying Ukraine’s national sovereignty and banning Ukrainian identity
The report notes that the goals of the Russian invasion included “the destruction of national sovereignty and the banning of Ukrainian identity and ‘demilitarisation,’ the destruction and banning of the UAF and the export to Russia of enterprises of the defense industrial complex of Ukraine, but also ‘denuclearisation,’ the capture of nuclear power plants and their transfer to the direct management of Rosatom.”
The authors of the report, which include Ukrainian Lieutenant-General Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, former adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and Foreign Intelligence Service Oleksandr V. Danyliuk, along with a pair of RUSI analysts, had exclusive access to Ukrainian military data and note that the underlying source materials for much of the report cannot yet be made public.
Testing the waters
Russia’s military build-up on Ukraine’s borders began in March 2021 when a greater force of conventional troops was added to existing forces along Ukraine’s borders. The rationale behind this move was to provide “an opportunity for Moscow to assess the reaction of Ukraine’s international partners.”
However, the threat posed by this build-up was dismissed by Ukraine’s allies “because they did not observe the necessary enablers deployed with the Russian formations nor the necessary political shaping of the information environment in Russia to support an invasion.”
This in turn confirmed to the Kremlin that enablers could be brought to the formations faster than Ukraine’s partners could bring military capabilities.
The lack of deterrence on the part of Ukraine’s allies was an “important reason for undertaking the full-scale invasion” as it gave the Kremlin the confidence that “it could invade Ukraine without significant international interference.”
The report reveals that in July 2021, the 9th Section of the 5th Service of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) was enlarged into a directorate and tasked with planning for the occupation of Ukraine. As part of the preparations, the FSB “drew on extensive surveys carried out in Ukraine.”
Naivety and optimism bias: driving factors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
What follows next was confirmation bias of an industrial scale on the part of the FSB which has become routine in Russia’s political system. The surveys conducted by the FSB reportedly “painted a picture of a largely politically apathetic Ukrainian society that distrusted its leaders, was primarily concerned about the economy, and thought an escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine was unlikely.”
Calling these reports inaccurate and false would be a gross understatement.
Russia’s further confidence was shaped by assurances from General Valery Gerasimov who allegedly told international interlocutors on the outbreak of the war “I command the second most powerful Army in the world.” Separately, Gerasimov told counterparts in the United Kingdom that Russia “had achieved conventional military parity with the US.”
The authors’ findings reveal that Russia’s planning was riddled with naivety and optimism bias. For example, the assertion in Russian planning that Ukraine could only generate only 40,000 additional troops was premised on the “anticipated speed of the operation rather than an appreciation of Ukraine’s capacity for mobilization.”
Furthermore, the “assumption appears to have been that Ukrainian government officials would either flee or be captured as a result of the speed of the invasion.”
This however never materialized. The day after the invasion, amid all the chaos, the Russian propaganda machine went into overdrive claiming President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had fled the country only for Zelenskyy to release his now infamous video proclaiming “the President is here” while flanked by Davyd Arakhamia, Andriy Yermark, Denys Shmyhal, Mykhailo Podoliak.
Russia had also “anticipated that shock would prevent the immediate mobilization of the population and that protests and other civil resistance could be managed through the targeted disintegration of Ukrainian civil society.”
Instead, the vast majority of Ukrainians welcomed the announcement of general mobilization with civilians from all walks of life taking up arms to defend their land. Meanwhile, ordinary Ukrainians launched massive protests in occupied cities such as Kherson and Melitopol and although Russian troops eventually crushed the protests, the resistance movement went underground with organized partisan contingents spawning and mounting a guerrilla war against the occupying force.
Wargames to kill Euromaidan activists
The report reveals disturbing details of the FSB’s tasks during the invasion reminiscent of the activities of its predecessor agency, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), during the Second World War and the immediate aftermath in Eastern Europe.
The FSB was tasked with capturing local officials and lists were compiled that divided Ukrainians into four categories:
those to be physically liquidated;
those in need of suppression and intimidation;
those considered neutral who could be induced to collaborate;
and those prepared to collaborate.
Leading up to the invasion, the FSB had conducted wargames with detachments of the Russian Airborne Forces to conduct kill-or-capture missions but “in many cases, the purpose of capture was to put individuals involved in the 2014 [Euromaidan] Revolution of Dignity on trial to be executed.”
In a hark back to Stalinist-era repressions, Russia had planned to use filtration camps to “establish counterintelligence files on large portions of the population in the occupied territories.” These filtration camps would have been used to determine whether Ukrainian civilians “needed to be displaced into Russia, and to lay the groundwork for records to monitor and disrupt resistance networks.”
Over time, Russia had planned to completely eradicate any trace of Ukrainian identity, culture, and history by starting with bringing “teachers and other officials […] to engage in the re-education of Ukrainians.”
With regard to political control, there was a regional and national component.
On the national level, the objective was “the murder of Ukraine’s executive branch and the capture of Parliament,” while
on the regional level, Russia would have focused its efforts on “coerced cooperation of regional governors and local authorities.”
With Parliament firmly occupied by Russian troops, the pro-Russian parliamentary faction would have been encouraged to form a “Movement for Peace” that other factions would be coerced to support. Meanwhile, electricity, water cuts, and blockers on finance from the central bank would be used as leverage across rebellious regions.
Extreme secrecy of Russian plans to invade and occupy Ukraine
The plans were reportedly “drawn up by a very small group of officials and the intent was directed by Putin” while many “officials executed elements of the preparations were unaware of the wider intent.”
Even Russia’s military personnel “up to deputy heads of branches within the General Staff” were unaware that the intention was to invade and occupy Ukraine until days before the invasion while “tactical military units did not receive orders until hours before they entered Ukraine.”
While the secrecy around the plans helped to achieve operational surprise (it also appears to have surprised the Russians themselves), the “tiny pool of personnel involved contributed to a range of false assumptions that appear never to have been challenged.”
Many of the failures in the early phases of the war, such as the number of axes embarked upon, the small size of its force employed for many several tasks, and the failure to develop appropriate contingencies “is indicative of many contributing technical judgments to the planning not having been fully briefed about the overall context.”
The authors state that it appears “no independent red teaming appears to have taken place” and although the invasion plan, while theoretically plausible, was “compounded optimism bias in each of its stages.” Most tellingly, there is “no evidence in the Russian planning that anyone had asked what would occur if any of its key assumptions were wrong” and perhaps most consequential of all, none of the planning afforded any agency to Ukraine.
ravensays
This is what cultural genocide looks like.
“Khromov says. Russians have destroyed more than 300 state and university libraries since the start of the war. In May, the National Library conducted an online survey on the state of its system. By then, 19 libraries were already completely destroyed, 115 partially destroyed and 124 permanently damaged. The Russians have destroyed libraries in Mariupol, Volnovakha, Chernihiv, Sievierodonetsk, Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Borodianka, along with the cities they served. They have destroyed several thousand school libraries at least.”
The Russians destroy libraries and burn books in Ukrainian wherever they invade and occupy.
The goal is clear.
To eliminate Ukrainian as a language and Ukrainians as a people.
To claim that Ukrainian and Russian cultures are the same is about as wrong as it can get.
As an outside observer with no previous knowledge of either, I’ve seen that Ukrainian culture is very old and deep with roots in the Pagan past. They have an elaborate cuisine as complicated as the French or Italians. They enjoy life as much as they can considering they share a border with Russia.
I haven’t seen much of Russian culture. I’m not sure they have much of one.
A lot of it is characterized by cruelty, brutality, and a sense that life is hard, no one will help you, and then you die. Vodka helps you get through it all even if it ends your life early.
The Observer
Libraries
‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine
When Russia invaded Ukraine, a key part of its strategy was to destroy historic libraries in order to eradicate the Ukrainians’ sense of identity. But Putin hadn’t counted on the unbreakable spirit of the country’s librarians
The Guardian
Stephen Marche
Sun 4 Dec 2022 03.00 EST
The morning that Russian bombs started falling on Kyiv, Oksana Bruy woke up worried about her laptop. Bruy is president of the Ukrainian Library Association and, the night before, she hadn’t quite finished a presentation on the new plans for the Kyiv Polytechnic Library, so she had left her computer open at work. That morning, the street outside her house filled with the gunfire of Ukrainian militias executing Russian agents. Missile strikes drove her into an underground car park with her daughter, Anna, and her cat, Tom. A few days, later she crept back into the huge empty library, 15,000sqft once filled with the quiet murmurings of readers. As she grabbed her laptop, the air raid siren sounded and she rushed to her car.
Thanks to that computer, Bruy could work. She didn’t return to her office; instead, she fled west to Lviv. “In all that time, from the first day of the full-scale war, I did not stop working,” she says. The library’s IT specialist lived in the neighbourhood. He kept the servers running and the employees connected. “So there was not a single day’s break in the work of the Kyiv Polytechnical Library, all this time, from 24 February.” The Russians have not shut her down. Oksana Bruy is winning her battle in the Ukrainian war. The libraries are open.
The battles of the 21st century are hybrid wars fought on any and all fronts: military, economic, political, technological, informational, cultural. Often ignored, or relegated to marginal status, the cultural front is nonetheless foundational. The wars of this century are wars over meaning. As American forces learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, if you lose on the cultural front, military and economic dominance swiftly erode. The terrible battles for Kyiv and Kharkiv, the destruction of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, Europe’s struggle to heat and feed itself this winter, spiralling inflation, the brutal material horrors of the struggle, might make any cultural reading of the conflict seem fantastical or glib. But at its core, and from its origin, this Ukrainian conflict has been a war over language and identity. And Ukraine’s libraries are the key.
There has never been a war in which poetry has mattered more. In the earliest days of the invasion, the Russian film star Sergei Bezrukov gave a sensational reading of Alexander Pushkin’s 1831 masterpiece, To the Slanderers of Russia, on his Telegram channel. That great poem is a warning to foreigners about involving themselves in Eastern European wars. “Your eyes are all unable to read our history’s bloody table,” Pushkin warned two centuries ago. “Slavonic kin among themselves contending, an ancient household strife, oft judged but still unending.” In response, the Ukraine rapper Potap posted: “I understand that quote is a classic,” he rhymed. “You are not brothers but enemies.” Bezrukov was saying to the west: “You don’t understand.” Potap’s answer was to Russians: “No, you don’t understand.”
Oksana Bruy
‘Libraries are on the front line’: Oksana Bruy, president of the Ukrainian Library Association. Photograph: Serhii Korovayny/The Observer
Bezrukov and Potap were both commenting on the distinct interpretations of their political leaders. Three days before the outbreak of hostilities, Putin offered what amounted to a historical dissertation as a declaration of war. His argument was that Ukraine was a fiction, “entirely created by Russia” without “the stable traditions of real statehood”. Ukrainian identity was the result of a western campaign “to distort the mentality and historical memory of millions of people”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy countered Putin’s history with his speech to the European parliament, an act of rhetoric so powerful that it changed the course of a war, insisting, not only that Ukrainian identity existed, but that it was European in nature. Most wars are fought over who will define the future. The Ukrainian war is a struggle over who will define the past. Is Ukrainian identity real or a fiction? That is the fundamental question of the conflict. The Ukrainians have given their answer.
The libraries are on the frontline. The Russians targeted them from the beginning. In the initial invasion, Russian forces demolished the state archives in Chernihiv, a target containing sensitive NKVD and KGB information about Soviet-era repressions that the Russians wanted erased from the historical record. They ransacked the archives in Bucha just as they looted every cultural institution they conquered. They gutted the archival department in Ivankiv for no good reason. “Those who burn books will eventually burn people,” the German poet Heinrich Heine said. But in the Ukrainian war, the Russians burn books and people together.
Anatolii Khromov is the head of the Ukrainian State Archives – repositories not only of important cultural and historical documents but also of birth and death certificates, marriage and divorce notices, property and insurance records, in short the transactions that constitute a nation. Khromov began as an archivist for the Odesa region 10 years ago. Currently, he lives in an undisclosed location for his security. While Bruy’s laptop stayed open in Kyiv, Khromov was evacuating the state archives from Donetsk and Luhansk. These were the first, but certainly not the last, of the wandering libraries of Ukraine.
The work of the state archivists during the course of the Ukrainian war is simple – to keep what they have out of Russian hands and in existence. “Our mission is crucial because the destruction of archives can be seen as part of cultural genocide,” Khromov says. Russians have destroyed more than 300 state and university libraries since the start of the war. In May, the National Library conducted an online survey on the state of its system. By then, 19 libraries were already completely destroyed, 115 partially destroyed and 124 permanently damaged. The Russians have destroyed libraries in Mariupol, Volnovakha, Chernihiv, Sievierodonetsk, Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Borodianka, along with the cities they served. They have destroyed several thousand school libraries at least.
“On 24 February, we began to fight for our national memory,” Khromov says. The fight for national memory took on two forms – the preservation of physical artefacts and the rapid digitisation of the archives that exist. National treasures, such as the birch bark manuscripts of the early Slavonic period or the original paintings and manuscripts of poet Taras Shevchenko, survive safely in flame-proof containers. The problem of large archives was more complex. At the outbreak of war, the state archives were only 0.6% digitised and several went offline because the people paying the bills had been killed or displaced. Their preservation required rapid mobilisation.
The Ukrainian military has distinguished itself in this war by a flexible entrepreneurial spirit combined with an extraordinary ability to mobilise international support. So have the warrior librarians. Anna Kijas, a musician librarian at Tufts University in the US, tweeted on 26 February her plans to hold a “data rescue event” for Ukrainian archives. Colleagues at Stanford and the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage stepped up, and together they launched Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online, or Sucho, on 1 March. By the end of the first week of that month, Sucho had more than 1,000 volunteers, many working 12-hour days on furlough from regular jobs. By the middle of March they were coordinating with the Ministry of Culture in Ukraine, the International Federation of Library Associations, the International Council of Museums and the Memory of the World division of Unesco. The Jewish material they saved is extraordinary on its own: from prewar musical archives to 400-year-old Galician manuscripts to texts produced by Jewish presses from Volhynia and Bukovina. There is also archeology of the Tauric Chersonese site, a Greek colony founded 2,500 years ago on the Crimean peninsula, the materials in the Bulgakov Museum in Kyiv, and the records of the Ukrainian Centre for Cultural Studies, a documentary repository of song styles and recipes. There were dozens of archives like these in desperate need of preservation.
After the initial rush to preserve, the volunteers at Sucho began working to provide the necessary equipment for local archivists. The Ukrainian military needs air defence systems. The librarians need Epson flatbed scanners, which go for €5,000, and Nikon SLR cameras which cost €3,250. Sucho is currently training librarians, too. They provide backup as well as teaching archival work. The Ukrainians need to digitise an estimated 86m files. So far 50TB of data have been archived due to this massive collective global effort.
Smaller, nimbler organisations are at work, too. Cat Buchatskiy, 21, an international security student at Stanford, founded the Shadows Project, which, before the war, worked to alter the historical record to support a Ukrainian rather than a Russian reading of cultural history, arguing, for instance, that museums should describe the suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich as a Ukrainian artist rather than a Soviet one. In February, she suspended her semester at Stanford and started raising money for bombproof cabinets and fireproof blankets. Ukraine libraries also need more basic supplies, like generators and cardboard boxes.
The military needs weapons, but the librarians need digital scanners and cameras
Last spring, Buchatskiy personally delivered 13 armoured cabinets in a truck from Poland. She often just showed up at the library doors. Sometimes, the librarians didn’t believe this young woman was arriving with highly specialised equipment. Buchatskiy could only convince one librarian, who didn’t quite believe the offer of free fireproof safes, with pictures of a delivery to another library. “Actually, we’ll take 65,” Buchatskiy remembers her saying after seeing the evidence.
Buchatskiy’s greatest tool for distributing equipment is the Ukrainians themselves. “Everyone is helping out one way or another,” she says. When she couldn’t deliver material to one library, she asked a friend, who also couldn’t do it, but her grandmother could.
Meanwhile, the business of libraries continues despite the physical destruction. They maintain the logistical network of Ukrainian culture. “The libraries follow their readers anywhere,” Bruy says. “So in Kharkiv, which is very often bombed, a lot of people live in the metro.” Librarians bring the books to them. People need to read in bomb shelters, too. That’s where they most need to read. “The library isn’t a building,” Bruy says. “The library is a community.”
During this war, Ukrainian libraries now serve new roles. They operate as centres for displaced persons. They offer psychological counselling for traumatised populations. They provide space for art therapy. “Of course, we pay special attention to children,” Bruy says. The librarians even sew camouflage nets when they have the time. But the libraries have two principal tasks to undertake. The first is to keep an accurate record of Russian brutality. “We are convinced that collecting, organising and preserving documents about this war is the straight duty of librarians,” Bruy says. They are also responding to an unprecedented demand for Ukrainian language lessons. Nearly a third of Ukrainians speak Russian as a mother tongue. The war has clarified to them that it is not their language.
‘The war has brought us all together’: Cat Buchatskiy.
‘The war has brought us all together’: Cat Buchatskiy. Photograph: Thomas Chene/The Observer
Invaders never understand the cultural framework of the countries they invade. If they did, they wouldn’t invade. The US military’s official history of the Iraq war blamed the defeat there, in part, on “gaping holes in what the US military knew about Iraq. This ignorance included Iraqi politics, society and government – gaps that led the United States to make some deeply flawed assumptions about how the war was likely to unfold.” Anyone who read the poetry of the Taliban would know they would never concede, no matter how outmanned or outgunned. They were fighting for the birds in the sky and the flowers in the mountains, for the possibility of love itself. A meaningful peace with them was always going to be impossible.
The current Ukrainian war is the military manifestation of a linguistic and cultural struggle that has been ongoing since the 19th century, a struggle between two visions of the Russian-Ukrainian relationship, articulated by the countrys’ foundational poets, Alexander Pushkin and Taras Shevchenko. Pushkin, in To the Slanderers of Russia, pictures the two countries as fratricidal brothers, part of one big murderous family. In his early masterpiece, Caterina, Shevchenko imagines a Ukrainian girl who is seduced and then abandoned by a Russian officer: “O lovely maidens, fall in love, / But not with Muscovites, / For Muscovites are foreign folk.” In Pushkin, Russia loves Ukraine to death. In Shevchenko, Ukraine pulls away from Russia’s fraudulent love for the sake of self-preservation. These remain the conflicting visions of national interrelation 150 years later.
Russian hatred for Shevchenko is durable. In 1992, Nobel prize winner Joseph Brodsky wrote On Ukrainian Independence, a poem of rage and loathing which he never published. The work possesses a deep desire for the destruction of Ukraine: “Hurry back to your huts to be gang-banged by Krauts and Pollacks right in the guts.” But On Ukrainian Independence is a bizarre kind of love song, too, like the rageful cry of an abandoned husband: “Our love is up, if it at all existed.”
Putin embodies the political expression of this murderous love. On 4 October, he gave a speech at a teaching awards ceremony: “We always, and even today despite the current tragedy, hold great respect for the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian culture, language, literature, and so on,” he said. Days later, Russian forces shot the conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko in the head because he refused to play chamber music in Kherson under occupiers’ orders. That’s what “great respect” means for Putin.
Written evidence: Anatolii Khromov, head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine.
Written evidence: Anatolii Khromov, head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine. Photograph: Future Publishing/Getty Images
The final lines of Brodsky’s On Ukrainian Independence are its most searing and its most prophetic, an address straight to the Ukrainians: “When it’s your turn to be dragged to graveyards, / You’ll whisper and wheeze, your deathbed mattress a-pushing, / Not Shevchenko’s bullshit but poetry from Pushkin.”
Brodsky’s prophecy has come true, but not in the way he expected. The current war is about whose poetry will ultimately be whispered over all the pointless slaughter. No one can say who will have the last word. But one of the first images that emerged after the liberation of Balakliia was Shevchenko’s statue with a Ukrainian flag raised over it. In response to Ukrainian incursions into Donbas, Russian missiles hit the playground in Kyiv’s Shevchenko Park.
In the war over meaning, the Russians lost on the first day. Their contention that Ukrainian identity doesn’t exist has been proven wrong no matter what happens now. The question that remains is not whether Ukrainian identity exists, but whether Russia can annihilate the Ukrainian identity it claims is nothing more than a distortion. Their assault on Ukrainian libraries has only increased as the war has developed into an act of the mass terrorisation of civilian populations.
In Kyiv on 10 October, the Russians bombed the Maksymovych Scientific Library of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, the National Scientific Medical Library of Ukraine and the Kyiv city youth library. Defiance radiates off Oksana Bruy. “Maybe the Russians think we will be scared of their Shahed drones and rockets,” she says. “We just do our work every day.” On 30 September, Ukraine celebrates an “All Ukrainian Library Day.” This year it unveiled a new motto: “The library is unbreakable.”
The Ukrainian war has been, so far, a massive, catastrophic act of misinterpretation. The Russian elites convinced themselves that Ukrainian identity wasn’t real. Their actions from the outset of the conflict genuinely seemed guided by the assumption that Ukrainians would not resist, that they would submit to be subsumed, that they didn’t believe the story of their own independence. The Russian invasion is more than a symptomatic failure to understand Ukrainians’ distinction from Russian culture, though. It also has accelerated the separation.
We’d never have come to this place if we did not have a gun to our head
Ukrainian culture in the future will be inherently anti-Russian. “We must forget there is such a country,” Bruy says. Cat Buchatskiy points out the brutal irony of the moment: the war against Ukrainian identity has forced Ukrainians deeper into their identity. “We would never have come to this place if we did not have a gun to our head,” she says. “It has taken a war to bring all these people together.” No one has done more for the development of Ukrainian culture than Vladimir Putin. He has proven, more than any other figure, that Ukrainian culture is distinct and vital.
Culture is not a luxurious decoration on top of politics; it is the basis of collective existence. Several battlefield commentators have noted the difference between the strength of Ukrainian morale and the absence of Russian morale. But morale is too blunt a term. The question is more accurately: “Who would want to be part of the Russian story?” In September, when Putin released his military draft order, hundreds of thousands of Russians gave their answer by fleeing. They’d rather be part of the Kyrgyz story, or the Armenian story, or the Georgian story.
Meanwhile, Anatolii Khromov is hiring. There’s a new position in the Transcarpathian library system. Reading rooms are starting to open. They are resuming the work of libraries, which is to build cultures day by day, room by room, book by book. Libraries exist because the precious things they shelter – words, meanings, communities of readers – need sheltering. The precariousness of culture does not mean weakness, though. Cultures flourish in peace but define themselves in resistance. In the 21st-century wars of meanings, you do not want to be up against the librarians. They keep meaning alive.
This article was amended on 4 December 2022. An earlier version incorrectly described Kazimir Malevich as a “supremacist”, rather than a suprematist, painter.
Earlier in the day, protesters had gathered outside the Sunrise Theater in downtown Southern Pines, upset about a drag queen show planned for the small venue Saturday night. On her Facebook page, Emily Grace Rainey posted an invitation to the protest…
“I welcomed them to my home,” wrote Rainey, who organized a group of Moore County residents to travel to Washington on January 6, 2021. “Sorry they wasted their time. I told them that God works in mysterious ways and is responsible for the outage. I used the opportunity to tell them about the immoral drag show and the blasphemies screamed by its supporters.”
Rainey said, “I told them God is chastising Moore County, thanked them for coming, and wished them a good night. Thankful for the LEOs service, as always.”…
The drag show started at 7 p.m. and was under way when the power went out. Headliner Naomi Dix kept the show going until almost 9 p.m.
“I asked that everyone turn on their phone flashlights to illuminate the room,” Dix said. “I then lead the crowd in singing Beyoncé’s ‘Halo.’”
Until last month, Thomas Achord was the principal of the Sequitur Classical Academy, a Baton Rouge school providing a “classical Christian education,” and a respected member of the increasingly noisy Christian nationalist movement. A married man and father to four children, he was also the co-host of a theocracy-promoting podcast with Stephen Wolfe, the author of a book released last month called The Case for Christian Nationalism.
In short, a respected man of position in the precincts of the “Christians rule, you drool” school of religious philosophy. […]
Then, shortly before Thanksgiving, Twitter detectives uncovered his alter-ego, ‘Tulius Aadland’, on the social media site. Through this avatar, Achord revealed himself to be racist, antisemitic, and a first-order sexist.
He referred to Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) as a “negress”, called a Black man “animalistic.” and characterized Black teenagers as “chimps.” He yearned for “race realist white nationalism.” [snipped the awful anti-semitic text]
In his tweets, Achord also talked about his desire to use “classical Christian education”—the Christian movement that his school, Sequitur Classical Academy, follows—to train white nationalists. In a 2020 series of tweets, Achord complained that Christian education wasn’t doing enough to support white nationalism. He wrote that he wanted to provide “resources for white advocates to take back the West for white peoples.”
Achord also indulged his weak-spined misogyny, writing that he would only defend any woman, including his wife, because she’s his “possession,” not because of any respect for her. [snipped other examples of misogyny]
Achord’s downfall came when Christian writer Alastair Roberts noted similarities between Achord’s public writings and the Aadland account. Most notably, Achord wrote a tweet under the Tulius handle in 2020 with a picture of a room reserved for a grief support group. Achord mocked the group, calling the idea of men sharing their grief “weakness” and “garbage”—but Roberts noticed that a placard with the room number carried Sequitur’s logo.
When the connection became obvious just before Thanksgiving, the school (to its credit) did not hesitate. It dismissed this miserable little man.
[…] Achord’s attempt to suggest that Tulius Aadfrod was a separate identity that revealed himself while Achord was in some fugue state is laughable. This bayou bigot published, under his real name, a racist screed, “Who Is My Neighbor?: An Anthology In Natural Relations.” It is little more than a collection of quotes by fellow extremist travelers pining for a white America where non-entities can feel like they are somebody.
Some dyed-in-the-wool fundamentalist Christians chastised Achord for his hate. Ultra-conservative Christian writer Rod Dreher, whose children attended Sequitur and whose wife taught there until Achord’s account was discovered, blasted Achord’s racism in a blog post.
“You were an online racist, anti-Semite, woman-hating creep who admitted on that account to wanting to use Classical Christian Education as a Trojan horse for white nationalism—and did this while you were the headmaster of a school that trusted you!”
But as Phillip Gorski, a Yale religious studies professor and co-author of a book on white Christian nationalism called The Flag and the Cross, the Achord controversy is another example of Christian nationalists being in “denial” about the racists within their movement.
“People are sort of surprised when the clerical collar comes off and it turns out there are ‘SS’ insignias underneath, but they shouldn’t be.
Christian nationalists are fascists — and profoundly unAmerican.
A Pivotal Point: Ukraine is on the offensive, but with about one-fifth of its territory still occupied by Russian forces, there is still a long way to go, and the onset of winter will bring new difficulties.
Ukraine’s Electric Grid: As many Ukrainians head into winter without power or water, Western officials say that rebuilding Ukraine’s battered energy infrastructure needs to be considered a second front in the war.
A Bloody Vortex : Even as they have celebrated successes elsewhere, Ukrainian forces in the small eastern city of Bakhmut have endured relentless Russian attacks. And the struggle to hold it is only intensifying.
Dnipro River: A volunteer Ukrainian special forces team has been conducting secret raids under the cover of darkness, traveling across the strategic waterway that has become the dividing line of the southern front.
Understanding War:
Ukrainian forces reportedly reached the east (left) bank of the Dnipro River across from Kherson City. […]
Conditions in eastern Ukraine are likely becoming more conducive to a higher pace of operations as winter sets in.
The Russian and Belarusian Ministers of Defense met in Minsk likely to further strengthen bilateral security ties between Russia and Belarus.
Ukrainian forces likely continue to advance northwest of Kreminna.
Russian forces continued ground attacks around Bakhmut, in the Avdiivka-Donetsk City area, and in western Donetsk and eastern Zaporizhia oblasts.
Russian authorities reportedly evacuated Russian collaborators from Oleshky.
The Russian National Guard’s (Rosgvardia) Organizational and Staff Department confirmed that mobilization continues despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of the formal end of partial mobilization on October 31.
Russian authorities are continuing to use judicial measures to consolidate administrative control of occupied territories.
Stripes:
Moscow will intensify its cyber efforts to pressure the sources of Ukraine’s military and political support both domestic and foreign, according to Microsoft.
In a post on the company’s “On the Issues” blog, Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft’s digital threat analysis center, urged customers to prepare for more Russian cyberattacks over the winter.
“Russian military intelligence actors’ recent execution of a ransomware-style attack — known as Prestige — in Poland may be a harbinger of Russia further extending cyberattacks beyond the borders of Ukraine,” Watts said.
Alongside almost two months of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, there have been “complementary” cyberattacks on Ukrainian and foreign-based supply chains as well as “cyber-enabled influence operations,” he added.
In sum, those efforts are intended to “undermine U.S., EU, and NATO political support for Ukraine, and to shake the confidence and determination of Ukrainian citizens.”
SSU.gov.ua:
[…] The 10 people on the list are representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) or have close links with this organisation:
Vadym Novynskyi (a cleric of the UOC-MP);
Pavlo Lebid (Metropolitan Pavlo of Vyshhorod and Chornobyl, the superior of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra);
Rostyslav Shvets (Metropolitan Lazar of Simferopol and Crimea);
Volodymyr Udovenko (Metropolitan Platon of Feodosia and Kerch);
Viacheslav Opanasenko (Bishop Agathon of Koktebel);
Oleksandr Ovsiannikov (Bishop Oleksii of Dzhankoi and Rozdolne);
Kostiantyn Chernyshov (Bishop Kalennik of Bakhchysarai);
Oleksandr Taranov (Archbishop Arkadii of Rovenky and Sverdlovsk);
Oleh Ivanov (former Metropolitan Yelysei of Izium and Kupiansk);
Oleksii Maslenikov (former Metropolitan Iosif of Romny and Buryn).
The SSU pointed out that most of these people are currently either in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or abroad.
The individuals on the sanctions lists have undertaken various initiatives, such as: proposing that the dioceses they lead join the Russian Orthodox Church; agreeing to cooperate with the occupation authorities; promoting pro-Russian narratives; and justifying Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine.
The restrictive measures imposed on these individuals have a term of five years and will involve the blocking of assets, restriction of trade operations, blocking any removal of funds outside Ukraine, etc. Moreover, all of them have been stripped of any Ukrainian state awards or other forms of recognition.
From now on, these individuals will not be able to obtain ownership of land plots or to privatise state property or intellectual property rights.
Kori Schake (carnegieendowment.org):
[…] My expectation of what’s going to happen is that by next summer, Russia will have been pushed out of the entirety of the territory of Ukraine, including Crimea. It is so shocking how fundamentally bad the Russian military is at warfare. That’s going to give enormous incentives to escalation. So there will be a premium in the coming three months to signal very clearly and very concretely to the Russian government the consequences of crossing the nuclear threshold.
I don’t see meaningful military targets for nuclear use in Ukraine. There isn’t a port or an airfield or massing of large numbers of troops that would be a traditional battlefield nuclear target. What I have nightmares about is President Vladimir Putin concluding that he may be able to cover this humiliating defeat by launching a nuclear strike on Kyiv to affect regime change by killing the Ukrainian government. […]
CBS News:
Russian authorities rejected a price cap on the country’s oil set by Ukraine’s Western supporters and threatened on Saturday to stop supplying the nations that endorsed it.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary (apologies if I’m partially duplicating anyone’s comments above):
…The US expects “reduced tempo” in fighting to continue over the winter months, the top US intelligence chief Avril Haines has said.
…
OPEC+ has agreed to stick to its oil output targets at a meeting on Sunday. OPEC+, which comprises the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including Russia, angered the US and other western nations in October when it agreed to cut output by 2m barrels a day (bpd), about 2% of world demand, from November until the end of 2023.
A draft resolution is circulating at the United Nations in New York for a Nuremberg-style tribunal to hold the Russian leadership accountable for crimes of aggression in Ukraine.
More than 500 Ukrainian localities remained without power on Sunday following weeks of Russian airstrikes on the electric grid, an interior ministry official said.
Ukraine is imposing sanctions on 10 senior clerics linked to a pro-Moscow church on the grounds they agreed to work with Russian occupation authorities or justified Moscow’s invasion, the security service said.
Also from there:
Public support in Russia for war ‘falling significantly’, says UK
The British Ministry of Defence, in its latest intelligence estimate, has pointed to new signs from an independent Russian media outlet that public support in Russia for the military campaign was “falling significantly”.
Meduza, a website reporting Russian news from Latvia, says it had obtained a recent confidential opinion survey conducted by the Federal Protection Service, which is in charge of guarding the Kremlin and providing security to top government officials.
The survey, commissioned by the Kremlin, found that 55% of respondents backed peace talks with Ukraine while 25% wanted the war to go on. The report didn’t mention the margin of error.
Levada Center, Russia’s top independent pollster, found in a similar poll carried out in November poll that 53% of respondents supported peace talks, 41% spoke in favour of continuing the fight, and 6% were undecided. That poll of 1,600 people had a margin of error of no more than 3.4%.
The British MoD noted that:
Despite the Russian authorities’ efforts to enforce pervasive control of the information environment, the conflict has become increasingly tangible for many Russians since the September 2022 partial mobilisation.
With Russia unlikely to achieve major battlefield successes in the next several months, maintaining even tacit approval of the war amongst the population is likely to be increasingly difficult for the Kremlin.
In recent weeks, Russia’s military focus has been on striking Ukrainian infrastructure and pressing an offensive in the east, near the town of Bakhmut, while shelling sites in the city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces liberated last month after an eight-month Russian occupation.
A top Ukrainian presidential aide criticised Twitter owner, Elon Musk, for the billionaire’s “magical simple solutions,” citing ideas put forward by the billionaire on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Twitter content moderation.
Mykhailo Podolyak listed “exchang(ing) foreign territories for an illusory peace” and “open(ing) all private accounts because freedom of speech has to be total”, as examples of such suggestions….
Protesters in Iran have called for a three-day strike this week amid conflicting reports that its “morality police” had been shut down, and as the US said the leadership in Tehran had locked itself into a “vicious cycle” that had cut it off from its own people and the international community.
The call steps up pressure on Iranian authorities after the attorney general said this weekend that the morality police – whose detention of a young woman triggered months of protests – had been shut down. There was no confirmation of the closure from the interior ministry, which is in charge of the morality police, and Iranian state media said the attorney general, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, was not responsible for overseeing the force.
…
Protesters seeking to maintain their challenge to Iran’s clerical rulers have called for a three-day economic strike and a rally in Tehran’s Azadi Square on Wednesday. Similar calls for strike action and mass mobilisation have in past weeks resulted in an escalation in the unrest.
…
Some European diplomats believe an irreversible turning point has been reached from which Iran’s leadership will not recover. The diplomat said: “The situation is really quite simple. The Islamic Republic – the regime – after 43 years has finally lost contact with their people and that is what this is really about. This is different from anything that’s gone before in the previous 43 years.
“They are having a dialogue with themselves but the main population finds the offers of reform as largely an irrelevance.”
The diplomat also detected tensions within the regime over how to respond to the protests, saying: “There is a lot of internal disharmony around different bits of the particular security apparatus in terms of passing responsibility for handling the protests.”…
…For nearly three years the authorities have battled to keep Covid out of the country, using every tool of technology, mass mobilisation and repression at their disposal, regardless of the tragic costs to individuals and the terrible damage to the national economy.
China became a nation of vigilance, constantly on guard against the virus lapping at its shores. Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong, was champion of this isolationist approach.
Now Beijing has decided to move on. Sun Chunlan, vice-premier and Covid chief, announced last week that the country’s health system had “withstood the test” of Covid-19 and China was in a “new situation”.
After years of telling its citizens that the only way to stay safe from Covid was to avoid it entirely, the policy pivot required a new message. Beijing has opted for presenting the prevailing Omicron variant as a less lethal version of the original disease.
Xi told visiting European Council president Charles Michel that China could look at easing restrictions because Omicron is less dangerous than the Delta variant, which was most common before.
The problem, epidemiologists warn, is that Beijing’s stance does not reflect studies on the impact of Omicron, and the country is ill-prepared for a wave of deadly Covid infections that it may soon face.
…
Omicron has proved less deadly as it spread across countries such as Britain, but by the time it had become dominant, about 95% of the UK population had some form of antibodies from vaccines or previous infections, Bauld said.
China has relatively low vaccination and booster rates, particularly among the vulnerable elderly – only 40% of the over-80s have had booster shots. Almost no one has natural antibodies from previous infections.
China’s healthcare system was weak and patchy even before the pandemic and has been undermined by years of fighting Covid.
…
The Chinese government has launched a vaccination drive targeted at older citizens, but China is using only domestically developed vaccines, which guard less effectively against Covid than western alternatives.
Beijing has so far refused to import foreign-made vaccines. Instead it is pushing for access to the technology, while domestic labs attempt to match the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna – but has not had success with either effort.
Joe Biden’s vaccine chief, Ashish Jha, warned last week that Beijing needed “higher quality” vaccine options to manage the virus. Without them, China risks slipping towards the cycles of dangerous outbreaks and strict controls that many other countries endured in 2020 and 2021.
…
How China handles the bumpy road out of isolation will affect the rest of the world. Potentially at stake are the fortunes of a global economy already battered in recent years by shocks including the pandemic and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.For the first time in more than three decades, China’s economy will grow at a slower rate than its neighbours, the World Bank has forecast. Its role as the world’s factory means more lockdowns would cause disruption around the world, including to vital healthcare supplies.
There may also be health implications. China’s easing of restrictions was welcomed by the World Health Organization, but its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also warned about the risks of new variants developing in any large population not protected by vaccination.
“Gaps in testing … and vaccination are continuing to create the perfect conditions for a new variant of concern to emerge that could cause significant mortality,” Tedros said on Friday.
However the shift from zero Covid to living with Covid goes, one aspect of the next few months and years is certain. Xi will aim to take credit for any success and suppress or shift blame for any failures.
The Communist party’s firm grip on China’s media has made it possible for Xi to present his abrupt U-turn last week as a victory, rather than a stunning and unexpected response to the extraordinary courage of ordinary citizens….
Last week I gave an overview of the state of the Ukrainian front lines. Today, I want to look at Ukraine’s offensive options now that the ground is freezing and General Mud is taking a break until March.
Let’s start with a map overview, and then we’ll go through the options clockwise, from the top. [map at the link] Svatove/Starobilsk: This is the highest value approach on the entire map.
Mark Sumner has written all week about Ukrainian advances on this line, particularly that north-south P66 highway west of Svatove and Kreminna, where the good guys are trying to clear the road’s eastern flank.
Svatove/Starobilsk and Kreminna/Severodonetsk are currently complementary efforts (Svatove and Kreminna are only 50 kilometers apart), as liberating Kreminna will open up a southern approach toward Svatove. And once Svatove is liberated, Ukraine will aim for the real prize—Starobilsk, perhaps the most strategic towns in Ukraine still under Russian occupation.
Take a look at the map, every road in northeastern Ukraine runs through Starobilsk. And that dark red line running north to south? That is the rail line from Belgorod, Russia, the aggressors’ main logistical hub for the entire war. At the moment, that rail line is out of range of all Ukrainian artillery, including HIMARS.
Starobilsk is particularly important given Ukraine’s stunningly successful destruction of the Kerch bridge rail line connecting the Russian mainland to Crimea. Russia claims the roadway will be back in service in March, but no mention of the rail portion. It appears completely dead. That means nearly all of Russia’s supplies are currently running through Starobilsk. Cut that, and Russia’s supply operation will descend into utter chaos, on top of the dysfunctional mess we already see today.
Obviously, Russia knows this very well, and it has larded up the area with conscripts and defensive entrenchments. They may be poorly trained speed bumps, but they have been effective in slowing any advances and chewing up Ukrainian ammunition stocks.
When Ukraine reaches Starobilsk, all that Russian-held red territory in northeastern Ukraine will turn liberated yellow overnight. It is mostly empty, flat agricultural steppe. It’s the Nebraska of Ukraine.
Kreminna/Severodonetsk
Ukraine and Russia have different offensive philosophies. Russia levels its target with artillery, sends in conscripts or Wagner ex-prisoners to probe defenses. If any Ukrainian resistance remains, too bad for that cannon fodder. They’re dead. Russia doesn’t care. They shell those defensive positions some more, and send in the next batch of fodder. Rinse, lather, repeat until nothing is left. It’s time consuming and flattens everything in the way. But it requires zero strategic thinking. Russian tsars don’t look fondly on any general with smarts, lest they start making designs on the throne.
So Russia “shapes the battlefield” by leveling it. Ukraine does so by systematically cutting supply lines until the Russian garrison has no choice but to retreat or risk entrapment. Ukraine didn’t need to shell Kherson city to pressure Russians inside it. No shots were fired inside city limits. Same with Lyman.
Ukraine is now at Kreminna’s doorstep, employing this exact same tactic […] Ukraine systematically surrounding the town, working to isolate every road in and out of until Russia is forced to retreat in order to avoid being cut off.
This Kreminna approach is symbiotic with the broader push toward Starobilsk. With Kreminna liberated, Ukraine would cut Russia’s ability to reinforce Svatove from the south, while Ukrainian forces would be able to move up and threaten the town’s from that same southern direction. […]
Zaporizhzhia [map at the link]
Back in summer, before Ukraine’s surprise lightning offensive in Kharkiv reshuffled the entire war, we all sat around debating where Ukraine would strike next. They were making so much noise about Kherson that it was obvious misdirection, fooling no one but Russia itself.
In late July, I took stock of the options and predicted that Ukraine was going to launch its expected counteroffensive in this direction, out of Zaporizhzhia. I was wrong, obviously, but the reasoning and value of attacking in this direction remain. [map at the link] The green lines are rail lines, so yeah, it has to do with logistics.
Tokmak and Polohy are less well known, but that will change over the coming months. Of the two, Tokmak is the most important and might be among the most strategic spots on the map for Ukraine’s counteroffensive. Those green lines on the map are rail lines, and we all know how critically important those are to Russia’s logistics. They can’t function far from a railhead, lacking the trucks to move supplies and ammo and the systems to make loading and unloading fast and efficient (such as cranes and pallets).
Follow those green lines from the bottom left of the map to the bottom right, and what do you see?
There is just one rail line connecting both sides.
There is a highway that runs along that southern coast, but again, trucks aren’t helpful to Russia, not over those hundreds of kilometers. Their main way to move supplies—rail lines—all converge at Tokmak (pop. 32,000 pre-war).
So okay, Tokmak and Polohy didn’t become household names in the subsequent months. Vovchansk, Kupiansk, Izyum, and Lyman took top honors as Ukraine liberated most of Kharkiv oblast, followed by Davydiv Brid, Snihurivka, Dudchany, and Mylove in the push down in Kherson.
And of course, we’re now talking about Kreminna, Svatove, and Starobilsk more than Polohy and Tokmak. And of course, Russia has put Bakhmut, Vuhledar, Andriivka, and Pavlika on the map. But maybe now that might change? [Tweet and map at the link]
Incidentally, this rail line is also the reason that Russia is pushing so hard at Pavlivka, to push Ukraine out of barrel artillery from one of its key rail hubs. Good thread with the details: [Tweet and map at the link]
We’ve talked about how Ukraine “shapes the battlefield” in the past, using artillery to degrade ammunition, supply, command and control, and troop concentrations. Well, that’s exactly what’s happening in the direction right now, with near nightly HIMARS strikes in both Polohy and Tokmak. Lots of reports like this in the last week: [Tweets and maps at the link: “Domino-effect. It is reported that Russia is transferring it’s troops from Mykailivka and Polohy to Melitopol and Mariupol.
Polohy was subject to heavy artillery the last week. On 25-11 four KAMAZ trucks full of dead/wounded were seen rushing to the city hospital.”]
[…] The claimed dead is less interesting (and likely exaggerated), than the fact that these strikes are ongoing and by all indications, massive. Indeed, Ukrainian general staff claims that Russia has evacuated its civilian and military administrations from Polohy and other towns in the area, and has ordered its collaborator civilians to do the same. All of it very similar to what we saw in Kherson oblast just before the full Russian withdrawal.
Pushing beyond Polohy and Tokmak, Berdyansk and Mariupol have strategic value as Azov Sea port cities. Mariupol has next-level symbolism, for all the obvious reasons. But functionally, cutting Russia’s precious land bridge to Crimea will make it harder to supply any defense of that peninsula (especially with the Kerch bridge rail line down). Melitopol is the Starobilsk of southern Ukraine. Liberate it, and Russia can’t supply anything for hundreds of kilometers around it. Lots of good stuff down here, but it’s also thick with Russian defensive fortifications and troops.
It was easier to find breakthrough points when Russia was struggling to maintain five axes of attack. Now that we’re essentially down to one (what Russia should’ve done all along), things are getting tougher. Russian defenses are strong in this direction.
Kherson/Nova Kakhovka/Crimea
Fun fact: Ukraine only liberated about half of Kherson oblast. The other half is on the other side of the Dnipro river. And then, south of that, there’s Crimea. [map at the link]
There have been reports that Russia has withdrawn from much of the territory south of the Dnipro. Ukraine even sent a dingy across the river to plant a flag on the other bank. It had fun propaganda value, but there was no liberation. Ukraine would deal with the same challenges in pushing south, that Russia faced trying to hold territory north. All the bridges are out, the river is around 1 km wide, and pontoons and barges aren’t enough to sustain a full-scale offensive. Parts of the river supposedly freeze for a month or two in the coldest stretch of winter, but you’re not moving armor across ice, I don’t think (though admittedly, my knowledge on the topic is … thin).
Nova Kakhovka, however, is intriguing. Russia has pulled its civilian and military presence from the town, likely to avoid being picked off by Ukrainian artillery. But it is of immense strategic value, as it controls Crimea’s water supply. It has another benefit—the Dnipro crossing is mostly a dam, connected by a few short stretches of bridge. It would be relatively easy to repair and use to cross. However, Russia would be less enthused about such an endeavor, and might then target the dam itself for destruction. It’s doubtful Ukraine could risk it unless 1) Russian barrel artillery was moved significantly out of range, and 2) Ukraine could spot sufficient air defenses to protect the bridge from ballistic missiles.
Thus, any Ukrainian crossing would likely need to come from elsewhere, and the logistics are just impossibly difficult at the moment. Though given how much Russia has hollowed out this area, confident that the Dnipro will protect this flank, it would be great if Ukraine found a way to make it happen.
ravensays
This is a followup to #154 about the terrorist attack on two power substations in Ukraine North Carolina.
The possibility that it was aimed at stopping a drag show is not proven so far.
It was clearly deliberate and power is going to be off until Thursday.
The FBI is involved.
NC county announces curfew as nearly 40,000 customers remain without power after 2 substations damaged by gunfire
Tina Burnside CNN
By Nicole Grether, Gloria Pazmino and Tina Burnside, CNN
Updated 7:04 PM EST, Sun December 4, 2022 edited for length
This photos shows the gate to the Duke Energy West End substation in Moore County, N.C. on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022. Tens of thousands were without power in the county after what authorities say was an act of criminal vandalism at multiple substations. The Pilot newspaper in Southern Pines reported that infrastructure at the West End substation was damaged.
North Carolina officials: ‘Act of violence’ cuts power to 40,000 customers
Authorities have announced a mandatory curfew in a North Carolina county where around 40,000 customers lost power after two power substations were damaged by gunfire Saturday night.
The county will implement a mandatory curfew from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m., starting Sunday night, Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said at a news conference Sunday.
A state of emergency went into effect at 4 p.m. Sunday as law enforcement, city and energy officials are investigating the incident and working to restore the two substations, authorities said. Law enforcement has also been providing security for the stations, according to the sheriff.
The power outage is being investigated as a “criminal occurrence” after crews found signs of potential vandalism at several locations, CNN previously reported.
Fields said multiple rounds were fired at the two substations. “It was targeted, it wasn’t random,” he said.
No suspects have been identified in connection with the incident. Fields would not say if the criminal activity was domestic terrorism.
“The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing,” Fields said. “We don’t have a clue why Moore County.”
“We don’t have anything,” Fields said, when asked about a possible motive. “No motivation, no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept they’re the ones who [did] it.”
A gate at one of the locations also appears to have been taken off its hinges, Mike Cameron of the Southern Pines Fire and Rescue Department told CNN on Sunday afternoon.
Cameron said the area is experiencing increased emergency calls due to the lack of power, adding that auto accidents have occurred because traffic lights are out. People who rely on oxygen have placed emergency calls, he said.
More than 37,000 customers were without power across the county Sunday evening, according to the Duke Energy outage map. According to poweroutage.us, about 38,000 customers had lost power in Moore County and neighboring Hoke County.
Power restoration could take until Thursday, energy company says
The estimated cost of the substation damage is in the “millions,” the sheriff said.
Restoration to the two substations could take until Thursday for some customers, Jeff Brooks, principal communications manager for Duke Energy, said at Sunday’s news conference.
“Equipment will have to be replaced,” Brooks said. “We are looking at a pretty sophisticated repair with large equipment. This will be a multiday restoration for most customers, extending possibly to Thursday.”
A local supermarket is distributing ice to impacted residents, according to a news release from grocery chain Harris Teeter.
FBI has joined the investigation, congressman says
At least two substations were vandalized “with criminal intent,” US Rep. Richard Hudson said Sunday morning in a release.
The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the FBI are responding, according to Hudson. He said the motive remains unknown.
During the Sunday news conference, Fields addressed rumors circulating on social media that the attack was an attempt to thwart a local drag show.
Fields said law enforcement is working every angle, but “have not been able to tie anything back to the drag show,” which was scheduled for Saturday night in the nearby town of Southern Pines.
On its website, the Sunrise Theater advertised the “Downtown Divas!” drag show starting at 7 p.m. The power was cut shortly after that time, Fields said.
CNN has reached out to the Sunrise Theater as well as the Southern Pines Police Department. CNN has also reached out to Sandhills Pride, the organization behind Saturday’s drag event.
“This was a terrible act,” North Carolina State Senator Tom McInnis said during the news conference. “And it appears to be an intentional, willful and malicious act, and the perpetrator will be brought to justice and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Deputies and officers from other law enforcement agencies responded to the different sites to provide security, according to the sheriff’s office.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Sunday tweeted that state law enforcement would join the investigation.
Reginald Selkirksays
@164: I bet geofencing cell phone numbers that were near both cell towers at the time of the incidents would be revealing. I don’t know if law enforcement agencies have sufficient evidence to justify such a warrant.
If anyone doubted that abortion was on the ballot this November, they need look no further than the small western Minnesota city of Prinsburg.
State Republican Rep. Tim Miller, who represents the area, announced at the start of this year that he would not seek re-election. Instead, Miller, who now works for a group that opposes abortion, said he would dedicate himself to turning this tiny city of fewer than 500 residents into the hub of a new abortion battle with a proposed ordinance allowing residents to sue abortion providers.
Wisely, the City Council shelved the ordinance on Friday. But the Prinsburg story may hold lessons for other Minnesota cities.
You might wonder whether a place as small as Prinsburg even has an abortion clinic. It does not. Neither does it have known local abortion providers. The proposal would have resolved that by allowing residents to sue companies that provide abortion pills by mail…
That did not dissuade Miller, who told a Star Tribune reporter, “This is what God is calling me to do.” He had arranged for the deep pockets of the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm specializing in culture-war issues that does not publicly disclose its funding sources, to defend Prinsburg if it had faced court challenges…
In a statement posted to the city’s website on Friday, city leaders said, “In reaching its decision, the council took into account the position of the Minnesota Attorney General and its City Attorney stating that provisions described in the ordinance are unconstitutional and not within the legal authority of the city to enact. The council plans no further discussion or comment regarding the proposed ordinance.”
How about a law enabling women to sue anyone who attempts to restrict their rights by passing unconstitutional legislation?
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Russian airbase explosions suggest Kyiv may have found way to target long-range bombers
Mysterious explosions took place at two Russian airbases far from the frontlines on Monday, raising the possibility that Kyiv has found a way to target Russian long-range bombers used in attacks against Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Russian media reports and video posted to social media indicated that an explosion took place early on Monday morning at the Engels-2 airbase in Russia’s Saratov region that hosts Tu-95 bombers that have taken part in cruise missile strikes against Ukraine.
Another explosion took place at a military airbase near the city of Ryazan, less than 150 miles from Moscow. Three were killed and five wounded after a fuel truck exploded, Russian state media reported. That base also hosts Tu-95 and Tu-22M long-range bombers.
Video of the explosion showed a fiery blast illuminating the night sky. Locals reported that the sound of the explosion could be heard from miles away.
The cause of the two explosions has not been confirmed.
But Baza, a Russian media outlet with sources in the security services, reported that the Russian airfield at Engels was attacked by a loitering munition that targeted the airbase’s runway. Astra, another independent Russian media outlet, claimed that two nuclear-capable Tu-95 bombers were damaged in the explosion. Neither indicated a source for their information.
The Kremlin said that Vladimir Putin had been informed of the incidents. Local authorities in the Saratov region said that security services were investigating reports of the explosion at the Engels airbase.
Ukrainian monitoring reports in the last week suggested that Russia was delivering cruise missiles to the Engels airbase and transferring aircraft to the Ryazan airbase in preparation for another attack against Ukraine.
Ukraine is not known to have any loitering munitions that would allow it to attack hundreds of miles beyond the frontlines of the conflict, although there have been reports of such UAVs under development.
…The weather is a neutral party to the near-10-month war, but in winter it inevitably acts as a constraint. Simple operations take far longer to conduct in the cold, cover from foliage is reduced or eliminated, white camouflage is required when snow has arrived and more rations are needed because soldiers consume more calories.
Shelter and warmth is vital, above all because the armies have to ensure soldiers can dry once they get wet, or they will risk hypothermia or frostbite. A report from Channel 4 News on the Donbas frontline concludes in the kind of well-prepared, deep-dug warm bunker required for winter troops, complete with a kitten to hunt down the inevitable mice.
“Training, morale and leadership become critical,” says Ben Barry, a former British army tank commander who served in Bosnia with the Nato postwar stabilisation force during the chilly winter of 1995-96. “It is easy to become demoralised in the cold: imagine a badly run skiing holiday, without good organisation and equipment. In Bosnia, I saw shivering local soldiers who were disinclined to do anything other than go back to their bunkers and drink.”
A key element of the winter struggle will be who has the best kit, and donations have been pouring in from western allies. Canada said in October it would send 500,000 items of winter clothing, Germany 100,000 warm jackets, Britain 25,000 full sets, with Nordic countries also contributing. For the Ukrainians, the challenge will be ensuring the kit reaches the frontline.
The real questions come for the Russians. The country has some elite cold weather forces, although its 80th Separate Arctic Motor Rifle Brigade has been fighting in Ukraine since July so will be inevitably degraded. Russian independent media and military bloggers are full of stories of newly mobilised conscripts, routinely deployed in the frontline, having to buy their own thermal gear and sleeping bags – even pleading for stoves for basic heating.
However, in the past week there have been reports that Russian An-124 transport aircraft visited China nine times in a week at the end of November, with some turning off their flight-tracking devices. Orysia Lutsevych, from the Chatham House thinktank, said there were “rumours that the planes contained winter clothing for troops” to help Russia make up for domestic shortfalls.
Simplistic stories about Russian victories in 1812 and following the German invasion in 1941 may make for good Kremlin propaganda, but in this war it is the Russians who are the invaders. Russian rail-dominated supply lines stretching into Ukrainian territory that remain vulnerable to Himars rockets, and Moscow’s generally suboptimal performance in the war throughout suggest its soldiers will be by far the most vulnerable….
Ukrainian officials reported a new barrage of Russian missile strikes across the country, an attack that was anticipated as Russia seeks to disable Ukraine’s energy supplies and infrastructure with the approach of winter.
Media reports referred to explosions in several parts of the country, including the cities of Odesa, Cherkasy and Kryvyi Rih. In Odesa, the local water supply company said a missile strike cut power to pumping stations, leaving the entire city without water.
“The enemy is again attacking the territory of Ukraine with missiles!” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, wrote on Telegram.
Air raid alerts sounded across the country, and authorities urged people to take shelter, Reuters reported.
A spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, said Russia launched land-based missiles from southern Russia and shipborne missiles from the Caspian and Black seas. Russian strategic bombers also launched missiles, he said.
Ihnat warned the Russians could attack in several waves to make it more difficult for the Ukrainian air defenses to shoot down the missiles.
A leader of moderate Republicans in the US House repeatedly refused to condemn Donald Trump on Sunday, even after the former president, running for re-election in 2024, said the US constitution should be “terminated” to allow him to return to power.
“Whoever the Republicans end up picking, I’ll fall in behind” them, Dave Joyce of Ohio told ABC’s This Week, adding that he thought Americans did not want to look back to the 2020 election, the subject of Trump’s lies about electoral fraud and demand for extra-constitutional action.
Joyce’s host, George Stephanopoulos, said: “I don’t see how you can move forward if your candidate is for suspending the constitution but thank you for your time.”
Trump maintains the lie that the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won by more than 7m votes and a clear margin in the electoral college, was subject to widespread voter fraud. In messages on his Truth Social account on Saturday, Trump said the constitution should therefore be “terminated”.
The former president was condemned by Biden, Democrats and political commentators. On CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday another Ohio Republican, Mike Turner, said he “absolutely” did so too.
“There is a political process that has to go forward before anybody is a frontrunner or anybody is even the candidate for the party,” Turner said. “I believe people certainly are going to take into consideration a statement like this as they evaluate a candidate.”
Like Turner, Joyce was not among the 147 Republicans who objected to results in key states in the 2020 election, even after Trump supporters mounted their deadly attack on the Capitol, seeking to stop certification. But Stephanopoulos could not persuade Joyce to say he would not vote for Trump four years later.
Joyce said: “Well, you know, when President Trump was in office, I didn’t make a habit of speaking out on his tweet du jour.
…
Stephanopoulos said: “But Donald Trump was your nominee in 2016 and 2020. You voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Now he’s talking about suspending the constitution. Can you support a candidate in 2024 who’s for suspending the constitution?”
Joyce said: “Well, again, it’s early. I think there’s going to be a lot of people in the primary. I think, at the end of the day, whoever the Republicans end up picking, I’ll fall in behind because that’s – ”
Stephanopoulos said: “Even if it’s Donald Trump and he’s called for suspending the constitution?”
Joyce said: “Well, again, I think it’s going to be a big field. I don’t think Donald Trump’s going to clear out the field like he did in ’16.”
Stephanopoulos said: “That’s not what I’m asking. I’m asking you, ‘If he’s the nominee, will you support him?’”
Joyce said: “I will support whoever the Republican nominee is. And I just don’t think that at this point [Trump] will be able to get there because I think there’s a lot of other good quality candidates out there.”
To the host, that was “a remarkable statement. You’d support a candidate who’s come out for suspending the constitution?”
Joyce said: “Well, you know, [Trump] says a lot of things. You have to take him in context. And right now I have to worry about making sure the Republican Governance Group and the Republican majority make things work for the American people. And I can’t be really chasing every one of these crazy statements that come out … from any of these candidates.”
Stephanopoulos said: “But that’s an extraordinary statement. You can’t come out against someone who’s for suspending the constitution?”
Joyce said: “Well, first off, he has no ability to suspend the constitution. Secondly, I don’t –”
Stephanapolous pointed out that Trump said he wanted to take that step.
Joyce said: “Well, you know, he says a lot of things but that doesn’t mean that it’s ever going to happen. So you’ve got to accept exact fact from fantasy. And fantasy is that we’re going to suspend the constitution and go backwards. We’re moving forward and we’re going to continue to move forward as a Republican majority and as a Republican conference.”
The all clear has been sounded in Kyiv. It is possible there will be further waves of strikes, but for now the capital appears to have emerged unscathed. The air defences could be heard in action. So far there have been no reports of any missile impacts in the city. Odesa seems to have been hit hardest meanwhile and there are reports of a missile landing over the border in Moldova, near Briceni.
StevoRsays
@170. SC (Salty Current) : Any relation of our (Aussie) Beetrooter Barnaby Joyce I wonder?
Ukraine shot down more than 60 of over 70 missiles launched by Russia in a massed missile strike on Monday, Ukraine’s air force command said.
The strikes targeted Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, the air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
ravensays
It is not clear what weapons hit the two air bases in Russia.
Some sources say they were cruise missiles with jet engines.
This source from Ukraine says Ukraine is not known to have such weapons. Yet.
They might have used an older Soviet cruise missile left over from the USSR.
What Kind of Weapon Could Hit the Engels Airfield In Rostov Oblast And an Airport In Ryazan Oblast
Defense Express
December 5, 2022
And how significant result it can give for Ukraine attacking such airfields where russian strategic aviation is located
Earlier today, December 5, 2022, there were reports that an unknown drone fell on the runway of the Engels Airfield in Rostov oblast of the russian federation. According to some claims, two Tu-95MS strategic bombers were damaged as a result of the explosion. The explosion was so strong that it was heard in a residential area a few kilometers from the airport, as evidenced by the corresponding video.
Geolocation shows that this video was taken at the show place below. That is, a few kilometers from the Engels airfield, literally opposite the runway.
Defense Express notes that Engels Airfield is the regular air base of the 121st and 184th heavy bomber aviation regiments, armed with Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers.
What Kind of Weapon Could Hit the Engels Airfield In Rostov Oblast And an Airport In Ryazan Oblast, Defense Express, war in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian war
In addition, there was also a report that today there was a strong explosion at “one of the airfields” of Razyan oblast in russia. According to the official version, this is how a gasoline truck exploded at the airport. But as russia’s military correspondents already complain, this “fuel truck explosion” is the strongest in their memory, since there are 2 dead and 3 wounded already.
It is quite likely that it’s the Dyagilevo Airfield, which was also used for missile attacks on the infrastructure of Ukraine.
In both cases, these objects located more than 600 kilometers from the state border of Ukraine. The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not have such long-range weapons.
Therefore, it is quite possible that improvised means were used, for example, the Soviet Tu-141 drones, which can carry up to 150kg of payload and have a flight range of up to 1000km.
Unfortunately, we cannot yet claim that today’s explosions can force russians to abandon missile attacks on Ukraine. Even if two Tu-95MS are damaged at once, russians have about 60 such bombers, of which at least 20 units are operational.
After all, satellite images show that at the beginning of December of this year, the number of russia’s aircraft at the Engels Airfield decreased a bit, that is, the result was potentially less than desired.
But on the other hand, the very demonstration of the ability to “retrieve” russia’s objects more than half a thousand kilometers deep into enemy territory has a significant symbolic meaning for Ukrainian spirit. In much the same way that the American Doolittle Raid in 1942 over Tokyo was important to the American victory over Japan in 1945.
House Democrats last week rallied behind Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, unanimously electing the New Yorker to succeed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the conference’s new leader for the next Congress. Republicans congratulated him by pushing a specific line of attack, over and over again.
“The newly elected incoming leader of House Democrats is a past election denier who basically said the 2016 election was quote ‘illegitimate,’” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the chamber floor last week. The Republican National Committee has repeatedly pushed the same line in recent days, deriding Jeffries as an “election denier.” [WTF!]
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos asked the new House Democratic leader about this on “This Week” yesterday, and Jeffries marveled at Republicans’ chosen line of attack.
“…Hypocrisy is not a constraint to their behavior, and in many cases, they believe shamelessness is a superpower. My view of the situation has been pretty clear: I supported the certification of Donald Trump’s election; I attended his inauguration even though there were many constituents and others across the country pushing me and others to do otherwise; and [I] found ways to work with the Trump administration — being the lead Democrat in negotiating historical criminal justice reform. That track record speaks for itself.”
It’s unrealistic to think GOP leaders would’ve congratulated Jeffries on his promotion last week, but to condemn him as an “election denier” is ridiculous.
Yes, the New York Democrat was among the many who raised serious concerns about the 2016 election. He repeatedly emphasized the fact that Russia targeted our political system in order to help put Trump in power, referencing these facts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the Republican’s victory.
But Americans have learned quite a bit over the last two years about what election denialism is — and Jeffries’ questions about the 2016 race don’t come close to meeting the threshold.
Jeffries did not oppose the certification of the election. Jeffries did not file lawsuits, asking the courts to throw out votes he disapproved of. Jeffries did not claim, publicly or privately, that Hillary Clinton secretly won based on evidence that only exists in the imagination of fringe conspiracy theorists.
Jeffries never described legitimate votes as “fake.” Jeffries never targeted election officials at the state or local level. Jeffries never appeared at a rally calling for the election to be overturned. Jeffries never endorsed an attack on the U.S. Capitol or expressed support for insurrectionist rioters.
If Republicans want to have a debate over who meets the “election denier” standard, the party probably won’t like where the conversation ends up.
[…] The model of the current Republican party is to be a Trumper in the sheets and quasi-normal Republican on the streets. By upping the ante yet again and calling for the overthrow of the constitution itself Trump has given Democrats another cudgel to make that two-step flimflam unsustainable. It’s just a matter of using it.
I was in Bakhmut most the day without mobile service. Had no idea of today’s new Russian missile attack across Ukraine until I pulled out and received a flurry of alerts. We were under Russian shelling the whole time. Shocking to see scale of damage now. Ivanivske pounded as well
Spanish police intercepted three more envelopes containing animal eyes addressed to Ukraine’s embassy in Madrid and its consulates in Barcelona and Málaga, police sources close to the investigation said.
Last week, Ukraine said a series of “bloody packages” were sent to its missions across Europe, soon after a letter bomb detonated at Ukraine’s embassy in Spain and police defused others sent to, among others, prime minister Pedro Sánchez.
The postal service’s security staff detected the new envelopes during screening on Monday morning and alerted police, the sources said. Officers found no explosive or flammable substances inside, the sources added.
Ukrainian embassy in Madrid had already received a package with animal eyes on Friday that the interior ministry said carried a foreign stamp, Reuters reported.
Evidence from that package shared with the postal service helped its staff detect the latest one, police sources added.
On Saturday, a source familiar with the investigation told Reuters the six letter bombs appeared to have been posted from the northern city of Valladolid.
Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko confirmed the latest interceptions on Monday and said there were now 21 known cases in which such threats had been sent to diplomatic missions in 12 countries.
TAMPA — Tampa police Chief Mary O’Connor resigned Monday effective immediately after an investigation into a Pinellas County traffic stop where she flashed a badge and asked a deputy to “just let us go.”…
The Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed group that helped defeat Islamic State in Syria, said on Monday it had resumed joint counter-terrorism operations with the United States that were paused due to Turkish bombardment of its area of control.
A spokesperson for the U.S.-led coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Turkey has ramped up its shelling and air strikes on northern Syria in recent weeks and says it is preparing a ground invasion against Syrian Kurdish fighters whom it dubs terrorists but who make up the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF had said on Friday that all joint operations had been paused due to the bombardment – a move confirmed by the coalition.
The SDF has long warned that fighting off a new Turkish incursion would divert resources from protecting a prison holding IS fighters or fighting IS sleeper cells still waging hit-and-run attacks in Syria.
Simand Ali, an SDF spokesperson, told Reuters that joint patrols and training exercises with the coalition had resumed at the weekend after a decrease in Turkish strikes, with four joint patrols carried out on Saturday and Sunday.
Joint training exercises had also resumed, he said.
“At the moment, the atmosphere is semi-positive and allows us to undertake joint operations, but we don’t know how long these operations will be possible,” given the possibility of a ground invasion, he said.
The United States has said it understands NATO ally Turkey’s concerns in Syria, but has opposed a ground invasion and said Turkish raids had directly threatened the safety of U.S. personnel.
The U.S.-led coalition has backed the SDF with air strikes, military equipment and advisers since 2017, first helping it wrest back territory from IS and then supporting clearing operations against jihadist sleeper cells.
Ukrainian officials have recently been hinting at developments in the country’s grinding war with Russia. A long-range rocket, perhaps? Or a homemade modified drone? The apparent evidence of a new and unexpected weapon was visible on Monday morning, when mysterious explosions hit two Russian airbases.
Both took place a long way from the frontlines. Video from Russian social media showed a blast at the Engels-2 airbase in Russia’s Saratov region. Another happened at the Dyagilevo military airbase near Ryazan, a city just 150 miles from Moscow and Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin. According to Russian state media, three people at the base were killed and five injured when a fuel truck went up in flames. At least two planes were reportedly damaged.
The exact cause of the explosion was uncertain. But it appears Ukraine has found a way to target Russia’s long range Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, which are stationed at the airstrips. Since October the Kremlin had used these strategic bombers to wreck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, bit by bit, leaving millions without heat and electricity as winter arrives.
There is speculation Kyiv has developed a strike drone with an astonishing 1,000km range. Late last month a Ukrainian serviceman said the weapon had already been used against the Russian military. If accurate, this means much of European Russia is now in reach. And that the asymmetric advantage Moscow has enjoyed this year – the ability to launch cruise missiles safely from deep inside Russia itself – is under threat.
ravensays
Tweet
Euromaidan Press @EuromaidanPress
Iranian Shahed drones are ineffective in cold weather, says Ukraine
The drones which Russia planned to launch to strike Ukraine had been assembled from not frost-resistant plastic parts and appeared to be useless in winter
I find this a bit far fetched.
Aircraft are made to fly in cold conditions because the higher you go, the colder it gets.
At 35,000 ft, the air temperature is -60 F.
I have no idea if there is even such a thing as frost resistant plastic.
OTOH, it isn’t impossible.
Almost all of those drones are assembled from foreign parts.
The electronics are American, the cameras Japanese and Israeli, and the motors are Austrian.
whheydtsays
Re: raven @ #185…
It’s entirely possible. From what we’ve seen, the Shahed drones don’t fly very high, so low temps at high altitudes are irrelevant, Temperature tolerances on electronics depends on what standards they are built to. “Consumer grade” electronics are usually only spec’d for “reasonable” temperatures. The Raspberry Pi single board computers are only specified down to 0’C, although the actual system-on-a-chip that is the heart of it is rated to -40’C.
[…] Today, let’s take a closer look at the Battle of Bakhmut.
Russian Telegram milblogger Rybar announced today that “The AFU continue to suffer heavy losses in the battle of Bakhmut,” which is dark comedy. The Battle of Bakhmut began on Aug. 1, and Russian, Wagner mercenaries, and local Donbas militias have banged their heads against Ukrainian defenses ever since, for over four months now. If Ukraine is suffering “heavy losses” in Bakhmut (which they likely are), than what is happening to Russia?
Well, we know. We’ve even posted some of the videos of mass Russian casualties in the approaches to the town. Ukraine General Staff claimed over the weekend that Russia is losing hundreds of men attempting to storm the city daily.
The city’s defenders are some of Ukraine’s biggest heroes. They’ve been undermanned, under-equipped, and under-supported. While HIMARS worked other corners of the map and the best-equipped Ukrainian forces liberated wide swaths of Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts, thousands of Ukrainians hunkered down in their trenches in eastern Donbas mowing down wave after wave of Russian soldiers while outgunned 5-1 or even 10-1 in artillery.
But now, with Kherson city’s liberation, Ukraine freed up tens of thousands of their best soldiers to redeploy to other parts of the front. And Bakhmut is finally getting some love.
Ukrainian artillery is flooding into the area, including precious longer-range self-propelled guns like the Polish Krab. [Video at the link]
HIMARS, the crown jewel of Ukraine’s military might, is finally in action around the town, likely using anti-personnel rockets to eliminate Russian troop concentrations and Wagner mercenary command and control centers. [video at the link]
Armored vehicles are flooding in. [video at the link]
As is fresh infantry. [Tweet and image at the link]
Meanwhile, Russian efforts against Ukrainian defensive positions have been whittled down to squad-level advances. [video at the link]
I read somewhere (can’t find link now) that Russians claim this is on purpose—that large-scale attacks are too easy to spot and destroy with artillery, so Russia is trying to sneak up on Ukrainians in small groups. If there was ever a heaping pile of Copium, that’s definitely it. No one charges defensive lines with six soldiers and no armor or artillery/mortar support because they think it’s the best idea. So ridiculous!
This video below gives us a fantastic overview of the battle from inside Bakhmut. I can’t believe there are still civilians scrounging some kind of survival in the town. [Tweet and video at the link]
There’s lots of talk about the “right bank” and “left bank” of the river. This is what people don’t seem to get. Even if Russia breaks through Ukrainian defensive lines, there’s no way they’re crossing the river that runs through the eastern third of the city. [map at the link]
There’s a hill to the east of the river that’s shown in that video, currently held by Ukraine, that would be valuable if Russia took it. They’d have visibility into town, so Ukrainian forces wouldn’t be able to easily cruise around like they do in the video. But if Russian forces can’t get past the trash dump on the eastern edge of the town, what makes anyone think they could cross an actual river? (Though admittedly, I don’t know if it freezes in the coldest parts of winter, which could be a factor.)
Russia launched another wave of missiles at Ukraine, but this attack seems to have mostly fizzled. Ukraine claims 60 of the 70 Russian cruise missiles were shot down, and there’s even dramatic video of one of them going down. [video at the link]
This missile was shot down by a German Gepard air defense system. Ukraine has declared them their most prized air defense system. Ironically, it’s been decommissioned, as NATO moved to nearly all-missile air defenses. Yet this machine-gun-style system makes it deadly effective not just against ballistic missiles, but slower-flying drones. It doesn’t make sense to use million-dollar missiles against $20,000 drones. So maybe this war will resuscitate systems like the Gepard. [tweet and image at the link]
Interesting side note: Sourcing ammo for these is challenging. Germany can’t pass on their leftover ammo (which is literally useless, as they’ve handed over all of their Gepards) because it was made in Switzerland, and the Swiss refuse to authorize it, claiming it would violate their neutrality. A defense contractor in Norway appears to have started making more ammo, however. Yet another reminder that this is a war of logistics, not weapons systems.
Here’s a great thread from a German who served with these: [Tweet and image at the link]
Ukraine hit two Russian air bases, hundreds of kilometers from the front lines.
Russia claims they were hit with Soviet-made drones, and there is one ancient unmanned aircraft system around, so maybe Ukraine used those. It would be more fun if the drones were homegrown, however. Ukraine announced last week it was in final testing stages of a long-range suicide drone. What better test for a new weapons system than two airbases hosting the strategic bombers launching cruise missiles at Ukrainian civilian infrastructure?
Russia claims air defense got them all, but it was the debris that caused all the damage, and all 17 of Russia’s targets in Ukraine were hit even though 70 missiles were launched. [Tweet at the link]
This is a bloody picture of the hit on Dyagilevo showing a damaged strategic bomber. But it’s a close crop, so hard to really tell the extent of the damage. Here’s an unconfirmed report on the situation at the two airfields. I’m including the link, because it’s chatter from the Russian side, but all caveats apply. [Embedded links available at the main link]
I’m not crying. YOU’RE crying. [video of Ukrainian father returning home]
KGsays
SC@184,
A later Guardian article quotes an American expert as thinking the attack was probably by drones launched from within Russia, which would presumably be carried out by Ukranian special forces or agents. However it was done, it means Putin has to devote resources to defending military assets deep within Russia, and cannot rely on stalemate on the battlefield combined with continued missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure and housing to grind Ukrainian resistance down.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a case that uses “free speech” and personal religious beliefs as justifications to discriminate against LGBTQ Americans. Justice Samuel Alito clearly didn’t take the case seriously as he was overheard making a nonsensical joke about Black children in KKK costumes as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson attempted to clarify a hypothetical.
The case is titled 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, and at the center of it is Lorie Smith, a Colorado-based web designer who argues that as a Christian, the wedding website business she wants to found (someday in the mythical future) will be crushed if she has to include LGBTQ customers.
As Daily Kos’ Joan McCarter writes, this case is just another part “in the anti-marriage equality crusade of the far-right, specifically the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).”
According to The New Civil Rights Movement, Alito’s comments came after Jackson outlined in detail a scenario in which a photographer would be recreating a Christmas scene from the 1940s in sepia tones with Santa Claus and (exclusively) white children to make it historically accurate.
Jackson then asked Kristen Waggoner, the ADF’s attorney, if the photographer would have to admit to refusing to take photos of Black children with Santa. Would that be legal, she asked.
McCarter writes that Waggoner “refused or failed to give a clear answer.”
Then things got surreal. And Alito, who seemed to completely misunderstand Jackson’s analogy, commented about a hypothetical Santa who didn’t want his photo taken with white children.
“So if there’s a Black Santa at the other end of the mall, and he doesn’t want to have his picture taken with a child who is dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, now does that Black Santa have to do that,” Alito asked.
To which the Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson responded, “No, because Ku Klux Klan outfits are not protected characteristics under public accommodation laws.”
Then Justice Sonia Sotomayor said, “And presumably … that would be the same Ku Klux Klan outfit, regardless whether if the child was Black or white or any other characteristic.”
But the inane exchange didn’t end there.
With thousands of Americans tuned in, Alito joked, “You do see a lot of Black children in Ku Klux Klan outfits all the time.” [video at the link]
And then social media chimed in.
So many befuddled assumptions here. KKK outfit hypothetical aside, in Alito’s mind, a white kid couldn’t possibly visit a black Santa, I reckon. Ol boy’s lost.
Justice Alito literally just compared a white kid in a KKK outfit taking a picture with a black Santa (being offensive) to a gay couple wanting a website designed for them by a religious bigot.
These people are not wise.
Not above us.
They deserve no respect or restraint.
[…]
“Justice” Alito comparing LGBTQ+ families to the KKK is a despicable new low for him and the Supreme Court.
He is deliberately demonizing LGBTQ+ Americans and mainstreaming the Klan with a false equivalence far more sinister than gaslighting — it’s criminalizing homosexuality.
Here is Donald Trump this weekend, whining and bellyaching and moaning and HEREBY DEMANDING the Constitution be overthrown in order to overturn the 2020 election and let him steal it.
So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great “Founders” did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!
Stop laughing at the fact that this troll is so delusional he actually thinks if Twitter hadn’t hidden Hunter Biden’s dick pix under a bushel, he would have won. There is no man alive more despised than Donald Trump. America would have crab-walked across hot coals to tell him what a loser he is.
But yeah, he literally said, weird ALL CAPS and unnecessary quotation marks and all, that “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” He claimed he is the RIGHTFUL WINNER, even though millions more Americans voted for the other guy than voted for him. He referred to our great “Founders,” with quotation marks just like that, as if “Founders” is a nickname, like “Sport” or “Slugger.”
Unless Donald Trump has a different definition of “termination” than the rest of the English-speaking world has, he called for the “termination” of the Constitution.
But now he says he didn’t do that and you only think that because FAKE NEWS:
The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to “terminate” the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, and all of their other HOAXES & SCAMS. What I said was that when there is “MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION,” as has been irrefutably proven in the 2020 Presidential Election, steps must be immediately taken to RIGHT THE WRONG. Only FOOLS would disagree with that and accept STOLEN ELECTIONS. MAGA!
“Irrefutably.”
“Only FOOLS.”
LOL he’s so mad.
How much y’all think the walls of the Mar-a-Lago dining room look like a crime scene and smell like 10,000 Happy Meals right now?
He had a followup:
SIMPLY PUT, IF AN ELECTION IS IRREFUTABLY FRAUDULENT, IT SHOULD GO TO THE RIGHTFUL WINNER OR, AT A MINIMUM, BE REDONE. WHERE OPEN AND BLATANT FRAUD IS INVOLVED, THERE SHOULD BE NO TIME LIMIT FOR CHANGE!
SIMPLY PUT! Sorry, we cannot stop laughing.
Simply put, none of this is ever going to fucking happen, he will be history’s greatest loser until the day he dies, after which point he will still be that.
However, despite how it ain’t ever gonna happen, he is literally still calling for the overthrow of the United States government. No self-respecting democracy would look at us askance if Special Counsel Jack Smith went ahead and arrested Trump this afternoon.
Donald J. Trump clarified his call for the termination of the United States Constitution by indicating that he would abolish the entire document except for the Fifth Amendment.
“I haven’t read the Constitution, but, from what I’ve been told, most of it is a waste of paper, quite frankly,” he told the One America News Network. “The Fifth Amendment is the only part worth saving.”
Trump said that the Fifth Amendment was “maybe the most beautiful amendment ever written,” and noted that he had used it “many, many times.”
“When I left office, I took a lot of documents with me, but I had no interest in taking the Constitution,” he said. “If I could have cut the Fifth Amendment out of the Constitution and put it in my pocket, I would have done that, but the rest of it was written by a bunch of dummies. A bunch of dummies.”
Republican leaders were noticeably silent on the former President’s latest remarks, except for Representative Kevin McCarthy, who said, “Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
Russia risks becoming ungovernable and descending into chaos. According to the Economist anyway.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
I wouldn’t take a wishful thinking article too seriously here.
OTOH, Russia might not yet be a failed state but it is definitely not a successful one. Corruption is endemic and very high, to the point where much of what their society produces is stolen. The Russian state can’t really stop it since the most corrupt people are the leadership of Russia itself. Asking them to arrest themselves won’t work.
Much of the rest of the production of Russian workers is siphoned off more or less legally by the leadership and the oligarchies.
They also have a minority problem since the whole Russian Federation is an empire with 20% of the population being captive nations.
Throw in the brain drain as the best and brightest always leave if they can.
Russia risks becoming ungovernable and descending into chaos
There is growing opposition to President Putin at home
Nov 18th 2022
By Arkady Ostrovsky Russia editor, The Economist
When russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, invaded Ukraine on February 24th 2022, he set out to grab territory, deprive it of sovereignty, wipe out the very idea of its national identity and turn what remained of it into a failed state. After months of Ukraine’s fierce resistance, its statehood and its identity are stronger than ever, and all the things that Mr Putin had intended to inflict on Ukraine are afflicting his own country.
Mr Putin’s war is turning Russia into a failed state, with uncontrolled borders, private military formations, a fleeing population, moral decay and the possibility of civil conflict. And though confidence among Western leaders in Ukraine’s ability to withstand Mr Putin’s terror has gone up, there is growing concern about Russia’s own ability to survive the war. It could become ungovernable and descend into chaos.
Consider its borders. Russia’s absurd and illegal annexation of four regions of Ukraine—Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhia—before it could even establish full control over them, makes it a state with illegitimate territories and a fluid frontier. “The Russian Federation as we know it is self-liquidating and passing into a failed-state phase,” says Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist. Its administration, she notes, is unable to carry out its basic functions. The annexation will not deter Ukrainian forces, but it will create precedents for Russia’s own restive regions, including the north Caucasus republics, which are likely to head for the exit if the central government starts loosening its grip.
Another feature of a failing state is a loss of monopoly on the use of physical force. Private armies and mercenaries, although officially banned in Russia, are flourishing. Evgeny Prigozhin, a former convict nicknamed “Putin’s chef” and a front man for the Wagner Group, a private mercenary operation, has been openly recruiting prisoners and offering them pardons in exchange for joining his forces. Wagner, he says, has no desire to be “legalised” or integrated into the armed forces. The same could be said of the force controlled by Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen former warlord and now Chechnya’s president. Even Russia’s government security agencies are increasingly serving their own corporate interests.
The Russian state is failing in the most basic function of all. Far from protecting the lives of its people, it poses the biggest threat to them, by using them as cannon fodder. On September 21st, faced with military defeat on the battleground in Ukraine, Mr Putin ordered a mobilisation of some 300,000 people. Ill trained and ill equipped, their only function is to stand in the way of the advance of the Ukrainian forces. Many are unlikely to be alive this time next year.
There is growing concern about Russia’s own ability to survive the war The mobilisation caused a shock in Russia far greater than the beginning of the war itself. Some of its effects are already visible: recruitment centres were set ablaze, and at least 300,000 people fled abroad (on top of the 300,000 who left in the first weeks of the war). Most of them are young, educated and resourceful. The full impact of their departure on the country’s economy and demographics is yet to show, but social tension is rising. While urbanites flee, tens of thousands of their poorer compatriots are being rounded up and sent into the trenches. By bringing his “special military operation” home Mr Putin has broken the fragile consensus under which people agreed not to protest against the war in exchange for being left alone. Now they are being told to fight and die for the sake of his regime.
Mr Putin cannot win, but he cannot afford to end the conflict either. He may hope that by making so many people collude in his war, and subjecting them to more of his poisonous, fascist propaganda, he will be able to drag things out. Whether he succeeds, or whether the flow of body bags, coupled with the discontent of the elite, results in his downfall, will determine how many more people will die and how far Russia falls.
As Alexei Navalny, Russia’s jailed opposition leader, said in one of his court hearings: “We have not been able to prevent the catastrophe and we are no longer sliding, but flying into it. The only question will be how hard Russia will hit that bottom and whether it will fall apart.” The coming year will give some indication of an answer to that grim question.
ravensays
@186 whheydt
That could be it.
None of the drone’s parts are military specification parts.
On some other forums, some people have said it might be an icing problem.
These drones fly low and slow.
They also don’t have de-icing systems like a plane would have.
So they could just be getting covered with ice and crashing.
Or maybe ice is building up on the air intakes for the liquid fueled motors.
Someone said it could be ice on the carburators.
I can’t imagine an aircraft engine these days not using fuel injection though like even our cars do.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 190
A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.
The Republican will most likely reply: “He didn’t say he wanted to terminate the entire Constitution, you disingenuous libs! He just wants us to temporarily ignore the rules the Democrat party is misusing to unlawfully withhold victory from our TRUE president, Donald J. Trump.”
whheydtsays
Re: raven @ #193…
The engine is probably something like a lawn mower or small motorcycle engine.
Pierce R. Butlersays
whheydt @ # 195: The engine is probably something like a lawn mower or small motorcycle engine.
As Alexei Navalny, Russia’s jailed opposition leader, said in one of his court hearings: “We have not been able to prevent the catastrophe and we are no longer sliding, but flying into it. The only question will be how hard Russia will hit that bottom and whether it will fall apart.” The coming year will give some indication of an answer to that grim question.
[…] I’d say I’m more of an atheist than anything. I’ve never seen convincing evidence of the existence of any god, much less the god of any of our current major world religions. And if you’re a proselytizing Christian, you really don’t want to talk to me. I spent 11 years in Catholic schools, studied various faith traditions as kind of a side hobby, and know where all the truly embarrassing Bible verses are buried.
That said, I’ve found that the same people who repeatedly say I’m going to be punished eternally in hell for not believing what they believe get pretty snowflake-y when you challenge their assumptions. So I’ve pretty much thrown up my hands and decided to live and let live.
Unless, that is, the conspicuously religious decide their beliefs should dictate—or forestall—my or others’ free, legitimate choices. Or if they assume I somehow haven’t heard the good news about Jesus and need another earful of everything I rejected decades ago. Then we’ve got a problem.
So I found it a little disturbing to discover that ride-sharing services like Lyft have apparently become fertile new grounds for Christian missionary work—and, unsurprisingly, not everyone is cool with it.
The Associated Press recently wrote about a new cohort of Lyft drivers who are using their side hustles to preach about the Bible—which is presumably a good strategy, since rolling out of the back seat of a car at 40 mph is still marginally more jarring than listening to a stranger wax rhapsodic about a “miraculous” plane crash that only killed 209 out of 210 passengers. But such noxious overtures seem pretty inappropriate regardless.
One proselytizer the Associated Press spoke with, the Rev. Kenneth Drayton, said he started driving for Uber in 2015 and now drives for Lyft, which he uses as a platform for sharing his faith.
On a recent day, he began by praying in his impeccably clean 2017 Toyota Camry, and reciting Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…”). On a break from driving in Manhattan, he reflected on how he reaches out to passengers.
He always plays classical music on his car stereo (his favorite is Mozart) to encourage a calm, pleasant mood. He begins with a greeting and a kind word. His priority, he says, is to introduce passengers to Christ, but he’s respectful if they’re not receptive. They’re often Christian, but he has also spoken to atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and Muslims. Instead of trying to preach, he says he focuses his message on the love of God and tends to avoid doctrine.
Okay, it’s nice that he’s “respectful” if people aren’t receptive, but I honestly don’t want to hear any of this. I don’t go down to St. Paul’s Church dressed as a feathered serpent and demand a full-day solstice blood sacrifice to Quetzalcoatl. Or I don’t do that anymore, I should say.
“The car is such an ideal place to do this because it’s personal,” Drayton told the Associated Press. “I can share my faith and it’s so important because that’s what I live for.”
Uh huh. And I live for peace and quiet. We seem to be in conflict here. Tie goes to the paying customer. […]
There’s a belief among many evangelicals that there shouldn’t be any boundaries when it comes to sharing the faith. But there’s a substantive difference between using personal social media, podcasts, or TV shows to do it—where recipients can always block the noise or change the channel—and doing it as part of a ride-share company where passengers may not be able to leave the car and the preacher is literally the person in the driver’s seat.
While the subjects of the AP article insist they can take no for an answer, there’s no way for passengers to know what might make a driver snap. How many of their customers smiled and nodded, or pretended to want to hear about Jesus, because they worried about what might happen if they said they weren’t interested? […]
[snipped examples of riders posting their dismay on Twitter]
[…] Freedom From Religion Foundation:
[…] We recognize that the topic of religion may sometimes come up innocently in casual conversation. That is a far cry from the situation described by the Associated Press, involving calculating individuals who drive for Lyft with the explicit intention of targeting its riders for missionizing. No one should have to pay to be missionized against their will.
[…] Now, to be fair, this isn’t a First Amendment issue. If a private company wants to open its doors to this kind of overt and calculated campaign, that’s totally up to them. The question is, should it? Is it a ridesharing service or a church? […]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Monday that the updated flu shots generated this year seem to be “a very good match” for the most prevalent strains of influenza. […]
The bad news:
[…] Monday’s briefing raised concerns about high levels of flu cases already this year, with scientists encouraging the public to get vaccinated for both influenza and COVID-19 ahead of large holiday gatherings and colder weather.
[…] “I want to emphasize that the flu vaccine can be life-saving and importantly there is still time to get vaccinated to be protected against flu this season.”
[…] This year’s flu season began in October, and since then, there have been approximately 8.7 million cases, 78,000 hospitalizations for flu-like symptoms and 4,500 related deaths, according to the government health agency.
President Vladimir Putin on Monday visited a bridge that links Moscow-annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland weeks after the vital link was hit by a blast, images on state television showed…
Iran has increased efforts to target critics of the regime living abroad, as well as planning attacks on Israelis and US citizens, often subcontracting the attacks to hired local proxies, according to a Thursday report.
Members of the Jewish community and individuals with links to Israel were among those targeted, as well as dissidents and media outlets critical of Tehran, The Washington Post reported…
“While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use,” the company wrote on its website.
SpaceX notes that Starshield uses “additional high-assurance cryptographic capability to host classified payloads and process data securely,” building upon the data encryption it uses with its Starlink system…
If “government use” means military, then they ought to put some effort into shielding signal leakage to make the antenna harder to target.
In December 2021, Google filed a civil lawsuit against two Russian men thought to be responsible for operating Glupteba, one of the Internet’s largest and oldest botnets. The defendants, who initially pursued a strategy of counter suing Google for interfering in their sprawling cybercrime business, later brazenly offered to dismantle the botnet in exchange for payment from Google. The judge in the case was not amused, found for the plaintiff, and ordered the defendants and their U.S. attorney to pay Google’s legal fees…
On Monday, at least two Russian airbases came under attack, with planes and infrastructure suffering significant damage. One of the bases damaged is home to Russia’s Tu-95 “Bear” and Tu-160 “Blackjack” strategic bombers, and is less than 250km from Moscow. Just last week, the Russian military and state media issued images of bombers at the base being fueled and loaded with missiles for attacks on Ukraine. [photo at the link]
Russia responded with another wave of missile attacks against Ukraine, launching a reported 70 missiles on Monday evening and Tuesday morning. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, this barrage included at least 60 cruise missiles (launched from Russia or from ships in both the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea), as well as 10 ballistic missiles. Ukraine reports that at least 60 of these missiles were shot down. That included all missiles headed toward sites around Kyiv. However, some missiles did apparently reach targets near Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, and Cherkasy. The missile strike on Odesa appears to have led to another blackout in the area.
On Tuesday, more sites in Russia appear to have been hit, including an airport in the Kursk region where the attack appears to have started a fire in a fuel storage facility. There are also reports that a factory was hit in Russia’s Bryansk Region. Other reports are popping up, but so far, they seem to be the result of a kind of Ukrainian drone hysteria that has half of Russia staring suspiciously at the skies. The exchange between the two countries is still hugely lopsided, but Russians seem shocked at the idea that someone might actually shoot back. [Tweet and photo at the link]
According to Russia, these attacks against Russian airbases were made using Soviet-era Tu-141 “Strizh” drones that date back to the 1970s. These are large, jet-powered craft with a wingspan of more than 14m (47’) that weigh in at over 6 tons. They cruise around 1,000kph and have a range of about 1000km. Originally, the Tu-141 was meant to act as a reconnaissance drone, leading the way for the Red Army against western Europe. However, it never seems to have been used in combat—until, perhaps, now. [Tweet and video at the link]
Russia’s claim that Ukraine was using old Soviet drones might at first seem like an effort to dismiss Ukraine’s technical capabilities—and it might be. However, there is at least one reason to believe that Russia could be telling the truth in this case.
Early in the invasion of Ukraine, there was a mysterious incident in which a large drone crashed near a university in Zagreb, Croatia. Both Ukraine and Russia denied knowing anything about it, but the drone had clearly come from the direction of Ukraine, overflying Hungarian airspace, before crashing. That crashed drone was a Tu-141. However, it was a Tu-141 that had been modified to carry a bomb. Unfortunately, that drone had apparently gone off course and been lost to ground control. Fortunately, the bomb did not explode. Despite Ukraine’s “nope, not ours” statements after the crash, Croatian authorities who investigated the drone eventually concluded it to have been modified by Ukraine for an attack on Russian positions.
The Soviets are thought to have built around 140 of these large drones. How many might still be around is unclear, as is how many were stationed in Ukraine. If they were originally meant to provide surveillance of a conflict on the border between East and West Germany, even Lviv, in extreme western Ukraine, would have been at the ragged edge of the drone’s operating range. It would seem more likely that these drones would have been in East Germany, Poland, and the former Czechoslovakia. Of course, they might have been relocated when the Soviet Union fell … or they might have been relocated in the last year. [Tweet and video of attack by a drone on the Khalino military airfield in Kursk, shows oil reservoir near the airport on fire.]
In any case, over the last few months, Ukraine has demonstrated that it is more than capable of designing and building new drones, both for the air and the sea. What was used to strike the bases in Russia might have been an entirely new design.
Even if it was modified Tu-141s, that’s not something that should make Russia feel more comfortable. Not only would this show that Ukraine has gotten much better at modifying and controlling these drones, it would also mean that Russia allowed itself to be overflown—for hundreds of kilometers—by something the size and shape of a fighter jet. And that one of these absolutely not stealthy planes was able to reach a strategic air base within the outer ring of radars that are supposed to surround Moscow. […]
Steve Benen summarized this news from a Politico article:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ operation has created a series of sponsorship packages surrounding his second inaugural. Politico reported that the Republican “will give up close access to donors willing to contribute between $50,000 and $1 million.”
It’s not surprising that key figures in the Mar-a-Lago scandal are represented by legal counsel. What is surprising is who’s paying for their lawyers.
As the Jan. 6 committee’s work unfolded over the course of the year, investigators spoke to many witnesses who were represented by legal counsel. This wasn’t at all surprising.
[…] More than a few Jan. 6 witnesses worked with attorneys whose bills were paid by Donald Trump’s Save America political action committee.[…] the former president’s operation and its allies “have paid for or promised to finance the legal fees of more than a dozen witnesses called in the congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, raising legal and ethical questions about whether the former president may be influencing testimony with a direct bearing on him.”
[…] Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democratic member of the Jan. 6 committee, argued in June, “The potential for coercion in that case is pretty obvious.”
Six months later, as the investigation into the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago scandal advances, we’re confronting eerily similar circumstances. The Washington Post reported:
Former president Donald Trump’s political action committee is paying legal bills for some key witnesses involved in the Justice Department investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified documents, obstructed the investigation or destroyed government records, according to people familiar with the matter. The witnesses include Kash Patel, who has testified in front of the grand jury and is key to Trump’s defense, along with Walt Nauta, a potentially critical prosecution witness, according to these people, who like others interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal probe.
Nauta and Patel may not be household names, but in the context of the Mar-a-Lago scandal, few figures matter more.
As we discussed in October, Nauta is a longtime aide to Trump who was allegedly seen on security camera footage moving boxes out of a Mar-a-Lago storage room before and after the Justice Department issued a subpoena. By some accounts, federal law enforcement has reportedly interviewed Nauta “on several occasions” — and prosecutors have apparently expressed “skepticism“ about whether he was truthful in his initial account.
Patel, meanwhile, is a top aide to Trump whom the former president tapped to, among other things, coordinate with the National Archives on presidential records. When the Justice Department brought Patel before a grand jury to answer questions, he reportedly took the Fifth, invoking his right against self-incrimination.
In November, Patel and his lawyer reportedly negotiated an immunity deal as part of the investigation into the scandal.
The apparent fact that these witnesses’ legal fees are being covered by a Trump PAC, even as they testify about details in a Trump scandal, is bound to raise some eyebrows. Indeed, the Post spoke to Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor, who agreed the payment arrangement raises concerns about influence.
“It looks like the Trump political action committee is either paying for the silence of these witnesses, for them to take the Fifth or for favorable testimony,” Walden said. “These circumstances should look very suspicious to the Justice Department, and there’s a judicial mechanism for them to get court oversight if there’s a conflict.”
A top lawyer at Brand Woodward Law, the firm that’s received more than $120,000 from the Save America PAC, denied anything untoward. That said, I don’t imagine we’ve heard the last of this one.
[…] Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for example, was rather direct. “Suggesting the termination of the Constitution is not only a betrayal of our Oath of Office, it’s an affront to our Republic,” the Republican wrote in a written statement. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, meanwhile, said Trump’s rhetoric was “irresponsible,” but he wouldn’t answer directly when asked if Trump’s statement should disqualify him from another White House bid.
Similarly, Senate Minority Whip John Thune said “of course I disagree with that” when asked about Trump’s comments, but the South Dakotan also wouldn’t comment about the former president’s 2024 comeback candidacy, saying he’s “just not going to go there at this point.”
The bottom line is messy, but straightforward: Republicans won’t defend what Trump wrote about subverting constitutional law, but they won’t consider the idea that the former president has disqualified himself. The obvious follow-up question still needs an answer, though: If calling for the “termination” of our constitutional system isn’t disqualifying to GOP officials, just how much further would Trump have to go?
[…] On Nov. 10, 2022, a judge in the Western District of Texas struck down the federal law that prohibits access to guns for people subject to domestic violence protection orders. He did this based on a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, NYSRPA v. Bruen, which held that, to be constitutional, a firearm restriction must be analogous to laws that were in existence when the country was founded. In other words, disarming domestic abusers violates the Second Amendment because those types of laws didn’t exist at the founding of the country.
The ruling has since been appealed to the 5th Circuit Court. The outcome of the appeal is far is from certain.
We study the link between gun laws and domestic violence in the U.S. and know that backtracking on laws that prevent the perpetrators of domestic violence from getting their hands on guns will put lives at risk – the research has proved this time and time again. […]
Ruling that these laws are unconstitutional will put mainly women and children in danger. More than 50% of women who are murdered are killed by intimate partners, and most of those homicides are committed with guns. A 2003 study found that when an abusive man has access to a gun, it increases the risk of intimate partner homicide by 400%.
Women constitute the majority of victims of intimate partner homicide, and almost one-third of children under the age of 13 who are murdered with a gun are killed in the context of domestic violence.
Moreover, 68% of mass shooters have a history of domestic violence or killed an intimate partner in the mass shooting. […]
The ruling in Texas was based on an originalist legal argument rather than the data. Under the judge’s interpretation of the Bruen decision, because colonial law – written before a time when women could vote, let alone be protected in law from violent spouses – didn’t restrict domestic abusers’ gun rights, then it simply isn’t constitutional to do so now. […]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
A drone attack has set an oil storage tank on fire at an airfield in Kursk, the Russian region’s governor, Roman Starovoyt, has said. Video footage posted on social media showed a large explosion lighting up the night sky followed by a substantial fire at the airfield 175 miles (280km) from the Ukrainian border. [See Lynna’s #203 above.]
…
The power deficit caused by the latest wave of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine will be significantly reduced by Tuesday evening, the Ukrainian energy minister, German Galushchenko, said in televised comments. Missile strikes across Ukraine on Monday destroyed homes and knocked out power in some areas.
…
Russia’s defence ministry has said it has deployed mobile coastal defence missile systems on a northern Kuril island, part of a strategically located chain of islands that stretch between Japan and the Russian Kamchatka peninsula. Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands, which Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates to the end of the second world war, when Soviet troops seized them from Japan.
…
A Ukrainian presidential adviser has said that Iran has so far not delivered ballistic missiles to Russia and may not do so, as a result of diplomatic pressure and Iran’s own internal political turmoil. Mikhailo Podolyak told the Guardian that Russian forces currently had enough of its own cruise missiles in its stockpile for “two or three” more mass strikes against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure like the salvo fired on Monday.
…
Senior EU officials have vowed to ensure Ukraine gets €18bn in financial aid, after Hungary vetoed the release of the funds. Earlier Viktor Orbán’s government was accused of “holding hostage” funds for Ukrainian hospitals and “cynical obstructionism” after Hungary confirmed on Tuesday that it would block €18bn of aid for Ukraine. The move by the Orbán government is widely seen as an attempt to gain leverage in separate disputes over Hungary’s access to €13bn EU funds.
Ukrainian embassies have received more “bloody packages”, according to its foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”. Over the past week, Ukraine said its diplomatic missions in countries across Europe had been targeted with packages soaked in liquid with a distinctive smell and containing animals’ eyes.
The Russian state-owned bank VTB said it was hit by an “unprecedented cyber-attack from abroad”, which it said was the largest cyber-attack in its history. In a statement, it said it was repelling the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, and that an analysis indicated it was a “planned and large-scale” attack.
The number of Russian-affiliated oil tankers “going dark” to avoid being tracked in the south Pacific has doubled in recent months in a sign of clandestine means being deployed to avoid sanctions. By switching off their tracker systems on the high seas, the ships can quietly transfer oil on to tankers without links to Russia so as to avoid their oil exports being flagged….
[…] Trump had some financial interests he did not disclose while Presidenting, including one with a company with connections to North Korea.
Donald Trump failed to disclose a $19.8m loan from a company with historical ties to North Korea, while he was the US president, according to a new report.
Documents obtained by the New York attorney general, and reported by Forbes, on Sunday indicate a previously unreported loan owed by Trump to Daewoo, the South Korean conglomerate.
Daewoo was the only South Korean company allowed to operate a business in North Korea during the mid-1990s.
…According to documents reviewed by Forbes, the $19.8m balance remained the same from 2011 to 2016. Five months into Trump’s presidency, the balance dropped to $4.3m, according to paperwork that showcased Trump’s finances as of 30 June 2017.
Soon after, “Daewoo was bought out of its position on July 5, 2017,” the documents said, without disclosing who satisfied the debt.
[…] a non-Republican would be expected to answer for such a potential conflict of interest. So many questions still to be answered…
[…] Some commenters are dismissing this story as a nothing burger, and to be fair there’s nothing obviously criminal about this one particular deal. But it has to be considered in the larger Trump/GOP context.
Potential conflicts of interest like this are something candidates are expected to reveal. This loan was in place all through Trump’s 2016 run for the White House, and into the first few months of his presidency. The provocative actions of North Korea with missiles and nuclear weapons development predate Trump’s run; therefore any potential conflicts of interest regarding North Korea should have been a matter of concern.
Trump’s behavior with North Korea was a contradictory mix of bluster and adulation. Given that Trump is is a narcissist easily flattered by people he sees as ‘strong’ leaders, the prospect that he also had possible financial incentives influencing his actions adds yet another layer to the situation.
[…] Revelations that even during the 2016 campaign that Trump was looking to build a Trump Tower in Moscow — given the ‘right’ financial incentives and millions in loans, which show that Trump was never going to avoid conflicts of interest with money on the line.
There have been reports that Trump never expected to win in 2016, and was surprised/shocked when he did. With that scenario in mind, it would not be a surprise that Trump had all kinds of questionable deals going — and why would he give them up if he didn’t expect them to matter?
Frankly, there’s been recurring speculation that Trump only ran for President in 2016 because he saw it as a way to take in millions of dollars with no real accountability for where it all ended up. […]
What we do know is that after being installed in the White House, Trump overlooked no opportunity to fill the pockets of him and his family, whether it was overcharging the government to put him up at his own golf clubs or packing his kids along on overseas trips while they cut deals for themselves. And let us not forget the Trump Hotel in DC that was a favorite for all the foreign nationals and countries looking to send money Trump’s way.
(And the GOP is not thrilled with the way Trump keeps sucking up money he’s supposedly collecting to get Republicans elected.)
So why does this North Korea story matter, when it’s not likely to lead to any consequences for Trump? It’s one more thing to remember in the face of what’s to come.
House Republicans are promising a rolling shit show of hearings that will ‘prove’ Hunter Biden is — among other things — at the center of all kinds of corrupt deals with foreign governments (Ukraine! China!) that has funneled millions/billions to President Joe Biden […]
Two top House Republicans — Rep. James Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan — who are expected to chair the House Oversight and Judiciary committees next year are planning to lay out the evidence they say they have gathered from whistleblowers that show President Biden’s son, Hunter, engaged in influence peddling and his father, potentially while serving as vice president, may have benefitted financially.
In a press conference on Thursday, Comer accused the Biden family of defrauding the United States, tax evasion, violating several laws and money laundering, among other accusations.
“The president’s participation in enriching his family is, in a word, abuse of the highest order,” Comer said. “I want to be clear: This is an investigation of Joe Biden, and that’s where our focus will be next Congress.”
Without the defense mechanism of projection, Republicans would have have to spend all their time answering for their own misdeeds. This is how they plan to change the subject away from the epic corruption of Trump and the GOP — with plenty of help from the ‘both sides’ media.
Moldova’s prime minister, Natalia Gavrilița, has pledged to boost cooperation between her country and Ukraine during a visit to the towns of Bucha and Irpin.
In a series of tweets, Gavrilița said justice would be carried out for “the innocent victims that died, were tortured and hurt during this cruel and unjust war unleashed by Russia”.
She added:
Ukraine is fighting for us all – for the freedom of the entire European continent.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, tweeted about his meeting with his Moldovan counterpart, saying that the pair had agreed to cooperate in air defence, energy and customer control.
Latvia shuts down exiled Russian TV station over Ukraine war coverage
Earlier we reported that the chair of Latvia’s broadcasting regulator, Ivars Abolins, said it had cancelled the licence of the exiled Russian independent television station, TV Rain, “in connection with the threat to the national security and public order”.
TV Rain, or Dozhd in Russian, moved to broadcasting from Latvia in July, after it was forced to shut its Moscow studio following accusations by Russia’s communications watchdog that it was spreading “deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel” in Ukraine.
The station was earlier this month fined €10,000 by the Latvian regulator for displaying a map of Russia which included the occupied Crimea peninsula.
It was also forced to apologise to viewers and fired a presenter, Alexei Korostelyov, on Friday for comments he made on air, after he said he hoped that the station’s efforts would help provide Russian soldiers with basic equipment and amenities.
The network, which was founded in 2010 as the main opposition channel in Russia, has also been accused of failing to ensure Latvian language translation, local media reported.
Abolins told reporters today that Latvia’s counterintelligence and internal security service had informed his office that the station represented a threat to the country’s security.
TV Rain dismissed the accusations as “unfair and absurd” and said its programmes could still be seen on YouTube, which is where most of its audience watches its content. [So not actually shut down.]
Its founder, Natalia Sindeeva, posted a video this afternoon describing Korostelyov’s firing as “the worst thing we could have done in that situation”.
The move comes as Latvia faces a growing rift between the country’s Latvian majority and its Russian-speaking minority. A quarter of the population of two million in Latvia are Russian speakers.
The charity Reporters without Borders called the move a “serious blow to freedom of information”.
Several other Russian newsrooms have also found refuge in the Latvian capital, including Novaya Gazeta Europe and Deutsche Welle’s Moscow branch. The city has also hosted independent news website Meduza since 2014….
On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Donetsk oblast. He stayed overnight in the capital of Slavyansk—long the target of Russian attempts to capture the entire region—and visited with military forces closer to the front lines at Bakhmut. Zelenskyy issued something of the usual reassuring and inspiring message, telling military forces there that he expected to be with them again when they moved into the formerly Russian-held areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, and Crimea. [video at the link in comment 203]
Zelenskyy has become famous for his willingness to appear at the front lines, often within range of Russian artillery. In places like Izyum and Kherson, Zelenskyy showed up to help celebrate the liberation of these cities and to thank the military for their actions.
In this case, his appearance in Donetsk oblast appears to be related to celebrating Armed Forces Day in Ukraine, and recognizing the long, grueling work of those fighting on the eastern front. However, his appearance also coincides with reports of new equipment and additional troops showing up in the Bakhmut area. [video at the link in comment 203]
There have been multiple reports over the last two weeks of Ukraine “flooding” Bakhmut with reinforcements, including Special Forces and units that have been at the forefront of counteroffensives in Kharkiv and Kherson.
Ukraine 🇺🇦 sent Some of their MOST Battle HARDENED Fighters throughout the War into #Bakhmut as Reinforcements for their exhausted units. Within HOURS already the defensive lines are being PUSHED Further into Russian Occupied Territories with each passing Hour. WARRIORS at work💪
Russia has reportedly responded by moving even more of its force into the Bakhmut area. More than ever, the area looks like it has the potential to be an absolute “meatgrinder” for anyone who attempts to cross the no-man’s land of artillery craters, rubble, and blasted tree stumps that separate the two forces.
For the last week, Russia has been complaining that Ukraine has been shelling villages in the area of Russian-occupied Donetsk oblast, as well as shelling portions of Donetsk city. The targets of these attacks are unclear.
This build-up comes as Russia has been attempting to push into villages south of Bakhmut. Just three days ago, the British MOD reported their analysis that Russian intended to encircle Bakhmut and cut it off by blocking traffic along the T0504 and M03 highways. Ukraine’s movement of additional force into the area might be entirely an attempt to block this move by Russia. Or it might be a prelude to an attempted counter-offensive by Ukraine. Or it might be intended to force Russia to concentrate their troops at the location where Ukrainian defenses have proven all but impenetrable […]
In the area of Kreminna, reports continue to flow in of hard fighting north of the city. On this map, the orange line, somewhat parallel to the highway, represents the rail line between Svatove and Kreminna. There are some reports that, rather than immediately pressing south, Ukrainian forces north of the city are moving east to sever this last connection between the two Russian-occupied locations. [map at the link in comment 203]
Ukraine continues to hold Chervonopopivka despite Russian assaults and artillery directed at the location. The same goes for Ploshchanka. Ukraine is reportedly fighting east of the highway at Holykove and in the direction of Krasnorichenske.
Meanwhile, the forces south and west of Kreminna have reportedly taken a small village in the area, which some sources are reporting as Kuzmyne, about 3km down the road from the city (not previously shown on maps because, like Popivka near Svatove, this is really just a few houses alongside the road). If accurate, this shows that Ukraine is still grinding its way closer to the city, even as fighting continues along the P66 highway. Forces in the woods to the south are reported to be even closer to Kreminna.
Top US conservatives pushing Russia’s spin on Ukraine war, experts say
Some of the Kremlin’s most blatant falsehoods aimed at undercutting US aid are promoted by major figures on the right [Photo and link to an article posted by The Guardian available at the link. The photo shows Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson and Trump.]
Your daily dose of tough-as-nails babushka.
Two sisters, Vira and Paraskovia, were forced to live in a chicken coop after a Russian bomb destroyed their home.
Volunteers are building a new house for them before winter comes. [video at the link]
A victim of childhood sexual abuse told an Australian court on Monday that Hillsong megachurch’s disgraced founder and pastor Brian Houston, whose dad is the accused rapist, told the victim that he invited the abuse. “You tempted my father,” the victim, Brett Sengstock, said Houston told him. He has waived his right to anonymity and accused Houston of failing to report abuse allegations made against his father, Frank Houston.
Brian Houston is currently standing trial for one offense of “concealing a serious indictable offense of another person,” per The Guardian. He has pleaded not guilty and also disputes the phone call in which he allegedly made ghoulish comments about Sengstock inviting the abuse…
…The regulator also said it “was convinced that the management of TV Rain did not understand the nature and gravity of each individual infringement, nor of any set of infringements”.
“The laws of Latvia must be respected by everyone,” tweeted Ivars Abolins, chairman of the NEPLP.
…
Latvia’s state security service announced an investigation into TV Rain last week, saying it “has repeatedly alerted the decision-makers about the various risks emanating from Russia’s so-called independent media relocating their activity to Latvia”….
I wouldn’t say I’m fully informed about this situation, but as it stands I’m on Latvia’s side. TV Rain displayed a map showing Crimea as part of Russia; have failed to provide the required Latvian subtitles; had an anchor last week say “that he hoped the station’s reports on abuses and mismanagement by the Russian state during Moscow’s mass mobilisation drive ‘were able to help many servicemen, including, for example, with equipment and just basic amenities at the front’,” referring to Russia’s army as “our army”; and now have the station’s founder putting out a tearful video regretting firing the anchor and begging him to return. The management were warned multiple times and blew it off, which continues today with them calling the charges “unfair and absurd.”
The Guardian also has a US liveblog today, covering the Georgia Senate runoff and other developments. From there:
January 6 panel: ‘We have made decisions on criminal referrals’
…The bipartisan panel looking into the attack on the Capitol is expected to make criminal referrals to the justice department based on the results of its investigation, and Axios reports chair Bennie Thompson said lawmakers know who they intend to name:…
The panel’s authorization expires at the end of the year, and it’s almost certain the incoming Republican House majority won’t reinstate it. The biggest name the January 6 committee could refer for charges is, of course, Donald Trump.
…Committee chairman Bennie G Thompson told reporters today that the committee has decided to make at least one criminal referral.
Thompson did not elaborate on who the referral is for or how many more could be coming….
Officers who defended the US Capitol during the 6 January attack are receiving a Congressional gold medal.
The ceremony, which is set to start shortly, is being led by top members of the House and Senate.
A Congressional gold medal is the highest honor that Congress can bestow, reports the Associated Press.
Congress truly is going all out on lawmaking as the year draws to a close, with a pair of senators reportedly trying to reach a compromise on immigration reform.
Republican senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are said to be working on the deal, which Politico reports could address a host of immigration-related issues:…
It would be a major accomplishment is Sinema and Tillis can pull of an immigration reform deal, since Congress has tried and failed to do so under multiple presidents for years.
Ever since Russia launched its brutal war in Ukraine the Kremlin has banked on American conservative political and media allies to weaken US support for Ukraine and deployed disinformation operations to falsify the horrors of the war for both US and Russian audiences, say disinformation experts.
Some of the Kremlin’s most blatant falsehoods about the war aimed at undercutting US aid for Ukraine have been promoted by major figures on the American right, from Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes to ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Fox News star Tucker Carlson, whose audience of millions is deemed especially helpful to Russian objectives.
On a more political track, House Republican Freedom Caucus members such as Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Scott Perry – who in May voted with 54 other Republican members against a $40bn aid package for Ukraine, and have raised other concerns about the war – have proved useful, though perhaps unwitting, Kremlin allies at times.
Pro-Moscow video materials from the network RT (formerly Russia Today), which early this year shuttered its US operations, have been featured on Rumble, a video sharing platform popular with conservatives that last year received major financing from a venture capital firm co-founded by recently elected Republican Ohio senator JD Vance and backed by billionaire Peter Thiel.
As Republicans will control the House in 2023, the influence of these Ukraine aid critics in Congress and Moscow-friendly media on the right led by Carlson is expected to increase. But analysts say they’re unlikely to block a Biden administration request to Congress in mid-November for over $37bn in emergency aid for Ukraine, although they may try to pare it back….
NEW: Members of the Metropolitan Police Department’s Special Operations Division heckled former Officer Mike Fanone at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, Fanone tells me.
“They called me a piece of shit and mockingly called me a great fucking hero while clapping,” he said.
Fanone says they called him a disgrace, said he was not a cop anymore, and said he didn’t belong at the ceremony. It happened in the rotunda, he said.
Last month’s mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ club—or more precisely, the mainstream right’s “they had it coming” response—seems to have spurred far-right extremists to a higher level of action. Since those murders, groups like the Proud Boys, armed militiamen, and various neofascist groups that have been turning out to harass LGBTQ communities under the rubric of labeling them “groomers” since this summer have begun ratcheting up their politics of menace.
[…] neofascist thugs showed up to menace planned LGBTQ events—all of them drag shows—in Columbus, Ohio; in Lakeland and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and in New York City. Additionally, there are suspicions that the gun attacks on two electrical substations resulting in a massive power outage in Moore County, North Carolina, may have been targeted at a drag show there. [Law enforcement in Moore County have not confirmed a connection with the drag show.]
[Video at the link] The largest and most concerning of these occurred in Columbus, where a school operated by the First Unitarian Universalist Church had planned to hold a “Holi-drag” storytime event on Saturday. A group of Ohio-based Proud Boys announced that it planned to show up to protest. Their post warned: “It’s gonna be wild!” [JFC]
On Saturday morning, officials at the school announced they were canceling the planned 10 AM event, claiming Columbus police officials “offered nothing” to provide security, describing their response to their concerns as only a “casual, distant acknowledgement” of the event. [Well, that’s not good.]
“I spent a week calling our police department and leaving voicemails about the reports we had seen,” said Cheryl Ryan, Red Oak Community School Manager […] “After a week, I was told we could hire a special duty officer, who may or may not show up because they’re understaffed.”
The cancellation, however, did not affect the far-right extremists who came marching to protest across the street from the church: not just Proud Boys, but also masked neofascist Patriot Front marchers, armed Oath Keepers and other militiamen, and neo-Nazi White Lives Matter activists.
The various factions marched to the church site from different directions, and mostly appeared to remain clustered within their respective organizations once they got lined up on the street in downtown Columbus across from which they protested. They numbered in between 70 and 80. [That’s a very threatening situation]
[…] Among the bad actors who showed up with the Proud Boys was American Guard founder Brien James, a onetime skinhead organizer who now specializes in far-right street thuggery. […]
In Florida, a group of neo-Nazis wearing masks and waving swastika-adorned banners showed up to protest outside of a Lakeland event featuring drag performers on Saturday. The same day in Fort Lauderdale, a collection of Proud Boys and antisemitic Goyim Defense League members showed up to add an element of menace to an anti-LGBTQ “Protect the Children” rally.
The Lakeland marchers, nearly all of them masked, performed Hitler salutes and marches outside the Lakeland venue, some of them shouting, “Heil Hitler!” The men wore black pants and red shirts, and carried a banner proclaiming: “Drag queens are pedophiles with AIDS.” They also displayed a sign equating Jewishness with communism, as well as a Christian nationalist banner with a Crusader-style red cross.
The masked Nazis frightened the children and their families inside the event. They remained sheltered in place until after police arrived.
[…] The Fort Lauderdale rally was organized by the right-wing Gays Against Groomers (whose spokesperson recently told Tucker Carlson that more mass killings were likely to continue so long as the LGBTQ community was “grooming” children) and groups like “Moms for Liberty Miami” and “Florida Fathers for Freedom.” This protest, which was not in response to a specific LGBTQ+ event, was widely promoted on social media, by right-wing outlets including Breitbart and One America News Network.
[…] The ADL noted two other New York-area protests that encountered significant resistance:
Protesters also targeted a drag queen story time event at the Staten Island Children’s Museum in Snug Harbor. Scott LoBaido, who is described by a local news outlet as a “controversial artist/activist,” led around 60 protesters, including at least three Proud Boys, in shouting anti-LGBTQ+ comments and accusing event organizers of child abuse. […] with anti-vaccine conspiracists also on the scene.
On December 4, 2022, approximately 10 protesters showed up outside of a drag queen story hour at the Jewish Community Center in Oceanside, NY, accusing event participants of “grooming” children. According to social media accounts, they were met by 15 counter-protesters who were defending the story hour.
“The goals are clear,” tweeted author Andy Campbell: “Cancel community events by mobilizing violent bigoted gangs, and ultimately, flood the narrative with ‘groomer’ until all drag/LGBTQ is accepted as inherently threatening.”
“The world is getting more and more unsafe for the LGBTQ community,” Cheryl Ryan of the Red Oak Community School told NBC News. “We have to do better.”
More details of anti-LGBTQ protests are available at the link.
[…] One of the traditions in the ceremony is for the leadership to stand with the gold medals (framed) and give them to the representatives of those receiving said medals. When this moment happened, the recipients graciously took that medal from Sen. Chuck Schumer’s hands, shook his hand, exchanged pleasantries, and then every single one of them walked past Sen. McConnell and Rep. McCarthy.
They didn’t take the medals they were holding. They didn’t shake their hands. They didn’t speak to them. They walked. Right. Past. […]
[…] it turns out Republican senators are no fun at all and are expressing absolutely zero desire to follow House Republicans down a road of failed clownass Joe Biden impeachment investigations. They probably don’t even want to see Hunter Biden’s penis.
Have they not heard that the most important First Amendment US American freedom story of all time is that elderly white actor James Woods was not able to put Hunter Biden’s penis on Twitter one time? Isn’t that a good reason to impeach Hunter Biden’s father?
You know, if he refuses to RESIGN FIRST:
How is the Twitter Files chicanery any different from Watergate in sum and substance?
Nixon resigned when his henchmen tried to subvert free speech.
Your turn, Mr. Biden. [FFS]
But anyway, back to this impeachment thing.
Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn says he “[hasn’t] really given any thought” to impeaching Joe Biden or maybe a top Cabinet official like Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. […] Have they done anything impeachable? “Not really, no,” said Cornyn.
Mitt Romney is being a real buzzkill shitass about it:
“Someone has to commit a high crime or misdemeanor for that to be a valid inquiry. I haven’t seen any accusation of that nature whatsoever. There are a lot of things I disagree with … but that doesn’t rise to impeachment.”
Politico makes it sound like John Thune of South Dakota, the second-highest ranking Republican senator, is not-so-subtly telling House Republicans to grow up and try to govern like somebody who wears big-boy underpants, calling for House Republicans to try to focus on “specific areas” for “oversight.” He even mentions trying to find ways to work with Democrats.
Susan Collins? Laughed at the question. Said she was “not going to get into the machinations of the House.” Hate her, but that is some delicious shade. She has no idea what those freaks do over there on the other side of the building. Gross. Stop asking her.
“That’s not something I’ve heard discussed over here,” Collins said about impeaching Biden or Mayorkas.
Even Chuck Grassley is like EW, DAVID!
And Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, brushed off questions about if he supports a Biden or Mayorkas impeachment: “I can’t do anything about what the House does.”
Please do not speak to Chuck Grassley about the House of Representatives.
Obviously if the House were to impeach Biden it would require 67 votes for conviction in the Senate. Depending on the Georgia results tonight, Republicans will have either 49 or 50 members total. It doesn’t sound like they’re coming along on this ride, besides maybe a few of the most flamboyant dipshits like Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and Josh Hawley. Even then, it’s mostly directed at Mayorkas, for the immigration crimes they imagine he’s committed. Hawley literally shut down impeachment talk about Biden when Politico asked.
At this rate, we’ll never get to the bottom of Hunter Biden’s penis.
Latvia has revoked Dozhd’s broadcasting license. Harsh desicion made after three strikes. Map without Crimea, no Latvian subtitles and the “our boys are suffering scandal”. Russian opposition could have admitted that the one must respect laws of Latvia.
But instead I read “You made Putin happy” and “Putin won”. Dozhd reported fairly about the war. As a journalist I can say one thing. It is normal when you do your job properly. What is not normal, is that you always demand a special treatment.
Dozhd is a fairly professional Russian media. But it doesn’t exclude the fact that they still can’t adjust to the reality of being the part of the bad guys nation. Not their choice. I understand how hard it is.
They feel sorry for their boys who always can go to prison for three years instead of going to mass murder my boys and girls. But when it comes to responsibility, they again become “anti-Putin fighters” who are victims and not guilty. As for the desicion of Latvia..
I am not the one to decide. I would fine them, maybe. But also I’ve been to Latvia and saw how extremely patient Latvians used to be. They sheltered, employed Russians, while other Russians living in Riga were also protesting against Latvia for “suppressing Russian language”.
I don’t like when any media gets banned, as it is a precedent. Even the hardest pro-Russian m…fuckers in Ukraine got banned only recently. You really have to work hard to anger Latvians..
Dozhd claims is anti-war, yet it still cares deeply about Ru men, killing in Ukraine. Dozhd CEO Natalia Sendeeva spoke so heart warming of those invaders. It seems for her Ru are brainless victims of circumstances who just fulfill orders. While boys enjoy murdering and looting.
So claiming that by letting Dozhd stay Latvia makes anti war efforts is insane. Latvians have made more than enough antiwar efforts. Allowing you to keep violating law of Latvia is not a antiwar effort. Other countries can’t keep solving what you failed to solve
Freedom of speech is an essential thing. One thing is to criticize corruption or political desicion, the other thing is to violate law, call for better conditions for invading army, or violate territorial integrity. Yes, smaller countries also demand their laws to be respected
Final thought. I don’t support name-calling in the case of Dozhd. They are professional journalists. I support facts. and facts here are not on their side.
Special counsel Jack Smith has subpoenaed local officials in Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states that were central to former president Donald Trump’s failed plan to stay in power following the 2020 election — for any and all communications with Trump, his campaign and a long list of aides and allies.
The requests for records arrived in Dane County, Wis.; Maricopa County, Ariz.; and Wayne County, Mich., late last week, and in Milwaukee on Monday, officials said. They are among the first known subpoenas issued by Smith, who was named last month by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the Jan. 6 Capitol attack case as well as the criminal probe of Trump’s possible mishandling of classified documents at his Florida home.
The subpoenas, at least three of which are dated Nov. 22, show that Smith is extending the Justice Department’s examination of the circumstances leading up to the Capitol attack to include local election officials and their potential interactions with the former president and his representatives. The virtually identical requests to Arizona and Wisconsin name Trump individually, in addition to employees, agents and attorneys for his campaign….The subpoena asks for communication with Trump and his campaign, including several key allies.
[…]
The Justice Department’s Mar-a-Lago criminal investigation began this spring……the longer-running Jan. 6 case, meanwhile, has moved beyond the pool of people who directly took part in the bloody riot at the U.S. Capitol. For months, prosecutors have been scrutinizing the fundraising, organizing, and apocalyptic rhetoric that preceded that violent assault on the seat of government. The inquiry has also looked at failed efforts to authorize alternate slates of electors so Trump could be named the winner of the 2020 election.
[…]
Trump and key allies sought to avert his narrow loss in six battleground states through a lengthy pressure campaign. In Maricopa County, the pressure focused heavily on urging the GOP-controlled governing board to not certify the results.
Then-Supervisor Steve Chucri, a Republican, has said he met with Giuliani at the state Capitol in mid-to-late November 2020. In December, Giuliani tried to reach Republican supervisors Bill Gates, Jack Sellers and Clint Hickman by phone. Days later, Trump himself twice tried to speak to Hickman, then chair of the governing board.
The calls came on Dec. 31, 2020, as Hickman was at dinner with his wife and friends and again on Jan. 3, 2021, the same day The Post broke news of Trump’s conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump had urged the Georgia election director to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss there.
Hickman, who had been told by Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward to expect outreach by Trump, let both calls go to voice mail.
I don’t agree with it, and I also wish they hadn’t done it. It would be much more helpful for them to urge TV Rain to recognize the problem with their ongoing actions. Refusing to shut up and listen to the valid concerns of Latvians while presenting Russians as victimized is insensitive and disrespectful.
They write:
In the eight years that Meduza has already spent in Latvia, the local authorities have never once attempted to interfere in our editorial policies. We are grateful for this hospitality.
Then show it by taking their experiences and concerns seriously.
TV Rain (known as Дождь / Dozhd in Russian) moved from Russia to Latvia earlier this year, but its license here has just been revoked.
Seen a lot of bad Baltic takes about it over the past week, but a lot more are incoming!
So let’s talk about TV Rain…
TV Rain is critical of Putin. Well, as critical as can be for a station born out of Putin’s Russia. Whether it opposes Russian imperialism is another matter.
Among other problematic reporting, it has falsely stated Crimea is Russia & illegally entered Ukraine through Russia.
It previously excused that as a requirement for operating under Russian law …but it didn’t change its line after leaving Russia.
Just last week, it was fined by Latvia’s media regulator for again falsely showing Crimea as Russia and calling Russian troops “our boys”.
As it’s now a Latvian channel, that’s legally problematic in all kinds of ways relating to rules around accuracy in broadcasting, protecting the constitutional order of Latvia, and not using the country as a base to support terrorism and genocide abroad.
The regulator fined the channel €10,000 and said that was the channel’s 2nd serious violation in recent months, while pointing out that a third could lead to its license being revoked.
But that wasn’t TV Rain’s biggest controversy of last week.
Host Alexey Korostelev said TV Rain helps Russian troops “for example, with equipment & basic amenities at the front”.
It caused outrage. Latvia’s State Security Service launched an investigation & politicians demanded a rethink of TV Rain’s presence.
TV Rain acted fairly swiftly in an attempt to limit the damage. They described Korostelev’s comment as “erroneous & unacceptable”, reaffirmed they don’t support the war, clarified nothing is supplied by them to Russian troops, and fired Korostelev.
Korostelev later said he feels sorry for mobilised troops, but only helps them by sharing their stories …and he misspoke.
The ‘mispoke’ excuse has been repeated by the channel & its supporters. Three other employees quit in solidarity with him.
But he didn’t simply misspeak.
Because what he meant to say is that TV Rain’s reporting helps pressure Russia into providing better conditions for its forces committing genocide in Ukraine.
That’s also reprehensible – & raises wider questions about what the point of the Russian opposition actually is.
Better conditions for Russia’s troops enables it to colonise & annihilate its neighbours more easily.
That stance might grow support for the channel inside Russia but it further erodes global goodwill towards the opposition.
It’s not what opposition movements elsewhere do.
Now, it’s hard to say with Russia who is genuinely in the opposition and who is in the “opposition”. While some do genuinely & bravely oppose the regime, the regime also clearly keeps a degree of control over some influential voices who merely play the role of opposition.
But opposition or “opposition”, we too often see much of the movement prone to an imperialist attitude, repeat Kremlin propaganda, lecture neighbours, use slurs, play bothsidesism, & unable to clarify where Russia’s border ends. Some don’t even think Russians abroad need protest.
One prominent opposition journalist, for example, likes to police the anger about the genocide abroad, deriding language like ‘orcs’ for Russian troops. He later said that, in revenge, the opposition would just continue the genocide more efficiently if it gained power.
These fault lines existed long before the full scale war.
Note that many of those criticising us now for criticising Russia’s opposition are often the same people who previously ridiculed us for thinking Putin would turn out this bad and launch this full scale war.
They didn’t really understand Russia’s descent into genocidal imperialism & its impact on everyone else. Now they can’t understand that the start of this full scale war changed everything & there’s zero tolerance elsewhere now for anything less than opposing Russia’s imperialism.
Think about how much Latvians themselves have used their own time, money, & resources to get as much support as possible to Ukraine.
So for opposition journalists to be based in Latvia displaying this attitude is such a huge failure to read the room, let alone comply with laws.
But patience for TV Rain has finally run out in Latvia.
The regulator said “the management of TV Rain did not understand the nature & gravity of each individual infringement, nor of any set of infringements,” adding that “laws of Latvia must be followed & respected by everyone”.
I do feel sorry for people at TV Rain who got involved because they genuinely do want Russia to be a normal free country within its actual borders.
But now is a time for serious reflection within the Russian opposition. It starts with listening to victims of Russian imperialism.
Personally, I know Russian citizens & citizens of Baltic countries who identify as Russian who are unequivocally genuinely opposed to Russian imperialism. They donate supplies to Ukraine, demand more arms to Ukraine, and clearly state all Ukraine is Ukraine, including Crimea.
In fact, the first person from the Baltic states to receive a medal from Ukraine for fighting for Ukraine’s sovereignty in this full scale war is an Estonian citizen who identifies as Russian and says he has an obligation to do everything he can to stop Russia’s genocide.
Indonesia’s parliament has approved a new criminal code that bans anyone in the country from having extramarital sex and restricts political freedoms.
Sex outside marriage will carry a jail term of up to a year under the new laws, which take effect in three years.
The raft of changes come after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country…
British Columbia’s newest Rhodes Scholar says she was convinced she didn’t have a chance.
But Julia Levy says she is thrilled to be Canada’s first trans queer woman to receive the award and head to the University of Oxford.
Levy, 24, says she knows that 19th-century diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes would probably disapprove. But Levy will head off to pursue a master’s degree in computational chemistry next fall and sees it as a huge “opportunity.”…
A restaurant in Richmond [Virginia] last week canceled a reservation for a private event being held by a conservative Christian organization, citing the group’s opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
“We have always refused service to anyone for making our staff uncomfortable or unsafe and this was the driving force behind our decision,” read an Instagram post from Metzger Bar and Butchery, a German-influenced restaurant in the Union Hill neighborhood whose kitchen is helmed by co-owner Brittanny Anderson, a veteran of TV cooking shows including “Top Chef” and “Chopped.” “Many of our staff are women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community. All of our staff are people with rights who deserve dignity and a safe work environment. We respect our staff’s established rights as humans and strive to create a work environment where they can do their jobs with dignity, comfort and safety.”
The group, the Family Foundation, was set to host a dessert reception for supporters on Nov. 30, the group’s president, Victoria Cobb, wrote in a blog post describing the incident. About an hour and a half before it was slated to start, one of the restaurant’s owners called to cancel it, she wrote. “As our VP of Operations explained that guests were arriving at their restaurant shortly, she asked for an explanation,” Cobb wrote. “Sure enough, an employee looked up our organization, and their wait staff refused to serve us.”
The Family Foundation is based in Richmond and advocates for “policies based on biblical principles.” It has lobbied against same-sex marriage and abortion rights…..
In her blog post, Cobb likened the restaurant’s move to establishments that refused to serve Black customers in the 1950s and ’60s, and she decried what she called a “double standard” by liberals who think a Colorado baker should not be allowed to refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
Legal experts say neither of those are apt analogies. While it’s illegal to discriminate against someone because of their race or religion, the restaurant’s refusal had to do with the group’s actions, said Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas. “It’s about the overall positions and policies the group has taken — it’s not about Christian vs. non-Christian,” she said.
Restaurants have made news for taking issue with their patrons’ politics. Sarah Sanders, then the White House press secretary and now the governor-elect of Arkansas, was asked to leave the Red Hen in Lexington, Va., in 2018. The owner of the restaurant, Stephanie Wilkinson, wrote that she thought Sanders was “a person whose actions in the service of our country we felt violated basic standards of humanity.”
If past is prologue, Metzger’s move — which was first reported by Virginia Business — is likely to bring it both criticism and support. Wilkinson described the aftermath of the incident with Sanders — which made headlines around the world — as intense. Her phone lines were hacked, she and her staff had private information about them posted online, and many of them received death threats. People took to Yelp, leaving fake negative reviews, and made reservations they had no intention of keeping. But Wilkinson said people also showed their support by driving in from miles away and by donating to local charities.
As of Tuesday, Metzger’s Yelp page was frozen and an “Unusual Activity Alert” was added. “This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news,” the notice reads. “While we don’t take a stand one way or the other when it comes to this incident, we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page as we work to investigate whether the content you see here reflects actual consumer experiences rather than the recent events.”
whheydtsays
A Manhattan jury has found former President Donald Trump’s namesake real estate company guilty of criminal tax fraud, three weeks after Trump announced a third presidential run.
The jury found the two entities of the Trump Organization guilty as charged on all counts, including scheme to defraud, conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records.
The two entities — the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation — were accused of paying the personal expenses of some executives without reporting them as income, and for compensating them as independent contractors instead of full-time employees. Each entity was charged with scheme to defraud, conspiracy, criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records.
Giuliani’s disciplinary proceedings stem from an ethics case brought by the Washington, DC, bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel. The case focuses on Giuliani’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Pennsylvania, when he was then-President Donald Trump’s personal attorney.
The ODC has accused Giuliani of violating Pennsylvania’s Rules of Professional Conduct by filing a “frivolous” lawsuit seeking to throw out millions of votes in Pennsylvania and engaging in “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.”
Conservative North Georgia talk show host Brian K. Pritchard, a candidate for the state House who rails against election fraud, allegedly voted illegally nine times while serving a felony sentence in a $33,000 forgery and theft case, state officials say.
The Georgia attorney general’s office wrote Thursday that Pritchard broke state law each time he voted before his sentence was completed, according to a filing with the Office of State Administrative Hearings. State law prohibits felons from voting…
Rep. Madison Cawthorn was fined over $15,000 by the House Ethics Committee, according to a new ethics report.
Cawthorn promoted a cryptocurrency named after “Let’s Go Brandon,” which he had personally invested in.
The committee also cleared Cawthorn of allegations that he had an improper relationship with a staffer.
Rafael Rondon pleaded guilty to charges connected to the Capitol riot on Monday.
Rondon admitted to helping an “unknown male” steal a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.
The 25-year-old traveled to the Capitol with his mother, who also faces charges.
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Several people attempted to vote twice in last month’s midterm election in Nevada, but not enough to sway any race result, the 8 News Now Investigators first reported Monday…
State investigators have identified people who attempted to vote twice in the November election, whether purposely or on accident, he said. Each case is treated seriously until investigators determine no criminal intent.
For instance, a person may vote early by mail and then attempt to vote via a provisional ballot on Election Day, Wlaschin said. Or, a person may mistakenly vote using another family member’s mail-in ballot, thinking it is theirs…
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #235…
It’d be nice to–eventually–see a breakdown by party on that.
BREAKING: San Francisco building inspectors are launching an investigation into reports Twitter has converted several office rooms at its headquarters into sleeping quarters for employees. ‘We need to make sure the building is being used as intended’ @sfdbi rep tells @KQEDnews
Disturbingly close currently 50 : 50 but hopefully early votes which ae likely to favour Raphael Warnock will make the key difference.
whheydtsays
Re: SeteveR @ #239…
ABC has called the race for Warnock.
KGsays
With 99% of the votes counted, Warnock is 2.8% ahead. So, far from a blowout, but not desperately close either. Worth noting that on this occasion, the pollsters seem to have got it right – I was seeing reports of Warnock polling 2%-4% ahead in the week before election day.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine iveblog. From their latest summary (lightly annotated):
The US said it had not “enabled” Ukraine to carry out strikes inside Russia, after a spate of drone attacks on military-linked facilities deep within Russian territory. Kyiv did not directly claim responsibility but neither did it criticise the action, which killed three people and damaged long-range bombers and a fuel depot, according to reports from Russia. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said: “We have neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia.” [Fine, but far too many pearls are being clutched over this. The Ukrainians needed to do it and have every right to do it.]
Belarus plans to move military equipment and security forces on Wednesday and Thursday in what it says are checks on its response to possible acts of terrorism, the state BelTA news agency reported on Wednesday. “During this period, it is planned to move military equipment and personnel of the national security forces,” the news agency cited the country’s security council as saying. [LOL.]
The Kremlin has said a US military aid spending bill providing $800m to Ukraine approved by lawmakers on Tuesday was “provocation towards our country”. [GFY.] The Fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, authorises the additional spending for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, an increase of $500m over President Joe Biden’s request earlier this year.
…
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited troops close to frontlines in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday. Addressing service personnel later in the presidential palace in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said he had spent the day with troops in Donbas, theatre of the heaviest battles, and in Kharkiv region, where Ukrainians have retaken swaths of territory from Russian forces.
Poland is preparing to deploy the German Patriot air defence system on its territory, after Berlin refused to place the system in Ukraine, Poland’s defence minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, said on Twitter. Germany last month offered Poland the Patriot system to help secure its airspace after a stray missile crashed and killed two people in Poland.
Europe is likely to scrape through this winter without cutting off gas customers despite reduced Russian supplies, but even adjusting to colder homes and paying more may not be enough in coming years, analysts have told AFP. Russia’s progressive reduction of gas supplies to Europe via pipeline triggered a bidding war for liquefied natural gas (LNG), sending prices sharply higher.
…
The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin met senior officials on Tuesday to discuss “domestic security”, and Russia was taking “necessary” measures to fend off more Ukrainian attacks. One of the attacks struck the key Engels airfield in the Saratov region, where Russia keeps some of its strategic nuclear bombers.
…This war is a civilisational battle over culture and history. On 5 September this year, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that refers to the “Russian peace”. The Kremlin made clear in the document that culture was a tool and even a weapon in the hands of the government, and that it would actively use all the opportunities available to it, from promoting Russian ballet to protecting the rights of Russian speakers abroad, in order to advance its interests.
In the Kremlin’s mind, the world is divided between “traditional values” and “pseudo values”. The latter are a liberal threat to the former, and an irreconcilable fight is taking place between the two. The Kremlin is putting itself forward as the global leader of traditional values, claiming that its nation is built upon them. After Putin signed this document, he made it very clear he saw Russian culture as an instrument of his nation’s imperialist politics….
Twenty-five people including a 71-year-old German aristocrat, a retired military commander and former MP for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have been detained in Germany on suspicion of a terrorist plan to overthrow the state and renegotiate the country’s post-second world war settlement.
Thousands of police carried out a series of raids across Germany on Wednesday morning in connection with the far-right ring.
Federal prosecutors said 3,000 officers conducted searches at 130 sites in 11 of Germany’s 16 states against the group, whose members it said adhered to a “conglomerate of conspiracy theories” including the QAnon cult and the so-called Reich Citizens movement.
Prosecutors said 22 German citizens were detained on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organisation”. Three other detainees, including a female Russian citizen, were suspected of supporting the organisation, they said.
Der Spiegel reported that locations searched included the barracks of Germany’s special forces unit KSK, in the south-western town of Calw. The unit has in the past been scrutinised over alleged far-right involvement by some soldiers. Federal prosecutors declined to confirm or deny that the barracks was searched.
Along with detentions in Germany, prosecutors said one person was detained in the Austrian town of Kitzbühel and another in Perugia in Italy.
German media have identified as the group’s ringleaders Heinrich XIII, 71, a descendant of the noble Reuß family that used to rule over parts of eastern Germany in the 12th century, and a former senior field officer at the German army’s paratrooper battalion named only as Rüdiger von P.
Last year, the pair founded a “terrorist organisation with the goal of overturning the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with their own form of state, which was already in the course of being founded”, with Rüdiger von P in charge of planning the military coup and Heinrich XIII mapping out Germany’s future political order.
The group had even started to nominate ministers for a transitional post-coup government, reported the newspaper Die Zeit, in which one of the suspects, the former AfD MP Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, 58, was to be federal minister for justice.
The group was convinced modern Germany was run by a “deep state” conspiracy that was about to be exposed by an alliance of German intelligence agencies and the militaries of foreign states including Russia and the US.
“Everything will be turned upside down: the current public prosecutors and judges, as well as the heads of the health departments and their superiors will find themselves in the dock at Nuremberg 2.0”, one of the suspect said in a message posted on Telegram minutes before the start of Wednesday’s raids, Die Zeit reported.…
Activists and advocates have rallied around climate protester Violet Coco, who will spend at least eight months in jail for her role in a disruptive protest on Sydney Harbour Bridge.
It comes after tough new laws were introduced in NSW earlier this year in a crackdown on protests causing inconvenience.
Coco’s supporters and lawyers say her punishment is disproportionate, but NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said he supported it. .. (snip) .. In April, Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco was part of a two-vehicle convoy that parked on Sydney Harbour Bridge to raise awareness of climate change.
The vehicles blocked a city-bound lane of peak-hour traffic for about 25 minutes.
She was sentenced to a non-parole period of eight months, expiring in July, for breaching traffic laws by blocking traffic, possessing an orange flare in a public place and resisting police after being asked to move on.
Her full prison sentence stretches to 24 February 2024.
Why was she jailed for up to 15 months?
Earlier this year, the NSW government passed new laws concerning disruptive climate protests, with activists facing fines of up to $22,000 and two years in prison.
Luke McNamara, a professor at the University of New South Wales and co-director at the Centre for Crime, Law and Justice, told SBS News governments were becoming increasingly intolerant of disruptive protests.
“The focus was on making available more serious penalties in relation to a particular mode of protest, which involves climbing bridges, for example, or attaching oneself to particular facilities with a view to causing visibility and disruption,” he said.
“And of course, visibility and disruption have long been the hallmarks of effective nonviolent protest.”
Emphasis – sub-heading /sub-title (?) original.
NSW Premier Perrottet is a Catholic Fundamentalist Christianist far reich wing extremist linked to Opus Dei and a Trump supporter in echoes of the Pell -Abbott relationship.. but in one person.
A series of suspicious packages sent to Ukrainian embassies all bore the address of a Tesla car dealership in Germany and were usually sent from post offices without video surveillance, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Facebook that 31 Ukrainian missions in 15 countries had received such packages in what he called a “campaign of terror against Ukrainian diplomats”.
Ukraine, which has been invaded by Russia, said last week “bloody packages” containing animal eyes had been sent to some of its missions in Europe, soon after a letter bomb detonated at its embassy in Spain and police defused others sent to, among others, Spain’s prime minister.
“All the envelopes have the same sender address: the Tesla car dealership in the German town of Sindelfingen. Usually, the shipment was made from post offices that were not equipped with video surveillance systems,” Kuleba wrote.
“Criminals also took measures not to leave traces of their DNA on the packages. This, in particular, indicates the professional level of implementation.”
German authorities and electric carmaker Tesla’s dealership in Sindelfingen in southern Germany did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Russian TV promotes all sorts of crazy narratives about Ukraine, including biolabs, dirty bombs and a crazed ‘Nazi’ leadership
But the one perverse and unchanging message which underpins all of this – see the two displays in the studio here – is that Russia is always the victim
A new propaganda video mocking Russians who left the country because of the mobilisation is circulating on Telegram
“The boys have left but the men have stayed”
Video at the (Twitter) link. Hilarious in so many ways, including that the two women calmly carry on with their social commentary before going to help the old lady on the ground about 10 feet away.
Illia Ponomarenko is a Ukrainian reporter based in Kyiv.
The New York Times is a newspaper that sometimes gets things right and is often wrong.
This is a good example of the latter.
Defending yourself against terrorist attacks on 44 million civilians isn’t an escalation. The escalation was when Russia started attacking Ukrainian cities.
We should just send the Ukrainians long range drones and missiles and shrug when the Russians threaten us. They threaten us everyday anyway.
We are far stronger than they are and it is time to act like it.
Tweet
Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko
Because those annoying Ukrainians should have better just bow their heads and humbly obey the colonizer devastating its cities.
Now see that you’ve done again, you’re making The New York Times feel worried and use all those scary words and all.
NyTimes Decemeber 06, 2022
Ukrainian Attacks Deep inside Russia Escalate the War
“In 1934, no Democratic senators lost re-election. But since 1934, every president, Democrat and Republican, has seen at least one senator from their party lose re-election in every single midterm cycle. Biden becomes the first president since FDR not to lose a single senator.”
ravensays
Some good news for once.
The price of Russian oil is sharply lower.
It is 57.20 per barrel and a lot lower than the world market price of $74 per barrel.
Russia is a Petroleum state and oil and gas sales are mostly what they have going for them.
Strangely enough, they are also the world’s largest food exporter.
These are the areas where Russia is claiming to have made advances on Wednesday. At Yakolivka, Russian sources are claiming to have taken the town and moved on to the north. This is all completely unconfirmed and based on Russian sources. However, fresh fighting on the Bakhmut outskirts is certainly real. [map at the link]
Russia has made such claims in the Bakhmut area repeatedly, so it’s impossible to know the real situation until there are some reports from Ukrainian troops on the ground.
You know that today’s update has to start with this:
TIME’s 2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky and the spirit of Ukraine #TIMEPOY https://ti.me/3Fzr4B2 [image at the link]
Everyone who has been following Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine from the beginning has had innumerable opportunities to see both the personal bravery of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the indomitable spirit of the Ukrainian people. In fact, there have been so many examples that it’s hard to select just a few for this morning.
Perhaps the best example of who Zelenskyy is and what he means to his nation didn’t come this week in his visit to the eastern front, or his visit to the liberated Kherson or Izyum. It happened right back in the opening days with a flat statement that absolutely defined who this man is and where he would stand over the course of the war. [“I don’t need a ride, I need more ammunition.”] There’s a reason former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James Stavridis said of Zelenskyy, “He is example in Leadership 101.” [video at the link]
But Zelenskyy wasn’t given this recognition alone. His bravery and determination has been matched, and many times exceeded, by Ukrainian citizens at the front line, and sometimes in homes that have become the front line—but this one has to be in there. Reaching back to the very first day of the invasion, the Sunflower woman of Kherson still speaks for everyone.
Woman: “You’re occupants. You’re fascists. What the f**k are you doing on our land with all those guns? Take these seeds and put them in your pockets, so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here.” [video act the link]
On the very first day Russian forces crossed into her hometown, this woman told them who they were and what would happen. There may be no finer question asked in this entire war than “What the f**k are you doing on our land with all those guns?”
Which is a good reminder of another statement from that same day. [Russian Warship Go F Yourself video]
How did that go for you, Russian warship?
For over nine months, the spirit of the Ukrainian people and the soldiers on the front line has not faltered, in spite of artillery, missiles, and drones. In spite of massacres and torture chambers. In spite of an enemy that doesn’t just want them defeated, but destroyed as a people.
And to get everyone else into that spirit today… [video of Ukrainian refugee singing with Lithuanians in support]
Last week, there were multiple reports that Russian forces were advancing south of Bakhmut, including numerous claims to have captured all of Optyne as well as a trio of villages further south. However, after a few days, many of those claims seem to have evaporated, with it becoming obvious that Russia had, at best, reached the outskirts of these locations, which remain in dispute.
On Wednesday, Russia is claiming to have made a sudden advance north of Bakhmut in the area of the smaller town of Bakhmutse, about 7km northeast of the city. They are also issuing claims of completely taking the town of Yakolivka even further to the north. None of this has so far been confirmed by other sources.
At the same time, Russian forces do seem to have reached the outskirts of Bakhmut once again, putting them almost exactly back where they were three months ago. Right now, both Ukraine and Russia have very large numbers of new troops in the area. Most of the Russian troops are freshly mobilized. Most of the Ukrainian troops have freshly arrived from the liberation of Kherson. Ukraine also has been seen moving a significant force of additional armor into the area.
There have been many statements on Telegram that the end of the year is another one of those “deadlines from Putin” where Wagner has been told to take Bakhmut or … that part isn’t clear. This would be just another in a string of such reported deadlines, none of which has apparently made any difference in the past. However, there is so much firepower crowded into the area around Bakhmut right now that it’s hard to believe the situation will remain the same kind of predictable meat grinder it has been for months.
The predictions range from Russia making a big breakthrough while Ukraine falls back to a new line, to Ukraine launching a counteroffensive that spears through the Russian line and heads deep into occupied areas of Donetsk—so you know none of these predictions is likely all that well informed.
In any case … stay tuned. Something may well break in the area within the next few days. (Or, you know, not.)
Yes, I know the margin of Warnock’s win looks small, but look more closely at the situation in which Warnock won and, yes, it is impressive.
Georgia Republicans, for the most part, had an excellent election year. There were nine statewide contests in the Peach State in 2022, and GOP candidates won eight of them with relative ease. Georgia voters rewarded Republican candidates with the governor’s office, the state House, and the state Senate, while easily re-electing nine Republicans to the U.S. House, each of whom won in a landslide.
For all the talk about Georgia becoming a “purple” state, GOP officials had reason to take stock the day after Election Day last month and feel quite good about the state’s political landscape.
There was, however, one rather dramatic exception. NBC News reported overnight:
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican football star Herschel Walker on Tuesday in Georgia’s Senate runoff election, NBC News projects, handing President Joe Biden and his party a key win. Warnock’s victory will give Democrats an outright majority in the Senate after two years under a 50-50 divide, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting tie-breaking votes.
Though some votes are still being tallied, it appears that the incumbent senator will prevail by roughly three points, which is in line with the expectations set by recent polling. [As KG noted in comment 244]
Similarly, Warnock’s win is the largest margin of victory for any Democratic Senate candidate in Georgia since 2000 — when former Gov. Zell Miller won with 58% support. (Miller was a conservative Democrat who ended up endorsing George W. Bush’s Republican re-election campaign four years later. Warnock is a qualitatively different kind of Democrat.)
As the dust settles on this dramatic contest, there’s no shortage of angles to keep in mind.
Herschel Walker was a uniquely ridiculous candidate
Ahead of yesterday’s balloting, Roll Call’s Stuart Rothenberg, who’s seen more than a few Senate races over the course of his career, said Walker was “as bad a candidate as I have ever seen.” The Guardian’s Jill Filipovic recently came to a similar conclusion: “It’s possible that Herschel Walker is the worst candidate the modern Republican party has ever run for national office, and in an era of conspiracy theorists, Christian nationalists and Donald Trump, that’s saying a lot.”
Even if we put aside the scandals, the breathtaking dishonesty, and the cringe-worthy ignorance, it was never altogether clear why Walker was running or what he intended to do with the Senate seat. He made no promises. He expressed few preferences. He never demonstrated any real interest in doing any meaningful work as a candidate for a powerful office. As recently as last week, he seemed to think he was running for a House seat.
In the wake of his defeat, one GOP operative told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “Herschel was like a plane crash into a train wreck that rolled into a dumpster fire. And an orphanage. Then an animal shelter. You kind of had to watch it squinting through one eye between your fingers.” […]
Walker didn’t just lose, Warnock won
The Democratic incumbent had a lot to overcome — including Georgia Republicans’ strong year and ugly new voting restrictions — but he ran an extremely impressive race, all while proving himself an adept fundraiser. [And not a liar, not a misogynist, and not ignorant concerning the government of the USA.]
[…] On March 10, 2021, [Trump] issued a written statement that generated a lot of attention. “Wouldn’t it be fantastic if the legendary Herschel Walker ran for the United States Senate in Georgia?” Trump said. “He would be unstoppable, just like he was when he played for the Georgia Bulldogs, and in the NFL. He is also a GREAT person. Run Herschel, run!”
This helped convince Walker to move to Georgia, launch a campaign, and keep real candidates out of the race. Following similar losses for Trump-backed Senate candidates — in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Hew Hampshire, and Alaska — Trump deserves all of the blame he’s already receiving.
The margin should’ve been bigger
As impressive as Warnock’s hard-fought win was, common sense suggests the margin could’ve been, and should’ve been, even bigger given the obvious differences in qualification between the candidates.
As my MSNBC colleague Jarvis DeBerry concluded overnight, “[I]t still says something awful about our country and our politics that somebody as eminently disqualified and dishonest as Walker even won his party’s primary,[…].”
[…] Yesterday, we covered the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian airforce bases—and kos did a special shout-out to The New York Times for how “the paper of record” chastised Ukraine on being so “brazen” that it refused to roll over and die.
Expectations at the time were that Ukraine used modified Soviet-era Tu-141 “Strizh” drones to carry out these attacks, and evidence on the ground appears to go a long way toward confirming this. However, in the last 24 hours, there have been reports that Ukraine may have used the much smaller Tu-143 in striking back at Russian bases, and in particular, the attack that blew up a fuel facility at a base in Kursk (that fire is finally out, after burning for a full day). [Tweet and image at the link]
The problem with the Tu-143 is that it’s not just smaller; it has a much shorter range of only about 200km. So how could a drone with a 200km range hit a target at least 500km inside Russia?
Well, when the Tu-143 was built in the 1970s, surveillance tech was so much more limited that it operated in a wholly different way than current drones. It was actually designed to carry cameras to the front lines and bring back film of the situation on the ground—like some of the early spy satellites that actually dropped film canisters back to Earth.
So to start with, that 200km range is round-trip, not one-way. Second, the drone not only carried a pod full of camera gear, but a parachute recovery system for its return (it wasn’t capable of actually landing in a conventional sense; it just got back to the home base and popped the chute). Strip all that out, and it’s not hard to believe another 100km or so of fuel couldn’t be squeezed in, along with explosives to make the trip worthwhile.
In any case, assuming the reports of the Tu-143 are correct, there are a lot more of these around than the far larger Tu-141s, and Ukraine is clearly getting good at modifying these old drones for new purposes.
Meanwhile, Russia responded again overnight with a wave of Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones launched at targets across Ukraine. First, reports indicated that Ukraine managed to shoot down many of these drones, but Russia appears to have changed tactics and used some of the drones to hit smaller towns and villages [JFC] that don’t have the dedicated air defense systems that are becoming more common in Ukrainian cities.
Sending out a missile, or even a $20,000 drone, to take down a house or barn in a country village doesn’t make a lot of sense in military terms. But don’t be surprised to see this become a bigger part of Russia’s strategy. After all, from their point of view, hitting a residence in a small village is still better than just having a drone shot down. Because at least someone is getting hurt.
Several dozen American M1117 armored personnel carriers have been spotted in Romania 🇷🇴, 250 of which have been announced for the Armed Forces 🇺🇲🤝🇺🇦 [video at the link]
And because you know I can never resist the dancing soldiers of Ukraine … [video at the link]
Link. Scroll to the end of the article for the dancing soldier.
[…] Russia can not be trusted to abide by its international commitments unless there is sufficient force to compel its action. In 1994 Ukraine was part of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances.
According to the three memoranda, Russia, the US and the UK confirmed their recognition of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine becoming parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and effectively abandoning their nuclear arsenal to Russia and that they agreed to the following:
Respect the signatory’s independence and sovereignty in the existing borders.
Refrain from the threat or the use of force against the signatory.
Refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by the signatory of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.
Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to the signatory if they “should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”.
Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against the signatory.
Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments.
That is Russia agreeing in 1994 to not attack, threaten, or coerce Ukraine in exchange for Ukraine giving up their nuclear arsenal to Russia.
Then after Russia broke this treaty in 2014 to take Crimea and essentially parts of Donbas, Russia signed on to and subsequently broke the Minsk I and Minsk II agreements.
After Russia has made and broken all of these treaties, how can any sane person expect Ukraine to negotiate with Russia? In what world do Russia’s assurances mean anything at all? A negotiation now under terms at all favorable to Russia means that Russia wins and gets to repair its army before trying to take Ukraine again. You cannot negotiate with a nation that does not honor its treaties. The only thing Russia understands is force. That is not me disparaging Russia, that is me pointing out their recent history. […]
If for some reason preventing genocide and recognizing that Russia does not negotiate in good faith is not good enough to justify continued support of Ukraine, fighting against Authoritarianism better be. The free countries of the world are fighting against authoritarianism within our own borders. The Republican Party has abandoned freedom and democracy and actively supports insurrection and election tampering. Their former president has even publicly stated that the Constitution should be thrown out and he should forcibly be returned to office.
[…] we cannot ignore the influence Russian money has been having on the corruption of the American right wing. […] Russia also has the clear support of the FOX news corporation as well as other right wing US media companies.
The United States must see to it that Russia is stopped now. […]
Furthermore, Russia is not the only authoritarian state. China is watching the Western Democracies’ response to Russian aggression […] And there are other bad actors in the world beyond Russia and China who will hopefully be deterred by our continued support of Ukraine.
[…] I’ve been a pro-peace progressive my entire life. I protested against the first Gulf War and the second Gulf War. I am not a war hawk. But we must stand up in support of people fighting for freedom and democracy. We cannot stick our heads in the sand while authoritarians pick us apart at home and abroad. […]
Sen. Raphael Warnock thanked his mother at his victory speech: “She grew up in the 1950s in Waycross, Georgia, picking somebody else’s cotton and somebody else’s tobacco. But tonight, she helped pick her youngest son to be a United States senator.” https://cnn.it/3uAnCzO
[…] The best way to enjoy Warnock’s victory was to watch the race called during Laura Ingraham’s white power hour. Walker’s loss shattered her shriveled-up walnut heart. Guest Kellyanne Conway complained that Republicans “don’t bank votes early,” and Ingraham reminded viewers that a certain person “at the top of the Republican Party” convinced many Republicans not to vote early for stupid reasons. Say his name, Laura, and break the spell.
[…] The Republican Party has no soul to search, and it’s likely to just keep getting worse.
Runoffs were historically designed to dilute Black voting power in Georgia and ensure that “a conservative white candidate won an election.” Warnock has twice now defeated racist history. (Thanks as always to Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight.) Two groups turned out in force for Warnock — white college-educated women and Black people.
White college-educated women rejected the serial abortion-funding hypocrite, who allegedly put a gun to his wife’s head and threatened to “blow her fucking brains out.” Black people wanted nothing to do with Walker’s trifling ass. MSNBC host Joy Reid put it best on her show: “You can’t humiliate the people you want to bring in.” And Walker was a perpetual insult, a willing minstrel show, who parroted bigoted rightwing rhetoric like a pro and didn’t seem to mind when Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham chaperoned him during softball interviews on Fox News. No, it wasn’t his rural accent or even his fundamental incoherence that was offensive. Unlike Donald Trump, Walker was not a self-styled champion for his personal demographic. Instead, he denigrated Black people at every opportunity. He even wore a Cassius Clay T-shirt at a campaign event, deadnaming Muhammad Ali in front of a predominately white audience.
From the Times:
Black voters in Georgia expressed disappointment, even anger, on Tuesday at what they saw as an effort to manipulate them to support a flawed Republican candidate whom they believed had been selected because of his race by political figures who would dictate his actions.
“It was embarrassing, and I heard other Black men in my circle talk about their embarrassment,” Rachman Holdman, a 48-year-old information technology manager in Sandy Springs, said after voting for Mr. Warnock on Tuesday.
One of the many Black men disgusted with Walker was his own son, Christian, who tweeted last night, “Don’t beat women, hold guns to peoples heads, fund abortions then pretend [you are] pro-life, stalk cheerleaders, leave your multiple minor children alone to chase more fame, lie, lie, lie, say stupid crap, and make a fool of your family … And then maybe you can win a Senate seat.”
Ultimately, Walker performed his best Daffy Duck soft shoe and gained nothing […] Let’s never mention Herschel Walker again. This is Raphael Warnock’s day.
@263: Reminds me of an old joke:
“You can pick your friends,
and you can pick your nose,
but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”
– attributed to various, I heard it from Henry Gibson on Laugh-In.
ravensays
Another threat from Russia to kill me and my cat. And a few tens of millions of other people.
This one isn’t from some puppet on Russian state TV but the foreign minister, Lavrov.
News for Lavrov.
We have been in a conflict with Russia since they invaded Ukraine.
Nothing new about that except right now…Russia is losing.
CBS News
Russia warns of “clash between nuclear powers” as drones hit its bases
Imtiaz Tyab
Wed, December 7, 2022 at 5:38 AM
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who’s been a close advisor to President Vladimir Putin for decades, called the NATO alliance’s support for Ukraine a “serious threat” to Russia, and warned that it risked a “direct clash between nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences.”
Russia has ruthlessly targeted Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure for months, destroying homes along with key pieces of the country’s energy grid. Putin has been accused of weaponizing winter by plunging huge parts of the neighboring country into cold and darkness.
Akira MacKenziesays
@264
One of the many Black men disgusted with Walker was his own son, Christian…
Christian is just as much a pile of Tumpist right-wing shit as his father. The little race-and-sexuality traitor was just upset that his braindead daddy’s antics embarrassed him.
The US is in talks with Middle Eastern countries to shift some of their air defense systems to Ukraine, Politico reported.
Washington wants to send second-hand National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) from the countries to Ukraine in three to six months and backfill them with new ones in two years, the outlet wrote, citing Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes.
No potential suppliers were mentioned. However, Oman and Qatar have purchased the Raytheon-Kongsberg system…
The US has delivered two NASAMS to Ukraine, promising more. The US Army awarded Raytheon a $1.2 billion contract last week to deliver six NASAMS for Ukraine by 2025.
Two documents with classified markings were found in a Florida storage unit during a search by a team hired by former President Donald Trump’s lawyers, a person familiar with the situation told CNN.
Those documents were handed over to the FBI. No other documents with classified markings were found during a search of four of Trump’s properties, the source said…
No identification of the search team is made, other than to state that it is a “team of two.”
[…] Right off the bat, Trump reportedly having classified items in a Floridian storage unit reinforces the apparent fact that he did not fully comply with an earlier federal subpoena, which directed him to return all of the relevant materials in his possession.
Making matters slightly worse, this story suggests the Republican took so many materials marked classified that, in a rather literal sense, he struggled to keep track of them all.
The Post’s report added this gem:
A person familiar with the matter said the storage unit had a mix of boxes, gifts, suits and clothes, among other things. “It was suits and swords and wrestling belts and all sorts of things,” this person said. “To my knowledge, he has never even been to that storage unit. I don’t think anyone in Trump world could tell you what’s in that storage unit.” There was no cataloguing of what was put in the storage unit, Trump advisers said — just as there was no cataloguing of what classified documents were taken to a room underneath Mar-a-Lago.
For now, I’m going to brush past the very odd reference to “suits and swords and wrestling belts” — I’m not sure I even want to know — and instead note that the entire 2016 presidential campaign featured an obsessive focus on Hillary Clinton’s trustworthiness when it came to sensitive materials.
Little did we know at the time that her opponent would take office, steal classified documents, store them in seemingly random boxes, and then lose track of their whereabouts.
Shortly after Election Day 2020, Joe Biden’s success as a presidential candidate drew a parallel to FDR: Biden won 51.3% of the popular vote, which was the best showing of any challenger since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s performance in 1932.
In the aftermath of Biden’s first midterms, the Roosevelt standard has returned to the public conversation. The Washington Post noted overnight:
With Sen. Raphael G. Warnock’s win, Democrats have gained one Senate seat and two governor’s seats in the first midterm elections of President Biden’s term. It’s the first time since 1934 that a president’s party has gained in both in a midterm.
Obviously, it’d be an overstatement to characterize the 2022 midterms as a genuine triumph for Biden’s party. After all, Republicans did take back the House majority, which will, among other things, derail the Democrats’ legislative agenda for the next two years.
But even on this front, the news is impressive. Since World War II, Democratic presidents in their first midterms have seen their party lose an average of 40 House seats and five Senate seats. Since Watergate, the results have looked even worse for the party: Democratic presidents in their first midterms have seen their party lose an average of 44 House seats and six Senate seats.
This year, Biden’s party only lost nine House seats, while managing to expand their Senate majority, gaining gubernatorial offices, and even flipping some state legislative chambers.
Indeed, Democrats didn’t lose any state legislative chambers in this year’s midterms, which is a first for the party since — wait for it — Roosevelt in 1934. [That is impressive.]
What’s more, over the past century, only three presidents — FDR in 1934, John F. Kennedy in 1962 and George W. Bush in 2002 — finished a midterm cycle with fewer than 10 House losses and zero Senate losses. Biden just joined that club.
In the run-up to Election Day last month, talk of a “red wave” was common. It’s against this backdrop that Biden’s party, in quantifiable terms, had the best midterm cycle of any Democratic president in generations.
Postscript: This isn’t directly relevant, but as long as we’re kicking around historical tidbits, zero Senate incumbents lost their re-election bids this year. That’s a first since 1912. “Throw the bums out” is a familiar cliché, but in 2022, voters effectively said, “Keep the bums in.”
As the Supreme Court confronted the independent state legislature theory on Wednesday, much of the discussion centered on parsing the Constitution, leafing through historical evidence and arguing over the meaning of old cases.
But Justice Elena Kagan paused the proceedings for a few minutes, expanding on what it would actually mean if state legislatures were allowed to become the only entities empowered to control federal elections, to the exclusion of state courts and state constitutions. It’s a role she’s been stepping into during arguments of late, taking the cases out of legal abstraction to articulate the full scope of the possible harms.
“I’d like to step back a bit and just think about consequences, because this is a theory with big consequences,” Kagan said.
She then reeled off a list: a legislature could engage in the “most extreme forms of gerrymandering” and there’d be no remedy, even if state courts found that the maps violate their constitutions; legislatures could pass endless voter restrictions without fear of a check; they could strip voter protections; they could even, she pointedly added in a seeming allusion to Donald Trump’s fake electors scheme, insert themselves into the process of certifying elections.
“You might think that it gets rid of all those checks and balances at exactly the time when they are needed most,” Kagan said. “Because legislators, we all know, have their own self interest: they want to get reelected. So there are countless times when they have incentives to suppress votes, to dilute votes, to negate votes — to prevent voters from having true access and true opportunity to engage the political process.”
Kagan highlighted a truth that has been buried in assertions by the proponents of the ISLT that the state legislatures are closer and more connected to the people than other branches, vesting them with more trustworthiness. In addition to the frequent incentives for legislators to use laws and restrictions to pick their voters rather than the other way around, many legislatures are so egregiously gerrymandered that they are, most often, far to the right of the constituents who elected them. […]
What ISLT does is give current state legislatures unrestricted power over everything having to do with democracy which would in fact end democracy.
——————
Mitch McConnell is to a great extent responsible for the current Supreme Court
Addition to the Ukraine updates in comments 257 and 259.
Here’s one very big sign that Russia has rapidly depleted its supply of tanks, including those that had been rusting in what passes for storage.
Russian T-90S reportedly spotted in Ukraine. This is an export version. Russia faces depleting armor reserves after months of significant losses in Ukraine and apparently decided to divert to its own forces T-90S tanks that were initially bound for export. Russia owns about 200. [images at the link]
India has actually built about 1,000 copies of the T-90S under license from Russia. Maybe Russia could go to India and check on importing some of their own tanks.
One thing I missed when reviewing the list of sites shelled by Russia this morning: Ukraine has apparently taken two locations in that remaining sliver of Kharkiv oblast that was under Russian occupation. [map at the link]
These are the towns of Tavilzhanka and Bohdanivske northeast of the river crossing at Dvorichna. It’s unclear if Ukraine is still pushing north at this time. This area is only about a dozen kilometers from the Russian border, and I don’t see any reports of fighting up there … but then, I didn’t see any reports before these flipped into the morning report. Russia may be moving forces out of this little remaining sliver of Kharkiv to other locations, or Ukraine may be giving it more of a push, or both.
There are reports that fighting continues in the area between Yahidne and Nova Tarasivka. This appears to be a dead end position in terms of pressing on to the east, however there is Russian artillery there which has been used to exert fire control over the P07 highway. So clearing that out is a good thing. And with Russia at the apparent end of the road, it’s not clear that they have any access to supplies.
One other thing that could be freed up by pushing Russia out of Nova Tarasivka: the railway between Kupyansk and the heavily disputed location of Kuzemivka (partrs of that town have traded hands twice in the last three days). That railway lies east of the highway at this location, so moving Russia from Nova Tarasivka could provide another route southeast in challenging weather.
Svatove and Kreminna are yet to be liberated, but just as in the case of Lyman, Ukraine is working the area, not just freeing locations, but obtaining control over different transportation routes.
Former President Trump hosted a prominent QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist at his Mar-A-Lago club in Florida on Tuesday night, just two weeks after his much-criticized dinner with Ye and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Liz Crokin, a former journalist and celebrity gossip writer now associated with far-right conspiracy theories, spoke at a fundraiser intended to combat child trafficking, according to posts on her Telegram account.
[…] Trump, who last month declared himself a 2024 presidential candidate, made an appearance at the event.
“You are incredible people and doing unbelievable work,” he said in a video shared by Crokin. “We just appreciate you being here and I hope you’re going to be back.”
[…] Crokin is an early embracer of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which alleges the world is run by a shadowy cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles and that Trump is the only one who can stop them.
In 2017, Crokin infamously picked fights with celebrities Chrissy Teigen and John Legend after she suggested the couple was part of the Pizzagate conspiracy.
Crokin, who has been banned from most social media platforms, has more than 100,000 subscribers on her Telegram channel. […]
On Friday, Elon Musk fanboy Matt Taibbi, who used to be a real reporter but is now … something else, dropped what he promised was going to be earth-shattering news about Twitter’s suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story on October 14, 2020. In the event, it failed to land, disappearing like a fart into the ether. Even wingers like Sebastian Gorka pronounced themselves “deeply underwhelmed.”
But Taibbi has an explanation for that, and it’s not that Twitter execs debated in real time about how to deal with what appeared to be Russian disinformation, opting briefly to censor it, which ultimately ensured that it would be Streisand Effect-ed into wide dissemination long before the election. No, he’s blaming the evil Democrats who somehow got a mole into Twitter to ruin his supposedly giant scoop.
You guys, this is so fuckin’ dumb.
Yesterday, Taibbi tapped out a thread he captioned “Twitter Files Supplemental” in which he breathlessly reported that “On Tuesday, Twitter Deputy General Counsel (and former FBI General Counsel) Jim Baker was fired. Among the reasons? Vetting the first batch of ‘Twitter Files’ – without knowledge of new management.”
Okay, first of all, it takes some balls to call your five paragraph book report, which cuts and pastes individual lines from emails totally out of context without attaching the actual documents, as the “Twitter Files.” A more apt appellation would be “Normal Shit That We’re Calling Nefarious Because We Know Our Audience Is Dumb,” although admittedly it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Second of all, YEAH, NO SHIT the general counsel wanted to vet internal documents before releasing them to a reporter. That’s kind of his IRL job, you disingenuous hack.
“The process for producing the ‘Twitter Files’ involved delivery to two journalists (Bari Weiss and me [Liz Dye]) via a lawyer close to new management. However, after the initial batch, things became complicated,” Taibbi went on. “Over the weekend, while we both dealt with obstacles to new searches, it was @BariWeiss who discovered that the person in charge of releasing the files was someone named Jim. When she called to ask ‘Jim’s’ last name, the answer came back: ‘Jim Baker.’”
“My jaw hit the floor,” said Weiss. And not apparently at being called a “journalist” years after she stomped out of the New York Times to peddle Quillette-level clickbait for conservatives on Substack and open a fake university for the martyrs of cancel culture who get shunned on real campuses for being insufferable assholes.
James Baker (not the former secretary of State) was a career federal prosecutor who joined the Justice Department during the first Bush administration and rose to general counsel of the FBI in 2014, got pushed out by FBI Director Chris Wray in 2017, and was hired by Twitter in June of 2020. He’s a “controversial figure,” Taibbi assures us. But Taibbi isn’t really a details man, so instead he leaves it to Jonathan Turley, who will happily slime anyone if it feeds his narrative that evil, Deep State Democrats tried to murder Trump with the Russia investigation. Republicans have long had a hard-on to do LOCK HER UPS to Baker, but the closest they ever got was John Durham’s indictment of DNC attorney Michael Sussmann for supposedly lying to Baker about the Alfa Bank server in the basement of Trump Towers — and that debacle wound up with an acquittal.
Now they’re hoping to create enough confusion by shouting Baker’s name and pretending that it proves that Twitter is biased against conservatives, absent any actual facts.
“After leaving the FBI, Twitter seemed eager to hire Baker as deputy general counsel. [Now that is some fucked up syntax. The sentence says that Twitter left the FBI. Sheesh. I can see what Turley is trying to say, but making a mistake like that is pathetic.] Ironically, Baker soon became involved in another alleged back channel with a presidential campaign,” Turley writes. “This time it was Twitter that maintained the non-public channels with the Biden campaign (and later the White House). Baker soon weighed in with the same signature bias that characterized the Russian investigations.”
Taibbi has already admitted that Twitter was in regular communication with the Trump White House and routinely cooperated with requests to remove material that failed to comply with the platform’s terms of service. And the posts removed at the behest of the Biden campaign, Taibbi’s supposed smoking gun, contain pictures of Hunter Biden’s penis, a clear violation of the site’s ban on non-consensual publication of nude photos. But somehow Turley fails to mention all that. Go figure!
“The news that Baker was reviewing the ‘Twitter files’ surprised everyone involved, to say the least. New Twitter chief Elon Musk acted quickly to ‘exit’ Baker Tuesday,” Taibbi goes on, valiantly trying to make fetch happen, while seemingly unaware that outing Musk as oblivious of the responsibilities of in-house corporate counsel isn’t quite the burn he thinks it is.
But Musk, more concerned with advancing his narrative than appearing minimally competent, quickly agreed.
“In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppression of information important to the public dialogue, he was exited from Twitter today,” he tweeted, adding that Baker’s explanation for trying to protect the company from unconsidered disclosures was “unconvincing.”
And in case you were wondering if this could get any stupider, Taibbi promises that the next installment of this dumb circle jerk will be brought to you by Bari Weiss.
Kirk Cameron used to be Mike Seaver on “Growing Pains,” and that was the last time he was ever useful to the world, because he grew up to become a white fundamentalist Christian bigot scumbag. Now he is being denied his GOD-GIVEN RIGHT to groom YOUR CHILDREN at the library.
Oh no, the scumbag anti-gay Christian is being victimized!
Now you might be thinking, wait a second. Isn’t there some asshole fundamentalist Christian graphic artist at the Supreme Court right now complaining that she should be allowed to deny services to gay weddings, even as she wants to provide them for straight weddings? There is. Her name is Lorie Smith, and she’s being represented by a hate group called the Alliance Defending Freedom. It’s a whole thing.
She is a victim, obviously, of hypothetical gay couples who might want her to make some kind of tacky comic sans website for their wedding or something. (Her business website is not impressive.)
And Kirk Cameron is a victim, because if drag queens are allowed to do story hours at libraries, why can’t he read his fascist Christian hate book to innocent children?
Fox News is leading the chorus of lamentations, claiming that Cameron has hit up more than 50 libraries, and they have all told him to go eat a fuck in hell. Fox says Kirk Cameron “cannot reach scores of American children or their families” because of this censorship tyranny. (Sounds creepy.) They moan that these libraries have Drag Queen Story Hours and other gay events. They put “drag queen” in scare quotes, like it’s a new term.
Cameron’s publisher, “Brave Books” (we can scare quote too), tells Fox that the Rochambeau public lib’ary in Providence, Rhode Island, said, “No, we will pass on having you run a program in our space.” They continued: “We are a very queer-friendly library. Our messaging does not align.” […]
According to Fox News, that library? Has a thing? On its website? Called “queer umbrella”! It’s some kind of queer club for teenagers!
But Kirk Cameron is not allowed to groom kids with his fundamentalist Christian hate. :(
They tried to call the City Heights/Weingart Branch Library in San Diego to set up a Kirk Cameron Story Hour, only to be told, “I don’t think that’s something that we would do.” AND THEN somebody at that lib’ary said, “Because of how diverse our community is, I don’t know how many people you would get.” Warmest regards, though!
That library? Got itself a QUEER BOOK CLUB. Buncha other LGBTQ+ events too.
But no Kirk Cameron. :(
Alameda County Library system at the San Lorenzo location? “You know, I’m really sorry, but we are not interested.”
THAT LIBRARY?
The San Lorenzo Library, however, hosted a “get free help” clinic this month with Bay Area Legal Aid attorneys and volunteers for those interested in “completing name and gender marker change court paperwork and updating identity documents such as CA birth certificates, driver’s licenses/ IDs, passports and Social Security cards,” the library notes on its website.
The event, as the library writes on its site, “is part of our ‘Every Month Is Pride Month Series.’”
Hahahahahahahahahahaha.
Fundamentalist Christian voices of hate are not and should never be treated as “the other side” of support for LGBTQ+ issues. Spaces like libraries should make every effort to protect children from their grooming.
The Fox News article just goes on and on and on, quoting every single rejection from every single library, and platforms Cameron himself to give quotes like “This is proof that more than ever, we are getting destroyed in the battle for the hearts and minds of our children.” And this:
Cameron also said, “Publicly funded libraries are green-lighting ‘gender marker and name change clinics’ while denying a story time that would involve the reading of a book that teaches biblical wisdom. How much more clear can it get?”
He added, “We have to start fighting back, or we will lose our kids and this country.”
In other words, he opened his mouth and confirmed why libraries want to protect kids from him and his filthy book.
Anyway, this is why “Kirk Cameron” has been trending all day, because he is the real victim, because white fundamentalist Christians always are, and he thinks he has the right to talk to YOUR CHILDREN at the library.
Mere days after tweets went viral pointing out that the purported error bars in one figure of a paper were really just the capital letter T, the publisher has marked it with an expression of concern.
And that’s not all that’s strange about the paper….
Calling it “the upset of the century,” the former anchorwoman Kari Lake claimed victory in Tuesday’s Georgia runoff. “No one thought I would win this, but together we made it happen!” Lake declared. After briefly savoring her win, Lake lashed out at mainstream news organizations for refusing to acknowledge her triumph. “If you were watching CNN, MSNBC, or Fox, you wouldn’t even know that Kari Lake was running for Senate in Georgia,” she said. “More lies from the fake news media!”
Recognizing that she may need to convince some Georgians that she is, in fact, their United States senator, she issued a solemn promise: “No one will work harder to win your trust, but, if I don’t, I will be your worst nightmare.”
The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed the first Black person from Indiana to serve on the federal appeals court that hears cases from her state, in a bipartisan vote helped by her state’s two Republican senators deciding to throw their support behind her. The Senate voted 60-31 to elevate U.S. Magistrate Judge Doris Pryor to the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as Democrats push forward with fulfilling President Joe Biden’s pledge to diversify the federal bench.
Herschel Walker was called the worst candidate in recent memory, but, per the traditions of democracy, he quickly conceded once his race was called—unlike reckless grifters like Kari Lake & Donald, who knew they could shakedown their gullible followers by pretending they won.
Re: Lynna, OM @ #286…
Given the number of kids he’s had by different women, that quote might be an accurate description of his position.
ravensays
Crokin, who has been banned from most social media platforms, has more than 100,000 subscribers on her Telegram channel. […]
That is a name out of the past.
Liz Crokin is way out there on the lunatic fringes.
At least she has a good excuse.
She had viral encephalitis that left her with brain damage.
Since then, nothing she has written or done has much of any connection to reality.
Wikipedia: In September 2012, Crokin developed a viral form of meningitis which progressed into meningoencephalitis and caused daily migraines, vertigo, and photophobia resulting from brain damage.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
More than 93,000 Russian troops killed since invasion according to Ukraine statistics
The Ukrainian army has killed another 340 Russian troops in the last 24 hours.
More than 93,000 Russian personnel have been killed since 24 February, a post on Facebook by the general staff of the armed forces said.
Battles on 8 December also led to the loss of two Russian battle tanks, two armoured combat vehicles and two artillery systems.
A further two drones, which have been used to attack Ukraine’s infrastructure and residential areas, were shot down.
These are figures provided by the Ukrainian side, which have not been verified by the Guardian. Russia’s published statistics show much lower numbers of losses.
Russian forces planning to conscript locals in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine army claims
Russian forces are trying to use locals in Zaporizhzhia to fight for their army to replace Russian personnel who have been killed.
The general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine said in the Russian-occupied region, the authorities have issued summonses to men of conscription age in Melitopol.
“The Russian occupiers plan to mobilise local residents in order to replenish current losses,” the update said.
The UK Ministry of Defence has published its daily update on the situation in Ukraine according to its intelligence sources.
It said Russia had an “almost continuous trench system” for a 60km (37 miles) stretch between Svatove in Luhansk oblast and the Russian border.
The MoD added, however, that the depth of the defence remained “unclear”.
Svatove is a small city to the north of Luhansk city. The region has been occupied since Russia’s initial invasion in 2014.
The MoD said Russia’s 1st Guards Tank Army is partially deployed near Svatove but the “supposedly elite” group took heavy casualties earlier in the war, including in the retreat from Kharkiv in September 2022.
“It has now been partially reinforced with mobilised reservists, although remaining well below its authorised strength of over 25,000 personnel,” the update added.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has produced a paper after Vladimir Putin’s meeting with the Russian presidential council on Wednesday where he said the war in Ukraine could be a “lengthy process”.
Putin struck an imperialist tone. He compared himself to Peter the Great by noting that Russia controls the Sea of Azov, which the Russian tsar also fought for.
The ISW said Putin seemed unwilling to go for a temporary break in fighting to regroup, as the Nato secretary general had suggested the Kremlin may look to do.
“The Russian military is continuing offensive operations around Bakhmut and is – so far -denying itself the operational pause that would be consistent with best military practice.
“Putin’s current fixation with continuing offensive operations around Bakhmut and elsewhere is contributing to Ukraine’s ability to maintain the military initiative in other parts of the theater. Ukraine’s continued operational successes depend on Ukrainian forces’ ability to continue successive operations through the winter of 2022-2023 without interruption,” the paper said.
The report’s authors added that there appeared to be friction in the Belarusian military over Russian attempts to pressure them into joining the war. [LOL]
“[The] ISW continues to assess that Belarus is highly unlikely to enter the war in Ukraine due to domestic factors that constrain Lukashenko’s willingness to do so.”
The family of a baby who has been placed in his doctors’ care because his parents refused to consent to a transfusion of “vaccinated blood” in a life-saving operation have said they will prioritise time with their son before the surgery.
The parents’ lawyer, Sue Grey, said in a Facebook post on Thursday morning that the family would be prioritising “a peaceful time with their baby until the operation, and to support him through the operation”.
…
The high court decision places the boy in the guardianship of his paediatric heart surgeon and cardiologist “for the purpose of consenting to surgery to address the obstruction and all medical issues related to that surgery, including the administration of blood” said justice Ian Gault in a summary of the judgment.
The judgment noted that dialogue between the specialist doctors and the parents broke down when a meeting was “hijacked by the parent’s support person, who proceeded to pressurise the specialists with her theory about conspiracies in New Zealand and even said that deaths in infants getting transfusions were occurring in Starship hospital”. As a result, the doctors were unable to explain their position to the parents, the judgment said.
The doctors’ guardianship will last from Wednesday until the completion of his surgery and post-operative recovery – likely to be January 2023 at the latest. The parents will retain guardianship in all other matters.
In previous interviews the parents said the baby needed surgery “almost immediately” but that they were “extremely concerned with the blood [the doctors] are going to use”….
This almost led me to think the parents might be relieved to have the pressure removed. Here’s a report from 1News:
As one of the lawyers left the courtroom at the High Court in Auckland, he was rushed by a woman filming him with her phone on a camera stabiliser, ignoring court rules, leading to an altercation between the lawyer, the woman, and court security.
Outside court, people openly discussed the best way to execute the lawyers and journalists in the courtroom. The discussion was on the merits of hanging versus lethal injection.
Medical staff at Starship Children’s Hospital say a meeting had been “hijacked” by a supporter of the family spouting conspiracy theories.
This was the reality of a court case this week over the urgent heart surgery a baby needed due to being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect.
…
Over several meetings, the relationship between the parents and Starship became strained, outlined in the judgement.
“On 25 November 2022, having not heard back from [the baby’s] parents formally, another meeting was organised,” the judgement said.
“The doctor said this meeting was ‘hijacked’ by the parent’s support person who “proceeded to pressurise the specialists with her theory about conspiracies in New Zealand and even said that deaths in infants getting transfusions were occurring in Starship Hospital”.
“After some minutes, the specialists asked to leave and ended up walking out of the meeting with the support person continuing to try to talk to them. As a result, they were unable to explain their position to the parents.”
…
There has been a substantial campaign to support the parents by alternative media organisations, including one which put the baby’s face on the side of a large billboard. It was towed to different events all over New Zealand (I saw it in Te Kuiti on Sunday, for example). It was also placed outside of the court during this week’s hearing, behind a “sheriff’s” van, featuring pictures of politicians locked behind bars.
Statutory suppression orders prevent any report that identifies the baby or any details that might identify them….
The parents of a gravely ill baby boy who was yesterday placed in the guardianship of the High Court so he could undergo a blood transfusion have appeared on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars podcast.
They told the embattled conspiracist they disagreed with the court’s decision and Jones peddled further misinformation about vaccines and the safety of blood from anyone who had received it.
…
Speaking with Alex Jones, the parents, who have name suppression, said the Court’s decision was “just disgusting, you know, trying to make us prisoners in a hospital.”
…
The parents told Jones, “it’s so much bigger than us, it so much bigger than the baby. [!!!]
“We’ve never once said we don’t want the operation. We wanted it. But we want it with the safest blood.”
The judgment traversed the fact, revealed in court on Tuesday, that the baby boy has already had a blood transfusion of the type opposed by his parents, in October this year. [!]
During the hearing, the parents’ lawyer Sue Grey cited information provided in an affidavit by Dr Byram Bridle, an associate professor in viral immunology at a veterinary college in Canada.
The material was critical of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine and centred on his controversial claims of heart inflammation from spike proteins.
Last year Bridle’s claim the spike protein was harmful or toxic was circulated widely online, drawing strong criticism from experts.
William Matchett, a University of Minnesota Medical School vaccine expert, told the Associated Press the spike protein causes an immune response but is not toxic. Matchett said Bridle selectively quoted or misquoted studies to support his claim.
In his ruling, Justice Gault found the evidence of Bridle did not overcome the evidence of Dr Sarah Morley, Chief Medical Officer of the New Zealand Blood Service.
“Dr Morley’s evidence (including her reply affidavit) is that there is no scientific evidence there is any Covid-19 vaccine-related risk from blood donated by donors previously vaccinated with any New Zealand approved Covid-19 vaccine, and there are no known or suspected harmful vaccine-related effects of blood from a vaccinated individual to a recipient of any age, after millions of transfusions around the world,” Justice Gault said….
…This morning, the parents’ lawyer Sue Grey said in the statement they would not be appealing the decision.
But in an unusual late-evening minute, Justice Gault said their position had changed.
“Staff at Te Toka Tumai have endeavoured to take steps to prepare [the baby] for surgery (scheduled for tomorrow morning), including taking blood tests, performing a chest x-ray and performing an anaesthetic assessment.
“[The lawyer for Te Whatu Ora] understands that the parents prevented this occurring, and advised health staff that ‘you touch our child and we will press criminal charges against you’,” the minute read.
A High Court judge has ordered the parents of a baby boy who needs life-saving heart surgery to stop blocking doctors from carrying out the operation.
Tonight Justice Ian Gault made an emergency order after the baby’s parents allegedly told the doctors trying to prepare the baby for surgery tomorrow morning; “You touch our child and we will press criminal charges against you”.
The judge said Te Toka Tumai-Auckland Health sought an urgent court order clarifying “that the police are entitled to use reasonable force to remove Baby W from the parents and/or remove the parents in order to facilitate the steps necessary prior to Baby W’s surgery, including taking him to surgery when it occurs”.
…
The parents’ lawyer, Sue Grey, also this afternoon sought advice from two United States experts [sure] who are seeking the opportunity to appear before the court or to discuss these issues with the Starship hospital surgeon, cardiologist and NZ Blood Service (NZBS).
They are now arguing that the baby’s surgery can be delayed a week to “consider all options”. Grey referred to allowing time for the parents’ concerns, which she said are supported by new information and new expert evidence, to be addressed, and further submitted that there is “no urgency” for the surgery. [!!!]
Justice Gault recorded that Grey was effectively seeking to reopen the judgment delivered yesterday.
He said it was previously common ground that Baby W needed surgery – the issue was in relation to consent to blood transfusion.
“Now that the parents evidently do not consent to the surgery or pre-operative checks, it is clearly necessary to make consequential ancillary orders to enable the surgery to proceed.
“Baby W urgently requires surgery and, as I concluded in my judgment, an order enabling the surgery to proceed using NZBS blood products without further delay is in Baby W’s best interests.
“I said in my judgment that it should not be necessary to make more explicit ancillary orders, but given the position being taken by the parents today, such ancillary orders are now required.”
He extended the authority of the doctors to enable the surgery and all pre-operative work to proceed and ordered the parents not to obstruct health staff….
Iran has executed a 23-year-old man for allegedly stabbing a pro-regime militia officer with a machete and blocking a street in the capital, in what appears to be the first execution of a demonstrator involved in recent protests that have rocked the country.
As many as 21 people have now been charged with sentences likely to carry the death penalty, and hundreds of others have been killed during the protests.
Iranian judicial news agencies said the executed man, Mohsen Shekari, was found guilty of blocking traffic on 25 September and then striking a member of the pro-regime Basij militia, leading him to need 13 stitches in his left shoulder.
He allegedly confessed that he had been encouraged to go to the protests by a friend who offered him a bribe to hit a police officer. The court found that he had used the weapon “with the intention of killing, causing terror and disturbing the order and security of society”.
It convicted him of “moharebeh” – or waging “war against God” under Iran’s Islamic sharia law.
His case had been subject to appeal, but he was not represented by his lawyer. His family were outside the jail where he was executed seeking news of his fate.
On Monday, Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a branch of the military, praised the judiciary for its tough stand and urged it to move swiftly and decisively issue judgments for defendants accused of “crimes against the security of the nation and Islam”.
The spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, Masoud Setayeshi, announced on Tuesday that five people indicted in the killing of a Basij member, Rouhollah Ajamian, were sentenced to death in a verdict which they can appeal.
…
In a move to engage with students who have been at the heart of the protests, senior politicians went to the campus at the University of Tehran on the annual students’ day this week to try to launch a dialogue with students. But the mayor of Tehran was confronted with students who accused the regime of corruption and lies. He angrily shouted at the students when a group walked out demanding the release of their fellow students.
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, was equally uncompromising, arriving to address an almost entirely male audience during an event held with tight security at the University of Tehran. He said the protests had nothing to do with economic or cultural grievances, but were a plot by the US to bring down Iran.
Celine Dion has revealed she has been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS), a rare neurological disorder with features of an autoimmune disease.
The French Canadian singer told her 5.2m Instagram followers the condition makes her muscles spasm uncontrollably.
It has also left her with difficulties walking and singing, she said, meaning she will be unable to play planned shows in the UK and Europe next year…
whheydtsays
Now for something a little different. Sad but, I think, interesting news for anyone interested in WW2 history…
TV presenter Carol Vorderman has led tributes to the last survivor of the World War Two Dambusters who has died aged 101.
Sq Ldr George “Johnny” Johnson, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key dams in Germany during the war.
His family said he died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday.
In 2017, Ms Vorderman led a campaign for Mr Johnson to receive a knighthood for his bravery during the operation.
Ms Vorderman described him as “one of the finest.”
Celebrating his 100th birthday in November last year, Mr Johnson told the BBC: “I’ve had a very lucky life in every respect.”
He was born in Lincolnshire and lived in Bristol, and was just 21 when he took part in the 1943 operation, which involved experimental bouncing bombs that were targeted at dams in the Ruhr Valley, releasing huge quantities of water into areas used by Germany for war production….
This week, more of Russia’s most advanced tanks (or at least, the most advanced tanks that have ever done more than participate in parades), showed up in Ukraine. So far, Russia has lost 34 T-90A and T-90M tanks in their illegal invasion. Compared to the 352 documented T-80 variants that have been lost or destroyed, and the 1545 Russian tanks that Oryx has documented overall, that’s a pretty small fraction. But then, T-90s have been a small fraction of the tanks making it to Ukraine. Russia has supposedly built somewhere close to 1,000 tanks in the T-90 series, but it wasn’t until the summer that the first one turned up in Kharkiv—and was almost immediately destroyed.
So a batch of T-90 tanks showing up in Ukraine might seem significant for those pro-Russian advocates of the “finally, Russia is sending their good stuff, now Ukraine is going to get it!” school of wishful thinking. Only these particular tanks are not T-90A models or the more updated T-90M. These are T-90S tanks, a tank that Russia produces strictly for export.
Russia has previously shipped between 200 and 300 T-90S tanks to countries like Egypt and Vietnam, and those it has on hand were supposed to go to other military customers. Keeping up that flow of exports is important for two reasons: 1. Russia needs the cash, and 2. After the display that’s been going on in Ukraine, it’s not like new customers are lining up to get those fine Russian military products. So Russia really needs to ship these T-90S tanks to their new homes.
Instead, some of them are going into Ukraine. This speaks to nothing so much as the crunch Russia is under to put operational armor on the front line. [Tweet and images at the link]
There’s also this little factor: the T-90S is significantly different than other tanks in the series. It has different electronics, different firing controls, and even a different engine. So using these tanks in the field requires having mechanics who are capable of servicing these systems, as well as a set of spare parts to deal with the inevitable breakdowns.
And if there’s anything that has really defined this war for Russia, it’s their skill with logistics. [/sarcasm]
Historian Kamil Galeev has produced some of the most incisive and thoughtful examinations of Russia’s motivations and behaviors during this invasion. Just three days into the conflict, he produced a genuinely deep and insightful review of “Why Russia will lose this war,” and his writing about the criminal culture within Russia and the level of corruption in the Russian military has been revelatory.
Galeev is back this week with more analysis of what happens when Russia loses the Ukraine invasion. What he expects going forward is that Russia is about to see a fracturing of its remaining empire. And have no doubt about it, Russia remains an empire. [Tweet and image at the link]
For Galeev, the glue that holds that Russian empire together is a “mythos,” one that says that the Russian military is so superior to that of any potential breakaway component that there is no point in fighting, and one that warns any resistance to Moscow will result in horrific punishment—see Grozny for a reference example.
Moscow doesn’t see Ukraine as an independent nation they have invaded. They see it as another “rebel province” that has to be taught a lesson in standing up to the Czar. The problem for Moscow is that, in framing it that way, they are turning Ukraine into exactly the object lesson they don’t want the rest of a long-repressed empire to learn.
If Russia is unable to “crush” Ukraine, or at least keep its populace convinced that it can do so in the near future, the mythos that binds the empire together unravels. So does the empire. [Tweet at the link]
As with all of Galeev’s threads, this one is worth reading in full. Even if you’ve been taking a break from visiting Twitter, break that fast long enough to go through the details here. […] Siberia could be the key to world events that could echo over decades.
[…] The key question is not the Caucasus or even Volga question. It is the question of Siberia. Siberia is the jewel in the Russian crown that pays the bills of the empire. Should it keep control over Siberia, it can easily win back everything else. Should it lose it, it is done. That should be enough to introduce the idea. I will elaborate on details in separate materials. End of 🧵https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1600579747037200438
Berdyansk is down on the Azov coast, 70km west of Mariupol. It was also the location where Ukraine first hit Russian ships in harbor, taking out a landing ship and making Russia rethink the safety of its naval fleet. This time it’s the airport that’s been hit—and apparently hit hard. “3 major explosions followed by 15 smaller explosions …” [Tweet and image at the link]
While this attack on military planes at the Berdyansk airport is certainly reminiscent of how Ukraine repeatedly pounded the airport west of Kherson, this isn’t necessarily a sign of where Ukrainian forces mean to go next. That’s particularly true because Berdyansk has reportedly been one of the sites from which drones and Russian planes carrying missiles have been directing attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns. So this may speak a lot more to saving lives far from the front than to securing control over the air in advance of a ground attack.
This last week has seen a lot of examples of human portable anti-tank weapons at work again, very like the videos seen in the early days of the war. What do those two times have in common? Well, there’s a lot of mud, and there are very few leaves. So armored vehicles are largely confined to moving down well-established paved roads while remaining highly visible. […] [Tweets and videos at the link]
This morning, the head of the Luhansk Oblast military administration made a statement on Telegram reporting Ukraine was advancing along the line between Svatove and Kreminna and that “good news from Luhansk Oblast is expected soon.”
Meanwhile, in Bakhmut, Russian forces have managed to capture the window factory and the city garbage dump. Seriously. That’s still how things are being measured at Bakhmut.
There continue to be reports of people expecting a more significant advance at Bakhmut. If it comes, it’s likely to be Ukraine making the motion, because there’s still no sign that Russia can put together an action larger than a couple of units. At the moment, the fire continues to be intense, with the usual exchange of artillery and the Russians sending waves of men forward, but nothing really seems to have changed in either tactics or scale.
(Yes, it’s basically free advertising for Switzerland, but it’s a noteworthy accomplishment and a very cool train.)
ravensays
More terrorist attacks on Ukrainian US power substations.
This one happened in November in Portland and wasn’t as successful.
They don’t give any details but Homeland Security seems to think these are in fact, terrorist attacks.
““The infrastructure is something that’s a relatively soft target, we don’t have armed guards outside of power stations,”
I wouldn’t be surprised if they do have more security cameras outside of power substations though.
Two Portland area power substations damaged recently: ‘This was malicious intent’
by Eric Mock and KATU Staff Wednesday, December 7th 2022
Two power substations in the Portland metro area have been deliberately damaged, utility companies say, with both incidents preceding targeted gunfire that damaged substation equipment in North Carolina, leaving thousands without power.
Portland General Electric and the Bonneville Power Administration each had a separate substation location in Clackamas County attacked.
The utilities have not shared specific details of either attack, aside from saying they took place in late November.
The Bonneville incident took place on Thanksgiving morning and did not cause the substation to lose power.
“We have confirmed that this was malicious intent, it was no accident,” said BPA spokesperson Doug Johnson.
PGE said the attack on its station did briefly cut power, but officials said the company was able to restore it quickly.
A PGE spokesperson offered the following statement:
PGE is aware of a deliberate physical attack on one of our substations in the Clackamas area that occurred in late November. We are actively cooperating with the FBI and cannot at this time share many details about this incident as it is currently under investigation.
KATU reached out to the FBI, and a spokesperson said they are also not going to comment on any of its investigations.
Extremism expert Dr. Randall Blazak said federal authorities are on high alert. The Department of Homeland Security recently sent out a bulletin warning of an increased threat of attack to critical infrastructure, as well as other targets from, “lone offenders and small groups.”
“The infrastructure is something that’s a relatively soft target, we don’t have armed guards outside of power stations,” Dr. Blazak said. “We know that these things are relatively easy to access but doing something to them causes this huge ripple effect that they hope to capitalize on.”
The federal authorities are right to sort of be on guard, because the goal of these groups is to create chaos.
BPA said it is stepping up security around its substations for the time being.
“We actually have increased security around substations in the area just as a precaution to ratchet that up from what we typically do,” Johnson said.
When KATU’s Eric Mock asked whether there are a need for more permanent protections, Johnson said, “moving forward we’ll have to see what the North American Electric Reliability Corporation does in response to this.”
KATU reached out to other power companies in the area.
Clark Public Utilities in Southwest Washington said it has not had any recent attacks or threats.
Pacific Power would not specifically confirm or deny any recent attacks or threats but sent us this statement: “We have security measures in place to protect our assets and keep our customers and employees safe and secure. We are working closely with industry partners and law enforcement to monitor the situation and will apply any emerging threat information to evaluate against our security measures to reduce the likelihood or impact of an attack where possible. As always, protecting the grid and ensuring a reliable and affordable supply of energy are top priorities for the energy industry and Pacific Power.”
Would-be House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is making who knows what promises to who knows whom to try to get the 218 votes he’ll need to secure the job. That includes monstrous Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been sticking by him like glue. So far, anyway.
That will likely include his bowing to pressure from his most extreme colleagues, who are demanding he take the debt ceiling issue hostage now, and use their list of ransom demands—which includes everything from decimating domestic spending programs to building the damn border wall (at least metaphorically if not in actuality). Some of those guys are saying that no matter what he promises, they won’t vote for the debt ceiling hike, anyway.
I’m a no, no matter what,” Rep. Tim Burchett (Tennessee) told CNN about the nation’s ability to pay the bills it’s already run up.
That makes McCarthy’s (or whoever ends up getting the short stick and landing the job) position very sticky. It’s fine to say, “burn it all down,” but come election time, the people holding the lighter fluid and flame throwers are not going to be terribly popular. Destroying the nation’s economy and stopping payments to troops and Social Security recipients isn’t a good way to make friends and influence people.
This is a thing that could be fun for Democrats to watch. Except for the problem of House Republicans. To quote Yeats: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity.” The worst are happy to let everything blow up. The rest have a track record of just letting them do it.
The worst are pushing McCarthy hard on this […]
These guys also don’t understand how any of this works. “I don’t fear not raising the debt ceiling, because if we didn’t raise the debt ceiling, all that would mean we’d have to cut discretionary spending so we stop spending more than we’re taking in,” said Rep. Bob Good (Virginia). He’s a never-McCarthy guy. “That’s a panic here in Washington because we’re so beholden to spending.”
That’s not what it would mean at all. It’s not about making spending decisions, it’s about paying the bills that have become due based on previous spending decisions. Good doesn’t understand the fundamental difference between funding the government into the future, and paying off past obligations. And he should fear not raising the debt ceiling, because the repercussions could be widespread and catastrophic to the U.S. and global economies.
His would-be leader isn’t a hell of a lot more intelligible on the issue. “If you’re going to give a person a higher limit, wouldn’t you first say you should change your behavior, so you just don’t keep raising and all the time?” McCarthy asked rhetorically. “You shouldn’t just say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna let you keep spending money.’ No household should do that.”
Raising the debt ceiling Is. Not. Creating. A. Higher. Limit. And we’re not a household. We’re the goddamned largest economy in the world, and much of the rest of the world’s economy is wrapped up in it. Good god.
Meanwhile, the moderates, CNN says, “have expressed uneasiness over using the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip, risking both a catastrophic default and the political blame, especially if Republicans push for cuts to popular entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.” […]
The nation shouldn’t default on debt. Full stop. Lawmakers, the people we hire to take care of that government stuff, should absolutely not put the United States in that position. Period. What the hell is wrong with all of these people? There really needs to be an entrance exam on how all this stuff works for anyone going to Congress.
So, anyway, that’s a thing that Democrats really should be thinking about fixing right about now, not giving those people this time bomb (set to detonate next June). Fix it.
Apologies for the double post in comments 301 and 302. I have no idea how that happened.
In other news, this hilarious bit of news was summarized by Steve Benen from an Atlanta Journal Constitution article:
In the wake of Herschel Walker’s failed campaign in Georgia, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yesterday said she considers it “extremely insulting“ that the former Senate candidate didn’t invite her to campaign with him.
In other campaign news:
The Washington Post took a look at Sen. Rick Scott’s predictions regarding the midterm elections and found that the Florida Republican’s forecasts “were almost entirely wrong.”
Ooooo… That’s got to be be conundrum for American right wingers: On one hand, “uncomfortable” embryos, on the other “Global Warming is a Communist hoax and nothing is happening.”
Then again, they’re not white, so what would they care either way?
Adam Schiff does not sound like a Jan. 6 committee member who’s on the fence about whether to refer Donald Trump to federal prosecutors.
The Jan. 6 committee has had plenty of decisions to make over the course of its investigation, but among the thornier questions is whether to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department as part of its probe. To that end, a subcommittee of lawyers on the panel specifically studied the issue and settled on a recommendation.
One of those lawyers was House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, who sat down with NPR’s Steve Inskeep yesterday.
When the host asked about the sort of transgressions that have not yet been prosecuted, the California Democrat avoided specifics but quickly referenced U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, who issued a ruling in a civil case earlier this year, concluding that Donald Trump “likely attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress” on Jan. 6. The jurist added, “The illegality of the plan was obvious…. Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”
Inskeep went on to ask, “[W]hen you look at the evidence as a former prosecutor, do you believe that Donald Trump committed specific prosecutable crimes on January 6 and beforehand, a criminal conspiracy or something else?” Schiff replied:
“Yes, I do. And, you know, I think that illustration I gave, that example I gave is just one instance, one particular offense that I think the facts support a potential charge against the former president. And, you know, the Justice Department, in my view, needs to hold, you know, everyone equally responsible before the law, and that includes former presidents when they engage in criminality.”
[…] if we’re counting heads on the partisan panel, let’s not forget that Schiff’s not alone in making comments like these. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s Republican co-chair, sat down with CNN’s Jake Tapper in the spring and said largely the same thing.
“It’s absolutely clear that what President Trump was doing — what a number of people around him were doing — that they knew it was unlawful,” Cheney said. “They did it anyway.”
So, what happens now? Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Democratic chairman of the select committee, told reporters this week, “We have made decisions on criminal referrals,” adding that there’s “general agreement” on the panel that referrals will be issued.
“But we’re not there yet,” the Mississippi congressman said. “I wish I could tell you one, two, three, four but that’s all still being discussed.”
The shitwhistle Florida Republican lawmaker who wrote and was the main sponsor of Ron DeSantis’s vicious “Don’t Say Gay” law, state Rep. Joseph Harding, has been indicted for six felonies, including money laundering and wire fraud. Surprise, it all has to do with COVID relief money. Wonkette has written in detail about how diligently Harding worked to make that law — “Don’t Say Gay,” not COVID relief — as cruel as possible to LGBTQ+ kids.
Maybe he will go to prison forever, and it will be a Christmas miracle.
Now, to be clear, we are not saying there is a specific correlation between authoring abusive laws that target LGBTQ+ people and also being indicted for wire fraud and money laundering. We are just saying socially conservative white men are bad people.
Here is the kind of garbage Harding is accused of doing, as nicely summarized by Florida Politics:
The indictment alleges that between Dec. 1, 2020 and March 1, 2021, Harding committed two acts of wire fraud through a scheme to defraud the Small Business Administration (SBA) and by obtaining COVID-19-related small business loans through false and fraudulent pretenses.
It alleges Harding made fraudulent applications for Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans, including by utilizing the names of dormant businesses. It also alleges Harding obtained fraudulently created bank statements for one of the dormant businesses, used as supporting documentation for one of the loan applications.
“By this conduct, the indictment alleges that Harding fraudulently obtained and attempted to obtain more than $150,000 in funds from the SBA to which he was not entitled,” a U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a press release.
“Harding is also charged with two counts of engaging in monetary transactions with funds derived from unlawful activity related to his transfer of the fraudulently obtained (Economic Injury Disaster Loan) proceeds into two bank accounts, and two counts of making false statements to the SBA.”
But be sure not to tell any kids that LGBTQ+ people exist, that would be immoral.
[…] says he’s not guilty, blah blah blah, you know the drill. He is just beggin’ you to pray for him. He doesn’t say in his Facebook post on the matter exactly what he wants you to pray for, so let’s just stick with asking that God’s will be done. Let’s find out what God really thinks this guy deserves.
Joe Harding could go to prison for 20 years for wire fraud, 10 years for money laundering, and up to five for false statements, according to the Justice Department. That would be a lot of years to knock on the door of fellow inmates’ cells and say “Hey, buddy! Don’t say gay!”
If you’re into the details of the indictment, the Justice Department’s press release is here. We’re more interested in the hypocrisy. Here’s a statement from the head of Equality Florida:
“Those are serious allegations of corruption,” Equality Florida Executive Director NadineSmith said in reaction to the indictment. “The courts will sort through that sordid mess but we know he’s made many false statements about the LGBTQ community. Florida parents are forced to navigate schools that are less safe for their children because Joe Harding’s political ambitions know no bounds.”
[…] In unrelated news about a totally different Florida white man being charged with crimes, here is the headline of the century:
Florida Man Sexually Abused a Goldendoodle in Front of Multiple Witnesses, Including a Child, Before Fleeing and Destroying Church Nativity Scene
Goddamn, don’t even know what to say about that one.
Wonkette: Moore v Harper Oral Hearings: Democracy Maybe Only MOSTLY Dead!
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heardoral arguments in Moore v. Harper, the case that threatens to destroy our entire democratic system.
And, well … it went better than expected! Only Neil Gorsuch went full balls to the wall to help out the Republicans on this one, though Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also had their moments.
Most importantly, the two “swing votes” for the purposes of this case, John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, seemed to be on the right side of this one. Though it should be lost on no one that the future of our democracy hinges on a man whose entire judicial career has been dedicated to eroding voting rights and a woman whom Donald Trump handpicked for the bench.
The Basics
This case is one of those increasingly common situations where the other side is so fucking stupid that it can be hard to adequately explain. It’s alternately called the “independent state legislature” theory, ISL theory, ISL doctrine, ISLD, or ISLT — but personally, I prefer Professor Melissa Murray’s characterization of it as “ independent state legislature fan fiction.” [Video at the link]
The crux of the bullshit argument is that, because the US Constitution’s elections clause specifies that state legislatures are in charge of “the times, places, and manner of holding elections” in their state, state courts should never be able to overturn anything state legislatures do.
Yes, it is just as dumb as it sounds. If the Supreme Court adopted the broadest version of this theory, state legislatures could do everything from the most extreme gerrymandering to changing election results, with no chance of judicial review in their state’s courts.
[…] At its heart, Moore v. Harper is a case about gerrymandering. After the Supreme Court, at the behest of Republicans, banned federal courts from hearing partisan gerrymandering cases in the 2019 case Rucho v. Common Cause, state courts became the only recourse for challenging undemocratic political maps. Now, the judicial wing of the Republican Party would like to stop that, too.
After the 2020 census, the North Carolina Legislature passed super gerrymandered redistricting maps. Citing the North Carolina constitution’s free elections clause, which says “all elections shall be free,” the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down the Legislature’s congressional maps as an unconstitutional gerrymander under their state constitution.
This is all relatively normal. A bunch of states have banned partisan gerrymandering, whether through ballot measures, legislation, or state supreme courts. State supreme courts have the final say over their state constitutions, not the US Supreme Court.
The results of this case could affect a whole lot more than just gerrymandering. If the Supreme Court says “Yeah, no state court judicial review for anything […]” state legislatures could act with impunity. It is not an exaggeration to say that this case is a potential democracy-ender.
Oh, and by the by, let’s not forget that most of the North Carolina Legislature’s argument hinges on … a fraudulent document.
[Excerpt from the document that debunks the Pinckney Plan, with the relevant language highlighted, is available at the link.]
[…] In a sane society, this is a case that would go nowhere.
But we don’t live in a sane society. We live in America, in 2022.
The Oral Argument
We already knew that at least four of the six rightwingers on the Court were on board with this wingnut theory, and yesterday’s oral arguments cemented that. All four of them embraced the theory in the run-up to the 2020 election; Kegs Kavanaugh was part of the Bush team that brought the absurd theory to the Supreme Court in the first place; and Clarence’s wife, Ginni, of course, used the theory to back her attempts to throw a coup.
That leaves us with the Court’s three badass liberal ladies (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson) … and John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett.
For three hours, lawyers Neal Katyal, Don Verrilli, and US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar schooled the Court on both law and history, while on the other side, representing the North Carolina Legislature (itself gerrymandered to hell and back), a smug David Thompson at least managed to present his argument with a straight face.
The argument was an excellent demonstration of just how stupid this case is. The attorneys arguing in favor of democracy repeatedly showed how history, law, and common sense all say, “No, this is not a thing and it should never be a thing.”
Meanwhile, even with the softballs lobbed at him from Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas, Thompson’s attempts to answer questions about his “independent state legislature” theory only muddied the waters even more. Though to Thompson’s credit, it can be quite difficult to argue in favor of something so obviously and mind-numbingly absurd.
A lonely nation turns its eyes to John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett
As expected, at oral argument, Chief Justice John Roberts did not appear to be a fan of the batshit theory […] there are two things John Roberts cares about: how he will be seen by history and the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. […] Roberts’s remarks yesterday seemed to cement that he has no interest in making this fringe theory the law of the land. […]
With Roberts seemingly on the right side of this one, we must now turn our eyes to none other than Amy Coney Barrett.
I will say this: Yesterday, Amy Coney Barrett looked to be on the right side of this one. She seemed very skeptical of the North Carolina Legislature’s argument. She went back and forth with Thompson over his absurd idea that some gubernatorial vetoes of election-related laws would be allowed and others wouldn’t, noting that “as a former civil procedure teacher, I can tell you [this] is a hard line to draw[.]” She also remarked that the fan fiction theory was “not so much grounded in the text” of the Constitution, which for her is a pretty sick burn.
The rest of these fucks
[…] Others have remarked on Justice Kegstand not asking completely batshit insane questions the entire oral argument, to suggest that he may end up on the right side of this one. After I stop laughing, I will remind them that not only did he help push this theory to the Supreme Court the first time around as one of George W. Bush’s lawyers in Bush v. Gore, but he also endorsed it from the bench two short years ago.
[…] Neil Gorsuch was the one who really took yesterday’s argument as his time to shine. In preparation for the hearing, Gorsuch apparently drank ALL the Kool-Aid, coming prepared to fight for his right to destroy our democracy. Even more so than Alito and Thomas, Gorsuch argued the case on behalf the North Carolina Legislature’s lawyers.
Confusingly and repeatedly, Gorsuch tried to argue that this theory, which has never, not once been accepted by the Supreme Court … is what stops states from only counting Black people as three-fifths of a person. Because the absence of judicial review generally results in great civil rights victories.
As with many parts of this case, I have no way of explaining this in a way that makes any sense at all, so I will let Elie Mystal have this one.
So… right now Neil Gorsuch is making an argument that independent state legislature theory is good because without it Virginia would have “constitutionalized the 3/5ths rule against african-americans.”
Gorsuch is arguing, with a straight face, that the STATE LEGISLATURE OF ANTEBELLUM VIRGINIA… was the bulwark AGAINST the expansion of slavery in the state of Virginia.
These white people are off the damn chain. […] GOD, it’s just the stupid way Gorsuch does armchair history. He always tries to focus on one thing without taking into account the larger context that thing exists in. It’s so intellectual dishonest. And he does it all the time. […]
The sane wing
The sane wing of the Court, naturally, was in fine form. They used history and originalism to demonstrate why this is completely ridiculous. Because it is!
[…] The Elections Clause’s reference to legislatures re- affirmed—and did not abrogate—the founding-era understanding of a legislature as a lawmaking body CONSTRAINED BY THE CONSTITUTION THAT CREATED IT. […]
After one particularly bloviating response from Thompson, Justice Sonia Sotomayor remarked, “Well, it seems that every answer you give is to get you what you want, but it makes little sense.” Well said.
[…] Jackson honed in on an important and often overlooked piece of this case — without a state constitution, there is no state legislature at all. “[T]he lawmaking authority of the entity in question comes from the state constitution” — and that the entire argument the NC Legislature is making is premised on the fact that a state’s legislature is allowed to violate its state constitution.
What’s next?
Now, I am not, by any means, confident in a democracy-saving verdict in this case. Although other smart people […] seem more confident in a decent outcome, I am a woman living in a post-Roe America, and I simply can’t be. I am ever cognizant of the fact that we live in a country with a fascist high court — and that we are relying on John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett to save our country.
[…] There is also a very real possibility that the Court will reject the most extreme part of the “independent state legislature” theory but still allow some federal review of state supreme court election law decisions. While not nearly as democracy-ending as a full embrace of the “independent state legislature” nonsense, this is still a dangerous possibility. As Ian Milhiser writes,
This Court has a history of announcing that it is giving itself a vaguely defined new power to intervene when it doesn’t like something that another arm of government has done, and then using that power in ways that appear partisan or ideological. So it is concerning that the justices appear willing to give themselves a new power to decide at least some disputes over state election law.
So that wouldn’t be great, either.
That said, even with my post-2016 eternal pessimism, yesterday’s oral argument went about as well as it could have. […]
[…] Liz Crokin celebrated her appearance in a social media post, reports ABC: “Tonight I had the privilege and honor to speak at America’s Future fundraiser to combat child trafficking at Mar-A-Lago.”
Well, you can’t argue with the phrasing. Good job, ya weirdo. Crokin was also important enough to get the “standing beside Trump while Trump did his thumb thing” picture that Trump’s mid-tier supporters consider to be an honor […]
Donald J. Trump’s legal team struggled to explain how the original Declaration of Independence made its way to a storage unit leased by the former President in Queens, New York.
The lawyers informed the Justice Department that they had discovered the eighteenth-century document under a stack of hastily packed items, including several pairs of socks and the Oval Office’s television remote.
“Mr. Trump will, of course, return the Declaration of Independence to the National Archives as soon as possible,” Harland Dorrinson, one of the attorneys, said. “This seems to have been some kind of honest mistake.”
That version of events differs from one provided by a source close to the former President, who indicated that Trump had intentionally taken the Declaration of Independence in the hopes that it had a treasure map on the back.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Russian forces have installed multiple rocket launchers at Ukraine’s shut-down Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, raising fears that Europe’s largest atomic power station could be used as a base to fire on Ukrainian territory and heightening radiation dangers.
This comes as the UK Ministry of Defence says in its latest intelligence report that Russia has likely received a resupply of Iranian Shahed-131 and 136 loitering munitions, with new reports over the past three weeks of attacks involving these devices. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian general staff reported shooting down at least 14 Shahed-136s, while on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials reported the use of Iranian-provided one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles to attack the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro oblasts.
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has announced in today’s Guardian that he will place new sanctions on 2,000 individuals and 400 entities across the world with connections to the Kremlin. “We are right to express our horror and revulsion, but our words will always count for more when they are backed by action,” Cleverly wrote. “I will ensure this remains the theme of British diplomacy. We are not passive observers and we should not merely voice our feelings: we will use our country’s leverage to make a difference.”
In that same vein, the US is set to levy fresh sanctions against Russia and China on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal reports, with measures intended on targeting Russia’s deployment of Iranian drones in Ukraine, as well as alleged human-rights abuses by Russia….
Also from there:
Russia shells ‘entire Donetsk front line’, says region’s governor
Russian forces have shelled the “entire front line” in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, the region’s governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, has said.
The fiercest fighting was near the towns of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, Reuters quotes him as saying in an interview on Friday.
Five civilians were killed and two injured in Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donetsk over the previous day, he said.
He added that Russian troops were also trying to advance near Lyman, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in November.
In Bakhmut and other parts of the Donetsk region neighbouring the Luhansk province, Ukraine countered with barrages from rocket launchers, a witness said.
Kyiv’s forces attacked Russian positions and troop assembly points in at least half a dozen towns in the south of Ukraine, Ukraine’s general staff said in an update this morning.
Ukrainian presidential adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said in a social media post:
The Russians have intensified their efforts in Donetsk and Luhansk. They are now in a very active phase of attempting to conduct offensive operations. We are advancing nowhere but, rather, defending, destroying the enemy’s infantry and equipment wherever it tries to advance.
Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin sentenced to eight-and-a-half years years in prison for spreading ‘false information’ about Russian army
A Moscow court has sentenced opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight-and-a-half years in prison for spreading “fake information” about the Russian army.
Yashin was found guilty of spreading “false information” over a YouTube video released in April in which he discussed evidence uncovered by western journalists of Russian war crimes in Bucha, near Kyiv.
In the video, the Kremlin critic and former municipal deputy cast doubt on the official Moscow version that such reports had been fabricated as a “provocation” against Russia.
In his final statement to the court this week, Yashin appealed directly to President Vladimir Putin, describing him as “the person responsible for this slaughter” and asking him to “stop this madness”.
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is leaving the Democratic Party and registering as a political independent, she told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an exclusive TV interview.
[self-important assholish quotes at the link]
Sinema’s move away from the Democratic Party is unlikely to change the power balance in the next Senate. Democrats will have a narrow 51-49 majority that includes two independents who caucus with them: Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine.
While Sanders and King formally caucus with Democrats, Sinema declined to explicitly say that she would do the same. She did note, however, that she expects to keep her committee assignments – a signal that she doesn’t plan to upend the Senate composition, since Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer controls committee rosters for Democrats.
…
Sinema is up for reelection in 2024 and liberals in Arizona are already floating potential challengers, including Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, who said earlier this year that some Democratic senators have urged him to run against Sinema….
WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona announced Friday that she has registered as an independent, but she does not plan to caucus with Republicans, ensuring Democrats will retain their narrow majority in the Senate…
The Warnock victory is looking even more important.
Newly released documents show an influential group that helps shape US food policy and steers consumers toward nutritional products has financial ties to the world’s largest processed food companies and has been controlled by former industry employees who have worked for companies like Monsanto.
The documents reveal the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has a record of quid pro quos with a range of food giants, owns stock in ultra processed food companies and has received millions in contributions from producers of pop, candy, and processed foods linked to…health problems.
The findings are a part of a recently published peer-reviewed study that examined a trove of financial documents and internal communications obtained through a Freedom of Information act (FOIA).
“It’s incredibly influential so if the Academy is corrupt then nutritional policy in the US is going to be corrupt,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of US Right to Know, and a co-author of the study. The investigative nonprofit developed the study with researchers from nonprofits and universities in the US and UK.
…
The Academy says it as an independent voice and “trusted educational resource for consumers”. It lobbies Congress and represents and provides information to over 110,000 US dietitians who help people make decisions about which foods to eat.
Though the academy has long received criticism for its ties to big food, the study for the first time reveals the depth of its financial ties.
The Academy accepted at least $15m from corporate and organizational contributors from 2011-2017, and over $4.5m in additional funding went to the Academy’s foundation. Among the highest contributions came from companies like Nestle, PepsiCo, Hershey, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Conagra, the National Dairy Council, and baby formula producer Abbott Nutrition.
The Academy and its foundation also received food industry fundings via sponsorships, which are effectively quid pro quos. In a 2015 email, an Academy employee defined a sponsorship as “When a company pays a fee to the Academy/Foundation in return for Academy/Foundation defined specific rights and benefits.”
The email reveals the Academy in 2015 was in a sponsorship deal with Abbott and was discussing how the Academy could use its dietitians’ influence in pediatricians’ offices to push Pediasure, one of the pharmaceutical giant’s infant nutritional products. Abbott at the time had in place a two year, $300,000 sponsorship deal.
The Academy also owned Abbott stock at the time of the deal and plan, records show. It also owned stock in companies with which it had a sponsorship deal, PepsiCo, as well as financial contributors, like Nestle.
“That is astounding,” Ruskin said. “That belongs in the conflict of interest hall of fame – it is off the charts.”
Academy leadership at the time seemed to be aware of the optics.
“I personally like Pepsico and do not have any problems with us owning it, but I wonder if someone will say something about that,” wrote then-Academy treasurer Donna Martin in a 2014 email. “Hopefully they will be happy like they should be! I personally would be OK if we owned Coke stock!!”
The 2015 email also described an extension of a sponsorship agreement with the National Dairy Council. Under the proposed extension, the National Dairy Council would pay $1.2m for a package that would fund “support for both the Academy and the Foundation to continue the collaborative work around food, nutrition and agriculture”. Other sponsors listed in the email include Coca-Cola’s industry group, and Conagra, which owns brands like Reddi-Wip, Slim Jim and Banquet.
The Academy at the time of the 2015 email was also in discussion with Subway about how the Academy could “endorse” the fast food chain’s “healthier products”, the email shows, and discussed a partnership with the Mars candy bar company.
…
The Academy didn’t respond to specific questions from the Guardian, but directed it to a response to the study on its website. It denied wrongdoing, said the study contains factual errors, and said the study takes its financials out of context. It said “stringent” guidelines are in place to prevent corporate influence on its programming. [LOL]
…
The study also highlights the revolving door between the Academy and industry. Among its staff and board members are current and former public relations staff for companies that represent big food, as well as consultants or employees for large food entities like Monsanto, Sodexo, the Sugar Association, Bayer and the International Food Information Council, [an] industry front group.
The Academy, previously called the American Dietetic Association, has appeared to be under the control of big food interests for “as long as I have been familiar with the Academy,” said Marion Nestle, a nutritionist and public health advocate who wrote about the ties in her 2002 book, Food Politics. She said the financial ties raise “fundamental questions about credibility”….
A baby who was placed in his doctors’ care because his parents refused to consent to a transfusion of “vaccinated blood” for the operation, has had life-saving surgery, the parents’ lawyer has said.
Sue Grey confirmed to broadcaster RNZ on Friday afternoon that the boy, identified only as “Baby W”, had had the procedure and was doing well….
Early Friday morning, Musk tweeted that he would delete 1.5 billion accounts to free up usernames for current users. He also said he would add a feature that would allow Twitter users to see the number of people that read or interact with their tweets…
In other tweets, Musk said he would be deleting accounts that had not logged in “for years” to free up usernames for current users…
Rishi Sunak has announced a collaboration between the UK, Italy and Japan to develop a new fighter jet that uses artificial intelligence…
The nations will develop a next generation fighter – due to enter service in the mid-2030s – that will eventually replace the Typhoon jet.
It is hoped the new Tempest jet will carry the latest weapons…
It could also be flown without a pilot’s input if required and could be able to fire hypersonic missiles…
In other words, post-Brexit UK aircraft companies need support.
“I have good security protection, but I really think it’s so cowardly to harass people who are completely uninvolved, including my children,” Dr Anthony Fauci told the BBC’s Americast podcast…
A Russian court has sentenced the opposition politician Ilya Yashin to eight and a half years in prison, in the most high-profile case to date of a Russian dissident being jailed for opposing the invasion of Ukraine.
A veteran of Russia’s anti-Putin opposition, Yashin was one of a small group of vocal opponents to the war who chose not to leave the country, saying earlier this year that he believed that “anti-war voices sound louder and more convincing if the person remains in Russia”.
In a courtroom speech this week, Yashin said:
I must remain in Russia, I must speak the truth loudly, and I must stop the bloodshed at any cost. It physically pains me to think how many people have been killed in this war, how many lives have been ruined, and how many families have lost their homes. You cannot be indifferent. And I swear I do not regret anything.
He added:
It’s better to spend 10 years behind bars as an honest man than quietly burn with shame over the blood spilled by your government.
Yashin joins a small group of other prominent dissenters who have been imprisoned for speaking out against the war….
The moment the mother of Iranian protestor Mohsen Shekari, age 23, learns he’s been hanged for “waging war against God”. The regime told her to stay silent to win his release. This execution was meant to deter further dissent, but likely does the opposite….
Like other fallen protestors Mohsen loved music and singing, and spent his entire young life living under a regime that has outlawed both….
A poignant video of the 450+ protestors killed thus far in Iran. It’s not a coincidence that many of them are remembered singing and dancing; they died protesting a regime that has criminalized both activities….
Videos at the (Twitter) link.
ravensays
NOËL 🇪🇺 🇺🇦@NOELreports
Today at Almaty railway station, Kazakhstan. Tanks that are spotted are heading west towards Russia. Kazakhstan is looking more towards the west and is rather unfriendly towards Russia when it comes to the war.
I’m sure those tanks were originally made in Russia.
If Ukraine falls, Moldova is next and might last a week.
After that it is Georgia and Kazakhstan that will be conquered by the Russian empire.
Kazakhstan is the real prize here.
A huge country with lots of oil, gas, and the largest uranium seller in the world.
And with only 20 million people to the RE’s 144 million.
The only thing that could keep them from being conquered again is that they also share a border with China.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has a lot of words to explain why she’s leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent, but there are two real reasons, and they’re each two words long: primary challenge, and attention-seeking.
Sinema will continue caucusing with Democrats, at least for the purpose of setting committee allocations, so Sen. Raphael Warnock’s reelection continues to be a major step in breaking through Republican obstruction of President Joe Biden’s nominations. But this way, she doesn’t have to worry about a primary challenge from Rep. Ruben Gallego in 2024 because they’re no longer in the same party. If a Democrat runs against Sinema, she gets a three-way race.
But in addition to that, Sinema also gets the single thing that most gives her life: attention. Fresh off huddling with Republicans on the Senate floor in blue sequins during the vote to codify marriage equality, Sinema is the top political news of the day. She gets the long op-ed in her state’s major newspaper in which she lays out all the noble, relatable reasons she’s supposedly making this move. She gets a 45-minute interview with Politico and resulting headline. She will doubtless have her choice of the Sunday talk shows.
And every time there’s a big vote in the Senate, she will have a constant, built-in reminder that getting her vote requires special treatment.
That’s not what she’s saying, of course. She’s saying that this is a brave rejection of partisanship. True independence, yada yada. Also, it goes without saying, both parties are Just Too Extreme (sad emoji) for Kyrsten the Independent.
“In catering to the fringes, neither party has demonstrated much tolerance for diversity of thought,” she writes, as if the party that barely has room for people who accept that Donald Trump lost in 2020 and the party that has room for both Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin are equivalent here. “Bipartisan compromise is seen as a rarely acceptable last resort, rather than the best way to achieve lasting progress. Payback against the opposition party has replaced thoughtful legislating.”
Republicans held up legislation helping veterans exposed to toxic burn pits as payback for Democrats reaching a deal with Manchin on the Inflation Reduction Act, but do go on about how payback having replaced thoughtful legislating is a reason to leave the Democratic Party.
”Like a lot of Arizonans, I have never fit perfectly in either national party,” Sinema writes, 18 years after she left the Green Party for the Democratic Party. She became a Democrat after she lost a couple races as a Green, she rode her Democratic affiliation to the Senate, and now that it endangers her in her next election, she’s moving on to be an independent. She was a “Prada socialist” who rejected campaign fundraising … before going on to become one of the Senate’s top recipients of contributions from the pharmaceutical and financial services industries.
And she’s now promising to be all things to all people. If you’re looking for a tool of corporate interests, she’ll be that! But if you’re looking for someone with an “unwavering view that a woman’s health care decision should be between her, her doctor and her family,” you’re in luck, at least until defending that position requires changing Senate rules or shifting how Supreme Court appointments work.
But! “If anyone previously supported me because they believed, contrary to my promise, that I would be a blindly loyal vote for a partisan agenda—or for those who believe our state should be represented by partisans who push divisive, negative politics, regardless of the impact on our state—then there are sure to be others vying for your support.”
Again with the “divisive, negative politics” to refer to Democrats as some Republicans who ran for office in her state and lost just last month are refusing to accept their losses. After Blake Masters’ extremist anti-abortion campaign (at least until that became politically inconvenient for him—in the type of shift that should be familiar to Sinema), after Masters’ campaign video out in the desert rhapsodizing about the benefits of gun silencers. After the Kari Lake ad featuring an extremist homophobic, Islamophobic pastor. It’s Democrats whose divisive, negative politics are a problem for Sinema—because she’s talking here about the possibility of a primary challenge.
Kyrsten Sinema is and always will be about what is good for Kyrsten Sinema’s next election, next step on the ladder, next week of headlines. Following an election in which Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was reelected, Democrat Katie Hobbs was elected governor, Democrat Adrian Fontes was elected secretary of state, and Democrat Kris Mayes was elected attorney general (albeit with a razor-thin margin), a jump to the Republican Party would not have looked like a good bet at all. But her 2024 reelection was going to be rough for Sinema as a Democrat, so building her personal “independent” brand became the best move … for her personal ambitions.
An update on the situation around Kreminna, where it seems there are multiple areas of active fighting. First, north of the city, Ukraine continues to move along the P66 highway. Chervonopopivka is reported as “secure” while Ukrainian troops continue the attempt to clear Russian forces at Holykove and to liberate all of Zhytlivka. Reportedly the forces hitting Zhytlivka from the north have been joined by additional Ukrainian forces on the west. [map at the link]
West of the city, there were reports on Thursday of another attempt by Russian forces to break through Ukrainian lines here with the intent of “taking back Lyman.” However, there doesn’t appear to be any real sign that this was successful in any way, or that it actually happened. I’ve extended the area of “in dispute” here to include Dibrova not because Russia made any kind of advance, but because I’m trying to resolve differing reports on the status of the town.
Similarly, Russian propaganda sites on Thursday reported that Russia had cleared Ukrainian forces from sites in the woods south of Kreminna. On Friday morning this report also appears to be false, as Ukrainian sources still indicate troops are still within 2km of the city.
However, by far the biggest report of the morning is that a small group of Ukrainian soldiers, accompanied by a handful of armored vehicles, has reportedly crossed the river from Bilohorivka and moved against the Russian line at Pryvillya. Whether this attack has had any success is not known at this point, but if Ukraine could take this position they would be very close to severing supply lines both north and south of Kreminna and would be extremely close to Rubiznhe. Overnight, Ukrainian forces reportedly shelled Russian locations in Rubiznhe, so the highway on this side of Kreminna is already likely under fire control. […]
I have to confess, I originally headlined this piece “What’s Moscow shopping center doing?” But then the better angels of journalism took over (i.e., the editor told me to change it). In any case, it’s hard to start anywhere else this morning than with this view from above:
Moment of explosion. large-scale fire in the MegaKhimka shopping center in Moscow […] [video at the link]
And this view from street level:[video at the link]
That amazing explosion is a shopping center in Moscow that was apparently anchored by a large hardware store. The explosion has been blamed on everything from a missile to an electrical fault in stories so far, but this certainly looks like a planned and sequenced explosion. If I had to guess at the cause of this blast, I would say “insurance.”
In a country where safety regulations are laughable, construction standards are worse, and drunkenness is a way of life, it’s always possible that someone just happened to think stashing a few tons of low explosive in the local Walmart was a grand idea. But while this may look like some of the gas explosions on TV shows, that’s only because those explosions are … planned explosions.
Considering just how many things really have gone boom around Russia lately with the prodding of old Soviet surveillance drones turned into missiles by Ukrainian engineering, it’s understandable that people around Moscow might be starting to look up the nearest bomb shelter. However, the explosion seen is a lot more than might be generated by a few kilograms of even high explosive strapped to a drone.
It will be interesting to hear what Moscow finally concocts as the cause, but it probably won’t have much to do with the real cause. In the meantime, if some portion of Russian citizens think this is the long arm of Ukraine reaching out, that’s probably a good thing. And if Ukraine, or Ukrainian partisans, or Russians tired of being sent to die in Ukraine, actually did this … whoo boy, the folks down the street at the Kremlin should really be sweating.
For the moment, the fire still seems to be raging. Since the explosion took place at a retail site during the early morning hours, there have been few reports of casualties.
Speaking of explosions deep in Russian-occupied territory, there are reports on Friday of additional explosions at Berdyansk airport. This follows a series of such explosions on Thursday and comes close on the heels of multiple airports in Russia being hit by Ukrainian drones.
[…] Berdyansk is one of the locations that had been connected to drone and aircraft-carried missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Over the last day, the situation in Bakhmut has gotten much more tense. While hearing that Russia has taken the city dump and this or that factory may seem laughable—and is, considering how many times they’ve taken and lost the same sites before—forces on the ground indicate that this time is different. Russian forces appear to have secured defensive positions along the edge of Bakhmut that they were only able to occupy briefly in the past. Ukrainian forces are being pressed back from the places where they’ve been able to hold out and direct fire over several months, and there is real concern that the long-held status quo is about to break.
[…] Ukraine has lost several key defensive positions. [Tweet at the link]
[…] What seems to have changed in the last week mostly comes down to a mistake on Ukraine’s part. There is a good deal of dispute about the videos seen in the last few days about an attempted advance from the city, but it seems that Ukraine not only failed in an attempt to press Russian forces back, but did so in a way that left them vulnerable to a counter. In the parry-riposte that has taken place east of Bakhmut for so long, Ukraine may have made a big swing and a miss. If that’s accurate, now they’re taking a big hit in return.
However, don’t think that all this means Ukraine is likely to begin pulling out of the eastern blocks anytime soon. This is still moving on Bakhmut time.
What’s likely to happen now is that Wagner will move their HQ to the city garbage dump and attempt to advance from that position. In the meantime … their HQ will be in the city garbage dump. Too bad the weather isn’t warmer.
Speaking of attempted Ukrainian advances along the eastern border, it was only yesterday that Russian propagandists were showing videos of Ukrainian vehicles moving out of what was supposed to be Pervomaisk and getting trapped behind a minefield and taking casualties in what was reportedly a repelled attack toward the fully Russian-held town of Pisky.
Turns out the videos were actually from further north. They really showed vehicles moving between Vodyane and Opytne. These areas are close together, so close that I had to zoom way in to show the locations on the map. [map at the link]
What difference does it make? The difference is that Ukraine seems to have made a successful move toward Pisky. Ukraine currently controls a portion of the town, all of which is now in dispute. That attempted advance in the video still seems to have failed, but instead of representing Russia capturing new territory, it took place in an area where things didn’t change—while the real change was that Russia appears to have lost part of Pisky.
Another example of how nothing from Russian propaganda is ever what it seems, even when they appear to have visual “proof.”
This burning tire factory in Russia probably isn’t a sign of anything other than just how many things burn all the time in Russia. However, it does reportedly produce tires for use by the Russian military. [video at the link]
But then, that’s probably not a big deal for Russia. After all, when’s the last time you saw a new tire on a Russian military vehicle
Rather than risking a primary defeat, Kyrsten Sinema created a scenario where if Democrats run a candidate in the 2024 general they risk throwing the race to the likes of Kari Lake.
ravensays
“The entire Kazakh steppe will be strewn with corpses of your [Russia’s] conscripts.”
twitter.com/Gerash…
Anton Gerashchenko @Gerashchenko_en
Arman Shuraev, a public figure and professional journalist from Kazakhstan, replied to arrogant speech and threats of Russian ambassador in Kazakhstan, Borodavkin.
Russia is losing its influence among its neighbors and is rightly viewed as a threat.
Russia and Kazakhstan are starting to insult each other.
It is clear that all the former SSRs know that if Ukraine falls, they will end up being SSRs again. Or worse.
Their best hope would be to unite and all oppose Russia.
They can’t do that though.
Right now 4 of them are fighting wars with each other, Armenia-Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan. Not smart.
no. the issue isn’t that Kyrsten Sinema is “moderate,” there are plenty of moderates. nobody’s chasing Jon Tester out of the party.
what she *is* doing, and has been, is performatively scuttling any hope for governing responsibly because she’s a fucking asshole
Wonkette:
[…] The oldest dodge in the book is to blame other people for making you choose to do something awful. Crom only knows how many rightwingers have been forced to embrace fascist politics because Rashida Tlaib said she wanted to impeach that motherfucker Trump. […]
[…] Quite frankly, we knew Tucker Carlson, grand wizard of the vile fascist white scumbags, would outdo them all. He did not disappoint.
Tucker is pretty sure Joe Biden wants to force Paul Whelan to stay in Russia because he is white and not a lesbian.[video at the link]
At the beginning of the clip, Tucker spread a conspiracy theory conservatives are latching onto that the Kremlin really did give the Biden administration a simple choice between Whelan and Griner, but that NBC News changed its original reporting to that effect in order to HIDE THE TRUTH.
Our transcript picks up there:
TUCKER CARLSON: So at this point, we can assume the obvious, the Biden administration chose Brittney Griner over Paul Whelan.
See above.
The basketball player over the Marine facing 16 years. There was only room for one in the lifeboat, and the Marine got left behind.
Paul Whelan’s release was never on the table […]
Well, why’d they make that choice? Well, you should know that Whelan is a Trump voter and he made the mistake of saying so on social media. He’s paying the price for that now.
Donald Trump didn’t do fuckall to free Paul Whelan when he was president. Russia arrested Whelan while Trump was president. If Donald Trump ever even brought it up to his boyfriend Vlad … LOL just kidding of course he didn’t. […]
Also, is Joe Biden the one who holds desperate grudges against people who didn’t vote for him, or is this all … we need a way stronger word than projection.
Brittney Griner is not. She has very different politics. Brittney Griner despises the United States, she’s been very vocal about that.
Brittney Griner has spoken out in support of national anthem protests against racial discrimination. That’s it. Even Fox News admits that’s all it is, in one of the most juvenile op-eds you will ever read. We understand that if you are a white nationalist with masculinity issues, those opinions coming from a Black lesbian athlete may read as “despises the United States.”
This country is so repellant and immoral that two years ago she said “I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our basketball season.”
Even Tucker admits that’s all it is. Guess what? Go fuck yourself.
She hates the country so much she doesn’t want to hear its anthem.
Left without any actual examples of Brittney Griner hating America, these losers just have to keep repeating the one thing about how it hurts their thin-skinned feelings when the lady refuses to cry bald eagle tears when the national anthem plays. […]
That’s the kind of position that gets you rewarded by Joe Biden. Hate America? Perfect. We’ll free the guy who sold weapons to drug cartels to get you out early. So, there’s that.
[…] Jesus wrote song for America sing! Lady sing song right now!
And then there’s the matter of identity, which is central to equity. Britney Griner is not white and she’s a lesbian. Now, those facts might seem irrelevant to you — we hope they do seem irrelevant, because they are — but they’re not irrelevant to the White House press secretary. In the view of the White House press secretary, those are essential qualifications for a prisoner swap.
Those facts are not irrelevant to Tucker.
At this point, Tucker played a clip of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre explaining that the choice here was between bringing Brittney Griner home and bringing no one, and explaining that the Biden administration will never stop trying to get Paul Whelan released.
Then Jean-Pierre said Brittney Griner is a Black lesbian, said it was personal for her, and that Griner is an inspiration to LGBTQ Americans and women of color. That’s what set Tucker off.
[…] Tucker asked his dumbfuck viewers what would have happened if Sean Spicer had said he was thrilled when straight white men got out of prison. That would have been an overtly white supremacist statement, obviously, but one of fascist white nationalist Christians’ favorite tricks is to negate the lived experiences of all people who aren’t white heterosexual Christian conservative men […]
Of course, the tell was that while Tucker was swearing it shouldn’t matter, swearing Brittney Griner being a Black lesbian was “irrelevant,” you could see him sneering and seething and making the sideways “laughing until I’m crying” emoji in his mind.
He does that a lot. It’s one of his tells, like when he stares directly at the camera and tells you something is true. It’s like a nervous tic.
Anyway. There’s your Tucker commentary on Brittney Griner. Hope it ruins his weekend to know how happy Brittney Griner and her wife are right now.
There sure are times when we’d rather not be right. Like yesterday, for instance, when we brought you the story of Germany’s arrests of 25 people accused of a far-right plot to overthrow the elected German government and install a 71-year-old pretend monarch as Kaiser, to restore the Second Reich (1871-1918), which they must have figured would get them better press than trying to bring back the Third one.
At the end of that story, we wrote, “Given the deep affection of the American Right for European authoritarians, we won’t be the least bit surprised if the arrests in Germany become a talking point in US far-right politics.”
Then last night, Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Germany and also Trump’s acting Director of National Intelligence Richard “Ric” Grenell showed up on Newsmax to say he was “extremely skeptical” because a TV news crew went along for at least one of the high-profile arrests, so maybe it was all a set-up to discredit perfectly ordinary critics of the government? You know, just like January 6 was merely a tour of the Capitol by people who wished to speak with their representatives and perhaps execute them.
As we’ve noted, German prosecutors laid out a detailed set of accusations against the group, which allegedly planned a violent attack on Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, as well as attacks on the power grid to throw the country into chaos. Those arrested included former members of the German military, some of whom had served in special forces. Prosecutors said the group had even designated certain members to take various posts in the post-coup government, had they gotten that far. One of the people arrested had been trying to recruit police officers to the cause.
The BBC reports that the group considered Germany’s post-WWII government illegitimate and that it had ties to COVID-19 deniers and other conspiracy theorists, including the US “Sovereign Citizen” movement, which rejects most government. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said they were “driven by fantasies of violent overturn and conspiracy ideologies.”
So sure, we can see why American Newsmax viewers might be inclined to believe Grenell’s speculation that they were just ordinary folks who disagreed with their government.
[…] Notably, Grenell didn’t address any of the plans that German prosecutors have said were being pursued by the coup plotters, instead sticking to the suggestion that they were simply folks who happened to disagree with their government. If anyone’s a terrorist, he suggested, it’s the German government and police, who are just as bad as American Democrats, even.
The government begins to have quick, swift, strong reaction simply because they created and hyped up this problem that I don’t believe exists to the extent that they keep hyping it. Certainly we know here in the United States, we’re very skeptical of “coup” talk or “undermining democracy” or “enemies of democracy” — right, all of those terms immediately make many conservatives say, “OK, well what are you really trying to do by hyping this problem?
Well that’s just logic, then. The January 6 defendants were all railroaded for doing nothing (as long as you ignore all the evidence and their convictions by juries), so clearly, the German coup plotters were simply planning some innocent tourism, too.
No wonder the Germans couldn’t wait to see Grenell leave when he was the US ambassador!
In conclusion, we’d like to say we wish wingnuts wouldn’t live down to our low expectations quite so predictably […]
HuffPost reports that Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina has launched a provocative fundraising campaign that warns prospective donors, “Your heat will be turned off. Emergency Notice.” Their heat, in reality, is not poised to be turned off; it’s just a scheme to get their attention.
Some on the Twitter cleaning force had worked at the company for more than 10 years. But none of that mattered to its new owner, Elon Musk, when he kicked them to the curb just weeks before the holidays.
“It’s a sad and frustrating thing for our families and children,” Adrianna Villarreal told the BBC in Spanish. She said she’s worked for the company for the last four years, and now she’s terrified she won’t have the money to feed her family.
Julio Alvarado, a 10-year employee at Twitter, told the BBC, “I can only tell you, I don’t have money to pay the rent. I’m not going to have medical insurance. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
The cleaning staff were members of a cleaning union, and when they learned their jobs were at risk, they organized a strike on Monday to protest. Within days, the cleaners were fired.
Olga Miranda, president of the union, says she believes they were fired because they were in a union.
According to the BBC, rumors around the company have swirled that the human cleaners would be replaced with robots.
Sen. Scott Wiener of California told the BBC that the workers were treated “horribly.”
“In the short term, I’d like to see him [Musk] treat his janitors like human beings… and get them back working — not just throw them out right before Christmas.”
According to The Economic Times, Musk is facing yet another lawsuit from two women who were fired when he initially took over the company. The suit alleges that more than half of employees laid off were women.
Forbes magazine reports that Twitter laid off 57% of the women who worked at the company and only 47% of the men, according to the filing in a San Francisco federal court.
“Women in engineering roles were even more likely to have been fired, with 63% of women being let go compared to 48% of men, according to the lawsuit,” Forbes’ Carlie Porterfield writes.
This latest suit is just one among a slew of other legal actions followed by a slew of layoffs across the company.
If Musk wanted attention, something he frankly seems desperate to have at all times, he definitely got it—and he was willing to spend $44 billion for it.
[…] “One analysis [found] the use of a racial slur spiking nearly 500% in the 12 hours after his deal was finalized, which is pretty shocking,” John Oliver said during his show, Last Week Tonight, in mid-November. […]
COVID KILLED 1,500 AMERICANS YESTERDAY AS CASES SKYROCKETED IN THE WAKE OF A POORLY-MASKED AND UNDER-VACCINATED THANKSGIVING TRAVEL SEASON.
According to The New York Times Coronavirus Tracker, on Thursday, Dec. 8, covid deaths cannonballed from 184 on Monday Dec. 5, to 481 on Tuesday, to 937 on Wednesday, and to 1,500 on Thursday, Dec. 8, exactly two weeks after Thanksgiving.
CASES ROUGHLY TRIPLE IN FOUR DAYS
Reported coronavirus cases jumped from 53,999 on Monday, Dec. 5 to 149,322 on Thursday, Dec. 8, and that number does not include a vastly larger number of unreported at-home positive tests.
[…] tens of thousands more will pay a massive price for their last Turkey Day, especially since Christmas is two weeks from Sunday, which means another huge travel season fraught with many more covid-infected spreaders on the road, in the skies, and in living rooms.
HEALTH SYSTEM NOT PREPARED
With America’s hospitals and overall health system already stressed with flu and RSV patients, this covid explosion could cripple the ability of doctors and nurses to cope with a tsunami of very sick, very infectious BQ-variant covid victims.
Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House refused to fund President Biden’s multiple and repeated requests for more money to prepare for just such an occasion. And they attacked him when he transferred money from elsewhere to fund at least a bare minimum of public health assistance.
A celebrity gourmet chef whose daughter is the girlfriend of the Real Madrid footballer David Alaba and an ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities from terror attacks are among the latest figures to have been linked to the foiled Reichsbürger coup plan in Germany, with further arrests expected as investigations continue.
Details emerging after the biggest ever national police operation against rightwing extremism indicate that suspects may have been informed in advance of the raids, in which 3,000 police officers targeted more than 150 addresses across Germany, and in Austria and Italy, making 25 arrests.
The number of suspects had risen to 54 by Friday, with more arrests expected. Weapons were found at more than 50 locations, including rifles and ammunition, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office.
The group, inspired by Reichsbürger ideology that the modern German state is illegitimate, had planned to storm the Reichstag building and arrest parliamentarians before overthrowing the government and installing a regime led by a 71-year-old aristocrat as its head of state.
Frank Heppner, a star cook from Munich, who was arrested on Wednesday at a five-star hotel in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel where he worked, was allegedly a member of the command staff of the military arm of the terrorist group, responsible for recruiting new members, obtaining weapons and other equipment, as well as building a bug-proof communication and IT structure. He was also tasked with running the canteen that would have provided meals for the members of the so-called “New German Army”.
The Austrian daily Die Presse, citing investigators, said Heppner, 62, was also to be the personal cook to Heinrich XIII, Prince of Reuß, after he was installed as king. It said Heppner provided the group with money, cooking utensils, a camper van and an emergency generator.
Heppner’s 28-year-old daughter, Shalimar, is in a relationship with Alaba, a professional footballer who plays for Real Madrid and captains the Austrian national team. The couple have a son who was born in 2019. Alaba was not responding to requests for comment, according to German media who tried to contact him.
Among others alleged to have been part of the group was an ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities from terror attacks. Michael Fritsch was arrested with his partner, Melanie Ritter, near Hanover in northern Germany.
Fritsch, 58, was suspended from duty in 2020 and later sacked, after he appeared at protests organised by Covid deniers. He later became a parliamentary candidate for DieBasis, the political party of the Covid-denying Querdenker movement. His legal appeals process against his dismissal is still outstanding.
The far-right Alternative für Deutschland continued to try to distance itself on Friday from its former member, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a serving judge who was arrested at her home in western Berlin on Wednesday morning for allegedly being one of the key plotters. Her post-coup role was to have been justice minister.
There were widespread calls for an overhaul of access to the Reichstag. Malsack-Winkemann, who as a former MP had the right to access the parliament building, had allegedly provided the military arm of the group with important logistical information about how to enter.
…
The leftwing daily Die Tageszeitung reported that investigators found a “hitlist” with 18 names and addresses on it of prominent German politicians and journalists that the group may have intended to target. They included the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, along with six other members of the Bundestag and three public broadcaster television presenters.
I’m sorry, but parts of this story are very funny.
Zelensky: Russian troops have ‘effectively destroyed Bakhmut’.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Dec. 9 that heavy fighting is ongoing near the towns of Bakhmut, Soledar, Maryinka, and Kreminna in the Donbas in the east of Ukraine.
“There is no place left in these areas undamaged by shells and fire. The occupiers have effectively destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins,” Zelensky said.
Across the country, Americans awoke on Friday to the shocking news that Kyrsten Sinema had been a Democrat.
In interviews from coast to coast, citizens expressed a combination of puzzlement and disbelief at the bombshell that the Arizona senator had had any sort of affiliation with the Democratic Party.
“I saw her on TV saying that she had been a Democrat, but maybe she misspoke?” Tracy Klugian, who lives in Miami, said. “Politicians mess up like that all the time.”
“I’m definitely going to have to Google ‘Kyrsten Sinema’ and ‘Democrat,’ ” Carol Foyler, a resident of St. Louis, said. “It seems like some kind of a hoax.”
“If it turns out that she actually was a Democrat, it must have been painful for her to keep it a secret for so many years,” Harland Dorrinson, who lives in Topeka, said.
For her part, Senator Sinema promised the residents of Arizona that her departure from the Democratic Party would be a net gain for them. “I swear to you today, I will be even more irritating as an Independent,” she vowed.
whheydtsays
From Kyiv Independent…
Russia detains 10,000 men of conscription age in Moscow.
Men were grabbed “right on the street and even at work,” Russia’s independent human rights group Memorial reported on Dec. 9.The police took off their identification badges and did not identify themselves, the report reads. “They (detained men) are still kept in the military registration and enlistment office. Relatives of one of the detainees told our lawyers that they used force against him and forced him to undergo a medical examination. Now there is no contact with any men,” Memorial said.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Heavy fighting has continued in eastern and southern Ukraine, mainly in regions that Russia illegally annexed in September.
Associated Press reported Ukraine’s presidential office as saying on Friday that five civilians had been killed and another 13 wounded by Russian shelling in the past 24 hours.
Donetsk’s regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said Russian forces were pressing an offensive on Bakhmut with daily attacks, despite taking heavy casualties.
He said in televised remarks:
You can best describe those attacks as cannon fodder. They are mostly relying on infantry and less on armor, and they can’t advance.
In neighbouring Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor, Serhiy Haidai, said the Ukrainian military was pushing its counteroffensive toward Kreminna and Svatove.
In the south, Kherson’s regional governor, Yaroslav Yanyshevych, said eight civilians were wounded by Russian shelling in the past 24 hours. In Kherson city, which Ukraine recaptured last month, a children’s hospital and a morgue were damaged.
In the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region, Russian forces shelled Nikopol and Chervonohryhorivka, which are across the Dnieper River from the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Zaporizhzhia’s governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, said Russian shelling damaged residential buildings and power lines.
In the Kharkiv region, in the north-east, governor Oleh Syniehubov said three civilians were wounded by Russian shelling, with one later dying.
Iran’s support for Russia set to grow in return for ‘unprecedented’ military access, UK MoD says
Iran’s backing for the Russian military is likely to grow in coming months and Moscow will probably offer Tehran an “unprecedented” level of military support in return, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.
The ministry’s latest intelligence update said Iran had become one of Russia’s top military backers since Russia invaded Ukraine in February and that Moscow was now trying to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles.
In return Russia is highly likely offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their defence relationship.
The ministry said Russia had highly likely used a large proportion of its stock of its own SS-26 Iskander short-range ballistic missiles, which could carry a 500kg warhead up to 500km.
If Russia succeeds in bringing a large number of Iranian ballistic missiles into service, it will likely use them to continue and expand its campaign of strikes against Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure.
“US soccer journalist Grant Wahl dies while covering Qatar World Cup”: “US soccer journalist Grant Wahl has died after suffering an apparent heart attack at Lusail Stadium, where he was covering the World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and the Netherlands on Friday night.
Wahl, who was a correspondent for CBS Sports and wrote a popular Substack column, was 48 years old….”
The article notes that his wife is “Dr Celine Gounder, an infectious disease epidemiologist who served on Joe Biden’s coronavirus taskforce.” I just saw her on MSNBC recently.
“Erickson said she sees more heterosexual people and families joining her church, because they want their children exposed to diversity and a ‘God that is welcoming’.” It’s an imaginary entity, so you might as well make it nice!
Defeated Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed suit in Arizona Superior Court challenging the certification of the state’s election.
Lake, who has also amplified former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, makes numerous claims in the 70-page suit, including that printer failures at some polling places disenfranchised voters in Maricopa County, creating a “debacle” in the county.
As CNN has previously reported, Maricopa officials have said that printer problems affected about 70 vote centers, preventing some ballots from being read by tabulator machines on Election Day, but that the problems were fixed and that those ballots were set aside in a secure ballot box and counted separately. Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, called the inconvenience and the long lines that resulted “unfortunate” in one Twitter video but said that “every voter had an opportunity to cast a vote on Election Day.”
Among other concerns, Lake also cites long lines and criticizes the use of mail-in ballots in the suit. ..
Inexplicably, she left out the part about the dog eating her homework.
…The series of about a dozen group texts between [Binance CEO Changpeng] Zhao and Mr. Bankman-Fried on Nov. 10, which were obtained by The New York Times, show that key crypto leaders feared that the situation could get even worse. And their frantic communications offer a rare glimpse into the unusual way business is conducted behind the scenes in the industry, with at least three top officials from rival companies exchanging messages in a group chat on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
The texts also show that industry leaders were acutely aware that the actions of a single firm or fluctuations in the value of one virtual currency could destabilize the whole industry….
…For years, critics of the crypto industry have said Tether could also be vulnerable to a collapse. Tether has long claimed that its stablecoins are backed by cash and other traditional assets, and that in a crisis, all of its customers could redeem their coins for the equivalent amount in dollars. But regulators [!] have previously accused Tether of lying about the status of its reserves, sowing doubts about the coin’s reliability….
A Russian human rights activist has told the BBC that he was ordered to turn down the Nobel Peace Prize by the Russian authorities.
Yan Rachinsky is from Memorial, one of three joint winners of this year’s accolade, alongside the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties, and Ales Bialiatski, who is in prison in Belarus.
Mr Rachinsky chose to accept the award and told Stephen Sackur of BBC’s HARDtalk: “In today’s Russia no-one’s personal safety is guaranteed”.
For more than 30 years, Memorial worked on uncovering the fates of the victims of Soviet political repression. It also exposed human rights abuses in present-day Russia, before being forced to close…
ravensays
More terrorist attacks on the Ukrainian US power distribution network.
So far there have been two in North Carolina.
I posted about two in Oregon.
It turns out there have been 6 in the Pacific Northwest area, mostly around Portland recently.
These are serious terrorist attacks.
The article doesn’t say which terrorists are doing them but we all have a good idea which groups they are.
String of electrical grid attacks in Pacific Northwest is unsolved
By Conrad Wilson (OPB) and John Ryan (KUOW)
Dec. 8, 2022 5:35 a.m. Updated: Dec. 8, 2022 4:06 p.m.
Emails obtained by OPB and KUOW show that at least six electric substations in the region have been attacked, at least two by people with firearms
The electrical grid has been physically attacked at least six times in Oregon and Western Washington since mid-November, causing growing alarm for law enforcement as well as utilities responsible for parts of the region’s critical infrastructure.
According to information obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW Public Radio, at least two of the incidents bear similarities to the attacks on substations in North Carolina on Saturday that left thousands of people without electricity for days.
Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration, Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Puget Sound Energy have confirmed a total of six separate attacks on electrical substations they manage in Oregon and Washington. Attackers used firearms in at least some of the incidents in both states, and some power customers in Oregon and Washington experienced at least brief service disruption as a result of the attacks.
All four utilities stated they were cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI declined to confirm whether it was investigating.
Four electrical substations in the Pacific Northwest were attacked in recent weeks. Substations convert high-voltage electricity that travels across long-distance transmission lines to the lower voltages used by businesses and residences. Pictured: Bonneville Dam power lines.
“The FBI routinely shares information with our law enforcement partners in order to assist in protecting the communities they serve,” Joy Jiras, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland said in a statement Wednesday. “We urge the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.”
After the attacks on substations in Oregon and Washington, the FBI and Oregon’s Titan Fusion Center issued a memo on Dec. 2 that warned utilities about the recent attacks. The fusion center gathers intelligence to investigate and prevent acts of terrorism.
The next day, two substations in North Carolina were damaged by gunfire, cutting electricity for days to tens of thousands of people.
Electrical substations are complicated and potentially dangerous parts of the electrical grid that keep the nation’s lights on. Substations convert high-voltage electricity that travels across long-distance transmission lines to the lower voltages used by businesses and residences.
The Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that markets hydropower throughout the Pacific Northwest and owns 15,000 miles of transmission line and 200 substations, had confirmed at least one incident by Wednesday evening. The agency called it a “deliberate physical attack” that damaged a substation in Clackamas County, Oregon, early on Thanksgiving morning.
Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW obtained an email written by a security specialist with the Bonneville Power Administration that details that attack. OPB is withholding the specialists’ name at the request of Bonneville Power due to their concerns about the specialist’s safety. Two people cut through the fence surrounding a high-voltage substation, then “used firearms to shoot up and disable numerous pieces of equipment and cause significant damage,” the security specialist wrote.
The memo also referenced “several attacks on various substations,” recently, in Western Washington, “including setting the control houses on fire, forced entry and sabotage of intricate electrical control systems, causing short circuits by tossing chains across the overhead buswork, and ballistic attack with small caliber firearms.”
(“Buswork” is a term for the maze of wires and switches that hum overhead at a substation.)
The security specialist stated that online extremist groups are calling for the attacks and providing instructions on how to do it.
“There has been a significant uptick in incidents of break-ins related to copper and tool or materials theft, but now we are dealing with quickly escalating incidents of sabotage,” the email reads.
A spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy, the largest utility in Washington, confirmed two incidents in late November at two of its substations. Spokesperson Gerald Tracy declined to provide locations or any other details, citing an ongoing investigation by the FBI.
“We are aware of recent threats on power systems across the country and take these very seriously,” Tracy said in an email.
Cowlitz County Public Utility District spokesperson Alice Dietz said vandals cut fences and damaged electrical equipment at two substations near Woodland, Washington, about 20 miles north of Portland, in mid-November, causing a brief power outage. Dietz declined to provide further details.
In Oregon, a spokesperson for Portland General Electric confirmed an attack on a substation “in the Clackamas area that occurred in late November 2022.” The utility declined to provide specifics of exactly when the incident occurred and what transpired.
Records obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW indicate the incident disrupted electricity in some areas of Clackamas County, knocking some of the county’s computer systems offline. Records show the incident occurred on Nov. 28, four days after the Bonneville Power Administration facility, also in Clackamas County, was damaged.
“Our teams have assessed the damage and begun repair to the impacted facilities,” Portland General Electric’s Allison Dobscha said in a statement Wednesday.
Seattle City Light, the sole power provider for the Northwest’s largest city, said it had not experienced any attacks.
“Because of these attacks, we’re making sure that we’re being extra vigilant,” Seattle City Light spokesperson Jenn Strang said. “We’re being very diligent about enforcing our physical security in and around our critical infrastructure.”
Traffic lights were dark, schools closed, and tens of thousands of people without power for days in central North Carolina after gunfire attacks on two electrical substations in rural Moore County Saturday night.
“What happened here Saturday night was a criminal act, and federal, state and local law enforcement are actively working to bring those responsible to justice,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a press conference on Monday.
After that incident, NewsNation reported that a federal bulletin had warned of attacks on power facilities, noting reports from utilities in Oregon and Washington.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include information about a Dec. 2 memo and attacks on substations in Cowlitz County, Washington. The attacks were confirmed after the story initially published. We have also removed the name of an official at Bonneville Power Administration’s request due to security concerns.
StevoRsays
One of over three thousand newly endangered species :
Dugongs in East Africa have been listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which has added more than 3,000 species added to the red list this week.
&
Almost half the corals in the Atlantic are “at elevated risk of extinction due to climate change and other impacts,” according to Beth Polidoro, an associate professor at Arizona State University and red list coordinator for IUCN.
Unsustainable harvesting and poaching have emerged as threats to abalone, the union said.
Twenty of the 54 abalone species in the world are threatened with extinction according to the red list’s first global assessment of the species.
Warning from another FTB blog here specifically Hj Hornbeck’s Reprobate Spreadsheet :
I’m not prone to alarm, but this news has me trying to ring every alarm bell I can find. Get the fuck off Twitter, as soon as humanly possible. That may allow someone to impersonate you in one-to-twelve months, but that’s better than giving these assholes a chance to browse your private messages.
&
THAT is a four alarm-er. Abigail Shrier is a former lawyer, but after her 2020 book she’s become an anti-LGBT crusader testifying before the US Congress and peddling misinformation. She’s published private information in an effort to shut down an LGBT club at a school and attempted to get two teachers fired as a result. Thanks to her legal experience, she likely knows how to push the limits of what is considered legal. And now, if what she’s saying is accurate, she’s got the same level of access to Twitter as Bari Weiss. She could read the private messages of any LGBT person or group on the platform, or learn of their phone number or private email address.
Whilst something to look forward to seeing tomorrow :
Returning on Sunday (Dec. 11) won’t be easy. Orion will do an unprecedented “skip” off the atmosphere of Earth before returning to our planet in earnest. Then it must deploy a series of parachutes to make a safe ocean splashdown within reach of U.S. Navy recovery ships.
Nato chief warns of ‘real possibility’ of full-blown war between Nato and Russia.
So what else is new?
The EU and NATO are far stronger than Russia so it wouldn’t be too bad.
Stoltenberg is making the point here that we have to stop Putin and Russia sooner or later.
And the later it is, the more it will cost the West.
It’s not at all clear what this war has to do with inflation with its high food prices and higher energy prices.
The price of oil per barrel is lower than at the start of the war.
What is driving inflation seems in part to be due to a worker shortage. This worker shortage is because millions of people died during the Covid-19 pandemic and tens of millions of workers now have long haul Covid-19 syndromes.
Nato chief warns of ‘real possibility’ of full-blown war between Nato and Russia
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warned that the Ukraine war could spill over into a full-scale conflict between Nato and Russia.
In an interview with Norwegian broadcaster NRK, Mr Stoltenberg said there was “no doubt” that a full-blown war against Nato was a “real possibility.”
“I understand everyone who is tired of supporting Ukraine. I understand everyone who thinks that food prices and the electricity bills are far too high,” he said. “But we have to pay a much higher price if our freedom and peace are threatened through Putin winning in Ukraine.”
ravensays
Oregon’s hospitals surpass capacity issues seen during COVID-19 pandemic surges
We are seeing this everywhere in the USA now.
Hospitals are full to overcapacity with respiratory virus patients.
This is a bit different from the recent past since these patients are a mix of flu, RSV, and Covid-19 virus patients.
But a lot of them are Covid-19 virus patients and those are the ones that are mostly ending up dead. We are running around 400 dead Covid-19 cases per day now.
Oregon’s hospitals surpass capacity issues seen during COVID-19 pandemic surges
by Christina Giardinelli and KATU StaffThursday, December 8th 2022
Oregon health officials say a surge in respiratory viruses is overwhelming hospitals to levels not reached even during peaks of the pandemic.
“The combination of surging flu, RSV and COVID-19 cases is pushing hospitals past their current ICU bed capacity, which never happened during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic in Oregon,” said Dean Sidelinger, Oregon health officer and epidemiologist, during a news conference Thursday. “Hospitals are overwhelmed and don’t have enough beds to treat everyone in the manner that they are accustomed to.”
During the conference he called on Oregonians to support “exhausted health care heroes,” by wearing masks indoors. When asked why a mask mandate was not issued if hospitals are more overwhelmed now than during the pandemic, Sidelinger said only that masks were more helpful for those living with vulnerable people and not all Oregonians. He did not specify why this is more so the case now than during the pandemic.
During a legislative hearing Wednesday, Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen quantified the capacity issues the state is dealing with, noting that hospitals had 8% of beds open during peaks of the pandemic; now they are down to 5% of beds open, sometimes fewer. But Allen said it’s not just a matter of physical space.
“People who only pass by that topic are tempted to think that it’s a mattress problem,” he said. “That’s not it at all; it’s the staffing.”
It’s a staffing issue that Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has responded to through an executive order authorizing up to $25 million in spending for “supplemental nurse staffing contracts.” Sidelinger said that often involves out-of-state contractors.
“OHA in conjunction with our health care partners are working to increase the number of employees, traveling employees and employees from out of state to augment the current capacity,” he said.
READ MORE | Oregon Gov. Brown issues executive order to help hospitals strained by respiratory illness
Members of the Oregon Nursing Association, however, are calling for at least some of those resources to be deployed to existing Oregon health care workers that are weathering yet another storm.
“Everybody is under a great deal of strain and nurses are being told they just have to do more with less, again,” said Matt Calzia, a nurse and member of ONA.
He said members are reporting taking on more patients than they normally would with no support staff to alleviate administrative tasks such as responding to phone calls, taking hospital admitted patients’ food orders or transporting patients.
“They have to increase their workload, but they don’t have any changes or extra support,” he said. “During the Delta surge, there was some help from the National Guard in those kinds of functions.”
When asked repeatedly why the National Guard was not being sent in, Sidelinger said hospitals were calling for specialized staff.
“We need are more licensed and trained individuals,” he said. “There is a lot involved in bringing in the National Guard members. Most of them have full-time jobs. … There is also the need to do trainings and other things so that they can help out in these situations.”
He did not specify why more specialized care is needed during this crisis as opposed to the pandemic. When asked whether hospitals benefiting from extra staffing would be required to provide incentives such as hazard pay to their current staff members, Sidelinger deferred to hospital executives.
Oregon’s hospitals surpass capacity issues seen during COVID-19 pandemic surges (KATU – 5 PM)
During the same news conference, responding to questions about preserving current health care workers, Dr. Wendy Hasson, medical director for the ICU at Randall Children’s Hospital, said bringing in the specialized support staff through the $25 million would also help alleviate pressure on current staff members.
“You are speaking to a nursing burnout, and believe me, nobody is more concerned about our nurses than I am. I very much worry about my nursing staff,” she said. “They need a day off and the only way to do that is to bring in another nurse who has equal skills.”
Calzia says while the relief is welcome, it’s too little too late.
“We believe it should go not just to contract travel nurses but the nurses and the health care workers that we have at the bedside now. We need to keep them at the bedside with some incentives for working extra, incentives for working in crisis standards of care,” he said.
The Oregon Hospital Association was not available for an interview Thursday.
ravensays
So what is driving inflation anyway?
We’ve all seen it every time we buy something and it is annoying after decades of relative price stability.
It is several causes coming together.
.1. Supply chain issues
.2. Government spending to counteract the pandemic effects.
.3. Worker shortages partly due to the pandemic killing and disabling millions of workers.
.4. The Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As the causes of US inflation grow, so do the dangers
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
October 14, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — What keeps driving inflation so high? The answer, it seems, is nearly everything.
Supply chain snarls and parts shortages inflated the cost of factory goods when the economy rocketed out of the pandemic recession two years ago. Then it was a surge in consumer spending fueled by federal stimulus checks. Then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted gas and food supplies and sent those prices skyward.
Since March, the Federal Reserve has been aggressively raising interest rates to try to cool the price spikes. So far, there’s little sign of progress. Thursday’s report on consumer prices in September came in hotter than expected even as some previously big drivers of inflation — gas prices, used cars — fell for a third straight month.
Consumer prices, excluding volatile food and energy costs, skyrocketed 6.6% from a year ago — the fastest such pace in four decades. Overall inflation did decline a touch, mostly because of cheaper gas. But costlier food, medical care and housing pointed to a widening of price pressures across the economy.
High inflation has now spread well beyond physical goods to the nation’s vast service sector, which includes everything from dental care and apartment rents to auto repairs and hotel rates. The broadening of inflation makes it harder to tame. Thursday’s report underscored that the Fed may have to jack up its key short-term rate even higher than had been expected — and keep it there longer — to curb inflation.
INFLATION
Wholesale inflation in US further slowed in November to 7.4%
Such action would mean even higher loan rates for consumers and businesses. It could also cause recessions in both the U.S. and global economies, international financial officials warn. Higher U.S. rates encourage investors to pull money from foreign markets and invest it in U.S. assets for a higher return, a shift that can cause upheaval in overseas economies.
Here’s what’s driving persistent inflation and what it means:
SPENDING STILL HOLDING UP — FOR SOME
Consumers, on the whole, are still managing to spend more, even though average wage gains over the past year haven’t kept up with inflation. Many businesses, particularly larger corporations, have taken advantage of rising wages and increased consumer savings from government stimulus checks to raise their prices.
PepsiCo, for example, said Wednesday that while purchases by volume fell 1% in the third quarter of the year, it was able to boost prices 17% without losing customers.
“We obviously exited the third quarter with the consumer still very healthy in terms of our particular categories,” the company’s chief financial officer, Hugh Johnston, told investors.
Still, for many Americans, declining wages (after adjusting for inflation) could eventually slow demand and help force companies to lower prices.
Already there are signs that some Americans, particularly lower-income families, are balking at inflated prices. Sales of used cars fell over the summer. One major car dealer, the CarMax chain, blamed “vehicle affordability challenges that stem from widespread inflationary pressures, as well as climbing interest rates” for the decline.
At the same time, Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Cox Automotive, said that many higher-income consumers have stepped into the used car market, offsetting at least some of the loss from previous buyers.
“We see increases in higher-income households buying used vehicles,” Smoke said. “The profile of who’s buying used is a dramatically upper-scale type of customer.”
SERVICES INFLATION TAKES OVER
Rising prices can often lead consumers to switch their spending to other things, rather than cutting back overall. Right now, for instance, Americans are switching more of their spending from physical goods to services. And that shift is evident in the categories where prices are rising.continues
Vladimir Putin boasts that by making the Sea of Azov an “inland sea” of Russia, he has surpassed Peter the Great
I want to believe.
I want to believe. [Image shows warning label inside a battered and used helmet: “Warning. This is a toy! Helmet is not providing any kind of protection, especially not providing ballistic protection.”]
[Some online sleuths have found the source of the toy helmet.]
Well this looks interesting. If it sometimes seems that Ukraine and Russia end up fighting pitched battles in a place whose strategic importance is questionable, if not negligible, this could set new records.
First, here’s a tweet from analyst Def Mon, taken from Russian sources, that warns of Ukrainian troops establishing themselves on a swampy, low-lying island in the Dnipro River set between the city of Kherson and the town of Hola Prystan on the eastern bank. [Tweet and map at the link.] That island, could be about to host its own mini-war.
That reported movement of Ukrainian troops came a couple of days after special forces crossed the Dnipro and raised the Ukrainian flag on a tower at a hard to reach point on the eastern shore. Following that action, many, many sites and news outlets that really should have known better ran story headlines about how Ukraine had “established a bridgehead across the Dnipro.” Except it hadn’t. It had raised a flag, then the guys who raised that flag went back to Kherson.
However, in this case the much more cautious Def Mon felt like he was seeing enough in military reports to trust that there was real activity behind what sources were claiming — that Ukrainian forces had actually stepped onto this island.
Now, here’s a tweet that goes back to Russian military sources on Friday. [Tweet and map at the link]
This is just one of several of several tweets and Telegram posts on that day indicating that Russian forces had — for reasons utterly unknown — also landing forces on this island. Because while the names may be different in these two tweets, the island is the same. So is the area of the island both groups are reportedly moving to take.
Obviously, having an outpost on these islands could be helpful in detecting any attempt to advance across the river, but the value of occupying this position seems to be low in anyone’s book — especially in an age when satellite imagery and the near-constant presence of drones should give more than an adequate warning of any attempt to launch a serious force across the river. There’s also the fact that people actually live here. Though the interior of the island is largely empty, there’s a substantial community of homes and small businesses all around the coastline, many of them belonging to people who once commuted to work in Kherson by boat. How many people are still on the island is unknown — after all, getting supplies to the island over the last nine months has bound to have been on the high side of challenging.
Are Ukrainian and Russian forces about to engage in a battle on an island in the middle of the Dnipro River for what seems like little more than bragging rights to this position? It seems possible. But why Russian forces would attempt to occupy this position seems utterly baffling.
One place where there’s no doubt about the intensity of battles going on is Bakhmut. Over the last three days, Russia has captured the window factory and the city garbage dump. On Friday, they reportedly took the furniture factory. If that last one sounds familiar, it may be because Russia has claimed to occupy that position several dozen times in the past, but have been unable to hold it.
However, there is deep concern that this push by Russia is more serious than past efforts. The wave attacks by poorly trained conscripts, many of them taken from Russian prisons, are still there, but Wagner seems to be following up those waves with some of its more experienced troops and armored vehicles, all of it under the cover of exceptionally heavy artillery. There is no doubt that Ukrainian forces there are in a tough spot, as they have been for months, and based on the reports of analysts with a proven track record in Ukraine, that situation is now as bad, or worse, than it has been at any time in the conflict. [Tweet with video showing first-person view of a Ukrainian sharpshooter at work in the Bakhmut area.]
Russian forces are pressing the town from the south and east, forcing Ukraine to move back from some forward positions they have held for months. Recent attempts to counter Russia’s push into Bakhmut don’t appear to have been successful and Wagner seems to be exerting a higher level of pressure than has been seen, at least over the last three months.
In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia has “destroyed” Bakhmut. Not in the sense that they have driven out Ukrainian forces, but in that through six months of constant assault and bombardment, they have devastated the buildings, homes, and people, leaving Bakhmut as little but “burnt ruins” and making the city an impossible place to live. While there have been efforts until now to maintain some semblance of normalcy in parts of the city, and to keep residents who chose to remain in Bakhmut supplied with food, water, and other necessary goods, there is now an accelerated effort to evacuate remaining civilians. [Tweet, and a video that a volunteer filmed showing the evacuation of people in Bakhmut under constant shelling.]
However, if there is one phrase that you’re likely to see if you go skimming through the media for mention of Bakhmut this morning, it’s either that “Ukrainian forces have suffered a heavy loss.” That’s being reported because the Institute for the Study of War passed it along apparently unaltered and unsupported from Russian propagandists. That. combined with AP’s morning headline of “Russia grinds on in eastern Ukraine; Bakhmut ‘destroyed’” has resulted in a flood of articles this morning written as if Bakhmut is already history; as if it’s already fallen. This is not the case. [map at the link]
Right now, almost everything we’re talking about in terms of area that Russia has “taken” over the last few days is in that green ova[. [oval is shown on the map] It is all, 100%, areas where Russian forces have been before. It is all still under fire from Ukrainian positions in the city and under Ukrainian artillery fire from guns further west.
There are definitely reasons for concern, and some of the biggest pro-Ukrainian military bloggers are warning that the situation there is bad, with fighting now going on at the extreme west of that green oval and the possibility that Russia well press in from that position, or from positions on the south.
But it hasn’t happened yet, and it may not happen at all. Ukraine has also moved additional forces into the area, and while some of those forces may have been lost in what was reported to be a failed advance earlier in the week, there’s no evidence that those losses are as “massive” as Russian sources are trying to pretend. This is by no means a story where the outcome is already determined.
I’m putting up this video mostly because it contains a glimpse of the river that runs through Bakhmut. This river is still some distance from the front lines at the moment, but here it can be seen to be channelized — meaning it’s neat and straight, with little in the way of surrounding floodplain and hard surface on either side. It’s the kind of river that can easily be addressed by bridging equipment, though that equipment, and bridge, would certainly become targets. [video at the link]
[Video showing Letterman interviewing Zelenskyy.]
Russian sources on Saturday are reporting that Ukrainian troops are “falling back from Soledar after heavy losses.” Soledar is less than 10km from Bakhmut and has also been an area of steady Russian assaults over a period of at least four months.
As with all such statements, this has to be taken with so much salt that it’s hard to know if anything remains. Ukrainian sources have reported attempted Russian advances in the area. There have been indications from Ukrainian sources of a “changed policy” in both Bakhmut and Soledar that may mean the lines are established in a new location. On the other hand, there continue to be reports of heavy Russian casualties in the area.
Russian sources are also claiming that taking Soledar will cut off supplies to Ukrainian forces north at Kreminna and Svatove. That’s one’s simple — it’s not true. They are also claiming that forces at Soledar are falling back to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. That one is simply ridiculous.
Right now, as at Bakhmut, the most that can be said with any certainty is that fighting continues at Soledar. For all anyone knows at the moment, that new Ukrainian strategy may be an all out counterattack, but at the moment, very little seems to have changed.
[video of fire at barracks in Crimea. "This one probably was actually due to smoking."]
Some Russians are a lot less confident about Russia’s assault on Bakhmut than much of the media appears to be today.
Girkin with a brief frontline update stating Ukrainian forces are accumulating in Zaporizhziha direction. Everywhere else, Russians are in passive defence and the Bakmut offensive has practically zero changes of breaking through Ukrainian defence.
President Biden next week will announce U.S. support for the African Union to become a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations, a step that would give African nations a long-sought prize and could make it easier for Biden to secure their cooperation on issues like Ukraine and climate change.
I’ve already written about the narcissism/radicalization cycle that took hold of Elon Musk at some point for whatever reasons and has been accelerating at a rapid pace since he finalized his acquisition of Twitter six weeks ago. It keeps accelerating, and in two distinct but interrelated ways I would like to note.
The first is that Musk is now in near constant dialogue with the most rabid conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites in the digital space. He’s jumped head first into the “globalist”/pedophile vortex which was at the heart of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and later the entire QAnon movement. He now accuses former Twitter management of intentionally allowing the platform to become a breeding ground of pedophilia and child sex trafficking. He claims he’s shutting the offending accounts down after previous management refused to do so. […] yesterday Musk drew a rebuke from former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who has been one of Musk’s bigger supporters during the takeover.
Many people take these claims at face value. But if you step back you see that the message Musk is now broadcasting is indistinguishable from the far-right claims of Pizzagate and QAnon propaganda: our “globalist” enemies are behind a vast network of pedophiles preying on our children. This shouldn’t surprise us because Musk’s main interlocutors are now literally the people who brought us Pizzagate and related conspiracy theories and blood libels.
Musk now regularly engages with and affirms the various claims and attacks of Mike Cernovich, the main promoter of the circa-2016 “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory which posited that Democratic elites were using a D.C. pizza shop as the center of a child sex ring. Pizzagate eventually evolved into QAnon. He’s also affirming the claims of disgraced journalist Lara Logan who was recently banned form Newsmax of all places for repeatedly claiming that World Economic Forum “elites” were “dining on the blood of children.” In other words, literally blood libels. (It takes a lot to get banned from Newsmax.) This is now Musk’s milieu. These are just a couple examples.
Musk isn’t just engaging with these people on Twitter. He’s also giving them the key to the Twitter kingdom. […]
As the sole remaining top-level lawyer in Twitter’s general counsel’s office, Jim Baker was working with Taibbi and Weiss on their initial documentary releases. He then fell under suspicion for his role in the purported Russia-Russia-Russia “hoax.” Once Musk’s new friends told him about Baker’s background he was summarily fired.
There are a number of other examples of this just in the last few days. The folks Musk has brought into his orbit aren’t only trying to discredit past Twitter management, they are in many cases deciding that the Twitter employees assigned to feed them information are themselves part of the larger anti-conservative conspiracy. It’s a very Lord-of-the-Flies-type environment Musk has spawned there. It’s not clear to me he really knows what he’s unleashed or how to control it. But there’s also little evidence he has any desire to control it or sees it as a problem.
Oggie: Mathomsays
Raven @359:
So what is driving inflation anyway?
We’ve all seen it every time we buy something and it is annoying after decades of relative price stability.
It is several causes coming together.
.1. Supply chain issues
.2. Government spending to counteract the pandemic effects.
.3. Worker shortages partly due to the pandemic killing and disabling millions of workers.
.4. The Russian invasion of Ukraine.
And you forgot number 5: profit taking by large corporations. How many large companies are recording record profits despite supply chain issues, the higher cost of labour and the invasion of Ukraine? Seriously. Exon Mobil has reported record profits. So have lots of other companies. They can charge lots more and blame it on 1, 2, 3 & 4 (with an emphasis on 2 (it is always the governments fault)).
KGsays
The EU and NATO are far stronger than Russia so it [full-scale NATO-Russia war]wouldn’t be too bad. – raven@257
This is fucking stupid nonsense. However dysfunctional Russa amay be, it still has a large arsenal of thermonuclear weapons, which must be assumed functional in the absence of evidence to the contrary. If even a small fraction of them are, and are used, or if the USA use even a small fraction of theirs, this would likely be a civilization-ending event.
Today, Ye, fka Kanye West, did something he hasn’t done much in 2022 in the midst of trying to rewrite history on Nazis — he released a song. The controversial artist, who has come under fire for the toxic work conditions at his Yeezy empire, uploaded a two-minute song entitled “Someday We’ll All Be Free” on his Instagram. Ye also allowed new friend Alex Jones to release the song on his InfoWars platform. The Instagram caption for the song reads, “Censori overload The variable epitope library from the antigen promotes an immune response in the body.”
whheydtsays
Re: Raven @ #355…
Records obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW indicate the incident disrupted electricity in some areas of Clackamas County, knocking some of the county’s computer systems offline.
What? The county offices never heard of backup power systems for a data center? Having a data center go down for lack of outside power speaks to either a failure of local equipment or completely incompetent management…or both.
raven @ # 357: The EU and NATO are far stronger than Russia so it wouldn’t be too bad.
For crysake.
Please keep in mind that (a) you’re talking about World War III, certain to leave the Ukrainian-Russian civilian and military casualty count so far as a minor footnote; (b) that sort of blithe smugness has preceded (and been disproved by) practically every major war in history; and (c) the likelihood that most of the deaths would occur on the Russian side (unless they launched their nuclear weaponry…) may seem trivial to a confirmed Russophobe but would actually matter tremendously on human and historical scales.
What kind of a deal is it to swap Brittney Griner, a basketball player who openly hates our Country, for the man known as ‘The Merchant of Death,’ who is one of the biggest arms dealers anywhere in the World, and responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and horrific injuries. Why wasn’t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking. What a ‘stupid’ and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!”
What Paul Whelan’s brother posted in reply:
Former President Trump appears to have mentioned my brother #PaulWhelan’s wrongful detention more in the last 24 hours than he did in the 2 years of his presidency in which Paul was held hostage by #Russia (zero). I don’t suggest he cares now any more than he did then (zero)
Peter Baker:
Trump slams trade with Russia, saying, “Why wasn’t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking.” Begging the question then of why Trump didn’t free Whelan, who was imprisoned in 2018 during Trump’s presidency
Another detail that can be brought into the discussion about inflation:
[…] Yesterday’s US unit labor cost numbers are subject to possible future revisions, but showed non-financial corporate profits growing faster than labor costs. In fact, profits have grown faster than labor costs for seven of the past eight quarters, as prices have grown faster than labor costs for seven of the past eight quarters. Today’s inflation is more about margin expansion than labor costs. […]
[…] Margin expansion? That literally means “profits.”
This pretty much just means that the reason things are expensive is because corporations are charging a lot of money for them, for absolutely no reason other than that they would like to make more money. The labor costs are not actually even going up anymore, and they’re jacking up prices anyway.
This hurts not just consumers but smaller businesses that are also forced to pay higher prices when purchasing wholesale and thus also have more difficulty paying their much smaller workforces […] and the compounded difficulty of the fact that people are likely buying (or donating, as the case may be) less because things cost more is not helping.
So to be clear, large corporations are greedy and everyone is getting screwed because of that.
I will say this straight out, however — we actually do pay too little for a lot of things. The fact is, a lot of US employers want to pay their employees very little in order to make lots and lots of money for themselves, their CEOs, and their shareholders. The US is also the world’s largest importer of foreign goods. In order for things to be cheap enough for the vast majority of Americans to be able to afford to buy them, people further down in the supply chain have to be paid practically nothing. Or, in the case of certain products — like cotton, chocolate, cosmetic products made with palm oil — literally nothing, because they are actual slaves. Diamonds are also mined by slaves, of course, but we actually overpay for those thanks to clever marketing from DeBeers (but let’s not get into that).
Much of the world (including the US) has had to suffer because American employers want to be able to pay their employees very little — and in the face of having to pay those employees just a little bit more, they unnecessarily drove up the prices of everything at least in part to get to do a big “Look at what these greedy workers have done to you, the American people, by rudely demanding to be paid enough to live on!” while raking in even bigger profits for themselves — and hopefully putting workers in their place, too afraid to ask for more ever again.
… the likelihood that most of the deaths would occur on the Russian side (unless they launched their nuclear weaponry…) may seem trivial to a confirmed Russophobe but would actually matter tremendously on human and historical scales.
Pierce, if you are going to let Russian nuclear threats run your life and your foreign policy,…in the long run, that just makes things worse.
Everyone knows this and says so often, up to and including the NATO head Stolenberg, who I just quoted.
And that is after you’ve thrown Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, other former SSRs, and anyone else the Russians care to conquer undere the bus.
You do realize that acting from fear of what is now known to be a tissue paper tiger would make North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia the major world powers.
…may seem trivial to a confirmed Russophobe …
I’m not a Russophobe.
Get it right.
You just criticized me for not being afraid enough of the Russians.
I certainly don’t like them and don’t respect them one bit.
In areas where they held power everyone knows someone who was disappeared, sent to the Gulags, made into a slave laborer, or just killed.
You will note the strongest supporters of Ukraine are former captive nations such as Poland, Lithuania, Czechia, Latvia, Estonia, Romania etc..
They’ve been there and they know all about Russia.
ravensays
Tweet
Eerik N Kross @EerikNKross
Estonia is still finding unmarked graves of our forest brothers, the guerilla fighters against the Soviet occupation. Today, we buried three of them at Kose cemetery with full military honours. For the first time at an event like this the Ukrainian flag was raised as well.
This is one reason why most people don’t like the Russians.
The Forest Brothers were guerrilla fighters who fought the Russians after World War II.
There are millions of people who the Russians killed and dumped in mass graves all over the entire former USSR block.
Here it is 2022 and they are still digging them up.
Here it is 2022 and the Russians are still killing people and dumping them in mass graves. They find them in Ukraine wherever the Russian were occupiers.
The Gulags never got full.
When they ran out of space, the Russian took the people they disliked the most out, shot them, and buried them.
“I believe in Jesus, so I’m interrupting the floor,” the Franklin Academy teacher is heard saying in a viral TikTok video before stepping over the students as they prayed.
whheydtsays
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #373…
I saw an article about that. Part of my reaction was, “So what’s wrong with them doing “magic?”” Glad the teacher got fired. She was in the wrong on SO many levels…
ravensays
This is a twitter thread I condensed from many and left out all the pictures.
It’s a great read from a Russian citizen scholar who is actually a minority, Tatar.
His main points.
.1. Russia needs to keep everyone poor.
If some regions start getting richer, they will start thinking they are better off without…Russia.
.2. The economic structure of Russia does this.
Money flows from the hinterlands to Moscow and St. Petersberg.
.3. Russia claims it is 80% ethnic Russians.
This is nonsense. Russian statistics are just made up to serve the rulers.
.4. Probably no one knows how much of Russia is ethnic Russians.
A lot of them are mixed so they can pick and choose based on advantage and personal whim.
The Russian government doesn’t mind. They want everyone to claim to be ethnic Russians anyway.
I’ve seen estimates that it might be 60% ethnic Russians.
The summary. And that is exactly why the Kremlin aims not to allow any well-run cities to emerge amidst the post-Soviet desert. Any city, any region that becomes noticeably richer & better-run there others will inevitably get prouder, its identity will grow stronger. It’ll become a danger
Any region living obviously better than others -> The rise of regionalism -> Activation (or invention?) of regional identity -> Neighbours may start emulating it
Now you see why Russia is invading Ukraine.
If Ukraine does well (it will) it threatens Russian rule by showing how dysfunctional and incompetent it is.
Being commercially active and serfdom unaffected, Pomorye used to be Pthe richest region of Muscovy. Counting the entire tax burden is difficult, but here is one rando indicator – number of households paying the musketeers tax in 1682-1683
At this point Pomor identity is seen as highly undesirable. Every distinct identity is viewed through the lenses of potential separatism -> frowned upon. For this reason Kremlin puts great effort into deactivating it. It can be activated anytime though in case of political crisis
For the past decades this has been of the most FDI-oriented regions in Russia. As a result, 2022 affected it badly with Arkhangelsk being of the main losers employment-wise. Too much of the local economy depended on foreign employers
When we discuss potential separatism in Russia, we should pay less focus on “identity”, which we don’t understand anyway and more on the following question:
Who has a reason to think they would be better off without Moscow than with it? Cost/benefit analysis
Thirdly, when discussing ethnic balance in Russia we should keep in mind that much of population is heavily mixed. So self-identification (which by no means is reflected adequately in gov censuses) becomes very much a matter of choice. You can choose which identity to activate
Comparison with neighbouring Bashkortostan is very telling. In Soviet times Bashkortostan generally fared better. After 1991 it fared much worse
One reason is that in Bashkortostan they allowed Moscow companies to privatise local industry, while in Tatarstan they chose not to
In Tatarstan a few ruling families divided pretty much all of Soviet industry among themselves. No Moscow business was allowed to privatise anything. For this reason people in neighbouring regions envy Tatarstan very much
I tell this without irony and not as a joke
Reforms of the 1990s could not result in some “fair” Sweden-style system. They were not designed this way. They could result only in landlordism. So the real choice was between:
Presentee landlordism vs Absentee landlordism
If you lived under any, you’ll know the difference
Absentee landlordism = company registered in Moscow (paying taxes there) and owners living in Geneva (spending their rent there). That’s the golden standard of Russian governance and that’s how most of the Russian regions are run. Locals get the poisoned air, and that’s it
Presentee landlordism is somewhat different. Once in DC I met a former N. company employee who dissuaded his higher-ups from investing to Tatneft. Unlike his superiors, he had travelled around Russia extensively. Specifically, he spent many hours driving through Tatarstan
First thing he noticed is that infrastructure was obviously better than in any of the proximities. When asking his companions how it’s paid for, they’d usually say it’s paid by Tatneft (local oil company). Hence, he deduce Tatneft is not really a private company, but more of a…
Local government’s wallet to finance public spending. Shareholders just can’t get too high dividends. Any “surplus” would be taken out for public spending – from road repairments to research grants
Kremlin-controlled oil companies are run *more* in the interest of shareholders
That illustrates the difference between presentee landlordism (local elite appropriates everything) and the absentee landlordism (Moscow elite appropriates everything). Unlike most other regions, Tatarstan elites were able to implement presentee landlordism scenario
One major consequence was the renegotiation of ethnic hierarchy. Until 1989 Russian community was indisputably dominant and the Tatar one certainly inferior one. After 1991 this balance started to crumble
Once Tatarstan got richer neighbours started looking at them up, that’s it
Public spending was a major tool for renegotiating the hierarchy. I strongly recommend this book: this author got that the Beautification of Kazan was not simply urbanist policy. It was political and it changed the hierarchy https://books.openedition.org/ceup/1752?lang=en
Until 1989 most Russians looked down upon Tatars. After 1991 though most neighbouring cities (and especially towns) which got under other governments fall into complete desolation. The simple fact that Tatarstan institutions were well-run changed the balance of status & power
That doesn’t mean that *all* Russian supremacist agenda in Tatarstan and beyond disappeared. It just means it got more silent and became very much more bitter & defensive. It got the ressentiment overtones it had never had before
The hierarchy was renegotiated
As a result, the ethic balance started shifting too. Until 1989 most mixed heritage children were given Russian names and adopted Russian identity. Since 1991 the number of those who adopted Tatar one increased quickly
Ethnic hierarchy -> Ethnic balance
Case of Tatarstan is very illustrative. People see ethnic balance as primordial. That’s not necessarily true. Ethnic balance depends upon ethnic hierarchy. And ethnic hierarchy can be renegotiated by as little as having a well-run city amidst the post-Soviet desert
And that is exactly why the Kremlin aims *not* to allow any well-run cities to emerge amidst the post-Soviet desert. Any city, any region that becomes noticeably richer & better-run there others will inevitably get prouder, its identity will grow stronger. It’ll become a danger
*Any* region living obviously better than others -> The rise of regionalism -> Activation (or invention?) of regional identity -> Neighbours may start emulating it
That’s why Moscow should keep everyone in poverty and would not allow any regional economy to blossom
Russia must be desolate to remain united. Any region growing too much might threaten the power of Moscow. So Moscow must keep everyone poor to maintain integrity of the empire. This is the major reason for the national divorce: so that *some* colonies could get a chance
The end
ravensays
I managed to only copy and condense the second half of Kamil Galeev’s analysis.
It was tedious to condense a lot of tweets into one article and I got side tracked.
Here is the first part of the work mentioned in #375.
It stands alone nicely.
Kamil Galeev @kamilkazani
National Divorce: Q and A
In this thread I am going to cover some of the more common misconceptions about the current state of affairs in Russia and potential scenarios of its breakup. I am going to start with the most common objection:
“Isn’t Russia like 80% ethnic Russian?”🧵
Both honest sceptics (mostly foreigners) and more biased critics (mostly Moscow literati) love pointing to the official census results. Indeed, official censuses picture Russia as almost homogenous country with 77% pop being ethnic Russian
How reliable are these results though?
Much of aggregate data from Russia/China etc. looks very appealing. That’s until we start disaggregating it. Aggregate figures can be just as reliable as the raw data they’re based upon. Therefore, Russian/Chinese statistics too often have the “Garbage in, Garbage out” problem
Let me give some personal experience of how ethnic data is being collected. During my lifetime Russia has two official censuses – in 2002, 2010. Both times they tried to designate me as “Russian” (despite my obviously Tatar name) and backed off only after I initiated the conflict
In 2002 I was a primary school student. They distributed questionnaires in a class and instructed us how to fill them
“Национальность – русский, русская” (Ethnicity – Russian (f/m)
– I’m a Tatar actually
– Are you SURE about that?
– Yes
That’s understandable. The class consisted of 9-10 year old students and nobody was asking them how they would describe themselves. The teacher just instructed them to write “Russian”, so they naturally submitted to the authority figure
Nobody is asking. It’s an order, actually
Next census happened in 2010. This time a pollster came to our home. He asked lots of questions – names, ages, occupations. Regarding ethnicity though, he started filling “Russian” WITHOUT EVEN ASKING. We noticed it, forced him to through out the questionaires and fill them anew
In both cases being described as “Russian” was avoidable. In the first case I could just refuse to write it, in the second case, we could notice it and destroy the papers. In both cases we had to escalate the conflict though
“Russian” is a default option forced by state machine
Interestingly enough, neither I, nor my family members, nor a number of my classmates could be designated as “Russian” judging by our names. Still, all were described as “Russian” by default. Why? Doesn’t the Russian state want to see objective data? If so, what does it want?
Well, they want to produce this map. The goal of census is not to produce some “objective results” for the world to see. The goal of census is to produce the map that would legitimise the current state of affairs
“It’s all Russians” map should legitimise the rule of Moscow
Now why does “it’s all Russians” map legitimise the rule of Moscow? Well, because of the hive mind assumption. If all “Russians” comprise a hivemind that can’t see themselves outside of Russia and 77% pop are Russians, then yes, the empire is very robust
It’s a legitimising myth
Even more importantly, homogeneity + hivemind theory legitimises the autocratic rule. Quasirepresentation of a homogenous hivemind, is the best legitimising tool of an autocracy or a wannabe autocracy
That’s why both Putin and the “liberal opposition” share this theory
That’s a good litmus test for the wannabe autocrats. They are going to legitimise their rule speaking on behalf of the homogenous hivemind. If empire is so homogenous, then it can be perfectly represented by a bunch of courtiers in Moscow
Homogeneity + Hivemind -> Autocracy
Census data is highly unreliable even by Russian standards. Kremlin has much less incentive to forge rando socioeconomic data no one is looking up (beef production by region)
The incentive to forge ethnic data is enormous. People *will* look it up and make political conclusions
So the first thing to understand about Russian ethnic statistics is its extreme unreliability. Results are being forged on the very first stage – collection. As the gov forces “Russian” option as a default down people’s throats, the input is fake. So the output will be fake, too
Secondly, identities aren’t necessarily exclusive. It’s normal to have a number of identities simultaneously – ethnic, regional, religious – some of which can be activated/deactivated depending on circumstances
Russian gov works hard to suppress & deactivate regional identities
NB I’m not talking about the racial/religious identities that could be easily framed in terms of American identity politics. I am talking specifically about regional ones, that are seldom seen otherwise than as a part of a homogenous “Russian” hivemind. Consider just one
“Pomorye” literally “The Land by the Sea” is centred around the sub-Arctic White Sea region and the northern rivers flowing into it. It has been historically very different from the southern lands around Moscow, with a very different socioeconomic structure and culture
To start with, it was the only originally seafaring culture under the power of Moscow. It was very much integrated into the maritime European world, economy and culture-wise. Economy was largely based on international commerce and culture influenced by the nearby Scandinavia
It was the region least affected by serfdom. In the course of the Romanov revolution 1610-1620s most of the previously free Muscovite peasantry was distributed between nobility and reduced to chattel slavery by around 1700. Pomorye had no nobility -> Was almost unaffacted
ravensays
Part of my reaction was, “So what’s wrong with them doing “magic?””
Well, those Muslim students were in fact, doing magic.
Begging or asking a powerful supernatural being to do something for them.
It is Muslim witchcraft.
OTOH, so is xian prayer.
Xian prayer is begging or asking a powerful supernatural being to do something for them like toss a few lightning bolts at Nancy Pelosi or make Trump president.
That teacher was the pot calling the kettle black.
To be sure, both Muslim and xian magic work the same, which is as far as we know, not at all.
Pierce R. Butlersays
raven @ # 371 – Damn, you can dodge and cherry-pick like a pro.
… after you’ve thrown Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, other former SSRs, and anyone else the Russians care to conquer undere the bus.
You seem here to project all sorts of assumptions into what I said, which bore entirely on the callous and shallow dismissal of potentially triggering World War III. Guess what – I at least can recognize a difficult situation has multiple nuances worth keeping in mind, rather than picking one side and sneering ignorantly at all the others.
You just criticized me for not being afraid enough of the Russians.
Do you really think all, say, “homophobia” means is that some bigots are afraid of LGBTQs? Or that Islamophobes run away with urine staining their clothes at every sight of a hijab? That strained and literalistic interpretation of a word for your own purposes won’t convince anyone here.
Just back off some from your bigotry and, please, STOP making stupid statements like all-out Eurasian war “wouldn’t be too bad.”
ravensays
raven @ # 371 – Damn, you can dodge and cherry-pick like a pro.
Down to insults already?
I have no interest in continuing this discussion with you.
Just back off some from your bigotry and, please, STOP making stupid statements like all-out Eurasian war “wouldn’t be too bad.”
We are already in a major European war.
We didn’t start this war.
We didn’t choose to fight this war.
Why don’t you tell the Russians to stop invading other countries and trying to genocide the Ukrainians?
I’m sure that isn’t a stupid idea.
Scientists have long held onto the idea that sticky blobs of proteins sitting between brain cells are the cause of Alzheimer’s disease. Now, however, many are turning their attention to deeper dysfunctions happening within cells.
Amyloid plaques are correlated with Alzheimer’s, but what is cause and what is effect? The field got derailed by fraudulent research a couple decades ago.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukrainian missiles hit barracks in Russian-occupied Melitopol
Ukraine has attacked a barracks in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, with some Ukrainian sources claiming scores of Russian casualties.
According to witnesses, 10 explosions were heard, although some of those may have been from Russian anti-aircraft systems. Ukrainian officials claimed scores of Russian dead and injured while Russia conceded a handful of casualties.
Video footage posted on social media showed what was claimed to be a Russian barracks in the southern city engulfed in a fierce blaze with some claiming the site was being used by the Wagner mercenary group.
Another video showed rescue workers in the ruins with several bodies visible.
The site, a former resort and hotel complex next to a church in the city known as the Hunter’s Halt, was being used as a barracks with most of the casualties apparently in a mess hall when it was hit.
The strike on Melitopol – reportedly with Himars rockets – was one of several overnight on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian occupied Crimea, including Sevastopol and Simferopol.
A neo-Nazi paramilitary group linked to the Kremlin has asked its members to submit intelligence on border and military activity in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, raising concerns over whether far-right Russian groups are planning an attack on Nato countries.
The official Telegram channel for “Task Force Rusich” – currently fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and linked to the notorious Wagner Group – last week requested members to forward details relating to border posts and military movements in the three Baltic states, which were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
The news has prompted questions over who has overall command over the far-right pro-Kremlin groups fighting in Ukraine.
Rusich is closely aligned to the Wagner Group, a military outfit run by a close ally of Vladimir Putin and now leading the Russian offensive to capture the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, currently the most fiercely contested battle of the conflict.
Sources speaking on condition of anonymity said the “extraordinary” move by Rusich could point to disenchantment with the Kremlin and frustration with how Putin’s war in Ukraine is going.
They added that the Kremlin could lose control of its far-right Russian paramilitary organisations, which may exploit more extreme methods to pursue the Ukrainian war, raising fears of escalation if a Nato state were attacked.
However, sources added it was unlikely that the Kremlin was directly involved because its espionage service would undoubtedly already have intelligence on military and border activity in the Baltic states.
The source said: “Does it indicate fragmentation within the Russian system? What happens if the Russians lose control of them [the paramilitary groups] and they start committing rogue actions that could accidentally escalate the situation? The real question is: how much control does the Kremlin really have?”
Recent reports indicate that some paramilitary groups such as the Wagner Group, founded by the powerful Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, already have considerable autonomy and as much access to Putin as formal government officials.
Although interactions between Rusich and Wagner Group-affiliated online channels have been documented recently, it remains unclear to what extent the group operates with strategic oversight from Wagner or even the Russian defence ministry.
Rusich promotes itself as a sabotage and reconnaissance force, though its frequent crowdfunding efforts suggest it is not effectively supported by Russian logistical operations.
…
Rusich’s fighters, notorious for their brutality in Syria and the 2014 war in Crimea, have been spotted via open-source intelligence in Ukraine’s Donbas and Kharkiv regions, and in Kherson.
The US treasury department announced in September that it was imposing sanctions against Rusich.
Recent reports indicate the Biden administration is now considering designating the Wagner Group as a foreign terrorist organisation….
Governor: Electricity restored for almost 90% of consumers in Kherson.
Kherson Oblast Governor Yaroslav Yanushevych made the announcement on Dec. 11. According to Ukraine’s private power producer DTEK, Russians “completely destroyed” Kherson’s energy system when retreating.
A Belgian judge on Sunday charged four people in an alleged corruption scandal involving World Cup host Qatar and the European parliament.
Over the weekend, authorities seized €600,000 in cash and arrested six people in what appears to be one of the most significant corruption cases seen in the European parliament. The judge approved charges for “participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption” against four people who remain in pre-trial detention.
“It is suspected that third parties in political and/or strategic positions within the European parliament were paid large sums of money or offered substantial gifts to influence Parliament’s decisions,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Sunday. Two other people who were detained over the weekend were released…
Pierce R. Butlersays
raven @ # 379: Down to insults already?
When an accurate description looks that way, maybe you should reconsider your strategy.
I have no interest in continuing this discussion with you.
Then stop with the crude ethnic hatred and reckless warmongering. This is not something that many of us can silently walk by.
KGsays
Why don’t you [Pierce R. Butler] tell the Russians to stop invading other countries and trying to genocide the Ukrainians?
I’m sure that isn’t a stupid idea. – raven@379
It is, actually, because “the Russians” are not going to listen to Pierce R. Butler, or anyone else commenting here (even you, believe it or not), telling them to do or not do anything.
Interestingly enough, neither I, nor my family members, nor a number of my classmates could be designated as “Russian” judging by our names. Still, all were described as “Russian” by default.
Thanks for posting that. I did not realize that the population census in Russia was that screwed up. I can see why Russian leadership would want to portray the population as more homogeneous than it is, but I did not know the census-manipulation details. More nonsense from the autocracy. And more disinformation.
ravensays
“We are in a very dangerous space in the region…you can expect that regional states will certainly look towards how they can ensure their own security.”
I’ve said many times that the Saudi Arabian nuclear weapons program starts the day after Iran tests their first nuclear bomb.
The Saudi Foreign minister just said the same thing in a more diplomatic way.
They almost have to do that.
For the same reason that shortly after India tested some of their nuclear weapons, Pakistan set off some of their own.
Or they may just buy a few from Pakistan. Pakistan has the nuclear weapons and needs the money.
I’m sure the Iranians know it also which is probably the only thing slowing them down right now.
This is another of the achievements of the Russians. By incessantly threatening to use nuclear weapons against anyone and everyone, they are normalizing the idea of…using nuclear weapons.
Reuters Saudi foreign minister: ‘All bets off’ if Iran gets nuclear weapon
Arab Gulf Summit in Riyadh
Sun, December 11, 2022 at 6:52 AM·2 min read
DUBAI (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said on Sunday that Iran’s Gulf Arab neighbours would act to shore up their security if Tehran were to obtain nuclear weapons.
Indirect U.S.-Iranian talks to salvage a 2015 nuclear pact between global powers and Iran, which Washington exited in 2018, stalled in September. The U.N. nuclear chief has voiced concern over a recent announcement by Tehran that it was boosting enrichment capacity.
“If Iran gets an operational nuclear weapon, all bets are off,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said in an on-stage interview at the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi when asked about such a scenario.
“We are in a very dangerous space in the region…you can expect that regional states will certainly look towards how they can ensure their own security.”
The nuclear talks have stalled with Western powers accusing Iran of raising unreasonable demands, and focus shifting to the Russia-Ukraine war as well as domestic unrest in Iran over the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Though Riyadh remained “sceptical” about the Iran nuclear deal, Prince Faisal said it supported efforts to revive the pact “on condition that it be a starting point, not an end point” for a stronger deal with Tehran.
Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states have pressed for a stronger agreement that addresses their concerns about Shi’ite Iran’s missiles and drones programme and network of regional proxies.
“The signs right now are not very positive unfortunately,” Prince Faisal said.
“We hear from the Iranians that they have no interest in a nuclear weapons programme, it would be very comforting to be able to believe that. We need more assurance on that level.”
Iran says its nuclear technology is solely for civil purposes.
A senior Emirati official said on Saturday that there was an opportunity to revisit “the whole concept” of the nuclear pact given the current spotlight on Tehran’s weapons with Western states accusing Russia of using Iranian drones to attack targets in Ukraine. Iran and Russia deny the charges.
Far too often, the role of Black women as part of the foundational cornerstones in American music—whether in blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, or rock and roll—gets either overlooked or underreported and under-researched. One of those women, whose musical performance and songwriting helped launch the careers of two major white artists—Elvis Presley and Janis Joplin—not only got virtually ignored, but also died broke and alone at the age of 57.
Born Willie Mae Thornton in Alabama on Dec. 11, 1926, this woman became known in the music world as Big Mama Thornton. Had she lived, today would be Big Mama’s 96th birthday. [snipped her biography, see the link for the details, including this: “the song became a monster hit for Elvis Presley, with an arrangement similar to the original. Thornton always felt that she was cheated out of the success she deserved from “Hound Dog.” The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music noted that some people thought Thornton rather than Lieber and Stoller should have received credit for writing it. “I never got what I should have,” she was quoted as saying by Stambler. “I got one check for $500 and I never seen another.”]
[1952 recording of “Hound Dog” is available at the link. Also the 1965 footage of Thornton performing “Hound Dog” and other songs is available at the link.]
[…] Give a listen to her rendition of the blues standard “Little Red Rooster.” [video at the link]
[…]
Thornton spoke highly of Joplin, who had asked if she could record Thornton’s song and who publicly acknowledged her. Discussing Joplin in 1972, Thornton said, “I gave her the right and the permission to make ‘Ball and Chain.’ And she always was my idol before she passed away … and I thank her for helping me. I’ll always go along the line with that.” From the 1960s on, “Ball and Chain” was a crowd-pleasing part of Big Mama’s repertoire. Thornton would typically mention Joplin as she introduced the song, calling her “the late and great Janis Joplin” on some occasions. Always, she claimed the song as her own, noting that she wrote it and would be singing it “in my own way, the way I wrote it.” According to Strachwitz, “[Thornton] was really proud of ‘Ball and Chain.’ It was just one of those things that came to her, you know, because of her love and problems and then [Joplin] made it into a hit and [Thornton] appreciated Janis helping her get gigs.” The creation of the song, ownership of the song, and financial and social recognition of that ownership were all important to Thornton.
[…]
More at the link, including Big Mama Thornton singing “Oh, Happy Day.”
Congress must pass a funding bill by Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
Congressional leaders and the White House are struggling to reach a deal on a massive government funding package, warning that they almost certainly will need to pass a short-term measure to avert a shutdown at the end of the week.
Lawmakers had hoped to wrap up their work in the lame duck session by Friday but are now making plans to stay around right up until the Christmas weekend. Some say they may have to return to Washington the week after that as well, putting at risk family vacations and official congressional delegation trips abroad.
The fate of the bill is also linked to an election overhaul measure to avoid another Jan. 6, which Senate leaders hope to attach to it. Congress must fund the government before Saturday to avoid a shutdown.
[…] Democrats and Republicans still have not agreed on top-line spending numbers for an “omnibus” package that will fund the federal government through the fiscal year that ends in September 2023; without those numbers, appropriators cannot finalize the details. […]
Complicating the GOP internal politics is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is courting right-wing votes in his quest to become speaker and is pressuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to walk away from the table until the new Congress in January, when Republicans will take control of the House and wield more negotiating leverage.
“We’re 28 days away from Republicans having the gavel. We would be stronger in every negotiation,” McCarthy said in a Dec. 5 interview on Fox News. “Wait till we’re in charge.”
Democratic appropriators called that scenario a nonstarter.
“That would be disastrous. The president has already indicated that is not an option, so Democrats are gonna deliver. We’re working hard day and night,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the State Department and embassies. […]
Look, I’m a level-headed reasonable guy. While people screamed about Belarus joining the war, multiple times this year, I laughed off the hysteria. A simple look at a map and the state of the Belorussian army was enough to dismiss the idea. When people screamed that Russia was imminently staging an amphibious landing at Odesa, I rolled my eyes. Wasn’t going to happen. When people freaked out at Russia’s nuclear threats, or an imminent destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, I explained why neither would happen.
[…] I’ve explained logistics and sustainment dozens of times, and how Ukraine can’t even manage its own maintenance of the mechanically simple M777 howitzer, so how could it ever be expected to maintain F16s or M1 Abrams tanks or other highly computerized gear? And I’ve been critical of Russia’s war strategy, but have never shied away from doing the same when it seems Ukraine is messing up (like the costly defense of Severodonetsk).
So why this setup? Because I want to remind everyone that I have always evaluated every bit of news with sober and realistic analysis. It’s not every day I read something that sets me off, and yet today is one of those days.
If it seems as though U.S. military aid shipments to Ukraine are slowing down, it’s because they are. And the reasons are, quite frankly, utter horseshit. But before we get to that, let’s recap what our country has sent, because it’s impressive, yes, but also relevant to the discussion. Here’s a partial list […]:
38 HIMARS rocket artillery systems and ammunition
142 155mm Howitzers and up to 1,004,000 155mm artillery rounds
4,200 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds
36 105mm Howitzers and 180,000 105mm artillery rounds
20 120mm mortar systems and 135,000 120mm mortar rounds
45 T-72B tanks
Over 1,000 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (Humvees);
Over 100 light tactical vehicles;44 trucks and 88 trailers to transport heavy equipment
200 M113 Armored Personnel Carriers
250 M1117 Armored Security Vehicles
440 MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles
Nearly 300 Tactical Vehicles to tow weapons and recover equipment
1,600 Stinger anti-aircraft systems
Eight National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) and munition
20 Mi-17 helicopters (originally purchased from Russia for Afghan army)
Over 8,500 Javelin anti-armor systems;
Over 46,000 other anti-armor systems and munitions;
Over 700 Switchblade Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems
The total value of all that military equipment is $11.7 billion, with a new announcement this week pushing that to almost $12 billion. Remember that this isn’t a direct outlay—much of this equipment is being phased out and in the process of being replaced, so, for example, those humvees would’ve ended up in storage, or gifted to other military partners and allies. The M113 is two generations old, hailing from the 1970s. But there’s no doubt that the consumables are becoming a problem.
By consumable, I’m talking about ammunition—bullets, rockets, artillery shells, and missiles. By U.S. law, the Pentagon has to keep enough ammunition in stock to supply two and a half wars, commonly understood as Russia, China (or North Korea), and a random “half” war somewhere else, all at the same time. Apparently, no one ever paid attention to that law before, but now suddenly it’s being used as an excuse to slow roll assistance to Ukraine.
Thus, the Pentagon is suddenly claiming that it is running low of ammunition for Ukraine, fighting Russia, because it may need that material to … fight a war against Russia. And what’s worse, the ammunition supply it claims is necessary is based on a pre-war analysis, before Ukraine demolished at least 8,400 piece of Russian military equipment.
U.S. military and defense officials have repeatedly told lawmakers and aides in recent briefings that munition thresholds mandated by Pentagon war plans—such as for a possible U.S. and NATO fight with Russia that could include a military scenario in the sparsely populated Suwalki Gap near Moscow’s border with the Baltics—are preventing the United States from sending more munitions to Ukraine.
The reasoning was first used to defer questions about why the Biden administration has not transferred the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System (known as ATACMS), an American-made guided missile that would allow the Ukrainian military to hit Russian targets up to 200 miles from the front lines. But congressional aides tracking the debate told Foreign Policy that defense and military officials have said stockpiling requirements mandated by U.S. war plans are behind the American military aid’s slower pace to Ukraine in recent months.
“They’re applying it across the board to Stinger, Javelin, 155 [millimeter artillery], and GMLRS [munitions],” one congressional aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the internal debate. GMLRS stands for Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems. “It’s one of their driving rationales for going at the slow pace that they’re going at.”
There’s no doubt that whatever war plan the Pentagon had before February was inherently inaccurate—everyone assumed a competent Russian army that never materialized on the battlefield. The lack of an update of that plan, now that Russia has been so severely degraded by Ukraine that it is pulling 1950s-vintage tanks out of storage, is beyond ridiculous. Those munitions were stockpiled to fight Russia, and there are less of them now because they have been used to fight Russia, and successfully!
It’s even worse than that, in a way that that excellent article doesn’t even address.
There is concern that stockpiles of anti-air Stingers, anti-tank Javelins, and artillery (both rocket and tube) munitions are running low. That’s a real concern, and one that the U.S. is already moving to address by increasing industrial production lines. But here’s the thing—Ukraine isn’t fighting NATO’s war. In other words, doctrines are different.
US/NATO doctrine is heavily dependent on air power. A theoretical non-nuclear NATO-Russia war would begin with a weeks-long campaign to degrade Russia’s air defense systems and Air Force, clearing the skies to allow ground forces to be supported by ground-support warplanes and attack helicopters. How much of that capability has the United States sent Ukraine? Zero.
Furthermore, neither the U.S. nor NATO have handed over any of its modern armor or infantry fighting vehicles. That all remains in U.S. hands and Western hands, even though 2,000 M1 Abrams tanks are sitting in storage in the California desert. And of course, the U.S. hasn’t sent any of the thousands of long-range rockets and missiles in its arsenal; not the ATACMS rockets Ukraine could launch from its existing HIMARS and M270 MLRS launchers, and certainly not Tomahawk and other ballistic cruise missiles.
Worst case scenario, and NATO finds itself in a shooting war with Russia, it would still be able to wage its war, relatively unhampered by the gear it has sent Ukraine. Would artillery shells be in shorter supply? Sure! But even at the height of the Afghan and Iraqi wars, American artillery crews fired only hundreds of shells per day, compared to the 10,000+ shells that Russia reportedly fires every single day. And fewer Javelins? Of course, but there are also 2,000 fewer Russian tanks on the battlefield. They’re literally being used for what they’re designed to do.
Russian doctrine is artillery heavy, and Ukraine has inherited much of that approach—especially important given Ukraine’s lack of a serious air force (a dozen daily sorties is impressive, given the conditions, but those won’t have a marked impact on the trajectory of the war).
As the pace of U.S. military aid to Ukraine has slipped since the summer, concern on Capitol Hill is that the United States is holding back weapons for a Europe-wide conflict that Russia may not be prepared to fight, when Ukrainian troops are already degrading the Russian military on the battlefield.
“The OPLAN versus Russia is the same one it’s been for the last decade,” said a second congressional aide familiar with the debate, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe behind-the-scenes discussions. “We haven’t adjusted that based on the fact that the Ukrainians have essentially neutered the Russian army. So we have a plan in place to deal with the Russian army as we thought it was a year or two years ago.”
Infuriating. How “hard” can it be to reevaluate what NATO needs to defeat a Russian attack? Subtract 8,000 vehicles from Russia’s stockpile, note their dwindling stock of supplies (begging Iran and North Korea for help), take additional note of the woeful state of Russia’s troops, and then jot down “LOL they suck, we got this with air power.”
Not to mention, remember that any war with Russia would be defensive. Does anyone really think the jokers unable to take Bakhmut (prewar population: 73,000) would be able to mount a credible push into the Baltic countries? Into Poland? The notion is so patently absurd, it’s a wonder anyone seriously considers it.
Then we have to deal with shit like this:
My fear is that’s the signal that’s going to be sent to other allies, that they can do that too,” said Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for NATO and Russia. “But other allies don’t have those kinds of margins. And if they say, ‘Hey, look, the U.S. is doing it. We should do it too,’ and then we’re really kind of potentially screwing ourselves because Russia has been known to always come back.”
The “fear” is that if the U.S. goes all-out to help Ukraine win, that other allies will want to do the same? That’s the “fear”? It’s true, Russia won’t surrender its imperialistic ambitions. But their military, under sanctions, will take years to rebuild, more than enough time for NATO to restock. Heck, Poland is in the midst of a massive military buildup. They alone could likely hold off any Russian aggression in the future, and Ukraine will emerge from the war a military power.
Let’s see how else this Townsend guy can demonstrate that he’s an asshole:
“There’s a concern about [Ukraine’s] burn rate,” Townsend said. “They can make it harder for us to give them what they need if they just burn through it thinking that it’s a gravy train of ammo—and it’s just not.”
Ah yes, those Ukrainians shooting ammunition willy-nilly, as opposed to pushing out Russia’s supposedly great war machine from tens of thousands of square kilometers. Dear god. The only thing holding off further advances is a lack of more gear and ammo! That someone would think that Ukraine has too much ammunition and is somehow wasting it boggles the mind!
It’s time to open the spigot, not further restrict it. And on that front, there’s been encouraging signs, with multiple Ukrainian defense officials and presidential advisors claiming that more modern Western gear, including tanks, are on their way.
⚡️Ukraine and Germany reached an agreement on the supply of additional weapons, — Ukrainian Ambassador in Berlin Oleksii Makeev said.
“Germany has promised to supply weapons and ammunition. Negotiations are underway to supply modern Leopard 2 tanks,” — he said. [image at the link]
These are the de facto NATO standard tanks, used by most of the allies (the U.S. and France the big exceptions). They are easier to maintain, are lighter, and use less fuel than our M1 Abrams tank, and have a strong in-region support network (which will be essential, as these, like all tanks, break down constantly).
Poland has 250, but is replacing them with South Korean K2s and American M1s (only the second NATO army to field them). Don’t be surprised if all of those Polish Leopards eventually end up in Ukraine. Spain tried to send some over the summer, and there are several thousand in total in the alliance.
———————————–
[image of Ukrainian rocket artillery hitting a Russian barracks in temporarily occupied Melitopol.]
Initially, some Russian propaganda sources claimed it was a “recreation center” and that “civilians” had been killed, no one bothering to explain why “civilians” would be hanging out at a rec center in the early hours of the morning. Other sources claimed just two were killed.
Then this video on the ground was released, showing carnage far from the fire, in military uniforms of course. As the barracks burns in the background, it seems as even people far from the barracks were caught in the blast radius. [Tweet and video at the link.]
Casualty numbers are all over the place, from several dozen up to 300 dead. Ukraine General Staff claimed 150 injured, with the number of dead TBD, but over 100. Melitopol’s mayor in exile claimed 200 dead. Presidential advisor Arestovych claimed over 100 killed, 200-300 wounded. They’re all clearly pulling numbers out of their asses, but everyone agrees (even Russians) that it’s a lot of people. Reports that one of Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov’s nephews was killed in the attack are false.
Wagner Russian mercenaries think this is all preparation for a Ukrainian offensive in the region. Previous Ukrainian counteroffensives in Kherson and Kharkiv oblasts were presaged by months of relentless rocket attacks on command and control, ammunition, and troop facilities … just like we’re now seeing here. [Tweet and video at the link]
————————————-
Kreminna is more and more encircled by Ukrainian forces by the day, and it won’t be long before its Russian occupiers will be forced to retreat. [Tweets and maps at the link.]
Very nice of Russian attackers to line themselves up for easy pickings… [Tweet and video at the link]
Wonkette: “Good Thing Twitter Is Politically Unbiased Now”
All last week, at the behest of billionaire Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss dropped what they thought were huge journalistic bombs about pre-Elon Musk Twitter, widely embraced by those who desperately want to pretend that the site acted nefariously to prevent Trump from being President and eye-rolled over by anyone capable of thinking about anything for more than two seconds.
On Saturday, Michael Shellenberger, author of a book titled San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities — which attributed the preponderance of unhoused people in San Francisco not to the city’s absurdly high cost of living but rather to progressives seeing those people as victims of a crap system and refusing to tell them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps — joined the fun with yet another thread about how terrible it was to ban Trump from the site on January 6. [JFC]
Once again, this shows people having intelligent conversations about what the best course of action is regarding what to do about the fact that people were actively committing violent crimes and trying to overthrow the government, at least in part due to lies Trump was using the platform to spread. [Tweets available at the link]
Trump behaved differently on Twitter from other world leaders. He is the one who made himself the exception. He broke every possible rule of Twitter and the site repeatedly had to explain why it was okay when he did it but not okay when anyone else did. Once he was no longer president, that excuse wasn’t going to fly anymore.
One thing to remember here is that the fact that it was something of a minor scandal that right wing social media site Parler had been used to organize and facilitate the January 6 insurrection.
Trump had been using the platform and his incredible influence over people to convince them of untrue things — not just that the election had been stolen from him, but that they had been betrayed by Mike Pence who could have installed Trump as President and refused. These lies directly contributed to those people committing crimes, committing violence and ending up in prison.
[…] Shellenberger’s other smoking gun is the fact that Twitter employees cheered when Jack finally said that after five strikes it would be possible to permanently ban politicians who repeatedly violate the rules of Twitter. [Tweets available at the link]
All of that being said, the whole purpose of “The Twitter Files” is to prove that Twitter was politically biased against conservatives — and that, to some degree, this is why Trump lost the election. They didn’t let people post pictures of Hunter Biden’s dick, they wouldn’t let Trump direct the insurrection from his phone or keep using the site to push lies that cause people to commit violent crimes, and because of this, Joe Biden is now president and it’s not fair.
Meanwhile, the site’s algorithm actually favors conservatives and has for years. The only reason the site tended to censure a lot more conservatives than liberals is specifically because conservatives insist upon breaking the rules, partly because “trolling culture” has become the dominant culture on the Right, thanks in no small part to Trump himself. Also partly because the Left simply isn’t going around using racial slurs or attacking people based on their gender, sexuality or ethnicity on the regular.
What were they going to do? Just start banning liberal accounts that don’t violate any rules just to make it feel more fair to the Right?
Shellenberger, Taibbi and Weiss all repeatedly cite the fact that Twitter employees of all levels donated to Democrats more than to Republicans, as if this were proof of an actual crime. It’s the smoking gun that proves political bias, they say.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is kissing the ass of every right-wing lunatic he can find, reinstating the accounts of actual Nazis like Andrew Anglin, and promoting right-wing lunacy himself. He smugly spread the lie that the man who attacked Paul Pelosi was his secret gay lover and then acted shocked when Elton John left the site over misinformation being spread. Today he tweeted that his pronouns are “Prosecute/Fauci” despite the fact that there is nothing to “prosecute” Anthony Fauci for. His right-wing bias is blatant and […] it is that simple.
[…] Many users of Twitter, myself included, have noticed that as of the last few weeks, we have been repeatedly seeing tweets from right-wing politicians and pundits we do not follow — just there, in our timeline, for no apparent reason. It sure would be nice to see some Twitter Files on the neutral, unbiased way that came about. Just so we can all learn the right way to do these things.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, at the New York Young Republicans Club Gala:
“By the way, you can pick up a butt plug or a dildo at Target and CVS nowadays. I don’t even know how we got here. …This is the state that we’re living in right now.”
@393: I don’t think that can be true. I know that Target carries condoms and lubricants, but I have never seen dildos in their stores. Unless … many Targets now carry groceries, where you could buy a banana or cucumber.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 393 & 394
I haven’t seen dildos or anal toys, but the “family planning” section of my local Walmarts and Walgreens have vibrators and cock rings along with the condoms and lube. Maybe that’s what Madge Tadge Gadge is whining about?
Hungary’s career as a speed bump for the EU and NATO isn’t going very well. The EU decided to spend 18 billion Euros on an aid package for Ukraine.
Hungary vetoed it and then somehow the Czech president found a loophole and just ignored it.
“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that although Budapest has blocked EU macro-financial assistance for Ukraine, it does not actually oppose financial support for Ukraine;” I don’t believe that.
I can’t imagine why any country wants to be part of the Russian block but there is one, Hungary. They must have forgotten that time in the 1950s when Russia invaded them to keep them a captive nation.
EU Council decides on €18 billion package for Ukraine despite Hungary’s veto
EUROPEAN PRAVDA — SATURDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2022, 19:51
Despite a veto by Hungary, the Council of the European Union has reached agreement on a legislative package that will enable the European Union to provide Ukraine with financial assistance in the amount of €18 billion in 2023.
The agreement was announced by the press service of the EU Council on Saturday, writes European Pravda.
The proposal was adopted by the Council on 10 December through a written procedure and will be submitted to the European Parliament for possible adoption next week.
The package provides for a structural solution to financially support Ukraine in 2023. The amount to be lent to Ukraine in 2023 will be €18 billion, and the loans will have a 10-year grace period.
EU member states will cover most of the interest costs from external assigned revenues. Guarantees for these borrowings will be provided either from the EU budget or by member states, the press service said.
The programme aims to provide short-term financial assistance, funding for Ukraine’s immediate needs, rehabilitation of critical infrastructure, and initial support for sustainable post-war reconstruction, with a view to supporting Ukraine on its path to European integration.
Hungary had opposed the EU’s decision to provide Ukraine with the €18 billion aid package.
According to the European Commission’s initial proposal, the aid package required a unanimous decision by all 27 EU member states. However, due to the Hungarian veto, the current Czech presidency of the EU Council was looking for a way to have the decision adopted without Hungary, the German news agency DPA explained.
The solution is that the loan guarantees – if Hungary maintains its veto – will not be covered by the EU budget, as originally planned, but will be taken on by individual EU member states. This meant that a unanimous decision by all EU member states was not necessary.
However, Hungary still has time to join this process. If Budapest changes its position, the guarantees will be covered from the EU budget, the agency writes.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that although Budapest has blocked EU macro-financial assistance for Ukraine, it does not actually oppose financial support for Ukraine; it just believes it should be granted in a different way.
Reginald @394. I agree. I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is lying again. Also, she has sex toys on her mind? Or she put them on her Christmas list? She is so weird.
If you are regular readers of our Ukraine coverage, you should know better than to hyperventilate over Bakhmut. While there’s been talk about some Russian gains around the town, Def Mon puts it all in perspective in this thread: [Tweet and maps at the link.
[…] we’re talking maybe a hundred square kilometers total around Bakhmut in the last three months? In that same time period, Ukraine liberated 25,000 square kilometers in Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts.
Remember, also, that Bakhmut has zero strategic value. The only value the town has for Russia is propaganda and maybe marketing for the Wagner mercenaries leading that assault. After months of humiliating losses, Russia needs a victory, any victory, and so Bakhmut it is. But even if Russia took it, it would offer zero value in winning the war.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Saturday that the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol “would’ve been armed” if she and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon had planned it.
[…] “Then Jan. 6 happened. And next thing you know, I organized the whole thing, along with Steve Bannon here. And I will tell you something, if Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. Not to mention, it would’ve been armed,” Taylor Greene told the audience.
“See that’s the whole joke, isn’t it. They say that whole thing was planned and I’m like, are you kidding me? A bunch of conservatives, second amendment supporters, went in the Capitol without guns, and they think that we organized that?” Taylor Greene added, per footage shared online.
[…] Many supporters of Trump who came to Washington on Jan. 6 did bring weapons, and leaders of the Oath Keepers militia group were found guilty last month for seditious conspiracy. Members of the group allegedly stockpiled suitcases full of weapons at a Virginia hotel as part of its planning around that day.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Trump reportedly complained that some of his armed supporters were unable to join the crowd at his speech at the Ellipse, and then called on those same supporters to march to the Capitol, according to former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.
Gavin Wax, president of the New York Young Republicans Club, told the audience at Saturday’s gala that Republicans “want war” against the left.
“We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets,” Wax said, as reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure and unadulterated power,” Wax added.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
…The strike on Melitopol was one of several overnight on Russian bases. Explosions were also reported overnight in the Russian-occupied Crimea including Sevastopol and Simferopol….
Russian forces pounded targets in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine with missiles, drones and artillery, Ukraine’s general staff said. Attacks continued from Russian forces on the energy system in Kherson and Ukrainian troops, it said in an update on Monday.
The strike came as all non-critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian port of Odesa was without power. Russia used Iranian-made drones on Saturday to hit two energy facilities, leaving 1.5 million people cut off from electricity. “The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
…
A fire has broken out at a shopping centre in Balashikha near Moscow, according to local media reports. Building materials reportedly caught fire in an open area, spreading to the first floor of the building, according to the press service of the Moscow Region Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
Two people were killed and another five wounded after Russian troops shelled the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to local authorities. “The enemy again attacked the residential quarters of Kherson,” governor Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram, adding the Russian forces hit a maternity ward, a cafe and apartment buildings on Saturday….
Some Russian officers fighting in Ukraine are reportedly unhappy with the military top brass and President Vladimir Putin, an influential nationalist Russian blogger [and wanted war criminal] has said after visiting the conflict zone. Igor Girkin, a nationalist and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped Russia annex Crimea in 2014, said there was some discontent with the top brass because of the poor execution of the war.
President Joe Biden has pledged to prioritise efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defence during a call to to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday.…
European Union foreign ministers and G7 leaders will meet today to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an additional €2bn ($2.11bn) for arms deliveries to Ukraine. It remains unclear whether Hungary will block some decisions, resorting to what diplomats have denounced as “blackmail diplomacy” due to a dispute over locked EU funds for Budapest.
The EU is reportedly set to appoint a “sanctions envoy” to push for more rigorous enforcement of its restrictions on countries, including Russia. The Financial Times reports that David O’Sullivan, a former EU ambassador to the US, has been asked to start the job in the new year.
An international team of legal advisers has been working with local prosecutors in Ukraine’s recaptured city of Kherson to gather evidence of alleged sexual crimes by Russian forces. A team from Global Rights Compliance, an international legal practice headquartered in The Hague, are conducting a full-scale investigation part of a broader international effort to support overwhelmed Ukrainian authorities as they seek to hold Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the conflict.
…
The body of a 23-year-old Zambian student who died while fighting for the Russian army in the war in Ukraine [he had reportedly been imprisoned on some drug charge and “released” by Wagner] has been returned home. Zambia’s government has requested that Russian authorities give details of Lemekani’s demise, foreign affairs minister Stanley Kakubo said.
Also from there:
Ukrainian embassy in Greece receives ‘bloody package’, says Kyiv
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said its embassy in Greece has received an anonymous “bloody package” in what Kyiv has described as a “campaign of terror and intimidation”.
Greek police have opened an investigation after the package arrived at the Ukrainian embassy in Athens, Nikolenko wrote in a statement on Facebook.
He added:
The sender’s address is the same as on the rest of the envelopes that had been previously received at Ukrainian embassies and consulates: Tesla car showroom in the German town of Sindelfingen.
Ukraine says a number of its European embassies have received “bloody” packages, some containing animal eyes and soaked in a liquid with a distinctive colour and smell.
A Ukrainian embassy employee in Madrid was injured last month by a letter bomb, which was addressed to Ukraine’s ambassador to Spain.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said earlier this month that the packages sent to his country’s diplomatic missions all had the same sender address – a Tesla dealership in Germany.
As of Monday, Nikolenko said there had been a total of 33 cases of “threats” targeting Ukrainian diplomatic missions in 17 countries, including 28 bloody packages, two bomb threats, and an “attempted terrorist attack”….
Putin cancels annual press conference for first time in 10 years
The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said President Vladimir Putin will not be holding his annual end-of-year press conference this year.
He told reporters:
There will not be (a press conference) before the New Year.
Peskov did not give a reason for the break with tradition, but said the Russian leader “regularly speaks to the press, including on foreign visits”.
It will be the first time Putin has not held the marathon press gathering – last year, he spoke for more than four hours – in a decade, ABC News’ Patrick Reevell writes.
Ukraine claims strike on Wagner headquarters in Luhansk
Here’s a dispatch from the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth, who is in the Russian capital.
Ukraine has claimed to have struck a headquarters used by the paramilitary Wagner group in the occupied territories of the Luhansk region.
Serhiy Haidai, the exiled governor of the Luhansk region, told Ukrainian television that a strike in the town of Kadiivka had led to a “huge number” of deaths among the mercenary group that has been accused of torture and other war crimes.
“They had a little pop there, just where Wagner headquarters was located,” Haidai said, according to a Reuters translation of his remarks.
“A huge number of those who were there have died,” he said.
The Guardian has not been able to independently verify that Wagner was headquartered at the site of the attack or that the strike led to a large number of casualties.
But there are a number of indications that the mercenary group was hit.
Russian state media have confirmed that a hotel complex in the town of Kadiivka, which Russians called Stakhanov, was hit by artillery fire on Sunday.
Photographs and video posted to social media showed that the Zhdanov guest house in the town had largely been reduced to rubble.
The first photos from the scene were published by a pro-war Russian military blogger who has previously reported on Wagner and posted photos of the group’s fighters.
“The strike was done by Himars,” wrote Alexander Simonov, the blogger who runs the Brussels Messenger channel on Telegram. “There were members of the Wagner PMC in the building.”
That complex had previously been rumoured to house Russian officers fighting in the region.
It is not clear how many people were injured in the strike.
Video uploaded from the scene showed that at least several men had been injured inside the building and were awaiting medical help.
And in another video, a number of men in camouflage stand around a rocket tail recovered from the site and discuss the attack, indicating that the strike was aimed at those fighting for Russia.
In another twist, an old photo at the hotel may show the son of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in full camouflage holding a rifle.
Pavel Prigozhin has previously been reported to be fighting for Wagner.
In a statement, Prigozhin denied that his son had been injured in the strike.
“Don’t worry. Everything is fine with my son,” he said in a remark carried on a Telegram channel associated with the Wagner founder.
Prigozhin did not say whether or not the mercenary group had been headquartered at the site.
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory may have achieved a remarkable new high point for fusion reactions, generating even more energy than was pumped in during a recent experiment, according to a report by the Financial Times.
The publication suggests scientists “with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment” have discussed the result and analysis is ongoing. A major announcement is scheduled to take place at LLNL on Tuesday, Dec. 13. It’s expected to be livestreamed by the Department of Energy at approximately 7 a.m. PT…
snarkratessays
Gee, if my local CVS really does have such items, maybe I’ll pick up a ball gag and send it to Mad Madge.
Iran on Monday executed a second prisoner detained and convicted amid nationwide protests challenging the country’s theocracy, airing footage on state television it claimed shows him stabbing two security force members to death and running away.
The public hanging of Majidreza Rahnavard, less than a month after he allegedly carried out the fatal stabbings — purportedly angry about security forces killing protesters — shows the speed at which Iran now carries out death sentences handed down for those detained in the demonstrations the government hopes to put down.
Activists warn that at least a dozen people already have been sentenced to death in closed-door hearings. At least 488 people have been killed since the demonstrations began in mid-September, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been monitoring the protests. Another 18,200 people have been detained by authorities.
…
Mashhad, a Shiite holy city, is located some 740 kilometers (460 miles) east of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Activists say it has seen strikes, shops closed and demonstrations amid the unrest that began over the Sept. 16 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by Iran’s morality police.
Mizan said Rahnavard was convicted in Mashhad’s Revolutionary Court. The tribunals have been internationally criticized for not allowing those on trial to pick their own lawyers or even see the evidence against them.
Rahnavard had been convicted on the charge of “moharebeh,” a Farsi word meaning “waging war against God.” That charge has been levied against others in the decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and carries the death penalty.
From Brussels, the European Union’s foreign ministers expressed dismay at the latest execution. The bloc is to approve on Monday a fresh series of sanctions against Iran over its crackdown on protestors, and also for supplying drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine, the bloc’s top diplomat said.
…
Iran is one of the world’s top executioners and typically executes prisoners by hanging. It executed the first prisoner detained during demonstrations last Thursday.
Amnesty International has said it obtained a document signed by one senior Iranian police commander asking that the execution for one prisoner be “completed ‘in the shortest possible time’ and that his death sentence be carried out in public as ‘a heart-warming gesture towards the security forces.’”…
…The arrival of excavators – witnessed for the first time by journalists from the Guardian and Brazilian broadcaster TV Globo – is the latest chapter in a half-century assault by powerful and politically connected mining gangs.
…
Hekurari Yanomami…hopes for a large-scale federal intervention when the new government takes power in January, but warns that defeating the garimpeiros will not be easy.
“These miners don’t just carry spades and axes … They have rifles and submachine guns … They are armed and all of [their] bases have heavily armed security guards with the same kind of weapons that the army, the federal police and the military police use,” he said.
The price of inaction would be obliteration for a people who have inhabited the rainforest for thousands of years.
“If nothing is done we’ll lose this Indigenous land,” Marugal said. “For the Yanomami, the outlook is grim.”
The US Olympic Committee, in a stunning act of naivety, supports the return of Russian athletes for the 2024 Olympics, under a neutral flag.
Nothing short of a big military victory can give the Putin regime a more tangible propaganda boost.
The entire “it’s wrong to have the athletes suffer” nonsense betrays horrible blindness to the realities of sports in Russia. There, the Olympics are not about the athletes. They never where. The athletes know this. They exist to prop up the regime.
That’s their only function.
I agree – this is ridiculous. Even setting the criminal war aside, they’re massive cheaters. They cheat at sports. They cheat in the Olympics. The “neutral” flag fools no one, and the athletes aren’t being helped by serving as tools for this lying, cheating regime.
Reginald Selkirksays
@406: But allowing athletes to enter the Olympics might keep them from being drafted and sent to Ukraine as cannon fodder.
“So off he went to Ukraine. Then I started getting messages from him asking what would happen if he refused to fight.”
Stas told his father about one particular battle.
“He said the [Russian] soldiers had been given no cover; there was no intelligence gathering; no preparation. They’d been ordered to advance, but no one knew what lay ahead.
“But refusing to fight was a difficult decision for him to take. I told him: ‘Better to take it. This is not our war. It’s not a war of liberation.’ He said he would put his refusal in writing. He and several others who’d decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.”
Ukrainian forces have struck a headquarters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, says the governor-in-exile of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
Serhiy Haidai said a hotel where the group met in Kadiivka, Luhansk, had been hit with major losses.
The BBC was unable to independently verify Wagner’s presence at the hotel…
KGsays
A Fusion Energy Breakthrough? – CNET headline quoted by Reginald Selkirk@402
No. The article is full of the usual fusioneer bullshit. For a start, the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction concerned (in all current fusion projects) is not what powers the sun. Also, what has allegedly been achieved is that more energy was produced by the fusion reaction than was pumped in from lasers to make it happen – but this laser input is only a fraction of that required to make the lasers work, while the enrgynproduced is not in usable form! This hyped “achievement” has no more relation to usable fusion power than climbing the Eiffel Tower does to reaching the moon.
Elon Musk, the billionaire who wants nothing more in life than to be adored by legions of fans, was loudly booed by a crowd in San Francisco on Sunday night after he was invited onstage by comedian Dave Chappelle. And the footage is pretty rough, even if you don’t particularly like Musk…
Obviously, San Francisco is known as a liberal city and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise for a Bay Area crowd to boo the wealthiest man in the world. But it’s not like this was a crowd of antifa supersoldiers or something. The people in attendance were there to see Dave Chapelle, a man who’s recently outed himself as an anti-trans bigot. Chris Rock was also a headliner, according to the local press.
Maybe the crowd was made up of the thousands of people Musk laid off from Twitter, as Chappelle joked. That certainly seems like a very real possibility, given the response. But honestly, Musk has been such an asshole for so many different reasons lately, it’s tough to narrow it down…
ravensays
Tweet
Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder
“Americans (and many others) owe Ukrainians a huge debt of gratitude for their resistance to Russian aggression. For some mixture of reasons, we have difficulty acknowledging this.”
snyder.substack.com
“… we have difficulty acknowledging this.”
Who is this we Timothy Snyder mentions?
A huge number of us are acutely aware that Ukraine is making incredible sacrifices for the rest of the world.
We are paying money and not even all that much money for what we are getting. Reducing the Russian threat to the world is a real bargain.
Money comes and goes and is replaced every budget cycle.
Ukraine is paying with the lives and blood of their children and not one single one of those lives is replaceable.
They never publish the number of casualties they are taking, but it is likely to be very high.
Then again, a lot of the right wingnuts in the US including MTG and Tucker Carlson support the Russian invaders and the attempted genocide of Ukrainians.
FWIW, Timothy Snyder is a historian at Yale, presently giving a course on Ukrainian history.
ravensays
Tweet
Marielle Bodlaire 🇺🇦 #FBPE @MBodlaire
President of Moldova, who visited the United States last week, said that Ukraine, which is repelling Russian aggression, is also defending Moldova’s freedom, although risks to her country remain
#StandWithUkraine #UkraineWillWin
Yeah, no kidding.
If Ukraine falls, Moldova is next.
They won’t last a week.
Moldova doesn’t have much of an army.
Their air force is mostly 6 MiG fighters that haven’t flown in decades.
They are likely to be scrap metal by now.
(CN) — A federal appeals court Friday issued a permanent injunction barring enforcement of a Biden administration rule under the Affordable Care Act that would have forced Catholic hospitals to provide transgender medical services that violate their religious beliefs.
Friday’s ruling by the St. Louis-based Eighth Circuit is the second decision blocking the rule from taking effect, following an August ruling from the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule implementing Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare,” which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. The rule’s definition of sex discrimination includes gender identity and sex stereotyping.
The government was sued by two groups of Catholic employers and health care providers who object on the basis of their religious beliefs to being forced by the federal government to insure or provide gender-affirming surgeries and related services.
U.S. District Judge Peter D. Welte in North Dakota ruled for the two groups in January 2020, and permanently enjoined enforcement of the rule against the Catholic plaintiffs “in a manner that would require them to perform or provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures.” The Donald Trump-appointed judge also permanently enjoined the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from similarly interpreting or enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require the Catholic plaintiffs as employers to provide insurance coverage for sex reassignments.
In affirming the district court decision Friday, an Eighth Circuit panel of three Republican-appointed judges said the trial court correctly held that “intrusion upon the Catholic Plaintiffs’ exercise of religion is sufficient to show irreparable harm.”
[…]
In oral arguments before the Eighth Circuit a year ago, the government argued the plaintiffs failed to show any harm from the rule.
[…]
Smith was joined on the unanimous panel by U.S. Circuit Judges Raymond Gruender, another George W. Bush appointee, and Jonathan Kobes. a Trump appointee.
Yearly inflation in Hungary was 22.5% in November. Food inflation is 43.8%. Not only is this the highest figure in the EU, but unlike in the Baltic countries that also faced high inflation but are now getting some relief, Hungary’s is *still accelerating*
Doesn’t look like things are going too well in Hungary right now.
I don’t know, maybe Fascism and Fascist dictators don’t work very well.
Hungary is the last buyer of cheap Russian gas and oil and that isn’t helping them at all either.
Hungary to buy more gas from Russian in new deal https://www.euractiv.com › politics › short_news › hun…
Aug 31, 2022 — Under a new deal between Moscow and Budapest, Russia’s Gazprom will deliver up to 5.8 million cubic metres (mcm) more natural gas per day via …
When I tell you that the upcoming election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court is, without any doubt, the most massively important single race of the year, it’s impossible to overstate the case. The stakes are simply gargantuan: If progressives can retake the majority, the court could roll back the GOP’s extreme gerrymanders, restore the right to an abortion, block any attempts by Republican lawmakers to steal the 2024 election for Donald Trump, and even revive the state’s moribund democracy from the pitiable sham Republicans have reduced it to.
[…] Conservatives currently hold a 4-3 majority on the court, but one of their number, Pat Roggensack, is retiring. That means progressives have the chance to flip her seat and take their own 4-3 majority. And with that, everything would change.
The current conservative quartet has gladly greenlighted every last aspect of the GOP’s anti-democracy agenda. Most shamefully, after Republican legislators refused to compromise on new redistricting plans with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers last year, these right-wing judges made up a rule out of thin air requiring that any new maps be as close as possible to the previous maps—which had been drawn by the GOP a decade ago to be as tilted as possible in their favor. That decision, of course, wound up locking in Republican gerrymanders that have given the party two-thirds of all seats in the legislature despite the fact that Joe Biden won Wisconsin.
That’s by no means the only time the court has stepped in to suppress the vote. Earlier this year, for instance, the conservative majority banned ballot drop boxes throughout the state. And in April 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the court overturned an executive order by Evers in which he sought to temporarily postpone elections that month until they could be held more safely at a later date.
But it’s not just what the right has done in Wisconsin—it’s what it might do, too. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s demolition of Roe v. Wade, a near-total abortion ban dating back to 1849 came into force in Wisconsin, prompting clinics to stop offering the procedure altogether. Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul has filed a suit challenging the law in a case that will likely wind up before the state Supreme Court. It’s not hard to imagine what the conservatives would have to say about it.
And next time Trump comes calling, asking GOP lawmakers to overturn election results that he doesn’t like—as he did after 2020—what happens if Republicans decide to indulge him? Only Wisconsin’s top court would be able to stop them.
That’s why we need to elect Protasiewicz, a fair-minded and independent judge who has served on the bench in Milwaukee for a decade with distinction. […]
Now all the rest of the American media is reporting on this apparent breakthrough in fusion research at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. Courtesy of TPM Readers and a bit of reading on my own I’ve had a bit of a crash course on what this news means. Unfortunately, I think it means less than it may seem. I’m not going to try to explain or discuss the science. But from what I can tell the following is true: This is an important breakthrough in fusion science. But for most of us the question is whether this is a breakthrough on the road to fusion as a viable source of clean and abundant energy. From the conversations I’ve had, the answer to the latter question is no.
There are two key issues. First is that a net gain of energy is being defined here in a way that isn’t necessarily relevant to true power generation. For fusion to be a thing, you need to be getting more energy out than you put in, i.e., a net gain of energy. But that’s not really what is happening here, even though most reports suggest it is.
Put in very clumsy terms, they are defining net energy put in as what amounts to the fuel in the process without figuring in the energy required to run the physical plant that runs the process. [KG did a better job of explaining this in comment 410] There’s also the subsequent energy loss converting the produced heat/energy into electricity. But the net gain issue is the big one. That doesn’t mean the hard science isn’t a big deal. But if you’re talking about producing energy at scale you’re still using a whole lot more energy to generate power than you’re getting out of the process. That’s the bottom line: you’re not really generating net new energy.
The second issue is that there are lots of engineering and physics problems tied to scaling the technology in question. You can do this under highly controlled, time limited conditions. But there are a million obstacles between having a massive lab/factory to produce a tiny amount of energy and anything you could scale to produce energy for populations of people. From what I’m told they’re not just ‘when you put your mind to it you can figure it out’ problems. They are very basic and perhaps intractable problems with the physical properties of the materials involved among others.
In any case, I’ve tried to be as general as possible since this isn’t remotely my field. Any attempt at detail and I’ll quickly get things wrong. But I wanted to convey what I think is the generally accurate and very important point that we shouldn’t be seeing any of this as a breakthrough that will produce a scalable, clean and renewable source of energy at any time in the lives of any of us, even the very young.
Perhaps that’s wrong. I’m no expert after all. It’s always worth remembering that kids in the 1890s couldn’t have known there would be jet planes, antibiotics and nuclear weapons in their lifetimes. But in terms of anything we can expect or predict this is an incremental breakthrough on a decades-long path of research into fusion. And it’s not one that meaningfully changes anything if your question is when do we get the fusion power plant to replace the coal, nuclear, gas or even solar power plant down the road.
Monday marked the end of an era as U.S. district judge Aileen Cannon officially dismissed Donald Trump’s civil lawsuit following the raid on Mar-a-Lago to seize government documents.
“This case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction,” she wrote in the brief order. “Any scheduled hearings are canceled, any pending motions are denied as moot, and all deadlines are terminated. The Clerk of Court shall close this case.” [LOL, Yay! She was forced to do the right thing.]
Months after the raid, the Justice Department is finally able to resume its investigations into Trump’s handling of the documents, some of which were designated with the highest classification levels.
Cannon was instructed to dismiss the case by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ripped her decisions to shreds in a ruling earlier this month.
The three-judge panel, dominated by Trump appointees, repudiated the amenable district judge for attempting to create out of thin air a new standard of solicitude for former presidents, for filling in arguments when Trump’s camp failed to think of any and for trying to create a blueprint that, if successful, would have mapped out how subjects of criminal investigations could stymie their probes.
The judges struggled to keep their disdain under wraps during oral arguments in the case last month.
“Think of the extraordinary nature from our perspective: An injunction against the executive branch in a pre-indictment situation,” 11th Circuit Chief Judge William Pryor implored Trump’s attorney. “Under the separation of powers, the judiciary doesn’t interfere with those kinds of prosecutorial and investigatorial decisions.”
As the arguments proceeded, Pryor in particular sounded increasingly incredulous.
“The entire premise of the exercise of this extraordinary kind of jurisdiction would be that the seizure itself is unlawful — if you can’t establish that, then what are we doing here?” Pryor asked.
After the summer raid, Trump and his lawyers had tossed handfuls of legal spaghetti at the wall, hoping to find an argument that would stick. Throughout the proceedings, their primary thesis shifted from claims of executive and attorney-client privilege, to that the case is really a question of designating personal versus presidential records, to 11th hour claims that actually, the search warrant was carried out improperly.
To wide reproach, Cannon expanded the timeline that team Trump got to try to muddy up the waters, appointing a special master to sift through the seized documents.
That sideshow seems at its end now, and the government investigation will proceed. But while Trump failed to cajole the appellate court into shielding him from the probe, he did win himself over three and a half months of pointless delay.
[…] In comments shared first with CBS News, White House spokesman Andrew Bates said it “goes against our fundamental values as a country for a Member of Congress [Marjorie Taylor Greene] to wish that the carnage of January 6th had been even worse, and to boast that she would have succeeded in an armed insurrection against the United States government. This violent rhetoric is a slap in the face to the Capitol Police, the DC Metropolitan Police, the National Guard, and the families who lost loved ones as a result of the attack on the Capitol. All leaders have a responsibility to condemn these dangerous, abhorrent remarks and stand up for our Constitution and the rule of law.” […]
Wonkette: “Trump Special Master Case Dismissed For Being Rancid Dumpster Fire Unrelated To Facts Or Law”
After a withering smackdown 10 days ago from the Eleventh Circuit, US District Judge Aileen Cannon has finally dismissed Donald Trump’s effort to block the Justice Department using documents seized pursuant to a judicially authorized warrant in the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. No more special master; no more ban on using lawfully collected evidence to investigate the former president for stealing government property; no more ridiculous arguments that a document can be simultaneously “personal” and subject to executive privilege.
Which is good, because OMG, SHUT UP that is not how any of this works.
“This case is DISMISSED FOR LACK OF JURISDICTION. Any scheduled hearings are CANCELED, any pending motions are DENIED AS MOOT, and all deadlines are TERMINATED. The Clerk of Court shall CLOSE this case,” she wrote in a terse order closing forever this chapter of burning humiliation which will follow her for the rest of her career.
As it should.
This was a gross, partisan arrogation of power by someone who should never have been anywhere near the federal judiciary. We can’t do anything about Judge Cannon’s life tenure on the bench — please ignore unserious people calling to impeach her, the time for hopium is long since past. But we can make fun of her for being a craven hack who is bad at her job. And we absolutely should!
[…] Here in US America, it’s pretty much axiomatic that the government gets to keep your shit. If a drug dealer hides his stash in the wheel well of his car, the cops are gonna hang onto that vehicle as evidence, and no court in the land is going to make ’em give it back. Nonetheless Judge Cannon subjected the search to a fictional standard of review, concluding that she had the right to deprive the government of evidence and allow Trump to challenge it before an indictment was ever filed. That is just not a thing, as the Eleventh Circuit noted in the opening paragraph of its opinion.
[…] And apparently, although it is reportedly not his habit, this time Trump took “no” for an answer. His lawyers didn’t even bother to even ask for en banc review, much less a stay pending appeal to the Supreme Court. This entire embarrassing chapter is now over, unless Trump prolongs the agony by refusing to pay the bill for Judge Dearie’s team. […]
So now we return from the land of Calvinball to IRL law. […] This will probably put Trump in front of Chief Judge Beryl Howell, who is currently adjudicating executive privilege claims made by various members of the Trump administration seeking to avoid testifying to the various grand juries investigating him under the aegis of Special Counsel Jack Smith.
Last week, Judge Howell refused to find the former president in contempt of court for his failure to designate a custodian of records to attest to his compliance with the subpoena for records. This is likely because no one besides Christina Bobb is dumb enough to sign such a document, and they already burned her credibility before the search in a written declaration in which she pinky swore that there were no more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago — LOL!
In the end, Trump’s temper tantrum in public and in court managed to throw sand in the Justice Department’s gears for three months. But other than that, it was a total failure that only served to provide us all with a window into just how egregiously he violated federal records laws, despite the government bending over backwards to let him get correct without legal penalty.
[…] local policies that get closer to the cause [of violent crime] are showing results. Dozens of communities are demonstrating how to ensure safety and, in many cases, save money along the way.
In Austin, Texas, a 911 call from a person reporting a mental health emergency used to get directed to the police. Now, if there is no immediate danger, dispatchers have the option to transfer the call to a mental health clinician. In the first eight months after the program’s 2019 start, 82 percent of calls that were transferred were handled without police involvement, which resulted in savings to the taxpayer of $1,642,213. By the 2021 fiscal year, the program was involved in almost 2,000 calls.
In Brooklyn, young people who completed an alternative program for illegal gun possession had a 22 percent lower rearrest rate than peers who went to prison.
In Olympia, Wash., a new unit of the police department that, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center, provides “free, confidential and voluntary crisis response assistance” has responded to 3,108 calls since 2019, all while minimizing arrests and with no injuries to responders.
Communities that have adopted these approaches have not done away with enforcement; they have just required less of it. In Denver, a five-year randomized control trial of a program that provides housing subsidies to those at risk of being unhoused found a 40 percent reduction in arrests among participants. These kinds of results are why localities from New Jersey to New Mexico are restructuring their local governments to invest in the social determinants of health and safety.
[…] If you want policies that actually work, you have to change the political conversation from “tough candidates punishing bad people” to “strong communities keeping everyone safe.” […]
common sense and recent polling show that a majority of voters are concerned about crime and also supportive of changes in how we keep communities safe. […] Reducing crime and reducing reliance on punishment seem incompatible only if you accept that police and prisons are the only solution.
Voters know the status quo does not work. In the run-up to 2024, for the sake of public safety, candidates need to give them real alternatives. […]
Deranged and frightened Trump ranted on Truth Social:
HOW CAN THE JANUARY 6TH UNSELECT COMMITTEE MAKE CRIMINAL REFERRALS WHEN THEY HAVE’NT SPOKEN ABOUT, OR STUDIED, THOSE THAT RIGGED THE 2020 ELECTION, THE TROOPS NOT BEING BROUGHT IN BY PELOSI, OR NOW, THE ELECTION FRAUD DETERMINATIVELY REVEALED BY TWITTER? THESE ARE THE REAL CRIMINALS!!!
Commentary:
[…] Trump’s fear is thick enough to slice with a MAGA bumper sticker. He knows that he is guilty of crimes related to the January 6th insurrection, the classified documents theft, tax fraud, election interference, and obstruction of justice. That’s evident in the increasingly unhinged posts he continues to make, as well as his determined avoidance of telling his own story in public and under oath. That’s not the behavior of an innocent man.
[…] “So this is a WTF moment in the House of Representatives,” [Republican Rep. Brian Mast] declared. “People are moving offices and this is apparently where Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee keeps her American flag, her POW flag, uh, in the garbage can. In the trash.”
He tweeted, “Today’s rescue mission: saving Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s American flag from the garbage can. @JacksonLeeTX18, anytime you’d like a lesson on flag etiquette, let me know. It’s one of the first things we’re taught in basic training.”
The congressman from Florida lost both his legs while serving in Iraq. He made a tremendous sacrifice for this country, but he’s still a big gross liar.
Lee, who was otherwise busy minding her own business, responded, “While I respect your military service and sacrifice to our nation, you do not have a pass to mislead the public. As a re-elected member of Congress, you know that office moves are solely handled by the Architect of the Capitol (AOC). You know I had nothing to do with this.”
The Architect of the Capitol (not that AOC) confirmed that “the flags were placed in a tall vertical moving bin to prevent them from falling over while awaiting transport. Additionally, this moving bin has not and never been a trash receptacle.”
Facts weren’t enough to end Mast’s smear job. Instead of an apology, he clapped back, “Ah, I guess the trash can identifies as a ‘Vertical Moving Bin.’” This childish transphobic dig doesn’t make the moving bin a trash can. […]
TPM Has Obtained Explosive Evidence Uncovered By The January 6 Select Committee
The messages you are about to read are the definitive, real-time record of a plot to overturn an American election.
TPM has obtained the 2,319 text messages that Mark Meadows, who was President Trump’s last White House chief of staff, turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Today, we are publishing The Meadows Texts, a series based on an in-depth analysis of these extraordinary — and disturbing — communications.
The vast majority of Meadows’ texts described in this series are being made public for the very first time. They show the senior-most official in the Trump White House communicating with members of Congress, state-level politicians, and far-right activists as they work feverishly to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. The Meadows texts illustrate in moment-to-moment detail an authoritarian effort to undermine the will of the people and upend the American democratic system as we know it.
The text messages, obtained from multiple sources, offer new insights into how the assault on the election was rooted in deranged internet paranoia and undemocratic ideology. They show Meadows and other high-level Trump allies reveling in wild conspiracy theories, violent rhetoric, and crackpot legal strategies for refusing to certify Joe Biden’s victory. They expose the previously unknown roles of some members of Congress, local politicians, activists and others in the plot to overturn the election. Now, for the first time, many of those figures will be named and their roles will be described — in their own words.
Meadows turned over the text messages during a brief period of cooperation with the committee before he filed a December 2021 lawsuit arguing that its subpoenas seeking testimony and his phone records were “overly broad” and violations of executive privilege. Since then, Meadows has faced losses in his efforts to challenge the subpoena in court. However, that legal battle is ongoing and is unlikely to conclude before next month, when the incoming Republican House majority is widely expected to shutter the committee’s investigation. Earlier this year, Meadows reportedly turned over the same material he gave the select committee to the Justice Department in response to another subpoena. These messages are key evidence in the two major investigations into the Jan. 6 attack. With this series, the American people will be able to evaluate the most important texts for themselves.
[…] despite the seeming gaps, Meadows’ text record is still incredibly revealing. Some of the contents of the log were published in “The Breach,” a book about the Jan. 6 attack that I co-wrote with Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and senior technical adviser to the committee. In our book, Riggleman described how he and his fellow committee investigators dubbed Meadows’ text log “the crown jewels” because they served as the “road map to an insurrection.” Along with the text messages that appeared in “The Breach,” some of Meadows’ messages have also been revealed by media outlets. The Washington Post published his exchanges with Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Some of Meadows’ conversations with Fox News personalities and other members of the media were disclosed by the select committee. CNN and I have published Meadows’ conversations with some Republican members of Congress including; Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Additionally, CNN has published Meadows’ texts with Fox News personality Sean Hannity and his messages from the period directly surrounding the Jan. 6 attack. However, there’s more. So much more.
TPM is kicking off this series with an exclusive story showing that the log includes more than 450 messages with 34 Republican members of Congress. Those texts show varying degrees of involvement by members of Congress, from largely benign expressions of support for Trump to the leading roles played by Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Jody Hice (R-GA), Mo Brooks (R-AL), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the plot to reverse Trump’s defeat. We reached out to all these legislators, and will be detailing their roles and responses to our questions in the first installment of the series, which is coming later today.
Committee investigators received the text messages from Meadows’ legal team without names associated with the individual texts, only phone numbers. They tied phone numbers to individuals based on law enforcement databases of public records and their own intelligence work. For these stories, we are relying on the identifications of those texting with Meadows that were made by the committee’s investigators. We have indicated where we were able to independently confirm their work through our own public records searches and reporting. The text message contents received by the committee contained tokens that replaced emojis and certain punctuation. They also include many typos and grammatical errors. Other than replacing tokens where they seemed to clearly be standing in for apostrophes, we have strived to present these texts in their original format as received by the committee. TPM has conducted an in-depth review of Meadows’ entire text log with a team of reporters and editors working over five weeks.
Much of the undemocratic attempt to reverse Trump’s defeat played out in the public eye. Lawyers allied with Trump and his campaign launched a failed legal blitz that sought to challenge the election results based on questionable evidence. Republican politicians and activists staged months of rallies around the country to protest the vote. It all culminated on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump appeared at a rally on the Ellipse and urged his die-hard supporters to “fight like hell” as his loss was being certified at the U.S. Capitol. Thousands of Trump supporters, including many who marched directly to the Capitol from Trump’s speech, stormed into the building, smashed windows, and fought brutally with law enforcement, leading to multiple deaths and a brief interruption in the electoral certification. That evening, surrounded by National Guard troops and broken glass, 147 Republicans voted to overturn the results
Meadows’ text log shows what the scheme to subvert the 2020 election looked like behind the scenes. It reveals the roots of the violence and its key enablers in Washington. The messages show the plot began well before Jan. 6 and continued afterward. They are essential documentation of a dark day in American history.
More links and excerpts to come as Talking Points Memo gets them published.
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #422…
Hey, Trump, since when does the Speaker of the House have the authority to call in the military? That’s an executive function. Unless, of course, both Trump and Pence resigned from their offices, in which case, Pelosi became president.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of failed crypto exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday after US prosecutors filed criminal charges against him, according to a statement from the government of the Bahamas.
The Southern District of New York, which is investigating Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX, confirmed his arrest on Twitter.
“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the US government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY,” wrote US attorney Damian Williams. “We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”…
Texas men’s basketball coach Chris Beard was arrested early Monday morning after allegedly strangling his fiancée at their home. Beard, 49, was booked at 4:18 a.m. CT with the Travis County Sheriff’s Office seeking a felony third-degree assault charge, according to police records…
The election-night exchanges between Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Nov. 3, 2020, read like any other conversation between a campaign stakeholder and his ally in a battleground state.
They were watching the returns, hyper-focused on ballot batches and voting patterns. Biggs, who at the time was the chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, was confident the election was going Trump’s way in Arizona.
“This is the first hour voting trend,” Andy texted Meadows. “Republicans voting at three times Dems.”
“Outstanding,” Meadows glowed in response.
But the record of texts between the two took a darker turn over the next few weeks as other networks followed the early projection from the Fox News decision desk and called the Grand Canyon State for Joe Biden. Even as Meadows and Biggs both seemingly acknowledged that the numbers looked grim for their man, they schemed together to put pressure on Arizona officials and to devise plans to challenge the election results.
Meadows’ conversations with Biggs during the period from Election Day until Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, are part of a tranche of communication Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. TPM has obtained the text log, which includes messages exchanged between Meadows and at least 34 members of Congress discussing efforts to overturn Trump’s election loss. For this series, The Meadows Texts, we are relying on the identifications of those texting with Meadows that were made by the committee’s investigators. To read more about the story behind that text log and our procedures for publishing the messages, check out the introduction to this series.
Based on the log, Biggs was one of Meadows’ most frequent congressional correspondents, with the pair exchanging 63 messages. Biggs’ number was identified by committee investigators and independently confirmed by TPM. He did not respond to a request for comment. Biggs’ communications with Meadows paint a picture of two increasingly desperate men, grasping at fantastical conspiracy theories when the real votes did not produce a Trump win.
As Arizona slipped further from Trump’s reach, their texts became increasingly frantic. Late on election night, Fox News called the state for Biden. It was the first network to do so, and its decision prompted outrage on the right. While that projection eventually proved correct, other major decision desks were not yet ready to call the state. Biggs messaged Meadows with a plea: “Whatever happens no one can concede.” […]
Less than eight hours after he indicated an Arizona victory was still “doable” for Trump, Biggs had begun cooking up a plot to challenge the results in the state.
[…] Through the typos, Biggs seemed to be floating a variation of the fake electors scheme, a gambit where Trump allies would put their names to an alternate slate of electors that could be approved by Republican lawmakers in states Biden won. Versions of the plot became popular among members of the Trump camp as legal avenues to overturn the 2020 election dwindled, and the idea that Trump electors could be swapped in for Biden electors was key to Trump allies’ growing interest in the day when electoral votes would be counted and certified, Jan. 6. The fake electors schemes have led to multiple investigations.
On Nov. 6, Meadows was succinct in response:
“I love it,” he wrote. […]
[…] With the numbers going against them, Biggs dashed down the conspiracy rabbit hole. On Nov. 12, he wrote Meadows to advise him of a contact who wanted “to talk about dominion software.” Dominion Voting Systems and its beleaguered employees found themselves at the center of a MAGA-fueled firestorm when Trump’s allies and acolytes baselessly hypothesized that the voting hardware and software company had provided machinery that flipped Trump votes to Biden. Employees received floods of death threats, and the company ultimately lodged a $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News, and separate lawsuits against other far-right news networks and Trump allies, for giving the lie life.
That same afternoon, Meadows seemingly set his sights on another local Republican to press for help. He asked Biggs to pass along contact information for Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Biggs was happy to oblige. […]
Visit the link to read the actual texts, and to review more commentary from the TPM team.
The Messages Included Battle Cries, Crackpot Legal Theories, And ‘Invoking Marshall Law!!’ [Should be “Martial Law.”]
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows exchanged text messages with at least 34 Republican members of Congress as they plotted to overturn President Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
Those messages are being fully, publicly documented here for the first time.
[…] One message identified as coming from Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) to Meadows on January 17, 2021, three days before Joe Biden was set to take office, is a raw distillation of the various themes in the congressional correspondence. In the text, despite a typo, Norman seemed to be proposing a dramatic last ditch plan: having Trump impose martial law during his final hours in office.
Mark, in seeing what’s happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of � no return � in saving our Republic !! Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!
The text, which has not previously been reported, is a particularly vivid example of how congressional opposition to Biden’s election was underpinned by paranoid and debunked conspiracy theories like those about Dominion voting machines. Norman’s text also showed the potentially violent lengths to which some congressional Republicans were willing to go in order to keep Trump in power. The log Meadows provided to the select committee does not include a response to Norman’s message.
[…] Some of Meadows’ texts — notably with Fox News personalities and a couple members of Congress — have already been made public by the committee, media outlets, and in the book “The Breach.” However, the full scope of his engagement with congressional Republicans as they worked to overturn the election has not previously been revealed.
Meadows’ text log shows what the scheme to reverse the election results looked like behind the scenes, revealing new details about which members of Congress helped spearhead the efforts and the strategies they deployed. The members who messaged Meadows about challenging the election included some of the highest-profile figures on the right flank in Congress, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), all of whom are identified as playing leading roles in the effort to undo Trump’s defeat.
One message that was dated Dec. 30, 2020 and was identified as coming from Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller described Brooks as a “ringleader” of the effort to block the electoral certification.
FYI…So I asked Ali Pardo from our press shop to get in touch with Rep. Mo Brooks’ office since he seems to be the ringleader on the Jan 6th deal. They say they will have as many as 50 members on board 1/6…but we won’t have a list of names until Sunday or Monday. This may not surprise you, but no one from the legal team has made contact with them at all. They request examples of fraud, numbers, names, whatever supporting evidence can be provided. We’ve now supplied that, but our legal squad isn’t exactly buttoned up. I bring this up for a simple reason – if we’re hoping to move real numbers on the 6th, I think we need to quickly start mobilizing our real-deal allies. I’m ready to go, I have bodies to help, will follow your lead.
Mark Meadows replied: Thanks Jason. You are the best. I will bring it up with potus and I plan to meet with them on Saturday.
[…] Brooks, who spoke with TPM on Monday morning, agreed that he played a leading part in the objection. The congressman, who is set to leave office when the next term begins on Jan. 3, 2023, suggested his case for objecting to the election result was based on a bipartisan 2005 report co-authored by former President Jimmy Carter and James Baker III, who served in multiple Republican administrations.
“There are a number of different people who took leadership roles,” Brooks said of the election challenge, adding, “I was certainly the leader with respect to the arguments that centered on arguments related to the 2005 report and on non-citizen voting.”
While the Carter-Baker report identified risks for “potential fraud” and instances where there was some malfeasance, it also concluded that “there is no evidence of extensive fraud in U.S. election.” Nevertheless, the document has since been exaggerated and mischaracterized by Trump and others to justify election-related conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, Brooks argued the Carter-Baker report and other prior studies showed “massive voter fraud” and suggested anyone who was not familiar with the reasoning behind those conclusions was unqualified to discuss American elections.
“That’s like claiming you’re a Christian but you don’t read the Bible,” Brooks said.
When pressed on conclusions from experts and from Trump-appointed officials that there was no significant fraud in the 2020 election, Brooks hung up the phone.
Based on the log, some of the election objectors saw themselves as participating in an epic battle. Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) sent at least 21 messages to Meadows and received at least four responses. On November 6, he dramatically urged Meadows to refuse to give up. […]
More at the link.
Dear Mark, Many of us as Republican House members want to help the President in any way we can to prevent the outright theft of this presidential election. So far I’ve only heard our leadership talk about us picking up five new diverse members while the Presidency is at stake. We need some guidance as to what we should be saying and doing. Please let some of us know what you would suggest. In earnest prayer for POTUS and our Republic. Brian Babin
Guys, if there was ever a time to stand with our leader who has strengthened our military, stood for life for the unborn, supported Israel, built the wall , appointed conservative judges ect. And we lay down and abandon him JUST BECAUSE THE BIASED MEDIA HAS CALL THE ELECTION?? Now is the time to fight and ADVOCATE for a recount in GA, AZ, Pennsylvania!! What our delegation is doing in SC is gathering on the statehouse steps on Tuesday to advocate for standing with our president and other arguments/options that are at our disposal. For anyone willing to discuss our game plan let me or anyone else know and let’s get on a conference call with concrete plans of action. I will go anywhere anytime to help our cause. Bottom line, it’s time we FIGHT FOR THE ONE PERSON WHO HAS CHANGED THIS COUNTRY!! WAY TOO SOON TO GIVE IN NOW!! [Ralph Norman]
[…] Ted Cruz, meanwhile, seems to have played a major part in heading up objections in the Senate. On Jan. 2, he sent Meadows a link to a statement he released with Lummis and nine other colleagues vowing to “vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.” Meadows had a one-word response to Cruz.
Sometime around Dec. 9 or 10, Russian forces mounted a major attack on the town of Velyka Novosilka in southern Ukraine. The Russian milblogger “Novorossiya Z.O.V.”, with 300,000 followers, reported the assault:
The decision to attack in the Velyka Novosilka area looks potentially dangerous for the right flank of the Ukrainian grouping in the Donbass.
Back in the spring, Russian troops had a chance to wedge in this direction 15-20 km deeper, but it did not work out.
If success is achieved now, two important operational tasks will be solved:
– access to the highway Zaporozhye – Donetsk, which is guaranteed to complicate the supply of the APU group;
– create a threat to the formation of the “Vuhledar pocket”, which will save Russian troops from a head-on attack on Vuhledar through uncomfortable terrain and will allow three combat-ready Ukrainian brigades to be taken into the operational “semi-ring”.
Exciting stuff for the pro-Russia crowd! Let’s look at where that is on the map. First up, here’s the big-picture view: [map at the link]
This attack was at the southernmost point of the front. Here’s the closeup: [map at the link]
Russia really really really wants Vuhledar. As you can see, it would partly cut off supply lines to several front-line towns just west of Donetsk city (at the right edge of this map). However, an entire naval infantry regiment has been wiped out trying to get there through Pavlivka, and Vuhledar is high terrain, making it extremely difficult to approach over vast, open, agricultural steppe.
Some Russian therefore got the bright idea: “Why not go through Velyka Novosilka instead, thus cutting off its supply lines to Pavlivka and Vuhledar from the west?” Why not, indeed? A look a the map shows there’s actual logic here.
The problem is that Ukraine knows the importance of holding Velyka Novosilka, as that entire stretch of front depends on it for supplies. Suffice to say, it’s really well-defended. “Back in the spring, Russian troops had a chance to wedge in this direction 15-20 km deeper, but it did not work out,” wrote that milblogger above nonchalantly. “It did not work out” is the propagandist way of saying, “We got our asses handed to us.” Yet what he fails to mention is that at the time, that corner of the front wasn’t particularly well-defended, and Russia did miss an opportunity to make some gains given its fragmented and disjointed attacks across five different axes. Since then, Ukraine has turned the settlement into a stronghold.
That didn’t stop Russia from attacking hard. And the end result looks something like this: [image at the link]
That picture alone shows five destroyed infantry fighting vehicles and one tank, all conveniently lined up for easy pickings. That was very considerate of the Russians.
And that little snapshot might point to even bigger losses, as Ukraine claimed it destroyed 24 tanks and eight armored infantry vehicles yesterday—a dramatic increase compared to the typical two three tanks on an average day. In fact, we haven’t seen numbers this high since the liberation of Kharkiv oblast.
As for those Russian propaganda outlets, don’t worry: They’ve got this. You see, the attack all went according to plan! Mega-popular Russian milblogger Alexander Khodakovsky, with 630,000 Telegram subscribers, boasted about their great victory:
According to the latest data, ours in the Velyka Novosilka direction have returned to their original position. Everything was planned as an offensive, but in fact it took place as a reconnaissance in force. I am not exaggerating – everyone who was not involved in assault operations very carefully observed the enemy by all means and learned a lot of useful things. As for the offensive, the result speaks of insufficient readiness. But it’s also good that they didn’t cling to the advanced positions, left almost without a fight by the enemy, for the sake of a red piece on the map, and become targets in the shooting range.
You see, it was a glorious attack, and they won! He’s totally not exaggerating. But then they decided that maybe they weren’t ready, and it wasn’t an attack, it was just reconnaissance, and they had won and everything and Ukraine wasn’t even fighting back, so they decided to retreat anyway. Glory to Russia! [/sarcasm]
Though I will admit, some of that logic is sound. Russia should retreat from everywhere, lest they become targets in the shooting range for the sake of a red piece on the map. Why stop here?
Regardless, I bet they did learn some things. Like, perhaps, don’t attack all clumped in a neat line, making it extra easy for Ukrainian defenders to pick off one by one. You’d think they would’ve learned that months ago, but here we are. This time they learned, and you know that because he’s not even kidding! Maybe they learned not to attack at all! That would be a valuable lesson indeed. They certainly learned that they can’t sneak up on the Ukrainians, who were watching them get slaughtered the entire time:
A Ukrainian drone streams back live footage of a failed Russian attack on Velyka Novosilka, Donetsk Oblast, over Google Meet to a combined command center. [video at the link]
Now we wait to see if Russia keeps pounding their heads against Velyka Novosilka like they did in Svatove, and they keep doing in Bakhmut. But really, look at that drone footage. It’s all open field, with Ukraine holding deeply entrenched positions, all under clear view of the defenders.
———————–
Ukraine just completed a troop rotation in Bakhmut.
The situation around Bakhmut will stabilize in the near future. The AFU transferred up to 3-4 brigades from different directions to Bakhmut, including the brigades that stood on the right bank of the Dnipro. There was a rotation of separate brigades that held defense in the suburbs of Bakhmut for a long time, which will increase the effectiveness of our troops. All directions around Bakhmut are already under the control of the Armed Forces.
A much-deserved rest for the troops rotated out, having held the town and its suburbs for the last couple of months. Now Russia’s hapless and weary Wagner convicts and conscripts have to continue their attacks against fresh, well-equipped defenders. (The Ukrainian troops in Kherson had the best, most modern gear we’ve yet seen.) [Tweet and maps at the link]
[…] Hell no. The IOC [International Olympic Committee] still hasn’t even stripped Russia’s women’s figure skating team of their gold medal after one of their star skaters was caught cheating, failing a drug test. They are corrupt […]
Another Moscow mall goes up in flames. [video at the link]
[…] Sanctions are biting the Russian economy, which has lost access to Western (likely high-margin) goods. What’s a mall operator gotta do? Collecting insurance money seems like a good exit plan.
Fun fact about Russia: almost every car has a dash cam because of rampant insurance fraud. Look at this compilation video: (Volume down, the music is obnoxious.) [video at the link] Seems like a joke, right? Lighting up malls and factories and other businesses for insurance money isn’t a stretch for these people.
[…] taken both collectively and individually, the texts document the degree to which the insurrection was fueled by conspiratorial fantasies as well as the degree to which our Republican representatives were willing to sanction violence and authoritarian acts in order to achieve their goal of keeping Trump in office. They also clearly point to a much broader effort to thwart the will of the American people on the part of these representatives than is generally understood by most of the American public. […]
As Walker, Kovensky and Yucel’s first installment article indicates, the texts also show a coordinated effort by Republican politicians to foment protests against the election results, as well as the enlistment of involvement by right-wing fringe groups, and communications between Meadows and Fox News and other media personalities.
[…] Taken as a whole the collection of texts to and from Meadows reveal a wide-ranging and multi-faceted effort by Republicans at all levels of the federal government geared towards overturning the verdict of the American people. Notably absent from any of the texts highlighted is any degree of self-awareness, nor the slightest concern that what they were plotting smacked of outright sedition and treachery. The slavish ingratiation, the insular, delusional outrage and the sheer dishonesty of it all is truly remarkable, if disturbing. [Yes, that was my reaction.]
But what is most disturbing — and disgusting — is that nearly all of these people remain in office […]
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Ukrainian forces damage key bridge near Melitopol, reports say
Ukrainian forces have reportedly damaged a key bridge outside the southern city of Melitopol, a key objective for Kyiv in the region.
The crossing over the Molochna River is situated between Melitopol and the village of Kostyantynivka just to the east of the city on the M14 highway and was struck overnight.
Video posted online showed two supports of the bridge had been damaged during the attack, with the span partly collapsed by the blast, making it reportedly unusable for heavy military traffic.
The strike on the bridge comes just two days after Ukraine hit a Russian barracks sited in a resort in the city, with Himars rockets causing substantial damage and casualties.
The increase in Ukrainian pressure on Russian forces in Melitopol appears to be following a similar pattern to tactics used against Kherson before its liberation, with the targeting of both Russian troops and supply lines, including logistics links to the Crimean peninsula and to the east via the Russia-occupied cities to Berdiansk and Mariupol.
With Ukrainian forces now operating east of the Dnieper River, Melitopol is seen as a key objective for Kyiv in the south of the country after the recapture of Kherson.
UK sanctions Russian commanders and Iranian businessmen
The UK Foreign Office announced it was sanctioning 12 Russian commanders for their role in attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Major General Robert Baranov, identified by Bellingcat as the commander of programming and targeting Russian cruise missiles.
The Foreign Office view the dozen as the most senior officers directly involved in the assault on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. The sanctioning makes them prime targets for war crimes tribunals in the event of such trials ever being held.
The UK said it was sanctioning four Iranians including the co-owner and managing director of MADO, an Iranian drone engine manufacturer….
Paris aid conference raises €1bn for Ukraine, says France
More than €1bn was raised to support Ukraine this winter at an aid conference in Paris, France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said.
The money, pledged by 46 countries and 24 international organisations, would be split between restoring Ukraine’s depleted energy network, the food sector, water supply, health and transportation, Colonna said.
She said these were “new commitments, thanks to the holding of this conference. It is aid, or gifts in kind. It is not loans.”
Ukrainian officials gave the all clear on Tuesday after air raid sirens blared across the country following warnings that Russia may carry out a new wave of missile strikes.
No new attacks were reported despite the air alerts, officials said.
Russia has launched several waves of missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure since October that have caused power outages across the country.
Ukrainian media said the alerts may have been triggered by MiG fighter jets that took off from Ryazan, near Russia’s border with Ukraine, and flew towards Belarus.
UK strikes calendar: nurses, post, and transport workers to take further action
The train strikes starting today will be only the first day of planned disruption across the UK’s railways. And rail workers are not the only ones taking action: there are major strikes planned every day this month.
Nurses, ambulance workers, Royal Mail employees, and big chunks of the civil service will strike for higher pay this month alone.
Fanatical supporters of Brazil’s outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, have torched cars and buses and tried to storm the federal police headquarters in the country’s capital in what one commentator called a botched attempt to spark a January 6-style turmoil.
The violence erupted on Monday evening after the leftwing politician who defeated Bolsonaro in October’s historic election – former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – had his victory officially ratified by Brazil’s electoral court.
Several hours later, hardcore Bolsonaristas who want the result overturned rampaged through the heart of Brasília, after a member of their radical group was arrested for allegedly trying to incite violence that would prevent Lula from being sworn in on 1 January.
Reuters said witnesses saw extremists, many wearing the yellow Brazil shirts that symbolise the president’s far-right movement, confronting security forces outside a federal police headquarters. Police used stun grenades and teargas to disperse the crowd.
Footage posted on social media by bystanders and local journalists showed militant Bolsonaro supporters setting fire to a bus.
“The centre of Brasília … looks like a war zone,” tweeted Alan Rios, a reporter from the local news website Metropoles, alongside images of the destruction. “Torched buses and cars, destroyed buildings and signposts, rubbish bins and gas canisters littering the floor after being used as weapons,” Rios wrote.
…
The outbreak of violence, which had reportedly subsided by Tuesday morning, has sparked fears there could be further upheaval in the lead-up to Lula’s inauguration. Hundreds of thousands of supporters are expected to attend the event, at which some of Brazil’s best-known artists will perform, including Pabllo Vittar, Paulinho da Viola, Martinho da Vila and Maria Rita.
The man Lula has named as his future justice minister, Flávio Dino, tried to reassure Brazilians on Monday night, telling reporters: “Are there, unfortunately, people who want anti-democratic and illegal chaos? Yes there are. But these people did not prevail today and they will not prevail tomorrow.”
…The white lens has played a major role in how Harry & Meghan, both the documentary and the living beings, are viewed. More broadly, it has played a major role in how Britain views itself, its place in the world and the people it has subjugated. Black Britons and other designated burden-bearers of historic great Britishness don’t have the privilege to relax and let the white lens do the heavy lifting of interpretation for us. As a result, as Britons of different ethnicities, we are often viewing the same events very differently. Yet what is considered the official record of events remains the property of the white lens.
Nevertheless, white mainstream Britain may not have known it, but Black people saw Meghan in some ways as a proxy for our own experiences. In the treatment she received, many saw a nation revealing its hand. And the new hand looked just like the old hand.
Whereas some will portray contributors to the documentary such as Olusoga, Hirsch and Kehinde Andrews as anti-British incendiary radicals, most Black people will see them as deradicalisers of a nation radicalised by the white lens.
From colonialism to slavery, given the central role Britain played in the cascading of racism around the world, Harry’s involvement in this love and anti-racism story, and the documenting of it, is really important. He should be commended. He is doing more to enlighten and enhance our society than he would have achieved by staying as a working member of the royal household. As opposed to scuppering an opportunity to make progress on race, for once we may actually have blundered into making good on the opportunity. If only the tabloids could see it.
Fort Collins Police Services began investigating officer Jason Haferman after the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office told police it would no longer prosecute cases brought by Haferman. The DA found his testimony too problematic in too many cases…
Meanwhile, the richest moron in the world (depending on what hour of the day it is) with a Twitter following of more than 121 million is telling his fans, using an emoji, to “Follow the white rabbit” – or, in conspiracy lingo, “Follow QAnon” (see below)…
Thread
UNITED24.media
@United24media
Ukraine state-affiliated media
Hey @elonmusk
, it seems like it’s no longer possible to have a Ukrainian number verify a Twitter account/two-factor authentication. Ukraine is not in your list of countries, see our screenshot.
It’s vital for us to keep showing the world what’s going on in our country.
and
UNITED24.media @United24media
Ukraine state-affiliated media
Replying to
@United24media
This seems to mean that no new Ukrainian accounts can be set up. Why
@elonmusk
? We REALLY hope this is a mistake. But please do confirm.
Elon Musk just kicked the entire country of Ukraine off of Twitter.
No new accounts from Ukraine can be set up.
United24 is part of the Ukraine government. They are not happy.
We always knew he was pro-Russian but this sets a new low for even Musk.
Just when I thought I couldn’t have more contempt and dislike for Elon Musk, he surpasses himself.
ravensays
This is a followup to my last comment on Elon Musk’s obvious bias towards Russia and against Ukraine.
The mask is off here.
What is disturbing about this is a lot but notably, Musk gets a lot of support from the US government.
It is mostly SpaceX and Starlink.
SpaceX isn’t launching those rockets from Musk’s backyard.
They use US government facilities, Cape Kennedy and Vandenberg Air Force base.
The US military also uses Starlink.
The conclusion here is that Elon Musk is becoming a security risk for the USA government in general and the military in particular
I’m sure they are aware of this and I’m sure that right now, Elon Musk and SpaceX are getting a lot of attention from certain Federal government National Security agencies.
ravensays
A simple Google search says that Elon Musk has received many billions of dollars in government subsidies.
This tells you a lot including that Elon Musk is dumb enough to bite the hand that feeds.
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
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.
The richest person in the world says he doesn’t want any help from the US government, but his companies have actually gotten billions of dollars worth.
Like many other wealthy Americans, Musk has spoken out against a proposed “billionaires’ tax” from Sen. Ron Wyden, writing on Twitter in October that “eventually, they run out of other people’s money, and then they come for you.”
More recently, he spoke out against government subsidies and tax incentives for US businesses. In a recent interview with TIME, he said the government was not a good “steward of capital.”
And at a Wall Street Journal summit this month, Musk said the government should “just delete” all subsidies from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Joe Biden recently signed into law. Biden’s bill included $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, which would seem to help one of Musk’s companies, Tesla Motors.
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.
Here’s a look at some of the federal and state-level government subsidies that have contributed to building Musk’s empire.
SpaceX lands a $2.89 billion contract with NASA in April 2021
SpaceX founder Elon Musk on a video stage speaking about Starlink
SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaking about Starlink. Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images
In April, NASA selected Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX for a $2.89 billion contract to work toward landing “commercial” humans on the moon. Musk beat out Jeff Bezos’s aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin for the contract, which gives NASA use of Musk’s Starship spacecraft to take astronauts from lunar orbit to the moon. Musk’s company has been developing the spacecraft with the intent of taking the first humans to Mars.
SpaceX signs a $653 million contract with the US Air Force in 2020
falcon 9 rocket launches at night
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying four astronauts launches from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, April 23, 2021. NASA/Aubrey Gemignani
The US Air Force has joined in on the SpaceX action as well. In 2020, Musk’s SpaceX and United Launch Alliance won two contracts for National Security Space “launch services” worth a combined $653 million, which they will provide between 2022 and 2027. The competition started from a US endeavor to replace Russian rocket technology.
Tesla accepts “certain payroll benefits” from the federal government’s $600 billion 2020 pandemic stimulus
Steven Mnuchin
Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Alex Wong/Pool via AP
Tesla accepted some of the $600 billion that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin offered corporations early in the pandemic. As Insider reported in July 2020, Tesla did so while Musk was tweeting against government aid for individuals.
“Another government stimulus package is not in the best interests of the people imo,” Musk tweeted.
In Tesla’s July 2020 regulatory filing, it mentioned that the company received “certain payroll related benefits,” but did not specify any dollar amounts.
New York State put $750 million toward a SolarCity plant in Buffalo in 2016
SolarCity cofounder Lyndon Rive standing by a Tesla Powerwall battery.
SolarCity cofounder Lyndon Rive standing by a Tesla Powerwall battery. Eddie Jim/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
In 2016, New York state put $750 million towards Musk’s planned solar-panel plant in Buffalo. About $350 million of those state funds was allocated for the construction of the facility, and $400 million was given for equipment. This was in exchange for the company’s pledge to spend $5 billion on SolarCity, which promised the creation of 5,000 new jobs.
SolarCity receives $497.5 million in grants, in addition to tax credits, by 2015
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wearing a construction helmet.
Elon Musk said Tesla’s solar energy division has been tripped up by production of the Model 3 followed by the pandemic. REUTERS/Michele Tantussi/File Photo
Musk’s SolarCity reported in 2015 that it had received $497.5 million in direct grants from the US Treasury Department. The Los Angeles Times estimated SolarCity’s total receipts to be higher — $1.5 billion — based on the price of a solar panel and the company’s reported sales.
Additionally, the federal government provided tax credits that covered 30% of the cost of solar photovoltaic systems, such as the ones SolarCity installed, before 2020. That credit currently covers 26% of the cost of such systems for consumers.
As of 2015, Tesla had sold $517 million in environmental credits to competitors per a federal mandate. Tax credits for consumers also helped them sell more cars.
Tesla has also collected more than $517 million from competing car manufacturers by selling them environmental credits, The Los Angeles Times estimated in 2015. In states like California, car manufacturers need to buy the credits if they don’t sell the amount of zero-emissions cars required by mandates.
The federal government offers a $7,500 tax credit that car buyers can use to shave off some of the higher cost of purchasing an electric vehicle, which benefits Tesla as the industry’s pioneer. This made buying the cars at Tesla’s price points more feasible, before it hit the threshold of 200,000 cars sold.
Nevada provides $1.3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives for a new Tesla “Gigafactory” in 2014
Elon Musk
Elon Musk Picture Alliance
The state of Nevada signed a package of bills in 2014 providing $1.3 billion in tax breaks and other incentives for Tesla. Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval wanted the electric car company to build a $5 billion lithium-ion battery factory in his state, called the “Gigafactory.” The deal also included tax credits and other incentives for 20 years. Reuters estimated this aspect of the deal was worth $725 million.
Reuters also projected that the company would save more than $300 million in payroll taxes, among other taxes, through 2024.
SpaceX receives $15 million from the state of Texas in 2014
jets flying over spacex starship facilities texas
August 28, 2021 Inspiration4/John Kraus
SpaceX also received $15 million in economic development subsidies from Texas, in exchange for building the world’s first commercial rocket launchpad in the state. State and local officials granted Musk his additional requests as well: they also changed laws to close a public beach during launches, and provided legal protection from noise complaints.
The Energy Department loans Tesla $465 million in 2010
In 2010, Tesla received a $465 million loan from an Energy Department program that offered funding to car companies making fuel-efficient cars. Tesla repaid the loan in 2013, about a decade earlier than it was required to.
The Biden administration is finalizing plans to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine that could be announced as soon as this week, according to two US officials and a senior administration official.
The Pentagon’s plan still needs to be approved by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin before it is sent to President Joe Biden for his signature. The three officials told CNN that approval is expected. ..
For a White House eager to show progress on bipartisan breakthroughs, there’s a growing list of success stories — including the Respect for Marriage Act.
It seems like ages ago, but as recently as 2012, marriage equality was still quite controversial. In fact, most national Democratic leaders were still reluctant at the time to endorse equal marriage rights, regardless of sexual orientation.
With this in mind, then-Vice President Joe Biden surprised many in May 2012 when he appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and spoke his mind. Asked about his personal perspective on same-sex marriage, the Delaware Democrat replied, “I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.”
This was not the official position of the Obama White House at the time. Indeed, the sitting president said, “Joe got a little ahead of his skis” on the issue.
Maybe so. But Biden’s unplanned announcement — in hindsight, a watershed moment — helped spark a new and progressive conversation in Democratic politics. It wasn’t long before the party dramatically overhauled its position on marriage equality, and now literally every Democratic officeholder at the federal level endorses same-sex marriage without hesitation.
[…] Biden will sign the Respect for Marriage Act into law this afternoon. NBC News reported on today’s bill signing ceremony at the White House.
The president will emphasize bipartisan support for the legislation, passed by Congress last week, while calling for more to be done, including a renewed push for bill to prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, a White House official told NBC News. […]
One of the many things about the progressive victory on the Respect for Marriage Act is the speed with which it came together. Indeed, as we recently discussed, the measure probably wouldn’t even have been written this year were it not for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The far-right jurist issued a concurring opinion six months ago, arguing that a 2015 ruling on marriage equality was “demonstrably erroneous” and should be “reconsidered.”
It came against a backdrop of Republican officials at multiple levels of government expressing overt opposition to same-sex marriage.
Soon after, Democrats, led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, pushed the Respect for Marriage Act to help shield the status quo for same-sex and interracial couples. After some relatively straightforward negotiations, it passed both the House and the Senate with a fair amount of bipartisan support.
To reiterate a point from last week, it’s important to acknowledge the fact that the bill is not perfect, though it will achieve some key goals. As a recent NBC News report explained:
The bill requires the federal government to recognize valid marriages between two individuals.
It ensures full benefits for marriages “regardless of the couple’s sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
If the Supreme Court were to overturn the right to same-sex marriage, and red states were to roll back the clock, Americans could go to other states and get married even if it’s not legal in their states.
It also repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, which has been ruled unconstitutional, but is still on the books.
This was good enough to get unanimous support from congressional Democrats, along with 39 Republican votes in the House and 12 Republican votes in the Senate.
If it seems as if Biden has signed quite a few bipartisan bills since becoming president, it’s not your imagination. In August, for example, he signed the CHIPS and Science Act, includes more than $52 billion for U.S. companies producing computer chips, which was one of the largest investments in American manufacturing and science in a generation.
A week earlier, there was bipartisan support for welcoming Sweden and Finland into NATO, and around the same time, there was bipartisan support for the PACT Act, which was a significant expansion of veterans’ benefits.
As we discussed at the time, that came on the heels of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — the first major legislation to address gun violence in nearly three decades — which, as the name implies, also passed with some bipartisan backing.
[…] the list keeps going. In March, for example, both parties agreed on an important Postal Service Reform Act, which Biden was only too pleased to sign into law. Before that, a bill on forced arbitration was also a worthwhile breakthrough, as was the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act. The parties also reached an agreement on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, which was added to a larger spending package that passed.
What’s more, it was last fall when the president also signed into law a significant, bipartisan infrastructure package.
What’s more, there’s reason for cautious optimism about reforming the Electoral Count Act, which also has bipartisan support.
For a White House eager to show that Biden and Democratic leaders can make meaningful progress on bipartisan measures that will make a difference, there’s a growing list of credible success stories.
New Zealand will phase in a near-total tobacco ban from next year.
Legislation passed by parliament on Tuesday means that anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products…
Thousands of foreign soldiers have travelled to Ukraine to fight and the number of Taiwanese among them is small, estimated at about 10.
But Russia’s invasion has resonated on the self-ruled island halfway around the world. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and said it will unify it by force if necessary. Taiwan sees itself as distinct from the mainland…
“The situation with Taiwan and over there is just like us. I was thinking of what I could do to support Ukraine.” …
“One guy had lived in Taiwan for two years and knew the situation. Taiwan and Ukraine are just like brothers. It’s 100% the same. They were telling me you can’t die here because you have to go back and protect your homeland,” he said…
“We are also afraid that if Russia wins, China will do the same to Taiwan. So we are willing to come to Ukraine to sacrifice our lives and the freedom for the safety of the people here.” …
The damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has caused an average shortfall of about two-and-a-half gigawatts of power, Volodymyr Zelensky told an international aid conference on Tuesday.
But supplying the country with 50 million LED lightbulbs, which use less energy than older varieties, would save around one gigawatt of power – reducing the shortfall by about 40%.
The EU has already committed to sending 30 million bulbs…
The Chinese government has reportedly banned exports of Loongson CPUs based on the LoongArch microarchitecture to Russia and other countries, citing the strategic importance of these processors that are used by the country’s military. For some Russian companies, Loongson chips could have become an alternative to x86 processors from AMD and Intel if partners of these two companies cease to ship these CPUs to Russia via other countries…
[…] Allen is one of the members of Congress who worked most aggressively behind the scenes to reverse Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. Allen’s attempts to challenge the vote included passing unproven YouTube conspiracy videos from Romania to the White House and pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state. At least one of the paranoid election theories Allen texted to Meadows made its way directly to Trump.
Allen’s communications appeared in the 2,319 text messages that Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. TPM has obtained Meadows’ text log, which includes 27 messages he exchanged with Allen. Meadows and the select committee have not responded to multiple requests for comment. Allen and his office also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Allen’s first appearance in the log came on Nov. 25, 2020, more than two weeks after the election was called for Joe Biden. In it, he told Meadows that he had a well-placed anonymous “source” who could prove there had been “fraud” in the vote.
Mark, this is Rick Allen. I just got of the phone with a high ranking government official and decorated JAG Officer. I know you are busy as we are in Georgia but he revealed some things to me that the President needs to know. The FBI and DOJ are slow walking these investigations into voter fraud in Georgia. I headed a delegation letter to the DOJ specifically asking for an investigation two weeks ago and we have heard nothing? My source confirmed that there is wide spread fraud in multiple states! Let me know a good time to talk, thanks!
Officials at every level of government including Republicans and members of Trump’s own administration have confirmed there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Nevertheless, Meadows appeared receptive to Allen’s “source.”
“Let me know if I need to travel to hear in person the concerns. I can go tomorrow,” Meadows wrote on Nov. 26.
The texts Meadows provided to the committee are not necessarily a complete record of Allen’s correspondence with the chief of staff; however, the ones in the log show Allen was eager to overturn the election based on easily debunked, internet-fueled theories. For more information about the story behind the text log and our procedures for publishing the texts, read the introduction to this series.
According to the text log, Allen continued to message Meadows about his source on the evening of Nov. 26 after the former White House chief proposed making the trip.
The source that is feeding my source some voter fraud information contacted me directly. They sent it to me and it is mostly Data breeches of drivers licenses in Georgia and Texas and probably all the swing states that can be used to commit voter fraud. I am going through it now. I am sure their office is overwhelmed with this type of information. It is wild stuff! Waiting to hear back from my source to set up a time to talk tomorrow. They may be out of town for the Holiday so best to handle by phone until I know something.
[…] From what I can tell so far looks like this is high tech and foreign governments in collusion with Democratic Party to guarantee Biden would win which explains that the President was hundreds of thousands of votes ahead until they figured out what they needed. As I said this is wild stuff! I will send you some of the intel that was sent to me. There is no way in Georgia that the down ballot out performed the President. In my District the President won by 17 points and I won by 18 in an R5 District. Tell the President to hang in there, so many are praying for God’s revelation and a miracle!
Allen then passed along some links that appeared to be related to the information about “high tech and foreign governments in collusion with Democratic Party” from his supposed “source.” However, rather than secret government documents or credible analysis, Allen’s evidence was simply a pair of links. The first was a news story describing a data breach that occurred with driver’s license records in Georgia in 2005. Allen’s second “wild” link was a YouTube video from a Romanian organization. In that clip, an anti-vaccine activist interviewed a man who claimed to be an ex-intelligence operative. Without providing any hard evidence, the man said identities of “50 million” U.S. citizens were stolen via Ukraine in 2009 and 2018 to be used for voting in the 2020 election as part of a “$100 billion” plot involving illegal immigrants, blackmail and Romanian officials.
It was an utterly fantastical scenario. The Romanian man in the clip had no explanation for how votes from roughly one-sixth of the total U.S. population would be fabricated without detection. But Allen seemed to find the wild scenario credible. He sent Meadows an annotation describing the claims in the YouTube clip. […]
Meadows thanked Allen for forwarding the texts, which apparently made their way to Trump. The former president tweeted about the issue and thanked Allen for highlighting it […]
[update is topped with a photo of Babushka shipping in Bakhmut] It’s official. Or … almost official. CNN is now reporting that Ukraine will receive Patriot missile systems. It’s not clear how many systems are being sent, but Ukrainians are reportedly being trained in Germany for a deployment that could be made official — officially official — later this week.
Twenty kilometers northwest of Svatove are the towns of Novoselivske and Kuzemivka. Really, it’s just one community divided by the P07 highway and a north-south railway line. Ukrainian forces liberated the west side of the highway—Novoselivske—some weeks ago and began pushing east, but as soon as they cross the rail line, they ran into trouble. That’s because Kuzemivka isn’t just another point on the highway; it also guards the smaller road that cuts northeast from there to the city of Nyzhnia Duvanka. That location is not only a significant target on its own, but taking it would open an additional approach to Svatove, as well as block a major route for supplies moving south. [map at the link]
Nyzhnia Duvanka is important. Which is why, shortly after the liberation of Izyum, Russia began moving forces into Kuzemivka and the next town along the road to the northeast, Nauholne. In fact, this road may be the biggest concentration of Russian forces in the approach to Svatove.
And the last few days have had some of the nastiest fights.
When Ukraine made a push last week and drove Russia back from Kuzemivka, I was ready to spend today talking about a lot of “Where do they go now?” Drive south for Svatove? Move at Nauholne with the goal of reaching Nyzhnia Duvanka first, and let the forces coming in from the west and south deal with Svatove?
However, that option went off the table at the end of the week when Russia launched a heavy counterattack at Kuzemivka. This included using a TOS-1 launcher, positioned along that road to the east, to bombard both Kuzemivka and Novoselivske with window, wall, and lung-shattering thermobaric weapons. This attack appeared to succeed in driving Ukrainian forces out of Kuzemivka and back across the railroad tracks. The bombardment has also largely destroyed Novoselivske, as the thermobaric weapons did what they were designed to do: Utterly wipe out the town, one block at a time. [Tweet and video at the link]
Next, Russia tried to continue its counterstrike by moving into Novoselivske. However, when Russian armor topped that rise between the two towns, they found Ukrainian forces still waiting for them. Russia appears to have been surprised. They may also have been surprised by just how well an older T-64 can perform when it’s been given some heavy upgrades. [Tweet and video of Ukrainian tank scoring a direct hit.]
So, after all that … things are back to where they stood at the beginning of last week. Or at least they are when it comes to the lines on the map. Ukraine is in tacit control of Novoselivske, while Russia holds Kuzemivka. Except that today there are almost 100% fewer buildings in either town, and a lot of dead people—soldiers and civilians.
However, the world is not without progress. In the map above, I’ve deliberately extended the frame to the north. That’s because Ukraine is continuing to clear out Russian occupiers who remain in the northeast corner of Kharkiv Oblast. Based on Russian shelling over the last few days, Ukraine has liberated Nova Tarasivka. It’s likely that the Mykolaivka northwest of this position is also liberated (it’s tiny enough to escape mention in the lists).
Ukraine had also reportedly liberated much of the area around Volodymyrivka (helpfully misspelled on the map today as Volorymrivka) as of Sunday, and may have cleared that entire area now. However, it’s yet to show up on the list of sites that have either been officially liberated, or are reported as sites Russia shelled or attempted to assault. So it’s yellow until we hear something more.
Near Svatove, an active battle is reportedly underway at Kolomyichykha, which is heavily contested. Ukrainian forces have reportedly repelled a Russian attack attempting to move west from Kryvoshyivka.
[map at the link] The biggest news near Kreminna is how well Ukraine is settling into the P66 highway. In the last day, Ukraine has reportedly repulsed fresh efforts to move their forces from Chervonopopivka, Ploshchanka, and the forest south of Kreminna. Based on past reports and the locations being bombarded by Russia, there are good reasons to believe Ukraine also controls Dibrova, Kuzmyne, and Pishchane. There were reports on Monday that Ukraine had liberated at least part of Zhytlivka, but does not yet control the whole town.
Reports that Ukraine was moving toward Pryvillya at the end of last week appear to have gotten lost in the fog somewhere. There’s no more word on action in that area. However, given that Ukraine has reportedly turned back at least two attempts by Russia to clear Ukrainian forces from the national forest area south of Kreminna, it may be simply that those Pryvillya-bound forces hooked a left to join up with Ukrainian troops already there. As many analysts have noted, going for Pryvillya right now not only involves crossing a river, but also some very swampy lowlands. That might be an issue at the moment. [Tweet and video at the link]
Kudos to the driver on that MT. Having tried to operate track dozers in muddy environments, feathering those controls to keep things moving in the right direction is definitely an art.
Ukraine also reportedly repelled what had been a reportedly large assault on Bilohorivka, at the south end of this map. The site of Russia’s triple disaster in attempting to forge a crossing of the Siverskyi Donets River, Bilohorivka now holds an important position for Ukraine, in addition to being the first location in Luhansk Oblast to be retaken during the counteroffensive that began in September.
The head of the Ukrainian military in the oblast continues to be very upbeat about progress in the area in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda. It’s just that right now, every move not made on the highway is a move made in soup. Cold weather can’t come soon enough.
And, what do you know—it’s cold today. In fact, temperatures in the area are barely going to crack freezing all week. So maybe there will be some movement ahead that doesn’t occur in sludge.
A very much not a rumor this time, Tu-141 drone. These drones, with bombs in place of old film and camera pods, are suspected to be one of the tools Ukraine used to strike over 200km into Russian-occupied territory. [Tweet and video at the link]
In Bakhmut, Russian forces are again pressing in around the cement factory. And yes, they’ve been there before. Bakhmut holds. However, there are numerous reports that Russia has made a significant advance. [Tweet and map at the link]
Some of this may be legitimate repositioning on the part of Ukrainian forces, who reportedly finally moved out a number of units that had long been trapped on the Bakhmut front line and brought in units from the Kherson area. So it could be just a matter of new people in new positions they feel better able to defend. Or it could be the start of Russia actually making a real advance. Stay tuned.
And despite significant evacuations over the last few days, thousands of civilians are still in the city. Like the lady in the picture at the top of the story, who is shopping in what apparently is a still functioning grocery store. Ordinary people. Their resilience is beyond measure.
We warned you this was coming. The same crowd that said Republicans and their judges wouldn’t really overturn Roe v. Wade have dismissed the idea that Republicans and their judges would follow up Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization by coming for birth control next, but here it is.
Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas, recently released an opinion that “the Title X program violates the constitutional right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children.” Title X is a federal family planning program that provides services including contraceptives, pregnancy testing, testing for sexually transmitted infections, infertility help, and more. It offers services to adolescents as well as adults—and that’s where the right-wing challenge, and Kacsmaryk’s decision, comes in.
Alexander Deanda, the plaintiff in Deanda v. Becerra, is “raising each of his daughters in accordance with Christian teaching on matters of sexuality, which requires unmarried children to practice abstinence and refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage,” so he’s arguing that the availability of federally funded family planning services tramples on his rights as a father to control his daughters’ sexuality. And Kacsmaryk bought that argument, despite a ton of legal precedent to the contrary, because Kacsmaryk himself is a warrior for that kind of right-wing policing of female bodies and sexuality.
The Deanda plaintiff is trying to shut down all Title X funding to providers that don’t require parental consent before offering care to people under 18 years old. Kacsmaryk hasn’t gone quite that far yet—he hasn’t issued an injunction blocking Title X funding—but he’s asked the parties to the case to submit their plans for what should happen next, and the plaintiff’s lawyers have made clear that he wants Kacsmaryk to prohibit the federal government from “funding any family-planning project in the United States that fails to obtain parental consent before distributing prescription contraception or other family-planning services to minors.”
[…] Kacsmaryk leans on a Texas state law about parental consent for medical care, Millhiser notes, even though this is a federal case about a federal program, so state law isn’t in control here. And there have been cases stretching back decades that have established that this kind of program is constitutional.
[…] Millhiser writes. “A program like Title X cannot violate this rule against coercion because there is nothing coercive about it. The federal government provides grants to health providers who voluntarily offer family planning services to their patients. And those providers, in turn, offer their services to patients who voluntarily seek out contraceptive care. No one is required to receive reproductive health care services funded by Title X.”
This is a really, really weak case, in other words. There’s a decent chance that, if Kacsmaryk goes ahead and tries to block Title X funding, he will be overturned at the appellate level, even given that the case would be appealed to the very conservative Fifth Circuit. Even the Trump-McConnell Supreme Court might not be willing to go this far yet. But either way, Kacsmaryk could at least temporarily mess up a vitally important health care program. And he’s showing that, yes, the right-wing legal movement, up to and including a federal judge, has its sights set on birth control rights.
President Biden’s chief medical adviser, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, brushed aside criticism from Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter […]
“I don’t pay attention to that,” Fauci said during an appearance on Andrea Mitchell’s daytime show on MSNBC when asked about Musk. “I mean, yeah, he has a big megaphone, but, I mean, the Twittersphere as it is has really gone berserk lately. It’s kind of become almost a cesspool of misinformation.”
Musk on Sunday, in a tweet, called to prosecute Fauci, who has emerged as a target of right-wing outrage during the coronavirus pandemic and whom congressional Republicans have teased an investigation of.
“My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,” Musk said on Twitter, mocking Fauci, later sharing a meme edited to show Fauci telling Biden, “Just one more lockdown, my king.”
During a separate appearance on political pundit David Axelrod’s podcast, Fauci said of Musk, “I don’t respond to him.”
“I don’t pay any attention to him because that’s merely a distraction,” he said. “And if you get drawn into that, and I have to be honest, that cesspool of interaction … there’s no value added to that, David. It doesn’t help anything.”
There seems to be growing recognition that Trump is toast now that a) most of his candidates lost in the mid-terms, b) FauxNews has tamped down their support, and c) his legal problems are catching up with him. Expect a lot more articles on who will replace him as top Republican candidate. DeSantis seems to be the most mentioned.
Reginald Selkirksays
@450: Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas, recently released an opinion that “the Title X program violates the constitutional right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children.”
This is a weird thing in which zygotes have full personhood rights from the moment of conception, yet teenagers are still the exclusive property of their parents.
For about a year, Donald Trump’s confidants, advisers and boosters have worried that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was positioning himself to get to the right of the former president over the issue of Covid vaccines.
DeSantis, who is mulling whether to challenge Trump in the 2024 Republican primary for president, deepened those suspicions Tuesday.
At a roundtable he convened of Covid vaccine skeptics and opponents — including his own surgeon general — he formally called on the state Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate whether pharmaceutical companies criminally misled Floridians about the side effects of vaccines, a position at odds with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention….
It’s all about political posturing, there is nothing substantial to invesigate.
ravensays
Some good news for once. “The Covid-19 vaccines have kept more than 18.5 million people in the US out of the hospital and saved more than 3.2 million lives, a new study says.”
They also saved the US $1.15 trillion in medical costs.
Despite the vocal and ubiquitous antivaxxers, most US people have in fact, gotten vaccinated. It was like the Hunger Games to get a vaccine dose when they first came out and I was so glad to get mine.
It is also estimated that over 300,000 antivaxxers died from the Covid-19 virus. They died of ignorance and ideology.
Covid-19 vaccines have saved more than 3 million lives in US, study says, but the fight isn’t over
By Jen Christensen, CNN
Updated 3:55 PM EST, Tue December 13, 2022
The Covid-19 vaccines have kept more than 18.5 million people in the US out of the hospital and saved more than 3.2 million lives, a new study says – and that estimate is most likely a conservative one, the researchers say.
The US is nearing the second anniversary of its first Covid-19 vaccinations, and although the coronavirus is still causing thousands of illnesses and deaths, the vaccines have made living with the virus more manageable.
Burnt out and frustrated, Covid-weary Americans try to accept uncertainty as their new normal
To determine exactly how much the shots have helped, researchers created a computer model of disease transmission that incorporated demographic information, people’s risk factors, the dynamics of infection and general information about vaccination. The research comes from the Commonwealth Fund and Yale School of Public Health.
Their study, published Tuesday, found that without Covid-19 vaccines, the nation would have had 1.5 times more infections, 3.8 times more hospitalizations and 4.1 times more deaths than it did between December 2020 and November 2022.
As it stands now, Covid-19 has caused at least 99.2 million cases and more than 1.08 million deaths in the US. Just in the past week, there were 2,981 new deaths and 30,253 new hospital admissions, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study estimates that the vaccinations were also a good financial bet, saving the US $1.15 trillion in medical costs.
If you factor in the cases of long Covid that vaccines likely prevented, the savings may be much higher, according to Alison Galvani, one of the study authors.
“Given the emergency of highly transmissible variants and immune-evading variants like Omicron, it is a remarkable success and an extraordinary achievement,” said Galvani, founding director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis.
“Moving forward, an accelerating uptake of the new booster will be fundamental to averting future hospitalization and death.”
Nearly 658 million Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the United States. However, uptake of the new boosters – which target the original virus strain as well as the Omicron BA.4/5 subvariants – has been slow since they were authorized this fall. Only about 14% of the eligible population has gotten one, and 1 in 5 people in the US are still completely unvaccinated, according to the CDC.
The Biden administration has been encouraging more Americans to get boosted, especially with holiday gatherings coming up.
Leading Democrats in Congress, frustrated with what they say are inadequate protections against Covid-19 in air travel, introduced legislation to require the federal government to mandate face masks on flights and in airports. Photographer: Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Face masks come back to forefront amid triple threat of Covid-19, flu, RSV
“Don’t wait. If you wait, you put yourself at risk,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said Friday at an AARP event. “We’re entering the colder months of the late fall and the early winter. We’re all going to congregate with our families and friends for the holidays. If you are up to date, great. If you are not, get vaccinated now.”
Covid-19 case numbers have been trending upward, as have deaths and hospitalizations, according to the CDC.
About 14% of the US population lives in an area that meets the CDC’s criteria for a “high” Covid-19 community level, including New York City, Los Angeles County and Maricopa County, Arizona – a sharp increase from less than 5% last week but far below levels of prior surges. And at this level, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors.
“We are all sick of sickness,” AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins said Friday. “Each of us has the power to significantly reduce our risk of getting sick.”
As numbers trend upward, the experts suggest that masks may be appropriate in some circumstances.
The CDC recommends masking for anyone who’s on public transportation. It also suggests wearing one in other public settings in communities where there is a high level of transmission. People who are at high risk of severe illness should wear masks even in areas with only medium community levels.
Other basic prevention measures still apply: Keep hands clean, and stay home if you’re sick.
ravensays
It’s all about political posturing, there is nothing substantial to invesigate.
True.
I just posted the results for the vaccines.
The vaccines saved 3.2 million lives.
They saved the us $1.15 trillion in medical costs.
Over 300,000 antivaxxers refused the vaccines with the side effect of death in the ICU on a ventilator.
80% of the US is vaccinated against Covid-19.
If DeathSantis wants to look at the vaccines, he is going to look like an idiot.
The US has charged five Russians and two Americans with conspiracy related to procurement and money laundering on behalf of the government in Moscow.
The justice department said they were suspected of trying to obtain military-grade and dual-use technologies from US firms for Russia’s defence sector.
They are also believed to have conspired to smuggle sniper ammunition in violation of US sanctions.
One of the Russians is thought to be a Federal Security Service (FSB) officer.
The suspects and the Russian government have so far made no comment on the investigation. Three of the group are in custody; four of the Russians are still at large…
The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday it would memorialize the late Rep. John Lewis with a new stamp next year. In its announcement, the USPS said the stamp ‘celebrates the life and legacy’ of Lewis.
The text messages Mark Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack show […] in at least four cases, the text messages show political allies explicitly mixed requests for presidential pardons with help on the election efforts that were so important to Trump.
At least three of those requests were subsequently granted by [then] President Trump. […] Experts who spoke with TPM described the texts as “corrupt” and examples of “venality” — though likely not criminal — because of the implied quid pro quo.
[…] The first pardon request in Meadows’ text log came from Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) on Dec. 20, 2020. Allen was one of the Republican members of Congress who was most active behind the scenes in his efforts to challenge President Trump’s loss in the 2020 election. Allen exchanged at least 27 text messages with Meadows that were included in the log. Allen’s conversations with Meadows contained wild election fraud conspiracies and alleged information from a high-level “source.” [See comment 448]
In one of the texts with Meadows, Allen sought a presidential pardon for an unnamed family friend who he suggested had faced a charge from an FBI investigation like Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Trump pardoned Flynn, who was an active participant in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, in November of that year, weeks before Allen’s text to Meadows. In the next breath after bringing up his family friend, Allen touted the work his supposed “source” was doing to raise questions about Trump’s loss.
[…] The next pardon request in Meadows’ log came from state Rep. Vernon Jones of Georgia,, a state that was a focal point for the Trump team’s election overturn efforts. Jones was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, when protests against Trump’s loss turned violent. He appeared as an opening speaker at the White House Ellipse rally where Trump encouraged the crowd to “fight like hell” before many of them marched to the Capitol where the electoral certification was underway. The first barricades at the building were stormed as Trump spoke. Texts show Meadows helped Jones secure his speaking slot at that event where he announced he was switching his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican. Jones was also billed as a speaker at the “Wild Protest” that was scheduled to take place outside the Capitol that day before being scuttled amid the mayhem.
In a Dec. 22, 2020, text to Meadows, Jones referenced his plans to participate in the Jan. 6 protests as he requested a pair of pardons for two unnamed “law enforcement officers who were victims of the FBI & DOJ.”
[…] The next pardon request in Meadows’ text messages came from Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) on Dec. 23, 2020. Budd, who was elected to the U.S. Senate last month, emphasized that he was among the Republicans who planned to object to the electoral certification as he lobbied for a pardon for someone he identified as “Robin H.”
[…] Budd’s message is possibly a reference to Robin Hayes, a former Republican North Carolina congressman who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in 2019 as part of an investigation into a bribery plot that the Charlotte Observer called one of the state’s “worst political corruption scandals.” Trump pardoned Hayes during the final hours of his presidency on Jan. 20, 2021.
[…] The pardon requests in Meadows’ text log “could technically fit the definition of bribery, which is the exchange of official action for something of value,” Albert Alschuler, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Law School who has worked at the Department of Justice, told TPM. Alschuler agreed that Budd’s message raised the most red flags, but stressed it was not something that was likely to provoke criminal charges.
“There are winks and it’s all over the place but a prosecutor wouldn’t approach them because it would be almost impossible to prosecute,” he said of the texts.
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) also appeared in the text logs seeking a pardon for an ex-member of Congress. Gosar’s lengthy message to Meadows, which was first reported in September, asked for Trump to pardon five different people. Gosar’s list began with Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ), who was convicted of corruption, money laundering and other charges in 2013. He then requested pardons for former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and other leaders of the We Build The Wall group who were facing fraud charges for allegedly misusing donor funds they raised to privately build a section of the wall Trump promised to erect on the border with Mexico. In Oct. 2021, Rolling Stone published a report citing two activists who worked with We Build The Wall, who claimed Gosar told them he was working on pardons for the group as he encouraged them to protest Trump’s election loss. Gosar issued a statement denying that report. Gosar’s text also included a request for a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the dark web marketplace Silk Road, which facilitated sales for drugs, guns, and contract killings.
[…] Trump pardoned Renzi and Bannon in his final hours in office.
[…] According to testimony and other materials gathered by the select committee, Gosar is one of multiple members of Congress who pursued pardons for themselves for their efforts to overturn the election. […]
Is Musk tweeting while Twitter burns? According to a report by the New York Times,
“To cut costs, Twitter has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks, three people close to the company said. Twitter has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights made the week of Mr. Musk’s takeover, according to a copy of a lawsuit filed in New Hampshire District Court and obtained by The New York Times.
Twitter’s leaders have also discussed the consequences of denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off since the takeover, two people familiar with the talks said. And Mr. Musk has threatened employees with lawsuits if they talk to the media and “act in a manner contrary to the company’s interest,” according to an internal email sent last Friday.”
Not paying rent, refusing to pay bills, stiffing ex-employees? That sounds like the business strategy of a stable genius. And if those comparisons with Trump are not enough, then consider that, as the Times also reports,
“Mr. Musk appears to be gearing up for legal battles at Twitter […] according to seven people familiar with internal conversations. He and his team have revamped Twitter’s legal department and pushed out one of his closest advisers in the process. They have also instructed employees to not pay vendors in anticipation of potential litigation, the people said.”
[…] He had decimated Twitter’s legal department by firing the company’s chief legal officer and its general counsel as soon as he finalized his acquisition of the social media site.
He then installed his personal lawyer, Alex Spiro, to head up legal and policy matters at Twitter. Spiro’s expertise is in criminal defense. He soon pissed Musk off by retaining Twitter Deputy General Counsel James A. Baker. Musk later fired Baker after he learned that the lawyer had reviewed internal communications about the company’s decision to suppress a 2020 NY Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Spiro is also gone.
To fill the legal void at Twitter, Musk has striped SpaceX of legal talent. [Sounds bad for SpaceX.] Employees transferred to Twitter include Chris Cardaci, the company’s vice president of legal, and Tim Hughes, its senior vice president and general counsel. So who is minding SpaceX’s legal store?
Musk promotes himself as a decisive decision-maker. And in this case, he decisively committed to paying too much for a company he did not research, in an industry he does not understand.
He is sure he is an infallible genius. He is convinced he is always right. And he will not listen to anyone. […]
Good old American manufacturing beats Russian crap every day. The video is NOT sensitive.
The American armoured vehicle MaxxPro MRAP survives intense firefight and saves lives of Ukrainian soldiers
Its armoured capsule is riddled with large-caliber bullets after the combat, with a Russian rocket propelled grenade stuck in it’s back door. 🎥http://t.me/horevica/8165
The Biden administration lit up the south portico of the White House in rainbow colors on Tuesday evening after the president signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law earlier in the day.
President Biden signed the legislation, which provides federal protections for same-sex marriage, during a celebratory event on the South Lawn with more than 2,000 attendees. […]
Photos at the link.
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 450
Alexander Deanda, the plaintiff in Deanda v. Becerra, is “raising each of his daughters in accordance with Christian teaching on matters of sexuality, which requires unmarried children to practice abstinence and refrain from sexual intercourse until marriage…”
Now watch as “liberal,” “progresssive” Christians–in their efforts to whitewash the repressive, anti-sex history and practice of their filthy religion–try to gaslight us by claiming that Deanda isn’t a “true Christian.”
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Russian drone strikes have damaged five buildings in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv – though air defences thwarted many more, authorities said. No casualties have been reported, according to the Associated Press. The attacks underline how Ukraine’s biggest city remains vulnerable to the regular Russian attacks which have devastated infrastructure and other population centres, mostly in the country’s east and south in recent weeks.
Ukraine says it shot down all the Iranian-supplied drones launched early Wednesday morning at Kyiv and the surrounding region. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a video on Telegram, which thanked Ukraine’s air defence forces for shooting down 13 out of the 13 attack drones.
One unofficial Telegram channel has posted a picture of what appears to be a piece of a downed drone with the words “For Ryazan!!!” written on it in Russian. [LOL] On 5 December, a Russian military airbase in the city of Ryazan in western Russia was attacked. A Russian Tu-95 bomber plane, which has been used to attack Ukraine, was damaged and three soldiers at the base were fatally wounded, according to Russia’s ministry of defence.
Russian drone strikes on Kyiv and the region around the Ukrainian capital, on Wednesday, did not damage any energy facilities, national power grid operator Ukrenergo said. Since October, Russia has been targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with big waves of missile and drone strikes.
The United States is finalising plans to send its sophisticated Patriot air defence system to Ukraine in a potentially pivotal move. Washington could announce a decision as soon as Thursday on providing the Patriot, two officials told Reuters, on Tuesday. The Patriot is considered one of the most advanced US air defence systems and is usually in short supply, with allies around the world vying for it….
Also from there:
Russian rocket launchers hit administration building in Kherson
Russian forces firing multiple rocket launchers hit the regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, according to a senior Ukrainian official.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said two floors of the building on the central square of the recently liberated city had been damaged, but that no one was reported hurt.
Russia has been shelling Kherson city from the opposite side of the Dnieper River since leaving the city and withdrawing from the western bank of the river.
An unconfirmed video circulating on social media showed a huge plume of smoke pouring up from the top of the administration building.
The publisher PLOS is marking nearly 50 articles by Didier Raoult, the French scientist who became controversial for promoting hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19, with expressions of concern while it investigates potential research ethics violations in the work.
PLOS has been looking into more than 100 articles by Raoult, but determined that the issues in 49 of the papers, including reuse of ethics approval reference numbers, warrant expressions of concern while the publisher continues its inquiry.
In August of 2021, scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik wrote on her blog about a series of 17 articles from IHU-Méditerranée Infection that described different studies involving homeless people in Marseille over a decade, but all listed the same institutional ethics approval number….
Bik and other commenters on PubPeer have identified ethical concerns in many of the other papers PLOS is flagging, including others in large groups of papers with the same ethical approval numbers. Bik has received harassment and legal threats from Raoult.
…
This summer, Raoult retired as director of IHU-Méditerranée Infection, the hospital and research institution in Marseille that he had overseen since 2011, following an inspection by the French National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) that found “serious shortcomings and non-compliances with the regulations for research involving the human person” at IHU-Méditerranée Infection and another Marseille hospital.
ANSM imposed sanctions on IHU-Méditerranée Infection, including suspending a research study and placing any new research involving people under supervision, and called for a criminal investigation. Other regulators have also urged Marseille’s prosecutor to investigate “serious malfunctions” at the research institution.
Pierre-Edouard Fournier, the new director of IHU-Méditerranée Infection, issued a statement on September 7th that said he had “ensured that all clinical trials in progress relating to research involving the human person (RIPH) were suspended pending the regularization of the situation.”
Also in September, the American Society for Microbiology placed expressions of concern on six of Raoult’s papers in two of its journals, citing “a ‘scientific misconduct investigation’ by the University of Aix Marseille,” where the researcher also has an affiliation.
More at the link, including a statement from PLOS.
Female snakes have clitorises, scientists have detailed for the first time in a study of the animal’s sex organs.
The scientists say previous research had mistaken the organs as scent glands or underdeveloped versions of penises, in a study that criticised the comparatively limited research into female sex organs.
In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers found that snakes have two individual clitorises – hemiclitores – separated by tissue and hidden by skin on the underside of the tail.
“Female genitalia are conspicuously overlooked in comparison to their male counterparts, limiting our understanding of sexual reproduction across vertebrate lineages,” the study’s authors wrote.
Male snakes and lizards are known to have hemipenes – a pair of penises which are everted outside the body during reproduction. In many species, hemipenes are covered in spines or hooks.
The study’s lead author and a PhD student at the University of Adelaide, Megan Folwell, said “a massive taboo around female genitalia” was a potential factor in why snake clitorises had not been described earlier. “I think it’s a combination of not knowing what to look for and not wanting to,” she said….
More at the link.
Tethyssays
from Lynna’s @463
The bridge in Melitopol leading over the Molochna Channel indeed has been sabotaged from beneath. Two pillars have been blown up.
Molotschna is the name of the river, and on behalf of my murdered family members circa the last time Russia invaded the Molatschna, Slava Ukraini!!!
It’s a swamp btw, because of course Russians settled people in swamps and demand they turn it into productive farmland. I’m sure the canals are still there, since Russia is still incapable of basic logistics and any type of infrastructure.
Yesterday was my last day as a researcher at Zimmerli Art Museum, New Jersey. I researched the Chornobyl catastrophe in Ukrainian art and decolonizing collection for almost four months. 77 [Ukrainian] artists were listed as russian or American in the database.
I analyzed and checked information, archives, and different resources about more than 900 artists in the collection of so-called russian art and soviet non-conformist collection. I couldn’t find any information about 10% of artists. 80 of them were born in/from other countries.
77 of them were born in Ukraine and/or have nothing to do with russia at all. Curator Olena Martyniuk made an exhibition about a new wave in [Ukrainian] art and art in Odesa and made her corrections a couple of years before me. So the number could be even bigger.
Another problem is spelling. Many Ukrainian artists have the wrong “russian” spelling. Like ‘Nikolai,’ where should be ‘Mykola,’ or ‘Aleksander,’ where should be ‘Oleksandr.’, ‘Mykhailo’ and ‘Mikhail’, ‘Olena’ and not ‘Elena’, etc.
Unfortunately, I still need to explain why they should be listed as [Ukrainian]. Like, why the person who got an education in Ukraine, was inspired by traditional art and made professional life there, and then immigrated is still Ukrainian. And freaking 7 years in russia do not count.
I also did little research for @smithsonian (39 [Ukrainian] artists listed as russian), @TheJewishMuseum (6 [Ukrainian], and they will change, thank you, friends), @MuseumModernArt (41 [Ukrainian] and I am still working and they are still ignoring [WTF, MoMA?]). The next ones will be @artinstitutechi @metmuseum
To be clear, these museums aren’t paying me and not asking for my help. It’s my private initiative, and as a [Ukrainian] art historian, it’s less than I can do. So, if you’re from a museum or institution that wants to support my research or make decolonization of your collection – write me
I will be happy to tell you how I am working if you are a researcher or journalist and give a lecture. If you are looking for a Ukrainian art researcher – online or offline, we can talk too.
Thanks to everyone who supported my work for these four month. It is time to go home…
Russian oil revenues fell last month despite a boost in production to just below levels before the invasion of Ukraine, the International Energy Agency has said, in a sign that western efforts to choke off the Kremlin’s income are working.
The IEA estimated that Russia earned about $15.8bn (£12.8bn) from oil sales in November, the second lowest this year after $14.7bn in September.
The revenue fall came despite a rise in Russia’s exports of crude oil and products to 8.1m barrels a day, the highest level since April, two months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
It is a positive signal for western countries hoping to curb the Kremlin’s funding from energy exports, which represent Russia’s largest source of revenues.
The EU and G7 introduced a $60-a-barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil on 5 December as governments sought to strike a balance between cutting the Kremlin’s revenues and keeping control of fuel price inflation. The price of non-Russian oil was about $81 a barrel on Wednesday.
Industry watchers have questioned how effective the cap will be because Russian oil is already trading below $60 a barrel. The IEA said the country’s export crude blend, Urals, slid to about $43 a barrel as of early December.
The Russian MP and deputy head of “A Just Russia” party, Oleg Nilov, was filmed joking that a Ukrainian child “dreams of rockets” at a charity event in Russia.
In the video, Nilov pick’s a child’s wish under a charity Christmas tree and says:
Vova, a boy from Kyiv dreams of rockets. Vova, you’ll get rockets – just wait.
A court in Turkey has sentenced the mayor of Istanbul to more than two-and-a-half years in prison for insulting public officials in a speech.
Ekrem Imamoglu was accused of the offence after saying those who annulled local elections in 2019 were “fools”.
Imamoglu, 52, beat a candidate from Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan’s AK Party to claim the city’s mayoralty.
His conviction may disqualify him from holding political office or standing in next year’s presidential election.
Imamoglu, from the secular Republican People’s Party, is seen as one of the opposition’s strongest candidates to take on Mr Erdogan in elections which have to be held by next June.
The case centres around comments Imamoglu made after he narrowly won the March 2019 mayoral election.
The result was annulled following complaints from the AKP about voting irregularities and the election board ordered a re-run.
Imamoglu defended his use of the word “fools” to describe those who overturned the original result, saying he was responding to similar language used by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu.
Imamoglu went on to win again when fresh elections were held in June 2019 by polling 770,000 more votes than his rival and ending 25 years of AKP rule in Turkey’s largest city.
Wednesday’s ruling will have to be confirmed by an appeals court but if it is upheld then it would mean Imamoglu will be out of the running in next year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
In a video statement released after the court’s verdict, he dismissed the proceedings, saying that a “handful of people cannot take the authority given by the people”.
Supporters of the mayor gathered outside Istanbul’s council buildings after he called for people to gather and show their support, shouting “government resign” and “truth, law and justice”.
Imamoglu is expected to appeal against the sentence and will continue in post, but the possibility he may be disqualified from standing in the presidential election will make it harder for Turkey’s opposition parties to choose a candidate to take on Mr Erdogan.
Polls show the mayor of Istanbul is among a handful of opposition leaders who could beat the long-standing president in a head-to-head race.
Since January 2020, seven of the accused allegedly built large followings on social media by branding themselves as trading experts and then promoted certain stocks in Discord chatrooms and on Twitter. After buying stocks, the influencers allegedly urged their followers to do so while sharing prices and their intent to make moves like buying and holding. However, the SEC alleges that they “regularly sold their shares without ever having disclosed their plans to dump the securities.”
Those charged with securities fraud include Perry Matlock of Texas (Twitter handle @PJ_Matlock), Mitchell Hennessey of New Jersey (@Hugh_Henne), Edward Constantin of Texas (@MrZackMorris), John Rybarcyzk of Texas (@Ultra_Calls), Stefan Hrvatin of Florida (@LadeBackk), Thomas Cooperman of California (@ohheytommy) and Gary Deel of California (@notoriousalerts).
The eighth defendant, Daniel Knight of Texas (@DipDeity) has been charged with “aiding and abetting the alleged scheme” for allegedly using his podcast to promote some of the defendants and then trading and profiting with them.
GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell knows who’s to blame for Senate Republicans’ midterm drubbing, and he is definitely not it.
“Look at Arizona, look at New Hampshire, and the challenging situation in Georgia as well,” McConnell said Tuesday, ticking through a list of once-promising losses at his weekly press conference. “You have to have quality candidates to win competitive Senate races.”
McConnell stopped short of calling out Donald Trump by name, because god forbid he show some actual leadership. But every GOP candidate in those states—Blake Masters in Arizona, Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, and Herschel Walker in Georgia—had Trump’s endorsement. In fact, Trump’s heavy-handed backing was instrumental to the candidacies of both Masters and Walker.
McConnell did, however, admit that he was basically powerless in the face of Trump.
“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ‘22 because of the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries,” McConnell lamented.
Of course, McConnell bears as much responsibility as Trump for the Senate GOP’s pathetic cycle. In New Hampshire, McConnell had tried desperately to recruit the state’s highly popular GOP governor, Chris Sununu, to take on Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan. But after speaking with several members of the Senate GOP caucus, Sununu took a hard pass on jumping on that sorry do-nothing bandwagon. Instead, he ran for and secured a fourth term as governor. But the Senate GOP’s Sununu misadventure highlighted the fact that Trump obviously wasn’t the only hurdle to recruiting quality candidates. And the Senate GOP’s lack of appeal to reasonably capable people certainly isn’t on Trump—it’s on McConnell.
McConnell also gave Walker his full-throated endorsement in the Georgia race.
“Herschel is the only one who can unite the party, defeat Senator Warnock, and help us take back the Senate,” McConnell said in an October statement to Politico. “I look forward to working with Herschel in Washington to get the job done.”
Back at the post-election press conference, McConnell reflected on similar losses by fatally flawed Republican candidates in 2010 and 2012, saying the GOP had “unfortunately revisited that situation in 2022.”
Gee, Senator, if only there had been a way to avoid “that situation” by kneecapping Trump. If only Trump had, for instance, orchestrated a wildly unpopular insurrection against the U.S. government, leaving himself open to a career-ending impeachment.
The truth is, if McConnell hadn’t miscalculated every step of the midterm cycle, perhaps he’d be poised right now to become the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader in U.S. history. Instead, he’s devoting press conferences to excuse peddling for the GOP’s anemic election.
If McConnell’s still looking around for culprits, he’s got no one to thank but himself.
Congressional negotiators have reportedly reached a “framework” for a bill to fund the government for the next year, and are optimistic about getting it passed by Dec. 23, allowing members to head home for Christmas. Since the current continuing resolution funding the government runs out on Friday, that means another one-week extension to get the full bill done, and the House is moving on that short-term bill, possibly voting on Wednesday. If this omnibus funding bill doesn’t get passed before the new Congress is seated in January, the House will be controlled by Republicans, creating the virtual certainty of a nastier fight and a worse bill, and the strong likelihood of a government shutdown—and, significantly, the deal is supported by House and Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, but not House Republicans.
[…] House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is very annoyed about it. McCarthy, who is trying to lock down far-right votes to become speaker of the House, has been pressuring his Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell, to refuse a deal now and push the negotiations into next year and the next Congress.
In a Fox News appearance last week, McCarthy asked, “Why would you want to work on anything if we have the gavel inside Congress?”
[…] Doing the spending bill next year “would require a very delicate balancing act between the House Republican majority and the Senate Democratic majority,” Republican Sen. Roger Wicker noted, adding that it’s “better not to have that major hurdle that the new speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has to negotiate … it’s too much to ask.” Again, this speaks to both the size of the task and the leadership of the man.
Since this funding bill does not deal with the debt ceiling, McCarthy will have a giant hostage to take in 2023, though. The entire economy will be his hostage, basically. If there’s one thing Democrats needed to deal with during the lame duck, this was it, and it isn’t happening. Just fantastic.
The bill will include some key priorities, though. “I expect an omnibus will contain priorities both sides want to see passed into law, including more funding for Ukraine and the Electoral Count Act,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday, hours ahead of the announcement of a preliminary deal. The Electoral Count Act is the 1887 law Donald Trump attempted to exploit to overturn the 2020 election by getting Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election. The plan now is to reform the law to make absolutely 100% clear that the vice president can’t do that. It’s not enough to prevent a future Republican coup, but it does shut down one avenue.
For now, we wait to hear more details of the compromise deal as they emerge, and watch the Republican angst grow.
I’ve seen tweets with 1) a video of Georgian Legion SF showing a Wagner unit they destroyed near Bakhmut and 2) a claim of Wagner taking heavy losses in the area. I haven’t seen confirmation yet.
Reginald Selkirksays
I look forward to the electric vehicle industry moving beyond this stage:
Overnight and into Wednesday morning, there have been multiple reports of Russian advances in and around Bakhmut. While the situation has been described in dire terms, at this moment the extent of Russian penetration into eastern Bakhmut is still limited to an area a few blocks beyond where they were months earlier. However, even this limited advance has pushed Ukrainian forces from long-held positions and changed the character of the fight. [map at the link]
Where Russia was previously moving across an area best characterized by large, disconnected industrial locations—the cement factory, the trash dump, etc.—some Russian forces are now in a more urban area, where fighting is street-to-street. Whether this will make it more difficult to fight Russian wave attacks, which by many reports have been frequent over the last day, isn’t yet clear.
For months, the fight on this side of Bakhmut has been characterized by all those sites up and down Patrisa Lumumby Street. Then Russia managed to get a more secure hold on positions around the cement factory and moved forces along Pershotravnevyy street to reach an area of homes and shops. This area had previously been one of those positions from which Ukrainian defenders were able to fire out into this more open area. Now it seems that this stage of the fighting is all but over.
What kind of price Russia paid in terms of casualties taken to occupy this area isn’t clear. Over the course of nearly six months of fighting, they’ve certainly lost more than 10,000 in the attempt to capture Bakhmut, and this is where they are now. But Ukraine’s losses in the area have also been great—and that’s on top of the utter destruction of a city that was home to 73,000 people when Russia’s invasion began.
Evacuation of the remaining civilians from Bakhmut continues, despite the reluctance of some citizens to leave. By several accounts, that evacuation has become much more dangerous and difficult thanks to Russian forces shelling highways around the city. In the last few days, no more than a dozen or so people have been evacuated each day.
There are also big concerns that Russian forces could move up from Optyne, just south of Bakhmut, or Klishchiivka to the southwest. Both of those areas are now in dispute, though Ukrainian forces are still in place in both towns.
All that said, for the moment, Bakhmut holds. [Tweet and photo of smiling Ukrainian troops in the Bakhmut area.]
This was recorded today in Bakhmut. On the map above, the position would be about where that highway intersection is noted just east of where the name Bakhmut appears on the map. You can see the fatigue, but also the determination, in these faces and hear the pounding of the artillery. I’ll see if I can find a translation for what he’s saying (anyone with the skill, please do so). [Tweet and video at the link]
When we see the word Bayraktar, the immediate thought is of the medium-range, missile-carrying drone that Ukraine used effectively—both to hit Russian forces and shore up Ukrainian morale—in the early days of the Russian invasion. But the Baykar Bayraktar TB-2 is just one option in a family of products from the Turkish defense firm Baykar, which was founded by Özdemir Bayraktar. That company is now run by his two sons, including, Selçuk Bayraktar, the company’s chief technical officer, and a PhD graduate in engineering from MIT.
Today Selçuk couldn’t help but show off the first flight of the company’s newest product, the Bayraktar Kızılelma. The name means “red apple,” and no, I don’t know why. But this jet-powered drone is reportedly capable of flying at over 1,000 kmh and has a combat range of around 1,000km. While it can be used to strike ground targets, it’s also intended as an unmanned fighter aircraft capable of tangling with manned fighters. This first flight is actually ahead of schedule, but don’t expect to see this show up in Ukraine … yet. [Tweet and video at the link]
What started as the laughable “Wagner line” at an obscure location in eastern Ukraine has become an epidemic of ditches all over Ukraine. And Russia. And Belarus. All over occupied Ukraine, and into neighboring countries, Russian forces have engaged in a flurry of ditch digging.
Some of these constructions are so obviously pointless as to be laughable—like a series of ditches cut across sand beaches in Crimea. [Tweet and video at the link]
Others that look as if they have no value, as with the small and unanchored “dragon’s teeth” that Russian forces have been spreading somewhat haphazardly along these lines, may turn out to have some actual stopping power, or at least slowing power, when they’re connected to multiple lines of trenches and fortifications.
Trench warfare reminiscent of World War I has become a horrifyingly familiar part of the fight in Ukraine. The reason for this is simple enough: lack of effective air power by either side. In a fight that has often come down to artillery duels, it shouldn’t be surprising that the lines between armies end up looking like they did when “the king of battle” first ruled the day.
Obviously, some things have changed. Because day after day, we see images and videos showing what happens when 1914-style trenches meet 2022 drones.
Please take the sensitive content warning on this video seriously. This one isn’t kidding. [Tweet and video at the link]
These entrenched positions can, and have been broken through. More often than not, Ukraine has simply bypassed these positions until they become isolated and can either be approached from the rear or ignored entirely. But Russia is putting an enormous effort into creating more and more miles of trench across the Ukrainian landscape. The formula for these things isn’t new: areas of minefield, backed by dragon’s teeth, backed by another minefield, backed by trenches, backed by a second row of trenches or fortifications.
How effective are they? Consider this image. Then check the date on this post. [Tweet and video at the link]
These are exactly the kind of “unassailable” positions that in World War II proved to be absolutely assailable. However, penetrating these lines does require either concentration of force, coordinated action, or time. [Video at the link]
Russia is building these lines all across eastern Ukraine. They’re going up (or down) around Svatove, Starobilsk, and across a sizable portion of both Donetsk and Luhansk. They’re being built around Crimea, around locations in Zaporizhzhia, and now along the eastern bank of the Dnipro River across from Kherson city. Part of the reason is simple enough—even “mobliks” who never got a chance to hold a gun during the train trip that passed for basic training can still be taught which end of a shovel goes in the ground. “Digging is easier than fighting” is an old, old saying, and it remains true. Given a choice between digging a trench and assaulting one, even Russian forces aren’t confused about the preferred option.
Sitting back behind those lines across the river, Russia bombarded Kherson a reported 57 times on Monday alone. That bombardment of the city Putin declared “Russia forever” is continuing. [tweet and video at the link. "Russians shelled downtown Kherson, destroying the city council building on the main square. That’s where civilians are usually gathering.
Russians lost on the battlefield and now want to kill as many civilians as possible out of spite. Cowards."]
If Ukraine wants to stop this in the short term, they will need to employ either more air power or some form of artillery (i.e., HIMARS) that can outrange the Russian guns in an effective counterbattery fire. In the long term, they will need to do what was always on the agenda eventually—cross the river and force Russia to step back from the city.
In fact, almost everywhere Ukraine is now trying to advance, with the exception of small towns in the northeastern edge of Kharkiv and some locations around Kreminna, are behind these beefed-up Russian trenchworks, and more are being dug every day.
Two weeks ago, Task and Purpose looked at why these “ancient” defenses continue to be used, and why they continue to work.
“In World War I, the trenches existed for four years. Both sides tried to break through the trenchline and get back to maneuver warfare,” retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, former Commanding General of United States Army Europe, told Task & Purpose. In that case, Hertling said, soldiers were going up against machine guns, artillery, mustard gas, and dug-in positions. The issue is, Hertling said, if you can’t get around or over a trenchline, you can’t defeat it. That’s true even in Ukraine.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a bizarre mix of new technology and old tactics. That’s exactly the sort of thing that leads to this:
A 🧵on RU + UA losses per @Volya_media, for 11/8/22-12/8/22.
Losses = Killed, Missing, POW
TLDR:
🇷🇺 21,320- 21,380 Losses (93.8k-98.1k total)
🇷🇺 43,200- 43,469 WIA (177k-190.5k total)
Those are godawful numbers on both sides. As in the American Civil War—where the technology of a rifled bullet made weapons effective over hundreds of yards, but commanders were still lining people up for bayonet charges—the mix of old tactics and new tech almost invariably leads to exorbitant body counts. Russia is likely to hit 100,000 soldiers killed in this illegal invasion before the year’s end.
Even so, those trenches are still effective in slowing the movement of both infantry and armor unless the attacker can bring to bear enough precision munitions in the form of either drones, aircraft, or advanced artillery to incapacitate the trench-based defenders. That really hasn’t been happening in most locations.
And that’s a problem that has to be solved for Ukraine to win this war without seeing those awful numbers double several more times.
Speaking of winning this war, here’s something—something not far removed from pure speculation—that’s been circulating around both Ukrainian and Russian Telegram channels over the last week. According to those channels, Ukraine is massing large numbers of forces in two locations: Near Svatove in the north, and near Zaporizhzhia in the south. According to the reports/rumors/wild-ass speculation, as soon as the ground is solidly frozen around Svatove, Ukraine intends to attack with both forces at once.
Then, the story continues, if Ukraine wins in the north, they can rapidly take most of Luhansk, cut off multiple supply routes into Donetsk, and negate anything going on around Bakhmut. If Ukraine wins in the south, they can push forward to Berdyansk and Mariupol, break Russia’s lock on the coast, and threaten Crimea. If Ukraine wins in both places—the war is over and Russia has no choice but to try and sue for peace on any terms available.
It’s a very nice story, and it’s always good to see the pro-Russian sources feeling gloomy. But it should be pointed out that right now, I know of zero evidence that this is the plan, or even that the “massing of forces” in these locations is really happening.
In case you didn’t see this yesterday…
CORRECTION:
Fortunately, there are good news from Ukraine.
The American volunteer paramedic @bekamaciorowski has confirmed that the news of her death are false.
She writes on Twitter and that she is “definitely alive and well”.
Thank you for all you are doing Rebecca. 🇺🇸🇺🇦 [photo at the link]
Politicians usually aren’t professional actors, but there’s a general understanding that even the most authentic officials and candidates aren’t fully transparent. It’s not that they’re phonies, so much as they’re mindful of the fact that they need to win elections. Invariably, that means politicians tend to be, at a minimum, somewhat diplomatic in their public comments.
It’s why many of us take a keen interest in hot-mic moments and instances in which officials are recorded without their knowledge: These stories offer rare peeks behind the curtain, letting us know what prominent figures genuinely believe when they’re being unguarded, assuming the public won’t know what they’re saying.
It’s also one of the reasons the texts former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the Jan. 6 committee are so striking: They, too, offer a behind-the-scenes look at what Donald Trump’s allies were saying about the Republican scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. […]
The texts from [Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA)] make the congressman appear to be rather nutty. Allen tried to bolster his many strange claims with secret sources and videos he found on YouTube, which TPM described as “utterly fantastical.”
But the GOP congressman, who had no idea that the public would later see the texts, not only expected the Trump White House to take his bizarre theories seriously, it also seemed that Allen sincerely believed his own nonsense. This wasn’t an example of a politician posturing for the cameras, hoping to exploit confused members of the Republican base. The Georgian’s text messages suggest he thought his weird ideas had actual merit.
Indeed, it’s a recurring takeaway from the larger collection of texts sent to the then-White House chief of staff. Then-Rep. Ted Budd of North Carolina texted Meadows on Nov. 7 — the day Joe Biden was named the president-elect — and shared a ridiculous message about conspiratorial links between Dominion Voting Systems and billionaire George Soros.
Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania apparently believed there were secret Italian satellites rigging American voting machines and the Trump-appointed CIA director was in cahoots with the British.
Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, pushing a line that apparently originated with Alex Jones’ InfoWars website, argued that China had secretly purchased Dominion.
Obviously, the claims were baseless. But just as important is the fact that each of these Republicans weren’t peddling foolish arguments to raise money or line up cable-news appearances, they were peddling foolish arguments because they were oblivious as to their foolishness.
There’s plenty of performative posturing in politics, but these texts paint a picture of a group of GOP true believers.
It was in May when Donald Trump first broached the subject of a possible lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize board. In October, the former president headlined a rally in Texas and added some specificity to his whining.
“Within the next two weeks, we’re suing the Pulitzer organization to have those prizes taken back,” the Republican declared.
I more or less assumed that the rhetoric was meaningless posturing, in part because his references to “two weeks” are usually meaningless, and in part because the underlying idea is so terribly odd.
And yet, according to Fox News, Trump has apparently followed through on his threat.
Former President Trump filed a defamation lawsuit on Tuesday against the Pulitzer Prize Board over the 2018 National Reporting prizes given to The New York Times and Washington Post for coverage of “now-debunked theory” of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump’s suit, filed Tuesday in Okeechobee County, Florida, was obtained by Fox News Digital. It states that a “demonstrably false connection was and remains the stated basis” for the coverage that received the prestigious award.
[…] Let’s make this plain at the outset: If Trump actually filed a defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize Board, it will rank among the most ridiculous lawsuits he’s ever filed, and he’s filed some doozies.
[…] the more the former president convinced himself that the Russia scandal wasn’t real, the more preoccupied he became with the journalistic awards. [Trump] even pressed the Pulitzer Prize board to reverse course and strip the newspapers of the honor, since, as far as Trump was concerned, the awards were in recognition of reporting on a scandal that had been discredited.
In an exceedingly generous move, the Pulitzer board took Trump’s appeals seriously and launched independent reviews of the newspapers’ reporting. Predictably, they found that the Times and the Post were right, and none of the reporting had been “discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.” Given the circumstances, it seemed unnecessary for the Pulitzer board to indulge Trump’s absurd tantrum, and conduct thorough reviews, but board members re-scrutinized the matter anyway.
[…] Even if we put aside the obvious fact that it doesn’t make sense for Trump to sue the Pulitzer board because he disapproved of others’ reporting, the fact remains that the Russia scandal was and is entirely real. […]
Every U.S. intelligence agency and lawmakers from both parties have long agreed that the Kremlin launched an expansive and expensive covert military intelligence operation that targeted the U.S. political system in 2016. This basic fact is no longer contested — except by Trump, who publicly declared that he found Vladimir Putin more reliable than his own administration’s officials — and its importance is too often overlooked.
Russia’s goal was to put Trump in power […] Russia and Team Trump were political allies
[…] Trump and his team welcomed, received, and benefited from Russian campaign assistance. (They also obstructed the investigation into this assistance — by some measures, 10 times.)
[…] Team Trump lied about its communications with Russia. No, really, Team Trump lied about its communications with Russia. A lot. Out loud and on record. Over and over again, Trump and his spokespersons insisted there were absolutely no interactions between the Republican, his political operation, and their Russian benefactors. We now know definitively that they were lying — though they still haven’t been forthcoming about why.
The Russia scandal led to a series of felony convictions and prison sentences
For an alleged “hoax,” the Russia scandal led to an amazing number of federal prosecutions. In fact, the investigation led to the convictions of, among others, Trump’s White House national security advisor, campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, foreign policy advisor, personal lawyer, and to the indictment of 13 Russian nationals who interfered in our elections as part of the larger plot.
I realize, of course, that there are all kinds of contentious details and personalities related to the controversy, which are still being debated as part of the broader conversation about the story.
But these five truths are largely uncontested, and have been bolstered, not only by U.S. intelligence agencies, but also by the Mueller probe and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee’s findings. Russia attacked our elections to help Trump. The Republican’s political operation welcomed, received, benefited from, and lied about Russian campaign assistance. Many key players from Trump’s inner circle were charged, prosecuted, and convicted.
[…] Trump’s lawyers were recently sanctioned for having filed a frivolous lawsuit as part of political stunt. No one should be surprised if that happens again in response to this litigation.
Oggie: Mathomsays
I just finished Antony Beevor’s new history of the Russian Civil War (1918-1920) and, as I read it, I was struck, again and again and again, by the lack of change in Russia — tactics (admittedly using horses, trains and infantry rather than MBTs, IFVs, and other armoured vehicles (though the Whites did have some armoured cars and British Mark V tanks . . .)), the rape, robbery and murder of civilians (by both sides (as well as the robberies, murders and rapes committed by the Greens)), intentional genocide (against the Kalmyks (not to mention the Cossack clans)), and the intentional destruction of Ukraine and Ukrainians (by the Whites, the Reds, the Greens and the Poles). Really good book (it shows Churchill’s involvement more clearly than I have seen before (though (to be honest) he’s not high up on people I have focused upon)). I strongly recommend it both as history and a prequel (along with the borderlands book I mentioned earlier) to current events.
(I’m taking a break for a while from Eastern European history for a while — I have unread books on the Kokoda Track campaign in Papua New Guinea, Gallipoli, and a book on North African mid-Cretaceous dinosaurs.)
Imagine Covid-19, eager to infect as many people as possible, was able to hire its own lobbying team. Then imagine the dangerous contagion’s lobbyists, eager to help their client infect as many people as possible, began pressing politicians on what to say and do with regard to public health policy.
[…] Officials would be encouraged to, among other things, question the efficacy of vaccines, while rejecting the findings of public health authorities.
Or put another way, if Covid-19 could hire its own lobbying team, it’d be delighted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his latest announcement. NBC News reported:
At a roundtable he convened of Covid vaccine skeptics and opponents — including his own surgeon general — he formally called on the state Supreme Court to impanel a grand jury to investigate whether pharmaceutical companies criminally misled Floridians about the side effects of vaccines, a position at odds with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A Miami Herald report added that the Republican governor is also creating a new Public Health Integrity Committee, which will apparently include fringe figures who’ll be responsible for challenging the CDC’s and FDA’s policy recommendations.
[…] The Florida Republican’s event yesterday appeared designed to undermine public confidence, not only in public health experts, but in vaccines themselves.
The result is a public health disaster: As the holidays approach, it’s important for those in positions of authority to encourage Americans to do the responsible thing. Yesterday morning, new research found that Covid vaccines have saved more than 3 million lives in the United States, and common sense suggests governors would take this opportunity to remind their constituents about the importance of Americans protecting themselves and those around them. [See raven’s comment 455]
[…] DeSantis’ far-right line on Covid — including the appointment of a radical state surgeon general who’s been derided as a “Covid crank,” his condemnations of Dr. Anthony Fauci, his campaigns against educators and businesses, his rejection of CDC recommendations for protecting children, etc. — has made a hero to much of the right. Indeed, while Donald Trump is afraid to even use the word “vaccine” around his own followers, Florida’s far-right governor has positioned himself well to the right of the former president.
The public health toll will be indefensible, but DeSantis’ national ambitions are likely to get a boost — and that’s a tradeoff the Republican is pleased to embrace.
“Georgia is one of the only states in the country with a General Election Runoff,” he said in a statement. “We’re also one of the only states that always seems to have a runoff. I’m calling on the General Assembly to visit the topic of the General Election Runoff and consider reforms.”
“No one wants to be dealing with politics in the middle of their family holiday,” added Raffensperger, a Republican and the top elections official in the crucial battleground state. “It’s even tougher on the counties who had a difficult time completing all of their deadlines, an election audit and executing a runoff in a four-week time period.”…
One option would be to create a ranked-choice ballot and instant-runoff system where voters would rank their candidate preferences on the general election ballot. If a candidate did not get more than 50% of the vote, then an instant runoff would occur, which would mean voters would not have to return to the polls again for a runoff election.
Another option would be to lower the threshold that candidates have to meet to avoid a runoff from an outright majority (more than 50%) to a plurality, the spokesperson told NBC News, while another option could be to eliminate third-party candidate ballot access altogether.
The spokesperson said that the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State was not advocating for any one proposal in particular…
Akira MacKenziesays
@ 486
The fact that the American system allows DeSantis to operate without impediment is indictive of that system’s failure.
New research finds Russian groups targeted former President Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social during the 2022 midterm elections. The report, conducted by the Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika, found that Russian groups have moved on from Facebook and Twitter, where they are largely blocked, to targeting conservative-based social media platforms including Gab, Gettr, Parler, in addition to Truth Social.
The recent report uncovered the Kremlin’s interference in social media is greater than previously believed. The report says, “Suspected Russian actors have leveraged alternative social media platforms to target right-wing U.S. audiences with divisive political narratives to a greater extent than previously known.” …
This happens a lot.
Some right wingnut gets elected to a school board and starts trying to wreck the school district. They get removed by a recall election.
This just happened in Paso Robles, California. Which isn’t at all an especially liberal area.
The headline and story here is slanted and wrong because it came from Sinclair media. Enough of the parents of this district wanted him removed that there is going to be another election.
He was removed for making politically motivated and bigoted comments about Trans children.
Calif. parents angered over costly, ‘politically motivated’ removal of school board member
by KRISTINA WATROBSKI | Crisis in the Classroom Wednesday, December 14th 2022
UserWay icon for accessibility widget
PASO ROBLES, Calif. (CITC) — A California community is calling the removal of a school board member under fire for comments about the LGBTQ+ community a “politically motivated” waste of money.
Kenneth Enney was appointed to the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD) Board of Trustees in October. Shortly after joining the board, a Facebook post where he seemingly ‘rejects’ transgender individuals surfaced.
“Remember that LGBTQ is really 5 classes, or groups, of people. I know, and am accepting, of people that fall under the ‘L’ and ‘G,'” the post reads. “…The ‘T,’ however, I reject.”
The words upset many in San Luis Obispo County, and a petition with hundreds of signatures calling for Enney’s removal was filed with the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office in November. With the majority of those signatures now validated, Enney has been removed, and a special election is in the works.
The special election for the two-year position boasts a price tag of $493,000. Supporters of Enney are outraged over the money they feel would be better spent elsewhere.
“I am appalled to hear that we are going to spend half a million dollars in reserved funds on an unnecessary, politically motivated special election,” one parent said at Tuesday night’s board meeting. “61 cents out of every dollar of our property tax money is spent on educating our children. I don’t want to see my tax dollars wasted on unnecessary elections and redundant services.”
Some also accuse both the district and community of retaliating against Enney for his “personal beliefs.” They cite his background as both a teacher and U.S. Marine as to why he should be trusted in the role, and they encourage those opposed to him remaining to make that known next general election.
However, to some, two years is too long to wait.
“You were going to put his hate in front of the children,” one parent told the board, while emphasizing the need to “protect” transgender students.
Other speakers cited rumors that the funding will need to come out of either student services or teacher salaries. They argued that neither party should have to suffer as a result of this process.
“We just want the kids to be able to read,” a parent said. “That’s what’s important.”
More than 6,000 students attend PRJUSD, and it is estimated that $10,000 in funding is allocated per student.
The National Desk (TND) has reached out to both PRJUSD and Enney for comment. This story will be updated if responses are received.
On December 6, Indonesia’s parliament passed a criminal code that drew wide criticism for criminalizing premarital sex and cohabitation outside marriage, among other practices. But the code, known as KUHP, also heavily extends the government’s reach over online speech — not just in traditional media outlets, but on social media platforms.
The bill sets out new or strengthened controls on a wide array of actions, from spreading fake news and Marxist-Leninist ideology to insulting the president…
The Trump Organization lost a secret one-day trial last year and was held in contempt.
The organization failed to respond to grand-jury subpoenas and court orders, a New York judge found.
The company separately lost a criminal trial on fraud charges this month.
A judge held the Trump Organization in contempt of court in 2021 after the organization lost a secret one-day trial over its refusal to comply with grand-jury subpoenas and court orders, according to The New York Times, which first reported on the trial.
A judicial order indicating the Trump Organization’s loss in the case was unsealed on Tuesday, with identifying information redacted. The New York Times confirmed that the order referred to the Trump Organization, and details within the order line up with the Trump Organization’s history of defying investigations into its conduct.
An unassuming New Hampshire couple used their Etsy craft store as a front to blend into the bucolic community as they shipped devices used in nuclear weapons over to Russia, prosecutors allege.
Alexey Brayman, a Ukrainian expatriate, has been charged with smuggling “highly sensitive” electronic components overseas to make deadly weapons for Russia’s war on Ukraine, federal charging documents revealed Tuesday.
Brayman and Vadim Yermolenko, based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, shipped their Etsy goods from their home along with the illicit materials…
whheydtsays
Re: Lynna, OM @ #484….
Since I seriously doubt that the Pulitzer organization does business in south Florida, if the suit is filed in state court, the Pulitzer folks can have it removed to Federal court (diversity issue). So…the question becomes, is that the county where the judge Trump got to appoint the special master to oversee the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago sits? If so, all manner of silliness are likely to ensue.
One of the most bracing, bizarre aspects of Mark Meadows texts with members of Congress is the fact that many truly seemed to believe the most absurd claims and conspiracy theories. This wasn’t just red meat they were tossing out on Fox and Newsmax. They were saying this stuff, in earnest, in the privacy of text messages with longtime colleagues. But even this, I would say, isn’t the heart of the matter. There’s something else we see in the very first texts, before the TV networks called the race but when the writing was clearly on the wall. It can most easily be summarized as: Trump can’t be allowed to lose. On November 6th Rep. Brian Babin tells Meadows that they “refuse to live under a corrupt Marxist dictatorship.”
There are various comments like this. Trump has simply been too good a President. And we can’t let him not be President. If we lost, we have to figure out a way to un-lose, and fast. Or there’s Rep. Rick Allen’s comment that the nation is in a state of “Spiritual War at the highest level.” It’s all of a piece. The impulse precedes the evidence.
Not all of these characters are members of the House Freedom Caucus. But most are. (In one telling detail, Babin was a member of the HFC but resigned because it proved insufficiently loyal to Donald Trump.) Meadows himself was one of the group’s founders. Ron DeSantis was another member during his three terms in Congress. Someone recently remarked to me that the Freedom Caucus is libertarian in opposition and authoritarian in power — which is a good way to put it but also simply another way of describing authoritarians. Authoritarians don’t have any generalized belief in untrammeled expressions of power. They believe in the untrammeled expression of their own power.
And that makes the simple point. The people in the Freedom Caucus have always been a dangerous group of authoritarian radicals. The one member who was a genuine libertarian, Justin Amash, was quickly purged from the group and booted out of Congress once Trump’s presidency brought out the group’s true nature. People are allowed to have such views. People can even elect them to Congress. But they must be seen in that light, like any other radicals awash in unAmerican ideas. Their model has always been Erdogan, Putin and similar global strongmen.
Within two hours of protesters breaking the first barricades at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, right-wing politicians and media figures were already texting President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to lay blame on far-left “antifa” agitators. The first message to mention the group came from Fox New host Laura Ingraham.
“He is destroying his legacy and playing into every stereotype … we lose all credibility against the BLM/Antifa crowd if things go South,” Ingraham wrote.
[…] While CNN has published many of Meadows’ messages from Jan. 5 and the day of the riot, the full log, which stretched from Election Day in 2020 up until Trump’s last day in office, Jan. 20, 2021, reveals that the effort to pin the violence on “antifa” extended well beyond the day the Capitol was stormed. It also shows that members of Congress were key proponents of this conspiracy theory despite the fact they were present at the Capitol as Trump supporters brawled with police and smashed through the building. In the wake of a massive FBI investigation that is the largest in the bureau’s history and has resulted in hundreds of arrests of people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, there has been no credible evidence of any widespread far-left presence.
Ingraham promoted the idea that “antifa” was behind the Jan. 6 attack hours after it took place, telling her audience that the insurgents “were likely not all Trump supporters, and there are some reports that antifa sympathizers may have been sprinkled throughout the crowd.”
[…] “Antifa” is short for anti-fascist. The term is used by a variety of left-wing protesters, some of whom adopt “black bloc” tactics including wearing masks, engaging in vandalism and fighting with far-right groups. “Antifa” activism surged in the U.S. during Trump’s administration.
As the crowds raged through the Capitol, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, wrote Meadows to say his father was not doing “enough” to “condemn this shit.” He followed that denouncement up with a suggestion the violence wasn’t coming from the Trump faithful.
“I’m not convinced these are trump supporters either btw so we should be looking into that,” Don Jr. wrote. […]
Less than an hour later, Jason Miller, a Trump campaign adviser, suggested “antifa” could be held responsible via a tweet from the president.
Call me crazy, but ideas for two tweets from POTUS: 1) Bad apples, likely ANTIFA or other crazed leftists, infiltrated today’s peaceful protest over the fraudulent vote count. Violence is never acceptable! MAGA supporters embrace our police and the rule of law and should leave the Capitol now! 2) The fake news media who encouraged this summer’s violent and radical riots are now trying to blame peaceful and innocent MAGA supporters for violent actions. This isn’t who we are! Our people should head home and let the criminals suffer the consequences!
[…] Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who were both active supporters of Trump’s efforts to challenge the election results, also piped in as the attack unfolded with suggestions that “antifa” were the real perpetrators.
Mark we don’t think these attackers are our people. We think they are Antifa. Dressed like Trump supporters.
[…] “Yesterday was a terrible day. We tried everything we could in our objection to the 6 states. I’m sorry nothing worked,” Greene wrote. “I don’t think that President Trump caused the attack on the Capitol. It’s not his fault. Antifa was mixed in the crowed and instigated it, and sadly people followed.”
“Thanks Marjorie,” Meadows replied.[…]
Gohmert urged Meadows to have the DOJ expose the supposed “antifa” role in the Capitol attack in one more message sent on the afternoon of Jan. 8. […]
Republicans have offered a preview of what we can expect from the House Oversight and Reform Committee once they’re in charge, and attorneys for women affected by that preview are objecting strongly to the “objectification and sexual exploitation” involved.
House Oversight Republicans, led by current ranking member and soon-to-be chair James Comer, issued a memo responding to the committee’s report on the handling of worksite misconduct at the Washington Commanders of the NFL. In that memo, Republicans included pictures apparently leaked by team owner Dan Snyder to shift blame for rampant sexual harassment in the organization from himself to Bruce Allen, the former team president. Republicans backed Snyder in the blame-shifting effort, and in their memo, they included pictures that Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, attorneys for more than 40 former Commanders employees, describe as “sexualized and salacious photographs of former cheerleaders.”
Our clients are both humiliated and incensed by the GOP’s reckless dissemination of these photographs in an official Congressional document,” Banks and Katz wrote in a letter to Comer. “They also feel retaliated against by Republican Committee members who have apparently chosen to embarrass them publicly for coming forward. There was simply no legitimate reason for GOP members to have done this, and it has caused our clients additional and unnecessary pain.”
The lawyers are demanding that the photographs “be removed at once from Congressional websites, servers, and if applicable, the Congressional record. Our clients also want assurances these photographs will never be used in such a manner again.”
This is what we’re going to see from the majority party in the House starting in January. In an effort to defend a powerful man, they caused further pain to the victims of the abusive workplace he presided over. To implicate a slightly less powerful man than the one they were defending, they treated women’s bodies as fair game for continuing objectification.
This is the level of taste and respect and discretion House Republicans have to offer. […]
As the lawyers for the former Commanders employees wrote, “Rather than show consideration to the many women who came forward to the Committee to share their experiences of objectification and sexual exploitation while employed by the team, Republican members of the Committee chose to subject them to more of the same.” Yes, exactly. That is what they did, and what they are continuing to say was appropriate. […]
Dr. Vin Gupta, critical care pulmonologist, talks with Alex Wagner about how the ongoing spread of misinformation about Covid, including an active campaign by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, has made Republicans who buy into that message more vulnerable to dying from the disease.
Laura Rozen, voice of a nation.
Ukraine update: Bracing for another massive wave of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities
@raven
Gee, a war started by an ideologically-driven unpopular leader who wanted to unite the country via war propaganda, who insisted that the invasion would be met with open arms by the populace and therefore required no contingency planning or logistics management, and as the war drags on the top military keeps getting swapped out, each new wave instructed to (and promising to) do radically new and successful things with the same old troops, and then — to nobody’s surprise — continuing to do the same old things and being replaced in their turn. The parallels to the Iraq invasion continue to pile up — except that, unlike the US, if and when the war finally unseats Putin, he will actually face repercussions for it, rather than both his own loyalists and his opposition colluding to make sure nobody ever faces any consequences for any of it, like we did in the US.
@#489, SC (Salty Current)
Another potential difference from the US and Iraq. They should do like the US did, and pass a law mandating that if anybody from Russia is ever put on trial for war crimes Russia will immediately attack the Hague with everything it’s got. You know, like we did (with overwhelming Democratic support in the Senate, incidentally, and of course like everything evil pushed through under Bush not repealed under Obama).
Wonkette: “Elon Musk Picks Fight With Apple, Tim Cook. That’s How Bad He Is At This.”
Team USA advances: Pulisic goal against Iran sends U.S. to next World Cup round
NBC News link
Hello, Readers,
I see the Infinite Thread has rolled over to the next group of 500 comments. For your convenience, here are a few links back to the previous chapter:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2022/10/13/infinite-thread-xxv/comment-page-5/#comment-2159436
Wonkette: “Elon Musk Picks Fight With Apple, Tim Cook. That’s How Bad He Is At This.”
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2022/10/13/infinite-thread-xxv/comment-page-5/#comment-2159432
Ukraine update: Bracing for another massive wave of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2022/10/13/infinite-thread-xxv/comment-page-5/#comment-2159216
Here is an article about the impact of the war on Russia’s villages. As expected, it isn’t good. There is already a labor shortage of younger men. This village doesn’t have a water hauler any more.
Congratulations to the US team!
According to the NBC liveblog, “almost all” of the Iranian players sang or at least mouthed the words to the national anthem today, under duress.
The US team plays the Netherlands on Saturday.
The United States (1-2-0) held on to beat Iran (1-0-2) 1-0 at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha.
There’s a verdict in the Oath Keepers trial.
Thai monks fail drug tests leaving temple empty
Russian mother not invited to meet Putin speaks out
Rhodes – guilty.
Re: SC (Salty Current) @ #8…
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jury-reaches-verdict-oath-keepers-jan-6-seditious/story?id=93866832
Cate Cadell, WaPo:
Links at the (Twitter) link.
“Just as #IranvsUSA match was on going, news of more arrests in Iran. Regime forces came for actress Soheila Golestani and Hamid PourAzari, director.
Two days ago Ms. Golestani led a group of artists in making this powerful and now viral video in support of protesters.
And just outside the stadium where #IranvsUSA match was happening an Iranian fan being taken away by Qatar security forces as he chants: Woman Life Freedom.”
Videos at the (Twitter) link.
“BREAKING: In a 61-36 bipartisan vote, the Respect For Marriage Act has finally passed in the Senate, protecting federal marriage equality!”
I had heard that “saving face” was important in Chinese culture, but I never dreamed it was so literal!
Republican leaders denounce Trump’s dinner with white nationalist Nick Fuentes
It is nearly impossible to get Republicans to criticize other Republicans, so this is a pretty strong sign that Trump is toast within the GOP power structure. With FauxNews damping its support, what remains to be seen is whether the “Republican base” drops him as well.
But, as we all know, if they dump Trump they will find someone even worse to replace him.
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #14,,,
When Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he pushed what he called the “11th Commandment”, “Thou shalt not speak ill of other Republicans.”
“2:00 am in #Tehran. Look at the traffic of cars. They’re celebrating the loss of the national team to the US at the #WorldCup.”
Video at the (Twitter) link. Wow.
Julia Davis:
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
“I wanted to get to the muddiest mud.”
The best part about these Solovyov clips is that it’s a morning show.
Ex PM (our worst ever PM) Scummo has now been censured by Aussie parlt :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-30/live-updates-scott-morrison-censure-secret-ministries/101714536
See also : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-30/scott-morrison-formal-censure-explained/101710232
Plus : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-24/scott-morrison-secret-ministries-what-next/101363602
Why wasn’t it 135 to 1? How can anyone defend what Scummo did w the secret ministries? I know, partisan politics by the LNP but yeesh. Shades of Trumpism again..
@#14, Reginald Selkirk
DeSantis, most likely. He’s got all of Trump’s viciousness, but he is more focussed on policy (which is bad; Trump failed to pull off some things which probably would have been slam dunks because he has the attention span of a butterfly on cocaine) and doesn’t constantly hire either family members (like Don Jr.) or people who have already screwed up their careers so badly that their only hope is to be loyal to Trump (like Mike Pence). And, of course, in this last election DeSantis showed that he is capable of manipulating the Democratic Party into letting him control the conversation, so that they nominate terrible right-wing candidates, who adopt right-wing terminology, and then get no turnout as a result.
Lynna, OM@492,
Thanks! That’s a more detailed account of Bolsonaro’s absurd gambit than I’ve seen elsewhere.
On the world’s rarest marsupial Gilbert’s Potoroo see :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-25/gilberts-potoroo-rare-marsupial-back-released-at-two-peoples-bay/101693304
Plus https://cosmosmagazine.com/nature/amoty/gilberts-potoroo-back-from-dead/
As well as this almost minute long youtube clip here with special Awww moment at the 25 second mark .
TikTok NSFW if you work for the South Dakota government
Reading between the lines: Kristi Noem is a horrible fascist person. I wonder if hating on China (and I am not saying it is completely unjustified) is acceptable within Bizarro Right-Wing World in a way that hating on Russia no longer is because they think they can tie China to Biden – you know, through Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Grim news here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-30/us-man-executed-for-killing-police-officer/101718954
Infuriating if sadly predictable news here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-30/workplace-harassment-jenkins-report/101711794
Plus good or at least hopefully going to be good news or plans here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-30/government-to-ban-menthol-cigarettes-ugly-colours/101715174
assuming these anti-tobbaco moves actually happen which there’s a pretty good chance they will.
Oh & space news here :
https://www.space.com/china-completes-giant-radio-telescope-array-solar-observation
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
France 24 – “French baguette voted onto UN World Cultural Heritage list”:
FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Says He Made Secret Donations to Republicans
NBC – “New York City will involuntarily hospitalize more mentally ill people under new plan”:
Guardian – “Covid restrictions lifted in Chinese city of Guangzhou after protests”:
Guardian liveblog:
Some links:
Respectful Insolence – “‘Died Suddenly’: Resurrecting the old antivax lie of depopulation.”
Guardian – “Parents refuse use of vaccinated blood in life-saving surgery on baby.” (New Zealand, not the US)
Guardian – “Air pollution linked to almost a million stillbirths a year.” (“The study covered 137 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where 98% of stillbirths occur.”)
Guardian – “What will happen next for Black Twitter?”
More re #30 – Guardian liveblog:
Fact check: Kevin McCarthy falsely claims Trump condemned White nationalist Nick Fuentes
Vice – “Elon Musk Is Turning Twitter Into a Haven for Nazis”:
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/covid-19-vaccine-card-scam-napa-nautropath-dr-juli-mazi-3-years-prison/
whheydt @ #35, thanks for sharing that.
Stefanik echoes Trump on Justice Department, special counsel
After Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith, Donald Trump demanded that Republicans fight for him. Elise Stefanik apparently got the message.
Re: SC (Salty Current) @ #36…
You’re welcome. It’s interesting to see how many ways she went full on nut-case to try to wriggle out of being obviously caught dead to rights.
David Rothkopf in the Daily Beast – “Bibi Is Putting Israel on a Collision Course With U.S.”:
Ukraine update: Russia is developing its own kind of ‘combined arms’ centered on drones that bleed
That raises the question: why Netanyahu’s political narcissism has led him to “getting in bed with crazed and dangerous extremists, embracing racist policies…”. Israeli politics has been moving rightwards for decades, Netanyahu’s ascent was itself an aspect of that, and allying with ever-more extreme racists has proved politically advantageous. There are parallels with Trump’s political trajectory, but in Israel’s case, I think the deeper lesson is that you cannot in the long term be both an ethnostate and a democracy.
I would like to point out that up until a certain movie came out almost three decades ago, raptor universally meant a bird of prey. Now it primarily means a type of bipedal dinosaur.
Re: Lynna, OM @ # 40..
I would maintain that the emergence of combat helicopters in the Viet Nam war had more to do with the Congressional restriction on Army operation of fixed-wing aircraft that it did with any virtues of helicopters.
Trump Gets Round-The-Clock Babysitters To Make Sure He Doesn’t Invite Any More Nazis To Dinner
KG @ #41:
Yes, I linked to a piece about it a few weeks ago.
I agree. (Although I think the deeper lesson applies to the Trumpist backlash as well.)
Of course, the choice not to remain an ethnostate has always been available, but the opposite trajectory has been chosen. I think Rothkopf has a point, which I’ve seen others make, that these choices have now and will continue to have terrible consequences for the country itself. I read an article a few years back (and now can’t remember if it was in an Israeli publication or like the Electronic Intifada, but I believe it was the former) arguing that by far the biggest security threat to Israel was its own racist and oppressive actions. This new government appears to be heading out on a campaign of destruction.
:(
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63812952
Here is an article from the economist analyzing the Ukraine and Russian armies.
It claims the Russian are better than we think and the Ukrainians were better prepared than we give them credit for.
Could be.
Right now the war seems to be mostly a stalemate.
The Ukrainians aren’t advancing and the Russians aren’t retreating.
The Russians are taking heavy casualties.
We don’t know about Ukraine because they don’t provide that info but it is likely they are also taking heavy casualties.
New podcast episodes:
Fever Dreams – “Kanye vs Tim Pool ft. Cerise Castle”:
Holy shit – I didn’t know anything about these gangs.
Brain Science – “Is Meditation a ‘Mind Science?’ with Evan Thompson (BS 202)”:
Further to #35:
Homeopath who made thousands on bogus COVID pellets gets nearly 3 years in prison
From the comment section:
Uh, what?
A very good schadenfreude moment: Oz Wants TV Show Back, CAN’T HAVE IT!
Extremely Rare White Bald Eagle Captured on Video Looking Majestic
Making fun of Elon Musk:
Washington Post link
Reginald Selkirk@50,
Supersizing the Mind.
This was in fact one of the first topics I commented on way back in 2008 (I think) when I first posted on Pharyngula. Really annoyed some numpty whose name I’ve forgotten, who thought I was proposing some supernaturalist woo-woo, and simply wouldn’t understand that I wasn’t.
Awful follow-up to #16 – Guardian – “Iranian man, 27, shot dead for celebrating team’s World Cup exit”:
NBC News:
NBC – “DHS warns of domestic terror threats to LGBTQ, Jewish and migrant communities”:
CNN – “First on CNN: US considers dramatically expanding training of Ukrainian forces, US officials say”:
Tunisia defeats France, 1-0
The Finnish government tweeted:
links and photos at the (Twitter) link.
Re #59 – “2022 World Cup VAR review: Why Antoine Griezmann’s goal vs. Tunisia was disallowed for offside.”
Yikes.
Tweet o’ the day.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QV9JJmSCiI8
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
QAnon leader inadvertently outs himself as a pedophile “groomer”
Link
The president of Stanford University is the author of papers under scrutiny…
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/stanford-president-scientific-misconduct/3092864/
@42
Both kinds of Raptors are bipedal dinosaurs. The white eagle is much more appealing than the extinct carnivorous type.
Biotechnology comes of age:
Cocaine synthesized in a tobacco plant
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian Ukraine liveblog. From there:
cicely @ #46, :(.
chigau @ #63, thanks. So nice to hear first thing in the morning.
Also in the Guardian:
“Scientists simulate ‘baby’ wormhole without rupturing space and time”: “Theoretical achievement hailed, though sending people through a physical wormhole remains in the realms of science fiction…”
“Billionaire Modi ally on verge of taking over independent Indian news channel”: “Gautam Adani’s takeover of NDTV is ‘serious threat to democracy’ in India, says news anchor…”
“Brexit added nearly £6bn to UK food bills in two years, research finds”: “Cost of food imported from EU rose because of extra red tape, with poorest most affected…”
“China’s vice-premier signals shift in Covid stance as some lockdowns eased”: “Sun Chunlan says Omicron less pathogenic [?] as Beijing appears to respond to protests…”
Guardian liveblog:
Gas prices are dropping rapidly.
They are now at the level they were before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
There are a lot of reasons for this but one is that demand for gasoline is somewhat elastic.
Meaning when prices are high, people buy less by taking fewer trips and in the long term, buying more fuel efficient vehicles.
Ukraine update: Events around Bakhmut and Svatove indicate that long-frozen lines are moving
76 Million-Year-Old Fossil Settles Longtime Debate Over T. Rex History
Schadenfreude moment:
Link
More ar the link.
Charles McPhedran:
Screenshots and links at the (Twitter) link.
See McCarthy’s stark warning to GOP if he isn’t voted House Speaker
Madison Cawthorn Laments ‘Soft Metrosexuals’ in Parting Floor Speech
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #79…
Perhaps Cawthorn should visit a few SCA events. I’d bet that if he got into armor, he’d be pounded into the ground like a stake.
Guardian liveblog:
Here’s the link to the RUSI report. From the executive summary:
Morocco beats Canada
Lynna @65:
It’s always projection, with these guys.
_
whheydt @80:
I would garb up and pay money to see that—above site and non-member fees!
_
Andriy Yermak in the Guardian – “In Ukraine, Russia is trying to freeze us into submission or death. It will fail”:
Will Sommer livetweeting earlier today:
Video clip from #85. (Twitter link)
Ben Collins:
I just went to check on this and…NBC, 25 minutes ago – “House Judiciary Republicans delete ‘Kanye. Elon. Trump.’ tweet as rapper praises Hitler”:
Looking for a good alternative to Tw#tter? Keep looking.
Hive Social turns off servers after researchers warn hackers can access all data
cicely @83, yes, “projection” is the right word. (That was such a yuck-inducing read about the QAnon leader.)
SC @85, 86 and 87. JFC. Kanye is certainly shooting himself in the foot multiple times. I noticed that he offhandedly blamed “the Jews” for pornography too (you can hear him say that in the video clip).
It is, however, kind of funny to see doofuses like Alex Jones trying to give Kanye an excuse or a way out, and then Kanye just digs the hole deeper and drags Alex Jones down with him.
Another journalist take a look at the Kanye West debacle:
Link
See SC’s comment 87 for action taken by House Judiciary Republicans.
Republican Representative Paul Gosar:
I thought it was 57…
Manchurian Candidate clip
NBC News:
Friend [Joel Greenberg] of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sentenced to 11 years in prison in sex trafficking case.
Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to six federal crimes, including identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official.
Nevada passed the ranked-choice voting, open primary ballot question. What happens next?
Lynna @ #91 – !!!
Lynna @65:
I know this family (not closely). Most of them are normal Northeast PA locals. A few of them are diehard Trumpists. I didn’t know any had gone full-monty QAnon.
Tweet o’ the day.
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #95…
Interesting..ranked choice and jungle primary. I see that they still wimped out about “None of the Above”…those will get counted, but if it wins, the top person still gets elected.
This is stunning – Vieux Farka Touré and Khruangbin, “Savanne (Visualizer).”
The whole album is gorgeous.
Kanye West isn’t buying Parler after all
https://kyivindependent.com/national/ukrainian-authorities-seek-to-ban-moscow-backed-church-amid-russian-invasion
Kanye West continues to destroy his career and his wealth.
This time he is saying good things about Hitler to Alex Jones on Infowars.
Didn’t someone once say you should never go full Nazi?
NPR:
Appeals court halts the Mar-a-Lago special master review
December 1, 2022
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also from there:
Also in the Guardian:
“China brings in ‘emergency’ level censorship over zero-Covid protests”: “Crackdown on virtual private networks, which protesters used to access banned non-Chinese news and social media apps…”
“Kanye West suspended from Twitter after posting swastika inside Star of David”: “Elon Musk intervenes after rapper posted image hours after airing antisemitic views in Alex Jones interview…”
“Chris Dawson likely to die in jail after being sentenced to 24 years for murder of wife Lynette”: “The former Sydney schoolteacher and subject of the Teacher’s Pet podcast will be eligible for parole in 18 years…”
“Viva Magenta! What Pantone’s colour of the year tells us about 2023”: “The design company calls it an empowering shade that drives innovation – and its storied history suggests it might be right…”
“Russian opposition channel TV Rain now broadcasting from Latvia fired one of their long-standing reporters who dropped a phrase saying he is hoping the channel can help the mobilised with equipment and other conveniences….”
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link.
Akiva Cohen:
Full letter to Musk and Twitter’s acting general counsel Alex Spiro at the (Twitter!) link. “And to be clear, Elon, you will lose, and you know it.”
The astonishing pagan origin of Christmas
Guardian liveblog:
World Cup: Germany out
Your tax dollars at work:
Space Force Won a Call of Duty Tournament, Then Launched The Trophy Into Space
Pentagon debuts its new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider
Moldova calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldovan territory, occupied Transnsitra.
That sounds good but they’ve been saying that ever since the USSR fell.
Moldova doesn’t have much of an army.
Their air force is 6 MIGs that haven’t flown in decades and are probably scrap metal.
It is for sure that if Ukraine falls, Moldova won’t last a week and end up part of the new USSR again.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/infowars-host-alex-jones-files-for-personal-bankruptcy/3094645/
The bit about Chapter 11 has got to be an error. Chapter 11 is reorganization of a business in bankruptcy, not something an individual would file under.
The Russians ate all the zoo animals at Yampol city.
That tells you a lot about Russian logistics.
They can’t even get enough food and water to their army.
It’s going to be worse during the winter right now. You need a lot more calories during winter outside to keep your body temperature up.
Putin made a lot of mistakes including invading the wrong country.
He would have been better off invading Kazakhstan.
A huge country with major natural resources including oil, gas, and uranium and only 20 million people.
Kazakhstan is also heavily Russified. A lot of Kazakhs don’t speak Kazakh or barely understand it. There is a large Russian minority.
Kazakhstan is well aware of this now.
If Ukraine falls, they are next after Moldova.
They are trying everything they can to get as much distance from Russia as possible.
The one thing they have going for them is that they also share a border with China.
As Putin retreats in Ukraine, he is also losing Kazakhstan
10 Trans Attorneys Were Just Admitted to Practice Before the Supreme Court
BY James Factora / December 1, 2022
them
Oggie @97, it is kind of shocking. Well, not kind of shocking. It is shocking, mind boggling.
In other news: GOP rhetoric about border seizures takes another self-defeating turn
It’s as if the political world is overdue for a conversation about the meaning of the word “seized.”
Ukraine update: Advances near Svatove and Kreminna show that Ukrainian forces are still on the move
Per the BBC… Putin is saying that there can’t be negotiations until the West agrees with Russia’s annexation of part of Ukraine:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63832151
Of course, if that is conceded, there isn’t really anything to negotiate…until the next time Putin decides to carve off another chunk of Ukraine. Repeat until…no more Ukraine. So, not going to fly.
Arizona Central:
Link
In other election news, at three different polls (CNN, SurveyUSA, and Emerson) show Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock leading Republican Herschel Walker. Such good news. The leads in the polls range from 2 to 4 points, which is small, but consistent.
Today is the last day for early voting in Georgia. Warnock was joined by Barack Obama for one last rally yesterday. Obama is also the star of Warnock’s final minute-long campaign commercial.
Link. Video is available at the link.
Followup to tomh @104.
Link
Smiles all around.
@123 That is good news, but I imagine the Dems are expecting to lead the early voting, with the fascists coming in stronger on election day.
Good news: Adding to the Arizona pile-on: Federal judge sanctions Lake and Finchem’s lawyers
Smuggler Hid Over 200 Alder Lake CPUs in Fake Silicone Belly
Followup to comment 120.
More updates from Ukraine:
Consequences of Gov. Doug Ducey’s shipping containers border ‘wall’ go beyond human impact
Harvey Weinstein’s Abnormal Testicles Are Key Focus of Final Arguments in Trial
Latest~ish Artemis 1 Moon flight news here :
https://www.space.com/artemis-1-orion-departs-moon-orbit
With the Orion spacecraft on its way back from its lunar orbiting now
Plus :
https://www.space.com/interactive-universe-map-back-to-big-bang
Meanwhile have folks seen this :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/gas/2022/12/02/no-solutions/
yet?
Snowden receives Russian passport, takes citizenship oath
Cameroon beats Brazil 1-0, but fails to advance to knockout rounds
New images show Russian army base built in occupied Mariupol
Fossil shows lizards millions of years older than thought
They ran a voter suppression scheme. Now they’re sentenced to register voters
I think the judge is reaching too far far a cutesy ‘appropriate’ sentence. I wouldn’t want these bozos handling my voter registration.
@133:
‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’: Brazilians mock rivals’ upset
(Nov 23, 2022)
And now the schedenfreude is on the other foot.
THE LONG-TERM RISKS OF A PREMATURE CEASEFIRE IN UKRAINE
This article from an American Think Tank claims that an early ceasefire in Ukraine ultimately favors the Russians.
This is arguable.
The EU/NATO/US could just rebuild Ukraine, vote them into NATO, and set up a few NATO bases in Ukraine.
But ultimately, as long as Russia illegally occupies parts of Ukraine, there will always be the possibility of war and flareups.
As many have noted, it will be far cheaper in the long run to defeat the Russians now while they are floundering and running out of money, mobilized victims, and ammunition.
The EU and NATO are far stronger than Russia and it is past time for us to realize that and act like it.
Ukraine update: War, more war, and a glimpse of peace in the midst of war
More updates to follow in separate posts.
Additional update from Ukraine:
Not a stalemate.
A few details regarding current Ukrainian offensive moves:
Link in comment 139.
The Sweetheart Deal Gets Sweeter
DeSantis keeps hosing down his defense contractor pals with more money. But there haven’t been anymore immigrant flights.
Link
USA loses to Netherlands, 3-1
According to new research from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and other groups that study online platforms, the rise of hate speech since Elon Musk took over Twitter is “unprecedented.”
New York Times link
Another update from Ukraine: […] It turns out that Russian predictions were right. People really are freezing from the effects of their invasion of Ukraine. Those people are in Russia.
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1599043912861106176
Comment from a reader:
There seems to be no parts of Russia, no level of services, that have not been damaged by Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
WTF?
Link
Cross posted from PZ’s “The latest non-scandal” thread: Josh Marshall analyzes the situation:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/an-epic-joke
The people still getting very sick with the Covid-19 virus (a lot BTW, our local hospital is over full with respiratory patients, flu, RSV, Covid) are mostly; the very old i.e 80, organ transplant patients, cancer patients, and antivaxxers.
About 3% of the US population is immune suppressed for one reason or another.
And, the antivaxxers laugh at these people.
Wearing a mask and getting vaccinated for someone else’s benefit is beyond their abilities to care about anything.
The more pandemic precautions fall away, the more COVID risk is concentrated on this one group
South African worshippers swept away in Jukskei river flash flood
Oddly, the church is not identified.
Police foil group trying to steal Banksy mural from Ukraine wall
This article explains Russia’s plans for Ukraine.
It was genocide.
Russia has been trying to eliminate Ukraine as a separate nation and identity for centuries. The current war is just a continuation of the plans started with the Russian empire.
“Dividing Ukrainians into four categories for killing, intimidating, or inducing to collaborate, wargames to hunt down and kill Ukrainian activists, and filtration camps to deport unruly Ukrainians into Russia, all to destroy Ukrainian sovereignty and identity and steal Ukraine’s military enterprises and nuclear power plants.”
If Russia had won, that would just be the beginning of decades of nightmares for the Ukrainian people.
Mass deaths, concentration camps, mass deportations to Russia, mass kidnapping of children, millions of refugees into Western Europe, mass theft of Ukrainian factories and anything portable, mass theft of Ukrainian land and housing, mass movements of Russians into Ukraine after the native population is removed.
FWIW, this is what Russia has done to all of the dozens of minorities it has conquered.
After Russia conquered part of Finland, Karelia, there are more or less no Karelians left there. It’s all Russians.
The same thing happened to Belarus.
Hardly anyone in Belarus speaks Belarusian any more and the language is being actively suppressed by their own government. The dictator of Belarus is a Russian puppet who holds power because of the Russian army in Belarus.
Belarus is probably past the point of no return as an independent ethnic group.
Russia had a secret plan to wipe Ukraine off the face of the Earth.
This is what cultural genocide looks like.
“Khromov says. Russians have destroyed more than 300 state and university libraries since the start of the war. In May, the National Library conducted an online survey on the state of its system. By then, 19 libraries were already completely destroyed, 115 partially destroyed and 124 permanently damaged. The Russians have destroyed libraries in Mariupol, Volnovakha, Chernihiv, Sievierodonetsk, Bucha, Hostomel, Irpin and Borodianka, along with the cities they served. They have destroyed several thousand school libraries at least.”
The Russians destroy libraries and burn books in Ukrainian wherever they invade and occupy.
The goal is clear.
To eliminate Ukrainian as a language and Ukrainians as a people.
To claim that Ukrainian and Russian cultures are the same is about as wrong as it can get.
As an outside observer with no previous knowledge of either, I’ve seen that Ukrainian culture is very old and deep with roots in the Pagan past. They have an elaborate cuisine as complicated as the French or Italians. They enjoy life as much as they can considering they share a border with Russia.
I haven’t seen much of Russian culture. I’m not sure they have much of one.
A lot of it is characterized by cruelty, brutality, and a sense that life is hard, no one will help you, and then you die. Vodka helps you get through it all even if it ends your life early.
Iran to disband morality police amid ongoing protests, says attorney general
Vandalism suspected in outage that left thousands without power in Moore County
(North Carolina, USA)
More on @154: (more interesting than I thought)
Christian nationalist ‘had no memory’ he ran an uber-racist, antisemitic, sexist Twitter account
New York Times:
Understanding War:
Stripes:
SSU.gov.ua:
Kori Schake (carnegieendowment.org):
CBS News:
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary (apologies if I’m partially duplicating anyone’s comments above):
Also from there:
Guardian – “Iranian protesters call for three-day strike as pressure on regime builds”:
Guardian – “Fears of deadly infection surge as China abandons zero-Covid policy”:
What a photo. (Twitter link.)
Russia: Bodies of 2,500 seals found along Caspian Sea coast
Ukraine Update: As winter cold freezes the ground, Ukraine has options
This is a followup to #154 about the terrorist attack on two power substations in
UkraineNorth Carolina.The possibility that it was aimed at stopping a drag show is not proven so far.
It was clearly deliberate and power is going to be off until Thursday.
The FBI is involved.
NC county announces curfew as nearly 40,000 customers remain without power after 2 substations damaged by gunfire
@164: I bet geofencing cell phone numbers that were near both cell towers at the time of the incidents would be revealing. I don’t know if law enforcement agencies have sufficient evidence to justify such a warrant.
A failed try to stoke abortion controversy
How about a law enabling women to sue anyone who attempts to restrict their rights by passing unconstitutional legislation?
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian – “Kit and morale may prove decisive as Ukraine war enters winter phase”:
Guardian liveblog:
Supreme Court taking up clash of religion and gay rights
Which give me trepidation, because I simply do not trust the current Supreme Court.
Guardian – “Republican moderate refuses to disown Trump over constitution threat”:
Guardian liveblog:
@170. SC (Salty Current) : Any relation of our (Aussie) Beetrooter Barnaby Joyce I wonder?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnaby_Joyce
Former Deputy PM & acting PM at times even to our eternal national disgrace.
Some amazing images of our pale blue dot and its large grey natural satellite here as Artemis 1 heads home and leaves a regressive backwards orbit behind it viewed from our newest NASA human spacecraft. Huh, seems like a metaphor there a bit don’t it?
Guardian liveblog:
It is not clear what weapons hit the two air bases in Russia.
Some sources say they were cruise missiles with jet engines.
This source from Ukraine says Ukraine is not known to have such weapons. Yet.
They might have used an older Soviet cruise missile left over from the USSR.
What Kind of Weapon Could Hit the Engels Airfield In Rostov Oblast And an Airport In Ryazan Oblast
WTF moment:
Link
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/hang-it-around-their-necks
Christopher Miller, FT:
We have been here before.
https://twitter.com/michaelharriot/status/1599483546602639361?fbclid=IwAR3B3x8qcP_jkJ-rK–Q4e0uSh8Jhaxpu4nyQyDVevM3a9TvW21_72sImnc
Guardian liveblog:
Tampa police Chief Mary O’Connor resigns amid traffic stop controversy
Yashar Ali:
Reuters – “Syria Kurds say they have resumed joint ops with U.S.-led coalition”:
Luke Harding at the Guardian liveblog:
I find this a bit far fetched.
Aircraft are made to fly in cold conditions because the higher you go, the colder it gets.
At 35,000 ft, the air temperature is -60 F.
I have no idea if there is even such a thing as frost resistant plastic.
OTOH, it isn’t impossible.
Almost all of those drones are assembled from foreign parts.
The electronics are American, the cameras Japanese and Israeli, and the motors are Austrian.
Re: raven @ #185…
It’s entirely possible. From what we’ve seen, the Shahed drones don’t fly very high, so low temps at high altitudes are irrelevant, Temperature tolerances on electronics depends on what standards they are built to. “Consumer grade” electronics are usually only spec’d for “reasonable” temperatures. The Raspberry Pi single board computers are only specified down to 0’C, although the actual system-on-a-chip that is the heart of it is rated to -40’C.
Ukraine update: Russia can’t quit Bakhmut, as Ukrainian air defenses stymie latest missile barrage
SC@184,
A later Guardian article quotes an American expert as thinking the attack was probably by drones launched from within Russia, which would presumably be carried out by Ukranian special forces or agents. However it was done, it means Putin has to devote resources to defending military assets deep within Russia, and cannot rely on stalemate on the battlefield combined with continued missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure and housing to grind Ukrainian resistance down.
Alito interrupts Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to crack ‘joke’ about Black kids in KKK costumes
Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/trump-terminate-constitution
Satire written by Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Russia risks becoming ungovernable and descending into chaos. According to the Economist anyway.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
I wouldn’t take a wishful thinking article too seriously here.
OTOH, Russia might not yet be a failed state but it is definitely not a successful one. Corruption is endemic and very high, to the point where much of what their society produces is stolen. The Russian state can’t really stop it since the most corrupt people are the leadership of Russia itself. Asking them to arrest themselves won’t work.
Much of the rest of the production of Russian workers is siphoned off more or less legally by the leadership and the oligarchies.
They also have a minority problem since the whole Russian Federation is an empire with 20% of the population being captive nations.
Throw in the brain drain as the best and brightest always leave if they can.
Russia risks becoming ungovernable and descending into chaos
@186 whheydt
That could be it.
None of the drone’s parts are military specification parts.
On some other forums, some people have said it might be an icing problem.
These drones fly low and slow.
They also don’t have de-icing systems like a plane would have.
So they could just be getting covered with ice and crashing.
Or maybe ice is building up on the air intakes for the liquid fueled motors.
Someone said it could be ice on the carburators.
I can’t imagine an aircraft engine these days not using fuel injection though like even our cars do.
@ 190
The Republican will most likely reply: “He didn’t say he wanted to terminate the entire Constitution, you disingenuous libs! He just wants us to temporarily ignore the rules the Democrat party is misusing to unlawfully withhold victory from our TRUE president, Donald J. Trump.”
Re: raven @ #193…
The engine is probably something like a lawn mower or small motorcycle engine.
whheydt @ # 195: The engine is probably something like a lawn mower or small motorcycle engine.
Per wikipfft:
From text quoted by raven in comment 192:
I think that’s a good description.
In other news: Lyft is reportedly letting religious drivers preach to their riders, and that’s not cool
Good news: CDC head: Flu shots look like ‘a very good match’ for this year’s strains
The bad news:
Putin Visits Crimea Bridge Two Months After Deadly Blast
Iran said using more hired assassins in plots against dissidents, Israelis and Jews
SpaceX unveils ‘Starshield,’ a military variation of Starlink satellites
If “government use” means military, then they ought to put some effort into shielding signal leakage to make the antenna harder to target.
Judge Orders U.S. Lawyer in Russian Botnet Case to Pay Google
Ukraine update: Russia is shocked—shocked—to find that people might actually shoot back
More updates from Ukraine coming soon.
Oh FFS.
Steve Benen summarized this news from a Politico article:
Save America PAC pays legal fees for figures in Mar-a-Lago scandal
It’s not surprising that key figures in the Mar-a-Lago scandal are represented by legal counsel. What is surprising is who’s paying for their lawyers.
After sparking a controversy by calling for the “termination” of constitutional law, Donald Trump is now arguing he didn’t write what he wrote.
Link
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Trump had an unreported loan with a company with links to North Korea.
Guardian liveblog:
Followup to comment 203.
Ukraine Update, more details.
‘You Tempted My Father’: Hillsong Church Founder Accused Man of Inviting Rape at Age 7
Eric Trump Denies That His Family Hates Don Jr.’s Weird GF, Kimberly Guilfoyle
This is the Guardian’s full report on Latvia and TV Rain. From there:
I wouldn’t say I’m fully informed about this situation, but as it stands I’m on Latvia’s side. TV Rain displayed a map showing Crimea as part of Russia; have failed to provide the required Latvian subtitles; had an anchor last week say “that he hoped the station’s reports on abuses and mismanagement by the Russian state during Moscow’s mass mobilisation drive ‘were able to help many servicemen, including, for example, with equipment and just basic amenities at the front’,” referring to Russia’s army as “our army”; and now have the station’s founder putting out a tearful video regretting firing the anchor and begging him to return. The management were warned multiple times and blew it off, which continues today with them calling the charges “unfair and absurd.”
The Guardian also has a US liveblog today, covering the Georgia Senate runoff and other developments. From there:
Guardian – “Top US conservatives pushing Russia’s spin on Ukraine war, experts say”:
Ryan Reilly, NBC (via the Guardian liveblog):
Extremists appear emboldened to show up armed to LGBTQ events around the country
More details of anti-LGBTQ protests are available at the link.
Followup to SC @215 and 217.
Link
Video clip available at the link.
Wonkette:
https://www.wonkette.com/senate-republicans-biden-impeachment
Nika Melkozerova:
WaPo:
New Jan. 6 special counsel subpoenas Ariz., Wis. and Mich. officials for Trump communications
The requests seek all communications with former president Donald Trump, his campaign, and his top aides and lawyers involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 result.
By Amy Gardner, Isaac Stanley-Becker, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Patrick Marley /
December 6, 2022
LOL.
Meduza has issued a statement about the revocation of TV Rain’s broadcasting license.
I don’t agree with it, and I also wish they hadn’t done it. It would be much more helpful for them to urge TV Rain to recognize the problem with their ongoing actions. Refusing to shut up and listen to the valid concerns of Latvians while presenting Russians as victimized is insensitive and disrespectful.
They write:
Then show it by taking their experiences and concerns seriously.
Bad Baltic Takes:
Indonesia passes criminal code banning sex outside marriage
Chemist, artist, activist: Meet Canada’s first trans woman Rhodes Scholar
Judge upholds order banning B.C. naturopath from making fecal transplants for autistic kids
Restaurant refuses service to Christian group, citing staff ‘dignity’
By Emily Heil / December 6, 2022
https://abcnews.go.com/US/verdict-reached-trump-organizations-criminal-tax-fraud-trial/story?id=94508551
Rudy Giuliani repeatedly lost his cool during his attorney-misconduct hearing and accused the disciplinary counsel of asking ‘sneaky’ questions
Talk show host and Georgia House candidate accused of illegal voting
Madison Cawthorn ordered to pay $15,237.49 in fines by House Ethics Committee for promoting ‘LGB Coin’ cryptocurrency he was invested in
Man who helped steal Nancy Pelosi’s laptop while storming the Capitol with his mother pleads guilty
Several attempt to vote twice in midterm election as Nevada systems catch suspected voter fraud
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #235…
It’d be nice to–eventually–see a breakdown by party on that.
FFS:
This Russian colonialism timeline is something else.
ABC news live blog updates on the USA’s Georgia run off election here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-07/georgia-runoff-live-us-midterms-raphael-warnock-herschel-walker/101737350
Disturbingly close currently 50 : 50 but hopefully early votes which ae likely to favour Raphael Warnock will make the key difference.
Re: SeteveR @ #239…
ABC has called the race for Warnock.
With 99% of the votes counted, Warnock is 2.8% ahead. So, far from a blowout, but not desperately close either. Worth noting that on this occasion, the pollsters seem to have got it right – I was seeing reports of Warnock polling 2%-4% ahead in the week before election day.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine iveblog. From their latest summary (lightly annotated):
Oleksandr Tkachenko in the Guardian – “As Ukraine’s culture minister, I’m asking you to boycott Tchaikovsky until this war is over”:
Guardian – “German police raids target far-right extremists ‘seeking to overthrow state’”:
Also in the Guardian:
(Update to #31!) “Health officials gain guardianship of baby whose parents refused ‘vaccinated blood’ transfusion”: “New Zealand high court case has become a focus of protests from anti-vaxxers…”
“Thousands take to streets in Greece in protest over 2008 shooting of teenager”: “Police tactics again in spotlight after shooting of Romany boy on eve of annual march for Alexis Grigoropoulos…”
Apologies if this has been mentioned already – if so Ihaven’t yet seen but :
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-was-climate-activist-violet-coco-given-a-jail-sentence-and-what-are-the-laws-against-protesting/kqe3ibqqv
Emphasis – sub-heading /sub-title (?) original.
NSW Premier Perrottet is a Catholic Fundamentalist Christianist far reich wing extremist linked to Opus Dei and a Trump supporter in echoes of the Pell -Abbott relationship.. but in one person.
(Aaron) Judge, Yankees agree to 9-year, $360M deal
Guardian liveblog:
Francis Scarr:
Photos at the (Twitter) link.
Francis Scarr:
Video at the (Twitter) link. Hilarious in so many ways, including that the two women calmly carry on with their social commentary before going to help the old lady on the ground about 10 feet away.
Tweet o’ the day.
Illia Ponomarenko is a Ukrainian reporter based in Kyiv.
The New York Times is a newspaper that sometimes gets things right and is often wrong.
This is a good example of the latter.
Defending yourself against terrorist attacks on 44 million civilians isn’t an escalation. The escalation was when Russia started attacking Ukrainian cities.
We should just send the Ukrainians long range drones and missiles and shrug when the Russians threaten us. They threaten us everyday anyway.
We are far stronger than they are and it is time to act like it.
“In 1934, no Democratic senators lost re-election. But since 1934, every president, Democrat and Republican, has seen at least one senator from their party lose re-election in every single midterm cycle. Biden becomes the first president since FDR not to lose a single senator.”
Some good news for once.
The price of Russian oil is sharply lower.
It is 57.20 per barrel and a lot lower than the world market price of $74 per barrel.
Russia is a Petroleum state and oil and gas sales are mostly what they have going for them.
Strangely enough, they are also the world’s largest food exporter.
https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/urals-oil
The price of Russian Urals crude oil has fallen below the price cap of $60 per barrel. It is today at $57,20 per barrel.
Ukraine update: Every now and then, TIME gets it right. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Person of the Year
More updates from Ukraine coming soon.
In Georgia’s closely watched Senate runoff election, Herschel Walker didn’t just lose, Raphael Warnock won in impressive fashion.
Yes, I know the margin of Warnock’s win looks small, but look more closely at the situation in which Warnock won and, yes, it is impressive.
Followup to comment 257.
More details from the update:
Link. Scroll to the end of the article for the dancing soldier.
Police Called to Ted Cruz’s Home, Where His Teen Daughter Suffered Self-Inflicted Stab Wounds
Russia cannot be trusted:
Link
Bedbugs Have Reportedly Been Found at a Rivian Assembly Plant
Wonkette:
Wonkette link
Video at the link.
@263: Reminds me of an old joke:
“You can pick your friends,
and you can pick your nose,
but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”
– attributed to various, I heard it from Henry Gibson on Laugh-In.
Another threat from Russia to kill me and my cat. And a few tens of millions of other people.
This one isn’t from some puppet on Russian state TV but the foreign minister, Lavrov.
News for Lavrov.
We have been in a conflict with Russia since they invaded Ukraine.
Nothing new about that except right now…Russia is losing.
Russia warns of “clash between nuclear powers” as drones hit its bases
@264
Christian is just as much a pile of Tumpist right-wing shit as his father. The little race-and-sexuality traitor was just upset that his braindead daddy’s antics embarrassed him.
US Army to Deploy Laser-Equipped Stryker Platoon
US Wants to Shift NASAMS From Middle East to Ukraine: Raytheon CEO
Putin: Nuclear risk is rising, but we are not mad
Precisely what you would expect a madman to say.
Trump team finds two documents with classified markings in a Florida storage unit
No identification of the search team is made, other than to state that it is a “team of two.”
Followup to Reginald @271.
Link
Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, in quantifiable terms, had the best midterm cycle of any Democratic president in generations.
Link
Followup to comment 274.
Comments posted by readers of the article:
Addition to the Ukraine updates in comments 257 and 259.
Trump hosts Mar-a-Lago event with prominent QAnon, Pizzagate conspiracy theorist
Peru’s President impeached and arrested after he attempts to dissolve Congress
‘Twitter Files’ Wasn’t Dumb Enough, So Musk And Taibbi Bringing In Ringer Bari Weiss
Woke Libraries Won’t Let Kirk Cameron Groom Kids With Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate, How RUDE!
https://www.wonkette.com/kirk-cameron-story-hour-libraries
Retraction Watch – “A paper used capital T’s instead of error bars. But wait, there’s more!”:
LOL.
Fabulous!
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Reuters:
Betty Bowers:
Now that Herschel Walker’s campaign is finally over, let’s reminisce. My favorite Herschel Walker quote: “This erection is about the people.”
https://twitter.com/JimmyKimmelLive/status/1600341261533077504
Re: Lynna, OM @ #286…
Given the number of kids he’s had by different women, that quote might be an accurate description of his position.
That is a name out of the past.
Liz Crokin is way out there on the lunatic fringes.
At least she has a good excuse.
She had viral encephalitis that left her with brain damage.
Since then, nothing she has written or done has much of any connection to reality.
Wikipedia: In September 2012, Crokin developed a viral form of meningitis which progressed into meningoencephalitis and caused daily migraines, vertigo, and photophobia resulting from brain damage.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Did Sean Spicer Tweet ‘Today Is Dday’ On Pearl Harbor Day?
There have been several developments in the Baby W case (see #247 above).
The Guardian had reported that the baby’s parents had basically accepted the court’s ruling:
This almost led me to think the parents might be relieved to have the pressure removed. Here’s a report from 1News:
…And then – “Baby blood donor battle: Parents appear on American conspiracist Alex Jones’ podcast” (NZ Herald):
And now… “Baby blood case: Parents no longer agree to surgery” (1News):
“Baby blood donor battle: Judge orders anti-vax parents to stop blocking doctors from operating on boy” (NZ Herald):
MSNBC is reporting that Brittney Griner has been freed, in a prisoner swap with arms dealer Viktor Bout!
Pres. Biden tweeted:
with photos of himself in the Oval Office with Griner’s wife Cherelle, VP Harris, and Sec. Blinken.
Guardian – “Iran executes man, 23, for allegedly stabbing pro-regime officer”:
Celine Dion postpones tour dates as she reveals incurable health condition
Now for something a little different. Sad but, I think, interesting news for anyone interested in WW2 history…
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393
Ukraine update: Losing this war is destroying the Russian ‘mythos,’ and could destroy Russia
Guardian – “Switzerland’s brilliant new train route: direct from Montreux to Interlaken”: “The GoldenPass line has long been known for incredible views, but now a pioneering engineering feat has made it even more attractive…”
(Yes, it’s basically free advertising for Switzerland, but it’s a noteworthy accomplishment and a very cool train.)
More terrorist attacks on
UkrainianUS power substations.This one happened in November in Portland and wasn’t as successful.
They don’t give any details but Homeland Security seems to think these are in fact, terrorist attacks.
““The infrastructure is something that’s a relatively soft target, we don’t have armed guards outside of power stations,”
I wouldn’t be surprised if they do have more security cameras outside of power substations though.
Two Portland area power substations damaged recently: ‘This was malicious intent’
McCarthy doesn’t understand what the debt ceiling is. Democrats can’t let him get anywhere near it
OMFG. Donald Junior tweeted:
OMFG. Donald Junior tweeted:
Apologies for the double post in comments 301 and 302. I have no idea how that happened.
In other news, this hilarious bit of news was summarized by Steve Benen from an Atlanta Journal Constitution article:
In other campaign news:
In the Guardian:
“Iranian forces shooting at faces and genitals of female protesters, medics say”: “Exclusive: Men and women coming in with shotgun wounds to different parts of bodies, doctors say…”
Horrifying from start to finish.
“Rising temperatures causing distress to foetuses, study reveals”: “Climate crisis increases risks for subsistence farmers in Africa who usually work throughout pregnancy…”
@ 304
Ooooo… That’s got to be be conundrum for American right wingers: On one hand, “uncomfortable” embryos, on the other “Global Warming is a Communist hoax and nothing is happening.”
Then again, they’re not white, so what would they care either way?
Adam Schiff: ‘The facts support’ a possible Trump criminal charge
Adam Schiff does not sound like a Jan. 6 committee member who’s on the fence about whether to refer Donald Trump to federal prosecutors.
Florida Guy Who Wrote ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Law Indicted For Buncha Felonies
https://www.wonkette.com/joseph-harding-indictment
Wonkette: Moore v Harper Oral Hearings: Democracy Maybe Only MOSTLY Dead!
Followup to comments 277 and 288.
Link
Company Offers a Free Month of Psychedelic Therapy to People Who’ve Lost Their Jobs
Justice Department asks judge to hold Trump team in contempt over Mar-a-Lago case
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
New Yorker link
Cartoon: Ye new guy
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #311…
Here’s a version that isn’t behind a paywall…
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-asks-federal-judge-hold-trump-contempt-classified/story?id=94809481
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also from there:
CNN – “Sinema leaving the Democratic Party and registering as an independent”:
Democratic Sen. Sinema has registered as an independent
The Warnock victory is looking even more important.
Guardian – “Revealed: group shaping US nutrition receives millions from big food industry”:
AI learns to write computer code in ‘stunning’ advance
welp, it looks like they won’t need to keep us humans around too much longer.
Update to #291 – Guardian – “New Zealand ‘Baby W’ case: boy has surgery after court gives doctors guardianship”:
Elon Musk to remove 1.5 billion Twitter accounts, announces new feature for users’ tweets
UK, Italy and Japan team up for new fighter jet
In other words, post-Brexit UK aircraft companies need support.
Fauci: ‘Low-life trolls harass my wife and kids’
“Drunk putin explains why strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure will continue because ‘they started first by attacking the Crimean bridge’…”
Subtitled video at the (Twitter) link. Festive.
Kelvin-Helmholtz: Rare wave clouds amaze sky-watchers in Wyoming
:). (Twitter link.)
Guardian liveblog:
Karim Sadjadpour:
Videos at the (Twitter) link.
I’m sure those tanks were originally made in Russia.
If Ukraine falls, Moldova is next and might last a week.
After that it is Georgia and Kazakhstan that will be conquered by the Russian empire.
Kazakhstan is the real prize here.
A huge country with lots of oil, gas, and the largest uranium seller in the world.
And with only 20 million people to the RE’s 144 million.
The only thing that could keep them from being conquered again is that they also share a border with China.
There are two simple reasons for Sinema leaving the Democratic Party
Ukraine update: Situation in Bakhmut ‘critical.’ Situation in Moscow … interesting
Matthew Gertz:
Russia and Kazakhstan are starting to insult each other.
It is clear that all the former SSRs know that if Ukraine falls, they will end up being SSRs again. Or worse.
Their best hope would be to unite and all oppose Russia.
They can’t do that though.
Right now 4 of them are fighting wars with each other, Armenia-Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan. Not smart.
Rebecca Schoenkopf:
Wonkette:
Wonkette:
Link
Wonkette:
Link
Summarized by Steve Benen:
Musk fires Twitter’s cleaning staff just weeks before the holidays
Yikes:
Link
Team USA – Brittney Griner.
Guardian – “Celebrity chef among suspects in Germany rightwing coup plot”:
I’m sorry, but parts of this story are very funny.
Kyiv Independent:
Tweet o’ the day. I’m a fan of this whole genre.
Russia demanded that a spy held in Germany be freed in exchange for Paul Whelan
Judge Declines to Act on Justice Dept. Contempt Request in Trump Documents Case
Satire from Andy Borowitz:
From Kyiv Independent…
Russia detains 10,000 men of conscription age in Moscow.
Men were grabbed “right on the street and even at work,” Russia’s independent human rights group Memorial reported on Dec. 9.The police took off their identification badges and did not identify themselves, the report reads. “They (detained men) are still kept in the military registration and enlistment office. Relatives of one of the detainees told our lawyers that they used force against him and forced him to undergo a medical examination. Now there is no contact with any men,” Memorial said.
Good article here :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-12-09/climate-change-protests-jail-what-could-be-more-effective/101737704
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian:
“US soccer journalist Grant Wahl dies while covering Qatar World Cup”: “US soccer journalist Grant Wahl has died after suffering an apparent heart attack at Lusail Stadium, where he was covering the World Cup quarter-final between Argentina and the Netherlands on Friday night.
Wahl, who was a correspondent for CBS Sports and wrote a popular Substack column, was 48 years old….”
The article notes that his wife is “Dr Celine Gounder, an infectious disease epidemiologist who served on Joe Biden’s coronavirus taskforce.” I just saw her on MSNBC recently.
“How Colorado’s ‘city of hate and bigotry’ is turning toward inclusiveness”: “Colorado Springs evangelicals once supported a discrimination bill. Now, religious leaders there are affirming LGBTQ+ people…”
“Erickson said she sees more heterosexual people and families joining her church, because they want their children exposed to diversity and a ‘God that is welcoming’.” It’s an imaginary entity, so you might as well make it nice!
“‘The Cartier-Bresson of the East’: Fan Ho’s Hong Kong – in pictures”: “Whether shooting street photography or art for art’s sake, the late Chinese artist spent a lifetime honing his evocative style…”
Kari Lake files suit challenging certification of Arizona election
Inexplicably, she left out the part about the dog eating her homework.
Satellite Image Shows Saudi Arabia’s Sci-Fi Megacity ‘The Line’ Is Actually Being Built
The NYT has a piece about panicked messages exchanged among crypto bros as FTX was imploding:
WTF?
Nobel Peace Prize: Russian laureate ‘told to turn down award’
More terrorist attacks on the
UkrainianUS power distribution network.So far there have been two in North Carolina.
I posted about two in Oregon.
It turns out there have been 6 in the Pacific Northwest area, mostly around Portland recently.
These are serious terrorist attacks.
The article doesn’t say which terrorists are doing them but we all have a good idea which groups they are.
String of electrical grid attacks in Pacific Northwest is unsolved
One of over three thousand newly endangered species :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-10/dugongs-in-east-africa-listed-as-critically-endangered/101758296
&
Warning from another FTB blog here specifically Hj Hornbeck’s Reprobate Spreadsheet :
https://freethoughtblogs.com/reprobate/2022/12/09/get-off-twitter-now/
&
Whilst something to look forward to seeing tomorrow :
See : https://www.space.com/artemis-1-orion-spacecraft-landing-sequence
Nato chief warns of ‘real possibility’ of full-blown war between Nato and Russia.
So what else is new?
The EU and NATO are far stronger than Russia so it wouldn’t be too bad.
Stoltenberg is making the point here that we have to stop Putin and Russia sooner or later.
And the later it is, the more it will cost the West.
It’s not at all clear what this war has to do with inflation with its high food prices and higher energy prices.
The price of oil per barrel is lower than at the start of the war.
What is driving inflation seems in part to be due to a worker shortage. This worker shortage is because millions of people died during the Covid-19 pandemic and tens of millions of workers now have long haul Covid-19 syndromes.
Without that war, we would still have inflation.
Nato chief warns of ‘real possibility’ of full-blown war between Nato and Russia
Oregon’s hospitals surpass capacity issues seen during COVID-19 pandemic surges
We are seeing this everywhere in the USA now.
Hospitals are full to overcapacity with respiratory virus patients.
This is a bit different from the recent past since these patients are a mix of flu, RSV, and Covid-19 virus patients.
But a lot of them are Covid-19 virus patients and those are the ones that are mostly ending up dead. We are running around 400 dead Covid-19 cases per day now.
So what is driving inflation anyway?
We’ve all seen it every time we buy something and it is annoying after decades of relative price stability.
It is several causes coming together.
.1. Supply chain issues
.2. Government spending to counteract the pandemic effects.
.3. Worker shortages partly due to the pandemic killing and disabling millions of workers.
.4. The Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As the causes of US inflation grow, so do the dangers
Ukraine update: Bakhmut may be ‘destroyed’ but Ukrainian forces at Bakhmut still stand
Washington Post:
Musk Goes Full Pizzagate
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/musk-goes-full-pizzagate
Raven @359:
And you forgot number 5: profit taking by large corporations. How many large companies are recording record profits despite supply chain issues, the higher cost of labour and the invasion of Ukraine? Seriously. Exon Mobil has reported record profits. So have lots of other companies. They can charge lots more and blame it on 1, 2, 3 & 4 (with an emphasis on 2 (it is always the governments fault)).
This is fucking stupid nonsense. However dysfunctional Russa amay be, it still has a large arsenal of thermonuclear weapons, which must be assumed functional in the absence of evidence to the contrary. If even a small fraction of them are, and are used, or if the USA use even a small fraction of theirs, this would likely be a civilization-ending event.
Kanye West Vents About the Consequences of His Actions on New Track
Re: Raven @ #355…
What? The county offices never heard of backup power systems for a data center? Having a data center go down for lack of outside power speaks to either a failure of local equipment or completely incompetent management…or both.
What’s the Difference Between Shrimp and Prawns?
raven @ # 357: The EU and NATO are far stronger than Russia so it wouldn’t be too bad.
For crysake.
Please keep in mind that (a) you’re talking about World War III, certain to leave the Ukrainian-Russian civilian and military casualty count so far as a minor footnote; (b) that sort of blithe smugness has preceded (and been disproved by) practically every major war in history; and (c) the likelihood that most of the deaths would occur on the Russian side (unless they launched their nuclear weaponry…) may seem trivial to a confirmed Russophobe but would actually matter tremendously on human and historical scales.
What Trump posted:
What Paul Whelan’s brother posted in reply:
Peter Baker:
Another detail that can be brought into the discussion about inflation:
Link to an article by Paul Donovan on UBS Insights
Commentary:
Link
Pierce, if you are going to let Russian nuclear threats run your life and your foreign policy,…in the long run, that just makes things worse.
Everyone knows this and says so often, up to and including the NATO head Stolenberg, who I just quoted.
And that is after you’ve thrown Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, other former SSRs, and anyone else the Russians care to conquer undere the bus.
You do realize that acting from fear of what is now known to be a tissue paper tiger would make North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia the major world powers.
I’m not a Russophobe.
Get it right.
You just criticized me for not being afraid enough of the Russians.
I certainly don’t like them and don’t respect them one bit.
In areas where they held power everyone knows someone who was disappeared, sent to the Gulags, made into a slave laborer, or just killed.
You will note the strongest supporters of Ukraine are former captive nations such as Poland, Lithuania, Czechia, Latvia, Estonia, Romania etc..
They’ve been there and they know all about Russia.
This is one reason why most people don’t like the Russians.
The Forest Brothers were guerrilla fighters who fought the Russians after World War II.
There are millions of people who the Russians killed and dumped in mass graves all over the entire former USSR block.
Here it is 2022 and they are still digging them up.
Here it is 2022 and the Russians are still killing people and dumping them in mass graves. They find them in Ukraine wherever the Russian were occupiers.
The Gulags never got full.
When they ran out of space, the Russian took the people they disliked the most out, shot them, and buried them.
Florida teacher fired after allegedly disrupting Muslim students as they prayed, accusing them of doing ‘magic’
Re: Reginald Selkirk @ #373…
I saw an article about that. Part of my reaction was, “So what’s wrong with them doing “magic?”” Glad the teacher got fired. She was in the wrong on SO many levels…
This is a twitter thread I condensed from many and left out all the pictures.
It’s a great read from a Russian citizen scholar who is actually a minority, Tatar.
His main points.
.1. Russia needs to keep everyone poor.
If some regions start getting richer, they will start thinking they are better off without…Russia.
.2. The economic structure of Russia does this.
Money flows from the hinterlands to Moscow and St. Petersberg.
.3. Russia claims it is 80% ethnic Russians.
This is nonsense. Russian statistics are just made up to serve the rulers.
.4. Probably no one knows how much of Russia is ethnic Russians.
A lot of them are mixed so they can pick and choose based on advantage and personal whim.
The Russian government doesn’t mind. They want everyone to claim to be ethnic Russians anyway.
I’ve seen estimates that it might be 60% ethnic Russians.
The summary.
And that is exactly why the Kremlin aims not to allow any well-run cities to emerge amidst the post-Soviet desert. Any city, any region that becomes noticeably richer & better-run there others will inevitably get prouder, its identity will grow stronger. It’ll become a danger
Any region living obviously better than others -> The rise of regionalism -> Activation (or invention?) of regional identity -> Neighbours may start emulating it
Now you see why Russia is invading Ukraine.
If Ukraine does well (it will) it threatens Russian rule by showing how dysfunctional and incompetent it is.
Potential scenarios of Russian breakup. I am going to start with the most common objection: “Isn’t Russia like 80% ethnic Russian?
I managed to only copy and condense the second half of Kamil Galeev’s analysis.
It was tedious to condense a lot of tweets into one article and I got side tracked.
Here is the first part of the work mentioned in #375.
It stands alone nicely.
Well, those Muslim students were in fact, doing magic.
Begging or asking a powerful supernatural being to do something for them.
It is Muslim witchcraft.
OTOH, so is xian prayer.
Xian prayer is begging or asking a powerful supernatural being to do something for them like toss a few lightning bolts at Nancy Pelosi or make Trump president.
That teacher was the pot calling the kettle black.
To be sure, both Muslim and xian magic work the same, which is as far as we know, not at all.
raven @ # 371 – Damn, you can dodge and cherry-pick like a pro.
… after you’ve thrown Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, other former SSRs, and anyone else the Russians care to conquer undere the bus.
You seem here to project all sorts of assumptions into what I said, which bore entirely on the callous and shallow dismissal of potentially triggering World War III. Guess what – I at least can recognize a difficult situation has multiple nuances worth keeping in mind, rather than picking one side and sneering ignorantly at all the others.
You just criticized me for not being afraid enough of the Russians.
Do you really think all, say, “homophobia” means is that some bigots are afraid of LGBTQs? Or that Islamophobes run away with urine staining their clothes at every sight of a hijab? That strained and literalistic interpretation of a word for your own purposes won’t convince anyone here.
Just back off some from your bigotry and, please, STOP making stupid statements like all-out Eurasian war “wouldn’t be too bad.”
Down to insults already?
I have no interest in continuing this discussion with you.
We are already in a major European war.
We didn’t start this war.
We didn’t choose to fight this war.
Why don’t you tell the Russians to stop invading other countries and trying to genocide the Ukrainians?
I’m sure that isn’t a stupid idea.
For those like me who are keen to see this live feed of the Orion capsules splashdown ending the Artemis 1 flight here although really awkwardly for me it lands in 5 hours 55 mins time – or about 3 – 4 am ish my timezone when even I will almost certainly be asleep. Sigh.
What Causes Alzheimer’s? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer.
Amyloid plaques are correlated with Alzheimer’s, but what is cause and what is effect? The field got derailed by fraudulent research a couple decades ago.
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian – “Neo-Nazi Russian militia appeals for intelligence on Nato member states”:
Kyiv Independent:
European parliament hit by Qatar corruption scandal
raven @ # 379: Down to insults already?
When an accurate description looks that way, maybe you should reconsider your strategy.
I have no interest in continuing this discussion with you.
Then stop with the crude ethnic hatred and reckless warmongering. This is not something that many of us can silently walk by.
It is, actually, because “the Russians” are not going to listen to Pierce R. Butler, or anyone else commenting here (even you, believe it or not), telling them to do or not do anything.
From text quoted by raven in comment 376.
Thanks for posting that. I did not realize that the population census in Russia was that screwed up. I can see why Russian leadership would want to portray the population as more homogeneous than it is, but I did not know the census-manipulation details. More nonsense from the autocracy. And more disinformation.
“We are in a very dangerous space in the region…you can expect that regional states will certainly look towards how they can ensure their own security.”
I’ve said many times that the Saudi Arabian nuclear weapons program starts the day after Iran tests their first nuclear bomb.
The Saudi Foreign minister just said the same thing in a more diplomatic way.
They almost have to do that.
For the same reason that shortly after India tested some of their nuclear weapons, Pakistan set off some of their own.
Or they may just buy a few from Pakistan. Pakistan has the nuclear weapons and needs the money.
I’m sure the Iranians know it also which is probably the only thing slowing them down right now.
This is another of the achievements of the Russians. By incessantly threatening to use nuclear weapons against anyone and everyone, they are normalizing the idea of…using nuclear weapons.
Saudi foreign minister: ‘All bets off’ if Iran gets nuclear weapon
Black Music Sunday: Giving Big Mama Thornton her birthday props
More at the link, including Big Mama Thornton singing “Oh, Happy Day.”
Congress struggles to reach funding deal as conservatives push to torpedo it
Congress must pass a funding bill by Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
More at the link.
Ukraine Update: The infuriating reason the U.S. is suddenly slow-rolling Ukrainian military aid
Wonkette: “Good Thing Twitter Is Politically Unbiased Now”
Link
@393: I don’t think that can be true. I know that Target carries condoms and lubricants, but I have never seen dildos in their stores. Unless … many Targets now carry groceries, where you could buy a banana or cucumber.
@ 393 & 394
I haven’t seen dildos or anal toys, but the “family planning” section of my local Walmarts and Walgreens have vibrators and cock rings along with the condoms and lube. Maybe that’s what Madge Tadge Gadge is whining about?
Artemis 1 is home now :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-12/nasas-orion-splashes-down-mexico-artemis-lunar-moon-program/101759686
Aftera successful splashdown.
Hungary’s career as a speed bump for the EU and NATO isn’t going very well. The EU decided to spend 18 billion Euros on an aid package for Ukraine.
Hungary vetoed it and then somehow the Czech president found a loophole and just ignored it.
“Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that although Budapest has blocked EU macro-financial assistance for Ukraine, it does not actually oppose financial support for Ukraine;” I don’t believe that.
I can’t imagine why any country wants to be part of the Russian block but there is one, Hungary. They must have forgotten that time in the 1950s when Russia invaded them to keep them a captive nation.
EU Council decides on €18 billion package for Ukraine despite Hungary’s veto
Reginald @394. I agree. I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is lying again. Also, she has sex toys on her mind? Or she put them on her Christmas list? She is so weird.
Followup to comment 391, Ukraine Update.
Followup to comment 398.
Speaking of Marjorie Taylor Greene:
Link
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also from there:
A Fusion Energy Breakthrough? Major Announcement Expected From US Scientists
Gee, if my local CVS really does have such items, maybe I’ll pick up a ball gag and send it to Mad Madge.
France 24 – “Iran carries out second execution linked to anti-regime protests”:
Guardian – “Revealed: Brazil goldminers carve illegal ‘Road to Chaos’ out of Amazon reserve”:
More at the link.
Slava Malamud:
I agree – this is ridiculous. Even setting the criminal war aside, they’re massive cheaters. They cheat at sports. They cheat in the Olympics. The “neutral” flag fools no one, and the athletes aren’t being helped by serving as tools for this lying, cheating regime.
@406: But allowing athletes to enter the Olympics might keep them from being drafted and sent to Ukraine as cannon fodder.
Ukraine war: The Russians locked up for refusing to fight
Ukraine war: Exiled governor reports strike on ‘Wagner HQ’
No. The article is full of the usual fusioneer bullshit. For a start, the deuterium-tritium fusion reaction concerned (in all current fusion projects) is not what powers the sun. Also, what has allegedly been achieved is that more energy was produced by the fusion reaction than was pumped in from lasers to make it happen – but this laser input is only a fraction of that required to make the lasers work, while the enrgynproduced is not in usable form! This hyped “achievement” has no more relation to usable fusion power than climbing the Eiffel Tower does to reaching the moon.
Elon Musk Gets Viciously Booed by Stadium Crowd at Dave Chappelle Show
“… we have difficulty acknowledging this.”
Who is this we Timothy Snyder mentions?
A huge number of us are acutely aware that Ukraine is making incredible sacrifices for the rest of the world.
We are paying money and not even all that much money for what we are getting. Reducing the Russian threat to the world is a real bargain.
Money comes and goes and is replaced every budget cycle.
Ukraine is paying with the lives and blood of their children and not one single one of those lives is replaceable.
They never publish the number of casualties they are taking, but it is likely to be very high.
Then again, a lot of the right wingnuts in the US including MTG and Tucker Carlson support the Russian invaders and the attempted genocide of Ukrainians.
FWIW, Timothy Snyder is a historian at Yale, presently giving a course on Ukrainian history.
Yeah, no kidding.
If Ukraine falls, Moldova is next.
They won’t last a week.
Moldova doesn’t have much of an army.
Their air force is mostly 6 MiG fighters that haven’t flown in decades.
They are likely to be scrap metal by now.
Eighth Circuit shields Catholic groups from transgender health care rule
Rox Laird / December 9, 2022
Courthouse News Service
Doesn’t look like things are going too well in Hungary right now.
I don’t know, maybe Fascism and Fascist dictators don’t work very well.
Hungary is the last buyer of cheap Russian gas and oil and that isn’t helping them at all either.
Thanks, KG @410.
Followup, by Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/fusion-day-two
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cannon-trump-mar-a-lago-dismiss
Followup to comment 400.
Link
Followup to comment 418.
Wonkette: “Trump Special Master Case Dismissed For Being Rancid Dumpster Fire Unrelated To Facts Or Law”
Excerpt from a longer article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/opinion/crime-policies-cities.html
Deranged and frightened Trump ranted on Truth Social:
Commentary:
Link
Republican asshole spreading lies:
Link
A Plot To Overturn An American Election
TPM Has Obtained Explosive Evidence Uncovered By The January 6 Select Committee
More links and excerpts to come as Talking Points Memo gets them published.
Re: Lynna, OM @ #422…
Hey, Trump, since when does the Speaker of the House have the authority to call in the military? That’s an executive function. Unless, of course, both Trump and Pence resigned from their offices, in which case, Pelosi became president.
CNN – “Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder, is arrested in the Bahamas”:
Texas suspends coach Chris Beard after arrest on assault charge for alleged strangulation of family member
Followup to comment 424.
As The 2020 Election Slipped Away, Andy Biggs And Mark Meadows Schemed To Reverse The Vote In Arizona
Visit the link to read the actual texts, and to review more commentary from the TPM team.
Followup to comment 424 and 428.
Mark Meadows Exchanged Texts With 34 Members Of Congress About Plans To Overturn The 2020 Election
The Messages Included Battle Cries, Crackpot Legal Theories, And ‘Invoking Marshall Law!!’ [Should be “Martial Law.”]
More at the link.
Ukraine Update: Russian propagandists show how to turn a humiliating defeat into a great victory
Followup to comment 429:
Link
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From there:
Also in the Guardian:
“UK train strikes live: Rishi Sunak says government will not shift on rail negotiations”:
“Bolsonaro supporters try to storm police HQ in ‘January 6-style’ rampage”:
Flipboard May Have an Answer to the Chaos at Twitter
I haven’t tried it myself, and was never a regular Twitter user. But I understand that Twitter users are looking for a replacement right now.
Nels Abbey in the Guardian – “A white lens sees Harry and Meghan as villains – through a Black one, they’ve done Britain a favour”:
Colorado Cop Sued After Derailing Lives With Baseless DUI Arrests
Elon Musk openly tells his 121 million followers to follow QAnon
Trump in trouble: Republican support for his 2024 bid falls amid political, legal setbacks
Elon Musk just kicked the entire country of Ukraine off of Twitter.
No new accounts from Ukraine can be set up.
United24 is part of the Ukraine government. They are not happy.
We always knew he was pro-Russian but this sets a new low for even Musk.
Just when I thought I couldn’t have more contempt and dislike for Elon Musk, he surpasses himself.
This is a followup to my last comment on Elon Musk’s obvious bias towards Russia and against Ukraine.
The mask is off here.
What is disturbing about this is a lot but notably, Musk gets a lot of support from the US government.
It is mostly SpaceX and Starlink.
SpaceX isn’t launching those rockets from Musk’s backyard.
They use US government facilities, Cape Kennedy and Vandenberg Air Force base.
The US military also uses Starlink.
The conclusion here is that Elon Musk is becoming a security risk for the USA government in general and the military in particular
I’m sure they are aware of this and I’m sure that right now, Elon Musk and SpaceX are getting a lot of attention from certain Federal government National Security agencies.
A simple Google search says that Elon Musk has received many billions of dollars in government subsidies.
This tells you a lot including that Elon Musk is dumb enough to bite the hand that feeds.
Elon Musk is speaking out against government subsidies. Here’s a list of the billions of dollars his businesses have received
Exclusive: US finalizing plans to send Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine
Biden scores another bipartisan win with Respect for Marriage Act
For a White House eager to show progress on bipartisan breakthroughs, there’s a growing list of success stories — including the Respect for Marriage Act.
New Zealand passes legislation banning cigarettes for future generations
Why Taiwanese are among Ukraine’s foreign fighters
Ukraine energy: Zelensky calls for 50 million lightbulbs
China Bans Exports of Loongson CPUs to Russia, Other Countries
Rep. Rick Allen Shared ‘Wild’ Romanian YouTube Conspiracy Theories As He Challenged The 2020 Election
Much more at the link.
Ukraine update: Russia fails in attempts to push back Ukrainian troops around Kreminna and Svatove
Right-wing judge makes the inevitable move against birth control rights
Fauci pretty much ignores Elon Musk:
Link
Trump who? GOP senators rave over a potential Tim Scott presidential run.
There seems to be growing recognition that Trump is toast now that a) most of his candidates lost in the mid-terms, b) FauxNews has tamped down their support, and c) his legal problems are catching up with him. Expect a lot more articles on who will replace him as top Republican candidate. DeSantis seems to be the most mentioned.
This is a weird thing in which zygotes have full personhood rights from the moment of conception, yet teenagers are still the exclusive property of their parents.
Ron DeSantis outflanks Trump on the right with his call for Covid vaccine probe
It’s all about political posturing, there is nothing substantial to invesigate.
Some good news for once.
“The Covid-19 vaccines have kept more than 18.5 million people in the US out of the hospital and saved more than 3.2 million lives, a new study says.”
They also saved the US $1.15 trillion in medical costs.
Despite the vocal and ubiquitous antivaxxers, most US people have in fact, gotten vaccinated. It was like the Hunger Games to get a vaccine dose when they first came out and I was so glad to get mine.
It is also estimated that over 300,000 antivaxxers died from the Covid-19 virus. They died of ignorance and ideology.
Covid-19 vaccines have saved more than 3 million lives in US, study says
True.
I just posted the results for the vaccines.
The vaccines saved 3.2 million lives.
They saved the us $1.15 trillion in medical costs.
Over 300,000 antivaxxers refused the vaccines with the side effect of death in the ICU on a ventilator.
80% of the US is vaccinated against Covid-19.
If DeathSantis wants to look at the vaccines, he is going to look like an idiot.
US charges seven with military technology plot on Russian orders
Avatar: The Way of Water is a ‘damp squib’
NBC News:
Yay! Good news.
The crack up? Musk stops paying Twitter’s rent & threatens to stiff ex-employees and vendors
Not sure I’m buying this.
Link. Scroll down at the link to find the video.
White House lights up with rainbow colors after same-sex marriage bill signing
Photos at the link.
@ 450
Now watch as “liberal,” “progresssive” Christians–in their efforts to whitewash the repressive, anti-sex history and practice of their filthy religion–try to gaslight us by claiming that Deanda isn’t a “true Christian.”
Outgoing Oregon governor commutes all 17 of the state’s death sentences
Here’s a link to today’s Guardian (support them if you can!) Ukraine liveblog. From their latest summary:
Also from there:
Retraction Watch – “PLOS flags nearly 50 papers by controversial French COVID researcher for ethics concerns”:
More at the link, including a statement from PLOS.
Guardian – “Snakes have a clitoris: scientists overcome ‘a massive taboo around female genitalia’”:
More at the link.
from Lynna’s @463
Molotschna is the name of the river, and on behalf of my murdered family members circa the last time Russia invaded the Molatschna, Slava Ukraini!!!
It’s a swamp btw, because of course Russians settled people in swamps and demand they turn it into productive farmland. I’m sure the canals are still there, since Russia is still incapable of basic logistics and any type of infrastructure.
Oksana Semenik:
Guardian liveblog:
Video of Nilov @ #72 (Twitter link). Take a look in the mirror, Republicans. This is what you’re becoming.
BBC – “Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu jailed for insulting public officials”:
Eight Influencers Charged by SEC, DOJ in Securities Fraud Scheme
“Pump and dump.”
McConnell launches mad hunt for whoever whiffed Trump’s impeachment then backed his loser candidates
I approve that headline. It’s funny.
Congress reaches early deal to keep government funded. Kevin McCarthy is not happy
I’ve seen tweets with 1) a video of Georgian Legion SF showing a Wagner unit they destroyed near Bakhmut and 2) a claim of Wagner taking heavy losses in the area. I haven’t seen confirmation yet.
I look forward to the electric vehicle industry moving beyond this stage:
Subaru warns Ascent owners to park outside due to fire risk
Ukraine update: Russia’s invasion is a mix of new technologies, old tactics, and high body count
Elon Musk responds after Norway govt Twitter accounts labelled as ‘Nigeria’
off-by-one error. I heard Sweden was also mislabeled as Swaziland.
Tweet o’ the day.
Link
JFC.
Donald Trump has filed plenty of foolish lawsuits. His apparent case against the Pulitzer Prize Board might very well be the worst.
I just finished Antony Beevor’s new history of the Russian Civil War (1918-1920) and, as I read it, I was struck, again and again and again, by the lack of change in Russia — tactics (admittedly using horses, trains and infantry rather than MBTs, IFVs, and other armoured vehicles (though the Whites did have some armoured cars and British Mark V tanks . . .)), the rape, robbery and murder of civilians (by both sides (as well as the robberies, murders and rapes committed by the Greens)), intentional genocide (against the Kalmyks (not to mention the Cossack clans)), and the intentional destruction of Ukraine and Ukrainians (by the Whites, the Reds, the Greens and the Poles). Really good book (it shows Churchill’s involvement more clearly than I have seen before (though (to be honest) he’s not high up on people I have focused upon)). I strongly recommend it both as history and a prequel (along with the borderlands book I mentioned earlier) to current events.
(I’m taking a break for a while from Eastern European history for a while — I have unread books on the Kokoda Track campaign in Papua New Guinea, Gallipoli, and a book on North African mid-Cretaceous dinosaurs.)
By every measure, Ron DeSantis’ newest Covid gambit is a tragedy
Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger calls for an end to runoff elections
@ 486
The fact that the American system allows DeSantis to operate without impediment is indictive of that system’s failure.
A new study reveals that Russian groups are found to have a larger impact on conservative platforms than previously thought
California school district parents remove right wingnut school board member.
This happens a lot.
Some right wingnut gets elected to a school board and starts trying to wreck the school district. They get removed by a recall election.
This just happened in Paso Robles, California. Which isn’t at all an especially liberal area.
The headline and story here is slanted and wrong because it came from Sinclair media. Enough of the parents of this district wanted him removed that there is going to be another election.
He was removed for making politically motivated and bigoted comments about Trans children.
Iran ousted from U.N. women’s group after U.S. campaign
Indonesia’s New Criminal Code Bans Online Insults of the President
The Trump Organization lost a secret trial and was held in contempt of court for defying grand-jury subpoenas
Russian smuggling ring used couple’s Etsy store as front to aid Ukraine war effort
Re: Lynna, OM @ #484….
Since I seriously doubt that the Pulitzer organization does business in south Florida, if the suit is filed in state court, the Pulitzer folks can have it removed to Federal court (diversity issue). So…the question becomes, is that the county where the judge Trump got to appoint the special master to oversee the materials seized from Mar-a-Lago sits? If so, all manner of silliness are likely to ensue.
Josh Marshall:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/strongman-envy
Texts Show How Members Of Congress Advanced ‘Antifa’ Conspiracy Theories In The Wake Of Jan. 6
More at the link.
House Republicans just defended a powerful man by retaliating against his victims
Alex Wagner last night (YT link) (related to other comments above) – “DeSantis Doubles Down On Covid Paranoia; Vaccine-Rejecting GOP Suffers Higher Death Rate”:
I keep thinking about this Reddit HCA post from last week.